Son of a #@?*!

After searching for the right shirts, re-arranging Chad's work schedule, perfectly timing the boys naps and making myself as gorgeous as possible, it was finally time to have our family photos taken. Cute Carrie Butler is our photographer (if she will have us again!) and she told us of a great spot at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We agreed that canyon pictures would be wonderful and she led us to this amazing place.
It was beautiful. Carrie got a couple of darling pictures of the boys and then we started down this hill into an empty river bed. It would have been a beautiful place for a family picture. I say "would have been" because just as we hop over this huge log that was blocking the way down to the neat white rocks, Chad starts screaming cuss words and leaps back to the other side of the log while holding the inside of his arm. Suddenly more cuss words and now he is holding onto the back of his neck. He ran away.
Not knowing what to do I just stood there still with the boys and Carrie. Carrie so kindly asked if we should go check on Chad and I agreed with her. With a boy holding each of my hands, we climb back over the big log. Suddenly Jack starts screaming and I notice that we are being chased by a swarm of wasps. We were all screaming now and running as fast as possible back up the trail and into the parking lot!
By the time we got up there the back of Jack's shirt was covered with wasps and Carrie had been stung on her arm. Chad got them off of Jack just in time to realize that another wasp had made it into Chad's pant leg and is stinging him. Jack had been stung three times. One on his finger, one on the inside of his arm, and one more on his back. We pile into the car, start to calm down, get in seat belts, and Jack starts screaming "WASP!!!". We hauled out of the car, again screaming. It must have been quite the scene! It took a few minutes to get the guts to go back into the car again, but fortunately when we got around to it, we didn't have any more problems with them. We stopped at the nearest gas station for ice and baggies. Carrie bought the boys a "don't hate letting me take your picture" Slurpee, and we went home. Grand total: 7 stings.
Everyone made it through the night and is feeling much better now. What a scare!!! Jack drew a couple of pictures this morning. One was a picture of himself and a wasp. At the top he wrote "WASP R STOOPED". We feel better, but yes, we are a little traumatized!

Hyrum

We had such a fun time this weekend. My dad and Debbie had us up to their house in Hyrum for Sunday dinner. They also invited my brother Luke, my sister Laura and her boyfriend Vince, my Aunt Julee and her family, Debbie's son and her grandkids, and my cute grandpa and his wife Patsy. It was so nice to meet up with everyone. The whole group has not been together in a while so I enjoyed seeing everybody. My dad has a gorgeous yard with plenty of room to run around in, climb trees, feed goats and horses, and play games. Our boys had a blast and the food was yummy. The drive wasn't too bad either. Thanks for having us up, we love you!

No More Training Wheels!

Jack can finally do it! After a whole summer of practicing, Jack can finally ride a 2 wheeler. It has been a little frustrating at times to be the one trying to teach the most cautious child ever to ride a bike without training wheels. But the other day Jack did it and after realizing that he could do it that first time he has been able to do it every time since. He has gotten better and better every day. He is thrilled with himself and it is fun for me to see his excitement about it. I'm so proud of you Jack!

Lemon Drop Cookies

Thanks to my friend Camie for getting me her mom's AMAZING cookie recipe! I've made them for events twice in the last week and both times they were a huge hit. I've had many requests for the recipe, so I had to share it on my blog. I hope you love them as much as everyone else has!

1 cup butter
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp lemon extract
2 ½ cup flour

Mix and roll dough into cylinder. Cut dough to create flat, round circles. Bake at 350 degrees for about 9-12 minutes or until the edges become golden. Cool before frosting.

Frosting:
1/4 cup butter
1 Tablespoon milk
1 1/2 Tablespoon lemon Juice
Powdered sugar

Beat butter, milk and lemon juice. Add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. Frosting can be spread on cookies or piped on to make them look a little more fancy.

The Rash

As many of you have heard my darling hubby has a rash. A really bad rash. We think it might be a reaction to laundry detergent (Tide HE) although we are not sure exactly the cause of his misery. I know, I know...you assumed that Chad had sexy legs. I assure you that usually they are, really sexy. But not now. They are, at the moment, quite disgusting. Unfortunately the rash has lasted about 2 weeks now, doubling every day, spreading over his entire body. Fortunately the doctors seem to have FINALLY put him on the right medicine (after 4 trips to their office and about 8 prescriptions later). The rash seems the tiniest bit better today, at least it hasn't spread. Hope the picture helps put this baby into perspective for those of you out there who were wondering about it!

Preschool

It is official that both of my boys are in school! I called Chad after I dropped Nixin off for his first day and told him that half of me wanted to bawl and the other half was screaming with excitement.

Nixin did awesome. I worried a little about how well he'd do, but what I should have remembered is that last year every day that we took Jack to school, Nixin would put on his backpack and think he got to go to school with Jack. Then I would make him hop back in the car with me and back home we'd go. Nixin has been waiting a long time for his turn to go to school. When we got there today he said "Bye Mom I have to go hang up my backpack" and off he went. He was so brave and very excited to be there and he was all smiles when it was over. He can't wait to go back on Thursday.