5 favorite things...july 27, 2008

This last week we've been busy getting last minute things done so we can leave on vacation tomorrow. But you know us, we always find time for entertainment of some sort!! So this week I'm thankful for all the entertainments we've been enjoying lately:

• perfect weather
• summer picnics
• good friends
• playing at the beach and hearing the waves crash
  
• guitar hero
  

"Look Mom, I did it!"

My mom will be so proud when she sees this post! I didn't kill my bogenvia after all! Last fall when she came to help me for Carley's birth, we spent a few days landscaping. We got three lovely bogenvia plants and my mom helped me plant them right next to my house where they could climb up safely. They were so gorgeous, I really loved them.

Naturally winter arrived and they dropped their leaves and went into hibernation for the winter.....well they never came out of hibernation this spring. I was sooo sad. I thought I'd somehow killed them over the winter. I looked up info on the Internet and asked questions to local gardeners, but no concrete answers. One man from church told me that if I couldn't get bogenvia to grow, I wasn't much of a gardener. What was I supposed to say to that? I didn't want to pull them out, actually that's stretching the truth a bit. I have been lazy and busy during the summer so they were forgotten.

Well imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when they began to grow green healthy leaves! And now flowers!!!

Hospital Staff Picnic

Today was the annual picnic for all the hospital staff and their families. They have it right next to the hospital in a big field. It's like a mini carnival. They had horse rides (Emry went on one and really liked it, her horses name was Sissy), a petting zoo, face painting, jump houses, a dunk tank (Luke almost hit the target twice, so they let him run up and smack it with his hand), a bubble blowing station, various carnival type games, and free food! All three kids had a great time. Luke & Emry both had 2 snocones a piece. It was so nice to be able to have some fun with the kids and not have it be so crazy and crowded with people. Trent had to leave early to get back to work, so the kids and I ended up staying and hanging out for a long time. The kids mostly jumped in the jump houses while I enjoyed some shade and music that the DJ was playing. It was so relaxed and stress free. The kids just played and played, they were very very good! We had such a nice time, we can't wait for next year.

Mommy School -ABC books

This week we took on a large project for mommy school. If you know me, you know that my kids and I like to make books. We've made books about shapes, colors, numbers, cars, the ocean, books for sacrament mtg...you get the idea. Our books have been made a variety of different ways using a wide assortment of supplies - clear contact paper, lamination, construction paper, card stock, magazine pics and photos...until now....we went high tech all the way!

TUESDAY: I wanted to revisit the alphabet (mostly for Emry's sake). So we decided to arm ourselves with cameras, paper, pencils and a bag for found treasure and take a walk around our neighborhood. Off we went, discussing the things around us and enjoying the sunshine. It took a little prodding on my part to get the ball rolling, but they caught on pretty quickly.























WEDNESDAY: We went through all the photos we took and decided which ones we wanted to have included in our "most awesomest book yet". Then that night while the kids were in bed I arranged the pages in photoshop and printed everything out.

THURSDAY: We cut the covers (out of cereal boxes). Decorated the covers using markers and our mad artistry skills. Then we (by we I mean Luke and I, Emry was in charge of keeping Carley busy) sewed the pages and book covers together.
Viola! A masterpiece to be proud of for sure.

I'm thinking, wait it will come...

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was a great idea. Please feel obligated!!! Ha ha

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

5 favorite things...july 20, 2008

Tonight I'm posting Trent's 5 Favs:

• Seeing the light of day after 30+ hrs in the hospital 
• getting the chance to sleep while on call (this is rare)
• one on one time with one of my kids (Trent also said, "or my wife", but I censored him)
• family movie night
• Red Heads

Water + Giant Bowl = Fun!

Yesterday the kids were playing outside with water and Luke decided to filled a giant bowl up with water for Carley to play in. She absolutely loved it! She had so much fun splashing and sloshing! Luke had to fill up the bowl at least 3 times. She even tried to pick it up at one point.


Public Notice: This could be incriminating evidence in a few years. Luke wanted to have long hair really bad, like a surfer. So we've been trying to indulge him and haven't cut it since he got out of school. This is what he looks like now, a shaggy mess. We really need to cut around his neck and ears to give it some shape, but we just haven't and now he's looking a little scary. He loves it though. He likes to do it up in mohawk fashion...except his is unique because it's not vertical on his head it's horizontal!!! I'll try to take a better pic next time he styles it!

Constellation Fun!

Today we talked about the constellations in the night sky. I also found this idea online at the crafty crow. We had fun looking them up on the Internet and printed out some views of the night sky. We also read some of the stories of how the constellations were named. Emry had a hard time visualizing this concept so we headed outside and looked at the clouds. We played that game where you imagine the clouds to be certain shapes...that seemed to help her understand better. Anyway, they liked picking out the constellations they wanted to make and helped me draw the lines and punch the holes for stars. Then we hung them up onto the glass door so we could see the sun come through and it really did look like we made stars! We made The big dipper, the little dipper, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus, Hercules and Pisces. We wish we still lived with Grandpa May so we could star gaze with him tonight!

This is Ursa Major (Great Bear) & Ursa Minor (Small Bear). Don't forget the North Star

This is Perseus. He saved a princess from a sea monster.

This is Pegasus....Emry had to do this one of course, we wouldn't expect anything less.

Mommy School Craft

Every day for 1 hour we have Mommy School. It's a time when we turn off the tv, put the toys away and learn something new. Normally we have a scripture story, sing songs, play a quick game (usually Simon says, my kids just can't get enough), have a short lesson and do an activity of some sort. Today, we shook things up a bit and only did an art project. I found this cool idea on the cookie mag, nesting blog this morning and fell in love. Off to Michaels we went to get supplies, the kids were pretty excited to pick out their own paint color and who doesn't love to wander around a craft store? The project itself was inexpensive and super fun. I laid out newspaper and let the kids go to town painting their canvases. It was soooo nice to have a stress free craft that they could really do themselves from start to finish and not be able to mess up in anyway, success! Getting the hand prints to show up proved a little more challenging than I expected, but if we didn't like it we just wiped it off, repainted and tried again!

Husband Tag

Disclaimer....this isn't usually my sort of thing. I love to read everyones tags, but I tend to shy away from actually doing them myself. However, a friend (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) put my name specifically on their blog, so now I have to do it....here goes:

What is his name?
Trent K. Price

How long did we date?
3 weeks, that sounds bad, but we'd known each other for awhile before we actually started dating.

How long have we been together?
9 years total, 8 years of marriage!

How old is he?
32

Who eats more?
He can eat me under the table, unless we're having seafood!

Who said I love you first?
Haha, this is a funny story. We had been taking a stroll and skipping rocks on the banks of Utah Lake when he told me he loved me. I totally froze. I'd never said those words out loud to a guy before. The pressure was on big time because I knew I loved him back, but actually telling him was a huge huge deal for me. It signified just how serious and committed to our relationship I was...big step. My continued silence was an immediate red flag to Trent and he started freaking out a little, asking me if I was ok, I'm sure I'd made him feel like a complete idiot and that our relationship was over. Anyway, we got back into the car and started to drive home...15 agonizing minutes later we were getting off the freeway, merging onto the ramp to head towards Provo (the one by UVSC and Krispy Kreme) when I was finally able to collect myself and break the silence with an I love you of my own. I'm so lame I know, but it was pure and from the heart.

Who is taller?
Trent is without question.

Who can sing better?
We're both middle of the road singers. Not terrible, but not great either. We sing at church and in the car, but you won't be seeing either of us in any choir anytime soon, or ever.

Who is smarter?
Trent is smarter. He's really talented at retaining learned information and being able to recall that info when necessary.

Who does the laundry?
I do

Who does the dishes?
I do, he helps when he can

Who mows the lawn?
He does

Who cooks dinner?
I do. I love cooking!! When Trent cooks, it's scary, like playing kitchen concoction when you were little, you know with your friends blindfolded. It's funny when you're little, but I don't recommend it at dinner time! He is getting better at grilling though.

Who catches dinner?
Trent of course! (I had to add onto the tag, b/c you couldn't possibly know anything about my husband if you didn't know he is a fisherman at heart!)

Who drives?
We both do, but I like it best when he does.

Who kissed who first?
He kissed me first. We were both a little rusty so the actual first kiss was pretty hilarious. It was so awkward and terrible that we just looked at each other with knowing eyes and said simultaneously,"let's try that again" and we did............perfection!

Who proposed?
Our engagement was done backwards. We were engaged, had a temple date and I had a dress all before I had a ring and the official proposal. So I'll start at the "decision"...we were sitting on the steps of a grade school close to our apartments talking when he asked me how I felt about getting married. We'd talked about it before and were both thinking we'd get engaged in December and married the following spring. But his brother was leaving on his mission in August and Trent's entire family was going to be in town, so...what did I think? Well I blew him out of the water by saying, I already had prayed about "us" and had had a special experience confirming my answer. So I was a yes...he went to the temple the following day and boom the decision was made, but we were unofficial.

About 3 weeks later he made it official by getting down on his knee. One of the councilors in our stake presidency had horses that he let anyone use, so Trent had planned a nice day for us to go riding. So I wasn't suspicious. As Trent was saddling up the horses, he was really tense and in such a hurry, that I began to get a little annoyed at him for ruining our nice day together. He was getting a little short with the horse b/c it kept holding its breath while he cinched the saddle tight and then it would be loose, funny horse. Anyway, we go on this trail up the mountain side and there is a little gazebo that he wanted to go to, but we'd just started our ride and I wanted to stop on the way back. He wasn't having any of that, so he talks me into stopping for just a minute. As we ride over to the gazebo idiot that I am says, "Oh, look somebody left flowers her...and then I trail off b/c I see a table with not only flowers, but chocolate dipped strawberries, glazed grapes, cider and a ring box...realization hits me and I'm felling like a dork. Trent of course gets down on one knee and the rest is history.

Afterwards he tells me that his roommate was supposed to have all of the stuff set up before we arrived, but he was just leaving when we got there and Trent was afraid I'd seen him (which I didn't). It also explained why he was so anxious to get the horses saddled and everything since the ring was just sitting up on the mountainside...crazy guy!

Who is more stubborn?
definitely me

Who is more sensitive?
me again

Who wears the pants?
We each have one leg in the pants. I pretty much run the show when Trent's not around and I try to allow him to lead when he is around. Sometimes this approach gets confusing, but it seems to work for us.

5 favorite things...july 13, 2008

This past week was pretty chill. We mostly stayed home because Carley was sick, but sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to just stay home.

1. moments of enlightenment, you know that "aha" feeling
2. successful shopping trip, i found just what i was looking for
   
3. holding hands
4. kids who fall asleep at church (2 of ours did today)
5. teamwork
   

Carley

She's not walking yet, but as per some requests here's a photo of her standing. It's not the best, but you get the point. I think she'll be walking soon, she's walking along all the furniture and thinks about letting go, but doesn't. I really hope she figures it out soon because she's ruining the knees in all her cute little outfits!!

She's been sick AGAIN this past week. Same thing as always (high fever, moody, clingy). We are trying not to be worried about this recurring fever business, but it's hard when she's sick every other week. Since kids get sick all the time there isn't much we can do as of now other than document each illness. It's just tiresome. Luke and Emry weren't sick like this so it's new for us. Kids are so demanding when they're ill and it's starting to take a toll on our family so we're hoping that she grows out of this soon!!! We've been spending almost every evening outside because she's so happy there. It's really the only time she let's me put her down. So viva la backyard!!!

UNinvited House Guest

Trent and Luke were digging around in our front hall closet looking for their baseball mitts and Luke spied an intruder of the four legged kind. I was preparing a bath for Carley and missed the initial commotion, but Trent yelled to me, "there is a lizard, a big one, in the front closet!" At first I was like, "so, get it out." But he did say that it was big, so I went to investigate. All I could see was the tail sticking out in between a few boxes and suitcases, it was a pretty long tail. So Trent went to work setting up barriers around the closet, making a path to the front door for our little house guest. The kids and I were all holding couch cushions and I of course went to grab the camera. Trent got him to come out of the closet and after a few blockades by the broom he finally made his exit out the front door. It all happened really quickly and then he was gone into the garden. Luke and Emry thought it was pretty exciting, I think secretly they wanted to keep him in the closet as a pet....not happening.