Cabellas

 We went and captured my neice and took her to cabellas to check out fish, bears, lions, zeebras and a bunch of other stuff. I am sure i was quite the sight at the store with these two and my baby. They were so good!! We bought fish food and they fed the fish and we explored. Cabellas got some new animals in the big game room and they were cool! Caribou with a wolf chasing them and some african animals i've never seen. Caleb insisted on wearing his hard hat. It made all the passerbys smile.

They were working hard on being careful every time the cart moved. Keeley and Caleb help each other focus in times like these so it was great to have them help each other listen to mom/aunt jill.

The three kiddos. I tell you what, my camera never ceases to make me mad. They were holding still for this picture!! Regardless of my woes, we had fun.

Happy Keeley and the fish tank

This is how i spent part of my afternoon (10 minutes worth). It was nice and calming. I was so ornery yesterday because i spent the day cleaning and i always get ornery when i have to clean. I get so annoyed at the whole world even though nobody has done anything more than live in our home. :)

Instead

I feel ornery and whiney so instead of bogging you down with my "woes" enjoy this video:

Introducing The Wannabees

 Ladies and Gentlemen i give you......The Wannabees!

Last year Rob subbed on a men's flag football team and decided he wanted to be on his own team. So this year he has put one together and i managed to convince him to name it The Wannabees. He has one brother and two brother-in-laws playing with him so our whole family turns out for the events. There are some friends and their wives come too...its turning out to be a family/friend affair. I ordered team tshirts and decided the "team mom's" need matching shirts too. LOL The angry bee (see left) is our team logo.
I figure it is far more fun to make it a party than be annoyed he is gone on saturdays. We all love football and lets face it, us girls will spend our time chatting, watching the children and cheering our husbands and friends on when someone else starts cheering.

These are the Wannabees distracted cheerleaders

Projects from the non-projecty

 I was never a big believer in bumpers. With Caleb i was paranoid about him not being to breathe if he got his face in it. We just dealt with his legs getting caught in the slats. Colton has been a little different. The same paranoia existed until now since he can roll around on his own. But his legs were getting caught in the slats of the crib. Bad enough he was getting bruises on his upper thighs so instead of getting turned into DCS (department of child services) for I decided to weave blankets i had to prevent it. This only lasted until he moved around. Thus this weaving idea budded and this is the creation. And yes my friends, i managed to sew this!

Sorry for the pic quality, i was holding a fidgety colton. Instead of having a high tec way to tie this off, i had enough material to tie a square knot. It probably is best though because i was able to get it nice and tight.

 Now for the fun stuff. Friday afternoon was taking forever to pass, it was way too hot to go outside and play so i braved the inevitable mess and pulled out the paints with Caleb. He did well and it managed to entertain him for 30 minutes. Miraculous. It was an exercise in restraint for me, i was anxious the whole time. I think i managed to fake him out that i was relaxed though. :) The pictures dried and turned out cool!

 Happy painter and the entertained brother.

 "Artwork"

The paint plates before caleb decided to mix all the colors and make it look like brown puke.

Praise heaven for something that entertained my son on such a loooonnnggg afternoon. I can't wait until this ridiculous summer heat fades. Every year, at this point in the summer i get very ornery with summer and want banish it forever (well, next year anyway).



Spiritual enlightenment here

Miracles

Yesterday i was driving toward the south interchange and all of a sudden the freeway lit up with brake lights. We all are slamming on our breaks and my stomach starts clenching preparing for impact...thankfully this never happened. But we did run into a wall of water-seriously! as i looked in my review mirror i saw a little white Mitsubishi Eclipse spun around, backing out of the lane and onto to the shoulder. I looked next to me and the CR-V that hit it (i could tell because the front fender was bent in) was pulling over. The accident happened right next to me. One lane to my right and two cars behind. Traffic started to back up behind the accident and i tried to get out of there.

Unfortunately the wall of water hit and i couldn't see the road so i carefully pulled over onto the flooded shoulder to wait. Then the hail came. It was hitting the windows so hard i grabbed Caleb (who sits behind me in the car) out of his chair and had him come sit with me so i could protect him with my body should the hail break through the window. Then it slowed down enough i thought i could drive so i had caleb get in his chair and started to drive but i had to pull over again. This happened one more time before i made it home to the safety of our carport.

We came inside and prayed to say thank-you to our Heavenly Father for keeping us safe.

I realize not everyone believes in miracles.
I believe in miracles and i believe we were kept safe yesterday by God.

Basketball Wrap Up

 On the way to basketball, getting his socks. We were at a stoplight when i took this picture. In my head i heard our longstanding inside joke "Safety First!!!"

  Grandma and Grandpa Sota showed up to watch Caleb's moves on the court and bummer, no teacher. We tried to convince Caleb to still show his moves but it didn't happen. (sorry for the crappy pictures. POS camera)

 Grandma and Grandpa Sota waiting for Caleb to show his moves. They discovered Colton isn't quite as interesting as Caleb...yet. Ü

 Grandpa Sota playing with colton's hands. Love my camera....

Caleb was picking his nose and i tried my best to catch it but i got this instead. It was a funny moment: trying to convince Caleb to show his moves and he is diggin for gold. As soon as we left, he threw a big fit about leaving and wanting to show his moves to Grandma and Grandpa Sota.
Go figure.

We learned a few valuable lessons with this pre-school sports program.
As soon as Caleb got the hang of one sport the month was over and he had to move on. One sport at a time is best.
Caleb is decent with his feet coordination (soccer).
Caleb HATES tag
He loved playing sports and the intro showed us he is too young but playing at home will be best--since he needed Rob around to help channel his focus.

Overall we had fun, he had fun and we probably won't do it again. We will wait a bit and then have him pick a sport. In the meantime we will play at home.

Balance.....

In my current study of life i am often struck by the importance of balance...in. everything. !

I don't know about you, but it doesn't come easy to me. I have tried all kinds of ways of finding balance:

Working out daily (got addicted and it turned out not so good).
No sugar (got easy, i got lazy and started eating sugar ALL the time).
No dairy (gotten used to it; i am worried how this will turn out).
Not working out (fat legs was the result).
Praying daily (good relationship with God. Got lazy (again?!) and had a not so good relationship).
Reading spiritual materials daily (got lazy (again?!) missed out on knowledge and God's influence in my life).
Cooking dinner daily (got too many leftovers so i stopped, ran out of momentum).
Baking regularly to expand my repertoire (got a bigger butt).
Cleaning regularly (hated it, so i got lazy, had a dirty house, uck)

notice a pattern...i get lazy. It takes so. much. effort. to stay on top of being balanced. Just when i think i am doing pretty good, something falls apart.

So i am a bit mystified how to find and hold onto balance. And beat the "i dooon't waaaaaant toooooo" voice in my head.

Oatmeal

Caleb wanted Oatmeal for lunch today. I love oatmeal however i do not like the mushy aspect so i have a remedy. It was actually taught to me by my beloved husband:

I drain my oatmeal

I put brown sugar & cinnamon on it. If we are lucky we cut up an apple and throw some walnuts on it too. great way to start the day.

happy days

love to all

Weekend in Pictures

 Pickin up dad from his office. Patriotic Pic

 My hot date. We went to Zupas for dinner and then up to Alta to see the flowers. We got there just before the sun set so we got to see all the different ways the light hit the mountainside. Times like those make me wish i could really take pictures!

Isn't he dreamy?! Dates Rock!
so did the flowers.

 My mom walked from jordan river temple to salt lake temple (20 miles) with her young women and we met her at the temple. Of course for the family photos i left my camera stashed in the stroller. I have to get over feeling dumb when asking for pictures.

 Waitin for Grandma

Caleb and Dad rode the train in the free-fare-zone downtown SLC (did you know about that?) and colton and i hung out by some water fountains.

Hooray for weekends!!

I believe...

I believe beauty is composed of a whole individual, not simply a face or body part.

I believe motherhood is a privileged (most of the time ;)

I believe God gave all of us our bodies as gifts.

I believe God has given us the opportunity to choose what we do with our lives. Also, the opportunity to deal with the consequenses.

I believe keeping a toothbrush and toothpaste in your purse is normal.

I believe I have a responsibility to educate myself and my children to the best of my ability.

I believe my life matters.

I beleive men don't get enough credit.

I believe nail polish and mascara are fantastically feminizing.

I believe we underestimate ourselves

I believe Jesus Christ is my personal Savior.

I believe i can make a difference in the world.

I believe the pop-culture in America is toxic.

I believe you matter. 

I woke up to...

 

I woke up to these this morning. I felt special and spoiled. My husband
rocks!!! In an effort to have clear communication and not force him to attempt to read my mind (no, he doesn't do that) i asked him earlier this week to please surprise me with flowers. I felt plenty stupid asking but i am so glad i made my wishes known. No, this does not diminish the surprise nor my feeling of being loved. He needed me to tell him this is one of the ways to make me feel special.

i have a huge grin plastered on my face every time i look at these beautiful flowers.
Thank you superman!

Dairy Free

I am dairy free. Not just milk but cheese, sour cream, yogurt, goldfish crackers, ranch dressing, and ice cream.
Why you ask??
my nephew needed my milk (cause me and my sister-in-law are tight like that) and couldn't have dairy.

when i went dairy free an added bonus showed up: Colton started sleeping through the night and was happier.  my nephew doesn't take my milk anymore and i have remained dairy free. I started dairy free May 6 and it has only been three months but i tell you what....it feels like a lot longer. My doctor encouraged me to stay dairy free as long as i nurse colton which will probably end up being till 1 yr old.

**sigh**

I will do anything for my children, neices and nephew. So here i am, doing something i NEVER thought i could or would do. I will say this: in my experience, it is far easier to go all or nothing (as i have done with sugar a few times) than shoot for moderation. Once i got over the detox phase (they don't tell you about that) It became easier to lose baby weight (so has being sick for a month-blah), my skin is clearer (always a plus), and i feel cleaner.

Dairy is not an easy thing to give up. probably 3/4 of prepared foods have milk in them but i feel closer to colton. The Savior teaches "loose you life and you shall discover it" and i have. sacrifice has brought forth the blessings of heaven and i have never been happier since i became a mother.

Alta in summertime

I love the mountains. I haven't spent much time in them since we had Caleb. As first time parents we were so careful and leary of everything. Now that we are seasoned parents (HA!) we are much more comfortable. the Drive was awesome (would have been horrible last year though since i was sick and pregnant) and everything was a feast for the eyes!!
                                                                                please forgive the abysmal quality of these pictures. They were taken with my phone as i didn't take my camera. 

I drove to the upper parking lot at alta and drove up the packed dirt road to a trail head. The flowers are breathtaking and i am sure they only get better as you go farther up the canyon. I didn't take the time to go farther.
It was 65 degrees at 11:30 am and i kept pointing things out to Caleb along the way. Only thing that would have been better would if Rob had been with us.

 Looking up the mountain

 I felt like i was looking at the poppy fields in Wizard of Oz.

 We had a great time and will be back with Rob. The fall should be exceptionally beautiful because of all the water--the colors should be extra vibrant this year.

The whole time we were up the canyon all i could think was "I feel privileged to live in and around such a beautiful place. There IS a God!!"

Power of Heels

I love heels.  

They make my legs look long. They make my butt look better. They make me feel sexy.

They are not for pushing a stroller or chasing fast boys.

I wear them anyway.

Dear Laundry:

Dear Laundry:

You and i will never be friends.

~Jill