Baking...Oh the Sweet Temptation!

Is it possible to bake something gooey, sweet, warm, soft, and wickedly delicious without eating it?

PLEASE TELL ME HOW!

All I have to say is I'm the hit of the house right now...with my amazing meals and yummy desserts. Going to the doc will be all sorts of fun in a couple of weeks when they tell me they no longer have a scale big enough for me...

Maybe I'll just bring them in some cinnamon rolls ;)

Cole's Creations

I am a jewelry fanatic! I love it! I've never been a big fan of watches nor am I good at putting styles and colors together...but let me tell you, my friend has started her own business creating the most beautiful and affordable jewelry! I made a watch with her a couple of months ago and it is so comfy and I've had more compliments than I can count! Thanks Nicole! Please check out her site! COLES CREATIONS

Scripture Lessons

We have a new idea in our house, and it all came from Dan! It doesn't involve yelling or grounding or giving chores or anything of that nature...

On our Red Pine Hike, Hailey and Abby were fighting nonstop. They just pick at each other all of the time! I started in on my lecturing and then grounding and then there were tears and finally Dan and I took the back of the trail and he mentioned the idea that when the kids fight they will need to copy some verses from the scriptures. On occasion, we may have them memorize scripture mastery scriptures instead of copying them. We did wonder if this would just make them HATE the scriptures, but I think it's much better than us constantly yelling at them and/or grounding them from involvement with good friends. Another idea we had was to copy the dictionary...lol. So far it's been working great!

It's A...

SURPRISE!!!

LoL! Let me tell you the story...

I was NOT going to find out what we were having, but as you know, we have a full house. We have two rooms to paint and kids to situate and there is just no way I could do that without finding out what this baby was going to be. So, that is my reasoning. However, 3 of our 4 kids didn't want to know what it was. I know that just seems weird and crazy and you're all chomping at the bit, but hey, it's my baby ;) I can do whatever I want...lol! So, we are keeping this little secret to ourselves until this little one is born.

The other day Hailey told me that if this baby is a girl...it will be just one more sister to fight with...lol! Rachel wants a girl to dress-up and Joe is praying for a boy. Abby wants a boy, because Joe needs a BRO. So...I think it will be great for these kids to just wait and see!

Here are a few pics of our healthy little one...

Hiking Red Pine

This was probably the BEST hike I've been on in a long time! Toward the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon is the trail head for White and Red Pine (the lakes are at the top). My brothers and I normally hike up to White Pine lake, because it is a longer hike. I haven't hiked to Red Pine Lake before (well I did as a kid, but don't remember). When you begin this hike, you hike about 3/4's of a mile up to a stream and then the trail splits, one going up to White Pine Lake and one up to Red Pine Lake. Dan has wanted to go on a hike almost all summer, but with being pregnant hiking has become pretty dang hard for me! I normally can hike these trails without a hitch but of course carrying a little one makes me feel like I've never exercised a day in my life...it's depressing! I took the kids on this hike last year and they hiked about half way in, so this year I wanted to take them and see if we could make it to the top.

My Dad decided to come, which made it so nice! He sang songs on the way up and helped us keep the kids going. This hike is GORGEOUS! It's sort of deceiving in that the trail is a nice steady climb until you get half way up ( about the point the kids turned around last year) and then it's a straight up climb, boulder on boulder. The kids did so well! Abby thought she was going to die toward the end, and it just made me laugh. I tried to take some pictures of that. A few of these pics the kid are sitting down. It was funny because they would hike along and then just sit down right in the middle of the trail...lol. I can't even tell you how excited we all were when we reached the lake. What a beautiful lake! It had a great little beach on one side and the kids had fun shooting Dan's sling-shot. It was quite chilly at the top, so we ate a quick lunch and basked in the sun and then started down. The kids couldn't believe how steep it was and that they had just gotten through climbing it. Toward the last couple of miles, all of our feet were aching. We are all feeling it today, but it was a great hike! Below: the road up Little Cottonwood Canyon with the valley in the distance.

Below: Where the trail splits.

The Valley View...the trail has a drop off and it has a part in the tree's and this is an awesome view!

Just past the Stream/River where the trail split. This bridge crosses right over it.

Below: the Mountains are gorgeous with this red stripe along the top.

Rachel was ahead most of the hike :)

Below: I took this of just Abby to show her she actually made it to the top and didn't die...lol.

Birthdays and Reunions

Abby turned 9 on August 16th and Hailey just turned 11 yesterday (September 3rd). Abby decided she wanted a bear from Build-A-Bear. It was so much fun taking her on her birthday as a family to pick out her new "baby". We all had a great time! She thoroughly enjoyed being "princess" for a day...lol. I love this picture below of her after her long day of play.
Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came over and gave both Abby and Hailey their birthday gifts, since they were on their way back to Portland and the girls' birthday is only about 2 weeks apart. Below are the cute outfits. The girls are wayyyyy into clothes right now :)

Last week, my Mom's side of the family celebrated her Dad's 80th birthday. It was such a FABULOUS day! We began by taking an hour in the morning to have a huge family picture! My Grandpa is an amazing photographer and very diligent with his family history and this was probably one of the greatest gifts we could all give him for his birthday...a picture of us all! It was a beautiful day! It was also so fun seeing many family members we haven't seen in ages.

My mom is one of 8 children...so as you can imagine the family is HUGE!

After pictures we met at Grandma and Grandpa's stake property and ate breakfast while he spoke to us, and in turn all of his children reminisced about their Dad and the profound affect he had his family. One of the things that sticks out most to me from the words spoken by my grandpa were...to always remember why we are here; 1 - to gain a body 2- to solve problems 3- to avoid problems (usually brought on by ourselves and sin). It sounds quite simple, doesn't it? I know that to my grandpa it always seemed simple to live as Jesus would. He is an amazing example of that. Of all the memories shared that day, none reflected my grandpa "losing it". He made occasional funny comments about our "damn world" and what it was coming to, LOL (this comment made on 9/11), but other than that it made me realize just how incredible he is and it also made me realize that because of that, no matter how far his children strayed, they all returned and are absolutely amazing people! Below is a picture of my Grandparents and their 8 children. Man...I just love this family!

I had to throw this picture in...this house, that is no longer all ours :( This is my childhood home. After all the talk of moving and combining households, I never put this on...How I'll miss this home and the constant reminders of all the fun memories we all had there.