Pancake Art

I'm just beginning my training as a pancake artist.

I call this "Flower without a Petal" or "Butterfly without a Feeler." Take your Pick.

Sarah, can you stare at THIS for hours and hours?

Ummmm... I think I need a vacation. Oh wait! I'm getting one starting bright & early Monday morning. Phew!

I don't know if Justin's mom has Internet or not. That's actually one thing I love about vacations, a break from the computer. And so who knows how long until I update this. I'm taking requests of what you'd like my last pre-vacation post picture to be. Something that you won't get tired of seeing if you check back every now & then. Not that you'd ever tire of my beautiful art though, right?

Now we're off to the beach AGAIN. Don't be jealous.

Beach Picture Of The Week

Meet Owen's friends, the sand crabs.

I know they're not the REAL sand crabs.
But we don't know what else to call them.

They look like little rocks.
But that's just their disguise!

They open up
and these little clear feet thingys pop out
to dig under the sand
every time the tide goes up and down.

This one Owen singled out as his friend, "Jack."

Jack is the name of one of my brother Cole's gerbils.
Owen likes to watch Cole and the gerbils on webcam.

And this is totally unrelated but last night we were talking about the Plan of Salvation... about how our spirits go to the Spirit World after we die, waiting for us to be resurrected (I know deep huh? But hey it's from Sharing Time!) But anyway then Owen said, "And then we don't pee anymore?" (after we die)

I Get Around

We go to Utah in a little over a week for almost 2 weeks. Yay!

Note to robbers: then would be a good time to break into our house. But I'm warning you - we have a suicidal neighbor and pizza boys get mugged on our doorstep. Also, I have no jewelery worth anything (other than my wedding ring which remains on my finger). And our electronics are outdated. So you should probably just pick another house.

While in Utah we'll be visiting Justin's mom (and hopefully dad) at their 2nd home in Logan. Justin hasn't seen her in 1 1/2 years! We're going to Lagoon. A big family reunion at this mansion with my mom's side of the family. Hopefully Hogle Zoo with Brent & Errin. And this girl who I don't even know but love her blog and her pictures is taking some pics of our family.

To fill in the blanks I've found these ideas while browsing blogs...

THIS BLOGGER likes these places:
Gateway Mall (water play area - bring swimsuits) - I've been there a LONG time ago and remember loving this mall.
Tai Pan Trading
Liberty Park (also bring swimsuits)
Thanksgiving Point (farm & deli) - I know Becky liked this place when she lived there and Cherisse likes it too.

And from THIS BLOG I made a note to go here:
The Soup Kitchen
Dan's Grocery for Dunford's Chocolate Cake Donuts
Provo Bakery for Orange Rolls


I'm going to come home so fat and happy!

Anything else I can't miss while in the SLC/Logan/Provo area?

Sneaky!

We snuck over and met Justin at a park on base yesterday. He's allowed to go to the PX (shopping center) but that's about it other than the barracks where he sleeps. I know, he's such a rebel huh? Drew kept point to him saying, "Da?" like he couldn't believe it was really him :) 5 more days to go!

Which Would You Choose

HAPPY!

HAPPY!
(but guilty)

Justin went to Sam's Club the other day and I told him to bring me back whatever fruit looks good, like a pineapple.

He came home with a pineapple. Fruit roll-ups. And a 5lb bag of Hot Tamales.

If only Fruit roll-ups counted as a fruit I'd be in Heaven. I love those things!

I also love Hot Tamales - Justin got those cause he knows that. And the fruit roll-ups cause Owen didn't want "hot candy." Hey Drew can handle em!

But anyway that pineapple is long gone in my stomach. So I went to the Farmer's Market yeterday and got some other good stuff (most of which is not pictured). I'm turning that big ol zucchini into dinner somehow!

On a side note:

Day 1 was good (nothing worth documenting though).

Day 2 was good (beach & above-mentioned Farmer's Market)

Day 3, today, is... okay. It started out good with a walk and park trip. And NOW It's good that it's naptime. But a couple hours ago when Owen peed in the hall and Drew dumped a can of bread crumbs... not so good. Tonight I have a meeting at church. So I'll call today average. Hope yours is GOOD!

7 more days until...(I can't say in case there are scary Internet people reading this)

OOH OOH I just remembered So You Think You Can Dance and Top Chef are on tonight. Yay NOW today is good :)

Tweet

Baby birds were born under our mailbox on Saturday.Just thought I'd share.

My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad

He has lots of great fatherly qualities but I would like to show off just a few of his inventions today. Basically, he can make something out of ANYTHING.

(I stole some of these pictures off my sister Rachel's blog so if you've peeked over there before, sorry about the repeat)

Derek on the upside-down bike

Rachel on the snow scooter

His most recent, a tent on top of his Jeep for camping.
He usually sleeps up there in the open air, but the tent is in case of rain.
Better hope there's not wind AND rain or you're in trouble!

"Grandpa's Train" (my favorite)
He has since added another extension so it will seat even more kiddies.

Max, Bob, Janna

It also hooks to a regular trike if the kids want to do the driving.

In the last year my dad thought up the idea to wrap burritos in foil and leave them on the engine of his Jeep to heat up. He does this on little road-trips or camp-outs to avoid having to stop for food. I was dying the other day at this: He was having problems with his Jeep so he and neighbor Keith were looking to see what was wrong. He lifts the hood and sees 3 burritos on the engine! That wasn't what was wrong, but it was just funny that he forgot about them and who knows how long they were there (he thinks 3 weeks).

Oh and he helped me make the pipe chimes from a couple posts ago :)

Being a good dad by being a good grandpa: Feeding a 6-month old chocolate granola bar :) Hey it made a fussy baby happy!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Love you!

And GOOD NEWS for us! Justin doesn't have to work today after all! So we get to celebrate Father's Day TWICE. Which is much better than celebrating not at all. Justin loves Owen & Drew so much. And they love him right back (evidenced by Drew saying "da" way more than "mama" and both of them running for the door as soon as they hear the garage door go up.) We love you!

This picture is from last September up in Raleigh.

Here is Owen's blessing day... the day we came home from the hospital with him. We were lucky to be able to do it at my parents house that day cause Justin had to leave the next day for combat training. Justin is a 1-day old Father in this picture and was SO happy to be a dad and so sad to leave. This is every single person that participated in the blessing. I'm just looking at all the awesome fathers in this picture and am thankful for all of you! We're proud that Owen has Justin's dad's name for his middle name (James) and Drew's middle nams is Alan after my dad.

Publish PostBishop Sherwood, Jared (Karen's husband), Paul (Justin's brother), Dad, Justin w/Owen, (Justin's dad), Linus (Justin's brother), my Grandpa Lunt, Jay (Tami's husband), my Grandpa Martindale

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

SO glad families are forever :)

Grill Power

Don't be jealous of my awesome grill w/bird poo on it. I'm just excited cause I finally learned how to use it. For some reason grilling has always been intimidating to me. Then I realize how easy it is and it's fun! Maybe now we can upgrade.

Wednesday I hosted 11-Year Old Scouts at our house cause the leader had to work and we...GRILLED! I decided Scouts is fun and I'm gonna go ahead and call myself to that position.

My other accomplishment for the week is cooking fresh green beans (not on the grill). I always see them at the store, and think they look good but don't know what to do with them. Well, of course those are easy, too. I'm on a roll!

Baby Cohen

Congrats to Lindsey & Kip! Baby Cohen Jett came Saturday weighing in at 6 lbs 15 oz and 20 in tall. I'm checking Kip's blog like every hour waiting for some pics already! Until then... he gets to be this guy!


K here's the real Cohen. Lindsey just sent me this pic since Kip is a slow poke :)

He's so cute!

My Mormon Weekend

Friday - Church (Ward Talent Show)

Saturday - Church (Primary Activity)
Sunday - Church (Church, imagine that!)

Here are the details:

Friday - Talent Show
Pipe Chimes, then & now:

8 yrs old................................ 20 yrs later

Bishop "strongly encouraged" all the auxiliaries to participate in the Ward Talent Show hosted by the Young Women. So the Primary did "Do Re Mi" on the pipe chimes. Carrie is the one standing up, Jennifer is my microphone holder, and Sally isn't pictured. We're wearing drapes a la "Sound of Music" if you can't tell.

Later that night Justin Lawniczak, one of the Young Men, went out to do his guitar solo and anounced that Owen would be on the drums! We had no idea. It was funny even though he didn't play them at all, just sat there the whole time.

Saturday - Primary Activity

Owen built a Temple out of clay w/one of his Sunbeams teachers, Sis Baldwin.

Carrie found a cool home-made clay that looked kind of sparkly (the salt perhaps?).

I manned the Bingo station. I found this link that let me make custom bingo cards using pictures (we used Prophets and Apostles). But I thought it'd be cool to do for Family Home Evening or something... using whatever pictures you want.

And Sally set up an obstacle course.

Sunday - Church

As I stuck Owen's most recent art on the fridge and looked at all his creations, I noticed they all have something in common - bites taken out of them. (see corners)

Owen got to pick up his Temple that had dried after church. I told him I wanted to take a picture so he said, "Okay take it then!" Feisty! He posed himself and the Temple.

Then last but not least... we celebrated Father's Day a week early since Justin is scheduled to work on the REAL Father's Day. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY Justin! I know two boys that think you're pretty cool!

Child Labor

Justin's best idea ever!

Justin's Babies

Every day Justin comes home from work... we all get a kiss and the garden gets a water.

Knowing that we all get a kiss is the most public affection you'll ever get from me.

Owen looks so very attractive because he's in the process of spitting while pulling my pants down. And the littlest one is crying cause he just got sprayed with water.

But the garden is coming... finally! Justin had to replant the corn 3 times cause those pesky varmints (squirrels) kept eating the sprouts as soon as they'd pop up.

They ate my parsley too as seen below by it's grave marker. At least the tomatoes are doing good. Owen felt the need to pick one green one, so hopefully he can resist the rest.

Meet Drew's Blankie

Whatever it takes to get it out of his crib...

Every time he sees it he pulls it between the slats. If I'm holding him he'll flail himself out of my arms to get down and get it.

PS Thanks to Ana (Justin's sister) for making it, complete with that super soft orange bumpy fabric on the back and his name and birth date embroidered in the corner.

Tall People

Brent & Errin aren't coming to visit this summer anymore. They chose the reunion in Utah over us. I guess it's okay cause we'll be there, too. But I was looking forward to them coming! So for payback this is to make Brent really, really happy.

Once when he was walking in the mall he saw a whole family of super tall people and it drove him crazy. He couldn't even handle how tall they were.

So I found this special website just for you.... http://www.tallpeople.org

It has great tall people jokes like, "It is better to have loved a short man, than never to have loved a tall."

And the people have cool sign-in names like 7ftJohnny.

Enjoy!

PS Did you hear about that pirate movie? It's rated arrrrrgh!

Owen's Prayers

Yesterday Owen was assigned the opening prayer in Primary. He loves that microphone whenever I'm setting up the room. But when it was time to say the prayer he kept buckling his knees and making funny sounds. So I just went ahead without him. Then he said, "What about brushing my teeth?" so I put that in the prayer, "Please help us to remember to brush our teeth." Then a few seconds later..."What about cookies?" so I added, "Thank you for cookies." I was trying hard not to laugh cause that's how we do it at home, start the prayer then ask him, "what else?" The most common responses are about his kite, cookies, and fishing (which he hasn't done since father & sons but he LOVED it). He's dying for one of those rocket fishing poles they always have the commercials for on Nick Jr.
In Owen's Prayers:

• Thank you for my kite
• Thank you Daddy came home from work...with his funny lipsies (after he got hit with a frisbee and his lip was huge)
  
• Thank you for my new corn
• Thank you for my little TV
• Thank you we could go fishin
• Thank you we could get Cheetos and go fishin
• Thank you we could catch Nemo
• Bless the missionaries

This was on my side-bar but I'm moving it to a post so nobody gets sick of it. And also cause someday I want to get my blog published into a book for journal purposes. This site does just that!

Violet, You're Turning Violet, Violet!

Umm so today was pretty bad. Stressful car repairs stuff. So Justin came home (at 9pm) with some junk food to make him feel better... some Doritos X-13D Experiment chips, Sierra Mist, and Nestle cookie dough.

About those chips... If you don't want to know the secret flavor, read no more.

They taste like cheeseburger! So gross. So, so gross. Not like a good home-made cheeseburger either. One of those 99-cent fast-food cheeseburgers. Seriously they taste like the meat, cheese, mustard, ketchup, and pickle all rolled up together and made somehow into a chip.

Hence the Willy Wonka reference... that's how I imagined Violet's gum to be, all those different flavors at once.

Gross. Yet you keep eating them anyway.