"I am really very quite good at this mom!"

Yesterday I was working on dinner when Lexi walks in the room and asks, "Mom, can I help you with anything?" That has got to be some of the best words a mom can hear right?

So I taught her how to peel carrots and she did awesome. I was chopping up some potatoes and we were just chatting. Then after a while she said, "This makes me happy." I asked her why she thought it made her happy. "Because it makes the whole family happy when I help and make good choices." Yes! Then she says, "I think Heavenly Father and Jesus are smiling right now. They are always watching me and they are happy when I make good choices too. Do you think they're smiling mom?"

These are some of the best moments of being a mom! It's so great to see her little testimony growing, especially when it involves making right choices.

The crazy thing is a few months ago she was a completely different child - very tough to be with and I started reading books and researching ways to deal with her. For a while it was one fight after another (mainly with me or her sister). But lately she has just been such a pleasure to be with. I can't decide if she was going through a phase or we did something from those books that did it. All I know is I'm going to enjoy every bit of this sweet 4 year old!

A day out fishing

No ships were here yesterday and John's parent's invited us to go out fishing. We pulled Lexi out of school for the day (it's a big deal these days if John has a day off) and spent the day on the ocean. It was perfect weather, the girls behaved, and everyone caught at least something (but nothing to brag about).

We saw eagles, seals, porpoises, humpbacks (very far away), jellyfish, and caught a cod, a halibut, salmon, a yellow-eyed snapper (I think) and a shark.

I'm trying to sell this experience to ya'll so you'll come up and visit us by the way! :) We had a great time. Enjoy the pictures!

My salmon (my father in law is holding it for me because I didn't want to touch it and get dirty)

Lexi's little salmon - we threw it back.

Another small salmon for Kaytlin to reel in...

Just her size

Lana caught the biggest salmon of the day. At times it was fighting too hard to reel, she just had to hold tight.

The one and only halibut of the day - yeah, small but that's okay. Again, I'm not going to touch it. :)

The dog shark. They stay near halibut and usually steal the bait, but we were glad to show one off to the girls before we threw it back.

Just a little trim

Playing in the sun

Saturday morning we had our huge Home Storage Fair at the church, which was my first big thing to be in charge of in my calling. It was such a relief to have it finished well after everyone's hard work. So it turned out to be a beautiful day (and in September - what?!) so we took the girls to play at Lexi's school. We brought the bike Lexi got for her birthday and let her ride around. She's pretty cautious and went so slowly! But that was a good thing because we haven't gotten her a helmet yet - oops. It was nice to have a day together to play.

John had just worked 13 days in a row and we were happy to have good weather the day he got off. The majority of our employees are back at school and so John is working open to close pretty much every day in September. We are so looking forward to some time off soon. :o)

The school just got a brand new playground that is pretty awesome. It was fun watching Lexi run around and show it off to us (I just happen to not take any pics of that).

My big girl

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Check out the view from her school.

"Swing high! Higher!"

We love sunny days! We thank Heavenly Father for any day we have blue skies and sunshine!

Homemade wendy's frosty

Sorry this is underlined (too lazy to figure out how to fix it)

Our ward just finished up our big Home Storage Fair, which turned out great thanks to everyone who helped. I wanted to share a recipe that surprised me. We had samples of things you can make with food storage stuff. Here's what we used for powdered milk, and once you got past the first bite it was actually really good.

Homemade Wendy’s Frosty

-www.hillbillyhousewife.com

1-1/2 to 2 cups ice water
1-1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 1-1/2 trays of ice cubes, as much as you can spare
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (don’t skip this, it’s an emulsifier)

Place all of the ingredients into the blender, including the oil. Use less water for thicker milk shakes and more water for shakes that are easy on your blender motor. The blender should be about 3/4’s full. Place the lid on. Process for a full 2 minutes. Pour into cups and serve. Makes 4 – 12 oz servings.