My Cupcake is Cinco!

 My girl that has been four forEVER is FIVE. Yay. We had a few of her friends over for a slip n slide and cupcakes. Then that evening Uncle Matthew, Aunt Abbey and their kids came to party! Quinn's birthday always ends with fireworks since she was born on Utah's state holiday, Pioneer Day.

Quinn is a joy to be around. She loves to paint nails and is quite good at it. She is everyone's sweetheart and gives the best hugs. She sits quietly in primary and listens. She has a tender heart. She loves to be home and with Mom. She is kinda a vegetarian..prefers veg and fruit over meat. BUT. Her all time fave food is frozen raviolis that come from Wal-Mart. She can out eat a grown-up when we serve those. She is my only child that doesn't have a middle name so she gave herself the middle name, Cupcake. Perfect fit. When my other kids were giggling about her new middle name, she defended herself by telling them that cupcakes are the best and so it is actually a great name. I agree. She is onto something... naming people happy names like Cupcake, and Lemonade Stand (which is the name of a doll in our house) might be the key to a happy life.

 We took everyone fishing nearby and all the kids caught fish. Love it when they bite easy and quick.

 We headed to Vernal to check out the Dino Museum. Some call it the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum. So take your pick.

 Love this next pic I snapped of Dax and his brother. They always joke that they look nothing alike but here's proof they are related!...

 We had a fun visit with those guys!
My kids all took swimming lessons. A new pool/rec center is being built in town. Looking forward to that!
This week was UBIC...stands for Uinta Basin in Celebration. It is held in our town and there are fun activities, competitions, and performances all week. Preslie, Mack, and Quinn did a drill team clinic and performed their dances on stage at the park. Preslie signed up and performed a dance solo at the UBIC talent show. We attended an art show, as well as local talent performances.

My littles rode on the drill team parade float. Preslie danced in the parade with her dance studio (farthest on the left).

The week ended with a concert at the park. This year we had a country guy Jason Michael Carroll. Fun and entertaining. It ended with an awesome firework show. We look forward to UBIC every year. Also loved the spicy mango on a stick and mango popsicles from the booths there at the park. Yum.

Dax is the new Young Men's president in our church ward. He will do great!

It's August, so that means cramming every last bit of fun in before school starts! Make it count!

winning streak

We went to Fantasy Canyon a few weeks ago. Cool place. On the way home, we stopped in Vernal to grab some snacks at Walmart. I dropped off Dax, Mack, and Quinn at Sportsman's Warehouse to browse while Preslie and I went to get food. (Hunter and his bud opted to stay in the car.) When we all met back up and started for home, Dax told us that they saw a walking stick in Sportsman's and Mack was way into it. Mack told us it was made from a bull penis.
Preslie: eww!
Mack: It's not like they just ripped a penis off a bull and made a cane out of it right then.
He is so logical. Dax told us it was covered in a shiny clear resin so it wasn't like you were touching an actual bull penis.

We cleaned our church building a few weeks later and as Mack was mopping the gym floor he said, "This floor looks like wood but it's covered in bull penis."

We enjoyed spending Easter/Conference weekend with Dax's fun family. Grandma's egg hunt was a hit, also Easter baskets, and playing with cousins/being together. My boys LOVE baby Audrey so much. They just melt for her. So tender!

We were able to attend a family dinner for my people in my sister's newly finished basement (apartment). My niece and her hubs have moved down there and will welcome their first baby next month!

Dax suggested we go see my Uncle Norman while we were in the city. Norm had bladder cancer and has had like 8 surgeries to remove it. He just isn't ready to go yet! He has to endure dialysis 3 days a week where he gets hooked up to a machine that drains his blood, cleans it, then pumps it back into his body at a chilly 36.5 degrees. He says it is the longest 4 hours of his life and he almost freezes to death each time. He and my Aunt Jane are the nicest people and so fun to go hunting with. They both live for the deer hunt and love cruising around in the mountains on their Razor together. Aunt Jane has always been able to spot deer miles away before anyone else can see them. Her enthusiasm and kindness is contagious.

Dax and I saw Ghost the musical at Hale Center Theatre in WVC. Awesome show. Our friend Kacey is the set designer and does an awesome job. Highly recommend!

On April Fools' Day, I pulled out of my driveway to take kindergarteners to school and there was a Century 21 sign stuck in my front lawn. Too funny.. I snapped a pic to send to Dax and was on my way. Later I saw that our newspaper was having a contest and wanted people to submit a pic of their April Fool's jokes. I submitted Mack furiously ripping the moving sign out of the ground. Well, for once Mack's rage came in handy; he won me 4 movie tickets!

The next day, I was checking my email and I had received one from my favorite home diy blogger. Thinking it was just her newsletter I opened it and couldn't believe my eyes when I read that I had won a GE lightbulb package and a $100 gift card from Home Depot!!! What a huge (shock) blessing as my basement bathroom (etc. etc.) has been waiting to get finished for years. I couldn't help but think of a quote I saw scratched on a piece of paper on my MIL's desk during Christmas..

"What you make happen for others
God will make happen for you."

Not saying that a HD gift card is a gift from God. But I'm not saying that it isn't. I have helped a lot of my friends paint, decorate and finish other projects in their homes. I love doing it, but it takes work and time away from my home and family. So maybe, just maybe this is my little tender mercy and it is my turn to check something off my own growing list of house projects. I've lived in my house for 6 years and have an unfinished basement and partially finished yard. It is hard to know whether I should finish those up or redo the things that are already wearing out in the finished part of my home.

We returned home from our family visits and found a message on our machine that Quinn had won the Easter coloring contest at the grocery store! Dax suggested that maybe we drive to Colorado and pick up a lottery ticket..

Spring Break has been lovely and free from the rigors of school schedules. I've also had one less kid because Wyatt (my nephew I watch full-time) was at his Grandma's for the week. I've organized, cleaned and de-junked closets, shelves, the storage room, garage, and back porch. I am like my Mom; I enjoy housework that makes things look beautiful and organized. Dax and I got a wild hair one afternoon and started a pathway through our future garden. I love when Dax and I do projects together. I'm the visionary and he's the efficient manual labor that gets it done. I'm a great assistant, but he stirs concrete better than me.

I love my big little Quinn. She is trying to repair her broken ravioli toy.

I enjoyed helping Preslie make an edible replica of a plant cell. It looked and tasted great. Brownie with cream cheese frosting and chocolate, nuts, and pretzel organelles. This project fulfilled its purpose; she aced the cell test.

This big guy, after months of begging, just got his own library card! It's like he's told me before, "I'm practically a grown man". Now, it's official.

Last night, Dax took Hunter out and set up camp for the turkey hunt this morning. At 5:30 am, they dragged themselves out of bed, got set up and scored a beautiful bird!

I won big when I landed this awesome husband. I love him and the family we have together. I enjoy blogging about the highlights of my life with them. I recommend blogging (or keeping any kind of journal). It is like free happy medicine. With no crappy side effects!

Project Master Suite and a sweet new baby!

My husband went hunting for 8 days. So naturally it was time to do a home improvement project. Because the schedule and demands of 5 kids and a new church assignment aren't enough when I'm by myself. It's my way of dealing with stress: just add projects. (Which equal more stress.) BUT. IT WAS AWESOME. I painted my guts out for 5 days. That is how long it takes for one girl to paint an entire master bedroom and bath.

Here is my bathroom. (There is a door that closes on this part and the sinks are outside the door.) I got it all painted and it was just so WHITE. I love white but it was cold and un-inviting. Dax told me it just needed a little color to warm it up. I got this cute shower curtain hoping that was the ticket.

It was okay. But still too eh. I took it down and tried a different shower curtain. Still not it.

Enter rug of wonder.

Saw this rug on CB2.com and fell in love with the colors and lines. Reminds me of a desert sunrise. Like the St. George sunrises that accompanied the blossoming love story of 2 college students 14 years ago... I had to paint it in my bathroom.

 The minute the orange paint touched the wall, I knew this was IT.

I got to this point and my husband came home from his hunting trip after 8 days and no cell service. I left him and Preslie and took my 3 younger kids to meet their new baby cousin! We fell in love!

Meet my new niece, Audrey. She is the sweetest little chompy baby!

The kids gushed over her for an hour after we left. She IS really wonderful.
We went and saw my people in WJ, and went to church with my bro and his fam. Tyrel and I both got the memo to wear rust to church. I love my little brother! A dude approached him in Elder's Quorum and asked who that lady was he was sitting by in sacrament mtg. Then asked if she was single. NOPE. Ha.

Back home and back to my project. I started working on the stripes, which took the most time because I had to wait til the previous stripe was dry before I started on the next one. I used the yellow frog tape (for delicate surfaces-cuz it is freshly painted) and this technique for getting crisp, straight paint lines.

YAY! It warmed it right up in there. Now THAT's the ticket. And Dax is happy the ladder is out of the shower.

Inspiration: Transfer rug from CB2.com

Inspiration is everywhere. I am learning so much and I have more projects to go! I love the creative process; how ideas come and how I can transform and translate them into something that fits my vision. This is therapy for me. It sure beats paying a shrink!

transition to fall

A family meeting was called to order tonight by my hero, Dax. Basically we went from crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants summer to a rigid back-to-school schedule but we kept our summer I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-go-wherever-I-want-whenever attitude and we were spiraling so we all decided our spirals need to line up. With 3 kids in soccer, 1 in dance, cub scouts, activity days, and 8 piano students, we've kept a mad pace these past 2 weeks. It was time to get on the same page.

Summer was awesome and I could not picture my summer without UBIC (Uintah Basin in Celebration) which is comparable to other town's Peach Days, County Fair, or the like. Except way better. Preslie sang in the UBIC talent show and won a trophy and performed her song at the park.
Matt, Abbey + kids came to see us and join the weekend festivities. Abbey entered the Tri-Athalon and did AWESOME. We were all so thrilled to call her our own.

It was a fun weekend!
I decided to give our dog a better home and found a great family not far from here with a lot of land for him to run on. It is very telling that it took my kids 3 days to notice he was gone. I feel so much better now that he's not tied up in our backyard each day for hours. We love Echo; we went and visited him at his new place and it was great to see him and how happy he is.

I am still working on Preslie's room here and there. This is her desk chair that I made over. It used to be cream with a maroon cushion cover.

I also took my kids on a quick trip to Salt Lake to see my niece and go to the temple with her as she received her endowment in preparation for her mission. We went to the ward campout and then BOOM; school began.

Preslie learned how to open her locker just before school started after several attempts and trips to the junior high on her own. It only took one lesson from her old, out-of-touch Mom who she thought surely could not know how to do such a cool thing as open a locker. Ha.

Hunter is surviving his first 2 weeks despite his certainty that the world was going to end once he entered school again!

Mack started Kindy this week and has the whole school thing wired. The first day- when all Moms on the face of the planet drive their little ones to school, hold their hands and walk them to the right class and sit with them until the bell rings- Mack insisted on riding the bus and assures me he can find his class on his own. And he did. He was so excited to board the bus; it was darling. How could I be melancholy?!

The evening of his third day of school, we were all chatting before bedtime and he tells us how good school breakfast is.. Say wuh ?
"You went to breakfast at school? How did you do that?"
"I heard a teacher say, 'if any of you are going to breakfast, go ahead and go' and I just followed the other kids that were going."
(shock and amusement)
"Well, you don't even have a lunch card and there is no money on your account. What did you tell the lady sitting at the beginning of the line?"
"I didn't go to her, I just went and got a tray and put a chocolate milk on the little square that said 'MILK' on it. (In a singy-song voice) The ham was deLIcious! But I didn't drink the chocolate milk because it was too hard to open."
By this point we are all laughing and shaking our heads. Preslie said, "It's your THIRD day of school. I didn't figure out about eating breakfast at school until I was in 3rd grade!"

Thank you, Mack for always rescuing us from the daily-ness of life with your crazy mind that is always thinking and doing things that make us laugh!

RING in the New Year

We travelled to Bountiful to see Dax's brother and his family after Christmas! They took us to their fun rec center to swim. We had just arrived, changed into swimsuits and walked out of the dressing rooms and toward the fun kid pools/waterslide and everyone was evacuating that pool area. The pump had stopped working and the water level was dropping in the pool. The lifeguards said we could swim in the lap pool. Upon opening the doors to enter the lap pool area, a shreiking, high-pitched alarm bell was ringing so loudly. The alarm was so uncomforable to listen to. I snapped this pic of my husband and it makes me laugh because he looks like he wants to kill something.  All the guests at the rec center were just trying to carry on and swim but everyone had such a disturbed look on their face. And no one I asked knew how to turn it off or when it would get turned off or when the fun pool would be opened back up.

Dax is having a relaxing swim!

 

Here is a much happier picture of the crowd! 

Fifteen minutes later, the "maintenance guy" showed up and deactivated the alarm and it was the best kind of relief. Apparanly he fixed the pump in the other pool; it then opened back up and we had a great time!

Fun to be with family! Adorable kiddos!

Sunday we drove over to my parents' house and Dax cooked dinner for my parents, 3 brothers, 1 Sis-in-law, a girlfriend and my aunt plus our 6 people. It was to celebrate my Mom's birthday coming up. I love volunteering my husband to cook for people. It makes them way happy. And I don't have to do much.

 

It was great to be with my family. My Mom is a wonderful lady and everyone loves her dearly. My Dad gave my Mom a nice DeWalt drill, which she loved. I myself have inherited a love for power tools from my Mom, I believe.

 

The next day was New Year's Eve. Mid-morning, my youngest brother Trent came walking in the house and handed me a box. a RING box. I opened it to behold a beautiful, one-of-a-kind ring and knew he and Kenzie would take ringing in the new year to a whole new level! YAY! He spent the afternoon in the garage building a sign out of lumber that spelled out, "MARRY ME".  He took his girl shooting at dark (below zero temps BTW) and my brother Tyrel and his wife set up the sign for him on a hill near where they were shooting. After assembling the sign with minor mishaps, Tyrel doused the sign in gasoline and lit it on fire. And the rest will be history. Yay, Trent and Kenzie!

My New Year's Eve date was much more relaxing and low-key. I went to dinner with my man and it was a perfect way to spend the last evening of the year. I am deeply grateful for all I've been blessed with in 2012. I feel like my cup is constantly overflowing.

 

New Years day, my Dad took me and my kids over to my Uncle's house. He has trained his dog to pull kids on a sled!

 

So fun to see so many family members this trip! A happy way to start a new year.