Tautphaus Park Zoo

Today we had a fun cousins day at our local zoo. Brittany and Alex met us there. Grace is here for dance camp from Salt Lake and Tanner is also here from Twin Falls so we all decided to go. Here are some fun pics from our fun day.

Right as we walked in we got together for this picture. Alex and Tanner are both too little to be out of the stroller, especially this early on! Lots of animals are waiting!

Luke is a natural around animals. He got to brush the goats in the petting zoo. Everyone else wanted to feed them, but to do that you have to be on the other side of the fence. He would not leave the animals so he stayed to take care of them.

The Tigers were the last thing we saw before we had lunch. Luke was super hungry and therefore grouchy so he did not want to be in this picture. So funny. Maybe that makes me a bad mom to laugh at my children, but my feeling is that if I don't I will just be sad too and that would be a downer all the time.

One more thing

As I have been waiting for the water to come back on, etc. I have been reading stuff on the internet. Here are a couple interesting things to see/read about Twilight that I came across. If you are an addict you have already seem them and they are so 5 minutes ago, but you can enjoy them again if you want.

Here is the cover of EW I mentioned in an earlier post.

Here is a funny quiz too.

The official movie site has a new fun making of video and a scene from the fight scene that is super cool.

Oh and for all of you who have a man telling you what a blah blah blah book it is like I do, have them read the first chapter from Midnight Sun. Guys seem to like that version a whole lot better. And I found a confirmation from Stephenie saying it will be published just not exactly when.

And one more thing...tune into EW.com on Friday July 25th for an exclusive interview with Stephenie at Comic Con in San Diego. I am such a nerd.

Here is something fun...

Yesterday when Ryan got in the shower it was ....well lets just say it WOKE him up well. The breaker had tripped and turned off the electricity to the water heater and we had no hot water. The night before he had mentioned something about hearing popping noises and seeing lights flickering. We thought it was the lamp in the girls bedroom because we had just replaced the bulb and there is always a question mark about wattage on those things. We flipped the breaker back on and as usual I was running late to so we hurried and got ready and ran out of the house. We ate out for lunch and had leftovers for dinner so I never really thought much about it again, until this morning when I tried to take a shower and the water never got warm.

Needless to say, the element inside our water heater had burned up. Not only that, it had broken itself in half from the burning. Super fun! So the best part about this story is that I have not showered in 3 days now. Nice. And gross. But it is all fixed and I am writing this while I patiently wait for the water heater to make the water warm again so I can wash the stink off my body. I feel sweaty and gross. Being pregnant in no air conditioning in 90+ weather doesn't help either.

But now for the fun part! I get a new bathtub out of the deal. How did a broken water heater net me a new bathtub you might ask? Well, when my landlord (yes I said landlord. Someday we will make it out of the land of the renters, I promise!) came over to "check up" on the repair guys who were consequently just here a couple days ago fixing the puddle surrounding my toilet and my leaky fixtures in the tub, she saw the bathtub and realized that is was old and gross and really needed to be thrown out on the curb. She is super nice and I am not one to complain so we have dropped subtle hints about it, but never really sad anything out right. But seeing is believing and believe me it needs to be replaced. It is one that is beyond the point of cleaning because try as you might, you cannot clean it even if you want too. I have literally used EVERYTHING I could think of to try and make it look somewhat normal. Every soap scum shower cleaner they make, SOS pads, CLR, even a Magic Eraser, which by the way came the closest to remotely cleaning the "scum"off. So I am super happy about getting a new one. We will go to our fun family reunion in 2 weeks and come home to a nice new shower/tub in our gross bathroom which will hopefully not be so gross anymore after that.

Wow this is boring. Sorry for anyone who actually took the time to read that. But yes my life is that dull right now. I feel like the waiting for the baby thing is taking forever and everything else is in a holding pattern until he is born. Which is weird because I am usually too busy to notice--at least I felt like that with the others. I think the heat is clouding my mind and I am just dazed all the time as I walk through life waiting for a great thing like a rain storm to come along and take the edge off for a few minutes. I don't remember being this hot when I was pregnant with Luke in the summer time. Maybe it is all part of the forgetting how bad it hurts thing so we have more kids. You forget how miserable you felt in the heat of the summer--and when your joints start loosening up too. I really don't remember that hurting as bad as it does right now.

So watch for the Before/After pics to come in a couple weeks of my new and improved bath tub. I would post the before pics now but I don't want to sick you out without anything to redeem myself with to go along. Now maybe I will be able to bathe the new baby without cringing at what might be lurking in there. Phew...

Our Summer So Far...

I don't have a whole lot to say these days, summer seems to flow from one day to the next with no difference. I have a hard time even keeping track of what day it is. Seriously. But we have taken a few pictures along the way so I thought I would share some. At risk of regretting it, I am even going to add a couple of me 7 months pregnant. Ryan has this thing about taking lots of pictures even when we look bad because there are never enough when you look back at our parents'. Specifically his mom but that is another story entirely.



I will try to add stories so they are not just pictures, but sometimes there just isn't a whole lot to say.

These first pictures are from our Girls Weekend in Salt Lake. My mom and sisters all went over a weekend in June and stayed at a hotel together. There were a couple babies along, but it was tons of fun and a much needed break. Samantha and I are both pregnant and due the same week in September.

We had lunch at the Garden Restaurant on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was yummy and I even splurged and had Creme Brule for dessert.

We went to The Paul Mitchell Hair School and got pedicures and manicures. Super fun. And I am super pregnant. Eeekkk....

The kiddos got in their head one day that they were super heroes. Here we have Brownie Girl, The Blue Boy, and Super White doing their best super hero poses.

Ryan pulled out all the nasty weeds around the house and made me a flower garden. He also tilled up a spot in the back yard and planted some vegetables. I love that he enjoys the yard work and takes pride in it. I swear he counts down the days until he can mow the lawn again.

The girls rode on the Infinity Dance Studio float in the 4th of July parade. My sister Gretchen owns the studio and the girls have really enjoyed being students and having the opportunity to become great dancers. Ally is doing awesome in the competition team. She is "practicing" her toe touches and leg extensions daily so she can be a better dancer. I must say she is getting really good too. I am so proud.

Luke fell out of the van (no it was not moving--he was messing around when he was playing outside). That resulted in a trip to the Emergency Room and 6 stitches under his chin. Here we have the scar a week or so after the stitches came out. Traumatic is the best way to describe it. He had pretty bad road rash on his face for a week or two as well.

Ok I am a Junkie

Alright I admit it. I am a junkie. I love to read. And like every female I know I love the Twilight Series. This weeks Entertainment Weekly is all about everything Twilight and Stephenie Meyer. I read the opening chapter for Breaking Dawn (yes it is exclusive to EW) and found myself realizing it has been too long since I read the other books. So now, I am reading them again. And I have to finish them before August 2nd when I will probably go out at midnight and buy the new book. Pathetic much? I say NO because I know of at least 5 other people who will read this who already have their book on order from Amazon. You know who you are.

All in the family

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. This was taken at Ashley's baby shower in March. She is the furthest on the left, pregnant with twins, not hardly showing--I know she makes me sick. All of these beautiful women are my sisters, Ashley, Samantha, Molly and Gretchen and my Grandma Blanche and my mom Allyn. I also have 2 brothers. Then you start adding spouses and our family multiplies uncontrollably, but I love this picture and wanted to share it. It was at my moms home and we had a lot of fun catching up with old friends from "the ward." My parents have lived in this home in Pocatello for 25 years so it has some great memories and friends surrounding it that really define who I am and literally where I come from.

Kindergarten Here I come!

Emma graduated from preschool and she is super excited to go to Kindergarten. She already met her teacher and did her "testing" to see where she is in the ready to read scale. I think she expected to go as soon as she turned 5, which was in March. After her birthday weekend she woke up Monday morning expecting to go to Kindergarten. Of course that didn't happen.

Then when she finished Preschool she was ready the very next day to head off to Kindergarten. It has been a hard adjustment for her to have to wait for the summer to be over. It is hard for kids to understand the concept of time. 3 months means nothing to her. It might as well be 3 years.

I wanted to share this picture because #1 it is super cute and #2 is a source of great conflict for me. This is by far one of the best pictures ever taken of her. They never take the normal school pictures this well. No this is one of those that they take without you knowing, print a million of and send home for you to "look at" but are not obligated to purchase. Whoever thought of this dirty trick is on my list! And not only does it look great, it cost 3 times what the crappy school pictures I bought at the beginning of the year cost. Stupid Picture man. Not fair.