Boating

Probably one of my most favorite things to do is boating. Which is weird because I never get to go. My family doesn't own one, I grew up just going about once a year when my grandparents would take the whole extended family to Flaming George. But it is one of my most favorite things and one of my goals in life is to own a boat.

Anyways, I asked my grandparents to take my family boating before summer ended and they agreed. We also had Katie and Audrey along as well (My sister and niece). It was a lot of fun.

My men - we left Megan at home. She would have been NO fun

The boys getting ready to watch me ski. Brock was VERY concerned about me being in the water. He thought is was very dangerous and did not want me to fall and get hurt.

Our flag holder... Miss Audrey

Life jackets on kids are funny

Noah really wanted to get in the lake. From the moment we pulled up to it he said, "I need to get in water". So we threw him in with me - he was SHOCKED at how cold it was - way funny.

Brock, however, had no desire to get in. But once we were home he said his favorite part was swimming in the lake.

Auge on the tube

Surprisingly both my kids wanted to tube.

EVEN Brock. Here is me and him getting ready...

And tubing... at about 5 miles an hour...woohoo!

Me and Noah

Brock with his Great Grandpa Brown

This is actually the same life jacket I wore when I was Noah's age. He actually looks a lot like me in this picture. I have an almost identical picture somewhere... I may try and find it. I sure hope safety standards haven't changed in the last 20 years :)

Katie and Audrey

And one of the fam.

And if anyone can tell, my kids were in DESPERATE need of some hair cuts. Some of you may have notcied Noah's cut in his previous "birthday" post. I thought I liked my boys' hair long, now that it is short I can't stand to look at the pictures of long hair. I think I will keep them short for a while.

Noah is 2

Wow! To be honest I feel like Noah has been two for quite a while. Developmentally he is far past where Brock was a two. Plus, Noah's birthday (and due date) always sneak up on me - I think, "oh his birthday isn't until fall that is a long ways away" and then BOOM there is it. We haven't had a party for him yet - but I still wanted the day to be special. So I organized a few of his favorite things.

#1 - Noah loves to jump. He thinks the whole world is a trampoline. He just jumps up and down on the floor... strange. So I took him to Kangaroo Zoo in American Fork. He loves it, and two is a great age to go because they can finally do all the things themselves.



I invited some of our best friends, Currens and the Braleys, and both the older girls were in school so we made it an all boys trip - which was great since it was Noah's birthday.


Plus one cute little girl!



Me and the birthday boy. We also took Brock to Kangaroo Zoo for his second birthday. Click here to see me with that two year old or here to see the whole event.





A failed attempt at getting a cute picture of my handsome two year old.


Then we did a special mom and Noah trip to the pool. My mom watched Brock and Megan so I could have some much needed alone time with Noah. Being the middle child right now, he rarely gets the alone time he deserves, I am going to start making sure this happens more often, it was so much fun.











Then we went to an ice cream shop for dessert with my family (thanks mom). Ice cream is Noah's favorite dessert, he likes it best cone style, but sadly they didn't have any, but he will take it any way he can get it.




I absolutely adore Noah. He makes me smile and laugh everyday. I am working on a "10 reasons I am in love with Noah" post - I have the ten things, I am just trying to get pictures of all of it. Remember Brocks?

updates

Thanks to all those who prayed for me :) We woke up this morning and Super Why was on at the usual 8:00 hour. I checked on line and they are going back to the original schedule. I am thrilled.

And after many days of hard work - I have got my milk back. I doubled my calorie count, ensured I drank 70 oz of water a day, and pumped every hour (including the middle of the night). My milk has returned... hallelujah!

I am furious

This is so stupid to be so upset over, but I am actually crying I am so mad.

PBS changed their morning kids schedule. haha, I know how dumb that sounds to be so upset, but it is a huge part of our day. They added this new (stupid) show, about the Cat and the Hat - I hate it. My kids' favorite show is Super Why and they moved it to 1:00 (their nap time). They watch TV from 8:00-9:00, which used to be Super Why and then Dinosaur Train, so I can shower, get ready, clean, and feed Megan. But now it is The Cat and the Hat and Curious George during that time and my kids won't watch them.

I am literally so upset. And again, I know that in the grand scheme of things this matters very very little. But it is important to me right now. And I just needed to yell at someone right now, so I will yell at me blog. AHHH!

Enjoyable, necessary, luxury, inconvenience

Those four word describe my evolution with eating over my lifetime.

Once upon a time eating used to be enjoyable - I only ate when I wanted to and most often for fun, social situations. I ate out a lot and ate really yummy things.

Then I got pregnant and for the first time eating became a necessity. I ate because I HAD to. I had to learn about the cues my body was giving me about what to eat, how to eat, and when to eat.

Then I started bearing these children and eating something yummy became quite the luxury. I would find quiet moments throughout the day or during nap times to make myself a yummy snack or lunch (just for me) and sit down and enjoy every piece of it. I could no longer just go into the kitchen whenever I wanted or needed to - if I did I would soon here the running of little feet and the question, "mom, what are you eating? Open your mouth - let me see it?" I looked foreword each day to my quiet time with my meals.

Now eating has become a total inconvenience. There is NO good time to do it - there is always something else I should be doing. I hate having to think about it, prepare it, actually eat it, and then clean it up. I am getting weak and losing weight fast, and yesterday I lost my milk. I have to change my attitude. I thought, "I will just eat when my kids eat, we will all sit down and eat together." As luck would have it at EVERY meal yesterday Megan would either need to eat, be put down, change her diaper, or just be fussy. I didn't get one meal with them. Then today I sat down to eat breakfast with the boys and my blood was going a million miles an hour. My mind kept saying, "the boys are being good and distracted, you could be unloading the dishwasher, changing the laundry, cleaning up the mess you just made by making breakfast, making beds, or finishing getting ready." The LAST thing I wanted to do was sit down and eat, ESPECIALLY since the boys were just sitting there eating. I felt like it was a total waste of time.

Once day I hope the list goes full circle and I will be able to enjoy eating again and maybe even go to lunch every once in a while. When do all my kids go to school?

Let's get real

I have always tried to have this blog be as real as possible - and I think I have done a fairly good job. I post about my joys, and also my sorrows and frustrations. I could say that this blog does a fairly good job at showing my real life as a young mother to small children. I obviously don't share everything - some things are too sacred and personal and I obviously don't want to "air my dirty laundry".

One thing I hadn't put on this blog yet - but is very pertinent to our life is that Jason was laid off from his job about a month ago. It wasn't just the blog I didn't share it with - I only told very few people - I just couldn't bare the thought of telling people - again - that Jason had lost his job. I HATE the concerned faces, I just didn't want anyone to know, and I didn't want anyone to feel like they had to help. I know that is not very "Christlike", I know it is all out of love. I am VERY aware that it is all pride on my part. I guess not wanting anyone to know - meaning I don't want anyone concerned, means I don't want prayers - and that is just stupid to not want prayers. But that is how I felt. I was sick of being the ones that people are praying for, and concerned about - we are ready to be the one's helping other people, being concerned about other people. Cna anyone relate? Anyways, needless to say it has been a hard month. Maybe one day I will get around to posting about the lessons I have learned about faith - and am still trying to learn - while going through this trial.

Good news is, Jason found a job. I guess that is why I can blog about it now. So to celebrate we went to the zoo.

This is how Megan got around

This is how Noah got around

It was fun had by all.

band-aids and bedrooms

Tonight we moved Brock into Noah's room and Megan into Brock's old room.

I was always so ready to move the boys into their own rooms when they were babies. Brock went into his at 6 weeks old- Noah moved into his (aka -the living room oh the joys of poor collage life) when he was 3 months old.

But with Megan I seem to be heart broken. That sounds a little dramatic, but that is how I feel. I don't like it - I don't like it at all. I feel like a piece of me is gone. I never expected to feel this way... and with my third no less. Is it because she is a girl?

I am not ready to move her, but it is time, I feel like I am being forced into it. I am keeping her clothes in my room for a while.

Pulling off the band-aid fast isn't all it is cracked up to be anyways.

Bath Time

Here are pictures of my kids taking baths - all at 4 months. I think they all have their own look.

A Few One-Liners

We have Popsicles at least once a day. This is Gunner our neighbor.

I thought I made quite a beautiful, well balanced, meal. So I thought I would take a picture. It was yummy too (although Jason is not a fan of whole wheat pasta).

Megan and Sam (my sister's baby) - Sam is almost 3 months younger than Megan. But Sam is not big - Megan is just small. :) (that was for you Katie)

Emma

I was feeding Megan tonight and there was nothing on TV. I ended up watching "Emma, my story" on the BYU station. I had seen it once before - but tonight, I was drawn to it. I have been thinking a lot about faith lately and what exactly it means and how to obtain it. These thoughts had been swirling in my head for the past month or so. Emma was a strong woman. She endured much - all the early saints did. I don't know how I could expect to meet them one day - knowing what they went through for the cause - and knowing what I struggled to understand.

Emma spoke of her refiner's fire, as they went from town to town, being persecuted, losing her children, her husband... what is my refiner's fire? When it was over I said to Megan, I have not endured a hundredth of what she has... and on days I have cause to complain? Her strength strengthened me. I am learning that faith is something we always have to work at.

The Kids and Vegetables

Hello,

This is Jason again. I wanted to blog about something that Hanna never mentions which I consider paramount proof that I have the best wife in the world. From time to time, when I've been home in the evenings I've heard the kids mention how much they love vegetables. Usually I smile and then move on with life, but lately I've had some experiences I wanted to share. As some of you are aware I've been home a lot more than normal lately and here are some excerpts from dialogue I've overheard.

Hanna: "Do you boys want more dinner or dessert?"
Both boys: "More broccoli." This is communicated by joyous shouting and Noah throwing his arms in the air.

Hanna: "Do you boys want a snack."
Brock: "Yes, I want carrots, lotsa carrots."

Hanna: rewarding good behavior. "You did so good Brock. Do you want a special treat."
Brock: "I want sooooommme vegetables."
Noah: "Vegetables? I want vegetables."

Jason: Testing his theory at night time. "Brock. There is some more broccoli left. Do you want some broccoli or some Ice Cream before you go to bed?"
Brock: Immediately. "Broccoli."
Jason: You don't want any Ice Cream?"
Brock: "No (matter of factly), I want broccoli."

Who raises boys like these. Awesome woman of foreverness. That's who. And it's not like these are fleeting times. These are daily occurrences. They eat vegetables at every lunch and dinner and sometimes even breakfast. They get like 10 servings a day of the stuff. Both boys can say vegetables, all three syllables, with complete clarity. A stranger could understand them; that's how often they say them. And they know most of the varieties by name. EVEN cauliflower. Cauliflower! That's awesome.

One of many reasons I love my wife.

I have a secret

My secret is that I have been going running every morning this week. This may come as a shock to most of you who know I don't really exercise and I definitely DON'T run. I have had a desire to do it for about a month now, but have ignored it because that would mean I would have to...well... actually run. I just thought the desire would go away, and it didn't. So on Monday I thought, "maybe if I go, I will remember that I hate it, and I will stop thinking about it." But instead I loved it.

It has changed my whole life. I am doing it 100% for emotional reasons. To be up, outside, by myself, listening to my I-pod - it feels so good. I come in - refreshed and relaxed, ready to get the kids up and start my day. I am way sad I ignored it for so long, because it is going to start getting cold and dark soon - and most of the reason that I love it is because of the beautiful weather and watching the sun come up over the mountains.

oh, and I guess the running is good for me too.

Parade of Homes

Our FAVORITE date is the Parade of Homes. We have been going every summer since we were 17 (except last year - we were too depressed to go look at fancy homes). It was super fun this year as well. Thanks to my aunt Jen we were able to go completely alone - we went for 4 hours! This was the most alone time we have spent together since we had Megan. It was so fun, I highly recommend it as a date night! (next year of course)

This was my favorite house from the outside. I love the wrap-around porch and the colors. Unfortunately it was horrible on the inside (purple throughout the WHOLE house - and poor use of space), and it was in Daybreak - which I am not a fan of to begin with.

This was Jason's favorite (if he HAD to pick) - he doesn't like it from the outside - but loved the inside. Very modern and sleek - totally his thing. His favorite part of the Parade is the theatre rooms - and only 2 this year - so he was a little disappointed in that.

One of the houses had a photo booth - so we jumped in. We are so brilliant - it took us 2 photos to actually figure out how to work it -haha. Please excuse the PDA :)

Bells

It is official... Karli has moved to Boise. I wanted to throw them a going away party, but they insisted that I not. Lame. But we did have our last play group party at my mom's house... so that made me feel a little better.

It was fun, we didn't get all the mom's out like we wanted, but the kids had fun. It was a nice, hot summer day, so we turned my mom's hot tub down so it was like a swimming pool, got some water balloons, a slip'n slide, and of course a sprinkler under a tramp.

Thanks to Karli, this play group has gotten me out of MANY-a-ruts, I will miss it - but I am sure we will all get together every time Karli is in town.

And now, for a proper tribute to Karli.

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you will know that I ADORE Karli. We have been friends since we were about 9 - we lived just 31 seconds (from door step to door step) from each other. It is funny how our friendship has evolved over the years. When we were young we were each others best enemies, we loved to hate each other. Karli is SUPER emotional and dramatic, I found this hilarious, and loved to exploit it at every turn. It is one of the things I love about her now, and then too, I guess. I loved to make her cry, and it was so easy. Who knows why she was my friend, because there were definitely years where I tortured her - but it was ALWAYS in good fun (at least I thought so).

When I decided to do this post I went scouring through all my old pictures to find one of me and Karli, and strangely enough, not ONE! I do not have ONE picture of me and Karli together until we are about 15 - and even then I had to crop it to us and cut some people out of the picture. (Any one from elementary reading this, if you have one of me and Kar, let me know).

And it is not even a good picture. Anyways, we were good friends in junior high, I stopped trying to make her mad, for the most part. We wrote for the school newspaper together and did the broad cast journalism stuff. Karli is passionated about everything she does, some people would see her passion as a little... crazy, but I always found it endearing, and a little fun. She could fly off the handle over anything, I loved it. I loved just hanging out at her house, looking back I am not sure why, her house was crazy (just like mine), she has 5 younger siblings - but I have fond memories of hanging out at her house until I HAD to go home. During these years we did a lot of scrapbooking and ate a lot of cookies n cream ice cream with milk and watched some good'ol Dawson's Creek.

Then in High School we both decided to get "serious" boyfriends (I married mine). That put an end to our fighting and really brought us closer together. We went to EFY together and, as most people who have serious high school boy friends know, we were pretty much each others only consistent girl friend. We were totally there for each other in all the ups and downs of each others relationships. Even to this day, she is the only one I trust talking to about mine and Jason's relationship, because I know she gets us and she knows the whole story.

Then she got married. When she met Skyler is when Karli and I got the closest, which is weird because Skyler totally calmed her down, and her feistiness was my favorite thing about her. Skyler is perfect for Karli, and one of the best men I have ever met (other than mine of course). The best part about mine and Karli's friendship is that it works on all fronts, Sky and I get along great, Karli and Jason obviously know and like each other, and Jason and Sky are good friends and can talk about anything. Karli did everything about a year before me (college, marriage, kids, home ownership), and I have taken her example at every step.

In my mind Karli is the perfect wife, mother, visiting teacher, what ever calling she is, and friend. She really is a daily inspiration to me and I can honestly say that I am nervous about my life now that I don't have her as a daily example. Seriously, probably 80% of the "good things" I do in my life is some how related to Karli (even if I do it just because I know that is what Karli would do). Karli and Sky have always been there for me (especially in those "early years"), I think my life would be a lot different if it wasn't for their friendship or example. If you ever want to see an example of a marriage that is going to do great things for the Lord - watch theirs.

This is a nasty picture of us taken in St. George - this is the ONLY picture we have taken together since the one at her wedding.. we have had babies together, gone on trips together, everything, and never once took a picture. We both scrapbook, so you would think...we are pathetic.

So we took this one at our playgroup before she left...

Our friendship aside, my kids love her kids. Brock and Payton have almost always gotten along great (except for about a 6 month window). They actually play together perfect now... they have only been seeing each other about 2 times a month for the past 6 -9 months or so (due to Karli's baby, my moving, and my baby) - but Payton is definitely Brock's favorite friend.

Here is their first picture together, taken in October of 2007.

And here they are in July of 2010.

I was looking foreword to becoming "everyday friends again" now that both our lives were starting to calm down (well until one of us gets pregnant again), and then she decides to up and move. Lame.

Now I know I am talking like they have died or moved to China, and I know I am probably going to see her 3 or 4 times a year and in this day-and-age of text, blogs, and email, we could potentially not skip a beat. I just wanted to document our friendship and express how much she means to me. Thanks for listening.

Elder Hanna

Can you believe it has been two years! Part of me can and part of me can't. It sure flew - but I only had Brock when Michael left on his mission, and now I have Noah AND Megan - so life sure
has changed. Both Katie and I had 2 kids while he was gone - crazy!

Look how the fam has changed in 2 years! (ahh, life was so simple then...)

Michael served two years in the Phoenix Arizona mission, but spent most of his time on the reservation. We are so excited to have him home, but are so grateful for his mission. Michael grew so much in the last two years; it has been so fun to see the man he has become and to see what the Lord can do with a soft heart and willing mind. One of my deepest desires was to serve a mission, and seeing his change of heart reminds me of the Lords willingness to bless us for service and obedience. Welcome home Michael - my boys are THRILLED!