The Stoddart Family

Kyanna's Dance

2012-02-12T20:36:00.002-07:00

Kyanna dance at the half time of the USU-CEU game for the Women! She did so good. She has really loved dance this year and I am so glad. Last year we were very new to hear and so I just signed her up to basically the first dance I found and about half way through she was throwing fits about going so we stopped. I am glad we found a place that she really loves! Of course I am sure that it helps that her cute little friend dances with her!

Pictographs, petroglyphs, cousins, and fun

2012-01-28T22:45:00.004-07:00

WARNING: Brett had the camera today so LOTS and LOTs of pictures have been taken :)

We had a fun weekend with some of our cousins. Today we decided to go and check out The Little Grand Canyon. This is where I ran my 10k last September and where, I am so excited, that we are going to run again this year and when I say we I mean me, Brett, three brother in laws and one sister in law....I am so excited. Anyways so we decided to go check out the awesome scenery that we will have on our run!

I also learned the difference between pictographs and petroglyphs today. Pictographs are paint and petroglyphs are carved in the rock...who knew?

The kids had tons of fun climbing up on rocks. Nerve racking for me but fun for them....I guess:)

This is where the race ends at this cool swinging bridge which is apparently the only suspension bridge in Utah or maybe the oldest suspension bridge I can't quite remember. This kids had fun throwing rocks over the edge.

And then more climbing on the rocks!

What the Crap!

2012-01-20T08:47:00.002-07:00

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700217131/Obamas-rejection-of-Keystone-pipeline-was-politics-over-country.html

Now I am not one to usually get into politics on such a public scale such as my blog. Those of you who know me though, know that I do enjoy talking and learning about politics. And I know that politics is a real touchy thing and people can lose friends and good relationships over disagreements. And everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But this is my blog and so I feel I can share my own opinion, doesn't make it wrong just how I feel. But I just feel like I need to share this article. Maybe I am not the best at keeping up what happens in the world but what Obama is doing in this articles is seriously outraging me!

Basically what this article is stating that in the interest of Pres. Obama's re-election he rejected something that would benefit the United States. Canada wants to build a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, but Pres. Obama "for environmentalist sake" rejected it going through the U.S. thus rejecting jobs, thus rejecting good relations with Canada, and thus rejection the environment cause Canada is still going to build it now just through the Pacific Ocean instead. There are many other reasons why this is bad too, but you can read the article.

Maybe this is just cause I read too many books but I always think there is some conspiracy theory going on here. Maybe Obama owes so much to the Chinese government that he HAD to reject the offer so China would continue to get our business....I don't know that makes more sense to me than in the interest of his re-election. China scares me!

Now I know that after his re-election there is a possibility that he could change his mind about the whole thing....but who know is Canada will wait for him.

Amy Accepting the Tiara - The Big Bang Theory

2012-01-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

I have been giggling about this all night long! To really understand this you have to be a fan of Big Bang Theory...I love this show so witty.

It's Official.......I think

2012-01-17T21:34:00.002-07:00

When I first started potty training William at 2 1/2 years old it was so EASY. The kids was seriously potty trained in one day. One day! And I am not just talking about during the day I am talking night time too! I kind of thought....what's every mother's problem this is cake. Potty training is so easy and then........I started to potty train Kyanna. And then I realized what everyone was talking about. Potty training Kyanna could possibly be summed up in one word HELL. It seriously took me a year to train that child and then probably another year before she was completely out of diapers. But whatever it's done and she does well now and well....

I wasn't exactly looking forward to potty training Jenna. In my mind I kind of thought I am just going to wait until she does it on her own, buying diapers isn't that bad I mean I have been buying them for 7 1/2 years. But then she started to show some interest and so I thought why not let's go for it! It didn't start off good but I didn't want to stop after I had started. And after about 2 weeks or so I think she has got it down. Yeah!!! she has done really good. She is a good in between the two kids of easy and hard. I don't use any kind of method, I have been really laid back if I need to go out I put on a pull up I don't care. Today though we went out in the panties and they stayed dry. So I think it's official. She is potty trained!!!! Well at least during the day.

One day I am going to show this to her future husband and she is going to hate me!!!

She was not happy about this one. Oh well! Too bad she is still cute!

As Kyanna would say..."The Kings Birthday"....Great Thoughts :)

2012-01-17T10:19:00.001-07:00

I meant to do this yesterday. This is one of my very most quotes I like to look at this one alot! And in honor of Martin Luther King Jr

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.- Martin Luther King Jr.

Fun with the Kids

2012-01-14T22:26:00.003-07:00

This weekend we decided to take a little trip up to Salt Lake. Last night we went to the Utah gymnastics meet for FREE!!! Then today we decided to take a little trip to the Gateway. While there we thought it would be fun to go to the Discovery Children's Museum, and it was way fun! I love watching my kids have fun!

It was funny cause each area of the museum each kid kind of really took a liking too. Jenna loved the farm area in particular the horse

Kyanna loved the grocery store

And Will really loved the construction zone. He was telling everyone what to do and how to build the city!

It was such a fun day!

Great Thoughts!

2012-01-14T10:40:00.003-07:00

Today I saw this on pinterest and thought that I really need to post this. It comes from one of my favorite all time speakers!

“When our wagon gets stuck in the mud, God is much more likely to assist the man who gets out to push than the man who merely raises his voice in prayer—no matter how eloquent the oration.” ― Dieter F. Uchtdor

Great Thoughts

2012-01-10T16:04:00.004-07:00

My SIS had this great idea to post some of her favorite quotes on her blog so that she can always remember it and I thought it was a great idea so....of course I am copying it! So from time to time I will post some of my favorite quotes or sayings!

One of my goals for this year is to not let my blog be ignored (kind of like I did last year!)It really is my family scrapbook so expect more stuff from me!

That's a wrap

2012-01-08T12:53:00.002-07:00

I saw this on my cousins blog and thought it was kind of a cute idea so.....I copied it!

Brett 2011

Favorite Movies

-Cars 2

-Harry Potter 7

-Transformers Dark Side of the Moon

-Captain America

-Gnomeo and Juliet (really Brett?)

Accomplishments

-20 placements @ D.I. (which really means he helped 20 people find a job and that is the highest percentage of all D.I.'s!!!!)

-building the chicken coop and getting chickens

-5k race finishing in top 10 for age group

T.V.Shows

-Storage Wars

-Big Bang Theory

-The Office

-Scrubs

Favorite Moments

-Utah starting in the PAC 12

-Trip to San Diego

-July camping trip

-Lagoon with the family

-Weekend in St. George to see Little Mermaid

Kelly

Movies

-Harry Potter 7

-Footloose

-Cars 2

-The Help

(after making our movie list we realize....we really don't watch many movies!)

Accomplishments

-New job in the ER

-Running in 10k and coming in top 30

-canning lots and lots and lots and lots of peaches for the first time and jam, and cherry pie filling!

-running in 5 races throughout the summer!

T.V. Shows

-Big Bang Theory

-The Amazing Race

-Storage Wars

-The Middle

-Parenthood

Books

-Jane Eyre

-Tale of Two Cities (again and always my one of my top 5)

-The Help

-The Sweetness and the Bottom of the Pie

-Pride and Prejudice

-Water for Elephants

-Unbroken

-The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (with the kiddies)

Favorite Moments

-Legoland and Seaworld....San Diego always a favorite

-Kyanna starting kindergarten

-Weekend in St. George without kids!

-Camping in the summer

-Flying to Moab

-Redoing the kitchen and bathroom!

-William coming in first place for age group in his 5k

Well looking back we really have had a great year, with some downs but with a many blessings! Here is to 2012

Christmas Morning

2012-01-03T16:50:00.002-07:00

Here are a few Christmas morning pictures for ya all! I think the kids were sufficiently happy with all the fun stuff that Santa Claus brought them...

Kyanna asked Santa Claus for a I pod unfortunately Santa Claus doesn't' deliver those kind of toys to 5 year olds, I heard one little mention about it Christmas morning but I think the big Barbie house made up for what was lacking and haven't heard about the I pod since.

I think William was probably the most excited with his new Nintendo DS. I haven't really heard from Will since Christmas morning.....somewhere he is playing his DS. Just kidding, we limit it, but seriously if we let him that is all that he would do!

Jenna was just happy to open presents she didn't really care what was inside it was ALL really exciting to her. Especially matching pajamas with her baby :)

Oreo and the Christmas Season!

2012-01-01T17:19:00.003-07:00

This is our elf on the shelf "Oreo". I have heard a lot of controversy this Christmas about this little elf....things like "what a great way to traumatize your children" or "who has time to waste on doing things with the elf" and so on and so on. Well here is my thoughts on it I DON'T CARE!!!! This has been one of mine and the kids most favorite thing about Christmas this year.

Basically what the elf does is it watches for Santa Claus if you are naughty or good and then reports back to the North Pole every night and comes back into a new spot, so each morning you have to look to see where it is. You can't touch the elf or it loses it's magical powers.

Anyways at first my little Kyanna was nervous she said "it's not going to come into my room is it?" so I was thinking uh oh this might have been a big mistake cause really I don't want to traumatize my kids:) but after about two days she LOVED it, in fact she probably loved it more than any of my other kiddies!

We didn't spend a lot of time or money with the elf. Occasionally it would do something like the picture above or if the kids had a really good day maybe a gift from the dollar store. But it was one of the best things we did all Christmas season.

I do have pictures of Christmas I just haven't downloaded them so they are coming! However I was a really disaster when it came to taking pictures of the Season.

We kicked off the season with celebrating my Grandparents 65th wedding anniversary!!! Can you believe it! I LOVE them! and a walk through temple square.We made cookies and gingerbread houses, wrote letters to Santa Clause, went to a community Christmas concert (which was awesome), went to the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, did the 12 days of Christmas, and had our own nativity (in which William said let Mowgli, our dog, be the Angel and we can tie him up to the ceiling fan and he can fly around the room).

This has been one of my most favorite Christmas Seasons I can ever remember! My kids, at least the older two, are right at the age where they totally get it and they totally believe. I hope that they believe for a long long time, although I am scared the end is coming soon. Of course what a good friend said to me "once you stop believing you get underwear!" I am also so thankful that we were able to go to church on Christmas this year and be even more reminded why we celebrate Christmas and to feel the spirit just that much more. I kind of wish that we always had a service on Christmas....kind of like the catholics....I think it just brings a even more special spirit and feeling to that day.

Generosity

2011-12-05T15:42:00.002-07:00

Remember a couple of weeks ago when William won an award for Honesty? Well my cute, spunky, little Kyanna won it this month. The theme was Gratitude!! I am so proud of her and I must say she really is very good and saying thank you. She never needs a reminder.....well almost. I am sure that is one of the reasons that she was chosen.

sorry....I just still can't believe that she is a kindergartner!

Thankful Turkeys

2011-12-05T15:33:00.002-07:00

this year instead of gratitude journals we did Thankful Turkeys. We weren't great about doing it everyday but the kids got it. Here are few things that they are thankful for this year

Will
-Cars2
-The grass
-Family
-books
-trees
-Santa Claus
-Food

Kyanna
-Santa Claus
-Mara(her friend)
-muffins
-candy
-her family
-Jenna
-William
-her room

Jenna (Jenna needed a little help this year.....she said mimi and papa every night :))
-dolls and babies
-Barbies
-Mowgli (our dog)
-cookies
-chocolate milk
-cartoons

We had a fun Thanksgiving spent with Grandma Valeri and Grandpa Kent our first time in 8 years! It was fun to spend time with family. We also got to celebrate my Grandma and Grandpa's 65th wedding anniversary! It was very fun!

Yet Another Pinterest Idea...

2011-11-13T21:43:00.002-07:00

Have you heard of pinterest? It's like the coolest website, whatever it is, ever! I spend way too much time on it :)

Anyways this was an idea. To have you little girls dress up in your wedding dress and then take pictures of them for their wedding dress. So here it is. Kyanna was so excited to put my dress on! By the time I actually got Kyanna out and Jenna in it...the camera battery went dead..so we will try another day with Jenna.

And yes....I know you are wondering...I did try on my wedding dress. And of courses not..it didn't fit.

Honesty

2011-11-05T10:27:00.001-06:00

The kids school hand out awards every month for a character trait, last month I believe it was friendship and this month is gratitude. October was Honesty and Will won the award!

Trick-or-treating Night

2011-11-05T10:22:00.002-06:00

After starting our Halloween activities 5 days before the actual Holiday and having something every single night (except Sunday) the kids finally were able to go trick-or-treating. They came home with tons of candy. We had SO SO SO many trick-or-treaters. I heard one lady on our street had over 250 so I figure we did too. We ran out of candy and had to start handing out the kids candy....which was just fine they didn't even notice!

Jenna is exactly happy in the picture. I can't remember why :)

spooktacular Alley

2011-11-05T09:58:00.002-06:00

There are quite a few things that I love about living in a pretty small town and things that I am starting to love even more. It's really a great experience. Well one of the things that I love is that they are not afraid to close down main street and have a party!

This was fun two blocks of games, candy, food, rock climbing wall, a train, a bouncy room, and a magic show. The kids had fun playing games and collecting candy. They even entered a costume contest and the very last second!

our main street

enjoying some free hot dogs and pop. Scooby dooby doo gang!

playing games!

Riding the train that Kyanna was too nervous to go on!

who needs a scooby snack?

more pictures!

2011-10-30T20:37:00.000-06:00

HeeHaw

2011-10-28T21:21:00.003-06:00

Last week for UEA......we really didn't do much :) Brett had to work Thursday and Saturday. So on Friday we took our opportunity to do something and drove up to Provo and went to a place called HeeHaw farms. It's kind of like a Cornbelly's but smaller but also much cheaper. It was fun. Will was in a pig catching contest, we went through a corn maze, played in the hay, and went on a hayride. Unfortunately, although we took tons of pictures, we didn't notice until the end that we had the camera on a weird setting. So this is what we ended up with for our hayride. Oh well...we tried!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

2011-09-29T08:54:00.002-06:00

It is time for my yearly ritual of taking over Kelly's blog!!!! Happy Birthday Kelly! I hope you have a wonderful day! It was nine years ago today that I fell in love with you over a crab dinner. It has been so great to watch you grow into the woman and mother you are today. I hope you know of the love our family has for you! Enjoy your day!

2011-09-16T21:44:00.001-06:00

We had family pictures taken the other day. My friend Natalie does an amazing job! Thank you. Here are just a few of my favorites!

Another Successful Birthday!

2011-09-13T18:44:00.003-06:00

And another Star Wars themed Birthday Party! Maybe he WILL never grow out of it. Oh well it's good!

we tried to steer away from star wars legos as presents this year (mostly cause I am tired of vacuuming them up!) and got him a hot wheels track. He loves it! And I am so glad!

We had six of Will's friends over for a party it was fun. We colored a star wars puzzle, played star wars bingo, pinned ships on the planets, and even had a guest appearance from Darth Vader himself. And of course the boys had to defend our backyard from the evil Darth Vader!

My friend at work made the fantastic R2D2 cake for Will...isn't it awesome?

I love the we live in a neighborhood with so many good boys surrounding us Will's age! We are so lucky!

I think he had a good day! And thanks to Mimi and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Brian and Aunt Heather for coming, it really means alot!

First Day of School and Flight to Moab

2011-09-10T22:12:00.002-06:00

I am so sad that summer is OVER! We had such a great time...I think we may have made up for last summer at least I hope.

Can you believe she started school!

So on Labor Day we had this amazing opportunity. Our neighbor is a pilot and he flies to Moab for scenic tours. He had some extra seats on Monday and asked if we wanted to go with him. I have to admit I was REALLY nervous and almost didn't go. But I know this is morbid but I though well if the plane crashes at least we will all die together:) But of course we didn't crash and well I am SO glad that I went it was really neat seeing the scenery from Price to Moab. It really was a great experience!

Brett sat in the co-pilot seat and even flew the plane for a little while.

I thought maybe the kids would be nervous like me...but there weren't. Not even a little bit!

Happy Birthday William!

2011-09-10T22:08:00.002-06:00

I CAN NOT believe that he is 7 years old today. Wow how time flies. I told him today that I will allow him to be 7 but he has to stop there he can't get any older. He didn't think that was such a great idea:)

This kid continues to amaze me...he is SO strong in everything that he does. He is a good friend, he is a smart student, he is an excellent older brother, and great helper, and continues to give the best hugs on the planet.
I am so happy that he is a part of our family. He is just a kid I can trust and I love that about him. Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

Starvation Reservoir

2011-08-25T14:35:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we went on another camping trip with my parents up to Starvation Reservoir. I had never been there before but it was SO nice and pretty. The water was wonderful and just the right temperature, and as usual I only got out my camera once so I only have really one moment documented with pictures.
The night however was a different story. A storm was blowing in that night and when I say blowing I mean blowing so hard you actually though the tent was going to lift up and blow away. Everything sounds so much worse inside a tent anyways and poor William kept having the tent blown in his face. But that's what camping is all about being with nature in the best of it's elements! It was a good time!

I really can't believe that I just posted a picture of me in my swimsuit. I must not be feeling well.

Cheerleading Camp and some Fresh Eggs

2011-08-25T14:23:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago the High school down here offered and cheer leading and dancing camp. It was cute they went for three days for two hours and practiced and then at the Blue and White game Friday night they were able to perform. Kyanna did really well I was very proud of her.

On this picture she is the second one in from the right

no she is the third one in on the right....wonder how that happened.

practicing in the gym. It was really cute they even let Jenna practice with them for a little while

Also I don't know if you have heard...but we got some chickens. And I guess Brett took a picture of the eggs that we get to eat. They are much more colorful and flavorful than the store bought ones. We even get a green egg everyday..but it looks the same on the inside. It's been fun having the chickens!

This is my One of My Favorite Weekends...

2011-08-08T11:45:00.003-06:00

The 24th of July, and let me tell you why!

We start the night before, we go down to Monroe and we have a children's parade!

The we have a great big picnic in the park with all the town of Monroe plus all the tourists who have now caught on how much fun it is down here. Trust me I have been going every year for a VERY long time and it just gets busier and busier!

And since I was dumb and didn't bring my camera a few of the events are missing, but luckily my Mom brought hers so we have some!

After the picnic in the park, there is a three on three basketball tournament on Main Street. This is the second year that Brett and my brothers have played and well......they always come in third! ( we won't mention there is only three teams in their age catagory!) this tournament usually lasts until the wee hours of the morning!

Then we get up bright and early the next morning for a 5k race or a mile milk run. Yes William came in first place in the Milk run....he is awesome!

Then we get ready for a parade where they always throw way more candy that we can handle!

After the parade we either go back to Grandma's house and ride some horses, go for some rides on my brothers Rhino, go to the fair at the park, ride some horses, do a little fishing until fireworks that night.

It's busy but it's fun!

4th of July Weekend!

2011-08-01T08:41:00.003-06:00

Still playing a little bit of catch up here....but over the 4th of July weekend. We took our first camping trip of the year. We went up to Joe's Valley with Mimi and Papa! I love that we live so close to all of this cool stuff. The kids always have so much fun camping. We did a LOT of fishing but didn't catch anything. The next day we decided to drive over the mountain through Miller's Flat and Huntington Reservoir, and one other that I can't remember the name stopped at each one and fished, had some lunch, did a little rafting, and ended up in Scofield just in time to watch fireworks over the lake. It was so much fun. We were sunburned and exhausted but I just think that means we had fun!

Everything was so green and so pretty

elevation was 9700 feet. Yup there was still snow. Barefoot in July in the snow!

British Style

2011-07-26T09:40:00.003-06:00

When we first decided to sign William up for the British soccer camp we thought oh what a great idea we will host a coach and then the camp will be paid for. So we did it. Well the day that they were to arrive I was thinking Why Why did we do this. I have such a busy week....babysitting, Kyanna's birthday, camping trip, and not to mention work. I we really really regretting signing up for this, especially when we learned that we would be hosting two soccer coaches.

But oh my heck I am SO GLAD that we did. It was such a fun week. We had so much fun with them. They were so good with the kids. It really was such a neat experience to have them with us. I bought so much healthy food for that week thinking that is what they wanted. NOpe I went through two boxes of corn dogs in the first two days (they had never had them before) they drank all my kool-aid and my diet pepsi! They slept on the love sac, they really thought that we cool! They were nice and clean. It was really fun. Definitely will be doing that again next year.

Oh and well for the camp....it was awesome. I know that Will learned so much. I stayed for the last day and they played a game and Will was actually playing a position. I know he had a good time or else there is no way that he would have been willing to go everyday for three hours in the heat. It was a fun week!

A Princess Party

2011-07-08T14:36:00.003-06:00

I have so much to post about. Last week was one crazy week but it was so much fun. I am going to have to post a little at a time. First we will start with Kyanna. She turned five last Tuesday. I can't hardly believe it! I can't believe that she is getting so old. I actually get kind of chocked up when I think about her starting kindergarten this year! I still love how she really doesn't want anyone but me....I am really so glad that hasn't changed! She has been learning to read and has been doing an amazing job. She is still WAY on the shy side but she handles things so well. She is going to be an excellent mother as she spends all of her time playing home. Sometimes she is the mom and sometimes she is the babysitter! She loves to ride her bike everywhere! And can keep with with William pretty darn good. She still shows no interest in television and lets her imagination take her away all afternoon!

This was the first time that Kyanna has had a friend party. We invited 6 cute little girls and one super cute little boy who loves Kyanna! It was a princess party and I couldn't believe it. I so expected to be running around all over the place and getting after the kids. But this party was So civilized. They all lined up to play games, they all sat there and watched her open her presents. They all sat on the front porch to eat cake, and then they all colored together until there parents came to get them. It was AMAZING so so so not like Will's party's. It was really a good time.

playing put the princess in her room.

Get Ready for Picture Overload.....

2011-06-22T15:15:00.004-06:00

What's so great about Brett rather than me is that when we actually go places and he is in charge of the camera and picture taking.....he actually remembers to take pictures. See I am great, wonderful at remember the camera but horrible with actually using it.

Anyways I LOVE Price. I do I really really do. And one of the great things about Price is it's location. I am two hours away from Salt Lake, I am two hours away from my Grandma's house, I am still like 12 hours away from San Diego but oh well, and we are two hours away from Moab. So this Friday we decided to take a little day trip to Arches and Moab it was SO much fun. The kids had an absolute blast. And since Brett was taking pictures we can actually record our time there:)

This was on our hike to sandstone Arch. By far the best one. Why? cause it's pure sand all the way to the arch, well except this part. You take off your shoes and you get to walk in the cool sand cause it's also shaded. The kids were so funny they just plopped right down and started playing in the sand before we even got to the arch. We had to convince them to go all the way to the arch. And when we got there they played for about an hour!

And in case you were wondering...Yes her diaper was FULL of sand.

I love the double arch behind us.

I actually had a Finding Nemo moment at the Arches. I can really relate to Marlin (the dad) cause all Will wanted to do was climb and climb and climb. And you know I don't know what's on the other side of those arches unless I am ahead of him, and I wasn't. So I actually did say this. "Will you think you can do all this stuff but you just can't" I actually had to laugh at myself. But seriously it scared me a little.

After Arches we went and walked around town and had some yummy food for dinner. It was a really really fun day. Can't wait to explore other parks that are only two hours away!

2011-06-16T22:57:00.002-06:00

Not too take away from Jenna's Birthday post....so keep reading! But since this IS pretty much my family scrapbook I need to make sure that I record what Will said tonight.
I took him running to get ready for the kids fun run on the 24th down in Monroe and he did really pretty good. But as we were running he said to me "I could run through the whole Grand Canyon and back if it wasn't for this pain in my side!"

I LOVED IT!

Jenna had a Birthday!

2011-06-16T22:20:00.004-06:00

Well.....I know...I know... I am a little late in posting this but better now than never. Well Jenna did have a birthday, my little baby is now my little terror of a two year old.

I LOVE this child for so so so many reasons.

-she is all ATTITUDE and I love it. Both my girls are. I love that nobody is going to make her do anything that she doesn't want to do (most of the time I love this)

-her curly hair!

-that she sings "Tomorrow Tomorrow I Love You Tomorrow" at the top of her lungs all the time!

-Her pouty face is so stinkin cute!

-She wants me to hold her and love her and doesn't push me away...yet.

-she listens when I read her stories.

-There is a town down here called Elmo and she was so excited cause she thought that we were going to actually see Elmo!

-She wants to do everything that her big brother and sister do!

-she NEVER NEVER will keep her shoes on!

Anyways we had a big ole party with family and some friends. It was a big bash as is tradition so far on her birthday. I love summer bbq's any excuse :)

Brett found this cotton candy machine at the D.I. and is works. So we started the party with some good old fashion cotton candy!

Jenna really enjoyed hers!

We had lots of family and friends come. We tried to find a park to go to but I guess everyone else in Price decided to have a party too. So since we don't have much shade in the backyard we had the party in our driveway and garage. I am really thankful to family who made the drive to celebrate with us! And thank goodness for my Mom cause without her I wouldn't have any pictures at all!

enjoying their cupcakes!

We have been really lucky to make some really great friends down here in Price from our current ward and our previous ward. These girls are from my first ward and we exercise every morning. It was Emily's birthday that day also so we had them over to celebrate her birthday as well.

Jenna was having a bit of a hard day. Little nap and turning two of course she decided to throw a big temper tantrum through pretty much her whole party. but she did manage to pull it together and get happy to open some presents!

It was a really fun day!

On Thursday......

2011-05-22T09:25:00.004-06:00

My kitchen looked like this.

We decided that we were sick and tired of it looking so dark. So we started to clean them with some TSP (tri-sodium phosphate)

And then we scratched them up a bit.

Took off all the doors and started to paint. We even let the kids in on the fun.....well for a little while:)

And then we painted the inside.

o.k. here comes the fun part. We then glazed or stained if you will over the top of the cabinet doors and then hurried and wiped it clean.

We did it to the drawers too!

And this was my kitchen on Saturday!

It's a dark picture but then look so good! I love the way that they turned out.

Here is a better one.

Will the Superstar!

2011-05-20T11:09:00.004-06:00

Well he did it! He passed Kindergarten...although I wasn't too worried they take the same test at the end of year that they take at the beginning and well he got 94% at the beginning so he passed. Yesterday was the end of the year program. Will said that they were going to sing somewhere between 14 and 20 songs and he was right they sang about 20 songs.

What he did not tell us was that he was going to be the star of one of the songs. He told us that he has one little speaking part.....it was the whole song. He led the whole kindergarten in the Boom Chica Boom song. So when you watch this video the loud voice that you hear is Williams. He did awesome he had everyone in the whole audience laughing and clapping. I asked him afterwards if he was nervous and he gave me a "duh mom" look and said "no way!" He wasn't nervous at all. I was such a proud momma. Even the rest of the day we went to Walmart and Sutherlands and someone in both stores came up to him and said "hey you were the star of the show!" Awww I love having kids!

Our teeny tiny itsy bitys glimpse of summer

2011-05-17T11:08:00.006-06:00

I say teeny tiny cause as this picture was taken four days ago in 76 degree sunny weather I am writing this post in 52 degree cloudy and rainy weather. PLEASE summer come back! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!

We had a fun day with Mimi and Pappa and cousins Greyden and Addie!

Easter 2011

2011-05-05T10:21:00.005-06:00

Well....Easter was just that it was Easter. The kids got new Sunday clothes and a easter basket full of candy, we went to church, and then had a ham and potato dinner. We spent Easter Sunday at home and it was nice. Here a some pictures of my cute kids in their Easter clothes

Happy Easter

2011-04-21T23:43:00.001-06:00

HE Won! He WON!

2011-04-10T20:23:00.003-06:00

So remember FOREVER ago when I posted about Will's dinosaur made out of hundred legs for Price's 100th Birthday........well he won! He was presented with a certificate and a 50 dollar saving bond, that the Mayor of Price gave to him. It was SO cool! I was a proud Momma. Now it will be on display until September at City Hall so you can go have a look at his masterpiece.

It has also been on display at for the last month at a business on Main Street. I can't remember what it the name is some flower shop. !

Another side note.... I got a new job down here. I am working in the ER and I LOVE it! I love it for many reason. 1. I don't have to drive up to Salt Lake every week or every other week. 2. the shift is from 4 p.m. until 12:00 a.m. so I am home with the kids all day and then Brett comes home and takes them when I leave. They go to sleep at 8 so I am only really gone from them for like 4 hours. No babysitters! 3. It's kind of exciting and kind of fun to learn something new...and there is a ALOT to learn. But I have been really enjoying it.

Also Kyanna broke her arm a couple of weeks ago. And believe it or not I don't have a picture of her. GEEZ I need to get right on that. She fell backwards on my parents fireplace hearth. She has had a cast on for 3 weeks now and we go back to the Dr. tomorrow and she will get that one off and a shorter one on. I'll take a picture tomorrow :)

That's about all that's been going on. We are busy but we a loving it down here it Price. And we LOVE to have visitors so come see us!

Inspired By Legoland?

2011-03-11T22:07:00.002-07:00

So Price City is having a 100th Birthday soon. And there was a contest for school age kids to build a project using a 100 items. So I told Will that he should do a dinosaur with Legos. The kid did the project entirely on his own. So proud of him. On the way to school though it fell and broke into a 100 pieces, but he re-built it! So now it's on display in a store somewhere in downtown Price. I think we will go looking for it tomorrow!

My New Bathroom!

2011-03-08T09:44:00.003-07:00

I know that I said the carpet and stove would be the first thing to go but a couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the bathroom......:).......and I thought to myself how can I lighten up this bathroom and not make it so boring. It was so white. White walls, white tile, white shower curtain, and kind of white counter top. And well if you ever saw my old bathroom in West Jordan you would know that is just not good with me.

So we painted! It's a really pretty blue and then I remember my friend Jill has these really cool bubbles on her wall and I thought, Hey I can do that!

And then we thought why stop with just the walls. The counter top and faucet are disgusting and more than likely as old as the house.

This is a picture of the old. Ugh....so gross!

And here is our beautiful new countertop and faucet. I LOVE IT!!!

New lights too of course and new towel bar also!

This is the final outcome. I just keep walking by it and smiling. I am very pleased!

One more

2011-03-06T10:41:00.002-07:00

O.k. here is the other song that he sang. Read my post below to see what this was all about :)

Veterans Program

2011-03-06T10:25:00.004-07:00

So last Wed. night Will had a Patriotic singing program at school. At first I was really annoyed because it was the same night as Relief Society and I really wanted to go to that. But once I was there and the kids starting singing and giving talks about America and paying tribute to the people who defended our Country I was SO glad that I went. I always feel a special spirit whenever we talk about the history of this great Country. I am so grateful for all the people before be who fought so hard so that we can live the way that we do today.

It was interesting one of the talks was about James and Dolly Madison. And during the war how James just had the desire to go out and fight with his troops and left Dolly at the White House and instructed her to grab everything that she thought was important and leave. Of course she grabbed the Declaration of Independence and left right before the White House burned down and didn't meet up with James until three days later. But seriously what president today would feel the need to be out there with his troops fighting with them.

O.k. anyways even though the program was really good it was REALLY long. Will's class sang two songs and then the whole k-2nd grade sang the last song. At this point it 8:00 p.m. and they have been sitting there for almost two hours. So they were restless to say the least. Will's teacher said that two kids fell asleep during school the next day.

This video is Will singing the last song. It is short. It was supposed to be serious but he sang it like a rock star (literally!). The video isn't great cause the dumb lady in front of me kept getting in my way (through the whole program too she kept standing up and taking pictures, she was on the front row!) and he is behind a lot of kids. But you can still see him.

Legoland Otherwise known as Will's Mecca

2011-02-22T21:38:00.002-07:00

Legoland is cool. It's a little something for everyone. They have big dragons, animals, cars, mini cities, people, and dinosaurs made out of Legos. Will says that when he gets older he wants to work at Legoland! Shhhh.... I personally hoping for a better career for him, but I think that it's great that he loves it so much that is what he wants to do. We were lucky cause on this day Grandma Valeri and Grandpa Kent came along. It was really a lot of fun. Oh and they sell this yummy stuff called apple fries...they were really yummy!

This was just a VERY small part of the mini USA that they had. IT was soooooo cool!

o.k. this is really cool. LEgoland is building a wall out of lego and they let the kids be part of the building. They give you a little square and you just have to match up the colors with the right color legos. Here is a picture http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?fbid=10150409132275436&set=a.156664375435.242242.142189230435&theater

So Will and Kyanna have built part of that wall.

Videos from Seaworld

2011-02-21T20:46:00.003-07:00

Here are few more videos from Seaworld. One is the kids trying to pet the dolphins and the other one you can here Brett screaming like a girl :) Probably by far Will's favorite ride. I wore my poncho when I went.

Seaworld in the Rain

2011-02-21T20:33:00.005-07:00

So apparently we weren't very diligent about taking pictures at Seaworld. PRobably cause half the time we worried that it was going to start to rain at any minute and the other half cause everything was so cool we didn't want to waste a minute spending it taking pictures. I really really like Seaworld.

Seaworld was fun! It was cloudy but warm. IT was actually fantastic cause we were by no means miserable and there was hardly anyone there. It's kind of funny cause it didn't rain all day, we even had some sunny times, but as soon as the Shamu show started, you know the big show, the reason for going, and it POURED rain like crazy. But we are die hards, we didn't care. And as soon as the show was over....sunny!

Can I say the fact that you can pet the dolphins....awesome. Not that I did cause I am not like that but the kids sure loved it. My personal favorite show was the Sea Lions Live...so cute!

So here are the few pictures we took....

o.k. this pictures is funny to me cause Will is sitting in the soak zone. We are on the bench one level about the soak zone...little too cold for me. But this picture doesn't show justice but there were NO PARENTS in the soak zone all kiddies. I thought that was hilarious. Plus Will thought he was pretty cool sitting there by himself. And yes he did get soaked.

Some videos

2011-02-20T21:25:00.003-07:00

Here are some videos I am going to keep them separate for when I make my blog into a book. In one of the videos it shows, sort of but not really, how hard of a time I had keeping Jenna out of the ocean and also that I need to start that diet!

Playing in the Ocean

2011-02-20T21:04:00.004-07:00

So we bought the really neat camera/camcorder for really cheap before our vacations so we have literally a hundred pictures and videos ( I was going to say thousand but then it wouldn't be literally). So I think that we will take our trip to San Diego one day at a time or for as long as we took pictures.

We first left on Valentines Day and stayed in Las Vegas at the Stratosphere for 30 dollars. All I am going to say about that is that you get what you pay for. The second day we got up early and drove to San Diego. We got there at about 3 in the afternoon. It was a beautiful warm day. Brett's parents condo was seriously right on the beach so that is the first thing that we did. The kids LOVED it. Even though the water was freezing in certainly didn't stop them from playing in it. And of course in their clothes. We were too excited to change into their swimsuits.

This was Jenna's first time seeing the ocean and well lets just say I could not keep that girl out of the water. It actually got quite annoying after awhile because as soon as she could she would run away from and straight into the water. She has no fear!

Kyanna was surprisingly brave. I thought for sure that she would not like the ocean cause of the big waves. She really didn't like the big waves here in Price. But she went right in without hesitation. She was having a blast.

And Will.....well we all know Will. He went straight for the water basically got as far out as he could before we made him stop and didn't come back until we made him. As he was running back to us he tripped and fell into the ocean. I SO wish we had that videotaped, but we don't. He didn't think too highly of the taste of the ocean though :)

We did run back to the condo so he could change into his swimsuit he was covered in sand. It had to be done.

I Miss SUMMER

2011-02-13T20:37:00.002-07:00

Just thought I would let you know :)

Awww look at that beautiful green grass! I am missing that grass in particular right now!

Please renters if you happen to ever come across this blog take good care of my lawn. We spent ALOT of time and effort into it and it would break my heart to see it go bad.

Today Must Have Been....

2011-02-09T19:23:00.004-07:00

ONe of those days my kids have been whipping out the funny sayings. Here are two that I thought were particularly funny.

One the way to school this morning..

Will: Mom all the lights are out because of me
Me: Why?
Will: Because of my awesomeness! Except for that light (pointing to the brake light of the car in front of us) doesn't think I am awesome.

Then this evening Kyanna was asking about getting shots (I don't know why it was brought up, I think they are seriously terrified to this day of them) and I told her that right before she starts kindergarten she would have to get another shot. She said "I am going to cry like a little boy"

Funny cause usually you here crying like a little girl. I thought it was funny that she would switch it to boy.

YUCK

2011-01-27T14:31:00.002-07:00

Nasty Huh?

Impetigo (im-puh-TIE-go) is a highly contagious skin infection that mainly affects infants and children. Impetigo usually appears as red sores on the face, especially around a child's nose and mouth. Although it commonly occurs when bacteria enter the skin through cuts or insect bites, it can also develop in skin that's perfectly healthy.

Impetigo is seldom serious, and usually clears on its own in two to three weeks. But because impetigo can sometimes lead to complications, your child's doctor may choose to treat impetigo with an antibiotic ointment or oral antibiotics.

Your child can usually return to school or a child care setting as soon as he or she isn't contagious — often within 24 hours of starting antibiotic therapy.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/impetigo/DS00464

Actually the picture doesn't do it justice. Poor kid. We went to the Dr. yesterday and he has to be on two different antibiotics and a anti-bacterial cream for a grand total of....60 dollars! Awesome. And he doesn't get to back to school until Monday. It doesn't hurt except when I have to put the cream on. Needless to say he is BORED! It started as road rash from a fall at the playground. I love all this great sickness and weirdness that comes from being at school. Two weeks ago we got a paper sent home saying that one of his classmates has lice. Tempting to home school huh?

CEU Dinasour Musuem

2011-01-20T20:30:00.006-07:00

I am WAY late in posting this but a couple of weeks ago Brett's brother Nate and his wife Nancy and their three kids came down for a quick visit (by the way we LOVE having visitors). We FINALLY made it to the dinosaur museum. It was really kind of neat. Although, besides a few really cool and large dinosaur bones, I think a lot of the museum was a little over our kids head, except for maybe Will if it was just him. But they did have this really cute corner for the kids to play in the sand and uncover dinosaur bones, color, and play with dinosaur toys. Oh and I forgot to mention that they do have a alligator or maybe a crocodile one of kinds of things there. So that was fun to look at.

But here is the beauty of this museum. Not only was about 4 dollars a person to get in....on a Sat. afternoon we were the only ones there!!!

Kyanna has loved coloring lately. She is VERY careful to stay in the lines. This is random....but isn't funny the difference between boys and girls. This girl could color forever and be very careful about it. Will sometimes has homework to color (which is the only way he will color) and he insists on doing it with his pencil and is all over the place. Anyways that all :)

I wish I had gotten one of Annalee with turned around but these cousins are only a week apart in age and are already really good friends.

I think I might take Will by himself one day. I think that he would have appreciated it more!

digging for bones.

oh come on...

My NEw Year REsolution

2011-01-12T17:27:00.002-07:00

YEs that is right I am only doing one... and mostly cause it's in my head, I want it written down, and I want to be held accountable.

When it comes to losing weight and exercising I HAVE problems. LEt's face. I think of myself as a reasonably healthy person, don't get me wrong. But I have goals in the past. Like running in a half marathon (which was my goal last year and I didn't make it). And losing some weight (which was also my goal from last year and probably only down oh 2 pounds). Anyways I get REALLY caught up on being strict about it. Like I had a running program last year that I started did really good with...but one bad week and what happens? I am totally off and feel like I can't start. I do the same thing with losing weight. I started weight watchers online...did really good followed it to a T, never allowed any extra points...and then one bad week and what happens? I am totally off and not doing it. NOT at all. And then I start again a couple of months later and then another bad week and I am done. I get too caught up in the schedule and discipline of it.

So this years is different....I hope :) This year it's going to be about running or exercising when I can and if I don't do it for week that's o.k. I will just start again and if I have to go back a few steps that o.k. too! That is what I need to remember. And diet...well this is a tough one for me. I HATE to diet I like my chocolate and I like my candy but if I can just set a goal of eating less of that and more healthy stuff I will do good. I HOPE :) And if I had a bad week when all I do is eat chocolate and crap oh well...I can start better the next day.

So that is my goal to just be overall more healthy. NOT skinny and NOT a marathon runner. Just have a more healthy lifestyle...And well that is all. Hope I do good!!!

A New Tradition

2011-01-06T12:34:00.005-07:00

I have been a slacker in blogging lately. I just feel like that ever since we have moved I have been playing catch up and can never seem to get on top of things. Life is busy. And in true OCD fashion I really wanted to have 61 posts for 2010 like I have the previous two years, I know this is all really dumb, but it would have been cool. Oh well.

As usual I am a terrible photographer when it comes to Christmas morning. I guess I get all too caught up in the fun to remember. So I don't have any pictures of that. Anyways when we lived up in the Salt Lake area we would ALWAYS make a point of going to Temple Square. I was feeling really sad cause we didn't make it this year until I had a fabulous idea. Why not go on Christmas night? It was fun. There was more people there than I thought but I was really glad that we made it! So here are a few pictures.

I

This next picture is really neat, this is a little waterfall, almost to the solider summit on Highway 6, anyways it freezes over in the winter which makes it look like this..

It's so fun to look at...this pictures doesn't really show just how tall it is, but it's tall. In fact the day that we took this there was some ice climbers climbing up it.

Well hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas...even though we don't really have any pictures to prove it, we sure did!!!

Will's Kindergarten Christmas Song

2010-12-21T10:02:00.004-07:00

Sorry this video is sideways, it was taken on Brett's new phone and we didn't realize we needed to turn it sideways...But if you look really hard you can see Will. He is right in the middle wearing a black Star Wars shirt. And the cute little girl right in front of us is our friends little girl...her and Jenna like to share bottles :)

FINALLY!!! Some house pics.

2010-12-19T21:00:00.006-07:00

SEE I told you that maybe someday I would be feeling better and blog again. Luckily today is that day. Tonight I hosted my first every real Christmas Party for Brett's co-workers (that are management) tonight. It went really well and was fun. But I thought since the house was clean I should take some pics for everyone to see. You will notice that there isn't a picture of the garage because...well....our storage shed may or may not still be in the garage. With the answer definitely being may. Also I didn't take any pictures of the downstairs cause there is really nothing down there but another family room and two more bedrooms that don't have much in it. And sorry some of these pictures are kind of dark.

This is our patio to our backyard from the Master bedromm....kind of fun! Notice the snow. Yes it finally snowed in PRice.

Another picture of the Master bedroom.

Kyanna and Jenna's room...like the bright pink carpet....yeah the carpet is the first thing to go.

This year when we put our outside Christmas lights out half of them didn't work so we bought some new ones but Will wanted the old ones put up in his room. I think it looks kind of cool!

REAL wood burning fireplace....which I LOVE...don't have to worry about air quality down here....which I also LOVE!

Kitchen.... the oven is the second thing to go...or maybe the first if it breaks first.

I just realized that I didn't take any posts of the outside. DUH..oh well maybe next time.

Oh yes and we have three bathrooms... but I guess no pictures of those either except the kids bathing in the jetted tub.

And Just because I can't get enough of her cuteness!

Maybe...

2010-12-11T08:42:00.002-07:00

Maybe one day my sore throat will go away.

Maybe one day I will actually get some boxes unpacked.

Maybe one day I will find the desktop computer.

Maybe one day I will find the camera.

And maybe, just maybe I will blog again.

But until that day happens sorry :( It's been a bit crazy between moving, being sick, traveling to Salt Lake and back a couple of times, and Christmas, blogging is a little bit last on my list.

But someday I will.

Actually I already starting to feel better!

Gratitude Journals

2010-11-26T14:32:00.002-07:00

This year we had Will and Ky do a gratitude journal. Each day they would write, or color in Ky's case, something that they were thankful for. Here are some highlights....

Will...

Thankful that we can play on the computer
Thankful for brownies
Thankful for snow cause it's fun to play in.
Thankful for crayons.
Thankful for my eyes.
Thankful for Friday fun centers.
Thankful for my legos
Thankful for my head and my brain.
Thankful that we can go to Birthday parties.

Here are Ky's some are VERY similar to Will's but surprising she did come up some on her own.

Thankful that Kyra can come over and play.
Thankful that Daddy can go to work.
Thankful that we can drink.
Thankful that we can put makeup on.
Thankful that we can play on the I pod.
Thankful that we can curl our hair.
Thankful that we can go to story time.
Thankful that we can go to Grandma's house.

And I am thankful for my AWESOME children!

Holiday Cards!

2010-11-10T14:09:00.007-07:00

Well it's that time again. Christmas Cards aaahhhhh!!! Actually I really love doing Christmas cards, cause it's a fun way to show off how cute your kids are without being all.....MY KIDS are SO cute. Especially people that you haven't seen in awhile. Also I love doing my Christmas letter cause it's a great journal entry for myself.

This year for my Christmas Cards I am going to look at Shutterfly. They have SO many cute ones to choose from. I had a really hard time choosing but here are a few of my favorite. YOu can go here to check them out http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
or here

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

I LOVE this one for many reasons. First I love the brown with the traditional Christmas colors, so classy. Second, it say Merry Christmas because this is after all a holiday for Christ and I don't like to be politically correct:), and Third cause I can put a picture of each kid!

This might MIGHT be my favorite though.

It's just so classy and elegant. And I think it would look really good with my pictures.

And Finally...

I like this one just because it's so Christmassy (is that a word). All the right colors, the right sayings, and again I can put a picture of each kid.

hmmmm how will I ever decide!!

If you are looking for some cool gifts from shutterfly go to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars . I got one for my mom one year and she loved it! Has still kept it!!!

and......if you want 50 free photo cards too....go here: Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up:
http://bit.ly/sfly2010

No seriously the cards a WAY cool!!! Enjoy the upcoming Holiday Season!!!!

The Pirate The Butterfly and The Kitty!

2010-10-31T13:33:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween!

Watch OUT For ThE DEad People!!!!

2010-10-30T15:18:00.002-06:00

O.k. so you know how when you go to most small cute little towns (well really most any town that has a main street) they usually have cute little signs. OH like during Christmas time you have Christmas trees, bells, candy canes that light up, or Easter flags of bunny rabbits and eggs. Even Halloween they might have something cutesy. Well down here in Price ( I actually think this awesome by the way) we have dead people. Yes that is right dead scary people are lined up down main street. Here are some examples.....

Ha ha they really get into it. So fun and kids were trick-or-treating down Main Street today. Of course not my kids, cause I am mean!

O.k. on a side note: we had our own little Halloween scare yesterday. I was sitting at the computer and I heard little footsteps up above me. So I looked up at the heater vent and their was a tail coming through the vents. That's right a tail of some kind of rodent. YUCK! Scared the crap out of me, I actually made Brett come home from work. I know pathetic (ask me about trying to catch a gerbil). But we haven't heard it since so hopefully it is gone!!

Halloween Crafts

2010-10-28T12:18:00.002-06:00

So last year I WAS such a bah humbug with Halloween. Yes it's true...I didn't even buy them costumes. I KNOW! No mother of the year award was given to me that year. So this year I have been trying really hard to make up for it. I actually bought their costumes in SePtember...amazing! And I even got a Halloween music cd (really...it may or may not have been only 1.99 though:)) Anyways I saw this cute idea for making witches hats and thought we would give it a try. Turned out to be really really fun!

First you go to the dollar store and purchase some party hats and paint them black.

See? black

Then let you kids go wild decorating the hats with glitter glue, finger paints, and stickers, or really whatever you want!

It was crazy hair day at school...uhm.....yeah.....that explains Will's hair.

And then you get these cute little witches! I am pretty sure the gorilla on Will's shirt is much more scarier. And...uhm....yeah... take off the price tag:) Oh yeah and don't take the picture before the glitter glue is dried or else you get it on the walls as was displayed in this picture.

O.k. this was my favorite.. These little Halloween men are SO cute!

I am not sure what exciting activity awaits us tonight. I think the college is putting on a Halloween Carnival that we might go check out. Then tomorrow is Will's class party and school carnival. Tomorrow night is the Ward carnival. And finally trick-or-treating. Wow, nobody better call me a bah humbug this year!

Trip Down Memory Lane

2010-10-20T22:41:00.002-06:00

I was looking through some old pictures tonight just for fun and I came across this video of Will singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We were living in Oregon at the time. He is about two in the video. So.....cute! He is growing up WAY too fast. I don't like it!

Freckles!!!

2010-10-08T10:51:00.002-06:00

When I was little I HATED my freckles. Everyone use to tell me that they were angel kisses and I would yadda yadda. I didn't want to hear it! But I have grown to appreciate them (I was going to say love, but thought that was a bit too strong) mostly cause now when I get zits people MIGHT think that it's just a freckle. At least that's what I like to think.

HowEVEr, one of my most favorite things about Will is his freckles that are just on his nose and spread out too his cheeks. I LOVE them!!
So I was so excited when this summer I noticed Kyanna's nose and cheeks.

they may not be as prominent as Will's but they are dainty like a lady. Don't you just love them? I do!!

Answers!

2010-10-04T20:20:00.007-06:00

O.k. here are my answers. I really enjoyed conference this weekend, even if I didn't get to listen to every talk and even though my kids didn't exactly listen as well as I had hoped, they still did really good!

We went to the "farm" for general conference. The kids LOVE it down there. I learned a couple of interesting facts from my grandparents this weekend though
-My Grandpa was ordained a Patriarch by PResident Hinckley.
-After my Grandpa was ordained he then turned to my Grandma and asked if she could type and when she said yes, he answered that will be good.
-Elder L. Tom Perry was my grandparents Stake President when they lived in Boston.

1. Who were your three favorite speakers? Oh my goodness lots but my favorite were...
President Monson
Elder Holland
Elder Uchtdorf

2. Favorite talk? oh this is so hard it's really a tie between President Monson and Elder Holland but if I had to choose I loved President Monsons talk it was like he was talking straight to me...which incidentally I felt the sameway at Relief Society conference.

3. Favorite hymn sung during Conference?o.k. so this might be kind of dork but I loved
Dear to The Heart of the Shepherd" I KNOW!

4. Who wore the best tie? hmmm....well.....o.k.... I admit I didn't really pay attention to this but I remember writing down that I liked Richard G. Scott tie it was Black/white/blue. That's what I wrote but I don't remember today.

5. Do you think conference had a “theme”? Hard to say. I didn't get a distinct theme like I have at other conference. But I felt like alot of talks had to do with Agency making right choices, and repentance. I also thought that a couple of talks really focused on listening to the Prophet. And faith in Jesus Christ.

6. Share a few of your favorite quotes (paraphrasing is fine). o.k. here they are.

"World will teach our children if we do not"

"teachers attitude is not taught it's caught"

"resist temptation to get caught up in everyday life, focus on what matters the most"

"our responsibility is to be in the world but not of the world"

"righteous character more valuable than any object you attain"

"as much as wrong in the world many things that are good"

"what the world really needs is courageous parents not afraid to speak out and make a stand"

7. Something that made you smile during conference.oh well of course it was when Elder Uchtdorf spoke about trees at the beginning of his talk and then said "what does this have to do with airplanes"

8. Any evidence that your children paid attention?
Well....yes they did have an activity packet and one of the activities was to write down a quote and Will wrote that someone said "I will" so he was at least listening to that part.

9. If you had to give a talk in General Conference (don’t faint, this is hypothetical), what do you think you’d speak about?
Make me sick to my stomach to even think about it. If I did though I think it would be about the importance of being a good example.

10. What are some of your post-conference goals?
Well I have so many as usual. ONe thing that I do remember and I can't even remember who said it, but I need to go to bed early.
I am going to try and look on the positive and be thankful for more things in my life.
try to have more faith

General Conference

2010-10-01T20:53:00.009-06:00

O.k. it's that time of year again. I am really excited about this time though because my hubby will be home with me on Sat. so there is a slight chance that I might actually get to listen to some talks. I have been preparing also to find ways to keep my kiddies entertained so that maybe they might get something out of it too. A couple of really great places....

http://downloads.sugardoodle.net/October%202010%20General%20Conference%20Junior%20Primary.pdf
or here
http://new.lds.org/general-conference/children?lang=eng

anyways then I came across this blog....

http://diapersanddivinity.com/2010/09/30/behold-a-blog-stuff-extravaganza/

and thought this could be really fun! So if anyone wants to do this with me feel free to join. On Monday I will post my answers and then if you WANT you can copy and pastethe questions and then post them on your blog! Won't it be FUN? Or not, whatever :)

Well I thought it would be fun. So here are the questions!!!

1. Who were your three favorite speakers?

2. Favorite talk?

3. Favorite hymn sung during Conference?

4. Who wore the best tie?

5. Do you think conference had a “theme”?

6. Share a few of your favorite quotes (paraphrasing is fine).

7. Something that made you smile during conference.

8. Any evidence that your children paid attention?

9. If you had to give a talk in General Conference (don’t faint, this is hypothetical), what do you think you’d speak about?

10. What are some of your post-conference goals?

Peas

2010-09-29T23:06:00.005-06:00

I HATE peas.... sorry I know that their are a lot of pea lovers out there but I just am not one of them.

When I was little I would do anything that I could to get out of eating my peas. I remember sitting at the table forever until I had finished all my peas. Then I THOUGHT that I had gotten smart. First I would throw them under my chair thinking that my parents would never notice HA! Next I would throw them under one of my brothers chairs hoping that my parents would think that it was one of them. And when I finally got smart enough I would keep them in my mouth and then hurry up and excuse myself and go spit them out in the toilet. I KNOW such a naughty girl....I so should have been grounded for that.

So as a result....I have never subjected my children to the grossness I like to call peas.

But for some reason that I can't explain I put a bag of peas in my grocery cart and actually made them the other night.

O.k. NO JOKE, my child Kyanna, the same child were I as a parent have spent hours at the dinner table waiting for her to finish all of her food, asked for a second helping of peas. My mouth just about dropped to the floor. What the heck? Kyanna who doesn't eat anything, unless of course it has tons of sugar in it. Kyanna who had to be put on protein shakes at the age of two to gain weight (which of course she did NOT drink). Kyanna who can literally go all night with our a single spoonful of food asked for a second helping of peas.

Well there you have it. I will from now one be serving peas more often, heck maybe every night if this keeps up. But I will have to find another vegetable. I can't do it. Can't even stand the smell.

But I am glad that she likes them. That is all!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

2010-09-29T07:08:00.002-06:00

It is time for my yearly tradition of taking over Kelly's blog and do a quick post to tell her Happy Birthday. I have known Kelly now for a little more than 8 years. The first opportunity that I had to hang out with Kelly was on her birthday when we went to Joe's Crab Shack. It was a good chance for me to get to know her one on one. I knew there was something special about the woman that I was eating dinner with. I can't tell you how proud I am of Kelly. I have put her through so much over these last eight years. She continues to suprise me with each challenge she faces. The last one has been moving to Price. She always supports me and continues to love me! She is such a wonderful mother to our kids and the spiritual giant in our home. I can tell how much she loves being a mother to William, Kyanna, and Jenna and it is so much fun watching her help them grow. She does the little things that I normally don't think of doing. Well, that is all that I will say this year as I hijack her blog. Kelly, sweetie, I love you! Enjoy your day today!

Will and Ky start Soccer

2010-09-26T20:39:00.007-06:00

a couple weeks ago hehehe!

Will has improved so much this year three seasons of soccer has made a difference! He made a goal on his first game!

Kyanna is technically not old enough to play soccer here in Price but they let her anyways cause she would be playing with Will. She is so tiny out there I am afraid one good kick could knock her head off. She especially loves to hold hands and pick grass :)

AND.....Look who gets to be there coach!

I am So Excited...

2010-09-21T23:28:00.004-06:00

O.k. Wait a minute!....... If your name is Rob and Kristi DON'T READ THIS POST! Yet anyways or else you are going to ruin the surprise (not that it's that great don't get too excited) Sorry!

Anyways I just wanted to share this WAY cute fabric that I picked up the other day.

don't you just love it? I am so excited to make my soon-to-be new nephew a blanket with this.

Sorry I just had to share.. couldn't wait until it was done.
That's all! Have a good night:)

Sunday Stroll in the Park

2010-09-19T21:02:00.006-06:00

Tonight we went to the Park for a Sunday evening walk but not to the kind of park you might think. You would be hard pressed to find a park like this up in Salt Lake and even if you did I bet it wouldn't be just up the street!

warning: massive amount of pictures coming your way!

Big FAT........

2010-09-17T21:42:00.005-06:00

Jenna had a bit of a rough weekend at my parents house last week. After partying hard at Will's B-day party at Incredible Pizza she was climbing up my parents stairs and when she got to the top step she fell all the way back down.

Then the next morning trying to be a big girl, she tried to get up on a stool and it came toppling onto her. Leaving her with this...

This picture actually doesn't accurately show just how big her lip really was.

That's a little bit better.

And that is probably the best one! At least she was still happy.

And by that evening it had gone down quite a bit. She is a tough cookie!

6 Years Ago Today!

2010-09-10T08:39:00.002-06:00

I had this little fella (not so little anymore!)

I am so proud how my Will Bug is turning out. He is such a strong, loving, smart, tender-hearted, and friendly little boy!

Strong- So many ways that he is strong. But what I really mean here is that he is really really strong. He brings in my groceries for me and let me tell you he doesn't just bring in one bag at a time, it more like four or five bags. The kid is STRONG!!!

Loving-the kid has infinite amount of love for everyone. He is always ready for hugs and kisses and I really hope (although I know it's not realistic) that it never stops. Also he loves everyone, everyone is his friend. Yesterday on the way home from school I asked him what he did during recess and he told me he was defending some girls cause his friend Dominique was chasing them.

Also a couple of weeks ago we went to McDonald's with his good friend Cole. And Cole didn't get the toy he wanted in his happy meal and William happily traded toys with him. The kid is nice!

Smart-well I think we all know how smart he really is, cause he knows it! When we went in for his kindergarten testing he was reading, subtracting, adding, and doing syllables with his teacher. His teacher came up to me and said "where did he learn all this stuff" and I really couldn't answer cause that's just Will. He picks up on everything and fast. Although I do think I need to give a shout out to channel 7 I think that has contributed alot to it!

Friendly- I never worry about Will making friends, even moving to a new place I know that he isn't going to have problems and even he told me all about his friends on his first day of school. But what I really love about him, and this could be cause he is still young, but he doesn't care who it's with, boys, girls doesn't matter he is friendly to everyone. And everyone just wants to be his friend.

Tender-hearted- o.k. embarrassing moment for Will in years to come I am sure. But we went to see Toy Story 3 and he cried. It was so stinkin cute. I am mad that I can't remember this but something made him so happy a couple of weeks ago and he started to cry then and asked "mom why am I crying?" Dang I wish I could remember.

Anyways that's all! My brag session of my cute little , I mean big, 6 years old. Hope you have a great Birthday buddy. Love you!!!

We are True Ute Fans Not Because....

2010-09-08T21:27:00.005-06:00

-Both Brett and I graduated from the University of Utah
-And not because Brett has been going to football and basketball games for as long as he can remember (in fact sshhh don't tell anyone, but his Gramps used to get us in free to Utah basketball games:)).
-Also not because Brett used to work for the Football team.

But now I am going to tell you why we are so listen up....

We have now rode our mechanical horse where the Ute Indians rode their horses.

We ate lunch where the Indians may have eaten their lunch.

Wondered how that rock doesn't fall, maybe the Utes thought the same thing!

We learned of the stories they put in writing.

(I guess this one is about a pregnant buffalo, go figure)

We played in the same dirt that little Ute boys and girls may have played in.

Maybe even pricked our finger on the same cactus as a Ute.

Or thought this was a good shelter as the Ute Indians did.

And maybe just maybe little Ute Indian boys and girls were as cute at this little boy and girls. But just maybe.

And maybe the Utes tried to catch a lizard just like this one that got away.

Now that we have walked, learned the stories, and saw the places where the true Utes lived, now we are truly true Ute fans!

(all pictures taken at Nine Mile Canyon)

OH!! Yes One More

2010-09-04T21:24:00.001-06:00

-For some reason people in Price seems to think it's necessary to put a big huge sticker on their car telling us what kind of car they are driving. Not sure why... maybe they need to remind themselves but I can pretty much figure our that they are driving a Cadillac without having the big sticker on the back window telling me that. I know what Mustangs are too!

The Things I've Learned.....

2010-09-04T08:48:00.003-06:00

about Price in the couple of days that I have been here.

Sorry I know you all want pictures but the task of finding my camera cord right now is just to big and I STILL feel sick so this is what you are getting instead!

-Everything is either Dinosaurs or Castles. I am pretty sure that the High School Mascot (and there is only one high school in all of Carbon County) is the Dinos. The side of the police car says Dinos. I have seen many signs reading "Castle Country" I think it has something to do with the rock formations down here, which by the way are super cool!

-All day Kindergarten, that was a surprise. Will is super excited to either eat lunch at school or bring his own.

-Houses settle down here cause of the soil. So if you are really sensitive to that type of stuff (which I am) you can actually feel walking downhill in some places of our apartment. But on the upside my refrigerator door closes on it's own. So that one less thing to worry about.

-There are only 4 (I am pretty sure) stop lights in the whole town.

-If you are LDS you are in the minority down here. Which I think is highly unusual for a small town in Utah.

-The Walmart....all I can say is W-O-W!

-We have been here for four days and I don't think I have felt any wind. Which makes it really HOT!

-People have been VERY nice. The first day Brett's co-workers wife brought us a plate of cookies and invited the kiddies to her house while we un-pack and Brett's other co-worker brought us KFC. Although she did say that our house was a mess and that we had ALOT of work to do. But she was right!

-O.k. this one isn't necessarily about Price but more about our move. Schools and other companies that use a lot of paper aren't killing off our trees. It's the moving company! I have 10, Yes 10 full bags of paper that they used to wrap all of our stuff in ( and that's only half since the other half is in storage). They wrapped my dish soap in about 10 sheets of paper! Although I have to say having someone move you while you just watch them work is AWESOME!

-If you want to watch any t.v. at all you have to get cable. No free channel reception down here. We pay 15 bucks a month for local channels only. But they were able to install it on the next day.

-Everything requires a deposit. City utilities wanted a 200 deposit, the cable and Internet company wanted 50 dollars. I guess they must have a lot of people not paying their bills.

That's all I can think of right now. Someday I am going to count how many insurance companies there are because it seems to be unusually high amount. I am really trying to have a positive attitude about all this but its been hard, since we have been down here I have been SO sick and Brett has been working alot, our house is not yet rented in West Jordan and that is stressing me out big time! I hope next week is better!

Jenna and the Doggies

2010-08-29T23:54:00.005-06:00

Daisy and Mogley.... Jenna loves Daisy and Mogley. At first she was very very nervous to be around the dogs, in fact she would cry at the sight of them.

But slowly she has become more and more comfortable around them. At first she liked it when they were on the other side of the glass door. Then she would only like them if you were holding her. But now apparently she likes them in their kennel but with the door open. She even stuck her fingers in there for Mogley to lick.

So here are a few pictures that I snapped at my parents house tonight.

I think she might still be a little nervous around Daisy so she stays in the kennel with the door closed.

Here are a few more pictures that I snapped

Isn't he handsome?

Our New Home

2010-08-20T22:24:00.003-06:00

Sorry it has been so long I have been out of camera commission again. But hopefully that will end now. Anyways I thought that I would post some pictures of where exactly we are going to live in Price. But before I show you any pictures there are a couple of things that I want you to remember......

1. It has been INCREDIBLY hard to find a decent rental place down here. We went from wanting to rent, to wanting to buy, and then finally to renting until we are able to find a decent place to buy (whole other story). But yes seriously if you are wondering ask me sometime about the house with no doors.

2. This is just temporary until we find something we like.

3. I am not sure if there are really and "bad" areas in Price, but although it may not look like it, I have actually seen worse areas then where this apartment is at.

4. It's a 4 bedroom for only 750 a month and they let us sign a 6 month lease.

5. And finally...although it may not look super stylish on the outside, yes it's very very very old. It has been totally re-done on the inside. New carpet, walls, kitchen, and bathroom. It's actually very cute. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the inside cause people are still living there and I would have just felt weird taking pictures.

Anyways with that all being said here it is......

Yup it's got a gravel yard.

and yes this is our next door neighbor, luckily it's just a cleaning supply store and not a real chemical plant :)

and yes this is our other neighbor

It's only temporary, it's only temporary, it's only temporary.

And in case you were wondering this is where Brett has been living for the last 4 weeks. The good old best western.

This is the view from our hotel. This is only part of Price. It's really quite beautiful down here. I think that I am really going to like it.

Digital Scrapbooking Blog

2010-08-09T11:44:00.004-06:00

My friend Megan has started a digital scrap booking blog. You should check it out. If you ever wanted to start but just don't know where, this is a good place to look. She helped me get started. So much better than real scrapbooking (sorry for all that do that it's just not for me) I mean no big messes, no children trying to join in on the fun and stealing all of your supplies, no keeping track of all the pictures and what order they should go in, and no more big expenses on material (o.k. there is some expense but there is also ALOT of freebies out there).

http://www.realscrappy.blogspot.com/

Will's First Day of Kindergarten (sniff, sniff)

2010-08-05T10:32:00.003-06:00

Yes I am sad, mostly because that is the end of us being home all day together. I am sad cause it means that he is getting SO old, and I am sad cause whatever happens to him at school is beyond my control (I like being in control :))

BUT I am also so excited for him. He has been looking forward to going to kindergarten for more than a year and he is so so ready. I am excited cause he is so excited. I can't wait to hear about all of his new adventures. And I wouldn't be totally honest if I didn't admit that I am going to have fun just hangin with my girls.

So all that being said here he is on his first day. So excited.

of course Kyanna had to get in on the action, I think she is going to have the hardest time adjusting cause that is her playmate going.

I think most of all he was most excited about his new backpack!

Luckily he had his cute friend Mya to go with him today. I think it helped for both of them!

Oh my goodness some kids were hanging to their moms legs, some ran out of line to give their mom one last hug. Not Will he didn't even turn around. But I am really glad he had no problems.

He had a good day. When I asked him what he did, he said that he forgot. Oh well! I am sure it will get more exciting as the days go on.

Yup it's true...

2010-07-13T22:46:00.002-06:00

Well we aren't technically supposed to say anything but..... since the secret is out among those who really aren't supposed to know but have been sworn to secrecy I figure I might as well let everyone know. Anyways I can tell just not Brett. However if you do work at the D.I. please don't say anything. But yes it is true.....

Where you might ask? This is where.....

It will be good I think. It's only two hours away. I am not going to actually say WHY we are moving yet, but I am sure you can all make a pretty good guess.

So our house will soon be up for sale, maybe, we might still rent it out and hopefully in a couple of months we will ALL be down there. Wish us luck!

I promise to post more details when I can :)

I've Lost My Husband

2010-07-04T22:23:00.003-06:00

Yes it's true, but not in the way that you might be thinking. See I have lost my husband because

of this....

and I am bored. So I am posting about it. Have you ever read it? Well if you haven't you should?

O.k. in all fairness he lost me the last two days cause of this book. In fact he had to convince me to get out of the car and see my parents and watch fireworks cause I wanted to stay and read it!

Happy Birthday Kyanna

2010-06-27T21:08:00.008-06:00

I was thinking that four years ago from about this time I was feeling really sad and depressed. Mostly because I was two days past my due date, it was well over a 100 degrees that year, four people I knew had their baby that day, and I had just got done visiting my sister-in-law who was on bed rest for going in to labor too early. Me... Nothing. I had just had a Dr.'s appt that day I wasn't dilated or effaced. I just didn't know how much longer I could do this. Little did I know that in about 12 hours you would be born. You were by far my easiest and fastest labor

People are always jealous of Kyanna's red hair. Little do they know that it comes with attitude and a temper. BUT I love it cause she it is just like me. And that puts a smile on my face. I think that she is an amazing beautiful child. I am always amazed at how well she keeps up with her brother, she can do just about everything he can. I love that she loves to go everywhere with me. I always have company and even at 3-4 years old I just love her company, I love talking to her, I really really do! I kind of feel like we get each other and it's fun. She is so animated in all of her expressions and actions. She is a child that knows what she wants.

Hope you have a great birthday. Love you so much!

William

2010-06-14T22:08:00.004-06:00

learned how to ride his bike today. O.k. well not today this has been kind of an ongoing learning process and he was doing really well but I was worried about him going out in the streets and he was having a really hard time turning around so we went to the church parking lot and he caught on so quick! I think he will do good around our house now that he kind of has the hang of it.

Funny Pictures of My kids. Well....

2010-06-10T22:30:00.007-06:00

...at least to me.

The other Day Will and Kyanna were having a

a booger fight. Yes that is what they called it.

Then today they decided to dress up for lunch.

If you couldn't tell, Will tied his own tie. And some reason he thinks that doing it through his shirt is how it goes. Oh yes and he is very serious about it.

Jenna loves the camera. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!

And just because I am so PROUD. Look at this cute little thing that I did tonight.

so easy took like 30 minutes, but now that I am looking at it maybe I should have taken 31 minutes and made the eyes straight. Oh well, I am going to do another one tomorrow night.

That's all:)

O.k. I am too tired...

2010-06-05T22:16:00.004-06:00

to keep scrolling down pictures so I am just doing a new post.

This child just loves dolls!!!

See what I mean!

Well it looks like she loves this too!

Busy Fun Day!

2010-06-05T21:48:00.005-06:00

Wow I am SO tired I can't even believe that I am posting this. I hope it makes sense.

Awhile ago Brett told me that his co-workers wanted to do a Luau for Jenna on her birthday. But when we found out that Will had a soccer game at the same time and that we had to do treats and pictures we decided that there was no stinkin way I would be able to come out to the D.I. Well he called me this morning and said that his co-workers had bought her a cake and a present, so we really felt like we should go. It was really fun. They were so cute. These Polynesian girls that he works with. So we had an authentic Polynesian lunch and a princess and the frog cake!

Then we had Will's soccer game and I just realized I don't have any pictures (if you didn't guess we got a camera working again) I will take some next week. Along with treats and pictures

Then this evening we had a big circus party with grandmas and grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Since Jenna has a cousin, Annalee, who is only a week older than her we decided to have a big birthday party for both of them. It was really fun! We had hot dogs, nacho chips, popcorn, lemonade, and face painting. I hope everyone had fun! Thanks Nate and Nancy for doing that with us!!!

Jenna didn't have any problems digging right into the cake. No hesitation.

Annalee didn't either!

Happy Birthday Jenna!

2010-06-04T22:08:00.003-06:00

O.k. so technically her birthday isn't until tomorrow, but with soccer games, baptisms, and a birthday party I am just not going to get around to blogging, so we are getting in the night before.

Oh how I LOVE this little girl. Seriously though, this child has defied everything that I thought I knew about being a Mom. The first two were, I guess in a manner of speaking, pretty routine. They both did the same kind of things and the pretty close same time frame. Well not this child, no no no. Starting from birth in has been so many ups and downs. From the time that the Dr. had to hurry and get her out cause the cord was wrapped around her neck to now when we visited the dentist cause she doesn't' have any teeth at ONE YEARS old. Yes we have dealt with jaundice (for more than two weeks) to thrush, multiple chest x-rays, does she or doesn't' she have asthma ( turns out she does), and the cystic fibrosis scare! But despite all that she really is a pretty healthy kid. Although I do have to say about the teeth, I was o.k. that she didn't have any teeth, made breastfeeding not a problem, but now I am ready for her to have some, I want to give her some GOOD food!

She is that happiest baby that I have every seen. She always has a smile for everyone (as long as you don't try and hold her or her Mommy is close by:)). She has the most beautiful auburn curly hair I have ever seen! She is so smart, so funny, and so loving. Always always willing to cuddle (at least for right now).

So I can't believe that it has been a year. It's been wild but I love it!!!

O.k. couple more just cause she is so dang cute!!!

Love ya Jenna Louise!!!

So I just noticed.....

2010-06-01T22:43:00.002-06:00

that I still have the you tube video at the bottom of my page singing "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas" and I thought wow it's been six months I should probably take that off. And then I thought nah... I'm not going to I like it. That's all!

by the way my camera is still broken :( and Jenna will be One in 4 days ahhhhhh!!!

Another Cookbook Update

2010-05-26T07:27:00.003-06:00

So....we didn't do good last week at all! There was ALOT of puke and so well none of us got very excited about trying new recipes. So I think the only new recipe we tried was hills and valleys, interesting egg breakfast but nothing spectacular! We are doing better this week so far. Some of you have requested the Oriental Chicken Salad recipe so here goes:

Oriental Chicken Salad
(honestly I 1/2 this recipe for my little family)

Salad

4-6 cups chicken, cooked
2 pkg. ramen teriyaki noodles crumbled
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
4 green onions,chopped
2-16oz bags coleslaw (shredded cabbage)

Dressing
3/4 cup salad oil (which I discovered from the grocery store man cause I couldn't find Salad oil anywhere is just regular vegetable oil)
1/4 cup +2 tbsp. white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
2 packs of seasoning from the ramen noodles
3/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. accent (which I didn't use cause I guess this is MSG, plus it doesn't need it!)

In a large bowl, combing all salad ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine all dressing ingredients well; pour over salad. Stir to thoroughly coat all ingredients and serve!

IT's really really good. We have actually made it twice cause we like it so much, despite the adverse side affect of cabbage :)

On another note. I know I said I would post more pictures of Kyanna's dance recital. Well at the very beginning of the performance I went to get the camera out of the bag (while holding Jenna I might add) and dropped it on the floor bad. So it didn't work :( I really hope that we get it working. So all we got were the pictures on Sat. night. We did get it on video, but since we don't have the right thing in our computer to upload the video, you will just have to come over if you want to watch it!

Kyanna's Dance Recital

2010-05-23T09:21:00.003-06:00

I am supposed to be getting my sharing time ready, but I am doing this first, oh well. Last night was Kyanna's first dance recital. It was a lot of fun and Kyanna did so well. Dare I say that she is one of the best in her class, but to be fair she is also one of the oldest. But really who cares how good they did. When its a bunch of two and three years olds it's cute no matter what!

She has another performance on Monday night so I am sure that I will post more pictures then as well. Last night I was the class mom, which meant I was in charge of all seven of the girls. It was ALOT of work. They were all really excited and running all over the place. Then they have this huge costume change towards the end which is really fast. But we got them all changed and out on the stage. It was fun. But I am excited to be able to actually watch Kyanna dance on Monday!

So here are some pictures. The lighting is all that great in a lot of these. I don't think our flash is very good. On MOnday I will get a lot closer.

downstairs before the performance and amid all the chaos.

Again sorry not the best pictures. Kyanna is the second girl in from the right.

Now she is the first girl on the right.

Update

2010-05-19T07:25:00.000-06:00

O.k. so I thought that I would give a quick update about our cookbook experience before the kids wake up. We are doing really well. We have missed two days so far, which I think is great. So far the best dish has been the Oriental Chicken Salad and the worst dish was Can't put your Fork Down Carrot Cake. I was able to put my fork down. I don't know maybe I messed up. Makes me kind of want to try it again. Well see. I am not sure what is on the recipe for today need to go figure it out. But it's been really fun so far. My kids even picked from the vegetable section, once!

World Wide Cookbook

2010-05-10T21:19:00.005-06:00

So lately I feel like I have been kind of running out of fun things to do with my kids. I mean I have fun with my kids and no doubt with summer HOPEFULLY on it's way I will be able to think of more fun things. But I want to try something different and try and be somewhat educational at the same time.

Well for Mother's Day, which was awesome by the way except for the part that I had to talk in church, my children gave me this cookbook.

It looks like so much fun. It has recipes in it from all over the world and I was thinking that it would be fun to try a lot of these. And then I thought of this movie...

Ever seen it? It's called Julia and Julie. It's a really cute movie you should watch it if you haven't. Anyways its about this girl that tries every single recipe in Julia Childs recipe book and then blogs about it. So without being able to think of any original ideas of my own, which is not surprising, I decided to try a new recipe from the worldwide cookbook everyday, or most everyday, and I am going to let my kids pick it out and we will make it together.

I realize that it may not happen everyday, that's why I said most everyday. And hopefully doesn't fizzle out, but I am pretty good at starting things and not finishing them. I know it's a lot of recipes but it will be fun to try. And I realize that my kids are going to pick a dessert every day so I am going to pick the section and then they are going to pick from that and we will do it a couple of days in advance. I hope that this will be really fun.

So today we made cookies. Six dollar cookies is what they were called. They were o.k. not the best cookie ever, but still pretty good.

Do you love the chocolate all over their faces!!!

Oh and by the way, just so you know, I will not be blogging about this everyday like in the movie. Trying to be a little realistic.

Tomorrow Strawberry Limeade. Yummy!

I am not looking forward to the fried tofu or the salmon head soup, but I guess it's all part of the fun. Trying new stuff right!

Zoo Trip

2010-05-10T21:08:00.003-06:00

Last Friday my Sister-in-law Kristi and I with our kids decided to take a little afternoon trip to the zoo. It was so much fun. I love that we have a yearly pass. I love that it's no pressure to make it through the whole zoo in one day. We can just go and when the kids are done then were done and you don't feel bad about not using the whole day.By the way it paid for itself in two trips and I get a guest and a guest child in for free when I go, soooooo worth it. The weather was fabulous and the kids were fun. Here are some pictures

Even Jenna was able to notice some of the animals, but I think she had more fun feeling like a big girl and getting to ride in the wagon with Kyanna.

O.k. I think this is so funny. Notice the giraffes legs. So cute! Guess that's what they have to do to eat leaves down low.

Cute baby elephant.

Will's new favorite animal is the monkeys. Probably because lately he has been acting like one!! On the swing set and eating bananas like crazy!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-28T22:36:00.002-06:00

Trip To Oregon!

2010-04-26T19:40:00.005-06:00

So I am really late at posting this but what can I say. Life has been busy! Anyways a couple of weeks ago we took a, kind of a spur of the moment, trip to Oregon. Brett's sister was blessing her newly adopted baby and Brett's mom was wanting to drive so we decided to go with her.

The kids did SO well driving the car all day. Jenna was amazing! But I really think it's because Brett's mom sat next to her and entertained her the whole way! Thanks for that. Although as we were driving out Kyanna did say, at about the time we hit Bountiful, if we where there yet. And we bought them some lunchables for lunch that day. They seriously couldn't wait for lunch. At about 9:00 a.m. Will said he was hungry and needed some lunch!

It was SO much fun. Although Brett's sister lives in 2 hours south of where we used to live we decided to spend a night in Tualatin, the city we used to live in. It was fun. I miss Oregon ALOT! I mean I don't think that I would ever want to live there again, but it was such a neat experience for us. We grew very close as a family, Brett and I grew very close as a couple and we really learned to rely on each other, learned to have fun with each other, and realized that we are actually grown ups and don't need Mom and Dad around all the time (although it's nice now that we are back around family and really the main reason we moved back!).

Anyways we went to Trader JOes and got some of their fabulous Roasted Pepper Tomato Soup ( the best ever tomato soup), Hagens for there wide variety of candy, they even got some new ones since then. And we went to a place called Voodoo Donuts. I don't know if you have ever heard of this place, it was on a the travel channel one time. They have all these weird donuts, you'll have to check it out here is the website.

http://voodoodoughnut.com/

Hey "Keep Portland Weird" right?

While we were standing in this really really long line to get our donuts we noticed some buckets of donuts on the counter top. Well apparently we learned from the guy behind us that these are day old donuts and sell for 5 dollars! I SO SO SO wished I had a picture of these donuts, but no joke we bought ( really Brett's mom bought) a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon bucket of donuts it was awesome. Needless to say though we didn't even want to look at a donut by the end of the trip. Well....maybe not Brett :)

So anyways it was a great trip. We got to see cute little Drew get blessed and spend some time with family. It was just way too short. And unfortunately we are great about bring our camera everywhere we go, but horrible at actually using it! So the only pictures really were taken from our hotel room and the kids swimming in the pool!

Seriously isn't that the cutest baby in a pink, black and white swimsuit you have ever seen? Actually Jenna really enjoyed the pool.

Can't see it very good but Jenna got quite a bump wrestling:)

From our hotel room, that apparently CoNAN O'Brian stayed at the same time while we were there!

Will swam across the short length of the pool he was very proud of himself!

I think Kyanna might need swimming lessons. She did not want to get into the water or jump in to her dad. Every time her feet got a little wet she said "I am wet I need a towel" After much convincing a little bribing we got her to jump in!

It was a fun trip!

Happy Birthday Brett!

2010-04-14T07:14:00.001-06:00

I think that I may have done this picture before for a Birthday post but oh well I am doing at again. Happy Birthday to the most amazing man in the world! I hope that you have a fantastic day!

Easter

2010-04-14T07:10:00.004-06:00

Here are some pictures from Easter Morning. It was a good Easter spent at home, watched General Conference and ate Dinner at the Stoddarts!

As you can see the Easter Bunny left lost of yummy treats for the kiddos. More than they probably needed. I think we probably all came out of this day with a little bit of a tummy ache!

Easter Dress the Week Before

2010-03-28T22:50:00.003-06:00

o.k. so I know that I am overloading with pictures today but...since next week is general conference we dressed the kids up in their Easter attire today for church. So here are some pictures. Jenna's dress was actually Kyanna's Easter dress when she was basically the same age!

and of course it wouldn't be Easter Sunday picture taking day without Will finding a sword out of something and fighting off all the bad guys!