girls girls girls

Just wanted to share some fun pics of our girls.
Hazel was sneaking between David's legs to grab a treat and forgot about those darn fairy wings.

That's underwear on her head and tissue in her ears....?

the fourth

The fourth of july

Our day began around 6:30 am when David and his family left to help cook breakfast at the park for Liberty Days. By 8:00, the girls and I showed up in time for us to eat a full plate of pancakes, biscuits and gravy, fruit, sausage, hashbrowns, and juice. At 8:45 I sang the National Anthem for the first time in my life (as a solo that is) and as terrified as I was, it went quite well! I forgot how much I love to sing out in the open with a microphone. Your voice just feels powerful and larger than it really is. The rest of the day, we watched competitions involving little kids trying to catch chickens, greased pigs, and riding crazed sheep. We took Hazel to all the booths where David won her a seahorse, she got a tatoo, a new necklace, and rode the caterpillar ride. We ate well, David caught a fish, we took naps, played at the park, and ended it all with a fantastic fireworks show. Happy fourth!

This is Hazel's game face that she had most of the parade as she clapped and cheered for the passerbys.

The seahorse David won for Hazel.

Our favorite, the caterpillar ride.

David caught this fish in a pool filled with about 25 kids all going after the same few fish.She is actually asleep in this picture as we're transferring the carrier. so cute.Kind of a random picture, but this is the booth we set up every year where we sell our homemade goods. In front of Vicki are the hairclips I made (I'll post a closer pic soon). Above her are the superman and batman capes she sewed which are really a fun idea. Sadly, not much sold this year. But now my girl's have enough hairclips to last the rest of their childhood!
I'm such a sucker for sleeping pictures.


Folks, is she cute or WHAT?One of our very BEST friends, Camille Garrison, was in town from South Africa and lucky for us, she spent the evening of the 4th with us at Liberty Park. Camille, you are so fun to have around and we'll miss you. Til January!

Yeah for a family pic where everyone is looking at the camera! Even little Lottie is being obedient.

We love the fourth of july!

Ah, Lake Powell. Need I say any more? It was paradise. We rode sea-doo's, wakeboarded, played games, watched movies, built sand castles, tried to teach Hazel to swim, and simply RELAXED.

We have a little dare-devil on our hands. I wasn't sure what she'd think of the Sea-doo but she loved it. On the first run, we slowed down a bit to ask her what she thought and she smiled and said, "faster?"

Hazel likes to be in control.

Whities! (I promise I'm wearing a swimsuit here)

Sometimes the kids got a little too much TV (and Hazel totally coveted that ballerina swimsuit)

We had this tub of water to rinse our feet off before we got on the houseboat. Because the water was nice and warm (and dirty) Hazel would plant herself there for most of the time. She'd say "Look! Hazel swimming!"

I was so impressed with my lil bro. I went on the inner tube with him with DAVID driving and thought my butt cheeks were going to fly off but I looked over at Bradley and he was calm as day.

Had to show off the ruffles.

Until next year!

Youth Conference

Middle of June was youth conference at camp Atoka. Once again, I had to take Charlotte along and this time instead of a nice cabin, we were in tents. I only stayed one night, so we survived even though it RAINED almost the entire time we were there. The stake did a great job with the speakers, the food, and the activities for the kids. I have to admit that my favorite part of this adventure was the dance on the first night. I haven't let it loose in a long long time and it felt so GOOD to dance!! The sun came out on the last day there and that was the day I came home to pack quickly and take off for Lake Powell...

We did a service project for an elderly sister in our ward on the way up to Camp Atoka. (and yes, those girls in the front right are inside of the same shirt).

This was a cool idea. They created this "spider web" as a team-work lesson. the youth had to figure out a way to get every member through the web using each section only twice and they couldn't touch the cords.

peanut butter bird feeders

Have you ever made one of these? They are bird feeders made up of pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed. I remember making them when I was little and hanging them in our yard, waiting for the birds to come. Ours haven't attracted that many birds so far, but it was fun to create with my little one.

Girl's Camp

So...I've been a little out of touch lately. I finally gave in and quit my second job which was requiring a lot more time and stress than I had anticipated. I'm so happy with my decision! I feel a little bit more in control of my life again and I am planning on working on some projects I've been putting off for too long. SO...here's the update.

Girl's Camp! I really really love our little group of young women. This year we had girl's camp with just our ward so we took our group up to a cabin near Causey Damn and had a really exciting and exhausting few days. Some of my favorite memories from that week were:

-Pranks! Rice in sleeping bags, hiding in the bushes, salt on the toothebrush, and WORMS down our shirts.....ah!

-Snipe hunting. What is Girl's Camp without snipe hunting? We had a few young women who were tapping their rocks together and squirting out bits of toothpaste to attract the snipes. ( I had never heard of either of those before...)

-Games, games, games. We played them constantly and I got to see a lot of personalities come out that I didn't know too well before.

-Great classes taught by our stake about some tough topics such as morality, dating, etc.

-A hammock on the back porch of the cabin to take in the quiet and serene surroundings.

-Unbelievable bursts of energy that kick in around 6pm...girls jumping off of the highest point in the cabin onto mattress pads, climbing up to kiss the moose in the entry way, etc.

-Ooga Booga club (have you heard of this? such a funny game).

I love the young women of Eccles Park ward! And thanks to my dear Charlotte who was the perfect little baby and slept through as much of it as possible.

They're telling you how many marshmellows they currently have in their mouths...

We had the girl's create a "spoon doll" in the image of their secret sisters. They turned out to be pretty creative.

Me and my little attachment.

This is what happened if you fell asleep first...