My boy

Is it really even fair to declare ownership over a human being? I'm so glad to be his mom. I love when he wrestles with me and actually uses his head as a weapon which totally works. He just tucks his chin under and pushes against you and rolls his head around until you submit to his awesomeness.

He fell asleep in the car on the way home today from John McNairy's baptism. It was 2:15 pm - a full 2 hours and 15 minutes past his optimal nap time. He made himself known, that's for sure. You know you have a tired and cranky child on your hands when even Nana says he needs to take a nap rather than stay up with her. But he got some wah and got his B and cuddled with his ganket and he was asleep. And when I laid him down in his crib on his stomach, he pulled his knees into his chest and crossed his ankles and put his bum-bum in the air. I love this boy.

You can't defeat me. You're just a big. Fat. Panda.

I'm not a big fat panda. I'm THE big fat panda.

We chapandaroned the stake youth dance.

Petting Zoo Escapades

Nana & Papa hosted us at Gardner Village.

The petting zoo was the main attraction. Johnny could not seem to get enough. He tried to touch every moving thing he could.





Including Spiderman who did not want to be touched. Just back off, Batman.

Super heroes at play.

Super heroes taking a break.

Good things come

to those who wait

My girl taking a cat nap.

And waking up for a stretch.

I am seriously contemplating investing in a petting zoo in my backyard. 0.26 acres has got to be enough for at least one goat, one pig and one small pony, right? Thank you, Nana & Papa!

More cowboys

My cowboys

Off to the Races again

Tom Felt is our uncle, Kathleen's brother. What a great man. Besides being a great race car driver (and winning a spot on the pedestal when he thought he would only take 5th in the stock car race) he is a good man. He is kind and generous. He is smart. And he is a supportive dad. I'm grateful for good examples in my life and Tom is one of them.

When Tom was young (he is a twin, the youngest of 12 children) he would hear his mother tell him they were rich in love. Tom said, "Well, when I grow up I want to be rich in love AND money". He got an early start on the money making side of things when he went door-to-door as a five or six year old. He took (stole) soap from his mother's food storage supply in the basement and made a sign: Bars of soap 10 cents each or 2 for a quarter.

Johnny learned a lot from Tom. Tom drove down to Mexico with his kids for a humanitarian project and let Johnny come along as a teenager. Johnny just picked his brain for the entire 15 hour drive on how things are done. Tom was generous with his expertise. Johnny came back from Mexico a smarter guy and with his family's help, Johnny found, fixed and flipped a home to pay for his mission. Thanks for your generosity, Tom and congratulations on your big win.

Fall Fest

Nana hosted the boys for pumpkin painting and cookie making. She bought wood pumpkins a couple of years ago in anticipation of grandchildren that were old enough to paint thm.

Painting required stripping down to their birthday suits. It's totally unfair to post this picture of Lance in a pull-up because right now he is officially potty-trained!

The sugar cookies tasted good and 350 degrees for 8 minutes kills all of the boy germs, right? Oh, Johnny boy, I didn't mean to insinuate that you have germs. Please forgive me. I'm just saying that when you touch the inside of your nose as often as you do and you lack the coordination and cognitive skills to wash your hands on your own you probably aren't going to have clean hands 100% of the time. No offense intended, love.

In Johnny boy's own words, "Gake you, Nana!"

Maakoa Madness - This could go all the way!

Y'all ready for this?

Johnny and his mom and his sister and brother and uncle and more uncles and lots of other people within his network are working on a new business. Maakoa.

I opted out of the 2 day seminar to celebrate the launch of the juice that tastes better than all the other juices. After having it in our home for a few months, I finally tasted it. Even though I missed the classes, I decided not to miss the dinner (lobster & filet mignon) or the entertainment (comedy & acrobats). It was so fun. Johnny had so much fun he couldn't keep a straight face for a picture.

Take 1

Take 2

The ladies found their smiles. We've got something to smile about. Mom won a vision award - for working hard and being willing to do the hard stuff. Way to go, Mom. She even invited Bryon Russell to dinner. He tried to make some sort of excuse about needing to catch a plane and living out of state. Come on, Bryon. We all know if you can play defense against Michael Jordan, you aren't going to let something silly like hundreds of miles keep you away from accepting a dinner invitation.

It was fun to pretend to be someone else for the evening. Kristin has 2 kids as well but she loves to clean her house and put a healthy dinner on the table every night. Too bad Kristin only made a one night appearance.

Who can say that they borrow clothes from their mother-in-law? Kathleen always has the right outfit and looks fantastic. I can't borrow Collette's clothes because my body is a tiny bit bigger than hers. But I will take it as a compliment that I was considered in the search for who borrowed her size 2 black pants. Here are the girls looking good at the dinner.

It was so fun to be together. I finally see the need to date your spouse. I used to think, "Whatever. He works from home. We eat lunch together every day. Dates don't matter." But this night out together was so fun. I can't wait to do something else fun together.

Deja vu

General Conference 2008

General Conference 2009


Thank goodness that because of TiVo and the internet instant replay the old adage does not apply, "You snooze, you lose". We do not measure spirituality by wakefulness, but we do observe that the girls were awake this time.

On a bicycle built for 2.5

Nana, Camille, Katie and I went with our respective offspring into Provo canyon on wheels. Bike trailers made it possible to cart everyone along.

Subway made it possible to hang out in the park longer because we had food to eat. And Duck, duck, goose made it possible to watch our cute boys (and Nana and Katie) run around in circles. That smile makes me melt.

These girls are too cute. She and Afton are obviously shocked at something out of the line of vision of the camera. It looks as if there was some sort of announcement that milk was being taken off the menu. Shocking, but don't worry girls.

The past 6 months has been an experiment in time passing at warp speeds. Remember when you were 13 years old and all you wanted was to be 16 so you could drive or 18 so you could do whatever you wanted, like eat cookies and cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Evelyn's 0.5 mark has snuck up on me. I know she will be a year so soon and it's so exciting knowing that she will just get to be more and more fun.

It's fun to ride on a bicycle every once in a while. Nana is the pro with her 103 mile race being over and finished, but she still rides. There's something about the wind in your face and the leaves changing colors in the canyon and every once in a while sitting up and taking your hands off the bars just to confirm that you can still ride with no hands like when you were 10 years old on your ten speed around the block at dusk on Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

These legs are way too white for just having finished summer. True confessions of how much time I spend in the tanning bed.

Harvesting from my garden of kinder

One time I got to pick up my nephew, Isaac from school. It is a darling brick building with teachers that double as traffic flow coordinators who care way too much about which car goes where in the afternoon chaos. Don't they know that we are adults here? We could just figure out how to get out of the horribly engineered parking lot on our own and probably faster than they wave us through in take your turn lanes.

So Isaac is an official kindergardener. He is SO darling. At my house, I was mortified when I saw a little mouse run from the basement to behind the couch. Isaac made an astute observation.
I: I see what your problem is.
Me (in my mind): Please tell me you only see one problem with me.
I: You've got a mouse because you've got fishy crackers all over your kitchen floor.
Me (in my mind): Please don't tell your mom that I haven't swept my kitchen floor in a month.
I: Fishy crackers are made of cheese and mice love cheese.

So Isaac came with me to do errands and listened as I made my list.
Me: 1. We're going to get wood.
I: Wood? Why are you going to buy wood?
Me: I'm giving it to a girl for her birthday. (I put her name on it in vinyl and painted it)
I: That's crazy. She doesn't want wood! She wants toys.
Me: 2. We're going to get weed killer. 3. Mouse traps.
I: You need more than three mousetraps! You've got a herd of mice at your house. That means we need about one million traps.

I love this kindergardener.