Past Bedtime

We should have been in bed.  Eight o'clock is bedtime, after all!

But then again, it's summer, and despite a few mishaps today, there was too much goodness to pass up and nobody seemed to want to end the day.  Picture overload....


I can't pick JUST ONE....she's growing up too fast, and her personality is starting to shine!  Keetley is such a sweet baby....she's always so happy and chipper and content.

 ...unless I hit a big curb in the stroller....

 ...but it doesn't take long for her to return to her happy self!

Can you guess what a little boy got for his birthday???  He LOVES his new hat!

Now, this is a hat that fits, and it fits well!  He can rock climb without it falling off....and those boots.  They melt me.

and then there's this handsome fellow...it was his idea to come to the park...

 ...and if I didn't know any better, I'd say he wanted to show his boys how to have a little fun!

Tanner is our other climber.  I'm not even sure he put shoes on to come to play....hmm...

 This boy loves to collect rocks.  Don't tell him I've thrown away all the rocks in his pockets....and shells, and air-soft bb's, and other mysterious treasures.  Today he and Taylor pulled the legs off a grasshopper....I have to close my eyes and hold my breath every time I dig through their pockets for fear of finding bugs!

Taylor was moving so fast I only snapped one picture of him this evening.  He got a little pink from playing out in the sun....and his hair is going blonde!  He's a firecracker, this one.

And once we finally got home, we STILL wanted to play!  Bring on the tic-tac-toe tournament....one of those 'pinterest' crafts that actually worked out...and I'm happy I took the time and put in the effort.

I'm pretty sure I'll be washing sheets in the morning as nobody got baths.  We read library books and went straight to bed....I don't even want to think about how dirty their hands and feet were when their eyelids shut, and their hearts slowed down.  Come to think of it, we didn't brush our teeth, either.  *sigh*

Tomorrow will still come.  And we'll start over then.

Me Being Absent

...it's mostly because my external hard drive, the one with 10 years worth of pictures, is getting a "DATA TRANSFER".  It died.  And with it, my enthusiasm for taking pictures and SAVING them on my computer....It's a sad, sad day.  I've been waiting for FOUR HOURS to hear if there were any "DATA ERRORS", which would mean three times the amount of $$$ to get my beloved information and pictures back, and also a chance that I'd never get them back.  Sad.  Crossing my fingers, and my toes.

....Attribute the rest of my absence to some ah-ha moments I've had which undoubtedly resulted in some small home improvements.  And not really the kind that involve drills, saws, cans of paint or even money.  The improvements I'm working on involve time and energy.

A few things I'm aiming for as the new year has started include trivial things that I'd rather put off in order to accomplish more 'noteworthy' things.

I used to put off doing my dishes in order to edit pictures, or put off playing with the kids so I can get some more pinning done on virtual cork boards.  I used to go to bed exhausted at 2 am after blogging and facebooking, and social-media-ing instead of retiring at a reasonable hour (and the same time as my sweetheart).  I used to live a charmed, yet pathetic life, filled with lots of good, but I know I can do better.

With some minor adjustments to my crazy lifestyle, which now includes growing another human, and really CARING and NURTURING the humans currently in the four walls of my home, I've become happier.  Not that I've left ya'll behind, but I feel like I'm doing MORE NOTEWORTHY things than receiving praise for a fun photo shoot, or a beautiful dress I've made, or the awesome job teaching preschool, or any other number of things that I DO enjoy doing, but am finding they need to take a back seat to the children who are frequently buckled into the back seat of the car while I run errands and 'be successful'.

Trying out a new system, if you will.  Please excuse my absence while I...

Go sledding:

Paint Bird houses:

And live each day with Simple Joys.

Brigham City Temple Open House

Growing up LDS and in Utah, I had the opportunity to be surrounded by temples, but also to walk through the Bountiful and Mount Timpanogos Temples before they were dedicated.  As a young girl, who was striving to live worthily and be able to someday enter a holy temple to receive blessings, I was captivated by the inner beauty, and the wonderful Spirit that resided inside such a sacred place.

When my sister and mom frantically called to see if we were available to join them and the family to see the newly finished Brigham City Temple, I didn't even hesitate!  I wanted my little boys to feel that peaceful feeling that comes when experiencing the clean, white, pure and sacred place.

Before a temple is dedicated, anyone can walk through it during the open house.  It doesn't matter if you don't believe there is a God, have tattoos, or drink away your sorrows.  It doesn't matter if you are an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or a dedicated member of another congregation.  The purpose of a temple open house is for the general public to see the interior of our sacred temples.  In this particular open house, there was no talking, or even any presentations (descriptions of the beautiful peach-blossom windows, the reason for the baptismal font, etc.) within its sacred (not secret) walls.  The silence was peaceful, aw-inspiring, and uplifting.  If you don't know much about the purpose of our temples, you can read and learn more about it HERE.

I was able to snap a few pictures of the boys enjoying this neat occasion!  {enjoy!}

had to weasel our way in through a crowd
to get this picture front and center....
wish the girl behind me would have moved
so I could have gotten the spire behind the boys....
oh well!  We tried! 

A family outing wouldn't be complete without dinner....so instead of waiting at Maddox for an hour an a half, we drove to the Coppermill in Logan...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!  SO worth the drive and the cup of bleach I had to use to clean my boys' white shirts after dinner!  Thanks mom and dad, for the wonderful evening!

so....it's been a while...

...like a few weeks...because we've been really busy.

Thank you, Stevie, for the AWESOME label template!!!

Not only is the school year winding down, we're preparing for Preschool Graduation, Kindergarten Graduation, taking on a new job, and we bought a house.  

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!  After looking at 30-something homes in the last two months, we finally picked one...or, it picked us. 

We are so excited...

..to make this little home ours for a while.  It is perfect for our needs right now, and while we will likely outgrow it in a few years, we are SO excited to call it home.  

We have big plans for this little Ranch-style home, including some new paint and three little boys running helter-skelter.  Okay, so the plans include some fencing in the back yard, and a garden...which we are dying to get started on!!!!  And a new kitchen stove, which we bought today. 

As we're packing, we're assembling a small army to help us move on Saturday, May 5th at 8 am sharp...if you want to come by our "new" apartment downstairs (remember we moved last month?!) and help us out, EVERYTHING will be boxed up, labeled and ready to load into a trailer.  You'll be rewarded for your efforts.  :)  Rewarded HANDSOMELY.  If we can get a good crew there, we should be done in two hours or less (loading and unloading). You think I'm kidding....if so, come help, and find out!!!

We have arrived.

FINALLY.

We have two little boys who CANNOT STOP riding their bikes!!!  Up the alley.  Down the alley.  Around the block.  Through the neighbor's newly paved cement ramp in their back yard.  Flying super fast.  Slamming on breaks to see who has the longest skid mark.  Seriously, people.  It's awesome.

The whole "boys and their bikes" dream come true came about when Taylor was eager to learn, and was showing Tanner up.  Tanner wasn't about to let his little brother beat him, so after working on his balancing skills and taking a hint or two from his little brother, they were both cruising!

Even though Tanner lost a week of riding because he and a neighbor-girl friend decided to throw Taylor's bike in the dumpster, both boys hopped back on yesterday (yes, we went for a leisurely bike ride on Sunday to visit some dear friends, {Hi, Marci!!!!}) like they hadn't missed a beat.

Had it not been nap-time today when I snapped these shots, their baby brother, who is rounding the corner to TWO would have been not far behind!  He's loving being outside on his Trike.  Loving it!

I unhooked the bike trailer.  It's like a NEW WORLD for me!  I actually almost tipped over with Kortlen behind me because my bike was so lightweight.  :)  Good things, good things.

Service with a Smile

If this isn't it, I don't know WHAT is!

We had a beautifully windy snowstorm today. It dumped a few inches.  And while I was looking forward to beating the landlord and shoveling the walk myself, I admit, to see Tanner be EXCITED and WILLING and EAGER to run outside and actually do a really good job tackling such a feat made me smile.  

Guess Who Won!?!?

...i did.  and here's why...

Tanner had a swim meet in Bountiful this morning.  For various reasons, I decided to go despite the severe pain I'd had in my neck for a good week.  I'll get to that later.  Tanner first.

See this...

Yeah.  I'm pretty sure he was the youngest swimmer there.  If you aren't familiar with how meets are run, kids are seeded according to age, and their time (boys race boys, and girls race girls).  Tanner competes in the "boys 10 & under" age group, and is usually seeded last, because he's just a tad bit on the slow and inexperienced side.  That's okay. You have to start somewhere!

He ended up taking off 7 seconds from his 50 backstroke time....yay!  Progress.  And he took a whopping 49 seconds off of his 50 freestyle time.  SUPER YAY!  I'm confident he could have shaved an additional 30 seconds from the 50 free if he hadn't gotten silly and just bobbed up and down the last 4 yards.  Regardless, he is now using his arms and legs simultaneously...instead of separately.  It's a good thing.

Despite his placing last (not including those disqualified and no-shows) in his category, I won, because I got the see the standing ovation that every spectator and swimmer gave him after swimming both events.  I got to hear the "how old is that kid?!" and all the "Gooooooooooooooo!" from the people around me and in every corner.  It was hilarious!  I'm not sure if they were excited he finished because he didn't drown, or that he finally finished so they could go on with the next event.  Either way, it was awesome.  And he was a trooper!

I also won because I had my neck worked on....I don't think I posted about it here, but I did something stupid while lifting weights last week, and thought a disc slipped or something.  I had terrible pain radiating up the back of my head and down my left arm, and at times debilitated me from doing the things I need to do.  I have lived in constant pain for the last week, and was just about in tears at the meet.  I don't even remember half the drive down, because the pain was so sickening and I thought I'd throw up at any moment.  I would compare it to Kortlen's natural birth (pain at a 10, being the highest), with this being about a 12....a constant, sharp-shooting, tingling, hot, sickening & nauseating 12.  At least giving birth is over after a few hours.

ANYWAYS, my dear friend Karen asked how I was doing, and she could see I was almost in tears.  So she grabbed another swim mom who is a massage therapist to come and look at me...and then she worked me over right then and there, so painfully, that I burst into tears in the bleachers!  I was so embarrassed, yet SO RELIEVED!  I could move my head! Magic fingers!!! I think I was also crying because for the first time in a week, I had felt relief from the pain.  Throughout the course of the meet, my new friend Debbie worked on my neck about every 30 minutes.  The pain was still there, but subsiding.  Each time it felt better and better.

Turns out, the pain wasn't a disc (although I did go the the chiropractor Friday morning and it sorta helped).  Apparently my neck muscles and nerves were fighting each other and causing muscle spasms.  Ice helped IMMENSELY (I'd been doing heat....face-palm), and simply understanding WHAT was going on made me feel better.

Despite crying half the way home because the pain returned to be more than I could handle, I am even more excited to see Debbie again this week and have her work me over...I don't care how much she charges, I NEED the pain to be gone!!

And I'm tired of wearing the bag of frozen cranberries around my neck.  LOL!  It's kindof getting old.

Yup...I'm a winner.   


Note to self:  Don't do dead lifts and then check your form in the mirror.  That's just stupid.  

Life Lessons

This three-day weekend was a welcome get-away....We had a fun and entertaining visit with Mitch & Heidi in Bear Lake (and I am always having too much fun chatting it up to take pictures)...then stopped in Lava at the Hot Pots (we stayed for a record one hour!!  Usually it's more like 20 minutes for me)...then spent Sunday and Monday with my family. 

This morning we went and watched my dad feed the cattle.  He was really brave and put the boys in the truck while Katelyn and I scrambled for our coats and shoes.  It was a beautiful crisp morning!

The kids thought it was funny how the truck rocked back and forth while Grandpa was loading the bales of hay on the flatbed...this morning's load was a double-deck-er.

See?  Gorgeous morning.  Usually there's miles of five foot snow drifts in this field along the road....not this year...yet!

"FINALLY!  We've been waiting since sunup!"  ...so we got a late start...

"Neyummm, ummmmm, ummmm, ummmmm."

At one point, Tanner said to Taylor, "Yup - Taylor!  Those are bulls.  There is steam coming out of their noses!"

I thought Katelyn and I were going to die laughing in the feed pickup.  When we told my dad what Tanner had said, we had to have a little lesson on cattle ranching:  Bulls are boys, and cows are girls.  THE. END.

There were all kinds of questions...like "What are the big poky things for?" and "Why is Grandpa pulling off the string" and "Is Roxy a predator or is she prey?" and "How does she know how to track us in the snow?"  Oy.  These kids need to get out more.  

Kortlen couldn't take his eyes off of the beautiful beasts!  And I must admit - Roxy was pretty entertaining, taking charge of the whole morning.  

See...I told you we scrambled....I was in the middle of a grueling workout when I was hollered at to grab some boots...stylish boots meet worn-out yoga pants.

This is going to sound nerdy, but my favorite part of feeding is pulling off the bailing twine.  Yup.  Nerdy.  It's just so....cool.  Especially when it's frozen to the feed.  Definitely "cool".

Speaking of cows licking...What am I going to do about Taylor's double cow-lick?

We all learned to drive at the ripe ole age of about 7.  (But I'd NEVER let Tanner do that....he's a city boy.  LOL!)  Katelyn had the pleasure of driving us over frozen ruts down the road to the pasture this morning....lucky we didn't lose a load!  Though we did swap stories of the loads we DID lose growing up.  Talk about hilarious!  I so glad our dad survived us.  :)

Needless to say, we learned some life lessons today that I've taken for granted.  And then we played hard....in the snow.   Because you know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  

Reading Aloud

I have very fond memories from my childhood of my mother and father reading.

Often times, mom could be found at the kitchen table with her scriptures open, and a class manual close by.  She had shelves of books, with her name written on the inside covers.  Classics. Children's books.  Family Development books.  Church books. My mom studied diligently; with mechanical pencils, blue and black BIC pens and highlighters.  Notes in the margins of her textbooks, the Ensign, her Scriptures, the Joy School lesson manual.  Meticulous notes.  Thoughts.  References.  Promptings.  She was studious.  I remember picking up novels and looking for the ones with the most notes...those were the ones I wanted to read under the covers at night...I thought her notes would make me more smart.  Or tell more of the story!

For years, my father would sit at the top of the stairs on the landing and read to us from Black Beauty.  Robinson Caruso.  Little Women.  Swiss Family Robinson.  We were treated to a chapter or five, if we were good, as we lay in bed and he read.  We listened.  And asked questions, that he'd sometimes answer.  Sometimes clarify.  And often he'd hush us and say, "If you'd listen, you'd know."  Most men have a den or a man-cave, but my father has a library.  Walls of books.  And stacks of books.  And rows of books.  He may need to start keeping a ledger where we check out his books...because for a long while, I had a stack of his books on my own nightstand.  It started out as just a book or two, but by Christmas, I returned a good eight books to him.

I love reading.  I love to sit on the floor in my boys' room between their bed and the closet and organize their books ...slowly... because I read them as I put them away.  I'm kindof a nerd like that.  Kortlen has picked up my love of books, and I often find him sitting in the middle of the hall, or kitchen table, or IN his closet, flipping through the pages.  He will put it down and get another. And another.

I have a collection of books on my piano...some which I've read, others that I hope to.  Most of those are thrift store finds, but classic nonetheless. Lovingly read and yellow-paged.  They smell of old books.  Together, Ryan and I have shelves and boxes filled with books that we've devoured.  We have even kept our text books from college...we're that in love with books.  You never know when you'll need to reference something to Food Science, Interior Design, or Business Management!  Come to think of it, we even have books stacked in the corners of our bedroom closet.

This summer Tanner, Taylor and I read "Tom Sawyer".  Every time we got in the car, they'd beg me to read it to them.  I'm embarrassed to say that we haven't finished it...but when they see it, they love for me to read a few pages.  My goal is to finish that book with them, but AFTER I finish our current read.

Our school district just started a special project called "One District, One Book".  Every family received a free copy of a 'mysterious' book...as the book's title was unknown until yesterday at a special assembly.  The youngest child in each family that attends school was sent home with this book, and a reading schedule, so the book can be discussed in class, and as family and friends.

Last night we read Chapter 1:  Sam.  Aloud.  Because we all know that "reading aloud for just 15 minutes a day can provide children with a lifetime of benefits"...says the flier sent home with said book.  I agree.

I think we're really going to like this book!  It's adventurous.  Clips along at a good pace.  Has Tanner captivated, and Taylor interested.  The chapter lengths are just right.  And Tanner is noticing some of his frequent words and points them out.

While I can snuggle with a blanket and a good book and read away my time...for hours on end...I really enjoy reading to my children.  Especially when they listen.  I like making the voices....changing the inflection with the story line...and critically thinking with the boys about what just happened, what will happen next, and so on.

I challenge YOU to read aloud to your children, if you don't already do so...they will fondly remember those moments, and it WILL benefit them in SO MANY WAYS!

Have YOU ever read "The Trumpet of the Swan"?  Did you like it?  What is your favorite childhood book?