Trip to Naples

We spent last weekend in Naples with Titi Sette, Uncle Jay, Ellie and Tia. We left Friday night with Grandma and Grandad and had sooo much fun! We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way down (YUM!) for dinner and Grandad was so excited to find Mallow-Bars. What are Mallow- Bars, you ask?! Goodness wrapped in a little yellow wrapper. They are like Reese's Peanut Butter cups, but they are full of marshmallow cream and have coconut in the chocolate layer on top. They are delicious!

We made it to Naples late Friday night and the kids were soooo happy to see each other. Ellie and Piper were inseparable all weekend and there were quite a few tears shed on Sunday when it was time to head home. We had a really wonderful time and look forward to going back soon. We ate lots of yummy food and were able to introduce everyone to the wonderful world of Rook. We hit a great community water park on Saturday and the kids had a blast playing in all the fountains and pools. I wish we had something like that here. Best of all, I came home with a super cut haircut. Sette's sister-in-law, Jessica, cuts hair and gave an excellent cut in 25 minutes. WOW. Now I will have to go back every 6 weeks to keep up my new do.

So a wonderful weekend and I know you are all wondering where the pictures are. Well, you always forget something on a trip...duh! Next time it will be the first bag that goes into the van.

Take Me out to the Ball Game

Ian called this morning with an offer to good to turn down. He had extra tickets to see the Ray's baseball game today and the seats were right behind home plate. So we skipped out of church early and the boys (Matt, Dax, Ian and Finn) went to the game. The boys had a good time and loved all the yummy treats they gorged themselves on. This was their first baseball game. I love watching them grow up together and have these fun experiences with their Daddy's.  Even though Matt knows nothing about baseball they still had fun and a whole lot of junk food.

Early this week Amanda called and told me that Finn had filled out his "about me" sheet at school. They sat with their teacher and filled in the blanks. This is what Finn's said.

Hi my name is Finn. I am 3 years old. I like to draw circles. I live with my Mom and my Dad. I have a brother named Dax. I have a sister named Piper. I have a dog named Lulu. My favorite color is black. My favorite food is pizza.

How cute is that?! I laughed so hard and then I asked for child support. 

Goals

So I have set some goals for myself. I think it is important to write things down, that gives them power and it is right there in my face as a reminder. That works for me for the most part, but sometimes I need a bit more encouragement. So how do you feel about being my back up singers? I think everyone should have a good set of back up singers in their lives. I have some great, wonderful and amazing people in my life, but it will be easier for them to back me up if they know the song.

So here is my list....some of the goals are easy to reach and others are more lofty, but I will take encouragement wherever it is offered.

Lose 20 pounds 

Grow photography business

Go to the temple

Help Piper learn to read

Teach Dax his letters and numbers

Save more money

Read the Book of Mormon before the holidays

Be a better visiting teacher

Walk at least 5 times a week

Volunteer in Piper's classroom

Organize my house

Be a better wife, mom, friend, daughter and sister

Some of these I am happy to report are well on their way. Piper is reading like a champ these days. I am so proud and happy to watch her discover a love for reading. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love to read. The gift of reading has brought me so much joy in my life and has lead me to learn and grow in many ways. 

Dax can count to 20 most days and is an eager little student and enjoys learning new things. I am trying to do "mommy school" with him at least three times a week. Piper is a great helper in this area and is always encouraging Dax to count with her, sing his ABC's, etc. 

So, as you can see my list is not out of the realm of possibility, but at times for me  some of the goals seem that way. My voice starts to fall flat and I could really use a great band behind me. 

Skater boy

Cutest kid ever! I am so proud of my little skater boy!!

Mother Daughter Day

Two posts in one day and it is only 9:30 AM!

Saturday the stake put on a mother daughter activity. The theme was Luau Legacy and we had so much fun. We took a hula class in some really awesome pseudo hula skirts.




President Jensen gave a wonderful talk about legacies and what that means. He also talked about how our children are here on loan from our Heavenly Father and why it is so important that we help them to live up to their fullest potential in order to make it back to our Father in heaven. It was a powerful talk and made me miss my Nana so much, but also be so grateful for her legacy and the legacy that I am passing to Piper. The stake is working on a legacy quilt and all of the mom's and daughter's made a few stitches in the quilt and then put our names above our stitches. How cool is that?!

Piper after making her stitches in the Legacy Quilt


After the activity was over we had a wonderful Girl's Day with our good friends the Thayn's. We went to the mall and let the girls go hog wild in Sephora. We had so much fun, I wish I had pictures to show how hussied, um I mean gussied up we all looked! Piper picked hot pink eye shadow and boy oh boy was she working it :)

I am so thankful for my daughter. I am thankful to have been entrusted by my Heavenly Father to care for her during this time. She is my legacy.


You are all in luck! I have pictures of the fun that is Sephora...I promise that I do not normally let Piper out in public like this. Sometimes, but not usually ;)


Look at how cute these girls are

Sarah and Sarah

My guys

Last week Matt headed over to "the farm" to do some work and asked Dax if he wanted to tag along. With the allure of digging rocks out of the dirt they were off. This is the sight I saw when I picked them up.




Dax was so proud of his pile of rocks. He was covered in dirt. I love that his shirt says Dirt Mover! He was filthy and had a blast!

More Friday Fun

I meant to post more of our fun Friday pictures last week, but I got distracted with all the ouchies in our house. The kids are healing well by the way. Anyway, here are a few more pictures from last week.

Sweet Sisters


Three little monkeys



Jesse and his boo boo chin


Baby Nate

We are so happy to have found such great friends. The girls all have fun together and the boys get along great as well. And as a bonus the parents all have fun hanging out too.

Nie Nie and Mr. Nielson

This is Stephanie and Christian Nielson



They are currently in an Arizona hospital burn unit after being in a private plane crash in August. You can read more about that at Stephanie's sisters blog http://blog.cjanerun.com/

I have loved reading Stephanie's blog and having a peek into her life with her 4 beautiful children and her wonderful husband. She has helped me slow down and appreciate my life so much, even before the horrific crash. She is a loving mother, wife, sister, daughter and friend and she is loved by people all over the world how will only ever know her over the blogging world in most cases. How amazing is that?! How incredible that someone can touch and change your life is such a profound way. I am praying and fasting for this sweet family. I would encourage you to do the same.

There has not a day that has gone by since finding out about the crash that I have not thought about this family. I pray that Stephanie and Christian will be reunited with their sweet children. I pray for their four beautiful kids that they will be able to feel the love and prayers on their behalf.

Double Ouch

We decided to go on a walk with Roxy and Miss Egg. Dax and Piper were riding their razors and were a few houses ahead of us when we saw Dax go down. By the time we ran to him there was blood dripping from his nose. He said he wanted to keep riding, but about a minute later he decided it was too much for him and I took him home. This what he looks like now...


I love that even while hurting he is still giving me a smile...


He is watching Curious George now with a cool wet washcloth that he refuses to move...


Between Piper's cheek and Dax's face, people are going to think we beat our kids. We don't, I promise!

Fun Friday...

friday was so full of fun, family and friends that I did not have time to blog until now at 12:39 am on Saturday morning. it is a good thing I am an insomniac or this thing would never be updated...

our day started with taking Piper to school. She was a bit anxious to show everyone her new beauty mark, but all went well and we are happy to report she is back to feeling 100%

We came home and played with this sweet little girl


When Angela's mommy came to pick her up Dax and I went to run our errands. He is so fun and I love our one on one time together. Today as we were walking through Target he was playing with baby Stitch who goes everywhere with us, when I heard this...and he sticks the landing! Yes our very own baby Stitch is an accomplished gymnast who manages to stick his landings every time!

Before too long it was time to pick up Pi, on the way to school my good friend Sarah called and asked if I would pick up her sweet girls. I did of course and when we pulled into their driveway we decided to not drop them off and instead bring them back home to play with us for the afternoon. The kids were in heaven! They had a dance party and sang songs from Camp Rock at the tops of their lungs.






After the dance party the girls let me take their pictures outside. Now I know that Matt is the photographer of the family, but I think I got some pretty cool shots of the girls.

Here is sweet Hannah. I really love this girl and I am so glad that she is my Piper's friend. She is the type of kid you are just so happy to know. She is polite, gentle and full of a sweet spirit. Her family is so lucky to have her and we are so lucky to know her.




I am pretty proud of that picture. Here are a few that Matty took of Hannah.






Hannah has a spunky and adorable little sister named Eleanor aka Elle. She and Piper are like to peas in a pod. They are quite the little firecrackers, but I like their spunk and spirit. Elle makes me laugh and she and her sister are such wonderful friends to my sweet Pi-Pi. Elle just turned 6 and loves all things Hannah Montana. She and Mr. Matt have that in common. She let me take a few pictures of her.




Those are pretty good, but these are magnificent. It is easy to take amazing pictures when you have a beautiful subject...







OK folks, I started blogging an hour ago and could probably go for another hour. It was a really fantastic friday! But I am going to try to go to sleep before 3 am. I will continue tomorrow with more fun facts and great pictures.

Ouch...

Last night as I was enjoying my shower at 11:00 (that is my only time to shower without some little person climbing in with me) I heard one of my children crying. I knew Matt was fast asleep (the RNC was not stimulating enough to keep him awake) and I had just put shampoo in my hair. I yelled for Matt to get whoever was crying. A minute or so later Piper came into the bathroom crying and hysterical. Poor thing had thrown up and did not have time to make it to the bathroom. To add insult to injury she somehow managed to bang up the side of her face.

After getting in the shower and calming down we set her up on the "eggplant" in our room. We watched a little Hannah Montana and we all fell asleep. She stayed home today and rested and begged me to let her eat cereal. I am a mean Mom though and would only allow things that are easy to throw up to be eaten. She is pretty worried about the nasty boo boo on her face. She told me she didn't look like a beautiful princess anymore. I told her she just looked like a princess that banged up her face when she fell out of bed and puked all over the place. She didn't think that was as funny as I did.

I think she is beautiful no matter what



After showing off her new "beauty mark" she gave me a few fun poses and then went to find her cute little brother

Thanks...

Matt and Dax did some yard work this evening. The yard resembled a jungle, it was time to mow! Dax swept all the grass off of the sidewalk and the porch and had a good time hanging out with Dad. At bedtime Matt told Dax thank you for all your hard work. His reply...Thanks for not firing me. Out of the mouths of babes

Labor Day Weekend

I love three day weekends! Our was a pretty lazy and laid back weekend, just the way I like it. We spent a lot of time at Ian, Amanda and Finn's new house. We are all so happy to have them so close to us now. The kids are loving the pool and all the rooms to run and play in. Have I mentioned how awesome it is to have my best friend less than 10 minutes away?!

On Labor Day we hung out with Grandma and Grandad. We also got to see Brian and Brittan for the first time in 14 months! The girls are so much bigger and they now have an adorable baby brother named Barrett. It was nice to see everyone. The cousins were so happy to see each other and we had to tear them apart when it was time to go. Piper really wanted to stow away in their car and head to Inverness, but we made her stay with us. We are really mean parents.