June Summary

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

From the library I picked up Church of Lies about the FLDS church. It was very raw and sometimes disturbing, but good. I can't believe how polygamy has lasted so long like that. Appalling. And a new murder/mystery Dirty Martini by JA Konrath. I found out this was a series, so now I'm reading the previous three books. The magazines I love: Creating Keepsakes (btw they changed their magazine to be like half the amount of issues without telling anyone- not cool), Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle. I also pick up 100 Ideas for Under $100 whenever I see it- it comes out quarterly. I love it because they have an article where they take a room from one of their sister magazines and show you how to get the same look for way cheaper.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

Didn't watch any TV or go to any plays. Movies are many though. Don't know if I can remember them all though. On Netflix we watched I Am Sam, Surrogates and Hollywood Homicide. Then we saw Fame, Love Comes Softly, Center Stage 2, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. We do a lot of movie-night-at-home dates together.

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

We had the trip to Texas at the first of the month (see previous posts) which was SO much fun! We celebrated Cole's birthday, Father's Day and had a trip to Utah for Cole's Grandma's funeral. Our summer can be summed up by "Four Weddings and a Funeral." We will have had 4 weddings (my brother, two nephews and a niece) in four months. Good thing I bought one present four times :) and I hope they all like it.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

For Cole's birthday and Father's Day he got a gun. But I didn't pick it out ;) We were traveling to Utah on his birthday, so we stopped for dinner at a Chinese Buffet place in American Fork that he wanted.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Nothing too unusual, I think. At least nothing comes to mind.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Cade and Telena had their yearly checkups this month (only a few months after their birthdays- we waited to make appointments til we had insurance and by then the Dr's schedule was full for quite a few weeks). Both have a clean bill of health. Telena is in the 75th percentile for weight and 55th percentile for height. Cade is in the 80th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. I didn't realize he was so tall for his age til this visit because he plays with a little boy whose dad is 6'11" and he's not as tall as him.

I also had a Dr's visit to check out the pretty varicose veins that I have. My Mom called attention to them during our vacation, so I figured I'd get them looked at. As soon as we told the doctor we'd probably be having more kids, she shut her file and said to come back when we were done. But she gave me a prescription for fun compression stockings. So I'm supposed to wear those- in the middle of summer with no A/C in our house. Right. I do wear them to work and whenever I feel like it.

What were my accomplishments this month?

Going to a funeral

What were my disappointments this month?

Going to a funeral

Anything else noteworthy to include?

Cole's Grandma's funeral was the longest I'd ever been to. It was at least an hour and a half. There were 6 speakers- her 3 kids, a granddaughter, an old home teacher, and her bishop. But when you're 95, you have a long life to talk about. It was good.

Oh, Cole and I got asked to go on the youth Trek this summer. They are going to This is the Place Heritage Park to do a handcart trek and we get to be "Ma" and "Pa" of a handcart group. we've been frantically getting ready (you have to wear pioneer clothes, a bonnet and have our family history) and we had a get-together with our group. So excited!

Sorry no pictures in this post- I took a bazillion on our Texas trip and then like 5 the rest of the month :) Oh, here's one. I did this project after seeing a cute paper bag mini album at Robert's when I went with Maria. I've had these summer scrapbook pages sitting on my hard drive forever, so I finally printed them, made a cover page and made something out of paper sacks!

Texas Vacation- part 2

Museum of Natural History
We hit the museum on a free day (score!) and had fun exploring. They had tons of teenage volunteers with show and tell carts. They explained some rocks to Rylee and she loved it! They showed her a talc rock and told her it was so soft she could write with it. So she did. She wrote her name and Cade's name on the top of the cart. So funny. We got to see tons of fossils, geodes and animals of the world. The last section we saw was on energy and I think Cole could have spent longer there. This was my favorite:

The Jewelry Vault baby! Wow! Can I just say it again- Wow! These are on my wish list ;)

Moody Gardens

The Rainforest Pyramid was gorgeous (and hot!) and had beautiful parrots, plants and flowers. It was so much fun to take pictures of!

We also went to the Aquarium Pyramid and then to a special Butterfly Exhibit (I didn't get any pictures of the butterflies :( but I think Laura did). Also a fun place to take pictures. I actually enlarged two of these- the clown fish (above) and the seahorse (below)- and framed them to put in my underwater themed kids bathroom. They look so good there! A lot of these pictures from Moody Gardens I want to show everyone and say- look! I took that picture! Isn't it awesome?!

After Moody Gardens, we went to Seawolf Park in Galveston. Cole wanted to see the submarine and battleship there. We got to walk through both of them and the kids liked seeing inside. It was all I could do to keep them from touching everything! I think they wanted to fire a real torpedo!
Space Center Houston

We went to Space Center Houston for an afternoon. It was cloudy and rained on us during the tour. The main thing we did was go on the tour (it took us two hours! And Telena fell asleep during it, so I carried her up and down way too many stairs. In cute wedge heels no less!). It was so cool to see the history of the space program and show the kids these huge rockets that went into space. They kept asking if they could go into space, but we told them it's up to President Obama! I hope he allows the space exploration to continue.

Family Pictures

Mom and Dad arranged for a photographer to come and take family pictures at the church. They turned out super cute!

I especially love this one! I think it shows our real personalities.

The Aquarium Restaurant and Kemah Boardwalk

After pictures, we changed clothes and left Telena home with Mom and Dad, then went out to eat. My big requirement when we were home was to eat seafood! So we did. I count it as a big accomplishment of motherhood that my kids like seafood too. One of Rylee's favorites is shrimp, which she ordered herself here. Adam is in the picture hiding behind the menu. Cole, Adam and Laura each got an ice cream dessert since their birthdays were coming up. It was just fun to have big kid time together.

Then we went to the boardwalk. I knew the kids wouldn't want to go on all of them, so we didn't get the all day ride pass but did get tickets to go on some rides. We did the carousel and Ferris Wheel and then went souvenir shopping. This was our last time to get trinkets from our trip, so we took the kids to a toy shop on the boardwalk and let them spend the rest of their money. Rylee bought a Polly Pocket type doll and lip gloss and Cade bought a pocket egg-shaped toy that opens to a scene of pigs.

Paul's Wedding

The morning of the wedding, all the girls went out for mani/pedi's. It was heavenly! Then we went home to get ready. Rylee was a flower girl- she was so excited! She looked so cute in her dress and loved carrying her own little bouquet. This picture above is my favorite- when the preacher said to kiss your bride, Paul really went for it with gusto!

Then the reception afterward. My girls loved dancing! It was so much fun!

That's all the pictures. I might post some of the funny stories or things my kids said, but that's about it. We had a great time- thanks Mom and Dad and everyone!

Vinyl Sticker Before and After

This is the area by the door to our driveway (we don't have a garage- this living room is a converted garage). I knew when we moved in that this would be a high traffic area, so I wanted a place we could put the stuff we use often. This shelf and shoe bench from IKEA fit perfectly, but the space looked a little bland still. Especially since we FINALLY took down the winter coats(hello it's summer Mother Nature)!

Enter the vinyl wall stickers! I bought a few sets of different ones at Robert's when we were in Utah for Cole's Grandma's funeral. I miss having so many craft stores close by. Anyway, Rylee was my helper (aka the one who wanted to do everything, so we divided up the stickers- I put up the flowers and one butterfly and she got to do the rest).

And here is the After (please forgive the poor lighting and angles of the photos). So cute! I love it! Now all I need is a cute cushion for the bench. Then maybe we'd actually use it for putting on our shoes, instead of piling our backpacks and bags on it.

This is for http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/ Before and After Party. Thanks!

Texas Vacation- part 1

Now that I have almost all of the pictures from our trip to Texas, I can share what we did.

We went to the Children's Museum. The kids loved it- they ran around everywhere. I'm so glad we had enough for man to man coverage- it was Mom, Adam and I with Rylee, Cade and Telena. I was with Cade most of the time. We loved exploring how things worked.
Rylee driving the ambulance.

Cade experimenting with water flow.

Me and the kids at the end of the day- soaking wet after playing with the water part.

One day we drove up to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. It was so cool to see the history of the brand and see how they made it. The best part were the samples. Such yummy ice cream. It's seriously the best in the world. We even brought some home with us.

Rylee posing with the old-fashioned truck, her hat and souvenir bag. We argued about what she could buy, but I finally let her get what she wanted with her money. She wanted a metal flag bucket- she had great dreams of what she could use it for, like seashells and 4th of July candy.

Such a cute little girl. When did she get so big?

Our little family posing for a tourist picture.

Mom, Dad and Adam with the kids. Yes, that is Adam's happy face. Seriously though, the kid does not smile for pictures. On the way to and from Brenham I sat with Adam and watched a movie on his iPod. So fun.

On the way home from the tour, we stopped at a factory outlet mall. It was so awesome. I wish he had more time there, but we hit 6-8 stores in a couple of hours. I bought the t-shirts that I posted about earlier, and used Mom's embroidery machine to embellish them.

We spent a day in Galveston- touring the Flight Museum (Cole's choice) and then going to the beach. We all forgot cameras, so I bought a disposable one at the Flight Museum. Man, that was a cheap camera. It took okay photos at the beach (see above), but in the museum they are grainy and crappy, even with the flash. I haven't scanned them yet either.

We went to a lake- The Blue Lagoon- up by Huntsville.

Isn't it gorgeous. Those little specks by the rock face are my babies with Uncle Adam.

We went SCUBA diving in the lake. It had been forever since I had done it (like before kids) and I was so scared to go down in the water at first. After the inital freak-out, it was great. We loved it.

The running joke after diving was my hair. I forgot to bring anything to tie it back with, so it looked like this the whole time. Like a troll doll.

Cole underwater. He's so handsome. We held hands a lot. I think he likes me.