Some finished projects.

 Ok, well, I'm never done with these projects (Randy and the girls).  Seriously though, remember our green kitchen?  I did like the color, but was ready for a change.

 And our blue bathroom?  It got a Rapunzel makeover before I finished it off with a new coat of paint.  The girls LOVED painting the walls just like Rapunzel does in the movie Tangled.  Kenadi even painted herself with long hair and lanterns in the air.

Well, the blue became grey, which I LOVE.  It goes so well with anything, and brings a little sophistication to our tiny bathroom.

The kitchen became blue and dark blue.  I don't think that this picture gives you true color though.  Oh, but it's close enough.  I do like the blue, but wish that the dining room was a shade lighter.  I go back and forth liking the shade, and then wishing for lighter.  I have decided that I like color a lot though. I like seeing that it's blue, and having the brightness that it is.

My moss covered H.  I had to BUY this moss.  Crazy that a girl from Oregon would go out and buy moss.

I got this adorable crochet book for Christmas and I've been loving it.  These little guys are gifts I've made for other people's kids.  Olie the octopus,

 Ellie the elephant- she's dancing by the way,

and Pete the penguin.  Aren't they cute?  Now it's time to make some for my kids.  They've put in their orders and have been waiting patiently.

Now, let me give you all a heads up that these projects have been over the corse of about 5 months.  So, I definitely don't have a high turnover rate.  Just so you know that I'm not THAT on top of things.

Family and Friends

I had a few more "picturesque" ones that I needed to post.  The one above is Kenadi, Emma, and Sadie with a box of Lucky Charms.  They got ahold of it when Kayla and I were cooking, and the other adults were preoccupied, I guess.  If you look closely there are no more marshmallows left.  They ate all of them.  Out of the whole box, which was dumped out in Nick and Haley's bedroom.  I do have to give them a little credit for using spoons instead of their fingers to eat them off of the floor.

Randy and Mya by the Idaho Falls temple.

We were on the green belt there, and Kayla missed her turkey's at home, so she tried to catch a goose.  She actually did catch one, and got bit.

Cute little cousins.

At the end of our trip we went to see some good friends, Shannon and Jory.  I love this family, they are so happy, smiley, and funny.  They make us laugh.

Here we were talking about how the best pictures aren't the posed ones.  SO, they were "not posing" and acting like I caught them in "the moment".  Looks realistic guys.  Oh, and would you look at their adorable little baby that only weighed 5 lbs something?  I need to have a 5 lb baby. ( Not NOW, but in the future.) What would that feel like? 

Some Mya news lately.  She's pretty much crawling, just in short little bits.  She is so happy to be on the floor so she can figure it out.  I love this little squishy baby.  She is so sweet.

Beautiful Idaho

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip and drove all the LONG way to Idaho.  My family was all meeting up there to drop my sister Kayla off at school.  We loved our long trip.  Well, Mya didn't really enjoy the time in the van after a while, but she was s trooper and did very well. 

 Along the way we had many bathroom breaks.  This was one of them.  A tree by an open field.  The funny thing is that Emma would go to the bathroom only if we were outside, and Kenadi only if she had a toilet.  What funny girls.  Is that too much info for you?  

 My heart soared when I saw these beautiful Teton mountains!    Emma pointed out every hill and every mountain and made sure that we saw them.  They were so excited about the mountains too.  It's in our blood, I guess.

 While in Idaho we saw many of our cousins and family.  We were in heaven!

 The girls got their Grandma and Grandpa Simonson...

 Their sled ride from Uncle Nick...

 Everyone was happy!

 Even Kayla.  Just kidding, Kayla's always happy.  She's off to college!  I can't believe my little sister has grown up so much!

 Mya was mesmerized by my Dad.  She stared at him for a good 10 minutes.  She wouldn't break her eye contact either.  I wonder what she was thinking about.

 Then there's my sweet sister Jenna.  She has lots of great silly faces for the camera, but I can't get her to give me a normal one.  Sorry Jenna.

 My Mom and littlest brother, Reid.  We were all on the way to Jackson Hole, WY to see the Bar J Wranglers.

 Jenna gave us a lesson on "planking".  Have you heard of this craze lately?  Apparently it's cool to take pictures in random places face down and post it on Facebook or something.

 Haley enjoyed Bar-J Wranglers, even though she doesn't like cowboy humor.

 Here they are folks!  THESE GUYS ARE AWESOME!  They are my yodeling, banjoing, auctioneering inspiration.  Well, especially yodeling.  You should look them up and see if you can find a song that they sing.  It is a riot.

 OK, back to my Dad and Mya.  Apparently Dad forgot how to feed a baby.  He couldn't find her mouth, and would say, "she's not opening her mouth.  Oh, she wiped it all over her!" and stuff like that.  It was cute.  Mya just looked at me as if saying, "MOM, what are you doing to me?!"

 We went to a splash park and swimming pool in Rexburg. 

 When it was time for Mom, Jenna, Reid and Dad to leave, we took time for some pictures.  This is us sisters and Mom.  Haley, Jenna, Me and Mya, Mom and Kayla.  I am dreaming of future trips together!  Girl trips, no kids.  Of course, when mine are a bit older....

 It was utterly impossible to get a picture of Mom and the kids with all happy kids.  Emma was sad the whole time, or Sadie wasn't looking, or Kenadi was doing crazy faces...

 Here they did a little better with Grandpa in the picture.

 It's been a long time since we've had a group picture!  We are missing my brother Chase who's on a mission in VA right now, and Kyle who works and lives in Salem.

After my Mom, Dad, Jenna and Reid left, I decided to eat my feelings and make a cake with Kayla's help.  This is one I've wanted to try for a while.  It was in one of my Taste of Home magazines, called Red Velvet Crepe Cakes.  I've drooled over the picture for a while and finally decided to make one.  It is basically thinned out cake batter cooked in a pan like a crepe and then spread with thin layers of cream cheese frosting.   As you can tell, it was pretty messy to put together, and I decided that I wasn't that impressed with the taste.  I think I would have liked it better if it was cooked the regular way in the oven.  However, everyone else liked it, and it was gone quickly.  I think I was a minority with that opinion.  AND NOW, I AM OFFICIALLY OFF OF MY SUGAR CRAZE AND ON TO MY HEALTHY EATING AND EXERCISING PHASE!  (again, but this time is different) Wish me luck, I've done well this week and feel highly motivated.

First Day of School

  Kenadi's first day of Kindergarden was Monday.  I had originally decided that I was going to homeschool her, and she liked that idea until a couple of months ago when she told me that she wanted to go to school where all of the kids go.  So, with a lot of talks between Randy and I on what we should do, and prayer, we decided that it would be ok if we sent Kenadi to a public Kindergarden.  I will not tell you all my feelings about this, or the first two days.  I am not even sure I can explain them myself, except to say that I am a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts.

My friend Alisa knew that I'd be having a hard time, and brought over some school decorations and books for me to read to the girls before school on Monday.  It was so sweet of her, and  help kick things off for the week.  Emma loves the apple that she brought, and carried it around for a couple of days. (above)

On Monday morning, Kenadi checked and re-checked her princess backpack to make sure everything was in it.  She was so excited and had a paper countdown chain that she tore off every day.  Then she'd announce to us at breakfast how many days until she went.

Before we left.  I think that it's cute that she doesn't even know that her dress is tucked up behind her backpack.

Her and her teacher.  She seems nice.

Ok, that's enough of school stuff for now.  

Emma still LOVES horses.  We have a few of these small horses for barbies, and she thinks that she can ride them.

OK, I have a few projects that I've been working on... stay tuned!  As soon as I finish this latest one I will do a post of all of them.

Our Summer Fun

 Well, Emma doesn't exactly consider it fun...

 But Kenadi and I do.  So does Mya.  There isn't much to do outside except for swim.  It is too hot for anything else.  

 We've been taking advantage of our friends' pools, and we swim about 3 times a week.  Kenadi is in swim lessons also, and now she is a pretty good swimmer!  She dives down to the bottom, jumps in the deep end and swims around!  I'm so glad that she loves to swim and does a good job, it helps me worry less at the pool.

 On Saturday night after we got all of our chores done, we took the family to our other friends pool.  It was nice to have Randy there to enjoy it with.

 When it's 105 outside, it feels soooo nice to jump into a big pool of water.  Ahhh....

 Here's Kenadi jumping and swimming in the deep end.

Here's a little glimpse of how chubby Mya is.  On Sunday when we were at church some cute little girls were holding her next to their mom.  They looked at her arms and one of them said, "Mom, how many elbows does she have?"  I laughed out loud right in the middle of our meeting.  I thought that was so funny.

 Another favorite is to jump on the tramp with the sprinkler under it.  The girls love it.

Only 2 more weeks until school starts here, and Kenadi will be starting kindergarten.  Wish us luck, I'm already weepy about it!