First Day of School

Every year the girls moan & groan because I take their photo on the first day of school. Actually it's not BECAUSE I take their pictures, more THE WAY I do it. When Lauren was little and started school I made a little sign on the computer and printed it out. It stated the date, year and which grade she was starting.
So, this year her sign read "August 26, 2009 Lauren's 1st day of 10th grade. Maybe it's kind of like trick or treating, where you think you're big enough you just don't need to do it anymore? I'm not sure, but they were less than pleased. More Lauren than Mira...Mira really still kind of likes it I think. I love it because you can see all the differences when you look back from year to year.

No, Lauren doen't attend night school....she has to leave quite early and the sun wasn't quite out yet!

This may seem dorky, but it's a tradition....just something THIS mom does and when they're handed down their School Days scrapbooks to share with THEIR children someday, they will be very glad I did!

{My Office}

For my birthday, I had asked to move my office up to the loft in the upstairs of the house. It currently holds Nolan's toys and an obnoxiously massive TV on which the kids play Wii. Switching these rooms made so much sense to me, mainly because when the kids play Wii they get loud and it's right above the main living room. This way they could go to the back of the house, shut the door and be as rowdy as they want!

So after hauling all the toys downstairs, unhooking the TV & components and moving part of my office items upstairs, I realized I was making a HUGE assumption that the TV would fit. I then got my trusty tape measure and much to my dismay, it would NOT make it through the door. The doors to the OTHER downstairs bedrooms are 28" wide (which works) but THIS room only has a 27" doorway - TOO NARROW!

Needless to say I was uber disappointed. Back upstairs with the toys and back down with tons of my stuff! Bummed doesn't describe how I felt. To make it a little better I decided to re-arrange my current space. And I gotta say, it turned out better than I thought.

It feels like I now have more legroom and it's a better use of the space. Moving the desk out from having my back to the window gets rid of the glare on the laptop and now I have a view out to the backyard. Plus I got to add this on the wall behind the desk:





So, while I didn't get that gorgeous view of the Salt Lake Valley, I'm pleased with the outcome. For now, anyway. Plus everything got cleaned, dusted & vacuumed and back in tip top order, which always feels good.

More birthday fun!

Saturday we went to my parent's house for a birthday dinner. That's one of our family traditions... the birthday person gets to choose their dinner and cake/dessert for the special day. I chose pork tenderloin and baked sweet potatoes with lemon cake & cream cheese frosting. This year my dad decided he'd bake his FIRST cake for ME! Homemade frosting & all! It was unbelievably delicious. We even got homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it :)

Spending the day with my mom & dad is always so enjoyable. It still kinda feels like home. The kids have a blast and have so much fun. And mom & dad love to spoil them! My dad even has this game he plays with Nolan that he now expects every time we get there. He goes around the house and hides M & Ms so that when Nolan arrives it's a scavenger hunt for candy in each room of the house. Then today they even had a slip & slide set up and a little wading pool for the kids.

Even with the girls, Papa loves to indulge. You can tell here by the "Shutter Shades" (Kanye style) he's willing to fashion for Lauren.

I love my parent's more than anything. I feel so blessed to have them in my life and they would do absolutely ANYTHING for any of us. They're so supportive and kind and a wonderful example for the kids! Thanks, Mom & Dad, for a fabulous day :)

Goodnight

In my bedroom there's this wall. Well, there's more than one actually but one inparticular has been especially bare. I've looked and searched for something to put on it, but never found a thing. Until now...

I found this wonderful saying to serve as a gentle reminder of how sometimes we forget that a certain someone has such a great presence in our life. Want your own? Check out one of our local businesses, DCWV!

Duh na na na na nuh...

you say it's your birthday! Duh na na na na nuh, it' s my birthday too yeah! Yes, again. They sure seem to come along faster and faster! :) This year I only asked for one thing...for my office to be moved in the house. Right now it's in a back bedroom, which has worked fine. But as the family grows and my business grows, we now have different needs. So, my request was to move it up to the loft area in the upstairs of the house, which now is a play room for Nolan and the big screen TV for the kids to play Wii. So, in the event that they don't clean up after themselves (which is more often than not) it looks like a tornado hit it. I suppose I could say the same for my office at times too :) But in order to move it, I had to agree to keep it squeaky clean.

I was happy just to think that I was getting to move my office and that I'd get to enjoy a GREAT view out the front windows! But then this morning, I came down to make coffee and found a gift which totally surprised me! The (INSPI)RED iPod! MY current iPod is old. And I mean OLD! It's one of the 1st generation iPod minis. Before Nanos or shuffles or anything. Old school! It's been awesome and I've loved it to death. Yep, death...it got to the point that the battery wouldn't charge, so the only time I could use it was when on the elliptical machine, next to the wall outlet where I could plug it in. There's no way to estimate how many miles it's traveled on runs with me, cradled in the arm band, but suffice it to say it's a lot. Just to further prove my point, I've taken side by sides of the old and the new iPods:

See what I mean? I love, love, love it! Not only is RED my favorite color, but it helps a worthy cause and does amazing things. If you give it a little shake....it shuffles the songs! Or if you select the "Genius" mode and choose a song you're in the mood for, it automatically picks other songs that go well with it for you to listen to! A music butler! Yay! Plus it plays movies & videos, holds all my pictures and displays the albums covers for each song. Technology is awesome and I'm so glad to have a new BFF in the music department. Looking forward to good times & lots more mileage!

{Big sisters}

Lauren is such a big help with Nolan. Especially during my late nights or weekends with big wedding invitation jobs to finish. Now I know they do the regular kinds of things to occupy the time...watch TV or movies, color, play games, sing songs, felt boards, etc. But when I saw THESE on my camera, it made me wonder if I should be supervising their activities a little more...



I suppose as long as he's not wearing high heels with those bunny ears & tail it's probably okay, you think?

No More Tracks

Train tracks, that is! A HUGE day for Lauren...she got her braces off. She's had somewhat of an extended 2nd (and final) phase with the braces. When they were first put on it was only supposed to be a year, maybe less. Now it's almost 2 years. We were waiting for almost an entire year for two teeth to come in so the orthodontist could put the finishing touches on her upper teeth...but they never came in. Turns out they were sideways and would never come in. So after much waiting and many xrays, we had the tooth buds removed and the two coordinating lower teeth removed. So, she'll be short a few teeth as an adult but since they're around the back, you'll never be able to tell.



Here's the before....

the during....

and after....

So, here's looking at you kid! With no more braces :) Congratulations

Goodnight

In my bedroom there's this wall. Well, there's more than one actually but one in particular has been especially bare. I've looked and searched for something to put on it, but never found a thing. Until now...

This wall is a main walking area through the bedroom, that leads to the bathroom. So it couldn't hold anything that stuck out from the wall very far. This certainly fits the bill...it's flat! And it fills the entire space between the bedroom door and the entrance to the bathroom. It's tough to tell in the picture but it's roughly a 4'-5' area.

DCWV (Die Cuts With a View) is one of my favorite scrapbooking supply manufacturers and lucky for me they're a quick trip to Provo away! They make these wall words and this one really caught my attention. Just a sweet reminder of just how important we are to one another. It's so easy to take for granted those that we are with every day and forget that they really are the axis of our world, the center of our life and family. It's equally easy to minimize their importance and how much they give in sharing their lives with us. Maybe this will help us remember to cherish those that hold such a dear place in our lives. Goodnight.

Hi Mom!

Seriously?!? I have the sweetest family :) After a hard day working I get to come home to this...

a wonderful welcome home! It totally made me smile. Supposedly, as I'm told, it was Nolan who was asked "What do you want to write for mom?" After much deliberation and his signature "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" he replied "Hi Mom!"

Perfect in every way! My family is so sweet and completely made my day. It's the little things like THIS that I so appreciate in life, these little things that make the rough spots not so rough and fill the heart with joy.

Thanks guys! I love ya!

P.S. Notice the new garage door? Our old one finally gave out! What do you think?

Summer vacation

I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. Remember the cheesy things we used to write in yearbooks like "Have a cool summer" and "Stay Sweet" amongst many others. Well, rest assured we've done all of those! It's been great, the kids have been great and the rest of it will no doubt be great :)

Our last family outing was more of a "staycation" here in Utah but it was still nice to have a change of scenery and let someone else do the cooking & cleaning for a few days.



Lots of pool time and fun times together. It's memories like these that we remember when we are older...the road trips, discovering new places, goofing around and being together as family. It really isn't important where we go or what we do as long as we're together.

A little {R and R}

This is what I'm looking at right now....

...be back soon :)

Flower update v2.0

The last flower update for the year was back on June 23rd here. We planted on May 29, it's been roughly 8 weeks and here's the progress:


We love to sit out in the evenings and watch the sun set over the Oquirrh Mountains, watch the kids play and breathe in the fragrant aromas from the flowers. It's so strong that it's almost intoxicating. Such a lovely time of year, summer is definitely my favorite.

{Girl Party}

What is it about chocolate? That's so divine....so addicting....so satisfying? Especially See's Candies chocolate. There's just nothing like it. Ever since I can remember See's was the best of the best. My mom would get me one the their HUGE bordeaux eggs every Easter and I'd just about make myself ill trying to finish it. Not that I felt I HAD to finish it, because there's plenty of times I discarded half eaten candy. With the See's candy I wanted to finish and a stomachache wasn't going to deter me. It was just SOOO delicious I had to enjoy every morsel. Now, 30 (or so) years later, the ritual hasn't changed. In fact, I've passed it on to my children!
This is how Lauren & I have a girl party. We get several select pieces of said See's candy and we split each one in half and we share! This way you get to taste twice as many flavors but eat only a few pieces in all. Here we've got a milk chocolate butterchew, mocha cream, divinity puff, scotchmallow (we had 2 of these but one's mysteriously missing from the photo), bordeaux, butterscotch caramel and 2 polar bear paws. Add a glass of ice cold milk to this equation and you've got a couple of happy girls!

The scotchmallow is my personal favorite. It's a layer of chewy caramel topped with a layer of marshmallow and it's all dipped in dark chocolate. Now I'm no die hard dark chocolate fan, but in this instance it's the only way to go. It's the perfect combination :)

Thanks, Lauren, for hangin' out with your mom and sharing these delectable treats with me! Two of my favorite things in one sitting....SWEET!