Walkin', Rockin' and a little P.E.

For those of you who don't know yet, I've started a Biggest Loser Challenge with some of my cousins, aunts and uncles. There are at least 8 of us right now - and an $80 pot on the line. So, after we take Ben to school in the morning, I take the kids and go for a walk. It is 1/2 a mile to the park and the park has to tracks - a 1/4 mile and a 1/2 mile. Depending on how I feel, or how much time I have, I do 1 1/2 - 2 miles each day. I don't know that that will change. I wouldn't mind doing more, but the kids don't tolerate much more. And when the weather changes, or the baby gets too heavy, I'll have to come up with a new strategy. For now, this is working. I've lost 5 lbs!

Last week we were invited to join Benjamin's class for P.E. I thought that was kind of fun. It's nice to be involved in what he's doing. Sarah was a bit shy and definitely hungry. The class was at noon and I hadn't fed her yet.
There was running and throwing and tagging.

They played some really fun games that got their heart rates up. Maybe next time I'll bring the stroller for the baby, and join in.

On Saturday, Kannon and I went our separate ways. I wanted to check out the Candy Dance Faire in Genoa and he wanted to see his buddy riding motorcycles in Fernley. I took the baby - he took the other 2. I think we both had good days. I do have a hard time with the quiet, though. It's almost hard to know what to do with my brain! I only found 2 things I really wanted at the Faire (which was much bigger than I thought it would be!). I bought candied nuts - fresh - and so yum! And I wanted this twirly-in-the-wind thing, but after I bought a sno-cone I didn't have enough money. And I wasn't passing up the sno-cone! I've been wanting one all summer. It was a lot of walking, really hot and crowded. I don't think I'll feel the need to go again.

The kids enjoyed watching the racing motorcycles with their dad and a trip to Wendy's for lunch.

Sunday was restful, peaceful. We got our naps - yeah! Kannon did most of his home teaching. I felt like I needed to do something - I was kind of restless. When the day was almost done, the kids got a little crazy. This was them being rockers! It ended when Sarah bumped the baby.

And a video of my laughing baby. I was SO excited to find a giggle from him on Sunday!

Phunky Photos

Just thought I'd add some random pics today. Ben took this one. The other day, Sarah and I went to the dollar store and bought Ben this cube. It broke almost immediately. He had a dollar and wanted me to go back to the dollar store right then, so he could get a new one. Well, a few days later, I did take him. He bought another one. It, too, broke soon after he got it - with Sarah's help. She paid him for it. I had one more that I had bought to go in our gift box (for birthday parties, etc.). He wanted to try again, and bought it from me. Well, it's on its last leg - been taped a few times. I guess that's the result of a dollar store toy.



This was quite a surprise. I was sitting at the computer with a content baby on my knee. I felt and heard a splash on the floor - THEN I heard him pooping. HOW does it squirt out like that!? So, I had poop on my skirt, on my toes, and on him. Where to start? I gingerly heel-walked to the baby's bed, sat him up and cleaned him up. He wasn't even that messy. On the way back to my room, I swiped a few spots that had dripped along the way. It took a few paper towels and some wipes to get this mess cleaned up. Yuck!




And this is our living carrot. The kids were so excited to give me this carrot Saturday night. They pointed out the legs, bum and nose. This photo was taken shortly before the skinning and decapitation!

Camping

I've been so busy with the canning. Ugh. I finally finished my pears on Friday. I was silly and thought I could do 5 boxes of them! With a newborn. Remind me to not do the canning deal when I have new babies. My mom and husband helped out so much. We finally got it all done. Some of them were for my mother-in-law. When Kannon was out of work she offered to pay me to put up her fruit. So, we did a box each of peaches and pears for her. And when I was sick of canning and ran out of bottles, we dried the last little bit. I was so excited to put it all away and have my kitchen back, that I forgot to count how many we did - just know that it was alot!

Thursday night, as Kannon and I were going to sleep, he said, "I have a favor to ask you. I kind of wanted to go camping this weekend." Yay! That was what I'd been thinking all week. I hadn't gotten to do anything fun like that this whole summer. So, we picked a spot - Fort Churchill - and I spent half of Friday packing up for a camping night.

The kids were really excited, too. I was sort of frustrated that it took us so long to get out of the house. We had to stop at Walmart and get marshmallows and a new bed for us. We heard "are we there yet?" and "when are we going to get there?" the whole way! Fort Churchill had a really nice campground, with a table, fire pit and water at every spot. We got the fire going first and then set up the tent. Everyone helped, although Ben and Sarah also spent a fair amount of time exploring. It was dark soon, and we ate dinner - perfectly cooked tin foil dinners! I was so pleased. They usually burn or don't get cooked enough. I had boiled the potatoes a little bit before putting them in with the rest of the food. Everything turned out perfect, and you know it always tastes better outside! (I could have remembered the ketchup, though.)

We also roasted our marshmallows. Those tasted really good, too. Then it was time for a potty run before bed. Well, I thought I knew where the outhouse was. So, the kids and I headed off with a flashlight. Lo and behold, what I'd seen was some old boarded up building. Since I wasn't sure where the real one was, and I didn't feel like disturbing the other campers with my flashlight, we headed back to camp and used the bushes. I know - gross. In the morning we found the potty - only a few yards away from the building we found!

We spent some time admiring the stars. They were incredible. It was fun to try and recognize some of the constellations. We had trees covering almost half the sky, but what we could see was so great. Ben was the first to go to bed. Then, we got tired of looking and the rest of us went to bed, too. It was a fitful night for me. I had to get up and feed the baby twice, cover up the kids a few times, the coyotes woke us a couple times and then there were the crazy drunk people. They were so obnoxiously loud. And it made me nervous to be asleep. They were up a lot earlier than I thought drunk people would get up.

We did a quick morning. I took care of the baby while Kannon started the pancakes. I finished the pancakes while he started taking down the tent. We cleaned up and went for a little hike.

They had a trail right by the campground so we started out on that and ended up losing it. Luckily we were right by the campground. Then we found another trail and took that one for awhile.

Ben reading the sign about the cottonwood trees.

After our hikes we went to the Fort Churchill Visitors Center and looked around. Kannon and I were tired and didn't want to hike anymore, so we didn't go down and see the ruins up close. It's really neat to see what's left of this military station, though.

Here's proof that I was actually there!

We stopped in Silver Springs on our way back, and checked out a mobile home "store." That was fun. We found an almost perfect home! Benjamin called it the heaven house. It just needed one more bedroom. We stopped in at a couple yard sales and then came home to unload and unwind. We all took naps, too!

That evening was an Elder's Quorum Ice Cream Social. I really enjoyed that. Not just the ice cream, but the socializing part!

I taught Relief Society on Sunday, which went well, and after naps we spent the afternoon with some friends in our ward. It was a great time to get to know them better and the kids loved feeding their animals. We can't wait to go back, another day, and ride the horse.

9/11 and the rest of the week(end)

Ben got an invite to a birthday party. They got to be super heroes and pick their name, color, powers. He had a good time playing with his old ABC School friends.

On September 11th the Navy Base had an air show. The day before we could see the planes practicing (and hear them). I watched them from my kitchen window as I canned peaches. Benjamin got to go on his first field trip with the school. They took all the kids out in the morning and they got to see some of the show, tour an airplane or two, a helicopter. Then they got to have the second half of the day off. We didn't choose to go out on our own because I was worried about the baby and all the noise. We did see the Blue Angels fly by a few times and so we sat out front and watched for awhile. I realized afterward that we could have at least driven out that way and watched from the car. Oh well.
Kannon wanted to take the kids out early Saturday morning to see the Reno Hot Air Balloon Races. They misbehaved (and I was too tired) so we didn't go early. But, we did go to Reno and Kannon and I took turns doing initiatories in the temple. I went first and Kannon took the kids over to see the balloons. Unfortunately, most of them had landed by the time they got there.

When Kannon went in to have his turn, the kids and I took a few trips around the temple grounds. I tried out the macro setting on my camera.

Ben and Sarah played "I'm the sleeping princess (or prince)."

We HAD to sing little purple pansies.

When the kids started running around and forgetting where we were, we piled in the car again and I took us for a drive. We ended up following some signs to a yard sale. They didn't have much, but each of the kids found something on which to spend the quarters they'd found in the car. Benjamin bought some party stuff and Sarah found some frilly pens.

For lunch we grabbed Burger King drive-thru for the kids and Kannon bought this 20" sandwich at Capriotti's for us to share. It was a philly cheesesteak chicken sandwich. So yum!

We ran to a few store, didn't buy much, realized we'd be better off making Halloween costumes this year, and got some food storage from Smith's case lot sale.

Labor Day Weekend - my labors!

I got a fun treat for Labor Day weekend - just me and the baby at home! Kannon took the other 2 and spent the weekend in Elko. Ben even got to skip school that Friday. They had a good time playing with cousins, yard sales, uncles, etc. I had a super quiet weekend! It was almost weird. I didn't really want to go anywhere anyway, but we had peaches coming in that weekend that I needed to pick up. So, in my quiet time I decided to do some projects. This was a last minute idea, but I thought since the kids were out of the way, it would be a good chance to paint my dining room floor. This floor has had many previous colors. Most recently was the blue. That pink was hidden under a carpet we took out.

My plan came about after deciding I wanted the black and white checked floor in the kitchen (a project still to come). Then I thought, "hey, I can paint the back floor to match!" Yay! So, I started with 3 coats of white floor paint. Then I spent a night drawing lines and the next morning taping. The taping took FOREVER!

And then I about cried when we took the tape off. It, of course, had bleed lines every where! I've since discovered the trick. If I had painted white again, over my tape it would have bled and then the black would not have. Or you can paint a clear acrylic paint first and then your second color. Haven't tried these tips yet, but the DIY sites say that's the way to go.

So, then I went back over the whole floor with a small sponge brush and fixed the white and black til they were perfect. My choice of companion while completing this was "The Lord of the Rings" movies playing in my bedroom. Since I had the issues with the paint, I didn't get this finished before the kids were around. So, they got to watch more TV than usual, too. (The dining room has the door to the backyard, and I wasn't letting anyone on this floor!)

I wish it could have stayed so pretty. Who knew black and white would show so much dirt!?

My other project began with this mirror that I found at a yard sale that weekend. I only bought this - found it for $5......

.....and transformed it into this! Clever me.

The floor kept me pretty busy, but I also found time to make Kannon's salsa. I got about 20 pints of it and think it's one of my better batches. I spent Sunday afternoon with my parents and Susan & Stephen for my Dad's birthday. We also went over on Monday, after Kannon got home, to celebrate with cake. Sarah had been planning Papa's birthday for about a month. I made him a homemade cake and decorated it the way she wanted - with his name and boy sprinkles. She had a picture for him in a gift bag. It was really sweet. Now, she is planning her daddy's birthday.

Holly's giveaway

So, thought I'd try my chance at winning this cute apron! A great giveaway from a very talented lady! http://peasinourpod.com/2009/09/do-you-want-this-apron.html