Another Picnic day!

I think we are all so excited for this summer that we just couldn't wait to get out and had so many things planned this week.

Again the kids were begging me for another picnic at a park. I was planning on a day inside cleaning but who wants to do that right? :) So we packed a lunch and swimsuits picked my sister up and went to this nice man-made lake near my in-laws. We had a blast eating lunch on the beach and then the kids played in the sand and water.

We were there a couple hours before the winds and clouds came in. We packed up and headed home. Not long after arriving home we went to Aaron's soccer game and watched him score a nice goal! Way to go honey!

Another great day! Tomorrow the WORLD CUP starts! 

The Zoo

Yesterday my mom took me and the kids up to the zoo for the day. We got up there soon after it opened which was perfect. It was just overcast enough to keep it a manageable temperature. The animals were out interacting and Rachael was going crazy for the monkeys. She loved it!

Around lunch time the clouds were gone and the sun was out and hot! It went from a nice cool wet morning to blistering humid heat. We got a couple quick snacks. Drank some nice ice cold water and headed off to finish our adventure.

Seeing all the animals was a lot of fun but Josh was more concerned about riding the train. So our last stop we took the train ride. Once we sat down I snapped a few pictures because the kids were hilarious. They both looked extremely tired yet excited to be on the train. Rachael was a little more fearful and unsure what was happening.

I have to say that my favorite part were the birds at the bird show. INCREDIBLE!

We left the zoo around 2ish, cooled off in a nice air conditioned car, picked up some lunch and frosties from Wendy's and ate at a park. We ate at this park that sits on the fault line. Kinda cool and creepy at the same time. Rachael fell asleep on the blanket and I was wanting to join her so badly. I don't know what it is but a day at the zoo zaps me. I never have an ounce of energy left the rest of the day.

We had a great time! Thanks mom for taking us!

Today June 8th

Today I woke feeling drained as I think everything is finally catching up with me. I was determined to still have a good eventful and productive day with a little relaxing and blogging. So here I am :)

After an attempted work out with MK I began my day. First by cleaning up downstairs and then enrolling Josh and Taylor in a summer camp. They had the time of their lives at this chocolate class. First by tasting cooking cocoa and learning it's bitter taste. They then experienced making their own chocolate frosting with it, how adding simple ingredients such as sugar can make the cocoa taste completely different. They frosted and ate chocolate cupcakes and finger painted with chocolate. They played many games, ate Popsicles outside and counted colored m&m's on a bingo like sheet. They had a blast and they cant' wait until next week.

Once I picked them up (with chocolate all over their faces :)) I had packed lunches and we went out to the nearby boat harbor. There we had lunch and sat on the beach. It was beautiful out there and got me really excited for boating. There were a couple of boats already out there pulling skiers and tubers. Little Rachael loves being outside and is so content and happy. My little girl is walking around more and more outside. It won't be long before she is running. 

Once we got back home Rachael had a nap, the kids had some quite time while I cleaned up and relaxed a bit myself. Then the kids were back to play outside in the little pools.

I ended my day seeing the kids to bed and then going out to Young Womens. We took the girls on a bike ride to a nearby camping spot and roasted marshmallows for smores and chatting. We had a great time! We did run into a few problems with flooded trails and such but were able to detour other ways. I cannot believe the trail under the bridge is completely flooded. I'll have to take a picture of it tomorrow!

Funny RuN

I am severely behind on my blog but had to share an experience from this evening.

My lovely running partner MK is so good at getting us going. If it weren't for her i'm sure I would not be running anymore. So she got us out running at 8:00 tonight. We were about 15 minutes into our run and saw a large skunk slowly cross the path a distance in front of us. As we neared the area it crossed MK was pushing me to the other side of the trail in fear of it jumping out. Soon enough, there it was! As we ran past it PANIC set it. No joke, MK went sprinting off so fast I didn't even realize what she was doing. I was too busy watching the skunk lift it's tail as if it were to spray. I quickly began sprinting with her and seriously struggled to keep up.
We were laughing so hard the rest of our run. All that laughing must have been what kept our energy going the remainder of the run. We both felt great afterwards.

Running has been a new experience for me. When I started the 12 week running program the end of last year I never thought I would make it this far. I seriously struggle to find the motivation to run on my own so being able to begin and finish the 12 week course with my mother-in-law and now run with MK has been fantastic. I feel stronger, healthier and have more energy since beginning this. You would think that should be motivation in itself right?

In 42 days I will be running the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with Aaron and a group of friends/co-workers. I am so excited and nervous at the same time. I think it will be a wonderful experience and I am so anxious to get my camera out there to snap some once in a life time shots. I hope by the end of it I am still able to function. I've managed to run twice in 12 hours but still have a long way to go if I want to be ready in time.... Wish me luck! :)

Beginning 2010

These past few months have quickly flown by. Where has the time gone?

January is one of those months that  never even seems to exist really. I was looking back preparing to write this post and had forgotten about our fabulous trip up to the Homestead with my side of the family. We had a blast up there at enjoyed every minute amidst all the ice and snow.

 We had a look at the crater up there but I was seriously too freaked out to swim in it. Because of the naturally warm water and the snow falling in from the top the whole place was so steamy and cave like. FREAKY... We did enjoy sitting in some really nice hot tubs outside while the huge snowflakes fell down on us.

Another day up there we went ice skating. I have never really been able to ice skate but we all had a blast. Josh even got to the point he wasn't wanting to hold anyone's hand for support.

Another day we visited Soldier Hollow and watched some skiers train. The snow was so deep we were walking through these snow trenches that were as deep as Josh is tall. We also visited the amazing Ice Castles. They were incredible.

Jumping forward to February we went to the Olive Garden with Mum and Dad for their 29th wedding anniversary which was a nice treat for us all. We also helped celebrate 4 birthdays: My Grandma, my Mom, Shaylee, and my Dad's. 

Now March came around all too soon and is now quickly going. All of my flowers are beginning to bloom and i've planted my peas. I am so excited. We celebrated Rachael's 1st birthday on St. Patrick's Day (you'll see another post on that soon) and we celebrated Beth's 16th two days later. Beth had a huge birthday bash up at our church building. It was a wig party with loads of games, food and dancing. We had a blast!

You can click HERE for more details and pictures from the wonderful event.

End of 2009 recap

I guess for my sake really I am going to quickly recap on the events leading up to Christmas of 2009. There was a lot going on and that is why I have neglected the blog.

In October my brother married the love of his life. We were so busy the few months before getting things together. Bridal Showers, dresses, shoes, pictures invites etc. I was happy to help in any way I could.

They had a lovely wedding dinner the night before at the Lion House (the same place we had our wedding luncheon).

They got sealed for time and all eternity in the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Everything went so perfectly.
In between the wedding and the reception we rushed up to my cousin's baptism and then headed back for the reception. It was a long day for our kids but we are so glad we were apart of it.

A week or so after the wedding my mother-in-law arrived from England (I make it sound like she was traveling by boat don't I ;)) A couple weeks later Aaron's dad and sister followed. So we spent a lot of time preparing for their arrival and building our loft into a 5th bedroom. It turned out better than I expected. It's been a huge adjustment for them coming only with what they could fit in their suitcases but I can't believe how quickly the past 4 months have flown by.

Since having them live with us I've been able to go out with Aaron a bit more. In November we went up to Park City for a weekend. Aaron had a work party up there and we decided to make it a getaway. Aaron walked through Art Galleries with me in the day and then I went to a Sports Grill with him that evening to watch the big Utah and Real games.  We also got to watch the Olympic Bobsledding athletes train. We had so much fun!

About a week or so after that my Grandpa Bob died. This was a new and hard experience for me. He died of serious lung cancer that had spread throughout his whole body. I was literally with him only a couple of hours before he past away. I had never experience anyone die of cancer before and didn't realize what it can do to the body...  Everything went really well for the funeral and I've realized how strong my grandma is. She is good at hiding her feelings at least. I was able to help out by designing the program for the funeral.  After the burial we were on clean up and were deciding who to have take home all of the large bouquets of flowers. I ended up bringing home a couple of beautiful arrangements. The best was this gorgeous poinsettia tree. It's still alive and constantly growing in my home... The picture at the bottom is of my grandma and 7 granddaughters. I am the oldest of them all, the others are all between ages 12 and 16. I was actually squatting in this picture, my grandma is only 4'10" and I was wearing heels. (Hard to believe, I know...)

Thanksgiving was spent at my parents house. Aaron's family is from England so this is one of our holidays they do not celebrate. My parents were kind enough to invite them along so we all had a lovely turkey dinner together.

Every year we have a large birthday party for my great grandma. December 2009 she turned 103 so we all got together as usual. I think by now she gets a bit overwhelmed with all the people around. She is surprisingly more with it than I think I would be but her poor body can't keep up with her. She has lived so long in a nursing home now that she doesn't really like to go out.

Aaron's work Christmas party always seems to fall on the same day. So right from the birthday party we headed up to the Grand America Hotel. This year Aaron won a nice blue ray dvd player.  It was a great party this year!






Christmas was our next adventure. It was fun to watch Josh and Rachael open their gifts. The best part for me was opening my new camera. Aaron really surprised me by getting me the Nikon D90 I've been wanting. I am so spoiled. We were so lucky to spend Christmas with both mine and Aaron's families. We had a great time!

Joshua celebrated his 4th birthday just a few days after Christmas. A few days later we took him up to Union Station where we toured through the trains and cars. He loved it!

Needless to say it was an eventful way to end 2009. When we had snow we went sledding and had a great time. Josh was so excited when he found a dollar in the snow that he then used to buy hot chocolate. We had lot of other family parties, and fun outings all December long. I can't say we did anything real exciting to start in the new year though. These days I seriously struggle to make it past 11:00p.m.

Pictures from New Beginnings

Sorry it has taken so long to get these up as I had promised. 

Here are the Value Colored Flags

Poster

Torch

These are the wooden roses I was talking about.

Eve's Script

I am still working on getting another post up of pictures and more details from our New Beginnings night, but I am getting lots of requests for the script for Eve.
I condensed the other scripts slightly so they weren't so long; most of them ended up the length similar to Eve's.

My wonderful father-in-law wrote up this script for me so all credit goes to him.

Eve, the mother of all living

I am Eve, the first woman on earth.  My husband Adam called me 'Eve',  "The Mother of all Living".  I first lived in the Garden of Eden, it was very beautiful and everything was in its order patterned after 'Fathers' Kingdom.

Adam and I were asked by Heavenly Father to care for all of the animals and give them a name; we were blessed with a wonderful opportunity to learn and to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom.  I was called to set the pattern for all future mothers that would come down to earth, with a mandate from Heavenly Father to bring up our children in light and truth.
I received all the blessings of the gospel, I have enjoyed the gifts of the Spirit, and have sought to prepare my posterity for like blessings.

When we left the Garden of Eden we called upon the name of the Lord, and offered sacrifices to Him, this was in similitude of the great sacrifice that our Elder Brother Jesus Christ would do for us, He would one day come to earth to take upon Himself all the sins of the world and break the bonds of death which would bless us all with immortality and we could have eternal life dependent on our obedience.

Therefore, in the beginning, we were given the perfect pattern which was set for perfecting the family. The man and the woman should be together in worship; together in teaching their children, and establishing the family unit, that hopefully, will endure into the eternities forever.
I hope that you will cherish motherhood and the sacred role of womanhood, for it is ordained of God that we should bring love and harmony into our families and draw each one closer to God.

New Beginnings

I've been getting quite a few emails about the Young Women's New Beginnings Program we have in a week. Instead of responding personally to each of them it would be easier to post it all here.

I came across this really good idea on Sugardoodle a few weeks ago by Melanie. From there I adjusted and changed a few things to create our own program.
Melanie Davidson created this really cute graphic including the value colors in the rings and the YW Torch. I used her graphic and created this announcement/invitation.

Last night for Young Womens I had the Laurels and Mia Maids create Sashes and flags that the girls will wear as they follow the 'torch bearer' (the Laurel President) into the room. As the Olympic music is being played they will all proceed into the room in the order of the value colors. The Laurel president made a torch similar to the YW Torch that she will carry into the room. She will then speak about the 2010 theme, torch and motto.  The girls following in will be each assigned a value. Each value will be assigned a woman from the scriptures that they will all speak about once the torch is passed to them.

Sariah for Faith
Elisabeth for Individual Worth
Mary for Divine Nature
Emma Smith for Knowledge
Esther for Integrity
Ruth for Good Works
Hanna for Choice and Accountablility
Eve for Virtue

I got these scripts from the Layton Hills Stake for the first 7 values. I am still working on writing up a script for Eve on Virtue.

Click HERE to get the scripts.

Throughout the rest of the program I have an athlete speaking and the young women presidency will be introducing the new girls and recognizing those that have already received their awards. We will each explain the yw symbols and meanings. We will also be going through the new Personal Progress stuff and explaining changes and new awards/certificates.

The bishop will then close with his remarks. After that we will be presenting the girls all with a little gift. I ordered wooden roses online getting them all in the value colors. So each of the girls will be getting a little bouquet of these gorgeous wooden roses in all the value colors.

I will take pictures of the roses, banners and flags on the night and post them here.

I am excited to see how this all turns out. Please feel free to share any suggestions you may have!

Photography blog

As you may or may not know I have finished my Photography Schooling and have received my qualifications. 

In celebration of this I am offering a special holiday package.

Children's or family portraits - for only $55.00.

Family and Children's portraits are a timeless way to commemorate this special time of year and a perfect gift. Capture the magic moments with lovely portraits for your family and friends.

All work is done on location, so there are many possibilities. I can come to a place of your choice or I can offer suggestions of other areas that make nice settings.

See kimberlyjanephotography.blogspot.com to view some of my recent work.

This is a fantastic deal and I would love to set up an appointment with you.

No way...

There is absolutely NO WAY I will be able to catch up on the past few months of events.
Everything from summer swimming, St. George trip and the Red Rock Relay, our free Park City Stay, Boating, wedding preparations, BBQ in mountains, bridal showers, my birthday, glorious weather... it could go on forever. But it was an absolutely fantastic summer! I am sad it has come to an end but now we begin the festive season.


On a good note I did finish my photography courses and am in the pending process for graduation. I am so excited!

I am in the process of creating a photography blog for 'Kimberly Jane Photography' and all the recent things i've been doing you can see there. Check it out frequently as you'll see some of my new work.

Pictures from the Red Rock Relay Aaron ran.

Itty Bitty Soccer

Earlier this summer I enrolled Josh into Itty Bitty Soccer. This is basically a program that introduces 3 and 4 year olds to certain sports. They also do this for Football, Baseball, Volleyball etc. The class was only a few weeks every Tuesday and Thursday and the short time Josh was in it I was impressed with how well he did. He would get excited every morning for his 'soccer day'.

Josh was going through a phase (at least I hope it was a phase) where he wanted to be a girl. He is surrounded by girls everywhere and couldn't understand why he had to be a boy. Poor thing, I felt horrible and Aaron was worried. haha. I thought that this soccer experience would change that but boy was I wrong when he was one of 2 boys on a more dominate girls team. WHAT? seriously now, there were all boy teams but he got put on a girls team. Nice huh?! Well luckily that didn't have much of an effect on him and he has gotten over wanting to be a girl. Now he says "Mommy... I'll be a boy FOREVER". I acknowledge that he is correct and that it is a good thing because he loves trains so much. I tell ya though, when he is older he will be loving it with all the girls in our neighborhood. We have found a few other boys near his age that he gets together with once a week - He enjoys it a lot!

Back to the soccer... I got a new video editing software for my birthday and tried it out with all the video I took while at his practices. It is merely a test as this program is very complex so I used this to play around and get to know the program a bit. It is fun to watch him though and I am glad I was able to put this together.



On the last day they had a mascot come in with balloons and suckers. Josh just HAD to get a picture with him. It was so stinkin' cute!

We are alive...

Yes, we are alive... :) It's been so long since I've last posted and SO much has been happening. Over the next few weeks (more likely a month) I will be catching up.

But for now I am going to post about today and try to keep myself up to date from today onwards and catch up on the past 3 months in between.

Today was a drastic change in weather from what we have been experiencing. It rained all day and stayed in the cool 40's. A nice beginning to the fall weather I suppose.

To start the day off we did our usual but then I began preparations on my Homemade Soup and Rolls for Aaron and a few of his co-workers. They started doing this thing called 'lean-lunches' where they all get together at a nearby house (one of the co-workers) and have lunch together 3 days a week. They each take turns being in charge of the meals for one week. With about 7 of them Aaron is only in charge of meals once every 7 weeks. I thought this was a fantastic idea to eat healthier and save on eating out. Aaron hardly ever ate out but it would save me on making him a lunch every day :) So I offered to make the lunches for them. Yesterday I made a Breaded Parmesan Chicken Rotini Pasta with a Salad. Today I did Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Rolls. I just actually finished baking Sticky Toffee Pudding for tomorrow's dessert and I will be making Chicken Salad Croissants, Three-Cheese Garden Pizza and Apple Berry Salsa with Cinnamon Chips. Mmmm I think I am more excited for these things then they will be. :) It's been fun making all this food but it has taken most of my mornings.

So after lunch time as crazy as I am I decided to go outside with the kids. I bundled them all up (especially Rachael) and we headed out for a walk. I managed to squeeze all three kids (one of them being the girl I watch in the week) into my double stroller. I figured after the walk that I was pushing about 100 pounds in that stroller. Whew, I was worn out by the end of it. We went on a pretty long walk; we were gone about an hour. The wind was icy chilly but it was so nice to get out into the fresh air. Near the end of our walk I let Josh and Taylor throw a few rocks into the pond and then ran nearly the rest of the way home pushing this HEAVY stroller as a rain cloud was starting to pour on us. We had a lot of fun, especially coming back inside to warm up.

Thanks to the camera on my phone I was able to take a few snapshots...

4th of July Weekend...

Over the 4th of July we got to go out on the boat with my family and had a blast. I miss spending time on the boat and so whenever we get the chance I am so excited. Especially Josh, he loves it and is always asking when he gets to go again. Rachael is such good baby she just sits back and takes it all in.

We also took Josh up to Marc and Tara's where we then let the kids ride their bikes in the Bike Parade. It was quite a long ride and they did amazingly well. Afterwords we had Popsicles and then a yummy BBQ.














The evening of the 4th we had Marcus and Nichole around for dinner and games. I went outside with Josh for only a few minutes to watch all the fireworks because the mosquitoes would not leave us alone. So we then finished watching the rest through the windows in our bedrooms.

The weekend after that we got up really early and headed down to Mona where Aaron and Jon ran the Lavender 5K. It was a little chilly that early in the morning but as we stepped out of the car you could instantly smell the gorgeous lavender fields. It was so beautiful there. After the run they had a breakfast and then we walked around the farm. Aaron and Josh also had a fun little paddle boat ride. It was quite the site as Aaron weighs quite a bit more than Josh so most the time they were going in circles. It was cute!


That evening we met Marc's family in the mountains for dinner. We couldn't find a camp spot to roast hot dogs so instead we had KFC on some picnic tables at the Alta Ski Resort. The kids had a lot of fun running around and chasing squirrels.

That evening Aaron's sister Jess and her family arrived. They were on their way to a family reunion and stopped by to spend a few nights with us. We had a great time seeing them although Josh and Jack had a hard time getting along. It was a little stressful as we couldn't relax for long before there was another fight outbreak. A little madness as they are two completely different characters but we are so glad they came to see us and we got to spend time with them. That evening we had a 6 player game of Settlers and if I remember right Ben took that win.