Trip to Vancouver

Luke - "Do you expect me to clean it up?"

Dad - "Blondie, do you love everyone?" Blondie - "No, just Grandma."

Dad - "Should we go back to Grandma's house?" Everyone - "YES!" Kitty - "I love Grandma's house."

Season of "owies"

This weekend DH & I had to attend several choir rehearsals to prepare for our Stake Choirside that took place on Sunday evening. On Saturday afternoon we were at the stake center rehearsing and since DH & I both sing in the ward choir, we get to take all of the kids to rehearsals with us. (I can't wait until M&M is old enough to babysit the younger ones for us.) We were up on the stage singing on some risers and the kids were behind us playing. The next thing I knew, there was a crash and Blondie started crying. It turns out that she was playing behind the curtains at the back of the stage and she fell and hit the side of her head on the corner of a table (at least that's what she says happened). It was bleeding just a tiny bit but several days later it is looking very colorful...

Then this morning I was out in the backyard mowing the lawn and the kids were playing out front with M&M in charge. All of a sudden I heard Kitty screaming and walking towards me across the yard. Apparently she was playing on M&M's scooter and tripped over it and fell - and of course hit her face on the pavement.

The bagger at the grocery store later today was wondering if the two of them got into a fight with each other...

Watch your step... or hand!

On Saturday DH and I were out in our garden trying to decide how to lay out a brick path that we are trying to put in. Last summer we took a lot of our bricks for the path out of the garage and made a pile of them along the fence in the garden. I made one trip and grabbed several of them and took them to the other side of the path to lay some down in a pattern. Then DH & I went to the pile to grab some more. I picked up one brick and as I grabbed a second brick with my right hand, I felt some very sharp, stinging pains shoot up my hand. I quickly dropped the bricks I was holding and cried out in pain. DH, who was standing next to me, was looking all around and asked me what happened. I didn't know myself and was looking around when I saw some wasps flying around and concluded out loud that I was just stung. We quickly went around the back of the house to the back door. I could not believe how much pain I was in. I have been stung a number of times in my life and I don't ever remember it hurting this much. I just wanted to sit down on the lawn and cry but I knew that getting my hand under some cold water would make it feel better. I still at this point didn't know how many times I had been stung and I still couldn't pinpoint where the stings were on my hand. My whole hand just hurt. When I got into the house and turned on the kitchen sink to put my hand under I started examining my hand and found just 2 stings - one on my pinkie finger and the other on my index finger. I had DH put some cold water and ice in a dish so I was able to soak my hand in ice water and then it started to feel better.

The sting on my pinkie finger must have been worse than the index finger because my pinkie finger swelled up pretty good for a few hours and the other finger didn't have much swelling at all. A short while later DH went to the store to buy some wasp killer spray and went out to look at the brick pile. He turned over the brick that I had picked up and there in one of the holes in the brick was a wasp nest. I'm still amazed though at how quickly I was stung. Another thing that surprises me is that I am out in the garden just about every day and I have never noticed any wasps flying around the brick pile. We think that there are probably more nests because the wasps are still flying around quite a bit. It's going to take a while to kill them all because it is a pretty good size pile of bricks that we are going to have to disassemble slowly and carefully.

DH did some looking around on the internet to try and determine what type of wasp I was stung with. We still weren't sure after looking at some pictures of the insects and their nests so I went out a little while later to try and get a picture of one. Needless to say that I was a little nervous when I stepped out into the garden and a wasp immediately flew up to me. I managed to stay calm though and was able to get a picture that helped me identify it as a European Paper Wasp. The identifying feature of a European Paper Wasp are their orange antenna - they are the only species of wasp (which includes hornets & yellowjackets) with this feature.

DH found a sting pain index on the internet that categorizes stings on a scale of 0-4 with 4 being the most painful. The paper wasp is classified as a level 3 painful sting while the common bee & yellow jackets & hornets are classified at a level 2 for pain (which explains why it hurt so much than other stings I've had before). Sources on the internet also state that unlike hornets & yellowjackets, which can be very defensive, paper wasps will generally only attack if the nest is threatened, which apparently was the case here...

Pictures

Kitty drinking from her glass at the wedding luncheon.









S grandkids (plus my brother G)





Another picture of the S grandkids













D and K cutting the wedding cake






Kitty fell asleep after she fell and hit her cheek really hard on a chair at the reception.








Blondie didn't want to dance at first, but then she really got into it.









Luke finally agreed to dance with M&M just before we left.






Blondie (far left) and Kitty (far right) asleep at Grandpa W's house.





M&M & her dad on the 4-wheeler.





Luke on the 4-wheeler (the first time he climbed on to go for a ride he burned his leg on the hot engine!)







Luke roasting a marshmallow











Grandma N with cousin L (almost 2 months old in this picture)










Cousin M with her birthday cake. Happy 1st Birthday!










Kitty giving her dad a present on Father's Day.










The children's exhibit at the Church's History Museum














Blondie & cousin J pushing each other on the swings.










Slip 'n slide at Grandma & Grandpa's house.








My kids with my sister A's kids after our hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Busy month!

I have not been blogging much this month because there has been so much happening!

Here is a brief summary of the last 2 weeks (more pictures to follow):
Tuesday, June 12 - Finish up the dresses for my nieces for the wedding. My parents come to watch the kids while DH & I attend an adults-only dinner at the bishop's house.

Wednesday, June 13 - Finish Blondie's dress (I took out the zipper & redid it because I didn't like how it turned out the first time). Get the house ready for company. Tan & family arrive around lunchtime. Mom & Dad N arrive in the evening.

Thursday, June 14 - S & family arrive around dinnertime. Attend a session at the temple with family. Pack for wedding & family reunion.

Friday, June 15 - Wake up early and leave for Idaho Falls (leave all of DH's family at our house). Attend wedding luncheon, sealing and then reception for my brother D & his wife K. Leave after the reception to drive down to Perry, UT for the White family reunion. (Find out that nephew C threw up in the car the whole way up to the reunion and for a while after arriving at Grandpa W's house! Poor C - & parents!) Thanks to everyone who set up our tent for us so we were able to put the kids to bed relatively easily (since we didn't arrive until about 10:30 p.m.)

Saturday, June 16 - Participate in family reunion activities. Go swimming at grandma & grandpa's hotel pool (it was an incredibly hot weekend - highs near 100!) Clark was feeling better but then after dinner at Maddox's, Tan got sick! When we got back from dinner Blondie & Kitty were fast asleep on the couch in the house. We were able to carry them to the tent asleep but they woke up again about an hour later, oh well. The kids were given some glow bracelets that they could make necklaces out of (thanks to grandma n). Then we had some s'mores followed by a brief wind/thunder & lighting storm. M&M was freaking out from the wind blowing the sides of the tent, but thankfully it didn't last too long.

Sunday, June 17 - Family testimony meeting & then lunch (Tan is feeling better but C starts throwing up again). We left the reunion after lunch and traveled back to our house. After we unloaded the car, the kids & I drove to my parent's house for dinner. DH stayed at home to spend some more time with his family. It was my niece M's first birthday so we had some cake & ice cream & presents to celebrate it. Came back to our house and gave dad & grandpa some father's day presents.

Monday, June 18 - Tan & family leave super early to catch their flight back to VA. The kids & I meet my family downtown at the church family history museum. DH stays at home to spend some time with his parents before they leave later that day. Visit the conference center & eat lunch at the ZCMI mall. Go back home to say goodbye to grandma & grandpa n. Drive to my parents' for dinner.

Tuesday, June 19 - Do some shopping for DH's birthday. Drive to my parent's house and spend some time playing in the water out back. DH stops on his way home from work for dinner. Drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon a little and stop for a short hike. Have some cake for DH's birthday back at my parent's house.

Wednesday, June 20 - My brother G & family leave.

Thursday, June 21 - Drive my parents to the airport (they flew to Coeur d'Alene for my brother's open house on Friday). Work in the garden.

Friday, June 22 - Watch my niece J while her parents & sister climb to the Timpanogos caves. Do some grocery shopping. Go swimming with A's family & M at a pool near my parents' home. Eat pizza for dinner at my parent's house.

Saturday, June 23 - A & family leave.

More roses!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Here is my large rose bush in full bloom!

Slip 'n Slide

Saturday, June 2, 2007
I bought this slip 'n slide a few weeks ago and pulled it out on a hot Saturday afternoon. The kids had a blast!

Kitty & Blondie weren't too crazy about the sliding part so they would run down the slide through the sprinklers or Kitty liked to stand at the end and hold her hand out to get wet!

Afterwards, Kitty & Blondie were just plain tired out! When I came back inside from helping DH out in the garden, both of them were asleep on the family room floor.

Roses

Here is one of my miniature rose bushes in full bloom. I planted 3 of them about 3 years ago. One of them didn't survive and the last one isn't nearly as big as this one. My big rose bush isn't blooming yet but it's close.

End of the School Year

We are approaching the end of the school year for M&M & Luke. Luke's last day is Tuesday & M&M's last day is Wednesday. M&M's class had an awards program on Thursday afternoon & all of the kindergarten classes in the school (seven of them) put on a combined end of the year program with singing & reciting poems together. M&M received numerous awards in her class: Perfect Attendance (a first for us), Reading Awards, Math Awards & an award for completing 10 projects/goals throughout the school year. This is M&M with her 2 teachers, Mrs. Smith on the left & Mrs. Bateman.

Luke unfortunately was on the very front row for the kindergarten performance and we couldn't see him where we were seated in the gym. I was able to get some video by standing up at the side wall and then sitting on the floor in the front. He was a very animated singer and it was fun to watch him really get into the songs. Luke's teacher, Mrs. Bibo, commented to me on how well Luke did & that he really sang his heart out. Then as we were leaving the school another parent that doesn't even know us saw Luke and then said to me that he really enjoyed watching my son during the performance.

Baby bird

On Thursday I went outside to water our garden and noticed a bird fly away quickly and some movement & noise where the bird had been. When I got a little closer I noticed that there was a baby bird sitting there in the corner of the garden. It was not a really young baby because it had a lot of feathers already and looked a little "plump". I have no idea where it can from because there are no trees nearby that could house a bird nest. I watched throughout the day and saw the mother bird (a Robin) numerous times flying down to feed the baby. A little later on it had moved to the other side of the garden gate so it was in the front yard and then a little later it was back where I had first seen it. On Friday it had moved to another corner of the garden and I haven't seen it today at all. I hope that it is still alive and that it was able to fly away at last...