Party Time!

Like most people we have the tradition in our family of letting kids dig into their own cake on their first birthday. This is one of my favorite traditions. I was so sad when Lydia turned one because she wouldn't touch her cake. She just walked around it and looked at us like we were crazy. I think she cried when we tried to make her touch it. Luckily Kate was not shy about jumpin right in. I think we should make a new tradition that when you turn 28 you can have your own cake and not get sick or gain any weight.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!

Jared and I are honestly shocked at how fast the last year has gone. I really can't believe that my baby is a year old. I guess I'll have to stop treating her like a baby and let her grow up.
She has been such a great addition to our lives. She is just so happy and content with life. I hope that doesn't ever change for her. Like our other kids she LOVES music. At church she gets so excited when I pull out the hymn book because she knows what is coming. She also loves to dance, even when she was really little she would kick her legs when ever she would hear music.
I am just so grateful that she is healthy and able to enjoy all that life has to offer. What a great bonus that she is so dang cute.
My parents went out of town so we're saving the party for tomarrow. There will be lots of cake eating pictures to come.

Easter Excitement

I hope you all had a fabulous Easter. We all had a lot of fun. Lydia was so excited to finally wear her special dress and we enjoyed lots of family time. I especially enjoyed dying eggs with my brothers and Shelly. We made my mom boil more eggs because we were having so much fun creating new designs.
Usually we do a big Easter party and egg hunt at my parents with all the extended fam, but that didn't happen because Easter was so early this year. My kids were set on having an egg hunt this year so instead of just getting a special basket from the Easter Bunny on Easter morning we had an egg hunt after dinner at my parents.

Happy Birthday NANA

Today is my Mom's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is. She doesn't like her grandkids to call her Grandma, so she probably wouldn't like me to announce her age.
My mom is one of the most amazing women I know and I feel very blessed to be one of her kids. She has made many sacrifices in her life to make me happy.
She is one of the most talented people I know as well. She can do just about anything but sing. Her specialties including cooking, sewing, gardening, drawing, painting, giving an amazing lesson, and inspiring people to do good things. Many of the things I've accomplished in life I owe to her. If I turn out to be half the person/ mom she is I will be grateful. I love you mom and hope you have many happy years ahead of you. Oh yeah NaNa is also really good at feeding the grandkids cookies and anything else they aren't suppose to eat.

This is a picture of my hot mom when she won Miss.Grantsville. Tami and I ruined her crown when we were little, she was very patient with us girls. I hope I will remember her when Lydia and Kate do the same thing to something important to me.

Italian Gelato

I always have an hour or so in between picking Grayson up from preschool and picking Lydia up from her preschool. I try to fill this time with errands because it seams pointless to go home unload start doing something for a few minutes then reload and head out again. Well today we finished our errands early and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do to kill the next half hour when we drove by Dolcetti Gelato, an little store that makes fresh gelato daily. For those that don't know I spent a summer in Italy with my aunt and uncle during high school. Ever since then I get these cravings for gelato that have never been satisfied, I had to stop. It wasn't hard to convince Grayson either.

It was so fun to sit in the little store with Grayson and Kate and eat the closest thing to gelato since visiting Italy. I was sad that they didn't have banana, it was always my favorite, but the pistachio was still very satisfying.

Well, our little visit got me thinking about Italy and what great memories I have of that summer and other visits. This picture was taken during a day trip to Florence. My uncle B.T. went to get some gelato and ordered the biggest cone he could. Well the owner knew B.T. was a tourist and decided to charge him 15 dollars for the cone. B.T. knew he couldn't do anything about it, especially because he didn't know the language that well, so he paid the man and gave me and Tami the cone because he was to mad to eat it. It was the best gelato I've ever had.

This is a picture of me in my favorite city in Italy, Verona. It's the city where Romeo and Juliet lived. I loved visiting Juliet's home and standing on her balcony.

Visiting Venice was always a neat experience I loved that you got off the train and walk through a maze of shops on really narrow streets for what seems like forever. Then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there you are in the middle of St. Marco Square.

I can't believe it's been like twelve years since we were there. I miss it.

Discovery Gateway

We've had a membership to the Children's Museum for the last three years. It's a real life saver during the winter when we have to get out of the house to play. We actually use it a lot in the summer too when we need something to do in the afternoon and it's just too hot to play at a park. Our pass expired last month and I was debating on weather to renew it,. Well we got bored and after looking at My friend Embers cute pictures of her kids enjoying the new Sesame Street Exhibit I decided to do it. The kids loved all the new stuff as well as all the old stuff. I will feel a lot better about renewing our membership if I can take people with me. So, if anyone wants to go please call me. I can get up to 3 people in for free. Plus I enjoy it so much more when there is another mom to talk to. The invitation is open to anyone, anytime in the next year.

HillBilly Fever

Last night Jared and I went to HillBilly Fever's last concert. We loved every minute of it. My cuter than cute cousin Heather Iverson is their fiddle player. Hillbilly Fever is a four piece band focusing primarily on old time Honky Tonk style country music of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Unfortunately the bands singer Micheal has moved back to Oklahoma. We were very sad that this was the last time we would hear them play. Jared especially enjoyed being taken back to fond memories of his time in Arkansas.

Snow Canyon

Grayson and Lydia loved hiking at Snow Canyon with PaPa Jerry so much that they started begging to go again the minute they saw the red rocks of Dixie Valley. We had a great hike, there is nothing like hiking in Southern Utah. Unfortunately I gave into Lydia and let her wear the wrong shoes and had to carry her the most of the way back since she had developed two major blisters. She was crying and in an effort to get her to stop I started singing some of her favorite songs to her. I would only do this in isolation since not only can I not sing I was out of breath and am also recovering from a cold. So let just say it wasn't very pretty but it was working. Well, as we get to the top of a little hill and look over we see a group of people gathered. With further investigation I discovered some people were randomly getting married along the path. Lets just hope that they couldn't hear me and that I didn't ruin there ceremony. Next time we will be better prepared for hiking.

Kailey Country

We spent a night on our way to St. George in Kailey Country aka Ceder City. Grayson came up with the name Kailey Country. I guess is makes sense, it is where Kailey his cousin lives and as far as he knows Ceder is the Country. Kailey Country is also the home of Abby, Jeremy and Kassidy. Grayson and Lydia love visiting the Cox's especially because they usually get a horse back ride. My favorite moment is when Lydia got chased down by one of the Chickens. Kailey taught one of her the chickens to her for fun. Well while we were all out front Lydia wondered to the back were that chicken started chasing Lydia, she didn't think it was so funny and was scared for her life and started screaming. I shouldn't think it was so funny, she was really scared, but secretly I did. Hopefully they will let us come again soon. Grayson is starting to think he is a real Cowboy.