So Big!

I was trying on a new pair of pants today and Max said, "You're so big, Mommy!" The tone clearly implied that I should be proud of how "big" I was. I'm choosing to take this as I'm such a big girl for being able to dress myself.

Our Little Talker

It seems like Max is talking better every day and it is so fun to hear what he comes up with to say. These are probably only interesting to me and Jeff and you miss so much when you don't actually hear it coming out of his mouth, but I wanted to document some of the funny/cute things he has said this last week.

A few days ago I was making blueberry muffins for breakfast. While I was putting the Crisco away after greasing the muffin pan, Max swiped the pan with a finger and stuck it in his mouth then stated, "It tastes yummy, Emmy!" (Max loves butter, margarine, shortening, etc. and is always trying to scoop out a bite with his fork or taking a bite out of a cube of margarine when I forget to lock the fridge. - Yes I am that anal about the childproofing in our house.)

Today during the sacrament, Max proclaimed, "That was so good!" after he ate the bread. Then when the water came he repeated this statement. I was trying so hard not to laugh and was failing miserably. I wonder how bad my cooking is that a teeny tiny piece of bread and drink of water are so delicious.

Emily loves to stand on her own recently, but can't get there on her own yet, so I will sometimes stand her up and let her hold on to her crib railing or whatever is available. She was standing in her crib tonight and Max told her, "So proud of you, Emmy!"

Woman's Conference

The older I get the more I seem to enjoy church meetings, especially Woman's Conference. What a wonderful opportunity for us to go and refill our spiritual cups. Especially for someone with little children who often feels like I don't get much nourishment on Sundays because I am spending so much time battling little ones. A couple of things that I felt prompted to work on was regular temple attendance and recognizing and responding to personal revelation. My favorite part of the conference, though, was Elder Uchdorf's talk. His message really hit home with me, as I'm sure it did with many women. I especially enjoyed how he talked about us using our powers of creation in this life to make the world better. Maybe it was the subject of creation, but I think it was mostly just the power we have as women to create relationships, beauty, memories with our families, etc. What a great reminder to me of how we have all been blessed with individual talents that we can use to bless the lives of those around us!

The Nie Nie Dialogues

For several weeks now I have been running across posts out in the blogging world about Stephanie Nielson, of the Nie Nie Dialogues. She and her husband were in a plane crash in August and are both still in the hospital undergoing some major recovery. I finally linked onto her blog when I found out she is originally from Utah and is LDS and was so touched by her writing that it has been consuming my free time for the past couple of days. I can see why she has touched so many people and inspired such a responce to this tragedy. If you are intersted in reading her blog you can link to it here.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Before I had Max I don't think I really appreciated how different boys and girls are. I guess my one, very quiet (at least when he's around our family!) brother didn't have much of a chance to open me up to the world of boys growing up in a house with a single mother and five sisters! Having a little boy has been such a learning and growing experience for me. He seems to have endless energy, curiosity, and an eye for making mischief. Along with this comes a love of all things transportation. He loves to point out helicopters and airplanes in the sky, and will point and squeal when a train goes past. His favorite toys are his cars and trucks.

Well, on Saturday we were invited to the Brigham City Airport appreciation day by Mike and Marianne (Mike has done some cabinetry work for the airport recently). I was only able to stay for a few minutes because the girls had Alese's bridal shower to go to that day, but Jeff stayed on with Max and some of the other men (and kids) in the family. Max had a blast looking at all of those airplanes and helicopters up close and even got to sit inside some of them. Definitely a fun day for our busy little boy!

One Small Step For Emily.....

Bear Lake

Last week Max, Emily and I got to go spend a couple of days at Bear Lake with my dad, Sharon, Erin and Ellie. Max and Ellie loved playing on all the park toys and spent some time fighting over toys. ;) They have such a love/hate relationship that they seem more like siblings sometimes than cousins.

Thursday we got to spend a little bit of time down at the beach, but it was pretty cold and windy so we didn't stay too long. Since we were already in our swimsuits we spent most of Thursday afternoon at the pool, which was really warm and protected from the wind. And, of course, the adults got some good game playing in whenever we could. I also got to see my uncle Kerry and his wife and my cousin Leslie for the first time that I can remember. (I have met her before, I just wasn't old enough to remember it.) It's always so fun to get away to Bear Lake. I think it is such a beautiful place and love it when I get a chance to go there. Next time hopefully Jeff will be able to come with us!

Great Basin National Park

This entry is kind of long and is mostly for documenting purposes so don't feel like you need to read it!

For our family vacation with my family this year we went to Great Basin National Park. Jeff and I decided to take a little bit longer route to get there hoping that it would be a prettier drive than through Salt Lake and Utah counties. We drove out to Tooele and then down to Delta from there. Both Jeff and I really enjoy the unique vast and desolate beauty of Utah, so we enjoyed the drive out even though it took longer than we were planning. I guess I forgot that we would have to make a couple of stops since we have kids. ;) Map quest had given us some strange directions about how to get into the park which we luckily decided not to follow after about twenty minutes of me working up to panic mode because the directions seemed a little off. We got on the right course and then I started getting a little nervous about finding my family since I wasn't sure what campground we were in and there wasn't any cell phone coverage in the area. We were lucky enough to find them in the second camp ground we drove through, which was a good thing because I was getting kind of ornery. We just hung around camp that day waiting for the rest of the family to arrive and setting up camp. That night the sky was amazing, so we spent some time looking at the stars. This was the only night we had trouble with the kids sleeping. We didn't lay Max down until after he had fallen asleep. He woke up a little later screaming so we hurried and pulled him out of the tent. When we all went to bed he woke up when we tried to lay him down and decided it was time for playing. Between the noise he was making and me trying to get him to get inside his sleeping bag and be quite, Emily woke up. We spent the next 2-3 hours falling asleep only to be immediately woken up by Emily crying or Max making noise. Finally I demanded (not so nicely) that Jeff take Max out of the tent. Jeff and Max slept in the car and I ended up pulling Emily into my sleeping bag for the rest of the night. Luckily the next two nights went great, so it all worked out in the end.

On Saturday morning we walked around the nature trail by the visitor's center. Max had a lot of fun running along the trail with his cousins and carrying his camel back. The end of the trail was by the exit to Lehman Caves and had a wall on both sides that got bigger like a set of stairs. Max had to go up and down each side a couple of times before I could pry him away.

That afternoon we went on a tour of Lehman Caves. They couldn't fit all of our group into one tour, so my mom, Seth, Jessica, Meghan, Jay, Jim, Kaitlyn, and Rachael went on the 90 minute tour at 2:00, while we went with Erin, Brian, Ellie, Shannan, and Malia on the 60 minute tour at 2:30. They wouldn't let us use a baby backpack, so we borrowed a front carrier for me to take Emily in. She looked so cute all squished up in the carrier like a little papoose. Max had fallen asleep in the car and was so tired he slept through the first half of the tour. I was worried that he would freak out when he woke up, but he was the only toddler in the group that didn't make a sound. Ellie and Malia were having a little noise contest, and I have to admit that it was kind of nice to not be the parent with the mischief making child for once. (Sorry Shannan and Erin!) I think this was my favorite cave I have ever toured. It was a lot more narrow and winding than other caves I've been in (hence the ban on baby backpacks) and I really liked it even though there was a couple of times when I felt a little claustrophobic. It started raining right after we got done with our tour so we headed back to camp as fast as we could to clean up camp instead of waiting for those in the longer tour. I don't know what our family has done to bring about bad weather when we go camping, but every time we go on our family vacation we get rained on. At least we're prepared since we always plan on it raining!

On Sunday we drove up to Wheeler Peak campground and went on a hike up to one of the lakes. Those of us with kids turned around and headed back the way we had come, while the rest of the group (and Rachael) hiked the entire loop. We hiked about two miles and Max did almost the entire thing by himself. He especially liked using Jeff's hiking poles that collapse down to just his size. It was a lot cooler and much more green up by Wheeler Peak than down by our campground and there was a great view of the valley.

Shannan and Jim, and Seth and Jessica took off that evening to make the long drive back to their homes. After the kids went to bed that night we had a huge thunderstorm that turned into a hail storm. Max was very scared by the noise so he curled up inside his sleeping bag with his glow sticks. I have to admit I was scared a little myself when it seemed like the storm was never going to end. (I don't know how, but Emily slept through it.) Because of the storm we all went to bed early. The next morning, Meghan and Jay took off and the rest of us went on one last hike up by Wheeler Peak after we packed up. It was a great trip. Max had a lot of fun playing outside and tormenting his cousins. I've come to the conclusion that we are in sad need of another boy on my side of the family. Max is the only grandson and his cousins weren't quite sure what to do with him. I heard a couple of comments to the affect of, "Oh no, here comes Max!" We were sad that Lauren and Alec weren't able to come and wished that we could have gone for a day or two longer! Hopefully next year!!

Keepin' It Real

My friend Maren tagged me to do this post. I had to take pictures of things as they were right at the moment I read that I was tagged, without any cleaning up. Can I just say that you have impeccable timing, Maren?! I had only been home from camping a little over an hour. I had had just enough time to bath the kids, put them to bed, unpack the car, put most of our stuff away and throw in a load of laundry. I was checking up on my email and blogs while I waited for Jeff to take a shower. Let's just say that I'm plotting my revenge, so watch out!!

The Kitchen Sink:
Sorry this picture isn't in focus. Those are Max's and my shoes in the sink, just in case you were wondering!

The Toilet:

Don't ever plan on seeing a picture of this item again until I convince Jeff to let me redo the bathrooms.

The Laundry Room:
I'd like to say it is usually a lot cleaner, but minus the new vent I haven't installed and the bag of DI clothes in the corner, this is pretty much how it always looks.

The Fridge

The Closet:
My side vs. Jeff's side

My Favorite Room:
I've always loved my living room, but unfortunately we don't have any furniture to go in it right now. We did have our family room furniture in there until last week when I finally painted the family room and we moved the couches and TV back to there real home. The car seats and sleeping bags are waiting their turn in the washing machine.

My Favorite Shoes:
I don't know about favorites, but these are the ones I wear the most often.

The Kids:
Max is clutching one of his leftover glow sticks from our camping trip and Emily's not quite asleep yet.

Me:
I saved the best for last. Here I am in all my glory. Four days without a shower and having my hair in a bun or under a hat the entire time. I didn't strictly follow the rules on this one, but I figured I was allowed to put on a robe at least. I'm sure no one wanted to see me in my underwear!

I tag Tiffany, Apreal, and Danielle. I'd say I'm sorry, but now that I've humiliated myself I can't wait to see others be humiliated, too!! ;)