While Dad's Away... the Girls will play!

There was an unexpected (sorta) trip to Utah made this week by part of our family. Our nephew, Zach is leaving on his mission soon and went through the Temple for his Endowment Friday. We are so proud of him!! Zach is such a good example to our family. We wish him the best of luck in his new adventure as he serves the Lord for the next 2 years in Mexico.
We've tried really hard whenever possible to support our family members as they make these important Eternal decisions. The "sorta" part of the trip is because normally we would just fly one of us out but cost-wise this time, it was more economical for Brett to drive out. The 3 oldest kids decided to go as well. I'll tell you about their trip soon but with that said... this post is about Glory & Mom's Week Long Date!!! We had so much fun!

Some of the fun we've been up to has included:
*Overnighting Mom's ring to UT cuz the diamond fell out
*Finishing the 4th Volume of the Blog Book- it's being printed as we speak type!
*A Pretend Birthday Party with Dora cupcakes and a new Tutu
*Easy Shopping Trips (oh my! One kid is a piece of cake!)
*Swimming at the Larsen Pool with the Adalaide and Garret
*Dinner & Dinos with Jen Neuteboom
*Playing at Gooseberry Park with our friends (Some are back from vacations- yeah!!)
*Making Strawberry Freezer Jam & eating lots of strawberries. Glory Loves strawberries!!!
*Playdate with Brotherson girls while Mom went Fabric Shopping
and joining Brotherson's for Gnomeo & Juliet Movie night
*Playing with Baby Alisa while her Mommy sewed beanie hats
and Mom mending the HUGE pile of clothes that has been long neglected.
*Playing with Carson Tucker & Copper while Mom had a Girl Date Night
*Vietnamese Dinner @ the Lessers and watching Toy Story 3 with Jessica
*Swimming at the Larsen Pool with the Adalaide and Garret AGAIN
*Singing and recording songs like the Harry Potter Puppet Show Song- Too funny!
*Cleaning out Closets- Forget about a clean house... I LOVE, LOVE a clean closet!
*Surviving a 4am Tropical Storm
*Lost & lots of Painting- Glory's outdoor art and Mom's Unfinished Projects--
finishing up the downstairs bathroom wall and refinishing the curb-side desk!
*Late Night Movies- Wowzers! Can anyone one say 2am everynight? Ooops!
*Trip to McDees for Ice Cream (oh and dinner!)

Thanks little Glory girl for spending the week with me!

You are an awesome date!

IIIIIIIIIIIIII LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YYYYYYYYYYYYOU!

Fargo Favorites #42

1. Dragonflies

Lately, we have had a Dragonfly Infestation. Not sure where they have come from but they are tons of them and they are everywhere. They are a bit freaky flying all around you especially when there are like 10 of them. But if you're lucky enough to get closeand you hold really still-- they are really quite beautiful. I caught this one on film while I was taking pictures of my neighbors flowers (cuz I am a flower freak, don't ya know!). Isn't this BUG amazing?!
2. Full Moon

This week, we had the chance to experience the full moon. So crazy! I love how BIG it looks. And one advantage of having NO mountains is that you get to see it across the entire sky. Now that's looking on the bright side of things for ya! LOL

3. Red River Valley Fair
This week the RRV Fair came to town. We live fairly close to the Red River Valley fairgrounds. Close enough in fact, that if you close your eyes, you might think you are right there at the concerts. Can anyone say LOUD?? We didn't make it there this year but we did drive by slowly (due to vast amounts of people in the road ;) and snapped a picture. Looks like fun!!! Maybe next time.

4. Netflix as we know it!

It's truely an end of an era. So sad! We took so long to jump on the Netflix bandwagon and now life as we know it will shortly be coming to an end. We have taken full advantage of our movie watching opportunities with this awesome company. We may very well be the exact reason why the prices are skyrocketing. Oops! Come September however, we will be changing plans. We can't decide what to drop cuz I'm too sad to think about it yet. Oh well- someday I may find a Money Tree and life will be good. LOL

5. Scone Dough

Not sure if they would agree but I attribute this Fam Tradition to the Babcock Family. We LOVE making dough in our breadmaker and then having people over to make scones. Everyone gets to make there own shapes. We get lots of fun things fried up! Then we offer lots of serving choices. We usually have butter, cinnamon/sugar, powdered sugar, honey butter, nutella and home-made jam. So delicious! Anyone want to come over tonight? ;)

P.S. Because the reason that the Scone tradition is on this week's Gratitude List is due to the fact that Elder Eric Rigg is getting married, I feel a p.s. is necessary. After his mission here, Elder Rigg went to school where he met and fell in love with Ashley Williams. (Her parent are in our ward) They have been here all Summer visiting. Its been fun to have them here and see Elder Rigg, umm, I mean Eric off his mission. They left this week to head West befor they get married and so we had them over before they left. Good luck guys!!! We will miss you!

What are you Grateful For?

Green Thumb: Part 2

We've had lots and lots of water around here that has thwarted our garden's growth. Dang! But it's still growing... slowy but surely.

And as part of our harvest, (thanks to Justice & Dad for picking and cleaning and freezing them all for us) Glory and I made Strawberry Freezer Jam. Yummy! I love how pretty they look!

Fargo Favorites #41

1. Time Warps

I'm sure this happens everywhere but here in Fargo, we all seems to be in a time warp. No matter how long you've been gone- if someone comes to visit- it's like they never left. I LOVE it! Elder Krupa was one of our favorite Missionaries here in Fargo. He left Fargo for Rapid City, SD in January. We can hardly believe it's been 7 months. Well, he was in town for a meeting and asked if he could stop by to visit. Are you kidding??? Of course!!! We made a big fancy dinner for all the Missionaries and had a great time. It was like he had never left! Love that about Fargo!!

2. SummerTime

Oh what do you do in the Summertime?? In Fargo... Anything outdoors! Soak in the rays, Baby! Heaven knows we need them!

3. Our backyard

We don't have a big, fancy house or live in a ritzy neighborhood or drive nice, expensive cars but we have an awesome backyard. It's just the perfect size to fit in a few really fun things for the kids. We have a trampoline, a zipline, shade trees, a swing set, a sand box, a basketball standard, a hammock, a few Go-Karts and some fun water stuff. I love that we have stuff that makes people want to come visit! It helps especially if you want to be the Party people! ;)

4. Parks

Fargo has some great parks! I love that the kids and I can meet up with friends and play. So fun!

5. Popsicles

Who doesn't love popsicles in the Summer? We have had some really hot, humid days lately. Luckily, I bought tons of popsicles for our 4th of July Party! Then Brett thought maybe we wouldn't have enough so he bought another ton. Needless to say- eat away my little friends. We have got enough popsicles for the whole Summer!

What makes you happy???

Baby Crazy!

Since Allison was out of town this week, we got to have Alisa over for a few days. The kids spent most of the morning like this:

They were so cute with her. They loved playing with her and holding her and telling each other how to make her happy. Oh the joys of a baby in the house. ;)

Rescheduled Fireworks

Because of the storm we didn't get to finish all our fireworks so we let off a few more & did sparklers tonight. Our next door neighbor, Andrew came over for a bit.

The bugs were getting pretty bad so, I decided I'd get out the bug spray. I never usually spray around faces but Victoria gets bit on the face all the time so I thought I would do it this once. I told her to cover her eyes and I went to spray. Just happened that Justice lit off a firecracker at that exact moment. Victoria wanted to see it so she moved her hand an opened her eyes as I sprayed it. Oh my heavens!! OFF sprayed right into her eyes. We ran her in and washed her eyes out several times. Poor kid! She was not a happy camper. Luckily within an hour she was back to normal but it was scary for sure! Sorry little Linda!

ALSO about the BIG show...

It just happens that the Minnesota State Government is shutdown right now. Ironic since it's the 4th of July and we are supposed to be celebrating our great country. Anywho, the reason I mention this is because with the MN State Government shutdown- they decided NOT to do their firework show. {ND doesn't do one here in Fargo for some reason} But a couple sponsors stepped in and donated all the fireworks. Then God had a plan of His own with the storm last night. But because it was private sponsors, they rescheduled the Firework Show for tonight. There was no way the kids were gonna miss it!!

We packed up the kids, some blankets and a few treats. We got an awesome parking space and sat right under the fireworks. It was a perfect night! {Well except for almost blinding my kid. Oops!}

Lighting up the Night Sky

After all our party guests left and we cleaned up, we decided to do fireworks as a family. The kids always like to buy a few of their own and then my biggest kid (Hubby) has to buy his share as well. We had lots of choices! Everyone took turns lighting a few. I have a whole lot of pyros on hand here. LOL

Here's a few of our favorites from the night:

Then unexpectedly, God decided to put on a firework show of his own. The tornado sirens started going off about 9pm. We watched a storm roll in from the north until Justice was too nervous to be out. We went in and checked the news. MSUM had canceled their firework show and the news was tracking the storm. They advised everyone to take shelter. On their Storm Tracker Screens lightning was flashing everywhere and the Tornado Warning stretched across all of West Fargo. Pretty freaky!Outside, the streaks across the sky were crazy!  It started down pouring shortly after that. It lasted only about an hour from start to finish but it was quite a show up there! God sure knows how to light up the night sky!!!

We took shelter in our basement until the storm passed and they turned off the sirens. Nothing hit down in West Fargo but there was a roof ripped off in Mapleton (from a funnel cloud) which is only a 10 minute drive from our house. We were really blessed to be protected. Brett & I thought it was very cute because as we went down to take shelter, the kids all grabbed their scriptures to take with them. They said that they made them feel safe! ;) Too cute! We have some amazing kids- spiritual giants in their own right!

What an eventful 4th of July and

what an amazing Night Sky full of light!