Just The Five Of Us

As you wish

2011-12-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

Max and Emily's conversation in the car last week:

"Max, can we watch Princess Buttercup today?"

Max, in a whispery voice: "As you wish."

New Landscaping

2011-12-01T23:26:00.000-08:00

I guess the universe has decided that it is time for us to do some new landscaping in our front yard. This is what our house looked like this morning after about 6 hours of very intense wind. I'd say we woke up to it, but there wasn't much sleeping going on at our house last night as we listened to the wind, occasionally hearing stuff hit our house. (I'm pretty sure we were hearing our neighbor's roof shingles.)

We lost all four of our trees in the front yard, including the enormous pine tree, and our little apple tree in the back yard.

As you can see, the pine tree also took out half the flower bed, a bunch of grass and tore up three sprinkler lines when it went down.

This is how it looked this afternoon after our wonderful neighbors helped us cut up the trees so that we and our next door neighbors could access our garages. We are so grateful that the trees didn't damage our home and that we live in a place were people look out for each other. There was a group of men and teenage boys with chain saws going around our neighborhood helping clear up fallen trees all day long. Our neighborhood looks pretty bad with trees and fences down all over the place and blown off shingles and debris everywhere.

I'm a little sad at how drastically our yard has changed in the last 24 hours. At least I won't have to rake up pine needles any more, and I can plant a tree that I like in place of that big pine tree.

2011-11-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Max: "Mom, have I been through a big change?"

Me: "What are you talking about?"

Max: "You know, metamorphosis."

One down....

2011-11-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

...and a whole mouthful to go!

Jane at 15 months

2011-11-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

(This picture is actually a few months old, but she looks so cute in it I had to put it up.)

Things Jane loves right now:

Shoes: She loves to have you put them on her feet and she loves to bring you your shoes and then wait for you to put them on. We try to hide them from her, but she's a pretty smart little girl and will bring them to you again if you don't hide them well enough.

Peek-a-Boo: This is her favorite game to play. The more you can startle her the funnier she thinks it is. I just love those deep baby belly laughs!

Her Belly Button: Jane loves to show off her belly button, and loves to have it poked. She'll even help you poke her belly button if she thinks you aren't poking it hard enough or enough times.

Dancing: Jane loves bouncing herself up and down on her legs to the music and "running" around the room while her siblings dance. She also loves it when you dance with her in your arms and will bounce in your arms squealing in delight.

Swinging: This girl loves to swing and can already use a big swing.

Being With the Family: Jane loves to be part of whatever is going on around the house. She loves her big brother and sister, loves to dance with them and to play in the play kitchen with them.

Her Thumb: I don't know what it is with our kids and their thumbs, but all three of them have been thumb suckers. Jane also loves to rub her hair while she sucks her thumb. Maybe she picked it up from Emily, who loves to twirl her hair while she sucks her thumb. (It makes a funny sight in the morning while I'm fixing the girls breakfast.)

One thing Jane still doesn't love is snuggling, but I still try to get her to snuggle with me several times a day. I am determined to turn her into a snuggler. This little girl definitely has her moments of fussiness, but on the whole she is such a sweet and pleasant baby and really just brings so much joy into our home. What did we ever do without our Baby Jane? I am so excited to see her little personality really come out this next year.

15 month stats:
weight - 25 1/2 lbs. (85%)
height - 33 1/2 in. (99%)
head - 18 1/2 in. (87%)

Over the last 7 months........

2011-11-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Jeff, Jane, and I went to Washington DC to visit Jeff's parents before they came home from their mission. (We also got to spend a day walking around New York City.)

We celebrated Easter and Jane just kept getting cuter!

I ran the Dirty Dash with my brother, his fiance, my sister, and my mom.

My brother got married, and we are so excited to be able to officially claim Jessica as family!
(I made four flower girl dresses, and they turned out so beautiful.)

My Dad turned the big 60 and we had a very fun party for him at our house.

Jane turned one year old, and started walking two months later.

Max learned to ride a bike.

We went to Bear Lake with Jeff's family and had so much fun in spite of the mice and bat in our cabin. (Actually, Sherry's reaction to the mice was half of the fun!)

Max started kindergarten and has loved it from day one.
(I guess I didn't need to worry so much last year!)

And we carved pumpkins and celebrated Halloween, which involved more sewing.

Now we are getting excited for the holidays and LOVING the fact that my sister just moved back to Utah and is only minutes away instead of a 12 hour drive. Max is on the verge of loosing his first tooth and I am not so excited that he is growing up so fast! (Too many big milestones in too short of a time!) And I'm hoping that maybe I will finally be able to stick with blogging again, although I don't promise anything. Having three kids has limited what I can get done in a day, although we would take Jane over the extras any day, she brings so much love and joy into our home. I am constantly looking at my little brood of children and feel so happy and content with our little family right now. We are definitely blessed!!

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-03-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

I had a nice, quiet birthday this year. Per my request, Jeff made me a lemon cake. I could tell he couldn't understand why anyone would want a cake other than his mom's chocolate cake, but he made it for me anyway. Then he put the kids to bed while I got some alone time. Thanks for a great birthday, Jeff!

Cousin Weekend

2011-03-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

The weekend after we got back from California we had my sister's three kids for the weekend. Max and Emily had so much fun playing with Ellie, as always. I love to watch kids running around playing, playing, playing. Dress-ups, barbies, running, etc. We made funny face pancakes and personal pizzas and just had a fun time. The only times that felt kind of crazy were meal times. Three kids in high chairs is a lot of work, especially after the meal is over. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to hold and snuggle Brock and Isaac. Since they came to our family only three months before Jane was born I haven't had a lot of opportunities to hold them. I think you really bond with little ones when you have the chance to take care of them.

The Living Desert

2011-03-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we got date shakes, played outside, went to dinner at Chuck E. Cheese's (which was CRAZY busy), and played games. Monday was our last day of vacation and we decided to go to the Living Desert, which is the local zoo. We've been there before and always really enjoy it.

One of the favorite spots is all the miniature trains they have. They have so many and it's fun to watch them run through all of the different displays.

We always have to take pictures of the kids sitting on the wart hog statues. The statues are not nearly as ugly as the real live wart hog.

Emily loved petting the goats in the petting zoo. She kept talking about how all the goats liked her.

Malia and Max had so much fun playing together and got along so well. It's fun to watch them together and remember when Shannan and I were pregnant with them.

When we got to the camels, Shannan was pointing them out to Emily who responded, "Those aren't camels." Shannan told her that they were indeed camels to which Emily replied, "No they're not. They're dragons." There was no convincing her otherwise. To her they were dragons.

The next morning we left at around 5:30 am, California time, and headed back home. This trip felt faster, but was still pretty long. It is always so fun to get together with cousins and just hang out and play for a week. It was also so nice getting to spend so much time with my dad. It was so great to see all of the kids having so much fun with Grandpa.

Thanks for letting us come out to visit, Shannan. It's always so fun to go hang out in your nice warm weather in the middle of winter!

The Salton Sea

2011-03-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

On our second day in California we headed out to the Salton Sea. We had heard about the Salton Sea before, and even though it is only about half an hour away from Shannan's house they had never actually been there before. It was a little stinky, especially by the visitors center, probably because of all the dead fish on the beach. The kids were fascinated and disgusted by all the dead fish and fish skeletons.

Even though it was stinky, it was really pretty. After we walked around the visitor's center/gift shop we found a less stinky spot to eat lunch. After lunch, my dad and Rachael ran down the beach scaring all the birds. It was fun to watch them all take off in the air.

We were hoping to hike along one of the nature trails, but as we were eating lunch we could see dark rain clouds heading our way across the water. The wind was picking up and all the kids were nervous about getting caught in the storm, so we decided to head home and play it safe. I was glad we did since it started raining before we got back to Shannan's house and rained for the rest of the day.

California

2011-03-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

In February, the kids and I headed out to California to spend a week hanging out with my sister and her family and enjoying the warm desert weather. The week before we left my dad asked if he could come along with us, so the five of us made the long drive. I didn't realize that I had never made this trip before with a baby, even though this was our fourth trip in the last six years. It took us longer than we planned because every stop seemed to take at least 30 minutes, but we finally made it. I was very glad to have my dad along to help with the kids.

Our first day there we headed to a park to enjoy the nice weather. Meghan, Jay, and Jack came out from LA to join us. It was so nice to be able to play outside in the middle of February. We walked to the park and Emily started out the walk holding hands with Malia and by the time we were half way to the park Max and Kaitlyn had joined in.

Isn't Jack a cutie? Parks are the best entertainment when you have little children.

The SPOT

2011-03-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

Emily has been causing quite a stir at our house the last couple of weeks. She keeps sitting in Max's SPOT.

Apparently she doesn't realize that the kids have assigned seating in our house. (Assigned by Max, that is, in spite of all the times I've said, "We DO NOT have SPOTS in our house!")

Apparently she doesn't realize that Max thinks he NEEDS to sit in his SPOT when he eats his breakfast, lunch, snack, etc.

Apparently she doesn't realize how distressing it is to Mr. Routine when she changes things around.

Actually, I'm sure she does realize how distressing it is and thinks if the SPOT is so wonderful, and worth such a fuss, she wants to sit there!

Life is hard when your little sister doesn't go along with your plans all the time.

"High Heels"

2011-03-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day

2011-03-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Birthday Week

2011-02-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Last month we ended January with Emily's 3rd birthday. We didn't do anything big for Emily's birthday this year, but we did have my dad and his wife over. She loved being sung to and loved her new dress, Belle Polly Pocket, her wooden dress up dolls and her new barbie. I can't believe how grown up she has gotten this last year! She definitely has a mind of her own, which can be both great and aggravating. I often wonder where my chubby little toddler went. We love you, Goosey Girl!

Five days later we celebrated Max turning 5. He wanted cupcakes instead of a cake, so we made a number five with the cupcakes. We decided to have his two buddies, Drew and Gage, over for lunch last minute for a healthy meal of hot dogs, chips, and birthday punch followed by cupcakes and ice cream. Max got an aircraft carrier for his Hot Wheel airplanes (He's been asking for it for about 6 months) and a wooden race car that he got to paint and decorate himself. He also got a game, Richard Scarry's Busytown, from Grandpa Marc and Grandma Sharon. It's been a big hit with the whole family.

After lunch we met Jeff's family at the Hill Aerospace Museum and spent the afternoon looking at planes. Max loved the airplanes (as did all of the "boys"). It was fun to finally go after talking about it for the last four years. It was a perfect fun, but low-key birthday. I just can't believe that Max is five years old. When did all of my babies get so big!?! I've decided this is a great age. Lot of questions and curiosity about the world. Max has become such a great helper to me and is a hard worker and great big brother.

*For my birthday this year I got a Silhouette machine, which I used to make birthday banners. Thanks Jeff!! (You don't have to wait until your actual birthday to open and use your presents when your the mom, right?)*

6 Months Old

2011-01-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

Jane turned six months old last week. What a sweetie she is with such nice big cheeks! We just love our Baby Jane!! Her new trick is rolling onto her belly ALL THE TIME. She can't remember how to roll off her belly, and is quite a spitty baby, so her belly is not my favorite place for her to be, but if I roll her back over she immediately rolls back onto her belly. Silly girl. She loves to stick out her tongue, especially when we are feeding her baby food or rice cereal, and she loves watching her big brother and sister. Max is always performing for her and she just watches him all the time to see what crazy things he is going to do. She loves her Daddy and is always smiling when she sees Jeff and loves to grab his beard. To be fair she loves to grab everyone's faces. She is getting pretty close to sitting (if only she would understand that she needs to BEND at her waist to sit) and is starting to babble words like "dada". She also loves holding toys and, of course, putting them in her mouth. She is still not consistently sleeping through the night and seems to have an anti-snuggling gene, but she is just so sweet tempered that it makes up for those little things.

6 month stats:
length - 27.5 inches (96%)
weight - 16.4 lbs. (58 %)
head - 17.1 inches (78%)

On a side note: I took Max and Emily for their yearly check-ups at the same time. Max was a little leery of Dr. Kathy. He went second for both his exam and his shots. Emily, on the other hand, was not shy at all. She spent the whole appointment jabbering on to the doctor about everything. I am constantly amazed at how different they are in personality and temperament. When I decided to take all three of them together I planned on it being a little chaotic, but my kids were so well behaved I wondered whose children they were! I actually left feeling like a good mom. ;) I'm sure they'll make up for it some other time.

Darn It Barbie

2011-01-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Emily asked me today if her barbie was Darn It Barbie. I couldn't figure out where she would have gotten that from until Max pointed out that is what Ken says on Toy Story 3. So now Emily has Snow Wipe Barbie and Darn It Barbie. Both who love to parade around our house naked. You gotta love how a two year old's mind works.

Christmas

2011-01-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas and we were lucky enough to have half of my family over to spend the evening and day with us. I had Max and Emily pick out a small gift for each other because I wanted them to start thinking about giving at Christmas, not just about what Santa was going to bring them. It took a little convincing to talk Max out of giving Emily a truck, but we finally got him to think of something SHE would like. They opened their gifts from each other on Christmas Eve, which was nice because they're gifts got a lot of attention instead of getting lost in the pile of presents the next morning.

Max picked out a Polly Pocket mermaid for Emily. She spent the rest of the evening "swimming" and singing for her little mermaid. Emily picked out a monster truck for Max. It's one of those cars that you can pull back and it will then propel itself forward. It was fun to see how excited they were to give their presents to each other.

And here's the reason I stopped blogging again last month:

I was spending all of me free time building this play kitchen for the kids for Christmas. It's hard to work on stuff like this with three kids, one of them a nursing baby. It turned out so cute, and I'm trying really hard to not nitpick about all the little imperfections. I got the plans from this website. She has free plans to build practically everything. I made the kids beds this spring from her site, that I never blogged about because I was lazy. Next on our plans is the play house with attached swing set. Oh, and a bed for our room. And some shelves to hold my fabric.

The kids played with their kitchen for a while and enjoyed their stockings while Jeff got breakfast in the oven and we waited for Seth and Jessica to arrive. The kids also got hooded bath towels that my wonderful friend engraved their names on, matching dresses for Emily and Jane, and Max got a piggy bank and his own soccer ball. He was trying to drag his dad and uncles outside all day to play soccer with him.

It was such a nice relaxing day, especially since I was finally done with my Christmas crafts. I've got to scale back next year because the holidays are not very fun when I have too much on my plate. Now I'm just trying to summon enough energy to take down the Christmas decorations.

Day 10 - Thunder River

2010-12-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

Day 10 – Thunder River

I really thought that after we finished day eight that it would be mostly quiet, but then the next day I kept hearing about bedrock and Dubendorf. I vaguely remembered reading about Dubendorf, but I did not have any recollection of Bedrock.

Bedrock was the second of the main rapids that we went through on day 10. On most rapids there is usually some kind of comparison, but of the rapids I have rowed I think that Bedrock is unique. At the start the river it is going strait. As you enter the main rapid the river makes an abrupt right hand turn. In the middle of the river is a giant rock. Most of the water is flowing around the left of the rock. That is where the current is trying to take you, but it is not where you want to go. At the top of the left run there is a strong recirculating eddy with a narrow chute to try and make it through at the bottom. The right is an easier run, but there are a lot of boulders close to shore. For a good run you wait until you are past the rocks and then pull hard to the right.

Scouting Bedrock

The run went how I hoped, but it sure did not feel like it was going to. I waited until I was past the last boulder on the right and then started rowing for all I was worth. It felt like nothing was happening, and that I was destined to make a left hand run. Then almost as if by magic I was free of the main current and heading down the right run with a lot of room to spare. We did have a little drama on the river. One of the boats went too far right and got caught on the rocks. It was a little scary because they were pinned for a few minutes in an area that would have been difficult to help with.

Through Bedrock

The next rapid was Dubendorf. To be honest I am not sure exactly what happened there. It was kind of a crazy rapid. There were waves all over the place. I’m not sure that I went where I was supposed to go, but wherever I went it was a fun ride. We made it to Racetrack Camp shortly after, which was good because we had a long hike after lunch.

The Thunder River hike is quite amazing, but it really took it out of me. It was actually one of Adrienne’s favorite hikes when she went down in 2001. It was a hot day and one of the hardest parts of the hike was at the first. We hiked along the side of the canyon from our camp to Tapeats Creek. From there we started the trail. The first part of the trail is a series of switchbacks that go ever upward on a south facing wall. With the sun beating down it was a difficult climb. It is on climbs like that, when I start to feel jealous of mountain goats. Once to the top of the canyon we walked along the side of a cliff until it met up again with Tapeats Creek.

Looking Down on the First Section of Trail

View From the Top

Hiking Along the Cliff

We hiked along the side of the creek, and across it several times, for what seemed like miles and miles. By that time the heat had given me a throbbing headache. At last we came to a spot where we could see Thunder River. Thunder River looks like it is flowing right out of a cliff. It is an amazing scene. Our vantage point was also beautiful with the creek on one side and some beautiful cottonwoods on the other.

Thunder River From a Distance

A Closer View

The next thing I know the people who have been on the hike before start talking about the final push. At that point I was done. I had a terrific headache, and despite my best efforts at hydration, I felt like I had a belly full of warm water and a dehydrated body. I decided I would press on though. How bad could it be?

It seemed like the farther we walked the farther away our goal was. The trail went up the side of a mountain and every time I looked up the people ahead of me were higher up the switch backs. Not seeing the end I actually called it good and laid down to rest about 15 yard before the end of the trail. Luckily the group sent someone to get me. I had no idea how close I was to an oasis. The trip was hard, but the payoff was big. It was nice to have a refreshing spot before making the trip down. We filtered some water, rested a while and then made our way back.

Resting at the Waterfall

Looking Up at the Waterfall

On that trail even the walk back down seemed tough. When I made it to within a half mile of camp I met up with Mark, who had been my passenger for the last three days. He had hiked back from camp because he had heard I was struggling. He brought a flash light and some water. It was twilight as we made the final push down. He even offered to take my place on clean up crew that night.

When we got back to camp I got some food and water in me. I also took a bath in the cold river, and then sat in my chair with my feet in the water. It was amazing. I have never in my life had a headache disappear so quickly. I guess the grueling parts of the hike lasted a few hours, but the good parts of the memories will last a lifetime.

Day 9 - Elves Casm

2010-11-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

After our big day on the river the day before day 9 seemed to be a fairly mild day as far as rapids go. There were some big ones to be sure, but they were more spread out. This day would be mostly about seeing the sights and moving down river.

Shinamu Creek

Our first stop of the day was Shinumo Creek. We could easily see the creek from our camp, but do to the landscape it was not easily accessible. It is too bad, because it is really quite a lovely spot. There is a small waterfall about 50 yards up the creek from the river. The drop is only about six feet, but it is a gusher. It would have been nice to go there the day before when I was feeling a bit hot and miserable. Our stop was short. We cooled off for a bit and then filled my empty cooler with water to be filtered later.

Under the Waterfall

I was really excited for the next stop on our trip. I had heard and read a lot about Elves Chasm. It is a little bit farther from the river than Shinumo, but it is a truly beautiful spot. The creek there carves a chasm into the rock. In one spot there is a small waterfall that pours into a pool. From the waterfall you can jump into the pool. Our group spent a long time there just doing that.

Elves Chasm

Ready to Jump

Our last diversion of the day was Blacktail Canyon. At first I was not that excited to go. It started out as a short hike over a large sun baked debris fan. When you get there it is a small slot canyon. I say that it is just a small slot canyon, which is true, but it is more than that. It has a feel to it that is hard to describe. In some ways it feels out of place. Maybe that is because to step inside feels like moving into a different world. It is cool and enclosed compared to the outside which is wide open and very hot. It also has a bit of a spooky feel. That may be a consequence of the ghost story that Nancy read to us about the canyon from one of her books. It was a place that I was a bit sad to leave.

BlackTail Canyon

The Sky from Black Tail

After our sight seeing we pushed to the Randy’s Rock Campground. A commercial group had left it open for us, which was good, because we made it there rather late.

Day 8 - The Big Stuff

2010-11-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

Day eight was by far the biggest of the big water days. On that day we ran three of the canyon’s big six rapids. After you finish the big three there is still a lot of white water left. There is a series of rapids called the jewels. Each rapid is named after a different jewel. Rapids include Sapphire, Ruby, Turquoise as well as others. It is a pretty good stretch all by itself.

While we were getting ready in the morning one of our passengers, Marley asked if I had a plan for running Granite. This was before the morning scout, but after having seen the rapid the night before. My response was, “Yeah, I’m going to pick a spot and then pray.” I had never before seen a rapid quite like Granite. It was like the whole stretch of river was in chaos. There were not many spots that looked completely un-runable, but the river was full of waves that I would not hit on purpose either. In picking my line I think I mostly exercised faith in the more experienced rafters. I was pretty nervous about this rapid, because I do like having a better plan than hang on and pray. It turned out to be one of the best rides of the river.

Scouting Granite

Granite Rapid

The next rapid of the big six that we would hit was Hermit. Hermit is kind of interesting. The main part of the rapid is a nice wave train. The defining feature of Hermit is the fifth wave. It is huge, and it surges. You do not want to arrive at the fifth wave at the wrong part of the surge. We ran it at a fairly forgiving water level. I have heard many stories about the fifth wave flipping several boats in the same group. In a lot of ways Hermit had the same strategy as Granite. So I picked my spot and hoped for the best. It was a bumpy ride, but ultimately it was a good one.

The Fifth Wave Surging

Crystal rapid was the next big one for the day. Boy is it a big one. It is also one of the newer rapids on the river. It was formed by a flash flood in the sixties. It is the second highest rated rapid on the river. It is also the deadliest on the river. At the top of the rapid there is a debris fan on river right, a large eddy with a pourover on river left, and some gargantuan holes down the middle.

Some of the holes on Crystal

Our run was on the right side of the river. There are some rocks at the top of the rapid on river right. We started out just right of center at the top of the rapid. My stern was pointed downstream and to the right. After we passed the rocks I made my move to break through the tongue. After watching the first boat through I decided that I wanted to wait a little bit longer for the breakthrough. It is kind of a tough thing to wait. When you wait on this part of the rapid the current is pushing you toward the big holes. In this case patience paid off. My line was a lot easier than it would have been. It was a straight shot to the right side. From there my run was clear except for a submerged rock that briefly caught us.

My Boat after having made it through the first part

At the bottom of the rapid there is a large rock garden. It is the rock garden that really makes the rapid dangerous. It can easily trap boats and people after a bad run. A month early a commercial boat lost power in Crystal. The large boat got stuck on the rock known as big red, and was stuck there all night. The passengers were rescued by helicopter the next day. Our run was considerably better than that. I made the pull to the right of the rocks and all was well.

It is funny. When we were talking about favorite rapids that evening, everyone looked at me like I was crazy when I said Crystal was my fave. A good run through Crystal is not much of a ride. For me it was a good and a boring run, but there was a feeling of triumph about hitting a rapid like that just how I wanted to. I have literally known about this rapid for seven years. Adrienne’s family made a CD for the last run through the Grand Canyon. One of the songs was ABC by the Jackson Five. For the rafters ABC signified being Alive Below Crystal.

Even with three big rapids and three scouts to go with them we made pretty good time. We decided to break plan and keep running straight through to camp. The main reason is that our intended destination, Bass Camp, is extremely popular. This meant that we would not be able to have our planned lunch of tuna sandwiches, on Tuna Beach, below Tuna Rapid. You can’t win them all!

It is really too bad that the Jewels come right after such an intense section of river. They were some pretty fun rapids. After the big three I think I may have been to worn out to enjoy them.

Our camp that evening was another hot one. Some people went on hikes in the area, but I was too wiped out. I spent the afternoon reading and sleeping. That night we decided to pull out the black lights. They are for finding scorpions. It was kind of scary because we found a lot of them. I guess that is one of the advantages of sleeping on the boat.

2010-11-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Emily decided to give herself a haircut. I guess she doesn't realize how long it's taken for her hair to get to this point! She also took a piece out of the top and cut Max's in a couple of spots. She is now banned from using scissors.

Halloween

2010-11-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

Since the kids have so many dress up clothes I decided to not make any costumes this year to cut down on my stress. Max decided early on that he wanted to be a pirate and Emily was a fairy. She wanted to be a princess, but all of her princess dresses are too big on her and after one of them got ripped at my dad's Halloween party I was pushing hard for a costume that fit on her. My neighbor had a little cheer-leading costume that we borrowed for little Janey to wear.

We had our neighborhood trunk or treat and chili cook off on Saturday early in the evening so that everyone could get home in time to go trick or treating, which I think is silly because why do we need to do both? I'm not a fan of trunk or treats anyway because I want my kids to have to WORK for their candy! ;) (I do think they serve a purpose if you live in a place you would not feel comfortable taking your kids trick or treating in, but that just doesn't apply to our neighborhood.) However, since it started raining during the chili cook off I was glad that we had the option of not taking the kids trick or treating.

A little after we got home the rain calmed down and the kids wanted to go out trick or treating so Jeff took them out for a little bit just up and down our street. Apparently Emily started doing a little diabolical laugh when people would give her candy.

It was a fun night but it just didn't feel like Halloween to me. I think the fact that I didn't do anything to get us ready for Halloween played a big part in that, because not only did I not sew any costumes I also never bothered to get out my fall decorations this year. Oh well, I think I'll just wait to decorate until Christmas!

Forever Family

2010-10-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we were able to be with my sister and her family in the Logan Temple as they had their ten month old twin boys sealed to them. It was such a wonderful day and one that many people have been praying and hoping for for several years, especially my sister and her husband and daughter. I can't even describe the feelings of being there in the temple with them and how special a day it was. I know that my children are sealed to me, but their is something very special about actually getting to witness a sealing happening. We are so happy for Erin and Brian that they were able to add more children to their family! Brock and Isaac are the cutest little boys and as different from each other as can be. They are both so cute is such different ways. It has been so fun to have them in our family! Congratulations, Erin and Brian! We are so happy for you and your wonderful little family!!

Brock, Brian, Ellie, Erin, and Isaac coming out of the temple after the sealing

I love Isaac's little face in this picture with that cute little smile and finger at his mouth. He always gives such shy, sweet smiles!

Brock was being a little fussy about having to be still for so many pictures, so Brian tried a few with him upside down. He still wasn't very happy.

I have to brag a little about Ellie's dress that I made for the temple because it turned out so beautiful. I am always so happy when something turns out like I envision it, and this dress definitely turned out great. Now I'm trying to find an excuse to make one for Emily.

I love that we were able to be at the Logan Temple for a sealing right around our anniversary. It's so neat to remember that seven years ago Jeff and I were sealed in this same beautiful temple.

We had some problems with Emily "wandering" into the pictures. I guess she really wants to be a part of Erin and Brian's family.

And of course, Jeff with our own sweet Baby Jane. I'm so grateful for my own little Forever Family!

The Driller

2010-10-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Max got a Halloween pencil in a goody bag at a party so that afternoon I showed him how to use the pencil sharpener to sharpen his pencil. Later in the day he was digging through our junk drawer and found all of our non sharpened pencils.

First thing this morning when he come's in my room he asks, "Now where's Dad's driller? I need to drill those pencils!"

Magic Grandma's Carnival

2010-10-27T15:22:00.001-07:00

The theme for this years Halloween party was magic. The kids got to make wands, get tattoos, and have their fortunes told. Then they got to watch Magic Grandma's magic show.

Max went as a pirate this year and Emily decided she wanted to be Belle.

And of course, it is always fun to hang out with cousin Ellie. I'm sure it will be even funner when Brock and Isaac are big enough to play, too.

Jane isn't big enough to participate yet, but she's a cutie anyway. I can't believe how big she is getting and how lucky I am to have such a sweet baby!

Thanks for such a fun night, Dad and Sharon!!

*Erin - I hope you don't mind that I "borrowed" some of the photos off your post!*

The Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we were able to go to a local pumpkin patch with some of the neighbors. They had the cutest little maze, the perfect size for little kids.

The kids had fun looking at all the different types of squash, gourds, and pumpkins

They also loved jumping across the hale bales.

After all the running and jumping, we got one of the little carts they have on the farm and loaded up some pumpkins for our little family. Hopefully we can get them carved before Halloween.

Spittin' Image

2010-10-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

The other day at the fabric store I ran into an old neighbor. We said hi and she commented on us having a new baby and right before we moved on she told Emily, "You are just the spitting image of your dad!". As we were walking away, Emily yelled, "I'm not spittin!!" I explained, "She's just saying you look like Daddy." To which Emily replied, "I don't look like Daddy, I look like Mommy!" I guess Emily is sick of getting told how much she looks like Jeff.

Day - 7 The Exchange

2010-10-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

I knew that we were camped close to Phantom Ranch the night before, but I had no idea how close. The boater’s beach was just around the bend. Brian and Seth had done an early morning float down to the boaters beach so that those hiking out could get an early start. We thought we would have to wait for the people hiking in, but that did not prove a problem. The kayakers were so excited that they started hiking early. That made it easy for us. We were able to make the quick hike from boaters beach to Phantom Ranch without having to wait. It was kind of interesting to see buildings and people. Going to an actual bathroom was kind of nice to.

From Phantom I was able to make my call home. It was nice to be able to talk to Adrienne and the kids. It is hard to describe how nice it was to talk to someone who was so excited to talk to me. It also touched my heart when Adrienne told me how well the ward was taking care of her. Honestly, being in the dark as I was, I thought maybe they were going a little overboard. Adrienne almost let it slip, but she made sure not to tell me why she was being taken care of so well. A few days earlier our baby had spent a night in the hospital. Under the circumstances I appreciate her keeping it from me. Jane was okay, and at that point the only thing that I would have been able to do would be to worry. It was so nice to talk to Adrienne that I was really sad when we had to hang up.

We hung around Phantom Ranch for awhile. One of there biggest sellers there is lemonade. Once they are done with the lemonade they fill the bottles with water and freeze them. Then they sell the ice to boaters that are coming through. It is quite the business they have going. We bought all of their lemonade bottles and a few bags of ice, which then had to be carried to the boat. As hot as the day was, I think the bag of ice I had was one of the most pleasant loads I have ever carried.

Once back at the boats we met our new members of the group and had lunch. There were two kayakers, Curtis and Jon, as well as Mark who would spend most of the rest of the trip on my boat. The group was not lacking in enthusiasm. That first day the kayakers were practically giddy with excitement. I don’t think they could have wiped the grins off their faces if they had wanted to.

After lunch we made our way down river. There was only one big rapid for the day but it was a dozy. Horn Creek is one of the big six. It is easier at higher water so we had planned to go when the water would be at its peak. There really is not a good scout for this one. There are two rocks on this one called the horns. One was more in the center than I was expecting, the other is on the left. The run is right between them. For some reason Craig was in front of me when we went through. He ended up taking a run that went over the right horn. Because of the drop I could not see his run well, but it looked like a crazy ride. He made it through all right though. There was a funny moment afterward when Curtis paddled up next to him and yelled, “Nice Run.” At first Craig thought he was being made fun of, but kayakers are different breed. Curtis saw the run and though it just looked fun.

We arrived at camp a short time later. Monument Creek camp offers a great view of Granite rapid. The first thing we did when we got there was to watch a commercial group run the rapid. It was kind of scary to see the rapid at high water. It was like the whole stretch of river left to right top to bottom was full of gigantic waves. There was so much big water I did not really see a path that I wanted to take.

We went back to camp, where I tried not to think about the next day. Granite would be the first of three big rapids the next day. In addition to those there would be several other rapids that are big in their own right. Luckily that afternoon I found a nice spot to set up my cot for the afternoon. It was a spot nestled under a tree at the bottom of a cliff. I do not think the spot gets hardly any sun. I was able to curl up and take a fantastic nap. It was good to get some rest. The next day would be the biggest water day of the trip.

Silly Goose

2010-10-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Our little Goosey Girl is getting so funny! (And, on a side note, can also be such a STINKER - she is two after all.) Last night I was quizzing Max to see if he knew his full name. His reply, "Circus Maximus?" I explained that this was actually his nickname. We talked a little more about his name and then I asked Emily what her name was, to which she replied, "Circus Goosey!" She also frequently refers to herself as Crockett Goosey, or Goose Crockett.

Then this afternoon I was changing Jane out of her church dress and Emily found a jumper of Jane's that she thinks is a dress and she exclaimed, "Da-Da-Dada! Super Dress!" And then she "flew" the dress around the room while making flying noises. How could we not love this cute little stink?

Ornery Mom

2010-10-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

I had a bad mom day today. One of those days where I'm tired, so I'm impatient with my children, they act out, I don't react in the calmest way and we go in this cycle ALL DAY LONG. I must have said, "You guys aren't listening to me!" 599,325 times today. These are the days I wonder if I deserve to have one child, let alone three. The days I wonder what I am doing as a mother. The days I feel like everyone around me is thinking what a bad mom I am because I feel like my children are out of control. I'm sure we all have these days, at least I hope all moms have these days. I just always think that at least I can start over tomorrow.

Escape!

2010-10-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

After asking me repeatedly if he could go to his friends house, (I was on the phone with my sister and kept putting him off) Max decided to take matters into his own hands and took off out the front door with Emily in tow. I quickly ended my phone call and grabbed some shoes and took off down the street after them. And while I was mad that Max hadn't listened and followed my directions, the sight of him and Emily running down the sidewalk, hand in hand, as fast as their little legs could take them, was so cute I couldn't help smiling. Apparently Max said to my neighbor when she told him he should show me where they were going, "No! She's trying to catch us!"

Day 6 - Swiming Sockdolager

2010-10-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

Our sixth day was in a lot of ways similar to our second day on the river. It rained on us just a little bit and it was another big water day. After packing up for the day our first stop was on the Unkar Delta. It is a nice little spot on the river that is full of Anasazi ruins. In this area you can see the foundations of houses, along with pieces of pottery. There were self guided tour maps to explain what everything is. The maps would give details to the ruins, which were marked with numbered posts. It is interesting to see the remnants of centuries ago, and wonder what life must have been like back then. I especially wonder what they thought of the river and the rapids.

After leaving Unkar it was time to get ready for the big day of rapids. The first scout of the day was Unkar rapid. We kind of scouted it by default because it is visible from the delta. Next we made our way toward Hance the first of the big six rapids on our trip. To be honest it was a little daunting to actually be there. I have heard about this rapid so many times over the years. Invariably if you have heard stories about a rapid, the stories are about what can go wrong.

There are really two ways to go down Hance Rapid. On river left there is a rocky left hand cheat. River right is known as the land of the giants. It is not a place that boats our size usually like to be. I have a little bit of ritual when we scout. I try to look at the river by myself first. I find what I think is the best plan. Then I discuss with the group, and make a decision about which route I will take. Most of the time my original route, or a pretty close variation ends up being the group consensus. After we are done I will take off my hat and shove it inside my PFD, while my sunglasses are stowed in a zipped pocket. I think of it as being a way to show the rapid respect. I also feel like I am not going to flip when I am ready for it, so I try to be ready for it. The more nervous I am about a rapid the sooner my hat goes into the PFD. For this rapid the hat came of pretty quickly.

I had a good run through Hance. I started out left of Muffin rock went down river a little bit until we were past some bigger rocks. On the left run the main thing is to avoid the rocks by shore That proved not to be a problem as I drifted out toward center, and actually caught some of the big waves at the tail end of the rapid.

The next big rapid is Sockdolager. This rapid was named by John Wesley Powell himself. If you are up on your 1860’s slang you will know that sockdolager means knock out punch. The run on this rapid is river left. It is a big rapid, but there is not really a place to scout so we went in blind. Starting out I realized that I did not set up very well. I was too far right, and I knew I would not be able to make the necessary push to the left. I quickly brought the stern around and went into the rapid backwards. On the plus side I have a lot of power rowing backwards. I made the initial pull and started out fairly well. The bad thing is that you cannot see nearly as well going backwards. I could see well enough to know that there was a giant wave at the bottom. I could not see well enough to make a good move around. I knew I could only take it straight with as much power as possible. I kept looking back trying to get good strokes and brace against the wave.

We hit the wall of water, and our back end went pretty high up. Then the water came over the stern. The first wave washed me mostly out of the boat. Rodney, one of my passengers, tried to grab my leg to hold me in. The second wave finished me off. Once in the water I first verified that my hat and sun glasses were still attached to me. I guess I should have shown more respect to this rapid. Fortunately they were there. The next thing I knew Rodney had moved the oar right in front of me. Meanwhile Stu, my other passenger, blew his whistle to alert the other boats. Before I knew it I was pulled to the side of the boat and Stu was helping me in. Both my passengers handled themselves like pros in a chaotic situation.

Probably the most distinct memory of the whole episode was looking into the front of my raft. It looked like a giant bowl full of chocolate milk. My boat is a self-bailing boat, which means that the floor is inflatable and there are holes between the tubes and the floor. This lets the water drain out of the bottom of the boat. I was back in the boat so quickly that it did not even have time to drain. All in all I would guess that I was in the water for less than ten seconds. A few people were confused by the whistle. By the time they could see us there were three people in the boat. One of the funny things to me was that the water felt fine. Though it is very cold water, it felt like a dip in the rec center pool.

There were still a lot of big rapids that day, but our trip through was uneventful. Though we covered a lot of ground we made it to our camp site in good time. Cremation is a nice camp spot, but unfortunately I think it is aptly named. By the time we got to camp it was burning hot. The camp site is specifically for boaters who are doing exchanges at Phantom Ranch. That night we said goodbye to our three group members that were leaving. It was sad to see them go. I had really enjoyed our time together.

2010-10-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

I love how little children sleep with such abandon. Don't be fooled by how sweet and precious they look! They both make mischief with the best of them!!

Baby Milestones

2010-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Little Jane is just growing so fast and just gets cuter and cuter every day. She has gotten to that age where I really start to enjoy my babies. (I'm sorry, but I just don't love the newborn phase.) In the last couple of weeks Jane has started sleeping through the night (no more night feeding - yippee!!), found her thumb (what is up with our kids and their thumbs!?!), and today she laughed for the first time. She is just such a sweet and happy baby. She really only cries when she is hungry or tired. She is such a great third child who is happy even though I don't get to hold her as much as I would like and she is constantly having to take naps on the go. We love you baby Jane!

The Dirty Dash

2010-09-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Jeff ran the Dirty Dash - a 10K race that has multiple obstacles and mud intersperced throughout the track. They started out by running up a mud hill. A little way after that they had to climb over hay bails and then later they had to crawl through a couple of tubes. The first place we got to see Jeff was when he reached the three sets of walls that the participants had to jump/climb over. Actually it was a pain getting me and all three kids up to this spot in the race but I'm glad we did because it was fun to see Jeff. I did have to abandon the stroller half way up the hill, but no one stole it, so I guess we were okay.

After the walls they ran down by Deer Creek and through a boggy area, then back up next to the walls to slip/run/slide down this enormous slip 'n' slide. We didn't stay to see Jeff go down the slide because it was at the end of the race and we wanted to see Jeff finish.

We didn't want to miss out on the big finale - the run/swim through the big mud pit at the finish line.

While we waited for Jeff, the kids ate a snack and fought over our limited seating and I got slightly chastised by an older lady for having Jane out in the sun and then got chastised again when I put Jane into the stroller because apparently now she couldn't breath.

It was fun watching the runners finish the race. Some people were doing flips and dives into the muddy water. Jeff was boring and just sauntered through. ;) Many of the people ran the race in teams of five, Jeff included. It looked like so much fun and I'm kind of tempted to sign myself up for the 5K in May. Anyone want to get really muddy with me?

Max kept ignoring my pleas for him to not stand so close to the mud pit and got splashed all over with mud. Actually me and Emily got splashed as well, just not as bad as Max. Jeff's old college roommate was one of the co-founders of the Dirty Dash and we thought it turned out great. Congratulations, Harps!

Day 5 - Time for a Change of Scenery

2010-09-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

On day five we awoke with a scream. It was not so much the first two snakes in the groover area that made Lee scream. There was a king snake that had killed a rattle snake in our bathroom area. As Lee decided to make her exit it was the third snake, a rattler, which elicited the scream. Frankly she showed great restraint. I think that placed in the same situation I would have screamed like a school girl.

Nancy called into the KSL outdoors program on the sat phone later in the morning. The hosts seemed to like the snake story. They also thought it funny when she mentioned that “unfortunately” three of her daughters could not be on the trip because they had babies this year. After she lost reception Shannon pointed out to Nancy that she said something that she probably did not mean to. Afterwards Nancy made sure to tell me that it is not unfortunate that we had a baby this year, and that she loves baby Jane. All three daughters thought it was actually pretty funny.

The first major stop of the day was the Little Colorado River. It is normally a beautiful turquoise color. A few weeks earlier the river flashed, and it has been muddy since then. Apparently something above us also flashed. When we went to bed the night before the river was mostly clear. When we woke up it was muddy. It would stay that way for the rest of the trip.

After the Little Colorado there was a major shift in scenery. The cliffs are still high above us, but now the rims are as far as ten miles apart. The rock instead of red sandstone is now more earth toned at river level. The other consequence is that now it is much hotter.

We ate lunch at Tanner Flats. It was really hot. It is less than two miles away from a place called Furnace Flats. It definitely felt like we were in a furnace. After lunch we went to some Indian ruins that are in the area. There is a big rock called the birthing chair. It looks like a chair and has carvings all over it. I do not know if it was actually used for birthing, but since that would be cool that is the story that I am going with.

Our camp for the evening was Cardenas. We got there fairly early so we got to rest again. It was a little harder to enjoy, because Cardenas was a fairly warm camp. It did have some fairly good shade. We had fun playing games. We got a good game of Werewolves going that night. I think I was a little nervous that night. The next three days would bring five of the big six rapids. It was time to get ready.

Day 4 - Nankoweep

2010-09-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

We started off the morning at Saddle the same as every other morning. We ate breakfast, cleaned up, and loaded our boats. The Commercial group left before we did so we moved our boats to their spot which was deeper. Then we set off on the hike up Saddle Canyon. I was a little bit leery about hiking due to my previous headache from hiking, but I though I had better give it a try.

I took the trail slow and easy especially at first. It was a warm day and the trail was right in the sun. To be honest at first I was not sure if it was going to be worth it. Then we made it to the canyon. It was shady and at the end of our hike there was a small waterfall. It is hard to describe just how refreshing the side canyons are. It is like magically going from feeling beat to complete refreshed in seconds.

After the hike we left for what would be a very short day on the river. We went about five miles down river to the Nankoweep Camp. The crazy thing is that on this section of river our map listed no named rapids. There was nothing huge, but something in that stretch had to at least merit a two on the rating scale.

For most of the afternoon we just sat in the shade on the river bank and cooled our heels in the river. As much as I like being on the river it is sure nice to get in early and be able to relax. Our activity for most of the day consisted of telling the kind of riddles where you give a few hints and the other person tries to guess the answer by asking yes or no questions. We also had the chance to take a bath while the sun was still out. This is important because being less than a day away from the Glen Canyon Dam, the water is numbingly cold.

We decided that we would hike to the Nankoweep Granaries after dinner when the temperature would be much cooler, and we would be out of direct sunlight. It didn’t take long to realize that the hike was going to undue any good that the earlier baths may have done. It was a fairly tuff hike, and I was drenched in sweat by the time we got to the granaries. I keep thinking of the people who lived there a thousand years ago, and carried their corn for storage up there. The hike however was one of my favorites. We were up top at around dusk which is one of my favorite times of day, and the view down the canyon was spectacular. With a canyon that big I think it helps to be halfway up so you can take in the scene above and below. It was pretty dark for the hike out, but we made it.

The night ended back in camp with desert, and the game of snaps. If you don’t know what the game of snaps is just ask me the next time you see me. I will be happy to help you learn how to play. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at calling the game, though not as good as my friend Theron who taught me to play in the first place.

Day 3 - Seeing the Sights

2010-09-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

Our group started the day out by exploring the area around camp. We arrived too late and too tired the night before to do anything but set up camp, eat and head off to bead. There are some Indian granaries on the side of one of the cliffs, and Stanton’s Cave is on the other. Stanton’s cave is where one of the ill fated trips stowed their gear then hiked out having decided the roaring twenties was enough for them. The day before I had developed a headache on our hike. This happens to me in the heat sometimes. I decided to take it easy to try and avoid the same fate on this day, so I skipped the hikes. It gave me the chance for some alone time. I wrote part of a letter, drank lots of liquid and tried to stay in the shade.

Day three was mostly a sight seeing day. It was a day when a camera would have come in handy, but alas I currently only have one photo from the day. There were some rapids, but mostly we were either pushing along or stopping to see some of the sights.

The first stop was at Redwall Cavern. The cavern was formed by floods on the Colorado that cut into the cliff wall as the canyon turns. John Wesley Powell described as capable of holding fifty thousand people. But then again he was prone to exaggeration. Current estimates are that it could hold five thousand closely packed. When I saw it to be honest at first I was under whelmed. From the river you simply cannot appreciate the immensity of it. It is quite a striking place, and when you get to the back you realize it is huge. We took a big group photo with our silhouette spelling out August 2010.

The second stop of the day was at Nautiloid Canyon where we stopped for lunch. Up the canyon there are several Nautiloid fossils that can be seen. I again skipped the hike fearful of another headache. In hind sight I probably should have opted for the cool relief of the side canyon. The other cool thing we saw was from the river. There is an old Anazai bridge crossing a small gap in the ledge. The only thing one can think upon seeing it is to wonder who would be walking up there.

Our Camp for the evening was at Saddle Canyon. Luckily lower Saddle is a rather large camp, because we were forced to share with a commercial group who made it there first. Sharing a camp is not bad, though it does strike against what we are acustomed to on the river. We had enough room for everything but the groover. For those uninitiated in things of the river the groover is the camp porta toilet. In my river experience the only possible worse spot we have had was last year on Cataract Canyon. There we camped on a completely barren sandbar which made use of only distance and dark of night for privacy.

That night we had steaks for dinner, which was a good thing. The commercial group also had steaks and we certainly would not have wanted to be outdone by them. We also had a night of dumb jokes and other general silliness. I am not sure why but we were in a bit of a silly mood after dinner. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. Right when we were getting ready to go to bed the guides from the other group came by to say hello. It was interesting to talk to them, and get their perspective on the canyon. The only problem was that I really feared we were making a nuisance to those who had beat us to bed. The guides were many things, but quite was not one of them. They soon left though, and while they remained noisy I felt much better not being a part of the noise.

2 Months Old

2010-09-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Jane turned 2 months old this last Wednesday. She is such a cutie and is getting so big! A couple of weeks ago I had to move her into her 3-6 month clothes because all of her 0-3 months were two small for her. They mark a lot of 3-6 month clothes as 6 months and it just felt strange dressing a seven week old baby in clothes that say 6 months!

She has such a beautiful smile. She kind of lifts up her tongue when she smiles and it is just so cute. She is also a great sleeper. She only gets up once a night, usually after a nine hour stretch, but has gone ten or eleven hours a few times. She is still a really sleepy baby and can barely manage to stay awake for two hours at a time, which has made it hard to get her on any kind of schedule, but it also makes life more flexible, which is often really nice with three kids. Max and Emily just love her. I have to watch them because sometimes they love her a little too much, especially Max, who loves to pick her up or roll her onto his stomach when I'm not watching.

Apparently Jane likes to tilt her head to one particular side which is causing her to get a little flat spot and has made her cheeks a little different shaped. Because of this I have to stretch her neck to the other side several times a day. It's kind of cute because her one cheek is more flat and wide and has a teeny tiny dimple in it. We just love having this little sweetie in our family!

2 month stats:
Weight: 13.1 lbs. 95%
Length: 24.5 in. 98%
Head: 15.9 in. 88%

Big Girl

2010-09-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

Day four of potty training and Emily made it the whole day without any accidents! She is doing so great. (Most of the time! ;) ) I can't believe how much she has grown up the last six months. We're so proud of you, Emily!!! (In case you didn't guess, her Snow White doll was her reward.)

The Roaring Twenties

2010-09-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

After packing up in the morning we made our way the short distance down river to the scout for House Rock. It was a little intimidating for me. The last rapid that I scouted was big drop number three on Cataract Canyon. That was by far my worst run through a rapid ever. On House Rock Rapid there are obstacles at the top right, and really crazy hydraulics and a cliff wall on the bottom left. The idea is to get right as soon as you are past the obstacles. The run I made was almost exactly like the run I planned. I set up center right, pointed my stern to the right, waited for my moment, and then rowed for everything I was worth. It was a big confidence boost to have the first big rapid under my belt, even if it was not one of the big six.

After House Rock we visited North Canyon. It is a pretty side canyon where we hiked and later had lunch. It is really fun to go into the small side canyons after being in the large main canyon.

Then it was off to row the Roaring Twenties. This is not the hardest section of the canyon, but there are a lot of rapids in ten miles. In reading about this section I read about early trips and the people who drowned on those trips. Additionally I had heard that most flips happen in that section of the canyon. By the time you get to the really hard stuff you are a seasoned pro.

So it was that in Indian Dick rapid we had a flip. When a raft flips it is no fun at all. First you have to catch the raft and most importantly the people on the raft. Keep in mind that they are both moving targets that are not necessarily going down the river the way you would choose to go. Once you have gotten the people and raft to safety you have to flip the raft right side up and get everything together. The only thing I can compare it to is being involved in a car accident. There is a lot of rehashing of the incident and wondering what went wrong. To be honest I feel a little bad that I was so happy that it was not me who flipped. Fortunately the only damage from the flip was a lost hat. The rest of the rapids went well. I felt good about most of my runs, and I felt good about being through the roaring twenties. Now I really hoped that by the next big water day I would be a seasoned pro.

Our camp that night was at South Canyon. The camp was nice, but it was my least favorite place to park our boats. The beach was covered with driftwood. As the water rose through out the night, a consequence of changing flows from the dam, our boats would rise and hit the driftwood. In addition the water was very turbulent. Which meant our boats would be constantly crashing into the driftwood despite our best efforts to clear a spot for them. Luckily Driftwood is mostly smooth. With all of waves I was getting a bit sea sick so I decided to abandon sleeping on the boat and head for shore. Below is a picture looking from our camp south toward Vasey's Paradise and Stanton's cave

Day 1 - Those Waves Are Huge

2010-09-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

There is something strange about actually shoving off on a rafting trip. With most things in life you can turn back if things start to go wrong. With rafting once you are on the river you are committed failing a major injury or some such thing there is no turning back. On Tuesday it was time to go. First we had to have our talk with the ranger. He checked our IDs, gave us a safety and stewardship talk, and assigned us our ravens. Ours were named Sundance and Ella. They accompanied us throughout the canyon. It is just a running joke for the rangers, but if I did not know better I would swear that we really did have our own pair of Ravens. After the talk we put in. We crossed the first riffle and headed down stream. A few miles later we were staring up at the Navajo Bridges 470 feet above us as we crossed underneath. It felt like crossing a line. We were leaving civilization behind for the next 276 miles.

For the past year or so I have been trying to figure out what I would be facing in terms of the river that I would be rowing. When I asked for a comparison to the rapids that I knew I was told that, “Nothing you have rowed compares to the rapids on the Grand Canyon.” As you can imagine this was not very comforting. About ten miles into the trip, I got my chance to see what the rapids were like. Badger Creek and Soap Creek are the first real rapids of the trip. According to my map they rate a five on a scale of ten. They were fun. They were two of my favorite rapids, but my goodness those waves were huge. If those were fives, I thought, what would the nines look like? To be honest it scared me a little.

Our camp for the first day was at Hot Na Na. It was a nice little camp, and it overlooked House Rock Rapid which was just down river. House Rock is the first rapid big enough that we needed to scout, but more about that tomorrow.

The Grand Canyon

2010-09-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

A week ago Saturday I returned from my rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. I have taken notes and decided to blog the trip. I did not have a camera with me but I have stolen a few from Adrienne’s mom. I know it probably sounds crazy to go on a trip through the length of the Grand Canyon without a camera. I figured there would be 15 other shutter bugs on the Grand but only one camera to record our one month old. I will post by days to give the account. Today’s post actually covers the first two days on the trip, but before we actually got on the water.

I started out on the trip on the morning of August 15, 2010. It was sad leaving Adrienne and the children, especially knowing the sacrifice that Adrienne was making on my behalf. I’ve been joking over the last year about building up my good husband karma so that I could go on the trip. I think at this point I’ve burned through my cumulative lifetime total and then some.

I made the drive to my Mother-in-Law’s house in American fork where we were meeting. We loaded the gear onto the trailers and then hit the road. The Drive to Lee’s Ferry was fairly uneventful. We stopped for a last meal in page and then drove to the put in. I must say that the weather at the put in was hot, scary hot. The campground had been baking in the sun all day. It really made me hope things would be better close to the river. In that campground my sleeping bag was superfluous at night, I could only imagine what daytime would bring.

We were told that that we would not be able to rig until at least 10:00 AM the next morning. Fortunately we received word early Monday morning that we could unload our equipment and start rigging immediately. I was also told that rigging is usually an all day affair, but thanks to the efforts of our trip leader and several people who went to help early the days before we were able to finish rigging before we even ate lunch. From there we rowed our boats down to the private boaters’ beach and had the rest of the day off.

That gave us a chance to do a few fun things. We visited the ranch at Lee’s ferry and took the self guided tour. We also drove to Navajo Bridge a few miles downstream. The bridge goes from rim to rim in that part of the canyon. There is an old bridge and a new bridge. The old is open to foot traffic and provides a beautiful view of both the canyon and the river below. It was kind of daunting looking down at the river and watching the currents and eddy lines. I knew in a few hours I would be passing underneath, and once on the river there would be no turning back.

One nice thing about Lee’s ferry is that it now has cell service. After dinner I was able to call Adrienne and talk for quite a while. It was so nice to have such a long pleasant conversation with her before being separated for so long.

Welcome Home, Jeff!

2010-09-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty nice around here the last few days. Jeff got home Saturday morning from rafting the Grand Canyon for three weeks - with my family. To be truthful, it felt like almost twice that long to me! I sure missed him while he was gone, not only because it was hard taking care of our three little ones all by myself. I am amazed at all the single mothers, military wives, etc. who do this all the time. Evenings were especially lonely without Jeff around. Jane being so little was definitely the hardest part, but luckily she has been a pretty good sleeper, only giving me trouble a couple of nights and has been getting up only once at night to eat for a couple of weeks now. I guess I should say that Jane being in the hospital while Jeff was gone was the worst part, because to be honest that was AWFUL. (For those of you who don't know, Jane got viral meningitis about three days after Jeff left. She was fussy and had a high temperate so my pediatrician told me I needed to take her into the ER. There they did a bunch of tests to find out what was wrong and I spent a lot of time crying and praying that she would be okay. Viral meningitis was the outcome we were hoping for, since, unlike bacterial meningitis, there are hardly ever any side effects from getting it.)

While Jeff was gone:

Jane started smiling and gained some chubby little cheeks and legs. (This is actually the day after Jeff left, so you can't see how chubby she is getting, sorry!)

We made an enormous paper chain a couple of days after he left. I almost cried after I made it, it looked so long. Max and Emily loved taking off a chain each morning.

And I got used to having three kids. I feel like I've gotten baths and the bedtime routine down pretty good and we still run around doing errands and going to the park, it just sometimes takes us a little bit longer to get there. Doesn't it always take a little longer with a newborn?

I also felt like I grew in a lot of ways while Jeff was gone. I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't been very good at regular scripture study and prayer the last few years, but I knew I would need all the help I could get and have gotten back in the habit while Jeff was away. I also feel like I'm more patient and am better at letting things go. Things still get done, just not as quickly as they used to and that's okay. I was also very blessed with wonderful friends, neighbors, and family that helped take care of us while Jeff was away. People brought us meals, helped watch my kids, kept me company, and even came and helped me out at home. It is a wonderful feeling to know that I have so many people around me that are looking out for me and my family. I'm sure glad it's over, though. Jeff had a great time and I've been told by the others on the trip that he has turned into quite the oarsman. Hopefully the next river trip we'll get to go on together.

Baby Jane

2010-07-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Our little Baby Jane arrived yesturday at exactly 5:00 pm. I have to admit that I have been very impatient for this little girl to arrive. I blame a lot of that on the heat, which led to a lot of swelling, and my desire to be able to spend time with my family in the next couple of weeks when all of my siblings will be together for the first time in almost three years. She is a little chub, weighing 9 lbs. 9 oz. and 22 inches long.

She is also our first baby to not look just like Jeff. I wondered if my genes would ever be able to get past his super dominant ones! :) We decided to skip the hospital this time and had her at home with a wonderful midwife. I had both Max and Emily natural and don't really enjoy staying in the hospital so it felt like a good decision for us. There have been a lot of really nice benefits to having her at home. I got to sleep in my own bed last night and was able to let Jane sleep as long as she wanted - no nurses came in to poke me and the baby every time I just fell asleep or to tell me I needed to feed a baby that had no desire to eat. Max and Emily spent the day at Jeff's sisters and came home last night. Max was so excited to see his new baby sister! He has spent all day looking at her, holding her, "helping" us with her and trying to get Jane to play with him. Emily's been a lot more indifferent about the new addition to our family. We got to have a big celebration breakfast this morning with the kids and I loved having them be more a part of welcoming Jane into our family.

We definitely feel very blessed that Jane is here and is healthy. I couldn't fall asleep last night because I kept thanking Heavenly Father for our new baby and all three of our beautiful children.

Little One Armed Girl

2010-06-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if we are bad parents, our children are just accident prone, or what, but Emily broke her arm on Saturday. She was on the trampoline with Max and must have landed on it wrong, since she didn't fall off the trampoline. Jeff and I were making dinner and weren't watching the moment it happened. She's got two tiny breaks, one above her elbow and one below. The plan is to just splint it, for the time being at least, until it gets better. She was so cute at the doctors yesturday showing the receptionists her hurt hand. (We thought it was her hand because that is were all the swelling was.) I can't believe what a trouper she is about being one armed. It's amazing how resilient these little kids are. She doesn't let it slow her down at all. So far it's a lot easier than dealing with a 45 lb. boy with a broken leg.

In case you didn't notice, Emily is sporting a new "boy" haircut. I decided to butch her hair Saturday night in the hopes that it will maybe come in a little thicker.

Ward Camp Out

2010-06-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

This was our version of the ward camp out this year. We were planning on going until it started pouring rain as Jeff was heading home from work. I didn't want the kids to be to disappointed that we didn't end up going camping, so we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in our fireplace for dinner. Max especially enjoyed roasting hot dogs in our living room and wanted to do it again for dinner tonight. Hopefully next year we will have some nicer weather for camping.

2010-06-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

I guess it's more fun to make mischief when you are in disguise.

2010-04-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

Siblings: someone to play with, laugh with, fight with, and someone to make mischief with when Mom isn't paying attention. Emily's room smelled powder fresh for over a week.

Happy Easter

2010-04-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

We had a nice, quiet Easter at home this year. It was extra nice because it was the same weekend as General Conference, so we all got to sleep in and have a slow and relaxed Easter morning before watching church in our pajamas. And it was wonderful to get to listen to the Prophet on Easter Sunday.

We got pictures of Max and Emily last Sunday in their new Easter clothes since they wouldn't be wearing them on Easter Sunday. Max was being a little stink that morning and WOULD NOT sit next to Emily on the stairs or sit up straight or smile at the camera. He sure is good at being a stubborn little stinker.

Normally I would make Emily a dress for Easter, but after over 5 months of being tired I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to get back to my normal energy level until after this baby is born. It makes me a little sad because I had so many things I was planning on getting done BEFORE the baby gets here. I'm kind of scared that having three little kids is going to completely overwhelm me. Oh well. I was able to get Emily two spring dresses along with Max's new church outfit for less than I would normally spend on Max's new church clothes, so that will have to do for this year. I have to admit that it is nice not having one more thing on my to do list that might not get done for several months.

Brimming with Baby Boys

2010-03-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

We finally got to meet my new nephew, Jack, a couple of weeks ago when Meghan and Jay came out to visit for a couple of weeks. He is just as cute as I was expecting and I was so sad when it was time for them to go home. After they left, Max told me he wanted to name our baby Jack. He sure loves babies right now.

I love how Emily is oblivious to the fact that Jack is screaming in this picture. She thought they were both just having a grand time.

I had to steel these photos off of Meghan's blog so you can actually see what a cutie baby Jack is. It makes me so sad that they live so far away.

Then we found out right after Meghan left that Erin and Brian were adopting three month old twin boys! We have all been praying and hoping for them to be able to add to their family and now they have beat us to three children. They found out on Monday night, flew back east Tuesday morning, and then did the adoption on Wednesday. We are so excited and can't wait to meet these two cuties when they get back. They have named them Brock and Isaac and they are about a month older than Jack. Now our baby girl will have a whole passel of boy cousins to run and play with.

Jeff and I have decided we like to zig when everyone else zags since Max came in a group of girls (and was the only boy on my side until these three came along) and now we will have a girl with a bunch of boy cousins. Emily, on the other hand, is right in the middle of a four year dry spell with no cousins closer than two years on my side of the family. (She does have one cousin 9 months older than her on Jeff's side.) Good thing she's a tough little sassy pants.

It's a . . . .

2010-03-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't already know, we are expecting baby number 3 in the middle of July and we found out today that we are going to be having another . . . . girl!! I'm actually a little surprised since I've felt almost exactly like I did with Max so I thought we would be having another boy! We are happy to get either, since they are both so much fun in different ways. I guess that's a perk of already having one of each. (Max is very insistent that we are going to have just a baby, not a boy baby or a girl baby, so we're interested to see how he handles the fact that our baby will have a gender.)

Snow Day

2010-02-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

We actually got a little snow on Thursday (which promptly melted by Friday morning) so after Max's dentist appointment Thursday morning I bundled the kids up and sent them out into the backyard to entertain themselves. Max rolled around and built things with the snow while Emily wandered around and fell down repeatedly. She would cry each time she fell down and them Max would "help" her get up, usually bringing on more screams from Emily. It was so fun to watch them play together and have so much fun while also giving me some mostly kid free time. When they came in they drank hot chocolate and ate warm cookies I had baked while they played outside. Watching them play together was one of those special mom moments that I want to always remember.

Birthday Boy Max

2010-02-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

Last week was Max's fourth birthday. It is hard to beleive that he is so old. He is getting to be such a grown up boy. I have a hard time sometimes realizing that he is no longer a toddler, but a little boy. His birthday was on Friday. We gave him a barn playset that I made along with a toy tractor and some farm animals to put in the barn. I think he likes the gift, because he put it in the window by his bed. Anything that he likes seems to go there. I guess he likes to have it close. His dad made another yummy chocolate cake, but it did not turn out as well as Emily's. It looks good in the picture, but on the side closest to Max it is pretty much falling apart.

Darren, Jake, Tacie, Bethany

Drew, Emmalee, Sarahi, Andrew, Max

On Saturday Max had his first friend birthday party. Max wanted a Dinosaur theme for his party. (Dinosaurs are a big thing with Max right now, thanks in part to the PBS show "Dinosaur Train".) The kids decorated a dinosaur mask, and then they hunted for dinosaur eggs. They played a lot of games, and they seemed to have a lot of fun. I made Max a dinosaur cake that I forgot to take a picture of. After the cake and ice cream Max opened his presents. I couldn't believe how excited all of the kids were to give Max the gifts they had brought him. It was actually quite fun to have a household of four year olds for a couple of hours. They have such cute little personalities. It was really fun to watch them play and interact with each other.

Happy Birthday, big grown up boy!

No More

2010-02-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

Emily had her yearly testing today for her kidney reflux. Every year there is a 20% chance that she will "outgrow" her reflux, and I guess this was our lucky year. Jeff and I were both sure that she would still have reflux and I had geared myself up to do battle with her doctor over our difference of opinions over her treatment, but after a horrible half hour for Emily we were told that her test didn't show any more signs of reflux. I'm excited to have no more (expensive) testing, no more antibiotics, no more probiotics to counterballance the antibiotics, and no more stress about her being on antibiotics for years or trying to potty train a child with reflux.

I personally feel that we were due some good news in the medical department, especially after learning last week that due to bad enamel on Max's 2 year molars he already has three cavities that we need to take care of. (Apparently this happens occasionally and they aren't sure why. It has nothing to do with genetics or his hygene.)

We were so excited by our good news the whole family went to Burger Dude (aka. Rich's Burgers) for lunch. Mmmm. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Birthday Girl

2010-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

Our little Goosey Girl turned two today. It's so weird how it seems like she can't already be two years old, yet it seems like she has been a part of our family for so much longer than just two years.

We didn't really do anything big for her birthday. My dad and his wife came up after church and spent the afternoon with us. They brought Max and Emily their Valentines day books (a tradition that we love) and gave Emily a bag full of bath toys for her birthday. Both Emily and Max had a hard time waiting until bath time to use the tub toys.

Jeff made Emily a yummy homemade chocolate cake and she looked so happy when everyone sang her "Happy Birthday".

Emily got a place mat bag with an E on it, a little playhouse with a little hand painted family, and some dress up shoes for her birthday. She loves things she can carry around, so she was in heaven wearing her play shoes and carrying her new toys around all evening.

We just love our little Emily so much and can't imagine our family without her. Happy Birthday, big two year old girl!!

2010-01-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

Max, after putting a ruler next to my leg: "Mom, you're about 18 kids tall."

2010-01-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

Max: "Mom, will you push me down the stairs so I can go really fast?"

2010-01-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

Those soft, squishy cheeks and dark brown eyes just make my heart melt all day long!

Christmas! (and only one month late.)

2010-01-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

We usually spend Christmas Eve with my family, but ended up doing our own thing this year since Max spent all of Christmas Eve throwing up. I felt so bad that he was sick on Christmas Eve, especially since he has been so excited this year, telling me "Merry Christmas, Mommy!" at random times and talking about Santa Claus coming. Luckily, he stopped throwing up that night and was able to eat dinner with us and enjoy some Christmas Eve fun. I made pajamas for the family that we all opened Christmas Eve. We read about the birth of Jesus and sang some Christmas songs and then Max and Emily danced around the living room to Christmas music, which has been a favorite evening activity all month.

Santa brought the kids dress up clothes for Christmas this year. (I think he might have gone a little overboard!) They got dresses, lots of super heros, and a bunch of animals, not to mention purses, necklaces, wands, wings, swords, all kids of hats, etc. They don't really play with the dress up clothes yet, but are constantly playing with all the accessories.

Max also got a doctor kit and some playdough, while Emily got a doll stroller and a cabbage patch baby I got at the DI, along with a diaper bag, blanket, and two outfits that I made to go with her. The stroller was actually the hot item Christmas morning and caused a few fights. Who knew?

Since Max was feeling better we headed up to my sister's to spend the rest of the day with my family. We spent the night there and headed over to Tremonton the next day to see Jeff's family. Since Jeff's parent's left on their mission in November we decided to set aside the 26th for Jeff's family so it wouldn't conflict with other Christmas plans. It was so fun to spend the whole day hanging out and playing games and rock band.

It turned out to be such a nice Christmas, after Max felt better. I have to admit a shed a few tears when we decided we couldn't spend Christmas Eve with my family, but it ended up being so nice to stay home with just our little family that we ended up being glad at how things had worked out.

Updates and Excuses

2010-01-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I have to admit that I've been letting a lot of things slide the last month, and blogging was definitely one of them.

First off a few updates. No, our internet has not been down for the last two months, although it isn't technically fixed either. It works good, if a little slow, most of the time. The problem is our equipment needs to be replaced, but it's on top of our very steep, snow covered roof. We didn't feel it was worth our internet tech guys life to get it fixed since it usually works. Hopefully they will be able to get it back up to speed in March when the weather starts to warm up a bit.

Also, Max was able to take off his boot the Monday before Christmas. We have another appointment this week to check and see if his leg is healed all the way and have only had to put him back in his boot a few times since Christmas. (Technically we were supposed to be weaning him off of his boot for the last month, but I guess I took some parental liberties and sped up the process. It was just so nice having him in regular clothes and shoes.)

No Internet

2009-12-09T17:17:00.000-08:00

So we've been having major problems with our internet the last week. Usually it doesn't work at all. I was able to get into my google reader account today and check the 160 unread posts that had built up during my internet hiatis, but when I tried to comment on a post I ran into problems. Hopefully we'll be up and running before too long. You don't realize how dependent we are on the internet until you don't have access. It's very frustrating!! We haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but it sometimes feels that way.

Ucreate Christmas Boutique!!

2009-11-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

I am participating in Ucreate's Christmas Boutique this week and am VERY excited!!! To celebrate, everything in my Etsy shop has been marked down 25%. I have also been spending what feels like every waking moment working on making patterns for both of the styles of purses in my shop, and they will also be on sale. I am one of 30 stores participating, so go and check out Ucreate's blog for some fun Christmas shopping!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-11-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

We had a busy and fun Thanksgiving weekend, first with a nice quiet dinner at my mom's with my little sister and her husband. Then on Friday we went out for our annual post-Thanksgiving dinner with my dad and his wife to PF Changs, this time with both my little sister's and their husbands. We look forward to those lettuce wraps every year.

On Saturday we went and cut down our Christmas tree. Since Max has a broken leg and still isn't walking we decided to put him in the baby carrier on Jeff's back. (Apparently he was giving Jeff advise on how and where to walk the entire time.) I figured I could carry Emily or help her walk, but didn't realize she was going to be a little pill and cry unless I carried her, which proved to be more difficult than planned since the hill that didn't look so big when we chose it sure felt very steep when we were climbing it. For some reason we picked out our trees pretty quick this year!

After cutting down our trees we headed over to Meghan's baby shower at her in-law's house. It was fun to get to spend a little bit more time with Meghan before she heads back to LA. Isn't she the tiniest 32 week pregnant lady that you have ever seen in your life!! I don't look this good right now!

Tomorrow we get to head back to the Dr.'s office for Max to get his cast removed and it's back in the walking boot for a couple of weeks. I have a feeling life isn't going to slow down until after Christmas!

Our Little Booted Boy

2009-11-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

So Max broke his leg last week and we win parent's of the year for not taking him to the doctor for FIVE days. But honestly, how do you break your leg tripping over the carpet, your own feet, or thin air, since there was NOTHING on the floor?! How do you break your leg just by tripping anyway!?! He has the boot on at least temporarily until we go to the Sports Medicine doctors on Friday to see if he needs a cast and to find out how long it should take for him to recover. In the meantime I'm sick to my stomach trying to figure out how much this is going to cost us and how we are going to pay for it right now. I now have the equivalent of an almost 40 lb. infant, who can no longer dress himself or go to the bathroom by himself. I'm mourning the loss of my big helping boy and missing the bundle of energy we usually have running around our house. I can't wait for my energetic little boy to feel better.

(To Max the most traumatic point was when I cut one of the legs off his beloved Thomas pajamas last night so we could get them over the stylish boot. He kept crying for me to put the fabric back on his pants. Honestly, they're two sizes too small for him anyway and look more like capris then pants.)

Pumpkin Pancakes

2009-11-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin pancakes are the favorite breakfast at our house right now. Sooo yummy and easy to make. If you love anything pumpkin (like I do!) you should definitely give them a try.

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 eggs
1 cup wheat flour (or white if you prefer)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin

Beat the eggs together then add the rest of the ingredients. Bake on a hot griddle. Makes about fifteen 4-5 inch pancakes.

This is the same recipe we use to make regular pancakes with just the cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin added. It's a very simple recipe and make very good pancakes.

These pancakes go great with Buttermilk Syrup. If a syrup could be life changing, this would be it. I have a hard time fighting of the urge to drink it, it is SOOOO good! (Thanks for the recipe, Danielle!)

Buttermilk Syrup:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cube butter
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. white corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Bring buttermilk, butter, baking soda, sugar and corn syrup to boil and boil for 3 minutes. Take off heat and add vanilla.

I mass produce this recipe in batches. The most I can cook at one time is 3 X the recipe because the baking soda makes is bubble up A LOT. I'll make batch after batch until I use up all my buttermilk and then I freeze it in glass jars to pull out as we need it.

Happy Halloween, 2009

2009-11-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

Max and Emily were both so cute for Halloween this year. I didn't sew them costumes this year, but we made some unique costumes with some very cheap supplies. Max went as a robot and Emily went as a flower.

Emily was a little unsure about putting this big flower around her face, but she didn't mind once we got to the trick-or-treating and she realized that it would secure her a bucket full of candy. She got the trick-or-treating thing down right away, except that she didn't want to go the direction Mom wanted her to go.

I was really excited about Max's costume, but when it came time to actually trick-or-treating in it I realized how poorly I had thought it through. The poor kid could barely see for climbing up and down stairs. Since almost every single house in our neighborhood is split-entry, it only took us three houses to realize that we would need to relocate or it was going to be a long night. We decided that I should take the kids to the neighborhood next to ours were most of the houses don't have more than one or two steps and that worked a lot better. He was such a trooper, never complaining once, even when he couldn't get his candy from the bowl into his bucket. Oh well, he looked really cute and we got so many comments on his costume.

Back Seat Driver

2009-10-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Max pays attention when his mommy drives. He likes to give unsolicited driving advice. "Go faster, Mommy!" and "Why are you stopping?!" Are common things I hear from the back seat. Today it was, "Catch up to that trailer, Mommy!!" I was unable to follow through on this request (this is usually the case when Max is telling me how to drive). For this I was reprimanded.

Twice As Giving Holiday Boutique

2009-10-14T19:53:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to participate in a Holiday Boutique on Saturday, November 7th. I am so excited and honored that I was asked, especially since I don't know the lady organizing the event. There will be over 15 vendors participating and 20% of the sales are going to be donated to A Golden Dawn Adoption Assistance. (They are a non-profit organization that helps families adopt orphans with special needs.)

It will be a great way to get some Christmas shopping done while helping out a wonderful organization and local artisans. Here are the details in case anyone would like to come check it out:

Saturday, November 7th
10:00 am to 7:00 pm
695 N 2475 W, Layton, Ut 84041

Directions:
Take the Hill Field Rd exit in Layton. Head west. Turn right onto 2200 West. Turn left onto 650 North. Turn right onto 2475 West.

Three Little Bugs in the Tub

2009-10-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

We got to have our nephew Ryan visit us for a couple of days this week while his mom and dad were at the hospital having a baby. Of course lots of fun, running, screaming, fighting, and mess making was had. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of our beautiful new niece, Lily. In my hast to load up three little kids in the car for our trip to the hospital I forgot my camera. She is beautiful! We are so excited for you, Matt and Sherry!

Low Point - High Point

2009-09-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Low Point:

Yesterday I was having one of those days with Max. He woke up from his nap in a MOOD. He screamed he wanted a drink. I filled his sippy cup and he screamed because I was doing it. I stopped and he screamed because I didn't fill it up all the way. I filled it up all the way and he screamed because I filled it TOO full. I was loosing my temper and decided that I needed a time out, but it's hard to have an effective time out when you can still hear your 3 1/2 year old yelling at the top of his voice at you no matter were you go in the house. I was getting more upset so I tried to take Emmy with me to the park down the street to calm down, but Max followed behind us screaming at the top of his lungs. And apparently the weather was so nice that the ENTIRE street was outside to witness the spectacle. I felt like the Mother of the Year.

High Point:

Jeff and I went to The Scarlet Pimpernel tonight at the Hale Center Theatre. I've been wanting to go to this play for years and didn't buy tickets soon enough last time they did the production, so when I saw they were doing it again I immediately bought us tickets. (This was over a year ago.) It was amazing! I've never seen such an incredible set, the costumes were fantastic, and the actors (especially Percy) were wonderful. With the cost of tickets, dinner, and a babysitter it was a very spendy date (for us) and well worth it.

Under Attack

2009-09-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that Emily goes by the nickname Goose or Goosey most of the time at our house. This nickname just kind of evolved from me calling her a silly goose and it just stuck. I knew that this name probably drove my mother crazy, even though she hadn't said anything, because she hates nicknames of any kind.

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff and I went rafting down Cataract Canyon and Jeff's parents were nice enough to watch the kids for us while we were gone. I mentioned something about my mother not liking the nickname Goose when we dropped them off. When we picked them up six days later, Jeff called Emily Goose, to which his mom replied, "Her name is Emily!" Apparently my mom isn't the only grandparent who isn't fond of Emily's nickname. Bill and Deanne had worked on getting Max to call his sister Emily the entire time they were at their house.

Jeff and I thought it was funny that three of Emily's grandparents are now on a mission to get her called by her given name. We have no intention to stop calling her Goose. I think they might be fighting a losing battle. (Apparently they're concerned she will be called Goose for the rest of her life.)

Tonight at dinner I was teasing Emily and asking her if I should call her Emily or Goose. (She emphatically shook her head no to being called Emily.)
Max interrupted me with, "We're not supposed to call her that!"
To which I replied, "Call her what?"
Max, "Goose. Her name is Emily!"
Me, "Who told you that?"
Max, "Grandma!"

Jeff and I thought this was hilarious, especially since Max calls her Goose more often than anyone else.

Burrito Baby Max

2009-09-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

When Max was a baby I made up a song that I would sing to him when we laid him down in his crib. I called him my burrito baby because we would wrap him up like a burrito. The lyrics are very simple:

Burrito baby, burrito baby Max.
Burrito baby, burrito baby Max.
Burrito baby, burrito baby Max.
Burrito,
Burrito,
Burrito baby Max.

I've been singing it to him lately, which Max really enjoys. Well, last night Max wanted me to wrap him up like a burrito. I was being lazy and thought he would be happy if I just tucked his blankets around him, but no, he wanted to be wrapped up just like a burrito. So I wrapped him up in his dinosaur blankie just like I did when he was a baby, nice and tight.

Then this morning he was up early so I was trying to get him to come snuggle with me in bed. (I was tired after working on our blog book until about 1:30 in the morning.) He finally said he wanted to be wrapped up like a burrito again. I wrapped him up, nice and tight again, and just like when he was a baby, he zonked right out.

I love my little Burrito Baby Max!

Grandma's Carnival

2009-09-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got to go to "Queen" Grandma's house for a knights and princesses tournament.

The kids built catapults to help fight off this scary troll that had invaded the castle.

We all had a medieval style dinner of drumsticks, rolls, and fruits and vegetables. After dinner the kids dug for buried gold in the sandbox. Then they had to either answer a riddle or pay the troll a gold coin in order to cross the bridge over to the trolls territory. Once there they got to all help slay a dragon. Then they used some magic rings in a ring toss to help break the spell to turn the scary troll nice. Max even got to decorate his own shield, which he is still carrying around today.

Thanks for the fun time, Grandpa Marc and Grandma Sharon. It was a great night!

Bathroom Redo, After

2009-08-31T22:02:00.000-07:00

So, I've been putting off posting about the bathroom because it's not officially finished yet. But I finally decided that since the only thing we still need to do is the back-splash, and who knows how long it will be before we get it done, I better just go ahead and post some after pictures of our bathroom and be done with it.

Here's the bathroom before.

And here it is now. I am SO happy with how it turned out. I ended up painting the cabinets pink and I LOVE them! I want to get some glass knobs for the drawers, but I haven't been able to find what I want yet.

I actually ended up moving our shower curtain from the master bathroom because I couldn't find anything I liked. I love this shower curtain, but knew I didn't want to keep it in the master bath anyway. The walls are a butter yellow. I think it is such a happy and friendly yellow.

We ended up spending more than I had originally hoped, but at only $500 I feel like we still did a pretty good job on a small budget. That covers wallpaper removal; paint for the walls, ceiling, door, baseboards and cabinets; new light fixture, faucet, floor, baseboards, towel rod and toilet paper holder; new towels and bathmat; and accessories/decorations.

It makes me happy every time I walk by and look in my beautiful, clean, new bathroom. (I do have to say that I think it's kind of ironic that the first bathroom we redid was already the NICEST bathroom in the house, if you can believe that.)

Goose on the loose

2009-08-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

Cherry Hill

2009-08-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Cherry Hill after two years of trying. The weather was perfect and we had a great day playing in the water, going down the slides and hanging out with family. We went to celebrate Ellie's 4th birthday that is coming up this week. Max did not like the slides, but loved playing in the water. Both he and Emily just loved running around the kid pool. We got home at 8 that night and Max wanted to go straight to bed. By 8:30 both kids were bathed and asleep. Thanks for inviting us, Erin and Brian. We had a great time! (Also, thank you Mom and Brian and Erin for helping me out with my kids!)

We love hats!

2009-08-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

Actually, Emily loves hats. And necklaces, crowns, dresses, purses, etc. I think it's funny that Emily is the one introducing Max to the world of dress up and not the other way around.

The Dinosaur Park

2009-08-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 8th, we had one last family get together with Shannan and her family. Jim had flown in a couple of days before for his family reunion and we wanted to spend some time with him since he doesn't get to make it out to Utah as much as Shannan and the girls.

The original plan was to go to Cherry Hill, but once again we were thwarted by the weather. We decided that 70 degree weather and a high chance of rain would not be ideal for water fun so we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden instead.

The kids all enjoyed the dinosaurs, although I think Max thought they were real at first as was a little nervous.

Ellie and Malia were offered as lunch to this dinosaur by their fathers.

All six grandkids on my side of the family:
Kaitlyn, Malia, Emily, Ellie, Rachael, and Max

Poor Max being the only boy, but not for long. (I'm so excited for one of my sisters to finally have a boy!)

Emily and her Daddy. No family resemblance there, ha ha.

Max does this quit a bit. I'm not quite sure what the point is of the hands around the eyes.

Max and Malia, cooking up some dinner.

It was a fun day eating, playing and laughing. Afterwords we had dinner at our house and got the chance to play a couple of games before everyone had to leave.

2009-08-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Marc and Grandma Sharon's house is a little kids wonderland. Me, my sister Shannan, and all 6 grand-kids had a BBQ with my dad last night and the kids just played, played, played. Max especially loved driving the jeep around the yard, and I thought he did a pretty good job steering for a three year old! Emily loved splashing in the pool and climbing in and on the playhouse and slides. (Max did not enjoy accidentally sliding/falling into the pool. He hates water in his face.) Other highlights included: playing in the Barbie room upstairs, digging in the sandbox, and water fights with Grandpa.

Oquirah Mountain Temple

2009-08-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

The open house took a lot longer than I expected (around three hours), but I'm glad we got to go see the temple together as a family. It was also great to be able to go with three of my siblings, one brother-in-law, my mom, and all of my nieces. It's a beautiful temple and has an amazing view of the Salt Lake Valley.

Deso Trip, Day 5

2009-07-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

Day five was pretty mild rapids. We were a little behind were we wanted to be so we were up early and trying to get on the river and get moving so that we could get home at a decent time. We spent the day rowing and had a few water fights along the way, which helped make the time go faster. We rafted up for lunch instead of pulling off to save time and got to the take-out around 2:00 pm.

My mom's trailer had broken down close to the put-in when Nick and Joey had taken off to run shuttle our first night. Luckily my mom had a Sat phone and was able to work things out for us to get a trailer to bring the boats and gear home in, thanks to her friend, Lee.

The last day you're always anxious to get off the river and home. Usually by the end of a trip everyone knows how to help and work together to get things done quickly and by 3:30 we were loaded up and headed home.

I was pretty anxious to see Max and Emily. I have the best in-laws in the world, who offered to bring our kids to our house instead of us having to drive the 2 hour round trip to pick them up, so we were able to get most of our stuff unpacked and put away before they got here. Max seemed pretty excited to be home and was his usual self, but Emily wanted nothing to do with me and would cry when I held her. It was pretty late when they got home so after Jeff's parents took off we put them to bed and she had mostly warmed back up to me the next morning and only wanted Mom tonight when Jeff got home, so I guess things are back to normal.

It was a great trip and so relaxing. Jeff did a great job rowing, I was so proud of him! Shannan said to me a couple of times that he looked as happy as a clam the entire time, and I think she was right. I especially enjoyed watching how much fun Kaitlyn and Rachael had. It made me so excited to bring Max and Emily in a few years.

Deso Trip, Day 4

2009-07-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

Day four was my favorite part of the trip as far as rapids go. We had Joe Hutch rapid that day, which has become pretty big after a flash flood carried some big boulders into the river from a side canyon last year. It was probably the most technical and scary of all the rapids we faced and I was really nervous to run it. The last multi day trip I went on six years ago my mom, Jeff, and I flipped in Big Drop 2 on Cat and ended up riding through Big Drop 3 on the bottom of our boat. I've been a little scared of rapids since then.

The oarsman decided that Kaitlyn and Rachael should walk the rapid with their mom, and I admit that I wanted to walk the rapid, too, but I felt like I needed to be in Jeff's boat supporting him on his first big rapid. He did so great and hit the rapid just how he wanted to! I don't have any pictures, but I'll post some video that Shannan took when I get a copy.

After lunch the boys were ready to let someone else ride in the duckies, so Vanessa and Shannan took the two man and I took the one man. We had a couple of bigger rapids (Wire Fence and Three Fords) coming up and I was a little nervous being in a duckie all by myself, but I thought it probably wouldn't be to bad since the water level was pretty low.

Wire Fence and Three Fords have always been two of my favorite rapids on Deso since they have some nice big waves. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer, but kept trying to tell myself I could do it and to just dig in. Wire Fence was big but fun and I thought that Three Fords would be about the same. Three Fords is really close after Wire Fence and as we were coming up on it, Shannan, Vanessa and I were starting to get really worried. The water basically funneled down the far right side of the river, being blocked by rocks all along the left side. As we were coming up on the rapid we could just see a big drop and lots of water spraying up. I thought for sure I was going to flip over as I watched Shannan and Vanessa go down the tongue and drop into the rapid. All I could think was, "Oh Crap!" and then, "Dig In!" as I followed them in. There were some huge waves and it was a fun and bumpy ride. I can't believe none of us ended up in the water and we all three hooped and hollered when we realized we had made it through. A couple of people told me later that it looked like my duckie caught air as I went up that first big wave. It was such a rush! My only disappointment is that I didn't get a photo or video of me riding through that rapid.

That night in camp we got a picture of everyone's Chaco tans. (Except Rachael and Dalin who weren't wearing Chacos.)

Deso Trip, Day 3

2009-07-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

The rapids were bigger and funner this day, but still nothing too big.

Our campground that night was by Chandler Falls Rapid and was my favorite of our whole trip. We had a nice sandy beach and played a lot of horse shoes.

Jeff and I beat Dalin and Nick at horse shoes, which was another one of the highlights of the trip for me. They were both pretty cocky about their ability to beat us, which I'm sure added to the pleasure of winning! ;)

Deso Trip, Day 2

2009-07-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Day two we stopped to see some petroglyphs and a moonshiners cabin. We hit our first rapids, but nothing very big. The middle section of this trip is very pretty and we had a great campsite right below Firewater Rapid that night.

Rachael loved the rapids and just wanted more.

Kaitlyn loved playing games and talking at night in camp. She was always setting up everyone's chairs in a circle and trying to get everyone to sit down and play a game, any game. She didn't care what it was as long as we played something!

The highlight of the day was when we got to see a group of big-horned sheep run down the cliffs close to sunset. I didn't get any pictures with my camera, but it was amazing!

Deso Trip, Day 1

2009-07-29T19:30:00.001-07:00

Jeff and I spent the last five days rafting on the Green River through Desolation and Gray Canyons. It was beautiful and relaxing and so much fun. It was the maiden voyage for our boat and Jeff's first time rowing an oared boat. He did so great!

This is the first multi day trip that we've taken since we've gotten married. The last time was in 2003 about a month before we got engaged when Jeff went down Cataract Canyon with my family. It makes me a little sad that it's been so long since I've been on the river, but what can you do when for the last four years I've been pregnant or nursing?

I dropped the kids off Thursday around noon at Jeff's brother's house. I admit that I cried a little as I drove away. That afternoon we took off from my mom's house and headed to the put-in. This is my fifth trip down Deso and was by far my favorite. Usually Sandwash (the put-in) has so many mosquitoes that you stay in your tent as much as possible and are miserable the entire time you are rigging your boat. This trip they were really mild in comparison and I even slept outside on my cot the first night.

It took us a little longer than usual to get rigged and off the first morning since Jeff and I had to rearrange some stuff on our boat. The first day is all flat water so we spent all day rowing and playing in the water.

We had twelve people on our trip: my mom, my sister Shannan and her two girls, Kaitlyn and Rachael, my brother-in-law Brian and his brother, Craig, and Brian's friends/neighbors Nick, Joey, and Dalin, my cousin Vanessa, and Jeff and I.

2009-07-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Last night we went from this:

To this:

Doesn't it look lovely?! We're ready for your visit, Shannan, although there's no longer a toilet, just a hole in the floor. And the walls are sticky and yellow. Not to mention some remains of wallpaper in the tub. And the floor is partly torn up. And the cabinet is taken apart. Maybe there's still a little more work to do. ;) I am so very excited to have ONE bathroom that feels nice and clean - and colorful. I love me some color!

At least I can cross painting the hallway off my list:

P.S. I hate wallpaper.

Playing Catch-Up

2009-06-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

I've been putting of posting several things, so I'm just going to do a quick summary of the last month and move on with my life. :)

Jeff took Max to the Stake Father and Son's camp out at the end of May. Max did great and I really enjoyed having only one child to take care of. It sure seemed easy putting just Emily to bed that night!

We were able to visit the zoo earlier this month while Meghan and Jay were here for Jay's brother's wedding. We had originally planned on going to Cherry Hill, but I think we were all glad we changed our plans since it rained off and on the whole day. I sure miss having all of my siblings close by, but I'm glad we get to see them as often as we do.

My booth went okay on Saturday. I only sold hair accessories, so I was glad I had added those into the mix. I'm not to worried about things, though. I had a lady ask if I taught lessons and since this is one of several people who have asked me this I think I might need to seriously consider teaching sewing. I also had a lady ask me about alterations, which seems to be something I've been doing a bit of lately through no effort on my part, really. I'm planning on listing my stuff in my Etsy and Artfire stores and then taking a little Foggy Notions vacation. I've got a cheap bathroom redo in mind that I'm pretty excited about and want to get done before my sister and her family come to visit next month.

Other things we've been up to include camping with Jeff's family last week. I didn't take a single picture, but we had a great time and it was a much needed vacation. Also, I took Max to his first movie in the theatre on Saturday. We thought that would be a good reward for being a big boy - you know, who doesn't wear diapers anymore. We saw "UP" which was cute, but had some parts that Max thought were a little scary. Now I just have to make it through the next few months of heat. I hate summer. It makes me hot and ornery. I think I might be the only person in Utah who has loved the long, cold, rainy spring this year.

Too tired to blog

2009-06-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that I haven't been putting as much time into our family blog the last few months. Whenever I try to think of something to blog about I just feel tired and unmotivated. I think this is because I'm expending most of my creative energy with sewing and crafting. On Wednesday, a friend suggested that I should set up a booth to sell my stuff at our city's 4th of July celebration - which is actually next Saturday. I feel like I've been going, going, going since then. Life is non stop sewing, shopping and planning. I'm exhausted, but in a good way.

2009-06-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

Today Jeff and I worked on getting our boat ready for it's maiden voyage this summer. Actually we spent most of the time dozing on the dry boxes and dreaming of being on the river. It was a beautiful way to spend the afternoon.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-06-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Grosgrain. She does the most amazing things with her sewing machine and has a lot of giveaways, which I never enter because I'm not teeny like she is, but I love looking at her creations. I just couldn't pass this giveaway up, though, since the Shabby Apple makes beautiful dresses and you get to pick your size. I only wish it was this red one that I LOVE!

Crockett Family Festivities

2009-06-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

After church on Sunday we headed up to Jeff's parent's for dinner. We were heading up to Pocatello on Monday for the annual Crockett family Memorial Day lunch and thought it would be fun to spend the night and save us some time on the drive Monday. I love watching Max and Emily run around with their cousins and enjoying spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. Max especially loves his Grandpa Crockett and is always trying to drag him somewhere.

It was fun to get together with Jeff's aunts and uncles and cousins. Bill is the oldest of ten children, so I still feel like I hardly know who anyone is. The kids of course had a great time running around with their cousins and second cousins.

We were a little worred with all of this traveling only one week after starting potty training with Max that we were going to be setting ourselves back, but Max woke up Sunday morning and was potty trained. We didn't have an accident the rest of the weekend, even though we were on the road and in unfamiliar places. We have had a couple of accidents since, but overall the potty training went a lot better and faster than I think either Jeff or I were anticipating. It is nice after 16 months of buying diapers for two kids to be able to cut back on that part of the budget!

Kevney Wevney's Wedding

2009-06-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've been remiss in my blogging. It seems like whenever I have things that I feel like I "need" to blog about I tend to put off blogging about them. I wish I was one of those bloggers that was great at putting down my thoughts and feelings or that I was good at being able to capture our lives in photos with just the right words to put others into the moment of what goes on in our lives. I wonder if this striving to be better but also happy with who I am is something that I will be working on my whole life.

We had a pretty full Memorial Day weekend, starting with Jeff's old roommate, Kevin, getting married on Friday in Cache Valley. The reception was almost a little mini USU 60th ward reunion. It was fun to see so many people from our single and dating years.

Kevin is such a great guy and Jeff and I are so happy for him and Sara. (We've been hoping for this day for the last 5 and 1/2 years, so Congratulations, Kevin!)

Note: If you're not familiar with the boys from Raymond Court the title might seem a little odd - just go with it. Also, if you know Kevin at all you know his reception would most likely not be very traditional, hence the groom singing "Magic Carpet Ride" in the picture.

2009-05-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Even though I was woken up at 5:45 this morning, cleaned up pee off my floor twice, and ended up eating a cold chicken quesadilla for lunch I had a great day! Potty training time has officially arrived at our house and Max went to the bathroom twice today without any prompting or help from anyone! Woohoo!!! I'm so excited to not have two kids in diapers!

Mother's Day Conversation

2009-05-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

Jeff and Max made me pancakes this morning. I could tell when they brought them to me that Jeff had been coaching Max to tell me, "Happy Mother's Day!". It was so cute and sweet and Max remembered what he was supposed to say and then they left me to enjoy my breakfast in bed while they went back downstairs to eat their own breakfast. After Max was done eating he came to check on me.

Max: "Where's your pampakes, Mommy?"
Me: "I ate them."
Max: "You ate them?"
Me: "Yeah, I ate them. They're in my belly."
Max: (In an aggravated tone and pointing his finger repeatedly at me) "Aughhh! Those were for Mother's Day!"

15 month check-up

2009-05-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

Emily had her fifteen month check-up today. She's had a growth spurt and was 50% on her weight (22.5 lbs.) and 70% on height (31 in.). I don't know why it matters, but I was really hoping she'd get back up on her height percentage. It seemed weird to me that Jeff and I would produce a child who would be in the 20% for height like she has been the last couple of check-ups.

The picture is Emily doing her kissy lips. She sure can pucker them up and gives the sweetest kisses, even if Jeff doesn't think so. (He has an aversion to anything slobbery.) She says three words that we can recognize: shoe, hi, and drink. She loves to accessorize. She always wants a pair of shoes on and loves carrying around anything that resembles a purse. She also loves hats, necklaces, bracelets, dresses, etc. The last few months she has gotten very loud in expressing her opinion and has quite the squawk when things aren't going the way she would like. It sure makes church interesting and embarrassing. I'm hoping as she learns to talk she'll outgrow it. She definitely has no problem communicating what she wants with such a limited vocabulary. She sure is a cutie and we love having her in our family!

2009-04-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

I buzzed Max's hair a few days ago. His lack of hair reminds me of when he was a baby and he had cheeks so big that we called them jowls.

Mini Mission Reunion

2009-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last night we got to host a little reunion from Jeff's mission. Jeff and his mission companion, Steve (who after their missions became Jeff's roommate), baptized the Rojas family 14 years ago while they were serving in the Tacoma, Washington mission. Today their youngest daughter, Victoria, is going into the MTC. We were so excited to get a chance to see most of the family and to get a chance to see Steve and his family as well.

We had fajitas with Jeff's yummy beans. In fact Jeff really was in charge of this meal and it was delicious. Homemade refried beans, fajita meat, and guacamole all made by Jeff. We had two more people than I was expecting and I was so impressed that we were able to fit 15 people into our kitchen for dinner. We always love it when we get to see the Rojas family. Even though most of the conversation is in Spanish I still feel so welcome and loved.

Jeff and Steve got to spend a few hours talking with our guests while Amy and I took care of the five little ones. I really enjoyed getting a chance to talk to Amy since I've only met her once or twice but feel like I've got to know her so well through blogging. The kids played great together. They jumped on the trampoline, Blake climbed some trees, and they played in Max's room. Max and Alison had a lot of fun playing with the toy kitchen and were so cute "cooking" for each other. Ali would remind Max they needed to say a pray and Max would pour her some "chocolate". It was so fun to see them all having such a great time together.

We had so much fun and can't wait until the next time we get to see everyone!

Jeff and Steve with the Rojas family.

Cruz, Jeff, Rogellio, Steve

Victoria, Veronica, Soccoro, Miguel

Cruz's daughter Vanessa

The Palmer family.

Alison, Steve, Blake, Amy, and Tyler

The Smell of Sweet Success

2009-04-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

I felt like the little red hen today. Not only did I make this beautiful loaf of whole wheat bread, I ground the wheat by hand first. It took a long time. I think we might need to invest in an electric wheat grinder. Still, I was so proud of my beautiful, yummy loaves of bread. Now I'm just wondering if I'll really be able to make enough to satisfy Jeff's love of bread.

(I tried several recipes in my quest for homemade whole wheat bread but my favorite was from this blog. She even has a video on making bread that is really helpful in case any of you are interested.)

POST EDIT:
Apparently I am making myself appear more homemakery than I really am. Jeff says I need to post more about all my failed attempts. In the interest of not having a long post I failed to mention that this is at least my 10th attempt at homemade wheat bread in the past two months. Most of my other attempts were dense and crumbly or doughy in the center. I was almost to the point of giving up on ever making a decent loaf of bread. The only reason I ground my wheat is because I had no wheat flour in the house, had no money left in the budget to go out and buy wheat flour, I wanted to try out the wheat grinder Jeff's parents gave us for our birthdays and I have heard how wonderful white wheat is vs. red wheat and wanted to try that out as well. I certainly don't spend my days out in the field shucking wheat and then come home and sew my entire family matching outfits for Sunday the next day. Sorry to disillusion you Shannan! ;)