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We found some paint that seemed to go well with pink.  It is called Sandie Pecan.  It actually looked like it was supposed to be a darker brown than this, but we like the way it turned out.

I then hung up my own decorations.  Brown and aqua look good with the pink and the walls.  If we end up buying this house in a couple of years, then we will change out all of the gold fixtures.

I love the bath tub.  I have already used it quite a few times because it helps relieve my neck pain.  Now it feels more like my bathroom.

Our front door is basically a window. It is annoying to have to worry about always being decent when I walk by them. Don’t worry, I’m not a nudist or anything, but sometimes Andy or I need something from the kitchen after getting ready for bed. Privacy is nice to have. Anyways, we decided on these slightly sheer curtains. Yes, they are a little more sheer than we hoped for, but they do tend to give us more privacy. We already put up our old kitchen curtains on the top window to block the sun from shining directly onto our TV. I wish they matched better, but oh well. I will be blogging more about the house soon. I just seem to have little things left undone in each room.

Ever since we moved here people have been telling us how great the 4th is here. It started off with the parade. It was okay. The best part of the parade was that we rode our 4 wheeler, and we got to watch up close from it. The missionaries were pretty funny to watch.

Later we went to the park where they had lots of booths. We got a snow cone and some food. We ran into a couple that we know. They invited us to a concert at the high school. It was fun. The guy sang about Blanding, so we learned a lot about the history of our new town.

That night we had a BBQ at our house. The other pharmacist and his family came over. I’ve actually become good friends with his wife. They have 4 kids. The student at the pharmacy also came. We enjoyed some yummy food, the guys played kinect, the kids settled down with a TV show, and us girls just chatted. Then we drove close to the fireworks show. We watched the fireworks  from our 4 wheeler while they watched it from on top of their van. I realized that the best part of the 4th of July was the people that I got to spend it with.

I am seeing some produce pipping up in my garden. I have 3 cucumbers that are about ready to be picked. I see some little pumpkins and very tiny watermelons. We’ve had some peppers, and a few more are growing. My strawberry runners have planted, and are now growing on their own. They are no longer attached to the mother plant.  All the plants are growing. I’m excited to eat some food! It is also nice that I hardly do anything to maintain this garden. The sprinklers are on a timer, and the black plastic keeps the weeds away.

Summer has always been my favorite season, especially since I’ve been a stay at home mom. Being stuck inside with little ones all winter is really hard. Although this last winter was pretty easy peasy what with no snow and all, I still prefer summer. I was surprised this summer though at how much busier it is with Savanna home all day. She was only gone for 2 and half hours for kindergarten but it’s been a change having her home! We started the summer with no schedule, just lazing around with bits of madness in between. It wasn’t good, we need a schedule around here, something to keep the days moving. I made a new rule of  No Movie (or computer or tv) Monday. The first day we tried it was wonderful, we played in the yard, got a lot of projects done and tried some science experiments. No Movie Monday was so popular that we added Wednesday and Friday to no movie days, I love it. We joined the Summer Reading Program at our library and they have something all my kids can participate in, it’s been great motivation for Savanna to keep reading throughout the summer and Avery and Miles are always up for story time. This summer everyone got in on the swimming lesson action too. I originally signed up just Savanna and Miles but Avery was furious that she would not be going in the water too so she and I did mom and me swimming. It was so much fun! Everybody learned a lot and they all passed their classes so they will be moving up next year!

Savanna played T-ball this year, the first time she has played a team sport. It was very cute to watch! She had a great time and Avery and Miles had fun running around getting into trouble during the games.

This summer was the first time we took all the kids “real” camping. It was awesome, it made me remember how much I like to camp. The kids were really good and had a lot of fun. My favorite part was sleeping in the tent. Having my whole family right next to me (or on top of me, our tent is pretty small) was so special. We were all settling down for the night and Miles asked if I had brought Avery’s sleeping medicine (melatonin drops). I told him he didn’t need any, it was so late he would be fine. He started whining and saying he was never going to be able to fall asleep in the tent, he laid back down and was out in about 5 seconds, it was so funny! I was kind of worried that we might have a sleep walking incident but Savanna just woke up once and said “can we still make smore’s?” then went back to sleep. Miles woke up really early and said “are we still in the woods?” then fell asleep again. We only stayed on night but it was really nice for our family, it was nice to have that much uninterrupted time together away from it all. We want to go at least once more before summer is over.

The kids got a special package in the mail from Aunt Bubbas all the way down in Mesa. My kids still ask about once day where Bubbas lives. Whenever we drive by a big apartment complex they say “hey, I think that’s where Bubbas lives.”  For a long time whenever they saw a mazda or any dark colored car they said “hey that is like Bubbas’ car!” Then it changed to, “she doesn’t have that car anymore, now she just barrows a car when she visits us.” And finally when we parked next to a Jeep the other day they said “That’s the kind or car Bubbas has now!” It’s taking them awhile to figure it all out, the fact that she lives far away and has a different car,  probably because she is such a huge part of their lives. They love when she comes to visit and were super excited to get fun stuff from her in the mail. By the way, Bubbas is James’ sister Heather.
So this was a long post, I need to blog more often but we have been pretty busy. I can’t wait for July 4th and all the fun it will entail! 

I’m sorry this was long.  This is kind of like my journal of our year because I don’t keep a journal.

We arrived in Blanding on Sunday and unloaded the truck on Monday. Andy went back to work on Tuesday, and I started my garden. I planted watermelon, pumpkins, cucumbers, corn, peppers, snap peas, and strawberries. The dirt is red clay. I hope the plants grow well in that stuff. The owners have had a garden in the same spot, so I guess I should trust them. They also have black plastic on it in order to keep the weeds down. I just cut holes wherever I wanted a plant. I hope to enjoy some healthy food this summer!

I weeded the garden, and now I’m working on weeding the front flower bed. I sure have my work ahead of me. At least it will give me something to do besides unpacking boxes.

Remember all those posts I had last summer that talked about how sad I was that Savanna was starting kindergarten? That in no way compares to how sad I am that she has just finished kindergarten. I was driving home from picking up some dinner the other night and pretty much started crying when I drove by the school, yeah I know, lame. Sometimes I cannot handle the fact that all my kids are growing up so fast. First grade already, come on! She had a very adorable graduation program and I was crying there too. They sang songs and acted out some stories. They sang “If We Hold on Together”, you know that super emotional song from The Land Before Time? I know you know what I’m talking about! I was bawling. Anyway… it was very cute. Her teacher was very sweet and made predictions on what all the kids would be when they grew up. She said Savanna would be the president of Halmark because she is always making cards for her and the kids in class. She does that at home too, I have stacks and stack of homemade cards from her! I got a few good pictures, doesn’t she look so old? Crazy. Although it makes me sad that she is so old, first grade will be good for her. She loves school and kind of gets stir crazy hanging around here all the time. Until then I will have to keep her busy all summer, should be fun!

Does anyone read Nienie Dialogues? I entered an essay contest she was having about motherhood. I didn’t win, wasn’t even a finalist, but I thought my essay should be published somewhere so I put it on the blog. Enjoy!

This reminded me of this past Friday night at Mom and Dad’s house with the kids playing on the slide and swings and getting hurt over and over, but they keep going back for more.