My Parent's Palace

My parents and my little sis moved to Logan, UT in August of last year. My sister has been living at my Aunt's, which has been amazing for her, and my parents have been living in my sweet grandma's attic. I thought the move would never happen, nor did I ever imagine that my dad would concede to building such a fabulous home. What I am most excited about is that we will all be able to be under one roof for holidays, we will all have our own space, and we will be able to enjoy the beauty of the views. I can't wait until it is completed! Good job Mom and Dad. Thanks for letting me be a part of such a great project. Here are some picts that I took a couple of weeks ago. The outside is now completely bricked, fireplaces are done, and the custom closets are being done as I am writing this post! Very exciting!! So I am kind of formatting illiterate, so the 1st pict is 3 of the 4 garages, 2nd is the front of the house, 3rd is the pantry and kitchen, and 4th is the living room, kitchen space.

Happy Birthday Boo and Felish!

Happy Birthday Felicia and Beck! Thank you for being such amazing friends. I love you and have/had a wonderful birthday!! PS- Beck, I need a picture of you!!

Happy 59th Dad!

I couldn't have asked for a more kind, loving, and supportive dad. Thank you for being everything that you are. I love ya. Happy Birthday!

There is Fire in Here!

The title is courtesy of Maya when we lit the candles. Happy Birthday to my sweet husband! Even though you are old, you continue to make me laugh, you have a great patience and love for myself and our sweet Maya, and I love your honesty and your strong personality. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father. I love you.

Happy Birthday April Friends!

Here is a little shout out to my little Sopey HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope that you have a wonderful day!!

Also Happy Birthday Wishes to Crease, Kimmy, Avery, Carson, and my sweet mom who celebrated her birthday on the 6th. We love you all! Happy Birthday!

Our Weekend Away

For Christmas, I gave Scott a trip to Reno and tickets to see Frank Caliendo live. As the date was slowly approaching we still didn't have plane tickets, however we did have the hotel booked. I made the mistake of booking it on Priceline-a word to the wise, NEVER book anything on Priceline unless there is NO WAY ON THIS GREEN EARTH that you would be changing your plans. I say that because of what happened to us.
Scott got caught up here with work and could not leave. So we called Priceline to cancel our reservation, but were told that we could not. So basically, they were telling us that we had to eat the money. LAME. We actually worked it out though because one of Scott's friends from Sacramento was going to Reno, and took our hotel and just paid us- but the whole situation was irritating.
Due to the fact that we didn't go to Reno, we decided that we still needed to go out and do something, so while my in-laws were here in town, we took off for a couple of days and went to SLC. We stayed in a hotel-which I love- went to the Jazz game (which was really a lot of fun), went to the movies, ate good food, and saw Frank at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus (which was not available when I originally bought the tickets). He was awesome! He had us laughing until we were crying. What I love most about him is that he is also so clean. He did not swear one time, just made relentless fun of several people including Charles Barkley, President Bush, Bill Clinton, and John Madden. I would HIGHLY recommend this show. It was hilarious.
Thank you babes, Ron, and Sue for making our weekend away possible and a blast. It was rejuvenating.

Maya's 4th Birthday

I know that Maya's birthday was like 4 months ago, but I wanted to blog about it anyway. I took pictures of the preparations leading up to the big event. It was quite the production. First of all, Maya has been talking about her 4th birthday since the close of her 3rd birthday, so this event had a year of planning under its belt.
I asked Maya what type of party she wanted to have and of course she said a Princess Party. One day we will be more original, but until then, party on my little princess!! We had a blast planning it, making invitations, making place settings, etc. Of course I could not just have a small little get together with her little friends, play some games, have cake, and be done- NO not me! So as a alternative, I decided, with Maya's permission of course, that we would do a Princess Pamper Party.
For all of you who are like what-let me explain. So I found out about this salon that does parties where you can bring your little ones and they get their hair, nails, and makup done, all with their very own stylist. Maya and I agreed that it would be fun to bring her Royal Court to get pampered on her birthday. But before we went to the salon, they had to have a full stomach, so we went to Maya's favorite Pizza Place for lunch. We ate, opened presents, had cupcakes, then loaded up to go to the salon. I wanted to have a horse and carriage waiting to take them there, but I was informed by my sensible hubby that that idea was REALLY over the top.
What a fun day for our little princess. Thank you so much to Katelin, Jaynanne, Mom, Julie, and everyone else who helped with this day. We love you all so much!
We then came home and that night had yet another party for her with just our family. Grandma Kathy made one of her famous M&M cakes and we opened presents and enjoyed the company of Papa, Grandma, Dave, Sarah, and Preston. What a fun 4th birthday party. I promise next year is just going to be family :)

Here are the picts:

Best Friends Forever

Maya and Lora are inseparable. They can play for hours without getting tired of each other. It is amazing. They are like sisters, and I am not exactly sure what we are going to do when she moves away at the end of the summer. They dress up, play Barbies, watch movies, help me cook, and with a little bribery, they are very good to help me clean up! We love you Lora, and will miss you desperately when you leave.

Disney Princess' On Ice

Due to the fact that I rarely watch TV, my sweet mother gave me the heads up that the Disney Princess' were coming to town. Naturally I jumped on that and got tickets for my little sis, for her birthday, my little munchkin, and of course myself. Maya and I made a chain for the countdown of when we would be going to SLC for the blessed event. When the day came, Maya was delightful. At 3:00pm the production began. We dressed her in her beautiful Cinderella dress (courtesy of the Peterson's) Cinderella shoes, and of course Cinderella jewlery. We did her hair up in a little updo with a beautiful headband and she was ready for her big night! We met Katelin and Papa at the Market Street Grill, what a great place, checked into our hotel, and went to the Energy Solutions Arena for the event of the year. We really did have great seats. It was amazingly impressive from start to finish. Maya (and Katelin) were in awe, it was a great production. I actually contemplated being a groupie.
After the production, we went with Julie's family to Leatherby's for some ice cream. Katelin and I shared a cookie sundae, which was quite large. I took Maya to the restroom, and when I returned, Katelin had another sundae that she polished off all to herself. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Thank you to Katelin, Maya, Jules, Debbie, and Hailey for making our girls night out so magical!!

New Year's Resolutions

I am completely into New Year's Resolutions. It gives me a little "roadmap" to the coming year. One of my Resolutions this year is to blog a little more. Maya loves to look at herself on the "puter" and loves me to read the words. It will be a great way to journal what is going on in our family.
Here are some of my other resolutions:

Read scriptures daily
Pray daily
Attend temple monthly
Enrich Maya's life by limiting TV time, taking her places, play games, and read more
Get rid of my Lady Lumps (thanks to Amber for the "wordage") by running again and working out
Train for and run Half Marathon
Go on weekly dates with my hubby
Make my bed daily
Get up by 6:30 am
Draft a will
Live each day like it is my last

Wish me luck- I am going to need it!!

Our Sweet Little Preston

We got news today that my brother David's little baby boy is going to have surgery on Wednesday to fix his little heart so that he can get better and live a normal healthy life. We have been praying so hard for our little guy, and just know that our Heavenly Father is watching out for him and is blessing him every day.
I have so much peace and comfort knowing that he is at Primary Children's Hospital. The Doctors are so amazing there, and peace truly comes over me when I pray for the doctors and for our sweet Preston. I know that our little guy is supposed to be here to bless not only his parents lives, but also every one of us that have the opportunity to know him.
To David and Sarah, you two are amazing. I admire your strength and faith. You two are amazing and your example through this time in your life is something I will never forget. We love you and are praying for you and your sweet little boy.

First Day of School

My little munchkin started her first day of school on September 4th. She was so excited! We were of course 10 minutes late because I got lost. :( The amazing thing is that I had been to Marlene's (Maya's teacher) a couple times before, so I don't know what happened.
Anyway, she had a great day and has been learning a ton every time she goes. She is learning her letters and sounds. She already knows A and B, both capitol and lower case, and has learned that they go ah and ba. Today she came home with a blue balloon and had a big "B" on it.
Maya also got to be the treat girl this Tuesday. She served "B" shaped rice krispie treats, bananas, and Capri Sun. We were supposed to go with the "B" theme, but "B" gets a little tricky when looking for beverages.
The best part of Maya bringing the treats was that she got to be the line leader. She was REALLY excited to do that. Oh- remember when life was that simple that one would be thrilled to be the line leader?

Manic Monday

At the risk of sounding like the Bangles-today has truly been just another Manic Monday- wish it were Sunday. We have some people in our ward at church that needed some dinner and I decided that I wanted to go all out and make homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls. I don't know why I make my life so difficult sometimes!
I called Julie Sunday night ask her if she would lend her expertise for the soup. After taking the girls to dance and going for a nice 45 run/walk in beautiful Mapleton, we went shopping. We got 2 chickens, one for each of us to boil. Now I don't do whole chickens. I don't know why I think that it is totally gross, but I do. So I carefully picked it up and almost pretty much threw it into the pot, covered it, and let it simmer all day.
I then went to work on my rolls. While working on the rolls, we were having a little bit of a party here with Maya and friends. They were all doing great until our little Brooklyn fell down the stairs because she was trying to go down them with princess clickey shoes on. She cut her lip a little and bruised her cheek. I felt horrible and that is when we decided to take a break for a minute and watch a movie. Much better!!
I then went to Julie's to work on the homemade noodles. These are kind of a pain in the butt to make. They are so hard to roll out, but we did it and they tasted so delightful! We had to bone the chicken and strain the chicken stock to make sure all of it was clean. Then we added our chicken broth, bullion, and noodles. We let it cook for a while and then we were ready to deliver and eat some ourselves. Thanks Julie for letting me take up your whole day with this project! It was enjoyed by all!!

To My Little Maya

I don't think that I will ever be able to put into words how much I love my little girl. We were getting ready to go to a birthday party that she was invited to by our Amanda and Sage (thanks ladies!) and she needed to get her purse so that she would be sure to fit it with the other big girls. I got one that matched her outfit and she was ready for action!!
We were driving in the car to the birthday party and I was telling her that she needed to make sure she was a good girl and to stay with Amanda and Sage. She was very concerned about what I was saying, and was asking me specifics like, can I stay close to the girl that they are having the party for? I said sure but just that she needed to be a good girl. I caught myself thinking how blessed we are to have a little munchkin who we can leave with anyone and know that she is going to be a little sweetheart while she is away. I shared with her how grateful that I was for her and how proud of her I was that she is always a good girl with other people. She said, "mommy I love you this much"-and she puts out her arms as far as they go-and then my heart melts. I love being a mom to my baby girl. She has enriched my life more then I could have ever imagined that a little person could. I couldn't ask for anything more. I love you Maya!!

Stampin' Friday

My dear friend Julie is a distributer for Stampin' Up and she hosts Stamp-A-Stacks every 4 or 5 months. I finally got to attend one and it was a blast. I invited Jennifer and Paige and we had a ball visiting and stamping cards. Thanks Julie for all of your hard work. Here are the darling cards we made.

The Bumbo Baby Sitter

So I purchased this little Bumbo Baby Sitter for a friend of mine that just had a baby. It is a great little contraption and I have to say very popular here in Utah. Everyone that has one says that they love it. You can use it when your child is about 3 months and can use it until they can't fit into it anymore. It is lightweight and portable. Pretty cool I think....

First Day of School

Today was my little baby's first day of school. I can't believe that she is old enough to go to school. She loved the first day. She feels so big and I am so excited for her to gain more independence and start to build her self confidence. Her teacher's, one of them being my dear friend Julie, are amazing and I feel so grateful to have her there. Thanks ladies!
I won't lie, I am really enjoying the 2 1/2 hours that I get to have all to myself. It has been great, and it really flies by!

Corn Anyone?

So I got a little ambitious and purchased 10 dozen ears of corn to freeze. I don't think I was really thinking how much corn that really was for a family of three. Oh well, we have corn that will probably last us until next year.
I found the best way to put up corn. I have done it 2 different ways and this way buries the other way. This way consists of a bunt cake pan and an electric knife. You just put the ear of corn in the hole in the middle of the bunt pan and shave all of the kernels off with the electric knife. It went really fast-and now we are enjoying the fruits of our labor. :)

This Week in a Nutshell

So I kind of think that I am the last one to get on the ball and start a blog. In the last two weeks, I have had quite a bit of exposure to different family and friends and I think....why not? It is a great way to journal life's day to day happenings.
Scott has been gone for about a week and just got home today. Maya is loving it because she has a new person to entertain her for awhile. I think that she gets sick of me, so it is nice for her to have a little variety. Thanks for coming home Scott!
We picked up my mom from Education Week on Friday. It is always a little depressing when that is over. I love it when my mom's friends come to town. I love the dynamics and corkiness of everyone when they are all together. So Sylvia, Jeneane, and Mom- thanks for making me smile. I am so grateful for each of them and for their willingness to always make us part of their family-even though they are not technically "family". Mom and Dad, thanks for being such great examples of the importance of friendship. I hope that I will follow your lead and have the blessing of great friendships also.
Jason was nice enough to come and see us this weekend. It is always good to see Jase. I love ya kid...we miss you guys.