Fish Lake 2009

I'm trying to get the ball rolling here.  We went to Fish Lake back in June (yes a month ago) but hey, better to post late than never right?

We always love to stop at our favorite burger and fry place in Salina, The Hot Spot.  

We had a lot of big rocks near our campground and it didn't take long for Sadie to perch herself on top of one to sing Ariel's "ahh ahh ahh".  She sang it at the top of her lungs towards the beautiful lake. 

Cole's first ride on the ATV.  He was a natural!  We let him ride around in a little meadow first so he could get a feel of it.  And after a good warm up, Kevin, Cole, Luke and Grandpa went for a ride. 

While they were riding, Cole was on a trail that started to slant a little.  So to his natural instinct he turned to correct the balance.  Unfortunately there was a lake at the end of his turn and he drove right into the lake about 15 feet!!! On the ATV!! LOL!  Oh do I wish I was there to capture it on camera!  The little ATV was so light that it floated in the water!  So Kevin had to roll up his pants and go in after him.  Cole was all calm and just yelled"Dad, I'm stuck" after it happened!  So funny!  We now call that place Cole's Pond!  What a fun way to remember his first ride! :)

My SIL Stacey made all these cute shirts for the kids!  Love them!  Thanks Stacey!

Our post church family photo.  There is nothing like church at the Fish Lake Lodge!! 

After church we all went down to The Capital Reef for a fun relaxing afternoon with all the cousins.  This is the group that all played a fun game of baseball.

Then we like to walk down to the dirty devil to get cooled down and catch little minnow fish.

Our trip isn't' compete until we get a nice boat ride on the lake!  Not much luck catching any fish on the Barbie fishing pole.

But Cole's little Tigger pole scored us a fish.  My brother Brent finally broke our family's 3 year dry spell and caught us a nice Rainbow Trout!   We must scare away all those fish with all the noise the kids bring along!  Luckily our cousins who are pro fishers caught plenty of fish for a yummy fish fry!  Thanks you guys!!

MaryJane was super busy and a really hard age to have at Fish Lake.  But we still made some fun memories!  It was so nice to spend some quality time with Kevin before he left.  Fish Lake always makes for some good times!

An Update

I almost thought that I have totally given up on my blog.  But the time has now come to get all caught up!  Ever since we accepted Kevin's new job, life has been so crazy!  We moved out of our basement, renters moved in, and had a big garage sale all with in 4 days!  

 

The BIG mess in our front room the night before our garage sale.

 

I made muffins and had bottle waters to sell which were a hit!  I think I made $15 alone on muffins!  It was a nice warm day perfect for a garage sale.  I felt SOOOO happy to get rid of the big stuff.  My organ and treadmill.  Yes, I'll be sad to say goodbye to those but, I prefer to work out at the gym and I'll be taking a little break from the Organ (which I've played in my ward for 2 1/2 years) while Kevin is gone.  I think I'd rather have a piano instead of an organ anyway.  MUCH prettier to look at.

And now, my life is organized!  Thanks to my new BEST friend!!  The Brother P Touch!  The best labeler in the world!  You must get one!  I got mine at Costco.  I'm getting addicted to labeling everything!  Even the most obvious stuff!  

The best thing about all this change is that I've been able to reorganize EVERYTHING I own!  It feels fabulous!  A place for everything and well, most everything in its place.  Having kids really makes it hard to keep everything in it's place.  But it feels good.  I'll have to take some after shots of my house because now it all feels nice and simple around here.  

And for the sad news, Kevin is gone.  He's in a 12 week training course at the DEA and FBI training headquarters in Quantico, VA (30 min. outside D.C).  It will be hard to have him gone for 90 days.   The first day he was gone was the longest and hardest for me.  I cried ALL day long!   But now that I'm in the grove of things, I am handling his absence MUCH better!  :)  And I'm looking forward to taking my kids out for a 3 weeks visit to stay with my sister Jill who lives in D.C!  I feel so blessed that I will have a place to stay near Kevin.  He has the weekends off so he'll be able to stay with us when we are there!  Yay!

So now I'll have plenty of time to catch up on the blog.  And hopefully I'll be pulling that sewing machine out real soon!  It's been way too long! 

The Latest...

5 years ago Kevin applied for and got a tentative job offer from the DEA as a Diversion Investigator.  A job field he's dreamed of being apart of for years.  4 years ago, his application was "shelved" due to a hiring freeze.  Well, last September, we were totally caught off guard when they ask Kevin if he'd still be interested in the job.  We decided to go forward to see where thing lead us.  And after 9 months of  background screening,  they officially offered him the position!  Best of all, BASED IN SALT LAKE CITY!!!  

But now, it's crunch time!  He begins at the Academy in 18 days in Washington D.C!!!  And I have to pack up half my house because to fulfill this dream, we are renting out our basement again.  I am so excited for this adventure and I have felt VERY BLESSED for how things have just fell into our lap at just the right time!  

The timeline of things have been so quick!  We got the call Monday, had to respond by Wednesday and we left for our trip to Fish Lake Thursday Morning.  And upon our return, found our renters (good friends of ours) and have to make the switch by Saturday. 3 days.  Which I'm okay with.  I'm in a get-er-done kind of mood.

And there you have it.  Lots of change for us!  I'll be busy, busy, busy, packing and reorganizing so I don't know how much blogging I'll get to.  But I'll try my best!  And as for the Craft With Me Thing, I still really want to do it!  But it might have to wait until things slow down for us.  Maybe end of July or something.  I've got to get my craft fix through all this, right? 

Cole's Last Day of Kindergarten...

ended much more differently than I expected...

Rex, Peter, Cole and Mrs. Barrett

Cole, Sasha, Annebelle.

After school ended, the kids got to take home their report cards and new teacher assignments for the next year.  Well, after these little pictures were taken with his friends, We found out that Cole will be in a GREAT class next year with a fabulous teacher (which I'm so excited about).  The big bummer news for Cole is that Sasha will be in a different class with his best friend Peter next year.  He was SO sad.  He couldn't understand it.  He cried all the way home. :(  I felt so bad for him.  He just kept saying "it's not fair!"  But we talked it out and he is handling a little bit better now.

I wanted to cheer him up on his last day so we decided to try and make some doughnuts.  My first try!  They were so yummy!  A definite repeat!

But for the life of me, I can not find the link to where I got the recipe!!!  Online somewhere.

I'd like to try this one too.

After making doughnuts, Cole rode his bike on the street in his Apron.  And Dad brought home his friends 4 wheeler to get it tuned up to take on our trip to Fish Lake. 

Cole being so serious trying to drive the ATV for his first time.  

I think his day was saved!  Unlimited doughnuts and riding the 4 wheeler, how can you beat that?

Baby James

This is my friend Marilee's cute new baby boy James.  Luckily I was able to meet him and take a few pics before they made their big move to Arizona.  

This is the fun little onzie I made him.  So easy to make!  

Sadie's Dance Performance!

My little dancer had her Tap and Ballet performance!

Unfortunately we had forgotten her Ballet shoes at home.  Oh well, I don't think she even thought about it once.  

These are my favorite shots!  Sadie so awkwardly doing her plie. LOL!

This is her fabulous teacher Ms. Julie.  She is so full of energy and delight!  She's the best!

Daddy's shoulders seem to be the hot spot lately! 

Good job Sadie!  You are such a fun little girl! 

Hill Air Force Base

Recently we had the privilege to have my cousin Nate (who's an Air Force Pilot) take us to the Air Show on their practice day to avoid all the crowds.  It was so much fun to see!

First we stopped at the cool museum.  The kids loved trying to find all the missiles!

Sadie, Austin, Luke, Scotty and Cole 

Cole wants to be just like his Dad and wear a hat with sunglasses.

Here is Cole demonstrating the airplanes.  As the planes would fly above us, they would pass each other so closely that it would look like they were going to crash!

A photo taken by my Dad that was supposed to capture the giant plane behind us.  I guess I just have too many expectations when I pass the camera.  Even if I have it set to just point and shoot.

Thanks Nate for taking the time to give us the VIP treatment!  So fun!

Mom's 60th

The main reason for my blog slacking is that I planned a surprise 60th birthday party for my Mom and since then, life just doesn't seem to slow down!  It was so much fun to plan for though.  We had an Ice Cream Sundae Open House.

Here is her invitation.  The yellow ice cream cone was made of glittered paper.  So much fun to make with my Cricut!  Everyone was so good at keeping it all a secret! 

We sent my parents to a movie while Stacey and I had just 2 shorts hours to decorate and pull everything together at their home! 

 Stacey made a cute book for people to write a quick note to my mom.  And I had set up a photo booth to take pictures of all the guests to add next to their comment in the book. 

She was so surprised!  Especially to see her Mom and all her sisters!

Jeanine, Grandma, Mom, Cathy, Nancy

A picture of us in the photo booth.  MaryJane is a pro at that scowl!  

It was so fun to surprise her!  She had no idea!  

A very special Thanks to everyone for coming and helping me pull this off!!!  

Hope you had a great and rememberable time Mom!  Happy 60th!

What do you think?

So for a while now I've wanted to start a little "Craft Night With Amy" group.  Where maybe once a month I'd pick a craft, sewing project or even feature a guest to teach us a craft/project.  We'd all bring our machines and learn together!  I'd charge $ for any supplies or fabrics and have them provided for you,  all you would have to do is show up with your machine!  

My cousin gave me this idea months ago but I just haven't had the time to even think about it.  How fun would that have been to have a class showing you all how to make the Valentine Chair Backers?  Maybe next year!  

I thought for my first project we could start on something simple!  This little shirred dress I made for Sadie and MaryJane which was so fun and sooo easy!  Shirring is elastic thread which creates this cute stretchy smocked look.

Major Disclaimer:  I am no professional in ANY way.  I'm not some knowledgeable pro.  I just thought I could help you learn what I have learned in trial and error.  And if you have something to teach us all or want to learn how to do, let me know and we could make a class out of it.  We can all inspire each other!

So, what do you think?  Would you be interested in my little "CNWA?"  What are some ideas of projects you'd like to complete or explore?

Sadie's Preschool Program!

This was Sadie's last day of her first year of preschool!

She is seriously the happiest child!  She was so confident and sang at the top of her lungs!  It was precious!

We have LOVED Ms. Dana!  I can't say enough about her!  And this program was so cute!  It brought back many memories of when Cole was in her class.  Wow time how flies!  My babies are growing up way too fast!