Tagged!

Emily tagged me! I have to answer these questions, but I won't tag anyone else. Oh, wait.... I tag my sisters - I want to see some new things on their blogs!
Rules: Copy & paste questions on a new post. Answer questions & tag 5 people.


5 things on my to-do list:
Strip all the white paint off the banisters.
Buy a birthday present for the birthday party Gillian got invited to.
Wash all the bed sheets.
Get a Utah driver's license.
Get groceries.

5 things I'd do if I suddenly became a millionaire:
Pay off all our debt.
Go to New York City, then Europe.
Buy new cars for Nathan and I.
Invest - how about oil? I'd like a little slice of that pie!
Save for college, weddings and missions.


5 Snacks I love:
Original Goldfish Crackers
Oreos with milk
Hazelnut cookies from IKEA
Shaved Ice (I wish we had Bahama Bucks stores here!)
Candy (pretty much any kind)

5 Places I've lived:
Phoenix, Arizona
Glendale, Arizona
Avondale, Arizona
Sandy, Utah
(Sorry, that's all I got!)

5 Jobs I've Had:
Sewing gun holsters (don't ask me how to do it, because I have no idea!)
Child Day Care
After-School Child Care
Real Estate Appraisal Office
Wedding Photographer

5 things most people don't know about me:
I count stairs when I climb them.
I like playing Lego Star Wars on the XBox.
I would love an avocado green refrigerator.
My favorite scent is almond (like the extract.)
I wish I was 3 inches taller.

Chickenfoot

We're addicted to a Dominoes game called Chickenfoot. (Hey, we have to entertain ourselves on Sunday evenings somehow!) It's great for younger kids because all you have to know how to do is count dots! Elliot is really good at it. It would be a great Family Home Evening Activity. All you need is a set of Double 12 Dominoes - I got mine at WalMart for $10. Here are some links for Chickenfoot Rules - or you could come up to Utah and we'll teach you how to play!

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/chknfoot/indexprt.html

http://www.domino-games.com/domino-rules/chickenfoot-rules.html

Kids Are Too Funny!

Here are some interesting things I've heard around the house lately:

Two nights ago, I awoke at 4 a.m. with Henry sitting next to my bed. He said, "I'm sorry Mom." "For what?" I mumbled. "I'm sorry I killed that kid." He had a bad dream, or a scary story as he calls it. He climbed into bed with me a fell asleep. The next morning, he wouldn't stop apologizing to me for killing that kid. I had to reassure him that it was just a dream and that he really didn't kill anybody. Out of curiosity, I asked him how the "murder" went down. He said, "I smashed him with my back!" How disturbing. Poor kid.

Last evening as I was preparing dinner, Gillian was in her room during her homework. I heard her call to Elliot, "Hey Elliot! Who killed Abraham Lincoln?" Without hesitation, Elliot answered back, "Booth!" What in the world? How does he know that?

This morning, as the kids were putting on their backpacks to go to school (school in late June - I still can't get used to it), Elliot stated to the girls, "Today is going to be partly cloudy." The randomness of that comment made me chuckle. I didn't know he knew how to look up the daily weather forecast. He was right - it's partly cloudy right now!

I thought of one more - One day on the way to Target, we passed Chuck E. Cheese's (yuck). Henry looked out the window and exclaimed, "Oh, look! Chuck E. Cheez-its!"

Father's Day

Today, Dad got breakfast in bed - German pancakes, which he gets once a year (on Father's Day). The kids and I gave him accessories for his mountain bike.

Here are the boys in their new Sunday shirts. This is Henry's new smile!



After dinner, Nathan said he wanted to go for a walk in Corner Canyon. We parked the car at the Draper Temple, which is under construction. It will be nice when it's finished, since it's only five minutes from our house!



These are the houses across the street from the temple. No fair!


Who lives way up there!

The view of the temple from the hiking trail.



During our walk, Nathan and Henry got ahead of the rest of us and hid in the bushes until we passed. Then, while the kids were posing for a picture, Nathan and Henry sneaked up from behind and scared them!







Henry fell and got a boo-boo, but luckily Gillian had her little first aid kit in her purse. (How did she know?)



All better!

Too Much XBox

New Glasses

Cats

I hate cats! Most everyone in my family shares my hatred towards housecats, so they'll appreciate this entry. We bought this house from cat and dog owners - something I thought I would never do. But when we viewed the house, surprisingly, I smelled no evidence of animals. Plus, it was the best house we had seen so we went ahead with the purchase. The first two months we were here, I found cat hair in quite a few places, which was gross, but still no smells. Then one day I was putting together a piece of IKEA furniture together on the basement carpet. When I bent down close to the ground to screw something together, I finally got a whiff - cat urine! I can't think of a worse smell on the entire planet, so I immediately went about trying to relieve the carpet of it's foul stench. The more things I applied to the carpet, the worse it smelled. I finally labeled the basement the "pee room" and refrained from going down there unless it was absolutely necessary. Nathan and the kids said they couldn't smell anything, so my suffering nose got no support. Today, I finally had ChemDry come and do a pet urine removal treatment. They put a black light on the carpet to see where the urine was. I'll just say that now I'm justified in telling Nathan "I told you so!" I cringed at the thought of how long I've lived in this house with cat pee in the carpet. The treatment cost me a nice chunk of change, but it had to be done. My carpet is now completely soaked in this chemical that will make it "smell worse before it smells better". And boy is that right! I've got to get out of this house before I die! This would be a good time to have sisters and a mom nearby - I have nowhere to escape to! But in 24 hours, I will have fresh carpet and it will all be worth it! Cats......EEWWW!

33

Yesterday was my 33rd birthday. It was fairly uneventful as birthdays tend to be the older we get. I made an angel food cake - this was the cake I asked my mom for every year growing up. I guess I still need my mom to bake my birthday cakes for me, because mine didn't turn out so well. A few ladies in the ward dropped by with gifts, which was nice. I also received gifts in the mail from mom and Hailee - good timing! Nathan and the kids gave me some dinner plates that I really wanted to go with the new kitchen. So, it was a quiet birthday. We did go out to celebrate Saturday night, though. We went to a movie (Nim's Island) and ate at the Citrus Grill, my new favorite restaurant. Here's something cute: Henry knows that Nathan is 33, and when I said I was now 33, he said, "You're going to turn into Dad?" Goofy kid!

My plates.

Rainy Day

I thought the kids looked so cute huddled under this pink umbrella the last time they went to school in the rain. So, when it was still raining this morning, I brought along the camera. It rained all day yesterday and is supposed to rain tomorrow and all weekend. How dreary! The worst part about rainy days is that our mountains disappear behind all the rain clouds. The mountain view is my favorite part about our neighborhood. I hope our ward pancake breakfast doesn't get rained out Saturday!





This kid popped his head under the umbrella and walked into the school with them. I wonder if my kids even know who he is!

The "I"s Have It

Henry's lesson in his Sunbeam class yesterday was I Am Thankful For Eyes. Look at the kind of "eyes" Henry is thankful for!

Bob

Home Improvements

This house definately needed more work than our previous new houses. I tackled the inside, while Nathan has worked hard on the outside (with my help, of course). He's done a really nice job! Here are the results:

Before:

After:

The changes include new light fixtures; black paint for the lamp post, handrail and mailbox; paint for the shutters; paint for the front door; new basketball hoop; better topsoil; landscape lighting; various plants, trees, shrubs and flowers (about 60 total!)

We think the house is a huge improvement. The previous owner came to visit her sister across the street from us a couple of weeks ago. We wonder if she thought so too!

Henry's First Buzz