Hair today

Starlee is particular about her hair. She doesn't really like it up. She doesn't really like it tight. She likes comfortable with accessories. So she let me do a "messy" bun. Since I stink at the hair thing (being as I have the same comfort issues)...she was happy with it. Gosh, I need to practice. Thank goodness for pinterest. This Mom of two girls (thankfully) needs to get a little practice in.

Beauty in Peace

We had a humdinger of a week. Busy, busy. And after that kind of week peace is much needed and definitely sought after. So we went to the temple. And I got this shot as we walked in on my phone. Tender mercy. It isn't San Diego, but it sure looks lovely, grand, and peaceful. And the night was perfect. Absolutely perfect. I am so grateful for temples. And the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

 

For my friends that aren't LDS...you can check out info on temples here.

Les Mis

I know, I know...you see nothing. No flash photography during the play. We took the family to see Les Mis at the high school. They did a fabulous job. I cried yet again. I love that play. Not exactly London (which I loved too), but such a great experience. And I loved listening to the kids singing the songs that entire weekend. Hopefully we will be able to do it again soon.

 

Oh-side note-I wonder if I will ever get used to how stinkin big the high school theaters are in this state? So cool!

Rio de Gelato...best Italian...and in San Antonio

Garth and I had a business trip in San Antonio a couple of weekends ago. Man, I love San Antonio. I love the great BBQ (Rudy's-Austin, TX). And I love this little pizza/gelato joint that we found LAST time we were there. It is fabulous. Such a great family that is actually from ITALY. If you go, if you are there, if you can...go. I don't recommend lightly. Rio de Gelato

 Our "make us something different" pizza.

 My gelato. Banana pecan and vanilla.

(27 vanilla beans were used to make the vanilla-HEAVEN I tell you. Heaven.)

Garth and the pizza "son." He makes the pizza and the gelato. Taught by his cute father who we didn't get a picture of this time around. Hopefully we can go back very, very soon.



Snazzy Starlee

For Christmas my Grandma Goodner made Starlee a dress AND a jacket. Here is Starlee modeling them very quickly at church. Doesn't she look cute. Starlee loves everything pink, sparkly, warm, buttons, embroidery, etc. She is a detail girl. And we love her to pieces.

Slimy, Goopy, Blue, and Loopy

 Bells is an awesome babysitter. Awesome. We have taught her a few things, but she has learned from the best. Because we had the best babysitters for our kids. Hands down. Each and every one rocked. Which is why we tried to never let them leave. ;-)

 

Anyway, Shelby tries to do something every once in awhile when she goes to watch kids. I saw this goopy stuff on pinterest and thought it would be so fun if a babysitter brought it (and then Ryden played with it later). So...Shelby made the goop and it was a hit. Never a dull moment around here. Messes abound! (The loopy is that I must be loopy to encourage this kind of gross stuff!)

It's a Little Chilly...

Hi everyone! Long time no see. ;-) I have been horrible about blogging. So...I am going to try and get in the groove again. Instead of procrastinating yet again because I am a couple years behind. I am just going to go from here and try and add in past posts when I can. I am hoping this will work. Wish me luck. I am going to need it.

 

So...as I sit here at the dining room table looking at mounds and mounds of white stuff in the yard I was thinking I would start off with what seems like we have been inundated with--snow and cold! I am trying to "warm" up to the snow. I really am. Why it hasn't worked yet I don't know. Maybe because I hate layering, love open shoes (preferably flip flops), really don't enjoy sliding on the road, love moments of standing out in the sun, etc? Who really cares? We are here. I am learning to layer and have 4 or 5 pairs of "shoes" and kids that love to play in the stuff.

 

Here is a screen shot on my phone that I sent to Kerity to show exactly why I am freezing my toosh off lately.

 Garin scraping the ICE off the driveway. Yep-that is ALL ICE. We had a storm with freezing rain and got to experience BLACK ICE and all that jazz. I am not going to lie. It sucked. But Garin did pull off a total stunt man move before this picture. He (not on purpose) slid down the driveway, did a somersault, and the bottom, and then landed on his feet. Thankfully we can laugh because he is okay. And then he shoveled all that ice off the driveway so that I could go get the other kids. Such a good kid.

 This has been our week. We finally have a break today. Lovely. :-)

New school

When my kids start school we make a little treat and attach a little introduction to help the teacher get to know that child. Well, even though they had already started in Temecula they were going to make sure their UT teachers knew them too! Pretty cute. The kids decided their new teachers would love Oreo truffles--so that is what we did! Since this is after the fact...I can tell you the kids LOVED their teachers last year!

 Their teacher treat!

 Starlee & Mrs. Siler

 Trev & Mrs. Eskridge

 E & Mrs. Mills (didn't realize it was so blurry...bummer!)

Ry & Miss Shepherd

Iron Chef Shepard View Style

Pretty much right after we moved to Utah my Mom recruited Garth to be a judge for the Iron Chef competition that their ward had annually. Now in the past my brother, Jonas, has dominated. But, alas, Jonas is in Italy serving a mission and we are proud of his sacrifice! Shelby was able to participate and she had a blast! The secret ingredient was BACON. (Perfect, huh?) And the activity requires planning and creativity. A fun, fun night for sure!

 Just call this the "I am smiling, but don't you know I just took a bite?" picture.

 Jonas' picture made an appearance...

Shelby and the other YW cooking away...



Let's Do This...

I am not sure if I will get the chance to catch up on this. But...I have wanted to get back to my form of journaling: the blog. Last August we moved...FAR! (Well, for us...we actually moved closer to some of our family, farther from others. Not totally win-win.) We moved the family to Utah and so far we love it. It has been a great move for our family and our kids love being closer to grandparents! They love school, love our new ward, and love our area. Does it get better than that as a parent?

And I am going to try and catch up since the move. Not many pictures have been taken since I started working pretty soon after we moved up here...but new goals have been made and a blogging I will go!

Cub Scout Blue & Gold

Swamped with things to do, trying to cover just the minimal bases and I remember (okay...last minute) that we are supposed to take a decorated cake to the Cub Scout Blue & Gold dinner. So...we make a plan based on what we had on hand. Chocolate toffee cookie crust, chocolate chunk brownie, chocolate cake with a cheesecake cream filling, and marshmallow frosting (toasted)=a S'more cake. Whew! Was I glad when that was over...and thank goodness the boys seemed to like it. Especially torching the marshmallow.

The cousins come for a visit

Amidst all the craziness of dealing with no flooring, exposed wood, etc. we had the chance to watch Weston and Benson while Jenna and Casey went on a cruise. I was lame and didn't take many pictures (this is becoming an awful habit)...but I did catch a few with my phone when we took them to the zoo. We had 7 kids!! (Garin was at home studying for a test the next day.) How did my Mom do it with 8 every day? ;-) We loved our time with them, loved showing them the animals, and I think the favorite by all was the Skyfari. Passes come in handy!

Ignore the wrinkles...focus on that cute face.

Aw...I love each and every one of them.

The best group shot I could get (and it didn't have everyone).

And the rains came down...

A New Years goal of mine is to actually update my blog. I have been horrible the past year. So, slowly, I will recap the last year of pictures-but my main focus will be the future. Make sense?

We spent a wonderful Christmas vacation in Utah and we LOVED every minute of it. (Well, the kids were hoping for a bit more snow...) We were able to meet up with friends in St. George on the way up and the way down (and had so much fun). We played in the snow, saw a BYU basketball game (thanks Dad for coordinating the tickets), a JAZZ game (thank you Dan and Kellie-my first professional basketball game!!), and much much more which will be included in other postings.

We came home after a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks to our family room carpet soaked. SoCal had A LOT of rain and apparently that 2 week old rain decided to set up camp on our family room floor (and wall, and base, and who knows what else...). So, we had to tear up the pad and carpet that night, Garth bleached everything in site to try and kill the mold, and in the meantime we have lovely concrete and are waiting on our builder to get back to us. Why you ask? Because the rain didn't get through the weatherstrip on the door, but in between the jamb and the wall!! Apparently to them, this isn't an emergency. So I am doped up on Benadryl (since I am highly allergic to mold-which hasn't been fun for Garth). And poor Garth, after getting this all cleaned up went to get something out of the garage and found out that the power outage during the same storms must have tripped the breaker for the garage freezer and EVERYTHING was bad and STINKY! No picture-that would have been GROSS! So, a big evening trying to get all of that handled. And now we wait...for the builder to let us know about flooring (sadly it won't be before my 3 yr old and 10 mo. old nephews get here-no crawling or playing downstairs right now) and for the smell to leave our freezer. They have both been bleached (more than once) and I can't wait for this to be over.

But, on the bright side-our vacation was great. And we now can write down one more learning experience in our journals...

Happy New Year! 2011 is only getting better!

Quick trip to Sacramento

The kids and I headed up to Sacramento for Benson's blessing. This is Benson. Isn't he adorable? I took this while I was holding him (therefore the sideways shot). We were supposed to head up Saturday, but I felt sicker than sick and was worried about driving by myself (Garth needed to stay behind for work.). So, I did just about nothing ALL day Saturday and then left EARLY in the morning on Sunday to get to the blessing. We were all really bummed to miss Weston's birthday party on Saturday, but were so glad to be there for the blessing. And of course the snuggle time with Benson (I felt fine...Saturday must of have been an allergy induced thing...I hate allergies!) and the play time with Weston!

Me. With Benson. Looking tired-but hopefully you can get the happy out of it. (Me, not Benson-he is adorable.) ;-)

My Mom with Benson.

Shelby doing her favorite thing-playing with the nephews!

(I don't have any after-blessing pictures...I will have to get some from Jenna.)

Quick Stop...by the Bowdens

On our way back from Farmington we stopped by the Bowdens. Wow has it been awhile since we have been able to catch up! It was great to see them, their kids, and just find out how everything is going. Our kids definitely love Uncle Jeff and Aunt Merrit!

Utah Snow

We headed to Utah after Christmas to enjoy some time with my parents and some snow. We brought Noel along (Shelby's friend) because we just adore her. (In case you start counting and get to more than 6...)

Messing around
He LOVES the cold stuff!

Noel hiking up the hill with the sled while Garin gets a snowball ready and E&T are playing up above.

"Mom-it was a little cold." (and about 5 minutes later she went back out)

Shelby & Noel's snowlady

E making a jump

Starlee going off above mentioned jump.

Friends

I have been thinking about this post for about a week (probably a little bit more). And for those of you that need a warning-it will probably be a little bit sappy. Just warning you. Some of you needed the warning, right?

The photo to the left is from our trip to Peru. These are our friends Oscar and Klira (how beautiful is Klira?) as well as Garth's mission president and his wife (Presidente and Hermana Alvaradejo). We were in Peru a total of 2 weeks. That's it. And yet I love Oscar and Klira. They are two of the kindest people and are so sweet to us. Garth and Oscar served at the same time but were never companions. Thankfully the internet allowed them to get in contact with one another before the reunion and we have had a great time keeping in touch since. (Oscar is sweet enough to let me practice my Spanish on him.) My point with this whole narration is that it is amazing when and where friendships form.

I could post so many picture of the friendships that have been so meaningful to us. (Or you could just look in our blog archives.) The Pulsiphers, the Behers, the Ericksons, the Holmes, the Shoemakers, the Youngs...I could go on and on and on (so please forgive me if I didn't type your name in). We have been so blessed to have friends that love us, are kind to us, and who we miss daily. Not a typo there, I really do mean daily. Great friends are like that. You can't help but miss them. And you drive, let's say 1 hr+, every time you can to see them. (Like this Friday?)

Back to now. I broke my foot. Almost two weeks ago. Talented, I know. And while I am doing okay I have found myself wishing my parents lived closer, that Kerity was next door, just the normal stuff. And then today a friend called. And she is so sweet and was just checking to see if I needed dinners this week. You see, we are so lucky to have friends here too. Because after that phone call this morning I went to pick Ry up from preschool and another friend offered a ride for him on Thursday so that I don't have to crutch it to and from the car. And this afternoon another sweet, sweet friend dropped off divine goodies just because. And this is just today. Last week I had wonderful, wonderful friends bring dinner because it kills to be on my feet too long (and Garth finally has work and has been getting home late). And yesterday a friend called to see if she could drop by pizza and root beer floats (can you say heaven to my kids?). Friends gave the kids ride to and from mutual and scouts. Today I am thankful for where we are right now. Here in this town in this ward. We love where we have lived and we love where we live. Everything really is a new experience and we have grown, and hopefully learned, in each new place. And I feel blessed-which is amazing considering everything around us seems to be breaking (literally). And yet I feel blessed. And I am thankful. So if you are my friend or our friend and you are reading this, thank you. From the bottom of my heart I love you.

Nice notes

I love remembering nice things people have said when I am having a bad day. Do you? For example, I was perusing through a friend's etsy store and saw a necklace named after, yep, me. (She names a lot of her jewelry after women in the ward.) And you know what? She said I am a happy person. Just what I needed to hear. With all the stress of being us lately I have wondered if anyone knows that I am happy. I have been wondering if I always seem worried or if I do indeed reflect the fact that, even though things are terribly stressful, I am happy. I feel blessed in ways that I can't express. Reading that this morning was reassuring. And hopefully true. :-)

FYI:Visit CrystalB's store by clicking here (or on her name, or on the word store, or on the word necklace-I gave you lots of options because I love her and she is a very talented woman!)

Oh, and one more thing. This is one of my favorites (to the right). The story behind the phrase, the fact that it is applicable to my life right now (heck-just having kids makes it applicable, right?), and just because it is beautiful. Something I have learned is that carrying on is the key. Through the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and trying to keep calm and make the most of the ride. For example, I have Ry chanting "I don't want to go" as I am typing this right now (to speech preschool in case you are wondering). And all because he has decided that he wants a hot dog for lunch. Not one I have made-but Wienerschnitzel (sp?). One of those embarassing things about me is that I love Wienerschnitzel too. I love corn dogs. I know, sad. What happened to my taste buds? I have no idea to be honest. But I like to think I have just expanded my options...along with my waistline if I eat them too much-they are HORRIBLE for you ;0). To get back on track...keeping calm is something that would come in very handy right now. That and duct tape. And now I will carry on...because I am thankful. And happy.

Christmas Programs

As far as Christmas programs go, I think our school has it down. They do them all in one day-so it take a complete day, but it is over and done with. Just like ripping a bandaid off, right? ;-) Garth was home that day, so he was able to enjoy the "festivities" with me. It was wonderful.

Trevon smiling from across the room. We had to RUSH to get back for his performance (after dropping off Ry at preschool).
Starlee had classroom activities too. And LOVED having both parents there. Can you tell? (During the first half of her classroom events Garth was in Trevon's room for his stuff-thank goodness there were two of us and that Ethan's teacher didn't have anything!)

And then she performed.

Ethan right before his class performed. And before he felt faint. And before his Mom had to come up to the front to get him and take him back to class because he looked like he was going to pass out (thanks Chessa for beating me up there). Garth says it is because he locks his knees or the heat from the lights. Either way-we headed home with him.

And Trev is now 8! Wow, it is GREAT!

Trev had a birthday, shout hooray!

He wanted a scooter and received a red one! Yeah!

Red velvet cupcakes made his day!

And the cub scout oath he learned to say!

We're proud of him come what may!