The 4th of July

What a busy weekend! On Friday, we headed down to SLC area. Chad's family is here from Florida. When we got down there, we went to the Draper temple that is being built. We are lucky enough to have a brother-in-law that is a supervisor on the temple and we were able to go take a tour of it. It is very close to being done. Most of the flooring is in, except the carpet, most of the walls are painted and a lot of the woodwork is in. The most amazing part was the Celestial room ceiling. It is very tall and they have placed the painting in already. It's beautiful. We got to climb up all these ladders and went to the top of the temple where you could go outside to the base of the steeple. This picture is of Chad and I standing up there with the valley in the background. It was awesome. Thanks Doug for taking us on such a marvelous tour! Also, the Angel Moroni was placed on Tuesday. Natalie and Doug were there and they blogged about it. They were able to get some awesome pictures. Check it out!

That evening we went to the Grandad and Grandmother Rowland's for dinner. We visiting, ate and played croquet. Myra really loved playing with her older cousins and playing on the rocks in the back yard.

She is so brave. She was even right in the midst of things during a pine cone war. Crazy girl! We didn't stay up and watch any fireworks though, since the kids were so tired. We headed back to my parent's house for the night.

The next morning Chad went golfing up in Heber city with much of his family and Aunts and Uncles. I slept in with the kids. I got to visit with my mom and sister for the morning before going over to visit both my Grandma's. They are both in the same Rehabilitation center right now. My Grandma Austin broke her femur a few weeks ago and my Grandma Newman got a horrible staph infection. After stints in the hospital, they both ended up in the same Rehab center, just a couple rooms down from each other. (It makes visiting convenient, although I'd rather visit them elsewhere!) It's so hard to see my grandparents getting old and sick. My Grandpa Newman is also in a "rest home" kind of place. He has Alzheimer's and it has been getting worse recently. When my Grandma got sick they decided that he could no longer be cared for at home. Anyway, hopefully my Grandma's get better quickly. I love them all so much and I wish they were all in better health!

That afternoon we headed up to Heber City for a BBQ with the Keyser side of the family. Chad's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Craig have a fun yard with a pond in it, that Myra loved. The kids loved running and around and eating. Uncle Craig builds and flies model airplanes and he did a demonstration for us.

It was fun to watch. After that, we went across the street to the church park and played Softball. Then we headed back home. That's when the real excitement began. When we got home, we couldn't find our house keys. As we searched, the kids woke up and were both bawling. Chad had to pop out the screen in our front window to get in the house. Then we got the kids up to bed and while Myra was getting ready for bed, in her stupor, she peed all over the bathroom floor. So I then had to give her a bath - the whole time she continued to cry. Once I got her in bed, she fell asleep immediately. It was quite the ending to a fun day.

Sunday was a nice, relaxing day. We took naps and played Nintendo and read books. On Monday, Kent and Judi came up. We went up the canyon for a Dutch Oven dinner. The kids loved being out in the woods. Myra loved playing in the little stream by our picnic site and Lexi just loved wandering around the campground. It was so nice to get up in the mountains - for the first time this summer. Hopefully not the last! We want to go camping, but we are worried Lexi will have a hard time. So, we'll see. Myra loved the marshmallows. I couldn't believe how messy she got. By the end of the night, both girls were wet, messy, dirty, tired, but very happy. And they both loved bath time that night!

On Monday morning, Chad went golfing with his dad while Judi, the girls and I just hung around the house. Lexi slept in until 11:00! When they got back, Chad had to go to work, so the rest of us drove out to Hyrum Reservoir. We drove down to the water and walked in it for a few minutes. Then we headed up BlackSmith Fork Canyon above Hyrum. We stopped at Hyrum City Park, which is a couple of miles up the canyon. I never realized this park existed before. It was great. There was a nice little park, grass area and the river running right by it. We walked out into the water. Myra fell down in it and was wet up to her waist. Lexi loved kicking her feet in the water.

She was very sad when we went to leave. The water was quite cold, but the kids didn't seem to mind too much. When then drove up to Hardware Ranch. I've never been there in the summer time. It was pretty, but not much going on there. During the winter time, herds of Elk come and live in the meadow. You can take a sleigh ride out to see them. Well, we headed home soon after and I got a little nauseous in the back of the van. :-( We came home and just rested for a while before going out to dinner. Then Kent and Judi headed back down to Natalie and Doug's. They took Myra with them for the rest of the week. Judi will be back up here this weekend to pick up Jordyn from EFY. I'm going to miss Myra this week, but there is a lot that I need to do and this will give me a chance to get it all done. It seems like I've been away from my kids a lot lately. They were gone while we put in new carpet, now Myra's gone for this week, then we'll be in England for 10 days. It makes me sad to be away from them. However, I know their grandparents enjoy getting to spend so much time with them.

Anyway, it was a fun and busy weekend. Now for some peace and quiet. ☺

A Lot of Miscellaneous

I've had a lot of things on my mind that I've wanted to write about, so I'll try to do them all at once. I'm sure after I post this, I'll think of a bunch of other things I wanted to write about. Oh well, I'll just save them for next time.

First, Chad had his big test yesterday. This was the test that he has to take to pass his Master's degree. Basically, he had 3 professors interrogate him and he had to answer their questions, which were all comprehensive. I'm ecstatic to say that he passed! What a relief! Not that we were worried about him passing, but it's such a relief to have that behind him. It had been a source of much stress for the past while. Now, he gets to just worry about his Thesis. ☺

So, just let me vent for a moment. Last week Chad was coming home from a late night studying when he was pulled over. Keep in mind that this was 2:30 in the morning! He was pulled over because one of our headlights was out. And the Police Officer gave him a ticket! I guess it was a slow night. Fortunately, we shouldn't have to pay anything if we get it fixed, but still. A ticket? For a headlight? At 2:30 in the morning? The annoying thing is that we have 5-14 days to find time to go to the Police Station to show them our fixed headlight. No earlier than 5 days and no later than 14. I just think it's an annoying policy. It would be so much easier to remember to just take care of it the next day. Anyway, I hope we remember. :-P

I recently came in contact with this cool website on Etsy (Thanks Rachel.) They sell Visiting Teaching kits. I thought it was such a fun idea, I wanted to post it. Here is the site - www.HandPickedDaisy.etsy.com. Check it out.
Speaking of Etsy, June was the most amazing month for my shop. I sold over 50 items on Etsy, plus a couple of big custom orders. I also did a couple of Saturdays at the Gardener's market and they were awesome. It was great to move some of my inventory. The worst thing about the market though is all the cool stuff that is there. There is a guy that carves these amazing Flowers out of wood. Here is his Etsy shop - www.onepetalatatime.etsy.com. I also bought a wooden sign from him that says Families are Forever. So, if you are in the area, check out the Gardener's Market from 9-1 on Saturdays at Merlin Olsen park. It's a great outing.

So, we bought our tickets for England. There's no turning back now. We will be in London for 3 days, then on to Coventry for the conference for the remaining 5 days. I'm sad to leave the kids for 10 days, but I'm sure excited about going on this trip. So, if you have ever been to England and have any suggestions on what to do, let me know! I've checked out a couple of library books about England, but there is so much to do, I just don't even know where to start. I'm mostly interested in historical sites. And although I'm sad that while we are in Coventry, Chad will be in meetings most of the time, I'm glad that my friend Alessandra will be there to keep me company. (She's going with her husband, Everton, who works with Chad.) Anyway, it should be a lot of fun.

We've been enjoying the summer so far. We've been so busy there hasn't been much time for recreating, but the kids have really been loving the pool and spending so much time outside. Lexi has figured out how to open our screen door, so I have to really watch her getting outside. We go through several outfits every day, because the kids don't seem to care much if they are in their swimsuit or not for swimming. A couple of nights ago I was fixing dinner and the girls were just sitting on the kitchen floor playing. A few minutes later I hear a splash and look out the back door to see that the girls had gone outside and Lexi was just sitting in the pool, fully clothed, and loving every minute.
Today I found two of Myra's stuffed animals in the pool, a dolphin and a manatee. At least she knows what kind of animals go in the water. ☺ Today Myra was so proud of herself for getting her swimsuit on all by herself. She got it a little backwards though. When she was done swimming, I even found her panties still on. Silly girl.
Nena is also enjoying so much outside time. Yesterday morning, she ran away. I imagine she took off sometime while we were out watering the garden. I didn't even know she was outside with us. After we had gone back inside we were having some snacks and something fell on the ground. I hollered for Nena to come clean it up and when she didn't come, I knew she wasn't around. I walked around for a while yelling for her, then the kids and I got in the car and drove around the neighborhood looking for her. When we got back home, I got ready to start calling the local Animal hospitals, when she runs through the back door. She was filthy and smelled of Horse poop. She's run off to the field before, but never has been gone for so long and she would always come when I called her. She was only gone for about an hour, but for her, that was a really long time. Myra was pretty worried that we wouldn't ever see her again. So, that was our excitement for the day.

Well, this is getting pretty long. So, I'll end now. I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

What exactly I am doing (If anyone cares)

Talking to my parents this weekend I realized that not too many people really know what I am doing for my thesis research. Usually when people ask I just tell them that I am killing insects with fungus as an alternative to chemical pesticides and leave it at that. Generally, this is enough information, although it really does not tell you anything that I am doing since this basically just states that I am in the field of Biological control, which is a large world-wide area of science, with many different areas of research. I expect that not too many people will find this interesting but I thought for those who would like to have a little better idea of exactly what I am doing I would post my Thesis Proposal.

I am mostly done with all the research. We are currently doing the last experiment, which is a field trial so hopefully I will be done in December. Finishing will depend on whether or not I can get the write up done in time and my committee approves it.

On the Charts!

Lexi had her 15 month check-up today and for the first time she showed up on the growth charts for weight. At 18lbs 5oz she reached the 2 percentile and at 29in she was at 29% for height (up from 9% just 3 months ago.) Honestly, I think of the "growth charts" with little regard. Every baby is so different and you can't really compare them to others, but nonetheless, it's nice to see that Lexi is starting to gain a little. The doctor says she still needs to gain another pound and a half before we can turn her around in the carseat. Considering that she she didn't even gain a pound in the last 3 months, we may still have a ways to go.

Quickly, I just have to tell about our crazy Monday night and about what amazing friends and husband I have! Monday night, Chad came home a little early to surprise us with a picnic up the canyon. He'd heard about a nice place up in Richmond, so we packed everything up and headed out that direction. Along the way, Myra started complaining about her seat belt being too tight. Her complaints escalated into an all out tantrum, resulting in Chad pulling over to fix it. (Lately Myra has been very touchy about the car seat. Everything about it has to be just right. She hadn't had any problems with it earlier that day.) Anyway, once we got that fixed, we got ready to go again, but the car just sputtered and died. Chad tried to charge the battery with this little charger thing we have in our car, but to no avail. Two other motorists stopped and tried to jump the battery, but it just wouldn't hold a charge. So, after sitting out there for an hour, I called my friend Janelle, who was willing to go almost all the way to Richmond to pick us up. (Thank you so much Janelle, we sure appreciated your help!) Myra loved riding back with Camille. Once home, Chad was able to get Skylar from his work to go and help him tow it back. Once they got it home, they unhooked it so we could push it into our carport and we couldn't get it to go into neutral and we couldn't get the key out. So, then Chad walked over to our neighbors, the James's, to see if Clay could help us out. (He knows a little bit about cars. ☺) He was able to help us get the keys out and the car into neutral so it could be pushed into the carport. Thanks to Skylar and Clay, they saved us a huge towing fee! The next day, Chad took the alternator and battery in to be tested and found out that the alternator was bad, so Chad was able to replace it, all by himself. I'm so grateful for all of these friends that helped us out and to a husband that was able to find a way to fix the car himself. Hopefully the car will hold out until Chad graduates and gets a new job. Then we'll probably buy a brand new, gas-guzzling, Jeep, or something like that. ☺

Yay for Warm Weather!

Ok, so it's actually hot weather, but after so much cold, I'm so glad that it's finally warmed up. The kids want to be constantly outside, which is hard with Lexi's little bald head. She won't keep a hat on so I have to keep her constantly saturated in sunscreen. I filled Myra's pool up today for the first time and consequently, she's onto her 3rd outfit for the day. I don't know if it's that she forgets or that she doesn't care, but every time I turn around today, she's outside sitting full-clothed in the pool. Honestly, I wished I could join her. We are still trying to get our house put back together since carpeting and painting. I was able to get the girls room spotless. It's so nice! We have Myra clean all of her toys up every night and so far, it's gone really well. Our front room and kitchen are clean, then there's our bedroom. (insert grimace) I would call it an organized mess. All of the boxes we still haven't gone through are lined up around the room. I've lost my desire to get it done. I just need to take the time and do it. I'll be much happier once it's finished! Another change in our life is that we've decided to make our carpet a no shoe, food or drink zone. We want to try and keep it nice for as long as possible, but it's hard! Myra would always eat in rooms beside the kitchen and we'd always find big messes. But, for us to ask her to stop eating out there, we have to do it ourselves. I miss snacking on popcorn while watching a movie. :-(


Myra has also learned to do somersaults. She's kind of done them oft and on for a while, but usually with help from us. Then the other day, she suddenly just did one right in front of us. Here's a video:

New Carpet

We've been MIA for a little while now. Time sure flies by. Last week I was bombarded with orders from my shop. On Wednesday I had 5 separate purchases. I rarely have more than one purchase a day, so that was a great day for business. Plus I am working on a Custom Order for a lady that wants an Eggplant and Chartreuse quilt. It's been a challenge to come up with good colors!
Other news for our family - Chad was called as the Elders Quorum 1st counselor. He's sad to be released from his old calling (Sunday School Teacher.) I think he'll do great at it, although he is already so busy, I can't imagine one more thing for him to deal with. Last week they had some USDA guys here from Arizona working with them on a big project. Because of the bad weather, it took them longer than planned. So now, Chad has to go out to a field every and check to see if 350 crickets in individual cages are still alive. He also has to feed them, cover them over if it rains and tuck them in at night. That is until they all die.

Today we are having new carpet put in. As I type, they are just finishing up. Last night we also started painting our bedroom. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, but we decided that it would be the best time to do it - with no furniture in the way and not having to worry about spilling on the carpet. Unfortunately, we weren't able to finish. We were just too tired from having to move our entire house into the upstairs bathroom and our kitchen. That's right, we fit EVERYTHING we own into those two rooms! Chad and I slept on the floor in our front room last night. I'm really looking forward to having our bed back tonight. Myra and Lexi are staying with Grandma and Grandpa until tomorrow. I miss them, but it would have been very difficult having them around during this project.

Since I started writing this post yesterday, the carpet has been finished and we are in the process of putting our house back together. We finished painting our bedroom last night and I think it looks great. Two of the walls are the green as you can see and the other two walls are an off-white with white trim. It looks fantastic. Between the carpet and paint, it's as if we've moved into a new home. The best thing about the carpet is walking around barefoot. It's so soft.

One more reason to love my job

I went back to Vernal yesterday (Friday) to collect some more Mormon crickets, I am not so fond of the 11 hours of driving but I do enjoy the off-roading we are required to do. It has been raining lately so the roads where a bit wet which made it even more fun than usual, luckily we did not get stuck. When I got out to close one of the gates I took this short video to give you an idea of what it was like.

Field Work

As part of my job and Master program, I get to spend a lot of time out in the field looking for Mormon crickets. I enjoy this a lot, mostly because I just like being outdoors in areas that are unpopulated. This year the Crickets have been hard to find and we have had to drive to out north of Vernal to find the large numbers that we need. Yesterday I was out looking for crickets and stumbled (almost literally) on these two newly born deer. We have no idea where the mother was, but it was really cool to see them. They were terrified of us, we watched from only a few feet away, as they stood for the first time on their shaky legs and tried to flee, one took a few steps and the other could not even stand all the way up, so he just crouched there and looked at us. They must have been just born, as I nearly stepped on the still-wet placenta. I have a great job!

Bike Riding

Last summer some neighbors of ours gave us a bike trailer that they never used. It was missing and part and because Lexi was too little to ride in it, we never used it. Well, this year, we replaced the missing part and were able to get it working. Last night we took our first family bike ride. We didn't go far, mostly because Lexi was screaming the entire way. And Myra wasn't especially happy about it either. I think Lexi was upset because her helmet kept falling over her eyes and Myra didn't like that Lexi kept sliding into her. Well, Chad and I enjoyed the bike ride. Hopefully the more we go, the more the kids will enjoy it.











Lately, Myra has insisted on keeping the house constantly messy. Mostly with stuffed animals spread throughout. Usually in the morning, she'll gather up several loads of stuffed animals and other toys from her bedroom and deposit them in our front room and kitchen. Then she spends the rest of the day putting them to sleep, feeding them, and giving them baths. A couple of days ago, she lined several of them up and put a blanket over them and proceeded to sing to them. Thus the ensuing video...



Then last night she came downstairs and informed us that she had given her all her toys a bath because they were really dirty. So, I hesitantly go upstairs to find several toys soaking wet and lying under a blanket. Why, Oh Why did we ever get her that spray bottle for her hair? Pretty much everything else besides her hair gets sprayed.

Here are a couple of other cute pictures we've taken lately.

Google Reader

This is just going to be a short post. Nothing exciting. I just want to tell everyone about this great blogger function called Google Reader. I'm sure many have already heard about it, but I've only known about it for a short amount of time and it's great! (Thank you Janelle) All you have to do is subscribe to the blogs or other sites that you typically look at and when you log into Google Reader, it will show you what ones have been updated since you last checked. It's great! Now you don't have to click on each individual blog to see if there's anything new. Try it, you'll be hooked!