~Fresh ~ Air ~ Forcast~

Look Close...yup - that is Tika & Carsun with weather forcaster, Debbie Worthen.

Last Friday the girls did not have school. We took Uncle Kenneth to the airport and my Dad had a couple meetings. The girls & I decided to hang around Salt Lake for a few hours.

We rode Trax and went to the Gateway. The girls got to stuff build-a-bears for Toys for Tots. We went back to the Gallivan Ctr. to meet up with my dad and saw Debbie Worthen getting ready to do a live shot for the noon news.

We waved at her and she motioned the girls over. She asked if they wanted to be on the news. Carsy said, "sure" and tika acted a bit embarrased, but let Carsun pull her over.

She talked to them for a minute and all of the sudden...they were on the screen. Debbie said, "Well the weather is beautiful and I've got Tika & Carsun here with me. They're from Heber. And I can't remember - what was next girls?" and they said, "The Fresh Air Forcast!"

Before I could dial anyone's #, it was over! Thank heaven for picture phones!!

Birthday Boy

Today is Justin's birthday. Now he's OLD! He came over this afternoon to pick the girls up for "daddy's night out".
{I must say that it was weird watching him leave with the girls. Birthdays have always been such a big deal to me. It felt so wrong to not be baking a cake or taking him out to dinner! I guess that's something I'll have to get used to.}

They were going to bake a cake & watch a movie. I am certain it will be a birthday to remember.

Before Justin opened his present from Tika she wanted him to read the card she made him. It was so funny...I must share.

So he reads the card out loud:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! YOU CAN PLAY IN THE SHOP ALL YOU WANT! (IF YOU CALL US FIRST!)"

Funniest part is that I had no clue what the card said. Now look at his face below...I don't think he was too amused! :)

Happy Birthday Justin!

Canyoneering Slideshow

Okay, now if you have not read the MASSIVE update I promised you all, you need to scroll down a bit & catch up! There is the massive update w/ pictures, there is a post about our day @ Zion and a slideshow of Zion pics and now the canyoneering day story and slide show (top slideshow)

Justin took the girls a few weeks ago to Provo and took them to Hansen Mountaineering and played on the rock walls. They learned how to rappel...they LOVED it! Justin got them each a harness, so now they are all ready for any adventure!

Justin & Jon were going to take the girls for the day on Saturday (Carsy's Birthday) Justin's other friend Kyle also tagged along with his two kids. They went to a place in Southern Utah called Yankee Doodle. I don't do well with this kind of stuff. So, since it was Justin's weekend, I just made him promise to take lots and lots of pictures! and he did:)

The girls had a great time, and said they only got scared a little bit! :) I am just happy to look at the pictures! I think if I'd have been there I would have had a heart attack!

I didn't even put a quarter of the pictures Justin took in the slideshow...if you want to see more, check out Jon's website. There's a link to it under my "fun blogs to visit: Jon's adventures" Once your'e on his mainpage, on the left hand side under "canyons" it says "echo/ yankee doodle - sept 08" His slideshow puts mine to shame. He has music and an explanation with each picture. He even put who took the picture! (time on his hands? yeah... he's a bachelor!) Enjoy...and now you are all pretty much caught up on what's going on in my life!! Hopefully I can keep up with it now....(we can hope, right?)

DADDY ~ DAUGHTER FISHIN'

Justin decided that he wanted to have some daddy-daughter time with Tika & Carsun. Last night we got the boat all set up and set the girls' alarm clock for 6:00am. (They were not "bright eyed OR bushy tailed") They took some cereal in a baggie and off they went to Deer Creek! They had a super fun time, and they even brought some fish home to eat for lunch! (better luck than last week!) I sent the camera with Justin in hopes he'd take pictures for me to do a post and lookey here... He did a great job!! (I think the girls helped out taking pictures, too!) They caught 4 walleye and Tika was oh-so proud of her perch!

Do you like the "pose"? eeewww....fish guts...:)Justin is quickly becoming a pro at filleting fish!

ICE COLD LEMONADE

Tika, Carsun & the Naylor Girls all decided to set up a Lemonade Stand today. The "big" girls wanted to sell lemonade and the "little" girls decided to be different and sell fruit punch. We got big plastic cups, tables chairs & ice and what do you know...they were in business!

The little girls set up their fruit punch stand at the end of our cul-de-sac and immediately the neighborhood kids came running with quarters in hand. The big girls set up on the sidewalk behind our house on the corner to the subdivision. We were hoping that ny splitting them up they'd each get some business.

Tika & Alyssa were hilarious. They'd shout "LEMONADE!!" as the cars went zooming past. I told them if the business started to slow they could change their slogan to, "COLD Lemonade from HOT babes!" They were not impressed by my creativity! Who knows...It might have worked!

After selling the cold cupfuls for 50 cents (about an hour) The girls lowered their price and sold it for a quarter a cup. Business did pick up a bit!

Carsy and Meg were bored after about an hour and reduced their price to 10 cents a cup to try to get "more paying customers". What do you know, a couple of yard maintenance guys came up and bought 2 cups for $3.00! Wowza!! They were so proud of that, they up & quit...just like that! As you can tell by Carsy's expression, I waited too long to take the picture. She was "done" by this point!

All in all I think it was a good experience for all of them and who knows...we might be crazy enough to do it another time this summer!! Funny thing about it...Each of them took home $4.50 - not too bad for their first time!

Sunday = Family fun!

Sunday was our monthly family dinner on Justin's side of the family. We all headed out to the Epps Funny Farm for an enjoyable evening of eachother's company. We all took our own "hobo" dinners and cooked them in the fire pit. It was fun to see all of the creations we all came up with to put in our foil packages! Ours had steak, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots & zuchinni! mmmmm...(gourmet eh?)It was really nice to visit with everybody...and the weather turned out being pretty nice too!

Tika & Carsun have been on Grandpa's case to put the trampoline up, but since he was a bit worn out, he gave them the instructions and sent them on a misssion. They did an awesome job too!

After dinner, we took the kids to my dad's house for a campout they had planned. It was way late, but they still set the tent up in the dark! The girls shared a tent and Chucky slept in his own. The girls used a tent that I used to camp in when I was young! It sure brought back a ton of memories...even just helping set it up! The next morning the girls & Chucky had muffins & hot cocoa outside!

What a fun memory!

one week down...and how many more to go?

Ah, the joys of summer... the birds chirping, weeds being pulled, a nice morning breeze and the sound of my 2 beautiful daughters fighting! Well one week of summer has flown by - and we've had numerous fights. Sometimes I wish there was no summer - cause I feel like I have to do something every day. I know it's not true - but seems like in the summer, the kids become a bit more demanding! So last week I promised the girls I'd take them to the pool and they wanted to make "home made " chocolate chip cookies. See 12 years ago when I got married I did everything home made. 12 years ago I also was pregnant, not working and had all day to do that sort of thing while Justin was at work. So the other night he announced that mommy used to be nice and make "real" cookies... not the frozen ones I make now. (hello? they're way easy & NO mess!) I told the girls we'd go shopping for the ingredients and make them before we went to the pool. That was fun! (carsun is beginning to accept all of the pictures I take to put on the blog! It's about time!)
The pictures are to prove to my hubber that I still know how to make home made chocolate chip cookies!!! :)

The pool was enjoyable too!

if you're happy & you know it

Today Tika was hired to babysit her cousin Reid in Spanish Fork. I took her down there cause I figured that I could just hang out with Melinda while she organized the garage. Or at least try to help...Well it turns out I was more in the way than anything...I think! (sorry melinda!) Anyway - Reid is so cute - When Rod would sing the song, "when you're happy & you know it" and he got to the "clap your hands" part, Reid claps his little hands. So dang cute. Anyway, these 3 pics are from us @ their house this afternoon. Tika stayed for a couple hours longer and Carsun & I headed up the canyon so I could get to work. We had to make a quick pit stop and while getting back into the van Carsun goes, "what the..." As I looked back at her she was gagging at her shoe. What do you know---she stepped on someones wad of minty gum and wiped it on the mat of the van to get it off of the bottom of her shoe. Now, you must understand that I, myself am a "gagger". There are things that just make me gag. For instance: snot, teeth being brushed, the smell of ramen noodles cooking, Justin making a "throwing up " noise...these are a few things that make me gag. And gum is another one of those things that makes me GAG! The smell, the sound, bubbles being blown with it. Ugh - I can't handle gum!
So immediately I roll down the windows and gag myself to the nearest car wash to spry the gag-making-material off of the mat. (I have to back track so you understand why I have these next 2 pictures on here...last night Carsun was helping mow the lawn and I said, "Let me go get my camera so I can take a picture of you." She glares at me and says, "Why-so you can put me on the blog? That's all you ever do - blog blog blog." So I chose to not take her picture since she is humiliated that I put her "plumber" pic's on the blog. Okay - now you're caught up...) Carsy asked if she could help spray off the mats, I handed her the sprayer gun and she looks at me and says, "Do you have your camera? Cause this would be a REALLY good one for the blog!"
and by the way - she threw away her shoes!

Pathfinders are out of this world!

Friday was the last day of school!! (wahoo!) And for Tika & Carsun (& me) it was the last day at JR Smith Elementary. Tika is movin' on up to the middle school and Carsun will be going to Heber Valley Elementary. Me? That's a whole different post! Anyway - these are a few pictues of the girls on their last day of school! The school was filled with a fun energy...I'm glad I was able to be a part of it! What an amazing year! Both girls got straight "E"s (same as an "A") and Tika got Honors! :)

This is one of the bulletin boards in my class room. ( I left it up! It was the first bulletin board I did when I started @ JR Smith 2 years ago and I'd have cried way too hard if I took it down!)

Tika ~ ~ ~ Teacher: Brynley Phillips & class (they love doing "crazy pictures")

Carsy ~ ~ ~ Teacher: Marie Patterson & class (they chose the "backdrop")

panic attack

I fear I am going to have a panic attack! My dear, sweet child Tika got a phone call tonight. She was asked to BABYSIT! Holy Hell! My baby!! I am completely stressed out! Okay, I know that she is only 5 minutes away and it is her Auntie Sarah & Uncle Eric's kids, but I guess it is still weird! She is growing up WAY to fast. I know I need to let her.. I know, you can say it! So I called to check on her and she's like, "hello?" All cute & grown up sounding! Anyway I just had to share my stresses! She'll be an AWESOME babysitter!

An extra day

Above is a slide show of some one-on-one time I got to have with Reid this morning after the girls were at school. We rolled the blue ball back & forth and then he discovered Genevieve's wugga! We had a great time in the cool morning air!

Charlie got to stay an extra night!! Yesterday there was a high speed chase through Parley's Canyon that caused Melinda & Rod to have to wait in traffic and then be diverted back down the canyon. I decided that since they had been in the car forever that I would just take Reid home to make Melinda & Rod's life a bit easier. Well that's what I get for thinking! As Tika, Carsun, Charlie & I ate dinner, normally I would be saying, "k- guys hurry up - we've got to get baby home". Well something kept telling me to slow down & relax.

After we ate, I got everything all loaded up and as we sat in the driveway my car registered that I only had 1/8 tank of gas. I was trying to figure out how that would work when Saturday night I had 1/2 tank. I called Melinda & told her we were on our way, but we had to stop to get gas. As I got to the stop sign @ the end of our street the gas gauge moved to 1/2 full. WEIRD! So Instead of getting gas I just headed down the canyon. I felt completely relaxed & unrushed. I realized a couple times I was going under the speed limit, but there was no one behind me, so no big deal.

As I got to the Wallsburg turn off I looked at the clock and realized it was after 7:15 and almost stopped to call Melinda and tell her I'd bring him down in the morning, but instead of turning, I kept going. The girls & I were chatting and laughing at the funny sounds that baby was making and all of the sudden, there was 2 lanes of completely stopped traffic. No movement - so, we waited there for a few minutes and when there was a break in the traffic headed up , I decided we'd turn around. I called the Merkley's and explained what was going on and how I had felt prior to leaving, they understood me not wanting to sit in traffic for who knows how long, and said that Charlie could stay another night. As I lay in bed I saw on the news that there was a fatal accident in Provo Canyon.

All I can say is that there is a reason that we took our time and did'nt rush to get down the canyon. Who knows if we would have been part of that horrific accident? Someone was watching out for us.

(...thank you...)

S'more FUN

Last summer we bought a portable fire pit for our back yard. We have loved having it. Last weekend, Justin, the girls & I decided to hop on our bikes and ride to Day's Market to get stuff for S'mores. When we got back our neighbor's the Titcomb's and the Naylor's were all outside so we invited them all over for some marshmallow roastin' fun!

It was a late night... but way worth it! mmmmmm....s'more's ~ one of my ultimate favorites!

Penguin Palooza!

Today Tika Mahrie Isabel had to do a presentation in her 5th grade class. The assignment was, "What do you wish you would have learned about in 5th grade?" The kids could choose ANY subject they were interested in and teach the class in whatever way they wanted to! Sounds pretty fun to me! Well many of you know that Tika has been on a penguin-kick the last little while. She is fascinated with the feathered creatures, so - this is what she did...First of all she was decked out in all of her penguin attaire, (courtesy of Grandma's embriodery)

She took "Chilly~Willy" her stuffed penguin, created a word search and prepared a power point to present to her class. She asked her class, "Do you know what penguins eat?" Several of them answered, "fish" She said, "You're right, and I have brought some fish for you all to try." She opened her cooler and...

SWEDISH FISH!!!!! I'm sure her class was appreciative that it was'nt SUSHI!

I wish I could have made it to Tika's presentation, but of course it was right during the end of Carsun's program. I'm positive she did a great job! Smart kid!