# 7

Ever been to Price? I hadn't. I think it's safe to say, we won't be moving there anytime soon. Not my favorite city.

When I was about 16, our youth in the ward went to see the Castle Dale Pageant. It's like the Manti one...but in Castle Dale...and not about Joseph Smith...more about the temple. Anywho...it was on my list for this summer and my Dad jumped on board, and then my sister Robin, and my sister Kerry. Many hours were spent discussing where we would be camping, then Grandma said, "Why don't we just get hotel rooms in Price?" We all oohed and aahhed at the idea. So get hotel rooms we did:

The girls swam a lot, thanks to aunt Robin for being a good sport with my kids!

We had dinner at a park in Price. I challenged Maddie to a race. She cheated. She won. If you want to see the video, ask Jer, I'm sure he'd love to show you my humiliation on his iphone.

Then we headed further south to Castle Dale. For the first time in my 31 years knowing my dad, he got us lost. (Wait, there might have been a time when we went to Nauvoo a few years back, but it's vague). K, I'm sure he's gotten us lost before, but he'll usually make it seem like we weren't lost. This time I knew we were lost.

We made it! They were busing people up to the site, but Macie refused to get on the bus, so Robin, Dan and I walked up. We found this photo opp...bet Grandma was kicking herself that she wasn't there with her camera!

The kids were very restless throughout the entire thing, but it was good and I'm glad we went!

Small world fun fact- we ran into Jer's good friend from Malad (who was also his best man at our wedding) Cody and his family.

And after it got over, I got lost trying to find our car. I had me and Lindsay and my 14 year old niece with me. I found about 10 grey Honda Odyssey vans, but none of them were ours. I even found Cody's wife and she said, "Well, what landmark did you have to help you find your car?" Now there's a good idea...too bad I didn't think about that one before! I really started to panic, Savannah kept her cool and finally found everyone else!

We had a great trip! (and I get to cross something off my list, it's been a while).

We were fortunate enough to receive an invite to spend the night at Heber Valley Girls Camp Friday night. We had a BLAST! The kids loved sleeping in bunk beds, playing at the lake and trying to catch chipmunks. We also taught Grandma and Grandpa how to play Scattergories and I don't think any of us have ever laughed so hard! Poor Maddie got both of them on her "team" and she decided that she was better off on her own.
These pictures below are listed in order. #1 Macie happily playing Barbies. #2 Mean cousin Carly takes a Barbie and pretends to be cooking it over the fire. #3 Macie cries. #4 Carly makes it all better with a roasted Starburst.

Hazzel found a tasty ice cream lid. Macie kept going to the cabin and going to bed with her flashlight about every 20 minutes. She's stay for 3 minutes, then come back out. Danielle could roast the perfect marshmallow, but I made the BEST s'more I've ever eaten.

In the morning, my mom found that something large and white was missing. In its place, she found a note with one of her famous quotes on it, "We tease because we love. Love you, Grandma." Then it said, "Clue" and there was a picture of a flag. My parents went out and found her bra hanging on the flagpole!
The best part of the bra story was that when the girls finally got up, we pretended that it was Jeramy that had did it and none of the girls confessed. (jeramy had gone hiking and wasn't there to defend himself). We were planning our revenge on Jeramy and the girls just jumped right in and helped plan how to get him back for stealing Grandma's bra!

Thank you to the Milne Family for letting us come up for the weekend! We had a fantastic time and made so many memories that we will have forever!

Spicing things up

I hate searching through all of my spices trying to find the one that I need. I bought some cute little jars at Ikea and I did some vinyl lettering on them today. I'm pretty sure that most of my spices are from when we got married almost 11 years ago! It's time to buy some new ones.
Thanks to Callie for explaining to me that Italian Seasoning and Oregano are not the same and I shouldn't mix them together. Also that Bay leaves and Basil leaves are not the same either. I'm learning every day!

Before

and

After


I still need to buy about 4 more jars, but then my spices will all match!

A good review

While I was gone for 4 days, I left Jeramy a to do list with 3 items:
Get the oil changed in my van
Mow the lawn
Unclog the bathroom drain.

When I got home, only one thing was crossed off the list. When I asked him why he didn't do the other 2 things, his reply was, "Heidi, I had 3 little kids, how do expect me to do anything??" Ahh..he finally got it. It's hard to do anything with 3 kids, but as a mom, you learn to deal with it and get it over with.

Tuesday the girls and I ventured out for an oil change. I always go to Grease Monkey in Pleasant Grove, but I noticed last week that there is one in American Fork by Target. I was so happy to see one closer! I dropped off my car and we walked to Target while my oil got changed. When we went back to get the car, we filled our bags with free popcorn and were on our way! I love Grease Monkey because:
They always have coupons out for $7 off so it's only like $28
They give you a free car wash
They give ladies that come in for an oil change a free carnation
They leave mints on my dash next to my flower.

Flowers and mints make me happy.

Girls Camp

I can't remember if I've blogged this before or not, but I got to go to Girls Camp this summer! My calling was the tri-ward camp committee chair. Our wards are pretty small, so this year, we combined three small wards and my calling was to coordinate and plan for all three. It was GREAT! We ended up with 27 girls and 13 leaders. We went to Millcreek Pines campground in Kamas.
I love girls camp. I loved it as a youth when I went, and loved it as a leader this time just as much! I came home feeling recharged Spiritually. (But not so recharged physically, still working on that one).

Tuesday we played some fantastic relay games and got all of our certification out of the way.

In the evening we had a very spiritual night hike for the girls.

Wednesday I led the girls on a hike with my iphone...how did I live without one of those for this long? The trail that I was told was there, wasn't, so I had to make up a hike. :)

We then had spa time which included fingernail painting, feet scrubs, and a deep conditioning hair treatment of honey, oil and eggs - just what bears love to smell on little girls!

Thursday we headed to Jordanelle for a fun-filled day of boating, followed up by time with the bishopric and a great testimony meeting.

Friday we packed up in record time and actually got home at 1, which was the only activity that we were actually on time for!

Jeramy survived the week with the girls. Thanks to our awesome neighbors for giving him a break every now and then!

Happy Birthday, Macie!

She might have gotten some lipstick for her birthday, what do you think? There's about 700 layers on there.
And the big unveiling...she loved her kitchen, but I think Lindsay will love it more than Macie.

Macie asked for a Mickey Mouse party with red cupcakes. I delivered. I ran out of red frosting and had to use white on some, but she forgave me. This is a lot of red and white for a home that is true blue BYU.

After her party, she kept her dress-ups on and packed around her purse full of lipsticks while she played with the neighbor kids outside. This is so not like her, so it was fun to see her all dressed up and girly! When it was bedtime, she was excited to put on her new jammies, but very concerned about taking off her dress... "Mom, can I wear this one when I wake up?"

Happy Birthday, Macie! We love you!

How much do I love her, let me count the pieces...

It's Macie's birthday. Technically it's not until Tuesday, but we're pretending it's Saturday this year. She has really wanted a new kitchen. We have one outside for the sandbox, but I agreed with her that we needed one inside as well.
I've been a little busy this past week and I kind of forgot about her birthday. I was at Wal-mart and saw this kitchen. The only one they had and it was cheap. I decided to buy it and take it home and see if it was as "cheap" as the price.
I decided my night to put it together would be Thursday night after Bunco. This would be what time I started this little project at:

And that's a.m., not p.m.

I got it all out of the box and was amazed at the amount of little pieces!

But I was still going on my "bunco high" and dove right in. I did pretty good until this time:

At which point, I gave up for the night. I had started forming blisters on my fingers from using the wire cutters to cut everything apart.

This is as far as I got.

I did finish it last night while watching "Speed Racer" with my hubby. He watched my amazing kitchen-building skills in awe.

Tada! Now, let's hope she likes it...and it doesn't fall apart.

More pictures!

This last picture is priceless.

So much attitude for a 3 year old little girl.

Happy family

Our last family picture was in 2006. Technically, Macie was in the picture, just not visible and about the size of a raisin. I've kept that picture up because I love it, even if it is minus a child.
Lindsay made this picture at church a few months ago, and I finally took down our outdated family picture and put this up instead:

Last weekend, I tricked my darling husband and didn't let him know that we were getting our pictures taken. We both would have like to have lost about 20 pounds first, but well, that's not happening anytime soon. He was a good sport and we finally have a family picture! Macie was a real poop about the whole event and is sporting quite the scowl in every picture, but I'll take what I can get!

Thanks, Tera!

http://daniels-photography.blogspot.com/

4th of July

There really is no place we'd rather spend our 4th of July than in Malad. There's nothing better than being startled out of a deep sleep at 6 a.m. by cannons being shot off right outside your house. Really. Nothing better. We always complain, but heck, that's part of the tradition, right?

We look forward to the parade every year. Nothing beats a small town parade. My kids get oodles of candy and don't have to fight for it...the only person who was out there chasing candy was my father-in-law's 5th grade teacher. I'll point her out in a minute.

Fun fact for ya..how many of you know that Jeramy plays the drums? Every year when the Malad High band float goes by, I have to hold onto him to keep him from jumping up and taking over for the poor high school drummer. Every year when it passes he turns to me and says, "Can I get a drum set?" Every year I say no.
And I'm glad my brother-in-law explained this one to me before it got in front of us so that I looked like the smart one when everyone was laughing at the sign that says, "Spreading the tradition." And Jeramy says , "I don't get it." And I casually explained, "That's an old manure spreader." Duh. Doesn't everyone know that?

And this (very festive lady) in the white pants and red blazer would be the famous 5th grade teacher. She was out there - with her cane- chasing down candy. At first she would get it and give it to Lindsay, so Lindsay kept watching her. Soon after, Granny started keeping the candy for herself. It didn't take long for Lindsay to realize that the fastest one out there got the candy!

Success!

(Check out Macie's face in the back).

Happy 4th, everyone!

(on the 7th).

Good times at Grandma's

Shelby is here!!! The girls made her this sign, it took them about an hour. It was a blessed hour with no fighting and no crying. We are sooo excited to have her here with us!

Grandpa put the pool up. The little girls have been very nervous! I don't have any pictures in the pool because I have to get in with them because they are terrified of drowning...with their life jackets on, plus their tubes around their waists, and clinging to a water noodle...paranoid much?

These pictures crack me up! They insisted that they needed goggles, and my sister got Lindsay these awesome boots that everyone is wearing around my house these days.

I'm pretty sure that my mom's backyard is the happiest place on earth for me and my girls!

I love flowers.

Do you know what I love even more than flowers?

Good friends who give me flowers.

You made my day!

# 16 is done

For FHE Monday, we rounded up some friends and went to Pirate Island Pizza in Orem. We've been dying to go check it out! Here's the Wakewii family review...

1) we missed out on Family night bingo by 5 minutes...bummer.

2) the breadsticks and salad bar were great.

3) the pizza was not good at all, and we had 24 inches of that nastiness to try and choke down. It was so bad that none of the kids would even eat it!

4) we were totally misled by our waitress about the price of our meal. We were under the impression that the pizza, breadsticks and drink were 39.99, when we got our check we were all shocked to find out it was actually 56.99. When we asked her about it, she acted like we were the dumb ones and wouldn't budge on changing it. "The pizza is 39.99, you guys made it into the family meal and that's 56.99." But when we ordered, that's not quite how it went down.

5) the kids (and men) had a blast in the arcade, but on the way home, the girls all said that they wouldn't eat there again.

We will not be going back.