Summer 2010

We had summer. It lasted all of about 2 weeks. It was the end of May. The sun was out. It was warm to the point of receiving some flip flop tan lines. Since then it's been nothing but cloudy, and mostly rain. I've witnessed a new record. We had 31 consecutive days of "measurable precipitation." The old record was 27 days in 1951. The last few weeks of the month-long rain period was spent putting together puzzles. At first we started with a 100 piece Toy Story and Tinkerbell puzzle. It took Sydney a good 30 minutes to put it together. By the end of the week she would put the puzzle together at least 3-4 times a day and it would take her about 5 minutes. Then we got a 750 piece Snow White puzzle. Wow. That was THE hardest puzzle I've ever done. It took our whole family working on it about a week long to finish.

I've also redecorated our main level. I've done some crafty things you can see here. I've painted....not the walls but furniture: a clock, lamp, and mirror.

for halloween of course.
This 's' is made out of cardboard that I bought at Joann's
I have crochet some hats for my kids. I started out crocheting and now think that looming is more up my alley. Looming is like crochet but for the lazy and impatient person. I wasn't happy with my crochet work and it took me a couple months to do one hat for Levi. I "loomed" a hat for Jordyn and it took me not even 2 hours to complete.

I've had "school" for the girls everyday. Teaching Sydney problem solving, easy addition, phonemic awareness, reading, and sequencing. She recited the first article of faith out of nowhere the other day. I've been teaching Jordyn counting, sorting colors, letters, and working on her articulation. They love "school" and usually ask for it more than once a day. The girls participated in a reading summer program thru the library. They both had to be read to for 1000 minutes. I read the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, James and the Giant Peach (which has the A-word. Major disappointment in that), Sydney had me read her several Mary Kate and Ashley books, and we're reading Charlotte's Web.
We haven't let the weather slow us down. We've done some really awesome things this summer. We're also looking forward to a family trip to Maui the end of September. Before I know winter will be here and the sun will be limited. Thankfully my life has meaning with Jeff, Sydney, Jordyn, and Levi around. I honestly couldn't live here without them brightening my life. I love my family so much!!!

it's our anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our 8 year anniversary. I think it was my favorite anniversary to date. For starters, we actually celebrated on the day even though it was during the week, and secondly we went waterskiing, which many of you may know is probably my most favorite thing to do and most treasured past time memory I have. Jeff had a team building activity yesterday at one of his coworkers cabin who happens to live on a lake, Nancy Lake. It was beautiful...cold, rainy, cloudy day (pretty much summarizes the entire summer), but beautiful. A 1930 quaint, rustic cabin set on a hill with a tree house for kids, an outhouse, and an amazing view. A neighbor who has a ski boat let us borrow it to have some fun. We took some kids on the "hot dog" and Jeff and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to go waterskiing...even if that meant being exposed to cold water. His coworker had some wetsuits that we put on. I've never had to use a wetsuit before, I've always gone skiing when it was hot outside (in california, florida, arizona, and utah). Now I get to add Alaska of places I've been waterskiing. P.S. What is the point of a wet suit? you're still getting wet. Jeff and I also exchanged our traditional letters that we do on our anniversary as well. I look forward to that every year. It's fun to reflect on the past year and remember different details of certain events for the year. Oh, and last Saturday he took me to see Eclipse. Sshhhh, he said it was entertaining (which I will interpret to mean that he liked it.) I look forward to many more anniversaries to celebrate with my husband who is soooo good to me, the kids, and he's pretty hot too...lucky girl I am. *Warning put your sunglasses on. Our pasty, white skin my cause eye damage.
Jeff on trick skis

Before plunging into the cold, cold water.
woohoo. I love waterskiing. Side note: This experience made me realize that I don't want to create a "bucket list." Often times, I thought it would be cool to write things down that I want to do, but if I'm consumed trying to knock things off that list I may have missed such a cool experience as waterskiing in Alaska. I would've never thought to put that on my bucket list anyway because I didn't think people did such things. So NO bucket lists for me just random, impulsive fun opportunities that come my way to enjoy the best life has to offer.

missionary moments

For the past year Jeff has been called as the ward missionary and I have been on his committee. We've had the desire to do missionary work for some time. It is sometimes difficult because with Jeff's job he can't really talk "religion" and when he's not working he hangs out with us, so he doesn't have many guy friends he just hangs out with. Thus, he doesn't have much opportunity to share the gospel. I on the other hand have made lots of non member friends. Here in our neighborhood there are about 5-6 friends that also have young children. We have play group once a month and have girl's night out and see each other throughout the week on walks, the gym, preschool, and other activities.
1. Last week I went running with Jeanette Legenza. She lives just 2 houses south of us. We went on a 5 mile run. We ran into our Bishop; I said hi to him. Then I explained to jeanette on our run who the Bishop is and that he recently called me to give a talk at church on 7.15.10. She asked what the topic was and again I explained that it was on trials and how Christ dealt with trials. One question led to other questions and about 30 minutes of conversation was in regards to our church and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It felt good to enlighten someone else about my beliefs and what our church means. It was awkward and jeanette seemed to learn more than what she knew about our church. I plan on inviting to her to church when I give my talk next week. She once came to a ward activity last year.
2. Last night a salesman came to our door. I wasn't excited to have him come since they usually come at a bad time. Last night was no different. It was 8:30 and I was ready to put the kids to bed. I noticed he was wearing garments and asked if he was LDS. He confirmed that he was and asked if I had a book of mormon. He had just had a spiritual conversation with a women who lives up our street and she seemed interested in the church. I gave him Jordyn's BoM. Today I plan to go to her house to introduce myself and befriend her. I hope again that I can be an instrument in the Lord's hand. That I can help this woman who recently lost her husband to cancer. I pray that although I don't know the feeling of losing a spouse, that I can say words that will provide comfort and peace for her. I know that through the Holy Ghost I can say the words she needs to hear like the Ammon and King Lamoni. King Lamoni thinks Ammon is reading his thoughts, but I believe it is the Holy Ghost that allows Ammon to say the things that KIng Lamoni happened to be thinking about.

Katherine's Wedding

Last friday 7/30/10 Katherine married Chase. Let me fill you in.....This past February, the month before Levi was born Katherine visited us for a month. A week before she left she went with a friend from our ward to play games with some people her age, I'm sure she was excited to interact with people older than 4 and younger than 30. This is where she met Chase. The last week she was visiting us, they pretty much spent every waking moment together. You know how it is, or in my case was, when you meet and date someone new...the getting to know each other, the butterflies, does he like me, will he kiss me, will he kiss me a second time, all those questions that consume one's mind. Also that last week, we hooked her up to a friend of ours that needed someone to nanny her children for the summer. Katherine wanted a job and decided that she would come back in the summer to do this job. She left the beginning of March and I'm assuming her and Chase kept in contact because when she came back the end of June, they started hanging out again. At first things were going slowly, but then one day she told us the news and she threw a wedding together in like 3 weeks. Everything fell into place with the wedding plans. She booked the night at a country club for free of charge, found the wedding dress of her dreams for 99 dollars, free photographer, free cake, and hair and makeup. It was a beautiful setting and the chaplin that married them was awesome. Now Katherine and Chase are living with us until Wednesday. They are flying to Utah to live and attend school. We're happy to have Chase in the family and look forward to their new future together. Here are some pictures of the event.

**I've tried to add pictures about 5 different times and it keeps saying "bad request" ughh.** Has anyone else had this problem??

Sydney plays soccer

This summer Sydney was old enough to play soccer. We were all very excited. She played at Eagle River High School which is just a couple blocks from our house. Most of her neighborhood friends played with her. It was fun for us to watch Sydney and mingle with our friends who also were there watching their kids play. Sydney DID NOT like soccer. She played twice a week and every practice she would play for about 10 minutes and then either sit or wander off and be her monkey self on the football equipment. Time after time she said, "it's so boring; all you do is run." I can't blame her, that was my reasoning as a kid and so I never played....but later ran cross country in high school so go figure. We made her stick with it and at the last practice she said she liked soccer because she got a medal and they gave her cake and ice cream. I was a bit disappointed though. She never played a game. All they did was play shark and minnows, duck, duck, goose, and kick the ball a few times. Finally the last practice the older kids played a soccer game. She somehow snuck in the game w/o the coaches seeing and loved it. She was kicking the ball and keeping up with the bigger kids....until the coaches saw her and kicked her out. I'll probably give it one more try next year but with a different league that allows kids to actually play soccer. But she insists on gymnastics and deep down I think she would do well. I'm scared she will love it. I know gymnastics can be very time consuming and expensive.
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