we love Star Valley just a little bit...

and here's A LOT of reasons why:
(prepare to be inundated with pictures!)

the top of the Salt Pass and the BEAUTIFUL colors of fall!

the cabins... our wannabe home away from home!

see- we love it here!

shopping in downtown Afton...

with the bears...

and the funny looking squatting cowboys :)

and the booming metropolis' that make up Star Valley!

we LOVE going to the cemetery to visit Papa...
walking to see the cows on Papas behalf
(I don't think I'll ever get sick of seeing these 3 cousins holding hands like this... LOVE IT!)
and new friends who come to the valley with us!

and going up a very dirty/bumpy road to
Cottonwood Lake...

it was breathtaking!


and just relaxing with some of our favorite people,
in our favorite place!
Thanks again Dad for letting us be a part of your Gods Country!

random Star Valley fun...

As we were heading into the valley, a herd of sheep were crossing the road, so of course we stopped and waited
and the next thing we noticed, the sheep dog making sure the entire herd was safe across the road... we were SO impressed. It was like he was blocking traffic... so cool!
(Oh my, the simplest things impress us when in Star Valley... life is slow there and sheep and their become one of the most exciting blog-worthy parts of the weekend!)

Here's cute little Claire playing on the "wee ween"

Abby and I goofing off one afternoon... she dictated what faces we should make

Playing at a ghetto park, but the kids didn't mind...

Hugging the bear in our cabin!

Claire obsessing over a ceramic dog on someone's grave at the cemetery!

and one of the best things that happened was that we met the new OWNER
of the Cheese Factory!
This place was going down the tubes, and a culinary chef from Georgia has bought it and is turning it into exactly what it needs to be and we are thrilled!
He had the cutest southern accent...


Oh, it was a fun weekend... we're so glad we went!

high school post

1. Did you date someone from your school?

SomeONE? Sure, and it might have been a few more than one.

2. What kind of car did you drive?
Me, drive in highschool? That's funny! I had good friends who were even better chauffeurs!

3. What was the most embarrassing moment of HS?
Nothing that happened to me that I can remember... but my friends have some GOOD stories about the seagulls!

4. Were you a party animal?
I was just an animal who didn't party.

5. Were you considered a flirt?
Of course not!

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Nope, nope & nope.

7. Were you a nerd?
Don't think so, or at least I hope I wasn't. In my mind, I was the coolest kid ever!

8. Were you on any varsity teams?
Um, nope.

9. Did you ever get suspended/expelled?
No, I was good. I only got in trouble once and it was in Junior High when I threw a pencil at Mr. Schuberts head. "Bald is Beautiful"!

10. Can you still sing the fight song?
Doubt it!

11. Who were your favorite teachers?
Mr. Hyatt, but definitely not Mr. Cavanaugh- I think he hated my guts.

12. Where did you sit during lunch?
Depended on the year. In the pavilion , sometimes Katie or Megans houses, and then we learned the art of leaving campus and getting to Taco Bell as fast as possible to make it back in time!

13. School mascot?
A scottie dog- two to be exact, male and female. Intimidating huh?!

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with whom?
One year, it was Frankie Peck. We went in a limo to our school gym- so lame! I don't know if I went my Senior year, I think I had a lame boyfriend who was anti-dances or something.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
ABSOLUTELY! Not the school part, but the social aspect was my favorite!

16. What do you remember most about graduation?
Ironing my hair, flowers from James and getting in a fight with John Willett on the way to grad-night.

17. Where did you go on senior skip day?
Was it really just ONE day??? The beach was a fav spot for sure!

18. Were you in any clubs?
Nope. Our school had a rubber band club. I don't know what they did though.

19. Have you gained some weight since then?
That's a really funny question.

20. Who was your prom date?
Micah

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion?
It's already happened, and I didn't go. Some days I wish I would have, but I can't change that now.

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself?
I can't say that on here! Maybe I would have told myself to focus a little more on the educational part of it, not just the boys!

The rule is, if you laugh at my lovely senior picture and make fun of anything, i.e.
my bangs,
lipstick,
eyebrows
or
eyeliner
... you HAVE to re-post this!

my spelling machine!

Abby has become an awesome little speller and brought home her second perfect spelling test! She has been doing super well in first grade and today told me that she wishes she had harder homework!
For real???
She must not be my child, but go Abby- you're awesome!



I'm SO proud of you!

loneliness

No, Brenna's not really trying to change her name (I'll tell that story in a minute)

She was outside playing with chalk and wrote what translates to:
I AM ALONE
Brenna and a friend made plans to play after school, but her friend called to say that she had to go to Target, but maybe they could play later. She wasn't so fond of the idea of waiting for a phone call back, so in attempts to pass the time we played with chalk for a bit, but I had to go back inside to work and that is when she got bummed waiting for Abby to come home.
Brenna told Abby to look at what she wrote and told her what it said, and Abby then said, "but Brenna, you're not alone anymore because I'm home and now we can play". Brenna then said "yeah, but it took you forever Abby".
She then gave Abby a big hug and broke down in tears!
It was so sweet!

Okay, story of the name change...
Yesterday while sitting in church, Brenna looked up at me and said:
B: Mom, I don't want my name to be Brenna anymore.
M: What do you want your name to be?
B: Anna. Please call me Anna from now on.
M: Fold your arms please.
B: I'm not even joking mom.

So, after church, I asked her about it again and we had another lovely Brenna drama moment. She is seriously so passionate about what she wants and told me that she thinks "B" names aren't as good as A's or K's or S's. She had lots of reasons as to why she should change her name, and I'm hoping she's over it today. I haven't brought it up, so maybe that's a good thing.
Little does she know or realize that her name just barely got changed legally to Brenna!

Made in China

Lately my girls have been noticing labels, and they've drawn a conclusion...

"EVERYTHING IS MADE IN CHINA MOM!"

It makes me think of one of my favorite years at girls camp when our theme was something medieval-like and all of us counselors were "Maidens". One of the girls was um, not born in this particular place, but her mother became pregnant with her while living there and here camp name was:
MAIDEN TAIWAN! Seriously- so rad!
My name was MAIDEN FORM, which was not as funny as the earlier one, but it's fitting with the "De-bra" nickname I've had almost my whole life.

Anyway, my girls observance started with things like:
a keychain I have from Wicked that says it,
a box of crayons (or crowns for Katie O!),
a stapler in my office,
and has gone onto pretty much everything!

Welcome to America girls!

P.S. Brenna got a police badge at school today and just told me that it is also made in China. I then told her that she was made in China, and she came back at me with:
"No I'm not, I'm made in Heaven"!

Dang, she's sassy, but I hate it when she's right!

kill the beast!

These pesky, gross, deadly things are EVERYWHERE and I'm done!

We've killed 8 of them in the last few days, and lucky for us... they've been bigger, way bigger than above picture I stole off the internet! Nice, huh?

I guess next time I'll believe the news anchors when they say it's "black widow season". I didn't know there was such a thing, until now!

Since it's not worth having the bug-man come out to spray because spiders can only be killed by direct contact and you can't really kill them by a general spraying. Which means I'm gonna be out on widow patrol until I can rid them of our yard!
Luckily none of them have been inside the house, but 4 in my girls window well, 2 in mine and 2 in the garage is enough to seriously consider buying stock in Raid.

Any suggestions?

(Our contractor's apprentice is here doing some work and as I was preparing myself to kill the latest invader, I showed it to him and he said that's probably the 8th black widow he's seen in his life. I told him "me too, and all 8 I've seen have been in the last 4 days!" Well, there was one in our old house on 300 North in Provo (thanks for the reminder Laura!), but still...
The UPS man also came at the same time, so I showed it to him and he sat there watching it for a minute... until it moved and he ran! I called him a wimp as he jumped in his truck and both of these guys left me to kill the atrocious beast!)

"Anna McKay"

Brenna was downstairs and all I could hear was her singing and playing her guitar.
So, I asked her a simple question:

Mom: Hey Brenna, why do you think you're a real rockstar?
Brenna: Because I am.
Mom: Okay Anna McKay, come up here please?
Brenna: Just call me Anna.
Mom: Um... okay. (trying really really hard not to laugh!)

This little 5 year old of mine has an alter ego! She is (like most kids) the type to change each of her dolls or animals names 9 times a day, but her "rockstar" name (which she gave herself) hasn't changed once. ANNA McKAY is it and I think she really is convinced that she's famous! A few weeks ago I asked her how long she's had that rockstar name and she said, "since forever".
Good to know.

sprinklers with claire!

While at the beloved Wal*Mart the other day, I found this silly ELMO sprinkler in their clearance bins. My neice Claire is in an Elmo phase, so I grabbed it and luckly we were able to use it yesterday when Janna and Claire were over. It was a beautiful afternoon, and A, B & C (HA!) all had fun playing in the water!


Claire and her "Emmo"

Love the air Abby got here!

if only you could hear the noise coming out of all 3 of them right now!

sisters, so cute holding hands!

dish duty

Abby begs (literally) to get to wash the dishes...
and she does a pretty darn good job at it too!



If only this desire would last, um, forever...

who needs moisture?

WE DO, WE DO!
(HA! That was lame and I'm not even going to take it back!)
The girls and I were discussing whether they should take their showers tonight vs. tomorrow morning and Abby voted for tonight, while Brenna voted for tomorrow (of course). Abby's reasoning for tonight was because her "face was so dry".
I've got an answer for that...
MOISTURE MASKS by the one and only Mary Kay!

The girls thought it was so cool as I got them all masked up, and then we decided we needed pictures of this silly stuff on our faces.


We couldn't smile... it would crack the masks!

I'm sure they're thinking about how insane their mother is!!

"What are you doing to us mother?"

And after the fact... they keep touching their faces and saying funny things like:
"Ahhh, this feels so good and sooooo soft"
"It's amazing!"
"Mom, is this how good it feels every time you do it?"

I figure you're never to young to learn how to take care of your skin, right?!