A Couple of Nuts

Gavinisms

2012-01-17T07:06:00.003-07:00

I'm sorry I always post these, but I just don't ever want to forget them!

Gavin got out 5 pieces of bread for me to make his sandwich. I said to him, "Gav, there is no way you'll eat all of these."

He replied, "Dagum right I will."

Thank you, Mater.

A real blog....

2012-01-12T20:43:00.002-07:00

Hi. My name is Janelle. And I used to blog. In fact, I used to really enjoy it! I've been trying to find the desire somewhere inside me to blog lately and it just hasn't been there. I get in these ruts or moods and have a hard time clawing my way out. Recently I've been more annoyed with facebook and sick of hearing every little detail of some people's lives. Yes, I'm sure a bit of that is jealousy because I'm sure we all try and put our best foot forward on there. I don't want to be that to someone else and so I toned things down a bit. Really, my blog shouldn't matter because if you're reading this, I'm guessing it's because you want to and not because you are being forced too. Unless you are my mother, she has to. I'm pretty sure there is some unwritten rule in the universe that your mother MUST read your blog OR ELSE. :)

We have had an enjoyable end of the year here at the Smith home. It was definitely BUSY, but this year also felt like the holidays were more organized and I felt less frazzled. I had my shopping done early, there wasn't a lot of rushing around and we even made a little bit of time to do things together, just the four of us. I feel like that doesn't happen very often. It may be easier when the kids are older and there is more to do, or that may be harder, but in any case I really enjoyed this December.

To kick it off, I attended our Taste Testers annual White Elephant exchange. It was hilarious as usual! This year we included an ugly sweater party with it which was very fun. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of each sweater..they were so hilarious!

You might also notice that you can barely see me behind Carlie's Cindy Lou Who bow and the "Mona Lesha" painting behind us. Yep, that was my contribution :)

We also visited Temple Square to see the lights. Gavin was so excited about it and wanted to take pictures so he brought my little camera. He only took a couple and then decided the rest of the night to be fascinated by the fountains. I feel like we just ran around looking at water the whole night!

Enjoying the water!

I really wanted to take pictures of the lights, but there were a lot of people and the kids just wanted to go crazy!

I wish someone would have told me how dumb I look in hats...I apparently thought it looked better than my messy hair....

We had our annual Smith Family cousin party and we went to see Arthur Christmas. The theater only had one other family there and I'm sure they were annoyed that they were in a movie with 21 kids and some adults LOL. I spent the majority of the movie out playing in the lobby with Max and his cousin Aly. It was actually quite enjoyable...they were so funny!

Next on the list was the Smith Family adult party...my favorite Smith party of the year! As previously mentioned, there are 21 grandkids so it's RARE that I get to just visit with the adults. I always look forward to this, even though it's only the 3rd year of this tradition. We played lots of fun games, ate good food and had our white elephant exchange. Lots of laughs and I ended up with a lot of pictures like this....

She was quite the poser.....

I like to pretend that MaryAnn is looking at me with loving adoration in this picture....

My mom had her party on the 23rd this year instead of on Christmas because some of the guys had to work Christmas night. I actually really enjoyed the not running around on Christmas day and it felt like it made this night more relaxed because the kids maybe weren't quite as nuts. Ok, they probably were just as nuts I just wasn't as stressed maybe? The food was super yummy and there were a few gifts and the main one was Mom and Al are taking us all to Disneyland in March! The kids are very excited We leave on my birthday and so Gavin keeps asking me how long until my birthday...not sure who is counting down more, me or him!

We really were trying to get a picture!

And finally something halfway decent!

All the grandkids....

I like this picture with my siblings although it wasn't very easy to get :)

Mom mom always decorates her tree so beautifully!

Just playing with my new camera lens :)

My grandparents always have their Christmas party on Christmas Eve. We have lots of yummy food (prime rib this year!) and it's tradition to do a pinata. This year it was....wait for it....a walmart store! I know, silly, but we have a big joke in our family about "Walmart Pride" with gang signs and all, so it fit nicely this year :) My grandparents spend all year collecting stuff for this pinata and make it super fun for all of the kids. I think it's incredibly nice of them to do this.

We took some pictures on Christmas Eve with the kids and our Elf, Elvis....(he's hiding in the tree). We loved having an Elf and the boys still talk non stop about him. Quick side note...Elvis flies to Santa every night to tell him if the kids were naughty or nice. He comes back each morning in a new spot and Christmas Eve is his last night here. Well, on Christmas morning Keith asked Gavin to get him something and Gavin was being a stinker about it. Keith told him that he needed to shape up and Gavin replied, "Elvis isn't here anymore Dad, I don't have to be good anymore!" Boy that lasted long.... In any case the kids enjoyed opening their gifts despite poor Maxy being sick. He was a trooper, but I think any kid would be when presents abound!

ELVIS

Can you find Elvis???

Santa had Elvis take some pictures of him putting out presents. He took pictures with the new kid Cameras the kids got...They were AMAZED!

He sure was excited about this easel!

Little do they know it's just clothes in there hahahaha

And it's not Christmas without Blue Bear! He got a present that Gavin so thoughfully wrapped for him. Gavin was actually REALLY cute and wrapped up some random toys for Max without me knowing. It had his Max's name on it and everything and I had no idea he had done it! How cute!

We also took a trip to Moroni to visit Alan's family and a trip to Dad's to have yummy homemade pizza and do our present exchange. Sometimes I get tired of being the picture taker so my camera didn't grace us with it's presence those nights :)

New Year's Eve we always plan to go to Keith's parents because it's his dad's birthday. I wanted to do something nice for it so I decided to make him a cake...I love how it turned out! Usually lots of us are there, but this year most of the night was just us and his parents. I was totally ok with that because I selfishly like when I get time with just them :) Scott and Heather and the girls came to ring in the New Year with us and then it was get home and get the kids in bed! Luckily church was changing from 9 am to 11 am the following day!

I was really kinda proud of my fish!

And now it's a New Year and time to make new memories! We have a lot to look forward to this year and lot to be thankful for. Hope your end of the year was as great as ours!

Gavinisms (yes, I know I'm a lame blogger)

2012-01-08T22:29:00.001-07:00

Gav: "Mom, when are you going to be president?"
Me (clearly thinking my son was pretty smart and into the Iowa Caucus stuff on TV) : "Buddy, I'm never going to be president."
Gav: "So I'm never going to have a sister?"

I think he meant pregnant....HILARIOUS.

Gavinisms

2011-12-17T22:30:00.001-07:00

Me: Gavin, it's time to get ready for bed.

Gav: Mom, do you know I'm nocturnal? That means I stay awake at night and don't have to go to bed. I just sleep during the day.

Me: Well why didn't you sleep today?

Gav: Oh, I just forgot.

Butt Cake

2011-12-15T14:44:00.001-07:00

Were you intrigued by my title? What the heck is a butt cake?

One of my very dear friends was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. I hate cancer. I love Bonnie. She is one of the most hilarious, good natured people, and not that I think anyone should have cancer, but most certainly not my Bonnie. Through everything she always had the best, most positive attitude and was really just an inspiration to me. I know there is no way it was easy on her, but whenever I saw her she always had a smile. She is part of my recipe group I do with my friends and through all of her treatments she kept asking if I would make her a butt cake when she was done with chemo. I laughed, but knew I had the perfect idea and couldn't wait to make it. She is always very witty and kept joking that we would all be able to say, "Bonnie nipped it in the butt!"

Well, Bonnie did nip it in the butt and here is the debut of her butt cake! This is the only picture I got of it because I was laughing so hard at her excitement :) I'm glad I could put a smile on her face, she deserves it.

First edtion of "Maxisms"

2011-12-12T22:38:00.002-07:00

Me: (Singing)
Max: Mom?
Me: Yes?
Max: Shhhhhhhhh!

Me: Max? What are you doing?
Max in a sneaky little tone: Nuping! (Nothing)

Me: Max, say "M"
Max, yelling: A! X!

And I know lots of kids say this, but it's pretty cute when he says: "Mom, I hold you!" when he wants to be held.

Love him.

Posing as a wedding photographer....

2011-11-18T12:23:00.001-07:00

If you know me, you know I love photography. If you really know me, you know I don't have much of a desire to ever be a wedding photographer. Yet, somehow...I ended up photographing a wedding :) One of my very best friends, Nancy, asked if I would be willing to photograph her son's wedding. Originally my answer was no. Then a couple weeks later, I was talked into it. I know THE ONLY way I could have done this was because they had so much confidence in me. Kip and Gabby were AMAZING to work with and so good to me; always reassuring me and really just bolstering my confidence in myself. I know sometimes it may seem that I think I'm pretty awesome at photography, but the truth is...I really struggle with feeling adequate. I still don't think I've found my own style, and I know I have SO much to learn, and I'm still scared of "real" photographers judging me, but I really appreciate those that encourage me. I always want everyone to feel that they have just what they want in their images, and I know sometimes they are nothing amazing, but sometimes I do ok too. There are times when I'm really proud of my work and other times that I'm not, but I'm also sure that I'm not the only one who feels this way. One day I would like to develop a business and do more with photography, but for now, it's just not a possibility. Sometimes that's really hard for me to say. I would love to spend time taking classes and workshops, mentoring with someone, thinking out the business end of things...but it's just not my season for that. I work a lot to try and be "present" in my own life and for now that means putting some things on hold. I don't want to miss these moments with my kids, and that's what reminds me that it's ok to have dreams and goals, even if they just might take longer to achieve.

Wow...did not mean to unload all of that in this post. I have a feeling I'll be rethinking hitting the publish button before throwing it all out, but I'm working on being the real me and not just who I think everyone wants me to be. Maybe that's a post for another day :)

So...onto the wedding! I photographed their engagements, did their announcements, Gabby's bridals and the temple grounds and reception. Again...they were a dream to work with and that little Gabby is so stinkin photogenic :) Here are some of my favorites....picture overload to follow!{And blogger always screws up the colors and tones of my photos, so hopefully these turn out ok...}


Hands down my favorite picture ever taken....

There are so many more I would love to share, but maybe one day I'll link up an album of all of them or something. One thing I did learn? I took WAY too many kissing pictures LOL Thanks again, Websters for your support and confidence!

Gavinisms

2011-11-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Gav: "Mom, remember when I was a baby and had curly hair? Those were some great times. I miss those days."

Oh that kid. He was literally pretending to fake sniffle while he said this.....

Field Trip

2011-11-17T08:35:00.001-07:00

Before we went to the Paiute Trail this year, Gavin had his first field trip of the year. It was at Wheeler Farm and I was excited to go because I thought that we would learn a little bit about Wheeler Farm. I've been there many times and know nothing about it. Well, I was very disappointed because we didn't learn a thing. It was just like any other time we've been other than we got to walk around with more people. I think Gavin had fun running around with the other kids at least and I got brave and let him feed the ducks. (If you didn't know I LOATHE birds of all kinds. Ok, basically, they scare the crap out of me.) I did, however, enjoy spending time with Gavin. Sometimes it's fun to just get time with him. I get 2 days a week with just Max while Gavin is at school, so it's nice to feel like Gavin is getting a little extra attention. We also drove with my sweet friend Becky and her daughter. Becky and I have been good friends since before we had kids and now it's nice to enjoy this phase with her.

He thought finding all these feathers was awesome!

I just love his expression :)

Less than thrilled about the wait for the hayride.

I thought this looked like he was kissing the pig :)

Oh he is handsome.....

Becky's daughter...she is so hilarious and LOVED to make up poses!

SOOOOOO cute!

She was hilarious...I have a million with her changing her poses

Becky and Kati

Everyday life....

2011-11-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

I think it's safe to say that all I do is whine about how busy I am, so I'm not going to do that now :) Just know I've had good reasons to be a slacker blogger and I'm trying to catch up. I'm really looking forward to picture time slowing down and just being able to get ready and enjoy the holidays. Gavin is SO excited for Christmas! I am SO excited for Thanksgiving, as usual. Of course I'm always excited if it has something to do with food...Here is just a little bit of our day to day happenings lately...

It snowed for the first time and Gavin wanted to make a snowman so badly. There was barely enough snow to throw a snowball but he was satisfied anyway :) He did this all on his own.

Just about everyday the boys pretend they are puppies. This was a day where it was non-stop puppy central.

Ignore the runny nose...I wanted to show the "collar" that Gavin made Max. It has Max's name and his owner's name (Keith) LOL

Haha...are you all wondering why I posted this picture? It's a horrible picture (on so many levels!) but I wanted to show all those people out there who say they love my hair, just what it's really like...This is what happens if I brush it. To tell you the truth I don't actually even OWN a brush, I used a pick. Now people can stop looking at me crazy when I say I never brush my hair....this is why. SCARY! Also, I don't typically wear my husbands ratty old painting shirt, but if you look closely you can see that my hair really needed to be colored and that's what I was about to do. Ok, now I'm just rambling and making excuses because I am feeling ridiculous about this picture....

Oh, and Blue Bear had yet another birthday...this has to be like 246 for him....

Same day as the dog day...This is a picture Gavin drew of him and Max as dogs. Don't get it? They have whiskers...duh! (Do dogs even have whiskers?) He wrote their names all on his own. I was proud he at least knew the letters in Max's name even if they are a bit out of order :) Wasn't so thrilled when he drew whiskers on their actual faces with pen....

Paiute Trail

2011-11-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

We finally got to go on a little getaway and headed off to the Paiute Trail in Marysvale! Where's that you say? Yep, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and so perfect! It's a little south of Richfield and basically just this small town where you can camp and go 4 wheeling. You can even ride you wheelers on their roads....what a town! Well, we are a no wheeler family, but luckily my dad generously shares his with us and we get to go on some fun rides while we are there.

We started off with a sighting of none other than.....

MATER! My parents had left earlier in the day and had seen it and told us to look for it. I knew the boys would be excited. How cute are their faces?

The rest of the trip was spent riding, eating, visiting, laughing, eating, playing the movie game, eating, showing our walmart pride (LOL, totally an inside joke), visiting a "boutique" (if you can really call it that!), eating, and going on a geo cache hunt that Clint and Julie set up for everyone. Oh yeah, and probably a little bit more eating. The meals were incredible! I don't think other people eat the amazing food that we do when we go camping. My dad is an incredible cook and over the years has gathered some great camping food ideas. I mean, hello, does anyone else eat pork and fish tacos when they are camping? How about omelets? Smoothies? Deep fried french toast? (That was a new one for me and AMAZING! Probably a little artery clogging, but definitely AMAZING!)

Thanks family for the fun trip! Looking forward to next year!

Grandma Amy brought all sorts of supplies for rock painting and hot rocks! The kids loved it...almost as much as Grandma Amy :)

Showing off his creations...

The Purple Turtle rock...

Logan hard at work

Hot Rocks....basically you heat up the rocks and then melt old crayons on them

He is such a ham when it's time for a picture...

My sweet niece Myah

And she wasn't very happy at the moment....

Searching for buried treasure in the bucket of wheat! Grandma and Grandpa had all sorts of fun trinkets in there!

Isn't she cute? I love all my sisters...

And another cheese face...a dirty one at that!

He thought he was pretty scary with these teeth!

Sneaking moms drink!

How cute are my grandparents??

Thankfully the bubbles I brought were a hit


Walmart Pride!

Some of my geocaching team looking for the loot!


Yes, this is my brother. Yes that is a grasshopper. Yes he ate it.

Yes this is my other brother. Yes that is a second grasshopper. Yes he ate it too....WEIRDOS I TELL YA

Happy Birthday, Max!

2011-10-27T13:51:00.002-06:00

My sweet baby boy turned 2 yesterday! I can't even believe that he has been with us for 2 years. The time has gone by so quickly and he has added so much to our family. I remember bringing him home from the hospital and feeling like our home just felt that much more complete with him in it. He had a rough first 3 months, but since then he has been an angel kid. Everything about Max is easy going. He is just so HAPPY all of the time. I'm amazed at all that he knows, says, can do already at this young age. He is truly amazing and melts my heart. It interesting to see how different he and Gavin are. It really shows you how everyone has their own little personality despite their environment. We are so lucky to have sweet Max in our lives and so very proud of him! And not to brag...(okay of course I'm bragging, cakes take a lot of TIME!) but I made him this cool Lightning McQueen and Mater cake :)

Gav's got moves....

2011-10-14T08:19:00.001-06:00

You may remember this video from 2 years ago.....(it's a little long)

Now watch the following...

Boy...has he improved his skills or what?

October Rants and Raves

2011-10-11T00:16:00.001-06:00

It's almost halfway through October and I figured I should blog since I haven't all month. I go to my pictures file on my computer and lo and behold there is not one single picture to blog about from October. Slight lie because there are some other people's family pictures I could blog about, but apparently I haven't been so great about taking pictures of my own family. I feel like I have been running around all month and it's not going to let up. I'm super awesome at over scheduling! Does anyone have any great tips on how to fit it all in??? It's been quite the rough month...

So....coming up this month we have our annual family trip planned to the Piute Trail. I am very much looking forward to that and the large amount of time Keith will have off! It's always a blast and I really look forward to spending time with Dad, Amy and fam. Not to mention...no baby this year! I think Gav and Max will be so much fun at these ages and really just looking forward to playing with them and being out in nature. I'm not ready for winter.

Also...looking forward to Max's 2nd birthday! He L.O.V.E.S the movie Cars so I'm planning an extravagant cake. Let's see if it turns out in reality how I'm pretending it will in my head! Can't believe that my baby is going to be 2! And I get the comment about everyday..."Time for another!" Thanks for your input...I'll decide when I'm ready :) (I'm sorry I always sound so bratty about having babies, but seriously...aren't Keith and I the parents, and not you? I hate feeling judged about how I choose to raise my family....)

Pictures, pictures and more pictures. I think we'll have to reevaluate how I handle this next year. I love it, but refer to the part about how I'm AWESOME at over scheduling. Not to mention that it seems like when I have 4 photoshoots, chicken and apple pie filling to can (not together btw!), visiting teaching, and regular duties to take care of, I get a call to, oh, I don't know, speak in church or something...

And Halloween is coming! If you have read my blogs about Halloween in years past you will remember that I am kind of a hater. Truthfully, A) It's a waste of money, so us po-folk ain't thrilled about it and B) I think it's a made up holiday just so people can dress trashy (Have you seen the Halloween costumes for women???) C) My house is too small and it's hard to accommodate people for parties and/or to do much decorating. Whine...whine...whine...I know. I've got a problem with that! Anyway...I'm being less of a Halloween Scrooge and have done a bit of decorating (I'll have to do a little bit each year, refer to the "po-folk" comment...) and I'm trying to be excited about it! The boys are BOTH going to be Spiderman. Gav was so sure that Max would want to be the same thing as him, but I said Max got to decide. Wouldn't you know we go walking down the costume aisle and all I hear from Max is "Spiderman! Spiderman! Spiderman!" Boys. So, we somehow convinced Kenna and Pais to be Spidergirls :) I can't WAIT to see them all together! I even thought I would get all into the Halloween spirit and be Spiderwoman but seriously, $40 bucks for a costume I'm going to wear for 2 hours? Nah.

So since I can't post without a picture, here is a cute one of some of my family...(and Dad, I promise you will have these finished soon! Thanks for being so patient!)

Gavinisms

2011-09-26T00:10:00.002-06:00

I took the boys on a little walk/hike the other day and after hiking up a slight hill this was the conversation:

Gav: Oh man....I'm so tired. It's so hot. (whine, whine...) Mom, we are in the desert!

Me: That wasn't so bad! Aren't you proud you made it up that hill?

Gav: I just wish they would have had camels for us to ride....

Pumpkin Time

2011-09-25T00:02:00.002-06:00

Last spring, Gavin's teacher had them all start a plant from a seed. Once they had grown a little she sent them home with a little tag saying it was a mystery plant and could be any one of 4 things. Looking at it, I was pretty sure it was some type of squash,just not sure which kind. We were hoping it was a pumpkin and sure enough, that's what we got!

I can't believe how CRAZY big this plant has grown and luckily the things planted around it were earlier crops so when the pumpkin plant grew all over everything it was ok. It's blending in with my zucchini plant, but we are still able to get to those :) 3 pumpkins grew on the plant and have completed turned orange. I noticed just the other day that 2 others were growing and since they have grown bigger than they were since I noticed them, we decided to pick our orange ones and see if having them off of the plant would help the others get even bigger. Gavin has been so excited about this little plant that he started and now to have these big, beautiful pumpkins! When we were picking them he said, "Hey! We don't even have to go to the pumpkin patch now!" While were were picking them I noticed yet another 2 that are growing and a teeny little start to another. I can't believe this one plant has produced so many!

For now they are just on our back deck...I'm so paranoid to put them on my front porch since our pumpkins were stolen last year. Gavin was so sad that the special pumpkins he picked out for all of us we gone, I can't imagine how he would feel about the ones he grew! You should have seen how sweet he was showing them to Max after his nap. LOVED it.

We also made a new friend outside that was hiding under one of the pumpkins....

Beehive Photoshoot

2011-09-19T22:08:00.002-06:00

For our YW activity last week we had a photoshoot for my cute Beehives. They were told that they could dress however they wanted and bring whatever props they wanted. No one really brought props which surprised me, but it was sure funny to see them all lip glossing and fluffing their hair during opening exercises :) The Mia Maid advisor asked what we were doing and when she found out she said, "Well I was wondering why they were all primping!" I've never thought of my girls to be really prissy...definitely DARLING...so it was funny to see them all nervous about these pictures! After their pictures we played on a park nearby and they didn't want me to stop taking pictures...such nerds doing the strangest poses, but they are so fun. I loved the opportunity that I had to tell each of them how beautiful they were when they would say things about not being "pretty" enough for a picture. These girls have no idea how beautiful they are inside and out. I'm so lucky to get to work with them. After the activity we went for ice cream at Artic Circle where I made them all promise to be calm and they then referred to me as "mom" the entire time we were there. My heart was so happy when they all kept telling me this was one of the most fun activities they had ever had. And how simple was it? Just me getting to play with my camera...I had been thinking all along it was more of an activity for me!

A couple of people have asked to see more than just their daughters pictures so I'm posting some here. Enjoy!

Gavinisms

2011-09-18T15:48:00.001-06:00

Gav was painting his fingernails.

Me: Gav, did you know only girls do that?

Gav: yes...I just wanted to look like a girl.

Me: Why?

Gav: Because Kenna will like me if I am a girl.

Oh boy. They are going through this, "I don't like eachother because of this or that" phase. Silly kids.

Gav at the beach...

2011-09-11T20:49:00.001-06:00

I took Gavin out to Oquirrh Lake the other day and let him have at it. He was really needing to get out of the house. Isn't he so cute? Sometimes it's so fun when I get just a few minutes with only one of them. I hope they enjoy those times too.

Last First Day of Preschool...and stuff

2011-09-09T21:26:00.002-06:00

Can anyone actually believe that my first baby will be going to kindergarten next year? He had started his last year of preschool and time is flying by! He is going to the same preschool as last year and is excited about it. I've already noticed that he is more interested in writing and learning than he was last year. He is growing up so fast!

I also had the opportunity to take Kenna to her first day of preschool. She was so cute and really excited about going and what she was going to wear (such a girl....) As we started to walk up to the door I could feel her hand tighten around mine and she slowed down a bit. She definitely got a little nervous but walked right in and didn't look back at me. She enjoyed her first day and I had to laugh when I picked her up today (her second day) and she was looking in a different direction telling her teacher that her "cousin" wasn't here yet to get her.

Kenna's first day was kind of fun for me because I left the boys home with Keith, Kenna went to school and I had 2 hours with just little Paisley. She was very different when it was just her. She's so cute...she definitely has some attitude, but she's my sweet girl. It's been fun tending them and feeling like I have some girliness (and allies!) in the house!

And since I'm posting about other people's children...I took some of the cutest pictures of my BFF's kids the other day. They were so much fun!

And last but not least...I have a beautiful new niece. Keith's brother and his wife welcomed a new baby girl (their 3rd!) this past week. We are so excited to have her here and can't wait to get to know her!

Mouse in the House

2011-09-05T23:38:00.002-06:00

Oh how I wish this title was a the name of a Dr. Seuss book...but alas. No figure of speech here...just a real, live, squeaky, mouse in our HOUSE. NOT COOL! Keith and I had a late take out dinner after the kids had gone to bed and then we lounged around in the living room for awhile. Finally we decided it was time for bed and just as I laid down I realized I forgot my phone charger in the kitchen. Keith...great guy that he is...went to go get it for me.

Next thing I hear Keith in an excited tone of voice say, "Baby! We've got a mouse!" "A what?" I think I asked, clearly in denial. I ran out to help and the little thing had scurried behind the couch. We set up some things to block his pathway and keep him in the living room and Keith bravely moved the couch out. EW...there it was looking at me as I stood behind the fortress. It ran across the room and then while Keith was looking for some other things it ran back to the couch by me. It must have know that would be the quickest escape to the outside!

It was just a teeny little thing and not really gross looking, just quick and well, a mouse. We've never had a mouse (that we know of!) but we had a bunch of the glue traps and so Keith set some up around the room. You should have heard the two of us discussing how to best catch the thing. Thankfully the next time he moved the couch the thing came right for my fortress and stuck half of itself on the glue trap there. Oh the relief! It was gross to see it wiggling on there, but for the most part it was still. Now we had to decide how to dispose of it. I wish I was recording our conversation. I really felt like we should have been slapping high fives and cheering ourselves on, but I think Keith was past the brave point and had moved onto the dry heaving phase.... I was all for drowning the mouse in a bucket, but Keith wasn't too sure. I thought we should google what to do, but that's my answer for everything. Keith said if I googled "how to kill a mouse", PETA would probably show up at our door... In the end we just decided to sacrifice a tupperware box and scoop it into that and put it in the garbage outside. Keith was fine to do the scooping with the lid, but I really didn't want to clean up puke so just in case I did the scooping :) Just having it out of the house was SOOOOOO liberating!

I can't believe something so small and harmless was so fear inducing! I've only had 2 other experience with mice in my life...Once when Keith and I were dating and I have hilarious memories of him and my dad trying to catch the dang thing while Amy and I looked on. Then once when I was probably almost 9 months pregnant with Max, I went to throw out a pizza box in the recycle bin and stepped down out of my front door right onto the bum and tail of a mouse IN MY BARE FEET! It squeaked and disappeared while I screamed and dropped the pizza box. Ter-ri-fy-ing!

After all of it I had to laugh at how the room looked. Definitely a war zone, but at least we won! I'm so glad Keith was the one who went out to get my charger and as crazy as it sounds...it was such a silly, fun moment that I enjoyed sharing with Keith. He may think I'm nuts for needing pictures...but I had to document it :) Everything in the name of the blog, right?

I had to document what the room looked like when we were done with this! I was standing behind this little fortress until it was trapped!!!!

We didn't want it running in any other rooms....

It ran back and forth between the living room once so we decided to put a stop to that and only let it hide under 1 couch!

August round-up

2011-09-03T07:54:00.002-06:00

I have slacked at blogging lately and I have a good excuse. Recently I started tending my nieces for my sister while she is in school. That means 4 kids 4 and under! Don't let me fool you...I'm actually enjoying it :) It's not too difficult unless we try to go somewhere. And some days I don't get dressed. And most days no one gets their hair done...but it's fun to have them here! Her girls are the same ages as my boys and Gavin and Kenna play so well together. Paisley is just my little buddy and likes to be where I am. Max is the only one who seems to be having a hard time adjusting and not even that bad. He just is figuring out that he has to share his toys...and his mommy :)

I didn't feel like cooking dinner one night so Dad said we should come down and go to the Purple Turtle. It was SO YUMMY! We don't go often (yet it still doesn't seem to have an effect on my figure...) so when we do it's heavenly. It reminds me so much of being a kid and my grandpa taking us there. I remember one week he took us there every day but Sunday. Grandpas are so great! Afterwards we went to dad and Amy's and just visited. It felt like we hadn't been there in ages. Dad got a new firepit in his backyard and they got out the marshmallows and roasters and the kids had a great time!

One day Kenna told my mom she wanted to have a Grandma Kim party. It was the cutest thing. So we decided we would put together a silly little party for the kids. My mom and Alan brought some decorations, balloons and pizza and I made a cake. It was silly, but the kids were cute. I made a rainbow cake and told Kenna that when you cut into the cake there was a surprise. I cut her a piece and she said, "Grandma, where's the surprise?" She was less than impressed with the rainbow layers :) I thought she would think it was so cool!

And now we are on to September. I can't believe that summer is over. Gavin starts preschool next week and already this morning it's only 53 degrees. Fall is here, and time is flying by so fast!

Gavinisms AND Kennaisms....

2011-08-22T09:11:00.002-06:00

We are dog sitting our old dog Phoebe. The kids love it. Phoebe isn't too sure about them. This morning she was actually being calm and letting them pet her (maybe because they were being calm and not pulling on her...) She rolled over so they could scratch her belly. The following is an actual conversation:

Gavin: Mom, what are these?

Me: If Phoebe had babies, that's where she would feed them.

Gavin: But she will have babies when she gets bigger. And gets married. Know how you marry dogs?

Me: How?

Kenna: You marry them in a dog temple!

Me: A dog temple? Where is the dog temple?

Gavin: Well, we could just build one.

From this we can deduct one of 2 things...They know that you don't have babies until you get married. You should get married in the temple. Even dogs.

Bountiful Backyard...

2011-08-20T21:35:00.003-06:00

Yay for gardens! This is probably the first year I'm actually saying that! I can't believe how well our garden has been doing. Well, I guess I can because it's the hardest I've ever worked in it which I'm sure makes a difference. Go figure, huh?

I know it's silly, but I was just so excited today about it that I took some pictures of what we've been getting. Don't laugh or continue reading if you don't like dorky things like this, but I really was just proud.

This was the leftovers after my first picking. I used about 10 big beautiful tomatoes for fresh salsa! I used all of these to bottle 7 pints of salsa. (I used the flash on these and they look a really deep, weird red...)

These were from today that never even got used. I thought I would have to put them with the earlier ones for salsa, but nope! I didn't have enough peppers or they would have just been salsa too.

Our first 4 ears of corn! The kids were excited...they love it!

I have a bunch more onions out in the garden that are ready, but waiting until I need them...these all went to the salsa minus 1 or 2.

Earlier in the week we had our first picking of beans. I only got 8 pints, but if I got 8 pints every week for a couple of weeks that would sure add up! Crossing my fingers for a lot more this week though... I know it's really dorky, but I really enjoy canning. Keith's mom has taught me how to do most of it and I'm very thankful for it. It also really reminds me of my grandpa. My favorite thing to can is probably green beans because that smell reminds me so much of his house. And I love that my kids always want peaches because I remember every time we would go visit grandpa he would pull out a bottle of peaches!

Ahhhhh...we LOVE salsa around here. I'm thinking my next batch will be spicier...this was way more mild than I thought it would be.

I have also picked about 6 or 7 zucchini

and probably 2 pints worth of cherry tomatoes. We had the lettuce earlier in the year and have only had about 3 strawberries :) It was a free plant from IFA and I've never tried them before so no biggie. Gavin's pumpkin plant that he started in school last spring is GINORMOUS. I'll have to go out and get a picture. There aren't very many pumpkins on it for how large it is, but there is one that is getting REALLY big and a couple of other small ones. Gavin is so cute and loves going to look at and water his plant. It's been fun since we've never done pumpkins before.

Also this year we're getting more fruit than ever on our trees! Our biggest and best looking tree is our apple tree which still has NO apples :( We have quite a few peaches and some pears too!

I wish we could have a garden all year round!

'Up' House

2011-08-17T20:34:00.002-06:00

We took a little trip to visit the Disney's 'Up' house they have built in Herriman. I thought Gavin would think it was pretty cool. He was mostly just bummed we couldn't go in, but it was fun to look at. It clearly doesn't fit in the neighborhood AT ALL, and I can't imagine someone is going to pay over $400,000 for it when it's only 2800 sq feet, and well, colorful, but I suppose there is always someone. I was amazed at all of the detail they put into making it just like the movie. It was a fun little adventure for a little family time tonight. Neat that it's here in Utah so close to us.

Even the little detail of the hose...loved it!

Vacation all I ever wanted...

2011-08-15T21:33:00.003-06:00

We haven't had much vacationing time this year. That's sort of a lie because I feel like I've been gone a lot but those trips were for church and more work than "relaxing". (Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy myself!) My mom was planning a trip to Mexico and I jokingly told her I would come and "house sit" a few months ago. She called me up one day and asked if I was kidding about that because she did want someone to water her plants. I decided I definitely would enjoy it so why not? The kids and I went down for a week and Keith joined us for one night. We had a BLAST! It really was very relaxing not having to worry about appointments, or babysitting, or going anywhere, or cleaning my own house. It was so much easier to keep my moms house clean than my own! And have I mentioned the pool??? It was like we were staying in our own private hotel with a private pool! There was literally not one day that we didn't swim and the kids were so much fun. I can't believe how much they are growing up and how much fun they can be. They both are like little fish in the water and go all around the pool with their arm floaties. Thanks, Mom and Alan for allowing us to stay at your resort for a week!

When I walked in through the garage I could see straight in my moms room which she had set up all cute with chocolates on the pillow....

And bath supplies set up...

I quickly learned I would have to hide all of the candy jars or Max would be on the counter constantly...apparently almonds are equal to candy...

Proof that we did do our job as well as relax! Gavin was so excited to help me water every day...

Mom! Can you please put the camera down and take me swimming?!?!

You would think looking at this picture he had never seen a pool before!

So cute!

Always wanting to show off his tricks..

Splash!

Getting ready for the slide...

Down he goes!

Water...meet Gavin...

Being so brave after he got stung by a bee :( He only cried for a minute and then I googled remedies for bee stings. It said to put toothpaste on it. He thought that was hilarious and cheered him right up so I'll never know if it took the pain away or just seemed so silly he forgot all about the pain....

Sometimes I think the kids forgot we weren't in the pool....

And they did take quite a few breaks from the pool to watch a movie or two, or 50...

And you would think having a pool in the backyard was enough, but Grandma's big bath tub was always calling their name!

Thanks again Mom and Alan! We love you guys!

My {Super Hero} 2 year old

2011-08-15T21:24:00.003-06:00

It took Gavin quite awhile to get into Super Heros. It's not like I go around wearing a Wonder Woman costume so he really didn't know much about them. Max, however, has had an advantage having an older brother. The other day he was bawling about something and I couldn't quite understand what he wanted. Come to find out he was saying "Spiderman". And look at what he wanted....

Love this boy.

Trek 2011 "Remember"

2011-08-01T14:14:00.007-06:00

Yes, that's right. I went on Trek! I was excited last year when I found out our ward was doing Trek until I realized I was just a Beehive leader and wasn't going to be going. I mentioned that I would love to go if they found a reason to need me and nothing ever came of it. So I never planned on going and then one month before our ward was to go, I got a call from the other YW counselor asking me if I still wanted to go because she was pregnant. She had already talked to the Bishop and mentioned I would probably like to go. Was I excited? Yes, but a little reserved as I only had one month left to prepare! But prepare I did, and I can honestly say now that I would have missed one of the most amazing experiences of my life had I not been able to go! And just a note...this post will be LONG

DAY 1

We started on a Wednesday morning at 4 am with a 6 or 7 hour bus ride. I had felt so nervous about it all the night before, but was really excited that morning. No way was I sleeping on the bus and later in the ride a couple leaders and one of the YM enjoyed a friendly little game of Phase 10, which I was kicking butt at, fyi.

We ate our lunch on the bus and then shortly after arrived at Martin's Cove. The church owns this land and they have a visitor's center, etc. there. We had a short introduction by one of the missionaries there and then began our first walk of many. This day was only 6 miles. There were a couple of teaching moments along the way presented by some of the leaders and the stake YW leaders. One of the most spiritual moments was when we actually entered the cove and learned of some of the people who had stayed there and were buried there. It was so hard for me to hear the stories of children suffering. As a mother, all I could think about were my own boys and how I couldn't even imagine having to watch them go without and suffer as so many families did. One story I loved from the cove was that of Sarah Franks and George Padley. They were crossing with the handcart company to come to Salt Lake and be married in the temple. George died in Martin's Cove and the ground was too frozen to bury him. Sarah could not bear the thought of leaving him for the wolves and had him wrapped in her shawl, something she could desperately use in the frigid weather, and placed in a tree. When President James E. Faust was told this story he said it was one of the greatest love stories ever told.

We had the opportunity to do a river crossing while there and learn a little about the 4 men who were the "rescuers" and carried so many through the freezing water. I can only imagine how grateful those people must have been for those faithful young men. I think they intended for the YM to carry the YW across but the water was pretty high and swift so everyone crossed it alone. The YM did come back to help carry some of the YW's bags across though. I remember watching one of the YM who is really tall go across and seeing how high the water came up on him. It was a neat experience and although the water was cold, I remember thinking how terrible it would have been in the icy winter.

We had a short walk after the river crossing and with the wind we were all dried off in time to get back on the buses and drive for about 45 minutes to our camp. When we arrived at camp our tents were all set up for us and dinner was waiting! We had the best support crew and food committee. Dinner that night was Pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and rolls, with brownies and ice cream for dessert. It was WONDERFUL! (Especially after hearing stories of how back in the day some wards would give their kids only 4 oz of flour one day on their trek, just like the pioneers...you couldn't get away with that nowadays!)

Bro. Cluff and his sister wives....

There was much excitement and anticipation in camp that night. I think for finally being there and knowing that tomorrow was going to be a very LONG, hard day. But we were ready.

DAY 2
Starting out

We were up at 5 am as we were the first ward out that morning. Breakfast was HUGE...I have no idea how anyone could eat that much food. French toast, yogurt, pop tarts, juice, sausage...I swear there was so much food. I never finished a single meal. Some might criticize this and say how are we supposed to know what it was really like for the pioneers, but I love our stakes attitude that it's not about breaking us. We don't need to be like the pioneers to feel the spirit of these places and the trek. I think it ties perfectly into a quote I read in preparing for Trek. President J. Reuben Clark Jr., First Counselor in the First Presidency, reminded us: “In living our lives let us never forget that the deeds of our [pioneer] fathers and mothers are theirs, not ours; that their works cannot be counted to our glory; that we can claim no excellence and no place, because of what they did, that we must rise by our own labor, and that labor failing we shall fail. We may claim no honor, no reward, no respect, nor special position or recognition, no credit because of what our fathers were or what they wrought. We stand upon our own feet in our own shoes” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1947, 160). Something about that just really stuck with me.

We began our Trek that morning leading the pack. I was so impressed with our youth. I honestly feel like they all really took the initiative to get themselves ready. I have never know young people like these. They amaze me every day with their strength and dedication to the gospel. I think rather than the long hard days of walking being difficult, for our ward it was more of the constantly waiting for everyone else to catch up that was hard. There are certain restrictions on parts of the actual Oregon trail where there can only be so many people at once and we had to be led my missionaries on horses. It was frustrating and we had to be reminded to stay positive about it, rather than complain about waiting for the other wards. One thing I loved about this day was that I got to walk all of it with one of my very best friends, Julie Baucom. She is a counselor in our Stake YW's and they got to walk this day with their wards. I love her and it was so great to be able to spend the day talking with her and sharing this experience.

Me and Juls

I also gained some new relationships with so many of the youth. Since none of them were kids that I am typically a leader for, I really enjoyed getting to know them. We also frequently saw our stake president and his wife. I love how "normal" they are. I remember our stake president passing by us and saying to him, "Hey Pres! I-dent. I guess I should be more formal!" He just laughed and said "Got it!" and went on his way. Sometimes I forget to be respectful when I am so comfortable with them! This day really was mostly just walking. We had a few teaching moments and the whole idea of what we were doing made it spiritual, but I was not overly emotional or anything. By the end of the day (16 miles!) I was exhausted! That last half hour of the journey did me in. I felt great the rest of the time, but that last little bit I got a pain in my lower back on the left side. I made it and it wasn't so unbearable, just uncomfortable. There was nothing like walking down into camp that day and seeing everything set up for us. It really had been exhausting. I had no idea I even had some blisters until I got back and took off my shoes. I really think the only reason I even got them was because my back had been hurting and I started walking differently. Let's just say I was not the only one who got blisters and mine were not nearly as bad as some of the others.

We ate sloppy joes and just relaxed. We had a bit of a scare with one of our girls hyperventilating and another who had just had a rough day. Thankfully all was well and our ward had NO dehydration issues! Our biggest first aid issue of the whole Trek was blisters. I had developed some good friendships with some of the girls throughout the day and spent the evening talking and giggling with them and then playing a few games with the youth. It was a blast and sometimes I had to remind myself that I was a leader and not just one of the kids :)

Our stake president with his wife and son...Love them!

I don't even have words for this picture other than I think the leaders sometimes have more fun than the kids....

DAY 3

When we woke up that morning I was pretty sure my blisters had tripled in the amount that I had thought I had the night before. It was hilarious to watch all of us doctoring up our feet with moleskin and duct tape. One of the YM leaders had them the worst and our nurses were getting him taken care of. Our ward trek master gathered us around to talk about the day and mentioned that we did have one person who had asked for a blessing to be able to continue walking with us that day. I thought it was the YW who had, had a rough day the day before and was surprised to see that it was this YM's leader. He was given a blessing and it was a very spiritual moment. I thought of how great it was for these youth to see this strong man be humble enough to ask for a blessing. Or maybe it was just good for me to see. In any case, it started off my "Day of Tears," as I'll call it.

Kody's poor feet...

We were in the later group this morning and as we started off I was fairly certain I was not going to make it! Physically I felt great, but my feet hurt SO BAD. I noticed after I would walk for a bit they would kinda get numb and then it wasn't so bad. Then came the waiting and stopping again. That was so hard to stop and then have to start moving again. All I could think about was that the pioneers did this day in and day out and I could too. Then after awhile even that got hard as I would start to rationalize, "Well, they were used to walking, they walked everywhere!" or "It was so cold their feet were numb, it didn't hurt." Terrible, huh? I compare that to Satan trying to get us to rationalize what we are doing or what we believe. After that wasn't working I just kept thinking that my dad has been out and done this and if he could I could. I couldn't rationalize anything in comparison to that so it worked better for me.

This day was Rocky Ridge and the Women's Pull. You could tell there was a lot of anticipation for this. Luckily it was early in the day when we were doing this and not in the heat of the day. Due to BLM restrictions we had to do a bit of waiting again for the 1st group to be off this portion of the trail. I think it was really hard for the youth to wonder what was coming up and be anxious for it, but they were all in good spirits. Before we started up the main steep climb of Rocky Ridge we had a teaching moment from Sister Proulx (aka the best neighbor anyone ever had...). She talked about Jens and Elsie Neilsen and their experience with Rocky Ridge. Jens had become very ill and weary and told his wife to just leave him and go on. She couldn't bear the thought of leaving her husband behind to die and pulled him alone in the wagon up Rocky Ridge and for a week until there was room in the sick wagon. All I could think about was had that been Keith and I and could I even imagine leaving him by the road and going on? There is no way I would have left him and I thought of how hard it would be for him to have to let me pull him in the handcart and struggle because he physically couldn't. I was crying the whole time she gave this lesson and I didn't stop the whole way up Rocky Ridge. The girls had to pull their carts up alone and the boys were to walk alongside, but weren't able to help. The fierce determination those girls had was amazing. I was filming in the back for Jeri and the last cart had 3 girls, one of them just a tiny little thing, and I was just in tears watching them. They were so tough and made it right up the ridge. I was so amazed with their strength. Once on top of the ridge, one of the boys started playing "Come, Come Ye Saints" on his harmonica and a few people sang. We had a quiet moment of reflection and then a spiritual moment. Some people were in tears while others were not. There were even a few comments about how they wished it had been a little harder! We heard a story of another ward in our stake where there was an inactive YM who had come on trek and when they got to the top of Rocky Ridge he was just bawling. His mother had passed away before trek and he said that he saw her helping to push the handcarts up the ridge. What a great experience for that YM.

What tough girls we have!

The rest of the day was spent mostly just walking. There were quiet a few muddy bogs that we had to go through and we had our "Bog Boys" who always helped to get the handcarts across so everyone wasn't getting muddy. It got harder and harder to go on as the day wore on (again physically I felt fine, just tired, it was just my feet). I walked a few times with the YM's leader who had all the blisters and that always made me think I could keep going because he was still there and had it worse than I did. As we neared the end we saw 3 people walking up over this hill towards us and saw that it was our wonderful support crew coming to meet us. That really bolstered our spirits to see them and know it must not be far off. They said we had about a half hour of walking left and everyone really was determined then. I remember one cute YM who every time we would come up over a hill would say, "Look! There it isn't!" Finally one time, there it was and we were able to walk down into Rock Creek Hollow, greeted by so many of our stake people. I cried and cried, seeing them and knowing we had made it safely, without serious injury and everyone had done it. I was so proud of our youth and their willingness and determination.

Our emergency potty set-up...and silly Tania! I had to laugh because every time we would set this up, all of the other wards would come over too. I wondered if they just thought it was easier to use our set-up or they really didn't plan for anything....

Some of our bog boys...

Our support crew coming out to meet us for the last of our journey...yes they are skipping :)

Our camp was about the furthest camp from the entrance and I pretty much thought there was no way I could walk anymore once we got there. I didn't even want to look at my feet and never took off my shoes because I figured there was no way I would get them back on. We went off to dinner and it was yummy Cafe Rio style burritos strawberry shortcake dessert. After dinner we went to visit the common grave and the Remember monument. The feeling you felt when you walked into this place was so peaceful and spiritual. Everyone was asked to remove their hats and be reverent and you wouldn't have probably even had to mention that the spirit was so strong. We sat in front of the headstone for the Common grave and heard the stories of the 13 people who are buried there. Once again, I was an emotional wreck. This for me was definitely the most spiritual moment of the journey. The story that really stood out to me was the one of this 1 little boy who was buried there. His mom had to pull their handcart and told him that he was in charge of watching his younger brother that day. The younger brother was cold and his feet were hurting, so his older brother carried him on his back most of the day. When they got to Rock Creek Hollow, he put his brother down and sat to rest and died from the effort and exhaustion of the day. All I could picture was Gavin and Max and had that been them how I would have felt as a mother. I could just see my sweet Gavin caring so deeply for little Max to help him. Also near this common grave there are 2 other graves marked with wooden fences that they found later. These were the men who had died after digging the common grave that morning. I can't imagine the pain and sorrow these people went through. I wonder if I may have been a bit more emotional knowing that I had ancestors in the Willie Handcart Company and knowing that they had been there, and interacted with these people. There is a rock monument there called the Remember Monument which Pres. Hinckley dedicated. It was mentioned to us that people consider Rock Creek Hollow and Martin's Cove the "temples of Wyoming". We had our testimony meeting at a small amphitheater there and despite the MILLIONS of mosquitoes, the spirit was so strong. I enjoyed listening to the youth and hearing their thoughts and experiences of this journey. My spiritual cup this day of our journey was so full. I had never felt such emotion in one day.
The common grave with the 13 that died one day at Rock Creek Hollow

The Remember monument

After our testimony meeting we headed back to camp. It was already late, but the mood in the air was full of relief and excitement knowing that we had done it. We were each given letters from someone in our family. I don't think the kids knew this was coming, but I did. I also knew that I somehow had 2 letters and I didn't recognize the handwriting on one of them, but knew the other was from Keith. I opened the surprise letter and then noticed the handwriting as it was very distinct. It was from my dearest friend Nancy. She had been on our stake's trek before and knew that we did the letters and had made sure to write me one. I hadn't even started to read, just noticed it was her writing and started bawling. She is always so wonderful to think of me and I knew that she had felt sad that she wasn't going to be there. For those that don't know, she was our former Primary President and I served as her secretary and my friends Julie and Susan that I spoke of early were her counselors. I have never served so closely with people before and that was one of the neatest experiences of my life. We all ended up being on the trek this year except Nancy, and for her to write me a letter made me feel like I had her there with me too. So I was already a mess when I started reading Keith's letter and that didn't help anything :) Now do you see why I refer to this as my "Day of Tears"?

FINALLY it was time to take off my shoes. Blister city. I'm still mad because I really think that I wouldn't even have had a stinkin blister had I not gotten that pain that caused me to walk differently. I finally got over my fear of having other people touch my feet, because there was no way I was going to be able to take care of this alone. One of our ward first aid ladies doctored me up. She popped some of them and put this strange gel stuff on them and got me all taken care off. It was not a pain free process and I had to laugh at one of our YW who came over to hold my hand during the hard parts and says to me, "You look like you are giving birth." I guess I could see how it could be compared and we all had a good laugh about it. Especially with her there "coaching" me through it all! She got a big kick over the bishop asking her the next morning, "So how was the delivery?" I was very thankful for her spunky attitude throughout my painful experience.

No one seemed to want to go to bed that night and we all had a good time laughing. Finally we sent the kids to tents and the leaders were still up around the fire. I finally went to my tent with my roomies and next thing we know there is something going on outside. We hear the YM's president say, "Are there boys in that tent?" So he and Cory went over by the tent (which was a girls tent) and pulled the post out so the tent just fell on the kids. No one moved for a moment and then the 2 girls who were the occupants of the tent scurried out. Next another YW popped out and surprised everyone. Then next thing you know...out come 3 YM! You have to realize this was a TEENY little 2 person tent and everyone was surprised there were so many people in it. It was all innocent and the leaders were laughing so hard. Especially when we realized that the YW's president and YM's presidents sons were involved. Not to mention one of the girl's dad is in the Bishopric, another boy's son is the bishop and one of the girls is the daughter of our previous bishop! The best part was when the YM's pres was talking to his son about it and the son replies with, "Well, dad, you said get in tents, you never said it had to be OUR tent!"

DAY 4

The last morning was just breakfast and clean up. Then we had a short meeting with the entire stake in an amphitheater there. I always enjoy hearing our stake president speak and it was nice to acknowledge everyone who came just as support crew, medical and the food committee. They deserved so much credit for their hard work. Afterwards we just had a long bus ride home which meant we could finish our game of Phase 10 which I had been doing so well on and ended up losing MISERABLY!

All leaders and stake people from our ward

Our ward families

A couple of things I don't want to forget that I wasn't sure where to fit them in:

The whoopie cushion. Marie brought a whoopie cushion and Jeri thought it was the greatest thing ever invented the entire trek. We even sent her over to fake out the stake president. She walked up and said, "President, I think I have a tummy ache and set it off (it was hiding in her hoodie). He just smiled and said, "Well, I guess you do!" We showed him that it was really the whoopie cushion and he got a big kick out of that. What a good sport and great guy!

Shadow puppets...Jeri (can you tell she's always the life of the party???) was doing shadow puppets on the tent ceiling one night. She kept trying to make one of them be Travis (YM's Pres) and every time she would do his voice, he was British. She couldn't not make him British. It was hilarious!

A couple of the girls said I could be their mom since they didn't have them there. I loved that...made me feel needed and important. One of those girls was a cute one named Alyssa. She has arthritis and was so tough the entire time. Out of everyone she really inspired me. There were so many times we would make her get in the cart for awhile just to give her legs a break and she would always fight us on it. The kids thought it was actually easier to have someone in the cart because it helped weigh down the back and bring the handle up higher for them. She would protest and frequently get out shortly after we would make her get in. Towards the end on the last day we were trying to make her get in again and she said she wasn't getting in unless I got in with her. So I did and it was then I realized why she was always protesting. You felt so bad having people cart you along while you were just sitting there. It really wasn't any harder for the kids to pull, but you felt so useless and terrible. We weren't in very long before I just couldn't take it anymore and I think she was grateful that someone finally understood.

Me and Alyssa

I'm am so incredibly grateful I was able to go on Trek and have these experiences. Especially to experience them with the people that I did. Thank you everyone who helped me along the way and encouraged me. And not to be forgotten was my sweet sister who took the boys for half of the time I was gone and Keith who had them the other half. Even though they are his kids, I know that it's not an easy task to have. I wouldn't have been able to enjoy these experiences without their help and support.

Family Gathering

2011-08-01T14:03:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks ago my sister hosted a family gathering for my dad's side of the family, mainly his mother's relatives. My dad's parents passed away quite awhile ago and rarely do we see much of his family. I love my sister because she is bold enough to get everyone together. I've been waiting for this picture from my cousin Allison, so I could document this occasion on my blog. I'm sad to say that I don't think I could even name everyone in this picture. I really am thankful for families and the love and support they lend one another. I'm happy to have this picture that includes my dad's 2 sisters as I love them and don't see them as often as I would like. I miss my grandparents so much every day and know that they would have loved this.

Trip to the "Qwuary-am"

2011-07-30T05:00:00.001-06:00

Gavin speaks pretty well (and a lot...) for his age, I think. I did notice, however, that he has a hard time saying aquarium and it sounds more like "Qwuary-Am". It's pretty cute and fairly subtle.

So off we went to the "Qwuary-Am" yesterday, just me and the boys. I like having a pass there. It's fairly cheap, not too far away, and you can go for just a short while because you know you can go back whenever. Plus, the boys love fish and it entertains them more than sometimes anything I can think of doing at home.

Say hello to my little friend...

2011-07-28T14:43:00.002-06:00

We spent quite a bit of time out in the garden yesterday. I would like to say it was harvesting things, but it was more pulling all of the weeds than anything! When we first started our garden years ago, I realized that I was terrified of snails. I didn't know you could get snails in your garden. Really. One day I'm picking beans and move a leaf over and there is like a whole den of snails on this plant. ICK. Not long after that, I realized I would have to get over this fear if I was going to continue to garden. Last year I just stopped being grossed out by them. It's more the element of surprise than anything else and now I just expect them at all times so when I do find one, I'm not bugged. Or maybe I just had to tough up once I realized I was going to have 2 boys, who knows! They really are actually kind of cool (the snails...my boys are super cool..)

Gav and I had a great time outside yesterday with this little guy. Gav was very curious about how and what snails eat and whether or not they could bite him. I assured him he would not get bitten and then he was all about holding the snail. I have loved this summer and spending time outside in the garden with my boys. I don't think we have been outside as much any other summer. I feel like it's gone so quickly and I'm not ready for it to end.

Gavinisms

2011-07-27T09:11:00.002-06:00

I have a couple for you today.

Me: "Gav, where is your bike?"
Gav: "I don't know mom. I'll just sniff for it." He proceeded to sniff like a dog while looking for his bike.

Gav: "I want to sit where you are and watch a movie mom."
Me: "Ok, I've got to get up anyway."
Gav: "Up you go, mom!"
Me: "You are such a cute, fun, happy boy."
Gav: "You are cute fun mom."

LOVE him.

Harry Potter Extravaganza!

2011-07-24T21:56:00.003-06:00

I'm quite behind in posting as this was actually LAST week, but I've been ~~slightly~~ super busy. Again this year, I hosted a preview party before the Harry Potter release. This time I had to get 24 tickets (fyi you can only purchase 20 tickets at one time on the Megaplex website!). I chose not to do all of the crazy food from the books this time because I had done that last year and none of it was really all that great! I did do a couple of things and the pretzel wands like last time, but didn't take a picture of any of it. I was too busy getting our Hogwarts Class Pictures photo booth taken care of! It was so fun and silly to do, and not going to lie...I enjoyed that immensely! I will admit that I am glad this was the last of the movies because I'm getting a little old to stay up past midnight, but it was oh so fun!

Disclaimer...a ridiculous amount of pictures follow. Probably of people most of you don't even know. Thanks for indulging me!

The party's organizer Becca

She may or may not be our YW's pres....

This is just hilarious!

Oh Nance....

This was probably my favorite picture :)

She really did have "Mudblood" written on her arm!

LOL...

Yes, I was super creative and went as a Muggle

I turned all of the picture Black and White because I was having issues using the lighting stuff...but the color on this one turned out ok and I liked it better :)

Me and my sisters :)

Maxabillion Update

2011-07-17T22:52:00.002-06:00

I was looking through old blogs and realized I used to write more about how Gavin was growing and progressing...things he was doing. Poor Max hasn't gotten a lot of that. Maybe because I have two instead of one?!?! Whatever the case, I want to look back one day and know how Max was at this very moment.

I LOVE kids between 18months-2 years. It has to be one of the best times aside from those perfect little newborns. They are starting to learn so much and it just amazes me how these little personalities totally come out. Max is NO different and is truly so much fun! He is one of the most easy going, all around good kids. He is very much a momma's boy, but is happy to be with anyone else. He loves to copy and repeat things we do or say. He is starting to really get into what animals "say" and is best at Horse and Monkey.

He wakes up every morning and yells "Mom!" until I come to get him. He has to hand me every blankie he has in his crib and then his "baby" (stuffed giraffe from Aunt Carlie, that I think was actually given to Gav, but Max has claimed!) Then he will let me pick him and up and informs me he wants "pink" (strawberry milk). I set him down and he grabs all of the blankets and says, "A movie". Usually when he wakes up Curious George is on PBS and he LOVES George. Just about every single morning goes EXACTLY this way and I love that he is so routine.

He is great about taking naps and going to bed. Seriously. Easiest kid ever. You lay him down, cover him up and he waves and says "night-night". How on earth did I get that lucky?!

Max LOVES his cousin Paisley. They are just 2 months apart and he thinks she is just tops! They are so funny to watch together.

Every time we walk into any Walmart store, Max yells out "Daddy!" Which is cute that he seems to understand that dad works at Walmart. Or sad that we go there that much...jury is still out.

He also yells "Dad" whenever he sees someone on a motorcycle. Cute unless it's some scruffy biker dude smoking a cig...

He recently decided he loves talking on the phone. It's pretty cute. He also love Buzz Lightyear and his big brother. Not sure in which order.

I'm so proud of this cute, sweet boy I get to be a mother too. He brings so much joy and LIFE into our family. Love you more than words, Billsy.

Nothing says summer....

2011-07-16T13:19:00.003-06:00

like splashing in a pool :)
Photo Courtesy Kyle Meyers (because I was too busy dumping water on my kids head!)

So happy....

2011-07-15T23:30:00.004-06:00

because I wake up to these smiling faces everyday :)

Beehive Camp 2011

2011-07-13T20:12:00.003-06:00

Since our stake is going on Trek this year we just had Beehive Camp instead of a full on girls camp. Exciting for the Beehives...stressful for me. Not going to lie, I DO NOT like being in charge of things. I am a great follow orders kind of person, but I don't like to give direction, and plan, and well, think. But...we survived! (Insert sigh of relief here.)

It wasn't a particularly long trip, but I was surprised how much there was to plan and organize. It was probably good for me to reach outside of myself and comfort zone, but I wish I was able to feel more of a sense of accomplishment rather than worry about what everyone else is thinking of it. All I know is I did what I could and truly LOVE my Beehives. I definitely have a feeling of ownership over them and am so pleased to be sharing this exciting time of their lives. They are AMAZING girls and I can't compliment them enough on all of the MANY ways that they are MILES ahead of me spiritually. I think of myself at their age of just 12 and 13 and know that I was NOTHING like them. I love the way they are all kind to one another. I never see them leave anyone out. They are not gossipy or unkind. They are just beautiful young girls who bring so much fun and good into my life. They constantly make me want to better myself, and I love that.

We had the biggest stress finding somewhere to have our camp. The location changed about a million times and finally I just decided that we were going to a campsite and so be it. It worked out despite waking up the morning we were leaving to find out there was a mudslide blocking the road in the canyon and getting rained on a good part of our trip! A highlight of the trip was hiking up to Timp Cave (which is quite the steep hike...!). We did some crafts, played some games, ate some great food, had some spiritual moments and mostly laughed :) We had wonderful priesthood holders join us and they were MUCH help. Especially my sweet husband who rearranged work schedules and put up with me. I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to serve and to learn from these amazing girls. I'm so thankful for those who came to help and were such a great support system for me. There is no way I could have done this without them! Also a big thank you to my wonderful in-laws for keeping the kids. I got a call from Keith's mom the morning we were leaving and she made me feel so much better and way less stressed about it all. She always seems to know just what to say to me. The kids were thrilled to sleep over at their house and then I had a message on the way home to just get everything cleaned up and showered before I worried about getting the kids. What a HUGE help they were!

Our theme was Pioneers since everyone else is going on trek. We made Mason Jar lanterns (which I think would have worked out way better doing them NOT in the dirt...) and these yarn dolls which were a bigger hit than I thought they would be.

Gotta love Jeri...she brings all the fun!

Time out for a little scripture study....

We actually celebrated 2 birthdays in the short time we were gone!

Skits were performed...one of which even made fun of ME!

Before the hike

During the hike

I have about 10 million pictures of girls posing and these seriously funny faces. I didn't have much time to take pictures so the majority of the time the leaders cameras were distributed to the girls which makes for some really funny photos!

Mistie was a trooper and brought baby Gentry to her first girls camp!

Mmmm...donuts!

More posing....

Our stake president came up to be a priesthood holder one of the nights. I caught this sly look while he was playing a tricky little game with us. I wish it was a better picture...it was actually tons darker then this, but I just loved this look like, "Oh Sister Smith, what are you doing?" I know...I'm annoying with my camera.

The girls have this game they play called, "Baby I love you but I just can't smile." Oh. My. Word. They make me laugh. I don't love the game, but probably because I could never win!

Hopefully lots of good times were had a friendships made!

4th of July

2011-07-09T13:17:00.002-06:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 4th of July. Hands down my favorite holiday of all time. I think it is like the ultimate "Summer is Here" day. This year we made a whole weekend of it! Gramma Peggy and Paw Paw were visiting from New Mexico so I spent 4 nights at mom's house just enjoying the wonderful company. Keith was working most of the time but he came to join us for the last night. It is such a joy to be able to spend time with family. I love those moments more than anything.

We mostly just played in the pool, and chatted, but it was so nice and relaxing! I took so many pictures and stole some from Kyle. I can't wait for more summer weekends!

This is Kyle...he is hilarious!

Gavin was all about showing everyone how he could jump in the deep end!

He loved this!

Max was all about the slide...he is sooooooo brave in the water!

Isn't Paw Paw handsome?

This is like the ultimate summer picture!

Pais modeling for us

My mom has the most beautiful backyard. We took some pictures of the grand kids on the back stairs.

And last but not least...we did BBQ too, but people from the south celebrate with food like Red Beans and Rice YUM!

Gavinisms

2011-06-27T15:09:00.003-06:00

Gav: "Grandpa, I love you more than all of the lightbulbs in all of the houses."

First camping trip of the year

2011-06-25T12:57:00.003-06:00

We took the family camping up AF canyon the end of this week and had such a blast! The boys were absolutely in dirt HEAVEN and couldn't be more excited about it! They were so cute and so much fun. Actually the first day we got there was a little rough, but I think they were just so excited and had so much energy. After a good nights sleep they were angels the rest of the trip! We went hiking and walked around Tibble Fork. We took a drive up to Cascade Springs (which is where Keith and I kissed for the first time if anyone is wondering :) ) It was so nice to be out and enjoying nature. I've been so miserable with my allergies but actually was better up in the mountains than I am at home so I really was loving it! I loved just spending time with my little family. We had no cell reception so we just spent time enjoying each other and no one bugged us. Can't wait until we can go out again. July is shaping up to be the busiest month ever so who knows when our next chance will be!

I pulled the camera out, Max sat down and yelled, "Cheese!" Man, I've got him trained!

This picture gives new meaning to this shirt...good thing it was already an old stained one!

Probably one of the only times this one would cooperate for a picture!

I can't believe how full the rivers and lakes were. This is the spillway of Tibble Fork

This little deer was just hanging out at the campground...

Gavin got in a little bit of rock climbing

Again...can you see who always cooperates for pictures????

And yet again....

Isn't it beautiful? I think this is the prettiest it's ever been when we've come here.

Well, at least Gav is looking....

I think he was tired of all the walking and just said, "Down" and sat.

Just checking things out

He loved running up to look at these little information signs

Gavin wanted to ride his scooter around camp all day long! He loved it!

Camp Out

2011-06-19T17:30:00.002-06:00

A couple of nights ago, Keith thought it would be fun to have a mini campout with Gavin in the backyard. How cute was that? Gavin has really been wanting to go camping lately so Keith found a way for it to happen :) What a great dad! As today is Father's Day, I just want to say how thankful I am for someone who is a wonderful father to my children. He works so hard for them (and me) and makes it possible for me to stay home and raise them. What a great guy we have!

Also, Happy Father's day to my "dads". I'm lucky enough to have 3 of them, and thankful for all of them in my life and all that they do for me. I truly am blessed.

Blue Bear's Birthday

2011-06-18T17:08:00.003-06:00

Gavin has a favorite stuffed animal named Blue Bear. I might have coerced him into naming it that because I had a favorite bear in my childhood I named Blue Bear. In any case, it works because the stuff animal is a bear and well, blue.

Gavin LOVES birthdays. Loves is actually an understatement. He pretended it was my birthday every day for 3 weeks after my actual birthday. It was sweet and he would draw me pictures or pick me dandelions. I finally stopped having birthdays and we moved on to Blue Bear. It has literally be 2 weeks of every day, "Mom, it's Blue Bear's birthday today. Can we make him a cake?" So cute, but really EXHAUSTING. He constantly wants to decorate with streamers and balloons, sing happy birthday, light candles, the WHOLE she-bang. While at the grocery store the other day they had this silly little Lightning McQueen cake on a clearance rack and I said SOLD. It was pretty small and I thought would be perfect. Only problem was when we got home, Gavin wasn't patient enough to wait for me to take care of Max and put the groceries away. The cake may have sort of accidentally ended up dumped over on the floor. I thought we would have a melt down over this (him and me...) but I think he realized it was his fault and said, "It's ok, mom. Blue Bear likes it this way!" In any case, I never got a picture of the actual cake just the pile of cake that followed!

Looks like someone had a taste before we started!

Blue Bear is so excited for his special day!

The ~~monstrosity~~ cake that followed!

This picture just cracks me up because you can totally tell how into singing Happy Birthday he was!

Harvest!

2011-06-17T14:37:00.002-06:00

Okay...all it was, was a single head of romaine lettuce, but YAY! I am determined (and by determined I mean DETERMINED!) to have a good garden this year! 7 year of trying means that this has to be the year! I'm not pregnant, no teeny baby to worry about, no huge vacation on the horizion...THIS IS THE YEAR! We have the strangest little teeny weeds that pop up every single day and are impossible to deal with. I literally spent 5 hours out in the garden on Thursday and got up all of them that I could. They are already growing back. They were here last year too and are a big reason why I quit most of the garden last year. I will win the war this year! So if you come to see my garden, just know they are so much easier to pick when they are a little bigger...don't judge!

This is also the first year I tried lettuce. And assuming that it taste as good as it looks, I will definitely be doing that again! It was so easy to grow...the hardest part I've had was deciding when to pick it, but after getting some advice from my master gardener sis-in-law, Susan and Googling I decided we'd try it. I also learned some new terms like "bolting". Had no idea what that meant, but now I feel lots smarter :) Now I'm just upset I didn't plant more!

Lost and Found

2011-06-14T17:08:00.002-06:00

I was folding laundry the other day and it had been a little while since I had heard from Gavin. I called for him and no response. Max and I went looking for him and couldn't find him anywhere, just a strange tent in the living room. Gavin had built himself a tent by pushing my coffee table over and draping blankets on it. He was lying in there fast asleep...with a binky. Seriously...he is 4 and still thinks it's funny when he can steal Max's. Don't worry, he didn't get to keep it in his mouth. It drives me CRAZY that he will do that. I guess I should just get Max off of it, but that darn thing just is so useful! Here is Max finding Gavin.

A little while later, this is what I found.
And yes, that is marker on his head. This was all on the same day of the mud incident. We may have also had a run in with chocolate milk, orange drink and a sucker that day as well...

Such ~~messy~~ fun kids.

Easter...was 2 months ago...get it together, Janelle!

2011-06-13T17:00:00.000-06:00

Just looking for a picture and realized I never blogged about Easter. Not going to say much about it now because, let's face it, I already forgot what we did for the most part, but here are some cute pictures I didn't want to let go to waste!

7th Annual Smith Family Reunion

2011-06-12T17:08:00.003-06:00

Keith's family has a family reunion every year with his parents and siblings. Funny how we all live withing 15 miles of one another, but seems like we rarely see each other. Each of his siblings as well as his parents take turns hosting the reunion each year, meaning they plan and carry out whatever we are doing. It was Kevan and Mandy's turn this year and they did WONDERFUL. I hate to say but I really am disappointed. Not in the fact that their reunion was great, but now it means IT'S OUR TURN. Is anyone else freaking out yet? The thought of coordinating when everyone can get together and planning what to do and everyone relying on me sounds TERRIFYING. I'm not going to lie...I get anxiety sometimes with his family. I finally narrowed it down to what it is...I'm the youngest. I've never experienced being the youngest in my life. I'm always the oldest. Probably why I feel anxiety in my ward a lot too I've realized. In any case...I've GOT to figure out how to get over it because this year is going to be over before you know it. So I'm throwing this out...if anyone has an GREAT IDEAS of where to go or what to do...PLEASE pass them my way! As of right now, I've got a whole lot of nothing.

This year we just stayed around town for the reunion. Thursday evening we went out for an adult dinner at Buca Di Beppo's. Friday was guys and kids fishing trip and girl's and younger kids craft day. Then Friday night was over to the splash park for picnic, water and rocket launching. It was a little chilly but that had absolutely no effect on my kids...!!! Saturday was family pictures, swimming and pizza and games. We naturally played The Game of Things which if you haven't played....let's pick a day and play! SO FUN. And for all of you Smith readers out there...all I'm saying is "The Obvious" :)

Sunday was a BBQ at Kevan and Mandy's followed by a fun game of Jeopardy and FHE.

Thanks for all you did Kevan and Mandy! It was a great reunion and so nice to spend time with all of you!

Here's cute Mandy who was in charge!

I found that Gavin and his cousin Josh are GREAT playmates! I'm pretty sure we'll have Josh over all summer knowing that!

Sometimes it's rough when you can't do the same things as the big kids...

So excited about his rocket that he made and was about to launch!

My sweet mom in law...I love her to pieces :)

I just love this picture of Ash...she looks like she's totally being sneaky :)

Lauren is sure growing up...this was their version of giving bunny ears...only they were using a foot...

Briana (one of the best babysitters EVER!) and Pops. oh yeah...Rob's there in the background :)

It's rough when you're mom is in charge of a whole family reunion :)

Kevan giving part of his Family Home Evening...Mandy's other half.

She was cracking me up! This was how she was begging Grandma for something!

How sweet is this? What a great end to a wonderful reunion!

The whole lot of us :)

Mud

2011-06-11T15:04:00.004-06:00

We have a garden spot in our backyard and then a second smaller spot across the grass as well. This year we didn't plant anything in that smaller spot and Gavin and Max have used it to dig in the dirt and "build" things. Mostly it just stores all of the junk they like to dig with and drives me nuts. Well today was NO exception to my loathing of this spot. I walked outside to work in the garden after Max fell asleep and found Gavin just letting the hose run into the dirt. Now we have a mud spot. And don't think that sounds bad? He was COVERED.

I'm trying to be a better mom and I'm really working on not flying of the handle the instant something goes wrong. It's hard for me. I tend to react quickly to things and I'm pretty darn good at yelling. This has been a super slow process but today I calmly walked off the deck over to Gavin and asked him what he thought I should do about this situation. He responded, "Uh...hose me off?" How on earth do you not smile at that? The whole situation was so frustrating and here he was with a really rational solution. I talked to him about the consequences for what he did and then decided it wouldn't be all that bad for him to just play in it since he was covered already. So I weeded, he played and then when it was time to clean him up he was great. When it was time to do his extra chores to make up for making the mud mess, he didn't complain. Hopefully I can remember to react that calm in the future when things get a little out of hand. Maybe I just need to look at the situation more rationally and remember that most of the time, we can just "hose things off".

My family....

2011-06-04T17:01:00.004-06:00

is so good lookin :) Finally pleased to have a real family picture that includes Max. It only took 19 months....Thanks so much dad!

Spiderman

2011-06-03T15:08:00.002-06:00

Gavin has been begging us for a "real" Spiderman costume lately. Someone (Grandma...) took pity on him :) He thinks he is pretty cool. We have yet to have the Ironman experience (Grandma Marcia, if you are reading just wanted to say thank you for that costume that Gavin had to wear for 3 days straight...including to every store we went to!!!) There is a mask that goes with it, but it just wasn't cooperating while we were shooting webs out in the backyard!

He posed like this all on his own...LOL

Spiderman is never too busy fighting crime to give his momma kisses!

If Spiderman had a sidekick, this is what he would look like :)

We have a graduate!

2011-06-01T22:09:00.002-06:00

Alright so it was just preschool. And the first year of preschool, so he still has another year...but hey, I'm so proud!

Gavin has enjoyed school so much this year! He had the cutest teacher that he loved so much. I think this year of school was so good for Gavin as far as social skills go. Being the first child he has always been a little indifferent to playing with other kids. He has made some good cute friends at school. One especially named Makayla. They sat by eachother in class and as much as he likes her, she is INFATUATED with him! It's the funniest thing. Her mom tells me things she says about Gavin all of the time and I just laugh.

One thing about Gavin I've noticed, is he very much does things when HE wants to. For instance...I can ask him a million times to spell his name and he gives me excuse after excuse. But Grandma or someone can ask him and he'll jump at the opportunity. He is getting so much better at writing his letters and can count better in Spanish than he can in English :) I can't believe that in just one more short year he will be going into Kindergarten. I am amazed at how fast these last 4 years have gone, and how different our lives are now. Yet it feels like we have always been this way. Funny how that works. Gavin makes our lives so complete and I love every day that I get to be his mother. Congratulations, buddy!
So excited!

The majority of the time he was like this...completely oblivious to the fact that there were tons of people there watching him goof around for an hour....

Gavin and Makayla

So proud!

Blackmail...

2011-05-29T22:18:00.001-06:00

I'm saving these for one day later in life....

Almost...

2011-05-22T05:00:00.001-06:00

I am finally ALMOST done with my bathroom redo! It turned into a much bigger project than I think I was originally thinking. But I am so so pleased with how it is coming along! I have one more thing to finish and it will be ready for it's debut! Here is what I have been living with so you can get excited about what is to come! And let me just tell you how virtually impossible it is to take pictures in such a confined space!

Very blah, but soon to be tadah!

Forgotten Picture

2011-05-20T22:42:00.003-06:00

I found this picture as I was organizing some files on my computer and it made me smile :) It was only a couple of months ago, but man, he has changed so much already. Love you, Gav.

Excuse the blog...

2011-05-16T17:30:00.003-06:00

I figured it was time to change the look of the blog, ya know because Valentines was like 3 months ago...but trying to weed through html code with the kids awake is something akin to giving myself a brain aneurysm.

FotoFly

2011-05-12T14:02:00.000-06:00

I had the boys pictures taken today at FotoFly in Draper. You must go there. All of you. This is why-----

Max so wasn't having it and they still got these amazing pictures! I'm so pleased!!! Beyond pleased...ecstatic!

Gavinisms

2011-05-11T22:37:00.000-06:00

Keith: Gavin, you're getting too big. Don't get any bigger, ok?

Gav: But Dad! I have to grow up!

Keith: Well, why?

Gav (sounding very concerned): Because I just have to get big and get a wife. And then I have to have kids and be a dad.

*Sidenote: Gav and I had a conversation the other day and once again, very concerned he said, "But mom, I just don't know who I am going to marry!" Whoever it is, as long as they get married in the "yogurt" temple, I'm sure it will all work out :)

I've been a slacker...

2011-05-10T11:35:00.002-06:00

My dad pointed out the other day on facebook that I've been pretty much slacking as a blogger. I love to blog, even if people think what I write is lame, but it's more for me than anyone else. I haven't been stuck in a rut or anything lately...just BUSY. Seriously busy with just life. I need to still blog about Easter but those pictures are on my other computer and don't have time for that. So this is more an update of well, not much really! It's spring which means I have an itch to get things organized and cleaned and that goes so SLOWLY with the kids around! I once heard a quote I loved..."Trying to clean your house with kids is like trying to brush your teeth while eating oreos." So true!

With all of the organizing I decided I have to redecorate a lot of my house. Ok, so maybe that is more of a want to than need to, but I am stuck in a rut in my house. I try and tell myself all of the time that i just need to be thankful that I have a house, but truly I feel like we have so much junk and we are all on top of eachother here. I've always kept things pretty basic here thinking we wouldn't live her as long as we have but since we are staying longer than I thought it is time for a change! I was originally starting with my bedroom, but I got some wild ideas for my main bathroom and just went to it. It's almost done I just need some more nick nacky things to put on my shelf and then I'll do a before and after post. It's making me so happy to have something new, but unfortunately the cutest room in my house is now my bathroom!

Mostly I have been busy taking pictures! It has been so fun for me! It really is a lot of work to schedule a time with people, make sure someone is available to be with the kids if Keith is working, and then edit the way too many pictures I take. Nothing makes me more happy though than when I go to someone's home and see the pictures displayed. I'm not great and have so much to learn, but I really appreciate those who encourage me and let me practice. I want to thank my dad also because he is the one who really got me excited about photography. I hate admitting sometimes that it wasn't always a passion of mine. There are those people who say that they have always loved it and always been interested, and maybe I would have if I would have taken photography in high school. I never took it because you had to take basic art first and there is absolutely NOTHING I love about drawing which was all that class was. So thanks Dad for helping me find my most passionate hobby, even if it was much later in life than others!

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from the past 2 weeks...

Gavinisms

2011-04-27T16:38:00.003-06:00

Gavin: "Look Mom! We are close to the Draper temple!"

Me: "Actually, Gav that is the Oquirrh temple."

Gavin: "Oh, we are close to the yogurt temple."

Me (laughing hysterically): "Silly, it's the Oquirrh temple."

Gavin: "That's right, the ogre temple."

Gavin turns 4!

2011-04-20T13:32:00.003-06:00

I can hardly believe that I have been a mother for 4 years. It's amazing to me to think that he is getting so old, but at the same time, I can't remember what it was like to not have him. I'm so very proud of Gavin and all that he is. He is so creative, fun, silly, sweet and just plain PERFECT.

He wanted to have a pirate party this year. Well, I'm still exhausted from last year's "Up" party so this year really wasn't much of a party! His main request was a pirate ship birthday cake. It sounded really challenging to me and it was. I had a lot more plans for it, but his birthday was at the end of one of those weeks where I just had so much going on and his cake didn't turn out nearly like I wanted it to in my head! I guess the important thing is that he got what he wanted, even if it was a little sloppy!

Keith had to work that day so it was just me and the boys for the majority of the day. We played and worked on the cake. Max took a 4 hour nap and it was so nice to spend so much time with just Gavin on his special day. He loves putting up decorations so it was fun to see him be so excited while we were hanging up streamers and balloons, etc. We also painted him a cool pirate shirt and he dressed up in some pirate garb. My sister in law called to wish Gavin a Happy Birthday and he told her that he had "All the right ingredients to dress up like a pirate." What a cutie!

I love that he is hugging him with that play knife in his hand...

Isn't he a handsome 4 year old???

We made him a pirate shirt...he thought it was pretty fun!

Happy about the cake!

Had I actually used my brain I would have frosted it in chocolate frosting before adding the fondant wood planks. I'm just not a big chocolate frosting lover so I never use it...

Dressed up in some of his pirate "ingredients" :)

Happy Birthday, sweetie! Love you!

Fast Food Fantasy

2011-04-19T13:45:00.002-06:00

Those cute neighbor boys I posted about earlier needed some help with a cake for the cub scout cake auction. Actually...they probably didn't need my help. I have a lot of faith in their mother (more than she does in herself in fact) and I'm pretty sure she could have made a perfectly great cake. I, however, may have ~~demanded~~ volunteered to help. And voila...a giant hamburger that is completely sugar! The fries and sundae are also cake and frosting. It was so fun, and a shout out to the Purple Turtle for the props :)

The help

Just be "cuz"

2011-04-14T14:12:00.001-06:00

I don't know that I ever shared this picture on my blog. It is one of my all time favorites of Gavin and his cousin Kenna. They can be such stinkers, but this was such a cute moment! I love you, Gav and Kenna!

Cake. Again. Who hates reading my blog????

2011-04-08T05:00:00.002-06:00

I know...lame, I'm posting another cake. But I think my cake posts are here to stay. I love cake decorating. I'm seriously a bit surprised by this, but it's become something I truly enjoy.

My cute sister Tristin called me the other day to ask for help with decorating a wedding cake for a mock wedding in her teen life class. Of course I was happy to say yes, but in the back of my mind I was kinda thinking..."What the heck are schools doing these days having mock weddings?" I'm still kind of thinking that, but maybe I'm just getting old... Apparently in this class they had sign ups for the "postions" of this wedding. It sounded like a lot of people didn't sign up for any of it so the teacher randomly assigned people to spots. Tristin was fortunate enough to get cake maker rather than "bride". :)

I was mean and made her help me. She made most of the flowers for the cake and it was a really fun afernoon. When Tristin was little she used to really like me (at least I like to pretend that...). I think it was probably only because I carried her almost the entire time we were at Mt. Rushmore when she was little. Or maybe it was because I would stay up late with her every night so she could play baby. Luckily she doesn't seem to remember the time I hit her head in the ceiling fan... In any case, I don't get to spend a lot of time with her now that she is grown up and "cool", so I really enjoyed our afternoon together.

Gray Family Road Rally

2011-04-06T22:13:00.002-06:00

This past year, Amy and her sibilings gave my grandparents a different Christmas present. My grandparents (who rock by the way...) have 4 children and each of them decided they would plan a fun family get together for each quarter of the year. Amy was up first and she planned a "Road Rally". It was SERIOUSLY one of the MOST FUN activities we've ever done! She split us all up in teams and each teams had secret envelopes that sent them on missions around the town. Pleasant Grove has been her family's (families? I'm not sure which one you would use here...) home their whole lives and there are lots of family memories around the town which she incorporated. Your team accumulated points for answering questions and for getting a picture of the place while wearing your "nose". (Each team was a different animal.) You got extra points if you had a stranger in your photo, or if you got a picture of another team. At the end there was a secret list of things you could earn bonus points for. I know I'm not doing it justice with my description, but it was so fun and wonderful to goof around with everyone! I have a very tender spot in my heart for this family that I was lucky enough to become part of when I was 9 years old. I love you all dearly and hope I demonstrate that enough. I can't wait for the next activity!

Gavinisms...

2011-03-29T05:00:00.000-06:00

"Mom? Does Jesus have a shovel?"

I'm assuming this question has to do with the creation of the earth which he has been asking me about a lot lately. It was so completely out of the blue while we were driving home from New Mexico that I couldn't help but laugh!

Indulge me if you will...Jo Totes Camera Bag Post

2011-03-28T07:24:00.002-06:00

There's a little craft blog out there called Tater Tots and Jello...ok, it's not so little, anyone who follows craft blogs knows about this blog! I'm not going to lie...I never enter her giveaways because she has WAY TOO many followers (lol...good for her bad for me!). This giveaway I just CAN'T resist! It's a camera bag made by Jo Totes! I don't know the rules about posting pictures from their site, so you'll just have to look at that link to see how GORGEOUS they are. Also COMPLETELY out of my price range for a camera bag! Anyway...I get an entry for blogging about the giveaway so here it is! I actually have a fairly good track record for winning blog giveaway, but never for something quite so great! I have a sis in law who wins things on the radio all the time (drives me nuts, I never have won and probably haven't tried in 1o years...) so hopefully I get to be her sister in law who wins on blogs :) Cross your fingers everyone!

Nicest Aunt Ever...

2011-03-28T05:00:00.000-06:00

That's who I want to be :) I'm going to do everything I can to be that, which means I just HAD to make this princess Castle cake for my niece Kenna. Could there be anything better for a 4 year old birthday? I think not!

Now I NEVER want to do this cake again.
Unless another cute niece asks... :)

New Mexico

2011-03-25T21:13:00.003-06:00

Ahhhh...a vacation! My sister wanted to go somewhere for her Spring Break this year and decided we should go visit my grandparents. I was only too happy to go! I love my grandparents so much and didn't get to grow up near them. I have probably seen them more in the past few years than I did my whole life growing up. They are so amazing and I found that out so much more while we were there visiting.

Since we had 4 kids between the 2 of us we decided driving was probably our best bet. It's about a 10 hour drive, and honestly wasn't all that bad. The babies didn't love it, but they weren't terrible and Gavin and Kenna were good (Gavin just talks a lot!). We did have a minor incident where Gavin bonked his head at McDonalds. It was a the tiniest scratch, but oh the blood!

Once there we had such a good time. Visiting was enjoyable, but a little hard with the constant kid chasing! It's hard to be in someone else's home because I feel constantly on guard with the kids. I was AMAZED at the patience of my grandparents. Nothing bothered them and my Paw-Paw loved the commotion :) He was only too happy to play with the kids and give them attention. One morning Gavin was getting restless and said to me, "Mom, I probably just want Gramps to wake up!"

If you noticed I just called my grandpa 2 different names in that last paragraph. We have always called my grandpa "Paw-Paw", I'm guessing it's something southern since they are from Louisiana. My grandma never wanted to be called Maw Maw so we've always just called her Grandma Peggy. Once we grandkids started having children, they decided they needed new names for the great grandkids. So now we have "GG" for Great Grandma and Paw Paw is "Gramps". We even take it a little further and call my mom's youngest brother "Gruncle" Kyle for Great Uncle! (Just a fun fact since my blog is kind of like my journal...my mom is the second oldest of 8 kids. Kyle is the same age as me, only I'm 6 months OLDER! Not everyone can say they have an uncle younger than them!)

One of my very favorite parts of the trip was eating ice cream every night (Paw Paw is an ice cream fanatic) while we watched TV. We like all of the same shows and it was fun to see my grandparents get so into Biggest Loser and American Idol with me! I probably enjoyed this time the most because it was all DVR'd and we would watch it after the kids went to bed!

Gramps and the kids....

Gruncle Kyle

Always ready to cheese for the camera!

Playing out in the "Rock Garden" as Gavin called it. It was like little boy heaven to have a yard full of rocks!

Gramps loves Subway. I mean LOVES Subway. He goes every day but Sunday. He was so thrilled to have us go there with him! He was so excited to show us his "special treatment" that he gets there. He walks in and all the employees instantly say hi to him. Then when he orders he has his special code and order either a 1, 2 or 3. The employees know what these are and know exactely what he wants on it. The most hilarious part is he will order the $5 footlong but only get the 6in and then he gets to bring his receipt back in the next day for the other half! Talk about special treatment!

We went to the Albuquerque zoo one day and had a great time! The kids loved it and they were all so exhausted on the way home every single one of them fell asleep! I just love this picture of Gramps and Gavin laughing!

We were able to visit my Aunt and Uncle while we were there. It was so fun to see them, and they are such enjoyable, kind people. I was most excited to see my cousin Sandy and her little boy Lincoln. We didn't get to grow up near eachother, but I've gotten to know her so well on facebook. She planned to visit at the same time we were so we could see eachother! I wish we could have had more time with her, but I'm just thankful that I got to see them at all! Isn't he seriously the most adorable little boy?

This is a picture of my Uncle Kevin, his 3 kids, me and my sis and my Uncle Kyle.

It was a great trip. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go. I already feel like planning another one!

There were never such devoted sisters...

2011-03-18T22:05:00.002-06:00

Anytime I think of "sisters" I think of that song in the movie "White Christmas" where the two women are wearing those fluffy blue dresses and singing a silly song about being sisters. Anyone ever seen that and know what I'm talking about?

I have 4 sisters, all of whom I LOVE more than anything in this world. Lately I have really grown in my relationship with my sister Brittani. We're close in age and growing up I never thought that was so cool. It was hard to have a little sister who wanted to do everything like me, or my mom would constantly tell me to take her with me everywhere I went. She was always the skinnier, prettier one who all of my guy friends thought was so cute. Looking back I feel so amazed that there was someone who thought enough of me to want to be like me. Now she's the one I look up to. She has so much going for her and I don't know how she stays on top of it all. She's a wonderful mother, who has a good job, and goes to school. She's so kind and friendly to everyone and is constantly offering to do things for other people, even when she's so busy. It's so fun for me to see her in this grown up world that is so different from how I saw her in the crazy, hormonal, mixed up teenage world we all live in at one time in our lives.

More than anything I know she loves me. And I am just about positive she loves my boys more than anyone else in this world, second to me and Keith. I wish everyone had the chance to know her and the joy she brings into my life. I love you, Britt.

I know that all you can think of in this picture is how tan I am (ok...that's all I'm thinking anyway, so I'll share a couple more!)

Celebrate!

2011-03-15T12:37:00.002-06:00

I had such a wonderful birthday this year! I never really feel older...I think I'm still waiting to feel mature, but I'm never quite there. I guess I'll take that because I am getting closer and closer to 30 and that just has such an "older" sounding ring to it.

I was so spoiled this year. The day started off with a text message saying I'd better be up, because my cute friend Mistie needed to drop something off. This is what she brought:

WOW...YUM! How sweet was that to bring me breakfast?!?!?! It was DIVINE
I spent the rest of the morning lounging and playing with the boys. Then my dearest BPF (Best Pal Forever) Nancy brought over lunch for me and the boys and we visited. She brought me the most DARLING purse and jewelry and totally spoiled me. I need to take a picture of this purse because it is seriously my favorite! She knows me so well.
Max went down for a nap and I just relaxed and didn't worry about doing anything. Next thing I know, I look outside and my front door has been decorated not once, but TWICE! This giant sign was from my cute neighbor boys I posted about in the last post.
And then my young women and Mistie (she's our Beehive advisor) Decorated my other door!
I got numerous other calls and gifts, but I thought it would be tacky to post a picture of my loot...even though I seriously appreciated all of it! My dad called me from St. George and Amy called from Cove Fort :) We have a joke between us where someone will call from somewhere are say, "Have you ever had a call from such and such place?" I can't remember if it started when I was calling from Spain or if it was when Keith would call them on our cruise? Suffice it to say, I have never had a brithday call from either of those places and was pleased as punch!

Then for the evening my mom and sister came to visit and brought Cafe Rio (that's right...people brought me food all day long...they REALLY know what I like!) And I got to spend the evening with these cute kids
We had Gavin take a picture of me and my sister, but neither one of us looked super cute in the pictures so I'll keep those to myself :)

The following day we had a baby shower for Mistie (can you see what a big part of my life this girl is?) and I was spoiled again by our sweet YW's presidency.
Then Keith and I went out that evening to my favorite-TUCANOS! And despite the 1 hour wait and it being Prom Night...I really enjoyed my night out! It's always so refreshing to get a night out alone with Keith. It doesn't happen often at all and I need to make it more of a priority. Then on Monday I was treated to lunch with my old Primary gals where we gabbed and gabbed and caught up. I love these woman and meant to have someone take a picture for me while we were there but forgot.

I've never really done a birthday post because I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging about how cool I am or everything I was spoiled with, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone who called, texted, sent me a fb message, visited knew HOW MUCH I LOVED and appreciated every moment of it. Thank you ALL for making my day so special!

Won't you be my neighbor?

2011-03-09T21:49:00.003-07:00

We have THE BEST neighbors. Hands down. No one could ask for better neighbors than the Proulx family. If you know them, you know I speak the truth. If you don't know them, I'm sad for you!

Jeri has been teasing me for a week or so saying that "everyone needs a Janelle". I'm not kidding when I say everyone needs a Jeri. Really, she makes me happy and can make anyone's day better. She's one of the most fun-spirited people I know and I envy her discipline. That might sound silly, but I wish I could be as disciplined about things as she can. She loves my kids and they love her. She has been dying to poof up Max's hair and tried it the other night...it wasn't really doing what we thought it would but it was fun.
For awhile now, Cory has been telling Gavin that he has a dragon in his garage. He says that if you listen really closely, every once in awhile you can hear it growl. Knowing Gavin, I'm sure you can imagine how into this he is! He constantly asks me about it and needs to know everything about the dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon is invisible. We were over at their house the other night and happened upon a "dragon egg" (that slightly resembled a medicine ball) and for the rest of the night and into the next day it was all Gavin could talk about. He really wanted to make a nest for the baby dragon when it hatches. We did our best with some twigs, grass and hot glue and we now have a blue dragon egg resting in the nest. I know Gavin talks a lot and seriously just DOESN'T STOP, but it's so cute to watch Cory just listen to him and talk about the dragon with him.

Cory and Jeri have 2 darling boys who I just love. They are so kind and fun and great examples to my boys. I'm so lucky that my kids have great role models right here to look up to. If my boys could be half as cute and good as the Proulx boys, I will be very pleased.
Thank you guys for being so great to us. I hope we are at least half as good neighbors as you guys!

Snips, Snails and....Puppy Dog Tails

2011-03-05T19:11:00.005-07:00

My boys are AMAZING. I'm certain they are the most wonderful boys in the world. And definitely the most creative.

Awhile ago, Gavin decided he needed a tail. I can't remember for sure but I think it was a piggy tail. We made him one (not a real one, you'll see later) and laughed about it for a few days. He then promptly forgot about it and never brought it up again...until today. He whined and whined about needing a tail and finally he found the proper tail making equipment. Brother needed one too. So did mom, but I fought that one because I was pretty sure I was ok without one.

Aren't they silly? They spent the entire afternoon and evening wearing their "tails". I think it's so cute how something so simple can bring that much joy to them. Maybe I should have tried it out...

Update.

2011-02-27T16:31:00.004-07:00

I thought for sure I would have more to blog about in February, but now I feel like I'm too busy to blog, rather than having NOTHING to blog about. Although I'm busy...I still don't have much to blog about.

The boys are GROWING so much every day. Gavin says the funniest things and I'm going to start posting his "Gavinisms" more regularly. I have a running list that I write down of silly stuff he says because I just don't want to forget any of it. My favorite as of late was, "Mom, which one is my sweet tooth?" Even when he is being so CHALLENGING he can always make me laugh. He is suddenly very into Super Heroes and we must refer to him only as "Super Power Guy". He keeps saying he wants to have a Spiderman birthday party, but I can't picture a really cool spiderman cake yet so I'm getting nervous :) He loves preschool and anything to do with cutting, glueing, stapleing and drawing (or drawlering as he says.) I love all of his little crafts and I'll admit it's sometimes hard for me to part with them because I know how proud he is. I just can't keep them all because of the clutter, but I try and take pictures of his creations. Thank Heavens for digital cameras so I can immortalize these moments!

Speaking of CHALLENGING, Max is certainly to that age! He is into EVERYTHING and climbs on EVERYTHING. It's so amazing to watch all that he can do, and I try and keep in mind that he is just exploring his abilities and this world that he has only know for 16 short months. It's probably been the fastest 16 months of my life but I can't imagine what it was like without him. He just really fits in. He is showing so much understanding of the things I say. If we're looking at a picture I can ask him where his brother is and he immediately will point to Gavin. He also has caught on to folding his arms when it's time for a prayer, which I think is so incredibly sweet! He's been giving people "5" for about 2 weeks now, but just this morning he held out his hand and said, "Five?" as best as he could. It was just one of those random melt-my-heart-because-that's-my-baby moments. He is growing up SO FAST and I find myself wishing every day it would just slow down a bit.

I love my boys. They are amazing.

Gavinisms

2011-02-20T14:33:00.002-07:00

"Mom, this is a picture of the Holy Ghost. AND THIS is a magic fish."

I'll let you decide which is which....

I have a problem...

2011-02-19T21:31:00.005-07:00

A serious problem. And it's kind of embarrassing. I can't believe I'm going to share this problem on my blog.

I have an addiction. A really lame addiction

Frontierville.

There I said it. And I'm so ashamed. I always thought those facebook games were lame, and then I got sucked in. I've been playing since probably August. I gave it up during Christmas, but I just couldn't bring myself to delete my frontier. After all that hard work I couldn't let it go. I just couldn't forget how it took me forever to harvest 1500 peanut crops, or the 300 flax, or how I'm so close to raising and selling off 2500 adult animals. So now I'm back. Wasting time EVERY DAY because I have to make sure my crops don't wither and my animals get fed, and who knows what other kind of silly mission or task will pop up that I need to complete to gain extra experience and move up a level. It's SICK and WRONG. I even friended other players on facebook who I DON'T EVEN KNOW because I needed more neighbors so I couldn't complete these missions and of course my "normal" friends don't play. I know it's incredibly silly, but it's something I like to do to unwind from my day. Sort of like watching TV I guess. Keith says with all of this practice, our garden better rock this year.

I am, however, getting much better at balancing my time. I have set limits for when and how long I can play. Someone has to be the mother around here. I REFUSE to ignore my kids for this game and I'm always left wondering if these other "neighbors" of mine do anything other than play. I can't keep up with them. It's really funny to watch. I'm surprised at the amount of people who seem to do nothing but play. It can't be healthy. And I think they actually SPEND MONEY to accomplish some of the tasks more quickly, instead of waiting around to gather things for the tasks you're given. Those are some seriously dangerous habits. The game is fun, but to know that people can create something where people will actually PAY because they need further themselves in a game...ick.

So for now, I'll keep playing when I have some downtime. And I won't worry about it until I feel the need to start paying.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T14:56:00.002-07:00

Lest you think I'm creative enough to think this up on my own....I saw it HERE. Now you can steal it for next year!

It's a Date!

2011-02-13T22:43:00.005-07:00

Gavin, little stud-muffin that he is, had the privilege of accompanying a beautiful woman on a date last week. I know, I know, he's a little young, but I figured that as far as first dates go, this was a safe choice.

GRANDMA!

He was thrilled beyond words when Grandma Kim asked him out! They went to dinner and a movie and he enjoyed himself immensly! Gavin was, however, very concerned that someone "changed" the movie theatre. The theatre we always go to and drive by didn't have any good movies playing for kids so they went to a different one. He's such a funny kid and apparently thinks there is only one theatre on the planet. He has informed me for the past few days that I really need to let Grandma know where the right movie theatre is.

I feel so blessed that my kids live close to all of their grandparents. They are very lucky to have the opportunity to get to know these wonderful examples and build a strong relationship with all of them. The way I watch Gavin interact and talk about all of his grandparents is something I truly treasure. Whether it's swimming at Grandmas, going to "Pompa's Turtle" to see "our girls", or fishing and camping with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Cecil, I know that my boys feel VERY loved. Thank you, parents...ALL of you. I'm a lucky gal to have so many people that care about me. I hope I make you feel like I care about you too.

It happened again...

2011-02-11T18:16:00.004-07:00

A while back you may remember THIS experience I had. Well, it happened again! Not with Megan (I see her all the time at Walmart...so much in fact, I honestly look for her EVERY TIME I'm there), but I had a new CELEBRITY sighting!

For once I ventured out to a store other than good ol' Walmart (I hear all of you drawing in a breath as you read that...) and as I walked down an isle I caught a glimpse of someone I recognized. I stopped, backed up, and stared. Yes, blatantly and obviously stared. I have zero tact apparently. I was really in shock. This particular blogger was the very first craft blog I ever came upon and was instantly hooked. She has to be the cutest, most awesome craft blogger out there. My very favorite part is she has 2 boys and does a lot of boy centered crafts which are hard to find.

So there I am staring and since I'm so obvious about it she catches me. All I can manage to stutter is "Hi." Oh. My. Gosh. I'm such a loser. She smiles and says hi back and then I word vomit, "I read your blog!" like a total idiot. She was so cute and nice and friendly, despite my serious lack of normalcy. She even politely pretended to know who I was from commenting on her blog. Maybe she really did remember me or maybe she just got a stalker vibe from me.... I'm going with she did remember me because she's too nice to lie (and that make me feel so, well, cool!).

Anyway...her name is Cheri...and you can check out her blog here at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. She does the most awesome stuff and has some SERIOUS talent. And while I may not have been dancing with Ellen like my friend Mistie...I thought this was pretty exciting!

Gavin's "Projects"

2011-02-09T15:34:00.002-07:00

Lately Gavin is really interested in writing, coloring, taping, glueing, painting...etc. I try to remember he is learning these skills, but sometimes it is such a pain to find all of my brand new tape used up, scissors left on the floor, or paint all over. He has a hard time remembering to ask to use things and it doesn't matter where I hide the stuff...he finds it.

These are a few of his latest projects...

In case you can't tell, this is an airplane...he came up with it all on his own. I thought it was brilliant.

In preschool last week they learned about groundhogs. He came home and was OBSESSED with groundhogs that day. This is his ground hog coming out of it's house. Use your imagination. I again thought he was brilliant. (He hasn't mentioned groundhogs since...)

Today he told me he needed to make a map. I just so happened to have this giant paper with grid lines lying around so I gave it to him. As he's writing it he is describing the obstacles like the trees, etc. Sounded very similar to Dora...he then informed me it was the way to Brittani's house. I thought that was really cute! (And brilliant)

Ground{Hog} Day

2011-02-02T12:46:00.002-07:00

In honor of Groundhog day...

I regret to inform you that I can see my shadow and am predicting 6 more weeks of winter.

The month of LOVE...

2011-02-01T22:28:00.003-07:00

Ahhhh, January is over and I can already feel myself getting out of this slump! Too bad today is FREEZING because that's not improving anything for me!

I'm hoping I'm over my blogging slump and will find many things to blog about this month. I found a fun idea for Gavin's Valentines that I will share soon and I'm hoping to just have lots to share (even if you're the only one reading this Dad...or Mom...I think I might have 2 readers...)

But for today here is a very {LOVE}ly picture! Don't you just {LOVE} her? I hate when people I take pictures for have cute kids...it's too hard to narrow them down and I just end up spending lots of time sitting at the computer editing everything. I sure {LOVE} you Miss Aly!

Arrrrrrr, matey!

2011-01-23T19:16:00.004-07:00

My lastest creation...this was so fun! I had a couple of mishaps (cake just breaking apart!) But I'm pleased with it. It's hard for me to do buttercream and not fondant...I like the way fondant is so smooth and perfect but I bet this tastes soooooo yummy! This was for my BFF's oldest who just turned 7 (I can't even BELIEVE he is 7!) Poor little guy was sick, sick, sick the day of the party. At least there will be plenty of yummy cake for him to eat when he feels better!!!

January, UGH

2011-01-22T12:52:00.005-07:00

I need to plan something exciting for next January. I find that I feel so just "stuck" this month. It's a nothing to do, no where to go, same old stuff, rut. I haven't even hardly blogged because really the only thing that we've done is a lot of de-junking and reorganizing and well, that's hardly blog worthy.

I finally dug the camera out the other day and took a few pictures just to have something for this month. Here's a little of what we have been up to.

Gavin just sat there one day making funny faces...it was hilarious. He's such a nut!

Then he decided we should make a potato head family.

Look closely....

How cute! He was holding hands with one of that Potato Heads!

Max loves to wear sunglasses and put things on his head like hats and headbands. It doesn't last long before he takes them off though!

Last night we happened to look outside and the sky was BEAUTIFUL. It only lasted a second. I asked Gavin if he wanted to go outside with me really quick to see it and he said, "Yes, and in the meantime I'm going to pick up some sticks." In the meantime? Really, where does he get this stuff?!

We had some random balloons just hanging around so I googled and learned how to make a balloon animal puppy. I love the internet. Max just likes to put things in his mouth....

New Year, New Me

2011-01-11T22:34:00.003-07:00

I wish it was a new me like 50 lbs lighter and a funky new hairstyle, but hey, at least I'm alive, right?!?!

I think this is honestly the first new year that I have truly reflected on the past year and focused on what I might want to change or improve upon this year. I have SERIOUSLY debated over what I want my resolution to specifically be. In the end I have quite a few smaller goals that I will be working on to better myself, but my main focus for the year is happiness. Don't get me wrong...I'm happy now, but I really want to be someone other people want to be around. I want to be one of those people who ALWAYS seem happy despite minor issues they might be having.

I know I'm always going to have rough days, but I am trying to remind myself when those tough times come that it's not the end of the world. How positive (or not) I am about the sitution will determine the outcome. How I am the ONE person who can decide how I will act or react. (Maybe I should have gone with the word "control"!)

I know if I can be a happier person it will influence how others are feeling. I know my children and husband will feel more loved and secure when I am outwardly happy in all of my efforts.

I'm still not exactely sure how I'm going to accomplish this because I feel that I tend to be a glass half empty person, but a couple of ideas I've thought of:

Working on my personal progress for YW. I absolutely love the new program and always feel at peace when I'm working on it. Along with this comes studying the scriptures as the project for virtue is to read the Book of Mormon.

Stop thinking that everything is so hard to do with my kids. I think I hide at home a lot because I get anxiety about going out with them. I know this is harder for me in the winter months, but it's something I need to work on all year long.

Waking up each day and thinking of something I am thankful for. It's hard to be a downer when you recognize everything you've got going for you. And, well, I really have a lot going for me :)

Quit worrying about what everyone thinks of me. We all do this, but I think I do it a little more than others. I'm so self concious of how I look, what I wear, are they judging my parenting?, is my house perfect enough? I'm done worrying about it. This is me and this is what you get. No more apologizing for being me. I want to like ME and I can't do that when I'm so worried about everyone else liking me.

Recognize that I am truly a daughter of God. I don't usually get all churchy (is that even a word?) on my blog, but that last statement is the core of who I am. He created me and He loves me, despite all the things I think are my shortcomings. If I can just keep this in mind, how could I feel anything but happy?

So the word of 2011 for me is Happiness. What's yours?

Paisleys for Paisley

2011-01-01T22:02:00.002-07:00

My sweet niece Paisley turned 1 this past week and is having her birthday celebration tomorrow evening. My sister asked me to make the cake...actually, I think it may have gone down something like this:

Britt: We're having Paisley's birthday party Sunday evening...can you come?

Me: Of course! I'm bringing the cake, right?

I doubt she minded me being so forward, but after it took me all day long (and that was even with preparing half of the stuff earlier in the week!) I was starting to wonder why the heck I even offered! Just kidding...I love my little Pais and am glad I got to make this way too big and elaborate cake for her very first bithday! Can't wait to take some pictures of her smashing the top layer!

I wish the paisleys would have turned out cuter (obviously this was my main idea since it's her name and all...)I'm really not great at piping things on cakes! I struggle with getting the cornstarch off of the fondant too...especially the chocolate. If anyone has suggestions about this kind of thing, let me know!

The longest Christmas post you've ever read...

2010-12-26T17:53:00.010-07:00

What a great Christmas we had! Party after party, family and friends, and lots of fun times together. I always feel truly blessed at Christmas time, not only because of my family, but the birth of our Savior is a wonderful thing to celebrate. I hope to make our Christmases a little more centered around Christ as the years go by and I've already been thinking up ways to do so for next year.

We had a fun family Christmas party with just my siblings. I really enjoyed just being with all of them. The family has definitely grown in size since some of us have had kids, but I love watching my family interact. My sisters (all of them) are so cute with my kids. I watch them all and really see what a true love they have for them. It always amazes me when you see people love your children beyond what you could imagine. I don't feel like I am a real lover of other people's kids. I think it's just hard for me to connect with them or I just feel really awkward, so it really amazes me to see people act so lovingly toward my own children. My parents seemed really relaxed that night and like they just enjoyed being with everyone (I hope I read you correctly in that sense Dad and Amy...) I brought my camera and didn't take a single picture. It's hard to be the photographer and referee your kids... It was our first year just having a party with my siblings and I hope it's something we continue...(hint, hint...)

Well, it came and went...The Great Smith Family Adult Christmas Party 2010! Words cannot describe how excited I was for this! I know it's only the second year running, but as I stated in a previous post, I LOVE IT! This year DID NOT disappoint. Good food, good company and LOTS of laughs! My mom in law had some clever games for us to play followed by the main event...The White Elephant gift exchange. Those who truly know me, know that I love me a good white elephant game. I much prefer those that are true white elephants and have the oddest of odd. This year may have been absolute perfection as far as the game goes. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. Serious...side splitting, gut wrenching laughing. And no kids so I have pictures....!!!

Rob commented how he and Carol "matched"...

Keith's White Elephant gift...for those not clued in...Kevan (Keith's brother) is referred to as "Golden Boy" in our family. This had a note that read, "On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 5 golden things...." All were gold and had pictures of Kevan :) The Inca cola was the best part because Kevan served his mission in Peru and brought this cola back. It says right on the cola "The Golden Cola"

We played a game where you had to wiggle "Santa's Elf" to your mouth...it's times like these I'm glad I'm the only one who had the camera....MaryAnn sure was concentrating!!!

We played another game where you had to get the ornament from one end to the other using only your mouths...it made for some interesting photos!!!

Rob and Carla had some trouble...blood may have been involved....

This game you had to run to the end of the room, unwrap a hershey's kiss, chew it up and race back to your team to hand off the gloves to someone else...

Aww....

This was my white elephant...Yep, that's mom and pops goin all American Gothic here! I blew it up to a big 20x30 and mounted it on foam board.

Christmas Eve is always spent at my Grandma and Grandpa's. Every year we get together and have a big meal and do a Piñata (Don't worry, it just took me an hour to remember how to type the ñ in that sentence). Might sound like a silly Christmas tradition (anyone else picturing Tevye singing Tradition right now, Dad?) but it's something that everyone really seems to enjoy. I'll have to ask my Grandma how long they've been doing this but I'm pretty sure it's since her kids were young. Each year it's something new and this year it was a big ol' can of Monster Energy drink. (It's been Dora the Explorer and even a Walmart truck to name a few...) It's also not your traditional Piñata. It's HUGE and FILLED with all sorts of trinkets and toys that my grandparents shop for all year long. I think my grandparents rock. Not because they do this for all of us, but they are so kind and loving and generous. Especially with me and my kids. They didn't technically have to be my grandparents, but I always feel so good when I know they claim me. Unfortunately I again brought my camera, but this time it didn't even make it in the house thanks to a 3 year old meltdown and my sanity close to gone for the day...

Christmas morning with the kids was great! They slept in until 9 o'clock. Go figure! That started my day off great. Gavin was so excited to see that Santa came! He couldn't wait for poky dad to get out there to open presents. However, once he finally started to, HE was the poky one! I think it took 2 hours to get it all unwrapped. Max couldn't have cared less about opening presents, he just wanted to play and climb on everything. They both seemed to have fun and were way too spoiled. I'll have to let Santa know they don't need so much next year.

This was the best one I could get of them together...

Wow...a present for me? Am I supposed to sit on it?

Maybe I'll just carry it around...

He was so excited!

Thrilled to infinity and beyond.....

Clearly he was excited about his new backpack!

He climbed in all by himself and thought their new wagon was the greatest!

We usually spend Christmas night with my mom and Alan for their Christmas party. More good food, too much spoiling of the grandkids, some door prizes and a shuffleboard tournament. It was great minus me not even coming close on the shuffleboard tournament! My mom is so cute and can't let anyone walk away a loser so they had it all set up in brackets and their were consolation prizes for those that didn't advance. I got a Walmart gift card and my brother said I won the most out of the losers because my prize value went up since I get a discount there. What a positive way to look at the fact that I LOST and you WON, Austin!!! I did make a come back on some dice rolling game that I wasn't really understanding but got some cash for winning so who is complaining?!?!

He was thrilled about this lantern!

Isn't she precious?

Life size....

Watching a movie while the tournament was going on....

Shuffleboard....

Lots of fist bumping...I didn't make them pose for this picture or anything....

All in all, what a FANTASTIC Christmas. I'm so lucky to have my family so close and to be able to spend time with them during the holiday season. I can only hope that each of them truly feels of my love for them. I am so thankful for each and every family member in my life and feel so incredibly blessed just knowing each of them. Merry Christmas, everyone!

CHEESE!

2010-12-23T08:00:00.003-07:00

Enough said!

Smith Family Cousin Party

2010-12-21T11:47:00.002-07:00

Once again it was time for the annual Smith Family Cousin party. This is actually only the second year we have done it, but with so many of us now, last year we decided to do a kid party and an adult party. I LOVE the adult party. It is SO RARE that I get to spend any time with any of my in-laws without children. Not that I don't love all the little kiddos, but it's fun to get to know the in-laws and see their true colors :) Anywho, there will be a post about this party soon as it hasn't happened yet (can you tell I'm just really looking forward to it?!?)

This year instead of doing all the traditional Christmas activities, we met at Keith's parents for pizza and a quick Christmas craft and then herded all the ~~cattle~~ children to Jungle Jims Playland. I know...not the cleanest place on earth, and the employees aren't exactely something to write home about, but I can put my feelings about germs and weirdos aside for a couple of hours. The kids sure had fun. I enjoyed visiting and watching the kids run around like crazy and taking lots of pictures.

I'm the boss...

2010-12-18T18:35:00.002-07:00

the cake boss! Ok...really, I'm not that great, but it's no secret that I have a serious addiciton to the show "Cake Boss" and let's face it, I love cake. I was finally able to make my first ever fondant cake. I'm actually really pleased with it! I know it's not perfect, but for my first attempt I'm so happy! It really was actually fun to try the fondant. I even made my own which wsan't too hard.

I'm so amazed at what you can learn on the internet. Seriously...there is so much out there. One day I might do a post about all of the websites I like to visit that share all of this information. It's like there is this whole world of people out there that are kind enough to take time and post tutorials on how to do things. For some reason it really just amazes me.

So without further ado...here is Myah's birthday cake for her Minnie Mouse themed birthday party!

Breakfast with Santa

2010-12-16T23:22:00.003-07:00

Each year we go to my parents ward Christmas party for Breakfast with Santa. I was so surprised this year when Gavin asked if we were going to "my dads" church to see Santa. I didn't know he would remember it from last year. He was so excited for it, and I really enjoy being with my family and not having to stand in line at the mall for the Big Guy. Gavin was all about sitting on his lap but I noticed as he got a little closer in line he was tensing up just a bit. He still hopped right up there and talked to Santa for awhile. Let's face it...it was probably more than any other kid because, hey, it's Gavin, and I'm pretty sure he never stops talking!!!

And while I'm sure this Santa picture doesn't even compare to my friend Tori's (Seriously, Tori, I'm still laughing!) I thought this was pretty funny

Baby Liam

2010-12-10T20:54:00.004-07:00

Our good friends had their first baby 2 weeks ago. We are so excited for them! I was pretty excited to be able to take his pictures this week. I can't even stand how cute this little man is! This is the first time I've gotten to go on a photo shoot for a little baby boy and let's face it...there's just a special place in my heart for baby boys! He has the most darling RED hair! I almost hate to turn some of the pictures black and white, but I LOVE the black and white on babies. I have definitely decided that newborns are some of my favorite subjects! The younger the better! Enjoy!

When you live with all boys...

2010-12-08T21:18:00.003-07:00

Your knitting needles turn into marshmallow roasters.

What's wrong with this picture?

2010-12-01T12:47:00.002-07:00

Well, there are a couple of things wrong but I had to laugh when I saw that apparently Gavin has a sister. (Again people...no I'm not pregnant) He loves to show me all of his schoolwork while we are driving home from preschool and I laughed at this and said, "You don't have a sister." He proceeded to once again tell me that she's with Heavenly Father. I can only imagine how this conversation went with his teacher who has never seen me with this so-called "sister" and is now probably thinking we must have had a daughter who passed away by the way I'm sure it sounded coming from Gavin! Oh that boy!

We apparently now only have 2 people in our family as well, and one of our family rules is "a story".

Despite all of that sillyness, I feel like he is learning a lot in preschool. He is always so excited to show me what they have done. I am so thankful for a teacher that he LOVES. He refuses to do any type of "learning" with me, but I'm fairly certain he would do anything for Ms. Karrie. I love when I see that he tried to write something and how he always wants to trace letters that he sees with his finger. He recognizes "G" everywhere we go and is proud to tell everyone that's what his name starts with. His favorite letter seems to be a "T" because he really likes to write that one, but the other day he did a "G" all on his own and was so proud.

He's growing up so fast...

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T22:48:00.004-07:00

My favorite holiday of them all! I truly love Thanksgiving. It's probably all the food, but it's just like a big kick-off to the holiday season. There is just something about the feel of the day that I anticipate all year long.

This year I attempted to "run" a 5k. I wasn't quite all the way ready for it and walked a bit, but I'm glad I did it. Even if I was by myself. I have to be honest...it was like the second coldest day of the year here and I'm pretty surprised that I got up to go all by myself. Although I was anticipating that moment where everyone else on Biggest Loser has finished the race and they come back to help the last person, I assure you it did not happen and there were in fact people that finished behind me.

Keith had to work this day for 4 hours and right in the middle of the day. Blah. It ended up working out ok other than I feel like I hardly spent any time with him. His mom had dinner at 1 and so he got to be there for that and then quickly head off to work. Afterwards I went to my moms with the boys since he would be working.

I always enjoy the time spent with my in-laws and please NO ONE take this the wrong way, but there is just something to be said for having Thanksgiving with the food you've always eaten. I've heard that scent is the strongest sense tied to your memory, and on Thanksgiving I totally believe that to be true. We enjoyed some great food and because no one else was coming but me and the kids, my mom had a little extra time to decorate the place settings for us. They were so festive and cute! She had her beautiful tree all decorated too. The decorating thing is something I unfortunately DID NOT inherit.

I think it's terribly cute how her wrapping paper has to match her tree...

Also since we were the only ones coming she thought Gavin would think it was so cool if we all had our own little "turkey" . Gavin loved it!

Max loves pretending to talk on the phone. It's the cutest thing! Everything is a phone and he thinks he's pretty neat!

Austin, Chelsea and Myah joined us in the evening after their Thanksgiving. Isn't she cute? She's at such a fun age and I love hearing her starting to talk! She has the sweetest little voice!

Gavin really wanted to decorate the "holiday". He kept telling this to my mom so she let him set up his own little area for his "holiday".

The rest of the evening we just relaxed. Alan introuduced me to this quick, fun game.

We played around with Austin's awesome light pen and my camera.

And Austin, Chelsea and I enjoyed a nice little reading of Chuck Norris jokes. I think it was just late but I laughed a lot! For instance, -Chuck Norris uses a night light. Not because he's afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.- See? I hope you're reading this late at night so you can be laughing like I am right now...

All in all it was a wonderful day. And the best part? I still get to have ANOTHER Thanksgiving on Sunday with Dad and Amy! Let's prolong this holiday as long as possible!!!

Every little boys dream...

2010-11-24T19:49:00.003-07:00

SNOW! Gavin has been so excited for the snow to arrive. Naturally, the day that it really snows he wakes up with a terrible cold. Then yesterday we apparently had the "Bilzzard of 2010" but I must have missed that one. In any case, I was to my breaking point of being stuck inside with my kids, and finally decided that a little cold never hurt anyone. So I bundled Gavin up and sent him out. The brief 10 minutes I had to myself while Billsy was napping and Gav was outside...PRICELESS. I love them both to death but they are LOUD. Gavin NEVER stops talking. I mean never. I think I remember my school report cards when I was young saying something about me being an excellent student, I just talked a little too much. I envision this in Gavin's future. Then add into that the raw boyishness and well, you can understand why a quiet 10 minutes would be nice. As for Max...well, he's a baby #1 and #2, I think he's going to follow in the footsteps of his brother because he jibber jabbers all day long.

Look at that face!

Do you love how his snow pants don't fit? Don't worry, his boots don't really either! He just couldn't stand to wait. I'm sad because I've squeezed a lot of mileage out of this snow suit! You should have seen him walking in it...it was hilarious! But it didn't stop him!

Usually this is what we get all day long from our sweetie...

But he's been yucky sick the past few days and we've had a bit more of this...

I'm getting too old....

2010-11-19T14:18:00.002-07:00

The other night was the midnight premiere of Harry Potter. The movie = awesomeness. Definitely my favorite so far. Janelle = way too old to hang out with teenagers and go to midnight premieres. I was soooooooooo tired! Might have had something to do with the little pre-showing party I hosted before we went. It was totally last minute and I didn't get to do any fun decorating or anything, but I found a bunch of recipes for things they eat in the books and went to town. It was a bit more involved than I anticipated but the girls that were going with me seemed to enjoy it and that made it all worth it. For those who have read the books I made Pumpkim Pasties, Butter Beer, Treacle Fudge, Acid Pops and Cockroach Cluster. My favorite were the pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and sprinkles which I of course called "Ollivander's Wands" and then they each got a broomstick treat bag. We did a Harry Potter crossword puzzle and a trivia quiz and then we played "Indoor Quidditch". I hid a small bouncy ball that I had painted gold and they had to find it. 11 teenagers in my tiny front room looking for a little tiny ball was HILARIOUS. And even better, I had the best hiding spot. It took forever for them to find it! I had a great time despite my tiredness and I am thankful for some cute girls who even invited me, an old woman, to go!

Ready to go!

This was the richest concoction....kinda like a butterscotch cream soda. I won't even begin to tell you how much butter and sugar is in this....

Sort of like individual pumpkin pies

These were yummy!

I shouldn't post this disgusting picture of myself but I had to prove another adult was with me and I'm not the only crazy fan!

Taste Testers

2010-11-12T22:39:00.004-07:00

I can't believe I have never blogged about this. A couple of years ago I was introduced to this fun group of gals that have a recipe club. They call it Taste Testers and 10 months out of the year we rotate going to each others houses for dinner. If it is your turn to host you cook the main meal. Everyone else has an assignment ranging from salad, appetizer, side dish, dessert, paper products...etc. and we rotate those throughout the year. I think it is one of the things in my life I have come to really look forward to. Not only is it a nice little break, but I have developed some FABULOUS friendships that I know I'll keep for the rest of my life. Not having grown up here I really don't have a lot of friends outside of my BFF and church friends, so this has been something I have really enjoyed. Each person in the group is so much fun and they all have such witty personalities. It's just a big laugh fest every time we get together.

My favorite time of year is our last meeting held in November. That means it's time for the annual white elephant gift exchange. I seriously live for this and the last 2 years have decided early in the year what I would be giving. The first year I regifted something I got as a door prize from my grandparents Christmas party: A "Knit your own Bikini" kit. Second year I made a set of Christmas cards with everyone's picture and a picture of Barack Obama on it that said 'Look who's "Barackin' Around the Christmas Tree this year." This was in response to a long standing joke we had about Barack Obama. So this year I planned to actually crochet (I'm not much of a knitter but could make about whatever you wanted with a crochet hook) a bikini. I had great plans to do this early in the year and have it ready but I didn't even do it until the night before. It actually only took 3 hours. It was hilarious and I have no idea who would wear a crocheted bikini, but that's beside the point! I can't remember some of the gifts given the past years, but they are all so funny.

I'm so thankful to have such good friends and so many fun memories. This has really been a bright spot in my life and I thank each of these women for being that for me. Aren't they all so cute? We unfortunately were missing 2 of us in this photo.

Turkey Time

2010-11-10T14:28:00.003-07:00

Anyone else feeling like this has become the "Look what I baked blog?" Seriously...I'm not sure what's with all the baking lately. Gavin was in charge of the snack today for preschool and to go along with the theme of Thanksgiving and their letter this week (T) we made some turkey cupcakes! They of course are 10 times cuter on the directions page but I thought they turned out ok. Here is some advice if you're going to be doing these...instead of the Fruit by the Foot...by those Pull and Peel Twizzlers. I thought of that WAY too late, but hey, I'm now fabulous at rolling up tiny pieces of Fruit by the Foot.

Side note...I got a new camera! Actually, I got 2 new cameras. I bought one and then decided I wanted more of an upgrade than it was so I now have a Canon Rebel XTi for sale if anyone is interested. I'll make you a good deal. Looking forward to getting to know my new camera and seeing what it can really do!

Let them have their cake....

2010-11-02T16:46:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow is YW in Excellence. Our theme centers around Daughters of a King and royalty. We as Beehive leaders were in charge of refreshments and were asked to make a castle cake. Good thing my AWESOME advisor is so knowledgeable in the cake decorating department! We spent a fun evening last night decorating the castle cake while the kiddos slept. It was a late night, but went smoothly and I'm thankful for the fun time I got to spend with a good friend. I wish everyone could know her :) What I lack in qualities she definitely compensates for. And she's just so much fun! I know I have been truly blessed to have her as a partner in this calling. I'm always amazed at how well my Father in Heaven knows me and knows who I need to be surrounded by.

As for the cake...I'm pleased with it. But I'm also very caked out...I had to watch an episode of Cake Boss today just to get me to frost the extra cakes we have for serving...

Please keep in mind this was midnight :)

Trick or Treat

2010-11-01T12:42:00.003-06:00

The day of Trick or Treating I was so close to not even letting Gavin go. Seriously. The day was ~~RIDICULOUS~~, ~~HORRIFIC~~, ~~THE WORST DAY EVER~~, slightly trying. I even threatened that we would not go trick or treat and my darling little first born looked and me and proclaimed he Didn't. Even. Care. This of course did NOTHING to bolster my enthusiasm over this holiday. Then right before it was time to go out...it rained. So we headed out to my parent's neighborhood party hoping the rain would subside by the time we got there. It hadn't and we all huddled in my parents garage eating soup and breadsticks. FINALLY we got to trick or treat and Gavin was SUPER cute doing that (thankfully because he wasn't so cheerful when we got to my dads). He would tell everyone thank you and then to a couple people he would all of the sudden say, "Happy Halloween!" It was pretty cute. Sort of made up for the rest of the day. Sort of. I don't even have pictures of it because I didn't take my nice camera due to the rain and I took one picture of Gavin sleeping in the car and my point and shoot died. I really just couldn't win that day!

Max hated the hat on his costume so these are the best pictures we got. Let's hope for a better next year...we have 364 days to get it figured out...

Cake Time

2010-11-01T01:30:00.002-06:00

Max finally got to offically celebrate his birthday with the ritual "I'm turning one so let's smash a cake" right of passage. He has now graduated his first year of life. And what a great first year it was!

We didn't do much just had some dinner and cake. I figure I'll save my energy for parties that will be memorable to him. And/or parties where having a couple extra people in my house doesn't make me feel like we're falling all over eachother. One day.

Here are some photo highlights...

I didn't even know it but apparently I planned a game called pile all the balloons on Austin...

Um...Mom, should I really be doing this?

Gavin had been asking me all day when it would be time for Max to make a mess with his cake. when the time came, Gavin was pretty sure he got to help with that mess...he kept painting frosting on Billsy and then he tried to feed him some. This is Gavin upset because Max bit his finger...

This make me laugh...Billsy does this a lot. He's not too keen on actually picking up his food apparently. He just goes for it. Definitely my kid....

Uhhhhh....too much sugar.....

This sure is fun.....

Gavin got smart and got the spoon...no more biting his fingers!

The aftermath....