WOW, time flies

Again, sorry girls for slackin'. Things get crazy in the summer. Rob turned 29 on the 7th. We went out to dinner with our next door neighbors and then to the Bee's game. It's always fun to get away from the kids for a hot date. Last weekend we went on the annual McDougal family vacation which brings me to my story that I hope will redeem myself for slackin so much this summer. So we were all going up to Downata Hot Springs ( I know, funky name, but seriously Google it, it's a fun place). Well my family wasn't leaving until 4 pm Thursday but we had to leave Friday afternoon so we could go up to Echo for Rob's family reunion. So we decided we would leave early to get more swimming and playing, then the kids wouldn't feel bad when we left before everybody else. Well early turned into 2 pm on Thurs, still respectable. However, we got all the way up to Plymoth, UT, not to be confused with Plymoth Rock, and the transmission went out in the old MV (minivan to those of you not down with the slang). So we camped out at Plymoth until about 5 when Missy was able to get us our truck. My friends, Plymoth is a happenin town. There was this cool girl at the gas station though who was resting next to her bike. I asked her where she was headed and she said, "Oh, Canada"...No, no that wasn't a typo, she was going from SLC to Canada, she told me where but I didn't really pay attention, I was still in shock from "Canada". Anywho, on with the trip. So we make it to Downata with the rest of the family and set up camp and have a fun first night although Rob realized he left his wallet and cell phone charger in the MV. The next morning I wake up at 4:30 with horrible stomack pains. Folks, now we're gonna get personal, these are the types of pains that you just know that diarrhea is just around the corner. So I spent the whole day Friday in my tent with a horrible stomach, luckily enough the was an outhouse, that's right I said outhouse, right behind our tent. So that was convenient. The good news is I only threw up once. This may be a little TMI but I would take diarrhea over throw up any day of the week. Well that's enough of that. The kids went with Rob and the rest of my family up swimming and just played all day. The next day I was feeling much better and we packed up and came home. We didn't even go up to the family reunion. However we did find out on the way home that Cooper gets car sick, huh, that's fun. The van is back now, turns out we just needed a good trasmission fluid flush and things are up and running. The one good thing that came out of the weekend was I was able to read a good chunk of New Moon, which leads me to my poll. I personally am a Wolf girl, lover of Jacob if you will. However most of the people I talk to want Edward. So take two seconds and take the poll.
PS Nicole, don't hate me, but Coop is potty trained!!! Yeah, pretty exciting, and that leads me to the quote of the day. He had a little diarrhea Sunday (it's been a good weekend) and he called me in and said "Look mom, my bum made mud" Gotta love him

Back by popular request

Sorry about that. Got some what busy around here. Lets take it from the top. The first weekend in June my friends from high school and I got together for a good old fashoned slumber party...at the Ogden Marriott. That's right, we do things in style. Thanks again Linds for the hook-up. We stayed up until five in the morning talking, laughing, eating, you know the routine

This one's a beauty I know. Lindsey's office is down at the Union Station so we went there for dinner, this is a little snapshot of a incognito, confidential mission that we took.We decided that seven of us could easily sleep in one room. Bree ended up on the floor and the rest of us shoved the beds together and slept sideways. You can see the love shared between Kelly and Jenni. It was very romantic. We had a blast and it took me a while to recover.

Then next week Cooper got his cast off.

This is Juan, he helped us every other week get the old cast off. Coop loved him.And this is Dr Sorenson. He is the man who's children I will be putting through college after I get the bill. Eight weeks and four casts later we're all healed up.

One weekend we had Terrace Days. We entered Shelby in the baby contest and she won Angel Face. I know that in these things they feel like they need to at times make up awards so that everybody gets one, however I think this award is still dead on because, hey, she does have an angel face. We were in the parade on Sat. morning too. Jolley Plumbing that is. I think Veronica got some pics of this one. Check one of her sites for it possibly? We threw out rolls of toilet paper wrapped with a business card with packing tape. We were a hit. Look for us in the Riverdale 4th of July parade this Friday.

Then came Cedar City, we went down there for Rob to play basketball. It was a lot of fun, however we left on Wed. and didn't come home until Sunday. Yeah, that's much too long a vacation with kids this age. The hotel had a pool so that was entertaining. We went to the park, Rob's games, swam, ate, and slept. Our rooms had a DVD player so we watched a new movie together every night. That was fun too. My new favorite Disney is Surf's Up. Totally cute. Coop got swimmer's ear while we were there so last week at this time we were at Kid's Care to see good old Dr Hom and get some anti-fungal drops to clear it up. We're good to go now.

Then last week I worked all week. Sister Iris went out of town so I was in the pre-op clinic all day, every day. This little adventure was a good learning experience. I had been toying with the idea of working more and now I know that being a working mom is so not what I want to do. It's amazing how different things are. There is such a different level of exhaustion. Being at home with kids all day is so emotionally draining that by the end of the day the exhaustion is definately there. However, when you go to work all day and then come home and try to be a happy mom, and play with the kids, but also get the stuff done around the house that needs to get done, well by the end of the night you're asleep before you hit the pillow. Needless to say, I won't be going back to work any time soon.

That brings us to today. I'm sure along the way there were funny stories that happened like yesterday morning when it was Rob's turn to get up with the kids and Shelby took off her poopy diaper for him. That got kind of messy. Or the time a few weeks ago in church when Rob took Coop to the potty and then came back into sacrement meeting and Coop announced to the congregation, "MOM, I PEED....HEY, HEY MOM, I PEED!!" The ward is so proud.

Well hopefully that catches you all up on what's been goin down around here. I'll try to do better from here on out.

My little Graduate

Well we're all so proud of our little preschool grad. She is the tallest, cutest, and smartest in her class. Well on those last two I might be just a bit bias, however I think the evidence is clear. Here are a few of the highlights.
Exibit A:clearly she knows how to pick the most handsome little devil in the crowd. She proudly picked her little brother to come up with her and sing a song. He was pretty pumped. Neither one of them sang or did any actions whatsoever. I'm raising performers here I tell ya.



Exibit B: The bald kid next to her is the next tallest in the class. She is a full head taller than the girl in yellow. Yeah, she has Jolley blood alright. Notice everybody is doing the same action. She is above doing actions to songs, no matter who tells her. She is a leader, not a follower.



Exibit C: Most of the other kids were wearing their graduation caps. Yeah, not my kid, she is trying to start a new fashion trend. Abby McD. if you are reading this, I may have a little employee for you here in about 15 years. (for those of you who don't know her, Abby McD is a big fashion queen in NYC)


Exhibit D: clearly she knows that she isn't wearing subblock and being to close to the sun is bad for your skin. Even if all the other kids have their sunshine faces on and singing Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun doesn't make it any safer to be that close to UV rays without protection.



And here we are post-graduation party. We like to participate in "dry" parties, alcohol free if you will, in our family. Nothin like a trip to good ole Mickey-Dee's for some happy meals to bring a smile to our faces.

Mmmm, chicken nuggets, healthy... and look at happiness it brings as well.