Saturday, August 23, 2008

Sleepover

When Dave is out of town on a weekend, Emily & I like to have a sleepover. She really misses having these with Nicia and Caitlin. So last night it was sleepover night. We went to a ward ice cream social in our park first. Yum! Then we played Yahtzee where Emily won, even though I had gotten a yahtzee, and she hadn't. Go figure! Then we went upstairs for the usual pillow fight. With a king size bed and pillows, it's way fun! We were laughing pretty hard.
We like to "bury" each other in the pillows. Above is Emily waving hi. Later I'm trying to lay still to get "buried" by Emily, and she say's, "Mom, don't move a hinge!" (instead of don't move a muscle)

Emily gearing up for the next "hit"

Towards the end of the fight, Emily fell off the bed and didn't want to play anymore. We watched Arthur together and decided to wait on doing our nails since it was getting really late. This morning Emily got to choose what to have for breakfast (pancakes) before heading out for her first soccer game. I love having sleepovers with my little girl!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Blossoms on Steroids

I just had to share this with everyone! When we planted Michael's garden back in May, there was a small stump (looked more like a dead twig) sticking out of the ground in one spot. I thought I had remembered planting something there last year but wasn't sure, so I went ahead a left the stump there since it had a 2-inch piece of greenery sticking out at the bottom.

A few weeks ago the stump was looking like a bunch of tall overgrown greenery. Basically looked like a big weed - fairly ugly. I was about ready to pull it out when I looked a little harder and noticed tiny buds amongst the tangles. I decided to leave it alone for a little while longer. Well, I'm glad I did, because look what's blooming there now:
To give you an idea of how big these flowers are:

This one is like 7 1/2 inches across!

Everyone keeps asking me what kind of plant it is. I barely remember planting it, so have no idea what these flowers are, but I'm glad I had a little patience and didn't yank the stump out!

These began blooming just as my group of shasta daisies finished blooming below them, and now I am noticing another small round of daisies coming on. It's been fun to watch this garden bloom. Happy summer!

Monday, August 18, 2008

First Day of School!

It's hard to believe, but summer is basically over for us. Each year they start school a little earlier. Today was Emily's first day of 1st grade, at our charter school here in Springville. She was SO excited! Emily loves most everything about school, including being with the other children, having lunch at school, and of course, math (her favorite subject). I have to admit that I've had just a little bit of sadness, realizing that my little girl is growing up and will be gone all day now. In fact, yesterday I realized that basically 1/3 of her life with us here at home is gone! But part of me is pretty excited about having almost 7 hours of productive time every day. Now I just need the motivation to do all the catch-up and projects for the home and office that I've been planning to get done!

Mom: So Emily, how was school today? Emily: GREAT!

I think this little girl likes school. :)

Someone else was happy she was home too!

Here's to a great year, Emily!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Vance's Visit

I'll warn you, this is a longer post, but we did so much, this was the shortest I could make it! LaNita and 4 of her children were here for a week visiting before the Earl Reunion. I actually took time off from the office work and just had a great time with them! We did all kinds of fun things with the kids, and LaNita and I even got lunch and a little shopping in too.


We started out at the Pioneer Village at This is the Place monument in SLC. I'd never been to the village before, but it's a really cool place, a replica of an whole village from the pioneer era, with so much for the kids to do. We spent over 5 hours there and could have spent all day!



Madeline Vance, Emily, Allison V., Rose V., Spencer V. at This is the Place! Monument




Emily and Allison - a new way to clean clothes!
Madeline and Emily with their new pioneer friend, Anna




Wanna go for a ride?



Spencer gets a consequence in the school house

Emily learning the Deseret Alphabet

There were all kinds of animals for the kids to see and touch, which Emily absolutely loved: goats, cows, peacocks, lambs, and of course the horses.

There was an awesome play village where the kids really could have spent hours. unfortunately, we didn't discover it until it was almost time for us to leave.

LaNita had made newborn kits with her achievement day girls, so we headed over to the Humanitarian Center where we had a tour and all the kids got to "donate" newborn kits. Emily had decided she was tired of getting her picture taken - thus no Emily in the pic below.

One of the best things that happened during the week, was that we stopped on the way home from SLC and picked up a used trampoline I had bought off Craigslist. Dave helped us get it put together right away, and the kids spent hours and hours on it throughout the week.





In motion......


Here are some pictures from our trip to the Bean Museum. The kids each did a scavenger hunt, finding answers to questions about the different animals.



LaNita touching the tarantula at the live animal show

We spent another day going up Payson Canyon. First stop was "the Grotto". You take a short hike up to to this awesome cave- like area with a waterfall.


The kids had a great time playing in the freezing water - then it was on to Payson Lakes for a picnic and some swimming. Here are the highlights from our day:


Rosie through a huge temper tantrum (reminicent of her younger years)


Spencer caught a dead fish


Allison had a "head-on" collision with a remote control boat. She didn't think it was very funny, but it was actually hilarious and we wished we had caught the whole thing on video so we could send it in to one of th0se funniest video shows. Her hair was wrapped around the motor pretty tightly.


LaNita couldn't get the boat detatched, so we enlisted the help of some fellow picnickers, who performed "surgery" and finally cut the boat free. There was quite a crowd standing around by the time it was over, and Allison was pretty embarrassed, but everything turned out okay. (We were trying not to laugh in front of her). It was a beautiful day to be up the canyon, and just a great week overall!


Thursday, August 14, 2008

"You've Been Caught"

I love getting mail, but not this kind. Several days ago we received a notice from Springville City letting us know that the building permit to finish our basement, had expired without having a final inspection from the city which is needed so the home can have an official certificate of occupancy.
Now, we've lived here for 8 years, and the basement was totally finished when we moved in, SO, was this ever a big surprise for us! Apparently, the city is going through all their records before they go computerized and "caught" our home's non-compliance.


The inpsector came on Tuesday to inspect the basement. He found several minor things that needed to be fixed in order to meet city codes, and one kind of major thing. We have to drywall all the walls around and underneath the stairs. At least it's something we can most likely do ourselves! (But one more thing on our plate. ) I feel like calling the previous owner and asking them to come take care of all these things they should have done in the first place, so we can pass inspection, but I probably won't.

ALSO, today I was driving us to Emily's school open house to meet her teacher. There was construction and a detour in the road, so I had to take another route on a road I amost never travel. I was sailing along showing Emily some horses off to the right, when I whizzed past a policeman. I instantly knew I was going too fast and he was coming after me. He wasted no time getting those lights on. It's always SO embarrassing!

Wouldn't you know, I had the registration, but NO current proof of insurance. I told him the truth about showing Emily the horses and not traveling that road very often, and he had mercy on me. I got off with a warning for the speeding, (42 in a 25 mph zone) but he cited me for not having current proof of insurance. Fortunately, if I go into the Springville City Court and show them my insurance card, I won't have to pay any fines and the citation will go off my record. Whew! And I dodged a $157 speeding ticket, so I feel pretty blessed! But I think I've had enough attention from Springville City for awhile!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

"Hannah Marie"

We're fortunate enough to live 10 minutes from my neice, Esther and her hubby Nathan, so after swimming all afternoon at a pool party the school had sponsored, Emily & I headed to the hospital. There was no way I was going to wait another day! Hannah is adorable and was good enough to let us hold her, ooh and aah, and hold her again!

The cousins (once removed)

Hannah Marie Manwaring, happily pacified

A sweet picture of baby and mom



Sunday, August 10, 2008

Danes Family Runion Pics.....finally!

Wow, time has flown by! We've had a busy, but fun time the past couple of weeks. (and we've been cool) :) I had a bunch of other pics & verbage about the past two weeks, and somehow just deleted it, so we'll just go with a few Danes Reunion pics for now:

Justin & Emily at "The Sandbar"


Rosie Vance & Emily - there's a reason it's called the Sandbar.....




Stephanie Basker pitching in with the work



Grandma Danes ready to spend at the auction

Jim did a great job as the auctioneer for the family auction - we raised over $7,500!



Calista Utter & Esther Manwaring

Everyone was so good to help with the work of cleaning up so we could check out of the lodge. But Calista stayed and helped us till the absolute bitter end. Thank you Calista! You're awesome!
It was a great reunion, and I'm so glad so many of you bloggers could come. It was great to see you all!