Keeping Afloat

Now that the weather is nice, it seems like we are spending most of our time outside, which leaves less time inside to play on the computer, but we've been having lots of fun! Here are a few highlights of the last little while:

We had a fun little pool party at Chelsea's today with some adorable kiddos and mamas in the neighborhood. Both Isaac and Emilie had such a blast playing in the water, even though it wasn't a super hot day.Tonight, we went with my dad for the maiden voyage of his *new* fishing boat he got this weeks while my mom's been out of the country. See what happens when he is left unsupervised?!? We had a great time, even though Emilie didn't seem too pleased, but I don't know if she was just cranky to be cranky, or if she didn't like her life vest and wind blowing in her hair. At least she looked cute though! Isaac was so thrilled to take a ride in the boat AND ride down to the lake in Grampa's big, loud truck! I guess there's a perk to living a just a few minutes away from a big lake!What a handsome man!!!While Jarom's been working on the yard, the never-ending project, I've been trying to find ways to keep Emilie entertained, and the other day she kept trying to climb on Isaac's trike, so I put the steering handle back on and took her for a little lap around the driveway. That one lap turned into many and she had a great time! I think she really feels like a big kid on that bike! She's even figured how to ring the bell.

Happy Detour

Jarom called this morning and needed me to bring him something at work, so since we didn't have much planned for this mornng, I loaded up the kids in the van and off we went to Provo. I called my friend Anna and she had some free time, and it had been a while since I had seen her, so after we took Jarom his things, Anna and I took the kids to the Bean Museum at BYU then found a little pond on campus so that Isaac could feed the ducks. (We've had a bag full of stale bread in the car for a few days now hoping to find some ducks to feed since there weren't any at the little pond we went to a few days ago!)

Here are the kids at the Bean Museum. Emilie was "talking" to the animals we walked by, it was so cute!I think the ducks at this pond are pretty spoiled because they didn't seem overly excited to come nibble on their bread, but there were lots of baby ducks and some turtles, so it was still fun to see them!
It was such a fun way to spend a morning, and if Jarom wouldn't have needed our help, we would have probably just stayed home and been bored. After we were done feeding the ducks, Jarom was ready to take his lunch break, so we got some Arby's and had a little picnic lunch on the lawn at Novell.

Yesterday we went back to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point, this time we went with some friends in the neighborhood. Isaac was excited to ride the pony again, and of course he wanted the biggest horse there! He was fearless though and would laugh every time one of the ponies made any sound!They have a display that shows how milk gets from the cow to the dairy, how it's processed and eventually bottled. He thought it was hilarious to milk the cow. I'm so glad that the weather is warming up so we can get out and do stuff more often!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today has been such a nice day for me! Mother's Day in general is a little bittersweet because it reminds me of my little angel baby who first made me a mother but now lives with her Heavenly Mother, it is also an anniversary of a miscarriage I had a few years ago, but it's also great time to reflect on the two amazing little people that call me Mommy. I love being a mom and am so grateful to be a mother. Having children has not been easy for us, but I think my trials in that regard have me appreciate the children I have and hopefully are making me a better mother than I might have been otherwise. I'm just so crazy about my wonderful kiddos, even when they drive me nuts.

We had a wonderful church meeting today. The kids sang in Sacrament meeting, and I would have really enjoyed watching Isaac sing (his first time in Sacrament meeting with the big kids!), but I couldn't since I was the one at the piano. I at least got to hear them sing and enjoy being surrounded by them. Jarom said that Isaac actually did a fair amount of singing too, what a smart boy! Then after Sacrament meeting, they passed out chocolate-dipped strawberries to all the ladies, yum!

Primary was fun, the kids made little cards for their mommies and Isaac's turned out so darling! Then the guys took over for the third hour and all the ladies were able to go to Relief Society. As we entered the room, I was surprised to see a large table set out filled with creme puffs, cookies, strawberries, lemon bars, and poppyseed cakes! We filled our little plates and were then treated to a wonderful lesson. I felt very loved and pampered!

After church, the kids gave me a big box of Belgian chocolates (Isaac insisted I share, of course!) and I was spoiled with lots and lots of hugs and kisses. Jarom also have me a beautiful pearl necklace and I wore it to church today and felt very fancy.

After church, we spent the evening with Jarom's family and had fun watching the little kids play together. Both Emilie and Michaela are getting so close to walking and are both taking a few steps. It's so cute seeing how the interact with each other!

I also wanted to share a few more pictures from Emilie's birthday. On Tuesday I took the kids to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point and both kids LOVED it!

Here's Em on the pony ride. She hated it at first, but got used to it eventually. I had a hard time taking her picture and holding on to her too, but this was the best shot I could get. Isaac's in the background with the orange shirt on.
Emilie was so fascinated with each animal we saw and would have jumped out of her stroller if she wasn't buckled in! I tried to get them to look forward at me, but they just wanted to look at the donkey. (side note, while we were on the pony ride, the donkey started to hee-haw and it was so loud! I had never heard a donkey actually make that sound before!)
Isaac had so much fun feeding the goats! He went around to all of them to make sure they each got a little nibble. One actually ate out of his hand, but I don't think he liked it!These horses were HUGE! So I just had to take a picture of my little baby girl next to the giant horses.
The kiddoes playing in the little buildings.
Isaac in jail.
After the petting zoo, we met up with Jarom and all went out to dinner at Sizzler. Since we rarely eat out any more, it was quite a treat! Both kids actually did realy well and only made a small disaster! But since you pay at first and not at the end, and since we are so out of the habit of eating out, I forgot the leave a tip! I feel so bad about it too, especially since I was a server at Sizzler back in high school and I can distintly remember the two times I was stiffed. Oh well, I just hope that he got good tips from his other tables!

Recent Projects

My house has white walls, and I'm not the most "white wall" kinda gal, but I'm not ready to even think about painting the entire house yet, so I've decided to start small and picked a wall in my dining room to paint as an accent wall. I've never painted an accent wall before, so I was a bit nervous about picking a color. I got a few samples from the store and had them taped to my wall for a few weeks just to see how the colors looked throughout the day and see which color my eye was most drawn to. I finally settled on "Ambrosia" and it's kind of a cinnamon-rust color. When we first painted the wall, I was kind of shocked to see such a bright color on the wall, and I was questioning my better judgment, but after it dried and I stepped back a little bit, I fell in love with the color and feel like I made the right choice!

So now that the wall is painted, I need to start putting things up on the wall! Here's what I have for starters:I started this FHE sign a few weeks ago, but just needed a little more motivation to finish it. For the tags, I modge podged some scrapbook paper on that was inked on the edges, then I used alphabet stickers for our names. I tied them on with jute, but the tags weren't facing forward, so I put a little bead on there and now they face the right direction! I love how it turned out! This second project is a little stitchery pattern I got from my friend Jen and I think it's hilarious! When I showed it to Jarom, he said, Ok, I get the hint! Don't worry, honey, I'm not going to expect you to help out more than you already do, but any extra you'd like to contribute will be lovingly and happily accepted! I also have a vinyl saying ordered to go on the top of the wall and was hoping to pick it up today, but it hadn't been delivered yet, so hopefully I can get that put up soon! I still have so much more decorating to do, but I'm off to a good start!

Odds and ends

Isaac finished up another month of t-ball and he has made such improvements! Not only in his athletic skills, but also in his listening skills and following directions! I've noticed an improvement in his overall behavior too, even at home, so I'm very glad that he's been able to participate in the game and have fun too.Good group shots of 3-5 year-olds is nearly impossible, but here's one of the better ones:Isaac and Kaleb, best buddies.
Friday night we celebrated Andrea's birthday party at Mandy's house and it was so fun to see the kiddos playing together! With 5 little kids, they were all over the place, but they had fun seeing each other and playing. Left to right: Emilie, Wyatt, Isaac, Sydney, and Elayna.
Isaac and Elayna always play so cute together, and when I take shots like this I always tease Andrea that this will be perfect for their wedding montage some day.

Happy Birthday Emilie!

We celebrated Emilie's birthday tonight, and I can hardly believe it's been a year since this sweet little girl came in to our family! My family came over and we had a such a fun evening! Isaac loved playing with his cousins and Emilie loved all the attention! Here are a few highlights:

Emilie and Isaac with Uncle Chris and Grandma and Grandpa Sugden. Yeah for party hats!This is how I decorated the kitchen and dining room. The kids get so excited when we put up streamers and decorations! Here's a close-up of the cake. It was a strawberry cake and has to be the girliest cake I've made so far, and I loved it! Emilie didn't quite know what to think about those candles and tried grabbing the flame, but Isaac and Jesse were happy to help her blow them out.I was expecting Emilie to be really messy with the cake, but clean-up wasn't too bad! She sure enjoyed her cake though!She still doesn't quite get the concept of opening presents and mostly just wanted to play with the wrapping and bags, but there again Isaac so eager and willing to help her finish opening the gifts. I'm sure that by Christmas, she'll be all over the whole idea of presents! Isaac showing some love to the birthday girl!
My bro Jeff with his boys. Isaac had so much fun playing with them and being crazy with them!

Super proud mommy moment

The kid who was supposed to say the closing prayer in Primary today wasn't there, so they asked for a volunteer. Isaac's had shot up with lightening speed and was selected to pray. I didn't know what to expect, but was bracing myself for him to bless the food or that we would sleep well, but instead he walked up to the pulpit, and without any assistance, said the most beautiful, articulate, and appropriate prayer! He even said that he was thankful for Primary and for Jesus getting baptized (was my 4 year old really paying attention during Sharing Time?). When he was all done, I started to tear up, I was so proud of my little guy! Maybe he's paying more attention than I give him credit!