Determination

When Bronson sees something he wants, he goes after it.

He figures out a way to get it.

Even if he has to go all "MacGyver" on us and turn the file cabinet into a ladder.

more fun

For some reason, I can't figure out how to post two collages in the same post, so here are some more of my favorite pics, of some of my favorite people!

birthday highlights

My day started off great. I woke up to Nalani climbing in bed with me and saying sweetly, "Happy birsday, Mamma." I love how she talks! I came down stairs to find some beautiful tulips and card from Kelly and the kids and then we headed out for breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised with some decent weather and decided to finish up prepping the garden plot. Kelly worked hard, and I hardly worked! I did manage to get some plants at the high school plant sale and then went to the local Feed and Seed store for the rest of my needs and some good advice.

It's always fun to have a birthday. I love getting calls and visits throughout the day and getting cards in the mail. My kids even tried to get along. I told them that's all I wanted for my birthday, not to have to listen to them argue over who left the clothes on the floor, or who made what mess!

By the time we finished with the yard we were ready for our dinner and movie plans with friends. When we went to pick them up, my plans were altered. They had planned a little surprise birthday party for me, and boy was I surprised!! I have such wonderful friends! A lot of them traveled quite a ways to be there and it was so much fun to visit with everybody.

Rochelle and Jodi, the master-minds, made the cutest banner, and had the fixings for a yummy taco salad. Nicole made a beautiful cupcake pyramid, and everyone pitched in with the food and drink. I also received some wonderful presents, I got: 2 bottles of hard-to-come-by Postum!, a Utah Jazz jersey that I had to wear all night so they would win (it worked), a hummingbird feeder, candles, Coconut and Lime Verbena lotion and wash, a book store gift card, the cutest ever garden markers, and a 'love fern' to boot! After dinner we played Dance, Dance Revolution for awhile and then some of us night owls went to a late showing of "Baby Mama".

It was such a fun day and so great to get to spend it with some of my friends! The thirties have been good to me so far...thanks to a good husband, kids, family and friends!

Birthday girls

Yesterday my mom and I both celebrated our birthdays. I won't tell you how old she is, but I just turned 32 and we are exactly 20 years apart. I always thought it was pretty cool to share a birthday with my mom. Hopefully in 20 years I can look as good as her!

I love you, Mom! I hope you had a good day...I don't know how you could go wrong with going to the Jazz game and having 7th row seats, and they ended up winning:) I feel lucky to be your daughter! Thanks for sharing your birthday with me for all these years!

"Quiet please! Quiet on the set!"

As I'm sure most of you know, my little town was taken by storm for the last couple of weeks. Taken over by Hollywood. Part of the filming of "Twilight" took place here! It was fun to drive by Bella's house to see if we could see anything. It was fun to see all the trailers, trucks, cars and people it took to make it happen. It was fun to see a book that me, and so many of my friends have read and enjoyed and then some! We all knew what stuff was supposed to look like in our heads, it was fun to see what "they" would do with it! I think everything was pretty good, except I must admit, I was a little disappointed in Edward's car!
Then something really, really good happened. My friend Rochelle won a contest from a local radio station and the prize was VIP treatment on the set of Twilight, with my friend Paige.
That night, me and some of my other friends decided to head downtown to see if we could see anything exciting. We were perched on an ancient fire escape on the side of an ancient building, but hey, we had a good view! Or so we thought.
A friend from our ward who is a local cop, and was hired for extra security on the set came to our ancient fire escape and told us that he'd 'hooked us up'. What?? So we all stealthily climb over the people on the way down the fire escape and start winding our way down to the set. We were getting dirty looks from all the crew, and I felt like we were so lucky, because we were definitely NOT supposed to be there! A guy named T. Coe came over and introduced himself and gave us a play by play of what they were doing. We had a front row view of the action. The scene was when Bella was being attacked by some frat boys in Port Angeles.
After about two hours of being on set with some of my favorite friends, they came and told us they were getting ready to break for lunch (at 12:30 AM), but that we could stay if we wanted, because the next scene was going to be a car chase. Um, thanks, but I had to chaperone a certain little someone on a field trip bright and early the next morning:) Plus, it was starting to snow a little bit and everyone started to worry about frost bitten toes and fingers. We told him thanks for such a wonderful experience, but that we probably wouldn't be back. We were talking to a camera guy and telling him how lucky we felt, and he said we should feel lucky, because he's never seen people let that close to the filming on the set!
We weren't allowed to take pictures, but some of my friends got some great ones! Go to their blogs! For other versions of this story, you can check them out. Jodi, Jenn, and Nicole. That was a fun girl's night out!

Maika's Zoo Field Trip

This past Friday I was able to chaperone Maika's field trip to the zoo with the kindergarten classes. Kelly was able to work from home that day to make it possible for me to go. Thanks babe! Even though it was absolutely freezing, and I was really tired from staying up waaay too late the night before (details about that to come in an upcoming post), I had a ton of fun! It was so much fun to see Maika interact with her classmates. There was a group of about 8 girls that hung out together and begged me to keep taking their pictures:) I finally learned how to make these cool collages, thanks to Gina, so here are some of the fun memories we made! Enjoy!

Me and My (Kelly's) Shadow

A few weeks ago, Logan asked if we could plant a garden this summer. We told her that we could if the kids promised to help weed and take care of it. So, this weekend was beautiful, warm (almost hot), sunny weather. We (mostly me) decided it was a good weekend to get the yard in order, and to get a spot ready to plant a garden. Kelly thought it would have been a good weekend to de-winterize the boat and go out for a ride. He was nice and let me get my way. Especially since he would be doing most of the work.

Kelly did have some good help. Bronson! He would not let Kelly out of his sight. He went on every trip to get a new load of rock, dirt, and Mt. Dew! At times Kelly would ask me to take Bronson in while he moved the truck, or something else he didn't need "help" with. You would've thought Bronson's world ended, having to watch through the window instead of being right by his daddy's side! I've been getting an unsolicited break from Bronson lately. He doesn't want me, so Kelly has to do pretty much everything with/for him:) It's pretty traumatic for Bronson in the mornings when he realizes Kelly is at work and he has to spend the whole day with me!

We got most of the work done. Kelly got the wall built, and boarders put around the flower beds. Jeremy even came and aerated our lawn for us, and the girls and I raked up all the 'poop' from the lawn. We ended the day with a yummy BBQ of burgers, baked beans, and pasta salad. The kids all loved being able to play outside and the new wall made a perfect place to sit while they ate:)

Now all we have to do is actually plant the garden. I don't think this will happen for a couple of weeks since the news said it is supposed to freeze this weekend. I guess that will give us plenty of time to decide what we want and how to do it. We're new at this whole gardening thing!

**The picture of Bronson and Kelly in the little tractor if from when we were in AZ helping Grandma with her rock wall. Our operation didn't warrant a tractor, I just forgot to take a picture of Bronson following Kelly around that day!

My little helper

Logan is such a good little helper to me! She is pretty patient with her little brother and sisters, and is usually the one to remind me to be more patient with them, "they're just little kids," she says.:) She seriously tries to keep me in line, although I'm I pretty tough case! Like the picture shows, she even lets Bronson sit on her lap when she's practicing the piano. Bronson is her little buddy. He wakes up the earliest and she takes him downstairs to eat breakfast with her.

This past weekend was monumental. I was feeling overwhelmed and a bit like a maid to my kids. I feel like they were having a hard time doing their chores or even simply picking up their dirty clothes to put them in the hamper. I felt like their mindset was, "oh well, Mom will get tired of asking us and do it herself sooner or later." I decided that Logan was old enough to learn to clean the bathrooms. Good. She was actually very excited about learning and donned the rubber gloves happily. I told her the routine and she did a great job! She cleaned the kid's bathroom and the downstairs bathroom just as good as if I had done it myself!

I praised her for her good work and sent her to a movie with some friends. I told her to get her favorite movie treat, ice cream bon bons, to reward herself. I think she was very proud of her work, I even heard her get after Maika this morning for leaving her dirty clothes on the floor of the bathroom:)

I'm thankful for Logan and the sweet, tender-hearted little girl that she is. I enjoy watching her grow-up and mature. I'm grateful to be her mom. I love you Logan, thanks for all you do for me!

*On another note: Kelly was also bitten by the Cleaning Bug! This weekend he: washed all the baseboards downstairs, did a major Costco run with Maika and Nalani in tow, cleaned the kitchen, mopped the floor, fixed the baseboards in the kitchen, cooked Sunday dinner, and took me out to dinner! Does he know the way to a girl's heart or what??

No more sleeping in

Last week at around 6:30 am Kelly and I could hear Bronson in his room, so Kelly started to head in to get him out of his crib only to have the door open and Bronson walk out with a sly grin on his face! He is the first kid to ever try to escape, so this is all new for us. His body clock must automatically wake him at 6 am. Every morning I hear his door open and close, then I hear him shuffling down the hall. When I go looking for him, he's always standing at the top of our stairs looking through the railing, out the window with his thumb stuck in his mouth holding his blankie. Now we're wondering if he always woke up this early, but got bored and fell back to sleep. I have to admit that it's kind of fun because I'm usually awake at this time, and he's still a little sleepy so he'll just let me snuggle with him:)



Last week I set up our camera in his room to see how he does it. I had to come in and rescue him because his armpit got hung up on the railing:) So far there have been no accidents. Knock on wood! He is definitely our little Houdini Boy! Sorry about the sound, it's kind of scratchy.

1989 British Airways Commercial

This brought back memories

I recently saw a British Airways commercial on TV and it brought back some fun memories. It was filmed in different parts of the world, but specifically in the Lake Powell area and also Dead Horse Point, near Moab. When I was in the 8th grade a bunch of schools from my neck of the woods were "hired" to be in this commercial. I remember we were all so excited to get out of school for a few days. We thought it would be easy and so much fun. It was. It also squelched all dreams of ever wanting to be an actress. I could not believe how long it took to shoot this thing! We were out in the desert, just north of Moab, Utah. We had to get up early for the 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the shoot. Stay all day out in the dust. Practice, practice, practice. Then ride the bus home for 1 1/2 hours. I hope the schools got a lot of money from it! All we got were some sweats and a sack lunch everyday;) The section we were in is at the very end of the commercial with the face that smiles and winks and then turns into a picture of the world. I was in some part of the eye, because I remember my sweats were blue. Anyway I thought this was fun, and it really is true that you can find almost anything on You tube:)

It's getting easier to pee!

This week I've vowed to get back on an exercise and eating program that will hopefully help me shed a few lb's! The morning after my first workout was PAINFUL! It hurt to walk down the stairs or sit on the toilet or pretty much anything else. But, I'm happy to announce that I'm finding it easier to move around now:) Now, I just need to stick to it!!