Happy Happy To Little E!

Today is my biggest girls Birthday.
She turned eight years old. EIGHT!
She is changing and it's with mixed feelings. I have so enjoyed her forging the way of motherhood for me. She's been a good little trooper to withstand all my parenting follies. And now she shows more interest regarding the things I am doing, where I am going and why. She makes great little jokes and loves to laugh. She is still so talented and creative. She has a great imagination and which reveals her littleness still... something I am happy she hangs on to as long as it lasts.
I love her soft skin and her little freckles, I love her curiosity and interest in so many things, I love her absorbent brain and happiness for life... People tell me she looks like me and it's the biggest compliment (because she is actually prettier) :)!
Happy Birthday to my little American Girl!
We went on a special date with just Mom and Dad (saw Dispicable Me- surprisingly a riot- I def. recommend) and now have family and friends gathering this weekend for her Baptism. It's going to be a fun and special week!

Home Reboot

I'm not much of an interior designer. I like many looks and styles of things but my execution skills are greatly lacking. And it takes a lot of attention. Which requires time. Which I have growing on trees....
But lately I have noticed the neglect in my house and realize it's time for some updates. Home catalogs come in the mail with some pretty convincing styles but nothing inspires me more than Interface Flor. That is what I want my home to be like.
So, for starters... I wanted some Wegner style chairs and found one close enough locally in Vegas. Now I just have to recover the seat in something hot. Not hot hot like naughty animal fur, I mean hot as in houndstooth or something. Ideas? And not a week later as we visit my fam for the fourth, I walk into the RS room at church to see a room FULL of similar chairs. I'll take them all!
(This is why you take your iPhone to church)

Fourth of July 2010

We had a great weekend visiting family for the fourth up in Utah. I love going up there because Provo goes all out and the weather is always wonderful. There was a drop in temps for the weekend which actually made for a wonderfully comfortable morning at the parade.
{I just realized that I talk about the weather quite a bit- apparently that really affects the circumstances- I'm a geezer!}
There is never enough time to do all the things we want but we had fun with what we did.
Here are some things we enjoyed:
-Going to Toy Story 3 together
-Up Provo Canyon with cousins to make smores and play in the river (i.e. fall in the river)
-Sushi and a Real Soccer game with Scott (our redeemed anniversary date)
-Beautiful bike rides up the canyon
-going to see the Balloon launch (sans take off due to wind- Bah! Stupid weather!)
-Watching the Pleasant Grove firework show thanks to Cody/Juls secret access spot!
-Getting snow cones with Nana (um, I like snow cones).
-Checking out the festival booths downtown, indulging in cotton candy and mini donuts. Run away if you see that vendor. Boy they are good. The huge dream weavers for sale were not.
-Making 4th dinner with Mom & Scott. I have been experimenting with grilling ribs and my family were the next guinea pigs. It was fun to prepare it all with them. Xo to you!
-Cruising main on 'Parade Eve' in the scouts
-The parade (and getting up at 4:30 am with Marty for a spot- good times)
-The post parade swim/bbq at the Sumsions

Thanks family for taking the time you did to play. More of that in a week!

What Next?

I feel like this is what my kids are asking me every day. "What are we doing today, Mom? Then what's after that? And then what are we doing?" I keep telling them that they can come up with some of their own things but the library book stash gets old. We've played a lot of Yahtzee and Monopoly, Wii, watched movies, baked...I am currently making a puppet theater curtain which I hope will entertain for a while, we've made marshmallow structures and of course, a lot of swimming.
I think a pool makes a huge difference living here. I know it gets hot in Vegas but I love it. This is our 'long suffering'; some have wicked winters, we have hot summers. And nothing is better than relaxing out there with our snow cones.
Hope you're enjoying your summer!