A week of firsts

Sorry that I haven't posted anything in forever! I have finally put away the last few boxes and have moved on to fixing up our home. I pulled out all the nails in the walls from the previous owners, spackled all the holes and am ready to touch up paint. I also stained the front door and the shutters outside a couple of windows dark brown. It looks awesome, I'll have to post some pictures. I am also going to stain the mantle and a picture frame soon as well- I'll get pictures of everything and post later. The days are just super busy!
Another reason I have been busy is I switched to cloth diapers!! Can you believe it??? I still can't! I did it for economical reasons, but there are a ton of people who swear by cloth diapers for a million different reasons! I did some research online and there are people obsessed with cloth diapers, who have their own websites, etc! It's amazing! It's actually not as bad as I thought and I save $50 per month that I can spend on other stuff (another hair cut?). There are some people who use cloth wipes, but I'm not about to go that far! It's kind of like non-stop potty training, but no reading stories while you wait with your child on the toilet or bribing with treats, etc. Just the cleaning out the poopy pants and doing an extra load of laundry twice a week. Okay, I just re-read what I wrote and it sounds bad, but it's not that bad, really.

The last 2 weeks have been a week of firsts for me:
First time ever using cloth diapers
First time ever sewing a cloth diaper (I did it by hand and it took me 3 hours... I really need a sewing machine!) And notice, I only sewed one, the rest were some my mom made for me when I was a baby (they even have cute pink stitching!) and then 3 someone gave me to use for burp cloths when Matthew was a baby.
First time ever baking bread that has turned out
First time ever spackling a hole in the wall
First time ever buying a paint brush and paints
First time ever painting/staining anything
First time ever doing sharing time in primary (I teach the Valiant 9 class and we were in charge of class sharing time)
First time hiking "Angel's Landing" at Zion's National Park! (We took our kids thinking we'd only do the first half mile or so and they wanted to go the whole way! 4 miles! Andrew got tired after 2 so Tim carried him, but Matthew was like a hiking machine and hiked all the way up to the top by himself! This is totally a grown up hike and I was so sore I could barely move for 2 days....the boys were all fine, of course!)

So, that's what I've been up to! I'm going to switch over to a private blog eventually, but not right away. That's at the bottom of my project list for now, so I'll get to it when I get to it!

The Many Faces of Isaac

Isaac in the tub with his clothes on! He didn't want to be left out of all the fun in the tub, so he jumped in with Matthew and Andrew, clothes and all.Isaac's favorite face to make when he thinks something is really cool.
Isaac the climber! Climbing up Matthew's tall bed all by himself. He fell off yesterday when I didn't know he was up there! Sad!
He didn't want me to take his picture, thus the strange face, but I wanted to show how dirty he gets almost every day from playing out in the sandbox in our back yard.
Isaac mad that I won't get him off the table. He climbed up then couldn't climb down by himself and I kept him up there so I could finish the dishes with out him pulling out all the dirty dishes. I know, mean mom!

Another one of Isaac throwing a fit. We think it is so funny when he does this fake cry during a "temper tantrum". He was mad at me because I wouldn't let him hold the camera!

4th of July

Matthew took the picture of Tim and I above.
Hooray for pancakes!! This was a pancake breakfast put on by the stake. We had tons of fun!
Matthew with his hand painted, above. Andrew, below, wanted an orange spiderman! It looks like he has a jack-o-lantern painted on his hand! Oh, well, mixing up holidays never hurt anybody.
A photo of a 4th of July pillow I started 6 years ago at an Enrichment activity and finished last week! Whoo-Hoo! It brought back a flood of memories of days at BYU. This is one out of two July 4th decorations in my home!

Zion Outing

One of our favorite places in the whole world is Zion National Park, and we are lucky enough to live only 45 minutes away! We set out last Saturday morning and had a great day!

Eating breakfast at Oscar's, our favorite restaurant, right outside of Zion. They seriously make the best food ever and I want to eat there every day!Family Picture taken at the beginning of the 'Narrows' hike.
Picture taken at "Weeping Rock" Matthew and Andrew's favorite hike. This short o.5 mile round trip hike is super cool! Even on the hottest day, water drips from up above, cooling off hikers below. The water is estimated to be 1,200 years old and can't keep seeping down, so it's coming out of the rocks!
What Isaac did most of the time!
The boys at the mouth of the "Narrows". One of these days we want to do the Narrows hike. To get to this point, however, you have to hike one mile. The two mile round trip hike about wore our kids out, so a longer hike will just have to wait.

Hair cut buddies!

Isaac's new do.

I really needed a hair cut and feeling inspired by my friend Cassondra, I chopped my hair off! She has always had long, beautiful hair but showed up on my doorstep with this totally cute short hair style! So, a week ago, I called my next door neighbor who cuts hair and I chopped my hair off too! I love it and think I will keep my hair short for a while. Yesterday it was 107 degrees outside and I was thankful to have my new hair cut for sure! You can see my hair in future posts.

Fun weekend with friends

Our wonderful friends, Cassondra, Jake, Brooklyn and Brielle, from Las Vegas came to visit 2 weekends ago and we had so much fun! I wish they could be our neighbors, but we'll have to settle for 2 hours away.

Cassondra and I went to High School together and were in the same ward since I was 12. She was the inspiration for my new hair style.We went to the St. George temple Saturday morning and enjoyed the temple grounds as well as the visitor center. They stayed 2 nights and 2 days but I hardly got any pictures! Sad! We went swimming, too, and I forgot my camera! I didn't get any pictures of the " grown-ups" - I had to steal the one above from Cassondra's blog.


Where is Andrew's shirt?? What kind of mother....
Matthew, Brooklyn, Andrew and Brielle. Andrew and Brielle were born on the exact same day! Brooklyn is a few months older than Matthew even though she looks like a whole year or two older! What cute kids!