Mommy's big helper

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

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

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.

Tree house Museum

Since Saturday was such a yucky day with all the rain and wind, we needed something to do inside.  I had my niece and nephew so we needed something to occupy us all.  The Treehouse Museum was doing a free day so I thought, why not give it a try?  Brenna went there the other day with one of her friends and had a blast so I figured we could all go.  They had a blast!

I didn't get very many pictures of Brenna because her and Makayla went off and did their own thing for a little while, all I know is that they had fun.  Brenna got to pretend to be an astronaut. 

My next stop was the medieval exhibit.  Ian was loving it!  When I put him on the throne he thought he was the coolest thing ever!  He was even more excited to find the giant chess board with chess pieces as big as him that he could pick up and move.  He had lots of fun with that!!

Here is my little princess!!!!  I sure love this cute girl!

Here is my nephew, Jaydon, thinking he's all cool and studly (which he is =)  )

Ian also loved the doctor/baby nursery exhibit.  He saw the babies and went running.  he picked them up and gave them hugs and then had to feed them.  He was taking such good care of those babies.  He loves to look at babies everywhere we go and he is so good to be soft with them.  He will make such a good big brother one day (not any day soon though).

Don't you love the look on his face?  We were making bird puppets in the Art Gallery.  He usually loves to color, paint, and draw.  He was more interested in running around and seeing what else he could discover there.

Here is my wonderful niece, Makayla.  She was trying to be all shy and not let me take a picture, but I got her, sorta.  She is such an awesome girl!!  Whenever she is around she helps me so much with Brenna and Ian

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It's a toss up as to which one of them is the madder of madhatters.

These kids are so great!  I love how much they help me.  They have grown up a lot, especially the past few months.  They have gone through and are going through a lot and they are such strong kids.  I am so glad we have them back in Utah again.  Love you guys!!!

I may have some future bull riders on my hands.  The had lots of fun riding the bulls.  The even bucked a little.  I think it bucked a little too hard for Ian because he slid off and luckily me and Jaydon caught him in time.

Brenna loves to play school so the little schoolhouse was perfect for her!  She stood in front of the desks, wrote her name on the chalkboard and said "I am Ms. Brenna."  It was so cute!!

If the rodeo doesn't work out I think firefighting will work great!  Brenna loved dressing in the whole outfit and driving the truck and making siren noises.  Ian has been obsessed with hats lately so he loved wearing the firefighter hat.  He loved driving the truck.  He would have played on that thing for hours but I finally had to drag him off, literally kicking and screaming, because other kids wanted a chance to play on it. 

They had a cool cow there that that you could milk.  I think it was just colored water that came out but it was pretty neat, especially since Brenna had just gone to a dairy farm a few weeks ago.  She thought it was neat that she got to actually "milk" a cow.

Here is the whole gang.  Sorry the picture is so weird.  None of the others looked this grainy.  Oh well.  They had lots of fun!

We had a great time going though.  I think I will take them back again next month when they do their free day again (I'm cheap and don't want to pay if I don't have to).  It was a great way to spend a rainy, windy day.

Brenna's Preschool Graduation

Brenna finished her year of preschool.  She had a lot of fun this year.  This is her and her teacher, Penny Pincock.  She was such a wonderful teacher!!  She was so loving and patient with all the kids.  One of my favorite things was that she incorporated Church teachings into her lessons with the kids.  I loved having Brenna come home and tell me Book of Mormon stories.  It was like having her go to primary 2 extra times a week.  Penny definitely showed how our Savior loves these little children.

During the year they worked on a different letter each week and did an activity with that letter.  Her teacher put it all together in a book for the kids.  Brenna was so proud of her book and couldn't wait to show us all the cool stuff she did.

The kids got to perform a nursery rhyme in front of everyone.  Brenna was so excited for her turn.  She did such a good job saying "Jack and Jill."  She loves getting up in front of people.  She has even volunteered to give a talk in primary when the person assigned didn't show up (she did a talk with no help from us since it was spur of the moment).

Here's a picture of the whole class.  They were so proud of everything they did.  I wish these kids were going to be in Brenna's kindergarten but they live in Morgan.

Brenna did her end of the year test with her teacher to see how much she had learned.  At the beginning of the year the only letter she could write was the letter "B."  Now she writes the whole alphabet, and can sign the alphabet too.  She can write a few of her numbers and can almost count to 20 now (sometimes she says 14....16...19...21 =) but if you can get her to concentrate she can do it all).

Brenna has learned so much this year!  Most of what I wanted her to learn was the social part.  She did fabulously!  I don't mean to brag.....wait, yes I do....but I have the smartest little girl!!!  She is such a fast learner.  For her birthday she got a Leapfrog Didj and she is already learning to do simple addition after only playing it a few times.  She is trying to spell words now and if she sounds them out she can most of it spelled.  I can't wait to see how much she learns at kindergarten next year.

So if anyone in Morgan needs a great preschool....call Penny Pincock....you will not be disappointed!!!

"I kissed a cow and I liked it'

For Brenna's preschool they took a field trip to a dairy farm.  Me and Ian decided to tag along too.  The kids loved seeing all the cows.  The kids were so good the whole time!  I was so proud of all of them.  Brenna even got a little brave and gave a few baby cows a pat on the head.  When they were all done they all got to enjoy a yummy treat that was came from cows....creamies!!!! 

Ian was loving all the cows too!  He was so excited when he saw all those cows!!!

He decided to show this little calf how much he loved it.  This is right before he planted a big one the big wet nose of the calf.  Ian was just returning a favor because 2 seconds before this the calf gave him a big lick on the face.  It was so cute!!!

He tried to stop at every stall and pet every calf.  If he could have he would have been in the stall with them.

Aren't these little calves so cute?  Can you tell what our favorite part was?  The baby cows were just so cute!  I ran my camera battery dead (in defense, it wasn't as charged as I though it was) taking all the pictures of the calves.

I wanne be just like my sister!

Ian loves to do everything that his big sister does....including play dress-up.  Brenna left some of her play shoes downstairs and Ian was so excited when he found them.  He has a shoe fetish to begin with.  Anytime we get shoes out he has to help up put them on and he's always carrying shoes around the house.

He was trying so hard to get those shoes on.  It was quite the task since they had heels and were way too big.

He finally figured it out though.  Such a smart boy!!!!

Look at that pose!  So cute!!! I can't get in trouble for this either since he put them on himself.  Boys are so much fun....considering just an hour before this he was playing in the sand and dumping it all over himself (hence the naked baby).