He Cleans Up Well...

Doesn't he?
In preparation to send Dylan back to school, we had our annual knock em down drag out fight over getting this kids mop cleaned up.
Now all that's left to do is put on our happy faces and embrace the last two days of summer we have left.

CampOut

This year the Giovannoni's were not able to make it to our ward/stake's annual camping excursion, I was sad that things didn't work out, but I did promise the kids their own private camping experience right here in our own backyard.
My good friend and neighbor Stacie played along and had us over for hot dogs and s'mores and let us set up our tent next to hers. I know it wasn't the same as being out in the nature, but we still had a good old time.
Hopefully next summer we'll all find the time to actually get out somewhere and go camping for reals.

Domestic Diva....Well Sort of Anyways

It's probably been at least six months since I've bored everyone to tears with one of my cooking posts, but I was so proud of myself for making this Betty Crocker Raspberry Lemonade Cake I thought I'd take a moment or two to dwell in glorious cooking success.
I never ever have good luck with cakes, in fact when ever I bake, things just seem to go disastrously wrong. Surprisingly the only thing that went wrong with this cooking experiment is the fact that I couldn't find my camera anywhere so that I could document and photograph my lovely little cake success.

I guess I'll just rip off Betty Crockers picture so you get the idea...

But having the cake actually turn out wasn't the only thing I wanted to gloat about.
Rule number one when I'm in the kitchen seems to go something like this, when I get into the middle of the cooking process I usually realize I'm missing a major ingredient, and will have to try to come up with some kind of substitute...Which is usually where things start to go disastrously wrong. It was while I was beating the cake that I realized duh, I forgot to buy frosting!
I remember somewhere in the back of my brain that my good friend Marcie was a master at making cakes and frosting, so I emailed her and she gave me her frosting recipe along with some very helpful frosting secrets.
So I went to the kitchen and I whipped myself up the most beautiful and tasty homemade frosty. I made frosting!!! And I still feel a little high from the sheer domestic joy I got from making something new from scratch.
I made frosting and a cake and they both turned out beautifully and all is right in the Giovannoni household.
I also received a package from Amazon today, chuck full of these little beauties, I'm so excited to try one for dinner. Doesn't Butter Curry just sound dreamy....

Sufficiently Humbled

I happened to be substituting for the valiant nine class in primary this past Sunday. I had had a rough weekend and I was rather worked up about situations out of my control, as the children began to practice their songs for the primary program, I found myself uncontrollably crying. I did my best to pull myself together and just as I calmed myself down, the primary presidency announced that they would love for the children to come forward and put their spare change in the missionary fund jar. As a long line of excited children made their way to the front of the room, I heard a rather loud and disgusted voice announce that "I'm not going to WASTE my money on THAT, I'd rather put my money in savings"!
I was quite certain that the little boy a row or two in front of me had made the comment, and I sat there thinking to myself, man if I were his mom I would be dying of embarrassment right about now!!! It wasn't until I looked around and saw everyone staring at me, that I began to think that maybe my assumption was wrong. So I leaned my head across the row to one of my Activity Days girls and said, Gosh Katelyn, who said that?
She looked at me a little cock-eyed and said, "DYLAN said it"!!!
And once again I found myself wanting to melt into the floor, just for once couldn't it have been someone else's kid....
Oh Dylan Thanks for always keeping me humble!

July in Review

What a quiet summer we've had. Little if any momentous or blog worthy events have taken place in the last little while, so here's what I could come up with to post about.
Ms. Alivia graduated from diapers to panties.

Dylan lost two more bottom teeth.And last but not least,
Derik's car took a turn for the worse and died!
We just have to decide whether or not we're going to officially pull the plug (and donate it to Kidney Kars) or continue to try to breath life back into by taking it to a repair shop...

A Fish and a Butterfly

Dylan passed his first level of swim lessons last week.
I was amazed to watch Dylan progress from being terrified of being in the water to diving off the diving board by himself! He loves holding his breath under water and kicking around with "Mr. Kickboard". He has yet to actually propel himself in the water but he knows enough to keep his head above the water and he's super excited to start the next level in August.

How's this for super cheese?!?
Mr. Giovannoni's employers had their summer picnic last weekend.
Ms. Alivia got her little face painted and she thought it was the coolest thing ever. I would catch her admiring herself in her mirror, so I grabbed her picture so she can always look back at her butterfly.

The Last Four Weeks

Things have been pretty quiet around the Giovannoni's, thanks to the rather rainy weather we've been experiencing lately. Even though the rain has kept us indoors most of this summer I have managed to get some photo's of some pretty spectacular rainbows.

These rainbows were so brilliant I almost couldn't believe my eyes!
My garden has loved the rain it's just exploded. I'm posting those pictures on my other blog if any one wants to take a look. Garden Pictures

• Derik took the kids for a day so I could go on our Father-Daughter Hike with my Activity Day girls. He's so awesome! They wandered The Salt Lake Temple grounds....And caught a couple of movies at the Clark Planetarium.Aunt Heidi's is up visiting, so we all got to go tour the new Oquirrh Mountain temple together.

• I went dark again.

• Don't we all wish we could wear our two year old sisters jeans and look SO GOOD...I asked Dylan to go downstairs and put some shorts on...This is what he came up wearing. He sure can make me laugh sometimes.
  

• And last but not least, Dylan's friends are all riding their bikes without training wheels this summer, so he insisted we take his off too. I honestly thought he was going to struggle with riding his bike without training wheels but he just took off!