Another Quick Post...

It's so hard to believe that our trip here is almost over. We have only 1 day left, before we head back on Friday. It has been such a whirlwind trip. We have done so many things and have been constantly busy. I can hardly comprehend all that we have taken in. I'm going to have a lot to blog about when I get back. So far I've taken over 1500 pictures. I'm sure many of them are worthless, but aren't digital cameras great? I can take as many pictures as I want and then I can choose good ones from them. Anyway, I'll try not to bore you too much with my blog posts.
We have been in Coventry since Sunday night. Chad's conference is going well. Here is a picture of him and the poster he presented yesterday. After that, we went on the conference excursion to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's hometown and final resting place. Overall, the excursion was hurried and somewhat disappointing. (Luckily Alessandra and I were able to go back today, but more about that later.) This picture is of us in front of Shakespeare's birthplace. It rained all day yesterday. In fact, it's rained almost every day we have been here. I guess that's pretty typical of England. Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick blog to say hi. Until later, Cheers!

Anne Hathaway's House (Shakespeare's wife's house - before they were married)


Beautiful Graveyard in Kenilworth - Everywhere you go there are these amazing old churches and Graveyards. Every little town has at least one of them, usually more. In London, they were on every street, it seemed. They usually dated from the 9th century up until the 19th century. I think most of them that we saw were from around the 1500's.

Another Short One

To use the internet, we have to pay per minute, so I'm on a tight schedule as far as how much I can write. I have a little bit longer than yesterday, but this will still be a short one. We took a Double Decker bus tour around London and Westminster today. It was a great way to see a lot and spare my poor aching feet. (My ankle has been killing me.) Included in the bus tour was a riverboat tour along the Thames - which is something we definitely wouldn't have done if it hadn't been for it being included with the bus tour. We went to the Victoria and Albert museum this morning and spent most of the afternoon at the London Tower. It was awesome. It is just amazing how old everything is here. There is so much history. I think one of the most amazing thing is the diversity of the people. Every where we go, we are just bombarded with different languages. Anyway, we also went to St. Paul's Cathedral, but we got there too late to go in. I was disappointed, but we might try to go tomorrow. It was amazing from the outside, at least. We also walked a long ways through Hyde Park again. And everywhere you go in London, there are statues, monuments, churches and old buildings with amazing architecture. I can't wait to get some pictures on here. Tomorrow we head for Coventry, so maybe we'll have better internet then. Anyway, we are having a great time, but missing our kids. Well, my time is about up, so I'll write more later. Ciao!

We made it!

This will be a really quick post. We made it to England Thursday morning, after a 2 hour delay in Chicago, resulting in 11 hours on a plane. We hit the town once we got here and had a great time visiting Hyde Park, Kensington Park and Palace and several other beautiful sites. Today we went to Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus and more. We are all exhausted, but having a fun time. Unfortunately, we don't have great internet and I have about one minute left on our computer to post this, so look for more later.

Off to England

Well, this is it! Tomorrow morning we leave for England. It's hardly sunken in yet. I can't believe that tomorrow at this time, I'll be sitting in the Chicago airport for 4 hours waiting for our flight to London to leave. Today is such a busy day, trying to get everything packed for us and the girls. There is so much to do! We are going to miss the kids so much, but are definitely looking forward to such a big vacation. We are hoping to have internet available while we are gone so that we can post a couple of blogs. If not, you can look forward to a really big post when we get back. Although that may happen anyway. :-)


Here are a couple of fun pictures we've taken lately. Last night, we found a little Water Snake in our yard. We've seen them every year we've been here, but this if the first time this year. It was so scared of Chad trying to catch it. We went and got Myra out of bed so she could see the snake and she just walked right up to pet it. She's such a brave girl!

A couple of years ago, Aunt Jordyn made this hat for Myra and we just found it for Lexi to wear. We think it looks kind of like a blue Einstein wig. She's such a cutie!

I love this picture, mostly because it's so rare! Myra has very rarely ever fallen asleep anywhere besides her bed or in the car. I guess she was really tired because I had put a movie on for her while I was fixing dinner and when I came out into the front room, this is what I found.

Myra doesn't like having her hair done. Not that we do much special. Usually we get it wet and it goes all curly and cute. But, she doesn't like getting it wet, so I bought some hair bands and put it up in pigtails. She was so excited, she kept asking me to lift her up so she could look in the mirror. The sad thing is this is the kind of hairdo you usually do with little babies, not 3-year-olds. But, with my poor hair-impaired children, cute pictures like this come at an older age.

Pioneer Day

I know I'm almost 4 days late writing about this, but life's been crazy, as usual. We had a fun Pioneer Day. We went to our Stake Pioneer Breakfast that morning. We ate yummy food, the girls got to make a "rag" doll and were able to participate in the little Children's parade that they do. Chad had to go to work for a while, but we headed over to the Logan City parade and Chad was able to catch up with us later. I think the highlight of the parade for Myra was playing in the water running through the gutter. She was pretty wet by the time it was all over. She was also excited about the candy, although she was kind of hesitant about running out into the street to get it. I guess we drill it into her not to go into the road and then we tell her it's ok. It's got to be confusing. Lexi was quite enthralled during the entire parade. She sat in her stroller and just stared at everyone coming by. She especially loved the horses. Just a little side note - during the parade, there was a truck that went around with a big hose "misting" everyone with water. From a distance, it looked like he was just soaking everyone, but it was just a light mist. Anyway, we saw this lady across the street freak out about getting wet. Keep in mind, the mist was extremely minimal, but she was certain her camera had been ruined and you could just tell that this one event had just ruined her entire day. It's funny how people react to different things. Anyway, we had a fun time at the parade. That night we went to North Ogden and played miniature golf with Bobby and Nathan Smith. It was a fun holiday.

Imagination

Lately Myra has had the biggest imagination. She has pretend pets, plays that she's a princess or a fairy and much, much more! A couple of Sundays ago, while walking to church, Myra turns to me and holds out her finger, she then asks me to pet her bird. For the rest of the day, she carried around her pet bird, talked to it, put it to bed and was rather panicked when she couldn't find it. The next day it was snakes. They were "friendly" snakes though. They were her constant companion throughout the day. She's also had "friendly" pet bears and lions. Then another day as we were driving, she suddenly started talking about the shadow in the car. For the rest of the day, she kept telling me about her shadow and wondering where it was. Myra has also started getting into Princesses and Fairies. She has a dress-up dress that she has pretty much worn constantly this past week. When she's wearing it, we can only address her as Fairy or Princess, whichever she decides she is at that point. If we tell her to do something, she corrects us saying, "You have to say, Princess, do ____." Or she'll say, "Tell Lexi to leave Fairy alone." She's so funny.
Here's another funny story with Myra. Last night, Myra told us she needed to go potty. She runs into the kitchen and we hear the fridge open. As she shuts it, she exclaims, "That's not the bathroom." I guess she got the fridge and the bathroom mixed up. Silly girl.

We have just over a week now before we head off to England. I've been reading up on the areas we are going to so we can get some ideas on where we want to go when we get there. The more I read about England, the more I want to see. I'm sure we'll only be able to touch the surface of all the great things to do and see in England. When we first found out we were going, it seemed so far away, like it would never come and now it's so soon. We've been telling the kids that we are going away for a while and they get to stay with their Grandma and Grammy while they are gone. Myra's pretty excited about it.

So, I've been running my CuddleBaby Boutique business for about a year now. I started selling at the Gardener's Market and then opened up my Etsy shop on August 3rd. When I first started out, I had a goal of selling 5 items online a month, giving me a total of 60 items sold by the end of my first year. I was going right along those lines until about December and January, when business really took off. I changed my 1st year goal to 100 items and continued to up it as I reached these goals. Then at about February/March, I decided to go all out and make the goal of 300 sales by the end of my first year on Etsy. I wasn't sure I would make it, but yesterday, I reached my 300th sale! It was an exciting milestone for me to reach. I didn't think I would ever do this well and even selling at the Gardener's Market this year has been good. So, sorry, I just had to tell about this. Now I've got to think about my goals for next year...

Here are some cute pictures we've taken lately.



Chad thought it would be a good idea to give Lexi a snack cup of pudding. What a mess! She really enjoyed it, although I'm sure Chad didn't enjoy cleaning her up!







I found both girls in these cute sleeping positions the other night and just had to take pictures. They are so sweet!
Myra and her crazy hair!

We went up the canyon last week and cooked foil dinners. The kids love being up in the mountains! Myra especially loved climbing up this rock and sliding down the back of it.

A trip down Memory Lane...

I've seen this popping up on several blogs lately and I thought it would be kind of fun to do...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I (or Chad) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

I'm excited to read your memories! Hopefully they are good. :-)

Mexican Music

I just have to complain this morning! Behind our house are a bunch of apartment complexes with several Hispanic families living there. Early Every morning they turn on their music, very loudly. And it's not good music. It's that really fast, polka-ish Mexican music that is so annoying! Here is a Sample of some of the music and I don't think this one is even half as bad as what usually gets played. Who even likes this kind of music? I want to go and yell at them to turn it down, but I'm sure they wouldn't hear me over the noise.

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!