Sights of Logan

September 14, 2013
I love walking around Historic Downtown Logan.

The streets are lined on both sides by beautiful shade trees. There are quaint old houses and some really cool old mansions. No one is wearing red or the wrong color of blue. Main street has the cutest shops and beautiful old brick buildings. Blu can run up and down the ditches filled with canal water. And everything feels like home.

I miss Cache Valley.

Balloon Messages

September 13, 2013
Picking up a dozen yellow balloons to send to Heaven for two amazing Angels... Patty and Carri Jones.

Rainbow

September 12, 2013
I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

How embarrassing!

September 11, 2013
Pearl was less than pleased with me when I dropped her off for dance and tumbling tonight and insisted on taking a quick picture before class started.

But I don't care.

I'm her mother and that gives me the right to embarrass her every once in awhile. Especially when she looks stunning. 

And someday she'll appreciate my lack of knowledge when it comes to dance terminology. I mean, I could have been that other girl's mom squawking something about a butterfly stretch to her.

How embarrassing!

Spiderman rain boots

September 10, 2013
He ran around the store for 20 minutes jumping and yelling, "Go, go Spiderman!!!"

I just had to buy them.

Dunkin' Donuts

September 9, 2013
Guess what happens when you haven't been to the grocery store in weeks.

You wake up and take your kid to Dunkin' Donuts.

Because that's what a good mom does.

Oh, and you send a picture of you and said child eating a doughnut to your husband. Who woke up too early and missed out on breakfast all together.

Long walk back

September 8, 2013
Why do I have a feeling this is going to be a very long walk back?

Elf smores

September 7, 2013
Just as we got the fire perfect for roasting smores, it started to rain on us.

I think my Grandpa was trying to remind me that we are a Nabisco family, NOT an Elf brand family.

Sorry Grandpa. The Elf crackers were all I had.... Aunt Karen insisted they go home with us after the family reunion. 

BW's

September 6, 2013
Meet BW #6 and BW #7.

Self-appointed bench warmers as Jeff calls them.

These two soccer studs would much rather sit under the shade - in my chair I might add - eating snacks and sipping Kool-Aid than scoring goals. Or in Trevin's case, even making an appearance on the field. At least we can convince Fern boy to play the first half most games.

Homework

September 5, 2013
Cole was a little bugged that I wasn't attending to his every demands as I was helping Pearl with her homework. So I found his notebook and some markers and told him he had to do his homework too. It didn't exactly have the intended effect I wanted because I was now helping him write random names of people on his paper instead of helping Pearl practice her letters and shapes. Oh well. The screaming ended.

Tired Puppy

September 4, 2013
I think Blu has finally recovered from her weekend of swimming, running, and being in dog heaven (aka, Bear Lake). She's gone from napping to pouting with her saddest please-take-me-on-a-walk puppy face.

Almost forgot

September 3, 2013
With zippo communication from the school about what day their after school program starts, I kept reminding myself to NOT forget to leave in time to pick Pearl up from school.

Until 3:07 p.m. when one of my staff walked in needing to talk about something and I suddenly realized I was supposed to have left 15 minutes prior.

Did I mention the bell rings at 3:25 p.m.? And that we hadn't really talked about what to do if Mom didn't show up right when the bell rang? No? Well, it does and we didn't.

Sheer panic set in when I realized I was about to do the one thing I always hated about my own mother. That she had forgotten to pick me up. I raced downstairs with my employee in mid-sentence, grabbed Cole, and ran to the truck. I have no idea how fast I was going because I didn't have time to look at the speedometer.

We got there about two minutes before the bell rang and when Pearl ran over to the truck yelling, "Mommy!" I whispered a silent prayer of thanks that I get at least one more day before scarring her for life.

I should have known better than to worry about it all day long. It's sort of like when someone tells you to not think about elephants and what's the first thing that pops up in your mind? Elephants.

Beach hut

September 2, 2013
This is what the adult kids do at the beach.

Sunrise

 

September 1, 2013
I guess there is one advantage of getting woke up by the dog and the boy before sunrise.

Anberlin

August 31, 2013
This little twerp screams bloody murder every time I hold her or even look at her. Why doesn't Anberlin like me!???

Finally!

August 30, 2013
A famous Bear Lake raspberry milkshake from La Beau's... FINALLY! Three weeks is far too long to go between visits to Bear Lake. Even if you're eating that milkshake with the mosquitoes in the pitch black.

Care Package

August 29, 2013
For Young Women's tonight, we made a care package for one of our Laurels who graduated and is now attending college at USU. Go Aggies!

We wrote her letters and baked a batch of these Mini Chocolate Chip M&Ms cookies that I found on a friend's blog. And I may have slipped a new USU tee-shirt in there for her too. Can't have her going to the games in something other than Aggie Blue and Fighting White!

I still have a stack of letters that "my girls" wrote to me when I turned 18 and got the boot from YW. They meant the world to me and I still can't believe all those girls loved me that much. I hope Miss Eliza feels the same way when she gets our care package. And I mean, she's getting a batch of some heavenly cookies with mini M&Ms in them. Nothing screams love more than cookies.

Cuteness

August 28, 2013
I thought Pearl looked especially cute today. I just love her "shy" smile. And the fact that for once she was looking at the camera with her eyes!

Sharing

August 27, 2013
After seeing his messy face and muddy fingers, I'm not sure I really want to take Cole up on his generosity and share his ice cream.

1st day of school

(Picture by Fern)

August 26, 2013

Today was the big day!

Pearl's first day of 1st grade. She has been so excited to go to her new school and use her new backpack and lunch box. A little nervous but mostly excited. 

We live close enough that we can walk to school, which is awesome minus the three-year-old who has a mind of his own. 

 

We got to meet Pearl's teacher, find her desk, and listen to all the new class rules. It's going to be really weird not having her at my office building anymore. And to be in "real" school where attendance and punctuality count.

I know Pearl is going to do great. She's smart and kind to everyone and a really good girl. I just hope she stays that way now that she's in a big school with big kids.

Picnic on the patio

August 25, 2013
We are loving our new patio area! We should have put a patio in years ago. Tonight we roasted hot dogs and had a delicious picnic. A perfect way to end the weekend.

Guitar Hero

August 24, 2013
Cole's playing with his guitar.

My family will find that funny. It's kind of an inside joke.

Ok, I'll tell you.

Cole likes to play with um, you know, his....

Apparently it has something to do with being a male because I've been told they never grow out of it. Several months ago after getting him out of the tub, I couldn't take the playing anymore and told him to stop playing with his penis. He looked up at me, grabbed his little uh, you know, and started strumming it going "neerer neerer neerer neer." He tole me he was playing with his guitar. He may or may not have also asked me if his penis was big and when I told him to ask his Dad, he then asked his Dad if he had a big penis too. I have never laughed as a parent!

We've improved slightly on the whole guitar playing but my family still finds it absolutely hilarious.

First fire

August 23, 2013
Tonight was the first time we've used our new fire "pit." Our fire pit idea sort of morphed into a very expensive patio seating area. But we love it.

After Jeff got the fire going, I realized we didn't have any marshmallows for smores. The kids were totally bummed that our inaugural fire was just that, and not celebrated with gooey, sticky smores.

I'm not kidding, within minutes after telling Jeff that I wish we had some marshmallows for smores, our neighbor kid (I can still call Taylor a kid even at 18, right?) opened the gate and tossed a giant bag of marshmallows at me! Our neighbors rock! They must have smelt the fire and came over. So we broke out the chocolate and graham crackers and shared our first fire with some great friends.

Self portrait

August 22, 2013
I bought a few new outfits for work and have tried really hard to show up at least one day a week not totally frumpy. It sounds worldy, but I feel happier about myself when I'm not wearing something five seasons out of style.

Today was one of those days.

Am I weird?

August 21, 2013
Am I weird because I love cold, leftover pizza? And not just for lunch. I'd eat it for breakfast too.

Take me out to the ball game

August 20, 2013
This is the first pay for a babysitter date Jeff and I have been on since we had kids. Heck, probably even before we had kids :)

Jeff scored two suite tickets to the Bees baseball game from work and told me if I could find a babysitter, he'd take me out on a date. I was giddy! A real date! With no kids! And free food in a suite! I was so glad Miss McKenna, one of the kids' former teachers at their daycare, was willing to come by. I didn't worry one bit about the kids because they both love her.

We had a great view of the field and it was a gorgeous summer night, perfect for baseball. It was a lot of fun just the two of us. We're not very good about finding a sitter and doing something out of the ordinary and non-Aggie sports related.

But the best part, besides the snacks, was coming home and knowing we didn't have to do the whole bedtime routine with the kids!

Both kids might as well

August 19, 2013
Both of the dwarfs might as well sleep better than us parents.

One of these times, it's going to be me who gets a new bed and mattress!

I hate Sundays

August 18, 2013
I hate Sundays.

They are not the relaxing, spiritual day that God intended. Were it not for Young Women's I would be tempted to give up and forfeit any sort of "I have to be getting brownie points in Heaven for this" and just stay in bed all day.

I hate getting ready for 9 a.m. church with two kids. We are always late. And 99.9% of all Sunday mornings involve at least one if not both kids sitting in timeout. At least once. And if we're lucky like today, not only do we get to spend half of the morning in timeout, but what seems like the entire afternoon too!

Somebody please tell me this will be worth it in the end!

Hard at work

August 17, 2013
I could watch Jeff work in the yard all day.

And not because I am avoiding my own chores in the house or anything.

Art Wall

August 16, 2013
The kids came up to my office this afternoon to dry off from their water fight. I enjoyed spying on them from my office window squirting their teachers and throwing buckets of water on all the kids. I tried to sneak downstairs to get some pictures but after they both saw me, the water fight was over and they insisted on coming up for some snacks and coloring.

In the short span that I finished a few emails and cleaned off the piles of paper on my desk, they had managed to color enough pictures to use every single last push pin I had. I think I'm going to leave it up for awhile... my drab office walls could use a bit of color.