Spring Break - Day 3 (Bubbles)

Another beautiful day until currently as I sit here writing this post the wind howls outside. The wind came up so fast this evening it was frightening. Watching and hearing things crashing down the streets and things blowing against the house - I have never liked the wind, especially at night! Thankfully it was our garbage day this morning, it usually seems like the wind storms come just as everyone puts out their trash and then trash is blowing everywhere but tonight luckily it's just the empty trash cans.


On to the exciting bubbles!!!

Because this morning was so nice we decided to do more outside. We were in need of some grocery items so we went to collect those and while at the store got some fun bubble creating tools. After lunch we set outside and bubbles were definitely the highlight of the day. They were out there forever blowing bubbles and chasing them around.

 I love how every time the kids go out to play our cats follow them. Socks (our male black cat) in particular will follow the kids around and lay on the grass watching them play. Today he followed me around as I walked around with my beloved camera and would just stare at me like in this picture below. Wonder what he was thinking...

 Another special item of the day were these delicious fudge bars. I let the kids pick out a treat and they chose these. 20 bars came in a box for $3.00 - we'll be eating these for awhile. Yum!

Spring Break - Day 2 (Mario and Smoothies)

Today was our Cleaning and Mario day. We got the house cleaned and played games including Super Mario Bros. Wii.  Joshua is brilliant at this game and it really does take a lot of team work. I had a blast playing with him and we managed to complete a whole world. It was a major accomplishment :)

At lunch time I let the kids choose where they would like to go for lunch. I was so excited when they chose to go get smoothies. We absolutely LOVE Smoothie King so we headed out.
I got these two beauties for FREE! That's right absolutely free and we enjoyed every slurp :)

This tired sleeping beauty found herself a nice comfortable spot on the couch and tucked herself in for a nice long needed nap.

 Don't you think the daffodils are beautiful! So nice to see some vibrant yellow outside.

Spring Break - Day 1 (Portraits and Parks)

Looking at the weather forecast for this week I was a little bummed. It's spring break and I was really hoping to do a lot outside. Monday being the first day I decided to do my annual spring photo shoot of the kids. I like to get updated photos of the kids every year around Easter so it was time.

After getting the kids ready and starting off a great morning we headed outside. It was colder than I thought it was going to be so we planted ourselves on the front porch. My lovely daffodils had bloomed and I thought it would be cute to let them each pick one. Rachael's ended up pretty much in pieces from her loving and smelling it so much and Joshua's has made it into a Lightning McQueen cup that is sitting on our kitchen table. He keeps watering it and it looks just as it did when he picked it.

We weren't out there too long but I did my best to take some good shots. Between Josh pulling hysterical faces because he was cold and Rachael refusing to smile or look at me I managed to capture these beauties.

The kids were now done and wanted to go inside. I was happy as I had gotten and absolutely stunning picture of Rachael and a great shot of Josh but not completely satisfied. I so badly wanted a decent one of them both smiling at least in my direction. But I went in as I didn't want to make it a bad experience. Minutes after entering the house Aaron arrived home for lunch - I was thrilled! He always has the kids full attention so I knew he could help.
We quickly went straight back out and in a matter of 2 minutes, literally, I was able to snap these. That gorgeous smile from Rachael is all for her daddy.

I was so happy - I LOVED the turn out! Now I was ready to tackle the rest of the day. Right after lunch we set out to the park. Three different parks and 3 hours later we returned home ready for some rest. Even though I had put sunscreen on my face I got burnt of course and the kids had nice lovely sun-kissed faces.

It was a great start to the week! That evening we had a long needed game of settlers with Marcus, Nichole and Natalie. Aaron won! :)

Success!!

Motherhood can definitely be very challenging at times, even more so at times because I am pregnant.

But today I feel success as a mother, these past few weeks i've been working on some major projects and today I feel great joy and accomplishment.

Project one was Rachael's new room. It was time to move her into another room in preparation for the baby to arrive and before doing so I wanted to decorate it for her birthday. After a week of painting, decorating and searching for the right bedding I finally finished it. She loves it, I love it and it's been great moving her in there. (pictures will be posted soon)

Project two: Potty Training. I started a couple months later with Rachael than I did with Josh but I knew I needed to do it soon if I wanted to get this accomplished before the baby. We started two weeks ago and there were days I seriously wanted to quit and give up, I was too exhausted and being big and pregnant wasn't helping at all. I persevered and today we had our first day with no accidents. Such an amazing feeling. Last week for an early birthday present we took Rachael to Disney on Ice and even there she told me she needed to go potty. Over the last week we've only tended to have an accident or two a day (usually when she is outside playing) and today was perfect! We were even out running errands for 2 hours and she told me she needed to go, I couldn't be more happier.
Another huge plus is that she has been dry at night for the past week. Even more amazing!

There is still a lot of work in progress but a day like today makes me happy. My little girl is turning 2 tomorrow and it's a bittersweet feeling. Where does the time go?

Josh has also been a HUGE help in all this and is growing up way too fast. He's already reading really well and is still full of 100 questions a day. Most the time questions I do not have answers for. He loves school and it's so cute to watch him and Rachael play together. They really are best friends and I only hope it stays that way.

There are rewards that come from motherhood that only a mother could explain. Admits the feelings of never ending laundry piles, dirty dishes, meals, and cleaning there are times that these precious children simply melt my heart. Watching Rachael run into the other room to tell Josh about her peeing in the potty and then seeing the joy on his face and the excitement and accomplishment they share together warms my heart. It's such a memorable experience watching my children find joy in each others success.

Times that I am so exhausted from a long and tiring day I simply lie down on the couch to gain some more energy. They both come crawling up snuggling in to me giving me warm hugs while telling methey love me. It's not long before I gain that energy back through their love.

I could go on forever; their laughter, smiles, even times I see myself in their actions (good and bad) reminds me how much they look up to me and how much I really do influence their lives.

It reminds me that I need to not only continue to better myself but try harder to teach them how to become good people.

Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones.

-Jeffrey R. Holland-

Presidents Day Weekend - St. George

We enjoyed a nice weekend down in southern Utah over President's Day. We left Thursday afternoon and came home Monday. It was so relaxing.

It did manage to rain and even snow a bit nearly the whole time we were down there but we still enjoyed every minute. The best day weather wise was probably Friday. That day we spent at Zions National Park. It was a little chilly but so gorgeous. I captured some neat shots that I had blown up for my dad on his birthday. They turned out really sweet...

We took a smaller hike with the kids but was surprised how near the end of the trail it was icy and at the bottom of a couple waterfalls was a large ice mountain. I enjoyed helping Josh collect acorns as we walked and we saw a few of natures animals including squirrels, a wild turkey and some deer. Josh tried so desperately to find another squirrel to give the acorns too but couldn't. After our hike we enjoyed some delicious apples and crackers in the back of my dad's truck. 

A fun family outing i'm sure we will be doing again soon.

We drove through some crazy tunnels with lookouts over some creepy steep drops and I found the moss on some of the rocks kinda fascinating.  Aaron became obsessed with Angel's Landing but I told him he could only do that once i'm dead. If you don't know what Angel's Landing is look it up, it's crazy! If you look hard enough at the biggest picture below you can see 3 climbers on a very large and steep part of the mountain, it was insane to watch them.

The rest of the trip we spent most the time visiting family. We stayed with my cousin and her wonderful family. Josh and McKade say they are best friends and act like it. There was not one fall out and as we left Monday they both had tears in their eyes. One thing we couldn't keep them out of was the rain, we would be ready to go out somewhere and by the time we all made it to the car they were both soaked. Quite cute really.

Saturday evening was spent with family eating pizza and some delicious desserts while 6 kids 5 years and under ran around playing.  There was also some girl time where we painted toenails (Rachael loved that, her feet are pictured above), and did a bit of shopping :) My cousin Megan was awesome enough to paint my toenails as well and she made them look so cute.

Aaron enjoyed playing tennis with my dad and the kids played around at the park.

On our way home I couldn't help snap a picture out of the window of the car at the beauty and contrast of the mountains. The white snow covered mountains against the red rock and green cacti was breath taking. 

Eyes

We have a nice variety of eye colors in our family and I wonder what color our new addition will end up having. Will he have brown like his brother Josh, grayish blue like his sister or be more greenish brown. Guess we'll see.

Check out the veins in Aaron's eye though, and his contact (kinda cool). He was pulling a face when I took it and had just gotten home from a long day at work. He wanted me to retake the picture but I thought it was cool. Aaron has very unique eyes as he has multiple colors as you can see. In his other eye (not shown) he has a specific patch of yellow and another brown spot.

The Last Week

This last week was great and even more exciting as we got a glimpse of spring.

My brother and his wife came down for dinner one night and Rachael had an accident. She was showing off and bit her tongue as she slammed her head onto the back of the couch frame. It was bad. I had blood all over my white shirt (of course) and the gashes in her tongue were huge. After cleaning up and calming her down I tried to get a picture. She was not all that cooperative but she did enjoy looking at herself in the mirror. If you look close enough you can see the two teeth marks. 

One day I had obviously wore the kids out as we were having 'quiet time' and I went to check on Josh and found him on his bed like in the picture above fast asleep. The cats love Josh (more particular our black cat Socks). As you can see in the picture he found his spot with Josh :)

We also had a craft day where we made loads of Valentines and other things. My room was a disaster afterwards with yarn everywhere but we had a lot of fun and the kids LOVED the pipe cleaner glasses. I think they wear them well don't you?

 Saturday we got a glimpse of spring. The morning was not all that great for me so Aaron took the kids out to run some errands. When they got back it was so nice outside we decided to go for a walk. That turned into a LONG 3 mile or longer walk. My pregnant body wasn't too happy with me afterwards but it was glorious. It took Josh a little bit to get used to his bike again and he ran right into the fence getting started. It was hilarious as we watched him but he was concentrating so hard. As soon as he ran into the fence he yelled "i'm ok" and hopped right back on his bike. I was rolling in laughter.

Seeing some birds in the trees and watching the kids play at the park brought feelings of spring. I'm excited!

That night we experienced one of the 3 earthquakes we had in 3 days. I was already up with Rachael as she was having a rough night. We were in her room when it happened and it scared me half to death. My heart was beating as fast as it would had I just ran a marathon. It was small (2.8 mag) but the sound, shaking and things crashing just threw me off as I was already in deep thought. Aaron jumped out of bed in excitement as he got to feel his first earthquake. He was bummed as we had missed the one the evening before.Crazy I know... Needless to say it took us all awhile to get back to sleep but luckily for Josh he slept right through it.

Valentines Day!

These are the cute valentines I helped Josh make for his party at school. We had a lot of fun making them and I thought they were the cutest things ever! I'm sure he won't approve when he get's older as he'll want more 'boyish' valentines but seriously... Aren't they cute? He even cut out all the heart heads by himself.

On Valentines Day Josh had his school valentine exchange and I made chocolate covered strawberries. After delivering some to Aaron at work he surprised me by coming home early and had arranged for a date night out. We went to an early movie and dinner - we had a lot of fun!

I had a birthday!

Figure that! :) Another year older, and I feel the same. Strange that is...

My birthday was spread over a week as we first celebrated with my parents on the 19th of September. That same evening from my parents house we spotted the Herriman fire when it first began. We watched it through the evening and then headed up to Aaron's parent's home where we helped to load valuables into our car in case they had to quickly evacuate. It was scary watching the flames get closer and closer, it seriously looked like lava from a volcano coming down the mountain. Luckily they were safe and there was no damage to their home.

That weekend was full of activities and we were lucky enough to be invited to the Real Game Saturday night. We had such a great time amidst my crazy pregnancy issues (I craved the cinnamon almond roasted nuts but struggled to eat them).

My birthday fell on the following Sunday and we gathered with Aaron's family who were in town. It was a nice experience to be with Aaron's Grannie, cousin Liv, Jess, Ben and their gorgeous boys. Needless to say lots of fun pictures were taken and thanks to my sister-in-law I have some fun shots with Aaron. She also managed to capture some of the priceless expressions from my lovely daughter. She sure does know how to pull them.

Opportunity

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law asked me to come to her Young Women's and teach about proper skin care and help the girls apply makeup. She also asked that afterwards I do a mini photo shoot.

The night turned out really well, we all had a great time and my mother-in-law was kind enough to help me out. I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

All the girls are obviously so cute and we had such a great time.

Canning

Last fall I had so much fun learning to can. I had seen my mom do it many times but had never tried myself. I started by helping a friend can loads of pears. Whew it was sure a major job but we had a great time.

My grandma ended up giving me her canning equipment which I am so grateful for. I ended up making salsa, canning stewed tomatoes and two different types of peach jam. Yum! I also have learned a lot about preserving foods and freezing. I have come across okra in one of my bountiful basket orders and didn't know what to do with it. Knowing it wouldn't keep long I was able to process it and freeze it. Now it's ready to pull out and throw in a stew (which I will be trying soon).

I also helped my mom can some pickled beets from her garden. YUM!

I hope I can try out some new things this year and hopefully get a garden planted but we will see how that all goes with a new baby :)

October 9th 2010

Back during the weekend of October 9th we had a Young Women Leader retreat with our husbands up at one of the leaders cabins. We ate yummy food and really enjoyed ourselves. Me being my pregnant self (no one knew) crashed around midnight or just before. I couldn't go any longer. But everyone else were up until 1:00 at least. The men were so intrigued with playing this flight control game on the Ipad the whole night. Quite amusing really.


In the morning Aaron went on a walk with me to help ease my serious morning sickness. It was a crisp cold beautiful morning. The cabin was literally hidden up near the top of the mountain near this beautiful lake. We walked to it and took some great pictures before heading back. When we got back there was a huge breakfast that had been prepared. I did my best to eat the delicious meal and then we all cleaned up and headed out.

From there we quickly drove down the mountain, picked up the kids from Aaron's parents house and then drove around the mountain up to Sundance where I had a family photo shoot scheduled. It went really well and afterwards we took a beautiful scenic drive through the Alpine Loop. Earlier I had tried to take Aaron's Mum and Grannie through the loop (but coming through AF Canyon first) and ended up having us come down the back side of the mountain on a dirt trail into Heber. Quite funny actually.

Fresh Fruits and Veggies

Now that I have made it through the rough first half of this pregnancy and I can finally start to think about food again 'let a lone eat it, smell it and prepare it' I've started ordering from Bountiful Baskets.org again.

I absolutely LOVE it! Getting 50% fruits and 50% vegetables for $16.00 is a huge bargain in so many ways for me.

First of all price comparisons usually come out to be a savings of around $20.00-$25.00 each week depending on what you get and the pricing in the grocery stores.

Another reason I love it is because it makes me try new things. I got an acorn squash once and found numerous yummy recipes I tried. It's now a favorite. Getting things I wouldn't normally find in a grocery store or even buy puts me in a spot to find new recipes and try new things. It also gets my kids used to eating different foods (usually the vegetables) This week's adventures will be with asparagus, chili peppers and butternut squash.

Once I pick up the food Saturday morning I then plan out the meals for the week or weeks depending on what I get. My favorite part is the fruit. I have fruit loving children and I could end up spending a fortune in the grocery store with the amount they like to eat, this way they have all they want and usually can't get through it in one week. We end up making smoothies :)

The best part is that the fruit usually still needs quite a bit of time to ripen so it lasts a whole lot longer then when you buy it from your grocery store.

This is what I got today:

3 Butternut Squash

1 bunch of Spinach

1 large head of Romaine Lettuce

1 nice sized bundle of Asparagus

3 Anaheim Peppers

Pack of Cherry Tomatoes

7 Minneola Tangelo (cross between a grapefruit and tangerine YUM)

3 Asian Pears

3 + pounds of Bartlett Pears

6 Kiwi

5 Apples

1 Pineapple

Mmmm, time for some fruit for sure :)

Here is a previous picture from what I got back in October. It was a double order that I split with my mom and oh the food was so good.

Pancakes!!

How could I say NO to these adorable faces when they ask me for pancakes?

Could you say no?

We also like to add a special treat to a few, mmm yummy.

Also couldn't help but snap a picture of my little helpers today.

Josh was actually vacuuming at first and Rach took over, she loves to help out and do whatever everyone else is doing.

Labor Day and Red Rock Relay (Catch Up)

I have so much to catch up on from last year after our California trip but will tackle it bit by bit. To begin i'll start with the beginning of September. It's so fun to reflect back on an amazing year and remember all the fun things we did...

My dad's side of the family gathered for a Labor Day BBQ on the beach. It was pretty chilly most the day but so beautiful. Aaron's family joined us for the special occasion and everyone took turns out on the boat. There were 7 teenage girls there (including mine and Aaron's sisters) and they were so cute flying around on the tubes. It's so cool how they are all so close in age and do so much together. It was so not like that for me being the oldest cousin and the only one with kids now.

About a week after we went down to Southern Utah for the Red Rock Relay. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the time spent with our friends. Josh would get so excited to see his daddy out running the relay. I am determined do this someday even though it was so stinkin HOT! I am kinda missing the heat though as I sit here typing this and am so cold.

Laughter

LAUGHTER is an audible expression of  happiness, or an inward feeling of joy.

One of my new favorite sounds is hearing my children rejoice in laughter. Most particularly when they are playing together without anyone else's help. I'll be cleaning or working on something and will hear little giggles or outbursts of laughter from upstairs or a nearby spot. Hearing that brings joy to my heart and a smile to my face.
It's a sound that can turn my frustrating or irritated mood to a good one and it's what helps me find patience with my kids.

They love music and a few days ago were dancing, bouncing and laughing together. They thought it was so funny to show their bellies.