Old Friends and New Ones

Saturday my mom and the kids and I went to Logan to see a friend of mine. We went to the Zoo and I didn't even know Logan had a Zoo, it was small but the kids loved it, Kaleb was a little more interested about all the Pioneer Day Celebrations they had going on in the park next to the Zoo. We walked around the zoo for a bit, I would have like to do a little more talkin with Ben and catch up, but Kaleb was really wired so most of my attention was given to him instead but it was still really good o see Ben and to meet his wife Terri. The kids loved Ben and Terri, Ryne immediately made friends with Terri, I thought it was sweet, Kaleb kept calling them "dudes" which in Kaleb land is a very good compliment. We let the kids play in the park to run off some more energy then we headed over to The Old Grist Mill for dinner. After we ate we said our goodbyes and headed home to finish the night with fireworks! The kids got to do sparklers which they absolutely loved, Ellie loved watching all the bright lights , but we had to keep a really close on her. It was a full day, but Ryne and Kaleb slept wonderfully, Ellie on the other hand was up A LOT and obviously so was I. I would have stayed home from church like Ryne and Ellie did to catch up on some sleep but I had to teach a lesson so to church I went with Kaleb in tow. Once home from church I took a 4 hour nap and man did it feel good!!

This week is going to be a very busy one, tonight the Uncle E the kids and I are going to go to the Circus, tomorrow I have a full morning of dental work scheduled and also laundry and packing and searching for lost things (like sippy cups, and comfort blankies, shoes etc..), Thursday my mom and I are going to Salt Lake to the temple, Friday the kids and I are going swimming I have been promising them all summer, but it keeps getting put off so Friday for sure. Dana will be here Friday, Saturday we are going to load the car up, then we are going into town for my class reunion, then Dane and I are dropping off the kids then heading to Logan to meet up with Ben and Terri again. Sunday Dane will be going home, the kids and I will go to church then Monday we will do some more last minute searching and packing, then we will load up Ethan's car and head home on Tuesday! Man this week is going to be a crazy but fun filled one!!

The Princess Bride & a root canal!

Everyone I know LOVES the movie The Princess Bride, I have seen it and thought it was just ok until today! I went to the dentist today to get a root canal and this movie just happened to be on, like I said it isn't my favorite but I thought "well I need something funny to keep my mind off my mouth", so I started watching it then they gave me the laughing gas and man that movie just got better and better! I think I now see why everyone loves that movie it truly is a great film, and it did the trick before I new it my root canal was done!

I do say I wish I could bring home some of that gas, whenever my children are starting to be a pain! I was thinking how nice would that be to be able to go and take a couple of deep cleansing breaths of the gas, I think I would be able to handle just about anything! Anyway I know this is a random post but I just had to post about my root canal and The Princess Bride.

Peace of mind, Peace at Heart and Peace in Spirit.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been feeling really stressed and anxious. The kids have been really missing their daddy, they were fine for about the first month but now not a day goes by that one of them doesn't cry for daddy. I feel bad because they are constantly begging to go home "to daddy's home", all I can say is that it isn't time to go home yet but they don't understand this so they just cry harder and keep begging. I know how they feel it's hard being away from family, that's why we are here in the first place! I am such a daddy's girl I missed him and wanted to spend some time with him (and my mom too, I love her just as much), I don't like being away from my family I get homesick all the time and I hate how that feels, and yet I turn around and give my kids the same feeling. I am now feeling guilty and that adds more stress, lately I have felt like I have failed as a mother, there really is no particular reason why I feel this way in fact there seems to be a new reason every day! Some days it's because the kids do nothing but fight with each other, or they won't listen to me, there constant screaming whether it's happy mad or sad screaming, it could be their constant whining (usually about daddy), their teasing, the fact that their dad isn't here, you name it and I fell like I am the cause of it and there for I have failed, if you asked me to grade myself I would give myself a big fat F. As you can tell my feelings have completely taken control of me, I know that being apart from Dana is making me homesick, and that I am feeling pretty much the same way the kids are but I am hiding that fact from the kids, at least I was until last week. One night the kids wouldn't go to sleep, Kaleb kept coming out of the bedroom cause Ryne was teasing him, and by constantly coming out of the room he was keeping Ellie awake, I had had enough I reached my boiling point, and exploded not only on my kids but innocent bystanders ( to whom I want to say I am truly sorry). I called Dana that night wanting to go home, I cried and bawled for oh I don't know how long, by the end of my ranting I felt a little better but decided I would feel better if I went to the Temple.

I found out that the Logan Temple was closed for cleaning, so my mom and I went to the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday for a session. It was so wonderful, I am so grateful to have these beautiful peaceful Temples that I can go to to feel the presence of my Father in Heaven. I have never been to the Idaho Falls temple before and it was a new and wonderful experience for me. The moment I entered the Temple I was at peace, all I could feel was my Father's love for me and my family. Every worry I had before entering the Temple was gone the second I stepped over the thresh hold, all I felt was love, and understanding. The things that I was so worried and stressed about didn't matter anymore because the Lord took it all from me, the moment I let go of it, he heard the pray in my heart, by the end of the session I had the answers to my questions all I could feel was peace, no anxiety, no stress just peace. I have tried to hold onto that feeling since we left the Temple yesterday, when I start to get frustrated, or anxious I just remember that peace I felt, and I remind myself that my Father in Heaven has a hand in everything and that there will always be peace when I need it the most, if I just look for it and open my heart to it. I am so grateful for the teachings of my Savior, for the plan of Salvation and I am so grateful for the Temples and the promise of and Eternal family, my testimony has grown so much in the last few months, I can't even explain how. Every Sunday I feel the spirit, everything that I have ever been taught is confirmed to me through every lesson, every hymn, and every talk, I feel my Savior and my Father in Heaven in everything and for that I am truly grateful. Yesterday was exactly what I needed, and I found exactly what I was looking for.

Egg collectin, horse riding, Rodeo kind of weekend!

I'm a little behind with my blogging. We had a busy day of firsts on Friday, a gal in my moms Ward invited us over for lunch, while we were there we got to go into the chicken coop and collect eggs, and the kids got to ride a horse named Sugar! Before we went into the chicken coop Yvonne warned the kids about the roosters, for some reason they like to go after little kids, she told the kids to just stick close to the adults and all would be fine. We went in to one coop and collected the eggs with no chickens or roosters in sight, we went into the other one where they have the beams across the sealing so the chickens can roost, Ryne was on Yvonne's sons shoulders collecting eggs when he turned around a chicken and jumped up onto the beam and scared Ryne half to death she couldn't wait to get out of there!! It turned out she didn't know which ones were chickens and which ones were roosters so she was just plain terrified!! They had so much fun collecting the eggs, they even got to wash them and bring them home.

Ryne was the first one to ride the horse named Sugar, Yvonne took pictures cause I forgot my camera so when I get them I will post them. While Ryne was riding the horse Kaleb and Yvonne's son Sammy were up on the fence petting the other horses, one of them let out a loud noise and I tell you what I have NEVER seen Kaleb move so fast, he was off the fence and 10 feet away before I could even blink!! He decided to keep his distance from the horses, until it was his turn to ride Sugar. He was so thrilled to be on that horse, he threw one arm in the air (like he was waving a hat) and said " Yeee Haw I am Woody and this is my horse Bullseye, giddy up Bullseye giddy up!" it was such an awesome moment for him and me to see how thrilled he was. The kids played for awhile and were really upset when we had to go home, but we still had more fun ahead of us.

Friday night we went to McCammon for the Pioneer Day Rodeo, the kids loved it. Ryne really liked the Barrel racing and Kaleb liked the Muttin Bustin. By the end of the night Ryne kept telling me "When I grow up, I want to be a cow girl and have a horse named Harry and he can wear a bow!". Kaleb was just tired and wanted to go home. Saturday they had a parade in McCammon so I loaded the kids up and took them (by myself), they had a blast gathering candy at least for the first few minutes! Ryne lost her energy when the candy would drop down at her feet she would slowly look down, she was bushed. After the parade the kids and I came home for dinner then Ethan and I went back to the rodeo I hung out with a friend of mine that was running a booth at the craft fair it was great catching up and having an adult conversation with out wondering were my kids were!! So that was our busy and adventurous weekend full of firsts!

Father's Day Batman Tutorial

When I asked the kids what they wanted to get Dane for Father's Day Kaleb spoke up and said "A batman cape towel with a hat!". I dismissed this at first thinking it was kinda silly, but then when I thought about what to get him this kept coming to mind, and I thought well it's really up to the kids so I go the stuff to make it and the kids were thrilled. Marryne took pictures while I put it together, and Kaleb gave his approval when it was all done. Ok so here is the tutorial for the hooded batman towel..



For this project you will need:

Black Bath Towel (I used a Bath Sheet)
2 black wash cloths
Yellow Hand towel
Batman symbol Template
Scissors
Fabric Glue
Fray Check



1. Lay out your black towel and decided where you want the symbol to be. I centered mine by folding the towel in half and marking the center, then pin your template to your towel. I free handed my template (sorry no pictures), but you can print them off the web. Once pinned cut out your template.
2. Next take your yellow hand towel and cut out an oval that's about 3 inch's bigger than your template like so...
3. Using your fabric glue, glue the yellow oval, behind your opening..
It should look like this. Once your yellow towel is glued on, you can glue the bat on.
It should look like this, when your done. Now you can leave it like it is and just fray check all the raw edges or you can do what I did and sew a tight zig zag around the symbol to give it a more professional look(not shown here).

To make the hood, I used to black wash clothes, I just sewed them together in a hood shape then attached it to the towel, centering the hood on the towel. Kaleb was thrilled that daddy now has a cool towel like his, not to mention Dane is Kaleb's hero and what better way to show it then a cool towel like this!

These towels are so much fun and the things you can do with them are endless, you can make up your own design, personalize with a letter, you can pretty much do whatever comes to mind!

5 minutes before the "Rockets Red Glare".....

Kaleb fell asleep! Which was understandable since we had a super busy weekend. We started with a parade on Saturday, and some fun and games at the Arimo Park. Sunday we started out by going to church which I thought would be the relaxing part of my day but it wasn't, Kaleb ran away the second we got into the parked the car, and Ellie fell and hit her head really hard and had a huge goose egg(not to mention she was already cranky), and Marryne cried during most of her primary class and sharing time. Needless to say by the time I got home I was pretty frazzled, the kids and I got ready to go tubing, laid Ellie down for a nap and off we went. I drove my brothers car while I followed him and his friends in their car (they didn't know the back roads so they didn't want to drive), all was well till we got to Lava and had to find parking, I accidentally went onto private property and had a lady stand in front of the car, let's just say she wasn't very nice and neither was I. After we got parked we went in search for Uncle E and his friends, it took us a little bit but we found them, then we got the tubes and started walking. We went down 2 water falls, we made it through the first one(which was the bigger of the 2) with some minor cuts and bruises( I was the one with the cuts and bruises), Ryne and I were the first ones down the 2nd waterfall, due to avoiding a guy that flipped over just before the falls we weren't on the side that would take us safely through so we flipped! Ryne was pretty scared but she had a life jacket on and I had lifted her above water so she was ok, although she did get a mouthful of water. Uncle E and Kaleb flipped over before the falls(he wasn't the one I avoided) so they just walked around it, the kids were pretty much done after that, they were cold and scared out of there minds, after we finished the 1st run the kids wanted to warm up and eat, after that we took them back to the river (with much convincing that we weren't going to go over the falls again), we went down a small stretch of water that was calm and they loved that, it took us awhile to get them out!

Grandma, Grandpa J, and Ellie met up with us, and we had lunch and the kids ran and played with some new found friends. The fireworks didn't start till 10, and as the sun went down it got cold, Kaleb curled up in my lap with a blanket and went to sleep minutes before the fireworks started, we tried to wake him but it was out. Ellie seemed to really enjoy the fireworks, and running all over. Ryne was determined to stay awake on the ride home, but her exhaustion won out! Wow what a day we had, and I don't have any pictures to prove it cause I forgot my camera! I will take some pics of my "battle wounds" and add them later.

We had so much fun spending our 4th with family, and we are so thankful to the soldiers and our Father in Heaven that we can have such celebrations.