The Rott'n Apples

Couldn't resist

2009-11-08T22:37:00.003-07:00

I put Joshua to bed tonight not really ready to sleep. I tucked him in and left the room. About two minutes later he cried that he'd had a bad dream. I went back in to reassure him that he hadn't had a bad dream because there was no way he'd ever fallen asleep. I turned off the light and left the room. He called me again and asked if I could leave the light on for him. I did and then about an hour later I went in to turn it off and found him all done up rofl. He'd put a hair net on his head (this was a gift from Shayla after she'd had lunch room duty at school) and then he put some safety goggles on over that (a gift from his dad). There he layed sound asleep. It was sooo funny I had to take a picture . .although it didn't turn out very good because it was my cellphone camera (my nice new camera I got in March broke a month ago). Anyway, I couldn't resist the picture and posting it for the world to see.

2009-09-19T20:58:00.003-06:00

This is sooo funny. I couldn't resist.

New look

2009-09-02T15:47:00.002-06:00

I got my hair cut yesterday. I think it turned out pretty good. I'm having a hard time getting use to bangs again.

it's been a busy 2 weeks

2009-08-24T20:36:00.004-06:00

On the 17th was joshua's 4th birthday. We had his first "friend" birthday party and the theme was pirates. here's the cake i made.

here are all the little pirates. they had a blast.

the 11th through the 13th i went to st. george with my mom, sister, neice and makiya. these pictures are backwards to the timeline, but oh well.

coming home on the 13th we drove through Zions National Park. these next few pictures are from that drive.

On wednesday night we went to the Touachan outdoor theater to see Annie, it was fantastic.

During the day on wednesday we went for a drive, first through snow canyon and then up to pine valley. this church is the oldest known still operating LDS church. it was built like a ship on its side. it was pretty cool.

These last pictures are from snow canyon.

Now school is back in session and duh, i didn't even take a first day of school picture, but when your kids get into middle school that's the last thing they want to do. i'll be sure to get a first day of preschool pictures of joshua though! thanks for looking.

Not a lot

2009-08-08T11:20:00.002-06:00

It's been a busy week. This is the last week Chuck is going up to the farmer's market in SLC, we've actually sold all our worm castings and tea that we had available this summer. We will have more, but not until October, so he's done up there.

This week we also started a diet. It's a great one, and we are not hungry. It's 1500 calories a day, but wow, we eat alot. We get our 3 meals a day, plus 3 snacks a day. The girls want to keep it up even when school starts, so I'll be sending their lunch/snacks with them each day. That will be interesting because we haven't done that on a regular basis before. After a week, we are all noticing our clothes fitting us a bit better.

I did get a scrapbook page done last night. I think it turned out pretty good.

Poor baby

2009-08-01T17:30:00.002-06:00

Our dog got attacked by our mamma cat and she had a huge ball of infection on the side of her neck, about the size of a tennis ball. I took her to the vet yesterday and he had to put her under and lance it and drain the puss, now i have to give her pills 2x's a day and wash her neck a couple of times a day too. He couldn't sew up the incision, because it needs to be able to drain. I've taken a picture to show you, it's not for the faint of heart, so be prepared. It is a little blurry, but you'll get the idea of how big the incision is.

Fire on the mountain

2009-07-28T17:13:00.002-06:00

There is a fire buring on the other side of the mountain. It has been burning for awhile, but today the wind is blowing and it's stired the fire back up. Normally, the wind blows the smoke away from us, but today it's blowing it right at us. Yucky.

Sunday Day Trip

2009-07-27T14:41:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we took a day trip to Kanab and Otter Creek. We ate dinner in Kanab at a grill that was pretty spendy, but the food was good. I, of course, had the chicken fried steak. Chuck says that is what I get any time we go out. But that is not true, they don't serve it at the all you can eat Chinese Buffett hehe.

Well, naturally, I got stomach cramps on the drive home, but to make the kids happy we took a side trip to our day trip and went over to Otter Creek. These two pictures are the view from the State Park boat launch ramp. The kids loved playing in the water and the nature etc. Me, well . .let's let the last 3 pictures tell the rest of the story.

This was my restroom companion. Fortunately, he/she/it didn't move, if it had I think it would have been dead.

Promised pictures

2009-07-25T08:44:00.002-06:00

In last night's post I said I'd get pictures posted from our small town parade. In this first picture you can see the first entry in the parade, our towns "big" fire truck. Joshua is riding in it and if you look close to the passenger side you'll see his purple shirt and cowboy hat. You can also see down the street how long the parade is hehe.

I was so excited this picture worked. The truck was moving and I was sure it would be blurry. But, what a great shot of Joshua's big smile. He thought it was totally awesome to ride in the fire truck.

We had a couple of first this year in our parade. We had our first Grand Marshall. The older lady in this picture is the Grand Marshall, but she was afraid to ride in the car by herself (even though it was her son driving), so another lady joined her. Who made her Grand Marshall, I'll never know hehe.

This is the second "first" for our parade. An actual float!

This last picture is of the 4-H horse riding club. They came at the end after the bike riders, the 4-wheelers and motorcycles, and the walkers. After the horses was the final entry in our grand parade . .the other fire truck spraying water on everyone. I didn't get a picture of it because I had my camera shoved under my shirt to keep it from getting wet.

Pioneer Day - Utah State Holiday

2009-07-24T20:41:00.002-06:00

Today we celebrated Pioneer Day. This is a Utah State holiday celebrating the pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. It is also and LDS holiday celebrated throughout the world by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In our little community the day starts with a flag raising ceremony and then a pancake breakfast at the park. Chuck took the kids today since I had to work, but they did bring me a plate of food. It was very good despite being a bit cold hehe.

Later in the day there is a parade on Center Street, this parade is mostly the kids in the community walking, riding bikes, riding horses or riding in one of the town's two fire engines. It probably takes longer to get every one ready to walk the 1/4 mile (if that) than it does to actually have the parade. The last entry in our little parade is always one of the fire trucks ready to get spectators nice and wet, the front window of my van is nice an clean now hehe.

After the parade the citizens and guest of our fine little community move on over to the park. The activities at the park this year includes 4-H horse exibits, the kids showed off the things they've learned this year with their horses. I think all the participants enjoyed riding around the arena holding an egg on a spoon to see who could go the longest without letting it fall and break. They also did some timed events racing through a serpintine of poles and other riding techniques.

There was also plenty of water activities. A huge water slide was the main attraction. Stacia and Shayla loved going down this. Makiya and Joshua not so much. Joshua enjoyed the bounce house and I think we all loved the potluck dinner and mingling with our friends and neighbors. Another new event this year was a greased poll. Joshua even forked over his $1 to hug the pole.

We headed home about 7:00 pm and had to get the van loaded for Chuck's trip to the SLC farmer's market tomorrow morning and then I headed into Richfield for gas so he wouldn't have to try and find an open gas station at 3:00 in the morning. It is now a great end to a great day, rain is falling and it has cooled off considerably. AND, it will be too wet for me to mow the lawn in the morning (darn hehe).

I'll post pictures tomorrow of the parade, that's the only place I had the camera with me.

nice visit

2009-07-22T12:15:00.004-06:00

My 90 yo grandma is moving to Texas so my Aunt can take care of her. We went up Sunday to visit with her and and get a picture. I had to do some manipulation of the picture because there was a huge mirror behind the couch and it was confusing seeng the backs of our heads and the photographer hehe. This pictures will of course be a family treasure. Most likely we won't see grandma again until her funeral.

Some new layouts

2009-07-06T09:14:00.000-06:00

Here are a few layouts I've done recently.

Our 4th

2009-07-05T09:16:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. We had a good one despite Stacia and Chuck being up in SLC at the Farmer's Market. The rest of us went to the parade in Richfield, it was a lot of fun. Then at 4:00 we went to a play called "Field of Stars." It started with the Boston Tea Party and took us through the end of the Revolutionary War. It was a musical and fantastic. At the end the audience joined in singing "God Bless America." Later that night after Chuck and Stacia got home we went to the foothills west of Richfield and claimed our spot for the fireworks. We love going out to the west side of the freeway and watching from there. No city lights to interfere. These first two pictures are our view of the mountains from our spot. The following pictures are of some of the spectacular fireworks.

My poor baby

2009-06-25T08:10:00.004-06:00

Last night Joshua was playing outside and he just started screaming. I reached the sliding door about the time he did and he just wouldn't stop screaming and was not wanting to put weight on his foot. I lifted him to a kitchen chair and he was still screaming and I couldn't get him to calm down and tell me what happened, but I could see the top of his foot swelling, so I grabbed an ice pack and got it on it.

After 20 minutes and him still crying I gave him some Tylenol w/codine and we headed for the ER. They had it x-rayed and couldn't see any breaks, thank goodness, and the doctor said he'll just have to deal with it. I was NOT impressed with the doctor, Joshua was barefoot and the doctor took the wheelchair and left, there was NO way I was going to let him try to walk out to the car and I couldn't carry him, so I stopped the doctor and asked for the chair back. He grunted and gave it back and the nurse (who was nice) helped us out to the van. I think he wanted Joshua to walk on his foot, but being without shoes, I didn't think walking across a parking lot was the smartest thing in the world! It had been hot yesterday, and I'm sure that asphalt was still pretty warm. Yeah, lets torment the bottom of BOTH your feet with burns. Duh!

Got him home and put him to bed. I guess sometimes during the night he wanted ice on his foot again cause I heard Makiya up and asked her what was going on.

He is up this morning, but still not wanting to put weight on his foot. I remember when a doctor told me MY foot wasn't broken, but yet it was damaged so bad that even 3 years later it still bothers me. So, despite the dumb doctor, I will baby my baby as long as he needs it. We are using my desk chair (that has wheels) to move him around the house hehe.

Balloon Festival

2009-06-19T17:01:00.005-06:00

We had a wonderful morning activity today. We got up about 5:45 am and got dressed and went over to Salina (utah) for their annual Eye to the Sky event. They had a hot air balloon launch this morning with about 20 hot air balloons. We got to watch about 15 or so launch before we had to come home, but it was absolutely wonderful. We were all so glad we made the effor to go.

Here are pictures from the launch. They aren't really in order, because I messed them up loading them here.

This is the first balloon that was being filled.

This is one of my favorite pictures. another balloon was blocking most of the morning sun when this one started to rise up, i thought it was pretty cool to see the sun hitting the side of the balloon.

This next one reminds me of my early days of scrapbooking. . .recognize the flowers fellow scrappers?

we have had rain almost every day this past week and every morning has been cloudy and yucky, but this morning it was beautiful. not a cloud in the sky and very comfortable temperature wise.

This was the last picture i took as we were heading back to the car. there were more balloons in the sky, but i could only get these 6 into the frame of my camera.

Thanks for looking.

Been awhile

2009-06-09T18:46:00.005-06:00

It's been awhile since I posted. Lots going on, so here's an update and pictures.

First we'll start with Chuck and his staph infection (again). He got a major staph infection in his finger a couple of weeks ago. He ended up having to go into the hospital 3 nights in a row for an IV antibiotic each evening. It's about better now, just one little scab and red tender skin. It was pretty scary there for a few days.

This is a picture of the Sevier Valley as seen from the west side of the valley overlooking towards the east. Two Sundays ago the girls wanted to go for a drive and play "left, right, straight." It's a fun game where they each take turns telling us which way to turn. We added a little twist that they had to tell us which direction they wanted to go as soon as we made a turn, that way it would be a surprise to all of us rather than a last second "left" or "right." We ended up on a dirt road on the west side of the valley. We've come to the conclusion that we probably shouldn't play this game again on a little over 1/4 tank of gas. We were pretty nervous by the time we found civilization again that we weren't going to make it home. At one point we had to go up this really, really steep hill. It had lose rocks all over it and Chuck had the van gas pedal floored with the hopes we'd make it. We finally wandered out of the mountain and found a paved highway and made our way home. It would have been fun to be "lost" for a little while if we hadn't been so worried about the lack of gas in the van.

This picture was taken the last day of school this year. Shayla's teacher had called us a couple of days earlier to tell us Shayla was getting a special award and could we please come to the award ceremony. We were so pleased with her award. You can read it in the next picture. She had to achieve alot this year to receive this award. She is such a smart girl and we are so proud of how well she has done this past year in school.

Okay a week ago Joshua had a friend come over to play. I think just about every toy he owns ended up on his bedroom floor. I just couldn't bring myself to step foot in there but we are really wanting him to start sleeping in his bed instead of on the recliner in the family room. Shayla and I braved his room this afternoon and cleaned it up. Here are the before and after pictures.

There's my journey down memory lane the past two weeks or so. Thanks for looking/reading.

Another Joshuaism

2009-06-03T06:05:00.002-06:00

Last Friday I went with Chuck to the doctors, and of course, Joshua had to come along. I know our doctor thinks he is the weirdest kid rofl. Joshua had to show the doctor his finger that had a scab on it so the doctor could fix it and he usually comes up with the funniest things. Well, we got out of there without anything too weird, but then came Monday.

On Monday I had to take Stacia and Shayla back to the doctor (they couldn't go on Friday). Anyway, Joshua is adamant that something is wrong with him so the doctor needs to check him out. While we were in the waiting room he told me his leg was sore. I asked him what was wrong and he told me it was full of trash from when he helped clean up the yard. That was a new one!

Okay, so fast-forward. We're in the exam room and in comes the doctor. Joshua proceeds to show him the same finger as on Friday, only this time the scab is gone. Then he tells him he has trash in his leg and needs the doctor to get it out. However, the funniest thing he told the doctor:

"I have a bone in my arm, here feel it." As Joshua sticks his fist in the doctors face.

The doctor feels his arm and says, "Yep, you sure do have a bone in there."

Joshua says, "Yep! A dinosaur bone!"

Capitol Reef

2009-05-30T14:09:00.003-06:00

Took a trip to Capitol Reef this last week. Here are pictures from our trip (trip meaning we live 1 1/2 hours away).

Fun Layout

2009-05-24T09:26:00.001-06:00

I saw the paper for this layout . .it came with the sun, tree, clouds and grass and thought it was so cute. I had taken pictures of Joshua last week that I thought would look darling on it. So, here is how it turned out.

Fun at the park

2009-05-15T16:23:00.005-06:00

I took Joshua to the park this afternoon and Makiya tagged along. She and I had some fun with the camera.

Oh my heck

2009-05-14T08:14:00.002-06:00

I'm cleaning my laundry room. That is no small task as it's had an entire winter to collect stuff! I think I swept in there a couple of times, but man, the lint on the dryer alone would have insulated the walls of my dh's garage! We had shoes in the shoe basket that kids outgrew at least 2 years ago. They are now gone, gone, gone. I've washed the washer and dryer, swept the floor and washed the nasty walls around the door (it's the door we use for going in and out of the house more than any other door). I'm now heading in there with my trusty Kirby and I think every attachment that came with it, to finish up the project. I will definately feel better about life once this room is cleaned up and I won't have to be quite so embarrassed when my visiting teaching partner shows up to get me this morning.

Saturday's project is Joshua's disasterous bedroom.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T07:02:00.003-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms. I've had breatfast in bed (well, really on the chair in the family room because I was out there rocking Joshua). And I got some amazing gifts from my family. The flowers came yesterday. These roses are talking roses. They all have Happy Mother's Day written on them. The second picture is the gift is also flowers, but they are way cool. The big tan flowers are really made from wood. They look soooo real, but they won't die. I also got a packet of seeds, bookmark and card from Shayla and a necklace that says, Faith, Hope, Love and a pair of earrings from makiya. Stacia is still sleeping, but I'm sure she'll have something she made at school. We'll I've got to get ready for church. Have a great day!

Layouts

2009-05-03T11:59:00.003-06:00

Here are a couple of layouts I've done the past couple of days.

This first one I did using the pictures chosen for my Grandmother's 90th birthday openhouse invitations.

This one I thought would be fun to do. There are so many fun whimsical layouts being produced lately that I thought it would be fun to do one too.

You can find the credits in my DST gallery.

Here's one more I did with Attic Treasures. This is me, I'm such a cute!

Sleeping in the rain

2009-05-02T09:18:00.003-06:00

Stacia and Shayla decided that even though there was a huge storm heading our way they still NEEDED to sleep outsde on the trampoline last night. I went out at 8:30 to tell them one last time they were crazy and to kiss them goodnight. As I started to the house Shayla started yelling, "Mom, mom, Stacia said the coyoties can track our sent from the mountains and they will come get us tonight." I yelled back, "Stacia, stop terifiying your sister!" As I entered the house I hear them giggling.

The sleeping ended at exactly 1:30 am when the sliding glass door screeched open and loud shouting woke me from my slumber.

In came two soggy girls with soggy blankets.

Me: "Why is everything so wet?"

Stacia: "We wanted to see how long we could stay outside in the rain."

Me: "So, what blankets do you plan on using to sleep with now you are in the house?"

Them: Deer in the headlight look. "Umm?"

Me: "What pillows do you plan on using?"

Them: "We'll just pull the pillow cases off."

Off came 4 pillow cases from each pillow.

Me: Thinking I didn't know we had that many pillow cases.

They went in their room and we found two blankets hiding in the corner of their room. They changed their wet pj's and climbed into bed together.

Naturally, I tossed and turned until 6:15 am when I had to get Makiya up for baby sitting.

Maybe next-time the coyoties will get them before the rain.

Something a little lighter

2009-04-30T14:27:00.003-06:00

Here's a layout I did a few days ago.