Sometimes we read.

After a meeting yesterday, we headed out to the library for some air conditioning and good reads. This(which has the most amazing photographs), This and This made it into my bag, along with Living the Seven Habits cassettes to listen to. It caught my eye as I was heading to the check-out desk. The painting on the cover is Harvest Time by Robert Duncan, and it really went with my theme of the rest of my books. Since I am working on habits, I thought I might try to listen to these, although I've read some of Stephen R. Covey's books and they go right over my head. Maybe I need Natalia's catcher's mitt. I always have to get something to feed my creative juices, so this time it is this book.

Even though we've checked this out before, the boys chose this as one of their books. They like the silly pictures and funny dialog. Brian and Joseph like to listen to Hank the Cow Dog CD's when they go to bed and are trying to get to sleep. The stories are cute.

I'm such a slacker!

I've been doing a little bit of catch-up around here. I had planned on posting my SMART habits Saturday night, but Natalia was in a softball tournament with a game at 4:00 on Saturday, since they lost their Friday night game. Well, from out of nowhere, our little girls won this 4:00 game with a final score of 32 to 17! I say little girls, because I think they are about the youngest team in their league. They played their hearts out! The game lasted almost three hours in over 90 degree temperatures. We had enough time to eat dinner and fill up the water cooler before the next game which lasted from 9:00 until 11:15. That's in the P.M., folks. Crazy, I know. This is one tired ball player! The girls lost that one, but again, played their hearts out and only lost by three runs. Natalia is a great catcher, and she's a year younger than the rest of the team.

Brian came home from Scout camp Saturday, and was totally exhausted. He had an eye infection while he was there, which was caused by him scratching and itching at the poison ivy by his eye, but luckily there was a nurse practitioner on site, and one of the other boy's dad was there to help him out and pick up his perscription since we were off having fun in Nauvoo. Like I said, Slacker.

Here's a little inspiration {I really need it in my current state!} that I stole from this site. Enjoy!

@ Old Nauvoo

As usual, we didn't have enough time to do and see all that we wanted to while in Nauvoo, Ill. We could probably spend a week there, and maybe that would do it. I love it, and I know Natalia and Brian do, too. Monkey just wanted to see the horses, and Joseph wanted to be in charge of everything and visit the Fudge Factory (which we didn't end up doing anyway.)

We arrived Tuesday afternoon and visited with Ramona and her fam at their store Nauvoo Health and Nutrition that is on the main street downtown. Nauvoo only has a population on about 1100, but with all of the seasonal people, missionaries, and visitors, it is just booming in the summertime.

Sis#4 is there staying with Ramona, and she had a job interview at a local diner/cafe place, I think it is called Mike's Homestead Restaurant or something like that. She got the job! Yeah Monie!

Saw my cousin Crystal's NEWborn baby Alexander and his big brother Noah. Crystal's husband has been over in Afghanistan and was flying in yesterday to take Crystal and his boys back home to North Carolina. Crystal was visiting her family in Nauvoo and had the baby 6 weeks early. He was sooo tiny at 4lbs. 7oz., a perfect little mini baby who looked a lot like his brother. Of course I didn't even get a picture of him!

We stayed here, and they were really nice and roomy. Monkey thought that maybe it was our new house, but he got tired of the new house pretty quickly and wanted to go home to our old house. We took the kids down to the Adventure Zone for some pizza and fun that night.

The next morning Aunt Ramona and I were able to go to the temple while Mom watched the kids for a while. I've never been inside the Nauvoo Temple, but I've seen pictures of it. The woodwork is beautiful, the chandeliers, curtains, furniture, all so beautiful. Ramona cleans the temple at night, so she knew all about everything in there.

I met the rest of the group over at Pioneer Pastimes, which is where the kids can play different pioneer games, including a stick pulling contest. Monkey liked all of the games, but was a little frustrated with rolling the wheel because he couldn't keep it going very long.

Monkey and I went back to the condos to change and gather up the lunch stuff while the rest of them went on to the ox-cart ride. We met up at the State Park (that's where our family reunion was last year) to eat and relax. The weather was Perfect the whole time we were there, 70's and maybe some 80's.

After lunch we walked around town a little bit. It's very quaint and homey. My new favorite shop that I hadn't been in before is this one. They had tons of stuff crammed into the store, and couldn't even look at everything. We got some goodies, Joseph and Mario each wanted tote bags that say Nauvoo, IL. Joe's is Batman and Monkey's is Spiderman. Brian is getting a puka shell necklace, and Natalia waited to find a hoodie sweatshirt at another shop; she's been wanting one forever, and we can never find one that she likes. I got myself some fat quarters (no pun intended there ; ) ) of some cute fabrics, with horses and spinning wheels, the pioneer trail, and little teddy bear pioneers with covered wagons and everything. Maybe I'll post a picture of a finished project with them! We walked down to the little restaurant where Monie had just gotten done with the lunch shift and had a soda. Cute little place!

Our next adventure was the play "High Hopes and Riverboats" put on by some of the performing missionaries. The singing and dancing was really wonderful, but not enough to keep Monkey entertained, as you can see in the picture. Aunt Emily had to bribe him with pringles because he was so rotten, and he fell asleep with a half-eaten chip still in his hand. He was throwing a fit because he wanted to go on a horsie ride (the wagon ride) so we ran over to catch the last ride of the day. They take you around to through some fields and over one of the drainage ditches that the early Saints dug to drain the swampland. They have great stories about individual people who lived there back then. The sway of the wagon put Joe to sleep, and he cracked us all up by popping his head up and mumbling "are we there yet?" and sleeping right on through the rest of it.

We high-tailed it back to the condos to eat a quick dinner and head back down to where the pre-show activities were happening before the Pageant. The kids had so much fun! There were tons of volunteers, and you could pretty much tell who they were cuz they were in period costumes. The calico fabrics were beautiful, too bad you can't see the detail in the pictures. The activites included puppet shows, Scottish dancing lessons, handcart rides, coloring, marbles, and our favorite, the square dancing. The girls couldn't get enough of it, and I even joined in for a couple of sets. As you can see by Sierra's hair flying, it was pretty fast! The musicians were amazing, including some younger teenage fiddle players. All of the people involved did such a great job putting everything together, and it was such a great time!

The pageant was really well done, with a core cast that performs the whole time, and a supporting cast that changes every week. It tells the story of how Nauvoo was founded by the Mormons, including ancestor's of mine, who had been run out of Missouri by the mobs and the governor's extermination order.

Mario and Joseph were not too impressed with the performance, but when the performers were putting up pieces of the temple onstage, Mario was really interested in the building process! He finally settled down and watched the rest of the pageant. The performers then spread out into the audience to talk to everyone, that was a lot of fun. Sierra was really excited about that, and she had even gotten the autograph of the actor who played Joseph Smith. She can't wait until she can be part of the pageant. Natalia, Carmen and Sierra really enjoyed the pageant, but the younger kids were a bit restless.

We had a good night's sleep, then loaded up for the trip home, stopped at Ramona's store, and headed out of town. We've managed to visit Nauvoo once a year since we've lived here, and it is always sad to go. Monkey had gotten sick by this time and was running a fever. When Andy got home last night he said to him,"Dad, I pooked (puked)". Isn't that fun.

Off we go...

to visit here! The kids love it because it is so interactive, and SOO many things to do and see. The Pageant is going on, there are wagon rides, pioneer games, things to taste, and they love the little schoolroom. I had to tear them out of there last time we visited.

Aunt Ramona and Uncle Pat moved there over a year ago, and Sis#4 Monie is there right now helping out at their store.

Gotta pack the car and head out to get Grammie, then meet Emily and her crew to caravan up there. It takes about 4 hours, so we'll have plenty of time this afternoon to start in on the fun stuff.

Unfortunately Brian's going to miss this trip. I dropped him off EARLY yesterday morning to head off to Scout Camp for the whole week! Yeah! He was SOO looking forward to it, his first weeklong camp. Merit badges in swimming, cycling, archery...

See you on Friday!

Spotlight Sunday

OK, this is going to be something new that I'm going to try doing. I'm going to spotlight someone in the family on Sundays. Now, I'm not promising every week, but I'll try to do it as often as I can. I've been promising my first subject that I would be talking about her soon, and since we do a spotlight on Sundays in Primary to a little more about the children in our ward, I thought this might be a cute format. But I won't make you guys guess who it is like we do in Primary!

I'll give you all some background info. Don't worry, Tara, I won't dish any dirt! Tara is my Sis#3, the 6th of 7 kids in our family. She is 12 years younger than I am, so I like to think I was a big influence on her while she was still in her formative years! She had the cutest little round cheeks, and cute and curly red hair. We all thought she was the cutest thing around. She loved to hang out with my girlfriends and me, and I would take her over to my friend's house sometimes. Then, when I was living in my own apartment, she would come over and spend the night sometime.

She has always been a good girl and tries to do what's right, and to have everyone be proud of her. She does NOT like it when someone is disappointed in her, or mad at her. Tara does a lot of things because it is expected of her, and because of that, we have all begun to expect great things from her! She is the first of all of us to go on to a 4-year college, and not just any old college, but BYU! She's become so grown-up and independent! Whatever she puts her mind to, she gets accomplished.

Tara was only 7 years old when I got married, but when she was 14 or so, she started coming out to California to visit for a few weeks each summer. I loved having that time with her, to see her just a little bit more grown-up and mature each time I saw her, and she was taller each time, too! Now she is over half a foot taller than I am. Babies love her. I don't think I've ever seen a baby that she can't charm; it must be some mystical power that she holds.

Tara, I'm proud to call you my sister, and I miss and love, love, love you!

Love and XOXO

Annie

{your favorite sister}

Another SMART Habit Saturday

For my first week I really started out with a fizzle, but I guess working on the habits is half the battle! (At least I can keep telling myself that!)

Scriptures with the kids a little hit and miss this week; only a couple of days.
Relief Society lesson and Ensign Almost a habit.
Chores for the kids another hit and miss, but our schedule was a little off this week.
Paperwork, oh paperwork. Why do you haunt me so? My brother came over and read the blog while I was doing some scrapbooking, and he commented that if it was that kind of paperwork {The Scrapbooking Kind, which I do not dread at all, by the way}I was talking about then I was doing fine. Then he looked down at the desk and raised his eyebrows. I need a more specific plan of attack for this stuff.
I want to add another habit of decluttering one area a day. The top of my dryer is my shove everything zone, and my kitchen is brimming full since I have been trying to work on my food storage.

Wish me luck!

More Summer Fun...

Say Hello to the Blues Brothers. Aren't they the cutest? We spent some time with them today. They're getting so big, and they love all of the attention they get from their older cousins.

Fourth of July: We spent the day up at Far West again, and it was hot and humid! Lots of vacationers were in and out all day. See how hard Joe was working? We packed a picnic lunch did a little work, and chatted with all of the weary travellers. I even had a scrapbook celebrity encounter. I was kicking around a ball with Joe and Monkey, then headed over to the car to fill up my water cup. I heard someone calling to me and walked up to the fence to see Lisa B. She was travelling with her family and had been in Concordia for a family reunion, and were visiting some of the historical sights. Her husband had pointed out the sign for Keep It Simple Scrapbooking on my back window of the car and told her that I looked like a scrapbooker, so she thought she would talk to me! She is super sweet. I told her that I have the latest copy of her magazine with her picture on the cover sitting right in the car! Who'd have thunk that I would run into her in the middle of nowhere!

We've been spending lots of time in the pool, so I'll show you some pictures next time! I better get back to work over here.