Corinne and Brooke

Corinne and her little baby Brooke came for a quick visit from Seattle. She was Jason's best friend in elementary and Jr. High, then when Jason and I started dating in high school I took her over and she became my friend (although her and Jason are still close), then her and her husband moved into our building in Provo after they got married. We were sad when they moved to Seattle, but were glad she could come visit.

We could not get a good picture of Brooke and Noah. They are 6 months apart but will be in the same grade in school.

Play Group

My friend Karli does a play group once a week. It is funny because there are 4 or 5 women/mothers in the group and the ONLY connection we all have is that we all know Karli some how. There is Karli, Me - a childhood friend, Rachel - a friend from Karli's nursing school, Sundie - a friend from their Salt Lake ward, and then a friend or 2 from her current ward. But now we are all good friends and it is so fun to get together every week.

I know I have mentioned on my blog before about how amazing Karli is and how much I look up to her and try to emulate her. I have been thinking about her life lately and would just like to outline it for you (I hope you don't mind Kar). She has 2 kids and is pregnant with her 3rd (she will have 3, 3 and under), her husband is in law school, she works full time as a nurse, she is in the primary presidency, she organizes a play group every week, I know she cooks dinner most (if not all) nights, her house is always clean, her kids are always behaved and super smart, I know she always does her VT and reads her scriptures and goes to the temple, she does individual scrapbooks for each of her kids and she is all caught up, she actively works on her food storage and emergency preparedness plans (updating, going to the cannery, etc), she often organizes scrapbook nights, they often have other couples over for game nights where she always has dessert prepared, and she does way fun activities for her kids everyday. And she does all this seemingly easily and happily. I am really not exaggerating on any of these points - I am always telling myself, "Karli could do it".


Anyway, that was my long intro for this way fun activity she had last week (did I mention she was leaving for Lake Powell the next morning, her daugther was throwing up, and someone forgot the slip'n slide - so she just "whipped one up").

Farm Country

It was our first visit to Farm Country this summer at Thanksgiving Point - we went with a play group. Brock loved riding the pony this year - he talks about it almost every day now. Noah loved all the animals and wanted to pet all of them. Brock, was of coarse, more cautious and just wanted to observe the animals - all the other kids were feeding them corn, Brock was a little too nervous.

The kids in the play group.

A little too friendly

There was a cow at Farm Country that had some boundary issues.
Payton Bell
He just loved Noah's feet




Noah got brave enough to pet it - he actually tried to pet every animal - he is fearless!

You may be wondering why I was just taking pictures and not stopping the cow from attacking my baby. Well... I thought it was cute and funny, and so did Noah - so I let it ride.

Mother's Group

Our ward kind of has a mothers group. For the last little while I have been the only mother with a toddler and/or with 2 kids - so there hasn't really been a need for one. But some of the "babies" of the ward are growing up so this last week the leader planned a pool party. It was fun, and it was nice to get together with some other mother's and children in the ward.

Noah and Brock really couldn't be more different on how they approach activities, toys, and especially water. Brock is very cautious with everything, he likes to observe for about 15 minutes before he ever participates in something - and if it makes loud noises or quick movements, well.... you can just forget it. Brock plays "appropriately" with water. He will stand in it, maybe sit, and lightly splash. Noah, on the other hand, dives right into any activity - he loves to explore and investigate - especially when it comes to water. Noah does not mind getting splashed in the face, he actually quite likes it, and is always up for a dip in the pool. He seems to be a lot more adventurous and has a "loving life" kind of attitude.

My new favorite place

Last year Brock and I went to Bridal Veil Falls a few times - but we never made it up to the actual Falls because I assumed that it would be dangerous and not worth the trip - so we always just stayed down on the trial and threw rocks into the river. Boy did we miss out on some fun! Last week we went all the way up to the falls and it was so great. It has the cutest little pond with really slow shallow water with a TON a perfect throwing rocks. We have been up about 4 times since then.

Brock showing off his rocks!


Isn't that a great expression on Noah?!?




When I first put Noah down he of coarse ate all the rocks - but after seeing Brock throwing the rocks he felt inspired. He threw more rocks than Brock. He would get so excited to see them go into the river - he would scream and shake his hands with excitement every time!

Happy Fourth of July

Not a very exciting one for us - but it was nice to just relax and have Jason home for Friday.

undeserving

Jason is under a lot of stress right now and has been for the last little while. Things have not been turning out the way he/we had hoped with his job and he is having to make a lot of crucial decisions. All of these things have been weighing on him. With all of this going on I have to admit I have not been a very good wife. I am embarrassed to say that for the past few weeks I have been quite demanding, whiny, complainy, cynical, argumentative, and sometimes flat out selfish. And what does Jason bring me home last week?

These.



I couldn't believe it. I KNEW how undeserving I was. It was embarrassing to even except them. I told him that wives like me did not deserve roses like that and that he should give them to me when I start acting the part. He, of coarse, completely disagreed with the fact that I had been a bad wife and told me how wonderful and supportive I was, and how I deserved these flowers. It was a very humbling day to say the least.

The worst part is I still find myself being negative and unsupportive the last few days - why?? When did I get such a quick tongue and negative attitude? I need help.

Brock still loves to give Noah balls

Noah did not like it so much.

Rainy Days

We had a lot of rainy days in June. Noah loves to be on the balcony - as soon as he sees the door open he drops what ever he is playing with and bolts for the door. If you close it before he gets to it or if you pick him up - he starts screaming - actual tears and everything - it is quite the show.

It is strange seeing your second child wear clothes that your first wore. It literally seems like just yesterday Brock wore this hat and jacket.

Have I mentioned my kids just love sitting on the porch - we need to move to the south.

Have you ever seen as sweeter boy?

Provo Carnival

There was a carnival in Provo a few weeks ago. We went because I thought Brock would have fun. The jury is still out.

Brock is pretty sensitive when it comes to loud noises or moving attractions. He scares very easy; but he wants to be a big boy and he wants to act tough. Every ride he said he wanted to go on, "ride horsey", "ride apple", ride car" - but then EVERY SINGLE ride, as soon as we got on it he would freak out and say "off", "off", "off". I obviously don't want to traumatize the kid, so I have to ask the attendant to stop it to let us off. But then after we got off he would say proudly, "I rode horsey" or "I rode apple."

Sure you did Brock, sure you did.

This picture basically sums it up.

Follow-up

Note: Scroll down and read my previous post before reading this one to get full understanding

After I posted about my best 'good day' - I thought - I wonder if I blogged about it when it happened. I checked my blog archives - and sure enough I did. It is funny - I wrote almost the same thing. If you really want to see it you can click Here and scroll down a little. Or read below for the jist. (the link does have more fun information if any of you really care :)

"Some of my most favorite moments with Brock is sitting on a blanket sharing a picnic lunch. He holds the sandwich and he shares with me. It is so cute. He takes a bite, then he gives me a bite, and so forth. We just sit there for about 20 minutes sharing the lunch and "talking" - the other day we were doing this and I thought to myself - "you are my best friend" - I don't know if that is sad or not :) But I just have so much fun with him, how could he not be!"

haha - at least I am honest and consistent

My best 'good day'

After my previous post last night I started thinking more about 'good days', and I mentioned that I could not capture the emotion in a picture. Than I remembered my best 'good day'. This is a day that I will always remember as complete and utter pure joy. It was July 2008, Brock was 15 months old and I was about 7 months pregnant with Noah. We went up to Sundance with a picnic lunch to escape the heat. Nothing grand happened to make it the most perfect wonderful day of mothering. Brock and I just sat on a blanket under a big tree right next to the river- there was a nice cool breeze and no other people around - we just heard birds and the sound of the river. Brock was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and was kindly sharing it with me - one bite for him one bit for me. He has always been such a good boy - happy just to sit and spend time with me. It is weird to think back to the days before he could talk because I feel like we sat on that blanket and talked for hours. Truly no words were exchanged, but we definelty heard one another. We were just playing, eating, and laughing - I remember vividly looking at him and thinking "you are my best friend". I still feel that way (I am torn between if that is endearing or pathetic?) I don't even really remember having my camera that day or wanting to take a picture to 'capture the moment' - but on his second birthday I was going through his pictures and found this and immediately all those emotions of that 'perfect day' stirred inside of me. This is MY picture of Brock - this is how I will always remember him.

Good Days

You know those days when everything just seems perfect? There are times when I am playing with the boys, usually just simple stuff: reading books, building with blocks, playing in the parking lot, and my heart just swells with joy and happiness and I think to myself, "This is a good day." It is those moments that make all the other moments worth it; when you just want to stop time and pray that this moment will last forever.

I actually am blessed to say I have more "good days" than not. It actually takes quite a lot of "stars aligning" to make a good day. The formula usually consists of this: all three waking up early and happy, a good breakfast, cleaning up breakfast as soon as it is over, getting to the gym by 7:50 am - but before leaving for the gym the house is clean, my bed is made, and the boys are both dressed for the day, Noah goes down for a nap right after the gym, I take a shower and get ready while Brock plays, Brock and I pray and read scriptures, the house is again cleaned and I have the diaper bag packed and ready to go out for an activity by the time Noah wakes up around 10:30. If all those things get done, or at least a majority of them, I know it is going to be a "good day". And some days none of those things get done, and they are definitely "bad days" - on those days I usually give up and say, "I will start over again tomorrow, we will just make the best of today." Then we head outside so I don't have to face my messy house.

But back to the good days. This day was an exceptionally good day. So good infact I tried to capture my feeling with photos - of coarse it did not work - I don't think you can capture that feeling - but at least I tried.

We were down in our parking lot...

Noah was playing on his blanket...

and I got the hose out for Brock - he likes to take his animals swimming and throw rocks in our make-shift river. (This is actually a daily set up for us)

Yes, it was a good day.