Personal Progress Night

I have been in the Young Women presidency for almost 2 years.  I was secretary for the first year and now I am 2nd counselor.  I absolutely love my calling. I think it has a lot to do with the leaders I get to work with. We usually have way too much fun for this to be a church calling.  The girls are amazing and a ton of fun to be with too!:)  So we have not been pushing Personal Progress like we knew we should for the past couple of years, but we wanted to change that. So this last month we had a special Wednesday night activity that turned out really great I think! We were expecting our numbers to be pretty low, but to our amazement we had one of our best turnouts! We invited all the Young Women and their moms to a mystery dinner.  They came in and had menus on the tables for them to fill out.  They could only chose 4 things from the menu, but everything was in code.  The menu said stuff like: A Mouth Watering Mustard Seed of Faith, The Delicious Divine Nature Delicacy, Pickled Individual Worth, Savory Knowledge and so forth. So they all choose 4 items and then (our Bishopric was kind enough to be our waiters for the night) the waiters brought out what they actually ordered. The girls could get any four of the following, a fork, napkin, salad, plate, roll, dressing, spoon,  and dessert.  They were all very sad, when they saw what they would be eating for dinner.  Then Alice-Anne did a great talk about how Personal Progress is kind of like this dinner tonight.  If you do not have all these values in your life, you have something important missing from your life.  After that we served them their real dinner, lasagna.  It was a really fun night. We have given the girls some incentives to help them get motivated and are trying harder to focus more on these values in our activities.  Live and learn!:) 

Late NIght Bowling

Last month our Bishopric in our ward got released after 5 years of service. We were very sad to see them be released. They were so good with the youth and the kids really loved spending time with them.  So Bishop Gerber wanted to do one last all nighter with all the youth.  So on Monday night at 10:00 p.m. we all met at the church and headed to the bowling alley.  We have never had such a great turn out from the youth. We were debating about whether to move Wednesday mutual to 10:00 instead of 7:00, so we could get a better number!:)  We all had a great time bowling and trying to keep up with the Bishop and his counselors. They were pretty good bowlers.  I was not able to bowl that night because my back was out.  I had fun watching and talking to everyone though.  Then after bowling we headed over to Denny's for a "snack."  After that we thought we were done until Bishop said we should go and play some Dutchball at the church.  We Young Women leaders were already having trouble keeping our eyes open, but we did it anyways.  So we went back to the church and were waiting for them to bring the ball to start playing.  I was sitting on the stage minding my own business, when all of a sudden I got slammed in the face with a deflatted, yet very powerful ball. My neck went to the other side and I knew the next day was going to be fun. :)  By 3:30 a.m. I finally decided I had enough and luckily we all went home for a few hours of sleep.  It was a really fun night and helped me realize how old I am getting. :(

Molly's Shower

Molly's first DeVaux sister picture!:)

Gabe lurking at the shower

Gabe and Molly enjoying some yummy treats!

Heeey!

What a cute couple!!

Trish and I were able to go to Molly's shower up in good old Rexburg, Idaho this past Saturday. Which was 7-7-2012! Good day for our family!:)  We told Gabe he could tag along with us as well.  I was amazed at how much Rexburg has grown and yet how familiar it was too! I was there almost 9 years ago...wow I feel old. :(  Anyways it was fun to see where Molly is living and meet some of her friends. They all knew us because of Molly's stories about our kids! They were all asking who's kid said, "Jacket and dishwasher" (both Olivia!) Our kids are all big stars in Rexburg thanks to Molly and Gabe.  We had some dinner at Winger's with the 4 of us and Molly's friend Cathy and then hung out for a little bit then headed to the shower.  Molly's friends did a game where they asked Gabe questions and Molly had to answer them right or she had to add a piece of gum.  They video taped Gabe's answers and they were pretty entertaining and we all learned a lot about these two! After the shower we let Molly and Gabe say their goodbyes and then tried to drive off as they were holding onto each others hands through the window.  We made it home a little before 1:00 a.m. and were up bright and early for 9:00 a.m church the next morning. We all had some great naps the next day! We just can't wait to make Molly apart of the family next month and couldn't ask for a better match for our little Bugger Bear!:)

4th of July

As you saw from a previous post our 4th of July was very low key and slightly boring.:(  In the past we are used to having big celebrations and having a ton of friends and family over to celebrate with us, but not this year.  Gabe and Molly hung out with us for most of the day and then headed down to see her family that evening. Trish came down later in the afternoon and David put new brake pads on her car and she paid him with a delicious Coldstone Cake! Yum! Then we hung out for a little bit, but no one was here late enough for the fireworks.  The kids were so excited to see them. We were out there by 8:30 that night waiting even though it doesn't get dark until about 9:30. Some of our neighbors were doing  theirs though. So we enjoyed sitting on the kid's pirate ship and watching them with a pretty good view of everything.  By 9:30 the kids were asking if they could please go to bed...twist our arms! Parker had only made it until about 7:30 or 8:00.  So it was not our typical 4th of July, which was sad, but everyone needs a low key one every once in a while!:)

Summer time!

This was what we saw from one of the fires from our backyard.

Hooray for stripes!

This is Gabe posing for a picture. He had pulled up his pants and then was helping the kids with play doh! Every time I see this picture I laugh pretty hard...his butt looks huge!

The kids love swimming! Even in our little pool out back.  They will stay out there for at least on hour most times and just have the best time.  I keep hoping I will get brave enough to take them to the West Jordan pool, but I just can't see myself doing it. Maybe next summer!:)  It has been amazingly hot this year for Utah and VERY dry. I think that Utah has had something like 19 fires in the past 2 months. 2 of them were located very close to us. The temperature has been above 95 degrees most days and it has rained a total of one day in the past 2 months. This on top of the below normal snowfall we had in the winter has given us a very scary summer with all these fires so close to home especially.  I think it snowed 3 maybe 4 times this past winter.  Crazy stuff!  Anyways, so the only way the kids want to go outside is if there is some type of water to play in. 
Gabe had also been staying with us from Wednesday June 27th until just yesterday.  It is always fun to have him here. He is a funny and awkward guy! The kids all love to play with and pick on Uncle Gabe. But no one loves him more than Parker! Parker always wants Gabe no matter who else is in the room. Maybe it's because Gabe chose Parker's name for him? Who knows! What I do know is that I love having Parker like someone a little more than me, because that means I get a little break! Good prep for Gabe for when him and Molly have kids! :)  Gabe left yesterday to head to Boise, Idaho for a job for the next month until him and Molly get married!! He can apparently make some pretty good money out there, so it works out great.  We have had a very full month in June and July doesn't seem to be calming down much. In the past 2 months I have been to the hospital with one of the kids a total of 3 times...that is a lot! I am praying we are all done with tonsils, tubes and teeth.  We shall see! Now I am trying to prepare myself and my house for all of our house guests that will be coming for Gabe and Molly's wedding on the 10th.  When it rains, it pours! But I have loved having all of these guests here to help entertain my children and me!:)  We also had Molly (Gabe's AMAZING fiance) stay with us for a few days during the Fourth of July week. It is always fun to see those 2 love birds together. They are just the cutest couple! Speaking of Molly, so I think I screwed up my back at Girl's Camp somehow and over the past month it had gotten progressively worse until I couldn't even turn my neck or move any muscles on the top half of my body without wincing in pain. So on Tuesday Molly was sweet enough to work on my back for me. Then on Wednesday I woke up and could not move without extreme pain.  That put a damper on our 4th of July. I didn't get out of bed until about 4:00 that afternoon.  After a few more days of pain, my pain has FINALLY gotten down to a mild pain. I also went to the doctor on Thursday and got some muscle relaxers and strong ibuprofen. Those have been very helpful as well. I hate being handicapped.  I just felt so useless. I don't like not doing things the way I want them and not having control.  No fun for anyone! Anyways other than that. This months is off to a good start!:)

Parker's Tubes

Waiting for the relaxing medicine to kick in!

This may come as a surprise to some of you that Parker had tubes put in about 2 weeks ago.  I have just come to expect that by 15 months my kids will have tubes or my life will be spent at the pediatrician.  So Parker had an ear infection from the middle of March until he got the tubes put in. He was on 3 different medicines in that time and was on 2 of them twice.  The 3rd one that he was on he had an allergic reaction to he broke out in hives all over and had a fever. That was the augmentin.  Good to know for future reference.  :)  So after going into Dr. Bosworth in May with his ear infection still there, which had now turned into a double ear infection, he said to go on and go to the ENT and schedule for tubes.  So we went to the ENT and he had us set up to get them in within 2 weeks.  Just on a side note I get my prescriptions from Target now and I LOVE them! We have dealt with quite a few pharmacies and always had issues with them. Anyways! So I have a Target Red card (which is a debit card linked to your bank account) you get 5% off every time you use your Target Red Card and when you get 5 prescriptions filled there you will get an extra 5% off for one full day.  Just in the past 2 months I have gotten 3 extra 5% off because of how many dang prescriptions we have had to have.  ANYWAYS, after that big side note! So on Thursday, June 28th I took Parker into the hospital at 7:00 a.m and by 11:00 we were home and he was as happy as could be.  Hopefully this cures our doctor visits.  I asked my ENT if they had a buy 3 tubes and get the 4th free or anything like that...sadly they don't. I also told my pediatrician that after all of our business we give to him surely he had to have been able to get something really big for himself this year. He said that he saw the ENT on the lake the previous weekend and the ENT's boat was a lot bigger than his! :0 We had a good laugh! Oh good times!  So Parker is doing good! We had his check up yesterday and Dr. Meads said that everything looked just perfect! Whew!

Torgerson's Visit

David and Eric

Father's Day! David and Maggie both felt they needed to just give Dad something from around the house that they really loved. It was really cute and the kids put a lot of thought into what to give David!:) He got Battleship from little David and the pig pillow from Maggie.  He also got some clothes and an exercise bike!

Grandpa, Parker and Eric

They just kept running to Grandpa!:)

Meme and all her Grandbabies!

Papa, Meme and Parker

We were so excited to have the Sherrie, Dave, Austin, Genevieve and baby Eric come out for a visit in June! Gen and Sherrie had quite the trip. They drove out to Wyoming with Grandma Turnbull before coming to Utah and were traveling with a 4 month old for over 24 hours total.  It was quite the ordeal, but they made it and survived and we were so glad they came! They got here on Friday, June 8th and stayed until Sunday, June 24th.  They are real troopers for staying that long. I know I love going to Arkansas and visiting everyone, but I don't like living out of a suitcase or not having my own bed. They were able to be here for Maggie's recital and then the week I had girl's camp they were here, which was soooo nice to know they were there with the kids.  We had a ton of fun while they were here and as always a lot of laughs! (One Dollar...was a great one;))  Dave and Austin came out on Saturday, June 16th.  Austin had a basketball camp that week, so they had to come up later than the girls...and Eric. :)  I know while I was at Girl's Camp they made some trips to the park and library, had a big day of shopping and had a great time with the pool Meme got them! Then we had Father's Day at Giselle and Kevin's house, which I personally loved because I didn't have to cook!!!:) Bonus!  I think all the Dad's had a great day!

Playing at the Spray Park downtown

Parker LOVED the spray park! He had no fear and would just start laughing, when the water would start spraying him in the face!:) 

I love this picture of him! The look of shock on his face that soon turned to pure joy!

After the spray park we headed to Temple Square. We walked around the new City Creek Mall, which is amazing and had some lunch with David. 

Look at Parker trying to get into that water!

Parker and Meme!

Papa and Parker at the zoo...this is how Parker liked to go around best!

This picture was after Maggie had the huge fit, because she didn't get to go through the big spinner.

On the Merry Go Round. Maggie was a little worried most of the time

On Tuesday morning we packed up the kids and headed downtown, because the company that Kevin works for was on Good Morning America and Kevin was one the people being interviewed as well for the new cell phone app they just put out called Hero (you can see that here) The kids were getting antsy, so we took them down to the spray park and they had a great time! Parker loved it the most for sure. We also had Gabby with us that day...she was not as huge a fan of the spray park, but she was a good sport.  Then we headed to Temple Square and met up with David at City Creek Mall for lunch.  The kids were pretty much done after that, so we headed home.  It was a fun day! That day I took Maggie to the doctor, because she had been complaining about her stomach hurting for a day or so. So we went and found out she had Strep throat. David had it about 2 weeks before that.  I felt so bad, because Genevieve was staying with us with little Eric. Strep is contagious until 24 hours after you take the medicine.  So I came home and told them the bad news and Gen looked a little worried. Somehow we had a mix up and she thought that I said that she should go somewhere else to stay so that Eric wouldn't get it, but in my mind I didn't.  I was thinking when she asked me if I thought they should go somewhere else and I guess that I was shaking my head yes. So Gen ran downstairs and within 5 minutes she was packed and out the door to Grandma Torgerson's! We had a good laugh about it later about our little miscommunication. It turned out ok though. Gen was able to have her own room with a nice comfy bed and a quiet house! Then on Wednesday we went to the zoo. I am sad to say this was Parker's first trip to the zoo. Somehow I just couldn't picture him being happy there his first summer.  He LOVED everything about it.  He just had this look of amazement the whole time.  It was too cute! It was great having one adult per child too! I did not mind the help.  The rest of the week we kind of just took it easy. I think we were all tired from our eventful and full week! On Friday we had a girl's night and Sherrie, Gen, Giselle, Trish and I went to The Gateway downtown and did some browsing and ate at a yummy Italian restaurant. Then Saturday David's aunt and uncle and cousins came down for a visit.  We had a lot of good laughs.  That night the boys went to the West Jordan Demolition Derby and said it was GREAT!:)  Sunday morning bright and early the Torgersons headed back South.  It was so good and fun to have them here for so long...of course for the kids, it is never long enough!:)