Layne's Leg Braces

I don't think that I've put a picture on the blog yet of Layne's leg braces, so here they are. She had two therapists here this morning, one for vision and the other was her physical therapist. Here she is, standing up at the table with her braces on. They help stabalize her leg muscles and hold her ankles in their proper form. She's doing better all the time. Wish she was going to be walking by her birthday, but she's progressing at her own rate. Right now she really enjoys pulling herself up to the table and ripping magazines to shreds. We've resorted to putting old ESPN magazines out for her to destroy. Just doesn't feel right to let her rip the Ensign apart ....

Jared discovered this on Monday. He had the day off (24th of July in Utah is a holiday), so I drove up north to Utah Valley to do school shopping for K&K and birthday shopping for L&L. Bought a bunch of clothes for myself too, and watched Harry Potter (highly recommended -- best of the series, if you ask me). Jared manned the fort all day and I arrived home at 11 to find all well.

Tuesday night, a group of friend from the ward and I went out to eat together in Price to celebrate my birthday. We had a good time.

Jared took off for SLC early on Wednesday morning for work meetings and should get back late tonight. Busy as usual around here.

And that's our week so far.

(Here's an extra happy birthday wish to Dad on Monday too! It was great to wish you one on Skype on Sunday. We love ya!)

Cleaning out the garage

We put it off every year, but yesterday I decided that I had had enough. I drove the kids into Price for the morning and we played at the Dino Adventure park there for a while before grocery shopping at Walmart. After a quick lunch, we made it back home and put Luke and Layne down for the nap. Koria, Kimball and I set to work on our garage. They helped me take everything out first, then helped me sweep it all out, pick up trash, and rearrange it all back. No before shots, sorry. Here's what it looks like now. Much better, if you ask me. Our neighbors called me up to tell me that I could come and clean their garage out too if we were bored. Uh, negative Houston.

More from Potter's Pond

Just a few more shots from this weekend at Potter's Pond.

Potter's Pond

Here's a look at what happened on Friday as Jared was securing our camping load into the back of our truck before we took off. One of the bungie cords broke loose from the opposite side that he was securing the cord from and smacked him in the face. It was so deep of a cut that I told him that I thought it needed stitches. After some annoying persuation from me, he went into the clinic and had to get 4 stitches to sew himself back up. Ouch is an understatement, poor guy! We took off for our weekend adventure when he returned from the clinic.

Thousands of dragonflies surrounded the shores of the lake where we were camping, as well as loads of wildflowers.

This is where we camped, a place called Potter's Pond, up Huntington Canyon. It was a beautiful area up in the mountains that had two small ponds with lots of fishermen and several campsites. We enjoyed roasting hotdogs and taking a hike around the ponds. Koria and Kimball really enjoyed throwing rocks in, scaring away all possible catch for those fishing nearby.

Despite the lack of sleep and energy, we had a great trip. There's a lot more to it, but refer to the last sentence as to why I am not elaborating. Glad to be home and doing 5 loads of laundry!

B&W

One more, black and white this time.

Self-portrait

No, I do not like pictures of myself, or taking them. Today, as her way of thanking me, the woman that I did the before/after Mary Kay Makeover shots for asked if she could come over and do one on me .... uh .... not my thing, but whatever. I agreed. She suggested that I get before and after shots of myself (no thanks again) to celebrate. Jared happens to be in Green River today for work, so it's me and two five-year-olds and two one-year-olds.

That left good ol' me to do it.

I set up the tripod on the back lawn and made an attempt at taking some pics of myself. Nothing makes you look like more of a fool than when your neighbor drives by in a backhoe and you are sitting in the grass with a camera set up taking pictures of yourself. Wow.

Anyway, here are a few of them. The tripod and I did our best. I ended up cutting off my eyes in most of the takes, and the others were a bit blurry, but "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" as a wise preschool teacher told my children. Especially when you are doing it yourself.

Wall Art

I'm a big fan of homemade art. Koria puts out some masterpieces, if you ask me. I decided to make her a special showcase for some of her artwork to hang on her wall that she can change out whenever she wants. I picked up this display case at (where else...) the D.I. several years ago thinking that we would display some objects that Jared brought home from his travels in Asia, but never got around to it.

I used some decorative paper as the inspiration for the walls that I painted in Koria's room, so I picked out some of the inspiring prints and made them the background in the art case, then hung up a drawing that she did on Tuesday of she and I (she's the really tall redhead) in it for display. It's magnetic, so it's really simple to hang and change out. I think that it will be a great addition to her room.

How about that big head of mine too?

Fresh Peas

Tuesday I went out to the garden and yard to do some more weeding while the babes took a nap. Koria, Kimball, and I picked our first peas of the year from the garden and saved a few for Jared and the younger two. Luke's not a fan, but the rest of the family could eat these bad boys like they were candy! Even better, if you ask me!

Front Room

(view of the dining room from the front room)

Took me all of Luke and Layne's naptime and then all the time I had after the kids went to bed, but I was able to rearrange all of the furniture in the house other than the bedrooms on Monday. I love a clean house. Nothing like it ... just a feeling of peace. Jared installed a drip system for some of the flower beds in the front yard while I worked on the inside.

Clean House

Between all the traveling away from home, guests that have been here either while we've been here ourselves or while we were away, and all the yard work we've been doing this summer, I have neglected the inside of the house. I set out to change that this past Monday. I cleaned all the bathrooms, then followed that up by rearranging both the front and back rooms. Mom taught me years ago that the quickest way to make over your home is to simply rearrange the furniture. Works every time. Since a lot of you don't make it to our home often, I thought that I'd show you some pictures of the rearrangements. This post is a group of pictures of the back part of our house, the hangout spot ...

Garden Update/Lanterns

Our tomato plants are doing well this year. I agree with Scott in the fact that I've spent more time in the garden this year than any other year past. It's been great to work hard in the yard, I must say. Here's a look at some of the romas ...

We have a few hooks that we put up on our front porch several years ago to hang planted baskets from, but that didn't work out so well. It's too hot here in the Eastern Utah desert for the hanging flowers to survive while we take off to visit family during the summer months. I've had an idea in mind for a couple of years to buy some lanterns and hang them from the hooks instead, so with some birthday money (thanks to the parents ...) I found a great buy (I love clearance) on some black lanterns from Shopko and Jared helped me hang them up this past weekend.

Aren't the hollyhocks doing great Mom? Thanks for the seeds. They make a great addition to our front yard. I've had many people comment on their beauty ...

This picture of the garden in general is for both of our dads in particular since we always get questions from both of you on how it's progressing. I've spent a lot of time weeding this. The tomato plants are starting to overtake everything! The peas lie in the far right corner of this picture, with the carrots right below them and three rows of beans to the side. We planted an early crop of peas and a second planting, the smaller of the four rows in the back. They are bordered by red onions (you can see the green onion shoots in the middle), with some red potatoes in the same row at the bottom. The cucumbers are being buried by the pumkins, cantaloupe and watermelon vines. Four pepper plants are in between the cantaloupe and tomato plants. I think that we have 4 or 5 different kinds of tomatoes too. I also planted a cilantro plant to use for fresh salsa. Can't wait ....

Book of Mormon Party

It took us about a year and a half, but we finished reading the Book of Mormon all the way through as a family this past Saturday! We were very excited to have done it, and excited to start all over again. It has made a difference in our lives and in our children, as we have come to see their love and knowledge of the gospel grow as a result.

We told them that they could pick some fun activity to do as a celebration of their accomplishment and they opted for the slip-n-slide/pool in the back yard. It lasted all of 5 minutes, as always, but they had fun when they weren't complaining about freezing to death. I don't know how that could have happened either as the temp's been hot since we've returned from our travels.

Anyway, here's a few pics from their celebration. Koria thought she was really funny posing for me in the pool. Due to a couple holes, it could only hold about two inches of water. I seriously don't know where she gets it from ... meaning Koria, that is ....

Jana and Kevin's Wedding

Although we didn't take any pictures while we were down in St. Gearge last Thursday and Friday, we enjoyed the time that we were able to spend as a family, with Grandma and Grandpa Black who were able to fly in for Jana's wedding, and time with cousins and aunts/uncles from the Black side of the fam. We had to make a stop at Nielson's Frozen Custard shop, our favorite treat from down south, and did some school clothes/Luke and Layne birthday shopping too.

The weather was hot, the temple beautiful, the reason for being there wonderful. We are happy to have a new brother-in-law/uncle, and happy for Jana and her children as well. Kevin's dad was the sealer in the temple so that made the ceremony extra special for them. The kids waited it out patiently inside the St. George temple's waiting area with their cousins and a friend of the family supervising.

We drove back home on Friday night after the family dinner and arrived in Huntington around 1:30 a.m.

Can you see why we didn't try to take any pictures? Here's one of Jana and Kevin from the last part of June with Jace sitting on Jana's lap...

They are now the proud parents of eight blondies ... ages 12, 11, 10,9, 8, 7, 5, and almost 4. They get more looks than we do when they are all together ... and that's saying something!

New Shelf

Those of you who know Jared and I well know that we love the hunt of a good deal, which makes the D.I. one of our favorite hunting grounds. Every now and then when we are in the Provo and SLC area, we will stop in at a few of them in the hopes of finding something new. I picked this shelf up a couple weeks ago when I was in the area and bought it for about $2. I brought it home, yanked off the cheesy lettering that was on it before, then repainted the whole thing to have a matt finish, then sanded down the edges a bit to give it a worn look. Then I hung it on the wall and put our old violin (also a D.I. find from a few years ago) on it, and ...

Wallaaaa! A new wall decoration for 2 bucks. Can't beat the D.I. I love it!!

New T.V. and Stand

We purchased a new t.v. (first in 7 years) right around Jared's birthday and are counting it as both of our birthday gifts to ourselves/any other misc. holiday gifts that come our way this year. On July 9, we purchased this t.v. stand for a great deal from a clearance furniture outlet in Provo. Here is it, in all it's glory, doing what any t.v. in our house does best, playing cartoons in high-def.

July 11, 2011

This post is dedicated to all the 7-11 out there, due simply to the date included in it's title. This picture was taken on that day, which marked Koria, Kimball, and Jared's last t-ball game for this season. The kids received trophies, certificates, and played well that night (according to Jared). I stayed at home with Luke and Layne in celebration of just being at home with some downtime. It had been a while since that had happened.

One More Crazy Shot

F

This shot below is a close-up of a weather vane that was on top of one of the buildings at the Zermatt Resort that we stayed at last week. Just thought that the edit made it kind of like a scene from "The Wizard of Oz."

Crazy pics

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B

C

D

E

I posted all of the individual family shots on our other blog for those of you who want those, but I have saved the unedited crazy shots for this site. Let me know which one the majority of you like the best, and then I will edit it a bit. Call, comment on this blog, or text me to let me know your choice as best. There are 6 in total. I will letter them for your convenience.