Ward party Fun!

Every year at our ward party we (yw) are responsible for having an activity booth for everyone to do. For the last few years we have done the sucker tree which I think it awesome because it involves little work etc. Well the girls wanted to do something different so I started thinking about what was popular right now and thought of Angry birds. So I started searching for ideas etc. I found a blog that someone had done it for her childs birthday. She posted EVERYTHING! The templates for birds etc. So I just took from that what I wanted to do and rolled with the idea. Started saving boxes from work etc. I think the hardest part of this whole idea was finding the solid colored balls. Seriously you have no idea how many walmarts I had to drive to etc. I ended up finding the small blue ones from the dollar store. Two for a dollar which was awesome because I was able to get more. The red ones I found at Toys r us and they only had a few. I found the big green ones at two different walmarts. This city is HUGE and I was shocked how difficult finding the balls would be!

Well I just have to say it was worth the trouble because it was a HUGE hit! The lines were long the entire night. I think the girls were tired because they couldn't leave. We needed everyone to set the boxes up each time etc. I made a sling by buying a plastic bowl and drilling two holes in the side. Went to Lowes and bought some stretchy tubing and fixed it to the bowl. Worked great! You have to make sure you get a deep enough bowl or otherwise it will fall out. Just in case you are wanting to attempt this I wrote very simple instructions of how I did it!

So I started by drawing on the balls with a white pencil because white seemed to show up more. As you can tell by the pictures, the blue balls were a little more difficult to draw on because it wasn't a smooth surface. Once the face is drawn on, I started painting with a prime coat of white. I would just paint one and set them down to dry. By the time I was done painting all the balls the first one would be finished drying and I started on another coat so that it was completely white. I painted the entire face even the beaks with the prime coat.




After letting the paint draw, I added the beaks. I improvised as it is really hard to draw on a round surface! As you can tell some of the beaks aren't exactly straight but it didn't matter at all!



Starting to look more like the angry birds we know! Almost finished! Just added the center of the eyes, eyebrows etc according to what each bird looked like. Once those dried I outlined all the faces!



Here are the finished balls! Are they not the cutest!! Finished them off buy putting a glaze coat over the paint so the paint wouldn't peal off! The glaze seemed to be what took the longest to dry. It was worth the small amount of time spent. I think they are adorable!



Sadly I didn't take any pictures at the actual ward party. I ended up painting the boxes a grey color and set them up like this picture. It was so cute! But you can get the idea anyways! Way fun!


Of course we had fun wearing our angry birds costumes! I love that Chris and Keirsten have been coming for Halloween. It is so much more fun with them here!

I am missing him!

Today I am missing this man! I can't wait until he returns home in a few days!

Rob posted this picture on his Facebook account. I had forgotten all about it but thought I should put in my blog because it made me think of lots of memories which i don't want to forget!
This is one of the first pictures that rob and I ever took together! Can you tell that I am nervous? I have to laugh and chuckle at this picture because in ways I can go right back to that time and feel the butterflies and excitement I felt then. Now here we are 22 years later and we are getting on in age. I love this man so much! There really is truth to it gets better over time. I adore him and don't want to think of my life without him!

Rob and I met when he was on his mission. He got transferred to St. Johns when I was a senior in high school. He and his companion lived next door to my sister. I didn't pay much attention to him at the time. I had a boyfriend that I very much liked, but I would see them and say hello when I went over to visit kirstin. When I think back it is interesting because we did things together but I didn't notice him. Rob was at my high school graduation, they also went on the pioneer trek that I went on. There is even part of the video of us standing by each other but I didn't know him. I didn't even talk to him or notice actually because to me he was just a missionary, but interesting that we shared those experiences together. Rob and his companion were really successful in St. Johns and activated a lot of people. This is endearing to me because its my home town!

Well I moved away to college and didn't think twice about it. I was so happy and excited to get on and start my life! One weekend I went home to visit and I of course went to visit my sister. Well this time rob came over and the missionaries were there talking to all of us. Rob just out of the blue looked over at me strangely. I was thinking he is weird...what the heck. Well unbeknownst to me he was getting up the courage to ask me if he could write to me. He finally asked and explained that I was out of his mission boundaries and his mission president said he could write to me. I was in shock and thought he was weird even wanting to write to me a complete stranger. I agreed thinking he was a dork. I was flattered though because he was a very handsome and successful missionary! So that began our journey. We wrote back and forth and honestly he helped me through some really hard times in my life. Kept me on the straight and narrow which I will always be grateful for! We wrote for a few months and it was almost time for him to go home from his mission. I started slowly breaking things off with my boyfriend and started getting excited for the possibilities with rob. I fell madly in love with his spirituality!

He went home on his mission I think in October and for Christmas bought me tickets to fly out and meet his family for New Years. That was a fun experience. I will have to write about that another time. But when I think about it...I really only knew rob from his letters and I can't believe that I was bold enough to fly out and meet his family and stay with his sister and hang out with him. His of course showed me around Newport and his home turf. That was all it took. I was completely smitten and in love! He eventually moved to az for me of course and the rest is history! Four kids later and many years down the road I have grown in love with him more and more each day. It took me awhile to appreciate our life because of our rocky start to our marriage (2 kids in 1 year)but now I look at him with complete adoration! I can't imagine what my life would be like without him, nor do I want to!

Funny how this one picture brought back all these memories! It is nice to relive memories and fall in love with my husband all over again! It is nice to get butterflies every once in awhile! Those can be hard to come by!

The men in my life

My dad would really die a thousand deaths if he knew that I even put his picture on my blog. So I chose to put a picture of my family! What can he say about that? It is a good one of us at the SJ 24th parade last year. It is all of us kids minus cameron.

I love my dad more than anything. He is such an important man in my life. He is one of the few people that I love to spend time with non-stop. I enjoy his company. I Love that we can sit in a room in silence or talk up a storm. He makes the best tacos and will make them for us when asked! I admire how he can control his temper and hold his tongue ALMOST always! I like that he likes to spend time with his family! I like that we were able to go on a trip last year with he and my mom. I think I enjoy him more now than I did as a kid, but I really enjoyed him then too so its a close call. He is a great man that I love more than life.






The other man in my life of course is my husband. I am blessed to be married to rob and I haven't enjoyed him more than I do in my life right now. It has been fun growing old with him. Life truly does get better with age! He is a great dad and loves his kids. I posted a few pictures of him doing just that loving his kids. A few things that I love about rob...He is very handsome! I promise I am not shallow! I appreciate the choices he has made in his life! He can get along with anyone so easily. He is a very hard worker and once he decides he wants something nothing can stop him. I think the thing that I love about him the most, are the times that I get to watch him be loving to our children. It fills my buckets up instantly and overflows them. He is a good man and I am thankful he chose me to be his wife!

Happy Fathers Day to the men I love in my life!

Tour de Mesa

Awhile back was the Tour de Mesa. Rob talked Kailey in to riding with him this year. I was shocked and surprised Kailey agreed to it. She did pretty well considering she didn't train at all. It was fun waiting at the finish line watching for them to ride in. It was a bonding moment for sure! Way to go guys!

Gardening

I love to garden. I try and try and sometimes I see the benefit of my hard work. Lately I have been frustrated because I
have 3 big beautiful zucchini plants none of which are producing. Every morning there are these big beautiful flowers that open up just ready to produce! I also have 2 yellow squash plants next to them and one of those is producing like crazy. As I have been asking around tring to figure out what is going on, I have been told to maybe do my own pollenating. So I decided I would give that a whirl. The problem is....I think I only have male plants. Is this possible? I even went to a nursery and they showed me pictures to teach me. My thoughts are do I really need to do all this with my vegetables? It just kind of starts creeping me out a little trying to find the male plant to rub on the female plant. I love vegetables alot and I am starting to gross myself out over all of this. It seems a little to human like.

I don't really eat much meat anymore because I have grossed myself out over that and so I just don't eat much. I REALLY don't want to feel that way about my veges. What will I eat then??? For now I am just hoping the bees come around AGAIN and work their magic!





Here are the dumb things that didn't do their job while they were visiting!

Conversations with Kaden

I love this little boy! He can either bring me pure delight or pure frustration, depending on his moods! Today after school we had a conversation that went like this.

K-Mom guess who loves me

me-I do!

K- No mom not you someone else...guess she goes to my school

me-Makenna

k- No mom not makenna but it starts with a M

me- michelle, mary, on and on I guessed names starting with M.

K-Noooo...its Mckenzie. She is a girl in my class

me- Oh really.

K-she has loved someone else before me but now she loves me, with a big smile on his face!

me-wow

K-I love her too. We are in love with each other.

me-trying to contain myself. Wow you really love each other huh

k-Yep....she loves me first then nate second and drew third.

me- So what does this mean kade? This doesn't mean you kiss or hold hands or anything like that do you?

K- No mom...we just play with each other at recess. Since she loves me first she plays with me more.

Oh to be young and in love!

Small towns

I can't believe that two months have passed since I lost posted. Time is just flying by. I have had lots of thoughts at different things that I wanted to blog about, but now they slip my mind. I am getting really good at being forgetful!
So for now I will just post about about a few thoughts.

We went home for Easter this past weekend! I didn't take any pictures except with my phone and I don't know how to put them on here quite yet. So maybe another time. Because we really worked our tails off at our house cleaning up the yard! I need to give us credit with pictures! Anyways....

I love driving home. I love getting lost in thoughts with myself. I believe that I always say this! I took kade and makenna with me on Thursday evening. Rob was coming up the next day. As I was driving I started thinking about how much I love coming back to the small town I was from. I really don't like living in the city. I started thinking about how I just loved driving in the dark. I love when it is dark with no light around except from the moon. That was exactly what it was like. A big bright moon lighting my way home. I was admiring the dark when it stirred up memories of me growing up and laying in my bed at night trying to fall asleep. I would stare out my window at the moon. I was a little taken back at the memory but loved having those feelings all over again. Kirstin and I would stay up late at night talking, sharing stories, listening to the radio, but again in the dark. I prefer that now...just ask my husband. I hate having to fall asleep to the tv blaring and the lights from shows shining. I just don't like it and can never sleep well. My husband is quite the opposite having to fall asleep to the tv. So we do this dance that I have to wake up and turn it all off and then I can peacefully sleep. However the times that my husband does compromise, it still isn't the same darkness as in a small town. You still get the city lights blaring in. Does anyone else know what I am talking about. It just doesn't get dark in the city EVER!

I started thinking of all the things that I missed about a small town as I always do. I am telling you the drives are so relaxing to me! I put on my music and think away. I love that when I come in to town there are not thousands of people driving everywhere. There are only a few people out at night and I love that. I catch myself sometimes thinking where is everyone and what are they doing? Jealous of their slow paced lives. I love that the speed limit is 40 and then 35 then 25 through town. Sometimes i get tired of constantly speeding my life away. I like to drive like a grandma slow and steady! I miss home and am glad that I get to go visit on occasion!

We pulled in to town around 1030. Of course everyone was in their homes. No one was out in the streets. I took a cruise through main checking everything out and then went to my parents who I was staying with. Got everything unloaded, visited with my mom who was waiting for us to arrive and then tucked the little ones to bed. Went in to the room that I always have slept in since I was a child and layed down. It was dark and I liked it! I rolled over and the bright moon was outside my window and I smiled and relieved old feelings and went right to sleep! It was the perfect end to a perfect drive home!

Anniversary

I am thankful to be married to this handsome man! I had a hard time finding a picture of us together, but this is the most current one. Today is our anniversary. We actually went to San francisco over the weekend and had a long weekend away together. It was so nice! I love when we get alone time!
We had a blast doing an array of things. Rob was very romantic and brought me a bouquet of tulips which are my favorite and arranged for us to be picked up by limo and off to a nice dinner. First time riding in a limo in my lifetime. I have a lot of first with Rob. He never disappoints! I love that we experience so many things together. I love him alot and look forward to many more years and firsts together!

Kaden

This weekend Rob took the girls to California and Kaden and I stayed home all by our lonesomes. I have been determined to spend as much quality time with him as possible. Saturday morning I got up and took him to the church. They were cleaning it and asked for any volunteers to come. Kade didn't really want to but I was determined to teach him how to serve! We went out to eat, took skip to the dog park and had some great time together. I thought this picture was fitting because for alot of the weekend we have done nothing but play catch. He lives and breathes football! He cracks me up listening to him as he talks to himself making his own plays etc. While I was playing catch with him I got a very bright idea. I decided to change his reward for good behavior at school to this. If he comes home and has kept his hands to himself and done good at school I promised him that we would play catch with him for 30 minutes every day. You should have seen his face light up! I am hoping it was inspiration and this could be the trick to motivate him! Wish us luck!

Christmas

We were lucky enough to go home for Christmas this year. I really love when that happens, other than hauling all the presents. Kailey, Makenna, Kaden and myself went up a few days before Rob and Kyle. On our way we were excited to see SNOW! It was snowing in Forest Lakes and so we pulled over on the side of the road for some playing in the snow! Brrrr it was cold! The kids had fun with their cousins as always, going to movies, playing football outside in the cold, riding bikes around town to find these football stickers. I think the kids spent all of their money trying to get a sticker from every NFL team. You will be happy to know they are now stuck all over Kadens room and bed. Oh joy!




Kailey took my camera one day and these were some of the pictures she took. Pretty good eye! Especially the one of Kaden peeing outside. What are the odds!






Growing up one of our family traditions since both of my grandparents lived in town was, on Christmas Eve we would go to my Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen's and Christmas morning we would go to my Papa and Grandma Cowleys. I was happy to go on Christmas Eve over to see my Grandma. She is the best. Does she not look fabulous for her age? She is 94 years old, almost 95. I love her beyond words. I love hearing her tell stories of olden times, or just her memories in general. She fascinates me. I sat at her house as everyone was talking and just reflected on the many many memories that I had at her house growing up. Almost made me want to start writing a life history of my life because my memory is failing and I don't want to forget some of the things that I thought was fun in my life. She is starting to get a little forgetful and losing her hearing a bit, but she is always fun and entertainment to me!



I personally love just being home with family all around. We had night after night of games, food and enjoying each others company. We played minute to win it which the kids loved, name that tune tv edition, and others that escape my mind at the moment. Guess this is why I need to blog when things happen!













Christmas Eve was traditional Nativity done by cousins. I love that my family still does this and happy that my little one as annoyed as he was having to do it, got right in to the spirit of things! Isn't he such a cute little shepherd? Kailey was Mary and Makenna was also a Shepherd. Kyle opted out since he is too big. It was a great night full of remembering what Christmas is all about!






Christmas morning was exciting and surprising! Santa was very good to the kids. It was filled with lots of fun things...Scooters, footballs, cars, games and ipads for the big ones. Everyone was very happy and SURPRISED! Santa is sneaky! Love this picture of my cute husband! It always cracks me up....Rob has to get up and get dressed, brush his teeth before anyone can come out and see what Santa left. Everyone else is always in their pajamas, stinky breath and all! Guess this is a Foxcroft tradition? I love him so!