The Hansen's Stuff =)

Its Snow much fun with you!!!!

2012-01-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

We finally got some snow!! At least for a few days till it warmed up and rained.....so we took advantage of it =) On Saturday we went to Morgan and the kids got to go sledding Jaydon and Makayla. It was fun! we went to this hill by the Milton Cemetery. I grew up around there and I never went sledding there....am I lame or what? (but in my defense we had a pretty good hill in our backyard)

Jaydon was such an awesome sport and went sledding with Ian lots =) They went "super fast!" I wish I would have gotten a video of the first time Ian went down. He went down all by himself on one of the tubes and boy was he flying! We weren't sure if we were going to be able to stop him before he got to the road and then slid down the road....into a cement wall.....Luckily, my dad was quick on his feet and got to him in time. The whole time, Ian was giggling, especially when he saw Papa poised to "catch" him.

Makayla spent a lot of time going with Brenna. They had lots of fun and almost slid off the path and down the even bigger hill....with a barbed wire fence at the bottom.....(that brought back memories of my sledding experience of going down a big hill with a barbed wire fence at the bottom.....I still have the scar on the back of my neck from it....)

"Mommy! I need to go potty!" What to do you do when your 3-year old says this, while bundled in snow gear and a long ways away from the nearest bathroom? Well....you have him go in the snow. But one problem....since he's so little, he doesnt' really know how to stand and aim yet.....

So Daddy gets him, pulls down the snow gear and holds him over the snow so he can pee straight down in it.....Ian thought that was the coolest thing ever. He can't wait until summer when he can pee on a tree now.....

A few days before we went to Morgan, we went to Rhomer Park (I was lazy and didn't want to reload the pictures in the right order). There is a fabulous hill there! If you are in the Ogden area, you must go!

Of course, Brenna is a little dork....I love that girl!

I like that the kids could go by themselves =) This is Brenna being a big girl. We put a rope on the sled so she could drag it up easier.

This is the hill. It's pretty long and then levels out so the sleds have plenty of time to slow down before crashing into anything =)

Its not too steep =)

Ian and daddy going down =) Ian loved it because he got to ride down and then on the way up, he got to be pulled up in the sled too =)

Getting ready to go down =)

And they're off! Brenna crashed halfway down the hill.......that little sled wasn't the best for this hill.

Before we hit the big hill we went over behind Brenna's school. There were little hills there. We thought we would see how Sasha did pulling a sled. She is part sled dog after all. I think we need to get her some more muscle. But she is only a year old so she has lots of training left. She did pretty good pulling Ian around but could do Brenna. She could pull Brenna down the hills, though. I think Sasha had fun running around. She got nice and worn out. I think I need to hook her up to the sled next time the sidewalks are covered with snow and have her carry Ian in the sled when I get Brenna from school. =)

Happy Birthday, IAN!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Has it been 3 years already?! Where in the world has the time gone?! I can't believe that Ian turned 3 on Friday. It was just a blink ago that I was in the hospital with him. I think my kids threw away the memo that said they are not allowed to grow (because of course that means I'm getting older, boo!) For his birthday Friday, we did a "hangout" day since Jason had to work. Ian helped me clean the house and bake his cake and cupcakes for his party the next day. Then we took a break and went and got some ice cream.

We went to Farr's Ice Cream where you get to build your own ice cream. He wanted chocolate ice cream with gummie bears, sprinkles, hot fudge, chocolate covered raisins, sour worms, brownie bites, fruity pebbles, and strawberries. yum!

When we got home, it was time to get Brenna from school. So we went and grabbed her, came home for a little bit and then I decided I didn't want to sit around so we went bowling. =)

The kids had lots of fun =) I think we have a while before they're bringing home bowling trophies but surprisingly, Ian scored above 70 points and I think Brenna got around 50. Then we came home and I finished getting stuff ready for Ian's party the next day and the kids played (fairly) nicely together and watched some movies.

Then it was PARTY DAY!!!!

Ian wanted a Transformers party. "Optimus Prime is the goodest guy!" "I love Bumblebee, he's my best friend. He's nice to me!" "Megatron is a bad guy! He's not a happy guy!" "Transformers are cool! They're my favorite!" Can you tell he likes them? So of course I oblige. =) He wanted a Bumblebee party =) One all his friends arrived, we played some games.

The first was "Pin the symbol on Optimus." Optimus lost his autobot symbol in his battle with Megatron so the kids had to try and pin it back on =) I do this type of game at every party for the kids. I get them a poster in the party theme so that way they can have something to hang up to remember their party (Ian's toy Story one from last year didn't last after he threw a fit in his room and tore it off the wall and ripped it....such a stinker!!! this poster is going out of his reach.....hopefully, but this child is a monkey....)

The next game was sort of a pinata type game. My kids always beg for pinatas and I never get them because I think they are ridiculously priced and it is so hard for the kids to really break them. Most the time the pinata ends up decapitated. So I came across this idea on Pinterest (click for tutorial). I was instantly in love with it. It was soooo easy to do. I told the kids that since Autobots are strong and can punch through walls, they get to punch through to get their prize. I think this will turn into a usual occurrence at our birthday parties. Especially since each kid gets to break something and with pinatas, only one really breaks it open (usually an adult or big kid)

Next, is the favorite part. PRESENTS!!!

We got him a racing Hot wheels track, the old school Transformer movie (the one from the 80's with Unicron and Hot Rod...which they should turn into a real movie, since there are rumors of a Transformers 4 and 5, I'm crossing my fingers), plus the season 3 and 4 of the old Transformers movies, which have hot rod (Ian became obsessed with Hot Rod the first time he watch the old movie), a Transformer shirt and a matching game.

Uncle Dallin got him an automatic nerf gun! How cool is that! Now he can shoot daddy! Jason has a big nerf gun to so I see some epic battles in the future.

Then came Papa's present........is that the coolest bike or what?! He was trying to ride it around the house =) I can't wait until spring when the kids ride bikes outside. Ian wanted to ride a bike this summer but he just had a little 3-wheeler bike but he couldn't keep up with Brenna. Now he can "Roll out!"

Once presents were done, it was time for cake and ice cream. yum!!

He wanted a Bumblebee cake so I tried to do one. i knew I had no chance of trying to make a car shaped one. But Ian loved it! especially the toy on top. He's been carrying it around ever since.

To do the symbol on top I melted some chocolate chips and added black food coloring. I had outlined the autobot symbol on some wax paper so I colored it with the chocolate, put it in the fridge to harden and then pieced it together on the cake. When I add the food coloring to the chocolate, for some weird reason the chocolate clumped up. I started getting made because now I wouldn't be able to pipe it into the shape. But then I played with it for a minute and it turned into a sort of moldable chocolate. Then i just molded it into the shapes and all was well again. Until I started with the frosting. I wanted to try a marshmallow base recipe but when i tried frosting it it was too sticky and kept showing the crumbs. So i had to do a crumb layer, freeze the cake, do another layer, freeze the cake, then do a last layer. It was a pain in the rear!! I am sticking with canned frosting from now on. Then I moved onto the cupcakes. I couldn't find any cupcake toppers with Transformers on it. Crazy, huh? So I had to make my own. I cut out an autobot symbol in some stencil plastic. Then I got the spray food coloring and thought, "this is going to be easy!" Boy was I wrong! When I sprayed it, it was really runny and the symbol blurred. Once again, I was getting mad. So i fiddled with it and got some of them to work. I did it a couple ways. one way i did was to spray the stencil, then press it into the cupcake to transfer the color so it did the outline. another way was to sprinkle so black sugar crystals into it. They didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it worked. This cake was they simplest in design out of all the ones I've done for my kids, but it was the biggest pain!! But one thing about it, It sure tasted good! I did everything from scratch (no box mixes) and was quite pleased with it. The cake was chocolate cake with coconut cream pudding in between the layers. The cupcakes were vanilla cake, with some almond extract and then a butter cream frosting, with a bit of almond extract. So It may not have looked like I originally wanted, but it tasted better. =)

Ian is such a sweet and special little guy. I am so thankful to be his mommy. He is always teaching me how to be better and more loving. With him, a hug and kiss can fix anything! He is always running up to me and saying "Mommy! I Love you so much!" or "Mommy! I want to give you a kiss!" His sister is his best friend and he can't wait for her to get out of school most days. When we pick her up he goes running to give her a hug. He is a total boy though. Loves to get dirty, make messes, be noisy, build things, and jump off furniture. He is such a smart cookie. He recognizes most of his letters, sing his own version of ABC's (what kid doesn't?), can count to almost 15. He loves to argue. We were driving one day and he kept arguing: Me: "Ian, I think you like to argue just to argue, don't you?" Ian: "No, I don't" Me: "You're arguing right now." Ian: "No, I'm not." yup. He does. He loves to cuddle with me (usually comes sneaking in our bed sometime in the middle of the night). He is content to just sit on my lap and hang out with mom. His favorite thing right now is wearing slippers. He wears his "Rex" slippers so he can slip, and his "Cars" slippers so he can vroom! He is always cracking me up with the things that he says. He is turning into a little man right before my eyes. I love this little guy with all my heart. I sure must have done something good in Heaven to deserve such sweet kids!

Ian Carl Hansen

1-20-2009 5:17pm

6 lbs. 18 inches

Christmas morning =)

2012-01-05T16:29:00.001-07:00

Santa spoiled the kids this year =)

These are the blankets I made for the kids. It was my first attempt at making something like this. They were fleece sleeping bags. I cut out the the butterfly and dinosaur and hand-stitched them on. The kids loved to cuddle in them.

I got tired of the kids always getting my camera so they go their own kid cameras. They actually take half decent pictures.

We had a funChristmas this year. Jason's sister Emilee and her hubby Lee and their 4-legged kids (Boots and Spaetzel) came and stayed with us.

The kids had so much fun with them! They loved having the dogs around and the dogs loved them! Ian was usually found following Spatz around. Surprisingly, she was pretty calm here. Lee and Emilee were worried because she is usually a hyper dog, but I guess being around the kids calmed (or wore) her down.

It was also an excited time because Jason's brother Dallin got married. I didn't get a better picture, I know, I should have. But as soon as I can bug them for one I will post it =) We are excited to have Kathy in our family. Brenna and Ian love her and she is super nice. Now that all of Jason's siblings are married I can start bugging them to give me nieces and nephews to spoil since Jaydon and Makayla are older I can't really turn them into brats and then give them back to their parents (they're already brats ;P j/k I love you guys!!)

After the wedding we headed to Temple Square to see the lights.

I love this pic of the temple. So pretty!!

My rugrats! It was pretty cold so we bundled them up. The good thing, if they fell it would take them a while to get so we didn't lose them =)

I loved this nativity. It was so pretty!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We sure did!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

This past year has been a great year for us. Even though we bought our house right before Christmas last year, we didn't get really settled until after New Year's. We moved into an amazing ward. It feels like we have been here forever! (in a good way) We got a new family member, Alex. Jason's sister Kelsey got married this summer to Alex. We are going to be adding another family member in a few days, Kathy. Jason's brother Dallin is getting married Christmas Eve. I know, what a day to pick, huh? The nerve of some people to get married around holidays (as me and Jason will be celebrating our 8th anniversary on the 26th of December ;P ) Jason finished school (yay!!!!!!!!!!). FINALLY!!!!! I am excited to actually have him home more. Nothing else too major has happened, but I'm not complaining because that means nothing majorly bad has happened =)

I'm looking forward to what the next year will bring us. Hopefully more of the same =)

As this is the time of year we tend to reflect on our Savior more, I have to add my bit. I am so grateful for the sacrifice He made for me. Without it, I would have no chance of being able to spend forever with my family. And heaven just wouldn't be heaven without them. The most incredible thing to me is that Jesus knew what was required and volunteered to do it. It was just a trial He happened to go through. He knew it would happen, He knew He could stop it if he wanted, but it was more important than the needs or wants of one man. He did it for everyone. I can't imagine the love He has for us to be able to do that. I would do it for my kids, but some random person in France I wouldn't be able to. I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven. He guides and directs us so that we may become better people. There are so many times I look back on things that have happened and realize that they weren't just happenstance. I have seen His guiding hand in my life so many times. I am proud of the person I have become under His direction. I am not perfect, far from it, but I am striving to be better. Without our Savior, Jesus Christ, there would be no way we would be able to start anew and have the chance to ultimately reach perfection (I won't be there in this life, that's for sure!) I am grateful that Mary and Joseph were the kind of people who were living their lives in such a way that they were able to bring the Son of God into this world and raise him. I hope I can be a fraction of the mother that Mary was. In all the hustle and bustle of the upcoming week, please remember the reason for the season and take a moment to give thanks for the ultimate present.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas, a happy new year, and all that jazz!

Gingerbread houses

2011-12-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

The past few years I've tried to make gingerbread houses with the kids. They are by far, not masterpieces and definitely not suitable for any gingerbread families to inhabit. But we have fun. since I am cheap, I won't spend $10 on a kit that makes 1 house and 5 pieces of candy. So we use graham crackers frosting, and lots of candy. One day I will actually back some gingerbread and use that....maybe...but until then.....we're happy with what we've got.

Of course, this is what really happens when you build the houses...you have to buy twice as much candy because you eat half of it. Ian was no exception. He was inheaven with 5 different candy choices in front of him. Can we say sugar rush?!

But eventually he got the drift and started decorating. I built the house and let him decorate. It kept falling down so I just left it and let him put candy on it =) He was happy with it and that's all that matters

I helped Brenna a bit with hers, but it was mostly her. She was getting frustrated that it kept falling down, but eventually we got it so it stayed up....for a few minutes.

She loved putting the candy on and was actually pretty good about not eating it all.

She was super proud of her cute little house. She did a good job. Then, I moved the plate so it wasn't by the edge of teh table ( I was going to let the dog in and I didn't want Sasha to eat it) and........

I guess it wasn't built quite up to earthquake code......

This is defintely going to be another tradition for us. One day I'll invest in the cookie cutter shaped in the houses so it's easier to do, but that can wait until the kids are a little older and not as obsessed with just eating the candy.....

Christmas Village and Santa

2011-12-09T08:38:00.001-07:00

It's become our tradition every year to go to Christmas Village in downtown Ogden and see the lights and the little box/houses they have decorated. This is the only time of year I will willingly go around 25th in Ogden at night....but that's because there are a ton of other people so I dont' have to worry too much about the :wrong" kind of people.

As we got there, it was right at the time Santa was starting so the line wasn't very long so we hopped in line. Ususally the line is a mile long so we skip it. I was excited to let the kids see him here this year. Especially since when you go to the mall they rip you a new one for taking a picture with your camera and not spending $20 for a picture there.....

It was freezing! So we bundled the kids in their snow gear to troop around. They loved seeing the different houses and themes. There were some that we have seen a few years in a row, like the grinch in jail, the snowmen in the ice cream shop (one is melted), Hansen and Gretel, and the elves fixing Santa's sleigh by putting an engine on it.

This is one of my favorites =)

The kids love this one....the snowman in the middle is melted =)

He never lets me take a picture without pulling a face.

I know, it's blurry....but trying to take a picture of an almost 3 year old....at night....not a good combination =)

Completely mesmerized =)

The reason for the season =)

Once we were frozen through (at least my hand were because of taking pictures because I can't use gloves with a touch screen) We went home and loaded up on hot chocolate with marshmallows =)

The kids had a lot of fun walking around looking at all the lights and everything. I love that we have our own little family traditions =)

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree

2011-11-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, we put up the tree. This stems clear back from when I was a little girl. It was usually after we recovered from Black Friday shopping. But I wasn't in dire need of anything this year so I spared my sanity and didn't go. Ok, honestly, Jason had to work a graveyard and didn't get home until 7 am so I would have had to drag the kids with me.....not a good idea with all the crazies out. and I really didn't see anything advertised that was on my shopping list. Anywho....so we decorated the tree today.

We're lame and have a fake tree, with the lights already on it. With kids and dogs....that's always been the safest and cleanest route to go. One day we'll get a real tree. Plus, this year I was smart and used shatter-proof ornaments. Last year, Ian would take the ornaments off the tree and say "Ball!" and then proceed to throw them or smash them together. Not a lot of my ornaments survived. So after Christmas I got some on sale =)

We had a few kinks getting started. I plugged in the tree and there was a row of lights burned out. EEK!! Especially since this I a prelit tree, you can't just take the lights off. The lights are supposed to be the type that if one bulb burns out the rest stay lit (which I saw demonstrated on a few other spots). I changed the fuses....nothing....made sure all the bulbs were plugged in....nothing....I really didn't want to take every bulb out and test them....that's a pain. So I decided to just buy a strand of lights and wrap them around it. So I shuffled off to the store and got some lights. As I was wrapping them around the unlit branches....all of a sudden, they weren't unlit anymore! I guess I jiggled something and the lit back up! YAY!!! So then I put the lights around my window =)

Then I let the kids get down to business:

I let tehm decorate this little mini tree while I was getting everything ready =)

Of course you need window clings! Especially when you have a huge window!

Now the fun part:

I think this was longest they went all day without fighting! It was wonderful =) Until we ran out of ornaments......

They were pleased with themselves. I let them do pretty much all of it. I did move some ornaments because I hung all the ornaments on one branch =) Silly boy!

Happy Turkey Day!

2011-11-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

We didn't do much for Thanksgiving. Just stuffed ourselves silly with turkey and mashed potatoes. We stayed home this year. My dad came down and ate with us. The kids were excited because Papa is their favorite toy =) Nothing too eventful but here are some pictures of the kids (and Papa) having fun:

I love my chitlins =)

Even Sasha had to give some loves to Papa =) She knows she can wrestle and play rough with him. As soon as the kids come around she stops.

Had to include this =) We love deep fried Turkey so that is Jason's contribution to the fest. I do everything else and he throws a turnkey in pot of boiling oil.....hmm...I think he gets the easy job.

Do I have cute kids or what?!

2011-11-04T08:51:00.000-06:00

My friend, Dallas, took some super cute pictures of my kids a few weeks ago. I LOVE them!!! She did such an awesome job! Of course, when you have such cute little models to work with it's hard not to get cute pictures. =) Here are some of my favorites:

(I couldn't get this to flip the right way for some reason)

(This one wouldn't flip either)

~Happy Halloween~

2011-11-01T13:48:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a good Halloween. We did =) I was so glad that the weather decided to stay nice. It was great being able to take the kids trick-or-treating without bundling them up in 50 layers. We went around our neighborhood this year and did some actual foot work, no trunk-or-treat this year. I was bummed at the lack of Halloween activities this year. Usually there is something for the kids to do everyday for a week before. Maybe I'm just out of the loop but it seemed like there weren't many going on. Oh well. We had fun with our corn maze, pumpkin carving, and a few parades.

We did a little bit of pumpkin carving this year. Jason wanted to do a mean looking one:

I didn't want the usual face so I did a skeleton face:

usually get little pumpkins for the kids to decorate and paint but I didn't this year. I know, I should have.

We had our ward Halloween party Saturday. It was fun to go see our friends and neighbors. I did a post earlier about it. I was excited to win the costume contest. Then right after the party, Ian had a costume birthday party. He had a blast! I need to get some pictures from my friend since my camera broke. He was dressed as Superman (a pair of his jammies that have a cape =) )

I had both the kids dress as skeleton's this year. I don't think I'll get a way with dressing them the same much longer so I'm enjoying it.

Brenna was excited to dress up for school!

While Brenna got to have fun at hew Halloween party at school, me and Ian went trick-or-treating with Jason at his work.

While we were walking in the parking lot, Ian told me "Mommy! Take a picture!" and he struck a pose =) What a goober!

Here are the kids, ready to go =) We had friends come with us and i forgot to get a picture of all of them together =(

Here's Jason in the white out contacts that he insisted he just HAD to have for Halloween =P

Trick or Treat!!!

Brains......brains.....brains.....

2011-10-30T17:04:00.000-06:00

We had our ward Halloween party yesterday and I thought I would share this lovely picture with you. Of course, they were having a costume contest too. Don't you love costume contests? I remember many times feeling jipped because the sparkly princess won instead of me. There was oneyear brenna was dressed up as a transformer (seriously, how many girls want to be transformers?) and of course the fairy princess won. grr!!! I rebelled this year at our ward halloween party and dressed as ugly as I could, a zombie, just to show them you don't have to be cutsie....guess who won the contest....yup, me! not those pretty pirates or princesses. I had fun doing my costume. Found the dress at Saver's, ripped it and rolled it in dirt, made soem fake blood, and viola! A zombie is born....or unborn? There were some people in our ward that didn't recognize me and had to ask other people who I was. It was great!

Stay tuned for some really cute kiddos pictures after Halloween.

Harvest Moon Festival

2011-10-23T09:00:00.000-06:00

In case you couldn't tell, I've been a slacker and now I've been playing catch up on my posts. At the end of September we went to the Harvest Moon Festival on 25th Street in Ogden. They had lots of vendors, a farmer's market and kids activities.

We did this last year and the kids loved it. they got to make their own pumpkin bread bowl. Brenna loved it so much last year that the next day me and her made our own pumpkin bread bowls and that got me started on my bread bowls, which I love to make with soups.

Some good, clean fun! They ahd a big pool filled with bubbles! There was a bubble machine that kept the supply of bubbles going. The kids would have spent all day playing here if I would have let them.

They were covered head to to....I guess they didn't need a bath that night. =)

There were free pumpkins for the kids to decorate. They did such a good job. Too bad that the pumpkins got mushy the next week....and then Sasha got a hold of them. Come to find out, our dog likes to eat pumpkins. I won't be surprise if we have a few random pumpkin plants growing around from the mess she made of the seeds.

The kids remembered the train ride from last year so of course they went again this year. Brenna even ran into Eleanor, her best friend from the townhouses we used to live in (her family actually moved into our townhouse after we moved too).

Ian and Daddy got to ride the train. He won't admit it, but I'm sure Jason had fun riding with his little mini-me.

It was fun to go this year. The kids liked all the activities. There were a ton! The best part of all.....it was FREE!!! (remember, I'm cheap and all about free stuff!)

I'm a big boy now!

2011-10-22T09:29:00.000-06:00

My cute little guy is almost potty trained! We have been potty training for about 2 weeks now. For the longest time he has wanted nothing to do with it. Then one morning he told me he wanted to wear underwear. I though the would wear them for 5 minutes and then want them off like he usually does. But nope, he kept them on. then I expected him to pee in them right away....which he did. He still wanted to wear underwear so I put a new pair on and then we got him to go on the potty. It took a few tries before he figured out how to make himself go, but once he did, he was good to go! Now he is telling us when he has to go or even going in on his own. But each time he goes he makes sure to tell us to come and look. he is staying dry through his naps and even at night! We are still working on getting him to go #2 in the potty. He's gone a few times, but it seems like each time he needs to go is when we're somewhere other than at home or near a potty. I know that one will take a bit longer. I am so proud of how good he is doing! I was fully expecting him to not want anything to to do with it until after he was 3. He's growing up way too fast! I sure love my little Bubba =)

Discovering new things =)

2011-10-18T09:16:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I went to the Discovery Gateway with the kids and with my bestest friend Kanani and her boys. She home schools her boys and with the school program they get to go on field trips and she invited me along. It was fun. It was like the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.

Playing in the farm section =) They got to play on a horse that was the size of a real horse. They loved it!

This was Ian's favorite part. It was a big thing with water and lots of water toys. He had so much fun that he soaked himself. I had to take his clothes off and dry them with the hand dryer. But at least he had fun, right?

He got to stamp some fun pictures =)

Ian's other favorite part. These were magnetic sticks. Now I know what to get him fro Christmas =)

Huge waffle shaped blocks. The kids had fun building blocks out of them and stacking them

The helicopter! The kids loved this! Especially since it was just like the one at Daddy's work. It even said IHC on it =)

Brenna, Jameson, and Tyson. They were concentrating so hard to build stuff.

Brenna being a checkout girl and doing some shopping of her own. Smart girl, went straight to the fruits and veggies first =)

Maybe future news anchors?

Brenna got to build some block buildings and then you push a button and it shakes the platform. Its supposed to recreate what happens to buildings during an earthquake.

It was a pretty fun day. I don't think I would pay the full price of $8 a person to go, but I'm a cheapskate with everything.

Help! We're lost!!

2011-10-16T08:50:00.000-06:00

We went to the Coldwater Trout Farm on Saturday. They had a kiddie corn maze and at the end you got to pick your own pumpkin. It was fun to walk around and get "lost." Both kids took a turn trying to lead us out......they didn't do a good job because we were stuck in there for about 45 minutes. Jason claimed he knew the way out all along and just wanted to let the kids wander more but I think he's just trying to cover up the fact that he was lost too.

This is Brenna leading the way.

of course Ian had to be like Daddy and walked with him the whole time.

He loved the spider webs. Whenever we came across a web that didn't have a spider he would look for one and would call "spider! Where are you?"

My brave boy touching a "big huge spider!" He said afterwards, "It was so cute and fuzzy."

Oops....another dead end...photo op!

Me and my favorite little guy. He's still the spit image of daddy and doesn't look like mommy.

Me and my sweet (most the time) girl. I think she might look a little bit like me....but that may just be wishful thinking....

Isn't she such a poser?

Getting lost in the corn. After we had been lost for 45 minutes Brenna started getting a little whiny and was afraid we would never get out. Ian didn't care, he thought it was like walking through a forest. Maybe one year we can take the kids to a haunted corn maze....yeah right...Brenna gets scared of the Halloween isle at the store.

The only thing I was disappointed in was the pumpkins. I was under the impression that they would be big pumpkins. They said that adults were free but if we wanted a pumpkin we would have to pay. I wanted one so I paid extra. Then we get to the end and they were mini pumpkins. I asked if I could get a refund on me, since adults didn't have to pay, and they wouldn't. Oh well. It was still fun...I guess I can think of it as me and Jason got in for $2 each. Next weekend we are going to to go the Punkinaze. We went last year so I'm excited =)

Goin' Fishin'

2011-10-15T20:27:00.001-06:00

I wanted to do something fun with the kids and Jason today, since he didn't have to work. We originally went to the Coldwater Trout Farm for their kiddie corn maze, but while we were there we met up with some our friends, the Moons. They were going fishing and the kids wanted to join in.

We started out feeding the fish. The kids loved to watch the fish gobble up the food and swarm around it.

We had to watch Ian because he would throw handfuls in. =)

But eventually the kids wanted to fish like everyone else was. so we went and grabbed some poles. I was jut going to let them put their poles in the water and try and fish, not expecting to get anything.

Brenna loved sitting next to her "BFF" Adrea (can you tell who is who from behind? )

Ian got some help from Daddy, mainly because we were worried he would end up catching a human instead of a fish because he like to swing the pole around.

Brenna was having lots of fun =)

But lo and behold......Ian caught one!!! (okay, it was mainly Daddy but let's pretend it was Ian) Actually......they caught 4 fish! Holy cow!!! Brenna even caught one (okay, it was Daddy again, but she was helping which was a good thing Dad was there because every time a fish tugged at her pole she dropped it) She was scared of the fish and would even get near enough to let me take a picture of it. Oh well.

Aww....they actually got along for a few minutes.....maybe we should try this fishing thing more often.

I lov ethis picture! I may need to frame it =)

Okay, so I wouldn't classify a fish farm as real fishing, but the kids had a lot of fun and we got to take home 5 fish.....now what to make with it since the only fish I really like to eat is salmon.

Do I really have a 1st grader?

2011-08-29T13:44:00.000-06:00

Brenna started first grade last week =) She was so excited to go back to school. I wish that enthusiasm would last the rest of school. I think she's going to have a great teacher this year. Brenna got sick last Thursday and couldn't go to school and her teacher called to check on her, not the school, her actual teacher. That shows a lot of caring. She is going to learn a lot this year and she's excited to have 2 of her friends from church in her class, plus the girl that was the first person to be friends with her when we moved here last year, and one of the boys that was on her soccer team. It's bittersweet her going back. I loved having her home with me in the summer, at least most the time. Ian is going to be lost without his "best friend" around to play with so I'm going to have to do some playdates with other kids.

Here's to another great school year =)

Living Planet Aquarium

2011-08-29T12:33:00.000-06:00

Since both Jason and Brenna were going to be heading back to school, we wanted to do one last family thing. I had originally planned on going swimming but we changed our minds. I had been wanting to go the aquarium for awhile, but didn't really want to drive clear to Sandy for it, but since I wasn't driving, it worked out =)

This was a little pond with a few little fish and some bull frogs. The frogs were hiding and it was tricky finding them, but Ian loved it!

They had a stingray and shark petting tank. Since Ian had already petted(is that a word?) the stingrays at the fair, he was an old pro at this. Brenna, of course, wouldn't get near them. I even got to pet a shark =)

They had some starfish, horseshoe crabs, and a couple other things that you could pet. Ian went through the line twice and touched every one. Brenna wouldn't come near it.

But Brenna did love seeing all the fish and was plastered to the glass. She loved seeing the giant octopus. My pictures of it didn't turn out but she thought it was pretty cool.

Since it was so dark inside there, and I was just using my phone, the pictures aren't that great. This was Brenna at one of her favorites, the seahorses. They had a bunch of different kinds.

I had to snap a pic with my favorite girl =) love her to death!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, for some reason a bunch of them didn't get copied over and they're not on my memory card anymore. Not that they were that great of pictures to begin with, but there were some of the penguins, octopus, electric eel, caiman, and piranhas

With the electric eel, they had something hooked up to the tank that would show you how much a charge it would emit. At first, it felt more like a vibrations, but the more noise you made near the eel, the more agitated it became and the more electricity it gave off and then you got a pretty good zap.

We got to watch them feed the octopus, which was neat. the octopus would wrap it's tentacle around the hand of the person and play for a bit then it would go after the fish. I think it would be pretty neat to play with an octopus =) Then we got to watch them feed the penguins. They were swimming and diving everywhere. The kids liked watching them swim really fast.

They has all sorts of exhibits. Jason really wanted to watch them feed the piranhas....but i don't think they would do that in front of people, but I have to admit, it would be cool to watch. Ian liked seeing the caiman, which is kind of like a mini crocodile. For some reason he has become fascinated with alligators and crocodiles lately.

I was disappointed in the sharks. I thought they would have more but all they had were a few reef sharks, think a leopard shark and a hammerhead.

I liked the scorpions that were black, and then you switched on the black light and they were purple. Jason had told me that scorpions did that, but I had never seen it before. It was also neat to see the giant anaconda snake.

It was pretty fun to go spend some time together as a family. The kids were literally running from tank to tank. They were so excited to see everything. I think I would take the kids again, but only if i could find some discount coupons or something because $8 per person is a little steep for me. Remember, I'm a cheapskate =)

Stirrup some fun at the fair =)

2011-08-18T19:39:00.000-06:00

It's the end of summer so we all know what that means. Fair time!!! I took my kids to the Morgan Fair and then to the Weber County Fair. They loved it! I really think these kids should have grown up on a farm =)

While at the Morgan Fair, they had Scales and tales there. Boy oh boy was Ian excited! You should have seen his eyes when they brought this big lizard out. He thought it was the cooles thing ever....until they brought the alligator. He got so excited, reached out his hands and yelled "Mommy, I want to hold it!" and then tried to get on the stage.

He was excited to see the giant tortoise too. He tried to climb on the stage to get that one as well.

Then, at the end of the show they had the huge albino python. Ian almost made it on stage with it =) They they annouced that the kids could pet the animals after the show. As soon as they brought them out, Ian was shoving his way through everyone so he could pet a snake and a lizard. Brenna liked watching it and even got brave enough to pet one, but there were tons of kids in teh way so I couldn't get a good picture of her.

But the cool thing that she got to do was get some feathers in her hair. She keeps seeing all these people with it and she wanted it. She won't let me take them out, and for the first few days I had to fight with her ot brush her hair because she thought I would brush them out. And yes, they are still in her hair 2 weeks later. =)

After the Morgan fair, the next week we visited the Weber Fair. Of course their favorite things were the animals. They even had sting rays there to pet. Ian was all excited about petting a "fish." He had to tell everyone later all about it....and I heard all about it the whole time we were there. Brenna wouldn't get near them. Can you tell who my dare devil child is yet?

While walking aroud, they were getting ready for teh miniature horse show so we saw a few out and about. The little girl in red was nice enough to let the kids come and pet her horse. The kids loved seeing one that was their size.

"A pig goes *oink* *oink*" This is what Ian was doing while we were looking at the pigs. He even said he wanted to crawl in the cage with them and take a nap with them. He serioulsy needs to be on a farm so he can raise his own pig.

Or maybe he should raise a sheep since he was giving them all hugs. Such a lovey boy!

Not to be out done, Brenna of course was willing to give the fuzzy sheep a hug...but heaven forbid she touch a slimy "fish."

They both got to pet a cow too.

This is them petting a pygmy goat. These two are all about the farm animals.

Most of the horses were gone, I think ti was when they were doing a horse show in the arena, so we didn't get much with them. But there was one horse that let out a loud whinny right as we walked by. It scared Brenna and Ian thought it was cool and kept telling me "that's a loud horse, mommy!"

My kids had lots of fun just looking at the animals and petting them. I don't even think they asked if we could ride the rides or play on the bouncy toys. I'm so glad they can find pleasure in the simple things in life. I defintely think this will be a great tradition, to go see the animals at the fair.

A quick trip to Nana's =)

2011-07-30T18:50:00.000-06:00

Last week my dad decided to take my niece and nephew down to go see my mom. He was going to take Brenna too, but then I decided to tag along with Ian. =) It was nice to be able to spend a few days with my mom, especially since the last time we went down there she had to work and couldn't take any time off. This time she had 3 days off. i think by the end of the 2nd day she was ready to go back to work. =) The main thing we did was play in the water. What else do you do when it is 120 degrees outside?

Here's my beach stud =)

Isn't she such a little poser?

Sorry for the naked butt but I thought his little tan line was cute...and his little white butt =)

They got along so well at the beach. The loved to sit and play in the sand and build castles.

This is Brenna's mermaid tail. She wouldn't let us bury her all the way, but Ian did =) (I need to find those pics)

We went out to eat and my mom got some clams and wanted to see if anyone would like them. Of course Brenna and Makayla turned up their noses. Jaydon didn't really care. But Ian loved them! I think he loved opening the shells to get them out. He literally cleared the place out of clams.

He ate several plates like this and when we went back to get more, they were gone and they still hadn't restocked it by the time we left. I'm pretty sure he's not allergic to shellfish =)

This is my mom and all the kids. I even managed to get my dad in the background =) It was great to go down there and just relax. My mom put the pool up in her garage and Brenna and Ian splashed and played in it almost all day. I have some great video of Ian doing dives into it =) I'll post those later.

More Randomness

2011-07-15T19:08:00.000-06:00

so here's some more random pictures of the summer =)

This is Sasha and her best friend Butler. He's a boxer puppy. They spend hours wrestling and playing until the wear themselves out. How sweet =)

This is how he entertains himself at the dog park =) Who knew a ball could be a hat? (don't worry, we usually go at night so as soon as we get home he gets thrown into the tub to wash off who knows what =) )

Diggin'! This child loves to dig! He's made himself a nice little hole to fit into.

Isn't he such a stud? He's riding his "motorcycle."

Awww!!! so sweet that they cuddled up together to take a nap. Love my munchkins!!! (especially when they're asleep!)

Don't you love the crazy look in my eyes? I let Ian play with my camera in order to keep him semi- quiet during my sister-in-law's wedding.

I was informed that this is how girls play superheroes.

Brenna has been begging me for months to cut her hair but I love her long hair too much. I finally gave in and let her cut it. I even let her choose how short. She loves it! (the sun was in her eyes so that's why she looks kinda weird =) )

I took this picture with my phone, believe it or not. I went on a girl's night with a friend and we went to the lake and roasted s'mores and played in the water a bit.

Random summer pics

2011-06-25T13:28:00.001-06:00

I have a bunch of random pictures and I don't want to do a separate post for each set so I'm regurgitating them here =)

Playing at the pool

Even my dog likes to play on the slides. She would slide, go jump up the stairs, go through the tube and then slide again. Silly mutt!

Me and my baby girl at the Terrace Days

Me and my little man at Terrace Days. We were going to stay and watch fireworks but Brenna had a meltdown and threw a fit so we went home.

My big helper! He loves eating cookie dough! Notice the big cocoa mess....that was him dumping out my cocoa in an attempt to help.. Notice the HUGE lollipop...he would take a bite of dough, lick the sucker, east some dough, lick the sucker. Can we say sugar high?!

Love the mischievous look here!

Slip and slide! We used it twice before they broke it.....

Ian loves to help "fix" things. Whenever Jason (or me) gets the tools out, he has to grab a tool and help us.

This is a new game invented by Ian. Not sure what to call it....It's kinda like baseball, only you hit the ball on the ground, but not golf because you use a baseball bat, but not baseball because you use a soccer ball......

This is the end result whenever we go to the dog park. No, that is not dog poop! He likesto play in the dog water dishes, which are usually in the dirt...so, you mix water and dirt and you get a whole lot of fun for Ian! Not to mention he gets to chase around all the dogs and he LOVES it when they come give him kisses =) Brenna likes to go take off into the trees or go make new friends so I can never get a picture of her.

Playing in the helicopter at Terrace Days. There were lots of buttons to push =)

Stay tuned for more pictures! Maybe next time I'll actually put them in the right order......

Last but not least, here is proof that I can actually grow flowers! True, the previous owners planted them, but I've watered them (ok, so the rain did that for me), but the amazing part, is that they are still alive! Everytime I get one of those potted flowers for Mother's Day, it's dead within a few days.

Here is my gardening: get a bunch of wildflower seeds, throw them in the dirt, water them, and cross your fingers that they grow. I thought the rain had washed them all out, but then they started popping out everywhere! I love wildflowers (mostly because they are low maintenance). I love seeing the mixture of all types of flowers.

Another milestone reached =)

2011-06-25T12:51:00.000-06:00

My goal for this summer was to get Brenna riding a bike without training wheels. I figured it would take most the summer to accomplish. She is such a fraidy-cat at new things, but once she can get over that initial little bump, it becomes the coolest thing ever. I thought it would take her a while to get over the "bump." Then one day, she saw her friend, Olivia, who is younger than her, riding her bike all over without training wheels. Brenna made up her mind that she was going to do it too.

(this was one of her first attempts, no pedaling)

It started with her just sitting on the bike and pushing off with her feet to get her balance. She did this for a couple days and then one day while we were outside practicing, she decided to put her feet on the petals as she was coasting and try to petal.. This was all on her own, I wasn't pushing her to try it yet. She did a few turns before losing her balance. Then, the next day she wanted to practice some more and I was in the middle of doing something so I couldn't help her so she went out on her own. Then she comes running inside, all excited. "Mom! I can ride all by myself now!" I was thinking, okay, she made it past the neighbors while pedaling. So I went out to watch her and she was riding up and down the street, turning around while pedaling and was even steering! (the day before she kept running into curbs because she couldn't steer). Now she has spent her every moment outside riding her bike, up and down the street. She loves it! Especially since all the other kids in the neighborhood ride their bikes around and she was feeling left out before. I knew once she got over her fear of falling over she would do just fine. So from the time I started working with her until now, it has been maybe a week, but she didn't try every day. I think it only took her about 3 or 4 days of trying to get it down, and on those days she only did it for about 15 minutes before she would get frustrated and stop. Now I can't get her off the thing!!

Of course, Ian is not one to be left out. Every time Brenna goes out, he gets his "motorcycle" out and rides up and down the street with the rest of the kids (of course I'm out with him). He thinks he is sooooo studly riding around.

A new blog =)

2011-06-18T16:06:00.000-06:00

A group of my neighbors and friends have decided to start a new blog. We are going to list recipes, crafts, tips, treats, you name it, we'll tyr it. There are about 8 of us contributing and we each have different things that we're love to do. I'm so excited for this new blog so for awhile, I may be doing some double posting =) Feel free to follow us! There are some amazingly talented ladies and I can't wait to see all that they come up with.

http://talentedterracegirls.blogspot.com/

Brenna's Pirate Party =)

2011-06-12T16:50:00.000-06:00

When I asked Brenna what kind of party she wanted, she said a pirate bbq. Sure, why not? but do you know how hard it is to find girl pirate decorations? I found 1. The rest I had to improvise, and i wish I would have taken pictures but I forgot. But I think her cake came out not too shabby.

Have I mentioned before that I am not a cake decorator? (one of the teeth is bigger and looks funky.....) But It tasted really good!

These were the cupcakes to share. It was supposed to be a heart on them....some turned out. But the coolest thing about these....

I loved how fun these were on the inside! Tie-dye =)

This is my cute girl the day of her party.

We played "pin the eye patch on the pirate."

Earlier in the week I ran into a pirate and he told me he had some treasure he would hide and he left some clues. The kids had a lot of fun figuring out the clues and running place to place for them. The treasure was a box I had made for Brenna, and it was filled with candy and play money for them all to share.

This was them running to find another clue.

Such a great group of kids!! They were all so much fun and were all so good! I think we had at least 15 there =)

Brenna trying to blow out the candles. It was kinda breezy so she didn't get to really blow them out because as soon as we lit them, the blew out. Oh well, she still loved her pirate cake!

She was excited to open presents. She got some pretty good stuff this year.

Here is one of the only shots of Ian. He decided to take a nap right before the party started and missed most of the fun. There were still a few kids around when he woke up so he got to have fun too.

Sniff My Little girl is growing up!

2011-05-22T15:00:00.000-06:00

Brenna graduated from kindergarten on Friday, which happened to be her birthday too!

This was a bittersweet day for me. She turned 6 years old, and she's ready for 1st grade. Where has the time gone!! I can't believe she is already 6! Where is the pause button, or at least a slowdown button so she'll stop growing so fast.

I love this girl to death! She is a smarty pants and a sweetheart. She has learned so much at school this past year. She comes home and tells me all about the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Mona Lisa, etc. When did they start teaching kindergartners this stuff?! She is also reading very well now. She reads anything she can get her hands on and is loving Junie B. Jones. she reads a page or two at a time and is working her way through it. I know I wasn't reading stuff like that at her age. I hope she inherited my love of reading and keeps it up. She is also doing good at writing, but unfortunately she inherited my sloppy handwriting. Poor girl!

She is such a great big sister to Ian. As soon as she gets home from school, they take off together and go play. She loves to play school with him and she has helped me teach him to count. Sometimes he gets up to 17, but for some reason he skips 3 every time he counts. What a nerd. Brenna is such a big helper too. She is responsible for cleaning her own room, helping with the downstairs bathroom, and the downstairs playroom/family room. She never complains about cleaning....as long as it's not her room. She would rather clean the bathroom than clean her room. Crazy girl! she loves to be outside, especially when it involves the trampoline, otter pops, and friends.

She can be such a drama queen though! She is stubborn, sassy, spirited, and a stinker! She has an attitude, and definitely knows how to use it. She lets us know when we do something wrong, or if we forget to do something we had promised to do. her and her dad are constantly butting heads because she is so sassy. She is definitely a mommy's girl.

I love my sweet girl! I wouldn't have her any other way. I have been so blessed to be able to have this special girl as my daughter. I guess I must have done something right to deserve her. We hear in church that people living today were reserved for this time and I think the reason I am here is so that I could be the mom to this valiant girl (and of course her brother =) ) She already has such a strong testimony of the gospel and loves to share it. She stands up for what she knows is right and tries to teach others about Jesus, both through her actions and by telling them. I know she is going to a great missionary in this gospel and pray that she never wavers. She provides such a great example to me of what it truly means to "become like a little child." I hope that as she grows up we can stay close and become more than just mother and daughter. She knows how to cheer me up. She gives the best hugs and kisses around! I love you Brenna Kay Hansen!!!

This is Brenna and her teacher, Mrs. Mikkelson. She is such a great teacher!! I was worried about Brenna adjusting when we moved in the middle of the school year, but since she had such a wonderful teacher, there were very few issues. She is always telling me how bright Brenna is and how glad she is to have her in her class. At Brenna's old school, I felt like they weren't challenging her and that she wasn't really learning anything new. Once we moved and she got into her new class, I was amazed at how fast she was learning and how much. Mrs. Mikkelson said Brenna was in her top reading group and already doing stuff at a 1st grade level. she also reassured me that just because Brenna had already accomplished the stuff they need to learn in kindergarten that she wasn't going to let her stop, she would keep finding things for her to do. She loves school and learning. I hope she keeps that love because it will take her far and she will be able to accomplish so much in her life. I just asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said she wanted to be a mom and a teacher at school.

All-in-all, I'm a pretty lucky mom to have such a great daughter. so I have to rub it in your faces.....My daughter is better than yours =) (I'm her mom so of course I have bragging rights)

Easter Fun

2011-05-09T12:36:00.000-06:00

(you might need to grab a snack, and sit back and relax, there's alot of pictures =)

We took a vacation this and it so happened it was Easter weekend that we were gone. Luckily, we got to spend it with Jason's parents and some of our bestest friends, the Wilson. The kids got to wake up Saturday morning and see what the Easter Bunny brought. Kanani and I hid around 150 eggs (holy cow!) the night before. But in our defense it was for 5 kids. Early in the morning, I hear giggling and feet scampering. I opened the door and Brenna, Jamison, and Tyson were already getting the good. I told them they had to wait for Kanani to wake up before getting all the eggs. It was an excruciating 15 minutes and finally Jamison gave up and went and woke his mom up. Then the kids were able to go crazy and find the eggs. Now the hard part began.....keeping Ian out of the candy so that he would eat breakfast, which was at McDonald's (I know, so healthy). Then it was off to another Easter Egg hunt. Jason's parent's neighbor was doing one.

Ian was so excited to find the eggs. They limited all the kids to 12 eggs, which I think is a fabulous idea so that all the kids got some. I think Ian would have been one of the egg hogs.

I love the look on her face. She was ready to go!! She was so excited that I think she ran right past a bunch of eggs so I had to go help her.

She was searching =) I think she would have been one of the ones with too little eggs if they hadn't regulated it. she spends so much time running around, dancing, being excited, and jumping around that most the eggs are already found by the time she starts. Funny girl!

Yes, that is bacon hanging out of his mouth. He was running out like that and now he has become obsessed with bacon.

She is such a little poser! Love that girl to death!!!

This is Tyson, Brenna, Jamison, and the little one is Kona. The boys argue over who is going to grow up and marry her. Either way, I will be happy since I love those kids to death and I know she'll have some great in-laws (Alan and Kanani).

He was having fun playing on the rock =)

Later that afternoon, we went over to Jason's parents and played and dyed some Easter eggs. I think I ended up doing most of it and having more fun then the kids. Peggy, Jason's mom, got these cool rub on tattoos for the eggs that I hogged.

I think this was the only picture I got with her the whole trip.

Forgive the goofy picture, but once again, one of the only pictures with me in it with one of the kids.

Sunday morning we went over to Jason's parents before church and discovered that the Easter Bunny had forgotten to leave some stuff Saturday so it asked if it could leave some at grandma and grandpas house =) That sneaky rabbit also hid all the eggs that we(I) dyed the day before. So the kids got have yet another hunt. They had 3 egg hunts!!

Ian was so proud of himself when he found the eggs.

Brenna was excited too =)

He was showing me the shovel he got...that's the green blur.

Showing off her gloves =)

The kids got these cute little gardening bags that had shovels, rakes, and gloves. Plus lots of candy and a few little toys. They were so excited to be able to "garden" now. Where they got the idea that we are going to, is beyond me. My version of gardening was I pulled the grass out of the patch in front of our house, sprinkled some wildflower seeds and then hoped they would grow (which a few are, yay!)

After church we had a special FHE that talked about the true meaning of Easter.

So, all in all, the kids had a good Easter. We had fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa =) It was also so nice to hang out with Alan and Kanani and their boys. They are some of our best friends and our kids are all the same age. Kona and Ian were actually due on the same day. They live in St. George, which is where Jason wants to move eventually so in a few years we'll be able to hang out with them lots more!!!

The next round of vacation pics will come soon =)

3 hours and 8 stitches later...

2011-05-05T08:50:00.000-06:00

While we were on vacation (I'll get those pictures posted soon), Ian decided to have a tussle with a dog. Not our dog, or else Sasha would have been in major trouble. We're not exactly sure what happened but we think he pull on the unmentionable parts of the dog and the dog didn't like that. This was a dog that was used to rough housing boys so that's the only thing we could of that would cause it to nip at him.

Since the cut was so close to his eye, we didn't want to take any chances. I think one tooth got the bridge of his nose and the other got by his eye and tore when Ian jerked away. He was a tough kid and didn't even cry when it happened. Brenna was freaking out and crying more.

How do you keep a 2 year old busy while waiting in and ER room for 2 hours to see a doctor? We gave him the controller to the tv. He thought it was cool to turn it on and off and switch channels.

When the sedative started to kick in he would kick out his legs and try and reach for things in the air. He was pretty out of it =)

This was him all stitched up. He was still out of it. Poor little guy. while we were there, he was more upset about having the blood pressure cuff on him and the thing on his finger than anything else. It didn't even seem like the bothered him at all. One thing that irked me while we were there was that it seemed like the staff was more worried about getting information on the dog than getting Ian stitched. As soon as we said it was a dog bite, they were calling the police, trying to get the name and address, vet's name, whatever they could. We didn't want to give it to them because it was our friend's dog and it was an accident and not a big deal. Every time someone came to see us the first thing they would say was something about getting the dog's info, not how is your little boy doing. The only one that seemed more concerned for Ian, was the nurse. She was the nurse in the er room. Believe me, if it had been a vicious attack, I would be all for calling the police and what not, but it was an accident. After everything was done, I told Jason we should have just said it was our dog that did it, that way we could avoid all the hassle, even though our dog is twice as big as our friend's and the marks would have been different.

What a great part of vacation huh? At least we had fun with the rest of it. I will post pics later of that.

Kick This!!

2011-04-16T12:23:00.000-06:00

Brenna started playing soccer and has been having a blast. The first few games she had a hard time, partly because it was cold an partly because she has never played before. she would kick the ball once and stand there and not chase after it. She even had a few meltdowns right on the field. But by her third game she was awesome!!! She scored 4 goals and was the only one on her team to score. she was running up and down taht filed after the ball and didn't ahve one meltdown. She had a blast! Her first goal, I did get it on camera but because I was so excited I forgot I wa sfilming so all you see is grass and sky swirling about and me screeching. (yes I have turned into the annoying mom that schreeches at the games). I did get a few of her other goals though. =) I lov ethe one where she throws the ball in. No one is open so she throws it down field and gets it herself =)

Outside fun =)

2011-04-06T12:16:00.000-06:00

Every once in awhile Mother Nature has decided to give us actual spring weather. When this happens, the kids usually spend all day outside.

Ian loves to swing with his sister. Brenna is liking that Ian is finally getting big enough to play more with her.

This is Ian's version of playing soccer. He was hitting Sasha's chew toy with a bat. I guess this is baseball, golf, and soccer all rolled up into one. =)

Ian loves to jump on the trampoline. When he first got on there all he would do is sit. Nobody could jump or bounce or do anything. Jason would get on with him and gradually got him used to bouncing, he especially loves it when Jason falls down and goes "boom." (that's when he lands on his butt)

Now he's turning into a pro, at least as much as a 2 year old can do. He loves to get on with Brenna, as long as she doesn't jump too high. Brenna will spend all day on the trampoline. I wish I had their energy to do as much as they do.

Grandma and Grandpa came to town =)

2011-04-06T11:51:00.000-06:00

Jason's parents came up for a quick visit last weekend. The kids were so excited to see them! We didn't tell Brenna they were coming, just said she would have a surprise on Saturday.

Brenna loves to show off her new kindergarten skills to Grandma. One thing that they always do together is read. Now Brenna gets to help read parts of the stories.

Ian was being a total Grandpa's boy the whole time. They had lots of fun =). Grandpa always brings his bag of gadgets and gizmos and that kept the kids entertained for hours!

Uncle Dallin came to visit too. He is the kids' favorite play toy. This is Sasha's old kennel. I think even Sasha was in there with them at one point. Such a fun uncle! (and he's single =P so if you know any great gals.......)

She finally lost it =)

2011-03-16T14:50:00.000-06:00

Brenna has had a tooth loose for about 3 months now but she has refused to let us help her get it loose or pull it out. Finally, one day when I was helping her brush her teeth I noticed how that it was hanging by a thread. She still wouldn't let us pull it. So, we did the mean parent thing, pinned her down, and got it out. The whole she was crying and screaming and carrying on. You would think we were pulling her arm off instead of a tooth. She didn't even notice that Jason got the tooth out. All he had to do was barely tug it. Once she saw it was out, she was doing the half laugh/half cry thing. She was so excited to have it out and couldn't wait to show her friends. Now you would think that she was a pro at pulling teeth the way she goes on and on about it. She thinks it's the coolest thing now. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting! I'm not sure I'm ready to let her grow up.

Future Superstar!

2011-03-16T14:42:00.000-06:00

Brenna loves to sing! I hope she didn't inherit my not-so-wonderful singing ability. All I know, is that she already sings better than me so that must be a good sign.

Brenna's school had a "rockstar" reading night. She was so excited to dress as a rockstar. I think she makes a pretty cute one.

The teachers got up and sang a song too. It was to the song "Tonight's Gonna be a Good Night," I'm not sure who sings it, I think it's the Black-Eyed Peas. They change the words to be about reading so the main line was something about "it's gonna be a good book." They had several classroom set aside for the kids to play games and do activities. Plus, we got free dinner =) One of the games, the kids got a coupon for a free kid's meal from costa vida.

Fixin' stuff

2011-02-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ian has been doing so good at sleeping in his bed lately. When it is bed time, we take him downstairs, tuck him in, and he goes to sleep all by himself. Since he is doing so good at this, I figured it's time to make his bed a big boy bed! (I love having a convertible bed that I can do this with and not have to buy a new bed!) Of course once he saw daddy get his tools, Ian had to get his tools out and "fix" it too.

He was concentrating so hard.

I love his little look here. Doesn't he look so pleased with himself?

Here is my big boy sitting in his bed. I just hope this means he won't get up in the middle of the night and crawl in our room. He's growing up so much!!!

Happy Birthday Ian!!!!!!

2011-01-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little guy is already 2!! Where has the time gone? He loves Buzz Lightyear so we threw him a Buzz party.

My cake didn't turn out quite like i wanted. It was supposed to be gray, but somehow when I mixed black food coloring with white frosting, it made purple. Then I went to smooth the frosting and put craters to make it look kind of like a moon, and the frosting didn't cooperate and look like craters. Oh well. It still had Buzz on it so he was happy.

The cupcakes turned out pretty cute though =)

We had lots of family and friends come celebrate with us. There were lots of kids playing. I had a few games for the kids to play, but they were more occupied with playing with each other and playing outside. I was a slacker ad forgot to take pictures of everyone playing, but I did snap some shots of him opening presents.

He got very spoiled from everyone! He got lots of Buzz stuff, coloring stuff, puzzles, clothes, and toys. Lucky boy!!

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!"

This is the shot I got of him when I wouldn't let him grab his cake before we sang to him. He actually blew the candle out himself too! After he was done, he tried to shove his own face into the cake. I caught him before he could....I didn't want to clean up that mess.

It was a fun day to spend with everyone! My little guy is growing so much! He is definitely our little character. He pulls the craziest of faces when he gets excited over something. He is such a goofy little guy. I can't wait to see how much he changes this next year. It's a good thing Jason works at the hospital, just in case have to make trips there since he has no fear! He is doing so good at talking now. We can understand most of what he says and he's talking in sentences now. Except when he gets really excited, then his voice gets high and squeaky and gibberish comes out. So cute. His favorite things right now are typical boy things: Cars, tools, Buzz Lightyear, coloring, books, movies, and dinosaurs. His favorite foods are cheese, fruit snacks, hot dogs, and pizza. He loves to follow his sister around and do everything she does. He loves playing outside. He loves to play with Sasha, at least until she tries to get his "bobo" (his blanket). We are getting ready to start his potty training soon. He's gone #2 on the potty a few times, so now we need to get him to go #1. He loves to sit on the potty, but doesn't really do anything yet. Now that life is settling down I can really start working with him on it.

House pics =)

2011-01-11T17:26:00.000-07:00

We bought a house in December and we finally have all the work done in it. We moved in right before Christmas and I have been a slacker and haven't gotten pictures up yet. I thought I had take some before pictures but I didn't. Pretty much all the walls were a dark brown, even the ceiling, so we had to repaint everything. It was a chore!!! I am not painting for a long, long, long time!

Here is my living room. Don't mind the mess....that's what happens with kids =) I love my new couches! They are a dark brown leather with microfiber cushions. I will never have anything other than microfiber with kids. Our other couch (it's downstairs now) is microfiber and Ian had colored on it with pen many times and I have gotten the pen out with just a wet rag. I also love having a big window in the living room. It lets in so much light!

This is my blue accent wall. I have our family pics on it. I may add shelves on the side, but not sure yet. We also did all our trim throughout the house in this color.

Here is my kitchen. I am not quite done with the cupboards. My sister is going to help me stain them to give them teh antique look.

Another shot of the kitchen. It's not the biggest, but I have lots of cupboard space. In each of the corners on top and bottom I have lazy susans. Plus, all the appliances are fairly new. I really love having the water and ice in the fridge door =)

Here is my dining room. The yellow is brighter than I had originally planned. It was supposed to be a dark gold color, but it's growing on me =) My next thing that I want to get is a new dining room table, but that won't be for awhile.

Here is part of our room. WE combined the two upstairs rooms to make a big master room. This was preetty much the size of one room.....barely fit our bed.

Here is the other half. We then built a walk-in closet since the wall we took out had the closets in it.

Here is part of the closet.

Sorry I forgot to flip the pic, so just turn your head =) The other half looks just like this, but with Jason's stuff. It has two shelves and closet rods on each wall.

This is the downstairs bathroom. Once again, you might have to turn your head.

Bathroom

Bathroom. I like my downstairs bathroom better than the upstairs, but that is because it is newer.

This is our family room downstairs. This is our old couch. This is where the kids get to watch movies and play. We have the game systems hooked up down here.

The letters on Ian's door that I painted.

Ian's room

Can you tell who Ian is obsessed with? I sure hope he likes Buzz for a long time because we're not redoing it anytime soon.

The cute letters o Brenna's door that I painted.

I also made her rack that her robes are hanging on.

Guess what her favorite color is?

Tilt your head again =)

Don't mind the mess, but what do you expect of a 5-year old?

I love having my own house! It is so nice to not have to worry about being too loud and bugging neighbors. If I want to do something to the house, I can. This is the first house we have bought. Since we've been married we've either had an apartment or lived with my dad. It's just nice having our own space. We have a decent sized backyard that is already fenced in. So now the kids can play outside and I don't have to worry. Plus, if we have kids that aren't being nice, I can tell them to leave our yard and not get the cops called on me or worry about other parents yelling at my kids for playing on grass. And we were able to get our cute little puppy, Sasha. She's a sweetie, but a stinker. I guess she fits right into our family. I think we're going to have an open house probably the first week in February, but we'll see. If anyone wants to come visit, let me know =)

Merry Christmas!!!!

2010-12-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

Life has been pretty hectic the past few weeks so I'm a little late posting our Christmas stuff. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. Ours was great to be able to spend it in our own home!!! Granted, tehre werre still boxes everywhere, but we were moved in =)

Brenna's school did a Christmas program and she got to sing some songs. Here she is sitting by her best friend, Ellie. These 2 girls strike the same pose for every picture I ever take of them.

Since my dad wasn't going to be in town for Christas, we celebrated with him the week before. The kdis loved opeing their presents from Papa.

Brenna loves to make jewelry so she got her own bead set.

The thing she was most excited for is her Ninetedo DS. She has been wanting one for forever so of course she got spoiled by Papa and he got her one, along with a baby game and a Dora game

Ian loved his Cars fold out chair. He wouldn't let anyone else come near it.

He even took a nap after the festivities were done. =)

"Creep Crawlies!!" My dad got Ian a remote control spider that even climbs on walls and the ceiling. (I know you'll love this, Nana)

He loves this thing!!

Now on to our Christmas =)

Sasha even had some fun with presents. We didn't get her any, just let her play with the paper =)

Ian loved his little cars. That is his favorite thing, to push cars around the floor and make them go "VROOM!"

He also got a Buzz Lightyear nerf/laser gun. He had fun shooting mommy with it =)

Brenna got a game for her didj. I'm kind of miffed with the leapfrog company. They came out with this new game system, the Leapfrog Didj, and then less than a year after they released it, the quite producing it and you can't find games for it. It's a good thing when I got the game system it was for 1/3 the original price. It's a good system that helps kids learn math and spelling while playing games. They should have kept it up. Oh well, that's what ebay is for huh?

Ian is always trying to help daddy "fix" stuff so he got his own tools. Now whenever we get stuff out to hang things or fix things, he runs to get his tools to help. Love it!

Brenna got a princess lounge chair. She loves it!

She also got this cute bed tent, but not even 5 minutes after we put it up, the pockets where the poles go ripped so we took it back. Boo!!!

Jason got his Back to the Future blue-rays. He's been wanting these movies for a while.

All the fun tuckered our poor puppy out.

Ian trying to "fix" things.

He also got a guitar to jam out with. Yet another thing to make lots of noise =)

We had a pretty fun Christmas. I was glad that Santa found us at our new house. We are all moved into our place. Now we're jsut doing hte finishing touches. We have our closet in our room and a doorway that needs to be finished still and then we'll be done! As soon as everything is finished I will post pictures of our new diggs.

Our family is expanding and lives are changing!

2010-12-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Life is great right now! I am so excited for the next few weeks. We closed on a house yesterday and get the keys today. We are doing some work on it before we move in. We are combing 2 of the bedrooms for a big master bedroom and building a walk-in closet. We should be moving in by the end of next week, as soon as we get all the painting done. I will post pics of the new house as soon as I get the keys =)

Along with a new house we have a new family member! Her name is Sasha. She is the cutest little thing! Ever since we had to get rid of our dog, Harley, we have really wanted a dog. The apartments we are living in don't allow dogs, so that's why we had to give Harley away. He was such a sweet dog but I'm glad he has a nice family that took him. Well, now that we are moving into our own house we got a new dog. She is a husky mix. She has one blue eye and one dark eye. She is such a little cuddle bug, especially loves cuddling at your neck. She is only 5 weeks old right now. Her mom was hit by a car and killed when she was only a week old

She is already saying who's the boss =) Her favorite chew toys are ears and noses.

This was only hours after we had her. Jason took a nap with her. It was so cute. He is definatley in love with this little puppy. When he gets home he picks her up and cuddle sher before even giving me a kiss or a hi.

Ian is still trying to figure out what to do with a puppy. He loves dogs, but the dogs he's been around have all been big dogs like german shepherds. He's not used to puppy nibles yet so when she tries to nibble he stands up and says "done!" He sure loves her though.

I have a hard time keeping Brenna from holding her all the time. I have a feeling that these tow are going to be best friends and Sasha will end up sleeping with Brenna a lot =)

Ian loves to cuddle her, as long as she doesn't try to climb on him or nibble his nose.

She is such a cutie! Her personality is starting to come out a little and I have a feeling she's going to be a spunky little thing! I can't wait until we move in and she can play outside with the kids and we won't have to worry about keeping her quiet. Right now, we're keeping her in the apartment even though we're not supposed to have a dog. What's the worst they can do? Kick us out?

Picture time!!

2010-11-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

I got the kid's pictures taken the other day. For the most part they turned out cute. I can't complain since I only had to pay $4. Last year when we went to get pictures we had to wait over a hour and then reschedule so I complained and they sent me a voucher for 6 free sheets, plus when I went in I had a coupon for a free 8x10 and $3.99 sheets so I only bought one sheet. Not too bad. But our photographer was a bit of a disappointment. She was doing good at coming up with some cute poses, but when the kids were standing she wouldn't have her camera ready. Wouldn't you think that if you are taking pictures of kids you should let the parents make them smile and be ready to fire away with shots, hoping to catch some good ones? If she would have had her camera ready we would have got some awesome ones. Oh well, these turned out cute. Don't mind the quality, I don't have a scanner so I took a picture with my camera and then loaded them on. There is nothing on their copyright statement about taking a picture of the picture =)

Ian was getting antsy by the time we were taking pictures of them together so we weren't able to get very many shots, but I guess these work.

I don't think Brenna knows how to take a bad picture. Every single one of her was so cute!!!

We got this one while he was squealing from throwing a football.

I love my cute munchkins!!!! It's a good thing they're so cute. They are growing up way too fast!!!!

Could you resist if the devil were this cute?

2010-10-31T18:24:00.001-06:00

How many souls do you think these cuties could get? i know or Halloween you're supposed to dress as something you want to be or whatnot, but I decided this year to let out true natures come out.

I never get a picture of Jason smiling! Okay, so he's cheesing it, but I'll take what I can get. Ian kept wanting to run and play in the grass so Jason had to hold him back. Two out of 3 smiling isn't bad.

Love the grumpy face. Totally suites him in his costume/ =)

Me and my favorite girl!

Me and my favorite guy!

Here's my cute girl strutting her stuff in her Halloween parade at school.

Here is Brena with a bunch of her friends at her kindergarten party.

Of course Ian had to be a helper at the party. He whole time and was a stinker the whole time and kept trying to get into everything.

Love this picture of the 2 best men (boys) in my life.

We went to a carnival and they were doing a cakewalk and Ian wanted to "dance." so cute!! He was entertaining everyone with his mad dancing skills, but sadly I don't think he'll ever make it on "So You Think You Can Dance."

Here is Brenna doing her cake walk. She won a strawberry zinger. yum!

The true nature of us =) I guess Jason has his hands full....but he has a devilish nature of his ow so I think he can deal with it.

I don't know what it was but the kids seemed to be embracing their costumes a little too much this week and were being little devils. It was either the rainy weather or the costumes. Hopefully now they'll be back to normal. We had a fun Halloween this year. I kept the kids busy this week with all sorts of Halloween stuff. We went to a w trunk-or-treats, but 2 of them were lame because everyone brought their kids but nobody brought any candy to share. I at least brought a few bags, they ran out quick, because of all the kids, but I at least contributed something. One thing that irks me is when people just bring their kids without dressing up. I'm not saying go and buy a costume, but at least do something. Wrap them in tinfoil and call them a leftover, let them dress up in your clothes and they can pretend to be mom or dad, how hard is that, but at least do something. I love Halloween, but it seems to me that people are getting lamer. It used to be about what kinds of costumes you could come up with, how much fun you could have, and just pretending to be someone else or a day. Now it's and excuse for girls to dress like a $2 hooker and get away with it and for kids to mooch of everyone they can. I love dressing my kids up and spending time having fun with them, but I'm not sure how much longer Halloween will be a fun holiday to celebrate. But at least we had fun =)

Paintin' punkins'

2010-10-18T17:59:00.021-06:00

One of my favorite things about Halloween is the pumpkins! Brenna picked out a pumpkin when we were at Black Island Farms and the i bought a bunch of little mini pumpkins to paint.

Ian wasn't originally going to paint, but he grabbed a pumpkin and started painting.

Look at him concentrating so hard.

Brenna was concentrating pretty hard to decorate her masterpiece. Brenna said her pumpkin was a girl vampire. Such an active imagination.

Good think that paint is washable! I love the look on his face like "uh-oh, I'm caught!"

A few nights later my niece and nephew came over ad we carved some pumpkins. Of course Ian had to stick his hand in and feel the ooey-gooey stuff =)

These kids are so much fun! I love having them around. They are so awesome with Brenna and Ian. They always help me out. I'm so glad that they live close to us now!

Black Island Farm Fun!

2010-10-16T17:57:00.000-06:00

One of my friends, Dallas, arranged for a discount day at Black Island Farms. It was a blast. Instead of having to spend $10 for me and $8 each kid, it was only $4 each kid and I was free. Great deal, huh?! We spent all day there. I hung out with Dallas and her cute kids and then my fried Natalie met em there with her little girl Eleanor and we stayed the rest of the day, at least until they were getting ready for their night stuff anyway.

This was a definite favorite of the kids! I mean, who doesn't love to jump inside a huge pumpkin?

Brena had a blast bouncing around!

Ian wanted to stay in that thing all day! He even did pretty good in it with the older kids. He would bounce and fall on his stomach and say "plop!"

The kids even got to feed some animals. The donkeys and llamas loved being fed by the kids and they go such a kick out of it. I think we spent about a half hour just letting them pull grass and feed the animals. I was so proud of Brenna for not being scared. She is my big scaredy cat so I thought she wouldn't go near them, but she did! she even petted the llamas. =)

They had fun swinging on these cool tire swings. Not your average tire swing huh? I loved the dragon shaped one.

Of course if there is something to make noise, my kids are sure to find it! They had fun jamming out. Brenna loved the drums and Ian just loved banging on everything. Typical boy huh?

The kids got to ride around on a little train. Brenna rode that thing all afternoon! I think she rode it at least 10 times. She loved sharing a car with Deakin, Dallas' boy. These two have fun whenever they get together. Ian liked the train, until it drove away from mom. We took another ride in it later and I rode with him and he was fine with it then. =)

Now who doesn't love a good romp in the corn box? You don't have to worry about little grains of sand getting into weird places. Brenna kept making "corn angels." Ian loved this too! He kept laying in it and burying himself. He doesn't like it when the sand sticks to his hands so he loved the corn. He loved it so much that he kept trying to eat it. Yuck!!

It's playtime! They loved the teeter-totters. But their favorite was the slide. There was a huge slide that Ian couldn't climb to the top on so I helped him ad then we would all slide down together. It was fun! I felt like a little kid again. I need to do that more with my kids.

Last but not least, the pig races!! They would have piglets run around to race for a treat- animal cookies of all things. =) The second to last race Brenna picked the pink pig to win and it did! The last race, Ian said green, and the green pick won =) Two out of four races aren't bad.....maybe we should find some real races to bet on =)

My little poser! She was such a good girl for me all day! I don't think I had to get after her at all to listen or anything. Such a sweet girl!

My two lil' punkins'!! I sure love these kids!! They make each day an adventure.

ROAR!!!!!

2010-09-25T18:10:00.000-06:00

I have been wanting to take the kids to the Dinosaur park all summer and haven't. I had some tickets for free kids admission but when we had to get something fixed in my jeep they took them out and didn't put them back in the door. Grr!!! Well, today they were doing a free admission day and since I'm a cheapskate, I took the kids today =)

Ian was so excited to see the dinosaurs! Everytime he saw one, he would yell "Dinosaur! roar!" He has become obsessed with them lately.

Brenna, on the otherhand, not so thrilled to see dinosaurs. She gets freaked out at new things sometimes and she was not liking this. The part that scared her the most was the dinosaurs that had speakers by them that made noises. Am I such a mean mom for making her come along anyway even though it scared her?

Even the big bad Allosaurous didn't phase him =) (at least I think that was an allosaurous)

He loved being able to get close to this one. He was even petting it.

I love this one because he's carrying a lunch bag, and the dinosaur looks like it's getting ready to have him for lunch. Good thing the starachosouroursjklsdfhaslojfh (i give up on spelling them) is an herbivore.

Brenna didn't want to get close but she wanted to take a picture of us. Finally, I have a picture with one of my kids at an activity that we go to that I'm not taking myself. =)

Brenna finally got over her fear of the dinos once she found the little ones that weren't so scary. After that, she had no problem. Until she ran into the Halloween decoration the park had up. There was a little cave with an allosaurous fossil in it, and in the back of the cave there was a skeleton and a coffin....that really freaked her out.

Hopefully next time we go she won't be such a fraidy cat now that she's seen it. Let's cross our fingers cause I got some more coupons and I want to take them again =)

What a stinker!!

2010-09-24T13:32:00.000-06:00

Ian was being a little stinker butt today. I was trying to do something and I told him to go away ( I know, I'm so mean). He walked away, kinda sad. Then a afew minutes later it was quiet. Then I heard "clunk, clunk, roll, clunk." I decided to investigate. As I walked into the kitchen, this is what I saw.

This was before he noticed me taking a picture of his little escapade. He was so intent and focused on what he was doing.

Then he turned around and saw me. Look at that grin! He is just so proud of himself. He is my little monkey boy. Then, just a few minutes later, he climbed up on the computer desk and gave me the same look. Oh boy.....I am going to have my hands full the next few years. I love this little monster. He will definitely keep me on my toes.

Under the big top!

2010-09-24T13:07:00.001-06:00

On Thursday we went to the circus. I don't know who was more excited to go, me or the kids. =) Luckily Jason only had to work until 11:30 so he was able to go with us too. Yay!!

Before the circus and before the preshow we headed over to go look at the animals. Ian was so excited to see the elephants. They had a new baby elephant too. The elephant was 1 day older than Ian. =) It was born January 19, 2009. It was so cute! Ian kept saying "more, more."

Brenna was being a turd and wouldn't let me take many pictures of her so this is one of the few ones. Luckily, it's a picture that I'm in too and those are few and far between. I think I need to start sticking my hand in the picture so that I can have some part of me in pictures.

We got to see all the miniature horses, a few lamas, the elephants, and a few of the tigers. I couldn't get a good picture of the tigers since they were behind the fences.

After seeing the animals we headed to the preshow. They had some of the performers out on the floor and people could talk to them and they did a few performances. Ian got to play catch with a clown =)

Ian loved this part. We got to get up close to one of the elephants. They even had the elephant paint a picture.

If all else fails, He may have a job as a clown or a ringmaster, or maybe even an elephant trainer =)

Maybe I could give both kids to the circus =) I asked Brenna if she wanted to join the circus, she said "No, they don't have training wheels for unicycles." What a funny girl!

Jason even got into it a little bit and tried some clothes on.

The only picture Brenna wanted with a clown was with the girl clown. Before we went inside she was so excited to be able to see the clowns and then when we got in she was being a scaredy cat. You never know what kinds of things will freak her out.

They got some tatoos =)

The clown in green had spiky hair =) These were some of the cool clowns.

The guys that walk around on stilts were pretty funny. They were dancing around and everything. I can barely walk in heels, let alone on stilts. He even danced around while holding a baby. Ian was so excited when he gave him "fives."

This was the beginning of the circus.....and then my camera said the battery was low. How lame! even though I let the camera charge all night. But I guess that wasn't too bad since the pictures I took after this didn't turn out since it was too dark. Some of the highlights:

They had 7 motorcycles going at once in the metal cage! That is insane!! Plus, one of them was a woman. =)
They had the tigers stand up and walk and jump.
The trapeze attempted to do a quadrouple somersault but the catcher didn't catch him in time. Good thing there was a net =) Doesn't everyone go to the circus secretely hoping to see the trapeze or high wire act fall?
The hire wire act was pretty good too. They had 4 people, 2 guys, 2 girls. The older guy was the best one out of them. He didn't even have a line attached to him to catch him, just in case.
They had "pirate" acrobats. It was set up that there were dueling bands of pirates. One group would set up a trick, then the next would. They had people jump onto giant teeter-totters and launch someone into the air onto the shoulders of others. I think at one point they had someone launch up5 people high. There was also a guy that did it with the giant stilts. He did it once with both stilts, and once with only once. That was pretty cool. There a few girls that did it too.
They had the "strong" people. They a girl and guy that were awesome! The girl did a backbend and the guy balanced on her stomach with one had! Talk about abs of steel! There were also 2 guys that did some cool stuff too. I think one guy did the "chair" position, had the other guy balanced on him and then turned around. I do the chair for 10 seconds and my legs are killing me.

Ian started to get a little tired, but he snuggled a little bit, got a second wind and was back to being a goofball.

Ian's favorite part of the night!! They had all the elephants out! He was so excited. When they left he got a look on his face like his heart was breaking and asked for more. It was so cute/sad. They they brought out the baby elephant again and he was happy. When we left that's all he would say, "elephants, more."

I love being able to do things like this with my family. I know they probably won't remember it, but since I have the pictures, I can tell them all about it when they get older. I remember I went to a little circus when I was little. It was just in Morgan, so not a big one. But I remember I got to ride an elephant =)

When did she decide she could grow up?!

2010-08-30T10:12:00.000-06:00

So today I had to deal with that day that every mom has to go through. I had to finally admit that my little girl isn't so little anymore. *sniff, sniff*

(I love this picture of me and her!!!)

Brenna started kindergarten today!! She was soooooo excited! She usually sleeps in until around 7:30 ish, but today she was up at 6:30am wanting to get dressed and ready for school. I didn't even have to fight with her to eat all her breakfast this morning.

Of course I did the mom thing and had to take a ton of pictures of her. Isn't she the cutest thing ever?! I finally gave in and got her some skinny jeans, and now I'm wishing I would have got her more than one pair because they look so stinkin' cute on her!

She loves her backpack. It is purple, of course, and and has hearts and skeletons =)

We walked to school (have I mentioned that I love living in walking distance of her school?) and took her to her class.

Jason didn't have to work this morning so he got to come too, but I don't think he got as hung up on everything as me.

Once we got there, Brenna immediately made a friend. I think it was a little girl she met at the Mother-Daughter night this past weekend because the girl came right up to Brenna and said "Hi, Brenda." (she gets called Brenda a lot, kinda annoying but she'll learn to deal with it). It looks like she is off to a good start with making friends. The little girl in green was the one who said hi to her and when we left they were sitting next to each other on the floor cor circle time. I was kinda bummed that she wouldn't have her friend Eleanor in her class, but Natalie (her mom) and I have realized it is a good thing because the girls will either be talking the whole time or trying to tell the other what to do. This will keep them friends longer. =)

Of course, Ian didn't want to be left out of the fun. He saw the little chairs and immediately wanted to sit in them and join in. If only.....then maybe I could get caught up on my scrapbook....or I would just spend that much more time on facebook.....

My little girl is just growing up so fast. I can't believe she's in school already! I'm sure I'm not the only mom going through denial that they are old enough to have a kid in school. I'm so excited for Brenna to start. She will learn so much and have so much fun. This will be a very good experience for her. I'm just glad it's only half a day so I still get the rest of the day her =) Plus, this will give me time in the mornings to hang out with my other little monster and he can get some one-on-one mommy time =)

My birthday

2010-08-22T19:41:00.000-06:00

Usually I don't like to draw attention to my birthday. After all, who wants to admit they are getting older? But I have to show off my cute presents.

As you know, I got a new jeep about a month ago. I've been talking about getting some stickers for it to make it "mine." I love Tinkerbell. Brenna helped pick out these stickers to go on the windows. Of course, they're purple too, my favorite color. If I could have a purple car, I would =)

Jason picked these out for me too. Well, obviously they're not for me exactly. I've already got the spots picked out in the kids' rooms for these. I fell in love with the boy quote awhile ago when we were trying to do some decorations in Ian's room, and I guess Jason remembered that I liked it.

I had a quiet birthday since it was Sunday and since Jason had to work. But it was a relaxing day and the kids behaved themselves, what more could I want? We even all got to take a nap after church. I think the best present I could ever ask for is just having my kids with me. No matter how much they drive me crazy, I love these kiddos to death.

(Ian was pushing his blanket around in Brenna's stroller)

Crashing cars and playing with the animals

2010-08-16T18:09:00.000-06:00

The Weber County fair was last week. The only day we went to any of the stuff was on Saturday. We went to the demolition derby. We went a little early and walked around the fair for a bit.

I thought these were pretty neat. These are made completely of sand. I can barely make a sand castle using a bucket shaped like a castle.

Ian was so excited to see horses!!! He loved seeing the officers on the horses when we drove in.

My brave boy isn't afraid of anything, he even wanted to pet the pig. I was brave and did too =). Their hair is very prickly, they're not as soft and smooth as you'd think they were.

Of course Brenna liked the cows since she had been to a dairy farm for preschool. She was excited that she was able to pet one of the calves.

One of the booths had some cowboy hats for only $2 so I could resist getting my buckaroos some. Ian's is very flexible so he can't destroy it. =)

Brenna loves her new red cowgirl hat. Now she says she's Jessie from Toy Story. Funny girl.

Lovely picture of Jason, huh? He was wearing Ian's hat and I took this picture while he was shaking his head, kinda like how a dog does.

Now, on to the the derby part. I was vastly disappointed. In the town I grew up in, the demolition derby was a big deal. People would come from all over the country to come be in the derby in Morgan. There were always tons of cars. I think there were usually about 7 or 8 in each heat, at least 6 heats and the main event. Then there was the grudge match (one of my uncles won that one year =) ) and then the powder puff round. This was where any car still running could be driven by a woman. Those women got vicious. My mom drove in it one year. So coming from this kind of a derby background I was expecting a lot more from a supposedly bigger town derby. There were only 4 or 5 cars in each heat, one only had 3 cars, and there were only 4 heats, no grudge match (there were only 2 cars that wanted to do it) and no powder puff. There was one woman driver but she couldn't get her car started so she couldn't even do anything.

The lawnmower race was almost more excited at times than the actual derby.

The real excitement for the night came during the main event. I guess there was an ongoing rivalry between 2 cars, the red car and the orange car (my camera died right before this match so picture in your mind). From what I heard, the orange car hit the red car on the driver's side door, which is a big no-no in the derby world. The red car got mad, went to the other end of the arena, revved up his engine, got a running start and smashed into the orange car head-on. The next thing we hear is the announcer telling all the cars to stop immediately and they need the paramedics in the arena. Then we see some people running in into the arena, the cops follow to keep them out, one lady had to be restrained by 4 cops (we later found out she was the orange car drivers' mom). One person was escorted out in handcuffs. After this, a fight broke out in the stands (this was across from us so we weren't in any danger from it). The cops swarmed the stands, they bring out the mounted cops. Things finally settle and they walk out of the arena again with someone handcuffed, and this was a big guy too. Then they bring in 2 ambulances, one for the car driver and one for someone from the stands. Then they announced that life flight is coming in. They get everything settled, the ambulances leave, the helicopter came. During this, another fight almost broke out in the stands again. I guess that's what happens when there is alcohol readily available and tempers are hot. They finally got everything going again and the main event lasted about 10 more minutes. I think the red car ended up winning it all. I don't know what happened to the orange driver, it's possible that he had a neck injury or he was knocked out by hitting the suicide knob on his steering wheel. If anybody has heard anything, let me know.

Ian loved watching the cars crash and he kept saying "boom, boom." When they were done between heats, he kept saying "more cars." Brenna liked it too. She kept saying "go, hit him, wahoo!"

I think next time we go to a derby I'm going to a small town one like in Coalville or Morgan. Those are the best. But all-in-all, it was a fun evening to spend together. We had Jaydon with us so it was nice to see him. He has had scout camp outs every time we have tried to do something with him.

Family game night

2010-08-12T15:24:00.000-06:00

We don't have many games that we can all play together, but Twister is one of them. Brenna and Ian may not play exactly by the rules, but they try =)

Te good thing about this game is that it helps teach Brenna her left and right....I still have issues with that...Jason kept telling me "your other right."

Ian is trying so hard to join in and play. If it wasn't for the diaper this would be a nice plumber crack shot =)

He found something he could do! He loved to spin the spinner....the only downside is he couldn't tell us what it landed on =P Plus, he kept spinning it before we could look and see.

Primary Activity

2010-08-12T15:04:00.000-06:00

They finally caught up to me in the ward and gave me a calling about a month ago. I haven't had one since we moved into the ward. It's been kinda nice. I think they were just waiting for Ian to be old enough to go to nursery by himself =) I am the 1st counselor in the primary presidency. I've been in the primary before, but only a s a teacher so this has been fun. I feel bad because I can never remember all the kids' names, but I do recognize all their smiling faces. In our ward here we have a lot of inactive and nonmember families. But in the past month we have had 2 girls taking the missionary discussions. One was baptized about a month ago and the other one is getting baptized this Saturday. I love the ladies I work with, especially since one of them has a baby girl that is 3 months old....so cute!!! There is also a teacher that has a baby boy about 3 months old and our singing leader just had a baby girl last weekend. Love all the babies!!! I can get my baby fix without getting the baby weight =) Anyway...back to the reason for this post. We ha
d our quarterly primary activity last Saturday. It was pretty fun. It was "Nephi's Journey." We had the kids do different things to represent different parts of Nephi's journey to the promised land.

(This is Brenna....she's such a dork, but I love that girl!)

The first thing they had to do was get ready to leave Jerusalem. They had to put on their robes and walk to the wilderness. We had them put on bathrobes, and then tie a scarf on their heads to look like clothes Nephi wore.

(This is Eleanor, Brenna's best friend!)

Then they had to wander in the wilderness (they walked on the cement between the grass) and then the Lord called them back to Jerusalem.

(This is McKenna, she'll be in Brenna's kindergarten class)

They then had to get the brass plates and take them with them. We had them carry a hard-boiled egg on a spoon to the middle of the cement.

(This is one of Brenna's other really good friends, Jade. Her mom has the baby boy I get to cuddle with sometimes)

Then they had to hunt for their food after Nephi broke his bow. They got to throw water balloons at a target.

(This is Brenna. She did so good by herself! She lost her balance once and fell in the "water.")

While in the wilderness they had to cross lots of lakes and streams and one of those they had to cross a log. We put some tarp down (represent the water) and they crossed the log. If they needed help we sent the "Holy Ghost" (one of us) to help them cross.

Then they had to build their boat and cross the ocean to the promised land. They had to drink a juice box and then when it was empty they had to blow it across the tub to the other side.

Then they gathered in the promised land =) But alas...peace didn't last long.....

There were leftover bow and arrows (water balloons).......can you guess what happened next?

I took this behind my back as I was running away. She was bound and determined to get me =) She looks like she's having fun huh?

The kids all had a fun time. I think I'm going to like this calling. I get to sing and play at church instead of having to sit still and be quiet =)

Happy Pioneer Day!

2010-07-25T19:58:00.000-06:00

In Ogden they do a parade down Washington Blvd. every year on the 24th of July. I decided to brave the crazy crowds and take the kids to the parade. Since I'm not one of those crazy people that reserve their spot the night before, I woke up early and go to the parade route at 7:30 am (I'm one of the crazy people that wake up early) But I got prime parking and seating right in front of the announcer stand....too bad it was the side of the street where the sun was shining directly in our eyes (it wasn't when we got there).

While we were waiting the kids decided to entertain themselves. There were horse statues along the road and they loved them! Especially Ian. When I wasn't looking he kept sneaking off to get the horses.

I decided to splurge and get Brenna some cotton candy. She is always asking for it and I never buy her any but I gave in this time. She was so excited!!! She tried sharing with Ian but he did not like it. He kept spitting it out.

This was Ian snack of choice. Popcorn! And it must have tasted even better when he ate it off the road. Every time I turned around he was eating it off the ground. One good thing about our seating was we were right in front of the Wells Fargo building. They set up a popcorn machine, snow cone machine and had cold water. All free!!! So the kids got some snacks and stayed a little cool for a minute with some snow cones. The water unfortunately didn't stay cool for long since it was hot.

Isn't he such a cute little poser. He loved watching the horses and the firetrucks in the parade.

This is Brenna and her best friend Ellie. Her mom and dad met us there. They had lots of fun hanging out together. These girls always have loads of fun together!

I didn't take any pictures of the floats, cause I'm a slacker like that =). We had to leave the parade early because it was getting too hot. I was dying and the kids were getting pretty rosy cheeks. I thought the parade would only last an hour or so so I didn't put sunscreen on, since it would be in the morning, and I didn't pack extra drinks. We left at about 11am and it was still going. The kids were getting grumpy and needed a nap anyway after being in the heat. Plus, I had some fun plans to go see my Aunt Lisa and her family. They were at my Grandma Lola's house for the afternoon. They live in Price so we don't see them too often. I think the last time was when Brenna was about 2 years old. I know what you're thinking, Price isn't too far away. I know it isn't, but we just haven't made it there yet.....but we need to! It was so nice seeing them again. Especially my cousins Shadayah and Shaylynn. Those girls have grown up so much!! I remember when I used to babysit them and they were such little brats (I love you guys, but you were brats =), but I think every kid in the Ezell family was a brat, I'm not exempt =) )It was nice spending time with them and spending time with my grandma and chuck. We were all too busy talking that I forgot to take pictures. It was so nice to see them and hear how things are for them. It's also nice having an aunt that is getting back in the church. One day we'll get them all....not anytime soon, but I have faith that we'll get them one day. I really do have awesome family on my mom's side. They are always there to support one another, even if they're fighting and hate each other at the time. They are by far not perfect, but the reason you love someone is for their imperfections =) I love you all!!!!! Thank you for always being there for me!

But that wasn't the end of our day. I came home and we had a bbq a guy from Jason's work, Adam and his wife Amy and their 2 boys, Braxton and Taven. Once again, no pictures. These boys are so stinkin' cute. I was cracking up listening to Braxton play golf on the wii. It was his first time playing but after he swung once, he was an expert and had to tell everyone how to play. It was fun hanging out with them. Adam is going to school for the same thing Jason is so me and Amy decided that once school starts up again we need to get together more since both our hubbies with be gone all the time between work and school. I love it when we find friends where we like both the husband and wife.....we both have sets of friends where one of us isn't all too crazy about the husband or wife. The night before we had a bbq with some young couples from our ward here and it was nice to be able to hang out with people our own age and let all the kids play. We are finally getting to know more people around here and I am really looking forward to having more people to hang out with and do stuff with. Yay for friends and family!!

My new car!

2010-07-22T07:08:00.000-06:00

We got a Jeep Grand Cherokee last night. It's one year older than my old car, but it has less miles and the payments are lower.....which is a plus! I'm still having mixed feelings at the moment though. I like the car, but the sales experience was awful! Jason got a letter in the mail the other day saying that the dealership would give us extra money for our car, above the blue book value. So Jason decided to go down and just see what kind of offer they would give us and what kind of vehicles they had. He found a couple that he liked that were in our price ranges so they let him drive them up to me, since I was at home with the kids. He brought home a Jeep Patriot, which was nice, but no cruise control (i have a lead foot so i need that!). Then he found this Cherokee that he really liked, but it was late at night. So the salesman told him he could bring it home for the night, let me drive it around and then bring it back the next day. So he talked to the finance officer to get round about prices, nothing final, and decided to bring it home. They told him if I didn't like i then, we could bring it back, no problem, and get a different vehicle or get my car back. I was driving it around yesterday and noticed a few things that i didn't like and that needed to be fixed so we decided to take it back to the dealership and get my old car back. We get there and they start trying to pressure us in to getting it, and they had 3 different sales people talk to us, with about a half hour wait in between each time they talked to us and then they said they'd be back in a second while they checked stuff. Since when did a few minutes translate into 45? We told them that we just wanted to get my car back, then one guy comes over and tells us that the paper Jason signed last night when they told him he could bring it home was a contract of sale so were pretty much stuck. He then told us he didn't want to be a jerk and wouldn't force it on us, since the finance person had told Jason something else. But after us being stubborn and not wanting to give in and every time i asked if we could just get my car back, they started avoiding answering. So it came down to that we were pretty much stuck getting a car. Which got me very annoyed. But our being annoyed and stubborn paid off. They lowered the payment to $20 lower than our current payment, we didn't have to do a down payment, they gave us a little more on my stratus, and they bought us dinner at Lonestar. As we were signing the papers I found a paper that said "Borrower's Agreement." Can you guess what that paper is used for? Yup, you got it. That's the paper you're supposed to sign when you take a car off the lot and then are bringing it back, like what Jason did. But did they finance guy have Jason sign that? No! He was a slimeball and tricked him into signing the contract instead by saying that if he wasn't happy he could bring it back. The finance officer we worked with last night was a different guy than the one Jason talked to before. It's people like that that give dealerships and salesmen a bad name. I told Jason when he called me the night before and said he was bringing a car back that I've heard of stuff like that happening. If any of you remember, when I worked a t Western Wats I was in charge of a project that called people who had recently purchased a Hyundai vehicle and I heard so many times of stories just like this happening so I didn't want that happening, but I was assured by both the salesman and Jason it wouldn't, but......it did. I have to go back to the dealership so they can fix a few things so I'm going to go talk to that finance guy and give him a little piece of my mind about what he did. If it hadn't been for the fact that we were under contract, I would have walked right out and gone somewhere else. Ok, now that I got that out. I do like my new car. We have been talking about getting something like this for awhile. It has more room, drives really smooth, and it very quiet. Plus, it has a sunroof! I was a bit iffy because I don't like to drive trucks or big vehicles, but this one doesn't seem awkward to drive. Brenna and Ian love the sunroof. Brenna started calling it a "hatch" and Ian picked up on it so every time we get in, he points to it and says "hatch." Jason says I look like a soccer mom now driving it.....but how can I be a soccer mom without any kids playing soccer?

Taking the animals to the Nature Center

2010-07-17T16:00:00.000-06:00

Saturdays this month have been free at the Ogden Nature Center so I decided to take the rugrats there.

Don't you love this picture of sibling love? Brenna trying to hold Ian and he's not wanting anything to do with it. So much for getting a cute picture of them together.

As you walk on the path to the visitor's center they have all sorts of birdhouses. These were a few I liked.

When we were looking at the birds of prey exhibit this guy came over with a peregrine falcon ( I think that's what it was). They had just finished a presentation and he stopped to show the kids. Of course he had it hooded so it wouldn't get scared.

After we walked around for a bit it was time for our lunch. What's lunch without a little live entertainment?

This turkey was wandering around the grounds and decided it wanted to try to join our picnic. Of course Brenna is my fraidy cat and was scared of it, but only after she had fun throwing her bread crusts to it to eat.

Ian decided he wanted to play tag with the turkey. He has so much fun running around the grass chasing the turkey. I have heard a lot of stories about turkeys having heart attacks when they're chased so I was hoping (I know it's evil of me) to see it happen with this one. I guess this one is used to being chased.

Before our picnic, Brenna's friend Eleanor joined up with us. This Brenna's best friend. She just lives a few doors down from us and Brenna is always asking to play with her. She is a sweet girl! I'm hoping they'll be in the same kindergarten class next year. If not, I guess we always the walk to and from school together =).

Ian's favorite part wad by the desert tortoise cage....a big pile of big rocks!! He was in heaven. He tried to bring the rocks with him. He wouldn't leave the pile. I even tried walking away and telling him "bye, see you later," (which usually gets him to come with me) but he just sat there merrily playing with rocks. Really kid? you have more fun playing with rocks, then all the toys in your room combined!

There were a few exhibits inside and Ian was fascinated with the snakes. He kept running to the cage and pointing and saying "ssssss." If I wasn't paying attention he would yell at me until I acknowledged the snake. Hopefully he won't have the same fascination if he sees a snake outside.

They had a little craft for the kids to do. They got take some paper and make bark rubbings and then make a frame out of it. Brenna loved it but Ian didn't quite know what to do.

I snapped a quick picture of me and my little guy while I was trying to keep him occupied and to keep him from destroying everything. It was way after nap time and he was in destruct-o-mode, which is what happens when he's tired and not wanted to slow down because he's afraid he'll fall asleep. He was asleep before we even pulled out of the parking lot when we left.

The kids had a fun time, but I think I need to go back when it's a bit cooler and explore the rest of the place. It was humid and muggy so I didn't go very far.

Summer Fun!!

2010-07-17T14:47:00.000-06:00

Last Tuesday Jason wanted to go check out the North Ogden Aquatic Center. There were a few people from his work that went too. It was pretty fun. This is the kids area they have. It's a playground with water splashing everywhere!

This was Ian's favorite spot. I think he spent the entire time going down this slide. He loved it!! What can be more fun than climbing up a frog and sliding down it's tongue into a pool of water?

This was one of the few shots I could actually get of Brenna. She was having a blast and running (I know you can't run at a pool, but try telling her that) around everywhere. She wouldn't even sit still long enough to eat.

I finally caught her again! There was a lazy river and Brenna loved getting her life jacket on and just floating around it. She was such a big girl and loved do it by herself. She wanted nothing to do with us while we were there and was content playing on her own and making new friends. (I thought that wasn't supposed to happen till she was a teenager?)

Such a happy guy! He had his fruit snacks so all was well in the world. He loved playing in the water and would get out for a second, dry off and warm up, and then off to the pool again!

When we were done at the pool we went home, relaxed for a bit, and then off to a movie! One of Jason's buddies from work and his wife and 2 little boys went with us. We went to see Shrek 4. The kids loved it and they were pretty good. There is a movie theatre down the road from us that has $3 movies. They're movies that have been in theatres for awhile. On Tuesdays they do a date night special where couples get in for $3. Ian is free so it only cost us $6. On a normal night it is $9. Not too shabby! Now we can afford to go to a movie once in awhile. Yay! So all-in-all, we had a busy day but it was a nice one! It was fun to be able to spend time together as a family and have fun.

Splish Splash!

2010-07-13T17:30:00.000-06:00

I haven recently discovered the splash pad in South Ogden. It is right behind the Ogden Athletic Club. I am loving this place!! Not only is it FREE but the kids love it too! They can run around and play and I don't have to worry about them drowning if I am not right next to them. Luckily, it hasn't been too crowded when we've gone, which has been nice.

I love how the water shoots up so you don't have to get completely soaked to cool off. Ian wasn't quite sure yet what to think about everything when we first took him.

Of course it didn't take them long to find something to fight over =)

Brenna loved the squirt guns and was always trying to squirt me, but I learned the trick....if you stand behind it, and she turns it around, it won't shoot water out. hehe. Brenna couldn't get enough of playing here. She would spend hours playing in the water.

Ian loved the water shooting out and would stand on it. Every so often the water would shut off and Ian would get worried and ask where the water was and then when it came back on he would get all excited. Silly boy! The first time we went he didn't really want to play much except with this part.

Then he discovered the one that sprays the water out kinda like a fountain. He loved putting his hand over the water coming out. By the time we were winding down, he was winding up and was having so much fun "splash, splash"ing. Every time he would come by me he would look at the splash pad, say "splash, splash" and wait for me to tell him yes he could and then he was off again! We finally had to call it quits when he decided to leave me a present in his diaper and I didn't have wipes.

We took my niece and nephew with us and off course they have to show my kids how brothers and sisters are supposed to act at any place where there is water: wrestle until you get whoever doesn't want to get wet, wet. Love those kids! They were such a big help playing with Brenna and Ian.

Of course the perfect ending to an afternoon spent playing in the water is: ICE CREAM!!! We stopped over at Arctic Circle (of course the one I used to work at because I was such a cool kid in high school and worked at a fast food place (who didn't?) ). I love their ice cream!! Especially their root beer or blackberry flavors (which unfortunately they didn't have those flavors that day). I am excited to be able to have a fun place to take the kids to go play in the water and that is very friendly on the wallet =) If you're ever in the mood and want to go, just let me know! The more, the merrier!

Mommy's big helper

2010-07-11T19:26:00.000-06:00

Both of my kids like to help me cook. Brenna usually helps stir and put things in pans. Not Ian. He lounges on the counter and waits for the work to be done, points to the spoon and asks "taste?" Sometimes he tries to take the spoon out himself, before I'm done mixing. So impatient!!! If he sees me making cookies, he runs to the kitchen and usually pushes a chair to the counter and puts his finger in the bowl and helps himself to a taste. I'm so glad I have such a big helper!

A little "me" time

2010-07-02T16:28:00.000-06:00

In most my posts I'm usually blogging about my kids, but this time I'm not. I'm going to take a little time to myself. =) Lately I've been trying to do things to improve myself. After I had Brenna I could never lose the last bit of baby weight. I finally started losing a little by doing Weight Watchers and then I got pregnant with Ian. I did pretty good at not gaining weight till the last 3 months and then it piled on. The first little bit of weight cam off and then I hit a plateau. I started doing Weight Watchers again and trying to exercise more and after a few months of work it started coming off. Yay! I finally got down the to weight I was before I had Ian. Then I kept losing more of the weight and before I knew it I was the same size as I was when I got married. This wasn't a quick process. It's taken about a year and half to get to this point. Now I'm at about what I was in high school. Yay!! Now that I am comfortable at my weight (most days) I want to start toning a bit and getting in better shape. I've started running in the mornings. I am not a morning person so waking up at 6am and trying to have energy is a toughy. I have got myself up to jogging 2 miles around the track at the high school near us. I have never been able to do that before. The only time I ran was in high school and that was when they made us run the mile and I usually walked most of it. I am hopefully going to try and do a 5k in October with one of my friends. That's just 3 miles so hopefully I can get myself in shape enough to not die while doing it. =)
I have to admit, most my life I have struggled with self-image and self-esteem. I'm pretty sure this will be a life long struggle, at least until I'm an ornery old lady that doesn't care what people think anymore =). I am glad that I have overcome a slight hurdle in this struggle. I love my kids....but like most moms don't like what they do to your body. Luckily I didn't get tons of stretch marks and don't have loose skin (you moms know what I'm talking about). I hope I can keep this up and keep myself healthy. Sorry this was kind of all about me, but sometimes you just have to get it out of your system.

More than meets the eye

2010-06-29T11:54:00.000-06:00

Remember my post from Christmas about what Brenna wanted? The only she wanted for Christmas was the Bumblebee helmet that changes your voice. She was so excited to get it but when we put it on her she freaked out and didn't want it. So we took it back to the store. I went to a yard sale a coupel weeks ago and found the Optimus Prime helmet (I think it was $1, quite a steal considering it still worked and they are usually $30 in the store). I thought Ian would like it.

I was right! He loves it! Especially the voice changing part. My two kids are so different. This helmet still scares Brenna and whenever Ian has it out to play with she runs and hides in her room. Silly girl!

Ian isn't the only one who likes it. He wishes he was as cool as Optimus.