Sundays at our house...

Growing up we had popcorn EVERY Sunday. In fact we've got a little song for it "For we all love popcorn, it's our favorite treat. When it comes to havin' fun, popcorn's hard to beat!" (Although Jared would beg to differ... he'd rather sing it with "ice cream" as the favorite treat). But as a kid Dad would make at least one or two huge bowls of popcorn - sometimes it would even count as "dinner."

We don't have popcorn very often at our house these days. Jared doesn't love it and we've kind of reserved it as a special treat when babysitters come over. This last Sunday we were needing a little excitement in our afternoon so out came the popcorn popper. The boys were SO excited about that. We even somehow brought ourselves to enjoy it in our backyard - I'm sure it was 108+ degrees outside, but we did it. Ice-chilled apple juice helped a bit.




Oh, and the funniest thing happened on Sunday too. Jared's mom recently brought the boys some mini "potato heads." They haven't hardly stopped playing with them. Anyway, Jared calls to me and says "Hey, we've got our own little Ammon!" Sure enough, Brexton had gather all the potato head arms he could find and was toting 7 of them around. Ha! Our very own Nephite warrior/missionary...

Another trip to the Children's Museum of Phoenix

My childhood friend and second cousin (but really more like a first cousin) Kim Carroll texted me on Sunday with an invitation to go to the Children's Museum with a big group for a smokin' deal. I only had to pay for one kid - totally worth it. As I expected, we had a BLAST! We got to play with the exhibits that we didn't get around to last time. I don't know how we missed it or passed it up because it had everything to do with cars! A boy's dream world. I could hardly pry them away from that spot...





They loved the carwash and even got lucky - scoring the bike with passenger towing capabilities. Garrett escorted Brexton and Kim's little girl Kinsley around for the longest time. (I don't know how I managed to not get a single picture of Kinsley's cute face!)



The three cuties...



I've gotta get a Culture Pass to that museum at least one more time because it definitely beats paying $27 each visit. So fun! Thanks Kim!

A New Look...

We've had the same shower curtain for 6 years now and I was ready for a little change. I've been on the lookout for fabric in the RedTag section at Joanns and finally found a pair that I liked. Here's a Before and After...

BEFORE



AFTER


Now I kinda want to paint the walls the light sage green/blue undertone that is in the floral fabric. That just might take another 6 years though :) I think I also want to get a dark bronze shower rod and hooks, hang it 6 inches higher, and add 6 inches of the gold knotted silk-like fabric to the bottom. What do you think?

Goals...

I'm learning once again the power of setting goals. I've often "thought" of goals but they thought usually ends there before ever making it into action. It hasn't been until recently that I've started to change that habit... slowly. Here are some success stories and while I know I'm nowhere near perfect I feel the need to compliment myself and encouragement to keep going. Maybe you'll feel inspired too.

FAMILY HOME EVENING
For the first time in our married life we have Family Home Evening every Monday night. It was a real struggle to get started because we didn't know how to connect with our little boys in a "spiritual" way since they couldn't sit still for hardly a moment. Through our perserverance and practice we're getting better each week. We've gone from our initial FHE's of trying to look at the Friend together as G and B fought over who held it and who's turn it was to turn the page... to a more organized, reverent, and brief lesson with songs, prayers, and treats. The results have been staggering to say the least. Their reverence in church has GREATLY improved, they get SO excited for Family Home Evening, they stay sitting in their individual chairs for all of FHE, and they LOVE the treats and activities. My favorite part is that they actually remember what we talk about and show excitement about it. The two most memorable lessons were about temples and prophets. Garrett gets so excited at a picture of any temple and says with great determination "I go to the temple." He can recognize and say "President Monson" and often looks for him in the Ensign and Friend.

When I tell Garrett it is FHE time he excitedly runs through the house in an effort to gather everyone in the family room as he screams "It's Family Home Evening TIME!" Then we pull over two kitchen chairs to put in front of the couch. The boys sit in the chairs while Jared and I sit on the couch. We sing, pray, have lesson, bear testimony, sing, and pray. We always have a treat and sometimes have a game or activity. I LOVE the power of FHE and the power of bearing simple testimony even to small toddlers.

GOAL: Hold FHE every Monday night for the next 3 months.


COMPUTER TIME:
I may be the only one like this but I suppose I kind of got "addicted" to my computer time checking emails, blogs, facebook, craigslist, etc. Initially I would find myself doing this in the morning and completely shutting out my kids and getting frustrated when they wouldn't leave me alone. Then I progressed and made sure I only did it during their nap time. But even then I would get on the computer for the sole purpose of checking the email and then getting on to other important duties I had: laundry, dishes, cleaning, meal planning, sewing projects, ________ (fill in the blank with any other needful/good thing). But once I started I would conveniently start blog hopping, or google searching, or craigslist surfing until I'd wasted away all of nap time. This happened nearly every day and while I enjoyed it I didn't feel good about it. So what did I do? I set a goal.

GOAL: I will allow myself daily computer time to check emails but will reserve time for blogs, facebook, etc for Mondays and Thursdays and as a reward when I actually update my own. (e.g. I updated my blog last Friday so I got to check blogs that day too). If you look back you can see this pattern of Mondays and Thursdays :)

It may sound silly, but life as a stay-at-home mom is still kind of a challenge for me since it's not structured like the life of a student. There aren't teachers that tell me what my assignments are and when they're due, no one to evaluate me and give me a grade. It's up to me now. I'm still figuring out how to manage my time effectively to ensure that I am a good housekeeper, mother, and wife. Since I've made this goal my house is cleaner, I read from good books (Ensign) more, I play with my kids a more, and I'm happy more.


EXERCISE :
As I mentioned in a recent post, I went running for the first time last Thursday morning. I never really made it a goal but the thought had crossed my mind that I should do something to burn some calories because even a small something would be far more than the nothing I had been doing. So that small thought turned into action. But still I had no goals or real drive to continue a pattern of running. After posting to the world my courageous effort to run (because for me it took a LOT of courage), I felt obligated and motivated to do it again. It was kind of strange how I couldn't not run on Friday. I can happily say that I have worked up a serious sweat EVERY day since then with the exception of Sunday. Already it's getting easier, not any more fun yet, but easier in the sense that I know I'm capable of pushing myself, capable of having my mind and determination win out over my mortal body.

GOAL: Work up a good sweat at least 5 days a week for the next month.


Take a moment to set a goal for yourself. Make sure it's realistic, measureable and has an end. For me the goal has got to have an end so that I can say "I finished" because really if I made a goal that said I would work up a good sweat at least 5 days a week for the REST of my life I KNOW I would fail. You have to believe that you can do it. At the end you can reevaluate, see if you want to make some changes, work on something totally different, or extend the same goal for a longer duration of time. Share your goal with someone and report back to them regularly. (Every day I tell Jared how far I ran with specific landmarks so that he can celebrate my success with me).

Can you IMAGINE?

I'm loving this stage Garrett is in. He cracks me up! It brings a smile to my face every time he asks in his adorable voice "Whatcha makin' Mommy?" He LOVES to help me with everything - laundry, preparing meals, scrubbing bathrooms, sweeping, setting the table, etc. I know it won't last forever so I'm really trying to enjoy it.

Another of his favorite phrases is "That's disgusting!" Hilarious! He says it about several things... messes, poopy diapers, some meals that I make :), anything with an abnormal texture, etc.

His imagination is really starting to take flight. Here are a few of my favorite "imaginings."

(1) We were unloading the dishwasher and it's Garrett's job to help with the silverware. He grabbed two butter knives, put one under his chin, and then used the other to stroke back and forth on the first as he says "I play my Geetar, Mommy." I said, "Oh that's a violin, not a guitar, but very creative. Here are some wooden spoons instead." After switching he says, "No violin, I play my Geetar."

(2) We have a child-sized blue folding camp chair that the boys were really "in to" for a while. Garrett imagined it was all sorts of things, but I remember most how he pretended it was a piano (or "planno" as Garrett refers to it as). He would bang and bang on that chair singing at the top of his lungs inserting words into his songs such as "mommy," "daddy," "Bennen (Brexton)," "Cable" (Caleb), "home," "ride in the car", etc. He would also pretend it was his own personal computer with the back of the chair as his screen.

Like I say, this guy cracks me up... and I love it all!

There's a first for everything...

This morning I woke up intentionally at 4:45. That wasn't a first for me, but what I did after that definitely was. I went running, if you could call it that. But for the first time in my life I, of my own free will and choice, decided to go for a run... or jog... sometimes just a brisk walk... and when I thought I would just pass out, throw up and die, I walked slowly.

I need to find a way to exercise but even when I have tried to go for a walk with the boys at 7:15 in the morning it's already 95 degrees and poor Garrett and Brexton miserably sweat away in the stroller while I get my exercise. So, I tried it... all by myself at 4:45 in the morning. It's still hot, but it was nice to do it in the quiet morning hours, get home, get showered and dressed all by 6:00. I went for 3 miles, but only ran for half of that. We'll see if I can convince myself to do it again sometime since consistency is really the key.

Game Ball...

That's what Garrett says every time he sees a ball game. I don't know how, when, or why but he's got the words backwards. It makes me smile every time though. When Jared goes to play basketball in the morning and the boys wake up before he returns Garrett asks, "Daddy play game ball?" So cute.

He could play catch all day long. He loves it. We were all getting so excited when he would finally "catch" the ball (aka Jared aimed just right and threw it right into his hands :). Glad to have captured this moment.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

I'll just apologize now for the extremely low quality of recordings I keep posting. They are captured with our digital camera with a "video" setting - nothing fabulous but it will do until we are able to get a real video camera. I am loving this fun stage that my boys are in. They are little goofs!

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My handsome boys...

I know these aren't the best pictures but I had to capture their "studliness" Sunday morning. Garrett is looking more mature to me these days. His face is starting to slim or something... what handsome little dudes!

A Perfect Blend...

This weekend was a perfect blend of entertainment, relaxation, indulgence, and solitude. Jared and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We had planned on doing something special for #5 but then had a nursing baby so that changed things a bit. We certainly made up for it this year :).


It all began Friday evening at ASU's Gammage Auditorium and a production of WICKED! Prior to one month ago I wasn't familiar with any of the songs and only had a very broad grasp of the storyline. We borrowed the soundtrack from a friend and began "studying." And it totally paid off. I LOVE all the songs and constantly have one stuck in my head (happily stuck, that is :). I even had dreams of running up on stage during the performance - and totally upstaging everyone of course :). It was fun for Jared and I to put together pieces of the puzzle and guess at what more the storyline could present, fun to analyze the lyrics and catch poetic foreshadows, fun to talk about the deeper meanings behind the essence of the play... the applications are endless! The power of public perception is huge both in how complete strangers view you and in how you see yourself - how labels compel you to act in ways you might not have otherwise done.



Anyway, in short... it was AMAZING! I wondered if Lion King could be beat because that was so entertaining and had a huge WOW factor, but WICKED far surpassed my expectations and highest hopes. By intermission I was already telling Jared I wanted to come again. It really is that good. And sitting in Row 11 made it that much better! Thank you Jared! I still am so impressed that he had made plans and knew exactly the day and hour tickets were coming available and purchased the tickets back in April! It was perfect!



Then we headed over to the Inn at Eagle Mountain for a two-night weekend getaway. The location was breathtakingly beautiful with a feeling of seclusion and relaxation while still being within 10 minutes of the city. The view from our balcony was amazing especially as the sun sets on the mountains. After my sister Holly blogged about her stay here I knew I had to try their "french toast" for breakfast... jumbo cinnamon rolls grilled to a crisp yet gooey icing goodness with maple syrup. Yum! Jared had the Eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce.

Our Villa


The View from our Balcony


The View from the back

We enjoyed the pool and hot tub to ourselves most of the time and soaked in our very own 2-seater jacuzzi. Saturday was all about relaxing and just being together. For dinner we decided to try something new. After doing some internet research looking for a sophisticated and subdued atmosphere we settled on The White Chocolate Grill. Let me tell you... HEAVENLY! I can't hardly wait to have another "big" reason to celebrate. It might just have to be a tradition for our anniversary. I'm still having sweet dreams about the food. We got the "Date Night Special" which includes a four-course meal for two at $29/person.

Appetizer: Four Cheese Spinach and Artichoke Dip with chips and salsa. (NEED this recipe)

Salad:
Me - WCG (White Chocolate Grill) Bleu Cheese Salad with bacon and candied nuts
Jared - Field Greens Salad with goat cheese

Main Dish:
Me - Parmesan Crusted Filet (I thought it was going to be a filet of fish, but really it was a filet mignon - super tasty)
Jared - Balsamic Ribeye

Dessert: White Chocolate Brownie with homemade vanilla ice cream and a chocolate/carmel sauce.

We ended up cutting our stay at the Inn a little short because our bed is more comfortable at home and we would have had to get up at 5:30 am to pack up and get home in time for Jared to get ready and attend his meetings before church on Sunday. Everything about the weekend was PERFECT! It'll be another 5 or 10 years before we do anything like this again, but it sure was nice to INDULGE for a moment.

A few of their favorite things...

Here are a few of their favorite things right now...

Finding blankets and pillows to snuggle up with.


Playing trains together.

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Watercolor painting or coloring with markers on butcher paper. This was the last of our butcher paper - usually it goes across the whole table. I'm going to have to figure out where to get some more of that stuff.


See Garrett's first smiley face? It's there in green marker just to the right of his hand. If you look with very scrupulous eyes you can make out the circle for the face, two eyes, and a squiggly mouth. Love it!

Happy 4th of July...

We celebrated in our own way this Independence Day - no parades, no fireworks, none of the ordinary things. Well I suppose we kind of had fireworks... fireworks of our own. We went to Thatcher for the weekend and my parents offered to watch the boys while Jared and I drove out behind Junky Jerry's to do some shooting. It'd been over 3 years since I had last been and I'd forgotten how fun it can be. Seriously, it was a BLAST! That was some of the best quality time Jared and I have had on a date - far better than dinner and a movie! We shot three pistols and his recently acquired 22-250. I surprised myself with how well I did and of course Jared did awesomely :)










The weather was perfect with the temperatures in the 70's that morning. We were totally secluded with no one else in sight aside from the occasional drive-by cars. It was a perfect start to a perfect day. We all had naps that afternoon and then had a super tasty barbequed dinner. It was wonderful!

A Daily Ritual...

Garrett has been much more aware of feelings lately - and I'm sure it's attributed to the influx of emotion around our house. He is constantly wanting hugs, a reassurance of our love for him. It has become a ritual that each morning as we read from the Book of Mormon after breakfast that Jared MUST rest his hand on Garrett's arm. Garrett won't allow Jared to proceed with reading until it is placed just right.