Slice of Life # 58~ Chocolate

Chocolate Candy I made for Valentines 2011

This weeks Slice of Life is on Chocolate....Well I love a good dark Chocolate candy or even making my own candy,  I also enjoy brownies and chocolate ice cream at times.

But I HATE Chocolate Cake!  

And of course at my wedding the large cake they made chocolate and the cake we feed each other was chocolate!  I wasn't the happiest about that!  But I will eat chocolate cake if it is the only thing served.

Our wedding cake

Pretending to cut the cake!

Feeding each other chocolate sheet cake since the wedding reception had not started when we did the pictures.

For me if I had my way my stress reliever food would be Swedish fishes or Cinnamon Bears!

I am glad I like chocolate and will give anything with it a try, but I don't make chocolate cake unless it is my husband's birthday and then I make him Devil's Food Cake ~ which is one of his favorite cakes!

Until next time....

Our New Toy

Dillon, Jennilyn, Ruth & Irene

One of our neighbor's was selling this wagon which is in great shape!  The kids have loved it!  Right now it is full with all the horses and ponies and barbies!

Camping with Papa Jack and Nana!

We went camping this Father's Day weekend.  We didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few that I took.  We had a good time even if Dan and I are sun burnt and we forgot to put sunscreen on when we went swimming!

Kids playing in the dirt!

Our Tent with our double stroller and my sister's double stroller.  With all the walking we had to do they were a life saver!

More time in the dirt!  Irene was being stubborn and didn't want to wear her jacket!

Papa and Nana's cabin

Uncle Nick's cabin

Beautiful up here!

Dan and the girls playing in the rocks!

Jennilyn playing with her cousin's toys

Irene giving Ruth a ride

Ruth giving Irene a ride!

Dillon has taken to the water this year!

Waiting to go in!

Irene

Ruth

Dan getting ready to go in the pool!

Netty and three of the kids!

Netty and all of the kids, this is were she wishes she had the sunscreen on!

This picture was taken on our way home.  It is a bad picture but off in the distance is a plane that crashed while we were there.  My mom saw the life flight fly away as she was headed back up to camp on Saturday.

We had a lot of fun with Nana and Papa Jack!  Thanks for having us up!  We hope to do it again sometime soon!

Slice of Life # 57~ Moving

Growing up we moved a total of 10 times from the time I was born until I left for college.  Some of those moves were just brief stays with Grandma and Grandpa Dillon.  When I was 17 we moved to our house in Pleasant Grove which my parents stayed for 12 years until they sold it in 2006.

Dan and I were talking a few weeks ago about all the places we have lived and how many times we have moved.  When we were about to get married we started looking for a place in the Salt Lake Valley for us to live when we got married.  Dan already worked in Sandy and I was currently unemployed, but had been offered a job at Discover Card in collections that would start the Monday after we got married.  We found a place in South Salt Lake City right on the border of Salt Lake City, West Valley City and Taylorsville.  We later found out that one of my cousin's and his wife had lived in the same complex when they were first married.  Our apartment number was 911 and we had people ask us all the time if that was correct.  Dan moved in the last week of Oct just days before we were married.  I moved most of my stuff in but I didn't stay there until after we were married.

We stayed there for the 11 months and then Dan got a job in Minnesota.  I was 32 weeks pregnant and the Dr told me if I was going to go before the baby was born I had to go then or wait until the baby was born and go.  So I quit my job and went with Dan and he came back a few weeks later and got our stuff just as our lease on our apartment was up.  We stayed with his brother while we found a place.  My sister in law was great to go with me and tell me her opinion.  Dan didn't see the place in New Richmond, WI until after we signed the lease.  We lived in New Richmond, WI for 21 months and then we moved to North Hudson, WI.  I was 8 months pregnant with our 2nd child.  Partway into our lease there Dan was laid off from his job.  As our lease was ending and unemployment was ending we decided we should take his parents up on their offer and move in with them.  Just before we were to leave for Spokane, WA we found out we were pregnant and it looked like twins.  So we moved to Spokane and finally got a Dr and found out for sure that it was twins.  We stayed with my in-laws for 11 months.  By then Dan had a job and we were back on our feet and found a place not far from my in-laws.

We only lived in our apartment in Spokane for 4 months when Dan got a more steady job in Midvale, UT.  So once again we moved.  We have been here for 20 months.

So in the almost 7 years we have been married we have moved 7 times.  Crazy!  We are hoping to finally put down some roots this next year and stay in one place for awhile!

Time to Ride

Ruth

Dillon

Jennilyn

Irene

After our Hair Cuts!

With Mommy after our Haircuts!

Today I took the kids to Cookie Cutter's Kids Hair Salon!  All Jennilyn could talk about for the last few days was how she was going to go  ride in her "Fancy Car" and get her hair cut!  We had a good day and the kids were really good!  No crying other then Irene not liking the hair dryer!

Slice of Life # 56 ~ Time Crunch

I am one of those people who hate to be late.  I am usually 5-10 min early unless something or someone has held me up.

We are one of those families that shows up to church 5-10 min early (most Sunday's).  People tell me all the time how amazing I am to have the family there on-time every week when their Sunday School teacher's are all usually 5-10 min late, which means I am late to attend my classes (We have RS/Pristhood first, then Sunday School and Sacrament Last).  I don't ever think it is amazing, I just like to be places on time when ever I can.  I get up early to get myself ready and I have things put together the night before for church so we are not scrabbling in the morning looking for shoes, dresses, ext.

I also love to plan, and I will start planning months in advance.  Right now I am starting to really get into planning mode for a trip to my brother-in-law's wedding.

The other thing I tend to plan and start doing in advance is moving.  When people show up to help me move, I always like to have my house ready for them.  I have been told a few times "Thank You" for being ready for the help to arrive to move the stuff so they were able to load, drive to the new place and unload  in 1 1/2 hours.  I still had to go back and do the cleaning, but that always goes much quicker when you have the boxes and stuff moved out.

I like to plan so I can succeed, if I don't plan nothing ever turns out right!

Slice of Life #55~Naughty, Naughty, Naughty

I know I have been naughty at times in my life, but there is only one big naughty that I remember that I really got in trouble for with my mother.

I was 13 years old and went to a Beehive II(church youth group) group sleepover party at one of our leaders house.  While we were having a good time, we heard something outside.  We had discovered that our leaders house had been "Dotted" (paper dots taped to the house).  We figured out one of the girls who did it was from the Beehive I class (age 12).  So everyone else wanted to get back at her and they decided to toilet paper her house in exchange for the toilet paper we had to babysit for two hours free for our leader, so I went along...we went and toilet papered this girls house and the Bishop's house.  Her father was still up and saw us do it and laughed since he knew what his daughter had done. 

The next morning we went and helped both families clean up the mess and invited them to breakfast with us.

My mom was so mad when she found out what we had done that my leader never did have me come and babysit to repay back the toilet paper.  And as a result none of the other youth groups were allowed to have a group sleepover.

Not my proudest moment, but it taught me a lot at the time, and I have never done anything like that again.

So there is my Slice of Life Naughty Story.  Hope you enjoy it!

This is written for Slice of Life entry.

Kids playing with my camera!

I didn't know they had taken pictures of themselves writing on their arms.  It is finally fading away a week later!

Dillon Graduation!

Today was Dillon's graduation from Jordan Valley Preschool.  He has been going there for 2 years for speech therapy.  He has sure grown a lot and has improved so much!

Dan is out of town so he missed this event.  I took the girls with me and they were all so good for the 1hr that we were there.  I took them to the drive threw for McDonald's and we had to sit and wait for the chicken nuggets.  So since they had us pull forward and then brought our meals I just checked that I had 4 happy meals and then my meal.  We get home and go to eat and the kids are getting out their toys and Dillon's didn't have it's toy in it.  He didn't even cry over it, which surprised me.  He just said he was fine and then went on eating and went off to play.  What a big boy he has grown into!  He is becoming very helpful with his sisters as well and does pretty good at obeying.

We love you Dillon!  And we have a lot to look forward to!

Until fall...School is out and then we will have Dillon in Kindergarten!  Lots of changes headed our way from here on out!

Slice of Life # 54~Why I Live Where I Live

This weeks Slice of Life is Why I live where I live....mmmm....Well when we first got married we just needed something that wasn't too small for both of us as we were combining things together since we had both lived on our own for so long, we both had a lot of stuff, and even then we had to get rid of some of it.  We got an apartment in South Salt Lake that still allowed us to commute to work ok and was still within a price range we could afford.

Then we moved to WI with a job change, this time we needed a 2 bedroom as we were excpeting our first child.  We found an apartment in New Richmond, WI that was only 24 miles to my sister-in-law and best friend Sarah's house.  Again we needed something that was in our price range.  It was nice without being too small or too big. I picked the place without Dan ever seeing it until we had the keys and were ready to move in.

We then moved to a 3 bedroom duplex in North Hudson, WI.  This put us only 14 miles to Sarah's house and closer to work and church.  We chose the 3 bedroom as Dan's sister Annette was living with us and we were expecting baby number 2.  This had an unfinished basement that worked great for storage and as Dan's office.

We then lost our job and moved in with Dan's parents in Spokane, WA and stayed with them for 11 months.  During this time we had the twins.  Once we had a job and were back on our feet a little bit we moved into a 3 bedroom apartment not far from his parents house.  It was close to all the shopping, Dr's and such.

But we weren't happy with having a  "Temp" job so Dan kept looking, and 4 months after we moved into our place in Spokane, Dan got a job back in UT.  He headed down ahead of the kids and I and stayed with my aunt and uncle while he found us a place.  I looked online and would tell him to check out these places.  We knew we needed at least three bedrooms, but we didn't want it to be too small or to pricey.  Several he looked  at  where in the right price range, but the space was so small and no storage.  Some were to far out we didn't want to spend a lot in gas for the same price as some of the one's closer to work.  Then I found the apartment that we live in online and set up an appointment for Dan to see it on his lunch break.  It was only 1 mile from work.  He decided this was the place and put the deposit down on it right away and moved into it two days later with the kids and I coming to join him 2 days after that.  I didn't get to see it until after I arrived.  Right now this place is great because now that we are only down to one car he walks to and from work everyday.  It makes the convenience of living here all the better.


So we both have picked places that the other hasn't seen until we went to move in.

We would love to rent or buy a house, but right now that isn't an option as the size we need is $400 more a month then we can afford.  But we will see what the future holds.

Slice of Life # 53~ Helping Hands

It has taken me all week to think about what I wanted to write.  And my mind is still really blank as to what to say.

When I think of Helping Hands, I think of giving service, and this can be in any form.  There are ways of service that Dan and I have talked about but we have yet to do them... maybe this year.  But I have helped take meals to those in my neighborhood who were ill, just had a baby or such.  I have helped with cleaning projects, I have babysat for people so they could get things done, and have told them don't pay me, it is my way to help.  I have also gave a dear friend a place to stay for a month when she had to move out of her apartment and had no were else to go.  And I have bought bus tokens for friends in need.

Sometimes we don't think of ourselves giving service when we are just reaching out and being a friend.

Let us remember to reach outside of ourselves and give to others as Christ would give to us.