a little wet cement

So here is what we are planning for Monday if I can talk myself into it the drive. I love having LA close enough to go and do things but sometimes, well let's face it, most of the time the drive is long because of traffic. We are also trying to get to San Diego this Thursday to visit Scholastic's Knight Bus so I may be way tired of driving.

Back to LA...for any of you visiting this summer, or anytime for that matter, and looking for things to do while you're here check out these two sites...Audiences Unlimited and On Camera Audiences You can get free tickets to TV show tapings at both of these sites. You have to check back often because they update dates frequently but if you can get tickets going to the shows is a ton of fun. We have gotten tickets to Hannah Montana, Cory in the House, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent, Disney Channel Games and Are You Smarter Then A Fifth Grader. A few of these we got because we are on a waiting list so some of them we weren't able to go to because of date conflicts. We have been lucky with some of them to be able to pick the dates we wanted to go and had it all work out nicely.

Anyway, if you are looking for an LA type thing to do I recommend going to a taping. Think about it...not much is free anymore but this is and at some of the tapings they feed you - pizza, drinks and candy and entertain you with the show and a warm up comedian person - good deal!

Some pictures from one of our tapings...Disney Channel Games (last year)

Jackson "I said good day" Stewart

"Smokin' Oakin"

"Bop Bop Bop Bop to the top" Ryan - HSMusical 2 coming soon

the cutie himself...Troy/Zac - we are all excited to see Hairspray

"Corey Corey Corey in the House"

now showing

Friday night was movie night again at the Baker house. We showed The Incredibles and ended up with 32 people here - if I counted correctly. We didn't do hot dogs this time but we had popcorn, nachos and drinks free of charge. We decided to let people pay for the candy so we set up a concession stand case to showcase what we had. It was a great addition. I found a shadow box at Michael's and used velcro to secure the candy inside. I printed up little yellow tags with the price and taped them to the candy. It was an easy project and made life so much easier since kids couldn't come and just grab candy off the table. Emily worked the concession stand and kept all the candy hidden behind the table only giving it to people when they paid.Another addition to our movie night was tickets. I loved how they turned out that I plan on using them every time we show an outdoor movie. I got the template for the tickets here I found the link on the forums at Backyard Theater. If you are thinking about an outdoor theater you have to check the website out -lots of good ideas and great pictures of outdoor movie set ups. Back to the tickets...the template was easy to use and once we had the tickets printed up on matte photo paper they look pretty legit.

welcome home!

Davis returned home from his mission to Canada on Friday. Carise asked us to go to the airport to take pictures since Cassidy and Carly couldn't be there. Here are some of the shots...

waiting and waitinghe's here!Carise could hardly contain her emotions and a ton of my pictures after this one came out totally blurry because her crying was making me cry

brothers

so happy to have her brother home

love this shot of a mom so happy to have her boy home

busy with summer

We're still around just busy with summer. Today we are swimming in our blow up pool from Big Lots and running down the ice cream truck for sweet treats. We spent most of the morning cleaning bedrooms because that's what all kids want to do on summer vacation :) It had to be done.

We are still busy with Harry Potter preparations and I am starting to get my pre party stress feelings. Will I get it all done? Will the decorations be ok? Will the party be any fun?

I'm hearing yelling from the pool - I better go break it up before someone ends up crying.

On Saturday night we did a trial run of our outdoor movie set up. The plan is to invite neighbors and ward members over on Friday nights through the summer to enjoy movies. We had a few families over this last weekend to try it out.Since it was just a few families we provided dinner - hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, drinks, and movie candy. Not a healthy meal but a yummy one. Providing dinner for the open invitation nights isn't possible - I can imagine our grocery bill. I think we'll always provide popcorn, it's cheap and filling. We may do a concession stand with candy but I think we'll charge the price of the candy.
Everyone that came brought beach chairs and jackets and we settled in to enjoy Bridge to Terabithia. I think some of our guests who were not familiar with the story were a little taken back by the movie - note to self...pick light hearted happy ending movies when inviting people over. It was still a fun night. Our kids loved having movie night outdoors and it is a way easy way to entertain. Now we just need to come up with movies to watch through the rest of the summer. Anyone have good ideas for appropriate family movies? How about fun adult movies - appropriate fun movies.

the muggles don't even know it's there

Our trip last Saturday to Whimsic Alley was a lot of fun. I took Megan and her friend McKenzie and by the time we left we had spent a bunch of money and had a long list of good ideas for our Harry Potter shindig.

You could shop for all your Hogwarts fashion needs - house sweaters, robes, quidditch sweaters, ties, etc.My favorite part of the store was the wand store. I loved seeing all the ratty cardboard boxes lined up on the shelves.We saw one house elf - good ol' Dobby but I'm sure there were others just waiting for us to leave so they could come out and tidy shelves.

The store was a tiny store front that most people just walk on by and never notice the magic inside. It was a great store but I have to admit I was just a tad bit disappointed. I think with just a bit more effort the store could feel even more magical. I'm a Walt Disney girl and appreciate when every last detail is paid attention to. I wish I could have the chance to work on some of the decor of the store. Don't get me wrong though - a great store and a definite must see for the true Harry Potter fans.

14 years

June 26, 1993 in the Los Angeles Temple

Today Derek and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary with a big date to Golden Spoon, the grocery store and Borders. What we did didn't matter - I'm just happy that we have had 14 happy years together.

These pictures make me laugh - it seems like forever ago and we look way too young to be getting married. The first picture is a snapshot someone took as we came out of the temple and it is one of my favorites. The second picture was taken at "our spot" at the temple. On Sundays we would go on dates to the temple to go through the visitors center or walk around the grounds. We often ended up at this spot where we would sit and talk.

Although some of you married folks may disagree with me - I think I married the best guy in the whole world. He is the best hubby and daddy that I could ever hope for for myself and the kids. It has been the biggest blessing in my life to have known him for 19 years and to have been married to him for 14 - I realize I could have been married to him for 16 happy years but that's all in the past, right?!?! Here comes the sappy part...he is the love of my life!

edit...I have been trying to seperate the paragraphs in this post for the last 10 minutes and it is not working - it is making me crazy! I just had to vent.

more camp pictures...

a mothers love

It must be love because what else makes a woman get up at 6:30 am during the first full week of summer to attend 6 plus hours out in the hot sun at cub camp. Today was the first of my two required days. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but by no means am I endorsing this whole scout thing :) I think I am more of a girl's camp kinda gal.

Here are some pictures from camp today. Nathan had a blast. The camp really provides a bunch of fun activities for the boys and Nate is learning some cool things. Today was woodworking, pushing go kart thingy races (is that the correct scout terminology?), horse shoes, and another game that I can remember the name of - it uses balls (does that narrow it down enough?) and finally archery which seems to be everyones favorite.

we're grabbing the floo powder and going to...

I found out about this store a few weeks ago and have been anxious to take Megan so that we could check it out. I have kept it a surprise (it has been so hard not to tell her about it) but finally tomorrow we are heading out to Santa Monica to visit Whimsic Alley. I can only imagine Megs face when she walks into a store that looks like Diagon Alley - she'll freak! I'm hoping she'll find what she needs for her Luna Lovegood costume that she wants to wear for the book release party that we are having.

I'm definitely taking the camera and plan to post pictures of our shopping adventure.

travel to the past

It was Colonial Day for the 5th graders a few weeks ago and Emily was able to participate. The day started with the boy and girls dancing together - yes, you heard me right they managed to get 5th grade boys and girls to dance together.

They danced the Virginia Reel and Em did a great job. The rest of the day was spent doing activities and eating food that one would have experienced during the colonial period. The kids made hand dipped candles, quilts, butter, corn husk dolls, and more. It was a fun day for them - anything is better then sitting in class, even if you have to dance with girls to get out of class.

My favorite part...seeing all the boy's costumes. Most of them were sporting their baseball pants and even better was when the pants were still filthy dirty from the previous nights game.

a good camera does not mean good pictures

or the title for this blog could read...hey, parents - I have a kid in the program too.

We went to our fair share of concerts, shows, ceremonies, etc the last couple of weeks and they make Derek crazy. All the parents with cameras in hand not remembering to play nice. It makes him nuts! I want to get a good picture just like the next mom but I do my best to not intrude on someone else's picture taking territory. On the few occasions when I do get my big head in someones way it is never intentional and if they sigh, curse, hit me, or ask me to move nicely - I always do.

shari lewis has nothing on me

may she rest in peace. Does anyone even know who Shari Lewis is? Megan used to watch Shari and Lambchop when she was little. Looking back I don't know how either of us could stand to watch the show - Meg was too young and was probably just happy that there was movement in front of her face and I was a new mom just pleased as punch that I could have a half hour of peace while Meg watched the show. I'm not sure I could tolerate Shari and her puppet if I was forced to watch it now but that's not the point of this post.

Nathan had his final economy day last week and so we had to come up with yet another "what's the best product to sell" idea. The cinnamon rolls and bag o' fun went over pretty well and we wanted to keep up the streak. Nate decided he wanted to sell sock puppets. Great idea but he wanted us to make all the puppets, umm no! I told him I thought sock puppet kits might be better - the kids would think it was fun to make their own and it would be a great craft activity for the summer. He agreed so we went with it.

Each kit contained...

• 1 sock


• 2 buttons


• 2 google eyes


• 1 pompom


• yarn


• red felt


• small container of glue


• pair if scissors

We packaged them up in cellophane bags with a ribbon and called it good. I realized looking at all the packages that the kids might not be super thrilled with the contents unless they could see what they would actually get to make so we made a puppet using all the supplies so that Nate could display it. So here is Fred, Fred? Is it Fred? Is that what Nate named him? I can't remember now but here he is...

Oh, I forgot to mention - Nathan sold out! I see a little entrepreneur being shaped.

i should be mad

but I'm not. It is summer after all and it's just ink that will wash right out. I'm getting soft in my old age!

it's a bird, it's a plane, it's....

CAPTAIN SUMMER!

We decided to have dinner outside on the last day of school. After a gourmet meal of hot dogs (at least they were Hebrew National) Luke ran upstairs and then returned to the yard as super hero boy. His outfit was da' bomb - how outdated is that terminology?!?! He decided who among us was villains, super heroes, and side kicks and then he played happily for quite a while. Thanks for ushering in the new season Captain Summer!

update? no, life got away from me

So my good intentions of updating the blog have gone to the wayside. The plan was to update the blog over the last couple of days but you do the math...

• 4 kids
• last week of school
• 3-4 award ceremonies, appreciation brunches, pizza parties, swim parties, teachers gifts, choir concerts, final school projects per child

So I'm going to try to get through today (last day of school) and get my house clean because book club is at my house tonight and then maybe, just maybe, I'll get back to blogging about the family. Until then you can always enjoy more "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape, Dumbledore..."

this isn't what i meant when i said i was going to catch up on posts

I realize that I have yet to post anything about the family during this catch up phase of blogging but...I'm loving the videos. This video makes our family laugh and since the first time we have seen it we can't get the catchy little tune out of our head. Let that be a warning to you...if you do not wanting to singing this little ditty for the next few days step away from the computer now. My other disclaimer...no puppets were harmed in the making of this video.

Unbelievable!

I saw this and cried - really, I did. I thought to myself it has to be a hoax but I've searched the internet and it seems to be for real. Grab the tissues and watch this video.

i'm so behind

I hate when I visit blogs and they haven't been updated for awhile - I find it to be a big let down. I don't think there are people dying to hear updates about us but I still hate how behind I am with posting. I am going to try and take a bit of time today and tomorrow to get this blog up to speed on what is going with our little Baker bunch.

My mind doesn't work as well as it once did, although I'm not sure it ever worked very well so I am not going to worry about the order in which events took place. This is all about recording what has happened in our lives and not about the date things happened - unless I do happen to know the date. I'm beginning to ramble - on to the posts!

a day late

I realize Father's Day was yesterday but we never got on the computer. I wanted to wish a Happy Father's Day to the best daddy and husband ever...Derek. The kids and I are blessed to have him.

We love you Derek!

trying to blog

I have been trying for the last 20 minutes or so to get some posts on the blog but blogger is not letting me post pictures - frustrating! I need to get back to my morning routine so I'll have to try again later. Don't cry, I'll be back soon to share our tales of adventure.

if you're in provo...

take your kids to the Provo Library for storytime and say hi to my little sister Lauren. Lauren is one of the storytellers there. I'm not sure what days and times she reads but if you are there with your kids see if you can find her and say hi for me

lots to do

We are still busy with home improvements as we ready the house for Nathan's baptism - sorry for the lack of posts. We finally finished up the bathroom downstairs - we do need something to hang on the bare walls but other then that it is done. Now we have moved on to the fun tasks of cleaning baseboards, walls and doors. Does everyone with kids have gross doors or is that just us? The fingerprints are unbelievable!

We have had a lot going on here - end of the school year activities, fun family outings, etc. I will get back to posting after this weekend to update y'all (mission slip) on the latest happenings.

Thought I'd post this picture...I love it! It happens to be taken at one of my favorite places. Any ideas?

craziness

Our life seems a bit hectic. Nathan's baptism is in a week and we have been working hard to get the house ready for visitors. We have cleaned out our garage, gotten the yard spruced up, painted, installed crown moulding, organized, etc. but as I sit on the sofa typing this & I look around the house - it's somewhat of a mess - why is that? Why do big projects always make the house messy?

Derek has been amazing with all the house prep. He comes home every night after work and starts in on a project and then does even more on the weekends. He worked on the crown moulding into the wee hours last night. How thankful I am for him and how nice it is to be getting some of our projects done that we have wanted to do for awhile.

we've always loved public transportation

Don't miss this bus ride!

we're saving our pennies

I think I have just found our family vacation for 2009.

yes, i love the girls

Let me just say that I love all my children, the boys just seem to be around more when I need a subject to photograph.

Here is my latest homework assignment for photography. The assignment was lighting. I tried natural light and studio lighting but liked the natural light photos way better.

memorial day, a little late

We met with Derek's family, Monday morning, at the cemetery where Papa Baker is buried. It has become a tradition to meet together there every Memorial Day. Followed by waffles at Uncle Dave's house.

Janae & Sam, Lissa & Severin were here visiting from Utah - it was nice having them join us.

It is fun to have everyone together sharing stories about Papa. There is always laughter and some tears as we remember him and what he has meant to each of us.This scene caught my eye while we were at the cemetery. This angel statue stands at the top of a hill overlooking the children's section. For some reason the flowers that someone carefully placed in the angels hands stirred some emotions in me.