First Half of July

I was able to get together with some really good friends from high school! When I moved here, we started having regular play-dates that really saved my sanity. Over the last little while, we haven't been as good about getting together, especially since one of our crew moved to Texas. Luckily, she was in the area at the beginning of July, so we all made it work and has so much fun talking with each other.



The stake put on a really cool Book of Mormon themed youth conference this year. The day before they let the youth go through, they had all the primary children in the stake go through. It was awesome!! The kids got to journey through The Book of Mormon in about an hour. So grateful for the time and effort people put into this so that my kids could have a testimony building experience.


Twice within the first part of this month, I have been completely surprised by sweet gifts from others. My sister Jenn sent me a box of sunshine full of yellow things to brighten our day. The kids were almost as thrilled as I was! They were grateful I decided to share the candy. :) Then a little while later, a friend of mine in the ward came by the house (Hi Tiffany! :) and brought my some chocolate, soda and lotion, just because. I felt so spoiled. Truly. I know how difficult it can be sometimes to look outside of yourself and just keeping your head above water as you try and take care of all your responsibilities. So when people put forth an extra effort to reach out to me, despite their busy schedules...I get a little choked up. I'm grateful to be surrounded by good people.


I found giant rocks in our yard, so obviously, it made "painting" hot rocks that much cooler!



Lindy and I went on a date! She felt SO special. We went to the new park down the street. It's been crazy busy every time I've driven past it, so it was nice to go in the evening when it was less busy, with only 1 child to keep track of. I could give her my full attention and actually play with her! Her favorite was the "yip-ine" (zipline) No fear for this little chica. I patted myself on the back a little every time Lindy saw garbage, ran to pick it up, and find a "gah-ya" (garbage) can. Then we went to Iceberg to get fries and a shake. She chose strawberry. :) We had such a fun time together, just my Lindy and me!


Second session of swimming lessons is already over and done! It went by so fast! The kids improved a bunch and they looked forward to it every time. Totally worth the money.


Picnic at a park with friends and ice cream sandwiches. Doesn't get much better, does it?


New Kit of bunnies ready to sell. :) The kids love this stage. Just from this last kit, they've made $60 toward their tree house fund!


And just to keep it real, here's *Bob (names have been changed to protect the innocent) cleaning off the patio after he wrote "Mom is so Mean" over and over again, complete with pictures, because he was upset at the consequences of his choices. It's tough being 8. It's becoming more and more uncharacteristic for *Bob to do things like this, so I guess I felt the need to document it here to show that we're all still a work in progress, right? :)