Fireworks

Last night we did some fireworks at mom and dad's house with all the lettle neices and nephews. We gave the little kids sparklers to start off.  When I was a child when we had sparklers we spent time writing our names in the air and twirling in circles.  Last night, we had 5 little kids running around yelling 'stupify' and 'protego'!  We also heard lumos, avada kedavra and expecto patronum!  What fun they had pretending to be wizards.  I heard several refrences to Harry Potter while playing with fireworks.  I love that kids can take something like sparklers and pretend to be wizards!

Passport

I got my passport in the mail today!  Now I'm one step closer to my trip this summer!  Happy day today.

It's been awhile

At several points during the last month and a half, I've thought 'I should blog about this.' And as you can tell I never got around to it. Most of the time, by the time I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer, but mostly - I'm just lazy about it. So I'll just do a condensed version...

I took my oldest nephew to a BYU football game (my roommate has season tickets and couldn't go that weekend. Since it was a night game and I didn't want to fight traffic all the way back to his house, he got to sleep over and go to church with me. Since our ward has one senior primary class with 5 children in it, I think it was strange to him.

My poor car is still sick. It gets to go to the mechanic tomorrow. I really hope that it gets fixed and stays that way! I love my car, but it's starting to have mucho problems.

And the last thing, a kind of funny story. My mom almost never calls me. So one day, I got a call from mom at lunch time. I thought it was kind of strange, but nice. So I was talking to her, and asked what was up, she replies with, 'I was kind of wondering how I got you. I was calling work.' Thanks mom! I really can feel the love. :)

Camping in the rain...

We had a ward campout this weekend. I don't think I've ever been on one (if you don't count girls camp, which I didn't). It poured and I mean POURED! But the tent kept us dry at night and the tarps rigged up over the tables kept us dry other times. It did stop long enough to roast some marshmallows for smores. It was a small group, but we had much fun. (even me, who wasn't real excited to be going anyway.)

Movie night

Our outdoor movie night is quickly becoming our new family tradition. My 3-year-old neice was talking about watching a movie outside at nana's a couple of weeks ago, so dad arranged a movie night on Friday night with the option of a sleepover and breakfast the next morning. With a little storm front coming in, they decided not to do the sleepover outside but 5 of the grandkids spread their sleeping bags out on the family room floor in the basement once the movie was over. I didn't want to keep driving back and forth so I slept in the spare bedroom downstairs by the kids. They were really good once the last few got to sleep and we had a yummy breakfast the next morning. I love holiday weekends!

My favorite store...

Most of you know I love the bookstore! I go there when I need to get out of the house and enjoy wandering around. I have found another reason to love them. They have these fun 'parties' for different books. I took niece #2 to a Fancy Nancy party a couple weeks ago. She dressed up like Fancy Nancy and we had a BLAST! at the party. Then this week nephew #1 and I went to a party for the new Rick Riordan book "The Red Pyramid." Much fun was had! I think I like the parties as much as I like the coupons (I'm pretty sure I haven't paid full price for a book in quite a while! Don't tell!) If you have a Borders near you - check out the storytime and parties!

Belated...

I got to go on a fun trip down to visit Lindsay and family a few weekends ago - but kept forgetting to write about it! I had so much fun and am looking forward to my next visit. I had to buy pepperjack cheese for quesadillas when I got home, you got me hooked on it Linds! I miss reading stories to little A. and enjoying time with friends!

March Madness

March Madness is more fun when you are beating all the boys in the office! But only for this week. When they play this weekend I'll no longer be winning.

And currently tied with roommate. We've decided that instead of going to the winners movie choice only, we get to go to both since we were so close in points!

(I'd show proof, but I can't get the screenshot to come in big enough to see it.)

Thank You, Have a Good Day, See you tomorrow, Bye-bye

I ran to get a sandwich today at lunch, because I was too lazy to cook real food last night so I didn't have any leftovers for lunch today. The guy at the drive thru cracks me up everytime I go there. As he hands you your food he says (very quickly and in one breath) "Thank you, have a good day, see you tomorrow, bye-bye", and then he's done. It's taken me a few trips to figure out the whole phrase! Most of the time it's more like thankyouhaveagooddayseeyoutomorrowbye-bye (and breathe).

Zion's for the weekend

A couple of weeks ago, my roommate and I took a weekend trip to Zion's. On the way I got to stop and visit with Lindsay. I had so much fun catching up and seeing her little girl. Then we went to Zion's. We had fun hiking, and seeing the beautiful fall colors in the park. We made smores around the campfire and had an all around good time. It sure was beautiful there.

Jon Schmidt concert

Saturday night I went to an amazing concert at Thanksgiving Point with a great friend. Sam was in town for the day and I convinced her to go with me to the Jon Schmidt concert. It was a beautiful night and it was fun to sit outside on the grass and listen to great music. Jon is a fun entertainer and it was a great concert. I only wish the concert had been a little longer (and that we didn't have to listen to the opening band. They didn't play what I would call 'music'. Most would call it rock music, I'd just call it noise.)

Movie night

Dad has wanted to do an outdoor movie all summer long and we finally got around to it this weekend. We hung a cloth from the rain gutters on the back of the house; set up the laptop, projector and speakers; and popped a couple baches of popcorn. We brought out most of mom's blankets and pillows and got all the kids (and the adults) snuggled in to watch Kung-Foo Panda. It was great fun and I can't wait until the next movie night! Once the movie was over, my youngest neice and I danced to Kung-Foo Fighting - we couldn't get anyone else to join us in our dancing.

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday my sisters and I took all the nieces and nephews to the swimming pool and played all afternoon. The youngest niece was being a little pill when she woke up and her mom had told at 8:30 that morning that if she was good, she could go to the pool. So she promptly put on her swimsuit and wore it all day while asking every 5 minutes if it was time yet. She and her mom were the first ones there! We had lunch in the park and then went to the pool. It was a great afternoon and I've got the sunburn to prove it!

Elephant rides

At our house the nieces and nephews love getting elephant rides. Two adults each grab a hand and a foot and the child gets to swing back and forth while singing the elephant ride song. The youngest niece especially gets excited for them. On Sunday she kept asking for 'a ride, a ride!' so my sister and I gave her a ride. After each ride, she always asks for more, more. So we do it until we get tired and then I tell her '1 more time' while holding up 1 finger and she gets excited because she knows she gets another ride.

On Sunday, instead of asking for more she held up her pointer fingers on both hands and said '1 more time!'. I'm not sure she knows that it means only 1 more, because we let her talk us into 2 more but it was really cute that she learned '1 more time'.

Jim Brickman Concert

I never do this many fun things! First SF and Wicked, then the Manti pagent, and now a Jim Brickman concert! Roommate and I had been looking through the Scera Summer pamphlet we got in the mail a few months ago. I commented it would be super fun to go to the Jim Brickman concert. But then never did anything about it.

For my birthday last week, roommate surprised me with tickets to the concert! It was a beautiful night for the outdoor concert and I loved every minute of it. He is quite funny and very entertaining.

I think roommate had almost as much fun taking the pictures as she did listening to the concert. (my first photo didn't turn out too well - my hands were shaking - so she took over and did a marvelous job!)

I have a little turtle, his name is tiny Tim...

I just got home from a fun filled 2 days of watching my youngest neice. Her daddy just graduated from BYU (YEAH) and her Mommy and Daddy went on a cruise to celebrate. 3 aunts, 1 Nana and 1 Pa ( Poppa) get to play with her while Mommy and Daddy are on a boat.

Today in the car we sang the bubble song and now I can't get it out of my head! Monday, we went to the Dinosaur museaum with my sister-in-law and 2 of her kids and had a blast. Until I tried to convince my 2 year old nephew to go stand by the HUGE shark. He freaked out. (it's funny now...not so much funny when I made him cry!)

We had lots of fun and I will miss her when I go back to work tomorrow. It's Shell-shell's turn tomorrow. Good luck Shell-shell.

And since the song is still stuck in my head - Here's the big finish (and my neices favorite part!)

Bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, bubble,
POP!

Power tools.

I grew up helping dad with his many projects around the house. I've helped build gates, a gazebo and cement block borders but I usually wasn't allowed to use the power tools. (It's probably the safest option for all involved.) But Saturday I successfully used a power saw and several times I might add! I was pretty scared at first, but it was fun! Now I want more projects with power tools.

Weekend fun...

It was a perfect spring-like day today. I really enjoyed the nice weather. Roommate and I went and played tennis this morning. I can't tell you the last time I played tennis. It's been so long ago and I really had fun. We didn't play a 'game' just hit the ball back and forth to each other, but it was really fun. She said something about playing every week...guess I'm going to have to get practicing on my serve (it wasn't very good today).

Tag from Julia

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car-or dream car): Cricket Camry

2. YOUR GANSTA STAR NAME (favorite ice cream flavor, fav. type of shoe): Sherbet Flats

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (your fav. color, fav. animal): Blue Dog

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (your middle name, where you were born): (kind of sad when you don't have a middle name!)

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (First 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name): PowAm

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd fav. color, fav. drink): Red Milk

7. NASCAR NAME (grandfather's names): Kayle Keith

8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Larsen Los Angeles

9. SPY NAME (fav. season/holiday, fav. flower): Spring Daisy

10. CARTOON NAME (fav. fruit, article of clothing you are wearing right now): Blueberry Hoodie

11. HIPPIE NAME (what you ate for breakfast, your fav. tree): Muffin Oak

Now I tag Sam, Larissa and Lindsay.