Independence day


     I hope you guys all had a fun fourth of July. We sure did. I actually survived my first camping trip with 2 kids! On thursday night we headed to Punderson Park with about 6 families from our ward. We set up camp, had tin foil dinners, roasted marshmallows, and the kids all had a blast running around and playing. Their favorite game to play was "wake the sleeping princess." One of them would fall on the ground and play dead and then the others would come and try to wake the princess up with a kiss. We had a few good laughs at their "make-out" sessions before we said no more kissing. Then they started playing "take me to the hospital." One of them would fall on the ground and say "I'm hurt and I've got blood. Take me to the hospital." Then the rest of them would run over, grab an arm or leg and carry the person to the hospital. seriously, where do they come up with these things???

 
   That night we got maybe 3 hours of sleep. It was quite miserable and yet I find myself asking "when can we do it again?!" Andrew WOULD NOT SLEEP! we tried everything to no avail. He finally fell asleep some where between 4 and 5 a.m. Luckily he didn't cry too much. He just crawled all over us and kept grabbing my ears and saying "wiggle wiggle wiggle." Our neighbors left some food out on the table and a darn raccoon keep raiding their food. The raccoon got a bag of chips ahoy and carried that thing around making tons of noise for what seemed like an eternity. You know how noisey those plastic containers are inside the bags. it totally echoed through the camp. Our other friend's little girl had a really rough night too. we felt so bad for them. She woke up and wouldn't stop crying so the Dad drove her home at 4a.m. and came back the next day.
  On Friday we went to the beach...nice sand, really gross lake, so we headed back to camp and played games and hung out.
We roasted hot dogs and decided we were really tired and didn't want to risk another bad nights rest, so we packed everything up. A few families were going to stay the night again, but decided to leave also. We all left around 9:45  and went to the fairgrounds to watch the fireworks. the kids loved it and it was  ton of fun. Drew kept saying "Whoa!"
  On Saturday we spent the day at Pioneer Land and water Park. They have water slides, pools, miniature golf, batting cages, and a bunch of other activities. Another fun-filled day, but boy am I tired!! Too much fun for one weekend. I must be getting old.

***I was too scared to bring my camera so I'll steal some pictures from my friend's blogs after they post them! :)



Latest craft project

This post is for you Carlie!! :)

I Love Amy butler and Michael miller fabrics. I've been wanting to order some, but I wasn't sure what I was going to make with it. I finally received some inspiration and decided to make some cute camera straps. I ordered the fabric from my friend Carlie's etsy shop. Go check it out!

I also ordered fabric to make this Shabby Apple dress for Avery.
My mom is an AMAZING seamstress and can look at anything and recreate it. I could just order the dress, but $40 is a little steep for a toddler dress, and my Mom loves to have sewing projects to do.

What sewing projects have YOU been working on? I need more inspiration for all the fabric I ordered!

sLuMbeR PaRtY!!

Avery had her first sleepover with her friend Bailey this weekend. They were both so excited and had a lot fun. Is my baby really old enough for this??? I'm not sure I'M ready yet.
Playing Princesses

Hanging out in their matching sleeping bags

Enjoying pancakes for breakfast

Drew Drew





just having a little fun trying out new things

Tasty Tuesday

My friend always has the best links on her blog for recipes and stuff. We tried this one a few weeks ago, and I LOVE it. I am always looking for good vegetarian meals because I get SO sick of cooking chicken all the time. Thought I would share it with the rest of you. You have to try it!
Asian Noodle Salad
adapted from Jamie Oliver


SALAD INGREDIENTS:
1 packages linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage
1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage
1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach
1 red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin
1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin (if available)
1 small bag bean sprouts (also called “mung bean sprouts”)
3 sliced scallions
3 peeled, sliced cucumbers
LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch
1 can whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet 
DRESSING:
Juice of 1 lime
8 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped
More chopped cilantro—LOTS
Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter.
*Dressing keeps up to three days before serving, WITHOUT cilantro.
Enjoy!

Girlie Girl

Avery and I had fun making this tutu today. She is ALL girl and I love it! Every night she asks me to tell her a "Princess Avery Story" before she goes to bed. She can't live without her princess panties, princess shoes, princess dresses, or princess whatever, you name it.




Please oh please!

Anyone want their pictures taken?? The kids are getting sick of having the camera in their faces. I need more cute models. Any volunteers?? Come on, it will be fun. You know you want to. :) Don't make me beg. PLEASE just ask. I'll do family pictures, newborns, whatever. I'm not going into business or anything, I just really enjoy taking pictures and want to practice. 

Here are a few cute ones of my friend's little boy I did for fun. Check out those baby blues!




I hate it when that happens!!!


So today I was feeling pretty good about having dinner made (just needed to stick it in the oven) and the kitchen cleaned before 4:30 pm. Perfect! Now I'll have a little time to play with the kids before the "night-time rush." Yeah Right!! I turned on the oven to let it heat up. Heard the ding and went to put my homemade manicotti in the oven, and SPLAT!!! yep, dumped the whole thing all over myself and splashed red sauce all over the kitchen. So much for a clean kitchen and a nice meal waiting for hubby to come home. Why do things NEVER go as planned??????? PLease tell me????

Speaking of dinner, Last week I made frozen pizza for dinner and Andy gave me such a hard time!! He loves a good home cooked meal (who doesn't), and I think I do a pretty good job most of the time cooking. But, I'm allowed a break every once and a while, right? I'm just curious to know how often you guys cook. So please take my oh so scientific little polls over on the side bar so I can see where I stand. I'll share my answers later!

P.S. in Andy's defense, he ALWAYS says thank you when I cook a good meal which I really appreciate! And, just so you know, I DON"T cook 7 days a week! :)

UPDATE: Sorry if I made it sound like I am a "perfect house wife" because I AM NOT! And Andy is a GREAT husband who hardly ever complains. :) I usually cook Good meals 5-6 days a week and we eat out once. We like to go to Costco on Friday nights and eat there. It's cheap and I don't have to clean up, so I love it! And as far as frozen pizza or spaghetti type meals...once every month or so. 

Sorry if you are getting tired of my pictures, but we haven't done anything exciting to write about, and how could I not share this one? And yes, today was a MUCH better Monday. :)

on a happier note...


Have a great weekend!!!

Happy Sabbath!


Check out this picture! It is Andrew's first piece of artwork. He laid on the floor for 15 minutes drawing this. He has scribbled for a few seconds here and there before, but I can't believe how long he stayed and worked on this. It was so cute to see how hard he was concentrating on his masterpiece!

He had a few other firsts today also. He said please and thank you and finally figured out how to make the little riding car go forward instead of just backwards. Big day for Drew.

Here are a few funny pictures of Avery. It started with her innocently filling the watering can with the hose and of course ended like this








We had so much fun in Hawaii. It was Amazing! We went Kayaking, splunking in lava tubes, watched the hot lava spew out into the ocean, boogie boarding, snorkling,and of course layed out and enjoyed the sunshine. I was nervous about leaving the kids, but Avery hardly noticed that we were gone and Andrew still loved me when we got back :) Thanks for watching the kids Cindi!!
*not the best picture but it is pretty much the only one we took

After we got back from Hawaii we stayed in Utah for a week. We took the kids to the Thanksgiving Point Petting Zoo. Andrew was deathly afraid of the goats but LOVED the pony rides.




We also headed to the mountains with Andy's fam and had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows. The kids had a blast!


Andy's sweet Grandma had a big BBQ on Saturday so that we could see everyone before we left. Avery loves to play with her cousins!


jumping on the tramp at Great Grandma's

playing hide and go seek

Cute Sylvie!

And in case you haven't had enough yet(HaHa!), here are 2 more :)

Avery And Uncle Ammon

Avery And Aunt Arianne

Okay, I'm done

Addicted

I LOVE photography and I can't put my camera down!! Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures of some people who were kind enough to let me practice on them. :)




QuACk QUaCk!!


Avery had her first dance recital the day before we left for Utah. It was so cute! I thought she would be a little scared to get up on the big stage and dance by herself, but she loved every minute of it! It was definitely a proud mommy moment. Having Avery in dance has been so much fun and has helped her to come out of her shell. We are going to miss Miss Tracee. She does an amazing job with the kids.