Gretchen

Thought you'ld like to see some more recent pictures of my little cupcake. she is now 5 1/2 months old!...already!

Sleeping Beauty

This is Ginger waiting for her prince Jack to come kiss her back to life.

Here Prince Jack is kissing his princess and bringing her back to life

Now his duty is done and he's ready to go play. . . until she calls for him to do it all over again...(which he did several times...he's such a good sport!)

I caught a fish with my bare hands!

We decided it was time to get another pet since Glen's dog health declined in a hurry and he had to put her down. Anyway, we got a beta fish named Bubbles.
Then we went to the river and (proving Glen wrong) I really did catch a fish with my bare hands. I actually caught two of them... little baby trouts. So we took them home and thought they would make good company (or perhaps a good meal) for Bubbles.

Then, to my surprise, just a few days later of the three little fishies getting along, I found only two in the bowl. I soon discoverd the third little fishy stuck on my counter. Apparently it was a suicide mission. It jumped out of the fish bowl and landed tummy down on the counter and the poor little thing dried up!

This has nothing to do with fish. I had to post this picture of my hair. I went to this hair blog that my friend Kaela posted about and tried one of the tutorials for the 50's style. I didn't use the curling iron like the lady did. Instead I used my hot curlers and I think it turned out pretty good for a first time and considering I had limited time (just before church). I feel like I want to try out new fun hair styles before my hair turns gray. Did I already mention that I feel like I'm getting old in a hurry?

Tiki Party

We threw a Tiki Party in our backyard in our attempt to make up for neglecting our friends. There are so many people that we've met since moving here that we really enjoy being with and we miss alot, but it's just hard to find the time to get together. It's hard to find the time to just be together as a family! So, we thought we'ld get everybody at once.

Glen and I love throwing parties...we used to do that more than once a year (when we were younger and had more energy and no kids (lately I've been feeling very old). We love to dress up and made fun food and play fun music. We love having a theme, so this time it's a tiki party/hors d'oeurve theme. We had deviled eggs, fruit pizza, fruit salade, pot stickers, ham and cheese rollups fruit punch etc.

Thankyou to those who made it and to those who didn't, we missed you!

Holly's Visit

My sister Holly came to stay with me while her husband and Glen took the scouts down the river.  While here, she surprised me with a super yummy dark chocolate cake she made from scratch.  It was sooooo good...dangerously good.  She also made up a scavenger hunt for me where I had to look the clues up in the scriptures to find the next clue and gift.  That was fun!  I love having to look for presents!  I found a garlic press, bath and body lotion (my favorite!), coconut M&Ms, a workout shirt ( I needed another one!) and she brought this earing holder that she made for me and even spent the time going through all my earings that were in a jumbled up mess and hung them up nicely and we threw out the old tarnished ones.  THANKYOU HOLLY!!!    That was such a nice treat and thoughtful treat. 
She even prepared all of this when she was in the middle of trying to pack up her house and get things in order and ready to move out.What a nice sister I have.

WE also experimented with hairstyles.   We both LOVE British Romantic Dramas and we both want to learn how those girls did their hair in the movies.   If you want to see a good British Romantic Drama, you must see Northanger Abby!  That is our favorite!!!

We went hucklyberry picking and enjoyed the fresh mountain air and mini strawberries that taste like those pez candies. 
(Thanks for coming Holly.  It was nice to have your companionship while Glen was away)  :)

Watch out Thatchers! we'll soon be related!

This is Princess Ginger with her Prince Kaden.  Actually, this is Ginger with my best friends son.  They will be hopefully announcing their engadgement 20 years from today so  I can finally say that I'm related to the Thatchers! : )

I was so delighted when Kaela e-mailed to say she would be passing through on her way to her family.  I hadn't seen her since Ginger was born.  Kaela is my childhood friend and one of the best people you could ever meet.  I love her family and wish we lived closer.
She truly inspires me.  Everytime we've gotten together, I learn something from her and I feel uplifted and want to be a better person.
She is good at whatever she puts her mind to.  She has an amazing talent in graphic arts but also as a mom, to name a few.  
Just during this short visit, I saw how she is so good at being so sweet with her kids but at the same time, she doesn't allow them to get away with anything.  As challenging as kids can be, I feel that is an amazing feat and one that I struggle with.  I think parents often confuse having patience with discipline.  Kaela is a model parent.  If only she was my neighbor, I could improve on my characteristical (if that's even a word) weaknesses ten times faster and qualify as celestial material alot sooner!
My new goal is to work on being sweeter to my kids but have effective discipline...I have a feeling I will be working on this for the rest of my life!

( Kaela was giving me some hair styling tips for Jack)  :)    I think I prefer the innocent baby boy look for now.  :)  hahah

Thanks so much for staying with us!  We miss you already.

The Munchkins

Backyard Treats

Here is what's been keeping me busy!

I love having our own garden and having access to it right outside our door.  How fun it is to just walk out and pick some peas for dinner.  I love that the kids will eat the stuff right out of the garden. 
Here is what we packed into this little garden:
carrots, sugar snaps, peas, green beans, potatoes, corn, onions, beats, watermelon, cantelope, pumpkins, butternut squash, lettuce, spinach and we have some strawberries.
Next year, we're moving the garden to the side of teh house and making raised beds. 

We also have raspberries which the kids love to pick!

Planter boxes

Glen made these nice planter boxes saturday.  It felt like super saturday to me.  he cut the pieces, I stained them and then we assembled and mounted them.  It was fun to go to Walfart and pick out flowers for them. 

Sunday afternoon.  ...we LOVE our backyard.   The kids were dancing to Glen playing the guitar.

Saturday  night.  We were going to go camping this weekend but since Glen got a second degree burn, we settled for staying home and in the shade.  We roasted marshmellows over the fire.    Did I already say that we LOVe our backyard!