Stuff.....

I have never considered myself to be a packrat at all. I mean I am the person who will throw stuff away if we haven't used it in 6 months. Honestly I use to think if my house burned to the ground the only things that I would be really sad to loose would be my computer, because I have so much family history and pictures on it, and my family pictures that I haven't scanned into the computer yet. That's it.

As I'm packing all of my "stuff" up and moving to a new house I realize that we have a lot of stuff. Stuff that I don't think about or remember that we even have, but they are things that we use about once a year. Here is a small list of the type of "stuff" I'm talking about:

1. Giant tote full of water toys, swimming pool, slip-n-slide, life jackets, buckets, and shovels
2. Christmas Decorations and fake tree
3. Turkey fryer
4. Flashlights
5. Umbrella
6. 8 round cake pans, cake stands, fondant roller, and my collection of paste food coloring
7. Games and puzzles from the game closet
8. Jared's collection of hats
9. MaKady's & Paige's (growing) collections of books, they have about 500+
10. The craft supply box I have, complete with strings, iron on butterflies, fabric markers, and googly eyes.

This is just the start of my list, I could go on, and on, and the more closets and cupboards I clean out, the more "stuff" I realize we have, and use. So I guess what I'm trying to say and what I have realized is that maybe, just maybe, I am a packrat in a way. I do hang on to "stuff" that doesn't get used very often, but it's "stuff" that I just can't get rid of because once in a while we need it. There is a little packrat in all of us!!!

Fun Weekend!!!

Jared, Lucas, and I went to St. George on Friday so we could spend the weekend hanging out with my sisters (Hannah & Tabi) and also so we could pick up MaKady and Paige, because they had been down there visiting all week.

We got there late Friday night and just ended up going to sleep as soon as we got there.

On Saturday we had a busy day. We did some school clothes shopping for the girls and then in the afternoon we went to Pirate Island Pizza. I had heard all the hype about it and wanted to try it out myself. Honestly I was surprised. I'm pretty picky about the pizza I eat because most of it tastes like cardboard, but their pizza was great. We ordered one giant, and I mean enourmous pizza, called the Kraken. (see picture below). It fed 8 of us just fine. They also had an arcade where the kids spent most of their time.

Paige, Bryce, Lucas, Hannah & MaKady

Paige playing games

"Summon the...Kraken!Fer the bravest of sea dogs! We be talkin ‘bout 24 inches of swag filled bliss! Takes a mighty crew to finish ‘er off!" (this pizza was huge. Notice MaKady's hand on the left, and Kole's hand on the right. I'm not kidding, it was huge)

The pirate ship

Hannah & Lucas

The gang (I was the one taking the picture)

After we went and ate we got ready and went to Tuachan. Another amazing place in Southern Utah (can you tell I miss living there?) If you ever get the chance to go to Tuachan I promise you won't regret it. It is awesome. We went and saw "Footloose."

Now honestly Jared really hates things like this. He hates chick flicks, live plays, and especially musicals, so for the first 10 minutes of the show he chuckled every few minutes, I guess because he thought it was corny, people singing and dancing on stage, but once he got into the story he really enjoyed it. My girls sat very still the entire time. Even Lucas did pretty good. At one point he made a little sound (it wasn't even a cry, it was just a little noise) and the lady in front of us turned around and glared for about 30 seconds before turning back around to watch the show. I had to bite my tongue because I wanted to tell this lady off, but I didn't.

It was really warm, I'm not going to lie. I stripped Lucas down to his onesie and he was still uncomfortable to the point that he couldn't fall asleep at first. He finally fell asleep, but then they let off some fireworks in the middle of the show and it scared him so I took him out for about 10 minutes until intermission. But then it cooled down a bit and he fell asleep for the rest of the show.

After the show got out I was suprised and excited to see that the entire cast of the show was standing around waiting for people to approach them so they could sign autographs and take pictures. It was great. MaKady was so excited because she got to meet Thayne Jasperson (he was on season 4 of "so you think you can dance")

It really was a great show. We had a great weekend. I can't wait until our next trip.

Bryce, Jared, Kole

Hannah, Me, Tabi

Paige, Lucas, MaKady

Tabi & Kole

Jared, MaKady, & Paige

Bryce & Hannah

Part of the stage (we didn't know you couldn't take pictures until after we had already taken this one)

Tabi & Kole

Our family after the show

Kole, Thayne Jasperson, Kyli Rae, Paige & MaKady

(Kole was really great to stand in line with the girls. He didn't really want his picture taken, but his lovely wife one that argument :)

MaKady's Footloose Dance

At the end of the week, MaKady did a performance with her Desert Stars group. She is the one on the front row to the right side, wearing jeans & striped t-shirt.

Girls Week In ST. George

The girls were able to spend this past week in St. George with my sisters. For the past 2 years MaKady has gone away to Girl Scout Camp. but this year she wanted to try something new. She has plans to attend Tuacahn High School in a couple of years so when we found Desert Stars I knew it would be a perfect thing for MaKady.

Desert Stars is a week long day camp for performing arts. They met at Tuacahn High School and for 3 hours a day they did music and dancing. MaKady loved it because she is totally the "drama queen" in our family. She loves to sing and dance and express herself.

While MaKady was at her camp, Paige would spend her days with Aunt Tabi.

MaKady in front of the High School

Taib & MaKady at Del Taco
Paige & MaKady just chillin

Kole & Paige

Tabi, Hannah, Paige & MaKady playing dress up

MaKady, Hannah, Paige, & Tabi having a girls night!!

Lunch at Judds Store

they have the best soup and breadsticks. There also have a huge assortment of old fashioned candy and soda in the bottle. Located in downtown St. George by the library

Dancing

Lunch at the park

A dragonfly that was flying around

The fountain at the St. George Opera House

Paige

MaKady & Ronald McDonald

The girls had such a great time in St. George. They didn't want to come home.

Once a Year...

Once a year my work has a dealer meeting where we bring in our dealers from around the country for 2 days for training. We usually get a celebrity to come and speak to get these guys excited. This year our guest speaker was Craig Morgan. He was really upbeat and fun, and then he sat down and sang 3 of his songs. It was so great. It's a much different experience hearing those songs in a small setting vs. a giant concert venue. Anyway if you get the chance to go see him in concert, he's great.

The Gang at Fort Knox
Me & Craig Morgan

Sunday

I love going out to Jared's parents house. It is way out in the country so the great thing about it is all of the farm country, plus the fact that you can't hear the freeway from their house. We went out to his parents house on Sunday (minus the girls because they are in St. George) and we had lunch with Jared's parents and his sister Jen and her family. We rode around on the four wheeler and the two baby cousins (Lucas and Adam) played together. It was such a nice relaxing day.

Part of Jared's parents garden
Adam & Gary on the motorcycle. Thats a bungee cord strapped around the mug, and Adam fit snuggly between the mug and the back of the seat. (don't worry, they were just posing for a picture)

Lucas and Jared on the 4-wheeler. It was Lucas' first ride. He loved it.

Adam

Lucas & Adam. They played really well together.

Birthday, Blessing, & Baptism

On Saturday my family gathered together (minus Jared because he had to work). My sister Katie's family had a big day planned. First my neice Jamie was baptized by my dad, then her little sister Emily was blessed by my dad, then we had lunch and a birthday party for Brandon. It's always great to get together with family. The kids had a great time at the party. They got their faces painted and they made flowers clips for their hair.

Lucas & Grandpa Orin
My mom and her siblings (missing Aunt Gay)
Keith, My mom, Aunt Ilene, Aunt Ann, & Aunt Jill

MaKady & Brock

The babies - Lucas and Emily

Paige

Jamie & Grandpa Orin