Counting...

Days until Em's 7th birthday: 22

Days until Erin's 29th birthday (again): 18

Days until St. George trip: 13

Days until Lake Powell trip: 2

and most importantly (and what I am REALLY counting down....)

Days until School Starts: 20 days, 15 hours and 12 minutes

Heaven help me to hold on that long....

Hamburger Anyone???

Our ward/neighborhood has an annual tradition of celebrating Pioneer Day (a Utah state holiday marking the day that the state was first settled by Mormon Pioneers, for those of you non-Utahn's) with a small but big hearted parade, a carnival for the kids, a picnic lunch, cake baking competition, and pie eating contest. It is alot of fun to participate in and the kids have a blast every year. It's always pushing a hundred degrees, but we muster through it and it is always worth it. This year for the bake off, I decided to enter a cute little idea that I saw on someone else's blog....I'm a blog stalker, especially ones that have recipes and baking ideas. It didn't sound hard, just time consuming. So, yesterday, I spent the better part of the day gathering ingredients and supplies and getting most of it ready for assembly this morning. Here's the finished product: Aren't they the cutest??? The "bun" was a cupcake, the "burger" was a brownie, "ketchup, mustard, lettuce" was made out of icing. The top of the burger was sprinkled with a few sesame seeds. The "fries" proved to be the most time consuming: sugar cookie dough rolled out, cut individually, and baked to perfection. Then sprinkled with a little sugar to add the "salt" effect. I had purchased a few cardboard boxes, picnic tissue and large toothpicks from the deli in our local grocery store. Yesterday was a huge pain as I had to do all the baking - but this morning was kind of fun, seeing the finished product left me with a smile....you can just call me Martha, I don't mind at all! You can see the original here: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2009/06/fast-food-fun.html

Here comes the BIG parade....don't blink...you may miss them!

Here's Em marching in the big parade...pioneer dress, a floppy hat, flip flops and a ukulele....I'm sure that the pioneers had those, right???

After the parade, the kids met at the church pavilion and had carnival games, snow cones (always a huge hit) and an obstacle course. A picnic lunch followed all the activities as well as the cake judging contest....I got 3rd....can you believe that garbage??? All that work and a 3rd place finish! I demand a recount! To make me feel a little better, they did award me a first place paper ribbon for "Best Appearance"...apparently those cute hamburgers didn't taste as good as they looked!

To finish off the day, we had a pie eating contest. There was supposed to be a youth contest, and then an adult contest...somehow when it was time for the adult contest, there was hardly any of the usual participants around....what the heck??? Troy??? Sam??? Alan??? Greg??? Where the heck were you??? Kim has participated a few times and he was sure that this was the year that he could/would win. Since there was no one around, they just skipped over the adults and gave the pies away - I guess he'll have to wait until next year to claim the prize! The last picture does however, show our lovely and not so lady-like Abby participating in it with her friends Kacee and Alex -it was a HUGE mess, and mean old mom made them walk home! It was a fun day for the kids and adults alike - we look forward to it all year. Although next year, I may be boycotting the bake-off....

4th Festivities

Our holiday weekend actually began on Thursday - Jake's Firecracker Tournament started in Heber that morning. We played 2 games, and won them both....the 2nd game was such a fun game to watch. Jake's team was literally getting squashed. They were down 3-10. It was almost painful to watch as they missed fielding balls and struck out at bat. But then, one boy got up to bat and made a great hit and it was the beginning of a complete turn around. In the last inning, last at bat, each boy got up to bat and had a great hit. We ended up winning 13-10! It was so fun to watch them just keep plugging away at it and never give up. We played again on Friday morning in Salt Lake winning both of those games as well. On Saturday morning began the championship rounds and we started the day playing the Las Vegas Torros. They were a great team and we ended up losing 3-5. It ended our weekend of baseball, but I think the kids all had a great time playing.

We came home from our game in Heber to find Grandma and Grandpa Lueck. They had ventured out this way (well, sort of our way...) to see my brother Steve and his new twin boys in Las Vegas. They made a short trip to St. George, spent the night in their condo there, and then came up to see us for the day on the 4th. They were hoping to see Jake play in the championship game, since they had been doing so well, but it was not to be. Instead, they met us at home to BBQ and light fireworks with the kids. They always seem to spoil the kids no matter what and their visit was just not a visit until the kids had collected their grade $$ from Grandpa...(my dad pays them $1 for every "A" they get on a report card. Although for some reason, they always seem to over-collect on those "A's" and make out with plenty more to spend on a treat!). Burgers, Brats, Baked Beans, Watermelon, Chips, etc.....is there anything better than picnic food??? I'm not sure that there is anyone out there (except maybe my bro-in -law, Mike) who enjoys a brat more than I. It has to be grilled and crispy and loaded with mustard. Not heart healthy in the least bit, but oh so good! We ate and ate and then ate some more & we enjoyed every bite. My mom made us homemade strawberry ice cream and our neighbors Jen and Sam made homemade chocolate....they were both scrumptious and the kids came back for seconds and tried really hard for thirds! Our evening came to a close with our own fireworks display. We had friends and neighbors come to our end of the street and we did our own "Street of Fire" (our personal rendition of the "Stadium of Fire" minus the crowds and traffic, and we didn't have a performance by the Jonas Brothers, but no one missed that!) The kids were having a blast lighting fireworks - even the littlest kids had their own sparklers and snaps to throw. We woke up on Sunday morning to a yummy smell from the kitchen...my mom had gotten up to make the kids her famous buttermilk pancakes. The kids request them each and everytime that she visits. I've tried to make them for the kids, but I just don't do it the same way as grandma does. She makes them flat and crispy....I just can't get it right. My parents left soon after breakfast and we were off to church. We then spent the rest of the day just being lazy...naps included. I literally felt sick all day Sunday - I think all the yummy, but not figure friendly food had caught up to me! We had a fun weekend....now, back to real life!

12 Years Ago...

Abby - 2nd grade

(Jeez, my girls don't look anything alike do they??? Emily looks just like her at this age!)

I became a mother. Abby was born on a Friday night, later in the evening and weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. She was a dark purple color upon arrival and had to be whisked away to the NICU before I hardly caught a glimpse of her. She spent several days there on antibiotics and oxygen. She had gulped down a mouthful of amniotic fluid and then developed pneumonia. She came home healthy and happy about 4 days later, still had an IV in her arm and had 2 frantic, scared parents who had no idea how to care for her. Luckily, Grandma Lueck felt sorry for us and made a mad dash to Utah to help with her care. She recovered quickly and became the center of our very existence. She had a head full of dark hair and poor girl looked just like her daddy....
Abby turns 12 tomorrow. I can't believe that she is on the verge of being a teenager! She is already showing us her new "attitude" and testing our patience just about everyday. She is a graduate of elementary school and Primary, headed into the YW program at church, and off to her first year of Girls Camp on Monday! She is an official wearer of makeup (minimally, according to dad's discretion) and is getting taller everyday. She is just about my height, and can wear my shoes. She is, and has been, our official babysitter and even gets out to tend the neighbor's kids some weekends. Where has the time gone, Abby????
We're off to the Scera Pool tomorrow to celebrate with her friends - girls and BOYS....(I really thought Kim would object, but he didn't - I'm sure that he will be watching closely, though!) We hope that she won't be too embarrassed that her family is there with her in all our beauty: swimming suits, chubby legs and farmer tans. Poor Girl.

Happy Birthday #12,

Abigail Kate Brooksby!!

#1 or #2

It's been a long few years since I've made it to the optometrist to have an exam. I've been wearing glasses since I was in 4th grade, and every few years I try to shake my life up a bit and get new frames. I am also being fitted for contacts, but after 22+ years of having the glasses on my face, I probably won't wear the contacts much; just on occasion when I want to have sunglasses be the frame of choice. After seeing the Dr, and him telling me that really my eyes haven't changed much at all, and having Kim stare me down because I REALLY DON'T NEED to have new frames, these are the two that the frame guy and I narrowed it down to:



These are my current spectacles. They have been good to me, and I have not had new ones in almost 4 years. They are still in good shape, but I feel in the market for something different.

These are option #1: Please ignore the awful glare of the window on them...Abby was my official photographer, and she is a work in progress. Okay, Kim totally hates these ones. He says that they are too trendy and that I will hate them when I look back on pictures of myself. My thoughts are that #1, I rarely take pics of myself, or pose for pics, so that's a lame excuse. #2: They are trendy, and slightly more formal for everyday stuff. But, I think for days when I'm trying to look cute, they might help the process. I kinda like them, and I can also see where I wouldn't want to wear them everyday.

These are option #2: Alot like my current specs, but with slightly thicker sides and a little bling. Kim says that they look like horn-rimmed glasses. These would be a little less noticeable.

Another option is to choose one of the above frames and also keep my current frames for wearing in situations where I don't want to feel as formal. And, my last option is to forgo all of the above and go somewhere else to look at frames. I do have that option still, although my current eye Dr will give me a 20% discount for purchasing with him.

What do you think? Don't forget that this could be life changing for me...choose wisely!

Ten Years Ago...

Jake was born. He arrived in the wee hours of the morning - Kim had worked a LONG day. He'd gone to bed around 10 pm, and within an hour I was waking him up to go to the hospital. By the time Jake arrived, he'd been awake for more than 24 hours...which may explain that fainting spell he had while I was pushing! He was my best baby by far...very mellow and sweet. He hardly ever made a peep, except when older sister Abby (then 2 years old) attempted to carry him to be, BY HIS NECK! Poor baby.

Due to some serious lack of cooperation with my scanner, I am unable to get the pictures I spent an hour digging out of a box to scan. Jake was the cutest baby and dang it all, I can't get it to work....

This one, I just couldn't resist adding....there's never been a cuter Kindergartener.... My absolute favorite picture is one that's already been scrapbooked, and I was tempted to rip it out, just to scan it - it's of him when he was about 4 and going through a serious cowboy phase - he wore those boots (and he went through several pair) EVERYDAY. The picture is of him in shorts, the boots, and wearing a home-made superhero cape. I miss those days. Today, he's still my most mellow child. He tries hard to do what's right and has a real soft spot for his baby sister - not so much for the other two, but he tries really hard not to freak out at them until they've pushed ALL his buttons! He started a sentence the other day...."Mom, when we have another baby....maybe it will be a boy....."I stopped him mid-sentence and explained that he'd always be the only boy- (I've already explained this topic of conversation MANY times to EACH child) but that's why we let them have a dog! Happy Birthday, Jake! We love, love, love you!

Four Years Ago....

Natalie arrived. She was a whopping 8 lbs. 10 oz and was still almost a week early...Yikes! She was a scheduled c-section because of her decision to wrap herself in the umbilical cord and then do a flip inside. Breech and strangling herself, Dr. Gordon decided that she would be born on June 7th, 2005. And, so she was....

I can't believe that my "baby" is four...the time has just flown by. I ask her often if she will always be my "baby". She almost always replies "I am not a baby, but I will be your big girl!"

We've had a busy weekend with family in town for baby Halle's blessing (Brenna's baby girl) and Natalie's birthday to celebrate. Saturday we went to Fuddruckers with our huge group and ate and had cake & ice cream. Natalie even opened her presents a whole day early! Lots of dress up stuff and fun things to keep her busy. Sunday, her actual birthday was pretty uneventful. We spent it in Salt Lake with Brenna and Chris for the blessing. This morning, we prepared for a "Dora Beach Party"...even though it was about 70 degrees outside. We decided to forgo the beach theme and stayed inside and did our best to keep her friends entertained for 1 1/2 hours! They had a fun time together and we'll save the beach party for better weather. Happy 4th Birthday, Natalie!