Cleaning

I often find myself with several thoughts and questions in my head while I'm cleaning. So I decided this week, I would try to post these questions for you as they come into my head in hopes that once I have some answers, I will stop thinking of the same question every time. I also think maybe there's some better way or ideas to cleaning that may simplify or help my cleaning process.
So for my first question, what cleaning supply do you use to clean your kitchens and bathrooms? And what type of cloth to you use to wipe everything down?
--Here's my answer: Currently I'm using a cleaning supply by the name of Green Works, but I change quite frequently. And we just use rags basically...things like old, cut up garments or shirts to clean.
And for my second question, is there a room in your house that once it's clean, it makes your whole house feel clean?
--My answer: The bathrooms! They are my least favorite room to clean, but I do love clean bathrooms...too bad they don't stay clean for very long. Especially with a potty training child! :)
That is enough questions for now. I only do a little cleaning a day so I'm sure I'll have some more questions later. Remember there are no wrong answers. :) Thanks!

Brooklyn's Interview

I've seen this on several blogs lately and I thought it was such a cute idea, but I didn't think Brooklyn was quite ready for it. Well, after several people at church yesterday commented on how well Brooklyn could talk, I thought I would try this out. It pretty much was a bomb (some of the words are still over this 2 and a half year old head), but I'll still post it because some of the answers made me laugh. You can tell what's on her mind this morning by some of the answers. After I asked the questions about mom, I asked the same questions about dad. She did a little better answering the questions about dad. Here it is.

1. What is something mom always says to you? Don’t go like this (waving her hand back and forth).
--Daddy: brush your hair, brush your hair
2. What makes mom happy? Brooklyn
--Daddy: me
3. What makes mom sad? Right here (as she is rubbing her hands together),
--Daddy: me
4. How does your mom make you laugh? I make you laugh when I do this (Clapping her hands)
--Daddy: me
5. What was your mom like as a child? Clapping hands again
--Daddy: me
6. How old is your mom? Angie
--Daddy: 29 (he's 28, I'm 29)
7. How tall is your mom? Bigger and bigger
--Daddy: bigger and bigger
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Clap your hands
--Daddy: His favorite thing to do is….I don’t know
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Lay down
--Daddy: he works
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Pumpkin
--Daddy: the dentist
11. What is your mom really good at? At Halloween (can you tell she's ready for Halloween)
--Daddy: at the dentist (and we've been talking about the dentist a lot, can you tell?)
12. What is your mom not very good at? Daddy (haha)
--Daddy: Pumpkins
13. What does your mom do for her job? You work
--Daddy: He works (she usually says he talks to the Bishop)
14. What is your mom's favorite food? Peas and corn
--Daddy: peas and corn
15. What makes you proud of your mom? Washing my hands
--Daddy: Halloween
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? I want to watch Backyardigans
--Daddy: a TV
17. What do you and your mom do together? We watch TV
--Daddy: I play with him
18. How are you and your mom the same? We’re the same as flowers smell
--Daddy: same at work
19. How are you and your mom different? Numbers
--Daddy: everything
20. How do you know your mom loves you? I love you
--Daddy: he says bye bye
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? At his work
--Daddy: playing
22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? At the dentist
--Daddy: At the dentist

Hogle Zoo

Yesterday we made our first trip to the zoo this year. First I must say that we had planned to take Brooklyn to the zoo a few weeks ago for doing so well on her potty training, but instead she wanted to go to Grandma Nowling's. We didn't argue, it saved us $16!
Yesterday we were invited by my friend, Holli, to go with her since she has a family pass and could get us in FREE! I'm all about free! I think I'll have to invest in one of those family passes when I have to start paying to get my kids into the zoo. Holli brought three of her four boys (poor Trevor was at school). And our other friend, Jessie, and her two girls came along as well. We got 9 people into the zoo under this pass and we were all free (let's not forget that kids 2 and under are free and 4 of the 6 kids were 2 and under). Thanks Holli! We had a blast!
Here are the cute kids, Genna, Bryson, Kami, Dillin, and Brooklyn ready to start off on their zoo adventure!

The giraffe house was actually empty so we stopped for another picture.

It became difficult to get all 6 kids to look at the camera at once. Tyler (the baby) is actually in this picture so I had to include it.

The train ride! Brooklyn could have ridden this all day. Too bad it costs extra money. They also have a Carousel ride now too, but it was closed because they painted it. I still can't figure out why a brand new ride was being painted. The kids were very disappointed.

Playing in the water! The weather was perfect all morning, but it was getting warm by the afternoon. The kids were all getting rosy checks so it was time to head home. It was a fun day! Brooklyn loved playing with all these big kids!

Moab

This weekend we drove to Moab for Marty to participate in the Skinny Tire Festival (a bike ride). Fortunately, his little sister, Charlotte, now lives there so it was a good excuse to see her new house and visit with her. Also, it was nice to have a free place to stay! Marty's parents also came along for the ride since they hadn't seen Charlotte's new house either.
We arrived there late Friday night and came home Sunday evening. Marty completed his bike ride on Saturday, but I'm not sure he would say he enjoyed it this year. He rode what they call "The Big Nasty", which is climbing 3000 ft in 7 miles! He also said there were more hills than that and said he was climbing hills for 4 hours straight. He was about dead by the time he finished. Sometimes I wonder why he does it, but it's something he enjoys! He rode a total of 60 miles that day.
The rest of us enjoyed spending the day with family. Brooklyn enjoyed Charlotte's swing set, sandbox, and their neighbors kittens. It was nice and warm there and the perfect temperature at night! It was lovely. Now we are back to cold Salt Lake. Here comes Fall!

Idaho Falls

This weekend we went to Idaho Falls and spent time with both sides of the family. We had a great time! We were invited to a sealing at the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday. Sadly I had to miss Super Saturday in our ward, which I was really looking forward to, but it was worth it.
Marty's oldest brother, Blaine, adopted three foster girls (ages 3, 5, and 6) so that was the sealing we attended. Strange thing is that they live in Montana, but there temple district is Idaho Falls. Crazy for us Utahans to believe! It worked out great because it was a half-way point for everyone. It was a short 10 minute thing, but it was fun to see these little girls so excited!
We also went bowling with a few members of Marty's family that night. Yes, I'm 30 weeks pregnant and probably shouldn't have been bowling, but there I was. I bowled my worst game ever and Brooklyn almost beat me. Brooklyn calls it "bawling" and really loved it! She didn't even care if she hit a pin.
The other nice part is my oldest brother, Barry, and his family live in Idaho Falls. We haven't been up to visit them since my nephew was blessed 6 months ago so it was a good reason to visit them. Plus, it was nice to have a free place to stay for the weekend. Brooklyn loved playing with her cousin, Sariah, who is 2 weeks older than her. These girls were inseparable and enjoying going to the potty together. Sadly we forgot our camera so we have no pictures of this weekend, but luckily my brother sent some of Brooklyn & Sariah. If I can get more pictures from other people I will post them later. We had a great time, but it was really nice to get home and there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed!

Bitter to Sweet

I had a really bad week last week (yes, pretty much a whole week!). I'm not going to go into all the details because I don't want to remember everything, but life just seemed bad and I didn't deal with it very well. Brooklyn quickly caught up on this and had a bad week too so by Friday we were both crying a lot and the potty training that was going so well, suddenly wasn't happening at all and lets say I was doing a lot of laundry! This didn't help anything.
So yeah, the week ended and I started afresh with Marty home on Saturday. Things have been better since then, not that much has changed, but it's just better and I can't explain why. So for this post I wanted to say I'm thankful for the reminder that I have to taste the bitter to help me appreciate the sweet even more! I can't say I enjoyed any of the bitter, but at least it's gone for now.

Carpet and more pics!

What a difference new carpet can make! If only it weren't so expensive we would have new carpet in our whole house. For now, we'll settle with new carpet in the front room. Here's a picture of our lovely carpet before.

And now....drum roll please....here's our new carpet! We love it! Plus, it's so nice to walk on and lay on. Brooklyn just loves to lay on our floor now.

And as promised, here's some better pictures of the rest of the flooring. As you will see from some of the pictures, we are still missing doors in places, but we've just been lazy and haven't painted them yet so they remain off. One day we'll paint them and get them back on. But for now we are loving the new look of half our house!

This is our front room and the couch covers aren't back on yet. One day we'll get new couches, but we ran out of money for now.