What's On My Happy List?

Oh my...

It's August!

When did that happen?

I've decided that August is close in the running, behind January,  as my least favorite month of the year.

It means that summer is slipping away.... and its slipping fast.
Only 2 1/2 more weeks. BLAH!

Here's a few things we've been up to the last week or so...

We have a house guest!

A 31 string Gothic Folk harp! die.

Kyleigh is learning to play the harp for one of her 

YW 10 hour value projects. 

My good friend happens to own one and 

is letting us borrow it.

Kyleigh is taking lessons from a young lady 

who has been playing since she was five. Look at her harp!

Gorgeous-o!

Our backyard secret!

We have this little area out back that we refer to 

as our Secret Garden.
There is a little pathway that leads to chairs behind some trees 

where the kids can hang out...

Had to post these pics because the Secret Garden 

happened to be on the watch list this week!  

Darling show. 
                                                                                 

  

I have one child that refused to watch it 

because it's too sad and it creeps her out. 

Brie was a little uncertain too but she gave it a try 

and became quite fascinated with the storyline. 

She kept asking me questions, 

making sure she understood what was going on.. 

it was so cute...After the show I gave her a little water can, garden shovel and wildflower seeds to plant in our own secret garden.

This is a stepping stone with our last name initial 

that she helped grandma make to place in there ...

                              
                               Mommy morning out!
Brunch and pedicures are always in order 

when my friend from out of state comes in. 

I've been friends with these girls since childhood...

It seems we can go months without seeing or talking 

with each other but we have no problems picking right up 

where we left off. We can laugh and cry together and just hang. 

Love these gals. Check out my friend's new car. Lucky!

Swimming!

Kate loved being in my neighbors pool for the first time. 

We thought for sure she would hate it, but she surprised us.

Some good mail!

A package from Uncle Ryan, in Mali, 

came with some African animal carvings for the girls... 

Popsicles...Oreo style!

Ya gotta love Oreos. I try and stay away 

but sometimes you just have to give in. 

I tried a recipe here for pudding pops 

that has crushed up Oreos in them.  YUM!   

And awhile back I made these Oreo bars  

courtesy of Sweet Pea Kitchen. They are just like rice crispy bars 

but with crushed oreos instead. 

Fun to try. 

And they were tasty, but I think we all agreed we'd rather 

have just the plain Oreo cookie if we had to choose. 

                                           Journals!
I love journals. and I have a few.  They are priceless to me. 

I've kept a journal on and off since I was eight years old. 

I happened to pull them out of my hope chest the other night and I spent hours pouring over them! 

The girls got a kick out of me reading certain passages to them 

about high school, hanging with friends, 

{awe the memories...we had so much fun!} 

all the dating and boy drama, and when I started going out 

with their dad...etc. What a hoot. We stayed up so late!

I've been keeping a daily journal of all our happenings this summer 

and Brie has been asking and asking for a journal too. 

Well I remembered I had one tucked away that I got free somewhere. She was tickled to death when I told her I had one for her!

*Shopping with Emma at the new Home Goods store 

that opened near us. *squeal* 

Me and Emmsie could go crazy over home decor...

*Hannah and Brie jumping in rain puddles with their friends 

after the afternoon rainstorm we had. I love love me a summer rainstorm!  

And we've had a few this past week. 

There was one last night that freaked even Kyleigh and Emma out. 

{I'm sure watching Hitchcock's Vertigo before bed didn't help.} 

Emma was doing Family History Indexing on the computer for a YW project 

and didn't even watch it but we told her about it and that was enough. 

Guess what was on mine and dad's bedroom floor this morning?

I have such brave girls. 

Kyleigh says we have the comfiest floor 

and that she'd sleep there tomorrow night too. haha. 

She got up at 8 am to watch grandma make ribs 

and then she went back to bed the floor.

*Hannah's Stake Activity Day/Going to the Wizard of Oz play at the Murray Amphitheatre and Sleepover with friends. This pic is actually from their SECOND time seeing the play. They were so in love with the scarecrow that they HAD to go back and watch him again on closing night. They were over here making a sign and posters beforehand to take with so they could express their undying love to him during the show. They were lucky enough to snag a picture with him after. Talk about giddy girls! I've never seen Hannah so gah gah over a boy before. 

Hilarious to me.  

*Kyleigh's boating trip/overnighter to Bear Lake

*Brunch with my RS Presidency

*Taking Kyleigh, Hannah and my niece, Emily, to see 17 Miracles 

on Pioneer Day. 

Shed some tears at that one. SUCH A GOOD SHOW!

*Emma's daddy-daughter ice cream run

*baby girl shower for my darling niece. 

All I had to do this time was show up and enjoy. 

The mother to be's sister, another darling niece {I've got a lot of those!}, 

was here from out of town and she loves to plan parties too... 

so she got the pleasure of throwing this one. 

She did an "Oh So Sweet" theme and it WAS totally sweet!  

                                                                                  
                                               more on these cake bites later...

*AND OUR PARTY, just this evening, with the little neighborhood girls. Will be posting on that soon!

Happy last few weeks of Summer-ing!