Friendship week

Our ward is doing an activity called friendship week. Each family has been assigned to anonymously leave gifts for another family in the ward to build friendship with a family they might not know well.

We decided to leave "Get to know us" hints each night along with a gift that explains who we are, leading up to the night when we reveal ourselves. Jackson has enjoyed the doorbell-ditching part! It has been fun coming up with these clues. I've put them to rhyme. Since the family doesn't have access to this blog, I'll share a few (without worrying about our cover getting blown):

Day 1 (left with a can of peaches and cobbler recipe):

The week of Friendship has just begun,
And we hope you’ll enjoy our gifts of fun.

You may ask, “Who treats us so well?”
But that is our secret and we’ll not tell!

We’ll give you clues as to who we are,
The first one is -- we don’t live far!

Another clue, in this poem we will sneak,
To help you guess by the end of the week.

We like to camp and Dutch-oven cook,
We’ll share a favorite recipe from our family cook book.

And so we leave you with this gift and rhyme,
And hope your family has a good time!

Enjoy!



Day 2 (left with Smoke Signals Marinade and fajita/tortilla recipes):

Although we now claim Utah our home,
Once on the plains of Texas we roamed.

If you’ve ever traveled to the heart of the South,
You’ll know what South’ners like to put in their mouth!

Preparing good meat is nothing short of an art,
So for today’s gift we leave you our part.

Fajitas are one thing that we love to eat,
This marinade is something that just can’t be beat!

You may look for this jar in stores near and far,
But it can only be found where they fly the Lone Star.

We hope you enjoy this gift and our poem,
As we leave behind something of us in your home


Day 3 (left with ice cream from BYU creamery):

We have many reasons to like BYU,
Our majors were health and History too.

It hasn’t been long since we were students with books,
Now they collect dust in corners and nooks.

You’ve heard of the saying, “To thine own self be true,’
And that’s why we’re loyal to the white and the blue.

Yes, we’re fans of the cougars, through and through
And to the athletes who play for BYU.

We might stay at home and watch the game on a screen,
Enjoying a nice big bowl of ice cream.

Have you narrowed it down to a half dozen families at best?
If this clue doesn’t help you, just wait for the rest!



Day 4 (Given with a pumkin from our garden and carving set)
One of us is blessed with a truly ‘green thumb,’
While the other is learning just how it’s done.

We’ve grown all sorts of vegetables in our garden,
This year, we even grew pumpkins for carvin’

This one has not been long off the vine,
You can use it to carve a face that is fine!

It wouldn’t be fun to leave you without treats,
So please enjoy carving while these candies you eat!

You may have noticed that for us food’s at the heart,
If you haven’t tried guessing, it’s time that you start!

Day 5 (Given with a book)
We’re one of those families, who like to read,
Some feels it’s a pleasure, others think it’s a need.

From science, to fiction, and children’s books,
A few pages in, you’ll find us hooked!

Of course our scriptures always find time,
To teach us of Christ and keep our lives in line.

Although this book doesn’t come with a reason,
We’ll hope you’ll enjoy it in the upcoming season.

Day 6 (given with cupcakes)
We hope you haven’t figured us out yet,
So we’ll give you some dates you won’t want to forget J

We were married in August of 2004,
And hope to enjoy many years more!

Our birthdays are dates that are easy to remember,
The boys’ are in May and girls’ in November!

On each special occasion we like to make
Our very own version of the cup cake!

With these clues we leave you our treat for tonight,
There’s plenty for all—no need to fight!

Day 7( given with star cookie cutters)
Our daughter is still too young to talk,
Just this week she attempted to walk!

Our boy is active as ever can be,
Appropriate for his age, he’s just under three!

The man of the house works in Lindon, not far,
You might see him in his red truck- not driving a car!

She cooks and she cleans and gets the kids dressed,
All on less than a full-night’s sleep at best! J

Have any clue yet as to who we are?
If you have—you’re a real shining star!

The family who has us has been very generous. They have shared fun family traditions, which is great for us. Since we are a young family, we don't have many traditions of our own yet. So it has been neat to see their family traditions that we may want to implement in our home too. We have no idea who they are!

Big News!!

Zoey took her first steps today!! I will have to get this on video and share. It is so cute how wobbly her chubby legs are. I noticed she was making a change this weekend, when she seemed to want to walk holding on to our fingers rather than crawl. I thought it was coming any day, and sure enough, it was today!!

The first steps were a little scary for her, but Jackson and I were encouraging her to come to us, and she giggled nervously while she ventured out on her own. Then she just wanted to keep practicing all day! Every time I turned around she was standing on her own on the middle of the room trying to take a step.

I'm so proud! Yea for Zoey!

A farewell

Elmo and Judy are going on a Mission! They have been called to Kennewick, Washington to serve in the mission office. Their farewell was yesterday. We spent the whole day with them trying to get our lasts fill before they left. They head to the MTC this week, will stay for about 10 days before heading out to Washington. The family is really excited for them.

We have been trying to get our fill with grandma and grandpa before they left, but it seems like no matter how much time is spent, it's never enough. I'm kind of sad at what my children will be missing with them for the next year and a half, but know that their bonds with reconnect when they come back.

Here was the farewell dinner the family had. We met at the Olive Garden. One of the last family gatherings! Don't let the happy faces of our kids fool you in these pictures. Both were sick with a really bad stomach virus. The worst messes I have had to deal with in my life!

Bye Grandma and Grandpa, we will miss you!

The September Itch

The holidays are just around the corner. I know it's only September, but I've already been plugging away at Halloween and Christmas crafts and things. It just gets me excited. Here's what I've been up to lately:

I can't take full credit for this project. My sister-in-law, Taraleigh had the idea and I copied :)

13 days to Halloween. A countdown with activities to help enjoy and celebrate the days prior to Halloween. Each day is represented by a cute numbered tag hung on the tree. On the back is listed an activity to do that day, such as making caramel apples, or harvesting our pumpkins, etc. I'm really excited about this idea!

We picked out Jackson's Halloween costume. He is going to be a dragon this year. Although he picked it out, he doesn't know what to call it. I keep telling him it's a dragon, but it has wings on the back and so that confuses him. He settles for" dinosaur-dragon-fly." So that's what he is this year. A dinosaur-dragon-fly. He loves the costume and wished I would let him wear it all day long, every day, and even to bed.

This is our Christmas countdown. Numbers are on each side of the blocks that we will rotate around to show how many days are left until Christmas! I still want to make a base for these to rest on...

End of Summer Business...

Summer goes by way too fast! I can't believe fall is upon us already. When I think of why summer seems to whip by, I like to think that it's because we are so busy and active all the time. But just because it's fall, doesn't mean things start to slow down around our house! Brian's parents got their mission call, I started teaching another round of yoga classes, Brian's been traveling, we've had family events, and the list goes on.

Last week my sister and her family were in town. It was so fun to have her. She took her rounds of staying at different homes throughout the week. We got to have her towards the end of the week and hosted the highlight event of the baby blessing for Parker. Baby blessings are one of my favorite things! There is always such a sweet spirit and tender feelings felt. He is such a good baby! We loved getting to meet him for the first time and having them in our home. Our family is getting so big! It was an amazing feat just to get everyone to look at the camera...and we had to take a TON of shots to get a good one!


With all of our business, we forgot to tend to the garden for a couple of weeks! Check out the size of these cucumbers! Brian had to trash 3 of the 12 pumpkins we were growing because they split and started rotting from the inside-out. Bummer...but we still have 9 left. We can tell the gardening season is coming to a close soon. but we will have plenty of cantaloupe, tomatoes, and squash to keep us more than satisfied!

Jackson has been forced to go on a "juice free" diet by his mother. I got tired of sticky juice spills and his addictive attitude. Quick fix...no juice! Problem solved! He eats better and I have to mop less. His been without juice for a month now. But tonight we served our homemade grape juice with dinner, and that's all Jackson would put in his mouth. He was going on a binge! After dinner (Jackson's "juicer") his tummy was so tight and round and full...his belly button was popping out a little! He kept complaining of his tummy hurting...but all we could do was laugh. Does that make us bad parents?

Teething is for babies....

Can I just say I hate the teething phase? Despise the teething phase would be more like it. Nothing can turn a regularly sweet baby into a monster, or a normally well-rested baby into a sleep-deprived whiner, like cutting teeth.

Zoey has been teething like crazy lately, she cut three in last week and I think two more are trying to make their way in. Last night was one of the nights among the past three weeks where Zoey hasn't been able to sleep through the night. She'll wake up in pain, screaming and crying for at least an hour or two each night. It's beginning to wear. Last night, we did what we could: gave her medicine, tried to calm her, but with no success. After a while, we just had to turn on the fans in the bathrooms to create a sound to muffle out the cries.

I was in that phase of sleep where the sounds from reality start to mingle with the dream world. When I finally awoke, I realized it was Jackson who was crying and not Zoey. He had heard her screaming, and woke up scared. By the time I got to him, he was shaking with fear and had that hyperventilating type cry. It took a good hour to get him to calm back down (Brian was an amazing help though all of this too, thank you)! By then, Brian and I had only about three hours left of sleep before we had to start our day all over again.

And the whole house is whiny today.....can you imagine why?

Friday and Saturday

Friday was our anniversary, but still part of our family vacation, so during the day we took the kids to the living aquarium in Sandy. We LOVED it! It was so neat! The exhibits were awesome! We watched them feed the jelly fish (which are just weird creatures if you ask me) and Brian and I got to touch a sting ray, but Jackson was too afraid to put his hand in the water. But he enjoyed everything else. He even saw a 'nemo' fish in real life! He loved the sharks and the eels and...just about everything. As typical for a toddler, it's hard to keep Jackson's attention on something for long, but at the aquarium, WE were the ones who were trying to pull him away from each display. He just loved to watch, and didn't realize there were other things to look at just a few steps away. It was fun.

Brian took me out to a fancy shmancy restaurant and a movie for our anniversary, and he wrote me a very nice poem (which I won't share because it will embarrass him, although you have to trust me it's super cute). I married a great guy and and very happy to have him in my life these past years.




We intended on going out with a big bang and taking the Heber Creeper Train Ride through Heber on Saturday. It started out as a windy, rainy, cold day so we quickly changed our minds and decided to save that adventure for another day. As the day progressed, it turned out to be pretty nice, so still wanting to do something fun, we took Jackson to get outfitted for a bike. He loves his helmet and wouldn't take it off from the time we put it on in the store until nearly the time we bathed him for bed. So far he just likes to "walk" his bike, but he'll get the hang of it! Especially with Brian showing him the ropes!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

So this week has flown by super fast! I can't believe our vacation is almost over! Today happens to be our five year anniversary (My sister and her husband's sixth anniversary as well- so happy anniversary Carissa and Braxton)! I couldn't have asked for a better gift than to have Brian stay at home and play with us all week long. We just love his company and can't get enough! Although we'll celebrate in style tonight, here is an update of what we have been up to all week:


Tuesday we went to the museum of ancient life (dinosaur exhibit). Thanksgiving Point is doing a promo in August called $2 Tuesdays. The regularly high priced tickets are dramatically reduced to only $2! We thought this would be a great idea....so did everyone else in Utah! Take a look at the line we waited in to get into the museum! (Brian is in the blue shirt by the stroller with our kids on the corner of the building). The line literally wrapped around the building! It went considerably fast, but you can imagine that all those people who were waiting outside, were now inside the venue! It was completely crowded and hard to move around with the stroller inside without bumping into someone, and the kids had very little patience. Although it was a cool idea and fun to do, I'm glad we didn't pay more than 2 bucks! Since we waited in line longer than we had expected, the kids were hungry half-way through the exhibit and so we rushed the second half just so we could get them some lunch and home for naps! We ended up eating a picnic out by the car under some shade trees and headed home.

That afternoon we visited the pool and wore the kids out for bed time. Jackson is becoming quite a good little swimmer and is very daring. He's been experimenting how long he can hold hes breath under water which makes me nervous. But he'll swim to the bottom of the wading pool area and look up and wave at us. He's just so cute! Later, Brian and I went out on date and caught a movie (left the kids with a babysitter of course)!




Wednesday, Brian hiked with some of his buddies up Timpanogos to find a time capsule they buried 14 years ago. Surprisingly (to me) they found it and enjoyed a trip down memory lane, added a few more items and re-buried it to dig up again in another 10 years or so. That afternoon we went back to the pool and had some friends over for a BBQ.






Thursday, we went to library story time and let Jackson pick out some books to bring home. The we headed to the park and had a picnic lunch and played on the playground. Afterwards, we just hung around the house and had a low-key afternoon to recoup from all of our running around.

Today, we are headed to the aquarium and later we'll celebrate our anniversary..so we'll keep you posted!

"Stay"cation

Most families take a summer vacation. This summer, we are taking a "stay"cation. Brian is taking a whole week off of work, which means a whole week to play! With as much as Brian travels, being at home is more of a vacation then going someplace. Plus, we decided it would work out better for our kids to see some close-to-home sights rather than ware them out with long travel plans and must-see's of a trip anywhere else.

We kicked it off with a fun date night up to Sundance with some friends on Friday night. We saw the outdoor Broadway musical, "The Fantastiks," and enjoyed a BBQ but mostly snuggling close together in a big fleece blanket. Although it is August, it felt like Fall...being in the mountains with cooler weather, it was down right chilly!

Yesterday, we had a perfectly fun day! We went out to breakfast with the kids, shopped for picnic items for our lunch, and then took them up to Sundance to ride the lift. At the top we took a short hike to find a beautiful picnic spot underneath some Mountain pines. It was son fun. Zoey was kicking and squealing with excitement the whole time and Jackson could hardly sit still for even a minute to eat. They loved it! Afterwards, we fed some fish in a pond (with potato chips of all things)!We fed a whole school of rainbow trout, which Jackson thought was pretty cool. After a long afternoon nap, we went to the park and had Hamburgers. Jackson stayed up late to watch a movie with us, and we get to do it all again today!

We'll keep you posted on our adventures this week! We have a fun schedule planned for the kids and we are looking forward to doing these things with them too! The best part is that it's all in our "own back yard" so we get to work around nap schedules and things. Everyone's happy about that!

Sumertime

The summer is almost over. We have been busy with the typical summertime activities. Pool. Park. Fireworks. I can't beleive it's already August. It's gone by way to fast!

Here's a little catch-up:

The pool and park:































































Celebrating the 24th of July with my parents:






























































































Brian's Trip to Zion with the Young Men:






























































BBQ with my high school girlfriends...the close group is growing with husbands and children (now 11 children in the group! Zoey is not in the picture):