I was extra tired one morning and decided to sleep in a little, when I came out to the living room, I found that Maddy had dressed Molly. I think she did a pretty good job!

This past Saturday, our ward had a talent show. They announced it in relief society a while back and sent around sign up sheets (good old sign up sheets!) I was noticing that no one was signing up and thinking to myself, do I dare? Then I noticed my friend Monica started signing up. I was just starting to think, Oh, that's cool, wonder what she'll do? Then I noticed-hey-wait-she's writing my name too!? For lipsynching? Hmmm..... If you know me, I'm a little --well--shy about those things, but I decided, oh well, it could be fun, and someone needs to do something for this poor little talent show. So we put together a little skit/lipsynch to this cute cute parody of "Hot and Cold" by Katie Perry. (see the youtube video here)
We dressed up in our aprons and rubber gloves and head-kerchiefs (is that a word?) and set up the stage like a living room. We opened by saying how happy we were that we had finally gotten things cleaned up, then our kids came in behind us and did what they do best (see we even showcased their talents!) They messed up the "living room". And we "sang" to them, to the crowd, did a few little dancey-diddies (more made up words) and inspired some laughter and sympathy. It was great! And I wasn't scared, I had a blast and even hammed it up a little! (Thanks for a great time Monica!)

Our little talent show ended up being a great night. We probably had over 100 people show up, with 13 acts. Our Bishop even put on his Dress Uniform (military--can't remember which branch) and sang "God Bless the USA" it was so so so touching, I cried! A bunch of men in our ward also did the infamous Synchronized swimming you've probably seen on you tube (if not, check this out--it's not them, but what they imitated) It was hilarious, especially because it was men I'm used to seeing at church on Sunday, in their Sunday best, with Sunday best behavior. What a riot! I'm told a video may be put together in the near future. If I get a copy, I might share....maybe.....

Anyway~ that's life right now in a nutshell. Hopefully soon I can blog with pictures again. I have so many I want to share!

I didn't take pictures of the actual Pocatello Fireworks, because I wanted to watch them and enjoy them. But this is a cute picture of some of the kids bundled up with grandma just before the show started.

But before that, look at the water!!! Would you believe this was dumped on us (this picture is 4 miles from our house) and a few hours later it was gone?!? (Unfortunately probably into a lot of peoples' basements)
Right in the middle of our barbecue, these strange clouds started slowly swirling in. And I mean swirling. If they had been moving quickly, I swear it would have been one heckuva tornado! They had this awesome turquoise cast to them and you could just feel the electricity in the air. It started raining and taking no chances we packed up and ran for cover in the house. Good thing too, it was a doozy, rain..hail......wind.....lightning...thunder.....CRAZY!! It was really cool though, watching the clouds swirl up the way they did, it looked like "The Day After Tomorrow".

Earlier that day, we went up to my step brother's house for a big birthday bash for Grandma Esther (My step-dad's mom) My mom passed out these crazy, blowy, noise maker thingies to all the kids. I looked over and Donnie was rather fascinated with one, the sparkly things on the end had his FULL attention! I had to snap a picture, because it reminded me of my sister Brooke (Who's autistic) and the way she plays with those kind of things. Then, when I looked at the picture, I noticed Katie in the background, just as fascinated as Donnie!! Too funny! It was a fun day!
This is a picture looking down from the deck. My mom is passing out the noisemakers, and I kid you not, she was giggling with glee, knowing it would annoy all the parents! Well, not me, so much, but ya know.......and OK, OK, I think she was also giggling because she knew how much fun the kids would have. :)
It's hard to get a good picture of Grandma Esther, she's a stinker that way, but I had to include a picture of her, she's such a sweet lady! She has just taken us in like we were part of the family from the beginning. Love her! Sitting by her is my step sister Genevieve and her daughter Alex. And behind Genevieve is Katie. Love this family!

On the 3rd, we went to the fireworks in Fort Hall. They have them on the 3rd to celebrate the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868 . I was impressed! It was a pretty good show, and this year they had music with it from 96.1 The Bull. There also was an Elvis impersonator. We were parked a little down the road from the festivities (free hot dogs and pop and "Elvis") but Mikey and Mailei HAD to go potty, so we walked over and I took that opportunity to peek at the Elvis guy. He was dressed like "soldier Elvis", and singing songs from that time in Elvis' life, which are my favorites! So, I watched for as long as Mikey and Mailei would let me, which was not quite 2 songs! Oh, well, we also got free pop! OOh, and the guy was pretty good! Looked sorta like Elvis, but sounded EXACTLY like him! It was so cool!
A couple shots of the kids waiting for the fireworks to start. Goofy kids!It was a good 4th, and I am so thankful to live in this AWESOME country! We really are blessed!

(if you notice Mikey talking a little funny, he was trying to keep a very loose tooth from falling out---after this video, I had to pin him down to get that thing out. When all was said and done, all I had to do was lightly push on the back of it and it popped right out. No wonder he could barely talk) :)

P.S. Val, if you're reading this...we've been playing phone tag. I love you so very much and miss you every day!!!

Another pic from our ward camp out (it was lots of fun). Maddy looks like such a big girl pushing Molly around in the stroller. They hung out quite a bit at this camp out it was so cute!