Tyler's car bed

It's done! After starting this project in January it is done! Tyler is very excited to have a car to sleep in. It really is an awesome racecar! Jeremy is amazing. I don't know how he can just teach himself how to do this stuff, but he does, and I get to be the recipient of it all and my kids! It is also an awesome bed because my mom made an awesome quilt to go on top of it. Did you know that my mom is so amazing at making quilts that she won 2nd place at the Utah State Fair this year for her entry. She is kind of my idol.

Well done, Jeremy and Nana, your rock. Now I get to decorate the rest of the room to go with the bed!

Kindergarten!

Tyler loves everything superhero ie.: spiderman, superman, batman... He has started speech therapy once a week and we can't wait to see him start improving. He misses Grace when she is at school but seems to be able to torture Charlotte like Grace has tortured him for years. He says a few times a morning, "Where Grace go"..
I was crafty and made this. I had seen these yarn wreaths on etsy thought I can make that, I think it turned out pretty cute. It will be a fun fall wreath.

Our Charlotte! She was a blast at the beach and is a blast at home. She is pretty crazy, though. All day long I am taking her off the dining room table, out of the windowsill downstairs, off the bathroom counter etc. She is a climber and just is interested in everything. It is so fun to see her learning so fast! She loves her older siblings and wants to play with them all day long.

Grace started Kindergarten and is loving it! I don't think half day is long enough for her but oh well! She is smart as a tac, very compassionate, and is loving making new friends and playing with them after school. She also is now back in gymnastics and is doing great! Her teacher keeps telling me how strong she is. Below, what a poser!

Jeremy is still loving work and is now enjoying being assistant scout master, just went on a campout last weekend.

End of Summer

What a summer we have had! We did lots of swimming, lots of playing outside and had our fair share of vacations. Grace and Tyler can now both swim by themselves, Tyler maybe not quite as gracefully as Grace, but man he has guts! This picture above and below are my family at Newport Beach, so much fun!
Can you believe how big my family is? I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family, every one of them. We really had such a great trip full of so much fun.

It has been 10 years since I went to Jerusalem. We had a great reunion and it was fun reconnecting with so many.

Our chickens are producing like crazy. We get 4-6 eggs everyday. We are eating more eggs than ever. I still think it's funny that we got chickens for the eggs since Jeremy doesn't even really care for them. Although he does like a good deviled egg, which I haven't made yet....

Ragnar Baby!

Happy 30th Birthday, MK, you're officially old!

Ragnar!

This is me in my gear ready for my night run, reflective vest, headlamp and LED light on back. IT was so much fun running at night with all the people in the neighborhood I was running in cheering us all on and giving us high fives.

Sarah, thanks for talking me into joining your team, it was awesome.

This is my awesome team! From left, Liz Findlay, Angie Nelson, Jerilee Jones, Courtney Crofts, me, Lindsay Healey, and Sarah Thomas. Girl power, seriously!

This is me running in the distance beginning of my second run from 9-10 pm.

Well, if there's anything ever to post about, it would be doing the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay! It was crazy, it was exhausting, it was fulfilling, it was a party, it was crowded, it was emotional, it was running! 1025 teams, almost 13,000 runners, 18.3 miles for me, 188 total miles, lots of gatorade and bagels, lots of fun!

A Year Goes by So Fast!

Cute Family Pic!

Tyler with Nana

Well, it's true, Charlotte is a year. It has been such a wonderful year, maybe a harder few months in the beginning, but we couldn't be happier to have Charlotte in our home. Having three kids is definitely crazy a lot of the time, but we've seemed to figure it out. Jeremy has been such a great dad this year. He has put many of the things he loves to do on hold, so that he can be home more. Boy, have I appreciated it. Way to go, Dad! We love you so much and thank you for all that you sacrifice for us!

Charlotte is truly a gem. She smiles all the time, loves to play with her brother and sister, and is just as independent as my other kids. She really never stops to amaze us with how fast she is doing everything and really taking it all in. I see her playing with Tyler and Grace and running around the house with them and I can see that she wants to be all grown up like them. We celebrated Charlotte's birthday by going camping, well not really, it just happened that we had planned a trip down to Arches on her birthday, we had cake when we got home. We went with my parents and had such a blast. The kids did terrific on all our hiking adventures. Neither of the kids asked to be held on the whole delicate arch hike. I must say, they are hiking kids. When you haven't been to Southern Utah in a while you can forget how beautiful it is. It's so fun to be able to share with your kids things you grew up with. Red Rock is one of mine!

When we got home we did the whole cake thing, and Charlotte just dug in. I guess I did a good job with the cake, cause she loved it!

Jeremy dressed the kids all coordinated for Memorial Day, so cute! I never do it, so Jeremy had to fill in on the cheesiness. I just love this picture of all of them. I can't seem to get a good picture of Tyler these days, so this will do. Yes, he thinks he is smiling. Look below, I think he gets it from his dad.

We then took a Thomas the Train ride on the Heber Creeper. The kids had a blast as we creeped along slower than I can run.

Charlotte ended up just picking the whole piece up and taking bites, my kind of girl!

Everybody is Growing Up!

Isn't she darling? Grace just turned 5!!! Grace is definitely getting older and wiser, at least she thinks. I can't believe she starts kindergarten this next fall! She is full of spunk, energy, humor, compassion, and a little bit of zany. She gets excited about others' successes, and is way too smart for her size. She had a wonderful birthday with family and extended family. Lots of presents, good food and a pretty cake. I can't believe I created something this great that is made with frosting and cake. I wish I had taken a picture of the cake once we cut into it. Grace wanted a rainbow cake after I was already making a butterfly (her first request), so I asked if I could make the inside rainbow. This was good enough for her. Let's just say, some people (I won't mention who, Papa Henriod) almost couldn't eat it, just close your eyes someone said.

Our other girl, Charlotte, is growing up so much and has been for a while. Jeremy always says, "Charlotte is 10 months going on 3 years". Here she is with her first steps. I'm sure in a week she's going to have figured it all out and will be walking everywhere.



As for the rest of us growing up? Well, Tyler of course is still the apple of all of our eyes. He is starting to make improvements in his speech and will be starting speech therapy soon. Jeremy seems to be getting older, but still immature as ever (just kidding), and I look forward to my 30th here in a couple of months! I don't feel old, I'm not dreading, and I'm actually going to celebrate it by running the Wasatch Back Relay!

OUT

Are you Kidding? Is it a Sign?

Charlotte is a busybody. The other day she was playing with pots out of the cupboard and next thing I knew she was in the cupboard. I find her in all sorts of places: the toilet, face down stuck in a half-empty laundry basket, and pulling soil and leaves off our indoor plant. She is so much fun. The other kids play hide-and-seek with her. She is still a mama's girl, even though she self-weaned. She's not walking yet, but very close. She will let go and stand for a number of seconds and is walking along furniture at a good pace.

Boy, our chickens are getting big, they're starting to eat us out of house and home. No, we aren't getting eggs yet, not until around July.


I just don't know how to begin. We bought a trampoline a week and 3 days ago, really excited for the kids to enjoy their time on it. Everyone loves trampolines and encouraged us to get one. Not two hours after we had the tramp up Grace broke her leg. She is now in a purple cast that goes up to her mid-thigh for a full month. Well, this morning I woke up to a horrible thing. It has been really windy for the last 36 hours. I found our BBQ flipped over on its side and was frustrated. Well, then Grace said, "Mom, where's the trampoline?" Oh, no, I didn't even notice that the tramp wasn't there. I run outside to look for it. The wind had blown it through our fence and it is wedged against our neighbors home. It's all bent out of shape not to mention the damage that is done to our neighbor's home. I just can't believe our luck. Well, I guess we weren't supposed to have a tramp. My neighbor, who is so nice, said, "I hope you're not going to get rid of the tramp". Are you kidding me? I guess if it's unusable we don't have a choice because we can't just go out and buy a new tramp. Well, so we're out the cost of the tramp and whatever it's going to cost to fix the fence and our neighbor's house.

It's going to be a great day!

February

Meet our new chicks. You may ask, what in the world are they doing getting chicks? Ask Jeremy. This is his thing. This summer we should be getting fresh eggs. A strange new adventure. We keep catching Tyler holding the chicks, and then when he sees us he throws them back into their box. So, if we're lucky, we will have some chicks that live, despite our children, into adulthood

This was Tyler's batman cake for his third birthday, yeah for Tyler!

And for all of you that need baby updates. Here is Charlotte. She is almost 9 months and is acting like she is 14 months. I am already having to close the bathroom doors and toilet lids. She is busy, boy is it fun!

Happy Halloween

I wish you could see this top one a little bit closer, it is just amazing!

Isn't my mom amazing. The previous three halloween hangings were made by my mom. We have so much fun picking out fabrics and scary halloween faces. I love having my mom's handiwork on my walls.

Our Halloween family. Grace was a butterfly, Tyler a knight, Charlotte a lobster, and I was a seagull. The seagull costume was once used in the days of 47 parade in SLC. Tyler was a knight with all the gear, but by the end of trick-or-treating he didn't have is sword or is shield.

Charlotte and her favorite auntie.

Hats and Spiders

Tyler is so great! He is all boy now. He loves hats, which I see as a blessing since he is a red head with fair skin and freckles. So, all summer long he wore a hat and it was great not to have to worry about the sun as much. He has 2 hats now and you almost will never see him without one on. The one in this picture is a monster hat or reptile hat that has eyes. Just perfect for him.

Seeing spiders around this holiday season reminded me of Tyler last Spring. Tyler thought that anything like a piece of thread or a small dark feather on the ground was a spider. We had more entertainment with trying to scare him with a piece of fuzz. He would be very wary of it, not want to get near it, or just try jumping and stepping on it over and over again. Then we would blow the fuzz toward him and he would flip out again. Mind you he never cried or anything, it was just kind of silly.
Now we have a large fake spider for Halloween, and though he knows it is fake I can still get him jumping away from it.

Bike Riding

Last April Grace got a bike for her birthday and immediately became an expert. We don't have a great driveway or backyard for riding bikes, but with help I can take her on a good bike ride along the golfcourse where there is a really wide sidewalk and flat. A little while ago we went out so Grace could ride. She was showing her pro abilities: swirving along back and forth, no hands, and no legs, and riding while standing up. We were coming up on some people that were also walking in the same direction, but slower. Grace was quite a ways ahead of us, so it was hard to get her attention. She slowed down and was just kind of biding her time, when all of the sudden we hear her bike bell ring, "ding".... and she's off it got the attention of the people, who then of course moved over. She then bent down in cruising mode, and passed right on by, without even waving. I guess she's been in a car enough to know the rules of driving! Gotta love her!

May the force be with you

So, we just let our kids watch Star Wars for the first time, I don't know if I'm okay with this, still. Anyway, the other morning we woke up to lots of rain and then looked out our window to find that we were in a big cloud. Grace went up to the window and with her hands held up she tried to push the clouds away with her mind, and then said, "oh, it didn't work". She was trying to use the force, I got a kick out of that! I guess we might have to get a light saber for Tyler for Christmas. I was just laughing and remembering that I used to think that it was a light saver. Then Jeremy said, "Well, at least you didn't always think that line dancing was "lion dancing". Yeah, Jeff at least I didn't!

Charlotte age 4 months

We can't believe that Charlotte is 4 1/2 months old. She is cute as ever, her hair is starting to lie down, much to my brother Michael's dismay. She smiles all the time and really loves her mama! Noone, including Jeremy has quite the touch as I do. She'll be screaming for someone and then will see me and smile amidst the tears. And then once I hold her she is fine. Sometimes this is annoying seeing as I can't get as much help with her if she doesn't want anyone else. She still is as red as ever, as you can see in the pics. She is almost sitting up and I have started feeding her rice cereal, although she doesn't like it yet. I just had to show you a cute picture of her, because she makes us smile!

Mom of the Year

Well, so I had to tell you all that I got the Mom of the Year Award. I got it because one day I was outside in our backyard with the kids. You see, we have sweet pea, the flower/plant growing in our yard and I noticed that there were real peas on the vine. Hey, kids come over and let's try the peas to see if they're any good. They weren't that great, but tasted like a pea. The kids thought they were great! Jeremy got home and found out what we were doing. Did you see if they're poisonous before eating them, he asked. Well, not but they're just peas. Jeremy stormed into the house to google. I sheepishly went inside to see if Jeremy found anything. Yep, the entire plant is toxic to humans, it can cause paralysis and lots of other things in large quantities. No, none of us got sick, but I learned my lesson! So, please, noone eat sweet pea, it may be tempting, but not worth it!

I am coaching the Young Women's Volleyball team this year for their short season! To all that know my real skill in Volleyball, they don't pick coaches to try to get the team to win, they pick coaches that are cute, really energetic and fun! So, I of course had to be the top pick! The girls are great and pretty good! our team name, the snaps. Go Snaps!

I'm out!

Summer Lovin

The craziness of having 3 kids is all around us, the summer is now behind us, so here are some pics to share some highlights from our summer.

Charlotte 3 months old














Grace and Clara with Sleeping Beauty Disneyland

















Grandparents with the grandkids






























Charlotte with cousin Claire they were a week apart.

our new home in Bountiful, UT

Can't get better than Alta and Cecret Lake

Rodeo with Papa Larry

THe kids were awesome on the horses

Yes, they still have this drinking fountain at the zoo

Jeff and Kelly's wedding

Grace climbing, she's pretty high