Picnic at the Park

One evening we took sandwiches to the park for a picnic.  This park is probably the coolest park I have ever been to.  Not only does it have a cool playground and rock climbing area, but it during the summer the splash pad is working.  It was so hot!  The kids could hardly wait to get to the splash pad.  

I got a little wet taking pictures and I didn't mind at all.  It was a hot day!  The only person who really enjoyed the heat was Celeste.  She was bundled in a blanket and sleeping.  

The kids played on the splash pad for a while and then ate dinner.  It started to get a little windy and so the didn't want to get wet again.  It was OK because there was still plenty to do.

Evy enjoyed being a billy goat and climbing on the large boulders.  She was so proud of herself for climbing all the way to the top.  But when she wanted to come down she got a little scared.  I went and coached her down.  I didn't want to just get her down I wanted her to figure out how to get down.  She was scared at first and really didn't know how to get herself off the big rock.  Once she got down she turned to me and said, "that was easy.  I want to do that again."  So she climbs back up to the top and of course gets stuck again.  She gets nervous and  wants me to help her again.  After three or four times she is starting to get the hang of it.  She is standing at the bottom of the rock and a little boy is trying to get the courage to go up the rock.  She turns to him and says, "come on this is easy. Just watch me."  I had to laugh!  What a nut!

Grant wanted nothing to do with the big rocks.  I was busy helping Evy off the rocks and panicked for a second when I couldn't find Grant.  I found him swinging on the swings.  He loves swings!  He wanted Evy to swing with him on the tire swing.  It took a some persuading to convince Evy to get off the rock and she only wanted to swing for a second. 

This awesome park also has outdoor musical instruments too!  I am telling you this is the coolest park.

Grant finally climbed on rock.  (Notice the size difference.)  Evy climbed up with him and jumped off the rock.  Grant wanted help getting down.  

We concluded the evening with a Sno Cone.  The kids were so sticky!  My mom and I even got a Sno Cone!  Yummy!

River Walk

We miss living so close the river.  We haven't had a chance to go play by the river all summer.  Evy insisted we go to the river and play.  She specifically asked to throw rocks and sticks into the water.  Grant found a very large stick.  He tried to throw it in the river, but it didn't work out so well.  I was laughing too hard to get a picture of it.  

Evy got the creative idea to build a nest for the ducks.  We didn't see many ducks, but she wanted to build a nest any way.  It cracked me up because she was practically rolling in the sand and dirt trying to make a duck nest.  Grant on the other hand was using a stick to move the sand and dirt around.  Opposite from what you might think, but so kosher to their personalities. 

Summer Water Fight

Since our water fight on the Fourth of July Grant has been begging me to have a water fight in our back yard.  I figured a water fight is more fun with more people.  So when Evelyn was up we had the two neighbor girls come over and all the kids had a water fight.  We put a hose in a bucket so the kids could keep filling up their water guns.  They had fun squirting each other while one of them was "disarmed."   We got out a sprinkler to run through and at first no one wanted to run through it, but they warmed up.     I was a genius and put the sprinkler on the dead spots in the lawn.  I am so smart!

The kids' favorite part was putting the hose down the slide.  Well, let me clarify.  Evy had fun sliding down the slide.  Grant went down the slide maybe once or twice.  He had more fun manning the hose for the slide.   

We had considered taking the kids to the water park this year, but last year they were all so wimpy.  I think they had more fun in the backyard and it was free!  

Girl Hair Do's

My mom came up to visit at the beginning of August.  When she came up in May we were so busy with Celeste that we didn't have the time and I didn't have the energy to do some of the things we wanted to do.  Evelyn came up with my mom too!  I am so glad she did because we had so much fun!

One morning Evelyn wanted to do my hair.  I let her and look at how beautiful it turned out!  I just love it!

She told me she was trying to put lots of flowers in my hair like Rapunzel.  Unfortunately, the flowers kept falling out so I had to take them out.  She was a little sad I didn't leave my hair do in all day.  So sweet! I love this girl to pieces!

The Pardon

The Pardon by James Grippando
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have a four month old infant who still gets up in the middle of the night to eat.  I have recently read a few books that would almost instantly put me back to sleep.  This one however kept my attention even at 4 AM!

I loved the Jack and Harry conflict throughout this book.  It is sad to think that a father and son would have such a poor relationship for so long and over such a "silly" thing.  However, it really made the story that much more gripping when the "bad guy" played on the damaged relationship.  I liked it.

I also liked the love story/triangle between Jack, Gina and Cindy on the side.  It kept the characters more realistic and impulsive because all of love triangles make fore interesting stories.  OK, maybe not all but this one did.

The "killer" was ruthless!  I loved that he was so cold and heartless.  The author kept his identity a mystery until the very end.  I was so glad he ended up not being any of the characters I liked because I would have cried.

The ending had a little twist at the end that I found a little cheesy.  It was just a little too far fetched for me to believe.

Still a great book.

Quite a lot of me least favorite word.  Some sexual innuendo.



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Working At Home

I have been a stay at home mom now for almost 4 months.  Most days I really love it!  Sometimes it is very tiring and sometimes I want to DIE!

It has been an adjustment for me.  I have found having something planned every day really helps make the day go smoother.  This week we have had something every day.  Having something every day gets me motivated to use my time more wisely.  If I don't have something planned I am about ready to go crazy by 3 PM.  By 5 PM when Kyle gets home I am about ready to pull my hair out.

I am looking forward to school starting just so I can be on a little bit more of a schedule.  I know it will be another adjustment.  Honestly, I am really going to miss Grant.  He is so sweet and such a great helper.

One thing I have enjoyed about being at home is the cooking!  I know some of you might find this a little ironic, but I have thoroughly enjoyed trying new recipes and perfecting old ones.  I have perfected cinnamon rolls this week.  (Third time was the charm.)  I made homemade breadsticks with our spaghetti dinner.  Last week, I made three batches of peach jam.  Today I made homemade salsa with my home grown tomatoes!

I have had fun using my new food processor.  I asked for a food processor for Christmas last year.  I had to put the food processor in our storage unit without even using it because we were still living in our apartment.  I just didn't have enough room for it.  Now that I am in my house I have had fun using the food processor.  It is like Christmas in the summer!  It has been great for making my salsa and jam.

I am so glad I can be home to take care of my children and make healthy food!  Yum!

The Art Wall

Here is some more of Grant's art work.

Top row: Grant the missionary and Nephi

Second row: Grant's depiction of the wild Uno card, a pregnant alien, a treasure map, and an elephant puppet

Bottom row: Grant's big number, the Golden Plates, and a painting 

My First White Dress

I love my next door neighbor Auna! She is so wonderful.  I am sure I will post more about her another time.  I only bring her up because she gave me the idea of taking Celeste's picture in her first white dress at the temple.

I hope my little girl will one day choose to be baptized and married in the temple.  She looks so beautiful in her blessing dress.  As I was taking her pictures I couldn't help but think about how one day my little girl will be all grown up and decide to get married.  I hope she will choose to be married in the temple.  I know if I want my daughter to be married in the temple I have to teach her the importance of the temple.  She will obviously have to choose to be baptized and have a testimony of the Gospel.  I sometimes become overwhelmed with all I have to teach her.

I love the Gospel and I hope my children will grow up to love the Gospel too.
I had such a hard time picking my favorite picture to post so I posted all my favorites!  I think she is just a lovely girl!

Swim Lessons

We did swim lessons in the Hilton's pool. The Hiltons' boys were great with the kids.  Grant loved Davis and responded really well to him.  I am sad because Davis will be on his mission next summer so I will have to find someone else to do lessons.  

Grant doesn't like to put is face in the water.  Davis did a good job trying to encourage him. 

On the last day Grant finally built up enough courage to jump in the pool.  He made excellent progress and I am very proud of him.

Bubble Beard

Grant starts kindergarten in less than 2 weeks.  Sniff!  He is a little nervous about it.  He will be walking home with the neighbor kids.  We walked to the school the other day with the all the kids to practice walking the route.  I think reality finally hit Grant that he would be starting school.  After walking to school and showing him the meeting spot he got really quiet.  When we started walking home he got a little sulky and sad.
I will be honest I am a little sad to see my little boy starting school.  I realized however that I can't be sad on the first day of school.  If I start to cry or become upset it will only cause anxiety for Grant.
Since my little boy is growing up here is the last picture of Grant in the tub.  I don't think it is appropriate any more to post pictures of my boy naked on the blog any more.  He was in the bubble bath and made himself a bubble beard.

Thanks Aunt Barbara!

Kyle's Aunt Barbara gave us this darling little pink dress at Celeste's baby blessing.  I love pink and this dress is just so adorable on her.  I wish I could find this dress in adult size!  I would totally wear it.  

The Color Purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book because it is considered more of a classic novel and I haven't read a classic in a while. I also wanted to read the book before I watched the movie.  I think books are better than movies 99% of the time and if I don't like the book I won't watch the movie.  I probably won't watch this movie.
I loved the beginning of this book. I found it fascinating.  The grammar of Celie and her family intrigued me and I really liked it at first.  It got old after a while though and I found it confusing at times.  I had to keep rereading portions of the text to remember who was talking.  I think this would make a great audio book.  As an audio book the reader could really get into the different voices of character.  I think it would also be less confusing as the reader.
Celie is an amazing character!  I loved her strength and wisdom.  She had such a rough childhood and you can't help but feel sorry for her.  In the middle of the book Celie meets Shug and I didn't like Shug at all.  I thought Shug was a distraction to an otherwise amazing book of characters.  Just when I about couldn't stand the book Nettie enters the scene.
I love Nettie and her story of living as a missionary in Africa.  It was very intriguing and well written in my opinion.
Two main things bugged me about the book.  One being that "Mr. ____"  all of of the sudden makes a complete character flip. He was mean and abusive one minute and than all of the sudden he is Celie's friend.  I am ok with characters changing, but I like to be a part of the change.  The other thing that really bugged me was the lack of knowing how much time had passed.  I would have liked dates on the letters or something to let the reader know how much time had passed.  At one point I thought just a few months had gone by and than in one of Nettie's letters she mentions living in Africa for 30 years.  Holy smokes! How did that happen?
There was a LOT of swearing which I don't care for.  Some sex scenes including rape and same gender sex.


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Post 500!

I have been watching my post numbers reach 500.  I wanted to do something special for post 500, but now that it is here I can't think of anything. I can't believe  I have written 500 posts.

I really enjoy blogging.  I started blogging so I could brag about Grant!  I think he is just adorable and I love him so much.  I just wanted the whole world to see how cute my son is!  I will be honest I still enjoy bragging about Grant.  I also now enjoy bragging about Celeste too!  I love my kids with all my heart.

I also enjoy staying connected with some of my close friends and family.  I know in the last few years as family and friends have spread across the country my blog has helped us stay connected. I appreciate comments and advice. Thank you for reading!

As I have continued to blog I realized I had a lot of history recorded.  I didn't want to lose these events to cyber space and decided to convert my blog to a book.  It is really fun to read about all of the things we have done in years past.  I am currently working on 2009 and it amazes me how much I forget.  I am so glad I have kept current in our family's events.  I hope one day my children and grandchildren will appreciate my feeble attempt at recording our history.

Backyard Campout

Grant loved the Father Son campout earlier this summer and has been itching to go camping again.  Kyle decided that he would have just as much fun camping in the backyard as going to an official campsite.  Together they set up the tent and got all their stuff outside.  

Grant was so excited he wanted to go out in the tent at about 8 o'clock, but it was still so hot!  We convinced him to stay in the house until it got a little later.  I don't really care to camp and so I was lucky for the excuse to stay in the house with Celeste.  As I was getting ready for bed I could hear the boys outside telling stories.  

Grant told his Dad some made up story about a boy, who was not named Grant, that did all the same things Grant does.  Dad told him about the time he and Lee went camping.  

They ended up having so much fun that they camped out again a second night in a row.  Grant tried to go for three nights, but Kyle had to work and wanted a good night's sleep.  

A Misremembered Man

The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was not my favorite book.  There were parts in the book when I swore I would only give this book one star. I ended up giving it three stars because the ending made the book.
The story is really depressing.  I boy being abused physically and sexually in an orphanage is just not appealing.  Luckily, the author didn't go into too much detail.
I spent a good portion of the book wishing it would move along faster.  I felt there was a lot of unnecessary side story. I liked the flash backs into the past, but some details weren't really necessary.
I don't think I would recommend this book to most of my friends.  There are so many other wonderful books I would read before this one.
No swearing that I really remember and no sex scenes except for the suggestion of child rape.


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Celeste's Baby Blessing

We blessed Celeste on July 7th at my home ward in North Ogden.  Celeste was blessed by her father.  Isaac Barker, Ross Murray, Derek Murray, and Shan Hellstrom stood in the circle.  Kyle's blessed her to be strong in the gospel, marry in the temple, and be an example to her family. 

I bore my testimony of the Gospel.  I shared how wonderful the Plan of Happiness is because it allows us to be parents.  Celeste has brought such a wonderful spirit into our home.  Many of our family members were able to attend the blessing including my Grandma.  We were able to visit with many family members at a picnic afterwards.  It was a wonderful day!  

We took some darling pictures to remember the day.  I am so grateful to Sierra who was able to come and take a whole bunch of darling pictures for us.  

Here Celeste is in my blessing dress. 

Celeste in her blessing dress.  These pictures were hard to take because her dress was so slippery!

My beautiful niece!  She looks so much like my sister.

Our family on Celeste's blessing day.  Grant had run home from church with his Uncle Blair.  He was already changed to his favorite soccer shirt before we even got home.  I decided not to bother making him change. 

Celeste with her parents on her blessing day.

Daddy and Celeste

Mom and Daugher

Evelyn wanted a picture of with Celeste in her pretty dress.  Evelyn asked if she could get a dress just like Celeste's.  She loved it!

Look at this innocent face!

Four generations

Noel.  I love her eyes in the picture.  She has beautiful eyes.  (I put this picture up for you Brooke.)

Juliet

Thanks to all of our family who came to support us!  It was so wonderful to visit with everyone.