Dinner is served...tonight it's....yep, squash...again.

After weeks of serving squash and zucchini from our garden to the girls, they finally relented and ate it without crying.

The plugging your nose thing did help, though.


I have never served them anything that had as big of a reaction as squash/zucchini did for Danielle and Ashley. Ashley is a big vegetable eater but she threw the biggest temper tantrum I’ve ever seen. For babies, I’ve heard that if you feed your child the same thing over and over again, they’ll finally get used to it and eventually start to like it. So I wasn’t giving up, and eventually she gave in. Afterwards she was very proud she did it and even ate more. Thank goodness we’re over that crisis. I did take pictures for evidence incase she forgets in a couple days when I serve it again.

Five k race, Festival, Fear, Fun, Family, Fireworks. Which one doesn't belong?

This 4th of July was the best and the worst I’ve experienced.

The best…
This year I wanted to start a new tradition of running the Freedom Festival 5k. I had never run a race before and have always wanted to, so I decided to sign up Danielle and me to start our new tradition together. Danielle was my excuse in case I needed to walk, but we both did great and ran most of the way. It was a great experience for me; I’ve always wanted to feel the accomplishment of finishing a big race. Eventually, I want to get up to running a marathon, but I needed to start small and see if I had it in me.

Duane only had time to take 1 picture, so my eyes are closed in this one.



The worst…
After the race, we met up with my family and had breakfast, then headed over to the parade. We got through ¾ of the parade when we noticed Kaman was missing. We frantically split up and went searching for him. I walked up and down the parade route thinking how far he could have gone, since he’s only two. But, I knew in the back of my mind, I had to find him quick before the parade let out. While searching for Kaman, Duane and I both went up to the first policeman we saw and described him and where he was last seen. They immediately got on their radio and found out another policeman was holding a boy that matched our description. Apparently, Kaman had started following the BYU semi truck and ended up 2 blocks away, when a lady noticed he was by himself and took him to a police man. Losing a child in that big of a crowd is one of the most terrifying experiences I hope I never have to go through again.

Ironically, we only got pictures of Kaman waving to the police cars during the parade.

We ended the day at our house, had dinner with the Thompson family, played games and watched the P.G. fireworks from our balcony.


The day started out great and turned very scary, very fast, but thankfully ended on a happy note.

Little boy turned Elephant Man

This past Sunday, our family drove to Payson Lakes to have a picnic. I did my motherly duties and sprayed the kids with bug spray and sent them on their way. Apparently mosquitoes don’t just focus on exposed arms and legs they also like faces – go figure. And this trip Kaman was the victim.

I have what is called Skeeter Syndrome and I found out from an earlier experience with Danielle that so do my kids. When Danielle was 1 ½ she woke up one morning with a swollen eye.

Here’s a Polaroid picture we took of her…

She was working in the garden with me the night before and was bitten by a mosquito. She had never been bitten before, and I didn’t realize she had Skeeter Syndrome, so I rushed her to the Insta Care and talked with a Nurse Practitioner who didn’t know what it was and prescribed an antibiotic. This, of course, messed up her system and caused her to have diarrhea for 2 weeks. Well, after the swelling went down we could see the bite under her eye.

After our trip to Payson Lakes, Kaman woke up with a swollen forehead and cheek.


The following morning, the swelling had moved to his eye.


Thank goodness I knew what it was this time, so I didn’t have to rush him to the Doctor to find out why my son now looked like the Elephant Man.