I said garbage, not laundry...

Okay, so I've been having my almost 3 yr old son help me throw diapers in the garbage when they are just wet. Well, look what I found when I was pulling out the clean clothes to put in the dryer.

This is Jack's diaper that was hanging on to a blanket as I pulled it out of the washing machine. I could be wrong, but I don't think these diapers were meant to be washed, LOL.

So I had to shake out each article of clothing to get all the gel off of them and just shook it onto the floor and had to sweep it all up. Yuck! Sure glad it wasn't a dirty diaper.

The finished product

Here is the finished product of our homemade cookies n cream ice cream. At this point it is about halfway eaten already. But I thought you might like to see how it turned out. It was so yummy! In fact, I just ate some a few minutes ago, hence the spoon to the right of the bucket.

The nice thing about making your own ice cream is you can put as many cookies or whatever else in that you want :)

We're so glad when Daddy comes home!

Curtis has finally come home for his 2nd vacation and we have been nothing but busy trying to fill every minute with productive activities. Starting on Monday we picked Curtis up from the airport around 12:30 and then went straight home to eat lunch. Then most of us took afternoon naps, everyone but me. After naps we packed up and headed to Boise where we dropped off the kids and went to get our tickets for the Harry Potter 6 movie. Then we rushed over to the Pita Pit in Meridian where we ate dinner and then rushed back to make the 7pm showing. It was a great movie however I think I still like #5 the best. Maybe that will change the more times I watch the 6th movie. Anyway, then we hung out with Colby and Krista who had watched our kids for us and then back home where we all got right in bed.

The next morning we packed up again and went over to see Curtis's mom and to take the 2 older kids on a walk/ride to the nearby playground. His mom watched Jack for us while we did that. Then we were able to visit with his mom a little bit after that. Everyone got hungry so we went back home where we made some delicious grilled sandwiches. Afterward it was time for the kiddos to take a nap while Curtis and I went out to deep clean the garage. Let me say it looks SOOOOO much better. I've been waiting for about a year to get that cleaned out. Then since we were hot and sweaty we decided to race down to the Rec Center with the kids and go swimming. Swimming worked up our appetites so we went back home to eat dinner. After cleaning up the kitchen Curtis headed outside to mow the lawn while I gave the kids a bath. We actually got them in bed by 9 that night I think. We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

Then Wed morning (I started typing this Wed but did not finish until today) we took another lovely walk (would have been more lovely without all the garbage cans we had to walk by for trash day) through our neighborhood and stopped to play at the playground. We also got to talk to someone in our ward for a little bit. When we got back we rested a bit and then it was time to clean out the shed. Later I ran to the store to get stuff to make home made oreo ice cream. So Curtis took a break from cleaning the shed to put the trampoline together, eat lunch, and make the ice cream. After getting the ice cream and shed finished we got the kids up from their naps and went to redeem our free meal KFC coupons and brought it home for dinner. Then we all relaxed in the family room to watch "Bolt" since that's what the kids wanted and Curtis had never seen it. Well, Curtis still hasn't seen all of it as he fell asleep halfway through. But I sure don't blame him. Both of us were exhausted again last night. Oh, and by the way, the ice cream was VERY YUMMY!

So here's to another busy day as we get ready to go to the cabin tomorrow! Nikki is really looking forward to going on the train ride and hiking in the mountains as are all of us.

Nicole and Garrett waiting at the airport for Daddy.

Jack waiting for Daddy too.

Our first lunch with Daddy home.

Jack was having fun trying to pull the tablecloth off the table.

Curtis and the kids eating lunch.

Daddy brought home some pretty jewelry for the girls and an animal video for Garrett.

Now that Daddy is home it's time for Jack to try out cereal for the first time.

We had to take the tray off and then he discovered he could fall forward. Good thing he was belted in.

Yummy!

Yay for ice cream!

Reading the ice cream instructions with Daddy. Sorry I did not get a picture of the finished product yet but it was delicious!

New videos

Hey everyone I just posted 4 new videos on our youtube video bar so if you want to go watch them. One of them is a video from the kids doing sparklers at my brother Stillman's house (2 days after the 4th of July). Enjoy!

My success story

Okay, I decided that it's my turn to share my before and after photos. And no worries, I kept my clothes on. You don't want to see what's under there (stretch marks & wrinkles), hehe :)

Remember this picture? It was taken on 2/19/09 (2 weeks after having baby)
I weighed about 143 then.


This was taken today.

Drum roll please......

I now weigh 123.5!

I still can't believe it. I'm almost to my weight I was in high school. I've lost more than I set out to lose. It's so exciting to actually accomplish my goals. And I'm sure everyone wants to know how I did it. It's a combination of breastfeeding, no birth control (kind of pointless right now), eating smaller portions, eating less meat, and keeping an active life style. Just remember the word of wisdom, moderation in all things. When I started to lose weight I was working out but I haven't actually worked out in the past month because of sick kids and vacations. I've just been staying busy w/my kids and my home. And I've been snacking more throughout the day instead of having full on meals, and still drinking water when I remember to. I also read about cinnamon helping to lose weight. They say "the spice mimics your body's insulin, which stimulates fat cells and allows excess sugar to move out of the blood. Try to get a teaspoon a day - top oatmeal or applesauce with it." I personally have been putting it in my oatmeal almost every day. And of course it always helps to make healthier choices when eating. You know, getting more veggies and fruit in your diet.

Oh, and one more thing I remember seeing on the news. Getting a good amount of sleep (7-8 hrs I think) every night will also help in losing weight. They did a study with some people that the only thing they changed about their routine was getting more sleep and all those people lost weight. So when your body says it's tired, listen to it.

Good luck to all those out there who are trying to lose weight. You can do it!

Utah trip 2009

Last week was our trip to Utah for a family reunion on my mom's side, 4th of July, and my grandma's 88th birthday (which is on July 4th).
So the trip started on Wednesday. We made it out of town at 11am. The kids had a great time playing together in the back of the van. I had borrowed my mother in law's portable dvd player to help entertain them but most of the time they were too busy playing anyway. I also had fun doing flashcards with them. They would each take turns saying the letter or word. It's probably the first time I didn't sleep at all on the way to Utah, and I wasn't even driving. We made a pit stop in Logan to visit the temple and take photos and then went to visit my very good friend Heather that I grew up with. It was great to see her again. I haven't seen her since the hospital after Garrett's 1st surgery. Then on to Aunt Deb's house where we had a wonderful dinner of hot dogs, hamburgers, and some delicious salads.
It was late Wed night that we discovered that my niece Katelynn had pink eye. Lucky for us we didn't have anything planned for Thurs so we hung out at the house all day and my sister and her hubby went to get medication for their daughter's eyes. There ended up being a big afternoon thunderstorm with lots of rain. And I couldn't believe that I saw my aunt's neighbor outside mowing his lawn in the rain and lightening. That guy was just asking to be electrocuted.
So now that Katelynn has been on her eye drops for 24 hrs she is not contagious and Friday we were off to Deer Creek Canyon to have some fun at the lake. We had a little fun trying to find the right site though. We thought we went to the right place but discovered it wasn't and as we were backing up to turn around, out of nowhere a big blue dumpster got right behind us and it wasn't seen before we hit it. That bully beat up my poor van's rear end but luckily it will be fixed and look as good as new on Monday. I didn't show a picture of the dent yet. I'll wait until it's fixed so that I can show before and after pictures. Anyway, after finally finding the right place we were able to enjoy chatting with relatives and getting in the freezing cold lake. We decided that we were too tired to do anything else the rest of the evening so we just headed back to my aunt's to relax and watch a movie.
Saturday was our busiest day. We drove out to Hobble Creek Canyon where we had a reserved picnic area for our reunion. The day was filled with lots of activities, a nearby playground,wading in the creek, singing happy birthday to my 88 yr old grandma and the weather was beautiful with sunny and breezy conditions that felt good. I felt like I was going in 3 different directions at once though trying to make sure I knew where my kids were and what they were doing, helping them if they needed it, and trying to take pictures of everything. Which would explain why I neglected to get sunscreen on my baby and so his head and part of his face got sunburned. Afterwards we went over to Grandma & Grandpa's new house in Springville (technically it's my uncle Gilbert's house actually) where we visited, the kids played with toys, the boys played basketball, and we ate dinner. Then it was back to SLC where we watched fireworks from the top of my other grandparent's condo. It was beautiful up there. We were all so tired from the day that we had a hard time getting out of SLC to get back to my aunt's house in Bountiful. My brother in law Chris kept turning the wrong way. My sister Tamara and I couldn't help but laugh every time he did. I think we laughed the whole way home. It was great.
Finally, Sunday morning we went to church, ate some yummy leftovers for lunch, and hit the road for home. I've never taken so many pictures on a vacation before, partly because my new camera can hold a ton of pictures where as my old one could only hold about 100 or less. As it was I took over 250 pictures this trip but I'll just keep it to two slideshows. It was hard to decide which pictures to not show but then there were also a lot of the same poses sometimes. Sooooo here are the pictures from our trip for your enjoyment.

Curtis before and after

Okay everyone, Curtis has reached his goal and now I get to share my hubby's before and after shots.

Beginning weight : 197.5

January 2009

His weight now: 170

July 2009



I'm so proud of you honey. You look great! Losing all that weight also makes you look younger. Can't wait to see you in person in 2 weeks!!!!