A week's worth of 4th of July!

This week we have been running to keep up to everything that's going on!

Sunday July 1- Millville Canyon was still on fire.  I snuck out of the house after all the kids were asleep!  I wanted to see if I could see the fire burning on the mountain.  There are way too many tall trees lining 200 East.  So, I walked down the hill toward Main Street.  I was able to catch a glimpse of the mountainside halfway down 200 East but other than that I couldn't see much.  (These pictures are some that a friend of mine took.  She had a better view from her place in Nibley.)

This was the best photo I could get from our place.

Monday July 2- My kids missed summer school today!  They spent the night at my in law's house on Saturday night & played super hard all day Sunday.  I couldn't wake up any of them!  Let me tell you how disappointed they were when they woke up & realized I had let them miss school!  Sam got to have her cousin Sadie sleep over.  They were cute together.  They don't get to play together too often & they were thrilled to have the opportunity to play for so long!  They were really good & went to bed when I sent them at 10:30 pm.  I did peek in on them a little after I sent them in to Sam's room & noticed that Sam was reading even though Sadie was asleep.  I didn't tell her to put her book away because I knew she wouldn't last too long!

Tuesday July 3- I took all my kids & Sadie down to my parent's house to get in the pool.  They had so much fun!  My dad had put a picnic bench up as a make shift diving board.  Nash did cannon ball after cannon ball into the pool.  He has inherited his dad's fearlessness for sure!  Around 8:30 or so I took the kids up to my girlfriend's house so we could watch the Logan fireworks.  She has a straight shot view from her back yard.  The only one of my kids that watched much of the fireworks was Brookelyn!  The rest of the kids were off playing & couldn't care less that there were a bunch of fireworks going!  What's funny is that they see these kids like every single day!  You'd think they'd be all excited about the fireworks!

She likes to drink her pool water!  Good thing we use house water to fill up the pool!

Nash using the make shift diving board grandpa made for the dog.

Sam helped Brooke go up & down the slide.

Wednesday July 4- My mom called me first thing this morning to tell me about the Cricut Cake Mini they had on sale at JoAnn's (Have I mentioned how detrimental it is to my budget that my mother works there?).  She said she was wondering if it was something I wanted because it was on sale for 1/2 off (these things are usually $120).  I told her I'd run in to look at it because it sounded like something I'd like.  I left my house at 11 am.  For those from here, you know that the ridiculous Hyrum parade starts at 11:55 am.  Yes, my goal was to be back home before the parade.  HA!  I made it to JoAnn's to look at the Cricut.  I decided that I did in fact want this amazing machine.  My mom told me she'd buy it for me as an early birthday present (seriously?!  Yep, best mom ever!)  I was headed back to Hyrum & thought I'd make it until I hit the dip.  Traffic was backed up from the light at McDonald's to the top of the dip!  I detoured by the baseball field by the rodeo grounds.  That road wasn't any better.  If I had been thinking, I would have gone home through Wellsville!  I ended up going down past my mom's house & around Hyrum Dam to get back to my place!  We got home just before noon & pulled out the stroller.  We just walked down 200 East to the corner of Main Street & watched the parade from there.  This parade is ridiculous & every year I swear I'm going to boycot it (people put their crap out to save places a WEEK in advance!) and every year I end up taking the kids. Guess I'm a sucker for that cheesy smile on my kids' face.  After an hour of parade there was a lull.  My kids were saying that the parade was over (anyone that has been knows that a ONE hour 4th of July parade in Hyrum is unheard of, we all know it's a solid TWO hours!).  I was like, "Yep.  It's over!  Let's go home!"  So we started walking back up the hill to our house before they caught sight of the remainder of the parade!  Since I remembered to sunscreen everyone & we only stayed for an hour, no one even got sunburned!  We were home long enough to feed all the kids lunch & then we busted out the double stroller and walked down to the city square to see what booths they had this year.  I'd say 95% of what they had were food booths.  I'm glad I didn't waste my time with a booth there this year. My parents called & told me they were going to bbq at about 7 and we were invited to come down.  I took the kids down at about 6 & they all jumped in the pool (again).  The make shift diving board was still up & I wondered if it would be an accident waiting to happen this time.  At one point I saw Nash piggy back Caleb up the diving board & jump into the pool with him on his back.  Then, I saw him stand at the end, pick up Caleb in front of him & jump off.  I started wondering how much more good luck we could have.  Caleb walked up the diving board & went right to the end.  He did a few tiny jumps to psyc himself up to jump in all by himself.  On about the 3rd jump, one foot went off the diving board & down he went.  Lucky for him he had his life jacket on to cushion his fall.  Plus, my dad said he caught his arm of the edge of the pool so I think that slowed him down as well.  To put it simply, the kid fell about five feet onto concrete & smacked his head (because where else would my kid get hurt?).  He had a good goose egg on the right side of his head & was quite sad.  There wasn't any blood (which I was thankful for because it totally freaks him out every time).  My mom sat & snuggled him for a minute & then they decided he could lay down & rest on grandma's bed.  He was out cold in less than five minutes.  We were worried about a concussion so we kept going in to wake him up about every 20 minutes.  About the time it got dark he woke up so he could come watch fireworks.  My dad had my brother in law light off some ariel fireworks in the backyard.  My sister's brother in law & his family came down too.  Their 2 kids got in the pool with the rest of the kids (yep, they were pruny when they got out).  At one point, their little boy who is five jumped into the pool with one of the infant floaties on & it flipped so he was stuck under water.  My brother in law, Chad, jumped in after him to save him (full pockets, lit cigarette & all).  Thankfully Chad was quick enough that Carson was ok!  Gave us all quite a scare though!  After that Hyrum City started lighting off their fireworks display .  We could kind of see them from the back patio but there were quite a few trees in the way too.  We didn't get home until after 11 pm!

One of the "fabulous" items Sam bought at the square.

Check out this girl's farmer tan!

She loves this little pool because she can get in & out all by herself like a big girl.

Sunny thought it was great that Nash would stick his face in the water & blow bubbles for her.

Thursday July 5- Since my kids were up until after 11 the night before, I didn't even try to wake them up for summer school today.  Yes, they were thrilled when they woke up to find out that mom let them miss summer school twice in one week!  Guess I'm not quite the meanest mom ever!  My mom gave me my Cricut Cake machine the night before so I spent a good deal of the day playing with it.  I want to use it to cut out the 100 daisies I need for the wedding cake/cupcakes I'm doing.  I've made lots of progress & I'm happier with how they are turning out.  I've only got 12 of the 100 daisies I need so I'll have to work on it a little bit every day.  Today I also kept my niece, Olivia (three days older than Brookelyn) and my nephew, Kash (2 years younger than Nash).  They came over at about 11 am & stayed until just before 5 pm.  I was surprised at how well all the kids got along.  I was a bit worried that Kash & Nash would be mean to Caleb but I only had to get after Nash once or twice (I did talk to him about it the night before too).  I was also worried that Brookelyn would be a turkey to Olivia because she doesn't generally have to share her own toys.  All in all I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the day went!  And, we finally got some rain today!  It was a bummer that it happened on the day we had friends over so they couldn't play outside, but it was nice to get a relief from the hot & dry weather we have been having.

(I need to put centers on the daisies still)

Friday July 6- Today I spent the day baking.  I was put on cake detail for my grandma's 75th birthday party on Saturday.  I decided to make this cute cake that has Happy Birthday on it in a cute font.  I wanted to do the letters out of the candy melts.  Everything would have gone fine except that I had to do the letters for Happy Birthday like six times because I could only get one or two letters to come out without breaking!  I did make a trip to Logan in the morning to take Sam to get her allergy shot.  While we were in Logan I stopped at Hobby Lobby to see if they carried the Cricut Cake machine.  I wanted to price the cutting mats.  No luck.  I did however find a candy mold that had ribbons on it.  I decided that since I was going to be doing the candy melts for the birthday cake, I could do the candy melts in the mold at the same time.  (Why do I do these things to myself?)  We also made a quick stop at Staples to pick up some school supplies on the lists the kids brought home (Staples & Shopko do their school supply sales in July).  And, I ran into Michaels because when I was there the day before I found some more flip flops that were even smaller sizes than what I had already bought & tied tule to.  Now I have six more pairs of flip flops to tie tule to!  I got home around three & started baking the birthday cake & making the candy melt ribbons.  I don't think I stopped working on it before 10 pm.  It's amazing to me that I always get these "great" ideas & then they take ten times longer than I thought they would (because I'm totally a perfectionist) & I end up neglecting my poor children.  At least I'm aware of the problem, right?  And on the bright side: school supplies are bought, the cake was finished & I had 20 candy melt ribbons done & all packaged up (fundraiser for Relay).

Saturday July 7- I decided I had better clean my filthy house before I embarked on yet another project. So, what did I do?  I multi tasked!  I would clean while my candy melt ribbons were setting up in the fridge.  Then, when the ribbons were ready, I'd stop cleaning, dump the ribbons & get more in the mold!  I now have my house cleaned & 3 dozen candy melt ribbon sucker things!  I have 6 each of 6 colors.  Now, I just need to pick up some orange candy melts from Kitchen Kneads on Monday & do 6 of those!  Why the candy melt ribbons?  I decided they'd be a fun fundraiser at Relay.  How am I going to keep them from melting you ask?  Well, my plan goes like this: they are packaged in saran wrap now, I will freeze some water bottles & placed my packaged ribbons in gallon size zip lock bags.  Then, I will put the gallon size zip lock bags into a colapsable cooler with the frozen water bottles.  I won't take them out until it cools off some & I'll put them out in the shade.  Let's hope this plan works because how mad am I going to be at myself when I end up with 3 dozen + melted candy ribbons?  Yeah, mad.  At 5:30 or so we headed over to my Aunt Nikki's house to celebrate my grandma's 75th birthday.  Her birthday was actually June 22nd, but my cousin got married that day so we had a belated birthday party.  It was lots of fun to see everyone.  My cousin Ashlee who usually lives 13+ hours away is here with her kids so we got to see them too.  My sister did a cute thing for my grandma's gift.  She bought one of those fat notebooks & numbered the first 75 pages.  Then on the cover she wrote 75 reasons why we love you.  She asked each of us to come up with several ideas of why we love grandma.  It was lots of fun to fill in & to read what everyone else had written.  I think grandma really liked it.  My aunt also had a plastic table cloth & sharpies for all of us to write messages to grandma on.  My aunt said she thought grandma could use the tablecloth when she did picnics, etc. at her place.  Cute ideas!  We also had all five of the great grandbabies that were born last year line up & do another photo.

Yes, there are 75 candles on that cake!  (And a few pieces of cake around the cake!)

Oldest to youngest (left to right):  Sunny (March), Brookelyn (May), Parker (June), Bryson (September), Rhett (November)

Yep, my kid was the only one crying!

What cute girls!

Aunt Nikki brought out a bunch of bubbles.  The little kids loved watching the bubbles blow around.  It was funny to watch their faces as they tried to grab the bubbles.

The kids loved crawling in & out of this too.  All the great grandkids got one of these a few Christmas's ago.  My kids beat the heck out of ours - it had much love & much, much use!

And I will leave with a picture of Brookelyn's new favorite chair:

Yes, this is the cabinet under my kitchen sink.  She LOVES it!  When she isn't sitting right here, she can likely be found in one of the two nearby drawers that house all my kitchen towels - yanking every single one out as fast as she can!

A slow week at our house

Since my last post the USB cable that connects my camera to my hard drive has decided to die.  Hence the reason I haven't posted in awhile.  I finally decided that since I haven't gotten a new USB cable yet I'd better just post anyway!  (Today I added pictures from my phone!)

I've managed to make another batch of strawberry jam using the strawberries from our patch.  Now, if I could manage to not kill raspberries, I'd be one happy jam maker!  Today I also picked 3 jalapenos off my pepper plant!  My cherry tomato plant is loaded with little green tomatoes.  I can't wait for them to start ripening!

I scored a killer deal on a train table for Caleb.  My aunt was getting rid of hers so I bought it from her.  It came with the table, a set of wooden train tracks, a set of plastic train tracks, people, buildings, trees, etc.  He is so excited about it.  Nash & Sam have even gotten in on the train action too!

I've taken Brookelyn back to the dr.  She's had a booger nose, sadness, pulling at her ears, a slight fever, and generally just not being herself.  I was thinking it was just teeth because she's got super swollen gums where her molars are probably coming in.  It had finally gotten to be a week and a half since it all started and it wasn't getting any better.  I broke down & took her in to Insta care yesterday. They told me her ears looked good (shocker!) but that her throat looked pretty bad.  So, she's now on amoxicillan three times a day for ten days.  She isn't too happy about that but if it gives me my happy baby back, I'll suffer through 10 more days of sadness.

Little sister has gotten a little big for her own britches.  She thinks she's pretty big stuff lately.  She's recently learned how to climb up on my waterbed without any kind of help.  Great.  I also noticed the other day that she can lift her foot up & put it on the lever on her crib.  I don't think I'll be able to contain her in there much longer unless I buy one of those tents that goes over the top!

Nash lost another tooth!  He's been bugging me to pull it for a few weeks but I just didn't think it was quite lose enough until last week.  He was super tough & let me yank it right out without so much as a whimper!  Too bad I can't ever say the same for Sam!  Caleb keeps telling me he has a lose tooth too!  I think he's a bit excited to get in on the action!

I've been working on that T shirt quilt quite a bit.  I've got just under 9 hours into that sucker & all I've done is cut out the shirts, cut out the decor bond, iron on the decor bond, and layout the quilt!  I've got a few rows I can sew together now.  Once I get a few rows sewn together then I can cut a big piece of blanket to size that I have to go down in one of the corners.  The next real tricky part is figuring out how to deal with the lacrosse jersey.  It's the jersey fabric & I just don't know how well that's going to go over.  Any suggestions?  It's going to be a super cute quilt though.  Once it's all sewn together I will have to still put it on the quilt frames & tie it before I can bind it.  My goal is to have it completely done to take with me to the first work meeting I have (likely mid August).  I actually asked my mother in law if I could have all the old baseball shirts to make into a t shirt quilt for either Travis or his dad.  There aren't nearly as many as I had hoped & several of them look exactly the same.  Not sure how well that's going to turn out.

I finally bought some gum paste so I can start putting together some gum paste daisies.  Yes, I agreed to do a wedding cake.  It's an 8x8 cake with 100 cupcakes.  The gum paste daisies are going on top of the cupcakes.  I figure if I start making a few each week then I won't have to make 100 the last week of July!  Wedding is August 2nd so here's to no more procrastinating on that project!

I saw a recipe online for a watermelon cake the other day.  I decided it was really cute & should try to make it.  I read through the reviews & ended up making some of the changes.  It turned out kinda cute but the chocolate chips inside the cake melted in mine & they weren't melted on the picture.  I was sad about that.  I think it still turned out cute though.

Last week we were a little more mellow in our activities - I needed to recoup from the fire incident and catch up laundry!  This week is going to be crazy busy though!  The kids don't have school on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Sam is having cousin Sadie sleep over on Monday night & Nash might be having cousin Clayton sleep over on Thursday.  We have all the fun 4th of July activities in Hyrum on Wednesday (no, I'm not doing a booth this year) and we might go watch the Logan fireworks with my in laws on Tuesday night.

Yesterday Millville Canyon caught on fire.  Apparently it was a result of target shooters.  I got a picture on my camera as I drove by last night.  I saw on facebook last night a picture that a friend had taken.  She snapped a good one once it got dark.  I thought it had been pretty much out but apparently I was wrong!  I just hope it's under control now!

Make strawberry jam....check

Yesterday I was able to turn this:

Into this:

I'm excited!  I didn't know if I would get enough strawberries out of our strawberry patch to make any strawberry jam.  My kids eat the strawberries so fast they are generally gone in the blink of an eye!  I haven't made strawberry jam in a long, long time.  I usually only make raspberry jam because that's what the kids love the most.  Maybe I can convince them that strawberry is just as good!  And the best part?  The strawberries came from our patch (aka I didn't have to buy them!).  I think I'll have to end up buying raspberries from Week's Farm though because I don't know if my mom's patch will get enough raspberries this year.  If I could get enough strawberries & raspberries from my own patches to make all the jam my kids go through, I'd be in 7th heaven!  Not to mention I'd have a few more dollars in my pocket!

More adventures with our dad

While Travis was home we had quite the interesting assortment of activities.  On Wednesday, we took Brookelyn & Caleb to story time at the Historical Farm.  They really do a good job out there.  The lady that does all of it is really great with the kids.  They always read 2 stories and then have some kind of activity to go along with the book.  This week they read two books about gardening.  So, naturally, the kids got to plant some seeds.  My kids planted peas.  I noticed last night they are already sprouting!

My cousin that lives in Oregon came down for awhile.  Our other cousin was getting married on Friday but we snuck out on Thursday to see her and her cute kiddos.  We even got a bonus cousin to see as well!

We ventured over to the Aquatic Center again.  Brookelyn loves it!  I put a life jacket on her and she thinks she can go anywhere & do anything!  Unfortunately, since she doesn't walk, her poor little legs look like road rash from crawling on the cement so much!

Little Sister loves her Capri Suns too.

The kids climbed on Travis in the pool & dunked him so many times he finally decided he'd return the favor & rode poor Nash like a pony!

Nash went down the "fast slide" twice while we were there.  He learned that he can in fact touch the bottom of the pool in this pool & the water doesn't go over his head.  Good to know!

We didn't even make it 2 blocks from the Aquatic Center before these 2 were out cold!  I mean out.  Brookelyn was snoring!

On Friday Travis & I left the kids with his parents & went to my cousin, Aleisha's, wedding.  It was at the Riverwoods & was absolutely beautiful.  The bride & groom looked pretty good too!

This was adorable.  Everyone "oh & awed" when Parker came down with his "Here comes the bride" sign.  Such a cute idea!

Aleisha's dress was gorgeous!

This was at the wedding dinner.  I can't believe we've been married for 13 years next month!  While watching the wedding ceremony it made me think about our wedding.  Crazy to think about all the adventures we've had since then!

And the most interesting part of the week.  The part where my boys try (nearly successfully) to burn down all of Newton Dam campground.

I only got 1 picture on Saturday while we were at the lake because the batteries in my camera died.  Now normally I carry a back up set in my camera case.  Unfortunately, when we went fishing on Tuesday, I took out the extra batteries & stuck my fishing license in my camera bag.  I never took out my fishing license & put my batteries back in.  Lesson learned: buy a bigger camera bag!

Brookelyn loved the big jet ski.  Travis took her out & just let it idle & let her steer.  He said she went nuts over it.  She'll be just as much of a water baby as the other ones!  Unlike the other kids, she did not take a single boat nap or fall asleep on the jet ski!  Heaven forbid she miss some excitement!

On Saturday we got off the lake about 9:30 pm.  We headed back to our camp spot & I got all the kids in their pajamas & sprayed with bug spray.  I sent the boys outside & they helped Travis build a campfire.  Yes, we had heard there were fire restrictions.  Travis thought they were only for National Forrests though & thus they lit a campfire.  Travis later told me that he told Nash, "Do you see all this cotton?  We can't leave this campfire unattended.  Someone has to be near it at all times."  He told me that he picked up some cotton & tossed it in the fire for the boys to see how fast it would go up in flames.  I was in the trailer with the girls & trying to get Brookelyn to go to sleep.  Suddenly the boys start yelling & Travis looks out the door - he had come in the trailer to get stuff to start making dinner.  After a few colorful words from Travis Sam runs over to see what's going on & then screams, "Mom!  Come!  QUICK!"  I'm thinking one of the boys has fallen & gotten hurt near the fire or something.  I look out the trailer door & we are SURROUNDED by flames.  I grab the boys & get them in the trailer.  I start moving stuff to keep it from catching on fire.  Meanwhile, Travis is stomping out all the flames he can.  The fire starts spreading toward the trailer.  Travis has the sense to shut off the propane to the trailer & move the propane from the camp chef.  I move the kids from the trailer to the truck - which was still hooked up to my in law's jet skis.  I head back to the trailer & tell Travis there is no way he's going to put this fire out it's spreading too fast.  I grabbed his phone & called 9-1-1.  I tell the dispatcher what's going on and where we are.  He told me that he's got someone on the way & I tell him "QUICK!"  I went back to the trailer & grabbed our 2.5 lb fire extinguisher & threw it to Travis.  That didn't last long.  I grabbed the 5 gallon water holder we had in the trailer & threw that to Travis too.  That also didn't last long.  I went into the trailer to start grabbing our expensive stuff (read lap top).  I'm not ashamed to admit the first things I grabbed were Brookelyn's blanket made by her great grandma & Caleb's cow & lamb.  There would be no mercy if those items went up in flames - the kids don't sleep without them!  After grabbing the kids stuff I grab the lap top, my purse, camera, etc.  In the midst of throwing stuff into the truck Nash stops me & says (with tears in his eyes) "Mom.  I think I know how this happened."  I stopped & said "How?"  He looks at me & I swear the kid is ready to start crying & says, "Caleb had a stick that he was playing in the fire with & it caught on fire & he dropped it & we couldn't find it after that."  I told Nash it was ok & that we weren't mad to just stay in the truck.  (I found out later that while we were running around putting out fire Caleb was in the truck saying, "I'm too young to die!  I'm too young to die!"  Seriously?  That kid cracks me up!)  Finally 2 guys from the next 2 camp sites over come over with some water & good stomping shoes.  They helped throw water on stuff & kept stomping out flames.  FINALLY the fire is all the way out.  A minute or two later the fire department calls Travis's cell phone to ask where we are because they can't find us (well, no more raging fire so I guess we aren't as easy to spot).  Travis tells them where we are & that we've got the fire out.  Before too much longer 2 fire trucks & a sherriff's truck shows up just above our camp site & Travis flags them down.  The firemen hop out of the truck & start talking to Travis about what happened.  They decide it's best to spray the burn path down so that it doesn't start back up again.  Then they busted out their hose & ax's & start looking for any hot spots that need sprayed.  The fire department was there for probably 30-45+ minutes in all.  They didn't leave our site until just before midnight.  Caleb fell asleep curled up in his folding chair while they were spraying everything down.  The policeman told us that campfires are completely restricted unless they are in a metal containment unit up off the ground.  Travis told him he thought the restrictions were just in National Forrest areas.  Nope.  Poor policeman had to go site to site & tell every other campsite to put out their campfires.  I'm sure were would have won most hated campers award!

I cannot believe we didn't lose any of our property to this fire & that no one was hurt.  Truly a miracle by all means.  I can say that after the fire department left, there was not nearly enough alcohol in our campground to calm the nerves of my poor husband!  The man deserves a trophy!  He told me that the policeman told him, "Man, you must be fast!  You should be a policeman!"  Travis tried to take pictures of all the trucks on his phone but it was too dark - curse you dead camera batteries!  I asked the kids after everything calmed down, "Now do you understand why mom freaks out when you play with fire sticks?"  I got a resounding "YES".  I am quite certain that none of my children will want to get anywhere near a fire for at least a few days!  Especially Caleb! :)

The next morning Travis reminded me that he had a few batteries in his lap top case.  Great!  If I had had a clear mind the night before I could've grabbed them & snapped photos of the fire crew!  I found the batteries & changed them out & was able to snap some pictures of the damage.  What blows my mind is that as I was looking at the fire pit to see where the fire jumped from, there was not a single burn mark anywhere near the fire pit.  I think the boys must have caught some cotton on fire & the tiny breeze that was blowing caught it & picked it up & moved it across the campsite.

The first few pictures are hard to see the burn damage because of the shade but I took more later in the day.

Can you see how close it was to the trailer?

This is the trail that the fire took from the trailer toward the other campground spots.

I got a cute picture of my baby feeding her breakfast to the dog on Sunday morning!

Here are the pictures I took later in the day when the shade was gone.  You can see clearer now just how close the fire got to the trailer.  All the dead looking in front of the trailer - yea, that was on fire!

This is the trail from the back of the trailer.

In addition to having to stomp out a massive fire, poor Travis got sunburned pretty bad on Saturday while we were at the lake.  His legs & tops of his feet matched his swim suit!  Lucky for him he had long pants & his cowboy boots on when he had to stomp out the fire!

I had a nice surprise waiting for me when we finally made it home.  My daisies are starting to bloom.

My lilies are just a day or two from blooming.

My hollyhocks are blooming!

You can't tell how deep this bowl is, but it's probably about 2 of the 2 lb pkgs that you buy at the store.  The kids have loved eating these!  I'm hoping I have enough left to do a batch of strawberry jam!

Today Travis left & headed back to work.  I'm interested to see what adventures await us while he is gone!  We'll get to celebrate the 4th of July without him again this year.  I did buy a pkg of sparklers a few weeks ago.  I think I'll make sure to water the lawn the day we light them & have them use them only on the driveway!  On the bright side, I have lots of secondary water taps with hoses already hooked up to them!

The kids are still attending summer school & seem to not be quite so mad about it anymore.  That's always a bonus!  Piano lessons will start back up in July.  We took May off because their teacher was graduating from USU & then she & her kids got whopping cough in June.  Caleb is still excited about going to Miss Shannon's once a week for Craft Camp.  I'm wishing (for his sake) that it was more days a week!  We're still participating in the summer reading program at the library.  In fact, we need to go back down tonight so they can get another sucker & mom can fill out 2 book review slips to get tickets!

Next time Travis comes home we'll be celebrating Caleb's 4th birthday & going to Relay for Life!  I'm excited for Relay this year.  My mom signed up this year (she hasn't for the last 2 years).  Our team is sitting at almost $1,100 & if I can sell 4 more boxes of Cards for a Cause I'll get to add another $195 to my fundraising total.  We'll also be raffling off a quilt, possibly a fishing pole & selling the flip flops Laura & I put together.  I think we'll pull in a bit more money at the event.  We will also have our silent auction basket.  The event itself should keep me on my toes.  Since I'm the sponsorship chair this year I'm the one running the silent auction.  Plus, we signed up Travis & all four kids to be official members of the team.  I'm hoping things don't get too out of control!

Here's to hoping you have a forest fire free week! :)