July-August Recap

Trip to California

BEFORE

The last week of August we made a trip to Sacramento. My dad hadn't been feeling well for months, but the doctors were unable to diagnose the problem. After months of tests they finally discovered his mitral valve wasn't working properly, a result of rheumatic fever as a child. The interesting thing is, my dad never new he had rheumatic fever. My dad was scheduled to have his mitral valve replaced as well as bypass surgery that week and we wanted to be there for it. Unfortunately, one of the OR rooms went down which pushed his surgery back a week.

All my siblings came home for the weekend too. Since there was no surgery, we decided to give my mom and dad's room a makeover so my dad would have a peaceful place to recoup. My sister and I had peeled the wallpaper off years ago because we thought it would be "helpful" , since my parents had plans to redo the room, but 6 years later nothing has ever been done. Not such a great gift after all! My amazing husband offered to plaster the walls, and my mom was thrilled with the idea. What started with plastering the walls led to painting them, a new fan and light fixture, new electrical outlet covers, newly painted trim and doors and entirely new bedroom furniture!!

Plastered walls

Painted walls with some of the furniture

Apple Hill

Apple Hill is one of our favoite places to go in the fall and it happened to open the weekend we were there. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking around and sampling all types of apple pies and doughnuts.

It was my parents 35th wedding anniversary that day. Are they the cutest or what! They're such a great team.

Cousins, Ms. Quinn and Ms. Stella

Holden's 4th Birthday!

Holden was so excited about his birthday this year. When he woke up he ran into my room and shouted, "Mom, I'm 4!" When he went to bed that night he asked me if he'd still be 4 when he woke up in the morning, so cute.
My mom and dad sent holden one of those music cards, which of course was a huge hit. THe card played happy birthday to the tune of a rockin' electric guitar, the boys played with it for days until it was destroyed.
As most of you know, Holden is passionate about music, especially the drums, so I decided a music themed bday party would be perfect for him. Holden takes a music class at Hoffman Academy, and I asked his teacher if he would do a music class for his party.

Holden drumming very seriously.

Holden idolizes his Mr. Hoffman.

After the music party we went to the park where the kids decorated their red drums with stickers, had cake and ice cream and opened presents.
I decided to be brave and make his birthday cake. Hopefully you can tell what it is! I had to bake 3 round cakes, make two batches of frositing, and two batches of fondant. It was a lot of work!

Surprise Visit from BYU Roommie!

I had 5 roommates my freshman year and I love that almost all of us still keep in touch. Heather married an Oregonian whose family still lives in the area so every now in then they come to town for family reunions. It was so fun to catch up.

Garden Party

We had another great year at our family friends' garden party.
The face painters at the party were amazing! Holden was a kitty and Carson a jaguar.

Carson was brave once again, and rode the mechanical bull.

10 Year Anniversary

Every year the garden party falls near our anniversary, and since family comes up for the party, that means we usually don't celebrate. I thought this year might be different since it was our 10 year anniversary, it's a momentous one, right?! The men decided to have a three day guys trip. Normally that wouldn't be such a big deal, except they were leaving on our anniversary. Yeah, that's a bummer, but I probably would have been ok with that too if Travis had consulted me about it, but alas, even after 10 years of marriage the communication is not always great. :) Travis left the day of our anniversary and I had to work, so it was a very normal day. When I drove home from work and I saw this flower arrangement on my front porch. I thought to myself, "that's so thoughtful of Travis, he's trying to redeem himself." I pick up the arrangement and see that it was actually meant for our neighbors!! Wah, wah (SNL noise)........ Turns out our neighbors share the same anniversary!! Seriously??! How crazy is that?! Oh, well, I guess that's just the way things go sometimes.... Happy Anniversary honey. :)

Unfortunate Mishap

After each pregnancy my skin suffers so I thought I was well overdue for a facial and some special treatment. The last facial I had was before I was married, so as you all know now, that was 10 years ago. A friend that works from her home was having a special on chemical peels. I'd never had one and thought I might as well try it and take advantage of the discount. She asked me if I wanted my eyebrows waxed first, so I said sure, why not. I didn't take into account the fact that I have EXTREMELY sensitive skin! The trauma caused by waxing was enough that when she put the chemical peel on ( a very mild one) it burned my skin! It took a good two weeks for it to heal and it's still scarred. It's funny because not many people have asked me about it, or if they have, they thought it was a birthmark. So now you know, it's not an alien looking birthmark. Hopefully it will eventually go away. My face needs all the help it can get and this isn't helping!!