7-7-07

For the last 6 months, I have been excited about our little 7-7-07 adventure. The Saunders 2007 Triathlon. What better way to spend the luckiest day of the century, than participating in our first triathlon?? So the question is, how did I end up in Las Vegas along with all the other superstitious gamblers??
Exactly one week before the race, I found out that my Grandfather had passed away. A sad day, but a good day, he had been living with cancer for 3 years and had gone down hill quickly in the last month. Traveling was quite an adventure. Gwen came with me. We spent 2 1/2 days there, and 36 hours traveling to and from. Maine to Southern Utah is a really long trip! Gwen was a trooper, even though she hardly slept the whole time. The funeral was really great. My grandfather had a really cute sense of humor, and really loved his family, a lot of sweet/funny stories were told and it kept the mood light. Gwen is named in honor of him (She has his mothers middle name) so I thought it was appropriate that she was there, although, I really wish he could have met her while he was alive! I am still totally bummed that I had to miss the triathlon! Brad was a good sport and swam and biked the course with me on Tuesday, then I went on to complete the run. It was awesome to actually finish the course, but not quite the same as doing it with everyone else. I am hoping that I will get the chance to do another tri, at the end of the summer, if not, definitely next year. Judging by these pictures of Brad, Liv and I trying on our gear, I think everyone else missed out too!
Who knew goggles and swim caps were so flattering!

Make way for Tarzan

Every once in a while, on a lazy day at camp, someone brings up the idea of swinging on the rope, into the water. Fourth of July was one of those days. Since I don't have enough arm strength to hold myself up on the rope, I opted to take pictures. These pictures make it look like so much fun, they almost convince me to do it, even though the experience will almost surely result in pain and embarrassment.

Strawberry pickingThis week we set off to pick strawberries with Nana, Bridgette, Nora, and "Great Pampy" (this is what Liv calls Brad's grandfather.) We had a great time, even though we almost melted in the sun. It was the most beautiful setting as we stood in the field overlooking silver lake, and we could eat all the strawberries we wanted. How can you beat that! I really thought Liv would just stuff herself, but she was so intent on finding and picking the red ones, and filling her basket, that she hardly ate a thing.

Mystery Lotion...Brad and I had peacefully put both girls down for the night, and then gone downstairs to enjoy the rest of our evening. Earlier that morning, Liv's doctor asked me if I thought our house was childproof, and I thought about it, and said yes... All of our substances are out of her reach, or so I thought. At some point she decided she wasn't sleepy, and got out of bed to browse through the linen closet in the bathroom. One thing about Liv is she LOVES lotion, and is always finding it and putting it all over her face and arms. Well, this lotion---a.k.a. Icy Hot! gave her a little bit of a surprise. I imagine about 1 minutes after application, she started to worry as her skin began to burn, and yelled down to me with a slight panic in her voice. She didn't know what to think. I tried my best to think straight, washed it off her face and poured my contact solution into her eyes, hoping to cool it off. Maybe this has cured her of her habit of wiping any and everything all over her body. I doubt it.

What's on your book shelves??Anyone who lived in Coralville, Iowa with us, and had kids there, knows Flash Portrait Studio. Well, I can thank them for this photo set up. I copied it. These are the latest pictures of my girls. This is what is on our bookshelves... How about yours?

Who does she look like??

I'm so curious to see what everyone thinks... What is your vote?? (By the way....I don't know what I think.)I think this last picture needs to be in an advertisement...I don't know what the advertisement would be for, and you could crop me out, but isn't it cool!

Ode to TishTish is Liv's Nursery Leader at church, and she is wonderful. Every Sunday, Liv comes home with a darling little craft that she made to go along with her lesson about Jesus. They have been learning about how Jesus made their bodies and He gave them their senses. This is the sweet little craft they made when they learned about their eyes. Then they went on a walk around the church building, all holding hands, and took turns looking at the flowers, grass, squirrels, etc. A few weeks ago, Liv came home quoting a scripture! She said it over and over again all week long. I am so grateful for Tish, who works so hard to teach my little girl about Jesus.

Welcome to my house

I have had many requests for pictures of my house, and I have been trying to decide just how to do it. This is a public blog you know!! So, for now, I have decided to post pictures of the inside, and tell you that I have one of the outside, and if you want it, you will have to email me to ask for it... So email me if you want to see the outside too. So here goes.

Come on inside-->
This is our living room. This is the first room you would see if you came over.

walk straight forward, just past the fireplace, there is a doorway into the kitchen-->
Here it is. Don't worry, I hate the floors too. They'll be gone at the end of the summer...Yeah! Now we'll walk through the doorway at the left into the dining room.
Not much to say about this room... This is where we eat =0). Walk through the doorway at the left in the far corner, through the hall and into the family room-->
You'll have to imagine how these two pictures fit together, it was impossible to get a picture, with a good view of this whole room. Now we'll go through the doorway on the right, between the couch and bookshelf, back through the hallway and into the bathroom/laundryroom-->
You can't see it, but the washer and dryer fit to the left. Thanks for coming over... Now. I'll show you a couple of things outside.

Last week, this bed was full of UGLY shrubs! Brad willingly pulled them out, I planted a bunch of Hostas and Iris, and then I collected all these rocks down at camp and made this border. Brad was a great sport when I filled the entire back of our CRV with rocks. I have started the border on this garden as well, but I ran out of rocks...I guess we'll have to do some more collecting.
To help you orient yourself, remember the before and afters I posted a while back...This is where Brad and his dad ripped out those other ugly shrubs. (See UGLY SHRUBBERY).

And this is the gorgeous peony that we have in our front yard.. I LOVE IT!! I have been eagerly waiting for it to bloom...Just this morning it exploded!
Thanks for coming by.... And remember, VISITORS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!!

I LOVE MY DAD

These are my parents. They are GREAT! I have an awesome family and today on Father's day, I wanted to say THANK YOU to my DAD! I LOVE YOU DAD. Since most of you don't know my dad, I want to tell you a little bit about him-->

I would describe my dad as:

• Quiet: but incredibly Friendly
• Even tempered: As far as I can remember, I have never heard him raise his voice.
• Adoring:I know he thinks I am perfect.
  
• Twinkly: He always has a twinkle in his eye.
  
• Logical: he can look at any situation without involving his emotions.
• Visionary:He is the idea man. You give him a problem, and he can come up with the best solutions.
• Faithful: Above all, my dad knows that God lives and loves us, and has taught this to his children.
  

I am such a lucky girl to have such a wonderful father. I love you and miss you!! I can't wait to see you guys in a month.

Cake #2 I just had to post this picture. This is the face of pure joy! Can you tell how excited she was about that frosting?!

Happy Birthday LIV!!!

Liv turned 3 years old this weekend!
As I check everyone's blogs, it seems like it is a birthday time of year.
We had a great party at the park.
The weatherman said rain, and thankfully he was wrong! (although I did plan a back-up event at our house.) Everything went perfect! The weather was perfect,
the kids were all perfect, and I didn't even forget anything, phew!
Liv now thinks birthdays are the coolest thing,
and I am sure she will think everyday this week is her birthday.
She was so cute and polite. She said thank you to everyone and even wished them all a happy birthday as the left to go home.

You have to love the PINATA!
Things I love about my little lady

• She loves stories and would sit through 100 books if I would read them to her.
• She has really good fine motor skills, I love to watch all the things her little hands can do.
• When she is tired, she gets the crazies.
• She is always holding her friends hands, kissing them, hugging them, etc.
• She finds so much joy in tasting EVERYTHING..food and non-food alike!
• She knows the names of all the flowers in my garden, and will point the varieties out in other peoples lawns as well!
• She has a great sense of direction, and can tell me which turn to take going places she has only been once.
• She LOVES her baby sister!
• She is full of exuberance for life! When she smiles she makes everyone happy.
• She reminds me that it is the little moments in life that are important.

Happy Birthday Angel!

A little lateMost days, a lot gets done around my house. But there are those things that seem to be my favorite things to procrastinate. Day after day, they get pushed back to tomorrow's list. Every time I see Gwen's blessing dress hanging in the closet I think, "I really should take her picture in this sometime." Well today I actually did it. Seeing that she was blessed nearly 9 months ago, some may say its a little late, but I am just happy that the dress still fit. (By the way, my very talented mom made this dress...Thanks mom)

Help me Bets!

Liv nearly always plays in her room after we put her to bed. She sneaks out of her bed; turns on the light; empties out everything in her dresser; takes off her pajamas; tries on every combination of her clothes; comes out and goes to the bathroom; reads herself books, etc. etc. Well, tonight we heard her say, "Help me, Bets." I took my time going in to help, when Brad went in to see what was going on, this is what he found--->Somehow, she had hung her chair upside down on her bed post and then climbed inside. I was totally impressed!

This must be my lucky day!

I remember searching the field next to our home for 4 leaf clovers when I was a kid. I always looked, but I never really thought they existed. Today I found one in my neighbors lawn. How cool is that!

Lately, I have been looking at Gwen and realizing how grown up she is getting. It is sad to think that we won't have a baby around the house for a whole lot longer. She turns 9 months old this week and I can't believe it. She is such a sweet little addition to our family. Today, Brad's mom watched Gwen for the morning, and periodically, Liv would get teary and say she missed her baby. This post has no real purpose, except to give Gwen some love. She played with these beads around her neck forever. She is so cute I can hardly stand it!

Walking on Fire!

If you want to see pictures of our craziness, ( walking on hot coals can be done) click here to see Megan's post about our "hot feet".

Moose Peeping

This is the trail:This is what we saw: (Actually we saw 11 of these)

Moose facts

1. All in all, our group saw 11 moose!
2. Brad, Bridgette, Megan and Sean were surrounded on 3 sides by moose, one of which was a big bull moose who walked out of the woods about 5 feet away from Brad!
3. Moose can eat over 100 pounds of plants each day
4. Moose can grow to be 7 feet tall at the shoulder and 1500 pounds.
5. If they are going to attack you, it will be with their sharp front hooves, not their antlers.
6. click here If you want to know what a moose sounds like.
   

Camping in Baxter State Park

This weekend we went camping in Baxter State Park with The Thomas family and Bridgette (Brad's sister) and Gary(Bridgette's husband). This is what it looked like when we turned into our camp sites.I need to make a whole grouping of posts entitled, "Today, I love Maine." This would definitely be one of them. Isn't it gorgeous! Here are some pictures of the kids. They did such a good job playing together.

Pictures of Dinner, just in case anyone was curious how exactly we cook our soup in the fire.
*I know I don't have photographic evidence (my camera was in my tent where my entire family was sleeping), but believe it or not,later on in the evening, I walked barefoot across the hot coals this fire produced! There are pictures, I just need a few days to get them from The Thomas family camera*

Day 2: We went for a ride on the golden road (A logging road that they opened up to bikers for a special biking event). Weren't we quite the gang!!

Meeting Eric

Brad, Ben and Eric

For the past 7 years, Brad has been telling me stories about his best friends from High School, Ben and Eric. I met Ben when he came out to visit Brad while we were at BYU, and then when he was in our wedding. Now Ben lives close by, so we see him often. Last night, I finally met Eric (He and his wife Amanda just moved to Boston from Hawaii!). It was neat to see the old buddies interact. We are glad that Eric and Amanda are going to be living close by. (Especially since now we know that they are fantastic cooks!)

Beads
Liv and I had a date this afternoon. We went to the store and she picked out some beads, then we took them home and made necklaces and bracelets. I had so much fun watching her little hands work. It is amazing all the things little hands can do. She was a champ at stringing the beads. She loves her new jewelry (although, only 3 hours later she already lost one bracelet..).

A message for Grandma JoLynn and Papa Kent.