A good, packed week

Monday night, my good husband sacrificed his own desires to do something that he hates to do, just to help me stress less--clothes shopping for the girls. I LOVE shopping. Love it. But shopping for the girls stresses me out because I would love to buy everything cute that I see. But I can't because we're trying to stick to a budget. So I have to decide which cute things to buy and how many, and which new things to buy to go with old things. And it just helps to have another decisive person around. Plus, clothes shopping with three girls that like to run off, pull piles of clothes off shelves, hide in racks, and generally make chaos while I'm trying to make decisions, doubles the difficulty.

Tuesday night the kids went to bed early because they'd been up late with us shopping on Monday. My good friend Gina came down to visit and arrived right about the time they went to sleep. We had a great night chatting and eating good food.

Wednesday night, the young men and young women in our ward came over on a "service scavenger hunt" and we had them move the pile of dirt that has been sitting on our back patio since we dug out the leaking part of our foundation a few months ago. I was super grateful for the service and it only took them about 20 minutes.

Thursday was a pretty regular day and it was nice to have it be calm. Then Friday, my mom and dad came down to help me can some salsa. I despise canning. I am terrible at it. I mean, it usually turns out pretty good in the end, but the process never goes right. After they left, I headed out to go to writing group, and Steve took the girls to Emilia's school carnival. They all said it was a blast. And I enjoyed talking writing and eating good food with my writing group ladies, as always.

At the carnival

On the way home. They look happy to me.

Yesterday, Haley, our niece, played at a concert at the Conference Center in Salt Lake. They didn't allow kids under 8, so I stayed home with the girls while Steve went with his family to tour Temple Square and go to the concert. Nick took them to Cheesecake Factory. I am a little jealous. Though Steve let me have his leftovers for lunch, so that made me feel better. :)

The group at the Conference Center to watch Haley's performance.

Steve and his parents.

While he was gone, I took the girls to Art City's Heritage Days. The girls got wooden nickels to spend at the Penny Candy Store and free popcorn. They got to race paper boats down the splash pad, get their faces painted, watch a potter make a pot, create their own button (the kind you pin to a backpack), and do a weaving stick thingy. It was a lot of fun. Emilia ran into a friend while we were there, who ended up coming home with us, and then after dinner, we did Cecily's favorite family activity--playing Mario 64.

Getting ready to race bananas at Heritage Days.

Watching the potter(ess?)

Today (after church) has been spent hanging out with the Coombs family at Grandma and Grandpa Watts' house. Haley and Emilia orchestrated a "Marble Madness" park, where they set up a marble run in the basement, sold tickets, and handed out "food" and prizes when your team's color won the marble race. They made the tickets, and signs directing us to the park. It reminded me immensely of our adventures with the Richau cousins when we were little. Good times.

They were so beautiful walking into church, I had to snap a picture.

Labor Day vacation

You didn't get a post last week because of Labor Day weekend. Our family had an exciting weekend, and I didn't get home until Monday night at bedtime, so blog posts were set aside.

(Cut off is Febe) Mira, Dylan, Cari, and Emilia with their faces painted on Saturday.

The girls and I went up to East Canyon where my parents and Megan bought memberships at a small resort. Mostly it's for camper/trailer camping, but they have a block of condos where the members get a few days a year. They were nice enough to use their days on us over Labor Day, so eighteen of the nineteen members of our family stayed in two adjoining condos for 2 1/2 days. The resort has lots of activities for families, too, so besides playing games and watching movies, we had the option to hike; play tennis, miniature golf, shuffleboard, or ping pong; swim in the pool or splash in the splash pad; fish; do some target practice at the gun range; or the kids had two play areas--one playground outdoors, or a bunch of toys and games and kids tables indoors. Plus we had lots of tasty food and treats. I think everyone had a blast.

The one member who was not at the family gathering was Steve. He stayed home because he entered the 3-day Novel Contest. This means, he signed up to try to write a 50,000 word book in only three days. The contest starts at midnight the Saturday before Labor Day and ends at midnight on Monday. There was no mobile network or internet connection at the resort, so I only got to talk to Steve once during the weekend when I called from the lodge's land line. Steve didn't make 50,000, but he did get 30,000 and a complete story. I think he could have done more if he could have turned off his inner critic and just wrote down whatever came to his head. But he finished and I think it was a good experience for him. I'm glad he did it.

My kids and Megan's kids waiting for the adults to check out.

Shuffleboard

On Monday, Labor Day, we had to check out at 10am from the resort, and since Steve wasn't finished writing, I took the girls to go see their cousins Jane, Meg, and Kate. They were out at the swimming pool when we arrived, so the girls read books while we waited (Cecily napped). I love that Mira can sit for close to an hour pretending to read anything that strikes her fancy. In this picture, she's reading a hymnal.

This last week, I was in recovery mode again. Steve hadn't touched the house all weekend (I didn't expect him to) and I hadn't left it in a tidy place. Plus, I had laundy to do and groceries to buy. Emilia had two soccer games and Mira had another day of preschool.

A reservoir called Little Dell that is up East Canyon.

On Thursday, we had some friends come over and we baked and decorated sugar cookies. I enjoyed the process and having friends there to help and to keep the kids engaged. Usually, I end up helping them all decorate one cookie, which they immediately eat, and then decorate 40 more all by myself.

friends and sugar cookes

Saturday night, we had our friends the Childresses over again and we all watched the BYU football game. Our quarterback is out for the year with a broken foot, but our freshman second string did an excellent job, considering.  We won the game on a hail Mary toss in the last 24 seconds, so there was a lot of shouting at the end. :)

I set a goal with my writing last month and this month to average 500 words a day. I was able to stick to that last month, and I'm on track this month, but we have another vacation at the end of September that I'm worried will put me behind. So I'm gonna go work on that.  Happy Sunday!

Homemade Fresh Tomato Soup

I made this soup last night with fresh tomatoes from the garden and it was delicious with cheese sandwiches. I told my mom I would post it so she could try it out.

Ingredients

1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
5 large fresh tomatoes, chopped
2 cups water
1 can tomato paste
2 tablespoons sugar
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Directions
Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook until juices are released. Add the tomato paste, water, sugar, bouillon cubes, basil (if using dried--if you're using fresh, add it with the cream), parsley, and salt and pepper. Stir to combine, then heat almost to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the cream. Serve warm.

2015 Family (Stay at Home) Vacation

We've been planning for over a year to go on vacation to the beach. But then Steve's car broke, again. So we downgraded to a stay-at-home variety, but to keep with the theme, we did a "Ladybug Girl at the Beach" staycation.

Steve took Thursday off work, but we didn't want to take Emilia out of school for two days during her first full week of school. So Thursday morning, Steve looked for cars. Then, after Emilia got out of school, and Cecily woke up from her nap, we planned on going to a place called "Sandy Beach" right here in Springville. But Cecily got a late start to her nap, and I had a bunch of running around to do that afternoon, and Steve had a backache from driving all over the place. So we postponed the beach part until Saturday and instead, we went out for burgers & fries, then went to Nickel City and all the girls got to pick out treasures (prizes), then went to Farr's Fresh Ice Cream and gorged ourselves on sugary milky goodness.

Friday, Steve let me sleep in, and when I got up we watched Home. Have any of you watched it? It was awesome! Witty, and touching, and laugh out loud. Emilia and I cried at the end. Then after Cecily's nap, we went to 7 Peaks (a local water park with a wave pool, tons of water slides, two kids areas, and a lazy river) for 4 hours and had a blast wearing ourselves out in the water. We played in the waves of the wave pool and Emilia even tried one of the big waterslides, so she faced a fear, just like Lulu. I didn't take any pictures of these festivities because I wanted my phone to still work at the end of the day.

Saturday, Steve was going to buy a car in the morning, but once he had a mechanic look at it, we changed our minds. While he was gone, I got the kitchen floor mopped, and Emilia had a soccer game. Once again, after Cecily's nap, we headed to "Sandy Beach," which is a beach off Utah Lake that is very sandy, but the best part is that the water is warm, and it's only about a foot or two deep for a good hundred yards out into the lake. After Cecily's mad dash after the duck last week, it was good to know she wouldn't sink into a drop off when we turned our heads. We built a fire, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, searched for seashells--Emilia found another live clam, but didn't want to take it home this time--and made footprints in the sand.

Best vacation we've ever had as a family, hands down. No stress, no packing, no trying to sleep five of us in the same room. Except for the lack of tide pools and real seashells, I'd say this vacation was better than any California beach vacation we could have taken. Wahoo!

Oh, and did I mention that the sunset was amazing? It was. And I took lots of pictures.

The Monday before our vacation, Mira was feeling sad that Emilia has started school and she hadn't. So I took her and Cecily to the Bean Museum. They wanted pictures with all of the statues outside.

One more random pic for you. Mira told me she had ear plugs in. They were really just puffballs. Goofball.

Little happy moments

It was a rough week with lots of happy points thrown in here and there. The girls were all kind of cranky this week.

For example, I posted this on Facebook about how our Saturday night went: Today was good, until this evening, when two children wailed that I had made something as awful as cashew chicken for dinner, one threw her bowl on the floor in protest and was sentenced to her room--from which position she yelled at us until she consented to come pick the food up off the floor and eat it (yeah, I'm mean and unsanitary like that)--one put My Little Pony stickers all over my white shelving, one put all the cat food into the cat water, then opened a water bottle onto the livingroom carpet, one got out of bed 4 times (the last one being at 10pm when her throat hurt so bad, she couldn't possibly sleep until she had a Halls), and the cat got locked in the bathroom because she kept attacking the children. The evening got better again when my husband went to the store and bought Burnt Almond Fudge ice cream, of which I ate a large bowl. Upon finishing said bowl, I decided I probably made it feel bad because I hadn't been very "in the moment" with it, so I tried again. Much better.

Emilia started school on Wednesday morning, so Steve gave the girls father's blessings on Tuesday night. Mira starts preschool a week from Wednesday and she is super excited. I'm excited, too. I think it will be good for her to get away from me for a while. And it will be good for her to have another authority figure tell her 'no.' At least that's what I'm hoping. Here are some of the high points: Cecily and Mira found some stickers one morning. Mira decided to use them to 'decorate' Cecily. She has some on her cheeks, arms, and neck. They were both excited about these decorations.

Another morning, I was working on my laptop in bed when Mira came in to tell me something. She spotted this guy out the window. That's a three point buck about 10 feet from the window. She then mentioned another deer, which I couldn't see from my vantage point.

Getting up, I saw this guy. He is a six-pointer, I think. Hunting season anyone?

Friday night, we were going to go to the library as a family, but we didn't realize that the library closes early on Friday -- 6pm! So we had to change plans. We ended up going to the new Springville Reservoir again. This time I had my phone and took pictures. The sunset was amazing! And we all had fun splashing and building.

At one point, Cecily saw a duck and decided to run after it. I thought this was cute until the duck ran into the water and Cecily kept right on going. She would have drowned herself if she hadn't tripped on a rock about a foot into the water and dunked herself in the freezing mountain water. After that, she only had a diaper on.

Emilia built a river. The fact that the water ran down in a rush was a proud accomplishment for her.

Mira mostly project hopped. Sometimes literally.

Steve built a castle. Which Cecily tried to destroy so many times, we had to build a couple for her to smash and throw into the reservoir.

I built a kitty in an attempt to show the girls, they didn't just have to make castles with sand.

Saturday morning, Emilia had her first soccer game. Steve yelled himself hoarse and Grandpa Watts was quite enthusiastic, too. Emilia did really well considering she had no idea what was going on. We need to show her a real soccer game this week, and work with her on being aggressive. Her team won, I think, 2 goals to 1.

Saturday afternoon, Steve let me go to the library and write for a few hours. I was glorious. I finished outlining the novel I'm working on and wrote most of a chapter. While I was there, Steve came with the girls to return and check out new books. It was funny to watch him get the girls out of the car, with Cecily nearly running into the street before he noticed, then everybody grab hands and trail inside.

I am the cat's favorite human in the house. I'm pretty sure she thinks she owns me.

I will have to take some school pictures for Emilia and the other girls this week and post them. Have a good one!