One of the Family

I was thinking (rare thing, that) and realized that we've had this blog for almost two whole years and have totally neglected one of the members of our family, our yellow lab, Oakley. I'll remedy that today.

Here's Oakley.


This picture was taken the day we brought her home.

Kevin had an impulse one day (like we all get, mine usually happen at the craft store, or in the health and beauty aisle at the mega-mart), and decided that we needed to have a family dog. I initially was against the idea, not because I don't like dogs, or animals in general, but because we didn't have our own house. We were living in Kevin's parents' old house with my sister and her husband before Kevin's parents sold it. Also, my sister and brother-in-law brought a dog with them when they moved in. I just didn't think it would be a great idea. But, Kevin was persistent and began to look through the on-line classifieds to see if he could find any that he might want. It didn't take very long before he found Oakley's picture and was hooked. He had to have her. So, I reluctantly gave in and we picked her up later that day. She was a little wild, kind of chubby and really nervous (she was quite flatulent during the car ride home), but after some patience, training, maturing, and 2 pair of black high heels (and a short list of other things she chewed to bits) later... well, the rest is pretty much history.

Flash forward to today, and Oakley is 3 years old, mellow, gentle and about as sweet as dogs come. Here's some more stuff you should know about her.

Oakley is very cool.

She snores (and sleep-snorts) like an angel.


She sometimes thinks she's a lap-dog.


She knows a few tricks.


She'll do anything for attention.


She's nailed the "puppy-dog eye" look.



She likes it when she gets to see her friend Penny.

She's great with kids.

We love our Oakley and are so glad that she happened to come into our lives.

See, Mother Nature does have a sense of humor.

What

the

What?

Yes, this is a tomato. Yes this is only one tomato. Kind of blows your mind, doesn't it?

Firework Freak-Out

July in Utah is fun. First we've got the 4th where we all have barbeques and do fireworks, then in the same month, we get to have the 24th (Pioneer Day) were we get to have more barbeques and fireworks. Who wouldn't like that?

This Pioneer Day, we had a barbeque at my parents' house with all the family. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera and Kevin didn't want to run back home and get it for me (sheesh). One of our -the kids- assignments was to bring fireworks, so we could all have a nice big firework show after dinner. (And did I mention that Utah just legalized aerial fireworks? I guess we were tired of losing all that revenue, and tax money, to Wyoming every summer.)

Dinner was great, we barbecued chicken and steak (classic) and had corn on the cob, fruit, salads; just lots of great summer food. It was de-lish. My mom even made homemade ice cream that we ate on top of slow-cooker peach cobbler. Mmmmm-mm. Rowan's birthday was a couple of days ago, so Dorthy made a cake for him too. Sounding like a great evening so far, right? All that was left was to wait for the sky to get dark enough for fireworks.

This is how our family firework show usually plays out: The guys (because they are so manly and are so pro at handling dangerous explosives) are in charge of lighting the fireworks and making a fun show to watch, while the wives and kids sit on chairs and blankets and watch the show-and the occasional close call. It was exciting and we could hardly wait for the sun to go down.

Remember what I said before about who wouldn't like fireworks? Well, Abi sure doesn't like them. Okay, let me re-phrase that; she hates them. She is terrified of them. I think it's mostly because of the noise, but even the less noisy ones make her panic. She buries her face in my shoulder and goes completely rigid, screaming the entire time. She ended up inside watching a movie with the volume up (because if she can hear them outside while she's in the house she gets scared). It sort of made me feel bad, because the other kids were having fun. Oh, well. Hopefully it won't last forever.

Camping, Parades, Cake and Make-Up

Earlier this month we took a family camping trip down at my grandparents' farm. We went the same weekend as the fourth of July and we had lots of fun. Kevin's brother and sister and her husband were able to come down as well. My only complaint, the heat. Call me dense, but I forgot that July was the hottest month of the year. We roasted. Then we decided that we'd plan another trip in a cooler month.

Other than that, like I said, lots of fun. Sometimes, it's nice to just get away from it all.


I didn't take a ton of pictures, because I kind of got sick and didn't have the energy to take them, but when I was feeling good, I managed to snap a few.

Like I said before, we went the same weekend as the fourth of July, so on the fourth there are always parades and fireworks and stuff to do in those little town of central Utah. Abi, me, my mom, Dorthy, Rowan, Grandma, and Grandpa Harward went to the Moroni parade. We came prepared with plastic bags to gather candy, but what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of people that were actually at the parade. I haven't been for a few years, but really don't remember that many people being there before.



They were also crowding the streets like they've never seen candy before. Also, it seemed like the people who were throwing the candy out of the back of trucks and so on, decided that they would get the kids with the smallest hands to throw out candy, so the big kids on the road were pushing little kids out of the way. Anyway, Abi liked it regardless, though she didn't quite get the concept at first.

Getting the hang of things

She really loved the floats with city royalty on them. Every time the would drive by she would point and say, "princess."

We left for home earlier that day. We took Oakley too, since there's so much open space for her to run around. Both she and Abi played hard, so they crashed hard shortly after getting in the car.


That night we planned to watch the Magna fireworks because they usually put on a good show. Abi and I met Dorthy, Rory and Rowan and set up our chairs and blankets to watch the show. It didn't disappoint. Don't let my crappy pictures fool you.



And can you guess how Abi reacted?


Yep, she fell asleep shortly before the show started and slept through the whole thing. Just like last year. Sigh. Oh, well. We're going again next year, I'm sure.

Last week Abi's cousin Riley turned 2, so she had a birthday party at the park. The kids had lots of fun playing on the playground. Melanie asked me to make Riley's cake. It turned out cute.

It also gave me an excuse to buy a couple more cake decorating tools, so win-win.

I don't know what it is with little girls and mommy's make-up, but they love it. I'm sure it's because they see mommy doing it, so they want to as well. Abi loves make-up. She has a fit when I put it away. The other day, she got into it (my own fault) and gave herself a make-over. The end result...

...zombie??? Or is it Chucky? Either way, it was hilarious.

Abi and Mommy after we were done putting our make-up on.

We're still having a good summer, so here's a couple pictures of Abi being a couch potato eating Cheetos for fun.

Catching up to Summer

So I've had a bit of a "slack-attack" (yes, I coined that phrase myself) as of lately, especially when it has come to blogging. That hasn't been the only thing, though. The fridge and cupboards are empty because I haven't been grocery shopping in ages, my house is a mess, plus plenty of other things that I can't think of specifically right this minute. At least I (I should say we, Kevin has helped me out a lot) have the laundry under control as of now. In short, I've been just falling behind. It's okay, it happens to the best of us.

I have started to work at couple of days a week at my "sometimes" job, which has really taken it's toll on me. I sound like a total wimp. I only work 2 days a week, but at the end of those days, I'm exhausted. I forgot how physically draining sitting at a desk behind a computer 8 hours a day can be. Not to mention, for the past two weeks I have been battling this cold-turned-worst sinus infection of my life. Add chasing after a two-year-old in between everything else, it takes a lot out of me.

So, long, self-pitiful story short, I haven't felt much like blogging, so Ive got some catching up to do. Luckily I've been pretty diligent at taking pictures so, here goes (deep breath).

May:

Most of the month of May was focused on Lisa (sis-in-law) and Austin's wedding. I volunteered to help Kevin's mom out because, I had the time and knew that she needed the help since two weeks before the wedding, she was going to Japan to pick up her father.

Some of our bigger undertakings were creating centerpieces for the tables and flower arrangements to decorate throughout.

Here's what we did for centerpieces.



And here's one of the arrangements we made for the backdrop.


I got the topiary idea online and we basically just copied the flowers from the arrangement that my mom did for my backdrop. We also made some smaller flower arrangements is little galvanized buckets, but I didn't get pictures of those.

A few days before the wedding, Kevin's grandpa came to visit from Japan. It took Abi a few hours to warm up to him, but soon she was his best friend.

See how his "best friend" is struggling to get off his lap? No, really, she loved him, she just didn't want her picture taken here.

Then it was time for the wedding, which was fun and beautiful, as weddings are.



At the temple, there's a lot of sitting and waiting, which is understandably hard for little kids. So, my dad took Abi for a stroll around the temple grounds.


And Gigi helped keep Savannah out of trouble.


The reception was really nice as well, though I couldn't get my husband to stop socializing ong enough to get a single picture of the festivities. Nope, not one. Although there were so many people there, her probably wouldn't have been able to get a picture of much anyway. Seriously, there were so many people there. It was crazy.

After the wedding was wrapped up and done with, we could all relax and enjoy some time with Kevin's grandpa, who doesn't speak any English. I understand some Japanese, so that has helped, but there were a couple of times when Gigi would ask me something, or tell me something expecting a response, and I don't have any idea what to say. Here's one example:

Kevin's mom went out to dinner with some friends one night. She had made curry, which was a safe dish since we all like it, and Gigi liked it too (he does not eat American food). I had fixed myself a plate and had set it on the counter while I buckled Abi into her high chair. By then Gigi had was walked over to the stove where we were dishing up plates, pointed to my plate and said something to me. I don't know exactly what he said, but I knew he was asking if the plate I had just fixed was for him. I just didn't know if he was teasing me or not. (He likes to joke around) I didn't know what to say, so I looked at Kevin's dad, who is fluent in Japanese, for some kind of help, but he just stared at me. I said, "you can have it if you want," but, from the look on Gigi's face I guessed I still wasn't getting it. Finally, Kevin's dad pipes up and tells Gigi that he's fixing a plate for him now. It all got straightened out eventually, but not without some embarrassment. I really wasn't a big deal, but I did feel kind of dumb.

Then there was that time last year when he walked in on me while I was in the bathroom, but that's not really a language thing, it's more of a he's-an-old-man-and-is-hard-of-hearing thing.

Anyway, we really enjoyed having him here. Abi was sad to see him go.





Popsicles make everything better.


June:

My youngest sister Sarah graduated from High School this year, so Abi and I went to see her commencement ceremony.






I even got creative and made Sarah a cake. Okay, what really happened was I found this cool, easy recipe for marshmallow fondant and needed an excuse to make a cake to try it.




p.s. This was my first time using fondant. Ever. It's kind of fun.

The weather has got warmer, so Abi has been outside more.




It's even been warm enough for Abi to take a dip in the backyard in her little pool.





And draw with sidewalk chalk.



Whew. Well, I think that about does it for the catching up. Hopefully, I won't be such a slacker in the future, but I won't make any promises.