Happy Day!

I'm sure you are all aware that Weezer just came out with a new album Nov. 3.

Keep the hits coming Weezer! Enjoy a taste of them on our blog playlist :)

More Fun With Cake

If I had to pin down what I love about Jack and Julie (besides how well their names sound together) I'd have to go with their brutal honesty. Julie is one of those few people that can say what we're all thinking and you love her for it. Jack is a big ex-football player type that is found crying into his mustache all through church meetings. He's a big softy. They are high school sweet hearts and are still clearly in love.

Julie has had diabetes her whole life and was only able to have one child, Erika. They adopted a son, Jordan, who recently completed training in the Marine Reserves. I can't imagine how hard it would be to watch your child sign up for any type of military training in these times. They are very supportive people. They asked us to make a cake for the party and while our only credentials are birthday cakes we accepted the challenge. We had a fun time practicing our cake making skills for them. We have a lot to learn, but I'm still pleased with the outcome.

Enough Halloween to Go Around

Our Halloween celebration took us all last week, not to mention the planning, sewing, and preparing. It was fun to see the evolution of the celebration until the actual night came.
Here we meet Vampire. This is the vampire Taj created. He wanted blue hair and a white face. We're all about home made costumes so Taj picked out the spider material for his cape and he became the Spider Vampire.

Eden wanted to be a princess for Halloween and picked this dress with wings out. It was fun getting ready for her dance class Halloween party. We just played dress up. I offered her different things, she asked for other things and we came up with this.

I was excited about seeing her this year since it's her first year of really experiencing Halloween and kind of figuring out what Halloween is.

The boys made a great Jack-o-lantern this year.

Taj wanted a break from the Vampire and went for last years dragon while we explored Gardner Village. They go all out with the decoration. The kids love looking for all the witches. The witches riding bikes, rowing boats, making witches brew, playing baseball. Everyone dresses up to go there.

I love this picture. Taj was warming up by the fireplace after trick-or-treating. He looks so pensive. Our thoughtful Vampire.

Micah spray painted us skeleton shirts. The kids wont allow us not to dress up.

Great candy this year- a lot of chocolate :)

Fun trick or treating with friends Nika and Anya. Cutest pirates I've seen. (Notice Eden's new costume and Taj doesn't want blue hair anymore).

This was our favorite witch- Witchy-Poo. She's in an outhouse with a news paper. We love Gardener Village. It was all very fun, but the church party, preschool party, dance class party, Gardener Village and trick-or-treating was more than enough Halloween to last me until next year.

To the Rescue!

I woke up sick this morning. Everything from my shoulders up ache, but as a Mom, there's no such thing as a sick day-boo. My Mom called and hearing me try to talk (my voice is sick too) she said she'd be by at 4 to take the kids off my hands. We were all very very excited about this, even Eden who is really not into anything unless Mom is nearby. So after resting on the couch I'm on the computer. Awe. Hear that? That is the sound of my body resting and healing. I think my Mom will need a few days of rest and healing after this.

Taj started a game about a month ago, and I'm really trying not to read too much into it. It's called "Fat Dog" and involves only me and him. He squishes my tummy and yells, "HONK!" He asks me what I ate to get so fat and tells me he ate a whole chocolate cake. He's totally innocent and thinks it's a funny and completely fabricated story, but someone has to remind herself of that :)
I was teaching Eden what butterfly kisses are and later she starts trying to touch my eyes. I was a little confused until she said "touch butterfly."

Taj is more social than ever. Between church, preschool, and play dates he's a very busy guy. After a play date with Bennett I asked him if he had a best friend. He kind of smiled. I started naming his friends and he tells me it's Eden.

The kids are super excited about Halloween, which is normal. A lot of people around here really get into it and decorate their yards. I use the "let's go look for decorations." excuse often as a motivation for them to get into the stroller for my runs. I do not like the creepy Halloween decorations, and Taj does. So far my saying "it's pretend just to try to scare us" is working, but really inside I'm thinking I should leave a note asking these people to put the creepy stuff where young kids can't see it. Some of the houses really are taking it too far.

We just got back Preschool pictures 2009-2010. It might come as no surprise that this little guy is found with his nose in the books all the time. Eden takes him books and asks for him to read to her. He basically just turns the pages and asks her questions about the stories they both have memorized and point at the pictures. I can't believe that it really wont be long until he's reading for real.

Rewind...

We went to California last week and had a great time. It wasn't exactly eye opening, but there were a few things reconfirmed for me during the trip. -I LOVE the beach. Ashley Moffat explained it well when she said it's one of the most satisfying things to see your kids love something you love. On one of our plan free days in California we took the kids to the beach with the Moffats instead of Disneyland and don't regret it for a second. Happiest place on earth by far :) Thanks again Moffats. Lets do it again soon o.k. -Reconfirmed that Velzy and Ivy are cool little people. They taught Taj to body surf and make "drip castles". I don't know where Velzy learned her wrestling moves, but she has earned the Smith family's respect.

-Utah is a bubble. I was surprised by all the, um, colorful people out there. By colorful I'm not referring to non Anglo, while that is also true. You don't come across much variety here in Happy Valley, but we sure met some interesting characters there. It was refreshing, but also helped me realize what a unique place Utah is. There is a lot of junk out there in the world. The bums were very sweet. They often said how blessed we are to have such a beautiful family. I really do feel blessed.

-Water in California is cold, but not too cold after playing football on the beach, chasing seagulls, or when the waves look funner than the waves in Utah Lake.-Steve and Taffy (my in-laws) are a couple of the kindest, most patient and generous and thoughtful people I've met in my life. Let's just say traveling with little ones can wear a Mom down and put her in less than the best of moods. They were unwavering. I was met with constant smiles, love and willingness to help. Basically, they are superhuman. My heroes.

-The produce world IS worldwide. Duh, right? I buy grapes from Chile, and avocado's from Mexico. My onions from Washington, and on and on. Because Micah works with his Dad brokering produce in our basement I never thought about the magnitude of the business they are involved in, until we went to the Produce Convention in Anaheim. It was ginormous. We got all kinds of free stuff: food cooked by Tyler of the Food Network, pictures with the Ocean Spray guy, totes a plenty, stress ball potatoes and pineapples, pens, chap stick, avocado/lilikoi Popsicles (yum), and much more. It was huge and impressive and fun. If I could, I'd be a produce convention roadie. I loved it.

-I love free stuff :)

-It's always nice to be home after a long trip.

Thank Heavens For Little Girls!

Our little princess is 2 years old.It's been a busy 2 years. I hardly had time to stop and realize I don't have a baby anymore. Instead, I have these cute little monkeys. The skirt and cowboy boots are an example of her strong personal expression. I stayed up one night making skirts for her after she insisted on wearing one. Not a dress, or even pink leggings. It had to be a skirt. I'm proud of her stubbornness sometimes. I like a girl to be tough enough to stand up for what they want (in the right moments that can be one of the most important things for a girl to do).
While the pictures don't show her smiling, I assure you Eden LOVES to dance. She isn't smiling because she gets so involved and into her own dancer world. It's darling to watch, and I'm smiling for the both of us. She loves to put on her dancing skirts, do tippy toes and does better than most of the 3 year olds in the class. I'm glad we're finding things she loves. As I get to know her better I can look back and see her all along in the pictures.

For our little princess we had to have a princess party. She had specific plans for her birthday and has been telling us about them since Taj's birthday. She had to have a birthday hat and the birthday song.

We let the kids decorate their own crowns and cupcakes.

She loved her cake. My Mom offered a little candy off of it to her she said no. "Eat it after birthday song." There she is standing up for what she thinks is important again-what other kid would turn that candy down?

We are so proud of our Eden girl. As much of a princess as she is, she is sweet. Anytime she hears someone tell her sorry she says sorry right back to them. When Eden is doing something naughty she wrinkles her nose and smiles as if it's a little joke. She brings a soft and loving spirit to our family that we didn't know we needed. Happy birthday Eden. We love you!

My Mothering Dilemma

About a year ago I tried feeding the kids some fish sticks. They rejected the food as soon as the word fish was mentioned. A few days ago I told them I had a surprise for lunch. I cooked the fish sticks and said they were nuggets, like chicken nuggets. They ate every morsel.

I felt a little sneaky and did a little self-evaluating. I'm realizing I use this trick/method a lot to get the kids to eat things I think they wouldn't otherwise. For instance, Quiche is Egg Pie and I slip some spinach in there. Smoothies frozen then partially thawed are slushies, and always have veggies in there too. Zucchini muffins are zucchini cup cakes.

Should I feel bad about this? Down the road are the kids going to refuse to try anything that doesn't fall under the cake or pie or nugget category? This is my mothering dilemma of the moment- there are so many.

Family Fun

We've been living in Utah for 3 and a half years now and every time

a holiday comes along I still instinctively picture packing up food

and the family and spending

the day at the beach. This labor day we got as

close to that as you can in

Utah. We packed up and went to the lake,

and you know there was surf! Ha. It was a great day ending with the night at Zermatt. We ate at the best Mexican restaurant "Tarahumara", we've found in Utah-suggestions welcome. The kids LOVE room service and the pool, and don't forget the merry-go-round. If it weren't for the money thing, I'd do this every holiday.

Notice Micah's handywork on what used to be our poopy brown surf board. I love it and want to use it much much more.

Totally Worth It

My little boy turned 4 years old yesterday. I'm still in shock. After all those moments of daydreaming of having older kids and how nice that would be, I have a four year old.
We had a transformers themed birthday party where the kids had to find clues to find the Decepticon (bad guy) and destroy him to save the party. The kids were great. They totally played along while we sharpened our warrior skills doing obstacle courses and target practice.

Bumble bee guarded the Decepticon pinata that we destroyed.They had to complete the obstacle coarse to receive part of the Allspark.

The cake was the hardest part of the party- most time consuming anyway. Once we knew the kind of cake we wanted to make there was no turning back. Micah found some recipes for the fondant and cake, then we went for it. After a few nights, and even one staying up until 3am we made it, and it was totally worth it.

The huge Micah sized Bumble bee was Micah's baby and awesome! I have the most talented husband, and I'm amazed at the determination he has to completing projects well. While I'm ready to say things are good enough, he's coming up with ways to improve it. I hope Taj gets that from his Dad.

We are so proud of Taj. He's always trying to make us laugh and always willing to help us out. He's very obedient and smart. He approaches things very thoughtfully. Lately he's been riding his bike while I run with Eden in the stroller. He's loving the new freedom and Woohoo-ing on his way down every hill. I love it! He's also stepped into his role as big brother more lately. He talks with Eden and "reads" to her. They've been coming up with new Taj and Eden games. He's a sweet heart too, always telling me he loves me. Eden has had her first time outs this last week and Taj snuck over to her to try to help her calm down and feel better. He's amazing. I love being his Mommy.

Captain Planet!

I've noticed a lot of talk about recycling on my kids favorite TV shows: "Little Bill", "Curious George", and "Caillou". I let them watch one after our morning walk early this summer and it instantly became routine. I enjoy it too. Back to the recycling- I noticed it, but until a week ago I didn't think the kids did. Taj started asking me if we could recycle certain items, and always asked when he was throwing things away. I sank a little feeling badly that we don't pay extra for the special recycling bin. Instead of making excuses Taj and I took a couple of boxes and turned them into our recycling center. I am really impressed by his interest in this. He points out the recycling symbol on everything and still asks if he can recycle items going into the trash. Now I can say "Yes" and let him take it to the right spot. I'm so proud. Taj can be such a good influence on our family.

My Worst Nightmare

Maybe "worst nightmare" is a bit of an exaggeration. It was a snake- YUCK!, but it wasn't much bigger than a worm, and I'm alright with worms. And it was just a garden snake. Besides giving me the creeps, they're harmless.

Taj ran in with eyes as big as golf balls and said he saw a snake. I ran for the camera and Micah ran to protect his young. Sure enough, this was the little guy Taj found. It's small and I DO NOT want to see it's Mother. I've seen a few snakes this summer and I never wanted to see one at my house. They've crossed the line this time.

Back in School

It's that time of year again. It's still warm and beautiful still, but the first sign of change has come- School. Taj is back at Sunshine Preschool, twice a week for two hours. It's great, but us girls miss him. He's turning four in two weeks- aaaaahhhh! He's ready for it, but I'm not.
On Thursdays Eden will be going to a dance class. I found a class for 2-3 year old girls while Taj is in preschool. I asked Eden what she thought and it was all she could talk about. She was so excited. When it was finally dance day she picked out her clothes and smiled for her first day of school picture like her brother. Can you tell she liked her class? It was pretty cute.

To kick off the school year we went to a fountain and stream place we just discovered right behind our grocery store. It's new and free and I wish I knew about it sooner. I'm bad with changes, but the smiles on the kids make it easier.

Lake Powell

We just got back from Lake Powell and are still bursting with good feelings about the trip.

The kids were amazing for the 5 hour car ride. Seriously. At the lake we were surrounded by happy, hardworking, thoughtful people and some of the most beautiful views. I can't describe the feeling of waking up on the water any other way than heavenly. The kids were happy and entertained the whole trip, as were we.

Thanks for the invite Burgesses/Chamberlains!

"This is a good day!"

Thanksgiving Point is doing a month long thing where all the venues are two dollars every Tuesday. I was motivated by the prices to go to the Children's Garden on Tuesday, not thinking at all that the rest of the state heard about the promotion. It was packed. I'm not one for crowds or traffic, but the kids didn't seem to notice or mind at all.
After playing where's waldo with them by Noah's Arc we explored the gardens. Taj and Bennett could've played in the bear tunnel all day, but there was so much more to see like the huge caterpillar, the stage, the climbing area, and the waterfall. I would have taken more pictures but I thought my sweat level was too high for my camera-ha ha. Taj told me, "this is a good day." The crowd didn't seem so bad after that.

That evening we had our first backyard camp out. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in the oven and bathed in the lake and waterfall, then hiked to our campgrounds. It was a fun game of pretend. The boys stayed out there all night. We found out that Taj is a snorer, and also that he is a great little camper.

"Party On Wayne"

It's been one crazy week. I agreed to host two parties this week in addition to it being Micah's birthday and our 6 year anniversary tomorrow. Oh, and I have two kids. What was I thinking?

Amazingly, everything turned out splendidly. I knew the craziness I was in for and planned ahead (which is so not like me). I did yard work the week ahead, made lists of things to get at the store for the parties, planned cleaning times without kids around, made decorations a few at a time and food that could wait in the fridge for a couple days. It was pretty smooth sailing. Even with all the planning I was still all nervous inside and anxious. I think it stems from the boy/girl party I planned with my best friend Sara Chase in eight grade. It was an awkward mess filled with bad mixed tapes and chips. Ugh. I'm glad these events went well AND they are over for a long while. Now I can look forward to tomorrow- the 6 year anniversary of when Micah and I got hitched.

These are a few of the pictures from our wedding invitation photo shoot. I was looking through these old pictures and am shocked how young we look and are. Why didn't anyone tell us? My theory is that either people did and we didn't hear it or people knew what a good match we were.

After six years I'm amazed by a few things: how young we still look, how in love we still are, and how easy and wonderful marriage is. I didn't know what I was in for when I said "Yes". I am grateful everyday for Micah choosing me over and over and making me feel so special. I'm not saying that I have the best husband/marriage or whatever, I'm saying that I'm grateful to have the best husband for me. He gets me. And that feels really nice.

Best Play dough EVER!

I was raised on homemade play dough. When the dough got hard and crusty my Mom would whip out new stuff in minutes-no recipe. I remember her telling me to wait until it cooled down and loving how soft and warm it was at first. It's a great memory for me, but growing up with homemade play dough also made the store bought stuff seem like such a luxury.

When Taj got some store bought I played with it and loved how I didn't have the salty residue on my hands after. It was so vibrant and almost as luxurious as I imagined it to be. As the name brand stuff got old and crusty, just like my Mom's always did, I started to think how great the homemade stuff was and tried to make it. It was warm and fun and felt like I was making memories. The play dough, however, wasn't as nice as the store bought and left that salty residue. Then came the ultimate amazing Kool Aid Play dough recipe! My cousin Natalie is craftiness and cleverness and everything else a Mom should be. She opened my world to this delicious smelling and feeling home made play dough that is incomparable to anything play dough. It's amazing.

The Recipe:

2 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 Cup Salt

1 TBSP Alum (find it near spices)

2 Cups Boiling Water

3 Small Packages UNSWEETENED Kool Aid

3 TBSP Cooking Oil

• Mix dry ingredients
• Add oil and water
• Stir quickly. When cool, mix with hands
• Store in Ziploc baggies
• Will keep for months

Don't seal the bags until it's totally cooled down or you'll end up with a gooey mess (I realized that the dummy way where you make some for a couple friends and bet they are laughing at you now :))

You really won't believe it. It's amazing and smells soooooo good. Enjoy!

Little Guppies

Taj and Eden just finished their swim classes for the summer. Taj graduated from level one and Eden did a great job in Parent/Tot. We've done the classes every summer since we moved here to Utah and Taj was almost a year old. It's kind of a summer tradition now. What's so great is that the classes are everyday for a two week session, and while it's a commitment to get there everyday I can really see an improvement in their water awareness, skills, and willingness to try new things at the end of it. They loved getting certificates and going down the big slide on the last day. I'm tempted to do another session, but I think since the swimming weather is fleeting here we'll just play and explore the water while we can.

There were tons of sessions to chose from and I just so happened to chose one with Charlene Goo- another Laie Girl (in the non-gang sense). We had a great time catching up. At the end of the session she gave me her "Mommy Card." I've never heard of these, but it's brilliant. It's like a business card, and gives all the info: email, phone, blog, and the name of her kids. Clever, huh. She explained that it's easier to hand that to a mom than wait for them to find paper or their phone with the kids all around. I love it!

Life Is But A Dream

A few days after the Fourth Uncle Adrian drove for 12 long hours by himself to visit Micah and all his glory (the family). Micah and Adrian have been best friends since 7th grade home ec. As the story goes they were wearing the same "NO FEAR" shirt that said "Second Place is Just the First Loser." It was meant to be.

We loved having him here. He had Eden at hello and Taj at original transformer cartoons on DVD. We did what anyone in Utah would do to show him a good time.

Hike to Battle Creek Falls:

Rafted the Provo River:

Roasted Hot Dogs and Marshmallows in the Canyon:

And had to say goodbye:

Thanks for the visit. We'll miss you.

Nature's Candy

I'm not a gardener by a long shot, but the little sprouts we planted and have been caring for are kicking some harvesting butt! We have huge zucchini, poky little pickling cucumbers, three large pumpkins (one of which is already turning orange, which seems odd to me) and the red cherry tomatoes of Edens dreams.

The goats have been kind enough to only eat half our apricot tree still leaving us more than we really need. All this fabulous garden fresh produce makes me think Mother Nature is trying to make up for such a long crappy winter. I think it might be working a little. With all this zucchini I had to find someplace to put it. It's gone into butter and garlic, pasta salad, smoothies, and our new favorite- zucchini bread. It's called zucchini cake around here and treated as a cake would be: devoured! Yum.