sick days...

My little sleeping beauty, sleeping the sicknesses away...

There's nothing worse than when the little ones are sick.

This morning while cleaning up the unmentionable mess,
she said to me:
"I told you I wasn't feeling so well last night",
to which I said: "I didn't know it was this kind of sick".
She then came back with:
"I didn't either, but I knew I was some kind of sick".

She's still cute and witty even when she's moaping around the house all day in her jammies.

summer concert

Tonight for FHE/a good reason to get out of the house- myself, my girls, Mama Crook, Jason, Janna & Claire went to American Fork (they like forks in that town) for a concert in the park with one of mine and Janna's favorite local singer/songwriter. His name is Sam Payne, and I'm sure I've mentioned him before. He's BFF's with Peter Breinholt and we've seen them perform together several times now.

It was a casual, low-key concert, but he was great!
He tells great stories that go along with his songs,
so we had fun sitting and enjoying this little outing.

Here's Janna and her cute little wiggly 15 month old Claire.
She was happier climbing the stairs than sitting still.

my little ones before they ran all around the pavilion (with not so quiet voices) chasing bunnies, brides, making new friends (that Abby says she won't ever see again until they are in heaven- LOL), and enjoying the nice summer night!

Claire modeling Aunt Debbie's bugs. Her face is too funny!

And here's Mr. Sam Payne:

His sound is different; a good different-
a little folk/blues sound (if that's possible).

Those that know me well, know I'm not a quiet person. As Sam was telling a story prefacing a song he was about to sing, he talked about Star Valley in the story and I let out a little yelp. He stopped his story and acknowledged my obnoxiousness and said that he thinks he could say anything and he could get a response from someone in the crowd (which was proven to be true, as is in most cases). So, he went back to telling his story and got to the Star Valley part again and paused and pointed to me and my mom and we yelped again... it was funny to us, promise!

Then- Janna and I have a favorite song of his that is so sweet and makes me cry almost every time I hear it. At one point Janna told me that she wanted to hear "Fly Ball" and I agreed. He started to say that he was going to play his last song for the night and I again did all I could to bring attention to myself and raised my hand (dorky!) and asked if I could request that song. He was kind enough to play it and then played the real "last" song after that one.

It was a fun night and I'm so glad Janna reminded me about this little concierto because I would have been bummed had we missed it.

fun with OLD friends!

Last weekend was a busy one starting on Thursday when we got together with some fun friends for a BBQ that happened to be on the 24th of July. None of us came in bonnets or via covered wagon... but we did do fireworks, which are legal to do in West Jordan (not Springville).

My old friend (not old, old- she is a few weeks older than me, but I have more wrinkles than she does) Katie O. from High School is up here on vacation/business and invited us to come play with lots of fun friends! I don't have pictures of that night, but imagine tasty burgers, slip-n-slide, Rock Band (BEST STUPID VIDEO GAME EVER!) and fireworks. Good times were had by all.

Friday night, Katie and I got together again to play and had silly fun laughing and being us. She's an awesome girl and we always find ourselves reverting back to being 16 and it's fabulous! We had dinner at a place I'm not going to mention on here because my nickname (and I'm sure 1/2 of Utah County's) for it is not so appropriate.
We'll leave it at that.

Then on Sunday, our other "old" friend Megan invited us all to her house for dinner. It was so fun to be with these girls again... Megan pulled out old photo albums from High School and we laughed at our lame ways, and the boys who were in our lives back then, and all of the silly things we did! It was SO fun to reminisce with them!
The kids played while Megan's husband Sean cooked our pizzas on the BBQ for us.

Side note: use Rhodes frozen rolls, defrost and let rise. Flatten them out for your pizza crust and place on BBQ- directly on the grill for a few minutes on each side.
Then add your toppings (i.e.: spaghetti sauce, BBQ sauce, Alfredo sauce, cheese, pepperoni, chicken, olives, peppers, broccoli (if you're Megan) or whatever else you want)
place back on grill until cheese is melted. That's all. Super good and easy!

We then roasted marshmallows out back and the kids loved it!
Garrett getting all sticky with his s'more!

Mini-Megan, aka Ella all sticky too!

Katie stole my camera and I think this is a cute pic of
her and her little baby girl- Brooke!

As we were leaving, HUGE gusts of wind came and the noise level rose, yet again as the girls screamed and squeeled! All the kids played so well together! Garrett was already getting in the car, otherwise he would have been sandwiched in there too!

Thanks for a fun night ladies
(and to your families for putting up with us!)

Love you guys!

embarassing story time...

My cousin Amy just posted a comment on my previous blog post wishing that her sister Wendy would have shared a "memory" of me that is in fact one of my MANY embarassing moments.
So for therapy purposes, I'm going to bore you all with it.
I really have no pride in myself- and you'll soon learn why.

Once upon a time, I received a "chat" from said cousin Wendy in gmail. She was asking me if I wanted to go with her to see Pirates of the Caribbean (part 2). Here's my best attempt at re-telling what happened during the course of that "chat" conversation. (Please keep in mind that we were not verbally communicating, it was all online.)

Wendy: Hey Deb, do you want to go see the new Pirates movie with me?

Debra: Yeah, when is it?

Wendy: It's at _______ in the afternoon, so see if you can get a babysitter for the girls. Novell rented out a theater so it should be cool!

Debra: Awesome, I'll find someone, so lets plan on it!

Wendy: The only down side is that it's going to be in spanish.

Debra: WHAT? Are you kidding me?

Wendy: Yeah, but it won't be too bad. We'll make it work.

Debra: WENDY- THERE IS NO WAY I'M GOING TO GO TO A MOVIE IN SPANISH!!

Wendy: What's the problem Deb? Why are you getting so worked up?

Debra: I WOULD RATHER PAY THE 8 BUCKS MYSELF TO WATCH IT ANOTHER TIME SO I DON'T HAVE TO WATCH IT IN SUBTITLES!!!!

Wendy: Debra, it's in SPANISH FORK, not in the Spanish language!

I don't remember what happened next because I literally felt like the biggest lameoid on the planet! I can only imagine the look on Wendy's face when she realized how retarted I truly am, but come on people?!?! I'M NOT FROM HERE and was not use to the "local lingo" of dropping the "Fork" and calling that city/town/hick-ville place just Spanish.

There, I'm done.

memory post

My cute cousin (in-law) put this on her blog and I've since seen it on so many others, so I thought I'd jump on the band-wagon and do it as well. It's silly, but fun and I'm a little afraid to hear some of your memories of me, so bring 'em on...

The rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

craft flashback!

I'm sure these never really left the shelves at the craft stores, but I haven't had a need to purchase them since I was 8. But now I have two reasons to buy them and those two reasons LOVED THEM!

Brenna's are the two on the left, the "dog" was her first attempt and she said she wanted it to be a crazy dog. I think she achieved the crazy dog-ness that she was after! Then her butterfly took her over an hour as she was very particular about doing it this way because she "can do it whatever way she wants to". And no, we're not dealing with personality issues at ALL!
(Side note: the terrible two's have NOTHING on 5 year olds! FYI)

Abby's are the two on the right (obviously) and she being the major rule follower that she is, looked at a picture on the box to do the horse, but came up with the flower design on her own. They had some help from our babysitter Krosbi too! It was a fun afternoon craft to break up the monotony of the day.



When I told the girls that I use to do these when I was little, I suddenly became the "COOLEST MOM EVER!"

They make me laugh :)

suretell sign of summer in springville!

WE LOVE HARWARD FARMS!
When these infamous stands are up around town, summer has begun!
It doesn't matter if the meal you're preparing for dinner already has a vegetable dish prepared, or maybe it doesn't quite "go" with the menu, you still have to stop and buy the best tasting sweet corn on the cob. Especially when you see the truck dropping off the fresh crops! It's just what you do... BECAUSE YOU CAN! It's a summer staple food for us and Abby & Brenna were so stoked when they had it for the first time (this year) last night!
Thanks Grandma Diane!

swim lessons 101

Abby & Brenna started swim lessons just over a week ago and as much as I don't think they love it, they're learning and aren't as afraid of the water as they were before we started.
Abby has done great and learning and practicing her different strokes and jumps right in, dunks her head and keeps on going. She's awesome! Brenna did great the first day or so, then one day as she was practicing her kicking with the kick board, I overheard her saying
"I can do this, I know I can, I can really really do it"
as she'd kick her way across the pool and back. I thought it was the sweetest thing, like she was the Little Engine That Could. She told me that Abby told her that she needs to believe in herself and she can do anything, so she remembered that and did it! SO CUTE!
So, the next day comes along and I expected her to have the same positive attitude and guess what???
Did you know that it was opposite day?! I think all I heard her say (other than "stop splashing me Abby") was
"I can't do this, I really can't mom. I can't do it."
UGH! We of course, had a big talk about it and decided that saying "I can't do it" is now a bad word (or bad phrase rather) in our house.

I guess I just haven't been faced with a situation like this yet with my kids, but one thing I now know for sure it that we don't get to give up just because something is hard. Life is hard, but we can come out on top if we stick to it and make the best of each situation! She's done tons better since then, and they are both now ready to swim in Grandma & Grandpa's pool in Las Vegas in a few weeks!

The pool where they are taking lessons is not the Springville sesspool (which is old, smells bad and is just plain groty!), it's a high school kid teaching from his home. It's actually not just a home, it's more on the scale of mansion, unbelievably large, somebody famous should live there, too big to clean kind of home. Their pool is indoors and underground, if that makes sense. The first day we were there, my cousin Megan was with us (wish you were still here Meg- I have no one to talk to anymore!) and as we tried to analyze the placement of everything, we finally figured out while on our way out that the back yard was on the roof of the pool. The pool has a super high ceiling (that is supporting the rope Brenna is swinging on- SUPER COOL!) so that's how I figure it's underground. It's beautiful, and the best part is that there is no cryptosporidium present.

our 4th festivities

We have had a fun week with family in town (which is always exciting), and that pretty much means that no one goes to bed on time, we laugh a lot and get to sit and relax and enjoy one anothers company! LOVE IT! We had a few fun outings throughout the week planned and had a fun Girls Night Out with them. My cute Aunt Donna took a semi-decent picture of the Crook girls:

We had a great time with everyone and already can't wait for the next visit!

So... the 4th was the day my girls were most looking forward to. I bought tickets several months ago to see Miley Cyrus and the Blue Man Group at BYU's Stadium of Fire. I had been using this as a bribe (which was pretty much bigger than Santa Claus around here!) We made countdown chains and everything...
BUT before the big night, we went to my cousin Jodi & Mike's house for their un-official/official 4th of July BBQ that we love attending!

Here's my Abby looking way too big:

and Wendy & I doing our infamous self portraits,
only this time TOGETHER!

I left the BBQ way earlier than planned to go get our seats at the stadium and waited for Janna & Jason to come with my girls.

We LOVED watching the servicemen parachuting into the stadium!
Seriously... so impressive!

I LOVE when the jets fly overhead (especially when it makes me think that the noise/vibration/fireworks were actually the stadium crashing down! SUCH A RUSH!)

My cute friends/neighbors Candi & Brittany were sitting 4 rows behind us! My girls have adopted Britt as their big sister! We love them both!

And the time was finally coming for Miss Miley Cyrus to come out and Abby was so excited and waiting patiently for the big moment!

I shouldn't have expected anything less than this from Brenna. She's an insane fan and was obviously stoked when Miley finally came out!

FYI- the red dots on my girls faces aren't because they just played 'Girl Talk', they're little jewel things that came with their Hannah Montana tattoos (that are on the other cheeks & arms!)

I wasn't able to take a great picture of her performing,
so here's the best blurry shot I got.

It was a really fun night although in my opinion, Miley could have done a MUCH better job. But all in all, we had a fabulous time! And despite Miley thinking she was cooler than her dad's old school mullet... BYU always does an awesome job celebrating the 4th!

And this picture is the best of three attempts to get Abby to keep her eyes open... she didn't seem tired but she was serisously having issues with her eyeballs! She was trying so hard that it became super funny!