Whirwind Memorial Day!

Whew! What a crazy fun day! We loaded the kids up in the car and headed to Pleasant Grove to have a Memorial Day breakfast with some friends, the Nelsons. Dan's parents lived across the street from them while living in Spring, Texas and they are the sweetest family. I seriously want Becky to write a book about parenting because her three boys are the most well mannered children I have EVER met.

Greg digging in!Graham is a happy boy when bacon is at a party.

LuLu discovered the trampoline. Too fun! The kids loved playing in the huge backyard and taking turns playing with the baby bunnies.

Afterward we were off to Midway! Dan and I both have grandparents who were born and grew up here. There have been major improvements to the property in the past year and here are my cuties by the new sign to the house.

Dan and the kids in front of the log cabin his great great grandfather was born in.

We went to see the new headstone for Papa Fitzgerald's grave - he passed away last summer and Greg looks a lot like he did when Papa was younger. I have a ghost on my camera, can you see it. (aka, wipe the lens off now and then Kris, duh.) We looked at all the Burgi and Fitzgerald graves and told the kids about them. On top of Memorial Hill in Midway. It's about 500 feet high and you get a great view of the valley. Gorgeous!

Oops - out of order - here is Greg playing with the bunny in PG...

Off to Heber Cemetary to visit my great-grandparents grave, Arbelia and Hugh Harvey. Do other states do this or is it a Utah thing? I KNOW California wasn't like this - it was literally a field of flowers, huge arrangements and sprays. People everywhere. You need to enlarge this to get the full effect!

We stopped for lunch at Dairy Keen, home of the train. Who needed the food (a HUGE crowd did!) But all my boys wanted were quarters to run the trains!

Cuties in a field of dandelions. This is where out of nowhere Greg tells me, "Mom, did you know that mothers are angels on earth?" HUH? Sweet boy. Not sure where that came from but I'd like to think it true!

Hoping those with allergies don't start sneezing looking at that field but OH! it was gorgeous in person!!!

Whoot whoot Party Girl!

I've been looking forward to this past weekend for a long, long time. Ever since I realized that Dan has two single sisters who are GREAT with my kids and old enough to stay the night with them! Hmmm....so I got to planning....Marie comes and watches the kids....

A totally delicious homemade Mexican food fiesta prepared by my friend Leslie. I mean it, that girl can COOK! Thanks for having us over on my our hot date night Leslie!I whisked Dan away to the downtown City Center Marriott for the night. Ahhh...the simple joy of sleeping in. I had almost forgotten how sweet that is!

A yummy breakfast at the Paradise Cafe - if you live near one of these you've got to go. My favorite thing there is the Chinese chicken salad. I love salads in general but this one is delish!A leisurely walk through CostCo. Go ahead and laugh but Dan and I love CostCo. We have not been there without kids since, well, before we had kids, duh. It was fun to actually look at the books and music, and all the fun summer yard things.

And finally we went to see this. I like Jennifer Garner, but this movie was sort of, "eh" for me. A little too raunchy with the casual sex theme. But it was ok and it was fun to watch Lacy Chabert in the role she had. She used to be in my kickboxing class when I lived in California and was really nice. I was always in the row behind her and I would pretend to punch at her head.
Good target I guess?

We were home by 4:00 p.m. and spend the rest of the day playing with the kids.
Thank you again Marie for your willingness to watch the kids!

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Dining Room!

Are you thinking - didn't she post this picture last time? You should, because I did, to see the whole family room you have to look at the dining room!

I love that we are always in this space together but I have found I don't like that the kids want to watch tv during dinner time! Or that the table and counter gets used as a catch all with the kids things. We're working on that! Love my black buffet and change out the top decor often with the seasons and holidays!

Here is a picture of our kitchen from the model we looked at. Has anyone else been weird like me and done this? I wanted to be able to go back and see how they did things!Love my Ballard chandelier too - it was one of the first things I changed after moving in. You should have seen the light fixture the house came with. We saw it - for $25 at Lowe's . What a piece of junk. I decorate this too for Christmas..Birthdays and baby showers! Too fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yard Sale Finds!

Well..no, not these. But aren't they gorgeous?! Dan brought these home for me, he drove by this house on his way home from work and the family sells peonies to earn their vacation money. I thought that was pretty cool. I had spent 6 hours deep cleaning my house yesterday and he must have known I needed a reward! I smile every time I walk by them!

Still waiting for mine out front to bloom. They seem to look great but are slow to bloom this year.

THIS was my find for the day! A Kate Mack coat for Lauren for $5! It's in brand new condition. Love that! It's not her size but I'll pack it away till she grows into it. It will be before I know it I'm sure! You can't really tell in the picture but it's the palest shade of pink and has these darling tulle flowers on the lapel. The woman I bought this from along with a Ralph Lauren skirt ($1) and a few other things was SO sweet. I felt like I should invite her out to book club or something! I love friendly (and organized!) garage sale hostesses!

Found these like new Target brand shoes for Lauren for .50 cents! Perfect for this winter.

Greg heard me say I was going to check out a few sales and he begged me to come along! I have always wanted a great friend to yard sale with, who knew mine was a 4 year old!? He was a trooper! Even suggested "Mom, we might want to stop at your drink store on the way to get our tummies ready." Doughnut and chocolate milk for him, iced whatever for me and we were on our way! He negotiated a great deal on two toy dinosaurs for .25 cents each!
That's my boy!

It's Been a Week???

First I have to say thank you to my sweetie Dan and my precious babies for the GREAT Mother's Day!! I woke up to a nice breakfast and then we rushed to church since Dan and I had to speak that day! Ack! Who has a mom speak in church on Mother's Day?? I was a nervous wreck all week and Dan acted like it was no big deal. Dan's parents and three of his sisters came to help with the kids and my parents came as well. After spending some time with Dan's family we came home and had a yummy BBQ with my family. And I didn't have to do a thing! Love it!

I LOVED my gardenia corsage! There was a gardenia bush next to my grandma's driveway and every time I left her house I remember that yummy smell. We had gardenias floating in bowls at our wedding next to all of our grandparents and parents wedding photos as a way of honoring them.

We went to Greg's preschool Mother's Day program (which was two songs and a few things Greg had made for us, perfect for their 4 year old attention span - I LOVE his school!) Greg was really nervous to stand in front of all the moms and dads, so I told him just to stand up and he didn't even need to sing. I think he did great. Better than the two kids who started whining and fighting over one of the chairs!

He filled out a form about me, some funny parts were:

My mom is 9 years old.
Her best friend is my dad is. (Love that he sees that!)
My mom's favorite food is chicken enchiladas.
(My kids HATE those so whenever they are hassling me about what is for dinner I tell them we are having these, which I must do often enough now that Greg thinks I love them!)
I love my mom because she cleans my sheets! (Right from my #1 snuggler himself!)

Lauren has taken to wearing what she can find (we've found her walking around with socks on her head folks) and carrying purses. Her smile is so sweet to me here, just thinking she is one funny girl in her daddy's sweatshirt!

We are off the to library and the park - It's Friday Fun Day!!

Show Us Where You Live Friday -Living Room!!

It's the second week of "Show Us Where You Live Friday" over at Kelly's Korner! Did you know much I loved looking at everyone's kitchen's last week? I was trying so hard to be polite and leave a comment for every single one I went to but they kept adding on! I think I stopped around 100! Whew! I'm still looking at them, gotten some great decorating ideas and made a few new blog friends along the way!

My family room is sort of - plain. I love my furniture set but I haven't gotten too far past that. I've had two babies since we moved in 4 years ago and I'm just now seeing the swings, bouncie seat, playpens, etc. leave the house! (Yes!!)
So after 4 years of baby clutter I am just enjoying a bit of "not much going on here."

The tables were my grandmothers that Dan painted black.I think they look cute for now and it doesn't bother me a bit when there are Matchbox car races on them.

Looking back from the couch to the kitchen and entry.

Other view of the room.

Walking in from the office into the kitchen/family room. I have no excuse for not having curtains. I honestly just don't know what color to put up and now I'm thinking of re-doing the whole color scheme upstairs. This is my NEW family room going in downstairs! We have 1300 square feet in the basement and Dan has started framing it out. Should be done in...well, he has a full time job and does this when he's not going to t-ball and soccer etc. Let's just say it's coming along and it will be so nice to have the space when it's done!

Sometimes I don't like the "open concept" kitchen/family room so much. I wish things were a little more seperated out. But then there are times when I love it - it really is the ideal house for parties...

See my cute book club friends? This was ONE of the tables I had set up - I could seat 20 women for dinner! We had 65 family members and friends come for Lauren's baby blessing last May. And it never felt crowded! So I guess the good (space!) comes with the bad (you can see the dirty dishes in the sink when you just want to relax and watch tv - the guilt!)

Can't wait to see everyone's homes! Thanks for stopping by!

Prom Queen

Since it's May and all the high school kids are getting ready for prom, I thought I would join in the blog fun of posting your prom pictures. Except I didn't even go to my prom! WHA?? I know, I didn't get asked. It still haunts me (just kidding) I was terribly shy with guys in high school and didn't date much then.

Sadly enough, my grades my first year in college tell the story of how I got over that fairly quickly!

Here are the rules...

1. Upload your prom picture. If you don't have one, email your mom and have her send it to you. Or use really bad scans like I did!

2. Don't forget to include the year it was taken. Again, don't be shy. The older the better. (I don't think I could see any older than mine!)

3. Grab the "Prom Queen" button and add it to your post.

4. Copy and Paste the rules to your blog

5. Tag 5 others!

Classic piano bench pose. Don't G and I look like we are having so.much.fun playing the piano together? Totally. If you look closely you might be able to see the tan goggle glass line on the side of my face. I tanned a LOT in 1990. Duh.

Cute G and I before the dance. I think we went and saw The Little Mermaid after. Not kidding. I grew up with G and and we were best friends that freshman year away at school. What a great guy - I keep in touch with his family and he is now a Doctor on their way to start a new job in FL!
ps..I loved that dress. It was this taffeta 1990 crispy material and I had hot 3" navy blue SUEDE heels I would wear with it! Sweet. College Homecoming Dance. Oh....this dress! Another favorite. My roommate Pam made it for me in like two days. She is a great seamstress like that. I still have it tucked away somewhere. Look at those acrylics. If you can get past looking at my huge shellacked hot rollered hair.
I love big hair. Always have, always will. I dated this dude, B for two years. That is all I'm gonna say about that.

College Christmas Dance. Same guy, B, as in "Bleh." (I may be bitter, he broke my heart and I never really recovered.) But that was my first corsage and I was so happy. As happy as a girl could be in a giant Jessica McClintock dress that had 6 inch long lace and three layers of tulle for extra "poof."

Me and my good friend C. What a fun guy - so much fun it was like I was his girlfriend. Oh wait. He didn't have girlfriends. (We found THIS out later.) No harm done. We later attended the U together and is still so near to my heart.

Ahhh...so cute. So tan.

I tag anyone who wants to play! I'd love to see all your hot 90's dresses. Or if you were in Kindergarten that year, you know the dresses you wore to your favorite dances!!

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Kitchen!!

Kelly is having a "Show Off Your House" type of party and today it is all about kitchens! And since I am a lover of all things real estate and interior design, I had to join in! I wish the kitchen above was mine. I love it. Look at that light! All that great room! So beachy, it is a room in the middle of the dry desert that screams California living. At least to this former So Cal girl. Sigh.

So this is mine! (Wrong again.) Just another one I took a picture of for when we design our dream home. Until then...we make do with this little gem below....Worst mistake I made as a first time home buyer? Getting the builder grade cabinets. I'm scared to paint them for fear that they might disintegrate.

I do keep a mean pantry though...my two boys are still little enough to think that cleaning it out is FUN. Who am I to ruin a good time?

And because of those two...these are my best dishes. Target tumblers are all the rage at our house. Someday I'll have my fancy things to show off but for now I'd rather look at the milk mustaches on little ones from plastic cups.

I do have my favorite plate rack. The one in the middle was a Christmas gift from my parents years ago. It still makes me happy to look at it. The ones on the side are Target. Good thing too because Graham was "helping" me sweep and he made the broom handle fly up and one little red plate came crashing down. He felt so bad...luckily they came in a set of four and I had a replacement waiting to fill the spot.

I love my Ballard chandelier and my black buffet too. This kitchen seemed huge to me when we looked at the model. Living in it I realized I needed all the extra storage space I could get!

Here are my kitchen helpers....

And my most favorite kitchen accessory of all...don't you just love a cute man who does dishes?

Thanks for stopping by!
Maybe next time I can say that for real one of those fancy kitchens is mine!