WildLife Museum

Today I took the kids to the Wildlife Museum. It was a lot of fun. I wasn't sure how BayLee would take the fact that the animals were killed in order to be put on display in the museum. She was totally fine with it until she saw a skunk family. This made her pretty sad but overall they all three thought it was really cool. Mia just kept saying "ooooo" and "wow". It was fun to watch her reactions. Logan was always a step ahead of us and always leading the pack of course. BayLee wanted to hear everything that the voice through the wand would say. They have a great display of animals that this wonderful man and founder of the museum has hunted and killed for education. There were animals from every nation and Logans favorite was the wolf and BayLees was the Girrafe and the skunks.
It was a great time and I love summers. It gives me a chance to hang out with the kids and really get to know what they love and what keeps their interests.

I have pretty cute kids I must say!
Baby Skunk (I can't believe something this cute can be so disturbing)

"Can we keep the baby skunk family? PLEASE??"

I hope we see one of these in Yellowstone next month. That would be sweet!

I really love this girl.

Logan waiting for the hunt!

Mia loved the childrens room. They had tents, forts, dressup clothes.

I guarantee this would NEVER happen. Logan would be crying.....I think we all would be.

I thought this was too precious. (Ignore the redeyes...for some reason each one of my kids eyes are red in pictures)

Arrow Of Light

First of all I haven't been a very good "scout mom" so far but Logan was able to earn the Arrow of Light last week. This is the highest rank of cubscouts and because his mom wasn't a "scout mom", he had to pretty much do it all on his own with dads help when he was around. We are so proud of Logan for accomplishing this goal that not every scout is able to earn.
He was also able to cross the bridge into Boy Scouts. Can you believe it? Logan is a BOY SCOUT!!! There is NO way I am old enough to have a son that age. Kind of crazy.
The CubMaster did a great presentation of the award using feathers for 7 different values. It was super cool and of course her and I were crying. She has been with Logan through primary and scouts the whole time we have lived here. It was really sweet to see the love she has for him.

He said "Hasta La Vista" to the cubscout leader and scouts before he

crossed the bridge. It was pretty funny.

I love that the moms get to receive pins when the boys move up a rank.
But I probably don't really deserve it.

Proud parents

Logan had also earned alot of activity pins.

Pay It Forward

Here's how it works. The first 5 people to comment on this post will get something neat from me. If you can't see a comment button on this page, click on the title of this post, then you should find a comment section at the bottom of the post. Any problems send me an email.This offer has some rules and limitations so please read carefully.
1. This will be an item homemade by me especially for you however it is a surprise..(but you'll love it!) I can't even give you a hint!
2. You will receive your item some time this year (2009.)
3. I must be able to contact you via email. So make sure I can find your email address if your not sure just put it in your comment
4. You must respond back to me with your mailing address after I send you an email confirming that you are one of the lucky 5!
5. In return you must post this giveaway on your blog and make 5 things for first 5 people to comment. (If you have recently done this giveaway on your blog I will count it!) This step is the most important! I will check your blog for YOUR giveaway before I send you an email.

Good Ole Bonfire

We said goodbye to a dear old friend tonight. A playhouse that Adam had built for Logan about 8 years ago. It had gotten to a point where it was dangerous to let anybody play out back, young or old. We had a great fire and the only thing missing were weenies (as my Grandma calls them) and Marshmallows. Dang, that would been a great Family Home Evening......

Of course Adam ended up doing all the work. But hey, it was a great time and Logan loved playing in the fire.

Mia had to watch from inside the house with me.
Yes, we had to CUT the wood first. That was the only way they would permit us to burn it.

We were only "allowed" to burn real wood so ply wood and shingles go to the dump.

This was what remained of the playhouse. I was kinda sad to be honest.

Umm honey, you don't need to get warm by the fire. It is 100 degrees outside.

This man LOVES fire!!!!! And he LIGHTS my FIRE!!!

Under the Weather

The Dovers have been hit by the nasty flu bug. It is taking us as prisoners one by one. Mia was attacked from behind first on Saturday night in the grocery store of all places, BayLee was rudely attacked on her birthday and Logan was attacked at 3:20 this morning and has been down ever since. It is all I can do to cross my fingers that I stay clear of this rude space invading bug. I think it is sneaking up on Adam and I but I will not give in, I must stay strong.
At least this flu bug doesn't oink.........

BayLees Birthday Party

BayLee had a great birthday party. She had 15 friends there and we had 7 adults so it was a really big party. We just had it at the swimming pool and the kids had a blast. BayLee was so excited for her day. She is like her mom, she thinks the world should stop on their birthday. It is always fun having her party because it is a couple weeks into summer vacation and she gets to have a little reunion with all of her cute little friends.
On her actual birthday, the next day, she was sick with a yucky flu bug so I am so glad that she at least felt good for her party.
I love you BayLee and I am so glad I have you as my daughter. You are a ray of sunshine and your smile is contagious. I loved watching you with your friends-you are a wonderful friend to everyone. I admire that about you love.

She always gets teary eyed during the happy birthday song. She has a very tender heart.
Piper, Jamilia, Tyson, and Logan

Treena, Holly, JD, Kaleb, Kasen (Kris and Brandy in the background)

Brady, BayLee, Grace, Gwen and Marley, Daryn, Ayanna

Daryn and Holly

BayLee and Piper

The BIRTHDAY GIRL

The Flip Flop birthday cake went over really well

Ummm...excuse me....I have a sucker in my hair.

On tuesday BayLee went and spent the day with one of her great friends, Daryn. I had been in touch with Daryns mom all day and the girls had been having a great time. I mean these girls play so well together. They were together from 11:30 to 8:30 and had NO arguments. That is pretty amazing. BayLee and Daryn are so alike. Both quite earthy, hippie like, carefree, and imaginative.

Well.....I had called to make sure that the mother was really ok that she was there for dinner, I have never had a playdate go this long. But the mom reassured me that all was fine and the girls had gotten a sucker with a scorpion in the middle of it and they were trying to disect the scorpion out of the sucker. Man, that sounded so cool-I wanted to be there and check it out with them! So, I get to Daryns house to pick her up and they are outside making a musical. It was almost magical. They both looked so innocent. BayLees hair was up in a cute ponytail that Daryn had done for her. How sweet I thought. So BayLee gets in the car and Adam and I chat with her mom for a few minutes and setting up a playdate for next week.

We get moving and I turn around to ask BayLee how her day went. It goes like this.... "BayLee how was your......DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR???" Deer in headlight look comes across her face....my cell phone rings...."Mandee! I just went into the bathroom and found a pile of hair....did it come off of BayLees head?" GULP!!! "Yes, it did but I haven't gotten the scoop from BayLee yet" PLEASE help me!!! "Daryn just told me that the sucker got stuck in BayLees hair so she helped her by cutting it out of BayLees hair". Inhale, exhale, it is just hair.... "Oh, that is ok. It will grow back and I have a great friend that can fix her hair". I felt so bad for my friend Gwen, Daryns mom. She felt so bad. It really is quite a funny story actually (it is three days later). At least they weren't just playing barber. They thought they really were doing the right thing.
Alison came to the rescue and fixed her hair. Thank you so very much Alison.

Pile of hair (I had just gotten her hair trimmed the day before. Between the two days 8 inches were cut off)

As close to the "before" as we could get. Forgot to get a picture.

Alison did a great job. She layered it so we wouldn't have to cut it to the shortest layer that Daryn created. It would have been above her chin.

Always smiling and laughing.

Reunited Friends

Yesterday I was able to see a great friend I hadn't seen for at least 13 years. It was so much fun to see Tasha Wilson (now Lawerence) and her cute little family. They were on there way to Las Vegas so we met at McDonalds. This is the same place I have met up with a few other "old time" friends. It was great to talk about the good ole days and the great days that we live today. She was always such a great friend to me in highschool over in Italy. She was such a sweetheart and had the sweetest mother too.

Isn't it great to have those kind of friends that no matter how long it has been since you have seen eachother, you just pick up where you left off and move forward. It was wonderful. It reminded me of how great it is to be a friend and to have friends.

I am so grateful for technology. Without facebook, or MySpace there would be a lot of people that I would NEVER find. I have friends all over the world from living overseas and slowly by slowly we are able to all reconnect.

This is my wonderful friend Tasha. Love ya girlie!! To the rest of you. If you ever come to Zion National Park or Las Vegas. Please call!!! I live right by both of those places.

Here we are as "responsible" adults and mothers.

Of course we had to revert to the "good ole" days!!

Having serious case of FLASHBACKS!

Screaming, arching back, throwing things, pulling every single tupperware out of the cupboards, writing on things other than paper, not liking the carseat. All of these things were history, I was done with these issues. Well, I have reentered the "I am cute. I am one. I HAVE a voice and I am NOT afraid to use it." Mia has discovered that deep in the back of her throat lives a thing. This "thing" is called a SCREAM. Man, this scream of hers is nothing like I have ever heard. It is ear piercing and is driving me....well....CRAZY!

I don't remember it being this way at all. WHOOPS.....the screaming has started.....better run......until next time. DOES ANYONE HAVE A VALIUM????