What do I do in the summertime, you ask?

This post goes to the tune of Oh, What Do You Do in the Summertime?

Oh what do you do in the summertime
When all the world is green?
Do you swim in a pool
and think you're so cool
for your hubby's 29th b-day?
Is that what you do you? So do I.






























Oh what do you do in the summertime
When you've had a minor breakdown?
Fly home with your sisters,
leave in Provo your "misters,"
and think you were going to have a relaxing Girlcation but really just end up spending the whole week doing a super LONG service project your dad was in charge of but volunteered you to do for him while he was gone camping?
Is that what you do you? so do I.






























(We made—and by made I mean painted, screwed, sawed, and glued—260 of these puppies.... Hope I never see one again) :-)


Oh what do you do in the summertime
When you're husband is off at work?
Get a knock on your door,
cause your tenant's fiancé's a whore (turns out he's already MARRIED)
and the cops park outside all night? (he had warrants out for arrest -- yep, domestic violence)
Is that what you do? Apparently so do I!









(After she found out about the affair she had the tattoo of her fiancé's name "fixed"...)

Announcement!

I guess we haven't really announced that we are expecting again!! I did on facebook but how could I forget about my faithful BLOG readers!! I am due Nov. 28. I am 15 weeks along and so far so good. I'm still sick but who isn't:) I feel a lot better than I did with Bree because I can rest and eat when I need to. When I was pregnant with Bree I had to be up teaching and cooking all day..... No good. We do the best we can around here. We have been wanting another baby for a while so we are even more excited!!! Joseph is so cute- he is like super dad and super excited. The other day he was in bed sick with the flu looking for pregnancy apps trying to find the perfect one. He is trying to teach Bree that mommy has a baby in her tummy- Bree now thinks everyone has a baby in their tummy:) anyway, we are excited- I'm nervous just because I know what's coming.... And some days I barely keep sane with ONE child so TWO might just send me to the looney bin! But I also know the joy and happiness a child brings to home. Let the countdown begin! (175 daysish)

Fun weekend!

Even though this weekend I wanted to be with my sister Stephanie who just had a new baby, Alex, we stayed here and made the best of things!





We went with grandma to put flowers on grandpas grave. Brees favorite part was watering the flowers!


Introduced Bree to headphones:) she's just like her daddy!


My cousin was in the Special Olympics as a soccer player. So we went to be her cheerleaders! This was so fun! I hope we can go again next year! I loved the relaxed full of love feeling. Something you don't usually get durin sporting events.


Went up to Liberty Park with Josephs family to hang out, enjoy good food, and lazyness. This is where I spent most of my time here on the blanket with the kids- I was sick... Thank you first trimester sickness even though I'm in my SECOND trimester.


After MUCH convincing, Bree finally agreed to ride the cars. She choose this "green" car and only hated it when it was moving....

What is going on

Well spring has been a little funny here in Utah- it snowed this week actually! So we've been being creative with inside play!


I came in the other day and this is what I found:) New Era- a good read!





Swimming inside with Auntie Afton and cousin Taylee.
Naked Princess cowboy- always a favorite


Also, with Joseph working in the singles ward we have super fun FHE's. Last week we attempted to hike the Y.... Don't know how many of you have tried to go hiking with a two-year-old but it is an experience! On the way down Joseph had to hold his phone, for Bree to see, playing movies of her so she would stop screaming:) oh and we sang songs too.


We are ready to play outside and for the sun to come out! Though we have a great time:)

SoCal Part 2: Your Name is Mud

It was one year ago that Melinda and I ran our first 5K at our ward activity. A couple of months ago Melinda's friend, Tiffany Bryant, convinced her to sign up for a 3.1 mile run through a mud-filled course. Saturday morning we woke up, drove from Anaheim to Irvine and pulled into a sea of cars. It was a total party atmosphere. A band played on stage among throngs of people—some who'd run in earlier waves and were already covered in mud.

We dropped checked our bags and took a pre-race picture. The race website suggested that you come wearing costumes (for the fun of it) and duct tape around your shoes (so you don't lose them mid-race). We got the duct tape on our shoes, but since we forgot to bring costumes, we brought the next best thing: clown outfits. At least that's how Melinda describe our triathlon outfits from last year. Melinda hates the design so much she was actually excited to wear them through the mud in hopes of ruining them.

Since the race was totally non-pressure (most runners were just running for fun), Mel and I decided we'd run together and not worry about our time. After some pre-race partying, the horns blew and we were off. The first half a mile was just a run through a field, but then we hit the first obstacle. Inflated beach balls covered a giant mud pit with flags streamed across. We had to get down on our hands and knees and crawl under the flag streamers and through the mud. After about 10 yards, the flag streamers ended and we got back to running.

Throughout the next 25 obstacles placed on the course, Melinda and I were accompanied by teenage mutant ninja turtles, fairies, cats, Brittany Spears and a number of costumed-runners. The best part of the run was finishing hand-in-hand with Melinda.

And also taking pictures afterward.

And what was not the best part? Melinda's scraped up knees from some gravel in the mud and my super-sunburn (who needs sunscreen?) as seen in the video below.

Mickey Mouse: The Golden Angel.

Just about two weeks ago, Melinda began her anxiety-ridden breakdown routine that has become a staple of our road trip experiences. Mel is not a fan of road trips. My theory is that the deep-seated emotional issues with road trips stems from her childhood, when a road trip killed her dog.

Why a road trip? Melinda had signed us up for a 5K mud run in Southern California a couple of months ago.

As with the children of Israel in times of old, Melinda probably didn't think the day of reckoning would ever come. But come it did. We would have to drive 10 hrs with Bree stuck in a car seat. Not so bad, you say? Well, toss into the mix that we would be driving our car that doesn't have the DVD player and that Brielle is currently addicted to Baby Einstein DVDs. Seriously. It's bad. We're considering having an intervention.

Wednesday after work I loaded all our stuff into the car in pouring rain and we headed toward Vegas. Someone forgot to tell us that Vegas isn't 4 1/2 hours away, though.

"That's funny. I don't remember Las Vegas having quite so many signs saying 'St. George'..."

Got a great night's sleep staying at Melinda's aunt and uncle. The company was so pleasant, we stuck around most of the morning talking, watching Melinda's uncle fly his toy helicopter and then apologizing for Joseph repeatedly ramming it into the ground/wall/computer when it was his turn at the controls.

Mid-afternoon, we pull into our hotel located a couple blocks from Disneyland. Bree quickly spots the angel "Moroni" in the hotel lobby.

There was only one problem: our hotel room was very small and there was no place to put Brielle's pack-n-play so that she'd be able to sleep while we watched our favorite Thursday night shows (Community, Parks and Rec, The Office and 30 Rock). After some quick thinking by Melinda, it was Problem Solved.


The next day, we hit Disneyland at full force. Here's the run-down:

Get a picture with Walt and Moroni. Check.
Go straight to Finding Nemo and be underwhelmed. Check.
Get an awesome picture on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Check.
Freak Bree out on Snow White and Pinnochio. Check.
Rock Bree's world on Small World and Jungle Cruise. Check.
Watch Melinda get soaked on Splash Mountain. Check.
Hit Daddy's favorite ride: Pirates. Check.
Introduce Bree to the King of Pop at Captain Eo. Check.
Watch horrified as Bree falls off the bench at dinner. Check.
Make it up to her. Double Check.
Take a picture of my two princesses in blissful exhaustion at the end of the day. Check.

Disneyland has always been magical, but it was even that much better experiencing it all with my little girl. Also, Bree was there and I think she liked it as well...

Stay tuned for Part Two: Eco Mud Run (the next day).

I just love her

We have so much fun together!!

Before you judge me-I looked it up on Wiki and there is no Satanic things involved.......THANK YOU!!!

I have gotten a lot of flack for this, but we took our Young Women to the Festival of Colors. It is a "spring festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and others. It is primarily observed in India." And is "celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other." We had a BLAST!!
There is a Indian Temple in Spanish Fork where the festival takes place and all 3,000 people who attended threw brightly colored chalk in the air and at each other to welcome Spring!



Top 5
1) I felt like a kid again! I still have a little CRAZY left in me :)
2) The 10-year-old kid who got separated from his family crowd surfing to get reunited:)
3) Having fun with my girls-some of them need to learn to let loose sometimes
4) Looking and feeling the contrast between their beliefs and our beliefs-its good for my little Utah born and raised girls to get a taste of the world
5) The look on Josephs face when I came home COVERED in color!! Priceless


Bottom 5
1) Having to wait and extra HOUR for the colors because of technical difficulties......what could that have even been??? What is technical about throwing chalk at each other??
2)The inside of my car in now pink: the girls didn't want to shake the chalk off their clothes for the ride home because they wanted to show their moms how covered they got
3)I leaned over and told one of my leaders, "this is kind of a high school thing- don't you think?" She then informed me that most of the people who attend are in college and I was just getting old!
4)Joseph didn't come with us :( He stayed home with Bree:)
5)The "preacher" telling the audience that there are "two ways to love each other, horizontal and vertical....."awesome mr.preacher man-I appreciate the chastity lesson

Six years of good luck

There are a few defining moments in a man's life. Birth, baptism, mission, marriage and now, participation in the ancient Celtic ritual of the "tigloo." A few Fridays ago, Melinda was on a walk with Bree when she happened by the home of our friendly neighborhood Irish family, the O'Connors. Among other things, Paul O'Connor is a cross-country skiing Olymipian.

No joke.

He competed for Ireland in the 2002 SLC Olympic Games. He is probably in his forties, but it is hard to tell because he looks and acts so youthful. (And by "youthful," I mean I believe he's part-leprechaun, who we all know have much longer life spans...)

Paul handed Melinda a flyer advertising the one-day-only exhibition of an ice tigloo at the O'Connors' house. The whole thing was to raise money to benefit a close friend who had been seriously hurt in a recent car accident.

We showed up that night to support the cause and to enjoy cookies, doughnuts, hot chocolate and the story of the Celtic tigloo, a snow arch decorated with lights. Legend has it that whoever kisses underneath the snow arch will have six years of good luck along with several other cool "legendary" things happening. Melinda and I need all the luck we can get (or at least so said the craps table during our last weekender in Vegas...), so we did the honors and then got our picture taken under the tigloo.




It seems Paul O'Connor had turned on that ol' leprechaun mischief though, because we also found out there is no such thing as a Celtic tigloo. They almost never even get snow in Ireland, and certainly not enough to build snow arches and create traditions and rituals around them.

In spite of the lies and deception, we had fun at the O'Connors. We'd had some laughs with friends, helped a girl in need and learned a little more about the Emerald Isle.

We left in high spirits (and blood sugar levels...).

Where did she learn THAT word??

Brett is home!!

My brother got home from his misssion a few weeks ago and Bree and I went to Colorado to celebrate!! We love you Brett and so glad you're back!











Also Bree was kidnapped by Warren Jeffs (the FLDS leader) at least that is the only explaination for the hairdo:)