Picnic at Flaming Gorge

This year school started on Wednesday Aug 26. So in honor of the kids' last day of Summer Vacation we skipped story time at the library and took them to Flaming Gorge. We had a picnic and went on the Dam Tour. The kids of course had a blast and were so tuckered out they they slept the entire way home, with Darin of course! Here are a few pics of our adventure in the mountains. The beautiful view of the water and mountains.

One of the turbines that sits out front of the Visitor's Center and Kellee, Emilio, and Korbin

Picnic, don't mind if I do!

Korbin hates to have his hands dirty and since Uncle D was sitting next to him, they washed his hands a lot!

Scentsy Convention

So sorry this is so late and I am behind and I'm sorry but this post will be a LONG one as Convention was a few days, and there is just sooo much to tell! So last week we were able to attend the Scentsy Convention. It was held in Salt Lake City this year, which was great for us being so close and all! We left Vernal Wednesday and registered, checked into our Hotel and was able to have a nice catch up dinner with our friends from Logan (who know live in SLC) Meg & Jim. It was great to catch up with them and visit for awhile! Now I may be biased and possibly even crazy but I think it is so kewl that as we were walking around our Hotel lobby we ran into Orville and Heidi Thompson and their children. Again this is the presidential family of Scentsy, I realize they are not famous, but in my eyes they should be! It was also fun to just run into Kara Egan one of the founders of Scentsy, her and her husband are so friendly and fun to talk to. Anyway, up and atom early Thursday for the beginning of meetings and trainings. The new product was unveiled and some given away. SO AWESOME! Then it was Thursday night and time for the BIG Celebration of Scentsy turning 5. The celebration wa carnival style and called Cirque de' beserque. It was really fun to walk around and see the booths and they had set up and all the fun things for the families involved. Again, we were able to have Meg and Jim join us, a big Thanks to them for taking time our of their busy lives to hang out! Friday was another early day filled with meetings and trainings. I was fortunate enough to win one of the Scentsy Spirit games and ended up with a $100.00 Gift Certificate to Scentsy Success, which is where we buy all our business supplies! Then we went to the Awards Gala and enjoyed some yummy deserts and some hilarious entertainment, which was a comic named Jason Hewlett. He is awesome, Jo had seen him previously in Logan, but still a very good show! He sings, plays instruments, and impersonations. Needless to say it was a great night! Scentsy gave away 5 cars, and about 10 trips (I may be off on the number,)among numerous other awards. Then on Saturday we were able to go to one more final meeting with our team. We learned a lot of new things, and ideas and Jo is SOOO excited to put everything into action. Our goals with Scentsy have changed and we are the way to reaching them!

A huge Scentsy sign at the Salt Palace in Downtown SLC

Jo and a new friend with my WINNING Gift Certificate. (If it wasn't for her Jo wouldn't have won!)

Jo with her Tiara and Gift Certificate. She was one HAPPY Scentsy Chic.

Each year at Convention you sign your name on the board. It's totally impossible to see my signature but it is up in the left hand corner. PS Shine in 09 was the theme for this year's Convention, and they did a WONDERFUL job with it.

Darin and Jo headed out to the Awards Gala

The one about the package from Iowa!

Have I ever mentioned how wonderful Darin's family is? Well if I haven't I totally apologize, they are are just great. His caring parents are always sending us lil care packages with all kinds of goodies. Well this week we received yet another, we had a lil warning about this one and was told it contained goodies for the kids. Well after we opened the package Monday night, we packed everything for the kids back up and thought it would be fun to get a few pics of the kids going through their package from the Noe's in Iowa! Thank you so very much to Mom & Dad Noe, the kids were thrilled with their stuff, you'd thought they'd won the lottery or something. You have successfully made some more Utah friends, and they are more than happy to be your adopted lil grandchildren. I should mention at this point that Laura and Emily (their mom's) think you have already spoiled them rotten! You have done your job and done it well! We love you! On a side note, I would like to add that Mom Noe you did get their favorite OJ juice in the box, and I missed the picture, but really they were jumping up and down! It was cute!

Waiting anxiously for the package to hit the table.

And the digging begins, please take note of Emilio's face here, I know it's a side shot, but he is pretty stoked!

And Kellie LOVES tattoo's, however did you know? Also we had just had snack, yet Korbin is all of a sudden hungry again for Scooby Doo Mac n Cheese.

And the stickers, holy moly, are you sure you guys haven't met these kids, they love to put them on every craft we do. All in all, it's safe to say they are pretty excited!

Kellie's new do!

So it's back to school time and after some talking it was agreed that Kellie was ready for a change. She wanted to keep it long, but wanted it to be healthy as well. Here is what we came up with. Doing her hair today, really made me miss doing hair this time of year! I love doing big major changes like this. Stupid sensitive skin anyway! It looks so cute on her, and really fits her personality well, also has the versatility to do different styles and so on.
Of course I completely forgot to take a before picture, however this pic was taken about a week or so ago and shows a good shot of her hair, pretty long, straight and all one length!

And the after shot! She picked out like 5 hair styles and they were all either flipped out or all very curly. She will have to put some effort into a flip with her hair type and since Mom says No perming right now, we will have to settle for a few curls at times.

And from the back! She is pretty excited about her new do, and was prancing around like a princess all afternoon! Which of course just made my day!

Melts my heart!

This post is seriously a heart warmer for me! Darin and I have had a lot of talks about kids and raising our kids and so on, with all of our problems getting pregnant and starting our family, well Darin has admitted to me his fear of him not being a good father for multiple reasons. While I think this fear is very very common among both men and women, I still think it's something to take very seriously! Well there was no doubt in my mind nor was there ever the fact that Darin would be a great father! Well having the kids around has proven that to me and hopefully opened his eyes a little as well. These may not be our kids, however we spend so much of our time with them and as always Darin is wonderful to help me think of ideas and ways to not only entertain each of the kids but to help them learn and enjoy their days with us! So I wanted to show the world ( or everyone in our blogging world) just how great of a father I think Darin will be and why! Please note that all of these pictures were Darin's idea and I just happened to have the camera around to catch them! Once we get pregnant, our kids will be so lucky!!!

After making cookies, Darin took each of the boys aside for a little story time! He had Korbin clapping and making the sounds in the book as well! Keep in mind that Darin isn't really a reader himself!

When Korbin woke up from his afternoon nap, Darin scooped him up to cuddle for a few minutes while Korbin fully woke up, this while Jo was busy in the Kitchen!

Korbin loves music! So we turned the music on one afternoon and Darin grabbed Korbin and started dancing with him! Korbin just smiled, laughed and giggled!

Cookies with the boys!

For a few days this past week it was just me and the boys! To help keep us busy we decided to make cookies. So we made a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip & a batch of Chocolate Chip. Emilio did so well and he had a lot of fun doing it! Korbin was also enjoying the process although his favorite part was the eating part!

Adding in the Pumpkin on the first batch!

Adding in the Chocolate Chips! For those of you wondering why we are putting in two bags, it wasn't two full bags of Choc. chips!

The finished product! I almost forgot to take this picture, luckily Emilio reminded me that we needed to show everyone how his first cookie making experience turned out! Don't they look yummy?

Tag...8 things.

I have been tagged by Amy! 8 things I am looking forward to: 1-Scentsy Convention 2-Alone time with Darin 3-Shopping 4- The house to sell. 5-Payday 6-Lazy Sundays 7-My house to magically become clean 8-Sleeping in 8 things I did this weekend: 1-Got my hair done 2-Relaxed 3-Watched a movie 4- Celebrated Lonnie's 21st Birthday! 5-Moved the lawn 6-Got my Itunes working 7-Did a lil shopping 8-Went to lunch with my Mom & Dad 8things I wish I could do: 1-Lose weight and keep it off, while eating whatever I want 2-Keep the house REALLY REALLY clean, all the time 3-Have enough money to donate to charities 4-Be in two places at once 5- Enjoy cooking & be good at it. 6-Never have to worry about anything again 7-Wear a bikini 8-Excercise more so I would look good in that bikini! 8 places I would like to travel: 1-Alaska 2-Ireland 3-New York 4-Hawaii 5-Bahama's 6-Cancun 7-Seattle 8-a Cruise to anywhere 8 shows I watch: 1-Grey's Anatomy2-Hawthorne 3-Private Practice 4-Ghost Whisperer 5-Oprah 6-Dr Phil 7-CSI 8- Numbers Here are the 8 people I tag: 1-Annalee 2-Kami 3- Amber 4- Jena 5-Ashley 6-Janice 7-Kristie 8-Kate

Happy Birthday Lonnie!

Happy 21 to Lonnie Michael Bills! I was 9 when this lil bundle of joy came into our lives, can honestly say I don't remember too much about it. What I do remember is being SO excited that I was going to be an aunt! I remember telling kids at school and they all told that I was too young to be an aunt, and I responded with well, I have an old brother so he made me an aunt young. I was always so excited to hold you and I do remember getting my feelings hurt because your mom was so protective and made me sit down and felt she would watch my every move with you (she had a right, I was young and you were her first.) Since that day, I have been so very proud to be a part of your life! I was always so excited to see your plays, or games, and when you graduated High School I couldn't believe it was true. Not only did I watch your parents and grandparents so proud of you, I too was very proud! I was so excited when you decided to come back to Vernal, and loved every minute of the time we got to spend together. Cried when you left us again, but never once has that Proud Aunt feeling left me. Darin is proud of you to and enjoys the time you get to spend with us. Though it's not often enough! We love you Lonnie! HAPPY HAPPY Birthday!!!!

Korbin wanted to be in the picture with Lonnie, the cake was way to tempting for him and here he is sharing his icing on the finger with Lonnie.

The birthday boy and his cake. Obviously this was taken on Sunday when Lonnie was able to join us for dinner before heading back to price to work. I seriously cannot believe my oldest nephew is 21!

Jo's new hair-do!

Everyone gets bored with their hair and needs a change. Well it was my turn, I get bored with mine very easily and often, I will be the first to admit it. So this past weekend Ihad an appointment with an AWESOME stylist in town and took care of my itch for some change. Her are the results. I really like it and it got a compliment from Darin, so she must have done a totally amazing job! Thanks Amy! You rock girl!
A lil side front action! showing a lil bit of the blonde/red on top.

From the back. Yes this is an A-line cut with a stack. I am loving it!

I told Darin I wanted some pics of my hair for the blog and asked him to zoom in. This pic is not in the best focus but it does show the hair length and cut well, just not the color.

OOPS! A forgotten update.

So I can't believe I forgot to post this, Actually I totally can. With all the excitement of the kids and finding things to do and the fact of wanting to forget it all together, I forgot to post this. So hear goes-

About a month or so ago, Jo went to the Dr and SURPRISE had yet another Ear Infection, we counted it up and it was 6 infections since February so, we were told that it was time to go see Dr Catten the ENT guy in town. We went and was given the options, 1- an Operating room to put you out and put a tube in both ears, or 2-An office visit, numb one ear at a time, put the tube in check back in 6-8 weeks to talk about doing the other! Well since only one of my ears is causing a HUGE problem right now, and time restrictions on their part, I went with the office visit. So about a week and a half ago, I underwent the painful procedure. HOLY CONOLLY! Who knew there was so many nerve endings in your ear?!?!?!?! After some pain to get the cone shaped tool inmy ear, the 5 shots to numb the ear, and the needle that actually goes through your eardrum and sets the tub in place it was done. I had to sit for just a few minutes to stop the dizziness. Then I had this Horrid taste in my mouth, when I asked Dr. Catten about it he said it was normal. There is actually a nerve in your ear that controls your taste buds and it would go away as the numbin medicine wore off. Luckily, I had reinforcements, my wonderful daddy had driven me there, so he drove me to 7-11 to get a drink to wash out this absolutely horrible tasting taste, for the record that helped but it was still there for a few hours. Since having the tube put in, I have been able to regain my hearing,for the most part, still hard to hear when there is a lot of background noise, I am hearing no echo's like some people do. And for the most part the pain is gone. Dr Catten did say that if it gets infected again, I would need some drops and I would know from the pain and to call the office. I'm hoping not to need that piece of advice any time soon though! Moral of this post, Don't be brave and do the Office visit, GET THE DRUGS!!!