friends...

Yesterday we babysat some friends. Overall, I had 4 little girls - the oldest was Caroline. It was full of giggling, and running amuck. The girls were all very good and though it was a little hectic, it was also fun. My favorite part was after lunch. I put a video on and had them all sit down to watch while I cleaned up the kitchen and when I came back in I saw this:


Caroline and Mary all snuggled up. They actually stayed like this for a while - it was so sweet!

Worth a thousand words...

Recently we had our nieces come over for a sleepover before they move. Caroline was ridiculously excited for two days and was one happy camper while they were here playing with her. All was fun and happiness...except for one moment. Caroline requested they play Candy Land with her. Take a look at the picture and guess who wasn't winning...

Somehow Caroline has managed win this game of chance every single time I've played her, But once she realized she wasn't going to win this time, her sunny disposition turned very dark!

We are really going to miss these girls. Lots of Caroline's cousins and friends have either moved away recently or will be moving soon and she's going to be one sad girl when it all sinks in :(

Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day on Sunday. Waffles for breakfast, shishkabobs for dinner, and Dave's favorite: pecan pie for dessert. An afternoon nap, a few small gifts, and family time - who could ask for more?!

Speckled Frogs

Every now and then, Dave finds some treasures at work. Shelves, Books, Tools, etc. But a while ago he brought home something different. (A preface: my camera and I are not friends right now. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I apologize for the poor picture quality)

FROGS!

He said in front of a house they were working on, there was a whole bunch of tiny frogs in the yard. So he scooped some up and put them in a bucket to take home to Caroline!

Did I mention they were tiny?!

Caroline was over the moon and we played with them for about an hour. (and then scrubbed our hands really really well!)

Sometime during the fun I realized that with 2 cats and a dog, the frogs were not safe in our house or yard. (Side note: our cats have taken to hunting lately and have caught lizards, birds, and snakes and presented them to us as gifts. I'm not a big fan of their gifts.)

So we took the little frogs over to Caroline's friend, Graham's house. (they don't have any predator pets) Graham was more than happy to frog-sit for us!

A Teacher's Influence

We received an email from David's mother saying that there was a tribute by the author Orson Scott Card to David's late grandmother in a BYU publication recently. David's Grandma, Ida Huber, taught high school English and was apparently his favorite teacher. You can click on the picture to enlarge and read the article, but in it he talks about what a fun and influencial teacher she was to him and all of her students. She influenced his career and he actually dedicated one of his books to her (I'm trying to find out which one).

This was so amazing for me to hear! I've read several of his books and his imagination is incredible. I was surprised to find out that David's grandmother had such an impact on such a famous author. Dave has very vivid memories of his dear "Nana" and has often told me about the time when she lived with them. Sadly some of those memories involve the disease that eventually took her - Alzheimer's.

Probably the best part for me is that Caroline is named after this woman. Caroline Ida Martin was named so because of Dave's fondness for his Nana. I remember the time when we decided to name her this and I wasn't so sure about the name Ida! Since then it has grown on me and I love her name - her full name. But now, I feel like I know part of who Nana Ida was and I'm glad that we have passed on her name.

Before and Afters

We've been spending our Saturdays around here doing some fixin' and organizin' the homestead!
Actually, one of my Personal Progress projects for Young Women's was to clean out, organize, label and fix shelves in our storage unit.
I'm a little embarrased to share these photos, but I am very satisfied with the results and felt I needed to have proof for my personal progress project!

Before:

Sad huh? It was my goal to clean it out enough that we could wheel Caroline's bike in and out of it.

Can you tell my husband is a Fix-It Man?


After:

Floor Space!!! WooHoo!!!

All labeled and everything! It felt so good to go through everything and get rid of and organize so much. I feel like if we had to move tomorrow, I could just load the boxes right on the truck in an hour and be done!

This next project was more of Dave's baby. I helped a little, but he's been working on it for a few weekends.

This shed in our backyard was an eyesore from the first day we moved in.

Before:

And after a lot of hot hours in the sun:

Yay! We don't have to be embarrased to let people in our backyard anymore!