Roaring Youth Jam

Roaring Youth Jam is a youth arts festival held every year on the Greenbelt in Idaho Falls. Local businesses or groups sponsor a tent that hosts a craft or activity. My sister, Kalene, and I loaded up our stollers and took the munchkins downtown for some wild and crafty fun. We hit the greenbelt about 10:15 so that we could beat the summer heat. Our kids had a blast. Here Tal checks out his lion from face painting. At noon we took a break to spread our blanket, eat our PB and J's, and watch the Printz Dance Project. It was an interactive class so Abi, Gabby, Tal, Sterling and Kirsten joined in and put on the moves.

Glitter and glue was the theme of the day. Here the kids decorate paper bag hats. After each craft we mommies got to delicately hold each sticky treasure until it dried enought to put it into each child's designated bag.
One of their favorite booths was the graffiti wall. They weren't old enough to use the spray paint ( 10 years) and we missed the fake ID booth that the smart mouth guy running the booth mentioned so they had to make do with regular paint. Abi has pink of course.
Tal is making a sea creature to fasten to a net mural.

Abi can really work it with a hula hoop. Even this huge hoop didn't slow her down much. We all enjoyed Roaring Youth Jam and will look forward to more glue and paint next year.

Leah's Blessing

Our growing family
Leah is so adorable in her blessing dress.

We blessed Leah on July 6th. It was so wonderful to have family and friends attend. Her full name is Leah Meek. Our girls don't have middle names although Talmage has two. I know that it's not fair but I didn't have a middle name and I turned out relatively OK. We had a luncheon at our home afterward, 32 people, Whew!!! Leah wore the same blessing dress as Abi and I was suprised at how much she reminds me of Abi in it.

Leah is a sweet baby and we love her so much. She gets a little fussy at night, but everyone's entitled to a little fussiness. She loves for me to carry her around in the front pack. I ended up borrowing a pack from my sister, Kalene. It is a Kelty Kids Kangaroo and is a blessing. I put Leah in and she goes to sleep within minutes. Then I can do dishes, clean up or fold laundry. Bending over is a chore so sweeping is a little challenge. She goes to bed about 11:30 so I'm hoping to get her bedtime moved up soon. But she only wakes up about 2 times a night and we all sleep in in the morning.

Soccer Stars

Abi and Talmage played AYSO soccer this spring. Abi played in the Y8 girls league with girls age 7-8. Her team was named the firecrackers. It was so fun to see her improve over the season. She was a little scrapper and would get right in there and challenge bigger girls for the ball. Her favorite positions were goalie and forward. She said she liked goalie because she could stand around but conversely she said she liked forward because she got to run all over and kick goals. She scored 3 goals this season. Go beans!!!

Talmage played in the Y5 league which was a co-ed league. He had a practice/game every Friday evening where they would work on skills with their coach and then play a short little game against another team. He also loved shooting goals. He would tell you he kicked a hundred goals but it was a few less. Tal's team was named the Hot Lava Balls, they came up with it themselves. Yeah Tal!!!

The weather for spring soccer was a little iffy, but it's Idaho. We sat out in rain, wind, and even a little snow. But this did not damper our enthusiasm for our kids. You should have heard Kris and I cheer. Ah, this is the life of a soccer mom.

Mommy of three

For my friend Alita,

Mommies of three, at least new ones, don't:
-sleep very much
- get to read their friends blogs much less write in their own
- have clean houses, my little niece Sage finds all kinds of treats under my table
- fit into their pants, they have to wear their husbands
- keep up on laundry, gardens, dishes, housekeeping, mail, or keep up with their children

Mommies of three do:
- put in movies for their kids so they can take naps
- feed their families diets of cereal, sandwiches, hot dogs and whatever you can find in the freezer section at Winco
- take 3 hours to get out the door in the morning and then only have 1 hour to run errands before the baby wakes up
- neglect their older children because they are nursing or sleeping all day
- neglect their husbands for the same reasons
- wear a ponytail or put their hair in a clip every day but Sunday
- find that they love number 3 every bit as much as they did number one
- find that maybe they cherish number 3 even more because it has been such a long wait

To all of the moms out there. You are amazing and I salute what you do every day.

Welcome Leah Meek

We are so excited to announce the arrival of Leah Meek. She is sooooo sweet. We couldn't ask for a better baby. Mom went into labor about 2:00 am and Leah was born just before ten. She eats and sleeps so well. Leah is a little snuggle bug and everyone loves to hold her. Abi and Talmage are thrilled that she is here. They are great helpers and love to hold Leah. Kris loves having a little one to hold on his chest as well. She is a little blessing straight from heaven.

Look what I did!!!

My husband's aunt Nancy told me about this cool website called www.scrapblog.com that is a free digital scrapbooking site. Actually it's a digital scrap blogging site but I just made my page and saved it as a jpeg. This is my experiment to see how it works. After seeing all of Alita's cute digital scrapbooking pages I've wanted to experiment but alas I don't have nifty Photoshop software. This site is amazing and sooooooo user friendly. It is click and drag to change backgrounds, colors, stickers, change photo size etc. Perfect for a non-computer geek like me. Unfortunately the format size is not alterable. Nancy says she prints off 4x6's at Sam's Club but that 8x10's don't work so well. I'll have to mess around and see what I can work with. Anyhow, I was quite proud of myself. If you have any other tips or leads on free digital scrapbooking stuff, I am really interested.

Abi's 7th Birthday

The Birthday Girl and her Butterfly cake

Friend party with Gabby, Zoe, (Abi), Kaydra and Tal

Her favorite present: A PINK Kidzoom Camera

Abi has been counting down to her birthday for months. It's hard to believe that my baby is seven. I must be getting old. She requested a "butterfly" birthday party. We had a fun time shopping for the invitations, plates, cups, decorations and party favors. She decided on a little peg board craft for each girl, brightly colored purses for gift bags, scented bubbles for a prize and a white unicorn pinata'. (It's not a Meek birthday without a pinata'.) She also chose butterfly cakes in lemon and cherry chip and rainbow sherbet and cookie dough ice cream. She's such a little planner.

Her friend party was a lot of fun. When the girls came they each got to choose a peg board craft to do, which mom then ironed. Kris commented that this was the best part because they were quiet. Then we did a cotton ball drop to win the purses and a treasure hunt around our yard for the bubbles. Everyone got a whack at the pinata' with cousin Gabby knocking it from the tree, then Kris dumped it out for everyone. Abi received some really nice presents from her friends and then we had cake and ice cream. Afterwards they went outside to blow bubbles, eat candy, jump on the trampoline and have a giggly, girly time. (This part was not so quiet :)

Sunday we had family over for more butterfly cake and ice cream. Mom made three cakes in all. Abi had been wishing and waiting for a pink Kidzoom camera which she received from Mom and Dad and Nana and Papa Fife. It's her favorite she says and has been having a blast taking pics and movies. She also received other very nice presents from her Nana Meek and aunts and uncles.