FLUBBER is Fun

I try to do a craft with W a couple times a week. Today we made Flubber. It was actually really fun. We used cookie cutters to make shapes and watched them melt together. This pic is of a gingerbread man we cut out and W held it by its head until it was all stretched out. I'll post the recipe below in case anyone wants to try it out. One small piece of advice...if you lay on the ground and put it all over your face to make your 3 year old laugh, make nose holes so you can breath. Otherwise, it will probably get sucked up your nostrils. Just an FYI...

It won't let me copy and paste the recipe, so look it up yourself. Here's the addy...

http://www.makingfriends.com/r_flubber.htm

Pool Parties Galore!

One of our lovely neighbors put a pool in her backyard. She gave Matt and I the combination to the lock on her gate and said to come and go as we please. How cool is that? We've had a few pool parties since and I'm sure there are many more to come. These are pics of a few of the neighborhood girls and I with our kids enjoying the goods. It's like the best of both worlds...swim whenever we want with no clean up or up keep. Yes please!!

C, W and I

W and his buddy from across the street

Me and C

Neighborhood Gals

I feel young again

I took the kids to the park tonight to watch Matt's softball game. We had a good time and played on the toys afterward. Matt drove the Jeep and I was on the bike with the kids in the trailer behind me and we were "racing" home. Matt turned up one street and I decided to take another one to beat him (not that I even had a chance). About a minute after our parting, part of my foot got tangled in the bike chain and the handle bars turned sideways and I ate it on the cement. C started crying and W was yelling "are you okay Mom? are you okay Mom?" I jumped up, looked around to make sure no one saw the wreck and gave a little laugh (for my kid's sake) and said "I'm fine, I'm okay!" until they calmed down. Then I checked out my skinned knee, gouged heel, scraped hands and torn baby toenail to asssess the damage. It smarted a little but I think my pride was hurt the most. I got home and told Matt about what happened and, after a small laugh, he helped me bandage up my wounds. I told him I don't think I have wrecked on bike since I was little girl. It made me feel like a kid again. I even get to have bandaids on! :)

Icelandic Days

Icelandic Monument here in Spanish Fork

Matt served his mission to Iceland. It is kind of nifty because, starting in 1855, a lot of LDS converts from Iceland emigrated to Utah with the majority of them settling in Spanish Fork. They have an Icelandic Association of Utah based here in SF that we are members of and they have Icelandic Days each Summer here in Spanish that we enjoy attending. This year the main event was at the park where we had some authentic Icelandic Food (I'll have Matt write what it was...I'm not even going to attempt...), we got to look at and pet the Icelandic Sheep, and they had a nice program with the Icelandic Children's Choir performing. It was a pretty fun day. They even have a monument here in Spanish (above) commemorating the first Icelandic settlement in the United States. The lighthouse is a replica on an Icelandic lighthouse and contains a Viking ship on top with the 16 original Icelandic immigrants names etched into the monument.

When we first moved to Spanish Fork in 2005, some additions were finished on the monument and President Hinckley came here to dedicate it. We were lucky enough to attend that event. It's been neat for Matt to have the opportunity to keep in touch with the people and some of the culture from his mission. I guess it was meant to be that we moved to Spanish Fork!

LAGOON DAY!

Matt's company had a family Lagoon Day last month. It was stinkin' hot but we had soooo much fun. Matt and I really enjoyed watching the kids on the rides. Thanks Ampien for the great day!

This was C's first ride. He was all smiles when he got in and then, when it actually started moving, he was so excited he kept his mouth open the entire ride. It was really funny and cute.

Once he caught on to the whole ride thing, C had a hard time waiting in line. He wanted to get on the rides and go as fast as he could. Each time we had to wait for a ride, he would cry and point and try to get out of our arms and run to it.

W had a blast as well. Being a little older and wiser, he was able to exercise a little more patience waiting for the rides but he loved them every bit as much as C. It was so fun.

Even I had to jump on and enjoy some of the rides. The last half of the day we spent at Lagoona Beach. It felt so good to cool down after walking around in the heat all day. All in all, it was a very successful Lagoon adventure.

Long time no blog

I have fallen a little behind on the blogging scene. This morning I had to cancel my slot for childcare at the gym because C was having an extreme meltdown and I knew there was no way he would let me leave him. I'm a little bummed to miss out on my favorite class and I really wanted to try out my new ipod armband. However, it gives me an hour and a half to blog some of the things the McGhie Fam has been up to lately. We'll see how much I actually get done with W talking my ear off :) and C still being the crankmeister. I'll do my darndest...

I've cooked a few meals using the fresh produce from our garden this week. Yum!

Basil that makes...

Fresh Pesto

Bell Peppers that make delicious... Fajitas!

Up and Growing

To our surprise, our garden is doing quite well! We have corn, potatoes, herbs, squash, watermelon, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, bell peppers, jalapanos, onions, cabbage and a few other things. Here are some pics of the goods.

Tomatoes

Cabbage

Lettuce

Cilantro

Last week, we went with the Shirts Fam to Utah Lake.

Me and Rhonda on the tube with all the kids...

Camden, Alora, Winston and Charlie

The funniest part of this trip was when Matt and Dan got on the tube and Rhonda was driving. She punched it to around 40 mph and the guys didn't even want to let go to signal us to slow down because we were going so fast. In the mean time, Rhonda and I were in the boat chatting and laughing at them. They were pretty tired after that ride.

Me. It felt good to get out on the water again. It's been a while.

Matt ended the evening by slaloming off into the sunset...or away from the sunset. :)

Boating with Friends

We went up to Deer Creek with the Loftus Fam. It was a little

chilly but still lots of fun. Matt skiing

The funniest part of the trip was that they only had these teeny orange vests for the adults. (They just bought the boat and thought it came with some ski vests.) This is Shane modeling one of them.

Matt and Win on the tube

Charlie, Alison and I

Finding Help For Our Sweet Charlie

After some really awful experiences with medications to treat Charlie's epilepsy, we decided to take him to a Homeopathic Doctor. We decided we will try pretty much anything we feel is safe before we try another medication. They really messed him up. He was like a different boy...cranky all the time, he stopped talking, his learning was slow, he needed to sleep a lot and more...it was upsetting to all of us. So, we felt the best thing was to take him off medications all together for the time being. They were not stopping the seizures anyway, so we weren't doing any harm.

We've tried no dairy diets and a few other small things that haven't seemed to do a whole lot but we feel like there is something out there to help him. We just need to find it. Matt's boss was recently telling him about their daughter who had some health problems and their friend suggested this homeopathic Dr. They have had no luck with other treatments so they figured they would give it a try. It has only been a couple weeks but her problems seem to be getting better with the herbs and regimen the H.D. has given her.

Why wouldn't we try it? There's nothing to lose (except a lot of money...it's a bit expensive and insurance doesn't cover it.) So, we took him to his first appt. yesterday. I knew it was going to be a little "different" and had somewhat mentally prepared myself. She did her testing and found quite a few things out of whack in Charlie's poor little body. She said he has three major things that need to be taken care of and if an adult had just one of those things, they would be in severe depression. She told me he is an overactive child (really? I hadn't noticed!). I was feeling a little overwhelmed and I was really glad Matt was there.

So, she gave us a list of things to do to help C and we are going back for a second appt. in two weeks. She said we should notice a difference in him by then...less seizures, calmer, etc. I am just worried about doing everything she "prescribed." She told us to feed him 4-5 slivers of garlic a day and to blend 3 stalks of cilantro in a half a cup of water and have him drink that daily as well. Hmmm...how do you get a two year old to eat stuff like that? She is also having us use a blend of three essential oils and olive oil to rub on his head, neck and feet each day. Then we've got to get him to take 30 drops of Kid-e-Mune, 20 of Kid-e-Calc and 30 of Kid-e-Trac (also daily) and give him chewable Calcium with Magnesium after each seizure. See what I mean about overwhelming? Oh, and did I mention he cannot have dairy anymore...and Soymilk is not allowed either. So, I get to buy the super duper expensive Rice Milk. I thought the Soymilk was expensive until I had to start buying this stuff. We are going to have a tough time eliminating cheese from his diet as well since it is one of his favorite foods. :(

Honestly, if it works, it will be worth it a million times over. I really want to believe it's going to help. I know a lot of people have had success with natural healing methods. I hope we are one of them. Pray for us...mostly for our little Charlie. I don't know what to do for him. I wish I could just sweep in and take away all his problems and let him have a normal, hassle free childhood. I know there are a lot of people out there who have problems worse than ours. Sometimes I just need to let a little of the worry out.

4Th of July

Matt and I met my parents at the Freedom Days Celebration in Provo and walked around for a bit. Then we came back to our house and had a BBQ with mine and Matt's parents and Michael. It was blooming hot but it was really nice to visit with the family. We also celebrated C's birthday that day with the family.

That night, a lot of neighbors gathered in the street in front of our house and lit off fireworks. It was really fun. The kids all had a blast. We love our neighborhood...there is always something happenin' going on around here.

Winston with some fireworks in the background.

Matt helping W light a sparkler. He was a little nervous at first but (as you can see in the bottom pic) very determined to participate in the 4th of July fun. :)

Charlie is 2 years old! Unfortunately, he didn't feel very well on his birthday.

Fortunately, he had a big brother to help him blow out the candles...

and open his presents...

and eat the cake I got up at 6:30 am that morning to make. He LOVES dogs so I thought he would love a dog cake. I knew it was a success when he said "Sam...Speak!' (Sam is my SIL's dog and he barks when C says "SPEAK" and gives him a treat.

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY MATT! (last Friday)

Matt having a laugh at his card with a picture of Michael Scott from "The Office" on the front. When you open the card it plays Michael saying "Would I rather be feared or loved? Um... Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."

Matt thought he was getting BBQ tongs or something like that as his present. He got a very pleasant surprise when he opened a brand new Scotty Cameron Putter. He had perma-grin the rest of the day. He even took it to work with him and put it on his desk.

Testing it out. He got a half day at work for his birthday and headed straight out to the golf course to play 18 with Kyle. He was all smiles when he got home. I'm glad he loved it so much. He deserves it.

BIRTHDAY DINNER AT TEPPANYAKI!

This is our favorite place to eat. We met some of Matt's family to eat here for his birthday. It was so fun and the food was great (as usual).

Our cook, Andy, showing off salt slinging skills after

lighting his onion volcano on fire.

I love him even more than the day I married him. I didn't think that was possible.

Some pics of Matt's Mom and I trying to catch the shrimp in our mouths. The waiter threw mine right in my eye. It was gross. Marilyn was a little smarter getting her hands involved. :)

Matt blowing out the candle on his scoop of ice cream.

We had a family reunion and then Matt’s mission reunion/BBQ yesterday. Half way through the day the kids didn’t seem to be feeling well. Charlie’s eyes starting leaking goopy, green stuff and he had a runny nose and Winston felt like he had a fever. So, this morning I went in to get Charlie up and ready for church and this is what I found…

Isn't this sad?
Needless to say, we did not make it to church today.