What's For Summer?

Some aunties...

July started off with two of my aunts coming to visit us. It was a quick couple of days but it was fun having them in our neck of the woods, nonetheless. Aren't they cute?
Pictured: Aunt Caroline, mom, Aunt Jan

Add a little roadtrip...

Me, my mom, Court, Courtney's niece Millie, Spencer, Dave, Aunt Caroline and Aunt Jan all headed off together to Utah to my cousins wedding. My brother Ben and his family came from another state and met us there.

It was fun going on a roadtrip with blood relatives, and feeling quite vagabond-like as we camped out on Spencer's in-laws living room floor for two nights. Good times.


Pictured are my 3 brothers, sister, and mom.
(Spencer, me, Ben, mom, Dave, Courtney)

With a dash of wedding...

Here is the bride and groom right after their sealing. Congratulations guys! They're a really cute couple. They had a really nice reception, complete with not just a piece of cake in Matt's face, but the whole cake. Go Maggie!

Add some cousins to the mix...

After the wedding we all headed back home (without the aunts and Millie) where our official staycation began as Ben, Tasha and their 3 kids came for a week long visit. We all cleared our calendars and the whole fam partied day and night: bowling, swimming, guitar hero, tennis, volleyball, water parks, going to the lake, waterslide, free lunch, free movies, birthday parties, dinners, barbeques, etc. It was really fun and exhausting! Not to mention is was a major cousin frenzy. The cousins just LOVE being together.


Pictured: Most the cousins waiting for their dessert. In order to control the chaos we made them wait outside in line.

You can see more of the family festivities on Courtney's blog: Click here
And a little exhaustion...

Twenty minutes after our first house guests left we got a new set of house guests. Chad's mom and her two sisters. I'm thinking we should start a bed and breakfast. Anywho, Ethan is a 'party til you drop' kind of kid and this is a picture of when Ethan dropped. As we were chatting with our new guests Ethan conked out on the floor. He never does that.

And 2 more aunties and a grandma to top it off.

This is Aunt CarolLee, Chad's mom Judy, and Aunt Arlene. They're really cute and fun to have around. They were visiting a bunch of temples and visiting family and friends along the way. And lucky for us we were one of their pit stops.

This is a cute picture of Ethan snuggling up to Auntie Arlene.

And that's what we've had for summer!

Remember Low Self Monitors?

If you don't, go check it out. Well, I met another one this week.

On Monday I went to a doctor's appointment. The lady shows me to my stall which has a curtain, I go in and proceed to get changed into my little doctor's office robe (for lack of a better name). As I'm changing, the lady opens up my curtain without any kind of notice and starts talking to me while I'm standing there totally exposed, while crossing my arms trying to make the situation less awkward and shocking. In my shock all I could think was, 'How can I grab that curtain out of her hands and use it to cover myself?!' WHO DOES THAT? Seriously. That one officially goes on my top 5 embarassing moments list.

Wanna hear another one I just thought of? (One of my top 5 embarassing moments, that is).
I was at a friend's reception some years ago and I ran into a couple who I had grown up with in my ward. As we were chatting I said, "Oh, did you know I got married?" And they both nodded and said yes and we went on with our conversation. We said goodbye and parted ways. Wanna know why that was so embarassing? The husband was the man who sealed Chad and I in the temple. Duh! I didn't realize what I had said until later and it was too late to repent of my mistake because they had already left, and I haven't seen them since. Embarassing huh??

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Like kindergarten. Sniff...sniff. Ethan and his teacher.

I love Ethan's head cocked to one side. Huh? I copied this sign from my friend Kami's blog. Thanks for the great idea Kami!
Ethan has been asking to do a lemonade stand for the last few weeks. I kept putting him off and saying "sometime after school is done." He really held me to it cause he wanted to do it the very day that school got out. So here he is with his lemonade stand. I was going to do it on the nice and quiet street by our house but he was smarter than that and knew that he wouldn't get much business there, so we moved to a much busier street. Within 30 seconds of sitting and waiting for customers he goes, "I really hope people come, cause if no one does, that would just be embarassing." People were so nice as they gave him a dollar for a cup of lemonade even though he was only asking 25 cents. As customers came I was feeling so guilty for all the lemonade stands I've passed up in the past. I VOW TO STOP AT EVERY LEMONADE STAND I SEE.

After he sold his first cup of lemonade he was so elated and was jumping up and down. It was cute. His elation quickly turned to despair as he lost the first dollar he made. It had blown away in the wind. Courtney was so nice to come to the rescue and pretended to find it, even though it was her own dollar. Thanks for saving the day Court!

Here's one of his first customers - his cousin Maddie.

This is the soccer team I've been playing on this last season. We're stopping for the summer and hoping to resume this fall. I'm going to miss playing. Its been so much fun.

Our team came in 4th place. Not bad, right? Not really when there are only 4 teams playing. We had fun anyway. This trophy is purely a prop as we found it somewhere in the soccer building to use in our photos. Yeah, we're dorks.

Sometimes...

Hi. I'm back from my blogging hiatus. Sometimes its nice to just lay off the blogosphere for a while. And sometimes it's nice to get back into it. You know what I'm sayin?

Memorial Day weekend was fun. We barked a lot - you know, laid bark. Weedwacked. Sprinklered. Barbequed with the fam. Played kickball. And heard the phrase "baby bouncies" for the first time in decades. Remember, "baby bouncies" and "big bouncies" in kickball? My least shining moment in the kickball game, besides the fact that I couldn't catch the ball worth beans, was when I was trying to tag my 11 year old nephew and I threw the ball right at his head, knocking him to the ground. I think I let my competitive side get the best of me cause I was really determined to get him out. How dare he try and steal a base. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, but still, I'm a little old to be tagging an 11 year in the head.

Nothing is more infuriating to me than this:

Urrggghhh. Cats. Right in my freshly laid bark.

Mother's Day was loverly. Chad took me out to eat that Saturday and he and Ethan made me breakfast on Mother's Day. I love this card and ceramic plate that Ethan made for me at school. Apparently Ethan thinks I'm 10 feet tall and 48 pounds. I love a kid's perspective.

And the plate is a perfect blend of color and simplicity. I love it.

The other day we sent Tido outside to scare this cat away. Tido did not want to go, but I think he felt a little more empowered since we were out there to save him if he needed it. At about the 25 second mark in the 2nd video he looks back to make sure we were still there before proceeding. Come on Tido, it's a cat, all you gotta do is growl and bare your teeth. This is possibly one of Tido's wimpiest moments:

Upon Request

Following the my post, a few people have been curious about my menu, so here it is:I don't think I make anything that everyone else doesn't make, but maybe posting it will get those dinner ideas flowing. I know I always need a lot of help with meal ideas. I do have to add that things like pizza, lasagne, chicken noodle soup, etc are homemade - I try and avoid premade stuff.

p.s. If its too small to read let me know and I'll do something to make it more readable. I can read it but that's because I know my own handwriting.

p.s.s. Just to let you know, so far its been working out great. Half the battle for me with dinners is just deciding what to make and seeing if I have the ingredients to make it. It can be quite stressful. I feel like we're saving money by not wasting, eating healthier, and there's no more stress about 'what am I going to have for dinner tonight??' Its all decided for me.

Tis The Season For...

T-BALL Right before we left for Ethan's first t-ball game he said, "I think I should have played soccer again." He was nervous. As we were waiting for the game to start we noticed that Ethan was crying in the batting line-up. Since we went through this before with soccer and the whole crying thing we decided it was best to let the coach handle it. We saw him talking to Ethan for a few minutes and then the coach comes over to us and Chad goes, "He doesn't want to play?" And the coach goes, "Actually, Ethan is requesting that you don't cheer for him. He knows that you will, and it makes him nervous." OK! Not what we expected to hear.

and PARENTHOOD:

Tido is officially a proud papa of 4 little puppies. This is a picture of Tido's cute baby mama, Samee and her four little ones (3 girls and a boy). Aren't they cute (in their own little newborn way)?and Getting Organized

This is my fridge after I cleaned out all the tupperware containers full of old food. And it was completely FULL before - Like hard to find a place to put things full. Then I went grocery shopping, spent large amounts of money and now I've got a completely organized fridge, freezer, and pantry with food I'm not nervous to eat. PLUS I've got a meal plan for every day of the week except for Saturdays (thats leftovers day) until the 18th of May. I made sure to give Chad a full tour when he got home from work and now I'm tooting my own horn on the blogosphere. The goal is to not step foot in a grocery store for the next 3 weeks.
This is a grocery bag full of all the bread heels that I found in my freezer. We used about an eighth of the bag while feeding the ducks yesterday. The ducks actually swam away after a while. Since when do ducks swim away from food?

A Good Idea, Gone VERY Wrong

On Saturday morning Chad and Ethan were heading out to Home Depot and I suggested they bring Tido with them since dogs are allowed in that store. Plus Tido LOVES any type of outing so I thought it would be fun for all.

Within the first 15 seconds that Chad and Ethan were in the store Tido decided to go poop right on the floor. Chad didn't notice until Ethan tells him, "Uh, dad, Tido just pooped." So they got something to clean it up and headed to another part of the store. As Chad was browsing some things Ethan tells him, "Uh, dad, Tido just peed." There it was, a big ol' puddle of pee on the floor. Again, they went to go find something to clean it up. At this point you can imagine how perturbed Chad was. Not too long after that Ethan goes, "uh, dad, Tido just pooped again." After cleaning up the mess AGAIN, Tido was banned to the car. Chad had spent the first 15 minutes of his Home Depot trip cleaning up after Tido!

Taking Tido on outings always sounds fun in theory, but in the end always becomes much more of a pain.

We had a very lovely Easter weekend filled with sunshine, egg dying, 3 egg hunts, a family dinner, and of course many reflections and gratitude turned towards our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Ethan at the friend Easter egg hunt at the park.