The Zoo

Ok back in June Daniel and I went to the Hogle Zoo with my family, cousins, Grandma and Aunt. It was so much fun! Daniel loved the animals! Here are just a few pictures.
Excited to go to the Zoo!

Looking for animals

Elephant!!!

Daniel didn't really like the train ride.

Daniel telling us what the Giraffe says.

He refused to ride the Giraffe,

But was totally fine with the giant life sized Gorilla.

Ok My phone is out of control! I totally thought I blocked the option to send pictures to my blog but some of the worst pictures ever were sent here when I was cleaning off my phone do update it. I am so embarrassed that anyone saw the pictures of my mole removal scares. I just discovered the pictures have been up since yesterday morning, which means two full days of awful pictures. So sorry and so embarrassed! Here are a few cute summer pictures of Daniel to make up for it. Also Hawaii trip pictures are coming. There are so many I think I'll just put them in an album and post it that way. Once again so sorry!!!

Old Video

This video was on my phone but I'm trying to update it and had to get it off. This is the only place it could be sent to for some odd reason and its side ways no clue how to fix it.

Sneak Peek...

I didn't mean to post these pictures from Hawaii but I have a setting on my phone that will email me my pictures and send them to the blog. I thought I had the blog one turned off but its on so I erased the really ugly ones of me and here are just a few of the many pictures we took in Hawaii. (Hopefully not to many people saw the ugly pictures.)

Fourth Of JULY!!!!

We had a great time this 4th of July weekend. We started the weekend off by heading up American Fork Canyon with our good friends the Hills in hopes of finding "the perfect" camp site. As we pulled up to pay or six dollar fee we saw the sign CAMP GROUNDS FULL. My heart sank I had spent most of the morning preparing for this camping trip and was not about to go home and unpack. Luckily David lived in that canyon growing up so we set off to find a spot. The only spot we found was off a dirt road but so beautiful! (no potties, YIKES) It was right by a stream and was one of the biggest flat spots we found. We set up camp and attempted a hike but were unable to find a good trail. We went up a couple trails only to come to dead ends. We finally gave up after trail #4 ended and headed back to camp for tinfoil dinners and s'mores(my personal favorites ). The canyon was so beautiful. Its so green this summer which isn't common for Utah. On Saturday afternoon we headed to the Brown Family BBQ hosted by the Julie's. So much fun to see the Brown family and Daniel loved playing with all the kids his age. Saturday night we stopped at KFC bought a bucket of chicken and headed to BYU to find the perfect spot to watch fireworks with the Hills. We found it (but i'm not telling you were because I want to keep going back and have a spot.) Daniel hated the fireworks which was a huge dissapointemt for me because I LOVE THEM. We ended up leaving right after they started because he was crying so bad.

Fshie Fshie Fshie

Yes we had a fish. We bought it about 2 weeks ago a beautiful red Betta fish and when I went to pay for it the lady behind the counter asked if I wanted to buy a ten day guarantee for an extra 80 cents. That was kind of surprising to me and I admit I did think about it but I was confident in my fish keeping abilities and turned her down. Even after I told her no i said out loud to her "just watch because I turned the insurance down this fish is going to die." I had a Betta fish in high school that lived well over a year so I didn't even worry about this one.
So this morning our Fish was alive and swimmin' I gave it its two breakfast pellets and went to the doctor and lunch. This afternoon when I went to feed it some more I noticed the morning pellets were still floating on the top and FSHIE was belly up on the bottom. I almost cried. I also realized that it lived such a short life I didn't have time to blog about it or even take a picture. I didn't think it was appropriate to take a picture after it was already dead so this is a picture of what our fish looked like only ours was a little more blue purple. Daniel loved it (probably not as much as I did) and we didn't even come up with a name except for Fshie which is what Daniel called it. I'll wait till after we get back from Hawaii to attempt Fshie #2.
RIP little FSHIE!

Swim Lessons

Sadly have come to an end but we had so much fun!!! We took them with Nichole and Jackson Brown and Nicole and Russell Hill. It was so fun to splash and kick and blow bubbles. We picked the coldest two weeks ever! Most days it was overcast and cloudy and some days it even rained on us. Poor Daniel has 0% fat and had purple lips and fingers not to mention goosebumps. Here are some pictures of our last day playing in the pool.We even went down the slide, sadly Nichole Brown was sick so I don't have pictures of here and cute Jackson.

GQ Baby...

Pony Ride

The Saturday before Mothers day the girls on my moms side of the family all met up in Salt Lake to go out to lunch. Daniel was the only boy lucky enough to tag along. They had this little petting zoo and horseback riding spot and I just had to try Daniel out on a horse. Okay they weren't horses they were only ponies. He loved looking at them and telling the noise that they made but of course the minute we got close to them it was major freak out. I have video and I'm going to try and post it. The picture kind of shows how upset he was. He was holding onto me for dear life the ENTIRE time and I think we walked around on the pony at least 8 times. I picked the smallest one and was bent over holding him. I felt like a really mean mom after that. I'll never make him do that again!!! (But just fyi he did enjoy himself at the end when he was away from the camera and other family members. I even got him to pet the pony once or twice. Still will never do that again.)

Fort

I found these pictures on my camera and had to post them. This is the first fort ever made for Daniel. Aunt Megan made it for him and they played in it all afternoon. When I got home from work he was so excited to show it to me. What a great aunt and future mommy!!! You'll do great Megan!!!

Sunshine and Popsicles

Finally our first official nice day of summer!!!! We played outside for a really long time. First we drew on the sidewalk with chalk and Daniel drew on himself more then the sidewalk. He also kept trying to taste the chalk whenever I turned around. I decided that since he was so messy I would let him have a popsicle, he had a purple one and I had a red one. Then he decided he wanted to share with me. He'd walk around the yard with his purple one then come over and hand it to me and take my red one. When he got sick of the cherry flavor he would come back for grape. He did this a couple of times and in the end stuck with his grape. He was so dirty!!!! Chalk all over his clothes and hands and popsicle dripping all the way down his arm and off his elbow. I can't stand sticky messes but I figured on the first offical summer day I could let it go.

Bath Time Helper

Daniel now insists on helping during bath time. He loves to wash his tummy and recently figured out how to dump the water on his own head. He's growing up so fast.

Strawberry Days

Every June Pleasant Grove has Strawberry Days. Its our town celebration for a whole week. It starts off the third Sunday in June and then runs all that week. There are two parades, a Childrens and then the big City one, a carnival in downtown Pleasant Grove and lots of fun family activities throughout the week. On Friday morning they had a little Huck Finn days and they had a bunch of fun games and booths that you could take kids to for free. Jacob came with Daniel and I and took him down the big blow up slide a couple of times. There were even pony rides but don't worry I didn't even try. Then starting on Wednesday night and going through Saturday night they have the annual Strawberry Days RODEO. Okay I have no clue what it is about the Rodeo but I LOVE IT!!! I love watching the buckin' bronco's and the cowboys and I LOVE, LOVE the Bull Riding. I know that sounds so silly but I just get so excited. David and I planned all week to go with the Hills and the Rices and I was so excited Saturday morning, only to be let down by our freak rainstorms. It rained and I mean poured all day. I tried not to let my spirits sink and keep a little hope. David told me not to get my hopes up more the a few times. We dropped Daniel off, I borrowed a big umbrella and waterproof blanket, and went out to dinner. The Rice's didn't risk coming all the way down to get rained on. We went to dinner and I kept looking out the window and hoping and it was pouring rain. We dicussed other options and to my extreme happiness and Nicole's the rain stopped. It seriously stopped right as were getting ready to leave. No RAIN meant RODEO!!! Nicole and I were so happy to be able to go and had so much fun. We are lucky our husbands love us so much. Of course the arena was muddy and that just made it that more fun. Thanks to David and Brian who gave up their movie to take us to the Rodeo. I LOVED IT!!!

Barefoot in the Rain

I finally couldn't take staying indoors anymore so I removed Daniels socks and let him play barefoot in the rain. He loved it. I know we'll be outside a lot more when the weather is better because he will play for hours. Here are just a few pictures of him playing outside. He found the handle to his wagon and started walking like it was his cane/pointer. The things he comes up with sometimes...

Baking

So the weather here in Utah has been cold and wet which means Daniel and I have not be outside much. On Wednesday I was going crazy with boredom and decided that we should make cookies. Daniel loved helping. I had to be careful because every time I turned my back he was into something whether it was pouring out the flour we had just put in the bowl or trying to sneak a piece of cookie dough when he thought I wasn't watching. His favorite part I think was smashing out the dough. We only had Christmas cookie cutters so the cookies were in the shape of stars, Christmas trees and some kind of bird maybe a dove. It's nice to know that even though he's only 16 months he can still make cookies with me. If anyone else has ideas of things we can do together at home please let me know.

SUMMER!!!!

Summer actually started like two weeks ago but I have been crazy busy trying to clean out my classroom and my house. I will not be teaching next year which will be really great but interesting. I started to cry when I gave my principal my keys to the school and classroom. It's always hard to close a wonderful chapter of life. However I'm excited for the new one. David and I figured that this is the first summer in 10 years that I haven't been in school or working. I have so much free time I don't know what to do. I need to make lists of all the things I'd like to do and start crossing them off.
So far this summer Daniel and I have started swim lessons. We go every day for the next two weeks and its so much fun. Very basic but so fun to have something to do. I also attempted to plant a garden and we'll see how that goes. Its been really cold and overcast for a Utah summer so hopefully soon we can get outside and do all the fun things. We went camping with our wonderful family Jojo, Rod, Milo, Elliot and Taylor and vowed to go at least four more times this summer. But hands down the most exciting thing so far this summer happened last week (No It wasn't my birthday although that was fun) my sister Megan had her first ultra sound and found out that there wasn't just one baby growing inside but TWO!!!!!! Yes I'm going to be the aunt of TWINS!!!!! I can't wait!!!! Congrats to Megan and Tyler who in just 6 short months will be living one crazy busy life with two bundles of joy!!!

Spring Break 2009

This week had been very uneventful with a lovely snow storm that kept me inside on my week off. Lucky for me on Friday we headed down to Salina with our good friends Brian, Nicole and their cute baby Russell for a weekend vacation. We got there Friday afternoon and were able to stay at Nicole's Grandmas house. Her uncle owns horses so we took the boys over to see them. Daniel was a little nervous at first but liked them in the end. He even tried feeding them when no one was looking and almost lost his fingers.
On Saturday we packed up the babies and headed for the Arches National Park in Moab. We decided to hike to the Delicate Arch which round trip was about a 3 mile hike. I'll be the first to say that I was nervous because I am not in the best shape of my life but I'm proud to say I made all the way to the top without stopping for water or rest lucky for me David is an animal and in great shape he was able to carry in Daniel and beat me to the top by 10 or 2o minutes. I'm really glad that he is in good shape because for sure I wouldn't have made it with 23 extra pounds on my back. This hike was so WORTH IT. Anyone that lives in Utah (or comes to visit) should attempt this hike at least once in their life. David said that when he turned the corner and saw the arch he let out an audible "wow" without even thinking, it is that rockin' cool. At first I wasn't going to go down to the actual arch because it is on the edge of a nice high cliff and you have to walk around this bowl shape cliff to get to it. I could just see me slipping or Daniel running off down the Mountain. But I couldn't go that far without getting a picture under it so I put on the brave pants and walked over and got our family picture under the arch.
This is a hike for all ages old and young, I couldn't believe how many little kids I saw up there and older people. On the hike back to the car Daniel fell asleep and his backpack doesn't have any head support for a sleeping baby so that's why his head looks so funny in some of the pictures, he was out cold.
We also went to another arch (but I can't remember the name) in the same park that was in a cove filled with the softest sand I'd ever felt in my life way better then the beach. I must have told David 5 or 6 times that I wanted a sand box at home with this same sand. Daniel and I took off our shoes and played in it. I didn't know that the park was so big and full of so many different things to do. Thanks to the Hills for inviting us on this great family trip!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Old pics new post

These pictures are from our trip to Oregon back in October I never got a chance to post these ones for some reason enjoy... The beach ones are of seaside and the other is of us with Grandma Leland. She has threatened me several times about not taking pictures of her and is threatening whoever is taking this picture but I had to post at least one. Daniel fell asleep in her arms. She was so cute with him.

Update

Ok I have completely neglected our blog over the last few months. It all started back in January when I had my appendix removed and now here it is April and I have only posted two new entries. So I’m going to attempt to update the best I can.
Daniel is a full time walker now. He started walking back in December, right before his birthday he was doing really well and now he walks everywhere nonstop. He is into everything and can't get enough of his newly found freedom. I have video if I ever find out how to load it on here. He now has 12 teeth 4 top front and 2 top molars, and 4 bottom front and 2 bottom molars. He can say clearly Mom, dad, ball, baby, hi, and a lot of others that are close like book, dog, grandpa, grandma. (he has said some of those clearly but only once or twice so I don't really count them) He weighs 23 pounds as of Sunday and I'm not sure how tall he is. He has lost a lot of his baby fat but still has cubby thighs, and feet(my personal favorite). He is growing so fast!!!! He is a little obsessed with the dogs our backyard neighbors have. He doesn't really like petting them but is always talking about them and saying "woof woof". He loves dancing he can't help but dance whenever music plays. One of our favorite family activities has become dance parties in our living room.
Back in February we went cross-country skiing. Leslie (my mother in-law) was kind enough to come with us and show us where to go. What a great way to spend time as a family. We had so much fun enjoying the mountains and the nice clean air. It was quite the workout but so worth it. Daniel LOVED it. He rode on David’s back and fell asleep on the way in and woke up just in time to enjoy the last half on the way out. He really likes being outside.
























We also took Daniel to the park for the first time. He wasn’t a big fan of the slide, we tried to make it exciting but he wouldn’t buy it. We even crawled in the tube with him but still no smile except the nervous one he gave with me.



















































Daniel has now become very independent. He loves climbing on things and thinks that he can feed himself. I am trying hard to let him have his independence without freaking out. I see the Danger in everything so this is not easy for me. I'm getting better, I think...

Late Night thoughts...

Its almost 1:30 am and I am still wide awake. I've been thinking lately about how horrible our world has become. In the last two days there have been three shootings in Utah and thats a lot for our humble little state, and one happened right down the road from where we live. I worry about the world that my children will grow up in and how hard it will be for them. I worry about how bad it really is going to get. But even though there are so many horrible things there is still good in this world and things that I am grateful for. I am so grateful that I live in a free country. I know that it is FAR from perfect but I wouldn't pick another. I am so grateful that I have a husband that supports me and loves me for me. Who goes to work every day to support his family. I have a son that is so wonderful, he brightens every day. I have a family that loves me and that is always there for me. I have my Savior and my Father in Heaven and I know that they love me and are always there to listen to my prayers. I have a job and so does my husband which is more then a lot of people. I am blessed. Whenever I feel down or sad about the way things are going I like to stop and reflect on all the good and the blessing that I have. It gives me hope.