Cinderella hard at work

Today I come in from hanging my clothes out on the line (which I still love by the way), and I find this. McKena is Cinderella for the day I guess. She is still desiring to earn a castle that I got for her (free on the side of the road) so I guess she took it upon herself to mop the floor. Luckily this actually needs to be done and that is one more thing I can cross off of my list of things to do today.
I am not sure if you can tell from this picture the amount of soap that she thought she needed is about 5X to much.
Did I mention it is lunch time, I have a cranky Devon, I am still in my pjs, and in desperate need of a shower. Unfortunately the kitchen is where I need to be or go through to take care of any of these things. So how long does it take a 6-year old to mop the floor is the question at hand!!

Could I be a pioneer?

OK so I probably could not deal with actually washing the laundry by hand, but I sure do love hanging it on the clothesline. Ryan put this up for me last week and I just love it. When we were looking for houses I seemed to be drawn to the clotheslines. It seems many people out here use them. Anyway I did not know it would be so easy to put one up. Who knew all you needed was two trees.

Where is Spencer?

This is our adorable little toddler bed. Someone kindly gave it to us when we were living in Iowa and Mason just loved it. Of course he did, wouldn't any two year-old little boy (or girl for that matter) love this car bed? You would think so. I guess our little Spencer is not a normal two year-old because he seems to have quite a hard time staying in it. He rarely takes naps in his bed although he will fall asleep in a heartbeat if he is in the car. He also really struggles staying in at bedtime. Often when we go to bed we will find Spencer. . . . .
In our bed most of the time. Although he has also been found. . . . .

On McKena's bedroom floor or. . . . . .
On the stairs, or even. . . . . . .
On his windowsill. Now you tell me how can that possibly be comfortable.
Of course this is what happens on those days that he refuses to take a nap that he desperately needs. I am amazed that anyone could fall asleep in the midst of a yummy meal of taco salad.

America's birthday

We had a very fun Fourth of July this year. I am crazy about the 4th. I love everything about it, the parade, BBQ, red white and blue outfits, celebrating the freedom of living here, and the fireworks (I would actually call myself obsessed when it comes to fireworks). When we moved out here last year Ryan promised that he would take me to one of the big cities for the fourth while we are here. So this year I decided to take him up on it and we traveled to Philadelphia. What better place to celebrate America's birthday than in America's birth place.
They had a fun all you can eat ice cream fundraiser down on the Pier. It was only $5 for all you can eat ice cream from all of the favs. It was packed so I am not sure if we got all we could eat, but we definitely got all you can 'wear'.
They also had a naval ship at the Pier that you could tour. The kids really enjoyed that .

We ended the night with a great parade and fun fireworks. The only problem was that it rained from about 8pm on. Luckily not a down pour but enough to be wet and a little uncomfortable. The kids actually were still really good and just continued to play and run around with their friends.

Camping

Last month we had a super fun camping weekend with our friends the Acors, Williams, and Darren Groberg (a student visiting Ryan's residency). I have really learned to love camping. As a child we went camping often or so I remember, however I prefer my adult style of camping. My new camping includes toilets (preferably flushable), showers, and running water. If I have these things some bug spray and my dutch oven I am pretty happy. I can even deal without the showers (which were lacking this particular weekend). We were able to go for two nights which in my opinion is the only way to go. There was a decent lake and decent weather. The other families had brought along their bikes which was not much fun for my kids (they still need training wheels) but was nice for Ryan and I to go on a bike ride around the lake. At one point during the weekend I was thinking that I had not had to reprimand my kids much at all. I realized it is because they just get to play all day. They also just loved being outside. It was so nice to see them playing together without fighting it probably also helped that they had other kids to play with besides themselves. It doesn't matter what the reason was I just loved the peace. My one mistake was that I did not bring anything for Devon to sit in or on. The only chance I had to set him down was in the tent.
Mason with Lauryn and Sean Williams.

Our little family on our first and hopefully not last camping trip of summer 2008.

Our backyard

Our backyard has been amazing this spring and summer as all of the flowers are blooming. It is so fun to watch because everything is a surprise since I am so unfamiliar with flowers. I am always anxiously awaiting the buds to bloom so that I can see what beauty awaits us. The previous owners were obviously into a beautiful yard and they have given us much to look at and a whole lot of work to do. First off there is this cute little fish pond in the center of our backyard. We decided to take it out because it is not practical for a family of four little kids. Plus we just really need more grassy area.
Here is Ryan's grass that he is working so hard to grow. You cannot tell really well in this picture but the new grass is a completley different color of green and looks kind of funny right now hopefully we will be able to blend it a little in the next few years.
Just some pictures of some of our flowers.

No this is not the southwest, but yes we do even have a catus.
In addition to these beauties we have had daffodils, iris', roses, forsythia, azaleas, peonies. violets, and many more that I have no idea what they are. On a side not we also have our vegetable garden that is growing. I am so excited to harvest. We ate our first pea the other day so yummy.

Family Night

On Monday night we had a fun Family Home Evening. I have been trying to get our food storage and last time I wasn't able to can with our ward so we decided to do it at home. I was excited however I was not expecting that the kids would be very helpful. They did really well. First I had to tell Ryan to look the other way as they were filling the cans so that he would not see the mess. After we got over that it was all fun. Spencer even helped by giving daddy the oxygen packets. At one time Ryan even declared that they were running a pretty smooth assembly line. I was so proud!
All done! So if there is ever a major emergency I have my cans. Hopefully I will know what to do with the stuff inside.