Kaplan University

Well Ben is going back to school. After an almost two year break he is going back. But not to Weber State. He found an army buddy who is doing his schooling all on line, so Ben looked into and just loved it. He was assigned a counselor the first day when he called to ask questions and they have helped him every step of the way. It only took two weeks to get everything registered with classes and financial aid. It has been a really easy and perfect process. He is signed up and ready to start class August 25th. Hopefully it all goes as well as we have been told it will, so he can do what he wants with his career. Good Luck Babe, we love you and are here for you.

Kids Room

In getting ready for the new baby, I have had to move things around in Gabbi's room because they will be sharing a room. At least until Gabbi gets a little older. But along with moving things around, I had to add and change some decorations as well.

I added sticker dots to Gabbi's name to match her comforter, which has polka dot flowers on it. Sorry you can't see it in the picture.

I added the two shelves; one for each child. Once Owen is born all I will have to do is get a picture frame and a picture and his shelf will be complete. And last but not least, I had to make him a name sign as well. I thought they turned out pretty good with there black border, even though I really didn't know what I was doing.

Tea Party

This was really cute. Yesterday while I was in my room putting laundry away Gabbi was playing with her dishes and food. when I came out, this is what I found.

A tea party. She had set it up all by herself with the plates, cups, silverware, and even a couple of things to eat. She was very proud of herself. It was really cute too. All she needed was to get some of her stuffed animals to sit at the table and it would have been complete.

Trip to the Dam

It's been nice having Ben home on Mondays while I've been watching the kids. He can give them a little variety so they don't get so sick of me the whole summer. We decided to take a trip up to the dam to swim for the afternoon. It was nice weather and we found a nice shaded spot on the beach too. We took a picnic lunch with us and once we were done eating the kids were ready to go. They were bummed that they had to wait 15 minutes for their sunscreen to kick in before they could get in the water. They played in the water the entire time we were there. The only time they wanted to come out was when Ben began to build a sand something with Gabbi. Then they all joined and built a couple different things. One of which was a volcano and how he got it to erupt was pretty cool. They covered up a noodle with sand and once they built up their volcano they filled the noodle with water and then blew in one end and the water came out the other for the lava. It was pretty cool. Gabbi even took a turn blowing the water out. It didn't go as high as everyone else, but she still had fun with it too. They also had a blast with canoe rides. We borrowed my dad's blow up canoe and took the kids all for a ride. Ben even gave me one, maybe not by my choice, but he said I had to take a ride too. It was fun and I even enjoyed swimming with Gabbi. It took her a while to warm up to the idea of getting in the water, but once we got her in there and assured her that dad and I weren't going anywhere, she had a blast. She even enjoyed sitting in her floating toy.

Miranda is 8

Miranda is now the big 8. She is was very excited to turn 8 because now she can be baptized. Which will happen at the end of the month. Miranda was lucky, she got to celebrate her birthday a couple times. I felt bad when she celebrated with our family and family dinner night because she was sick. She couldn't even eat her dinner. She was feeling a little better later, enough to have a couple bites of cake. But you could tell she was miserable. We gave her a bead set for her to make bracelets and necklace's. I knew Jenny wouldn't be to happy just because beads can be a menace. But at least Miranda will enjoy them, she's been bugging me to let her make a bracelet out of my expensive beads for a while now.

Pioneer Day Parade

We don't normally worry about going to the parade, but this year Ben's sister invited us to go with them and since we didn't have anything to do that morning we decided that it would be fun to go. They had really great spots saved in the shade of the Chase bank. The main reason why I hate parades is because I have never had a good seat, I've always been in the sun and when your hot and sweaty, its not very fun to enjoy the parade. But it was really nice to be in the shade and we were in the shade for the whole parade. Gabbi loved seeing the parade and sitting by everyone who came. She's my little social butterfly. The parade was long, but it was nice. I was sad and surprised to see that Ben Lomond didn't have their marching band in it. I remember when I had to be in that parade every year I was in marching band and there was never an excuse. A lot of the floats were done really well. Not one stands out better then another, I liked them all. A lot of hard work and dedication went into them, you could tell.

New foods

I just thought this was funny. We all love Papa's garden and all the yummy fruits and veggies that come out of it. Well Gabbi is in to it too. Even to eat them raw. This is a zucchini that she helped dad pick out of the garden and she just started chomping away as soon as it was in her hands.

Weber State Fireworks

The one thing I look forward to every year is the fireworks up at Weber State. I don't know why, but its my favorite thing to do each year. I love the music, the company, the games, and best of all the fireworks. But its the one place that we catch up with old friends too and that's always nice. This year was really fun because of Gabbi. She loves to play with her cousins, but this time it was a toy that a cousin brought. Cameron had this back pack with wheels that looked like a lady bug. She thought that was the coolest thing and even refused to give it back. But she was so cute with it, no one cared to make her give it back. But of course once the fireworks started she did give it back. Oh yeah, they also got glow in the dark sticks. Lana and Ray buy some every year to hand out to the kids to play with and she loves those as well. She played with them for a good week or two after the fireworks were over.

Ellie turns 1

So later on after the splash park we celebrated her birthday at the Harrisville park. The first birthday party is always the best I think, just because the kids get to go crazy with a cake and they aren't quite sure what to do with the presents. Ellie caught on really quick on ripping open the presents and you can tell she loved the cake.

South Ogden Splash Park

To celebrate Ellie's first birthday Brian and Karen had planned a day at the slash park. It wasn't her birthday party, that was to be held later, but it was just a fun activity to do during the day and anyone could go if they wanted. We decided that it would be fun to take Gabbi. We'll she had fun playing at the park portion, but if it wasn't for Karen I don't think she would have got wet at all. Karen took both Gabbi and Ellie through the water. Once Gabbi was a little more used to it she ventured a little, am I mean a little. I think she was glad that we stopped playing in the water to eat lunch and for her to of course play on the play ground.

Bues Pond

While we were taking pictures we wanted to give Gabbi a break from having to smile and sit still and give mommy and daddy a break from going crazy with her not doing what we wanted her to do. The walk around the pond was nice. We saw lots of ducks, geese and even a couple of swans. The weirdest thing we saw was on our way out of the parking lot. We saw a turtle trying to climb up the curb. We have no idea where it came from or if it belonged at the pond, but we decided to document or no one would have believed us. It was a nice break. We even found a park that Gabbi was able to play at as well.

2 year old pictures

Better late then never, we finally got Gabbi's 2 year old pictures done. Since kiddie kandis went out of business we didn't have really any where to go, so we decided to take them ourselves. We went to the Flying J building and took some pretty nice pictures. Here are just a few of our favorites.

Raptors Game

Ben and I like to find activities that we can do that aren't very expensive. It is even better when they have military discount. But one activity that we both really enjoy, that isn't expensive at all is going to the Raptors games. You can get free tickets at McDonald's, but Ben is also able to get a free ticket with his military discount. It works out quite nice. When you get to the game you can upgrade your ticket to a box seat if you want, but if not they have the bleachers to sit on and a nice grassy area. They even have a play ground next to the grass area that we have let Gabbi go and play in while we have been at the game. So far this season we have gone to 4 games. One time with Ben's brother and family and sister and family. We have also taken my dad as a Fathers day gift. All times have been really nice and the weather hasn't been too bad either. Just a fun summer activity.

Camp Keisel

In my ward I am an activity days leader and for the girls this summer we were able to take them to camp Keisel. We had 15 girls and 5 adult come and it turned out really nice. The girls really loved it. They did an obstacle course, archery, b-b-gun shooting, a craft, relay race and even got to go in the boats and play a game. I think the favorite activity for the girls was when they got to go to the trading post. Each girl brought some money to spend in the trading post and they all went crazy. Each girl got something different and all loves what they got.

4th of July

We don't ever do a whole ton for the 4th of July, mainly just a dinner and fireworks. This year we had our bar-b-que dinner at mom and dads. The kids got to swim in the hot tub, funny story. While the adults were standing there all the kids seemed fine, but once we walked away things got a little hairy. Gabbi had a hard time staying on the step, her bum kept sliding off, so we put a life jacket on her, but then she just floated in the water and that scared her. So we buckled her to the side of the hot tub, but she didn't really appreciate that either because now she couldn't move. It was funny to watch her get mad about all the different things we tried to make her first hot tub experience a fun one. Eventually we just put her back on the step and we watched to make sure she didn't fall in or do something she wasn't supposed to be doing. So while the kids swam in the hot tub, the adults played games. And of course we had the tradition croquet game and golf ball toss. Those games are a must. Everyone had a great time, even Grandma Shupe was down for the weekend and she enjoyed the festivities too. Then once we were all cleaned up we all went to Jenny's house to watch the fireworks that were at Weber High school. Jenny had pops for the kids and it was the first time Gabbi had ever used a pop before. She couldn't throw it hard enough to pop so Ben showed her that she could step on it. She thought that was the coolest thing.

I know the pictures kind of blurry, but it was the only way to get a picture of her stepping on the pops without it being to dark.