Happy Birthday to Me!

LOOK WHOSE 40!

Okay, the only reason why I am writing about this day is for posterity reasons. It was hard for me to turn 40. That just seems like such a big number and I can't believe that I am 40. I hate having a birthday so close to Christmas, because most people forget my birthday, so I just wanted to keep a low profile on this day. All I asked of my family was to let me stay home all day...stay in my comfy clothes, do no housework and relax. Every day of my life is packed full of activity, so I just wanted to relax and do what I wanted at home. I hardly find the time to sit and just play the piano for fun, so it was a treat to spend an hour playing my songs. Not the most glamorous picture, but that is how I spent my 40th birthday. Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Gerald Ford Good Citizen

Haylee's Good Citizenship Award

Haylee loves 4th Grade this year. Her teacher Mrs. Gallegos is the best.
We are so proud of her. She does her very best every day and gets great grades.
Her favorite subject is Math and is a very creative writer.

St. George Weekend

St. George at it's best!

We stayed with my parents in their motor home in Snow's Canyon. The girls had a blast swimming, playing in the beautiful red sand and climbing trees. It was fun to see Kylee and spending the weekend with her.

St. George Half Marathon

RUN-KYLEE-RUN

It was such a fun weekend going to St. George to watch Kylee run the St. George Half Marathon. She has been training so hard and it was great seeing her cross the finish line.

Kylee and running buddy Kelli Olsen

Pumpkin Time

My Creative Family
non-traditional pumpkins

We got hooked into watching all the fun shows that showed extreme pumpkin carving contests and how to's. So of course my family wanted to try all the new techniques and not do the traditional designs or pumpkin faces. Kylee even got into the game and did her own pumpkin design at Snow. It still amazes me that on October 31st we are outside in the 80 degree weather carving pumpkins.

Conference Weekend

I got the opportunity to hitch a ride with our ward Young Men group to go to Salt Lake and attend General Conference. It was an opportunity to see Kylee and I was so excited.

I spent the whole weekend playing, shopping and catching up with Kylee. It was fun spending time with my sister and parents too. I got to enjoy my dad's fresh peaches, corn, tomatoes and apples,which were on season. It felt good to come home and relax. I felt bad leaving Rob and the girls home. They love to visit grandma and see Kylee, however, they didn't want to miss their first soccer games. Rob did a great job being Mr. Mom for the weekend.

Our New Cat

RUE

We decided to wait until school started to get another cat. Rob spent countless hours online researching the best, we were hoping to get another scottish fold, like Sky, but instead we found this Bengal Leopard Cat. She is only half breed and adorable. She is 4 months old, but still has some growing to do. She has pretty markings and has finer lines than a normal house cat. She isn't very cuddly, but is very playful. We have had so much fun getting to know her personality. We have to be careful when we walk around our bed, because she will jump out and grab your foot and scare you to death. She has adopted this little stuffed frog of Raychel's and carries it around the house and plays with it constantly. One day, Raychel tried to hide it and it wasn't long until Rue found it. She is fascinated with the Guinea Pigs of course. She takes naps on top of the cage, stalks and has her eye on them always. It is fun to have another cat join our family.

First Day of School

2010-2011 School Year

Raychel is starting 7th Grade
John Glenn Middle School
She wasn't very nervous because she knows the school and couldn't wait to see all of her friends again. So far, it has been a great year. She is involved in many different clubs and likes all of her teachers.

Haylee is in 4th Grade - Gerald Ford Elementary
Mrs. Gallegos
Haylee was so excited to start school again. She loves her teacher and is an excellent student.

College Bound!

Park Place Apartments

We had to say goodbye to our lovely Kylee once again and move her into her new home @ Park Place Apartments in Ephraim Utah. That was such a long, emotional day for us all. It was fun getting her all organized and ready for her first day of college. It was a shocker moving her into such a small space, but with the help of handy Rob and a few trips to Walmart, we got her moved in. Man, us girls require a lot of STUFF!!

Summer Activities

Pottery * Cake Decorating * Sewing * Waterpolo


We are doing our best to keep busy this summer, finding activities to do INSIDE.
The girls took a pottery class for 2 weeks, sewed their own PJ Bottoms, did some cake decorating, then made horses with the scooters to celebrate the 24th of July children's parade at the church.
They also took a waterpolo clinic and loved that.
This is what summer is all about.

Walking the Boardwalk

So after a long day relaxing at the beach we walked along the boardwalk and pier. It was fun seeing all the people and surfers out in the ocean. We were starving of course, so we went to a local Mexican restaurant called Fred's Mexican and Cantina. We ate out on the patio with a nearby firepit for the kids to warm up too. Rob was working near there in San Pedro, so he drove down and joined us for dinner that night. It was another late night getting home, but well worth the drive. Thank you Mattsson family for inviting us. We will always be your beach bum friends.

Hunington Beach

I am going to call this our "Summer of the Beaches"
Since we are poor and have no big vacation plans, we have discovered how easy and inexpensive it is to pack up in the morning and head to the beach. With a few lunch snacks, beach chair, umbrella, buckets and our friends, we are 2 hours from fun. Today we headed to Hunington Beach with our friends the Mattssons. It is crazy to think that we left the desert with 109 degree weather and in just 2 hours we are sitting at the beach where is it windy, and a cool/cold 68 degrees. But no matter what the weather is like, the kids have a blast. Hunington Beach by far is our favorite. It is really clean with miles of sand. Instead of catching sand crabs and getting caught up in seaweed, the kids were catching big,black crabs. Our new found secret to getting sand off of the kids is rubbing baby powder all over them and the sand comes right off.

California Science Center

Today, Rob had to work in Woodland Hills, CA which is in L.A. I have never been to L.A. before, so the girls and I took the day off and went to help Rob work. We had such a great time spending the day together, getting out of this heat. While Rob worked on his job, we ran errands for him getting paint and stain. We got done around 3:00, then raced to the California Science Center to look around. We didn't have too much time to spend there because they closed at 5:00, but while there Raychel was able to ride the tight rope bike and we saw many cool science displays. Because it would be totally insane to get on the freeways at 5 in L.A. we drove downtown and found a huge Regal Movie Theater and saw the movie Despicable Me. It was 8:30 by the time we got out of the movie, so we grabbed a quick meal and headed home.

Raychel's 12

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYCHEL

Talk about a fantastic birthday. Raychel turned 12 on July 10th. She returned home from Girls Camp on her birthday, so Rob, Haylee and I celebrated by going to a movie (Toy Story 3) and dinner to Ruby's Restaurant. Raychel requested an ice cream cake, so Haylee and I spent the morning creating a strawberry ice cream cake covered with real strawberries. It was hard trying to keep the strawberries from sliding off the cake, but it sure tasted good. The following Wednesday we had a friends party at the beach. It was so much fun and one party we will never forget.

Beach Party

Here are a few more pictures of our Beach Trip to Mission Beach.
It turned out to be a perfect day to have a birthday party. The sun was out, surf was high, endless sand and a ton of friends.

Rachael Howell, Brooke Smith & Haylee playing in the waves!

Raychel and CoCo showing off their Seaweed skirts!

Nick Broadhead spent hours digging this huge hole for all the kids to play in.

Our friends Chris & Roxanne Risenmay

The Broadhead Family relaxing on the beach.
We also had the Howells, Mattssons and Steven's family come and play.

This is what they call "sand crabs" The kids spent hours catching these little creatures.