Zip line Date

In December Mark found groupon tickets to the zip line down in Branson for 1/2 price, so we decided to get them. We practically had all year to use them. Then in Feb, he saw them again, and we decided it would be MORE fun to go WITH someone, (and we had my sister and brother in law in mind)

So fast forward to like 2 weeks ago, and we invited Mike and Marisa to go to the zip line with us, They were SUPER excited, which they SHOULD be, cause they were going to go do an awesome thing, with awesome people. :)

We thought it was for the Branson Zip Lines...nope, it was for Indian Point zip line, (still in branson, and still fun, just not as big)

So we went to their house and left at 8 on Tuesday morning. got there 20 mins early, signed the waiver and headed over to the first tower.  There ended up being a group of about 9 people and 2 guides. We weren't aloud to have cameras on the zip lines, so we didn't get any pictures. We stepped into our harnesses (rock climbing harnesses, and put on our helmets and headed up the tower.

We had a safety line that we were always clipped to, the guides hooked us up to the safety lines, and also hooked up to the zip line, we didn't do any hooking or un hooking. The first guide went down to get the brake system ready for all of us. Then they asked who wanted to go first. Mike raised his hand. Then Marisa was next, she made every body laugh every single time she went. the first time she rand and jumped and was yelling most of the way down.

I think it was the 2nd tower one of the girls noticed that there was just a very short step, no plank think to walk off, and she said "hey, there's no... scary little...death ramp to go off of" It was hilarious. Maybe you just had to be there.

There were 4 towers, we went from one to another. At one of them Marisa did a karate kick off and held the pose. All the way down. Every body was busting up. Even the people we didn't know. we were all just having a good time. We got to the last tower and as one of the last guys was coming in i yelled "LOOK OUT!" he he he, kinda freaked him out.

The tour was only 45 mins (and if you have to pay full price $72 a couple, it's NOT worth it. But for $36 a couple, it was fun enough to do it once.)

We cam back to Springfield and decided to go out to eat, but it was like 10:45, so we went to Hobby town USA to kill some time first. That place....was AWESOME. They had a rack of puppets right in the front if the store. The guys went to the RC stuff, and Marisa and I played with the puppets for like 15 mins. They were SO fun. We decided we need to make puppets (I have looked up how to do it a LONG time ago, I've wanted to make some for a while) :) Then we moved on to the rest of the store. They had some fun stuff, and the toys are better then toys r us. almost all of them are Danton proof. That is were we are going for christmas.

Then we went across the street to the Mall, and ate at HuHot, Mike and Ris had never been. It was yummy.

Seriously the funnest date! (well until we have our Bob Ross date, that should be fun too) We hadn't been on a double with them in SEVERAL years.... 8 actually. It's about time we got to hang out with out the kids.

Calling all cows!

Friday was Chick-Fil-A's cow appreciation day. Marisa and I found out about it Thursday evening. So we spent Friday morning getting ready to go. I found some felt that I had on hand, and some clear elastic. I found a picture of a cow mask like Lydia's on line, and she said that's what she wanted. So I made her a mask, I thought Danton would be a cool texas Longhorn bull, so I made him some horns and a cool nose complete with nose ring, and he also had a tail. I made some last minuet hooves and taped them to rubber bands, and had to stop at the store before we went so I picked up some rubber gloves for udders. When Danton saw them, he wanted on to. :)

I just put some ears on a head band and pinned a tail on Ris, they head band was never on for more than 4 seconds. I love this picture cause I think it looks like an advertisement.

All the kids actually sat and ate their food. They were very well behaved, polite, and obedient.  IT was a BLAST! Marisa came too, but she was a little later than we were, and my kids were about ready to go play when he kids started eating. 

see their little tails? I didn't get a picture of Arissa's tail, it was SO cute.

And I took an old ball cap and just glued the felt on to make a cow head. Now i actually want to sew one, it turned out a lot cuter then I expected it to.


The kids LOVED their costumes. I kept asking Danton if he wanted me to hold his nose and horns, but he wanted to wear them. EVERYBODY loved his costume.  

Yeah, we will be putting these in the costume box.

Girls Camp

ok, so I'm not very good at taking pictures. I took one picture the whole time. Maybe I"ll come back and add some when I steal them from the girls on FB :)
We went up on Tuesday. We had 20 girls from our ward, and I didn't really know any of them. I knew 2 from Activity Days, but that's about it. I really didn't know what I was in for. I knew I would have fun though.

Tuesday we met at the church early to work on the skit. I was still learning names. The theme was BUGS, Be Unique Girls and Shine. (LOVED IT) Each ward picked a bug. It took us a while to get together and pick a bug before camp, so all the "cute" ones were taken, so we chose Yellow Jackets. Turns out it was WAY more fun the the cutsie ones. We got them yellow back packs and bananas bandannas for camp. That was great for me, I could find my group from ANYWHERE in the camp.

We were in Cabins and we soon found out that we were not alone. Big Bertha spiders bigger than tarantulas, wasp nests, dead mice, and a Bird (which at first was thought to be a bat) were found in the cabins. Sleeping arrangements were shuffled and me and the other leader had 4 of the girls with us in our cabin that slept 4. A little crowded, but I wouldn't have changed it. It gave me a chance to get to know those girls better, and I LOVE them to death!

I ended up with one of the girls camera, and I forgot who's it was. So I took it back to my cabin instead of leaving it out all night. Well I thought it would be a fun prank to fill it up with completely RANDOM pictures.  I had one of the girls and the other leader in there and for a good 20 mins were were cracking up and coming up with hilarious pictures. At one point, I took an extra yellow bag and drew a face on it and put it over my head. Apparently that was a big hit with all the girls. They named her Gertrude, and she lived through the duration of camp.

Camp was exhausting cause there was no flat ground, you were either going up hill or down hill, we were up at 6:30, and went to bed no earlier than midnight, and had very little free time during the day. Plus it was a bit chilly at night, and I only brought a sheet to sleep under. (I used my towel as another layer and managed to stay warm :) )

For bishops night our bishop came all decked out in our colors, including his bright yellow knee high socks. He scored BIG points with the girls. And he helped one of the girls roast a moth so SHE could eat it....no, I'm not kidding. It was hilarious.

It was a busy week, but SO FUN! The activities were awesome, the food was great, and the company was AMAZING. I hope I get to go again with these girls. (next time I'll bring my banjo) :)

P.S. they are STILL using my additional 3 verses to Grandma's in the Cellar. YEAH BABY!

Marks B-day

Marks favorite show is Dr Who. It's a British scifi series, One of the "bad guys" is a race of Aliens called the Daleks. 

Lydia wanted to make Daddy a Dalek cake for his birthday. He requested that I make him a cheesecake, so I was going to find a simple picture of a Dalek that I could draw with chocolate syrup on the top. But instead I found how to make a mini Dalek cake using swiss rolls. So we headed to the store for swiss rolls and candy. After I took the picture, I realized I forgot the little lights on the top. Lydia decorated the blue one and I decorated the brown one. 

 For his birthday on Saturday I made him ribs. What guy doesn't love robs?! Honestly I love em too, but they are so darn expensive that we don't have them very often. This is the 3rd time we have made them. The first 2 times we were no super successful. So I spent this last week reading different recipes and methods for cooking ribs, and it paid off.

I took off the membrane on the back, covered them wit ha dry rub (brown sugar, garlic, onion, paprika, cayane, black pepper, and a dash of pre mixed mccormic something or other)

Put them in their own thing of foil with a table spoon or two of apple juice in each one and just a few drops of liquid smoke.

Baked them in the oven for 3 hrs at 250 (actually at 2 hours I turned it down to 200)

Then Mark took them out to the grill, slathered them in bbq sauce, put them on the grill for 20 mins or so till it got bubbly and sticky and then we ate them.

They. Were. AWESOME!

 And of course we had corn on teh cobb (but no home made rolls....I spent the afternoon making Daleks instead)

 EXTERMINATE!!

Rissa turned 1!

We had "bazonya" for dinner on her birthday (as Danton calls it), then for FHE we did a little birthday party.

 Daddy had to blow out the candle, she didn't know what to do.

 Brownies in a cup cake pan, she loved it.

 Then time for presents. The kids each wrapped one for her earlier in the day. I 2wrapped one too, so she end up with 3 presents.

 After the first one, she was done, she was happy, and not even interested in the others.

 So I told the kids to open the presents that they wrapped for her, and they were delighted. Once she actually saw the other stuff she was excited to have it. (same monkey Lydia got for her 1st b day.)

see saw swing

Just made the kids a see saw swing. It's so fun. They LOVE it!




I put full instructions on my new Project Blog

Lydia's scripture study

     Last night for Lydia's scripture study we read Mosiah chapter 19 in the Book of Mormon. This is about the wicked King Noah taking the men and fleeing from the approching Lamanite army, leaving the women and children and a few of the men (who refused to leave their families behind) to fend for them selves. They "caused that their fair daughters should stand forth and plead with the Lamanites that they would not slay them. And it came to pass that the Lamanites had compassion on them, for they were charmed with the beauty of their women. Therefore the Lamanites did spare their lives"


 A little while after we were done reading Lydia said "Mom, I'm pretty huh."
"Yes you are Lydia, you are very pretty"
"The Lamanities wouldn't kill me because I'm so beautiful"
(chuckling to my self) "Nope, they wouldn't kill you, you are very beautiful"

ha ha ha well, at least she is getting something out of the scriptures.

I'm not quoting word for word, cause I can't remember exactly, but that is how the  conversation went anyway, And while we are reading I stop often and make sure she understands what we are reading.

I built a Swing Set!

For my birthday I got to build a swing set!  Funnest birthday present ever. Once I FINALLY got it all done I realized just how crazy I really am. I really have NO CLUE what I’m doing. But once I get an idea in my head that is really the only thing I think about till it’s done. Kind of like a pregnancy craving, you don’t want to eat anything else till you get what you are craving. Well I have….Idea cravings .

My husband is so awesome to see how ridiculous I can be, and yet support all my crazy notions. I used 2 different sets of plans cause they both had things I liked. When you mash 2 things together like that, sometimes you get "holes". I used this one and one from Ana White. 

I wanted to make one completely out of wood cause when you start getting swing set brackets and braces you can double what you would have spent on just the wood. So with a little extra work I saved a lot of money. I spent a whopping $116 on this, and I got everything I needed. 

It's made out of 10 ft 4x4's (and here is the crazy part) I thought I could do most of it my self. And if you know me at ALL, you know that strength is not one of my strengths. :) It took FOREVER cause those things are huge and heavy. 

Day 1 last Monday (my birthday) (also the hottest day so far this year) I went to lowes and got the supplys and lumber. I got one A frame put together by my self, and the other one ready for assembly. Then my parents and siblings still at home came over and surprised me that evening. They helped me get it all put together. It took all of us a little over an hour to do what would have taken me all day. It was so fun to have them there working on it with me. We got down to the VERY last nut and bolt, and then we were gonna set it up. BUT the last nut was all screwy in the fact that it would screw on. 

Day 2 I went to ACE (just down the road) to get the last nut. Got the WRONG one, so I took it back (with all 3 kids in tow) And got the wrong one AGAIN. ANNOYING. Put the kids down for naps and worked on swings. When Rissa woke up I headed to Lowes and got the RIGHT one. Finally got it all put together and My brother Joe came over that afternoon to help me set it up. 

Here is the "hole". I only had one bolt in each end connecting the A's with the beam, so essentially I made a slight hinge. The swing set was swaying side to side. GRRR. So we set it down and I spend the evening figuring out how to fix it.

Day 3: Lucky for me I grabbed a couple extra pieces of lumber when I got the last bolt so I had what I needed to fix it. I got the braces on the ends and the front, I couldn't get them on the back cause that was the side it was laying on. 

 Mom and Dad stopped by that afternoon and helped me set it up. And it was STABLE!! Then later I had to climb up the side and finish screwing it all together while it was standing. Lydia got some puctures of me while I was up there. 


My favorite part of a project is seeing it all come together. It's still a work in progress. I have 2 seat swings up, and a partial baby swing. My original design didn't work so I found a better easier one. I will get it done this week. Along with a see-saw swing. I have everything I need for it except 4 bolts. The see saw swing will be more fun to make, but I should do the baby swing first so Ris can enjoy it too.

This is the gift that keeps on giving. Since it's all wood and I made all the swings, I can continue to change it and add. (not all right now) Some day we will make a fort to go with it...some day.

It was a lot of work but SO FUN.  Like I said, I have the best Husband EVER for putting up with all my crazy projects. My poor house suffered greatly last week. :)

Danton's 3rd Birthday (2 months to late)

We celebrated Dantons Birthday at Grandmas house and invited all the cousins that live close. I made him a motorcycle tire cake. 

It says Happy 3rd Birthday Danton like tire lettering. And Uncle Joe gave him a really COOL motorcycle so we put it on top of the cake. (the motorcycle was the biggest hit)

Love this one, you can see everyone that helped blow out the candles.

 See, the motorcycle was very popular.

 He was opening his Lightening McQueen shirt and Mater shirt. He couldn't see what they were yet

 He saw the, he LOVES them. (see the HUGE hug)

And he got his very own skate board. He seriously got TONS of new toys from his cousins. Enough for everyone to play too. It was a fun day.