I can't believe how long it has been since Jeff and I actually got to go away on our own without the kids. WAY TOO LONG! We recently celebrated our 15th year wedding anniversary, I decided that it was about time that we went somewhere together to celebrate. So, I booked a room in Midway at a nice B&B and then booked another B&B room in Vernal. The B&B in Vernal was an old converted Baptist church, I highly recommend it if you want a fun little romantic getaway. We had a great time relaxing, site seeing and going to the Vernal temple. If you've never been to the Vernal temple or seen it, it's an old Tabernacle that was converted into a temple. It's so beautiful on the inside. Here are some pics of our getaway.

This is at Dinosaur National Monument - Unfortunately the museum was closed for renovations.

I thought this rock was cool, it's called "Turtle Rock"

On our little hike up to see the petroglyphs

Jeff thought I was being dirty when I saw this petroglyph - he couldn't tell what it was at first. LOL

View of Flaming Gorge on our way home

Jeff was awarded the District Award of Merit in scouting last month. I never realized how big of an achievement this actually was until we were at the awards banquet. Jeff has worked diligently with the scouting program since we've been married. He's super organized, loves the outdoors, and most of all loves seeing the boys progress, and since he is just a big boy himself he fits right in.

We were so grateful Jeff's Dad and Brother were able to come and celebrate this achievement with us.

Morgan is FINALLY potty training. She has been doing so well and has had only 1 (#2) accident. She was fearful about going #2 on the potty, but after holding it for several days she finally got the courage to go. She loves the praises/bribes that she gets. Princess stickers, Eeyor, Princess and the Frog movie, ice cream (we found out she doesn't care for ice cream, silly girl) and lunch at McDonalds. Now our biggest task is to get her to go potty on the big potties. I didn't think that this would be an issue until last week when I met a friend for Lunch. She said she needed to go potty and when we sat her down only seconds later the automatic flusher flushed and scared her half to death. She said "It's flushing my bum, Mommy." so sad, but funny. So, since then I've learned the trick to not have it do that, putting your had over it, using a piece of t.p or I've heard some moms say the even carry post-it's and cover it up. I wish I would have known and thought of that before venturing out into public with a potty training child. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've only done this once before and it was a breeze. Ian was potty trained within a few days and was never scared to use the potty.

Ian just started Baseball practice this week and loves it. He's been bugging me to sign him up for the past couple of years. He hasn't played since t-ball so I was really nervous for him to be playing a sport that he doesn't have a lot of experience in. Since he's never played in the Babe Ruth League he had to go into the draft and "try-out". I let Jeff take him to try-out 'cause I'd be a nervous Nellie watching him. Jeff said he did pretty good for not playing before. We are excited for him and especially excited that he's finding his niche, he really loves to play sports.

As for me. I've been busy with the usual stuff and a couple extra things. I'm still working from home but I'm also working to build my business through 5000moms/USANA. This has been an exciting adventure for me. Through 5000moms, I'm learning to balance everything going on in my life while building a business. I'm finally realizing that taking the time for myself is so important to my family. Heavenly Father is giving me the tools to learn to have more patients with myself and my children. I'm excited about what the future holds.

Science Fair

Ian recently finished his first science fair project. This is not my forte, so I gladly handed the task over to Jeff who was more than happy to oblige. They thought and thought about what kind of project they wanted to do, and a week before the project was due, I gently nudged and reminded that they needed to pick something soon. With Jeff's computer programming skills, they decided to write a computer program. This was a program that would help keep track of Ian's 250+ car collection. Everytime Ian would get a new car he would race it down his track to find out which car would be the fastest. They raced and timed cars entered the time into the program, and also the make, color and year of the car. They finished the program at about midnight last Sunday. We went to the school on Monday morning to walk around the science fair. Later that day he found out that he was chosen to go onto the district level. Thursday night Jeff and Ian went to set up his project at another school in the district. On Friday we had him dress in his nice clothes so that he would look professional and ready for the judges. He said he wasn't nervous, but I think he was. He said that he did well and answered all the questions the way that he and Jeff had practiced. We went together as a family to find out the results and walk around to see the other projects (there were some pretty cool projects). Ian's project was in the Engineering category (there were only about 9 projects in the category). When they called the names for the 2nd place winners he wasn't announced, and when they called the names for the 1st place winners he wasn't announced either. He shed a few quiet tears, and my heart broke for him, it's really hard to watch your kids work hard and not get the results that they had hoped for. Well, tonight we got a phone call from one of the district judges, he said that there was a judging score mix-up and he received 2nd place after all. We were all hoping that he'd get first place, this would mean he'd go on to the state level at BYU. I'm so proud of all his hard work and dedication. He and Jeff worked REALLY well together and he only had 1 small meltdown (it would have been a lot more meltdowns if I would have been helping him). Jeff was so patient with him and really helped him learn some basic programing skills. They are already concocting ideas for next years science fair.

"Left to Tell"

There are few book that I would highly recommend as a must read. I couldn't pass up recommending "Left to Tell": Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculee Ilibagiza. She survived the Holocaust by hiding in a very tiny bathroom with 6 other women for 3 months, nearly starved to death, she found peace and comfort through the most difficult thing I could ever imagine having to endure. Her story is inspiring and heartbreaking. You can read a review on Amazon here

15 Years ago

15 Years ago I married my best friend. We've endured a lot of trials and triumphs, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. We have grown in so many ways, and although we don't always agree I know that Jeff always has my back.

Happy 11th Birthday

Ian had a fun birthday with friends this year. They ate A LOT of pizza (I forget how much BIG kids can eat)and had a BLAST skating at the Olympic Oval.

I can't believe he's a big 11 year old already. We are sure glad he's a part of our little family!

Merry Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas season. I'm always a little sad to see it end. We stayed home this year and had our own little quiet, stress free Christmas. Here's a look at some of our highlights this month.


Ian and I went to the Olympic Oval to skate. We had a great time. I used to go Ice Skating all the time as a kid at the local outdoor rink. Even though it's been well over 10 years since I last skated, I managed to not fall once (I'm not sure if I would have been able to get up if I did).

I bought a pre-made gingerbread house kit and this is how it turned out. Despite every effort to help save the poor house, it wouldn't stay up. The kids still had fun, and I'm learning to not be so stressed and just let the kids take over.

Our Christmas Eve Festivities included - watching movies, eating snacks, reading the Christmas story from the scriptures, and opening new jammies.






Christmas morning was fun and chaotic with presents, boxes, wrapping paper and plenty of giggles.


The kids both got new snow gear and they eagerly went out into the back yard and played and did some sledding. Morgan looks like a cute pink marshmallow :).




Morgan can't stay away from her new "baby alive", it poops and pees, squeals, cries and laughs

Christmas is always filled with lots of games, Jeff has beat both Ian and I in scrabble two nights in a row. He's just too good with finding words.