Viva Las Vegas

A few friends and I decided to go to Vegas for the weekend. It was a lot of fun to spend time with old friends. We were able to stay in a house that Megans brother rents out. If anyone needs a nice rental let me know! I was very happy that Judy recommended we go to the temple while we were there. There was such a great spirit there sitting in a session with my friends. I realized how blessed I have been in my life to have great friends.

We did some shopping, ate great food that you can't get in Utah and I got the first pedicure in almost a year! It was so great to get away from kids for a couple of days and just be us again.


With my best friend Lindsay. She has such a cute pregnant belly!

Eating some of the best frozen yogurt I have ever tasted. Laura, Natalie, Judy

We kind of bought a lot! Actually I didn't by that much but they did. Braxton got a lot of new clothes though.

Judy, Megan, Randi, Natalie, Lindsay, Laura

At the temple. I really liked this part of the trip. Las Vegas is such a pretty temple.

Tagged Again

Letter D

Amber tagged me with 10 things that I love that start with the letter D, so here is my attempt.... I hope I can think of 10.

1. Date-I love to go on dates with my husband. Even if they are short.
2. Dad-not that he is number 2 but I needed to put something about my husband as number one! I love my Dad. He is the most amazing person to me. He constantly amazes me at how much he has accomplished in his lifetime.
3. Disneyland-I love, love, Disneyland. I always tell Brian we are going for the kids but we are really going for me. I have to admit I cry sometimes during the parades at night because it is so magical! I can't wait to go at the end of May with my sister and her kids.
4. Dancing-So I wasn't great at dancing but I loved to dance anyway. I miss it, but more I miss the friends I danced with!
5. Dictionary-I can't go a day without looking up a work either to spell it or to see what it means. I still have to pretend I know what Brian is talking about and then run to look up a big word he used!
6. Dirt-I can't stand when my boys are dirty but they sure have fun playing on the dirt hill by my house.
7. Dishwasher-I don't know if I will ever do dishes by hand again.
8. Desperate Housewives-This is my favorite show. I'm so sad it is not on for a couple more weeks and then I have to wait months for new episodes.
9. Dessert-I don't know if it can be considered dessert when I eat it for every meal. Isn't dessert supposed to be a once a day thing after dinner (occasionally)?
10. Dork-I love my kids and husband but they sometimes act like dorks!

Favorite Time of Day

I love many different times throughout the day but love bedtime. Not because I know I get a break but because I love the sound that comes from upstairs in the bathroom and bedroom. Brian usually puts the kids to bed each night. This is when he gets to take time with them. I am either cleaning up dinner, the house or just relaxing on the couch.

He sings songs with them while they brush their teeth, then gets them to go to the bedroom. I try reading stories to them throughout the day but I always hear "Do it like Daddy!" The boys love reading the same 3 animal books over and over while Brian does animal sounds to all of them. The boys laugh each time. He usually takes the time to teach them a Book of Mormon story as well. Peyton knows 3 Book of Mormon hero's. Lehi, Nephi and Alma the Younger. Lehi is anyone who has a beard (including Jesus). He usually refers to Jesus as the feet guy. He recognizes him as the man who washes the "owey feet" of "the guys" (the apostles). He also knows that Jesus has owes in his hands and feet but still calls him Lehi.

Even though I know the kids totally love Brian more, I'm fine with it. They look forward to bedtime when Daddy is home. It is fun and entertaining to them. I know they will remember bedtime with Daddy for as long as they live.

Friends and Family

I am starting a new price for friends and family for pictures. It is $50 and that includes a cd with a 45 minute to 1 hr session. For some that is a price increase and some it is a decrease! If you have a family member for friend that I don't know, it is open to them as well for the next couple of months. For those that live in St. George, I will be there at the end of June for 3 or 4 days.

I also run a special at this time of year for $300 for the wedding day. This includes 2 hours at one location and the cd.

The Frog and the Toad

Hannah invited us to go to "The Frog and the Toad" at the Scera Theater in Orem. It was a really cute play and kept Peyton's attention for at least 20 minutes. The other kids loved and watch the entire thing. The cast consisted of 5 main people that dressed up as multiple characters depending on what scene it was. I love that the kids didn't even catch that it was same people but discussed which animals they liked best and thought were the best actors. Most of the time they were agreeing on the same person but disagreeing because that person was in a

different animal suit.

Braxton and Hannah

William, Shawn, Nicole, Peyton, Luke

Happy Birthday James, Shawn and Luke

I gave my nieces and nephews the option of the dinosaur museum or a present for thier birthdays. They all picked the dinosaur museum. Since Mark and Linsey were already on their way to Mom's house we me them on their way down. We had Jordann and Nicole with us as well. The kids had a lot of fun and thanks to going on the same day as Mark and Linsey it was not that bad for the adults. Nicole, Shawn and Luke had a sleep over at my house after and we rented a movie, ate pizza and popped popcorn. They all had a lot of fun.

Shawn, Nicole, Luke, James, Braxton

James, Peyton, Braxton

The kids all on my bed watching "Horton Hears a Who"

Valentines Day

I thought I would catch up on blogging and post a couple of things from the past couple of months.

For Valentines Day we woke up and went to Denny's for breakfast. The kids love going out for breakfast. Usually Braxton does not eat more than 1 real meal a day, but when we go to breakfast he eats more than any of us.

I love this picture. It is probably the worst picture of both of them

Later that afternoon we went to a Monster Truck Rally with Matt and Andrea Peterson. It was our first experience at a Monster Truck Rally. I felt a little out of place and wished I would have worn my cut of jean skirt and tank top, poor Brian doesn't even own a fleece shirt. Needless to say we did not fit in! Not really. There were some pretty funny people making fun of of the "white trash" event by dressing up.

The kids really liked the first part of the show and loved the motocross free style. Once it was Monster Truck Free Style we had to leave because it was so loud that they were both pretty scared. I wanted to stay because it was the first time that Peyton had ever held on to me so tight.

Peyton a little concerned about the noise Braxton and Laura

Brian and Braxton. We had to trade kids several times depending on how scary they thought it was. If Peyton was really scared he wanted me. If Braxton was scared he wanted Brian.

I'm thinking next year we will try to go back to a more traditional type of Valentines date.

Going Private

Even though I don't want to do this I am going to go private. I have had someone trying to access my blog a couple of times now and have had to reset the password several times. I'm pretty sure I know who you are so please stop! Anyway, send me your email address if you would like to be invited!

Prayer

The other day Braxton was saying the dinner prayer which usually consists of thanking for the food, bless the food and the end. He decided to go on and on by saying thanful for animals, our house, our cars, all the food, cheetos, hum, dum, dub, wab, (we had no idea what that meant) and please bless mom can take my bye bye to jumpin jacks so I can play, and please bless mom can get me air buddies to watch on the TV."

I admire his faith. Poor thing though will have to learn that not all prayers are answered like you want and if they are eventually answered like you want it may take a while. I'm sure we will go back to jumpin jacks someday but I am still deciding on the movie.

He has his cute moments too!

Just a few pictures of Peyton being cute. He loves when I take pictures of him with my phone.

Oops, he did it again

One of our favorite things in our house is hot chocolate. Peyton requests it several times a day and sometimes tries to help out by getting a cup and the hot chocolate mix all ready for me. He took the lid off the hot chocolate before putting it up on the counter and completely dumped it all over. I was downstairs and heard him yelling "Help Mom, Heeelp!" When I got upstairs he was already starting to cry but I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Dentist

Braxton had his first trip to the dentist this week. Thanks to his school field trip the day before to the dentist he was very excited. He loved the suction tube (I hate that part) and really loved the TV on the ceiling he was able to watch. He could not quit smiling because he was having so much fun. The dentist was great too! If anyone needs a great dentist I have a great referral for both children and adults. I am sad I forgot my camera. All I had was my phone.

Public Apology

I will have to publicly apologize to Peyton. After letting my make-up dry out, everything is fine with it. In fact-the colors have gone on more vibrant than they did before. He made my powder eye shadow into a creamy eye shadow. I am thinking of calling Mac and telling them what a success it was and having them bring back this compact in creamy!

Make up

I set a bath up for the kids and then took all the dirty laundry downstairs. I came right back up (I know it's bad to leave your kids in the tub). When I walked into the bathroom Peyton had my make up in the bathtub with him. He had taken my favorite compact of eyeshadow and was painting his face and Braxton's face with it. It was soaking wet. When I stopped dead in my tracks and gasped Braxton looked at me and said, "Peyton did it!" I wasn't surprised. I was sad however because he ruined about $50 worth of makeup that I can't really replace right now. I know not to leave them in the bath anymore. I will have to admit he was onto something though. The colors that came out when it was wet was really pretty.

Peyton, Peyton, Peyton

My cute little Peyton has so much fun. I am having a hard time leaving him alone at all. He is in this stage where he likes to throw EVERYTHING! I'm not sure what to do about it. He as thrown remotes, phones, makeup and really whatever he can lift and throw. If he notices that I am looking at him he will bring me the item so he can still touch it but doesn't get in trouble for throwing it. This past week while driving on the freeway he rolled his window down and threw his shoe out the window. I didn't notice until I was getting him out at the grocery store. I asked him where his shoe went. He said "I don't know." I looked everywhere for it. Then I remembered he had rolled his window down. I asked him if he had thrown it out the window and he got this big grin on his face and said, "Ya, WHEEEEE!" I loved those shoes.

This is also an example of what can happen with 5 minutes of unsupervised Peyton. I made a batch of muddy buddies (which have powdered sugar all over them). I let him and Braxton eat them while I went downstairs to clean. I was gone for only a couple of minutes when Braxton came downstairs. I heard something dropping on the floor above me. This is what I found.


He would not look at me when I came into the kitchen. He just kept saying "No Mom, go out!" After saying that a couple times he tried a new approach by looking at me with a huge cheesy grin. There was powdered sugar all over the walls, chairs, microwave, fridge and table. It took a while to clean up. I am still finding traces of powdered sugar.

A couple hours later he found my purse and ate the rest of my gum. There were 6 pieces left in the pack. He was so excited. I was not so excited. My credit cards, receipts and everything else that was in my purse was everywhere. It did force me to go through old receipts though. What do you do? He is so cute.

Cute Things

I am going to start posting more of the things my kids say for my record. I have wanted to do this for a long time and will be printing my blog at the end of the year for a journal. Sorry if it bugs you but just skip over what you don't want to read!

I took Braxton to the doctor yesterday. About an hour after picking him up from school his eyes started to get really goobery. After the doctor checked everything out he looked at Braxton and said "your eyes are really red." Braxton responded "No they aren't, they are blue."

Another thing I know I will forget if I don't write it down. Braxton refuses to call string cheese, string cheese. He insists it is called Spring cheese.

Dino Museum

Sarah, Randi and I went to the Dinosaur Museum last week. It was a lot of fun. Braxton kept showing me the bones that I needed to take out and throw for the T-Rex to come alive. (He loves "Night at the Museum")

I was a little mean and put Zander in the sand thinking that if he went all in he would like it. Not so much. He later decided he had to slowly make his way in.

Braxton enjoyed making Sand Angels.

Tanner's hat kept shifting on him poor kid.

Sarah, Zander, Laura, Braxton

Sarah, Zander, Randi, Tanner

Hidden Talents

One of Brian's many hidden talents is to "suck flan". This is one of those things he learned while on a mission. He was able to line these up and make 12 disappear in less than 22 seconds. I didn't discover this hidden talent until after we were married. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference but I do think it is pretty sick/amazing.

Happy New Year

We had a great Christmas. We celebrated Christmas Eve with Brian's family at Becky's house. Mike and Michelle, Becky and John, and Jennifer. It was a lot of fun. Becky and Jen cooked us a great Turkey and Ham dinner. It was great. After Becky read the kids a story about Christmas. The kids were so excited to open presents they could barely consintrate on the story. We let them each open the presents that the families exchange. Mike and Iva gave us all 72 hour kits. I was really excited about these. It has motivated me to do better with the ones that I have. After opening presents the kids went downstairs to the basketball court and played while the adults played some board games.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun with the kids. Braxton was so excited to get his Spike the dinosuar. When he turned it on it scared him. He wanted to watch it but was too scared to go near it for the first 30 minutes. At one point he went running into the kitchen because he thought Spike was chasing him.

Peyton loved all his presents but loved Spike. He wanted to rip open his presents as fast as he could. It took a while for Braxton. He enjoyed playing with each gift as he opened them.

We have 2 family traditions during the Christmas break. Going Skiing and snowboarding with the adults that want to go and to meet on New Years Day and go sledding with my family. There is a great hill by my parents house that goes on and on. We pulled the kids up the hill with the four wheelers then let everyone go crazy. Once all the kids make it to the bottom of the hill we go back down and get them. Thanks to the nice weather we were albe to stay for 4 hours.

Night skiing with Kerrie at Brighton the day after Christmas.

Part of the clan waiting for the rest to make it up the hill.

The kids started to get a little tired on the walk back to the car.

The twilight before Christmas

I stole this from Niesha's blog. I thought everyone should be able to enjoy this. Merry Christmas!

http://www.take180.com/s/The_Twilight_Before_Christmas/ep5l7

I cannot figure out how to upload it so just click on the link.

Candy Cane Ball

Brian and I were able to go to the Candy Cane Ball (a fundraiser for literacy). Sadly we did not get pictures with Jenn but here are some with Brian's brother and his wife and then his sister and her husband. We were able to enjoy a great meal and a night out.