2011 Family Campout

We headed up to Hobble Creek Canyon for a three day adventure with Greg's side of the family.  It was Callie's first camping trip and while she wasn't easy, we had a lot of fun. 

The first day we were the first ones up besides Grandma.  We picked the prime spot for our massive tent and then went exploring.  The kids found butterflies and swings and a sprinkler to run through.  As the day went on more and more people showed up.  We were in charge of dinner that first night and it was GREAT to get it done and out of the way.  Callie had a rough night, sleeping mostly in my sleeping bag which made me not sleep well either.  Between getting at least 4 new teeth and eating TOO much candy, not to mention she just wasn't too sure about the whole sleeping in a tent thing, the first night was pretty bad.  We had a great Friday despite the lack of sleep.  Greg went golfing with a group of family while the rest of us went to a park and waded in a stream.  We blew bubbles, had a grandma fish pond (huge success with lots of smiles), made necklaces out of pasta and clothes pin animals, went on a GPS scavenger hunt and did lots of walking around and playing in the dirt and trees and water.  The older three kids were given lots of freedom since I was watching Callie all of the time.  Annie meandered around with the other girl cousins her age "deer hunting" as she told us later.  It was A LOT of fun to see all the cousins playing so well together. 

 

 That night we had a campfire with Grandpa as the host.  Each family told a joke, a funny store or did a little skit or song.  It was fun to have almost everyone there (we were just missing Aunt Randi in Spain-lucky girl!) and even Aunt Katie's friend (who I hear is now her fiance) made it up for that one night.  I decided to take Callie down the mountain 15 minutes and sleep at my mother-in-law's house.  It was the right thing to do, even though I missed chatting with everyone.  2 of my other sister-in-laws have little babies so they were there also.  I did get a shower and a peaceful nights sleep, as did Callie, so we were feeling top notch the next morning.

We had a fabulous breakfast and started getting things packed up.  It is amazing how much stuff you have to take camping with 4 kids and 2 adults.  We may have been the first ones there, but we were almost the last to leave.  We spent a couple hours at the Payson Pool before heading home.  The older boys were able to just play with cousins and take care of themselves while Greg and I watched the girls.  There were a couple slides and Nathan convinced me to go on one with him, it had been a long time but it was fun!  On the ride home Callie fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up for 3 hours.  Thank heavens!! 

I love camping and I love family.  I wish it wasn't so much work or I would want to go more often.  I just need to suck it up and go, I think it would be great fun to do it more.  Maybe next year when Callie is a little more manageable.  I am so grateful to Greg's fabulous family who I love like my own.  There were 23 adults and 16 kids to play with and chat with.  We even had two sets of grandparents come up to say hi.  I am so thankful that Greg's family is close and that they all get along so well. 

2 Splash Parks=LOTS of Fun!

Highland and Alpine have 2 fun splash pads.  We went two different days and had lots of fun in the sun.  Now we just need a splash pad in our city.

 

 

 The water would go down and Callie would hold out her hands and say, "Where did it go?"  In her little language.  SO CUTE!  And then the water would come and hit her in the face.

 

 

Confessions of a Cook-a-Holic

Hi, I am Emily and I am a cook/recipe/chef-a-holic. 

I think I've known this for awhile, but Sunday night I finally was able to verbalize it to Greg and he immediately agreed.  Lucky for him, he said it very nicely, "I have been thinking that too."  I LOVE to cook.  I LOVE to find new recipes.  I LOVE when Greg comes home and tells me how awesome my food is.  I LOVE when the kids like what I make.  I LOVE bringing yummy dishes to family or friends houses and they enjoy them.  

BUT, I am doing it too much, at the price of my family.  

In my Power of Mom's learning circle this month we talked about balance and at first I thought I had that okay.  I felt like I had a lot of me time (less with summer, but I still manage to squeeze some in), and that I did a lot for my kids, my husband, my calling and my friends.  That sounds balanced, right?

Then Sunday came around.  

For breakfast I tried a buttermilk carmel syrup (1) over sourdough french toast.  YUM!!  I started the Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream  (2) before church since it had to chill all day before churning it.  After church I made grilled onions and potatoes (3) for Greg to cook outside.  Next up was the salmon with an orange marmalade marinade (4).  We shelled a bunch of peas from our garden to go with dinner (5) and when the salmon was done I threw in the pesto and mozzarella bread (6) that was done after we started dinner so it didn't get eaten all that much.  I am exhausted thinking about it all.  Why did I do this?  We weren't having guests, I just LOVE to cook.  I get validation from it. I get praise.  As a mom I don't get a lot of validation and praise from my kids very often, or from anyone.  But with my cooking, I do.  

At church in Relief Society we had a lesson on family responsibilities.  And that is where it hit me.  Greg thankfully had Callie and I was able to sit and really listen to the lesson.  Sarah talked about how a mother's main role is to nurture.  And like usual, I thought, "I'm doing good with that."  Then I really thought about it and that is when I realized that I cook WAY too much.  I try to try as many recipes as I can in a month, in a week, in a day as you can see from my Sunday story.  WOW!  

So now I have accepted the truth.  I know what I am doing wrong.  But it is something I love so how can I stop or slow down?  How can I not try new recipes?  How will my ego hold up if no one is telling me I am good at something?  I'm not sure yet how I will cut back.  I will.  Maybe it will be just 3 new recipes a week.  Or less.  Maybe we will eat out more, even though I am mostly disappointed when we go out now since I have become a bit of a food snob.  I am not sure yet what is my next step.  But I am conscious of the fact that I need to get out of the kitchen and back with my kids more.  I know it will help me be a better mom and less stressed out and exhausted at the end of the day.  That is how I will find more balance in my life. 

Harry Potter

Harry Potter has been a big part of our family ever since Nathan was in my tummy.  I remember for a Children's Literature class I could read the first 3 books (the only ones out at that time, I know I am old!) for extra credit.  I had heard so much about the books from kids and adults alike so I thought I should finally start.  I LOVED them!  That Thanksgiving Greg and I were going home to visit my family and the first movie was coming out.  I made Greg read the first book before we left so he would enjoy the movie better.  We went with my little brother who was then 11 and had also read the first book. 
Over the years we have read all the books and gone to all the movies. Book 7 we even read out loud to each other since neither of us wanted to be the last one to read it.  We have read the first two books to our older 3 kids.  After that Ryan and Annabelle got a little scared so we let Nathan read the rest on his own.  And he LOVED them just like Greg and I.  It was fun to talk about them and remember things with him.  I would even re-read some of the books so I could talk to him about them better.  Then as he finished each book we would watch the movie together. 
In April Nathan read the 6th book in a couple weeks since it was Spring Break and a family reunion with a bunch of younger cousins.  That is when I realized that he hadn't ever seen a Harry Potter movie in the theater and his last chance was coming up quick.  I was a little hesitant to let him read 7, but with the movie coming I felt he was okay and ready.  He loved it and was REALLY excited to come to the movie with Greg and I. 

 Greg's company bought a theater for us on Thursday the 14th at 9pm.  The movie wasn't officially coming out until Friday at midnight.  I had to miss a couple meetings in order to go, but it was worth it.  Greg got some extra tickets since the company got the whole theater and there are only 20 employees.  We had a fun crowd of Harry Potter fans: Jeff, Bri, Mike, Kimberly, Aaron, Amy, and Katie with her roommate.  I had wanted to get a picture of everyone, but we were all coming from all over (2 even from 2 hours away-dedicated fans!) and so we didn't arrive at the same time and at the end we all had to scramble home. 
It was really fun coming out of the movie and seeing all those who had just minutes more of a wait to see it for the first time.  There were SO many people dressed up and it was fun to have Nathan see the craziness of fans.  The whole way home we talked about the movie and Nathan kept wanting to talk about it more and more.  It was a fabulous movie and while, yes, it is sad that the movies and books are over, it was a great era and I look forward to reading and watching it all with Ryan and then Annabelle and finally little Callie. 

7 Kids

For a few days this week I had 7 children.  My cousin was to our Church's Girl's Camp and I offered to help watch her three kids.  Sarah has helped me a lot in the past and I was happy to help.  However, I didn't realize that 7 kids was SO much more than 4.  Despite the craziness, we did have a fun time.

Annabelle and Mckenna had a lot of fun.  Doing hair, playing with toys or outside, and having a sleepover.  They were so cute together.

 Callie and Jacob got a long better than I thought.  Callie loves his binkie and so she had to have hers whenever he was around.  It was cute to watch them toddle around together and care about each other.

  

The boys had fun with magic tricks, basketball and playing Beyblades and Knex.  They had a sleepover and watch Tron Legacy late into the night.

 While Callie slept we made bead people/sunglasses.  The kids loved it and it was nice to not have Callie around to get the beads.

 Today we went to the park and it was a lot of fun.  The kids had a blast with more cousins and other friends.  I wish we had more trees near our home.  I love the shadiness of this park.  And now, I love that my kids are all taking naps or having quiet time now, and their cousins are with someone else, and I am having some quiet time.

 

 

Fourth Of July

What a fun Fourth!  We had fabulous food, family and fireworks.  The weather was great and the kids had endless fun and excitement.  

 

Our garden is growing splendidly.  We have enjoyed lots of strawberries and we are starting to get some peas.  I love watching everything grow.  It makes me happy that I can produce some food on my own.

 We were outside all day long.  We played catch, hit golf balls, and threw Nathan's fox tail game.  It sprinkled a few times, but it was never too cold to be outside.

 Callie has found our sand box.  She just kept grabbing the dirt and letting it fall out of the box, or putting it on her hair.  She threw a little tantrum when I took her away from the fun.  The joy of having a toddler!

 

 We had SO many Pop-Its!  The kids had a blast throwing them all throughout the day.

 Snow cones before dinner was a special treat.  And with the men dishing them out the kids all had at least 4 each--good thing they were pretty small.

 The boys needed some down time in between festivities.

 Callie and cousin McKay had lots of fun.  Callie loves other little kids and always wants to be near them.

 Some people got to play a board game while the kids ran around crazy.  I spent my time monitoring the kids and helping Callie go on the slide over and over and over again.

 We didn't want to do fireworks until it got dark so it was a good thing some of the neighbors started earlier.  The kids had constant fireworks all evening.

 We tried the mentos and diet coke exploding trick.  It was pretty cool.  The kids wanted to drink the soda afterwards (there was a little left in the bottom). Greg tried it and said it was pretty gross.

 It finally started to get dark enough for us to start lighting sparklers.  Even Callie held one for a little bit.

Uncle Chris wanted to cover our lamp post with a trash bag.  He actually got it over the light and even though it didn't help that much, it was pretty fun just watching him do it.

 

 Uncle Devin took a cool picture of Nathan and Aaron doing sparklers.

What would we do without cousins.  They are so FUN!!  All the kids did really well for as late as it got.  With aerial fireworks becoming legal here there was quite a show for the kids.  We tried a couple aerials.  One fell over and scared everyone as it shot straight at us.  The other one did awesome and it was fun to see it up close.  We got the kids to bed before 11, and then Greg and I stayed up and chatted with Devin and Chris.  I was shocked that the time read after 1AM when I crawled into bed.  I definitely paid for it today, but it was fun chatting with some of my bro-in-laws that I don't get to talk to much.  All in all it was a GREAT fourth!!

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

 We had a super fun lunch the other day.  We had popcorn as a side dish (it is pretty healthy) and the kids had a blast throwing it up and catching it in their mouths.  While my floor got covered in kernels, the kids had fun and I got some funny pictures and even a couple videos.