Party!!

We just got home from such a fun party tonight! My Aunt (1st cousin once removed, or something like that, if you want to get technical) Vicki always has the best get togethers and tonight was no disappointment. It was kind of a reunion/birthday party which meant tons of family, food and of course cake.

Kaden had a blast! He got to sing into the microphone, followed by ten minutes of crying when he forgot the words. He also loved dancing with all of his cousins.

Jocilyn had a great time too. She pretty much just walked around and ate the whole night. If I wasn't ready with something she'd go find someone who was, and if no one was handy she'd find some forgotten plate of food and fend for herself. I promise I do feed my daughter at home too. She's just bottomless!

It was really a fun way to spend the night. I am so lucky to have so much family close by right now. It is always great getting together.

Project-Take 2

Some people were asking questions about my calendar so I thought I'd clarify a couple of things. The fabric is the white part you can see through the glass. Its hard to tell in the picture, but it has white polka-dots on it. I wanted something neutral with a little pattern, but not enough to distract from the writing. I just used a hot glue gun around the edges on the other side to get it to stick.

As for the days of the week since all the permanent parts are on the inside of the glass I did have to write them backwards, but it wasn't as hard as you think. First I wrote down all the words on some paper (actually I traced it off the computer screen, that's the Bradley font). Made it dark enough so that I could turn the paper over and still see the letters. Then I just put the paper under the glass and traced it. Just make sure you give them plenty of time to dry and then get the glass as clean as possible before putting it in the frame.

This explains why I don't have one of those crafty blogs. I'm not very good at giving directions. Hope you can make sense of this. Good luck!

A Project

One of the few benefits of not having Kimball around is I have been getting a lot more creative with what to do with my time.

Today I finished a dry erase calendar board. I saw this on a blog a while ago and loved it. It was really easy. I bought a frame at a yard sale for 5 bucks, then painted it and covered the back with fabric. The lines and days of the week I drew on the inside of the glass and used a paint pen, but the blog I saw it on used a permanent marker so I bet that would work too.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. It is really big 28x22 inches, but I love the space it gives me. And in case you're wondering, I'm not really that big of an orange fan; that's just my attempt at being festive for the fall season.

Baby Jo

This post is mostly for Kimball. Jocilyn had just decided to start walking before he left and I wanted him to see how great she is at it. Sorry if it bores the rest of you. Love you and miss you Hun!

Summer Fun

This has been such a busy summer by my standards. Partly by my doing to fill the void when Kimball's been gone and partly because so many great opportunities came up. Why would I say no?

I already posted about a lot of our adventures, but here's a few I neglected. So be prepared for lots of pictures ahead.

Thanks to my sister Monica we got free passes to some great things all over the valley! I took the kids to the Dino Museum, Farm Country, and the Gardens over at Thanksgiving Point. It was great, my cousins came with all their kids so we really brought some energy and chaos in with us wherever we went.



Hey look a cat! Jo's vocab is getting bigger, but for a while there if you weren't a puppy you were a cat.




We went to the Oquirrh Lake with Grandma. I loved it! We went to the little beach and within 5 minutes Kaden was jumping off the dock with the bigger kids. The water was only a couple feet deep, but I was still out there catching him. If Kimball was home that is so one of the things I would have made him do. That water was cold!



A few more "cats".



We also had a great time up in the mountains with Alvin and Amber. Amber's sister works at a ropes course so she made a bunch of swings and stuff for the kids to play on while we were there. Loved it!

Patterson Campout

Nothing could motivate me to post more often then a comment from Kimball. So knowing he can look at the blog and see what we're up to every now and then has pushed me to finally put a few new things up.

Just a couple of weeks after Kimball left my family had their annual Patterson Camp Out. We think of it as a reunion, but since everyone (including cousins)lives within a half hour of each other I don't know if it qualifies.

The place we went to was beautiful and by far my favorite location so far. It had tons of four-wheeling trails, a lake, and lots of trees for shade. We managed to go during a break in the heat wave so it was actually kind of cold, but I liked it this way; it meant no bugs.


The kids had a great time. Kaden became a "dirty dinosaur" as he puts it. One time I told him I was going to dust him off, and he said "but mom, I like being all dusted-up." Looking into that sweet dirty face I had to let him stay a mess until dinner. Jo was a born camper. She loved it and thankfully decided to start walking just days before we left so she stayed much cleaner.

At night my cousin Chad set up his surround system and projector so that we could watch movies. The first night we watched Twilight of all movies and the next night we watched a western. I can't remember the name of it, but it was fun.

A big thanks to my dad for letting me and the kids sleep in his trailer with the heater. I'm sure I would have been much more grumpy had I slept in a freezing tent with two freezing kids.