Fire Pit Dinner!

We had a fire pit dinner Saturday night. We cooked hot dogs and had salad and watermelon and carrots. Then we did s'mores. Of course, that's the best part!

Brittany ate all the chips by herself. (not really)

The sun was setting in our eyes. The smoke and ashes were also in our eyes. But I love fire pits!

Mark liked his s'mores, too! Enjoy this because he will probably make me remove it from the post!

Everyone had to take turns taking photos with my camera. This is Tanner's shot! (It's posed, I promise!) The best part of this photo is the incredible view from our backyard! What a gorgeous day! It was supposed to rain!

See, I guess Jared had some chips, too.

What is it with 11-year-old boys and fire?

Okay, I LOVE s'mores.

Workin' on garden things

Kiersten and I made some 4' by 4' grids to help with the square foot gardening. She hammered in all the staples that didn't go all the way in. She gets a whole grid to plant her garden things in. She thinks that's pretty cool. She planted lot of flowers. When things start coming up, I'll post a photo!

Wishing Flowers

Kiersten was telling me all about wishing flowers today and how they are the best flowers in the world! They are the ones where you blow on the fuzz and make a wish. I explained that those yellow ones she picks are the same thing, and she thinks they are the prettiest in the whole world, too! Do you have lots of wishing flowers, too?

Kiersten's Sick Day

Kiersten has been sick with a drippy cold for two days. Here she is after a bath, settling in to watch a movie. Her hair was wet and she flipped it up on the couch so it wouldn't get her back wet!

Lilacs are my favorite!

My lilacs are blooming and they are so pretty! The purple with white edges don't smell much at all, but the white ones and the dark purple are really nice! I don't have any regular purple ones; I need to get some.

Alpine Elementary Carnival

Tanner, Kiersten and I went to the Alpine Elementary Carnival and had a great time. Kiersten especially liked the train (photo by cell phone, sorry for quality!). It was pulled by a riding lawnmower.

Here's the kids with their loot! Tanner has cotton candy and a stuffed dog. Kiersten has face paint, a balloon hat, a pinwheel, a sucker and a stuffed fish!

Then & Now

When we went to Boise, we took a little time and went back to the house I lived in as a child. I was five when we moved here, 15 when we moved away. Here's me on the first day of school with my pencil box (1975).

And here's me 23 years later in the same place. (You do the math!)

Here the clan sometime in the late 70's (can you tell by the clothing?).

And here they are now (about 30 years later!)

Grandpa Curtis's 90th Birthday Party!

We went up to Boise this weekend to Grandpa Curtis's 90 birthday party! It was so great to see everyone. Thanks to Ryan and Janeen for having the party at their place and everyone who helped! Here are some of the best pictures.

Grandpa waving to everyone after we sang "Happy Birthday!"

Jared and the other boys played pool (it was cooler inside!)

Kiersten wanted a close-up! A Close-Up!

5 Generation photo! Paul Curtis, Karen Curtis Hammer, Stacey Hammer Anderson, Anthony Paul Pittl, and Madisin Pittl.

Well, the women in the family have a sense of humor, anyway! Connie, Grandpa, Karen, Ryan, Kevin, John

Stacey and Wendy

Kris and Kiersten (It was really hot)

Tanner managed to steal Anthony's hat for a few minutes!

Kiersten's Hairdo

I got all inspired after reading a hair blog, and here's what came out!

Mother's Day

So everybody else I know wrote about Mother's Day earlier in the week. Here's mine. But I didn't take pictures! Sorry.

I woke up to breakfast in bed from Mark, Kiersten and Jared. Brittany and Tanner were sleeping in. I had poached eggs, homemade bread and a bowl of beautiful fruit with purple milk (there were blueberries in it). Kiersten and Tanner gave me cards and Jared gave me a chocolate kiss from the bowl in the kitchen the day before. I think he ate it later. Brittany gave me the leftover chips and guacamole from her dinner out the night before. I got just what I wanted, software! But the best part is knowing they love me.

We went to church, and it was so nice to have the children sing. I really love that. I always get weepy. Tanner always looks right at me for my reaction. 

After church, we had Mark's whole family over for dinner. Hamburgers, dutch oven potatoes, fresh spinach salad (from Charlie's garden), veggies, chips, and dutch oven blueberry cobbler. All way too yummy! It was fun to have all the family here.

That night we had a big storm and the wind blew everything all over the place, dutch oven covers, quad chair covers, ashes from the dutch oven cooking. The rain washed it all clean, though.

P.S. Yesterday I found out I'm anemic! Maybe that's why I've been taking three naps a day...

Pre-Prom Photos

Isn't she beautiful?! Brittany won the updo at the YW spaghetti dinner/silent auction. She was so excited it turned out so well!

Kiersten had to get into the pictures, too! Poor thing is still in her pjs. She didn't get much of Mom's attention today.

Brittany and Sam went out to dinner at Osaka (in SLC) and the prom is at the newly remodeled Capitol Building!

Kiersten's Dance Recital

Kiersten had a dance recital this weekend. She did great; my photos were really blurry, though. Here she is before the Friday night performance. Her hair is getting so long!

The whole family came to see her perform!

Kiersten loves her dance teacher, Marlo.

Hope of America!

Tanner's school participates in Hope of America! at the BYU Marriott Center every year. The fourth graders do a dance on the floor, and the fifth graders are in the flag chorus. Tanner was pretty stressed about getting there late this year (we were a little late last year) and so we went early! No traffic, it was great! But we did have to wait about two hours for the show to start! (They were supposed to be there an hour early).

Tanner almost alone on the bleachers! At least I knew where he was...

See what I mean about knowing where he was! This is all fifth graders!

Tanner is right in the center of this photo, the lower of the two white rows, with a blue collar on his shirt.

The best part of the show is the last song. The flag kids have flashlights and they shine all over the stadium; there's also a disco ball effect going on.

Dioramas!

Kiersten's class made dioramas! Hers is on the flamingo. She did the whole thing, except she had me cut out the flamingo. 

The parents got to come and see the kids' hard work!

Fawn was in town for Christi's BYU graduation, so she came with me!

A Few Semi-Warm Days

I help on the playground at school a few times a month. Kiersten has to go to school early and be on the playground with me until halfway through, when I take her to her kindergarten class.

Kiersten sliding down the corkscrew last week.

Kiersten and her friend, Kate, from down the street on another warm day. They wrote all over the driveway with Kiersten's new sidewalk chalk!