Happy 24th

Our neighborhood is great. We have a fun parade and party to celebrate the 24th of July, Pioneer Day. The boys loved the idea of being in a parade and even though it was fun, I think that it didn't quite do it for them! It didn't help that it was like 100 degrees and everyone was so grumpy in the sun!
After "parading" down the street we all met up to grill and play. The party gets better and better each year as more money is raised.
We didn't stay long, I was done after walking those few blocks in the heat, but we did have fun and are glad that we have great neighbors to organize such things!

MY Day

It was my birthday and I had a great day. It was very relaxed and I was surrounded by family. We went to McDonald's for lunch, which totally made the day for the boys. That's their idea of a good meal on a birthday.
My parents were in town house hunting so it was a treat to have them be able to be with us. I requested my favorite meal from my Dad, "Guac". And my mom of course whipped together a cute cake for me and had lots of help licking spoons and sampling frosting from Sam and James.

We had a fun time decorating. The boys were way into it, so I just went with it. He had to make birthday Mr. Potato Heads for the occasion and hang fireworks for the party.

I felt lots of love from my friends and neighbors. It was sweet to see all the cards and goodies come in. I didn't know so many people were aware of me and cared. It was very touching. I must admit my favorite was a Lemon Pie from my friend Melanie. SOOOOO sweet!

Kennecott Mine

I was looking through our mail this last week and found a coupon to go see the mine for free this week (by the way, anyone can go, you don't need the coupon). I was so excited. It's only $5, but hey, it just is so much more fun when you know you go in for free. So I was telling Seth about it and he said, you know we can go anytime for free because I work for them?! -Well, no actually, after 4 years I still didn't know! Figures!
So we went. It was so AMAZING. Who knew going and seeing that huge 2 mile wide whole and those trucks that are as big as my house could be so fun?!
The boys loved it too. We toured through the Visitor Center and the Gift Shop too. It is amazing the things I learned.
Clay gazing off into the "pit of despair".

I love this shot. See how tiny that "big" school bus looks next to those trucks!

Sam (and some random guy) by one of those huge tires.

Cutie Sam in an old mining car.

James enjoyed things from the "stroller point of view". (I wish someone would have pushed me around all morning so I didn't have to walk!)

Some of my favorite things that I learned were the following two:
They find so many elements while mining. I loved seeing all the different rocks and how beautiful and colorful they were.

And I learned that all the medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake were donated from the metals they found in the mine. That's amazing. Over $100,000worth. And it was "scraps" they found in their copper!

We had such a fun time and the teacher in me could help but think that this was what it was like when my mom was home schooling me and would take me on field trips. You just learn so much more by going and doing. I could see years ahead when my boys are older and we would go and then they would put together little PowerPoint presentations of the things they'd learned. It got me so excited! :)

Toilet Papered

So my brother Mark came over to grab Clay for dinner and family night last night. It was fun to him to go and have some time with their family. When they came back they came through our back door. I thought it was a little weird, but, hey, that's how Mark rolls.
They hung out for a while and the kids played while Mark did our dishes (so nice!). Our door bell rang and I sent the kids to get it since I wasn't feeling so well and didn't want to get up. It was some boys in our neighborhood coming to tell us that we had been toilet papered!
I was so mad. I couldn't believe someone would toilet paper us. I yelled to Seth that someone had toilet papered us and to come see. He wasn't interested at all and I couldn't tell why. I yelled to the boys down the street and said that if they found out who it was to let me know.
Mark and the kids were laughing at me....duh, of course they had done it! I can't believe how dumb I was. It was pretty funny how clueless I was to the whole thing. Seth even laughed. He couldn't believe that I really didn't know it was them.
Yes, yes, the jokes on me...again! :)

Seth's Family Reunion

This last weekend we had a fun time with Seth's Mom's side of the family. I really haven't had the opportunity to get to know many of them before, so it was fun.
We got to spend a fun night at Seth's parent's house just hanging out and eating great food.
We were going to go camp out at Lagoon but poor Sammy woke up from his nap with a bad ear ache. We took him in and found that he had a bad ear infection, so we canceled our camping trip. No harm done, just a bit of a waste of packing all day!
We spent all day Saturday at Lagoon with his whole family. It was so fun.
Clay especially had a good time being able to go with some of the older kids to the big rides while we took it easy with Sam and James.
We ended the weekend with a nice "day of rest" on Sunday with his family. I mainly hung out at home and rested. I was pretty wiped out from Saturday and all the "fun" pregnancy issues I've had the pleasure of going through! :)

Grandpa's Birthday

The boys had one of their funnest days ever. I told them it was Grandpa's birthday and they were do excited to make him a card, cake, and wrap his presents.
We decided to have a little fun with his cake and use an idea I got from my friend. We made a cupcake tower. It was fun to see Sam's eyes light up when he learned we could make a tower out of cupcakes.
We had a fun little party for him and then went out to eat at Village Inn. Little did we know it was free pie day. We got introduced to their Lemon Deluxe. It was SOOOO good. (I made Seth go pick one up later!)
We sure do love Grandpa at this house and were glad to be able to do a little something for him for all he does for us.

Happy 3rd and 4th of July

We had a fun 4th weekend with my side of the family. We had 7 out of the 10 families here and it was a blast. My parents came up and brought Clay with them. He will be staying with us for at least a month. Jon, Andy, Joy, Mark, Matt, Mine, and Nate's families were all here too!
We started it off with a fun and yummy breakfast with our ward. It was the first really fun ward activity that we've been too. It was fun and I was glad to spend some time with my neighbors.

We had a great time Saturday swimming at Joy's community pool and then hanging out, eating great food and playing around. We didn't make it long enough to watch the fireworks, the poor boys were so tired from so much family fun.

We of course had a traditional family scavenger hunt for the kids while they had to run around with the cameras doing and finding crazy things.


We went back down Sunday for more good times and food.

We did set fireworks off Sunday night and I learned that my boys are little pyros! :) It was fun to see them stay up late and ooooohhh and aaaaahhhhh.



I love holidays, especially the 4th. I love summer fun, swimming, eating BBQ, and especially the fireworks.

Eclipse

I got invited to a pre-premiere of Eclipse. It was so fun to be able to see it and not have to stay up until midnight. I have to admit there was a little chip on my shoulder as I walked out and everyone was still waiting to see it.
I went with my friend Aymee and her aunt and uncle. A friend of ours in our ward has a cousin who rented out a theater.
It was definitely the best of the 3 movies. I thought it was very well done and I am glad to see that with all the action Seth should like it too.
The actors finally looked good in this one. I was telling everyone (half the women in my ward were there) that this one was "one bad haircut short of being perfect." I don't know why Jasper had to look so hideous, but he sure did. Maybe it was to put and end to the "team Jasper" slogans. It sure killed it for me.
The only down to the night was the little boy that some mom brought with her. The poor thing was so scared and crying during one of the fight scenes. I don't know why some parents have to take their kids to movies that they shouldn't, especially when they haven't previewed them before!
I of course had to snap a few shots while we were there. We were all jazzed up in our "Twilight" gear from Aymee. She made me a cute necklace. Her uncle felt let out, so he stuck some forks in his shirt pocket!
I took one with Edward and Aymee with Jacob. (I know, I know, I'm still working on her...team Jacob?)

To Infinity and Beyond

We took James to his first official movie, Toy Story 3. It was fun to see him get excited about going to see the "Buzz Movie." Sam knew what we were talking about right away and that was cute. He even remembered going and seeing the Dragon (How to Train Your Dragon) and Dinosaur (Ice Age 3) movies.
James wasn't sure about the dark at first, but once the treats and drinks were busted out he thought this was a pretty good set up...and then Buzz came and everything was smiles and giggles and "buzz".
The movie lost his attention after about an hour/hour and a half, but he still did really well. Even Sam was ready for it to be over. 2 hours is a long time for the little ones.
We invited some of their boy cousins to come with. Mitch and Josh spent the day with us and Sam and James were thrilled about that. They loved the movie, I think they were more of the age to do so.
Later that day we had to do some shopping and it was fun to take the boys to the toy aisle and look at all the new Toy Story toys with new eyes.

Oh Come With Me to Primary

I have been up to my ears in Primary things lately. Our stake is definitely one that goes above and beyond when it comes to activities and things. I have been on our stake Primary board (yes we have one) since last September/October. It was been very busy and I have learned a lot. Even though I am the Music Coordinator I am still involved in it all.
These last few weeks I have had a 2 and a half hour meeting every week. I had to run the stake baptisms 2 weeks ago (we had 3 sessions where 13 children got baptized), ward visits, ward trainings, and this last Saturday we had our big Activity Day activity, Brigham's Activity, for which I had to meet with the leaders who would be helping me with my workshop, train them, and then collect lace and ribbon donations for the workshop. We met together for a temple session, talked and planned some more...Oh, and did I mention I had to make 200 goody bags for all the girls and their leaders?! (Thankfully I have a great family that helped a ton!)





The Activity went well, long, but well. My workshop was to teach the girls how to make Hankie (rag) dolls like the pioneers would have made. We ended up not being able to teach them any basic sewing skills because I was shocked to realize that out of the 100 girls who were there only about 5 (if that) who knew how to thread a needle and make a stitch. We made some quick adjustments and were still able to send the girls home with a cute hankie doll that they felt like they "sewed".
Yes. I am tired! I didn't have to have a meeting this week and I am so grateful because I feel like a walking zombie.
I love this picture of James just laying on the back patio step because I think it sums up really well how I feel.

I am not complaining by any means. I am just glad to not be "busy". My poor kids have had to see me running out the door and leaving them with babysitters or dad so that I could get everything done. I AM grateful for this calling in the fact that I really have learned how the church would like the Primary organization to run. I have learned a lot about how to work with people as well and hope that I have learned how to communicate better and support all those around me, especially when I see so many people trying to do their best in all they do. And most importantly...I have learned to SIMPLIFY! Yes, Karen is learning to simplify...who knew you could!:)
We have another scouting day coming up in August, Brigham's Camp. I will be running the Silhouette Workshop where the boys will learn how to draw their silhouette and do indexing by getting on to the family search website. I will also have to help with the stake baptisms that month too....
So here's to a fun and relaxing July full of LOTS of family fun.

Air James

James is my little athlete. He loves sports, balls, competition, getting reactions out of people...it's in his blood...after all, he is half Tenney!
I just finally moved the basketball hoop outside again now that we are having such great weather. James is all about it. He is out there shootin' hoops before 7 each morning! He also will play a little golf and baseball. We are still working on the soccer.
I love seeing boys be boys! :)

It's Daddy's Day

It's Daddy's Day and he is soaking it up (as he should). He of course woke up to a fun scavenger hunt for his presents followed by his favorite breakfast, egg in a hole. It was fun to see him have to go up and down the stairs following his clues.
The big "finale" present was hid behind the couch pillows in our front room and as soon as Seth walked in the room, Sam ripped the pillows off the couch and yelled, "SURPRISE!" It was so cute to see him get so into it and want his daddy to find his presents. He also gave him the best "Happy Father's Day" ever.
We sure love our Dad in this house and are so grateful for him. He does a good job and we hope we feels how much we love him...especially today!
(a Braves toothbrush from James)

(a Braves car sticker from Sam)

(a Braves shirt from Mom)

Coolest Pool-est Ever-est!

We had a great day on Friday. We love going to my sister's house to play with her and her kids. It's always a nice trip for me too, because I usually get to sneak away to the chiroprator and get all fixed up.
This Friday we went to her pool with her. It was SOOOOO fun. It is one of the best community pools I have ever been too. They have baby pools, pirate ships with little slides, squirters, and buckets to dump on you, a lazy river, a water slide, and a pool that is constant waves where you can surf.
The best part of all that was that my kids didn't really want anything to do with me. They just wanted to play and be with their cousins, so I just got to float around the lazy river and enjoy their laughter.
James has developed this super cute attachment to Josh. All last week he kept asking where Josh was and all Friday he just wanted to be with him. This was expecially a nice treat since he has been SUCH a momma's boy.