Utah, we sure had a blast!

After these girls finished letting me take some pictures of them Sunday the 19th we hoped in the car and started our 24 hour drive to Utah. My friend Deidra came with us and seriously made it possible for me to go. Thanks so much! I will admit that I was so surprised at how good the girls were. You two are Amazing! (side note: Marcella told me I say Awesome way to much and I needed to think of a different word. She told me Amazing was much better.... so enjoy my new word. ;))

On our trip we played with and saw a lot of cousins.
(I know that when you get to the end of this post you will think seriously, she took a ton of pictures, but as I was posting this I realized I didn't take as many as I should have. I didn't get any of Rosalee and the boys, which were so nice to make the trek from Provo to come and hang out with us. Thanks guys, it was sure fun to see you. I also didn't get pictures of half of Jon's family. I think next time I come I will just bring someone to take pictures for me.)

I was able to hang out with these wonderful girls. Thank you so much for the good times ladies. I sure love you!

Marcella and Hallie were able to play and I don't think there were two happier girls.


My friend Megan took some pictures of me and the girls. I love them Megan! Thank you so much.

(How many Marshmallows did it take Laurissa before she actually got to eat one?)
Caroline arranged an AMAZING party. It was so fun and yummy! Just thinking about it makes me hungry.

Grandpa came home from working in Wyoming and Marcella spent the day helping in the garden. They had to get on the roof to check to see if the grapes had turned to Raisins.

We had so much fun with the Grandparents. Which is the whole reason we came out. Marcella missed them so bad.

We went to Thanksgiving Point to celebrate Gavin's birthday. Marcella got put in jail.

When we got home I asked Marcella what one of her favorite things we did was and she said swimming at Uncle Nathan's pool. Her and Nathan hung out a lot. They had so much fun together. It reminded me a lot of when my uncle would come in town and just hang out with me and my brothers. Good times.

We made it to our favorite place on earth, the cabin. Thanks to Caroline and Jeff for taking us up there. On Friday we decided to head on up to Yellowstone. We had a lot of fun at Yellowstone Lake. It is my favorite spot in Yellowstone and the upside was it was actually warm enough for the kids to play in it.

Watch out Miriam we might have another rock lover on our hands.

These two look so grown up I just can't believe it.

Our last day in Utah we went to Gardner Village to see the witches. It was so much fun. Thanks to everyone for coming.

Well, I have been home for a week now, and I still have things to unpack. We were very glad to get back, the drive was killing us, but we would do it again to see you wonderful folks. Thanks again everyone we had an AMAZING time!

5 years ago today,

I held you for the first time.

I never imagined what we would go through your first year of life.

Then before I knew it, you were 2,

busy Kissing bugs,

and being so stinkin' cute I could just eat you up!

At 3 you were All grown up.

Daddy Daughter Dates now consisted of Chinese food and movies instead of chicken nuggets and fries.

At 4 I just cried.

Now that you are 5 I want to tell you,

I'll be your Best Friend Forever and I LOVE YOU!!
Happy Birthday Marcella Bella Mia.

Dear Claire,

Tomorrow I will beat you at your own game.

Love, Mom

Date Night

and no I am not talking about this movie...

(wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, but not too bad)

Jon and I actually went on a date on Friday and had a fantastic time. I thought that when we moved out here it would be a long time before I would feel comfortable leaving my kids with people I hardly even knew. Just as everyone told me, I made friends in the ward fast and I have been reaping the rewards. So we hopped on the Vespa and headed to the movie theater.

We saw Inception. Which we would highly recommend seeing, although I am still a little nervous to fall asleep at night who knows what is going on in my dreams....

Other weekend news..

Claire had her first ice cream cone. The verdict....

She loved it.

Just a couple of "peeks" at the projects I have been working on. Hope your weekend was as great as mine.

Help! I can't keep up with a TWO year old!

She is planning her next move.... Watch out Mom, it is going to be good!

Seriously...this morning I was woken out of my peaceful slumber to Claire screaming her guts out. Don't be confused by her normal "screams," which usually just allows me to keep her in her crib until a reasonable hour, when I will calmly get her out and start my day. No. Today, as I was tripping over my feet and bumping into walls in my rush to get to her I thought, oh no, she has learned how to climb out of her crib and has gotten hurt. When I flipped on the light to survey the damage... What to my wondering eye should appear (or should I say hear)? "Haaaaiiii! giggle giggle giggle." Whenever you get Claire up in the morning she will say to Hi to just about anything and it isn't just her normal hi hi. It is a high pitched drawn out HHHHHHHIIIIIIII! that makes you want to say it back. Most of the time it is my favorite thing to hear in the morning, it just makes you smile. But when it is still dark outside.... come on Claire, you are suppose to be sleeping!!!

This would be Claire right now. I was able to get her to hold still long enough so I can remember this moment. I will then proceed to let you know everything she has done in the past 40 minutes. She sat in her high chair for 15 minutes eating her breakfast, which only resulted in her plate being chucked across the room when she was done. So far today is going to be a great one. (if you want, we can chat about the applesauce incident the other day... not such a great day.) When she was eating I kept saying, Kanien you can do this today. You can be one step ahead of this child. You can control your reactions, etc., etc. Gotta love pep talks. After getting her down from her high chair I could see that in her eyes she was saying... watch out Mom you are in for it today. Well here goes nothing: in no particular order this is how Claire has spent her last 25 minutes

* Got into the dishwasher, almost dropped a plate
* Started the dishwasher... TWICE!
*dumped out the bag of junk I just brought in from the car
*pulled all of her toys off the bookshelf
*somehow managed to mess up my tape player/recording, don't ask, but seriously child.
*opened a bunch of DVD's and almost got them out (chalk up one point for me being able to stop her before she scored.)
*Got into the closet, let's just say I am glad I can shut the door
*learned how to open the door to get into the garage.. WHAT???
*Played in the bathroom and under the bathroom sink

and when I sat down to do this post she had just started dumping out every game in the game closet that is within her little reach and is ringing a bell... "ding ding ding, i am the winner!"
You may ask so what were you doing this whole time? Where was the parent? You can admit it if you were feeling a little judgmental, but honestly I am still waking up as I am typing this and I was one step right..... Behind her.

As we speak I can hear her little footprints upstairs, yes she is in my bathroom, do I even want to know what she is doing in there??? What I would like to know is what were you doing @ 6:30 this morning?

Something old into something new

Do you remember this picture? After you get over how young we look and how crazy it is to think it was only 4 years ago, I want you to check out Jon's shirt. I was so excited when we found it. I had everything planned out and I wanted him to wear a shirt just like that, and I actually found one. Only problem, the sleeves shrunk so unless he rolled it up he looked like an 11 year old church boy. (Yes you can picture them right now... the pants are just a little too short and you can see a little more wrist than should really be allowed.) Jump a few years and this little one has been busy lately.

We decided to learn how to make some french bread and although it doesn't have that beautiful crunchy, singing sound, we still enjoy it. This is the one she made. It looked amazing. It was better than mine so we took that one over to the neighbors (baker in the making).

Marcella found this fuzzy guy a few weeks ago. We put him in a jar and decided he was lonely so we found another one. They have been living with us now for 3 weeks. They both have spun a cocoon and we were anxiously waiting for them to come out so we could see what type of Butterfly it was.. Well...


Out he came and it turns out our little pet was a moth. At least it was a pretty one.

After my last post I decided I really needed to buckle down and get on the ball. For about a year now I have been putting things in my bookmark folder. The other day I decided it was time. I needed to start sewing again and instead of saying, "oh I would love to make that," I needed to take some action. FIRST things FIRST.... how can anyone sew in a room like this? Oh wait, before I can even begin cleaning I need this to be taking place....

Don't be fooled. She was the sole reason the above room looked the way it did. Let's just say I had my hands full that day, and I was a bit relieved to put her down for a nap.

After cleaning and then making a few adjustments to a pattern I just went for it. In the end I am so glad I did and I have been stuck in my sewing room ever since. I will show you a few other projects soon, I promise. Hope you enjoy the fashion show....









Recognize this? Do you think it looks better on Jon or Marcella? Hope you all have a fabulous Labor Day.