YIP - Week 19

Monday, May 21st

I got a call yesterday asking if I could come help with the PTA field day at school.  My friend, Lyndsay was kind enough to watch Corban and Quincy for me so that I could go help out.  It ended up being the hottest day of the year (in the low 90's) and I was feeling it.  I got my calves, shins and the tops of my feet sunburned as well as one ear and my neck.  And I lost my voice from yelling directions for a few hours.  But, the kids had fun and I was glad to get to help out.  I took this picture right at the beginning before all of the classes arrived onto the field.  Once it started I didn't have a break.

Tuesday, May 22nd

Gabby's teacher asked if I could chaperone their class walking field trip on Tuesday morning.  We left first thing in the morning and had a great experience touring Soelberg's Market and seeing behind the scenes how a grocery store works.  I got all of the girls again, just like the last field trip, but this time my nemesis was absent.  I can't believe what a difference one child can make.  The kids got all kinds of snacks and treats and had a fabulous time.  The bakery showed them how they decorate cakes and made one that said Happy Birthday Mrs. Didericksen.  It is her birthday tomorrow and the kids all sang to her and got a piece of cake back at the school.  She has been such a great teacher!  I can't even express what a difference she has made to all of the kids in her class this year.  Gabby was so lucky to have her!

Wednesday, May 23rd

Today was Quincy's last day at Bee Bright Preschool.  She completely excelled at school and can hardly wait until Kindergarten starts in the fall.  I had to include this picture that she drew on the front of her packet and what she said:  "I am special because I like persons and I be good."

 Thursday, May 24th

We have had a nest of birds living in the wall right by our bed.  They have been my early morning alarm clock for weeks now and even though they drove me crazy I couldn't destroy the nest until the babies were gone.  Well, they finally flew away and Bump was up there right after work covering the hole so that no more birds would use it.  It amazes me how incredibly noisy those little things were!  Now we just need to make the back of the house look a little bit nicer instead of pieced together wood covering up holes that birds would love to live in. . .

Friday, May 25th

Gabby woke up this morning with a fever and had to miss her last day of 2nd grade!  I went over to the school in the afternoon and picked up her final things.  She found out that she will have Mrs. McKeever next year and her 3 very best BFF's will be in her class.  That made her sick day ok.

I also took Fin and Fly to the vet this afternoon.  They both got shots and checked out ok.  They get along great and love to play together.  We just have to make sure Fin doesn't get too excited and eat her or something.  I think they will be great friends some day.

Saturday, May 26th

I got new flags for my front porch.  Today I got them all out and ironed the creases out of them to get ready for Memorial Day on Monday.  Then when I went to put them on their poles I realized that I am missing pieces and only have 3 out of 5 that can be used.  I need to figure out what to do about that.  For now I guess I will just be hanging 2 flags up on Monday.

Sunday, May 27th

Today was a good, relaxing day.  I love Sunday's so much!  Corban asked me to take a picture of him with Fly, so I did.  School's out and summer officially begins for us tomorrow!

YIP - Week 18

Monday, May 14th

Tonight for FHE we decided to build ships like Nephi.  I let the kids get creative and then we were going to go to the reservoir to float them, but Bump decided to save the drive and float them down the gutter.  It was funny how the kids were very worried about the dirty gutter.  Bump and I floated things in the gutter growing up and didn't think anything of it.  We took the hose and cleared out the gutter the best we could and then kept it on while we tried to float our various ships.  The water wasn't deep enough for most of our creations, so we ended up with little tin foil bowls and followed our boats all the way down the street.  Corban found a plastic lid of some sort that worked the very best.  Gabby tried a soda bottle top and it did pretty great too.  We had a fun time and good baths afterward.

Tuesday, May 15th

Our chicks aren't so little any more.  We are trying to figure out how to integrate them in with the big chickens this week.  We have them in a cage out by the other chickens and the big girls really want to attack these little ones.  We'll see how it goes.  Maybe they aren't quite big enough yet.

Wednesday, May 16th

The grass needed a bit of water and the so did Quincy on this hot day.  It's starting to feel an awfully lot like summer already.  I think we are in for a hot one this year.  Today I put all the red couch cushions back together after stripping them down.  I had to re-sew them back on and did not do as good of a job as my mom did, but at least my couch is clean, smells good, and is put back together again.

Thursday, May 17th

I was determined to wash my windows today.  I have wanted to do them since we did Bump's parents windows for Mother's Day.  So, I did all I could this morning and then when Bump got home he got the giant, heavy ladder out and helped to finish all that I couldn't get to.  I forget how bright and happy clean windows make me feel.  I can see out them so clearly now.  It's like when you first get glasses how you can see everything so well and you didn't realize that you had a problem before.  My windows are clean.  I am happy.

Friday, May 18th

It rained today.  It rained a lot today.  My clean windows are not quite as clean on some windows, but they are still better than they were and I am not going to let it bother me because my plants really needed that good rain storm.

Tonight I had a girls game night at my house and a farewell party for a great family in our ward that are moving to Colorado.  Of course I didn't take one picture of the entire night, so I went on Lori's facebook page and stole this picture of her family.  We will really miss them!  Especially Eliza, who is our fabulous babysitter.

Saturday, May 19th

I got a few of the extra geraniums that the ward gave out for Mother's day that I still needed to plant.  So, we got those in the ground as well as the rest of the petunias that we bought last week.  We also planted our veggie garden today.  We have some tomato, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkins, peppers, tomatillos, watermelon and yellow crookneck squash.  Where did we put them all you might ask?  We got creative and have plated them all around our yard in different flower beds besides what could fit in the garden.  We'll see how it goes.  I think it's time to get a bigger garden.

We also hosted our last babysitting co-op night tonight.  Of course I didn't take any pictures of that either.  It's been a lot of fun, but this summer will be busy and we decided to take a break.

Sunday, May 20th

What a day!  Today was ward conference and I had something to do in every hour of church as well as substituting for the ward choir leader after church.  I woke up with a phone call from the Young Women's president asking if I was coming to go over the song in Young Women's that we were singing in Sacrament meeting today.  I was confused as to why she was asking me if I was coming until I looked at the clock on my phone and it said 9:03 am.  Church started at 9:00.  I totally slept in!!  I just about died!  My alarm didn't go off and I didn't even hear Bump get up and leave for his early meetings.  I told her that I was sorry and thanks for waking me up (I have never done that before!) and to practice without me, but I would be there to lead them in Sacrament Meeting for our performance.  I then rushed in and woke up all 3 kids who were still asleep at 9:00, that is a miracle in itself, my kids never sleep in!  I called Bump who ran home from his meetings to help me get kids ready.  I got myself ready, kids ready and fed and were out the door at 9:30.  I was teaching Gospel Doctrine and had to make some copies and grab some pictures for class.  I walked in and taught just like nothing had ever happened wrong.  Yet I was shaking from the stress of not being there when I needed to be.  Of course a member of the Stake Presidency was in my class as well as a few other stake leaders because of ward conference.  The lesson went well, the girls sang a 3 part song beautifully in Sacrament Meeting, choir practice went well and even though I looked like a thrown together mess things were a success.  I just hate to think of what would have happened if I hadn't gotten that phone call!

The day ended with us going to visit some friends in Erda and coming home with one of their farm cat's kittens.  Yes, now we have a dog, 6 chickens and now a cat.  Bump wanted one to get the mice that are hanging around the chicken food, etc.  She's a cutie, but I know nothing about kittens/cats, so this should be fun.  Luckily she isn't even phased by the dog and other then wanting to try to play rough with her the dog seems ok.  I think they'll be great friends.  She keeps trying to cuddle up to Fin, but he can't seem to relax with her very well yet.  We'll see.  We named her Fly.

YIP - Week 17

Monday, May 7th

This week is teacher appreciation week at school and since my kids all have such great teachers I wanted to do some fun things for them to say thank you.  I forgot to take pictures of the other things that I did, but on Monday I sent a little bucket with some marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars with a note that says "We need s'more teachers like you!"  I wish that I could give them all thousands of dollars for treating my kids so well, but at least I could say thank you in a small fun way.

Tuesday, May 8th

We were busy putting some new plants in the yard this week.  When I dug in the back yard to put in a butterfly bush I dug up a cool old pipe.  Corban worked for quite some time with a screwdriver digging out the dirt that had totally clogged the old pipe.  What a great treasure!  Once he got it all opened up he  ran away talking to himself and said, "now we can finally play pirates."

Wednesday, May 9th

Gabby complained to me today that she doesn't like Wednesdays.  She says that all of her friends love Wednesdays because it's early out day and they get to spend the whole rest of the day playing.  But she knows that when she gets out of school on Wednesdays she has to clean.  I make them do an extra job on Wednesdays as well as cleaning up their rooms.  I tell her that if she just kept things picked up that Wednesdays wouldn't be so bad.  Oh well.  I'm just a mean mom.  Lucky for her she got to attend her first Activity Days after school and then had piano lessons, so she did get some breaks from her horrible chores!

Thursday, May 10th

I was very proud of myself today.  I have been getting allergies since moving back to Utah and last summer I finally went to an allergist.  He put me on some nose spray that helped a lot, but my prescription ran out and I needed a refill.  Today I walked into the allergist without an appointment and asked for a prescription and also asked for a shot that the doctor had spoken of that helps to kick off the allergy season.  They gave it to me and I left.  No biggie for most people right?  It is a big deal for me who hates appointments and hates doctors offices and normally wouldn't do that, but I was tired of not being able to breathe!!  Now I can and I am very happy.  The shot really hurt for a few hours by the way.  Not fun!

If you are wondering why I am taking a picture of my couch in this post it is to tell a funny story that happened to me last night/today.  Gabby has a funny habit of waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but walks around lost and confused instead of going right to the bathroom.  I usually see her wandering and grab her and make her go to the bathroom and then put her back to bed.  Last night she came wandering in and I made her use the bathroom and put her back to bed, but she didn't have any underwear on and so I put some new undies on her and she fell right to sleep.  As I walked back to bed I noticed the downstairs bathroom light was on.  I went down and turned it off.  Then I noticed the living room light on also.  So, I peaked into the living room and turned off the light and went to bed.

The next day (today) I was cleaning up the house and doing my usual mom things.  My sister, Tera called me and I talked to her while I did my dishes.  Then I walked into the living room and smelled the very distinct, very pungent smell of urine.  All the images of last night popped into my head and I realized that poor Gabby had peed somewhere in that room and I needed to find out where.  It didn't take long for my nose to find the location right in the center of my red couch.  Ick!  I am in the process of trying to get it all clean.  I had to take it all apart and I am still wondering how to get it out of the foam part - it stinks.  :(

Friday, May 11th

Multiple picture day because there were a lot of fun things that happened today.  Quincy got to ride to the fire station on the back of a fire truck with her preschool!  How fun is that?

Gabby's class had a "Mom and Me Tea" this afternoon.  The kids all performed some great songs and Mrs. Diderickson had some very nice things to say about the kids in her class.  She had things decorated so nicely and we all got some yummy cookies, brownies, cupcakes, eclairs and fruit.  It was very nice.  She is a fabulous teacher (like I mentioned previously)!

Saturday and Sunday, May 12-13th

Happy Mother's Day!

All this week Bump has been purchasing and planting different plants around the yard.  He gets this way in the spring time and uses Mother's Day to justify his purchases (which I don't mind a bit).  This year we are trying out some hydrangeas over by our hostas under the pine trees.  We'll see how they do.  We also lined the pine needle beds with rocks to make it look like it was meant to be there.  I really like how the whole area looks over there now.

I saw on a website some landscaping that I liked and one thing that I felt would help the look of our front porch area was some different height plants.  So, we bought a few boxwoods that are triangle shaped to put in front of the porch for some added height.  It doesn't look like much, but it really makes a big difference.  You also can't see in this picture, but we planted a bunch of petunias all around the plants that will fill in these front beds.

I have also been inspired for years with the window boxes of Europe.  As a tribute to my sister in Germany I did plant a few window planters at my kitchen windows.  I haven't figured how to do some permanent ones on our soft brick house yet.  But the color is so happy and fun and the flowers will fill in more as the days go on.  I want to get some for every window on my house!  We'll see how these go first.

I even am trying to fill in the sandy, malnourished dirt spot by my back door.  If I can get these lavender plants established they will do wonderfully here.  I love lavender and can't wait to see these fill in!  

We have more flowers around the yard, I haven't taken pictures of them all yet.  We have planted some roses and columbine around our light post out front and petunias all over different  parts of the yard.  We have such rocky, terrible soil and I wonder how anything makes it in our yard.  But we try and will keep on amending and trying until we have the amazing yard that both of us dream of.  I'm grateful that my hubby and I are of like minds on this.

Yesterday we went to Bump's parents and cleaned all of their windows as a gift to his mom.  I was jealous and would love to clean all of my windows too.  It'll happen.  I wish I could do the same thing for my mom, but she lives a bit too far away for that kind of thing.  She'll just have to settle with a card and gift certificate this year at least.  It's funny how I still look at mother's day as a day for my mom, not for myself.  I got to sing in church today with my 3 little kids.  We sang "Mother Tell Me a Story" from the primary book.  It's a sweet little lullaby and the kids did great!  My kids and Bump are cleaning my house because they know that makes me happy.  And it does.  I had a great week!

Baptism Day

It was such a neat thing for Gabby to be able to share her baptism day with her cousin Parlee.  I gave her the choice of having her own baptism or sharing it with Parlee and there wasn't even a hesitation.  She was so excited to be able share her day with a cousin.  These two were born 6 days apart at the same hospital.  I was on bed rest at the hospital after finding out Gabby's twin, Adara had died.  Tricia came in and had Parlee and went home while I was still in the hospital.  They put us in neighboring rooms and we spent some fun time together while we were both in the hospital.  So, it made sense to share this day together.

I had a lot of fun putting the program together and had to include some pictures of the girls growing up together on the back.  From the time they were babies, celebrating their first birthday together, and other fun times.

Here is a copy of the program.  The only change was that Tricia's dad wasn't there, so her brother Brandon was Parlee's other witness.

Gabby was so excited!

 Dallin was able to baptize Parlee.  He went first and we were the first baptisms of the day so they had just filled the font.  I guess they didn't check the temperature and when Dallin and Parlee went in they said it was really hot, but went ahead anyway.  Then when Bump stepped in he was shocked at how hot it was.  He said that if he had gone first he would have stepped back out and made them put cold water in it.  He said it was the hottest hot tub temperature.  Dallin didn't know to say anything because this was the first baptism he had performed.  Gabby told me afterward that she was afraid that her face would melt off when her dad put her under the water.  When we got the girls in the dressing room to change clothes their poor skin was bright red all over!  They cranked the cold water in the font right after we got out.  It will definitely be memorable for them!

 The girls in their pretty white dresses.  Tricia found them at Costco for a great price.  It's nice to have their birthday's close to Easter for just this purpose.  They both looked beautiful!

Gabby after the baptism with Grandma and Grandpa Williams

It was very touching.  After the baptism and before my talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost Brother Erickson, who was conducting, said a few words.  He talked of a sister in their ward, Tricia's friend Heidi, who had passed away on Gabby's birthday.  He said that she had told her kids that she would be able to witness special things that would happen in their lives like baptisms and weddings.  He said that he felt that those who had gone before were there witnessing this special day for these two girls.  

I had already had Adara on my mind that day because I just do that.  I think about how it would be to have twins celebrating these things together and it makes me miss how it could have been.  So, when he spoke I had a special witness that Adara was there with Gabby, just as she always is at special times in her twin's life.  It was hard for me to give my talk after that.  Hopefully I hid it well.  But I did tell Gabby how I felt and bore testimony that I know that her baptism is just the gate to enter to be able to see her sister again.  The spirit was very strong in that room and I am sure that everyone felt it and I know that Brother Erickson had no idea that he spoke of something that touched everyone so deeply.  It was one of those tender mercies that we see in our lives when we look for them.

After the service we all went to Lee and Tricia's house for brunch and socializing.  It was really nice.  After all the families left we headed up to visit Adara's grave with Lee and Tricia's family.  Their kids all picked flowers from the yard and the girls gave her their roses that they got from dance.  Andrew went around the cemetery picking dandelions and decorated her grave with them.  It was such a nice day.

 We let Gabby choose where we would take her out to an early dinner that night.  My parents did that with each of us and I decided to continue the tradition.  She chose Chuck-A-Rama, not my favorite, but she was in heaven.  Then she played the rest of the evening with her cousins while Bump and I went to see the Avengers (great movie).  What a fabulous day!

Gabby Celebrates 8!

There is a reason that I don't do big birthday parties every year for my children.  I mean we always celebrate it of course, but I don't let them invite tons of friends every year to help celebrate it.  It's because I have so much fun planning the party and if I could I would spend way too much on just fun little things.  Because it was Gabby's 8th birthday and kind of a big deal we planned a really fun party.

We chose to do an Around the World party and celebrate her birthday in all different countries.  The invitations looked like airline tickets and I even made little ticket sleeves for them to go in that said the destinations that we would be going to.

Once the girls got to the house I gave them each a passport that I got online from Oriental Trading. (love that place!)  I added the name stickers and a little Thank you note on the back.

I also added this page for each girl to fill out.  I just glued it into the first page of the passport.  I had a table and a box of pens for them to sit at and fill this out while we were waiting for everyone to come.

The passport books came with a middle page of stickers that looked like immigration stamps from different countries.  They had all the different countries we were going to except for Japan.  I found a great immigration stamp online and printed some out onto some address labels.  Each time we would head to a different country they would get a "stamp" when they entered.

I took out the stickers that were attached in the middle of the passport book and so there were some blank pages in the center of the passport.  I wrote "Autographs" at the top of the page and had the girls get signatures from anyone they wanted at the party.  Wow!  You never know when those little things are going to be big hits.  I think that was their favorite part of the whole passport.  So cute!

Besides their passports I gave each of them a white bag with handles (you'll see them in the pictures) and attached the cutest luggage tags that I found here.  I borrowed my friend's laminating machine and laminated the tags and attached them to their bags to be used for "luggage."  They carried the bags around the whole time and put their treasures inside for safe keeping. 

Then I forgot to take pictures for awhile.  So, I missed taking pictures of their passport making and then I missed taking pictures of their trip to Japan.  In Japan they learned to make origami cranes. I did hold back and didn't decorate each area for that country, but it sure would have been cute!  I did have a sign on the door saying what country they were going into when they got their passports stamped.

Next we visited China and I remembered the camera.  We filled bowls with mini marshmallows and gave each girl a plastic cup.  She had to use chopsticks to fill up her own cup with marshmallows.  When they filled their cups I gave them a Chinese fan to put in their "luggage" and they kept their chopsticks too.

Next we headed to Hawaii where each girl was given a flower for her hair and they got to make a lei.

After Hawaii the girls (and Corban) headed out to Mexico to smash up a pinata. They could have stayed out their all day.  They had so much fun!  While they were out there I was inside preparing for the tea party in England.

For her birthday cake Gabby chose a cupcake cake and we had a tea party.  I had little cookies from different countries, cupcakes, and they could choose peppermint tea, milk or hot chocolate to drink.  Many of the girls tried the peppermint tea and then poured it out for something yummier.  I don't blame them, I'm not a tea fan either.

After the tea party we headed into the parlor to open gifts.  Gabby was thrilled with what she got and the party was a huge success, if I do say so myself.

We only had one thing that bothered me the whole day and I am writing it because of the look on my face in the last picture.  Halfway through the party one of the girls who hadn't RSVP'd (which people are terrible about doing that these days anyway, but that's another topic entirely) and I knew most likely wasn't going to come showed up.  No biggie, right?  We were glad to have her.  But her mom not only dropped her off and drove away, but left her little 4 year old sister too!  Hello?  What's up with that?  And she wasn't a little sweet 4 year old either.  She was loud and right in my face, butting in front of the other girls in line at immigration and of course came right as we were getting the tea party set up.  I was just annoyed.  I mean who drops off a girl that wasn't invited?  Grrrr.

Other than that little hiccup, the party couldn't have gone more smoothly.  I had fun, the girls had fun, they took home fun things in their "luggage": a punch balloon that looked like the earth, a rubber ducky dressed like costumes from around the world, lots of pinata stuff, and the things from each country we visited.

After the party we were able to hang out with my brother Jared and his wife Casi who had kindly brought their girls to the party from an hour away.  They ended up staying for dinner and it was fun to let the kids play and have fun catching up with them.  We had a great day and I am so glad that Gabby loved her party.