I just love the weekends! I think you get through the whole week just to be able to spend time with those you love on the weekend. We went to St. George this weekend to watch Ryan try out his first Triathlon. Tari, Amberly, Derrick and Shana also were there and performed like studs!!! It is so much fun to get Ryan and I and the kids in the car and just be together. We normally have some sort of DVD player and this time we didn't. I was afraid Lillie would not do as well traveling without that sort of distraction. To my astonishment, she did really well. Now this is coming from the mom who once said, "My kids will never watch movies in the car!!!" Being able to all talk together was actually more fun! Lillie entertained Kaeden so well that they were both laughing hysterically at one point. She even colored for about two hours on the way home. I didn't know she had that much attention span in her!
On our way down, we drove out to Provo and then down on I15 the whole way to St. George. That was a really nice drive and we stopped at Ryans' Great Aunts' grave. We picked up lunch and packed a blanket and the kids and sat on the cemetery lawn and ate. It was such a nice way to break up the six hour drive. Coming back we went up I15 untill we hit the beginning of I70 at Cove Fort and then took Hwy 10 up to Price and Hwy 191 to Duchesne and on. That was fun to see a different way and I feel like I saw a ton of Utah. It is really amazing to me how much the scenery changes throughout Utah. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful state. We stopped in Salina and ate lunch at Mom's Cafe'. The little cafe' is famous, supposedly. It has been featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine and there were some celebs photos complete with their John Hancocks! The ladies in there were super nice and made us feel right at home. I don't know that I have been in a restaurant where everyone is a complete stranger, yet we were all talking! The tables to the side of us and in front of and behind us. I love that hometown feel.
We also were able to spend some time with Randy, Tari, Abbie and Carter. That was fun for me because I feel like we don't get much time with them. It probably has to do with the fact that Randy and Ryan work together and get tons of time together. They even try to underscore each other on the golf course, when they get the chance. We are lucky to all live so close and be able to have our kids be close as well. We played at the lake for a while on Saturday after the tri and then went to Texas Roadhouse (?) for dinner. It was Carter's birthday dinner and the staff was so fun with him. We really had a good time there, all except for the Lemonade on Randy's lap. Guess he'll get me later, haha.
Crazy, Running Life!
So, just to get things a little caught up...
I feel like I have been moving so fast in so many directions these past couple of weeks and haven't had the chance to write it all down. Here is my greatest attempt! After all, isn't this why we blog anyway?!?
Last week we had the opportunity to go to Idaho and spend some time with my family there. Lillie loves going to see her Gramma Reen and just always had such a great time there. On our way out of town, we had a few errands to run of which included taking something to Grandma Fran. Lillie persistently told me that she wanted to go to Gramma Reen's house, sirst (first)! I assured her we would be on our way, and so we were. We left on Tuesday and came home on Saturday. For dinner on the way up we decided to stop at Maddox's Restaurant in Brigham City. My grandma used to rave about it and just loved to stop there. I had never so I thought it would be a good treat to be able to experience it. It's not too often that we have a chance to eat there at dinner time. I know exactly why she loved it...the fruit stand across the street! I can remember since I was very little, my grandma would take a whole different route if she needed to, but we always went to the fruit stands and the cheese factories! I bought some nectarines that were absolutely heavenly! I think I ate three of them between Brigham City and Hailey!
We had a really good time with cousins, aunts, uncles, gramma and our bikes!! We took our road bikes to Hailey, mainly because I wanted to try to ride the thirteen miles from Hailey to Ketchum! This had always seemed a daunting task to me growing up there so to accomplish it really made me feel that I could do anything! One day we rode halfway up and turned around and came back and the next day we rode the whole way and my mom brought our truck up the K-Town and we had lunch together. Riding there is so beautiful. You have mountains surrounding you, fall color everywhere, and a river snaking along your way, complete with old bridges and beautiful homes. I just love going home and feeling the comfort of home!
This week I have been busy getting us ready to head to St. George, UT for a Triathalon. Ryan, got his nerves up last minute and I signed him up so he couldn't back out!! I am a little jealous! I would like to be the one doing it, but I will just have to wait my turn when I don't have my mommy nursing duties!! Knowing me it would take me so long that my child would be starving by the time I finished!! We are so excited to go and do this, to be with our family and friends! Tari is going into her second Tri and I know she is going to wipe out her last time! She has been working so hard and has a wonderful friend who is helping her to train for it. They really have been working so hard and pushing themselves. I have always admired her for her ability to stick to a workout schedule and to be self-motivated to do it. I am so spotty and will workout great for a couple of weeks, start to feel like I am in really good shape, and then just quit as if the last workouts will be all I need for the rest of my life.
I also have been trying so hard to learn canning and food preservation techniques! You know those nectarines I told you about...well, we went back on Saturday and I got really nectarine happy!!! I bought two bushels? big baskets for $30. I was convinced that I would bring them home and can them and have some wonderful fruit to last me all winter long...apparently no one cans nectarines. I researched the internet, talked to some experiences ladies in my ward, and read all the canning books I have. I decided to make fruit leathers instead. Well, some of it turned out really good and other parts of it cooked a bit too long and became stiff and breakable. It still all tastes really good and I will be trying to figure out what to do with it all!
I have been wanting to post this for a while and just haven't had the time to do it...
Kaeden is six and one half months old and has had five haircuts! I mean, REAL haircuts! I think the shortest length we have taken off has been a quarter of an inch! His hair amazes me all the time and people think he is so much older than he really is because of it! Okay, I really should say...his first one was when he was six weeks old. So in five months he has had five cuts!
I feel like I have been moving so fast in so many directions these past couple of weeks and haven't had the chance to write it all down. Here is my greatest attempt! After all, isn't this why we blog anyway?!?
Last week we had the opportunity to go to Idaho and spend some time with my family there. Lillie loves going to see her Gramma Reen and just always had such a great time there. On our way out of town, we had a few errands to run of which included taking something to Grandma Fran. Lillie persistently told me that she wanted to go to Gramma Reen's house, sirst (first)! I assured her we would be on our way, and so we were. We left on Tuesday and came home on Saturday. For dinner on the way up we decided to stop at Maddox's Restaurant in Brigham City. My grandma used to rave about it and just loved to stop there. I had never so I thought it would be a good treat to be able to experience it. It's not too often that we have a chance to eat there at dinner time. I know exactly why she loved it...the fruit stand across the street! I can remember since I was very little, my grandma would take a whole different route if she needed to, but we always went to the fruit stands and the cheese factories! I bought some nectarines that were absolutely heavenly! I think I ate three of them between Brigham City and Hailey!
We had a really good time with cousins, aunts, uncles, gramma and our bikes!! We took our road bikes to Hailey, mainly because I wanted to try to ride the thirteen miles from Hailey to Ketchum! This had always seemed a daunting task to me growing up there so to accomplish it really made me feel that I could do anything! One day we rode halfway up and turned around and came back and the next day we rode the whole way and my mom brought our truck up the K-Town and we had lunch together. Riding there is so beautiful. You have mountains surrounding you, fall color everywhere, and a river snaking along your way, complete with old bridges and beautiful homes. I just love going home and feeling the comfort of home!
This week I have been busy getting us ready to head to St. George, UT for a Triathalon. Ryan, got his nerves up last minute and I signed him up so he couldn't back out!! I am a little jealous! I would like to be the one doing it, but I will just have to wait my turn when I don't have my mommy nursing duties!! Knowing me it would take me so long that my child would be starving by the time I finished!! We are so excited to go and do this, to be with our family and friends! Tari is going into her second Tri and I know she is going to wipe out her last time! She has been working so hard and has a wonderful friend who is helping her to train for it. They really have been working so hard and pushing themselves. I have always admired her for her ability to stick to a workout schedule and to be self-motivated to do it. I am so spotty and will workout great for a couple of weeks, start to feel like I am in really good shape, and then just quit as if the last workouts will be all I need for the rest of my life.
I also have been trying so hard to learn canning and food preservation techniques! You know those nectarines I told you about...well, we went back on Saturday and I got really nectarine happy!!! I bought two bushels? big baskets for $30. I was convinced that I would bring them home and can them and have some wonderful fruit to last me all winter long...apparently no one cans nectarines. I researched the internet, talked to some experiences ladies in my ward, and read all the canning books I have. I decided to make fruit leathers instead. Well, some of it turned out really good and other parts of it cooked a bit too long and became stiff and breakable. It still all tastes really good and I will be trying to figure out what to do with it all!
I have been wanting to post this for a while and just haven't had the time to do it...
Kaeden is six and one half months old and has had five haircuts! I mean, REAL haircuts! I think the shortest length we have taken off has been a quarter of an inch! His hair amazes me all the time and people think he is so much older than he really is because of it! Okay, I really should say...his first one was when he was six weeks old. So in five months he has had five cuts!
A Day in the Life of Lillie Kate...
So, our darling daughter never ceases to amaze me! From the funny things she does to all the things she learns how to say! I have my nephew, Carter, here today and I just have to jot these things down because they are so Lillie...
Next...after lunch I was shooing Ryan out the door and back to work, which was taking more time than I had to spare at the moment. After shutting the door, I realized that I had the kiddos still and full responsibility over them, so I take off looking for them. Carter is lying on the living room floor playing with the Micro Mini Machines and so I ask him where Lillie is...all the while I am calling her name, as she is being so quiet. He points me in the direction of the kitchen and I venture over to find her sitting on the loveseat in my front room. I approach her and see that she has Carter's monkey on her lap wrapped in Kaeden's blanket, so I ask, "What are you doing, Lil?" to which she replies so matter of factly, "Feeding my baby." She is sitting there, sure enough, with her shirt lifted nursing a stuffed monkey. Not only is she making me laugh so hard at this, I then realize that it isn't even one of her own babies and she has decided to take up being a surrogate mother. Oh, how I love her and how she makes me laugh sometimes!
Lillie was in time out, sitting on the bottom stair, because during snack time she thought it would be hilarious to make Carter laugh. Unfortunately her way of doing this was to dunk her cookie in milk until it was crumbling apart and then drop it on the floor. Funny, he wasn't laughing a bit, but she thought it was the funniest thing since stand up comedies. So, here she is in time out and I am trying to convince Carter to ignore her because she is in trouble. All she is saying is, "Carter John, where are you, Carter John, where are you..." I didn't even know that she knew his name was Carter John!
Next...after lunch I was shooing Ryan out the door and back to work, which was taking more time than I had to spare at the moment. After shutting the door, I realized that I had the kiddos still and full responsibility over them, so I take off looking for them. Carter is lying on the living room floor playing with the Micro Mini Machines and so I ask him where Lillie is...all the while I am calling her name, as she is being so quiet. He points me in the direction of the kitchen and I venture over to find her sitting on the loveseat in my front room. I approach her and see that she has Carter's monkey on her lap wrapped in Kaeden's blanket, so I ask, "What are you doing, Lil?" to which she replies so matter of factly, "Feeding my baby." She is sitting there, sure enough, with her shirt lifted nursing a stuffed monkey. Not only is she making me laugh so hard at this, I then realize that it isn't even one of her own babies and she has decided to take up being a surrogate mother. Oh, how I love her and how she makes me laugh sometimes!All of this happens today after I have had a runaway down the street! Carter was so upset when Randy came to get Austin and Abbie to take them to school that he didn't get to go with his dad that he was going to do whatever it took to follow his dad. I had Lillie and Kaeden in the tub and knew that he was going to leave the house, because he know how to get the doors open and isn't afraid of getting lost! After taking the kids out of the tub as fast as I could, I ran downstairs and was frantically looking out the windows to see if I could see which way he went, I was leaving out the garage door when my neighbor came with her kids and dog to bring back my lost Carter. Sometimes you wonder how mommies with five, six, seven or more kiddos get anything done!!! Maybe I should pay more attention to them and help them!!
Despite all the fun and games here today, I am so grateful that my kids have cousins that live so close to us and that they will be able to grow up together! Lillie loves her cousins so much and would be so sad without them!
What It's All About
So, this weekend Ryan and I were able to attend the dedication broadcast session of the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. I realized a few things during this service...
When we really look around us...eternity isn't that far away. Sometimes we feel that heaven is so far away and unreachable; that our ancestors gone before us aren't really still around to watch our families grow. When I think about my grandma Mimi, it is hard to imagine, sometimes, that I will really get to see her again and be able to wrap my arms around her and tell her how much I've missed her. I know that I will and always know that such a reunion will take place. It is easy to get a little sidetracked with the whole picture when you are going about your day to day routine of cooking meals, tending children, changing dirty diapers and disciplining a two year old.
Love in this life is fleeting, eternal love is lasting. As I sat with my arms cuddled about my husband I realized that, even though we may not always agree or be completely on the same page, because we are sealed for time and all eternity in the temple and have higher goals to obtain, we can work through anything. If this life is all about learning to be more like Christ in order to live with Heavenly father again, then what a better candidate to work with to learn how to love purely than your spouse.
I know I view the world through eyes that have not been able to reach beyond the veil, but it is very comforting to know that someday I will be able to learn all things and understand all things. I know I don't understand a lot about the designs and plans of Heavenly Father and someday it will all make more sense to me and to all of us as we are all to pass through the veil. Attending the temple really does help me to be able to look at things in my life, that I may be working through or experiencing, in a way greater and more important than how the world would view them.
I am so grateful for the temple and hope deeply that my children will grow up knowing how much it means to me and to Ryan that we are sealed to them and that we can be together forever. The temple is the place I feel closest to Heavenly Father and I am setting a goal to become better at my attendance therein!!!
Quiet Time
So, here is why I have decided to begin this habit...
Yesterday as I was making lunch for my little Lillie, she escaped my presence. I realized that the house seemed eerily quiet and decided to investigate. We have all had those moments and you just brace yourself to find toothpaste all over the carpet or nail polish on the wall or unidentifiables in the toilet bowl. Well, this wasn't any different and I just knew she was doing something wrong. I ascended my staircase to find that her bathroom light was on and the door shut. First reaction...she's in there with lotion all over her hair and toothpaste on the wall just having the time of her life and now I have to act like I am really mad at her when all I want to do is take a picture because I know what a cute little grin I will receive upon opening the door. What I really found, however, was nothing of the like.
Yesterday as I was making lunch for my little Lillie, she escaped my presence. I realized that the house seemed eerily quiet and decided to investigate. We have all had those moments and you just brace yourself to find toothpaste all over the carpet or nail polish on the wall or unidentifiables in the toilet bowl. Well, this wasn't any different and I just knew she was doing something wrong. I ascended my staircase to find that her bathroom light was on and the door shut. First reaction...she's in there with lotion all over her hair and toothpaste on the wall just having the time of her life and now I have to act like I am really mad at her when all I want to do is take a picture because I know what a cute little grin I will receive upon opening the door. What I really found, however, was nothing of the like.
So, here's how this started. We have been potty training and trying to do it according to her interest and desire. She wanted to go potty when she woke up yesterday, so, of course, I take her to the toilet. She goes #1, steps down, then reveals a look of...I have to go #2. So, I convince her to get back up there and try. I reassured her that it would be fun and ran off to get some books to read. We read, and we read, and we read but nothing happens. I get her down, wash her hands and move on for the day. Apparently, she remembered how much fun it was and wanted to show her dolly the same courtesty!
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