Party By BYUSA - Divine Comedy

This made me laugh so hard!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Daddy is a way better sport than I am and always helps the kids make snowmen. I prefer to look out the window from my warm living room and watch ; )

Olivia's Portfolio

When we bought a new camera earlier this year, Olivia was given free reign with our older model. She has had a blast capturing some of her every-day moments of her and JT. I have deleted many a close-up of JT's face from the memory card (wish I had kept some of them now).
Today, her creativity really made me smile. She was taking "Christmas pictures" at the "family reunion". (Sorry if pictures of naked barbies are offensive to you!)They are a good lookin' bunch don't ya think?


Then she needed a picture of the car family.


Then, of course, she insisted that JT needed to pose with his favorite Thomas the Train toy. Oh, this picture (and these two kids) just crack me up!


Earlier today I deleted several pictures from the memory card that Olivia had taken a few months ago. They were all harvest themed and included close ups of peaches, pears, nectarines, and sunflowers from our garden. I really wish I had kept the pictures, they were so artistic and beautiful. Later, I will have to post some other pictures of recent art projects she has done. I love her creativity and the fact that she can spend so much of her day doing art.

Just Because

Just because she hasn't lost any teeth yet,






doesn't mean she can't leae a tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy to take.

Olivia and Her Imagination

Olivia has quite the vivid imagination. Each day she envisions plenty of craft projects, pretend games, and outings for us to accomplish. I really try to indulge as many of her whims as I can. She is a girl on a mission each day, who knows what she wants to accomplish. Her "projects" are often messy, inconvenient, and far fetched, but I try (though it is not always easy)to not worry about the clean-up and respond to her ideas with a smile. Most of the time her ideas make me smile. Except for last week when I was hosting a party at my house and she dumped an entire container of craft glitter on my freshly mopped floor, because she wanted the floor to be pretty and sparkly for the party. But really, I love her creativity and sense of vision, I can't wait to see how it develops in her adult life, and I'd hate to squash it now with my lack of enthusiasm.

Thankfully, her request the other day was pretty easy to accommodate. As we returned home on a hot Utah summer afternoon, we noticed the sky darkening ominously, signaling the start of a thunder storm. The wind picked up quickly, yet the air quickly got cool, which was a refreshing change on a hot day. Olivia cued right in to the change of backdrop, and immediately wanted her umbrella. After quickly changing into a dress-up, she requested that I blast the "Defying Gravity" song from the Wicked soundtrack, because she was going to try and fly. She really makes me laugh ever day.

Ryan and Annie Get Hitched

Apparently, we are officially getting old, since we seem to have passed the point of most of our peers getting married, and are now officially heading into the second generation of weddings. Earlier this month our oldest nephew on the Benson side of the family got married. Ryan and Annie are such a cute couple. We are glad they will be close by in Provo for at least the next couple of years, so that we can host them for plenty of Sunday dinners.



I always love having an opportunity to hear Mike play the guitar. I'm glad he was able to play with one of Ryan's friends at the reception.



Olivia had been looking forward to the wedding ever since we got the announcement. Ahh . . .we need to start saving for this girl's wedding now! She is obsessed with all things wedding. Not to mention that she has a little crush on Ryan. She carefully deliberated over which dress to wear to the reception, finally deciding upon her white ruffle dress, because she thought "Ryan would like it." A few weeks later, as we were driving in the car, she wistfully admitted to me that she wished she was the one who got to marry Ryan. Either way she loved dancing at the wedding and faithfully ended each song with a curtsy.

Three Words Every Runner Lives To Say . . .

I Finished Boston.


I'm glad I've had one chance in my life to feel like a rock star. It is hard to imagine 26.2 miles of people cheering and screaming to support you fulfill a dream, but what a wonderful, fun experience it was. It may be the only time in my life I do it, but I am so grateful I was able to have this experience--thanks to a wonderfully supportive husband and family that watched our kids while we were in Massachusetts. In typical fashion, we didn't take ANY pictures the entire trip, so I'm left with this great "proof" picture from the race photographer

Camping

Bullet style:

*It is hard to put in to words, but there is something so renewing about being out in nature. The air feels more clean and fresh.
*Food tastes better camping: tinfoil fish and veggie dinners, s'mores, dutch-oven cobbler, camp breakfast with eggs, hot cocoa, pancakes, and bacon.
*The kids somehow enertained themselves for hours with nothing but some sticks, a butterfly net, and wildflowers. Seriously, why isn't that kids have so much fun camping??
*Staying up late with good friends, talking for hours around the camp fire (I just realized how cheesy that sentance sounds, but I'm leaving it anyway)
*Our family of four snuggling up closely in our tent to keeo warm in the FREEZING cold temperatures that night.
* Not sleeping a wink with JT curled up akwardley asleep on my chest. My back was painfully exposed to the cold bottom of the tent floor, but I didn't want to move and risk the other alternative of an unhappy JT screaming and waking the other families close by.

A BYU Experience

A couple of weeks ago, we had nothing scheduled for the afternoon, and my kids were getting bored, and beginning to fight, as they tend to do more when they get bored. I started watching the clock, calculating how many hours till bedtime, and then stopped myself. I've been trying harder lately to embrace these years: these years, before we are running from school to practice to appointment. Right now Olivia has dance class twice a week, but that is about our only regularly scheduled obligation. In just a few years though, Olivia will be in school and other sports and lessons, and our free days will be a thing of the past. It is exciting to wake up each day and try to think of what fun memories I can create for my kids while we have so much time together. So, instead of just enduring the hours till bedtime, I packed up the kids and our hiking backpack and decided we would hike the "Y" together.
It's been about 7 years since I hiked up to the Y, and I've only done it once, so I had forgotten just how steep those switchbacks are! I wasn't sure we'd make it to the top, but my kids are troopers! And, let's be honest . . .so am I. For most of the way I had one kid on my back in the hiking backpack and another child in my arms. I was very sore the next day! Just about everyone I passed on the way up acted impressed, though I'm sure they were thinking I was kind of insane to attempt the climb alone with my two little ones. But we did it!
The afternoon ended appropriately with a shared burger and fries from the Creamery on 9th East and a box of popsicles.

Some oldies, but goodies.