Oh What do you do in the Summertime...

This summer is going by way too fast...please slow it down. I'm loving having my kids home from school. Our Summer has been busy, but also relaxing & enjoyable.

So far this summer we have had Morgan in swimming lessons. She has been a little fish and is enjoying it so much more than she did last year.





Jeff spent a week in South Africa for work. I was totally jealous that he "had" to go to South Africa for work. He had a day of leisure and got some fun pictures and video in the Lion Park. He also brought us home some fun treasures. He's hoping he get to go back in a month or so, but it's not for sure yet. I'm hoping that he gets to go to, only because it means that he'll have earned enough frequent flyer miles for 2 round trip tickets anywhere in the U.S. I'm already working up plans in my head for a trip to NYC for our anniversary.







We recently went to Wyoming for my Grandpa's 90th Birthday celebration. It was so fun visiting with him and family and friends that I haven't seen in ages.

This is a picture of my Grandpa Huff in his younger years. I think he is very handsome.

Right after we returned from Wyoming I sent the boys (Jeff and Ian) off to scout camp for a week. This was Ian's first time camping and I had some anxiety about sending him since the week before there were 3 death from boys and scout camp...ugh. Luckily Jeff was there to keep an eye out for him and to make sure he changed his underwear and brushed his teeth daily (NOT).

Ian is working hard on his merit badges. He came home with 4 completed :)!!!

While the boys were gone Morgan and I had a very relaxing week. Lots of late night movie parties, toenail painting and swimming days. I almost hated having it come to an end we had some fun girl time bonding!

Ian moved down into our basement/spare bedroom recently and I moved all my office things from our master bedroom into his old bedroom. I spruced it up with a fresh coat of medium brown paint and organized my desk and filing cabinet. It is so clean and refreshing to have my own place to work. The walls are still bare, but I'm working on getting some decorations in there. I wish I would have taken before and after pictures.

I'm throwing some pictures in from our 4th of July. We watched the West Jordan Parade and later went to my Sisters house for a BBQ.



I hoping to pack some more fun into our summer before school starts!

Morgan Turned 4!

We celebrated Morgan turning 4 yesterday! It was so fun to see the excitement and anticipation of her Birthday coming up. Every time we went to the store, anything she saw that she thought she might want, she'd ask if she could have it, my reply was always "no, not right now", and then she would respond "for my Birthday?", and I'd say "maybe", and that would always suffice her.

We started our celebration on Friday night with dinner at TGIF's, we looked at going to a place called Incredible Pizza, but found out it had closed :(.





On Saturday My sister and I got together to celebrate both of our girls born on the same day, 2 years apart. My sister's daughter brought a friend, and Morgan brought a friend and we went to Thanksgiving Point to see the baby farm animals. They were so adorable from baby pigs, to cows, they couldn't have been cuter and the girls LOVED them. The kids rode the horses, we went on a horse drawn wagon ride, and the kids finished up by going on the tractor that pulled several little "cow" cars around the field.








On Monday Morgan woke up to a decorated pink door and a decorated pink chair at the dining table and a chocolate doughnut with a candle for Breakfast. She took cupcakes to pre-school and then we met Jeff for lunch at her favorite place, McDonalds. We came home and she helped me make her cake, and then we invited her friend over to play. She got to see what she got for her Birthday and played for a while and then we picked up Subway sandwiches so we could eat dinner and watch Ian play baseball. We came home and ate cake and Ice Cream and by that time she was super tired from her fun filled day.















I love our little girl so much, my life is so much richer and fuller with her in it. She's my princess, my "girls night in buddy" (when the boys go camping) and I'm so grateful to have her as part of our little family. Happy Birthday Princess, I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Easter Fun

I'm so glad that there are signs of spring FINALLY in the air. My flowers are blooming, the sun is shining (for now), and the kids are playing outside. Our Easter weekend consisted of our 2nd garage sale this month, coloring eggs, and I decided that I was going to make cookie bouquets of the sisters I visit teach. Here are a few pictures of our festivities:

These were the first set of bouquets I made earlier in the week, the piping job wasn't the greatest, but I thought they turned out pretty cute in the end.

This one is from the 2nd set, I decided to outline the flowers in colored icing instead of white, and I was really excited the way they turned out

Morgan is solo on the eggs this year (with a little help from me, of course), Ian was more interested in playing his computer game

Instead of a toy this year in the kids Easter baskets, the Easter Bunny decided to bring a new Tie for Ian and a dress for Morgan.

Scripture Reading

The other night while having family scripture reading Morgan decided that she was going to be Miss Independent and read out loud all by herself. So, she opened her scriptures and this is what we heard. "And, behold, and behold, and now, and I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag, Thank you for my home, and bless, Mommy and Daddy and Ian, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Oh My cuteness, I could hardly contain myself. The next couple nights she did the same thing, and I had no idea she knew the Pledge of Allegiance. Thanks Ms. Jennae.

I Love that girl to death!

A Special Birthday

Ian turned 12 on Saturday and was ordained a Decon in the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. We are SO grateful to friends and family members that traveled to be a part of his special day. I only wish I would have taken more pictures of our get-together after church on Sunday. I guess I was too busy visiting.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations to a very handsome young boy.

A long awaited face to face visit

Way back in the day, 1984 to be exact. I was 10 years old and in 4th grade. We were doing a unit in school on learning to write letters and how to address the outside of an envelope. My 4th grade class was paired up with another 4th grade class in Atlanta Georgia and we were given the assignment to write letters to our new pen-pals. My pen-pal was Wendy. We each wrote letters and this continued through the entire 4th grade. We continued to exchange letters through the rest of grade school, and on to Jr. High and even High School. We learned about each others likes and dislikes, we talked a little about boys, school, our families and I felt like she had become a close friend, but the only problem was that we had never officially met or even talked on the phone. I remember begging my mom to take me to Georgia to meet my new friend. After High school we lost touch, but when I got married I sent her a wedding announcement. We kept in touch through Christmas cards and later exchanged a couple of emails. We lost touch again and I never thought that I would be able to find her again.

When I joined Facebook and Wendy popped into my mind and that I should look for her, but she wasn't on facebook yet. I then looked for her again about a year later and low and behold, there she was. My pen-pal from 4th grade, some 27 years later. We exchanged a few messages to each other and once again became re-acquainted.

Two weeks ago Wendy sent me a private message on facebook telling me that she was going to be in Salt Lake City for Christmas, and asked if I was anywhere close to Salt Lake because she'd like to find a time to get together and meet. Last Thursday we met each other for breakfast for the very first time since becoming "friends/pen-pals". It was so fun to finally meet her face-to-face and have the opportunity to catch-up on each others lives. Unfortunately we were both so excited to meet each other that we forgot to take a picture even though we both had cameras on us. Ugh! Well, since her sister lives here she said she'd probably be back in a couple of years, so we'll for sure have to take a picture next time we meet.

I wish I could thank my 4th grade teacher for giving me the opportunity to pair me up with such an awesome person that has become a true friend. This was a long awaited visit that I had hoped for so many times throughout the years.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season. I love watching everything that is going on this time of year and the anticipation in my children as they count down the days until Santa.

Santa sent Morgan and Ian messages the other day via his PNP (Portable North Pole Console) you can watch them here and here they were really fun to create and Morgan was especially excited. (Ian is trying to be the cool pre-teen, and Santa is no longer a cool thing for him, tear tear).

Morgan was Jeff's tail every step of the way while putting up the Christmas tree.





We made Gingerbread cookies the other day and the kids did all the decorating. They turned out cute and yummy.