Sister Sneak

It's time once again for our Sister Sneak with my Manwaring sisters. This is always a great time without kids or husbands around for us to be able to bond, relax, party, and just be girls. Above: Emily and Natalie, Becky and Me, Emily and Natalie-again, b/c for some reason all pictures of Katie are missing...hmmmm?, Missy, Kaylin and Anna. This year Becky hosted, and we all went to Park City, UT.

Our FAVORITE part of the entire excursion is ALWAYS our Favorite Things. When we see the bags come out (my mother-in-law always makes them so cute) we get as giddy as kids on Christmas morning.

This year Anna gave cute little Halloween light bulbs for decorative candlesticks; Becky gave Turvie-Turbans (I ALWAYS call them topsy turvies, I don't know why I can't get it right) so we can enjoy a great soak in the tub without getting our hair wet; Amber had each of our names engraved on darling charms for necklaces (I can't wait to get a nice chain to wear it on!); I gave Florence Chocolates (the Princess Michelle's are THE BEST) and bookmarks b/c I love to read; Missy gave Melaleuca lotion and lip balm (if you haven't tried the Renew lotion, it really is worth finding some to try.); Emily gave us all glitter toes; Kaylin gave us body butter made from goat milk (which I have used everyday since the sneak); and Katie (notice no picture of Katie AGAIN) gave Halloween themed Bath-n-Body Works soaps; Natalie said her favorite thing was to try new things. Her "thing" deserves a segment all to itself. More on that later.

We enjoyed spending time together at dinner at Ghidottis Italian Restaurant.

Thank goodness we enjoyed our time together because the food wasn't all that great for some of us.

These three were sorely disappointed with their meals. I had the whole wheat linguine and grilled chicken. It was okay, but nothing I'd recommend to anyone. However, I hear the salmon and shrimp scampi meals were really good. Too bad I don't eat seafood.

After a full day of shopping, eating, and soaking in the hot tub, we cashed in on Emily's glitter toes. We were up until 1:30 AM playing salon. Didn't our feet turn out SO cute!

Bright and early the next morning it was time to try Natalie's favorite thing of "trying new things"....Anti gravity Yoga. Okay, seriously, this was A LOT of fun! It made for some awesome memories and whole bunch of giggles. I did end up getting EXTREMELY nauseous (we were swinging a lot, and sometimes upside down) and I had to sit out for a few minutes, but I loved it. I didn't realize how much work I was doing until the next day when several of my under used muscles ached. I really wish Idaho Falls offered this type of yoga, I'd totally do it again.

We finished out the Sneak by attending the General Relief Society Broadcast in Salt Lake City. It's so neat to be able to be in the actual building with the speakers for this annual meeting. If you'd like to hear an extremely inspiring talk go read Elder Uchtdorf's talk on "Forget Me Nots". This was the perfect ending to weekend.

Cougars and Utes

It's BYU football season again! Jarom and Ben have been having a "ball" watching the games on the HUGE screen projector (which business partner Jeffrey is letting us borrow). Can you even see Jarom is this picture above? He's there, I promise.

Just in case you didn't spot him, here he is. The screen is big, so big it sort of makes me motion sick, but the boys love it.

We decided to allow a few Utes fans into the house for the big BYU/U of U rivalry game. Yah.....it wasn't pretty for us BYU fans. HORRIBLE to say the least. We took a beating that just would NOT end. And b/c of that beating, Jarom lost a bet and had to wear a red Utes tie to church the next day. NEVER thought I'd see that. (He allowed exactly ZERO pictures.) But, on a better note, our party was fun.
We had appropriately colored treats, attire, and even the poor dogs got roped into the competition. Thanks to the Englemans, Rushs, and Ben and Kaylin for coming over. It was a great time, but Jarom says having Utes in his house won't happen again any time soon. LOL! (We'll just have to party together on a NON-BYU night.)

Segways

Adam and Jennie rented Segways for a weekend. They were kind enough to let us try them them out.

My kids were in heaven! Alyssa has begged to buy one and told me she'd be Paul Blart for Halloween if I got her one. As funny as that'd be, sorry sis, no can do.

Even Carter was able to give it a go. They feel a little squirrely at first (honestly the little kids caught on WAY faster than the adults), you kind of rock and roll until you can find your balance. But after that they are a lot of fun to roll around on. Thanks for letting us play Cromwells!

This and That

Things around this house are crazy as usual. With school back in full swing, it also means the mom taxi is back in full swing. Unfortunately the actual "taxi" is in the shop, getting a new transmission. Boo. And just for a double boo, the warranty ran out exactly 329 miles ago. So there goes $2200 out of our pockets. We were so hoping to go to Disneyland this Fall, but it may need to wait until Spring or next Fall now.

Speaking of school, I just had to include this darling picture of Kate. I think it screams kindergarten. My mother-in-law made the darling jumper. So fun!

We decided to go huckleberry picking with some of Jarom's family for Labor Day. (We usually just go on our own, and I'm SO glad we didn't.) When we pulled into our spot, Jarom's brother told us that our truck had sprung a leak about a mile back. We looked underneath, and sure enough, something was pouring out of the engine. Turns out it was transmission fluid. So Jarom's dad ended up towing us all the way home. I hate being towed as it is, but being towed on mountain, gravel, single lane roads...talk about white knuckles. It was all good though, and we made it to the mechanic just fine. Now we wait for it to be fixed, and in the mean time, I'm borrowing my parent's Suburban. I know it's not that much bigger than my Expedition, but it feels HUGE to me. I'm driving it on an as needed basis only.

On a different note, Jarom was put in the bishopric a couple weeks back. This in a very short nutshell means that he, the new bishop, and the other counselor are in charge of our ward/church family and how it all functions. It also means that he sits on the stand in front of the congregation on Sundays and not on the pew with the kids and I. Which means....me, alone with the kids and their behaviour at church. It's going to take some getting used to.

Carter was extremely emotional on the day of this event. He cried the entire meeting. He cried about Dad's new calling. He cried about the old bishop moving on. He cried about Dad not sitting with us. He cried about getting older. (He ALWAYS cries about that. Poor kid.) He just cried and cried. And of course, his unprepared crazy mother didn't have a kleenex for him. But don't you worry, I did have a dirty old sock in my purse for him to wipe his eyes and nose with. Which he did.

And last but not least for today's update, the rabbits.
Lest you think I'm crazy for carrying old socks in my purse....I'll prove you wrong. I'm crazy because I thought getting 4 bunnies was going to be okay. This morning we entertained the neighbors while we ran like chickens with our heads cut off, waving rakes and brooms and handfuls of carrots, trying to catch the rabbits who had escaped during the night. The lawn mowers came yesterday and I forgot to move the log back in front of our gate. Stupid rabbits....why can't they understand how good they have life in my backyard and just be happy with that? Argghhh...it made for an eventful morning to say the least.

So as you can see, we are doing swell and everything is as normal as it always is at our place.

Back to School!

Annnnnnddddd.....it's time for school! Just like that, summer is over!
I have a jr high kid this year!

Seventh grade for Alyssa. I think I'm still in shock about this. She thought she was going to have to share a locker, but much to her surprise this morning, her locker partner was reassigned. She's so excited to have her own now. She said school was fun, but really scary, and she had to have Rachel help her open her locker 3 times. Hopefully she'll catch on to that.

I have a 5th grader!

I ran into her as I was taking Kate to class, and she said school was already boring. Oh boy. This is her first year in a traditional classroom (as opposed to spectrum) so we are all anxious to see how it goes.

I have a studly 2nd grader.

Such a handsome little man, with ultra long hair. (But Aunt Mimi went and had a baby on the day he was scheduled for a cut. How dare she! ;) ) Thank goodness he's my easy going kid. I accidentally left his backpack at Back to School night last week and we walked off this morning without his art project he was supposed to hand in. What a way to start off, but he took it all in stride and had a great day.

And last but not least, I have a kindergartner! Yep, ALL my babies are in school this year. This is just the craziest thing ever. Today I got to go with her, tomorrow we shall see if I cry or party. Maybe a little of both.

I love how the back pack is as big as she is. She is PM kindergarten, and man the clock CRAWLED for her this morning. She was SO excited. I think she is going to LOVE school.

What a GREAT bunch of kids I have; man I love them. Here's to a wonderful year for all of them!

Kid's Funnies

One of my family's most favorite parts about reading my blog books are the kid funnies that I've remembered to record. My kids love to hear the funny things they said when they were younger. I've not been so good about blogging lately and have missed so many precious little comments. I almost forgot to write the one Halle just gave us about Josie in the previous post. I've GOT to be better at keeping a record as I know how FAST these kiddos are growing up. So without further adieu, here are a few funnies I can remember from the recent past. Most are from Kate as she is the one currently in that stage where funny things come out of her mouth just about every time she opens it.

Kate, last night in the family prayer, "Please bless us not to do naughty things, like say we need to go potty but go do something else." Hmmmm....sounds to me she was ratting herself out. LOL! But I'm glad she thought to pray for strength to overcome her temptation.

Kate, bawling her head off because she is in trouble with dad. "Dad says he's going to spank me!" Me, "Well, what did you do?" Kate, "All just because I showed Carter my crack of doom." Crack-of-doom, are you kidding me??? Apparently this is my kids' new term for rear end. How does a parent not laugh?

Carter keeps stealing Kate's teeny little pink bike to ride around the block. It makes Kate FURIOUS when he's riding her bike. I asked him why he kept insisting on riding his little sister's GIRL bike. His response, "Because it can do sweet wheelies."

Alyssa while watching the movie "Anastasia", "I know why it's called 'Anastasia'. Because she GETS anastasia." Me, "She gets AMNESIA sis." LOL!

Josie Claire

My sister had her baby over the weekend! We are so excited to meet Josie. She's been highly anticipated at this house.
Little Miss Josie Claire just about 2 hours old. She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz. Such a tiny little peanut.

24 hours later and already starting to look different. They change so much in those first few hours.

I thought this was such a good picture of my mom, the proud Grammy, with adorable new Josie.

And here's a kid funny for you. While Emily was in labor, I was getting the updates on her progress. Halle overheard me say that she was 70% effaced. A little later she said, "I want to see the picture of Josie." I told her we didn't have one yet and that Josie was still not born. So Halle said, "But I thought you said her face was 70% out." LOLLL!!!

An "Amazing" Gregg Reunion

For our Gregg Manwaring Reunion, we went to Logan. Katie and Chris were our hosts this year and they did a fabulous job.

We started out with an impressive pizza party. We each provided a pizza or two and we were able to sample almost all of Logan's finest. (I think my favorite was from the Fox Den pizza.)

Then we headed to Clarkston, UT for the Martin Harris Pageant.

The next morning we were informed that we had to turn in all phones and electronic devices.

Then we were split into teams and began "The Amazing Race".

A couple of cute members from my very own red team.

After completing a puzzle and finding the correct year on a penny, we all raced to the bus stop where the teams were evened up again.

Poor little Izzy took a tumble and didn't love her portion of the bus ride.

After a quick bus ride (in which the bus driver toyed with us in trying to decide which door to open first) we hopped off and made a mad dash for WalMart.

We sprinted through WalMart (where I'm sure everyone thought we were crazy) and met 3 different people to complete this task.

We race all over town (laws may or may not have been broken; we're a competitive bunch) doing different challenges.

Here's Alyssa ice blocking on the Utah State Campus.

At one point we all ended up at the same park for a quick lunch break.

Gregg and Anna were married in 1973. For our lunch challenge we had to spend $19.73 (if we got it exact we got extra time) on things to share for lunch. Just about everyone had the same idea, and I've never seen so many McD's burgers and Arby's roast beef sandwiches in my life. It was a fast food lovers paradise for lunch.

During the lunch break, poor little Mia got a make over with the bottle scrub brush. What a good sport she is.

As soon as lunch was done the race was back on with a boat building competition.

Go Boat Go! After the boat race things really heated up. The finish was close and everyone could feel it. I hear there was a knock down, wrestle on the ground, drag out right in the cemetery from some teams. (Good thing the grave was of a family member.)

I'm not going to mention any names, but these pants sure did get dirty. Ahemmmm... (And yes, the poor trampoline suffered from entertaining 50 people for the weekend.)

For the final task we had to eat an entire sink full of ice cream. I've never eaten ice cream so fast in my life. The kids on my team were so darling. They had major brain freeze, tears running down their faces, but they kept on eating. We could FEEL victory!

And who were the winners, by only a few seconds??? That's right, the RED TEAM WINS!!

After such an intense race, some popsicles were in order.

Even Natalie's Charlie got to have a popsicle.

What a FUN reunion this was! GREAT JOB Katie and Chris, I'm not sure anyone will ever be able to top this one.

Holley and Eva Reunion 2011

For the Holley reunion this year, we went to Holley and Eva's hometown of Blackfoot, ID.
We loaded up on buses and took a tour of all the places that meant something in the Manwaring's lives.

Grandma Eva was our tour guide.

It was a good time, especially when the full bus load of people stopped in front of some house and the current residents came out on the porch to stare at us. So funny...but I'm sure you had to be there.

After the bus tour it was time to play at Jensen's Grove.

Maddy wasn't afraid of the water one tiny bit. Alyssa and Halle were good sports to keep an eye on her.

Torie and Peyton needed a little more air in their raft. (And maybe a paddle on the end of the stick they were using as an oar.)

Why is sand so much fun?! I don't think I'll ever get the sand out of Halle's suit.

Becky found a nice place to keep watch.

And the kids created a sand and river water spa. I think people pay BIG bucks for this kind of treatment.