School's Back In!!!!

So hallelujah school has started. Well actually it started about 2 weeks ago but things have been pretty hectic trying to get back into the swing of things. Ethan is finally in a full day of school as a first grader so we now have to be up and ready for school early. Ethan loves his class and school and is up and ready every morning ready to go. Sometimes he is up and ready too early. It has been wonderful for him to be there all day. It wears him out and gives him some good structure and it gives me enough time to run errands with only two kids. This was Ethan on the first day.

Landon decided to join in and since it is physically impossible for that kid to just smile nice for a picture this is what we got. At least it is better than the scowl we usually get.

Don't let the picture of the kids and I fool you either. I think I was more excited than Ethan for school to start but it was a rough and very early morning. Next year I will prepare myself a little bit better the night before.

So we are huge fans of the show So You Think You Can Dance. Although I am pretty sure my dad is an even bigger fan. He loves the show. I loved this season as much as the last if not more. When they announced the tour dates my family all said we are going no matter what. Well we are going. They are coming to LA the day before Thanksgiving. Not the best timing since we are going to have to fight LA traffic on one of the busiest travel days of the year but I say well worth it. All of Jared's family is coming out and they are all going to. I don't know how many of them actually watch the show but I am sure they will be hooked after going to the live show. When tickets went on sale I started buying like a mad woman. We bought as many as we could find in decent seats. I used one of my credit cards, one of my mom's and one of Jared's. Ticket buying tip if there is a limit to how many tickets you can buy, most of the time they go off the credit card number not your home address. I figured better to buy more than enough and sell them rather than try to find some more. Last year the show sold out in like 10 minutes so I figured we wouldn't have a problem selling them if needed. Anyway, the show is sold out again and we are going this time. I think I am more excited about this than I have been about going to anything in a long time. We heard the show was great last year and we can't wait for this year. We have great seats and it will be a great start to the holidays.

Privacy

Okay so I am making this post to all of those private people out there. You know who you are. The ones who make my blog stalking impossible because you are trying to protect your identity and families. I know I really should make my own blog private but I am trying to live some of the golden rules here and do unto others as I would have them do unto me. (I am pretty sure that the golden rules do not apply whatsoever to blogs but I think it might make a good argument). Today was Ethan's first full day of school, so I thought while I have quiet time I will go blog hop for a while and get caught up with everyone. To my utter disappointment more than a handful of blogs of are private. I know some people are thinking, does this women really have nothing better to do with her time than read blogs of people she may not have been extremely close to, or have not seen or talked to in a few years? Well the answer is yes, I do have plenty of other things I SHOULD be doing, but does anyone ever really want to do their 4th load of laundry or wipe of the kitchen floor for the who knows how many times today. So here is my plea. If you are reading my blog, I would love to be reading yours. Please email me my invite mailto: kimmy2778@gmail.com Make my blog hopping possible. Thank you.

We're finished!!!!!

So we finished the series and although I loved the entire book, the ending, all of it I am very sad since I know we will not be reading anymore of them. We have been reading these books since they came out waiting and waiting for each one to be published. At least we have a few more movies to look forward to watching although none of them will ever be as good as the books. The other night at young women's we were talking to the girls and I asked if anyone else was reading it. To my complete and utter shock no one else had read any of the books or seen any of the movies. I am not sure why I thought everyone was as big a Harry Potter fan as we are but I just thought everyone read the books, I mean why wouldn't you. So for those of you who have not read the books read read read. For those of you who have read the books and finished the last one let me know what you thought. Personally I loved loved loved it. We can't wait to read them all to our kids. Jared has already started. Ethan loves the books but the movies (he has only seen the first one) make him a little bit nervous he says, and Landon likes the movies, I think he is still a little to young to really understand the book.

This book is partly why it has been so long since a post has been made. We were on vacation, Jared couldn't put the book down, I listened to most of the book on CD's but the drive wasn't long enough so I had to finish it by reading, blah blah blah, I am sure you get the picture.

4th of July Fun (sort of)

So pretty much we did what everyone does on the 4th. We barbecued, swam, and then watched the fireworks show over by my parents house. Except for the few mishaps of the day. My sister my dad and I took all the kids to see Ratatouille in the morning. The kids were horrible, tanner my sisters little boy drank so much that he leaked through his diaper and peed all over my sister while sitting on her lap, I spent most of the time carting my kids up and down for bathroom trips and because they were crying or starting to throw themselves on the floor, we also had my sister's in law with us so my kids decided to play musical chairs and laps between them and the rest of us, and finally all of my kids for some reason took off their shoes. I have no idea why but the last few bathroom trips were made without shoes so I had to carry them and then have them stand on my feet since we are not Britney Spears and I personally find public restrooms disgusting and I can't stand to have my kids touching anything. Then when the movie was finally over we lined the kids up along the wall, waited for everyone to leave, and then my sister and I went looking for the shoes underneath seats, which was again disgusting. After the movie we went home and thought we will put the kids down for a nap, some of them didn't sleep. All this time Jared and my sister's husband Marc were looking at cars for us, they came home with nothing just in time to go see the transformer movie. That left my sister, my mom who was sick, and I to cook dinner and take care of the kids. So we start the BBQ at around 5 and come to find out we have no propane. So we wait 15 min. for my dad to come home and send him to get some ( he was not happy about that). Then we decided to start our homemade ice cream, and find my sister had forgotten to bring her rock salt, and my mom had no vanilla in her house anywhere. My mom usually keeps very little food in her house but we figured she would at least have a staple like vanilla. So time for someone else to make another trip which ended up being Marc ( I don't think he was happy about having to go either). So after all of that we had a good dinner, good swimming and fun with the fireworks. Pretty much every holiday we have together with my family ends up something like this. I guess we will always have some good stories right? Here are some pictures of the day!

A Wedding and Some Friends

So here are some pictures from one of the weddings we had in the last few weeks. My brother dustin got married June 28 in Phoenix. Yes I did say phoenix and yes it was very very hot. I know you are looking at this picture saying who took this picture and why in the world would I post it. Well since we stood outside the temple after the wedding while the temp was at least 114 we didn't take a lot of time to make sure everyones camera got the shot. Anyway, the person using my camera for the picture was not too quick. I have 3 picture like this. One where we first started walking up there to get ready, one while someone was pointing, and the other when we were all done and leaving which happens to be this one. Anyway here are a few other pics from it. Don't have to many since dustin and Rachel took a lot of pictures a week before the wedding at the crack of dawn when it is only about 100 degrees there. I also forgot to actually take pictures during the reception although I did remember to take a picture of the cake. Other than that the wedding was beautiful Rachel and Dustin are really happy and I am sure all of us are really glad the whole thing is over with.

My Parents w/Dustin and Rachel




















While we were in Phoenix we got to see some good friends of ours the Moores. We went to Cheesecake Factory one night and they had us try the Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls. I know some of you are thinking the What? Let me just tell you that anyone visiting the Cheesecake Factory anytime soon needs to try them. They are so so good. Not very low in fat but well worth every single calorie. I am also mad at myself because I took my camera with me then and it sat in my purse the whole time. Not one picture of us with the moores. So here are pictures of the moores when we met up with them at disneyland this last feb. just so you can put a face with the name for those who don't them. Thanks again guys we had a great time!!

Car Buying Fiasco

So while I have lots of pictures and events that have happened in the last few weeks, I am choosing to make this post since if I don't make it here I will be making it to the editor of our newspaper. I am venting here instead of there so that I get anyone in serious trouble even though right now I think they deserve it. We have been looking to get a new car for a while now (8 mos or so). It takes Jared a significant amount of time to decided on these types of things as those of you who know him well know. We finally made our decision yesterday and after spending around 4 hours at the Ford dealer here going through all the numbers multiple times and them giving us numerous print outs of what payments and costs would be. We call ford told them we wanted the car and they said just give a us a 15 min heads up before you leave to come down and we can make this quick. So we loaded all the kids and took them down to the dealer. My first thought is that this is seeming too easy but since we spent the entire day before doing all the negotiating I figured that maybe this was the bonus. We were at the dealer for about 30 mins. Before they told us that they couldn't do the financing the way they told us they could the day before. We showed them the computer print out we had gotten from them, we called the salesperson who had gone through all the numbers with us. Since she was out of town she sent us to someone else but assured us they had all the info and would be able to take care of everything. Well the only thing they took care of was making me so mad I started crying and swearing I would never buy a ford from them ever in this lifetime. I know, I know like they care but saying it somehow makes me feel better. Anyway, now we start all over again and maybe when we are finally done with buying a car and dealing with the sub humans I call car dealers I may just have to take a nice vacation to avoid being committed to an institution.