Swimming Lessons!

We finished swimming lessons in June. This is Brooklyn's third year of lessons, I was so proud of her this year. She has been swimming with her face in the water and kicking, arms out straight, but now she is using her arms as well. She can swim the short side of the pool underwater all by herself! This bottom picture is of her jumping off the diving board(her favorite part of swimming lessons). She can jump off the diving board and swim to the side all by herself, way to go Brooklyn! Pretty good for four years old!

Just Call Me Jane of all Trades

Gavin had to take a picture since I was, so he took one of me!

So, Spencer left today for a Stake Camp, that he and the rest of the Stake YM Presidency are putting on for the next 3 days. I've been begging him for a trampoline for the last couple of months ever since we had a hole dug for one. Finally this morning he picked one up. First I called my sis Leesh, and asked her if maybe her husband Chris could come help me set it up. He had a test tonight, but could possibly help me tomorrow. Well, I started thinking about it and thought how hard could this be really? So I opened the box up and started looking at the parts. It looked fairly self-explanatory, so I decided to give it a go. I had glanced at the instructions and it said "at this point you'll need two people" I thought well I guess I won't be able to do it on my own. Then I though wait a second, I have Brooklyn, she definitely counts as a second person, so I'm good. She was a great helper too, I had the frame all built, when I realized I did it wrong. The funny thing, was that the way I did it was WAY harder then the actual way( I think I pulled a few muscles). When I had the frame built the RIGHT way Brooklyn said to me "Mom, you're a really good builder!" Thats right Spence, you're not the only Construction-savvy one in the fam!LOL Anyway putting the rest together was a snap, and my kids were so thrilled when we were done, even though it was dark. We jumped and laid down at looked at the starts, what a great night! When it was all done Brooklyn wanted Spencer to come home from camping to see what we built, it was really cute to see how excited she was to show her Dad.

Strawberry Days in Review...

Growing up in Pleasant Grove I definitely get excited when Strawberry Days is here. It is definitely one of my favorite celebrations of the year. It must be all my fond memories as a child, going to the rodeo, parade, and eating lots of strawberries, that make me still get excited today. Strawberry Days ends up being a pretty busy week, but I love every second of it. This year we weren't able to do ALL the activities I wanted, but it was still a great time.
Wednesday is the Children's Parade, and this year Spencer couldn't make it, so I braved the scorching hot weather and huge crowd with the kids. They loved it and of course the popsicle at the end made it all worth it (right?). That night we took the kids to the Carnival. Spencer was insistent that Gavin (2 yrs. old) ride the Dragon Rollercoaster. I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea and tried to tell him to wait till next year, however I succumbed and let my little boy get on the ride. The first loop Gavin had a huge smile, but then he quickly turned green and looked like he was going to puke. I felt so terrible and gave Spencer a hard time as well. Gavin survived, while Brooklyn was laughing, raising her arms and squealing with excitement.





Thursday night was the Chipman's Annual Block Party. I really enjoy going, because I get to see people I usually don't get to see. The kids love it, especially Brooklyn, because of the music and dancing. She found a little friend this year Emmie Carson. It was really cute they were walking around holding hands and having fun.

Finally on Saturday we went to the Parade. It is a tradition, but Spencer is not exactly thrilled to go, however he is a really good sport and goes with my family every year. Brooklyn loves parades, and whenever a city's royalty would go by on their float, she would wave like a beauty queen and say "look at those princesses mom!" It was pretty adorable. So, that was what we did for Strawberry days this year, pretty fun, can't wait till next year!

Tagged...

5 Things on my "to do list this week:

1. Clean bathrooms
2. Pick up prescription at pharmacy
3. Run Strawberry Days 5K!
4. Go to the Strawberry Days Mammoth Parade!
5. Get more strawberries and cream (have to!)

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Fuji apple w/fresh peanut butter from Good Earth
2. String cheese and turkey
3. potato chips
4. popcorn
5. Chocolate!!

5 Things I would do if I suddenly became a billionare:

1. Pay off house
2. Invest
3. Give to Charity
4. Buy a Natural Gas SUV
5. Hire someone to finish landscaping my yard

5 Places I've Lived:

1. Orem, UT
2. Lindon, UT
3. Pleasant Grove, UT
That is it!

5 Jobs I've Had:

1. Key Labs-computer testing
2. Beehive Homes-Aid
3. Heritage Residential Treatment Center-Nurse
4. Gold's Gym-Daycare
5. Beehive Homes-Nurse consultant

5 Things People Don't Know About Me

1. My closet is color-coded and organized into short sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, long sleeves, sweaters, jackets, capris, etc. I'm a little fanatical about it.
2. I can touch my tongue to my nose too Whit!
3. I'm addicted to the news, I usually watch it 3-4x a day if I am home.
4. I can hardly stand going into hospitals, because the smell reminds me of doing clinicals in nursing school and let just stay not all of them were the best experience.
5. I play the piano and used to sing duets and musical numbers all the time in church.

5 Favorite musicians/bands

1. Tim McGraw
2. Augustana
3. Secondhand Serenade
4. Faith Hill
5. Taylor Swift
And these are just the ones this week, it is ever changing.

I tag: Alyssa, Laurel, and Canesa!

Happy Father's Day!

My Dad has had a busy week, first a birthday and now Father's Day! My Dad is a great guy who always gives great advice, even when it is hard. He is shining example in the gospel, and I admire him for that, he is just a great guy thanks Dad!
Hope your Father's Day is Great! We love you!
I'd also like to thank Spencer for being such a great Dad. The kids always look forward to Daddy coming home. He is always good to play games with them, read to them, let Gavin work along side of him, watch a movie with his "princess." It means everything to me, to have a great father for my children, thanks again Spence for all you do!

Happy 50th Dad!

I had to put this pic up of my Dad because I think it is so adorable. He turns fifty today, and it really only seems like yesterday we had his 30th b-day. I remember it because I was almost 7 and I made him a candy bar poster, and I was so proud of it! It really makes you realize how fast time goes by. I made him a slide show, and the song I used was "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney, because it really does seem like "time goes faster than you think." I love you Dad, your a great example to me, and the best Grandpa ever!! Happy Birthday!

Little Red Riding Hood Century

This past weekend, I and some friends signed up to do another cycling event. It was called The Little Red Riding Hood. It was women only, and supposedly like one of only two, women-only cycling events in the country (not sure if this is entirely accurate?). Anyway, some of my friends had done it two years ago, and raved how fun it was, so a bunch of us signed up. Pictured above is Melissa Larson, Me, & Canesa Rowley. We all pulled up trailers the night before in Wellsville,UT and camped. The morning of we drove over to the park where it began. The ride was pretty fun, we passed through a few rain showers, and there was definitely some head wind, crosswinds, not as many tailwinds as I'd liked, but we made it, here is me pulling in from 100 miles! It was definitely hard, but my best century ride time yet!


Below is Melissa, I, Canesa, and Tonya Bowerbank. Canesa and Tonya rode together, this was their first organized ride, and I am so proud of them they did the 80-mile ride!! You guys are awesome, and Canesa only got her bike 6 weeks ago, way to go!!!

We love Alvin & the Chipmunks

I've discovered that my children have absolutely no desire for television or movies until the see "THE ONE." What is that? It is the first movie, that they finally sit down to watch the entire thing. For Brooklyn it was Finding Nemo. I think we watched Nemo a gagillion times before she would finally watch something else. For Gavin, we have discovered it is Alvin & the Chipmunks. He won't watch cartoons or any other movie really, but he will watch all of Alvin. Brooklyn really likes it too, but she will watch just about any movie. I thought it was so funny how glued both of them were, so I took this pic!

FHE at Bridal Veil Falls

On Monday, Spencer decided he wanted to go up Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls for Family Home Evening. I told him it looked kinda gloomy out, and he said it was fine. The closer we got to the canyon the more the wind blew, and then it started to sprinkle. Originally he wanted to park at the mouth of the canyon and walk to Bridal Veil, but we decided to just drive to it, since it was raining. Well, when we got out of the car it was really windy and raining. So, we decided to get back in the car, because Spencer believed the storm would blow through in a minute. I was definitely not believing him, but he was right! After 10 minutes or so the sun came out and the wind died down. The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water and watching the fast moving river (much to my dismay). I was freaking out almost the whole time, because I thought for sure at any moment one of them would fall in the river! It was a fun evening, thanks Spence for taking us we had a great time!