Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas! The day started out with everyone meeting at the Powell's house around 6:30am. Their kids were just waking up and Christmas began! We opened presents until around 9:30am when we took a breakfast break - Cinnamon Rolls, Raspberry Rolls and Eggs Benidict! The cinnamon/raspberry rolls were an overnight recipe that we really like, so they were already made, all we had to do was pop them in the oven while we were opening presents! It was all so yummy!

Then it was back to opening present!

Around 1pm we finished our first house of presents. Is there such thing as too many present? When there are 12 people there are a lot of presents! The kids were actually getting disinterested in opening presents!

Everyone went home for an hour or so. We called my family to wish them a Merry Christmas! I have to brag about a present we gave. It was actually Ammon who found it, but we were so excited to give it! My dad is working on a collection of Jazz CD's so he's been receiving this list of CD's for all his presents for the past 3+ years. It's not a very exciting present to give, but my dad loves and wants them! If you know my dad, you know how awesome this present is!

It's a snow globe with a stationary Golf Tee in it. There is also a golf ball that floats around. The object of this game is to get the golf ball onto the tee.

Here are some pictures of our Christmas tree this year!

I made these ornaments this year. I made a set for Ammon and I, and a set for my parents, and a set for Ammon's parents.

One for Carter:

And one for Tanner:

And of course we had to take a picture of us on Christmas!

Then we all met at Ammon's Parent's house for Christmas dinner. After dinner we opened more presents for a couple of hours! We had a wonderful Christmas Day!

Christmas Movie Party

We had a low key movie party with the Powell's! Ammon and I were planning to do a big sleepover movie party like we normally do, but it didn't end up working out, so instead we just invited the whole Powell family over! We watched The Santa Claus and ate a variety of yummy cookies! No pictures, sorry.

Cutting Down Our Christmas Tree

This year we went to a Christmas Tree lot where you get to cut down your own Christmas Tree! This was our first time cutting down our own Christmas tree! Although we weren't up in the mountains. We met the Powell's there and had a fun time wandering through the forest of trees looking for just the right one!

Random Rant: I was frustrated a while back when Google+ changed Picasa because I couldn't find a way to embed a slideshow of pictures onto my blog. But then I found a work-around. My work-around no longer works. AAAHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! This means I have to post each picture individually, which as a result means I won't be sharing as many pictures of the things we do. If I do post a bunch of pictures, the post will be forever long. I'm sure I'll end up doing that, so sorry in advance!

Grandparent's Day

The Powells' now have 3 kids in elementary school. About a week ago, Sadie called me and asked me if I could help out on Grandparent's day since they only have 2 grandparents that live locally. Of course I said yes! When I told Ammon what I was going to do, he said if I was going to go, I should really look the part! So we bought a grandma wig and grandma glasses; unfortunately the glasses didn't arrive in time :(
So this morning I got all ready to go - wig and all, and went to the elementary school. The school serves all the grandparents a light breakfast, and then each grade came in and sang us a song. I was sitting at a table right by where the kids lined up before going up on stage. When Avri saw me, she couldn't stop smiling and giggling! She obviously loved it! When Talmage saw me, he kept looking at me, looking away, looking at me, looking away, etc. Each time he looked at me he gave me a "half" smile (no teeth). When Sadie saw me, she looked away and then refused to look at me again. After the kids were done singing, we got to go visit the kids in their classrooms and do an activity with them. The school divide the time in the classroom into two parts (so grandparents could go to 2 classes). I went to Sadie's class first. When I went in all the kids were sitting on the carpet. I said hi to Sadie, but she wouldn't stand up or acknowledge me. So I went over to her, grabbed her hand and had to help her stand up. Almost the whole time I was in her classroom, she sat with her hand over her mouth - never talking to me - and hardly looked at me. I was so incredibly disappointed. I really thought she would think it was funny! I was sure that I had taken this special day and made it awful for Sadie. The second half of the time I went to Avri's classroom. She was all smiles and thought the wig was great. We did our activity together chatting and having a good time!

After it was all over, when I was in the car, Carrie called me. She had gone to Sadie's room after I had left. Carrie said that Sadie was really quiet at first, but once she opened up, she told Grandma, "Did you see Allison? She had a wig on! It was gray and curly!" And she was very amused and thought it was funny! I was so glad that Carrie told me this; now I know I didn't scar Sadie for life! I think because she wasn't expecting the wig, she was kind of embarrassed and didn't know how to react. But after she had some time to think about it, she decided she really liked it!

Ammon's {28th} Birthday

Ammon had a great day celebrating! At work, people typically take in a food item of some sort to share with everyone on their birthdays. Most of the time it ends up being some kind of treat, which Ammon has noticed don't normally get eaten very well. So he decided he wanted to take something in that was on more of the "healthy" side of the spectrum. So we made yogurt parfaits for him to take to work! They had the choice of peach, strawberry or vanilla yogurt with layers of berries in each. We also had little cups of granola for them to put on top. He said they were deemed the best birthday treat ever brought into the office. That made me feel pretty good since I did all the "behind-the-scene" work on them!

In my family, the tradition is that my mom would make a paper banner that says happy birthday and is decorated all cute for each person's birthday; complete with balloons. Well, earlier this year I made a Happy Birthday banner out of felt that will serve as our birthday banner for...well...ever, I guess. And of course I bought him birthday balloons!

For dinner Ammon wanted Twice-Baked Potatoes as an appetizer. For the main dish he wanted a nice salad with grilled chicken on it. Roasted vegetables and his favorite fruit salad were the sides of his choice. I also made our first batch of pomegranate jello to go with it. It was quite the feast!

For desert Ammon choose my homemade ice cream cake. It wasn't a hard choice for him since it's his favorite cake that I make! Lol!

He received many wonderful presents! Lots of tools, a laser pointer, camping gear and a gift card that I'm sure will be spent on more camping gear! He was certainly spoiled by all of his family!

Chicago!

Sunday morning we made the 3 hour drive to Chicago. The Powell's drove up Saturday morning and had already spent a day there when Ammon, Carrie and I got there Sunday morning. While in Chicago, we used the CTA (Chicago Transit Authorities)to get around; mostly the trains, but we did ride a bus a few times. We parked our car in a train station parking lot and took a train and a bus to Navy Pier. We walked to the end of Navy Pier - what a beautiful view! We sat on some benches for a while and just looked at everything! Then we walked through the Stained Glass Museum. We watched the Powell kids on a few rides, and then we took a bus to Willis Tower. Willis Tower is the former Sears Tower. We walked through a museum and watched a short video before going up the elevator to the 103 floor. It was fun looking down on the city! They had these clear boxes that hung outside of the tower, so that you could look all around - including down - and see the city! It was scary to walk out on it at first, but as long as I didn't look down, it was okay! Next, Kendall and Melissa took off to go to a concert they had bought tickets for while Carrie, Ammon and I took the Powell kids to the Magnificent Mile. Avri insisted that we HAD to walk through the American Girl store! Both Avri and Sadie want one of these dolls! We found one that looked like Sadie (Molly) and they got a catalog so they could look through it more at home. Then we went to the Lego store where they had lego building tables and Lego video games. We let the kids play with the lego toys for a while before we headed to catch up with Kendall and Melissa. Ammon and I were given a recommendation of a restaurant that serves true Chicago style pizza. All 3 times we've been to Chicago, we've gone to this restaurant. There are many locations in Chicago, so we chose to meet Kendall and Melissa at one that was just a couple of blocks from the concert they were at. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and crashed. That seems to be a common phrase when I'm talking about our vacations! I guess that means we're always packing a lot of fun things in! Lol!




Our whole trip was planned around Monday. Most of the museums in Chicago have "free days" where if you live in Illinois you can get into the main part of the museum for free. This particular Monday happened to be the free day for 2 museums - The Shedd Aquarium and The Museum of Science and Industry. In the morning we drove to the train station parking lot and then took the train to the Shedd Aquarium. Then we headed to the Museum of S&I and found a little restaurant to eat lunch at before exploring the museum. We didn't get too many pictures at the museums because we were having too much fun! But the pictures we do have are of us in front of a white screen the projected butterflies. If you stand really still, then the butterflies will come land on you! It was pretty cool!

Harry Potter Party

Time flew by this October! Ammon and I were planning on having the Powell kids over for a sleepover BEFORE Halloween, but it ended up happening the day after. Oh well. It just meant we didn't need to buy as much candy!

I took the Hogwarts Letter and the List of Supplies and rolled them together. I also printed off on cardstock some owls. I tied the rolled up letters onto the feet of the owls - you know, so it looked like the owls were delivering the lettters ;) While we were at Grandma Dietz's house, I went outside and hung one above each child's seat, so that when they went out to the car, they'd have their own owl waiting to deliver their Hogwarts letter to them! Melissa said they went so crazy because they were so excited. There was a debate among the kids as to whether they were going to the REAL Hogwarts, or to Ammon and Allison's house! Avri is such a crack-up when it comes to Harry Potter. Believing in Harry Potter is like believing in Santa Clause for her. She was SO positive they were going to the REAL Hogwarts!

The evening started off when we reviewed how House Points work. You can get them by being good and by answering questions, but if you're too noisy or if you're not being nice, they could be taken away. Of course, we had rubies (printed on cardstock) since that is what Gryffindor uses! Avri asked me how many rubies they had to earn and what the prize was; good thing I use to be a teacher, thinking on my feet with questions like that come fairly easily. They had to earn 20 rubies to be able to watch the movie.

We were watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so we planned the activities based off of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

We went outside where we had a golden egg (ball of caramel corn wrapped in plastic wrap so we could eat it later)and each child took turns being a dragon guarding the egg, and the one trying to get it before the dragon tagged them. Successfully getting the egg = 1 ruby

Next, instead of going swimming in a lake searching for their best friends, we bobbed for apples! I wasn't sure how well the kids would like this, but they absolutely LOVED it! It might have helped that we used warm water. They all wanted to keep playing this game over and over! Getting the apple = 1 ruby (which they earned a lot of rubies because they wanted to keep playing...)

Although we proved our green thumb abilities with our garden this past summer, we weren't feeling up to the task of growing shrubs into a maze. So instead we practiced for going into the maze. I had made a simple question game on PowerPoint using their Charms knowledge. Just simple questions about different charms/spells. 1 correctly answered question = 1 ruby. I asked Avri before we started if she wanted to be on her own team, or if she wanted it to be 2 kids vs 2 kids. She chose to have Rigdon on her team, because then it would be like she was on her own team. So Ammon helped out Sadie and Talmage (only a little). Although throughout the game she kept saying it wasn't fair because occasionally Ammon was helping Talmage and Sadie, I think she answered more questions correctly! Lol!

We counted up the rubies they had earned, they had earned almost 30(phew!)! If they hadn't earned 20, I'm not sure what I would have done next, because I was planning on watching the movie! During the movie we snacked on caramel corn; and about half way through the movie we took a break to have some ButterBeer. I made it out of slushy cream soda and coolwhip that had butterscotch flavor in it. We drank it in The Great Hall which I decorated with floating candles and pumpkins! It added a really fun touch! Talmage was funny because after drinking his first glass, he asked for "more beer, but no butter." A few weeks later Rigdon asked me, "Remember when we drank beer at your house?" I just started cracking up laughing because I can only imagine him in nursery at church telling how his Aunt Allison gives him beer...I reminded him that it was really just soda pop.

After the movie, it was super late, so we quickly got ready for bed and went to sleep! In the morning we had "Quiditch Pancakes" for breakfast. I made yellow pancakes that had wings coming out of them for the Snitches and then the kids wanted all the different balls that are used in Quiditch so we also made Quaffals and Bludgers!

It was another successful and SO much fun party!!

3rd Anniversary

Since we had already gone on a nice "anniversary trip" to Washington DC, on the day of our anniversary we went out to dinner to a local steak house. It was a great evening!

Labor Day

We had an AWE-SOME Labor Day! We started off the morning with a HUGE breakfast - we all ate way too much! We had omelets in a bag, cinnamon rolls, fruit, juice, bacon, maybe some other really yummy things that I can't remember now. After breakfast, we pulled out all of our projects that are games! First we played Kickball Croquet (Kendall and Melissa's project). Then we played Cornhole (Ammon and my project). We made a BYU (Ammon's alma mater) and UVU (my alma mater) boards. Yes, that is all painted! It was hard, but we think they turned out really well! Because of how Cornhole is played, you don't really have a BYU and UVU team (both teams play on both boards), but Kendall and I are both UVU graduates, so we were the UVU team, while Ammon and Melissa both graduated from BYU and was the BYU team. I think this is the only sport that UVU and BYU play each other in (wink wink). I'm am incredible proud to say, Kendall and I represent UVU well; we won! Kendall and I went on to play the second BYU graduate team (Dad and Mom Dietz) and again, UVU won! I definitely love BYU, but I'm proud to be a UVU grad!

Next we pulled out the bows, arrows and bb gun. Then we went inside to play our balloon game (Ammon and my project). We should have taken more pictures of this project, we'll have to later. In the picture you are looking at the front of the game. When you remove the front board, you will see 25 little cubbies. At the back of each cubby is a screw (sharp so it can pop a balloon when the balloon pushes against it). Each cubby is big enough for an air-filled water balloon. Inside each balloon we put a question or something to do (example: Do 5 jumping jacks; give somebody a hug; what is your favorite season). To play the game the kids take turns throwing a bean bag at the box and if they pop a balloon, they get to answer/do what the paper said. We made this game with church teaching callings in mind. We put church related questions inside the balloons to answer.

We had a very fun Labor Day! This is not the first time we have lived by family (we lived about 10 minutes from my parents for the first 1 1/2 years of our marriage and about an hour away from Elise for a year) and we really like living by family! It makes holidays like these so much fun! Thanks for helping us have such an great Labor Day this year!

Washington DC

This past week we went to Washington DC. This was Ammon's first time in DC. Although I've been there a few times, we did some new things that I hadn't done before! We decided to drive there (instead of flying)even though we parked the car at the hotel and didn't use it almost the whole time we were there! We drove all day Monday to get there. We were offered to stay at the home of some relatives, but decided that since this was our big vacation for the year, we'd stay in a hotel. Although it's nice to save money, it's also nice that we're NOT college students anymore (meaning we can afford a hotel!) We stayed in a really nice hotel in Alexandria, VA.

Tuesday morning we packed a lunch and took our bikes into DC. It was so much fun seeing the monuments by bike! The Washington Monument is still being retrofitted, so we couldn't go up in it, but we rode by it (a few times).
We went to:
WW II Monument
Korean Monument
Lincoln Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery (we took the tram tour - so glad we did! It was very interesting!)
Iwo Jima
Vietnam Memorial
White House
Capital Building
Martin Luther King Jr Memorial
Theodore Roosevelt Memorial
Thomas Jefferson Monument
Then we rode to Union Station and ate dinner, then headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back to our hotel it was around 8:30-9pm. It was a very full and fun day!


Wednesday:
Today was another busy, packed day! We started off going to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This was a very interesting tour! We really liked it a lot! Then we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was really good - a lot like the one in LA. Then we went to the Air and Space Museum. We only got to see a small part of it before we needed to head to the Capitol Building for our scheduled tour. After the tour we went to the Postal Museum and then to Union Station for dinner. We went to the Natural History Museum, and again only saw a small part of it. We got back to our hotel and crashed! Our feet were so tired!


Thursday:
We saw the backside of the White House. We also went into the White House Museum. We finished the Natural History Museum. Then we went to the National Archives building where we say the Declaration of Independence, Bill or Rights and the Constitution. We walked a few blocks to the Spy Museum. We were so excited to go to it because it sounded so cool! When we got there we found out it cost something like $15/person. We decided to skip it :( But we were really close to the Ford Theater, so we went there and to the house across the street where Abraham Lincoln actually died. We walked back to the American History Museum. After that we went back to the Air and Space Museum to finish it up. Then we headed back to our hotel. We changed clothes and headed to the Washington DC Temple. When we were walking into the temple, we ran in to Uncle Joel and Aunt Laurie who were also in DC on vacation! After the temple we stopped and grabbed a very late dinner.


Friday was our drive home. We had such a fun time! The museums were so wonderful - especially since they were all free! It was definitely a well-worth-it vacation!

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory

It's that time again...time for another SLEEPOVER MOVIE PARTY!!!!

Invitations: Golden Tickets hidden inside Wonka Chocolate Bars. This was a little tricky because chocolate bars are no longer wrapped in the foil paper with a paper band around them (at least not around here!) they're all wrapped in a sealed plastic wrapper. After opening the candy bars (I used Twix, Resess, Kit Kat and Cookies & Cream) I put the golden ticket around them, wrapped them in freezer paper, then put on my Wonka paper wrapper. When I told the Powell kids I had bought them a treat, it didn't take Avri more than 30 seconds for her to say, "I think I know what this REALLY is!" Meaning she knew that it was an invitation to our next movie party :) What a smart girl!


Games:
Unwrapped: In the movie, there are factories where the workers just unwrap Wonka bar after Wonka bar looking for a golden ticket. We put the kids to the test to see how good THEY are at unwrapping candy! We used Starbursts instead of chocolate.
Suction: In the movie, the large boy falls into the chocolate river then gets sucked into a pipe. He got stuck in the pipe until the pressure built up and forced him out. We used tubes (straws) to see how well the kids could suck things up. We had squares of paper and they had to get the piece of paper from the middle of the room to their cup only using their straw - NO HANDS! Who could get the most paper in their cup?
Oompa Loompa Walk: Who can waddle like an Oompa Loompa the best? This game was tricky because you had to walk with a balloon between your legs and not drop the balloon!

Treats:
In the room where everything is edible, we had lolly pops and gummy bears.
Of COURSE we had to have Everlasting Gobstoppers!
Fizzy Lifting Drinkes were a MUST!
What is a Willy Wonka party without the CHOCOLATE!?!

Sleeping Bags and Pillows were forgotten, so Cool Uncle Ammon made a fort for the kids to sleep in. He is good at fort making! Lol! Talmage also helped with the ideas and the building. It took us a while to regulate the temperature enough in there that the kids would actually fall asleep. But they had fun with it!

Peoria Chiefs

As part of a Summer Reading program we did through the Peoria Library, we earned tickets to a Chiif's game. It was a fun FHE night!

Eggett's Come to Town

July 21-27 was RAGBRAI and my parents and Kimberly were going! On Monday I drove to meet up with them and spent the rest of the week as their driver. If you haven't ever heard of RAGBRAI, it's a HUGE bike ride (both in distance and participants) that starts on the west boarder of Iowa and ends on the east boarder of Iowa. The route changes each year, but even so, every day is anywhere from a 50 mile ride to 85 miles. And it's NOT flat. It is FULL of rolling hills! Anyways, each morning I would get up and take down both of our tents, pack everything into the car, drive to the next stop (which was more miles than the bikers because we had to take a round-about route so we weren't driving on the same roads the bikers were on). The traffic was always horrible! Then, I had find a camping spot - which proved VERY difficult on many days because of the city's lack of communication/organization. Set up the tents and camp site. Most days I had other tasks too, like going to the laundry mat to dry all of our bedding that was SOAKED the night before in a crazy rain storm, pick something up from the grocery store, etc. My family would make it to the campsite in the early afternoon. They'd shower, then we'd head into town, go into an open building and play games, or just relax. I rode one and a half days of RAGBRAI about 5 years ago, and watching my family ride it made me want to do it again! The endpoint of RAGBRAI was only 2 hours away from our house, so afterwards, my family came and stayed with us for a few days!

On Sunday we went to church and did a bunch of relaxing and visiting.

Monday we went over to East Peoria. First we went to Bass Pro Shop and did their shooting range (it's indoors and the guns shoot lasers). Afterwards we went to Costco and a couple of grocery stores to get ready for the awesome FHE we had planned for that night! Then we went home and relaxed before heading to Mark and Carrie's house to set up for FHE. Unfortunately, my dad got sick that day and missed out on the activities! For FHE we (both Dietz families, Eggetts and Powells) played water kickball. To kick the ball you stood next to home plate (a mini pool), then ran to first base where you had to sit on a bag of ice (we couldn't find ice blocks!), second base you weren't safe until you got a water balloon out of the cooler and sat on the folding chair; popping the water balloon with your butt. Third base you had to stick your nose/head into a bucket of water (we said nose because I wasn't sure if it would scare Rigdon to stick his whole head in the water - but come to find out, he LOVED sticking his whole face in the water!), then run home to the baby pool! Then we had a BBQ of Brats, Polish Sausages, Chips, Salads, Corn on the Cob, and lots of other yummy foods! Then Sadie gave us a cute lesson from the Friend.

On Tuesday, Ammon took the day off of work and we went to the CAT Museum in downtown Peoria. It was really interesting! Then we went out to eat for lunch at a restaurant that use to be a Speak Easy hidden underneath a Performing Arts Theater. Then we took a little drive through some beautiful neighborhoods. We came back to our house for a little bit then headed back out to Bass Pro Shop to go bowling at The Fish Bowl. My parent's car was making some funny noises throughout the day, so after bowling we went to Mark and Carrie's house and Mark and Ammon fixed the car.




Wednesday morning we went to the Wildlife Prairie Park and then to Safety Town for a picnic lunch. Safety town is a public park that is for bikes. It has all sorts of traffic signs/lights, lines in the road, on-ramps, off-ramps, divided roads, etc for kids to ride their bikes in.

Thursday came and my family had to leave. We had such a fun time having them here!

Making our House a Home

The house that we are living in this year hasn't been lived in for....I'm not sure, but a long time! It has been fun making the house looked lived in from the outside! Since we don't have an air conditioner for the whole house (we have a small window unit in our bedroom), we've stuck gold this year having quite a bit of cooler-than-normal weather. So we wanted to cool our house using the outside air. Thus, a new project started to develop in my brain! I wanted a screen door so that we could put a fan by the front door and get a lot of cool air in our house! Here is the screen door that Ammon and I built! On most of our projects, Ammon does an awesome job of think it all through and making a plan of how to build it, but for this project, I came up with my own "building plan" and when I told it to Ammon, he said it was really good, so we used it!

Something else we've done to make our house look more lived in is planted flowers. We discovered these kind of cool flowers called Four O'Clocks. The flowers close during the heat of the day, and open in the evening (around 4:00) when the day starts to cool down. We've also planted Naturtiums - which we also really like! They kind of grow along the ground, vine like, and have really pretty flowers! We also planted Marigolds and Petunias and a vegetable garden!

Chicago

We spent Saturday in Chicago. First we went to the Chicago Temple. It is a very odd layout! But it was nice to be in the temple, and it’s always fun to go to a different temple. After that we went to a very large Botanical Garden. We really liked it a lot! We learned a few things about gardening in their vegetable gardens. It was interesting to see different pruning techniques. After that we went and got Chicago Style Pizza at Giordano’s. We've had their pizza before (it was recommended to us by somebody who served a mission in Chicago) and it's so delicious! Then we made the drive back home. It was a fun packed day!

Backyard Tree House

Grandpa Dietz spent some time building the Powell kids a tree house in one of the cut off trees in our back yard this weekend! The kids loved it! Grandpa did a lot of prep work and had it almost done when the Powells arrived. It took about an hour to finish putting it all together. After it was all put together Avri said, "We built a WHOLE tree house in just an hour!" All the adults laughed because it took much more time than an hour!

Also, an update on our garden - it's growing really well!!!

Nauvoo

We decided for out June Weekend Adventure and camping trip we'd head to Nauvoo! Melissa, kids and I left for Nauvoo early in the afternoon and set up camp while Kendall and Ammon drove to Nauvoo after work. I was pretty proud of us women for setting up camp by ourselves! I think we did a mighty fine job!

That night we went to a Vocal Point concert in the Nauvoo Outdoor Theater. When we first arrived, there was a different program going on and we caught the last 10ish minutes of it. Kendall made popcorn between the two shows! We love Kendall's popcorn! We had a fun time listening to Vocal Point!




Another successful camping trip!

Ammon's First Father's Day

As you can imagine, Father's Day (and Mother's Day) this year have been a little tough on us. It was hard for me to know how exactly to celebrate this special day for Ammon. So here's what I did for him; enjoy the pictures!



The Sunday after Father's day we celebrated with the Dietz side of the family. We all had dinner together and I made Ammon's favorite Ice Cream Cake (last year, on "Husband's Day" Ammon said he wanted this cake every year for Father's/Husband's Day, so I had to make sure that happened!). I didn't think to take a picture of it, but man is it SO YUMMY!!!

Our Garden

Things are coming along in our garden. It always needs more work than we have time! But what we have done is looking really good!

Tremont Turkey Festival

My mom came and visited us and we had such a fun time while she was here! Here are some of the things we did:
Bike Rides
Gardening
Picnic at Safety Town with Melissa and kids and Carrie
Made Rhubarb Lemonade
Riverside Farmer's Market
Tremont Turkey Festival (pictures below)
BBQ with Dietz Family
Church
Drive through old and new homes
Movie in the Park
A day in East Peoria (including the coin operated guns at Bass Pro Shop, Costco, and grocery shopping)

On Saturday, we went to the Tremont Turkey Festival. The highlight of the festival was a little something called Bed Races. Anyone could enter to race a bed. There were some requirements, including the size of the bed, the bed had to be fully made, there had to be 1 person riding on the bed, and there could be up to 4 pushers. There were four lines in the race. The starting line, then finish line, and the two lines in the middle was where the Chinese Fire Drill took place. They had to be between the lines the entire time they were doing the Chinese Fire Drill. It was a lot of fun!

Picasa has changed, and I haven't figured out how to put in an embedded slide show yet, so I'll have to put in the pictures individually...

MEATBALL PARTY!!

We invited Kendall and Melissa's kids over for another sleepover movie party. This times theme was Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Rigdon just called it a Meatball Party! We read the book, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and started out the fun night with a giant food obstacle course. First they had to run the french fry to the ketchup. Then run with a pea between their knees. Limbo under the carrot, then carry the doughnut to the finish line! Staying with the “food” theme, we played Hi Ho Cherry O and Pizza Party. Then it was time to start the movie! I brought out our Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes. While watching the movie, I brought out more treats as they were shown in the movie. Enjoy the rest of the story through the pictures!

St Louis

Melissa and I planned an AWESOME weekend in St Louis! We all had such a blast! On Friday Ammon and I left early in the afternoon and went straight to the St Louis temple. When we were done, the Powell's were just getting to St Louis. We met up at our hotel, and Ammon and I went to the pool with the Powell kids while Kendall and Melissa went to the temple.

Saturday morning, we started our adventures by going to the Science Museum. We had a really fun time there. We picked up some lunch on our way to the City Museum. I don't have enough adjectives to describe the City Museum, but it was A-MAZE-ING!!! It's not the kind of museum where you go look at things, this is the kind of museum where you DO stuff! I think our favorite part was the outside area where you could climb on everything! I'll let the pictures do the talking! We were all sweaty and exhausted by the time we left! I would recommend this museum to everyone! We had from the age of 2 to 30 and we all had such a blast!



On Sunday we went to the zoo. The zoo is located in Forest Park - where the World's Fair was located in the early 1900's. It reminded us so much of San Diego! We had a really good time at the zoo! After the zoo, we grabbed some lunch. Haha, it actually wasn't as quick as it sounds...we went to 3 restaurants and all three were closed. We ended up having to eat fast food instead :( Then the Powell's left for home and Ammon and I went to the St Louis Arch. We wanted to go up it, but there was a huge wait, so instead we went to the museum there and walked around outside. Then we headed home too.



We had a blast in Saint Louis! What a wonderful weekend getaway!

Adventure Wall

For the past few weeks I've been working on an Adventure Wall. What is an Adventure Wall? Well it's a grouping of pictures - each one from a different vacation (adventure) we've been on. I bought a bunch of different frames from different thrift stores then painted them black. I decided I liked having a couple of picture frames different colors (one is red and one is blue) as accent colors. I even cut out and painted the letters myself! It's been a fun project and a long time coming!

**UPDATE** I needed a new picture frame for our Saint Louis adventure, so I went to the thrift store. While I was looking at the picture frames, I found a few that I liked. I grab the ones that looked good to me, even though I don't yet have an adventure for that frame! I decided to get the extra frames all ready for the next adventure we go on, including hanging the picture. But I've added a little note inside those frames "Awaiting Future Adventure." This way, I'm all set for our next adventure!

My First Mother's Day

My Mother's Day weekend celebration was amazing! I must start by saying what an amazing husband I have and how I am so lucky to have him in my life! I love Ammon so much! More every day! Also, all of my family who helped me to have a wonderful first Mother's Day.

Our celebration started off with a campout to Spring Lake with the Powells! We had such a blast!




Saturday morning we went fishing before driving home. Because the adults didn't have fishing licenses, just Powell kids fished. Unfortunately, no fish were biting.

When Ammon and I got home, we cleaned up then Ammon took me out to a late lunch to Flat Top Grill - one of our favorite restaurants! It's a stir fry restaurant. Ammon gave me a beautiful necklace.




That evening we worked in the garden. Ammon tilled the whole garden, then together we marked off all of the walking paths. We were going to transplant our broccoli and cabbage, but ran out of day light.




Sunday, after church, Ammon made me very delicious fajitas for lunch. Then we went over to the Powell's house for dinner where Kendall and Ammon cooked us all dinner. We had a fun time! After dinner, Ammon surprised me with a peach pie from a local bakery. A couple of weeks ago, I told Ammon that it's too bad peaches aren't in season because I'd love a homemade peach pie for Mother's Day. Ammon remembered that and searched for a fresh peach pie, which he said was hard to find! Mmmmm Mmmm. It was so good! And what a sweet man to remember and find me a peach pie! I love you Ammon!

Melissa and the Powell family gave me a beautiful framed collage picture of what makes me a mother. It has a picture of our family of 4, Carter's footprints, Tanner's footprints and a quote on infant death by Joseph Smith. It was so sweet of her, I love it!

To top it all off, Ammon gave me a very sweet card. I also received cards in the mail from my family and phone calls! This weekend was full of so much family and love. Thank you everyone, especially my dear husband, love of my life, Ammon.

In Memory of Quiet Books

In February I decided to make a Quiet Book for Elise's adorable children, JD and Maia. I figured if I'm making one, I ought to make a second one for my own kids! So I found ideas online and tweaked them to my own liking and got busy making them. I had the books about half done when everything happened. Despite it all I still wanted to finish these books. My parent's suggested that my family's quiet book could be a gift from Carter and Tanner to their future siblings. I liked this idea and took it one step further by adding the dedication in the back of the book.



If you are interested in making a quiet book and have any questions as to how I did it, I would be more than happy to share the knowledge I learned while making it!

Spy Training School

This weekend we had a Spy Training School Sleepover Party with our nieces and nephews here in Illinois. The fun started a week earlier when we gave them special invitations.

When they arrived at our house, they each got to choose a spy name. Then we learned how to be spies! We had a balance beam, bombs, lasers, observation and a final test. The final test was a set of clues that guided the spies back through all of the fun things we had already done. At the end of the test, they became agents.

Next we watched Spy Kids and ate spy candy. Then it was lights out! The next morning we ate waffles for breakfast then watched Spy Kids 2. It was a fun party!


I must give credit to the internet. It gave me ideas and I adapted them to fit our party.

Twice the News!

We are very excited to announce that we're pregnant!!

From 2012-02-05 Pregnancy Announcement

With TWINS!!!

The twins are currently 14 weeks old and are due on August 2, 2013. We are officially 1/3 of the way through the pregnancy! Because we're having twins, the pregnancy is considered high-risk, meaning that the doctor keeps a closer eye on us. For us, that means monthly ultrasounds! Here's a few of them:

7 weeks

From 2012-12-17

10 weeks

From 2013-01-07

14 weeks
This ultrasound was particularly fun because the babies were moving around. They're positioned side by side with their heads next to each other. They must already be having a good time!


Our 14 week ultrasound was a little early to be able to tell genders. We'll have to wait until our next appointment at the beginning of March. We are so very excited and feel so blessed to be growing our family and become parents!

California to Illinois

Oh Man! It's been a long time! Since the Air Show at Miramar, we had a wonderful Christmas with the Eggett Family. Dad, Mom and Kimberly drove down from Utah, and we all met at the Johnson's house. It was SO much fun watching Elise's kids play with all of their new toys!

From 2012-12-25 Christmas

Just days after Christmas, we had movers at our house packing up all of our belongings and both cars - starting our yearly move. This time, to Illinois. We had such a wonderful year in San Diego! We miss our friends, the weather and all the fun things (definitely including the beach) to do there!

Although we were very sad to leave beautiful San Diego, we were/are excited for our next adventure. It's true, the weather here does NOT compare to California at all, but we are lucky to be living close to a lot of family! It has taken us some time to get settled in and unpack all of our boxes, but we're finally ready for the debut of our new home! Enjoy the slide show!