Girl's day out!

Girl's day out! It is time to hit the nail salon. Today was a day to enjoy getting a manicure and a pedicure. Eva and Lindsay were excited to join us gals at the nail salon. While Miriam, Mom and myself where getting our pedicure and manicure, the girls were exited to get their nails painted. Both Eva and Lindsay chose their nail polish, of course they keep coming across something better than before a better color, glitter, or hearts in clear polish. It was a tough decision before they each choose the one.

These girls were giggle and exited. They were moving around while they waited their turn. Will they be able to hold still long enough to let the nail polish dry? Believe it or not they made it through. At one point, I thought Lindsay was going to fall asleep. It was a tough call at the end. They started to copy each other's movement....just moments before the giggles start to come back. Yeah, there nails were dry enough.

It was a great day to spend time with each other and watch the girls giggle and enjoy girl's day out!

Lindsay Clan goes camping together!

We are excited to spend time with family! This years trip to California was very eventful and fun. Ryan and Lindsay were excited to spend time with their new cousins and Grandparents. We went camping for 5 days in the Lake Mendocino area. It was wonderful to have all the kids together.

Mom made sure there was plenty of food and games. She did not want to hear anyone saying they were bored. We had bikes, scooters, jewelry making, canoe and lots of fun down at the lake. Of course, we all brought our lap tops and sometimes were found hiding in the tents or cars to sneak in a movie or play a game. The kids had fun finding lizards, dead fish, performing a scene from Emma's imagination, soccer, cards and chasing each other around. Just watching them made me tired.


Dan and I enjoy taking walks at night; while the kids were asleep or riding bikes around during the day; no kids. I had a little mishap and lost to a tree stump. My shin is all scratched up. My hands and ankles swelled so bad it hurt when it got to hot.

Dan and I had the chance to take the kids out on the canoe and had some one on one time with them. They talked about having so much fun and couldn't believe they have so many cousins. The kids were excited to have lots of food available to them. And asked why they still had to eat their Lunch. (They called everything Lunch.)


We even caught Lindsay and cousin Sophia in the food tent. Sophia got away but Lindsay got stuck in the zipper of the food tent. Uncle Bill did wonderful getting Lindsay to eat the foods she should eat first before eating all the snacks. He would pretend the food was telling Lindsay to stop eating them. Bill and his voices. He would even teach his daughter Sophia to rescue Lindsay from mean old mom; who was making Lindsay set down and eat her food til it was all gone. Sophia would tell Lindsay to run while she took Lindsay's plate and throw it away. All why mom was pretending not to look.


Ryan was so excited he was able to practice with Uncle Drew with soccer. He enjoyed his Hulk gloves chasing the girls with his gloves. He and his cousin Matthew were amazed with Uncle Mark's bike. Ryan was so excited when Uncle Drew invided all the nieces and he was the only nephew to stayed in his tent for one night. They stayed up telling scary stories and laughing. Ryan thought Uncle Drew was gross eating worms from the dirt. He then changed his mind when Uncle Drew gave everyone dirt and worms to eat for dessert. He decided eating worms was great. (Receipe for worms: gummie worms, chocolate pudding and crushed up oreos.)

We had a great time camping with my family. It sure was different. Noboday, got sick and no had to drive back living a throw up trail. It was a different camping experience than it was when I was younger. Mom and Dad, really wanted to make sure there was something for everyone

Surprise get together with The Neely's!

We were excited to receive a phone call from Uncle Richard. To our surprise, they were making a trip out to Utah and then to California. They were coming to see us in Utah before we went to California. We were able to hang with them again while we were in California. Talk about perfect timing.

Monday July 14th, we met up with them at Great Grandma Krause's for yummy stew and then we were off to the Park. Ryan and Lindsay were excited to go see Great Grandma Krause, it has been a year since they last saw her. Grandma Krause was happy to see her Grand children and Great Grand children. It was a nice visit and yummy stew!

At the park, the kids enjoyed laughing, climbing and swinging on the swing. Ryan loves the monkey bars, Lindsay loves the swing, Kyle enjoyed pushing his mom on the swing, and Kamae enjoyed the swing and slides. It was fun to see the kids be shy at first but then start to interact with each other.

This was a fun day to visit with our cousins from Indiana. This will not be the end. We will hook up with them again in California.

Good negotiator or bribes???

Have you ever negotiated with your kids or bribe your kids to get what you want? Does it always work? Or does it seem to back fire?

We went this year to Kiddie Kandid to have the kids yearly photos taken. I wanted to have some cute photos with props, cute smiles and poses. This year the kids wanted to pose their way and would put up a fight to get what they wanted.

Ryan wanted to make all the funny faces and noises he can make. Lindsay wanted to put her hands and feet in a ballerina position. Both kids did not want to set next to each other. They would push and shove each other or knock down the curtain. Oh my...the crying. My kids can turn on and shut off the water works. I had to pull one kid off of the other and put them in time out. If they would have just smiled and do what we asked...we would have done. I was not happy they were acting this way. I told the photographer, "We are done." She said, "Lets keep trying." They didn't have another sitting for a while...lets try a few things.

My kids were brats. I do not like these behaviors. I did try to negotiate with them. They can do one picture of the pose or face they want. But then....they were smooth....if we can have some ice cream that would be nice.....sure, I did it and told them my terms. I took their breb. The were a little better, but still not the best only tollerable. Two hours later....we finally had six photos we liked. We have four pictures I liked and two pictures they wanted. During the previewing of the photos the kids decided to have a fight and start hitting each other.

I was angry with this behavior that they were doing. I told them we are done. They smiled and said good. Let's go get our ice cream over there. I said, "NO." The deal was to seat down, smile, and do as I ask all the way through the photos and viewing....until we walk out their doors. You just heard, "Yes, to the ice cream and missed out on how you can have ice cream." The look on their face was priceless. Neither negotation or breb worked. The kids cried all the way home.

Enjoy the photos. If you drag your mouse over the photos they will in large.

Fun Day with Uncle Drew!

The Fun Day with Uncle Drew; started when he had an extra ticket for Stadium of Fire at BYU featuring Hannah Montana. Drew asked if he can take his niece to see Hannah Montana. He knew she liked HM since she keeps singing, "Best of both Worlds," over and over.

Ryan's day with Uncle Drew was to see the movie Kung Fu Panda. Hang out and have some Ice Cream. Ryan was excited to get two new books one the Hulk and the other Kung Fu Panda.