Too Cute

This morning after getting Britton dressed, I said, "Britton, you're the cutest thing ever". He just looked at me a bit puzzled and said, "I'm a thing?" It was too funny. No wonder I think he's the cutest thing ever.

Roses!

We have two rose bushes at our house and both of them have so many blossoms this year. The flowers are so big and beautiful. Last night I went out and cut a whole bunch to have inside. I figure I should take advantage of having so many fresh flowers. So, I put a vase full in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one in the family room. Now I love going in just to look at them. They brighten up the rooms so much. I think tomorrow we're going to spend the morning doing yard work and planting our garden and some more flowers. A little bit late, but better late than never, right?

Bon Appetit!

Last Saturday (May 20), we had a French Dinner Party. Everyone brought something french they had made or purchased. We mostly had appetizers and desserts, but there ended up being lots of good food to try. We had quiche, crepes, breads, cheeses, pate, lots of different kinds of pastries, and bacon-wrapped prunes. Everything was really yummy, but most of all it made me miss France. I really do need to go back soon.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

This morning, Haley woke up about 6:45 and went straight for the kitchen. I followed her in and she said, "I wanna make brownies". I just started laughing. Hmmm, I wonder who she gets that from?

Preschool

Last week, I started doing a preschool with my kids. It's been a lot of fun. I do it for an hour twice a week and then if there's a field trip that goes along with the weekly theme, we do that too. Each time we sing a song, look at the calendar, have a weather watch, play a game, read a book, do a science-y thing, and do an art project. It's really fun. I think half the fun for me is planning it all. Britton really loves it. For Haley, an hour is really a stretch for her attention span, but I think she still enjoys it and is learning more than she lets on. I think she'll get more used to it as we do it regularly too.

My 30th Birthday

On April 15, I turned 30 years old. To celebrate, I had a girls-only cabin sleepover party. It was so much fun. I got to just hang out with some of my best friends. We talked, ate junk food, and played games. I can't think of a better way to celebrate. I got to sleep in and I didn't have any kids climbing into bed with me in the middle of the night. What a great gift to myself.

Chuck E. Cheese

One of our favorite things to do is to go to Chuck E. Cheese. I think my kids are far too spoiled because growing up, I think I went once or twice and that was for friend's birthday parties. My kids and I used to go every Tuesday, but now we're trying to cut back so we only go every other week or once a month or so.
The one down here does lots of things to attract stay-at-home moms with little kids. They're brilliant because it's almost always crowded. They have all the little kiddie rides turned on from 11-3 so you don't need tokens to ride them. Plus on Tuesdays, if your kids are members of the kids club, they get free drinks and free tokens. So, it turns out to be a great deal. We love free stuff.
Some days, when it's particularly crowded, the manager will come out and just randomly throw tokens and all the kids scramble to pick them up. Our he'll throw out strings of tickets and kids will come away with hundreds. (Those are my favorite days) Unfortunately, my kids aren't quite old enough to really appreciate it and go after all the free stuff. They get one or two tokens off the ground, and they're completely happy, even though there's hundreds scattered around them. I guess I have to teach them better.
Each time we go, we end up getting a little prize like a sticker or a pack of smarties or some other thing that you could get 10 for a dollar at the dollar store. So, I got the bright idea of making my kids save up for something big since we go there often enough. We have our eye on the Imaginext Pirate Ship for the bargain price of 4000 tickets. I think it's going to take us quite a while especially since Haley never grabs her tickets after she plays a game and Britton loves the low yielding ticket games like Ski Ball. But, it still gives us something to work for and now we don't waste our hard-earned tickets on stuff that gets lost or broken in the car on the way home.

Pictures of Haley

And Even More Camping Pictures

More Camping Pictures

Easter Pictures

Some Camping Pictures

Haley--The Chocolate Genius

To go along with the messy eater post, I decided to show a few recent pictures as examples. I was making brownies and Haley decided to help lick the bowl. I guess most kids would make a mess doing this, but if you look closely, you'll see she even managed to get it on her side and back. Now, that's true talent. And this was right after she got out of the bath. Why do I even bother with baths? No wonder she takes about 3 a day. Britton came in and saw her and said, "she's a chocolate genius!" because of the mustache. And then, of course, he joined in.

Conference Weekend

For Conference Weekend, we decided it would be fun to spend the weekend at the cabin. It was still pretty snowy, so we had to hike in the last little bit again, but once we were there, it was definitely worth it. We had a fun time sledding, watching conference, playing games, doing puzzles, and just relaxing. I'm so glad that we went. I thought it would be harder to watch conference up there, but actually we were able to watch more of it with fewer distractions because our kids are so content to just be there. We carved out a small sled run on the hill, but my kids are still too young to appreciate sledding, I think. They just don't like to be cold. It sounds fun to them, but once they've been out there about 5 minutes, they're done. So, Jason took them in and they all watched me out the window. They would open the window and cheer after each time I went down. It was nice to have some fans. I think we'll try to make it a tradition for every conference weekend.

YEAH!!!

They broke ground a couple of days ago for an IKEA in Draper. I can't wait!

Is there a "Messy Eater" Gene?

Okay, it's no big secret that I am a messy eater. In high school, I think I always had something spilled on my shirt. And I was banned from eating or drinking in numerous vehicles. I'm still banned from eating in certain parts of my own home (but that usually doesn't stop me). As I've gotten older, I've gotten much less messy as far as eating goes. I can generally get through a meal without spilling on myself. But, you can usually still tell which spot at the table was mine due to the amount of crumbs and drips, etc.
So, you'd think that I would be sympathetic when I see my kids struggle to stay clean while eating. But, instead, it drives me crazy. I can't even watch them eat most of the time. They pick things apart and hold it in their hands until it melts and do anything possible except normal, civilized eating.
Britton has always been a messy eater. Even as a baby, he was the master at spitting up. I don't think he had a feeding without spitting half of it up. I should've known I was in for trouble then. Even knowing that, he still manages to amaze me. He can take an ordinary food and make a complete mess out of it. Like a piece of cheese, for example. I wouldn't think of cheese as a messy food, but he managed to crumble it up into tiny pieces and get grease all over. Who even thinks of doing that with cheese?
I thought that there was hope for Haley. She has always been too interested in getting as much food as possible into her mouth that she generally didn't make a mess. But, now as she gets a bit older, I'm starting to see some of the signs of a messy eater. She's playing with her food more, picking it apart, finding unique ways to eat things. Why did both my kids have to take after me?

Boys are Weird

On March 6 was Haley's 2 year old birthday. We had a party at my parent's house the Saturday before. I gave Jason the camera so that I could officiate in the handing out of the presents and all. My mom has the habit of giving presents to all the grandkids when it's someone's birthday, so it gets a little crazy. As I was going through the pictures on our camera, I found many like the one posted, but not even one of Haley opening up her gifts. Jason was having so much fun with our brother-in-law Ryan staging pictures of two-headed dragons eating men that he completely missed all of the present opening. But, lucky for us, we have about 10 different angles and views of the human-eating monster.

Moab

This weekend we took a road trip to Moab. Jason and all his friends went down to play in a volleyball tournament together. Moab is one of my very favorite places, so I was more than excited to be able to have a little mini family vacation.
As we drove down, my mind wandered to all the many different times I have been to Moab. For some reason it has always been my favorite road trip destination and so I've been there many times with many different random groups of people. It didn't matter if the trip was well planned out or spur of the moment, they always turned out to be fun. I went there for high school spring break, my college end of freshman year trip, a trip just because Emily was house sitting and we had access to a car, a trip instead of preference to watch Jason in a volleyball tournament, and numerous other times. I never really needed a reason to go--just other people who were willing to go with me.
This trip, however, was a bit different than all the others because it snowed almost all weekend. Moab is 100% an outdoor recreation town. So, to be stuck inside was definitely a switch. I even searched the whole town for some kind of indoor playground like at Mcdonald's or something and there was nothing at all. Luckily, we had our XBox and movies and friends to hang out with. We did make it to arches during the small amount of time that it was decent weather. Which was really lucky since Britton had been talking about "climbing orange rocks and finding lizards". I really shouldn't tell him about something until we're actually doing it. At least he got to see some arches and climb up some big rocks. He was happy enough. All in all, it was a fun trip and will be added to the rest of my fun memories of Moab.

Trees

I love trees. When I was young, my grandparents had an orchard. We would go to help pick the fruit, but my favorite thing was to climb up high into the cherry trees--higher than any of the ladders could reach and just stay up there.
In high school, I tutored a little girl at the library. I couldn't ever get her to want to read, but if I checked out books and took them outside, climbed a tree with her, then we would sit up there and she would read to me for hours.
In college, I had a special tree at Kiwanis Park. It was my "thinking tree". I went there whenever I wanted to be alone to think. I would sit under it and write or draw or sleep or pray. It was as if the tree made me smarter--gave me insights I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I guess just being with it inspired me.
Some of the coolest trees I've ever seen were in Parc Borely in Marseille (See pictures below). I loved them mostly because they were well suited for climbing clear to the top. Since missionaries don't typically spend time climbing trees, I was only able to admire them for their potential. Their branches were like perfect steps up to the top. But, I was able to climb a bit when I went back on vacation.
My favorite tree of all is the big Boxelder tree in my back yard. It is just majestic. I think it is beautiful. When we first looked at our house, there were a lot of things that we loved about it and that were well-suited for us, but when I saw the tree, that was the real deal maker for me. I HAD to have the house.
I love the tree in every season. In winter, it shows off its naked, bare bones frame. In spring, it gets new life with the blossoms and leaves. In summer, it shades my entire backyard. In fall (my very favorite), it covers my whole backyard in pretty colored leaves.
I love the bugs and the birds that it attracts. Last summer we had 4 owls perched in the tops of it. They would come and go, but I liked to think of our tree as their home.
My kids (and I) love to climb in it and swing in it and just be around it. I hope they will end up loving, appreciating, and being inspired by trees as well.

Fashion Expert

Haley has taken to picking out her own clothes. Which really means that I get her dressed in the morning then throughout the day she brings me things that she wants to add to or change about her outfit. She comes up with some pretty cute combinations. Her most common thing is to wear pants with a dress. She loves dresses but then hates her legs bare and hates tights (I don't blame her) so she puts pants on underneath. I think it's pretty cute. Today she is wearing a shirt, dress, pants, and a too small vest. Without the vest, it's not so bad. But she loves the vest because it has a zipper. Somedays there are two pairs of pants that she wants to wear. When I won't put one pair on over the other, she just puts on pair on her head and is so proud of her new hat. I keep thinking if I just let her dress herself now, then she'll outgrow the desire, but somehow I think I'm just giving her more confidence in her abilities and we'll have many years of crazy outfits ahead of us.