The weekend...

The kids & I went to Phoenix for the weekend. It was a fast trip though, we got there late friday night & left early sunday morning. So I pretty much had a crammed full day on saturday. I first went & got my haircut from my friend Karen early that morning. Then my mom & I went to the temple (my sister Rachel babysat my kiddos for me). I visited with my sister & her sweet baby Lydia. Then we went & visited my Turley Grandparents. And lastly I went to my 10 year high school reunion. It was a long day.

I love my mom


My kids love babies-well Marlee has a love/hate for them. She likes them personally but, she doesn't like that they take attention away from her. Clayton is so good with babies, just like his Daddy.


Marlee looks so grown up & tall compared to Lydia. Hopefully these two little girls will grow up liking eachother. As of now, I think Marlee likes Lydia much more than Lydia likes her. Marlee kept touching Lydia's face & then Lydia would cry.



The high school reunion was fun. Becky^ did all of the planning & it turned out great. Becky & I carpooled together since both of our husbands couldn't make it & to set up some stuff. I remembered to get this photo long before the event even started but, then I forgot & didn't take any pictures when the event actually started-oh well. We had around 60 people there, I think? But when you consider that the graduating class of 2000 was only around 230 people & that you cannot always locate everyone to even let them know about it, that is not to shabby of a turn out. When you see people again, it almost seems that it hasn't been ten years ago. It was fun to catch up & see old friends. From visiting with people, I'm pretty sure that I have been married the longest & have the most kids. It is crazy how much my life has changed since high school.

Dear Marlee,

You are so cute, sweet, and curious. Your full of adventure and happiness. We love you so much!

P.S. Could you please stop...

-screaming every time you don't get your way

-getting into the chalk and crayons and coloring things you shouldn't or eating them

-throwing food at others or on the ground

-taking off your diaper whenever you feel like it

-emptying the wipe box

-telling your mother no

-eating the chapstick

-pulling my clothes out of the dresser

-rearranging my high heels

It would be much appreciated, thank you.

Love Always,

Mom

Chicken anyone?

For Christmas Laun gave me this ^ so we could cook our chickens on the grill. It is now September & we are finally testing it out. You have to be careful not to burn it but, the chicken turns out really tasty.

I love date night

Last night Laun & I went to his department dinner at The Mountain Oyster Club. The company was great & so was the food. They served creme brulee for dessert & it was amazing. I have got to learn how to make it.

Our long weekend....

I took Porter & Marlee with me to my cousin Sam Miller's wedding reception. Clayton stayed with Laun & helped him at work. It was fun to see so many family & friends in one night. My sister Laura & her husband Justin even came from Utah. Laura is a huge Marlee fan so, I pretty much had the night off.

Me & my pretty sister Laura (we are really the same height, Laura was wearing flats)


I think every kid loves balloons


Marlee was checking out these statues, it was so cute. She would get right in their faces & kiss them on the cheeks, like they were real or something.


We stayed the night at my Dad's house & so did the Laytons, it was nice to have time to hang out. My sister Rachel & my sister-in-law Richelle came over to visit. Rachels baby Lydia is just perfect. Then my dad babysat while Laura & I went to last chance to do some shopping. We are a bad combo because we take forever but, we have such a good time together & got some cute stuff.

Marlee wasn't looking at the camera so, Porter "helped" her.

These kiddos love to play the piano.

Sat night we went to the Layton's house & Porter had fun swimming. We had hamburgers & then headed over to the Miller's house for games. I had a great time visiting with family but, I think Porters favorite part was playing the ninja game.

Porter, Riley, & Liz were the final 3 left in the ninja game.

Laun went to the Smart's Ranch for Labor day but, I had to stay home since I had a primary training meeting on sunday night. But luckily we weren't bored because our friends invited us over on monday for some amazing food & swimming.

Speaking of our little cowgirl...

Marlee got her biopsy resuls back & they are a lot like we figured but better. She has acid reflux & it showed some redness/irritation which is from her intolerance to milk & soy. The great news is that the diet & medicine she is on are working pretty good & her villi look good too (this is great news because when Port was having issues his villi were almost gone-villi are in the intestines for those of you wondering). They only want me to add one more thing to her medicine list & we are good. She is to stay on her EO28 (a medical drink-that smells & makes her breath smell). Yea- we are so happy that we are treating her correctly & that she is growing! The best part is that because it is just an intollerance & not an allergy, she should out grow this problem just like Porter did.

And welcome to Arizona....

This is a sign that we saw as we were on our drive. Gotta love AZ.


Prickly pears are ripe right now so, we decided to go on a afternoon drive to Sonoita & pick some.

Even Marlee "helped" us- I like the picture above because it looks as if Marlee is about to fall into the cactus.

Porter has his game face on

Clayton with a prickly pear he got

The boys were such a big help & it didn't take long until the bucket was full.

Marlee on the other hand was a good observer.

Marlee loves sitting in the driver seat & looking out the window.

And the boys love sitting in the bed of the truck.

Our dog Sage had a good time running around.

Marlee loves being outdoors & trying to keep up with her brothers.

The boys found these really cool walking stick bugs.

Checking out the bugs

The boys like taking along their bug bucket because they usually find cool creatures.

Marlee loves to "drive".

It was such a beautiful day, the weather was perfect & it was so green. It is crazy to think that Sonoita isn't very far from Tucson but looks so different.

The boys looked cute in their matching Utah State shirts-Go Aggies!

We ate at this cool restraunt in Sonoita where they have live music; there was a violin & guitar player & they sang. Marlee loved it & would dance. It was the best she has ever behaved at a restraunt before. The boys liked the music too. The downside is that Laun & I were only impressed with their french fries & the rest of the food was just so-so.

Before we headed home we stopped by coldstone for some dessert.

When we got home we had all these beauties to deal with, which means Laun & I had to stay up late-Laun does most the work though.

Laun cut them up & put them in a big pot with water on the stove & mashed them to get the juice out.

Then we use a cheese cloth to strain out the seeds & needles from the juice.

This is some of the juice we got from the prickly pears.We put the juice in food saver bags & freeze them for later. Then when we want to make prickly pear jelly or syrup, we have the juice already to go.

My favorite is the prickly pear syrup. We try to have enough juice to last us through the year so we can always make that syrup.

Yesterday...

Marlee has been wearing Porter's shoes lately:

Last night our ward had a chili & ice cream cook-off. Laun got 2nd place on his chili but, the bummer is that our chili ran out before everyone could try it so, not everyone that voted even tasted it. And I'm pretty sure that Laun would have bagged first. So lesson learned-next time make a HUGE pot of chili so that everyone can sample it. There was a prize for the 1st & 2nd place & the kids were so excited that we won this:


When we got home, Marlee enjoyed snuggling up in the laundry & "reading" a book: