Happy Birthday, dear Jenna!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, funny, smart, helpful, insightful, diligent, prompt, book-loving, dancing, riddle-telling, sister-loving, seven-year-old sweetheart! We love you the purplest!!

Our world would never be the same without you! Love, US

Recital night

The girls have had a great time taking dance since January from Becky's School of Dance. They had a recital last Thursday at the high school.

Some of Jenna's class- The Little Mermaids

Some of Aubrey's class- they dance to "Only You"

We had a great cheering section: Aunt Kat, Zachary, Uncle Greg &Aunt Kelly(thanks for the cute suckers!), Papa Gary, Grandma Barb, Colleen, Daphne (thanks for the beautiful flowers!), Madison & Cassidy. Thanks also to the Lunches for keeping Lydia, who would not have allowed us to watch the recital!This time we opted for rag curlers for Aubrey's hair instead of the curling iron & it was SOOO much better all around! Faster, more even, stayed forever & looked great! This is right before we took them out so she had slept in them, been to the park in them, and played the rest of an afternoon, so they were a bit worse for the wear, but her hair was super curly!

Recent Crafting

I don't think I've ever gone so long without a post. Oops! I've been sick and we've been super busy, so there will be some catching up to do.

Here are some recent craft endeavors- mostly because they are easy to post, not much to say about them.

Flower hair clippies for the girls-

started with a little set from the scrapbooking area at Michael's, hot glues clips, viola!

I hurried and made them before church one morning, and each happened to match one of the girls' outfits.

Tinkerbell hooded towel for Jaclyn.

A little extra added to the body of hooded towels a nice lady in Ohio ordered from my website.

International Peace Gardens

Monday we had a nice visit at the International Peace Gardens at Jordan Park. It was a bit overcast, which made for perfect walking weather. The kids loved exploring and playing with Abi & Emma. Here are pictures of a few of the areas. If you haven't ever been here, I highly recommend it!

Denmark

England -Margaret Thatcher. The statue was placed the year she visited Salt Lake (in the early 90's I think). This area has beautiful rose bushes!

Dragon at the gate to the Chinese garden.

The Matterhorn...Switzerland. I am holding all four kids so they didn't disturb the apparently- homeless man sleeping behind the Swiss chalet. Can't say that I blame him- it was a very peaceful spot! I think this bridge was in the Swiss garden, too.


Japanese Garden. Lydia trying to rappel into the empty riverbed.

And...Lydia stuck on the dry fountain. Loves to climb!
America

Lydia has become a poser like the rest of them! Above and below are pics from the "America" garden. In the 1947 when this part of the garden was built, it was more politically correct to just say "America" rather than "United States." Don't want to anger our fellow North Americans, or South Americans either!

Mexico

From their website:

The International Peace Gardens, located on the bank of the Jordan River in Salt Lake City, was founded as a citizenship project and as a lesson in peace and understanding between nations. The endeavor is evidence that people from many lands can unite in building a monument to peace.
Part of Utah history, the garden was conceived in 1939 and dedicated in 1952, the International Peace Gardens has welcomed tens of thousands of travelers from every corner of the globe, including exchange partners from Salt Lake's several Sister Cities. The project was brought to fruition by Utah citizen Mrs. Otto (Ruey) Wiesley, working with the Salt Lake City Superintendent of Parks, the mayor, and the Salt Lake Council of Women. Today the garden remains under the direction of the Salt Lake Council of Women Past Presidents Council. Each participating Utah-based nation group is allotted a plot in which to create a garden with native plantings and garden architecture and statues of world peace leaders typical of the homeland and its culture. The Peace Gardens currently represents the cultural diversity of twenty-six nations and encourages pleasant wandering and meditation by visitors. To learn more about the history of the gardens, click on "history."

1.6

Wahoo!!

I feel like I'm 18 again...

...but not in a good way. I have orientation at the U tomorrow. I can't even tell you how many hours I spent up there in high school for MUN and other things. I spent more time in the Marriott library than I did in the library at my own school! Seriously! I also know where the important things are- Huntsman Center, Rice-Eccles stadium. To add insult to injury, I already attended orientation in 1999, when I was enrolled before I received my mission call to leave in the middle of the semester. I was informed they "expire" after two years. My advisor said otherwise, but bless her extremely young heart, she was mistaken.

I appreciate their desire to help me have a good experience there, but I feel like such a nerd having to through it again. What are they going to do, help me find my classes? They are all online and I obviously found my computer unassisted! Any classes I do have to take on campus will all be in the FCS building, where I have already met with my academic advisor, so I'm OK finding that, too, thanks!

The thing that bugs me the most is that it will cost me $70 for the privilege of attending. I can't register unless I go, but they sent me a postcard thanking me for "accepting their invitation to attend Orientation." I will, however, be the proud owner of a General Catalog. Who knew they even still printed those out? Also included: Undergraduate bulletin and Student Resource Guide, AND parking validation!

Speaking of Jenna...and 300

I found this cute picture of Jenna on my parents' computer & I thought I'd better share.

7/6/05

Incidentally this is my 300th post. Too bad I didn't notice sooner so I could think of something more profound.

My FAVORITE crafty blog, Little Birdie Secrets has a great link for Father's Day (or any occasion) gift idea. You can make your own motivational poster- serious or sarcastic from Big Huge Lab's Make Your Own Motivational Poster.

These were so fun I just had to share. My first try wasn't motivational, but I just used the first picture I came to. I can't wait to play around with it when I have more time. Show me what you come up with!

Tales from the flat iron

Normally Jenna's hair looks like this:

Last night, after 1 1/2 hrs with the flat iron it looked like this:

Today, with a little more flat iron and large curling iron it turned out like this:

She felt so pretty! I'm hoping the rain this afternoon didn't spoil her fun. I love her with her curls. She wouldn't be Jenna without them, but it was fun to see her so excited about her new 'do!

fence improvement

Over the course of a few days last week I painted the outside of our fence. Living on a corner lot, we have LOTS of fence, so I only did the outside. I think it is a vast improvement. Bonus: We found the cans of Thompson's deck/fence stain for $.50 each at Lowe's- marked down from $26!

These shots are a taste of before and after. The gray is the final product. It is a little closer to the color of the house, but it looks so much better than the old weathered wood!

Thanks Lynches for entertaining the kids for part of the time! Well-times popsicles!