Recapping May and June

So May was a good month because school got out.

Ben went to his first ever fancy dance on a date. He took Amanda Wendel from down the street, they look so good!

My grandma Earl (she is actually my Great-Grandma) had her ninetieth birthday so we celebrated with a great huge part with all the reletives from out of state that we don't get to see very often. Someone found out that you can get amazingly good deals on huge orders from Maddox so we got the food from there. YUM!!! Two different flavors of cake. After the lunch we had an open house so that all of her friends and neighbors could come and see her.

We made and frosted donuts, chocolate and vanilla frosting!

Little John decided the sand box is more fun with water.

We started buildingLittle John a playhouse in the backyard, we modified some plans off the internet. John's parents came over and helped a lot. The weather was hot not foggy, the fog in the pictures is Little John's fingerprints on the camera lens but no one noticed until too late.

We enjoyed a nice picnic up the canyon.

We made jam and our sticky helper is so cute!

We went to the zoo and Little John was mezmerized by the elephants, they are deffinately his favorite animal.

We ran the Race For the Cure 5k with my Aunt Juli and her daughter Kate. It was awesome! I hope to do it again next year. Maybe next year I'll jog part of it with the stroller instaed of just power walking with the stroller.

My brother Ben graduated from Box Elder High School and Seminary. At the high school graduation things were getting boring since the speakers just go on and on and on. Then all of a sudden, at the back of the students there was a great commotion with everyone looking all over and looking under their chairs. It turns out that someone had let loose a mouse. Ben appreciated the break from the monotony. After a while they caught it. Then there was some more commotion because they had let loose more than one mouse. It kept the audience very well entertained. It also kept the sutdents awake. Oh, and some guy wore a kilt, it was cool.

We spent a lot of time working on the playhouse.

We took Ben for a ritual "last meal" before shipping him out to boot camp.

We spent a weekend with my sister Heather in Loa, UT (near Capitol Reef Ntl Park), for her baby shower.

We made arricot, pinapple apricot, and apricot plum jam

Little John ride his trike a lot.

For Father's day I helped Little John collect stuff and we put it in plaster to make Daddy a paper weight (I gave it a few coats of sealer to protect it).

We are loving your year pass to the Jensen Historical Farm (where we went to Baby animal days) We saw lots of chickens and washed clothes.

Little John loves bubbles!

My Mom entered an online contest and won a Pizza Party! So we had a bunch of friends and family over. The kids loved the backyard.

We took Little John to the pool.He lasted about 10 minutes because once the wind picked up it got cold.

Nana (my mom) lets Little John get away with things sometimes. Like making the backyard a nudist camp. He decided sitting naked was a mistake, but had fun doing everything else.

Typed by Sarah Snow the cooliest ever!!!! ('Cuz I don't type, I chicken peck:D)

Hobos and doctors and laughs oh my!

So I'm going to smash a lot of stuff in this blog, since my sister was home from collage last week for spring break.

I almost had a shower with a hobo! I was running the water to get warm and this giant hairball gets floated up to the other end of the tub AND THEN IT UNCURLED A BUNCH OF LEGS! And it was a hobo and it was big and John wasn't home so I had to smash it myself. It still freaks me out to think I could have gotten in and been bit 'cuz I never would have even seen it 'cuz I don't wear my glasses in the shower.

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "man cave" so I'll explain it a bit. It's a guy's personal space for working or playing and stashing or displaying things like comic book collections or high school ball trophies. They tend to be smaller than bigger unless most of the kids are grown and gone. Well for John's birthday he is redoing the closet under the stairs for his man cave. Before you freak out, he picked the space and is very happy with it, even though it makes me think of Harry Potter. He painted it silver and I did the floor a marblized blue and green finish and we're going to give it several clear coats to protect it. I designed and built him a set of shelves (with lots of building help from everyone) as a suprise and after we get it all finished I'll post pics.

Sarah had her wisdom teeth out. It went well, very little swelling, and no need for the heavy pain pills.

All the stores are having seasonal clearance to make way for the spring clothes, so Sarah and I did lots of shopping. I did really well with my budget though and didn't go overboard. I got some way cute stuff but only if it was cheap.

Now that our insurace has kicked in I found a new pediatrician for Little John. He's great, he used to be head of peds at a big hospitals but went back to private practice because he likes it better. So poor Little John got all caught up on his shots and he's been under the weather since and pretty cranky.

5 out of 6 Hizers are born in March so we had the everybody birthday party this last weekend. It was lots of fun. We took advantage of the nice weather and BBQed until the wind drove us inside.

Sarah's ride back to college was in Salt Lake so Ben and I drove her down there for the rondevouz. We had to hang out there for a bit so I helped Sarah reveiw her anatomy flash cards. She's working on muscles right now. I was asking a lot of "identify the muscle that originates at... and inserts at... and does such and such" questions and while she'd think about it Ben would make random guesses. So Ben's last five guesses had been "your rump?" when the question "what is the insertion of the gluteous maximus" came up and I was waiting to tell him he'd guessed right when he said it again. But instead he says, with this funny look on his face, "Its called sex, and you should never, ever do it!" And his face goes all red. Sarah and I luaghed ourselves silly! And when we finally stop laughing he says "So what's a gluteus maximus anyway?" He had no idea it was a butt and we started laughing all over again.

I went to the chiropracter today (my first appointment was last week) and he worked out the whatever I did to my shoulder over the weekend. My mom talked me into going after my shoulder had been bothering me for a few weeks. I was kinda resistant to the idea, because some of those guys are quacks. But I googled the one my insurance said it covered in our area and picked the guy who did mostly sports injury stuff because he seemed very unquacky (so does his office partner). And he was very professional and none of this "I'll need to see you 3 times a week for 6 months ot fix it" stuff and no wonky promises like "I'll cure your athletes foot by feeling you skull". The day after I was pretty sore but overall much better. He also worked on my neck and lower back. He says I carry all my tension in my neck and shoulders and I didn't realize it until I felt so much better afterwards. My back hasn't felt right since I was pregnant (which he says is really common) and it feels tons better now. So now I'm sold on chiropracters. I know a bunch of you have raved over how much good your's has done you but I had to try it to belive it.

So that catches us up to right this very second, so now I need to go do stuff to blog about.

A photo Blog

Since its been a while I decided to do a photo blog, and let the pictures explain most of it.

Ben and John got Guitar Hero for Christmas and Little John loves to play too on his guitar.

We took the train as a family and John's mom and brother Kevin came too. Little John even sat in his own chair until he got too rowdy.

They were playing chase one night and Little John tripped and hit a chair, but the stiches healed up just fine. He got his own glasses so he'll leave everyone else's alone. And we played in the paint to make Valentines.

I've done a lot of sewing lately. My sis-in-law was a bridesmaid and they had these immodest dresses so the 3 girls asked me to make them sleeves. I love the design they picked and it didn't take me too long to make-up the pattern. And the pretty blue one is a skirt I made over into a dress for my sister Sarah to wear to a dance at collage. And I did the purse to match.

I caught up with a friend I haven't seen in like 8 years. Dorian was home from Australia for about a month before moving to Tucson this week. She came over a second time for dinner and games but I didn't take any pics of that.

Little John is going stir crazy from being inside so on warmish afternoons we go out in the sunshine and blow bubbles. We'd play in the snow but he doesn't know what to do with it.

We have very much enjoyed the principles of static electricity and balloons. Well except for the dog, she didn't think this was fun.

And Ben is still doing his army stuff and he loves to play with Little John if he isn't playing video games. Which catches us up to where we are now.

Mamma Mia!

So we watched Mamma Mia today and this is the most hysterically funny movie I've ever seen. The sound track is all Abba songs, the plot is amazingly twisted. It sounded like it might be a chick flick but John loves it and my anti-musicals teenage brother loves it too! I am totally amazed about that. And even though the guys like it this is the perfect girls night in movie, where you all sing along (it has a sing along setting:D) at top volume while eatting chocolate ice cream!

I can't wait to see what Sarah thinks of it, I bet she goes nuts. Little John loves it, he "sings" and claps and laughs and dances around. It is so adorable!

This is from our family pics at Thanksgiving, I love it 'cuz he's laughing :D

Cause for hysteria LOL

So my youngest brother joined the army national guard months ago and since he's a senior this year he hasn't been to basic yet but he still does his "one weekend a month". So today they were supposed to do first aid stuff but instead they did "how to clear a room like SWAT". They were given a five minute shpeel about if you stand in this order these people check this part of the room and be sure to crouch down . Then they were sent on training scenarios. Usually they have 4 man squads but the numbers didn't workout so Ben was in a six man squad. So they do their thing and five minutes later everybody was killed by the "terrorists". Reset: it takes longer but the "terrorists" win again.
Take three: They do much better checking things and find 2 of the 3 "terrorists" so they split up and most of the squad takes in the prisoners leaving Ben and a guy to keep watch I guess (he was vague on these details). So they hear a noise and go in to check it out and see a very skinny cabinet is open so they check it out- empty. So Ben turns around and sees that his buddy (who is tall) is a hostage to the last "terrorist" Cadet Mowers (who is short and has the hostage bent over backwards into a headlock threatening him with a cardboard knife, the squads use unloaded m-16's and shout "bang!" to fire them). Mowers backs away using the guy as a shield all the way down the stairs (the guys feet thump down every step) while shouting in Arabic (made up gibberish really). And then the two of them disappear into the bathroom. Ben (who is also really tall) crouches down and follows them hoping for a chance to fire but hesitates outside the bathroom because the door opens into the hall and he worries about being ambushed. He finally goes in and sees no one. He checks under the stalls and sees only one pair of feet- hmm his buddy's or the "terrorist's"? So he sneaks over and gently pushes the door with the gun- locked. So he sneaks into the stall next door, climbs up on the seat, pops up over the top and...
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The poor Staff Sargent (who is not part of the maneuvers at all) has the poop scared right out of him. He yells all sorts of things and Ben ducks back down. He leaves his stall and is "killed" by the laughing "terrorist" who had "killed" his buddy (who is also laughing) before Ben came in. The staff Sargent gives Ben a cussing out and a bunch of push ups, but Mowers (the "terrorist") defends him, so Ben only has to do 50. Poor kid, he will never live this down.
When he told us we all laughed so hard we were crying and I could barely breathe. Little John thought that was great so he starts laughing and shrieking and waving his arms all over which only makes us laugh harder. In Ben's defense: they really shouldn't let people wander into active scenarios if they aren't involved.

Ward Christmas Party

So I don't know if I ever mentioned it but John and I were called to be on the ward activities commitee. So we had the Christmas party breakfast yesteday. We do a beakfast early in the month to keep from interfering with people's holiday plans (for the most part). John helped flip pancakes and I ran the skit. The plan was that I'd do the "voice from off stage" but people had things come up and/or got sick so I did a part and sound effects, John did a part, and Ben did lights. And I rounded up a guy from the audience for the "voice". It went well though.
If you've been to Seagull book lately you might have seen the book "A stranger for Christmas" well there is a skit version online(http://www.theideadoor.com/Skits/a_stranger_for_christmas%20skit.htm).
Of course I picked a few characters to do parts and the version we did isn't the same one that's scripted. Our version turned out to be a little more of a comedy when "Florence" decided she was a bitter old scrooge complete with insertions of "humbug!". The original script (and book) was a bit more pionant and heartwarming when "Florence" was just a sad lonely lady. But we got a lot of compliments about it and it was never expected to be a Broadway preformance anyway since we only had one rehersal with an incomplete cast.
And everyone had a good time, even the sweethearts who filled in at the last minute.

Lagoon

OK so if I stayed up to date on blogging these wouldn't be so late or all out of order.

Anyway Saturday of UEA weekend (umm, Oct 18 I think) we were all set to have an adventure driving up to see my Aunt Debbie and then we find out that they're going to be in Twin Falls all day. So this left us adventureless and we're all geared up for some fun, so we tracked down some discount tickets and went to Frightmares at Lagoon. For those unfamiliar with Lagoon it rivals Disneyland in cost but doesn't have the characters or the seamless "magic" atmosphere. However it does have lots of roller coasters if you don't mind the lines. (Another thing they should barrow from Disney would be FastPasses) So we spent the day and in the evening they have all this haunted stuff (hence the Frightmares part). Me and Mom took Little John on his first rides while Ben and John did they're own thing. Then while the little guy and Mom had a nap I went with the guys. I love and hate thrill rides. I like the "whee" part but I hate the way the stomach-falling-out feeling gets so intense I can't feel my arms to clutch at things for dear life. And by the end of the night our feet were killing us, but it was SO worth it. We had a blast.

Everyone by a pumpkin sculpture naer the entrance.

Ben, John, and I on Rattlesnake Rapids, Its cold here so I wore a ponch because you get off the ride SOAKED.

Everyone but Mom rode the log flume, I think it scared Little John but he didn't cry.

He loved the train.

He liked the boats 'cuz he loves water.

This was his first ride and he didn't know what to think.

And for Halloween they had all of these put your face through things so I made us use them.

Me and John

Little John

And Ben, gotta love the face.

UEA adventures

So UEA hosts a teacher confrence every fall and there's lots of booths that are fun to see and lots of free pens and notepads and other small tidbits to collect. But the best part is the 4 day weekend. We went down to UEA with Mom and looked around at everything Thursday. It was fun. The not so fun part was when we stayed overnight in Salt Lake so we could get there early before the convention got crowded.


We stayed at a nice hotel at a good rate because they were doing a dicsount if you were with UEA. So since there were 4 of us and the baby- Mom booked a 2 room suite. Well it turns out to be just one room with a king size bed. However, do not despair! Despite my love of adventure and "winging it" when we couldn't verify via room description if the couch was a pullout bed we brought the air matress and some sleeping bags. And of course thr porta-crib.


As a perk the room had a jacuzi tub, which Little John and I enjoyed since the pool was freezing and the hot tub was out of the question for him. He loved the jets. Alas the jacuzi tub is not in the bathroom, it ocupies a coner of the main space. For those of you who have not attempted to sleep 2 people on an air mattress, you spend all night rolling into each other because it dips into the center. So we got a roll-away bed from the front desk. But because of the jacuzi tub there is barely room to walk and no room for the porta-crib. So it ends up like this: John, Little John and I in the king size bed, Mom on the queen size air mattress, and Ben my 6 foot plus tall brother on the roll-away bed.


I don't think anyone got any sleep. Little John had an ear infection from his cold and had just started antiboitics that day. He was up 3 times that night and even when sleeping took up a lot of the bed squirming. Ben might as well have been sleeping on rocks there were so many springs in his mattress. John and I where hot. Mom and Ben were cold.


So after the provided breakfast which was actually really good, we check out. And Mom explains about expecting 2 rooms and only getting 1 and they finally determine that a jacuzi suite and a 2 room suite are the same price and the recently hired employee who handled the reservation booked it on price not description. So thanks to the mixup no charge for the roll-away bed.


A few few days latter and after some decent sleep we think this was quite a funny thing. But we definately learned a few things. 1 travelling with sick children is a dumb idea. 2 double check all reservations before you leave. 3 if there is a reservation problem fix it before bedtime or right at check in if possible. and we relearned the importance of this last one 4 if you can't fix it, laugh and enjoy it or you only make yourself more miserable.


But we didn't let lack of sleep keep us from having a good time at UEA the next day. And The Mayan (areaaly cool theamed resturant that can be seen in the movie The RM) was across from the convention center so we had lunch there. All the boys LOVED it.

Loading the car

This is where a picture of the over stuffed hotel room should go but I was to frustrated to take a pic at the time.

In front of the Mayan

In the lobby

By our table

All last week in just 5 minutes

Sorry its been a while sinceI blogged anything. We were very busy last week with the fair and getting ready for school which started yesterday. So I'll catch everyone up.



We've been doing a lot of cleaning to get ready for school. Ben paid us $20 to clean his room for him. Look at all the laundry we hauled out of there! But he is doing a pretty good job of keeping it clean since then.



We entered all our stuff in the fair: our quilt got a red ribbon (2nd place), everything else got blue (1st place), and the wedding dress I made last year got a blue and a great big pretty yellow one for honorable mention and it gets to go on to the State fair! I'm very excited about that.



We get a lot of calls from Sarah at college, things are going well but she's homesick. It doesn't help that she has a hard time getting cell phone reception and that her laptop freaked out and wouldn't connect to the internet. But she got it fixed now and she's going to be home for labor day weekend. So we are very excited to see her soon.



So the company that John interviewed with decided they aren't going to hire anyone after all. So that's a little disapointing, but he has more applications out and we expect to here back with a few interviews soon. In the mean time he's keeping himself busy cleaning out the garage and beating Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on the Wii.



Little John is having a great time. Him and the dog are good friends now. He likes to share his cookies with her. He'll slobber all over it and chew on it some and then hold it for her to chew on. But if he has a snack he doesn't want to share he has no problem with pushing her out of the way. We walked around the fair and he got to pet a cow. And because we went Friday morning it was pretty uncrowded so we let him out of the stroller and he and John both pushed it around. He is so close to walking on his own! He'll walk holding just one hand now, he walks along the furniture, he walks up and down stairs with help, he practically runs with his push toy. We made pudding art this week to mail to Sarah at school and to other people. He sleeps through the night almost everynight now, which we are super excited about. He is just loving life, its great.



Oh and the best news the plumbers come tomarrow and then we'll be able to use the downstairs bathroom- HOORAY!!!

Oh and I added the pictures we took of droping Sarah off at school, to the blog about it.