National Turn off the T.V. and Read Week

I saw this on my friend Penny's blog and I thought I would pass it along. April 20th-26th is Turn off your TV and read week. I know this will be a little tough for us... (since we don't have a t.v. But.....) I am going to try to not even watch movies or the two shows I am addicted to this week, and I challenge you to do the same. Happy Reading..

I know these two are excited to start.

Here are some articles about kids and T.V. Thanks for sharing Penny!

http://www.tvturnoff.org/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

http://children.webmd.com/news/20070904/too-much-tv-may-hamper-kids-attention

http://www.childrentoday.com/resources/articles/settvlimits.htm

Bored?

You tell me...

Finally

So today I found my bike and bought it, and tomorrow.... there is suppose to be thunder storms. What is up with that? I am super excited to start riding. Here is our new car... til September.

Isn't it a Beauty?

Coincidence?

I think so. Jon and I had to take our car in again for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. This was kind of a bummer because every time we take it in it ends up costing at least $500. So while we were waiting to hear the verdict of how much it would cost this time, Jon decided to make some homemade mac 'n' cheese. We tried this new recipe, and while he was cooking the mechanic called to give us the $2500 estimate to have it working again. Jon and I just had to laugh because after he got off the phone we read the blurb above the recipe and it says and I quote,

"Never underestimate the healing power of macaroni and cheese at the end of a day from hell."

After a good laugh and trying to figure out what we are going to do, because why spend $2500 this week and then another $500 in two weeks... The mechanic said he would give us $1000 for the car... ALRIGHT, I get my money back that I spent the last 2 weeks... But he wouldn't give us back our radio and let us give him the original... so Jon talked with another mechanic, listed it on Craigs list etc. etc. Long story short we went and got our car back and we were going to take it to another mechanic on Mon. Well today someone called from Craigs List and wanted to buy it. After trying for a half hour or so to talk them out of it we sold it for $1300, plus we got our radio back.... Now I wanted to show you my new car....






Do you lik it? I have been wanting to start training for a couple bike races this fall and Jon and I are seriously considering just getting new bikes until this fall. Wish me luck in my bike hunting.

Nathan and Amy's Wedding

Here is the Dougal Clan... Plus Sam... guess he has just always been a part of our fam, so we couldn't leave him out.

Here is Marcella and Amy. Marcella loved Amy's dress and everything about the wedding. She had so much fun. She really can't wait until she will get to to get married.

Here are me and my Brothers. You guys are simply the best. Thanks for all the fun times. I love you guys!!

Here is the Happy Couple at the luncheon. They sure are cute. Thanks for the fun day guys!

Our trip to Vegas

This is what Claire did when I put on her sunglasses and told her we were on our way to Vegas.

She was super happy her big sister was coming as well.

We went with our friends the Laws. Where's Gavin?
(you have to love a sleeping baby.)

Here's the Girls in front of the Bellagio.

Marcella loved looking through the holes to see the water.

Daddy and Claire Bear with Peter and Hallie.

While Marcella kept looking at the water...

Claire was just chillin' in her stroller loaned to us so graciously by Dave and Rose. Seriously this trip wouldn't have been fun without it. Thanks guys.

Marcella loved the pool. Before we left she reminded me that we need to buy her some goggles so she could go under water. Everyone knows you can't go under without them. So here she is strutting her new goggles and loving every minute of it. Claire on the other hand got so cold the first time we took her in and after about 5 minutes, if that, she started screaming. Hopefully she will enjoy it more this summer.

This was after a nice long cry at the pool. We put the girls in the tub and then I got Claire dressed and put her on the bed. After we got everyone else ready for bed, this is what I found. She was so tired. This is one thing I love about Claire she will fall asleep anywhere really. The best is that I can rock her to sleep. Marcella would never just cuddle up to you and go to sleep, she had to be wrapped up and but in a bed. Claire on the other hand has been my snuggle bug and I love it.

Here is Marcella lovin' her BIG bed. It was super cozy. This was Marcella's first time sleeping in a hotel, as far as we can remember. She had so much fun.

This is Marcella's friend Hallie. They sure were enjoying all the food you could get at the morning breakfast buffet. It was so yummy!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Marcella. She was having so much fun running around and looking at all the flowers. Every few seconds I would hear, "Mommy, can I please just pick one flower?" It was pretty cute.

This is one of my favorites of Claire with a bunch of Poppies behind her. When I saw all the poppies I couldn't help but think of Grandma Noni. She had so many growing every spring in the front of her house. Crazy enough it made me miss seeing them.

We are a Happy Family.

I thought this was cute and I couldn't pass up the moment to take a picture. These were animals that you could mix and match the parts to make up different or the original animals. These two had a fun time putting them all together.

This was Saturday night after we got back to the hotel. Claire was being so snuggly. This is when she really started to not feel so great, but she was a trooper and we are glad she came with us.

Last but not least. After two Great days of buffets, we ate at IHOP for Breakfast. By the time we got to the restaurant the kids and the adults for that matter were starving. Let's just say it wasn't the best meal we had the whole trip, but I think this picture was taken before all the kids had a little melt down.

No trip would be complete without a little bit of car trouble. Yep our little car made it all the way to Nephi and then decided to die. At least we were able to get it towed to a place in Orem and it only cost us $30. Thanks Spencer for coming to get us, you are awesome!
All in all we had a lot of fun over the weekend. Hope you all have a great Day!

Updates

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to the past little while. We have been having so much fun that I have put blogging on hold and I now have a billion pictures I want to put up but I don't want to bore all of you completely. So here we go...

This was on Valentine's Day. Before she could go swimming in the hot tub she had to shovel Grandpa Wallin's drive way. (Man she has the meanest parents in the world!) I seriously can't believe how much it snowed.

For Christmas Jon got one of these and he has been baking a lot of bread. All I can say is Yum!

We took an adults only ski trip to the cabin the end of Feb. Here are the guys

and here are the gals. We had so much fun skiing and eating. Thanks for coming it was a blast!

When we got home from our ski trip Claire had learned a few new tricks. She can sit up for a few minutes now and is doing awesome. I can't believe how fast she is growing!

This is what I heard today...

Marcella: Mom, I think I'm going to get a new Daddy at the store.

Jon: (a few seconds later, after he realized what she said..) WHAT?

Marcella: I am going to get a new Daddy at the store (giggle giggle)

Jon: Oh and how much is that going to cost you?

Marcella: umm 4 or 5 Bucks!

Eventful Day

After a really long day with the girls, Jon asked "What can I do?" I simply replied take Claire from me and I just need 20 minutes of "me" time. As I was handing her off, this is what happened...

The Next Day..

Claire started on solids this morning and she really liked it. Here is my "Big helper" feeding her, it was a lot of fun.

Marcella learned a new "trick." Needless to say that became "Her" juice after this morning. After we had a lot of fun painting fingernails with Hallie and best of all Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. Thanks for coming and watching Claire today, you are the Best!

This is us right before the video they show before you get to board a bus to the Draper Temple open house. Marcella has been so excited to go to the Temple. We had a lot of fun. Mom, Kristin and Andrea came with us. It was so beautiful and Marcella loved walking through. But she loved...

The bus ride most of all. She laughed the whole entire way up to the Temple and then when we were almost there she stopped laughing long enough to inform us that her husband lived in some house by the Temple. It was quite funny.

We were invited over to the Law's for dinner tonight and had a very yummy dinner of Chili and Cornbread. Then Marcella and Hallie proceeded to play while Jon and I enjoyed wonderful company. Thanks guys it was awesome!

They are so stinkin' cute!

Last but not least I was able to end my day with a little bit of singing action, which I hope I don't in trouble for posting... I hope you all enjoy. (Especially because it is taking forever to upload!!)