Home By the Creekside

Brayden tried t-ball this year. His season ended on Thursday. His coach gave everyone a cute little trophy. SO proud of him!

I was looking for a disc to load a progam and came across a disc with some older pics of the kids on it.We don't use babysitters much and we don't get out. We haven't been to the temple since living in Arizona. This picture below will show you how my babysitter did not watch my kids. They got into the Vick's Vaporub and smeared it all in their hair. Now this picture is almost 3 years old. What do you think I used to get it out? Let see, I tried Dawn (cause you know it cuts through grease), cornstarch (I figured it would soak up the grease), baking soda, adult shampoo, peanut butter, pet shampoo. I think when I used baby oil...it worked. It took about 3-4 days for their hair to get back to normal. When Lyn and Brayd went to daycare the next day, they played in the sand and it just stuck to their hair like a magnet. Hilarious! Ya, Brayd got into my makeup. That was on my watch, I think. For the longest time, anytime when we would take Brayd's pic, he would squat down

We were thinking of not attending church on Father's Day because Lyn had a some type of reaction in her eyes and one of them was really irritated. We fed her Claritin and did allergy drops in her eyes and if she looked fine we would go to church. Well, we went to church. Then on the way, I said let's forget the whole man dinner and just go and have a picnic up Kelly Canyon. We looked toward the mountains and omninous clouds were tempting to pour rain. So we kept on with our original plan. We had Clay's man meal: country fried steak (not really fried) with "real" mashed potatoes and milk gravy. Then I whipped up some chewy bars. I told Clay that we were going to hold family home evening tonight so we used the FHE packet that Amy made. I had Clay put on the tie...SO cute!! (We didn't use it last year because well I forgot all about it)

You can keep scrolling down if you do not want to read my little motherly rant. It is okay, really. This coming week will be my 4th week off with crappy weather here and there. My son has discovered the neighborhood boys and I am glad but with that he is developing an "attitude". During his spare time, he is picking on Lyn (Man this totally sounds like me and my bro when we were younger.) Now I am sentenced to it! Back in Arizona, Brayd was a tantrum boy. But when we moved up here they subsided tremendously. Now they are back on. I am so overwhelmed at times and I can't seem to get a break from it. Every single day is a new tantrum. He is very strong-minded. Lyn is being a great girl helping me pull weeds, listening to me, and hangin' out. This week I am hoping for days without tantrums, no screaming at Brayd to leave his sister alone, and a break from being a mommy for a couple of hours.

Giddy Up Uh..I forgot to take my camera. It was up at Green Canyon. We ended up just coming home and camping in our front yard that night. I am definitely signing Brayd and Lyn up for swimming lessons so we can camp there. This is the plan for next summer since you have to reserve a year in advance. I did happen to take two pictures of the kids climbing trees on Clay's cell phone. Next time I will take my camera. However, the kids were able to make sock stick horses there. Very CUTE idea! They having been going on horse rides all around the house. This is Cowboy Brayd with his faithful horse, Bud. This is Cowgirl Lyn with her faithful sidekick.

This is my little sunshine. She is the happiest girl EVER! If you know her, you will know that she is unique and not like most girls. Nothing phases her. She is always giggling, smiling, and just plain happy. She has never really been sad or upset. She has always been happy even when she was a baby. Since Brayden has taken to the neighborhood boys, we hardly see him during the day. That leaves me and Lyndee alone together and so we are bound to be inseparable this summer. I am glad because that gives her and I girl bonding time that we have never had. She is such a good little helper. Lyn loves helping me pull the weeds because she likes it when I find worms for her to hold and look at. She calls them her friends or "wormy worms". Today I caught a baby worm for her. She wanted to bring it into the house. She was so sweet about it but was okay with putting it back into the earth. She of course uses her Dora the Explorer gardening gloves when she holds her little friends. She w

We have a spare room that is almost finished in our basement. This room is going to be my "craft" room in the future. But for now and my future visitors, it will be a guest room. I am so excited for this as my visitors will have privacy. Right now, hubbers and I are priming and getting ready to paint. In this room, we are going to try to go without wood or carpet. I want to do concrete flooring. I have been searching websites to see how different people do their floors. I can't wait to start on it.

This is Lyndee's dance photo from Hymas Image. I asked if I could put this on my blog if I give them credit for it. They did a fabulous job with the girls. Lyndee has a picture with her dance team as well. It looks so cute and all the girls are smiling and posing. It is going to hang in her room. Stay tuned for baseball and soccer pictures in the next couple months. Am I prejudice or isn't she just the cutest!!!

My son's new phrase after eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner is "Mommy, I'm hungry!" Of course, the next phrase that comes out of my mouth is "You just ate!" I wonder to myself am I feeding this boy enough? I informed him and his sister that I will make them breakfast. I asked, "Do you want french toast or pancakes?" "Pancakes!" They screamed with delight. I discovered that it is cheaper to me if I make pancakes from scratch. No, I do not use wheat flour yet and I doubt I ever will use it for pancakes. I did not feel like making my usual pancakes and found a recipe online. However, it was a partial recipe so I had to had some liquid and then some extra stuff for flavor. It produced yummy pancakes. Now in our house, the smell of pancakes and syrup brings out my furry creatures that also reside here. In the picture below, they are creeping up to me and the leftover pancakes. My white dog who is on death's bed even showed up. They frea

When you live in the desert of Arizona, anything beats sunny and 100 something degrees every single day in the summer. The wall of dust that sometimes comes from the east brings the torrential downpours, the wind, the phenomenal lightning, and thunder. That is what a monsoon is all about. Since we are in Idaho, we got a nice taste of a monsoon wannabee. Clay and I watched the storm and the weather reports on Channel 8, wondering if we might see a tornado and have to scurry down to our basement. My kids were downstairs watching Aloha Scooby. I dragged them up to show them the storm coming on and the angry huge clouds that were rapidly approaching our community from our deck. Then we see our garbage can fly into our backyard. Clay went and retrieved it and brought it the garage. Just missing us, our basketball standard blew over. As I was trying to open the garage with our secret code, my shirt blew up. Hopefully not scarring the neighbors for life..sorry neighbors. I successfully opene

This morning as one of my stay-at-home duties, I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for my one-gloved(can't find his other glove) batman and the fair maiden princess. They are so worth it even if they are trying my patience in the short four days that I have been home. These cookies were a hit with them. Batman even told me that he was going to sneak out of his bed at night and gobble them. I told him that I would sleep on the couch to guard them. Giggles from Lyndee erupted at the great table. Batman shouted, "I will jump over you." Then the cookie queen whispered in her sugary voice, "I will extend my rubber arm and grab a hold of you." Batman said to the cookie queen, "Can I go outside and play now?" Off he goes to play with a neighborhood kid without his costume of course. Lyndee and I do what girls do...nails! The recipe for these awesome cookies can be seen here

It was cold, rainy June early evening. Brayden was excited for his first game. Actually, I think his parents were more excited. We thought it would be cancelled due to rain, but no siree, the game must go on. We sat watching him while clinging to our umbrellas. We did not wear jackets or blankets. I did not even think of it. That will be on my list for rainy weather next time. Brayden had three hits and was able to run to each base after each hit from a member on his team. They switch after everyone gets to bat. Brayden was the first batter and he played short stop for a short moment. I am glad that they stuck him as a rover later on in the game. He was too busy checking his new shirt out and a ball came to him 3 feet away. Did he see it? Nope, too busy checking himself out. Again, funny moments. This pic cracks me up as he is making friends with the "frenemy". He even introduced himself.