While the kids are sleeping I thought I'd fill you in on their stats...
Evelynne: "physically she's a typical toddler - pidgeon-toed and bowlegged! But she's as smart as a 3 yr old at least!" - Dr. Angie
Weight: 32.4 lbs
Height: 37.25 in
Head circumference: 19.5 in
Emmett: "he's healthy and happy - and proportionate!" - Dr. Angie
Weight: 23.7 lbs
Height: 29.5 in
Head circ: 18.25 in
Everywhere we go, people comment on how cute the kids are. My favorite story to date is that at In and Out burger the other night this cute little lady said "Your children are adorable! You can see how healthy they are! And I see your little boy doesn't have socks on...Well, never you mind! It's not gonna kill him to go without socks! My mother-in-law always got on me for not having socks on my children and they turned out just fine!"
Thankfully, my mother-in-law doesn't get on me about my children never wearing socks - only about ME not wearing socks!!! :) Mostly cause I never have them when I need them...Ahh...Mama, I love you! Thanks for being a great mother-in-law who doesn't freak out about my children not wearing socks!!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Christmas a year ago...
I came across this video and couldn't believe how much Evelynne has changed! John got the video game of his dreams for christmas and Evelynne is dancing to what she now calls her "sunshine bear". What a great memory to have on camera!
The Money Story
I had to write this cute story down before I forgot! I took the kids to JC Penny's the other day to get some clothes and there was a Salvation Army man ringing his bell for donations (hard to miss them, really - they are everywhere!) outside the entrance. I gave Evelynne some money to put in, we talked to the man, and then went on our way. Well, on Friday I was at my mom's house helping her get some things done around the house and she has this little Santa figure by the front door that has a bell in one hand and a basket in the other. Evelynne rang his bell and said, "Mommy, I need money!" My mom was totally baffled, but I just started laughing. She wanted to put money in his basket cause she thought he was one of the Salvation Army bell-ringers! It was too cute. She is always saying the funniest things! We love you, Evelynne!
Getting ready for Christmas
We spent this morning putting up the Christmas tree, one of the things I love to do most at Christmas time. We had fun looking at all of the ornaments and remembering all of the great Christmases that we have had since we got married and all of our great friends and family members that gave us ornaments.
Evie had fun this year helping us put the decorations on the tree. If you look in the picture next to her elbow you can see her favorite spot to put the ornaments.
Kristin has been preparing our house for Christmas, and here's one of my favorite spots. Notice anyone missing from the pictures? Emmett has NO representation in our house right now, something we are trying to rectify. We don't have any really cute pictures of him, so we haven't put anything up yet.
We had a fun night at Kristin's parents house yesterday. We all got together to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional, have dinner, and play. It was really fun. Vickie made the famous "Christmas canes" that the Woodard's have enjoyed as a family tradition at Christmas for as long as Kristin can remember and we were presented with our first gift of the season - ornaments for the kids and a cute decoration for us. Thanks, Mark and Vickie, for a great night.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Halloween and Thanksgiving
Ok, so things have been a little bit crazy! Halloween came and went, and now I can say the same thing about Thanksgiving! Halloween was SO much fun! We all dressed up for our ward's trunk or treat and Evelynne loved walking around getting free candy. She still talks about it! John was Waldo, Evelynne was a fairy, Emmett was Tigger, and I was an angel. The funniest story was at our trunk or treat, John was in a ward members picture (in the background) that was texted to someone, and they replied that they had found Waldo. It was really cute. He looked EXACTLY like Waldo! Who knew duct tape was so handy??
Here's a few pictures (though we never got one of John!):
Sorry about the orientation. I'm too lazy to change it.
Here's Evie at her joy school party. She was the cutest fairy you've ever seen!
The next picture is a little treat I made for John for Halloween. I thought he might like an after-work snack!
We had a family party with all my siblings, their kids, and my parents and that was totally fun. We all had planned an activity, brought an appetizer, and all dressed up. It was awesome! I made this cake: http://www.wilton.com/idea/Halloween-Homebodies-Cake
but I didn't get a picture of it before the haunted mansion BROKE! I was so bummed cause it looked awesome. And to keep the kids from breaking it, I put it in the front room and blocked it off...I seriously went to great lengths to keep that house from breaking. It only broke because my top cake was a little smaller than the sticks I had attached it to (I didn't think to measure!) so it was sticking about 1/2 in out of the cake. It looked funny and I tried to cut the sticks but the house cracked instead :(. It was really fun to do, and I found that I can do bats and ravens and such - who knew? I changed it a little color-wise and I did a square cake on the bottom cause the bottom two layers were dummy cakes - but other than that it was spot on!
And the party was AWESOME! Each activity was fun. We bobbed for apples, tried to eat doughnuts from a string without using our hands, tried to bounce balls into pumpkins, and searched through "brains" for candy. The last game was mine, and it turned out awesome cause I had a bunch of chocolate eye balls in the spaghetti, but only 1 gummy candy "brain" and told my family that whoever found the "brain" got a special treat - a 1lb bag of them!- and they went to town! Spaghetti was flying everywhere as they all fought to find the "brain". I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe! It was hilarious. Seriously, we had so much fun. That will be a night I will always remember!
Oh, and I also made some awesome cupcakes for a lady in our ward. We had a service exchange and I offered to make a holiday cake or birthday cake or something. She chose my service and asked if I would rather do Halloween or birthday and I chose Halloween. I made her these cupcakes for her family's Halloween party. I think they turned out TOTALLY cute!
It's been the season for baking because for Thanksgiving I decided to make 3D turkey's as place cards (for our huge party of 4 adults and 2 kids!) cause they looked way too cute. They turned out so good, and I was thrilled to be able to make them without having to purchase a 3D cookie cutter. If anyone knows how to do reindeer or Christmas trees without having to buy special cutters, please let me know! Here's how they turned out:
I made the Turkey's and put them in the front room so Evelynne wouldn't get to them, but on Thanksgiving morning I was rocking Emmett and couldn't hear Evelynne...I was thinking "ten bucks says she's eating a turkey!" and sure enough, when I walked out I said, "Evelynne, what are you doing?" She ran up to me and said, "I didn't do it, mommy!" and I went in to the front room and was met with this:
Ha! I love how kids try to deny any wrongdoing from the earliest of ages! What's up with that?? It was too funny. Thankfully she only ate 1, and I made that her turkey, so it turned out fine. Also, I had an extra turkey body, so I thought I would send a message to America from the turkey's of the world:
It says "eat chicken"! Ha ha ha. I thought it was pretty funny, not gonna lie! In case you don't know, I totally crack myself up.
Here's a cute picture of Emmett crawling under our kitchen table. He literally goes over the center bar of the chairs like it's no big deal. Nothing gets in his way! I've even seen him crawl over the seat of one of Evie's cars! He's adorable:
I was in the mood for some awesome cheesecake, so I worked it out with my sister in law Kasey that we would each make 2 cheesecakes for dessert after our Thanksgiving feast. We had eggnog, pumpkin, peppermint, and gingerbread cheesecakes and they were all FABULOUS! The peppermint was probably my favorite, probably because it was a chocolate cheesecake made with York peppermint patties. If anyone wants the recipes, go to Martha Stewart's website and search for them. I got all 4 from her site. And this is what Evelynne looked like after eating the aforementioned goodies:
The day after Thanksgiving was Chamberlain's birthday and baptism, so almost all the Steve and Linda Jensen family was in town. We had so much fun with John's cousins and aunt and uncle. Seriously, I feel like they are my immediate family! We love them all and had a total blast. Chamberlain was baptized and his little sister Lydia was blessed and then we had a birthday party for him at the chapel. Alysa asked me to make him a Lego themed cake and this is what I did:
I think it turned out really good and I had so much fun making it. I was pressed for time, so I definitely took the easy road by making a round cake topped with "legos" but it was fun and Chamberlain loved it! He showed it off to all his cousins the second he saw it.
You can see I have done TONS of baking and cooking. It's been crazy, but I love it so I have no complaints. I found myself thinking several times the past month that it's so fun to be working at home all day cause I then have time to do all these fun things. It's a first really, to have time to do all these things that I want to do and I LOVE it! I have a few projects I would like to do for Christmas but since we are going to Disneyland, I'm not sure I want to bother. We'll see. I may not be able to resist! On the list is a buche de noel, an awesome gingerbread cake (see http://www.wilton.com/idea/Illuminated-Gingerbread-Castle) and maybe some awesome cookies inspired from www.fancyflours.com. If you want some amazingly edible gifts to drool over, go to their website. But beware - you will want to either BUY everything or MAKE everything!!
I've also tried my hand at frying things (horrible timing with trying to get in shape, I know!) because I found a recipe for fried ravioli - and let me tell you - they are AMAZING! I drove some to John at work (a 30 min drive each way!) just so he could have some fresh they were THAT good. Can I just say I am SO thankful for Cuisine at Home? They also have an absolutely fabulous beef curry recipe that took me back to BYU-Hawaii dinners with my Fijian friends. It was so delicious and authentic. My mouth is watering just remembering that meal! The zucchini cakes recipe was also really good, though my pan-frying skills weren't quite up to par. At least I didn't burn any holes in the garbage can this time! I'm trying to make sure we have a few non-meat meals a week and it's tough...I really like meat, what can I say? I miss my mother-in-law's fresh beef, too - that stuff was good. Anyway, if you have any awesome vegetarian recipes, let me know. I'd love to get more!
In case you hadn't heard, John did get a job right before Thanksgiving. We had to cancel our trips to California and Utah and we were totally bummed. But the Lord made up for it by finally blessing John with a job. He's still pursuing the military, so we'll keep you updated on that as we have news. He's applying to the Army Officer School first, and then I think if that doesn't work he will apply to be a Navy Officer. Like I said, we'll keep you posted.
I didn't have much chance to let my friends and family know how much I love them, so please know I love you all and I'm so grateful to have you all in my life. John and I are so fortunate and we thank the Lord for you all every day! Thanks for being who you are. We love you!
Here's a few pictures (though we never got one of John!):
Sorry about the orientation. I'm too lazy to change it.
Here's Evie at her joy school party. She was the cutest fairy you've ever seen!The next picture is a little treat I made for John for Halloween. I thought he might like an after-work snack!
We had a family party with all my siblings, their kids, and my parents and that was totally fun. We all had planned an activity, brought an appetizer, and all dressed up. It was awesome! I made this cake: http://www.wilton.com/idea/Halloween-Homebodies-Cake
but I didn't get a picture of it before the haunted mansion BROKE! I was so bummed cause it looked awesome. And to keep the kids from breaking it, I put it in the front room and blocked it off...I seriously went to great lengths to keep that house from breaking. It only broke because my top cake was a little smaller than the sticks I had attached it to (I didn't think to measure!) so it was sticking about 1/2 in out of the cake. It looked funny and I tried to cut the sticks but the house cracked instead :(. It was really fun to do, and I found that I can do bats and ravens and such - who knew? I changed it a little color-wise and I did a square cake on the bottom cause the bottom two layers were dummy cakes - but other than that it was spot on!
And the party was AWESOME! Each activity was fun. We bobbed for apples, tried to eat doughnuts from a string without using our hands, tried to bounce balls into pumpkins, and searched through "brains" for candy. The last game was mine, and it turned out awesome cause I had a bunch of chocolate eye balls in the spaghetti, but only 1 gummy candy "brain" and told my family that whoever found the "brain" got a special treat - a 1lb bag of them!- and they went to town! Spaghetti was flying everywhere as they all fought to find the "brain". I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe! It was hilarious. Seriously, we had so much fun. That will be a night I will always remember!
Oh, and I also made some awesome cupcakes for a lady in our ward. We had a service exchange and I offered to make a holiday cake or birthday cake or something. She chose my service and asked if I would rather do Halloween or birthday and I chose Halloween. I made her these cupcakes for her family's Halloween party. I think they turned out TOTALLY cute!
It's been the season for baking because for Thanksgiving I decided to make 3D turkey's as place cards (for our huge party of 4 adults and 2 kids!) cause they looked way too cute. They turned out so good, and I was thrilled to be able to make them without having to purchase a 3D cookie cutter. If anyone knows how to do reindeer or Christmas trees without having to buy special cutters, please let me know! Here's how they turned out:
I made the Turkey's and put them in the front room so Evelynne wouldn't get to them, but on Thanksgiving morning I was rocking Emmett and couldn't hear Evelynne...I was thinking "ten bucks says she's eating a turkey!" and sure enough, when I walked out I said, "Evelynne, what are you doing?" She ran up to me and said, "I didn't do it, mommy!" and I went in to the front room and was met with this:
Ha! I love how kids try to deny any wrongdoing from the earliest of ages! What's up with that?? It was too funny. Thankfully she only ate 1, and I made that her turkey, so it turned out fine. Also, I had an extra turkey body, so I thought I would send a message to America from the turkey's of the world:
It says "eat chicken"! Ha ha ha. I thought it was pretty funny, not gonna lie! In case you don't know, I totally crack myself up.Here's a cute picture of Emmett crawling under our kitchen table. He literally goes over the center bar of the chairs like it's no big deal. Nothing gets in his way! I've even seen him crawl over the seat of one of Evie's cars! He's adorable:
I was in the mood for some awesome cheesecake, so I worked it out with my sister in law Kasey that we would each make 2 cheesecakes for dessert after our Thanksgiving feast. We had eggnog, pumpkin, peppermint, and gingerbread cheesecakes and they were all FABULOUS! The peppermint was probably my favorite, probably because it was a chocolate cheesecake made with York peppermint patties. If anyone wants the recipes, go to Martha Stewart's website and search for them. I got all 4 from her site. And this is what Evelynne looked like after eating the aforementioned goodies:
The day after Thanksgiving was Chamberlain's birthday and baptism, so almost all the Steve and Linda Jensen family was in town. We had so much fun with John's cousins and aunt and uncle. Seriously, I feel like they are my immediate family! We love them all and had a total blast. Chamberlain was baptized and his little sister Lydia was blessed and then we had a birthday party for him at the chapel. Alysa asked me to make him a Lego themed cake and this is what I did:
I think it turned out really good and I had so much fun making it. I was pressed for time, so I definitely took the easy road by making a round cake topped with "legos" but it was fun and Chamberlain loved it! He showed it off to all his cousins the second he saw it.
You can see I have done TONS of baking and cooking. It's been crazy, but I love it so I have no complaints. I found myself thinking several times the past month that it's so fun to be working at home all day cause I then have time to do all these fun things. It's a first really, to have time to do all these things that I want to do and I LOVE it! I have a few projects I would like to do for Christmas but since we are going to Disneyland, I'm not sure I want to bother. We'll see. I may not be able to resist! On the list is a buche de noel, an awesome gingerbread cake (see http://www.wilton.com/idea/Illuminated-Gingerbread-Castle) and maybe some awesome cookies inspired from www.fancyflours.com. If you want some amazingly edible gifts to drool over, go to their website. But beware - you will want to either BUY everything or MAKE everything!!
I've also tried my hand at frying things (horrible timing with trying to get in shape, I know!) because I found a recipe for fried ravioli - and let me tell you - they are AMAZING! I drove some to John at work (a 30 min drive each way!) just so he could have some fresh they were THAT good. Can I just say I am SO thankful for Cuisine at Home? They also have an absolutely fabulous beef curry recipe that took me back to BYU-Hawaii dinners with my Fijian friends. It was so delicious and authentic. My mouth is watering just remembering that meal! The zucchini cakes recipe was also really good, though my pan-frying skills weren't quite up to par. At least I didn't burn any holes in the garbage can this time! I'm trying to make sure we have a few non-meat meals a week and it's tough...I really like meat, what can I say? I miss my mother-in-law's fresh beef, too - that stuff was good. Anyway, if you have any awesome vegetarian recipes, let me know. I'd love to get more!
In case you hadn't heard, John did get a job right before Thanksgiving. We had to cancel our trips to California and Utah and we were totally bummed. But the Lord made up for it by finally blessing John with a job. He's still pursuing the military, so we'll keep you updated on that as we have news. He's applying to the Army Officer School first, and then I think if that doesn't work he will apply to be a Navy Officer. Like I said, we'll keep you posted.
I didn't have much chance to let my friends and family know how much I love them, so please know I love you all and I'm so grateful to have you all in my life. John and I are so fortunate and we thank the Lord for you all every day! Thanks for being who you are. We love you!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Fun Randomness
The picture below is Emmett enjoying some cheese. He tries to shove it in by the handful and more often than not simply makes a huge mess. Oh well. He's totally cute and we adore him!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Promised Pictures
We have been insanely busy the last few days. We went to a pumpkin patch, met my dad for lunch at Peter Piper Pizza, helped Karl and Kasey move, took the car to have the alignment checked, picked up my mom from the airport, worked on the yard, had a craft day with my sisters, etc etc etc. It's been crazy and I'm ready to just sit at home for a few days. Amazingly, Evelynne only had one accident at Karl and Kasey's house and it was in the backyard. She was just too busy playing to bother going inside to use the bathroom. Here are lots of pictures and videos...Some a promised from a few weeks ago and then there are the new ones!
Here's the haunted cookie house we made using the Wilton kit. It was really fun and Evelynne enjoyed making it for family home evening. I just threw it away this morning because she's picked off all the candy and ate as much of the frosting as she could scrape off.
Here's Evelynne in her inside out, mis-matched and backwards pajamas. The top is backwards and belongs to her monkey pj's and the bottoms are inside out and also backwards (see the tag?) and belong with her Bee Happy pj set. She insists on getting herself dressed and undressed and this is the result. Please know that if she looks like a rag-a-muffin she wouldn't let me help her!
Here is a video of Emmett scooting around. It's more of an Army crawl than anything but he is FAST! Do not underestimate the Army crawl!
Emmett LOVES to eat. And he seems to always be hungry! I gave him an avocado to eat the other day and here's the video of him trying. It's totally cute, and Evelynne's contribution toward the end is an added bonus!
We went to the pumpkin patch on Thursday and had a blast. Here's a few cute pics.
This may be the christmas card picture...we'll see. I didn't notice that we are sitting on a cactus until just now!
I loved this picture because you can see his top front teeth coming in!
Evie rode a horse. She had a great time!
This video captures Evelynne's newest saying. I tell her all the time: "I love you so much!" and the other day she grabbed my face with her hands and said "I love you SOOOO much!" It was so cute. My favorite part is the pitch - she gets really high when she says SOOOO.
Here's the haunted cookie house we made using the Wilton kit. It was really fun and Evelynne enjoyed making it for family home evening. I just threw it away this morning because she's picked off all the candy and ate as much of the frosting as she could scrape off.
Here's Evelynne in her inside out, mis-matched and backwards pajamas. The top is backwards and belongs to her monkey pj's and the bottoms are inside out and also backwards (see the tag?) and belong with her Bee Happy pj set. She insists on getting herself dressed and undressed and this is the result. Please know that if she looks like a rag-a-muffin she wouldn't let me help her!Here is a video of Emmett scooting around. It's more of an Army crawl than anything but he is FAST! Do not underestimate the Army crawl!
Emmett LOVES to eat. And he seems to always be hungry! I gave him an avocado to eat the other day and here's the video of him trying. It's totally cute, and Evelynne's contribution toward the end is an added bonus!
We went to the pumpkin patch on Thursday and had a blast. Here's a few cute pics.
This may be the christmas card picture...we'll see. I didn't notice that we are sitting on a cactus until just now!
I loved this picture because you can see his top front teeth coming in!
Evie rode a horse. She had a great time!This video captures Evelynne's newest saying. I tell her all the time: "I love you so much!" and the other day she grabbed my face with her hands and said "I love you SOOOO much!" It was so cute. My favorite part is the pitch - she gets really high when she says SOOOO.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Exercise Log for Kristin
So for those of you who've known me for a while, you will know that I wasn't always this disgustingly overweight. I am really working on this, as I've decided that I'm not ringing in my big 3-0 birthday looking and feeling this way. My brother-in-law, Garrett, started a workout blog a long time ago and I just wasn't ready to committ myself to the cause. No one has posted on the blog in almost a year, so I've taken it over as a daily reporting tool for my weight loss journey. So, if you're interested, you are welcome to read it. It's hardychallenge.blogspot.com.
Take a look and see the progress!
Take a look and see the progress!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
How many times can I say...
peepee in the potty? I think I have used it about a million times this last week! Since that's not a normal part of my rather extensive vocabulary (what movie??) I'm sure you're wondering what's going on. We are POTTY TRAINING! Actually, we are more like potty using...Evelynne was more than ready so the last week has really been a breeze!
We tried potty training back in April when we moved to Phoenix but pretty much all we did was follow Evie around with mops and towels as we cleaned up behind her. She really had no interest in using a toilet...And really, why would she, when me and John were following her every BM? ;) I've noticed this past month that she was really wanting to use the potty and kept asking me if she could wear underwear, and then things really got serious when she and her second cousin Naomi would take turns using the potty as part of their play! They even took Evie's diaper off and put her in a pair of Naomi's underwear!! It was pretty funny, I'm not gonna lie, but at that point I realized that it was time to get her out of diapers.
So the morning after the panty-trading with Naomi I pulled out the IKEA potties and we started in. I thought we were in for a long haul, but in the first 4 days she only had 4 accidents! And since then, she's gone days without accidents. Oh, and she goes #2 in the potty also, which I've heard can be really scary for kids. So far the most embarrasing accident was on Sunday. In the Chapel of my sister's ward meeting. Oops! I blame it on my mother, since she got up to bear her testimony and I didn't want to be rude and leave while she was talking. Evelynne had her accident while she was talking. Thanks mom! ;) Is that the right use of the word "bear"? Should it be "bare"? Please someone, let me know. I'm too tired to do any more than that.
So there you go. Evie is pretty much potty trained. In a week! This is my happy face: :)
And as a side note, I'd like to point out that I really do know how to spell and type, but that my posts right now don't really reflect that. I shouldn't post at 10pm when I can barely keep my eyes open, but that's really the only time I have. And as it is, I only posted tonight because I was looking at recipes and making a meal plan for the week (yes, I know that it's wednesday night!) when I thought I'd see if my three readers left any comments. I hit the jackpot with comments from Alene and Mimi! Thanks, ladies! I love and miss you both!!
I'll try and post pics this week of Emmett as we got some good ones this weekend. And Evelynne is really into doing EVERYTHING by herself, and I got a couple cute pictures of her in inside-out, mismatched PJ's the other night. Totally priceless and a must-post as well.
Good night!
We tried potty training back in April when we moved to Phoenix but pretty much all we did was follow Evie around with mops and towels as we cleaned up behind her. She really had no interest in using a toilet...And really, why would she, when me and John were following her every BM? ;) I've noticed this past month that she was really wanting to use the potty and kept asking me if she could wear underwear, and then things really got serious when she and her second cousin Naomi would take turns using the potty as part of their play! They even took Evie's diaper off and put her in a pair of Naomi's underwear!! It was pretty funny, I'm not gonna lie, but at that point I realized that it was time to get her out of diapers.
So the morning after the panty-trading with Naomi I pulled out the IKEA potties and we started in. I thought we were in for a long haul, but in the first 4 days she only had 4 accidents! And since then, she's gone days without accidents. Oh, and she goes #2 in the potty also, which I've heard can be really scary for kids. So far the most embarrasing accident was on Sunday. In the Chapel of my sister's ward meeting. Oops! I blame it on my mother, since she got up to bear her testimony and I didn't want to be rude and leave while she was talking. Evelynne had her accident while she was talking. Thanks mom! ;) Is that the right use of the word "bear"? Should it be "bare"? Please someone, let me know. I'm too tired to do any more than that.
So there you go. Evie is pretty much potty trained. In a week! This is my happy face: :)
And as a side note, I'd like to point out that I really do know how to spell and type, but that my posts right now don't really reflect that. I shouldn't post at 10pm when I can barely keep my eyes open, but that's really the only time I have. And as it is, I only posted tonight because I was looking at recipes and making a meal plan for the week (yes, I know that it's wednesday night!) when I thought I'd see if my three readers left any comments. I hit the jackpot with comments from Alene and Mimi! Thanks, ladies! I love and miss you both!!
I'll try and post pics this week of Emmett as we got some good ones this weekend. And Evelynne is really into doing EVERYTHING by herself, and I got a couple cute pictures of her in inside-out, mismatched PJ's the other night. Totally priceless and a must-post as well.
Good night!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Mission President Meeting
Things have been so all over the place since we moved (no, I take that back; since last December!) that I have left out some really neat experiences. This really bothers me, as some of them deserve to be shared!
When I worked in Missionary Travel, I handled the travel for North American missionaries to/from Cape Verde, Praia (if you don't know where that is, please close this blog immediately!;) wink wink!or follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Verde_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg ). Well, the time was coming for the current Mission President to come home. So I emailed him, giving him the usual information and trying to get everything arranged. Imagine my surprise when I found out that home for President and Sister Tolman was in Safford, AZ. For those who don't know, Safford is a tiny town in Eastern Arizona where family on my mom's side was from. So I played the "do you know" game and it turns out, he knows my family! It was pretty cool, and President Tolman said that if I ever came to Safford I was to call him.
Fast forward to almost a year later. . . and guess who was on her way to Safford as part of a trip to Easter Az to see the Gila Valley temple! You guesses it, Mom, me, and GG. So what did I do, you ask? I emailed President Tolman and we made plans to get together. So after a long drive and quick (thankfully!) tour of the temple, we made out way into Safford. I finally got to meet President and Sister Tolman. It was a really neat experience. It turns out that he knew even more family (my mother included!) than we thought. He talked about Cape Verde, his experiences there, and then he, my mother, and grandmother all talked about Safford people. It was really neat. He even took us all out to lunch! I have met very few of the Mission Presidents that I worked with over the years, so it was nice to put a person to them name. Here is a picture of me with President and Sister Tolman.
After visiting with the Tolman's we drove out to Mt Graham and saw the family cabin my mom practically lived in over the summers and where she took me and my siblings for many years when we were little. It was neat to see it again, as I haven't been back for quite some time. This picture below is of Grandma sitting outside the cabin. It is an amazing picture (way to go, mom!) and I thought it should be shared. Grandma (Ruth) is the last of the Frederickson's and it was neat to hear her stories while we were on the mountain.
Here's a few more pictures of the cabin. I have so many fun memories up here. It was really good to see it again. The cabin is no longer in the family (or we don't have access to it) so I doubt I go there again.
Here's the cute cabin. It's been well taken care of for the most part!
Here's mom and Grandma (aka GG). Aren't they adorable?
I didn't get any really great pictures from the temple open house, so I'm not posting them here. Except this one of me and the kids. Just look at the kids. Pretend I'm not there! ;)
Oh, and one other AWESOME experience I haven't blogged about yet was when our friends, Brian and Marie, came to visit us over the 24th of July weekend. It was so much fun!! We hung out, went mountain biking in Sedona (which turned into hiking cause the trail was really hard and uphill for 90% of the trip!) and we even took them to the zoo. I was informed by Marie that the zoo was ok, but pretty much paled in comparison to her personal favorite, the San Diego Zoo. Seriously, San Diego rocks pretty much everything they do, so I'm not surprised!
Here's a few pictures from our mountain biking trek:
This was us post-hibke/bike if you can't tell from how dirty we were. It rained on us the whole time! But seriously, if you want a gorgeous place to spend a few days, the Sedona area is THE way to go! Red rock country, here we come!
John and I at the finish...
And Brian and Marie at the finish. Marie also found out shortly after going home that she is pregnant! Yeah for Marie!!! So now I force her to keep in contact with me so we talk all things pregnancy and baby. It's so great and I'm so happy for them. Congrats you two!
When I worked in Missionary Travel, I handled the travel for North American missionaries to/from Cape Verde, Praia (if you don't know where that is, please close this blog immediately!;) wink wink!or follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Verde_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg ). Well, the time was coming for the current Mission President to come home. So I emailed him, giving him the usual information and trying to get everything arranged. Imagine my surprise when I found out that home for President and Sister Tolman was in Safford, AZ. For those who don't know, Safford is a tiny town in Eastern Arizona where family on my mom's side was from. So I played the "do you know" game and it turns out, he knows my family! It was pretty cool, and President Tolman said that if I ever came to Safford I was to call him.
Fast forward to almost a year later. . . and guess who was on her way to Safford as part of a trip to Easter Az to see the Gila Valley temple! You guesses it, Mom, me, and GG. So what did I do, you ask? I emailed President Tolman and we made plans to get together. So after a long drive and quick (thankfully!) tour of the temple, we made out way into Safford. I finally got to meet President and Sister Tolman. It was a really neat experience. It turns out that he knew even more family (my mother included!) than we thought. He talked about Cape Verde, his experiences there, and then he, my mother, and grandmother all talked about Safford people. It was really neat. He even took us all out to lunch! I have met very few of the Mission Presidents that I worked with over the years, so it was nice to put a person to them name. Here is a picture of me with President and Sister Tolman.
After visiting with the Tolman's we drove out to Mt Graham and saw the family cabin my mom practically lived in over the summers and where she took me and my siblings for many years when we were little. It was neat to see it again, as I haven't been back for quite some time. This picture below is of Grandma sitting outside the cabin. It is an amazing picture (way to go, mom!) and I thought it should be shared. Grandma (Ruth) is the last of the Frederickson's and it was neat to hear her stories while we were on the mountain.
Here's a few more pictures of the cabin. I have so many fun memories up here. It was really good to see it again. The cabin is no longer in the family (or we don't have access to it) so I doubt I go there again.
Here's the cute cabin. It's been well taken care of for the most part!
Here's mom and Grandma (aka GG). Aren't they adorable?I didn't get any really great pictures from the temple open house, so I'm not posting them here. Except this one of me and the kids. Just look at the kids. Pretend I'm not there! ;)
Oh, and one other AWESOME experience I haven't blogged about yet was when our friends, Brian and Marie, came to visit us over the 24th of July weekend. It was so much fun!! We hung out, went mountain biking in Sedona (which turned into hiking cause the trail was really hard and uphill for 90% of the trip!) and we even took them to the zoo. I was informed by Marie that the zoo was ok, but pretty much paled in comparison to her personal favorite, the San Diego Zoo. Seriously, San Diego rocks pretty much everything they do, so I'm not surprised!
Here's a few pictures from our mountain biking trek:
This was us post-hibke/bike if you can't tell from how dirty we were. It rained on us the whole time! But seriously, if you want a gorgeous place to spend a few days, the Sedona area is THE way to go! Red rock country, here we come!
John and I at the finish...
And Brian and Marie at the finish. Marie also found out shortly after going home that she is pregnant! Yeah for Marie!!! So now I force her to keep in contact with me so we talk all things pregnancy and baby. It's so great and I'm so happy for them. Congrats you two!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
A Few Cake Pictures
I've done a couple of cakes in the past few months, though you may have noticed that we no longer have the Cake-itecture site up. We decided that with John trying to join the military and me trying to keep up with the two kids, cakes aren't really a priority right now. It didn't make sense to keep paying for the site, so we said good-bye . . .
But I have to show you the two cakes I've done lately cause they were both awesome! And lots of fun (once I stopped freaking out about trying to cover a 12" wide x 8" high cake with one GIGANTIC piece of fondant!).
One was a wedding cake for my friends friend. When we met to discuss what they wanted and I suggested a navy blue cake with Ivory piping (done to resemble the lace on the brides gown) both the mom and soon to be MIL both paled noticably. Neither one thought that would be a good idea, but I just KNEW that it would. And man, was I right! Take a look at this:
You almost don't even notice the two side cakes because they pale (I'm on a roll tonight!) in comparison to the center one. Talk about eye candy! :)
The other cake I did was for my niece's 4th birthday. She wanted a tinkerbell cake and I had been dying to do one that I saw on Wilton's website. So my sister kindly relented and let me make it. And it turned out darling! I was really happy with it. The most stressful part was the drive. I sat with it on my lap as we drove for 45 minutes to Mesa. I was a mess!! Thankfully, we all made it there in one piece. Kenzie loved the cake.
I'm thinking I may post a photo album of all the cakes I've done so that prospective clients (where ever we are!) can take a look at what I've done. It's not a huge priority right now, but as Shrek would say, it's on my to-do list!
Ok, I'm really going to bed now! Nighty night!
But I have to show you the two cakes I've done lately cause they were both awesome! And lots of fun (once I stopped freaking out about trying to cover a 12" wide x 8" high cake with one GIGANTIC piece of fondant!).
One was a wedding cake for my friends friend. When we met to discuss what they wanted and I suggested a navy blue cake with Ivory piping (done to resemble the lace on the brides gown) both the mom and soon to be MIL both paled noticably. Neither one thought that would be a good idea, but I just KNEW that it would. And man, was I right! Take a look at this:
You almost don't even notice the two side cakes because they pale (I'm on a roll tonight!) in comparison to the center one. Talk about eye candy! :)The other cake I did was for my niece's 4th birthday. She wanted a tinkerbell cake and I had been dying to do one that I saw on Wilton's website. So my sister kindly relented and let me make it. And it turned out darling! I was really happy with it. The most stressful part was the drive. I sat with it on my lap as we drove for 45 minutes to Mesa. I was a mess!! Thankfully, we all made it there in one piece. Kenzie loved the cake.
I'm thinking I may post a photo album of all the cakes I've done so that prospective clients (where ever we are!) can take a look at what I've done. It's not a huge priority right now, but as Shrek would say, it's on my to-do list!
Ok, I'm really going to bed now! Nighty night!
Evelynne's Birthday
I know I'm seriously late, but hey...better late than never, right? And you are going to DIE when you see this video of Evelynne at her birthday party! It's the cutest thing I've ever seen, for sure...
We had a party for her at Peter Piper Pizza. My parents took us there shortly after we moved down and it was love at first bite (ha ha!!) for Evelynne. She loves pizza (though macaroni and cheese is her all time favorite food right now) and they have games and a play place. It's a little kids dream, for sure. Anyway, leading up to the party, we were prepping her for her birthday - talking about it, singing happy birthday, etc etc. So watch this video of her when we sing happy birthday:
I made her some Elmo cupcakes cause she was really into Elmo. They turned out so cute, but I don't think this picture does them justice:
The Elmo in the middle of the picture was one of the lame ones. All the others looked better. It was darling. Evelynne had lots of fun on her birthday and got loads of new toys. She was seriously spoiled! Here's some other fun pics from the party for your enjoyment:
She got to make her own pizza. Plain cheese all the way!
This is Evelynne showing off a present for all the world to see.
Evelynne eating her dessert. Notice that she just liked off the frosting from the cupcake. Frosting is her favorite part! Who needs cake when you can have frosting??
Emmett was a champ for the whole party. This is him sitting in the Bumbo chair, doing exactly what they tell you not to do: put the chair on a raised suface! Oops! He didn't fall off the table so it's ok. He looks so different now! I'll try and post some pictures of him soon so you can see how adorable he is.
Things are better, just stressful. I'm super busy right now with potty training, joy school, cooking, cleaning, exercising, getting ready for the Bradly natural childbirth convention, and helping John find a job. Conference really helped me gain perspective and calm down about things as I've sort of been freaking out. So, look forward to more posts as I'm gonna try and get caught up!
Good night, world!
We had a party for her at Peter Piper Pizza. My parents took us there shortly after we moved down and it was love at first bite (ha ha!!) for Evelynne. She loves pizza (though macaroni and cheese is her all time favorite food right now) and they have games and a play place. It's a little kids dream, for sure. Anyway, leading up to the party, we were prepping her for her birthday - talking about it, singing happy birthday, etc etc. So watch this video of her when we sing happy birthday:
I made her some Elmo cupcakes cause she was really into Elmo. They turned out so cute, but I don't think this picture does them justice:
The Elmo in the middle of the picture was one of the lame ones. All the others looked better. It was darling. Evelynne had lots of fun on her birthday and got loads of new toys. She was seriously spoiled! Here's some other fun pics from the party for your enjoyment:
She got to make her own pizza. Plain cheese all the way!
This is Evelynne showing off a present for all the world to see.
Evelynne eating her dessert. Notice that she just liked off the frosting from the cupcake. Frosting is her favorite part! Who needs cake when you can have frosting??
Emmett was a champ for the whole party. This is him sitting in the Bumbo chair, doing exactly what they tell you not to do: put the chair on a raised suface! Oops! He didn't fall off the table so it's ok. He looks so different now! I'll try and post some pictures of him soon so you can see how adorable he is.Things are better, just stressful. I'm super busy right now with potty training, joy school, cooking, cleaning, exercising, getting ready for the Bradly natural childbirth convention, and helping John find a job. Conference really helped me gain perspective and calm down about things as I've sort of been freaking out. So, look forward to more posts as I'm gonna try and get caught up!
Good night, world!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
We are still here!
Sorry for the major delay in blogging. Two children is TONS more work than one child. And we are moving into a rental house. And I have a wedding cake coming up. And a birthday cake. And Evelynne turned two a few weeks ago so we had to organize a party. I have trillions of books to read to become a Bradley birth teacher.
There are not nearly enough hours in the day to do all that I want/need to do. I'm hoping that things settle down once we move into our own place, but somehow I have a feeling that I'm dreaming...
So know that we are still here. Doing great. With lots of fun pictures to post. I just need some time to post them.
Sweet dreams!
There are not nearly enough hours in the day to do all that I want/need to do. I'm hoping that things settle down once we move into our own place, but somehow I have a feeling that I'm dreaming...
So know that we are still here. Doing great. With lots of fun pictures to post. I just need some time to post them.
Sweet dreams!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Cute Random Pictures
These are some cute random pictures I wanted to make sure everyone could enjoy. The top one is Evelynne holding on to John's back pocket and "dancing" with him. She was laughing so hard!
In the next picture, Evelynne surprised us all by grabbing my breast pump and putting it to her tummy and saying "pumping mommy!" so we just had to get an action shot! Now, any time she sees anything resembling a funnel, she says, "look, pump mommy!". She is just too cute!
The third picture was just too cute not to share...my mom was cleaning the kitchen one night and our broom wasn't doing the job, so she grabbed Evie's toy broom and swept the entire kitchen floor with it. I've never looked at that broom the same again!
The fourth picture is just a really cute one of Evie and John.
Enjoy!!
In the next picture, Evelynne surprised us all by grabbing my breast pump and putting it to her tummy and saying "pumping mommy!" so we just had to get an action shot! Now, any time she sees anything resembling a funnel, she says, "look, pump mommy!". She is just too cute!
The third picture was just too cute not to share...my mom was cleaning the kitchen one night and our broom wasn't doing the job, so she grabbed Evie's toy broom and swept the entire kitchen floor with it. I've never looked at that broom the same again!
The fourth picture is just a really cute one of Evie and John.
Enjoy!!
Pictures Following Emmett's Arrival
Here's a few pictures that were taken not long after Emmett's arrival. I wanted to show everyone the birth announcement we sent out...if you didn't get one, don't be offended! We were on a pretty strict budget and we didn't send it to many people - we only sent it to people who didn't live in Salt Lake and/or people who had already seen him by the time we got them mailed! I also just wanted to document the snow...it snowed the night I was in labor and then on and off for a little while after he was born. It looked really pretty and made a vast improvement to our neighborhood! In the picture of Evelynne, she is doing her "pretty face" that John taught her a while back. I think that picture was taken the afternoon that Emmett was born. My mother had gotten Evelynne ready for the day and you can see she looks immaculate! Go Mom!
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