Summer 2010

It's been a fairly uneventful summer for us this year. Our main priority (okay, MY main priority) has been the yard and the house. When we moved in the yard was SOOOOOO overgrown and I just couldn't handle it! The yard was definitely not my style, so I have been working very hard on ripping things out, chopping trees, and just trying to make it my own. It's been a lot of hard work but I am learning a lot. And loosing weight. Pulling out greenery with roots stretching to China is a ROUGH workout!! I wish I would have taken more before and after pictures, but I'm just not that smart sometimes. Here are a couple though from my ripping-down-the-ivy adventure.

Before
After

The month of July included the following:
Samantha's sleep study in which we paid a bunch of money to find out that her sleep is close to normal (I guess she doesn't get the right amount of REM sleep, but there is no explanation for it or anything to do about it.)
A Saturday afternoon trip to Bridal Veil Falls.

And of course, Samantha's 6th birthday.

August included more yard work and a quick weekend to Vernal to visit Dinosaurland.


They are working on updating The Quarry in the dinosaur park and so most all of it is closed - which is why entrance to the park was free. So, seeing real bones in the ground was kind of a bust, but we saw a few and then enjoyed some time at the new Dino museum. It was a great museum. We all had an enjoyable time. Except I got sick. Blast you KFC!!!!

This week marks the end of our summer and I am okay to see it go!!! The kids are ready and excited for school and I am ready and excited to see them off! Kristi-time is going to increase dramatically which makes me hope that family-time will be that much more enjoyable!!!

What?

We took Samantha and Alex to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins for Samantha's birthday.
It was their first time there.
The other night at dinner Samantha asked if we could go get ice cream at "Basketball Robin Hood".
It took us a minute to realize what she meant.
And then we laughed.
A lot.

The 7 Grandkids!

7 Grandkids all under the age of 6. Yes, when we get together it IS a zoo!!! But look at those handsome/beautiful faces!!! (that is, if you can find Caleb's face....)

For my mom

I told my mom about this picture and she wanted me to post it. Look at those cute kids!!!

Sometimes I get wondering what a baby of mine would look like. This little angel is about as close as I am going to get! Abby has a lot of Chad in her, but apparently my 4 month old picture looks A LOT like Abby at this age. I guess my ears weren't as cute and elf-like, but she does resemble me as a baby. She even has a dimple like me! Love you Abby Kate!

Happy 6th Birthday, Samantha!

Hey pretty girl! You are 6 today!!! I was laying in bed last night thinking about you and how lucky we are to have you and I wanted to write something special about you. I decided to write down my 6 favorite things about you. There are hundreds of things that I love and admire you for, but these are my top 6!

1. You are the most generous, giving person I have ever met!
2. You are very loving and caring.
3. You are so enthusiastic about life.
4. You are hilarious!
5. You are very spiritual and love to go to church
6. You are a good example to everyone around you.

I really could go on and on, but we had a big, fun day.......and I'm tired! We met all the cousins at the park, played, had lunch, ate cupcakes, came back to the house, played some more, rest time, dinner time, Trafalga for miniature golf and race cars, and finally to Baskin Robbins for ice cream! It was a terrific day spent with my birthday girl!

I love you so much Samantha and am so happy you are a part of our family!!!

I have no title for this post

Alex stole his daddy's glasses, phone, and watch. Looking very daddy-like.

We had friends stay with us last week and while we didn't get too much time with them, we did get a zoo trip in.

Those are some adorable kids.

Prim and Proper

Andy caught this picture of Samantha. All she was doing was watching a movie. I really don't know any other 6 year olds that sit like that during a movie. But I love it.

Ernest

Our friend, Ernest, is visiting for a couple of days from Jersey City. I taught the little whipper-snapper Seminary while we were living there. The kids have loved having him around.....as you can see from the picture, they think he is a great jungle gym!

Feeding the 3 kids breakfast.

Some favorite pictures from Bear Lake

You can click on these pictures to make them larger to really see the faces! HILARIOUS!

This pretty much sums up the ride for me and Andy.....me smiling and laughing and Andy concentrating on not tipping. He's not a fan of the tube.

Cameron is flying out of his seat.....and there are no words for Kami's face!!

Again, Cameron flying out of his seat......and no words for Richele's face!

I just love all of the smiles in this one! PURE JOY!

Alex isn't so sure about catching that much air. Neither is Kami.....but Cameron was in heaven!

Dinner

This is all I had for dinner the other night.
A nice heirloom tomato.
Covered in amazing, fresh mozz straight from Staten Island, NY.
Topped with fresh basil from my garden.
Can't forget the salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar as well.
It was heaven.

Samantha's Kindergarten Graduation

SUCH a Samantha pose.

Samantha was so happy her Daddy was there and able to see her school and teachers.

Memorial Day 2010

We had a BBQ at Kami's house for Memorial Day this year. It's like an amusement park in her backyard! Trampoline, Swing set, giant blow-up bouncer and slide, and new this year......a Zip-line!!

Mom, Abby, and the old man resting in his swinging chair.

Richele....so sad to be sitting alone!

Samantha getting ready to rock the zip-line!

Alex waiting for his turn.

Nicole is a wuss. There, I said it. So we NEVER thought she would go on the zip-line, but she braved up and did it a couple of times. I don't think she ever fully enjoyed it, but she had a fake smile plastered on her face anyways.

A rare day

Today was one of those rare days where I found my children enchanting and adorable and just plain fun!! It doesn't happen everyday, though I wish that it would.
So when it happens, like today, I want to document it.

Alex cracked me up when we were outside sitting on the porch blowing bubbles.
I can't even remember what he said, but it made me laugh.

Samantha colored a beautiful picture of a house and hung it on the fridge. She also did some awesome summer homework with Grammy.

Both of them threw up "I Love You" signs for me and Andy while we were on the stand in church today. Samantha even pumped her fist at me while I was at the podium as if to say, "You go girl!"

Alex was a super awesome helper for daddy and Grampy outside working on the waterfall. He looked like such a big boy crouching beside Grampy making sure everything worked (I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture). He gladly ran back and forth getting everything the big boys asked him to get. Rarely do we find such obedience in that little boy!!

While the boys worked Samantha had games planned for the girls. First, we played freeze tag. Then, musical chairs. And last, hide and seek. For every game of musical chairs that we won we were rewarded with a rock, picked especially by Samantha. She was being so lively and fun!!

Both kids just made me happy to be a mom today! If every day could be like this.......it would be about as close to heaven as I could imagine!
I adore you, Samantha and Alex!!!

What we've been up to.....

We will start with this adorable face: Alex.
Alex has been ROCKIN' his speech therapy and his teacher thinks after June we may be able to take a break and see how he does! I'm still going to enroll him in therapy at the new school in August and if they seem to do a good job I won't have him go back to Paige. She has been wonderful, but she's also very expensive!!
Alex has just been so determined and focused and I couldn't be more proud of him! His stutter is 99% gone, his 's' sounds are almost 100%, and the only sound that really is still a struggle is 'th'. But apparently that is a harder sound for these kids and age just might take care of that. We are still going to practice though.
Alex loves his Razor Scooter and can't wait to be outside playing for the summer. He finished his first year of preschool last week and he did just awesome.

Samantha and her best friend, Lamby.
Samantha graduates from Kindergarten tomorrow! She is so excited to be done and for their little party. She is right on track for starting 1st grade! Unfortunately, she doesn't really enjoy reading, but when you can get her in the mood, she really can do a good job. She is also doing great at math and writing. I can tell already that she is more of the artsy type. She would rather sing and dance and color and draw than just about anything else. And oh boy, you should see this girl dance!!!!
Samantha is super excited for the summer and spending a lot of time at the park with her cousins. She has also made one friend in the neighborhood and I'm sure they will have plenty of playdates. I am going to sign the kids up for another round of swimming lessons sometime soon and then our plan is to sneak back into our townhome pool in Pleasant Grove!! We were the only ones there in the mornings anyways.......and I kept my key!!! Shhhhhh, don't tell!

The above pictures illustrate what I've been up to. Painting! I think it turned out great. It seems that all of my time is used up by this dern house! It's a good thing I love it or I'd been in quite the state! The yard is coming along and we plan to chop a few more trees down this weekend. I'm having to mow the lawn twice a week because the grass is so healthy and pretty and grows like mad! Oh.....and it could be this crazy spring weather full of rain and SNOW! My bird feeder has many, many, many visitors and just yesterday Andy bought me a bird book so I can track what kind of birds visit. I enjoy having the same interests as my grandma and mom. My grandma could tell you about every kind of bird and with just a simple explanation of what color they are she could tell you their name. My mom is the same way. Maybe I will be too, someday.

This is Andy's pizza oven! Every Saturday since we moved in has been pizza night. I think Andy has it figured out now! The pizzas cook quickly and are quite tasty! It's been a lot of fun.
Andy hasn't had to travel too much lately, but now we are going to pay for it. He is going to be gone half of the month of June! First to London, then to Philly, then to NYC. I so totally wish the kids and I could go with him. I'm not even going to mention the fact that the CEO brought up the issue of us moving to London again. It likely won't even get past the talking whimsically phase, so no worries. But it would have to happen now.....after we bought a terrific home in a terrific area. Of course!

Overall, we are happy, healthy, and ready for the summer!!! We are so blessed to be in a home we love with great neighbors. We LOVE our ward! We LOVE our family and plan on spending a lot of time with them this summer! BRING ON BEAR LAKE!!!!
Life rocks!

Morning in the garden

I spent the morning in the yard. My goal was to get the front and back yard mowed. I got the front done. Took forever because the grass was too long and wet (that's what she said) and the mower kept getting clogged. I finally finished it and went for the edger. It broke. I tried and tried to fix it but it kept breaking. So, what does any normal person do when their edger is broken?? Of course! They pick up a hatchet and chop down 3 trees!! I got a blister, but it was a really good workout.
Then I remembered that the 3 trees in front needed to have some branches trimmed, so I did that. I then tried to haul the lawn mower up the side stairs to the backyard. I'm strong, but not that strong. So, needless to say, I didn't finish everything I had set out to do this morning, but I'm sweaty and tired so I must have done some good.

Happy with and proud of the Loveridge family

Today was a good day. Mother's Day is always nice. Andy and the kids treat me pretty great every day, but today they really showed me how much they love me. Andy is even cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes while I rest my sore back in bed and blog.

We got together with my family for dinner at Richele's house to celebrate Mother's Day and my dad's birthday. I got thinking about my family after we got home and how proud I am of everyone. My dad served as a faithful and wonderful bishop of a single's ward for the past 3 years and was released today. He is going to miss those kids so much! And, of course, I know they will miss him because I know he showed them so much love. I am just really proud of my dad!

I'm proud of the wonderful mother's my sisters are as well. I adore their children soooooooo much and it would break my heart if they didn't have mothers who treated them like they deserve. But they do! We love each other's children like our own and I can honestly say that my sisters are my best friends.

And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to say how lucky I am to have the mom that I have!! She is the best! She is always there for me and my family and my children know, without a doubt, that Grammy adores them and will do anything for them. It's funny how I'm "a grown woman" but still sometimes miss being at home with my mom and having her take care of me. I am so lucky to not only have 2 sisters who I love to be around, but a mom who I love to be around. We talk on the phone probably more than is necessary, but I don't care! There is no one else I'd rather chat with. I love you mom!!!

See???? Don't I have the best family?? And did I mention how cute we all are??? We are one handsome family! I'd post a family picture to prove it if we had a current one!!

We need to put that on our to-do list.

Simply to embarass Andy

In his defense though, he was being sweet and playing dress-up with the kids. I just happened to catch the fun.

Nurse Samantha

I've got a touch of a cold and was feeling pretty crappy yesterday afternoon. Andy was home watching the kids so I took a shower and crawled into bed.

Samantha was very concerned and only wanted to take care of me. As you can see in the picture, she brought me her Hello Kitty blanket, a panda bear, a book, and 2 get well notes. She kept coming in and rubbing my face asking if I was feeling okay. Then she would wander around the bed smoothing the sheets and organizing my goodies. She brought me food and took away the empty plates as well.
Have you ever heard of a sweeter little girl???

Caleb

Alex handed Caleb a plate containing a piece of cake at my birthday party on Saturday. We all saw, we all knew what was going to happen, we just didn't care!
He devoured it!!
It was hilarious and adorable and I can't wait for his first birthday party next month!

Thanks Andy for making the picture even cuter!

BEST. SATURDAY. EVER

I'm not sure why I liked this past Saturday so much, but it was a great day!!! We knew the weather was going to be stellar and we had yard work to do. But we also wanted to take the kids somewhere fun to reward them for making it through the move. So, we figured we could do both! We left the house around 7.45am and drove up to Salt Lake. Where in Salt Lake?? Emigration Canyon. What is there you might ask?? I'll tell ya! Ruth's Diner!!! The very same spot where we filmed an episode of Diner's, Drive-Ins, and Dives last year. We haven't been back since then because we had to eat so much for the filming and we couldn't bring ourselves to eat there yet. BUT, we did, and it was awesome!
After Ruth's we went to the zoo. A Higham family favorite. Well, maybe just a Kristi favorite, but I'm trying to rub off on everyone else. We hadn't yet seen the baby elephant and she didn't disappoint. She was adorable!




When we got home from the zoo we got right into the yard work. The front of the house was so overgrown with vines and ground cover and it looked like a jungle!! This was what we cut and pulled up and we aren't finished yet! Alex was a huge help. Mostly because it was an afternoon of destruction which we all know he is KING of. He was allowed to pull up trees and branches and he loved every minute of it. Samantha also helped a ton by going into the house, unprompted, and making all 4 of us a PB&J. She brought them out on their own paper towels and even added a dandelion as garnish. How cute is that????


The afternoon was super sunny and the kids ran through the neighbors sprinklers for a while before heading in for naps. I was beat and took a nap as well. Andy finished up some grocery shopping while we napped and then we had some yummy hamburgers for dinner. I attempted to make some mango and coconut sticky rice cookies but they failed. Richele and Greg and the kiddies came over to try and see the house and it was so nice to get my Caleb snuggles on. He crawls like a champ now and drools like one too so when he leaves you get a nice snail trail of drool on your floor to remember him by. It's adorable!

Not sure why I loved Saturday so much, but I think the combination of fun and hard work and naps and food just worked out perfectly!

First home-cooked meal in our house

Andy made his famous hamburgers for our first home-cooked meal. He used the indoor grill shown in the back left of the picture. It was great because it was rainy outside so he didn't want to use the outdoor grill.
This kept the house from smelling like hamburgers for 3 days and they tasted perfect!

A couple of house pictures - with OUR stuff in it.

Family room looking into the dining room.

Outside. I'm going to paint the front door red!

Kitchen and dining looking into the family room.

Alex (shirtless) in front of the garage.

We are in!

The move on Saturday went great! Everyone from my family was a huge help and we had some fantastic neighbors come over and help as well.
The house is a mess!!!
Andy has been working very hard on the kitchen and he is doing a great job, so it's taking a super long time.
I'm glad he took today off of work.
I have been doing the most non-important things to keep myself busy and my head is just spinning at the amount of crap we have! I'm not sure why 4 people need so much stuff, but we are quite good at getting rid of things we don't use, so that means we use A LOT of stuff.
We are a bit high-maintenance. I admit it.
The bedrooms are the farthest along and are looking great.
The kids slept well last night in their new rooms and I slept great having my own bed back.

So, that's our life right now.......CHAOS!
But we are blessed to have such a beautiful home in a great neighborhood. Our sweet neighbor even brought over Shirley's cinnamon rolls on Saturday night.
I think she's my favorite.

House update

I suppose it's about time to do a house update!
We are moving in on Saturday!! We have spent the past week cleaning and laying tile and cleaning and more cleaning.
My dad laid some beautiful tile in the "mudroom"/laundry room. It was carpeted which is about the dumbest thing I've ever seen, so I was happy when my dad offered to tile and we got the tile at a killer price.
It will be SO much nicer.

This is the largest house I've had to clean and oh boy, it's big. Plus the huge rafters in the house were ridiculously dirty and took HOURS to clean properly. Lots and lots of windows were cleaned as well. It was nasty. I think the previous owners didn't take too much pride in their home. BUT, it is looking so much better! We are having the carpets cleaned tomorrow night and then I can mop and glow the wood floors and it will look shiny and new!!!

I am going to be so happy when the process is all over and we are moved in! I enjoy finding places for things and organizing (especially when I have plenty of room for everything!), so it should be fun!
We are going to have all of our furniture in the house on Saturday and then sleep our first night there on Sunday night.
I can't wait to get it organized and post pictures.
Ya'll will love it!

Chicago Highams

Dave, Pam, and Elaine came out to visit this past week and although we only had a few days with them, we had a fun time!!
Dave, Andy's only brother was like a magnet for Alex! As you can see from the photo Alex wanted to sit on Uncle Dave's lap to play cards.
As you can also see, Samantha was glued at the hip with Elaine.
I would have sat on Pam's lap had she let me!!
The kids really enjoyed their time with our Chicago family and it made us want to plan a trip out to visit them.
We need much more time to discuss important things like......Pam's toilet paper usage, and Dave's intestines following pizza consumption. And any thing else associated with potty humor.
It's a Higham thing.
REMEMBER, I'M ONLY A HIGHAM BY MARRIAGE!!! ;-)