Rainbows

WELCOME HOME CHLOE JANE!

She's older, wiser and TONS calmer...., but she's still the same good girl I loved years ago! After a 5 year hiatus, Chloe is back with her Mamma. Here's a few younger shots of my first baby girl.

BEFORE AND AFTER FLOWER BEDS

BEFORE AFTERI'm excited for this honeysuckle vine. I planted it this spring and thought it was dead, until just this past week.
I still have a pile of rocks in my driveway left to use on one more flower bed in the middle of our yard. Until I get the strength to finish.., here they'll sit.

Happy Father's Day!

We love our Dad! Dan is an incredible father and so great with the kids. It melts my heart to see how tender he is with Maya. He gets up to feed her in the middle of the night because her mom never hears her and he never complains about it. Maya's face lights up when she sees her daddy. Mason's favorite thing in the world is to wrestle with his dad. Dan will play on the floor with him for hours. Hearing my boys laugh always makes me smile. We are so lucky to have such an incredible Dad!

Mason was excited about Dad's new shoes and had to try them on first. He's really into shoes still.
Mason helped make some magnets for his Dad's office. I'm pretty sure he had more glue on him than any of the magnets did!Mason helped with cards. He LOVED playing with the ink pads to make his hand prints and helping with each of the folds on Maya's card. Mason also decorated a tie for his dad in nursery that Dan wore around church. He looked cute.After dinner, we had a crazy hail storm. The hail was HUGE.., the photos really don't show it well. We stood on our door step and watched it the storm. Mason, of course, needed to have a more hands on experience and took off running. He was getting pelted left and right and screaming..., but he kept running around like a mad man. I'm surprised he didn't have welts on his body from the hail.

I love this little girl!

Do these thighs just make you smile???

Mmmmm...,

Am I a horrible mother for allowing Mason to suck on the toothpaste til I could get my camera.., or am I a horrible wife for not telling my husband that our family toothpaste is now contaminated???

Park City

Let me just tell you .., I love time shares! I hope to actually own one some day and not to just sit through the presentation for the free vacations. We had a glorious four day - three night stay at the Westgate Resort in Park City just because we were willing to sit through their hour long time share presentation. The best part was that we didn't even have to sit through it! They must have forgot about us. It's okay though because Dan hates the high pressure sale. He was a bit worried I would have bought it this time since I get closer and closer to doing so with each presentation. Anyway..., back to Maya's first vacation and the kids..., We had so much fun! Our vacation started with eating Cheetos and Doritos in bed..., a HUGE 'no no' of dad's at our house. But.., hey.., it's vacation...., there's people who clean up after you here.We loved the huge jacuzzi bath and got in it several times a day! Our whole family can and did at one point all fit in the tub. I think Maya may love her baths even more than Mason does.., if that's possible.We went swimming everyday. I love the new float suit we got for Mason. It makes him even more fearless..., which perhaps isn't the greatest thing..., but I love that it floats. It helps him feel comfortable to practice swimming.He almost has the floating on his back thing down. By the end of the trip.., Mason was climbing up the ladder in the pool by himself and taking a running jump in the water. Of course..., my camera battery dies by that point!

The Bishop's came up on Saturday to join us for some water time fun. Their little girl, Maddy is 4 days younger than Maya. It's fun to see them together because they are such opposite. Maddy has the strawberry-blond hair, fair skin and chicken legs..., while Maya on the other hand has the jet-black hair, darker complexion and thunder thighs

I love their legs next to each other.

Swimming and water sports has always been one of my favorite things and I love that my kids are developing this same passion.

We of course had to rinse off in the jacuzzi tub.

Later Saturday, we hit the outlets and believe it of not...., it was the guys requests! Hey.., you don't have to ask me twice to shop!?!? We got some great fleece jackets for the kids for this fall as well as some other fun things.

Dan was so wonderful at entertaining Mason through out the shopping experience. he had Mason laughing hysterically with his off-road stroller-ing. Towards the end Mason was DONE. I was a horrible, unprepared mom who kept shopping and by 2pm the poor kid was WAY over tired, under fed and ornery!

The weekend was great. We ended by driving home over Guardsman Pass while the kids were asleep. It was beautiful and quiet! Of course, I had to grab a few rocks for my new project I've been working on.

I love Yard Sales!

My dad got me this mirror at a yard sale for $1. I was so excited when I saw it because I've been wanting one this shape for Maya's room. Of course I didn't want one with nasty gold color it came with. So.., out came the sand paper and the spray paint.I used this spray enamel that is used for appliances because I wanted the high gloss finish. I've never used that type of spray paint before and it takes twice as long to dry, but looks great when it's finished.
So.., for $1 and then $3.55 for a can of spray paint we have this mirror. I think it's worth it. Who wants to go yard sale-ing with me on Saturday???

Cheap Labor

At times I feel bad for my husband because he suffers from my naivety. Two weekends ago, I asked Dan to till around this tree stump on the side of our house, so I could dig it out. We had 4 huge trees there last summer on the side of our house. Dan cut them down and then pulled out 3 of the left over trunks with his jeep, but for some reason left this one. It's been an eye sore and I've been dying to get rid of it. Dan some what laughed at me, asked me if I knew how deep the roots were..., and then after my clueless answer of 'I'm sure not too deep' tilled around the tree any way for me. He then went back to his Saturday projects. I started to dig and quickly realized that I was in WAY over my head. The roots were ginormous!!! Thankfully I have a wonderful husband that not only puts up with me taking on projects I can't finish but will also pitched in to help out. Shovels, a chainsaw, clippers, trowels, rakes were all used, but still after 4 hours of digging around this beast of a trunk and cutting roots, this bad boy was not budging!Mason did all he could with his plastic shovel.After six.., yes, six nights..., of working on this trunk after the kids went to bed.., plus the 4 hours on the previous Saturday..., the trunk FINALLY came out. Dan ROCKS! He did tell me no more projects for awhile though. I guess I can do that!

Sprinklers

Mason has loved helping Daddy get the sprinklers up and running this year! He was outside with Dan for hours and would have stayed longer if his mom didn't drag his purple chattering lips inside.

Burley, Idaho

I tell you every time I go to Idaho, I want to stay. I love the small town living. We were able to go up to Idaho this past Saturday for our niece Quin's baptism. She was so cute and excited about her special day. Her mom actually made the dress she's wearing!?!?! Isn't it beautiful!A few of the highlights from the trip besides Mason screaming 'AGUA' over and over when he saw the baptismal font were..., feeding the horses with Dad.....,
playing on Uncle Dave's tractor..., this was practically a dream come true for him!

mooing to the cows that live next door to his cousins..., At one point we couldn't find Mason. We went out side to find him at the fencing moo-ing. I couldn't stop laughing.

playing.., okay, harassing the new kittens. He liked to drop them into the pricker bushes! I know.., sad!
The best high light for mom and dad was using our mini DVD player for the first time! It was a joyous 3 hours drive up and back. Mason was enthralled with the Cars movie and barely made a peep. We LOVED it! We were sorry the trip was so short, but are excited for this summer's O Family Reunion in Idaho!

The first of many trips to the ER....,

Mason is a ALL boy. He is into everything and constantly on the go. I know most of you have heard he is going to be the death of me...., but really.., he is with all his 'ooee's' and bumps and bruises. Mason some how managed to hit the corner of our cedar chest right about his eye. I hate how much head wounds bleed! It's always hard to tell how bad the cut is through all the blood. After his cut finally stopped, we knew we needed to take him in for stitches. It was small, but super deep. Dan's sister was nice enough to come watch Maya for us so we could both take Mason in and not have to worry about her. The doctor actually decided to glue his cut instead of stitch it. She said that it would be a cleaner seal with less scaring, but did basically the same thing as stitches. Dan says it was the most expensive tub of super glue we've ever bought! The sad thing is.., I know this is going to be the first of many trips to the ER with this boy!