Sunday Naps

I love taking Sunday naps,

but Phoenix apparently has a different approach than I.

I guess this is the downfall to having church from 1-4pm. 

We completely miss our normal nap times.

Flowers for Grandma

I love this time of year.  There is an endless supply of free sunflowers off the side of the road.  All you have to do is stop and pick them. 

Damon tells me about when he was a kid and there was wild asparagus growing on the side of the road.  That would be nice, but we're happy with what we can get.

Blake, Ryann, Phoenix, and Hailee at grandma's front door.

Happy Grandma Pack. 

Every girl loves to get flowers.  My hubby has learned that if he wants to give me flowers, they better be really cheap or free, because I am terrible at keeping them alive for longer than a day.

Timeout?

The other day a neighbor borrowed one of our carseats for a few hours.  When she returned it, I just set it by the front door and would put it away later.

I guess I didn't put it away soon enough.  Either that or this could be a really great spot for timeouts.

Phoenix thought it was a great place to play until...

she couldn't get out.

She tried all right, but without success.  Check out that expression.  Priceless.

Only Boring People Get Bored

Whenever I start feeling bored, I find myself a project.  Someone once told me, "only boring people get bored".  I don't want to be considered a boring person, so here is the beginning of my projects for the next couple of months.  (this isn't even all the fabric, thank goodness for clearance and coupons.)

I probably won't be able to see my kitchen counter for a couple of months.

I have already started sewing Halloween costumes for the kids, next is pajama pants and pillow cases for Christmas, and possibly even dresses for the girls.  I love keeping busy, I think it keeps me out of trouble.  Plus then I don't get mad with the hubby, when he spends all his time in the garage.

Party Hard!

I really should post more frequently.  Oh well, at least I'm keeping up on a few things.

The kids loved going to Amelia's birthday party last week.

Phoenix is so proud of her sunglasses. 

Maybe one of these days she will get the on right side up.

The kids showing off their loot from the "fish pond".

Candy, slinky's, sunglasses, plus their delicious kool ade.

Face painting: flower, kitty, and batman.

Amelia, so excited for her presents.  (love the outfit that Annica made for her)

Check out this cake Annica made, plus the cupcakes, and chocolate toppers.  Everything was little girly ducky's.  So cute.



Thanks again for the party, the kids were talking about it for days.

Better Than We Deserve

Our little family is truly blessed. 

A year ago Damon and I decided to work smarter not harder.  We were no longer going to play our stupid little game.  You know the game, I'm sure.  At tax return time, you get out of debt just to get back into it over the next few months.  Sure we can justify our debt... our house, a car, student loans, medical bills.  But really should we justify debt?  No.  

So we decided to get out of debt the Dave Ramsey way.  "If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else."  We made a budget and have stuck to it, we sold a bunch of random stuff on KSL, we stopped going out to eat, and pretty much put all our energy into paying off our debts.
Also, we have started focusing on the basics.  We spend more time together as a family, Damon and I go on regular dates, we go to the temple regularly, and we have family prayer and scripture study together daily.  I have to tell you, we have less stress, we are more patient, and really everything is working out perfect.

Well one day we met this man.  He had been through a lot in his life and had become an awesome example to those around him.  The more we got to know him, we found him to be a truly amazing person.  We shared our own story and he seemed to be very proud of us.  (I'm not completely sure why.)  Later on in the evening when we were getting ready to leave, he took my sweet hubby aside and asked him a quick question.  I didn't know about this until later, but I am so grateful for him and his generosity.
Later Damon told me about his brief conversation with this man.  He had asked Damon how long it had been since he took Jen out to a nice dinner.  "Not for a while." 
"No really, how long since you took her out to a really nice dinner?"
"Ummm?"
"Well, I want you to take your wife on a really special date." Then he gave Damon some money.  Of course Damon tried to refuse, but this wonderful man wouldn't allow it.  He said that he felt this a great opportunity to give this gift to us.  I didn't know what to say.  Thank you.

The more and more we do what we know we should, the more excited we get to continue moving forward.  So now we do more to achieve our goals.  Damon put his resume out to a few companies and we are so excited that he got a job offer.  He will be an industrial mechanic (same as before), but with much better benefits.  He will have better pay, more opportunity to move up, and they even pay for schooling.  What a blessing.  He will start his new job Sept. 19th.
Damon turned in his notice and cashed out his vacation time from his current job.  (He needs to get a few more tools before he starts the new job.)  With the "bigger shovel" as Dave Ramsey would call it, we are even more excited to finish off this debt and never get into it again.

Well the other day Damon and I went out on a "date".  We went to the adult session of our stake conference, had refreshments, then went grocery shopping.  (I don't get to go shopping without the kids very often.)
While at the store, we ONLY bought things that were on the list.  Flour, sugar, rice, corn, green beans, tomato sauce, etc.  The basics- it's case lot sale time, so we gotta stock up.  We decided that we would use some of the cashed in vacation time for the groceries. 
I felt bad for the young mother in line behind us.  We were price matching almost everything, which made it take even longer.  Actually, I am proud to say, we only bought 1 thing regular price.  Our total was close to $140 dollars.  I had $28 dollars left for our grocery budget for the week, so I decided to use that, then pay the rest on the debit card.
Just as I was about to pay, this young lady with 2 kids behind us, asks if she can pay for her groceries and we can pay later?
Really?  We have already rang everything up and now you want to go ahead of us?
Then she clarified.  She wanted to pay for our groceries.  She said that she felt that it was something that she needed to do.  She had been there one time before and wanted to "pay it forward and God Bless".  She wanted us to save our $28 and use it later. 
Neither Damon nor I knew what to say (nor the cashier).  I started to cry and said Thank you.  She gave me a big hug and proceeded to add her groceries to ours and pay for them all.
I don't know who she is, but I want to say Thank you again.
One day, we too will "pay it forward".  The Lord truly blesses those who do as he asks.
I do think sometimes that we are blessed "better than we deserve".

  

Family Photo Shoot

I have been meaning to update the pictures in my living room for quite awhile, the current ones are a year and a half old.  Since kids change so fast, the pictures are completely out of date.

So for Labor day (Damon had the day off work) we headed out for the day.

First to Saltair, by the Great Salt Lake:

(these are unedited pictures) 

Nice pictures, but not quite the lighting I wanted.

Plus some stupid people walked right in our shot.

So we headed out to Grantsville to see what cool backgrounds we could find.

Some farmer's fence...

(unedited pictures)

Again, really nice pictures, but a bit too much going on in the background for portraits.

But the group shots were perfect.

Handsome boys.

Beautiful girls.

This is the final picture that we used for the living room wall.

Then for some close-ups we went to an old dairy barn with a really cool wood door.

Here are the final pictures we chose. (with only minimal editing/cropping)  

Blake 5, Hailee 8 

Jen, Damon

Phoenix 2, Ryann 3

Me and my sweetheart.

I want to thank my awesome sisters-in-law, Rose, Denise, and Veronica, for helping us with a few of these great shots.  I hope you all had as much fun as we did.  Plus I think we got some pretty great pictures of you guys too.  Here are a couple of my favorites (only cropped).

Happy Birthday to Me.

One of the best birthdays.

Last year was a bit rough... if you remember, I wrecked on my bicycle 3 days before my birthday, then I didn't have surgery until 2 days after.  Let's just say I was in a little bit of pain.

This year my sweetheart did his best to make up for it.  He took the kids shopping for me, I got to tag along to make the final decision.  Super cute new outfit, shampoo and conditioner, and new headphones for my ipod.  Then on my birthday, I had more birthday wishes than I could even count.  My hubby had arranged for sitters for the kids, and we headed out for the evening. 

We went out to dinner with some awesome friends (Lacey, Rob, Tiff, and Drew) to Tepanyaki, then to a Bee's baseball game.

I truly am lucky to have some of the best friends.  Thanks guys.

The wishes kept on coming.  Friday we went to the temple, then out to ice cream to celebrate again.  Saturday, we went hiking with the sisters and they made me an awesome cake.

I like this idea of celebrating my birthday for an entire week.

At the start of our hike we saw a baby rattle snake.  Run away, run away.

On the trail, taking rests.

Ahhh, cute picture.

On the trail again, silly kids playing.

Phoenix fell asleep, at the bridge.

Pretty sweet view on our way out, too bad the picture is dark.

Check out this awesome cake my sister-in-laws made... all edible: tent, truck, fire, trees, rocks.  And notice the dead snake wrapped around the bottom.

All representing my adventurous summer.

Who knew you could paint food coloring onto frosting?  Not me.

I rotated the cake stand while I blew out the candles,

pretty effective if I do say so myself.

Thanks again to all my amazing friends and family for an awesome birthday.