14 Years

Wow, I can't believe how fast the years have gone by. Here we are celebrating our 14th Wedding Anniversary. Fourteen years ago we were getting married in the Oakland Temple and starting our life together. We've had some hard times and a whole lot of good times. We have four beautiful children together, have built four beautiful houses together and have countless memories together. I still love Mike as much or more than I did all those years ago. He still makes my heart flutter, I actually think he's even more handsome than that young man I married. ;) Thanks for all the good years babe! I love you and I could not ask for more.

Back to School

Yesterday was the first day of school for us. Personally I think it is way too hot to be going back to school! The kids were so excited to pick out their back to school outfits, get all their new school supplies and pack up their backpacks. Poor Aria wanted in on the action. All morning she kept saying, "Mom, I wanna go school too!" I remember what it was like when my brother Kurt went off to Kindergarten and I couldn't go with him. So sad!

Chase started 1st grade this year. He is getting so big. I love his teacher, she is such a sweetheart. He was excited to see lots of the kids from his class last year. Mike took him to school, which is so nice of Mike. Chase loved having Dad take him to school in his truck. I got a picture of him in his new Transformer gear before he left. He's also pretty thrilled with the fact that he gets to ride the bus home this year.

Michela and Hunter started a new school this year. They were accepted into some advanced learning classes. Luckily the school isn't too far away, it's only a little farther than last year. Michela is now in 5th grade and Hunter is in 3rd grade. Hunter's best friend is in his class which he is so happy about. And Michela knows a boy from her class that went to school with her back at Challenger. It's nice that they have one friend already at their new school. Hopefully this will be a good experience for the both of them. I can't wait to see what they will be learning this year. They looked so grown up on their first day.

It's so weird having three of them gone all day. Now I've got all of this time to get things done without having to run out and pick someone up in the middle of the day. And Aria is such a cutie pie. She is so good at entertaining herself. She will play, then come find me to see what I'm up to and then go back to what she was doing. She is also so content to just be around me while she works on her own little project. How lucky am I?!

"Goodbye St. George, I'll Never Forget You"

These were Hunter's final words as we finished packing up the condo on Tuesday. The kids were sitting outside the condo, sucking on popsicles while we cleaned out the last few things.

They were so sad that this was our last time coming to our condo. Yes, we sold it! What a relief that is. We are so thankful we were able to sell it during these tough times.

I drove the kids down on Friday for one last hurrah before school began. Basically we swam, ate, swam some more, ate some more and swam again.

We had the pool to ourselves the whole weekend. On Monday night when we were just about ready to get out another family showed up. It was a lot of fun having our own pool for a few days. The kids had cannonball contests, swimming contests, flipping contests and any other kind of contest they could think of.

Have I told you how competitive Michela is? :)

Aria had the time of her life. She was in heaven! The first day she tested out the noodle. She had so much fun with the big kids. Hunter and Michela loved playing with her in the water, which was nice for me because I got a chance to work on a tan and banish my ghostly white legs!

The next day I bought her a tube. She loved it!

That and some goggles and she was ready to conquer the pool.

Monday morning we went over to Fiesta Fun. Hunter and Michela rode the bumper boats and tried out the batting cages.

Chase, Aria and I headed over to the mini golf course. Chase was getting really good! Aria just likes to whack the ball as hard as she can.

Then we headed in for arcade games. Michela ended up winning over 1,000 tickets from this one game. At one point she was freaking out because it just kept spitting out tickets.

We didn't know if the machine was broken or what? She told me on the way out that it had been the best day of her life. She's so funny.

We also had some great movie nights. We watched "Quest for Camelot", "Escape to Witch Mountain", and "Bambi 2". I wanted the kids to watch the old version of "Escape to Witch Mountain" before they watched the remake. There is nothing better than the original.

Some other funny things. One morning at breakfast Aria informed me that, "your life is over Mom." Where in the world did she come up with that?

Hunter perfected the Flying Nacho Libre belly flop into the swimming pool. I wish I had gotten a picture.

Chase picked the best book for us to read. "Skippy Jon Jones in Mummy Trouble" is the funniest book! It is about this little cat who pretends to be a Chihuahua. You have to read it with a Mexican accent. We were all cracking up!

We will have great memories of the last two years in St. George. We've had some fun trips with the kids there. Good thing my Grandma has a condo down there that we might be able to go to once in a while. I guess it's not goodbye forever St. George after all!

Twirly Skirts from Pink Fig Patterns

A few months ago I found some darling skirt patterns from pink fig patterns. One has strips of fabric and one is a patchwork skirt. I intended these skirts for Aria, but they were just so cute that I wanted to do some for Michela as well. So I took the girls to American Quilting, this awesome fabric store here in Orem, and let them pick out the fabrics. Michela had such a hard time deciding, she hates choosing. Aria even showed me some fabrics that she liked, of course they were pink! We came away with 13 different fabrics for 4 adorable skirts.
The girls wore the stripe skirts to the temple the other day. Here is Aria looking so precious. And here is Michela looking so beautiful.

When we got home I decided to do a little photo shoot of them in the patchwork skirts. The pictures turned out so cute. I love sister pictures. Here are some close ups of the skirts.

I had so much fun making these adorable skirts! They were super easy to make and I kind of assembly lined them. I cut all the fabric out for all of the four skirts at once. Then I sewed everything together, serged all at the same time and put hem and waistbands on them all at the same time. It took longer to get one skirt done, but at the end I had all four done together. Thank you Pink Fig Patterns for such a super cute pattern design. I will definitely be making these again.

American Fork Canyon

I somehow forgot to post these pictures of our fun night up American Fork Canyon with Mike's family. Megan and her family were in town so we decided we had to have a night up in the mountains, roasting marshmallows and having fun.

S'mores are always the main event. Mike has the roasting down to perfection. Look how golden that marshmallow is. I'm always a bit too impatient and usually end up burning mine. Megan and I enjoyed our tasty treats.
Michela and Kaden chowed down.
Aria kept asking for more "mellows".
There was this big dead tree laying across the river and of course the kids all had to try crossing it. I couldn't watch at first, I was taking bets on who would be the one to fall in. The water was cold and was moving pretty fast. Michela and Alyssa were going back and forth with no problems at all.
Hunter, the ever cautious, tried it out on his knees first. Look at that concentration!
He eventually got up onto his feet but he was being super careful.
I didn't even let Chase get up there, because he was who I was betting on falling in! Instead he enjoyed competing in the twig and leaf races that Matt instituted.
Mindy, Rachelle and Crew enjoying the fire.
Logan going for a ride on Russ' back.
Here is Aria with her other Daddy, Matt. She loves Matt so much it cracks me up. Whenever he is around she is always running over to him and trying to get him to hold her.
Weston with his fruit punch lips.
Gage would rather go shirtless. He kept playing in the water and getting soaked. Silly boy!
And I was so happy that Jenna actually would talk to me sometimes this trip. She even let me take her picture. Oh Happy Day!

I'm Bored

"I'm Bored" This has been the phrase I have heard the most all summer. It Drives Me Crazy! I hear it the most from Michela. I mean, come on, you are a child for goodness sake, don't you have an imagination. I don't remember coming to my Mom when I was little and asking her what I should do. I am your Mother, not your cruise director kiddos! Michela often comes and finds me with her shoulders all slumped and with a big sigh she say, "Mom, I'm bored. What should I do?" She usually doesn't like any of my suggestions (most of them involve cleaning or chores), so I get frustrated and say, "go use your imagination!" I end up regretting those words sometimes. :)

Here is what happens when Michela gets bored-

Aria is used as Michela's dress up doll. I really enjoyed her little hula outfit made up of construction paper, tape and string.

Blanket forts are made in the theater room. One night Mike and I were looking for a blanket to watch a movie and found their "food storage" stash in the fort. Juice boxes and pretzels were hidden in there.

After buying new backpacks and lunch boxes the kids wanted to play school. They packed their lunches and went to eat outside on the patio. Michela was the teacher and insisted on them bringing an apple to her.

After lunch she made up some water games for recess. Here are Chase and Michela bobbing for toys in bowls of water.

Aria wanted in on the action too!

Other things Michela has done are make up a play, that didn't end up being put on. She is attempting to make a paper maiche dinosaur. She has started to make a new shirt for herself. Collages, tracing her siblings on paper, paintings and water fights. My "favorite" was finding them all out in the garage sliding across the floor on garbage bags. They had dumped tons of water on the floor and had sprayed it with sunscreen so it would be slippery. Mike particularly enjoyed this one when he got out of his truck and almost fell on the floor. And I told her to use her imagination! :)

I Love to See the Temple

"As We touch the temple, the temple will touch us."

President Thomas S. Monson

We had a wonderful primary activity today. We took all of the primary kids to the Mt. Timpanogos temple for a special day. The kids were all in their Sunday best and we had a nice reverent spirit with us.

We split up into groups and the groups went to different stations. My station was, of course, singing primary songs while each child got their picture taken with the temple in the background. The next station was two new Young Women who were talking about doing baptisms for the dead. Then they went to a station where a young married couple talked about their wedding day and how special it is to be married in the temple. Then another group went with the Primary President and walked around the temple. She told them the story of President Snow when he told his granddaughter about seeing the Lord in the Salt Lake Temple. They then were able to go in the foyer and touch the temple walls and doors. What a sweet experience for them at this tender age.

I took the opportunity of being at the temple to take a few pictures of my kids. Here is Michela out in front by some beautiful flowers.

Hunter looks so tall and grown up by one of the pillars.

Chase is such a handsome little guy all dressed up in a shirt and tie.

Aria was being a little stinker about getting her picture taken so I snapped a shot when she wasn't looking.

I hope our kids remember this day. I always loved going to the Oakland temple as a child and I loved the feeling I felt there. The temple grounds are always so beautiful and it is so peaceful. There were a lot of weddings going on and the kids liked watching the brides and grooms walking around taking pictures. Aria kept saying, "Mom, there's another princess!"