Nasty

I had a conversation this morning (mostly with myself) that went a little something like this: "Isabelle, your bathroom smells like an outhouse. Guess what you'll be doing after school today." That's when Caleb jumped in and told me the bathroom garbage has had "water" in it for the past two days when he emptied it. Which got me thinking, water?? Hmm.... So, I peeked into the bathroom garbage and the SMELL was overwhelming and there was yellow liquid lining the bottom of the can. I think the neighbors probably heard me yell at this point, "WHICH OF MY BOYS PEED IN THE BATHROOM GARBAGE CAN?!!!" Eli made quick eye contact, then immediately diverted his eyes from my angry stare....guilty! I asked him if he had in fact peed in my trash can and he said that YES, he had. And not only that one, but Caleb's too. Why, why, why, why??? Uugghhh!!! So Eli and I spent the morning with our arms in rubber gloves, washing garbage cans. DISGUSTING.

Flashback Friday

Grandma Reta and Grandpa Bill holding baby Brittany

I have been thinking about my grandparents quite a bit lately, so this Flashback Friday is for them. I lived with them quite a bit growing up, so I have MANY happy childhood memories that include my grandparents. Here are some in no particular order:

* Grandma Reta ALWAYS made grilled cheese sandwiches made with velveeta cheese. They were my favorite! And quite frankly, my love for all processed cheese stems from these delicious sandwiches.

* Jeopardy. To this day, whenever I hear the Jeopardy music, I think of my grandpa sitting in his chair watching that show. Also, he was a big fan of Wheel of Fortune (old school, where they would pick their prizes off a revolving circle with different furniture and luxury items. Does anybody besides me remember that?)

* Toll painting with Grandma Reta.

* Playing chinese checkers with my Grandma's marble collection. I always wanted the pretty brown, white, and orange swirled ones.

* Getting a small allowance, then walking over to the penny candy store and picking treats. I LOVED doing this and the memory STILL makes me happy. When I wander into Dick's Hardware and see their penny candy I get a fuzzy feeling inside :)

* Grandma walking me to JA Taylor Elementary with a trash bag over my head to protect me from the rain.

* My Grandpa built me THE MOST SPECTACULAR Barbie house ever. He made furniture for every room and my grandma sewed curtains for the windows and cushions for the couches. The outside part even had fake grass and an awesome picnic table. I wish so badly I still had it for my girls. I have no idea whatever became of it. It likely disappeared in one of our many moves. Sad.

* My Grandma always (in a teasing way) would blame me for losing her glasses and her coffee. It would always make me laugh.

* Sitting on my grandmas lap while she rocked me, telling her about the diseases and sicknesses I thought I had. I was crying and I remember her telling me about her gallbladder :)

* Grandma and Grandpa's dog, Devon. He was a scotty, and they loved that dog. They still (as far as I know) collect all things Scotty. An odd, but true fact: over the years, I have found that sometimes I get very giggly at very inopportune times. I will get the laughing bug when things should be serious or quiet. Or when someone gets hurt or feels bad and just one tiny part of the situation strikes me as funny. So, ever since I was a little girl living with Devon, I would say in my head over and over again, "Devon is my favorite dog. Devon is my favorite dog" to keep my cool when all I really wanted to was laugh at unfunny situations where others might think me a big jerk or totally crazy if I were to give in to it! I still do this today. So there you have it, your odd Brittany fact of the day.

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for taking us in so many times while I was growing up. I love that I have so many memories of you both. They really do make me look back and smile.
Britt

BYU brings families together!! At least the Call Family!

We have loved having family here this weekend!!! Here are some pics from tonight.


Little Cougarettes!
Lizzie, Gwen, Katalya, and Clara

Cousins...Gwen and Katalya

Grandma and Grandpa love these girls!

So do their daddies!

Too stinking cute...and she knows it!

After BYU spanked whatever team they were playing, we had our neighbor (who is quite the U of U fan) take a family picture of us all in our BYU getup.


This is all of us

Wow! Are there really THAT many grandkids?!

Flashback Friday

Christopher...


Ah, yes, my dear husband :)
Offensive to some, I'm sure. But this is SUCH a Chris picture, love him or hate him! I laugh every time I see it...I must love this silly boy.

Just lookin' cute on a Thursday morning...

Seriously, do kids get any cuter than this? I love bringing out the fall clothes. What a babe. Most of all, I just love watching my little Clara toddle around the house now that she's decided walking is great fun.




And let's not forget ELI who wanted to get in on the "yippee, mom's taking pictures" action. He's pretty stinking cute, too.

Nutcracker

Isabelle and I spent all afternoon going through the Nutcracker tryout process. She measured for the part of buffoon, which is such a cute part (see picture!). Ultimately she didn't make it, and it was a very sad few minutes when she walked out after the cut - lots of tears. She was one of the very last girls cut, which is awesome. She's only taken one year of ballet so the fact that she even wanted to try out makes me proud. 75 girls tried out and only 32 made it. I did learn that when my child is crying, I just want to sit down and cry with them. I teared up when I saw how upset she was...I'll definitely have to work on that one over the years. Disappointment is hard.

Isabelle really has quite an intense dance year with Dance Impressions so I can't help but thinking everything worked out for the best. We would have had to use every absence allowed for both Ballet West AND Dance Impressions, so our time would have been very maximized and over-scheduled. And we all know organization is NOT my strong suit! But that being said, it doesn't make the situation any less disappointing for Isabelle. We'll give it another shot next year!

Flashback Friday...on Saturday

Yes, late like always. That's me. So this will be Flashback Saturday.

Since school just started, I'll post this picture of me on my first day of Kindergarten in Vernal, Utah.

That's me! Age 5 or 6? Those bangs are something special!

Before/After yard pics

So this is what the yard looked like when we bought our house...

This isn't the greatest picture to show what we hated about the yard, but it all started with the awful island right in front with ugly, diseased trees and tons of vines. To the left of the front door was a gigantic, flat pine bush. To the right was a rock wall made from random stones all cemented together. The bushes inside were ugly and I couldn't wait to get rid of them!
Of course, we cut down the big, diseased quakie tree that was sending up shoots all over our grass. We in fact chopped down EVERY tree in our yard that day. It was a happy day, but our yard actually became much uglier at that point. Hence, the following photos.

This is the house a few days before the landscaper came...


Holy trashy yard, batman. Yikes! It was embarrassing to even be outside our house seeing as how nobody knew we were going to be putting a new yard in. We DID go on vacation the week before the landscapers came, so we cut the watering back and stopped mowing :) Nice, isn't it?!

And this is the new yard...

We are excited to go pick new plants to plant! Soon!

This is a closeup of our Japanese Maple and our stone wall. I'm very happy with the way it turned out!

This is the cute little patio to the left of our front door. They obviously need to come back to finish the stair (put pavers in the middle). We are going to buy some cute patio chairs and a table to put out here.

Once we get furniture out here, it will be a perfect place to sit and watch the kids ride bikes, or to relax and read once the kids have gone to bed. I love it!