Happy birthday, Bill!

Chloe spends every Sunday afternoon listening to audiobooks on her tablet. Lately she’s taken to using one of my old purses that is a tiny backpack. She puts the tablet in it and wanders around the house listening. It’s just so cute, lol. 

Grandma has been taking each kid out in an individual date and Chloe got her turn this week. It was doubled up with her birthday gift and boy, they had a great time. They went to Five Below and Walmart and got earrings and other random stuff. Headbands, a cute outfit, this water bottle. So fun. 

Happy birthday, Bill! We celebrated Friday and Saturday. We sure do love the heck out of him! He and I ate a lot of great food. The kids turned down some of it, the silly galoots. 

Notice my excellent Amazon package wrapping job of his presents and “candle” to blow out. Haha! We always open presents at breakfast, so the dessert wasn’t even made yet. 

Genevieve convinced me he needed this shirt as one of his gifts. I agree!

The cinnamon rolls were just a bonus. We had German pancakes and bacon and sausage for actual breakfast. The rolls were for second breakfast or maybe elevensies. 😂

He wanted pecan pie for dessert. I remembered this amazing pecan pie bars recipe I’ve made before. It was just as good as pie, if not better. Very heavy on the pecans, which is both of our favorite part of pecan pie. 

Legos have had a resurgence of interest this summer for my kids. We’ve had a big table in the living room, in the front hallway, and Bill and so got really tired of both. This is the latest location, in the girls’ room. Much better for the chaos of the main floor. 

Random upgrade to my bathroom now that Genevieve and Spencer wash their faces at night. 

Grandma and Grandpa came over last night for dessert and to give Bill his gift. Chloe modeled part of it. 😆

Genevieve was inspired by an Instagram video to do some water color last Sunday. I love everything she creates. 

 

Party weekend

We had so much fun this week I took no photos. This is one Bill sent me from his golfing with our church group Saturday morning. He did that while I went and ran with my friends, then led my FiA workout, then we had a FiA brunch at the park. 

Then we went home, the kids had done their morning chores, glorious, as we’d asked them to! And we took them to Splash Summit all afternoon. So fun! I got a picture of my sunburned shoulder from unintentionally evening out my previous farmers tan, and of Aaron’s shirt and back from getting slide burn from one of the rides, but who wants to see those?? Despite that, fun was had by all. 

We didn’t get real summer this year until July 1st but boy howdy, it’s summer now! High 90s or low 100s every day. Super sunny. No rain. This is not my favorite season. That being said, the reason I love fall and spring so much is because they are transition seasons. So if it wasn’t hot in the summer, I wouldn’t be ready for cold again. I just love the cycles of change. 

 

It is so hot!

This photo pretty well encapsulates Spencer’s young men’s camp. He’s the striped legs in the middle. They had the BEST time. 

Aaron turned NINE this week. Happy birthday, dude! He asked for Dominos pizza and fat boys for dinner. He wanted donuts for breakfast. We had a great day celebrating him. 

He still loves cat stuffed animals more than anything else in life. It’s the cutest thing. 

It’s so incredibly hot right now. We’re not going outside much. So after I built this scooter rack last week, Bill organized them and all the bikes and we haven’t touched them since. Haha! I love the perfect organization for a snapshot in time. Usually it’s more of a big pile. 

We tried out another place on our GetOut pass yesterday. SeaQuest Aquarium in Layton. It was surprisingly fun! 

 

A few more home improvements

 The only pictures I took this week were of the last few lights we changed out and of a cool cling we got for the back door that the sun shines through really bright at dinner time. 

I’m inordinately pleased with the remote that came with the new fan we bought. If that’s not adulthood, I don’t know what is, lol. We took the switch out and put the remote right over the top. I have a couple more fans upstairs that have remotes that had to be mounted on the wall and I only like that solution so so. But this one is a way better design. 

I love this cling. It doesn’t keep as much sun out as I’d like, but I don’t even care because all the rainbows are so fun.

Fabulous Fourth weekend

 I’ve been on a quest to update all the overhead light fixtures in our house. One of the last on the list was the one in the stairwell. It’s a two- story ceiling, so not that easy to access. We borrowed an extension ladder from Bill’s parents  I was able to fit it in my van. It was magic  I swear my van is the Tardis. 

I love the new dangly globes. They have bubbles in the glass and I love the look. 

I finished another paint by number. I went to frame it yesterday and built the frame only to realize I’d cut the boards an inch and a half too long. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’ll have to cut them again before I can wrap the canvas. 

We went to Utah Lake to go boating yesterday with our friends and Bill’s work colleague’s family. We got paddle boards, kayaks, and kid kayaks. It was so fun. These are the only pictures I have. Never stopped to take any others. 

We went down to BYU to a big party celebrating their entrance into the Big Ten conference. We had a good time. And yes, Bill was wearing red. 😂 He was going for a patriotic vibe with blue shorts. He didn’t think that fully through.