First week of July 2011

So I didn't write about the first part of July last week since I was covering all of June! Later I remember some things but of course I forgotten them since! I did spend some time getting Emily's room cleaned while she was gone at girls camp. I did add a couple of new pillows too. Last year I did a total makeover which was super fun! She got home just as cousins were showing up for Cousin Camp! She quickly showered. We did some simple stuff for the 4th of July. I found some blue ICEE cups which they enjoyed eating! A guy came and serviced our air conditioner and said that it looked great which surprised him since it is so old--11 years? A blessing from tithing. We got all the chores done Friday night so we didn't need to them Saturday. Taran went to the temple and then to a birthday party, Timo went too. Saturday morning Tim and I went to breakfast since we had no sporting events to attend with our kids. It was fun, we went to IHOP, Kohl's, Old Navy and Costco. I liked having him along even though he doesn't enjoy it. I enjoy shopping for fun stuff but it was just nice to spend the time together not rushed! I spent the afternoon working on my lesson for RS on Sunday. I did end up taking Taran to the doctor for a sinus infection and then getting his prescription after. He went with some of his friends to watch fireworks outside the Stadium of Fire. Timo was probably playing Monopoly with friends and the other kids played games here. Sunday was our 20th Anniversary! We went to church. Taran had been asked to teach RS and then they asked me to teach with him. We taught about enduring to the end. Taran rephrased it THRIVING to end! He did a good job--yes, he did feel awkward being the only male in attendance! Anyway, Tim and I exchanged cards after church. We had a special salmon dinner and a cool dessert as seen in our only photo on the anniversary of Tim and 2 candles for 20. Gwen blew them out, classic! It was an ice cream sandwich cake: layer of ice cream sandwiches, caramel, whipped cream, ice cream sandwiches, hot fudge, whipped cream and nuts. EAsY!


Monday was the 4th--it seems like it was a month ago! We had brunch at my parents strawberries and whipped cream. I made an egg casserole with green chiles. We had muffins, juice, hashbrowns, bacon and sausage.

Then we went to Tim's parents' for a BBQ, celebrate June and July birthdays and do fireworks. Tim and Nate (BIL) made homemade ice cream peach and Health bar--delicious.



Liz and Erick were down from Idaho too visiting and our nephew Daniel who finished Basic and Special Training for the Army and is now in California learning Arabic for the next 18 months was in town for the weekend! It was fun to catch up a bit with him. He is enjoying his experience so far. It was extra fun this year because Utah lifted the ban on aerial fireworks so people were setting those off everywhere! Erick had bought one really good one we did at the very end as our finale.






But we could see the others over over and our little fountains in between. The kids did some sparklers too which seemed to be a safer kind that Nate bought. We contributed SNAPS, Poppers and glow stick bracelets and some fountains as well. Yeah for the 4th of July! Tuesday everyone was beat but back to work! I actually went to the temple that morning with some friends. Gwen actually went to friends and played most of the day there! Yeah! She's been weird all summer not wanting to play away from home. Timo had his check up since our appointments the next day were during his work. Emily and her friend Ashley had a Lord of the Rings marathon! I made them take a walk for an hour that afternoon in between. Izak and Zane had their usual lacrosse and baseball practices--I helped with the baseball practice that night. Timo and his buddy Tyler are now obsessed with Ping Pong so they spend a lot of time at our neighbor's playing it and now they are trying out tennis as well. I am glad that they are doing productive things. Wednesday was our family check ups. Only 2 kids had cavities and they weren't very big. YEAH! Later, I took the kids to 7 Peaks. Gwen started swimming on her own to get the diving sticks & rings in the kiddie pool! I am so excited because she has never had any swimming lessons. I have failed at the my attempts of getting her enrolled. I got her to try the Lazy River and she went on it again. Izak got her to go on a bigger waterslide but not the BIG waterslides--the kiddie pool has 4 slides going into it for little kids and she is even weary of them. We are making progress! We picked Taran from work and stopped for cones at Macey's grocery store in celebration! Zane had a baseball game that night. Timo went to the temple for YM--too early for Taran to get there after work. Emily decorated cakes for YW. I stayed home with Gwen and got her to bed early. Thursday Emily started volunteering at a local Alzheimer's care center near our home. She enjoyed it. I took my good friend Linda to lunch for her birthday--it was later in the day actually. But we had great time. Zane went swimming with a friend to a pool in Lehi. I am not sure what the rest of them did while I was gone. Timo also did a lacrosse practice for Izak's team at the actual field that afternoon. Micah had lacrosse practice that night. Friday the kids had Cousin Camp at Shellie's at noon. So I convinced the kids to do their Saturday chores before! I dropped them off and met Tim for lunch. It was a nice date, we ate Chinese food! We haven't done that in awhile and it was under $15! Then we looked at some stuff in the sporting goods store there. I got some new TEVA sandals, they have an arch and I just am a flip flop girl so I need them!:) I ran some more errands and then Costco last, picked up the kids and then Taran from work. My fan in the front of the van doesn't work so I get no AC luckily we've had such bipolar weather that the air has been cool enough with the window down. One more thing on Tim's long list of things to fix! He was suppose to take Izak on a mini-camp out but was feeling overwhelmed by it all and backed out. Izak handled it well. He fixed several things on the kid car: horn, headlight, windshield wiper...The sink plumbing and dishwasher have been having trouble and he fixed those. He fixed the drain plugs in our bathroom and the little kids' bathroom! We had movie night and Izak and Micah watched Forever Strong and Zane and Gwen watched Toy Story 2--we have misplaced Toy Story 3! EMily and Taran had birthday parties. Timo played ping pong with friends. Saturday Micah and Izak had lacrosse games here so Tim took them while I finished up my lesson for Sunday. I took Gwen and Zane to Walmart later they wanted to spend the money I gave them for not getting cavities--my friend Linda's idea. Zane bought Lego and Gwen got a Jasmine Polly Pocket type doll. After dinner I went shopping a little more, practical stuff. Tim took the little boys to an Owlz baseball game--Rookie League. They had a blast. Taran and Gwen ended up helping my sister at her house move stuff. Emily and Timo watched HP7 part 1 at our neighbor's. They had planned it for outside on the BIG screen but our funky weather turned wet and windy and they couldn't. I mopped and worked out and folded laundry. Tim ironed after he got home so I caught the end of Independence Day. Today we all made it to church. It was a good day. I taught on tithing and most of the talked were on it! Two of the youth were in my class who spoke! It was fine not super long. So that is what I can remember! If I forgot something don't tell me, it will make me more paranoid about getting Alzheimer's!:)

I tried to put the photos in order but they really aren't at the beginning, sorry!

Freedom Friday

Do you wonder what economic freedom is and why it is important? Check out this website, it has some great info. Hopefully our leaders are making choices that will bless us with more economic freedom than take it away! According to this website it has gone down a little and it explains why! Enjoy!

Catching Up...June

Starting with random photos...





So the computer is back after replacing a couple of things and so now I can do this without it randomly turning off on me. I will spare you too many details of the month--at least I will try! I will probably have a lot of photos. The first week school was out Taran and Timo were able to get jobs--Taran a full-time job at BYU doing grounds crew and he really is enjoying it despite his allergies! That meant that Timo was able to take over Taran's part-time job as a custodian at an elementary school. He is liking it as well. That first week out they had Trek and they had a good experience, esp. Taran who did not last time. We started cousin camp that week for the cousins jr. and younger on the Pew side. The three aunts take turns having all the kids for a four hours once a week. It has been great fun. It's so great for my kids to grow up near family, something I did not have but longed for.


My sister's pool has free visitor swim days and we've enjoyed them. We also have the pass of all passes which includes 7 Peaks Waterslide Park, 2 Trafalgas (Orem and Lehi) which have mini-golf and such and sporting events for Utah Flash (basketball) and Orem Owlz (baseball).


We've gone to Seven Peaks almost every week--Emily has gone with friends also. We had the Crane boy cousins over while their parents and sisters did Trek and that was a lot of fun. The kids have spent the night at Auntie Teresa's--they had planned to go to the Strawberry Days Rodeo but the weather did not cooperate! They still had a lot of fun.


I celebrated my 44th birthday with some of my friends for lunch and then my family had a BBQ for me on my actual birthday. Tim took me to see Thor a couple of days before then we went with kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2. I found both to be very enjoyable! Father's Day I visited my dad alone, he can't handle a ton of noise and activity and since we'd been there the day before I figured that worked.
I had a nice visit with him. He has actually been very ill with shingles and complications from them. We visited Tim's dad after we had a yummy salmon dinner and Costco chocolate cake after. It was nice to visit them--he got a cool Nook it's like a Kindle book reader. That next week we spent with my dad while my mom went to Idaho to visit family and be involved in her high school reunion. She had made the commitment a year before so she was worried about us and him but he was fine with the medication he was on and so it worked out fine. He actually slept really late and went to bed when we did. He did get up once and fell in the night so Tim had to help me help him to his bed. He was quite out of it and had slurred speech. The painkillers for the shingles I think were the main issue. We started to back off a little and he seemed to be comfortable but not as drowsy.

He even joined us for s'mores on the deck our last night there.


Tim's work had a BBQ for their employees and family so we went to that one day. The food was yummy and the kids had fun karoake, bouncy slides and houses and sports.

Our good friends in our neighborhood were there too so the kids played together.
We also started lacrosse (Micah and Izak) and coach pitch baseball (Zane). Those have kept us busy in June but will die down in July. Timo stayed home since his work is out here and was alone that week but we would stop in for periodic things--sports practices and such. He started an online class and is almost done with the first term! He and his friends are trying to play all of his friend's Monopolys they have 20 plus versions! Other than terrible allergies we have been healthy. The weather was pretty chilly the beginning of June and has now warmed up but alas today we had wind and rain! But it wasn't a cold rain. We had our city festival the week we were at my parents' with my dad so we just made home for the fireworks and ice cream.

I just love fireworks!

Our strawberries have done really well, we've eaten tons and Tim even made 2 large syrups out of them! We also have lots of pea pods. There were also birthday parties for friends for just about every kid--when you have 7 one is going to have a friend with a birthday! I did scouts this month too, we did a compass course one time (Tim helped with that) and we did a hike up AF Canyon. We missed a Court of Honor because of lacrosse. Emily just got back from girls camp Friday and she had a great experience. Hope your summer has been great! Have a great 4th of July (I wrote about it on an earlier post)and first full week of July!

Sorry, I don't know how to change where the photos are and the type! You get what you get...:)

20 YEARS! WOW!

Who would have thought that we would find ourselves with 7 children? We've been through 7 cars, 7 moves, 2 houses, 6 vacuums, 10 beaters, 2 toasters, 4 blenders, 4 computers, 4 vcrs, 15 layoffs--only one actually affected us, 3 dishwashers, 17 years of diapering and a million gold fish. We've attended over 500 soccer, basketball, flag football, lacrosse, baseball, and tee-ball games which our kids were a part of. We've attended over 50 school choir concerts and plays that our kids were in. We've taken trips to Arizona, Idaho, California, Nevada and Wyoming besides just in Utah. We've been to over 50 BYU Football games, over 25 BYU mens and womens basketball games and several random Volleyball and Soccer games at BYU. Over 40 plays and concerts at BYU, the Scera and Hale theaters. We've had only one broken leg, one broken finger, one broken ankle, one appendix removed and one ruptured disc surgically repaired. More cavities and crowns than I want to remember! Over 600 dates Tim and I have been on since we got married (this includes shopping together and movies alone after the kids are in bed!). A couple of overnighters to Park City, Salt Lake City, Heber, and the Homestead. It would be fun to say we are going somewhere to celebrate this important day but here we are eating yummy food with our kids. And you know it's alright because we have been so greatly blessed. It kind of overwhelms me the many blessings we have accrued over the years! The most being Tim is my best friend and I love him and we are still enjoying this adventure together. Here's to 20 more years! Thanks Tim!

Freedom Friday

Happy 4th of July, early! I have always been very patriotic. I remember as a child getting a lump in my throat when I would say the pledge or sing the National Anthem. I am not sure if it's because I had a parent from another country who helped me see the wonder of this country, the amazingness of it's freedom. Then I lived in Argentina almost a year and a half. Lovely country, beautiful country but bogged down in ideals that can not create prosperity, freedom breeds prosperity because it allows every person to create, out of necessity and curiosity. When we expect to be taken care of we lack motivation and ingenuity and our pursuit of happiness becomes a pursuit of mediocrity. Why does it matter we aren't going to get out of where we are? That was the mentality my dad grew up on, you are stuck where you are. Only the rich can get rich etc. But not here, my dad said that it was kind of scary because he began to believe he could do anything. Scary, not exciting? But when you have grown up believing you are mediocre and that wall is torn down there is responsibility. We all have potential and only real freedom can inspire us to do and become our very best. God knows this and that is why he helped our founders establish this country--there is no other way they could have pulled off the revolution but they did with His help. So today I get choked up thinking about how grateful I am, even with all our troubles, to live in this land...home of the free because of the brave. And so we must all be equally brave in fighting for our rights and doing hard things like giving up some of the things we have grown accustomed over time. We can do it. God Bless America!