Picture this

Some of my favorite pictures ... just because.

Haley & daddy share their love for the University of Utah. She's almost as much of a die hard fan as he is.At this age, Christian was more interested in the UofU cheerleaders. He's probably still more interested in them even now, come to think about it.How quickly these little people change.Mike might be mad I'm showing this picture. This was during Extreme Home Makeover at our neighbors' house. These shirts are actually blank on front and have the EHM logo on the back, but a friend thought it would be funny to photoshop BYU logos onto the picture. Dave (in the middle) is a huge BYU fan while Mike and Bill are definitely Utah fans. It made for an interesting dynamic in their bishopric. :)This little girl was a long awaited gift for their family. She has everyone wrapped around her little finger already.And our newest nephew, adorable baby Thomas. New babies on both sides of the family is a great thing.Random pictures ...Love those faces. :)

Sugar fast

I, personally, would interpret this title to be "Sugar! Fast!" but that's not what this is about. Christian & Haley are on a sugar-fast. For one year. One. Year. Why, you ask? Because that was definitely the question I asked them. There isn't one thing about a sugar-fast that sounds appealing to me. Probably why my clothes are more snug than I'd like them to be. They got the idea from their cousins who are on a sugar-fast to earn money. After an evening last March when the kids were all together, here's the conversation that we had in the car on the way home:

"Hey mom and dad, can we go on a sugar-fast for one year and earn $100?"
"Excuse me ... what? Why?"
"If we go without sugar for one year (holidays and birthdays excluded), will you pay us $100?"

How do you say no to that? Sure, I'd like them to eat healthier and use some self-control with regard to sweets. But I could also imagine times when I'd hear them complaining about not being able to have that cookie or that treat at school. So I said, "Of course you can, but let's get one thing straight ... This is YOUR deal. This is you two policing yourselves, denying yourselves. This is NOT mom or dad forcing you to go without. So no whining, no complaining, no begging for sweets. Agreed?" And shockingly, they both said YES.

And amazingly, they have both done extremely well. I have watched them politely turn down treats when offered, take the soccer treat and promptly hand it to their little sisters, say "no thank you" when papa offered to take them to ice cream, and on and on. I've been amazed. There was one night when Christian could smell the brownies that his aunt was making. It was cruel to permeate the house with the smell of warm brownies, admittedly, but I couldn't punish everyone else for their decision. Christian stood in the kitchen, breathing it in, and said, "I can't stand it. I REALLY want a brownie." I said, "That's totally your decision, bud. You can stop the sugar-fast anytime you want. It's the brownie or the money." He stood there, torn, and finally said, "$100. $100. $100." And his decision was made. It was so great! I loved seeing his resolve and determination to stick with his decision. He popped a bag of popcorn and was fine.

Because they can have sugar on holidays, they've started stashing little treats for the next holiday. I found this on top of the fridge....and Haley showed me her stash.They've been going since March and both have no intention of turning back. It definitely has made me reconsider what groceries I buy -- we don't keep any treats in the house anymore -- and we've found some interesting sugar-free alternatives, but overall this has been a great thing for them both and I'm so proud of them.

Haley recently challenged me to give up Diet Coke for a year and I quickly replied, "Why in the WORLD would I do that??"

Leisure living

We spent last week at a condo near Park City, and stayed busy doing very little. Lots of time at the pool (having splash contests and synchronized swimming routines),painting nails,a little t.v. watching,feeding Cheetos to the club house fish,going to Alpine Slide,bbq'ing, a little shopping at the Outlets (much to Christian's extreme pleasure - NOT!), movie watching (including a late night showing of Harry Potter for the older kids -- they both spent the night on our floor, a little freaked out)...Wish I could say there was some sleeping in but that definitely didn't happen. Definitely good times, though!

What's on my happy list?

* Harry Potter 6: Totally cannot wait to see it! Mike and I have been to every opening night premier in the series so far and sadly won't be able to go this year ... but we will be there asap.

* Facebook: I'm an addict and proud of it. I love catching up with old and new friends, love getting little snippets about their lives and love sharing some of my own.

* Summer nights: Most nights we wander outside and sit on the lawn, talk to neighbors as they walk by, watch the kids ride bikes, enjoy the cool down from the day .... I just love the night life outside our front door in the summer.

* Built-in babysitters: Christian is finally at an age where he is responsible enough to babysit when we go out for an evening, and trust me -- we're taking advantage of it! I'm not saying that there is always peace and love while he's babysitting but that's not always the case when mom and dad are in charge either. It's just nice to save a little $$ in babysitting and nice to have a little more freedom in our social life. :)

* My hair color: My cousin, Linsey, is doing my hair these days and she gets me. She just gets me. She's given me a color I love (I'm a red-head these days and already have the freckles to match) and I love getting a chance to see her and her great family. Her kids love her Diet Coke almost as much as my kids love mine. We're kindred spirits that way.

* Baby Kate: The 5th child of my big sis, Erin. She'll be making her appearance on Thursday. Can't wait to meet you, baby girl.

H2Ohhh

We've been hittin' the waves at our house, or around town anyway. What else do you do when it's summer but play in the water? Everyone is getting nice and brown, especially Haley but that's no surprise. Within the past couple of weeks, we've had swimming lessons, spent a couple of days at two water theme parks, .... spent the afternoon at Gateway Fountain with friends,... pulled out the slip 'n slide...and have gone river rafting with Grandpa down the Provo River. (I didn't bring a camera to any of these activities --I know, I'm slacking -- so I'm borrowing random people's pictures.) Christian and Haley were both pretty nervous about river rafting since I'm sure they were expecting something like this .... but our experience was more like this....We still managed to tip grandpa over the edge of the raft at one point which totally freaked the kids out but they both asked when we were going again so I guess they liked it.

Lovin' summer so far ....

The danger of naptime

What do you do when your sister falls asleep on the couch? You take all of the felt birds, apples and butterflies off of the felt tree in the toy room and decorate her body, of course!Haley failed to see the humor but that's good stuff to a 5 year old. Just ask Paige.

The 4th

Our 4th of July was jam packed with parties, bbq's, games, water, sugar, fireworks and great friends. Here are the highlights ....

We started the celebration the night before with a bbq, swimming party and fireworks watching with the Vriens family. We went to their friends' house who have a beautiful, ginormous home overlooking the golf course where a huge fireworks show happened that night. Always fun to crash someone else's party. ;)

The next morning, we went to our neighborhood's annual breakfast and kids' parade. Our kids had their bikes decorated a few days beforehand just so they'd be totally ready. Here's the excited crew with our neighbors before heading to the parade start.Since the parade is only a block long (just the stretch of road leading down to the church), in years past it has become a mad dash/race instead of a leisurely parade. This year, our neighborhood veterans led the parade which slowed things down to a more manageable pace. :)Breakfast this year took a slight turn from the usual. As we started down the buffet line, there were breakfast casseroles, pancakes and then large tubs of ice cream. That's right. Ice cream. And chocolate sauce, crushed candy bars and caramel. I was surprised to see most people actually plopping it right onto their pancakes at 9am. Christian came up to us with a heaping pile on his plate and said, "THIS is why I love America!"After breakfast, Mike started a red light/green light game with the kids.And then he continued the fun at the Dodds' afternoon bbq/water party.The Dodds' definitely know how to throw a party. That evening, Mike and I hosted the "Driveway of Fire" at our house, which we've done for the past few years with our immediate neighbors and a few other friends. We roll the bbq's out onto our driveway (very posh) and then have a pot luck bbq. Everyone just brings what they have on hand. Throw in a snowcone machine and a few fireworks and you've got yourselves a party. Elle has some amazing fashion sense. :) I just love this stage when they wear anything and everything. How come chubby legs are cute on a 2 yr old but not so much on her mother?


Happy Birthday, America. Thanks for the party!

American History 101

Any of you who know Mike know that he is a born story-teller. The man can weave a tale and often takes artistic license by telling the story the way he thinks it should be...even if that takes things a little to the left of accurate. Whenever he uses this talent to teach our kids the importance of various holidays or events in our lives, he tries to speak on their level, which is always amusing. Here is what I overheard him telling the kids on the 4th ....

"All right kids ... the 4th of July is a pretty big deal. Why? Because back in 1776, England started pushing us around. They made us pay taxes, they made us wear funny wigs, they made us drink crazy tea, and finally America said, 'Dudes! We're not going to do this anymore.' So on the 4th of July in 1776, we wrote 'em a nasty little letter. It was called the Declaration of Independence. It said, 'Dear England, thanks for Harry Potter in the future but we don't want your stinkin' taxes, your funny wigs or your bad tea. We don't even want to be part of your country any more. So take that. Kiss off. Love, America.' And then they signed it. Some of our founding fathers weren't as brave as the others. They signed it in little writing. But John Hancock signed his name in big ol' letters so King George wouldn't have to use his glasses to read it.

"When King George got the letter, he was so mad that he sent the largest army in the world to come fight our guys. Their army had big guns and matching red coats. Our guys had little guns and no shoes, but they loved America and they were ready to take on that big army so we could be free. Fortunately, we were smarter than the British so we got 'em surrounded and then we said, 'Take your red coats and bad teeth back to England and don't come back until 1812.' And that is how America started kicking butt. "

I'm sure our kids will all get A's in history now.

In her element

Every summer, the girls take various dance camps from a local arts academy. They're just for fun -- a week long theme dance camp. Haley took a High School Musical class and Paige took Tinkerbell. Could she look any more at home on the stage than she does?

Sooo tired....

Elle was down for a nap when I heard her crying pretty hard. She hadn't been asleep long so I figured she'd had a bad dream or something. I called to her, "Elle, I'm in here! Come here, baby." She cried for another minute and then was quiet, but never came and found me. I figured she'd fallen back asleep. And she had .... right in the middle of the hall.She must have been coming to find me and then decided it was just too much effort and plopped down where she was. She slept like that for another hour. I love the bum sticking up in the air.

READING: Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. Our book group read it last month and I'm still trying to finish it. Next on my list is The Shack. After watching the new Harry Potter preview, I'm thinking I need to re-read book 6, too.

LISTENING TO: My blog music. All my favorites in one place.

WATCHING: So You Think You Can Dance (love watching great dancers) and went to Star Trek the movie last night for the 2nd time.

WORKING ON: Unpacking all of the many boxes and piles of things left over from getting new carpet. I don't want the house to look cluttered from all of this stuff so where in the world do I put it all now?

BUYING: Firecrackers for the 4th.

EATING: Toasted open-faced peanut butter & jelly sandwich

WISHING: That I had more energy and desire to get the house back to normal

DOING TODAY: Cleaning, taking kids to the Hannah Montana movie which is finally at the dollar theater, going to a bbq tonight with friends and watching the fireworks

LOVING: Diet Coke. Nothing new there.

I wish ....

Haley was busy at work making something yesterday. She explained to me later that it was her Jar of Dreams. On each little paper, she had written a wish that she had for her life. Reading them made me smile because they give such an interesting insight into Haley's personality and psyche.Here are some of my favorites:

* go to Disney World
* have a lot of sunny summer days
* be in the Olympics
* to live 1,000,000 years but still look young
* to rule the earth
* be famous
* have a mansion
* have a pool
* have a pet monkey
* be a princess or a queen
* have a pet fairy
* to move things with my mind
* have my own room
* to control nature
* win the lottery
* own a car dealership
* to be an only child
* to time travel
* be a pilot
* that everything was free
* to own a diamond and an amethyst
* to go to Washington D.C.
* to eat at La Caille
* have an iPhone
* go to Cherry Hill
* live in Hawaii
* that I could read minds
* own Raging Waters
* have a dog
* be a star student in Spectrum
* be a rock star
* go to the UofU
* have a million dollars
* have my own island

Haley has such a competitive, over-achieving personality which makes for some fun times at our house, especially when it comes to her sibling relationships. But it also drives her to work hard at whatever she does and I'm sure will serve her well in life. I'll have to keep track how many of these wishes she makes come true. I'm hoping she'll own that island someday because I'd be visiting her often.