Right now....

...my kids are GLUED to E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.

...I am anticipating getting off in 40 mins. due to being sick and tired, literally and figuratively.

...I am looking forward to a restful night that might possibly include a chocolate milkshake and some seriously old "new" episodes of LOST that we STILL haven't seen!

...I am looking forward to tomorrow. A day filled with brand newly restocked Tuesday Mornings, a potluck lunch at Betsy's, a restful afternoon, and then dinner and crafting with girl friends! A jam packed day, but packed with all my favorite things! Talking, shopping, eating out, and crafting!

Over time

Looks like I am going to be working some extra hours over here. So we can get us one of these babies! You know you want one.

P.S. We are seriously doing it! Hurrah!

I can't wait...

...till the weather cools down so I can take the kids outside without turning into a meanie sweat monster.

...till we have our very own yard to play in.

...till I don't have to be working anymore (who knows when that will be!).

Other than that life is good. I haven't had any sad days in a long time. I have been overly emotional for the last week, but that is probably hormones! LOL. The summer is whizzing by, and I get so afraid that I am wasting it, but then I think I am doing all I can! I play when I can, relax when I can, work when I have too, and squeeze in tender moments as often as possible. There is just not enough time in the day to do all I want, but I am learning that laundry will wait, naps will wait, vacuuming and dusting will wait, email will wait. It will all wait, but my kids get older every second, and they change and grow faster than the eye can blink so I need to appreciate it NOW. And I think I am doing that, at least better than before. Hasn't been any screaming from this Mama in a long time. I love that!

The mail delivered...

...and it was good! Oh my gosh it was good! I have to first give a shout out to Kelli for first showing me the wonderfulness that is Anthropologie! I am honestly not sure how I had never heard of it before! I ordered the catalogue ages and ages ago. I got my first one last time and it was eh...This one! Oh my goodness, I want to WEAR the catalogue! You guys, this is like the most wonderful collection of gorgeousness clothing I have ever held in my hands. I want EVERY SINGLE THING. All I need is a new body to go with them and all those cute cinched waists! Here are some of my faves, just for documentations sake.

Starting with these shoes and tights. The outfit is pretty cute too, just not me-ish. She looks fab though.
This shirt, and this one, and I found this one while perusing the site for linkys. All the clothes are so pretty and girly, I can't tell if they would only look fabulous on those pretty and girly models, but dang!

And this is the BEST part (other than those red shoes! I LOVE those shoes!) I want this bed and bedding and even that toile chair!

Seriously peruse that catalogue yourself here, and see if you don't fall in love! And the shoes! All those pretty, pretty shoes!

First Sting!

Friday night Keith took the kids to a Fourth of July gathering with some friends of ours, and it all seemed to go off well without a hitch. Except for the fact that Natalie got STUNG. BY. A. WASP!!!! My baby girl! I may have overreacted when Keith called me, but that was more from the fact that I couldn't be there when I knew she was in pain. Keith said she took it like a trooper and after the initial cry fest from the sting stopped, that she was fine! Some anti itch stuff and a magic bandaid later and she didn't even look back! She surprises me with how she handles things, it shows me I need to not overreact too much because she will watch me and learn how to cope. Luckily I wasn't there to make it worse.

First Parade!

Well, last night we made a rash decision to brave the parade this morning...and I am SO GLAD we did! This was Brady's first parade, and Natalie's first that she really would remember. Everyone told us to "get there early", but we had no idea how early to go! So we left at 7:45 and got some stinkin' awesome seats! We were sitting right in front of the house where some funny guy named Allen was announcing all the floats, and they had music too, which the kids enjoyed dancing to while we waited for the parade to start.

Prime real estate. (oh yeah, we were in the shade the WHOLE time! Cha ching!)

The kids were THRILLED upon THRILLED when they got some free flags! They waved those things like they were going out of style, and it was SO cute. Just constant waving...
...and waving... ...and waving! (and I have a MILLION more pictures of the waving!) Oh yeah, and Brady was being SO sweet! He just kept raising his flag in the air. I don't think he knew what it meant, but it was so touching. Kids just know to love the flag! I love the flag too! It is so beautiful! And this one too. It pulls at my heartstrings, and of course I cry. (I love you Grandpa!)There were not enough horses in my opinion! But the ones they had were gorgeous! My favorite part! Keith liked the Elvis's on the mini bikes. They were kinda crackin' me up. Brady and Natalie were waving at everyone. After a while he started getting tired, so he rested his elbow on his knee and waved like that. Oh my goodness, it was hard to capture, but it was SO funny. Just this lazy wave...So the kids were just thrilled with the whole thing. The only complaint I had was NO CANDY! What is up with that??? Anyone from town want to tell me why the floats weren't tossing candy? This was the first parade EVER I have been too where there wasn't candy and coupons and pencils and all other sorts of goodies. Yeah, you can tell I was a bit miffed! But, I am SO glad the kids had fun. I mean, they absolutely LOVED it! More than I was hoping for, and they were SO good, just sat and stared the WHOLE time! I love when they do that, just up and surprise you with being FABULOUS!

I love America!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope everyone is able today to find a way celebrate this wonderful country that we live in. I truly am SO proud to be American! I love this day so much to be able to get together with friends and family and celebrate summer and freedom and independence! And who doesn't LOVE fireworks! I know I do! I won't be seeing any fireworks this year (I know, poor me! LOL), but we are going to try and hit the parade so I am really excited about that! It will be Brady's first and Natalie's first that she remembers!

I LOVE this song! I really do. I learned it in 5th grade for a little choir thing we did, and I felt the strong spirit of this song even then. I remember feeling SO PROUD to be singing it. It brings me to tears and gives me shivers every time I hear it. And you can bet I belt it when I hear it on the radio!


And I love me some Celine Dion, I know she is Canadian, but MAN can she sing! This is one of my favorites!

EEEWWWW

Shannon's Thought of the Day: Don't forget to write it down if you offer to cover someones shift at work.


Working is not fun, when you THOUGHT you had the night off. Just saying.

Baseball and burgers

On Saturday morning we had an Elders Quorum activity at the park. It was to be 2 hours of baseball with burgers and hot dogs for lunch afterward. I was excited when I learned it was going to be on Keith's birthday weekend because I knew he would have fun, and it was something different and not something that we could ever do on our own. The men had fun playing ball (and a few women!) while the rest of us sat around in the shade watching the children play. Luckily it really wasn't that hot, so it didn't start to get unbearable until all the kids started getting starving! I didn't get to see them all, but I was told Keith hit 4 in park home runs! I did see one of them, and it was fun! He brought his team to victory with all the runs he brought in. Hurray for the birthday boy! I had fun trying to snap some pictures while staying out of the hot sun.



Brady's new favorite hobby. Enjoy it while you can bud, because we WILL break you of this one! LOL
Keith hitting his home run.
Cuteness all around.



The party planner himself.
There was a plane with a Geico add trailing behind it and the kids would freak out every time it came into view. "The Flag!!!! The Flag!!!" Brady especially had fun looking for it...when he wasn't picking his nose!
Good times were had all around. The burgers were out of this world, and the baseball was great! I love when church activities have a good turnout, and this one did!

SURPRISE!!!...ish

Whew! The weekend is over, and with that all the little bits and pieces of making sure Keith had a splendid welcome into his 30's. We had lots of things going on (some of my planning and some not) and it will take a few posts (hopefully not days) to write about all of it!

I knew waaay back that I was gong to do a surprise party for him because, well, I had to at least TRY and get him! So I decided to do it at a resaurant which would mean WAY less stress for me! No cooking and NO cleanup! We ended up at Red, Hot & Blue on Saturday night. I made up some cute (and pretty funny) postcards (so EVERYONE could see them!) and finally got them out in time.

It was a nice turnout, though it is SO HARD to be able to talk to everyone! I felt bad and so did Keith, which made me feel worse, LOL, and so goes the life of a woman, racking myself with guilt over things I can't control! But I think everyone had a good time and that was what was important!

Oh, I almost forgot...was Keith actually surprised? NO! Thanks to me and my HORRIBLE poker face I gave it away an HOUR before the party! I got off work at 5 (I was covering the afternoon for Sarah so she could get the cake!! Thank you SO much Sarah!!) and we weren't supposed to leave until 6. Well, let me tell you that was HARD! I had 3 hungry people on my hands, one of which was starting to get suspicious by the second. So I claimed I needed to lay on the heating pad (which I really did) and then my excuse was that I wanted to finish the show I had started (Shear Genius on Bravo...love it!) which I also really did, but I am told that I gave it away by a little smile I did when asked why we weren't going NOW. Oh well! LOL, what can I say, I am a TERRIBLE liar! At least there was some semblance of surprise because he really wasn't expecting anything on Saturday. Anywho, we both had fun at the dinner, it was nice to see our friends there even though we weren't able to TALK to all of them! And the cake was cute...complete with a little skateboarding Keith. And the waitress and restaurant were WONDERFUL!

Keith enjoying his favorite appetizer.
Brady, Brady, Brady...this little guy sures knows how to act in public...CRAZY! He wasn't satisfied until we gave in a let him do whatever he wanted! In the name of staying NOT stressed, we just let him, at least he stopped screaming!
Party goers... Erin and Natalie
Sarah and Bella
James and Aube
Kelli and Bryce (Ewan was opposed to the camera that night)
Fynn (he knew what to do!)
Hayley and David
Grayson (Um, yeah can you say CUTE? This is his "big" smile!)
Luke and Hayley
Dad with his JELLY BEANS!
Keith Fake blowing out the candles for the shot ;)
Look at those cuties, and check out that Costco cake!

So in the end Keith was happy and that made me feel good! Another birthday for the books.