Jeep Show

I have *someone* really awesome in my life, who I know would prefer I didn't blog about him. So I'll blog about his favorite hobby instead :)

A couple weeks ago we went to a Teraflex Jeep Show in Tooele at the Miller Sports Park. Miller has created man made jeep obstacles. They are pretty cool, although walking the course scares me a bit because the ground feels like a cheese grater made out of sand paper. We are so lucky the kids never fell down.

Here are a few pictures from the day. I wasn't in the mood to take photos when we left the house so I only brought the small camera. My mood changed quickly when I saw all of the great photo opportunities and I wished I had my better camera.









The Herzogs.


Notice the fourth wheel below...









Happy Father's Day to all of you amazing Dads out there. I'm very impressed with any dad who does his best to take care of his family. I love and appreciate all of the men in my life (grandpas, dad, father-in-law, uncles, brother, husband and brother-in-laws). I love so many of the qualities these men have. I love that they are masculine and tough yet kind and giving.

Summer

The kids and I have needed a break from activities so we haven't done much this summer yet. We have spent a LOT of time at home but we have had two (much to full) days of fun since school got out. Part of me feels like I'm wasting the summer, but the other part of me knows we needed the break.

Last week (or so) we spent a day:

Touring a chocolate factory
Eating at a fun diner
Smashing pennies on the railroad tracks
Exploring the cemetery (seriously)
Sitting in the car for HOURS because it broke down (bummer)

Today we spent the day:

Hiking to Donut Falls
Taking FrontRunner to Ogden (check out this deal if you live close)
20 minutes walking to and from the Treehouse Museum (only 30 minutes in the museum)
Making dinner for a friend (ugh! I am not made to cook, but happy to help)
A fun outdoor party with Polynesian dancers

The mountains are BREATHTAKING right now. They are so green from all of the rain we have had lately. I *MUST* get up there much more while it's so green and beautiful. My kids love to hike and so do I. We are so lucky to have so many great places close by.

I'll share pictures another day.

Thanks Amy!

Thanks for the "One Lovely Blog Award" Amy. You have some neat blogs in your list which makes it even funner to be on the list.

In order to accept this award I'm supposed to pass the award to 15 other blogs that I have discovered and love, but I'm going to be lame and change the rules.

Instead I'm going to post links to three of my favorite posts on Amy's blog.

1) The Big Three Three - This post perfectly charactorizes Amy's awesome personality! This post makes me so happy! I love it!

2) Recession Schmo-cession! - Such a fun idea. The main reason I like this post is because of the things Amy found. I can't dress or decorate like her. She is pretty incredible!

3) Beauty All Around - I love that Amy looks for beauty everywhere. Very cool!

New Templates and Quickpages

I created this layout from a template created by Lynette Wilkins. I love thes picture shapes! Her original layout is shown below. Hopefully you can see it well that small, because it's really cool. Lynette is so talented. We are selling some of her layouts on our website. Go here to look at them all. Use coupon code BIRTHDAY50 for 50% off on her layouts until June 22nd.

Megan's Song

This is hilarious. Megan asked me to write down the words to a song she was making up. As she dictated the words to me I had to do all I could not to laugh. Please don't read too much into this. I think she has been listening to "real" songs a bit too much. I don't think she really feels this.

There is nothing that I can't say in my heart
And I never feeled it in my heart.
I can't be nothing but I can be a human.
There is nothing I feel like I can be
And now there is something that I can feel in my heart.

I'm actually impressed, even though it's a bit strange. Haha. She is so cute.

Free Download if you are QUICK!

We are giving away a free download to anyone who gets to our website before 6:30 p.m. MST. Below are some pages I created with the kit. You may remember one of these from a previous post. Download the kit HERE.

First Mountain Bike Race

A few weeks ago on Memorial Day weekend, the kids participated in their first mountain bike race. It was a race for kids under 9. The adults you see in the pictures are just there with their kids. The kids were really excited about the race, but it ended up being too tough for Luke. Megan did the race on training wheels. She actually had a great time and was really happy because Keith walked/ran next to her the whole way. I should have been running next to Luke but thought he would be ok and just rode my bike behind him. We have never actually taken the kids on a mountain bike course before and just assumed Luke would be ok. However, the skinny trail, branches, bumps and pressure for speed were pretty scary for him. Bummer. The trail we went on was really cool for kids. I'm definitely going to take the kids there again. I think Luke will love it when he gets some practice.

AWESOME!!!

Yesterday, my friend Susan, gave me the GREATEST gift anyone has ever made me before. Isn't this cake AMAZING? Wow! I'm so excited about it! The picture doesn't do it justice, unfortunately. It is so incredible in person.

I am absolutely amazed at the attention to detail. If the picture was good you would be able to see how the letters "celebrate" have a very similar design to the words on my website. Speaking of my website, look at it, then come back and view this cake again. Ahhhh!!! I can't stand it! This is too cool!

How in the world does she make the letters so perfect? The flower is so cool too! I thought it was a real flower and button until I looked at it a few times close up.

Susan, this cake means so much to me. It makes me feel so good you were willing to put in so much time on it, as well as drive it to my house. You are amazing!

Go to our message board for more information on June 15th.

There are challenges on our message board that are fun too! Throughout the month I will be giving away prizes to those who participate in the challenges. The prizes will be given away randomly at undisclosed times throughout the month.

Coupon Codes for this week (until June 15)
Code: Happy
40% off all orders over $50

Code: Birthday
20% off all orders

Also...

Adding to the post from yesterday...

The video from yesterday is only a minute and a half, so if you haven't watched it I hope you will. I love the music, pictures and extra words in it.

Here are is my favorite part of the video...

Creation is your opportunity in this life and the life to come.

Start small.

Creating does not require a brush, a pen or the keys of a piano.

Don’t let the voice of critics paralize you.

You will make the world a better place.

Improve

Beautify

Extend

Smile

Cultivate

Develop

The words, "in the life to come" are my favorite. About a year ago I was really frustrated with all the hobbies I didn't have time to do, but wanted to do or learn. Back at that time, the thought came to me that I will probably be able to do them in the next life. That thought was exciting to me. Hearing the same thing from an apostle of my church is especially comforting and exicting.

Create

My favorite church talk I have listened to in a while is this one by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I laughed so hard at the first part of the talk when he talks about the difference between his cooking and his wife's. I can't relate his wife in her quest for perfection with her cooking, but there are plenty of other things I don't give myself enough credit for. Last night I found this video which highlights part of his talk. I love it. It's message is beautiful on it's own, but I hope you will read the rest of the talk because the idea is stronger when you understand his entire thoughts on this subject.

Flashback

These pictures are from May 2008. I'm pretty proud of the pictures because I just took them in my backyard one day. When I created the scrapbook page, I didn't want to add any decorations because I didn't want to take the focus away from the pictures. A fun memory from this day was being invited over to our neighbor Skip's house. He is a retired police officer and is definitely a masculine tough guy. He shocked me when he said he loves Snow White and collects Snow White things. He has a beautiful Snow White collection in his house. It was fun to see and fun to learn more about him.

School is Out!

Megan is actually sad about being out of school. Luke is excited and so am I. I'm excited to not have to be tied to a routine for a while. When school starts next year, I have a feeling I'll look as excited as the kids do in this picture, but for now I'm really looking forward to having the kids home.

ETA: Kim and Kraig, do you recognize the stuffed animal Megan is holding? That's the dog you gave her a couple years ago. She still loves it.

Wild Billy

I made this poster to tease my grandpa. I created it last Sunday. Minutes after I finished it I got a call that my grandpa wasn't doing very well and needed to be picked up from church. I rushed and got him. He was ok, but not his best at all. Keith and I took him to the ER. It was a long night for grandpa but he was doing much better when the doctor came in to tell him the results of the tests. He apparently had an infection that caused him to get really sick. They decided to keep him overnight. My poor grandpa didn't want to stay and I know he wished I didn't make him go to the hospital. He ended up staying three nights which suprised us, but they just wanted to make sure they did all the testing they needed before releasing him. They were extra cautious because he lives alone.

My original plan with this poster was to take it to a care center he volunteers his time at. I'm still going to do that, but hung two of these up in his hospital room too. He got a really good kick out of it and that made me feel good.

He is home and doing great now.

The torn border on the digital paper above is on the Family CD which is on sale for only $5 this week during our birthday celebration. It's a huge CD that normally sells for $25. The border is square on the CD, but looks pretty good squished down this way. It can go over any digital paper and look really cool.

Celebrate

Visit the Digital Scrapbook Memories website for details on our 5th birthday celebration!

Thanks Valerie!

My aunt Valerie is an incredible artist. Recently she got into face painting. How fun is that? She came to Megan's party today and made the day so much fun! We had 24 kids plus adults and she whipped out incredible designs so fast!! I couldn't believe she got so much done. She is awesome! If anyone wants to hire her, let me know and I'll give you her number. I thought our party turned out great because of her.

There are a lot of kids (and adults) missing in the pictures below. I didn't really take pictures of the kids who didn't want their faces painted. I wish I would have. I don't think I even got a picture of Luke!

Private Concert

Our friends Amy and Shane invited us over a week or two ago for dinner and a private concert. Amy's awesome parents preformed. It was a lot of fun. My iPhone doesn't produce great indoor movement pictures, but I'm glad I still have all of these pictures. Any good pictures were taken by Amy with her camera. I had a really great night and really enjoyed life that night.



Here are a few memories of everyone that I want to remember from that night.

Amy's Parents They are incredible! They are super neat, nice people. You can tell they think the world of their daughter. They are down to earth, happy, positive, fun people. I'm sure they make friends everywhere they go. They are now on a trip to Alaska now. They bring their music and play in RV campgrounds as they go. How fun is that? I want to meet them in Idaho or somewhere on their way back. It would be SO FUN to be camping with music like that. Music and camping is such a great combination.

Shane Awww! Shane melted my heart the way he was looking at Amy. It was so cute. Amy was dancing around and Shane would just smile approvingly to her. He had no interest in dancing himself, but just seemed really nice and caring to his wife.

Caulen This kid is cute! He loves to dance with his mom and it was FUN to watch.

Amy I love that Amy has fun dancing and being with her parents. I wish she could see them more often. Amy is just an all around neat person. She has a big heart and is so much fun to be with. I loved meeting her parents because I feel like it helps me know her better. Amy and I work together and she sees a lot of my crazy when I get stressed. She is a calming force and I'm grateful for her.

Keith I married a really great dad and loyal man. I love watching Keith with our kids.

Megan thinks Amy is the coolest. She loves her and had so much fun dancing with her. I'm glad Megan got to have so much fun.

Luke was there too, but was usually playing somewhere else. I loved listening to him laugh when he was playing in the backyard.

Love This

I love this picture! I found it at the Barn at Gardner Village. What an awesome store! If I had the money I would buy this picture and redecorate my entire house around it.

If you have been in my house, you'll know I don't decorate. Part of the reason is I don't have the money to spend on the type of decorations I would like. I probably never will because no matter how much money I have I think expensive vacations would come first for me. Another reason is I feel obligated to put up the gifts I get and hate to take them down. I also can't stand clutter and since my house is full of clutter it's easier to clean around little to no decorations. Last, I feel so wasteful changing decorations and I get bored of things really easy, so it's easier to have nothing. Maybe I am lazy too. I hate to shop and paint and all of the other stuff that comes with decorating. I would love a beautiful house though. I'd be happy to be someone's decorating charity case if you want to decorate my house around this picture :)

Sneak Peak

An early sneak peak of the next Digital Scrapbook Memories CD I'm working on.

Dance

Just a few pictures I took of Megan in her cute dance costume. They had professional pictures taken this week at dance with much better backdrops, but I hate paying for those. I don't always like the professional pictures, then I'm frustrated when I pay the money for them. My pictures aren't the best because I just snapped them outside the house, but I am happy with them, and love the price :)









This picture below makes me a bit sad because I couldn't get Megan to pose for it. It would have been so gorgeous if she would have looked up, but she wouldn't because it was too bright. Oh well. I'm glad I liked some of the other pictures.