Make A Wish party 9-4-09

My friend Robbie (the one who took all those awesome pictures and made my special book!) has a little boy with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He's had a rough time growing up! He's almost 6 now and we are all so grateful to watch him grow! (He's Karah's Prince-if you ask her!) Anyways, he got a wish granted from Make-A-Wish and we all got to go celebrate with him and his family. He wanted a secret hideout/tree house. It is great because his siblings can benefit from his gift as well. We drove up to Idaho to be with them and didn't want to come home-they are such fun people to be around!

You may have to click on some of these pictures to enlarge if you really want to see what's in them... The first is a picture when we first arrived. Then my mom and her best friend Siri (Robbie's mom!) We all lined up for Trey to come outside for the "big reveal!"

Here's Trey climbing up his new climbing wall.

What a fun surprise!

These are the people who made it all possible. The guy who made the tree house, the Make-A-Wish people and Trey's family (Robbie, Ben, Tyler, Trey, Luke, Lauren (and Sasha!))

There's a lookout on the roof so they can spy on unsuspecting victims! Also, bottom right and middle shots are another example of my expert photography skills!

Trey, Karah and Tyler climbing...

Alyssa and me, Robbie and Lauren

Lance (Robbie's brother) got on the trampoline and entertained the kids for I swear an hour! They sat there while he bounced them around and played different games.

Cake time! On the bottom you see Karah blowing away the flies. The flies usually stay by the cows (they own and live on a dairy farm) but when there's food outside, they multiply quickly!

My mom and Siri on the couch looking at some photo books. The bottom left is Karah and Trey jumping on the trampoline together. The Make-A-Wish people also brought lots of presents to play with in the hideout. Lance was nice enough to teach Tyler and Karah how to play Clue Jr.

It was a two hour drive home and when we got home this is how we found Alyssa! I am sure glad we didn't crash! I'm no expert but that doesn't look very safe (or comfortable!) Thanks for letting us share your day! We had a blast (as usual!)

8-28-09 The Jensen Nature Park

We have a nature park across the street from our neighborhood. We finally walked over there and it was awesome! So relaxing and peaceful!

I'm not in the mood to write about these in detail but I need to get caught up...

They are pretty self explanitory-I think.

We walked around the huge pond in the wagon.

Played on the bridge and watched a guy catch a few fish.

What a great view! (If you look on the right side of the top left picture you can see our church. It's right across from this park. Super neat!)

I loved these huge rocks! The girls did too! They played here for quite awhile...

It's hard to see in these pictures but the girls are throwing rocks in the water and you can see them starting the throw and then the rocks in the air/splashing in the water! I was going to circle them but I don't want to right now.

Who doesn't just love rocks!?!

We really loved watching this guy train his puppy to be a bird doggee! He would through the thing into the water and make him wait, then give the signal and he'd run into the water and retrieve it! He had him trained to do all kinds of things-very entertaining!

Lys really wanted to pull Karah in the wagon on the way home. She pulled for quite a ways then gave the handle back to daddy!

I had to get pictures in front of this waterfall before we left! Of course Lys wouldn't smile for it but whatever! She's two! (What will be our excuse when she's three?!) On the right you can see a picture of our church building, Shawn holding Lys on his shoulders and goofing off and me walking with my girls back home. It was such a nice night!

8-22-09 to 8-26-09

Karah went to Lagoon with Grandma T and Papa Howie for her birthday weekend this year. They had a great time!

At the hotel Karah wrote Lagoon on the stationary. When she got home she drew a picture of them on the Tidal Wave. She still talks about Lagoon everyday!

I saw this material at hobby lobby and knew immediately I wanted to make aprons for the girls with it! When I'm done, I'll share the pics-don't hold your breath though, it might be awhile!

We have something eating our apples...

and packages of Ritz crackers! A bug? No, but she's as cute as a bug! Alyssa!

I thought I'd try this tutorial online. Take four pieces of material, cut in half, stack up and sew at an angle about every inch. Then sew again between these lines.

Cut through all but one layer, make it into a purse or a pillow or whatever.

Wash and dry in the dryer to make it crinkle up. I think need to dry it a few more times to make it stand up and crinkle more but Alyssa likes it for her bed so I'll have to sneak it away!

We made Oobleck. We used to play with it when I was growing up but we called it "cornstarch and water" I saw it called oobleck (from a Dr. Seuss book) the other day. I thought it was a fun name-and it was fun to hear the girls say "oobleck!"

I love how they are both deep in thought!

8-24-09

I made a flower arrangement for our kitchen table. I had just dark colors but it sort of looked like a pile of dead flowers on the table! I added some light flowers and viola! I think it looks much better!

I got to watch my friend's little boy Ryan on August 25th. His mommy and daddy were looking at houses out by me! We met these guys in Altus, OK and became friends. We are excited for Jacob, Anna, Ryan and of course their parents to move closer again! They are getting transferred to Hill AFB. This picture was so funny because Karah was crying and in the next picture she was laughing!

I had a sign over my back door that said "Try a little harder to be a little better!" Apparently, I don't need to try to be better anymore because it fell down and broke... It must be a sign! I'm hopeless! lol

Ever had your meds do this?!! This made me laugh pretty hard! I had Shawn pick up my medication on his lunch break. Apparently they were then left in the car-and it was hot! They all came out of the bottle in one piece! I am pretty sure if I took them like this, you wouldn't have to read my blog anymore! That sounds really bad! I was able to break them apart but I don't know if they will still work... Oh well!