… while we were being nice and reverent during church, I look over to see Josh trying to eat the bread off the sacrament tray, like a puppy dog would from his food dish (quick mothering intervention! He didn’t succeed). I guess we have a ways to go in learning to be reverent. But at least it wasn’t like the time that he fell off my lap onto the water tray, giving us both a shower during the quietest part of church…Kudos for the young man passing the sacrament for not dropping the tray! I hear that we really make the day of everyone sitting around us.

…I pulled into my driveway just as my neighbor started attacking my beautiful, tall (18 ft), green hedge with a chain saw. What?! Technically they are on the border of our properties and so I guess they belong to both of us? Apparently they belong less to us than I thought because they didn’t even come over to talk about it with us. And now the hedge is waist high, with very little green left on their bare branches. So much for our nice shady spots this summer. The real sorrow to this is that they were just getting ready to flower (they’re oleander bushes).

…I found a really awesome brownie recipe. They taste very similar to the ghirardelli brownie mix. Mmmmm…The best part, is that you probably have everything in your cupboard to make them right now! In fact, if you have time to read this post, you probably have time to make them right now! I had a craving for them on Sunday (which means I had to use stuff from my pantry) and 45 min later I had them hot out of my oven. Ahh, instant gratification… Now, if you look at the recipe it tells you that you need to use the extra special ghirardelli cocoa powder and chocolate chips (and generally the better quality chocolate you use, the better your baked delight will be) but I just used the regular stuff I had and they were still amazing.

….Zach asked for a piece of red, green, and black construction paper and then proceeded to make a 3D volcano. I didn’t help at all (I was probably pinning some cute craft on pinterest  to do later with my kids–although, lets be honest, I’m not very crafty and we don’t usually get to those sorts of projects because of lack of time or whatnot). 30 minutes later he came in to show me his volcano:

Pretty cool, eh? I wish I’d taken a picture of the other side because the red “lava” was even cooler on the other side.

It makes me happy seeing them grow and blossom in their own talents!

…I started a book club. I’m pretty excited about it! The last time I started a club was back in the second grade with my friend Anna. We had a super secret code in which we became 1-14-14-1 and I was 1-12-9-19-15-14. Weren’t we creative? (as it has been 20 years or so, I’m pretty sure this top secret information has expired. If it hasn’t I suppose I’ll have to hunt you each down and purge the secret from your memory). But back to the subject of books, earlier this year I started my own little book blog to keep track of some of my favorite books. It’s just a baby right now, but I have great hopes for it. Hopefully you can find something new to read and love.

So this last weekend Kaisha came down to visit and guess what she had on her finger!! A beautiful sparkly ring. Hooray! My little sister is engaged! She and Dan (her fiance) came down to hang out with us for Spring Break. It was so fun having the weekend to get to know him a little more. It was absolutely adorable to see how kind and thoughtful and romantic they were, little things like pouring a glass of milk before being asked or reading a book together as they drove or hearing my sister brag about him and how he inspires her. It’s the little things that make all the difference, right?

Friday they went and did some sight seeing on the Strip, and later that night we went on a double date to Settebello for some wood fired pizza. This place is kind of cool because it is part of the Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN) charter, which means that they have to use the traditional ingredients and methods for making a pizza, dating back over 200 years to Napoli. For all that my sister accurately described it as a pizza on a really thick tortilla.

After dinner we walked over to the Carousel, only to discover that it was gone! Agh! This does not bode well for summer plans with the kids. But fortunately, since the kids weren’t with us we made the most of the moment by dancing under the stars surrounded by twinkle light covered trees. So beautiful.

After that we were going to walk over to the Cheesecake Factory to get some cheese cake to-go, but since we spent a little too much time dancing in the park, it was time to go pick up the kids from the babysitters. (And I think I’d take dancing in the park with my husband over cheesecake any old day).

Anyway, the next day we went hiking in Red Rock Canyon, just as it started to rain. Doesn’t matter. It was beautiful, we still got to do a little rock climbing (the weather lightened up for a bit), and then we were soaked hiking back to the car, which the kids thought was hilarious! Well, Josh was worried-he kept telling me to turn off the water (he wanted me to turn off the rain), but Zach enthusiastically proclaimed it to be an awesome adventure and that he “shivered his head off.”

So we went home, enjoyed some hot baths and then curled up with pizza and a movie. Thanks for coming to visit us Kaisha and Dan! We had a great time!

Once upon a time there was a camera with a lot of pictures on it…

I think this one is from back in January when we went hiking with Jenny, Robert, and Melissa. (and reading that post it’s ironic since I said we weren’t going to get any more pets until everyone was potty trained, and now we have a sweet guinea pig named Gus. Which, in the words of Dumbledore goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words…).

Hiking with my family was so fun it made me start wishing for a family backpacking trip. We’ll see how that goes. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s easy to feel like you can tackle more when uncle Robert is carrying one (or more) of your kids.

But Wow! We sure had fun!

Also, did I tell you we have GRASS?! Lots and lots of it! We started it from seed a couple months ago and now it’s almost a wild jungle. Yes, Andrea’s standing in this picture so you can tell, it’s up to her knees. Oh wait, she’s not really standing. But it is still really tall.

It was threatening to swallow our dump truck. And some kid feet apparently (Andrea’s on the left and her cousin is on the right, just in case you were wondering).

And so, to protect our dump truck and toes from the wild man eating grass, we bought ourselves a mower and tamed our green. That’s a 20″ Reel mower (can you believe they make 10″ versions? I mean, that would take forever to mow!).

Planting seed by our back door worked so well that we finished planting the rest of our yard. Here you can see it sneaking up by our back tree and kid’s club house. Chris also built me a porch swing for my backyard. Isn’t he sweet? Our yard is really coming along! It’s amazing the difference a little bit of grass can add (and lots and lots of hard work)!

Josh hit the big 3! (And no, we haven’t even tried potty training yet..maybe when it gets warmer?)

For his birthday my sister was in town and so we went and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at the park and then toured the chocolate factory. Unfortunately today was a cleaning day or something so we didn’t get to see them making the chocolate, but they did have their chocolate samples, so the trip was not wasted.

Katie entertained us all with a rousing game of peek-a-boo with the dishtowel!

Now, due to some lack of planning on the parents part, his birthday present, the exciting present that would make him dance with excitement, had not arrived yet, and so we decided to wait to have cake until his present got there (because honestly, for a three year old, what is the point of having birthday cake if there aren’t any presents to go with it?). So yesterday when the postman left a huge box on the doorstep we quickly made a cake. Actually, first my kids ate the funfetti cake mix, and so we went with Plan B and made a strawberry lemonade cake instead. Very tasty (although my kids declared the frosting was a little too sour).

We made chicken nuggets and pancakes shaped like the number 3 for dinner, and then while Chris and the kids wrapped the presents, Josh helped me frost the cake, only catastrophe! Instead the box was NOT the exciting toy stove top, but a boring old heating pad for Chris’s pets. Argh! Quickly we ransacked the random box of presents and so we were able to add a mini flashlight and mini Lego kit to the book and matchbox cars we already had. The flashlight was a total success (even if his older brother keeps trying to sneak it away to the dark corners of the house). And the Lego kit offered an extra opportunity of quality time with his dad as he helped/watched Chris assemble it.

The evening was a smash success. I think the funniest part was watching him blow out the candles (which kept sparking and flaming back to life! Heeheehee!)

We sure love this cute boy who enjoys pretending to be a silly puppy, a daddy (who tackles you with enormous hugs), and a daddy who rolls up a blanket to pretend it’s his little baby that he takes care of. He like to sing songs with us and his favorite stories are Noodles From Scratch, I Love Trains, Dan the Mighty Dump Truck Driver, and any Richard Scarry book. Josh, thanks for being part of our family. We love you!

The other weekend we snuck off to do a little camping and it was beautiful! The weather was just perfect (yes, in Southern Nevada, we go camping in February! In July we’ll move farther north, but right now the weather feels perfect for camping in Valley of Fire). Apparently we were not the only people who felt that camping weather was here because we were surrounded by three Boyscout groups. Of course, they also camp in the snow and ice, so I guess their opinion is a little skewed.

Now, Valley of Fire is traditionally a very unlucky place for us to camp. We seem to have the worst sort of luck: head wounds, dead car battery (it’s kind of scary to have your car not start when you’re in the middle of the desert, miles and miles from the closest bit of civilization), forgotten tents on VERY windy nights (and trying to sleep an entire family in on van is not very comfortable).

This camping trip lived up to unlucky traditions. Our car battery died AND Katie tripped and got a nice gash on her forehead. However, we persevered and actually had quite a nice time. Luckily when our car decided to die there was one car left in the campground so we were able to get it jumped. And Katie’s head patched up nicely; I don’t think we even got any pictures to scare the grandmas.

(in this picture they finished hiking and found a fun hiding place and pulled out their bags of toys they’d been carrying)

The hiking necessities

But, we did get to relax and play with our kids. We hiked and played in the sand. There was this one sandy hill where our kids hopped, jumped, rolled, and dived for more than an hour (till the sun started to go down actually). Chris got to go take pretty pictures of a cool arch and I finished my book, Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians (hilarious by the way!).

More hiking, looking for the next perfect spot for a toy break

Toy break!

We cooked fajitas over the fire (definitely one of my favorite camping foods), and roasted quesadillas and sausages on roasting forks over the fire (I’ll admit the quesadillas were a little tricky…). Of course there were s’mores (and we tried something new. Instead of a Hershey’s bar we put a Reese’s peanut butter cup. the peanut butter adds a new dimension to the traditional treat) and we made campfire cones. We took an ice cream cone (the pointy kind) and filled it with marshmallows and chocolate and such things, rolled it in tinfoil and threw it in the fire. It was quite the gooey and yummy treat.

One of our favorite arches

Random rock Chris found

the wildlife deciding if he wants to come and play

Big news: We’ve planted grass! Hooray! I love having a yard, and I’m very excited to have grass in that yard soon. Last fall we tried growing seed in the back and it came in thick and green and soft. It takes less water than regular grass so it’s water efficient and it grows slower so we don’t need to mow it as often. Since it’s worked so well we finished seeding our yard yesterday (I have to say it was pretty ironic to plant seed in our yard while two of our neighbors worked on pulling their grass out. Sigh. I guess we do live in the desert).

I think the funniest part of the day was just as we’d finished seeding, covering the seeds in compost (steer manure), and watering, when a lady and her little Pomeranian dog walked by. The dog, delighted by the smell, just started rolling in it, covering itself from head to toe. We tried to warn her what her dog was rolling in, but the lady just apologized and laughed at her silly puppy continued to roll in the muck. I hope she thoroughly washed that dog when she got home…

Speaking of animals, we now have a Guinea Pig named Gus. My neighbor found him hiding in her backyard (she thinks someone in the apartments threw him over the wall). After a few calls, she found someone willing to donate a large cage, bedding, food, toenail clippers, and even a Guinea Pig leash, but no one willing to take him in. So we’ve given him a home for the last week. I have a lot of mixed feelings about having a pet. (Aww, he’s cute. Ugh, he’s a lot of work…What, he might have lice?!)  But I guess the next logical step is to take him to a vet and make sure he’s as healthy as he seems. I’ll say this, he sure is cuter than the tarantulas my husband has started raising.

Once upon a Valentine’s Day…many, many years ago I was a little 7th grader. At that school, it was tradition to buy carnations that would be sent to your special someone during the last class of the day. And so, sitting in girls PE I watched as a girl entered the gym carrying an armful of pink, red, and white carnations; each one with a name and note attached. Everyone got a flower in that class (some even got 10), except for me. I felt extremely conspicuous, and a little miserable walking home that day.

Why do I tell you that story? Well, because it always pops into mind on February the 14, and it always makes me laugh because I’ve learned the great secret. Valentine’s day is what you make of it! You don’t need flowers or cards or even chocolates, because sometimes the greatest tokens of love come from small acts of service. And really, since I’ve married my best friend, it seems like every day is Valentine’s Day for us! What did Chris give me for Valentine’s Day? He stayed up late and cleaned the kitchen for me! And that was the most perfect gift he could have given me.

So how did we celebrate? Valentine’s is so much more fun with kids. We started off with heart shaped pancakes and later had heart shaped cheese (cookie cutters are awesome!) on crackers with pink love potions (smoothies). We took a picnic lunch to share with Chris at work with some special cookies. Later that night Chris did temple baptisms with the youth in our ward and I hosted a Valentine party so that some of my friends could have a romantic evening.

During the party we played lots of games (their favorite was to line up my couch cushions and take turns running/rolling/skipping/hopping/somersaulting across them. Seriously entertained them for 45 minutes!). Then we sat around the table and made cards for their parents/Sunday teachers (turns out all you need is a lot of sparkly stickers and glitter glue to make some awesome cards). And then! Oh, and then we had a Valentine treasure hunt. The kids were bursting with excitement and dancing on their tip toes! The trail of hearts led them all over the house and ended at my dryer which was filled with balloons filled with surprises. They had to pop their treasures out! (You’d be amazed at what you can get in a balloon, but do yourself a favor and get the larger sized balloons. Especially if you’re trying to stick a pencil in there). I think the Valentine’s treasure hunt is our new favorite tradition.

Anyway, I love my kids. I love my husband. I love my family and friends. I love life. And I love Christ, who gave us the greatest example of love and makes it possible for us to live forever with those we love most.

Happy Birthday to you!  In honor of your birthday, the kids and I have put together a list of things we love about you!

• I like it when you throw me in the air (Andrea)
• I like it when you let me play with your Ipod (Zach)
• I also like it when you let me ride on your back when you’re chasing us all around the room! (Andrea, and Zach says “Yeah!)
• I like to sit on you (Katie)
• I like it when you’re working in the yard and I get to drive my trucks in the dirt (Josh)
• I like it when you help me take baths (Katie)
• I like it when you help me dance around the room like a princess! (Andrea)
• I like it when you feed me yummy food when mom’s not looking! (Katie)
• I love it when you tell us stories after you put us to bed and you say you’re not going to tell us any, but then you really do ‘cuz you love us that much (Zach)
• I like it when you make popcorn on the kitchen floor so that we can all see (Josh)
• I like it when you pick me up from school and we go eat donuts, just me and you (Zach)
• I like it when you hold me in your arms and carry me all over the house (Katie-and let me just say she’s pretty excited sitting on my lap and looking at your picture)
• I like it when you let me take pictures with your camera (Zach)
• Daddy! (Josh-he also likes looking at your picture!)
• I like going shopping with you and having you buy special treats! (Andrea)
• I like it when you make up silly songs with silly words (Zach)
• I like to blow on your tummy (Josh)
• I like looking at your pet crickets with you (Josh)
• I like having pizza movie night and sometimes you surprise us with a new movie like the Dragon movie or the Car movie when Mater has engines that go really fast (Zach)
• I love how you love inspiring others to reach their goals (like my music, or my writing, or healthy habits, or anything and everything)
• I love how you write me a love letter every week
• I love watching you play with our kids, watching them laugh till they almost cry and also how excited they are when you walk in the door
• I love how you always show gratitude for the little things that I do
• I love that you get up at night to help the kids so I don’t have to get up
• I love that you wanted my popovers for your birthday meal!
• I love being outside and hiking with you
• I love your example
• I LOVE YOU!!

So I read an interesting fact in the Reader’s Digest earlier this month: To succeed at a goal, cut 20 seconds off the start up time. Want to get in shape? Lay out your workout clothes the night before. You’re more likely to just do it if the first step has already been tackled.

It sounds simple, but wow! it works. I’ve been using FLY Lady’s tip to wipe out your sink after each use and it’s been incredibly easier to keep my kitchen under control (we won’t talk about how monstrously-out-of-control it used to get). The first step of clearing out the sink is already done, and so it’s easier to tell myself “this will only take a couple of minutes, so just hurry and do it now.” There’s less mental energy required.

In other news Zach created a book for a school project. He titled it Zach’s Season’s and promptly colored the snow yellow, which from a kindergartner’s perspective I can totally understand; You can’t color it white because the paper’s white, and yellow is the next lightest color in the crayon box. But yellow snow. It makes me laugh.

Andi continues her quest to be a great big sister. She proudly changes Katie’s diaper (with supervision) and sometimes tackles her to change her into a cuter outfit (without supervision usually).

Josh spends a lot of time pretending to cook his wooden blocks and mini books in his little red frying pan.

Katie loves to laugh with us and likes to wave at her daddy in church while he’s sitting up on the stand. Sometimes she’ll even yell at him. I think she’s telling him to stay awake! No falling asleep during the musical speaker!

I sure love my kids.

Last Friday, Chris’s brother and two sisters came down to hang out. We fed them waffles and took them hiking at Red Rock canyon. It was so very nice to get outside!

We stopped at Sammy’s for some great food, and later stopped at a little pet store where I decided that I’d really like a pet rabbit (there was a very cute one there). But I’m also very, very sure that I would stop wanting one the moment I had to clean out its cage. I think right now I’m leaning towards the no pets until the kids are all potty trained rule. Of course this doesn’t include the baby tarantulas that Chris got as an early birthday present. You know how some animals (bunnies, kittens, puppies, etc) are cuter as babies? Definitely not the case with spiders.

Anyway, we had a great time! Thanks for coming to visit!

ps. I don’t know where any of our hiking pictures are, so the picture you see is from worldbestspot.com.