ouch

This is what happens when you have a side yard full of tumbleweeds and your son goes off to chase the neighbors cat with no shoes on...ouch.







What a trooper.

It took us a good 10 minutes to pull all the thorns out of his feet. Occasionally he would say "Ow dad" but otherwise he just sat there.

{happy birthday aliyah!!!}

Just have to give a shout out to my 3 year old!!!

Here's her birthday pics. When I download all the pics of her party I'll share. For now enjoy this:












We love you, BABY!

{i heart date night + friends}

Saturday we got to go out for a night on the town with some friends and NO children! It was so much fun. We laughed so hard we cried...well I did, and when we had to leave the restaurant the girl's went back to Jade's because her husband had to work...[lame, Matt]. But our night went until 1:30. All in all a FUN night.

But it would've been more fun had we been able to go play sand volleyball after dinner. Maybe you could work a little more on that schedule of yours Matt. :) jk

good bye primary

So, I've got a heads up that I will be released from my position as 2nd counselor in the Primary Presidency...not this Sunday, (because of the Temple Dedication) but the next. It is bitter sweet because on one hand I have had my fill of Primary for a while! (4 out of 5 years of marriage I have been there.) But on the other hand our Primary is full of sweethearts and I am sad to leave them. Especially because Aliyah is going to be coming into pre-sunbeams in a month. :( I was looking forward to being there with her.

And even though we haven't even been in there for a year and a half it is time for a change. 2 of the 4 people in the presidency have moved...and suddenly, leaving me and the secretary all alone for the past 3 weeks. :(

So, I wanted to give the kids a little something from the "presidency"...or what's left of it...before we're done. I would love any suggestions...keeping in mind that I will probably be paying for it so it needs to be cheap. I was thinking maybe a cute saying with some candy or something. I dunno. Any ideas would be great.

THANKS!

girl's night and swimming

Girl's night last Friday was going to be SO much fun! We were planning on going to Vegas and just hanging out and doing whatever we wanted with no husbands and no kids. However, there were a lot of last minute cancellations and there ended up not being very many of us that could go. So, instead of cancelling girl's night altogether, some of us decided to go out anyway. We went and ate at Benja Thai and Sushi. I'll admit, I was a little nervous, but I really enjoyed the food.

After dinner some of us went to Jade's because the poor thing threw her back out and couldn't join us for dinner. We only ended up staying til 2, which is an early girl's night believe it or not. :)

I have to post this because my kids have THE best nursery leaders right now. One of them actually made all the kids aprons because their lesson was on serving others. How cute is that?

And now some swimming pics. We just got a year pass to the Washington City Rec Center and so we've been mixing up the swimming between there and Coral Canyon. The kids love it! They are still to scared to go down the slides or play on the toys, but they love "diving" for their toys. :)

are they both yours?

As most of you have figured out from July 28-August 27 both of my kids are the same age. I have coped and have come to terms with it...but some people haven't. I am fully aware that there are kids out there closer in age than mine, not counting twins, triplets, etc. For example, I had a neighbor who had 2 children 8 months apart. (The second came extremely early.)

But for some reason there are people out there who look at me like I am completely crazy when I tell them their ages. It's not like I planned it this way people! But I will say, I kind of like them this close...not that I would do it again...on purpose anyway. :)

Let me give some examples.

Last year when they were both 1 at the same time we were at the Main Street water park and the kids were playing in the splash pad. Xander was still crawling and Aliyah was running around...crazy as usual. There was a man there who asked me how old my kids were. I told him "They're 1." And left it at that BECAUSE his look was so funny I didn't want to elaborate. He kept looking from Xander to Aliyah and I could tell he probably thought Xander was retarded or something because he was crawling and Aliyah was jumping around. I laughed to myself and that was that.

This year on Xander's birthday we were at Roberts getting some balloons. There was a lady there just enjoying watching the kids and talking to them. It went something like this:
Lady: Whose birthday is it?
Aliyah: It's Xander's birthday!
Lady: (to Xander) And how old are you?
Aliyah: Xander's 2!
after a few minutes the conversation resumed
Lady: Now I know how old he is, how old are you?
Aliyah: I 2.
Lady: No, that can't be right.
She then looked at me and I just smiled and nodded.
Lady: Are they both yours?
Me: Yep. :)

It is just too funny the responses I get. I am ALWAYS asked if they are both mine and if they are twins. Although I can't really blame people, it's not normal to have children 11 months apart. And they do look like twins. Here's an idea:

At Aliyah's 2 year old Dr. appointment she weighed 27.8 lbs and was 34" tall
At Xander's 1 year old Dr. appointment he weighed 25.2 lbs and was 31.5" tall

At Xander's 2 year old Dr. appointment Aliyah weighed 34 lbs and was 38" tall
At Xander's 2 year old Dr. appointment he weighed 30.5 lbs and was 36" tall

So, they are very comparable and twins would probably make a lot of sense to an outsider.

In fact, that reminds me of another story.
I get asked if they are twins a LOT when we are at Costco...maybe it's because of the double seats in the carts...I dunno. One day an old polygamist lady asked me if they were twins. (Odd because they usually keep to themselves and don't talk to anyone.) I told her they weren't and she said, "O, well that's okay." and walked off. Umm, I know that's okay. I don't know what she meant by that, but O well.

Anyway, these are just a few random thoughts about the uniqueness of our family.

Kids...ya gotta love 'em

So I've decided it's time to write about some of the funny things my kids are picking up on. I don't know where they're getting them...actually, it's probably from some TV show they've been watching. :)

This is Aliyah and Xander after they threw themselves on Aliyah's bed. I asked them to pick up all the toys that happen to be ALL over the floor. After about 2 seconds Aliyah went to her bed and said "Whatever, mom. I Quit!" Then Xander said the same thing. Sigh...and no, they didn't pick up the toys.


This is Aliyah's "Mad Stance." She throws this around to Xander all the time.


Whenever Xander catches you chewing gum and he doesn't have a piece he makes you open your mouth so he can fish around in there for the gum. This is him telling me to open my mouth. He says, "Mom, AAAHhhh."


And, the ever constant, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Sung and accompanied by the munchkins themselves.

O so much to say...

I feel a little out of it. After all it's been about 2 weeks since I've blogged. Sigh... In all fairness to me, I've been overly obsessed with reading the Twilight Series again. My poor kids are suffering through the obsession too. Hopefully, I'll be done today and can resume normal life again. :)

OK

First, here's the rest of Xander's birthday. Nat and Ry came over for cake and ice cream and presents.

So, we went up north on Thursday July 28th.

Friday we met up with Jace's sisters and the kids and went to Raging Waters. We had a lot of fun! We finally convinced Aliyah and Xander to go on a tube ride. Jace took Xander in the double tube and I took Aliyah. She giggled the whole time we went down. I could tell she liked it. Jace said she came out with the most terrified look on her face. But she told me, "Mom that was SO fun!" I asked her if she wanted to do it again and she immediately told me NO. But I think the kids enjoyed time with their cousins...and the water. :)

We had a wedding on Friday night and then a baby blessing in Coalville on Sunday. Jace had to fly right to Vegas that night for a conference or something for the next day. Then he had his last class for summer semester (YAY) on Wed, Thursday he drove back to Vegas for work, then flew to California too. I decided instead of going home to an empty house I'd just stay up North with my family.

Tuesday was the Viewing and Funeral for my Great-Grandma. It was a hard day, but not as hard as I thought. She looked really good and everything went smoothly.

Wednesday...the Twilight obsession started and I didn't even get ready that day. Good thing my kids were up with people who could look after them while I greedily jumped into a fantasy book.

Thursday...We hung out and played. Aliyah had a lot of tea parties. A lot of McDonald's was served (my mom has a toy McDonalds set) and Aliyah sat on the Love Sac a LOT!...she loves that thing.

Friday me and my dad took the kids to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. The kids had a lot of fun there. It's a really great place for kids to learn and play. AND it was super cheap! :)

We came home on Saturday. The kids were so excited to be in their own beds.

So, that was the last 2 weeks in a nutshell. Enjoy the pics. :)