A Shower A Day...

Babygirl got this fab shower cap in the mail from her great-grandma (Mamal) in California. She loves how the water sounds on her head when she wears it in the shower. As soon as she opened the package, she wanted to take a shower. The "pumpkin soap" is part of my birthday present from her mom - she loves it - so it went into the shower too! (Sorry, I can't figure out how to flip this pic-I thought I had - oh well)

The Spoils...

I enjoyed a wonderful birthday yesterday! Megan took me to lunch, Stacy took me out to several quilt stores, a book store and dinner at Outback Steakhouse - yummy! Here is a photo of some of my wonderful cards and sweet gifts from everyone! I also received some really nice emails...Thank you everyone for making my day great!

Just a few of the blessings in my life...

It's my birthday - pretty much my favorite day of the year. Here are a few of the blessings that I'm so grateful for that make my life great...
1. My family - my husband, children, parents, sisters, GRANDCHILDREN, in-laws and all of my extended family, they have been and continue to be a huge blessing in my life.
2. Friends - my patriarchal blessing says that I will have friends thoughout my life, for which I am so grateful! I love them all so much, old friends, new friends, friends I have met through working together at church, quilting, visiting teaching, my Creative Memories Business, through our children, at 12 step, etc.
3. Quilting - I know, I'm crazy addicted, but I LOVE it, it's bringing out a creative side to me that I never knew I had, I've always been "organized", not creative, and it is so fun!!
4. My Home - I am so grateful for my home, it's cool in the summer and snug in the winter, my sweetie plants delicious tomatoes, raspberries and more for our family to enjoy. I have many happy (we're ignoring the crazy parts) memories of my homes through the years, and I realize that not everyone has that blessing.
5. My Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so incredibly grateful to have the gospel in my life, to have a kind, loving Heavenly Father, that I can turn to for anything - to complain, to thank, to ask and to just receive love from Him and His son.
Etc.... The mountains, cool weather, gas in my car, having the church 2 doors down, delicious food to eat, my flowers, walking in the mornings, my comfy bed, Doug is coming home in 2 weeks!!!, being able to travel, good books, Amanda cleaning my house, etc. etc.

Trip to California...

We're back from a quick trip to California. We zipped down on Wednesday for my niece, Kira's, wedding. We went through the Newport Beach Temple with her on Thursday, she was sealed to Jeff Fisher on Friday in the San Diego Temple, with a reception on Friday night. We swam at my sister, Debi's on Saturday morning, then jumped back in the car to return late that night. Stacy, Brooke, Shane and the babies went to Disneyland on Thursday and had a really good (hot) time. Austin was old enough to ride the Matterhorn and was heard to say "There's a monster in there". She was a little scared by the 3D movie, "Honey, I shrunk the Audience" too. Her favorite was the "Gumbo" (Dumbo) ride. Amanda went and hung out with Jon. (We heard they had a really good time too).The temple sealing was beautiful, the reception was gorgeous too, as was Kira, with really yummy food. Speaking of food, we stopped at the Wynn Buffet in Vegas for quite the meal. Shane ate 8 creme brulees. They were quite tiny, but delicious. Shane knew the secret of arriving at 3:15 to pay the lunch price, but they put out the dinner food at 3:30 (crab legs/creme brulee). We planned our departure time accordingly and got there just in time! The restroom sinks were also quite impressive, as you can see from my picture.We are a little tired today, but as usual, it is so nice to sleep in our own beds again! Stacy and I both got subs for our Sunday School classes, so we are trying to figure out how to look "not home" when everyone walks/drives by our house (2 doors down from the church) on their way to church today, then show up to Sacrament Meeting, seemingly just arrived in from out of town. Thinking...

Five Reasons I LOVE September...

1. It's my birthday month!
2. It's the beginning of fall! (Getting Cooler)
3. For many, many years, my kids started school in September! (I still have wonderful feelings about that!)
4. Utah Quild Guild - Quilt Festival!!!! (4 days in Ogden with a bunch of crazy quilters like me!)
5. Doug is coming home after 2 years!!!!!!!

Moving Along...

Getting some quilting done on this baby. My goal is to get it out of the family room before my next Creative Memories (Scrapbooking) Crop - Sept. 12. We'll see.

We've Been to the Fair!

Today, the girls (Brooke and Amanda) and I took the babies to the Utah County Fair in Spanish Fork. After singing a little of the "Templeton" song from Charlotte's Web (The fair is such a smorgasboard, smorgasboard...) we hit the road. We borrowed one of my friend Megan's 5 (or 6 or 7) strollers - thanks, Megan, and headed down to SF. We joked we would be parking in a field and when we got there, it was true. Austin got a spray-on Tinkerbell Tattoo, Amanda got some stars. We went over to see some sheep taking a bath and Austin got to pet one. Shaun didn't want to get too close. We saw chickens, rabbits, big cows, horses and a couple of pigs. They were QUITE aromatic, Amanda was worried her snow cone was getting "contaminated" from the air in the big shed. We went to the midway and Brooke just couldn't walk by the people who were running the booths, "Every try wins a prize!", etc. She "picked a duck" and got Austin a tiara. She paid for darts and had Amanda (the expert) throw them to win another prize (Amanda was 4 for 4). She threw some wiffle ball for a big blow up zebra thing. The kids loved the rides, they rode a boat, a motorcycle (way too fast for the grown ups idea of safety), the Merry-go-Round - Amanda and Brooke rode with them to hold them on and after the snow cones and cotton candy, both girls felt like they were going to be sick and it lasted forever!!!

The last ride was the "Fun Slide", I wanted them to go on it, because it reminded me of the "sky slides" they used to have when I was a kid, burlap bags and everything! As they were hauling the kids up those skinny, rickety stairs, I was really glad I'd volunteered to take the pictures! After a couple of hours at the fair, we were all pretty sweaty and headed back to the car (Air conditioning - hooray!!) Well, now we can say, we've been to the fair.