Thursday, July 31, 2008

Springtime Reminder

This blanket has been waiting for me to finish it for awhile... I ran out of yarn with 3/4 of the last border row left (which seems to be the trend for me lately, very frustrating to have to buy a whole other scane just for that little bit). It's hard for me to believe I made a whole blanket out of variegated yarn... I'm not a big fan of it, only in small amounts. But during Easter time I saw this yarn and, due to the season, I loved it & had to use it! Then I ran out of yarn & had a blanket to make for a wedding... one thing followed another, so just not I've finally finished it! Yay!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

"Perspective"
Click here for more wordless wednesdays.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Mormon Milestone

Sunday (as you can see I'm a day behind on all my posts lately ;)) Liv gave her first talk in primary! It was about kindness... being kind to animals and creatures, neighbors, friends, and family. We practiced it quite a bit so she would feel comfortable when it came time to actually give it. Plus, before the primary room filled up with children I took her up to the microphone so she could get a feel for where she'd actually be giving the talk. Her daddy, little brother, and Grandma Young came in to watch her. When it was time I took her hand and lead her to the microphone since I would be helping her to remember the words since she can't read yet (she is only four). Starting with the very first sentence she spoke loud and clear into the microphone! I was so proud of my little girl, she did such a great job!!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Pioneer Children

Saturday our little town of Toquerville celebrated it's 150th birthday, so we woke the kids up at 7:30am (I know, it's contrary to the post on the 24th...) and dressed them as little pioneer children so they could ride with Gma and Gpa Young in "Grandpa's Old Red Car"... a '53 Ford beauty! They had a lot of fun and were very good at waving their little flags out the windows, it was a hoot! The parade was followed by a free breakfast at the park, which was incredibly packed for our mini-sized town! After a little concert of music from the days when the city was established we took the kids home so they could rest up. I actually gave Gary boy a long ride hoping to get him down for nap... instead he fought imaginary bad guys in the back seat! Luckily, the kids early morning never ended up in orneriness. Later we returned for a dutch oven dinner... yum, and a children's rodeo. It was so fun to watch the group of kids chase chickens and various sizes of piggies, and then a couple of dads! It was a good ol' time!!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Cooling Down

It is tough... this incredibly hot weather we've had this summer in southern Utah. I feel like we're stuck inside because it feels like we're cooking in an oven whenever we're outside. Finally, we found the local pool in our new home town (well except we have to go two towns over...) It is nice enough... it's made with the gradual slope which is very kid friendly! This last time we talked the grandparents into coming with us, the kids loved that! It was a lot of fun! My daredevil son is getting real brave in the water, which is good and bad. Todd got him (but still not Liv) to blow bubbles in the water. We're easing into teaching them to swim. I know, it's shocking they don't know how to with all the boating they've done since the day they were born. Anyways, it was a whole lot of fun to get cooled off in the pool, kids are the best!!

Friday, July 25, 2008

My All-American Girl

Yesterday was a special holiday for Utah, the day it officially became a state! After enduring the 4th, I decided I didn't want to get the family up early for a parade & then stay up late for fireworks... the kids were just too awnry all day. So this holiday Liv and I decided we'd go to the parade with her grandma & forgo the fireworks. I know, I'm a party pooper. Nonetheless, check out my beautiful girl! She had fun enough, despite the 100+ degree heat, at the festivities! She is such the American Girl!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Family Pictures

Yesterday we attempted family pictures, and it went amazingly well. When Gary turned two I took him to my studio at Sears to get pictures taken... he was so terrified of the flash that he ran away. We had to box him in the room, but still he would not put one foot on the backdrop. Todd brought him into work a couple of times so he could get used to mommy and the big flash (since that seamed to be what scared him). When I took the kids in for Easter pictures my district manager was there & did a fabulous job getting my kids to love getting their pictures taken in the studio. I didn't know what to expect this time around... and I was pleasantly surprised when both kids were extremely cooperative. Even Gary was laughing & having fun, doing all that was asked of him! He was good until the photographer had him lie on his tummy for a pose. He then laid his head down and wouldn't budge... he was tired and done! Luckily so were the pictures! We went ahead and got the firs picture shown here (sorry they're all in such poor quality, I stole them off the sears website since I didn't want to buy a whole CD this time). It was a very good experience!!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Rain in the Desert

Finally, we have rain! It's been trying to off and on for the last week, and I have been wanting it so bad. Not only because the temperature around here gets into 110+ degrees, but because I LOVE the rain. I always have. Well, as long as I'm not driving in it! Growing up, whenever there was a thunderstorm my mom would turn off all the lights and we'd watch the lightening, counting down to the thunder. One time she turned on the Garth Brooks song Thunder Rolls... set the mood just right (of course back then I had no clue what the song was about)! Anyways, so I've been craving the rain, and I was so happy when it finally came, and now the river is full... I love the sound of it's rushing water as well!! Plus, we found this "little" friend trying to get into our place as an escape from the unusual rainstorm. I'm glad Todd found it first cause I probably would've freaked! We put it in a jar in case my father in law wanted to keep it. He likes to bring bugs and such to show the little kids at church, he's the one holding the beetle in the picture. All sorts of fun last night!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Lake Powell & Our Birthday Party

This weekend we headed to Lake Powell with Todd's family. They decided that for their family getaway they would also like to enjoy the funness of the lake. Only this was going to be a whole new experience for my little family because we would be camping on the beach across from Lone Rock. Well, except for a few of us... Karlene had rented a hotel room for the girls, except Karlie cause she's tough. Still, it turned out to be quite the adventurous weekend! By the end of the first day we had gotten stuck multiple times in the soft sand trying to find a speck of beach to call our own, and again when trying to head to the hotel. The beautiful Ariel cake at had gotten for our birthday celebration on Saturday was no longer round, and I had two giant blisters on the back of my heals. Yet, we were able to finish it off with yummy roasted marshmallows! The second day, Saturday, July 12th was my birthday! My sweet little boy, being startled by waking up in a strange new place, got me up at 6:30am. We left the room to let the others sleep in and found seven sweet gray bunnies with white fluffy tails eating a grassy breakfast. My favorite part came later that day when I got to take some totally awesome pictures of the guys jumping the wake on their wakeboards! That night we celebrated mine & Liv's birthday with a birthday Luau (hence the Ariel atop the cake... the princess of the sea). The wind had stopped blowing sand everywhere long enough for us to have barbecued terriyaki chicken. By the way, we once had two torches until Todd spilt oil all down the side of one... when it was lit the whole thing became one giant flame! But the sand started up again so we gathered inside the tent for the unwrapping of presents, pinata, and cake! That night, probably due to being completely worn out, the kids slept much better. Sunday my blisters had finally hardened and I was able to play in the water with my kids, which was very refreshing. We had been blessed with overcast weather so the temperature topped off around 96, but on Sunday the clouds were gone & it was VERY hot! Packing up everything took too long, but eventually was done & then we were homeward bound. It wasn't my favorite trip, but it was definitely unforgettable!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Happy Birthday Liv

I can't believe my baby is FOUR YEARS OLD today! Four years ago I had an incredible day which ended with this beautiful new addition to my family! I named her Olivia Lynn Young, she was 7lb 12ozs of goodness! Her daddy was just as proud, or more, when I was ready to let go of her he took her out to show her off to her new family who was waiting in the hall! Now she has grown so much... she's smart, active, and beautiful! She can recognize almost all the letters, match all the uppercase to their lowercase for all but two letters of the alphabet. She can spell book, ball, cat, map, and all of her family's names all by herself! Like her mom she loves chocolate but is very picky about what she'll eat, and loves to shop. But she has her daddy's smile! She loves dolls, the Disney Princesses, Littlest Pet Shops, and making pretend food in her Dora Kitchen.
She has an incredible imagination, and blows me away frequently! We celebrated our birthdays together at Lake Powell on Saturday... there will be more to come on that!




Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Quiet Books

I love The Finch Family and Games, they make the cutest helpers for a whole lot of LDS needs. Most recently I've been working on these quiet books (first known as file folders, but I did it a little different) to keep the kids busy during sacrament meeting, and now I am officially done! I absolutely love how they turned out! Each book has fourteen two-page activities. I made two of them since one kid always wants exactly what the other one has... yes, my kids are spoiled! But I love it, it's a fun part of being a mom (at least I think so). I say I'm "officially done" because I thought I was... at first I thought I would just have the kids lay the pieces in place, but when it actually went into use the lamination made it too slippery. I didn't want to use Velcro, because I think it's too noisy. I thought about sticky-tack but I don't think my kids understand how to use it right, maybe Liv but I could only foresee trouble when it got into the hands of Gary boy. With combined heads Todd and my MIL came up with magnets... so I cut up the thin magnets used for business cards into small squares. Turns out it works well enough! The kids love them & I'm excited for quieter (I hope) meetings in the future!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Book of a Thousand Days

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale was a tough one to get into after reading Jodi Picoult, because it's written from the view of a teenage girl's diary. Yet in the end I really loved the story! I had a hard time while Dashti, the maid, and her lady were in the tower because I wanted them to bond more than they were. But the book kept me guessing and that is what intrigued me the most! Plus, the love story, the innocence of it all was sweet and heart wrenching. I recommend it to anyone needing a quick, fun, book full of twist and turns! The only thing that has disappointed me about Shannon Hale is that I learn, in the end, that the stories are just retellings. It's good I don't previously know, the stories, though, because I fall in love with them from Hale's telling. Yet it takes the uniqueness out of them.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Our Celebration

I hope everyone had a fun filled fourth of July! We had an adventurous one! We started with the little and super short parade of Hurricane City. It was worth it just to watch the kids race to gather all the candy they could! The kids played game and earned tickets at the little fair in the park. Later we went to watch Wall-e. I love living in this small town for the fact that we can show up five minutes to when a movie starts, on a holiday, and still get good seats. The movie was cute enough, but not quite enough to keep mine and Liv's attention. On the other hand, Gary is going through a robot phase & laughed a whole lot!! After that we had BBQ with family and played card games. When the sun finally set we went to the Toquerville city park to light fireworks. Living in this desert we were told that you had to go to the park to light your own fireworks, yet we were the only ones there, weird. But Hurricane was also doing air fireworks so maybe that's where they were. But it's not like there's a whole of us in this city anyways. It turns out Gary boy is still terrified of fireworks, he has been since he was an infant. It blows my mind since he is our little dare devil & 100% boy, yet loud noises scare him like crazy. He did surprise me in the end, though, when he wanted to hold his own sparkler! Liv really enjoyed the fireworks, and sparklers, she surprises me too! It was a lot of fun here at the Young's place, I hope the same for all of you!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Watching Nate Perform

Yesterday we had the wonderful opportunity of listening to Nate & the Granite Youth Symphony play in the park at Hurricane, Utah. Every summer this symphony of select students from the Granite School District in Salt Lake city go on tour. This year they traveled all over the south west of the US. They've been to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, the beaches of southern California, they went to see the Blue Man Group, then the Grand Canyon, and then yesterday they stopped in a town near us before they went on to Cedar City to watch Fiddler on the Roof, and then finish the trip off in Bryce Canyon. At each place they perform before they get to site see they perform. I was so grateful that I was able to listen to them. During the school year their songs are classical, but for the summer tour they are a whole lot of fun! It was extremely hot, EXTREMELY, I can't imagine playing (especially wind, which, by the way, Nate plays the Clarinet). Living down in southern Utah I don't get to see my "little" brother perform much, so this was so fun for me to have the chance to watch him again. Especially since he graduated this year so this is his last time touring with the group! Honestly, though, what I liked the most is that I had a great opportunity to take great pictures of Nate performing! Good Job Nate!!