Pinterest Project

I have finally done something from pinterest! I love pinning things on pinterest and I always think, "I can do that!" But no surprise I NEVER do that!!! Things are changing. Abby's school teacher's birthday is today and Abby wanted to get her something, I happened to be on pinterest when she told me and saw this vase made out of pencils thinking how cute and that I could so do that! A few dozen pencils and a whole lot of hot glue later I have come up with Abby's gift.  My mom helped me with the ribbons because lets face it she is a genius with ribbons. I had to blog about it because this maybe the one and only time I complete one of my pins from pinterest!!

Conversations Between Our Girls...

Elizabeth and Abby were in the car with Josh driving in a thunder and lightening storm. Elizabeth was very scared every time the lightening would come.

Abby asked Elizabeth, "Why are you so scared?"

Elizabeth answered, "Cause lightening can shock you and kill you!"

Abby thought about it for a second and then stated, "Well....you have a point!"

A Night Out With The Carnies

Lindon's school Carnival was tonight and the girls were soooo excited to go. I went and bought advanced tickets last week so that we would have them ready for tonight. I even sprang for the unlimited bounce house wrist bands...Elizabeth told me that I was the coolest mom ever (at least for now until she gets mad at me for making her do something terrible like her homework and then I quickly will fall from that pedestal)!!
We had a very busy Monday that was scheduled to the minute. From 2-3:30pm I had to bring a table and set up one of the booths for the carnival, after that from 3:30-4:30pm I ran Elizabeth over to activity days, then I picked her up and made her run into the house to change for gymnastics that started at 5pm until 6pm. From there I dropped the girls off at Josh's office to change so that he could bring them over to the carnival. I had to be there for my shift at the rocket booth.
When I got there the weather was not looking too good and all I could think of was that the girls better get their before it rains too hard. By the time Josh got there with the girls the thunder got a little too close to the carnival that it scared everyone enough that they shut the carnival down.(did I mention that our carnival is outside!) Josh says I had the biggest smile on my face when the announcement came that the carnival was ending early, at the same time big tear balls started to run down Abby's face. They had not done a single thing!!!!
They told everyone that they would give 2 tickets for every punch that wasn't used so the girls got in line to claim their tickets and prizes. That seemed to help Abby's mood a little. And I was told that we could keep our punch cards and wrist bands and just use them next year at the carnival ( now I just need to remember where I put them and that I have them)!!!!
Because we didn't get our carnie food also we decided to go out to eat. That also somewhat helped the girls moods. While at dinner Abby announces that she doesn't want to do gymnastics next year so that she can go to the carnival early just in case the weather is bad and so she doesn't miss it (That's my girl thinking ahead!)!
So even though we didn't get to have our annual night out with the carnies we look forward to next year because believe me Abby won't let us miss it twice!

We Have Got To Get Lazier Friends!

 Saturday late afternoon we went on a group date with some friends of ours. I love the date ideas that these guys come up with and in theory I think I can do anything...in reality my body can't keep up with them. So for the second time this week Josh and I were off on another bike ride...since the last one went so well! We rented Tandem bikes and went out for the best couples therapy Josh and I have had in a long time. This is a picture of all the girls.

 And this is a picture of all the guys...yes they can't follow simple instructions to stand in a line together. This was just a preview of the events to come!

 We started out a bit rocky...Josh yelled at me a few dozen times to start off the trip. On these bikes you have to work together and communicate with one another...it was the communication that we struggled with at first. But we adjusted seats and got the hang of working together...somewhat!

 By the end of the trip I got tired and decided Josh could do the rest of the work. This is how we got the hang of working together. It really worked out better!!

 After the adventurous bike ride we all went out to dinner. It was a lot of fun. I love this group they can even make couples therapy seem like fun!  

After dinner the "little Andersen's" and us went to get ice cream at the BYU creamery! We couldn't go through all that work and not leave the night without some ice cream! I just can't wait to see what these guys come up with for our next group date!

Girls Late Night

 When I picked the girls up from school on Thursday they were filled with so much excitement! Little did I know they were also filled with big plans!! They had been planning with their friends to have a "late night" over at our house. Now a "late night" is basically what I would call an old fashion sleepover but you don't sleep over you just stay at your friends house really late. I have found that a lot of parents don't let their kids sleep over at friends houses these days but they have invented this new thing of late night parties. Any way the girls asked me if they could have a "late night" with their friends Maddie and Kaitlyn Andersen on Friday night. I didn't care but made them ask Josh, since he is so not the night person. Josh has a bed time and feels that everyone should leave him alone after that time has been reached...that time is like 9pm! But Josh said sure and the girls were jumping with anticipation. We called up Amy Andersen to make sure Maddie and Kaitlyn could come and it was set. Elizabeth and Abby were so excited and off on their party planning. They had a schedule of things that they wanted to do which included games, a movie with popcorn, treats, getting their nails done, to mention a few. They are becoming the party planners already.

Friday after school came and I picked up all four girls from school. They get in the car and Elizabeth says, "Ok there are rules..." I'm thinking what? She is laying down the rules...this is so my kid, because of course in every civilized society there are always rules! By that point I couldn't wait to hear what these rules were, because I hadn't set any yet and I wanted to know how well I have trained this kid....She went on "...Rule #1 NO FIGHTING...", and while she is saying this she is looking at Maddie and Kaitlyn! "...Rule #2 No cheating on the games...", this one automatically ruled out Josh on getting to play any games with them, because he ALWAYS cheats! She only got to 2 rules before she got sidetracked by talking about all the activity they had planned to do.

We go home and of course it was snack time. They picked out snacks and then were off. Kaitlyn and Abby decided they needed to be in their PJ's right off, and changed. The older girls were off outside to play fairies! They played inside and outside then decided they wanted to go swimming. I watched them swim until Josh came home from work with the pizza. 

 We ate pizza and the girls declared they didn't need manners and proceeded to try to gross each other out. After dinner they wanted dessert but I hadn't made it yet so I quickly started cookie/brownies. Once that was in the oven we got started on their nails. They picked out their paint colors for their fingers and toes. After girly painting was done they were off to play a game, remembering that they couldn't cheat of course.

 After the game we started the movie, Mirror Mirror. The girls popped popcorn and got their drinks and were set. We stopped the movie for a little bit when the cookie/brownies were done and Josh got back with the ice cream to put on top. Once they were completely filled with sugar we sent them down stairs to finish the movie. By this time is was getting dangerously close to Josh's bed time and he was getting tired. We planned to have the Andersen girls home by no later then 10pm but the movie took longer then planned and it was more like 10:30pm before the movie was over and the pillow fighting began, apparently pillow fighting doesn't fall under the rule #1 of no fighting. When we went into the theater the girls were all running around not looking tired at all except for Abby who was asleep on the cushions.

We gathered up everyone's stuff and put our girls to bed and were off to take the Andersen girls home. We get into the car and Josh is trying to help these girls out by giving them advise, it went something like this..."Girls I know your dad pretty well and I know that if you guys are at all grumpy or smart mouth for the next few day because of staying up late that you will NEVER get to do something like this again..." Which in my opinion is pretty good advise, but to an 8 and 6 year old they didn't want to listen and just proceeded to pretend that they couldn't hear Josh, which made me laugh a little. Finally he gave up and said oh well I tried!
I think the girls all had fun for their first "late night" party! Maybe there is a future in party planning for these girls after all...

It's Like Riding A Bike

At the beginning of the summer we made a list of activities as a family of things that we wanted to do this summer. I knew if we didn't write it down that it would never happen...sad but true! Once we wrote down everything we wanted to do we each got to pick one big activity that we would do. Then we picked a few smaller activities that we would throw in there also. Now ask me how many of those things did we actually do....Yea not a whole lot, but feeling like that awful parent Josh and I decided that we wanted to do something for Labor Day. We pulled out our list and saw that hike was on it and decided to go on a hike. Now Josh and I aren't what you would call avid hikers by any means but we do have some friends of ours that we have named them our outdoor friends...The Little Andersen's went with us on our last hike, and I made it all the way. So we feel they must know everything about it and would know where we should go. We asked them to go along with us, but they had other ideas and suggested we go on a bike ride up the canyon with them....Now if we aren't hikers we defiantly aren't bikers, but they assured us that we would at least be sitting down instead of standing...Made since to me so we were in. Josh and Ryan loaded all the bikes into the bake of Josh's truck and we were off on our adventure. (Now side note I started getting sick (yes surprise surprise) with a head cold on Sunday and was feeling pretty bad by Monday morning, but the girls were so excited to go on this adventure that I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was sick. So I sucked it up and packed my things and Josh packed the lunches and we were off!)

 Kaitlyn and Abby so excited to go up the canyon

 Getting ready to start. I think that it took just as long to get everything ready as it did to ride up there!

 We rode our bike up to a water fall...so many people but so much fun. The water was SO cold!

 At this point I was SO sick and wondering how I was going to make it down the hill back to our car, but once you get up there you kind of got to get back down some how so there was no choice in that matter!

 So we made it up the mountain and back without anyone getting hurt, it was once we got back to the parking lot that our family started to fall apart... Elizabeth fell off her bike and got hurt pretty bad....

 Abby fell off the back of the Truck and hit her nose and blood everywhere....

 And I think I was going to die, but I made it the WHOLE way!!!

After we cleaned everyone of our kids up we ate the lunches that we packed. Even though I wanted to die by that point I think it was a pretty fun family and friend activity! We are so happy that the Little Andersen's take us with them on their outdoor adventures!!!

It's All About Abby...

 Friday was all about Abby...well she does believe everything is all about her...I had the opportunity to go read to Abby's class. She was so excited, of course she was the one that signed me up for the first available spot and has been reminding everyone of the event. These are the books I read...

After school it was a little wet outside from the rain so Abby got all dressed for the rain with her rain boots to go splash out in the puddles. I love this kid she has a spirit all her own. I think that she had a good day...at least that is what she tells me!