PIcture Tag- Thanks Mel, this is Fun!

Okay, so here's what ya do- go to your pictures, go to the fourth file, and get the fourth pic... here I go...

This is a pic of Ady when she was about 8 months old. I had made this little dress and hat- I used to sew just a little bit. Notice our fancy pants couches in the background. We loved this little place! We TAG Lisa Kendrick and Jeff Gorton (can we tag two people?)

I've Been Duped!!

Janae and I LOVE redbox. So I went to get Iron Man at the Redbox last night, and had looked online and they were out at most all of the Layton locations, but there was one at a Maverik. So I hurried and reserved it online and on my way home I called Janae and I told her that I got the wrong store, that it was a Maverik further away (I wanted to get home sooner than she would be expecting and surprise her with all the goodies I bought for our movie night). So I got the candy, soda and popcorn ready and popped in the movie. After all the lame previews (which should have been my first clue because they were all cartoons) the CARTOON VERSION OF IRON MAN CAME ON. I was so excited because my friend Rob had been gushing about how good this movie was. Well, I guess I wasn't the only one that got duped because the movie was sold out in redboxes everywhere. The REAL Iron Man comes out on DVD on Sept 30th.

Kids Conversation

So I was installing our TV Antenna in our attic last night, while Janae was at Barnes and Noble and while the kids were supposed to be in bed. They sneaked out of bed to catch all the action in the attic by standing on the ladder. Well, installing a huge antenna in a cramped attic is no easy feat. So, sadly, I slipped and said "Darn it" except I didn't say Darn. The following is a conversation between Ady and Clay except insert the other word:

Ady: "Daddy, don't say Darn it, Darn it isn't a nice word".
Clay: "Ady, Darn it isn't a nice word?"
Ady: "Clay, don't say Darn it, Darn it is a potty word".
Clay: "Why is Darn it a potty word? What does Darn it mean Ady?"
Clay: "Is Darn it a bad word Ady? Why can't you say Darn it?"

This conversation went on for a while and I just thought I was going to be in trouble from Janae when she got home, LOL.

Seriously, these little ears absorb everything, oh boy, sometimes I don't feel quite qualified to be a parent.

House Behind Us 4 Sale, Going Going GONE!!!

Hey precious people.
The house right behind us is for sale and we pretty much would want people that read this blog on a regular basis to live by us, yes you reading right now, we want you as a neighbor. If we sell the house, we get to keep their trampoline (which translates into, a FREE trampoline for you). So what do ya say? There is a gate between the yards and we don't want to have to lock the gate or put up a new fence. Plus I've already lived by chain smokers and although they're the nicest people, my lungs don't agree. In any case these wonderful folks finished the basement and it's a really nice big basement. It's a darling Rambler home in an Awesome ward. I hear the backyard neighbors are especially peachy. If you buy this home, I will personally mow your lawn and do your weed killing, landscaping for a year. Layton is a wonderful place to live now that we have the finest freeway system in Utah. It takes me exactly 35 minutes from Murray to Layton now that Legacy Parkway is open. We have everything by us here, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Shopko, WalMart, Sams Club, Michaels, Red Robin, Chilis, Movie Theaters, Golf Courses, Baseball Diamonds, etc., pretty much everything that you could think of. We're also right by the Great Salt Lake which is pretty much a staple of Utah. Did you know that our snow is the greatest snow on earth because the salt gets caught up in the storms and then makes the snow more fluffy on the mountains? Yep, all because of the Great Salt Lake that Heavenly Father put there. We don't want to lock our gate and really would want our friends to live behind us. Also, just think of all the fun memories that we'll have. P.s. don't tell Janae, but I'll put the down payment for you on our American Express, hee hee.

The Busy Weeks of September

***Beware, this is full of pictures!!!!***

Last Friday we were so lucky to have the Egberts come up to our house. We also had the Gorton's come over and just enjoyed! And what's a night with the Egbert's without a late night pizza?! Sure enough, it's not. So we enjoyed our midnight pizza and a nice little breakfast in the morn. Dale was happy, because it was the first time I've bought sausage since we have been married- poor guy!

Ady's foot blew up again from those darn mosquitoes. She couldn't even wear shoes! I have realized she is allergic to those little buzzers! Can you tell from the pics her little foot is just huge?!
We went to Sam's Club on Saturday and they had trees for $8! So we splurged and bought 3 trees for our yard. So on Monday evening, Dale and the kids were out planting trees at 9:00 at night! They looked like they were out burying dead bodies!! But we love them! We got a flowering plum, flowering pear, and a silver maple. It brings to mind, "trees are terrific!- from the arbor day foundation" commercials we would watch as a kid on Saturday mornings!

Friday we went to Ady's school carnival. Boy was that fun! We had called Grandpa and Grandma, and the Connell Family. The kids had so much fun! There was a rock wall, which they all did, a whale, a T-Rex, and other jump toys.

Saturday morning we got up, packed, and headed to hike Mt. Timpanogos. I was dreading getting ready for this task, but I am sure glad I did. I think it was a much needed mini vacation! The kids were so excited to go climb a mountain. It was drizzling rain on a off, which meant it was nice and cool to hike in. Clay was intrigued with nature. He kept asking who made everything. I told him Heavenly Father and Jesus made everything in nature. He thought for a moment and said, "That was very nice of them!" Brayden did well in the back pack. Ady was one tough cookie. Clayson took his time, but did awesome on the way up. On the way down, he would stop every fifty feet for a "little rest." The caves were amazing. I went there long ago, but Dale had never been there. There was little "lakes" inside of the cave, stalagtites and stalagmites, soda straws (which Ady pointed out because she learned it in school) and much more exciting stuff!

We slept at the Jakins' house. I forgot to put the pics of the kids' room that Lynette did last time I posted, but here it is.

I then made a cake in the shape of the Fiji islands because Dale's brother Stuart is going there on his mission and it was is farewell. So here is a pictures of the finished product. Dale and I went searching for palm trees and found none, so we found what we thought were lais at the dollar store. We brought them home and they turned out to be laua bras! I don't think that would have been appropriate for a missionary's cake, so I cut the flowers off and put them around.

The farewell was fantastic, and we got home late Sunday to start our week! It feels good to be home!

10 New Things I've Learned about My House:

10. White carpet and three children just don't go together.
9. Tiled kitchen floors and Corelware have a "hate" relationship- after finding out from Brayden and Janae.
8. It is just as hard to clean a 1300 sq foot house as it is a 2400 sq foot house. There's just more places for the toys to go now!

7. Even though we have a basement, the kids love to play with toys on all four levels.
6. A sand box is a gift from heaven, except for when the sand is tracked through the house.
(no we didn't adopt, but isn't she the cutest little friend- she is over to our house daily- we have a gate from our back yard to theirs... the house is for sale too, for any that want to be our neighbors!!!)
5. Who would have know how great a back yard and kids get a long!
4. A bigger house means more furniture- sorry folks, the "home teaching" room is not going to be fully used for probably 10 more years. But it sure looks nice without furniture.
3. It is super nice to have more than just myself helping around in the kitchen, and we don't even have to touch each other to do it.
(This pic was to "showcase" Dale's first big project- replaced the old '90s chandelier... I wish I had a before shot! But if you look closely in the background, you will see the next one that was replace "before shot.")
2. Bigger yard=more weeds!
1. We are so grateful to have a house to accomodate our kids and their energy!

Kites and Groceries....

Okay, I forgot to blog about this yesterday, but we joined GrocerySmarts and I am seriously Amazed. For example, on Monday night we went to Albertsons and spent $40 and saved $176 on our Grocery bill just for this coupon program. Then we went to the case lot sale at Smiths and got a ton of Groceries. I am surprised more people don't do this, but please contact us if you're interested in joining. It cost $90 (I think) for the newspaper subscriptions (subscribe to 4 or 5 newspapers) and it's already paid itself off after this Monday night Grocery trip $176!!!!! It's easy to do and you just have to spend a little more time planning your grocery trips and hitting up multiple stores, but it's well worth it. We're stocking up our Food storage which I'm happy about.





Okay, so last night we went to fly kites because it was Windy. I was seriously amazed at Clayson's natural Kite flying ability. Everytime Ady held the kite, bless her heart, it would crash, but Clay just had a natural knack for it. Brayden even loved flying the kite, it was so fun!

Weekly Review

Monday: Labor day, we updated last week, but it was CRAZY weather in Payson UT. We stopped by Mom and Dad's in Provo and the kids always love playing with all the animals.

Tuesday: We watched Sarah Palin's speech on CSPAN and we both thought she is pretty cool. We're excited to see what happens in this election.

Wednesday: We were both so tired and by the time Dale got home from work, it was already time for Young Mens. We had Dinner and Dale went and played ping pong with the Young Men.

Thursday: Just a crazy day!

Friday: We decided that since we were going to be getting new carpet and that we had wanted to paint our walls, we thought this would be a great time to paint and we didn't care about the white carpet anymore. Can anyone explain to us how these people lived in this house for 10 years with 2 kids and their carpet was still white when we bought the house? The carpet was white for us literally 5 minutes and then turned into a lovely shade of black! So we stayed up literally all night on Friday painting 3 walls after we removed the hideous wall paper. Wall paper is a pain in the rear to remove!!!

Saturday: We decided we didn't like the green wall so we repainted it the Mustard color in the front room. We spent the morning painting and then went over to Mom and Dad's to help with the wall removal, what a messy job for Dale!!!

Ady started to complain about a "sunburn" on her leg. We thought she had rubbed it on the slide on the playground. By bedtime the "sunburn" had swollen and was very hot to the touch. Janae took her into the Doctor's office and low and behold, it was a mosquito bite with bacterial infection!!!! Darn those mosquitos, thankfully it wasn't West Nile though!!!

Sunday: We stayed home from church to finish the painting (sorry folks, the carpets coming on Monday and the Ox is in the mire, we don't make a habit of staying home from Church). And Ady's leg still was bothering her. She could hardly walk! Dale went to Teachers Quorum, phew....rough crowd. He is pooping his pants about teaching for the first time next week.

Love you all. We enjoy your friendship and keeping in touch through blogging!!!

Week in Review Time

Mon: Janae and Ady's first day of School, wahoo!!! First Grade was a blast and Ady is learning a TON of Spanish. The kids were cooperative for Janae and were really good. We celebrated the evening by having our Friends the Andersons and the Hansons come up for a visit.

Tues: Was just a regular day.

Wed: Dale had his first evening of YM. We had a fighting demonstration (boxing at the Church) Dale realized that the Teachers have a lot of flatulence. (That is a story for another day, but the short of it is that I actually realized that the YM can suck air in and well....the rest you can figure out).

Thurs: Was back to School night for Ady. We got to meet her Spanish Teacher and her English teacher. We realized how blessed we are to have Ady in her school and what an Amazing school she is in. I am sold. We really feel lucky and feel like there is tremendous Administrative and Teacher support and excellence at her school. We've been really impressed on all that she is learning so far.

Fri: Was a tough day on the road. Dale hung around at work hoping to miss the traffic, nope, no matter what time he leaves on Fri, it's a tough almost 2 hour commute. *sigh* After he got home, he mowed the lawn in the dark, (it actually looked pretty good on Saturday morning).

Sat: Grocery shopping day and we continue to be amazed at the amount of groceries we can get from this Grocery Smart program that we're doing.

We joined the Eyrings at their AMAZING and FABULOUS carnival that they did for the Boys birthdays in their backyard. We kept telling them that they were better than Lagoon!!! We're loving all the food. Dale picked out a great chick flick movie at the Redbox, 27 Dresses which we'd recommend.

Sun: We decided last minute to go down on Sunday evening and stay at the Super 8 Motel (which is also really cool with their indoor pool and yummy Continental Breakfast)

Monday, LABOR DAY: We got rained out at the Onion Days parade, Grandma and Grandpa survived. We saw the empty floats go by from the warmth and safety of our minivan. We also saw our friends the Riches and had lunch with them and toured their beautiful new home.