The time has come!

Well, I've heard enough to know that people miss me! I'm back in the blogging world. Between vacations and family time and late spring cleaning, blogging has been put on the back burner. I should have taken before and after pictures of my kitchen cupboards (which aren't quite finished) and my driveway. Our neighbors have a lovely, dirty tree which sheds all it's leaves, seeds, whatever, on our driveway and patio. We spent a full day cleaning up the mess, killing the weeds and cleaning the picnic tables. We moved our table and chairs up to our deck, and I love it. I was worried that my children would climb on the chairs and fall over the deck, which is why we haven't moved it before. But so far no one has been tempted to jump. We got our swingset (Christmas present) set up and our yard is looking much better. Still, there's a lot of weeding and trimming to do. Then we spent another full morning doing our kitchen cupboards. We got rid of 3 bags of things that are broken or unusable or just plain worn out. Funny enough, we still have plenty of things to do all our cooking! We will next move into our dungeon. Some people might call it a laundry room/food storage room. I call it a dungeon. Hopefully with a little organization and cleaning, I won't be afraid to go in there alone. What I'd really like to do is clear everything out and put in real walls and real windows and a real ceiling. But that will have to wait until we come into our fortune. In the meantime, I will just continue to watch HGTV and get all my ideas for what I will do with all that money once we get it.

Now, on to the fun stuff.

We have kept ourselves very busy this summer. We do school almost every day, we go on field trips, we go swimming, we play with cousins, we have piano, we ride bikes, we go to the park. We've been camping, we've been to Yellowstone, we've been to the temple open house, we've been to the air show, to plays, to museums, to parades. We've made jam and had family parties. We've had a blast and we are very tired. And summer's only half over! Cami said I needed a good excuse for not being a good blogger. Well, hopefully this is good enough. And here are a bunch of pictures to either entertain or bore.

Beauty and the Beast

One of the biggest benefits of Josh's work is that since it is a community paper, we get free tickets to many community events. Last night we were able to take everyone to Beauty and the Beast in the Murray Park amphitheater. It was a blast. The kids were fascinated by the music and costumes. Anna, especially, couldn't take her eyes off the stage. I could have turned off the sound and just watched her face to know exactly what was happening on stage. Her facial expressions told the whole story. At one point, there were wolves attacking the beast and she leaned over to me to ask, "Those aren't real wolves are they, mom?" A little reassurance never hurts. Emma said, "She probably just asked that to avoid her fear." Good point, Emma. Ryan said his favorite part was "when the buffalo was singing." Hmmm...The beast kind-of does look like a buffalo! Tyler didn't have much to say about it, but was fascinated just the same. Even Sophie watched the actors until she was ready to sleep. While it wasn't the best production I've ever seen, it sure was a lot of fun!

Embryo

Tyler loves to sing songs. He makes up all his own. Our favorites are "Thanks for the ride on the Cookie," "Hey, dry," "Save the boy," "The pencil is allergic to the cheerio," just to name a few. We were asking him to sing some of these, and we were asking if it was time to make up a new song. I asked if he could make up a song about Yellowstone. He was excited about such a good topic for his next song. Josh said, "Hey, I have a song about Yellowstone! It goes: The animals--They live outside. The animals--they like to hide." (etc., etc.). Then he laughed and said, "I made that up before any of you were even born!" Then Anna, with her always competitive nature, said, "I made up a song before I was born, too." Emma said, "How did it go? 'I am a lit-tle embryo.'" We laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Boring.

Megan said my blog is boring. She bugged me that I haven't updated anything for over a week. Have you looked at hers? She is not boring. She is the perfect example of not-boringness. I should follow her example. My life is really quite fun and exciting, but when I go to put it in writing, all of a sudden it seems boring. I've come to the conclusion that it is not my life, but my current lack of creativity. I don't just write things. I think them through and try to decide if anyone will want to read them. Lately, when I think things through, I can't think of any words. It's really hard to write things when there are no words. We are having fun, though. We went to a terrific dance recital, we went to an air show at Hill Air Force Base, we witnessed two major accidents on the freeway, we had an eventful and noisy day at church, we visited with Justin and Tarra, we went swimming with the kids, we had family home evening with the Woods, we are trying to avoid getting Swine Flu and we are going to an art museum tomorrow. We also got a bird feeder and are having fun seeing all the different birds that come to visit. Now we are going to go shoe shopping. Ryan has outgrown his sandals, and Tyler says his toes curl up when he puts on his shoes. I guess it is time. Hopefully there is a good sale. So, now you know. I am not boring. My life is not boring. My brain is going through somewhat of a roadblock. That is why my blog is boring. I will try to write more. Maybe that will break down the roadblock. In the meantime, enjoy this post.

Numbers

My grandpa was always fascinated by numbers. He would look for patterns in numbers everywhere. He would watch mile posts, speedometers, and more. Most of my memories of his number fascination came with odometers. He would always watch for patterns with his mileage. I guess I inherited this, because I always watch for patterns with numbers. My favorite was when I got a new car in 1999. It only had about 50 miles on it because they had to drive it from their Salt Lake store to Provo. So, I saw every imaginable pattern with that odometer. 54321, 12345, 300, 31213, etc. It was so much fun! I even got Josh involved. He would make sure to point out to me the patterns if he was driving. When we got a new car, looking for patterns lost some of the excitement because the car already had 30,000 miles on it. There were so many patterns that we had missed! Well, this year I am reaching an important milestone in my number life. I will turn 31 on the 31st! I haven't been this excited for a birthday in years! I was definitely not excited to turn 29. That meant my twenties were almost over. It was harder than 30, but that wasn't much fun either. Now, even though I have entered my 30s and can't claim any association with 20s anymore, I am excited. Thanks, Grandpa for this legacy. You made me love my birthday this year!

Yellowstone

Last night I turned on a show that was about animals in Yellowstone. It reminded me once again how much I love Yellowstone. I thought to myself "Hmmm. Maybe I'll share all the reasons I love Yellowstone in a list." So, here it is. And on a Friday, too. Laura, I'm not trying to copy you completely, but pay you the proper respect as I do my own version of "Friday I'm in Love."

1. The animals. I have always been fascinated with wild animals, and this is the closest place I can get to to see animals in their natural habitats. I love bears. I love bison. I love elk. I love all the varieties of birds. And all in their natural habitat.

2. The scenery. Where else can you get such a variety of scenery in such a small amount of space. The canyon is amazing with all of its colors and depth. The hot springs and geysers offer a whole different spectrum of color. The woods and wildflowers and rocks. . . I could keep going, but I'll leave it at that.

3. The hikes. I love to hike. I love to exert myself in the beautiful surroundings of nature. There is so much to look at along the way. And the destination is always breathtaking.

4. The ice cream. Yes. I love ice cream. And the visitors centers in Yellowstone have a great brand. When I was little we'd only get ice cream at Old Faithful or Mammoth. Then in 1995, when Jeff was with us and very hyper, he decided that we needed ice cream at every center. There's Old Faithful, Mammoth, Tower, Canyon, and it seems like one more that I can't remember. The tradition continues. We get ice cream wherever and whenever we can.

5. The cabin. My parents have some great friends with a wonderful cabin. We have been going to this same cabin for 30 years. There are so many wonderful traditions we have in this cabin. We play the same games, read the same stories, go on the same adventures every year. And now we get to pass these traditions on to our kids.

Yellowstone for us is one of the best vacations we can take. It is really quite inexpensive and we always have so much fun. With our family growing so big, we have to take turns with the other siblings to go. This year is my year on and I am so excited. I love getting away and there is no better place to get away to.

Lots to say

On Saturday, we were able to have lots of family around for Emma's baptism. It was such a wonderful experience. She was so excited! I wish I could post pictures, but the film isn't developed yet. She spent a lot of time in the months previous thinking about what it means to be baptized. She struggled with the idea that maybe she wasn't good enough. We taught her that the Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect. We just have to do our best to make the right decisions, and He will bless us. We can repent when we make a mistake, and the Lord will forgive us. She understands the principles that are associated with baptism. The other kids were also very excited for Emma, and happy to see her take these important steps. It was really a special experience.

Anna is planning for her future. She has planned her wedding. She doesn't know who she will marry, since she now thinks that MacGyver will be too old for her. But she does know that her dress will look like Cinderella's ball gown, and Granny will make it. She wants Granny to make it now and save it for her. She and I will go shopping for high heels, and Aunt Cami will make the cake. We had to email Cami and ask her to put us in the calendar. Cami was kind enough to send back samples of wedding cakes for Anna to choose from. Anna decided that this is her favorite.

Ryan keeps us laughing with his knock-knock jokes. He does it all himself, so we don't have to answer. He uses a weird voice to ask the questions, and his normal voice to answer. Some of our favorites:

(This one was told after Megan called us. ) "Knock, knock. Who's there? Megan. Megan who? Megan Woooooooooods!"

Yeah, it doesn't seem that funny unless you get his funny voices along with it. Ryan also loves soccer. Every week at the game, he is disappointed that he can't play on the field with the big kids. But, he seems to handle it well when after the game he exclaims, "That was a really awesome game I played!" or "I winned!"

Tyler has come to love a couple of different shows on TV. One of them is The Biggest Loser. I got into this show to help motivate me to lose weight. I didn't expect the kids to love it so much. Tyler knows all of the contestants, even ones who were voted off in the beginning. He finds the challenges fascinating, and plans his Tuesdays around the show. He has invented a game that he calls (big surprise) "The Biggest Loser Game." They go down to his room and do different games for exercise. They do pull-ups on the bunkbeds. They take turns "encouraging" each other like the trainers on the show.

The other show he loves is Food Network's Challenge "Last Cake Standing." He thinks it is amazing what people can create with cakes. He began designing and drawing out his own cakes. They are really quite remarkable. Now if he can create it with cake and fondant. . .

Sophie is 8 months old! I can't believe how fast time flies. She is still a baby, though. She loves to be held, and I love the way she reaches out for me when I come near. She loves books and baby dolls and her tongue. She twists her tongue around in her mouth, and chews it, and sticks it out when she's happy. I love it when she sticks it out to the side of her mouth. She is a social baby. She loves to see other babies and reaches out to them as well. She smiles at them and holds their hands and pats their heads. Sophie has also become quite loud. She loves to sing when she hears music, she shouts when she's happy, and jabbers when she's content. She still doesn't crawl or even roll around much. She likes to be sitting up where she can see all that's going on around her. I know she's a little slow to get mobile, but it makes it easy to keep track of her.

Well, there's an update on the kids for ya'll. Hopefully soon I'll have more pictures to post. I love pictures. I would really like a digital camera.