FAIR DAYS

It is FAIR week in the beautiful Heber Valley and it is jammed packed. I grew up in such a rural place that the fair was only Friday and Saturday! Here it has been going strong since Monday and there have been a few things last week that started it all off! Anyway, we have enjoyed the county fair. The exhibits opened today after they were judged and on a whim at the last minute, no past the last minute, we put Kelsey's Renoir picture in the fair. She loved making it after she learned the technique from the MEET THE MASTERS program at school. She has become quite the little painter. She has her own watercolor pencils, $$$ watercolor paper, oil pastels and bla bla bla. Anyway, she won the blue ribbon for her painting! Hooray for Kelsey!


They have a children's room at the fair so alot of the LDS church Primary groups have an activity during the summer where each child makes a fair project. Kendal even made one this year and they turned out so cute! Kelsey was so happy that she got 2 ribbons at the fair this year!

I even stepped out of my little nice and cozy comfort zone and entered a quilt in the fair. This quilt has been a long time in the making! I made most of the blocks during my first year of Heber Valley Quilt Guild in 2005 as I was learning how to sew and learned so many fun techniques. I finally finished it this summer and had it machine quilted. It turned out fun and it is such a memory quilt for me. I have so many memories of the fun ladies in our guild in each block, and Kelsey did all the lettering for me when she was 3 that I embroidered, it has a block in it that I made while having MASSIVE labor pains with Kendal kicking my spine, and on and on. It is just full of memories. The name of it is What Matters Most because most of the blocks pertain to an embroidery design I did on it that says Friends, Family, Flowers, Freedom, Faith.

We went to the carnival tonight and I didn't want to lug my 3 inch by 1 inch HUGE camera around so I left it home. What a mistake! The look on Kendal's face was pure joy while riding the rides and I missed what 1000 words of happiness could not capture. The squeals of Kelsey however are still ringing in my ears.

Happy day for me! Tomorrow my new dishwasher will be delivered and installed! YEAH! Say goodbye to old whitey. She got us through some messes, so I am grateful, but I am so excited for my new one!

To The Hills . . . again

Matt has most Tuesdays off and he spent this Tuesday at home actually helping me with the honey-do list. I know conventionally honey-do lists are for the husband only, but if I gave him a list without offering a hand there would be a revolt or mutiny! So the day started off with a trip up the hill to Home Depot near Park City. We purchased a new dishwasher. The one we have now was given to us from someone we didn't even know when they were redoing their entire kitchen. It replaced one that was dead for 4 months while I did dishes in the sink - heaven forbid! Anyway, the one we have now that will be replaced this Friday has been leaking on the floor for about a month, wait, no more than that, a few months. When I start the dishwasher I have to place a few towels at the bottom of the dishwasher (the metal bottom part has been removed and sits annoyingly on my table) to soak up the water. Well, so long soggy towels! Friday you are history!

I also went to the fireplace store here in town and paid 1/2 down on a wood burning stove that will be installed in August! WOO-WHO!! We are pretty excited about this!

Then I ran to help set up county fair exhibits for a little while, and when I got home I made Matt help me pull out the washer and dryer for a clean-up job. We have lived here for almost 6 years and this has never been done! I could have made all my family members lint sweaters for Christmas with how much stuff I found back there! Needless to say that was a job that is good to have done. We had to take the laundry room door off so Matt could pull the washer out far enough to get it cleaned well enough behind it. My laundry room looks so good now, it smells good too! It is so clean Matt could do sterile surgery in there! Anyone need a cat spayed? Just kidding, hee hee hee.

Anyway, I was feeling bad that Matt was not doing anything fun on his day off and because I was spending so much money, so I suggested we head up to the hills for dinner again. He was all about that! So we loaded up the fixins for hamburgers and away we went.


When we got up there, the 4th step I took was in a nice fresh cow pie. You gotta love open range! Well, Kendal lasted longer than me, but eventually she found one too. Here she is cleaning her shoe, so cute! It is so nice that she is actually caring about that kind of thing now. A year ago she would have cared less.

Once Kendal saw the chips, the hamburger was forgotten. I wish we would learn our lesson on this one thing with her!

The Proctors, our wonderful neighbors, also came up. Here is Matt, Derek, and Austin retrieving their arrows from the target. It is so nice being in the great outdoors, feeling the cool breeze, and living the city behind!

Kelsey and Kendal love Kim and Debbie. I truly mean LOVE. What would we do without the Proctors?

Kelsey was getting a little cold so I got the blanket and started to wrap her up. Kendal of course ran into the blanket and they became 'the horse.' It was so cute to hear Kendal squeal as she brought up the rear. I kept telling Kelsey to walk a little slower so Kendal wouldn't fall until she told me that Kendal was pushing her that fast!

It was a great day with Matt home and it turned out nice. I love summer and I love spending it with my family.

A perfect world

Gotta tell you about our dinner conversation last night!

Kelsey has been on this kick where she asks about whatever she is eating. In the past it has gone like this: "Mom, what do carrots do for your body?" "Mom, is meat good for your body?" "Mom, what does rice help your body grow?"
So last night this is what she said as we were eating dinner.
Kelsey - "Mom, is cottage cheese good for you?"
Mom - "Yes, very good for you."
Matt has to pipe in and say "It's made of fat."
I quickly add, "It is not fat and we don't worry about fat anyway." I can just see my 6 year old turning anorexic on me!
Kelsey - "What does it do for your body?"
Mom - "It makes your teeth and bones strong."
Kelsey - "Oh, good." She keeps eating her cottage cheese.

40 seconds later:
"Mom, did you know it would be a perfect world without winter, Satan, or fat?"
Stunned, awed and completely agreeing I said "Well yes it would Kelsey."

Our 24th of July

We celebrated the 24th of July, the day the LDS Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, in grand fashion. Matt didn't have to work. One year our friend Joe called on the 24th of July and could not figure out why Matt had the day off. Joe said that us Mormons and Utahans just make up holidays so we can get a day off every now and then. Well, whatever the case, we celebrated Pioneer Day and it was great.

We drove up in the mountains above Heber City and played. We took hamburgers to cook, bows and arrows, a soccer ball, the BB gun, and 3 15 year old boys. Here is Kelsey with her bow. She loves to do the things her dad does.

Kendal loved the party. She loves the teenage boys, being outside, and I guess she loves Powerade because she drank 2 1/2 of them!

Kelsey has been a pretty good little bow hunter. She has always shot at a target and done pretty well. She learned on this trip however how fun it was to aim up in the sky and let the arrow just fly. It really gets some distance! She also learned that she needs to watch where it lands because we had to hunt around for it a couple of times!

This is the boys retrieving their arrows out of one of the targets. Kendal is right after them. She knows when she can and can not run around when the guys are shooting, and the guys are so safe with her and Kelsey. Thankfully.

Kendal loves the chips too. Her hamburger was forgotten once she saw the bags of chips. She is her father's daughter also!

Kelsey shot her BB gun and she did a great job. She was shooting at a box and she hit pretty close to where she was aiming every time.

Here are the guys and their bows. It was good for them to get out of town and really shoot. Some of the neighbors have not been the nicest about their little hobby, so it was fun to get out in the hills where nobody cared if they were shooting.




This is Matt and Kelsey looking for her arrow again!

It was a beautiful afternoon in the mountains. We should do that more often, just a little afternoon trip with a burger fry, it was perfect.

Me and my girls. Even though they love being with their dad and doing 'daddy things', they love their mom too and are quite the girls when they want to be.




When we got off the mountain we hooked up with one of Matt's employers, Brett, and his family for fireworks in Charleston and also back at our house. It was fun to play with their cute family for a few hours. Kelsey and Kendal liked having a few kids around.




After the fireworks at our house, they all scrambled onto the tramp. Our 2 kids, Brett and Meechelle's 4 kids, and 5 of the 15 year olds were jumping and of course screaming. Those 3 bow shooting boys attracted a few girls over. It is funny how that works. Just yesterday 3 cute girls from our stake had to ride their bikes by Derek's house (across the street) a few times just to see if he or any of his buddies were around. It is so cute, I have to admit.

happy clematis

I just had to show you how happy my clematis is with its new home I made. I love summer, have I ever mentioned that?

Our new tent

Saturday while I floated the Provo River (pictures to come hopefully) with some friends and my sister Tori and her husband Jared, Matt took the girls to Cabelas. Now you must know, we love Cabelas. I say that with a WE because it is true, I honestly enjoy it very much too. We have spent some great days there, yes, I mean full days. Anyway, Matt came home with a new tent on Saturday. He has been eyeing this particular tent over for a few years and we have a big camping trip planned for August in Idaho with our friends Joe and Lindsay. Our wonderful canvas tent is a little too big and over the top for where we are going, and the little dome tent that we bought in Pullman, Washington how ever many years ago is just a little too small for our family now, especially with the way Kendal sleeps. So anyway, we have a new nice tent.

We set it up Saturday night and slept in it. It is a nice tent and actually pretty spacious. Thank goodness because Kendal was seriously ALL OVER the place! She finally ended up konked out at the door of the tent with nothing but the tent floor under her. At about 2:00 am I put her little sleeping bag over the top of her because I was not gambling with waking her up trying to put her inside the bag. She slept that way until about 6:00, and then of course she joined me.

I got this shot at around 8:30 when my bladder could no longer handle it and it was warming up so much that we were all sweating like we were in a sauna. She is so cute, especially asleep. Kelsey had a good nights rest also. I am not sure how because she insists on sleeping with at least 5 "friends" every night. Those friends are whatever stuffed animals she is taking care of at the time. She has at least 400 of them. Kendal is so different, she could care less. She likes her baby doll every now and then, but she is nothing like Kelsey in that way.

I didn't have Matt take a picture of me before we slept. I thought I would have Matt take one of me in the morning. Who was I kidding? My hair is so wild in the mornings, and if you could see bad breath in a picture, mine would have been horrible!

Matt, Kendal, and Grandpa Larry are outside in the tent right now, asleep. I hope it lasts through the night. I think it will.

Concert in the Park

Matt's mom Ellen and her sister Laura came up last night for the concert in the park. It was so fun to go sit and listen to the music. Poor aunt Laura was secretly plugging one ear, I saw that finger in her ear. They were good sports to come up and spend the evening with us. Kendal loved having her grandma all to herself.


Kendal and Kelsey liked the music. I was a little disappointed that Kelsey thinks she is too old to dance for us, and Kendal would only head bob for us. Here are the two of them, Kelsey is making Kendal's arms dance.

We haven't been to a concert in the park yet this year, and Kendal was so sick last year I don't think we went at all last summer. But the year before, we went alot, Kelsey would dance, Kendal would run around, and we would eat cotton candy. We got cotton candy last night and I think this was Kendal's maiden voyage on the cotton candy ship. When I handed it to her, she took it and rubbed it on her neck and face like she would a little stuffed bear or puppy. It was so cute. Grandma Ellen and aunt Laura were laughing so hard. Then she finally stuck some in her mouth. She was not impressed, but sister was eating like a little piggy, so she did too.

It was a beautiful evening and the music was okay too. A little too jazzy and reggae for me, but it is all about the atmosphere, not the music. There was a lady that danced all night right in front of the band, like 5 feet away from the lead singer. She had some nice moves, but the sparkly scarf was killing aunt Laura. She had the giggles so bad. I kept telling Laura that I would go borrow the scarf so Laura could dance in front of everyone. She said there was no way EVER that she would do that, even with a sparkly scarf!

Matt joined us after work and we had a super time. AHHH - this picture captures aunt Laura discreetly plugging her ear! Thanks for coming up Ellen and Laura!

A Success Story

My sweet little Kendal spent most of one day in June with green crayon melted to her little behind. I posted about this last month and I have an update for you. Thanks to everyone for your comments about HOW to get melted crayon out of clothing, you were VERY helpful.
I did the iron trick first of all - I ironed the wrong side of her pants onto a paper towel until the crayon stopped coming off. That got the nice big chunks off, but there was still a very brilliant green waxy residue. My friend Camille told me to try brake parts cleaner on one of her comments. Can you all believe that?
So on my next trip to Wal-Mart I had a nice lady show me the brake parts cleaner. I spent $2.17 plus tax on a can of it, came home, sprayed Kendal's pants, rubbed and rubbed with more paper towels, and WAA LAA - CLEAN! It was amazing! So then I threw them into the washer with an ENTIRE load of clothes. That was the bad part of the deal, it made EVERYTHING in that batch smell like brake parts cleaner! No big deal, Kendal's pants were CLEAN and I did that load of laundry again.

Thanks Camille! The can says right on it that it removes waxy and greasy residues, man I love it when things work out!

Dang I love summer!

My parents came up Saturday afternoon and spent the night. They had been to my great aunt's birthday party and were staying over for baby Brogan's baby blessing on Sunday. It was so fun having them here. Matt worked 1/2 day in Roy and then helped Derek and the Proctors with his Eagle Scout project for the afternoon. We had the Proctors come over for dinner when they were finished tying their rebar. They worked hard all day in the heat and needed some nourishment.


We had corn on the cob from a delicious Sugar Sweet Corn Stand here in town - it was so good! That is one thing I love about summer - corn on the cob! We also barbecued some kabobs and had some salad. It was delicious!

My girls loved spending time with their grandma and grandpa. They are such good and fun grandparents. I loved having them here too.

Dang I love summer!

Aunt Laura's house

Our Internet has been sick and I am sick of it! What did I do with my evenings/nights with no Internet? Well, last night I watched a movie and the 2 or 3 previous nights I actually went to bed before 1 am! It was amazing! I am glad to back online though!
Friday the girls and I headed to Nephi for the Ute Stampede. Well, we didn't actually go to the Ute Stampede, we went to Aunt Laura's house and played hard. Mindy rented a fun water slide and we had a blast. We ate good food, jumped on the tramp, played in the water, and went to the parade. It was a fun fun day.

The one in blue is Kelsey, the one with the grocery bag on her broken arm is Alysen, and the blondie with her mouth wide open is April. What a super fun time we all had.

Kendal went down the slide once, got out of the landing pool, walked straight to her Grandma Ellen, grabbed her hand and said "Mon" which meant "C'mon Grandma, this is so fun you will love it." Grandma declined the invitation.


For some evil and hideous reason, I loved the dominoes wipe outs that would occur when someone was climbing the 'stairs' up to the top, lost their footing and would fall down the 'ladder' and wipe out everyone else standing in line. It made me laugh right out loud, until I did it. Then I nearly peed my pants from laughing so hard. This picture was a weak wipe out, there were some REALLY good ones when everyone was either left horizontal or slammed back into the landing pool.

This is Adri and Alissa, and baby Lilly. Those 2 girls love their little cousin Lilly and I think they love to play the mom too. Lilly was such a happy baby all day, she was wonderful.

Kendal liked to hang out at the top of the water slide. I think she liked the challenge of climbing up part but not necessarily the sliding down into a pool of cold water part.

A nice shot of my mouth wide open. Yes, even the moms played on the water slide. We had a great time. We, the mothers, even raced the kids. We had a timed event and we timed how fast we could climb up, go down, and then come back around to our beginning spot. We old ladies showed those kids up! It was great. I think 10 seconds was the record.

The parade was nice and long with A TON of princesses to wave to and candy to fight over. Here is Kendal, Aunt Amanda, and Lainee. Kendal loves Lainee. When she saw this picture today she said "YAINEE, YAINEE" very excitedly.

And here are my two little gooses, well, I guess geese. We had a super time playing with all our Crane cousins.