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.

The End of June!

Here is the first of a few posts to being the catch up events of our wonderful Summer thus far. We have been so busy and having a lot of fun!

The end of June began a lot of fun family activities. June 24th we celebrated my brother's birthday. It is also the birthday of a little girl I watch in the week. That day I took the kids up to Bridal Veil falls and let them splash around in the water. It was a blast and a perfect day to be up there. That evening we spent with my brother celebrating with gifts and cake.

Thursday June 25 after Aaron finished work we made our way to St. George. The drive was quite pleasant with only a couple of 'potty breaks'. We stayed with my cousin Justin and his adorable little family. We had a blast while we were down there and can't wait for the next trip down (we will be going down when Aaron attempts to run the Red Rock Relay).

While in St. George we spent most of our time with family. We went to Texas Road House for dinner one night and had them sing to Ashley as it was her birthday that weekend.


On her birthday we spent an evening in Pine Valley. It coudn't have gone any better as we spent time laughing, hiking, eating and watching Josh and McKade play together. It was the cutest thing ever and they had so much fun together climbing on rocks and playing with pine cones.

We also spent another evening at Sand Hollow, I couldn't believe how scortching hot it was while we were down there so we only spent a few hours there. It couldn't have been more beautiful sitting there on the red sand beach.

One crazy thing that happened was on sunday while we were at church I look down and a cockroach is crawling right out from under Rachaels car seat. I FREAKED out silently haha. We all spent the next 20 minutes or so watching that thing crawl around until it made itself to someone else's bench. EEWWwww Any of you that know me well know how I freak out with bugs... After church we walked around the St. George Temple visitors center and took some fun pictures.

We had such a good time and we miss our family down there. We wish we could see you all more often!

A Hard Day!

Amongst all the exciting and fun things going on this summer I have hit a major low today. Although I have not yet posted about our fabulous summer thus far I had to put my feelings down today.

I have never had such a hard day as a mother as I did today. Maybe it's a combination of many things like simple house chores, piles of laundry, my procrastinated study and projects that are due soon, fast growing crazy weeds and yard work, feelings of guilt for trying to get all of these checklist type things done and not spending more time focusing on the children. What ever it is it sent me to a breaking point today. I honestly don't know if it was my fault or something else but my son was completely out of control today - so much as to say I didn't recognize him at all. He was so different and saying and doing crazy things. I seriously got to the point I didn't know what to do anymore and had to go into another room and cry for a bit. By the end of the day I was in tears with feelings of guilt, failure and all those horrible feelings that Satan wants us to feel and dwell on. Luckily my fabulous sister was here to help me and she did a terrific job doing all she could, I feel bad she had to see such a horrible side come out in me but I couldn't have done it without her. My loving husband also came to the rescue and after having dinner with my sister and mom I was able to get Rachael in bed while Aaron took Josh out for awhile. Then I went on a 30 minute run which felt so good. While running I was listening to my iPod, I have a few thousand songs on there (most of which I am not familiar with) and came across a song that hit me hard. I've listened to it over and over again, it made me feel so much better.

I have a passion for music and this one song couldn't have come at a better time.

Last night at Relief Society we had some great discussions with some amazing women. We spoke about feelings of guilt at home and how it is so easy to feel guilty for not having a clean home but yet you've spent the day teaching and playing with the children. But then if you spend all day cleaning you feel guilty for not being with the children more. AAAHhhh... it's so hard sometimes.

But once I have a chance to calm down and invite the spirit back in I feel peace that what I did accomplish that day was well worth it. If my kids know that I love them unconditionally and feel safe at home that is all that matters and once the love and faith is there everything else seems to fall back into place and we are all happier together.

I am so grateful for my husband and my children they mean so much to me. I literally spend every waking moment with my kids and wouldn't trade it for the world. Yes there are hard times and often I go to bed at the end of the day seriously wondering what I had accomplished but it's those little moments of joy that bring it all back together. Like tonight right before Aaron put Josh in bed he came up to me, gave me a huge bear hug and kiss, looked me in the eyes and said "I am sorry you had a bad day today mommy, I love you so much and want to be here with you, I am sorry I yelled at you..." and when Rachael's gorgeous blue eyes look up to me and she smiles so big; it just melts my heart and makes it all worth it!

Why does the month of June always go by so fast?

This time of year always seems to fly by with all the
fun and exciting things we do.

I just can't get enough of it and love being busy busy busy.

Even though we seriously had rain nearly every day in June we did actually take advantage of the nice weather when it did seem to find us.

We finally got around to fixing Joshua's bike and he has been riding it every chance he gets!

One day while we were out doing some yard work I let Josh go through and pick all the strawberries. I told him to only pick the red ones but he was having so much fun he couldn't resist but to pick them all :)

After picking the strawberries he asked if we could dip them in chocolate (one of our favorite treats)! So after we cleaned them off really good we did just that... Mm mm yummy!

A friend let me borrow this Bumbo chair and from the minute Rachael first sat in it she loved it! I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing. Isn't she such a cutie :)

The only problem now is that she already arches her back trying to get out of the chair but she sure does hold her head really well.

So I promised to post some pictures of our grass... Here they are!

That yellow patch you see I accidentally spilled fertilizer on... Oops...

For Father's Day we had a BBQ at my parents house. We had a wonderful time chatting outside while eating dinner and yummy dessert. The weather was crazy though... In the couple hours we were there thunderstorms would roll in, downpour, and then the sun would be back out in a matter of minutes causing some strange humidity. We sat underneath the awning while all this happened and enjoyed watching the craziness. It was really a lot of fun!

After dinner we took a walk in the river bottoms. Here I am pushing the bus as I like to call it. I swear it's bigger than me:) But it is handy on occasions like this... I do love it!

Aaron actually didn't join us on this occasion because as mentioned before he was running the Ragnar Relay that weekend. Lets just say that things didn't go so well. He ended up not being able to finish the race as he got deathly ill while running his 2nd leg. When they brought him home he looked so sick and he literally slept for 2 days. Aaron was disappointed he was unable to finish the Relay so he has already booked in to run The REDROCK Relay on September 4th & 5th. This relay looks really exciting as they run 181 miles through Brianhead Resort - Dixie National Forest - Cedar Breaks National Monument - Zion National Park - Sand Hollow Reservoir - Snow Canyon and then finish at the Tuachan Theater. You can also visit UtahRelayRaces.com and get 5% or 50 dollars off.

We are excited to go down and support him on this race!

Here are some pictures of Aaron and his team running the Ragnar.