Camping Out

So, my nephew Talon is here visiting for a week and has spent the night at my house the past couple of nights. They decided they wanted to sleep in the backyard last night. Unfortunately, I don't own a tent. I'm not much of a camper. So, we ran to Target to see if we could find something inexpensive that they could use in the backyard. And, umm....tents are WAY more money than I thought. I did find a little two kid sleeper tent that was pretty cheap, the only problem is that it was pink camoflauge. Landon was freaking out. But the only other one that could have worked was twice as much money. Not worth it with the fact that we don't go camping. So, I told him he got pink, or he got nothing. My sweet nephew Talon said that it didn't matter to him, and finally convinced Landon that they could deal with it. Landon wanted to make sure that nobody would see him sleeping in a pink tent. Did you know that Barbie is his mortal enemy? I just found that out. ;0)

Anyway....they slept in the pink tent...all night. Told me it was their best night EVER! I even overheard Talon tell Landon, "I really like your mom." Warm fuzzies. Love it! And they even let me take a picture of them in the pink tent. They told me that I couldn't let anybody see the pictures though. So, this is just between you and me okay???? ;0)

How do I Love Thee?

The Message: How Do I Love Thee?
By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I wish to speak to you about Christlike love and what I think it can and should mean in your friendships.
After a long, wonderful discourse by Mormon on the subject of charity, the seventh chapter of Moroni tells us that this highest of Christian virtues is more accurately labeled “the pure love of Christ.”
“And it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him [and her].
“Wherefore, … pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons [and daughters] of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; … that we may be purified even as he is pure” (Moro. 7:47–48).
True charity, the absolutely pure, perfect love of Christ, has really been known only once in this world—in the form of Christ Himself, the living Son of the living God. As in everything, Christ is the only one who got it all right, did it all perfectly, loved the way we are all to try to love. But even though we fall short, that divine standard is there for us. It is a goal toward which we are to keep reaching, keep striving—and, certainly, a goal to keep appreciating.
Mormon explicitly taught that this love, this ability we all so want, is a gift. It is “bestowed.” It doesn’t come without effort, and it doesn’t come without patience, but, like salvation itself, in the end it is a gift, given by God to the “true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.”
The solutions to life’s problems are always gospel solutions. Not only are answers found in Christ, but so is the power, the gift, the bestowal, the miracle of giving and receiving those answers. In this matter of love, no doctrine could be more encouraging to us than that.

The first element of divine love—pure love—taught by both Paul and Mormon is its kindness, its selfless quality, its lack of ego and vanity and consuming self-centeredness. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind, [charity] envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own” (Moro. 7:45). Love for others blooms when we care more about another person than we care about ourselves. Christ’s was a great example for us through the atonement, and it ought to be more evident in the kindness we show, the respect we give, and the selflessness and courtesy we employ in our personal relationships.

The second segment of this scriptural sermon on love in Moroni 7:45 [Moro. 7:45] says that true charity —“is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity.”
Think of how many arguments could be avoided, how many hurt feelings could be spared, if we were not so easily provoked, if we thought no evil of one another. Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love. Assume the good and doubt the bad.

In Mormon’s and Paul’s final witnesses, they declare that “charity [pure love] never faileth” (Moro. 7:46; 1 Cor. 13:8). It is there through thick and thin. It endures through sunshine and shadow, through darkest sorrow and on into the light. It never fails. So Christ loved us, and that is how He hoped we would love each other.

In a final command to all His disciples for all time, He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34; emphasis added).

Happy Birthday to me!

So, I am getting closer to the 30 mark. Not so sure that I'm going to be okay with that. It's inevitable, but what can I do about it? Sure, I can continue to slather my face with anti-aging creams....but the number will still come. Sigh.
So, I was supposed to go on a scrapbook retreat this past weekend. Since I went to one in October, I have been dying to do it all over again. Three days of no kids, no hubby....just girls scrapping. Nice, huh? I get a lot of stuff done too. It's actually the only real time I get to scrapbook. Anyway... I also knew the next time I went, I wanted my mom and sisters to go with me. Well, since my sis-in-law was in moving process, and my little sister was planning on a big move to Boise....that left my mom and older sister to ask if they wanted to run away with me. They were game and so it was all planned. And then I had to go and ruin it all by buying a new house. Where we had just barely listed our house, I was worried we would get potential buyers wanting to come and see it while I was gone. And honestly, guys just don't keep things clean the way us girls do. Jaysen is a stacker. He thinks things are "clean" if he's put them into piles. Sigh. So, I knew I couldn't leave for three days. So, instead, my mom and sis and I decided we would just "retreat" to my mom's house and scrap there for the three days.

That way, if someone did want to see the house, I could
run home really quick and help get things in order. I already had all of my stuff packed up for the retreat anyway...so we went for it. And it was really fun! I got 19 pages done! Holy cow!
Can you believe it? It's awesome. My mom devoted her time to organizing her pictures and so it was fun to go through some of them with her. We got out our baby pictures and others from when we were little. Some good laughs over the outfits we were wearing back in the 80s. Man were we cool! And my sister got lots of her wedding photos scrapbooked.
All in all it was a good birthday weekend. We went out for pasta....my favorite! And my mom got me a new bracelet for my collection. (It's one I've been wanting) And...the house showed THREE times! No offers yet, but it hasn't even been on the market for a week. Hopefully it keeps going steady this way so we can move forward.
A BIG THANKS to Jaysen for letting me run away...not only for three days (he had to take two days off of work) of having the kids all to himself, but also for letting me do it on my birthday. We had to have our family celebration a day late and I know he was kind of bummed about it. Love you Jaysen!

Moving

So, I won't be posting as often for the next month or so. We went insane last week and decided to buy a new house.....before we sold this one. I really think we lost it. So, on top of packing up my house, I have to keep it spotless in case a realtor wants to show it to a prospective buyer. I've only been doing it for three days and I'm already tired. Sigh.


Anyway...we are excited about the new house though. It's a five bedroom, soon to be three bath (third bath only partly done). And, it has a full basement. Which is what we were looking for so we had a place to shove the kids. ;0) Isn't it great? Anyway...if you know of anyone looking for a house...tell them to buy mine!













It's cute! I promise. And I just put in a new little flowerbed in the backyard with climbing vines and pretty purple perennials. It's beautiful. We just put it in last month. So, I'll be sad to leave it behind.





Anyway.....yeah....because of the packing and the moving....and what not...posting may not be as frequent. But, I'll try to keep up. Wish me luck!

Wuv you

So, my brother is moving his family away. They just barely moved here last May and are already leaving. He found a new job back in Utah and so they are packing it all up. They have actually already been down in Utah for the last month as he started his job a while ago. They are selling their house here, so had to come back yesterday to keep that going. Anyway...needless to say, we missed them. Cousins are so fun to have close by and now we don't have any at all.



But, we did get a call yesterday afternoon from Austin asking if he could come and spend the night. So, of course, we said yes. Austin is a couple of years younger than Landon, but they are best buds and always have been. So, you'd think I would be posting a picture of the two of them right? Well, silly you! Mackenzee also loves Austin. He has a little sister the same age as Mackenzee and so he is very good to her. This morning, she tackled him and smothered him with hugs and kisses. He humored her. It was adorable. How could I not get a picture of it?

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Happy Fathers Day! I hope all you fathers out there had a great day and were well taken care of by your kids and spouses.

Jaysen took my dad and his dad out golfing Saturday morning, so I was able to grap a couple of photos of the kids with Papa for the old scrapbook. ;0) The guys had a good time golfing and came home tired. Just in time for the US Open too. ;0) So, Jaysen was able to get in some lazy tv time Saturday afternoon.

Doesn't he look so tired in this picture? Almost makes you feel bad for the guy. ALMOST.

Anyway....

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

It's Fantastic!

So, we had girls night tonight, and much to my disappointment, only three of us showed up. Apparently I'm one of the only mom's that wants a night away from not only her kids, but the hubby too. And with GIRLS. Sigh. Anyway....We were supposed to go bowling, but with only three of us there, we ditched the alley and decided to go catch a flick instead. With not much out there that was appealling we decided on the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. My friend, Fonda's, hubby was going to go see it later tonight anyway, so she thought she'd squeeze it in before he went. As his hubby was at my hubby's house with all of the kids, I bought a 9:15 ticket for Jaysen too so he could go with Matt after we got done at the theater. (Did that make sense) Anyway...I was feeling guilty going to see this without Jaysen because he was really wanting to see it, and honestly, it wasn't on my list of must-sees for the summer. I haven't even seen the first Fantastic 4!

So, I had no expectations whatsoever about this movie, and only knew the basic gist of it because of my 7 year old. But, all in all, it was a pretty good movie. It had all of the super hero stuff in it, and a good overall "moral" to the story. And, it kept you going and was....ONLY 1 hr. 35 min. long! So much better than 2 hr. 45 min. like some other movies I previously blogged about. ;0)

Anyway...the three of us had a fabulous time at the movie for girls night. Fonda is in charge next month...so we'll see what's in store for us then!

Watersliding fun!

Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub!


We were invited over to Jaysen's brother Steve's house for watersliding last night. It was kind of a windy night, so every few minutes the kids would run into the hot tub to get warm. This is Jesse, Landon, and Kaden warming up after just a few runs on the waterslide. Silly boys!



Mackenzee, as you have learned from this blog, does everything that Landon does. So, we suited her up and let her go for it. Crazy girl! She loved it. She was on that thing just as long as everyone else. Water.....and being outside...two of her favorite things. All we had to do was set her up at the top and let go. She would scoot herself down a little bit until the water slid her to the bottom. Being so small she was all over the place. It was so funny to watch. And as soon as she hit the

bottom, she wanted up to the top again.


Summertime fun!

The Pout

So, we had our usual mother/son argument this morning thanks to Jaysen. Landon has a SERIOUS addiction problem when it comes to video games. I'm not kidding either. It has caused a lot of problems. So, We took the Playstation and hid it and told him that he was NEVER playing again. Sigh. Then, Jaysen comes home from work last night and asks Landon if he wants to play Tiger Woods golf with him on the Playstation! He told me that he just wanted to spend some time with Landon. Ummm...yeah. So, they played for about an hour and then it was bedtime, so at least they were able to finish up nicely without huffing and puffing from Landon.

Landon got up this morning and the Playstation was still out. He asks Jaysen if he can play it today and Jaysen says, "It's up to mom." What??? Now I have to be the bad person and say that it was a one time only thing. Not fair! I tell Landon he's got chores to do before I even consider it. He seriously asked me if he could play it five different times in thirty minutes. And I'm not kidding. No attempt at getting his room clean was made. Yeah. Then the argument began. Why do I have to be the bad parent? Argh!!!!! So, when Jaysen called this morning he got an earful. It's a good thing I love him, otherwise I would have beat him up!


This picture is what Landon did after Jaysen told him he wasn't going to be playing video games today. He stomped into the back yard and pouted behind this tree. Because by doing so, he is going to end up convincing me that he should be able to get his way. It always works. YEAH RIGHT!

The point of all of this, is that Mackenzee...who copies everything that Landon does...marched outside right behind Landon and sat behind the tree right next to his. The goober! She is so silly! She just sat there watching him to see what he would do next.

She would get up every now and again and go stand next to him, crouching down to see into his face...and then walk back to her tree and sit down. She just adores him.



She saw me snapping pictures and gave me a cute grin. Do you like the red paint all over her legs? yeah....she got into Landon's paint pens this morning. good thing they are washable.

Kids!!!! It's a good thing we love them otherwise.....I don't know...It's just a good thing we do!

Dyson

So, I broke down and did it! I went to Target today and bought myself a Dyson. I couldn't handle it anymore. After five or so years of buying a vacuum per year, I was done. I don't know if I'm just particularly hard on vacuums or what, but I have literally spent so much money on vacuums the last five years that I would have bought a couple Dyson's by now. Pathetic. Am I the only one with vacuum woes here? The last one I bought was last summer, and it wasn't one of the cheap ones either. And I have fixed it about three times. They just clog up with crap. And no, I'm not trying to vacuum up large rocks or anything if that's what you are thinking. Just kid droppings. You know, popcorn, crushed up cheese crackers, bread crumbs...the usual. ;0) Sigh.

So, when I went to vacuum this morning and instead of picking up the droppings, it merely sucked it up and spit it out in a different direction. And, for the fourth time since I purchased it, I tipped it over and found that it was clogged. Guess what it was clogged with? You guessed it....dust and dirt, and a few crumbs. Nothing!!!!! Isn't that what a vacuum is supposed to pick up? ARGH!!!!! Even after I unclogged it...it refused to cooperate. So, I ended up having to use my little cheap-o hand vac to finish up the job. Which leads us to the impromptu trip to Target. I called Jaysen and ranted and raved. He said "just go get it then!" ;0) Sure, we may have no money left. But this baby has a five year warranty. If it busts on me...you can be SURE I will be getting a brand new one all over again...at their cost!

The end.

Support Our Female Troops

As many of you know, my mom is a Suzanne Consultant. Shame on you if you didn't come to my party! ;0) Anyway...this month Suzanne has come up with a great idea. When most of us think of soldiers....we think of men. Right? I do anyway. Well, they found that our soldiers were getting lots of really nice care packages full of essentials........for men. Men's deoderant, stuff like that. So, our fighting ladies aren't getting the "essentials" that they might need.

Suzanne is promoting S.O.F.T. this month. Support Our Female Troops! If you go to this website

www.suzanne24.com/srobinson

you can donate money to this great cause and Suzanne will use that money to send over girlie baskets for our female soldiers. I think it's awesome! And...even better....if you buy ANY beauty product for yourself, Suzanne will match your purchase and send the same item overseas as well. So, not only do you get to feel good about helping others...you get to look good too. I use the face wash and toner and really like it. All natural ingredients. It's good stuff. Anyway...if you have more questions you can talk to my mom about it as well. Her contact information is on the website too.

Soldiers need pampering too right?

As a side note...there are other products that Suzanne has as well. Though not part of this promotion. Suzanne has jewelry items as well as food items. I own several pieces of the jewelry and LOVE the food. The food is all natural again...good for you food. Tastes awesome! She has a raspberry mousse mix that is to die for. I whipped it up and put it in a graham cracker pie crust last weekend and wanted to eat the whole thing. Light and fluffy summer dessert. Perfect! And the jewelry looks expensive, but is affordable. So you can look good, and not have taken out a second mortgage on your house to own the stuff! ;0) I have a tennis bracelet, Diamond hoop earrings, and her new turqouise bracelet. Cute stuff! Check it out!

Shakin' the booty

Last night was my neice, Genea's, dance recital at CSI. She has been taking dance from Miss Cassia at Julie's Jazzworks for over a year now and loves it. She danced to two different songs and in one of them used an umbrella as the theme this year for the dance studio was "props".


She did such a good job too. And was so sassy shaking her booty on the stage. ;0) Watching those little girls in the younger class though, made me so excited to be able to put Mackenzee into dance next fall. Which sounds so strange to me that Mackenzee will be three next year and old enough to do it. But, she does turn two in only four short months. It makes me sad, but excited for things to come. You know? Watching the kids grow has been fun, and such a learning experience. ;0) What would we do without our kids?

Anyway...good job Genea! You rocked the stage and looked adorable doing so. You must have my genes. ;0)

Primary Activity Day

Today we had our Primary Activity Day. Sadly, I almost forgot about it. I woke up in the middle of the night last night in a panic, barely remembering that I was supposed to be at the church at 9:00 in the morning. Sigh. At least I remembered.

For part of the Faith In God program, one of the things the kids can do to pass off a section is to help with an activity day. Which meant we needed to do something that would be fairly easy for someone as young as 8 years old. As school just got out, we figured we could do a "movie night" sort of deal and show a couple church movies and play games. So, we had the Achievement Day girls make the invitations and decided that the scouts could build a concession stand out of cardboard boxes and "sell" popcorn, juice, and candy to the kids. Each kid got four tickets. One ticket per item. The boys had fun collecting tickets and passing out the treats to the kids.

We showed two different movies. The first one about the 2,000 stripling warriors and the second about Queen Esther. In between movies we played Sister Burnham says (Simon Says) and Red Light, Green Light. All in all, I think it went over pretty well. We did end up with Nerds candy all over the gym floor.....BUT.....easy enough for clean up. Even better...this means we don't have to worry about another Primary Activity until Christmas because we get to count our Saturday practice for the Sacrament Meeting Primary Presentation as one. The presentation takes enough planning on its own. ;0)

(By the way...if I've got your kids in Primary....I LOVE THEM! They are awesome. Seriously... they have such sweet spirits and such unique personalities. I have loved getting to know them)

This is Landon

Hi. This is Landon. I am seven and today is the first day of summer vacation. I am really excited for all the fun things I'm going to do.

Today is my first tennis lesson. I like to hit the ball high. I hope I do good.




On Wednesday nights I get to go take gymnastics with my sister. She has a class before me, and then it's my turn. I have some cousins who are doing it with me. So, it will be fun. I like to walk on the balance beam like Spiderman. I went to gymnastics with my cousins once before and got to jump on the vault and I did really good. I stood up!





I got a skateboard for my seventh birthday and now that it's warm I get to ride on it. I took it to the park once, but it was hard. So I need to practice. My mom said we could go to the skate park, but I have to wear my helmet and elbow and knee pads so I don't get hurt. I want to ride my skateboard like Tony Hawks. He is cool. I play his game on my dad Jeff's X Box and it is way fun. I make him do cool jumps on the game.






My dad said he would take me golfing a lot this summer. I want to play like Tiger Woods because he is really good. I can hit the ball far with my clubs, but I have to practice with my putter. That's hard. Dad says he needs to practice too. And I like it when he lets me drive the golf cart. He has to push the gas pedal though because I might go too fast.

This year my mom is putting me in swimming lessons. I did it before, but still need to practice. I can't go off the diving board unless I know how to swim. It is kind of scary to swim, because I might go under and drown. But mom says she'll make sure I'm safe. And if I take swimming lessons then I'll know how to swim good and not go under the water and I'll be okay.


I am still going to take piano lessons from my Nana this summer too. I like to make cool tunes. I like that my nana teaches me because I get to go to her house and be with her. I love my nana. She gives me apples and string cheese.

I am going to go play outside now. I was on the slip and slide and now I'm warm again. So, I can go play again. So long suckers!

Slip.....Slip and Slide!

Do you remember that little jingle from back in the day? Love the Slip and Slide!

To commemmorate the last day of school, I took Landon to the store and we bought a slip and slide. He and Mackenzee were outside playing on that thing all afternoon. Mackenzee didn't do much sliding, though she did slip a couple of times ;0) She mostly just sat in the puddle of water that formed at the end of the slip and slide.

Landon didn't quite understand the concept of it and so instead of sliding on his stomach down the plastic runway...he would jump on his knees.

Which meant he was only sliding a couple of feet. So....being the good mom that I am, I showed him how it was properly done. Holy cow! Talk about cold water. But it actually felt pretty good. The kids thought it was pretty funny too. ;0) Anyway, after that, Landon got the hang of it and was able to perfect his "slide". He can't get enough of it either. He woke up Saturday morning and the first thing he asked was if he could go out on the slip and slide! I don't think it's going to make it through the summer.....

A couple of big days

So...Landon had his very first piano recital last night. My mom teaches
him piano lessons and so it has been fun for Landon to spend this extra time with his Nana. He played two songs. "Silly Bug Stomp" and then we played a duet together, "Love Is
Spoken Here". He was so nervous too. He begged and begged me to be able to use his music and I told him he didn't need it and he'd do fine. He's had the song memorized for over a month now. But, nerves got the best of him, and on his way up to the piano, he paused at my mom's chair and whispered, "Puh-leeeeeaaase." So, she let him play the song with his music. Silly boy. He did great and it
has been fun for me to be able to play along with him.

And then today was Landon's last day of 1st grade. So it was a pretty big day. He has really enjoyed school this year, mostly thanks to a great teacher, Mrs. Reed. Who put up with his "problems" we were having at the beginning of the school year. She is sadly, leaving Morningside after only one year as she lives in Burley and was offered a position at the elementary in Heyburn. So, closer to home for her. Sniff Sniff...we will miss her though.

So, this means summer vacation has officially started. Argh! I'm hoping it will be a good one. Lots of stuff going on to keep Landon busy. Between tennis, golf, art classes, gymnastics, and swimming lessons....he should be good to go. SHOULD...that's the key word there. Sigh.