family portrait.

My sister in law, Sarah, found this awesome cross stitch pattern on marthastewart.com. Sarah's turned out awesome so I had to make one too. Now I just need to find a frame and rearrange my photo wall.

Utah and Arizona.

(Photo by my big sister Kim)

We just returned from a fun road trip to Utah and Arizona. My Whole family was able to get together for the baby blessing of our newest niece Gretchen Jones. She is a sweet little baby.

We were lucky enough to Stay with our friends Tom, Chevon and Siena. Zoey had the time of her life playing with Siena. They got along so well. I wish we lived closer to them!

It was a whirl wind trip. I wish I had weeks to stay in Utah so I could visit all of my favorite people!

We decided to drive home by way of Arizona to spend a few more days with cousins and it was great. Zoey and Felix sure have a good time playing with all of them. I wish we lived closer to them too! Here are a few Instagram pics of our fun trip.

Jumping on the tramp with Siena

Playing at Cornbelly's with cousins. This was really awesome. There were endless things for the kids to do. My niece Romney put together the corn eating collage which I thought was fabulous.

Baby Gretchen and her Mama

Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Warner

We made it to Gardner Village on Witches night. It was kind of a bust with all the kids, but they got their faces painted and that was cool.

We Had to make a trip to Sundance to ride the lift and eat at the Grill. It was beautiful! The colors where so bright and the weather was perfect and the Mikota's were able to join us. It is one of my favorite places.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a little time with these girls, who I miss!

This was the view from our window driving to Arizona

We took a break to let the kids run laps. It was a LONG 13 hour drive to AZ, but we made it in one piece.

Eating at my favorite place, Neds Krazy Sub. I also got to go to dinner with Brookie and hang out for a bit, but got no pictures.

We painted pumpkins

The kids had their first dental experience, which you can see was a hit. Dallas has an awesome Dental practice and I was excited to check it out and see him in action. It is pretty nice having 2 dentists and a dental hygienist in the fam!

We joined our my sisters trunk or treat and had to come up with a last minute costume for Zoey. She had a Jessie hat and boots so I just made some paper cuffs for her shirt and paper chaps. It fell apart half way through the party, but worked out fine. I remember the days putting a costume together form stuff around the house and the fun of it was coming up with something on the fly. I miss those days.

Mike flew back out to AZ to drive back with us (he is awesome). On the drive home we stopped at the Dino's. Felix was super excited and Zoey is always happy to run free. She has endless amounts of energy!

View for the window on the drive home. It's nice to be home again, but we had a great time with family and friends!

preschool and the silhouette.

So I keep seeing all these posts about everyone sending their kids off to their fist day of school and was wishing Zoey could go too. I think she would love it, but I don't think she is ready for it. Not, only do you have to sign your kids up before birth in LA, but it costs a small fortune to send them. I decided to use all of the online resources and put together our own home preschool. We started today using THIS website, and we had a blast.

Zoey learned about Leaves, the letter L and the color yellow today. It was a fun way to spend our morning while Felix napped. I was pleasantly surprised with how well Zoey did. This is a picture of Zoey circling all of the letter L's on the page. She almost found all of them on her own! We also decided to get out some halloween decorations because I couldn't wait any longer. I remembered I had a Silhouette machine that could cut out all kinds of halloween decorations, so Zoey and I picked a few out and started making a spooky scene. I love how excited she and Felix get decorating the house. I wish every holiday lasted 2 months!

why not start a new blog?

san diego

We just got back from a fabulous family vacation in San Diego. Mike has been working a lot lately so it was so nice to get away for a few days to just play. We went to Sea World, Balboa park, the San Diego Zoo, and went swimming. It was great! Zoey and Felix loved it, especially the zoo. I was melting most of the time, realizing I really am a wimp in the sun, but loved it anyway. Here are a few pictures of the adventure.

the drive down

morning art project.

I saw this on pinterest today and thought, that looks easy and it could be pretty cute. SO I got some paper out and started cutting. It took about 30 min so I decided to make a space ship for Felix. I found the inspiration for his here. Just another 30 min or so and I have some fun wall art for their room. Gotta love pinterest! And why not a robot too.

red wagon

I have been in the market for one of these wagons for quite some time to make going to the beach easier with 2 kids. I wanted to find one that would be durable, with big enough tires for sand, and well made. After looking around I was prepared to spend about $100 to $150 because that seemed to be the price point for a decent one. Until Mike sent me the link to this one. And I thought, why not give it a try, it is only $25! We got it a few days ago and it is perfect. The shipping cost as much as the wagon, but still worth it. The wood pieces are not sanded, but it was easy to do and I painted them as well to make sure kids don't get slivers. Here is a picture of ours.

I am pretty sure everyone should order this right away for the price alone. There is always a need for a big red wagon!

Our little Felix turned 1 on July 21st.

He is getting bigger every day and he is so much fun to have in our home. He is 24 lbs, catching up to his sister quickly. He has a huge head, all the more to love, and a smile that makes our hearts melt. He started walking last week and was cruising all over the house today. Felix doesn't say much, but he has developed a talent of speaking to us by pointing to everything he is grunting about. We are excited to see how his personality develops. Happy Birthday little Guy!

summer 2011.

I had the luxury of going on a all girl trip with girlfriends from college days and it was awesome. We laid by the pool, ate good food, caught up with everyones lives and Bri and I managed to get a huge frog in our bed. Lucky for us it hopped out before the practical joke could work. I would have DIED if it would have been in there when I got in!

I sure missed my kids (and Mike of course), but it made me realize how much I miss my girlfriends! They are so much fun to be around.

Now, we are having a great time vacationing at the cabin this year. I was so happy and relieved to see Greer still green and beautiful thanks to the firefighters. The big hill in front of our cabin has a lot of fire damage, but the rest looks lush and green.

Zoey and Felix love their cousins and are having so much fun playing with them every day. We are leaving on Wednesday to go down to the Valley so I am enjoying the cool weather while I can. Here are some of the pictures over the past week.

Felix got to Meet Pops and Nancy for the first time.

We went to the 4th of July parade in Eager

Had a BBQ with the family and Mike before he had to leave

Played in the Mud

Took our daily walks to the Lazy Trout to get a treat

Played it the beautiful Greer lake

And much more. We will be sad to leave everyone, but we will be really excited to see Mike again!

P.S. Last night all the adults got to go to dinner at the Molly Buttler lodge and when we got home we found a note sitting on the counter written by my niece Scout who was helping babysit. She didn't want to forget anything her brother Tripp did while we were gone.

Pure awesome.