What we do

So here are some random pictures of things we have done in the last several months:

We grew some peppers. They were labeled as green bell peppers and yellow bell peppers, but they grew into green anahiem peppers lol. It's all good they went really well in our pico...yum

Sofia is tall enough to reach the pedals on this awesome bike that we have had for 10 years. She is the only one of my kids to have long enough legs to reach them before they were 4. Shes only 2 1/2.

Carter graduated from Miss Becky's Little Learners Preschool! So proud of my little man

We wore matching shirts in Disneyland and got so many compliments cuz they were awesome ;-)

Jeff took the girls to the Daddy Daughter Dance at the school. Don't they look cute in there matching outfits? And I got to go and help out so I didn't miss out on any of the cuteness.

So, there you have it...random pics.

4th of July

We had an awesome holiday :) We started the day with a drive up Butterfield Canyon. It is amazingly beautiful, one day when I am a better biker I will have to ride up it on the bike. But that is far far in  the future lol.

 These two were having so much fun on the drive, it was cracking me up just listening to their stories and games. And of course Sofia has to cheese it up when ever there is a camera around! Silly girl.

 We ended up at Stansburry Island to see the Great Salt Lake up close. It's salty, and pink. The beach is completely crusted in salt at this spot and we could see the little brine shrimp swimming around, and of course the brine flies. The kids had fun sampling the salt (I know that is really really gross, but they did it before I noticed what they were doing.)

 As we walked on the beach our feet would break through the crusted salt into little pools of water. Luckily no one got too wet, although Carter had a couple of close calls with the lake.

 Playing in the salt and sand. The plants all around the lake were crusted in salt, making beautiful little crystal statues.

 Then home for a bath and a BBQ. I really really like hot dogs, I know whats in them and yet I still love 'em...go figure.

Then over to the neighbors to play and watch fireworks. Jeff got a ton of free fireworks from work, including some great ariels. As we were lighting the big ones off the fire marshal drove by...right next to them as they started to go off...oops :) We had an awesome 4th of July! Hope you all did too!!

Pizza and Running...Seriously?!?!

Jeff called yesterday with a great dinner idea...homemade pizza. Yummy :) He even offered to make it for us, even better!! I did make the dough up before he came home just to speed things up (I am not known for my patience when it comes to waiting for food..think "little shop of horrors" Feed me!) It turned out awesome, cuz Jeff has major pizza skills.


Then he had the extra awesome idea to go running. To be perfectly honest the running was my idea ..for him. I thought he should go running, and he thought I should go with him. He won, I went with him, and it was hard lol. I feel I should mention that I did Zumba for over an hour yesterday morning, which is why I didn't want to run. Plus running after pizza is not my idea of a good time! But I am glad we did it seeing as we have a mud run in 2 weeks and we want to be awesome for that (hehehe).

So here is a weekly recap on the triathlon training:
Running: 9 miles
Bike: 10 (hope to go 9 more tonight)
Swim: not this week, I had to work
Zumba: 70 minutes

Fun Monday

We had such a fun and busy Monday! I had a dentist appt first thing in the morning so the kids had to come with me, but it was quick. When we were done we decided we wanted to go to 7 Peaks for some water fun :) I was unsure of how well this was going to work without Jeff, but we did great.

Check out those cute water babies :) And try to ignore the butt in the background lol!!

I don't think I have mastered the "take your own picture" technique yet. Guess I will have to work on that some more. We were eating lunch under some shaddy trees and Sofia was LOVING the bologna!

Sofia fell asleep sitting upright with her lifejacket on sitting at the bottom of the waterslides waiting for the big girls. A lady walking by tapped my shoulder and told me that she was asleep sitting up, I hadn't noticed LOL. What a sweetie pie, so I held her and watched Cater and the girls play for a little while longer. Then we had to go home because my arms were falling asleep.

Then we got cleaned up and the girls got to go to Volleyball camp. They were so excited, this is the first camp we have ever done. They did great, and had such a good time. Syd even ended up with a battle wound that she is very very proud of. She sprained her pinky finger. I was going to tape it up on my own but she was so swollen that I wanted an x-ray just to be sure we hadn't broken it. She's one tough cookie, she can't wait to go back to camp Tuesday.

Sunday Sunday

I love Sundays, especially now that we have 9am church for the first time in about 8 years. I know you think I am crazy. However, some of my children are early risers so I don't get to sleep in anyway, and early church gives me time for a nap in the afternoon while Jeff plays video games with the kids. I will take a nap over sleeping in anyday!!

 We made yummy chocolate dipped strawberries today :) love chocolate dipped fruit of any kind!

 Drank me bunches of Diet Dr Pepper. I would probably lose weight if I ditched the chocolate dipped fruit and the diet soda, but I'm not sure life would be worth living. *sigh* Anyone else have an addiction like that??

 My big girls. Squid couldn't stop eating the strawberries long enough for a picture haha she takes after me like that. I think I'm going to put B in Volleyball camp this week. The fact that my kids are old enough for sports camps makes me feel old!

These two have new names today. This is daddy spy and baby spy, and in case you are wondering, they are very extremly strong and amazing. They took a map downstairs to take them through "dangerous worlds full of evil boobytraps and scary badguys." (according to CJ) Don't worry they made it out allright, they even managed to save the princess and get the treasure (which looked an awful lot like chocolate covered strawberries).

8 weeks to go!!

8 weeks from today I will be doing the TRIATHAMOM triathlon!

I have such a fun group of ladies to train with, which makes heading out to do a big workout so much easier than if I'm going on my own. Today we decided to do a full brick workout. We swam for 30 min, I went about 1000yards, biked 8.6 miles and ran for right around 35 min, I ran 2.25 miles. Ok I ran walked 2.25 miles (lots of walking). I am a super slow runner right now, but I don't let that bother me I try and remember that I am faster today than I was 6 weeks ago. I just keep in mind that I once ran a 5k in 32 min, and if I did it once I can do it again.

I also got some great coaching on my stroke today. A masters class was going on and Becky (the coach) was super nice about giving some advice even though we didn't technically sign up for her class. I ended up swimming my last 100 meters way faster and easier than the first 900. Where has Becky been all my life?!? The woman had great advice, unfortunatly now that I know about her I will have to make an effort to get my butt out of bed to make it to her 6am class sometime during the week. I feel like I could learn so much from her and really improve my form. YAY! That makes me really happy :) Now if I only had Lisa up here to motivate me to run faster.

My super awesome sister sent me a text yesterday telling me that she killed my 3 mile run time by a lot. How did she do it you ask? Well she simply pictured me running beside her and then thought about kicking my butt! :) Love that girl!! So today I pictured myself running with her...and getting my butt kicked LOL!

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland! It was awesome, I'm just like a little kid when it comes to this place :)

 Our new favorite Disneyland spot. Its in California Adventure there are rope swings and a huge rope bridge and trail area. The kids loved it, they would have stayed for hours but we were trying to get over to our spot to see World of Color so we couldn't stay too long. Abbi says we have to go back just to spend more time there.

 Hanging out with Pluto. We saw a lot of random characters this time, like Gepetto and Pinoccio and Jake from the Neverland Pirates (who loved the fact that all my kids had some sort of skulls on their shirts). We figured out thats because they want you to spend money on Character dining to see lots of the good characters. We did get to see a few princesses, but next time we go we will invest in some character dining so we can see them all without waiting for hours in line :)

 Abbi and Syd trying to pull the sword from the stone. I love Fantasyland! Sydney made me run her through the crowds to get that hat. We were waiting for a parade and she decided that she needed it right then and there. She is very single minded like that lol. So we raced through the streets of Disneyland to get the hats and be back in time for the parade. I am happy to say we made it!

 The kids were thrilled to see Stitch. Sofia is out of camera view sleeping in her stroller...that kid can sleep through anything. She even fell asleep one night in the middle of Pirates of the Carribean. We probably kept her up too late and running too long lol. Good thing she and Carter are such good kids (and the big girls too of course), we didn't have a single temper tantrum the whole trip even though we missed naps and ran hard all day long.

 Mickeys Fun Wheel looks awesome all lit up, good thing too because it was all we had to look at while we waited for World of Color to start. I almost left because the crowd and wait were killing me, but Jeff assured me it would be worth it...and it TOTALLY was :0) It was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen.

We were so lucky to be able to go to Disneyland this spring. We have been saving our pennies forever :) It was Sofia and Carters first time, they were so excited. Heck, I was so excited! And now in every prayer she gives Sofia prays to "please let us save more monies in our pockets so we can go back to Disneyland"

TriathaMOM

I have wanted to do a triathlon for years. It's been this little nagging thought in the back of my brain that I could never quite get rid of. I have had 5 years of really great excuses, my kids are to little, I don't have enough time, mom was sick and I was traveling and this last year I was PTA president and started working more often. But despite all of that a couple of months ago I decided that now was the time, I was going to take the plunge and do the TriathaMOM.

GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! That pretty much sums up how I felt after I signed up. But these last few months have been an awesome experience. I have learned so much about myself. I even joined a couple of different triathlon training groups, one of them made up of women right in my own neighborhood who are training for the same triathlon as myself. Talk about awesome support :) and the other group is full of every level of athlete from beginner to pro card holding ironwomen.

So August 18th is the big day, but with the way I'm going I might have to sign up for one in July :)

So In January I lost 10 pounds and I won a treadmill. Thats what got me thinking I could do a triathlon...I figured if I could do that I could use that same determination to do a triathlon. Guess I should thank Melanie for the inspiration :)

Valentines Day!

SO we had a great V-day! Did I take pics? NO! Do I ever take pics? Nope, its in my DNA apparently to always forget to use the camera.

Oh well I can still tell you all about it :) We had a fancy candlelight dinner for 6. We all celebrated together! It was so cute. I put on the nice tablecloth, red heart napkins, and the candlesticks. We even used our glass goblets. (K they are from the dollarstore so thats not really as cool as it sounds) I set the table and lit the candles and put a valentine on each of the kids places. They LOVED it. And we didn't even knock over the candles and light the house on fire.

And no one died, which sounds morbid, but could have happend. First Sydney choked on a piece of sausage. She managed to help herself, but geesh kid smaller bites. Then 2 minutes later Carter tried to swallow a chunck of chicken without chewing! He even started turning shades of blue, but never fear Jeff got it out and he was fine. But SERIOUSLY kids!!! who taught you how to eat?!?!

On Saturday we made chocolate drizzled rice crispy treats for Jeff and my primary class. We also gave some to our own kiddos so they thought that was pretty neat. I just love my cute little family, and my completely wonderful husband. I am so lucky and blessed to have them.

3:33 pm

Sofia watching the pony rides at Thanksgiving Point.

Playing at the Dinosaur Museum.

Rockhounding yes I said rockhounding, as in really looking for rocks. I know, I know! But they really love it.

Hamburger night! A favorite at our house!!

Monday thru Thursday my girls walk through the front door at 3:33 pm like clockwork. And by 3:50 my house is a disaster area, backpacks, shoes, socks, papers, toys they couldn't wait to play with, snack crumbs and probably spilled water juice or milk. By 5:35 when Jeff walks through the front door we generally have it mostly back in order, but by 8:00 I am wondering why I bothered, and we do the clean up thing yet again. (SIGH!) The kids go to bed and I pick up some more, do some deep cleaning and go to bed. (Those sweet girls can mess things up even after they are in bed :) In the morning by the time they walk out the door I am looking around and wondering how we can do so much damage in so short a time.

And yet I find myself at the window by 3:30, waiting in excited anticipation, for my little tornados to return to start the cycle all over again. Its funny what being the mom does to you. I wouldn't trade a minute of the craziness......even for a house that stayed clean longer than 5 minutes.

I am so GRATEFUL to be a mom, and so happy I have my four little whirlwinds!!

Pictures with Santa

Every year it seems like I end up with less than perfect pictures of my children and Santa. It doesn't bother me though. I feel like this is just one of those things that my family will always be known for...bad pictures. We have bad pics of us everywhere. Someone not looking at the camera, someone not smiling, or more often than not someone has a big stain on their shirt or smear of something on their face. Oh wells...right?!?! Like I said this doesn't bother me. Half the time we don't even do their hair before taking the picture. I like to think that this means I am laid back and relaxed, that I must spend time on the important things in life (and only a little lazy) Still I treasure all of my imperfect photos because they really capture what we are like any given day, and not what I WISH we were like on any given day.

Blue Sky Please!

It's official, the thing I miss about St. George the most is the blue sky. I have an amazing view out of my kitchen windows and from my little deck, but what good does it do me when there is so much haze I can't even see the mountains. I was really spoiled living in St. George all those years. I just took it for granted that the sky was blue everywhere. Well it isn't, up here in good ol' West Jordan, the sky is grey for at least half the year. Plus the sky up here is broken, it keeps on leaking white stuff.

A food blog

I have a couple of hard and fast blogging rules. One of them is that I do not blog about food, the reason, I don't want people to think "well, no wonder she is fat!" But I am throwing that rule out the window today because I might be officially obsessed. There are two things that I just can't seem to get enough of right now.


The first is this Pineapple black bean dip. Jeff found the recipe in "The Friend" magazine a year or so ago, and I just can't seem to get enough of it lately. I made it Saturday night and had to make another batch last night cuz I ate it all and couldn't get through the day without some more of it. Bad I know! However, I am going to give myself some credit for all of the fiber. Plus all of the ingredients are healthy, I'm just not sure it counts to eat my healthy ingrediants on fried chips.

The second is Pumpkin Cheesecake. I needed a new recipe for piefest and that was it. It is really easy to make and really great to eat. But once again, a recipe with 5 or 6 Tbls of butter and a couple packages of creamcheese should be eaten in moderation. (For the record although I know the definition of moderation I generally don't use it in my daily life)


I am really hoping that this post will work the same way as getting a song out of your head. If I sing the song to you and you get it stuck in your head maybe it will stay out of mine. Same theory with sharing the recipes. Hopefully someone else will become obsessed and they will get out of my head ;)

Pineapple and Blackbean Salsa

1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatos with cilantro and lime juice
1 can corn (Jeff likes the super sweet variety)
about 16 ounce of crushed pineapple or pineapple tidbits drained (this is a texture decision)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup Italian dressing


Mix, chill, tasted best the next day.



Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 sleeve of graham crackers crushed into tiny pieces
5 or 6Tbls of butter melted
1/4 cup sugar
Mix together and press up 2/3rds sides and bottom of 9 in pie pan


2 8oz pakages of cream cheese room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs room temp
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cloves
or 3/4 to 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

First cream together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla until smooooooth. Add in eggs one at a time. Spread one cup of the batter over the crust. To the rest of the batter add remaining ingrediants, stir gently. Smooth over the plain batter. Bake at 325 for 35-40 min until the center is almost but not quite set. turn off oven, open door let cool for approx 1 hour in oven. Remove from oven and put on counter to continue cooling. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, top with whip cream and enjoy!

Ahh, hopefully this post will curb my enthusiasm for these yummy treats.

Someone hit the grumpy button...

And I don't like it!! I am now convinced that kids have grumpy switches. I am not sure where they are located or how I am supposed to turn them on or off, but they are there. And someone hit both Carters and Sofias today. W-O-W!!!! Double whammy. They were fine in the tub before church, we had a good time bathing and getting dressed, but then things started going downhill...rapidly. Church was a nightmare, getting changed after church was a nightmare, and now waiting for dinner, a nightmare. Im currently ignoring grumpy gus 1 and grumpier gus 2 but I bet Jeff won't let me for long. All I can say is "Please Please Please flip the switch...soon!!"

Funnest Thing We Did This Summer...

We went to Cascade Springs to hike and also went fishing at Tibble Fork Reservore. It was BEAUTIFUL! I don't have very good pictures but I am going again this summer because Cascade Springs is amazing so I will get more then. The girls love fishing. We suck at it, and having never caught a fish I find it very very boring ( I did catch a fish at the golf course once, but thats another story and I dont count those fish because they are golf course fish and not wild fish). They have their little poles and little tackle boxes, they get jeff to bait their hooks and I get to stand back as they cast. Dangerous...of course, but apparently they will eventually get the hang of it. This is also the trip that I messed up my ankle on, stupid paved trails! 5 months later and I am still trying to recover

We all knew...

that this day would have to come sooner or later, and it finally arrived. This was the first time that Abigail got to stay up to watch a movie with mom and dad, and Syd had to go to bed. They have done basically everything together since Syd was born, same bed times, same movies, same computer games and tv time. But we all know that eventually there is a shift in the dynamic and suddenly Abbi is big enough to do things that Syd just isn't ready for. Tonight we got to watch the Sorcerers Apprentice (good movie by the way). We started it a little late and Syd wasn't really interested anyway(good thing cuz she wasn't going to get to watch it anyway) so she was downstairs reading. But at bedtime when I went to turn off her light and kiss her goodnight she was a little miffed that Abbi wasn't down there with her (They have always shared a room). Well, there were a few tears but she came through it all right.

But Mommy...not so much. This feels a little like the begining of the end. My baby girl is growing up, and with that comes all sorts of things that I would rather not think about. (boys, dating, cars, trying to look mature and spending hours on the phone, the phrase "Id rather be texting) All these things and more are enough to keep me up at night, and prompt jeff to buy a lock for her door and a big stick to keep those boys away.

But I guess thats just how it goes, little girls grow up, and young mommys turn into old mommys. (Not that I plan on letting that happen to me! :)

Sofia

So my little munchkin is finally walking. Shes been trying for months to get it down but without much success. I think she was being chicken, which would be ironic considering that she is pretty much fearless in her exploring. But yesterday I pulled out a little toy for her to walk behind as she pushed it and off she went. She played with that thing for nearly 2 hours and then at the end of it all she took off on her own. I love it. The first few days of careful toddleing are so much fun. I am sure that in a few weeks I will be wanting her to slow back down...but for now I think I will just enjoy it.

oldies but goodies

So these are a bunch of random pics that I should have posted long ago, months and years ago. But as we all know I am not a good blogger. I always post that I am going to be better and I almost always believe it.....but time has proven me wrong. But at least I can enjoy this tonight, just don't expect too much from me.



Sledding last November, it was great and we all had fun. Well Carter did not have fun, "Snow is toooooo slippy mommy"

My kids love to play with the camera. They can take dozens and dozens of pictures in a single sitting. They take turns and pose and set up shots of us all. Good thing for digital cameras.

This is little Sydneys turn at using the camera. She set us all up and gave us all sorts of instructions. So much fun to play with my kiddos.

And this one is just because. Syd was maybe three, and she really really liked CHEERIOS. We basically got these faces with every bite. In case you can't tell this is a look of sheer delite. :)

This is not a mistake...

I really am posting on my blog. SHOCKING!!! Not that anyone even checks in anymore, and I don't blame you. But I am posting this so I don't go a whole year without posting (So sad). We are doing great in the great white north, especially now that the snow is melted and the sun is coming out. Lots has happened in the last year. Obviously we moved out of sunny St. George, we have a new baby (only she isn't new anymore she is now 5 months old) Her name is Sofia Elizabeth. I would feel bad about not having a picture right now, but she looks just like all my other kids. :) Actually Lisa took some super fun pics of us all over Easter and I can't wait to post them. Abbi is now in 2nd grade, she was baptised in December and is now going to achievment days. shes getting all grown up. Syd is 5 and will start kindergarden in a couple of months. She can't wait, and to get ready she has taught herself how to read, write, and add, also to count by 2s and 10s and she is working on 5s so shes not behind. I can't convince her that you don't need to know it alll the first day, they teach you as you go. Carter is a bundle of energy, boys just come different. He loves starwars, dinosaurs, cars, big trucks and FIGHTING!!! And little Sofia is just starting to roll around the living room. BUt its hard work rolling over those cheecks. pictures coming soon!

WICKED!!!!!!!!!

We stopped at the Arby's in Filmore, it took forever but on this trip even Arby's was FUN!

Lisa had never riden tracks before, so here we are. Yup just ridin on tracks.

We went to the end of the line(almost) and got off at Temple Square. So fun and soooo cold!

We were so lucky to get tickets. Thanks Mom for the hours on the phone!

We had so much fun last weekend going up to SLC to see Wicked! I had never seen it, but we have been listening to the soundtrack for months. My girls bounce around the house singing "Popular, you're gonna be popular" and other various lines from all the sogs. To be perfectly honest...so does Carter, and he usually does it in a necklace and heals! :)

So Jeff and I took Abbi, and Syd and Carter got to stay home with Grandma Roni ( They think they got to do the fun stuff, treats, movies, and late nights with Grandma, with all of that who wants to see a stinkin play? She is so AWESOME! It was so nice of her to stay at our house with the kids.) We had a great time, great seats 7 rows back, and it was amazing. I would go back tonight! And I was excited to see Temple Square because I hadn't seen it since before the plaza was renovated. It was really neat to be there with my family. And even though I was sad that Robbie couldn't come because of finals, I was thrilled that Steph could make it on such short notice. We havn't hung out like that in years. It was so worth it!!