Jumping Junebugs

Clever title, eh?

I am titling this post "Jumping Junebugs" because that's exactly what I felt like the whole month of June.  I was jumping from one thing to the next and the trend is actually carrying over into July.  Hence the reason why I am writing my post for the month of June at the end of July. :/

Oh well.  We are having a fun summer. :)

Fun Stuff #1:  Building a new dollhouse.

The girls received a Barbie dollhouse from Santa several years ago.  It was pink, purple, and so very girlie....little girlie.  Now that I have a couple of young ladies who are caught somewhere in the middle of childhood and teenagehood, they are craving to use their imaginations in more grown up ways.  Abbie has always loved organizing and decorating things and she begged me to let her make a dollhouse.  For once, instead of putting her off, I said, "Okay.  Let's do it."  I think I took her by surprise, which was fun.  :)  We pulled out every scrap of wood we could find in our garage and went to work.

It's not exactly the best put together dollhouse, but it has a ton of character and we did it all on our own.  (Girl power!)  Okay, we did have some help from Mark when it came to figuring out how to attach the roof, but other than that, we really did the whole thing by ourselves.  It was a fun project and they have had fun letting their imaginations fly in making furniture and deciding which Barbie gets which bedroom.

Fun Stuff #2:  Grandpa Fowlks had two fence jobs to put together in Provo, so the girls and I drove down there to offer a few helping hands.  I don't know how much help we actually were, but it was nice to spend time with my dad.

It also confirmed something that I already knew...my dad is one of the hardest working men alive.  I thought I was in pretty good shape, but nothing lets you know that you are not in good shape quite like trying to dig post holes.  My arms felt like jelly after digging two of them.  I am pretty sure that my dad dug 5 holes to every 1 hole that I dug.  He is amazing.

The girls helped a little bit, but they spent most of their time putting together a video of the whole process.  It's pretty cute.

Fun Stuff #3:  Grandma Great needed some help planting her flowers, so we gathered up our gloves, tools, and Bailey and went to work.  Bailey loved running around Grandma's property.  She was in heaven.

Fun Stuff #4:  Abbie and Ellie ended up riding down to St. George when my dad went back home so they got an extra few days in the sun.  (I was planning on taking them down before Trek anyway.)  

While they were in St. George, I took Emma and her friends to a movie.  I also took Josh, Emma, and a few of their friends to the Salt Lake Temple.  The other pictures below are just some random pics...the "L" on the hill by Leeds, my hometown.  I just had to snap a picture of it.  Seeing it reminds me that I am home...Bailey missed the girls, can you tell?...I don't know what Ellie is doing in the picture where she is like a worm on the chair...and I took the picture of Garfield the cat for Emma who is currently obsessed with cats.

Fun Stuff #5:  My 20 year High School Reunion!
I cannot believe that it has been 20 years since I graduated.  I feel like it was just yesterday, but my body often reminds me that it was not.  I was able to help with the reunion by putting together a silent auction for a couple of classmates who are buried in medical bills from cancer treatments.  We ended up raising over $1500 for them, which was awesome.  It was a very fun night.  I think Mark even had fun and he really did not want to go. :)

Fun Stuff #6:  Watching Mr. Cutie Pie.

I have had some fun watching my cousin's baby, Roman.  He is so super cuddly and I love him!

Fun Stuff #7:  Street BBQ.

My neighbor, Becky, helped me put together a big BBQ for all of the people on our street.  We were excited to have a lot of people come.  This was the first year that we have done this and we are hoping that it will be a yearly tradition.

And then there was Trek, which I have already posted about.
I also have Josh's 17th birthday to post, but that will have to wait for another day. :)