This weekend

Ken's coming on Friday with his kids. We haven't told my kids. We're gonna surprise them. They've been at their dad's since Sunday morning so it's been pretty quiet around here. They'll be home tonight though. (There goes the peace...lol)

Tonight, while I was visiting teaching, I was telling the lady I visit that I need to get my house all cleaned and organized before Friday. She wanted to know why, she reminded me it'll just be all crazy and unorganized as soon as they get here with eight of us in this house. She said I should wait until after they go home and clean up then. I know that's totally logical thinking and I wish I could do it, but it's one of those crazy woman guilt things. I'd feel crappy if Ken came home and the floor wasn't mopped and the house wasn't all cleaned. Maybe that should be a new goal (lol) to not care if my house is a mess when Ken comes :)

Caleb the Tech Man

Caleb had a blast yesterday helping run the lightboard for a dress rehearsal of a play. He got to make lightning on stage and everything. He loved it! I guess he did a pretty good job too, other than chit-chatting on the headset when other people were trying to hear what was going on :) The kids love going to work with me and doing cool stuff. He even got to go down a spiral staircase to underneath the stage and come up the trap door... I've never even got to do that.

Cousins

My sister Janelle was in town yesterday, so we decided to get a pic of all the cousins together.

Here they are 2 years ago:

And here they are now:

It's funny, they're in the same order on the couch and it wasn't even planned. It must just be the way they naturally like to sit :)

Pioneer Activity at the Covey Center

Kooky Alyssa... and Nina trying to steal the spotlight
Nina and her penny candies
Silly Lou
Oddball pioneer children
Here they are again
Me :)

Pioneer Day

I love the pioneers. I have such appreciation and love for them, for their faith and the trials they went through. To celebrate pioneer day we went to This is the Place Heritage Park. We used to volunteer there once a week for a summer & the kids loved it. We try to go back at least once a year. We bought a membership this time, so we can come back when Ken is here with his kids in a couple of weeks, and then we can go again the beginning of next summer. Ken's sisters are here visiting and they went with us, along with my brother Brian, my sister BJ and her son Gabe.

Baseball & Pirates

My girls went with their dad to Colorado for their grandparents 50th wedding anniversary party. Caleb didn't want to go and miss his last baseball game & since it wasn't his dad's day to have him anyways, I let him choose. He really loved baseball this year and was sad to be done. We went to his game at eight in the morning, and then went to work & put on a big pirate activity. It was a lot of fun. Everyone that came really enjoyed themselves. Caleb & I dressed like pirates... AAARRRGGG Matie!!! We went to lunch afterwards and then he played on the computer in the box office while I cleaned up. It was a nice day together, just the two of us.

Artichoke Hummus Recipe

I meant to post this on my other blog... lol, I'm getting confused in my old age.

Even non-hummus eaters will enjoy this. I love hummus and I don't have to feel bad if I sit and eat a whole bunch of it. It's a little plain-looking, but yummy.

1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained (reserve small amount of liquid)

1 6.5 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed well

pinch of cumin

pinch of pepper

small amount of olive oil (garlic infused if you have it)

Mix all ingredients in a small food processor, including the beans liquid. (I use a Magic Bullet, which isn't near as cool as the infomercials made it out to be.) Add olive oil small amounts at a time, mixing after each, until it is a nice smooth texture. Serve room temperature or chilled with pita bread, crackers or rice chips.

American Homemaker

I've been having a blast with my other blog. I love posting recipes and fun ideas. I get hooked on adding things to it and don't get my other stuff done...lol. Obviously my kids are gone for the week or I wouldn't have near as much time to play.

How do you rate as a 1930's wife?

So... Ken and I took these quizzes and as a 1930's wife I am very superior... Sweet! Ken is very superior as a 1930's husband. Which I figure means I am a very kind, submissive homemaker and he is a I'm the man of the house, do what I say type.... lol, it cracks me up. Must be why we are a perfect couple. Try it out and see how you rate :)

76 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Scoring:
0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)25-41 - Poor42-58 - Average59-75 - Superior76+ - Very Superior

112 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Caleb's Birthday Party

I told Caleb he should eat his cake without a fork after he blew out the candle, and he did...lol

We had a baseball theme. The boys (and Alyssa) all had a blast.

This is the sunflower seed spitting contest.

This picture cracked me up with the baseball sign and the hole through the window. Alyssa actually broke the window a couple of weeks ago with a rock. (Thank goodness it was already cracked.) It does seem to match with the baseball theme, doesn't it?

funny kids

Kids are so funny. They always say and do the oddest things, so I thought I'd share something funny each of the kids did in the last day or so.

Alyssa:
Alyssa fell asleep on the way home from my mom's house tonight. I lugged her into the house, about breaking my arms and my back because I had a really long day at work today and am really worn out. I laid her down on the couch, and she smiled a huge smile. The little brat had been faking. She thought she was hilarious.

Nina:
I have an old rotary phone that hangs on my bedroom wall. It's probably been there since the 70s or so since it's ugly green. Nina picked it up yesterday and asked me how people dialed on it. I showed her how you dial a number and wait for the dial to spin back around so you can dial the next number. She responded with "WOW, that's boring!". What a silly girl.

Caleb:
I dramatically tossed myself on my bed yesterday after cleaning my room and said, "I'm dying". Caleb responded with, "You haven't even been shot yet." He cracks me up.

Covey Center Idol

Today Alyssa and Caleb karaoked and learned hip-hop moves at Covey Center Idol. They had a lot of fun. Alyssa sang Suspicious Minds by Elvis and Caleb sang My Country Tis of Thee. We had a great hip-hop teacher. There weren't many people there, but it was fun.

Alyssa

Poor Alyssa... She's been sick again (still). We had to spend several hours in the ER at Primary Children's Hospital Thursday night. She seems to be feeling better though. We have to follow up with our doctor next week so they can make sure she's all better. She has to have medicine every day and we have to keep a close eye on her diet. She's such a sweet girl, it's sad she's always sick.

My other blog

Because of other crazy stuff we are doing this summer, my website is taking a little longer than we thought to get it up and running. I set up a blog that is a preview. I'm starting to post on it every day, whether its a recipe, a thought or whatever. Check it out :) http://theamericanhomemaker.blogspot.com

Family Goal

We decided to make a family goal to participate in the 5K walk/run that our school is doing in August. We went to the gym tonight. Alyssa walked/ran 8 laps (one mile), I did 10 laps, Nina did 12 and Caleb was the winner with 13. He ran 11 and walk 2. I'm so proud of them. Especially Alyssa. She hates exercise and had been sick all day (again). After we got home, she puked and then ate a bowl of oatmeal and went to bed. Poor girl. She did it though. I lapped her a couple of times and then stayed with her. I told her we had to run part of every lap, and we did. Hopefully we can work her up to the 5K in a month. I'm not worried about the rest of us.

In the Kids Club magazine you pick up at Associated Food stores there is a chart where kids keep track of their healthy eating, exercise and TV/computer time. The kids decided we should make copies of it and they want to keep track. Hopefully we'll all be healthier in a month :) I keep track of my eating etc on a blog.

Yummy Lemonade

I made some really yummy lemonade today... I wanted to make a flavored lemonade and I had frozen mango in the freezer. It turned out really good. Ken thought it needed to be more sour, but I thought it was perfect. I don't like to pucker all up when I drink lemonade :)

about 1 c. frozen mango
1 c. lemon juice
1 c. sugar

Blend together in a blender. (I use a smoothie maker.)

Add to:

4-5 c. cold water
ice

yum yum

Sunday

Ken went home today. It's very sad. He should be back in about 3 weeks with his kids. My kids will come home tonight, so right now it's very quiet and lonely.

We had a long tiring week this week. We spent the evening of the 3rd and all day on the 4th painting kids faces at the Freedom Festival in Provo. I have to say that spending several hours with Ken painting kids' faces made me love him even more. He was talking to people about our events, painting crazy things like dragons and the Superman symbol and spending the whole day in the hot sun on the 4th of July doing something that wasn't exactly a blast, just to spend the time with me. I appreciate him so much. The 5th we had a Kid Time event at work. I'm extremely worn out.

Here's my lovely volunteer, Ken.

We made a giant American flag at our event with sidewalk chalk. It was pretty cool. It's too bad my kids weren't there to help out. They love the events.