Still Recovering from May!

May was a CRAZY month! The girls are all a year older, school's out, Lylli is baptised, Dean is married, and I'm ready for school to start again! I won't post pictures of everything because you would be reading this post until next week. So, I've changed some of the pictures on my side bar.
Okay. Let's see if I can remember everything.

Somewhere in the middle of May, I hiked up to the 'Y' on the mountain with my Young Women.

Lylli had a field day at school on her birthday! Grandma and Grandpa were in town and surprised her!

While Lylli was doing relays, we went over to an old man's house to look at all his whirly-gigs that he makes! He's a genius! And he has a lot of neat stuff! He even came out and gave us a tour of his sheds where he has antique tools and and all sorts of other things. The man was amazing! And so nice!

He made this flower pot and the girls are being sassy!

He also made this! It's hilarious. In case you can't read it, it says, "Self Powered Riding Lawn Mower."

Layla had her birthday on May 22nd. She's 5 and ready to start Kindergarten in the fall. She is doing well with her letters and numbers and LOVES dress up and pretend and riding her new scooter!

Seryn's birthday was May 23rd. She's 3 and loves to be with her sisters. (I don't know how it will go over when both of them are at school.) She loves to play the piano, be with mom, and ride her new scooter.

Lylli's birthday was May 27th. She's 8 and had her baptism last weekend. She loves to be outside and whenever she's inside, you can find her reading (usually her new scriptures) or coloring.

We attended Dean and Leah's wedding in Bountiful on May 28th. We are so excited to have Leah in the family. The girls love anyone who belongs to their favorite uncle! But she is wonderful! It was great to be in the temple with my family!

Lylli's baptism was June 5th here in Provo. It was nice that our families could be here and the Blevins too. It was nice to be surrounded by family on Lylli's special day. When I was in the dressing room with her, she was all smiles and told me, "I've always wondered what it was like to be baptised." Now she knows and I can see how her choice affects her daily decisions! She is a wonderful example to all of us!

I'm sure I missed something. But it was crazy! Oh, and if you want to read what I've been writing, I've been posting a book, as I write it, on my writing blog on Wednesdays as part of my Wednesday Romance series. It's been kind of fun!

I'll try to do better with my posts!

Prom Dress

Remember how I was working on a prom dress several months ago? Well, I don't remember if I posted pictures of it or not. If I didn't it was because I couldn't get a very good picture of it. I tried it on, and, quite simply, I couldn't fill it out. But Joanna sent me a picture of her at prom and I thought I'd post it so you could see the camo dress. BTW - she LOVED it!!!

Monster Causes Damage to Mother!

I didn't realize I had such strong and abusive children!
Before I start the story, keep in mind that Lylli will be 8 in three weeks.
On Monday, I took Lylli to the doctor for a booster shot for her Hep A. When we got there, the doctor made a reasonable argument and I decided to give her the second Chicken Pox vaccination too. Lylli was upset because I told her she'd only be getting one shot and she didn't want two. I had her calmed down by the time the two nurses came in. However, she wasn't as consoled as I'd thought. She ran from the nurses, screaming at the top of her lungs. We tried to reson with her but she wouldn't listen. We encouraged her to sit, and she thrashed. We seriously ended up having to hog-tie her to give her the shots! Ugh! One nurse grabbed her around the waist, pinning her arms to her side, while I grabbed her legs, and the other nurse administered the shots. Not fun! We finally got the first shot in her and then she didn't make a peep for the second one. I wanted to strangle Lylli!!!! In the end, she walked away with two shots, I walked away with a torn fingernail and a bruise on my leg, six inches long and two inches wide. Needless to say, she didn't get the chocolate chip cookies promised to her for being brave.
(Keep in mind, my legs are getting thinner! :) And the bruise is actually worse than the picture shows. Who knew that my camera is so terrible.)
This was my bruise Tuesday morning.
This is my bruise this morning.

Layla's Done with Soccer

This was Layla's original team. It seemed like every week there were more and more kids. The one to her right is her friend, Taylor.

These other pictures are from yesterday's game. It was her last game. She did better and better each game and had a lot of fun!

I love her tongue hanging out!

Yesterday's weather was strange. It was cold and a bit windy. It would be sunny for a few minutes and then snowing! Thought we were maybe back in Wyoming! :)

What's a good soccer game without the loving support of family? This is Seryn and her friend Coby. Coby is Taylor's brother!

Popcorn on the trees

Okay, I put a picture at the top of all the trees here a couple weeks ago. I've never seen anything like this before! We call them popcorn trees and they are EVERYWHERE! Unfortunately my allergies are going CRAZY! But they look neat.

April

What a month!!! We've been so busy! And while I've been on the computer, I've been working on my book. And, three days ago, I finally submitted it!!! Whoo Hoo!!!!
But I'll start at the beginning!
We got to have Easter at our home this year. We've always been with family for Easter and it was a BIG change. But we had a nice time. We colored eggs on Friday night, the Easter Bunny came Saturday morning, and we did our Easter dinner on Sunday after conference.


Seryn has also been learning to ride her bicycle! She had great balance last year but was too short! This year, she's a little taller and doing well! She demanded Shane put the pedals back on, so he did, but not the training wheels. He's been able to let go a couple times and she can go by herself a short ways. I don't think it will be much longer now!


It's been so nice lately!! So warm! One day it was in the mid 70's! I took the girls on a bike ride, which is always fun! We did a couple last fall and I'm excited to get to do them more often!


Some of you know that I attended the LDStorymaker's Writer's Conference this weekend! It was TONS of fun!!! I learned lots and got to meet some neat people! I even met some of my favorite authors and friends! People like Joyce DiPastena, author of Loyalty's Web and Illuminations of the Heart. And Sarah M. Eden, author of Courting Miss Lancaster. And Liz Adair, author of Counting the Cost. Tristi Pinkston, Hearther Justensen, Nicole Giles, Kari Pike (mother of Aprilynn Pike), Tina Scott, Aubrey Mace, Marsha Ward, Stacy Anderson, (just to name a few.) I met TONS of other people and authors. I had so much fun! This picture is of my online writing group ANWA (well, those of us who attended the Whitney Awards Banquet last night.) ANWA (American Night Writers Association) is one of the best things I've ever done as a writer. They are so supportive and helpful and just a lot of fun!!!

(I will have more pictuers on my writing blog in a day or two!)
Since I was gone, and being in Provo, Shane was in charge of the girls. That's something our family has never experienced before. He's never been in charge for two whole days before and found it more challenging than he thought! And Lylli learned how much her mom helps her remember everything for school!
So, we're doing well and I will try harder to keep up better on my blog!

Rice Krispie Easter Eggs

If you ever need a fun, crative, food craft for Easter, this is it! I did this for Lylli's party today and it turned out great! The kids thought they were awesome! I molded rice krispie treats to look like eggs. Then I let them dip them in colored sugar and frost them with frosting. You could use candy too if you wanted! They were lots of fun. These are the left-overs I just sugared here at home! Happy Eastser! (I'll put the full recipe on the recipe blog!)