The Simple Life

saturday chores...

got my orders out first thing this morning...

came back from the post office and raked a million leaves!

front yard only. i'll have to get the backyard maybe monday. there is so many leaves! almost wish i would have raked in the fall, but no big deal. i'm too ocd to get every single leaf, ha ha!

but guess what! there is green grass under all those leaves...so the faster i rake, the faster we'll have green grass. plus i feel like i'm combing the ground...the grass needs a good combing right?! i'm so funny i know.

first SNOW...

november first.

a new month.

first snow fall of the season.

Sunday afternoon...

Sunday drives in the Bronco. I love driving through the old part of Lehi...back roads...reminds me of driving to our old home out in Labelle.

 
 
 
 

We went to a different park today...
 
 
 
Gulianna likes to yell in that little horn thing...she has to announce what she is doing, "I'm going down the swirly slide!" Reminds me of something from Horton Hears a Who.

 

The 4th with my Bronco...

I planned to take the Bronco to Provo but there was lots of rain clouds, and we didn't want to get rained on...so we left it home. And of course it sprinkled a couple drops the whole time!

Then we drove it to the park at Thanksgiving Point for the fireworks, and sure enough we pull into the parking lot and it started raining! So I took a few photos while Levi hurried to put the soft top on.

 
My fourth of July bows for my Bronco...love them! Again...I've been wanting to do this for years...

 

Yes...Isa was pouting once again...can't you tell!?

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
I really wanted at least one picture of all 3 of my kids looking at the camera, but this one will do...Isa was just pouting non stop!

Fun times with our little family in my Bronco!

 

Happy Fourth...

Getting ready for the Fourth of July...

I love to decorate for the holidays! But more importantly, I love this country that we live in, the freedoms that we do have. {Yes I was born here...} I've always had issues with people thinking that I was born else where, {Mexico, India, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Iraq...just to name a few}and they ask when did I move here, and how did I learn English...uh hello! I was born in Rexburg, Idaho! So don't even give me your crap... I've heard it all, and then some. :)

 
there was more...too hard not to walk by and grab some chocolate!

 
This year, I finally made bows for my Bronco...I've been wanting to do this for years...with the red star fabric!

And I did a close up of the music paper...I didn't even plan it, seriously! Got lucky as I ripped out a random sheet that had "fireworks" right on it! 
 
Anthony's first Fourth of July! 10 months old...

 
 
The girls are excited to go to the carnival tonight!! Have a happy fourth and a safe weekend!

 

Sneak peak...

 

 
 Just a little something that I've been working on! A fun mini album of my favorite things...

i wish...

i still had these worn out polka.dot flip flops from last summer...

but before levi could throw them away, the neighbors dog came and stole one.

don't mind my nasty feet :)

 
and i wish we still lived here...

 
with 5 acres for our girls to roam and play as they pleased...

gulianna 23 months

 
and we could go to Rigby Lake in my Bronco...

 
 
and enjoy the whole lake to ourselves :)

 
and have fun at the spray park!

 
 
 
and conviently run in for some jamba treats...without having to fight traffic!

 

i miss living in idaho! someday we will be back!

   

Memorial Day weekend...

 
We enjoyed our quiet weekend together at home. Levi got the garage cleaned out and his stuff organized, I cleaned the house {and now it's messy again} the girls played outside and even took a couple naps! Levi made my favorite pasta salad for lunch, and I made the dessert :) We hung our flag outside, and Anthony stopped by for a quick visit before he headed back to the Marine base in California. I am thankful for his service as well as my Grandpa who served in the Navy, and my uncle Mark who was in the Marines too, and of course all the others out there! So grateful that Anthony made it home safe from fighting in Afghanistan, he almost didn't.

I remember as a child...Memorial Day weekend was always spent with family and we usually went to the park for a picnic! We never visited any grave sites, I think because no one was dead, well that and if we knew of any relatives and where they were buried? I don't know. The same with Levi...when he was younger. Of course now we have a couple grandparents who have passed, and if we lived closer we would definitely pay a visit :) I think the first time I have even visited a grave site on Memorial Day was my grandma's, which was in 2006, and I miss her so much. I think about her every day and wish she was still here. 

Since Levi and I have been together Memorial Day weekend usually marked the first camping & boating trip of the year...usually at Palisades, and we would get rained on every year! It's seems that you can always predict crappy Idaho weather for that weekend every single time. A couple of those years we stayed home and I scrapbooked with Claudia and my sisters. Now that we have our little girls, I think we will carry on the picnic tradition :)

This was a book that I made 3 years ago for a good friend. And I just remembered that I started a Marine book for my brother that same year...I better finish that!

  
more photos of my Memorial Day book that I made here:)

4th of July...

I have always loved the 4th of July. Family.Food.Festivities.Fun. We have always gone to the parades ever since I was little. I used to do baton twirling in the fourth of July parades when I was younger, and lived in California. We would always go to my grandma's house or go to the park for bbq's and picnics. And watch the fireworks in Redlands. So fun, I always miss not having my grandma around for everything. It is hard for me, and my family as well, not to have her here {physically} with us. We sure miss her ♥ !

This year...we started out with the fireworks at Rigby Lake on Friday night. We had plans to camp, but didn't reserve our spot in time. But then again I was sick from camping last weekend at Lava Hot Springs, so I don't think that I would have camped anyways. Then we went to the Rexburg parade on Saturday morning, the weather was much cooler than years before, but I wasn't complaining!

Isabella concentrating closely on the parade...{I didn't have time to pin her sleeves up, I did get my safety pins out, only to have Gulianna scatter them all over the carpet, tonight}

RJ, Gulianna, and my mom...

Gulianna was being a stinker for just about every picture I took...{here she is turning her head away}

After the parade, we had a picnic/bbq at the park...lounged around. Took Gulianna to the spray park, and she was being a stinker, she really needed a nap. RJ took her on the carousel a couple of times...

{and then she was happy}

I didn't take Isabella on for a ride this time...she waited patiently for Gulianna.

Afterwards...we headed to Idaho Falls for the fireworks. We stopped at Target to buy Gulianna some shoes, they finally had the ones I've been wanting for her-back in stock. Bought her some shorts, and then Isabella a cute outfit, and my mom bought another one for her too, because she had to poop in her jeans...figures. 

{she just wanted more clothes...}

This was our spot that Levi picked out for this year...normally we our on the greenbelt, but we didn't want to fight traffic this year, maybe next year for sure :)

And we were home by 11pm...only 25 minutes after the show! Perfect!

A couple family pictures...{very hard to get everyone to cooperate} especially...Gulianna!

and now she's happy...

me and Isabella...

and if this isn't an exact Levi look...with her arm propped up and everything!

Chelsey and Gulianna {with her schmuck of a face, and her new ball that Chelsey bought for her, and she's still a stinker!}

Fun times...

  

We had a fabulous 4th of July weekend...hope you did too! {I will be back to post more pictures!}

my thoughts...

{from this morning}

• I am back to driving my Bronco. Still no shifter cable. Apparently Levi forgot to order it...hello? So that means that it is manually in drive the whole time. Meaning I can only drive forward...

I start the Bronco and drive, and when I park, I shut it off. So no body better park in front of me where ever I go.

If you happen to see me somewhere...perhaps in the mall or Target parking lot, and I am underneath the Bronco it's not because I ran myself over, it will be because someone decided to park in front of me, and so I am manually shifting the transmission.

{yes very annoying, but at least I can do it. and it's a pain in my butt}

greasy hands, hot pavement. hurts my back.

• On the way to work this morning...we {us girls} were getting ready to rock out with Ms. Jackson, only someone had to take her out of the CD player. And when I am driving the Bronco...I can't really just drive with my knee. Broncos tend to roll over if you do crazy stuff...{hence the roll cage for safety}

But I did it anyway...and almost took out some Wild Asparagus pickers along side the road. Just Kidding. But that totally could happen if I did that.

Anyway Gulianna loves the Bronco, and she loves music. It is so funny to see her dance while she's strapped in her carseat :)

so does Isabella. she jams out in her carseat too. It's just some thing about the whole Bronco experience I guess.

and we ♥ it.

♥ my Bronco...

next time this week...we will be in Moab, with my Bronco, and a bunch of other Bronco lovers for Moab Bronco Safari. Can't wait for this much needed vacation! And can't wait to be in some decent weather. We won't be going on some serious trails though...mines not built for that, only Levi's when he gets his finished.

I am now using this as my daily driver, my sister bought our Mazda 6, {yeah that's right, she's driving finally} while we do miss the mazda, I am happy to be driving my Bronco again. I haven't driven it since I was pregnant with Gulianna. And now that I am driving it, Gulianna absolutely loves it. She could seriously sit in it all day long. She suprised us last fall one Sunday when we got home from church, and we were sitting in the car, parked next to the Bronco and she pointed and said "Bronco"...it was so cute!