So Fresh and So Clean

You should smell this. I wish you could smell this. This smell is absolutely intoxicating. Better than fresh baked cookies, better than dryer sheets, better than a spanking new car. This smell is one that only Mother Nature can create and it is DELICIOUS!!!
We had one whopper of a thunder/rain storm today, complete with lightening and some hail. Combine that storm with my beautiful backyard filled with pine/cedar/ juniper trees and you have THE. BEST. SMELL. ON. EARTH.

One Word...

WHY???

Fishin'

This lasted for 2 minutes.

Tee hee

Note that I am blogging about my messy house, instead of actually cleaning it :)

**Update: my house is now clean(er). I am rewarding myself with potato chips and a coke. Wow, I'm full of guilty confessions today!!

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.