Anderson Family

All caught up...

2012-01-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

I finished designing my scrapbook pages. It was fun to remember all the good times we've had during the past two years. I hope you enjoy looking at them too.

One man's junk...

2012-01-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

is another man's treasure...

I have a thing for old weathered wood. I think old barns and sheds have so much personality. Our old shed, however, was just not meeting up to its potential. Last summer when James was coming home from work he noticed a house that was in the process of getting new vinyl fencing. They had piled all their old fence wood in their driveway and James happened to notice it and mention it to me. I jumped in the car and drove over to their house and knocked on their door. When I asked if I could have the wood the lady looked at me like I was a little crazy but she agreed. So we hauled the wood back to our house with plans to use the wood to recover our shed. (By the way, all of this happened during a spring rain storm, so yes, I probably am a little crazy.)

January is normally a hard month for me because I miss being outside and get tired of all the cold weather. But so far this January has been great. Last week we had a run of warm days ending with temps in the 60's on Saturday. So I decided to get started on my shed makeover. After the third staple, my staple gun stopped working so I had to wait for James to get home from the store to fix it for me. (Can I just say how much I appreciate having a husband who can fix everything!) So after that little hickup, the project went really fast. Dallin was so excited to work with me on it and that made me excited too. We pounded out the side of the shed in just a couple of hours on Saturday, but it was getting late so we didn't have time to do the front that day.

I was hoping the string of warm weather would carry over until Monday so I could do the front, but it didn't. Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so the kids and James were home. I woke up that morning and my first thoughts were of how I was going to design the doors. So I grabbed the ipad and browsed images of barn doors while cuddling in my warm bed with James. After settling on a design I liked I decided to get started on it because I just wanted to finish the front so badly. The temps were back in the normal January range (26-30) but we did it anyway. The kids took turns helping me while the others were inside warming up. Shelby helped staple a good portion of the front pieces on. Then we took the doors inside the garage and Dallin helped me put them together.

While we were finishing the doors my Mom came over with two glasses of green smoothies for us to drink for a little boost of energy. I thought it was super nice of her to think of us and do that. What a nice Mom I have! Then we got back to work. After I drank the smoothie I noticed that my throat felt a little itchy, which happes sometimes when I eat watermellon or canteloup. So I figured there must have been something in the smoothie that I was a little alergic to. But then my stomach started to feel upset and I really started feeling strange. We finished the doors and I went inside to ask James a question about the hinges. It wasn't long before my ears were itching, my scalp was super itchy, I started to break out in hives all over and I started wheezing. I have to admit that it freaked me out a little. I quickly took a bunch of Benadryl to counteract the allergic reaction and called Mom to find out what was in the smoothie. The only ingredient that she included that I don't normally have is bee pollen. So apparently I am highly allergic to injested bee pollen! The Benadryl helped abate the symptoms but completely wiped me out and I slept most of the afternoon. James took a break from wiring our basement and hung the doors by himself. I'm still not sure how he managed that, but he did. When I finally woke up and got a peak at the finished product I loved it! We still have the other two sides to go, but the view from my kitchen is perfect.

We need to move the wood pile that is on the other side of the shed before we can get started on that side, so Dallin and I have been splitting logs and transferring the wood pile to the finished side the past couple of days after school. After the first day of working on it Dallin said, "Can I chop more wood when I get home from school tomorrow?" I love his work ethic! Yesterday at 3:30 pm I found myself thinking, "Only 20 more minutes until Dallin gets home and we can go outside and work together." I really have fun working with my kids.

First Round of Scrapbook Pages

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to catch up on my family scrapbooks. I have a little over 2 years to catch up on. When I went through all my pictures and pulled out the ones I thought were scrapbook worthy I had 615 pictures. So I have my work cut out for me! But I love to do my scrapbook pages so I have been making some good progress the past couple of weeks and wanted to share them! More to come later!

Fall at the Andersons

2011-12-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy couple of months. But I really don't want to forget all the fun things we have been doing. So I'm going to write about them and post a bunch of pictures. So here goes...

Dallin's soccer team took 2nd place in the Rangers Soccer League. I was really proud of all his hard work and dedication. The first two pictures show his team and Dallin holding the team trophy they won.
Back in the spring we got some chicks from our friend. The kids each had one that they kind of adopted and felt like it was their own chicken. Well, we started to notice that one of our chickens seemed to be cock-a-doodle-doing. At first we weren't really sure, because it didn't sound like a normal rooster crowing. But after a while it became apparent that one of our chickens was really a rooster. Our city ordinances prohibit having roosters inside the city limits, so this was a problem for us. Not to mention all the noise he was making. I told the kids what I suspected and Shelby said, "I hope it's not Crown! (her special chicken)" I told her I thought it might be and she got teary eyed and sad. I told her I would go out the next morning to see which one it was. Well the next morning I heard the rooster crowing and was about to get out of bed when Shelby appeared by my bed and said, "I couldn't tell which one it was." She had been looking out the window waiting for the sound. We went out together and watched them and sure enough, it was her Crown who was the crow. When we saw it cock-a-doodle-do Shelby burst into tears because she knew that we had to give her chicken, well rooster, away. She had a rough couple of days but eventually came around to the idea. We took Crown to a friends farm who has enough land to be able to keep the rooster. So now we are down to 3 chickens. We told Shelby we would get her a new baby chick in the spring. She is really excited about that.

The last couple of pictures are of Shelby playing in her very first piano recital. She played "Colors of the Wind," from Pocahontas. She did a really good job and seemed to enjoy it. She has a lot of confidence and doesn't seem to get nervous when performing or speaking in front of people.

These group of pictures above are kind of a random assortment of pictures. I did a fun project with the kids using crayons. We had a bunch of crayons someone had given us so we glued them to some boards in whatever pattern the kids wanted to do. Then we took some blow dryers and melted them. The end result was pretty cool. The kids each made their own and have them hanging in their rooms now. It was a fun and easy project to do with them.

Our chickens have been laying eggs for a couple of months now. November 9th was the day we got the first egg. Since that time they have been laying eggs every day. We usually get either 2 or 3 eggs each day. Good job chickens!

The last two pictures show Shelby and her entry for the Reflections contest. The theme for this year was "Diversity means..." I gave her the idea of using our baby pumpkins and gourds to show diversity. I helped her get the camera ready, but she put together the arrangement and took the picture all by herself while I was making dinner. Her entry won 1st place in her division for her school. They called it an "Award of Excellence" and she got a nice trophy with her name engraved on it and a folder with photography helps. Her entry will go on to compete in the District level now. I was super proud of her for following through and completing the entry. I was going to not do it because I had a lot going on, but she reminded me over and over until we got it finished. Good job Shelby!

For Fall break this year we did a couple of fun activities. I have always wanted to ride the ski lifts at Sundance, and we figured the fall was a perfect time to do it because we could enjoy the beautiful changing leaves at the same time. It was a fun family "mini-vacation". When we got home Cody said, "Mom, I really liked the sunny dance! That was a lot of fun." We also went to Thanksgiving point and dug for fossils at their "Trilobite quarry". We spent several hours breaking rocks open trying to find some fossils. We found quite a few of them and had a fun time doing it. I only included one picture of them, but we probably found 30 or so.

These pictures are a bunch I took throughout the fall. Cody and Darcy were my good helpers when it was harvest time. They worked really well together and had a fun time doing it. Of course, raking leaves is a favorite for the kids. But the best part is jumping in the piles afterwards. And we did our annual pumpkin sale on the corner. All the kids came out and helped. They sold a lot of the baby pumpkins and gourds that we grew in our garden. They love doing it, which is one of the main reasons I plant the baby pumpkins each year.

Halloween was super fun this year. My mom sewed a beautiful Rapunzel dress for Darcy, which gave me the idea to be "Mother Gothel". So I made a costume for myself. Shelby was the Queen Mother from Rapunzel. Cody was batman and Dallin was a cowboy. We had a fun party at Papa and Gram's house and had fun trick or treating. The weather was really mild for the first time in several years, so it was enjoyable to walk around the neighborhood.

November is birthday month at our house. We started off with Cody's fifth birthday on November 6th. He had a fun birthday party with his friends from Church. He wanted a treasure hunt and pinata. So that's what we did and he loved it!

Shelby's birthday was on November 17th and she turned 8 years old. Since she loves crafting, we did a craft birthday party. She invited several friends from school and we painted snowmen and did other little crafts. It was a great party for her and her friends. They really had fun making the crafts.

Dallin turned 10 on November 27th. Once our kids get baptized we stop having friend parties and do something fun as a family instead. So for Dallin's birthday he wanted to go to Jump-on-it. Both Cody and Dallin wanted Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream cakes, that is their new favorite. The peanut butter takes it to a whole new level of enjoyment...yum...

On December 3rd, Shelby was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was such a special day. She is a beautiful girl with such a sweet spirit. She has a tender heart and seems to be able to feel the spirit. She asked me to give a talk on Baptism and Papa Anderson to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. She and her cousins sang a special musical number "When I am Baptized", which was beautiful. James baptised and confirmed her and did a great job on both of them. As I was giving the talk, I felt impressed by how much Heavenly Father loves her and how proud of her He is. It was a special experience! We invited everyone over to our house afterwards for food and visiting. What a great day it was!

One of my favorite family traditions is making Gingerbread houses. My mom is AMAZING! She makes a house for every one of her grandchildren every year. It is a lot of work! The kids love making their houses and it is fun to see their creations. I need to go over and take some pictures of the completed houses and village, but we are still waiting on some other cousins to get here and decorate their houses. Thanks Mom for all your hard work and for carrying on this great tradition!

Catching up on September

2011-10-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to catch up on some of the things our family has been doing the past couple of months. I realized I haven't posted any pictures from Darcy's birthday. She turned 3 years old on August 21st, which happened to be the day we were driving home from California. I didn't think sitting in a car for 11 hours would be a very fun birthday memory, so we pretended her birthday was a few days later. She was super excited about her presents and thought it was her birthday every day that week because we spread out the fun over a couple of days. One day we opened presents, another day we went to Jump-on-it. She loved it all. Here are some pictures of her opening her presents and blowing out the candles on her cupcakes.

Back to school was extra fun this year because all four kids got to participate. Darcy was so excited to be able to go to school with Cody. Almost every night she remembers to be thankful for going to school when she says her prayers. Sometimes that is the only thing she talks about in her prayers, so we know she really loves it. Here are some pictures of the first day of school.

Dallin and Shelby's school has a really fun Fall Festival that we go to every year. This year was a cowboy theme. We decorated soda pop bottles and Shelby's was picked as one of the most creative ones.

They also had Crazy Hair Day at school which prompted some really crazy hair for my kids. Dallin decided to let his hair grow long until crazy hair day, then we cut half of his hair really short and left the rest long. It looked really awesome. I think Dallin's hair would be as curly as mine if he grew it out a little longer. Too bad my girls didn't get his hair! Shelby wanted to be a unicorn, so we gave her a horn and mane. Cody and Darcy couldn't be left out so we sprayed their hair too. It was fun to see the kids creativity.

The Fathers' and Sons' campout was in September this year. James and the boys went camping and had a fun time. The girls in the cul-de-sac decided to start a new tradition of a girls night sleep over party at Grandma's house. We set up all the girls in the bonus room and they slept there together. I slept in one of the extra bedrooms and Julie and Kelli slept at their own houses. It was a fun night. We had dinner together and watched movies. Then we had french toast for breakfast the next day. It was super fun and I'm excited to do it again next year!

Dallin finished his soccer season. His team was undefeated for the entire season of play and made it to the playoffs. They made it all the way to the championship game and then lost in overtime by one point. It was a pretty intense game. Dallin's coach told me that he thinks Dallin is the best right defender in the entire league. So that was nice to hear. It was a change for me to go from having him be on offense the last few years to defence this year. But he really is a natural defender and does a great job at that position. Very rarely does a player get past him to take a shot at the goal. Here are some shots I took of him throughout the season.

And that about covers September. The October update will be coming soon!

Summer Ends on a High Note

2011-09-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Summer is over and school is back, which means I have a little more time to myself lately. Summer was great and I loved having my kids around all the time. We did some really fun things together. I didn't take time to blog about the things that we did, so I think I'll do a quick catch up post.

In July we had a big family reunion with all the Anderson side of the family. Everyone came to Utah and we spent a week together. We did lots of fun activities together. Here is the family picture we took of all of us together.

One highlight of the reunion was our 4th of July party. We had a water party with my Mom's big blowup slide. We played lots of volleyball, which was awesome! We also played some minute to win it games and had lots of yummy food. And to end off the celebration we had fun with the fireworks. Here are a couple of pictures we took with with sparkers.

We also went to a lake and had fun paddling around in some canoes that Papa and Gram brought. We had a fun time at the zoo together. It was really fun to see all the family members who live out of state. I thought the reunion was a lot of fun.

Another highlight of the summer was our family vacation to Los Angeles. We drove there and stayed with my cousins Stacy and Pierce Thiot. They live only about 5 miles from the beach, which was perfect! We spent most of our time at the beach, which was so much fun.

The water was cool but comfortable and the sand was soft and nice. We did lots of boogie boarding and digging in the sand. The kids loved finding baby crabs in the sand. Dallin was really good at boogie boarding, I was impressed!
Stacy is a photographer - Red Poppy Photos by Stacy Thiot - so we had her take some family pictures for us while we were there. We ended up with so many great shots. I am going to print up the collage of pictures above to hang over my fireplace. And this one of me and the girls to hang in their room.

Another favorite of the kids was playing trains with Pierce. He has some really cool lego trains that are powered by remote control - a perfect combination for Dallin and Cody. But even Shelby and Darcy got into it and had a blast.

We also went to the Santa Monica Pier, which was really fun. They had rides and lots of carnival games. We played lots of games and had a great time.

Soccer season is going full force for Dallin. He's playing with the Utah Rangers this year, which has been really good for him. It is a competitive soccer league with really good coaches. He has loved it so far. Shelby decided not to play soccer this year and take piano lessons and dancing lessons instead. She has been taking piano lessons all summer long and is really improving. The past couple of weeks have been really good for her and she is excited about how much better she is playing.

And now the kids are back in school. Dallin is in 4th grade and Shelby is in 2nd grade. Cody and Darcy are both in preschool. Cody goes M,W,F and Darcy goes M,W. So for a couple of hours on Monday and Wednesday I am alone. It's kind of strange, but also good.

Girls Bedroom Makeover

2011-06-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to share my girls bedroom makeover. I should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. They used to share a queen bed, but Shelby is a very active sleeper. She would roll around so much in her sleep that almost every night Darcy would wake up crying because Shelby was on top of her or had kicked her. I knew we needed to do something when one night Darcy was fussing before bed and said, "I don't want to go to bed. I don't like Shelby's legs!"

So I decided we needed to put them in separate beds so Darcy and I could get some sleep at night.

The only problem was that their bedroom is pretty small and there wasn't really room in there for two beds and two dressers. So I decided to build new beds that combined the bed and dresser into one.

I looked online and found some pictures of captain's beds that I liked and decided to give it a shot. James has been so busy at work lately that I figured I would just do what I could on my own. So I designed the beds and figured out all the measurements and cuts I'd need to make. James double checked my work and made a couple of improvements and we were ready to go. This is the first project I have fully designed on my own, so I was a little nervous that it might not come together like I hoped, but luckily it turned out great.

I had so much fun building them. I couldn't cut the full sheets of plywood by myself so I had James help me with those cuts, but other than that, I did almost all of it on my own. It took me about 2 weeks of full time work to finish the beds. It was so satisfying to see them take shape and turn out well. The beds have been done for a couple of weeks now, but I had to wait until we got the new bedspreads to post the pictures.

The girls were excited to be on their beds when I was taking pictures of them.

I told James that I wanted to go over to Papa and Grams house to use their scroll saw to cut out names for the girls. Instead James came home with a scroll saw of our own... He couldn't pass up the chance to get a new tool. So with our scroll saw I cut out these names for the girls. They picked the color to paint them.

Here is a closer shot of the bookshelf headboard. And below you can see the little flower table I made with the scraps that were leftover from the beds. I didn't want all the wood to go to waste and clutter up our garage.

The top of the table is shaped and painted like a flower

I also built the little step stools out of the scraps I had leftover. The beds ended up being so tall that I knew Darcy wouldn't be able to get in and out of them without something to step on. She loves the little stairs as you can see.

I think one of the favorite features for the kids is the fort I build along the back side of the bed. The drawers only take up half of the bed, so I made doors so the kids could go under their beds or store things under them. They play under there all the time with their little flashlights.

Here's a shot of Darcy standing next to the beds...you can see they are as tall as she is. We put a swimming noodle under the sheets by the edge of the bed to help keep her from falling out of the bed. So far it has worked really well.

It was a super fun project to design and build. The girls love their new beds and have had so much fun putting things in their bookshelves and playing in their forts.

Making Progress

2011-06-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to report that we are making progress on our basement! Yesterday we had a framing party and Chris, Joe, Matt, Jared, and Papa show up to help us. We worked for several hours together and had a great time. This was my first experience framing, so it was fun for me to try something new. Thankfully Chris is super experienced and told me exactly what to do. Chris and I worked on laying out the chalk lines for the walls around the perimeter of the basement and then worked on building the furdowns around the AC/Heat Ducts. Here's the furdown that I helped build.

The rest of the guys were building the perimeter walls. We still have a lot of work to do, but it is fun to be making progress on it.

I thought I'd add some pictures from our fishing trip we did a couple of weeks ago. We went to a pond in Pleasant Grove and had a fun time catching lots of fish. Each of the kids caught at least a couple of them. I thought it was cute when Darcy sat down next to Dallin while he was fishing.

Here is Dallin with a fish on.

And here is one of the fish we caught. I know they are tiny fish, but they are still fun to catch.

Four little chickies...

2011-06-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

We had our first casualty this week. Our little black chickens fell prey to a neighborhood dog. Rest in peace Thunderbolt. :(

Five little chickies...

2011-05-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

That's right, we have chicks at our house! James' good friend Chris Thomsen ended up with a double shipment of chicks and needed to get rid of some of them. So we took five of them off his hands. We have had such a fun time playing with these little chicks. I think we'll build a chicken coup in our back yard and harvest our own eggs. It can be a job for the kids to learn responsibility, and maybe even earn a little money selling the eggs around the neighborhood. Here are some pictures of the kids playing with the chicks.

Twohead

2011-05-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you're wondering if I misspelled the title of this post. There's a funny story behind it. We were outside eating lunch today, enjoying the beautiful warm, windy day. We were eating hamburgers and fries...perfect food for a picnic. Most of us had finished our hamburgers and were just eating the fries out of the bowl. A big gust of wind came along and flipped one of the plastic plates up and it hit Darcy right in the forehead. We asked her what happened and she said, "Wow, that plate hit me right in the twohead." I said, "Do you mean your forehead?" She said ,"Oh, that's right."

Twohead, Fourhead, Forehead...same difference right. :) Kids make me laugh.

My Little Dancer

2011-05-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is Shelby's first year of dancing. I loved dancing when I was little. I always wanted to be a ballerina. Anyway, Shelby had her dance pictures this past Saturday, so we did her hair and makeup and WOW, she is beautiful! I took some pictures of her and couldn't wait to share them. Here are my favorites.

Love the smolder...

She was supposed to do her hair up in a curly ponytail. It took a while, but looked great.

So darling...

Kitchen Makeover

2011-05-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

I finally made some curtains for my kitchen and am so happy with the difference they make in my kitchen. Here is the before shot.

And here is the after shot.

Having the curtains helps a little with the noise level in my kitchen too. So that's an added bonus.

Thanks to Stacy and Pierce I have these cute words to put in my kitchen too. They didn't have room in their new place for them. Their leaving made my house a lot cuter. But I'd rather have them here.

Below is another addition from the Stacy/Pierce move. The table and a few of the items on top were from them. I painted the table black and antiqued it. I love it.

I finally have a good place to display my family albums. I bought these Septarian Geode Bookends while we were on our vacation to Zions National Park this spring. The Septarian nodules are found in the mountains there just to the east of Zion Nat'l Park, which is right where we stayed. They look even more interesting in real life.

And I love my Mother's Day present (that I gave myself). I had a canvas wrap made of our family at Goblin Valley. I put it above the door in our kitchen. I love it too.

Spring Break 2011

2011-04-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

For Spring Break this year our family decided to go on a road trip to Southern Utah. I don't particularly like long drives. So I planned our trip so that we wouldn't have any. Our plan was to drive for 3 1/2 hours to Goblin Valley where we would hike and explore for a few hours and then drive another 3 1/2 hours to Monument Valley where we would stay for a couple days. That's the kind of driving trip I like to take...short drives with long breaks.

Well, it didn't turn out quite like that. We left at about 8 am and were making good time. We stopped in Spanish Fork to get some gas and treats for the drive then headed through the canyon. After driving for 1 hr 20 min we decided to stop again for a restroom break. By this time we were in Price. It was at this point we realized that James' wallet was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere and couldn't find it. We called back to the gas station we had stopped at earlier and found out that they had the wallet. So we had to turn around and drive the 1 hr 20 minutes back to get the wallet and then drive another 1 hr 20 min again to get back to Price. So rather than getting to Goblin Valley at 11:30 am like I planned, it was 2:30 pm...Bummer! (But I am super glad we found his wallet and that nothing was missing.)

Goblin Valley was awesome though! We had so much fun there. It was a first for all of us so we all had a great time exploring and climbing on all the rock goblins. I got to use my birthday present from James, which was a small flexible tripod that was perfect for the uneven surfaces there. Here are some of my favorite pics from Goblin.

This first picture is so funny if you look closely at all the kids faces. I laugh every time I look at it!

We loved Goblin Valley and are definitely going to schedule another trip there sometime. We left around 4 pm and headed to Monument Valley. We were hoping to get there by 7:30 pm, but the road the GPS wanted us to take didn't really exist, so we ended up taking a much longer route than necessary. We didn't get there until about 9 pm. I was sad about that because I really wanted to see the sunset over Monument Valley, and the sky was beautiful that night. But I was just so relieved to have the drive finished. What was supposed to be a 7 hour drive ended up being closer to 11 hours! When we realized the GPS had steered us astray James said, "Well, if you don't suffer a little you won't remember it!"...classic Dad quote.

Monument Valley was beautiful. Several years ago I painted a picture from Monument Valley and ever since then I have wanted to go there in person. It is Navajo property so it is very different than a National Park. We drove the 17 mile loop around the monuments and had a lot of fun. We ran along the road for part of the time and took lots of pictures. It was fun. Here are some of the pics we took.

After spending two days at Monument Valley we drove to Zion National Park and spent another two days there. We had a great time going on lots of hikes together. Here we are crossing the bridge at the start of the hike to Emerald Pools.We stayed at Zion Ponderosa Resort which is several miles outside the East Entrance to the park. It was a really cool place. Here we are outside our cabin. I think we should have a family reunion there sometime.

This pictures of Darcy was taken at the end of the Riverside Walk at the trailhead to the Narrows. We couldn't go any farther up the trail because the water levels were too high. There were hundreds of these cairns that people had made. It looked pretty cool.

I was so proud of my kids for looking at the camera, not at me as I ran to get in my spot. They must be growing up. I enjoy each phase of their lives, but it sure seems to be getting more fun as they get older. I love this family!

New York + Phily + D.C. = Best Weekend Ever!

2011-02-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

One of the Christmas presents James gave me was a trip to New York. We went on the trip this past weekend and it was AMAZING! I had so much fun. Before I get into all the fun stuff we did I first need to thank the people who made it possible.

Stacy and Pierce Thiot, my amazing cousins, took care of our kids the whole weekend. They were wonderful with the kids. Everyday when we would talk to the kids they would tell us how much fun they were having. I don't think they even missed us, they were too busy having a blast. Knowing the kids were in good hands made it so much more fun for me too. So THANK YOU Stacy and Pierce! You were awesome!

The other people I need to thank are Luke Dean (my honorary brother), his wife Angela, and their three cute girls. They live in New Jersey and let us stay with them while we were in NY. They gave us so many good pointers and we loved staying with them. I slept great, they fed us yummy food, and it was so fun to visit with them and see their darling kids. Thank you so much!

The first night we were there, we went to Liberty State Park to see the Statue of Liberty from the Jersey side. It was a pretty site. One of the things I was looking forward to most on this trip was taking some fun pictures. So I was extreemly disapointed when both of my batteries ran out of juice after only about 20 minutes of use at Liberty State Park. I think one of them has gone bad and wouldn't hold the charge. I don't know what happened to the other one. So we headed into the city to experience the crazy traffic and see if we could buy another battery.We saw Ground Zero and then drove to Times Square. We found a Camera store that was open and I went in to buy a battery and car charger. I found what I needed but did not like the price! I said something to the guy behind the counter about the price and he said, "I will give you a better price, because of your pretty blue eyes." That reminded me of my time in Israel and Egypt. So I decided to see if I could barter with him on the price. The list price for the two items was over $200, but he said he would give them to me for $140. I told him I would buy them for $120 then we settled for $129. It was super fun to barter again. Buying things is so much more fun when you can haggle over the price a little!

I was just so happy to have my camera functioning again. So we took a couple of pictures in Times Square from the car and then headed out to Luke's house. We took one of the tunnels out of the city and then drove over an overpass that had an amazing view of the city. James asked if I wanted to stop for a picture. Of course I did, but we couldn't stop on the freeway. So we took the next exit and happened upon a fantastic spot to take a panorama shot of the skyline.

It was really late by this time and I was tired from all the travel, so we headed to Luke and Angela's house. It was after midnight when we got there, but Luke was there to greet us and help us get settled in. I slept so well that night. It was great to not have any kids to worry about. The next morning Luke and Angela made us a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes, juice...it was delicious. Then we headed into the city to see the sites.

The first place we stopped was Central Park...probably because we found a great parking spot right next to the park. James managed to parallel park in a space that was about 2 feet longer than our car. It was amazing to see. After he squeezed into the spot and we started getting our things together a doorman came out and told us we would get towed if we left our car there. So we drove another block and found a great spot. The signs were confusing so we double checked with a police officer before leaving our car.

Central Park was beautiful, even though it is the middle of winter. I loved all the bridges. Luckily for us there were no people near this bridge. So I set my camera on the mini-tripod I brought and took these pictures.

After Central Park we went to FAO Schwartz. I wanted to take a pic of us on the big piano, but someone had rented the piano room for their 1 year old's birthday party. They had it roped off and only let party guests in. We thought about borrowing a child so we could get in, but decided against it. When we left FAO the temps had dropped and the wind had picked up. Light snow was falling but the wind was making it go sideways. We got onboard one of the Gray Line Bus tours and rode through the city for a while. When we got hungry we got off and took a taxi to the Carnegie Deli. They are famous for their HUGE sandwiches. Ours was at least 6 inches tall and packed with so much meat. The picture doesn't do it justice because I don't have anything in there to give a size reference. We didn't even come close to finishing our sandwiches.

The cheesecake was so delicious. It was also huge. But we did manage to eat all of the cheesecake!

We rode the bus tour for the rest of the afternoon and enjoyed learning about the city. We wanted to eat dinner at Serendipidy. So we rode the bus to the closest drop off point and then walked for about 12 blocks through the city to get to the restaurant. When we got there, the wait was 2-3 hours. So we put our name on the list and went back out to explore. We rode over the East River on a tram.

I liked it because the view was really pretty, and by this time I had figured out how to take good night pictures with my camera. We walked around the city looking for a scarf to buy for me. We went in Bloomingdales just for fun and noticed that the very regular looking scarfs cost anywhere from $125 - $375. Then we found a street vendor selling them for $5 and decided that was more in our price range.

We went back to Serendipidy and enjoyed a delicious dinner. We ended our meal with their famous mint iced hot chocolate.

We spent some more time in Times Square, which is beautiful at night. You can't see all the garbage everywhere as easily at night. During the day it is pretty disgusting. There is so much garbage all over the city.

After we had our fill of downtown we headed back to Luke's house. I wanted to stop by the spot we had found the other day so we could take some more pictures of the skyline. I just couldn't get enough of that place.

The next morning we found the Manhattan Temple. It is a very unique temple surrounded by huge skyscrapers on all sides.

We also rode the ferry out to Statten Island. I really enjoyed the ferry ride. We got to see the front of the Statue of Liberty. It was freezing cold, but thankfully the ferry was enclosed so we could be warm inside except for when we went out to take pics.

After seeing the Statue of Liberty we started our drive to Washington D.C. We stopped in Philadelphia on the way and ate dinner there. It was a pretty city. I was kind of tired by this time so I didn't take so many pictures there. I started getting a sore throat when we got to NYC and it progressed into full blown larangitis by the time we left NYC. Luckily I was able to get some antibiotics and they helped a lot.

This is a picture of downtown Philadelphia. The building in the middle of the road is City Hall. After driving through Phily and seeing Independance Hall and some of the other sites there we headed to D.C. The next morning we went to the D.C. Temple and then headed toward the National Capitol.

We went to some of the Smithsonian Museums. I liked the Air and Space one a lot.

We saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

Here is another tripod shot of the two of us that I particularly liked.

We also went to Mount Vernon, which is the home of George and Martha Washington. I had never been there, so I enjoyed seeing a new place.

It was such a fun vacation. I loved spending so much uninterrupted time with James. Thanks again Stacy and Pierce for making our trip possible!

November News

2010-12-03T09:24:00.001-08:00

As you know, November is birthday central around our house. We started off the month with Cody turning 4 years old. He wanted to go to Jump On It for his party. And then we topped it off with lunch at Canya Junia (otherwise known as Carls Jr.) He is such a fun kid to have in our family. He is always keeping us laughing. He is also one of the sweetest little kids I know. He is so loving and helpful. Every night he comes out of his room and says, "Mom, can I tell you something?" I say yes and he goes on to say something like, "You are a very nice Mom and I love it when you play with me. That's all, I love you." Sometimes he adds in something extra if we did something fun together that day. But he always comes out to tell me he loves me. How can you get mad at a kid for getting out of bed when he comes to tell you that every time. What a sweetie!

Next came Shelby's birthday on the 19th. For her party she wanted to invite Elsa and Mindi over for a dress up party. We painted nails, did makeup, made crafts, and ate pumpkin pie. It was a lot of fun. Darcy was sleeping during the party. When she woke up she decided she would like to paint her nails too. Of course she chose the hot pink color and decided to paint them on our living room carpet. (I was photographing a wedding and James was downstairs working on our fireplace at the time). Now we have pretty pink carpet! Yeah...

We are in the middle of a home improvement project. The US government is giving a tax rebate on new high efficiency wood burning stoves. We have wanted one for our basement and decided to take advantage of the rebate while we can. So we've been building our fireplace downstairs. We had to use steel studs and concrete board for the walls. James loves trying new things, so this was a fun challenge for him. Here's a picture of James and his brother Ben cutting the steel studs.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend we finished up the walls and laid the slate tile. Joe and Ben came to help. It was great to have them there. We got all the tiles laid and will grout this coming weekend. Here is what the fireplace looked like just after we finished laying the tiles. I am so excited with the way it turned out. It looks better now that I have cleaned it up, but I'll wait to post the final picture after we have grouted this weekend.

Dallin's birthday was on November 27th. He decided what he would like most for his birthday was to go rock climbing as a family. So here are some pictures from our rock climbing party at The Quarry.

The weather has been very cold lately. The kids loved the first good snow storm we had. They made a mini snow man that was very cute.

November was a fun an busy month, like it always is. I had a wedding and some family pictures to take. The cold weather is always a challenge when it comes to photography, but the pictures turned out great, even if my fingers were numb afterwards. My hip has been bothering me a lot the last few months. I am going to go see a specialist about it and hopefully find something that can help it feel better.

The other day Cody said something cute. My hip was hurting a lot at the time and he really wanted me to go downstairs with him so he could watch a different movie than the one we were watching upstairs. I told him I wasn't going to go downstairs because my hip hurt too bad. He kept begging me to go downstairs. After saying no several times I said, "Cody, how am I supposed to put a movie on for you downstairs if I am not going to go downstairs?" He thought for a second and then said, "If you were Elastagirl, you could stay up here and just reach downstairs and put the movie on for me!" What a cute and creative little kid. If only I had Elastagirl's powers!!!

Halloween Glow

2010-10-31T09:43:00.001-07:00

It was a very rainy Halloween, so we decided to have fun inside rather than going trick or treating. As we were painting our pumpkins, we discovered that we had some black light reactive glow in the dark paint. I have no idea when we bought it or why we had it, but we sure made good use of it last night. We all painted our faces and then had a rockin' halloween dance party.

Of course the fun wouldn't be complete without some time lapsed photography in the dark to show off our glowing faces. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the night. Here is James with his scary face. It didn't look as scary in the light, but when it glowed it was a little freeky!

This one is Shelby...I mean Hanna Montana.

Here is our little Darcy Care Bear. I was so proud of her to stay so still for this shot. That's a big accomplishment for a 2 year old!

I think this one is my favorite shot of the night. Cody stayed so still and held such a great pose while we waved the glow sticks over his head. Awesome!

This one is me...

And here is Dallin

This is another favorite shot of the night. I loved the paint job Stacy did on Pierce. This shot reminds me of Avatar.

Here we all are...trying to all hold exactly still at the same time. Kind of hard...

Here is a shot with the flash on to show the rest of our costumes. It was a super fun Halloween party. I think we may need to do this again next year!

Fall Adventures

2010-09-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

Fall is one of my favorite seasons! We've had a good couple of months so I thought I'd better post some pictures from our adventures. Darcy turned 2 on August 21st. She's such a cutie. She has been telling everyone that she is three for the past year. So we decided to try to get her to show two fingers and say two. She has a little tricky thing she does with her two fingers where she twists them together. So as we were trying to teach her to hold up only two fingers I told her to do her tricky fingers. That worked pretty good, but now whenever anyone asks her how old she is she just says "Tricky" and holds up her two fingers twisted together. It's pretty cute.
James' work group did a team building activity where we went boating up at Jordanelle. It started Thursday and got over Friday afternoon. We could have camped the night, but we decided it would be easier to just drive home and sleep in our own beds. It was a really fun two days. We went tubing together....

And we both tried knee boarding...

I thought we both did pretty well considering we don't do this sort of thing very often. We had so much fun out on the boat that we decided we'd like to buy a boat someday. So now our wish list includes a boat.

James' family also planned a family camping trip up in the Uintas. We had quite a difficult time trying to find the campsite. The directions we had were very vague and it was dark by the time we got near the campground. So we drove back and forth quite a few times before we found the correct turnoff. But eventually we found it. We stayed in a cabin and camped out for a couple of days. One of our favorite activities was fishing.

We bought a couple of fishing poles so hopefully we can go fishing more often together. Shelby and Cody worked together to reel in this fish. It was the only catch of the day.

We also went on a little hike and really had a fun time. We saw several beaver dams, which was really interesting. Darcy was my little hiking buddy.

Another favorite activity was shooting the BB gun. Jared bought a couple of BB guns and we all took turns shooting them. It was a lot of fun. We did a fun family activity where we made mailboxes for each family, then we all wrote as many thank you notes to each other as we could. However many note you wrote counted as grattitude bucks that we could use in the auction at the end of the week. Jared auctioned a BB gun and Dallin was able to use his grattitude bucks to win the gun. So now Dallin has his own BB gun. It was a fun reunion and we really enjoyed being with the Andersons.

September is Soccer Month. Both Dallin and Shelby are playing soccer this year. Darcy was walking towards me across the soccer field and I just loved this little shot of her. She's such a little camera ham. Whenever she sees the camera she puts on a cute little grin for me.

James and I are coaching Dallin's team. It's a lot of fun. James is really good with the boys, and he is teaching them good skills. Dallin's team has done really well on all his games.

Dallin is a really good player, so it's extra fun to watch him. I love this picture of him kicking a goal. He was about 30 feet away from the goal, running at top speed when he kicked this one in. It went right through the goalies hands to score a goal. It was awesome. Just look at that form!

I get a little carried away sometimes when I am taking pictures. But here is another one I liked.

And this one was pretty awesome too. You can see the other player trying to trip Dallin as he ran by with the ball, but Dallin just jumped over him and continued on with the ball.

Shelby is having fun playing soccer again this year. She is in the division with 1st and 2nd graders, so she is one of the younger ones. In fact, almost her whole team is young 1st graders. So most of the teams she has played so far have been older and more experienced.

But Shelby is one of the best players on her team. She is agressive and gets in and plays her best every game. They hardly ever sub her out so she playing hard for a long time.

She scored a goal at the last game. This picture is of her as she kicked it into the goal. She was being heavily defended the entire way, but she dribbled all the way from midfield and was able to score a goal. I was so proud of her.

She was really excited to get a goal too. Last year she was scoring several goals every game so this year has been a little harder since the competition is so much better. But she's a trouper.

Between the two kids, we have soccer games or practices every day of the week, except for Friday and Sunday. So this has been a busy month. But there are only 3 games left in the fall season so it will be over before we know it.

New Family Pictures...yea

2010-09-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

I love family pictures. I spend the entire year looking at them on my wall and enjoying them. So I always feel excitement and pressure when it's time to do a new one. That time came last weekend. We went up Provo Canyon, just past Aspen Grove and took them in the field at the trailhead for Timp.

Stacy and Pierce came to take the pictures. It's hard work taking pictures of young kids, so I really appreciated both of them helping us! And I love the way they turned out. The night we took them, I stayed up until 1:30am editing the pictures. I just couldn't stop. Once I finally did go to bed, I couldn't stop thinking about the pictures. I've decided that when you cross photography with my own family the resulting obsession is quite out of control.

Anyway, I'm super excited about the long skinny one at the top of this post. I am in the process of getting it make into a 12x48 inch canvas gallery wrap. I'm going to hang it above the windows in my living room.

Here are the rest of my favorites. I'm having a hard time deciding which one to enlarge and hang above my mantle. So let me know which one you think would be best there!

Number 1

Number 2Number 3Number 4Number 5I think only the first 3 are real contenders for the mantle spot, but I like 4 and 5 too, so I thought I'd post them anyway.

What I go through for Potty Training

2010-08-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

Darcy will be turning two later on this month. Several weeks ago she started showing all the signs that she was ready to be potty trained. I, on the other hand, was not ready! It was right before our big family vacation to California and I just didn't want to worry about it right then. But I didn't want to miss the window of opportunity either. So before and during the trip I just tried to encourage her to go on the toilet whenever possible but that's about all.

Last week I decided I should just jump in and see if she could do it. So she's been wearing underwear for the past several days. The first few days were hit and miss, mostly because I would get distracted and not pay close enough attention to her. It's hard to give undivided attention all day long to one child when you have four kids! But despite my shortcomings she steadily progressed.

The method I use for potty training tells you to have your child wear underwear and then watch them closely. When they start to pee you say, "Pee pee's coming" and you pick them up and run with them to the toilet. Hopefully you will make it there in time for them to do some in the potty. Eventually they learn to say "Pee pee's coming" on their own before it happens and then you've got it made.

Well, yesterday Darcy started telling me her pee's were coming early enough that we were able to get to the toilet in time most of the day. So I was very happy!

This morning I was walking back to my room when I heard Darcy say that pees were coming. I wanted to keep the momentum going from yesterday. So I turned around and ran back to the living room where she was to help her get to the toilet in time. I grabbed her under the arms and started running with her through the kitchen towards the bathroom. Just as I was about to turn the corner to go to the bathroom my feet slid out from under me and WHAM, I landed on the ground...Hard! (Unbeknownst to me, Cody had spilled the watermelon on the floor right there and was in the process of cleaning it up. But the tile was still all wet and very slippery!) Somehow I managed to keep Darcy from getting hurt. I must have shifted her into my right arm as I fell because my left forearm hit the floor first, then my knee hit the wall and dented the drywall, then Darcy's head hit my right jaw. It was crazy because I didn't even see it coming and then it all happened so fast.

My whole body hurt and I felt like I'd just been hit by a car. I asked Darcy if she was okay and she said yes. So I got up and helped her get to the toilet. I'm happy to report that we made it in time, even with the unexpected crash en route!

It's late in the afternoon now and I have a huge lump on my forearm where I hit the tile. It's going to be a big nasty bruise! My neck is sore and my jaw still hurts too. But Darcy has been dry all day long so the sacrifice was worth it!

Family Vacation to California

2010-07-28T15:30:00.002-07:00

We had a great time on our family vacation this past month. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip for us. James needed to go to San Jose, California for his work and we decided it would be fun for the whole family to go with him this time. His work paid for our gas there and back and for the hotel for the week. So that was really nice! We stayed for a few extra days so we could go to Disneyland and see some more of California while we were there.

We left on Monday and drove all day to San Jose. The kids did a great job so the drive wasn't too bad. We had a meltdown around dinner time and again for the last few minutes of the drive but overall it wasn't too terrible.

We stayed at a Marriott Residence Inn in their Penthouse Suite so we had very comfortable living arrangements. We had a bedroom/bathroom upstairs overlooking the downstairs which had another bedroom/living room/kitchen/bathroom. They had complimentary breakfast and dinner at the hotel too. The kids loved the swimming pool the most! We spent most of our time there.

We went swimming in the pool every day. Most days we went in the morning, again after lunch and sometimes after dinner too. The kids loved it!

Tuesday we drove into San Francisco to see the sights there. We stopped by Lombard Street, which is famous for being so twisty. Here is a picture of James and the kids with Lombard Street in the background. You can see how steep and curvy it is.

Wednesday afternoon the kids and I headed out to Half Moon Bay. We wanted to go to a beach nearby and this one seemed the prettiest from the pictures I saw of it. It was beautiful and I'm so glad we chose to go there. We had the beach mostly to ourselves and had fun playing in the water and burying ourselves in the sand. I loved this picture of Darcy cheesing it for the camera.
No vacation would be complete without a muscle shot of the guys!

Darcy was a little afraid of the waves rolling in. I thought she might like them more if she knew they were coming and called to them. James snapped this picture of us calling to the waves to "come here". She still ran away once the waves got to us. But eventually she overcame her fear and loved the water.

Thursday night the kids just wanted to swim in the pool with Dad. He missed out on most of the pool time since we did it while he was at work. So we wanted to have some swim time with Dad there too.

Friday was James last day at work so we had to check out of that hotel at 1pm. So we packed up our stuff Friday morning and met James at about 2 pm when he got done with work. We drove to Santa Cruz where we spent the afternoon/evening. It was a cool place. They have a huge boardwalk with shops and a huge amusement park right on the beach. We didn't go on any rides since we were heading to Disneyland in a few days. But we played on the beach and saw the sea lions on the pier. For dinner we went to a pizza/pasta bar that was delicious. It was a nice restaurant but very kid friendly. They brought out a ball of pizza dough for each of the kids to play with. (Great idea by the way! It kept the kids entertained all night!) Then when we were almost finished with our meal all the staff did a show where they had a guy doing really amazing pizza throwing and everyone was dancing around the restaurant. It was really fun. I should have taken some pictures of it but I didn't think of it at the time.

After dinner we drove for a few hours down to San Luis Obispo where we stayed the night. In the morning we went swimming in the pool for a few hours. When it was time to check out of our hotel we headed to Pismo Beach for the afternoon. We were not alone in that idea. It was so crowded at that beach! But we still had a great time. We got a boogie board so the kids could try their hand at body surfing. They also really liked digging holes in the sand and running in the waves.

After having all the fun we could handle at the beach we headed down to Anaheim where we stayed that night. We were in a hotel just a couple of blocks away from Disneyland. It was very nice and had a great pool. So we swam a little that night and then again the next day.

Sunday we checked out of the hotel and went to my cousin house. Jen and Bob live about 20 minutes from Disneyland. We spent the afternoon visiting with them. Our kids had so much fun playing with their kids. We spent the night with their family and then headed to Disneyland in the morning.

Disneyland was awesome! We went on quite a few rides in the morning together. By about lunch time Cody and Darcy were hot and tired. So we called Jen and she came and picked them up and took them home for naps. Jen was a lifesaver! It was so nice to have her take the little ones so we could have fun with the older kids. Dallin and Shelby really loved going on the rides. I thought they might be too scared to do the big rides, but they weren't! We went on almost all of the big rides and quite a few other ones too.

I called Jen a few times throughout the afternoon to check on the kids. They both slept for about 4 hours! So they were very tired. When Cody woke up Jen asked him if he wanted to go back to Disneyland. He said, "No, it's hot there. I want to stay here and play with Jack." So Jen kept them until after dinner and rush hour and then brought them back to Disneyland. We met her at Downtown Disney which is outside the park. There is a Lego store there which lured us in. They have some amazing things built out of Legos. The kids loved the life sized Darth Vader that was built out of Legos. After the Lego Store we rode the Monorail back into Disneyland.
By this time it was getting dark and I realized we hadn't even taken a picture of our whole family together yet. So we had someone take it for us in front of the Castle. It was so dark the picture didn't turn out very well, but oh well. The shows they did at night were really cool. We watched Fantasmic, which is a show they do on the water and island. It was really cool. Then we saw the firework show as well. There were so many people there that night that it was very crowded and hard to get around. But we still enjoyed the shows and headed to the hotel after that. It was a great day but we were sure glad to get back to our hotel and rest!

The next day we swam in the pool again and then went to Jen's house to return her stroller and pick up the things we left at her house the day before. Then we drove to Las Vegas and stayed the night there. The next morning we headed home and arrived around 2 pm.

It was a great trip. The only negative was that we had a round of stomach flu hit most of us at one time or another. But luckily it usually hit during the night and ended around lunch time so it wasn't too terrible. I think we drove about 2,200 miles on our trip. I was worried Darcy would go crazy on the way home after so much driving but she did pretty well.

Below is a slideshow with some additional pictures from our trip.

2010-07-28T15:30:00.001-07:00

Swimming anyone?

2010-06-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

For Family Home Evening we got out my Mom's waterslide and let the kids have fun. Mom wanted us to test it out before the big Cherrington Reunion comming up on July 10th. It worked great and our kids had a blast. Here are a few pics from the night.

Memorial Day Fun

2010-06-04T07:31:00.001-07:00

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend. On Sunday we visited the graves and told stories about Grandpa Cherrington, Great Grandma Brinkerhoff, Great Grandpa Brinkerhoff, and Grandma Anderson. The kids really enjoyed the stories and it was good to remember those great people.

Monday we had a super fun day. We started off doing some work in our garden and around our house. Any vacation isn't complete until a few work projects are completed right?! Then we headed up the canyon for a bike/rollerblade ride. We drove up to Vivian Park and then got on the bike path. Cody was really excited to ride his big wheel.

Dallin and I rollerbladed while Shelby and James rode bikes with Darcy in the trailer.

Of course we had to stop several times along the way to throw rocks in the river.

Cody got tired of riding his bigwheel after a while and caught a ride with Dad and Darcy

Here we are at Bridal Veil climbing up to the waterfall.

After our ride we came back home and got out Grandma's big blow up waterslide. The kids played on it for hours.

We hooked it up to Grandma's warm water so it was nice and comfortable for them.

Then James got a water balloon launcher and we had fun launching water balloons all over the cul-de-sac. They really shoot far!

Kelli happened to be washing her car at the time and became the prime target of the launches. Luckily we didn't break any windows! We launched a few all the way into Arthurs Court.

Even Darcy wanted a turn launching!

And of course no Memorial Day is complete without a family BBQ with Oreos!

Lots of oreos!

And Volleyball

Lots of Volleyball!

Busy Spring

2010-05-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy spring! I've been having so much fun I haven't taken time to blog about any of it. But I thought I'd do a big post with pictures of some of the highlights of the spring. For Spring Break we went camping at Arches National Park. It was awesome!!! Here is James with the kids standing in the North Window.

James and Cody climbed up into one of the arches of Double Arch for this next shot.

Here we all are on the walk to Double Arch.

The most difficult hike we did was to Delicate Arch. It was pretty steep and about 3 miles long but we all made it. I was so proud of all the kids. Here is Shelby at Delicate Arch.

When I was a teenager our family went to Arches and my dad loved the trees. When I saw this tree it reminded me of one our family took a picture in back in the day. So we decided to take one here too.

Here are Dallin and Shelby standing at the bottom of the Turrett Arch. They look so small compared to the big arch.

We went mountain biking while we were there. It was supposed to be a simple trail that would be good for trailers. I was surprised with how difficult it was. We were going up steep hills and deep ravines. But it was a lot of fun. The kids were tough to stick it out!

I really enjoyed the bike ride, but I was so sore afterwards! I wish bike seats were more comfortable!

Here we are at Landscape Arch. I think this hike was the favorite one for the kids. We went in the evening and there were very few other people on the trail. The temperature was perfect and it was a beautiful evening.

Here we are at the Delicate Arch viewpoint.

The girls!

The guys!

All of us at Delicate Arch. I really loved our camping trip to Arches. I can't wait for the next camping trip.

We also went hunting for Geodes again with some of James' family. We took a different route to get there and it was much shorter this time...like 2 hours shorter! We also rode with Joe in his Tahoe so we didn't have to worry about damaging our car this time. We had a great time and found a lot more Geodes this time.

It was much more fun to do the activity as a family and not have to repair a car out in the middle of nowhere.

My cute boys!

My cute Shelby!

I put piggies in Darcy's hair and she loved it! I was so surprised because she usually pulls things right out of her hair. But this time she left them in all day. She is a little cheeser when it comes to pictures. She loves having her picture taken and she poses so cute for the shots. This pose came when I said, "Look how cute your hair is Darcy."

Shelby had her Kindergarten play last week. She was a lion and did a great job on her part.

Here she is just before the play. I'm so proud of her.

Shelby's class went mini-golfing for a field trip and I was able to go along to help the kids. We had a great time golfing together.

Dallin's school had a 3k race this year and both Dallin and Shelby competed in the race. Shelby ran a shorte course since she is in kindergarten. Dallin ran the full 3k.

Dallin was 3rd place out of all the 2nd grade boys. Way to go Dallin!

Here is Shelby getting ready for her race. She did a good job and ran her hardest!

It's been a busy spring but lots of fun. Can't wait for summer!!!

Funny Cody

2010-01-21T16:10:00.001-08:00

This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody.

“Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked.

(Matt is James' brother who is here on a house hunting trip since they are moving back to Utah in a few weeks).

“Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied.

“Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said.

About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?”

I’m trying my hardest not to laugh and waiting to see where he's going with this.

“I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem.

I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. Speaking of Cody, I think I'll share one more of his little tidbits...

I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody called them Smoot Moolies when he was younger, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in."

Last Friday when we were playing Banana Speed Scrabble with Stacy and Pierce we carried on the armpit legacy. When you use up all your tiles you are supposed to say "peel" and then everyone draws more tiles. But we all said "Armpit" instead...we thought it was funny!

2009-12-31T20:57:00.001-08:00

Gingerbread Houses

2009-12-21T06:22:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite family traditions at Christmas time is making Gingerbread houses. My mom does such a good job of making all the gingerbread! Last night we had round one of gingerbread house making. All the cousins that live in the cul-de-sac got to make their houses. It was a lot of fun and of course I took a lot of pictures. So here are a few of them.

Video clip of my glass blowing

2009-12-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a little clip of me making my glass vase at my class on Saturday. I cut it down to about 6 minutes so I took out a lot of the repetitious stuff. If you haven't read the post below you might enjoy that one too since it has pictures of the finished products. I sure had fun and was definitely glad the instructor was there to help me out. She saved my bacon a few times that's for sure!

Glass Blowing...

2009-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas came early for me this year, and it was AWESOME!!! James gave me a glass blowing class as a present and my class was this past Saturday. I have wanted to try glass blowing for a really long time. So I was extreemly excited for the chance to try it. In preparation for my class, I spent hours watching the professionals do it. Of course they make it look so easy. I had a really hard time going to sleep Friday night because I kept thinking about the class and what I wanted to try to make. I even printed up some samples of things I like to show to the teacher. The class it taught by an instructor named Gay Wynn and there are two students per class. The instructor was really nice and when I showed her the samples I liked she said she would teach me how to do it. So she did a demo piece that was a small version of the vase I wanted to create. Glass blowing is a two person job a lot of the time so she had me assist her on the demo vase. It was fun! Here are a couple of pictures of me working on the demo vase and the completed project.

After the demo was finished, she set us loose to play around and get familiar with the tools and equipment. While I was doing that I made a paperweight. Then she had me try blowing air into a project. I was doing great until I pinched off the air pocket in my project. So rather than scrap the whole thing she had me blow it as big as I could and then stick it back in the glory hole to shrink it back in on itself. So the picture below is the big bubble I blew.Then I put it in the glory hole and it shrunk back in on itself and made lots of cool air bubbles.Here is the finished product. I think it's pretty cool, even though it really isn't functional.After all that messing around it was time to get down to business and start on my big project. So I picked out some colors and started to work on it. I gathered some glass then touched it in the color I was using for the piece (white, blue and green). This is called blocking...it's where you use the wooden tools to center the glass on the pole. This is just a random picture of me with some glass. Here I am blowing the air into my vase. It was tricky to know how much to put in at a time. So thankfully the instructor was there to tell me when to stop.

It was so much fun to make my project! It was pretty intense there for a while once it started getting big and heavy to work with. I was glad the instructor was there to help me because I needed an extra set of hands a few times durring the process. Here is my finished product getting ready to go into the annealer (an oven that gradually cools the projects). And here is the final piece...I love it!

Here is a shot of all the pieces together. It was such a great day for me. I loved every minute of it. The only downside was that I was so excited about it that I had a hard time going to sleep that night because I kept thinking about it all night. Thank you James for the amazing pressent!

Random Fun

2009-12-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

I have a bunch of fun random pictures to share from the past couple of weeks. Here is Shelby on Thanksgiving. Can you tell she loves Olives? We decided to start a tradition of Candy Making over the Thanksgiving break. Here are the kids putting together the peppermint bark we made. Yummy!

James went to the Elders Quorum Turkey Bowl on Thanksgiving morning. Here he is catching a pass from Mark.

Here is Darcy, watching her Dad play football.

Cody and Shelby had a great time also.

Check out these dance moves! We had a dance off Friday night. I think Dallin had the best moves.

I love this one though...what timing!

Shelby got some good air on this one.

I think this one of Dallin is my favorite!

Hours of fun...

Dallin's Baptism

2009-12-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Dallin got baptized this weekend on December 5th. It was a really special day for our family. James baptized and confirmed him. The spirit was strong and I knew that Heavenly Father was proud of him, just like I was. After the baptism we had a lunch party for all the family who came to the baptism. It was a really fun day for us. Here is Dallin's 8 year old picture...isn't he so handsome!
Here is our family at the stake center where Dallin was baptized. By the way, this is the same stake center I was baptized in. Small world.

And here are Dallin and James before the baptism.

What a great day it was. Thanks to all of you who brought food to the party. It was really yummy. We missed those of you who couldn't come!

Such a fun date...

2009-11-16T12:13:00.000-08:00

I have such a great husband! I'm sure you already knew that but you'll know why again after I finish this post. He took me on such a fun date last Friday. But first a little background...last month I helped Dallin make an art project at his school. They made ceramic leaf bowls and I thought they were awesome. Dallin brought home his finished product and I liked it so much I asked him if I could put it on our mantle for a while. This is what it looks like:

The other night I commented to James that I wished I could make one for myself. So on Friday he arranged to take me to a ceramic studio where we could make our own ceramic projects. When he emailed me about it Friday afternoon I was so excited. I hurried out to see if I could find any giant leaves to use as templates for my own leaf bowl. I thought it was a long shot with how late in the season it is but I found some! Yeah! Here are some pictures of us at the ceramic studio:

Here's me being cheesy...Can you tell how much fun I was having?Here is James cutting out the shape of the leaf.

And here we are together with our finished projects. We made one big leaf plate, two small ones and one medium one. It was so much fun. I just think it was so amazing that James took me to do this. Ceramics isn't really his thing so that made it even more special because I knew he was doing it just for me. He's really great!

Then to top it off he gave me an early Christmas present too. He signed me up to take a glass blowing class on December 12th. That is the best present ever! I have wanted to try glass blowing for such a long time! I just can't wait!!! We went to Thanksgiving Point on Saturday and watched one of the classes for a while. It was so fun and I can't wait to try it.

2009-09-27T12:19:00.001-07:00

Funny little Cody

2009-09-26T18:45:00.001-07:00

I really got a kick out of looking at all the funny faces Cody made when I was trying to get an individual shot of him. I thought it would be fun to put together a slideshow of his different faces. He's such a funny little kid...

Family Pictures

2009-09-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Last night we did some family pictures in Provo Canyon. My fabulous cousin Stacy Thiot agreed to take the pictures for us. I think she did an excellent job! And my Mom did a great job of getting the kids to smile. It was a bit of an adventure as always, but the pictures turned out great. Thanks Stacy and Mom for all your help!!! Here are a few of my favorites...

Geodes revealed

2009-09-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

If you haven't read my last post about our Geode Hunting adventure you may want to read that one first. We were really excited to cut open our Geodes...excited enough to go buy a cheap tile saw. It worked pretty well. I don't know who was more excited about it...me or the kids! One of the first ones we cut open ended up being my favorite one. The kids had fun picking out which one I should cut next. It was pretty noisy and the saw splashed tons of water up on me so I was drenched by the time we finished.

We didn't cut open every one that we found, but we opened up a lot of them. Our biggest, nicest one we are not going to cut ourselves because our saw isn't big enough. James thought it would be fun to put it in a rock tumbler to polish the outside of the geode, then cut it open so it would be pretty on the outside and the inside. So that is what we're doing with a few of the nice one we got. The only problem with that plan is that the rock tumbler takes about a month to polish the rocks so we will have to wait patiently to see the big ones.

Here are a few of the ones we liked the best. It's hard to show all the pretty detail in a few pictures, but it will give you an idea.

We are heading to Tooele tomorrow to pick up our van. They were able to replace the transmission pan for about $190, which is less than I was preparing myself for. If the weather is nice we may head out to the Geode beds again...but this time we'll take the truck!!!

What an Adventure

2009-09-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day we decided to do something fun as a family and go to the Dugway Geode beds. We had learned about them online and wanted to go see if we could find any cool Geodes. So on Monday morning we got ourselves ready and headed out. The drive took about 2 1/2 hours. We headed to Tooele then continued south for about 40 miles until we came to the Pony Express Road. We turned onto it and headed west for about 50 miles...45 of which were on gravel roads. Most of the way the gravel roads were pretty smooth, although we did feel like we were on the Dukes of Hazard a couple times when big potholes came upon us suddenly. The last mile or so we had to leave the Pony Express Road and really rough it on the dirt trails. Everything I read about the journey said that any car should be able to make it, so we just went in our minivan. We did make it, but after a really bumpy last mile. A few times we hit bottom pretty hard but we made it there and started digging for geodes. There were several big pits where commercial excavators had come in and dug out big holes. So we climbed in and started looking. It was amazing...everywhere there were broken fragments of Geodes.

The first half hour the kids focused on finding cool geodes that were already broken open. Then we talked to someone who was there and found out the other pit had more unbroken geodes. So we stopped by our van to deposit our treasures and head over to the other pit.

We were all having a great time and the kids loved climbing around in the dirt and finding treasures everywhere. Even Cody was finding some pretty neat geodes.

Here is Shelby holding two of her favorite Geodes. She liked finding the open ones the best. But she was able to find some really good unopened ones too.

When James came over to the van to drop off the geodes he had collected he noticed something bad. There was a pretty significant stream of Transmission fluid running from our van. That is never good!

I heard him say "Oh no" and knew from the tone of his voice that something was really wrong. Even I could tell by looking at it that we had a problem. James looked under the car and said that when we hit bottom that last time we dented the transmission pan and it cracked. I asked if we would be able to make it home if we left right then and he said he didn't think we'd make it. So we were standing there wondering what we would do when a car drove up and guess who was inside...our home teacher! It was amazing that he just happened to arrive there at the exact time when we really needed some help.

So James and Scott Mitchell left to go figure something out and me and the kids stayed with our broken down van. Luckily it wasn't too hot so we were able to rest inside and cool off when we wanted a break from the sun.

Most of the time we continued to look for geodes. We found a whole bag of unopened geodes. They kind of looked like dinosaur eggs, so we called them eggs. The kids wandered around and when they found a good egg they would come back to me and Darcy and show us.

Eventually I was able to get Darcy to sleep and then I tried to get Cody to sleep but he didn't want to sleep. So we just sat around and waited for James and Bro. Mitchell to come back. They were gone almost 3 hours but it felt much longer than that to us. I didn't have a watch or keys to start the car so we had no way of knowing how long it had been. Luckily we had plenty of food but not quite enough water. So we were getting thirsty. We did have a case of James' Diet Mtn Dew, but it just wasn't the same as water. I started thinking about what I would do if James didn't make it back before dark. But luckily they made it back and brought lots of water with them.

They had gone to the nearest place they could find, which happened to be the Tooele Army Depot base store. Since neither of them were army personnel they had to have a police escort to go onto the base. Luckily the people there were nice and allowed them to go in and buy all the transmission oil they had. They also bought anything they could think of to patch up the crack.

They got car tire plugs, shoelaces, athletic tape, duck tape, rags, and bungee cords. They didn't know what, if anything, would work.

James first tried the tire plugs, but the crack was too narrow to fit anything inside. When the rocks smashed into the pan they compressed it and the crack formed where the side meets up with the bottom of the pan. We tried to pry it open so we could plug it up but we couldn't budge it. The athletic tape wouldn't stick to anything. I tried the duck tape and did get it covered up some, but the whole area was covered with oil so nothing stuck very well. We ended up taping it up and then using bungee cords to press a rag against the crack. We knew our repair wouldn't stop the leak, but we were hoping it might slow it down a little.

Then we poured in 6 quarts of transmission oil and prayed for a miracle. Bro. Mitchell said he would follow us out in case the transmission locked up. So we headed out and tried to go as quickly as possible because we knew that every second we were loosing more oil. We made it out of the really rough dirt trail part and stopped to see if our patch was working. It was definitely not working! The oil was pouring out in a steady stream. So we jumped back in the car and kept going as fast as we could. We went about 30 miles and then stopped to put in the rest of the oil we had. Brother Mitchell caught up to us and said they could see the trail of oil we were leaving on the road. It was pretty bad. So we got back in and kept going. It was discouraging to know that we had 80 miles to go before we could reach the nearest city. After driving for about 70 miles James said he had no idea how we were still moving. I said, "I've been praying this whole time, so maybe that's helping!" Then I heard Shelby say from the back of the car,"I said a prayer too." So I'm pretty sure we made it to Tooele on faith and prayers.

We had decided to try to make it to the nearest mechanic shop, if we could get that far, and then have Mom come pick us up. So we pulled into the first mechanic shop and were happy to see the sign say, "Main Street Mechanics, Transmissions and more..." It was closed, which we expected for 8 pm on a holiday. We were going to leave it there and put the key in a key drop, but we couldn't find anywhere to leave the key and the gate was locked so we couldn't get the van inside. So we just parked it outside the gate and were walking toward the main road when we noticed a truck near the front that wasn't there before. I knocked on the door and a mechanic opened it. He had just come to drop off some tools and happened to arrive at just the right time. So he opened the gate and we were able to give him our keys and explain what had happened. Having him stop by was another little miracle.

Mom was on her way, but we still had some time to kill. We were hungry and decided to walk down the street a few blocks to McDonalds. I wish I had a picture of us walking. James was carrying one carseat, a bag and pushing Darcy in the stroller. I was carrying the diaper bag, another carseat, a backpack, and a booster seat. And the kids were walking along with us. At one point a car stopped and asked if we were stranded. I said yes, but my mom is on her way to get us. We got some interesting looks when we walked into McDonalds, but we didn't' care. We were just happy to be able to set our stuff down and get some food. Mom arrived a few minutes later and we ate dinner together then headed home.

It was quite an adventure! We really had a fun time, even with the mishaps that happened. I could really see that Heavenly Father was watching out for us. I am definitely thankful for home teachers! I'd say ours went above and beyond in this situation! And we have a whole bunch of geodes to cut open and see what's inside...so the fun isn't over yet.

Darcy's 1st Birthday

2009-08-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

Darcy had her 1st Birthday on Friday. It is hard to believe that a whole year has already past. Darcy is such a wonderful baby and we love having her in our family. Here are some pictures from her birthday cake eating...

As you can see, she loved the birthday cake! Just to see how much she has changed, here's one of her baby pictures I took when she was about 1 week old. She's sure grown up a lot since then.

Our Oregon Vacation

2009-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Our family vacation this summer was AWESOME!!! We went to Oregon and spent a week with Kelly and Greg's family. The drive was better than I expected. We did it in one day, so it was a long day, but the kids were really good. We stopped at Chuck'e'Cheeses for Lunch and let everyone run around and play for an hour or so. I think that helped a lot. It was about 9:30 pm on Saturday when we arrived at Kelly's house. The next day we went to church and I really enjoyed going to Relief Society. It's been a while for me since I've been in the primary for a while. After church the missionaries came over and challenged Kelly's family to find people to share the gospel with. I was impressed that Kelly came up with someone and over the course of the week invited them to meet the missionaries and they accepted. Way to go Kelly!

Monday we decided to go to the coast. So we stopped first at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We loved the ice cream, and got ourselves nice and cold just in time to go to the beach, which was also cold! We didn't stay long because we were all freezing. But it was fun anyway. Here is our family at the beach.

The kids ventured out a little, but didn't go in the water much because it was so cold.

Cold doesn't seem to hinder the fun though!

Here's Darcy and Dad.

And Cody, running around on the beach. When he wasn't doing this he was huddled up in towels to stay warm.

And here I am with my Darcy baby! She's so cute and happy!

Another fun activity for the kids was swimming in the hot tub. The kids had a great time in there. Other than at the beach, it was a really hot week for Oregon. So to keep from roasting at home we headed to Hagg Lake to play in the water. Greg took us out on the lake in his boat with the tube tied on behind. Here's a picture of me and Cody being pulled in the tube. It was a lot of fun.

Dallin and Shelby also loved being pulled in the tube. They each took a couple of turns and loved it.

Darcy liked sitting in the tube, as long as we weren't moving. She didn't really like the water much because it was cold. Here is our whole family sitting in the front of Greg's boat. It was a great afternoon.

My favorite part of the vacation was going Sturgeon Fishing in the Columbia River Gorge. It was a beautiful place and we had a great time. First we had to find dead fish floating on the water to use as bait for the Sturgeon. It took a little while but we eventually found 3 fish we could use. Greg found us a good spot, baited the line and before he could even get it in the pole holder we had a fish on! It was amazing. James took the pole and fought the Sturgeon for at least 30-40 minutes. They are huge fish!

Here is a shot of the fish. It was about 5 feet long.

You can see how heavy they are. It's impossible to lift them all the way out of the water.

It took a while for the next one to bite. This time it was my turn. After only a few minutes my arms were aching and I could barely hold the pole. But Greg had said earlier that no woman had ever reeled in a sturgeon on his boat before. So being the competitive person that I am I was determined to get this fish! I had to resort to kneeling down so I could lean the pole on the side of the boat. I also had a lot of help from Dallin, Tyler, and Summer. They would help me pull up the pole so I could reel it in.

It took me about 45 minutes, but I did it. I was so tired and my hands and arms were cramped up. Greg took the hook out of it's mouth and then had me hold the fish. I knew I couldn't lift it by myself, so I asked him to help me lift it. When Greg touched it's body it freaked out and almost pulled me in the lake. James was doing the video camera so we don't have any pictures of my fish, but we have it on video.

We stuck around for a third fish, and it was a great one. We all took turns fighting it. Dallin helped Dad. Tyler and Greg both took turns. I took another turn...even though I could barely hold the pole at this point.

And James finished it off. This one took the longest to fight.

It was the biggest of all the fish we caught. I think it was about 6 or 7 feet long. And we estimated that it probably weighted about 600 lbs. James and Greg both lifted it together and could only get it half way out of the water. It was massive! Greg made the trip so much fun. He's so nice to take us fishing and help us have such a memorable time. You're the best Greg!

Another one of our favorite things was riding the horses. Kelly took the kids on rides and it was great. Here is Cody and Kelly riding Texas.

Here is Dallin riding Fancy. Here is Shelby on Texas.

And here is Dallin shooting BB guns. He spent all day shooting the targets. This was one of his favorite parts of the vacation too.

It was a great family vacation. I loved spending time with the Nelsons. I got to read Kelly's second book, which was amazing. And we had a great time visiting and enjoying the beautiful place where they live. Thanks for letting us come! We want to come back!!!

Catching up...

2009-07-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy and fun summer so far. I haven't posted for a long time so I'm going to try to catch up on what we've been doing. I think this post will test the limits on the number of pictures in a single post!

I wanted to give James some new pictures of our kids for his office. His old pictures didn't have Darcy in them. So we took some cute pictures of the kids on the grass. Here are my favorites...Dallin - 7 yrs oldShelby - 5 yrs old

Cody - 2 years old

Darcy - 10 months old
We finally got the concrete laid on our side yard. It is so nice to have cement there instead of the gravel that has been there for the last few years.James thought it would be fun to make a project with the kids. So we designed and made longboards for Dallin and Shelby. I helped the kids design the boards the way they wanted them. Then James cut them out.
The kids sanded them and then I helped them transfer their designs to the boards. The kids painted them mostly by themselves with just a little help from me.

And I must say the finished products were AWESOME! It was fun to see their creativity come out. They worked hard on their boards.
And now they are having fun playing with them. Their favorite thing to do with them is sit on them and ride down our driveway and around the cul-de-sac. I liked this picture because it has Cody running around with his "driver" as he calls it. He spends hours pushing this little car around. He completely wore out the back two wheels so we replaced them with new ones. He was so excited when his wheels came in the mail. It was cute!

On the 4th of July we went for a hike with Sandra and her boys to First Falls. It was a really fun hike. Of course there were the times when the kids were tired and didn't want to continue. But all it took was James lifting them up so they could see the end goal to reenergize them.We made it to the falls...what a pretty sight.
Here is Dallin at the falls. He's such a cute boy.

I loved this picture of the kids eating a snack and looking at the falls.

And here it is from the front...

I must say Darcy had the best spot for the hike!
Here I am with the kids at the falls. On the way down the trail we crossed the river. I was proud of the kids, Dallin and Shelby made it across all by themselves. Here is James helping Cody across.

We enjoyed the "Cul-de-sac of Fire" fireworks show on July 3rd.

Everyone had fun watching the fireworks and no one got hurt. So it was a successful firework show.

Here are the kids playing in our little swimming pool. It's fun to see how much fun they have playing in such a small pool.

For the father and sons campout we decided to camp in our backyard. It was the same night as the ward swimming party. Shelby really wanted to go camping also so we decided if they camped in our yard all the kids could participate. We made smores on our grill and played around in the tent for a while. Here are all the kids and Dad in the tent.
Then I took Darcy inside and put her to bed and I slept in my bed while James and the three oldest kids slept in the tent. It was a lot of fun for everyone. Here is Dallin with Darcy on his shoulders.

Sandra and I took our kids to the zoo earlier in the summer. It was a perfect day for it.
The kids had a lot of fun seeing the animals and playing in the discovery zone.

Maybe Cody will become a dentist...or a vet.

So those were some of the highlights of the past couple of months. It's been fun.

Bryce Panoramas

2009-04-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

Above is the Bryce Amphitheater and below is Ponderosa Point...what a beautiful place!

Camping trip...well almost

2009-04-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

We went on a fun family vacation this past weekend. We had planned on going camping all weekend but the weather convinced us otherwise! We left Thursday afternoon and headed to Milford to try our hand at Rock Hounding. In case you are wondering, rock hounding is what they call it when you try to find crystals and other gems. Milford has a canyon called the Rock Corral where quartz and feldspar are abundant. So we thought we'd go there and see if we could find any. We had a great time pounding on the rocks and looking for crystals. We saw a lot of pretty things but it was hard to get them out of the rock without damaging them. The kids picked up tons of rocks that they loved, and we found a few good quartz crystals but they were pretty small (1/4 inch to 1/2 inch). We camped there in the mountains for the night. It was really cold...probably below freezing. I didn't have a warm enough sleeping bag so I was freezing...my feet were numb most of the night so it was hard for me to sleep. But everyone else seemed warm enough and slept pretty well. It was really fun to camp out. It has been a long time since I last camped out and it was the first time for all the kids. They said it was awesome!

The next day we did some more rock hounding in the morning and early afternoon then drove down to St. George. We had planned on camping at Bryce Canyon all weekend but it was supposed to snow all day Friday and Saturday so we headed to St. George instead. We checked into a hotel and then saw Monsters vs. Aliens.
The next morning we headed to Bryce via Zions National Park. We really enjoyed driving through Zions. We stopped several times to see the sites and have a picnic lunch. Here is a picture of us at Zions.

We got to Bryce later on that afternoon and drove through part of the park. We stayed in another hotel that afternoon because it was snowing.
The next morning we headed out to explore Bryce. It was really cold in the morning but warmed up nicely as the day progressed. We went on a hike from about 11 - 2 p.m. It was really beautiful and a lot of fun. This was my favorite part of the hike...it was called Wall Street.

The kids did really well on the hike. Cody was loving the freedom of being able to pee outside. It seemed like every couple of minutes he was stopping to pee. Most of the time we didn't even realize he needed to go until he was in the process...like the picture below.

It was a really fun vacation. Check out the slideshow below for more pictures from the trip.

2009-04-14T08:15:00.001-07:00

A House for Hot Dog

2009-03-26T14:14:00.001-07:00

I promised Shelby a long time ago that I would build her a dog house for her favorite puppy HotDog. It was going to be a reward for when she was able to get out of pullups at night. Shelby held up her end of the deal and patiently reminded me over and over that I was supposed to build her a dog house. So yesterday I decided to do it! Here are some pictures of the finished product. We had a great time building it and decorating it together.

The roof opens so she can put things inside. It also has doggy bone cut outs for handles and carpeting...only the best for Shelby and HotDog!

Fun at the Aquarium

2009-02-17T09:11:00.001-08:00

Since yesterday was a holiday we decided to do something fun as a family. Sandra had a great idea to go to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. So we went with her family (minus Quinn) to the aquarium. We all had a great time, especially the kids. They loved being able to see all the fun fish. There was even a hands on section where we could touch all sorts of sea life. We touched star fish, porcupine urchins, crabs, and sting rays. After the aquarium we went to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. When Dallin heard the name of the restaurant he wasn't very excited to go there. He thought they only had tomatoes to eat! But when he saw it was a buffet he said it was his favorite kind of restaurant! I'm sure there were quite a few people who were confused by our group. We sat in two booths next to each other and Sandra ended up sitting with James and Cody and I was at the other booth with Dallin, Shelby and Darcy. People probably wondered if James had two wives because I kept calling him Daddy and the kids would call him Daddy too, yet he was sitting at the table with Sandra. It was funny! Here are some pictures from our outing...

Success!

2009-02-11T08:58:00.001-08:00

You may be wondering what this picture has to do with anything. Well, I'll tell you. We decided to try potty training Cody last month. I thought I'd try the 3 Day Potty Training Program. So I mentally geared myself up for 3 days of lots of messes. Well the three days came and went and the messes continued. On day 5, I was so tired and frustrated that I was wondering if I should just give up. But then I decided I was too tired to make any major decisions, so I waited for another day. Thankfully, it just clicked for him on day 6 and he had a dry day! That gave me a boost and I perservered and now Cody is doing great. The picture is of his sticker chart. He loved putting stickers on each time he would "do his peeps in the lurnal (urinal)." or his "giant poops in the toilet". He's been doing great for over a week now. He's even been dry at night, which is great! I'm so proud of him!

Blue Eyed Baby

2009-01-30T16:31:00.000-08:00

I love this picture of Darcy. It just seems to show her happy personality so well so I thought I'd share it. Her little face makes me so happy!

Tis the Season

2008-12-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

We're so excited for the Christmas season to be here. We've been having a great time doing fun Christmas stuff. Here are some pictures from our Gingerbread House making over at Grandma's house and playing in the snow.

Tagged

2008-11-13T04:44:00.001-08:00

Well, I think I have finally recovered from having James out of town for a few days. Although it is 5 am right now and I'm trying to get Darcy to go back to sleep after her 4 am feeding. So I may be back on the downward spiral again. But oh well, that's just how it goes with a newborn. I decided I might as well do something productive while I'm awake with her. So I'm going to try to think of 7 interesting things to write about myself since Sandra "Tagged" me a few weeks ago.

1. My favorite thing to grow in the garden is Giant Pumpkins! There is something so satisfying for me in growing something huge. James thinks I'm weird for wanting to grow something that I don't eat. Maybe it's the challenge to see how big I can grow them, or maybe it's just the fun of having huge pumpkins to carve and decorate my front porch with. Either way, that is my favorite thing to grow. My biggest pumpkin so far weighted 128 pounds.

2. I think about photography all the time...and I really mean ALL THE TIME! I think my brain filters everything as if I were looking through the lens of a camera. I am always noticing what things would make for good photo backdrops or thinking of the next picture I want to take. And I am always looking at and enjoying the pictures I have of my family around my house. Photos are always on my brain!

3. One of my pet peeves is crooked pictures on the wall. There is nothing that ruins a nice wall display more for me than pictures that are hanging out of level. So I use sticky tack on everything I hang on the wall to keep it stuck where I want it.

4. I'm a bargain shopper. The better deal I get on something...the more I like it! This applies to presents I receive also. When I know the giver got a great deal it makes me enjoy it more.

5. I love building things! My favorite class in high school was woodshop! I love being able to turn ordinary planks of wood into something beautiful. My favorite part of the building process is the sanding and finishing part. It is so satisfying to sand the wood smooth and put on the finishing coats of stain and clear coat and really see the beauty of the wood come out. It works out nice that this is my favorite part, because it is James' least favorite part. So he builds stuff and I finish it...nice teamwork!

6. I am a "Less is More" kind of gal. I like to eliminate unnecessary things from my life to make room for the things I really love doing. So in keeping with my less is more philosophy I think I'll go ahead and post this even though I have only listed 6interesting things about myself.

Oh What a Night...

2008-11-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

I started to wonder if my bed was grand central station last night! I got Dallin, Shelby and Cody to bed at about 8 p.m. But Dallin was afraid and couldn't fall asleep, so he came back out to the living room soon after. (He saw a couple minutes of Princess Bride over the weekend, unfortunately the couple of minutes that he saw were during the fire swamp scene and it scared him pretty badly.) So Dallin watched TV with me while I fed Darcy. Then I put Dallin back to bed around 8:45 p.m. and laid by him for a while until he fell asleep. Then I finished feeding Darcy and got her to sleep at about 9:30 p.m. I decided I'd better get to sleep myself so I was in bed by 9:45 p.m. At 11:00 p.m. Shelby came into my bed for a while. She was quite and didn't disrupt my sleep much. But at 12:00 a.m. Cody woke up with a terrible cough. So I was up with him for a while trying to help him settle down. I finally brought him in bed with me and fell asleep close to 1 a.m. At 2 a.m. Darcy woke up hungry, so I fed her. Before I could get her back to bed Dallin woke up afraid again. So he came into my bed also. I got Darcy back in her bed at about 2:45 a.m. but by this time Cody had awakened again. So I eventually got both Dallin and Cody back to sleep...in my bed of course. I think we had a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep because the next thing I remember is Darcy waking up at 5 something to eat again. Then at about 6 a.m. she did big poops and woke up Cody. He thought it was morning and wanted to go have milk and watch Curious George. Shelby also woke up at this time so at about 6:30 a.m. I got up and started Curious George for them. That kept them busy for about 15 minutes and then Cody was back in my room asking for milk again. So I finally gave up and just got up.

I sure missed James last night! He's in San Francisco for some training for a few days. I don't know how single parents do it!

Fun Days in October

2008-11-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

October was a fun month for our family. James had work off one Monday so we did some fun activities. We went to Jump On It and had a great time. It is a place with tons of trampolines to jump on. I sat out with Darcy because of my broken foot. So I was able to take some fun pictures of them having fun. Then we went to Thanksgiving Point and enjoyed their Barnyard Boo. For Halloween, we had fun carving pumkins and trick or treating at Dad's work. I made a slideshow of some of the fun pictures to share, so enjoy...

October Fun!

2008-11-02T15:32:00.001-08:00

Anderson Look-alike Meter

2008-11-02T11:17:00.001-08:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Anderson Look-alike Meter

2008-10-30T19:02:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Anderson Look-alike Meter

2008-10-30T18:59:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Genology

Anderson Look-alike Meter

2008-10-30T18:55:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Lost relatives - Vintage photographs

Best Anniversary Ever!

2008-10-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

James and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Oct 10th. We had such a great time together. We wanted to do something different for our anniversary this year so we decided to go to the Body Worlds 3 exhibit. It was incredible! If you are interested in learning about it you can visit the site http://theleonardo.org/bodyworlds/

After the exhibit we went out to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant in SLC. The food was excellent. We took Darcy with us on the date because she's so little still. James tucked a little surprise on her lap under her blanket for me to find. But I didn't feel it under there so he pulled it out and gave it to me. It was a diamond anniversary band for my wedding ring. I was so surprised and happy. It was the one thing I really wanted for our 10th anniversary, but when we found out we were having Darcy I figured we couldn't afford a new baby and a ring in the same year. So I put it out of my mind. Well, James planned way ahead for this one and started saving spare cash and money he earned from helping people with their projects. So he was able to buy the ring and also hand over a big wad of cash. I absolutely love the ring. I also bought him a ring because the wedding ring I gave him when we were married slipped off his finger a couple of years ago when he was shoveling snow over at the church. Here are pictures of our two rings.

James also bought me a new watch and we have big plans for the rest of the money he saved up. We are going to put in a heater in our woodshop so we can have heat in the garage when we make projects. We may also buy a new camcorder since our old one has been working sporadically lately. It was a great anniversary. I love looking back over the years and seeing all the progress we have made. I couldn't have wished for a better husband or a better life. James is such a good man. He is a great Dad and he is so helpful to everyone. He is the perfect match for me. I'm so lucky!

New Family Picture...Yeah!

2008-10-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about our new family pictures. We decided to make it low stress this year and just take them in our backyard. After dinner I decided to take some of the kids first, which was a lot of fun. They all did great. Then it started getting dark really fast. I was going to get Kelli to come help Mom take the family group shot but we were loosing light so fast that I didn't have time to leave to call her. So Mom did it solo and did a great job. I'm so excited to get these printed and hung on our wall. Thanks Mom for taking the pictures for us...what would we do without you!

Darcy's Blessing Day

2008-09-29T14:08:00.001-07:00

Darcy's Blessing

2008-09-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Darcy's blessing day. We had a little get together with the Anderson side of the family before church and then the Cherrington side in the evening as usual. James did a great job on the blessing. Darcy looked so darling in her new blessing dress. So of course I had to take a million pictures of her in it.

We have a new name for Darcy's pacifier thanks to Cody...it is now called the "Pacifire truck" or just "fire truck" for short. I love the names little kids come up with!

We finished the Bunk Beds

2008-09-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about our new bunk beds. It was quite a project to design and build them. James did such a wonderful job building this project. He is such a good woodworker. I just dream up things that I think will be cool and he finds a way to build my ideas into real projects. We make a pretty good team because he likes to build the projects the best but doesn't really like the sanding, staining and finishing part of the process. I enjoy the sanding, staining and finishing part because it turns plain wood into something amazing. So he usually builds the projects and I finish them. It's fun to make things with him!

The boys really love their new beds. Cody has been doing a good job of going to bed in his new bed. Although he still wakes up in the night a lot and comes into to snuggle with us. But hopefully we'll be able to get him to stay asleep the whole night soon.

Darcy is just as cute as ever. I had to include a few more pictures of her because there can never be too many pictures of new babies!

Bunk beds

2008-09-18T12:16:00.001-07:00

2008-08-29T12:55:00.001-07:00

More pictures of Darcy

2008-08-29T12:53:00.001-07:00

I've been having so much fun taking pictures of little Darcy. She is such a cutie. Here is a new slideshow with some more pictures of her.

Darcy has Arrived

2008-08-29T12:52:00.001-07:00

2008-08-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

We're so happy to have our little Darcy here! I (Tracy) have been having some problems with high blood pressure during this pregnancy. The doctors were concerned that I was developing preclampsia which can be very dangerous for both the mother and baby. So they decided induce me 2 1/2 weeks early. I got the call from the doctor on Wednesday evening saying I should come in to have the baby. So I headed to the hospital at about 6:30 p.m. They needed to help my body get ready to be induced so they gave me two doses of prostaglanden which helps the cervix get ready to dilate. The doses are given 6 hours apart so I had one at 8 p.m., and another at 2 a.m.
It was a long night! I couldn't fall asleep until after 5 a.m. I was hooked up to so many monitors that I couldn't move around to get comfortable. I was also nervous about how the birth would go and if Darcy would be big enough. So it was pretty miserable for me that night.
At 8 a.m. they started me on pitocin to get my contractions going. My water hadn't broken yet so the contractions didn't hurt as much as they have in the past. James came in to the hospital that morning and we sat around together waiting for something exciting to happen. At about 11 a.m. the checked me and I was dilated to about 2 cm. Then at noon they checked again and I was closer to a 3. So the doctor came in and broke my water at about 1 p.m. I also got an epidural at about that same time. It worked out really well because as soon as they broke my water the contractions started hurting much more. But the anesthesiologist was there within a couple of minutes and got my epidural in very quickly. It was the best epidural I've had yet. I was so pleased with it. Usually they have a really hard time getting it in and working right. But this time it worked on the first shot.
James and I rested for about an hour and then the nurse came in and checked me again. I was expecting to have made a lot of progress during that hour but she said I was still about a 3. So I decided this may be a long labor and settled in for a long wait. About 1 1/2 hours later the nurse came back in and said that her other patient was at a 9+ and she wanted to see if I would beat her. She checked me and I was just hoping to be something other than a 3. She smiled and said I was complete and ready to have the baby. That really surprised me but I was very happy. The doctor came in and helped get everything ready. Once everything was set I pushed for two contractions and out came Darcy. It was so nice to have such a good experience with this birth. She came out so easily that I didn't have any tearing or episiotomy. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. and was 19 inches long. Right after she came out they put her on my chest and cleaned her off there. I really enjoyed that because I could see and touch her right away rather than waiting for them to clean her up first.

So everything went great and we have a beautiful little baby girl. I couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out.

Playing around

2008-05-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent pictures of our kids. They are growing up so fast. They are super excited to have a new baby sister. Now we just have to agree on a name. The top runners are Darcy and Samantha. The due date is September 7th. We are excited for her to arrive.

Our Kids

2008-05-07T11:49:00.001-07:00

Our family

2008-05-07T11:44:00.000-07:00