Conference Weekend with Sisters!

This weekend was lots of fun! Before we could start our weekend the boys had a dentist appointment on Thursday after school. No cavities and the boys got to pick prizes, so it was a big success. :) Weston picked this silly mustache. Love that kid.On Friday Davin and I went to Target and bought Halloween costumes. Davin is Spiderman. He is SO excited and wore his costume all weekend. I bought Weston a Venom (or black Spiderman) costume. The boys had a blast running around in their muscle suits playing Spiderman.
Friday my sisters starting trickling into town for General Conference weekend! Mel and Brad got here at about noon and brought us some lunch, then they went and checked into their hotel while I picked up Weston from school. Around 2:30 Jules and Rick pulled in. They had driven all the way from CA starting at 3am! I'm so glad that everyone got here safely.
The menfolk left around 3 for the BYU football game. They picked Ian up on their way. They hit some major game/Friday afternoon traffic and barely made it into their seats in time for kick-off. It was a great game and BYU scraped a win! Us girls took Weston to karate then got a Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. We watched the game and baked coffee cake and stayed up way too late. It was awesome.

Saturday morning we watched the morning session of Conference with some donuts and chocolate milk (thanks Brad and Mel!). It was a good session. After it was over we all scrambled to get dressed and ready to go to the Conference Center for the afternoon session. We made it to the Conference Center with over half an hour to spare, but they had this humongous line outside to get in, so we didn't actually get to our seats until about 2 minutes before it started. It was hot and kind of frustrating standing in that stupid line, but the session was wonderful and we had really great seats on the main level.

waiting in the huge line in the hot sun

We went to dinner at the Olive Garden downtown then left the boys at the Conference Center for the Priesthood session while us girls went home and put the kids to bed, nursed our sore feet (from all that walking in heels), and made souffle. When the boys got home we played Things. It was hilarious.
Sunday morning we watched Conference, ate souffle and coffee cake and fruit and just relaxed. It was a really nice day. I loved Conference and loved having my sisters at my house! I was very impressed with how well the kids did during Conference. Weston watched every single session. Davin would flit in and out, but played quietly and was really good. Talia napped during most of the sessions and was generally adorable.
That night we had taco salad for dinner before Mel and Brad had to leave to go home to Rexburg. I grilled Rick about how he and Julianna met and started dating. It was so fun to hear their cute story and see Jules so happy. After the kids went to bed we played Mormon Bridge. We all got to bed a little earlier since Jules and Rick left early and I went swimming at 6am.

It was definitely a blast to have my sisters and their guys around for Conference weekend! I loved it. Also I think we need a girls' trip sooner than 3 years from now. We missed you Joy and Mom!

Long Weekend

I feel like my weeks are just crazy. And there's usually nothing super exciting to post about. Just lots of routine. After the boys' camping trip last weekend my washing machine stopped spinning. Sigh. Ian didn't really have time to look at it, so on Tuesday our outing was to the laundromat. It was kind of nice being able to get three loads of laundry done in under 2 hours, but I was hoping the washer would be fixable. Later that Tuesday night I put on a fun multicultural dinner for my young women and their moms.

On Thursday we kicked off our long weekend with Ian's dad coming to town! We picked him up from the airport at noon and went out to lunch. Weston got out of school early and we got to have some fun time with Papa! Well, he sort of spent some of the afternoon trying to diagnose the problem with my washing machine, which was unsuccessful. When Ian got home we had a bbq, ate outside, and played some ladderball. The weather was perfect.

Friday morning Ian and I went and looked at some washers and dryers. We ended up buying a set off ksl. I am a little sad to say goodbye to my trusty, solid 20 year old Kenmore set though. We bought them after our first year of marriage for $50. They lasted us seven years. Pretty impressive.

Once the new washer and dryer were set up we loaded into the van and went to Planet Play! It was our first time going there. It was fun, but I would never pay full price for it. The kids loved it, of course. They played air hockey, mini bowling, glow in the dark mini golf, rode go-karts, played arcade games, climbed in the playplace area, and ate a yummy pizza buffet lunch. The buffet was actually pretty good. There were different pizzas, a salad bar, fruit, pasta bar, desserts, and drinks. The kids picked out a few little prizes from their tickets before we left and it was a successful outing.
Ian and his dad went to the BYU football game that night while the kiddos and I stayed home and watched the game on TV and had baths. BYU played much better this week and was on the good end of a couple turnovers, so it was a fun game for Jim to attend. Go Cougs!

Saturday morning the boys all went with Weston to karate. I tidied up the house and did some laundry in my new machines. We went to Target to get Ian some new shoes then grabbed a quick lunch at In N Out before Ian and the boys dropped Papa off at the airport. It was a very fun visit! Thanks for coming Papa!
Disney re-released The Lion King in theaters for a couple of weeks before the DVD comes out, and I really wanted to go see it on the big screen, so Saturday afternoon I took Weston and Davin to the movies. We all loved it. Davin's favorite part was when Rafiki fights with his stick, and Weston's favorite part was the fighting in the fire. Definitely boys. My favorite is the part when Nala finds Simba and they fall in love. :) Anyway, it was very fun to share that movie with my boys.

Right after the movie I went home and changed and picked up some ladies from my ward and drove down to the Conference Center for the General Relief Society Meeting. I am so glad that I was able to be there and hear the great talks. I especially loved President Uchtdorf's message. It was just what I needed to hear. Especially the part about not forgetting the WHY of the gospel. I definitely get bogged down in the to-do lists and the assignments and sometimes lose sight of why we do it all. I appreciated the reminder and hope I can use it to help me achieve some of the goals that I have for the young women program.

Weston participated in the Primary program on Sunday and he did such a great job. I thought our tiny primary (there were 15 kids in the program, but we average 10 on any given Sunday) put on a really nice program. The kids knew the music, sang out, and did their parts so well. Weston does really well in front of people. He had two parts. One he memorized, the other (a scripture from Corinthians) was a little difficult, so he practiced saying it but had some help when it was time to recite it. We talked about speaking clearly and looking at the congregation and he did both. I was so proud. He has also become quite the singer in recent months. I was so impressed that he knew the words and sang loudly. He was so funny too. Whenever he would catch my eye he would wink and give me a thumbs up. Too cute.

Sunday afternoon the boys helped me make smore brownies. Um, they are amazing. If you enjoy chocolatey smores, then you should try this!
Smore Brownies
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
-Grease the bottom of a 9x13 pan, then line the bottom of the pan with graham crackers
-Mix up a boxed brownie mix according to the directions on the box
-Pour the brownie batter over the graham crackers and bake for 15 minutes
-While the brownies are in the oven, break up 8 graham crackers into 1 inch(ish) pieces, break or chop 6 Hershey's chocolate bars into 1 inch(ish) pieces, mix all the pieces together with about 1 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows.
-After the brownies have baked for 15 minutes, pull them out of the oven and spread the smore mix evenly on top. Put the pan back in the oven for another 15 minutes.
-Allow to cool (but not completely because they are to die for warm) and cut into squares. Enjoy!

Sunday evening I went to our stake's Standards Night. The guest speaker was an extremely spry 91 year old veteran. He was a fighter pilot in WWII and fought at Normandy. He was also a trumpet player. He played the trumpet for us and shared some stories of how living gospel standards had blessed his life. He was a very interesting man. I was glad the program was short though because I really needed to spend some time with my hubby before we started yet another busy week. Hooray for long weekends!

The One Where the Boys Go Camping

Ian took the boys our ward's Priesthood camp-out on Friday night. I felt a little bad waving goodbye to my boys from the house as they pulled away into the pouring rain, but it stopped raining by the time they got to the campsite. It did rain pretty hard for a couple hours in the middle of the night, but the tent help up and they stayed dry. They had a great time despite the cloudy, rainy weather. Highlights included making and launching rockets (Weston's favorite), collecting rollie pollies (Davin's favorite), making "candles" (lighting sticks on fire), cooking hot dogs, and making smores.


While the boys were gone my friend, Alison, and her daughter, Kate, came over for a girl's night. We settled onto the couch in our pajamas and watched Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken and ate chocolate cake. It was great. Total flashbacks to sleepovers when I was 10 watching that movie and swooning over Al (I know, what kind of name is that?). I was glad to have some company and it was nice to have some good adult conversation.

Talia slept great for me. She woke up at 6ish and ate a bottle and went back to sleep until 8:15. Since I didn't have to get up with any other little ones I got to stay in bed until then too. I was much less productive than I had planned to be, but the boys got home at 11am, so I didn't have tons of time to myself.

Saturday flew by. Ian cleaned up and put away camping stuff while I bathed the kids and started the laundry. We had a couple hours of down time before Ian headed out to go to the BYU v. Utah football game. I took the kids to Alison's birthday party at the park, then watched most of the game after they were in bed. It was a pretty sad game. I don't know what happened to our team, but it was ugly. I went to bed when there were about 9 minutes left to play and the score was 33-10. The next morning I asked Ian what the final score was . . . 54-10. Yikes. I had to chuckle at THIS though.

Sunday was busy, as usual. I went to Ward Council at 7:30am while Ian got the kids ready (honestly I prefer it this way), then we all went to church. Talia stayed awake the entire three hours for the first time. She did ok. By the end she was getting pretty restless, but so was I, so who can blame her? I took the kids home and got Talia down for a nap, everyone fed, then went to my presidency meeting. Right afterwards my friend, Janelle, and I went visiting teaching. By the time I got home at 4pm I changed straight into my pajamas and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening putting together dinner, watching Pixar shorts with the kids, reading the paper, and going to bed early. Sigh. And now we are onto another week just as busy as the last. Wish me luck!

9 Months

Talia turned 9 months on Monday! Today I took her to the pediatrician for her 9 month well visit. She is pretty much perfect. A little on the petite side, but that was expected. Here are Talia's 9 month stats:
Height: 26.5 inches (20th %ile)
Weight: 15 lbs. 11 oz. (7th %ile)
Head: 70th %ile
At nine months Talia is not crawling, but has perfected the art of sitting up and reaching for toys. She still does not enjoy tummy time, and I have my doubts that she will crawl at all. She has three teeth. Her two bottom middle teeth are in, then today at her checkup the doctor noticed her top left tooth had popped through. I guess that explains why she slept in until 8:30 this morning.
Talia babbles and squeals and says "mama" and "dada." I don't know for sure if she connects them to Ian and I yet, but those are definitely sounds she repeats. She loves her Duck and Goose books. She also just discovered the fun of the ball popper this last week. Unfortunately Davin also still enjoys the ball popper so it keeps getting pulled out of her reach by her big brother. Speaking of her brothers, man she loves them. They are great with her and she does not like to be left out of whatever they are doing.
Talia is still a fantastic sleeper. She sleeps 11-12 hours straight at night, plus two daytime naps. I love her for it. She is also a pretty good eater. She has not really turned her nose up at any foods I've tried so far (except peas, but who can fault her for that?). She is getting more interested in what we are eating on our plates and wants to be eating at the same time as us.

Sorry for the long, detailed post, but Talia doesn't have a baby book, so if I'm going to remember anything about these milestones and months I have to have them on the blog. To end this little mommy memories post . . . yesterday afternoon I took some video of us just hanging out at home. This is about what its like most afternoons around 5pm. Everyone is a little bored and a little tired, so we all need extra attention. FYI this really showcases Talia's voice (listen for her saying "mama" when prompted!).

We love you Talia!!!

Missed

There are several fun things we did in the last few weeks of August that I somehow missed posting about because I got burnt out from posting all of our California trip. I still wanted to include these fun outings and photos though, so here's the backlog of posts from August.

Ogden Dinosaur Park
We used one of our Groupons and went with friends to the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden. I had never been. It was a fun little outing. They had a museum inside with lots of similar types of exhibits as the Musuem of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The boys loved it. They had some different dinosaur bones and dinosaur poop. That was, of course, a big hit.

Outside they have a path you can walk that has replicas of different dinos all along the way in the trees and fields. It was pretty hot the day we went, so we didn't spend a ton of time on the path, but the kids loved all the little scenes you could put your face into. We went and did a bunch of puzzles and coloring inside after our walk to cool off a little bit, then ended the outing with some playtime on the dinosaur slides and playground.
After going to the dinosaur park, the Herrin's were kind enough to invite us over to their new house in Ogden for a BBQ. It was a really great to hang out with them again. We met in our Murray ward about 5 years ago back when our kindergartners were just babies. :) Glad we have been able to keep in touch all this time.

Bishopric Bowling Night
Using yet another Groupon we had a bishopric group date a couple weeks ago. It was a blast. We drove out to Park City together and had pizza and bowled at this really awesome place called Jupiter Bowl. It is about as fancy as bowling gets. We sure love our very supportive friends and are thankful we get to serve with them.

Bishop Spaz and Michael Ann with Alison

Kerry and Alison

Me and my hubby

The whole group. Bishopric and their wives. Friends.

Uncle Eli
Ian's brother, Eli, came for a quickie visit a few weeks ago. He was here for just about 24 hours to be at a good friend's sealing, but we got to spend a little time with him too. He helped Ian clean out the garage, then we hit up In N Out before he went to the temple, and watched a movie out on the patio later that night. It was a short, but fun visit!
Classic Fun Center
The week before Weston started school we went to the Classic Fun Center in Sandy to go on the bouncy slides and the giant play place. It was interesting. I had only been there once and that was just to roller skate with the youth, so I didn't really know what to expect from the rest of the place. It was honestly pretty gross. I just felt dirty and sticky the whole time. It didn't help that it was hot inside, so I was sweaty too. The bathrooms were icky, the fire alarm randomly went off, and Talia was tired. Not quite the hours of fun I had imagined. The kids did love it, but I don't know that I will be paying to go there again any time soon.
Bug Hunting
The weekend that Ian bought his new car the kids were playing outside in the backyard while Ian showed me the car and they found this awesome leaf bug! Who knew such exotic creatures lived in our yard! The boys thought this was awesome and I was impressed that the poor bug didn't fly, jump, or skitter away from the not-so-gentle 5 year old fingers that were so interested in it. We got these cool pics of it.
Davin Goes to Preschool
The day after Labor Day Davin had his preschool open house. He was a little out of sorts that morning so we didn't end up staying long, but he did enjoy playing Legos and making a fruit loop necklace. He was kind of losing it when I tried to get this photo with his teacher, but she managed to coax a (weird) smile out of him with the threat of tickles.
The next day was his official first day of preschool. He was very excited to bring his new big boy Cars backpack and play on the playground before the doors opened. We are now on week 2 of preschool and things are going just fine. Davin is a very chill little boy. He loves playing in the water table and with Legos and having snack. I don't hear much from him about other kids or what he is learning, but his teacher says he's doing great. I love my big little boy!

Utah State Fair 2011

Yesterday I picked up Weston from school and took the kids to the State Fair! I love going to the fair, so I was pretty excited. We somehow missed it last year, but not too much had changed. Our favorite parts were the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit, the construction machines, the giant slide, and the hot dogs.

When we first walked in we ran into this bee character. I'm really not sure what he was all about, but Weston ran up to him an the bee covered Weston in stickers. Weston thought it was hilarious. He shared a bunch of stickers with Davin because he is such a good brother. :)
Weston was finally tall enough to do the giant slide by himself! Davin went once with Ian, then decided he was done with it. Weston gladly finished using the rest of the tickets.
The Little Hands on the Farm exhibit is so much fun. The kids run through the different parts of a farm and collect wool, milk, and produce in their baskets while learning about how a farm works and what the different animals give us. Then they "sell" their harvest at the farmer's market for $1, which they can then spend at the little store on a snack and milk. The boys both got this delicious root beer milk. It tasted like a root beer float. Mmm.
I bought an ear of roasted corn and we went and sat on the grass to eat our snacks. The construction vehicles were right by us on the grass, so we stayed and played there for a little while. It was also right next to the Walmart display. They had these cool stationary bikes that would blend a smoothie when you pedaled them. We made a peach smoothie. It was delish.
***Incidentally . . . if you live in the vicinity of the Walmart on 6200 S. and 5600 W. . . yesterday they had peaches and plums both on sale for .25 a pound!
We wandered through the animal barns before meeting up with Ian. Weston got to pet this adorable baby calf. The boys both liked the goats the best though. The rest of the time with Ian we went on the giant slide a few more times, got hot dogs and corn dogs, and watched the skydivers come into the rodeo arena carrying the Utah and American flags.
I met up with my friend Jackie while we were eating and she and I headed over to the grandstand for the Wilson Phillips concert! Ian is such an awesome dad and husband. He took all three kids in search of cotton candy then took them home and put them to bed.

It was SO fun to see Wilson Phillips! Definitely a big dose of nostalgia. I remember listening to their cassette on my little walkman on family road trips. Good times. They played about a 60/40 mix of covers (including the Mama's and the Papa's, the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, The Eagle's, Joni Mitchell, etc.) and their own songs. I really liked hearing their own songs the best.
There were quite a few die hard fans in the audience. It was kind of weird because this show was the first day of filming for their new reality tv show that is going to be on the TV Guide channel, so there were cameras around the whole time. Also, if you are a Dancing With the Stars fan (Mom) Chyna (the blonde lead singer) is going to be on it this upcoming season. Anyway, I am really glad I went and got to hear some great songs live. I don't know why I didn't record video on my regular camera, but for whatever reason I used my phone. Sorry for the low quality. . . And that you can hear me singing along. :)

Busy Busy!

Holy cow! Life with kids in school is crazy. Or maybe life with 3 kids is crazy. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Whatever it is, I feel like we are always going. I am exhausted and in bed before 10pm every night. With Weston in school all day, Davin in school half days on Monday/Wednesday, Weston doing karate twice a week, YW mutual activities, Ian's bishopric meetings, early morning Zumba and swimming workouts 4-5 days a week . . . not to mention grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, keeping Talia on a relatively stable nap schedule, and getting everyone fed I am just wiped out!

I have to admit that part of me enjoys the routine of school and my life as the mom of school aged kids. I like getting up early, exercising, and being ready for the day before 9am. I like feeling like it matters if I'm ready for the day at all. Sometimes when you have little ones it's hard to find the motivation for any of that. The other part of me misses our lazy mornings and the ability to keep my eyes open past 9:30 at night to watch a movie with Ian.

Don't forget there is a non-school-aged child along for the ride! Talia is such a trooper. She takes being woken up from her naps and being hauled back and forth to the school, karate, the church, etc. with all the grace an 8 month old can possess. And she looks good doing it. Usually.

Today was unusual. Ian's new car was in the shop . . . did I mention Ian bought a car? Well, anyway, it was in the shop getting some routine maintenance done, so he had gotten a ride to work this morning. That meant that I picked up Weston from school at 3:45, had to be at karate at 4, and then go straight over to pick up Ian from work so he could pick up his car from the shop before they closed at 6.

Ian and his 2007 Hyundai Elantra

I had to wake up Talia from her nap to leave at 3:40. She was pretty happy. When I went to put her back in her car seat after getting Weston from his classroom I had poop all over my arm. Gross and gross. I had to change her in the front seat while Weston put on his karate uniform in the back. I didn't have a clean onesie in the diaper bag, so she got to ride to karate in just a clean diaper. I dropped Weston off then drove home to get Talia dressed. Needless to say it was a hectic afternoon. We made it on time to all our commitments though. There is really no point to this story except for me to marvel at how nutty life is with lots of little ones and to be able to laugh at it in the distant future.

Really, truly, life is good. I am blessed. You know why? See below.

Some much needed down time after school. Watching Avengers with juice and fruit snacks. Can't beat that.

My cutest BFF!

Pretty in pink

The boys built robots to enter into a Lego magazine contest.

Talia's first outfit of today. It sure was cute while it lasted! (which was only until about 11am) Also Talia was busy Labor Day weekend cutting her second tooth! On the bottom right next to her first tooth. :)