Tagged

I have been tagged by my sister-in-law, Anne. This is the first time I have been tagged, so here goes...

(PS Sorry it has taken me so long, I am very behind with tons of pictures I still need to post too!)

What’s in a name?

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is Lea (pronounced like Leah). I have always liked it and imagined the pronunciation different when I was younger to tweak it to be more like Princess Leia. But, no matter what I have always like it.

L-I LOVE to spend time with Garth.

E-I am thankful for EVERYTHING the Lord has blessed me with.

A-I am AWARE of all my weaknesses and wish that they weren't so APPARENT. So, the part about me that is relevant is that what probably very few are aware of is that I am working on it, I am trying to be better, and I have an awareness of those weaknesses and secretly (well-now, not so secretly) ;-) wish that my personal weaknesses weren't so incredibly obvious!
(*I realized that this sounded very negative, I meant it in only the normal, ugh, negative-what I mean is I am painfully aware of all those things that I wish I was doing better. The things I wake up every morning and see as flaws and know are completely obvious to the whole world around me. Garth thinks I am TOO aware. That no one notices. Umm...wrong.)

I tag my sisters Jenna & Jocelyn, and my Mom! :-)

(I love having a short middle name-it makes everything quick!)

**I hope I didn't do this so badly that I am never tagged again...Is being too honest about things that are relevant to me a bad thing? :-)**

Starlee's Birthday Dinner, etc.

Starlee's 4th Birthday was fun! We went to the beach, came home, Violet came to spend the night, and then I had a meeting (yuck!) which after I got there found out was canceled, picked up a cake on my way home, and spend the rest of the evening with my cute family and sweet niece!

A Day at the Beach for Starlee's Birthday

Sorry this post is so late...I have been busy, our router died, etc.

Starlee had specific things in mind for her birthday! I had made a play date with a friend from HS for the kids, but last minute Starlee wanted to go to Beach Day. So, Laura being amazingly wonderful and flexible said they would meet us at the beach. After us taking FOREVER to get there because of soccer camp, etc. we made the LONG trek to the beach (because it was Mission and is crazy busy). Needless to say-the weather was BEAUTIFUL and Starlee had a great time, I got to see Laura's CUTE kids, and my other kids had a blast boogie boarding, playing in the sand, et cetera! For Starlee, her big day started out beautifully and she truly had a BLAST of a day! Here are few pictures from her day at the beach...

Starlee, "Mom-look, I have sand all over my hands!"

One of Starlee's best friends, Makenzie. Isn't she adorable?

Ryden loves the sand!

Laura hanging out with Morgan and watching Aiden boogie board!

Shelby and Starlee playing in the sand...I love my girls!

Starlee being "her."

And 32 is here to stay...at least for a year

I turned 32 this past Sunday. I had a great day and I can't believe I didn't take a single picture. So, I will tell you about my birthday weekend! :-)

It all started on Thursday...
Garth and I were scheduled to do ward sealings at the temple. It was a great night! We did sealings with our GREAT friends the Pulsiphers and the Rands. Afterwards we went to Islands for dinner (one of my favorites). It was a perfect evening. Oh, and we came home to an immaculate house because Shanae is an amazing babysitter! :-)

Friday afternoon Martha Beher was the sweetest person and watched the kids for me while I went to the 1st Friday lunch with Garth and his crew at Red Robin. (He takes his employees to lunch the 1st Friday of every month.) Lunch was great! I had forgotten how much I like the Teriyaki Chicken Burger there. It was hard to stay away from the fries! He has great employees and I had a great time!

Friday we went to dinner with some more GREAT friends the Behers (Haski & Martha). They introduced us to Phil's BBQ in Point Loma. It was very, very yummy! Afterwards we went to the Naval Base and saw Live Free, Die Hard. I like it! Of course I wasn't expecting realistic events, so for me it was exactly what I was looking for. An evening of Bruce Willis' sarcastic comments on a big screen. I love hanging out with Haski and Martha. We have only known them a short time, but isn't it cool when you meet someone it seems you have know so much longer?

Saturday we worked hard in the morning and then came home to quickly get ready for the Stake Baptism I am in charge of monthly. The Stake Baptism is always wonderful. I love to feel the spirit of the 8 year olds and watch their excitement about being baptized and confirmed. It was a wonderful way to start the evening with Garth. (It was also extra special that I knew the little girl's family really well!)

After the baptism I quickly changed into something more comfortable and Garth and I were off! This year he asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Unable to come up with anything that I felt was vital I asked Garth if we could work out an amount and I would try and figure something out. So, I chose to get Garth a new guitar for my birthday. He practices so hard and a nice guitar is kind of important. So, we headed to Guitar Center and picked out a new guitar for him. I love it! It is a Taylor Guitar (locally made)-which is awesome quality and their factory is here, so if he ever needs anything he can easily get it repaired!
Anyway, after he picked out his guitar (which took a little more time than I had allotted, so it threw our schedule off a bit), we headed to Rubio's for dinner. Then we went to Target to get me a couple of skirts and a birthday dress (which I used my birthday checks for-thanks to everyone that sent me something). With the Stake Baptisms, meetings, regular church, etc. it is nice to have a few more options and not feel that I am ALWAYS wearing the same thing. (You know what I mean?) So, after Target we headed to Fashion Valley to see Bourne Ultimatum. It was sold out. So, we adjusted our schedule again and went to Extraordinary Desserts to get some yummy dessert and my birthday cake! And then we made a VERY quick trip to the grocery store (Where we saw the other member of the primary presidency Peggie-that was fun) and then finally saw Bourne Ultimatum at the 10:45 pm showing (and Garth stayed awake the entire time!).

Sunday I had the privilege of helping with our ward primary. Their president and one of their presidency members were out of town, so I conducted (I am not as familiar as maybe I should be with what teachers teach what class, etc.) and the other presidency "put out fires." By the way-can I mention what an awesome presidency they are? My kids love them!! Anyway-it was a great treat for my birthday to spend it with our primary. I really enjoy all 100 of them! My sister-in-law Jocelyn poked her head in and wished me a happy birthday too! It was so sweet!

Sunday afternoon Garth & Martha Beher made my birthday dinner. We had chicken with mango salsa (which I think if one of my favorites now), garlic fried rice, I concocted a raspberry jello salad (made up the recipe-I think it turned out pretty good), rolls, etc. The Beher family, Trevor & Jocelyn Isom & family, and my sister Jocelyn & kids came to share my day with me. I felt super special and was grateful for their presence as well as all of the birthday wishes by phone from my side of the family! I feel very loved! I went to bed a very happy camper-too bad my poor husband was sick and had a pretty yucky feeling day. (He even had to stay home from church which is pretty rare for him!)

My birthday even continued into Monday when one of my absolute greatest friends, Kerity, took me to lunch at Rubio's (my choice). (Has anyone noticed that I REALLY like Rubio's?) :-) To top it off Martha and Lis came too. It was a great girl's lunch. I can't believe how spoiled I was the entire 5 days of birthday fun! I am so grateful for all of the wonderful family and friends that I have and I am looking forward to another year! :-)

Violet comes for an overnighter...

Violet has been able to spend the night a couple of times this summer and we have loved having her over. I know all of us are looking forward to having her at least a few more times before everyone heads back to school! It is so much fun having a niece here old enough to hang out and play with (not to mention take shopping, etc.). We have had a great time! Here she is with Ethan one morning while he was playing (& she was avidly watching) X-Box 360! And I turned around to see Starlee & Ryden smiling with excitement that Violet was over!

Snickerdoodles

Ryden loves snickerdoodles...I mean LOVES them! Here is a few pictures of him enjoying my latest batch!! Isn't he a handsome guy? :-)

The Tarantula...

We had a tarantula in our yard, well actually on our window. I was outside washing all of the windows-our large window in the living room, specifically, for this story! Anyway, I was going along my way washing all of the windows and came back to this one-I wanted to make sure that it was clean. On the ledge there was a HUGE black spider!
So, like any tough mother I called Garth and asked him how you kill a tarantula!

Of course he told me to hit it with a shovel...ummm...that would break the window....any other ideas? "Use a broom"

(Janelle to Ethan) E-does is seem to you that a broom would not be strong enough?
(E) I'm not doing it.

(Janelle) The broom is out. We don't think it is tough enough. (or deadly enough)
(Garth) Have Garin kill it!
(Janelle) HAHAHAHA!
(Garth) What????
(Janelle) He isn't tough enough-this spider is HUGE!

Janelle calls Garin outside and they put their heads together! After much fear and realization that no one in our family is a spider fan we come up with the oh so brilliant plan that I will use water to get it to move away from the window so Garin can smack it with the shovel against the side of the house.

We do just that...I use the water. He hits it...it falls to the ground...and he kills it...chopping it into little pieces and providing our soil with natural fertilizer!

Yeah Garin!! Below is a picture of a tarantula (not the one at our house...I wasn't going to get that close) and Garin triumphing with his weapon of choice...what a man!!

The San Diego Zoo with the Beher's

I have been meaning to post a few pictures from our trip to "The World Famous San Diego Zoo" with the Beher family. We all have passes so we headed down for the evening to check out their new show Talamasca and Splash Painting. The picture immediately below is splash painting and the video at the bottom is part of the Talamasca show. We can't wait to visit again before the summer (& show) end!
This is how the kids got around...how cute is this?

Part of Talamasca...

Which Austen Heroine are you?

Take the Quiz here!

I thought this was a fun quiz, although I had a bit of a hard time answering some of the questions-I just didn't fit! Anyway, as a Jane Austen fan I had fun nonetheless! :-)

Book Review

**This is the July selection for our ward's book club. I am going to attempt a quick summary for those that couldn't read it-so, if you think I stink at summarizing feel free to keep it to yourself! ;-) -But, you can add anything I have forgotten in the comments section!

The Man Who Loved Jane Austen
by Sally Smith O'Rourke

Eliza Knight lives in New York, New York where she is an artist specializing in fantasy landscapes. She lives in an apartment decorated in functional IKEA style except for her bedroom, a cozy & warm place filled with antiques, warm blankets, and a favorite place to her cat.
While on a shopping trip for a lamp with her "kind-of" boyfriend, Jerry she finds a neat antique vanity that she decides she needs to have. As she is admiring the vanity she notices a gap in the wood behind the mirror. To her surprise as she is playing with it a couple of letters drop out onto the floor, addressed to a Mr. Darcy from a Jane Austen. You can imagine the surprise that Eliza has at this discovery as well as the skepticism!
Anyway, she Googles as to whether there really was a Mr. Darcy and gets an odd email from a FDarcy@Pemberlyfarms.com! She was a little annoyed thinking it all a farce. After emailing back and forth with this Darcy guy she decides to further her research a bit and heads to a Jane Austen exhibit at the library. There she meets a man that has quite a bit of knowledge about period clothing, Jane Austen, etc.-a man she finds quite attractive. After perusing the exhibit she finds out that one of the major Jane Austen authenticators is there in that library. So, she sneaks up a back stairway and finds the good authenticator's office. After much suspicion and then a willingness to authenticate the letters, the great authenticator, Thelma, tells Eliza that she will work on the letters and let her know.
So, Eliza heads home with some hope, but guarded all the same. Come to find out, when she heads back to Thelma's office, that the letters are indeed real. Now, one of the letters is already open and talks about ___________, the other is still sealed tight. This one is to Mr. Darcy from Jane herself. Eliza is encouraged to find the other recent collector of a Jane Austen letter, Fitwilliam Darcy of Pemberly Farms (in America), and find out what his letter has to say. Eliza realizes that it is the man she had been emailing (& then stopped) back and forth quite harshly. Not good! So, she heads down to Virginia to Pemberly Farms.
Eliza arrives at Pemberly, which is a beautiful, majestic mansion originally built in 1789. She is met at the gate by an attendant and insists on walking to the main house (Assuming it is close) since cars are not permitted over the weekend because of the Rose Ball. On her trek to the main house she is almost knocked over by a man on a horse who she soon finds out is Fitzwilliam Darcy, Fitz for short. He is the same handsome man from the library! (but he does not recognize her) Mmmm...She has hurt her elbow and is pretty out of it, so he puts her on his horse and takes her up to the main house. Fitz's friends are up there waiting to have lunch and are astonished when he rides up with a bedraggled woman on his horse! :-) Fitz's friend, Artemis and his wife Jenny attend to Eliza. Eliza cleans up and heads out to her invitation for lunch. She and Fitz meet about the letters in private and things do not go well. Fitz offers her however much for the letters and Eliza refuses his offer. She has come to find out what his letter said and what he knows...An argument of sorts ensues (mellow) and Eliza storms off and starts walking back to the main gates. She doesn't know it is over a mile so another friend, Harvey, heads down to charm her into staying for the weekend. She agrees and Fitz is surprisingly glad, not just because he wants the letters.
Eliza ends up making a deal with Fitz that if he will tell her why he is so interested in everything Jane Austen then she will let him read the letters. So, he begins his tale of how he went back in time to 1810.
It all begins when he bought a horse in England named Lord Nelson. A beautiful horse! He had stayed up partying with his friends too much the night before and woke up the next morning not feeling so hot and feeling the bigtime pains of regret for his lack of responsibility and common sense. So, to settle himself down he takes a ride. He is loving the time on the horse and realizes a bit to into a jump that he doesn't know what is on the other side of the wall. He is launched off of Lord Nelson and wakes up to a little girl kneeling over him in antique attire. He is confused of course as to where he is and he starts trying to let them know about whose house he is staying at. He is confused, they are confused. In the end the rescuers decide to take him to the closest cottage, home of the Austen sisters-sisters to the man that lives in the Great Chatham House. So, Fitz is taken to the cottage and Jane sends someone for the doctor. Fitz is in and out and is not happen when he is back "in" and finds leeches on his arm! Over the next couple of days he is in more than out, but pretends to be the latter so that he can observe Jane. He is eventually "outed" and is moved up to the big house. He tends to irk Jane a bit and definitely riles her up! He ends up telling her his story and they fall in love quickly. He is looking for a way to get back and she would rather experience love and lose it than never have experienced it at all. He eventually has suspicions raised because of the conflict going on between England and the colonies/states. He must leave and is unable to meet Jane once again in the fields.
Fitz returns to his time and Jane misses him. During this time she had been working on books and using her sister as an editor of sorts. She shared the stories only with her.
Let's see...so Fitz spends the next few years hunting down and correspondence from Jane possible.
Eliza has listened with intrigue. She is doubtful, but as she learns about Fitz and his family roots she not only falls for him, but believes him. She eventually lets him open her letter, knowing that a lot of value will be lost with that move. She attends the Rose Ball, a ball to raise money for those less fortunate. It is also a ball where everything returns to how it used to be-horse and carriages, old fashioned attire, everything. So, Fitz has a beautiful antique dress from Rose Darcy placed in Eliza's room for her to wear. They will reinact the love between his great great grandfather and grandmother.
And...come to the book club to hear the end! :-)

Pizza Factory-St. George

We stopped at the Pizza Factory in St. George to eat. Here are just a few pictures because I love to take pictures of my family...

And we're off...

We left Provo for Mesquite on Tuesday...after something to eat (I am a big fan of Gandolfo's now) and a stop at the BYU Bookstore for some much needed shirts, pillowcases for Garin, etc. We had stayed at Casey & Jenna's the night before so everything was so close-food was within walking distance. It was a nice outing before being cooped up in the car!

I love picture of people walking...especially Casey, Jenna, & our kids.
The kids hold their hands so well and it is just too cute.


"Mom, Jenna let us have gumballs...can you see them?"

Ryden helping us "load up" to leave...(you have to have snacks-even with just 3 kids!)

More walking pictures, I know...
take notice how Ryden holds on to Garth (all of our kids have done it)

A Day at the Lake...

I am not sure if my Mom will like this picture, but I did! My Mom came on the ride when I water-skiied (probably for moral support and to enjoy the show) ;-) In all reality, she came just because it is so much fun to ride in the boat. She was (& my Dad) a HUGE help with the kids over the weekend and I know the kids had the greatest time! Garin, Shelby, & Ethan stayed and I have no doubt they are are having the times of their life right now! She is such an awesome "Mama" to my kids and I will be forever thankful! I love you Mom!

GARTH-definitely a hottie! & Our little RyRy...

Me...wondering what I am thinking-I haven't done this in ages!

Jenna helping Trevon out-what would we do without her? &
Shelby hanging out on shore with the tube!

Starlee giving me a quick smile and Trevon playing in the sand

Last Monday we went to the Pineview Reservoir with my parents, Casey, and Jenna. We had the greatest time and are really grateful to my parents for taking us, bringing snacks, and then feeding us afterwards. It was so crazy (good crazy) trying to fit everything in that Monday at the lake was such a nice relaxer! Plus, it was the first time I have water skiied since before I had Garin (being pregnant every year will do that to you). I had such a great time and I know Garth loved wakeboarding, the kids loved tubing, swimming, and all of the other fun that a lake provides. After the lake we headed up to my Mom & Dad's for hamburgers and hot dogs. I love hamburgers & hot dogs-not so gourmet of me, but after a great day on or at the water they really hit the spot. (Not to mention the yummy cherries and strawberries.)
So, thanks Mom & Dad-it was great to be together with everyone!

Uncle Morris & Aunt Christy's (Casey's that is...)

Jonas-keep me safe! :-)

Jaren hanging out with the nieces and nephews and Jonas on the tractor!

Shelby with her wonderful Aunt Jenna & Starlee wondering why Ryden doesn't want a kiss!

Okay,Ryden-JUMP!! (he loved it!!) and Garin & Ethan posing by the sty!

"Mom, why do you always interrupt me-I am enjoying the animals from a distance"

"Mom, aren't these animals cool?" AND "Mom, Jenna & Casey took me to see the cows, I love all of this attention!"

We had the great chance to go to Casey's Uncle Morris' house in Midway for dinner on Sunday. The kids were able to see all of the farm animals (pigs, cows, dog, etc.) and they had a great time! My parents met up with us there as well so it was a fun family get together. We have heard so much about Morris and Christy since Casey & Jenna were dating/married, it was such a pleasure and a priviledge to meet them finally! They are so fantastic! Dinner was absolutely yummy and they are so kind to take our huge bunch into their home. I didn't get a picture, but Starlee just cuddled right up to Uncle Morris and is still talking about him! He has a huge fan in Starlee! :-)

Anywho, thanks Casey & Jenna for inviting us up there...and thank you Morris and Christy for being willing to feed us and tolerate our huge bunch! :-) We love you!

Extended Isom Family Pictures

On Sunday after the blessing we headed up to South Fork Park for a picnic and family picture with Garth's side of the family. Here is all of the Isom Family (all 6 boys + families of those that are married), our family with Garth's parents, as well as my beautiful princess Shelby. We had a terrific time at the park with great food, family, and fun.

*It is a beautiful park! If you are ever visiting Utah-the parks there are just wonderful for picnicing, playing in the streams, etc.