Sillyness in the news today :)

Such a funny story on KSL today of these 2 BYU students and their motorized couch.

Reminds me of my Alta days - looking out our back window and watching people ride around the parking lot on a couch-towed-by-truck. I'm sure this happened at least a few times with that huge parking lot back there.

More home-selling fun

A map overlay from google analytics for all the people who've looked at our site for our home so far:

We also had one person from Munich, Germany check it out via Facebook. Probably not our most promising lead... :)

Creative Advertising

Things have been slow in our home-selling, so we've been brainstorming and trying new things to get more exposure for it.

Yesterday and today we put up a targeted Facebook ad. (We put in the parameters of who we wanted to advertise to which narrowed it down to a group of about 8,000 that might see our ad over in there facebook sidebar).

In these 2 days, we had 73,224 views of our little ad and 54 visits to our site from there. (Our high per day before was 13 which was double the next highest day of 6.) Of course, it may be that they were just curious and none of those 54 people are actually looking to buy a home, but it was a pretty fun experiment still!

I don't actually use facebook (and I'm sure I would probably never click on an ad from there...) but it seems like a pretty neat way to advertise to a specific audience. And it was nice to be trying something else to feel like we're making progress in our efforts to sell our home :)

Dancing

This week at the library we had the best storytime I've been to (and I really love storytime!) The storyteller danced out an African folk-tale as she told the story, stopping throughout to turn on some music and let the kids recreate (through dance) what had just happened - an elephant stomping through the forest and trumpeting his trunk, a cheetah racing around and creating a whirlwind, a turtle tickling himself out of the belly of a giant python... It was just so fun and energetic and helped me remember how much I really love dance. So the last few days, we've had some dancing time (usually as part of our playing pretend, like the storyteller did) and it's just been so fun. Landon loves to race around and Ellie loves to jump and I'm happy for the quick little energy boost of exercise.

4th of July Fun

With Independence Day on a Sunday this year, we ended up having a fun 3-day weekend full of celebrating.

Fuzzy pic of cute early-morning Ellie with her mommy-made 4th of July shirt :)

A visit with Jenny from Arizona

Provo's downtown arts festival

Barbecue with Grandma & Grandpa and Parker & family (so fun to have little kids running around with Landon and Ellie!)

Landon and Breezy throwing pops over the backyard fence

A Sunday visit from Grammi & Grandpa and April and Heather

Some morning time adventures biking and rollerblading

Balloon Festival (though the balloons didn't launch due to the wind...)

Macey's french toast breakfast

The grand parade

Fireworks in front of the driveway

And a bit of the big firework show seen through the tree from our bedroom window while Ellie sweetly slept.

A happy time with lots of family and events. :)

Growing up!

I got a phone call today from a little voice with a "Can Landon play?" and Landon got to go play at the Leavitt's house - in his words "I got to play with Joseph and Dallin with no grown ups!!" (meaning mommy or daddy didn't come along for the play-date). Such a growing-up little boy!

And just funny - when I asked Landon about what he did he said they played trains...but later at dinner he started talking about another story of their playtime - something about stairs and beds and "I could fly!!!"

:)

Landon loves to be good, obey and protect our family from mean guys :)

Outside playing with "Hammery" (Landon's name for his water bottle toy), and his table slide in the background :)

A few nights ago while we were reading scriptures, Landon asked for a toy. "If I'm just sitting I will wiggle and wiggle, but if I have a toy to hold I will sit nicely!"

Yesterday Landon found an open package of jumbo marshmallows in our island drawer, and immediately asked me to put them up on the fridge. "If I see them in here, I will eat them. But if they are up on the fridge, I won't!"

Last night at dinner at the pizza restaurant, Landon was running around a bit and came crashing into us at the table. When he had to sit down, Jordan was talking to him about how he needs to be softer because he has such a big strong body... and Landon said "Each day I am waiting and waiting for the mean guys to come, (then something like 'so I can get them') but they never come!"

(And just funny -just now when I asked Jordan if he remembered exactly what Landon had said last night, Landon said this "I think I was looking for mean guys at the restaurant. And I think when I came to the table I was still looking for mean guys and I thought Mommy was a mean guy and I got her...")