Just Heeling

A few months ago I found some heelys on clearance at Mervyn's. The kids have been begging for heelys for forever, so we bought them each a pair. When they first started wearing them they had to hang onto me to walk, and I was really questioning why I had bought them at all. But within a couple of weeks they had become experts on "heeling" and now instead of lagging behind us when we're at the store they just roll right on past us. Derek wishes they had been invented when he was a kid...

Downeast Coupon!

Use code LABOR50 for 50% off on all clearance items. They don't have as much in their "sale" section as last time they offered this coupon, but it's worth a look!

Silent Auction

Design Mom has "officially declared this Thursday, August 28th, as Nie Nie Day". Swing by her blog to see the many ways (and lots of other auctions) to participate in honoring and assisting in the fundraising efforts for Christian and Stephanie Nielsen!

I'll be joining her in hosting a Silent Auction on my etsy shop blog. ALL proceeds will be going directly to help the Nielsens, so come check it out.

A fun place to shop

For the past few months I've been searching for a turquoise colored shirt to match one of my skirts. I did have some old ones that matched, but they were getting worn out and I wanted to find a new one. It seemed that none of the stores carried this particular color anymore.

Last week I decided to stop by one of my favorite places, Susie's Deals, and lo and behold there was a turquoise shirt that fit perfectly for only $3. I bought two.

Susie's Deals is a discount store that carries overstocks and everything is $5.99 or less. I love bargain shopping! You do need to look closely because they do carry some seconds, but most of their stock is in great shape. Sometimes I find only a couple of things, and sometimes I find lots. You never know what they're going to have. They do carry clothing for men and children, but the majority is women's and junior's clothing. I've found clothing brands that are carried in Target, Walmart, JCPenney, Sears, Old Navy, etc, so you never know what to expect-- but it's fun looking.

You can find a Susie's Deals in Provo, South Jordan, Clinton, and Magna. They also have stores in Arizona, Nevada, and California.

Can I have a raise?

A few weeks ago Ethan asked for a raise in his allowance.

He wanted 50 cents extra a week.

I told him that if he would not fight with his sister, and if he would mind his mom and dad all week that he could have a 50 cent bonus for the week.

He hasn't gotten a bonus yet.

It's Bedtime...

And this is what my children are doing. They are in the middle of the hall playing their gameboys!

At least they're not fighting like they were all day long today.

Sigh... Maybe someday they'll get to bed on time.

Father Son Campout

Last week was a busy week for Derek too. He was in charge of planning the Father/Son campout. He was a bit stressed out about it since he also had to do 2 talks and 2 ward audits this month, but he pulled it off! Friday after school he and Ethan headed up to Clyde Creek.


Ethan loved using the bows and arrows that Ty Black brought.

He was also responsible for feeding everyone breakfast. They had breakfast burritos, and they didn't even run out of food!

Everyone had a great time.

Julia and I were thinking about having a girls' night out with my sisters but they were busy, so we ate dinner together, she took a long bubble bath (which let me finish up some necklaces), and we read some stories until she had to go to bed. It was a nice relaxing night.

And then I stayed up too late reading and falling in love with Nie Nie's blog. Remember to keep them in your prayers!

Julia's thoughts on heels

"How do you walk in these things?"

Apparently she has forgotten the days of her younger childhood when she used to clop around in those plastic dress up "things"...

Oh, and check out the size of that corn we picked from our garden today!

Whirlwind week

I thought this week would be more relaxed with the kids in school. Boy was I wrong! Of course I did have family in town this week, that did make it a bit busier. My sister Tamara was in town from Ohio and we got to see her and her family for a couple of days. We went miniature golfing at Trafalga on Thursday (don't tell my kids that I went without them-- they were in school). I guess it has been a while since I've been there-- everything at the indoor course has been changed. It is now a glow in the dark theme with sea life painted on the walls.

Do you see the blur in this picture? That was because Rebekah suddenly ran away when the camera was almost done with this picture.

Baby David got to take a short nap in the mei tai carrier I had brought along.

Ethan and Julia had so much fun seeing their cousins! Look how big baby David got!

Game night with cousins.

The obligatory "silly face" picture (we had to take a silly one for them to behave in the other pic).

Ethan and Rebekah.


We had so much fun while they were here. It's so sad to me that my kids don't have any cousins that live anywhere nearby. Maybe some day!

Prayers for a sweet family in need

My sweet cousin Becca recently blogged about NieNie, and though I haven't read her blog until now their family tragedy just broke my heart. She and her husband were recently in a private plane crash in Arizona. The pilot was killed and she and her husband were severely burned and will be in the hospital for quite some time. They have four young children and I just can't imagine how difficult this must be for everyone involved. Please keep Christian and Stephanie, their family and children, and the family of the pilot in your prayers! Updates on Stephanie (NieNie) and Christian can be found on her sister's blog.

Here is the news footage of the story.

Our little farmers

First day of school

I just got back from taking Ethan and Julia to school. My house is so quiet! I was wondering what I was going to do with both of them in school all day now-- Ethan is going into 3rd grade and Julia's going into 1st. And then I remembered, I need to go to the grocery store, finish a couple of necklace orders, pick up the house, mop, vacuum, dust, do laundry, read blogs, I think I'll be able to keep myself busy for a while!


I hope they have a great first day!

EZ Take Out Burger vs In-N-Out

We had heard that EZ Take Out Burger was supposed to be like In-N-Out so after a day full of swimming we decided to head over there for dinner (I promise we don't actually eat out that often).

Our chocolate shake tasted a lot like our shake at In-N-Out...

The fries were pretty close too...

But the burgers were definitely not as good as In-N-Out. They were just nothing special.

In-N-Out wins, too bad there isn't one closer!

Rasberry Almond Bars

I took these to a barbeque last weekend and they were a big hit, everyone kept telling me how good they were. I love them too! The recipe can also be found here.
Berry Almond Bars

1/2 cup butter
1 cup vanilla baking chips
2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup any flavor of berry jam (I used seedless rasberry jam)
1 cup vanilla baking chips
1/4 cup sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch square baking pan. (I doubled the recipe and put it in a large cookie sheet/ jellyroll pan, last time I used a 9x13 pan and it was quite gooey.) In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Remove from heat and add 1 cup vanilla chips, but do not stir.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Gradually mix in the sugar. Stir together the softened chips and butter, and blend into the egg mixture along with the almond extract. Combine the flour and salt; stir into the batter until just mixed. Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. In a small saucepan, over low heat, warm the jam to make it more liquid. Spread the jam over the warm crust. Stir the remaining cup of vanilla chips into the batter (I used the entire package doubling the recipe at the beginning so I just didn't add any extra at this point, it was still great), then drop the rest of the batter by teaspoonfuls over the jam. Sprinkle with almonds.
Bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.
Yum!

A trip to the water park

I guess we didn't get enough of crowds at the dinosaur museum because yesterday we decided to go to Seven Peaks. It was outrageously crowded, lines for the water slides were almost an hour each. But if you enjoy not having an inch of elbow room in the water, and being smashed by tubes on all sides then I'd say we had a great time! As long as you don't count the time when Julia slipped down the middle of our tube and was choking on water but couldn't get out, or the time when both kids were on the tube and it flipped in the deep end while the waves were going, it was a very fun filled day. (It's a good thing they improved their swimming skills this summer-- they had to use them!)

Julia was feeling adventurous and kept going down this baby slide upside down.

Ethan and Julia both jumped off this rope swing.

Julia enjoying the waves in the shallow end.

Ethan riding the waves in the tube.

Mmmm, Dippin' Dots!


Our scenery on the way home...

Dinosaur Museum

We decided to brave the crowds today and took advantage of $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point. There were a LOT of people there, the line was out the door when we arrived. I debated on whether or not we really wanted to wait in that line forever to get in, but the kids said they really wanted to go, so we stayed. Luckily the line moved quickly and we were inside the museum within 10 minutes, with thousands of other people.

One of the kids' favorite parts is always the sand and water area. This area was packed but we were able to find a small spot to squeeze in, and I grabbed a couple of toy dinosaurs off another kid's large pile so they'd have at least one each to play with.


It was so crowded!!

The sand part at the end was really crowded too. Ethan decided to sit this one out, but Julia still wanted to go in and dig for dinosaur bones.
We're glad we went, even though it was jam packed.