Adventure#8 Memorial BBq Food Drive

I know, I know my titles are basically ridiculously long and wordy! haha...anyways...today is Memorial Day. And it was the day of our long planned and many hour labored-for BBQ. I was excited to see the turnout there was just the right amount of people (Holla Nelsons, Banks, Annisis, Hunts, Barrios', Clarks, Gilberts and Lilywhites)! Everyone came with bags packed with canned foods for the Utah Food Bank.  Thank you everyone for being so generous!

While I was searching all over the Utah Food Banks website I found some interesting facts. 1 in 8 children live below the poverty level. 350,000 Utahns risk missing at least one meal a day. The site said that the average person that comes in is a marrried, emplyed parent who is stuggling for a short period. It is so sad to think of children starving right near us. With all the wealth our country has and our abundance of resources it is hard to believe that children in my very own community are going without food.
It makes me so grateful for what I have. I love my family. I love my husband especially! He is willing to go to work 55 plus hours a week and go to not one but TWO schools to better our lives and to make it possible for me to stay home and raise our children. I am grateful for Shaun's great job. I am grateful that we are not in desperate times like so many are around us. After Memorial Day, I am reminded how grateful I am to be an American and how grateful I am to those that have either died or put themselves at risk for me everyday. I am also reminded after the BBQ how grateful I am that lately my eyes have been opened to the good in people. So, many people were willing to come and bring canned foods and help me with setup and cleanup. And while we are talking about things that I am grateful for let me just say.... I am so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel, the atonement and the Plan of Happiness. I am so grateful, too for the knowledge that I have that Heavenly Father loves me and that he sees me and all my imperfections and loves me anyways and sees my potential as a daughter of God.

Adventure # 7 Hike and Clean up Bridal Veil Falls

I loved this adventure! We hiked up the beautiful trail to Bridal Veil Falls. "A" was so cute with her gloves and grocery bag hunting for garbage on the trails. I was really impressed that there wasn't much garbage at all! The trails, river and waterfall were so beautiful. I was so sad when my camera died after like 2 minutes into the walk to the actual trail. Oh well! A and J also took their shoes off and played in the little pond at the bottom of the waterfall! They are crazy though, that water was freezing and it wasn't warm outside! Kids are fearless in the name of fun! This day was seriously filled with beauty....from my kids discovering the outdoors to Heavenly Fathers beautiful creations. Even the hike with 4 kids under 5 was so beautiful and rewarding! We will be going back lots this summer.

Adventure #6- A lesson on Thanks

The girls and I went to Target and got some cute Thank You cards. The girls decided who they wanted to send a Thank you card to. A chose Grandma and Grandpa and J chose her cousin. They had so much fun coloring pictures on the card. A wanted to spell everything and make it look like a "real letter." J in all her glory wanted to use a black pen and scribble everywhere!
Another lesson that came from this adventure is how the mail system works. A was so interested in what all the words were on the envelopes and why we had to put the flag up on the mailbox. It is such a treat and blesssing to watch A learn. she soaks up everything. She is always asking a million questions, so she can understand every detail and reasoning. What a cutie!
Also, my friend Cami (Holla) wrote on Facebook today that "Gratitude changes your attitude." I can tell you that that is true. Even though the thank you cards were an activity for the girls, it really helped my attitude as well. It was just what I needed! 

Adventure #5- Provo Library

So...here I am writing..well blogging...I should be in bed where I would get the proper sleep needed to wake up at 5 to go to the gym. But who cares...lets be honest I ushuallly opt to snooze the extra 2 hrs and not go to the gym anyways.....
so anyways..

I decided that I hated the word "experiences" so I have changed it to "adventure"..hope you like it.

Onto the actual reason I am writing..well blogging. We went to the library today. We chose to read books about adventure #4- gardening and Memorial day. To be honest it was really me reading children's books in the childrens section with 4 little girlies (babysitting 1) running in circles around me. I just kept on reading and occasionally one would come and sit next to me to hear a few pages. Maybe I should work on my story-telling voice ;). A was totally excited about a book she picked out about how ice cream is made. "From Cow to Ice Cream" by Bertram K. Knight was a great find and I plan on using it for a future "adventure."  Pooki surprised the girls towards the end of our adventure and took us to get ice cream. The girls left the library totally excited about their checked out library books and icecream to come. I am hoping to start to check out books for each "adventure"  to help deepen their knowledge and love for each "adventure".

Sneak peak into adventures in near future...
Memorial Day BBQ food drive
Thank you notes to be handed out to teachers/grandparents/friends
Fireman Appreciation Visit (toting treats for them)

Experience #4- Starting a Garden

I have to admit Pooki was the one doing all the work for this one. He started by taking ALL three girls with him to pick up some plants and gardening tools. They picked strawberries, tomatoes, blueberries, cucumbers, green beans, watermelon, cantaloupe and a few others that are escaping my mind right now.

When we got home we found out that our neighbor is an expert gardener! So lucky for us he helped us throughout the entire process. We are sooo grateful to him.

The girls had so much fun digging in the dirt and planting stuff. They found a great little game where they would poor water all in the soil and make a little mud bath! They were definitely very dirty at the end!

I love this experience for the girls. It is one that will keep on giving us opportunities to work as a family..and also EAT as a family! 

If you love the songs on my blog...

they are by Mindy Glenhill and she is coming to Provo to do a concert!!!! A FREE concert!!! Its a part of the "Rooftop Concert Series" It will be at 100 N. 100 W.  Provo Town Square Parking Terrace  at 8pm. I only found her music about a week ago, but I am totally obsessed!

Beauty I found at Thrift Stores

Okay I redid some of my kitchen the other day. I made the frames with 5$ frames frm Walmart and spray painted them white. The design inside the frames is contact paper that I got at Walmart also. I found all the vases, candles,lamps, potpourri, baskets and the actual side table at the Provo and American Fork DI. The table setting is a silver tray from the DI, a white glass bowl from the DI, a vase from the DI and flowers from my yard.

Experience #3

On Monday I was driving down State st. in Provo when I saw a sign - "10$ Glitter Toes and Buy One Get One Free!" I swirved the car oover 3 lanes and pulled into JJs Nail Academy. A and J got to get their toenails "sparkly" as A put it. They were so excited and mezmerized the whole time. They asked question after question to the poor workers. But in the end it was really fun.
I know this isn't exactly championing for world peace or raising awareness for some horrible disease. However, it was a total blast ad I am going to file it under "Building Family Unity." For a family that does their toes together grows together! HAHA! I totally just made that up!
And yeah...JJ's nails did a GREAT job I totally recommend them and for that price you better run there!

Bake Sale for Cole (experience #1)

This was my first attempt to get my children involved with the community. I am trying to get them to experience new things. Not just fun recreational things but character building expereinces like holding a bake sale.

I was so lucky and blessed to do a bake sale for Cole Keller. Cole is a little boy who suffers from a rare seizure disorder. He will be having brain surgery in a couple months to try to help with the seizures. He and his family really touched my heart and moved me to action. I decided that I would do a bake sale with a couple of the ladies in my ward and our children. Well within a couple of days there was over 1200 people invited and I had people all over the community reaching out to help me and this little boy.

Thanks to my cousin Sherri for the cute flowers and hair bows they were a huge hit!

The day of the bake sell went great. We saw so many generous people give of their time, resources and money for Cole. One man dropped a 500$ check into the donation box not saying a word. We also had a handfull of people pay 100$ or more for a couple of cookies or cupcakes. We were able to raise 3600$ for Cole!! Thank you to everyone that helped! I really could not believe the amount of good I saw that day. It trully inspired me to be a better person.

If you would like more information on Cole's story or how you can help please go t beatingepilepsy.blogspot.com .

Bees game! Experience #2 for the kids!

I

It was Breast Cancer awareness day at the Bee's game! Pookie, the kids and I had a great time!! A loved it. She was asking questions the whole time. The players were wearing pink uniforms to raise awareness and A loved that! She was yelling "hit it" and "stike" the whole time!

Here it goes....

okay....here is goes. I am going to try to blog. But let me just tell you it took me like 2 hrs to figure out how to apply a background! There may be a long road ahead of me. I really want to try though! We will see how it goes! Wish me luck!