Whose Yer Daddy?!

Happy Father's Day!

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day today. We had an insanely busy weekend but it was fun and a good time was had by all!

Last night our ward had a BBQ. I seriously love our ward because everyone is so friendly and there is never a quiet moment because we all have so much to say!
I learned that Parker is becoming quite the ladies man, seriously. Every time I'd look up he was surrounded by little girls ranging in age from 2 to 4. Here he is standing next to Kennedy. Ivy is the girl sitting on the ground. Kennedy and Ivy had a few cat fights that evening...pretty dang funny!


For dessert we made homemade ice cream. It was so fun! You take a quart jar and add 1 cup of whole milk or chocolate milk. Then you add one cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Put the lid on the quart jar and place in a #10 can. Place ice all around the jar, in the can and add 3/4 cup rock salt. Put the lid on the #10 can and roll around quickly for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, add more ice and salt and replace lid. Roll can quickly for another 10 minutes. Remove lid and add more ice and salt and replace lid. Roll can for another 5 minutes and then enjoy your ice cream. It was really loud and lots of fun because everywhere you look you see people rolling their cans around!

Sam got smart and used a stick to roll his around the sidewalk, which wasn't easy because he sprained his ankle earlier in the day playing basketball (actually I think that's the only way he has EVER sprained his ankle...):


Here's Natalie using her bare feet...Brrrr!


Other's rolled it back and forth on the table:


Once it was done, I was pleasantly surprised because the ice cream was nice and hard and was very refreshing! I would highly recommend doing this activity at any ward function or family reunion!

Traci and Parker loved it! I don't know if Traci reads my blog but she is going to kill me when she sees this picture!


See? Normally Traci is a cutie! She snuggled with Cameron for a long time, which gave me a nice break!


After the BBQ, our friends, The Festin's, needed some muscle power to raise a beam and place it in the new addition they are doing on their house.

It looked incredibly heavy, but instead of helping, I decided to take pictures instead.



This picture makes me totally laugh. The only people REALLY holding up the beam are Jake Colton (center) and Mike Brough (headless man on right)! Russ (second from left) is using one finger.... Busted!


Of course, just as they FINISHED putting up the beam, Ryan Jones shows up. Here he is, pretending to wipe the sweat from his brow. His muscles really could have helped Jake and Mike!


Today my parents, Curtis and Shandy, Fontella, and my family headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to "The Spruces" campground and cooked some tin foil dinners and enjoyed nature. It was so much fun, I think we may make it a tradition! We just drove to the campground and asked for a campsite for the evening. It cost us $10 and we had the site reserved until 9pm tonight. It was awesome! A big 'THANKS' to Sam, Curtis, and my dad for cooking the dinners...normally the guys don't have to do any cooking on Father's Day so I was happy they were eager to play in the fire!
Here is my cute family:


Here's my mom and dad, Happy Father's Day dad!


Here's some fun pictures:








Of course we did the traditional foil dinners, you know, the hamburger, potatoes, carrots, cream of mushroom soup....but not Shandy...NO WAY...she got gourmet on us! She works at CPK so last night she made up calzones at work, wrapped them in foil, and placed them neatly in a pizza box. I laughed pretty hard when Curtis pulled this out of their cooler!


I'm annoyed that I didn't take a picture of my dinner, fresh from the hot coals. It was seriously yummy!!!

The only First Aid Moment of the night was when Carson picked up what he thought was a rock, but it was actually a hot coal. He burned his thumb pretty bad but he handled it like a trooper!


Shandy brought a big tupperware container of **gag** Ramen noodles for Dexter. The crazy thing is my boys fought over those noodles when they had a perfectly beautifully cooked meal of tin foil dinners right in front of them! Boys....gotta love 'em!


I could go on and on, but this post is already record-breaking too long....I hope everybody had a great Father's Day and I look forward to reading about it on all the blogs! Happy Monday tomorrow...

It's That Time Of Year...Again

I think this is my 3rd year of being involved with a flower garden that my Relief Society adopted at This is the Place Heritage Park. Last night Sam and I went up early to do some final prep work on the garden and lay out the flowers to be planted so when people from my Relief Society arrived, they just had to dig a hole and pop the flower into it.

Here's me after getting the soil all nice and loose...I know it looks like all we have are Holly Hocks in our garden but there is so much more! We also have Iris, Peonies, Columbines, Delphineums, Miniature Roses, Wild Strawberries, Day Lilies, Pin Cushions...and so much more! It's doing really well and it's fun to go up and do maintenance so I'm glad I'm in charge of it this summer. :) If anybody wants to come up with me, just give me a holla! It doesn't just have to be women that help, bring the whole family up and we'll play!


Of course, I'm not surprised at all, Parker fell into the ditch after being there for a few minutes. Here he is from the back:


And here he is from the front:




Hee hee, that child of mine has passion, you can't argue that!

We had a crew of 9 women that came to help plant, which rocked because after about 15 minutes we were done and that left plenty of time for the more important task: Visiting!


Holly, why are you the only one working!? Ha Ha!


See this Goat? His name is Oliver. For some reason, the staff at the park think it's fun to let this guy wander around the park. Guess what goats do to vegetation? That's right, they eat it, they eat tons of it. I've had "words" with the gardener at the park about letting him roam and how I'm not a fan of this idea. So help me, if I go back up to the park and find all our new plants ripped out of the ground I'm NOT going to be a happy camper...for those of you who have seen me "put my foot down" (Hey Sam, remember when I got our 20 lb turkey at Thanksgiving for about $5? Or how about the time I got our rental deposit back after they tried to only give us a partial amount? Good times!) you know it's not a pretty sight. I'm called "Carrie Sour" by some people for a reason...
As we were leaving the park, Oliver was headed straight for our garden....you better pray for the goat....

Signs of Summer

As I've mentioned earlier, Carson has learned to ride his bike and now he rides it all the time. He also thinks it's real cool to skid his back tire and make black marks all over the sidewalks. What else happens when you constantly skid your tire? Yep, flat tire and flat tube. So, for FHE on Monday, Sam and Carson changed his tire. I'm sure it's the first of MANY...



Parker and I were happy and content to just watch the process. DANG my hair is gray! Aren't you guys embarrassed to be seen with me? Why doesn't anybody yell at me to get my hair colored?


I got the boys in swim lessons again this summer. They both did great and Parker was much more comfortable with putting his face in the water. They both have late afternoon lessons and it's surpringly really nice. Last year I did early morning...what was I thinking?


And now for something completely different (I think that's a Monty Python title):
Last night I ran to the grocery store to buy some Spaghetti. They had 16 oz. packages 10 for $10 so I bought 2. I came home and started making dinner. I picked up one package and thought "sheesh, this is a small package of spaghetti!" I looked at the back to see the serving size. According to the package, it serves 8. I just couldn't believe that. Then I picked up the second package I bought and it was so much heavier! I got out my handy dandy kitchen scale and look what I discovered!

1st package:


2nd package:


Isn't that crazy? I swear that there aren't any holes in the 1st package, it's just a packaging mistake I suppose. I could return it, but let's be honest, it only cost me $1 and I suck at returning things so I'll just take it in the tailpipe!

Playing Catch Up

Here we go...

Carson graduated from 1st grade. Kind of an afterthought (I know, I'm a lame mom) I said "Oh Carson, let me take your picture so we remember what you looked like in 1st grade!" Maybe I should have taken some effort to make the background of the picture a little nicer....but then again, maybe not. He seriously gave me this face and after I took the picture he said "yep, that's what I look like." At least he could have taken the sucker out of his mouth....


Cameron has discovered the joys of the Johnny Jumper, thanks to Sam. He seriously loves it! He bounces around until...


He falls asleep!


On Friday, after work, we found ourselves at the BMW dealership in Murray. After a few discussions, a new car was purchased. How ya like me now?



IN HIS DREAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks to Fern and Russ for letting us hang out with them at the BMW dealership while they bought THEIR new car! She's a beauty, eh?

Sam has a serious obsession with cars, especially ones he can't afford. Last month there was a wedding near our house so tons of cars were parked all over the place and check out what was parked right in front of our house:


Sam was GIDDY, I kept finding him near the car taking pictures of it! He loved it so much he just HAD to lick it. Sheesh.... oh wait, he licked it because I double dog dared him!


Cameron gets tired of waiting for the binky so lately he has been improvising.


Sunday we ate dinner with my parents and Curtis and Shandy and then took the kids to Copperton Park. I love this picture of Dexter trying to get a drink!


Parker seems a bit excited, don't you think?


Gotta go, Carson is trying to "decorate" my house with jellyfish....don't ask.....

From Tonight

I took a few pictures, thought I'd share 'em.

First of all, if you haven't already, you have to check out The Pioneer Woman Cooks website because she puts the best recipes on there with lots of pictures and instructions for those of us who are domestically challenged!

Her latest recipe she talked about was "Crash Hot Potatoes" and I decided to give 'em a try and they are super good! My picture isn't as purdy as The Pioneer Woman's but who gives a rip?


They went really well with the steak I made in my cast iron skillet. Don't worry, I managed to cook the steak without actually touching the raw meat! Phew! If I make these potatoes again I will probably add some onion powder or season salt...or garlic. They were really good, but they needed a 'kick'. Ooooh, maybe some Emeril Essence! (I said that for my dad's benefit. He's a BIG fan.)


I promise I TRY to teach my family to have manners at the dinner table....



Cameron cracks me up, check out those cheeks! When we go on walks his cheeks are constantly bouncing up and down with every crack in the sidewalk I cross over. I seriously love his haircut. He's stylin'!


Sam and Cameron: Strike a pose!

Tatem's Blessing

Saturday afternoon Nalani and I drove to the Twin Falls area so we could attend our friend's (Natalie Service) baby blessing on Sunday.

We hooked up with our other friend, Sarah, and a good time was had by all. To quote Sarah, we all ended up with a "laughing headache" so that equates to lots of laughing and not much sleeping. I would love to say the "nobody sleeps" rule applied because we were partying so hard, but really it was due to somebody's, who shall remain nameless, snoring! Ha Ha Ha!!! It was worth it though, sharing a hotel room with great friends is always fun no matter how much sleep you get!

A huge thanks to Sam and my parents for giving me a break from the kids. It was coolio.

Surpringly, I didn't take too many pictures...shocker.

I gave my camera to Natalie's sister, Lindsay, and she got lots of pictures of Natalie, me, Sarah, and Nalani together. We were laughing our guts out for some reason so I didn't get a normal picture, which suits us well. I'd like to thank Ricks College for bringing us all together and let's hope we remain close forever!



I didn't even get a good picture of Tatem. I'm such a loser! Here's a strange close up that shows off her sweet binky! ha ha ha! Thanks for being a wonderful host Natalie, we love you!


For an awesome slide show/story that Natalie put together click here.