Typical Day

This is a typical day in our household . . . for now.

7:30 wake up, eat breakfast with the kids 8:00 feed baby 8:10 make sack lunch, get backpacks ready to go, comb kids' hair 8:30 kids to bus stop, clean up kitchen, load dishwasher, throw in a batch of laundry 9:00 put movie on for Weston, sit down to fold laundry 9:30 jump online and check email, chat with a few friends on facebook, make plans to meet at the park Fri 9:45 switch laundry, settle a screaming baby, call for an eye appt for Colton, clean out junk drawer while on phone 10:00 start sorting coupons 10:30 put on another movie for Weston 10:47 put coupons away, feed baby, put him down for a nap 11:00 jump in shower & get ready 12:25 pick up Colton from bus stop 12:35 come home, drop Colton off, talk with my mom, head out door 12:45 run to Albertsons for cheese, too much money, run to Costco instead. 1:05 get to the elementary school, listen to Payton's report, go home 1:30 chat with mom, fold more laundry 2:00 make lunch for myself 2:15 review bills, write a few checks 2:20 feed/change baby, get baby dressed 2:30 back to bills 3:00 finish with bills, do invoicing now 3:45 head back down to bus stop to get Payton, Brooklyn 4:00 take Brooklyn home, come home to dress Weston, gather my camera, get mail, pull meat out for dinner 4:30 get kids in car, drive into town, take pictures 5:30 get home, feed baby, start dinner with Kyle, go through kids' backpacks 6:30 dinner finished, set table, call kids in 6:40 eat dinner, visit with kids about the day, discuss plans for tomorrow 7:10 me and kyle clean kitchen, kids gets in shower 7:30 Colton and Kyle read together, Payton and I work on homework 8:00 Payton reads to me while Kyle gets Weston ready for bed 8:30 send older kids to bed, feed baby, get him ready for bed 9:15 put Breckon in crib, get Weston in bed, watch CSI from dvr with Kyle 10:00 go to sleep

No wonder why I always feel exhausted and crazy.

Gratitude

It seems like lately I have been in a somber mood, but as Thanksgiving rapidly approaches I can't help but sit and reflect upon the many blessings I have been given in my life. I am especially grateful for my hubby who always seems to find a way to make light (of what seems like hundreds) of precarious situations we find ourselves dealing with. He finds a way to make sense of everything and always has a positive attitude. If it wasn't for him, I would probably be in a mental institution by now. I am grateful for my children and that each one of them are healthy and thriving. And last but not least, grateful for our extended family (especially my parents). You have helped us out in more ways than one and numberous times!!

I don't know where the road of life will take us one year from now or even six months from now, whether we will still be living in the same house or even have the same occupation, but I do know one thing. All that really matters is my family. And as the saying on my wall reads, "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all" says it all for me and nothing else matters.

Growin' like a Weed

It's hard for me to believe that this little guy is already six months old. It doesn't seem possible. He is such a sweet little baby and is so easy going. He is very close to crawling, thinks the world of Colton and lights up whenever he sees him, loves being on his belly, has such a funny laugh, has the cutest little dimple below his left eye when he either smiles or cries, sleeps through the night, and loves to play pat-a-cake. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this little man and what adventures may follow him.

Dixie Roundup

Over the weekend we attended the Dixie Roundup. Colton had been waiting the whole year for "his" rodeo to come back. We got to see Cody Wright ride Friday night, which Colton loved. Saturday night a storm blew in and kind of caught us off guard. We had no jackets or blankets and were just stuck dealing with the elements - until the kind people who were sitting in front of us shared their blankets with the boy to keep them out of the rain as much as possible until it passed. By the nights' end we had three children asleep on us; everyone except Colton . . . who was too busy enjoying himself.

picking peaches

As a family, we were given the opportunity to pick some peaches in New Harmony a few weeks ago. The kids had so much fun doing so. I think they ended up eating more than they picked that day. When all was said and done I ended up with six boxes of peaches to can. And after spending one long week, I ended up with over 50 bottles of peaches and 12 pints of jam. . yummy!!

As we were picking, we could hear the constant hum of the helicopters that were being used to battle the Mill Flat fire as they would fly overhead to and from Pine Valley. I, for one, have never been a fan of "controlled burns" and quite frankly, I'm against them. And after seeing just a small portion of the destruction that day it just reaffirmed my position. That fire never had to happen and should have never happened. It started as a lightening strike to one tree on Pine Valley and instead of easily putting it out that day, the decision was made to just let it burn. And as you can tell, nothing good came from it. After all is said and done it destroyed over 12 thousand acres and cost a staggering 6 million dollars. What a shame.

Time for an Update

Ok. I know it has been a long time since I have posted and tons of things have happened between now and then. There have been things that I have wanted to blog about, but haven't because of photo reasons. Between May and now I have taken thousands (almost three to be exact) of photos, but have never really had the time to organize them all. So as I filled up a card, I would upload it to my laptop without ever sorting through them. Now I have a mess of pictures to go through. I am hoping now with the kids in school I will actually have some time to myself during the day which will give me a chance to sit down and start to actually organize and sort through all those pics. So I am hoping to update every week. . . . we'll see what happens.

First Day of School

Well, school has officially started and this year I have two kids in Elementary School (which seems crazy to me). Payton is in second grade this year and is loving his teacher, and Colton has Miss. Tobler for kindergarten. He goes in the morning which works out really well for our schedule. He gets to ride the bus in the morning with Payton and then is on his own riding the bus back home in the afternoon. Our only issue is that the ride home is extremely long and I am in the process of trying to change that. It can be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes (and we only live two miles away). So far, the school district has only allowed one bus for all kindergarteners.

unwanted guest

Since our house backs the wash, it isn't unusual for us to see wildlife on ocassion. But this is the first time (that we know of) we have had a snake in the backyard. I went outside tonight with the kids to watch them do tricks on the tramp when Colton started yelling "snake . . . there's a snake down here . . . . it's a snake". So I had to go investigate. Sure enough, he was right. And I'll be leavin' him right where he's at for Kyle to rescue.

is it that time of year?

I can't believe it is that time of year again! To me, it seems like summer started just a few weeks ago. We've been busy the last couple of days gathering supplies, buying shoes, trying on clothes, and scheduling hair cuts. Can't you almost smell the crayons?

Thanks Aunt Lis

On Saturday Breckon and I had the opportunity to participate in a little seminar my aunt was teaching, and I got to speak a little bit on infant development. Not knowing what to expect, I pretty much just went into it blind. All in all, it ended up being fine and I was glad to be able to help her out. So as a little thank-you gift, she gave me lots of play-dough tools and a silly songs CD. The kids love the tools and we have done play-dough almost every day since. So thank you lis. . . . they are being put to good use.

randoms from our trip

As we were getting ready to leave the aquarium I noticed an old-school photo booth in the back corner. Now rewind just a few years; back in high school when we were dating, every once in a while we would hop in the photo booth that used to be in the mall by the pay phones and take some photos of just the two of us. So after Kyle and I laughed about that for a while, I thought it would be funny to see if we could cram everyone in there for a little "family photo".

day three

Before checking out of our motel at noon, we decided to let the kids go swimming one last time after breakfast was over with. Then somewhere around noon we went to Wheeler Farm. To say the least, I was disappointed. At one end of the farm there was a wedding and they had it all roped off. At the other end of the farm was a University of Utah donor party so that section was all roped off too. We were very limited as to where we could go. And because of these events, they weren't doing the wagon rides (which Colton really wanted to go on) and they don't milk the cows until 5 p.m. So after spending just a short time here we headed south, only having to stop once, in Fillmore. The baby did so good. I really could not have asked for him to be any better. He hardly ever made a sound and just went along with the flow, which made the trip that much more enjoyable for me.

day two - afternoon

After the zoo we decided to hang around the motel for a while so Breckon could get in a decent nap. The kids and I went swimming for a couple of hours and Kyle hung out back at the room with Breckon.

That evening we went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. Here we got to see lots of aquatic animals, fish native to Utah, and animals that would be found in the Amazon (including a HUGE anaconda snake). Everyone of us got the chance to touch sting rays, a couple different kinds of star fish, and horse shoe crabs.

Once we were through with the Aquarium, it was back to the motel for more swimming.

day two

We got up early, ate breakfast at the motel, and then headed to the zoo. I was grateful for the cloud cover and breeze which made being outside all day bearable (we were there from 10 a.m. to 4 o'clock). Weston LOVED looking at all the monkeys and probably could have spent all day doing that. We also got to ride on the carousel at the zoo. The best part was seeing the baby giraffe, which was born not even 24 hours prior to our visit. This is where we spent most of our time.

mini vacation - day one

During the last week of July we took the kids to Salt Lake City for a little vacation before school starts. Our first stop was the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The kids LOVED looking at all the dinosaur bones and exhibits. In here they have a ton of hands-on things for kids which made it that much more enjoyable for my boys. We also even took the time to watch a 3D movie on the XanGo Mammoth Screen, which if I could have taken a picture with everyone in there wearing their 3D glasses would have been priceless. They are the funniest glasses I have ever seen. After we had gotten our fill of bones and skeletons, we checked into our motel (Residence Inn, I would recommend it to anyone) in Sandy. Thanks to Jen, we were able to get a SMOKIN' deal on our room. I got to thinkin too; this was the first time we had stayed in a motel room since Colton was 10 months old. And he just turned five. . . so it was time. Anytime we would leave our room all three of my boys would run as fast as they could down the hall. It took me back MANY years watching them, because that is exactly what me and my little sister would do when we were younger. Later that night we went over to Ross and Carylee's house for some yummy bbq and then it was swimming at the motel until about 11 o'clock.

best $1.00 ever spent

Nothing tastes as good as a sno cone on a hot summer day. It is one of our favorite treats and is money well spent!!

Beaver Mountain

Over the weekend we decided to escape the heat and went up to Beaver Mountain. It was good to get away for a while and turn the kids loose. We saw lots of wildlife, more than I have ever seen up there; tons of elk and deer (deer would walk right through our camp), two baby porcupines, chipmunks, and big horn sheep. The weather was perfect; probably a 30 degree difference than what we are used to dealing with, and it felt so nice. The baby had a rough couple of days but then adjusted. It's just too bad we couldn't have stayed longer. The whole way home Weston kept saying, "Can we go back to camp now?"

photoshop class

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this photoshop class on the internet and figured I had nothing to lose by taking it. Needless to say, I have learned a lot and am super glad that I decided to do it. It has been so much fun going through my pictures and watching them transform. Who knows, maybe one day I'll even end up making a "digital" scrapbook! (ha ha)