I fell asleep where. . .

You know you have had a hard day, when you fall asleep on the stairs. I thought that Bear was going to make his way down the stairs to us but instead he stopped at the top to take a rest and ended up asleep. Isabelle was nice enough to yell down at us that he fell asleep and could we please get Bear off the stairs.

Summer Fun??

Ah the joys of warmer weather and just being a kid. While Ben was home this weekend we got a lot of stuff completed. Of course one of the tasks was to make sure all the sprinklers were working. We had to replace a couple of the heads but managed to get it all to work fairly well. The front set stays on the whole time, no telling why. While the sprinklers were being fixed Isabelle and Barrett enjoyed the water party. Isabelle was a little braver about running in the water, and Bear was just not sure about the sprayand tried to hit the water with the bat. Either way, they both had fun and cooled off on a rather warm day. Even Ben said the water felt good.

Animals Everywhere

After Isabelle’s performance and around lunch time, we made our way down to one the kid’s favorite places to go, The Farm, at Thanksgiving Point. They truly enjoy looking at the animals, and petting the few they feel brave enough to approach, and spending time with their friends. It’s always nice when they can play well with others without causing any harm, which of course is not what happened, but fortunately nobody was hurt badly, just more shaken up than anything, sorry Anjie. But injuries not included the kids had lots of fun, and Bear was so excited to ride the ponies. Once he caught sight of them, he really had a one track mind, and kept trying to drag us over there. Too Cute!

Spring Show

It is every parents pride and joy to see their child perform in front of family, friends and other parents. Twice a year Isabelle’s school does a nice little performance for the parents so that we know they are doing more than just learning. It was so much fun to see all the kids and hear their little voices sing as they entertained up for fifteen (15) minutes. Some of the kids are shy, while others are very boisterous. Isabelle ironically is somewhere in between. I know when she is at home, she sings her little heart out, but when she is in a group up in front of people, she is a little more quite. I think my favorite part was when they did a rendition of the Where the Wild Things Are, the kids “acted” out the parts of the wild things. At one point they all walked in a circle, and in true Isabelle fashion she moved the entire circle to the middle. It’s amazing how kids will move when they are attached to one another. It was a lot of fun, and I was sad that Ben missed it live and in person, but he’ll get a chance to watch it on video.

Dinner Conversation

This is a conversation that Isabelle and I just had, as she sits on the arm rest of the couch looking at me while I read:

Mom: "Are you going to eat dinner or what?

Isabelle: "Or What!"

Mom: laughs hesterically, becuase of the three year old response.

This is kid too smart for her own good. But she keeps me going everyday and is a never ending suprise at what she says and does.

Do you like to stand in your food while you eat?

Thinking Spot

This is Isabelle’s new retreat. She likes to come to this spot in the yard to think about world peace, famine, and how to stop people from fighting. No not really, she just likes to come here and pick flowers. You would think that with all the flower picking going on, there were be no more flowers, but no they keep coming back. I’m not really sure if it is a weed or an actual plant that is meant to be there. I just though that the picture was cute so I wanted to share.

Happy Earth Day 2008

Did you remember that today is earth day? If you did what did you do to help out our planet? Did you walk to one or more of your destinations today? Did you teach the kids about earth day and do a fun activity? How can you incorporate earth day into your everyday lives, if you do not already do so?

To celebrate Earth Day I talked to kids about what Earth Day is and had them help me come up with an activity that we could do together that was fun and easy. Since our yard has quite a few trees I thought we could make some simple bird feeders. I happened to have some empty toilet paper rolls lying around so I picked them up along with some peanut butter, and yard and we made bird feeders. The kids had fun spreading the peanut butter on the rolls and then rolling the roll through some bird seed. After that I ran some yard down the middle and we hung them on a tree. We can watch the birds eat from the kitchen window. They had tons of fun doing this simple activity and even got a tasty treat themselves.

Once we were done with that we collected trash from the yard. Being right across the street from Waste Management means we have random paper products flying into our yard on a pretty regular basis. I must say though it could be a lot worse. They do a pretty good job to “contain” the waste. I think that the plant that is close to us is a recycling plant for paper products. You can check out their web site for more information on the ways that Waste Management is going green. We read on the side of one truck that they fuel the trucks with trash. Pretty exciting, since I’m sure the cost of operation has dramatically increased with the recent rise in the price of oil.

Remember to think about the earth everyday, whether that means, recycling, using less water when you shower, or using an alternative means of travel. So far we only have one planet earth and we really need to start taking better care if we want the plant to be around for our grandchildren.

Oma's Visit

We just had a wonderful visit with Oma. The kids had so much fun visiting, playing, and talking with Oma, that I was sure they would not want to see her go. Oma came in on Thursday and surprised Isabelle by being in the car when we came to pick her up from school; she was so excited to see Oma. The kids had fun, waking up Oma up early in the morning to play and lasting all day long. We went to the scrapbook expo all together, while that was more for me and Oma, the kids did really well and both feel asleep, while we walked around. We even went to the zoo for Ariana’s birthday and checked out all the animals, with our friends. They had so much fun making signs and sounds and talking about the animals that they saw. Bear really liked the penguins, we happened to walk by right when they were feeding them, which he thought was great. Of course it was a beautiful day and the zoo became to get very crowed, which does not mean anything really, since it is not that big. Overall we had a wonderful time with Oma and the kids.

Honorable Mention

Here are the results of the photography contest. I recieved and Honorable Mention for "Looking at Ducks." The girls came throuhg in fabulous fashion to help one of my pictures become recognized. I had so much fun taking pictures and using my camera for something other than the usual everyday stuff, that I can hardly wait to go and just take some more. I feel that for my first offical contest I did pretty good. Next time will be better and even more fun. Now if I can just learn how to use my camera to the fullest extent. And I might need to get some photo softwear to change and edit my pictures. We'll see how that all goes, but for now I think will just keep shooting and looking for the best avalible shot.

Thank you to all my friends and family who voted for their favorite picture. Your help was much needed. Until next time.

What Mountians?

There is a storm coming into town today and look what the wind is stirring up for us. We no longer have a view of the mountains; there is so much “stuff” in the air. Of course we spent quality time out in our lovely air today while we were at the park, trying not to blow away. This “spring” weather here has been crazy!

Photo Contest

West Jordan, the city were we live, is having a photography contest, and I want your help. I am going to post ten of my favorite pictures that I took for it and I want you to vote on the ones that you like the best, you can vote for more than one. The top three will win. I can submit up to three pictures. Be honest and if you do not think any of them are good be sure to keep it to yourself, I'm just kidding I really want to know what you think. You only have one day to vote since I need to get them developed soon.

Big Green Spring Clean

Every year you hear about people all over the place doing their “spring cleaning.” As the days slowly start to draw nearer to spring I want to know if you will be participating in the annual ritual of a Spring Clean. Now I do not normally do this because I tend to find it a little tedious. Last year I did “spring clean” and finally finished I think in October. Now why did it take so long you ask? Well mostly because I really was not sure what to do and well there was just so much to do. I wanted to make sure the house was extra clean for when family and friends came over for the holidays so I set about cleaning. Window blinds, fan blades, the non-carpeted part of the stairs and the base boards. There were other parts of the house I tried to clean, like the crayon on the walls, except for the basement; I figure I can clean that when we move out. The basement is really a free for all in the art on the walls department. While I do try to discourage the coloring on the walls, I find that I do not really harp on them to not color down in the basement. Mostly just upstairs where more people would see it. I think I even took the magic eraser to the tile grout in a few choice places.

Now this year I think I will actually try to spring clean, but possible try to get it done in the spring instead of early fall. We have so many boxes in the garage that I think we might just need to have a yard sale. Why keep moving the stuff around if you do not see it at every stop. Now I will say that some of the stuff is in boxes because we just do not have the room to put it all away. Another sad fact that leads me to think that maybe, just maybe we have accumulated too much crap. Now the idea here is to be more green and clean with products that will not harm the environment, but where should I start? I’m pretty sure that I should drop the magic eraser and opt for a different type of product. The only bad thing about that is they work so well on the crayon. My current cleaner is supposed to be environmentally friendly, such as biodegradable, but I’m not sure how well I trust it.

With that in mind how will you or will you do any spring cleaning? What would be your target cleaning locations, or do you just plan to be more organized and open those last few boxes that you have not touched since you moved in?

Stranger Danger

At our MOM’s Club meeting today we had a Detective of one of the wives come in and talk to the kids about stranger danger. It was great, the kids had fun, they got to hold some of his safer tools and even turn the sirens on in the car. I was not sure how much information Isabelle retained in her little brain but she did a great job. We get back in the car to go home and she starts talking about what we discussed and how important it is to stay away from strangers. I was amazing because she kept moving around the room and playing, so it did not seem like she was really paying very close attention. She never ceases to amaze me! Bear really liked the car, and wanted to spend some quality time up front playing with and pushing the buttons.

The Dreaded Car Cart

I have never really felt like a Utah mom before until today. I have always used a regular shopping cart when getting groceries because I think Isabelle is old enough to walk and why would I want to attempt to navigate one of those big bulking car carts around the store. Well I gave in the other day and it did make shopping a little easier, Bear was not trying to steal all the food from in the cart to see what he could eat. And Isabelle was not climbing on the cart every five minutes because she did not want to walk at that particual point. After going to the store on Monday for some reason I really felt like a Utah Mom. Maybe it was because school was out still for “Spring Break” or maybe it was the time I went. I’m pretty sure that I am going to either change my shopping day or be sure to get just the regular cart. I would hate for people to get the wrong impression. I can not even fully express in words the "feeling" but it was there, oh well hopefully not again.

Happy Easter

I hope that everyone had a really good Easter holiday. We enjoyed going to church, I know amazing, right. Both Ben and I got to stay in the room through most of mass, which in it self is pretty unusual. Bear did really well, he played with the little boy in front of him, which did not do well for the little boy but hey. We were pleased. Isabelle did great; she sat very well and was very proud of her dress.



Then we joined Missy and Jory at their house for a little Egg Hunt. Isabelle definitely had the advantage on that one. Maybe one day she can hunt eggs with her cousins and then she will not be so domineering. At least they had fun. Bear had to check out all his eggs before moving on to the next one. And was not really a big fan of the hard boiled eggs, I’m sure he thought they should have something special inside. Overall it was a pretty good day, the kids had fun and so did we.

Girls Night Out

An impromptu night out with the girls is always fun. And last night was that. After a long day filled with all sorts of excitement, I received a call from a friend saying hey lets go out. So I said ok, lets. And so the evening began. After rounding up another party member we headed out to the local Irish Pub for some drinks, food and chatting. It was fabulous to go out with out having to worry about the kids, and just have some fun. I think we all agreed that we will have to do that a little more often. Most of the husbands were home playing the games, except for Ben, he was probably flipping between CNN and ESPN, I did not ask. I did remember to bring him home something to eat, which he’ll have to enjoy today since he was asleep. I just wanted to say thanks for the invite, it was great, and we will have to do this again soon, and be sure to invite more girlfriends.

A Sleeping Bear

Bear must have been very tired today. He screamed all through Target, after I told him he was not going to get a coco, milk or juice. I said you can get some on Friday. Well that completely set him off. And of course I pick the one cart where the seat belt does not work so I’m left with a screaming child who is trying to climb out. Fortunately I did not have much to pick up, just something for Girl Scouts today and a few shorts to round out Bear’s summer wardrobe. I picked up said items quickly and left. You would think that by now Bear would have stopped crying, well just for a few seconds while we checked out and then it started all over again. He had a Target bag in his lap which I took away to put in the car and there he went again. The continual cries for “Dada, Dada,” even though Daddy is at work and cannot come to the rescue. What a mean Mommy. So we get home and he is still crying, walking into the house, lying on the floor, still crying. I take a shower, (since I was just at the gym) and he is still crying. Finally while I am changing my clothes he stops. I figure he fell asleep but where was the mystery. Until I walked downstairs I was not sure where he was, and there he is laid out on the tile floor sound asleep. Now why couldn’t he of made his way up the stairs to lye down on his bed? Or at least made his way over to the carpet in the dining room? Nobody will know, but at least the crying has stopped. Until I pick him to go get Isabelle from school, one can only hope it won’t start again.

Easter Eggs

It’s that time a year again when we gather round a pot of boiling water to ready the die for Easter eggs. Fortunately a friend here in Salt Lake opens her doors to several families to come over and die our eggs together. It is so much more fun for the kids and mom’s alike. Bear was much more into egg dying this year than last. He really had fun dropping the egg in and pulling it out. Isabelle did much better this year and used a multiple range of colors. Last year I think most of our eggs were blue and turned turquoise later. It’s always nice to visit with friends and do projects together.