It's all good . . .

Playing at the Library

Derek wasn't the only lucky one in our family.  Lily was also a winner, and her prize was a pizza party at the library.  She got to invite a few friends, and she let Derek invite two friends as well.  It was pretty awesome and included 3 large Domino's pizzas, 2 types of ice-cream and fixings, popcorn, and a movie. 

They had a big room where they set it all up, and while we ate, the kids got to watch a movie of Lily's choice.  She had picked "Rio," and so they made sure they had it on hand for us to watch.  It was a blast, and I can't believe how lucky we were that she won the party.  Once again, another bonus for loving to read :).

 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

The summer reading programs were really good to us this year. Not only did we get piles of free books and other prizes, but Derek and Lily both won bonus drawing prizes. Lily won a pizza party at the library, and Derek won four free tickets to the Skysox - the local minor league baseball team. And so, on Thursday night, we headed out to the ball game :).

We had awesome seats, on the front row of the second tier, right behind home plate.

Isn't that a great view?

The kids were really good about watching the game . . . for the first few innings.

Luckily, whenever they got bored, there were plenty of silly games to watch, fun music to clap along to, and other things to distract them Their favorite distraction, however, was "Sox the Fox," the mascot.

He even came over to us and gave them a hug. While I was taking the picture, Sox did all he could to get Derek to look over at me and the camera, but we should have told him what a losing battle that is :).

And then, as if the game wasn't fun enough, Kevin was selected to go down on the field to do a trivia game between innings. Pretty funny, but made even more funny by the fact that he got his question right, which won us more free tickets to a Skysox game and a mystery prize (which we still don't know what it is yet).

I know, I have said it before, and I will say it again, "Luckiest Man Alive." Who else would win a prize while already using tickets that were won in a contest?

By the end of the game, the kids were getting pretty worn out - it was a couple hours past their bedtime. Derek decided to lay down on the bench to rest.

And while I stood up to take his picture, Lily laid down in my spot to try and rest too. Silly kids!

It was such a great family activity, and a really fun game. We saw a few home runs, there were lots of foul balls, we sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" - to which Derek put his hand over his heart, and our home team won the game. Awesome. You just can't beat that.

Attack of the Giant Pumpkin Plant

We have been a lot of afternoon thunderstorms lately, and although they have begun to taper off, we have had a few side effects. One of them is the beautiful rainbows we get along with them, and the other is my garden. It is a little out of control, especially my pumpkin plant.

In fact, it has become so giant, that it is taking over the whole garden! It covered my strawberry plant, it wound it's way through my tomato plants, it began encroaching on my lettuce and peas, and covered up my carrots.

In fact, to save the carrots, I harvested them a month early. Some were pretty skinny, but they still taste great, and since I am the only one that eats them, it it fine.

I also had to harvest 4 bunches of lettuce, and so I gave some of it away. And then, when my peas stopped producing, I quickly tore them out to make room for the pumkin vines.

And yes, there are pumkins within those vines - about 8 of them, maybe more. One is even growing in our neighbor's back yard, because it snuck through the fence. And some are as big as a soccer ball and turning orange already. Crazy!!

Our tomato plants went a little crazy too, especially the grape tomato plant. It sent out crazy vines all over, and is covered in hundreds of tomatoes. They are all starting to get ripe now, which is awesome.

And between the pumpkin and tomato plants, I had to move my basil and rosemary inside the house, as they were getting completely tangled up in vines. Now they are all cute in my kitchen window :).

And my Roma tomato plant is producing as well. Yum!

I love my garden, and I can't even express how awesome it is to make a salad completely out of things I grew myself :). Pretty awesome, especially since this is my first real garden.

Now, if only I can keep those pumpkin plants under control. Next year, I am only planting one, instead of two :).

A Visit From Our Georgia Peach

 
Last week we had a very special treat; one of myYoung Women from Savannah, Kasie Maples, came to visit.  She is all grown up now, and has been attending BYU-Idaho for the past year.  And for her summer break, she just happened to be staying with her roommate in Colorado. 

When I had heard she was going to be doing this, I knew I had to see her.  Well, I got something even better than that, I got to have her stay with us for a week.  We picked her up in Denver, while we were there getting Kevin's birthday present, and then we had a fantastic week together.

The kids especially loved having her with us, whether she was reading them stories, playing games with them, watching movies with them, or showing them fun stuff on her computer.

 
And Derek thought it was his responsibility to try and climb on her constantly.  Luckily, she was a really good sport about it, as no matter what I did, he still kept coming back for more.

And as for me, I loved having Kasie around.  We stayed up late watching movies, we spent hours talking, she was super helpful with the kids, and she was fantastic company.  It was also great to catch up on what her family has been up to in Georgia since we moved away two years ago.  And she even babysat for us one night, so that Kevin and I could go on a date to the Elder's Quorum party (which was a blast, by the way).

We were all super sad to see her go on Saturday, when I had to take her back to Denver.  Lily almost started crying.  It was a wonderful week though, and hopefully she will come visit us again :).

33

On Saturday, Kevin turned 33.  His birthday is always exciting to me, not just because I love birthdays, but because it means that for the next 7 months we will be the same age.   That is, until my birthday in March when I will be older again, and he will get to rub it in how much older I am than him - he he!

But back to Kevin's birthday.  I was so happy that it fell on a Saturday so that he would actually be around to celebrate it with us, as he has been working night missions for the past two weeks, which would have made it impossible.  (I am not sure why, but it always seems like he is either TDY on his birthday, or work is crazy for him.)

And so, on Saturday, we celebrated Kevin.  First of all, it just happened to be the weekend of the PGA Chamionship, which meant there was a never ending supply of great golf for him to watch on TV.

Then, things were so low-key that morning, that he even got in a nap by 9:30 am.  The kids were anxious for him to wake up though, because they really wanted him to open presents.  So they set the presents in front of him for when he woke up.

 
Once he finally woke up, the kids had him open their presents.   
I think the best part of them were the cards they made themselves.

 
They gave him golf balls and body wash, and it was just what he wanted :).

After presents and lunch, we headed to Denver for the afternoon.  While we were there, Kevin got to explore Golfsmith, and use some of his birthday money to buy himself a beautiful new 3 wood.  The kids loved the area where you could try out golf clubs, especially one with the simulator, and they waited patiently for their turn to try it out.

The only bad part about going to the golf stores, was that they were way too close to the new IKEA, and all the insane traffic that came with it.  It's all good though, as we made it out without too much trouble.  After the successful shopping trip to the golf stores, we went to Barnes and Noble to buy Kevin his final presents - two new Star Wars books :).

Then we wandered around the giant mall there, where Lily got to walk through the American Girl store, and Derek got to explore the Lego store - and I was so proud of both of them with being content to dream and not complaining at all when we didn't get them anything.  They understood it was Dad's day :).

Next, we headed off to the temple to pick up Kasie, one of my awesome Young Women from Georgia who is going to BYU Idaho and came to stay with us for a week.  We went next door to the Chili's for Kevin's birthday dinner (I guess he had been craving it for months), where he ordered chicken fried steak, knowing full well that he was getting it for his real birthday dinner on Sunday.  He loves it that much :).

When we got back from Denver, it was time for cake!  And just like many years in the past, I got Kevin the cake he loves most - a white Costco cake with lots of frosting :).  It was a great way to finish our day of celebration.

 
I am so grateful for my amazing husband, and I am pretty sure he had a wonderful birthday, filled with all the things he loves most, especially getting to spend the day with me and the kids :).

Busy

I can't believe two weeks have passed without me posting.  I can't believe that the third day in a row has come and gone without me getting to post about Kevin's birthday, and that a week has passed without me mentioning my pumpkin plant in a post. 

I look back and realize that ever since school started 2 1/2 weeks ago, I have been insanely busy.  Every day has been packed with getting things done, taking the kids back and forth to school, Relief Society stuff (for my calling), etc.  And, until two days ago, I had a pretty rotten cold that wouldn't go away.  I might have even had the time to get on the computer, but I was too tired to even consider it.

But even in all that busy, there were wonderful things tucked in, like getting to go to the temple with Kevin before it closes until October.  Or going to the temple again, but this time with sisters from the Relief Society.  Or getting to take portraits. Or volunteering in Derek's kindergarten classroom.  And so on and so forth. 

And so, yes, I did disappear for a few weeks, but I will be back.  I promise.

A Third Grader and a Kindergartener

Tuesday was the first day of school, and both kids were super excited :).  In fact, they were so excited and prepared, that they were dressed, made their beds, had done their other chores and had eaten breakfast all before 7:30am, and we didn't even have to leave for 40 minutes.  For breakfast, they had German Pancakes as a special treat :).

 
Before we left, I of course had to get our traditional first day of school pictures.  Just look at my super grown up third grade girl.  Where did the time go?

 
And then my adorable kindergarten boy.  Derek was especially excited about his brand new backpack.  Red is his favorite color, and then Kevin found me the Star Wars patch - it was totally worth all the times I pricked my fingers sewing it on, as Derek LOVED it :).

 
Kevin was lucky enough to get to go into work late that day, just so he could take the kids with me to their first day.  He was still in North Carolina when Lily started last year, and so it was a special treat for all of us.  And because it was the first day, we walked.  We took the shortcut through the weeds and soccer field, which was a great choice.

 
Then we dropped Lily at her class.  She hardly waited up for us, and I am not sure if she remembered to say good bye.  Like I said, she is getting too grown up.  She was too busy to even pose for a picture :).

 
Derek was so happy about everything, especially little things like getting a drink out of the water fountain.  Even though he was at this school last year for preschool, it was different because they don't ever go into the rest of the school.  I think he felt pretty grown up :).  He quickly found his desk and got to work, and like Lily, I had to remind him to say good bye to us.  Silly guy.

 
After we dropped him off, we went to the cafeteria for the "Boo-hoo Breakfast," which was an orientation for all the kindergarten parents, as well as an opportunity to "cry" together.  Kevin thought it was hilarious, even though I wasn't crying.  (That will probably come in a few weeks, like it did with Lily.  I am a delayed reaction kind of person.)

Then Kevin went off to work, and I sat at home alone in the quiet.  After having the kids home all summer, it was weird to have quiet again.  And instead of being productive, I ended up staring at the computer for a while.  So strange. (Day two and on, however, I was back in full productivity mode while he was gone.)

I went to get him, and he got to be the door holder - what a cutie.  He was so excited to see me, which completely made up for him not noticing me leave :). 

 
I took him to McDonald's for lunch as a special surprise, and he got to tell me about his day.  Hi favorite thing was getting to go to art, and coloring.  I asked if he liked his teacher, and he told me, "Some of the time she is nice."  The translation being, she made him follow the rules - fun times.

Later on, I picked up Lily and got to hear about her day.  She said it was great, but didn't tell me any more info than that for quite a while.  All in all, I think it was a great first day for both of my sweet kids, which couldn't make me happier :).

 

The Last Day of Summer

Because school started on a Tuesday, that left us with one more day to work and play before the school routine took over our lives.  We tried not to do too much working, but we kept pretty busy. 

We started bright and early with literacy testing at 8 am for Lily, and when we got back, I hand mopped the floor (so not fun), while the kids took advantage of an opportunity to play video games and watch TV for an hour before we had to head off again.

We ran errands, racing from the library, to Walmart, to a friend's house to pick up a steam cleaner.  We finished with just enough time to unload and put away the groceries, before we had to race off to Lily's haircut appointment.  And get her hair cut she did.

 
She asked if she could get it cut to her shoulders, and since that was still long enough for a ponytail if she needed it, I gave the okay.  She was so excited about it, and it totally reminded me of when I started 3rd grade and got my hair chopped to my shoulders as well.  (At least she didn't want a perm to go with the cut, like I did.  He he!  It was the 80's after all).  It turned out super cute!!

 
After the haircut, we raced home one more time, this time for a quick lunch and to put on our swim suits before we took the last swim of the summer.  Instead of going to our neighborhood pool, which was out of control busy, we went to my friend Janet's house. 

She had invited us to come swim many times, but it just hadn't worked out before then.  I am so glad that we were able to do it, because not only was it great company, but they have a fantastic pool.  It was just like the one I grew up swimming in at my neighbor's house in Nevada.  It was also the first time my kids ever got to use a diving board, since they seem to be disappearing at public pools throughout the country.  Lily was first, and it was great to watch.

 
Derek was a little more tentative, but that may also have something to do with the fact that the kid doesn't understand how to hold his breath in the water.  He is always smiling so big, that if he goes under, his mouth filled up with water.  He got creative on his "jump."

 
And I got to dive into a swimming pool for the first time in years, since they make them all too shallow now a days.  It was awesome.  Derek wanted me to jump with him, and so later we jumped off the diving board together, but I was so focused on not pulling him way under with me, that I ended up swallowing a bunch of water - oops. 

Then Janet's husband showed the kids a trick by throwing them in.  They thought it was awesome.  First Lily . . .

 
and then it was Derek's turn . . .

 
We had such a wonderful time there, we didn't want to leave, but the afternoon storm clouds started rolling in, and so we went home and got them showered up for the first day of school.  Then we finished up the laundry and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, as we had been going so strong, we were exhausted.

That night, when Kevin got home from work, we had Family Home Evening with Derek doing the lesson, and as a special activity, Kevin gave both Lily and Derek a Father's Blessing to help them with the school year.  It was the perfect way to complete our awesome last day of summer :).

The Last Week of Summer

What an action packed last week of summer we had!  It was full every single day, whether we were working or playing.  And on top of all the family stuff and kid stuff we did, I had three photography shoots and all the editing that they required.  (If you want to see them, go to my photography blog - I did two family portrait sessions, along with senior portraits for the most beautiful girl.)  It was a wild week, and we started out strong.

We Worked

Monday morning we were out in the yard and weeding by 6:30 am to beat the heat of the day.  The kids were pretty good helpers for the most part, and after two hours we had finish the garden, and the front and back yard.  Kevin also did his share of yard work with mowing the lawn, and then he spent most of Saturday finishing up staining our fence.  It sure was great to have those things done.

Movie Time

All summer I had been meaning to take the kids to the dollar theater, and it finally worked out.  We went to see "Rio," and it was really cute.  The kids thought it was the best activity ever, and it only cost $3 for us to go :).

Last Park Day

Every week of the summer, except for the week we were in Idaho, we spent Wednesday mornings at the park with other kids and moms from the ward.  It was so well attended, that the smallest group we ever had was eight ladies and twenty kids.  The kids had a blast, and I loved sitting at a picnic table in the shade talking to my friends for two hours.  It was also a fantastic way to get to know all the new sisters that moved into our ward this summer.

 
 Last Field Trip

The final field trip of the summer, was going to meet Kevin at work and going to the driving range, like we did last month.  The kids did well hitting the ball, and Derek was really excited about it, and so we kept having to give him more balls to hit.

 
Kevin even got a picture of me hitting the ball.  I have always loved golfing.

 
And like I said, Derek was pretty happy, although he did get in trouble a couple times for being too loud and wild.  Most of the time he was great though.

 
Lily, however, was having one of those days and was super grumpy.  She broke down and cried about everything - from carrying her bag, to being hot, to not wanting to stand.  And then she got really mad when I took her picture mid tantrum.  Fun times :).  She still keeps begging me to delete these pictures.

 
Afterward, Lily calmed down and apologized, and so we were still able to take Kevin out to lunch, and although it was a little rocky at times, our activity ended on a high note.

School Open House

On Thursday afternoon, the kids had school open house where they were able to bring their supplies and meet their teachers.  They were both so excited, and Kevin and I just can't get over how grown up they are getting.  After meeting their teachers, we went to the lunchroom for the traditional Culver's custard - yum!

 
Final Baseball Game

Saturday was our last baseball game of the season.  Derek has really loved playing baseball, and is already excited about playing again next year.  Here he is warming up for the game with a game of catch with a teammate.

 
Batting was his favorite part, and it never ceased to crack me up how cute these 5 year olds looked in those huge batting helmets.  Kevin was the first base coach, and so he would give him a high five when he tagged the base.

 
Fielding was always an adventure, and because we had so many kids out on the field, and they all seemed to play a different position every time, Derek would get bored.  He would take off his glove and face the outfield, he would play with the kids next to him, or sometimes sit down.  I loved it one time when he started doing stretches - nice :).

 
After the game, the kids ran through our "victory tunnel" and then they got their awards, which were a medal and a cupcake.  Derek loved it :).

 
We finished off our summer with lunch at our good friends, the Gowen's home.  Their son had been baptized that morning (which Lily went to, instead of Derek's game), and so we went to the celebration afterward.  It was a great afternoon, eating and talking while our kids played.  It was the perfect way to end the last week of summer.