Rodeo Days: Grand Parade

Bekah's favorite float

Benjamin's favorite float

Captain Hook

Rodeo Days: Mini Parade

Rodeo Days: Museum

Our community's annual Rodeo Days celebration happened the last week of June. We caught one of the many free activities at the museum (the train ride) and explored the historical museum.

Riding the train was fun, even if the starting shot scared Bekah. On the second train ride, I rode with Bekah so she didn't have to be scared of the noise. I guess you're never too big to have fun with your children.

The museum has these cool magnifying glasses to use while exploring the natural history museum.

The shell room had this awesome mirror

Exploring the natural artifacts native to our area.

An old bank vault

Inside the vault

Trying on hats

One of the prisoners of the Wild West jail

Another prisoner . . . . Wait! That's my son! . . . .

. . . . and my daughter!

Good thing it is just pretend.

Anyone need to practice their morse code?

The Native American teepees were very authentic and the kids liked exploring inside of them not just looking at them.

Grandma's Visit

When I had surgery on June 10th to remove the metal from my arm, my mom came to stay for ten days. I am extremely grateful that she was able to come and help out, especially when Michael ended up going back East for nearly five days of that. I didn't have to worry about cooking or cleaning and had an extra set of hands to help with our busy children. I definitely recovered faster because I was able to rest more. While Grandma was here we took her to some of the things we like to do so that we could share them with her, and she did some things with us that she likes to do.

Grandma helped Benjamin and Bekah make picture books with pictures of Jesus, the prophet, and pictures they had drawn on bright colored paper. Bekah was so delighted with "my book!" that she would not let it go and slept with it that night. Benjamin had to make sure the book made it into his Sunday bag so that it would go to church with us on Sunday.

Aunt Joy came up for an over-nighter and we took her and Grandma to the dinosaur museum. Both Joy and Grandma were impressed and we spent over two hours there looking at artifacts (we usually race from exhibit to exhibit and are done in about an hour or so). It was nice to take time to look at things instead of just running after children, though they did race to their favorite activities and spend extra time there waiting for everyone else to catch up.

We went to the Gardens and I toured it via wheelchair (that was Friday or Saturday after surgery). This hide and seek picture was taken by the fish pond. Can you find the frog in the lily pads? I give you a hint: he's tummy is light green.

Benjamin posing for pictures. Somehow he knew we had the cameras out.

Dad trying to take pictures of Bekah

Walking with Grandma

Dairy Days at the Farm

Back in June, we went to the Dairy Days festivities at Farm Country.

Benjamin and Bekah "rode" the cow

We discovered Farm Country now has an albino peacock. I had never seen one before then and couldn't believe how gorgeous it was.

Free ice cream sandwiches were available and the kids each had to have their own.


Benjamin liked the barn cutout and sadle and insisted I take his picture by one or the other (I don't remember which)

Daddy made us ice cream from cream surrounded by ice and rock salt while the children colored pictures of cows. I can't imagine why they would have cow pictures for the children to color, can you?

We even tried making butter, but it took FOREVER as opposed to just a few minutes to make ice cream. I sure am glad that we don't make butter that way anymore.

We had fun learning more about cows and dairy products. I sure am glad that I can go to the store to buy them now instead of having to do all the work at our home. Whew! What else would I have time to do if we had a dairy cow to take care of?

Printer Problem Solved

I broke our printer a couple of months ago. Yanked it off the desk onto the concrete of our unfinished basement, but at least I didn't drop my computer that was at the other end of the cord. Anyway, I have been too cheap to go and buy a new one (and it hasn't been in the budget with car and medical bills getting in the way >P) and hunting on ebay didn't reveal anything cheap. So I resorted to DI (Deseret Industries) in hopes of finding a working printer that used the same kind of ink cartridges we had just bought a ton of.

By the way, if you have a working VCR and don't mind VHS tapes DI is a great place to stalk up on children and disney movies for $1 a piece.

Yesterday, we finally were lucky enough to find a working printer for $15 that uses the same ink we already have. The bonus was that it was a copy machine as well as a printer and so now I don't have to scan and save things just to print off a copy. So, now that I am no longer over 60 pages worth of printing behind on my blog, I have more incentive to post more often.

Tulle Tutus

Ever since our Young Women sold some tulle tutus at their fund raiser auction I have been trying to get around to finding a pattern and making some. Today I completed two, and I have plenty of fabric leftover for at least two more. The best part is that I made each tutu for less than three dollars and all I needed was a ruler, a pair of scissors, fabric, ribbon, and Bekah.

• Ruler: to measure the 4 inch wide strips
• Scissors: to cut strips after folding the fabric and measuring it (fold the fabric over and over again until it is only a few inches wide so that a shorter, straighter cut can be made the width of the fabric at one time)
• Fabric: to make the skirt (as poofy or as flat as you want; I used about 1 1/2 yards for each skirt) by looping the fabric around the ribbon in a "U" shape and making a not by pulling the ends through the bottom of the "U" around the ribbon
• Ribbon: to tie the fabric onto and to tie the skirt around the wearer's waist (the fabric is knotted around the 2 inch wide ribbon that has been fold in half and pressed with an iron, leaving enough leftover ribbon to tie a bow to join it around the wearer's waist)
• Bekah: to measure her waist and her height to determine how long I want the skirt to be on her (I ended up cutting each strip in half by the width, so I had 2 shorter pieces that were 4 inches wide instead of one long one)

I will post pictures after I try the finished product on Bekah tomorrow. She insisted that she only wanted a tutu if it was completely pink and would not try on the one that was predominantly pink with a few scattered, green accent pieces (I am going to make her a green skirt and hope I can convince her to be Tinkerbell for Halloween). She informed me that the pink and green one was "your pretty dress" and that I had ruined "my pretty dress" (imagine a tearful voice and foot stomping here), so I made her another one that is all pink. And since Benjamin was in on the tulle shopping I had to get him some black tulle to make him a football jersey. Wish me luck on that one!

Gym Rat

I never thought I would say this, but I like going to the gym. I still haven't conquered the weight room, but I like going to the gym. All it has taken was a cute exercise outfit that is modest, a good pair of shoes, a few late night visits when the gym is mostly empty so I don't feel completely lost when learning how to use the equipment, and gym membership that is paid for because we bought it for the use of the indoor pool for our family.

At first I used the gym for the indoor track and realized that I can enjoy excerise if it is in a constant climate. Then I decided I was brave enough to try out the cardio room and try out the machines in there. I now go to the gym for an hour to two hours every day (thus, I haven't had as much time for blogging) and hope that my efforts will start showing up on the scale some day soon.

Milestones for Benjamin

Yesterday was a big day for Benjamin, he hit two big milestones in biking and swimming.

Mom finally was able to spend some one on one time with Benjamin and his bike yesterday. Benjamin finally propelled himself forward on his bike without needing a push from Mom or Dad. Then, after much encouragement and instruction, he conquered riding over the driveway dips without stopping or tipping over. Benjamin also discovered how to steer his bike so that he could turn around in the driveway without getting off his bike. After we conquered riding up and down the sidewalk to the neighbors driveways, Mom took Benjamin on a ride around the block where we learned about road safety and where to ride our bikes when we are on the road. We are so glad that after 18 months of trying to teach Benjamin to ride a bike (he thinks he knows how to do it and won't listen to instructions until he is ready to) he can finally do it, with training wheels.

Later that day we went swimming and Benjamin showed us that he could swim short distances in the pool. Not just a doggy paddle, but actual swimming strokes without a floaty to help him stay above water.

He is our amazing little boy and we are excited he is learning and doing new things!

Return to the Blogging World

I'm back. I can't say that I have worked through all of mmy issues, but I've realized that no matter how hard I try to isolate myself from potentially negative influences and people they still come into my life. So I am out of hiding and back into the world of blogging, and I will try to catch up on the last month of blogging!