Sunny St. George??

This weekend we took a trip to St. George because I needed to get away from the snow. We still had rain, but on Sunday it was absolutely beautiful, just what I needed. We stayed with Dennis' brother and his family. They were very gracious hosts. We both have 5 children all who are the same ages. It was so much fun. We drove around a little Saturday waiting for the sun to come out. We visited Tuacaun and some garden centers and nurseries. We even went to the Washington Community Rec. center and had some time in the pool. Both Dennis and Travis got bit by the same pool monster as they came out of the large slide and hit the bottom of the pool. I saw my first ever roadrunner and we unintentionally lured 3 raccoons to the house with our dog food that we forgot about. We were all in bed and too tired to actually see them. It was a nice little getaway. Hopefully we brought back a little Dixie sun with us. We need spring to come!!

While we were there Bonnie took 2 or 3 really good steps on her own. She was so excited! Almost too excited to do anything more, but it sure was fun watching her try.

12 Years Together

Dennis and I shared our 12th anniversary together this past week. Wow! It was a fun day for us. However I did comment to Dennis that is was a much more pleasant day to be outside 12 years ago. Dennis took the whole day off work so we could be together. We went to breakfast with the family. 12 years is wood right??? Well, Dennis bought some wood for a cute little fence around my garden boxes as well as an arbor that I can have over the gate to the backyard. I'm so excited to get it put up! Right now it's all assembled and sitting in the garage. I'm going to get some pretty flowering plants to climb up it.

That night was Kids Night Out at city hall so the kids were taken care of. We did have to bribe Jacob to go by saying this would be his last time, (sniff, sniff) apparently he's too old for this now and then we had the evening to ourselves for dinner, steaks and shakes!

Oh yea . . . that morning I was talking with the kids and asking them if they thought they were at the temple with us when we were married. Afton says to me, I know I was there and saying "How romantic!" That kind of comment is so her. Well, here's to 12 years and on to the next 12.

Bonnie May at 10 Months

Here she is at ten months. Bonnie is just blossoming! She is an adorable little girl. I kinda thought that she would be taking more steps by now the way she avoided crawling, but she's perfectly content to crawl from one place to another. She continues to be a pretty good eater and loves to grab anything we have to try it out. Dennis has a lemon out and she really wanted it so he gave it to her. You can imagine her face. I thought it was kind of mean, but the next thing I know she wants more of it. There was a limit, but it was a new taste for her and she liked it.

Not long ago we had a really nice day, so we went outside to enjoy the sun. Bonnie just loved sitting out on the grass in the yard. She was so content to pull the grass out and check out anything she found and watch the kids and the cat play in the front yard. I don't think she cared much for crawling around on the lawn, because she didn't move much, but she was happy just being out.

Happy Birthday to Me

My in-laws sent me a card in the mail that said the more candles the more wishes. Sounds good to me, so . . . this morning we went to IHOP for breakfast since it's one of my favorite places. Yummy!!! Then Dennis dropped me off at the DMV so I could renew my drivers license, a necessary evil, but I didn't have to take a test and it was pretty much straight through with just the usual hoops to jump through and relatively no wait time. While I did that he took the kids to the pet store to get some more fish for our tank. Then a package arrived right on time and I got my birthday presents. I got a writing tablet for my computer and an MP3 player. And then we get a "Family Day" from school so that means no fighting the kids to do their home work today. It's starting out to be a wonderful day!

Bed Rest

Teddy is officially on bed rest for 14 days. Saturday morning he tore a ligament in his right hind knee. Don't know how exactly, we just let him outside in the morning for a potty break and when he came in, he was limping. The Vet says it can just happen by jumping or running under the right conditions and apparently his legs are prime conditions for this type of injury. If we are going to avoid surgery then he'll have to stay off of it for 2 weeks to see if it will heal on its own. Then if he's putting weight on it after that we won't have to spend the $800 on our 17month old dog that we've had for a little over a year.
Holy Cow!!! Who saw that coming? So we're going to try to keep him down for 2 weeks and just carry this 25lb dog around, and up and down stairs to go to the bathroom. Because 5 kids wasn't enough apparently. And this week 2 of those kids have some kind of stomach flu so we get to deal with that lovely stuff as well. Oh the joys. But this little bow-legged, dog with the major overbite has found his way into our hearts. He's a part of our family. We just want him to get better so he can go out and play when it gets warmer outside. So, here goes . . . Day 1.

Super Saturday

We have a couple fun Saturday traditions at our house. Friday is our take care of the house day. I have been using a cleaning schedule from HouseOfOrder.com for a couple years and it really works for me. We like to do this so that, one, our house doesn't get neglected and I don't get too overwhelmed and two, so that we can do something other than clean on Saturday when Dennis is home. Another one of our Saturday traditions is to get donuts for breakfast. So nice for us that a yummy bakery opened up in Santaquin.
So yesterday our day went like this: around 10am we went to Little Brown Sugar Bakery and Dennis needed a few supplies for his latest project which I will get to later. Our local store holds this every first Saturday of the month. Each time the kids come in for the craft they get an apron and a pin to collect. This time they made race cars. It was pretty simple. The boys read the directs and did it on their own, Afton just kind of followed along and did it on her own, and Khora loved hammering the nails. The kids had a blast and best of all . . . it's free. They also had free popcorn which was a little bonus.

Next we had some outdoor play time at the new park in Spanish Fork while I did my shopping at Maceys. It was such a wonderful spring day for it! Isaac rated this park a number 9 on the fun scale. This new playground had some stuff for older kids so everyone had fun and in the summer they have a splash pad too. Isaac bought a new basketball with his savings and the kids all got new shoes. Whew! It took about 4 hours.

When we got home Dennis worked on his latest Honey-Do for me. He's putting up a new counter and cupboards in the laundry room for me. It looks great so far and he's almost finished. (I'll take pictures when it's done.) He's also putting some in the garage which includes another counter, where I can do my flower pots and stuff. It's all part of the de-clutter and organization project of 2011. It's all so great and makes me feel good. So. . . it's been a Super Saturday!

At Last, At Last

Last June, Dennis and I decided, well I guess you could say I persuaded Dennis, that it was time for some new furniture in our front room. We've had these same hand-me-down, love seat and sofa since we lived in Lehi and I believe they were handed down to those we got them from. . . . it was time. After looking all over we settled on a sectional piece for the basement. Not what I was going for exactly but much needed none-the-less. Anyway, when I finally found a set for our living room that I really liked I wanted to get a good deal on it which meant waiting until probably July 4th or 24th, so long story short, six months later, we looked again and finally settled on another set -- which I like much better --, so we ordered it then and there and now . . . it's here. *Note to self: always pay the little bit extra and let them deliver it for you, then your don't have to borrow a co-workers truck and trailer, accidentally break off the tale light, thus needing to replace said tale light with the help of a trusty neighbor mechanic. The end!