Our Forever Family

Last night the kids and I went to the library after Cameron got done with his homework. When we got home, I had just enough time to make dinner before going to the "meet the teacher night" at the school at 6:30. So I thought I would make enchiladas and leave them on the stove ready to cook when I got home. David had mutual and was gone. So when the kids and I got back from the school, it was already 7:45. I thought okay, a 1/2 an hour to cook the enchiladas and eat and then get the kids to bed. When I walked into the kitchen I turned on the oven and went to go move the pans that were ready and waiting to be cooked. They were REALLY hot! I had left the stove burner on and didn't realize it!! We have gas and it was on LO and I guess I forgot to turn it off. When I looked under the foil the sauce was bubbling. I thought great! Dinner is ready! Wahoo!! It tasted good, but the middle of the pan where it got the direct heat was burnt. If the meat wasn't pre-c...

Gosh, time is just a flyin' and I already have a second grader. Cameron is so excited and a lot more comfortable with the beginning of this year than last year. A lot of the same friends he has made at recess and he knows the all day schedule. He had a great first day and seemed excited when I picked him up. When we went shopping last weekend Cameron informed me that he doesn't like collared shirts with stripes on them, just t-shirts. This shirt is the only one I bought him because he was SO picky! I'm sure he will change his mind because he looks really nice with polo shirts on. Apparently it's not cool enough at school! Melanie starts kindergarten next week. She meets her teacher tomorrow. She can hardly wait. A week is going to be a long wait for her!

When I got home from our trip our mailbox was bulging. Since David doesn't get the mail he didn't even think about it! So I had lots to sift through, sort and throw away. There was one letter in there that was a HUGE blessing! We have been slowly whittling down our student loan that we have had since graduating in 2005. Not a huge amount of loan, but enough to make payments every month. We were down to just under $600 left on it. UHEAA (our student loan lender) sent us a letter letting us know that the amount left owed on our account is forgiven due to our good payment history! All of it, gone! Wow, I could not believe it! I am so excited and very grateful for that blessing!! Hopefully someday we can pay it forward!

When I heard David was going to St. George to help his parents move and then to 3 days of scout camp, I decided to drive to Washington to have a little vacation with the kids. Unfortunately our vacation was more relaxing than David's. We are looking forward to a real vacation together as a family in August for a family reunion. It's been a year since we have vacationed together and so that will be nice! My sister-in-law, Becca rode up on the trip with us. It was nice to have some one to talk to. 11 hours in the car with kids can make one loony! And as always the "are we there yet?" questions get pretty old when they start only an hour out of town and are asked every 20 minutes. I look forward to when my kids can understand long amounts of time more and landmarks like Boise! That will be a while yet. We went up a day early to visit my other sister-in-law, Melissa, in Connell. My parents did the Washington loop on their bikes for a week and weren't in town ...

Jason walked down the stairs to me very distraught and said "I can't get my pants out of my drawer, I'm to old!"

Yeah!! I love when I get inspirations, or are they guilt trips (?), I get in the middle of the night!! I woke up around 5 am the other night thinking why is Cameron still riding his bike with training wheels? All of his cousins will be at the reunion riding 2 wheelers while Cameron is still in training wheels!! What a bad mom! Then I thought, well that's a dad's job. To teach his kid how to ride a bike, right? Well, not with his schedule. So that very day off came the training wheels. Once one bike's were off they were all off! Yes, all 3 bikes are laying down in the garage rather than sitting up. Since Cameron practiced last year on one and was doing great until he ran into the neighbor's car's bumper and gave it all up, I knew he could do it. He really just needed more confidence. So he did a practice run on the little 12" bike and that went great so he immediately went to his big bike that he got for his birthday. Yeah, not so good. One crash...

This morning Cameron and Melanie went in to get their cavities fixed. There IS a reason for no pictures on our blog lately. We bought a really nice camera that was for our Mother's/Father's Day present in May. The next week is when I took the kids in to the dentist to find out it'd cost $1600 to get all the cavities fixed. So after weeks of looking at our camera, I couldn't justify having it while our kids' teeth were rotting. So, back went the camera. It's a good thing Costco has an excellent return policy on their stuff!! So, I am not offended if you think my blog is boring. I think it is boring with no pictures too!! Back to the story-so Melanie was super worried about getting her cavities filled. When she asked why we took our camera back and I told her it was so we could fix her cavities, she did NOT want that camera to go back! So I was a little nervous for her. I remember when I was little of not letting the dentist fix my cavities, even with t...

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. Colby and Trisha and their 2 boys came down from Rexburg to celebrate with us. They will be done from school in 3 weeks and then moving back to Wa. It'll be a while till they get to come visit us in UT, so they took advantage! Friday we went to the Kearns water park. It's a great park for my kids' age. Jason stuck by Cameron's side the whole time and they were running up to the top and sliding down, over and over again. They were funny to watch. Melanie was going up and down the slides herself and having a ball. Alyssa and I sat in the water most of the time. She brought a round swim tube that worked out perfect for her. They also had a huge bucket of water that would drop down on the kids under it. When the bell sounded that it was almost full they all ran over to get wet. Jason didn't know what to think at first. He wasn't to happy when the pressure of the water and the amount of it fell on top of him. I think he...