Malad Days

Here's a few pictures of our fun weekend!  We had a little family reunion at my mom and dad's house in Malad!  My Nana and Grampy and aunts and uncles came from Utah and Twin Falls - we haven't seen Nana and Gramp since we moved to Oklahoma and we had a great time catching up!  

Here's June and Grampy Bruce sporting some fancy head-wear!  

It was Uncle Jimmy's 29th birthday, so Winnie decided to give him a checkup for a present!

And we also participated in Malad Days, a small-town family tradition for the past five years.

Kolby took this picture of me and I decided to throw it on and pretend that I'm a rock star - well, at least maybe a bluegrass star! 

Mash Game: Predict Your Future at eSPIN-the-Bottle

I stole this game off of my friend Tiff's blog because it was my favorite "get you through sacrament meeting on Sunday" game during those early adolescent years of angst!  Look's like my life's going to shape up pretty nicely, ey?

		I will marry Dr. Kolby .
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in Idaho in our fabulous House.
		We will have 4 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a orange scooter with a side car.
		I will spend my days as a Fortune Teller, and live happily ever after.

Me in 3's

(My dog, Duke)

I got tagged a while ago, and this one only requires a little exertion on my part, so I suppose I will join this game of tag.  It's called "All in Threes."  You share 3 joys, fears, goals, current obsessions, and random surprising facts about yourself.  I'm a pretty simple girl, so don't expect anything too profound.  I'm easy to please. 

3 Joys

1. Sneaking a peak at my girls playing Barbies together when they think no one is watching.
2. Hearing Kolby's cereal jar rattle when he comes home at the end of every day.
3. Singing in my bathroom, which has great acoustics, and pretending I'm a pro!

3 Fears

1. Outliving my children.  I hope God knows I'm not that strong.
2. Sending my kids to school - I don't trust ANYONE! 
   
3. Aliens.  Thanks to the movie "Fire in the Sky." 

3 Goals

1. Loosing these last ten baby pounds.  Easier said than done!
2. Getting my masters degree in social psychology
3. My third goal is a secret.  I'll let you know if I go through with this goal because If I am a complete failure, then I for sure don't want anyone to know!

3 Current Obsessions

1. Radiohead.  I can't get enough these days!
2. Running on my elliptical - it is so energizing!
3. IKEA.  Cheap yes, but not if you buy one of everything in the store. 

3 Random facts about me

1. I am a hobbit.  5 feet tall, but size 8 feet.  Not sure how that happened.
2. I've been learning to play the mandolin for a couple of years now and I really love it.
3. When I shop, I can't buy the first item I pick up - I always have to grab my purchase from the back.  It drives Kolby crazy! 

I tag:  Audra, Tish, Sydney, Nana Deb, and Yaya Julie 

Home Again, Home Again . . .

We hit the road last week for our big trip home to Utah!  An 18 hour car trip is always a fun idea when you have kids who usually spend zero minutes a day sitting on their butts!  But we all hung in there and we're happy to report, we made it!

We bought this "Kung Fu Panda" book for Winnie at the grocery store and I think she played with it for at least 12 hours in the car!  

On our first day of driving, we stopped in Wakeeney, Kansas - the place from the movie Twister.  We had a little picnic in the park and thoroughly enjoyed the old-school merry-go-round, giant metal slide, and wooden teeter-totter.  They just don't make em' like they used to!

We packed lunchables for the girls, but Winnie didn't quite understand the concept of peeling the cheese apart.  She just went for the whole stack!

We found this awesome hotel in the middle of nowhere, Colorado and the girls were so glad to get out of the car for the night and do some swimming and soaking.

I think Dad's bum was also happy to be in the hot tub!  But he had a hard time talking it back into the car for another day of driving.

We got to Utah, but no, we didn't stop there.  The next day we drove to Malad, Idaho to spend the weekend with my mom and dad.  I don't think our bums had any feeling by the time we arrived!
June was thrilled to spend the day outside with Papa Lee.  They fished in the river, had a BBQ, and she even brought him a pink football for fathers day so they could get their game on.  

We also went to Lava Hot Springs and really soaked all of our troubles away!  June is such a nut, she goes right for the really hot pool because she loves the rocks on the bottom.  Trouble is, she's about 2 feet too short to touch!

Then it was back in the car and back to Utah.  Although we have seen more of the car than anything else, it is totally worth it to be back with all the people we love and miss so much!

Here's June, Jordan and Conzo just chillin' on the farm.  We sure have missed our cousins!  June hasn't spent one night with her mom and dad since she got here.  She's so busy sleeping over with Grandma, Nana, Yaya, and Cousin Caulder.  

And today we're just kicking back and enjoying Yaya's pool in the back yard.  Aunt Rylee is the best!  Ah, the good life!  

Reunited!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, after too many years, my best friend Stephanie (Swendsen) Johnson has returned to me!!!  Yes the fates have brought us together at long last!  Steph and I were best pals at good ol' Rigby High School but went our separate ways when we graduated.  We have kept in touch and visited each other a few times over the years, but now we get to be neighbors at last!  Steph's husband, Spencer, is going to be starting orthodontics school at OU this summer and that is where Kolby is for med school!  We're forcing them to move into our ward and also forcing them to house-sit for us while we make a trip home to Utah this month!  I'm so excited to have them here, I can hardly stand it!  Oh, and just so you know, I really didn't shrink that much since high school, Steph is just wearing really big shoes!  I've only shrunk a little!  

Girls Just Wanna Have FUN!!!

We've been three chicks running wild on our own this week!  And we capped off our girl-time with a slumber party!   June was excited all day!  She asked at 12:00 noon, "Mom, can we start the slumber party yet?"  And then continued to ask every hour on the hour until it officially kicked off!   

We watched a movie of June's choice - "The Karate Kid Part II".  What can I say, she really wants to learn some sweet nun chuck skills!  We also gorged ourselves on movie grub - popcorn, licorice, and gummy worms.  Winn's a pro, she can pack away two jumbo ropes at a time!

We partied all night - well, until 11:00 when mom couldn't keep her eyes open anymore!  I think  it was a night that June will remember.  She told me as we were tuck, tuck, tucking into bed, "Mom, it was funner than my whole life!"  I believe she meant it, until she woke up at 3:00 in the morning with a tummy ache!  I asked her if she was going to throw up, and she said, "No, I just ate too much candy."  Then she let fly a fart as loud as a thunderclap!  I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long while!  I asked her if she really just did that huge toot in my bed and she said, "I think Dad farted in here before he left."  She then proceeded to fart the night away under the covers.  In true slumber party fashion, we giggled all night long! 

p.s.  In reference to the girls' room below, I was lucky enough to have my mom come for a few days and she helped me with a lot of the painting!  She did the tree and the birds and most of the clouds.  I wish I could have kidnapped her for a bit longer because she can do in a day what it takes me to do in a month!  When we move home, we may start a mural business, so if you want a mural in about 3 years, let us know! 

Aloha!!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch- CHANGES!

Most of you will look at these pictures and say to yourselves, "Oh June, what a sweet, sweet girl!"  And on most occasions, you would be spot-on!  However, I am currently posting in the heat of drama-central!  June has a hard time with change - I mean any change.  If I change her sheets, she panics, if I change her bath towel, she comes unglued!  If I change her daily schedule in any way, I usually end up with a tantrum or two!  Well, yesterday Daddy left to go on a river trip with the Young Men in the ward, and June has not responded well!  She cried after dropping him off at the church, she cried through lunch, and then proceeded to cry periodically throughout the rest of the day.  Plus, she got very defiant!  She teased and taunted her sister all day, she destroyed a box of crayons, she got a smart mouth and she decided it would be a good idea to horse-kick me when I attempted to haul her to her room for a much-needed time-out!  Today started off much like yesterday.  I'm looking at the clock.  It is 10:00 a.m. and June is thrashing through another time-out!  She's currently screaming under the door, "Mom, you have made me really disappointed in you," and "Mom, you are making a bad choice!"  I just love to have my parenting skills mirrored back by a raging 4-year-old!  So this is real, raw parenting in a nut-shell!  You stick to you guns even though you want to either laugh or cry, and you spend most of your time deluding yourself that it's just a stage, it will pass.  But it always ends the same, with a few tears, a hug, a "sorry mama" and here we go all over again!  

Our Photo Gallery!

Can I just say that it is so nice to have Kolby around all the time?  I got a little worried when he finished school that I would have to think of ideas to entertain him throughout the summer - the zoo, six flags, etc., but he's doing fine on his own!  June and Kolby built this tower to the ceiling!  And yes, June did spend the day in a t-shirt and bundies!  It's summer man!

Kolby and I have been spending a lot of time playing this awesome game called "Ticket to Ride."  I know, we're lame!  But it is so addictive and so fun!  The problem is, I have no skills!  I think we have played about 500 times and I have only won twice!  But that's all about to change!  I found my lucky charm!  I won both times with Lyra on my lap!  She's golden!!!

On Sunday morning, we looked out our window, and what did we see?  A precious little bunny rabbit digging a hole in our lawn!  I suppose he was just getting a good spot for when the garden is in full bloom with fruits and veggies!  June had a melt down as Kolby chased little Peter Cottontail out of the yard!

Winnie's been doing a bit of bareback riding!  She hops on and yells, "YEE-HAW, I DID IT!!!"  Wonder Horse has become her new favorite t.v.-viewing buddy, too!

So, how do you like our white-trash BBQ?  Pretty primitive, we know, but we figure, why spend money on a real one when a couple of flat rocks will do the trick!

And here's a couple of chicks who never met a roasted mallow they didn't like!  What?  We ate all our dinner first!