Small and simple Means

Oh Where, Oh Where has my little blog gone...

2012-01-23T12:01:00.002-07:00

I couldn't ever figure out how to fix the heading, but I decided that if I waited to post til it was fixed, I was never going to post again. So it may not be as pretty to look at, but here it goes.

I haven't written since the beginning part of November, so let me do a quick recap. We ended up spending Thanksgiving day in Manti. My mom and Paul were headed there and invited us down. It was a fun day and the kids really enjoyed spending time with Grandpa and Grandma. A couple weeks prior to that, Izzy was officially diagnosed with Celiac's so we were doing a very strict Gluten-Free diet. We were a little worried about her not being able to eat any dessert, but Grandpa, feeling bad for her, went out and bought her, her own individual ice cream cups. She thought it was the best thing ever. So much so, that she demanded them again for Christmas. I was able to take some fun pictures of Mom and Paul while we were there.

December was packed full, as always. Some highlights were
-Nate singing with an acapella group.
-Daily Advent activities
-Dinner theater at Desert Star with Nate's work
-Lots and Lots of family for Christmas

Izzy as a shepard in the church program

Cute baby at Christmas

After Christmas we decided to take a last minute trip to Vegas. Nate had some extra time off, and we hadn't stayed with my Dad for a while, so we decided to go for New Years. We had a great time playing with cousins, doing a lot of "Just Dance", my current favorite being the ABBA version. We were able to celebrate Riian's birthday while we were there, and even though we do an un-birthday party with her in June with presents and the works, she still got quite a few from cousins and grandparents. Despite Riian kicking a rock through Grandpa's sliding glass door (which she is still paying off), we had a great time. I was even able to do a mini-photo shoot with all the kids

So a 10 things about Riian at 10

1. She is SUPER slow. She takes a very long time to do anything
2. She is very thoughtful. She doesn't like to see people sad. When it is her turn to pray she usually asks that if we see anyone who is sad we can help make them happy
3. She is very sporty. She loves sports of all kinds. I've had a few of the duty guards at the school tell me that she is the best one at all the sports at recess, often beating even the boys her age.
4. She is an incredible big sister. She always has something fun to play and really enjoys playing with her younger siblings.
5. She is very competitive. Not just in sports, but in everything. She likes to be the best.
6. She loves to eat. Both her brothers are very picky, so it is nice to have one that will eat anything I put down in front of her
7. She loves to help me cook.
8. She is a saver. Both of money and candy. I cleaned out her bedroom a little while ago and found stores of candy. I think she has more cash then anyone in the family right now
9. Even though she is very much the tom-boy. She likes to feel pretty every so often. Nate took her to a daddy-daughter dance last week. She was so excited to get dressed up and put on lip gloss and nail polish (dark blue, but still)
10. She is very quiet. She's not shy, but she is content to stand in the background and not be noticed.

We love you Riian and are so glad that you are a part of our family.

As the new year approaches, I think all of you should make a New Years resolution to read my blog more, on second thought, since I haven't made a resolution to write more, that may not work. Never mind

Under Construction

2012-01-14T08:27:00.001-07:00

So you may have noticed I haven't updated for a while (or most likely, you didn't). But I am currently trying to fix the blog. You'll notice that my banner is a little wonky. I don't know why, but I'm trying to figure it out, hopefully I can soon.

Thankful for Birthdays?

2011-11-14T21:02:00.005-07:00

This post isn't actually about being thankful for birthdays, but it is about being thankful and about a birthday. We'll start with the birthday. Cole turned 12 on the 11th. This was a very big milestone for him. He now can go places such as movies and the swimming pool without adult supervision. He get's to carry "pocket cash" and most importantly he received the Aaronic Priesthood. This event brought my family to town, which was a great birthday present for Cole. The thing he wanted most for his birthday was a new suit. Now that he holds the Priesthood, he feels that he should wear a suit. Well I must admit it looked good on him.

We are extremely proud of him and the young man that he is becoming. So here are 12 things about Cole at 12
1. He is very tall. 5'8" right now, and he's showing no signs of stopping.
2. He loves soda. For his birthday Grandma got him his own 12 pack of Caffeine free Mountain
Dew. He is in heaven.
3. He still loves to torment his siblings, and he's showing no signs of stopping
4. He loves to perform. He just finished a production of Annie and can't wait for the next one.
5. He tries very hard to do the right thing.
6. He is getting quite good at the piano
7. He enjoys making people laugh. He has a great sense of humour
8. He talks very loudly and quickly. Half the time Nate and I have no idea what he is saying
9. He loves babies. When his little cousins come he can't get enough of holding them
10. He loves to argue, even when he knows he's wrong, it doesn't matter he just wants to argue
11. He is a great friend. I am often told by other adults how great they think Cole is.
12. His voice is changing and somedays sounds like a man and others like a little girl.

We love Cole and I am so priviledged to have him as my son.

Now for the thankful part. I came across a 30 days of Gratitude photo challenge this past week, and while Imissed the first few days, I have been taking a picture daily to show gratitude.

The first one is a picture of a smile

This is one of my favorite smiles. And I am so thankful that I get to spend so much time with her.

I cheated for the next picture and covered two days with one photo.

The topics were leaves and favorite color, mine just happens to be yellow. These are from one of our Aspen trees out front. I love those trees.

Movement was the next category

Saturday afternoon, the kids played soccer with Uncle Bern's. I am thankful for wonderful Uncles who genuinely love to play with my kids

The last topic of this week was Happiness

Nothing makes me or my family happier then having extended family visiting. Izzy cried and cried this morning when Grandma left and the kids are counting down the days til Christmas when everyone comes back.

I hope that you are all finding things to be grateful for this month. I will update next weekend with the next 7 days of Gratitude photos, until then, take some of your own and we can compare notes.

Where in the world is Carmen SanDiego?

2011-10-16T19:48:00.004-06:00

Does anyone remember that show/computer game. I used to think it was very cool. Anywhoo... I don't know where she is, but I do know where we have been, in case anyone was wondering. The biggest reason I haven't posted is because my computer crashed a couple of weeks ago, and while I was lucky enough to have everything backed up, it's taken me a while to set up my computer again. And just when I think I've got everything back the way I like it, I try to do something and discover it's not there anymore or the setting aren't the way I like them. I think I am finally back up (crossing fingers). We've also been very busy. With four active children, we seem to find very few evenings when we are not doing anything. So let me sum up the past few weeks for everyone.
We've been loving the fall weather. It's finally cool enough that going outside feels good. We've even had some lovely rain that has helped with the fall feeling. Izzy has enjoyed riding her scooter as we take "long" (usually just to the next street and back) walks.

Izzy has also been enjoying "cooking". Her current favorite thing to do is cut out circles from her coloring books and color on them to make pizzas. Which she then serves to the rest of the family.

She also has been liking TV much more lately. While this often causes big fits when she's not allowed to watch, it does make it easier for quiet time when she sits through an entire movie. This is one of my favorite pictures of her while she watches TV

Now you would think this beautiful princess would be watching princess movies or Care Bears or something equally girly, but no, she was watching her favorite show which happens to be:

Yep, the X-Men. Go figure.

Izzy also decided that it was time for a change and, taking matters into her own hands, ended up with this

Luckily we have a good hair stylist and he was able to make a scissors mishap look really cute. Her biggest concern when I told her that we were probably going to have to cut her hair short, was whether or not it would now turn brown. I do really like it and I think it fits her personality great

Jack is busy going to school and doing his workbooks and reading. This past weekend he was very glad that it was Saturday so he could stay home all day because he was tired. I'm not sure what he had done this week that had tired him out, but he sure did need a lot of sleep. He is loving his piano lessons and becoming better and better on said piano

Riian finished up her soccer season two weeks ago and expressed remorse that she had to wait all the way until January before she can do another sport. I told her until then she can practice her pitching in the back yard for next years softball season, and that seemed to cheer her up a bit. She and another friend were the only 4th graders on the team, and they had also played on the same basketball team last year, so they worked really well together and made quite a few goals between them. She is always so fun to watch play sports, and it makes me excited to see her play more.

Riian also had to make a Utah shaped cake for Social Studies. They use this cake as an end of unit test. The teachers asks them to label the mountains, rivers, deserts, etc... in Utah and they do so on this cake. It is a favorite thing of all 4th graders and Riian was no exception

Cole has been busy growing up. He is in the communities production of Annie Jr, so he has rehearsals Monday and Thursday evenings and Scouts on Tuesday. This past week he had his first experience with a friend being seriously injured. On his way home from Scouts his best friend fell off his bike and the handle bar went through his leg, tearing a gash down to the bone. Cole came running into the house yelling that his friend had torn up his leg and you could see the bone. Nate and I though he said "tore off his leg", so we ran faster that we've ever run before to go help, his leg was still attached but it was still pretty gross. I ran and got his parents while Nate calmed down the boy. Cole the whole time was employing everything he had ever learned in Scouts and suggesting they get rags to tie around his legs, elevate different things and so forth. At least we know he can keep a cool head in times of emergencies.

Nate and I are just trying to keep up with the kids. Nate is writing a book at the moment so most evenings are spent with him on his computer and me on mine happily working on our different projects together, listening to music. It may not sound very exciting, but it makes us happy.

Trying harder

2011-09-04T17:52:00.003-06:00

The start of a new school year is always like another January to me. I make all these new resolutions about this school year i.e. I will make a hot breakfast for my kids every morning, the homework supplies will be well organized, healthy-well balanced creative lunches for my kids. This year I failed before school even started. This year I decided that I would be the Membership chair for the PTA. The membership drives are all at the beginning of the year so it is pretty busy right as school starts. By the time the kids actually had their first day, I had already spent the previous couple of weeks up at the school. I felt completely out of control. So this week I was determined to do better. The other kids had already started school, but Izzy was starting this week. It was a better week. I count microwave bacon as hot, and toast.
Izzy was very excited for her first week of school. She couldn't wait to get there and barely let me take her picture.

She even got her first homework packet and was excited to do homework with the rest of the kids. One of the pages of her homework was to have someone read a book to her. Cole (almost willingly) volunteered while I was making dinner.

Tuesday I spent the entire day up at the school. I arrived at 8:45, left briefly to grocery shop and get some lunch. Was back by noon, and left again to bring the kids home. Izzy was quite the trooper.

Izzy was able to go to school on Wednesday, but by Friday was running a fever and had a stomach ache. It was actually kind of nice to have a reason to not be able to leave the house, although I'm sorry she had to feel so crummy. In the afternoon we took a nap together on my bed and that was quite nice.

This weekend is a three day weekend because of Labor Day. Labor day is actually one of my favorite holidays. Not because we do anything, but it's the first day off after we've been scrambling to get back on a school schedule. It also marks the beginning of fall (don't try to tell me it doesn't start til the 23rd, fall starts September 1st)

*Oh worst thing that happened this week... When one of the other preschool moms asked me when my baby was due... sigh....

Back to School

2011-08-28T14:48:00.003-06:00

The summer is over and the kids are back to school. Although apparently the weather did not get the message as it still reaches almost 100 degrees every day. The kids were really excited to go back. On Monday we had a back to school night and they were all very excited to meet their teachers. They all seemed a little shy when they met with their teachers, and hardly said anything to them, but after we left they were talking non-stop about how nice they thought they were. The first week has been so-far-so-good. I took the obligatory first day shots, the kids didn't even complain this year.

Cole is now in 6th grade. He is excited that this is his last year

Riian in 4th

Jackson in 2nd

The kids all got Converse this year. Cole and Riian stuck with neutral colored ones, but Jackson had to get the bright red ones.

Izzy doesn't start preschool until tomorrow, so I will have to post pictures of her next week. I was not as ready for the kids to go back as they were. It's probably because I am the membership chair in the PTA this year, and our big membership drive is back to school night, so I was pretty crazy the week leading into school and just didn't feel as put together as I would have liked. In fact, on Saturday, I had a complete melt-down from being stressed and the house being a disaster, that my family felt pity for me and cleaned the house from top to bottom.

Nate is still playing in a softball league every Monday night through the end of September, so we are still going to softball games, but now Riian started soccer as well. She hasn't played in the city league since kindergarten but has played at school. We are impressed at how good she is, but I feel sorry for them since all their games are between 5 and 6, which is the hottest part of the day here. I think the lowest temperature we've had at her games has been 92 this far. She is always bright red at the end, but still seems to enjoy it.

Our garden has struggled a bit this year, so Nate was very happy when it was time to harvest our potatoes. Although we only ended up with four pounds this year, he was happy that at least we got some.

That's about all from our household. Nothing really exciting, but enough to keep us busy. I'll leave you with a picture that is a daily sight at our house.

Izzy at the breakfast table, accompanied by her horde of stuffed animals and wearing her princess crown.

Family Ties

2011-08-07T13:50:00.004-06:00

The end of July was jammed packed with family fun. Both with our immediate family and extended family. Nate and the kids were in full swing rehearsals for Joseph, but we still managed to find some time to have some fun. 1-800-Contacts had their annual summer party and this year it was Harry Potter themed. Nate was sorted into Slytherin (Boo), so that's the house we were put into. Everyone received a wand when they came in. At this point Riian and Cole ran off by themselves and I didn't see them until dinner, but Nate, Jack, Izzy and I took full advantage of the rest of the party. We made our first stop at Moaning Myrtle's water park so that the kids could go down some water slides and cool off. We then did some "Dragon Egg" hunts, these were akin to Easter Egg hunts. We stopped off at Care of Magical Creatures to pet some reptiles, Izzy freaked out and would not come close to the alligator, even though it was just a small one. We went to potions and made a drink from pop rocks and sprite (it was quite disgusting). We went to Honeydukes Candy shop and braved the Bertie Botts every flavor beans. It was very fun and the kids (and adults) had a great time
She pet the snake, but that is where she drew the line

Sitting in Hagrid's chair

Joseph opened on the 22nd and Nate's mom and two sisters came out, along with their kids. We had a great time getting to know our cousins, and seeing the babies we haven't seen since they were new born. We took everyone to the show the first night, then Anita and I, along with Izzy, went the second night.
Anna

Pavlo

Maira (pronounced My-ee-da)

Hunter

After they left, my mom and sister and kids came to visit and see the show. Once again everyone loved it. We all went both nights and the kids did great. Izzy loved the show and would have gone everynight if she could. She even cried closing night because she was going to miss it. After the closing night show we took the kids to get ice cream and came home.
Trying to stay cool

Zoie

Bia

On Monday, Aug 1st, Cole left for Clear Creek summer camp for the entire week. I must say, while I missed him and was glad that he was home, the house was much quieter and cleaner this past week. While he was gone, Nate was involed in a Ping Pong tournament with his work, so we went to watch him one night.

Nate even let the kids play during a brief break

And now for the prized photo of the week...

It took quite a few takes, but I finally got her to smile in a picture.

So now we still have two more weeks of summer left, and we are planning on taking full advantage of them. Riian has started soccer, Nate is continuing softball, and the rest of us are just along for the ride

Home

2011-07-10T17:50:00.004-06:00

Last weekend I went home. LMNO-P was giving a concert in Colorado and I told myself the next time they were singing I wanted to go. So we went. Not only did we go but my sister and mom decided that they would go, and then my brother decided that since we were there he would come. And then his girlfriend wanted to come out with him. And then all of my mom's sisters decided they wanted to join in the fun as well (one of them already lives there, but she was nice enough to host the rest). So it ended up being a family reunion in Fort Collins. Dan let us stay at his house and it was great. Our kids played really well together and Izzy still misses "those cousins". Dan had a BBQ in his backyard Saturday evening and LMNO-P sang. They even let Nate sing some songs with them. It was great to see all of my older brothers. On Sunday we met some friends at the park and had fun reconnecting and marveling at how big everyone's kids have gotten. On Monday we played and had another BBQ and did some sparklers with the little kids. We decided not to go to see the fireworks, so we just sent Cole with some friends who have boys his age. I'm just going to post of bunch of pictures from the trip. We took video of LMNO-P and I will post the links to that as soon as I (read Nate) finish posting them.

My lovely aunt Lani.

Beautiful Bia

Izzy spent all day on Dan's swingset. She looks unhappy here, but that's just because I'm taking her picture. She was in heaven with all the extra people to push her to her hearts content

Dan and Aric

Mikey

LMNO-P. Mike, Chris, Dan and Jalyn

Chris and his daughter Sophia listening to Grandma tell bedtime stories

Lovely Liza

All the friends and kids. The wives were all taking pictures, I think that is generally the case

It was a wonderful weekend and it was really hard to come back. The kids have all asked if we can please move to Fort Collins. When Cole asked we asked him if he would miss his friends and he said "I'll make new friends".

Another thing that happened since I last posted was Jackson's 7th birthday. He was so excited to turn 7 and had his day planned for a very long time. We went to Boondocks and did the bumper boats and played a round of mini-golf. The bumper boats were by far the favorite and everyone got very wet. Cole was the clear winner or loser depending on how you look at it. He was the most soaked by the end.

So 7 things about Jackson at age 7

1. His favorite color is still green. Always has been
2. He loves ISpy type books. Grandma Nisey bought him some hidden picture books for his birthday and I don't think he's put them down since
3. He's a very picky eater. He won't eat anything green, except lime popsicles. He does keep telling me that one day he will like them, just not today.
4. He is very sensative.
5. He likes to please people. He always tries hard to obey and do what's right. Very rarely does he fail.
6. He loves school. Anything and everything about school, he loves it.
7. He is such a happy child. You can usually hear him singing to himself.

We love you Jackson

Happy Fathers Day!

2011-06-19T15:12:00.003-06:00

As much as I dislike Mother's day. I do like Father's day. I think Father's aren't recognized as often as they should be. We often take for granted all the things that they do and just expect them to do it. I appreciate both my Fathers for the hard workers they are. For the great Grandfather's they are to my children. I appreciate my husband for the great man that he is. For the amazing father he is as well as amazing husband, which I believe is one way to be an excellent father. I know with all the nagging I do, I don't show my gratitude for this man often enough, but I love him and couldn't imagine a better father for my children. Happy Father's Day to all those Fathers out there.

Now for what we've been doing. Two weeks into the summer and we are as busy as ever. I keep wondering when we're going to have our lazy days of summer. Cole and Riian were still finishing up their baseball season. This past week was tournament. In the tournament they get to play until they lose two games. Riian lost both her first games so she was out pretty quick. Cole was able to play 3 games. We were really proud of his team because they made it farther then the 1st and 2nd ranked teams.

Riian's favorite position was catcher. She was a great catcher and rarely let a ball get by her.

She was also one of the stronger hitters on her team and would often hit it into the outfield allowing a couple of players to run home.

Cole played outfield. He was either right or left field. For one game they had him on 3rd and 2nd base. He was also a great hitter and hit a few doubles allowing people to run home. His coach wants him to practice pitching over the year because he thinks he could be a good pitcher.

In the midst of the craziness, we took a weekend trip to Vegas. Nate and I stayed in a hotel Friday night while the kids stayed with Aunt Shea. They went to a pool party and had a great time, and then had a BBQ with Grandpa. Then Cole and Riian went to see Seussical Jr with Shea and Riley. The next day Nate and I got back as the kids were swimming again. They loved the water. Izzy had a life jacket on and loved having the freedom to swim where ever she wanted. Her favorite thing to do was flip herself on her back and float around the pool.

After everyone was done swimming we went back to Shea's house for a quiet afternoon. Apparently the day before had worn everyone out because it didn't take too long for this to happen...

On Sunday we spent the morning with everyone before we left. Izzy made Grandma read her a book

(I don't comb hair before we travel)

Cole played games with Zoey.

He is very good about playing with the little kids. He also loved to carry Bia around and most of the time she was with him.

We arrived home Sunday evening in time for dinner, baths and bed. It was a fun weekend and it was nice to be away from the business of home. Thankfully baseball season is over, at least for Cole and Riian, so our evenings will be a little more free. The kids are still in Joseph and they love that.

I'm off now to make what I hope will be a yummy dinner for my favorite man.

School over...and so is May

2011-06-05T14:38:00.004-06:00

I was looking through my scrapbooks the other day and read through each of Izzy's monthly stages before she was a year. I was so glad I wrote everything down that she had done that month because after reading through them I realized I didn't remember half the things that happened. I then thought about this blog and realized that I needed to update it more often. I don't because nothing of great interest happens all that often. But the little things are very fun the read about years after the fact. So I am writing today, with nothing new, but at least to update the month of May.

I took a total of maybe 10 pictures this whole month. Which it would seem like we weren't very busy, but it is the exact opposite. We were extremely busy this month. Between baseball games, Joseph rehearsals, end of the year school celebrations, birthday parties (others, not ours), baby showers, bridal showers and a trip to Seattle, it was quite a full month. The reason I didn't take many pictures is because it rained pretty much the entire month, and I didn't want to take my camera out in the rain. This is pretty much what it looked like everytime we looked outside.

I took a trip to Seattle with my mom. We like to do this every couple of years. We leave the husbands to take care of the children and we go play with Justin for a couple of days. The weather was beautiful while we were there. I took a picture of the view from my plane as we started our descent into Seattle

We ate and played and laughed. It was great. The first night we got there Justin took us to his new studio downtown.

It's not a great photo, but the room was huge and full of light. It made me want to take pictures, so I'm sure it's the perfect studio for him. I came back on the 22nd, which just happened to be Nate and my's 13th wedding anniversary. We didn't really celebrate, we are doing that next weekend. I got home just in time to witness a huge hail storm.

The next week, on the 26th, Nate, Cole and I all went to see Les Mis. Nate got me tickets for my birthday and we decided Cole was old enough to see it with us. He was very excited and loved it. I have seen it 3x before and was a little disappointed in the sound guys. The instruments were excellant, but you couldn't hear the vocals very well. I had to really concentrate to hear what they were singing. I also was disappointed that they took out the turn-table. The vocalists were great, except the guy who played my favorite role, Enjolras. He voice just wasn't as big as I'd have liked it to be. But I did enjoy it. We went to a matinee and came home just in time to go to Riian and Cole's baseball games that night.

The next week was the last week of school. On Tuesday I went to the kids' dance festival. I was going to video tape it like I did last year and post it here for you, but someone forgot to charge the battery...the kids did great though and it was fun to watch. On Wednesday I helped out with Jack's field day. It wasn't raining, but it was really windy. I was put in charge of the parachute station and I thought that it was going to pull me away.

On Thursday I helped out with Riian's field day. Once again it wasn't raining but the wind was even worse and Izzy ended up freezing. I had her in dress and a jacket and her little legs got very cold. Eventually one of the teachers ran in and got me a coat that I wrapped around her legs. She sat on the ground and ended up falling asleep in the middle of the field. I took this picture of Riian while she was at recess. I thought it was a perfect Riian picture. Just her and the boys playing basketball.

Now school is out and I couldn't be happier. I love summer. Our calendars for June and July are already booked, but I love having the days to be lazy.

April Wrap Up

2011-05-01T19:30:00.002-06:00

It is now the first of May and I have yet to write about anything we did in April. It was kind of a slow month, at least in terms of anything exciting. Both Cole and Riian started baseball. Cole has already had 4 games and Riian has her first game on Tuesday. It's been a rough month for practices because it has been so rainy and snowy all month long. The kids were out for a week for spring break, but we didn't go anywhere. We just relaxed knowing that the next few months will be crazy.

Izzy was able to attend a princess tea party at the local library. She dressed up in a princess gown and had snacks and made a crown and read princess stories. She thought it was great fun.

She has also been doing a lot of painting and drawing inside because of the rain and snow that I mentioned earlier.

On Thursday the older 3 kids went with Nate to work for their annual Take your Daughters and Sons to work day. 1-800-Contacts goes all out for this. The kids break up into different age groups and rotate through the different areas of the company doing fun activities that teach them about what goes on in each division. In marketing they were able to draw posters to advertise for the upcoming film festival they do every summer. In the kitchen they were able to decorate their own cookies, they made their own business cards, they learned how telephones work, they made ping pong ball contraptions out of construction paper, kids yoga in the health center, in finance they did a mock NBA draft, and they did a mock assembly line. They each had a badge made just like dads that they could wear all day.

While we were at Nate's work the kids were enthralled with the tulips. It's been to yucky to go outside so appreciating the spring flowers hasn't really happened this year. They loved all the colors and were excited to smell them

That's about it for us. Nate, Cole, Riian and Jack all auditioned and made it into Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The rehearsals start this week and the show runs the last two weekends in July. Nate and I sat down with the calendar and tried to figure out how we were going to squeeze everything in. Luckily it's only the Month of May and then the kids are out of school and they can do rehearsals and practices during the day.

34

2011-04-17T18:26:00.004-06:00

I know this post is a little late considering my birthday was last week, but spring break was this week and things were a little hectic around here. Not that we went anywhere or did much, but al the kids were home and they all wanted to use the computer so my computer time was greatly diminished. This is the real reason I send them to school. More computer time for me.

Last week I tured 34. I remember when I thought 34 was old. But as I turned it, I didn't feel old. And although I sometimes think that I'm still in my early 20's I didn't have any problem with turning 34. I think that is because I am where I want to be right now. I'm doing what I want to do. I'm happily married to a man I truly, truly love. I have 4 beautiful children. And though my life isn't perfect and we still go through many trials, I am happy and actually look forward to the days and years ahead. I look forward to my kids growing older, and seeing what kind of people they become. I love the ages that they are now and try to take as many pictures and make as many scrapbook pages as possible so that I can remember this time, but I do look forward to the upcoming years.

There wasn't any pictures taken of my birthday, I am the official camera taker and no one knows how to work my camera. But Nate made me dinner and my favorite yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He made the frosting from scratch and it was really good. He also bought me 3 tickets to Les Mis at the end of May. I haven't seen the show for many years and this time Cole gets to go with us. I think he was more excited then I was.

This past week was spring break. We stayed home and just hung out. Played with some friends, went swimming one day, but really just took it easy. This upcoming week baseball officially starts for both Cole and Riian so this was our last week of calm before the storm.

Right before spring break Cole's class had a "wax museum". They had to read a biography about someone from America's history. They then dressed up as that person and people could walk around the "museum" and push a button they had made and they would tell some a little about that person. Cole's teacher gave him permission to do a joint project with his friend. They were the Wright brothers. Cole was Wilber Wright because he was the taller of the two.

Another present that I got for my birthday was Just Dance Kids. The kids and I have really enjoyed playing the game. Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, but if I only posted the good pictures I took, half of our lives would go undocumented.

School starts tomorrow and we are all counting down the weeks until summer. 7, just in case you were wondering.

March Randomness

2011-03-30T21:47:00.005-06:00

There were a few things in March that I never posted about, but seeing as it is the end of the month, I thought I get the pictures up. O.K. so maybe I don't have pictures of everything, like Cole's storytelling festival experience. Every year the school have a story telling festival. Kids from each class tell a story and then they pick the top 3 from each class. Those 3 go on to tell their story in front of the entire grade. Then 1 person is picked from each grade to tell their story in front of the school. Then 1 person is picked to tell their story in front of the district judges. Cole happened to win at his school with his rendition of "Fido, Feefee, and Ignatz". He went in front of the district judges, but didn't quite make it any further. But we were very proud of him for making it that far. I mentioned the Daddy Daughter sock hop that Riian and Nate went to. I didn't get a picture but they had one taken at the school and Riian brought that home. About 6 months ago we took Aunt Jessie to the MTC. This month we got to take Landon. Izzy had fun singing and dancing in the Provo Temple parking lot. Izzy picked out a new tea set this month and one day we made cookies so that we could have a tea party. We had everything ready when the kids got home from school. Even Cole played along (mostly because I told him he couldn't have any cookies or apple juice unless he did) Izzy loves to wear her ballerina dresses. She has a couple of them and if it's a stay at home day she wears them all day long. All the while showing me her best balley moves. I tried to take some pictures of these, but they all turned out blurry. I've found the best way to use blurry pictures is to put them on a scrapbook page. Then they don't look so bad. Well that's it for March. We are anxiously awaiting some warmth here in Utah. I was looking at my pictures from last March and noticing all the sunny days we had. No such luck this March. Cole did have baseball tryouts tonight and Riian has them next week, so whether or not the weather agrees, I guess here comes spring.

4 years

2011-03-18T10:03:00.004-06:00

Yep, my baby turned 4 years old yesterday. They day started with the traditional pancake shaped as her age. She didn't eat much of it because she wanted to get to her presents. She got lots of princess things, some new sidewalk chalk, a new rainbow dress with sparkly ballet flats to go with them, and some gardening supplies. Unfortunately the rest of the day didn't go so well for her. I set up a well child checkup for her months ago, not remembering that she would receive a vaccination. Her leg hurt the rest of the day and she was fairly miserable. But she was able to enjoy her dinner of make-your-own pizzas and the traditional rainbow cake

Nothing fancy, but she was excited when she saw it

It took her quite a few blows to get her candles out, but she eventually got them all.

So about Izzy at 4.

-She is very girly. She loves all things purple and pink and sparkly. Dresses are her preferred wardrobe.

-She loves flowers. She asks on a daily basis when she can plant some. We are giving her a part of the garden this year where she can plant some flowers and take care of them

-Although she is very girly, she can definately hold her own.

-She loves to help me around the house. She likes to fold the laundry, make meals with me and help me with the other house hold chores

-Her favorite T.V show is "Jake and the Neverland Pirates"

-She is very lovey. She has to give Nate a hug and kiss every day before he goes to work. She will often come up to me and throw her arms around my legs and say "I love you, Mommy"

-She has just figured out how to say her "L's" so now anything that has a L, or R, she says with a very defined L sound. It makes it hard to understand her at times.

We love our Izzy and we are so glad that she lives at our house

Basketball

2011-02-27T09:32:00.004-07:00

We have spent a good deal of our time the last two months at basketball games. Cole, Riian and Jack all played this year. Jack had games every Tuesday night and Cole and Riian's were Saturdays. They all loved playing and it was fun to watch.

Jack played on the K-1 team. This was his first year playing and he was quite good. He made a basket at all but a couple of his games. He would try to get in there and get the ball. Alot of the other kids would duck if the ball was coming toward them, but Jack was ready to get it and try for that basket. At his age, they are still trying to teach the basics and they don't keep score or call fouls, or traveling so it was fun to watch kids get the balls and run to their basket as the coach and ref were behind them reminding them that they had to dribble.

Riian was in the 3-4 grade girls league. She was quite good. Very agressive and her defense was excellent. The very first game she was afraid of fighting for the ball or getting in the middle of things for fear of hurting someone or not playing fairly, but after we assured her that it was ok to play a little more aggresively, she really was quite good. They still don't keep score at this age, but they are a little less lenient with the travelling.

Cole was our most improved player over the season. This was his first time ever playing. One of his good friends at school asked him if he would play so he said yes. He was very glad he did. His whole team was comprised of really good friends. In his league, 5-6 grade boys, they play by all the rules, and keep score. He was very tentative the first few games. Nate and I kept telling him because of his height, he had an advantage and he just had to get in there and use it. About 3 weeks into the season, we fixed his asthma medicine and told him that he was able to get 5 fouls per game so he should use them. His coaches were also wonderful, and by the end of the season, he was one of the most valuable players. He was really agressive, getting in there and fighting for those balls. He used his height to jump and block shots. He was the center, and his job was to protect the net, which he did admirably. The team ended up winning 5 of their 8 games. He had so much fun and can't wait to do it next year.

I've never been a fan of watching live basketball, but when it was my kids it was so much different. The games were really fun and Nate and I had a great time watching them. All of them want to play again next year, which I think is a great testament to their coaches and how they strived to make it fun for them as well as teach them.

Next up, baseball...

Very Proud

2011-02-21T20:20:00.005-07:00

We've been plugging along. Trying not to get too stir crazy being inside. Luckily we've been able to spend a few more days outside lately. We are all very anxious to get outside and play and ride bikes (I got a new one for Christmas and am very anxious to be able to ride it). So what have we been up to the past few weeks?

Well Valentines was pretty good. The kids loved putting together their Valentines for their friends. Cole and Riian had their class lists and spend a lot of time picking out the perfect Valentine for each person, so as not to send the wrong message, or to send the right one. This year I got Izzy her own valentines so that she could take some to her friends. She and Jack had a great time sealing theirs with the stickers provided

Riian and Izzy have been hanging out a lot lately. Izzy decided one day that she was going to be a "tom-boy" like Riian. So she dressed up in her best tom-boy outfit. Never mind that she had her tu-tu skirt on under the costume.

Nate and Riian went to the Daddy Daughter dance again this year. This year the theme was a sock hop and Riian asked me about every 5 minutes while I was dressing her if I was sure that this is what people wore in the 50's. She didn't want to roll her jeans or wear a scarf around her neck, or her hair in a pony-tail. I told her tough cookies and to hush up. She had a good time and Nate took her out for ice cream after

Tonight for family home evening we made hand puppets from a kit that Aunt Vicki gave us. The kids loved it and now they are thinking of plays to do with them

Jack was pretty sure this was a cow. It took quite a lot of convincing before he believed it was a Unicorn.

For the big news. Cole had his science fair this past month. His project was on which landscaping material caused the least erosion. He was one of the top 3 in his class and now gets to go on to the district science fair on the 1st of March. Way to go buddy!

This is his best friend. Cute boys.

If he's in the top 200 in the district he gets to go to regionals at BYU. We'll let you know how he does

My Valentines

2011-02-14T13:23:00.004-07:00

Although I don't really like Valentines day, I decided to acknowledge my valentines.

I love this girl. She is fiesty and dramatic and absoluteley wonderful. She is a princess through and through and loves to sparkle, quite often literally. She loves to cuddle and will just walk up to me and throw her arms around my legs (that is as high as she can reach) and tell me that she loves me.

She is my favorite.

This one. Oh I love this one! He is such a home body. He is also quite a Mama's boy. He is extremely sensative and we have to be very careful when we discipline him because he gets heartbroken if we use too harsh of tones. He is a pleaser. He is incredibly smart. He loves to sing and if there is music on, he is dancing. He also loves basketball.

He is my favorite.

Doesn't that face just say it all. How could you not love that girl. So easy going. She is a friend to everyone, and everyone loves to be around her. She thinks of others before herself. She made sure that she bought the new girl in class a "candy-gram" because she was afraid she would be the only one who didn't get one. She is extremely quiet and independant. She would rather be outside doing something active then anywhere else. She loves to read and she loves math!

She is my favorite

This boy. This young man! When did that happen? He is wonderful. He is funny, kind, a great example and leader. He loves to help out. He will often come in the house and take over what ever chore I am doing, without being asked!

He is my favorite

This man. I love this man. I had to wait a long time for him to finally decide that he wanted to marry me, but I'm so glad he did. I couldn't imagine a better husband and father. Not only does he put up with all my faults, but some of them are even endearing to him! Go figure.

He is my absolute favorite

I hope you all have somebody this Valentines.

Sick

2011-01-23T20:42:00.002-07:00

So I just realized I haven't taken a single picture in January yet. But I have a good reason. Ever since we returned from our Washington trip, we have been sick. Everyone went through a stomach bug and then I got the flu. The actual fever, achy, horrible cough flu. I have recovered enough to get out of bed, but I still am so tired. But I hope to get back to reality this week. I had big plans this January. Plans to clean out closets, and bookshelves, instead the house has become a huge mess. But in better news, my brother posted his pictures of Christmas. So instead of leaving you picture-less. I'll post somemore pictures of our Christmas. Actually I'm just going to give you a link to his flickr account. You can find the pictures here. There are some pictures in there from his trip to St. Louis after he left our house. So thanks again to my brother for pictures when I don't have any to post. Hopefully I'll post some next week. Maybe of my new, short hair cut, we'll see.

9

2011-01-06T21:06:00.003-07:00

Riian turned 9 while we were in Washington. It's always hard having a birthday on New Years Eve. But I always try to make it extra special for her. This year we had a girls day out. Riian and I, along with Grandma, Aunt Amber and Aunt Aubrey all went to lunch at Red Robin's (Riian's absolute favorite place to eat). She was able to order her favorite appetizer of onion rings and a huge bowl of macaroni and cheese. Then we went shopping. She had opened a few presents that morning, but our present to her was to let her go shopping. It was hard to pick out things she wanted, it being so close to Christmas. She finally settled on a couple of things and then I told her if she wanted to we could save her birthday money and go shopping in another month or so.

Here's a few things about Riian at 9

-She is one of the kindest, sweetest girls I know

-She is 100% tomboy.

-She would rather be outside then in. If it's warm enough to be out (above 30 degrees) then she is out.

-She is very athletic. She loves all sports and wishes that she could play football.

-She is an amazing big sister. Jack and Izzy just love playing with her and she genuinely has fun playing with them

-She is very literal. You can't really joke with her or be sarcastic around her, she just doesn't get it.

-She loves to read. She also loves math.

-She is the tetherball champ on the playground

-She is a great piano player. Her favorite part of the piano is the theory. It's just like math and she loves it.

-She is very quiet. Sometimes to a fault. She won't speak to you if she's mad or sad. It can be very frustrating.

-She will eat almost anything. The only foods she won't eat are avocado's (though she loves guacamole) and anything with mayonnaise in it.

-She is a great friend and makes them very easily

-She is more beautiful on the inside then she is on the outside and we love her very, very much

The rest of December

2011-01-03T18:55:00.004-07:00

After the 2nd week, December pretty much flew by. There were school parties, and concerts and family coming in and fun to be had by all. After the whirlwind of the holidays, it is nice to settle down for a bit. We finished our advent calendar. We did stuff such as play board games as a family, go to Incredible Pizza, decorate sugar cookies and make stockings.

Sugar cookies being decorated.

The kids love Apples to Apples

Sam got hurt and had to wear the cone of shame

On the 21st, Grandma came. The kids were very excited by this. We also happened to wake up to about a foot of snow. The kids loved playing in it and spent most of the morning outside. Jack and Izzy came in early for some hot cocoa and to wait for Grandma.

After that the family started pouring in. On the 23rd we made our stockings. This year Izzy was able to make her own and loved putting the puff paint on all by herself

Cute Zoie

Cute Baby Bia

It's a messy job, but someones got to do it.

Christmas came with magic this year. The kids were so excited and happy with all their presents. Jack was the best again this year as he "loved" each of his presents enthusiastically.

Everyone left on Monday and we spent the day getting ready to got to Washington on Tuesday. We left early Tuesday morning and drove the 12 hours to Yakima where we visited with Nate's Mom, sisters and brother. The kids had a great time playing in the snow. They were pulled behind a 4wheeler on a sled, Cole and Riian each were able to drive a snowmobile for the first time. Nate took the kids up snowboarding for the first time. We were able to spend lots of time getting reacquainted with our Washington cousins. We had a great time, but were very ready to come home and sleep in our own beds

Kids sledding

Cole pushing Jack into the snow

Cole after he pushed Jack in the snow and having to sit out the first round of sledding

The only picture of Riian smiling. She has decided she won't smile for pictures anymore

Cute cousin Quinn

Cousin Anna

Scary cousin Anna

Celebrating Riian's birthday in Washington.

Now we are home and ready to start a new year. Christmas decorations are being put away, resolutions being made and I am excited to see what 2011 brings us. Happy New Year!

2nd Week of December

2010-12-12T10:52:00.003-07:00

Our advent activities have continued. The kids get really excited about opening the door each day. I find that they are way more excited to open the doors and see what activity we are doing, then they have been in the past when we've done the calendars with chocolate in them. With the calendars, we would tend to forget for a couple of days, but with the advent house, they are anxiously waiting every morning.

On Monday we went downtown. Cole's choir was singing at the Joseph Smith Memoriable building so we went to watch and look at the lights at temple square

The kids watching Cole

Cole's choir (sorry for the bad picture, I left my zoom lens at home)

The temple all light up

On tuesday we had our annual shopping day. We take the kids out of school and Nate take's off work and we go shopping for each other and we get our new ornaments for the year. Nate had some meetings in the morning so we met him for lunch at his work and then headed off. The kids love picking out presents for each other. They get very excited to come home and wrap them and put them under the tree. I think they really like knowing what at least one of the presents under the tree is. We also picked out our new ornaments

Izzy's

Jackson's

Riian's, she's been really into guitars this year

Cole's

Nate and I pick out ornaments for each other every year. This is the one he picked out for me. I love angels and precious moments, and even though this isn't and angel, it had wings...

This is the one I picked out for Nate. I like to get him ornaments that remind me of us.

This is what my bed looked like after we came home

On Wednesday we sat by the Christmas tree and read Christmas stories. The kids like "The Night before Christmas" the most.

On Thursday we made our own holiday movie. Nate was in charge of directing and coming up with the script. He and the kids decided to finish the story of Scrooge. The kids loved dressing up and playing different parts. We have the video, but I can't show it to you now. I'll post it after Christmas

Voting on what should be in the script

Nate directing

On Friday we had to change our plans up a little. We were going to see the Reindeer at Thankgiving Point, but it was rainy (yes rainy, not snowy, don't even get me started), so instead we used some gift certificate we had to Emmet's and Ethel's and went out to dinner.

Yesterday we made treats and went caroling to some of our neighbors. We made rice krispie treats because they are easy for the kids to make and most people love them.

The kids wanted to use the red and green Christmas marshmallows

By the time they all melted they ended up a purpley brown. You think I would have seen that coming.

Ok, so it's been a nice clean family fun post so far. If you want to remember us that way STOP READING NOW! Below is something a little less appropriate

On Friday I had planned on soup and rolls for dinner, but because of the rain we decided last minute to go out to dinner. But the rolls had already risen and I needed something to do with them. So I decided to roll each one flat, spread it with butter and cinnamon sugar. I then rolled it up and curved it, half moon like, into the pan. I covered them and we went out to dinner. When we got home, I heard snickering coming from the kitchen. I went in to find my family laughing at the rolls. Everyone had decided that they rolls looked like little gnomes that had dove into the muffin tins to hide

These are the boy gnomes

And these are the girl gnomes

We had a good many laughs, but the rolls were delicious

Instead of leaving you with that. I will leave you a picture of Izzy reading to herself by the light of the Christmas tree

The most wonderful time of the year

2010-12-05T09:29:00.002-07:00

I love this time of the year. Although I have to admit it snuck up on me a little bit. Thanksgiving weekend was great. I love having everyone home and no schedule for a few days. It was quite hard when everyone had to go back to school/work on Monday. But there are only 2 more weeks of school left before we get another couple of weeks off. We have a tradition that we do an advent calendar every year. Usually I just buy some of those chocolate ones from the grocery store, but this year I wanted to do something different. Last year I bought an advent village at Costco

I decided this year that I was going to put slips of paper in each door and everyday would be a different activity. So far the kids have been really excited to open it each morning and see what we were doing. On Wednesday (the 1st of December), we made Peppermint Milkshakes for dessert. On Thursday we went to Cole's choir concert. He did great despite a coughing fit in the middle

On Friday we made Gingerbread houses. This is an annual thing and I decided I wanted to make them early in the month.

Izzy's and my's finished product

Jack's

Riian's

Cole's

Nate's

Jack's face after he found out that he had just eaten a peppermint lifesaver and not strawberry

Cole after finishing his house and candy

Last night we drove around and saw holiday lights. Our favorite is the house up the road that does their lights set to music. The kids love seeing it every year.
Tonight we have planned a Christmas movie to watch. We are going to watch the Jim Carrey version of Christmas Carol. We'll see how we like it.

More time?

2010-11-21T17:52:00.002-07:00

I was under the mistaken impression that the more kids I had in school full time, the less busy my life would be. I was grossly mistaken. It seems that I have been nonstop since October. We had another busy week. I didn't actually make dinner for my family until Saturday night. We just had places to be every night. Unfortunately, I ended up getting sick this week, so I had to miss the Authentic Thanksgiving dinner that some friends were putting on Friday night. But thankfully, I felt well enough on Saturday to go see Harry Potter with Nate, Cole and Riian. A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Cole's 11th birthday. We open presents in the morning at our house so that the kids can play with them all day. He was very excited and had a very hard time waiting until everyone was awake. He received a couple of Lego things, some books that he wanted, a Rubix 360 and a couple of other things

He wanted yellow cake with chocolate frosting, he is a child after my own heart. I'm not sure what he wished for, but it must have been a good one

Last weekend was also Cole's last pinewood derby. I think he and Nate were a little tired of the derby and weren't very competitive this year. Cole made his car look like a hot dog and Nate's was a panther. Both of them usually came in last, but Cole enjoyed it none the less.

We are excited for Thanksgiving this year. We are staying home. Nate and I just wanted a quite Thanksgiving, just our family. Everyone is excited to put up the Christmas tree and everything else that is involved with the season. Happy Thanksgiving to y'all!

11!

2010-11-11T19:36:00.001-07:00

Yep this kid is 11. It is hard for me to believe that I have an 11 year old child. I'm not much older then that myself. So here's a little bit about Cole

-He loves Lego's. He's obsessed with Lego's. Our basement guest room has become a Lego room. Sorry Mom, you get the couch.
-He loves Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure he was secretly hoping that as soon as he turned 11, an owl would arrive with his invitation for Hogwarts.
-He has a great sense of humor. He picks up jokes really well and is more then happy to make jokes with you
-He loves the theater. He takes after both his mom and dad in this aspect. He loves going to see musicals and he loves to be in them. He would love to be an actor one day
-He is very tall! He is only a couple of inches shorter then my 5'7". I did an online thing where you enter in his age, and height and other info and it said by the time he is 18 he should be 6'5". I don't disbelieve it
-He is a really good friend. People seem to be drawn to him and he sets a great example.
-He tries very hard to make good choices. He doesn't always exceed, but then neither do any of the rest of us.
-He enjoys cooking. He likes to help me in the kitchen and is learning to make things on his own.
-Along with his cooking. He loves to eat. He generally has at least 2 helpings at every meal, many times 3
-He wears a size 8 shoe.
-He is kind and generous and is friendly to everyone. And we are so proud to have him as our son

Love you Cole

This week

2010-11-07T07:26:00.003-07:00

I'm really only blogging today to fulfill a requirement to journal everyday. Nothing much has happened this week, which was quite a relief as last week was so busy. The only thing of note this week was Cole's play. He was in Dear Edwina Jr. and he played the role of Vladimir and Johnny. There were only 5 boys in the play so they had to do some creative juggling of parts. He was very good. He sang a solo and had to come up with a Transylvanian accent. He sounded great on his solo. His accent was good, although he couldn't keep up the accent and sing at the same time. But you didn't really notice. He really enjoyed it and is asking us to do the spring play. We have a dilemma in our home about this. The play they are putting on is High School Musical Jr. But he also signed up to play basketball on a team with a bunch of his friends. They are really excited to have them on thier team since he is about 10 feet tall. So he wants to do both, but that means quite a busy boy. So we're trying to decide if he can play basketball and do High School Musical. Here are a couple of pictures of him at his play

He played a piggy in one of the songs and it was Nate's favorite, so I took a picture of his piggy nose. He said he got his inspiration for the role of the piggy from "Ed the Hyena".

I'll just post a couple more pictures of Halloween. I didn't quite get this downloaded off my camera for last week but this is Nate and Sam dressed up in their Halloween costumes

Have a great week!

Conversation from the table

2010-11-04T12:22:00.003-06:00

I have Jackson home today. He's not horribly sick, but he has a yucky runny nose and cough so I kept him home in order not to spread that grossness. Here is what I heard between he and Izzy at lunch

Jackson: I've had a paper cut

Izzy: Ooo Owie!

Jackson: Actually I've had two paper cuts

Izzy: Oooohh!

Jackson: Well one hurt really bad and I had to have a band-aid, but the other one didn't hurt too bad

Izzy: Your bwave Jack-en. Rewy, rewy, bwave. When I gwow bigger I want to be bwave wike you

I love how little minds think. I also love it when Jackson is home. He and Izzy play so well together when it's just the two of them.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T10:22:00.005-06:00

To me Halloween means the start of the Holiday season. I think that is really the only reason I enjoy this holiday. But the rest of my family loves dressing up and going trick-or-treating (really what kids doesn't enjoy that). This week has been insanely busy here. With lots of Halloween parties and Cole on his last week before his play starts, we have had hardly a spare moment. I am very excited for next week when I can have some time to cool down again and maybe clean my house. We started the week by carving our pumpkins. The kids were really excited and Jack and Riian spent all afternoon drawing different plans for their pumpkin. Izzy was very specific on what she wanted her pumpkin to look like as well.

Jack eyeing the pumpkin guts. This is his least favorite part of the carving. We make him take out his own

Izzy and Jack each had their plan and drew it out on their pumpkin so Nate and I could cut it for them

Riian drew hers out on a piece of paper and taped it to her pumpkin as a stencil

These are Cole and Jack pumpkins. Jack is on the left, Cole's is on the right

Riian's pumpkin is on the left. Izzy's is on the right

On Wednesday we awoke to a couple of inches of snow. The kids were so excited. They had big plans to build snowmen and play in the snow when they returned from school. I felt bad when I had to break the news that it wouldn't last that long. Izzy especially wanted to build a snowman. We had to go straight to the airport to pick up Aunt Jessie right after we took the kids to school. From there we went straight to Provo to drop Jessie off at the MTC. She is serving a mission in Slovania. We did some last minute shopping and had lunch before dropping her off.

I couldn't help but feel excited when we dropped her off. I wanted to go to! By the time we got back home it was about 1:30 and most of the snow was gone. But there was just enough in the shade that Izzy could make a tiny snowman

Thursday evening was Nate's work Halloween party. We got all the kids dressed up and headed over to do some trunk-or-treating. They had a fun time getting candy, eating treats and making crafts

Riian

Jack

Because Halloween is on a Sunday this year, and because we live in Utah, it is sort of an unwritten rule that trick-or-treating is done on Saturday. Unfortunately it decided to pour yesterday night. But we bundled up and went out anyway. We were fortunate enough to catch a break in the rain, and we only got sprinkled on. Jack and Izzy made it about two blocks before Nate took them home. I stayed out with Riian and we went for quite a while. This was the first year that we let Cole go out with just friends. He had a good time, but you could tell he was glad to be home once he got there.

Tomorrow I am starting a 8 week holiday challenge with some other members of my extended family. There are 10 things you have to do everyday such as exercise, drink a certain amount of water, no candy, no fast food etc... So I am spending all day eating so much candy as to make myself sick, so that I won't want it tomorrow.

Happy Halloween! I hope it's a fun one.

Photo Shoot

2010-10-17T08:59:00.002-06:00

The kids had school picture day a couple of weeks ago. Every year I purchase the smallest package and end up never using the photos. So this year I decided that, rather than purchasing school pictures, I was going to take my own. So the kids and I went out last Friday and I attempted to take pictures. I got a few that I like and I learned alot. I learned that I need to take better notice of my lighting. I learned that I need to figure out my focus when doing group shots. But as it was only my family I didn't feel bad about the quality of the pictures I got. so here are some of my favorites

The whole crew

The Boys

The Girls

Cole

Riian

Jack

Izzy

There you have it. Those are my babies. There are a few more that I like, but I am saving them for Christmas, so I won't post them here.

Let me count the ways

2010-10-10T09:34:00.002-06:00

I love fall. It is my hands down favorite season. Here is why

1. I love sweaters.
2. I love fall food. Soups and stews. Yummy pumpkin breads, muffins, and desserts.
3. I love rain. Cloudy,overcast, rainy days are my favorite. I could easily live in a world where it was cloudy and rainy most of the time.
4. I love the colors of fall. I tend to decorate my house and myself with the colors of fall.
5. I love that it gets dark earlier. Don't get me wrong I like the long days of summer, but there is something about it being dark at dinner time that makes it feel just a bit cozier.
6. I like hot chocolate. The nights are getting just chilly enough now that the hot chocolate can make it's appearance again.
7. The weather of fall is perfect. You can still have warm sunny days, but it doesn't get much above 75. You get the rain (that I mentioned earlier) and you can even get some snow. It's really the perfect weather.

This past week has been wonderfully fall. It has been cloudy and overcast everyday. It has rained a couple of times. Today is bright and sunny (although I am feeling a little bummed it's not overcast again). So what have we been doing to pass away the wonderful fall days?

Izzy and I do an at home preschool. I order this preschool curriculum in a box and then I teach her 3 times a week. Septembers theme was Family and Pets. This months theme is Creepy Crawlies. They have lots of great crafts that we make with each days theme. Izzy made a goldfish bowl snack one day and a ladybug hat another.

Riian participated in an egg drop at her school. She had to design a contraption that she could put an egg in and that would be dropped from the top of the school and hopefully not break. She came up with the idea of putting an egg into an egg carton surrounded by tissue and then attaching a parachute to it. Nate helped her build it. And...

The kids enjoy riding the little 4 wheeler around. Cole is getting a little too big for it, but Izzy loves to ride with him

Speaking of Cole. He and Riian have gotten old enough now that they really enjoy playing games with Nate and I. Often, after we put Jack and Izzy to bed, the 4 of us will play games. The game that we have been playing lately is called Quiddler. It's pretty much a Scrabble card game. You try to make words with the cards in your hand. We still have to help Riian, but Cole is pretty good at finding his own words. Here is an example of a typical word that an almost 11-year boy will find on his own

That's about it. Not a whole lot going on. We're getting into the busy time of year for us. Our October calendar is already pretty much full. But most of the time you can just find us hanging out. So stop by if you want

Because it's my blog...

2010-09-26T21:42:00.002-06:00

I liked the idea of being able to share my scrapbook pages with other people besides myself. I sometimes share them with my family, but only when I'm on the ball enough to print them out. So because it's my blog and I can do what I want to, I figured each week I would share any scrapbook pages I completed. Mind, that's only if I complete any that week, and if I feel they are appropriate to share, and if I remember to save as I am working (twice today I clicked close without saving anything). So here are a couple for this week

Hope you enjoy. If you don't, that's ok, you can just skip over the scrapbook page updates and head straight to the family updates. If you do, thanks for lookin'.

The Week(s) in Pictures

2010-09-26T09:42:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything because I thought nothing much has been going on. However when I went to edit the pictures, there were a bit more then I thought.

Cole and Nate are still rehearsing for their plays. Nate is in Arsenic and Old Lace. He plays the part of Einstein (not Albert). His show opens October 18. Cole is doing Dear Edwina. He plays the part of Vladimir and has a solo. His show opens November 1. Both Nate and Cole have to do accents with their roles and so it is interesting to hear them both try.

We went to Vegas over the weekend of the 11th. My niece was getting baptized and I was able to see my new niece for the first time. It was a short, but fun vacation. I was supposed drive out with the kids on Thursday morning and then Nate was going to come out Friday night and drive back with us Sunday. Unfortunately I ended up with a sinus infection and bronchitis that week and was too sick to drive so we couldn't leave until Friday afternoon and we came back Sunday. The kids still had fun, even though they were so tired because we crammed so much in the day we were there. In my illness I completely forgot my camera, fortunately my brother was there as well and took pictures. But he has been busy traveling and moving and working so the pictures aren't up yet. I'll post them when they are.

Our stake had their annual fall festival. There were many activities, but the kids all loved the rocket launch. They made rockets out of paper and then stuck them on the end of PVC pipes. On the other end of the pipe was an empty 2 liter bottle that they would jump on and send the rockets flying.

We had a massive storm the other day that lasted for about an hour. But it rained and hailed and made our streets turn into rivers

It was quite a sight to behold. These pictures were taken after it had stopped raining and hailing and the waters had died down a bit.

Nate planted a wonderful garden this year and we have been able to enjoy cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, snap peas, and tomatoes. It's been fun to see how excited he was about gardening, especially since I am so unexcited about doing it. We were able to get 4 pumpkins as well and the kids are excited to carve them for Halloween

Izzy is our princess around here. Not only in dress but in manner as well. She's pretty sure she rules the house and is quite offended when treated otherwise. The other day she found a leotard and skirt in her drawer and that was what she was going to wear. I told her we had shopping to do that day and she might want to put on some warmer clothes, but she wouldn't budge. Luckily she is only 3 and can get away with it. I tried the same thing and was almost arrested

Speaking of Izzy. She has been very adamant lately that she is going to get dressed all by herself. Which is great except she won't let you help her at all, even if things are backwards or inside out. She also has stopped taking naps, but really needs to about every 3 days. So one afternoon she had gone potty and then was trying to get her underwear on but it was inside out and she was trying to put it on through one of the legs. I tried to help her, but she was very upset. So finally I sat at the computer and told her that if she needed me then to let me know. I could hear her sniffling and grumbling and every so often would ask her if she wanted my help yet. She would say no so I would turn back to the computer. After a little bit all noise behind me stopped. I turned around to see if she was alright, and this is what I found

(I used to flower for her fathers sake, but you get the idea)

I just left her that way until we went to pick up the kids. I figured she needed the rest

Yesterday my mom and sister came into town. They were doing some shopping because Jessie is going on a mission. I left Nate with the kids and joined them. We shopped for 5 hours and then met Nate and the kids at Cracker Barrel for dinner. The kids love to go to Cracker Barrel with Grandma because she always buys them toys. The favorite toy this time was Jack's top. When it spins it has lights and music. The kids still haven't stopped playing with it

That's it for us. Life goes on. We are all healthy and happy and feel extremely blessed to be so.

My real passion

2010-09-04T21:29:00.003-06:00

So I've shared alot of pictures with you and I love taking pictures. I want to become a great photographer, but, I have no interest in pursuing any sort of career in photography. The reason I want to be a good photographer is for my real passion. The passion happens to be scrapbooking. Digital scrapbooking to be exact. I started scrapbooking with paper right when Cole was born and really struggled to enjoy it. It was always such a mess and then you had to find someplace to keep all your supplies. Then about the time Jack was born I discovered digital scrapbooking. My life suddenly changed. I love it! So I thought I would share with you some of the pages that I've made with the pictures that I've taken over the summer. You have already seen all the pictures on the blog, but I just thought I'd show you the main reason I take them.

There you go. This is what I spend the majority of my free time doing. If anyone ever wants to get into digital scrapbooking but aren't sure how, let me know, I'd love to teach you.

Schools in!

2010-09-04T14:27:00.004-06:00

Ok so schools actually been in for a couple weeks now, but so has allergy season and I'm finally fog-free enough to post. The last couple of weeks of summer were spent getting ready for school and reveling in our last moments of no schedule. I took the kids ice-blocking with some friends one day. The kids loved it, even though they had a hard time staying on. Cole and Riian would go from the top of the hill and Jack and Izzy went from about 1/3 of the way up.

He did this most of the time

She generally made it down the hill most of the time

Jack after one of his crashes. Luckily he never went fast enough for the crashes to hurt and thought crashing and rolling was more fun then sliding

The kids were excited about their teachers this year. Cole has good friends in his class again, but since he's pretty good friends with everyone his grade that's not hard. Riian knows some of the people in her class but she makes friends so easily that I'm sure she'll have a best friend in a month. Jack has two friends in his class, but his best best friend isn't. But they do spend recess together. This is a picture of them together

Her mom and I are good friends and we're not sure if we should be worried about them yet...

Izzy just keeps asking when she can go to school. Now that the older 3 are in school all day, she gets a little lonely (apparently I'm not good enough company). The annual first day of school photos happened, including Izzy, who even though she was left out of going to school was not going to be left out of pictures

I'll leave you with a impromptu part-family shot. We all took Sam on a walk (except for Cole) and it was so hot that when we got back to our house Sam just collapsed in the shade and the rest of the family joined him

Vacation on the surface of the sun...

2010-08-11T10:45:00.004-06:00

... or in other words El Centro, California. If you've never been to El Centro, consider yourself lucky. My mom and dad both grew up there and I really don't know how they managed. But my grandma is still there so every 4 years or so we have a Lofgreen family reunion. This year they are having a cold front and so it only got up to about 110 while we were there. It is usually about 120 in August so this is quite cool. But we just know that you don't go outside and it is a lot of fun. It was great to see all my cousins and their kids. According to my aunt's stats there are 112 descendants of Glen and June Lofgreen right now, not nearly this many came, but it was fun to see those that did. It was also great that, although I brought my camera, I didn't have to take it out of the bag the entire trip. This is the great thing about having a brother who is a professional photographer, and who likes taking pictures of my kids as much as I do. So I will now give you a picture overload, none of which I took. Enjoy. I know I will.

The reunion started Thursday evening. We met at the church and had food and games. We at yummy carne asada (El Centro does have good Mexican, which is my favorite), and played games that Grandma Nisey made up.

Izzy'a monster face. I wish the monsters that lived under my bed were that cute

Jack loved basketball. I think we will have to sign him up this year. He was really good.

These are 5 of the 7 Lofgreen kids. Carli passed away about 10 years ago and Larry is just a bum and didn't come. From left to right: Gay, Lani, Laurie, Denise (my mom), Kjersti.

When we first got there we went to my aunt Kjersti's house to meet everyone and Uncle Justin took Cole and Riian swimming while the rest of us went and checked into the hotel. The pool isn't heated, but it still stays at about 85 degrees.

The next day was beach day. This is the real reason we love to come to El Centro. We drive up to San Diego's Pacific Beach and spend the day. I ended up really sun burned, but we all had fun. Cole, Riian and Nate spent the majority of the day boogie boarding. Grandma and I spent the majority of the day helping Izzy jump over the waves, and Jack spend the majority of the day running away from any waves. At least this year he actually got in the water.

Cole only has girl cousins his age and they decided to bury him in the sand...

...he didn't mind.

That night we went back to the church and did music and stories. My Grandpa was an amazing story teller but since he is no longer with us, my mom, who inherited his genes for story telling, told the grandkids and great-grandkids some of his old stories.

We have such a great family and I love being able to get together and see everyone. This is the woman who started this all

June Lofgreen, aka Grandma and GG-ma

And a very special thanks to my brother who takes all these fantastic pictures so I don't have to.

Thanks Grandpa Junkles

The week in pictures

2010-08-02T11:14:00.003-06:00

Another busy week for us. But with lots of things going on, there are also plenty of picture taking opportunities. This was Riian's last week of baseball, and what a week it was. Nate was the coach for her team this year and so we had to be to everything. Their team had their final practice Monday night and games Tuesday and Thursday. Riian had a great season. There were many times throughout the season where the other parents would remark that she was very good. And she was! She was one of the most consistent players on the team. Her batting was excellent, hitting it to the outfield almost everytime. She was able to stop the balls and made sure they didn't get past her. She loved playing catcher. She is quite the athlete.

On Friday it was super hot so we decided to check out a new-ish splash park near us. The kids were a little skeptical, but once we arrived, they were very excited to play. There was a fountain area and a "river" that the kids could play in. Cole quickly made friends with some other boys there and they raced water bottles down the river. By the end, even Izzy was racing through the fountains.

Saturday was Nate's work annual Backyard BBQ. The company goes crazy for this event. This year the kids enjoyed the water area, the blow up jump toys, the rock walls, laser tag, video arcade, face painting, crafts, midway games and of course a yummy dinner. Unfortunately about an hour after we got there it poured on us. It lasted for about and hour and a half but afterwards was quite nice. Izzy was also sick the whole time. She was running a fever and all she wanted to do was lay on the blanket we brought. She would get up occasionally to try things, but spent most of the day curled up on the blanket.

a rare smile

Now we are getting ready to head off to California for the week. The kids are excited to be going to the beach and to see Grandma and Grandpa Junkles (aka Justin). After that school starts and things start to settle down around here. Hope your week is a good one!

A Quick Break

2010-07-25T18:59:00.004-06:00

I'm going to update while I have a quick break in the summer. I am actually looking forward to school starting again, not because I'm tired of my kids, but because I'm tired of being so busy. There's rarely a night where we don't have to be somewhere. And for someone who is slightly agoraphobic, this does not please me. But we just returned from spending a week in Colorado, and we have another week before we leave for San Diego and another family reunion. So in the meantime, I'll post some pictures and updates. One of the things that has kept us so busy this year has been baseball. Jack finished up his season before we left for Colorado. Now all we have left is Riian, and she finishes up this week. Jack loved T-ball. He was very happy to be out there playing and would try to catch every ball that was hit (even if it was no where near him). When he would hit the ball he would run with gusto to his base. He says he wants to play again next year, but really want to do soccer, so we will try that

We went to Colorado for Aunt Damon's wedding. The wedding was last Saturday and while the women were busy cooking (my mom made all the food for the wedding and it was amazing and delicious), the dad's took the kids to Susan's house. She was gracious enough to get out her horses and play Grandma for a few hours so we could cook without the kids. The kids had so much fun. Cole and Riian loved the horses and spent the majority of the time on them. Even getting to the point where they were steering them by themselves. Then the kids (and dad's) took turns swinging on the tire swing. Izzy and Jack loved that. The higher the better in their mind.

I didn't take pictures of the wedding, I just wanted to be a guest this time. But it was great. The ceremony was short and sweet and then the fun began. As soon as Damon got engaged she told her fiance, Jeff, that she wanted to do a choreographed song for their first dance. So they took lessons and they did a cute swing dance. Then when Paul and Damon did the Daddy daughter dance, my mom and my other two sisters and I were bawling. Then there was lots of dancing and fun. We realized at the end of the night that Cole and Riian had been missing for quite some time. We finally found them by the lake catching crawdads... In their nice Sunday clothes. Oh well, that's what I get for not letting them change after the ceremony.

On Monday we went to Mesa Verde for the day. It has been about 20 years since I was last there, and since it it fairly close to Mom's house we decided to go. It was very hot and so hiking down to the cliffs was not very fun, but once we were down there and in the shade the kids had a great time seeing the ruins. We even were able to climb down a ladder into one of the houses.

On Monday night we went to the Encore performance. Nate and I were in Encore! when it was in Fort Collins many, many years ago. So knowing that we were going to be there, Mom set it up so that Nate could sing a song. Shea caught it on video (sorry the sound is so horrible)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TF1IwPLSt8

Jack loved getting up there and dancing. On Tuesday we saw a movie and watched Jessie in her play. She did a great job, unfortunately Cole got sick and threw up. Luckily in the toilet, but he didn't feel well. The next morning, Zoie, myself, Jessie and Mom were all sick. Luckily we were going home that day, so I was able to sleep in my own bed which made me feel much better.

Now we have a week to try and get ready for our next trip. Hopefully I'll get lots of nice beach pictures and not ruin my camera. If not, my brother and my cousin will be there and I'll just steal their pictures.

4th of July

2010-07-06T12:25:00.003-06:00

Independence day is one of my favorite holidays. In fact, after Christmas it is my favorite. I love the patriotism. I love to see all the flags flying. When I was younger I always went to Vail, Colorado. The performing group I was a part of was always invited to be a part of Vail America Days. So we would go up and perform around Vail for 3 days. We were always in the parade. It was fun to see all the people hanging out of their condos with their flags flying and wearing red, white, and blue. It was especially fun when we would drive under President Gerald Ford's condo. He was always out on his balcony, with his secret service just smiling and waving. On the 4th we would go to Avon to watch their fireworks. I have yet to see any city put on fireworks the way Avon, Colorado puts on theirs. It's all set to music, so when the words were "Amber waves of grain", they would shoot off gold fireworks or "Bombs bursting in air", they set off the loud fireworks. It is a great show. We would head to the city park in Avon, with our blankets and food, with frisbees or a football, cards and just play and hang out. I loved it! When we moved to Utah, Nate and I decided that there was no way to compete with Avon and since shooting off your own fireworks is legal in Utah, that is what we do every year. This year my sister made an impromptu trip up. The kids loved playing together and they were not ready to seperate when the time came. During the day we shot off parachutes and spiders and smoke bombs. Even little Zoie had her own smoke bomb. That night we got out the sparklers and the big fireworks. Our next door neighbors joined us as we sat in the driveway and watched Nate light off fireworks. Everyone loved it. We stayed up way to late, but luckily, it is summer so that means no school! Nate was the only one who had to drag himself out of bed the next day. Here are a few pictures of our day

Zoie loves Cole!

Jack with his snappers.

Hope you had a happy fourth!

6

2010-07-01T10:28:00.004-06:00

Yep, this little man turned 6 this week. On the 29th to be exact. He has been waiting for months for this day. So here's a little about Jack at 6.

-He loves school. Even in the summer he still wants to do workbooks so that it seems like he's in school. The most important thing about turning 6, was that he could now go to 1st grade

-He is extremely obedient and eager to please. He does whatever you tell him and wants to be a good boy.

-He doesn't like to be away from the house. He is quite the homebody

-He doesn't like to play outside. He would rather be inside doing workbooks, except for jumping on the tramp, which he loves

-He loves the color green

-He hates vegetables, but is willing to choke a couple down in order to eat more of what he does like

-He loves grilled chicken. He will out eat anyone when it comes to grilled chicken.

-He is definately a Momma's boy. Often telling Nate how much more he likes me then he likes him.

-He loves to sing and dance and you can often hear him humming a tune as he is walking around the house. He picks up tunes and words easily and after listening to a song only a couple of times, knows it by heart.

-His hands are usually covered in marker, because he loves to color and work in his workbooks, but always with markers. Therefore, we go through a lot of marker.

We love our Jackson and are so glad that he is a part of our family

The rest of June

2010-07-01T09:48:00.004-06:00

June has been one busy month for us. So much for the lazy summer days. Between baseball, softball, swimming lessons, trips to the library, chores, fun fridays, a visit from Grandma, and Girls Camp. There doesn't seem to be much lazy time. Nate's mom was in town this past week. It was nice for the kids to be able to spend time with her. We only see her about twice a year, so it's nice when she comes out. She brought Jack his quilt. She is making a quilt for all her grandchildren and she just finished Jack's. He loved it.

We spent one night with her telling us stories of life on a farm when she was growing up. Cole and Riian love to hear stories of when their grandparents were kids so they enjoyed this.

Jack and Izzy have been enthralled with having "picnics" for lunch. I pack up their lunch in a brown paper bag and we get out a blanket and they eat it in the front yard. They used to eat it on the tramp, but it's too hot to sit there in the middle of the day now

There is a semi-new bike trail behind our house, and we have been making good use of it. We are teaching Jack to ride a bike and this bike path is an excellent way. It is straight and smooth so he can just ride to his heart's content. There are also benches set out along the path so that we can rest and drink water along the way. Cole sometimes grumbles about these outings as he hates being in the heat, but, mean Mom that I am, I make him come with us anyway

We had a good father's day. Didn't do much this year, but it was nice to be home together. I did get a good picture of Nate with the kids. Nate is such a great father. He loves to spend time with the kids and truly enjoys them. He is often the patient one as I rant about something one of them did. We usually take turns putting them to bed every night, but lately he has been doing it every night, which has been a great relief to me. I love this picture with all the kids around him. They all adore him and I'm so thankful for him. I'm not sure why Jack is making a face, but he was actually quite happy

Jack's birthday was on the 29th. He turned the big 6! He has been waiting for this day for months. Telling us exactly what he was going to do and what he wanted. He woke up to this...

All his presents were wrapped and ready to be opened, but he had to wait for everyone to wake up first. He was very excited when we all decided to roll out of bed. He got everything he asked for. Workbooks, I-Spy books, Small plaster animals that he could paint, new markers, and just for fun I threw in a sprinkler toy. He was so excited after each present he opened. He is the best person to watch open presents, he gets so much joy from each one. We went to Kneaders for lunch, his favorite restaurant. That night he wanted Root Beer floats for his dessert, but decided sort of at the last minute that he wanted a cake so he could blow out candles. He wanted me to surprise him with what kind, so I made him my favorite. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He didn't eat any of it, but enjoyed blowing out the candles

Jack also has a blue blanket that he has had since birth. He takes this blanket everywhere with him, hence the nick name of Linus, but it was completely falling apart so we've been telling him for months that when he was 6 he would have to throw it away. So first thing after he opened his presents, he ran up and got his blue blanket and without a tear, threw it away. I think I was more choked up about this then he was.

That pretty much sums up the month of June for us. Baseball is over for Cole, they were forth in the league going into the playoffs, but lost their first two games so they were eliminated. Cole had a great season and we are very proud of how he has grown. We are taking it easy for the next week or so and then heading to Colorado for my sisters wedding on the 15th of July. It will be the first time in a number of years that we've been to my mom's house in Durango, she usually comes up to our house. I've had to assure Izzy a number of times that there is no mud at Grandma's house. During the winter we told Izzy about all the mud at Grandma's house and that it "eats your shoes". We didn't know how truly concerning this was to her, and she has been a little hesitant to go there. I truly love the lazy summer days, and I am hoping that soon we will have some, but I'm not holding my breath

Videos!

2010-06-06T19:41:00.005-06:00

Things are plugging along here. May was a very busy month. Between baseball games, baseball practices, softball games and end of the year school celebrations, we have kept ourselves running in circles. The kids have now been out of school for a week and our calendar has not lightened. In addition to baseball and softball, we have added swimming. But I love having the kids out of school and not having such a tight schedule.

Jack's surgery went really well. He has been sleeping much better and is no longer the "grumpy old man" that we associate with him. He seems to handle things better, especially Izzy. He is willing to try new things and seems to enjoy life a bit more now. He graduated from Kindergarten and got the official word that he can now go to 1st grade. I remember as a kid always being a little nervous that I wouldn't have made it to the next grade. Being a parent now I see how really hard it would be to fail elementary school, but I could see Jack's relief when he had that slip of paper that said he was officially a 1st grader.

Izzy is excited that her kids can spend all day with her. She has really started to enjoy playing with other kids and asks about every 5 minutes if the neighbor boys are out and if she can play with them.

Cole and Riian are excited to be able to play night games. Our neighborhood has a lot of children, and during the summer you can hear kids out til 10:30 at night. I am the mean mom that only lets them play 3x a week and they have to be back by 9, but they do enjoy the freedom

For Nate's birthday I got him a new video camera. We got one for Christmas a year a go and it promptly broke. So this time I made sure to buy lots of extra coverage just in case. We've been making very good use of it and I'm excited to be able to do some videos on my blog.I'm still trying to figure out the whole uploading and getting the quality as good as I'd like, but you can sort of see the kids. These videos are of the kids' dance festival. During the last week of school, the school puts on a dance festival. Every class has a dance that they do and then they invite the parents to watch. It's always an enjoyable time

This is Cole's. He is the one in the orange shorts. He had been telling me previously how easy his song was because it was just the same steps over and over. Well it was, but it was fun to see him enjoy it.

Riian is in the red t-shirt. I lost track of her half-way through the song, but I found her again. She said she loved performing especially in front of an audience.

I was quite surprised that Jack knew his song. He had missed the week and a half previous to this, but he picked up on the choreography quite well. Luckily he already knew the song. He is wearing the blue hawaiian shirt.

Forgotten...

2010-06-05T22:31:00.001-06:00

Well not so much forgotten as just pushed aside for the moment. I am planning on a good post tomorrow so stay tuned...

Outlander and 24

2010-05-02T21:44:00.005-06:00

My blog has suffered as of late. But I do have a very good reason. Well it may not be a good reason, but it is a reason. I would like to blame Keri and Shea for my departure. I have been sucked into the book series "Outlander" and the television series "24". All my spare time is being used in pursuing one of these time consuming distractions. There are 7 books in the Outlander series and I just started book 6. There are 7 season of 24 and I just started season 4. I have a ways to go. I know, I should be spending my time more wisely, but I am enjoying the books and I'm sure any of you who have read them may be shocked and appalled that I am reading them, but I love historical fiction and that is why I am reading them ;) I have managed to take some pictures this month.

Easter was a little bit of a let down. We woke up to snow Easter morning. The kids were anxious to do their egg hunt, but we decided to wait until after church to see if the snow would melt. It didn't so we had an indoor Easter egg hunt. We had to find some creative places to put the eggs, but the kids enjoyed it never the less.

I have the cutest little neighbor boys. One afternoon I was interrupted from reading my book by a knock on the door. I was a little grumpy about having to stop reading, but that quickly changed when I saw the oldest two boys (ages 4 and 3) standing on my doorway with a bouquet of flowers they had picked for me. I'm not sure whose tree they broke them off of, but I appreciated them none the less. They adorned my table for a few days and made me happy.

I love bath time. It's the time at the end of the day when I can scrub the grease and grime off of the kids. It calms them down, and lets face it, it gives my about 15 minutes of uninterrupted reading time. Unfortunately, only one of my children likes bath time. I'll let you guess which one.

My birthday was on the 10th and I received an iPod touch. I have been hinting with increasing consistency to Nate that I want an iPhone, he refuses to pay for the monthly plan, but decided to get me and iPod touch. I do love it, but it has caused some problems. First, the kids realize how cool it is and spend more time on it then I do.

The second is that it makes me want and iPhone even more.

Spring is in the air, which in Utah means, you never know if it will be sunny or snowy. My kids have taken every opportunity to play in the sun whenever it shows its face.

This is the result of being in the sun all day, it is also one reason why I love summer

We also took Izzy in for her first dentist appointment. The dentist determined that the enamel didn't full cover a couple of her molars and wanted to fill it. This was one of the worst days of the month and still makes me angry at the dentist when I think about it. We went in for a 9:10 appointment. Sat in the waiting room until 10:00. We were brought back to the room where they put the laughing gas on Izzy, which is a big scary mask. Left her there for 20 minutes. Came back in and numbed her, again leaving her for about 15 minutes, in which time she severely chewed up her lip. Came back in, at which point the dentist realized she didn't have the laughing gas on and put it back on and waiting another 15 minutes. He then proceeded to roughly yank her jaw open to fix the tooth. Meanwhile she was screaming and her lip was totally bloody. And Nate wonders why I hate dentists. Her lip was huge and very sore for the next couple of days

But she recovered and is her old self again

We have started our garden. We planted the potatoes outside, but everything else we started inside. The kids were each able to have a starter kit and plant their seeds. They are growing like weeds and need to be planted outside, and will, as soon as it stops snowing

Well that was a little longer then I had planned. I suppose I will have to finish my book and T.V. show soon so that my posts won't be so long as to bore everyone. Baseball season is officially in swing (ha, ha). Which means the summer is almost here. Jackson has his surgery this Friday, so any prayers in his direction would be great. He is scared. And now I am off to bed.

Lull

2010-04-05T11:01:00.002-06:00

That's what my life has been in lately. A lull. That's not a bad thing. It just is. I was at a family get together on Friday and we were talking about blogs and I mentioned to my cousin that it I don't write as often as I should or maybe even want to because my life doesn't change that much. I don't feel it is interesting enough to blog about. She mentioned that maybe not, but documenting what you are doing as a family, even if I am the only one who is interested in it, is something that is important. That one day I'll be glad to go back and read the day to day things that I thought were so boring. So thanks Lins, I am going to sit down and write my boring life. I have actually been taking a class online. It's a scrapbooking class, but it's focused on journaling and making it better. Since I have to write for that everyday, I haven't felt like writing something on my blog. I'm about to start into another two week session, so I thought I'd write down some thoughts before I get too tired of writing and ignore this blog again. I was thinking last night about what I wanted to write about, again not much interesting here. And I thought that while I am extrememly busy, it's not with what most people would think exciting. I could tell you how many noses I've wiped today, or bottoms I've wiped (I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats to know that one!), how many times I've told kids to stop argueing with each other, or stories I've read, tears I've wiped. Though these make for one tired Mama, they're not exciting. My mom is coming to stay for just a night tomorrow. They are on their way to Hawaii and they are flying out of Salt Lake on Wednesday. Her life is much more exciting then mine (althoug getting her to blog would be like trying to get Jackson to eat vegetables), my sister is leaving for Brazil this week, her life is very exciting (and I'm sure she will blog about it). My brother is a world traveler and photographer who is starting his own business. His life is very exciting (he sometimes blogs about it here). But according to worldly views, but life is not very exciting. But I am ok with that. In fact I am great with that! I love the little moments with my kids. I love that I am lucky enough to stay home with them and get to know each of them very well. I love that I am the one raising them. I know that many people don't have that option, but I am greatful that I do. So while it seems very unexciting, especially when I talk to people and they ask what's new, and I have nothing to tell them. Nothing is new. Nate is still working (which I am very greatful for), I am still staying home. The kids are still going to school. I hit my knee the other day and now I have a bruise on it. That's new. Albeit not surprising, but new.

But I do have pictures to share. That's really all people want to see. So here are some pictures that I took about a month ago when we went to Las Vegas for the weekend. We were there over Shea's birthday and Izzy and Bern's birthday were the next week, so we had a big party for all three of them. We went to a wonderful children's museum but I of course forgot my camera. I think the adults may have liked it even more then the kids. They had a room that would "freeze" your shadow. You stood against a white wall and then a bright light would flash and your shadow would be on the wall. My sister, mom and I had great fun doing different poses together and after a bit of time realized that no one was supervising the children.

This was Izzy's cake.

This was Shea's

Saturday morning we turned on music and the kids danced around the room for about an hour

Izzy and Zoie enjoyed eating Grandma's mini drumsticks. Thanks Grandma!

We were planning on having a big BBQ at the park, but it was so windy on Saturday. So we took the kids to the park anyway and then came home to BBQ.

When I say the kids, I'm including Grandma

Oh I guess I do have something new that happened. We found out last week that Jack needs his tonsils and adnoids removed. Nate and I noticed that while he was sleeping his breathing would "pause". We took him in and his pediatrician sent him to an ear nose and throat specialist who took one look and declared they had to come out. I guess they rate tonsils from 1 to 4 and his were a 4+. The doctor says that he has no room in his throat and that is why he will stop breathing at night. Poor Jack hasn't gotten a good night's sleep for probably a couple of years. He talked about how children with this problem tend to be tired all the time, moody, anti-social, they're not very active and sometimes even on the small side. All of which descripe Jack to a T. They can't get him in until May 7, but we are glad that we were able to catch it.

I hope that all of you have more exciting lives then I do and if you don't, I hope that you are as happy with your dullness as I am with mine.

Happy Birthday!

2010-03-18T14:54:00.002-06:00

She is 3! My baby, my youngest, my last is no longer a toddler any more but is officially a preschooler. A curious, never-ending, constant source of joy, preschooler.

So a little about Izzy. She is precocious. I think that is a nice way of say that she's a handful. She is quite bossy and thinks the whole world, or at least her world, revolves around her. She's not completely wrong there.

She is silly and twirly and dancey and singy (I know, I know those aren't even words). She loves to make up her own songs and dances. She loves all things sparkly and anytime we are in Costco she makes me stop at the jewelry display so she can see the diamonds. She is a girly girl through and through. But don't let that fool you. She can definitely hold her own.

She loves Riian. She awaits anxiously every day for Riian to get home from school so they can play together. She loves dresses and bows in her hair. She loves dogs especially Sam. She loves to give Jack hugs, although I think that is because she knows that he hates it. She loves to eat and especially loves fruit and vegetables.

We are certainly glad that she is ours. She makes us laugh everyday with her silly ways and inquisitive nature. She is definitely a Mommies girl, but since I have all morning to spend with her by herself, that is OK. We love you Izzy!

Updates

2010-03-08T11:12:00.003-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated on each member of the family. It's been a while since I've updated at all. But there's not much happening in the Brown household, so I'll go ahead and update on us

Izzy is quite the almost 3 year old. She is pretty sure she is 3 and won't believe us when we tell her she has another week before her birthday. She is the little mom of the family. She makes sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to do and that everything is in order. Luckily the kids don't get bothered by her bossiness, they just laugh at her. She is my girly girl. Her day can not start until she has a skirt or dress on and her hair done, with a bow in it. The bow is very important. She gets away with way too much. Last night she didn't go to bed until 11 because she kept getting up for various reasons and Nate and I would snuggle her for a while and then put her back to bed. Her newest thing is that she gets all her stuffed animals and lays them on her pillow so that they can sleep and then will come downstairs to tell us there is no room for her on her bed. She loves her big sister. She waits anxiously every day for her to come home so they can play together. She has also discovered that if I say no to something, she can go get it herself. I often find her in the kitchen getting herself some yogurt, or an apple, or fruit snacks, or whatever she seems to want at the moment.

Jack has had a rough few weeks. About 3 weeks ago he was complaining that his ears and throat hurt. We took him to the doctor and is turned out that he had ear infections in both ears and strep throat. We started him on antibiotics and the next day he was feeling back to normal. He took the antibiotics for 10 days. About 5 days later I got a call from the school saying that Jack was crying uncontrollably that his ear and throat hurt again. I picked him up and took him back to the pediatrician and sure enough the ear infections and strep throat were back. This time it took him a couple days before he felt any better and the antibiotic that he is on now is really yucky so it's a challenge to get him to take it twice a day. Other then that Jack is great. He is our comic relief. Unfortunately, I don't think it's on purpose. He's just such a character. I already told you about his OCD, but he also will decide at random that he doesn't like someone. But he has a great sense of humor and has the greatest laugh so when he laughs the rest of us can't help but laugh with him. His teacher loves him in school. Because he's always loved academics, he came to school already knowing how to read. They want the kindergartner's to be reading on a level 1 by this time and a level 3 by the end of the year. He is already at a level 7. His teacher has sent home 2 grade high frequency words so that he we can help him at home. He is excited to finally play T-ball this summer, his birthday isn't until the end of June, so when all his friends were playing, he wasn't old enough.

Riian is growing up way to fast. I keep thinking she's 6 but then I have to remind myself that she is 8 and will turn 9 before the year is through. She is very sweet and thoughtful. She is great with her younger brother and sister. At her parent teacher conference her teacher said she was one of her favorite students. She is exceeding expectations in all subjects and her teacher said that she was a leader in her class. She said that if something happens or the teacher asks the kids to something different, all the kids will wait to see what Riian does and then they follow her. Luckily, she is so kind and doesn't leave anyone out that she makes a good leader. She is our quiet one. She doesn't have a whole lot to say and is content just sitting back and listening to her siblings. She is very active and is the one who is the most excited that the weather is getting warmer. Everyone loves Riian. She and Nate were able to attend their first Daddy Daughter dance a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited. Nate took her out to dinner first and then they went to the school. The dance lasted a couple of hours and she was all smiles when she got home

Cole is Cole. He is at that awkward age, where he is not quite old enough to hang out with the adults, but too old to play with the little kids. Therefore he struggles alot with trying to figure out where he fits in. He has a lot of energy and it is very hard for him to sit still. If he doesn't have a project that he is doing he will occupy his time with torturing his siblings. He also is pretty sure that he is smarter then Nate and I. He will try to correct us on almost everything we say. He likes to argue. Sometimes he argues just to argue. Although, he gets that from his dad so we can't be too hard on him. But with all the struggles that he's going through right now he is still a great kid. He is a good example to his friends. His school teacher also loves him. She says that he has a great sens of humor, and although he is silly in class, he knows when to reign it in and pay attention. He is very helpful at home, he will do pretty much anything I ask with out complaint. I've even been able to leave him with the kids a couple of times when I've had to run out real quick. He has a great sense of humor and can be very funny. Nate and I enjoy hanging out with him and he is now old enough that he understands most games so that gives us a third person to play with.

Nate and I are still here. Nate finished up a play that our stake put on entitled "An Evening with Joseph and Emma". He played the part of Joseph Smith. I didn't enjoy the music, but I thought he did a great job. It is nice to have him home again and we are planning on having him here for a while. His Grandmother passed away this morning, so he is going to try and attend the funeral in Fort Collins later this week. I am just doing the same old thing. Staying home with Izzy during the day. Doing many loads of laundry. Occasionally deciding I should clean the house. Playing with the Young Women on Tuesday evenings. We are leaving this week to go see my sister in Vegas, and I am anxious to be in a warm place for a while

On Friday the kids were out of school for an inservice and we woke up to 8 inches of snow. They were very excited and played in it all morning. Which was good because it was mostly melted by the time Nate got home that evening.

The kids and I have been reading the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series. And we went the see "The Lightening Thief" on Saturday. So Cole decided to make a Percy Jackson snowman

It was a fun movie, nothing like the book, but fun all the same.
Thanks for taking the time to read. If any of you have blogs that I don't know about, let me know, I love to live vicariously through others.

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-15T13:32:00.006-07:00

So, I'm no big fan of Valentines. Every year I moan and gripe about it and my husband asks why I don't like it and I don't really have a good reason, but I just don't like it. Maybe it's the expectancy of everything. Expected to be kind to those you love, expected to be extra romantic that day. And then even though you don't want to, you expect things from other people. You expect them to treat you somehow better that day, or expect flowers or some other token of love. Maybe it's because I think that people try so hard to be this way on Valentines, but I think we should be this way every other day. But even though I protest how much I don't like Valentines, if my husband doesn't try to do anything special, I feel let down and not appreciated. Anyway as I said, I really don't like this holiday. But my kids get really excited about, so I try to do something special for them. I started the traditon a few years ago that our Valentines dinner would be Lasagna. My kids love Italian. Absolutely love it. I don't make it nearly as often as they would like because I can't really have the pasta. But I make lasagna on Valentines. Along with salad and rolls, sometimes Jell-o, although this year I didn't. I also make chocolate fondue for dessert. The kids think it is one of the best meals of the year. I did a very simple table decorating job. I just had some tiny table candles that I put in front of everyone's place. Cole, Izzy and Jack promptly blew theirs out as soon as the prayer was said.

Nate got the girls and I flowers this year. He got a dozen pink roses and a dozen yellow roses and gave one of each to each of the girls and the rest to me. Our house has been very pretty with the extra flowers here and there. Izzy loved her rose and smells them frequently throughout the day

All the kids had their Valentines day parties at school on Friday. I was asked to do the craft for Cole's class. I came up with these Hersey Kiss roses that turned out fairly cute

Friday afternoon my doorbell rang and I opened it to find this on my front door

It was probably the best Valentine I received this year

In other news, Izzy is officially potty trained! She does wear pull-ups at night, but other than that she goes fully on the potty now. Without me having to remind her.

Speaking of Izzy, I did this to her the other day

I felt completely horrible and walked straight upstairs and clipped my fingernails.

Izzy has, for the most part, stopped taking naps. She will occasionally, but only if she had a late night or something. So it was kind of surprise when we got home from church a couple weeks ago and she went straight up to her room, grabbed her blankie and asked if Daddy could snuggle her. Nate was doing something in the kitchen at the time so he told her to go wait on the couch and he would be right there. About 2 minutes later, he walked in there and told me to come and look. She was wiped out and couldn't wait any longer.

This last picture needs a little explanation

It may seem like a fairly unextraordinary picture. But let me explain. First of all let me tell you this is Jack's cereal bowl. He eats cereal everyday for breakfast. He doesn't like anything but cereal. He also doesn't like milk in it. Also, if you notice there are only purple and blue and a couple of green fruit loops left. He eats his cereal in rainbow order. You know, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. He has already finished his red, orange and yellows and is almost finished with his green and ready to move on to blue. We're pretty sure he has OCD.

I have been trying to remember to take a picture a day. I'm not gonna lie. I haven't remembered. But I have taken many more then I usually do this time of year. It's made me think of what I'm doing or else plan something to do so that I can take a picture. The weather is a little nicer and the kids have been able to play outside a bit the past couple of days. Of course it's yucky and rainy today so the kids are stuck inside, but we had some reprieve from our cabin fever.

Happenings and Good News

2010-01-24T11:23:00.003-07:00

I may have mislead you on the title a bit. There aren't really very many happenings at the Brown household. Well at least nothing out of the ordinary. I do however have pictures of all the non-happenings. Maybe that is what I should have titled this blog. Okay that is the new title "Non-happenings and Good News". Anyway, usually I don't take very many pictures in January as there aren't very many happenings. The cool down from the holiday season, and it still being extremely cold outside, make it so that we spend a lot of time indoors and recuperating during January. But this year I actually have some pictures. I took a cue from my Aunt Laurie and decided to take a picture a day. And while I won't share all of them with you, it has been nice for me to actually have to think about our everyday life. I have remembered to take a picture of the messes and such before I make the kids clean up. So that is what I will share with you this post. Our everyday life.

This is what my basement looked like during Winter break and the first part of January

Imagine that all over. It looks better now, well maybe not right now as it is Sunday and my kids think that means they can make a huge mess and not have to clean it up.

I came upstairs a couple of weeks ago after putting some laundry in and picking up the basement a bit, to find my refrigerator wide open and the fresh carton of eggs that I had just purchased the day before sitting on the table. Izzy had managed to crack 6 of the 12. I was impressed however that most of the egg stayed in the bowl and there was hardly a mess to clean.

Izzy is really into Princesses lately so I picked her up a princess sticker book at CostCo. We have been spending time during the day, putting stickers in her sticker book

I don't make cookies very often because if I do I will eat them. But occasionally I will whip up a batch of them. My kids' favorite thing is to eat the cookie dough. Especially chocolate chip cookies. They wait anxiously for me to finish mixing it so that they can have a spoonful or two of the dough

Nate's mom came to visit and we played a lot of these:

She also brought the kids little word search books. And since "I Spy" games are Jacks favorite thing, this was just another version of those. He didn't let that book down all week.

We went to a train show yesterday. Nate's dad was really into trains and so train shows have a special meaning for Nate. He wanted to take the kids to see some. It was sweet to see him explain to the kids the different kinds and occasionally get chocked up as it reminded him of his dad. Our favorite part was the Lego area.

Riian started the piano this fall and it is fun to see her enjoy it so much. She especially loves the theory. She says it reminds her of math, which she loves (I'm not sure she is actually related to me).

Izzy has also decided that she wants to play the piano. She loves to compose her own songs. I came home this morning to find her at the piano as well. No she is not sleeping, she just really gets into her songs

And now for the good news. As any of you who have read this blog know, I have been battling severe anemia for sometime. In October I finally went to see a hematologist and we have been working through some things and doing weekly iron treatments. We got the news back last week that my iron levels went from 2 to 32 after our 8 weeks of treatments. They want them in the 50's so I have to do 4 more treatments, but after years of nothing working, this is good news for us. So if anyone wants to visit, I will be full of energy and vitality (at least I will in a couple of weeks)!

This one...

2010-01-04T16:42:00.004-07:00

...is driving me crazy!

Don't get me wrong. I love him to pieces. He really is a great kid. He is a great friend. He is a good influence, I've had a few of his friends parents say how happy they are that their son's are friends with Cole because he is such a good influence. He does really well in school. He is very helpful with Izzy and does most things I ask him to do without complaint. But right now... I'm not sure how much longer he'll last! Thank you. That is all.

Riian's Baptism

2010-01-04T16:32:00.003-07:00

Riian turned 8 on December 31st. In the LDS religion, a child can get baptized when they turn 8 years old. So on Saturday Riian was baptized. She was very excited to be baptized. She asked Nate to baptize her and Grandpa Paul to confirm her. My family came up and Grandma Nisey gave a great talk on baptism. Cole and Riley sang a beautiful song. Riian said that her favorite part was when she received the Holy Ghost, Nate said his favorite part was when he saw Riian in her dress for the first time. My favorite part was seeing how happy Riian was. We are so very proud of her and this choice that she made. Way to go Riian!

December Wrap Up

2010-01-04T15:44:00.004-07:00

So I told you that I probably wouldn't write until after the new year. But December was very busy so I'll post some pictures and give a quick synopsis. December was full of choir concerts,

excitement (sorry for the grainy picture)

new Christmas ornaments

baking:

traditions:
(gingerbread houses)

(temple square)

(stockings)

snow:

(sam could only find the warm sun on top of all the shoes)

family:

eating candy canes and discovering blue tongues:

reindeer:

birthdays:
(Riian wanted banana splits instead of cake, so this is her "cake")

games:

and just all around happy moments:

Disneyland

2009-11-20T09:00:00.002-07:00

We got back this week from a wonderful 10 day vacation. The basis for this vacation was 3 days in Disneyland. We've been planning this for a year so it was great to finally go. We left on Saturday the 7th and drove to Vegas. My mother met us there and we spent a couple days hanging out at Shea's new house. We celebrated Cole's birthday on Monday night. Shea made a cake that resembled Cole's favorite thing

There were pizza and presents and lots of good company. Both my mom and my dad were able to be there and Cole was very happy about that. On Tuesday morning, very early, we left for Disneyland. We arrived at about 11 and were able to do an early check in at our hotel, where Grandpa Junkles (AKA Uncle Justin) met us. We then spent 3 extremely magical days in Disneyland. The kids had a wonderful time riding the rides. Cole and Riian tried to get on as many of the roller coasters as they could. This was the first time either of them had been on roller coasters, and they loved them. They wanted to ride all of them again, except Riian would not ride the Tower of Terror a second time. I don't blame her, it wasn't my favorite ride. Jack didn't like the roller coasters and preferred the smaller rides with Izzy. He loved the ferris wheel. Izzy loved any ride she was able to go on. There were a couple of smaller roller coasters she was tall enough to go on, and she loved them. Her favorite was the carousel, she went on it about 5 times every day. She also loved Pirates of the Caribbean. I think the family favorite was Toy Story Midway Mania. We all loved that ride and we wish we would have discovered it before the last day. Cole's actual birthday was on Wednesday, so we took him to the Lego store and he was able to pick out a couple of Lego sets that he wanted. It was so great to have the kids experience Disneyland with my family. They even sang along with Grandma in the Pirates of the Caribbean

Cole, Riian and Riley were able to do a Jedi training academy, which they all loved

This was Jack's favorite part of Disneyland

After Disneyland we drove back to Vegas and Nate flew out to his sister's wedding in Yakima Washington. We spent one day just recouperating at Shea's house. I think everyone slept most of the day. I was also able to try my hand at being an actual photographer. Shea wanted some pictures of her family taken so I said I would do it. Of the dozens of pictures I took, I got about 8 that I liked. I suppose that's not bad, but it made me realize how much more work I have to do to get my picture taking ability to be where I want it. You can view those pictures here.

Now we are home and frantically getting ready for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Usually by this time I've started purchasing presents or at least have an idea of what I'm getting people. This year I don't have a clue. We are spending Thanksgiving at home this year so I also have to plan a Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully I will write again before the end of the year, but I make no promises. So in case this is the last. Happy Thanksgivng, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The rest of October

2009-11-02T22:05:00.003-07:00

October has come and gone with much ado. The holiday season has officially come upon us. My favorite time of the year. I'm already secretly listening to Christmas music (shh... don't tell my husband). Nate's play is almost over. It's actually officially over, but I'm convinced the director will never actually let them go. He finished Saturday, but apparently they didn't get as good as recording as they wanted, so he's back tonight until all hours of the morning until the director is satisfied with the recording. And then the cast party tomorrow. I'm waiting for him to come back and tell me he has to do something next week so we won't be able to go on our trip. The rest of us have just been busy with school stuff and Halloween stuff. Cole has been busy building legos. I am quite impressed with his creativity. I am definately not creative when it comes to building or designing, but he comes up with the most creative things like this...

and a side view

We did the traditional pumpkin patch thing. We really like the pumpkins at The Vineyard pumpkin patch so we took the kids there and went through their corn maze and other activities

Izzy didn't quite get that she was just supposed to look through the hole

We also had our first taste of winter. We didn't get as much snow as Colorado, but enough that the snow clothes were brought out a little early and the kids were able to make small snowmen.

We carved pumpkins again this year. Jack really had fun poking the design on his pumpkin, but when we told him that he would have to help clean it out, he was a little less then impressed. Cole ended up making two pumpkins this year, one for the house and one for a book report he had to do. Izzy just had fun playing in the bowl of pumpkin guts

And of course Halloween. Riian out trick-or-treated us all. She ended up with about twice as much candy as everyone else. Izzy was a princess this year, Jack was a ghost, Riian was a phantom, Cole was Hyde, and Nate and I were doctors. Really I just wanted a reason to spend all day in my pajamas and not have people look at me funny. We still have way too much left over candy and I can slowly feel my teeth rotting and my waistline expanding.

That about sums up the rest of our month. I did finally end up seeing a hematolagist about my iron. She decided to do 8 weekly treatments of iron and see what that does. So every Tuesday from now until about Christmas, I get to go in and have iron pumped into my body. I'm really hoping that by Christmas I will be so full of energy I won't know what to do with myself.
I will leave you with a gratuitious shot of Izzy. This one was just too cute to pass up. We were at the school awaiting the kids Halloween parade and she was enjoying her sucker.

Favorite Photo

2009-10-11T17:08:00.002-06:00

I took this photo of Jack this past summer and after playing with it in Photoshop, came up with a project that I really like. Now the only question is how to display it. Any suggestions?

September?... September?

2009-10-07T10:54:00.004-06:00

September seems to have gotten the best of me this year, and it came and went with great speed. It is already October and our fall is filling up quickly. November and December are pretty much booked and October is starting to fill up quickly. This always seems to happen this time of year. Just when I want things to slow down so I can enjoy the season, it goes by way to fast. This is Nate's last month in his play. It opens on the 15th and runs through the 31st. We are all extrememly happy that it is almost done. The kids are around here somewhere. I am currently trying to convince my doctor to give me more iron. That's really about it in the Brown household. I'll just turn some time over to some pictures, as they tell much better stories then I do

This was Cole's "final" for his unit on Utah. We had to bake a Utah shaped cake, and then he took it to school along with candy to use for mountains, plateus, dessert, lakes, and rivers. Then the teacher asked them where such things were and they had to place them correctly. It was a neat way to end a unit.

I took the kids to the schools free skate night and they tried skating, but mostly they enjoyed playing on the bounce toys

This is how Izzy eats her pizza. Cheese first, then crust

Izzy has decided to fight fire with fire

This is what she does everyday as she waits for Jackson or the other kids to come home from school

This is the scene every week night as the kids do their homework

This is the face I get every week night when I tell Izzy she can't color on the kids' homework

A couple of weekends ago we went up the canyon to hike and enjoy the fall foliage. After about a mile trail, we came out onto a lovely open meadow area.

I would love to say this was a completely candid photo and that he wasn't posing, but that would be a lie

Tired

2009-09-15T18:15:00.003-06:00

The Browns are tired. Why are the Browns tired? Well...

Izzy is tired because she has figured out how to open doors. So after we put her to bed at 8, she is not content until she has come out of her room 5-6 times. Usually not falling asleep until about 10. She is also tall enough to reach the light switch so her room light is often on, until 10 at night.

Riian is tired because Izzy is up turning on the light and trying to talk to her until 10 at night. And she doesn't have the luxury of sleeping in because she has school in the morning

Jack is tired because his older brother, who can't sleep past 6 to save his life, is a very noisy person. And no matter how quiet he tries to be, he can't help but jump out of bed, literally, open and close bedroom and bathroom doors with as much gusto as possible. So Jack, therefore, wakes up at about 6 every morning. By the time he as to go to school at 8:30, he is ready for a nap

Cole is tired because... actually Cole may be the only one who isn't tired

Britt is tired because her husband is in a play and he doesn't get home until after midnight every night. He also is only home for maybe 2 hours a day, on a good day, so I am physically worn out as well as emotionally drained. At least it's not iron related this time. That is something.

Nate is tired because of said play. Unfortunately for him, he is the only one of us I don't feel sorry for. He gets home very late every night, but he is enjoying every minute of it.

So I'm sure there is alot of updating that needs to happen, and several cute pictures that need to be posted. But I'm tired. And having to think that much is hard work. And now I better be off, my 15 minutes of free time is up and Nate is headed out the door.

3 down...

2009-08-30T09:56:00.004-06:00

This week was Jack's official start to school. After a week of "Why don't I get to go to school today". It was finally his turn. If you asked him, he said that he wasn't nervous or scared to go to kindergarten. But as I dropped him off that first day, I could see the apprehension in his face. I can understand this, I mean this kid loves to learn. He spends hours doing workbooks. He can already read, count to 100, he can add and subtract, he just loves to learn, but at the same time, he is a homebody. He takes after his mom in this aspect. He likes to be home, he likes having all his comforts around him, especially his blue blankie that he isn't allowed to take to school, but carries it with him wherever he goes if he's at home (we have nicknamed him Linus). So when I saw the apprehension on his face, I knew what he was probably going through. But despite these fears, he loves school. On the way home from school I was asking him about his day, did he meet any new friends, does he remember their names. He said he did make friends but, he didn't remember any of their names. I then asked who he played with at recess. He couldn't remember their names. I then asked who sat by him. At this point I think he was a little frustrated with me and responded "As I told you before, mother, I don't remember any of their names". Apparently parents can be a little exasperating at times.

Nate was gone all this past week. He left Sunday and got back late Friday night. I must say that I do not enjoy it when he is gone. I don't sleep very well. I spent the first 21 years of my life sleeping by myself and now after only 11, I can't sleep unless he's there. On top of that I had really bad allergies. I never had them growing up, and really not very much at all as I've gotten older. The Cottonwoods has always bothered me a little, but that was about it. But the past week has been awful. I don't know what is in the air right now, but my body doesn't like it. Both Cole and Riian have asked on multiple occasions, why I was crying. I had to explain that my eyes were just watering and I wasn't sad. I did pretty well though. Despite the lack of sleep and not feeling well, I was functioning quite well. And then Nate came home and was home all yesterday and I think my body could finally relax, and I felt exhausted and just achy and sick. I got a good night's rest last night and feel much better except for a nose like a faucet and eyes that are constantly teary. Oh well. Nate enjoyed his conference in Chicago, but was glad to be home. Now he just has to do a presentation on anything he learned while he was there. I would love to tell you what it is he learned, but he talks to me about in computer programmer language, and I haven't mastered that dialect yet.

The other kids are still really excited about school. Cole loves that there are twin girls in his class. He has a crush on them, and if I ask him which one he says "It doesn't matter, I can't tell them apart". Riian is busy making new friends, in a class where she had none. The other day she got a note from someone in her class. It said "Do you want to be my BFF". After she read it to me she turned to me and said "That means Best Friends Forever". I told her I may seem old but I do indeed know what a "BFF" is.

Izzy is trying to busy herself without any of her siblings here. She doesn't understand why they get to go to school every morning and she doesn't. She keeps asking me "Where are my guys?". Her favorite thing is to jump on the tramp with them. At first you had to be very gentle when you bounced with her. But now she can bounce with the best of them.

Look at that height!

Return to School

2009-08-21T16:46:00.002-06:00

Well it's official, summer has ended. As of yesterday, we are officially back in school. The schedules have returned, the homework, the making of lunches in the morning, new clothes, new haircuts. This year the kids were excited to get back, actually Cole and Jack were excited, Riian didn't care one way or the other. Cole was excited because he found out that he has 6 friends in his class this year. With 5 classes per grade, it's been hard for him to have all the friends he wanted, but this year he has quite an abundance. Riian doesn't know anyone in her class. Being in kindergarten, Jackson doesn't start until next week. They give the kindergarten teachers a week to test each student and see where they are. Jack had his test yesterday, and now has to wait a whole week to go back. He's constantly asking me why he's not going to school that day and when can he go. I can already tell this is going to be a very long week.

Just a few first day pictures

Izzy was unconcerned about the first day and all the excitement, and just found it a good time to go outside and do this...

Nate is still enjoying his play. He says the director is hard, but really good. He is leaving on Sunday for a week. He has a work conference in Chicago. Unfortunately it won't be too much different then it is now, he just won't be here the two hours a day that we see him.

I am glad that school is back in session. I really like the unscheduled breaks, but I also enjoy getting back into a schedule and mostly I like the fact that the start of school means that fall is just around the corner, which is my favorite season. I have had 3 of my 4 iron treatments and I am feeling quite energized. I still will probably have to do another round of treatments before I'm back up to a good range, but just this little amount has made a huge difference.

Not much else going one. Here's on last parting shot of summer...

now on to fall....!

Enjoying Summer

2009-08-04T10:41:00.004-06:00

With only two weeks of summer left, we are trying to get in as much play as we can, although the kids are excited to get back or in Jack's case, to start school. Last week was pretty packed. Nate auditioned for a musical. It has been about 3 years since he was in one. When I was pregnant with Izzy, I told him that he would have to forego theater for a while. Well now that she is 2 1/2 we decided that it was worth him trying again. He auditioned for Jekyll and Hyde and got the part of Jekyll. So until the end of October, Nate will be gone Tuesdays through Friday nights and Saturday mornings. But so far the kids and I are dealing with his absence, granted it's only been 2 weeks. Last Thursday the kids and I, along with a couple of friends, went to Oquirrh Lake. It is a great little man made lake. Part of the lake is like a beach, with soft sand to play in and everything. Cole and Riian enjoyed running and jumping off the end of the pier. Jack liked playing in the sand and he would occasionally wade in. One of my friends brought a salamander floaty with her and Jack and Izzy both enjoyed being on that, until I let it tip over and Izzy went under, then she preferred the sand.

That night we had pack meeting for Scouts. They were doing a "Raingutter Regatta" pretty much like a Pine-wood Derby, except with boats. Nate and Cole each made a boat. Then the boys all raced each other. Cole ended up winning the whole thing. He had the best blowing technique and his boat came in first every race he did. He was quite proud of his accomplishment.

On Saturday the company Nate works for had their "Backyard Bash" company party. They had lunch, bouncy slides, water activities, obstacles courses, Wii championships, baseball, football, volleyball, mini-golf... and many other activities. It was very fun. Riian won 1st place in the obstacle course for her age group. Unfortunately none of us won any door prizes, but we still had a wonderful time. We were so busy running around doing different activities that by the end of the day, at 5:00, both Izzy and Jack were pretty much asleep.

Izzy dancing

They had like 10 of these little pools set up in one area. No the kids didn't have their swimsuits on, but it was fun to swim anyway

Izzy loves Riian

The three older kids had their hair spray painted. Luckily it came out really easy

And last but not least, if you read my last post, you'll know of my little whirlwind. I decided to include her attempt at cooking just this morning

I was actually quite happy with this one. When I heard her banging around in the kitchen I was worried as to what she might be destroying this time, but this one was actually easy to clean up. You can't see from the picture the milk that she had poured in with the refrigerator magnets, but all it took was a spray under the water and they were clean. Nate and I are thinking a pretend kitchen would be a good investment...

Force of Nature

2009-07-30T09:00:00.003-06:00

As a parent, I was feeling very confident in my skills, at least in terms of the discipline. My first 3 children never really got into anything, and if they did I only had to tell them once and then they wouldn't do it again. They never really drew on the walls, pulled books off the shelves or any stuff like that.

And then she came

And now I am fairly convinced that my first 3 were just really good kids and none of it was me. Let me give you some examples...

Yesterday, while reading a book to my older children, we get to the end of the chapter and Izzy comes in smelling remarkably like vinegar. I walked into the kitchen and she had pulled out both of my muffin tins, the almost full bottle of vinegar, her milk from breakfast and the honey and poured them all into each of the muffin cups, filling them. She then pulled a chair up to the counter so she could reach the stirring spoons so she could complete her "cupcakes".

A couple of days ago, she comes downstairs after finishing her nap and I was at the computer. I said hi to her and told her to just let me finish up what I was doing. I felt her lovingly stroking my arm as I was finishing, at least that is what I thought she was doing until I looked over and she was drawing on me with a purple marker!

Her favorite thing to do is dump bowl fulls of Sam's dog food down the stairs

She got into the box of Band-aids and unwrapped about 20 and stuck them all over my bedroom carpet

And just last night when I went to bed, Nate and I noticed some powdery looking stuff on our bathroom floor. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that she had gotten into my blush, broken it apart and poured it all over the bathroom floor.

Apparently I was becoming a little too complacent and cocky in my parenting abilities so Heavenly Father saw fit to send me someone to make me a bit more humble. Oh well, at least she is also very sweet and loves to cuddle so that after all the time outs and a few spankings, she willingly forgives and will allow me to sit on the couch and snuggle so I can remember why it is that I had her...

We're still here

2009-07-15T13:56:00.008-06:00

So yes, it's been a while, but at least this time it was because I was actually really busy so I have things to write about. I also took lots of pictures. Let's see where to start...

The week after I last wrote I was able to venture up into the mountains for a week with my Young Women. Every year the girls get to go the "Girls Camp". I never went as a Young Woman and since I'm not particularly fond of camping, I was a little nervous. We packed up 25 girls, ages 12-18 plus 6 women leaders and 1 male leader and headed up to the camp ground. I have to say, while the camping was horrendous, it rained the majority of the time and I was bitten on the ear by a spider! I actually enjoyed myself. It was great to get to spend so much time with the girls and really get to know them. Still, I can't say that I'm excited for next year...

Adara

Karianna painting Alecia

Ashley looking gorgeous!

McKayla and Kelly

The week after I got back we spent planning Jackson's birthday party. My littlest man turned 5 on the 29th. Every time I think about him going to kindergarten I still think he's too little and he should probably just stay home with me a little while longer. Since he turned 5 we told him he could have a friends party. So he invited a few of his friends over for a water party. We had a water balloon toss, squirt gun fights, a pinata, a slip-and-slide, and plenty of cupcakes and ice cream for everyone. Jack had a wonderful time, so I guess that means it went well. Although, I did forget to put sunscreen on him and he burned so badly that he could't move his arms for the next 4 days.

The week after his party, we went to Fort Collins. Nate's brother was having a ring ceremony to celebrate their wedding last December. It was on the 4th of July, so Nate was able to take an extra day off of work so we could spend some more time over there. We jammed so many things into the 3 days that we were there, and we still didn't get to do many of the things we wanted, like a get together at my Aunt's house for games and treats, or going to Youngs. We did however get to see Dan and Michelle and their beautiful family. On Thursday we were able to meet with our good friends. We met at a park because of all the kids and had a wonderful meal and great conversation. Riian was asked to be the flower girl at Andy's ceremony and was thrilled about that. Riian isn't usually a very girly girl, so it is kind of fun when the girl in her just has to come out. Although it did end up raining for a couple of hours during the ceremony , which was outdoors, and by the end of the night, Riian's white dress, looked like a khaki dress. It was a great reunion for Nate's side of the family. We got no sleep, but had tons of fun

Cute Ahna Smith. Look at those eyes!

Cute Kayleigh Neal, she and Riian became fast friends

Aubrey and Wyatt Brown (Nate's brother Joel's family)

Wyatt up close and personal

Anna Rodriguez (Nate's sister Amber's daughter) She and Izzy are 4 days apart

The house that Andy got married at had a Coy pond, and the girl's, with Jack's help, spent the majority of the evening trying to "fish" with tall blades of grass

Here is the whole Brown clan, except for Jack had mysteriously disappeared

We got back on Monday the 6th of July. On the 8th I went in for some surgery. As those of you who read my blog, or who know me well, know I suffer from severe anemia. When I went in for some routine blood test in May, my doctor said that I shouldn't need as much iron as they are giving me. I'm losing it faster then they can put it in. So we started on the process of remedying this situation. After numerous blood tests that all came back negative, we decided the culprit was my heavy menstrual cycle. So I talked with my OB/GYN and scheduled an edometrial ablation. Basically what they did is burn away the lining of my uterus so won't have a period anymore, or if I do it will be very light, almost nonexsistant. My mom and sister came out to help with the kids, which was great! They let me sleep alot. I was only in pain for a couple of days, but for some reason the procedure made me much weaker and I can barely walk up a flight of stairs without having to stop and rest a while. Unfortunately, this procedure is just the beginning of the steps to a "well Britt". I can't get any iron treatments until after my post-op appointment on the 20th. At that point I will get some iron and then we will wait another 4 months and recheck to see if any of it made a difference. So unfortunately for my family, until after the 20th, they will have a Mom who will just have to do the quiet type of activities with them i.e. read books, board games, or movies. Dinners will mainly consist of cold cereal or sandwiches and there will be no hot breakfasts because I can't get myself out of bed before 8am.

So that is what's going on in our house. If your still reading this, good for you! I wish I had some sort of prize for you. If you stopped, I can't really blame you, it is very, very long. Until next time (whenever that may be). Have a great day!

P.S. Thank you to my brother who walked my through how to make my pictures on my blog super big.

First week of summer

2009-06-08T11:26:00.009-06:00

This was the official first week of summer. It went by very well. Nothing very exciting happened. We did the usual chores in the morning, lots of time spent outdoors with popsicles and jumping on the tramp. We went to the park a couple of times. I got some pictures of the kids at Discovery Park. We went swimming on Friday. I was a little skeptical about going at first. Jack still isn’t a huge fan of water, although he tries to act very brave and last summer Izzy was terrified of water, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was actually very fun. At the swimming pool we go to they have an area that is designated for 5 and under. It’s across the big pool so I had to coax Jack to let me hold him. He was terrified that I would drop him (even though he had a life jacket on), so I finally ended up just grabbing him kicking and screaming to go across the pool. We got there and both he and Izzy loved it. Izzy went up and down the kiddie slides all by herself. I got her the first couple of times, but then she decided that getting the water in her face wasn’t that bad and she did it all by herself. Cole and Riian were able to play with each other and spent most of the afternoon going down the big slide. It was actually a great time. I haven’t enjoyed going swimming for about 7 years because I’ve always seemed to have at least one little kid who was terrified of the water, but I think we may actually make this a habit this year.

I am spending this week getting ready for Girls Camp. I, along with a few other leaders, get to take 30 girls ages 12-18 camping for 3 nights. They do it every year and the girls are very excited about it. I can’t say that I feel the same way. I never went when I was a youth and have not enjoyed camping very much since then. But the campground is well groomed and there are actual bathrooms with showers so it shouldn’t be too bad. We have had lots of rain these past couple of weeks, which I love because it cools off the hot days, but it means that it is very cold and wet up in the mountains. We’re hoping it doesn’t snow while we are up there, but they said it has happened before. I’m just going to make sure I pack really warm jammies and lots of woolies.

Our summer is already starting to look a lot busier than we originally planned it to be, but we are looking forward to it. We are planning on going to Fort Collins over the 4th of July (by the way can we stay with you Gay on the 1st and 2nd?). And have much family visiting us. But for those who aren’t planning to come and visit, please do, we would love to see you.

These are some pretty cool bells that they had at the park.They were numbered, and above it they have some songs written out and you just hit the bell with the corresponding number to play the song. Cole was loving these.

This is not a great picture of Cole, but trying to get a picture of him holding still is near to impossible

There you go Gay, you asked for a recent picture of Izzy, here she is.

These are cool things that you stand on and then turn the wheel and you spin round and round. Very fun, very dizzy, but very fun

May Madness

2009-05-31T19:46:00.007-06:00

It has been a pretty jam-packed month. The weather has warmed up so that it is nice pretty much every day. The kids are enjoying playing outside ‘til much later then they usually would because it is so warm and the sun doesn’t go down ‘til much later. The kids finished up school on Friday, the 29th. We are all very excited for the summer. Yes, even me. I like it when we don’t have a set schedule we have to be on. I like being able to be in our jammies until 10am, because there is really no reason to get dressed. I like eating when we’re hungry and not when the clock says 12:00. I like being able to enjoy the cool summer evenings, because that is the only time it is cool enough to go outside, and not having to worry about the kids staying up too late. I do really enjoy summer, except for the heat part, but so far, it has not gotten that hot. The kids and I have decided that this summer we’re going to try a “Friday Fun Day”. Meaning, on Friday’s, there will be no chores and we get to do something fun. I have already had many suggestions of things they want to do.

Cole has been very busy with baseball this year. This is the first year that he had to be drafted. He was drafted onto the Braves. It’s been quite the difference in how serious the players are. They practice every week for about 2 ½ hours, and then have games on Monday and Wednesday evening. This next week will be his last. He has a game Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. His team has struggled this year, winning only one of their games so far. But it doesn’t seem to faze Cole. Cole was very excited a couple of week ago when, after taking the Iowa Standard Tests, he received a certificate from them that said he had scored in the top 10% in the nation. He thought that was pretty cool, as did Nate and I.

Riian has been busy being Riian. She is such an outdoorsy person that as soon as it is nice enough, she heads for the door and doesn’t look back. She often comes back from long hours of being outside, very wet or very dirty, sometimes both. She is excited to start Coach Pitch baseball this year. No more Tball for her. She feels very grown up. Her two best friends that have lived across the street from us ever since we moved here are moving this week. She will miss them, but seems to be taking their departure in stride.

Jack graduated from preschool this month. He still is not quite getting why he has to wait so long to start kindergarten. He was pretty sure he would be going to kindergarten the day after he graduated preschool. He loves school and is constantly working on workbooks. He can already read quite well. I was concerned about his socializing skills. He has never been a people person, not that he doesn’t like people, or that he’s afraid of people or social situations, it’s more that he doesn’t seem to find any use for other people. He is nice and friendly, he just never seeks out other people. But I have noticed a little more lately that he wants to spend more time playing games with Cole and Riian and spending time with their friends. His birthday is this month and I told him since he is turning 5 he can have a friend party. He already has his birthday planned out, down to the kind of cake he wants; he just doesn’t seem to feel that friends are a necessary part of the equation. Unfortunately, mean mom that I am, I am making him invite kids.

Izzy is being…Izzy. She makes us laugh all the time. She can now talk really well, and say anything. She has started talking in full on sentences, and some of the things she comes up with are quite funny. It’s fun to try and hear her try out some of the bigger words she’s heard some of her siblings say. At the dinner table yesterday, she sat down, looked at all the food and proclaimed it looked “Won-de-fo” (that’s wonderful for all those that don’t speak 2 year old). This morning Nate was tickling her feet and she looked at him crossly and said “Dad, yet go my piggies”. She is also extremely stubborn. Her favorite thing to do is pester Jack. Her favorite way to pester him is to grab his shirt. She doesn’t pull it or pinch him, she grabs on and won’t let go. It makes him very angry, and the angrier he seems to get, the more she seems to enjoy it.

I think the highlight of this month for the kids, was being to meet Brandon Mull in person. He is the author of the “Fablehaven” series of books. The kids and I have been reading them together, and they just love them. He was doing a book signing for his new book at the Costco nearest us. So I took Cole and Riian and we waited in line so that he could sign their book. His publicist was walking through the line with post-it notes asking what names each person would like on their book. He would then write it on a post-it, hand it to you and then when you got the table you could give it the Brandon. So he wrote both Cole and Riian’s name in the book and they thought that was such a cool thing.
Nate and I are doing well. We celebrated 11 years of marriage this month. Nate is playing on the softball team at his work. They play every Thursday night, so we have been up to see some of his games. He has also starting golfing with some of the guys from work as well as bringing his bike to work so that they can ride some of the trails during their lunch break. He came home Friday limping and said he had hit his knee a couple of times on his bike while riding. He now has a very ugly looking bruise on the side of his right knee. I am just trying to feel better. I have been sick the better part of this month. I went to the doctor at the beginning of the month to check my iron levels and they were low again. My doctor told me that he was a little concerned because the treatments I am getting should last much longer than they do. So we are currently in the process of trying to figure out where all the blood is going. We have a couple of tests and things we are doing and hopefully will have something figured out in the next couple months.
Well, that’s about it from the Brown household this month. I’m sure there will be much more exciting things to follow in the next, so stay tuned.

11 Years

2009-05-22T11:48:00.001-06:00

11 years. 4 children. 2 dogs (only 1 currently). 4 different homes. 8 different jobs. Many tears. Many more laughs. There have been hard times and wonderfully happy times, but I’ve loved every minute of all of them. Happy Anniversary Babe, I love you!

Birthdays, Easter and Spring Break

2009-04-26T22:10:00.007-06:00

I did really think about trying to write more than once a month this year. But alas, I think I will just be happy that I do get it at least once a month. This month was filled with Birthdays and Easter and Spring Break.
I turned 32 on the 10th. My Dad called me that day and mentioned that when my mom was 32 I was 10, which is how old Cole will be this year. I remember my mom when I was 10. I remember that she was OLD! But somehow, I still feel like I’m 19 (except when I try to do anything athletic…) For my birthday this year we got an elliptical machine. We set it up in front of the TV and I have been able to exercise on it while watching all the shows I record on the DVR. I also didn’t realize how badly out of shape I was in until I tried the elliptical machine for the first time, and after 20 minutes, thought I was going to die. But I am now up to 30 minutes and when I am done, I feel more refreshed then dead, so I suppose that is progress.
Easter was two days after my birthday. Somehow this year, I felt a little unprepared. We didn’t really do any of the usual egg hunts. Usually we get together with some friends, but this year I didn’t really get around to coordinating that with anyone. The kids did enjoy their basket. At our house the Easter bunny just brings one basket for everyone. Nate hid the eggs that the kids had dyed on Saturday night. Izzy really enjoyed dying her eggs this year. We got some dye that came with flower stickers you could put on the eggs when they were dry. Izzy enjoyed putting them on the eggs and taking them back off the eggs.

The Monday after Easter the kids and I went to Vegas. The kids were on Spring Break, and rather than spend 5 days at home with them, I decided to let them spend 5 days at my sister’s home. My brother was there, having come to spend Easter with my Dad and sister. On Monday night, my brother, sister and I stayed up way to late playing Rock Band 2 and reminiscing. On Tuesday, we went to the EthelM chocolate factory. Unfortunately, they were on break when we got there so we didn’t get to see them making any chocolate, but we did take some home. We also went to In-N-Out for lunch. I haven’t had it for years and forgot how good it was. We were hoping to take the kids swimming while we were there, but unfortunately Vegas was going through a cold front and it was only about 50 degrees the whole time we were there. We ended up sneaking into the Tropicana resort and swimming in their indoor pool. We didn’t really mean to sneak in, we had every intention of paying, but when we got there, there was no one to give our money too. The water was really cold, so Shea, Izzy, Jack and I sat on the hot tub steps while Cole and Riian played in the pool. On Thursday we went to Plant World and then to the Mandalay Bay aquarium. Plant World is pretty much this big nursery, but they have a large collection of exotic birds and 3 or 4 giant tortoises. The kids were enthralled with the tortoises. Unfortunately, while we were looking at the McCaw, it cawed so loudly that Izzy got very frightened and wouldn’t stop screaming nor take her head out of my shoulder for quite some time after. The kids loved the aquarium. Each of the tanks have a number on them and they give you these "Audio Wands" that you can type the number in and it will tell you about what's in the tank. The kids loved being able to control what they wanted to hear about. They also have a "Petting Zoo" where you can touch Manta Rays. Jack really wanted to touch them, but was too afraid to get that close to the water. Poor guy!. I only have a few pictures of this week because I let my brother take the majority of them. I would link you to his sight, but he hasn’t put this pictures up yet (hint, hint!).

We came back into town Friday night and then my family came into town on Tuesday for my cousins wedding. This whole past week was spent driving back and forth to Draper, Utah (about 15 minutes). Spending lots of time laughing with relatives, playing many games, and eating waaayy too much food. It was a very fun week, but very exhausting. Riian and Isabelle got really sick on Wednesday. I felt horrible because this was the day that the wedding was on. I had to leave the house at 7:45. I asked Riian if she wanted to come with me or go to school and she said that she thought she would be fine at school. When I got home at 2:00, there was a message on my answering machine saying that Riian had been in the nurse’s office since 12:30. I felt horrible! I ran up to the school to get her and she slept in my bed the whole rest of the day. Nate stayed home with her and Izzy that night while I took the boys to the reception. Thursday was bring your kids to work day at Nate’s work. Riian said she was feeling fine to go, but was a little more quiet than usual. When I went to pick them up at 4:00, Nate said that she was pretty quiet and lethargic all day. She came home and slept the rest of that day too. I kept her home on Friday and she seemed much better. This morning I woke up not feeling great. I went to church for an hour and then brought Izzy home. We got home about 12:30, and both of us slept til’ 4:00. It was a great nap and I feel much better now.
We still have one more birthday to go this month, so I’m sure that I will be writing sometime in the next week. Hopefully, by not writing as frequently as I had hoped to, I didn’t lose any of the few readers who do read my blog, but I will try to be more regular from now on.

Happy Birthday!

2009-03-18T17:20:00.010-06:00

This little girl is now another year older. My baby is now 2. We took down the crib and got rid of the changing table, not because she's potty trained, but because she has to scrunch up to much when she lays on it. She is our last, and it is kind of exciting being done with the "having babies" stage. From now on travel will be easier because we don't have to pack the port-a-crib. Nor do we have to pack any extra baby food. I don't ever have to worry about "feeding the baby". She can feed herself, all I have to do is put something in her hand or on her plate. Now we are just waiting for when she is potty trained. She had a fun birthday. She kept singing Happy Birthday to herself all day. Her big present was a "big-girl" bed so she received some little presents last night. She enjoyed the cake, but wasn't sure what to do about the candles so Daddy had to come help her. We have a rule in our home that after birthdays and Christmas any presents the kids get are theirs and theirs alone for 24 hours. Meaning they don't have to share for 24 hours, I usually find after about that time they are a little tired of them and are willing to share. Jack is having an especially hard time with this as Izzy received an alphabet fridge magnet set and won't let Jack play with her.
She looks a little rag-a-muffin in these pictures, but that's just because she was having so much fun playing outside and her ponytail was falling out.

It has finally started getting warm outside. Last week it was warm but still jacket weather because of the wind, but this week has been beautiful. The kids have been able to play outside without their jackets and it is warm, but not hot. We have been spending alot of time outside jumping on the tramp, drawing with the sidewalk chalk, and playing in the play area.
I realize from this last picture you would think that it was cold out. It's not, but it is a little windy and Jack has an unexplainable irrational fear that his hair is going to blow off... I really wish I was kidding. ..

Izzy's musical debut

2009-03-01T08:47:00.008-07:00

I know you all have been waiting for it, so here it is. Isabelle Anise Brown singing Baby Baluga

I know it's pretty great.

It's finally starting to warm up abit here so we have been able to get out of the house alot more. Which means more picture taking opportunities. We went to see Jessie's last play at Snow College in Manti. She is done this semester and is transfering to BYU. She played Lucy in "Your'e a Good Man Charlie Brown". We met Grandma and Grandpa down there and had fun playing at a little park down the street and eating Oriental food that was surprisingly good.

Hopefully I'll feel and urge to write more this month. I'm really trying to get back in the habit of writing on a regular basis, or at least regular for me.

The Secret Rose

2009-02-01T15:51:00.005-07:00

This year in Sunday School and Primary, we are studying The Doctrine and Covenants and Church History. Today as we sat down to dinner after church, we went around the table asking each member of the family what they had learned today. Jack had drawn this picture:

Mommy: What is this picture of Jack?

Jack: The Secret Rose

Daddy: I think you mean the Sacred Grove

Mommy: What happened in the Sacred Grove?

Jack: I don't know

Mommy: Well what is in your picture?

Jack: Well that man is Jesus.

Mommy: Jesus?

Jack: Yea, Heavenly Father and Joseph Smith aren't there yet.

So there you have it. Now you all know what really happened that day in the Secret Rose. Oh and according to Cole, after Joseph Smith retrieved the Golden Plates, he was chased by angry Moms, not mobs.

January Blahs

2009-01-19T20:22:00.003-07:00

I don't know if you get them, but I officially have the January blahs. If you don't get them let me explain. For whatever reason, after the hustle and bustle of November and December, January rolls around and I just don't feel like doing anything. I pretty much want to sit and read a book and do nothing else. I do my laundry and maintain my house, but beyond that, nothing. No scrapbooking, no updating my blog, no taking the kids to to anything fun, nothing. I'm a little more grouchy and irritable then usual. To top it all off the inversion has hit us, causing my lungs to have a constant supply of gunk. To those who have the January Blahs, I empathize with you, to those that don't have any idea what I am talking about, it basically means that you will have to wait a bit to have more pictures and updates on my blog.

Christmas

2009-01-01T09:07:00.016-07:00

We were at home again this year. We had all but 3 of the family here, Riley, Dad and Maikwe weren't able to make it, but that still left us with 15 people in our house for Christmas. We almost didn't get Justin or Alissa (Justin's girl). Seattle had been snowed in for days and Alissa was stuck in San Francisco. She ended up flying to Vegas and drove down with Shea and luckily Justin's flight was only an hour late. We had wonderful food on Christmas Eve. Corned beef, ham, stuffed chicken breasts, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, jello with whipped cream, homemade rolls, carrots layonnaise. And lots of pies. We all filled ourselves to over indulgence. After which we had a wonderful Christmas program. My mother wanted each family to do a little "skit" of some sort. I think she was hoping for a mild-mannered evening full of nice talents. Unfortunately, I'm don't think she remembered who she was asking to do such things. We had some nice moments. Jess, and Nate sang some beautiful songs, Cole played a solo on the piano that was nice, Paul did a wonderful lesson about Christ with paper tearing, but that is where is ended. Shea and Berns changed the words to "Proud Mary" to fit the story of Christ's birth. Damon played the clarinet and tapped dance, at the same time. The Hagemeisters did reindeer jokes with puppets. Justin did an interpretive lyrical dance to Alissa singing Jingle Bell Rock. And Paul was the patridge in the pear tree in our family version of 12 days of Christmas. After the Holiday show-down, we did our Secret Santa's and opened our Christmas P.J's. Our whole family got matching scrubs. Unfortunately we didn't get our pictures taken because Jack and Izzy couldn't wait the night out anymore. After that we settled down the "The Littlest Angel" read by my mom. This is a story that my Grandpa read to my Mom and then to us and now we read it every year to our kids. I cried like usual, it was a great story. The kids then went to bed and we cleaned up so that Santa could come. And boy did he come. What a great haul this year. Nate recieved a new video camera (with video to follow). I received a new lens for my camera. Cole got a huge Indiana Jones Lego set. Riian, night vision goggles. Jack a Tag reading system, he uses a pen and goes over the words and the pen reads them for him. And Izzy got a ride-on horse. There was a grand mess at the end, which is usual. After the presents were opened and much candy eaten, we took naps. Nate took the kids sledding and the big kids went to see a movie. That night we went to my cousins house to meet with more family. I think there was a total of 40 people there eating and playing and singing and some dancing. It was a great Christmas as usual. Can't wait for next year. It wouldn't stop snowing, so the front entrance was full of snow stuff all week This is just some of the holiday mess. After we cleaned up a bit Santa never spells names right Santa always leaves wonderful treats Enough said The start of the Holiday extravaganza I think Alissa thinks we're crazy. She would be correct Yes those are feety pajamas on Berns. I don't know why. I don't remember inviting him

Sick

2008-12-12T12:53:00.002-07:00

That is what is going on at my house this week. I am sick, sick, sick. I had to go into the hospital on Monday to get some more iron (for anyone who is new to my blog, this is a pretty common thing). On Tuesday I was feeling pretty achy and by Wednesday I had the full blown flu. Nate is pretty sure I got it while at the hospital. I said he was crazy, you can't get sick at a hospital, but apparently it's one of the best places to pick up illnesses. So... now I am sick. I meant to do a lot of things around the house this week to get ready for the Christmas rush, but all I've been doing is laying on the couch reading-whispering books to Izzy. She thoroughly enjoys this, I just wish I felt more productive. Oh well, hopefully next week my lungs won't feel like they are on fire and my head won't feel likes it's going to explode at any moment.

Thanksgiving goodness (get ready for a picture overload)

2008-12-02T12:28:00.027-07:00

We spent this Thanksgiving in Las Vegas with my dad and sister. My brother also flew in from Seattle. We had a great weekend, eating playing, laughing and we went to see Twilight, which I loved. I was busy cooking on Thanksgiving and didn't get to take pictures of the kids, but luckily I have a professional photographer who loves to use my kids as subjects, so I got a bunch of pictures from him. Hope you enjoy
You gotta love that face

Poor Riian was sick with a stomach bug all Thursday and only peeked her head out of bed for about and hour Yes this kid does like to makes faces My super cool 9 year old. So handsome My baby is not such a baby anymore My little climber. Luckily by Friday she was feeling well enough to play againThis was during the hour on Thursday she joined us. Not a happy camperHe on the other hand is a very happy camper

Thanks again for the pictures Justin. Hope your holiday was as good as ours

Birthdays and Chocolate

2008-11-16T20:30:00.009-07:00

The title pretty much spells out the most exciting things about the last couple of weeks. A week ago I was honored to be invited to my aunt Laurie's chocolate dipping party. She makes these amazing chocolates every year at this time, and we always partake liberally of them. This year she asked if I wanted to come help make them. She made all the centers previous to us coming. I helped shape the centers and then cover them in chocolate. I must say, I was horrible. It is so much harder then it looks. My aunt and cousin were able to do about 3 in the time it took me to cover 1. My hands were completely caked with chocolate, as was the bottom of my shirt. But it was all worth it as we were able to take a plate of delicious chocolates home. I also helped shape and wrap the carmels, which I was actually pretty good at. Doesn't that marble slab full of chocolate look scrumptious. I had to try really hard to remember to not lick my fingers. These are some chocolates that Laurie dipped, mine were much more gloppy.

The most important thing that we did this last week was to celebrate Cole's birthday. Cole turned 9 on the 11th. We just had a family birthday this year. A special birthday dinner, picked out by him (I was so greatful when he chose grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, what a great son!), and then cake and presents. I of course am a very cruel mom and wrapped all his presents while he was at school and then layed them on the table. He found it such a hard thing to wait until after dinner to open his presents. On Thursday Nate and I took him out to his favorite restaurant (Chuck-a-Rama, an all you can eat buffet. It's the only way this child gets full, and yes, I know, the name is horrible). We then went to see "Into the Woods" at the Hale Center Theater. It was a great show, the princes were hilarious, their rendition of "Agony" was probably the best I've seen it done. Sadly the second half was still horrible and once again I wished that I just would have left at intermission. I just have to say how much we love this little man. He is exasperating at times, but has gotten to an age where he is fun to hang out with. He is very kind and always tries his best to be good, somedays are harder then others, be he always tries. He is extremely friendly and personable and has a great sense of humor. We love you buddy!

Yesterday was the Pine Wood Derby for the cub scouts. This was Cole's 1st year that he was able to participate. He and Nate worked on his car, actually Cole pretty much built his car. He drew on the design, did some of the sawing, and then did the paint job. He actually did quite well. Getting 1st or 2nd on the majority of his races. I took a couple of pictures, but I didn't get any good ones because, as Nate is the new CubMaster, I had to wrestle with Izzy, who decided that everytime I picked up the camera was a good time to be held.

The orange car is his, I think he got first place in this race.

I think that is about all the news from the Brown house this week. Until next...

Cowboys, and bats, and mice Oh My!

2008-11-02T16:37:00.010-07:00

This week was full of Halloween activities. On Monday we went to a pumpkin patch that some friends of ours were doing. We picked our own pumpkins and had hot chocolate and donuts. The kids ran around and jumped on the tramp and played on the swings.

On Wednesday we carved those pumpkins. Jack and I did one together as did Nate and Izzy. Cole and Riian did their own. Cole decided to make the pumpkin from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Riian traced a bat and cut it out. Jackson drew a face for ours that I cut out. Jackson thought the pumpkin guts were "disgusting" so he pretty much kept his distance. Riian and Izzy, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get their hands in the goo

On Thursday I got to attend Jack's wonderful preschool program. They sang some fun Halloween songs and then had a little party afterwards.

Friday of course was Halloween. Cole dressed up as Indiana Jones. Riian as a Bat. Jack as a cowboy with a horse, Isabelle as a mouse and Nate went as Indiana Jones (He let Cole pick out his costume). They had parades at school and ate Halloween cupcakes. It rained on us a little when we went Trick or Treating, but it was really warm, so it actually felt nice. The kids lasted for a few blocks, but then were tired and ready to go home.

Today in church, we gave the Young Women a lesson on Marital Standards. We talked about how they should know what kind of person they want to marry, before they start dating, that way they'll only date people who would fit those standards. We gave each of the girls a piece of paper and a pencil so they could write some traits and/or take them home and write it there. I was telling Nate this and he asked me what was on my list. I told him I didn't make a list when I was young but it got me to thinking about what kind of man would have been on my "list". I don't think my list at 18, would have been the same as my list at 31. At the same time, I don't think that I could have found a better mate, in fact I know I couldn't. All the things that were on the "should be" list in our lesson, my husband has. He honors his priesthood, he is kind, he serves others, he provides for our family, he is trustworthy, he honors the covenants made in the temple. Yes there are things that I've had to compromise on as I'm sure there are things that he's had to compromise as well, but all the biggies are there. I came to the conclusion that I really lucked out when I "chose" him (especially since he is changing the poopy diaper, and I am blogging... what a guy).

Colorado Trip

2008-11-02T16:03:00.013-07:00

So I'd thought I'd write a little about our Colorado trip. We arrived in Denver Thursday evening. We stayed at the Curtis hotel which is right Downtown. On Friday we went to the Tattered Cover (my favorite bookstore). I was a little disappointed because they moved the original store and I didn't think the new location was as cool, but I still managed to find some books. Then Nate and I went to Dave and Busters. We like to play video games together so we thought it would be fun to grab some lunch and play some games. We then went back to the hotel and vegged until our show that night. We saw the Drowsy Chaperone, which I thought was very funny. On Saturday we went back up to Fort Collins. I decided I wanted to do a little picture journal of some of the places that were important to Nate and I while we were growing up. There were many places and we didn't have enough time to photograph all of them, but I got a good starter collection. We then went to Greeley to spend time with some old friends. Nate stayed and recorded some songs with "the guys", while all the wives went out shopping. We then came back to wonderful Chili and conversation at the Davis' home in Greeley. It was a wonderful vacation and one that we may have to repeat again soon. Here are some of the pictures I took of some of my favorite places in the FortThis is the house that I grew up in. My cousin and his wife actually live in it now, so we had a nice chat with her as I took the picture. This is the house that Nate grew up inThis is where we attended High School together. "Here's to dear old Poudre High. Surrounded by the mountains so high. Blue and Silver faithful and true, pledge and allegiance we swear to you" I'm pretty sure that was the Alma MaterThis is where Nate and I met, and anybody who knows me knows that this is pretty much where I lived from the time I was 7 until I moved when I was 24.This is my absolute favorite restaurant. It serves Vietnamese cousine. We went there and I had my favorite Sesame chicken and once again, it did not disappoint.This is Mountain Avenue. I love Mountain Avenue. With the huge trees lining the street and the older homes on the side. It makes me so happy to drive up and down it. We went to Walrus ice cream. I think they were making homemade ice cream and putting in their own mix-ins long before Cold Stone came around. They always have a funky flavor, which I used to always try until I had their Beef Stroganoff ice cream, since then I can't bring myself to do it. Nate tasted it this time, it was a Key Lime with Cinnamon.... and ranch dressing.Just as we were walking out of Walrus, there was a train rolling by. I had to take a picture because growing up, without a doubt I was stopped by a train at least once or twice a week. They run through Fort Collins all the time. If you were late somewhere, it was usually because you had to stop for a train. Usually all you had to say was "Train" and people understood.

This is the apartment that Nate and I lived in when were were first married. It was a four-plex and we had the top left apartment. It was hotter than an inferno in there in the summer. It had horrible orange, what I believe was once Shag, carpet. No dishwasher. But it was a good first apartment.

I hoped you enjoyed my journey through some of Fort Collins. For those of you who live/lived there I hope these photos bring back good memories.

We're back...

2008-10-28T15:07:00.014-06:00

Alright so my blogging is going about as well as any journaling I've ever tried to do. But I am repenting and I am going to be good again. The past month has been extremely busy. Between the Take Home Library at the elementary school, trying to figure out this whole Young Women's president thing, a husband who was never home, and 4 kids who were feeling a little restless, I am tired... but I was able to take a couple of vacations. Well one vacation and one visit. I say visit because we went to see my Dad and sister in Vegas over UEA weekend. It was just me and the kids, so that is why I do not call it a vacation. It was good to see them however. Although my Dad ended up in the hospital with kidney stones and various other medical maladies the day we left, so I'm not sure how enjoyable the visit was for him... The kids had fun playing in Shea's "little pool". This is really just a hot tube that they keep cool, because really, who needs a hot tub in Vegas.

Isabelle tried really hard to get along with her baby cousin Zoie. She would try to be nice and give the baby loves, and then the baby would do this

So she decided that she was going to stay way away from that mean baby

In Izzy's opinion, she may look cute, but this baby is not a nice one

The day we got back we went to Cornbelly's with some friends. The kids had a blast jumping on the air tramps, and sliding down the really fast slide. We went on a Hay ride and ate yummy Kettle Corn. Unfortunately, we had been traveling all day, so we were pretty tired and had to leave earlier then everyone so that we could go to bed

Nate and I left a couple days later for a vacation in Colorado for our 10th anniversary (yes it was in May, but so were lots of babies, so Grandma couldn't come til now). We staying at the Curtis Hotel in Denver for two night and then went back up to Fort Collins and played with friends. We were able to see a play at the Buell (The Drowsy Chaperone, very funny, I highly recommend it). We at very yummy food, so much so that by Sunday morning, I was still so full that I didn't eat unil about noon. So now were are back and I am trying to get ready for all the Halloween fun.

Well that is all for this edition. I have every intention to write this weekend and post cute Halloween pictures, so stay tuned...

What have we been up to

2008-10-02T15:38:00.021-06:00

So it's been a very long time since we blogged, so I decided to update you as to why it has been so long.

Izzy has been busy just being a toddler. She is learning all sorts of new things and is quite thrilled with her new vocabulary. She talks quite a bit now. She was also a little perturbed when we tried to give her walker to baby Zoie and was pretty sure she still fits and it shouldn't be given away

Jack has been busy going to school and having a hard time with deciding if he wants to be a big boy or a baby again. He was doing so well, but apparently now that Izzy can walk and assert her self, Jack is feeling quite jealous of her again.

This is what Jack has been doing when he's supposed to be staying home from church sick

Riian is busy going to school and playing soccer and cleaning her room (it takes about 2 hours a day to pick up one sock, so she's busy)

Cole is busy going to school, choir practice, soccer practice, scouts, piano lessons.

Nate is busy with Sleepy Hollow again. He opens on Friday, so he is gone every night this week and next and the following Monday. But then he's taking me on a much awaited trip back to Colorado, so he is forgiven for his absence.

Britt is busy being in charge of the Take Home Library, which was supposed to start next week, but it won't, so then it was going to start the following week, but the kids only have school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so it won't, hopefully the following week. I am busy trying to find volunteers (anybody?), and get the teachers to tell me what levels they want their kids at, I only have about 1/2 the teachers. I am also busy, as of about two weeks ago, being the Young Women's President. Which means I am in charge of all the girls in our ward (congregation) that are between the ages of 12 and 18, which is about 30. I am in charge of Sunday lessons, Tuesday activities, Girls Camp in June and many, many more things.

We have all been busy going to Thanksgiving Point to play in the gardens and the farm and walking the mountain trails to see the pretty fall foliage