Underwear Makes the Best Hats

At least according to my kids it does! I walked around the corner from the bathroom heading into my room and found my kids walking out with underwear on their heads. It was hilarious. Sometimes these kids kill me. 

 And not to worry, the underwear is clean, as in just came out of the dryer clean! 

Elder Leavitt

Jon and I had the opportunity to accompany our Brother Josh (and parents) to the temple on Saturday July, 7th where he become more prepared to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Vina Del Mar, Chile area. It was an incredible experience! Words can't describe the love I, especially felt for him, and how PROUD I am of him and the decision he made to serve a mission. I felt as if I was watching my own son getting prepared to Serve. 

 Josh with his Parents

 Clearly, I did not get the "make a funny face" memo. Silly boys

 We were also able to spend time with him on Tuesday, and watch him be set apart as a Missionary. I was a blubbery mess. The Priesthood is so special and the whole experience was amazing. After he was set apart as a Missionary, we were then able to spend a couple more hours with him...well Jon was, I ended up packing his suitcases for him. I have to admit, I loved it. Then around 11pm, once everything was packed we said our final "see ya laters" and drove home. We are sure going to miss that boy, but know he is where he is supposed to be.

Oh and as a side note, ours kids love and adore Josh. They admire and look up to him. As proof, I sing songs to Andrew and KB every night before they go to bed, and I ask him all the time if he wants me to sing the Missionary song. Andrew responds by saying No, he doesn't like that song and is NOT going to be a Missionary...he was adamant about it. Then once we told him Josh was going to be a Missionary, he was so excited! He now LOVES that song and when I sing the part "I want to be a Missionary..." Andrew always shouts out "And Andrew too, I'm going to be a Missionary." I know our kids are going to miss their Uncle, but I am truly grateful for the example Josh is setting for them. We are extremely close to Josh and although it was hard to see him leave, I know he made the right decision.The people of Chile are lucky to have such an amazing man. He is caring, giving, patient, loving, friendly, happy, and kind-hearted! I know he is going to make one heck of a Missionary. 

We love you Elder Leavitt!

4th of July

 Normally we have an amazing 4th of July. We head out to a breakfast in the morning, then meet up with family and play at the park and end the evening at the Valley Athletic Club to watch the fireworks. This year had the same plans, but unfortunately grumpy kids + exhausted parents dealing with the grumpy kids = leaving the fireworks show before it even started and a 4 hour crying shift from our youngest. However, despite all of that, we did end up watching the fireworks show from our car up the street. Not as much fun, but we still got to see them. 

 Despite having to leave early, we did make it in time to watch the skydivers!

 Our grumpy boy, this is what it was like for 4 hours...

 Andrew trying to give me a smile

 Fireworks from the car

Even though all the festivities are a lot of fun, I LOVE the 4th of July for it's true meaning...

I am BEYOND GRATEFUL for the Freedom of our Country and for the men and women who serve to protect it. May God always watch over and Bless them and their families for the sacrifices they make on our behalf!!! 

And an extra shout out to my Brother (in-law) Michael, we are so proud of you and love you! Can't wait until we get to see you again, stay safe!

Our Friend Bambi

Okay, so it's not really Bambi, but we sure do love the buck who hangs out at our house on a regular basis! On this particular day he was right outside our front door. He wasn't scared of us or anything, I had the door open and snapping shot after shot...I think he secretly liked all the "paparazzi" attention. 

Once he decided he'd had enough, he casually walked to the neighbors yard. 

Until next time....

Next time came sooner as opposed to later (last night when we pulled in the driveway to be exact), and this time he wasn't alone, he brought friends! :-)

 See, he always poses for the camera

 One of his friends, a smaller Buck

 And a female friend, she was very timid

 There she is hiding in the bushes

This poor small Buck, he could not catch a break, he was trying to get out of the field, but the kids kept running back and forth, and he would get too scared of them and run back, finally though we did let him leave. 

Body Painting

I'm starting to break out of my "my kids need to stay clean all the time shell" and bought the kids some finger paints. I am so glad I did, they had so much fun running around and painting all over each other! I'm blessed to have an amazing husband who also has fun and gets down and dirty with our boys!

Hopefully I can continue to break loose and let the kids be kids. 

First Century Ride

Two weeks ago I did my very first century ride! I.T. W.A.S. H.A.R.D.

Let's just say I was glad when it was over.  It was the longest ride I have ever done and only 1/2 the distance of the STP. It made me a little nervous for the STP since I really struggled to finish it, but I did finish it so that was an accomplishment. It rained the majority of the time and I was so dirty and exhausted when I got home,  I was ready to just shower and get to bed. 

 A forced smile after I finished...I was exhausted

My poor white socks got ruined, and I had just cleaned my shoes...looks like another cleaning is due

I also stained the back of my shirt with black kicked-up mud. I couldn't get it clean!

Ready For Summer

My kids have never really been hat wearers, but I saw these the other day and just had to have them! Thankfully my kids love them too and were excited to wear them. As you can tell Andrew is all set for summer, we got hats, sunglasses, and fun whistles from Grandma Mortensen! Come on Washington bring on the sunshine cause we are ready!

Car Fun

Instead of spending the day at home on Thursday we decided to travel with Jon for work. While driving down to the job site, the kids kept us plenty entertained by hiding under and playing a game of bite and pull blankie. 

Turnips

Last Wednesday we spent the day as a family doing yard work. We mostly worked on weeding our garden and then we cleaned up some more fallen branches that went down during the ice storm this past winter. After weeding the garden I enjoyed pulling up some gigantic turnips!

 You know you've done a good job in your garden when the turnips are this big...not to mention they were delicious!!!

Hives

Two weeks ago after getting KB up from his nap I noticed LARGE red and bumpy patches all over his skin. I was a nervous wreck. I called the doctors and immediately scheduled an appointment. Within two hours though the spots were gone, so when the doctor's office called the next morning and told me his doctor was sick instead of scheduling with a different doctor I cancelled the appointment.

Within minutes of putting Kenneth into the bath the patches were back and worse! I promptly called the doctors and asked for the appointment back and off we went. Thankfully my nerves were put to ease when the doctor informed me that they were hives. The unfortunate part about having hives is that it is nearly impossible to figure out what they are from. The good news is that whatever they were from he hasn't come in contact with again and the hives are gone for now. I really hope it stays that way though, cause this mama was sure worried.

 covering his ankle

 Up his leg

 All the way up the other leg

 You can see how big it was on his upper thigh and on his right arm

On his lower leg

Homemade Strawberry Jam

There isn't anything better than homemade strawberry jam, EXCEPT homemade strawberry jam made from strawberries that were picked out of your own garden!!! 

Step 1: de-stem your strawberries and cut them in half

Step 2: Mash them

 Step 3: Once mashed measure out 3 1/4 cups

 Step 4: Add lemon juice and Fruit Pectin

 Step 5: While waiting for pectin to dissolve, wash the insane amount of dishes lying in your sink

 Step 6: Stir in the sugar and heat on low until sugar completely dissolves

 Step 7: Pour into containers and wait 24 hours, then freeze away

We have already made delicious PB and J sandwiches with our jam. I love this time of year and being able to cook with things grown from our own garden! There isn't anything better.