~~~ Stake Swim Day ~~~

We went to the Roy Aquatic Center on Wednesday for the Stake Swim Day. It was lots of fun, a lot more fun then last year, that's for sure. (last year there was lightning and on the verge of raining, they kicked us out after being there for only 30 minutes, BOO!) We had dinner with our ward, hot dogs, chips, salads, fruit, and desserts pot-luck style. Avery loves swimming and being in the water but it takes Quinn a little bit longer to get used to the idea. He warmed up after awhile though and then he was having a blast! Avery went down the "big curly slide" on Justin's lap, so sad I didn't have my camera handy, Avery loved it! I guess we'll just have to go back again!

Apparently we're expecting.......

"Mom, when will we have our next baby, (3 second pause) cause your tummy's gettin' real big."

For the record, I'm not pregnant........I guess this means I need to anti-up my exercise routine a bit or people will start to suspect.
-- lucky me!

fat cats

Last Friday Justin got off work early (which is a very rare occurrence), so Avery, Quinn and I met him at Solomon Center in Ogden for a little fun. We went to the Fat Cats arcade where we played games, won some tickets for prices, and then went bowling. It was Avery and Quinn's first time bowling and they had so much fun! However, I am embarrassed to admit that they both got a higher score than me. Although in my defense, Avery and Quinn had bumpers and I didn't! The scores went as follows: Justin 108, Avery 81, Quinn 78, Me 70 -- we have some world class bowlers in our family don't we! :)

This is Avery & Quinn at the arcade, the picture didn't really turn out.....I mean I meant for it to look like that.....I thought it looked kinda cool anyway.


Wait for it........wait for it........SPARE!!!


Way to go Quinney, STRIKE!!!

Quinn helped me with my turn, I think he was trying to boost my score! -- what a sweet son! :)

After we had our fun we went to dinner at Javier's. Yum-O! Good times!

I see London, I see France.....

I see Rosanna's underpants!!!

9th grade treasures!

So I was looking through some boxes downstairs and guess what I came across?...my old journals. I used to be an avid journal writer once upon a time. Mostly through middle school and high school and then a little in college. Wow I'm a nerd!!! I'm a little embarrassed about how much I talk about this boy named B.J. Davis -- I'm sure some of you will remember him! I had a major crush on him from about 8th grade to 10th or 11th grade. On almost every single page down at the bottom I wrote something about him like: "B.J. looked so cute today" or "B.J. said hi to me today wahoo!" or "I heart B.J." or "Me and B.J. walked out to seminary together, I was in heaven." Then like two days later I'm saying, "I don't think I like B.J. anymore, I think I just like him as a friend now." And then all the sudden two days later I'm saying how cute I think he is and getting all giddy about him talking to me in the hall at school or something. Oh the drama of it all!!! :) How embarrassing!!! Here is a journal entry from my 9th grade year when I was 15 years old. I thought it was pretty funny and NERDY too!!! You might have to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can read it better.


Hey what do you know, Justin fits all 7 of those qualities!!! Looks like I found my REAL dream guy after all!!! :)

In case you were wondering, here is the report from the re-scheduled Valentine's Dance.....

Sadly, B.J. didn't ask me to dance but obviously I still had fun, I mean I only wrote that like 14 times! ha ha! Let's not forget, "We (Holly, Michelle, & Zandra) sat up & talked for a dang long time!" --not just for awhile but a "dang long time!" And Jami Olsen (Peterson), apparently we rode over to the dance together, how funny!!!

Okay so I have to share this entry, it is over a year later when I was now 16 years old and I was still secretly in love with B.J.!.....surprise, surprise.....I wasn't lying when I said my crush went from 8th grade to 10th or 11th grade!!! How pathetic!!! -- but oh so fun! he he!!!

Here is the insert that I'm talking about in the journal entry. Pretty clever eh? NOT! As if writing "Brandon Jones" would deter anyone's thoughts of me not meaning B.J.--- I only doodled his name and initials a million times!:)


Alright, I could go on for hours, this has been so much fun reading back through my journals, I'm really glad I was a faithful writer back then! Good times! I just have to share one more entry, this one might be the best...I mean the NERDIEST!!! Take a looksy.....



I love how I wrote "in no particular order" and that "Emily Groll didn't get pictures" on the top right corner of the first page! Just wanted to make that clear folks so my posterity would know, "in no particular order"! And I'm really glad that I wrote "friends continued..." on top of the 2nd and 3rd pages where the date was suppose to go so nobody gets confused that I'm still gluing my friends pictures into my journal! Oh the memories!

I also have a great entry about Jenny Jones (Mathews) and I. About how we went swimming at the Mountain Crest pool (for a Young Women activity I think) and you and I wouldn't swim because we didn't want to take our shirts off because we were embarrassed that Tim and Tom Pearce were there and apparently the MC pool didn't allow people to wear shirts while swimming. I actually remember that day! Also I have some entries about Skye Longhurst (Olsen) and I and all the dorky stuff we used to do and all the fun we had together. Also Skye, I have tons of notes that you wrote me inserted into my journal, isn't that funny! Remember when we used to do those Wing Ding notes to each other? And Lyndee, this is what I wrote about you on Tuesday, August 15th 1995: "Lyndee Spence is so fantastic! In Sports Inter. she was a great gymnastics bud. During that class we used to go and play gymnastics on the rolled up wrestling mats. It was so fun! Lyndee was my gymnastics pal along with Charity & Zandra." -- of course you remember that Lyndee!!!

Awwwww, this has been a blast from the past! Maybe I should start making this a weekly post, some dorky entry from my journal. Pure entertainment if you ask me!!!

BFF get-together!

Today we had a fun outing at The Gateway. We met up with my long time friends Amber and Cookie and their cute kids Abby and Olivia. I was also looking forward to seeing my friend Rosanna but she had to cancel because she was having flu-like symptoms this morning! Yuck! Sorry Rosanna, hope you feel better soon! "Meanwhile, back at the ranch", (he he, that ones for you Amber), Avery, Quinn and Abby enjoyed the water fountain while Olivia was lounging in her stroller drinking her bottle.


Abby especially loved it, she got soaked. Good thing Amber was prepared and brought two extra outfits!

While we were waiting outside of the restroom for Amber to change Abby's clothes we took these next few pictures. A guy walked around the corner and said, "couldn't you find a prettier place than this for pictures?" "ha ha ha.....uuuhhh.....oh yeah".....my courtesy laugh and awkward reply. :)

Olivia, Avery and Quinn, what some cuties!

Avery with her new best friend Cookie.

For lunch we ate at Applebee's. I ordered the Turkey Bacon Ciabotta Sandwich, which by the way is delicious! "Does that have bacon on it?" Oh, I'm such a dork!!! While we were packing up to leave the restaurant the waiter was entertaining our children with a wild game of peek-a-boo. At least they thought he was funny!

We had fun shopping around, lounging under the misty thingy's in the shade and letting our kids run around together.---well at least Avery, Quinn and Abby ran around.....


Olivia did this.....she was all tuckered out, it's hard riding in a stroller all day!:)

Binky Buddies Forever!!!

A self portrait of me and my kiddies!

Avery's fabulous "picture face".....ugh!!!-I'm rolling my eyes right now!

All in all we had a great time minus the fact that Quinn developed a serious case of the "rocky mountain quick step" after we got there!!! (diarrhea).....grrr! Okay, so I assumed that three diapers would be plenty for the day. Not hardly! I went through those three diapers in a matter of, oh, about 45 minutes! Luckily my sweet friends were prepared, thanks for the two diapers Cookie! Yes folks, that's a total of FIVE diaper changes within a two hour period! (and two more since we've been home might I add!) So needless to say Quinney wasn't too happy at times but we still had fun! Thanks for meeting me there Cookie and Amber, I'm looking forward to our next outing!

**Note to self: don't feed Quinn acidy fruits like pineapple until he's older, his stomach doesn't like it!**

delicious with a capital D.....

Doesn't that look scrump-didly-umptions!?! We made these burgers the other night and they were SO YUMMY!!! Oh man, I was very pleased with the end result! Even the name of them gets me excited---Stuffed Fiesta Burgers! WOW! Having corn on the cob and watermelon with these oh so yummy burgers made the perfect meal!...I love summer time!!! So, if any of you are interested in trying these puppies for a weekend BBQ go ahead, then let me know what you think!

Stuffed Fiesta Burgers

1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. (1 1/4oz.) taco seasoning mix
1/4 cup chive & onion cream cheese spread
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 hamburger buns, split, lightly toasted
1/2 cup thick 'n chunky salsa
8 slice ripe avocado

Preheat grill to medium heat. Mix meat and seasoning mix. Shape into 8 thin patties. Mix cream cheese spread and shredded cheese. Spoon about 2 Tbsp. on the cheese mixture onto center of each of 4 of the patties; top with second patty. Pinch edges of patties together to seal. Grill patties 7 to 9 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Cover bottom halves of buns with burgers. Top with salsa, avocado and top halves of buns. ENJOY!!!

P.S. I got this recipe out of the "Kraft food & family" magazine that I get in the mail for FREE! It comes 5 times a year and is full of yummy, quick and easy meal ideas. I love it, I get so excited when it comes in the mail that I have to look at it immediately!

I'll add one more picture for good measure! ha ha! Is your mouth watering yet?...mine is!

Oh the things this little lady says!

This was so sweet, she said it to me out of the blue one afternoon, "Mommy, you're my nice mommy".

One day I was fixing lunch and Quinney started to cry over by the toys. Before I could even address the situation and see what he was sad about Avery ran over to Ruby and said in a stern voice, "did you do something?"

Avery is such a good big sister to Quinn and they both love playing with each other. On this occasion they were running around being silly in the living room. Avery stopped running for a few seconds and said, "Quinn you make my heart feel super happy." She also said, wanting Quinn to follow her, "come on slobbery guy".

When we had our fancy "green" dinner on St. Patrick's Day Avery took one look at it and with such enthusiasm said, "this is the bestest dinner I ever seen!" Looks tasty huh!?!


Avery was pretending to cook some food on her little kitchen. I heard her ask Quinn if he wanted to help her make some lunch for me. After Quinn shook his head "yes" she ran over to me and said, "Quinn's my little assist".

Talking about Clorox wipes Avery declared, "Florox helps keep it clean!"

Another thing she's said to Quinn, "what are you going to do with all that chocolate on your face Mr.".

Although Avery is very sweet most of the time, don't be deceived with all this cuteness, this little Avery of mine can have quite the attitude and sassiness sometimes! The other day she was doing something she wasn't suppose to be doing for the millionth time that day so I said to her, "how many times am I going to have to ask you that?" And without any hesitation and with all the attitude she could manage she said, "like 5" waving 5 of her little fingers in front of my face! What a stinker!...but we sure do love her!!!

more fun in the summer sun.....

You can never get too much swimming in during the summer months can you? We had a lot of fun today doing just that. Well, Kristen (my sister-in-law) and I didn't actually swim but our cute kids did. Here is Avery, Quinn and cousin Madelyne enjoying the pool and their suckers!


They also liked playing with their little golf set. Quinn actually was using it more like a bat then a golf club but hey, he still had fun!



Swimming and playing golf, what could be better?

=== FUN in the summer SUN ===

We had a great day yesterday! First of all, our kids slept until 9:00 so that started our Saturday off perfectly. :) Then after breakfast Justin and his best helper Quinn mowed the lawn while Avery and I mapped out spots to plant a few more flowers. After the work was done it was time for play! We dug the kiddy pool out of the garage, filled her up, and the kids had a blast! They stayed in a bit longer than I had expected but who could blame them, it was perfect weather for swimming!




After lunch and a good nap for Quinn we headed up to Cache Valley for a wedding reception. Then off to my parents house we went for an old fashion weeny roast in the back yard. I LOVE hot dogs roasted over a real fire, YUM-O!!! Then of course we roasted marshmellows and had s'mores, what would a summer weeny roast be without gooey delicous s'mores? Here's a look at the ROARING fire. Pretty fierce eh?



Us ladies trying to keep our toe-dies warm!

Me and my neice Brianne's "dorky face"! ha ha ha, yeah, I'd say I look pretty dorky!!!

What better way to end the day than with a bedtime story from Grandma and Grandpa before we headed home? Perfect! This is my kind of summer Saturday!!!