Books!

Hello blog world!! I have been MIA for a while. But I am back and better than ever! Do you want to know why??? Well, we have lots of exciting things coming up. More on that later! 

Today's post is dedicated to my love of childrens books. So this is more of a mommy post and me talking about my little smarty pants. I recently ordered a bunch (like 10) childrens books from an Usbourne book party. I was a little skeptical because I had never seen these books in real life and didn't know what to expect really. I just read the descriptions and chose a bunch. I was soooo pleasantly surprised when they arrived! Worth every penny! But in particular I'm highlighting this great book...

(Sorry for the terrible photos) 

Yes. It's already a little beat up, but you better believe I would order it again if  needed. Kayden LOVES it, whenever I ask him, do you want to read your alphabet book?? He says sure mommy! That sounds awesome mommy!!! Haha. He uses it daily during quiet time, and I am proud to announce now thanks to this book, he knows all of his letters! I can open any other book we have and he will go through and name each letter in the words and sentences. He gets it right like 90% of the time. I mean, he's 2. I basically feel like he's a genius now. Haha. Well, he's not actually reading yet. Maybe I'm tooting my own horn a little too loudly, maybe this is normal for a 2 year old and he's just any average kid. But I am PROUD he knows his letters thanks to this amazing book! It's only been a few weeks and he's soaking it all in like a little sponge!

 It even came with a marker so he can start trying to trace the letters. We haven't quite made it to that point yet.. Maybe in a few months. Knowing him he would just try to eat the marker, or color on the walls.. I said I thought he was a genius right??? Hahaha. Well, he's also left handed for sure, so it could get messy using a marker. Will see! 

Each page has 1 or 2 letters on it, capital and lower case, and words and adorable photos associated with each letter! He loves to go through and say, mommy, is that 2 B's????? Mommy. Is that 2 F's?? Haha. He does it for like every letter. He's so smart, fun and learning new things everyday! He says full on sentences now! It's so fun to watch him learn and grow! Can't wait until Swayze is a little older and I can start her on this book! 

Until next time, which hopefully will be sooner than later! Let me know if there are anymore amazing children books I'm missing out on! We LOVE learning books!

Peace 

~Krista~ 

News

This is kaydens favorite napping/sleeping spot. I don't understand. 

I find him passed out here quite often. Someone please explain his obsession? It's hard, cold, and lumpy. Hahaha, I really just don't get it. 

She loves super cheesy smiles. 

Love my little babes.

What other super exciting news do I have to share with the blog world???? I made a bow holder and finally hung it up! Tuh duh! 

Oh and something else is in the works... Being built as we speak. Audio west 2.0..... Unofficial name haha.

Opening November 1, 2014. Stay tuned for details! 

Oh and this... 

I started my own little party decor business from home, website launching soon! Feeling nervous about it, but also excited though. I hope people like it. :) I think it will be fun either way. 

Short and sweet. 

Love you all! 

60 second bathroom catastrophe

Do you think as a mom of 2 small children I can ever go to the bathroom without something TERRIBLE happening?? Well, today proved that is just the case for me. 

I was probably in the bathroom for a maximum of oh, 60 seconds when my baby started to cry by the door. This is a pretty normal thing honestly. She always misses me when I go in another room. So I quickly walked out to find S sitting by the door. I had given her a cliff bar to snack on, and the hallway she was sitting in was dark, the lights weren't on, so I couldn't see her super well. I saw what I thought was the granola bar on the ground and said, S grab your granola bar and come with me. She stopped crying and did just this. 

I walk out to the living room to find my 2 year old standing on the couch, butt naked (he had a diaper on before I went in the bathroom) saying I went poo poo mommy. Sheer panic struck me. Where was this poop??? I found his diaper on the ground, empty. He jumped down from the couch and that is when I realized his entire rear end was covered in poop, which then smeared all over the couch. 

.... But it gets worse friends. I LOOK OVER AND REALIZE MY BABY ISNT EATING A GRANOLA BAR AND IS IN FACT EATING POOP. GAG, GAGGING, almost throwing up, trying not to pass out. Terrible mom moment, how did I not know that wasn't a brown granola bar I was telling her to pick up???? I screamed. I'm not kidding. Screamed. My neighbors probably thought someone was being murdered. It was smeared all over the hard wood floors, and it was also on my feet. I couldn't wipe those babes down and throw them in the tub quick enough!! I also gagged probably 100 times during all of this. 

Moral of the story is, if you have small children learn how to hold it and never go to the bathroom, or catastrophes might happen, or you might walk out to baby poop smeared all over everything.  Now excuse me while I bleach my entire house AGAIN.

 TA TA

Wow dude

Ummmm, the past few weeks have been CRAY. Family in town, activities, party prepping and planning, moving, 4th of July fun, painting furniture, running errands, stadium of fire, airport runs, 4 wheeling, para gliding, temple sealing, family photos, birthday parties.... We basically said, how much chaos can we fit in at one time... Then we did that times 100. 

BUT!

I SURVIVED, and it was worth it. 

First off, let me say I'm going to try and be brief and do a few smaller posts about all this so it's not chaos and over whelming. 

Story 1. Paragliding at point of the mountain in draper. Remember when we thought it would be AWESOME to jump off of a mountain?!?? Well, it was.  I was kind of freaking out at first, but once we took off, which was super smooth by the way, then it was no big deal. I thought I would get sick, or nervous but I was calm cool and collected. Epic! Photos to follow. 

Hanging out waiting for the wind to pick up. There were like 50 other people going at the same time as us, so people were taking off and landing all around us! It was so cool. Especially to look up and see that many people in the air at once!

They are tiny in this photo below, but there are a bunch of them. Even more took off after this photo. It was awesome! 

My mother in law did it with us, I was so proud of her! She was so brave, I was shocked when she said she wanted to go with us, but I'm so glad she did! She loved it and wants to go again! Goooo Louise! 

Here's David getting ready to go! His brother Adam also went with us! We all went tandem of course. Which means we were attached to someone who knows what they are doing! 

In my brain I thought, oh we will probably start off small since this is our first time.. Will jump off the mountain and just kind of float down to the ground below....Oh no! You jump off and they go higher and higher and higher! If the wind is good they want you to be up above the mountain! So crazy, so fun! 

My landing was smooth as butter, we just lightly glided right down and landed on our feet. Have you ever had a dream about being able to fly??? I have, and this allowed all my childhood dreams to become a reality!! 

If you ever get the opportunity to go para gliding, GO!!! It's seriously so fun. Beautiful views, amazing night. Love love love. I want to go again, who's going with me?!?! 

BUH bye! 

Greens

Sometimes I eat healthy. Today's healthy summer breakfast is...

GREEN SMOOTHIE! 

Isn't my new cup just the cutest?? It's plastic, BPA free, insulated, and came in a set of three with different color lids and straws! They are on sale right now at Costco!!! Get yourself a set! 

Anyway, I made the most refreshing and healthy smoothie today. 

INGREDIENTS

Spinach- couple hand fulls, I don't mess around with that. I put a LOT. 

Coconut milk or coconut water- About half a cup, I generally add a little more as my blender is blending if it's struggling to mix. I need a better blender! 

Strawberries- I did about 4-5, cut off the stems and threw them in! 

Pineapple frozen- I bought the already frozen bag at costco. It's good to have some fruit that's frozen in your smoothie so you don't have to add as much, or any ice at all! Mine didn't need any ice because I added a bunch of this! Probably did like 6-8 little cubes of pineapple. 

BLEND.

Dump into a super cute cup, I prefer one with a straw. So much easier to drink it this way!!

Enjoy! 

 

Cleaning fairy

Am I a loser because I'm doing a post about my new favorite cleaning item???? Yes. Do I care, NOPE! 

 We recently moved and the entire condo is 90% hard wood floors with a little tile here and there. I was a little nervous about this because I HATE sweeping. I always get so frustrated because I have very messy children and am having to sweep multiple times a day. PAIN IN MY BUTT, literally. Bending over trying to get every last crumb. Solution... INTRODUCING my new best friend. 

Swiffer SweeperVac!! OMG. 

this thing is GREAT for hardwood. It doesn't work very well on tile, so I wouldn't recommend it if you have tons of tile in your home. It doesn't have quite enough suction for the grout, but for flat hardwood it's perfection. If you are like me and have all hardwood, RUN!!! Yes RUN and buy one of these babies. It will save you from going crazy trying to sweep little crumbs and hair. You're welcome. 

Family reunion

Babes! We just returned from probably the best and funnest family reunion to date! My family is awesome. Everyone always gets a long great, there's always amazing food and snacks, and fun activities to do! 

Almost the entire group. Not quite though, a few families had to leave before this was taken! 

Alicia in front of the lodge! It had tons of grass around it, tennis court, a gym with toys, a slide and bikes for the kids. A bunk house, which was a room with a ton of bunk beds, with more toys and a slide from the upper level down into the bunk house. Then upstairs was pool table, air hockey, little play houses. They also rented a bounce house for outside by the play ground area and there was a hot tub. It was basically a little piece of heaven. So much fun, so much chaos, SOOO many little kids!

Dance party one night in the gym! 

Fishing and horse back riding at uncle richards pond. 

Playing outside 

Loving the bikes in the gym! We had a blast riding around together on them

Grandma with her flower pot! It has everyone's photos in it, with their face on a flower! 

 Well almost everyone! 

It wouldn't be a family reunion party without some sparklers, and illegal fireworks! Good times.

We did so much in such a short amount of time. It was a busy busy few days. But so fun! 

Our last day we went and spent a little time in island park. I grew up going there with my family multiple times a year to stay at our family cabin, and have some fun playing outdoors. I LOVED IT. 

On the way home we stopped at big juds for a delicious hamburger, and went to bear world! I'm not a hamburger person, but I must admit it was delicious! 

Bear world was super fun! Kayden and sway both got stuffed bears to take home.

Bears everywhere! We followed behind a truck that was feeding them so there were tons of bears all around our car. It was kind of crazy! 

Fun times! 

I could go on and on about how great this family vacation was... But I think all that should give you a good idea! Now to finish unpacking, we just moved and have a lot going on in the coming weeks! Ta Ta for now!