July 4th the alternate plan

Wow! Another month has gone by! Hard to believe! We have been very busy as usual, but have been able to do many fun things this month along with all the regular stuff! The 4th of July was such a fun day! We had orginally planned to go camping on the 3rd but the weather wasn't looking too good, so we changed our plans. The younger kids and I rode on the Lakeview Primary Float in the Hooper Parade while Randy drove the truck and Taysom watched from the sidelines with Oma, Papa, and Brady, Wendy and boys! It was really fun, especially when Randy took a wrong turn at the end of the parade back to the drop off point so we had to make a big loop honking and singing all the way! I think it really was the best part of riding in the parade. When we got home I took the cutest picture of all 4 kids on the porch and I loved it so much I blew it up into an 11x14 and matted it and everything! We then loaded up the 4 wheelers packed lunches and headed up by Monte Cristo! We all had a great time, but I think Randy had the most fun! He couldn't wait to go again! By the time we headed home, it was about 6 pm and so we BBQed out on the patio and finished dinner just in time to turn our chairs and watch the fireworks! It is truly the best thing in the world to have front row seats to a great fireworks show without leaving your backyard. The word must be out about that because our neighborhood was jam packed with friends at every house! My cute little two year old nephew Wyatt was pretty afraid when the fireworks started and when I said, "Are you scared?" he said, "Yes, lets go hide!" But his dad and mom talked him through them and kept saying this is fun and aren't they pretty? He was not totally convinced, but he wasn't running away anymore. Wendy's sister Crystal and her husband Russ and son Logan also came to the BBQ and it was great to have them with us! All in all a fabulous 4th!

June is in fast forward mode!

I can't believe that June is almost ending! I feel like I can hardly catch my breath! We had a great boating trip two weeks ago, but it feels like yesterday. Addison wakeboarded for her first time and she was amazing! I need to get the video footage on here so everyone can see. Sawyer, Zoe and I were mainly beach people, but our trip on the boat was great also. Taysom attended her first girls camp and lived to tell the tale, (too bad for her it was in Sacrament meeting). Randy and I have been getting the yard and garden all ready for the summer and I just finished another class toward college graduation. We haven't done any camping like we planned, but we are going to make up for it in July. Addison and I attended an Activity Day Girls Day Camp last Monday and it was just fantastic! My counselor in the primary Devri Mickelson did an amazing job planning and executing a wonderful experience for the girls. I was so glad that we decided to take the initiative as a ward to provide this day for the girls and I am so glad we invited the two other wards, it really was great! We are looking forward to Robby and Nicole's wedding on friday and their dinner on thursday. We have some wonderful friends who are helping us prepare this dinner for 70+ people and we couldn't have done it with out them. Although things have been busy, everyone is happy and healthy and what more could you really ask for than that!

Ahh, Summer is here!

Today is the 2nd official day of Summer for our family and we couldn't be happier! This week is a little more hectic than the next few will be I hope, but still it is much better than last week. We had family home evening out in our woodland area (the trees need to grow faster so it will really be a wooded area) and Randy started a fire week had to bring it inside a little early because a rainstorm kicked up, but you can make smores in the microwave even faster than on a stick. We had the Tenney Family over and I think everyone had a good time. Today, the kids did their house work really quickly and then we really did school work for an hour thanks to Addison. Sawyer is reading so well now, I am adamant that he not loose any of his progress over the summer and Zoe is on a roll also. Addison is 3 weeks ahead on her summer packets and Taysom is attending an accelerated learning science day camp this week and is loving it! Randy and I have most of the yard work done and I am currently on schedule with my school work. Life really is good. Maybe we will sleep in next week! That would be great!

The crazy days of May!

How is it that this month is mostly over? I can't quite fathom it except to say that no other month barring December gets so much packed into it! Let's begin with May 1st which was Women' s Conference. The next day Saturday May 2nd always makes me feel like I should have the garden planted immediately! So the frantic yard work begins... We edge beds, shop for plants, go buy more plants, then start planting. Pots first, then hanging baskets. Back to Walmart for more potting soil. Back to nursery for more plants. One more trip to Walmart for more more potting soil. Now mind you these baskets pots and flowerbeds get done over several days, but my brain is clogged up thinking about them the whole 2 weeks! Today I will finally plant the rest of the garden (some of the plants were just too tiny two weeks ago when I bought them so I have been growing them on the porch). Besides all this planting there is the never ending grass issues. Dog pee has burned up twenty spots, two days later dog pee has burned up 23 spots. Randy spends most of monday cutting out dog pee spots and replacing with chunks of sod from the beds he is edging. Now there are only 8 spots but more new ones coming every day. Time to up the sprinkling system to help combat pee concentration, then it rains for several days so its hard to get any yard work done. Now it is time for the million trips to the Waste management facility ( the dump, only the other name sounds better) for loads of compost! My first trip this year was a doozey! I had Rhonda Perkins and her boys with me because we were taking a load of their stuff to drop off and then pick up the compost. The brakes kept squeaking all the way there so Christian age 14 can't stop laughing but the real comedy was yet to come. As we pull into the property there is a huge sign that says, "Beware of Signs" what does that mean? Are they attack signs? Then there are like 6 more signs posted one after another every 10 feet or so, that say things like no scavenging, speed limit 15, assorted other messages, none of them seem very threatening, but whatever. Then we get to the place where you're supposed to back up to the edge and unload the stuff. Only too bad for me because they want us to pull in between two other trucks and the edge is uphill from where I am. I pull up to the guy and tell him that space isn't big enough and he says " Are you serious?" No, I just like to make silly conversation with the dump workers! So I say ok, that will be fine and I try to concetrate,but Christian is really laughing now and I hate backing up, up hill especially when there is a light load. So I pull way forward to make sure I start out straight, but this was a mistake because now I have farther to go! I start out, but I'm nervous and the dump guy is watching so I go to fast and just about jackknife it so I pull forward again and then curve the trailer the other way! Christian is now nearly hysterical and so I make about 3 more attempts before getting it semi close and Rhonda says, thats good enough we'll just throw it from here! Bless her, I was mortified and shamed. Once we got unloaded it should have been smooth sailing, but we go to get the compost and I drive the loop that they had us drive last year which is behind all the trees they are shredding and suddenly there is a man chasing us and so I stop and wait for him and he says where are you going? So I calmly explain and he says ,"not this year you should have pulled over here"! Well where are the signs now I ask you? Beware of LACK of signs when you need them it should say! So we pull up to get the stuff and the huge front loader just about runs us down, I guess to prove the point that I was in the wrong area, anyway we get the load and head for home with the brakes really squealing now! Christian still laughing all the way. Need I mention that Randy went for the next few loads!?
Enough about the endless yard work! In May we also get to celebrate Sawyer's birthday, Mother's Day, Randy's Dad's Birthday and cousins Daphne, Benson, Isaac and Karleigh's birthdays! We also have Memorial Day, preschool programs, field trips, recitals, and year end school parties, and Field Day(twice if your in kindergarten). All of these things packed into one regular month! I realize we can't change bdays but what about field trips and programs, do they all have to be the last three weeks of may? Oh, and did I mention that summer semester began on May 11? We are a smidge overscheduled here and I am really hoping that June will at least be a little slower! Or at least I won't have any trips to the dump, or at least there will be no school programs right! No wonder we spend the first three weeks of summer just getting up when we want and eating dinner at 8:30pm instead of the lovely schedule I always envision of everyone up at 7 for scriptures then weeding for a 1/2 hour as a family then a healthy breakfast some quick house cleaning then little school workbooks for Sawyer and Zoe and piano practice for the girls then a picnic lunch to the park back home for naps for Zoe and reading time for the other three. What's next you ask? Well then we would prepare a lovely dinner to eat on the patio and then spend the evening playing baseball together as a family or going for a bike ride! This is really what I want to have happen during the summer, but we are lucky if 1 or 2 of those things happen per week! I have a hard time making my dreams a reality! I think I set my expectations a little high! Instead I should make plans for days when we will stay in jammies and watch 13 episodes of Monk in one day or we will go to the park but the house will be trashed before we go and will remain so after we come home. I need to accept that piano practice will rarely happen, that reading will probably be done in spurts like 3 hours one day and none for the next week ( that still averages 20 min. per day, right?) and that dinner at 8:30 on the patio is almost as nice as dinner on the patio at 6pm. Either way I am really looking forward to June!

A new family member?

No! Don't get the wrong idea! We are definitely not having another baby, but we do get to have another dog for just over a week! Yesterday sweet Bree came to stay with us! She is a wonderful well mannered dog and we are loving having her around! Especially Hunter! He was so pooped out last night from running around with her during the day that he could hardly walk. We think that's a good thing... Anyway, she is full of life since she is just over a year and it is so fun for us. She runs after the kids and is so curious about everything in our house since it is all new to her. It was pretty funny last night when Randy got home from work about 8:30 and came in through the garage door, Bree was asleep next to me and 4 nieces plus our kids and when she suddenly saw a strange man standing there she freeeakkked out! Her hair stood up on end, she barked like a maniac and growled too. I was holding the baby so I couldn't really grab her, so she headed toward Randy and he was smart and just stood still and started calling to her and she crept up to him growling all the way and then sniffed him a little and then started wagging her tail! Good dog, Bree! Nice to know she'd actually protect us if someone broke in! Randy said it scared the crap out of him, his heart was pounding, but now they are best friends. She wouldn't go to bed until he did and she followed him around all the rest of the evening. Maybe they aren't friends, maybe she was just keeping an eye on him! Either way we're glad the Mills Family asked us to babysit.

spring or not to spring!

Are we done with winter or what! Are those scientists sure we are experiencing global warming? I don't remember too many March 20 somethings that have lows in the teens and highs in the 20's! I know it often snows even in April, but bone chilling wind and snow that stays more than a day is not normal, is it? I love the end of March it makes me really excited for Spring. My friend Devri's crocuses are blooming and her other bulbs are almost ready, when I see them I can't help but smile! Our bulbs are just babies (I planted them in the fall) so they are a little slower, but clumps of green are poking out of the ground all over the place. I can't believe it has been 2 years yesterday since we moved to our new house. We love it here and feel so blessed. It is also Reed and Angela's Anniversary this week and I love that too, we have lots of fun memories from their wedding! Easter is coming, General Conference is next week, everything is so good! Out here in the country it is so fun to drive past the huge fields of cows and see more babies every day! Zoe, Sawyer and I try to count all the new little calves with their spindly legs and then we try to guess which cows are still pregnant, a little hard to do as we fly by at 50 mph. Our neighbors across the street have new baby chicks that are so sweet! We just try not to think about how big and chickenish they will get in a few months and relish in their sweet yellow fluffiness and their soft little peeps! Oooh, I love spring!

Garside Family Christmas Party!

This year we hosted the Garside Family Christmas Party at our house again and it was so fun! A few years back, we started getting together the Sunday before Christmas for dinner and a party and a chance to exchange gifts with each other and we think it is a great tradition! When we are all together( minus Rhonda, Mike and the kids who are in Conn.) there are 31 of us and we got a surprise treat with Randy's cousin and wife who were stuck in SLC due to weather on their way to Hawaii! So it really was a party! We eat, sing songs, read the Nativity and then open gifts. The only thing that could have made it better were if Rhonda's family could have been with us too!