Bedingfield Family Blog

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Halloween! Since it fell on a Monday, I was able to go to the kids' Halloween Parade at school... it was nice to feel like a "good mom" for once!

Aspyn dressed up as Indiana Jones, Avery was a Zombie (her first year NOT being a princess....sob!) and Ty was Batman!

My absolute favorite part of Halloween this year was mine and my sister's costumes.....We were Sister Wives! I couldn't stop laughing long enough to take a picture! Gotta love the dresses and sneakers. Oh my gosh it was too funny!

Fall

2011-10-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we hiked to Scout Falls on Mt. Timpanogos. It was a gorgeous hike!

The aspen trees were bright bright bright yellow....

The falls were barely going, but it was still fun to hike to a waterfall :) In Utah, we take what we can get!

Avery was on a sleepover at my mom's house, so it was just the two kids who "kind-of" like to hike. Avery is our kid that "HATES HIKING." But we make her go anyway! I know... we are mean!!! This time it was kind of nice not to have to listen to the whining. (we did miss her, and still love her though!)

Later that same weekend Al found this spider in our backyard:

Yes, that is a REAL picture that he took of it! It is huge! He looked it up online and it isn't poisonous, so it is still back there... yikes! :)

Love Your Body 10K

2011-10-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I ran a 10k with Blayke and Shara... I loved it! It was at Thanksgiving Point, so of course it was rainy and cold- but it wasn't snowing like the half-marathon! :)

This was Blayke's first ever race... I stuck by her and talked her through to the finish line. It was fun to run with someone- I am usually all by myself :)

Here I am warming up.... and looking dorky!

At the finish.... I'm not sure why we didn't get any pictures with Shara... sorry Shara! :(

I LOVED this race- 6 miles is sooooo much better than 13! I felt really good after... I think 10k's are my new favorite thing! :)

Forget Not...

2011-09-25T17:08:00.001-07:00

I loved this talk by President Utchdorf... I'm going to try try try not to forget those 5 things... I know it will bless my life!

PS: Did you see the choir last night? So many of my friends in my ward! They did awesome... I was thinking I should have brushed up on my lip-synching skillz so that I could have joined them!

Yard Sale Saturday!

2011-09-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, my mom, my sister, my aunt, my cousin and I finally had a yard sale...

We always have a super good time when we get together.... my favorite things:

* people wanting to buy something we had priced for $5.00, but saying they only had $3.00.... when we said ok, they asked "do you have change for a $5?

* eating, eating, eating.... we had bread from Great Harvest, egg mcmuffins and cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Fairy....yum!

* my aunt's "Meat" cookbook from 1970... it had recipes for squirrel, rabbit and tongue... we laughed and laughed

* I sold tons of stuff... and now I have some "FUN MONEY" - love it!

First Day of School

2011-08-23T15:53:00.003-07:00

It sure was quiet around my house today... 3 kids in school ALL day! Yikes!

I can admit I cried a little bit watching them line up and go into the school... they are just growing up so fast! I can't believe I have a 5th grader, a 2nd grader and a 1st grader.

After I picked them up today (we are riding the bus tomorrow) I asked them what their favorite part of school was:

Ty: recess (big surprise)

Avery: when we got journals

Aspyn: lunch :)

Summer Vacation 2011

2011-07-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

For the last few years, we have been going to nice, cool places for our summer vacation. Last year we FROZE in Northern California and loved every minute of it! This year since the spring/summer was so cold, we decided to do the opposite and go to somewhere warm.... maybe even super hot: St. George! :)

It was an awesome vacation! We stayed at my in-laws townhouse (free!) and got to eat at my dad's house a lot. (also free!)

We hiked a lot and swam a lot and just enjoyed spending time together...

We hiked in Kolob (part of Zions)

We swam at Sand Hollow- my kids said "this is WAY better than the beach in California!" (all they know is the cold beaches we went to last summer. We may need to take them to a 'real' sunny beach asap!)

We hiked to a cool waterfall in Brianhead...

We went to the Grand Canyon- it was super hot there!

(Aspyn's barbies- Jake and Stewart- at the Grandcanyon...)

And more swimming....

We saw Cars 2- Ty's favorite part of the vacation!

We toured Brigham Young's house and then ate at the Pizza Factory (of course!)

We went to the college and all got Dixie t-shirts... hmm, I may need to take a pic of us wearing them...oops!

And we went to the St. George Temple....

I love family vacations! :)

May Madness

2011-06-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else having problems with moving pictures around on blogger? I CANNOT make them do what I want... frustrating! Ok... I'll deal with it.

So, May was super-duper busy at the Bedingfield house. Here are our pics to prove it. (in no particular order- thanks alot blogger!)

Ty had his kindergarten program... here he is
with his buddies.

Avery had her dance program...

We said good-bye to Pony Express Elementary... and first loves... (here is Avery's boyfriend... he was super sad the last day of school)

Aspyn had her 4th grade program... her part was "hiker." :)

Avery's dance recital again...it cracked me up that Avery wanted to pose with Edward! She was more excited to pose with him than Cinderella. I guess my little girl is growing up! :)

Ty's program again... he was "Jack Be Nimble." Of course "Jack" has to wear stretchy pants to jump over the candlestick!

Avery posing with her favorite dance teacher!

And her favorite mom! ;)

Al planned a little getaway for two to St. George. We had so much fun... hiking, a movie, Texas Roadhouse, and more hiking... heavenly!

Thank heavens we survived May! Now it is time to kick back and enjoy summer, right?

I did it! And it was super hard!

2011-05-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

So, I have been training since January to do a half marathon. Yes, me. A non-runner. My friend talked me into it, and I was worried about how I was going to train... soon after that, another friend was giving away a treadmill- and I was lucky enough to get it! I figured I was meant to do this half marathon! (I mean really, who just gives a treadmill away???)

So, 4 times a week since January I have run my guts out. And its been good. Most mornings I run 3 to 4 miles and then do the longer ones on Saturdays.

As my big day approached, I was so nervous and excited. I was super worried about the weather... and I had good reason to be- the race was at Thanksgiving Point during the tulip festival... except on Saturday it snowed! And I couldn't see the tulips because they were buried in snow. Blah!

The first 5 miles or so were great. I had a good pace, plenty of energy and felt good. The course was so super hilly! After mile 6, I started to get tired.... really- it was all up hill and then steep downhills. Between mile 10 and 11 I started to wonder if I could really do this... and I started thinking about what an idiot I was to think I could do it.... it wasn't a good feeling.

At mile 12 I was ready for it to be done... my pace was pretty slow and I was drained. I was determined to finish strong though, so I ran to the finish line as fast as I could. My time wasn't that great, but I finished. I finished!!!

My cute little family was waiting for me at the finish line- Ty had made me a sign that said "go mom go!" and Aspyn made one too- it was so cute. I was crying and crying at the end... and I couldn't stop all day. It was really emotional for me.

This is the picture Al took of me at the finish line... yeah, I'm not really in it. I think that is my head at the bottom. Awesome. Thats the only picture I have of my accomplishment. Oh well- I did get a medal. :)

At the end of the race yesterday I told myself I would NEVER, EVER do that again. And then last night I started looking at races online. I would like to do another one- maybe one that goes downhill next time. This one was just so hilly and hard. I want to see if I can do better. Also, it is good for me to have something to work towards. I love having a 'project.'

Here's my half marathon in numbers:

1- the number of toenails I lost (ewwww)

1- the number of days I missed running (I had a sinus infection... ewww)

4- days a week I trained

259- the number of miles I ran during training

10- the number of pounds I lost! (yay!)

2:27:17- my official "time"

Holy Cow! A New Post!

2011-04-25T13:12:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's me! I'm updating the blog! Hooray! It has been awhile... our computer CRASHED about a month ago and I lost everything. Pictures, tons of preschool stuff and young women stuff, and just everything. It was really lame. REALLY lame. I think I had a little depression about it. Oh well. Back to life. Now I am just trying to replace things and catch up on things I have been neglecting for awhile. Like blogging!

Here's what we have been doing the last few months....

We went to St George... I'm thinking this was in February?

My grandpa Tolley passed away in February... :(

We went to St George again, this time with our BFFS, the Langs!

Ty lost his first tooth while we were there! He swallowed it, but the tooth fairy came anyways! :)

Avery had a birthday- number 7!

She had a fun family party, a sleepover with Sage and got tons of clothes and Barbie stuff. What else could a girl want?

Then this weekend was Easter... I love Easter! Here are the kiddos on Easter morning, after they found all the eggs...

That afternoon we went to my moms for dinner and another Easter egg hunt. The kids have so much fun with their cousins!

So, it has been a busy few months. I'm hoping to find time to blog again and do a little better at recording my life. We'll see what happens! :)

Snowshoeing

2011-01-31T16:01:00.000-08:00

I know, I suck at blogging. Life is crazy! It seems like I never have a minute to sit down and update my life!

Two weeks ago we took the fam snowshoeing on Timpanogos... we had a blast! Well, everyone but Avery had a blast... she's not the best trooper, but she did have fun sledding when we found a good spot.

My favorite part was when a guy came snowshoeing by with 2 husky dogs and Ty said all cool-like "Hey, nice wolves!" It was awesome.

We snowshoed for awhile, and then let the kids sled... that was by far, their favorite part. Let's see if I can add a video of Ty sledding- it was hilarious!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

Was Christmas a blur for anyone else? Holy cow... I am still tired from the month of December!

I'm not sure why we feel like we have to cram EVERYTHING into such a short period of time... I always worry that if we don't get everything in we won't have the Christmas spirit and then Christmas will suck. What I fail to realize is that when I do cram everything in, we are so busy and tired and ornery that Christmas starts to just get WAY too overwhelming. That's what happened this Christmas.

We did all the usual traditions: Gingerbread houses, Temple Square, Christmas party after Christmas party after Christmas party... see- here's proof that we got it all in:

Christmas Eve- new jammies, Santa cookies and an apple for Rudolph's nose.

Christmas Day:
DYING to go down to see if Santa came...

Avery got her "dream" Barbie Townhouse and holy cow it is FUN!

Ty got a Batman suit that he hasn't taken off since Christmas.

Aspyn got lots of DS games, a cool remote control Millennium Falcon and, of course, Lego sets...

I think what I liked best was the week AFTER Christmas. Staying in my jammies- ALL DAY. Playing the new Wii that we pooled our Christmas money together to buy and eating the leftover sugar cookies. I may have even played with the Barbie Townhouse a time or two. :) For me, THAT was the fun part of Christmas. My goal for next year is to simplify, simplify, simplify!

Tis the Season...

2010-12-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

for Christmas programs! Avery has been our little performer this year! She had a super cute dance recital at the first of the month....

And then the first grade put on a little singing program last week... too cute!

Mr. Robot-o

2010-12-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

My Little Entrepreneur

2010-11-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

We happen to live down the street from an AWESOME sledding hill. Really- it is super awesome. WE spend ALOT of time there in the winter- fun! Well, Aspyn and her friend Macy saw a business opportunity- it is genious! They decided to set up a hot chocolate stand. And they opened for business yesterday!

It was fun for me to sit in my nice warm van, read my book and watch them sell- they actually did pretty good! At slow times, Aspyn or Macy would hike to the top of the hill and sled down- holding their sign and yelling "hot chocolate for sale!" AWESOME!

Avery and Ty were happy to be able to sled while the girls were selling. I was happy to get a good parking spot so that I could stay warm and just watch! (and take a picture or two!)

Happy Winter!

I am Grateful

2010-11-21T15:17:00.001-08:00

About a week and a half ago we had our family pictures taken by my good friend Mikki. She did such a fabulous job and they turned out really well. As I have been looking at them over and over and over again, I have realized- I am one lucky girl! I absolutely love the pictures she took of my sweet family, and it has made me remember how grateful I am for them.

I am grateful for Aspyn. I love her sweet spirit. She tries SO hard to be good- she is a great example to me. She says her prayers, she reads the scriptures (even if she doesn't understand them sometimes) and she writes in her journal. She is so smart and loves science and math. She is a great friend and a wonderful helper. I am grateful for my Aspyn!

I am grateful for Avery. She is my little 'mini-me.' I love that she loves to play with Barbies and dress-ups. Just like me when I was little! I love that she coordinates her own outfits and that she changes her earrings to match what she is wearing. She loves to sing and dance and is good at both. She loves school and reading. I love my Avery!

I am grateful for Ty- my little 'surprise.' Everyday I am grateful for him! He is just so much fun, and is always dressed like a superhero. He has loved cars and trains from day one and he has always just been so cuddly and kissable. One thing I love about Ty is how much he loves me. He is a 'mama's boy' and that has been so fun after having two 'daddy's girls'. I love my Ty!

I am grateful for my hubby. He works so hard for our family and is such a great dad. He is so good to me, even when I am hard to live with! He is my best friend and I am so grateful for him.

I have a family... for that I am grateful!

Girls Weekend...

2010-11-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

to exotic MORONI! Really! A month or so ago, my fabulous mom and aunt decided to whisk us girls away to Moroni, Utah for a girls night. It was so super fun!

We stayed in a gigantic studio apartment above a cute little store on Moroni main street. There was room for all of us!

It was so fun to get together with my aunt, cousin and cousin-in-laws... we just don't seem to get together much anymore. Life just gets too busy, I guess.

We spent Saturday driving all over Sanpete, stopping at thrift stores and antique stores, looking for treasures. We went to Manti and I got to see the temple I was married in.... oh the memories!

My grandma loved Sanpete... I felt like she was with us... except when we went into the thrift stores- she wasn't big on those! :)

Thanks, mom and Chris for a fun over-nighter! Can't wait for next year! :)

Party, Party, Party!

2010-11-02T15:08:00.001-07:00

So last week, all we did was PARTY. Really- that's all we did and I am still tired! It all started Tuesday with our Young Women in Excellence night on Tuesday. It turned out really well and I was so proud of our sweet Young Women! It was kind of a stressful night, though- decorations, gifts, refreshments, etc. Quite a party.

And then all the preschool Halloween parties started! I was Dorothy all day Thursday for my two 4 year old class parties and then a witch on Friday for my 3 year old party. FUN!

Friday was also Aspyn's 10th birthday- yay! So we woke her up with breakfast in bed... she LOVED it! She got to take treats to school and then got out early to go to lunch with Grandma. We were supposed to go swimming with her friends that night, but at the last minute we found out the pool was closed for a Halloween party. So, her friend party was postponed- we'll go tomorrow night. Just what I need- another party! :)

Saturday, we hosted a small Halloween party with my brother and his kiddos and my sister and her hubby. Blayke and I seem to have a little too much fun dressing up. This year we were nerds and Blayke found these AWESOME shirts at DI!

Then, Sunday we had Aspyn's "family" birthday party... more cake, more ice cream, and more presents! She had a ball!

Last week in the middle of all of this, I found I couldn't get out of bed early to work out two mornings. I was really beating myself up about this until I thought about everything I was doing that week. Too bad I was basically living on cake, cookies, ice cream and Halloween candy... kind of a rough week diet-wise...oh well. This craziness only comes once a year! Thank goodness!

Happy Birthday!

2010-10-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet hubby! I love you!

I did it!

2010-10-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Remember me? The girl who HATES running? Well guess what I did on Saturday? RAN A 6K. Oh yeah, baby!

I ran the Wasatch Woman 6k at Thanksgiving Point with some of my friends from Young Womens and Shara. It was so fun- I was surprised. And even more surprising was that I got up and ran again this morning. Maybe I don't hate running anymore! :)

Playing Hooky

2010-10-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

For the past year or so, my mom has had every other Friday off of work. So every once in a while we take advantage of this and do something super fun! Like last Friday- after I finished teaching my 3 year old class and after Ty was out of kindergarten, we pulled the girls out of school early and headed to the Zoo.

For some reason, it was super busy that day. Oh well. And, it was hot. We tried to have fun anyways!

The kiddos (and Grandma) loved the giraffes...

And the monkeys....

And Avery got a hold of the camera and started taking random pictures.... although it IS good to know how much money to take to the zoo to spend on drinks, right? :)

Thanks for another "Fun Friday" mom! You're the bestest! :)

Lunch Date

2010-09-28T11:53:00.001-07:00

Everyday I get to have a lunch date with this super cute boy:

I love to sit down with Ty after kindergarten and eat lunch together. He tells me all about his morning at school, shows me the work they did, and tells me about running from the girls at recess.

I think if I was a kindergarten girl, I'd chase him too. Even if his manners while eating spaghetti aren't the best....

Today I was thinking about how next year, all three of my kiddos will be eating lunch at school. And it makes me sad! Sure, I'm looking forward to maybe reading my book while I eat lunch, but to tell you the truth, I'd rather hear all about the letter "J" and what snacks they had at kindergarten.

I'm thinking next year might be a little bit lonely.

Girls Night

2010-09-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

I have been serving as Young Women pres in our ward for a year and a half now. I KNOW! It doesn't seem like it has been that long to most of you out there, but to me (and my family) it feels like it has been awhile. YW is very rewarding, but also very time and emotionally consuming... unfortunately, my family has taken the brunt of my nervous breakdowns.

YW would be so much harder, though, if I didn't have the love and support of the wonderful gals I serve with. Sometimes it seems like I am with them more than I am with my family... and that is just when we are serving! :) This weekend we felt like spending EXTRA time together, so we went to a fabulous girls night in Orem. It was super fun- massages, hair-do's, fingernail painting, chocolate, dinner and just hanging out with some of my favorite friends! Thanks for a great girls night, girls! We needed it! :)

Camping

2010-09-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

All summer long, my side of the family tried to schedule a time when we could all go camping. Between family vacations, girls camp and pioneer trek, we were the ones that were just too busy to go! Finally, we found a weekend when everyone could go.... last weekend!

We just went up Springville Canyon- at Jolly's Ranch. It is a great campground with actual flushing toilets! HOORAY! :) We went on a fun hike....

Avery and Sage gathered leaves...

I love that my kids are growing up with their cousins. I have so many great memories of being with my cousins, and I am glad my kids love their cousins, too!

Ty had fun with Shae... Shae is 9, but he is the only other boy. Ty totally followed Shae around and drove him crazy! In this picture Ty was saying: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" And Shae said: "NO!" and Ty said: "What are you thinking about?" and Shae said: "Tacos" and Ty said:"Thats what I'm thinking about too! You ARE thinking what I'm thinking!" Too funny!

Ty got SOOOOO dirty!

And there was even a playground for the kids. This was right before we left to come home... Ty had pretty much lost it at this point! Fun weekend!

Donut Falls

2010-09-12T16:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, after dentist appointments and Young Woman volleyball games, we decided to force our children to go on a hike. We are finding out that hiking was much easier when they were smaller... they didn't have much of an opinion about what we did on Saturdays. These days, however, they want to play with FRIENDS. Whatever! We are more fun than ANY of their friends!

Anyways we made a few compromises: 1) they could play with friends as soon as we got home, 2) we would go on a short hike and 3) we could do their favorite hike: Donut Falls.

We love the hike to Donut Falls , there are only a few drawbacks- it is always really crowded. And not with regular people, weirdos that go to BYU. I swear there is always one or two singles wards hiking to the waterfall. And it is annoying! :)

After years of taking millions of pictures of my children, they are finally getting to the point where they actually ASK me to take a picture of them, and then they pose! Yay! :)

Kids pics

Man, I love these kiddos. I hope they will still hang out with us as they get older... I'm starting to get a little worried!

MY first day of school!

2010-09-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

So, are you sick of posts about school starting? Well, here's one more for you! Today was my first day of teaching preschool! This year I decided to teach a morning class and an afternoon class... I know- I am crazy! It actually went really well. The kids were awesome today- they were all very, very sweet! I think it is going to be a good year! And since I didn't have Aspyn take a picture of me on the first day in front of the tree, here is a picture of my classroom. I think it is super cute! :)

Kindergarten Baby

2010-09-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

Two days ago we had a very exciting event at our house.... the first day of Kindergarten! Ty has been DYING to go to school ever since the girls started last week. And, since my mom is DYING to see pictures of him on the first day of school, here you go! (love ya, mom! :) )

He is totally digging his new "spiky" haircut!

I asked him what his favorite part of school is and he said, "learning the ABC's." :)

Here he is in line... I was shedding a few tears at this point! Its hard to think my baby is so grown up! On my way home I called Al immediately and told him we needed to have another baby... then I had 3 hours all to myself and decided maybe school is a good thing! :)

When Boys Play Dress Up

2010-08-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Ty may be bored when the girls are at school. Today he started working on his Halloween costume. Here's what he came up with:

My favorite was the red underwear over the stretchy pants. Why DOES Superman do that?

Holy cow I love this little Superboy!

First Day of School! First Day of School!

2010-08-25T09:43:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from the first day of school! Yes, I am still crying about school starting so soon. Oh well. At least my girls looked cute!

Aspyn is starting 4th grade, Avery is starting 1st. Only one more week until Ty starts kindergarten! Then after that, only one more week until I start preschool... holy cow! I still have so much to do! Wish me luck!

Family Vacation!

2010-08-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

Yes, we have been back from our family vacation for a week or so, and I haven't blogged about it.... I know, I know. I am lame. Anywhoo, this year we decided to go to Northern California for our family vacay. Why? Because I have always wanted to go there! We had so much fun- hiking in the Redwoods was amazing, and the kiddos loved the freezing cold beaches! (really, they did!) Here are some highlights of the trip:

We decided to go through Idaho and Oregon to get to Northern Cali. Along the way we stopped at Crater Lake... gorgeous!

And we stopped at several waterfalls... the kids LOVED this because they would get in the van, turn on a movie, get settled, and we would pull over and make them do a hike. They weren't very happy hikers! For some reason, they just wanted to watch "Space Chimps." Oh well. We forced them to enjoy nature!

We spent a lot of time at the beach. It was so cold, but the kids LOVED it. Ty even asked if he should get his swimming suit on!

We also hiked... A LOT! The trails were gorgeous and the trees were HUGE!

We went to Ocean World, and the kids got to pet a shark!

And Aspyn got to hold a Sea Urchin... I love the look of pure terror on her face!

On the way home we stopped at one last waterfall... and then headed home through Nevada and across the Salt Flats... UGH. We had such a great time on our vacation! I love just being together as a family without work, friends, computers, callings and housework. Without feeling pulled in a hundred directions. Just focusing on each other without all the stress from home. Ty even told me- "you are the good-est mom!" I am so thankful we got to go- we needed it this summer!

Oh- here's where we stayed. It was a cute little place and super cheap!

5k!

2010-07-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Al's brother Andy invited us to participate in a 5k to help raise money for school kids in Haiti. Now, I work out everyday, but I DO NOT RUN. In fact, I've been known to say "I HATE running" and I really, really mean it.

But, you know, anything for family, right?

Al decided to try and walk it with Avery and Ty. Aspyn and I decided we would try and run it. Avery and Ty lasted about 10 steps, then Avery thought she was going to die from a stomach ache. Al walked for a minute with her on his back, then he sent them to hang out with grandpa Doug so he could finish walking the race with his mom.

But guess what? Aspyn and I RAN THE WHOLE THING. Pretty much. It was a hilly course, so we may have walked once or twice up one of the hills, but WE DID IT! I was so proud of Aspyn. And of me! I was cheering like a crazy person when we passed the 1, 2 and 3 mile post signs!

Around mile 3, Aspyn really opened up to me about somethings that have been bothering her lately. Things girls seem to worry about earlier and earlier these days- being "too big" or "bigger" than other girls her age. I was able to talk to her and tell her it doesn't matter and tell her she is AMAZING for running a 5k when she is 9 years old. I am so glad I did the race with her! And guess what? We are planning on doing another one- soon!

Summer Camps!

2010-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

'Tis the summer of camps at our house! EVERYONE has gone to at least one camp recently. (I say recently because Al's camp was in April- it still counts right?)

Anyways, we'll start with his backpacking/camping trip with his brother and cousin in April... they went all the way to Escalante (and had a super fun time, I've heard!)

They had to "squish" through this to get to the hike... a little crazy don't you think?

Next camper: Avery. Avery did dance camp with Auntie Blayke and cousin Sage. She also had a super fun time!

Next up: Aspyn. Aspyn had the opportunity to attend SPACE CAMP! She about died from happiness!!! (she is into all things scientific right now... go figure?)

Can't forget me! I spent a week at GIRL'S CAMP! And, it was a success! I think! I hope! :)

And last week, Aspyn and Ty attended SOCCER CAMP! Ty was so happy it was his turn for camp! He LOVed soccer camp!

I thought summers were supposed to be laid back? Not at our house! Next 'camp' for us: Pioneer Trek! Heaven help me! :)

Holy Cow! 13 Years!!!

2010-06-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here's what we were doing 13 years ago today!

Look at how cute we were! :)

Happy Anniversary to US!

I love to see the temple!

2010-06-18T14:07:00.001-07:00

This is where I went this morning:

I have been a LITTLE stressed out with girls camp (next week- yikes!), dance camp, preschool and being a wife and mom. Thank heavens for Young Women who love to babysit and who do a great job. I came home feeling peaceful and happy AND to happy kids who had cleaned their rooms and were kind of happy to see me. Miracles do happen! :)

Lagoon Day Washout

2010-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Almost every year since Al has worked for Steel Encounters, they have had Lagoon day... except for last year they canceled, since the economy was so bad. Anyways, they decided to do one this year and we were so excited! Too bad the weather didn't cooperate! Saturday was FREEZING cold and rainy. They ended up canceling Lagoon day :(. Our kids were so excited that we didn't have the heart to leave before doing a few rides....

We got stuck on the Dinosaur Drop for awhile.... I'm not sure what was up with that!

We rode the few kids rides that were open-

but then we were just too cold to stay. We found out today that they are rescheduling it for July 31- the day we leave on our family vacation. So I guess it is a good thing we stayed and did a few rides because we won't be going back this year!

Birthday Boy

2010-06-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe my baby boy is five. Five is so grown up. Five is school. Five is learning to ride a two wheeler. Five is losing teeth. I don't want him to grow up so fast!

Anyways, we had two fun birthday parties for the boy. Sunday we had our family party. Ty was so excited about his Star Wars cake, and he was posing however we told him to pose. We were laughing pretty hard!

He opened his presents in record time! He just pulled whatever was in them out, said "thank you" and then threw it in the pile. So funny!

On his "real" birthday I asked him what he wanted for his special birthday breakfast. What did he want? Cookie Crisp! What a boy!

On his birthday, we had his first "friend" party. He wanted a Star Wars party, so we basically copied a party Aspyn had been to a few years ago and combined it with the Disneyland Jedi Training. Aspyn trained the Jedis then, sensing a "disturbance in the force" ran off to talk with Master Yoda. While she was gone, Darth Vader came and the kids had to defeat him. (Poor Aspyn was Darth and the kids REALLY got into fighting her. She was pinned against the wall with 6 Jedi's attacking her... so funny and I'm sad I didn't get a picture of it!) Oh, and then we had Lightsaber hotdogs...

After fighting Darth Vader, the Jedi's decided to destroy the Death Star....

After all their hard work, the Jedis totally earned Star Wars cupcakes and ice cream! Too bad I didn't get a picture of me in my Princess Leia costume! Maybe I get a little TOO into my kids' birthday parties!

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

This Memorial Weekend, we headed down to St. George for some SUNSHINE. After this crazy spring we were seriously lacking in the vitamin D department! It was so nice to finally get warm! We took the kiddos swimming:

Avery is a total fish. I love it!

Underwater cameras rule!

Then we took the kids on THE LONGEST HIKE they have ever done: 5 miles. It was cool, but it felt like the longest hike we had ever done! :) The kids had fun hiking in the river, though so that kept them happy for awhile!

We took the "St. George" cousins with us- that also kept our kids happy and distracted!

When we got to the end, they had to lay down for awhile!

The end was totally worth it, though- AMAZING!

We love going down and staying with my dad and Cheryl. They seriously take such good care of us- it actually feels like a vacation!

May Shmay

2010-06-10T09:45:00.001-07:00

Yes, yes, I know it has been a MONTH since I have posted anything. And can you guess why? May kicked my behind! Mothers day, floods, losing my first counselor in YW, school program after school program after school program. Soccer games. Graduation. Memorial day. It was enough to make me want to sleep for the entire month of June! (yeah right- girls camp is in less than 2 weeks!) Anywhooooo here are a few highlights from May:

Mother's day lunch, pedi's and shopping... what more can a mom ask for?

Avery's Kindergarten Program- so cute!

Preschool graduation- man I'm going to miss those crazy kids!

And I'm going to miss teaching my boy!

I really thought things would settle down once May was over... but June has been just as crazy! :)

The Flood

2010-05-11T12:42:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had an interesting day.... our backyard flooded! Around 2:30, we had a HUGE cloud burst over our neighborhood. The neighbors behind (and above) us had planted grass seed and had been watering for a few weeks. So when the rains came, the ground was already saturated and guess where the water went... right in our backyard It washed out our flagstone patio, gushed under the deck and ended up in the basement. Luckily, the kids and I were able to get down there in time to move everything out of the way, so nothing got ruined. Thank heavens our basement isn't finished yet.

Our lawn and patio are covered in mud....and grass seed from the neighbors yard!

The water and mud was pouring down our "dry" riverbed...

and we had a few waterfalls off our rocks.

It was at this point, when I noticed it washing out the patio and going under the deck that I got worried about the basement and when I ran downstairs, we were just in time to get everything out of the way. Al came home from work early to try and dig us out. He was able to dig under the deck and fill in where the dirt had washed away... it was CRAZY. We have sandbags in the back and under the deck so if it rains again, hopefully we will be prepared. :(

Good Mom or Bad Mom?

2010-05-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

I think I may have mentioned before that Avery LOVES putting her own outfits together for school everyday. Most of the time she does a great job and I have no problem sending her in the outfit she has picked out.

Today she was super excited to show me what she had come up with and wouldn't let me in her room while she was getting dressed. She came downstairs all excited to surprise me and this is what I saw:

The pieces are all super cute on their own, but maybe not so well together? And don't you love the hole in her leggings? But guess what? I didn't have the heart to tell her she clashed a little bit and took her to school in the outfit she designed. Does that make me a good mom or a bad mom? I'm not sure! :)

What do YOU do on a rainy Saturday?

2010-05-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

What do you do on cold and rainy Saturdays? Snuggle up with a book? Go to a movie? The past few Saturdays here have been FREEZING! And it is LAME! We are DYING to work in our yard, but it has just been super duper cold. So yesterday even though it was raining/hailing/snowing a little all day, we didn't let that stop us from being outside most of the day....

We played soccer:

Aspyn was goalie for the first half, and then played offense the rest of the game- she scored her first goal of the season!

While Aspyn was playing soccer, Avery was hanging out in the warm van, and Ty decided he wanted to play on the playground NO MATTER WHAT.

He was cold, soaked and happy! :)

After Aspyn's soccer game, we headed home to work in the yard until it was time for Ty's game after lunch. Well, I mean Al worked in the yard while I worked out and tried to get warm in the house...

We are doing flagstone under our arbor.... when it warms up I'll go out take a picture of the finished project! It is SO CUTE!

Also, we are re-vamping our front flower beds and making them BIGGER. More flowers/less grass seems to be our gardening motto!

Again, I'll post more pics when that project is finished!

After the yardwork and a grilled cheese sandwich, we headed to Ty's soccer game. By this time it was raining/hailing/snowing. We thought FOR SURE it would be cancelled.... but NO, if there is no thunder and lightening, you play on. Even if you are just a four year old. Ty loved it.

At the end of the game, the sun FINALLY came out and started burning the rain off the field. The kids played in the fog- it was actually pretty cool. Look at how wet Ty was at the end of the game... yes, I brought a hoodie for him to wear, but he WOULD NOT wear it. He loved playing in the rain.

After the game we headed to the nursery to buy MORE PLANTS! Then headed home to crash on the couch and watch Avatar. Not a bad Saturday. Not a warm Saturday, but still not a bad day!

I guess everyone needs a vacation!

2010-04-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning Aspyn's room the other day and found this:

Yes, that is Darth Vader chill-laxing in "Las Angelos." I mean, even supervillans need a break sometimes!

Easter 2010

2010-04-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

We had a fun Easter this year, with the usual egg hunts and activities. It started with Aunt Diane's Easter egg hunt the weekend before Easter and guess what? I am a slacker mom and forgot my camera! Blah! The kids always love finding eggs at Aunt Diane's house, because a few of the eggs have money in them! Our kids totally scored again and came home rich! Thank you Aunt Diane!

Then on Saturday, my mom had her annual Easter egg hunt and I remembered my camera! Hooray! The kids totally scored again! :)

Isn't this the cutest picture? My kids LOVE their cousins!

On Easter Sunday, we had a yummy cinnamon roll breakfast and talked about the true meaning of Easter. The kids found an empty egg and we talked about how the tomb was empty Easter morning and what that means for us. After breakfast they found MORE Easter eggs hidden around our house, and stopped for an Easter morning picture:

I think Aspyn is almost done humoring me with the bunny ears... actually- Ty may have been the only one happy to wear them! Why do kids have to grow up so fast?!?

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Yay!

2010-04-09T18:54:00.001-07:00

Check out the new addition to the Bedingfield family:

Yes- it's a "new" (to us) mini-van!!!

Look how far back Ty is! Avery couldn't torture him even if she wanted to! :)

Yes, I was one of those who said I would NEVER drive a mini-van. And guess what... I LOVE IT! It is SUPER nice to separate the kids- they each have their own space! I wish we had gone with a mini-van five years ago! We got a good deal on it, they threw in a dvd player with wireless headphones and they took our crappy Explorer off our hands! What more could we ask for?

Oh, and if you are wondering, Aspyn IS missing- she is sleeping over at her cousin's house, and we have my niece with us. Fun weekend! :) Peace out!

March Madness!

2010-04-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, where did the month of March go? I'm not sure why.... but March was just super busy for us! Let's see, what did we do?

A little snowshoeing and sledding...

Mom and Avery mani's and pedi's...

Our theme in preschool this month was fairy tales, and I made home-made gingerbread men for the kids to decorate....

I became an auntie again- LITTLE Samuel Bedingfield arrived 12 weeks early and weighed 1 lb 14 oz. He is doing well, but can use all the prayers he can get!

AND, we went to Disney on ice!

March was a crazy, fun month! Maybe April will be a little less busy??? Probably not. :)

Six Years Old!

2010-03-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my sweet little Avery turned 6! What an exciting day! Since she had a big friend party last year, this year we decided to keep it simple and just go to Chuck E. Cheese with the fam. Holy cow she had a blast! Except when the 'real' Chuck E. came out for her special birthday program... then she was a little bit terrified! Avs handled it well, though...

On Monday, we went to Old Navy to pick out a new birthday outfit... ALL PINK, of course!

Avery got tons of clothes, "The Princess and the Frog" DVD, a new scooter, a stuffed kitten (she totally wanted one- who knows why?!?), a princess game, earrings, a new purse, a nightgown and those awesome magnet dolls that you dress up.

Blowing out the candles.... I can't believe she is 6- where has the time gone?

Stand a little taller, do a little better

2010-03-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight's family home evening lesson was about doing a little better, and being a little better. I had each person in the family think of something they wanted to work on this week- something that would make them feel happier and would help strengthen our family. This is what Aspyn came up with....

If you can't tell, she is working on not losing her temper this week. Ty is saying "ha ha, I got your lightsaber!" and Aspyn is saying "one, two, three, four...."

Aspyn's sense of humor and art work crack me up!

Sunny St George Weekend...

2010-03-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

Man, my blogging skills are lacking lately! I have good intentions, but days go by and I am just too busy to write anything down. Since this is my "journal" I usually shoot for 3 posts a week.... yeah right. That is so not happening anymore. My new goal is once a week. Maybe I'll do better at that one!

Last weekend we got to go to St George with our super good friends, the Langs. Jami and I have been BFFS since Dixie College and most of our kids are the same ages.... that makes them the perfect family to travel with!

After swapping kids around, we headed down on Friday night. We had the two 'older' kids in our car... Aspyn and Carter- Jami and I have been making wedding plans for those two for years. It better work out! We have TONS of pictures of them growing up together for the wedding video already! It will be perfect. Now we just have to convince Aspyn and Carter! Hee hee hee. They are actually really good friends and get along really well. The three 'little' kids rode with Jami and John and from what I have heard, they had a blast in the van! It was the best ride to St. George we have ever had- no fighting!

Anyways, Saturday we headed out for a hike in Snow Canyon and HOLY COW it was freezing. After letting the kids run around on the rocks for awhile, we headed back to the condo for hot chocolate, lunch and a few "Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys" DVD's from the 70's... CLASSIC!

That night for dinner we went to the Pizza Factory... you HAVE to go to the pizza factory when you go to St. George, of course! And after dinner we headed back to the condo for our DOMINOS EXTRAVEGANZA.... we LOVE playing dominos with the Langs... and guess what? I won! :)

(this is Aspyn and Carter's version of dominoes)

The next day we headed back to Snow Canyon to do the "Johnson's Arch" hike... our girls were so cute- holding hands the whole time....

Of course, Jami and I thought we would look just as cute holding hands.... :) which, of course, we totally did! hee hee hee!

Later that day the Langs headed back home and we were lucky enough to stay one more day. Monday was warm and sunny and beautiful- we headed to Zions for a quick hike before we had to go...

Avery and Aspyn did a little rock climbing...

And Ty found a squirrel to terrorize...

Such a fun weekend!

My Sister is Famous

2010-02-15T13:53:00.000-08:00

My sister sent in her engagement story and was published in the Daily Herald yesterday.... want to check it out?

http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/article_22ed9740-1833-11df-9732-001cc4c03286.html

Just click here, then scroll down to "Sunset on Newport Beach."

Yeah, my sister has an awesome engagement story.

Mine is pretty lame- definitely NOT newspaper worthy. I keep telling my hubby he needs to propose again- and this time actually plan something special and memorable. I don't really think he will though....

Oh well, at least I got more cookies for Valentines day! :)

P.S. I hope you don't think I don't have a happy marriage, because I really do have a happy marriage. I just wish I had a fabulous engagement story to go with it. :)

L-O-V-E

2010-02-12T15:53:00.001-08:00

My mother-in-law, Dixie, has been cleaning out the boxes in her garage. She found this picture from 1996- must of been the summer before we got married. Aren't we so cute? :) It's a little blurry because we are on a four wheeler- I hope we weren't going very fast because look- no hands! Ahhhh, young love!

Happy Valentines Day!

Snowshoeing....

2010-02-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went snowshoeing in American Fork Canyon...

We saw this cute baby moose on the way up the canyon!

We took light-sabers in case the snowshoeing got boring!

which, apparently, it did....

The nice thing about snowshoeing is that once you hike up, you can sled all the way down!

And then you hike back up and slide down again. And again. And again!

Then you stop for pizza on the way home, take a nice hot bath and crash on the couch. I love snowshoeing!

Torture, Part 2

2010-02-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Apparently, torture for my hubby is listening to me whine about not getting any sugar cookies. Look what he brought home for me yesterday after work:

Dippidees!!!

The best sugar cookies EVER! What a sweet hubby I have! And yes, they are GONE now. We ate them after my YW activity while we watched LOST. Lost and sugar cookies... what else can a girl ask for? :)

Torture!

2010-02-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Do you want to know what is torture?

Making cookies for preschool and young women's and not having ANY leftover for you! (or your kids) I hope the blessings I get make up for my day of torture!

Cruise!

2010-02-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, we have been home from our glorious cruise for a week and a half now and I haven't had a chance to blog about it! It was hard to go from being totally relaxed to totally stressed again. Oh well. Such is life.

Here we are, leaving San Juan!

This time we went on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean and it was FABULOUS! We stopped at a different island everyday.... HEAVEN!

The first island we were on was St. Thomas. This time we decided not to do excursions from the ship everyday- we just hopped off the boat, grabbed a taxi and went to the beach. This made it possible for us to spend about 8 hours on the beach each day..... that is totally the way to go!

This is Coki Beach... it was beautiful!

Day #2: Dominica

This was the day we decided to do a shore excursion from the ship- we hiked to Middleham Falls. It was quite a hike- all steps and stairs.

Our guide let us stop and do a little vine-swinging... Al was much better at it than I was!

The falls were GIGANTIC. Of course we went swimming at the bottom!

Day #3: Barbados

This was another beach day. We went snorkeling and Al saw this turtle! We loved having our underwater digital camera- it took the best pictures. The only problem was that it was hard to hang onto. We actually dropped it twice! In St. Thomas it landed on some coral, so Al was able to dive down and get it, and then our last day we lost it while we were snorkeling and I happened to swim over it and it was close enough that I could get it. I'm not sure why they don't make them float! :{

Day 4: St. Lucia- this was our favorite day! We splurged and hired a guy to take us around the island. Shal picked us up in his Land Cruiser and took us on an awesome hike. He had a machete and would cut down coconuts, oranges, and grapefruit for us to eat along the way. We hiked to a waterfall and then we went snorkeling. This was my favorite day snorkeling- the corals were just as colorful as the fish!

Day 5: St. Kitts- Another Beach day- We went to a gorgeous beach and spent the day snorkeling and lounging. (Al mostly snorkeled. I mostly laid on the beach. :) )

Day 6: St. Maarten- another beach day. I'll have to tell you the story about my snorkeling/near-death experience sometime..... NOT my favorite place to snorkel! (but a GORGEOUS beach and a nice bar with lots of Diet Coke ;) )

I got to see this cute sea turtle before my near death experience. After my near death experience this was my view for the rest of the day:

Nice and safe on dry land. On a comfy beach chair, an umbrella and lots of diet coke. Oh yeah- and a little bit of ice cream.

Holy cow, were we thankful to get to go on a cruise! We have so much fun together and it is nice to remember why we love each other! Thanks, mom and Dixie for babysitting! Can we go again next year? Please please please???

Intervention Needed

2010-01-14T17:44:00.001-08:00

I was watching "What Not To Wear" today when my son comes downstairs wearing this:

I wonder if Stacey and Clinton would come and help my four year old....:)

This one is a little blurry because he was doing an awesome hip-shaking dance.

Avery loves having her own dress-up doll- even if it is a four year old boy!

Prayers Needed, Please

2010-01-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

Please keep Andy and Carla (my brother and sister-in-law) and their baby boy in your prayers....

Why am I such a bad blogger lately?

2010-01-13T13:52:00.001-08:00

#1. I am super busy.

#2. I am a little bit lazy.

#3. I am living for our cruise next week and I'm having problems focusing on other things. :)

P.S. Happy Birthday to my little sister... Blayke, you are the best!

Nine Good Things about 2009

2009-12-31T18:28:00.000-08:00

(in no particular order!)

#1. Disneyland Trip

#2. Having a reunion with Al's roommates from Dixie

#3. Colorado Family Vacation

#4. Getting called as Young Women President

#5. Going to WICKED with my mom and sister

#6. Starting my own preschool

#7. Hiking, hiking, hiking!

#8. Yardwork...

#9. Getting to spend the year with the people I love most!

Happy 2010!

Merry, Merry Christmas!

2009-12-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here I am, blogging about Christmas... and it was only a week ago! I'm so good! :)

We had a really good Christmas this year- no one got sick- that is huge for us! Although, I did find one way to make it NOT the perfect Christmas.... after we opened all of our presents, I went into make breakfast- we decided on breakfast burritos and scrambled eggs. Well, I got our yummy breakfast on the table and went to get the ketchup out of the fridge and guess what? No ketchup. YEP, that pretty much ruined Christmas. Never mind that I had been baking for a week straight. That I had been up at 6 am every morning in December working on getting things ready for the big day. My mom called right as we were sitting down to eat and Aspyn told her, "Yeah, Santa came. Mom just made eggs for breakfast and we're out of ketchup so everyone is pretty quiet around here...." SPOILED kids! Here are some pictures BEFORE breakfast ruined everyone's Christmas spirit.... :)

Yay... a Star Wars gun!

And a Wedding Barbie!

And MORE Star Wars stuff!

And a Princess Dress-Up, of course!

And new snowshoes for Dad... look how happy he is!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Next year I will definitely plan Christmas breakfast ahead of time and make sure I have EVERYTHING to make it perfect! :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-12-29T09:24:00.001-08:00

Yes, yes, I know my birthday was a week and a half ago, but with all the Christmas excitement I didn't get around to blogging about the big event! Hee hee hee.... I haven't gotten around to blogging about Christmas, either. Oh well. I'll get to it sometime!

I had a really good birthday this year... besides the fact that I turned 35, that is. I just keep trying to forget that I am getting so old. Oh well.

Usually when my birthday falls on the Saturday before Christmas we have at least one Christmas party to go to.... this year it was the Shaw Family Christmas Bowling party- which is an awesome Christmas party if you ask me!

I'm not sure if it was because it was my birthday, the lucky pink bowling ball I used, or my bowling name: "Birthday Princess," but I totally rocked at bowling that day.... I can't remember how many strikes I got! I ended up with 152- I think I may go into professional bowling! :)

After bowling we went to "The Pie" for lunch and my sister gave me this AWESOME Jacob shirt.... which was perfect because I drug Al to see "New Moon" after lunch.... he loved it!

This year, I just felt a lot of LOVE on my birthday. Before we left for the bowling party, the sweet ladies I serve in YW with brought me this BEAUTIFUL picture... I LOVE IT!

Al and the kids gave me a gift certificate for a facial, pedicure and massage- my three favorite things!

My mom gave me a cupcake decorating book- so fun! I especially love the "Starry Starry Night" cupcakes- I'll be making those for sure :)!

Yes, it is made out of cupcakes!

And she gave me a book signed by Will Moses, a snowflake picture frame, and this awesome quilt:

I also got treats from my neighbors and sweet young women, a fabulous scarf from my brother and sister in law, a cute Christmas bell and beaded watch band from my other brother and sister in law and this super cool camera tripod that I have been dying for from my mother and father in law- no more stacking up rocks to balance the camera on for family pictures when we are hiking- YAY!

So, turning 35 wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. Thanks everyone for giving me such a great birthday! Love you all! :)

A Wild Night

2009-12-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks, the lovely women I get to serve with in Young Womens and I have been working on a special gift/activity for the sweet young women in our ward. We made them a 12 days of Christmas bag with a story for them to read each day to help them get in the Christmas spirit. We made them a sweet ornament of the baby Jesus for their Christmas tree. We bought white boxes and tied them with ribbons to do the "Gifts for the Savior" lesson. We planned our activity for last night and made yummy treats for the girls to eat while we watched "Mr. Krugar's Christmas."

Just before our activity got started last night, after the opening exercises, one of our young women pulled the fire alarm.

I'm thinking I may get a new calling on Sunday.

Bah Humbug....

2009-12-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

Are anyone else's kids on the naughty list this year? Because holy cow- my kids are driving me crazy with fighting and crying! I feel like the threat of "Santa's watching" isn't working AT ALL and we are spending A LOT of time in time out....

Maybe Santa will be leaving lumps of coal this year....

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow!

2009-12-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hooray for a white Christmas, right? I love snow in December.... I'm not super fond of snow in January, February and definitely not in March. So right now, I am happy we have snow on the ground! :)

Monday afternoon I was out scraping the driveway and sidewalk when all of the sudden I had to stop and just PLAY in the snow with my kids. Our yard is quite hilly which makes it perfect for sledding!

And we have to try snowboarding, of course!

It was so much fun to stop being so busy and to play in the snow with my kiddies. I need to play more often- it is definitely something I need to work on!

Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas

2009-12-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Holy cow I can't believe I haven't blogged in December yet. Crazy! December is just so super busy!!! I'll do my best to keep up! :)

Last Saturday, we held our annual "Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas" Christmas party. I have to admit, this is actually my FAVORITE Christmas party! (there- I said it!) When I moved to Dixie College after high school, I met my super BFF- Jami. We knew we were soul sisters when we found out that we both had family from Fountain Green (a super cute little town east of Nephi) and that we both loved Emmet Otter.

What? You have never heard of Emmet Otter? Well, it is a super cute little Christmas Muppet Movie.... with singing Otters and an awesome rock band with a weasel, a frog and a bear. Ma and Emmet are poor, and the only way they can give Christmas presents to each other is to enter the town talent contest. Kermit the Frog makes a guest appearance on the VHS version of the movie, but for some reason he isn't in the DVD.

Almost every year since we have had children, Jami and I have had our Emmet Otter party. We take turns making soup, someone always makes sugar cookies and the kids love decorating them. Jami and I and the kids LOVE the movie, and our husbands love heckling the movie. Here are some pictures from this years' festivities:

Hooray for Emmet Otter! :)

Slacker!

2009-11-30T19:38:00.001-08:00

Forgive me for not blogging about our fabulous Thanksgiving.... it was super fun and yummy and full of family and food and thankful-ness. My camera is NOT GOOD at taking indoor pictures :( so I don't have any from the big day. Booooooo!

So for my excuse for not blogging... I am up to my EYEBALLS in super cute online Christmas gifts that have to be ordered no later than Dec. 2nd. YES... I said DECEMBER 2ND and when did I start them? Oh, like Friday.

My arm is tired from clicking the mouse... and I'm not really even close to being finished (even though I keep telling Al I'm almost done!) I think I am in for a few late nights. Wish me luck.

New Moon

2009-11-26T08:53:00.000-08:00

So me, my mom and Blayke went to see New Moon last night.... and guess what???

I'm still on team Jacob!!! :)

Thanks for a super fun night mom- and thanks for putting up with your daughters drooling over super hot vampires and werewolves.... love ya!

My Little Fashionista

2009-11-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Avery loves clothes. Every night she lays her clothes out for school the next day. I love to walk in her room before I go to bed and see what outfit she has come up with!

Here's one of her combinations-

Usually a skirt, pink shirt and matching tights....

So cute!

Our Little Talk

2009-11-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Bedtime at our house is always a routine.... you know, 7:30 baths, 7:45 stories, 8:00 in bed- lights out! Al always puts Avery to bed and I am in charge of Ty.

Ty is such a creature of habit- he WILL NOT let Al put him to bed if I'm home- it HAS to be me. When I am gone (every Tuesday night) he will just put himself to bed. That boy sure is a Momma's Boy... and I LOVE IT! :)

Every night when I tuck him in we have to have a "little talk." I have to ask him the same two questions every night:

#1 What did we have for dinner?

For some reason, Ty likes to think back on dinner time and what we ate....

and

#2 What was your favorite thing today?

Usually he says "school" or "staying home" or "picking up the girls." He always thinks really hard about this question to make sure he tells me his absolute favorite thing.

I hope we always have our "little talks"... do you think he'll still want me to tuck him in when he is in high school? :)

Oh yeah- don't you love his "pillow?" He has a car pillow, but he WILL NOT use it. He has to use a wadded up blanket. Such a boy!

Primary Program

2009-11-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was our ward's primary program. For the first time, ALL three kids were up on the stand. It was crazy!

Ty's part was: "I love my uncle because he is strong."

Avery's part: "Family prayer helps my family because we all feel happy after family prayer."

Aspyn's part: "Something I have learned from the family proclamation is that doing things as a family makes us stronger."

All three kids did a great job and I didn't cry until the very end when they started singing "Families can be together forever." Just looking at how big they are getting and how sweet they are made me tear up... at least I made it to the very end without crying... that is probably a record for me!

Blah Blah Blogger

2009-11-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I last posted.... I don't know why, I guess I just needed a mini-break from blogging! The last two weeks I have been super busy doing my fall cleaning. Twice a year I go INSANE and clean like crazy- once in the fall and once in the spring.

I take down curtains and wash and iron them, I wash all the bedding- bedskirts and everything. I wash pillows and rugs and anything else I can get my hands on. I clean out closets... I threw away one giant bag of trash from each kid's room. I go through drawers and pull out the clothes that are too small. I wash walls, baseboards, blinds, windows and clean carpets. I love cleaning in the fall.... it just feels so cozy to get the house ready for winter.

So while it is really busy and stresses me out, it makes me happy at the same time. Strange, I know. It just feels good to take care of my house and be all "homemake-y"....

I got the cleaning bug from my mom and grandma. They love "nesting." So while I try to be like these two wonderful women, taking care of my family is just part of it. My new visiting teachers came last month and asked me what I was "passionate" about... I could think of a lot of things, but being a homemaker popped out first. I mean, I love teaching preschool, I love serving in Young Womens, I love hiking and gardening and reading, but the thing I love most is being a mom and wife. I am super grateful I get to have a family of my own!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

I love it when Halloween falls on a Saturday! I love being able to make sugar cookies with the kids and family over dinner before heading out to trick or treat.

Avery is my awesome cookie decorator!

The kids- this year we had Sleeping Beauty, a cheerleader, 2 Darth Vadors, Anniken Skywalker and a princess.

Just my kids....

A little sword fighting in the backyard before trick or treating

Since I had dressed up for preschool twice during the week, I had decided not to dress up for Halloween. BUT, afternoon before the party my sister and I talked each other into changing our minds... here's what we came up with:

Aren't purple spandex pants the BEST??? :)

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! :)

My Sweet Aspyn

2009-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Nine years ago today, I was in the hospital having my first baby! I can't believe my sweet Aspyn is already 9 years old....

I know I look wasted... I had been in the hospital for 3 days- they tried and tried to get her to come naturally, but after 3 days I ended up with a c-section!

Look how cute she is on her first birthday- she was such a pretty baby!

And birthday #2... she spent most of this birthday hiding in the kitchen cupboard. Her cousin Dakota had to open her presents!

Third birthday- going through her "Mulan" stage... my sister-in-law Heather made the AWESOME Strawberry Shortcake cake!

Fourth birthday- we have now entered the "Star Wars" phase- I wonder if we'll ever grow out of it?

Fifth birthday- so cute!

Sixth birthday- we had a super fun dinosaur party!

Seventh birthday- the "dinosaur poop" cake (I think they were supposed to be rocks, but they ended up looking kind of gross! Thanks Walmart bakery!)

Eighth birthday- the famous "Harry Potter" party.

I am so lucky to get to be Aspyn's mom... she is so kind and sweet and I am impressed by her daily! I love you, Aspyn!

Growing Up!

2009-10-28T15:00:00.001-07:00

My kids just keep growing up.... and I can't do anything to stop it! Avery lost her first tooth on Monday. It had been wiggly for DAYS and finally Aspyn just couldn't take it anymore. She talked Avery into letting her pull it out!

It was one of her front teeth and now her smile is totally different. She still looks cute, though! She was so excited to put her tooth under her pillow and when the toothfairy arrived Avery was sleeping like this:

She wanted to make it easy for the toothfairy to get the tooth and leave the money- smart girl! :)

Oh what do you do when you're quarantined?

2009-10-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

The night before we left for Disneyland, my mom called with bad news- my nephew had H1N1 and he and my brother couldn't go with us on our trip. SAD! My brother's daughters were just fine and so we thought we would be okay taking them with us. While we were at Disneyland, my niece Sage started feeling sick. Hoping it was "just" an ear infection or something, we plowed on with our vacation- and she seemed to get better the next day.

Then, just before we got on our plane to come home, Avery started coughing and she felt warm. I felt so dumb getting on a plane with 3 sickie kids- Aspyn and Ty were coughing too, but they didn't seem to have a fever.

On Tuesday, they seemed to get worse. I kept the girls home from school and kept Ty away from the preschool kids. After preschool, I went to help set up for Young Women's in Excellence, then ran the kids to the doctor. Bad news- we had H1N1. Blast!!! I had to miss Young Women in Excellence- I felt okay, but Al and the kids were sick sick sick. We have spent the last 7 days in the house- QUARANTINED!

H1N1 hasn't been too bad- just really high fevers, body aches and coughs. We spent ALOT of time on the couch sleeping and watching movies.

We also made homemade applesauce... yum!

Played games when we felt good enough...

I finished up some Halloween crafts I started in September- aren't they so cute? I also got to do some scrapbooking and I finished all our pictures from 2005! Now I'm only 3 years behind! :)

My sweet neighbor left us a bag of treats, a scrapbook kit and an art kit for the kids- they loved it! Thanks, Sarah!

So, we survived the Swine Flu. Al is back at work today and I have been disinfecting the house. The kids go back to school tomorrow- it will be nice to get back to normal life!

Disneyland Disneyland Disneyland!

2009-10-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

When I was little, my grandparents took us all on a trip to Disneyland- it was so much fun going with our cousins and grandparents. It has always been a dream of my mom's to take her grandkids to Disneyland... and this weekend it finally happened!

We flew out Friday morning... the kids weren't excited about flying on an airplane or anything...:)

As soon as we checked into our hotel, we went straight to Disneyland and stayed there for 3 days! I have to admit, I got a little teary-eyed when I walked down Main Street with my little kids.... what is better than taking your own kids to Disneyland?

Aspyn and Dakota's "Pirate" faces.... waiting in line for Pirates of the Caribbean!

Avery LOVED Sleeping Beauty's castle... she said it looked just like her birthday cake!

On Saturday Avery, Blayke, Sage and I got to go to the "Princess Luncheon." It was the cutest thing EVER. We had a super fancy lunch and got to meet Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White... Avery was in HEAVEN!

And on Sunday, we went to Jedi Training. I was a little worried Aspyn wouldn't get picked, but she wore her Anakin Skywalker costume from last Halloween and she was one of the first ones picked out of the audience. Ty got picked, too! After they were trained, Darth Vader showed up and they had to fight him or join the Dark Side. Luckily they both stayed strong and beat Darth Vader! :)

We had such a great time! The kids were just in heaven to be there- especially with Grandma. Thanks, mom for such a great trip! Can we go again next year? :)

Date Night!

2009-10-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I got to go on a date... with the hubby, of course! This Sunday is Al's birthday, and we are going to be in Disneyland. So, we had our "birthday date night" early this year.

Al's friend, Nute, introduced us to the band "Old Crow Medicine Show" a while back and they are really good. They are kind of a hillbilly/folk music kind of band and they came to the Depot in Salt Lake on Saturday... Al decided that was what he wanted to do for his birthday. So Saturday we dropped the kids off at my mom's for a sleepover, went to Macaroni Grill for dinner {YUM} and then went to the concert... it was so good. We were a little out of our element, hanging out in a bar, but it was fun to watch all the drunk people. I got a little wild and crazy and ordered a diet coke WITH caffeine at 9:00 p.m. I KNOW.... CRAZY! :)

We don't get to go on date nights very often, but every time we do go, I am reminded of how thankful I am to be married to my best friend. When we are so busy being "mom and dad" I forget that it is fun to just be "Al and Marci" once in awhile. I am grateful that I have so much fun with my hubby and that he can always make me laugh. Happy birthday, Lovie!

Just another weekend adventure!

2009-10-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (in between conference sessions, of course! ha ha, we sluffed Saturday conference, but it is on our DVR and we are working our way through it. Thank heavens for modern technology!:) ) Anyways, as I was saying.... last Saturday we took the kiddies for a hike up American Fork canyon. It was beautiful! And FREEZING! Here are some pics....

It was a gorgeous hike... I love the leaves on the trail!

I have a million pictures of this view- it was amazing!

Family pic

It got pretty cold... we actually got snowed on a little bit.

We hiked to this awesome meadow, then turned around and headed back.

On the way home, we went for a little scenic drive up to "Silverlake" which is funny because our neighborhood is named Silverlake... :)

So fun!

Hooray for Conference Weekend! (and a few recipes!)

2009-10-06T11:22:00.001-07:00

I love love love conference weekend... I love staying in my pj's all day, I love listening to the general authorities, and I love making yummy food for my family.

Last conference, I tried to bribe my kids to listen to conference by giving the treats for certain words- and if you remember, it was a fiasco! WAY too much sugar! This time we tried a different approach. Everyone set up their own tents to sit in and listen to conference- just like King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon. This worked out really well. It kept the kids separated and they felt like they were all cozy inside. The bonus was that if they got out and started bugging their brother or sister, they immediately got sent back to their tents. NICE!

The other thing I love about conference weekend is that it puts me in the mood to COOK. Maybe it's just the fall weather, but I love making soups and bread and yummy warm desserts. This weekend I made Cheese soup- one of my families favs!

Here is the recipe if you want to try it out!

1 cup celery, diced

1 cup carrots, chopped

3 cups potatoes, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup broccoli, chopped

4 chicken bullion cubes

* Cover veggies with water, add bullion, boil until veggies are soft (usually 1/2 hour to 45 minutes)

Prepare in another pan:

3/4 cup margarine

3/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

2 cups half and half

1 jar of cheese whiz

* Melt butter and add flour, stirring constantly. Add milk, half and half, and cheese whiz. Stir until thickened. Add to veggies, blend and simmer.

It is so so good. I love to make bread with it:

And then, for dessert, we had "Better than Pumpkin Pie" cake... holy yumminess!

1 box yellow cake mix (reserve 1 cup)

1 stick butter, melted

4 eggs

1 can (29 oz) pumpkin

1 can (5 oz) evaporated milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Topping:

1 cup yellow cake mix reserved

1 stick butter, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup mixed nuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. In a mixing bowl, mix cake mix, butter, and one egg. Grease a 9 X13 inch pan. Pour mixture in pan and level across pan.

In another mixing bowl, mix the canned pumpkin, 3 eggs, evaporated milk, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour ingredients into pan and spread over first layer.

To make topping, mix butter into reserved cake mix, add the sugar and nuts. Sprinkle over second layer. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

SO, not the most fat-free weekend, but conference only comes every 6 months- why not splurge a little! :)

Squaw Peak in the Fall

2009-09-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

WOW... I just noticed that I have done 200 posts... that is crazy! Good for me! :)

Lets see, what did we do this weekend... well, Saturday I got to go to a baby shower lunch at Gardner Village for my sister-in-law, Heather. Gardner Village has all their fall decorations, witches and pumpkins out. It made me want to come home and decorate!

The baby shower group- love you ladies! Good luck Heather! Can't wait to have a new nephew! :)

Has anyone else noticed? The fall leaves this year are AMAZING! We didn't get a chance to go for a hike this weekend, so on Sunday we went for a drive up Squaw Peak road. The leaves are gorgeous!

Orange Tree

Red tree....

We got home just in time to have Ramen for Sunday dinner... I know, I know. I am a BAD mom. But, seriously- I got more compliments from my kids on the Ramen than I would have had for the Salmon I was going to make. I'm thinking we'll have Ramen every Sunday- easy and cheap! :)

Then, last night, the night we have been waiting for... the premier of AMAZING RACE! We are so happy it is back... I miss Phil when he is gone!

And look- Phil's happy to see us, too! :)

Park City Sleepover

2009-09-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Al's aunt Diane rented a condo in Park City and invited us up to spend the night. We had so much fun!

The condo was gorgeous- it had 5 bedrooms. We had a YUMMY dinner Friday night and then headed out to the pool to SWIM!

Saturday we went to Cascade Springs

The leaves are changing!

Family picture on the bridge... Ty wasn't cooperating!

Taking a break!

Next, we headed to the Dairy Keen in Heber for lunch.... we HAVE to stop there, just for the trains!

Avery loved the glasses she got in her kids meal because they made her eyes blue!

Then we hurried back to the condo for more swimming!

Testing out our new underwater digital camera... It worked!

This girl is a FISH!

And last, (but not least!) we went to the Alpine Slide... yeah, we crammed EVERYTHING we could in! :)

Thanks for a fun weekend, Aunt Diane! We love you!

Twinsies

2009-09-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, when I was pregnant with Avery and found out it was another girl I was SUPER excited about all the dressing alike opportunities. I know they aren't THAT close in age, but still, whenever I could find matching outfits, I totally bought them.

The first "sisters" pictures.... ahhh I miss the days when I could dress Aspyn in pink!

First Christmas pictures... I loved these matching dresses!

When I was pregnant with Ty, and found out he was a boy, I knew we were done having babies and that even though it would be fun to have brothers to dress alike, it just wasn't going to happen.

I guess I didn't consider THIS possibility:

Aspyn and Ty are twinsies EVERY Friday. And Aspyn and Avery are NEVER twinsies anymore. Who would have thought? Crazy kids!

Smith and Moorehouse

2009-09-15T13:56:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, Al was dying for a "change of scenery" so we hopped in the car and went for a ride.

After stopping at the gas station for bribes, we decided to go to Smith and Moorehouse (it's up by Kamas and Oakley). Back in July, we almost went camping there , but it was full over the 24th of July. We thought we should check it out... you know, for future reference!

There is an awesome campground- we will definitely be back... maybe even for Girl's Camp next year? :)

We went on a hike (of course). We didn't get too far because I had taken a non non-drowsy Benedryl for my allergies. Needless to say, I had a rough time putting one foot in front of the other. Blasted allergies!

Aspyn's always our little daredevil!

The leaves are changing!!!

Hooray for family time! :)

Poison Apples

2009-09-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Every year about this time, the CUTEST couple goes door to door peddling apples, oranges and grapefruit. They are an older couple and I would buy just about anything from them because they are JUST SO CUTE!

They stopped by today and I bought apples and oranges from them. Only there is one problem....

The apples are POISON! Avery loves to take one bite and gracefully fall to the ground while the apple rolls a few inches away. Totally Snow White style!!!

Wouldn't it be fun to live in make-believe land? :)

Ty's (and MY) First Day of School!

2009-09-08T12:12:00.001-07:00

So the first day of preschool FINALLY arrived! It went really well and I am glad the first day is done! Here is Ty on his first day of school:

And look how cute my classroom turned out.... I love it!

So fun!

My Little Model

2009-09-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

For Avery, school isn't about learning the alphabet- it's about looking cute everyday. She loves loves loves her new school clothes and gets excited every night picking out what she is going to wear the next day. It is super cute. So here is my little model and what she wore the first week of school (catalogue style!):

Day 1: First impressions are important- show your new teacher you are hip and cool in this trendy brown skirt and this season's "must have" pink shirt.

Day 2: For casual Friday, you can't beat another cute pink shirt (notice how it comes in at the waist- Stacey and Clinton would be proud!) and jean capri's.

Another pose in the Friday outfit because it is just that cute!

Day 3: This drop-waist cotton dress is perfect for playing tag, swinging on the swings, or going down the slide. It is light pink with white polka-dots.

Day 4: Back to school night shouldn't be a terrifying experience in this blue and brown polka dot jumper- your teacher will be super impressed with your color coordination!

Day 5: When you get tired of wearing pink (yeah right, like that EVER happens) try this purple shirt with a brown skirt- you'll be the cutest in your class!

I am so thankful for my girly girl... I wonder if I'll take a picture of her everyday this year? :)

Stewart Falls

2009-08-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago we hiked to Stewart Falls. I had been there once before, when I was pregnant w/ Aspyn and we rode a tram up the mountain and then hiked down to the waterfall- super easy.

This time we decided to take the "long way" and hike the trail... it was a super fun!

The kids were kind of whiny, though. Aspyn totally didn't want to go and was pouty the whole time- until we passed her first grade teacher on the trail- then she was happy we came!

We made it to the waterfall and had lunch... the kids played in the water and tried to cool off- it was super hot that day.

Before I could take a family picture, our camera died... so sad! It lasted 2 years... not bad for us. We were planning on getting a waterproof digital camera for our cruise in January, so we got it a little early- I CAN NOT live w/out a camera! Too bad I didn't have it for this hike, I could have gotten some cool pictures in the waterfall... I guess we'll just have to go back! :)

Just some pictures of our yard...

2009-08-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

The last few nights Al has been taking pictures of the yard....

It's a good thing, since fall is just around the corner!

This one is my favorite!

First day of Kindergarten... finally!

2009-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

The long awaited day finally arrived! Avery's first day of Kindergarten!

She was so so so excited. After her evaluation yesterday morning, she said, "Can we go home and go to bed now?" She just wanted yesterday to be over and today to begin!

Doesn't she look so cute? She is my little dress-up doll. I love it!

And, surprisingly, I didn't cry. Not today, anyways. I totally cried yesterday at her evaluation... but I must have gotten it out of my system because I was fine today! Avery loved her first day of school... the only problem was she got a little sad because she didn't get a treat from the treat basket. I'm not sure what was up with that. So, when Al got home from work he took her out to choose a treat at the gas station. That seemed to help.

Oh... and here is Ty after we dropped Avery off at school. He couldn't understand why people were making a big deal out of him... this is completely normal, right? :)

First Day of School! (yesterday!)

2009-08-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our "first" first day of school. Avery starts next week and Ty starts after Labor day. Aspyn is in THIRD grade...holy cow I can't believe it. Here comes multiplication, division and cursive handwriting. We may be to the point where I can't help her anymore with her math homework! :)

Wednesday night she got a blessing from Al to help her not be so nervous for the first day. He gave her a beautiful blessing and I know it made her feel better!

Thursday morning I made pancakes for breakfast... Avery was all excited to go to kindergarten until I reminded her that kindergarten doesn't start until NEXT WEEK. Then she looked like this:

Oh the torture!

And here is just a goofy picture of me and a cute one of Ty while we are waiting for Aspyn to get ready for school.

Aspyn's first day of school outfit was dressy by her standards... the shirt has a collar and the jeans don't have holes.

Look at my cute girl! At the open house, I wanted to tell her teacher how lucky she was to have Aspyn in her class. She is kind, a hard worker, very smart and is a good friend. I thought it might seem a little "braggy" though and I didn't want to scare Mrs. Jackson by being a crazy mom. I am just so proud of my girl and the sweet person she is!

I know she is going to do great in third grade!

Two Dollar Tuesday

2009-08-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last year I was so excited that Thanksgiving Point was having Two Dollar Tuesdays in August. I remember we planned a Tuesday to go to the Dinosaur museum and invited my niece to come along. I was excited until I pulled into the parking lot and saw the line wrapping around the building... we stood in line for awhile, and when we finally got into the museum I decided that "next summer I'll just save my money and come on a regular day when it is not so FREAKING CROWDED!"

Fast forward to this summer... somehow I have neglected to save any money for the dinosaur museum, so I caved... AGAIN and went on Two-Dollar Tuesday. I have no one to blame but myself.

The kids weren't excited or anything.... this while we were waiting in line to get in!

And we're still in line... just inside the museum now.

Ty was super interested in learning about paleontology...

Avery made friends with a dinosaur...

and Aspyn 'elbowed' her way in to a spot at the sand table!

I think I may have been the only one annoyed by the throngs of people, Aspyn, Avery and Ty all had a great time. Next year I'll have to take some Prozac before trying two dollar Tuesday again!

Swimming!

2009-08-17T13:53:00.001-07:00

Two of my nieces have birthdays just days apart so last Saturday we took all the cousins swimming to celebrate! We planned on going to my sister's condos pool, but since it was FREEZING outside, we went to the Lehi Legacy Center instead...

My niece, Dakota is on the left- her birthday is today... Happy birthday, Jo!

My niece Sage's birthday was last Friday... she is a sweetie!

Avery has NO fear of the water... I make her wear a life jacket so she doesn't die!

Aspyn is getting better and better at swimming...

And Ty discovered the joy of getting "thrown" by Uncle Brock!

After the swimming party we came back to my house for dinner, cake, ice cream and presents. I love being an aunt- all the fun, but none of the stress of planning the parties and making sure everything goes as planned! :) Happy birthday, girls!

Best Brother Award!

2009-08-14T15:17:00.001-07:00

I am lucky to have the best brother in the world...he can do ANYTHING! Sometimes I get jealous because I am not as talented as him. Oh well. Not only can he do everything, he is also very unselfish and is a very giving person. I am lucky!

I have been wanting to build shelves in the preschool room and guess who I called first? My brother, of course. He came today and spent most of his day off building these awesome shelves:

Aren't they nifty? :) They will look better when they are painted and are loaded with books! The part under the window is going to be a super cute window seat.... I love them!

Thanks, Brock! You are the best! And if you ever need any scrapbooking or cleaning done, call me first! (Scrapbooking and cleaning are the extent of my talents! :) )

7 months, 14 days later....

2009-08-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

... and we finally have our basketball hoop!

Al's parents gave it to us for Christmas last year, after watching us "shoot hoops" into an old wheelbarrow. Typing it, it seems pretty hillbilly-ish. No wonder they got us a real hoop!

It sat in our garage all winter long. In June, Al spread it out, hoping to put it together in a few hours. It was not to be. It stayed spread out in the garage from June on.

When I got home from camp last week, I was too tired to do anything on Saturday- that made me the perfect hoop-building assistant!

It seriously took all day. It was hard! But so worth it when the kids have SOMETHING to do... and it is even better that they have something to do OUTSIDE!

I bet you didn't know I married Michael Jordan! :)

And just look at this face... it made all 8 hours of putting it together worth it!

Now if we could just get started on putting the trampoline together... it's been sitting in our garage for almost 2 years.... (sadly, that's NOT an exaggeration. {sigh} )

Hooray for Girl's Camp!

2009-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, last week was Girl's camp.... I survived!!! We spent 5 days at the Heber Valley Camp. I loved loved loved it!

Our ward got these fabulous shirts... designed by my fabulous counselor, Rebecca!

The girls were so excited on the bus- they started cheering when they saw the "Heber Valley Camp" sign- and we got "shooshed" by the other ward we were riding with :). The other president sent her daughter back to ask us to be quiet because we were being "really really really really loud." Oh well- that's what girl's camp is all about! :)

After we got there, we headed down to the lake... the girl's got canoes, the leaders got paddleboats... here is my cute counselor and secretary!

The next day we had some ward time so we sent the girls out into the wilderness to ponder and pray for 20 minutes. It was a very spiritual experience that the girls loved!

Then we went back to our pavilion to work on our cute crafts. The girls LOVED the magnets and magnet boards!

The next day we went to the challenge course... I rocked the zipline! :) See how graceful I am? :)

That night was the dutch oven dessert cookoff. I made Carla's marshmallow brownies and won the "Ooey Gooey Yum Yum" award. And oh, yes. They were ooey AND gooey AND yummy! The girls all fought over who got the leftovers!

It seemed like any free time we had, the girls wanted to do clapping games. It took awhile for them to teach me (I am kind of retarded...) but they were so much fun. I can totally rock them now! :)

It was such an awesome week- I felt very privileged to be there. That camp is an amazing place- the spirit is so strong there! I am so grateful for my mom and mother-in-law for babysitting for me- I couldn't have gone without them!

Hiking in the Albion Basin

2009-08-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we took the kids on a hike in the Albion Basin... holy cow the wildflowers were AMAZING!

I really just could not stop taking pictures- there were SO MANY flowers!

We hiked to a waterfall....

and to Cecret Lake where the kids got to splash and play in the water for awhile. So fun!

Some Cute Things I got to work on for Girl's Camp!

2009-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Since I love crafting and scrapbooking, I really had a hay-day getting ready for Girl's camp... there are just so many fun things to do!

My counselors and I made "tuck-in" treats for each night we are there...

Of course we have to have cute water bottles! The little name strips are velcro-ed on so they can take them off when they fill them up. They turned out so super cute, and I'm sure they will be thrashed when we get home. Oh well, they made me happy!

I "re-vamped" the camp songbook.... did you know there is a camp song to "I like big butts"? It's "I like Mormon boys and I cannot lie..." Cheezy... but fun!

We made cute accordion cards for each girl and the leaders are going to write to them while we are there... these took awhile- I was happy to let my counselors help... thanks gals!

And finally- my favorite- our cute craft. The girls are going to make magnets out of the values and put them on a cute magnet board. You would think this would be an easy craft to come up with.... but EVERY craft store was sold out of the glass beads. Luckily Hobby Lobby came through and got some last Thursday. I was so super happy! :)

So, we have all the crafts and cutesy things done, now I am just hoping and praying for a fun time at camp. I'll be at camp when this posts! It was so hard to say "good-bye" to my family for a WHOLE week. I know it is for a good cause, though. And I know the kids will be fine- they were so excited to spend a whole week with the grandmas. I just hope our YW all get along, are kind to each other and that we have NO drama.... here's hoping! :)

Hold to the Rod!

2009-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last Monday as Al was cleaning up dinner, I was frantically trying to think of something we could do for FHE.... I know you are thinking "what? Marci was not prepared?!? CRAZY!!!" All I can say is Thank Heavens for the Internet... I hopped on ldssplash.com and copied a great idea!

I strung ribbon from my sister's wedding all over the house. We read the scriptures about Lehi's dream and talked about what "the rod" represented. Then we set the kids loose to try to hold onto the 'rod' and make it to the end. It was pretty fun to watch....

Getting started...

Aspyn sort of got stuck under the table...

Avery is hanging on!

Ty made it to the end!

The kids had such a great time with this one... thanks ldssplash for helping a frazzled mom out! :)

Temple Open House

2009-07-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I had gone with the Youth a few weeks ago and wanted my family to see how GORGEOUS it is! Ty was excited because he got to go with us this time- for the Draper Open House he stayed with my mom. So, I TOTALLY gave my kids the lecture of "we don't talk in the temple- if we need to talk, we whisper" and "we don't run in the temple" and "we don't fight in the temple" etc, etc. I was so worried they would be loud and ruin it for everyone.

But I totally didn't need to worry- everyone around us was SO LOUD. It was annoying. There was a youth group in front of us and the leaders were just as loud as the boys. Ty "shooshed" them a few times and the leader turned around and said, "I don't like being shooshed." and I wanted to say, "Then why don't you shut up?" (what a good example I would be in the temple if I actually said that!)

Seriously, when we took our YM/YW they were awesome. We told them NOT to talk, and they did a really good job. What is wrong with people?

So at least I didn't have to worry about my kiddies being the troublemakers- they were awesome, and I was so proud of them for being reverent. They loved being able to go to the temple. Here are a few pics of our adventure...

I love this temple... it is so beautiful on the inside!

My mom and Blayke came with us... if you can't tell, I am the LARGE girl in the middle... that outfit and pose was so not flattering! Blayke is totally rocking the skinny pose!

Our little family.... I'm so glad Families are Forever!

Nacho!

2009-07-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

The other day we were at Walmart and Aspyn asked if we could buy the DVD "Nacho Libre." Of course I said "No! We don't just come to Walmart and buy movies all the time!" (what a good mom I am!)

And she said, "But it's only three dollars!"

So of course I said, "Three dollars? Go get it!" (see, I am a good mom!)

And ever since then the kids have watched it non-stop. Oh well.

Ty has even started playing Nacho....here's what he ran around in ALL day:

I wonder what my neighbors think when they see my kids running around like this? :)

2nd Annual Bedingfield Camping Trip

2009-07-29T09:36:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we went on our annual camping trip with Al's parents, brothers, and their wives. Since it was the weekend of the 24th, we went to Meeks Cabin in Wyoming to make sure we could get a camping spot!

We went up Thursday and got there just in time to set up camp, roast hot dogs, make smores and go to bed. The next morning we went for a hike while we were waiting for everyone else to get there.

The trail we hiked on was gorgeous. There were tons of wildflowers, we saw a baby hawk, and even saw a moose on our way back!

Later that day it rained and rained... we had to improvise with some 'shelter'....

The best part of camping with the Bedingfield's is that my sister-in-law, Carla is an awesome outdoor chef.... seriously- she made donuts in a dutch oven and they were AMAZING!

Our last day we did a little canoeing, Aspyn did a little fishing, then Al took the girls on a little hike while Ty and I took a nap. I got to make Carla's dutch oven marshmallow brownie yumminess that night- I was practicing for the dutch oven dessert contest they are doing at girl's camp next week. I am going to win for sure! :)

That night we were serenaded by our own rock band...

and had some more family bonding time!

Everyone's favorite part of our camping trip:

Ty: the "rarshrellows" (marshmallows)

Avery: playing with Brooklyn and making shadow puppets in the tent at night

Aspyn: going fishing and canoeing

Marci: THE FOOD! The donuts and brownies...yum!

Al: the hike

Can't wait for next year!