Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Prophet said to plant a garden...

This year our ward has encouraged all families to plant a garden.  We have planted a garden most years, but haven't been very good about making it a good garden.  We don't prep our soil well, we are not good at weeding, we only plant a couple of things.  This year I decided that for my Mother's day gift that I wanted a garden that was planted properly and tended to on a regular basis.  So, for Family Home Evening  a couple weeks ago we spent the night pulling weeds and turning the soil.  The following Monday for Family Home Evening we spread fertilizer onto the soil and tilled it, and the we planted our seeds. My mother in law said to soak the seeds for a day or 2 before you plant them.  We have corn, zuchinni, cantalope, carrots, tomatoes & pumpkins.  We even made a small area for Morgan to plant her own garden, she says she wants to be a farmer someday.  We are excited to watch our garden grow and have fresh veggies to eat this summer.


Tilling


Raking

Our seeds ready to be planted


Morgan's own garden

Dirty hands

All finished and waiting to grow

Thursday, May 10, 2012

My Oh My Look Who Turned 5


Morgan turned 5 last week and had a very fun filled day!  She chose cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast and was excited about going to pre-school to share her day with her friends.  After pre-school we went to lunch with her friend to her favorite place "Old McDonalds".  After lunch her friend came home with her to have a play date.  Later that afternoon we ventured to Build A Bear.  When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she told me she wanted a puppy.  So, I quickly had to come up with something that would steer her mind away from that much wanted dog.  I mentioned Build A Bear to her and explained to her that she would get to pick out her own bear, watch it get stuffed, give it a bath, pick out new clothes and then name her bear. She was so excited and I never heard the mention of a new puppy again.  Here she is at Build A Bear creating her new bear named "Butterfly"








 On Saturday she had her friend party and chose a "Garden/Fairy" theme.  I made the tissue paper pom poms in the back and Morgan wanted to keep them up for a few days longer, so they are still adorning our nook.



Butterfly Pinata
 


We played a "hot potato" game to open presents.  We played music while passing around her stuffed frog, when the music stopped the person who was holding the frog got to give Morgan their present from the pile.  It was a bit confusing to them, but it all worked out and everyone was happy.

Blowing out her 5 candles on her butterfly cupcake cake


 We LOVE Morgan to death and we couldn't imagine our lives without her. It's hard to imagine that 5 years have flown by so quickly.  As her birthday was approaching we would tell her that she had to stay 4 forever, but she promised us that she would stay 5 forever :)!  There are so many things about Morgan that I LOVE

She is my "girls night out" companion when the boys are camping - oh yea, we are looking forward to a whole week of "girls nights out" in June when the boys will be at scout camp!!! She makes me laugh and appreciate the simple things in life.

Morgans Likes:
Spaghetti
Reading, Reading and Reading - did I mention Reading
Coloring
Creating
swimming
taking baths
being outside & riding her bike
painting her fingers and toes
sleeping in
story time
pre-school

Morgan's Dislikes:
broccoli
Grilled cheese sandwiches & Quesadillas - she said she doesn't like the melty cheese part, but she will still eat pizza.
going to bed
getting up in the morning (sometimes I think she must be 15 not 5)
spiders & bugs
 

This is how much she LOVES her books - they are all over her room most nights when I go to kiss her goodnight on my way to bed.  She has to have a stack of books in her bed with her before I leave the room.


 I Love the broken glasses I caught her wearing a few nights ago.  She is always making me laugh!


Tuesday, March 6, 2012

A New obsession

My friend Karen introduced me to The Wood Connection back in December when I saw some of the cute crafts she was making for her coworkers. I immediately knew I had to jump on the bandwagon and start doing some serious crafting. Karen and I got together to do our "Winter" craft, I knew after displaying it that I was going to have to do something for every month. So here is what I've done so far:






And I seriously can't wait to start my spring/Easter Crafts, I'm heading to The Wood Connection on Friday!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Jeff and I had a great time celebrating our 17th anniversary together in Manti. I have ALWAYS wanted to go back to Manti, we had talked about it, but never made it much of a priority. I always had felt guilty about never taking the opportunity to go back, and I wondered why we had picked a place that was harder to get to when there were so many other Temples closer. I remember as a little girl looking at pictures of the beautiful Manti Temple, and dreaming about getting married there. Jeff received his endowments in the Manti Temple just before entering the MTC. His great uncle was a temple worker at the time and took him on a short tour of the Temple after his endowment session. He had told Jeff about the spiral staircase that led up to 2 sealing rooms. Jeff had made a decision that day that he wanted to be married in the highest sealing room in the northwest tower.

After Jeff and I began dating and becoming more serious we had talked about where we wanted to get married and to our amazement we both wanted to be married in the Manti Temple. His uncle was still working at that Temple and was a sealer, so we were lucky to have had a family member seal us. Like I said earlier I had always wondered why I had picked a Temple that was a bit more difficult to get to. I had had this feeling over the years and it had bothered me that we had never been back. As our anniversary approached I wasn't about to let another year go by without visiting the Manti temple. I book a room at this cute B&B directly across from the Temple.





We arrived on Friday evening and ate dinner at a local restuarant (which is about the only one in Manti). We drove around to see if we could find a grocery store, because I had forgotten my shampoo and conditioner at home, after wondering around Main street and other side street without any signs of a grocery store, we decided to just stop at a gas station. I asked the cashier if there were any grocery stores and she said that there were, but they closed at 8 pm. WHAT? On a Friday night? That's just crazy, I grew-up in a small town, but the grocery store was open until 10 or 11 pm. Anyway...we bought my shampoo and a few snacks, and headed back to our room. We had a nice romantic night together and the best thing about getting away is having no children waking up at the crack of dawn and asking for breakfast. After sleeping in a bit on Saturday morning we got up and got ready to go to the Temple, ate breakfast and headed to the Temple for the 10:30 session. We I walked into the doors, it was just as I had remembered it. Beautiful, ornate, majestic, etc. etc. I was in awe the whole time. The sessions are still live at this temple, and moving from room to room is a good way to keep you awake and on your toes. The paintings in each room were georgeous. We spent some time in the Celestial room, and contemplated about asking someone if we could climb the stairs to see "our" sealing room. We decided to go back downstairs and ask someone there. Jeff asked one of the men in the hallway, and he had told us that he couldn't give us permission, but he would find someone who could. He had us sit in the marriage waiting room, and after about 5 minutes he came and told us that he could take us up there. We climbed the stairs (I was out of breath and my legs our sore today), to sealing room 7. We he opened the doors, I had an overwhelming emotion take over me. It was just as I had remembered 17 years ago. The worker closed the doors and Jeff and I took a couple of minutes to reminise about that day. I was so grateful to that Temple worker who had taken the time out for us to see "our" sealing room.

Manti Temple at night!






Don't you love our squinty eyes? This was about the 10th picture we tried to take, the sun was SO bright!!



I LOVE getting away with Jeff, even if it is for only 1 night. I'm already looking forward to going again next year. This was one of the best get-aways we've had together.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

January 22, 1999 - I became a MOM!!!

I haven't ever written down Ian's birth story, because I'm terrible at journaling, so I'm going to attempt to remember as much as I can about his birth.

Jeff was in his last year of Chiropractic school in California. I was working full-time for National Elevator, as an Office Assistant. We had been discussing starting a family around Christmas time, but I couldn't get Jeff to commit. My thoughts were that we'd get pregnant and have the baby sometime in the fall right after he graduated, but he thought we should wait until he was completely done with school, but in my heart I knew that we should start a family before, no matter what the sacrifice might be. It took me a couple of month to convince him that it was the right time to start our family. We started trying in February and by April, I had become preggers (yep, that was fast). I found out I was pregnant right around Memorial day. I was extremely excited. I could hardly contain myself. I remember peeing on the stick right before work one morning and having to go into work without saying anything was REALLY hard. I called my Dr.'s office and they scheduled me for a blood pregnancy test to confirm. The Dr.'s office wouldn't actually schedule an appointment for me to be seen until I was about 12 weeks. I received my results the next day. We were too excited to wait to tell anyone, so I told the 2 girls that I worked with and then we called our families to tell them too. Waiting those 12 weeks were pure torture. I was lucky that I had very little nausea, especially since having to work full-time. When my 12 week appointment finally came, and were able to hear the heartbeat for the first time, it was pure joy. It all became very really for me at that moment. My due date would be January 11th, 1999.

I had my first ultrasound at 17 weeks. We decided that we were going to let our first baby be a surprise and not find out what the sex would be. Jeff claims he saw a boy part on the monitor, but I think he was just wanting his first to be a son so bad that he was hallucinating :).



The rest of my pregnancy went very routine, with no complications. As my pregnancy came to an end we went to a birthing class together, talked about boy and girl names, but had a hard time agreeing on any of them, we bought a few clothes (unisex), diapers, cradle, stroller and car seat. I loved doing all those things together. Since Jeff was nearing the end of school he was very busy studying for national boards I valued every single moment that we had to spend together. At Christmas time I was having a lot of braxton hicks, but nothing that seemed like labor. I thought for sure I would have this baby early or at least on time. My last day of work was on January 8th, just 3 days before my due date, with still no signs of labor. To celebrate my last day of work and to try to induce labor, we decide to go to this pizza place in Concord that was known for inducing labor with their spicy pizza. All it gave me was really bad heartburn and no baby yet. That following week, I tried to keep my eye off of having a baby by packing up our house for our move to Utah at the end of January. I even drank castro oil with O.J., but it only gave me bad diareah. I took blue cohosh, which is a herbal supplement also known to help induce labor. I went to my Dr.'s appt.'s hoping that there would be any signs, but I wasn't effaced and not even dilated to a 1. 9 days AFTER my due date my Dr.'s office decided to send me to the hospital where I would deliver for a stress test. They hooked me up to the monitor to check for any contractions. I wasn't contracting so they inserted prostiglandin gel, which helps soften the cervix to get things moving along. Shortly after the gel, I was having mild contractions, but nothing that was too painful. After an hour or so being hooked up to the monitor, the nurse told me that I was contracting at a steady enough rate that I could possibly have the baby that night or the next day. She sent me on my way to walk around, and told me to come back if the contractions got closer together. So, Jeff and I walked around and looked at some shops had a bite to eat. My contractions were getting closer and a little harder, but they weren't consistent enough for me to think that I was ready to go lay in a hospital bed quite yet. We both made the decision to drive home and wait and see what happens there. The drive from the hospital to our house was about 45 min., by the time we arrived home my contractions were becoming more and more painful. We decided to call the hospital to let them know that we would be arriving in about an hour. Jeff ran to the store to get some snacks for the night and I made sure everything was packed and ready to go in my hospital bag. We drove back to the hospital counting the minutes between contractions. I was checked into the hospital after finding out I was dilated to a 4, they also said that my bag of water was bulging. We were super excited, our long wait had finally become a reality. My contractions were coming at a pretty steady rate, but Ian's head wasn't engaging, I didn't have any pressure like most women to do push. They had me pushing has hard as I could to get him to engage, but after several hours of pushing, they decided that his head was too big for my pelvis, so they decided that I would need to have a c-section. I was totally bummed, but knew that it was for the best. They wheeled me into the operating room about 6ish in the morning, and shortly after I delivered a whopping 9lb 14oz., baby boy. It was the most amazing moment of my entire existence (even on a very large dosage of morphine). I wasn't able to hold him right after, which was really hard on me, I remember tears streaming down my face as the nurses took him away. I was grateful that Jeff was able to go be with him. It seemed to have taken forever for me to get out of surgery. After surgery they took me to recovery, I was in there for a while before Jeff came in. He reassured me that everything was well with the baby and that I would get to hold him and see him as soon as I was clear to go into my postpartum room. I remember the first time Jeff wheeled him into my room he was all wrapped up into a little burrito and the first words that came out of my mouth were "is he breathing?", he was so still, that it was hard for me to tell, and I was so worried about something going wrong.




Everything else for the entire week after Ian was born was somewhat chaotic. Jeff had accepted a job in Utah as an associate for a Chiropractic office in Layton. He was to start on February 1st. My parents flew in to help us pack and help with me and the baby. I wasn't to drive or lift anything, so I wasn't much help with the move. We left only a week after Ian being born and drove from California to Utah, taking 2 days to travel. We arrived in Salt Lake at my sisters house sometime in the early evening and stayed with her that night. The next morning we drove to our apartment in Clearfield. My dad and mom helped Jeff unload the truck. I was completely exhausted. I felt as thought I hadn't slept in a week, which for the most part was true. It took us along time to get settled into our place because I wasn't to do any lifting for a few weeks.

Ian was a really fussy baby and seemed to just want to nurse all day and all night, he wouldn't take a pacifier and wouldn't sleep more than little cat naps here and there. I had a hard time adjusting to our new life, I felt like I wasn't back to my somewhat normal self for at least 6 months. Going from working full time to being a mommy full time was hard and exhausting, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. When Ian wasn't fussy he was a pure ham. He loved hamming it up for anybody and everybody. Ian has always been very loving and tender hearted. I keep waiting for the day he won't give me hugs anymore, but even at 13 he still does, and I will take those hugs as long as I can get them. I feel so honored an blessed to have been given the opportunity to be his mother.

Happy Birthday Ian, I love you to the moon and back!!!


We loved spending time at the pool in our complex, on most days we'd go twice a day!





Ian turning 2


Kindergarten



Junior High

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Happenings!

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already. I love the Christmas season and this year has been one of my favorites. Watching the anticipation in a 4 year old is quite exciting! Thank goodness for countdowns and fun activities leading up to Christmas. Here are some pictures of our festivities from this month.


Morgan had 2 dance recitals this month, 1 at the Festival of trees (see video on post below) and another one with her the school of dance that she attends. She did a great job and I was surprised that she wasn't shy or scared about dancing in front of people.




For one of our F.H.E. activities we rode TRAX downtown Salt Lake to look at the lights on Temple square. It sure beats finding a place to park.






Morgan's awesome pre-school teacher had a Christmas program. All the kids in the class were cute little elves, they sang songs and memorized parts for the program. Morgan said her part loud and clear (unlike last year, when she was so incredibly shy and didn't mouth a word the whole night).


cute little props for the songs


Christmas Eve was spent at my sisters house. We ate A LOT of yummy food and had the kids act out the nativity.



Morgan and Seth as Mary & Joseph - Clare was a sheep and Grey was a Shepard, Ian was our narrator. We also sang a few songs afterwards despite my VERY rusty piano fingers.



This year I decided not to get the kids new jammies, because they have so many, but instead I bought "The night before Christmas" for the kids to open up on Christmas Eve. We read a few books and the kids were so excited about the next morning that they were in bed by 9:00. Ian slept on Morgan's floor and they laughed and giggled for a while. Jeff and I were able to enjoy watching a Movie together before Santa came.




Santa left a lot of loot for the kids - Morgan got her much wanted Lala Loopsy doll, Barbies and Make-up. Ian got a new watch, a skateboard and a wallet - he also left them Lion King and Cars 2.

After going to church and opening our other presents we drove down to Provo to be with Great Grandma Shane and Aunt Mary. We had a delicious Ham dinner together. Morgan is showing Grandma Shane her new barbies.

I'm already looking forward to next years Christmas with more new memories made.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dance Recital

This is from Morgan's first dance recital with her class. She performed at the Festival of Trees earlier this month. She did an awesome job!