Me and the Munchkins

Kyle took Jannika to Salt Lake to the Days of '47 Rodeo so I'm here with the two littlest munchkins. I sure am going to miss Jannika when she goes to Kindergarten. I had been looking forward to her going because I know how much she loves to learn and socialize. Preschool was so good for her these last two years. But now I'm not so much looking forward to my sweet girl going off to school ALL day. For one thing, I've actually realized that she keeps Kirsten out of

trouble. I always thought putting two kids together meant more mischief but Jannika is a good kid and keeps Kirst occupied and tells her when she's out of line! When I'm just here with the littles, I don't know what to expect when I check on K!

Here's some of the latest stuff that's been going on: We've been driving over to Castle Dale a lot lately for Pageant practice. The Pageant starts next Thursday July 31 and goes through Aug. 9 if any of you are interested in coming. We would love to have you stay at our house if you come! We also got a new laptop computer. We had been borrowing my mom's laptop because our old computer just wasn't doin' it for us anymore (it is super slow and doesn't have a modem so we couldn't get the internet on it). So we saw a killer deal on laptops at Wal-mart and we snagged one. I think the deal is still on: $398 if any of you are in the market...

Kyle also hit me with a surprise and told me that a guy that he works with is looking to buy a house and so Kyle wanted to show ours to him and his wife. So I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned yesterday and this morning to get it showable so here are some of the results:

This is my new bedspread that I had to show off that matches my favorite rug below. It also goes with our shower curtain (three pics below).

You can just barely see my paint job in this pic but last year I tore off all the wallpaper in this bathroom and textured and painted the walls all by myself and then found the shower curtain and valance on clearance at K-mart. Gotta love clearance! Our house is still very much a work in progress and we aren't sure what we will do if they are actually interested in buying it! We would like to work our way back over to Castle Dale sometime. Maybe we are just getting restless because we have moved somewhere every single summer of our marriage and we just don't know what to do since we aren't moving! Ha!

Jessica's wedding

Sorry, I'm a dork and didn't get a good picture of Joe and Jessica at their wedding so here's a pic of their invitation on my fridge! Jessica is Kyle's step sister. It was a beautiful wedding in the Bountiful temple. I made their cake and it turned out really well. I stressed about it, of course, but once you have figured out how to do fondant it usually is pretty easy.

We almost decided not to try to attend the sealing because of the baby but I am so glad that we did (thanks to Jacqueline for watching our baby). I love attending sealings. It always reminds me of the day that Kyle and I got married and how we must have looked to the people who came to ours. They are just so young and naive! Just kidding. But it does make me think about the fresh start they are making and the things that I could do to make fresh starts in my own marriage. Here are some of the best pointers that the sealer gave them that stood out to me. He started by telling Joe to stay worthy of the priesthood so that he could always be able to give his wife a blessing and that he should give Jessica a blessing in the next 24 hours. He told them both not to judge, to let things go, to smile and be positive. He said to go to the temple often and participate in sealings and listen closely to the words in the sealing prayer. He also told them not to get into debt and that things just get in our way. It is always good to be reminded of the things we need to be doing and be reminded that the temple is where our Heavenly Father wants us to be.

Happy 4th!

So, I don't know why I never really made smoothies before but I have been doing it lately and we have loved it! Here is Jannika enjoying a blueberry passion fruit smoothie (made with frozen blueberries, Hawaii's Own brand of passion fruit juice and lots of ice). Kyle actually gave me a smoothie maker a few years ago for Christmas and I have used it to make orange julius and other various things that you use a blender for, but only recently did I start putting in real fruit and making actual smoothies. Don't even ask me why I didn't do it before now! I have had to get a lot more creative with my breakfast menu because of my trying not to eat dairy so I add juice instead of milk/yogurt and they are still really yummy and a wonderful way to get your kids/husband to eat fruit!

We have been up in Tooele and Taylorsville this weekend for the 4th and the Beagley Family Reunion. We headed up to Tooele on Friday and watched fireworks in Grantsville with Kyle's brother, Judd and Keiauni and family. Then on Saturday we went in to Taylorsville to the Family Reunion. There were some water games, traditional candy sling shot, and we found out how talented Judd and Keiauni are at doing face painting (on faces, arms, ankles and farmer's tanned biceps!) I'm sure Kyle's mom will be so proud to know that Kyle wanted a tatoo with MOM written on it! Jannika was especially enamored with the face painting and got a hibiscus, a heart, a butterfly and a watermelon. I think I better watch her pretty closely when she is a teenager...