Grey's River 2010 --- and other

So we had our annual camping trip to Grey's River, Wyoming last week. It was fun and mostly relaxing. We didn't go up until early early Wednesday morning so I was operating on about 3 hours of sleep. I haven't done that in a LONG time.... We had fun though.

My brother graciously let us borrow his 4-wheeler and it was a good thing too! Shane wanted to camp about 40 yards from the rest of the family and me, being the lazy bum I am (and the mass amounts of weeds) used the 4-wheeler to go to and from the camp sites! I took Chloe on a ride one day too.... And this is what happened. It was too cute. I really want a 4x4 but Shane is bound and determined to get a Ranger some time. We shall see if EITHER of those happen!

I was worried this year that I would get left a lot since there are usually 2 Rangers (basically big 4-wheelers that fit up to 6 people) and another 4-wheeler and everyone goes on rides. Well, unless I was driving, the bumps are WAY too much for my right now. Unfortunately, my brother-in-laws shocks - or something - broke so he could barely drive his around at all. So, I wasn't ditched! We didn't get as much game-playing done as usual but all in all, it was just nice and relaxing ---- AND HOT!!! There was lots of cloud cover so it was fairly humid too. It rained most of the last day we were there so Chloe and I just hung out in the trailer and watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks for a long long time....

Oh, and I realize that I am a paranoid mother, and I don't care. Chloe decided that she would chase after the bigger girls one day and fell. She got a tiny scrape on her face and stained her pant leg pretty good. I didn't fall as a kid - I'm not one of those that thinks kids need to fall and get banged up. She has plenty of bruises on her knees and that's more than enough for me! It's just too sad. Anyway, below is the pic of her little scrape. When it happened, it really looked like it would turn into a nice black eye. Thank goodness it didn't!

And her cute little backpack that we got for her to carry her "arts and crafts" in. She loves it :) Shane picked it out too!

(btw, did I mention that I LOVE that I can make my pictures big and they can actually be seen on blogger. I love that I figured out the new layout thing....)

In other news, I'm still a fat cow and getting fatter by the second. I can sleep all the time, and my house is a complete wreck. I got it kind of straightened up before leaving on our trip, but things never go as planned! We are finally going to tackle the baby's room this week. We've compromised on colors - which was our biggest issue. I'll take pictures when it's done - which will probably be about 7 1/2 weeks from now, right before I go to the hospital.... Did I mention that I'm 8 weeks from my due date :)

Reader Discretion is Advised

Ok - I have an issue I just have to get out there. For those of you who are sensitive to "racist" remarks, don't bother reading any more.

Why can't Mexicans watch or discipline their kids? In the last month, there have probably been at least 6 stories on the news where a Mexican toddler has been hit by a car. The sad thing is, another Mexican is usually the one that hit them. In my neighborhood, there are at least 10 Mexican kids under the age of 12 and they just run around the streets. The toddlers (3 and under...) literally run around barefoot and pants-less after dark - AFTER DARK.

Today, in the Walmart parking lot, there was a little Mexican boy running around screaming. People were trying to help and console him but he couldn't understand what they were saying because, surprise surprise, he didn't understand English. And guess what- THIS IS AMERICA AND WE SPEAK ENGLISH IN THIS COUNTRY. Sorry if that offends anyone, but that's how it is.

Don't get me wrong, American people (not just white, but people who have resided in this country for more than one generation and/or are legal) lose their kids too. But in my experience, they usually find them quite quickly.

I don't need to hear everyone else's opinion, I just have to let everyone know what I think about that situation. Have a great week :)

Our Garden(s) :)

Ok, so these were taken over a week ago and the plants have literally probably doubled in size and production since. We planted too much.... We also have our lilies that survived the year without any maintenance! They are about 3 feet or more tall :) We're going to transplant a bunch of the bulbs next year.

The tomatoes - these are actually about to the top of the fence line now and falling over because they're so heavy.

 

The green peppers --- each plant now probably has at least eight 3-inch or bigger peppers on. I used the one that was ready (above) in my dinner tonight :)

The watermelon and cantaloupe - The watermelon is now about 4 feet long and the cantaloupe is not far behind.

A close-up of my little peppers that are now ginormous! 

And the LILIES! Each of the buds you see below have since popped open and it was so pretty! The petals are starting to fall off though :( But there are still plenty to enjoy! We've also got 4 day-lily plants that are very pretty as well. 

We didn't really get to do much with our flower beds this year since Shane really wanted to focus on our first ever vegetable garden. Even though I don't like tomatoes, squash, or cucumber - I am very proud of our work. Yes, OUR work. I have helped plenty with that garden! I even weeded it while he was gone this weekend. I can't wait until next year when we can re-work our flower beds and try adding another food garden (with more things for me to eat!). So, hopefully many of you would like some of our tomatoes and squash and cucumbers and watermelon and green peppers and red and yellow and Anaheim peppers..... 

Fourth of July - uneventful :) We went to my nephew's baptism on Saturday afternoon. Chloe slept in the car while Shane drove her around. I've decided that it's best to not wake her up right before family functions. She gets extremely clingy and grumpy now.... She used to be so cheerful!! Oh well. Anyway, she woke up and was happy. It was a nice afternoon - very hot!

On the actual fourth, we just did some small fireworks that night. Chloe wasn't too fond of the loud noise and bright lights, but she LOVED the poppers. She even had her first very own ice cream cone!

Shane went fishing with his brother on Monday and me and Chloe just watched TV all day. I made 4 loaves of banana bread and some cinnamon rolls. My mom finally gave me the recipe and I was so excited. It actually wasn't too hard, but very time-consuming. I'll be making them a lot more! 

Um, Chloe has been spending a lot of afternoons out in her little pool. She doesn't get dressed anymore - it is getting so hard for me to do the little things that are so important these days. She's lucky if I brush her hair and get her dressed. She always takes off her pajamas so she can play dress up with whatever clothes she can reach! 

We've also started to try potty training. Not going so well. She doesn't like this little "portable" toilet. She goes on the toilet occasionally but we're just taking it slowly. Oh well :(

Lastly.... Shane has been freaking out about our wood floors. They were looking dingy and he was afraid we'd have to refinish them or something. Then he noticed something one day and started doing to internet searching. Anyway, we found out that the product we had been using - Orange Glo - leaves a yucky waxy build-up on the floor. Well, an entire bottle had been used on this floor and the renters didn't sweep or anything before they used it so everything was just really gross. I don't know if you can see the difference in the picture below, but one side is the yucky, waxy side and the other is how it looked after hours of working on hands and knees, scrubbing and ammonia. Ugh, but after days and days of working, Shane finally finished! Even when the floor is dirty, it still looks light years better than it did.

Tantrums and swimming

It is summer time and that means swimsuits and water! Well our swimming pool was still at Shane's parent's house so we were forced to improvise.....

Then Shane brought the pool home for us and I repaired the small holes and Chloe LOVES it!! She still loves that ice cream bucket too though.

This video is awesome. I was laughing so hard while recording. Chloe has this doll that came with her baby stuff - the stroller and stuff she got for Christmas. It's pretty crappy and not near as cool as George - the Cabbage Patch Kid. But she loves it and got .... well you can see - when I took it to wash. It was filthy. This was the tail end of the tantrum. She was upstairs banging on doors and just screaming for about 30 minutes. I got her to calm down by looking at pictures on Facebook. I guess I'm getting what I deserve. I think I may have thrown a temper tantrum or two in my day :)

Quite a bit has been going on lately. Here's a recap:

Chloe LOVES her high chair. She's not had it since we moved into Shane's parents' but she just loves to be in it!

Always playing in the pantry too.

We also treated ourselves to a nice Father's Day - we sold our over-sized entertainment center and also our glass dining table. With the money, we were able to get a new AMAZING tv. Vizio 42" LED LCD, 1080p 120Hz... that's all I know. And I don't really even know what it all means, but it's an awesome TV. The pictures aren't the greatest so I guess I'll just have to have a party to show it off :) I'll have to take pictures since the one I have mysteriously cropped itself....

Brian and Layne invited us to go camping with them this weekend too. I guess I'm getting crap from the rest of the family because we didn't go to the family reunion but we went camping... But see --- the reunion was from Wednesday to Friday and camping was from Friday to Sunday.... SOME OF US have full time jobs so I am sorry that we weren't able to grace you with our presence. I wish we could have gone, but I have to use my paid time off sparingly this year. Anyway, the camping trip was fun and Chloe and Devri had so much fun. It was so nice to see Chloe playing with someone her age! (Dev is 9 months older, but since they're older now they played great together)

There were lots of cows and the boys even got to witness a 3-way bull fight. Layne and I heard the noises and were pretty terrified -- but other than that, lots of fun!

Been a while!

Ugh - I guess I haven't posted anything in a while. I have ACTUALLY been busy! That never happens - I really like it! So, I'll try and catch everyone up without boring you to tears.

We moved back into our house on May 29. The renters voluntarily left early! We came over that day and did the final walk-through with her. There were a few things we needed to fix and we figured the cost would be about $150 so we only gave them half of their deposit back - with a personal check. Right??? Was I crazy to do that?? Obviously..... Anyway, we got everything moved into the house that night and spent the next few days getting unpacked. I'm not going to lie. I was in a lot of pain from being on my feet. It was pretty much just me and Shane - I wouldn't really have felt good/comfortable asking people to help me unpack my stuff anyway! So anyhow - we spent those next few days getting unpacked and settled in. It was amazing :) Then, on Wednesday morning Shane came in with the bank account pulled up on the computer and says, "What's this for?" There was a $300 debit for some U.S. Cellular charge. Anyway, long story short - the renters had taken the routing numbers off of our check and used it to pay their phone bill.... We got the money back and the renters are now in trouble with their bank, our bank, and their cell phone company.

This is her sad little face at 1 in the morning.

Other than that, things have been going so well. Shane has been so busy with carpet and my working situation has been just great too. My office is set-up in the kitchen/dining area so I can feed Chloe and watch her play outside while still working. She's been getting a little more temperamental lately though. I'm not used to this attitude from her though! I guess it's just her age... hopefully. She has to fall asleep with the door open now and does pretty well. She had a really bad fever last week though. It got up to 103.8 and we were up with her until 3 AM. Shane gave her a cool bath at about 12:30 in the morning and we kept a cool washcloth on her head. That seemed to work. She was ok the next morning.

I lost a kitchen box :( Had my pot/pan lids, all my tupperware, and my bread pans. Weirdest thing! Other than that, perfect! We're trying to sell our entertainment center so we still haven't really decorated or unpacked our DVDs yet.

The yard was.... less than perfect. The grass was ok, but the flower beds were definitely not taken care of. Luckily, our favorites, the lilies were ok. Shane has completely re-worked one of the beds and now we have a little vegetable garden with tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers, squash, and even cantaloupe and watermelon just for me! Hopefully they grow!

We still have a lot of work to do - thankfully. I am loving having things to keep me busy. I still need to work up a cleaning schedule and "decorate". I am TERRIBLE at decorating so I really don't know how I'm going to do things. I have no sense of style... and very shallow pockets! I have been able to keep the kitchen and my bedroom tidy - and if you know me, you know what an accomplishment this is!

Anyway, I don't really have any new pics to share other than what's here. we're going to work on our other flower beds this week since the weather will FINALLY be better!  So I'm hoping to have some pictures of our beautiful flower beds and decorated house by this time next week. Sorry for the nothingness of this post, but now you know what's been going on in our world! We can't wait to have people over for a party or something!

A few pictures...

We spent a little while out in the yard last week and Chloe was showing me what a big girl she is by stealing my iPod and doing gymnastics :) Then she went in for piano practice!

Chloe's version of a handstand

We watch "Thomas and Friends" on a regular basis. I tried to be sly and take a picture of her priceless face, but this was the best I could get. She likes to yell out at the screen when she sees something she likes.

                              

The SURPRISE! She really had no clue what was going on. We were all pretty proud of ourselves.

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids sitting on the new swing! (of course Chloe is the grumpy looking one...)

What we've been up to....

Well, we've been pretty busy lately. May has absolutely FLOWN by! I had my 20-week ultrasound on May 12. All is well and it is still a boy :) I am getting used to the idea.... And it doesn't seem like we had been doing a whole lot more but I really don't know where the time has gone.

Yesterday we threw a Surprise 50th Birthday Party for my Mother-in-Law. All of the sisters-in-law have been planning this for a while and it went off without a hitch! I have pictures, but Shane won't let me use the laptop [where the pictures are] so I am typing this on my work computer.... She was so surprised. It was lots of fun and the rain held out long enough for us to eat and we retreated inside for cake.

I also found out last night that our renters are planning on being out by Friday this week rather than next Monday! Oh man, am I excited now! We're going to spend the weekend spraying for bugs and deep cleaning. We will probably bring all of our boxes from the storage unit so the spiders can make their way out (YUCK!!!).

Today we arranged all of our utilities. I'm not looking forward to paying those again, but my work is comping internet pay so that is one less bill to worry about! We got Dish arranged for a Saturday set up and we set up Springville City. Cool story --- the general fees to set up that account are a $100 deposit and a $25 set up fee. Well, since we have a pre-existing account there was no set up fee and since we had an account for 2 years and no late payments, we didn't have to make a deposit! What a great surprise, huh??

Shane has been fairly busy so that is really nice. Working from home has been great. I do get distracted sometimes, but I have to admit, I FIND ways to distract myself. I work best under pressure so I bust my rear during the last two hours of the day. That's just how I am!

Chloe is getting smarter than ever. She is speaking in full, grammatically correct sentences and has a really great attention span (perfect for when I'm actually working!) This little boy is kicking like mad and I have finally put on some weight :( I will have a lot of work to do post-baby. Hopefully being able to be active this summer will help me.

Anyway - that's how things are here. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Weekend with the girls

My sister invited me to drive down to my Mom's in Logandale last weekend. I asked Shane for permission (since it was our anniversary weekend) and he graciously said I could go! We left at about 10 on Thursday so I was able to work a half day --- isn't that awesome that by 10 AM I have already put in a half day of work :)

It was nice to just hang out. We went to Vegas on Friday and bought some cute little clothes for the baby girls and I bought a little boy outfit. I guess I have to start convincing myself that boy stuff is fun. This child will be Shane's - that's for sure! I'm not into the sports/dirt/fighting/etc.... that little boys need!!!! Will be a challenge for me!! Anyway, here are a few pics that we took. On Saturday while my parents were doing their weekly temple duties :) (That is a job, I tell you what!)

These pictures are a little out of order....

Chloe was pooped but did not want to go to bed. She fell asleep while my mom was holding her and I put her on the floor b/c it was SO HOT!

Pic is facing the wrong way, but here is baby Bridgette on the ride home! She looks just like her Daddy, but is very much a Momma's girl!!

Did I mention that Shane had flowers delivered to my Mom's house for our anniversary :) I knew he was up to something!! I had to keep them stable in the car so they're packed between two 10 lb bags of sugar...

Chloe and Bridgette soaking up the sun. It was so HOT! (really only in the 70's but we came from snow so it was very welcome heat!)

My mom doesn't have a pool or anything so I filled up this old kitty litter box that we use to give our dogs water when we're there. She did this exact same thing last year before we moved out of our house. She would crawl into the box fully dressed (it is the greatest water dish for dogs....)

And finally, my mom bought Chloe and Bridgette these matching dresses (not for any particular reason) and Chloe just had to put my shoes on with it. She's already a little fashionista!

I love going to my mom's house. Other than my own actual home, I feel most comfortable there. Even though the decor and even construction of the house is totally different from when I lived there, it will always be home :) Can't wait for our next visit!