The New and Oh-So Improved

The old... wood rotted, sliver inducer, ready to break at any moment, swing set. This was here when we moved in. I don't know how long the former owners had it either. We've been meaning to sand it down and repaint it for years now and it has only gotten worse over the years.

We've been talking about building off of it and adding more wood to make it more stable and change it but then I saw a good deal on one. That specific one would have been right around the same amount to change it. We then decided on a different one and then I waited for a good sale. I heard the store does big sales around the 4th of July. I waited and got it for 30% off. Wahooooo!!!

Here it is! It is so nice and the girls love it. They wanted $500 to set it up. Are you kidding me? Not that Josh ever would have paid it, even it had been much less than that but $500, who are they kidding? It took an entire week of him coming home from work, eating dinner and working on it until it was dark. I helped too, picked out the parts and hardware. I know, sounds hard but I also entertained the kiddos while he was setting it up.

The rock climbing wall.

The little dining area. The girls love sitting on these bar stools, eating lunch and playing restaurant.

The clubhouse. Equipped with pretty flowers.

2 swings and the glider.

The ladder on the other side of the clubhouse.

The sandbox area. We still need to put sand in there.

The cool curvy slide.

The girls love it. They sit up there with their sleeping bags, pillows, books and candy. They stay up there and giggle together and come down for reinforcements once in a while.

It has been the best purchase, no slivers, more to do and it isn't going to break underneath my children's feet any day. Plus a fabulous babysitter.

$200 In The Trash, Literally

Okay, not totally literally, it's not like I took a couple of $100 bills and threw it in the garbage. Josh was out of town in Iowa and I had gone down to visit a friend in Provo for the day and night. I was gone for about 24 hours, came home and found I had barely left the fridge open. Of course, I had turned the AC off, so the house was super hot. Everything in the fridge had to be thrown out. It stunk so bad. Cheese had melted to almost nothing and everything was hot, not just not cold, or warm, it was hot.

Of course, we had just gone grocery shopping a few days before. Why couldn't something like this happen when our fridge is empty and we desperately need to go grocery shopping and you wouldn't really be losing much? I figured it out and I threw out around $200 worth of food. It was horrible. I sat on the floor, cried then proceeded to throw everything out. I guess it was a good opportunity to deep clean the fridge.

Momma Bird

The park strip out in front of our house doesn't have grass, it's all rocks. Just one more thing we don't like about this house. Anyway, there is a bird who is always sitting in the park strip, chirping at everyone who comes near. I finally got close enough to see that she had eggs that totally blended in with the rocks. You can see them in this picture but you couldn't pick them out without seeing her there chirping everyone away.

Some dumb little neighbor kids thought it was funny to come and tease the bird and to try and touch her eggs. I had to scream at them to keep them away but in the end, I think they smashed them with a rock and thought they were funny. The momma bird looked like that bird, "Mikey" from Surf's Up. It had the long, skinny legs.

I miss hearing her chirp and I'm sad that the moronic neighbor kids couldn't leave her alone. I really don't like some kids, which makes me now like their parents. That may be wrong but true, nonetheless.

Father's Day

I literally took no pictures on Father's Day. The girls and myself got this personalized card for Josh from Tiny Prints. It was a free promotion they were running.

The top inside. That sentence is something Chloee used to say to Josh. He explained one day to her that he goes to work to make the bacon, she just heard bacon and decided he cooked it at work.

The inside bottom.

The back, with a little bit of "The Tank" added to it.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Random Pictures I Wanted To Post About

My fabulous sister, Amy, gave me this cute black dress and coral long sweater thing. Wow, I really can't think of what the word for that is. Anyway, it has been a LONG time since I felt cute in anything I wear to church. It was very sweet of her and she has exceptional taste, so I know I'll love whatever she picks out. Thanks, Ames.

Oh yes and the my girls gave me this adorable flower for my birthday. I wore it with the new dress that day to church.

This picture does NOT do these shoes justice. They are HUGE. Josh had to buy some steel toe boots for when he goes out to John Deere's facility in Iowa. Not only do they have to be steel toe but they also have to have the metatarsal guard. He brought these home and I thought they looked like Frankenstein's high top shoes. He did have to buy a size 13 but still, they looked enormous. Everyone who saw them thought they were huge too, expect Josh.

Chloee got this cool Paper Jamz guitar for her birthday. My sister, Annie, gave me the grand idea when she told me she had bought one for her son. Needless to say, she loves it.

I love that snicker. The other day, I was taking her bed sheet off to clean it and found a stash of tootsie rolls between the fitted sheet and her mattress. When I looked at her and said, "What is this?" She just looked at me, smiled (the above smile) and ran off. What?

My friend, Melissa, had a lump in her throat and had to have half of her thyroid taken out. A couple of days after her surgery, she came over and I helped take care of her. Yeah, I did such a great job, here she is coloring with my kids on the couch. It ended up coming back benign, so no cancer. Yeah!!!

Treehouse Museum

I love the Treehouse Museum. My kids love it too. We went a couple of weeks ago with my friend Lindsay and her daughter, Ellie.

Who doesn't love a good, old fashioned tepee?

The map of Utah.

Halle's sourpuss face. Of course she's ticked off about something.

Halle and Ellie riding the bull together.

Sisters can share after all.

I love this picture. It looks like she's going to tip her hat and it has the phrase, "HOW THE WEST WAS FUN" in the background.

The GIANT chess set.

Halle giving Ellie "loves" after she pushed her. It's a good thing, for Halle's sake, that Ellie is so forgiving and still wants to be friends with her.

Sisters, Best Friends and Worst Enemies

It is amazing to me how these two can be the best of friends one minute and the next, they are the worst of enemies. It changes on a dime, a whim, a change in the air, a millisecond. It is unbelievable and it drives me CRAZY!!!

I was getting ready to take some pictures for Josh's sister down by her house. As we were waiting, I snapped some of these picture of the girls. I watched them as they played and then tried to beat each other to death, then giggled and laughed and then went back to pulling hair.

I don't know why their Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personalities were bothering me so much that day. I sat there and thought, "You two are best friends, STOP kicking the crap out of each other!". Then I remembered, 2 sisters who were the exact same way.

Amy and I are the same distance apart as these 2 are. I mean within a week of the same distance apart. We are 2 years and nine months apart and so are my little hellions. I remembered hating Amy when I was a kid. She was very mean to me and picked on me, on a regular basis. I don't think people believe me when I say that, probably for 2 reasons. Number one, Amy is so sweet and kind and very passive... NOW. Number two, not many people believe that I would have let someone beat me up and not retaliate. Clearly, personalities change.

I could write stories on here about Amy that would make people think I was lying, because surely someone so sweet, never could have done something like that. I look at Chloee and Halle and I know that one day, they will be the best of friends. I know that day will not come until they are older and probably married. I know that they will call each other and cry about their latest struggle and the other will listen and understand. I know that they will be able to be themselves 100% around each other and that they will be able to make each other laugh when no one else can. I know that you have to go through the hell of growing up together to truly appreciate the friendship you'll have later on.

I know that one day, they will be best friends. I KNOW this because I have it with my sister, Amy. I am so grateful for her and for the friendship we have. Sisters sometimes are the worst of enemies but years down the road, they become the best of friends.

I Couldn't Pass These Up

The girls and myself where in Michael's the other day and we came across these cute, porcelain, boot planters that were on sale. Halle's is the purple one and Chloee's is the pink one.

Halle is ready to plant her flowers. She's got all the right gardening utensils.

We packed them with potting soil.

The girls picked out the packet of flowers they wanted to plant.

They pushed the seeds down in...

Halle pushed hers a little too far down. I think she thought she needed to get it to the bottom of the boot. She was NOT happy when Dad stopped her from doing so.

This was at the beginning of June. Needless to say, the flowers are dead... we forgot to keep watering them. That's okay, we are going to plant some more and hopefully this time we can remember to give them water. Probably not.

Bracelets

Chloee received a jewelry making kit from one of her friends for her birthday. Both her and Halle made some cute bracelets.

Josh helped Halle make her bracelet. Yes, it says Stein. It comes from a song that I used to sing to Halle. It went something like this, "Hallestein, she's only seventeen...." (sang to the beat of "Beauty Queen"). Anyway, her name mutated into Stein. We are weird, this we know.

The girls wear them everywhere. Halle even wore hers to church. She refused to take it off. One of the nursery leaders asked me about it. It's kind of hard to explain how you mutated your child's name into "Stein".

T-ball and Grandparents

Chloee did T-ball this summer. She loved it. She got this bat for her birthday.

I love seeing that long, curly ponytail in the back of her hat.

A friend of ours coached her team. His son was playing on the team as well. I was really happy to have him be the coach. He's so easy going and the kids have fun. Josh helped coach too.

My parents came down for one of her games. Chloee desperately wanted my dad to see her play a game. Note: My dad is an AVID YANKEES FAN. Chloee's team, The Boston Red Sox. Micheal used to wear a Red Sox hat just to get my dad all riled up. Love it. The game they came down for, fell right between mine and Chloee's birthdays, so we celebrated those at the same time.

Do you think she LOVES that ring, or what?

My dad was going to wear his Yankee hat to Chloee's game (they were even playing the Yankees) but my dad decided to put that aside and support his granddaughter. His XC kids gave this hat to him for a present and to tease him about the Red Sox. I can't get enough of it.

My parents gave Chloee this tee to use for practice. She loves it and Matt was more than willing to help her out.

She got really good at it.

Thank you so much, Mom & Dad... and Matt for coming down to watch her play a game. It meant the world to her.