I'm still here...

Holy Hanna! I haven't posted on my poor little bloggy in for-evah!

Ok, this is gonna be kinda long - BUT it's our summer in a photo-nutshell.

June 2, 2009 - My oldest {Nathaniel} turned 11

June 24 - 28th we went to Ben's family reunion in Utah.

June 26, 2009 went to Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House
The temple was BEAUTIFUL!!!
June 27, 2009 HUGE Family Reunion at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo, UT
Ben's Family with all his siblings (minus 1) plus his parents & nieces/nephews

June 27, 2009 my beautiful daughter, Felicia, had her 10th birthday!
July 4, 2009 we celebrated Independence Day with a few fireworks of our own (in our backyard)!

July 23, 2009 these dorks guys left for Comic-Con in San Diego, CA

July 26, 2009 They came home.
Ben got all of us tons of FUN free swag!

Are these not the CUTEST little Batmen & Catwomen?

I told Ben he really shouldn't bother coming home unless he found some New Moon swag.

No I wasn't that mean, but he DID hook me up!

Awesome trading cards, plus see that Carlisle Ring? Everyone was waiting in line for raffles to win one of those. Someone thought his costume was COOL so he gave one to Ben! Woohooo! Way to go hubby!

He also scored these posters for me!

The big posters look just like the smaller ones, but the back looks faded & backwards almost like you're looking thru the poster! Pretty awesome!!! Thanks again babe!

Ok, so we wanted to wear the COOL masks too!

Do we look HOT or what? LOL

These two actually played together a LOT this summer!

August 5, 2009 This little guy got a haircut!

This is the BEFORE.

Are you diggin' on his sweet locks?

Well, don't get too used to them, cuz now they're gone!

There's my adorable Anson!

August 6, 2009 My munchkins got some new Webkinz

Thanks MOM for finding these amazing deals @ Costco!

August 7, 2009 I had foot surgery. OUCH!

And got to wear this cute shoe for the last 3 weeks.

Well, it's better than the one I wore 3 years ago when I had my bunionectomy.

I can finally squeeze into a sandal, so at least my shoes match now.

August 9, 2009 the Boys being silly after church

The Girls striking a pose after changing out of church dresses.

Yep, they planned on their matching outfits! heee heee

August 10, 2009 Ben left for Oregon (for work)

And my sister, Christy, had her birthday!

August 12, 2009 FIRST day of school

Nathaniel - 5th grade, Ashley - 2nd grade, Anson - Kindergarten, Felicia - 5th grade
Yep, my sweet fun baby is in all day school now! I have totally mixed emotions about that. I'm happy for him because he loves it & was so excited to start school. On the other hand, I miss my little buddy hanging out with me all day!

After 1st day of school treats!

Sonic Slushees

While Felicia was playing on the computer after school.....

I found Ashley like this...

She curled up on a jacket on the floor & passed out. LOL

I found Nathaniel sawin' some zzzzz's on the couch

Anson was watching tv, but quickly gave in to his heavy eyelids. haha

They had a wonderful 1st day of school, but apparently it totally wore them out!

August 16, 2009 10pm - Nathaniel got stung by a Bark Scorpion!

OUCH!!! Poor guy! He thought he needed to go to the ER or he would DIE! He knows those suckers are very poisonous! I talked to Ben on the phone {yep he was still out of town}, looked it up online and also called Poison Control. All I had to do was wash the area with soap & water, dry it off, apply a cool compress, and give him some Tylenol. As long as he didn't have an allergic reaction (like hives or trouble breathing), then he would be OK. Poison Control did warn me that this type of scoprion releases neurotoxins and within 6hrs he would probably have some numbness and/or tingling anywhere on his body. It could take 24hrs up to 2weeks for it to go away. He had some tingling the next day and came home from school early, but was fine later that evening. Thank goodness!!!!

That night ALL the kids slept in my bed with me.

I had our pest control company back at our house and respraying for scoprions inside & out!

August 18, 2009 Ahhh yes, that's water under our Hot Water Heater.

Well, it was 15 years old, so time for a new one!
Another thing to take care of while Ben was out of town.

Luckily, my Dad's friend came over right away to replace it!

August 22, 2009 we Celebrated Anson's 5th birthday!

{even tho his actual bday is August 23rd}

Ben came home for the weekend to celebrate Anson's bday!

But then he had to leave again early Monday morning :(

August 28-29th Nathaniel had his FIRST Boy Scout Campout! He was ecstatic! He loved that all the boys got to help plan the menu - he LOVES food! He came home covered in dirt, but had a BLAST!!!

See - my foot is healing quite nicely!

I took this pic this morning. I know my feet are covered in scars. But the newest one is on my left foot in the middle. My foot still hurts a lot periodically and I can't walk very fast.

Ok, sorry to end this LONG post with a pic of my foot (I know feet are gross) but at least my toenails look cute, right? LOL

Oh I had Parent Information Evening (PIE night) last night with Anson & Ashley's teachers. Their teachers seem nice & fun. Plus the kids love them! Looks like the year is off to a good start!

Today is picture day for the kids. We were late, but NOT because I was busy fixing their hair (I got that done on time) but Anson was stuck on the potty - crying in pain. Poor guy. He finally did his business and we were on our way! Felicia was the only one on time because I had to take her to school early for a student council meeting.

Tomorrow is PIE night for Nathaniel & Felicia's classes. I'll be busy trying to touch base with both teachers since usually Ben & I divide & conquer. But he is still out of town. In fact, he's on his way to Seattle today for PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) with his friend Trey. They will be helping EA promote the sequel to Army of Two xbox game {they will be dressed in total Army of Two gear}!

Ok, I'm out!

Can you guess

what we are doing this weekend????

Here's a hint:

Roasting Marshmallows
Sipping Hot Cocoa
Eating out of Foil
Admiring the Beautiful Starry Sky
NOT Watching TV
NOT Playing on the Computer
NOT Playing XBOX

Do you know what we're doing?

We're going CAMPING!!!!

We haven't gone camping in almost 2 years, even then it was at Camp LoMia in Payson (where I went to Girls' Camp with church as a teenager) and they have small one-room cabins (basically 4 walls or 3 1/2 walls and a roof). I haven't gone real camping like in tents since I was preggers with Felicia! Nathaniel has gone camping with Ben a couple times and Anson once with Ben, but the girls haven't ever gone in tents. We are SO EXCITED!!!!

Ok so I gotta go to the store for a few last minute items and finish chopping veggies for our foil dinners and packing so we can leave TODAY!!!

Have a FUN weekend!!

I'm Baaaaack!!

WOW I had an AMAZING time in Texas with Karyn!!! I had a hard time leaving her! Although, I missed Ben & the kids a bunch! Ben even greeted me at the airport with these gorgeous flowers!!! Thanks Honey!! He also worked on some *top secret* projects while I was gone, which turned out to be fabulous {more on that later}!

Back to my trip with Karyn! Thanks a million for letting me come stay with you & hang out & do fun Halloween projects & stay up til super late! I LOVED every minute while I was there with ya!! You MUST come visit me in Arizona!!!

Ok, so Karyn's hosting an awesome Halloween party for a lot of the kids in the neighborhood {and parents}! She's transforming her garage into the scary party place! Well, I tried to help her with some of her fun projects!

While we were at the grocery store, we saw some men trimming the bushes out front. Well, there was a big huge branch that was all dried up and we asked to have it to take home with us. Why you ask? We wanted to make witch's brooms, of course! They were the cheapest decorations we made! All the ones we saw at the store were like $10-20 each.

I think they turned out GREAT!
Her neighborhood was having a night out party with tons of BBQ chicken & brisket, plus a big bounce house & a fun neighbor who painted faces & made balloon animals!

Here's my little buddy, Natalie, with her arm painted & her kitty & dolphin balloons!
Aleksis with her beautiful face & arm painted with her laser blaster balloon!

Trever didn't want any paint near him, but he did enjoy his laser blaster balloon :)
Me & my little friend, Natalie! Isn't she a cutie pie?
We spent some time at one of Karyn's friends' house (Teri). Her kids have a pet snake, so Aleksis & Trever wanted to hold it.

They did a great job with the snake & weren't scared at all. I am not a huge fan of snakes, so I only looked but didn't touch!

Here's what we were doing while the kids played with the snake. Teri is an incredible artist with stained glass & soldering! So, she let us play with some of her scraps.

Here's what we made! Little stained glass spiders! These are mine! Aren't they AWESOME?! Karyn & Teri both helped me with those stinkin' legs! They didn't want to attach properly. But I learned to solder by myself too. It was so much FUN!! Very time consuming but FUN! Thanks Teri for helping us!! You're so NICE!!
Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to hang them!

While Karyn had a cub scout den meeting at church, I played with the kiddos in one of the nurseries!
Here's some treats that we made! Cool pretzel witch's fingers, mummies, spider webs, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, etc!
One of the biggest projects we started was making tombstones for her front yard graveyard! Karyn went to a stucco place & got a bunch of 2-inch thick polystyrene insulation. We also got a styrofoam cutter from Michaels. I cut out 22 tombstones, Teri used her solder gun to engrave words & pictures and we all helped paint them! We didn't have time to finish them while I was there, but here's our favorite! Funny, huh? All the rest are scary/creepy ones! I can't wait to see how the other ones turned out!

One of the last days I was there, we actually had time to spend just the two of us! We went shopping & to lunch at Chili's! That was a great day! We've never gone out just the two of us!
This was on Sunday, we were all gussied up for church. That was fun because I got to see many familiar faces at church.
Awww, Karyn & her oldest, Aleksis! She is such a sweetie!
Mmmm we made caramel apples too! They look a little droopy cuz the caramel was melting off quickly with all the treats, but they were still delicious! I had a few bites of one so the rest was for her & her family!
The last night I was there we stayed up until 4:30am and had to get up at 6:30am to get the kids to school then me to the airport. I was so tired when I got home! haha. I wish I could've stayed even longer, one week just wasn't enough time! But I do appreciate all that Ben did to take care of the kids and house while I was away! Thanks BEN!! Thanks again Karyn I had a BLAST!! And Good Luck with your Halloween party next week!!