Wonderful Wales Weekend

We had such a fun time in Wales this last weekend celebrating Pioneer Day. We went down Wednesday evening and came back Saturday afternoon. It was so fabulous! Thursday morning we went to the parade in Fairview. It was awesome. You always get a ton of candy and sprayed down with the fire hose. It's great. Doug even came away with a free T-shirt. He had to fight off a few kids for it but he came out victorious. It really was so funny to see all the kids fighting for taffy and tootsie rolls. Sophia had a great time although we wish she would have been a little more aggressive in the candy department.

Everyone waiting for the parade to start.

Sophia patiently waiting for another candy toss.

Lilly enjoying the parade under some shade.

Aside from the awesome parade and museum in Fairview, we also had a yummy dutch over dinner and we did some fireworks on the 25th. Carson kept making this silliest face. He loved the fireworks!We had about a hundred snakes leftover from the 4th and so we decided to light them all up at once. Here they are when we first lit them up.Here they are mid burn.Here's the end result.

Sophia and Bridger got a hold of the camera and took some good carbon copies of each other.They also got a hold of the entire bubble container while they were blowing bubbles and they created a slip and slide on the patio. They were having a fabulous time until they were discovered. It really was pretty slippery and Sophia had a hard time keeping her balance. It was pretty funny to watch. We're just glad she didn't crack her head open on the concrete.

Lilly did the best job getting in some good rest while we were there.Doug also had a good time and was able to get some relaxing in. Overall we had a fabulous weekend and we were grateful for the opportunity to get away. We love the Wales house!

A Few Good Finds (Thanks to mom!)

I wanted to do a quick posts about a few awesome finds I've had lately. All of them are thanks to my mom so she deserves the credit. First is this book that she got me. I think I've been complaining a little too much about my current lot in life and so she got this for me. She worked with the author on the library board and his wife is Kathleen Hughes who was in the Relief Society General Presidency a few years ago. Anyway, I loved the book and it was full of advice and stories that made me feel so much better. One of my favorites was a chapter where he interviews his daughter and daughters-in-law. One of them commented about how one day she let her son watch "The Lion King" over and over again and she knew that that was bad but she knew it was better than killing her child. I could relate to that.
My second find is thanks to my mom and my sister-in-law Tonya (and Liza). If you haven't tried Hershey's Bliss yet, they're fabulous! If you're a fan of Dove chocolates these are pretty close. The dark chocolate ones are my favorite.My third find was found by my mom at her local grocery store. Her local Albertsons (she's only been able to find them on the center street one in Provo) sells fresh Brussels sprouts in steamable bags. They're sold in the produce section and they're delicious. Frozen Brussels sprouts are bitter and rubbery but these are fabulous. They taste just like candy. I think they may be better than the Bliss chocolates. They're so great because they're washed and ready and after about 7 minutes in the microwave they are fork tender and oh so yummy. You don't even have to load them with butter and salt to make them tasty. They taste fabulous plain! For dinner tonight we had PW's new recipe (link on the right) for Zucchini Cakes (really yummy by the way) with the sprouts - DI-VINE!
Last but not least, my last find was a cute restaurant she introduced me to in north Orem. It's called Max and Cheese and it's absolutely adorable. Their website is www.maxandcheese.com if you want to read more. They have this awesome kids meal (with no age limit) that includes cheesy macaroni with octo-dogs (hot dogs cut like an ocotpus). Their adult meny some totally yummy gourmet wraps and sandwiches. Everything we had was wonderful. Sophia's cheesy pasta was served in a metal dog food bowl. It was so cute. The whole thing is themed around a dog named Max (get it - Max and Cheese). Each table had a board game (Chutes and Ladders, Checkers, etc.) and they had the game pieces available for each game. They also had bibsters and sippy cups that you were free to could use.


The best part was these adorable booster seats they had. They looked just like a phone book. They were great (although Sophia wouldn't sit in it). They also had this whole play area in the middle of the restaurant that had a half wall built up around the whole thing. They had legos, puzzles, games, and a multiplicity of other toys to play with. It was way better than any other play place I've been too. It really is such a fun concept and you all need to go there so that they'll stay around for awhile.

Anyway, so there's my fun finds for the week. Hope you all have a fabulous 24th!

The Facts of Life

Doug and I were tagged so here's six random facts about us.

1-We are one of those rare missionary success stories (kind of). We met our freshman year at BYU in the good old Heritage Halls (Carroll 176 and Penrose (213 I think? - is that right Erin?)). I was impressed by his cute Yankees visor and that he was from American "Fark" and that he played soccer. I was able to impress him the night we met with my tremendous soccer skills by breaking a lamp in our lobby as our RA was passing through. I'm pretty sure that was the moment he knew he had to have me. I was a semi-faithful waiter (lucky for me I was still here when he got home) and we were married about a year later after his return.

2-We are evil and let our 2 year old play with our digital camera. It's just a camera after all and we're pretty sure she's done the worst of the damage so far. She was playing with Lilly in her room the other day and then came out and said, "Lilly looks so funny. I'm going to take a picture of her." So she did and I think it turned out okay.Unfortunately, that cute picture taker is also a biter. She really hasn't taken a bite in awhile (I thought she had really learned her lesson the last time she bit me or Lilly) but she had a mishap today at my mom's. I'm not quite sure how it all played out but I do know that Lilly's leg looked like this when I got home. She got her good.
3.Much to our surprise our little Lilly was not a carbon copy of her big sis. She's a blue-eyed blondie that we're pretty sure takes after her cousins Bruce and Kate. Doug and I are both brown-eyed and I'm still blown away every time I look at those bright blues. She's sure cute though and I'll keep her none the less!4. One of Sophia's favorite places in the whole world is Grandma's house. My nice mom has been watching my girls a lot lately while I fill in for some girls on vacation and maternity leave. Anytime we go to my mom's regardless of whether I'm dropping them off to go to work or not Sophia always asks when I'm going to leave. I think that it's about time I quit for good! My mom bought this awesome water toy for Sophia to play with last week and she's had a fabulous time! She strips down to get into her swimsuit every time we walk in the door. 5. Doug and I really like to eat food. He particularly likes ice cream and anything with peanut butter (or a combination of the two). I could pretty much go for bread and chocolate anytime of the day. Unfortunately, we have a bad habit of eating too much too late at night. It's something we're working on and I think we're getting better. Right hun?

6.We are registered to run a half-marathon on August 23 (Sophia's 3rd birthday). I'm not sure we're going to make it because of the lack of training we've been experiencing thanks to ongoing weird illnesses and overall laziness. We hope to be able to make it and are still going to try even if we have to stop and walk every few miles. We'll see how it turns out. Wish us luck!

Backyard Campout!

Last weekend we decided to set the tent up and give camping a trial run before we head out somewhere this summer. We had a great time and I'm pretty sure that camping should be done with the convenience of your own home right next door. We roasted hot dogs and ate smores and then set the tent up. We took the laptop out and watched "Stardust" (I love that movie and Doug got it for me for my birthday) and then we fell asleep under the stars. Our kids slept great and we didn't hear from them the whole night. I couldn't believe it! Lilly slept in her carseat all nice and I'm pretty sure that we're going to let her sleep in the tent in her carseat every night from now on.I think this cute hat may have been the reason why she slept through the night. What do you think?The next day, to make it an official camping weekend, we went on a hike with Doug's brother JD and his family. We hiked to Silver Lake up American Fork Canyon and we may not have gone if we new what we were getting ourselves into. It was a little more than we bargained for (about a 4 1/2 mile hike that took about 4 hours) but we still had a fabulous time. Here we are at the top of the hike at Silver Lake.JD with his family.Doug with his manpack.Me with my cute frontpack. She did so fabulous! She never made a peep (except for when she screamed with excitement!). She slept the whole way up and then was super happy the whole way down.
She got a little pooped out in the car on the way home. I love how she's holding the water tube so tightly. She must have been pretty thirsty.
This picture is kind of gross but kind of funny. When we got home we threw everything on the floor and then showered and napped and what not. When I went to clean up later I picked up our cell phone and found this smashed spider on it. What are the chances that I threw the phone down and smashed a spider in the process? Gross! I promise this is no trick. It was totally done by accident.
P.S. I went to an Ear Nose Throat doc last week because of this little growth that I've had in my throat that kept getting infected. He said it was a wart (double gross) and he removed it. He also said it was most likely what was not getting infected (although I'm 100% positive that it was because I could see it and Doug also saw it). Anyway he removed it and said everything else that I've been feeling (plugged ears, dizziness, fatigue, etc) is all because of my allergies. Thanks for the diagnosis doc! What a helpful visit...not!

Best Callings

I just wanted to do a quick post about the callings I'm blessed to have. I am currently an Activity Days leader and I love it! My partner is the best and we have so much fun with the girls. They're such a cute bunch and I think everyone of them is fantastic! We've done some fun things including hiking the Grotto, doing a fun water activity, making a yummy meal, and going to the local quilt show. Next week we're going to spend the day at the Wales house to celebrate Pioneer Day. I'm excited for that as well. Here we are at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at BYU last week. It was such a fun tour. Here's the cute girls making pots afterward.

My other calling is teaching the 10-12 year olds with Doug. They're a fun bunch too. We usually have about 8 or 9 kids every week. Some week we only have 3 and other weeks we have 12 so it's always a surprise! They really are pretty good and instead of bringing them a treat every week we told them we were going to earn an ice cream party. They've been working on it since April and they finally earned it so we had the party last night. Only 3 kids showed up but that's okay. We told them we'd bring cookies to the kids who didn't make it so no one will miss out for working so hard. Here's a pic of the 3 kids who came. We had a great time eating yummy ice cream and getting really wet! The two girls are about my favorite two in the whole class (don't tell anyone in the class though). The one on the left is about to go to young women and is so excited! At least we'll have her in our class for a little while still. She also loves Lilly and Sophia and they are pretty fond of her too. It's so nice to have a potential babysitter and I'll definitely be calling her to come play with my kids in the near future.
Here's the Willers enjoying her share of ice cream.
My other fun calling as a mother has been pretty good lately. I've had a few moments where I've been ready to sell Sophia lately but it hasn't been too bad. Yesterday was one of those moments and so I called my friend and asked if we could come swim in their little wading pool. The girls had a fabulous time and it was so fun to play with Rachel. We'll definitely make that a regular occurrence through the rest of the summer.

This picture pretty much demonstrates the need to get out of the house! Here's my sweet little one showing a bit of 'tude that has lately become too much for me to handle!

The 4th and Such

Yet again, we've had some pretty fun times lately! Last weekend we went hiking with Doug's brother JD and his family. We hiked to the Grotto again and it was a great time. The second picture is of our cutest nephew Bridger. Is it no wonder that Sophia is completely in love with him? He's the cutest kid ever!On Sunday we had all of Doug's family (minus the newlyweds who were honeymooning in San Fransisco) over for dinner. It was so fun and once again, all the kids had a great time running around together. Monday I took the girls to the zoo because it was the last day we had our pass. We had a great time riding the train and going to the bird show. After the zoo we went to the quilt show in Payson with Grandma Miller. It was great and we had fun going to lunch with her too!Tuesday we went to Logan's T-ball game that was fun too and once again, the kids had a fabulous time running around together. It was so funny because after the game all the kids were running the bases together and Sophia kept sitting down and holding her hand up for Bridger to help her up. She kept doing that over and over and Bridger would always help her up. What a gentleman. Thursday we went to Grandma Ivins' house to watch the newlyweds open presents. Leda loved the painting Doug did for her. She totally cried when she opened it. I think he did a fabulous job. Each line that crosses through the heart is a scripture about love. It was totally amazing!Sophia took this picture of us. I think she did a pretty fabulous job.

Friday was great! We woke up bright and early and I ran the 5K with some of my siblings and Doug took the girls to the balloons. We all had a great time and it was fun to run that race again.After a yummy lunch at Grandma Millers we went to JD's house at night for fireworks and to celebrate birthdays. Grandma Wilkins had brought Brazilian soccer jerseys for all the kids. They were so stinkin cute! We got a fun picture of the "team" in their jerseys.

Doug did a great job lighting the fireworks with the rest of the men

The cute newlyweds

The cute lillers enjoying the fireworks

Yesterday we had some old college roomies over for lunch. It was so fun to see them all again and to let the kids play together. Congrats again Lauren! We're so excited for you! Later that night we went to Kaleen's baptism. That was fun too and we were excited for her. We then went to check out James and Tiffany's new house. I love it! I'm so happy for them and a little jealous that they got such a great deal on a fabulous house! They're going to love it and it's so great for them.

Here's a bonus picture of Sophia. She has loved running in the sprinkers lately and Doug caught this picture of her last week.