The County Fair

 This year our family has been volunteering at the community garden. We grow the food and give it to those in the area who may need it. It has been a great family project for us. Our former garden area is currently occupied by the chickens and where the new garden will be is still under construction. We have been lucky enough to use some of the produce from the community garden. I love garden fresh veggies.  I even made salsa with only ingredients from the garden (except the cilantro).

We decided to enter some of the produce into the County Fair. The boys have all worked so hard pulling weeds and killing bugs, that we thought it would be fun to let them enter some of their favorites.

Ben with the eggs. Ben LOVES those chickens! He saved those eggs for a few days to make sure he had 12 all of the same color. Unfortunately, when we left the fair, I carried the eggs out. My arm was bumped by the car door. The eggs didn't make it home. But hey! The blue ribbon did!

Luke really wants to grow a giant pumpkin. However, we're newbies at this whole gardening thing and have much to learn about growing large pumpkins. Lots and lots to learn. Yep, another blue ribbon!

James with the purple onions. Digging up onions are like opening presents. You never know what they will look like until you dig them out! Yes that is a blue ribbon.

Mark entered the Firecracker peppers. Those little peppers are H-O-T to put it mildly.  Blue ribbon!!

This is James' baby. He has been caring for this watermelon with the hopes of entering it into the fair.  I think he cared for the watermelon more then his own personal hygiene. But I know its totally worth that blue ribbon.

Mark also entered the tomatoes.  It was our only red ribbon. The tomatoes weren't all the same size, so there was a deduction there. But thats ok. We ate them anyway.

When the days fly by...

The last couple of weeks have FLOWN by. Can anyone relate?  It seems like summer just barely started and HELLO school  starts next week..well..seminary starts next week, the rest of us are enjoying an extra week and a half of summer.
In the last couple of weeks, here is what we have been up to.

The Boys love a good video game. Even if the screen is 4" on Cory's iPhone. Who knew a game could be so exciting!?! Yeah me neither..and I still don't understand it. 

Here Ben is all dressed up for the pioneer day parade. He kept saying "Ye Haw!"

Mark is R-E-A-D-Y for the Pioneer Parade to start!! With James in the parade to walk with Ben, this left Mark, Luke, myself, and Grandma to gather the candy. Who do you think was the most
 excited??....

Yes that would be Luke running into the road to grab those handfuls of "special" taffy.

 This is the begining of the parade...and you can also see the end of the parade. I love our small small small town. The parade consisted of several of the primary groups, the local royalty, the city councilmen, and a local running for senate. And thats about it!

Yeah here they come!!!

They almost walked right past us without seeing us. James was gathering up candy on his way. As you can see, there wasn't exactly a huge crowd waiting to pick up the treats. All of the kids were in the parade all ready!

 That evening we went to the dinner up at Zion National Park. What a production! We loved it! This picture is proof that Luke was with us, but I believe this was the ONLY time I saw him all evening. Some cute blond (that wasn't me) acquired all of his attention!

We had a lot of fun though. A local band was rockin out to "Follow the Prophet" and all sort of other awesome songs. We loved it!!...

...Even though I was wearing purple and was having a bad hair day.

 Ben had a great time! He is in that cute-every-minute-and-he-knows-it-so-he-gets-away-with-everything stage. A super time to be a kid.

 Mark is not that far behind.

 After dinner we spent the next two hours watching the three younger boys play on the playground. You'd think they never went to a park! I swear I've taken them at least three times to a playground..ok maybe only twice. 















Luke celebrated his 15th birthday. Ben is helping his with the finger picture..that way when I scrapbook the birthday I'll know how old he is turning. Let's see..in the scrapbook James recently had his first birthday. So I'll get to scrapbooking this birthday in about 20 years. Well its a good thought anyway.

And everybody loves a cake covered in Rolos. yes?

Luke loves pink ties. I never thought I would be able to buy my kids pink anything since I have no daughters. Who knew!!! And he loves it so I'm happy. :)

 Luke is an amazing young man. I love that I've been able to have 15 awesome years with him. Happy birthday Luke!!

Dressing your truth makeover

 Recently my sisters, mom and I were able to get away for a super fun weekend. It has been way to long since all of the girls were together--especially without kids.  Well Rissa was there, but that was great too.

 It was a fabulous time!

My sisters, mom and I are all fans of Carol Tuttle and her book Just My Nature.  It is a personality book similar to the Color Code..but at the same time it is nothing like the Color Code. I love it so much more then the Color Code and other personailty tests because it is an internal choice, not the results of a test that help you come to the conclusion of which type you are.

In a nutshell, each "Type" has their own place in nature. Each type has their own flow, their own style, colors, and personality. Thats a really small nutshell, just go read the book. ;-)

After you read the book you can become a member of her Dressing your Truth club. At the club they do make overs and a whole lot of other things. It is really quite amazing all that they teach.  This is what we did for our girls event. Makeovers. So Fun!

I was very nervous. I am very loyal to my fabulous stylist here in southern Utah, so to trust someone else with my hair was kind of nerve wracking. Thankfully, Nicole was amazing!

My before. I was dressing Type 2 when I am a Type 1.

Type 1 after. I was SO ready to get that hair cut shorter!

This is Nicole. She is the Blond Phantom of hairdressers. 

Seriously, totally amazing talent.

Katy's after. She is a type 2 and has dressed as a type 1. She loves being a type 2 and really is so pretty!

Rissa is a type 1, just like me! Love her apple cheeks that are SO type one--just like mine!

Mom is a type 3. She has been dressing as a type 3 for years and didn't know it. She loved fine tuning her style and learning how else to look her best.

Love you Mom!

Marianne has dressed as a type 3 for as long as I have known her. After she read the book she knew right away that she was NOT a type 3.

Marianne as her type one super sparkly self!

Stunning Anna!!! She looks like she's going to take on the world!

Anna in true blue with sweet Rissa. Such a fun weekend!

All of us "Dressing our truth"

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After we were done and before we said goodbye, we went to Kneaders for lunch. We all ordered at different times but when we sat down we discovered that we all had the exact same lunch. Way to much fun!

Thanks to everyone at the DYT store and salon!

Painting Chairs

 For years I have dreamed about a super nice (cough*expensive*cough) dining room set. I have decided to put that fantasy aside and really love what I have. What I did have was a bunch of mismatched wooded chairs painted black. I really liked them black at first, but they became my first victims.

Over the past few months I have been painting my black chairs. I know, seems random. But it is something that I can do without a lot of pressure on me feet-which has been pretty essential.  I have had so much fun painting them. 

This was the first chair. We call it the "Watermelon chair." I will probably redo some of it.

The Sun Chair. I started with the sun in the middle of the seat. I loved mixing the blues to get it from dark blue at the bottom to the light blue at the top.

The Star Wars Chair. This has been the best incentive to get the boys to the table. Why sit on a flower chair if you can have THE Star Wars chair. There are several scenes from the movies all over the sides and legs. It was crazy to paint. Each of the light sabers are after the design of a specific Jedi (the boys can tell you exactly who).

My favorite, the Flower chair.

On each of the chairs I have something slightly hidden. The watermelon chair has the boys' name and birth year scrolled in it. The flower chair has our family scripture on it. the sun chair has one of my favorite scriptures on it. The star wars chair you will have to figure it out for yourself. :)
I still have several to paint and I am on the lookout for cheap, ugly wooden chairs. If you find any, send them my way!

16 years!

This past weekend Cory and I celebrated our 16 year wedding anniversary. i love doing something for our anniversary-OK I love doing something fun any time with Cory. That is why I love date night.


We traveled up to Brian Head and stayed in a condo. It was lovely and I would go back in a heartbeat except the bed was as comfortable as the floor. It was a terrible bed. 

It was nice and green at Brian Head. I had only been there in the fall and winter, so it was nice to see all of the wildflowers.



I beat him at pool. Ok I'll clarify. I got all of my pool balls in the pockets before he did. Even if I did sink the black ball in the wrong pocket in the end. Sheesh.

We made an amazing dinner. I rarely cook steak. I don't see the excitement in steak. Well if my Dad cooks it I do since he can make it so divine. But I still make them a little...tough. But it was still a very delightful dinner on the mountain.

We rode to the top of the ski lift. It was INSANELY windy. With my weak feet and the gravel that was difficult for me to balance on, I could barely stand up at the top! Seriously, I could have blown over. I felt like a big sail. =)

We rode to the top of the ski lift. It was INSANELY windy. With my weak feet and the gravel that was difficult for me to balance on, I could barely stand up at the top! Seriously, I could have blown over. I felt like a big sail. =)

On the way home we drove through Cedar Breaks and Zion. I love the red rock here in southern Utah.













I have a great time with the love of my life.
Happy Anniversary!

Angels around me

 
ok don't watch the video, just listen to it while your read. =)  I'm not a big fan of this song, but it says a lot of what I've been thinking about.

Its no secret that for the past 4 months my life has been turned upside down and inside out. What was up seemed down and what was left was right. I found my life in a place that I never expected let alone planed on.

I think everyone will have at least one of those moments. I had that moment when I was assaulted back in college. I never expected to find myself with that feeling again.

I was in a car accident that left me with two broken feet. No weight on my feet AT ALL. It was a wheelchair for me for the next six weeks. To say it wasn't fun is an understatement. Cory had his own health problems at the time that he had to deal with, so I felt very alone.

Me and my chair. I don't miss it. At. All.

I was anything but alone.  I didn't expect the love and support that I found myself surrounded with. Almost immediately my family was surrounding me. My neighbors and church members came to my aid. For the next six weeks, I was literally never alone. It totally saved me. My family and friends became my angels. They would call me when I was down, visit me, cook for me, clean for me, take care of my kids, bring me flowers, take care of my animals, doing my taxes, celebrating my birthday, even giving money and I could go on and on.  From texting all night to the late night chats to the emergency nacho runs. It was the love and support that I needed. It was the hardest thing that I had dealt with since the assault in college and I was so blessed to have amazing women get me through it.


I wanted to share an experience that I had during all of this. I call it my three miracles. It took place about a month after the accident.

I went to church and put on that brave smile. The kind of smile when you don't want everyone to see the pain you really feel. I was so happy to be at church, but my spirits weren't where I wanted them to be. I had that dark cloud smothering me.

I came home after an hour. My kids stayed at church. I was by myself. The cloud won and I became an emotional wreck. I found myself praying until I was able to get a grip on myself. I prayed and begged my Heavenly Father to send me someone to help me get through the day.

Soon after I prayed the phone rang. It was my friend. She often calls when she is "thinking about me." I put on that fake smile and schmoozed my way through the call.  When I hung up I started to cry again realizing that I had been sent someone to cheer me up, and I blew it off. I begged my Heavenly Father to give me a second chance and to send someone else.

At Physical Therapy. They were increasing my circulation.

Within an hour my dear friend came over. Then  another. Then another.  This went on all afternoon and evening. At one point I had 5 people in my room visiting me. And they all brought goodies.   My sorrows were forgotten and I felt so much love from my friends and neighbors as well from my Heavenly Father. This was my first miracle.

My second miracle that night came when one of my friends came over to help me with my taxes. We had been send a form from the IRS saying we had received a student pell grant. Umm..nope. No grant money here. Since we're required to file it we had to file it. It affected my refund quite a bit. I had just received the go ahead to file an amendment to my taxes. We went online to start the paperwork and we discovered that the IRS had already found and fixed the problem and were going to send me the correct adjusted refund--which was just what I needed to pay our lawyer.

But then I had my third miracle that day. I found out that someone paid the lawyer fee for us.

With my mom. I loved her visits.

Never have I felt so grateful. I knew that even in my darkest days, I had not been forgotten by my Heavenly Father or my friends and neighbors.

I can not say thank you enough. If you thought of me during this time of trial, THANK YOU. There were mornings that I had to pray myself out of bed. Those days I felt the power of prayers said for me.  It kept me going just as much as those lovely ladies.