Bubbles

I've had in my mind now, several events that I wanted to blog about and share with you all.  First, it was going to be about having my sister-in-law, Shiara, come visit us with her little guy Owen.  Owen and Benjamin are the same age and had a great time playing together and fighting too (Ben's fault, not Owen's).

Aren't they cute?

Then I thought about posting pictures of Clara's little gingerbread house making party (actually they were made out of graham crackers and Annica called them Christmas port-a-potties).  Clara and her friends had a great time though.  They were all so cute.  Clara is lucky to have a really good group of friends here.

mmm...yum.  they ate more than they built.

When Scott and I got invited to the Lakers @ Jazz game yesterday, I knew I wanted to blog about that.  We sat ON THE COURT!  It was so awesome!  I could've reached out my hand and touched the players if I'd wanted to.  And best of all, the Jazz beat the Lakers...it was awesome.  Charlie and Laura (Scott's sister) were with us.  During the second quarter of the game, the ball when out of bounds and right into Charlie's hands.  It was the Laker's ball and they were all just looking at him like, are you gonna throw the ball back or just sit there in shock?!

A little too close

Yes, I wanted to write about all those things above, but then today, Bubbles died.  So this is really about Bubbles...

Bubbles was our Beta fish who out-lived most betas by three times the average life span.  It survived a near-death experience in the disposal (sorry about that buddy), and a four day trip in the car across the United States (it moved from Michigan with us).  There were lots of tears today (even by me, I admit).  We'll miss you Bubbles!  Have fun and be happy in fish heaven.

One of my favorite things about Saturdays is being able to watch Clara at her horse riding lessons.  She is so happy riding her horse!  She rides at a therupeutic riding center and it's been so good for her.

Saturday night we drove up to Kaysville to see our Michigan friends, the Neuenschwanders who moved here recently.  The kids had a happy reunion and we got to see their gorgeous new house!

Stranger's references to Benjamin as a "she" are becoming more and more common...I'm sure it's his hair.  I just CAN'T cut off those curls though, his new hair is straight and the curls will be gone forever!  So until I absolutely have to cut it, I guess I'll just dress him extra macho.  Maybe a Harley tatoo?  (just kidding).

Ya ready yet?

Ok, so...just wanted make sure I gave everyone enough time to read my last post. I know it was pretty thorough, so I gave you all a few months! Waaaayyyy too many pictures/events to post about since then, but I thought I'd just post my very faves. Here you go:


We made a brief trip to Oregon in July and were lucky enough to make it to Cannon Beach for a day...sandcastles, fresh Tillamook icecream, cave exploring, and swimming...fun!


Back at my parents, swimming. Benjamin was a big wimp and would only dip his FINGER in the water. The rest of the time he ran around the pool as fast as he could giving mommy a workout.


As is now tradition, we rafted (adults only) down the Metolius River. According to the "Sisters Guide Book" this is a trip for "experienced" rafters only. Hmmm, maybe we're not that bad after all. Matthew didn't fall in this time in any attempts to rescue coolers, but we did have a few serious water assaults which resulted some semi-submersions.


Isn't the scenery fabulous?


What's summer without a trip to Lake Powell? A lot less stressful I learned. Okay, but it was fun too. We left Benjamin in the able hands of my brother Steven and his wife, Kat. He had a great time bonding with cousin Savanna.



The very first day out on the Lake, I was seriously doubting my decision to bring Clara. Within minutes, she had disappeared...we found her teetering on the edge of a cliff, at least 20 feet up in the air. Scott had to be careful about rescuing her from her precarious spot.

The reason I really wanted to bring Clara though was that she got to celebrate her fifth birthday here. She loved her Little Mermaid cake and having so much attention. I know she'll probably forget the day, but I'll remember how happy she was.

Ahhh...loved the water! It was WARM! The kids had a great time learning to jet ski with Scott.



I'm sure I set some kind of record for reckless jet ski driving while I was pulling Scott on the "Kidz Offroader". Holy cow, my stomach has never been so sore from laughing - all at the expense of poor Scott who was hanging on to the thing for dear life. He seriously looked hilarious...wish I had a video.



The rest of the summer, we spent at home, bbq-ing the world's tallest burgers, playing with friends (Tina Orton and I with families up at AF Canyon), and getting ready for school to start.





Benjamin even got some new school clothes. What a hunk!



Walking the kids to school the first day was a little sad. It just seemed too soon! I'm still not used to starting school so early (mid-August). It's always a little scary for me as a parent to leave my kids on that first day. I know they're nervous about new kids in their classes and a new teacher. It feels like my first day too.



Grace got the best birthday present this year! Rachel, her BFF from Michigan came and they got to celebrate their bdays together, just like old times. They celebrated with a birthday tea party at Dear Lizzie, a cute boutique near home.



Clara started school a few days after her sisters...a kindergartener! Again, I was feeling so scared for her when I took this picture. She's so little, but she's made friends with all the kids in her class. I love dropping her off for school now...always girls will come running up and hug Clara when they see her. It's so cute!


Scott and all the boys in the Shippen family went to Texas this Labor Day to watch BYU play in the brand new ginormous football stadium in Dallas. You can see in the picture that they had a terrible time...ya, they loved it. It didn't hurt that BYU (the underdog) won.




These are from a trip I took with my S-I-L, Kat, to Gardener's Village. We wanted to see "the witches." They're so fun. They're posed in boats, fishing on the little creek, in a gazebo stirring potions, and on a field, playing softball. Clara was a little nervous to get near them though. This was as close as she'd get and she wouldn't smile, just this plastered-on looking grimace like "Ok, this is the best you're gonna get." I wanted to pose her with the witch's arm around her -- no way mom!





I spent a day with Kat (hmmm, I swear I don't spend every waking moment with her) getting in touch with my crafty-side, making hair bows. Benjamin looks so darling modeling them, doesn't he?



He's starting to get a little embarrassed here:



Ok, mom, that's enough...someone might see these.



Ooooh! I wanna go back to school if I get to make cakes for geography and magnets for math!




Another fun day with Kat - we took the kids to the Living Aquarium in Sandy. They had a 100 year old lobster, a giant octopus, pretty (and mezmerizing) jellyfish, cute little seahorses, and slimey stingrays to pet...what more could a kid ask for on their day off school?!





This was so funny - I found this after I put Clara to bed. Guess she wanted to let her animals stay up late and watch a flick.



We did other various forms of fall celebrations. Getting lost in the kiddie corn maze was not my favorite:


Mom can we just go home now? We've been in here for days!



Ok, finally to the present time now...these are from THIS weekend - Halloween!

Annica was the white witch from Narnia, but the camera flash made her makeup look freakishly odd. Grace was a pirate, of course (she loves pirates). Their cousin Sophia is the tall bumble bee. Clara was Tinkerbell...it was either that or Snow White, or Cinderella, or Little Mermaid, or Belle, or...(take your pick, we have all the costumes now. What do you expect with 3 girls)? Benjamin was the cutest bumble bee ever! LOVE the stinger! Everyone wanted to pull it!






Ok, now that I'm done, I'm a little embarrassed...this was a "FEW" of my favorites??? I guess I got a little carried away. Sorry, and if you made it through to the end...good for you! Thanks for reading!

All about June

Wow! Has it really been a month since my last post? This summer is going way too fast.


During the first week of June, my good friend Jen came to visit me. It was fun to see her and her cute kids...see you in Georgia next time Jen!

June was COLD! I'm sure we set all kinds of records here for rain and low temps. We had one brief day of moderate warmth and the kids eagerly set up the slip-and-slide and played...for about 10 mins, then realizing it was too cold, they all jumped in the kiddy pool filled with warm water (you can see there was a wait to get in...very popular spot)!





My kids must be sleep deprived...first here's Clara, asleep on the SHOWER FLOOR...how comfy! She slept there for 30 mins until I could move her onto my bed...she never takes naps but when she does...



Next we have Benjamin. Mid-lunch he just couldn't take it anymore...I had a hard time recording the video, I was laughing so hard! Poor boy, I did move him into bed right after.



He finally found a comfortable spot to rest his head:




Clara started horse riding lessons and loves it! Her horse's name is "Hella" which means "frost." On her way home after the first lesson she told me, "Hella's my best friend!"



I took Clara and Benjamin to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. They loved it. We were looking at this big dinosaur skeleton and I was talking to Clara about how big it was, how big its tail was, and its mouth and she replies very matter-of-fact like, "Yep, it could kill us." It's a good thing it's dead.




I think Clara was hoping this would really work to eat up Benjamin...she hasn't had the nicest of feelings for him lately. Some major sibling rivalry going on between them.



Part of the museum had a fossil dig area...a giant sandbox where you use paint brushes to uncover fossils. Benjamin was in HEAVEN!



For Father's Day the kids and I drove up to Idaho Falls to visit Scott where's he's been overseeing some apartment renovations for the last four weeks. It was so good to be all together again, but the apartments are old (and not that clean) and of course the vacant one he was staying in was unfurnished. It really made me appreciate my own home! Anyway, for Father's Day the girls had choreographed an entire synchronized show with their glitter balls complete with an illustrated program. It was adorable! Here they are posing, after two encores:



By the end of June we finally saw summer and out came the slip-and-slide again!