Apr 7, 2008

~Home at Last~

Well after our week long trip to Vail, Glenwood Springs, and then into Utah, we are home! It was a wonderful week.

Vail was cold, too cold to ski. Mainly because you couldn't see 15 feet in front of you. Blizzard conditions/ snowstorm from hell. We were 20 minutes ahead of that massive 70 car pile-up leaving Vail. Crazy, the roads were terrible. Thank goodness for the 4x4 jeep. Needless to say we left Vail as soon as possible.

Glenwood Springs was great. A little on the cold side, but a cute little mountain town. I really wanted to take the kids to the hot springs pool, but it was only 35 degrees, and it just didn't sound like too much fun. So I went shopping. I love boutique shopping. If you ever make it to Glenwood Springs or Aspen, make sure to check out Sugar Sweet. The CUTEST clothes ever. Expensive, but worth it. We were there Monday through Wednesday, and had fun getting ice cream, playing in the snow that was rapidly melting, and riding the gondola up to the adventure park. I was so impressed that Zoey actually knew that a gondola was a boat from Venice. Go little Einsteins!! It took a while to explain that this gondola was actually a ski lift that took you to the top of a mountain. Whole way up she kept saying, "We're in the gondola boat?" We gave up after a while. Liam was a bit freaked out by the gondola, and had his classic suspicious baby face on.
See! wasn't so sure about the whole thing. Me and the Zoe at the top. Zoey in the 'Gondola Boat.'
Onward! To Utah! Next time I am there I am going to introduce this wonderful thing called a Zoning Commission!! Yikes! Those mountains are Phenomenal! But everything else, yeah, not so phenomenal. I got the itch to do spring cleaning while I was there. We stayed in Midway, ( again mountains are breathtaking, everything else not so much). Damon's cousin and his wife Nate and Davina had their little babies, well not so little now, but Little Chloe and Avery were sealed to them in the Salt Lake Temple. It was moving to watch as these beautiful children were sealed to their parents for time and all eternity. Especially for me. I was also adopted and sealed to my parents almost exactly 24 years ( plus 3 days) earlier in the Salt Lake Temple. How grateful I am for the sealing ordinance. Afterward, I got to photograph them. Here are some of my faves. Avery is Italian and a little Chinese, and Chloe is Mulatto. Lots of Flavor there! Beautiful, no?



















After the Sealing. What a beautiful family!


Chloe and her daddy Nate. Damon and Nate are cousins. They are crazy when they get together...
I wish I could do justice to some of the conversations that went on this weekend...









After the sealing It was a lot of hangin' out, watching conference, letting the kids run wild. Davina introduced me to my new favorite snack. Whole Grain Crackers with Pesto. Yum. We met up with Cody and Breaelle and I saw her wedding dress! How fun! I still need to find shoes to go with my bridesmaid dress. Oh- Cody blew out his knee. He has surgery on Thursday. I feel for the guy. Not sure if he really grasps how hard this is going to be. We hung out at BYU, Damon, Nate, and Davina's ol' stopin' grounds. Its a small campus! I made the mistake of saying that in front of a bunch of people who went there. Much drama ensued. One thing I learned is never NEVER NEVER belittle BYU anything in front of the alumni. Still a small campus. Coming from ASU, who has over 60,000 undergrad students, and spreads over 5 miles in Tempe, going to BYU who has 35,000 total students and you can walk across campus in 20 minutes. They had spring fling going on in the quad, so Zoey had a blast, and Liam just enjoyed being outside. The Bookstore there is really cool. Chocolate covered cinnamon bears, anyone?






Sunday we headed back. I love the drive along the I-70. Amazing. God is an artist. We made it in about 9 hours. The kids did great. I am so glad to be home.

Mar 28, 2008

Liam Mark is One Year Old!!

Happy Birthday Liam!! One year has truly flown by, and now
you are my sweet little one year old.


Liam at 2 weeks old. What a sweetie. Zoey loved him from day,

well it took a while, but she loves him!





At 4 months, he already is a Lady Killer...



This is Classic Liam. Suspicious Baby.





Liam at 6 months. So handsome.






Liam at 9 months.





Liam at almost a year. What a beautiful boy. I feel so blessed. I love having him in our home. He is always happy. He loves everyone he sees, and gives them a great big smile when you look at him. Going to the grocery store is so fun because I get complimented on how cute he is. Someone told me at Costco that I need to have a dozen of them because of how cute my first two are. Not so sure about a dozen, but a few more will be good. He is my little snuggle bug. He always puts a smile on my face, and every one he meets. Happy birthday to you, little Liam.

Mar 26, 2008

The Zoo

Well, we went to the zoo. The End. Haha Just kidding!! Let me start by saying that we had to wait for a half hour to park! Seriously! I guess it is spring break, and it was 66 degrees, so justifiably EVERYONE and there dog wanted to be outside.




After the parking fiasco, we met up with friends at the giraffe exhibit. Say what you will about the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but that has to be the coolest giraffe exhibit ever. Zoey and Liam could spend hours there feeding those giraffes crackers. I bet I spent 15 bucks on those glorified wheat thins. It was worth it. Every time one of those nasty long black tongues would get near Liam he would squeal in delight, and then grab the giraffes tongue. He had great fun. The giraffe just looked at him like, 'What are ya doin', kid?' Zoey loved to feed them too! We had a great time. Damon ditched out on work, and waited in the long line to park, and came and met us there.

After a long day of giraffe feeding, monkey seeing, playing on playgrounds, people watching (one of my favorite pastimes, you get the wierdest people at the zoo. Sometimes I think it rivals a state fair...) and visiting what I fondly refer to as 'the bird cage from hell', we called it a day. As you can see from the pictures, we had a great time. Although I still smell like the zoo....

Mar 25, 2008

Easter

I hope you all had a great Easter. Ours was full of the usual events, but none the less fun and exciting for the kids. Saturday we met the Easter Bunny at the Y, made crafts and decided to scrap the Easter Egg hunt due to snow. Seriously. Saturday night was fun. A bunch of my girls went up to the outlets at Castle Rock. Hooray for Banana Republic. I had never been to the outlets, and I am in love with them. Gymboree had the cutest Easter outfits for Liam. I have been so frustrated by boy clothes. Girl clothes are sooo much more fun. Thus Liam got 2 things he needed and Zoey got 5 things she didn't. All in all, a successful shopping trip.

Funny little anecdote. I made rolls on Saturday for Easter dinner. 4 dozen rolls. 48 rolls. I left to go shopping and when I returned 3 hours later, there were 14 left. Zoey ate maybe 1 1/2, Liam ate maybe 2, and I ate one before I left. That means Damon ate, drum roll please. 29 1/2 rolls in one night. Gross. I guess that means I am pretty good at making rolls. I should take it as a compliment.


Sunday was the more eventful day. The kids woke up at 8, Damon got up with them, and I woke up at 9:30. I love Damon. He lets me sleep in. What a gentleman. Anyways, when I got up, we got the easter baskets ready and hid them for the kids. Liam got some books and a bunny, Zoey got a polly pocket type princess thing and a bunny ( these are stuffed bunnies), and they both got a missive amount of candy. They also really enjoyed the Easter packages sent to them by both sets of Grandparents. Thanks guys! So we spent the morning playing with the toys, and watching to see when Zoey would freak out when Liam got too close to her 'Cinalella' and 'Mr. Prince'. The horse and carriage was a particular draw to the boy. I can't wait for the day when she realizes that she is the big sister and can just get up and leave the room. One day.... Then we got ready for church. I must say my kids are pretty cute. They looked very spring-y in their Easter clothes. Church was great, lots of music about our Savior, great talks from great people, Easter is always wonderful. I left early when I heard from the Taylors that my brother was in the hospital from a wakeboarding accident. I called and found out that he is fine but did something to his knee. For those of you wondering, yes, this is the same brother that is getting married to Breaelle Taylor in 6 weeks. Luckily my Ortho is a family friend, and is getting Cody in quickly. He (my brother) is optimistic that it is just a sprain. I, on the other hand, am not so much. Having had major knee problems, I know to hope for the best, but expect and prepare for the worst. It is really swollen, and he goes on to get and MRI soon. I'll update you more later. What is kinda sad but funny is that the rest of my family is on vacation in Hawaii. He is all alone in AZ. Thank goodness we have a lot of other family there to take care of him. After I got all of that sorted out, I made Easter dinner, and more rolls. I miss my double oven. It was delicious. Easter is my favorite holiday meal. Ham and Au Gratin Potatoes. Damons mom has this recipe that is to die for. Ask me for it later. All in all a great Easter weekend.

I'll end with some Zoey-isms
Playing with her Prince Charming doll, and telling him," Mr. Prince, I have a nose booger!"

I was tucking her hair behind her ear and telling her how pretty she is, and she looked at me and said, "Stop playing with my hair!" I apologized, and then she said,"Its OK, now go eat your dinner!" It wasn't even dinner time...

Mar 21, 2008

Poor Baby!


We went to the doctors today. Liam has a double ear infection. He is on antibiotics, and I think feeling much better. He has been asleep of 2 hours so far.


On a brighter note, I won 'Comment of the Week' on Robins blog! I won for commenting on her senior photo and saying that she is a 'Betty'. You should look, What a knockout. Anyways, I won a big gulp. Right on. Thanks Robin!! I think I am going to call you Betty from now on...
Damon comes home tonight! After reading Michelle's blog about the masked men coming to kill her when she is by herself, I have not slept very well at all.
Happy Easter!!

Mar 20, 2008

I'm so bored

Damon is gone, I am stuck at home with 2 sick kids. I am so bored. :(

Hooray for Airborne!!

I have yet to get sick. That stuff is AWESOME!! Well, actually I have been taking whatever the target brand equivalent is, but whatever. I think the cran-water that Mom P. taught me how to make is really helping too. Thanks Nancy!! Liam is on day 3 of a fever. Tuesday it was 104, Wednesday it was 102, and today is 101. Its getting better? I should call the nurse at the Dr.'s and see if I need to bring him in. He slept really well last night, and seems to be in much better spirits, so I don't know if I should worry about making a Dr.s appt. Hmmm. Dilemma..

Zoey is doing much better but still has a bad sounding cough that makes me nervous to send her to pre-school. She acts totally normal. Poor girl has been bored out of her mind this week. No pre-school, no gymnastics, no 'sun beans'. Good thing the Easter bunny is coming this weekend. She is really looking forward to that.

Today is 'disinfect the house' day. Damon called to make sure I wasn't too OCD-ing it. I have issues when it comes to sick people in my house. But who doesn't, really... right?