O My Father

Fathers' Day was a pretty packed day. I was up early making chocolate chip cookies for Primary. The day before we held a primary activity for the kids where they each get to decorate an old tie up real funky with all sorts of fun things and then wrap it and give it to their fathers to wear on Sunday. It's really funny to see all these men show up wearing ties with springs, fuzzy balls and googly eyes popping out of their ties - some wearing several ties at once because they have several kids in primary. Then all the fathers come with their kids to primary where we had a really fun sharing time game and the kids versed the dads (or grandpa's or whoever they brought). I got the biggest kick out of watching these dads with their kids. The men were such good sports and when they had to sing a song in a silly way (my favorites were Cowboy, Noses-Plugged, and Opera) they really got into and had their kids laughing. And of course we all ate chocolate chip cookies.

After church we headed straight over to Grandma Budd's to celebrate with Paul's family. Paul's uncle Chuck also had a birthday. We ate with them and it was really good - super amazing bbq chicken! Paul and I had already picked up Mike's fathers day present which was stowed away in the back of our 4-Runner. We all went out to the car to show Mike what he got (not that he didn't already know).

His new Barbequer!:

Paul pretending the barbequer is actually his:

We finished up with some cake (the really awesome kind from Costco with the super yummy filling and ten miles of frosting) and then Paul and I had to take off to meet up with my fam. Oh the joys of splitting up the holidays. Not.

Everyone at my house was outside when we arrived and the homemade ice cream was just finishing up. It's a family favorite to sit around the fire pit and chill out so that's what we did:

Benny and me:

My hunk of a husband:

After ice cream was finished, we headed down to Bluffdale park to do some slack lining. My brother Morgan is way into it and it's obvious since he is the only one who doesn't need someone to hold him up. Slack lining is SO hard!!! And the wind was ferocious so that didn't help any either. I was determined to do some of it by myself but I didn't manage to do much. It's a lot harder than it looks!!! We got some funny videos but I am not going to take the time to post them.

Aiden and Dallin - so cute!:

My mom giving it a go...and then Morgan:

Me (trying really hard!)....and Amber:

Paul...and then Gaven, who shouldn't even be attempting this with his collar bone:

Paul and I goofing off in the bed of the truck on the way home - I know, I know - we're adorable:

We came home and Dad opened up all his cards. Lately he has been collecting gift cards from Cabella's for some one-man fishing boats and other gear. But this time, he got several Home Depot cards to add to his pile of H.D. cards he already has so he can go and get himself and newer, bigger barbecuer.

And as we were leaving I noticed that Bronsynn and I practically matched. We both had on the exact same style shirt from Aeropostale and we're both hot - so we match!!

Oquirrh Temple Open House

So I have some catching up to do. Again. I have become somewhat lazy.

The Saturday before Father's Day, Paul and I had tickets for the Oquirrh Temple Open House. We had originally planned to take his parents (who aren't members, or active members...one of the two) but something came up in their schedule and we were left with three extra tickets.

Well Amanda K and I were talking and since they planned on going soon, we just invited them along with us and merrily we went! Bronsynn, my niece, took up the third extra ticket. She really wanted to come along and see what a temple is like and I was glad to be able to go through with her.

So after Amanda's very cute baby shower at her sister's very cute house (and my very cute baby towel I made her...he he he), Paul and I picked up Bronsynn and then met Amanda and Spencer at Red Robin - which was a first for me and I have to say I liked it mucho. It was also down pouring buckets of rain the entire evening so we were drenched on our way in and out of the restaurant. Our shoes were filled with water. I am so happy I now keep an umbrella in my car at all times so that our clothes stayed somewhat dry!

At the temple, some of Spencer's family members met up with us and we all walked through together. I really thought it was beautiful...and small. I knew the rooms would be smaller in contrast to the bigger temples I am used to, but I still was surprised at just how small everything was. Small and pretty. I really enjoyed having Bronsynn with me because even though she has gone to church with my family since she was a baby, she is not a member of the church yet (her mom has yet to allow Bronsynn to make that choice). She is old enough to be able to do baptisms and I can't take her, which would be really nice, but at least she was able to see inside the temple. I especially enjoyed talking to her about the baptism font and the sealing rooms.

When we all met up in the 'Cookie Tent', we had a fun time chomping on some cookies and being goofy with the camera.

Paul and myself with my niece, Bronsynn:

Our Husbands being 100% retarded (although we wouldn't love 'em any other way):

Believe or not, they actually can be serious every now and then:

Amanda and I:

So HOT!!!!

And the parents-to-be:

As we headed to our cars, thankfully the rain had stopped and I was able to snap a picture of the Angel Moroni statue, post lightening strike (you can see how his arm and trumpet are black):

Daily Rant #7

So Michael Jackson is dead. I always loved the early Michael (never cared for the white version of him) and I have always loved his music - seriously, he was awesome. But I don't understand people crying about him dying. Yeah it's always upsetting when someone dies because 'a person is a person no matter how small' but honestly...people are really shedding the tears??? I don't get it. It reminds me of Elvis dying. On one of Elvis' 'death anniversaries', some chick on the news (a fan, not a family member) was literaly in hysterics, crying over Elvis who had been gone for I don't even know how long. Is it just me? Am I super insensitive and hard-hearted? Maybe, but I still don't think it's necessary to cry over a celebrity that you didn't know on a personal level.

I Love Me Some Babies...Horses That Is.

While I was out playing at the house with my family, I visited the new colt that our mare, Dolly, had last week. He's super cute, and looks like he is going to be a Dun. I love love love baby horses. I think I went on a little rant sometime before about how my favorite thing on a baby horse is their noses. I LOVE 'em.

Awwwwww! Look at my pup and the pony making friends!! Friggin' adorable, yeah?

This is the baby daddy, Sunny:

Wanna meet our other horses? I thought so.

This is Junior:

He is named so for looking exactly like his pop, who is this guy, Smokie:

Smokie used to be our stud, but the vet screwed up on a certain surgery and, well, he ain't a stud no more. Never seen my dad so pissed off in all my life!

This is B.J.:

He is the son of my barrel-racing horse, who I trained and raced in High School Rodeo. Only, she died a few weeks after having him. Her name was Bandit, cuz her mark on her face looked like a robber's mask. Hence why he named this guy B.J. - Bandit's Joy. Sentimental, I know.

This is Roxy:

She is a few years old and a really pretty horse.

This is last year's filly. She doesn't have a name yet but she is totally Albino, which is a first with our family of horses:

My horse, Ruby, was sold last year. I was pretty pissed cuz I trained her myself and she's been mine since she was four years old and I was twelve. Her mom, Royal, was also a racing horse but she is super old now and my dad sold her to a family where some kids would have fun riding her. And lastly, Goldie, was put down a couple weeks ago because she broke her coffin bone last year and horses usually never recover from that. She didn't, which sucked cuz she was a good mountain horse and my mom's favorite.

Monkeying-Around. Ha Ha - I Am So Funny With The Headlines.

My adventures continue with Bronsynn coming to stay the night. That same night we had Paul's flag football game to go to, in which she succeeded in driving me crazy and we had tonz of laughs.

The following day, Wednesday, I had to tend Zoyie for a litle while in the afternoon. I had to make a trip to JoAnne's so while we there I wanted to get something fun for them to do. While we were looking through all the fun stuff, they found these feather boas. I couldn't resist a picture of them in all their attitude. They were very Hollywood, in deed. It cracks me up.

We finally settlled on painting some really cute plaster bobble heads. Zoyie picked out a pony, Bronsynn an elephant, and I picked out a monkey. I have a thing for monkeys.

Here they are painting:

And our finished products:

I gotta say, although I love fun colors and funky designs, it was really hard for me not to paint my monkey brown. I don't know why. I can paint my walls orange, but I have to paint animals the way they look in real life. Go figure. But as you can tell, my monkey got funky.

And afterwards, Bronsynn and Zoyie raced each other on the Wii until Zoyie's mom came and picked her up.

Bronsynn was picked up a short time later by her mom but while she was there, my mom also stopped by to meet Amanda there to fit her wedding dress to her. The wedding is only three weeks away! I am so excited. Her dress is going to be awesome! My dress is done - can't wait to put it on and party!

A Day With The Chil'ren

Tuesday I had nothing really spack-tack-ular going on and I had promised my nephews that sometime soon I would come out and we would make some fun treats. So we picked out some fun recipes and I headed out to 'Grandma's House' to spend the day with my niece and nephews.

When I arrived, the boys were just finishing up there lunch on the tramp with Bronsynn and Gaven. The latter two had slept out on the tramp the night before and they all were having a grand ol' time bouncin' away on top of blankets.

Bacardi loves to come out to my parents' place so I take him as often as I can. He mainly runs around, peeing on everything and knocking the kids over. Good times.

The kids had a pillow fight, which is all fun and games until Gaven unwisely throws a pillow at Aiden while he is standing near the edge and nearly knocks him over the edge:

In which case, Bronsynn makes it all better:

When the tears were over, we headed out to the horses to visit with the new foal. And then we went inside to wash up and start cookin'. The boys love to help cook things so it was fun to make things that they could help a lot with.

First we made Surprise Cupcakes. We mixed the batter together, spooned some of that into the muffin cups and then the boys put oreos on each of the cupcakes and we covered them up with more batter. (I am adding batter to my list of Words I Hate.)

While those baked, we made some peanut butter Nilla treats dipped in chocolate. I would top a Nilla wafer with peanut butter and they would take turns topping that with another wafer.

Then they each got to dip those cookie sandwhiches in chocolate.

Then we went back and finished our cupcakes by topping them with Cool Whip and an Oreo on top. Dallin was quite tuckered out and had fallen asleep so Aiden did a few with out him:

Hey Mikey, I think he likes it:

We finished up with a little Fantastic Four and then eventually I headed home with Bronsynn as a stow away.