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.