Week 19: 128-134

128.  Check out the teeth!  

My mom calls them Sponge Bob teeth ;)

with that gap in between... what's not to love??

129. I was delighted to find green bean growing in our garden!

I don't think I've ever had fresh from the garden green beans.

Joey & the girls planted everything so I wasn't sure what was out there.

But green bean have been my favorite so far!

130. This is one of my favorite lunches that I only have once a year.

I get tomatoes fresh from my garden, cottage cheese, and kettle chips (big bag from Costco).

I try not to buy chips but this is my excuse once a year... to eat it with fresh tomatoes.

This picture does not do it justice!

Try it... you'll love it!

131. Looking for the girls to put to bed one night...

here they were-

snuggled in my bed "reading" Joey's tennis magazine.

132. Super girl!

133.  Proof fertilizer works!

Joey thought it was spreading further I guess & didn't get everywhere??

So our lawn looks a little hilarious right now.

But IFA fertilizer does the job!!!

134.  Went to my cute niece Katie's bridal shower.

Can't believe all my nieces & nephews are on missions or getting married!

I love them all and I'm proud of the great choices they are making

& that they are all going to the temple. 

I had this made & printed & framed for her shower gift.

week 18: 121-127

121. Love when my hubby helps out. 

I don't know how he even managed to do this, 

but he got baby's diaper on backwards.

Thanks babe!

122. I bought this outfit when we lived in Hawaii 10 years ago,

before I even dreamed of kids.

And its been sitting in a box for 10 years til I had a boy.

I don't love it as much now as I did then, 

but its still cute.

123. We had a boring day the other day, 

so I got out the easle & paints in the backyard.

You can see what happened when I wasn't watching!

124. They made their own "house" in the pantry. 

Love them all playing togehter.

125. Savannah, 6, was telling me about the boy in her class she wants to marry.

But she is very concerned because she is 5 months older than him!

And she just doesn't know how that's going to work out. ;)

126. Discovered, just at the end of summer, that JCW's has

large ice cream cones for $1. 

We went there Friday night & they are so good!

I have been back twice already for them.

127. I was on the news!!!!
I don't know if this link works
but if you click it and watch they interview me.
I'm in about the 2nd or 3rd minute... so you don't have to watch everything.
The best part is towards the end of my talking
Savannah, who is down at my legs & out of shot,
jumps up to get on screen & you see her head for a split second :) 

Utah remembers victims of 9/11

How We Spent 9/11

 We had a neat day today.

Joey had to work so I took the kids to see the 

"Healing Fields" in Sandy.

 There was a flag for every person who died in 9/11.

It was really moving to see them all lined up like that

and it was a great visual for my kids to 

try to understand what happened 10 years ago.

It was the first time I had tried explained to them 

what happened that day.

I felt very patriotic & it caused me to reflect a lot.

 Joey & I were attending BYU-Hawaii on Sept 11, 2001.

My mom called & woke us up around 6am Hawaii time

to let us know what happened.

We didn't have a tv, radio, anything so in our sleepy stupor we

didn't quite grasp the magnitude of the terror.

It wasn't til a few hours later when we went to

school & saw on the big tv at the Aloha Student Center

what had happened.

I had a Psychology class at 9am and our professor

actually skipped lecture and facilitated basically a group

therapy session.

Then the school had an "emergency devotional/assembly" (whatever you want to call it) in the big gymnasium/stadium.

There was singing and words of comfort from our leaders.

That's mostly all I remember of that day.

But I'm grateful to have these wonderful kids now

and the chance to talk to them about what I value

& believe about our country.

I hope nothing like that happens on our soil again

and that this country can be a safe, free place for my 

children to grow up in!

And I'm grateful to those who make it that way!

On a more light-hearted note:

September 11 also happens to be the day we moved into

our new house. 

So today was our 1-year anniversary of living in our home.

So we called it our "house's birthday" and had a little party.

Somehow the kids convinced my brother, sister, & dad to come over.

They are such good sports.

We made everyone play "pin the door on the house"

 We played "Find-the-horse" 

(which is a knock-off of a game my mom made up for the kids years ago one Christmas Eve where she hid her many sheep from her sheep collection & the kids had to find them-"Find-the-Sheep"
--we're pretty creative in this family ;)

And we made "Stinkerdoodles"

My kids choice instead of a cake.

They are my kids favorite cookie. 
Sav sometime has a hard

time saying words and that's how she said Snickerdoodle--

"Stinkerdoodle" has just stuck!

Week 17: 114-120

 114. Our Garden is producing!

Joey & my Bro-in-law Joel built these cool garden boxes.

And our garden finally exploded out of them.

Mostly zucchini... this is what we still have after giving some away, making 2 zucchini casseroles, zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, and sauteed zucchini twice (we're a little sick of it)

Plus there is more growing! Let me know if you want any. Please!

 115. My cute niece got married & we went to her reception.

I love this picture of my father-in-law absentmindedly rubbing my baby's head. 

 116. Her wedding colors were grey & yellow.

The reception was in their back yard and they grew these incredible sunflowers you can sort of see behind me!

117. My kids said the other night "let's play dad is the king and we rub his feet."

Man, he hit the jackpot that night!!!

118. I did my Triathalon this past weekend!

It was super fun, super hard, & super worth it!

I raced with some girlfriends from my ward and we trained all summer long.

I took 7th in my age group & 40th out of 109 overall (for women) which is decent though 

I had wanted to do a little bit better.  

I got a super bad cramp during the run & swim which slowed me down

so I was a little disappointed.  

But overall I loved it and I can't wait to do it again!

119. I bought a camelbak water bottle this week and I love it.

I have drunk 3 times as much water as I usually do.

I think I like the straw is why... I get more water & it's more satisfying for me 

than sipping out of a glass 

120. Watched this movie with my family.

It was good.  

I liked the message and 

I liked seeing the North Shore where we used to live!

Turtle Bay Resort was even in the background at one of the surfing tourneys

and I used to work there! 

Week 16: 107-113

 107. Joey's work had a work party at the zoo.  We got to stay there after hours & they had food and we got to see everything with less crowds. 

Best part: free merry-go-round & train rides.  We went at least 10 times!

108. I love babies in stripes.  

Everytime he's in these striped pjs it makes me happy ;)

109. First day of school for my girls. 

Not sure that I'm happy/grateful for this... I love the summer & my kids home.

But they were happy and love school!

110. Happy Birthday to my wonderful Joey!

He is the best father & a fantastic husband 

and we all love him so much!

111. I decided how grateful I am for Joey because he always mows the lawn. 

I have never mowed the lawn in my life.  

He had to work on his bday and the lawn needed mowing.

So I decided to mow it for him as a suprise. 

It was soooo HARD!  I had to call my dad several times for tips. 

I was sweating and got a blister and it took me 2 hours.

But he was so happy and it gave me new

appreciation for his  hard work.

112. Our community had an Amazing Race 

(they've done it before which is actually where I got the idea for our family reunion)

Joey & I teamed up with our great neighbors across the street and had to go thru

10 challenges, including jumping in the pool to dive for clues.

It was so fun & we took 1st place!!!

We won cool prizes donated by TwinLab 

(like a giant tub or protein powder & a gym bag) 

and t-shirts & they had yummy food after.  

113.  My brother & sister went to the temple for the first time this week. 

(to find out more about LDS temples click here)

It was very special to have all our family there together!

So proud of my siblings!