My Model Children

I am sorry. Excuse me while I indulge my Mommy pride for just one blog post. One of the perks of my unpaid job as a magazine editor is that I know some pretty amazing photographers. One of my friends and photographers, Karynn Jorgensen of Bloomshoot Photograpy, for my magazine just did a photo shoot of my kids. Yes, she is amazing. She made my beautiful kids look like models. It was a lot of fun and she did some special things that I requested like take pics of my kids playing the piano (I am doing an entire wall of musical photos of my family) and photos of my girls dressing up in my Wedding Dress ( I had special collages made for them to have in their rooms and when they are married.)

So I am sharing. I am also sharing our Christmas card. Inevitably I never get these sent out to more than extended family -- Bros and Sisters and Grandparents. Sorry I am kind of terrible that way.  I buy them and then somehow the rest of them never make it to the mailbox.

So Merry Christmas here is the card you may or may not get depending on how on top of it I am this year.

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.


 The Kiddos

 

This is such an Isaac face!

I love this photo of Becca. She is just gorgeous.

I am sorry if that was a little self indulgent. But like any Momma -- I think my kids are beautiful.

Coming Around The Mountain

So I am so giddy. My sister Nicole and her family is coming for Thanksgiving. (That is as long as she can get through the Washington mountain pass and then another pass in the Rocky Mountains. I am praying she makes it. And if that wasn't enough my brother is coming from Orem. Woohoo. Praying for clear roads cause I can't wait to cook and play with these people.

 

Nathan and Jacob.

Hopefully Nathan will be here at Christmas with his cute wife Elise. Hint Hint.

So excited to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and sister and then Christmas with my parents. I am so looking forward to the holidays.

Halloween -- Luna, Flock of Seagulls and a Nurse

Halloween was decidedly low key for us compared to years past. I usually really get into this holiday. But truth be told I just wasn't feel it like I normally do. Tom and I always go to a Halloween party every year and this time we just didn't do it. Even though we could have. And then for the moment I got excited about dressing up (I decided to be Medusa) for the ward Trunk or Treat (which in the past EVERYONE dressed up for) I showed up as Medusa as one of 4 adults who dressed up. I was embarrassed but then I got over it.

Rebecca on the other hand had been planning her costume for months. She and her friends had decided to be characters from Harry Potter. Rebecca planned on being Luna Lovegood and she mounted her campaign for an official Luna costume months ago. I staved off all her full on sales jobs for the expensive stuff. I believe a costume should have a 10 to $15 budget.

Still I found some stuff on ebay, pulled out Tom's old graduation robe (that was already hemmed from Isaac being Harry Potter several years ago. Then we made her a couple sets of radish earrings from real radishes and earring posts. Yep no sewing this year. Just some creative jewelry making.

Here she is with part of the entourage. There were 2 or 3 more Harry Potter Characters. But by the time they got to my house they were on neighborhood, #3.

Lia was easy. Last year I bought her costume for $3 at the After Halloween sale. Lia was happy to be a nurse. In fact it fits her personality perfect. She is always running to the rescue of people whey they are hurt.

Isaac pulled his costume together at the last minute. He tried to be the lead singer from Flock of Seagulls. He does live and breathe 80s music. His friend decided to put even more thought into his costume and go as a box.

Saturday night we did our annual pumpkin carve.

Vacation In Cali

FINALLY! We have been in desperate need of vacation. Our family getaways in the past year and half have consisted of 3 -- 1 day trips. One to the mountains and one to St. George and one to Tom's family reunion.

Tom and I are both physically, emotionally and mentally worn out this year and we really needed a vacation. So UEA weekend came and I was determined to go on vacation. Tom was so tired he said," I don't know, it seems like a lot of work." I told him I was going right that minute to book hotels. We were going on vacation and we were getting out of the state.

We decided to go to San Diego and Orange for 5 days. It turned out great. We had a fun time as a family and for a week our brains were basically empty except for "where should we eat dinner and what should we do next." It was great.

In San Diego we visited the bay one day. We decided to go to the Midway museum. As soon as my kids saw this huge ship sitting in the harbor they asked if we could go see it.  It was a lot of walking up and down stairs but it was also fascinating.

 Becca in the ship's brig.

 Lia tries out one of the helicopters. It was amazing how huge this ship was. 

Isaac and Becca did the flight simulator. This is them getting off after a 10 minute ride. You should have heard Becca screaming. "What are you doing?" As soon as Isaac saw the flight simulator he started jumping up and down like he was a little boy again. It may have been the highlight of the trip for him.

Day 2 we went to the San Diego zoo. Rebecca has been begging to go to this zoo. She loves animals. I swear she took a picture of every animal. She got a camera for her birthday. I was actually a little under impressed. I was expecting something more but it was still a nice zoo. We had a few terrible moments when Lia's lactose intolerance attacked and she puked all over herself. Lia and I were resting by ourselves and Tom and the kids were off somewhere else in the zoo when it happened. We also happened to be far away from any bathrooms. It was awesome. Fortunately, she felt better as soon as she threw up and we were able to enjoy the rest of the zoo, especially the pandas, which is why Becca wanted to go to the zoo in the first place.

Day 3 we went to Orange. But no Disneyland this trip. We decided to do Knottsberry Farm and I am grateful we did. This was a fun park for the older kids. There are a lot of great rollercoasters and they are closer together than in Disneyland. Plus the lines were shorter. There were boring moments for Lia and me because Lia won't go on a lot of rides and she was too small for lots of rides. It was not until the end of the day that we found most of the kiddie rides. Although Lia really liked the water rides. At least she was brave enough to go on this ride. But that is a her "I am a little bit scared face."

One time when I wanted to go on the 300 foot high swing set, Isaac opted out and offered to go on the carousel with Lia. Poor Isaac -- he regretted it.
Somewhere there is a picture of him riding the carousel. I can't find it but it makes for a good threat.

The Boomerang roller coaster that had us walking sideways for about 10 minutes. I actually went on this roller coaster. But my favorite ride if you ever go to Knottsberry Farm was the Pony Express. Tom and the kids loved the Xcellerator that went from 0-80 miles per hour in 2 seconds. I would not go on that ride it seriously freaked me out just looking at it.

A few other great stops on our vacation included the San Diego Temple.

 

And Watson's - One of Tom's favorite places to eat out as a kid growing up. He of course had a chocolate malt with his burger. Lia had her favorite kids meal of the trip. That car went straight home to the barbies.

Becca turned double digits yesterday. We had a pretty laid back birthday. It was a non party year. She had a few requests and if you know Rebecca you know they revolved around food. For breakfast she asked for orange sweet rolls. For Dinner she asked for Ninja restaurant

But the really fun part was making her cake together. Rebecca is really into being artistic. She decided she wanted to help decorate her own cake. We decided to do a monster face. She wanted a Halloween theme cake. She asked for white cake with raspberry filling. I used my new raspberry pie filling for the center. It turned out delicious. I think the cake turned out great and it's fun that we did it together.

We also did a little shopping. She lives for shopping. 
We also went to the apple festival where we listened to a new musician called Lyndy Butler who had promised Becca a cd as a birthday present.

That night we went to Ninja restaurant. Becca loves the New York Steak. Then we came home and opened presents and had our monster cake. Becca then watched Harry Potter 5. Rebecca wants to be Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter for Halloween. She was doing some research.

Overall it was  a fun day and not overly stressful.

I love my Becca. It is fun to watch her grow up. I can't believe she is 10.

10 Things I love about Becca.

1. She has an amazing inner self confidence. It makes her beautiful.
2. She always says what she thinks. (and it always is a surprise to me)
3. She is witty. She has me in stitches at least once a day.
4. She has the best giggle. I dare you not to laugh too when she starts giggling.
5. She has an organized brain. She alphabetized my spice drawer once for fun.
6. She has a style all her own and always looks her best.
7. She loves to paint, draw, sculpt and create.
8. I truly believe she is one of the most capable people I have ever met. She can be anything she wants.
9. I heart her freckles.
10. She is so helpful. There are days I literally thank my Heavenly Father for sending her to me. I am not sure how I would survive without her.

The Klutz Curse

Those who know me from my past -- know I may have been a little accident prone. OK, maybe more than a little. I can't even remember what all my scars are from.

Well it has come full circle I tell you. In the past couple of weeks my daughters have suddenly inherited my accident prone genes.

Week 1 I get a call from the school telling me Becca can't move her wrist. I was a bit skeptical. Becca gets hurt A LOT!  She was just barely healing from a wrist sprain that occurred from a lot of falling during rollerskating. And before that she had a sprained arm muscle from kids cross fit.

But she had fallen and she was hurting so I went to school. Sure enough she can't move her wrist.

The official story goes like this. "I tripped and fell in gym." That's the story she tells everyone on first asking. But the real story is that she was at gym class in the gym walking back from the bathroom when she just tripped and fell. There was nothing there, no shoelaces ( she was wearing boots). And it happened in front of her whole class. Yep it is funny. We both laugh about it.

The non funny part is that she got a buckle fracture in her wrist. After 4 hours in the doctor's office and hospital we finally got the results. Two days later we went back for the cast which she got in fashion purple.

Week 2 -- almost to the day. Tom gets a call on his cell phone while we are at lunch from an embarrassed and worried school nurse. She couldn't get a hold of me. Daughter #2 has had a collision with a boy and apparently there was a lot of bleeding and she may need stitches.

So, I head off to the school. As I walk up, I see a worried Lia looking out of the school's front doors. She is  standing there with the Recess teacher. She is bandaged up, wearing a new shirt and has a black and blue goose egg on her eyelid. I am relieved -- no blood streaming down her face.

But apparently there had been. Everyone from students to parents who saw Lia get smacked in the face by the boy with glasses saw her covered in blood. People are calling worried about her, friends are embellishing the story to their parents. I didn't know it then (because honestly I didn't look under the bandaid until we were at the doctor's office.) but it was obviously a much more dramatic event before I got there. The office staff had taken such good care of her - right down to washing the blood out of her shirt and giving her a new shirt.

Three hours later and lots of tears later, she was sporting 6 new stitches on her eyebrow. I took flowers to the recess teacher (who had been alone on the playground and nurse/receptionist who had cared for my two daughters during two of their worst accidents yet in their life.)

Fortunately this week was free of emergency trips to the doctor -- although yesterday I picked up Becca at the end of the day in tears. She had tripped again in gym and had a swollen knee, banged up finger and bump on her head.

Seriously! It is almost comical how klutzy we are.

First Day of School and a Milestone

I have a ton of catch up posts to do, but for now I am just going to do the obligatory First Day of School.

I have reached a milestone. Every single one of my children is in school all day. That means I am by myself from 9 to 3. Let's just say I am both happy and a little confused. Although I have yet to have a full week of no kid watching in the day -- I babysat one day and one day I had a sick daughter, it is an interesting place to be in my life. The first time in 13 years.

Last month I was ready to give up my magazine. It was driving me crazy trying to pull it off with kids at home all summer. Now I am extremely grateful I have this project to keep my days full. I am ready to give it my all and go to work every day at 9 a.m. I am afraid I would be a little lost without it. Yes I would find projects without the mag. I would organize my house, work on my yard, can food and clean my house. But then what? No one has ever accused me of being a born housekeeper. Even my own mother knows I need an outside project. Therefore, I have grown grateful. I feel like I have something to focus on. I was prepared for this new change in my life. And although sometimes I feel a little awkward without my Lia next to me. I am too busy to be extremely sad about it. Plus they are all so happy to be back in school.

Isaac goes into 8th grade. He decided to go to Canyon View Middle instead of Gateway and has been so happy. I love this shirt he is wearing. It totally reflects his personality.

Becca goes into 4th grade. She was just plain giddy to be starting school again.

She made me take a pic of her hairdo. This is her current favorite hairdo. She is really into her hair being just right every day.

Lia started first grade. She is excited to eat lunch at school. Aside from a few really tired days, so far she has loved it and already made new friends.

Summer

Beware this is a catch up post but I promise lots of pics.

Where did June go? Seriously, we have been so busy here that I think what have we done this summer and then I look back and think well we have done some stuff. Just not as much fun stuff as I wish. I am ready for the vacation part of vacation.

What we have been up to.

Isaac is working hard for his Dad most mornings. He has a lot of money to earn. His complete apathy has disappeared and now we have all these things to save money for. His newest hobby -- archery. He loves it. His coaches love him and now he wants a recurve bow -- which is not cheap. He also wants to do the fall Playmakers program at Utah Shakespeare Festival and we are saving for that. He also needs a new violin. So we are keeping him busy.

So is Scouts. They are out hiking or camping almost every week. He just got called to be secretary in the deacons quorum at Church - which means he has to be organized. bwahahaha! He did get to carry the Utah flag for the colorgaurd in the 4th of July parade. Which was a great honor since our 222 soldiers usually do that but they have been deployed. So our scout troop got to do it.

Yep he walked a mile like that.

He was sore at the end.

I am really excited to have a new nephew named Aiden Hughes. We are excited for a new boy in the family. OK Isaac is really excited for a new boy in the family.

I keep forgetting my camera when I see him. But he is such a cutie.

We spent some time with Tom's sister Libby and her kids. Lots of trampoline jumping, smores and some time in the park.

Tom turned 41 and we had a really fun 4th of July

Parades, awesome food, and great fireworks that included our first arials. They were at least 150 feet in the air.

The rest of our Summer has been busy. Lia started piano and took swimming, Becca has taken art classes and Isaac is always hanging out with friends. We have had very few moments when we have had a day where we are all together at the same time.

The girls and I did get to see Little Mermaid in Tuacahn. Tuacahn Theater is amazing and the special effects on this musical were pretty amazing. My girls loved it! It was like a night in Disneyland while hanging out in the desert.

We finally had a day where we could all be together and take a day trip. We decided to go on this art hike at Cedar Breaks. You hike a short ways up the Cedar Breaks rim trail with a group and an artist. The artist then shows and teaches you how to paint on location. It was actually really cool. There were some other great artists there and so we got to see several artists bust out some serious art in two hours. We watched for a while and  the kids and I even sat and sketched and then we decided to take our lunches and hike to the lookout point.

Is this tree awesome or what?

 It was a beautiful hike. Tom Isaac and I were in heaven. The girls not so much. They don't love hiking especially when they got a little banged up.

But then we headed to Navajo Lake and it was like Rebecca's whole attitude changed. The moment she saw water she was happy to be outside again.

It was also wildflower time on the mountain. Look at all these purple wildflowers. I think this is my next painting.

Few more weeks left for some adventures.