Playing Catch Up

Eating breakfast at Cabin Creek Lodge

WARNING!! This post has the potential to be very long and drawn out - I mean more that usual. I'm going to attempt to get a little caught up on our life. So this is our trip to Utah. I went up the end of June with the kids while Jerry stayed back and worked. Poor Jerry. The first weekend that I was in Utah I actually drove up with my kids and friends to West Yellowstone. The store that we worked at during the summers was having it's huge 100 year reunion. I haven't been up to West Yellowstone for a couple years. It was very fun, other than being a single mom.
I don't know why I ever thought I could be Super Mom and handle two young kids that were getting over sickness, that had been sitting in the car for a 7 hour drive up from Las Vegas, then two days later a 5 hour drive up to Yellowstone all on my own. The drama all culminated at the reunion banquet when Hayden was screaming under the table because he wanted the apple juice that was on the table, but it was actually ice tea, so I wouldn't let him have any. And at the same time Rebecca was sitting on my lap (One of the few times during the whole meal, usually she was wandering around the table under the waiter/waitress' feet) screaming because I wasn't getting the ice cream for dessert to her fast enough. What joy. And all this screaming happened to be during the presentation when everyone in the whole room is quietly listening, except my children. That part was hard, but I'm so glad I went up. I miss West Yellowstone. Quake Lake was beautiful, and the Park was just gorgeous. I forget how green things can be, when everything around me is brown.

Hayden was upset because I wouldn't let him get too close to the river. What a mean mother I am huh. So no smiles in this picture.

A tackle that started as a hug.

At least Jerry was able to have some fun while I was gone - I know , hard to believe, but it's true. :) His brother Brian and his family were in the process of relocating from Michigan to Arizona. They were in town during that time, so he got to have a good guys night out with his brothers. And there were a couple family parties he was able to go to. It was great seeing you guys, Jennifer. Good luck in Gilbert!

Me and my friend Sunni

Jerry was a very welcomed sight when he flew in on the night of the 3rd. We went to Lagoon on the 4th and 5th. The kids absolutely loved it. Friday it was a bit overcast so it was nice. We did a bunch of rides, but then spent hours swimming. The kids loved it. Then we went to my brother Joseph's house to let the kids take a little nap - (actually Jerry and I hate to admit it, but we've realized we've gotten old. We like to take a little nap too. A whole day is very exhausting.) Then we went back that night and met up with my sister Rebecca and her family and Joseph and his family for rides and we watched the fireworks from Lagoon. It was so much fun.

Rebecca having a melt down at Lagoon
Saturday was very hot, but we actually stayed the whole day and had a blast. Hayden is a little dare devil. His favorite rides were the adult rides, Music Express, and Tidal Wave. I let Jerry go on those ones with him. It was cute seeing Hayden and Rebecca riding the rides, so excited with each other.


Hayden and Rebecca having a blast on the tugboats.

While we were in Utah we also got to go to my new nephew, Alex's baby blessing. And my brother Dave from Colorado also came to visit. It was great to be able to see their family as well. Jerry even got to get some golfing in while we were there. It was a great trip, we were very grateful to go up.

Our cute little famly

Hayden cooling off in the water

The Truth Hurts

So, I am not a big fan of cleaning. I LOVE organizing - to a fault. It takes forever, and I go WAY overboard. Jerry hates it when I start organizing closets because that is when I find old letters or journals and I get lost forever reading while I'm organizing. OK, back to cleaning. I think I don't like cleaning because I do it every day, and the next morning you can't tell that I did anything. Our house feels so small too, that even if it is spotless, once a couple toys come out it seems messy and cluttered again. Our house is comfortable and lived in. So, anyway there is the background you need to know. Today I was gone all morning to my 1st Dr. appointment, (which was great by the way. So cool to hear the baby's heartbeat - more about that in another post though.) and visiting. I got back just in time to get the kids lunch before my tutoring student came. He is a sweet, honest boy. He will be turning 7 next month, and he likes to tell me how his house is much bigger than ours, and they have more tvs than we do. I'm also wondering if his 14 year old brother knows that he is using his cologne. Every session he has cologne on, I'm really hoping it's not his, but his brothers. Ok, moving on, He comes at 1:00 which is right after the kids have lunch and literally a few minutes after I put Rebecca down for her nap. (Not the cleanest time of the day,) Well, today he asked me why my house is always so dirty. OUCH! I guess the truth hurts. Kind of funny in a way, but a little too honest too. Back to working on one of my New Year's Resolutions, Not to worry when people stop by unannounced, because my house is already spotless. I sincerely hope I'm not the only one that has a hard time keeping my house clean.

I've been tagged by Heather!

It has been a while since I've written a new post. We had a great vacation. I'll give details later in another post. For now I got tagged. And I thought this looked cute, so I wanted to join in on the fun.




20 Years ago... I was 11. It was quite the summer. I had just finished elementary school, and I was so excited to be going into middle school. I had a fun summer fling with my next door neighbor Cam. Christensen. He was a hot older man. (Actually he was going to be a freshman in
high school. That's kinda creepy when you think about it now. My brother Joseph and I would
hang out at his house all day with Cam and his younger sisters. We'd
order pizza and time it to make sure it got there in 30 min. or less. And that is where we'd watch movies like "LaBamba" and "Dirty Dancing", ones that our parents didn't want us to watch. That was when hypnotizing was "in" so I would tell Joseph to hypnotize me and make me kiss Cam. (Remember I was still really young.) Of course I wasn't really out. But it was a good excuse. What a little floozy I was, huh. Cam even won a 4 ft. stuffed Panda Bear for me at the county fair. What a gentleman. It was a great little romance until we got into a huge fight and I gave his panda bear back to him. It ended with Cam and all the neighborhood boys ripping up the panda bear in the middle of the street. There was stuffing everywhere. Wow, what drama. Especially for an 11 year old. Well, thanks for that stroll down memory lane. On to the next one.


10 years ago. It was the first summer since I'd graduated high school that I didn't go away to work. For the summers I'd worked in West Yellowstone. I was working in Logan at Intellysis, doing data entry. The work portion of it was extremely boring, but the computers would break down often, or we'd run out of forms and process for hours. So while we waited we got paid to hang out, once or twice we brought in a tv and vcr and watched movies. I even learned how to kick box from a guy named Brian that was a
Jiu Jitzu instructor. (Yes, I'm sure it's spelled wrong.) I was a
Supervisor during the summer, and it was really fun. My friend
Sarah Coffin was living with our family during the summer to gain
Utah residency. She is from West Yellowstone, so we went on
several trips up to West Yellowstone that summer. We also hung
out a lot with all my guy friends that were coming home from their missions. It was a very fun summer.






10 years ago. At the Crazy
House near Quake Lake.


5 years ago. I was 26. Jerry and I had been married for about 6 months. I was tutoring during my summer break from teaching. We also went on a lot of vacations that summer. We went to Disneyland, and Utah a couple times. We had a small little family reunion/talent show when my parents moved back to Utah. Jerry and I dressed up like Milli Vanilli, and did an audition for American Idol, for our skit. He is so good to participate in my family talent
shows. We also got to go on a great vacation to Warroad Minnesota, and Winnepeg, Canada to visit Jerry's mission. It was
so neat to meet the people Jerry served. It was a great summer.









5 years ago. Family Talent
Show.

3 years ago. Hayden was about 7 months old. Spitting up all the time, but so adorable. I had just finished my fifth and last year teaching. We went on a fun family vacation to Yellowstone. We bought a HUGE, nice tent for the occasion and decided to save money by camping. After the stress of assembling the tent, and a flying rubber mallet we finally got set up. Yellowstone was beautiful, but unfortunately Hayden got sick and threw up all over our tent, our car, the middle of Mc Donalds, and had a MAJOR blowout at Old Faithful. Not fun! He did get feeling better though.
Enough that we could still enjoy our vacation. I think camping
might be out for our family though. The other time we went
camping at Mt. Charleston, Hayden started coughing because of
allergies and ended up throwing up in the tent again. I think we
are just jinxed. On the way home from Yellowstone we stopped in Preston, ID to see all the sites from the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Then we stayed in Utah for a bit to see family and of course to go to Lagoon.





3 years ago. Yellowstone!

1 year ago. Lagoon.

1 year ago... Hayden was 2, and Rebecca was 8 months. My niece, Shalane and her friend, Shelby came down to stay with us for about a week and a half. It was very fun, but exhausting. They got to see the Ocean's Thirteen red carpet event. Our family also went up to Utah a couple times. Jerry and I ran in the Honeyville, 4th of July 5K race. It was fun. We also went to Lagoon- of course. And we spent 45 minutes walking around Hogle Zoo, just to see empty cages, because the animals were too hot, so they were inside. And the animals that were outside were just sleeping. It was more fun going to Target after that. We also got to see my brother John and his wife Sara from Texas. It was a fun summer.

Yesterday... I got back into real life after our two week vacation. I woke up to Rebecca screaming in her crib. I went in to find that she had taken off her pjs, and her diaper, and then decided to poop in the crib. DISGUSTING!!! I had a Relief Society meeting in the morning. Kept the tv off for the majority of the morning, so I felt like a good mom. Tutored a student. Caught up on some of the episodes of "Days of our Lives" that I missed. (Sorry mom, it's true. I still watch.) Then we went to Jerry's brother, Devin's birthday party. Then I went to dinner with some girlfriends. And when I watched the results show of "So You think you can Dance."

Today... We woke up and went on a walk to the grocery store. Then we went to Walmart. (Lots of shopping.) Played games - all with the rules a 3 year old makes up. Apparently the "Real" way to play Candyland is just to take your piece and bounce it along the path, and when you run into another player you bounce on top of them, or fight with their piece till one piece is thrown out of the other player's hand. I'm supposed to clean today, and do laundry, we'll see if that actually happens. Tonight we are going to the 51's baseball game. Jerry got tickets with his work. I think it will be fun. Well, if the heat doesn't kill us.

Tomorrow... My ambitions are great. Probably only 1/2 of this will actually get done, but I'll try to accomplish it all. Go to the temple, tutor, go see Wall E as a family, shampoo the carpets, organize my house, play, read, and I don't know what else. We'll see what actually happens.

One year from now... Hayden will be 4, Rebecca 2, and our new little one about 5 months! Yip, it's true. I guess, now is as good of a time as any to announce our news. We are expecting! I'm due in February. I'm very excited, and to be honest, a little scared too because we'll be outnumbered. I'm not very far along, only 9 weeks, but I feel great. I'm very lucky because I haven't had any morning sickness with any of my children. I should learn by now not to stress it and enjoy it. So anyway, back to one year from now. We'll have three children and I'll have already lost the baby weight and be SMOKIN' HOT:) (never hurts to dream, right) We'll be sweating in the HOT Vegas sun, and vacation as much as we can!

So there is my fun life. Thanks for enduring the walk down memory lane. Now I'm officially tagging Angela R., Sara R., Melanie C., Amber P., and Amy C. (I'm probably supposed to limit it to three, but I want to see all of them.

Going to visit Gramma and Grampa "Pickles"

Vacation starts in only 3 days and I'm so ready and excited. I have just been so swamped and busy lately that it is about time to suffer from lack of sleep and sweets overload. Hayden's getting excited too. He is so funny, every time we get in the car he asks if we are going to see "Gramma and Grampa Pickles." So obviously there is a story here. My mom and dad have those little wooden dolls from Germany that open up, and there is a smaller doll inside, open that one and another, smaller doll and so on. My little puzzle solver LOVES those dolls. Whether it's been 1 month or 6 months between visits the first place he goes is to those dolls. (He loved it at Christmas time when there was a Christmas Nativity version too.) So over a year ago whenever we'd talk about going to see Grandma and Grandpa Roylance he'd say something about pickles, and said something about Gramma Pickles. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I just nodded and agreed with him. (A strategy I use all too much.) Finally, a short while after coming home I caught it. Pay attention, it's a long chain that makes perfect sense in Hayden's mind. We were watching TV when that stupid show, "Higgleytown Heros" came on. He said something about pickles. It clicked. On that show the characters, for anyone that hasn't seen it, (you're not missing much.) are just like those little dolls. They pop open and store things in their tummies or even hide each other in their tummies at times. No, the chain isn't done. During each episode one of the little Higgleytown girls makes an impossible suggestion to help them out of a situation. When she's told it won't work she always says, "Oh PICKLES!" AH HA!! I found it. There it is. That is why Hayden calls my parents Gramma and Grampa Pickles. He even prays for them as Gramma, Grampa Pickles. What a funny boy.

By the way, these pictures, like others, have nothing to do with my post. Hayden likes to look cool in glasses lately, and Rebecca LOVES to accessorize. She thought she needed every single bow in her hair this day.

My HULKING Husband!

Can I share one of the many reasons I love my husband. Jerry is so funny. He is this strong tough guy, that is still just a kid at heart. For example. When he goes to the gym, and he's walking around feeling all tough, mixed in with all the good "pump up" songs on his MP3 player, he might be listening to the "Street Rat" song from "Aladdin." So his newest phase - since we've already seen Indiana Jones, and got prepped by watching all three previous Indiana Jones movies - is The Incredible Hulk. After major disappointment in the movie that came out a couple years ago he's looking very forward to the movie that comes out next week. The Hulk is taking over many of his thoughts. He pictured himself as the Hulk the other day at the gym. Envisioning situations where he was the Hulk, and he could outlift anyone at the gym. Also when he saw weights sitting out that someone had forgotten to put away he pictured himself as the Hulk getting so angry that he blasted the weights through the floor. I guess I didn't realize he had so much pent up anger.:) Every day he'll have a new scenerio for what he could do if he were the Hulk. From crushing wholes in the ground, to throwing cars, to walking down the street and as people try to hit him they would just fall to the ground in pain from his "Hulking" muscles. He says he "just feels like he's the hulk." I love him. I can't wait to see what happens when Batman comes out next month. Uh oh! Batman has always been his favorite anyway. We're in for a fun ride.

Here of some of his favorite scenes he found on You Tube from the T.V. series. These are great reasons to turn into the hulk. (I haven't figured out how to get the actual video clip onto the blog, so you'll just have to click on the link.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2TE0UzieDg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeYYf9rjk34&feature=related

Designer baby

My friend, Heather has an amazing website for the cutest baby accessories. I'm going to try to set up a link, but remember, I'm new to this whole blog thing. Hopefully it works, if not the address is, www.mydesignerbaby.com.

Here are some pictures of the cute products they have. I guess it must be obvious that my youngest is a girl, since everything I like is pink!

What a wonderful, blustery day!

It is a beautiful day outside. It has been heating up to the yucky 100s lately, but today it is windy, overcast, and it even rained a little bit. I love the smell of the rain in the air. What a beautiful day. I feel like making soup for dinner, it just fits the weather.