Dance Alliance

BYU Idaho's dance team is on tour throughout the East Coast and they did a performance in Fayetteville. We were able to go. They did folk, ballroom, contemporary and many other dance styles. There were some dancers that were better than others but overall, I liked it. Even Brendan liked it. This is the final dance of the night. It was a great way to spend an evening with the family. It's not often we attend dance performances.

Birthday Gift to Myself

For my birthday I bought myself a fiddle leaf fig plant. These plants are beautiful and big but notoriously hard to care for. After researching the process, I thought I'd give it a try. This plant was in a dark lower shelf at Lowe's and had some issues. I thought I could bring it back to life though.

Ten days later, after proper light, watering, planting, pruning and fertilizing, I have two new leaf buds. I'm so happy!

Pioneer Day

The Primary put on a Pioneer Day celebration this weekend. There was an inviation to dress up that the girls took seriously. They were so cute!

 

We played pioneer games inside and outside. They did wheelbarrow races, horseshoes, jacks and more.  I helped with an outside station so I don't have pictures of most of the activities.

 

President McAlister played his fiddle and one of the Primary girls in my class, Bri, did a highland dance.

 

One of teh stations was building a teepee out of a waffle cone and other goodies.

And the food, oh the food! Brother Leadbetter is a grill master. We made corn on the cob to bring as well and the Young Men made ice cream and root beer for floats. Sis Buckner's famous rolls made an appearance as well. Yum!

Facetime

Dad is in San Antonio at a conference for program directors for the Army. He called to Facetime us today. On his new iPad he discovered the animojis and used them while talking to the kiddos. They thought it was hysterical!

My Birthday

The downside to birthdays as a mom is that it is never as big a deal as your kids' birthdays. My day was mostly like any other day. I told the kids all I wanted to no fighting on my birthday. I didn't get it but some of them tried really hard. Darby and Eva made me cute cards. I got a call from one of my siblings and card from my mom and grandma. It made me sad that so many people forgot my birthday.

Jason tried to make my day great once he got home from work. We went out for Mexican food for my birthday dinner (because its a deal that I don't cook on my birthday).

 

We also went to Coldstone for ice cream afterwards. :)

Jason got me a new ipad case for my gift and I got to choose the movie we watched. I chose "Into the Woods" which ended up being a hit with the girls and they sang the songs for days afterwards.

Redecorating

The curtain rod I had hanging in the dining area fell down so Jason put up a new, thicker one. I love it but the curtains were now too short.

So I bought some curtain clips and voila! They are the perfect length now. I love easy fixes like this.

 

I bought new neutral curtains for the living room. I LOVE them. They frame the windows without drawing undue attention to themselves like the old curtains did. This is especially important in the room with the high ceilings since I don't want the lower windows to stand out and detract from the upper ones without curtains.

While I liked the entryway rug I had, its light color was getting quite dirty. I bought a new rug, mirror and bench for the entryway to give it a more welcoming, finished look. It's a small entryway so it was a challenge but I like it much better now.

More Summer Fun

Here are some more fun snapshots of our summer.

Daddy has a lot of bishop responsibilities that take him out of the house so when he gets a chance to play with the kids, he takes it.  He played a board game with Paige before he had to leave for Wednesday night activities.

Everyone pile on Mom!

We had some fun with the pictures from vacation on the big TV screen. McDaniel brothers and McDaniel sisters. ;)

We made fitness a part of earning screentime this summer. It is going pretty well.

The new class of endo residents started on July 1. The director, Steve Delgado and his wife Colleen, had a welcome back BBQ at their house. 

We played some games in their backyard. I must be an awesome ladderball player since I got TWO rungs in one shot. :)

Paige beat me at Dragonwood because she managed to get both dragons. And yes, she is wearing a too-small-for-her tutu leotard in the middle of the day for no reason.

Darby and I found this Barbie that looks surprisingly like her with freckles, hazel eyes and light brown wavy hair.

 

Speaking of dolls, the kids thought it was funny to have one join us for prayers.

Our Little Baker

Every Saturday morning Eva gets up and makes muffins for the family. I don't remember when she started but its been months. She also makes the pancakes every Sunday for dinner. She has taken quite an interest in cooking and baking.

For the last summer Activity Day Girls event, there was a pajama party. Every girl was asked to bring a healthy snack as they had been talking about nutrition lately. Eva got out my Magnolia cookbook and decided she was going to make cheese and herb scones all by herself. And she did.

Daddy Dates

Parent dates are super fun for the kiddos. We still try to take out each kid once a month and we alternate which parent gets date nights. Summer date nights are the best because you can spend more time out and about, not having to worry about school the next day. This past date Daddy and Eva went to the lake to feed the ducks.

 

 They also had some sno-cones. Can you guess what color they were?

Look Who Came to See Us!

The Thompsons are moving to Korea in a month so they took a few trips to see family and friends. They came to see us this afternoon. I cannot tell you how right it felt to have our families back together again! The kids have all grown so much! They all ran off to play and it was like we had never been apart. Erica and I talked the whole time, while chasing Magnus around. I discovered that my house is not baby friendly! Oh how I miss my friend!! We always could talk for hours. :)

It was sad to see them go that night. We really do need to live closer one of these days.

Look at these boys! They grow up so fast!

The pea-in-a-pod frenemies. We will never forget the Paige and Sohvi combo.

And these girls. Oh these girls. They make my heart happy.

 

Daddy and his buddy, Nick.

And Erica, the best friend a gal could ask for.

Enjoy Korea! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Independence Day 2019

We always like to go to the Hope Mills Fourth of July Parade. Its small town fun.

 

  

The parade started off with Boy Scout flag bearers.

 

There were a lot of different floats and parade walkers. We saw bikers, firetrucks, floats, superheros and princesses.

 

 

Many of them threw candy or gave out small gifts. The kids went home with a half full bag of stuff.

 

A group of veterans always drives their mini cars in the parade. The kids got to give them high fives.

Even the missionaries marched in the parade.

Daddy taught the kids how to signal a big rig to honk their horn.

We had plans to go on post for the fireworks show but the weather didn't cooperate. We had a BBQ outside for dinner but then it started to rain.

However, I knew we could count on our neighborhood. They did not disappoint. We could see at least five different "shows" from our house. We walked around the neighborhood checking them out. A few of them let me kids have a sparkler or two. Some people spent over $1000 on fireworks this year. It was amazing!

 

Happy Independence Day Fayetteville!