What's on our Happy List Today?

Swimming

The girls have been soaking up the sun several times this week at the pool and doing the slip 'n slide in the yard. The bathing beauties thought they would send happy birthday wishes to their favorite uncle today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE R. We love you!!!! Thanks for being the fun loving guy that you are....

BTW, don't worry about sending that bikini you've been talking about for years. As you can see we've got it taken care of!!!

What's on my Happy List Today?

Reminiscing with my sisters about our IL DIVO trip....Today marked the one year anniversary of our jaunt to Vegas to see the boys in concert... I seriously could shed a tear over the memory. I'll never forget it..We had the best freak'in time!!! I only wish I had a picture to show of the IL DIVO writing on our cars ( I only have video clips)...that was one of my favorite memories of the trip and always brings a smile to my face.

Guess what city IL DIVO is performing in tomorrow night on their second World Tour? Paris of all places. Dang, wish I could be there!

A Kiss in Paris...Getting this postcard in the mail FROM Paris from my girlfriend...How cool is that?

The Hatch Family Reunion- I love reunions and look forward to them each summer. My mom is one of 11 children. She and her now seven living siblings, have been faithful in getting us together every year. It was so fun to chat with cousins that I don't get to see enough. Here I am pictured with two of my fav's.

Beautiful flowers....Emma and Hannah at the reunion pictured by my favorite flowers....Hollyhocks.

Being in charge of the decor....I went with a LUAU 'ish theme.

Our traditional foot races... especially three legged. So dang fun!

The drinks we served from my Tiki Bar. I tried a new drink recipe that was yummy! The secret ingredient is vanilla syrup. How to make:

1 can of lemon aid or lime aid

1/2 cup vanilla syrup (can get at the World Market, some grocery stores carry it too.)

2 liters of sprite

The fate of the tiki bar is unknown at this point as late tonight after the reunion we secretly carried the tiki bar with two tiki torches and two cans of lemon aid to our favorite neighbor's front lawn. We shall see where it ends up tomorrow morning....

Water to cool us from the 100 degree weather...Brie, all the cousins and even myself enjoyed wading and playing in the shallow creek.

Pirate Party....Hannah going to a swimming "pirate themed" birthday party today before the reunion.

What's on my Happy List Today?

Long time no blog.....I'm finding it harder and harder to find the time to get this blog thing done on a regular basis. These summer days are fly'in by and I'm down to crunch time preparing last minute details for Stake Rough Out Camp that I'm in charge of in less than three weeks. I've been planning, worrying and fretting over this event for 7 months now so I'm a little freaked out that it is just around the corner. Can I tell you how happy and relieved I'll be once this is over with? I'm feel'in the pressure but also looking forward to the great experience it's going to be!

Some of us Stake leaders went up to the Stake Property last Saturday to check things out. Men were busily trying to get the new pavilion, amphitheatre and flush toilets (thank you Lord!) finished.

Anyhow, besides the new potties that we'll have for camp, these are some of the other things that have made my Happy List in the last week and a half.

*Receiving "GOOD MAIL" from my shoeobsessed friend! It was all Paris inspired from her recent trip to the city I love. I about died! First, everything was color coordinated with the wrapping which I'm such a sucker for. Like me, she appreciates the packaging just as much as the gift itself. She made this book mark for me from a candy bar wrapper that she had fallen in love with from a tiny little cafe in Paris. It's tassel is a ribbon with a perfume testing feather from the Lalique shop inside the Louvre! I mean how cool is that?!?!?!? She even sewed to the tassel one of the red buttons (called "french kisses") that I sent her. The decorative Parisian labels she sent me in the tin box from Cavallini & Co. are to die for. I flipped! They are all uniquely beautiful! I HAVE to find some way to frame them so they can be put on display. She even sent me a Paris note book which I will carry in my purse and use for my "to do" lists. I love it all!....Thank you so much ANDY!

*Honoring Father's Day. This is one of my most favorite daddy daughter pic's!

*Kyleigh's excitement over getting her ears pierced.....AGAIN! This is actually the third time this has taken place over the course of 6 years. For some reason the piercing didn't take too kindly to her ears the first two times. SO we tried it again and hopefully we'll have better luck this time!

*Reading Nancy Drew with the girls. I loved Nancy Drew books growing up. It is so fun to see my girls enthralled with them too. We've been reading some together in honor of the Nancy Drew movie that is now playing in theatres. I made up a mystery for the girls to solve and the reward for them in cracking the case was tickets to go see the movie together. We loved the show!

*Brie coming out of her dental surgery okay. Having a child under anesthesia definitely does not make my happy list. Very weird experience.

*A "Cheetahlicious Birthday"- My niece had a slumber party this past week to celebrate her birthday. The girls were so excited! When my sister-in-law said my niece had mentioned she would like more music I knew just what to get her for her gift. The girls and my nieces love Disney's That's So Raven and the Cheetah Girls. So I knew I had to plan her gift around the Cheetah Girl CD. They love to pretend that they are the Cheetah girls themselves and actually made up a dance to one of their songs and performed it at my niece's Ward Primary Talent Show last Fall. They were thrilled to be able to attend the Raven concert at the State Fair last August.

*Capturing this! We were looking for Brie one night and guess where we found her? Snuggled up with Emma fast asleep!

*The short but relaxing trip up to Scofield again to watch the deck get built.

*Going out with neighbor friends to the Bombay House for authentic Indian food. Yum!

*Trying to get our 72 hour emergency bags better organized. Don't know where we're go'in, hopefully nowhere, but I'm feeling relief that we are better prepared.

*Figuring out how to get music on my blog!

What's on my Happy List Today?

Paris Good Mail- My girlfriend left for Paris this morning. I couldn't resist putting a little something together for her.

A keepsake box to hold all her memories upon returning from her trip...

A note pad to journal her adventures and start her own "Happy List" of Paris....

A picture frame to hold her favorite Paris moment...

An address book to remind her to send me a postcard....

The nutella spread and pirouettes to give her a hint of an idea of the warm chocolate filled crepes made on the Paris street corners AND the French pastry shops that are waiting for her....

The garlic oil to represent the delicious French restaurants, all the wine she doesn't get to taste (bummer!) and the outdoor cafes.

Finally, I hope she can get in a little kissing on top of the Eiffel Tower.

My Sunday Fashion Statement- Okay, shoe obsessed one...I went a little retro this week in my black and white stripes. I even had a wide black patent leather belt to match my shoes and of course the four girls were in black and white as well.

World Market Grand Opening-The World Market just opened up this week by our local Target. Yippee! I fell in love with this store when we lived in Arizona. I love looking at their funky collection of imported worldwide products like their pillows, plates, decor, food and jewelry. They built one up in Park City awhile back but to have one this close that I can frequent is exciting to me. I came so close to buying another purse but I'm happy to say I controlled myself. We will see how I hold out on the next visit!

Graduation Gift-I finally got around to getting my nieces High School graduation gift done.

She is going off to college in the fall so I made her a Utah State University survival kit-

a notebook and pen...for all the class notes she will be taking.

binoculars....to check out all the cute college guys.
mac n' cheese & top ramen...for when there is nothing else to eat. (I think I lived on the latter and fruit loops down at the "Y")

Chocolate bar and Red Bull....energy boosts for late night studying.

And a wad of cash for emergency gas or food.

What's on my Happy List Today?

Hannah Isabelle's 7th Birthday-

Hannah awoke to an invitation cordially inviting her to a "fancy" tea

party with a request to join us in the dining room...

where we had "fancy" chocolate chip pancakes that Emma had made, glazed honey buns, a meddlin' of fruit melons, Sunny D, chocolate milk and chocolate chex as party favors. Can you tell Hannah loves chocolate even at breakfast?!?!?

She was excited about her birthday gifts...her new "Fancy Nancy" children's book to go along with a night reading light that she had made a special request for. This darling book is about a little girl who believes that more is ALWAYS better when it comes to being "fancy". From the top of her tiara down to her sparkly studded shoes, Nancy is determined to teach her family a thing or two about being "fancy". One of my favorite lines is when she says she can't wait to learn French because EVERYTHING in French sounds "fancy". SO TRUE! Hannah got some new "fancy" sparkly flip flops that she can wear now that school is over with (flip flops are not allowed to be worn during the school year, much to her dismay) and "fancy" doll house accessories for her dollhouse...my favorite gift was our special guest...the Madame Alexander "Mad Hatter" doll that came to join our tea party.

This cute little guy will join our ever growing 130 plus M.A. doll collection that is a family tradition which deserves its own blog post at another time.

Afterwards we went to get "fancy" feet...

First pedicure for the girls...they loved it and so did I...it had been over a year since my last one so I was way overdue for one..

To top off the day Hannah got to choose which "fancy" restaurant (anywhere but fast food) she wanted to go to for her birthday dinner with Mom and Dad.....She chose Red Lobster because she loves shrimp! We love you Nana Bella!!!

And finally to end this "fanciful" day.... any guesses on what Brie Olivia did with my BRAND NEW lipstick this evening?

This artistic expression resulted in her third bath of the day which we couldn't help but laugh..she was just going along with the theme of the day..trying to get "fancy"!

What's on my Happy List Today? (and the last few days)

First of all, What's NOT on my Happy List!

1. Work Deadlines...That keep me from doing fun stuff like blogging.

2. Pushing wrong computer buttons...that make almost completed blogs, ready to post, vanish into cyberspace...and I thought Blogger saved your drafts automatically!!!!

3. Unexpected engagements.....My pretend boyfriend, IL DIVO's Sebastien Izambard, got engaged yesterday. My dear husband expressed his condolences and asked if I was going to be okay. It was pretty darn funny so it just might make my happy list after all.




What made my Happy List.....


1. Swimming with the girls



Brie taking off with part of Kyleigh's swimsuit...

2. Sunday Fashion Blog...A little bit of Fashion in my favorite pink shoes.








3. Coin Collecting- I was able to purchase these four never-circulated conditioned Presidential Coins yesterday for a steal! They will start a brand new coin collection for our family which will be ongoing for the next ten years, as the 40th President will not be in circulation until 2017. We are unexpectedly finding ourselves being quite the coin collectors as we have enjoyed collecting the state quarters for several years now, plus my dad has given us one of his treasured coin collections.





4. A little shoe inspired good mail...the cutest thank-you came from my shoe obsessed friend. I love it! From one yellow personality to another...thanks!



5. A morning bike ride with Kyleigh



6. Food find- the contents of this jar poured over a bar of cream cheese served with crackers makes the darn best sweet red pepper dip. It make a fabulous appetizer!


7. Chocolate-Secretly sharing a Belgian Chocolate bar with my luv WITHOUT the kids finding out!

8. Rumbi's- taking my girlfriend to dinner for her birthday. Their pork sandwiches and salsa are so darn yummy!

Can you tell I REALLY love food???

9. A new blogging friend- Finally!!!! I now have more than one friend that has joined the blogging world. I'm so excited!! She happens to be leaving for Paris this weekend taking the cutest Paris bag with her. I don't want that bag, I need that bag!!! I can't wait to read about her adventures at http://www.suburbanhousewifeadventures.blogspot.com/ in my favorite city. I'm feel'in some Paris "good mail" right about now!