Mini Golf

The boys got coupons from school for free meals and free activities. Today my mom and I decided to take the boys for a free game of mini golf. They loved it, and I loved the fact that it was free.


When we were on our second to last hole, a manager came to us and told us that they were evacuating the building due to an electrical problem. He gave us 5 coupons of free activities of our choice, and he let us finish our last hole. Score! I was so happy. I love free stuff!!!

Demolition Derby

It had been a long time since we had gone to a demolition derby. Now that the boys are older we thought they would be able to sit through and actually enjoy the show. My mom and Alex came along too; and neither of them had seen one before. It was a lot of fun!

The boys enjoying their burgers and nachos


Logan, me, and my mom

The show was really exciting: cars crashing, cars flipping over, smoking.... Oh what fun!

The boys enjoying the finale

Julien earned his Wolf badge

Julien finished his Wolf badge with the Cub Scouts. And as soon as he turns 9, he is able to join the Bears. He is thrilled!

Draper Pool

My mom and I decided to take the boys to the Draper pool today since it was such a hot day. The boys had a lot of fun. While keeping a close eye on them, the mama's lathered on the monoi oil and tanned.

Julien on the high diving board

Father's day picnic!

To celebrate Father's Day, I decided to prepare a nice picnic and head to one of our favorite spots during the summer, Bridal Veil Falls. It is so beautiful there. And no matter how crowded it is, Bridal Veils is always a very relaxing, peaceful place to be.

For the picnic, I fixed up something mighty good, something I knew Jon would love. I prepared what Jon called monstrous $6 burger. It was actually a black bean burger which I made from scratch topped with alfalfa sprout, avocado, tomato, and lettuce from our front terrace which sprouted on its own (I'm pretty sure the lettuce sprouted from me emptying my pots last fall.) Along with the burger was some delicious lemon fries. They were so tasty.

For desert, the famous Gateau Maeva au Chocolat. This cake is one of Jon's favorite cakes. I too love this cake for multiple reasons, for one it is really good, and second, I used to make this cake all the time with my grandpa (Grand-pere), my grandpa on my dad's side. In fact, we used to make it so much that he changed the name of the cake in the recipe book and put my name in its place.

Jon enjoying his cake.

After the pick nick we headed to the base of the water fall and let the kids play. Even though the water was so cold, the kids did not hesitate to go dunk their feet. They had a lot of fun. And of course, Julien managed to fall in all the way.

Strawberry Days Rodeo

Every year since we have lived in Pleasant Grove, we try to go to the Strawberry Days rodeo. We love it; the atmosphere is so much fun. This year, my mom and Alex came with us. It was there first time going to a rodeo. I think they enjoyed it.

We started our evening eating some delicious Strawberries and Cream.

Then we enjoyed the show with burgers and nachos of course.

Jon and I's favorite even of the night was the bare back riding and the wild cow milking. The boys said they liked the bull riding the best. They also had a lot of fun watching the mutton busting.

Karate day with dad

The Karate studio where the boys take do a Mother's and Father's karate day. The boys went with Jon for Father's day to practice their basic skills and to spend some quality time together.

Mommy date with Julien

We have stared this new bead system at our house where the boys get to earn beads or get beads taken away based on their behavior. The contest lasts two weeks, at the end of the two weeks the winner gets to decide what activity he wants to do, and who he wants to go with. Well, on the 5th of June, Julien was in the lead up until that very day, when he decided to go play with friends by our laundromat without telling us. His action resulted in loosing 2 beads, making Logan the rightful winner.
Logan wanted to go to Nickel City with Jon. There they played arcade games, along with a game of lazer tag. They had a lot of fun.
Finally, two weeks later, today, the beads were counted and Julien won. He decided that he wanted to go see Iron Man 2 with me. I was so glad I was able to spend some one on one quality time with him, doing something special, something he wanted to do. Julien is one of the sweetest boys I know. He has a very very big, carrying heart. I am so proud, and especially grateful to be his mom. I love him and Logan so much. Words cannot express how much I love them and how much they mean to me.

Hiking the Y

Each year we hike Y mountain up to the Y that over looks BYU campus. It was just the boys this year because Maeva was too heavy with child to come. I made the boys race up the West stairs of BYU to warm up for the hike, you can see the Y that we will hike to on the mountain behind the boys.


Whew, we made it, the hike was steep and hard, but not too long, just one hour at our pace, but the mountain was green and the view was grand. I stopped a few times to show the boys points of interest in Zion, um err,,, I mean Provo valley. Here the boys are sitting on the white wash that forms the Y.


Here we are together next to the Y overlooking the valley. To our left you can see Provo Temple, if you know the area well, the MTC, and Wymount where we live can also be seen.


Just as we were about to leave, I saw a medium sized, brown, hairy tarantula! It was scurrying into its hole, so we decided to get a better look at it. I convinced Julien to prod the tarantula out with a stick. Julien insists that he poked its abdomen, but it still wouldn't come out.


Another hiker joined our quest and we finaly got the tarantula out for a better look.

Car Wash

Today I decided to have the boys help me clean the car inside and out. We first vacuumed the car and wiped down the dash and doors, then the real fun started as we soaped up and rinsed the outside. Luckily there was two hoses so the boys each got to use their own. Afterward, we stopped by the BYU creamery for a little treat.

Book Mania!

Lately, Julien and Logan can't get enough reading into their days. I happened to walk into their room earlier this week to them quietly reading books. Since then, it seems that it has happened more and more. As a matter of fact, today as I was getting ready for church, the house seemed a little too quiet. Worried that they were doing something that they were not suppose to, I rushed into their bedroom to find the boys once again engulfed in their books. And actually, Julien read the Old Testament Stories during all of sacrament meeting. I hope this reading mania lasts!

No more clip ons!

It has been a couple months now that Julien has been able to tie his Sunday tie on his own. Jon taught him, and he picked it up in one day. He was so proud of himself to be able to do that. Here are pictures of him tying his tie.

Julien showing off his amazing tying job.

Boys hard at work!

Now that the arrival of the baby draws near, we are doing some adjustments and moving around furniture to prepare the baby's room. I bought a new shelf from walmart so the boys could have a shelf for their books, and the baby could get their old one for her books and toys and miscellaneous things. Jon did not hesitate putting the boys to work and having them figure out how the build the shelf. Julien and Logan got their tools out and went to work. They loved it!

Baby Shower!

Kailee and Cassie, two girls I work with threw me a baby shower. It was so sweet of them to do that for me. It was a lot of fun to socialize and hang out, a couple of girls whom I work with came, and a couple of my old students came too. It was great to see them and catch up. I got a lot of cute things for the baby.

Cassie made the announcements.


Cute little decorations.

Jess, one of the supervisors where I work made this amazing diaper cake. It was so cool. I had never seen one before. I think it was a brilliant idea.

Belt Promotion!

Jon, Julien, Logan, and Miki Lawrence (their karate instructor)

Jon, Julien, and Logan tested for their new belts yesterday. They all did so well. Here are a couple of shots, along with videos of the form they were testing, and their favorite show time kick combo.

Julien is our highest ranked belt.
He is now a Brown Yellow belt.

Julien's form

Julien's show time kick combo

Logan is our second in rank.
He is now a Blue belt.

Logan's form

Logan's show time kick combo

Jon is now a Purple belt. He can now spar. He is so excited.

Watch out opponent, Jon is fierce and powerful.

Jon's form

Jon's show time kick combo

Midnight Cravings

Well, I must say I haven't had many cravings so far during this pregnancy. But when they do arise it is always during the middle of the night. Somehow, I wake up starving around 12:00 or 1:00 am needing food. Two weeks ago, it was a peanut butter jelly sandwich on Whole Wheat Great Harvest Bread. Luckily I always have a loaf of Great Harvest bread on hand. So Jon nicely got out of bed to make me my sandwich.
However, yesterday I was craving a fruit salad. Jon and I were up watching the Bachelorette (poor guy). So we got out of bed (midnight once again) and fixed up a mighty good fruit salad, all from fresh fruit, not canned or frozen. It had so much goodness in it, just thinking about it make me hungry. Mangos, pineapple, kiwis, oranges, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas. Oh so good!
My fruit salad was accompanies with a slice of whole wheat Great Harvest toast of course.