CHD Awareness Week

This week is CHD awareness week. My dear friends have a little boy who was born with CHD and I wanted to help them spread the word, so I have posted his story and some info about CHD on my photography blog.

Please go over and read about it! Awareness spreads one individual at a time!

Dear Friends

This has been the summer of moving away for many of our dear neighbors and friends and as another family we love headed off on a new adventure today, all the emotions come flooding back for all those we are missing! We think about you often and miss you often (even you who have been gone for quite a while and you who are not really all that far away).

And to all of the dear friends who have made our lives so rich and sweet - close by, far away, past and present - thank you (if you are reading this blog, there is a good chance that this includes you)! Thank you for letting us learn from your strengths, for serving us in so many ways, for puting up with our weaknesses and for ALL of the fun fun times!

*and now I am done with rambling sentimental thoughts by Jen...sorry for the plethora of them lately! Back to pictures and kid stories and birthdays and school starting and fun events soon!

White Trash

Saturday was the long awaited day...the Summit County Demolition Derby. We (including the 3 kiddos) dressed up in our white trash outfits, got a bucket of KFC and headed up to Coalville, UT where we had a white trash tailgate picnic. We met up with our fellow derby-goer friends and headed up to our seats. The derby did not dissapoint...there was flying mud, serious mullets to observe, cars on fire, rodeo queens with fringe and sparkly cowboy hats riding around in pickup trucks, yummy snow cones, a horrid rendition of the national anthem, bobcat "zambones", and trucker hats being tossed into the crowds.

Sadly, we unintentionally fit the bill of "white trash family" better than anticipated. Chloe fell through the bleachers (we were about 6 rows up), Seth manuvered through the bleachers to get her, Morgan thought the crashing cars were hillarious, and Brynn cried the.whole.time. We would have enjoyed the derby, had we actually been able to watch it. Next year we are leaving the girls home...Morgan can come, but the girls are banished!

After Chloe fell through the bleachers, we decided to downsize our "load" and took the camera and such back to the car, but here are some glimpses into this year's white trash event.


When we pulled onto our street close to midnight, we were greeted by the most white trash moment of the day...a truck halfway in a trench from the road construction project. I especially enjoyed overhearing a grown man say, "Mom, I really couldn't see the hole...my headlights shine above the tops of the road barricades and there was nothing lighting the hole." If you live by me and have seen said hole...you should be laughing at this point. I'm not quite sure how you can miss a 3.5 foot deep hole the length of half a city block and surrounded by barricades and cation tape...

Weekend Math

fun filled days

+

lots of grilling and hot dogs

+

even more watermelon

+

late nights of fireworks

+

3 kids age 4 and under

=

very tired kids

=

longer (and harder) "working hours" for mom and dad

=

very tired mommy and daddy

=

a family in serious need of some sleep

Thank you to the picnic table who so kindly took our only "family of 5 photo" thus far...and we are in hiking clothes!

We are all looking-ish so I guess it will just have to work!

(Fun times and good memories should factor into this equation, but I am no mathmatician!)

And, of course, some pictures for your delight!

First encounter with a slip-n-slide at Grandma's 4th of July breakfast...Chloe's "slide"

Morgan's slideThe best thing to watch...Chloe cheerleading for MorganBackyard BBQ/hot dog roast...have I mentioned how much I love having a backyard again?

The kids might have had more fun watching the street fireworks than the big fireworks...who knew that tank fights could be SOOO cool? (thanks for letting us join you Kelli and Nate!) And of course the big event...fireworks! (these are 3rd of July fireworks pictures...the kids did not survive the 4th long enough to watch fireworks!)

Hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July!

It seems to me

that if you get a coupon in the mail for discounted admission to the tulip festival through May 31 that if you were to go to said festival on May 26 it would still be going on, right?

Nope...not a single tulip in the place...and when I asked this seemingly obvious question they looked at me like I was the crazy one! Apparently the festival ended on May 5, but the coupon for the festival is good until the 31st...go figure! :)

Regardless...good times were had by all...who needs tulips anyway?

Sweet Sweet Friends

I have the sweetest friends in the world. I have been feeling a little anti-social lately - which I'll blame on the pregnancy - and I haven't been feeling myself because of it. With the craziness of holidays and people going out of town, I took a hiatus from planning our local playgroup and girl's night outs and I had really noticed a void in my life.

Today was extra special because we had playgroup and Girl's Night Out for the first time in a few months, which was fantastic! I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful and amazing "mommy" friends whose kids my children adore. My sweet friend Mandy offered to plan the Girl's Night Out this month with the baby coming and to my complete surprise made the event a baby shower for me. I was totally surprised and it was so sweet of everyone to get me fully stocked for the baby!

So to all of you wonderful ladies - and you know who you are - the ones who were there and the ones who weren't - I just want you to know how much you mean to me and how grateful I am for your love and friendship! My life is richer and sweeter because you are a part of it! THANK YOU! I truly am blessed with sweet sweet friends!

(And, of course, thanks to my wonderful mom for making it possible for me to go to Girl's Night Out despite an irritable daughter with a fever and a little boy who didn't take a nap today! I almost decided not to go because the kids were having a rough afternoon - that would not have been good!)

All about the Names

If only this post were about "baby sister's" name...

My kids are obsessed with names. I have posted about Morgan's name obsession before, but it has now rubbed off on Chloe, so I have two kids who are little name robots. Maybe it is their social nature or their way of identifying their world by personal association, but they want to know everyone's names.

In church on Sunday, Chloe was babbling on talking to the mice she "borrowed" from Quincy (thanks Ruth!) and she started telling us the names of all her buddies behind us. "Quincy, Asher..." I wasn't sure if Seth knew what she was doing, so I whispered for him to listen and she continued with clarity, "Dylan, Luke, Gage" each time pointing to the corrosponding person. It was pretty hillarious! Meanwhile, Morgan was identifying his favorite people in his Book of Mormon lift-the-flaps book - Ammon, bad King Noah, Lehi, Nephi, Sariah, Joseph Smith, Moroni.

Chloe has really taken to the women in her favorite uncles' lives too. The other day we picked up Jess and Sariah and she said their names excitedly as soon as she saw them come through the door, "Sariah!" "Uncle Jess!" Uncle Michael's girlfriend, Sarah, has been hanging out with us more frequently scine she has been home for winter break, and every time Chloe sees her she lights up and says, "Sarah!" and whenever we see Uncle Michael without Sarah, Morgan asks, "Where's Sarah?" so Chloe asks sometimes too.

She has also figured out how to use this newfound knowledge of names to tease my brothers. Whenever they ask her their names, she calls them the wrong name - she calls Stephen "Uncle Michael" and Michael "Uncle Stephen". You might think she is just confusing the two, but in ALL other instances, she refers to them correctly. She only switches them when they are wanting to test her to make sure she knows their names. We are in for trouble with this little lady!

Of course, Chloe is also very good with the names of everyone in our immediate family. Every morning she takes the time to greet everyone my name. I love the sweet way she says, "Daddy" with a twinkle in her eyes and then says, "Mommy," to let me know that she knows my name too. She pronounces Morgan's name so sweetly and loves to repeat it all day long, "Mo-gun!" And, of course, she has to look for Callie and say hello. She has finally stopped calling for "Woxy-woo" (Roxy) after more than 2 weeks without her around, though. She also enjoys identifying pictures of "Baby Ko-e" (herself), always followed by a smile and the description, "Cute."

Both Morgan and Chloe love to look at pictures of family and friends and identify each one. Morgan loves sitting at the kitchen table to do this with the Christmas Cards that are still hanging on our wall. It never ceases to amaze me that friends and cousins that we haven't seen for months or more are still remembered by name.

Though it kind of wigs me out that my kids are so good with names at such a young age (I am pretty sure this is not normal behavior), it serves as a great reminder to value each person as an individual. The kids don't remember names because it is the socially acceptable thing to do, they do it because they value the person attached to the name. There is so much that I learn from them every day about being more focused on the important stuff - the people in my life, the things that make them happy and spending time together. Hopefully this name-power will rub off on me at some point!

Winter Fun

There is snow on the ground, in the air and on the roads and we have been trying to take full advantage of it before we have to bundle a 3rd child every time we do!

On Boxing Day, we went sledding with Seth's family at Sugarhouse park and had a lot of fun. Morgan deemed me the best sledder ever (since I was the only one who didn't get snow in his face on the way down and I don't go as fast as Seth) and Chloe enjoyed going down the first couple of times as well. After about 4 runs, I was pretty much spent - climbing that hill sure took a toll on my prego body - and then it started to get really cold, windy and snowy, so we were all spent. We made snow angels at the top of the hill and took some pictures and then piled in the car and headed home for some hot cocoa and chili! Mmm!

Morgan got pretty good at making snow angels.Chloe got very cold by the end and was ready to go!

And this is my pregnant profile. I don't think they make maternity snow gear, and if they do, it is really hard to find since there aren't really any "approved" snow activities for pregnant people, so I wore my regular snowpants without buttoning or zipping them and barely zipped my coat over my belly! I will be really glad to fit in my clothes again!

The next day, we went on a snowshoeing adventure with the Banks. They were troopers to go without snowpants and boots, but we got out there and made a snowshoe trip happen! Callie was in heaven running through snow deeper than her and Chloe was giggling the whole time. She loved it as long as we were moving and if Seth stopped, she would say, "Go Dad, Go!"Morgan wore his own snowshoes and hiked the whole time. He did so awesome and he LOVED it! I have decided that there is just nothing cooler than watching your kids embrace something you love and love it too!Our hike was pretty short (which was perfect for Morgan and I) because Porter decided he wasn't a big fan of snowshoeing right then, but we had a great time anyway! You just have to be flexible when you combine kids and winter sports (or anything really)! The weather was perfect and the snow was sublime!

More to come on snowmen and hot chocolate later!