4th of July

I thought I should put some 4th of July pictures up before it is the 4th of August. When we lived in our old house I asked Mike to build a swing set for the kids during the 4th of July weekend. It ended up being 104 that weekend. Since we are in a new house with out a swing set I suggested the same idea - "Why don't you build a swing set this 4th of July weekend?" Thank goodness it was in the low 80s.

Did he do a great job or what?

Our Trip to Utah....Back in June!!!!

I know, I know....where have I been? I have been trying to keep my head above water. It doesn't seem to be working though. Any suggestions?

We had a great time visiting Mike's family and we also got to see my brother's family (Michael) and his new baby boy - Landon. Wow! I can't believe they have three kids now. Michael is going to the Y and is living in the married housing there at Wymount. We told somebody that, when we got back to VA and they said they called those apartments the "bunny hutches".

We got to take a tour of the LDS studios - where they film lots of stuff.....Mike's cousin works there and gave us an awesome tour. Here is a picture of Mike and Mark taking really good care of the costumes.

Of course we had to go to Cafe Rio!


We went down to St. George with all of Mike's family. Mike and I love St. George. This was the second time we have been, and we loved it even more. This is us at Snow Canyon.

This is Ben after he did a "Michael Phelps" butterfly (without goggles) into the corner of the hot tub in the pool. The funny thing about this is that Mike and I were already at the "instacare" place getting Mark's ears looked at when Mike's sister (Kym) called telling us Ben needed stitches. Mike wanted him to get the stitches done there and I wanted him to get them done in the ER at the hospital in the same parking lot - with a plastic surgeon because it was on his face. When Mike saw the gaping hole between his eyes he agreed that Ben needed a plastic surgeon. The doctor said he could see the bone. Ben has been to the plastic surgeon three times in his life now.


We had a chance to stop at Cedar Breaks on the way home. It was gorgeous and cold.

We also hiked up the Y at BYU. WOW!!!! that is a steep climb. It was a beautiful view once you got up to the top.

I Love Half Birthdays

This is what I have been doing instead of blogging - making and eating cupcakes ..... too many cupcakes :)

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

That is why I am not putting any pictures of me doing my first triathlon after Mark has been born. I am 20 pounds heavier than I was from my last triathlon. I could feel it when I was racing, but I had no idea I looked that bad in a bathing suit until the professional pictures were emailed to me!!!! I will not be buying any of those race pictures. My race went great though. I wanted to finish in less than 1:30 and I finished in 1:25. That includes the time I spent running back to the transition area after I forgot to put on my race number. I will not forget that again. I felt like an idiot running back for 3 minutes through the starting corral and everything! Well, at least I did not get disqualified.

I did this race with my dad, which was totally fun! Thanks, Dad for doing this with me.

Instead here is a Easter picture of the kids I had done last night.

Mom, I don't have any Looks!

We started doing family scripture time during breakfast because the night time was not working with all of their extra-curricular activities. I have each of the children read three verses and then explain what it means. Sometimes I have another child explain if I think they were not paying attention. You would not think there would be enough time in 9 verses for a fight to occur. I am here to tell it is very possible. Sometimes someone is reading too fast then another time someone is reading too slow. Yesterday I couldn't help but giggle.

Ben was reading and he got carried away and when he read the part, "Hosanna to the Lord..." he sang it in the most sweet little boy voice. Abby started laughing which hurt his feelings. Then I told them they need to pay close attention because it is going to say "Look!" a lot of times and we need to pay attention to those parts.

Ben said, "Mom, I don't have any Looks!." Which made all of us started laughing - which then hurt his feelings again. Needless to say Ben needed lots of hugs yesterday.

Shamrock Marathon 8K

If I were in school it looks like I have failed, but I am taking this as a victory. I finished faster than my training times. I am still not as fast as I was before Mark was born, but I am going to get back there.

LAURIE MILLER #2411

CHESAPEAKE, VA

Age: 33 Gender: F

Distance	8K
Clock Time	56:53
Chip Time	54:17
Overall Place	3850 / 7089
Gender Place	1863 / 4289
Division Place	300 / 679
Age Grade	44.6%

How Long Is 6 Weeks?

Six weeks is 42 days, 1,008 hours, 60,480 minutes and 3,628,800 seconds. This is how long I went with out a dishwasher. The repair company could not find the right part and when they thought they did have the right part they came to install it, with much jubilation from me, only to be greatly disappointed when it was not the right one.

This occurred over Christmas and New's Year's. I had 30 people over my house for Christmas Eve, then had 4 relatives from out of state come stay for a week. I had a New Years' Eve party at my house and all the while did I think to delegate anything to my children? NO! Not until the dishwasher was fixed did I have an epiphany.

I realized my children were quite old enough to help in the kitchen. Since we have 3 older children I have delegated dishes (loading & unloading the dishwasher and hand washing any pots), counters (wiping all counters, table and Mark's high chair tray), and sweeping. I made the rule that the counter person had to go before the sweeping person to avoid any fights!

This has been going on for 2 months and I can not believe I was so slow to think of it. I sometimes have to help them finish if they have not finished before their extra-curricular activities. So far they have been doing a great job and I feel much relieved.

This is what I found this morning upon opening the dishwasher after Emma loaded it last night.



So I think I need to go over loading instructions again!