because a picture is worth a thousand words

PICTURES:  Many are of a sleeping baby because I just cannot. get. enough.



 

Mabel was DYING to build a snowman but the snow isn't wet enough to really stick so this is all we could manage.  She LOVES it.

 

 Kinda creepy

 

 Sledding!  She was not ready to leave but sitting in the cold was not making Charlie very happy.

 

 Charlie and Mabel hanging out together.  He thinks she is so funny.

 

All tuckered out on Christmas

 

Draw me like one of your French ladies.  Christmas morning.

 

Morning baby!

 

Kindle Tablet Kids Edition.  5 year warranty on this baby.

 

Mabel wanted to hold Charlie. 

 

Eric's award from his work party.  He is the super hero "The Converter."  He changes garbage to gold.  (messy survey data into usable information)

 

 

 

I need to see your tongue

 

The elves came and left candy in our shoes in exchange for a poem.

 

Charlie and his tongue.

 

Thanksgiving!  I hosted but it was mostly because of Elise that is was so amazing.

 

Fancy turkey that I had nothing to do with.  Lemon basil or something.

 

Mabel helping

 

 

 

Related much?

 

My boys

A little bit of October

Happy Autumn!  October is my most favorite month and the weather has been perfect!

Mabel playing in the leaves


 

Baby feet!

 

Gardner Village with my mom and Sisters.

Shannon and Charlie

 

Hailey, Maggie and Kim outside of the Chocolate Covered Wagon. 

Unfortuantley, it's not as good as Sweet Aftons which is no longer there. :(

 

Logan, Bridger and Maddison

 

Dept 56 Halloween Town

 

It's the Griswald's Christmas and there is even cousin Eddie on the bottom shelf emptying the "shitter."

 

New quilt I purchased from the Quilt Shoppe

 

So far so good!

 





Shaking Quakies 2014

Shaking quakies (shaking quaking aspen trees) is a yearly tradition my family has to go up the canyon on General Conference Sunday and shake aspen trees simply for the pleasure of watching the leaves fall.  Basically, it's a nice reason to go up the canyon and take a walk and have hot chocolate and donuts.

This year we made a change and went up American Fork Canyon to the Timpooneke Camp Ground.  This ended up being a great call because there was ample parking, less people, picnic tables and a fire pit!  We love Millcreek Canyon up in Salt Lake but it's just so small and getting so crowded.

 

Waiting for everyone to arrive

 

 

 

Cute hat, huh?  That is from his "Aunt" Naty

 

Shaking his very first quakie

 

 

 

Shannon and Charlie

 

We take a family photo about once a year.

Happy Autumn!!

A Little Fun in Life

So I am not all that into Halloween (shocker, right?).  I have a few decorations for a party I threw about 5 years ago and they haven't been out of storage since.  BUT, this year Mabel is 4 and she is so excited for Halloween!  I want to make this month fun for her since I'm not what you would consider a super fun/crafty mom. 

I told her this morning that today we would decorate for Halloween and she did not let me forget that promise for longer than 20 minutes.  There was no backing out even though I wanted to.  She was so cute and came out with me to the garage to get the decorations and she was just so thrilled at everything we pulled out of the box.    I had a pretty great time with my Mabel!  Eric says he's not really into holidays but I can tell he appreciates it when I make an effort, if only because Mabel loves it SO much.

She was Witch Mabel.  Every time I asked her to do something she said "Yes, Witch Mom"

This was last night.  They were all on my bed playing.  Melts my heart.

He's getting pretty big!

I plan on making pumpkin cookies, making a paper chain for a countdown to Halloween, watching Hocus Pocus and Casper and carving pumpkins.  Anyone have any other good ideas Mabel might enjoy?

An Unexpected Hair Cut

This morning Eric was playing with Mabel and said to me "we should get her hair cut."  I replied that I did not want to do that because I really love her curls.  He thought it would be good to get it trimmed.  Well, Mabel heard him and decided to take matters into her own hands.  Not 5 minutes later, Eric walked down the hall to find Mabel with the kitchen scissors in the bathroom.

I cried.  I have NEVER cried over my own hair but this made me cry. Eric called Cookie Cutters and got Mabel in in the next half an hour....

It's cute on her and it makes her look older... but I still miss her curls.  I suppose every little girl does it. 

The Dirty Dash

So today we were out the door with both kiddies at 8:00 AM to get to the starting line for the Dirty Dash at Soldiers Hollow at 9:20 AM.  I forgot about a parking fee so Eric dropped me off and then parked for free next to the course so he could wave with the kids as I went by. 

Of course, we had to buckle up Sean the Sheep.

I made it to the entrance and checked my bag and phone into the bag drop off.

The next thing I know, I'm in the front of the line facing a big hill that is being sprayed with water to make it treacherous mud.   I started worrying about my shoes while I kept an eye out for someone from the same 1-800 CONTACTS team to run with.  I found a girl who seemed to be on par with me fitness wise.  Her name is Laurel and she works in the call center.  She is also the host for Footsteps for Fertility.  She told me that at their last event, they were able to give out eleven $5,000 grants to couples struggling with infertility.  I was pretty happy to run next to someone so awesome.

After the mud hill, we climbed up and over a rope obstacle and then on to several large mud pits and they were the worst!  I did lose a shoe and had to dig it out.  It was fun to watch people help each other though and I was so pumped!  Even though I had mud in places I tried not to think about...

After that was a few other smaller obstacles like going over mounds of straw bales and through tires.  THEN, we do to the slide at mile 1.  We climbed up one side to slide down the other.  Laurel told me people get cuts on that part because there is so much dirt on the slide so I should keep my legs up.  My brilliant idea was to keep my feet flat on the slide to keep my knees up.  And down I went.

When I got to the straw at the bottom, my foot caught and my body went over, pulling my foot down and under.  I hear and felt it pop on the top left of my left foot.  Swear word.

I sat on the straw bale for a bit feeling pretty nauseous, embarrassed and angry.  Laurel was such a doll and stayed with me and let me use her shoulder as I limped along.  I got to where I felt like I could walk very gingerly on it and could maybe walk it off.  A women that works at an instacare looked at it for me and told me it was probably sprained.   After standing there talking to her, it got so bad that I literally, could not take another step.  I about punched an EMT when she tried to take my pulse on the top of my foot! Fast forward to being carted out to the waiting ambulance where I refused going to the hospital.  There was no way I was going to pay for that!  They were super nice and gave me the crappiest ice pack ever.  She also brought me my bag so I could take this picture and call Eric.

Eric came to get me, threw me over his shoulder and got me to the car.  I cannot walk on it and will probably be down for a week or so.

 And so ends my Dirty Dash experience.  I might try it again next year....

Picture Dump, Again

So I need to post pictures of Mabel's birthday, family out for a visit form NC, at the temple for Elise's sealing, my birthday and Charlie's blessing.  They are all on Eric's phone but this what I have on mine. 




Mabel took this after Charlie's baby blessing.

Working out with mom.

I guess she was pretty tired.  On the way to Granny's Drive in for my Birthday Dinner

At the tennis courts.

Up way to late.

Made this for Super Saturday.  I'm going to add a blue "K" in the lower left hand corner.  If you want to know how to make one, I can show you!

On the way to the park.  Mabel rides on the tray.  You can see Charlie's cute feet.

My Teeny Tiny on August 1st.

I will try harder to get Eric's pictures. He has some good ones!  We also celebrated 6 years of marriage on August 1st with a dinner at Brio.  (Our actual anniversary is the 2nd but that is now Mabel's birthday.)