Splendid Summer

So in no order in particular, here are just a few moments captured from this summer. There will be more to follow, but with my 4 month or more delay in updating, I figured now is as good a time as any! And thanks to using my sisters computer so I actaully have some good strong internet connection.

We were so lucky to have our WHOLE family together in Utah this summer over the 4th of July, which, I have to say, is probably one of my favorite holidays. I LOVE summer, and since this holiday happens to fall smack-dab in the middle of summer, it makes it quite enjoyable. We went swimming, and camping, and BBQ'ing, and more swimming, and more BBQ'ing, and family, and friends, and baseball games, and fireworks, and game nights, and sleepovers, and sleep outs, and everything inbetween :)


Sadly I hardly saw any friends or family besides just my immediates, but it was fun to be back for a week, and hope to come back soon and see more people.

This is our good ol' morgan county 4th of july celebration. The kids were so patriotic and had there hair painted Red, White and Blue.

Hangin' out on Main street waiting for the parade to start....

Yay for water!! Cooling off in the pool.

And drying off on the tramp! :) It's tough to please all ages on here! The big kids want you to bounce them HIGH, and the little ones want you to hold them all and have NO one bounce. Can't please 'em all I suppose!

Tin foil dinners are an Easy solutoin to camp out meals! And everyone gets to p

ick their own stuffings! So Needless to say, that was probably the best eaten meal by the kids all trip.

Setting up camp, well, luckily the guys were such good boy scouts and did it all why we just played around and took pictures ;) haha, but really, all the guys set up camp, while the girls man handled the kids, not so much me--because I'm jus the aunt, and my job is to just le the kids do what makes them happy! jk So here are me and my two sister-in-laws.

Taking the kids on a ride. Michael, Emma and Hayley. They are all going to be going in to 3rd grade this year. Notice my fashionable outfit. I didn't really waste space to pack camping clothes, so I used what I had left at home, which included scrounging up some UGG winter boots--which are not so practical in Texas.....or camping in the summer for that matter!

Well, this is all for now... but there are more to come soon!

1/4 of 100 random things

AKA....25 random things about me! I'm a little slow om the uptake and prefer this to posting it on facebook where most is going on. This way only about 10 people actaully see it versus hundreds. Supposing that that many people cared to read about the random things in my life. So in no particular order here it goes:


1.I had an Imaginary friend named Kimball (which I used from the name on our Piano) when I was little and sometimes I believed he was so real, I would feel bad when I would ignored him because I was playing with other friends!

2. I used to hate baths and think they were disgusting! I don't think I took a single bath all of my high school or college years. But now I find it very relaxing and a good way to warm up. It also helps that I know I'm the only one using my tub!

3. I always wished I had bigger feet. In middle school all my friends and sisters could share shoes but my feet were too little! I would even buy bigger shoes in hopes that one day I would grow into them. I still have shoes I can't fit into, but now I'm glad they are a whopping size 5.

4.I have to smell the dishwasher soap every time I load it. I love it. Sometimes I run half loads just to smell it!

5. I can't stand fingernails! Mine, when they get longer than my skin. And others when they scratch them across there clothes or the sound when they itch their skin, or file them behind you in class, or church, or the bus, or anywhere!

6. I am terrified of Bees. In 3rd grade I tried running away from a bee and ended up falling off a slide. I had to wear a cast on my arm most of that summer. And don't regret it at all! I still flee from the sight of them!

7. I had to have metal tongue reminders on the back of my 2 front teeth growing up because I would swallow using my tongue to push against those teeth causing MAJOR buck teeth. I still cringe at old pictures with my buck tooth smile.

8. I am too cheap for my own good! Every time I go out to eat and can get away with it, I stow away extra napkins so I won't have to buy any at home!

9. I have HoRrIbLe handwriting!! I cannot stand the sight of my own, and will ask anyone and everyone to write things for me. in fact every time I see cute writing I try tracing it and practicing it so I can write like that. But no luck—I am stuck with chicken scratch. In fact when I was young, teachers used to send notes home to have me slow down and work on my writing.

10. have to do everything at super fast speed! It's actually quite unintentional. I walk fast, talk fast, write fast (which is probably the reason of my poor handwriting!) In elementary I would become obsessed of being the first one done with my assignments and turning them in before anyone else.

11.I can't say no to anything or anyone! I'm pretty sure that makes me a flaky person! I have to say yes to everyone and everything, that I can't possibly fit it all in and end up letting people down at the last minute.

12. I have to have my bed made the minute I wake up. I can't even leave my room until it is. But I only sleep on a corner of my bed because I'm so weird about not wanting to mess it up, that I don't move around much and leave the pillows on the other 2/3rds of it.

13.I have to have a plug-in in my closet. I don't like when my clothes go stale.

14.I am addicted to chapstick—my phone and chap stick are the 2 things I take everywhere!

15. I'm also addicted to lotion. I can't even get my hands wet without having to immediately apply lotion. In fact I get anxious if I know I have to wash my hands for some reason and I don't have any lotion to put on after. I would almost rather not wash them.

16 .I do not like to be seen without mascara. I can go out with wet hair, pajamas, whatever, as long as I have mascara on. I don't like that they are blonde and make my eyes disappear without anything on them. I then use a safety pin to separate each eyelash after I have it on. I can't stand when they clump together.

17. I don't like to drink straight water. I don't like the taste of it. Even if it's bottled, filtered or whatever. As a result I love the crystal light packets. It's a good way to drink my water without having to taste it!

18. I wanted glasses so bad when I was little, that I tried crossing my eyes for ten minutes every night because I once heard that that would make your eyes bad. It never worked…I still have 20/20 vision but now I won't complain!

19. I feel bad when other people think (or know) that they woke me up when they call if I had been sleeping. So if that happens to be the case, I overcompensate by being super perky when I answer so they won't know I had been asleep.

20.I fell down not once, or twice, but three times running the hurdles my first race running track in high school.

21. I always take the 3rd item back on a shelf because my theory is: the first item was picked up and put down by someone who changed their mind, the second one was brought back by the store clerk when the person decided to leave it at the last minute, so the 3rd is the first untouched perfect one.

22. I slept outside on the trampoline every night for an entire summer.

23. In elementary school I couldn't say my r's making my name to sound like "Ambah" and I had to go to speech therapy to correct it.

24. I used to make my dad check my bed for spiders every night before I would climb in, because I was told that spiders like cold dark places and I consider my bed to be that I guess! I wouldn't even sleep next to the wall because I was convinced spiders lived between my bed and the wall!

25. I have such arched feet, that if I were to make a foot print the only thing that would show up would be the ball of my foot, the heal and my big toe. My other toes all stick up enough that they never touch the ground.

A Holiday Recap

So I blame it on having a no good connection to the internet for not updating my blog--and though that holds true, it's also becuase I don't feel like i ever have anything to ever update everybody on! My life is pretty much same ol' all the time!

I did go to Utah for Christmas which was way fun--but not nearly long enough! I can't believe how many people I didn't get to see, but was very happy to see the ones I did. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, and you always want to be where your not. If that makes any sense.

Before heading to Utah though, We had Christmas in Missouri. I flew there Christmas eve, and My mom, dad, Uncle Bruce, Kim's family and Emily's family were already there. It was bitterly cold but fun there. We got lots of rounds of dominos in, some present exchanges, and yummy goodies. The day after Christmas Emily and her Family left and Ryans family came for a couple of days. So I was pretty lucky and actaully got to spend the holidays with every family member at some time. Then from Missouri I drove back to Utah with my parents to ring in the new year.

Dave and I pretty much spent everynight at Nate and Kristy's playing some sort of game. I've forgotten that there is life after dark!! I'm so used to my boring night of in bed by 10:30, it's good to know I've still got it in me to play past midnight! :) We got to play lots of Mario kart--though I think between Dave, Michael and Christian there was no way to win! They were too good.

So in no order at all, here are some pictures of the holidays. I don't really know how to add the pictures in a way that they come up in the order I anticipated. It always ends up in some funky order. But hey, it's better than nothing I guess!

Christmas Morning!

Meeting Little Tyler for the first time

Alex shared his rock band with us. And we sure did rock! :)

Sisters! We should've taken one with Emily there and been all 3! Hopefully next year!

Aunt Sandy and Mom bonding :)

Erin and her little doll sporting their beanies that Aunt Sandy made everyone. They were so cute! we had lots of colors and sizes to choose from.

Here's Emma with her doll Jenny.

Visiting Grandpa's grave.

Taking a break from the car on the drive home we stopped at Mormon Island. This is actaully where I spent my very first birthday. In the car coming home from Missouri. I guess I got a punch balloon and a cupcake and was happy as can be ;)

So we stopped here again since it was my birthday eve this year.

Burrr it was cold...but nice to stretch our legs! The little boys did so well with the drive!

Getting ready for some Mario Kart!!

Saying bye to the boys on my last night there :(

I don't know how much little Esplan warmed up to me, It's so sad not being there when they grow up--He was still pretty hesitant to come to me by the time I left...but he warmed up a little and at least pretended to play Mario kart with me. I just wish all of these states could merge in to one and we could be one big happy family :) haha

Kristy picked up some yummy cheesecake from Taggarts for my birthday!

Okay so this was actaully right before I left for Christmas. We went ice skating to celebrate christmas break. This picture is a little out of order, and late to say the least--but since I don't have many pics of my Texas fam--I wanted to share that too!

look at all this snow! And I won't miss it one bit!

And last but not least, posing by the front door with Kimi and KristyI can't think of a better place for a picture besides on the ground by the little caroling people :) (By the way...Kimi is engaged now yay!)