A Scary Experience

Yesterday I was driving home on I-15 from a Doctor's Appointment. Between the 106th and the 123rd S. freeway exit I felt the car jar and I knew something was wrong. I pulled over to the shoulder thinking I just had a flat tire. I got out of the car and looked at it and found that it wasn't a flat, it was a blowout. The tire was shredded. I had no idea what to do. I got back into my car and and sat there for about 5 minutes or so hoping someone would pull over to help me. No one did. I called my dad at work but he had to leave soon to go and teach a class. He suggested that I call Jamie and have Jamie call Brian so that Brian could come and help me out. He said that Brian could leave work whenever and help me. I called Jamie and then she called Brian. When Jamie called me back she said that Brian would be there in about 10 minutes. I also called Mindy who was watching Emma and Reagan and let her know what had happened. She had to work last night and I wanted her to know that I should be there to pick them up with plenty of time to get to work. Brian came and changed the tire for me. While he was changing the tire an Incident Management truck came by and helped him out.

In no time they had the spare tire put on and I was on my way. Brian had me pull over in a parking lot and tightened the lugnuts a little bit more. Then I went and picked up Emma and Reagan and then Landon. This morning I went and bought 2 new tires for the car. Now everything is back to normal. Here is a picture of the tire.

All About Landon

Name & Meaning: Landon Paul Lund. Landon was the character of on of the books I've read by Nicholas Sparks called "A Walk to Remember." I also just really liked the name. Paul is Dave's Middle Name.
Age: 6 Years Old
Nicknames: Doesn't really have any right now. When he was younger we called him Bugaboo. Now he just prefers to be called Landon. If you call him anything else, he gets upset and say's "My name is Landon."
Favorite Activities: Coloring and Drawing, Playing with Lego's and Lincoln Logs, Playing Hide and Seek, Playing with Friends (Ellie, Emma, and Cousins), Also other friends.
Favorite Foods: Apples, Bananas, Mac n' Chees, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Pizza, Nuggets, Fries
Least Favorite Food: Squash
Favorite Music: Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood
Favorite Toy: Legos
Favorite Book: "I Spy Books"
Item of Clothing: Shoes, Red Shirts
What makes him Happy: Playing with his Friends
What makes him Sad: When he doesn't see his friends all day!
Funny Words or Phrases he Says: "You're not the boss of me." "That's not Fair."

All About Emma

Name & Meaning: Emma Hayden Lund. The Emma is kind of a take off on Emily. Emma is also the name of my Great Grandma on my mom's side. I was looking through a Parents or Parenting Magazine and I read an article and it mentions the author's daughter Hayden. I had never really thought of Hayden as a girl's name before but I really liked it.

Age: 4 1/2. She will be 5 in April

Nicknames: One Sunday some people started calling her Emma Lima Ding Dong. Then we figured that wasn't really very nice so now we call her Emma Lima Sing Song. We figure that is a lot nicer.

Favorite Activities: When I asked Emma this question she said "making houses out of paper" anyway what she means is there is a story about a witch who is building a house and you rip the paper and it turns into a Jack-o-Lantern. She a lso likes playing with Barbies, Playing with friends and cousins.

Favorite Foods: Nuggets and French Fries, Rice, Cereal, Chocolate Cookies, Chocolate, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Mac and Cheese.

Least Favorite Foods: Tomatoes

Favorite Music: Strawberry Shortcake

Favorite Toy: Barbies

Favorite Book: Fancy Nancy and Do Princesses wear Hiking Boots?

Favorite Item of Clothing: Dress Up Clothes

What Makes her Happy: Playing with Landon and her friend Ellie

What Makes her Sad: When someone is mean to her

Funny Words or Phrases: She recently started saying "No Way Jose." The first time she said it I laughed so hard and asked her what she said and she repeated it. I wasn't sure I heard it right the first time.

All About Reagan

I saw this on a blog and I thought it would be fun to do. So, today I am going to do Reagan, Wednesday I will do Emma, and Friday I will do Landon.

Name & Meaning: Reagan Marie Lund. Reagan kind of comes from Reagan off of Good Things Utah, but mostly because I just like the name. Marie is my Middle Name.

Age: She turned 2 on September 26th.

Nicknames: Doesn't really have any, but I do call her "girlfriend" sometimes.

Favorite Activities: Playing with her doggie. She has converstations with it. Playing with Sister Emma, Bubbles, Reading Stories, File Folder Games.

Favorite Foods: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, Candy, Suckers, Crackers, Pancakes.

Least Favorite Foods: She has been my pickiest eater so far. She will like things and then dislike them. She used to like Spaghetti and now she doesn't. She used to like Rice and now she doesn't. She goes through phases with food.

Favorite Music: Reagan likes to sing and some of her favorite songs are "Miss Polly had a Dolly," "5 Little Ducks," and "5 Little Monkey's Jumping on the bed."

Favorite Toy: Her favorite Toy is her stuffed animal Doggie, and she also likes shoes (Regular and her Princess Shoes)

Favorite Book: I don't know if I can tell you her favorite. She loves being read to and will bring me different books throughout the day.

Favorite Item of clothing: I think they are her pajamas. She usually complains when I try to take them off to get her dressed in the morning.

What makes her happy: Her Mommy, being read to, playing with her doggie, watching Dora, Her brother Landon and Sister Emma. Going to Grandmom's house, baing tickled by Daddy.

What makes her Sad: She is usually a pretty happy girl and not a lot of thing make her sad. She is sad when Landon and Emma won't let her play with them. She is generally very happy though!!

Funny words or Phrases she says: "Go Away," She just said to me "You stop that right now." When she wants to be carried she says "I carry you"

I tag whoever wants to do this. It is fun doing things about the little ones in our lives!!!

My Son: The Author/Illustrator

A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning Landon's bedroom and I came across a little book. It was made by him and was not something he did at school. It was just something that he did on his own. I read it and I thought it was really cute and knew right then that it was something that I was going to be blogging. So here is the story. I will show the pictures and then translate. I think I know what they all say except for one of them. Anyway here it goes!!!

Title Page Translation: The Mermaid. Pretty self-explanatory.

Translation: "Mermaids like to Splash"

Translation: This is the one I am not too sure of. I think it says something about "Mermaids like to something in the water." If anyone has any ideas let me know. I just asked Landon what it said and he said: "Mermaids like to Jump out of the water."

Translation: "Mermaids like to swim."

Translation: "Mermaids like to fall in love."

Translation: "Mermaids like to Sleep."

Translation: "Mermaids like to Kiss."

Translation: "Mermaids like to get Married."

Maybe he will be a great Children's book Author and Illustrator someday!!!

Reagan's Hawaiian Luau Birthday Party

Last Friday was Reagan's 2nd Birthday. I decided that it would be fun to do a Hawaiian Luau/Flip Flop Theme. I did a lot of research on the internet and I came up with some really good ideas. First I decided to make some flip-flop invitations. I found a pattern online and printed it off to make the invitation. Here is a picture of the invite.The invitation says: "Palm Trees and Sandy Beaches are really far away, so we're bringing Hawaii to us to celebrate a 2nd Birthday! Reagan, the Island girl, invites you to surf on over for a Hula Girl Luau! It then gives all the information for the party.

In my research for party ideas I came across a website that translates your real name into your Hawaiian name. The website is http://www.alohafriendsluau.com/. It was really fun looking up everyone's Hawaiian name. Then I made name tags for everyone with their Hawaiian name. When people arrived at the party I gave them their Hawaiian nametag to wear around their neck. I've never been to Hawaii but I guess it is what getting a lei when you get off the plane is like. We started the party off by having all the little kids do a craft. For the craft we made flower leis. I punched out different colored flowers using a punch that I have and then I cut 1" pieces of straws. I off course had to use Neon colored straws so it would be bright. The kids all had a lot of fun putting together their leis.

Then it was time to eat dinner. For dinner we had Hawaiian Haystacks, Fruit salad, and Rolls. There were also cheese balls for those who wanted them. It was all really good. At Harmons I found a cute little daisy veggie/dip tray and I used that to put the toppings for the Hawaiian Haystacks in.

After dinner we tried to play a game called "Pass the Coconut." The younger kids didn't really understand how the game was played but it was still fun. I found some Hawaiian music on iTunes and downloaded it onto a disc for the game. Landon was disappointed that we didn't learn the Hula or Limbo, so we are going to do that tonight. We are also going to cut open the coconut to show the kids what is inside.

Then it was present time. Reagan was really excited to open her present. If it was a toy she would hand it to me and say "open" because she wanted it out of the box. When she opened Farfar's card and saw the money she justed dropped it on the ground. I say give her a couple years and she won't be doing that.

I love that last picture because it really shows her excitement. After presents we had cake and Ice Cream. I made the flip flop cake using a template I found online at http://www.bettycrocker.com/. It was a lot of fun to make and I think that it turned out pretty well.

One thing I forgot to mention is that a lot of the kids wore their Hawaiian clothes compliments to Uncle Jake for bringing back clothes when he went to Hawaii in May. At the end of the party I passed out the goodie bags. I ordered all the stuff for the goodie bags from Oriental Trading. The only stuff not from there were the food items. They even had flip-flop goodie bags.

It was a fun party!! Here are just a few more pictures. Happy Birthday Reagan!!!

Aunt Monica made this dress for Reagan.I love how she is holding onto one present while opening another.Blowing out the Candles!!!

A Big Announcement

My daughter Emma loves to color and she is very good at it. Give her a coloring page and some crayons and she is content for awhile. She is only 4 years old and she stays in the lines and does a really good job. Recently Granite Credit Union had a color contest. They had 3 different coloring pages and so I got one of each for Emma. She was excited. She colored them all in one day. Last friday we went to the Credit Union and Emma went with me and we turned in her coloring pages. I told her we had to put her name on the back because it would be terrible if they thought hers was the best and then couldn't find a name and phone # on it so they had to choose someone else.

Saturday I was out running a few errands and I got a call from Granite Credit Union. They told me that my daughter Emma had won the coloring contest and that I could go and pick up her prize. I went and picked it up and then took it home and showed Emma. She was so excited. These are pictures of the 3 coloring pages she did.

My favorite is the carousel. I wonder if this one was the winning picture!!!

In her little prize bag she got some bubbles, a glow necklace, and candy.

It was pretty exciting and I am really proud of my little artist!!

Happy Birthday Landon

Today was Landon's birthday and he turned 6 years old. He is a lucky boy because he got 2 birthday parties. We celebrated with family last Saturday and today when he got home from school he had a party with his friends. So first I will tell you about his party last Saturday. For the theme of his party he wanted a detective party. So I made a file folder shaped invitation that said confidential on the front. On the inside it said "Landon has selected you to be part on an elite 6th birthday spy training camp team. Your mission should you choose to accept it, isto rendezvous at the given coordinates and time and be prepared for fun!!! (RYSB) Report Your Status By. Then it had the date and all the other info. Here is a picture of the inside and outside.The first thing the kids did when they got there was a Scavenger Hunt that was made by Jamie and copied by Jake. Thanks Jamie and Jake for all your help with that. Jamie took pictures of different things in my dad's backyard and the kids had to find them. This is what it looked like. For dinner we roasted hot dogs, and had baked beans, potato salad, and chips. It was so good. Then Landon opened his presents. We told people that he needed some boy toys. And they delivered. He also got clothes and a Brag Board from Jamie that he can hang his school work on.

After presents we had a pinata for the kids instead of goody bags and ate cake.

Here are a few other pictures from the party last Saturday. Enjoy!!

Today's party was a little bit more low key. I told Landon he could invite 6 of his friends since he would be 6 years old. We met at the playground of the townhouses we live in. We started out by playing a couple of games. First we played Duck, Duck, Goose.

Then we played Red Light Green Light

Then Simon Says. I didn't get any pictures of that game. Then he opened his presents. Once again he got some good toys. Then we had ice cream cones. One boy Xander got stung by a bee so I asked my friend Stephanie if she knew what to do and she told me to mix baking soda and water into a paste and to put it on him. So we did and I think that made him feel a littel better.
Happy Birthday Landon. We Love You!!!!