Best Place on Earth!

Once again, I'm very behind in posting to this blog! This summer has been so crazy with work and vacations, I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with Redfish trip. This was a perfact vacation! The weather was great, family was awesome, food was amazing! The kids all had a great time. It was so nice to not have to worry so much about Tenlee this year. As she gets older, it is easier to camp with her. It was just go great to spend time with family. I wish everybody could have been there this year, but with so many people its just hard to make it work for everybody. Unfortunately my camera was dead and I was not able to take any pictures :( I hate that! Oh well, hopefully I will remember to charge it before we leave next year!

Summer

Wow, it's been a really long time since I last posted. A lot going on I guess. Summer is always busy for me at work. We have a lot of events that we are at for work to promote Project Filter. While I love it, I'm always relieved when summer is over. My busy schedule doesn't leave a whole lot of time for fun family stuff, but this has been, and will be, some good times. In June we traveled to California for Josh's grandparents 75th wedding anniversary! Amazing! Not many people can claim that accomplishment. It was a great time with the family. We also went to Six Flags while we were there. Baylee LOVED the small rollercoaster. She could have ridden that all day! Tenlee also loved the rides, but her favorite was the train.

We went out to Mackay over 4th of July weekend. I love going out there and spending time with my family, but unfortunately I ended up with a sinus infection or something and was sick the entire time were there! For some reason it always happens when we go out there. But I still love it. The girls also loved being out there. On July 2, my new "great" niece Jordan was born. Jaris and James have a beautiful baby girl. It killed me to have to wait a week before I could see her because I was so sick! But she is just perfect!

Next week we will be going with my family to the best place on earth, Redfish Lake. I can't wait! I am very ready for a vacation, sun, and relaxation! I will post again after the trip.

Preschool Graduation

Tonight was a big night for Baylee. She had her preschool graduation! She was so excited. The kids were all so cute. They sang "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and also performed the chicken dance! So cute. Baylee has just loved her school and all of her friends. It has been so good for her to be in this environment. It's been just as good for Tenlee. I'm amazed at what she knows. I can't believe that in a few short months I will be sending Baylee to Kindergarten! How can that be? I still look at her as my baby girl.

All Put Together

Here is Tianna all ready for Prom! Isn't she just beautiful?

Tianna's Prom

Last week I offered to do something so out of character for me and way out of my comfort zone. I offered to make sleeves for Tianna's sleeveless prom dress. I am not a seamstress at all. My sewing ability consists of blankets and curtains. The only sewing of clothing that I have ever attempted is Barbie clothes when I was 9 or 10 and a shirt and pair of shorts in my home ec. class in Jr. High. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to offer my very limited sewing services to Kim and Tianna, but I did. Then I panicked. What the ___ was I thinking?

So I sat at work after saying I would do this thinking of ways I could possibly make this work and look good. I had an image in my head of what I thought the sleeve should look like, but I wasn't sure what Tianna was thinking. I remember being a teenager and having a very clear idea of what I wanted something to look like. If I didn't get this right Tianna may never forgive me! Fortunately when I asked Tianna what she had in mind, it was exactly what I had pictured. Whew, one hurdle out of the way. Now I just had to figure out how to do it. I had Tianna put on the dress and I did some measurements. Kim brought the fabric over Thursday night (prom was Saturday). After some thinking (and praying), I figured out how to make the sleeves. So I started sewing. By 10:00 Thursday night I had the sleeves sewed and pinned to the dress. Now all I needed was Tianna to come put the dress on again. That didn't happen until Friday night at 9:30 because of her crazy (but normal) teenage life. Luckily for me, I got the sleeves right. Tianna was thrilled, I was overjoyed, and Kim was relieved! I got the sleeves sewed on that night and the dress was ready for her Saturday morning. Here is a picture of how they turned out. I hadn't ironed them yet, but you get the idea. I'm really proud of this accomplishment. I still can't believe that I did it and that it turned out so well. Now maybe I will attempt something other than blankets or curtains.

It looked a lot better after I ironed it but I forgot to get another picture

So the dress is done, now to make the girl look more beautiful than she already is. I did her hair for her for the Sweetheart dance a couple of months ago. She loved it so much she asked me to do it again. Now THIS, I am comfortable with!. I love doing this kind of thing! Especially with her hair! So here are a couple of pictures of her hair. I'm hoping she sends me a picture of it all put together soon so that I can post it too.

Beautiful Tianna!

ABC's About Me

A - Age: 33
B - Best coffee: not a fan, but do love the smell
C - Chore you hate: Just one? Cleaning the bathroom
D- Dog's name: Sadie
E- Essential start to your day: Local/national news online, and People Online
F - Favorite color: Red, at the moment
G - Gift you love getting: Anything that is a surprise
H - Height: 5'4
I - Instruments you wish you play: Guitar
J - Job title: Health Program Specialist and mom/wife
K - Kid(s): 2 girls.
L - Last CD listened to: Toby Keith
M- Most memorable Christmas present: puppy
N - Nicknames: Poison, Ives
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Just with childbirth
P - Pet Peeve: people who take the elevator up one flight at work!
Q - Quote from a movie: I'm your huckleberry - Tombstone
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 1 Sister 2 brothers
T - Time you wake up: 6:10
U- Ultimate vacation destination: Some super warm island
V - Vegetable you dislike: Onions
W - Why you run late: I hate to be late, but if I am it's because of the kids.
X - X-rays you've had: teeth, ultrasounds, knee, foot, elbow, back
Y - Yummy food you make: All the food I make is yummy!
Z - Zoo favorite animal: Lions and monkeys

Easter Sunday

Getting the girls ready for church is always a struggle, but when I want to do something a little more fun and different with their hair, it's nearly impossible! But I did manage to get them to hold still long enough to make it cute. Too bad it doesn't stay like this for long!

After church we have dinner at our house. Mike's family, Josh's parents and brother, and Ryan, Kinzie and Kambree all joined us. It was a good day to spend with family. Plus it was a beautiful day outside! I think spring is finally going to come!

Thanks for spending Easter with us! We love you all!

Easter Egg Hunt

I took the girls to the community Easter Egg Hunt Saturday morning. McKinzie and Kambree and McKinzie's sister and her daughter also came. It was kind of cold, but the girls had a great time "finding" the eggs. As you can see in the picture below, it took a lot of hunting to find the eggs!!

Project Filter Proudly Presents...PBR rider Wiley Petersen

My program, Project Filter, has been sponsoring Wiley Petersen for the last couple of years. He is the first (and currently only) cowboy to ever refuse Smokeless Tobacco sponsorship and instead be a spokesperson for a tobacco prevention program. He is so great to work with. Better yet, he is currently 4th in the world standings for PBR! So we are getting a lot of publicity! PBR is in Nampa this weekend so we held a radio remote at Double D Farm and Feed today and had Wiley there to sign autographs. It ended up being a great event. Hopefully he continues to ride well and hopefully keep riding his way to the top of the standings!

Project Filter team

Liessa and Kiarra with Wiley

Easter Chicks

This puts a whole new meaning to coloring Easter eggs! These chicks are so cute! They injected dye into the eggs just before they hatched. They end up hatching in their various colors. We were assured that the dye they use is not harmful or toxic to the chicks. They will lose the colored down in about 3 weeks and their normal feathers will appear. I seriously wanted one of the greens ones! I wish they would stay small like this instead of growing up into chickens!