Mustang Show

LeRoy took Derek, Erika and Justin to the Ford Mustang Show on Saturday. Levi was off to Montana for a concert so the others had to have pictures to brag to Levi that they went and he missed it. Justin was off enjoying the free lunch and games so missed out on the pictures.

2 week review

1 sister here for a visit

2 sisters out to a movie

2 movie lines stuck in my head

1 craft done together

2 fun days making memories

4 days laying sod
8 teenagers helping
1/2 an acre of grass
16 bare feet happy as can be

1 night
4 month old sleeping for 12 hours
8 hours of peaceful mommy sleep
4 hours productive office work
1 satisfied, energentic mommy

1 night
2 year old throwing up
2 hours of sleep
0 hours office or house work done
1 exhausted mommy

6 contractors paying their bills on time
1 contractor requests invoice by fax
1 invoice sent by fax on Tuesday
1 check received on Wednesday for fax sent on Tuesday
1 relieved, appreciative wife/secretary

1 building contractor going bankrupt
$13,000 still owed to us
0 checks in the mail
1 frustrated, stressed out wife/secretary

1 night of bunco

13 silly women

5 prizes

1 rejuvenated mommy

6 loads of laundry done (for now)

1 kitchen sparkling clean

6 lbs. lost

4 quarterly tax forms to send off

2 boys on bike ride

1 girl swimming at neighbors

1 young man at work

2 boys down for naps

1 daddy working hard

1 content mommy doing her best

1 day at a time

Nathan and Andie

These two are so adorable together! It is funny to hear all of Nathan's chatter in a female voice and to see that they are so close in age. I love the videos that we got of the two of them drawing on the chalkboard together at grandma's and jumping on the bed together. They followed each other around, chattered nonstop and seemed to completely understand each other.

Eating together at the Arimo park.

Watching TV together

It is sad that they probably won't see each other for 2 1/2 years. They will be almost 5 by then!

Uncle John

It was great having John visit us for a couple of days. Though he may feel that he was a little ignored by the kids while he was here he sure leaves an impression on them. Here are some of my favorite pictures of John.

Entertaining the crowd on the 4th of July

Teasing with Landon

Chillin' with Hyrum

Erika looked out her window to see this and commented: "Holy crap he's buff! Mom, where's the camera? I have to show this to Ali!"

This should be some kind of ad or something. Even the 'stubborn marine' can appreciate a little quiet fishing time and a Dr. Pepper.

The 2 memories of our time with John that don't have pictures are with Derek and Nathan.

John was wearing a "Hooters" t-shirt and we kept teasing about it, John defending that they just have great wings. Derek was clueless, which is good, but really wanted in on the secret.

Nathan greeted John with a 'hang loose' sign of the fingers saying 'sup' to be real cool. John worked on teaching him the 'rock on' sign instead so it didn't look silly. Way to protect the kids' cool reputation!

We all love you John!

4th of July

The 4th of July is my least favorite holiday ever. Ok - so the holiday itself is not terrible. It is the dangerous (illegal) fireworks display that my husband puts on every year that scares me. I'm not even against fireworks. I love watching the big show in Idaho Falls and even enjoy the sound, smell and sight of the fireworks. What goes on at my house is anything but safe, (with a 7 year old carrying around a blow torch to light his bottle rockets) and did I mention illegal? Three different years we have had the police show up to confiscate LeRoy's stash. Not my idea of fun.

This year however, was a great 4th! Probably because I spent the day the way I wanted to and by the time I got home the fireworks were all done. I had a great time in Arimo with Mom, Dad, John, Jared, Joe's family, Jim, Kellie and Shawn. It was fun to eat at the park for lunch and see so many Arimo people that I loved, admired and knew as I grew up. Everyone just looked . . . older.

Half of us. Mom noticed: 2 oldest, 2 middle and 2 youngest

The parade was short and sweet. I think it only lasted about 10 minutes and of course there was candy, plenty of candy. This is the only shot I got of the parade, which makes sense since Jim and John were the only people in the parade that I really knew.

After lunch the boys got together to play baseball and the rest of us sat at the park and chatted. It was so relaxing. No phone, no entertaining to do, just fun visiting. It was great to watch all the cousins play together.

Grandpa and Grandma with all the visiting grandkids.

Then there was fishing with Grandpa. It was kinda supposed to be Shawn and Dad's thing but they took some of the kids with them. (This was right around the same time that LeRoy, Erika, Derek and Justin went home for their own fireworks.) What a fun Grandpa to take them all fishing. Levi didn't really care about the fishing as much as paddling the canoe.

Dad looks funny in this shot because he was leaning forward using his knees to push the canoe on shore. He isn't really a hunchback ogre.

Levi and I drove home that night and we were caught in traffic for about an hour from Idaho Falls to Rexburg because of construction and the traffic from the major firework show in Idaho Falls. When we got home we discovered that we moved into the perfect neighborhood for LeRoy. He was outdone. Had a small firework show compared to 2 of our neighbors. Not good for me, they are all combining and planning next years 4th of July. Hmmm. . . . maybe Arimo should be my 4th of July hangout every year.

Left Foot, Left Foot, Right Foot, Right

I have been having trouble with my right foot since about January. During the last few weeks my left foot has been hurting also and the pain has gotten to the point that I am limping. I finally set a Dr. appointment with a Podiatrist to get it checked out.

What I was told is that some time (probably around 6 months ago when the pain started) I somehow fractured my sesamoid bone (knotty looking bone at the ball of the big toe) on my right foot. Since I never took measures to let it heal, the bone has since separated into 2 bones and that is fine, livable. However, because of the pain of that and me just ignoring it and blaming the pain on pregnancy, I now have a fractured metatarsal which is causing the majority of my pain (and the limp) now.

My options were to cast it or to buy new stiff gym shoes and wear an insert with them. I opted for the shoes. I need new shoes anyway and I don't like the idea of not being able to take the cast off at night. Wearing shoes all day long is a struggle for me. I spend 90% of my day barefoot!

The Dr. didn't want to give me an anti-inflammatory because I am nursing so he gave me some cream to apply directly to the foot which should help a little. He did say that the anti-inflammatory would help the healing process so I called Rilda and got some herbal stuff that should do just as well without affecting Hyrum.

So after wearing shoes all day my foot does feel better but I had to keep taking them off. It's too hot. I feel like my feet are suffocating! At least it's not a cast and hopefully it will all feel better soon (hopefully sooner than the 6 weeks he is telling me). I go in again in 2 weeks to see if it is improving with the shoes. If not, he still wants to cast it. Ok, Ok - I'll wear the shoes!

Oh, and BTW, after thinking back to what may have caused this in the first place . . . it was probably from trying to kick a block of ice off of the porch in January. The ice didn't budge but my toe and foot hurt for weeks. Then every time I kicked the slush and ice off of the tires on the Yukon I probably injured it more because I would have throbbing pain every time I did it. It was just habit!

Family Picture

The last time we had a family picture was when Nathan was about Hyrum's age, almost 2 years ago! So on Sunday I had mom take a quick picture.

Derek's Big Day(s)

Happy Birthday Derek!

Derek's birthday was actually last Wednesday but because of 2 camping trips we said Happy Birthday on Wednesday and celebrated it on Sunday.

First, Derek went on a hike . . . an 18 mile hike! It was his first backpacking hike where he had to take everything on his back for the 2 day trip.

When he got home he was covered in dirt, had a very tired smile on his face and was limping from 2 huge blisters on his feet.

I am amazed at how a hike/camp of this sort seems to transform my boys into young men. Derek has always been a little bit of a softy and quite emotional but as he told me about his trip and I heard later from his leaders, he really grew up in those 3 days and handled the work, blisters, soreness and tiredness really well. His weakness was talking and singing in his sleep. And Saturday morning he was so tired that he didn't get out of his tent until the other boys started folding him up in it . . . and because it was shaped a little like a coffin (small one man tent) they threatened to put a "here lies Derek" sign by it.

After Derek got back on Saturday, LeRoy and I took him to dinner and let him pick out a present for his birthday. His big present is a suit, but we have to find one small enough and have it fitted (on todays schedule). He picked out a remote control truck and by Sunday it was hard to seperate him from his truck.

Sunday brought the very best part of Derek's 12th birthday. He received the Priesthood. As he had interviews with the primary president and then the bishop and then his deacon's quorum presidency came over to welcome him he seemed to grow at each step. The ordination was a beautiful blessing and as I listened I had glimpses of what a great young man Derek is, that his soft heart and gentle manner will be a blessing in his life and others.

Then we finally got to singing a real Happy Birthday to him and ate cake. It was a treat to have Jake, Jessica, Mom and Dad celebrating Derek's big day with us.

Daddy's Little Girl

Yesterday (Sunday) Erika was trying to do curls all through her hair and was having trouble getting the back done. She had asked for my help but I put her off because I was looking through my FHE files for an activity that LeRoy wanted to use for his primary lesson. I told her I would help her when I came back upstairs.

As I came up the stairs this is what I saw:

It was so endearing to me that all I could do for a minute was stare and smile.

Then I quickly grabbed the camera to catch this memory for Erika to see that her dad would do anything for her . . . even curl her hair and apply hairspray.

2 Smart!

I was trying to find something for Hyrum that I knew Nathan had been playing with. I asked if it was downstairs, he said 'uh huh' and headed to the stairs. At the first step he stopped, turned and said to me "atch we, snot down sairs" and walked into the kitchen to get what I had been looking for.

Translation: "Actually, it's not down stairs".

He is using the word 'actually' at age 2?

During church he was sitting on LeRoy's lap, leaned over me to whisper (in 2 year old not so quiet whisper) "Derek, come here". Derek just smiled so he leaned over again and whispered louder, "Derek, come here now!".

Hmmm. . . I wonder where he has heard that from.