Abby is One!!!

Abby's birthday was September 28. I can't believe my sweet little baby girl is one year old! She got to have two separate birthday parties, one with my family on Saturday because most of them were in town, and then another one on Sunday with Jason's family. It was so fun to watch her respond to all the attention. She wasn't quite sure what to do with the cupcake, but she liked squishing it between her fingers. A year ago, I was so excited to have a brand new baby girl, but I had no idea she would bring us this much happiness! Happy Birthday, little girl!!!

Why ask why?

Over the weekend we took a fun little vaycay to Wyoming. Okay, that is a lie - it was longer than a weekend, it wasn't fun, and it wasn't a vacation. We did, however, go to Wyoming. I think it is significant that the first part of the word "Wyoming" is "why". It must have something to do with the following questions: Why would anyone go there? Why would anyone live there? Why does it even exist? I can't tell you. All I can tell you is that I am glad to be home, and not there anymore. To be fair, I guess I should say that some parts of Wyoming are nice, like Jackson and, well, pretty much only Jackson. On the other end of the spectrum you have Rawlins, which is where we were camped for five days in a fine gravel parking lot, I mean KOA, whilst Jason hunted for deer and antelope. I have to tell you that I was against this trip from the beginning. For the past eight or nine months, Jason has said, "And then in the fall, we'll spend a week in Rawlins camping as a family!" To which I would reply, "Yeah, that will be great, let's just talk about it later," all the while planning to tell him the night before that I had no intention of going. That is my tactic for avoiding contention: put it off till the last minute, duke it out, end up going anyway, but at least he knows I'm not happy about it. I don't know why I'm still using this tactic, because in seven years it has never worked, but it's pretty much all I've got. But back to the story. From Lehi to Rawlins is approximately five hours. It took us almost eight. Let me emphasize that again, IT TOOK US ALMOST EIGHT. From a fussy baby, to an unsympathetic police man (who knew you could get $100 ticket in Wyoming for not getting in the left lane when passing a cop who has already pulled someone else over? And how did he catch up to us that fast? Oh yeah, we were pulling a trailer up a hill at about 30 miles per hour. Way to target the weakling, Officer...), to running out of gas four miles short of our destination, it was basically a whirlwind of hell. Sorry for the language, Mom, but it's true. I don't even think she reads my blog anyway, so what am I worried about. I may as well just let it all hang out. It wasn't all negative, though. The trailer never actually blew over, which was surprising. The kids had a great time. Dallin and Luke went out with Jason for a few hours each day and loved it. Abby and I got a lot of reading done. We all watched movies at night, and ate a lot of greasy truck-stop food. On Monday, we discovered how to hook up the Internet, so things were much better after that. I know I need to have a better attitude, but sometimes it is just more fun to be right... One cool thing though, was that we saw wild horses. This is only the second time in my life that I have seen wild horses. We were out driving around as a family, looking for antelope, and we saw a whole herd running across the desert. They ran until they were on the skyline, which was really cool to see.

We just fit right in, there in "Rawlings".

Glitter Toe Party!!!

That's right, I'm having a glitter toe party, or rather "Open House", on Thursday, Sept. 11 and you are invited! My good friend Sandra and her daughter Jessica will be at my house from 6:30-8:30 to make your toes beautiful. If you haven't heard of glitter toes, they are basically gel nails with glitter sprinkled in. They sparkle, they shine. They are the lastest and greatest around here, and I must say I love them. I first got them on July 13, and I barely took them off last week, only because they were growing out after almost two months. Now I'm ready for a new set, just in time for the par-tay. They last forever and look great. Salons charge around $30, but Sandra's price is only $18 and she does the exact same thing, same quality, probably cuter colors (right Sandra?). Plus, you get the benefit of hanging out, spending some quality girl time, talking about Breaking Dawn because I haven't discussed it with anyone yet, and you can even bring your kids. Oh yeah, and I will have a few *treats and eats* for your enjoyment. What the heck, just come over, you don't even need to get your toes done!! Just show up and be yourself and that is all I can ask for. Any questions, or if you need directions, just email me at ampyates@yahoo.com. If you are wondering if YOU are really invited, the answer is YES. Just look in the mirror and say, "Yes, I am invited, and I am going." Kay, see you there. Love!

The ONLY reason I welcome the end of summer....

Peach Dessert!!! This is a family favorite that I wait all year for. I'm pretty sure fresh peaches were invented for this dish, to help me say goodbye to my favorite season, summer, and hello to my second favorite season, fall. Spring is my third favorite, and winter is dead last, if you must know. So anyway, feeling a little depressed earlier this week at the passing of summer, I bought me a bag of peaches and whipped up a batch of Peach Dessert (not a very creative name, I know, but I'm sticking with tradition here). The good news is I had it all to myself because I didn't really tell my family about it. The bad news is, well, I ate it all by myself. Oh well, a can of sweetened condensed milk can't have THAT many calories, can it? And it was spread over a period of three days, so that basically cuts it down by two-thirds per day. Oh, who cares, I'm just going to count it as therapy. I really needed it.
Here is the recipe, for your post-summer, pre-fall pleasure:

Peach Dessert

40+ crushed Vanilla Wafers, reserving some for top

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine

1 can Eagle Brand milk

1/4 cup lemon juice

8 oz. Cool Whip

5 cups diced fresh peaches

Combine first three ingredients in bottom of 9x13 pan. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over wafer mixture. Sprinkle with remaining crushed wafers. Refrigerate. See how easy that was, and how much better you feel?

First day of kindergarten

Dallin started kindergarten this week! I can't believe my little Dallin is old enough to go to school. Luke will be starting preschool next week, so this will be a major change to our lifestyle! I am looking forward to having a little more structure in our day, and a little more time to get things done. However, I am really sad that my kids are growing up. It is a weird feeling and I'm not sure I like it!

Youth Conference at Camp Williams

Last week we had our Stake Youth Conference at Camp Williams. Being the pessimist that I sometimes (usually) am, I was really not looking forward to it. I thought, "How in the world are we going to control a bunch of teenagers on an army base, who are probably not too excited about sleeping in barracks, getting up at 6 am, and doing service projects/listening to devotionals all day long?" Well, I was wrong. It was so fun! I was actually sad when we had to go home on Saturday. We have the greatest kids in our ward and stake, and they have a good time no matter what they are doing. They get along, they participate, they include everyone, and there wasn't a single discipline problem the entire 3 days (that I'm aware of). I was so impressed. And Camp Williams was very cool. I've never been on an army base and it was so crazy to see all the military peeps there, marching around and singing their little chants. They were so cute. Ha ha.

This is the rappelling tower. We all got to go down twice. I was so proud of many of the kids who were terrified of heights, but did it anyway, like my little buddy in red.

The kids got to do the Leadership Reaction Courses, where they are issued a challenge and have to figure out how to make it happen. Most of them involved getting heavy (50-60 lb.) boxes of ammunition across water with almost no supplies to help. I was secretly glad the leaders weren't supposed to participate, but the kids loved it and did a great job.


This little lizard was our mascot for about 10 minutes until somebody pulled his tail off. We all got MASH t-shirts, which I will wear proudly. To bed at least.

Thanks a lot, Stephenie Meyer

You had to go and release your book on what is possibly the busiest week of my entire summer! Do you realize I am getting NOTHING done??? So unfair. I'm trying to juggle a page here and there with all the things on my to-do list, I'm only on page 265, and I feel like I'm walking around in a daze and I won't be able to focus on anything until page 754!!! Why can't I get the flu or something so I'll have a reason to just sit in bed and READ?!!!