Keepin' it Real.... for my girls

A while back, I hosted a girls weekend at my house for my 5 best friends from high school (yes, we still actually like each other-a lot). During that time, I heard the comment "I can't believe how clean your house is" at least a dozen times. And every time I heard it, I cringed a little. Because the truth is, my house is never clean. Ok, maybe every now and then I get a little manic and clean all day long, but those days are few and very far between. When everyone went home, I felt overly guilty, like I'd just swindled them out of any piece of mind they may have had about being a good housekeeper!!! So, to make it up to them, I am posting these pictures. Girls, this is how my house looks right now. And most days, it's a little worse! I hope your self-esteem gets a huge boost from these!!
Being a mom, a good mom, means so much more than having a tidy house. My messy house will one day be spotless, but now is not the time for that! Now is the time for playing. My kids won't remember the state of my kitchen, but will certainly remember my state of mind. Enjoy the pictures, and feel my pain as today, unfortunately, IS cleaning day!

A Camping We Will Go!!!

We just finished our first camping trip of the Summer. It was so fun!! Our Spring has been so cool, we didn't dare camp until this last weekend. We went with another family up to Pine Valley. It was awesome! The weather was perfect. We are tent campers, so we really rough it!
One funny story from the weekend: The kids and I were in the tent and Steve had just got out. He snuck around the side of the tent, jumped up, rattled the tent and roared. Jade was right by the wall where he attacked and she screamed, flew across the tent (literally flew), and her eyes were the size of tennis balls! We all laughed so hard, even Jade (she's a good sport). We leave again for another camping trip soon. Loving Summer!!!!

A perfectly roasted marshmallow

She was showing me her sticky fingers.

Walkie talkies- the kids' favorite thing about this camping trip.

All of us at the reservoir.

Chop, chop, timber!

Ayden jumping off the diving board.
Jade's turn.

Waiting for class to start.

The kids just finished their first session of swimming lessons. They were in the same class and both passed on to the next level. I'm so proud of them. Both of them are so brave. Jade was the first in her class to go off the diving board. She just walked up there like she'd been doing it her whole life. Their favorite game was "chop, chop, timber". They would pretend to grow like trees, then their teacher would chop them down and they would fall into the water. We are going to do one more session before Summer is over.

Woo Hoo, here are some pics!!

For some reason, these pictures downloaded in the exact wrong order, sorry. I'm too lazy to fix them tonight. So, if you are trying to put them in context, the top picture is the most recent. This is a pic of us in Vegas last week. We took a mini vacation and stayed at the Monte Carlo for a couple of nights. We visited family, friends and spent a lot of time at the pool.

Here are all the kiddos at the river about a month ago. Wow, time goes fast. Anyhoo, we had a great day swimming, catching tadpoles and getting downright muddy. Obviously, you know Jadie and Ayden, the other adorable kids are my nieces and my nephew. Oh, Jade did her own hair this day (note the bright blue bow on the top of her head).
Here is Ayden at his Kindergarten program. Now, on to 1st grade!!! He looks pretty freaking handsome, doesn't he?

And, here is Jadie poo at her preschool program. She did such a great job- singing, counting and dancing. She's 4 now. I'll post pictures of her birthday sometime this century, maybe.

We are still knee deep in landscaping our back yard. Tomorrow, the topsoil will be delivered, then, after way too much shoveling and raking, we'll get to lay the sod. Holy cow, I really didn't imagine the amount of work needed to finish a back yard. SERENITY NOW!!!!

Random

1. Pictures are still trapped on my camera and PC (trust me, they are awesome).
2. Finished reading Wicked -absolutely loved it. Seriously, how did I not know about this book?
3. Kids are done with school. Ayden celebrated his Kindergarten graduation at Maggie Moo's.
4. Jade is SOOO Happy to have her brother back with us all the time.
5. Our yard is 20% complete. We have tons more to do. But, my backyard paradise is slowly becoming a reality.
6. I am completely infatuated with Cedar right now. We have had afternoon thunderstorms every day for over a week. The smell is downright intoxicating. Really, is there a smell that is better than mountain rain??
7. Ayden's newest sarcastic remark: "You go do that" as in I say "I'm going to get our stuff ready for the lake" and he says "you go do that". It's not as nice as it sounds, but sure is funny.
8. The lesson I learned today: Jade doesn't take it too well when I rip the 5 day old bandaid off her hairy legs without warning. Many tears.

Busy, busy, busy

So, it's been a while since I posted anything. I'm a slacker, but I do have a couple of good excuses and a couple of really lame excuses for not keeping this more up to date!
In the last couple of months, we have been super busy! The weather is getting better and better, so that means more and more time spent out doors which means less and less time on my computer.
At the end of March, we traveled to California to visit my younger brothers. I have loads of great pictures to prove it. But, you'll have to just take my word for it because the pictures are all trapped on my PC (long story). We had a wonderful Easter in SLC with my Murphy family.
My mom bought a house last month (hooray!!), and we have been spending as much time as possible helping her get it fixed up. My back yard is in the process of being landscaped. Steve and I are going to do as much of the landscaping work as we can to help keep our cost down. My garden is ready for planting and my kids are still alive.
Today, we are celebrating my brother Blair. He has finished his Master's degree in Social Work!!!! Not, only did he get his degree, I'm pretty sure he got near perfect grades too! Oh, and he kept his family alive, and loved while working full time and going to school. He absolutely amazes me. It's hard not to feel like a slacker in comparison! I love him, he is the best big brother a girl could ask for!!!

Soccer in Cedar City

Our soccer season has ended. It feels like it just began, and Ayden was certainly not ready to be done. We had such an amazing team this year. I was the Team Parent again (so much fun). The major set backs we had this year were weather related. Two games were rescheduled due to snow and two more should have been cancelled (but were not) because of hurricane strength wind! Ayden was a stand-out player on his team, I think he scored about 6 goals total. Jade was an awesome cheerleader for the team (except on the freezing cold, windy days- then she was just a whiner).