Ethan's song

   Ethan asked me tonight to sing him a lullaby and it made me remember a song I wrote for him while I was pregnant and never finished.  Enjoy my unfinished song.  (on another note spencer and I began reminiscing about what songs we actually sang for Ethan when he was a baby which was not this one, but the song "They're coming to take me away ha ha")

flying Jesus

Mason: "I'm the fastest thing on earth, I'm a rocket"
Ethan: "rockets aren't the fastest thing are they mommy"  (condescending smile towards mason)
Mom: "They aren't??  what's the fastest thing then"
Ethan: "Jesus is faster than a rocket"
Mom: (what do you say to that)  I guess you're right ... Heavenly Father and Jesus made everything so I guess they would be able to go the fastest
so now my boys are flying around Jesus :) lol!!

Disneyland wrapped up

   For the next couple days Spencer was working so the boys and I did drop in attacks on Disneyland.  so, Tuesday the boys and I went into California adventure for an hour or so -- Ethan loved the Soaring over California and wanted to do it over and over again,  on the 3rd time through Mason was done and started to cry about going on it (even though he loved it as well) I thought the attendant was going to tell us we couldn't go on it if Mason didn't stop crying, but I was able to calm Mason down with some food and he enjoyed it despite all the drama.  That night Ethan and I went into Disneyland while Mason stayed back with Daddy to draw and we watched the firework show, which was absolutely amazing with the lights on the Castle changing colors to each new Christmas song they played and it all ended with snow falling on us (they had snow making machines in various places around the park)  It was really quite amazing and Ethan and I really had a lot of fun watching it together. 
    Thursday was our big day in the park with Spencer.  We were able to get into Disneyland early, which allowed us to hit all the big rides like star tours (Ethan asked if it was real as we were leaving:)) and Space Mountain (Mason said it was the bestest ride in the whole wide world) and it's a small world (really the longest ride ever created) and then we ran over to CA adventure and picked up our world of color passes and went on Toy story .. twice and the roller coaster.  Then we went and had lunch (I WAS EXHAUSTED) where spencer talked me into going back into Disneyland (which I was grateful for, even though I was TIRED) and we went on my kids all time favorite ride (pirates) and then on thunder mountain railroad (Mason was too short to ride this in May, but was the perfect height for it in December)  That night we went back for World of Color, but Mason fell asleep right as the show started so I decided to head back to the hotel with him.  we saw the fireworks on the way back and Mason and I stopped to watch them (I'm glad we had that one on one time ... it was magical)
    Mason kept asking to go back to the hotel when we were in the park because he "wanted to draw" at night we put him in bed crying because he hadn't finished drawing all of the presents in santa's sleigh.
   Ethan could have spent the whole trip at the pool and was really excited that we were able to spend a couple hours the next morning in the pool before we flew back to Utah.
   The weather was amazing and it was so nice to just have the two older boys (even though I still feel bad about leaving Zach)  but what I enjoyed the most about the trip was that Mason blossomed so much with the attention he got without Zach being there.  And Ethan's pure joy in all the little things --- I'll cherish those memories forever.
  ** in small world they had a "nice" list that actually had both Ethan and Mason's names on it and Ethan told me a week later that we needed to go back to Disneyland to make sure they were still on the nice list:)  I love that little man!!  another Ethan favorite of the trip was using the door key.  (that was his job the whole trip)  My favorite thing about the trip was the beds, I really am going to have to call and see what brand of mattress they have at the Disneyland hotel because I slept really really good (maybe it was because I didn't have my baby with me ... lol!!) 

Disneyland day 1

What a day -- we decided to take this trip because Spencer had a conference and was staying at the Disneyland hotel.  Spencer flew out early this morning and me and my two older boys followed him this afternoon.  After our extremely rough flight where I behaved surprisingly well, even when Mason asked me if our plane was falling down, thank you little xanax pill:)  we headed straight to Disneyland.  We were able to spend a few hours there, but the exhaustion of the day finally caught up to us so we went back to our hotel to decide on dinner.  After exploring the restaurants around our hotel (35.00 a person average price) we decided to walk a 1/2 mile to the denny's we could see from our hotel window (yes the one I told Spencer I was absolutely not walking to, but cheapness won out in the end) After we were walking for awhile Ethan said to us "Are we back in Utah now?"  he really thought we had walked far enough to have walked home ... lol ... after the restaurant Mason informed us that he really really missed our car:) 
long day, but looking forward to tomorrow

kaye's funeral

   Spencer and I were able to attend Kaye Johanson's funeral today.  It was such an amazing experience to listen to all six of her children expound upon her life and commit to be there for each other in the future.  I kept thinking that I had a lot in common with Kaye (personality wise) and I believe for a brief time today I was able to see what my potential could be if I refocused my life's direction and tried to gain a stronger testimony of the gospel, served others more and made other various sacrifices to gain a more positive outlook on life.  I know Kaye would have been so proud of how her family conducted themselves today, what mother wouldn't have been, and what an amazing mother she was.  What more could a mother want than children who have a strong belief in themselves and the gospel and Kaye's children have exactly that.  I am so lucky that I was a part of their family for awhile and was able to bask in the love and acceptance that Kaye gave to everyone.  I will always remember the fun times we had together and am going to strive every day to be more like her.
-- the best part of the funeral (it was hard to choose) was when Conner got up and sang with a clear soprano voice a song that I'm sure touched everyone's heart in the audience and truly set the tone for the rest of service.

actually forgot all about this blog:)

catch up? 
Spencer and I have been working really hard trying to get our sunroom remodeled before Lori and Scott build their entire house next door ... that's our time frame at least. I've also been extremely busy with my photography business and am looking forward to some down time when I can focus more on the business end, like getting my website up and running. 

Ethan played soccer this fall and really loved it and was starting to get the hang of it towards the end of his season.  I can't believe how much I enjoyed going to his practices and games.  I'll admit I might have gotten a little carried away at some of his games. lol! Ethan is really loving first grade and his teacher Mrs. Olsen.  He is one of the top readers in his class and has shown massive signs of improvement from last summer to now.  His favorite thing to do right now is to climb up Maggie's huge dirt pile that's in front of their new house. 

Mason is at one of my most favorite ages right now.  He is so dang cute and has such a great sense of humor.  He has become quite the artist -- see drawings all over the leather of our van -- Mason also loves playing with Ellie and told me that he already married Ellie and now he can marry me. 

Zach has entered a very difficult stage !!!  he is into everything and will throw stuff in the garbage and into the toilet etc. etc. you get the picture.  He loves to climb anything and everything and has had the injury's to prove it.  He loves loves loves to be read to and will grab a book and follow you around until you read or if you're sitting down he'll stand in front of you, turn around and back up and sit on your lap.  He then makes sure your hand is holding his and he'll stick his finger out to have you point to items on the page and tell him what they are. Zach also talks all the time and a lot of the time I think he's actually pretty close to saying actual words.  I've never had a child talk as much as he does at this age, it's really fun.

random things

Mason told my dad that he wanted to play at his other grandma's house because "they have money" ... of course he was referring to their change jar that he always plays with, but it took a moment for the meaning to sink in !! funny stuff!!

Mason's favorite dinner - "Beans in a bowl" (really just taco soup, but he'll ask for beans in a bowl) and pizza of course (no pepperonis please)

Zach has just discovered the glow doll that the Bellamy's gave him for Christmas last year ... he'll push it to play the music and then he'll stick one arm out and watch his arm the whole time while he spins in a circle.  He knows just when the music is going to stop and is over there right as it stops to push it once again.  he really likes to turn on multiple music items at once if he can (ex. the tool bench, the thomas book and the glow worm doll)

Ethan is really loving soccer.  He gets caught up in explaining the rules of the game to us instead of actually playing, but he's really enjoying it.  At his game on Saturday he played forward for the first couple quarters and once during the 2nd quarter all the sudden he came out right in the middle and said "My legs are tired and need to rest"  we were like ... what??? get back in there and get the ball!!

escapee's

The two little kiddie's escaped this morning while I was getting Ethan ready for school .... Mason's killing me with this toilet paper obsession, but it is kind of cute ... Can you tell my camera is still broken?  It was awesome light this morning and it looks like it's night time (cry cry)

the only way I he'll go down without a fight!!

If you try and put him in his crib when he's even remotely still awake he stands up, eyes closed, and scream/cries for a good 20 minutes ... so this is working out for the both of us:)

Weekend trip to Bear Lake

We headed to Bear Lake for the day Saturday with Spencer's family.  The kids didn't really love the boat at first, but after awhile they warmed up to it:)  While I was skiing (or attempting to) Mason was very concerned every time I fell and would yell at Grandpa not to leave his Mommy and that he was going too fast :) When my father in law was skiing Maddie and Ethan were chanting a cheer "Go Grandpa Go, Go Grandpa Go"  It was really cute.  The boys absolutely loved the sand and water and were sad to go home, but fell asleep 1 minute into the trip :) What a fun day!!

Cute Macy Moo!!

Zach thought this knee board was the funnest thing in the world

Maddie and Ethan playing in the water

ZACHARY!!

Things I've learned this week from my 1 year old: Socks don't float and flush pretty well, plungers are a very fun toy, naps are for babies younger than 1, and little expensive point and shoot camera's don't revive after drowning ... even if they get immediate TLC:-( Zach would have blown the study on how much kids cost out of the water! (water ... grrr!!)

first day of school

Spencer was able to take the morning off so we could all take Ethan to his first day of school.  After school he said that his Teacher Mrs. Olsen was a lot nicer than Mrs. Carr (his kindergarten teacher) and she didn't yell at all!  (not sure what that means)  He was really grumpy after school and I thought maybe he had had a bad day after all, even though he told us he had a good day. But I soon realized that he hadn't eaten ANY of his lunch and was just really over hungry.  So, today (his second day of school) I went and watched him for a minute and made sure that today he was focused on eating and not other things. 

My cute nephew turns 1:)

fishing

.After fishing for what seemed like hours and not catching anything we decided to even the odds :)  and drove up to this really fun stocked fish farm in N. Ogden, but then of course we caught the fish too fast so we chummed the water trying to catch some more with our bare hands.  It was fun and I know the boys loved it!!

Last weekend of summer started off at the dinosaur museum

Really the only picture of me, what do you do

there were crocodiles everywhere, which of course the boys loved!

What a sexy husband I have:)

Zach loved this slide and went down it over and over again

Spencer was so cute with the boys, I'd hear him stomping up
the tree house saying FEE FI FO FUM!!

sorry mason, you're his favorite toy and I can't keep him away from you, no matter how much I try!!

Ethan's graduation

So I looked this morning to see what Ethan had to bring for show and tell and discovered Ethan was the show and tell; it was his kindergarten program!!!  Well, I'm sorry to all those that were not invited due to short notice (spencer)
It was so cute they sang songs and had a video where they had interviewed each kid, asking them a different question.  Ethan's question was ... if you could buy anything what would you buy?  Ethan: "um... think think think ... um ... think think think ... a big house! -- I guess we've talked too much about getting a bigger house one day.  The audience thought his answer was hilarious:)
so after the program we had to put our chairs away.  I wanted to get a picture of Ethan and his best friend Brandon so I turned around and took one of them together.  When I turned back around Ellie (who I was asked to keep an eye on) and Mason were missing.  so, when Lori got back we started our search for them and couldn't find them anywhere!!  finally we found both of them sitting on the stairs in front of the school oblivious that they were "lost"
Ethan had a really amazing kindergarten experience.  His teacher Mrs. Carr was really structured and focused and was able to have Ethan reading really well a couple months into school.  She taught them lots of poems and songs and did a bunch of math with them.  She was really amazing!!
Ethan got a time out like the 2nd month of school for talking out of turn and I believe this made him extremely shy for the rest of the year :-( He told me a couple weeks ago that all the kids went and looked out the window at a bird, but Teacher had said to stay in their seats and so Ethan was the only one who stayed in his seat because he didn't want to get in trouble.  I find that story a little sad, but everything else this year has been really really positive.

This is Brandon ... Ethan plays with him every day at recess

This is where we found Ellie and Mason:) after 15 minutes of looking

Ethan's seat in school

Ethan and Mrs. Carr

Everyone say cheese ... thank you Mason for listening to me:)

Zachary, please sit down!!

more funnies

our kids had had so many chicken nuggets that I was thinking of something they might eat besides nuggets, well, I decided that they all liked corn dogs and that we should find an artic circle and buy some.  so ... spencer, after telling me that california didn't have arctic circles used our phones navigation and it said there was an arctic circle about 20 minutes away.  Well, we had some time to kill before our flight so we decided to find it.  After about 30-40 minutes of driving spencer told me to turn right onto ... he paused .. I hear an "oh no" then he said ... "turn right onto arctic circle drive"  it was really too funny for words.
at the airport we were trying to board our flight and my kids were being a little crazy so I told them to come stand right here and behave.  Ethan immediately broke down into tears and told me I wasn't being nice to him while Mason came and stood in front of me and said "look mommy, I am being haved"  everyone around us thought that was really cute and funny:)

just some funnies

thought I'd write these down before I forgot them:)
Ethan: "Grandma, the waves weren't very big tonight because the sharks were eating them"
Spencer: telling everyone to turn on Jawbone drive, his upside down reading is not what it used to be ... it was Jamboree
Spencer - parking the stroller and forgetting to get the baby out of it in his haste to make it to the ride before the pirate ship left (luckily my parents were walking behind him, so the baby wasn't alone for too long)
Mason: lost his alligator in the hot tub, luckily spencer went to the catch basin and opened up the white vent and pulled it out
Mason: telling us after every single ride that he wanted to ride on it again

do mannequins have "nethers"? yes they do

We were shopping for easter outfits (me and my 3 kids) and I look over and Ethan is trying to pull the pants off a male mannequin.  when I asked him what he was doing ... he replied "I just want to see if he has nethers"  to this I said ... "it's a mannequin, they don't ... stop trying to undress him" 
Later that night ...
I went back to old navy because I had decided to purchase the shorts I had been looking at for Spencer, but when I got there the only one in his size was on the mannequin so i asked if I could buy the ones off the mannequin.  Old navy was AWESOME and came and undressed the mannequin in front of me, well, I had to go back and tell Ethan that mannequins do in fact have "nethers"!!  made me blush

Weekly weigh-in

Last week I only lost 2 lbs (I know they say that's healthy, but I was not happy with a 2 lbs loss after losing 10 the week before)  this week I was able to lose 4 so I am down a total of 16lbs in 3 wks (thanks week 1)

I'm still 5 lbs away from the weight I started dieting 6 months ago with, but what do you do.

I will say that I'm really enjoying my work outs ... I do those burst speed things where I'll walk at say a 3.4, but anytime my heart rate drops to say 151 I crank it up to a 5.3 and run for a minute, which quickly takes my heart rate up to about 170 then I get to walk for another few minutes until I repeat the process.  It's actually kind of fun

The last time I lost 60 lbs before getting pregnant with Zach I basically did it with no exercise, so this time I'm hoping to do it a little differently

3 weeks down only 7 more to go until my first goal ... my brother in law's wedding.  I hope to be able to lose another 20 lbs before the wedding.  and then in the 3 wks following I'd like to lose 10 more lbs before my 10 year anniversary and then another 15 lbs before my August 10k. which would put me right close to my goal weight ... so what is that ... 45 more lbs to go for a total of 61lbs 
61 seems like a lot, but 45 more doesn't seem so bad.

looking back

I was just organizing some photos and decided to revisit a few of my favorites and test my since found knowledge of photoshop to enhance them a little ... My you were a cute BABY !! (if i must say so myself)  I really wish I would have known a little more about photography then!!
How can a baby with such blue eyes now have hazel eyes instead??  sigh ...

ZACHARY ... NO ... NO!!

I honestly didn't think there was anything more disgusting than a baby that would not stop playing in the toilet water.  I swear he has a unique sense that tells him when someone has left the toilet seat up, or maybe it's just that he checks it all day long to see.  Well, today it was worse ... a lot worse.  I found Zach playing in Mason's training potty that I had forgotten to empty!!!!!!!  GROSS

on a sunnier note

Started a couples diet with Spencer last week and we weighed in last night:)
Korie in the lead with -10
Spencer not to far behind with -6

I guess giving up sugar, salt and diet soda can really give you some good weight loss:)

my most embarrassing experience ever? perhaps

britney -- you'll like this

So I was one of three people in charge of the "road show" for my ward, in which we had to do a song vignette to start the show.  It was supposed to be a duet between me and a girl from my ward that has an amazing voice, we had worked out harmony and had practiced ... yada yada yada
well, this girl called me yesterday and told me that she wasn't going to make it, so we replaced her with one of the YW leaders late last night and her and I were able to go through it a couple times before we went on.  Ok, so it would have been ok, but we get out there front and center with a spot light on the two of us and I realized that I couldn't see the sheet music ... AT ALL ...
well that was that, I started giggling and could not pull it together. Poor Carrie basically sang a solo because I could not stop laughing.
I think I've only had this happen one other time -- in my high school English class while I was giving an oral report.
Good Job Me -- I'm glad to know that I can still have these experiences no matter what my age

(*the cute girl from my ward had been chosen by her choral ensemble at school to represent them, which is awesome and obviously more important than singing for a road show -- so the real blame needs to fall on Davis High!!  lol) 

Top o' the mornin' to ya

This parade is so much fun!! I think the funnest thing about this parade is that the crowd is all dressed up.

I'm really glad I didn't witness this

We went for a walk with my new double jogging stroller. Both the boys chose to ride their bikes, Ethan on his big bike and Mason on his trike.  Well, on the way home Mason decided he didn't want to ride his bike ... totally fine, that is why I bought a double stroller, but then he decided he didn't want to ride in the stroller either. so, after some chase scenes and intense moments I decided to give him a piggy back up the hill while pushing the bike and the stroller.  I'm sure it wasn't pretty, my neighbor guy drove by (of course) and offered to hook a rope around me and pull me, but I assured him that I had it:)
I will recommend this stroller to anyone in the sense that it was very easy to push with one hand up a pretty good hill

I want to play the hooker game

Ethan and Mason having a conversation
E: "Mason let's play the hooker game"
M: "Where's my hooker"
E: "Not those hookers Mason, the big hookers"

... they're of course talking about hooking hangers together and flying them

falling stars

one of the stars just fell off, does that mean I'm now 29?

sweet husbands

I woke up to hearts and stars this morning and chocolate cake:)  What a sweet husband and sweet little boys
(mason told me the chocolate cake was his) :)

 there's 30, you don't need to count:)