It's Off To Grandma's We Go!

Our Labor Day Weekend got off to a rough start with Megan having to miss school Friday because she woke up sick. All seemed well Saturday morning, so we left for Idaho to spend the weekend at Brad's parent's house. Saturday we were at the park to celebrate Brad's grandmother's 88th birthday. Brad's aunt Phyllis has a cotton candy machine, and she made a large bag of cotton candy for each child (while they watched!). The kids thought that was pretty cool - as well as the piñatas & the merry-go-round. Brad of course LOVED watching the BYU game. I went down and visited with Jen (his cousin's wife that lives down the road from his parents). I enjoyed the BYU game in my own way! :) One of the highlights was definitely feeding the llamas at Rex & Betty's house. The kids loved it. They haven't had the llamas for very long, and it was our first time to go out and feed & pet them. Betty was excited because "Cusco the llama" was born just a few days before we came up. Here's some photos from the weekend:

"Hey mom & dad - I'm ready to go to grandma & grandpa's!"


Megan feeding the llamas apples


Paige's turn!




This is the baby llama that was just born this week. Now Brad's parents have 5 llamas!

This morning was Paige's first day of preschool! She was excited & she seemed to have a good time. Being the sugar lover that she is, all I really got out of her was that she made a rainbow picture with glitter, and she had a doughnut. As I'm typing this she is letting me know that "her tummy needs cookies". I don't know about that, but her tummy seems to rule around here... Love you all!

Megan's A First Grader!

Today (September 1st) was Megan's first day of school. She started first grade (I can't believe it!). So, last night I was feeling good that we had gotten her to bed by 8:30. Ashlie was up until midnight, then awake 3 times during the night for some reason. When I got up around 5am with Ashlie I noticed that Megan was in our room. She was so excited for school that she couldn't sleep any longer! Luckily by 6 she had fallen back asleep in our bed. Last night was back to school night and Megan was skipping everywhere we went at the school. She just has been SOOOO excited. I think it's so cute because I know she won't always feel this way.

When I got her home from school today she told me this (in her most excited voice), "...and did you know that the PE room walls move and that the whole PE room turns into a RESTAURANT! IT WAS A RESTAURANT! (giggling) People ate on picnic tables and there were people cooking behind the walls!" I thought this was hilarious! Now you know what a little six year old is thinking during their first lunch in a lunchroom! :)

This is her first day photo: (I took photos this morning but the shadows were terrible, so this is right when she got home)

Ashlie is growing so fast that I want to share some recent photos of her too:

Since I haven’t blogged FOREVER, I thought I’d catch you all up on what we’ve been doing lately:

We had our third daughter, Ashlie July 11th. We LOVE her!! She is healthy and beautiful, and we feel so blessed to have her here.

Brad and I are proud of her baby room. Here’s a peek. I did some sewing (the curtain and the crib skirt), and Brad refinished the dresser. We couldn’t find a matching dresser to go with our espresso colored crib so we bought a solid wood dresser that was a light oak color and Brad stripped, re-stained & varnished it. I think it matches perfectly.

We’re enjoying night after night of firework shows. When we first moved to Heber we thought the random fireworks were so funny. Just wondering if we have any of you beat: Fireworks on the 4th of July, then again July 10th (to kick off a race), July 24th (pioneer day), July 25th (demolition derby), and we'll have more July 31st and August 1st at the end of the rodeo. If you didn't get your fill on the 4th, you know where to come! ☺

We’re eating A LOT of zucchini. The question each night is no longer “What’s for dinner?” but rather “How should we cook the zucchini tonight?”

Megan has been working hard on a popsicle stick house for the past two weeks. It all started with her bringing me the craft popsicle sticks and wanting to make a house. I then suggested that she could possibly enter it into our county fair. She entered it Monday, and it'll be fun to go see the exhibits on Friday. Other than the hot glue she pretty much did everything. She's very proud of it. It was worth it just to see how excited she was when she entered it. She also entered this drawing of flowers.

We have two tiny fruit trees that we planted this spring, and between the two trees we grew one piece of fruit – a plum. I think Brad and I both knew it would be a miracle if our plum actually lasted until it was fully ripe before one of the girls picked it. Anyway, a couple of days ago Paige brought me the half green plum and said Megan picked it. Megan then explained how she didn’t pick it - it just fell off while she was touching it. ☺ Even if we get only 2 pieces of unripe fruit next summer we'll be up from this year!

Tooth Fairy Letter

I wrote yesterday about Megan losing her 6th tooth, but I had to add this this morning because it's just too cute. So Megan was worried last night before bed because she couldn't find her tooth anywhere. She and Paige had taken it out of the bag and played with it I guess. (Such a fun thing to touch!) j/k Anyway, she wouldn't let Brad or I read this letter last night because it was just meant for the tooth fairy. Here's what she wrote:

Teeth!

So yesterday (May 12th), Megan came home from school wearing this giant tooth necklace. The first thing out of my mouth was "Wow - it must be dinosaur week!" :) It's a good thing I got a photo of it as soon as she got home, because Paige destroyed it not too long after this.

So, keeping with the tooth theme, this is the tooth Megan came home with today (May 13th). She lost her 6th tooth at school today! She thought it was so cool. Her class regularly earns rewards for being quiet, etc., and today their reward was that they got to see a "secret room" in the school, where they got to eat a treat. So, while Megan was eating her fruit roll-up in the teacher's lounge (the "secret room"), she lost her tooth.

Brad's Getting So Old!! :)

So, my cute husband is now 31. I can't believe it! It was a fun day. The girls helped me decorate this fish cake for Brad with Swedish fish & sprinkles & we made him a little fishing pole (bamboo skewer) with a dangling gummy worm. Paige definetely favored the left side of the cake when putting on candles, and now I know why it's good to put candles in a straight row - Brad and I were having to reach over lit candles to light the ones in the middle! Megan hated what I wrote on the cake. She said I should've just written "We hope you like your fish cake". It's really hard to please 5 year olds I'm learning!
Here's a happy dad on his birthday!
This was when I said, "So, who likes cake?!" The girls waited forever to have cake & ice cream. We were too full after dinner, then Brad wanted to work on the fence together, then he had birthday phone calls, and then we had cake. They were definetely ready by the time it came around.
So, his birthday pictures wouldn't be complete without showing you what he was dying to work on once again. Our fence is coming along so great & it is soooooo exciting! It totally changes how I feel about being in my backyard. He has done so great with the fence & we have probably 10 more panels (and our gate) to do. It has been fun to be out there working with him although I'm not good for much. The girls and I had fun in the yard in between supplying him with the pieces that he needed. To finish off the night I rented Seven Pounds (Will Smith) for he & I. The ending completely made me sad, freaked out & fearing jellyfish and bathtubs. Don't watch this movie - especially on birthdays. I felt so bad I'd gotten such a depressing show on his happy day. :) Oh well! Love you all!

Dad's and Donuts

This morning Megan's school PTA had a "Dad's and Donuts" event. Days like today I'm so glad that Brad works so close from home (3 minutes), and that his job is so flexible. He normally works at 8am, but the dad's n' donuts event was from 8 - 8:30, so he went in late today. They were supposed to take a book with them and then could read together while eating donuts & drinking chocolate milk. It sounded like they barely read, because Brad came home telling me about all of the dads he saw that he knew, and Megan was excited about all of the kids that she saw. Next week it's my turn -- "Mom's and Muffins". It's fun having a child in school! :)

Spring Break Fun

Okay, I don't blame anyone for not checking my blog since it's been nearly two months since I've posted. Life's been busy, our computer has been having major problems, and I've just been doing other things. I've been really healthy during this pregnancy, and next week is my 28 week appointment. It's getting exciting that it's only 3 months away now! We're getting so antsy to be outside, but the weather just won't let us very much. Yesterday we got over 2 inches of snow and we've been getting tons of rain, and our yard is a pretty muddy mess. We're looking forward to drying out and working some magic on the yard. Can't wait!! Last week was Megan's spring break, and Brad had to work so we didn't vacation anywhere, but he took off Thursday and Friday and we had some fun as a family. Here's some of what we did: We found this really cool museum on BYU's campus called The Monte L. Bean Museum. You could get super close to everything - it was really neat.

We wondered what they did with the rest of the giraffe...

This was Megan's favorite animal there, because of it's funny buck teeth (which unfortunately you can't see -- sorry!)

We then went to temple square & the Church History Museum

The flowers were soooo pretty! This is what I want MY yard to look like! :)

Friday we went to Hogle Zoo and the weather was PERFECT! All the animals were out and it was really fun.

We then spent the remainder of Friday and then Saturday with the Johns. We had fun dying and rolling eggs,and doing the easter egg hunt with the girls and Alyssa. Sunday morning the girls woke up and found their baskets at home.

They were happy girls!

Candy was all Paige needed to make her happy. It's only 5 days later now and pretty much all of her candy is gone.

Ultrasound Results

Yesterday (Tuesday) we had our 20 week ultrasound. The baby looked healthy which is always reassuring, and it's going to be another girl! Looks like girls are our thing. Yesterday it was hard to believe that we were going to be having another girl, but I woke up excited about it all this morning. After all, I have two cute girls already that I love sooooooo much. From the ultrasound my due date looked like July 16th. By the way, if any of you want the name Gerald it's officially up for grabs. We won't be needing it anymore. :)

Things I Love

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• My family (The Johns, The Woodwards, my husband & kids)
• Watching Lost with Brad - we've never missed an episode!
• Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting - straight out of the container!
• Alisa Bangerter segments on Studio 5 (studio5.ksl.com)
• Growing flowers and a garden and kneeling in the dirt
• The humid smell of greenhouses
• Cold cereal - anytime of day
• Listening to music
• Having Brad home with us for lunch each day
• Friends
• Trying new recipes
• The feeling of being caught up on my scrapbooking
• My girls
• Brad
• My girls
• Brad
• The RARE feeling of having a clean house
• Boutiques
• The money I save using pinchingyourpennies.com
• Filling up my food storage shelves
• Sneaking in to check on my girls while they sleep & giving them kisses!

New Babies in the Family

Since January 1st, Brad's 3 sisters have each had a baby - the last being born yesterday. It's crazy to have a new nephew and two nieces that we may not see for quite a while (they live in Seattle, South Carolina and Virginia). We're glad they're all here now, and that they're all healthy! It's crazy to think that I'm next! By the way, we find out if we're having a boy or a girl February 24th!

Random Ramblings

So, I found myself wide awake last night at 3:40 am, and while I was lying in bed I composed the best blog I'd ever written. I thought about coming down to the computer until I was tired enough to sleep again, but eventually I must have fallen asleep because I never did. I really can't even remember what I was going to write about, but I know it was good! Today is Megan's "un-birthday" at kindergarten. She told me yesterday how funny it was that Weston's (a boy in her class) was on the real day he was born! She thought that was such a funny coinsidence!! She obviously thought (until I explained) that everyone had to have an un-birthday. She's supposed to bring a little something to share with the class, like a goodie or toy. We made 26 snack bags full of playdough last night. I put the playdough in a basket for her last night & had to laugh that it's too heavy for her to even carry! I told her to have a friend help her pass them out today. My friend Tiffany called me from the Tanger Outlet Mall Friday to tell me that she found the best sale at Gymboree, and that if I was interested I better hurry and come up before everything was picked over. I usually don't venture off very far while Megan's in school, but I decided to drop her off at school and drive with Paige up to Park City. Gymboree had racks of clothes for $1.99! These weren't ugly clothes either - they were darling winter, and summer clothes that they had to get rid of because they had embellishments on them (like jewels). Anyway, I bought $40 worth of $1.99 clothes for both girls. That night Tiffany called me up and asked if I wanted to go back up with her that evening (her husband had been out of town for quite a while & had just called her to say that he might have to be gone another 2 weeks) - anyway, having 5 small kids she decided she needed a little break & so she got a babysitter & we went shopping again! I left Gymboree that night with another $36 worth of $1.99 clothes. It was so fun & I've bought several things for Megan to grow into. Anyway, anyone who knows me well knows that I love a good bargain!

Fun in St. George

As we freeze here in Heber City, thoughts of visiting Paul and Julianne in warm Arizona keep coming to mind. As of yet, a trip to Arizona hasn't been in the works, but this past weekend we at least got to go as far south as St. George. It was a very last minute trip, as in Kim invited us Saturday morning at 8 am and we left by 11 am. The girls and Brad and I had so much fun getting a bit warmer, and playing with their cousin Alyssa. We went to a very cool Pirate Pizza place, discovered the most amazing playground I've ever seen, climbed the red rocks, played in the sand dunes, shopped and went swimming. I can't even tell you how many times Brad and I and Kim and Adam kept mentioning moving ourselves to St. George. I guess even 60 degree weather will do that to you in the middle of January! Here are some of the photos of our weekend...

Yes, I'm alive

So, my sisters and my mom have been calling me to see if I am indeed alive because I haven't been calling or blogging. I'm happy to report that yes, all is well with me! After Christmas all I could think about was primary since I had very little notice that I was losing 75% of my teachers come the first of the year. This last week Brad and I have been organizing like crazy and throwing stuff out. Since I haven't blogged forever I posted about 4 things below this. Sorry that they are a little old. Yesterday I guess I felt ambitious and so I moved Paige's bed and dresser in with Megan's. It seems that I always wait until I'm pregnant to start moving furniture around. Nothing was very heavy mom, so don't be worried. Now Paige's old room is completely empty (it's sad to go in there) and so I'm planning on using it as a scrapbooking room for the next several months to see if I can get caught up before the baby comes. Happy Reading! Love you all!

Splatter Painting

So, my family probably was all wondering why Brad and I gave Megan a salad spinner and paint for Christmas. I found this idea for making splatter paintings using a salad spinner, washable tempera paint & paper plates. Anyway, the girls had a blast and this is how they turned out!

Cute Reindeer

Okay, I know I haven't posted forever, but I love this picture so I wanted to share it. On the last day of school before Christmas break I helped out with the party. I remembered my mom making hats like these for my sisters and I when I was 5, so I decided to make them with Megan's class. Aren't they cute! By the way, I couldn't find plain red glitter for the nose, so I used red sprinkles and it worked so good.

Announcement

So, for those of you who haven't heard yet, Brad and I are expecting baby #3. I didn't write about it in our Christmas letter because I hadn't been to the doctor yet. I am just about 15 weeks now, so we still have quite a while. In my Christmas stocking this year Brad gave me a watermelon! When I was pregnant with Megan I craved watermelon quite a bit during the winter, so that's the story behind that one. I was so excited to eat it, and it ended up being the worst watermelon either of us had ever tasted in our lives!!! I pretty much just had two bites and was done. I still love that he bought it because the thought was so sweet, but some things really are worth waiting until summer for! :)