When Life Hands You Lemons...

Back in May I was put in as the head of the Relief Society activities. It was the end of May and our activities are the first Tuesday of the month, so I didn't have to worry about June's activity. We didn't have one in July, so this month was my first month to show the RS Presidency and the ward what I can do. I might have set the bar slightly high for myself. ;) Oops!

I went through tons and tons of ideas online (because, seriously, like I can come up with this on my own) and found a creative spin on the old "Lemons into lemonade" thing. There weren't many pictures, so I did have to figure out most of my own decorations.

I made about 55 of these for people to take at church on Sundays.

I made two of these and put them on either side of the chapel before church for three straight weeks before the activity.

I also made mini-versions of the posters (minus the cereal and fake lemons) that went up in the rooms around the church.

We had more than enough food, but that's always better than not enough!

As part of the night, we had three lemony mini-classes. The first one was how to make your own bath bombs taught by a woman in the ward who makes them all the time with her kids, so I knew she would do the best job since they're kind of complicated at first (she added lemon and lavender oil to keep with the theme of the night, plus it smells SO good).

The second class was all about using lemons in your beauty routine. It was really informative and the woman teaching is on my committee. She had been terrified to teach it, but she did a great job and said that she learned a lot.

The third class was all about household cleaning with lemons. This one was also taught my someone on my committee and she did great as well. Everyone in the neighborhood is going to have fresh, lemony smelling homes this week! haha

We made sure there were handouts in each class so the women could have the recipes and everything to take home, and the beauty class had a sample of a lemon face scrub to take home.

Lemon bath bombs!

This is Kasey, from my committee, teaching the lemon beauty class.

This is Kristi, also on my committee, teaching the household lemon uses class.

After everyone had a turn in each class, we went into the gym for a speaker. Now, the speaker had called five minutes before the activity started to say that she wouldn't be there because her step-dad was having a heart attack and they were going to the hospital to be with him.

Okay.....no problem?

The Relief Society President, Kristi (not the same one as above), knew the speaker and said that she would take care of everything. On the way to the hospital, the speaker still swung by and dropped off the items she had been planning on bringing to help Kristi out.

Long story short, this woman's family is missing a gene that fights cancer, so every one of her kids has had cancer (they said they get it like others get the common cold), and two have died from it (as well as her husband). She lost a 2 year old daughter a couple of years ago, her daughter had breast cancer when she was 12 (and had to have a mastectomy, but is in remission now), and in 2011 her then 12 year old son was diagnosed with cancer. 

This past February, her son used his Wish from Make-A-Wish to go to Farmington Station and hand out lemons. There was a news clip shown from the event and the son (who turned 15 at the beginning of February) was too sick to go out and hand out the lemons himself, so he sat in a nearby car while TONS of people helped out. There were t-shirts and lemons and it looked like a great day. 

Four days later, he died.

To honor him and his life motto, everyone at his school brought a lemon to school the day of his funeral. This wonderful kid had an amazing attitude all throughout his fight and never gave up. In 2012 he had to have his entire leg amputated, but instead of sitting home feeling sorry for himself, his family had every type of prosthetic made for him that they could so he could still go hunting and skiing and live his life.

It was a great way to wrap up the evening and more than one person was in tears. 

We had the treats afterwards and mingled for a while. 

 All in all, I think it was a successful activity! On to next month!

Porter Reunion

The annual Porter Family Reunion at Surf-N-Swim was tonight. 

Last year, if you remember, was horrible. I mean, HORRIBLE. I dreaded this night for the previous two weeks at least. I asked Shane's mom to bring their kid life jackets for our kids, so I knew that would help some of my stress level.

The dinner part beforehand was changed, and we all met as individual families and did our own thing. Shane's parents decided to BBQ, which was fine with me. :)

Literally one bite into my hot dog, Kaden said, "I need to go potty."

*sigh*

All I could do was laugh because, OF COURSE this would happen. If you never saw last year's post about this, basically Lexi went to the bathroom every 2.5 minutes and, since Shane is blind, I always am the one to take the kids in public places. She had blow-out diarrhea all night and guess who got to clean her up? Yeah. Me. I even had to go home at one point to bath her (before she could get in the pool) and get a new suit. It was a very, very long night.

Anyway, I took Kaden and Lexi on a walk to the bathrooms. When we returned, I sat down, took another bite of my hot dog, and Ari said, "Mommy? I need to go potty."

Shane, remembering last year, jumped up and said he'd take her since he was all done eating, which made me all sorts of happy. 

And no one had explosive diarrhea this time. ;)

We headed over to Surf-N-Swim, despite the darkening clouds coming our way.

The waves came on. haha

Getting so brave.

After they all tested out the water a bit, we put their life jackets on and I could breathe a sigh of relief knowing they were that much safer. We played for about an hour (we're usually there for three) before the storm really hit us and they evacuated the pool. I got my shivering girls dressed and made sure their bellies were happy.

Granola bars and water! Yum!

Lexi and Ryley

Kaden's shirt was wet from Ryley's hair. hahaha I didn't feel bad for him since he was trying to give her bunny ears.. ;)

Even though it was cut short, it was a great night and it went SO much better than last year!

More random phone pics

I'm trying not to double-post here what I've already posted on Facebook, but I'm sure some things will be familiar. Sorry!

July:

July 5th we went to my cousin's house in Draper. Ever since I was little, I've known my Aunt Ellie makes the best homemade ice cream, but never knew why it tasted different than others. This is why:

Old fashioned hand crank. The best way to make ice cream.

All the kids get a turn.

Cardboard Natalie (my sis on a mission) hanging out at her usual spot: the kid's table.

They had SO many fireworks and we only got through half!

My cousin, Stephanie, and one of her two daughters, Sophie.

Cardboard Natalie enjoying the fireworks.

Instead of sparklers, they got sparkler swords for the kids. It kept the sparks a lot farther away from the kids, so it was a win-win.

That guy in the colorful shirt is Bakke, my cousin Stephanie's....significant other/baby daddy. His first name is Chris, but we have way too many Chris's in our family, so we call him by his last name. He's great with the kids and I vote we keep him. ;)

 

Cute Sophie with Steph photobombing.

 That was my favorite fourth of July event we went to. So much fun!!

When Jared gets sad/bored, I take pictures of him and show them to him. He LOVES it.

One day he was on a new feeding schedule and really sad/mad, so I turned the camera on my phone to face him. This is what he did:

 

Isn't that adorable?! So cute!

Another day he soaked through both of his onesies and, unfortunately for him, the only ones I could find in my stash that were his size were pink...

"Now I look like a girl!!"

The girls can't get enough of him when he's here.

This was for my own amusement. Jared, again, not amused. ;)

One day we were going out to get the mail and Ari tried to catch up with the big kids. She fell down our four front cement steps face first (I was nowhere near her, but still felt guilty). While Kaden and Lexi were grabbing me paper towels and ice packs, I grabbed some pictures.

:( I thought her nose was bleeding, but it was a scrape.

BIG goose egg.

A few days later it was healing no so prettily.

Once the scabs came off Ari was much happier!

I told you she's had a rough summer. ;)

Kaden drew this on the tablet....

Then drew it on paper as closely as he could.

He said it's Sonic the Hedgehog (I think?).

Countdown to school starting!

 Shane and I haven't been on a real date in a long time, so I found a babysitter one day and told Shane I had planned something for us. mwahahaha

Pedicures! Shane wasn't excited.

Hairy man-legs

Smooth lady-legs!

I love her expression. That would be my face, too, if I had to work on my feet.

So this lady working on Shane's feet was hilarious! She could tell that he was freaked out and questioning his manhood just by being there, so she teased him endlessly. The great part was that he couldn't understand her heavy accent, but I could, so I was joking with her while he only heard my side. She was teasing him about painting his toes, so I told her that he really wanted pink hearts on each toe (he was like, "NO!!" hahaha). She was great and before we left said, "We see you another five year, okay?" hahaha

 

I got sparkles, but they're hard to see very well here. They're cute. ;)

And that's the last time Shane will ever let me plan a date. ;) 

Cute kids growing up.

Our friends, Danny and Steph, came to town because his grandma died. We went to her funeral, but I didn't take any pictures. Danny stayed in town for about a week and we had them over for a Rook night (of course), but, again, I didn't take any pictures. Danny flew back home, but Steph is staying in town for another week and a half because I'm throwing her a baby shower this Saturday! She's not due until December 27th, but she won't be back out here before then.

 Steph stayed with us for a couple of nights this past week and, on Friday, Shane was off so she and I headed to Ikea. Neither of us had ever tried their famous meatballs, so we made a point to.

Meatballs!

 Honestly? They were good, but not anything as big as all the hype I've heard. And not something I would ever sit around and crave.

This, however, I will crave everyday for the rest of my life:

It was as good as it looks.

 Then we were all hopped up on sugar and made some...interesting choices. ;)

Ponchos!

Because who DOESN'T look gangsta in a poncho?

 We had large amounts of fun. ;) haha

Today was my newest nephew's blessing day!

Grandma Denise and Dewey Nelson Currie

My kids love him!

Well, that catches me up! There is a LOT going on this week, so expect another few posts this week. Yay!