Happy Father's Day!

It was a great day - and pretty nice weather to boot! I have a LOT of catching up to do with this blog - but it will have to wait a couple of more days.

Happy Father's Day to my dad, and to Jeff. I appreciate all you do and the great influence you are on others. Love you!

Mini fan

I miss this scrunchy little baby face!Almost every day I hear from my little guy "sparky bus". Having NO idea what he was talking about, I finally asked Jeff. I had been hearing it for about a month, and when I asked him about it, he said "What? You mean he remembered that?"

Apparently one Saturday while he was on the computer, he showed this video to the kids. Reed never forgot it.

Then there's "Sparky Goes to School", another mini fan favorite. Click here to watch it.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Today is Jeff's Birthday. We always have quite the week of celebrating, because our birthdays are 6 days apart.

If honor of our birthdays, we enjoyed a weekend getaway to Manti. My niece Shelly came to stay with the kids and we left on Friday, and came home Sunday night. It was great. A much needed break. We loved going to a small town, and having that peaceful, slow paced atmosphere. As much as I love living in/near a big city, there's nothing like a small town. We love just driving around from small town to small town, and walking down Main Street and checking out all the little shops.We stayed at the Yardley Inn & Spa, a little bed & breakfast. It was so nice, and the owners were extremely consciencious of the guest, making sure everyone was comfortable and their needs were met.
This is definitely on our list of places we must return to before too very long. It was great to have a conversation with my husband and not hear little people yelling at me for things, or wanting to interject their own conversations.
It was also nice not to have to load/unload kids everywhere we went. I didn't have to pack snacks, carry a diaper bag, push a stroller, put hairbows in little ponytails, or listen to a temper tantrum all weekend! Talk about luxury!
The other thing we loved, and the main reason we picked Manti, was to attend the Temple. I have admired the Manti Temple since I was very young. My sister Dayna had a large picture of it hanging in her room, and I've always thought it was beautiful. Now I know the inside is even more magnificent. It is a definite favorite of ours now, and we can't wait to return again.

So tonight I decided to have a little (tiny crowd) surprise birthday party for Jeff. Coming off of a weekend away, it was quite little, and not as put together as I would have liked it, but it worked out to be a fun time. It was a "sports" theme, so he had a football balloon, and a baseball balloon. I quickly made these cake pops into basketballs and baseballs. My friend picked up these baseball candles (that's what's stuck on top of the cake balls - it's a little hard to figure out why they're double decker!) that went along with the theme perfectly.
And we had a baseball pinata. All the kids took their turn. It had to be in our basement because A) It was snowing outside, B) It was freezing outside, C) Even if it wasn't snowing or freezing outside, we have no tree or deck from which we could hang it from.
And the birthday boy got to take the final swings to break it open. I think he needs to get back on a softball team, check out that form!Happy Birthday Jeff! Thanks for a fabulous weekend, a fun day, and fantastic 10+ years of being together! Love you!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

How does your green grass grow?

As most of you know, we have been working outside all summer (it seems anyway) on trying to get our yard together. We had to do our trampoline pit, construct a wall down there, before we could even begin our sprinkler system. Due to the fact that we had no clue as to what we were doing, it took about 10X as long as it should have.

Because we live in the foothills of the Oquirrh (pronounced "O-kur") mountains, our dirt looks like this:
Tons of rocks, of all sizes. We made some screens, and (so far) have sifted out 110 wheelbarrows full of "clean" dirt, in our front yard. That means we've (Jeff) hauled over 30 wheelbarrows full of rocks to an undisclosed location (Jeff is paranoid every time he hauls one away, that the cops are going to drive up as he's dumping them, cuff him, and book him. Yes, a little dramatic.).

Jeff is VERY into the yard, has done more research than anyone I know on types of seeds that will grow the best, as well as, look the best. He sent off a soil sample to the Utah State University to find out what our dirt lacks. He ordered in compost (mixed with some bark to retain moisture) to mix into the dirt. He has a fertilizer tank hooked up to the sprinkler system that fertilizes every time we water the grass. And don't forget about the moisture sensor that shuts off the system if the ground is wet enough. After so many hours of research, he also found rebates for everything from the timer box, to the moisture sensor, not to mention the money we'll save by having the sensor.

He is often seen on his hands and knees, checking his grass seed. The weather report is big around here, making sure the seed can grow in the temperatures we're experiencing. And DON'T come by during the recent rainstorms we've had. It's depressing watching the sifted soil and seed wash down the street.

Look at our cute little seedlings that have grown over the last 2 weeks!

I'm sure we'll be sprinkling more seed in the spring, because a lot of seed did wash away.

Next summer: The backyard (uhg!)

Opposites attract

One of the many differences between Jeff & I has to do with an unmade bed. He likes to wake up and make the bed (as long as I'm not still sleeping in it). I on the other hand, really do not care whether or not the bed is made all day long. (Especially because I can crawl back in it anytime during the day!)

At night however, he can go to bed in the unmade bed, with the sheets completely falling off and it's in total disarray. Me, on the other hand, I have to make the bed so all the sheets are tucked in just right before I can lay in it.

Solution: If Jeff would just make the bed every morning, I might hesitate to get back in it during the day, thus accomplishing more daily, our problem would be solved! (or I would like to think it would be solved!)

Unbelievable!

So last Sunday Jeff received a phone call asking if he could meet with a member of the Stake Presidency on Wednesday night (last night). It would only be for 5 minutes, and he could come by himself.

So we wonder, hmmm, what could it be about? We were at Bella's soccer game last night, and when we got home he literally had 10 minutes to change into a suit and get to the church. (thankfully it's only a mile away.) He hurried and within 10 minutes he was home again, and not happy at all.

First of all, he didn't even meet with a member of the Stake Presidency, and secondly, they called him in to ask him to be in the stake choir! It was sneaky and not a very good way to ask people for their participation if you ask me. The fact that it was something that could have been asked over the phone, or a visit made to the house.

Now, Jeff does not sing. With much coaxing he'll sing (or more like lip sync) during church, but not regularly. On top of that, do you think that I want to battle my 3 small children by myself during Stake Conference? The two of us can barely make it through Sacrament Meeting!

So, if you're trying to get people to join your choir, please don't try this method. Not very effective in my book.

Daddy's home!

After being gone for over a week, we are happy to announce the return of Daddy. I don't know how anyone does it that has a husband that leaves for an extended period of time and/or on a regular basis.

It seems that all we've eaten this last week (aside from 2 meals) is pizza, chicken nuggets and french fries. Now I seem to have a reason to cook again, and still we went out to dinner tonight!

Reed has not let Jeff put him down since he walked through the door. Not to mention he won't let me near him. He cried when we got in the car, because Jeff wasn't holding him. Hopefully he'll be back to himself before too long.

Happy Anniversary!

Sunday was our 8th anniversary. It was eight years ago that we spent nearly 3 weeks honeymooning in Spain. Maybe in another 25 years we can do that again!

Happy Anniversary Jeff - I love you!

Life's Little Pleasures

So yesterday both Jeff and I took separate trips to the dentist to have our teeth cleaned. (Fabulous dentist by the way - I'm not biased or anything!)

Being the son of a dentist, Jeff has always been the poster child for oral hygiene. So last night as we went to bed, Jeff asked me "Do your teeth feel nice and clean?" (he always asks me this after getting them cleaned), I replied "yes". He said, "For your birthday you like to get a pedicure, for my birthday I just want to get my teeth cleaned!" He was dead serious too.

I can't say I will ever enjoy going to the dentist as much as my husband does. Definitely not a pampering treatment in my book!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Well, yesterday was Jeff's birthday. We had fun celebrating dual holidays. I would show you a photo of the cake, but it wasn't that great. In fact, I hardly even wanted to bring it out with guests over!

I came down with the stomach flu on Friday and Saturday (while I was supposed to be making a spectacular cake!). So what came out was a pretty pathetic looking Easter egg cake, but it tasted great anyway. It was sad because it will be another 228 years before he has another Easter birthday.

And we also had to cancel our fabulous fancy dinner Friday night because I felt so yucky! Oh well, maybe this weekend.

I won't gush about my husband here - that's what personal cards are for. But I will say this, my husband is hilarious - he constantly cracks me up. He is one that you have to get to know before you see that side of him. Just get him around his mom and sisters, I've never seen him laugh harder! Even things he does, without trying crack me up. Take his work badge for instance. Each employee gets to bring in their own photo to put on their badge. If you look closely at Jeff, you can see one of Bella's hairbows by the side of his face. It cracks me up that it is the photo he chose to put on it!

Happy Birthday honey - you're the best!

The blood is thickening!

No one realizes how dramatic my husband is. And furthermore, no one believes me when I tell them how dramatic he is.