Living the Life

Just an Announcement...

2011-11-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

I've had this in my head for two months now:

Baby #3 is joining our family!
Due June 6th!

(and yes... Jeff is happy! :) He was just pulling faces the whole time- haha)

Just a moment...

2011-10-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well...
I come to this blog every once in a while... Feeling guilty for not updating. Really WANTING to... but just not into updating EVERYTHING from 2011...
Wow...

But I come here tonight just to type. It has nothing to do with our family happenings, or parties, or holidays, or funny kid moments...

I'm here to let it out.

I. Feel. Like. Poo.

That's right... Poo... I guess its not a very strong word, but it's all I can think of right now.

I having one of those times where the adversary really got a grip on me and has made me feel like I am nothing. Like I suck as a mother. I'm too tired to do anything fun anymore. What happened to that mommy who used to plan a fun activity for the week and a craft, story, etc to go with it... She's definitely not here. I feel like I suck as a friend. And a wife. My house is a disaster. My body doesn't feel right. And the rest of it... well... that's where the Poo comes in. I just don't feel good... I want to run out the door screaming and crying.

This is NOT a "pitty party post". It's not a post where I'm searching for comments... in fact it's quite the opposite. I don't want to really talk to anybody and be a downer in somebody's life. I guess that's why I turned here. I don't really have to "talk" and be a burden... and I can just pretend that nobody reads this... right?

I know everyone has these days... weeks... whatever. It's normal I guess. I just have to keep remembering that it is... and that for where I am in my life right now and with certain things that are happening... this is sort of expected I guess...

It will get better. I won't feel like this forever. Just have to remember to be happy... :)

On a different note, my amazing visiting teacher just "stopped by" tonight with dinner. Because she was that in tune. How awesome is that? No reason. Just because. I really am surrounded by amazing people and friends and family. I have a good life. And I'm thankful...

I'm just ready for the "poo" feeling to be gone...

In due time I guess... :)

over and out...

Dear Blog...

2011-04-12T13:37:00.001-07:00

I've missed you greatly and sincerely apologize for my lack of communication with you for the last 6 months. This is not the way I wanted our relationship to turn out. But alas, I had others that were more important for you for the last while.

It's wasn't you... It was me...

But please give me another chance! I would love for our relationship to turn around! To become better than it ever was! To be more honest with each other...
I'm open to counseling...

Love, Jenna

P.S. To show that I'm really trying, I made a few posts the last two days! See? I'm ready to make anew!

'Tis the Season
Forgotten Carols
New Niece
Halloweenie
Ran to the Dom

If you accept my apology, meet me tonight- Same time, same place as usual...

'Tis the Season...

2011-04-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

or... 'TWAS the season...

I'm trying to get caught up... :)

Back track to December... Such a magical month! It usually gets so busy! But this year, December wasn't that bad!

We started off with a trip to Santa. Dallin only wanted one thing this year, and let it be known since September... So it was easy for him to tell Santa exactly what he would love to have on Christmas Morning. Allison just said "I Lala" (which translates to "I would love anything Princess")... Phew! Santa had an easy year this year.

Dallin was also really excited about getting an email from Santa! It's really well done and was super easy to make... eh hem... I mean for Santa to send... The kids got a kick out of it! So- just getting you prepared early for next year I guess- :)

We also started a new tradition this year that I saw on another blog. I went to the thrift store and the BookMobile (basically a library on wheels that comes to town every two weeks) and found as many Christmas stories as I could find. I wrapped them all up and put them under the tree. Then every night in December, instead of picking out a regular story from the shelf before bed, the kids got to open up a book every night! They loved it! It was a fun way to wind down from the day and spend that time as a family as well. And it made the pressure of NOT opening the other presents a lot more manageable! :) I have found a lot of Christmas books the last two months at the thrift store- after the season! If you want to do this this year, start looking now! :)

My mom watched the kids for us while we were on our "Forgotten Carols" date, and Dallin made this awesome gingerbread train all by him self! My mom said it was so funny to see how exact he was with the candy. :) P.S... What's with the peace sign? haha... What a funny 4 year old.

As far as family goes, we pick names on both sides now, so present getting was pretty minimal. For my sister and brother in law (Judy and Jared), we put together a present with the theme (it's all about themes people!), "Brown paper packages tied up with string... these are a few of my favorite things"... and wrapped up a few of our favorite activities to do outside during every season! It turned out pretty cute I thought!

And then for my family, I picked my cousin Brooke, and made her this cute "Spa-la-la" package. You can get a drink to go container (or pick up a little pack of glass bottled rootbeer from the store) and paint it and add paper. I put matching bath/spa stuff in each pocket, with a gift card tied to each bottle, and added a matching headband! I thought it turned out cute too...

For actually Christmas, the day before and the days afterward are kind of a whirlwind to fit in all the family! We start with our own little family on Christmas Adam, the day before Christmas Eve... (Adam came before Eve...) :) That night we have little dolls that we act out the Christmas story with and watched a little Christmas movie and listen to spiritual Christmas music. We had a fun little night as a family.
Dallin wrote a letter to Santa, set out cookies and wanted to set something out for the reindeer. He had the great idea to throw carrots up on the roof! haha... That was so funny to me! I had never thought about doing that as a kid! I'd set out stuff before, but always on the plate for Santa to take to the reindeer. But I said that the reindeer just might land in our driveway instead so he thought it would be a better idea to put it there- haha. Cute boy...

The next morning was really relaxing and simple. We try to do three gifts for each kid, since Jesus was given three gifts from the wise men. It's worked out really well. It's SOOO easy to go overboard on Christmas, and this has been great for Jeff and I to kind of step back on not feel like we need to do that much. This year we did one bonus for both kids just because I got it for a STEAL on Black Friday and couldn't resist! It's been a big hit!!

On Christmas Eve day, we went to Jeff's parents like usual. That night we always act out the Christmas story (although trying to do that with just three little grand kids this year (since Judy and Jared were at Jared's parents' house) was not that easy!) Jeff's dad always reads "Why the Chimes Rang"... a book that his mother read to him when he was little. It's always a great, spiritual night to remember the reason why we are here... Because of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

On Chrismas day we woke up, read scriptures, opened presents, had a nice breakfast with the family, and headed down to my Great-Grandma's house for dinner and gift with my extended family.

Dallin's sweet hat he won and Papa Darrell...

Believe it or not, this is my entire extended family (5 generations!) except for three- my Aunt and 2 cousins... :) We are small but very close! We were about to play a present passing game...

And my beautiful Great-Grandma... :)

Then, the day after Christmas, but dad came from Vegas and we had a Great time with him at my sister's house! We don't get to see him all the time, so it's always fun to spend that time with him!

WHEW!
What a post! But thanks for staying tuned in!

Forgotten Carols...

2011-04-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

We have some great friends- The Roses. They were probably the first younger couple to welcome us into the town when we first moved to Orderville. We've done a lot together over the last *almost* six years! They are definitely our "date-buddies"! We've quite frequently doubled and planned a lot of fun nights together! (as you might have noticed...) :)
For Christmas, we decided to plan double date together as a Christmas Gift to each other! It was such a great idea and I think we are going to try to do that every year now! We ended up going to Micheal Mclean's Forgotten Carols Show in St. George and to dinner. We had such a fun night together!

*We had SO much fun together, Jeff and Bruce may or may not have ended the night with a skipping contest to the car... haha...*

New Niece!

2011-04-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

In December, my niece count went from 2 to 3! Jeff's brother Nate, and Monica welcomed Abigail Corry into their family! We were really happy for them! I FINALLY got hold her in March! :) and I'm FINALLY getting a picture up to tell the congrats!! :)

Halloweenie...

2011-04-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Yes... These two cuties are mine... :)

Backtracking to the end of October...
Jeff and I had a really fun Halloween Party at our house on Halloween weekend! We had a bunch of people there, played a few games and had great food!

We had a bunch of fun costumes!
Bat Woman and the Matrix Men:

Lady Gaga! And a bat with a cute ghost:

My cute Alli-Bug, and the cave woman Mama, and our cute adopted grandparents (who came as granparents)-Barbara and Norman:

Fun games and creative food:

We also broke out the dance music... Allison thought the girl in the reflection had some pretty good moves... :)

My mom also had a party at her house the next night on Halloween. Jeff's parents and my great-grandma were able to come too! We had a great time eating and trick-or-treating back in my old neighborhood! :)

And now that we're in April, the means we only have 6 more months until the next Halloween! haha...

Ran to the Dom...

2011-04-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

So... Since it's been 6 months since I've been a regular on my own blog, I thought I'd share a post I started on that I never posted... Just totally random... :)

********************

I always thought Tupperware parties were for grandmas...
So when my friend approached me about having one at my home, I thought it was a little weird. But I decided to have one anyway...
And it actually turned out really fun! :)

Look at the loot I got for
*almost *
FREE!
(*I say almost because I did buy a few clearance items that I couldn't get with my host credit)
But Still!
This is serious Tupperware people!
$485 worth!
Just for having a party!

It totally made my day. :)

****************************
To add to the random- here are a few pictures from September/ August...

Dallin's fist love note from a cute girl:
(Those are a bunch of X's and O's) :)

Praying for warm weather so we can have OUTSIDE picnics too:

Allison won "Little Miss Movie Star" and "Little Miss Drama Queen" at the baby contest at the fair...
Hmm.....

I am SO blessed to have so many wonderful grandparents! Here are two of them, My great-grandma Ilean (who turns 90 this year) and my grandma "Apple Valley".

Seriously...

2011-02-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

Wow... Has it really been 4 months since I last posted?

That really got out of hand!
Sheesh...
I really don't have a great excuse-
just the normal one of being too busy, then getting so far behind you feel overwhelmed to catch up.

I told my SIL and my future SIL that I owed them both a $1.00 if I didn't blog this week...

SO
First thing first-
I better finish up my run about my "No Spend Month"!

Honestly- I was quite overwhelmed by complete strangers who happened to come on my blog and comment about my "No Spend Month"! It was fun to learn of other who had tried it, or others who were wanting to. Thank you to all of you who left comments. I hope you had success as well! It was such a WONDERFUL experience and I'm planning on doing it again soon. I would recommend it to ANYONE! It really made me realize how much I spend that I don't need to.
Am I still doing that well?? Not really. December and January are always really hard months for us because of our payment situations. BUT I have adjusted a lot of things. One being our food budget. I spend SO much less that I used to. And I made a lot of freezer meals as well. That has saved us a ton.

AND to all of you wondering what the final numbers ended up being???
DRUMROLL PLEASE....
$248.76!!!

We barely squeaked by with $1.24 left! Whew!
That's all of our:
Gas
Food
Toiletries
other needed items
And Entertainment!

I tried to have $125 for food, and $125 for gas. But I ended up needed just a little more for food. Luckily that extra $6.00 wasn't needed in the gas tank.

Overall- it worked out REALLY well. We'll see if we can do it again soon! Maybe we'll do even better! :)

AND
Since a post isn't as fun without a picture, here's a picture of Jeff and the kids on 10/10/10 (trying to hold out their hands to make all the 10's)

(and that's water on Allison's pants- not anything else...) :)

Some songs for Women...

2010-10-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

I ran into these videos today by Hillary Weeks... and got a good little laugh...

2010-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Week 3 of "No Spend Month" is now over...
and it was kind of hard...
Not gonna lie...

I can't tell you how many temptations we had this week!
How many sales I saw!
And how many more Door-to-Door Sales Guys came! :)
But...
It also felt really good to be able to tell myself "No" at Wal-mart- haha.

So the rundown:

$48.22 on groceries
It was really hard to plop down that much cash, seeing how I only had a little left in the envelope. But I had to get Deodorant, Pull-ups, Panties for Allison (Yay! She's already starting to potty-train on her own!) and those add up fast. Also some food for meals.
$12.00 on Cheese from Costco
I was making some freezer meals and I figured it would save me in the long run to just buy in bulk, so I had a friend pick me up some.
$30.00 in gas for Jeff's car
-------------------------------------
Total: $ 90.22

More than week 1 &2 together!!
*sigh...*

So my total for the last 3 weeks is: $177.27
Which is still pretty good I guess. :)

It's been a good week for the most part. I haven't really left home that much this month, besides for a trip to St. George to help my friend with a photo shoot at a wedding. So we've been finding a lot of things to do here! New imagination games to play, older toys are suddenly so much more attractive, and Jeff and I have been having our "dates" with Netflix downstairs. And my house (besides the last few days...) has been overall pretty clean! Projects I have wanted to do, but never found the time for- are now climbing up the importance scale. I really like that. Instead of buying MORE craft stuff, I'm using the stuff I have...
*****************
We've also had more play dates with friends. Dallin goes to pre-school twice a week, but a few of us also decided to do a little "Mom's preschool" once a week... or when we feel like it. :) We try to read a story, do a project, and have a snack. I did two this month at my house. Halloween is always a fun time to do projects!

The first time, or Theme was "Silly Monsters".
We read the book "There's a Monster at the end of this Book" with Grover: m

Then we made little monster puppets and read this story about Monster Pudding.

So, we of course had "Monster Pudding" for our snack! I never knew Vanilla pudding with sprinkles would be such a huge hit!

Then, before everyone's parents came, we made our own little monsters by putting a blob of paint on a paper, and blowing it with a straw. Then we added as many eyes as we wanted. It was fun to see all the different shapes!

This week, the theme was "Halloween Ghosts".
I couldn't find my book last minute, so we just ended up reading the project for the story. There's a story about a silly little ghost that went the fridge and ate things that turned him different colors. I traced a ghost on a transparency paper and stapled it onto a white paper to make a little pocket. Then cut different colors of paper to put in the pocket each time he "ate" something.

The kids loved making faces and naming their ghosts.

We also made handprint ghosts with white paint and black paper:

And for a snack, they made Ghost Chow! (Popcorn and Ghost shaped marshmallows) They ate some there, and made some to take home for later

****************

ANYWAY! One more week of "No Spend Month!" :)
It's been quite an interesting month, but DEFINITELY a good one! :)

Week 2 of "No Spend Month"!

2010-10-15T08:21:00.001-07:00

Alright!

We made it through Week 2!
This week was a little more because of gas and different things, but here's the rundown:

********************

$16.76- on cheese and a few dinner ingredients
$4.86- on foil (I ran out last minute!)
$4.54- on fish food (I guess they need to eat too...)
$10.00- on 5 loaves of Bread from Bountiful Baskets. *(see below)
$31.79- tank of gas for Jeff's car- He commutes to Kanab.
$0.99- for 50 pictures printed *(see below)
---------

$68.94

Considering all things, I thought we still did really well this week.
And just for a running total, for two weeks this month is: $87.05! :)

I still can't tell you enough how much planning my meals has helped us. I have so much stuff here that I can use! :) Making meals and helpers beforehand to freeze is also a lifesaver! One of the easiest things to do is when you're making a meal, just up the ingredients a tad and make enough to eat that night, and to freeze for later. I made a batch of Taco Soup for Taco Tuesday this week, and just one batch made enough for three meals plus lunches for Jeff. So after dinner, I let it cool and separated the rest into two big bags for later meals. Totally easy. And while I was at it with browning the meal for the soup, I went ahead and browned another 1 1/2 lbs, and separated it in freezer bags for spaghetti. I found this website called FreezerDinner.com that has lots of great recipes just for the freezer. I can't wait to try this one out for Pizza! I would love to hear any ideas that you do to cut down time at dinner time! Any tried and true freezer meals? Or any tips for saving money?

SOOO many temptations came up this week! It's amazing to see what I WOULD have spent if I didn't have this goal. Also- It made for a GREAT excuse when the Kirby salesman wouldn't leave- haha. I'm excited for Week 3... Jeff thinks that the month is going by really slow, but I just think of it in Meals, and it doesn't seem as long. :) It really has been a great thing!

And I'm excited for all of you that are doing it with me!! :) How are you doing?? It's been great to have the comments and support too! So THANK YOU! :)

Here we Go- on to WEEK 3!

*************************
So- on a different note-
Now too explain a few subjects above-

*A little about Bountiful Baskets: It's a great co-op organization where you purchase a "basket" of fruit and veggies for $15.00. It's 6 different fruits and 6 different veggies every week. You can order your basket on Monday night at 8:00 (Utah time) or all day Tuesday. A few areas have a little bit of a different order time- so just check the site periodically Monday night-Wednesday. You can go pick up your basket on Saturday Morning (the site will tell you what time), or go volunteer and help divide all of the produce! It's a lot of fun and a great way to get to know people in your community. I run the site with Autumn here in Orderville, so I get a free basket! A great incentive to start a site guys! :) There are always GREAT extras you can add on to your order- like the bread for example. There are also other things like tortillas, other kinds of bread, granola, treats, and cases of fruit and veggies to use for bottling or whatever. Check to see if it's in your area! It's a super co-op and is spreading everywhere!

A sample of what you would get when you order! It's different every time. :) And with crops winding down soon- This is so nice in the winter!

*And the printing I did? I got a deal for 50 prints for free with .99 shipping at Artscow.com. I couldn't pass it up. :) As a new member- after signing up for free- you receive 1,200 free photo credits and 3 8"x8" photo books! With the 1,200 free photo credits, you get to print 100 4x6's or 50 5x7's a month for a whole year- for free! It's awesome. And once you sign up, they send you a lot of coupon codes for other great deals! It has tons of options for printing besides pictures and photo books. It's perfect for Christmas gifts coming up! You can use your free print credits for Christmas cards too! Anyway- If you sign up, sign up under the link above... and I get some free credits too!! :)

Week 1 Rundown of "No Spend Month"

2010-10-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

We made it through our first week of "No Spend Month"!

And I can't tell you how much of a difference this has made in our lives already!

This week, after paying our bills and tithing, we spent:
$18.11!
It was spent on Food for us, Food for a neighbor who just had a baby, and a bar of Fels Naptha Soap- to make my own Laundry soap.

So this "Saving Money Thing"?
It's sort of fun...
Ok...
It's really fun...

I'm all of a sudden a great meal planner!
I started planning my meals better a few weeks ago like this:

Most of these items, I had in my freezer and/or made from scratch...
Like BREAD (Which I'm totally afraid of- but I did it!)
and look- not one meal repeated for three weeks straight (Besides Taco Tuesday)!
This is seriously empowering! :)
***
I'm all of a sudden really good at saying no to that little voice inside my head that wants to get extras at the grocery store! Under the menu for the week, I write down what I need at the store for that week of meals and into the next. And then, I've been trying to make ONE trip to the store for the whole week. And it's really helped to have cash- I can only get so much. (That debit card is so tricky...)
***
I'm all of sudden recognizing that I have enough stuff as it is... and I don't always have to go to the thrift store or the next yard sale! I will survive... There will always be other sales.
***
I'm all of a sudden realizing that there are SOO many other ways Jeff and I were missing the boat with saving money. The day we started this no spend month idea, we got a letter in the mail letting us know that interest rates were down for our particular loan. We are now refinancing on our home, which will consequently help us a TON money wise with paying for Jeff's Masters classes, which will help us not get a loan for them AND we'll be able to pay off our house sooner. We also realized other ways to save on some of our bills and shopping.
***
And I'm all of a sudden figuring out how many fun, free things I've been missing out on with my family around our town. Jeff had a great idea to go on a little drive after school on Friday and maybe have a cookout or something. I had hot-dogs and buns in the freezer, and s'more stuff in the cupboard, so the idea worked out great! We ended up by Duck Creek on Cedar Mountain and had SUCH a fun time with our little kids. It was beautiful with the changing leaves, a huge family of around 50 deer grazing about 20 yards from us, and a glowing fire. Even the layer of dirt my children acquired was beautiful- in it's own way.

***

You know... I really wondered how this challenge would go. Would I be all "gun-ho" at first? And then when it came down to it... just cave? I've realized that I really am in it for the long haul. I've actually really enjoyed saving all this money (Whoda thunk?). And Jeff and I have already realized how much we spend that we really don't need to... I think we're going to be a lot more careful for now on. :)

Wish me luck on week 2! :)

NO SPEND MONTH!

2010-09-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Today is a new day. It's PAYDAY!

But... this month, money won't be spent the same way as usual...

I have this blogging friend... (Hi Jennifer!). I only know Jennifer through blogging. I've never met her in real life before. But I just adore her! haha! She's so hysterical with her writing, and I love getting a pick-me-up with a good laugh from reading some of her posts. She's a Wiz with a sewing machine, a great hands-on mom who does tons of little projects with her kids, and is totally REAL and down-to-earth.

A few years ago, she was inspired by another great blog: Small Notebook, to live a concept entitled:

"NO SPEND MONTH"

(Which technically speaking is LOW Spend Month... But- you get the idea...)

So folks... I've been inspired as well...
October is our official "No Spend Month".

The Basic Idea?

I recommend clicking on the link or links above to get more details, but basically, you give your family a set amount of money in cash to spend on gas, food, entertainment, and any other basic necessities (diapers, TP, etc...) for the whole month. (This doesn't include bills, tithing, mortgage, medical expenses, etc...) Our money to spend this month is $250.

I know this isn't going to be easy, but I'm really excited for the challenge. I spend WAY to much time searching craigslist, going to the thrift store, and walking up and down the Dollar Spot at Target, searching out food sales- just trying to find a good deal! And all the while, spending money I don't really NEED to be spending.

In order to up our savings for things we really need (like SCHOOL!) we need an extra boost. And if all goes as planned, I'll be able to put a lot more away than I usually do! Which will be great!

I also need to learn how to plan ahead better with my meals. I always get so stressed at that "dinner time rush" time trying to figure out what we're having, and I'll quite frequently make a run to the store to get a few things (which turns into a lot of things once I'm there) to make dinner.

I've been planning out what we are having every day for the week ahead, and then writing down everything I need in advance at the store in order to cut my shopping trips down to one time a week. We are very blessed to have so much food in our freezer, and things in my cupboard that I don't really think about using all the time, and this has kind of forced me to be out of my comfort zone and come up with other things to make! Living in Orderville also makes the temptation of eating out a little less, since there are only two little sit down restaurants here in town. Also- actually cooking a meal everynight, instead of running to get something fast, will help with the lunch bill as well. Jeff loves taking leftovers for lunch the next day. I cook mostly every night anyway, but there are lots of meals that I don't have to run to the store for every time.

This month will be filled with fun, creative, and mostly FREE dates, family time, and projects to keep us busy. We'll finish half-done projects around home instead of buying stuff for a new one. We'll try new kinds of food.

We'll live more simple.

And I think it will be really good... :)

In order to make myself a little more accountable, I'm going to blog at the end of each week to show what I have spent, and give a round-about on what the money went for. Then, we'll see if everything adds up at the end of the month! :) I have a few friends that are joining me this month and we're all helping each other- being a support for each other! Anybody else want to join?? Let me know! I'd love too see how everyone saves a little extra for school, pay off loans, Christmas, a fun vay-cay... WHATEVER! And I'd also love to see the creative things people come up with for fun and food!

GOOD LUCK!

Photosavy friends...

2010-09-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

I went to high school with Kellie (Neighbor) Stilson.

And now she's all grown up with 3 ADORABLE girls and is an awesome crafty chick and GREAT photographer...

She's having a give-a-way for a photography session!
Check it out.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

ALSO...
One of my best friends,
Ann Hepworth
has photographed both of my kids since there were just a few days old...
All the pictures on the side...
HERE------>
Well SHE took them! :)
She's has an amazing eye for photography, is a "horse whisperer" at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and is just a HOOT! :)
Check out her BLOG,
and WEBSITE!

He's a what? He's a Music Man!

2010-09-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

So this summer was a little different than usual around here...

I decided to try out for the Community Summer Musical that happens every other summer. Two years ago I was pregnant, and the year before that I made a lead part, but wasn't going to be here for the performance. So I figured this was my year! I had to run with it! Jeff started his Masters this summer as well, so I knew it take a little bit work with schedules, but I really wanted to do it, and Jeff gave me his full support. I feel so lucky to have a husband who loves me and lets me soar when it comes to things like this...

This year's Musical was "The Music Man". With everything going on and my kids, I didn't feel like I was up to a huge part. So after calling me and talking to me about what I could do- it worked out perfectly when they asked me to play the part of Zaneeta Shin- The Mayor's daughter (The "Eee Gads" girl!), and one of the main "teenage" dancers. I woke up at 4:45-5:00 almost every morning to leave my house at 5:30 for 6am practice over in Kanab. I'm not really a morning person, so that was the hardest part. I drove over a bunch of kids from the Valley so that really kept me motivated to not fall back asleep! :) The great part about having it so early was that I was usually home before the kids woke up, or right after. There was a few evening dance rehearsals, but for the most part- it worked out pretty well.

I can't even tell you how good it felt to be up on stage again! I just love it there! :) There's a certain rush you get under those stage lights that is hard to explain. I had so much fun with my part! I loved being able to dance again and was in all of the dancing scenes. It was great. The only awkward part of course was dancing with someone other than my husband... But Jeff was a great sport- since my partner was a "Pre-Mish" kid. :) He actually left on his LDS mission four days after the play ended! I also loved getting to know so much more of the community from Kanab and Fredonia! There are so many great people and personalities everywhere you go! :) I don't have any pictures from the actual play (The cast on stage) back yet from the directors, but here's some of the great people who worked hard all summer!

Linda Alderman has been the director for years and years and definitely knows what she's doing! :) She's awesome!

The Assistant Director, Mariah Wheeler, is Linda's daughter. I couldn't believe all she had on her plate with this! :) She had a brand new baby when we started rehearsals and two other cute girls at home. She is super talented too and I really wish I had her range of voice! :) I just love her.

Getting ready backstage! :)

Me and the other "Zaneeta Groupies"- Katie (18) and Hannah (12). There were so many girls in the cast that we actually decided to do a triple casting. It's always hard to do double or triple casting, but I was so grateful to get to know these cute girls! We thought it was funny that there was a 12 year range of age between all of us! :)

Me with "The Music Man"- Doug Jacobs... Who is actually the Principal at Kanab High School and Kanab Middle School! He's such a hoot!

Maaaaaarrrrrrrrriiiian.... The Libarian.
Barbara works out at Best Friends and is so sweet!

Me and my "Pre-Mish" Partner- Jon Black, who played Tommy Djilas- the town Hoodlum I hook up with. He was great to dance with. He's actually over a foot taller than me, so I definitely got high up there with some of those lifts! Jeff thankfully coached him on a few things so he didn't drop me! :) Good luck out there in the field Elder Black!

The Del Sarta Ladies. These women were just hysterical! I loved seeing them ON and OFF stage together! SOOO funny!

Marcellus Washburn (Andrew Corry) and Ethel Toffelmier (Carol)-the Player Piano Player. (We actually had a real player piano! It was fun to actually see one play! I never had before!)

Me and Kelly Lamb- who played Charlie Cowell. This guy (Who is actually a year younger than me- but NOBODY guesses that!) has perfect comedic timing and is SO brilliant up on stage... He's a great friend... You just never know what to expect from him... Hence the look on my face- I was a little scared... haha...

My Mom, Darrell, and my great-grandma came to watch! It was fun to have them there. I wasn't able to get a picture after though because they had to get on the road before I done shaking hand with people. But thank you thank you for coming all of this way to watch! I also had many great friends who were a big support the whole summer as well! Thank you for coming too! It was so fun to have family and friends in the Audience.

The biggest beyond biggest "THANK YOU" to my husband. I love him so much! I could never have done this without him and his support. There were a few rough days that final week when I was gone with performances where I think he had enough of playing Mr. Mom... I really am thankful for his sacrifice, especially during the beginning of his Master's Classes. Thank you for letting me enjoy those bright lights again!
This was an experience I'll never forget.

Now, I'm DEFINITELY glad to be home with my cute family!

Viva Las Vegas!

2010-09-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

A little while back was my Dad's birthday... (and I promised I wouldn't mention age...) :) Our family, My sister Kellie, Garrett, and Connor, and my brother Scott decided that for part of his birthday, we would all travel down to Vegas and spend some time with him! It's been about two years since we all went down to his house together, so it was definitely time!

Kellie made and AWESOME dinner of "Chicken Chelupes" (A family fav!), and we had cake for my dad. Unfortunately, my dad had to work that night. He's a VERY talented Architect by day {Think- the Paris Hotel! Ya... He did that!! :)}, and a DJ by night. So the guys took off and saw a Movie, and Kellie and I put the kids to bed and hung out with the dogs... haha... Then the next morning we woke up and I made Crepes for breakfast. (I think I ate ten!)

Allison by the dog cage- I thought she looked so cute here! :)

*So... This is a total side note, but I love to have my closet arranged by color and by short sleeve and long sleeve. When I walked into my Dad's room, I was reminded where I get it from...
This is PART of his closet, but it was all organized by type and color. His shampoos and things are the same way. :) I LOVE it!! He's SOOO organized!

He also has amazing style for being a Bach! His house is decorated so nice!

ANYWAY. A lot of times when we go to Vegas with my Dad, we end up going out to eat and shopping. Which is fun! BUT... We really wanted to do something different. So my super cool friend Bridget gave me some great ideas to do while we were there! She lived there a few years ago and has the area down pretty well! :).
So we ended up going to the Lied Discovery Children's Museum. If you live in the area and haven't been, I strongly suggest you do! We could have spent all day in there! And it was pretty cheap! It had so many fun things for kids, AND parents! :) I loved being able to go to a place in Vegas that was TOTALLY kid friendly, and let my dad have a chance to play with the kids.

There was this great little pretend town in the very beginning. I would have stayed and played myself if I had the chance! haha... There were pretend stores, a bank to get money, just lots of fun things.

There was a grocery store where the kids were handed money and they could shop for certain items, and then either buy them, or pretend to be the cashier:

There was also a little mechanic shop that both of the kids loved. They could change parts under the car, and change tires, and fill up fluids and tighten bolts. Dallin pretended to be his buddy Bruce the whole time. :)

There were all different stations all over the two story building. One of the favorite was the bubble and water station. The guys had fun trying to see who could make the biggest bubble. I took this picture right after Jeff's popped!

There was also this bubble wall thing that Dallin loved. The bubbles would get ginormous!

There was a "Hurricane Simulator" there too! Holy Cow! You would stand inside and the "winds" would get to over 80 mph!
My brother and Dallin both looked so funny in there!

Obviously...
This is NOT the most attractive picture of me...
But it just shows how intense it was! haha!

Allison had a fun time too! Her favorites were being able to dance on the little stage, and sing a song at the "Radio Station" with Dallin. She's such a performer! :)

Her other favorite was this huge ball contraption where you could put the ball in a whole in the bottom and it would suck it up to the different parts of the "maze". She got a kick out of it! :)

It was fun being able to watch my Dad with the kids. He doesn't get the opportunity to spend this kind of time with them that often! Dallin is TOTALLY into bones right now and loved it when my dad was explaining how they work to him.

And of course- it's ALWAYS fun when we get to hang out with Kellie, Garrett and Connor!
Garrett played Soccer with Dallin on the green screen...

And Kellie and I laughed at Connor and Allison having a BALL running from light to light with this food game on the floor.

We also went out to eat at this cute little pub afterwards and stuffed our bellies with wonderful food.
We had a GREAT time with my Dad, and I think we will definitely be making some new traditions when we go to Vegas! :) No more "Just shopping and Eating" trips! There are so many fun things to do there! We should really take advantage!
**********
I Love you Dad!
You're a wonderful, talented, super fun Dad and I miss you! I wish we could see each other more often! I really didn't want to leave... :( The kids also had a lot of fun with you too. Dallin talked about being with Grandpa Alan for days!
Hope you had a wonderful time on your birthday!
We sure did... :)

Pioneer Day...

2010-09-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here in Utah, the 24th of July is a big deal!

Brigham Young and many pioneers came into Utah on July 24, 1847,
and declared, "This is the Place"...

And on the 24th, Utah is definitely the place to be!

This year, I was in charge of the 24th's festivities here in Orderville. It was kind of a big job and there were many activities throughout the day. But it was a lot of fun!

First- The parade.
Thankfully- I had a lot of help with the Primary for this one.
We had a great turnout!
Jeff took Dallin and Allison and made a float to
represent his calling- Ward Mission Leader.
(This just tells you how much Dallin wanted his picture taken...)

I also had a float with my fellow "Music Man" Cast members...
(More on that later...)
I can't tell you how many people commented about my heels after the parade... They really aren't THAT bad to walk in... :)

Next, I planned a program down at the Church house. Our good friend, Bruce Rose, did it again and made an awesome poem!! I tried to get the video to upload. It's hilarious! But for some reason it wouldn't work. So here is text version of the Poem he wrote:

"With Brigham in charge the church headed west
Six days they would travel, the seventh they'd rest
From a peep out his wagon Brig said "It's the place"
His driver responded with a smirk on his face

"Sir please look again, I'm sure this won't do
This place ain't got nothin' compared to Nauvoo
I can tell by the looks of that lake that it's salty
And the gaps in them hills indicate that they're faulty

I'll bet the winter's real cold, the summer like Haiti
I suggest we don't exit, let's stay on I-80."

Brig told him "Cheer up! Don't be such a spazz
In no time at all, we'll have things like the Jazz!
We'll build a big temple with a visitor's center
With sliding glass doors for the Gentiles to enter

"We'll have a few trials we'll have to endure
Like big, pesky crickets, and a government war
Cuz the feds will get ticked and they will despise
That Ol' Brutha Brigham has 56 wives

"We'll start BYX to carry the mail
We'll pack temple stones into town via rail
Self sufficient and able, we'll share all our stuff
And make for sure everyone here has enough

"This place will be filled with fun things to do
Like Lagoon and Snowbird, and even a zoo!

"This place will be known for hard work and low crime
We'll stay out of trouble, but still have a good time
We'll have fine universities, I'll call mine BYU
But this football season I'll put fifty bucks on the "U"

Most important we'll make it a home that is happy
We can't have our people feel gloomy or crappy
"So we'll strive for what's right, all with one accord
Let's make this place bloom in the name of the Lord

Now driver, drive on! There's so much to do
There's none of this cool stuff back there in Nauvoo

"This place is now home, think of it as heaven
On the first Pioneer Day, 1847
This day will be special, and soon you'll see why
Each year when we celebrate the 24th of July."
-Bruce Rose

Jeff, and our friends Robert and Emily also put together a beautiful musical number. I kept getting interrupted by my little miss, so sorry it's shaky and cut off...
I LOVE my husband's voice though... :)
He makes my knees weak...

I also put together a slideshow to
Dave Tinney's, "Prayer of the Walking Child"...
I love this song and really wanted to share it.

Right after the program, there was a big party down at the park.
The Young Women put together a wonderful lunch for everyone. I also put together a bunch of pioneer activities for the children (and adults) to take part in:

There was a "Home-Made Ice-Cream" Station where we put the ice cream ingredients in a small bag, and ice and salt in a bigger bag around it. You squish it around for about 5 minutes, and then enjoy your ice-cream! It was a big hit!

There was also a "Rag Doll" Station. There were lots of little girls and some boys constantly around this table! It was really fun to see them carrying around their dolls all day!

A lot of the kids enjoyed making "Whirligigs".

We also had "Horse and Buggy" rides...

A "Stick-Pull" contest (Wow! Those men really got into it!!) :)...

And "Butter Making". A local family donated their cream from their cow and we "churned" it in babyfood jars. It was fun to see it happen before our eyes!

It took a while... :)

To end the day, we celebrated with a HUGE free dinner for everyone in town! We had an awesome spread of Roast Beef, Dutch Oven Potatoes, Salad, Watermelon, Homemade rolls, and 10,000 desserts to choose from! I loved watching everyone hanging out and enjoying each other while eating and listening to Blue Grass... It was awesome. I was too busy running around to take pictures, but I was SOOO glad the day turned out nice! :)

****************
I can't imagine being a Pioneer. Heavenly Father definitely knew that I couldn't handle it... that's why I'm here today instead of 150 years ago! But I'm grateful for all of their sacrifices and determination to put together a wonderful place for us to raise our family! :)

Cabin with the Blodgetts...

2010-09-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, I clean this awesome cabin for a friend. It's just outside of Zion and is open to renters. It's so big and beautiful inside and lots of fun!

My friend Chantelle's birthday was in July and we decided to go up to the cabin and spend the night with all of the kids! We've been talking about doing something like this for a while and this made the perfect opportunity! We had such a fun time cooking an awesome dinner, making S'mores in the backyard, making this 7,000 calorie (or so...) yummy ice-cream cake, and putting the kids to bed and actually being able to hang out just by our selves- until 2 am or so! We had a GREAT time! We love these guys!

Making S'mores

Happy Birthday Chantelle!

The kids LOVED waking up in their jammies together and all eating breakfast. It made it all worth it to see how cute the kids were together!

Brent with cute "Kurt Boy"

We had such a great time up there! Thanks Blodgetts! :)

Family Reunion

2010-08-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

Someday... I WILL be caught up...

And I will post CURRENT photos...
PROMISE...
But for now...
Still catching up...
...sigh...

Back in July was the annual Corry Reunion.
I can't tell you how proud I am to be married into such a wonderful family!
I love them all so much!

We had a great time as usual up at the Corry Land.
I didn't take my usual 25,000 pictures... But I did take some... :)
We were in charge of dinner on Thursday night,
So we were all Matchy Matchy
:)

(Monica's mom came from Canada! We loved having her with us!)

We decided to camp overnight for the SECOND time ever with kids (The first was when Dallin was a few months old and did NOT go well... and we tried other times but didn't make it through the night...).
So we went all out and got a new tent!
And it ROCKED!
We had three rooms- one for the kids, one for us, and a middle one for our food, a table, toys, etc. It was paradise! :)

We had some of the usual activities:
Horseshoe competition!

With the best commentator in history:

And the cool fan club:

And Testimony meeting was wonderful! I love hearing the heart and soul of the Corry family!
(I didn't get any pictures except for one of the logs that Steve carved that we use to sit on... That will have to do...)

We also had the annual work project. Everyone in the whole family gets together for two hours and all take on a job around the property. The kids color quilt blocks and bring water to the hard workers. Wood is cut. Weeds are sprayed. Fences are fixed. Family history is shared. And something is always being built. They always come up with something great to put on the property to make it more fun.
A couple years ago, it was the Picnic Tables/Stage:
(That we use for the Talent show:)

Last year it was the Swing Set:

And this year, it was two huge Teeter-Totters:

SO FUN!!

A fun thing about the work project too, is that you always get paid, by the hour, as much money as you are old (up to 25). So Dallin was paid a total of $8.00 with his first check ever!
He was really cute when we took it to the bank to get it cashed:

We had a WONDERFUL time at the reunion!
AS USUAL!
Can't wait until next year!

Party Time!

2010-08-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Well... Anyone that knows me knows that Parties are a huge part of my life! :) I LOVE going to them, enjoying them, and above all- Throwing them! I'm pretty much a party throwing fool. :) Just wanted to share two that I've had fun with the last couple months...

*******************

First-
The Mother-Son Hoedown!

Even with a kid not officially in school yet, Dallin and I are still able to attend the annual Mother/Son event sponsored by the elementary school. Last year was a Carnival, and this year it was a hoedown! Somehow, I ended up doing all of the decorating, and some of the planning! I had a fun time with the cowboy theme! Here are some of the highlights...

We had a great spaghetti dinner at the "Wagon Wheel Diner"! There were amazingly yummy breadsticks too!

Cute utensils... and "Howdy" Straws! :)

You can't see them very well, but I found these awesome jugs in my basement! They are so fun and perfect for party drinks! (I've used them many times since too!)

Tables- they had fun crayons on them to keep the kidlets busy while they waited for food:

I drew Dallin and he drew me :)

A few other signs and places:

There weren't any events planned originally,
but what kind of boys don't want some games and competition??
:)
So I threw a few things together last minute-
Steer roping:

Horse shoe throwing:

"Pony" Racing:

And there was also a photographer taking "Mug-Shots", and some line dancing after dinner.

And after all the planning and decorating,
I was glad just to go and have fun with my little buddy!
We had a great date!!

***********************************************

And for the Second event:
And Eclipse Premier Party!

My awesome friend Marci and I never have enough time to hang out! I swear! I love her bunches and always invite her up here for shindigs, and vise-versa... but we just don't get to play as much as we'd like to! I was talking to her one night and she mentioned how she never gets to come to any of my parties... So I told her that I'd throw her one sometime...
And so the Eclipse Party idea was born!
I told her that when the movie came out, I'd come down and plan everything!
I ran with the idea and we ended up having a huge bash while we waited in line too see the movie! We were told we couldn't have any food inside the theater, so we parked ourselves RIGHT outside the door. :)

We had "blood" to drink:
(Rootbeer with Labels I made)

We also had a big tray of Jimmy Johns mini sandwiches with Edward or Jacob heads on them... You had to represent your team... :) For some reason I didn't take a picture of those... :( Kind of bummed...

(Eh hem... don't mind the necklace...)

And T-shirts for everyone I found for $1.00!

I also had a quiz, fun facts, and a "yearbook". The Movie Poster Prize went to the person who could name the most people (real names and character names).

Our friends behind us kind of got in on the action too! (Hi Kellie S.!) They went and bought some awesome cupcakes that all looked so good!! The top one is the "Jacob Cupcake", the white one with "blood" is the "Bella Cupcake", and the other one is the Alice cupcake. (They said the Edward one looked nasty- haha)

We had SOOO much fun! It was a MUCH needed girls night! And it was fun to hang out with great friends, My Mamasita, and my Shisher!
AND I must thank my husband who took BOTH kids overnight- (It was HIS idea!). I love you Honey!

*****************************************
I have some more parties in the works!! :) Stay tuned!

Patriotic...

2010-07-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

4th of July has always been my favorite holiday! We went to Cedar to celebrate with Jeff's family on Saturday, and then found out the city wasn't celebrating until Monday (after we were leaving!) It was kind of a bummer to miss out on the activities in Cedar and Orderville, but we had a great day anyway.
We took the kids to the Discovery park and had a great afternoon with them! We haven't been to that park in a long time, and it was a perfect place to go! I think it's my favorite park ever...

Then we had a great BBQ with Jeff's family, and ended up driving over to Parowan to enjoy the fireworks over there.

Then on Sunday, the real 4th, we went to our friends' house- the Roses, and had a fun party with them and their families-

BBQ, Lemonade, Apple Pie, Ice Cream, Sparklers...
All American! :)
Just the way I like it!

(Dallin picked out his outfit by the way- he was 4th of July Mario...)

PROUD to be an American.
Home of the free, BECAUSE of the brave!

Anniversary! :)

2010-07-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say that I

DON'T
love my husband as much as I did when I got married...

I love him 10 times more...

We celebrated our
5 year anniversary
on June 24th.

It's been 5 years of ups and downs...
one town.
one darn hunky husband.
two homes.
two beautiful kids.
5431 diapers
a few "disagreements" here and there.
And over-all...
a BEAUTIFUL life.

Thanks for everything My Honey!
It's been a great 5 years.
Here's to an eternity more!

Fun anniversary dinner at home:

Our Anniversary Suite:
(Thank you mom for our first night alone in 4 years!) :)

Pre-School Grad!

2010-07-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

My cute little man is a pre-school graduate!

Doesn't he look super cute in his little hat??

Dallin's graduation happened to fall on my birthday! So it was a great end of a day. The kids were so cute! They memorized some parts of a poem. Dallin had his memorized before he even brought it home! (This kid has a thing for memorizing!)

They also sang a few cute songs. Dallin didn't sing this one there, but he still gave a good show:

They had a slide-show of pictures from through out the year. It was kind of crazy to see how much he's grown in just a few months. Then he recieved his diploma and the families had root beer floats afterwards. Miss Suzie does a great job with teaching the kids! She has lots of fun activities! Dallin just loves her.

Love you buddy!

2.4.

2010-07-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

"Maayyy 17..."

I had a boyfriend in high school who wrote me a song for my birthday.
I don't think I'll ever be able to say my birth date without having this song come into my head. :)

I had a wonderful birthday. I have so many people who are so good to me!

~My friend Autumn threw me a surprise party the Saturday before and invited a bunch of friends over for a steak dinner~
~My mom and Darrell came out on Sunday and brought ALL of my favorites for dinner and dessert. I love that she knew what all my favorites were without even asking. I love my mom :)~
~Monday, my real birthday, Dallin made me breakfast. He was so cute with the waffles~
~Jeff picked up my favorite pizza and dessert pizza from Kanab that evening, and we had a really fun little family dinner- He always knows the way to my heart...~

(I think we blew out that candle about 17 times between all of us) :)

~My friend Ann also took me out to lunch a few weeks later for our birthdays!~
I had lots of phone calls, wonderful cards, facebook shout outs, gifts, and neighborly love all day (and after)! :)

I never thought I'd be where I am now when I was back in high school.
Never thought that at the age of 24,
I'd be a mom of two super cute kids,
have a wonderful husband,
Own a home...
in ORDERVILLE!
:)
I'm so glad things don't always go as planned.

Thank you for the wonderful birthday everyone! :)

Scotty Wotty...

2010-07-13T21:44:00.001-07:00

My brother is all grown up! He's always been my cute little baby brother, and now he's off to college, and soon- a mission! Totally weird...I love him to death! He's such an awesome kid! He has had tons of Scholarship offers to tons of colleges, Won Senator at Boys State and traveled to Boys Nation, Won Southwest Sterling Scholar in Science, Exec Council, rocked cross country and his fohawk, German Club pres, Made the lead roll in the first play he ever auditioned for, busted out this great voice that nobody knew he had... He's just a great kid! He's hysterical! Love him bunches!

My mom threw a big party for him with everyone in our family. There was great food! :) I made some little pictures to put in all of the sandwiches, and my Aunt Kate made these super cute cupcakes (although she thought our colors were red and gold- haha).

Kellie made this awesome video that she's been working on forever! It had a ton of clips from all of the talent shows and plays he sang and danced in, prom theme song he sung, and fun times with his friends. Also a ton of pictures! It was really fun to see his whole year kind of collaborated into a few minutes. I also made him this album with a poem talking about all the stuff he did over Senior year.

Look at how decorated this kid is! :)

With my parents:

Awesome Hefley genes we got there...

I love you bro and am so proud of you!
The whole family is!

So... P.S.... This picture was taken after Scott's musical in April... I totally think we all look so alike in this picture! Look at our chins! Crazy! :) Love both of you guys!!!

Traditiiiiooooooonnnn! Tradition!

2010-07-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

Our family accidentally started a new tradition this summer. :) We have so many beautiful places all around us in the Valley that we have never really been to, or have never been to together as a family. We also just got a little subway a few minutes away...

So we have started our "Subway Escapes"!

A few weeks ago, I was just itchin' to get out of the house, so we decided to take a drive and ended up at Subway. I was sort of busy with tourists, so we decided to get our food and keep driving. Well- we ended up out by the Sand Dunes in between Valley and Kanab. We had a fun little picnic in the back of our van and then found a fun little spot with TONS of that beautiful red sand! It was so much fun!

So now, we have decided to make it kind of tradition for every few weeks to go on a new "Escape". We went on one today in fact! But my camera died... It has been a lot of fun though!

Fieldtrippin'...

2010-07-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

Do I really have a son old enough to go on a field trip??

Apparently I do!
For the end of the year party for Dallin's preschool class in May, a few of the moms went with the kids to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.
They had a great presentation set up for the kids, and they loved it!
For anyone that lives close by, I'd definitely recommend taking the tour with any of your animal lover kids!
We went over to the Kitty Houses first. Each room had a certain color assigned to it with tons of kitties everywhere

We also went to the Dog house, where Dallin was excited to know that they have "Puppy Preschool". :) We found a cool place to have snack, and they brought out a great bird who was very fond of talking and dancing. Dallin got to hold the bird on his arm too! He thought he was pretty cool! :)

We went and looked at some more animals and had lunch in a beautiful canyon park in the middle of the sanctuary. A lady there did a great presentation with a book about the right way to treat animals and the proper way to approach a stranger dog. The kids really loved it!

I know that this is the start of MANY field trips to come! I loved being able to go and spend that time with him and his friends! I sure have a cute little guy! :)

M.O.M...

2010-07-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I get this really weird feeling knowing that I actually am a mom.
A mother of TWO children.

It's sort of unreal some days.
I obviously KNOW that those babies were inside of me!
But it's still sort of a crazy feeling knowing that I am responsible for these cute little guys.
I LOVE being a mother.
There is a certain kind of love there that nobody understands until they've experienced it themselves.
They are my world.
They are everything to me.
I love them and treasure them...
I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a mom, and have other moms around me who inspire me and help me along the way...

My own Amazing Mother.
My Sister Kellie.
My Grandma Apple Valley.
My Great-Grandma Ilean.
My Grandma Hefley.
My Grandma Gumball.
My MIL, Julia.
My SIL's, Judy and Monica
(and Lindsey and Laura- even though your kids are still coming- you are so wonderful with my kids! :)
And SOOO many great friends and Aunts who are wonderful examples.

We had a really fun Mothers day. We spent the day before with Juila in Cedar City, since she was flying out with Judy on Sunday to New York for their move. On Sunday morning we went to my Grandma's. My mom had the fun idea to make garden stepping stones for everyone. So we were out in the garage a good portion of the day figuring out how to decorate everyone's. My mom is so fun like that- I love all of her projects! :) I had a great day with everyone! :)

Just a little HOPE...

2010-07-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who don't know mine and Jeff's past dating history...
We met while we were both in a Show Choir at the SUU Institute of Religion.
It was called HOPE (Hear Our Praise Extend). It's was a fun show choir that puts on a big singing/dancing show that we would perform, and also sing spiritual numbers as well.
It was my first year, and Jeff's 5th! He was the president of the choir the year before, and wasn't going to do it another year, but I'm so glad he did! We wouldn't have met! :)
The Choir Director- Brother Mac (Ralph McAffee), had me try out, and put Jeff and I together to make part of the Choreography for our show. We had a lot of fun dancing and singing together. We have some awesome memories of those times. Kind of Cheesy? Yes... But definitely fun! :)

Well, Brother Mac finally announced his retirement, after many great years at the institute! HOPE Choir was around for 13 great years, and touched lots of people. For his retirement, lots of the past Presidents got together and rounded up as many HOPE Alumni as they could to come tho his final show. We put together a great book where most of us wrote memories, and came up to sing some of the past HOPE songs. It was a great night, and I think Brother Mac really enjoyed it! Thanks to everyone for putting the surprises together! We love you Brother Mac! :)

Jeff had a great time talking to 5 years worth of old buddies! :)

I thought I'd share some of the video I took from the last group to be with Brother Mac. Here's from that final show:

We miss you!

2010-07-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

My Sister and Brother in law (Jared and Judy) made a huge move a few weeks ago- All the way to New York! It's really weird to not have them and their cute kids around. Their son, James, and Dallin are super cute little cousin buddies, so it's been kind of an adjustment for him. We miss them tons already!

The first week in May, Jared graduated from SUU! He did a Great job! He got a special award from the outdoor rec. department for being amazing... :) We took a bunch of pictures of our familes out on the Quad. Trying to keep all the little kids from running after the Frisbees and footballs being thrown around was quite a task!

Jared and his parents:

Cute girl cousins:

Every year, Jared's parents through a huge themed party (My kind of people!) :), and this year they decided to throw a big Luau- as a family/graduation/going away party for Jared and Judy. It was so much fun! Tammy (Jared's mom) did an awesome job with decorations and food! They had a DJ there too.

Here's a bunch of fun pictures from the night...
Too bad I didn't get more of Allison Dancing- She was GOING TO TOWN! haha! I love watching her shake her cute bum... :)

Dallin and James doing the Limbo:

Our good friends- Jason and Jami and their kiddos:

We had a great time the whole weekend!
And we really miss you Jared and Judy!
We're excited for you to get your camera up and rolling so the boys can talk! :)
Love ya!

Easter...

2010-07-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

Easter this year was really relaxed and fun. It was fun to have it on Conference weekend, and be able to share the big weekend with lots of family. We went to Cedar On Saturday and St. George on Sunday. I wasn't going to do any big kind of Easter Baskets since we were traveling, but then, last minute on Saturday night- after the Priesthood session, Jeff and I took a quick trip to Walmart... (Gotta love Walmart!) :)... We still didn't do any thing big- New Sunday clothes and a book and treat... and the kids couldn't have been happier! I was really glad I didn't go overboard this year. I think I will definitely be keeping it simple like this every year...
Allison and her cousin Heidi in their Easter Dresses:

After having a yummy breakfast and watching the first session of conference at Jeff's Parent's house, we drove over to St. George and went to my grandma's house. We had a wonderful time over there as well- and again- relaxed and fun. We watched more Conference, had the little kids find Eggs, and talked and had a great time.
Walking into their Great-Great-Grandma Ilean's house...
So cute... :)

Allison and Connor in their cute matching Plaidness:

Oh- & My Grandma Apple Valley definitely got a visit from the Easter Bunny!
She showed up in this:

I wish I was on that Easter Bunny's list. :)

Memorial Day...

2010-05-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

Let us all be thankful for those
who have served our country in years past
to give us the freedoms we use every day...
And let us also be thankful for those who now serve our country
that keep it that way...
I honor you and give you my full support.
And for those families who have loved ones currently serving,
my heart is with you...
Let us remember those who are here
and those who have passed before us,
Serving our America.
We are truly blessed because of them...

Swagger Wagon...

2010-05-21T18:23:00.001-07:00

When I was in High School, my friend, Morgan Fielding, had the sweetest van around. A blue 94 Dodge Caravan with Wood sides, and the license plates said "BUPHBUNS". Totally Rockin' Right?? Instead of all carpooling to go to Wendy's in separate cars (what's the fun in that?), we all loaded up in her Woody Van and went all piled in together. Perfect High School Car...

Since that... I've been totally SOLD on the Van idea! My family makes fun of me because I've always wanted one! But Seriously... What's not to like?
It's roomy...
You can sit upright...
Sweet sliding doors...
Convertible seating...
Perfect for kiddos...

We finally put OUR "free"* Dodge Caravan to rest last month, and bought a 2004 Chevy Venture. So far, we LOVE it! :) It works great for us and our family! And I LOVE that I can open and close the doors with a push of a button. It's made me quite lazy. :)

So you can make fun of me that I love having the official "Mom Mobile"... But I'll still always stand by my Van! :)

And for those of you who are still not sold...
CHECK IT...

*("free" meaning- given to us... Quotations- meaning couple thousand dollars worth of repairs doesn't quite constitute as free. But still VERY appreciated! :)!)

Dallin's 4th Birthday...

2010-05-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

My baby is 4!

This cute little peanut:

is now my 4 year old ball of energy that constantly makes me laugh.
I love him so much. Few things I want to remember about him right now:

He tells me "Mommy?... I love you..." 10 times a day...
He has TONS of energy, but also loves to cuddle.
He loves Mario from Nintendo, can recite any theme music from any Mario game, and wears his Mario hat from Halloween almost every day...
Loves Mac & Cheese, chicken noodle soup, enchiladas, toast and "Hot Shakes" (Pediasure shakes in the microwave)...
LOVES to have races (but has to win!) :)
Favorite movies right now: The Furious Five, Alvin and the Chipmunks, And any old Disney VHS movies...
He's really into listening to books & songs on tape right now- Safety Kids & Lion King especially.
Dallinisms: "Bideo Games" (Video Games), "Kaninab" (Kanab), "Scripspurs" (Scriptures)
He CONSTANTLY is asking questions. About anything and everything!

****************

We had such a fun time with his birthday! I love that he's at that perfect age where he really gets into having a birthday party. He really wanted to have a Lightning McQueen party, so I was excited to run with the idea! :) We were going to have it in our backyard, but the day ended up being rainy and yucky, so we went with the back up plan (the church).

Invites:
Front and inside

When the kids got there, we had "Ramone's Body Art Paint Shop" all set up. I took a bunch of boxes and painted them white the day before, and TONS of little plates black. Then I set out a bunch of paint brushes and some plates with some colored paint, and let them go to town decorating their own cars. :) They were all really creative! :)

The Paint I got dried really fast, so right after, we did a "Radiator Springs Obstacle course":

1st- They ran through Sally's Cones at the "Cozy Cone Motel":

Then went around Luigi's Leaning tower of tires at the "Casa Della Tires":

And finally, they had to hop over the trash at Mater's "Salvage Yard":

The kids were really excited about it and wanted to do it a few times each. Then they went in a long train through the whole course again- Dallin was the leader! :)

After the Obstacle course, we played Sheriff's "Red light, Green light". (I forgot my circles, so painted a few plates real quick! :)

Then- we all took a trip over the "Flo's V-8 Cafe" to get a few treats:

Lightning, Mater, and Tire cupcakes:

Fillmore's "Organic Fuel":

And some of Guido's "Pit Stop Tires":

The kids also got to take home a bag full of Speedway popcorn and their own Piston Cup!

Dallin had such a fun time and talked about it for weeks! So it was all worth it!! :)

On his actual Birthday- April 2nd, we headed over to Cedar for Conference and I made him a birthday cake there... Again... Lightning McQueen! :) He helped me with the cake and it was a lot of fun to make together.

I just love my little guy to pieces and that smile and laugh of his just melt my heart. He's growing up so much lately... Learning so much... Growing taller... asking a LOT of questions about EVERYTHING! I love it...
Hope you had a wonderful birthday Buddy!

Birthday Date!

2010-03-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was so much fun! My friend Autumn and I decided it was about time for us to plan another fun double date. Since it was her husband's birthday on the 16th, and my hubby's birthday on the 25th... We thought we'd do something to celebrate their birthdays. The best part of the whole thing is that our husband were totally surprised by everything we did. It wasn't easy keeping a secret, but it made things a lot more fun!

We tried our best to make a MAN'S DATE... and I think we succeeded! :)

We started off by getting on our backpacks and leading the men outside to two four wheelers. That in itself made the guys really happy! :) We took off- one couple on each- and headed about 5 minutes away to a little place called "White Sands". It's just in the little "cove" behind the main part of town. It's a beautiful little place- we're so lucky to live right among it!

For the first part of the day, we showed the guys a little list that we had prepared:

The deal was that each couple had to take pictures doing all of the certain things named, and then meet back when we were finished. We split into separate couples and spent around 45 minutes driving around by ourselves taking pictures of each thing on the list. This was so much fun! Jeff and I had a great time by ourselves, talking and holding on tight to each other as we drove around! :)

It was a perfect day:

The other cute couple and wonderful friends-
Bruce and Autumn:

And my partner in crime-
My fellow date planner:

After "Completing our mission", we drove over on our four wheelers to another part of town (Mt. Carmel actually) and went over to the Old Rock Church for a steak dinner. Autumn and I had previously set it all up inside earlier that day. The men, again, were totally surprised!
Our theme was "Country Lovin' "... (I can't work without a theme- haha). We thought with four wheeler and steak- it definitely fit! :) We had the table set up and candles and lanterns lighting the way in. We also made a slide show for both of them and had a laptop all set up ready to go as well.

So... Just so you know- These are rootbeer and cream soda bottles... haha...
And funny story about the labels- I was trying to be all creative and make something to represent both of their birthdays- with LOVE FROM us... Instead I made them look like a wedding day label without meaning too- haha...
Oh well... It made for some good laughs...

The women cooked a yummy dinner:
(if I do say so myself...)

We all laughed a LOT and had fun, romantic day!

This is the video we made for the birthday boys:

We all had a wonderful time! Thank you so much guys for sharing the day with us!

And Happy Early Birthday to my Hubby and Late birthday to Bruce!

In the Mood...

2010-03-21T22:58:00.000-07:00

Every Valentines Day weekend, our stake has a big couples "Sweetheart's Ball". The theme is always a little different, but you can always count on a country fried steak dinner from Houston's, and LOTS of dancing! :) There is couples dancing all evening, but in between, every ward is asked to come up with some kind of dance to a style that they are assigned. This year, our ward was assigned Big Band Swing... and since I am the Activities Rep for our ward, I was in charge! :) I was SOOO excited that we were able to have this style- Jeff and I LOVE to dance any kind of swing! We worked for a couple of weeks on our number and I thought it turned out so cute! We danced to "In the Mood" by the Glen Miller Band, and decided to all dress 40's style! I am such a retro girl at heart and LOVE that era's style, music, history... everything! So this night was a lot of fun for me.

Thanks honey for
spending the night dancing away! :)

Karen & Scott... Shiree & Duke... Emily & Robert

Thank you everyone for an awesome performance!
We need to do it again sometime!!

St. Patty's Day...

2010-03-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Hope you wore green! :)

Our Missy Moo is One!

2010-03-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Our Allison Elizabeth is one year old!

Where did that year go?

Cute toes:

Things about our cute girl:

*She's definitely a Diva... She already has some attitude! :)
*5 teeth- three on top, two on bottom
*A little over 19 lbs
*Favorite foods- bananas, Nilla Wafers, Cheese,
Frozen Go-gurts, and Home-made Mac and Cheese
*She's been walking now for a month and a half...
*... And is now pretty much running
*Can say a few words (in her own way):
Mama, Dada, Da (Dallin) Day-Chew (Thank you)
Deese! (Cheese) Buh-Bye, Dat (that),
Nigh-Nigh (Night Night) Oww (outside)
*Still LOVES to play the piano, but is much more
precise... plays with one finger-one note at a time.
*Also loves anything to do with Music- She tries to lead the
hymns in church, Sings along, and dances in a circle...
*Holds up one finger, then says "Do, Eee" (two, three)
*Nods her head yes (Very Big!)
*Shakes her head no (Kind of bobs it from
shoulder to shoulder-very cute!)
*Loves her "babies"- feeding them and
pushing them in the stroller
*Always wants to dress herself
*Is very good at holding a pencil/crayon/pen
and coloring! She's detail oriented!

**************
Our Allie Bug is just so much fun! She's growing and changing SOO much right now! Getting so much more personality and being able to react a lot more to people and what they say. She's starting to understand everything you say to her and give an answer. And she DEFINITELY has her opinion! She loves Dallin and wants to be everywhere he is. Dallin loves to go in when she wakes up in the morning and just make her laugh and laugh! I love listening to them giggle in the car too, and can often find them back there holding hands. She's definitely still a Mama's Girl, but has that daddy of hers wrapped around her little finger... :)

We had a wonderful birthday party for Allison the day after her birthday. Friends and family came from all over to celebrate with us. We know our house is kind of "out there" for some- so we really appreciated everyone that made it!

I tried to plan ahead as best I could...

(Ok... Yes... that is a picture of how everything would be on the table... Admitting I have a problem is the first step to recovery... right? haha...)
And everything actually did run really smooth! Food was yummy (thanks everyone!). Home-made cupcakes were a hit (Strawberry Cream Cheese and Coconut!). Decorations turned out just how I planned them (Made everything!). Just a few details of the party:

Everyone was so sweet and gave Allison some really cute things! My great-grandma gives all of the grandchildren (I got one too!) a rocking chair for their first birthday! Love it! So perfect for her.

Thank you also to all of her grandparents that weren't able to make it! The things that you sent were wonderful! My kids are so blessed to have so many amazing grandparents!

We're so happy to have our sweet girl. Life wouldn't be the same without you!

Stay tuned for more pictures from her one year photo shoot!! :)

Murder Mystery...

2010-03-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, a few days before Valentine's Day,
Jeff and I threw a Murder Mystery Dinner Date for some of our friends.
It turned out so fun!
I set it to a "LOVE BOAT CRUISE" theme, since it was Valentines, and Jeff and I were the rich hosts of the cruise. We all ended up laughing all night and it was fun to do something different! It was so funny to see everyone get into their characters!
The Gang (with the babies):

Eating and Laughing! :

The settings:
I made the fork holders to hold up everyone's booklets :)

Jeff and I- the "rich" hosts...

Nathan and Rachel- Cop and gossip columnist
Karen and Scott- Mortician and Man Stud

Bruce and Autumn- the Avid Treasure Hunters
Brent and Chantelle- the Butler and Maid

Emily and Robert- Our Rich Diva Daughter and Her Obsessed Stalker
Marty and Ann- The Aspiring Singer and Famous Actress

Thank you everyone for coming!
We had a ball!!

Who's up for another round??? :)

2010-03-11T18:30:00.001-08:00

So there's a few videos that I've watched lately that I just think are super cool...
Yes...
This post is completely Random...
That's ok once in a while...
Right?...

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like:
(Jeff and I laughed so hard when we saw this! Love the last line.)

Super Cool Harmonica Dude:
(Hello talent!! This guy rocked it!)

We are the World 2010:
(Loved this- sweet rap interlude!)

Valentines is for the Birds...

2010-02-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

With Springtime just around the corner (I know... Wishful hoping...) I thought we'd do a fun Valentine's activity for our little birdie friends outside the window. Dallin had a friend over and we put these together for a little Valentines Party.

You will need a small bag of pre-mixed birdseed, Knox Original Unflavored Gelatine, A Plastic Mold, a drinking straw, and ribbon. Mix two envelopes of unflavored Gelatine with 1 cup of water. Simmer on low until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Stir in 2 Cups of Birdseed until completely mixed. Spray your mold with a coat of baking spray and scoop in birdseed mixture pressing lightly to pack down. We used a little heart mold since it was for valentines, but any type of mold would be cute! :) Cut a drinking straw in small pieces and insert into the top of each mold making sure the straw goes completely through. Leave the straw in and chill for 2 Hours in the fridge.

Stephanie Lynn at "Under the Table and Dreaming" gave a great tutorial with photos on our activity here (I forgot to take play by play photos myself)...

They turned our really cute and Dallin had a fun time. He loves to go outside to check how much the birds have eaten everyday too.

That's MY kid...

2010-02-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

I never thought that I'd ever have to have this kind of day...

Where it was MY kid...
MY kid to come home...

with a NOODLE up his NOSE...

Luckily...
Noodles get soft over time...

Family Fun Weekend...

2010-02-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Jeff and I had an awesome weekend with both of our families. We came down Cedar and spent the night there, and then went with almost his entire family (minus Steve and Lindsay) to the LDS Temple. Grandma Corry and Danny and Laura watched the kids in the visitors center while everyone went in to do some kind of temple work. It was so nice to go in and do temple work and not worry about the kids. Our ward was actually there doing Baptisms, so Jeff and I decided to join them in there. My brother also had a free day (which is very rare), and came over with us. We got to go into the confirmation room together. That was the first time I had ever been in the temple with my brother- so it was really fun! He's such a good kid! :) It was so wonderful to be there with Jeff's family too. I love that we are all sealed forever. :)

Cute Cousins:

Afterward we all went to Golden Corral- SOOO yummy! :) We had fun eating to our hearts' content! :)

Later that night, we went to my mom's house. It was my brother-in-law's 24th birthday (You're gettin' old man!) :)... My mom made an awesome dinner of "Cafe Rio" Pork Salad, and a yummy jello-poke cake! She's an amazing cook! :) We had fun playing Apples to Apples and making a lot of laughs! :)

The next day, we didn't really have much going on- so we gave my great-grandma Ilean a call and came over for lunch. Kellie, Connor and Scott all met up over there as well. My grandma made a delicious lunch (like usual). Scott decided to put on the record player and we started to look through some pictures my grandma had out. One thing led to another and we ended up going through her whole chest of old pictures and things. There were old newspaper clippings, and some of my grandma's old clothes. Baby clothes, documents and pictures from the war time and before. It was so awesome to look through and hear my grandma tell all of her old stories and her and my grandpa. I think it's a day that us kids will always look back on and remember!

We also took Dallin to my Great-Grandpa's grave for the first time. I miss him a lot.

We then headed back to Cedar since we had the Monday off and spent some more time with the Corry's. The next day, we got together some peeps and went to the church to play basketball. Everyone had a good time and it was fun to talk and have fun.

We were having so much fun and would have loved to stay longer than we did, but the weather was starting to get pretty bad and we knew we needed to get on the road. We decided to go through Springdale instead of over Cedar Mountain- hoping for better weather. We had just gotten through Zion National Park, when all of a sudden we realized we were overheating and had no power steering. Jeff and I are not really "car" people and had no idea what we were going to do. The kids were now awake and wanted out of their seats... But we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, on a dark night, in the middle of a snow storm. I started to kind of panic... and was trying to figure out the best way for all of us to stay warm enough. Amazingly... by an answer to prayer- we saw some headlights far off in the distance. We waited and realized they were coming our way. I tried to flag them down but they passed us... But luckily decided to turn around. It was a very nice couple from Boston who were headed down to Springdale for the night. The man had worked on cars a little bit and was trying to figure out what was wrong. We thanked them for the advice and decided to see if it worked as they watched us pull away. We started to go again, and realized that we were still overheating. The couple saw us pull over again, and came back over too us. The man said... "Ok... you guys have little kids. This isn't going to work. Let us give you a ride home." We were so Thankful! We couldn't believe that these total strangers were giving us a ride home- to a town that was going to be an hour out of their trip! We were so blessed with an answer to prayer and the generosity of this couple! We were also blessed with a great friend who was willing to go tow our van that very night (It was late!) before the snow piled up too high, and then fix it the next day. Thanks so much Bruce! We are very very thankful for wonderful people that were willing to help us! :)

We were also blessed with cute kids who had no idea what was going on, and were happy no matter what. :) (Dallin and Allison were both jumping up and down laughing)

Backtrack to Christmas...

2010-01-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas is such a wonderful time. Full of the Saviors love, family, and friends. Sometimes, it also can be a stressful time- worrying about presents, entertaining, and money. Hopefully, everyone was able to really partake of the earlier three, and try to forget about the latter...

This Christmas was really fun for us...

The first Christmas in our new home.
The first Christmas for Allison.
The first Christmas Dallin really understood things.

As some of you know, we celebrate "Christmas Adam". It's a tradition Jeff and I started our first Christmas together. Since we knew we'd be gone with our families on Christmas Eve, we wanted the night before (Christmas Adam- Christmas Eve... Adam came before Eve... :) Got it?) to be the night with just our little family traditions. So... Every year, we have celebrated this night. It is the night that Santa comes (Yes... we're privileged to have him make a special early trip) and we do our own little traditions together with our kids.
Dallin was VERY specific on what he wanted from Santa this year:
"A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with a glove balloon with Goofy inside and Mickey and Donald". (Thank you EBAY!)
He wrote a cute little letter to Santa and drew a picture of Mickey and wrote his name. He was very particular about the cookies too- The two red ones were for Santa, the blue one was for the reindeer to share, and the yellow one was for Rudolph. :)

The kids got in their cute jammies and headed to bed...

and didn't wake up until almost 10:00!
Jeff and I were more excited than they were! :)

*Just so you know... Dallin DID get the Goofy- but Santa brought it to Grandma's house the next morning. :) Ooops...*
Showing our Christmas Cheer:

Allison didn't understand why everything was in Paper... it took her a few days to really figure out what she was supposed to do.. :)

Later that day, we went over to Cedar to spend some time with Jeff's family. His Dad's family gets together every Christmas Eve and has a big dinner, acts out the nativity, and has a little talent show. Its a lot of fun to see all of his cousins and have a fun time with them. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera... arg...
Every Christmas Eve, Jeff's dad also reads a book called "Why the Chimes Rang". Before Jeff's mother passed away when he was young, she used to read it to them. It's a beautiful story about two brothers and their ultimate charity and love. After the book was read, we headed to bed.
The next morning was different than any Christmas I was used to. We all woke up. Read some scriptures. Talked. Ate a great Breakfast. And then we realized that there were still presents to open. We all were having so much fun together- we just kind of forgot. It was wonderful! We all finally rolled into the front room and had a fun time opening presents.

Jeff in his shirt I got him (isn't he hot?) :), and Dallin with MORE Lightning McQueen:

Later that Christmas Day afternoon, we headed up to Nephi to my Grandma Apple Valley's and Papa Bill's house. (That's not her real name... I just had so many grandmas when I was younger, and she just happened to live in Apple Valley at the time I came up with new names for them all :)... it just stuck). Almost the whole family went up the their house for a big Christmas dinner, presents, and spending the night. I didn't really take any pictures that either... (I didn't do too well in the picture department this year.) I did get this one of Allison and her cousin Connor though. Arn't they cute in their little sweatsuits? :)

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast and headed out with all of their snow mobiles to the near-by mountain. We all had so much fun! It was cold... but they had a little trailer with an awesome heater and hot chocolate! Mmmm! We all had SOOO much fun!

Me and my Allie-Bug... Jeff and I on a ride...

Dallin LOVIN' the snow...

My Mama, Kellie, and Me... Cute Mom and Darrell...

Kellie and Garrett... My Bro...

Papa Bill and Grandma A.V.- Arn't they cute?...
And My Aunt Kate and Cousin Brooke...

Dallin's obsessed with Hot Chocolate... Chillin' in the trailer...

We come back from Nephi on Sunday, stayed the night in Cedar, and headed home the next day after some grocery shopping. On Tuesday we watched Connor for Kellie and Garrett all day and night while they went to Brian Head for their anniversary. I'm definitely glad I don't have twins! :) He was really cute though.

Then on Wednesday, we finally got to have Christmas with my Dad. Kellie and Garrett came back to our house after Brian Head and my brother Scott was here also. We made a Ham dinner, and watched movies, opened presents, and talked. My dad also made a yummy waffle breakfast in the morning. It was really relaxing and nice. Again... I didn't take any pictures and I was really bummed. We only see my dad a few times a year... Luckily, Scott- who was riding home with my dad- forgot something at our house and I ran outside to snap a quick picture of them (and my dad's dogs) before they left.

We really did have a wonderful Christmas! We are definitely blessed with much more than we need and family so close. We are very blessed by the Lord. I'm thankful for him and this wonderful time of year we have to celebrate his birth.

U. G. L. Y...

2010-01-23T23:02:00.000-08:00

One thing I love to do, as I've mentioned before, is throw parties! Jeff and I decided that there wouldn't be anything better than throwing a party to try to get us unpacked. And it worked... For the most part. :) We decided to have an Ugly Sweater/Sweatshirt party. I was pretty excited. I tried to find some hideous sweaters here locally... but there wasn't a very big selection in our small little area.

I did find one of the ugliest Sweatshirts around for Jeff though! :) This was sure a doozy! A beard made of lace, with pearls stuck on all over with sparkly glue. Unfortunately, he wouldn't wear it. Thankfully my friend Ann was a good sport and modeled it off for me...

We had so much fun filling up our house with people and enjoying some holiday snacks! I think I'm due for another party here soon! :)

November in a Nutshell...

2010-01-23T21:24:00.000-08:00

November was quite a month.
Mostly full of'
Packing...
Moving...
Remodeling...
Cleaning...

But there were definitely some fun random times thrown in there!

1. Dallin looking so cute as my little Indian (with his friend Angela)
2. Allison turned 8 months!
3. Dallin went to the new fire station in town & tried on some gear.
4. She definitely became a girl on the go with crawling!
5. The kids having a ball "packing".
6. Thanksgiving outfits. So adorable! :)
7. Our little Missy already has a real love for the Piano!
8. Dallin enjoying Hot Chocolate at the annual town tree lighting.
9. Me and my Great Grandma Ilean after Thanksgiving dinner :)
10. My little fish! Allison LOVES the water!

November went by fast, but it was a great one full of changes!

Farewell!

2010-01-10T21:30:00.001-08:00

This house was home to many many wonderful memories to us!

I am so grateful that we found this home the first day we came to Orderville. Our friends Brent and Chantelle drove us around after the interview was over to show us some houses that were up for rent. We looked at a few that were ok... But the moment we saw this house, I knew I had to call the second we got home! I am so glad I did. We were there for 4 years and it definitely served us well. Plus, we had amazing landlords, that are now our adopted grandparents. There were so many fun little things about that home that I will never forget...

The AMAZING view off of my back porch. Dallin and I loved to go exploring back there in Norman's old barn. We always found the coolest stuff! And I loved our old fashion BBQ too! I never baked some bread in it like I wanted too... Oh well...

The sweet colors of the Kitchen. They actually kind of grew on me. :)

The quirks about the kitchen. I always thought this little shelving unit but the sink was so cute. :) But there were only three plugs in the kitchen and you had to use adapters on all of them. Also the washer was upstairs (you had to reach the cord across the kitchen to plug it in) and the dryer was downstairs! (OK... I am not going to miss that! :) The house was built before either of them were invented, so they tried to fit them in where they could.

The old fashion door knobs. The one in the bathroom had an awesome keyhole too.

All of the closet space! This house made use of every nook and cranny! If I ever build a house, I definitely learned a thing or two about storage!

My Front room. I loved it. Big. Open. Loved the huge front window. Both of my babies had lots of pictures taken in front of this window. It's a great "newborn baby" window because it lets in great light! Also loved the fireplace! That thing gave out great heat! And Dallin gave lots of great concerts on the step. :) Also loved the fun window on the front door. And the cool arch you went under when you came into the house. Always wanted to hang mistletoe there. :)

On the last day, after cleaning everything up, Dallin, Allison and I had a little picnic in the kitchen. Jeff was at school. :( But it was a fun little last memory.

This little home will always have a special place in our hearts!
Farewell 71 W. 100 S.!

Guessing Game...

2009-11-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

What did Jeff and Jenna do today??

Let's play a guessing game...
I'll give you three clues:

Clue 1:

Clue 2:

Clue 3:

???

We become official
Home Owners!!!

We are so excited! I can't believe we took this leap of faith! :) But how could we not? Everything fell into place to perfectly. We wern't even really looking, and this just plopped into our laps. We love it! 5 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.
3 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen and living room upstairs,
2 bedrooms, 1 bath, big family room, and kitchenette in the walk-out basement.
3 Almond trees, 2 Walnut trees, 5 Apple trees, 2 peach trees...
PERFECT!
(For us...)
We are so excited. The next two weeks are going to be CRAZY!! Trying to move, paint, put flooring, clean, etc... with two little kids... Sheesh... but it will great! :) Luckily, it doesn't need a ton of work... just things to make it our own.

We love Dale and LaPreal and are sad to see them go. They are both so sweet! But they are getting older and are moving closer to their kids.

On with the crazy next couple of weeks!! :)

Halloweening...

2009-11-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday, we started off the weekend with some Home-made Banana pancakes in the shape of Ghosts. They turned out Yummy!!!

We headed over to the annual Halloween Parade in the afternoon. Ever year, all of the kids AND teachers dress up and parade around the town to show everyone their costumes. It's a lot of fun. I love that everyone gets involved too!
*The first of the parade, and getting a witch kiss!*

We went down to St. George that evening, and got back on Saturday just in the nick of time for a little get-together and a little bit of trick or treating.
Jeff and I really like to dress up and have a fun time on Halloween. Why Not? It's one day out of the year. :) Dallin had decided and told us what were all going to be for Halloween back in June or July! So here we are- Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach... and Minnie Mouse! :) (Dallin actually wanted Allison to be Baby Peach, but she was a much cuter Minnie Mouse!) :)
Here's a few pictures of the Halloween night:

(Every time I wanted to take a picture of Dallin, He's strike this pose... :)

We had the Blodgetts and the Hepworths come over to have a some Pizza and to see everyone's costumes. It was really fun.
Brent was also Mario... This two make a lovely pair, don't you think? :) Awesome!

It was a pretty laid back "party", and the kids watched a movie downstairs, and decorated cupcakes...

My mom was wonderful and when she heard I was having a get-together, she made me a bunch of cupcakes, got decoration things for them, and got me a bunch of little things to put in Goodie Bags for the kids too. She's so great! I love her.
(Her and Darrell went to a "Roarin' 20's" Halloween Party and they looked really cute! Thought I'd share:)

We had a really good time all together for Halloween! Hope everyone had a great time too!

Changes...

2009-11-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Allison is changing so much lately! Her personality is so funny! Jeff and I will just be watching her and glance at each other, then just start laughing, because of how crazy she is! She's so much fun. She's been jabbering up a storm lately, and I think that she's been calling Dallin, "Da". She always looks at him, and says it and sometimes points. They are pretty good little buddies. She loves her sippy cup and freaks out if you take it away. She also loves to splash in the bath, Pat-A-Cake, and Miley Cyrus' song, "I Wanna Know You". Seriously. If we're in the car and she's crying, all we have to do is turn that on, and not one peep is made. She has the CHEESIEST grin that consumes her whole face- Eyes squinting, nose scrunched... Cutest darn thing. I really need to get it on camera in full swing. No teeth yet though. She's pretty clingy to Mommy lately... which isn't always the most fun thing, but I am glad that she likes me. :)

Allison finally started to get the crawling thing down at 7 1/2 months (after a couple weeks of trying). By the way... this toy in this video was 50 cents at a thrift store. I think it's the best 50 cents I've ever spent. She LOVES this thing!!

She also LOVES the piano. When she was born, so many people told me that she was born to play piano because she had such long fingers. They were right! :) She'll sit at the piano for sometimes 15-20 minutes- just playing and singing. I love it!

Pumpkins!

2009-11-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

We've had our pumpkins from our Pumpkin Party for a few weeks now, so I was really excited to finally do something with them. My amazing friend, Ann, stopped by on Thursday, and after realizing that neither of us had planned dinner yet, she was sweet enough to invite our family over to eat and to also finally carve our pumpkins!
Dallin wasn't too into getting the "guts" out again... But after that was over he was super excited to make a Spider Pumpkin (just like Brynn).

Ann helped him carve out a really cute spider and he was totally stoked! :)

Ann's husband, Marty, is such a hoot. He got out his drill and was happy to help with any part of the pumpkin carving process... as long as it involved making a hole with his drill. :) He said, "If it were up to me, I'd just make a pumpkin with a bunch of holes all over it"... Total Guy... :)

I made Allison's with two seed teeth... secretly hoping that it would send secret teeth vibes to coax her two bottom teeth out. We've been waiting on them for a couple weeks now and I'm sure she's ready for them to finally poke through (I definitely am!!)...

****************************
Then, On Friday night, Dallin also got to carve pumpkins with my family. My mom carved a pumpkin with him and she said, "Dallin, Let's make a Grandma Pumpkin!" Dallin answered, "Yes! Let's get some Grandma Glasses". My mom wasn't too happy with that-haha. Dallin had a really fun time though. (I didn't end up getting a picure with the finished product though) :)

My mom is really good with him. My mom is the QUEEN of finding little things at the Dollar Store and entertaining Dallin for hours! She's so fun. That night, she got these funny socks for him that are a bunch of different animals with little tongues that stick out. Dallin loved them, and hasn't taken them off since...

Pumpkin Party

2009-10-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

Every year, Our neighbors (and adopted grandparents), Barbara and Norman, have a "Pumpkin Party". Barbara goes all out and does different activities and menus every year. Last year, everything that was brought had to have pumpkin in it. This year she had a bunch of crafts for the kids, and a pumpkin Pinata. We also had a yummy dinner with the annual "Dinner in a Pumpkin", which is a yummy mixture of hamburger and veggies cooked inside of a pumpkin in the oven. It's SOOO Good!

All of the grandkids get to pick out a pumpkin from Grandma and Grandpa's Patch and take it home to carve. We got some cute pictures of our kiddos in all of the pumpkins. :) Allison sat there almost all night. She LOVED them! :)

Grandma Gumball...

2009-10-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

We wanted to tell my Grandma Gumball

Happy Birthday!!!!

By the way. You probably guessed that Grandma Gumball isn't her "real" name. :) When I was little I had a lot of grandparents, and couldn't keep them all straight with just "Grandma and Grandpa". So I had a few grandparents that I just made up names for, and they kind of stuck. :) Grandma Gumball had a gumball machine that I loved, so that became her name! :)

My grandma is such a wonderful lady and is AMAZINGLY talented behind a sewing machine!! She does all sorts of wonderful quilts (Miniture, Wall Hanging, and Full size ones), and has won many awards. Right now she is giving of herself by making "Beads of Courage Bags". This is what their website says to describe their program:

"Upon enrollment each child is given the Beads of Courage bead color guide with a detachable membership card. Their Beads of Courage journey begins when each child is first given a length of string and beads that spell out their first name. Then, colorful beads, each representing a different treatment milestone are given to the child by their professional health care provider to add to their Beads of Courage collection throughout their treatment as determined by the Beads of Courage Bead Guide (available from Beads of Courage, Inc.)
There are specific Beads of Courage Program Bead guides for cancer, cardiac conditions, burn injuries, and serious illness. All Program bead guides were developed in collaboration with experts in the field (nurses, doctors, child life specialists and social workers) so that each bead guide would reflect meaningful acknowledgment of a child’s treatment journey."

My Grandma has sewn over 350 bags (Lots more by now I'm sure) for these children to keep their beads in! Isn't it a great program?? One girl has 20 feet of beads! That is a LOT of procedures! But it's a great way for them to try to keep positive about their struggles.

Grandma- We love you and so wish we lived closer so we could see you. You are so wonderful, and hopefully we'll get out to Texas sometime so you can meet your cute grandbabies in person! :) We love you!!! Happy Birthday!

2009-10-17T10:50:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to tell my cute sister-in-law and hubby congrats on their new little one!

Janelle Kamry Robinson!

She's such a cutie and we can't wait to see her today! :)
This is Judy ready to pop a few days before:

Great Job Judy!! :) We're so happy for both of you!
You'll love dressing up your cute girl :) haha...
LOVE YOU GUYS!

Moves...

2009-10-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

So...
My kid has some pretty SWEET moves...
What do you think?

(P.S. Sorry I sound lame in the background.
I hate when I have a cute movie and I ruin it.
Just ignore me... haha)

times a' flyin!

2009-10-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

My little lady just turned 7 months this week! What's happening? Time feels like it's just flying! She's SOOOO close to crawling! She gets up on all fours and rocks, then walks up her feet and rocks on just her hands and toes, then does a "Superman" to get where she wants. I love watching her! haha. She really prefers to "walk" around the house with Mom or Dad, but she'll get there someday. She's babbling a lot and loves to eat Puffs and Baby Bananas. She has grown so much I just love being her mommy. (P.S. The Shakespeare Photo is for you Laura Webb!)

I realized the other day that I never put up all of her beautiful pictures that my wonderful friend Ann took of her. She's photographed both of my kids since they were first born and does such an amazing job. I love that she's always willing to try tons of fun ideas, and is so good with my kiddos. There were so many cute pictures from her newborn shoot... But I didn't post them because I was waiting until I sent her announcement out. Then I forgot to post. So this is my beautiful girl 7 months ago... when she was just a week old...

And this was her birth announcement that I made:

And here she is at her 6 month photo shoot. She was so much fun and ALWAYS had that tongue out! There are SOOO many pictures to post (she took over 400!) But here are some of my favorites. :)

(This is the same bucket that we used for Dallin's 6 month pictures)

Love the Spit bubble in that last one. :)

After a day of shooting Allison... We got also few cute ones of Dallin...

But he was pretty much done with all of that Girl Stuff... :)

Loves...

2009-10-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

I just absolutely love them...

That is all... :)

"Mr. Fat Fat..."

2009-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

To explain the title... this is what my sister Kellie, and her husband Garrett call their chubmyster. I told her he's going to get a complex someday... but for now... he's good. :) They blessed their baby boy, Connor Jaxon Thayer last month. He's such a cutie pie with the most darling dimples! :) Here's just a few pics real quick. :)

In his cute blessing outfit. Dallin actually had the same kind of outfit, but it was HUGE on him! Connor's chub fit into it just right. :)

Cute family! Don't you think he's a good combo of mom and dad?:

Garrett's mom, Kim and my great Grandma Ilean. Kim always does such a WONDERFUL job at hosting! :) She makes everything beautiful!

Jeff and I... TRYING to get a good picture... hmmm:

Cute Cousins:

My family is so blessed to be able to be so close and have 5 generations:

And here's all of us :)
(I realized that I need to get a picture with Allison and the 5 generations though, because then it would be all of the first girls down the line. :)

It was a great day... Can you tell?:

Growing up...

2009-09-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

My little guy is growing up...

*Sniff*...

I remember when he was just this little:

And how he's a big preschooler!

Dallin had his first day of preschool this month. I didn't think I would have a hard time, but I must admit, I could feel a little ball in my throat as I left him that first day.
His great teacher, Miss Suzie:

Sitting at his chair. The little girl in the background is his favorite. Her name is Kaitlyn and he calls her the pretty girl with the pink shirt and pink shoes. They play really cute together:

His "Locker":

We're having a hard time waking up to go, :) but once he's there he has a ball! He goes two days a week- just inthe mornings. He's learning a lot and having a fun time. He's always so anxious to tell me about EVERYTHING that happened on the way home. The other day, Dallin and I were eating dinner together and there was a lull in the conversation. All of a sudden he said, "Mom? Did you know Hippopotamuses can breathe and talk under water? I learned that at school". :) It so fun to see them grow and develop.
We had to make a poster together for their "getting to know you" week and Dallin was pretty proud of it. We went through magazines and picked out pictures of things that are his favorite, and then he picked out pictures on the computer that he wanted to use for the other squares:

New Ride...

2009-09-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

My kiddos have a new ride!

Compliments of
FreeCycle! :)

I've told quite a few people about FreeCycle before, and I just wanted to point out, AGAIN, how awesome it is. It's a wonderful site that has a goal to keep things out of landfills. Instead of just throwing it away, why not recycle it to people who could use it!? You join your local group, and receive emails of "Offers" and "Wants" for all sorts of things. If you are the first one to respond to the email, then you arrange a pick up place or drop off place... and that's it. You also try to reciprocate the goodness by offering things you have and don't need as well. Everything is FREE. :) Jeff and I have been fortunate enough to receive MANY different things: Big Freezer, 2 toddler beds (one for us and one for my mom), almost all of Allison's clothes, Lots of Dallin's size 2-3-4 clothes, double stroller, bread machine, decorative things for our home, fabric for my brother's Eagle Scout, a solid oak table (holds 10 and awesome condition!) for the Blodgetts, and more- for us and others! And now to add to the list, this awesome bike trailer! :) It's such a great site that I think reteaches the gift of charity. :) A lot of these things could be sold I'm sure... but they would rather give it to somebody who doesn't have the money for it, or trade for something else. Anyway- Check it out! It's an wonderful organization! :)

2009-09-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to tell my Grandpa Hefley

HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY!
This is from Dallin and Allison... (the end got cut off because Allison fell over- haha... He did a big Cheezy Grin at the end)

We love you grandpa and really appreciate everything you and grandma do for us! You are such wonderful grandparents, and are always so supportive of everythign we do! You never miss any birthday, anniversary, or holiday without sending a card and we LOVE that! :) It really means a lot. Wish I could be there to bake you a cake! :) We hope you have a wonderful birthday!!! :)

WE LOVE YOU!!!

***By the way, my Grandpa is one of the greatest Santa's ever!***

Doesn't he look amazing? :) He starts growing out his beard a few months into the year, and he is so genuine and sweet! If you live in the Orange County Area, check out his website: http://www.yoursantaclause.com/. He does all sorts of parties and events; from ward parties, business parties, and private home events.