Family visit

My brother, Josh, and his wife, Becky, came to visit us from CA. We had a great time. On friday we went to Salt Lake City to the This is the Place monument. We had a fun time panning for gold and riding the little train.

1st day of school

The girls are getting so big and hitting these huge milestones that really won't matter in the future...but for now we are so excited for school. Rieley is officially a full day student. Morgan has begun kindergarten too. The excitement has been building since the first day of summer vacation and now we are here.

Morgan only went for an hour on her first day and then she is off the whole week for testing. I understand, but it sure is a bummer to keep sendind Rieley each morning and having to tell Morgan that she still has to wait. Rieley has loved all day school. She loves school lunch and wouldn't miss school on Friday because they were having P.E. that day. Leyton was bummed because she doesn't get to go. She still has two more years before kindergarten. On the day we went to find out the teachers she excitedly asked; "who's my teacher?" So sad. Atleast she'll get some one on one time with me......and Devyn. The picture of her and Todd from behind is what she looked like having to go back to the car while her sisters were staying at school.

You know you're in Utah when......

Okay, so there are a few requirements to living in Utah. The one that I am currently working on is the art of canning. I have been somewhat hesitant......not because I think it is lame, but because I am lame and afraid to do it. Some things I can't just read about and feel confident in executing. I can't just buy some jars and a large pot and give those veggies a water bath. Safety requires much more. So, our friend, Bonnie, feeling sorry for me, decided to walk us through a session of apricot jam canning. Basically she did it and I assisted, but it did the trick. I was ready to venture out on my own. Plus Todd has been pushing it for awhile and he decided to plant like 14 tomato plants. I really had no choice. I bought the pressure cooker(because if I'm going to do it, let's do it right). I looked up directions on line and I was off. The start was going pretty well. I peeled the tomatoes with the boiling water to ice water procedure. I filled the jars and was sterilizing the lids. I put the jars in for their "bath" and waited....and waited and waited for a boil. Okay, so my pot is huge and my stove doesn't get so hot. All I really got were some bubbles here and there. So now I have a giant, almost boiling pot on my stove. I don't know whether it is boiling enough to start the 45 minute timer. Then I notice that one jar has broken. "Great, is another one going to explode and go flying into my face or one of my girls?" Now the fun is all gone and I am afraid. I boiled it(semi-boiled) it for double the time just to be sure. If I really knew about canning then maybe I would have known what to do or what to expect. This is the whole reason I had taken so long to do it in the first place. By the end of the evening I was high strung and flustered. Not the best experience in my life. I will give it another try, though....but not for a little bit.

School clothes.

That time of year is here again and we are super excited! Rieley will finally be going for a full day with 1st grade and Morgan jumps in right behind her with Kindergarten. It is really exciting that they are both this old. What a fun time in life. They cannot wait to go. Neither can Leyton. When we went to the school to see the teachers that were posted, Leyton asked, "Who's my teacher?". I'm so sad that she still has two more years before Kindergarten. She has a late birthday which puts her behind.

Anyway, of course we had to go shopping for clothes. The girls all had way too much fun. Todd is going to need another job to support our love for it. We had some good Mother/daughter time at Target. I only wish that I had gotten so many clothes when I was young.........or atleast cute clothes(sorry Mom). That's okay, I will live vicariously through my kids.

Just cute

Aren't they so cute. I get a kick out of all my little ladies. They are all little nuts.

Camping

It seems that this summer has flown by without a second glance my way. There were so many things that we were going to do. Granted, we did did some fun things and we did go places, but time is disappearing. Camping was one of those things that we were going to do more of. Unfortunately, camping is not something I like to do by the seat of my pants. It needs to be decided upon and planned for ahead of time. What some spouses may not realize is that it takes time, effort and organizing to plan a functional campout. All of the kids needs have to be met. Do they have warm clothes? Will they need them? What do we need to accomodate a baby? What will we eat? Do we need to go to the store? Of course we do because the food we have at home is never "camping food". Toothbrushes, brushes, flashlights, diapers, wipes for everyone, earplugs incase someones generator is too loud(sorry honey that we forgot those). Pillows, entertainment for the girls, bugspray......do you get my drift? Atlast we were able to PLAN our camping trip for last weekend. We went up Ogden canyon to somewhere we had never been before. I must say that we were very impressed. It was beautiful and the air was fresh and pleasant. I love the smell of the foliage in the mountains. We had a great time and everyone was warm enough. We will definitely go back......as long as we plan ahead.

A real dining set.

All of our married life we have never really had a good dining set. It has either been garage sale or D.I.(which isn't bad if they match or aren't broken). The day has finally arrived........we can all fit at the table. I found this table at D.I. and decided that I really liked it. It was simple, sturdy and only 40 bucks. I decided that I was willing to go on the hunt for some good chairs to complete the set. Chairs are not as cheap as I was hoping...unless they were really ugly and would fall apart. Even ugly ones were pricey. I decided that I was willing to pay a little more(granted they were still a good enough deal) since I had gotten the table so cheap. After a bit of a wait and a mis-hap in shipped items, we have this finished product. Who knew it would feel so good to have a complete dining set that looks nice....and we can all fit. Now to get rid of the carpet under the table. One thing at a time.