Lagoon day!

"There's no point in being grown up

if you can't be childish sometimes."

-- Dr. Who

I was talking to my mom on the phone last night about how fun it will be to go back to Lagoon. I havnt been since I was young and I have been so excited to take Bella and Moses. Much to our surprise, and delight, Bella soaked it up!! She has always naturally been a little fearful of things, especially ride type things. But she was crying when we had to leave, so thats a pretty good sign she might be okay for Disneyland :) Buddy and I learned that Moses will be my Roller Coaster Buddy in the family..this boy is fearless! I love rides, Buddy hates them. Problem solved.

My camera and I were not friends today. I realize how very badly I need a zoom lens...and I dont say that I *need* anything that often :) I started saving today! On to the fun stuff though... Do you like Icee's? I dont now, but as a kid, oh man, what a treat! They just scream Summer!

Just look at him....oh my gosh, could he be any cuter.

Remember the whole firework fiasco about being half terrified halk excited? Here were are again..except by the end of the ride, she was beaming ear to ear! Promise.

This picture makes me wonder.. I bet Moses is like:

"Whatever you do see-stow, dont look back, mom has her camera out"

Cute Bella on the animal Kingdom Train..her favorite ride.

One of the reasons my camera and I arent friends...look how blurry :( But I dont care, its still one of my favorite pictures of the day!


What a wonderful morning we had. The best part were the kids happy faces and absolute excitement. Man, that is just the best feeling in the world!

I'll end on an even sweeter note!

(although Buddy does think these look a little pathetic, I might agree)

a Handy Helper

"A boy is a magical creature, you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can't lock him out of your heart."

-Alan Marshall Beck

...and why would I ever want to do that when he is such a handy little helper...amongst many other delicious qualities.


He was such an instrumental part in changing the breaks on the car the other morning. When I went outside to see what my boys were up to, I d.i.e.d. when I saw the scene. I'm proud that he copied his dad and put on his own glove. Who said that a garden glove cant be used under the hood.

yes, we are a little redneck....a diaper, wrench , baby mullet and brake grease pretty much sures that up.

On a roll

Not that anyone cares to see daily updates on this little sweet blog of ours, but there is little more to do at 1:30 am when I am wide awake and looking for something to do other than snack and watch TV. Speaking of snacking, I think a tasty little red morsal of goodness would be great right about now, but I just cant bring myself to pick the only 2 that have ripened. I am so proud of our little garden this year. You should have seen all of us yesterday afternoon when we were watering and saw these little guys, we all 4 were like kids at disneyland, we worked hard for these puppies! We started with 7 plants are down to three..dang late frost! Plus we have 2 bell pepper plants gearing up as well. Its so gratifying when you can plant, water, grow and enjoy your own healthy foods!! Plus, it doesnt hurt that the kids are loving every minute of it.

just as sweet as.....

I'm a little late in posting, but I re-heard a voicemail tonight that left me laughing and it reminded me to post about our 24th. The msg went something along the lines of

"Hey Kristen! Just wanted to wish you a Happy 24th (chuckling).....just kidding, I just had a question for you....."

Its kind of how I used to feel about the 24th of July. Not that its not an awesome day, its just living outside of Utah, well, I never really celebrated the day. It was quite cool to field questions from Bella about who the pioneers were and why we celebrate, and to share stories. Man, she is one smart cookie, she gave me the run down on the whole treck out west...her primary teachers are pretty awesome.

Onto how we celebrated, (which I am sure would make some of our pioneer ancestors roll over in their grave with how good we have it..) We went to Handcart days in Bountiful. The kids had a great time. Bella didnt used to love Cotton Candy, but she has developed a little frienship with it and thinks its the "super-est" thing ever to get it...so she did. I'll open with that.....

We then went for a pony ride..

The way Buddy is trying to get him to look at me...and he will have nothing to do with it..yeah, thats pretty much how it always is with Moses...thanks for trying Buddy!

My view of Moses..I just love this. Its something so simple, a view I see all the time, but really, there isnt much longer that I will get to see this sweet little view of his legs and tiny fingers and cute little blond hair. He is growing up and quickly. Its funny what a picture can do to your emotions..



And finally....the pièce de résistance...fireworks. My kids are terrified of them. Isabella is vocal about it..Moses just shakes. (so sad :(

Just to get Isabella to hold a sparkler was a task best forgotten. We didnt want to force it by any means, but we knew she really wanted to try. I love the last picture because its a perfect sampling of her tender little feelings. half terrified, half excited out of her gord! The first picture was a feeling of absolute concern when I told her we were going to get sparklers..



Then when she actually did it..she was so proud of herself. ..like I said, half excited, half.....nevermind, you get it.



And that is how we celebrated the 24th.

If you stuck with me till the end of this post, you must be one of two people. Hi Mom. Hi Dad.

Bonus

After work tonight I got an unexpected monetary bonus.

"Mom, thanks for working so hard"

Whoever said a Dime wont get you anywhere never had a sweet 5 year old give them a raise!

I almost lost it!

There are way too many settings on my camera for me to keep track of. But one setting I have heard alot about lately is the quality setting "RAW". Apparently its supposed to allow me to give a dynamic range of around eight stops, which contains all the data from the sensor...blah blah blah. If this is foreign language to you, dont worry, it is to me too. Anyway, I decided to give it a whirl. dumb. I took Bella back to the "lot" to test out the theory. When I got home to download them nothing that I tried would work (RUDE)! So I deleted them and forgot about it and swore never to use the setting again. Luckily my IT specialist was in house and figured out a way to save the photos I took (thanks honey!!)
I cant believe I almost lost these! This first one is probley only my favorite picture of all time right now. Her eyeroll is very fitting for how I dragged her out for pictures again! Geez, what a mean mom I am.

If you want to be happy......be

-Leo Tolstoy

This is what's making him happy these days.

And it makes us pretty happy too!

Yum-O

First off, thank you all so much for your sweet comments on my last post :) I dont know where I come up with such crazy things and you are all too sweet to indulge me.

My Grandma got a phone call from her friend down the street asking us to come pick Apricots. To say I detest apricots would be putting it mildly. But Bells and I made a date out of it and went for Grandma. She then made Peach Apricot Jam, and I am telling you, I am now an Apricot F.A.N. It was just what the Dr. ordered when she invited Bella up to make it. They had quite the fun afternoon. I was especially fascinated with the way she sealed the jars by pouring hot wax over the tops...I learn something new everyday.

If life were a game of CandyLand...

we would be stuck on a licorice space right now.

So instead of staying in a state of slight depression and stress, I delighted in the insight I had on my life during a simple game of candyland this morning....

Starring Isabella as Lolly

Moses as Jolly

Buddy as Mr. Mint

And Kristen as Frostine (isnt she so pretty!)

All they wanted to do was make it to Candyland. Although they knew they would eventually get there, the evil Lord Licorice stopped at nothing to thwart their attempts...what a mean one.

To keep their spirits up, they went swimming in the chocolate swamp everday...they very much enjoyed the chocolate swamp. Very much enjoyed it I say.
They had much help from Gramma Nut. She loved them alot. There was also Grampa Nut and Great GramaNut..the nut family goes way back..neverless, they all loved Lolly, Mr. Mint, Jolly and Frostine.

Sometimes you just need to go through a few Lollipop woods to get to your candyland.,,dont let the little guy fool you, its not that yummy.

but more sooner than later you always get to your candyland...one colorfull square at a time.

Beauty everywhere

I was on a walk a few nights ago and noticed the sun peeping through the yard on an empty lot. I couldnt wait to take Bella there to see what we could come up with. I decided to go last night as the sun was setting. I bribed her with a giant lollipop and she semi-willingly obliged to help by being my model. I took a million pictures and left feeling really discouraged. First, the sun was super low and I wasnt sure I got the shot that I was hoping for. Second, the lollipop dropped and broke in two..go figure...which made her upset. Third, the wheat stock looking plants were really itchy and she was wearing a dress, you can probley imagine.

All in all, even though it looked pretty, theoretically, I didnt think I struck gold photographically. I put my camera down and didnt even look at the pictures until this morning.

Its funny what a nights sleep can do to your perspective.

the B word

It took us 5 years to actually hear these words "Mommy, I'm bored"

And lucky for us, our 1 year old is chiming in "B-oh-d" Bowed.

I guess somewhere deep inside I did the math on our situation. Student = poor=boredom..but I didnt think the kids were feeling it. I've taken them to the park almost everyday and we try to do fun projects at home..Its just not cutting it.

I was so tired of hearing the B word today that I finally just took them into the backyard and asked them to laydown so I could get a picture of their b-oh-d faces. Would you ever think it would produce smiles like this?

Hmm, I'm confused now as to the meaning of the word.

I got nothin.

The pictures tell me I should have alot to say. But I have nothing new or interesting to report..so I think I'll let the pictures do most of the talking this time.




laughing alot

Enjoying Sibling love


spending too much time in the water

enjoying the finer treats of summer

trying to teach Bella its not so bad to have to leave the park

Trying to teach Moses he cant just bid us goodbye while he stays at the park.