Frog Catching

Check out this Youtube video of Kyles favorite night time activity.  Frog catching!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgZ3Gkwr2M0

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqyalpuQd6g

 Here's another one.

The Sand Dollar Secret

Wanna know how to find sand dollars in Florida?  Well, I'll tell you.   At least how to find sand dollars if you live in Naples.

 First:  The time of year has to be right.  It seems as if Aug. and Sept are the best months.  Last year we went sometime in late Sept. early Oct. and found huge ones.  This year we went last week and found medium sized ones.   We will go again this weekend and see if they have grown.   I think the later the bigger they are- but if you go to late they will all be gone.  We are going to try and find out what time of year that is exactly.

Second:  You have to go out in the water to find them.  Take a snorkel, mask, and fins and go off shore a ways.  And walla- the land of sand dollars.  Thousands, and thousands  and thousands of them.  It is sooo cool to snorkel around and see them all over the ocean floor.  You will be able to see thier little paths of where they have "walked".

Third: Find the dead ones.  At this time of year most of them are living- and you only want to collect the dead ones.  You can tell they are dead because they turn a much lighter color after they die.  Plus if you pick up a live one, you know it.  They have little wiggly hairs all over the bottom of it.  There are probably 50 living to every 1 dead one we found.  

Fourth: Dive down and pick them up.  If you aren't very comfortable diving in the ocean, make sure you have a husband or kids that are.  When you see a dead one, just point to it and send your kids down to retrieve it!  Also, take a boogie board out with you to put them on as you collect them.  They are SUPER fragile and break easily.  

Fifth:  Take them back to the beach with you and watch everyone crowd around in amazement asking where you got all the awesome sand dollars!

Now for me, the next step has been to spray them with a clear spray paint to strengthen them.  Then wrap them and put them in a box.  After we move I am going to get a huge shadow box and put them in it as cool display.  It is going to be awesome!

 

When we go this weekend I am going to take our camera and video record it.  I'll post it on youtube for people to watch.  
As a kid we would go to California to the beach and I would search and search and search for sand dollars.  I am so happy we have found the secret!  Tell anyone you want, cause there are plenty:)

Double Didget Ellie

Ellie is an official 10 year old!  She is turning into such a beautiful young lady!  In a house full of boys it is so fun to have a girl!  Ellie loves being a little mom.  She is so good with Gabe and Kyle.  She loves Littlest Pet Shop and reading.  She loves to wear skirts.  Which is great cause I love to make her skirts!

Photo shoot with Ellie

She is such an angel!

Darren had to be gone to Tampa for the week, and was going to miss her birthday, so he gave Ellie this really pretty dress that she had been wanting so bad.  (thanks to my mom for the great idea:) He gave it to her the day he left.  She loved it.

One her birthday we opened presents in the morning.  Then we went to Perkins for breakfast.  Which is a story by itself. Then we went to TJ Maxx and bought her a Littlest Pet Shop Teensies. Came home and I made her special dinner request of Shepard's Pie.  Nice and Easy!

Then that night we had a family dance! It was great fun!

Later in the week we had a friends birthday party.  I told her we needed to tone it down and not invite as many people.  We ended up with I think 15 girls.  Oh well.  Everyone just loves Ellie!

We had a Littest Pet Shop party for her. 

The cake that I she decorated.  It did not turn out like I planned, but it was cute!

Singing Happy Birthday

Opening presents

Here is the crew! Yes, we fit them all in the house!

We had a great time.  Ellie didn't want to go swimming, which I was fine with.  And I gave her a choice between gift bags and a pinata.  And to my relief she chose gift bags.  We had so much fun putting them together. 

24th of July in Florida

Last year on the the 24th of July I felt a little lonely for Utah.  It was like a little piece of me was missing not celebrating the day, even in a small way.  So I decided this year I would have a little 24th of July Florida celebration myself.  I invited  a bunch of people to get together for the evening and play pioneer games.  The weather was beautiful and the kids had a blast! We even had some fun pioneer food, bobbing for apples, and made our own butter.  The games were the best part though. I didn't bring my camera, so all these pictures are from Darren's phone.  They aren't great, but they will have to do.

We had wheelbarrow races

We also had 3 legged races and gunny sack races.

They were so much fun!

My friend Stephanie did a little flannel board lesson about the holiday.

I made Ellie and her friend Caroline matching bonnets.  I found a blog online with instructions and it was easy and fun!

We just visited and hung out and enjoyed the gorgeous weather!

I think Gabe may have had the best time of all!  He just ran around like crazy! 

 

Stormy Days

Most people love to go to the beach on nice, sunny, beautiful days.  Darren is not like most people.  He likes to go when it's stormy because that's when we get "waves".  Here in Naples we never really get big waves, but he takes what he can get.  So the last storm that came through we hit the beach.  It was rainy and windy and not fun for Gabe and me.  Everyone else had fun though.

Heading out to the waves!

I love seeing these along the beach in the summer. They are all turtle nests.  So cool.

So Gabe, what do you think about this weather?

Once again I tried and tried to get him to look at me so I could get a good picture.

Gabe! Look at Mamma!

Look at me!

Hellooooo?!!

Right here!

Smile for the picture.... Gabe!

This is getting ridiculous.

Finally!  Ok, now smile!

Oh forget it.  Even Ellie has quite looking at the camera.

One last try. 

All right, let see some boogie boarding!

Look at that handsome kid!

And that handsome guy!

Sitting in the waves

Fun at the beach!

One last shot of me and Darren and cute baby Gabe.

Gone Again

Well, Darren left today for Tampa for a 4 week rotation.  It's a bummer, but it won't be nearly as bad as last time.  This time he will only be 2 1/2 hours away, so at least he can come home on the weekends.  I think we may go up there once.  The kids are sad.  Ellie is just upset that he will be gone on her birthday.  We are going to have to have a very special party to make up for it.

Remember last time he was away I went to bed super late every night and ended up getting bronchitis and was soooo sick?  Yea, I promised Darren that this time I would go to bed on time every night.  I have to send him a text in the morning to tell him what time I went to bed.  I am happy about it- I need help!  LOL.  It is nice to have Darren help me go to bed on time. 

Florida Heat

Remember last week I mentioned how beautiful the weather has been this summer?  Well, scratch that.  It is now a least a billion degrees outside.  I have decided to spend all of August and Sept. inside my air conditioned house; sewing, blogging, watching movies, surfing the internet, eating reading books, painting, crafting and sleeping. 
That however is not what will happen. I will spend my time cleaning, doing laundry, picking up after Gabe, chasing Gabe, playing with Gabe, feeding Gabe, making dinner, making bread, vacuuming, bossing around kids, cleaning bathrooms, washing windows, making lunches, paying bills, etc.  But I don't mind.   All I care is that I don't have to get in a 250 degree car ever again.