my family of super-heroes

love my sweet baby girl

2010-01-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

lucy has been sick lately. she has a cough and fever and has been keeping me up the last 3 nights or so. but i have to say, it is at night when she is feeling ucky and preventing me from sleeping that i just stare at her and think how sweet she is and how lucky i am to have her.

she loves her belly being rubbed, then rolls over to her back. it is her comfort. she threw up during a coughing attack in the middle of the night and had bits of spaghetti all over her face and hair. i told her i was going to put her in the bath (for the second time that night) and she just said in her sweet tired voice, "all right". i tucked her in my bed in clean jammies and told her i would be right back, "all right". she doesn't cry or whine when she is sick. she just lays there, tells me what she needs, "tinkerbell cup", or "i need bowl", and always tells me thank you and that she loves me.

i was just thinking last night at about 1am, that it is truly when we are serving other people that we grow to love them the most. i'm glad my baby girl is so easy to serve and love.

hope this post is not a mumbled mess... afterall, i am running on little sleep....

ammon says...

2009-11-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

last night:

me: ammon, i think those jammies are getting too small for you. i think it is time to put them away.

ammon: yeah, can we give them to michael jackson's son?

me: uhh... yeah.... maybe...

ammon: what does michael jackson's son look like?

me: umm, ask your dad.

getting back into blogging...

2009-11-10T11:11:00.001-08:00

it's been a while i know. for some reason it has been super hard for me to sit down and upload pictures. so i'm going to start with just some funny things the kids have said or done and some milestones and hopefully i will post some pictures in the near future.

we have been sick. it was nick's turn first, now mine. looks like like the kids have joined in too. ammon has a cough and runny nose and is too sick to go to preschool today. he came up to me and sat in my lap and said:

"i don't have a bad cough any more." (cough-cough) "i just have an original one".

lucy is full of energy despite her coughs and talks about herself in 3rd person, saying things like, "baby gee do it". or "baby gee's turn". oh yes, she has named herself baby gee. it's her alter-ego diva.

ammon is getting bigger and doing new things all the time. he learned how to ride his bike with out training wheels in just a few minutes and he thinks he can teach lucy how to do it now. a couple of weeks ago nick taught him about pearl jam. we were in the car and this conversation took place:

nick: "ammon, who sings this song?"
ammon: "pearl jam"
nick: "who is the lead singer?"
ammon: "eddie vedder"
nick: "who is the lead guitarist?"
ammon: "mike mccreedy"
me: "ammon, can you say your abc's?"
ammon: ".... no...."

yeah. so i thought that might be a problem. i had been working on them with him and he just didn't seem interested. he would always sing: "a b c d e f g... w x y z." but after practicing while going through a corn maze with aunt jessica and bridget, he finally got it! and now he sings his abc's all the time. i love it!

nick has also taught him a lot about michael jackson. he LOVES all the music / videos. he says his favorite michael jackson songs are "thriller" and "smooth criminal" but he sings to "billie jean", "bad", and a few others as well.

nick took him to go see "this is it" and before they left ammon found a red blazer with gold buttons in his closet. (a hand me down from his cousin). he put it on and INSISTED on wearing it to the movie. he thought it was the perfect jacket to wear to a michael jackson movie and nick couldn't convince him otherwise. i was trying so hard to keep the laughter in but it was so funny watching nick and ammon fight about the jacket. ammon was SURE that it was the perfect michael jackson jacket and nick was SURE that he didn't want ammon to wear it out in public with him.

lucy LOVES the color pink. we were at the store the other day and she didn't have her volume control on. everytime we passed anything pink she yelled out, "PINK!!!" like, "oh-my-gosh-mom-did-you-just-see-that!" kind of like she had just discovered something AMAZING. and she did it over, and over, and over again. finally i got her volume in check and things were okay after that.

she loves to tell me the color of things. we saw a horse outside (another thing she really loves) and got a bit excited. i asked her what it's name was and she said, "a black one". so everything is color oriented now. she loves playing with ammon and giving hugs and kisses. when she knows she is in trouble for doing something naughty, she comes up to me and says, "a hug mommy" and "i love you". kind of hard to be mad after that...

okay, next post will have some pictures...

4th of July

2009-07-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

the boy in brown is the one tierra fueded with for most of the parade. i thought it was kind of funny until she broke out into tears at the end of the parade when he took a pack of gum she wanted.

horses and 4-H princesses.

i think i'll have another...

cute-cute hair

ammon loves his cousins.

tierra is oh-so-cool in her sunglasses.

lucy and her squirt gun.

cute and matchy 4th of july shirts. ammon was so sad that no one was matching him and kept asking where daddy's shirt was.

our car was still out of commission so mom came and picked us up to take us to the hyrum parade. it is a family tradition and we would have hated to miss it. THANK YOU GRANDMA!

i bought matching 4th of july shirts for the kiddos while we were in park city (GREAT outlet prices!) and lucy and tierra looked so cute with their sparkler hair-dos. the kids had fun at the parade. lucy loved the marching band and she didn't quite get the concept of putting her candy in her bag. as soon as she would get one piece she wanted to open it and eat it and didn't care about putting any more in her bag. ammon liked dancing to any music that went by and tierra fueded with a boy next to us that kept stealing the candy she was after. good times!

the night before we missed the stadium fireworks but did some out on the road with our neighbors. thanks crystal and mark for sharing your fireworks! it was a fun, relaxing 4th of july. which was nice after all of our travels!

park city story with pictures...

2009-07-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

these are my pictures of our park city trip. i didn't get any of our MANY trips to the pool. it was probably where we spent most of our time. other highlights not mentioned in the pictures:

playing rockband... i do love to sing on that thing. i am in no way a good singer (pretty bad actually), but when it comes to rockband/karaoke, i LOVE IT!

going with nick to watch an old sundance movie at the library in park city.

the relaxation pool with sauna/steam room and waterfall.

landon taking me to spoon me on our way home.

okay, so all my pictures are backwards in order. here goes:

magic show at the resort. turns out bridget is pretty magical and can turn pennies into quarters!

tierra was the beautiful assistant

lucy wanted to help too!

all the kids ready for a show.

nick and ammon on the alpine slide.

tierra was scared to go at first but ended up loving it and asked to do it again.

lucy said, "weee!" i couldn't go fast enough for her.

the chair lift was fun until we got REALLY high up and i was afraid lucy would suddenly jump off my lap and fall to the ground. then i was TERRIFIED!

bridget in her regal robe.

high flying arial acts. snow boarders and skiers doing jumps into the water.

they did a lot of flips and tricks. it was really cool to watch.

ammon and stockton "riding the bobsled" while we waited for grandpa, landon, josh, and ryan to come down in a real bobsled. grandpa ended up getting really sick, boy did they go fast!!

a couple of australian olympic skiers were there practicing jumps. it was funny seeing them ski on grass in their "wet suits" then strip them off as soon as they got to the bottom.

jess alpine sliding it.

mandi and stockton. this slide went faster than the one our little family went on. no one under 3 allowed on this one.

landon is SOOO cool.

the "extreme" zip line. dad didn't want to do this one after he did the regular one so mandi took his place.

josh

dad on the "wimpy" one. looked pretty scary to me!

the boys on the skeleton sled.

ammon driving the bobsled.

nick and i.

the kiddos.

fun at the park at the resort.

notice ammon "the flash" behind bridget.

lucy's funny faces.

crazy cousins while grandma and grandpa cooked dinner.

riding the shuttle to church together.

tierra in her new cute-cute night gown.

i made matching mu-mu night gowns for lucy and tierra and had enough to do one more for bridget. oh, what cute-cute girlies!

it was nice to be able to shut the door and keep the kids out of our room. nick could not wait to shut the door and just veg out on the bed while watching ESPN.

the kiddos excited about their space for the next week.

a video of the skiers doing tricks into the water.

finally!

2009-07-15T06:09:00.001-07:00

i've been super blog-lazy. everyone keeps asking (or telling me...) to update my blog. it is 7:00am and my kids are still in bed amazingly enough, so i'm taking the time to start updating!

the last bit of june we headed up to seattle to drive nick's mom home and pick up tierra. we broke up the drive with a visit to some old friends in boise and it was fun to see them again. it was funny how as soon as we walked in their door, so many memories flooded back and we had lots to talk about. i can't believe how fast their girls have grown and kristi's fried chicken is every bit as good as i remembered it!

when we finally made it up to seattle, nick's sister had a warm welcome for us with a bbq and bubbles for the kids. the kids LOVED blowing bubbles down on the dock and aunt therese quickly became a favorite (and ammon got to see her again to remember that she does NOT look like santa clause!). we had fun visiting with kayla and seeing how much she is growing up and getting prettier every day. nelson entertained the kids with the computer and movies once they got done with the bubbles.

the next day we all went to pike's place market together. i know it sounds touristy, but ammon remembers nothing from living there and i was excited to show him the guys throwing fish. lucy was pretty amazed by it as well. we stopped by dick's, a seattle institution, for lunch.

that night nick went to the mariner's game with friends and i got to experience why staying at the holiday is the BEST option with kids. we had tried and tried to get into the hilton that therese works at, but we were only able to book one night so we stayed the other two nights at the holiday inn. the best part? KIDS EAT FREE!! so on our solo night from nick i took the kids down to the restaurant for dinner. they had also given me a coupon for the restaurant so i think i paid $10 WITH tip for dinner for all 4 of us! and the kids LOVED it, the meals are very kid friendly and they all got ice cream for dessert and a cute cup to take home! i also received a complement(?) from a stranger while we were eating. he came up and told me his wife thought i was very brave (for taking all 3 kids to dinner by myself).

they gave me another coupon the next day so off to the restaurant again for breakfast! and i have to say, the grown up food was pretty good too! i got a smoked salmon omelet, very seattle-y. that night the whole family went to the mariners game (nick's family too). it was great to be in a real baseball stadium again and fun to see griffey play. lucy loved the music and she got a certificate for her first mariners game. and the best part? THEY WON! the whole crowd was on their feet cheering and yelling, it was great!

the drive home the next day was long and exhausting knowing we were going to pack up the car again the next day to meet my family in park city, but thanks to crystal's dvd player, it went a lot smoother than normal!

thanks rust family! we had a lot of fun!

ammon is a busy bee

2009-05-31T07:16:00.001-07:00

i have started walking again in the mornings. it is good to get out of the house and start my day a bit earlier than i have been and the kids like it.

the other day we were walking around the soccer fields and ammon was riding his bike. he kept slowing down by all the wild flowers on the side of the paths and i was getting frustrated. then when i watched a bit closer, i realized what he was doing. he was sticking his finger in the middle of the flowers to get the "honey" out and pretended to eat it saying, "mmm". what a silly kid.

fun in the sun...

2009-05-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

with a few warm days in the past couple of weeks, scattered of course with the icky ones, we found ourselves outside enjoying the sun!

bridget and lucy are such big girls now!

look at all those monkeys!

bridget and lucy sharing a ride.

we realized later, when they weren't so into sharing, that bridget thought the stroller was hers because she has the same one at home... silly girls!

faye insisted on sword fighting with jess

lucy loves doing the dishes, but usually just wants to help when she sees me doing them. well the other day she opened the dishwasher and started unloading all by herself. look at her face, she is so serious about it, it is her big time job. of course ammon couldn't let his baby sister out-do him so he jumped into help too.

one day when nick was off work we took a walk to feed the ducks. ammon loved throwing the bread and watching the fish and ducks with dad. lucy loved chasing the ducks and trying to get them to eat out of her hand. she got really frustrated when they didn't want her bread. she just kept after them saying, "bite!" she has also discovered bubbles and they are her FAVORITE thing.

it isn't spring without a baseball game and when the raniers are in town, you know nick will be itching to go to the game for sure! our car had been in the shop and got done JUST in time to head out to the game for family night. tickets are super cheap on mondays and they have free train rides for the kids. carol and chandler met us there and that was fun for ammon.

nick was really excited to see jeff clement catch again and see and talk to the players.

carol got ammon and chandler balloon swords and i though they were so cute i had to take pictures of their battle.

i kept lucy entertained with suckers and carol got her a balloon flower, she did pretty well at the game and fell asleep in the last inning.

ammon was so cute, he saw this guy and leaned over and said to chandler, "hey, i bet he will give us high-fives!" so we walked over and sure enough, he gave the boys fives. lucy liked the bee from a few rows back in our seats (he was a big stuffed animal of course!) but when she got up close she just started screaming. nick asked her later if she wanted to go see that guy and she said, "no!"

ammon has been saying some funny things lately and i wanted to remember. yesturday we were in the car and he told me that lucy lived in heaven before she came to our family too (just like him). i told him that he was right and asked him if he thought lucy played with him up in heaven before they came down to our family.

he said, "no, jesus doesn't want us playing in his room."

funny kids!

easter

2009-04-15T07:29:00.001-07:00

easter was a lot of fun with a bbq at grandma and grandpa's, an easter egg hunt with cousins, and of course, a visit from the easter bunny.

isn't she stunning!

2009-04-03T13:52:00.001-07:00

isn't she stunning? she put this look together herself. it is her, "i'm tired of being inside, i'm going to go out now" look.

model is wearing: "love birds" t-shirt with sparkely embelishments, pink and purple bears potty pants, and tall black boots with silver accents.

"i really must be going now. i can't waste this look sitting in the house all afternoon!"

FHE: Jazz vs. Knicks

2009-03-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

we wanted to take my mom to a jazz game so we bought some tickets on ebay a couple of weeks ago and had planned to go as a family to see the Knicks play. my mom decided not to go so i called my friend angela the day of and she was happy to join us. nick went down earlier in the day with a couple of friends to get autographs and they went and saw the Joseph Smith movie on temple square. i drove down with the kids and angela and got there just in time for the game.

nick was really excited to see nate robinson play and wore his "krypto-nate" t-shirt. nick has been following him since he played for the UW.

lucy loved playing with the chairs and dancing to the music. she did really well up until the last few minutes of the game. i couldn't have asked for anything more!

me, lucy, and angela

lucy being a big girl in her chair. she was funny and liked to yell and chant with the crowd.

ammon was excited about his ticket and kept asking nick and i if we had one too. one if ammon's favorite parts is the blimp. he loves to watch it.

angela caught a small jazz basketball during the game and nick was able to get it signed by her favorite player, kyle korver, after the game. it was a fun event, and nice to go to a game all together!

what we've been up to

2009-03-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

25 things we have been doing lately...

1- nick finished mid-terms and is winding down on spring semester.
2- ammon thinks he has a baby brother in his tummy.

3- lucy has enough hair for pony tails!... small ones, but still!

4- i found a new band that i LOVE (from pandora) called bitter:sweet.
5- nick has been going to jazz games and getting tickets on ebay for a STEAL!
6- i went to beat poetry night up on campus, had a great time, and got a new mug!
7- my sister jess and i have been working on some blankets for our older sister mandi, she's having her baby girl tomorrow so we finished today, just in time!

8- the kids and i were having tons of fun playing outside in the warm weather riding bikes and coloring with sidewalk chalk. now it us ucky again.
9- we watched "annie" for family movie night a bit ago and the kids LOVED it. the look on lucy's face when miss hannigan came on the screen for the first time was priceless.
10- i have been trying to do spring cleaning at my house.
11- i bought some rye flour and i'm looking for a good recipe for dill rye bread (like the orowheat kind... yummy!)
12- i made lemon poppy seed scones sunday, mmm.
13- ammon is signed up for indoor soccer, starts next month!
14- nick had an emergency root canal.
15- nick and i played scrabble the other night and i won!! (this has only happened about 3 times in the last 5 years of marriage).

16- ammon is registered for pre-school in the fall!
17- nick lost his glasses while i was in reno and i found them this week!
18- i've been reading the shopaholic series and i'm on the last book.
19- nick and i are celebrating our 5 year anniversary next month.
20- lucy has learned how to open the fridge... it now has a lock on it.
21- the kids and i go to playgroup just about every tuesday. they planted flowers this week. well... lucy did, ammon opted for pumpkins!

22- jess found "follow that bird" and brought it over to watch with the kids today. it brings back a lot of memories!
23- i found the coffee table i've been searching for at the DI for over a year. i was so excited to paint it, but now with the weather it will have to wait a bit to finish.
24- the office last week was the best of the season, i can't wait to see what happens this week!
25- i bought jasime rice at the store a bit ago to go with the honey mustard curry chicken i was making. i am now in love with jasmine rice! it also makes delicious coconut rice pudding!

my amazing husband

2009-03-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

nick told me a few days ago not to plan anything for monday morning. he didn't say why, i just assumed we were going to do something together. when it started getting closer, i started asking him about what we were going to do. he told me that it wasn't him, just me. my wheels started spinning and i couldn't think of what it could be. he was pretty good at keeping it a surprise, even with my constant questions.

on monday we loaded the kids in the car then he stopped at the bank. he came out with $10 in ones and handed them to me. now i was really curious! then he gave me a business card that said i had an appointment for a massage and a facial! he dropped me off at rejuvenations wellness and day spa and said he would be back in 2 hours. he had already paid for my treatments, he was giving me tip money.

it was AMAZING! i have had massages before, but never a facial and i have to say, both is the way to go! the facial was all organic and i had 4 different masques including chocolate mousse and sour cherry. when i came out nick said i was glowing, and i felt FABULOUS!

i have been having a lot of back pain and nick thought this might be better than a chiropractor appointment, i think he was right! and i think it was the most fun because it was a surprise. i have such a great husband! i highly recommend the people at the rejuvenations wellness and day spa and for all you students, check out your aggie coupon books, that's where nick found a great deal on my services.

a day of non-snowboarding

2009-03-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

we went out to the intelligent design competition on saturday. it felt pretty weird walking on the slopes without hauling around snowboarding gear. i decided that i REALLY need to get out snowboarding again, and nick decided that snowboarding DOES look like fun, and he would like to go together some time.

lucy LOVED being out in the snow. it wasn't too cold, just enough for little hands and ears to get chilly. being little miss independent the way she is, she insisted on walking up the big snow hills herself. of course they are made for skiing and snowboarding, so they were pretty tough to climb, but she did it over and over.

ammon thought he was so cool and kept trying to "snowboard" down the mountain the way he saw the cool snowboarding guys do it. of course, he tennis shoes made this less effective. we really want to try and take him next year.

tommy czeschin was at the "verizon dome" waiting to meet people and sign autographs.

lucy got her turn too.

it was hard to see the whole course from any one spot. we pick the end to see the big tricks at the end. we could see a little bit of the half-pipe from where we were at.

shaun white was for sure the best one there. he rode faster and higher than anyone. it was pretty clear who the winner would be.

it was amazing to see shaun white do his stuff. you can see why they call him the flying tomato, and man!, did he know how to fly!

gold: shaun white, silver: charles reid, bronze: luke mitrani

nick and ammon with shaun white. by this time lucy had fallen asleep in my arms.

ammon with bronze winner luke mitrani

nick and lucy doing eskimo kisses... how cute!

lucy sure did fight with us about her hat and her gloves. every once in a while she decided that she didn't want to wear them anymore and actually tried to shove her hat under the fence and bury it so we couldn't put it on her anymore. she is silly!

our little family, we had fun but we were tired and ready to go home!

intelligent design

2009-03-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

no, i'm not talking about the theory of how the earth was created and the documentary by ben stein (although it was very good and worth watching). i'm talking about the snowboarding competition in park city this saturday:

The Intelligent Design will take place on March 7, 2009, and will feature the top 20 male snowboarders in the world and $50K in prize money. Admission is free.

shaun white will be here, among others, competing for the grand prize. i can't believe that people are not as excited about this as nick and i are. this is very cool and i hope my little family is able to make it out there this weekend. maybe we will see some of you!

reno

2009-02-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

i stayed out at mom and dad's sunday night so we could get on the road early the next morning. everyone had their doubts as to if we would really get on the road before 10am, but we left wellsville at 7am. my vacation had started!

the drive to reno was supposed to take 8 hours. that doesn't seem very long when i compare it to the 12 hour drive to seattle. i had made the drive before and i didn't remember it being so long. it was long, and not a lot to look at. to pass the time mom and i chatted, listened to some cd's i brought (juno sndtk, across the universe sndtk, and beth orton), and i read her a book that nick had bought me for valentines day (married in seattle, very cute).

there were some pretty sights along the way.

we stopped at a taco time for lunch, nothing better than a crispy bean burrito! oh, but there is better:the coconut cream empanadas dipped in whipped cream.

we showed up at the peppermill in reno at 5:08, almost exactly 10 hours from when we left wellsville. argh! the drive was a lot longer than we had thought, but we weren't in a hurry so it was okay. we checked into our room and tried to find the courtyard marriot where mom was having class for the next few days. it took us a long time to find it, then picked up some soup from olive garden and headed back to our room to relax. the peppermill was a great place to stay because we got a super nice room with a huge lcd tv on the wall, granite everything, and soft comfy beds for only $19/night. the down side was it was in a casino, but we didn't have to walk through the casino to get to the car so it wasn't too bad.

i had borrowed a bunch of books from a friend, the shopaholics series, and of course i left them in our car when nick dropped me off at mom's. i was disappointed because my whole goal for the trip was just to lie in bed and read while mom was in classes. this has always been my dream vacation and i didn't know what i was going to read now that i had finished my other book on the way into town. we stopped at a used bookstore and the lady suggested the secret life of bees. my sister in law, jordan paige, had told me how much she liked it so i snatched it up. the book was amazing, the perfect book to read on a trip such as this. i had also grabbed the wedding from mom's house so i had enough reading material. i didn't read the entire time, i spent some time in the fitness center, walking around the hotel trying to find wi-fi, and it took me 2 days to find the new york deli and my corned beef sandwich.

my other favorite part of the trip was the food! i have missed some of the food selections i had while living in the seattle area. some of my favorite food is greek so one of my free afternoons i walked across the street to a mediterranean place and had my first felafel sandwich. it was great! another day i went to a new york style deli in the hotel and bought a HUGE corned beef sandwich, also a first. the lady taking my order said i should probably get it to go, it would be too much to finish. of course i proved her wrong, ate almost the entire thing. but there was no way i was going to be able to eat dinner that night!

one of mom's free nights we went in search of souvenirs, a snow globe for me, a mug for her. neither of us found what we were looking for, but it was fun looking in all the shops and seeing the glitzy side of reno.

my last afternoon there i found a pho place and had another favorite, pho noodle soup. it is seriously one of the best, most simple things you can eat. i only wish i had room for spring rolls, another fave. i have figured out how to make these at home so i thought i should pass and not end up with another "corned beef" incident.

mom got out of class that afternoon and we headed for home. i read her half of the secret life of bees until i couldn't read anymore. the drive home took the estimated 8 hours and for that i was grateful. i had a great time, did everything i wanted to do, and was excited to come home to my little family. thanks mom!

jazz vs. lakers

2009-02-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

so nick has officially crossed over and become a jazz fan. after losing his sonics to oklahoma, he decided that the jazz weren't so bad. he bought himself a jazz shirt and started rooting for the team. he picked up some tickets to last night's jazz vs. lakers game on ebay and took ammon with him to meet kobe bryant. they met him outside of the hotel the team was staying at and kobe was nice enough to stop and take a picture with ammon. ammon was super excited when i talked to him on the phone and talked about how kobe picked him up. it was a pretty exciting game to be at last night!

ammon by the jazz car

nick and ammon on the court

ammon with thurl bailey

ammon with kobe bryant

ammon in his "giveaway" hat

he was SOO tired when they got home!

scrubbing bubbles

2009-01-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

ammon has been watching the scrubbing bubble commercials with awe. he has been asking me if we could get some for our bathtub. yesturday i was picking up some other cleaning supplies at the store and decided to give these little guys a try. he was super excited and before bath-time last night the kids and i went upstairs and put them in the tub.

i really think ammon was expecting the little cartoon guys from the commercial to come shooting out of the can, but he was still pretty excited to see the white foamy bubbles and cheered them on say, "go bubbles!" and "good job, bubbles!" who would have thought it would be so much fun to clean the bathtub?

sundance 2009 part TWO

2009-01-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

lucy has been sick so nick came home late monday night to help me with her and take her to the doctor tuesday morning. she has an ear infection and a croup virus, they couldn't rule out pneumonia so the doctor doubled up her antibiotics just in case. so i guess it is a good thing that i didn't plan to go with nick this year! i just think she has it rough with mom and dad both having asthma as kids (both of us having pneumonia as kids too.) and with the bad air quality days we have been having, i'm sure that hasn't helped.

nick headed back out tuesday afternoon and here are a few pics he left with me to post:

ewan mcgregger

brittany snow

(john tucker must die)

liam neeson

zach gilford
(friday night lights)

carey mulligan
(pride and prejudice)

bill hader

(reno 911, hot rod)

john krasinski

(the office)

christopher meloni

(law and order svu)

it has been fun trying to keep track of all the people nick has seen at sundance this year, but i am SO ready for it to be over. it has been nothing but sundance at our home since october, and i'm ready to hear about something else. nick still has a couple more days there so when he gets back i will post some more pics and people he met. he is going to have a lot of photos to sell to help pay for his sundance trip so if anyone is interested, let us know!

sundance 2009 part ONE

2009-01-19T09:17:00.001-08:00

nick came home from park city late saturday night (he had one last after-party he just HAD to wait for...) to be home for church on sunday then headed back this morning. he has been having a great time, seeing lots of people and getting lots of autographs. he got to meet john krasinski (jim from the office) but didn't get a picture because he got in the middle of some papparazzi guys and dropped the camera. it broke. i'm pretty sad about the camera so we won't discuss it further. here are some pics of people he has seen so far:

Pierce Brosnan

rachel dratch

(SNL)

jane lynch

nick cannon

april bowlby

(candy : two and a half men)

perry ferrell
(jane's addiction)

bill fagerbakky

(daubber : coach / voice of patrick : spongebob)

50 cent

monique

michael cera

(juno)

a few other people that he didn't get pictures of: mariah carey, amy poehler, cuba gooding jr., ashton kutcher, demi moore, spike lee, and i'm sure dozens more that i'm forgetting. nick also got to meet one of his favorite actors, ben affleck. he just got to talk to him for a minute because he was in a hurry but i'm sure that was a highlight for him. this is the first time of all of nick's sundance years that he got to meet robert redford. nick said that he shook his hand and redford thanked him for being here. he thought that was pretty cool.

i will update with some more when nick get's back later this week!

updates... with pictures

2009-01-12T06:25:00.000-08:00

i haven't updated my blog for a while, and i didn't want all of our memories for the last few weeks to go undocumented. i have not been the best at scrapbooking and i don't want memories lost. these are not in order really, just stuff between christmas and now.jordan had his "sour war head" spray at the new year's eve party and was convincing us all to try it. mandi tried it after i did (and told her it wasn't bad, a little sweet), she didn't think it was sweet.

we had went to a new year's eve party at mandi's (in her cozy new basement) and had our own mongolian grill. the food was great and the games were fun. this is some of the group toasting in the new year with sparkling cider.

it was after midnight and the kids were SOO tired. uncle jordan was reading "oh the places you'll go" to ammon and stockton.

poor lucy had a hard time getting to sleep and finally fell asleep in nick's arms. after this, she was out 'till we had to take her out in the cold to go home.

lucy loves, loves, LOVES, her new color wonder markers from aunt therese, kayla, nelson, and grandma rust. she gets really excited to color, and i am really excited i don't have to worry about the markers all over her face, the walls, the oven, the floor, and cabinents. (yes, she has done all this, the magic eraser is a life saver).

lucy loved all her gifts from grandma rust. the yogurt snacks were a hit! she has a friend in church that has those every week and she is always over by her friend olivia, eating all her snacks.

a tea party! the kids were a little too quite up in their room one day so i thought i better go investigate. they were having a tea party (with real water! tierra says) and it was so cute how they were all playing together.

nick went out to get the mail and pulled on my rubber boots. they were a nice combination with his basketball shorts. he had a hard time getting them off. i'm still not sure why he put them on... his boots were right by mine.

it was fun having nick home more with his break from school. in this picture he is sitting with the kids watching old episodes of yo gabba gabba online.

ammon really enjoyed having his big sister here for a couple of weeks. here they were watching things online and playing games. after tierra got them both a snack.

we had VERY good snowman building snow and it only took ammon and i a few minutes to roll the 3 big parts for the snowman. we needed nick and tierra's help to put it all together, it was HUGE. unfortunately i didn't get a picture of the whole thing. we were going to go out the next day to give him a face (ammon thought buttons would be best so we needed to go get some) but the next day was a warm one and the snowman fell over. ammon cried, he was very sad.

lucy has found new purposes for her hippity hop horse. she is ALWAYS trying to get into this drawer. i don't even know what she is looking for, but she will pick stuff out and throw it on the floor until she finds what she wants.

nick took ammon with him when he was taking tierra to the airport last monday. they had some time so they went over to the pioneer museum. they thought it was a lot of fun and nick wants to take his mom the next time she is visiting. ammon was really sad that tierra was leaving. that morning while i was packing up her stuff he kept saying that he would miss her and he didn't want her to go. then he started telling me that i needed to pack his clothes too because he was going to go with her. nick said he cried at the airport when she got on the plane. the next morning he was eating an orange and brought the last half to me. he told me to save it for tierra for when she came back.

we went out to mom and dad's the night before tierra left for pictures. we shared a yummy cheesecake and got to visit for a bit. i think tierra had a fun time visiting.

i was really proud of my pretty cheesecake. it is a pomegranate cheescake with pomegranate seeds in the cheesecake and rich sauce on top. we had a nice family dinner at home with requests from tierra for her last dinner before going home. this was nice to end the day with.

this has been a long post! i will not wait so long to update next time. nick is off to sundance in a couple of days. he is getting a whole section in the campus paper for the festival and all the stories and pictures will be from him. he is excited and hopefully will get some good interviews. he ended up not getting a press pass, his editor couldn't get them. this makes it a little harder, but i'm sure nick will come up with some great stuff. he has been talking about this since october and is probably most excited to meet john krasinsky.

i am most excited for him to get my pretty in pink poster signed by jon cryer. we will see how he does this year and i will have to update the blog with how he is doing.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

we had a great christmas with our little family as well as our big family. on christmas eve we went over to mom and dad's and had dinner then played the wii for a bit. it was fun trying to teach ammon how to bowl and tierra did pretty good bowling a strike and a spare. the kids opened their traditional christmas eve pajamas: lucy had disney princess, tierra had hannah montana, and ammon of course had batman.

christmas morning started at 7:00 am when ammon woke up. i was actually pretty surprised, he has been waking up between 5 and 6am lately. it was the same as previous years as tierra pointed out what every one else got: "look ammon! you got a hot wheel track!", before noticing whatshe got from santa. to say she was excited about her nintendo ds is an understatement. it is all she has done and talked about for the last day and a half. we had her good and convinced that she wasn't getting one so she had started to ask santa for a turtle or a snowsuit. i think she was pretty surprised.

after we were all fed, dressed, and had some of our christmas mess cleaned up, we went back out to mom and dad's. we ate our traditional ham and cheesy potatoes then openned our christmas gifts to each other. landon had our family's name this year and surprised us with games: the office dvd game and hungry hippos for the kids. nick also go the seinfeld scene it game and we are excited to play that.

i think the best part of christmas this year was being with family and knowing the kids were excited about christmas and getting into the christmas spirit. every time ammon saw a star lit up with christmas lights he said, "look mom! it's the shape star that shows where baby jesus was born!" tierra got super excited about all the little gifts she picked out for the family and was sure we would all LOVE them.

we had a great christmas, hope all of you did too!

funny things...

2008-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

just wanted to share some funny things that happened today:

nick and i had just picked up the kids from my parent's house after going to the mormon tabernacle choir "music and the spoken word" and christmas concert. it was pretty snowy and as we were just about getting into logan nick told me he saw a dog on the side of the road that was hurt and we needed to turn around (FAST!) and go help the dog. i was finding a spot to turn around thinking that i didn't see a dog, and if there WAS a dog, i didn't know the first thing about helping it. nick kept telling me that i needed to HURRY! as we were driving back the other direction, i saw what he was talking about and it didn't look anything like a dog to me. i told nick this and he told me i needed to hurry and turn around, it was a big sheep hearding dog and it was trying to stand but it's legs were hurt. when we pulled off the side of the road, i saw the poor dog: a black garbage bags full of leaves. i haven't laughed so hard in a long time!

the other funny was ammon. he was telling me that he needed to go get a pet (something he says a lot). i told him that cats make mommy sneeze. he is a very thoughtful and smart kid so he said: "mom, kitties can bring you tissues".

i have funny boys.

also, words that lucy has been saying:

momma, daddy, go, wow, night-night, ball, more, puppy, ammon

tagged...

2008-11-29T18:24:00.000-08:00

i was actually tagged by my neighbor jessica a while ago, i'm a slacker and hadn't done it yet. so now i am replying to BOTH tags. here goes...

Rules:
1- Post the rules
2- Answer the 6 "8" items
3- Let each person know that they have been tagged

8 Favorite T.V. Shows
(in no particular order)
1- the office
2- the big bang theory
3- the new adventures of old christine
4- worst week
5- heroes
6- kath and kim
7- the pick up artist 2 (i know, i'm lame)
8- party of 5 (watching it every week on-demand)

8 Things I did yesterday
1- went black friday shopping (just 2 stores, was home by 6:30 am)
2- put up the christmas tree
3- took a nap to recover from early morning shopping
4- bought milk at the store
5- fed my neighbor's cat (and cleaned up it's tantrum with the toilet paper)
6- fell on the ice when walking into my home and got a fatty bruise on my elbow.
7- wrapped a couple of presents
8- explained to ammon about 10 times that, yes, it is christmas time, but that doesn't mean it is time to open christmas presents... no, not even after your nap.

8 Favorite Restaurants
1- king wha's in washington
2- royal orchid in washington
3- olive garden
4- simply divine pastries
5- zoopas
6- red lobster
7- applebees
8- just about any greek place

8 things I am looking forward to
1- nick getting over mono... yes, he has mono now
2- nick being done with school
3- christmas
4- the summer
5- building snowmen
6- starting the book i got at the library today
7- watching "the gnome-mobile" with ammon
8- both kids being potty trained

8 things on my wish list
1- EVERYONE in my family healthy
2- a good christmas
3- for my friends and family to have happiness
4- no more car problems
5- sleep better at night
6- win a million dollars
7- have all my laundry done and neatly put away
8- gas prices to keep dropping

wow, that was surprisingly hard. okay, i'm tagging:

1- Crystal W.
2- Mindy P.
3- Lori C.
4- Kristin D.
5- Crystal B.
6- Melanie S.
7- Mom
8- Anna D.

bucket head

2008-11-10T14:13:00.001-08:00

ammon and i were downstairs yesturday, while lucy was playing in her room upstairs. she came down the stairs with this bucket on her head just super casual, like it was no big deal. she is such a funny girl!

i know, i know...

2008-11-06T09:56:00.001-08:00

so nick totally makes fun of me when i do this, but i LOVE a good deal and i get all excited and have to tell everyone when i make out like a bandit at the grocery store. today it was albertson's and smith's:

at albertsons:

5 dove shampoos
5 dove conditioners
6 sauve deoderants
6 sauve lotions
6 sauve kids shampoo
2 chex mix
2 swanson broth cartons
3 tuna helpers
2 betty crocker cookie pouches
2 knorr sides plus veggies
8 green giant frozen veggies

total: $23

(plus i have $20 to use at albertsons on my next trip!)

at smith's:

8 boxes of cereal
3 boxes granola bars
6 boxes fruit roll-ups / fruit snacks
2 canisters quaker oats
2 quakes rices cakes
5 power ade
5 vitamin water
1 7-up
1 frozen pizza

total: $28

i probably could have done better at smith's if i would have been more prepared. i had some coupons for some free items so i think all in all, i didn't come out too bad.

happy shopping!

buddies...

2008-10-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

ammon and lucy were playing in the other room and all i could hear were some little giggles. i had to go see what was going on and this is what i found: my two kids sitting in my basket i keep for shoes, eating thier graham crackers. i liked that this was a team effort and they were having so much fun. i DIDN'T like that they were breaking my basket.

ammon got sent to time out (i think for being mean to lucy) and lucy followed him right to the time out corner and sat there with him. she wants to be big and do everything her brother does, even if it means sharing time-outs with him. they are wearing thier "yo gabba gabba" hoodies (ammon says who-dies).

ammon's friend aussie was over for a bit yesturday and they were eating snacks and ammon says they were playing "coo-coo" (?). i think it is so cute how they are total boys together and so funny. lucy wanted to go be with the boys since they were having so much fun.

ammon was doing is "school book" yesturday and he decided to "draw faces on the suckers so they could talk better". ha! isn't that so funny? he was so serious about it too. anyway, these are his suckers with faces... so they can talk better.

lucy is a big girl that goes in the potty so she got a potty sucker. it was a pretty big one, i need to get some more her size.

no one bites the duster...

2008-10-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

we were listening to music today (pandora.com!) and "another one bites the dust" started playing. ammon really liked it and started singing along, "no one bites the duster!"

i didn't hear him right and i repeated, "another one bites the duster?" he said, "no, we don't bite. no one bites the duster."

it is nice to hear that after having some issues with biting his friends, it sounds like it is sinking in.

silly lucy girl

2008-10-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

i have posted so much stuff about ammon lately, i thought i would post some pics and stories about my silly lucy girl. she is super silly and really starting to show her little personality. i think i could just watch her all day long and be completely entertained.

this is my "kanye west" rapper baby lucy. she just looks so cool and she isn't even trying. she loves to put on these glasses. when she first puts them on, she does her super funny, "i'm so cool face" but i was never fast enough to catch it with the camera.

i just love it when she plays with these glasses. they were a party favor from our buddy austin's birthday party, who would have thought they would be such a favorite.

she is very sweet with her friends and her brother and tries to help when they are sad. ammon was sad so she was giving him loves and kisses... then started pulling his hair. i guess she can't be sweet all the time. i got a shot of her "i'm so cool" face here, she's so silly and most of the time very sweet.

today i went to check on lucy because she had gone upstairs. i walked in her room and found her inside tierra's barbie tent. the tent wasn't set up, just laying on the floor, but she wiggled in through the door with her monkies and was quite content to stay there for a while. she is just so cute. she also went poop on the potty today. that may be too much information for some of you, but we were pretty excited here at our house. i marked it on the calendar. no, she is NOT potty trained, but i'm thinking she will be a lot easier than her brother.

my new obsession...

2008-10-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

i was searching yesturday for an online radio station to play while i was cleaning my house and i stumbled across pandora.com. it was so much fun, i wanted to spread the word. it's free to use and pretty simple to figure out. all you do is type in the name of a song or artist you like and it will play stuff from that artist plus others that are similar that they think you may like. you can also add more songs and artists to give your "station" more variety. with each song you can see info on the artist, album, and song and you can either rate it thumbs up or thumbs down. if you rate it thumbs down, they won't play that kind of music anymore on your "station". it was fun to hear new stuff that i totally loved and old stuff that i had forgotten about. just wanted to share my new obsession with you all. click here to go there!

i have one of THOSE kids...

2008-09-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

ammon got his halloween costume yesturday. he is going to be batman, and he LOVES his new "hock-sume" (translation: costume). he put it on last night and nick took him to austin's and faye's houses to show them how cool he looked as batman. ammon insisted that i put his costume back on him this morning. i'm wondering how long this is going to last. is he going to be one of those kids going to the grocery store and around town dressed as a super-hero? yep, i think i have one of THOSE kids. we went on our walk this morning and he rode his big-wheel in his batman costume singing: na-na-na-na na-na-na-na BATMAN!

happy with what i've got...

2008-09-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

with life going by full speed and sometimes just trying to get through the day, it's easy to forget all that we have. i was thinking about it this morning and i have so much to be greatful for. i really am living the life i want to live.

i am married to a man who works super hard in school and work to support our family so i can be a stay at home mom. i have two beautiful, healthy children that fill my days with so much happiness it is amazing. i have friends and neighbors who add sanity with adult conversation and offer help when i need it. i have a calling in our ward that i love and lets me get to know more people and do service often. i get to spend time doing things i enjoy like: baking, cooking, and trying new recipes.

our family truly is blessed. it's like my mom's saying: "we may not have it all together, but together we have it all". it may not be glamorous, or at times very "rockstar-ish", but i'm just so happy that i am able to live the life i want to live!

it's sarvi's turn!

2008-09-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

sarvi is the last one in the group to turn 28, congrats on that! i'm doing my list of 28 things that remind me of you. here goes...

monkeys
inxs
photo shoots
ann taylor
neil diamond
trent reznor
greg
slot machines
disneyland
baskin robbins
tequila lime chicken
scuba diving
water aerobics
san francisco
honda civic
macey's
cheesecake
snowboarding
christian dior
diamonds
the guy from the killers
nachos
cheetos
BASH
waterfall canyon
tai chi
multicultural nights
trader joes

happy birthday sarvi! hope you had a great time in bonaire!

Tag...

2008-09-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

I search: for good deals
I wonder: where old friends have gone
I regret: the things i did not do
I love: my little family
I care: for my friends who keep me sane and understand my days
I always: prefer chocolate
I worry: i will never potty train ammon
I am not: a super model
I remember: family trips when i was a kid
I believe: the gospel is what makes us truly happy
I sing: twinkle little star to ammon to make him happy again
I dance: in the livingroom with ammon and lucy
I don’t always: keep my house clean
I argue: to keep what's mine
I write: on my blog and in my kids' journals to preserve memories
I win: small battles with the kids everyday
I lose: at scrabble when playing nick
I wish: i could be young forever
I listen: to ammon say "gums" instead of thumbs and don't correct him because i think it is so cute!
I don't understand: why people don't play by the rules
I can usually be found: at home or outside with the kids
I am scared: of spiders and mice
I need: to be appreciated
I forget: there's really a plan
I am happy: i have healthy children
I tag: you if you are: a friend

football and cake...

2008-09-14T23:30:00.001-07:00

for his birthday, nick wanted to go to the USU vs. UofU football game. jess watched the kids (thanks jess!) and we headed up to the game wearing our matching USU t-shirts. it was fun going to the game and feeling all full of school pride with nick. he knew they weren't going to do well against the utes... he must have told me about 6 times that the utes were ranked 22nd in the nation and the aggies weren't projected to win a game the entire season, but we cheered them on 'till the end of the game. i felt kind of old at the game when i started thinking that a lot of the kids in the student section were probably new freshman and that was me...10 years ago! i had to fight the urge to blow raspberries on the bellies of the bare-chested boys with "U", "S", and "U" painted on them as they walked up and down the isle i was sitting on. i also had the strangest urge to start pinching people's bums as they walked up and down the stairs by me. when i mentioned this to nick, he didn't think it was very funny. i think it was the me from 10 years ago coming out, i loved being 18 and starting college.

the only other request nick had for his birthday was the type of cake he wanted (after i bugged him to tell me). he requested a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting that was kind of like a cupcake, but not a cupcake. after trying to decipher that for a while, i found a recipe on line and went to work. so here is a picture of his cake, i know how much he likes sprinkles so i made sure it had a lot of those on top!

one more year...

2008-09-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

today nick is 29, that means one more year until he is 30 and has to start acting like an adult. doesn't it seem like when you turn 30 you no longer have the freedom to be as frivilous as when you were in your 20's? i'm not sure, i haven't gotten there yet... but i imagine it to be this way. so i guess nick has one more year to be frivilous before he turns 30 and becomes an old man.

as a tribute to him on his birthday: 29 things we couldn't do without, some of them frivilous...

his crazy chants that get ammon riled up
his dedication to his school work... hours of studying italian
his excitement about writing for the campus paper
his excitement about coming up with his own story ideas for the campus paper
his hours he puts in at work and STILL finds time to do a good job in school
his facination with fantasy football... and baseball... and basketball... and sometimes hockey
his willingness to learn new things, like fixing body damage on our car
his love for animals
his willingness to get cheese for our family and friends with his awesome hook-up
his service in helping people move
his love for the gospel
his love for his family
his giving to those in need (i have seen him give food and even his own coat to another)
his drive to be healthy
his need to give his children toys... sometimes too many...
his love of music
his worry for his family that is not with him
his desire to take ammon with him to run errands, just to spend time with him
his wanting to share everything sports with ammon and take him to games
his addiction to ice cream, and not the cheap stuff
his love of things with sprinkles
his obsession with "the office", that we both share
his missing the seattle rain
his love of books, especially biographies
his love for anything vanilla
his laugh while watching something funny, even if it is the 3rd time he has seen it
his amazing artistic abilities
his love of cupcakes
his love for me

happy birthday sweety-butt! make this year count!

i've got a golden ticket!

2008-08-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

last night i watched willy wonka and the chocolate factory with ammon and lucy. ammon is not one to sit and watch a whole movie, but he was in a trance. he sat and watched the whole movie with eyes big and mouth open in awe. he was so excited when charlie "won" and got the golden ticket. this morning he found something with a foil sticker on it and he said, "i found a golden ticket!" so cute! i can't wait to share more movie classics with him.

bike wash!

2008-08-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

saturday i had kept ammon inside most of the day and he was itching to get out. lucy walked outside and smeared peanut butter from her sandwhich on ammon's bike so he decided that we needed to wash it. we got a bucket of soapy water and some old rags and went to see if his friends austin and faye wanted to wash bikes with us. it was a lot of fun! the kids thought it was fun to clean their own bikes and lucy and lydia tried to eat the soapy bubbles, yuk!

ammon thinks he is a cat

2008-08-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

this has been going on for a while, ammon pretending to be a kitty cat. he likes to curl up in my lap and ask me to pet him. sometimes he insists that i give him food in a bowl on the floor so he can eat it like a kitty. if i ask him to do something and he doesn't want to do it, or doesn't think he can, he says, "i can't, i'm just a little kitty cat".

so the other day he was out with nick at the grocery store and he was trying to talk nick into buying him kitty food, yes, real cat food! i may have to put a stop to this...

we should open a bakery...

2008-08-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

so my sister mandi saw the pic on the blog for carol's birthday. she called me up and said, "i know what i want my birthday cake to look like!" i had told her months before that i would bake her a carrot cake for her birthday. when she told me she wanted the one from my blog i was like, "umm, no, very funny". but my sister jess is a better sport than me and she said we should go for it. well, multiple trips to stores, multiple days, and multiple messes later, we had ourselves a cake. i don't think either one of us felt it was perfect but i felt good about our first effort. there was a crazy moment when jess started shoving marshmellows in her mouth but she recovered quickly. ammon fell asleep on the floor by our feet, i think i was a bad mom that day. anyway, here is the slideshow of us making the fondant and decorating the cake.

i'm done...

2008-08-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

i'm done getting up in the middle of the night with 2 sick kids. i'm done changing diaper after diaper. i'm done refereeing fights. i'm done getting up at 6:30am after very little sleep. i'm done having a cold myself but not wanting to take cough medicine at night for fear i wouldn't hear the kids. i'm done cooking dinner for people who don't eat it. i'm done wiping runny noises while kids scream in protest.

i'm on vacation. as of noon today i am getting a whole day and a half of me-time (thank you mandi). by tomorrow night i will be a new woman and i will be ready to tackle whatever my kids throw at me. but today, i'm done!

a tribute to carol...

2008-08-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

today is carol's birthday! she is the lucky one that gets to turn 29 before the rest of us. so in honor of your big day, i'm going to do my top ten list for reasons why i love carol:

10- you tried new foods at our last dinner, and didn't make faces

9- you were willing to share a room with me in college

8- you baked the best birthday cakes

7- you let us share your ups and downs

6- you seem like the "grown-up" one of us

5- your sense of humor

4- you always wanted to drive when we went somewhere

3- you cleaned the bathrooms

2- you are a great mom

1- you let me be your friend, even when i'm a weirdo

happy birthday carol! hope you get to do lots of fun things today, i'll be thinking of you!

i felt like a kid again...

2008-08-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

yesturday was the most fun day i've had in a long time. i played dress-up with my friend crystal. we were trying out our old fancy dresses for faye's princess tea party coming up. it was fun pulling out my old bridesmaid dresses and "the blue dress" that i used to wear in college. i found tierra's fancy dress from my wedding and it fits faye perfectly! she will look like cinderella at her tea party.

later, i felt like a kid again when i looked outside and saw all my friends. i hurried and finished my "chores" and so i could go outside to play. i made pizzas and took them outside to share with the neighbors and all the kids running around. britany made hemp jewelry for everyone and the kids ran around, played, and laughed. it started to get dark and crystal put her kids to bed and came back out to play. britany brought out glow bracelets for everyone and the kids ran around on the grass. it started getting windy and ammon said, "it's windy! let's fly the eye-ball kite!" he has been waiting for some wind. it was dark so britany suggested we fly it with a glow stick on it. so we did! it was fun having all the neighbor kids running around in the dark with their glow sticks and laying on the grassy hill to watch the kite high up in the sky.

so it has now been suggested that we put our kids to bed one night then head outstide to play night games... oh, it takes me back!

our little rockstar's party

2008-08-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

it has taken me a little while to get these pictures up. thanks crystal for taking such great ones, thanks jess and josh for letting us use rockband, thanks britany for running the tattoo shop, and thanks to all the rest of you for your help and for coming out, it really was a lot of fun!

in the pictures you will see a little of what we did for lucy's first birthday party. we did a rockstar theme and played "rockstar" in the garage. it was hot, but the fans sure helped! my neighbor britany did the tattoo shop "tygers ink" and tierra helped pass around some "bling" that every rockstar needs. we had a few kazoos, harmonicas, and blow up guitars for the kids to play and some snacks and yummy punch. lucy was a little bit worn out by the time we got the cake out, but she got her second wind later when we opened up presents. jordan paige wins the prize for best "glam rockstar look", mandi for best "80's look" (although nick didn't think you were in costume and you dressed like that everyday), nick took best "grunge rock look" and faye took best "punk rock look". it was fun to see people dressed up. i think joey takes the prize for best singing, although it was fun listening to nick sing nirvana and get so into it. angela rocked "should i stay or should i go now", and i stunk it up with weezer.

ammon and the baby doll

2008-07-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

ammon is getting to be such a big boy. he was playing with tierra's baby doll the other day and he said, "ooh, her stinks. her has stinky pants!" i was busy in the kitchen and i told him to change her pants then. next thing i know, he has the wipes out and is wiping her bum and saying things like, "oooh, she has big poops, her stinks". it was very funny and i'm glad i grabbed the camera in time. he thought he got such a good reaction out of this that when he got her diaper back on her, he took it back off and said now she has to go potty and went and sat her on the potty. i caught him right before he dropped her in the toilet. ammon has the best imagination and he is always suprising me with funny things he is doing.

bridget's birthday

2008-07-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

bridget's birthday was on sunday and we went out for the party. jess and josh had some GREAT food and we all enjoyed dinner. it was fun to watch bridget open her presents, she was pretty good at it. she would stop and grin and clap everytime someone said, "oooh!" or "yeah!" i think she liked the books we gave her. after dinner we had some yummy cupcakes and they kids got to do a pinata. they took turns pulling strings until bridget pulled the lucky one that sent the candy falling down. the kids made quite the haul and ammon's favorites were probably the warhead sours. everyone laughed so hard at the faces he pulled but he didn't want to spit the candy out. i got the second one he ate on a video clip. he thought he was pretty funny. ammon loved the pinata so much that the next morning when he woke up he was still thinking about it. he asked if he could have a race car pinata at his birthday. we had a good time.

pioneer day in mendon

2008-07-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

last year, when i was super pregnant with lucy, we went out to the mendon pioneer day celebration. it was a lot of fun and we wanted to do it again this year. nick was sleeping because he worked the night before so i took the kids out with my friend and her two girls. we met our other neighbors there and we had a good time. the kids liked the parade and the fire hose and activites and games later. ammon liked swinging on the swings with his friends while austin's mom britney pushed them all. lucy hung out with her britney and mike friends while i took tierra and ammon to play some games. tierra loved winning all the cool prizes in the games. it was nice to have some help since i had my hands pretty full. we didn't stay too long because it was a hot day and the kids were melting but we sure had fun!

lucy's new bike

2008-07-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

lucy got a new bike for her birthday. it is a little grass hopper and she can cruise around all on her own. i think she likes having a bike of her own.

lucy's first birthday present

2008-07-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

lucy got her first birthday present from her grandma rust and aunt therese, uncle nelson, and cousin kayla in the mail. it was her first birthday present ever and she had a fun time opening it. she got some cute clothes and some maracas to play. ammon and his friend austin REALLY liked the maracas and lucy was nice to share.

one last slip-n-slide

2008-07-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

our last slip-n-slide adventure left the grass a little burnt. i think that may be the last time... we will see how long it takes for the grass to come back. the kids had a great time and lucy even tried a few runs! there are a few video clips of the kids too. we love the slip-n-slide!

lucy in the dryer

2008-07-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

i have gotten behind a little bit with everything going on. these are things that have happened in the last week or so. lucy loves to climb on EVERYTHING. she decided the other day that she wanted to climb into the dryer. i was taking laundry out and she started working her way up on the door so i grabbed the camera. she was so proud of herself when she made it in.

slip-n-slide fun

2008-07-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

my neighbors and i decided to get some stuff to do a slip-n-slide on tuesday and so we took a trip to home depot. we found some plastic and used some tent stakes to set it up and had a lot of fun. crystal and i took a couple of runs and the kids had a great time. on wednesday we decided to do it again and another neighbor brought out her super-cool plastic that is 10 feet wide and a lot more durable than what we were using the day before. it was fun because we didn't have to worry so much about the kids taking turns and my sister jessica and i got a few more runs in. we had a good time and i'm super sore today.

stocking up...

2008-07-09T11:34:00.000-07:00

there is a lot going on in our world today and food prices (among other things) seem to be on the rise. i just wanted to share my good buys today and inspire you all to do a little stocking up of your own. i have learned about a great website: http://www.grocerysmarts.com that gives you a list of everything that is on sale at most grocery stores and lets you know if it is a good deal and tells you where to find the coupons to get the best deal possible. i have been using it for a while and rely on it before i go grocery shopping, even if i don't plan to use coupons. i have also found that i can go to walmart and buy everything on my list (from 3 different stores) and they will match the price in their store, making less work on my part.

so this is my deal today:

(3) boxes of Golden Grahams

(2) boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios

(1) box of Frosted Cheerios

(1) box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios

(5) boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks

(4) boxes of Fruit Gushers

(1) bag of Bugles

(3) bags of Chex Mix

total: 20 items = $31 (that is $1.55 / item)

i have gotten better deals before, BUT... this is the best part... i also received 4 movie tickets to use at a theater of my choice for movies of my choice. (fandango) because nick and i were planning on seeing a couple of movies in the near future, this was a GREAT deal. if you figure movie tickets are $8/ticket, we basically paid for 4 movie tickets (which we were going to do anyway) and got a bunch of free stuff. it is a great way to stock up for food storage and save a lot of $$. my sister mandi went to pick up some things as well and her original total was over $300, after coupons she spent $120 and got 18 movie tickets.

if any of you have questions on how you can do this, you can email me and i will do my best to fill you in. just wanted to share!

ammon and the baseball guys

2008-07-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

nick took ammon down to salt lake for another bees vs. raniers game last night. he was excited to go and see some more baseball guys. nick said that ammon did really well at the game and even went potty at the stadium (yeah ammon!) after the game they waited to meet the baseball guys. nick said that ammon was being really cute with them and told them how to hit a baseball. lucy and i stayed home and did girly things together, it was nice just letting her play with toys and take a bath by herself without worrying about ammon being too rough with her. we had fun too but were excited when our boys came home.

Our 4th of July...

2008-07-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

we skipped out on the fireworks at the stadium on the 3rd because nick was working and i didn't feel like wrangling the kids by myself WAY past their bedtimes. we picked up a few fireworks at macey's and lit them off with ammon's friends in the day-time and a few more with nick when he came home on his break from work. lucy said, "ooh-ooh" and didn't seem scared of the noise (i didn't get very noisy ones). ammon liked the snakes and the flowers with his friends, but was scared of the flowers when we lit them in the dark with nick. he also refused to hold onto the sparklers, even when i danced around with mine trying to show him how fun they were. it was nice because we got the kids in bed at a decent time... and good thing because we had a LONG day coming up.

nick got home from work and i got up at about 6:30am on the morning of the fourth. i was getting ready to make some biscuits for breakfast at mom and dad's and had a lot of stuff to get done. things got a little thrown when nick said there was some flooding outside. i made some calls and the property management guy came to check things out. turns out a farmer was irrigating in the field behind us and things got out of control. we had about 3" of standing water on our back patio and it was coming into our condo. we had about 3 feet of wet carpet in our dining room and when i opened the bathroom door, the floor was covered with about an inch of water. ARS had to come out and pull our carpet up, remove padding, and put a bunch of fans in that make an outrageously loud noise. we will find out monday how bad the damage is and what needs to be done. below are some pictures of the water outside.

we made it out to mom and dad's for breakfast just a few minutes late which was surprising given our morning. dad did not disappoint with the food and the kids had a good time playing with cousins and eating pancakes. ammon was wearing his pull-ups and had a poopy that he decided to clean up himself. that didn't work out so well and he got his new fourth of july shirt dirty. he was upset that he didn't get to wear it anymore and wanted a new one, but it was probably for the best because everyone said lucy looked like a boy in hers. i took the kids home and changed them, woke up nick, and headed to the parade in hyrum.

mom had saved us some seats the night before for the parade (thanks mom!) so nick got to sleep a bit longer before we had to head over. crystal, faye, and lydia came with us so that was super-fun! ammon was excited to see fire trucks, police cars, and horses in the parade. this really is the best parade and it is kind of a family tradition. they throw lots of candy (and cheese, icy-pops, etc) and ethan got hit in the head with a piece of candy, he didn't think that was very fun. we had a good time and ammon got lots of candy. other people that were at the parade with us: mom, aunt raylene and uncle randy, mandi and ryan and their boys, jessica and bridget, landon, and the jordans.

after the parade, nick had to go home to get ready for work and we headed over to mendon for a family bbq. we were told that there was going to be a big slip-and-slide on the hill and it sounded like fun. it ended up being the high-light of the picnic and almost everyone that stuck around ended up going down it. even grandma lewis! below are some video clips of different people heading down the slide.

anyway, i have a few more video clips, maybe i will post some more later, so check back. we had a great time and laughed so hard when mom went down the slide that i thought i was going to pee my pants, seriously. you can't hear it as well in the video clip, but she was screaming so loud! and i think we were all surprised when grandma lewis went down the slide... twice! ammon wasn't sure about it at first and i had to throw him down it a couple of times. (he had fun going down, he just wouldn't decide to go on his own) but then later you couldn't get him off the slide. it was so much fun, mandi decided to have her birthday at a place that has a huge slip-n-slide. here are a few pictures of the rest of the kids going on the water slide.

on saturday i got up early to do a garage sale with some other people in our condos. at 6:30am i was thinking i'd rather be in bed and wasn't sure i wanted to go through the effort of pulling out all my junk just to haul it back in side. i was kind of frustrated and was just saying a prayer in my mind that things would go okay and i'd get through the day. well, things turned out better than okay and i'm so glad that i did it. i actually sold a lot of my stuff, and it was all pretty much junk so i was pretty excited about that. it was fun just hanging out with my friend crystal and having "power hour" to focus on selling a particular item. my favorite customer was an old guy that pulled up in a camero convertible with no shirt and a hankerchief tied around his neck, hairy chest, and super tan. he bought a couple of things from me and paid with a check so if anyone wants his phone number... anyway, the kids were a super-big help and priced things with the stickers, including themselves. later that day i headed out and met the family for the cache valley cruise-in. for any of you that don't know, it is one of the largest classic car shows in the country and people from all over the country come to show off their cars. ammon and lucy had a lot of fun waving at the cars. ammon also had fun rough housing with his cousins and they took turns kicking and hitting each other (all in fun of course). lucy kept wandering and started putting on a little show for the people sitting next to us. it was lots of fun and ammon really liked seeing all the "race cars". when he was saying the prayer at dinner tonight he thanked heavenly father for the "race cars" and for the "race cars at the parade". it was very cute. anyway, that is the last of our fun weekend.

i get to be batman-girl

2008-07-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

today i was getting ammon ready to go out and play in the pool with his friends. as i was getting his swim-suit on him he said, "i'm batman!" then he told me i was "batman-girl". i asked him who lucy was and he told me, "spiderman-girl". playing along i asked who daddy was, "spiderman!" so i guess we really are a family of super-heros. batman is learning how to potty on the "big" potty and is having a little trouble getting the pee-pees IN the potty and not on the floor without his pee-pee gaurd like on the elmo potty. i'm hoping we can work through this quickly because it is not fun to walk into the bathroom and see a big yellow puddle on the floor. on the bright side, he is really excited about going on the big potty and says, "i did it!" when he goes.

Jerry Seinfeld

2008-06-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

last night we saw jerry seinfeld at abravanel hall in salt lake. it was our second time seeing him and we were pretty excited that we didn't have to buy tickets on ebay this time! we went to dinner at pf chang's before the show. it was pretty good, but i think we have been spoiled by king wha's in seattle because nothing seems quite as good compared to it. we really liked the guy that openned up for jerry, we were laughing pretty hard. jerry was great but it seemed i had heard a lot of his stuff from his last show, i wanted more new stuff! we ran into the governor after the show and nick got his picture taken with him. i guess he is a seinfeld fan too!

back yard bbq

2008-06-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

we had a bbq with our neighbors tonight and we had a great time. we invited everyone in our cul-de-sac but it seemed like only the neighbors we already knew showed up... that kind of defeated our purpose of getting to know our neighbors, but it was still a lot of fun. the kids splashed and got all wet in the kiddie pools while the rest of us chatted. it was perfect weather, not too hot, and it was easier to stay outside and chat than worry about cleaning up the food and the kids. i could have stayed out there all night. lucky me, nick gave both the kids their baths and i got to stay and chat with my friends just a few minutes longer...

milky-face lucy

2008-06-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

lucy has gotten used to the "ba-ba" and today i thought i would give "sippy" a try with some milk instead. i guess the milk came out a lot faster because she ended up with milk all over her face and was very frustrated. i had to put the milk in her bottle so she could finish it. maybe i need to try a different sippy...

lucy has also taken over ammon's stuffed ducky as her own. for some reason she has decided that it is hers and it is her comfort when she is sad or tired. she gets mad if ammon takes it away and it is starting to get pretty dirty because she totes it around all the time.

ammon has a pet tiger

2008-06-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

ammon has been carrying around this stuffed tiger all day and calling it his pet. he talks to it like a mom to a baby. he is very cute with it. for breakfast he had it sit by him at the table and i had to give the tiger cereal too. he said, "good job tiger!" when he ate all his cereal. after breakfast they sat together in his "house" (lucy's bouncy car). he is happy to have his own "pet".

a little trip to salt lake

2008-06-19T16:50:00.001-07:00

we went down to salt lake last week for a baseball game. we had some time earlier in the day so we took the kids to temple square and gateway. it was a nice sunny day and we all enjoyed being outside. later at the baseball game ammon got to meet lots of "baseball guys" and had them sign his ball. he cried and was heartbroken when he found out he couldn't play baseball with them.

The super-hero and his cousins

2008-06-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

i was watching my nephews for a few days and ammon wanted to play "super-heros". i gave them all capes and they "flew" around the room and jumped off the couch. ammon had a great time and said he was being batman. that is his favorite super-hero most days. sometimes he wants me to be the incredible hulk, other days he lets ME be batman.