Party Prep

A very exciting birthday is upon us.

Soren has been with us for one whole year, unbelievable as that seems, and the kids planned quite a celebration!

The weather was not in our favor, although it gave us a perfect reminder of when Soren joined our family last year. It snowed then as well. I have such strong memories of looking out my hospital window. I had a perfect view of the state capital building while snow fell.

However, Miriam and Bub had planned a Circus party for this occasion which included acrobats so the snow was not welcome.

The show must go on, even with inclement weather!

We've Got Annie

One of the mottos I try to live by: Experiences are more important than things (although sometimes things do create great experiences....like the Madsen). This motto is going to be used more and more as our toy closet gets smaller and smaller.

For Easter A friend and I gave our kids tickets to see the local production of Annie.

One of my Beehives played Duffy and did an amazing job!

Miriam loved everything about it. Larson (Miriam's friend) was enthralled by the set changes.

The two cute friends and one of the stars of the show.

Bunny Day Part 1

The traditional bucket head picture at the neighborhood hunt.

Unfortunately, this picture was taken before half of the other kids arrived, somehow I never got another one taken.

This is our third annual hunt.....the brunch gets better every year!

Cute kids & lots of fun.

Bunny Day Part 2

Cristin (see side bar for link) hosted a very fun cousin Bunny hunt party.

Lots of fun activities to keep the troops occupied before the hunt.

The Bunny hunters

lots of energy in this group!

(notice how the big guys and the littlest guys wouldn't participate in the bunny ears)

These guys ran around the yard happy as clams in chilly misty air.

There were so many eggs to find with such fun trinkets they were all thrilled with their finds.

Byron especially felt the magic of it all, he couldn't stop talking about how lucky he was to get "Free (3) ninja guys!!"

All these kids, all this fun and just one overflowed toilet. Cristin really does "embrace the chaos" as is her motto, and somehow she does it gracefully with style.

Thanks CPD & Crew!

Easter Sunday 2011

Cousins cute as buttermilk biscuits!

Anna got to sleep over at our house Saturday night.

We drove up to Grandma C and Grandpa B's house early to attend church with them.

An attempt to get a picture of the Easter finery.

Believe it or not this was the best picture out of 6. I should have known better than to sit them down and try to pose them....

thats much better.

Alicia and Tyler stopped by and we celebrated the birthdays that are coming up this week.

Ben is turning 11 and Soren 1

Yes, you read that right....Soren will be 1 this week! Also, Darin and I went to Ben's baby blessing the first year we were married! E-gads how time flies!

Soren took his first stumble steps a week or so ago. His newest trick is to stand himself up without holding on to anything. If he can just get those pudgy legs moving we will have a walker!

Sad Story

The sound of metal in the garbage disposal is harrowing. Reaching your hand into all that mucked up food is bad enough, but I always have this fear of it spontaneously turning back on. Like I am starring in a horror movie.

Gruesome, I know

This time it was even worse.

It wasn't a spoon, or knife I retrieved (after girting my loins and reaching into the disgustingness).

It was my grandmothers watch.

It must have fallen from the window sill when I wasn't paying attention. I have learned my lesson and give it to you as a warning: Do not take off your jewelry and leave it on the window sill when doing dishes.

This watch was beautiful. Dainty silver with a tiny mesh band. It had two small diamonds (not real I am sure) on each side, and the best part....it was wind up! No batteries EVER. Can you imagine? She gave it to me before she passed away.

I am still so sad.

When it happened just Bub and I were in the kitchen. I slowly realized what I had found and screamed "OH NO! OH NO!!! NO NO NO!!"

Bub jumped up alarmed saying "What mommy what!" I am sure I mumbled something about my watch and he dashed out of the kitchen.

He came back with tears in his eyes offering the old watch Darin had just given to him.

"I'll share Mommy! We can both use it! Don't be sad!"

I hugged him and we both cried for a minute.

I told him that people were waaay more important than even the most wonderful treasures, and as long as I had him I would be fine. He kept on crying.

Bub has such a tender heart.

Darin is really good at hiding it but he does too, and I shed tears at the drop of a hat. Byron inherited the ability to sympathize and feel things deeply from both sides of his family tree. It's a blessing and a curse...especially for a boy.

I just hope he can keep his sweetness as he grows. I know most boys deaden their emotions to be accepted in society.

Please Bub, as hard as it is to have, keep your tender heart.

Fiona-The Author

My friend Fiona and I have lots in common

We love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and serving in our LDS church

and we love to talk about it

We love nourishing our families with wholesome food

and we love to take about it

We want to raise happy, productive, children

and we love to talk about it

We love books, jewelry, gardening, canning, pedicures, walks, movies, traveling, spoiling our children, Dave Ramsey and natural childbirth. We have issues with fairness, politics, weight, education, Dave Ramsey (ha ha), and....of course, we love to talk about it.

We've solved the worlds issues in a million little conversations.

(still working on our own)

But we differ in some very important ways.

One of which is that Fiona is constantly thinking up story lines and screen plays in her head. When she does dishes or changes diapers her mind is thinking of characters, plots, soundtracks for when the movie is released. She is either reading a book, thinking about a movie, or writing one in her head.

My brain does not work that way.

Don't ask me what I think about while doing dishes....I have nothing to report

ANYWAY for the last year Fiona has been writing her stories down!

Her first completed book....her baby....her maiden voyage into writing is now an e book!

Okay...so I don't own a kindle, I haven't downloaded any e books so I am not sure how this works but the book is titled

GUARDIAN: GOLD RUSH

by Fiona Ostler

and her blog Klabbin & Fovin

Feedin' the Baby

I love breastfeeding.

Of course it's awful at first, but some of my sweetest moments are middle of the night feedings.

I'm deliriously sleep deprived, and high on that feel good hormone (oxytocin I think?) I gaze down at the baby while stroking their little body and feel overwhelmingly tear-inducing, heart wrenchingly, happy.

With Soren I had a BAD hormone induced sleep problem, we are talking 45 min to an hour of sleep a night for 4 days bad. Those 45 min. usually came only while nursing Soren (and twice when Darin was able to calm me down). I feel like I owe my sanity to breastfeeding and Ambien (and Darin who fed the baby while I was in an Ambien coma).

And then those babies grow, and that hormone lessens.

But by then it's so easy and convenient.

And still such a special time for me.

Soren holds my hand and reaches for my hair.

He has a winnie-the-pooh blanket that he rubs on his cheek, sometimes he will reach it up to me to rub on my cheek. If there is a child who will inherit my hair twisting habit I would bet it will be Soren. We both adore the feeling of softness on our faces.

However, Soren is growing up, so we have been moving on.

We have been introducing foods for a few months now and Soren LOVES it!

The other two love it as well!

Thanks to Soren's adorning brother and sister he has already been introduced to peanut butter and honey, chocolate, and shrimp scampi.

Spring Break-The End

So....day 3 of Spring break was again nice weather.

We had friends over all day, and then rode bikes with friends in the evening.

I got nothing done....Seriously. Not.One.Thing.

But we had fun.

Day 4 the snow/rain begins.

We again have friends over all day, only this time they are IN our small home all day.

Again. Not one thing done.

Maybe the kids had fun, but I didn't have fun.

(A frustrating mix of entertaining and shushing while Soren naps)

I decide we will be signing up for lots of summer recreation classes.

Day 5 it snows/rains again.

Oh Mercy.

Day 6

Girls Day out! Hooray!

So much fun.

I didn't mind the rain at all.

Thanks C & M!

Spring Break-Day 2

Morgan's 8th birthday party.

You may remember Morgan...she started out as Emma, then became Emily, then Karen and is now Morgan because it means "from the sea" and is also a character in the Magic Tree House books, of which M is a fan.

My friend Fiona just had her fourth baby, her third beautiful boy. We stole Ivy away from her brothers for an American Girl Day. It wasn't a total girl day since Bub participated. Coincidentally, his yellow Chevron car shares Morgan's birthday (turned 3) so he was right in the action. Although when the fashion show and dancing began Bub hit the back yard to find bugs.

Miriam is lucky to have such a sweet friend.

Spring Break-Day 1

First Adventure - FRONT RUNNER

Our kids first experience on a real train

(as opposed to the homemade buckets with wheels at fairs)

Second Adventure - Old Town Trolley in Ogden

We planned to walk 3 blocks from Frontrunner to the museum but there the Trolley was....free and waiting, with a stop in front of the museum.

Third Adventure - Tree House Museum

Miriam has been asking to go back since her class went on a field trip last fall.

Medieval Fun

Puppet Fun

Space Midget Fun

Ruler of the Free World Fun

George and Martha Fun

Laura Ingalls Fun

Native American Fun

Third Adventure Not Pictured - Picnic and ice cream at Farr Ice Cream

Darin loves the licorice ice cream there, Bub is a fan of Play dough, Miriam went for a lime rickey (which seems to be grape and lime sherbet), I stayed with tried and true peanut butter chocolate. When you are on an all-day adventure with a 0-year old, you need a chocolate break.

We were back by 4 pm exhausted and triumphant.

Conference Weekend

We experienced a true Utah Spring over the weekend.

Family bike ride Friday evening in the sunshine.

In between Conference sessions we flew M's butterfly in gusty overcast skies.

She was thrilled.

He was pretty darn excited as well.

Darin was the hero of the day!

Sunday we woke up to snow. Watched it rain, and then snow, and finally hail from our cozy couch while listening to our Prophet and Apostles. We never left the house. Just listened, ate brownies and napped.

I have to admit, days like that come at a price for me. I feel boxed in and irritable when I am home all day with the kids following me around from room to room. I always try to hide at some point during the day only to be found within 10 min. I know I will someday miss them coming to find me, fighting for my lap, asking to help with everything, but that knowledge doesn't really help when I just want a moment to myself. Darin let me skulk off during the Sunday afternoon session for the best nap of my entire year. I was alone for over an hour before anyone came to find me.

No guilt about it, just complete gratitude.

Highlights for me:

Elder Kent Richards - Trials

Of course Elder Quinten L. Cook - All about how great women in the church are. How could any woman not love that talk?

Elder Bednar - Inspiration from the Holy Ghost