Posting

I haven't posted for a while, not much going on! We've been doing a lot of swimming, running in the sprinklers, staying in the AC inside, and generally bumming away the summer!! It's HOT here, 105+ with the humidity, and we've been trying to keep cool and keep busy. Pictures will follow in the coming days, hopefully :)
Off to soak in a cold tub. . .

I'm ON Vacation!

So we've been MIA for 3 weeks now, and MAN have we had a ball here in Utah. We've done so many things and seen so many people, we've found that when you don't have a major holiday in the works, i.e. Christmas, you have a lot more "free" time to do fun things! So here's a sampling of what we've done on our vacation to the Beehive State. (This is more for my benefit in the future than for all of you, so if you just look at the pictures, I won't be offended!)

2 Movies-Up and Night at the Museum
Hogle Zoo
Dinosaur Museum
Miniature Golfing
Boondocks
Chuck E Cheese
Going up AF canyon for a cook-out
Oquirrh Mtn. Temple Open House
Went to the Church Office Building and saw Mom and Dad's Office and Temple Square
Had several BBQ's with different groups of friends
Went swimming twice
Thanksgiving Pt. Animal Farm
Went shopping to ALL my favorite stores, I don't think I missed ONE that I had my mind on going to
Ate WAY too much good food
Did not clean, cook, or do much laundry for 3 weeks, Ahhhhhhh
Had a Boren Family Carnival
Got Gavin's hair buzzed by Grandpa
Read books and snuggled
Had lots of fun jumping on the tramp with the sprinklers and sliding on the slip and slide
Spent plenty of quality time with all the cousins
Kids had 3 sleepovers! which meant 3 nights to myself :)
Missed Daddy lots while he was back in MO
Went to the "Wood Park"
Learned how to sew a bag
Bought food storage that you just can't find easily in MO
Watched the rain and thunderstorms for a week straight?! I came here for dry HEAT, not rain?!

Had an overall fabulous time with friends and family, and can't wait to do it all again next summer!!

Thanks to all those who we had a chance to catch up with, we had a GREAT time!!

And we're looking forward to being back in MO with all our friends out there, and getting back to a regular schedule and being productive members of society! :)


Busy Bees

Time flies when you're having fun, or over extended beyond imagine! We've had a little bit of both the last couple weeks. Here's a rundown of the highlights:

• went to a Kindergarten "Celebration" not Graduation! ('It's a ceremony' - 'It's psychotic!')
• went to a PTA meeting with the principal
• watched Maci play in her last soccer game of the season
• babysat several different families of kids several different times
• survived finals week part 2, Chris finished everything with flying colors
• Spent 4 hours at the Dr.'s office trying to get Gavin to poop, 3 enema's, 2 suppositories, lots of patience, and 12 hrs. later at home, POOP!
• Spent another 2 hrs. in the ER last night with Gavin because of breathing problems, croup. He got 2 steroid shots and a breathing treatment, but is doing fine now. He's on prednizone for 5 more days. He gets croup often when he gets a cold, it was just really bad this time!
• Sent out about 15 orders, business picked back up!
• Did a craft night for my ward, 25 ladies participated, it was a success
• Watched a tooth go from loose to dangling in a matter of days, to OUT tonight!
• Did 20 loads of laundry and countless number of dishes
• Did some work for my other "side" job for Chris's boss, data entry stuff at home
• Tried to get the house somewhat scoured before we leave on Thursday for UT! I hate coming home to a dirty house
• Made it through 2 tornado days, none touched down REALLY close to us, but close enough?! and crazy thunder and lightning, sheets of rain.
• Made it through the first real heat of the summer, I think we're in for a rude awakening! Give me some dry heat PLEASE!
• Had a lovely Mother's Day where I got to do whatever I wanted, which was go for a beautiful country drive with my family, and didn't have to teach primary :)

So that's been our last 2 weeks in a nut shell. We're anxiously baby stepping to Thursday when Maci gets out of school and we'll head that day to UT. We'll probably arrive on Friday late, that's the plan. We're excited to see those of you in UT and will miss those of you here in MO!

They got these bears and autographed each others' bears.

PTA Conference

I was asked to be on the PTA committee, more out of no one else signing up than anything else I'm pretty sure, but I said yes (I have a hard time saying no to things, I need Chris to help me work through my issues.) So I'm the VP over Fundraising and Reflections. I have no idea what I'm doing, and no one else on our board has ever done PTA before either, so it should be a fun learning experience for all of us! We went to a conference in Independence this weekend. 3 of them drove up together, but I was scared to go with 3 people I didn't know, so I roped Chris and the kids in to going with me. We left yesterday afternoon, arrived just in time for the kids to go swimming and for me to go to a "rally" where we chanted PTA over and over for 2 hours. Well, not quite, but something like that. I did win a t-shirt in a raffle :)
I went to workshops this morning for about 5 hours, and tried to soak in as much as we could. Chris and the kids went to a great park our friends told us about. They got to ride horses, feed baby goats, and trapse around the park having a great time. I wish I could have joined them, or at least snatched a picture but we forgot the camera on this trip.
They picked me up this afternoon and headed for the Independence Visitor's Center. We hadn't been since Heritage Tours after our Senior Year in HS, and it's been remodeled recently. It was a fun visit and we all learned a little more about the period of time the saints spent in MO. I love the spirit you can feel in all the LDS visitor's centers. There's nothing else like it! We had to get some KC BBQ while we were there, so we went to Arthur Bryan's, one of the best BBQ places around. It was really good, but I kind of felt like I was at Cafe Rio and not knowing the lingo and how to order stuff. Then we headed home.
It was a fun little trip. I was amazed at how many volunteers on the state level there are in PTA. These ladies spend countless hours, probably close to a full time job, helping in every aspect of the PTA for no pay. They simply want to make a difference in MO kids' lives. It was pretty inspiring actually. I really hope to get a Reflections program going in our school, they didn't do it this year and I'm not sure if they've ever done it. We don't have a strong PTA right now at all, so we're hoping to get it going this year and make it fun for all involved. So if you're not a member of your school's PTA, JOIN!! there's people behind the scenes working hard for your kids. (stepped off soapbox now)

3 weeks and counting till we convoy out to UT!!!!

Good books to read as a family

So Maci's getting to the age where I think she'd enjoy reading a book as a family, me reading it aloud to everyone. I've thought about Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Harry Potter is a little old I think. . . but wanted to know what all you read to your kids? I want short chapters, good story line, easy to understand for a 6 year old. . . you guys got anything in mind?? Comment away!

Lions, Tigers, and Chicks oh my

It's been a busy, fun week. First off was Maci's first Kindergarten Music Performance/Play. It was so cute. All the kindergarten classes sang a couple cute songs, and then did a little play of the Little Red Hen. Maci was one of the baby chicks, she had a couple little singing parts with the other chicks. It was so fun to see her up there singing her heart out. The pics didn't turn out too well, we were too far back. We were about 10 minutes early and ALL the seats were taken already, we ended up standing in the back. She did a fabulous job, as did all her little classmates.




This weekend we relaxed and got some stuff done. Maci had a soccer game, they won again and are undefeated! Then we got some yard work done and got some composte to put in the flower beds. It's free here! We got a lot done and it was a great Saturday.

This week has been busy, and it's started to get hot! It was about 85 today, and it felt it. I think we're in big trouble when it reaches 90-95 with the humidity. It hasn't been too humid yet, but I'm sure it's coming. Maci's school went to the zoo on Wednesday and Gavin and I tagged along. It was really fun. Gavin and I have been to the zoo, but it was Maci's first time. We enjoyed seeing all the animals, there was one giraffe in particular that was a little agressive and out of control! She had a great time with her friends and teacher, and we had fun seeing it with her. Gavin loves to be in the big kid mix, and Maci was really good about including him. Today i did library time at the school, and tomorrow I'm helping at a PTA dance in the evening, I'm feeling very involved in the school this week! Gearing me up for PTA next year.






Yesterday a friend also helped me make some freezer strawberry jam. It turned out really good! It was fun to feel a little domestic, something I'm trying to do more of. Thanks Maria for letting me mess up your kitchen! The kids had a ball and the product was fabulous.

I've done some orders this week too, I've been trying to balance crafts with every day life here for a while since I've gotten busier. I decided to only make and finish orders on Mondays and Tuesdays, and ship out Wednesdays. So any orders I get during the week, I wait till Monday to start in on them. It's been really good, and helped me balance work and life. Then I can put away my craft stuff during the rest of the week so it's not out all the time. I've also had a few 9 year old girls from the ward come over on Monday afternoons to play with the kids while I cut stuff out. That's been a great help too. I think I'm finally getting a schedule down that's working for all of us!

Chris is winding up his 2nd semester, and doing really great. He had a big presentation this week that went really well, and finals are coming up in a couple weeks. I'm so proud of how dedicated he's been to his school work and not procrastinating anything. He's totally on top of it all and really enjoying every moment of it. Work's going well for him too, we're really lucky to have this job that's so flexible and that he enjoys relatively well. We're so happy to be where we are and are so blessed in every part of our lives.

We're excited to be coming to UT around the 22nd of May. Hopefully we'll get to see lots of friends and family while we're there! Sorry this was such a long post, it was more for me than for all of you!

Oh last thing, YES we did get Gavin to cut his hair!! He just said one night, after the 100th time we asked him if it was ok, that sure, if he could watch whatever show he wanted to, we could cut his hair. So the next morning, we did it, and he was fine. Yeah!! It looks really cute. I love to rub his little head.

Gavin's Hair

Yes, now that I look at all those pictures from Easter I realize how bad it really looks. Believe me, we've TRIED to cut it! Several times. But he throws such a fit, kicking, screaming, crying, we have yet to just hold him down and shave it, mostly because I'm afraid I'll cut him rather than the actual fit itself. We've tried bribes. We've tried asking him if he wants to cut just the sides, I know a mohawk is a little crazy but it would be better than this, we've asked him if he wants to go sit in a cool chair at Cookie Cutters, no dice. He says he wants it to grow up to the sky, which might happen if we don't do something soon! When we put gel in it it looks semi decent, but it usually only lasts a couple hours, if that. So what's a mom to do?! He's just too darn cute.