Natalie's Birthday & Summer Stuff

My little sister Natalie turned 23 on Saturday. It was her "golden" b-day, 23, on the 23rd. She's living it up in SLC and currently has a cute new boyfriend whom she likes rather a lot:) We had a little party at Mom and Dads yesterday. Ginger, one of my older sisters came with her 3, Emily, Leia and Max. The girls had fun playing with Naomi and they treated her super special, it was adorable to watch.

Natalie

The CAKE! It was a cookies and cream ice cream cake. Leia and Emily watching it all.

Zach & Naomi

Emily & Leia

Mom!

Dad, soon to retire and turning 62 on Wednesday!

Birthday girl and her dad, note the 8 foot tall hollyhock plant in the background!

Natalie, Ginger, Trisha

Emily giving Nominomi a ride, what a cute little red wagon.

And, more fun- on Friday we were at the Champlin's for an informal get-together. Dylan and Naomi were the life of the party (of course) as they jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath.

For dinner I made my new specialty, california rolls! This time I had the help of a bamboo mat, that helped the final product's look quite a bit. Too bad we ate them before I could get a picture! My sister-in-law, Talia (very pregnant) is trying her hand at them tonight, Wes is total sushi addict:)

Naomi, Talia and Dylan

Cute cousins!

Natalee, Jeff & Linda (background) & Tal

Weird..... do I know him??

All those cute Champlin girls: Talia, Linda, Naomi, Trisha, Heidi, Natalee

Almost all those cute Champlin Boys: Jeff, Dylan, Luke, Chad, Brock & Zach.
Wes was finishing up his last hole at the golf course...

self-inflicted fun

TAG...

Erica just "Tagged" me, so here goes!

4 JOBS I'VE HAD:
1. Video Store clerk
2. Cheerleading coach
3. Case Manager-Site Visitor at Head Start
4. MOM!!!

4 MOVIES I CAN ALWAYS WATCH:
1. Little Women
2. Pride and Prejudice (both BBC and "new" versions)
3. Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn, I'm a fanatic)
4. Princess Bride

4 PLACES I'VE LIVED:
1. Providence, UT
2. Logan, UT
3. Carbondale, IL (actually our address was Murphysboro, we were just outside the city limits.)
4. Soon to live in: Silver Spring, MD

TV SHOWS I ENJOY:
1. The Office
2. Seinfeld
We don't actually have TV, guess I'm outta show!

4. FAVORITE FOODS:
1. raspberries
2. Bueno bars
3. mashed potatoes and gravy, love my moms:)
4. Nutella

WEBSITES I VISIT (ALMOST DAILY):
1. Blogs
2. E-mail
3. Parentdish
4. Babycenter

4 PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. Cabo
2. On a cruise
3. Boating
4. Hawaii

4 BLOGGER BUDDIES TO TAG:
1. Jenny
2. Kristen
3. Erin
4. Dani

WOW- been a minute

Summer is so my favorite!
I've been so busy having fun that I haven't gotten around to posting for the past, um- forever:)
Zach's been busy working part-time for his uncle's development project and then being an intern at the courthouse the other "part." He's home a lot more than in law school, that's for sure and it's been so nice. Naomi loves her daddy and I do too!
We've been busy little people so far this summer. Going to the pool, the park, boating and playing at (both) grandma's houses. And Grandpa's houses too I should add.
Naomi LOVES the water. Leaving the pool is always a little sad. She also loves the water slides at the pool too. Today she was actually trying to push my mom and nephew Isaac out of the way so she could hurry up and go down!
Naomi has been talking up a storm lately and is so sweet. She says "please" when asking for things all the time! It makes me laugh, I don't know if I could refuse such a sweet request.

Ok, so other new- something funny happened on my way the get my hair cut. A few days ago I was going to King Hair, just a walk-in to get my hair trimmed and especially my bangs. I pulled in the back by Cafe Ibis but all the parking in the back was full or "reserved" for Zions bank customers. So I drove out through the automatic teller lane onto 100 N to turn onto Main street to park. As I pull forward to look for traffic before turning onto 100 N all of the sudden a kid on a skateboard appears out of NOWHERE! Actually he came from the direction of Main, he was hidden from my view, and me from his by the Zions building until the last possible second.
My instincts kicked in even as I am going through the horrid scenario or popping this kid clean off his board. I wasn't going fast, just a few miles an hour really but still, it would have hurt... Lucky for my brain my feet slam on the brakes, and as I screech to a stop the kid and I stare at each other for a half second and we both put our hands up for some reason as he continues to roll past. Me for "Oh wow, sooooo sorry and so glad I didn't HIT YOU!" Him for "wow dude, that was close, I'm all right." So that was my little heart stopping event of the week. I figure I only need about one a week to keep me going:)

Bath time...

We got home from a fabulous over-nighter at Bear Lake yesterday at about 6:30 p.m. We mulled around and I got most of our stuff unpacked and put away, (it was an over-nighter, you'd think we could take our p.j.s but no.)
After the mini clean-up and put-away I was being gloriously lazy and sitting on our bed reading a novel, actually to be more accurate, I was totally sucked into this dumb book- Harlan Cobin, The Woods.
Anyway, Zach was being so great as to get Naomi ready for bed. They were in the bathroom rinsing out the tub for a bath and Naomi was dutifully dropping her tub toys into the tub one by one. I was actually listening to them and reading. Weird but I do that. So I hear the tub water stop and then all of the sudden Zach is laughing, really laughing. He has this funny laugh that he doesn't let escape all that often, I love it. I pulled my head out of the book to listen for what was going on. Zach walks into our room with his hair, face and shoulders totally soaking, dripping wet.
What tha......?
He was still laughing when he could finally tell me what happened:
"I was rinsing out the tub and then I went to plug the tub for the bath. I flipped the plug and the water stopped!"
So then he leaned his head in further, looking at the faucet to figure out what happened to the water? We live in a old and more than a little run down 1970's apartment so maybe the water just decided to turn off.....
All of this took just a few seconds - then WHAM the water hit him.
He pulled the shower plug thingy up, not the tub drain plug.
Sometimes I swear law school has sucked up about 1/2 his brain by now!

Boy or Girl?

Whattaya think, could she pull it off?

BIG Helper

-plus another cute shot, Naomi's little pool is in our living room....

My Naomi

I have new pictures (surprise, surprise) and I want to share....

Naomi is starting to talk A LOT lately. She is so sweet and funny too. She does just about every animal sound I can think of, including a dolphin! She repeats EVERYTHING! My favorite is "I know." Today she learned "Oh Snap!" It comes out as "Oh Napss." She's pretend feeds her little stuffed animals and likes to give them quick dramatic kisses. She also will tell me using her baby sign that she needs her diaper changed! Sometimes. She is getting a little shy, a new development. She will sometimes lay her head against me when she meets someone new. She also seems to be getting chubby, just a little around the thigh area:) It's darling.

She calls Cheetah, our cat "Meow" and likes to pet her softly, Cheetah loves Naomi too.

Naomi is also perfecting her use of the word "NO!" she uses it when she means it most of the time but she also likes to randomly blurt it out as we go along. It goes something like this: Me: "Naomi, look at the Doggy! Naomi: Points and says "ruff, ruff" smiles, repeats and then as an afterthought adds "NO!" in a tone that suggests "WOW!"

Naomi is getting so big and she is so much fun! I love her to pieces!

And one for the girls.....

So I've been wanting to buy the book: The Dangerous Book For Boys for my Dad for fathers day but haven't gotten around to it just yet. But the big news is that now there is a fabulous adventuresome book for girls too! The Daring Book For Girls. It sounds like a whole lot of fun, especially since I had a rather "tom-boy" girlhood. I'm excited to get my own copy to share with Naomi. Hopefully I'll show her how to climb trees, skip stones and build a rope swing someday.

From Mothertalk.com:
"Among the contents will be chapters on: what you need for an essential toolkit; five karate moves every girl should know; important women of the last century; ghost stories and rainy day games; famous women spies; how to change a tire; campfire songs; stocks and bonds; making a zip line in your backyard; and more!"

I borrowed this post idea from Dani-

You Are Big Bird

Talented, smart, and friendly... you're also one of the sanest people around. You are usually feeling: Happy. From riding a unicycle to writing poetry, you have plenty of hobbies to keep you busy. You are famous for: Being a friend to everyone. Even the grumpiest person gets along with you. How you life your life: Joyfully. "Super. Duper. Flooper."

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz