duh

I don't know why I didn't buy this until yesterday. Clearly, I was not thinking. I had no idea that brushing her teeth could be such a positive experience. Hooray for the battery powered toothbrush!

I could never have survived as a pioneer.

summertime, and the livin' is easy

These are just two of the many reasons I love the mid-summer season.

1. Unbelievably delicious fruit like this

because I put it on my oatmeal in the morning, topped with a little brown sugar, and it is TO DIE FOR. It may even be better than chocolate, which may shock Dave because he doesn't believe that phrase could possibly ever leave my mouth, but it's true.
But look. See? Doesn't it look yummy?

2. Shark Week.

It scares me half to death, but I love it.

happy birthday teina!

Teina is six today! Our sweet, timid, cute little nephew. Nezzie & Gwenie sure miss you! Hope you have a happy birthday!!

'R' is for...

ridiculously large zucchinis left on our doorstep.

See? See how large they are compared to the butcher knife?

our anniversary weekend in p.c.

Well it was more like 24 hours, but a little getaway with Dave for that long and no kids, counts as a weekend in my book. And even though our anniversary was a few weeks ago, we decided to celebrate with more than just a dinner date this year.

And we know that it's our own fault for getting married the day after a holiday because we'll always have belated anniversary celebrations, which is just fine with me as long as: A. there is still a celebration of some sort and B. it's not too belated.

We stayed at the Stein Eriksen Lodge and it was probably the nicest place we've ever been (not too hard since it's a five star lodge/four star resort). We just relaxed and crusied Park City, ate at Main St. Pizza & Noodle and felt really awkward anytime tipping was involved.

I got Dave the shirt he is wearing in the above photo as well that this t-shirt

and this book

He got me this dvd set, with Attenborough's not Sigourney's narration (thanks to Joe)

and also this album. We lurve The Shins, yet didn't have this entire album...until now.


It was so fun and refreshing and needed and peaceful.

I love anniversaries and Dave.

have you ever?

So I have this dilemma. A certain high profile G.A. who happens to be in our ward had both his knees replaced last week. So, as I drove by his house yesterday the thought occured to me, "I should take him cookies. After all, we are neighbors and I make wicked awesome cookies." Well, I didn't actually think "wicked awesome" (that was just for Erin), but they are wickedly delicious and wicked for me as I have to weigh in at W.W. tomorrow morning. And as a side note, I want to read the book Wicked that Dave bought for me for Christmas. But before I can bring myself to read it, I need to read the EIGHT books that were loaned to me by various people. I don't know what it is, but people just give me books to read without my asking for them! The hardest part is that because I didn't pick them out, they are really hard to start and they generally don't catch me right away. So they sit and collect dust on my bookshelf and I feel extrememly guilty.

I digress. The dilemma is that I am EXTREMELY intimidated to actually take the cookies to this certain person. I mean, I don't know if I would be able to even knock on his door, and I can't leave cookies on his step because who would eat strange cookies left on your doorstep, especially if you were high profile? And now I can't figure out if this was a prompting (because who doesn't need cookies while recovering from surgery) or just my mind playing tricks on me. Have you ever had this happen to you? I am frozen, for the moment.

But the butter is already soft, so I have to at least make the dough.

put on your sunglasses

Tonight as I was cleaning out my inbox (which had 256 emails) I ran across this gem that my brother James had sent me last November. It's kind of long, but the unintentional comedy factor is well worth your seven minutes. Well, at least three.

finished

I am done reading the seventh Harry Potter (no spoilers here, it's safe to read on).

My brain hurts from reading so late into the night(s) after the girls were asleep. I even read it at the gym the other day but it felt SO wrong! Harry Potter really doesn't belong at the gym.

I can now catch up on my blog with some recent happenings, so stay tuned.

the face

I love it. A bonus is that she is even raising one eyebrow—an expression that she inherited from her daddy.

her new trick

This* is how I found Gwen after her nap last week. Sitting up, all by herself.

I love and dread these milestones. They are so cute but it also means that my little baby is growing too quickly. I'll just keep her captive so that she'll always be mine.




*This picture was a re-enactment of her first and original sitting-up.

happy birthday bridget!

Today my niece, Bridget, turns nine. We just spent some time with Bridget as her family was here for our reunion over the 4th of July and we had a lot of fun with her. Inez adores her, and it's really no wonder because Bridget was so kind and patient with her three-year-old cousin. And she certainly put my mind at ease when they were playing together because I knew that Inez was in good hands. Bridget is a Disneyland loving, little surfer girl (if her Dad has anything to do with it) that lives in San Diego. We love our neice/cousin and hope that she had a wonderful birthday!

Here she is with Gwen, after riding Splash Mountain and consequentially getting wet.

Gidget Bridget

my new avatar

I'm still getting used to it. I miss my old one. I might switch back.

okay. i won't go to australia.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Before going any further, I realize and acknowledge that there are many people on God's green earth that have it much worse than I do. But for me and my house, today was a bad day. I'm not going to list it all. But just a few highlights of my bad day include:

• being informed by our health insurance company that we can't cancel our insurance until the end of the month. Well, actually we can. But we will still be charged the full amount of $404.60 even if we faxed over our written request and cancelled it today. Dave's work finally got us on a group plan. And because it wasn't greenlit until yesterday, we hadn't cancelled our private insurance. So we are paying through the nose and not being supplemented by Dave's work (like we used to be), and having the new insurance money for the new plan taken out of the paycheck all in the same month. All this for our terrible coverage. Fantastic.

• dealing with THE grumpiest three-year-old in all of Utah County. She certainly woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it just went downhill from there.

• my rib(s) going out of place for the third day in a row. It's so lovely when it happens because I can hardly breathe, let alone pick up a ten month old while dealing with the most dramatic three-year-old.

• having super hairy legs, very dirty feet and going on the second day of wearing the same shirt. Day and night.

This evening I had to run to the library before it closed and I was still feeling sorry for myself, so I went to drown my sorrows at Target. And I bought this for myself.

I also made cookie dough. It was too late to bake them tonight, so I just had a few bites. I felt so much better.

Now, I'm not trying to generate sympathy or get cookies delivered (especially since I have some dough in the fridge right now). I'm just venting. I know it's on days like this that I need to write in my gratitude journal and remember the good that still surrounds me. For example:

• even after spanking (yes, spanking happens on days like today) my three-year-old, she still loves me.

• having my sister in town for a few more days, and sharing some quality girl time with her and my Mom tonight after all the kids were asleep and until my Dad came upstairs because it was 1am, wanting to go to bed and kicked us out (in a nice way) of his room.

• having a husband that loves me no matter how hairy my legs get and I'm sure, hasn't even noticed that I've sported the same shirt two days in a row.

So, no matter how terrible, horrible, no good, or very bad my days get, I know that I still have it good. Especially as long as Target is open.

the fourth of july. and the fifth, and sixth. oh and june 30th.

Here are a few thing we have been up to lately:

Inez marching in the children's parade

Gwenie post children's parade

cheering for Dave

cheering for Uncle Joe

cheering for Aunt Liz

cheering for Uncle Jon

and cheering for Dad in the Freedom Run

our very own Little Miss Firecracker

a very sad Little Miss Firecracker

cracking algunos cascarones con los primos, brought from TX from Uncle Joe & Aunt Liz

anticipating fireworks with the cousins

hanging out with her very smart cousin, Tui

watching fireworks with Dave

sparklers

too loud

fireworks

fireworks

and more fireworks

hanging out with Auntie Kiki and Teina

doing the fireworks dance

our girl is growing up too fast, she looks so old here!

the lineup

with more sparklers

all the kiddos with their glow necklaces

in the light of the fireworks

more dancing and jumping

running with the glow necklaces

and a few more fireworks


and our firework lighters(Uncle Joe, Uncle Vaughn, Uncle Jon and Tainui) give us the sparkler version of the Samoan Fire knife dance for the finale