Cabin

We went to the cabin with my parents. My kids had fun running around. This is the first time I've gotten a picture of Audrey "shooting" the bow and arrow.
Richard shot all by himself. Granted, he was about 5-6 feet from the target, and most of the arrows had so little momentum that they just bounced off the target. He was very proud of himself.

It was kind of cold, and I forgot jackets. Whoops!

More family

Scott's mom and brother came. She was helping Scott's brother move out here for school. So, between their other obligations and errands, they spent time hanging out with us at the house. The kids had a lot of fun with them. Sorry, we don't have any pictures.

Walking!

Marie has taken her first step! She'll walk about 3-4 steps at a time. She'll walk if you are holding only one hand. Sorry, I don't have any pictures or video.

Peter won't try. He walks really well behind a toy my sister lent us. However, he'll just bend his knees if you try to get him to walk unassisted.

Fun with my sister

My sister stayed in town for a few days after the wedding. We had a great time! We first went to an art museum. Richard and Audrey weren't totally thrilled with that. I did what I could to get them to look at the art by asking them to find something or to count things in the paintings. Then, we went on a small hike. Fortunately, it was a paved trail and so I was able to leave Marie and Peter in their stroller. The next day, we went to a huge garden area. Two more of my sisters joined us as well as my sister's son. The kids had a lot of fun running around. I enjoyed just being with my family.

Wedding!

My younger brother got married over the weekend. It was so fun! We haven't had a wedding in my family since I got married. They had a fabulous bunch of parties, showers, and celebratory activities. We had a dinner on Friday night with wonderful food. The kids did pretty well considering it ended past their bed time. However, in my hurry to get us home, both Scott and I FORGOT about the bachelor party afterwards. We felt really stupid.

This is the happy couple before the dinner started on Friday.

We went to their wedding ceremony yesterday morning. The bridesmaids watched our kids while we were in the temple. Thanks to them. The ceremony was so much more touching to me since I was seeing a sibling getting married. I've never been to a sibling's wedding, and so I didn't realize how awesome it would be.

There was a reception yesterday evening. It was beautiful! Their colors were black and white. I thought this picture of the happy couple with all the grandchildren was just adorable!

Here they are cutting their cake. They stood in line for about an hour. Then, they cut the cake and we watched a cool slideshow that her mom put together. The food was wonderful. Richard enjoyed gathering candy from the bins they had out and being with cousins. Audrey just ran around. Marie and Peter had a harder time, because they didn't get good naps. Plus, the babies like being mobile, and Scott and I contained them. I'm glad the reception ended at 8:00 so that I could be there the whole time before the kids got out of control.

The weekend was so fun. I love weddings!

Salsa

I made some! I must say I have feelings of satisfaction knowing I grew the tomatoes and the jalapenos. I feel so domestic! Now the final test: Will Scott like it?

Punctual

Our sprinkler timer had a short and so one of the stations wouldn't turn on. I called the company that helped with our landscaping and asked them if they could help. I had to leave a message and asked them to call me back and let me know if they could fix it. Then, I had a woman from my ward tell me her husband could help us. By that afternoon, I had a working sprinkler system! Yea for helpful people!

Mind you, I called 13 DAYS AGO! The company didn't even call me back to acknowledge that I'd left a message. A guy showed up today to fix my sprinklers. Wow. What service. If I'd waited for them, I would have completely dead grass.

A date!

Scott and I got to go on a date! Yea! We went last night and the week before! Yea for adult conversation! Thanks to my sister (a different one than the one I've praised in previous posts) for making it possible. We really appreciate your sacrifice.

Fire in the Oven

Have you ever had something spill over while it cooked in the oven? I often do. Do I ever REMEMBER that something spilled? Well, no, because once the oven is cool enough to clean it up, the burning has stopped and so I forget.

Well, I forgot again tonight. However, tonight the spill was big enough that the food caught on fire. It sure set back my muffin making! So, now I wait for the oven to cool AGAIN so I can clean it up right this time.

Poor Richard was worried about our house. I had to explain that our house would be OK even if we did have a fire.

Embarassed because of other people

I get embarassed when other people do things that I think are inappropriate, ill-mannered, etc. when those people don't seem to realize the problem. Well, I don't know if embarassed is quite the right word, but I don't know what other word to use.
We had our Primary Activity Day today. That's an hour long get together with the children in our congregation that we do once every three months. Today we had a "Celebrate Children Around the World" activity. We have members of our ward that were born and lived a significant period of time in Argentina, Mexico, Korea, and Norway. So, we invited them to talk about their country for a few minutes and then do a small activity. All of them brought food.
I was following the group of kids who first went to the presentation on Argentina. They passed out cookies to the first group of children (we divided them in four groups). Most of them would not eat the cookie. One demolished it. A couple were mature enough to take the cookie with them, but most just fingered it and then left it on the table. I felt I had to throw most of them away after the kids fingered them or took a small bite. They didn't pass out the cookies again. I later learned they had spent hours yesterday making the cookies. I felt so bad! They had spent so much time making these cookies for the kids to taste, and most of the kids wouldn't even try them! Of course, the adults didn't get upset and know that kids can be unwilling to try unfamiliar things, but I still felt so bad that they'd made such an effort and then the kids were totally unwilling to even try them.
I had one and brought one home for Scott, Richard (who wasn't in the first group), and Audrey to taste. They were wonderful! They just weren't chocolate chip or sugar cookies.

Salsa

I have quite a few tomatoes from my garden. I think it would be cool to make my own salsa. My mom has a recipe, but I thought I would I ask if anyone has a salsa recipe they really like. Scott loves hot stuff. I prefer more of a medium salsa. I want to can it, because I have too many tomatoes to just make fresh stuff. I am open to all kinds of varieties.

Technology

The Internet is fascinating and my little mind has difficulty comprehending how it actually works. Last night I ordered some clothes for Richard and Audrey for next summer from a website. I had Richard help me pick out his clothes. When we were done, I asked him to get my purse so I could put in my credit card number. He said, "Is that where they put the clothes?"

I guess it's difficult for a four-year-old to understand how clothes get out of the computer.