A Pool Party Playgroup!

After Scooby popped Mckinley's very cool giraffe pool last summer, we decided that this summer we should buy one of the old school hard plastic kiddie pools. We wanted the one with the built in slide but, alas, it wasn't meant to be because we couldn't find one. Mckinley wanted to invite some friends over for a playgroup and so we got her cousins together yesterday for a fun morning of playing finished up by Pizza and salad for lunch.


As always, safety first. This was me taking my turn in the lifeguard chair.

I got this cute Tiki bar before we even moved back to Cedar, but for some reason it didn't come with the hardware to put it together. So David found all the stuff that he needed and put it together for me. The kids were pretty excited about the red kool aid. My mom found that awesome umbrella for three dollars in St. George.


Come on Sadie, it's time to take your shoes off.
Korlen pulled himself into the water, face first and came out sputtering. I was so surprized that he didn't cry! He just wanted to jump in and play. I didn't do so good with taking pictures. I didn't even get a single picture of Sophie-loo or Lizzie. I'll do better next time. We had a fun time, and Mckinley took a very long nap afterwards. We also finished just in time for the clouds to start pouring rain. What a fun day!

Pioneer Day Celebrations

It has always been my family's tradition on the 24th of July to go to the 2nd ward pancake breakfast. I don't think I've ever missed it even when I have lived away from home going to college. This year was no different. Mckinley was even excited at seven in the morning to go to the breakfast. She woke up from a sound sleep and said she was ready to go. In fact she even did her own hair. This is her "crown" and she is pretty particular about how it goes in her hair.

Every year, when we have gone through the breakfast line, Don Marchant has worn some type of funny hat and asked if we want sprinkles in our pancakes. It has become quite the staple to always get sprinkles even though you can't even taste them.

This is a fake smile from David. He can't figure out why the breakfast starts at 7am on a holiday.

Mckinley, my dad and me. (No makeup yet, yikes.)

There is always a parade on the 24th but we didn't make it there this year. It's always so blazing hot, that you wonder what you were thinking before it even starts. This year, we had to opt for an early nap because our little girl can only be nice for so long when she wakes up at 6:30.

Every year, I get roped in to doing some type of musical number somewhere on the 24th. I thought I was home free this year when my mom called the night before saying that she needed to cover an hour at the music stage at the park because of a cancellation, and she needed me to take up some of the time.

Mckinley took a free run on the pirate ship while we were at the park, and then she saw the slide and wanted to do 4 slides. ( = at least 15 by her count.) She rubs her hands together before she goes down every time. We thought it was so funny.


Later in the afternoon, we had a bbq at my Grandma Riddles. All the grandkids used to sleep over outside in sleeping bags and listen to my Grandma tell stories of our family pioneers and ancestors, but this year was kind of sad because all of the grandkids have grown up and only a few were sleeping over. Next year, maybe Mckinley will sleep over. I made some Homemade Lemonade for the party and put it in a big clear jar. I forgot to take a picture but it was kind of cute.
What a fun busy day!

Oh what do you do in the Summertime...

We bought this little kiddie pool for Mckinley today. It's been so hot that it was nice to finally cool off in the water. She loves having her very own little pool to play in but would love to have some friends come and play in it too. We loved watching her roll around and jump in the water. She is getting to be less and less timid but still wants a towel every time she gets her face wet. Funny girl.



We canned some apricots for the baby on the way. 14 bottles! I hope she will like them because otherwise we will be eating a lot of apricot cake. With Mckinley we just pureed canned fruits and veggies in the blender. Hopefully this baby will like some of the same stuff.


Whenever summer was getting close in school we always got to have a read a thon. I remember looking forward to being a fifth grader ever since I was in kindergarten because fifth graders got to have a tent a thon where they were allowed to read their books inside a tent. My friend Erica and I got to have our own tent a thon in the new Wells Fargo building on the last day of Fifth grade and let me tell you, that was the life. David and I decided to have a read a thon with Mckinley last week and she loved everything about it. She looked through probably 10 different books. She didn't want to go to bed when it was time and she definately didn't want her daddy to take down our secret read a thon tent.



Last year, I worked so hard on making my flowers pretty around the yard and I forgot to take even one picture! This year, was not a good one for my hollihocks. (my favorite flower.) I think all of the extra moisture caused the roots to mildew or something. But I'm happy that I've been able to take the yard and make it my own. When we first moved in, there were no flowers whatsoever in the front or back yard. All of the flower beds had been covered with rocks. So, it has been a slow start but things are beginning to turn into the country garden I envisioned. There are still so many ugly areas in my yard, but hopefully they are getting smaller?



When David saw this picture, he laughed and said, "my daughter is so photogenic." I was in fact telling her to smile when I took this. hahaha.






We have been having fun with the vegetable garden this year although it has felt like such a slow start. It's still a work in progress and there are a few plants like my zucchinni plant that don't seem to change at all from day to day. But these are the ones I'm most excited about and my beets and carrots, which I didn't take a picture of. The top one is my salad garden. My sister used to eat lettuce sandwiches and I'm about to start doing that too. Our lettuce worked a little better this year because we didn't put it in direct sunlight which makes it bitter. The next picture is a tomatoe that will probably be ripe tomorrow. Hard to wait! And then there is a picture of one of our pumpkin plants. I decided to put a little pumpkin patch in the back corner of our yard where some of the grass had died last year. They weren't doing so good and there was not a single pumpkin until I forgot about leaving the water on them while we went to a bar b q a few days ago. They got watered for three hours and two days later there were pumpkins growing that seemed like they grew overnight!



This is the thing I'm most excited about from our garden this year. I wanted to have a strawberry patch like the one at a bed and breakfast by my parents house. This is a start at least. I can't believe that there are real strawberries growing! I love going back there and looking at them every day to see which ones are ripe. And they taste quite different from store bought strawberries. It's like candy growing in my garden. I love it.

Picture help

My sister helped me to fix my pictures on Flikr for blogging. See the difference? If you want her tips go to the cupcake goddess link on the list on the left hand side of my blog. But don't compare her blog to mine....You wont ever visit mine again if you do.

Fourth of July Weekend

We had such a fun fourth of July weekend this year. Holidays are always more fun when they are on the weekend, I think, because you can start celebrating Friday and keep the party going through Sunday. (At least that was what we did this year.) My sister, Sunni, and her husband Shawn, came for the fourth this year, which made it especially fun because we don't get to see them very often. When they got here, we hiked Kanarriville falls. I have wanted to go on this hike ever since seeing Erica's pictures from last year, but I wasn't exactly sure how to get there. Thanks to JJ for coming with us to show us where everything is. It was fun to take our time walking along the stream (and through it too.) taking pictures and talking. This was a perfect hike for an afternoon because it isn't extremely long, but there is so much to see and climb around on. We really had fun.

Up inside the slot canyons there is this ladder made out of a log. It looked pretty iffy, but if you hold on to the rope that's hooked in to the rock wall it seemed a little safer. (hold on tight.)

We also found the waterslide! JJ and David were the adventurous ones who tried it out.

After the hike, we went to the Jackson family bar b que. We were a little late but luckily we got so see everyone who was visiting and got some good catching up in. We held my aunt Nicky's new baby, Olivia and got a little nervous that we are going to be having another one of those things. We are a bit rusty in the newborn department, I forgot about supporting the baby's neck and I'm just glad that her head didn't come off when I was holding her. There are good reasons for having baby's close together. Mckinley got hit with a swing right in the eye and now she has quite the shiner. She says that it is purple and very pretty, but actually it's looking more green today. (and not as pretty as it will be when it heals.)

The next day was the fourth, and we woke up to the canons going off at six. The Riddles had a bbq later on in the day and we spent most of the day telling Mckinley it wasn't time to go watch fireworks yet. The time finally came and we went out to Mooney and Todds to watch them. Mckinley and Sadie were funny. They both kept saying that certain fireworks were their favorites. (No, that's MY favorite!)
Sunday morning, we went to Sophies blessing. Our new nephew Dawson was getting blessed that day too and we are sad that we couldn't be to both occasions. Doesn't Sophie look very fat and beautiful on her blessing day? My Aunt Vicki makes blessing dresses for babies if anyone is interested. Each one is unique and she tailors them to your baby. She made this one out of raw silk for Sophie, and when Mckinley was blessed she made hers also. Each one is so gorgeous and different so if you are in the market call me and I will help you get in touch with her. After church, we had another bbq with great food. Ahhh, I love summer.

A very fun weekend

We journeyed to Salt Lake this past weekend for a friend reunion with Davids friends from high school. While we were there we had so much fun. Since we moved, we have missed our friends and family in Salt Lake so much. We haven't been able to travel up as often as we wish we could and so it was extra fun to be able to spend a weekend basking in friendships.
We started out Friday morning and got to Salt Lake in the early afternoon. We were planning to take Mckinley to the zoo but it was raining so we hung out at Alan and Melissa's house, who were so wonderful to let us stay for the weekend. Mckinley had so much fun playing with Canyon and getting up on to the top bunk bed by herself (she could only go up, not down.) that she didn't even notice that she was going to have to wait until Saturday to go to the zoo.
We made Gioza that night and it reminded us of when we lived up there and used to have huge Gioza parties and make tons of it. I should never be considered responsible enough to make the rice when we are with friends. I always either burn it or don't cook it long enough. This time around, it was pretty mushy and everyone was very nice about lying that that was the way they like it.
Alan told Mckinley that this was a hat. She wasn't quite sure since she had seen Canyon sitting in it earlier.
After eating dinner, we played a game of Yahtzee, and then David and I taught everyone how to play Old Mexico, which is a dice game that is a lot like BS. They had so much fun playing it, that they stayed up until 2 am playing. Do you ever remember the lame girl that you would always invite to slumber parties who would fall asleep at like 9 o clock? That was me this time. I went downstairs to put Mckinley to sleep at 11:30, with good intentions to come back and keep playing, but I fell fast asleep, probably before Mckinley did.
In the morning we woke up and Melissa took us to the Farmers Market at Pioneer Park. There was something for everyone there. We sampled a bunch of things, I bought some fresh cherries, and bought a really cute headband after I watched the lady in line ahead of me buy the one I really wanted. (the one I got is cuter anyway though. I really bought one because Melissa looked so gorgeous in hers :)Mckinley just wanted a snow cone but she didn't want any flavoring in it. Whatever.
Downtown, there is an amazing place just across the street from Pioneer park that sells authentic Belgium waffles that are to die for. They are really nothing like the American version. I cant even remember the name of the place but wow. Thanks Melissa for bringing them into my life. I might starve to death if I have to eat my own home made waffles now. Haha.
Then we went to the Zoo. You know what the first thing we did was? This: The ever important drink from the lions mouth.
Then on to the monkeys.
Then to the Rhinos. One of the Rhinos escaped and we learned an important lesson: You don't have to run faster than the Rhino. You just have to run faster than Murph. Haha.
Zebras! Mckinley says they are black with white stripes.
Mckinley was so excited to see the Elephants. She got to watch part of the Elephant show from the best seat in the house.
Mckinley has a stuffed giraffe that she sleeps with every night named "Giraffee." When we got to the giraffe place she was so amazed. I think she would have spent an hour or more just looking at the giraffes if we would have let her.

The cherry on top was the famous train ride. What fun. I'm always a little worried about riding over the rickety bridge and next to the "don't call them Buffalo, these are American Bison." But we survived yet again.

After the zoo, Mckinley took a nap in the car as we drove out to Jeremy and Mary's to see Dawson, their new baby. I'm so mad that I didn't take any pictures while we were there. He is so cute, and little. It was fun to hold him.

The final event of the day was the reunion up Millcreek canyon. It was so much fun to see everyone and their growing families. Some of the baby's we hadn't seen yet and it was fun to meet them. Mckinley had so much fun playing with Isabel.(Yay a little girl to play with!!)It was fun to watch them together.


After everyone but the Campbells, Murph and us had left, Murph took out his guitar and played some songs. This was him playing "part of your world," from Little Mermaid for Mckinley. He had her full interest as soon as she recognized the words. And we were all laughing about his rendition of the song. It was pretty cute.

The next morning we met Sunni and Shawn for Breakfast at the Original Pancake House. The plan was to go to Ruth's Diner but there was a two hour wait for breakfast! It was fun to see them and catch up. That was a lot of food.

We had so much fun on this trip. Thanks especially to Melissa and Alan for giving three homeless folks a place to stay. Can't wait for next time.

It's a....

This pregnancy has been as different as night and day from what my pregnancy with Mckinley was like. With Mckinley I had pretty bad morning sickness and didn't really feel very good until halfway through the second trimester. With this one, I have had almost no sick days. There have been maybe a couple of days where I was feeling morning sickness to the point where I actually noticed it, but I never threw up or even felt like I was going to. The one hint that made the pregnancy noticeable to me was feeling tired a lot. This has been so Lucky for me because I have needed to work as much as I could because of Davids lay off.
Because I have felt so different this time around we were pretty positive that we must be having a boy. We were pretty surprized when the ultrasound technician told us that it was a 90% chance of being a girl! David had his hopes up for a boy and said he was going to the playhouse bar after he dropped me off after the appointment. Haha. I keep telling him that we are working our way up to 12 dancing princesses. I'm pretty relieved because we have everything that we need and don't have to buy all new stuff this time. And I'm really glad that Mckinley will have a little friend to play with. Mckinley is very adamant that she is having a baby brother. But she still refers to her as a "She." She doesn't quite understand why we have to wait so long to see her. She came to my check up today and said to my Dr. "I want to see my baby brother baby sister, please."
We are so excited! Our due date is November 15 which will make the holidays really fun with our new member of the family. We don't have a middle name picked out for sure yet but we are thinking about naming her Lucky. (Everyone has told us that this is a better name for a three legged dog but I love it.) I put this clip on because I love that you can see her heart beating.