Silly Mirrors

We happened to walk by these silly fun-house style mirrors in Nordstrom at the University Mall, the kids and I got the biggest kick out of them! We are pretty easily entertained - McKinley decided we need mirrors like that at our house. Sometimes I think we already have them when I look in the mirror :).

10/15/2009

My little Kitchen Helpers / Slaves :)

A little of this... and a little bit of that...

and some serious elbow grease...

turn this...

into this...

and my Kitchen Aid Mixer helps turn it into this...

which tastes REALLY good on a day like this...

and gets a reaction like this! :)

We had a really boring early snow-day last week. I had wanted to make some whole-wheat bread with fresh-ground wheat (you get the most nutritional value out of fresh-ground wheat), but hadn't had the time. What better day than a snow-day, right? So I pulled out the hand-grinder to let the kids have a try. They were AWESOME and LOVED it. They ground wheat for a good hour (they didn't know that Mommy has a Blend-tec that can grind 2 cups of wheat into flour in about 30 seconds - but that wouldn't have been as fun :). I used fresh-ground whole wheat and natural honey instead of sugar to make the most delicious hot-out-of-the-oven wheat bread. We ate it hot with honey and hot chocolate - mmmmm! No better way to spend a cold day than inside with hot chocolate and homemade bread!

10/28/2009

Allergies Stink!

Mason at his annual allergy appointment. Poor guy HATES doing his allergy checks, but the good news was that his numbers are down, so he may be in the small percentage that outgrow food allergies by the time they are 5. Fingers crossed! Love this little guy! 9/23/2009

St. George Rappelling and Climbing

We were able to go with Matt's family to St. George over Labor Day weekend to enjoy some quality family time. We had fun hanging out, swimming, hiking, rappelling, and climbing. Matt and I also celebrated our 6th anniversary over the weekend with the family - we went to dinner at Tucano's the next weekend for a night alone :). Unfortunately, I was a little lacking in the photo department, so I only took pictures of everyone climbing and rappelling, but it was a blast!
Mason and his cousin Maddie - LOVE this picture, and the kids LOVE Maddie, she is too cute!A desert tortoise we found spying on us while we climbed and rappelledThe cute newlyweds - we LOVE Amanda and Ben!Mason and McKinley enjoying powdered donuts while they watched the actionMy 19-year-old nephew Andrew (the little red and white dot almost at the top of the rock) rappelling down - just to give you a little perspective of the length of this rappel McKinley and her cousin Tyler had fun finding golf balls at the bottom of the canyonTyler rappelling - don't tell his mom! Matt overseeing the rappels from the top - sweet hat :)Matt rappellingMatt - almost down, it looks so funny when they are just hanging there!

What comes down must come... up? Matt climbing back up the rock face - it was a tough climb, Matt was the only one who made it all the way back up. The rest of us went the 'easy' way winding out of the canyon.Mason and Uncle Greg watching the climbers - Mason LOVES hanging out with Uncle Greggie!Matt climbing againMason, Maddie, and McKinley trying to stay out of the sun

My silly boy :)

The kids are ready to climb!

9/7/2009

Daddies are the Best!

Matt and his good friend Jon had this 'great' idea to take their kids camping together - without the mommies. At first I was a little hesitant - water, fire, and just dads to supervise. It sounded a LITTLE scary. However, I WAS won over by the idea of 48 hours completely to myself. There is a LOT that I can do in 48 hours with no kids around. So, it was settled and off they went into the high Uinta's.

Emmy and McKinley eating oatmeal by the campfireMason stayed in the tent in the warm sleeping bags and blankets - he was too cold to eat breakfast :)Mason with the day's catchMy little princess holding dead fishDaddy teaching Mason to fishDaddy daughter fishing

My little fisherman :)Daddy and the kiddos enjoying a freezing waterfallKaitlyn and Emmy with McKinley - notice that the Daddies were in charge of doing their girls' hair. Jon must have more practice with girl hair, my child is the only one who looks like she just rolled out of bed. :)

McKinley and Mason - also note that somehow McKinley is wearing Mason's pants. Daddy didn't notice - even though I packed their clothes in separate bags (and McKinley's bag was purple!). All-in-all, they had a BLAST and can't wait to go camping with Daddy again! Thanks Daddy, in the end I got two happy (and tired) kids, and some much needed 'me' time! :)

8/27/2009 - 8/29/2009

More summer randomness

Two of my best friends from High School. We don't get the chance to all get together very often, so the rare occasions are a treat! Brittany (far left) just moved back to good old Provo so her hubby can go to law school, so we have been able to catch up and hang out a little bit. Natalie (middle) happened to be in Provo for Education Week, so with a little coordination we were able to do dinner, so fun! My little character :)

My brave girl - she really has NO fear of the water, it kind-of scares me!

The infamous pool basketball games at Lisa's - they play every time she has a pool party, and inevitably someone gets hurt, there are no rules in this game.

Mason thoroughly enjoying his cupcake :)

This one's for you Farrah - because I couldn't resist! The girls all went out for Farrah's birthday, and we very much enjoyed watching her red-faced ride the saddle at Texas Roadhouse :)

Ladies night for Farrah's birthday!

There you go, some more of the random happenings this summer :)

8/19/2009 - 8/28/2009

American Fork Canyon and an attempt at FHE :)

We went with our neighbors and friends the Wells for a little hike and to roast marshmallows in American Fork Canyon for family night. It was such a fun last-minute family night activity!

Oh, they look so cute and innocent...

Just playing around NEAR the water...

But in the end they can't take the temptation anymore and end up wearing their skivvy's and going all the way in! The water was FREEZING, but they hardly noticed! Good thing this blog is private ;), wouldn't want the world to see Mason and London in their underclothes!Roasting marshmallowsThey LOVED it! We should do this more often!8/17/2009

On another note - the Wells are moving today (as we speak). They have been such wonderful next-door neighbors and friends, we will miss them!