These Are a Few of my Favorite Things

I really should be organizing girls' camp food right now, especially since camp is in a few short days, but I have been wanting to do this little post for a while so I thought I would really quick. Then I promise I will be a good girl and get to work!
Anway, I really LOVE when people list books they have read recently that they enjoy, so I decided to as well, is case anyone out there is looking for a good read.
So, here ya go:

1.What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
This book is great for anyone who loves classic English literature, and since I am pretty obsessed with Jane Austen stuff, it was very much for me. It is not a story, but an informative book about all the customs of 19th century England--from fox hunting and whist to dinner parties and presenting at court. I LOVED it because it helped me understand so much of what I have read in books, and I also really like learning about customs and cultures--I also think Daniel Pool did a great job of using literature throughout his book to iluustrate the customs.

2. The Goose Girl, Princess Acadamy, and Austenland, all by Shannon Hale
Shannon Hale is my new favorite author! She is very witty, her heriones are always very fun and smart, and her plots are definite page turners. She also really does a beautiful job of descriptive language in The Goose Girl. I don't want to give anything away with these books--I would just say read them for a fun few days!

3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Okay, actually I just started this book and am valiantly trying to motivate myself to read it. I have read some other Dicken's books, and they are always hard for me to get started on, but once I get going I really enjoy them as well. So, we'll see how I do with this one--it just is one of those that HAS to be good right? And I am a bit embarassed that I haven't read it yet.

Well, hopefully someone benifitted from my lovely review. Like I said, I really like learning about new books so I decided to share as well. If nothing else, everyone should AT LEAST read The Goose Girl--so very fun!

Our Baby? Girl..... (Notice how I skillfully used a question mark in this title AND the next one)

She is still our BABY girl, but she sure would like us to think otherwise sometimes.....



Here she is with the cousins having fun times and making memories.

Gettin' down with the sistaz!

Sporting the pigtail 'do--oh so sweet!

And let me tell you about Ella and HER baby--she loves this doll! The other day she brought it out of her room saying, "Baby eat! Baby eat!" then she proceeded to put baby in her little booster and strap her in--and she was so proud of her accomplishment! She also loves to wrap her up in a blanket and pat her bum. Then she throws her on the ground and says, "Shhhhh--baby nigh nigh!"

We love our sweet girl--and she loves us too--here's the proof!

SLUMBER? party........

Well, we made it through a night of giggly girls and fun without any major injuries...notice I said MAJOR injuries. The party really was a great success I thought--we had enough girls to make it a lot of fun, but not so many girls that there were any cliques. Logan was shipped off to the grandparents' for the night so things could get really full of X chromosome stuff like painting nails, dressing up, watching princess movies, and eating tons of ice cream.

Now, for the "not a major injury" part. I really probably should not have let all the girls go out and jump on the tramp together--and Sunny was proof of my poor judgement. Jack ended up having to take her to urgent care, but luckily it was just a bad sprain.
Those sweet girls decided to make her some get well cards while she was gone....Luckily Angie decided to document the efforts. I especially thought it was rather humorous how the girls were all sitting around pigging out on ice cream, laughing and giggling and watching Princess Diaries, and then all of a sudden one of them would sigh and say, "Oh you guys...it just isn't any fun without Sunny here huh? I hope she's okay and gets back REALLY soon.....Hey, pass the popcorn!" Really, I'm not trying to downplay their sincerity, because I am sure they were sincere, it just struck a funny bone with me.:)

Well, Sunny did return soon, and since she seemed pretty content with all the mounds of attention she got, it was rather hard to give her TOO much pity, but we did make sure we knew how brave she was. And then the partying really resumed.

It really was a lot of fun, and since Jack and I were able to sleep ourselves, we didn't really mind how late those crazy girls stayed up. We also decided to let Logan have a sleepover the next night with three boys--I feel really bad though because I missed getting pics of that one. It was filled with Kung Fu Panda, legos, a homeade pinata, and lots of sugar. I think we might make this a summer tradition--I can definitely do it again--as long as it is only once a year!

Land of the Free

And who says that the future of America doesn't look bright? Looks great to me! Especially when we head down to Eagar--just seeing all these awesome families in red, white and blue shirts, hair bows, dog collars, chairs, pants, and umbrellas all getting together and cheering on our great land is enough to say, "Aw, stuff it Obama!" or maybe something even more patriotic like, "Pass the watermelon!" I don't know, but it's a great feeling nontheless.











This float had to be the best in the parade (Although for a small town parade it always has some pretty great floats). The head of the statue of Liberty would go down, and we all thought it had fallen off or broken. Then, all of a sudden, right on cue to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," the head would rise up like a ressurection from the dead and the shocked crowd would erupt into cheers. Ye-ah baby!

Here's our beautiful bunch.

And here's Corey and Kari's beautiful bunch--I always knew Kari was a woman after my own heart--yeah for matching shirts!

We love waiting for the parade to start....

Okay, so this post is actually backwards in time--these pictures are from the Friday before the 4th. We were just hanging out on the front lawn laughing at the babies when Corey decided to throw them all in the wheel barrel together--well, he didn't really THROW them--he's much more careful than that--it was more like a toss. J/K! They had a blast going up the hill--things weren't as fun when we finally took the wheelbarrow away, but alas, the plight of a babe!




Then the older kids came out and entertained us with a play they had thrown together in the basement--there was a lot of throwing going on that day--Please do not ask me what the play was about, but it WAS entertaining! Especially KJ's shirt.

How cute is this picture? No, really, how cute is it? I just can't decide.

Whew! You're doing well if you have read this far. Last event here. So, the MORNING of the Friday before the 4th, Jack and I decided to run the 5K that Eagar does. The big kids decided they would do the mile race, and we even convinced Jacob to join us on the ride to Eagar the night before. It was really fun and we all got medals! I even won first place among all the women! Of course, considering the fact that all the good runners were actually in the 10K and there were only 4 or 5 women in the race, it really isn't that much to brag about, but here I am bragging about it nontheless. Jack has more to brag about really, because he won 2nd place overall and 1st in his age group--and his time was almost ten minutes faster than mine! Jacob made us both a little jealous though because, despite the fact that he NEVER goes running, he got in two minutes behind Jack. The kids all had fun with their run as well--Sunny actually got second place! It was a good way to start the day and a fun challenge with a GINORMOUS hill and thin air. (It was different than last year Jennie, we went up a SUPER STEEP hill at the beginning--wish you were here to run with me.:))

We're hoping to get more Whitings to join us next year and start a tradition. Well, that sums up our celebrations this weekend--what a great land we live in!!!

Father's Day

We had a really nice day. This year Jack actually cancelled most of his meetings so he was home! We had a big, yummy breakfast and a nice time at church and then we ate another big yummy dinner. Kirsten and Jacob joined us as well.






The kids and I worked on a special dessert for Dad with Kari. It looked like a hamburger and french fries, but was really a brownie, cupcake, and sugar cookies.


Here's a tired Dad after all the festivities with a happy baby trying to revive his energy.

Kirsten enjoyed her burger!

I just had to get a shot of our creation, because I don't do stuff like this very often--It was so fun to make I might start though! Thanks Melissa for the idea on your blog. Yeah to Dads and all they do for their families! And yeah to our wonderful provider and Dad and husband and friend!