Fancy Nancy

Since Rachel's birthday is December 27th, I pleaded with her to have a summer birthday party when I was 9 months pregnant with Hannah. Last summer was the first of the 1/2 birthdays, and when her birthday rolled around in 2008, again I promised that she could have a summer birthday party again. Well summer came, and we were really busy as a family, but she kept talking about her party all summer long and of course WOULD NOT let me forget. So before school started we had her birthday on Monday, August 17th. She absolutely loves the Fancy Nancy Books, and checks them out at the Library whenever she finds them. (For those of you who don't know who Fancy Nancy is she is a little girl that makes and says everything fancy...very cute books.) So we had a Fancy Nancy Tea party, that was a HUGE success. Every little girl came that we invited (except those that were out of town and Kaylee her cousin...Chalise still feels bad about forgetting.) I even had a few little girls in our neighborhood, who sometimes hang out with Rachel, ask if they could come. And Kaylee Allred missed the first day of school, she goes to a charter school, to attend. (That made me feel a little guilty, but she said it was worth it.) Brady and Zack 'willingly agreed' to be the waiters for the party, they even dressed in church pants and white shirts. Brady was also willing to wear his pink tie, but I said that it wasn't necessary, since most waiters, get a little dirty working. It was also a great opportunity to teach the girls, and my boys a little about manners and proper things to say when at a fancy restaurant.

First things first: Since Fancy Nancy has tight curly hair we had to put curlers in the night before, and of course Hannah got in on the action, but they didn't last more than an hour in her hair. Rachel was a darling Shirley Temple the next day.


Yummy food...I set out the food buffet style, so the girls could pick out what they liked. Brady and Zack's assignment was to make sure their drinks were never empty, and get them second helpings of whatever they wanted.

Rachel and her friends: Clockwise from top left Taylor, Rachel, Kaylee, Hannah, Sage, Rachel and Kierschtie, Suzi and Alex, Kaila and Ali.

All the 'Fancy Girls'

Brady, Rachel, Zack....aren't they good sports for becoming 'slaves' during their sisters' party?

Here is Zack serving strawberries.

Brady refilling a drink...he even had to clean up a few spills.

Rachel with Grammee's Parasol....this was the hit of the party. Grammee donated all of her 'jewelry' (which is more than one person can wear in a year), for the little girls to dress up in during the party.

She LOVED everything that was given too her, even though we talked about how presents are not the reason why we have parties, it is to celebrate and spend time with our friends. (We're teaching manners every chance we get.)

Fairview 5K

Every year we go down to Fairview for the 24th of July weekend. And almost every year (except when they have it on a weird day) a bunch of the family members like to enter the 5K race. It's a great little race through almost all of Fairview, since the town it so small. We love running by the horses in all the fields, and then down main street. (Just wish that we had the people through the parade route cheering us on like we did on the 4th of July Freedom Festival Race....oh well).
This year Nate was determined to beat his record minute pace. Which he did, and finish 1st place in his age group. He ran the 5K in 21 minutes...now that's fast.
They also have a kids 1 mile race, just before the 5K. We talked Brady into running, because he has been running a mile 2 or 3 times a week to gear up for football. He did great and got 2nd place in the Boys 9-12 year old group. He was thrilled to receive a metal, and a few bragging rights. His time was just under 10 minutes.
My sisters' JoAnna and Emma and their husbands also ran with us, so that we can keep each other going. Emma and I rarely get a chance to run together, but we always stick with each other in the races that we enter. We ran it in 27 minutes...so we had 9 minute miles. A little bit better than our 4th of July, 9 1/2 minute miles. I don't think we'll have many more races this year together, with our kids' soccer and football seasons starting to get underway. I guess our racing days will have to take a back seat until next spring.

My sister Emma and I at the Fairview 5K


Brady at the start of the kids 1 Mile run. Notice how he is standing...and then Nate is standing the exact same way in the back ground. Like father like son.


This is a 'high quality' picture from Nate's phone. This was a trail relay race that Nate and I along with Emma and Jeremy ran in June. It was a lot of fun, even though we like to run our leg's twice. Long story but a memorable one.

Shannon

This is just a shout out to my awesome friend/babysitter/kids friend/taxi driver/big sister/backup for whatever and whenever....Shannon Menlove. I'm sad I don't have a picture of Shannon, because I think she is a beautiful and wonderful girl. I just want to remember how much I appreciate her and all she does for me and my kids. We first met Shannon when we moved to PG, 3 years ago, she was 14 then, and was begging to babysit my kids. So we signed her up again, and again, and again. She just loves my kids, and they love her.
Rachel considers Shannon her big sister. She is always calling Rachel to go to movies, paint nails, or just go and do girly stuff. Just last week she took Rachel for an afternoon and they made tons of flower clips for Rachel to wear to school next week.
A funny little story that happened yesterday; Shannon and her family were sitting across the aisle from us in church. When Hannah started to become unruly, I tried to usher her over to Shannon who was bribing her with a package of smarties. (But Shannon's dad was sitting next to the aisle... he is a pretty big guy, but just a big teddy bear. But of course Hannah was a little intimidated, and ran for the smarties and ran right back to me....we all just chuckled a little.) It was worth a shot though.

But as I write this, I start to remember all the awesome people that my kids have had the opportunity to associate with in their short little lives already. Scout Leaders, like Angie Mazeika who spoil the cubs. And 2nd moms like Annie Clayson, that just feed Zack whenever he is over there. It is so great to live by so many awesome people and have the associations that we do.

Mt. Timp

Nate and Sara at the Saddle!

On Friday, August 7th 2009, Nate and I set out at 11:30 PM for a long...long...long hike up Mt. Timp. Seriously I didn't think it would take that long, but we were with the youth in our ward, which seemed to slow us down quite a bit. We actually didn't start on the trail until about 12:00 AM. Those kids were a lot of fun and quite talkative at first, but by about 2 or 3 am....all were quite and we would just hear a few comments here and there. Besides being one of the coldest day's ever in August history, it only felt really cold when we stopped to rest. At the lower meadow, about 1/4 of the kids wanted to turn around. So some of the leaders took them back. The rest of us found our second wind...somewhere... and made it to the saddle. What an amazing view it was from there. The sleep deprivation got to a lot of us....all but 3 leaders and 2 boys. So Nate, along with Steve Clark, Lane Watters, Chance Robbins, and Spencer Taylor, went on up to the summit to see the sunrise. The rest of us watched it from the saddle. I debated on wether or not to hike to the summit or not, but without any sleep, I felt that my reflexes wern't that sharp and I didn't want to risk falling down the mountain. I think I'd like to do it again...and make it to the summit next time. Hiking through the night was great...just to see different sets of head lamps on parts of the mountain. And then to see the view on the way down in the night was breathtaking. It definately is a lot of work, but it was fun to see the view from up there.

Ward Kids Breakfast

So a friend of ours in the ward decided that we needed to get our kids back on track since school starts next week. Whoever wanted could join the kids breakfast club. So basically we get our kids up at 7:00 am every morning. They get showered and ready, then head off to a different house for breakfast. They must be there by 7:30 or else they don't eat. They started this morning at the Scheuber's house, with yummy homemade bread and healthy-for-you chocolate spread and sprinkles. (Andrea is from Switzerland, and makes some tasty treats for everyone in the ward from time to time. She also bakes our Sacrament Meeting bread every Fast Sunday, which everyone LOVES. It's a good thing that the priests have such a hard time breaking apart the bread because it is so thick, so that we all get a little extra big piece.) Anyhow, my kids got home just after 8:00 and were all excited about being able to see friends and start the day off right. Thank you Andrea for thinking this activity up, it will make next week seem like a breeze!



Rachel, Zack and Brady enjoying some homemade bread!



Tanner and Parker Christensen....Weston and Addy Clark.....such cute kiddos!



Kim and Fay Sheuber. Looks like Fay really likes the chocolate.






All the kids at breakfast. Holmes', Clark's, Scheuber's, Clayson's, and Christensen's.

Ring around the Rosies

One of Hannah's favorite games is Ring around the Rosies. Her siblings are so great to play with her anytime that she wants. And thanks to Aunt Aimee for teaching us the 2nd verse of Ring around the Rosies, sometimes it is a little confusing for people that havn't ever heard it, but it is one of Hannah's favorites. At times you can tell that Hannah is a little catered to since she seems to rule the roost. But we love having her with our family and we are realizing just how wild and crazy she can be, just to keep up with her older brothers and sister. She gets extremely angry when one of the kids comes up and hugs me and says, "My mommy", of course they are just doing it to egg her on. But Nate and I have our own fun too, because she hates it when we hug or kiss and has to get in the middle of us and get her own kiss from each of us.

Tis the Season

We had a very busy June and July with 3 members of our household playing baseball and softball. In fact one week we had 8 games that needed to be attended and played in. (But we usually averaged about 5 or 6 games a week.) Zack played machine pitch for the Rockies (and I feel like such a loser mom, and never got any pictures from his games...so sorry Zacky). But he did great and had a fun time with 2 of his best friends on his team, Caleb and Mitchell. Brady played for the Yankees, and mostly played catcher. It was a great 'learning' year for him on how serious baseball can be. In July his coach did a Field of Dreams, and took the boys to an Orem Owls game, where they had to dress in full uniform and were able to walk out onto the field with the Owls team. Nate played on 2 softball teams. One for our ward/neighborhood team in the PG Rec League, aka Grovecreek Sandlot. The other for his work TGN in the Orem Rec League. Rachel opted to take gymnastics instead this summer (and I didn't get a picture of her either...but she is signed up for fall gymnastics, so I have a second chance.)
For fall softball, Nate's Sandlot team decided to play in the Orem Rec League...the same league as his work team. So he had to make a decision on which team to play for. It was a tough choice, but he decided to go with his work team, and rub sholders with some of the higher up's...wink, wink. He got a lot of slack from friends and neighbors, so he is making any peace offerings he can.

How does your garden grow?

This is year two of having my garden in the once weed infested area to the east of the shop. I had to have Nate cut down more trees and branches this year to be able to get more sun to the area. And I still would like more, but that means loosing the coverage of the oak trees. But the garden is growing well and my kids have enjoyed eating fresh peas while I've enjoyed some early tomatoes. In a month we'll have plenty to share with whomever and donate to our ward Harvest Station. (A place where people in the ward can put extra produce and it is free to whomever.) Here are some early pictures of peas, green grape tomatoes, and a blossom from cantaloupe. (I can't wait for all those to get ripe.)

Basketball Court

So as many of you may know we prepped the ground just to the side of our shop for a basketball court in June. The ground was dying grass, because of the shade of the trees, and kind of an eyesore. So Nate put in many hours of prep work so that he could have his court. We actually bought the b-ball rim last November, and have been waiting until the ground was ready to pour cement on. Our friend Shane Staheli pours concrete for a living and gave us a smokin' deal on our cement. As long as Nate would be his trusty side kick and help out, since Nate has helped Shane of a number of concrete jobs. Everyone asks how our boys like having their own court, and of course they like it. But not as much as Nate. If you know Nate, you know that he lives, eats, and breaths basketball. He is always out there shootin' hoops, but I love having him here so close and being able to watch him. I have a feeling his love for the game will rub off on the kids in no time. Here is a picture of him dunking a b-ball...look how much air he can still get. Not bad for an old man! Just kidding love...at least you're my old man.

Favorite Things

So I've been pretty bad about blogging lately, but with a good excuse...we've been having a fun fun summer. Staying busy, playing hard, and enjoying being together as much as we can. So I'll try to catch up as much as I can remember. One of my favorite things in the world (seriously) is to look outside and see all of my kids sitting in the sandbox, all playing together. I'm glad that the older boys love to play in there as much as Hannah does. It just makes me a happy mom to see them all hanging out together. As we were preparing the ground for the b-ball court in early June, Nate commented that in both houses I've always insisted that we have a sandbox, and both times he has grumbled a little, but he comes to realize just how valuable they are!

Family Prayer

So I have to write this real quick before I forget. Nate knelt down in our sitting room tonight and said, 'Everyone kneel down for family prayer.' So all the kids quickly minded, and as I was crossing the room to join them, Hannah, (who is 18 months) started walking around the outside of the circle tapping everyone on the head saying, "Dah...Dah...Dah..." We all started busting up laughing, because she was trying to play duck duck goose. (Our favorite FHE game.) And as we all quited down and Nate started praying, she gets up and starts again. It was hard to keep our laughs to ourselves, but we managed the best we could. And of course we had a quick game of duck duck goose before bedtime!

Cherry Hill

Hannah and Mom at the pool.

Jace didn't feel good, and ran a temperature most of the time we were there. He loved the water of course and when the Motrin would kick in he was up and at 'em.

Zack on the famous Pirate Ship.

Rachel, Brady and Zack behind the water fall.



Courtney Clayson and Hannah....they loved being in the pool together.


Nate and Hannah having fun.










Last weekend we made our annual trip to Cherry Hill in northern Utah. We usually go with family, but this year we decided to invite a couple of families in our ward to go with us, since they had never been, and since we do so much with my side of the family. We had a ball, even through the 100+ weather. Eating good food, hanging out with friends, soaking up the sun in a nice cool pool, and letting the kids run-a-muck on the ever so clean grass. (We all noticed how clean our kids actually were during this camping trip, because of the grass...usually not something that happens when you go camping.) And now since our oldest 2 are good swimmers, we just let them carry on by themselves. (Sadly they probably got the most sun burned, since they didn't want to come back to camp for lunch, which is when we re-apply sunscreen.) Everyone said they had a wonderful time...even the non-campers...and we are all planning to do it again. If you havn't ever been to Cherry Hill, I highly recomend it. It is a great stay-cation, and pretty cheap with all that you are able to do there. And I'm sorry, I know there are a ton of pictures, but believe me... I really did narrow it down. Just wanted to capture all the fun things that we were able to do...one of these days I'll learn how to put on a slide show on our blog.

I wish I would have raised the camera a bit...this is Courtney and Hannah in the ball pit and Brady jumping over the top of them. I didn't even know he was there until he landed.







Rachel and one of her good friends Autumn Redd.

Chauntel and a bunch of kiddos hanging out at camp.

Annie and Chauntel rock climbing...they were both trying to beat each other's time. Nate, Mike and Brett in the background.

FHE at the "G"

About 1/2 way through the hike...all smiles, but Hannah is long gone. She pretty much slept the whole trip up.



Still sleeping, she did finally wake up and enjoy the view, and some Oreo's!


I tried to mark on the picture our house behind the trees below, and you can see the roof of our shop.

Enjoy the view and a snack!





Well it has been 3 years since we moved into our home in Pleasant Grove. And when I tell people of the location of our place of residence, I always say, 'Right under the G'. But can you believe that we had never hiked to the 'G' as a family? Crazy, huh? We've talked about it many times, but something always comes up. So last night for FHE, Nate came home and said, "Let's go hike to the 'G'!" We heard cheers from everyone. (Except from me, only because Nate and I drove to Orem early that morning to drop off his mom's car at a mechanics, and ran home...just a mear 5 miles, until we hit 1500 East, which was a huge hill.) Anyhow, the kids were very enthusiatic during about 98% of the hike....the last steep incline, is where we heard some whining from Rachel, and Jace said, "Mom, my legs hurt." But I was so impressed with their dedication to make it to the top, and now we can all finally say, "We hiked to the 'G'!"