No Pets Allowed

Look what we found at the park yesterday! It was funny because I was reading the sign that said "No Pets Allowed" and looked over and saw a HUGE snake slithering around by this guy. I went over to check it out. Apparently, "Baby", even though there is nothing baby about this serpent, does not qualify as a pet! I asked what type of snake it was, and all I really caught is the word "constrictor", but he said she's not poisonous and was very sweet. I tried to get Jace & Brooklyn to come and see her, but Jace wouldn't really even look in our direction (although as soon as the "snake people" left, he started whining that he wanted to pet the snake).

Brooklyn eventually came over to check her out, and to pet her tail. That girl is fearless and is much braver than her brother.

**As a side note, Trevor and Wes were both shocked that I would touch a snake, let alone hold it. I told them that I was the one that asked to hold her. Do I not seem like a snake kind of girl, or what?

The Start of Summer

So Memorial Day is pretty much the start of Summer! I can't believe we're already here! Time is flying and we're having a lot of fun!


For Memorial Day we had our annual Grandma Kemp (Julie's Mom) Memorial Day Lunch. It was a blast! The weather was perfect, the food was yummy, and the kids had a blast! The only problem was I didn't take enough pictures.




Here is Brooklyn playing with a balloon. There were a lot of games for the kids to play. They were in heaven.

Brooklyn loved carrying this ball around, it's funny because it's the same size as she is!

Someone gave Jace a whistle for a prize....I don't know who, but they're going to pay...

Here's Brooklyn and one of her favorite people. She hasn't got to see much of Wes lately, and was all over him today!

After the luncheon Trev & I took the kids back for naps (I guess I should say kid, because Jace sure didn't take a nap!). Shel & Marc and their kiddos and Wes & Tara came over and we BBQ'd hotdogs & Brauts (yes, I ate a chicken one! It was good too!!!) We played a fun game of soccer and LOVED the weather!

Here are the little cheerleaders. They were dirty so I stripped them down. They both just got up on the chair and sat side-by-side. They're getting along so well and I'm loving it.

I love watching them play together and when they make each other laugh. They're the bestest friends.

My little boy is getting SO big! He's saying and doing the funniest things. I swear each new stage they get too is my "favorite".

Kylee absolutely loves Brooklyn. She's always sad when she has to take a nap, and asks constantly to check and see if she's awake yet. Brooklyn has started to reciprocate those feelings, and they're turning into good friends. Kylee is so good to hold her and play with her. We love our cousins!!! (And we especially missed Nate & Angie and their girls today!)

We're looking forward to what the summer will bring, and hope there are a lot more BBQs and Soccer Games to come!

Six Years and Counting....

Yesterday Trevor & I celebrated our 6th Anniversary! I can't believe it's been six years since we entered this crazy married life. This last year has been such a great year! Now we enter the "Seventh Year Itch", whatever that means. Don't we look so young and naive?! We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!



We had such a wonderful anniversary!! We stayed up at the Johnson Mill in Heber on Friday night and had a couples massage in our room. It was definitely needed and enjoyed. We went to dinner at the Snake Creek Grill and stayed up late eating junk and watching movies. Fun! On Saturday we had a great breakfast at the Johnson Mill, did some shopping in Park City, and went to a movie. Thank you SO much, Tara, for watching and loving my kids. It was so nice to enjoy a little time to ourselves and remember what life was before kids. It was also nice to realize that we do miss our kids when we are away. I love those little rascals!

On a side note, I had a terrific Mother's Day! Trevor and the babes spoiled me rotten and got me my own lap-top. Now there will be no excuse for not blogging! Marc reformatted everything and put all the newest, latest, and greatest on it...so I'm loving life! I love being a mother, and it was fun to celebrate all of the mothers who have influenced our lives. Motherhood truly is a gift.

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time....

We've had a busy couple of weeks! I'll give you a brief run down of what we've been up to so I can start being current on blogging.

First off, we had a baby shower for Tara at my house. So I decided I should finally put my family pictures up. It kind of ended up snowballing and I spent way too much money and going a little crazy on decorations. We were all exhausted by the time the shower came, but the house looked a lot more cozy!

Here is Tara helping to put up the curtain rods for the curtains. (The boys were out of town so we tried to show that we could do things ourselves. Too bad they took the batteries for the electric drill so we had to do it by hand!)

Don't be too impressed, but here is one of the valances I made for my windows. We now have curtains in the kitchen, family room, master bath, and master bedroom!

Next project was to hang the family pictures. I wanted to hang them above the stairs, but didn't realize that it would be so difficult! Trevor & Wes made some scaffolding to stand on so we could hang the pictures up.

Although I am petrified of heights, Wes's bow-making skills were not quite up to par, so I had to get up there and tie on the bows.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out! It's hard to get a good picture of it, but this gives you the general idea.

Next we tackled the entry way.

Not that this is really a decoration, but I guess it's a better way to keep the kids toys in one spot in our family room. One day I will have a toy room.

This is on top of the armourer in the family room. Looks much better then the clutter I had up there before!

Here's our master bedroom. I definitely did not make these curtains, but I think they turned out really nice, and actually make our room seem a lot more cozy.

Here's the loot from Tara's shower. There was a great turn out, great food, and great conversation. Tara scored in the gift department! I'm getting so excited....three weeks to go!

Somewhere in between, the boys (i.e. Trev & Wes and some of Wes's buddies) went down to Moab for a "long weekend" which kind of turned into a week. Trevor was the paint ball king and they had a blast. It was a much needed break for both of them.

Here they are hiking in Devil's Garden. If anyone has ever been here it is gorgeous!!!


Also somewhere in the past few weeks Trev & I took the kids to the Hill Airforce Base Aerospace Museum. We had SO much fun, and the best part is, it was free!


Here's Brooklyn playing in a small jet. The cute old guy who works in the educational center was wrapped around here little finger, and was sweet enough to bring out the plane/cars for the kids to play with.

Here's Jace. He was in heaven.

We also went to the zoo this past week! Trevor has never been to the Hogle Zoo, so it was a real treat! Here is Trevor & Brooklyn on the train. (Jace was sitting with me, and was way to excited to have anything to do with getting his picture taken.)

Jace & Brooklyn with Grammies favorite animal, the elephant. It's so interesting to see the animals close up, but it's depressing at the same time seeing them all cooped up. The kids (all three of them) loved it though!

And last but not least, I had to throw this cute picture of Brooklyn in here. After the boys came back from camping, Brooklyn wanted to wear Wes's hat around the house. She is such a cutie! I seriously can't be in the room with her for more than 2 minutes without smothering her with kisses.

BIG *sigh*. Now I feel very relieved, I've been putting this off forever. I hate procrastinating, but seem to do it too often.

Accepted

We found out a week or so that Trevor got ACCEPTED to the Nursing Program!!! We are beyond thrilled. Especially since the program he was accepted to had over 600 applicants, and only 40 were accepted. (It also happens to be the same nursing school that I went to). Of course, we had to Celebrate!!!


Here's Trevor with his first Nursing kit! Thank you to the parents!

Marc & Shel also came to join in the festivities. We had homemade spring rolls, veggies & dip, spinach/artichoke dip, and lots of other yummy treats. Shelly brought her perfect rice crispy treats (she's the best rice crispy treat maker ever!) and other yummy desserts.

Either the celebration was not exciting, or he had too much to eat....Wes tried to take a cat-nap in the living room.

I am so proud of Trevor for all of the hard work that he's done in order to get accepted to the nursing program. I'm kind of nervous for the program to start...I know how hard and time consuming it is, but I know Trevor will do well.

Now, as soon as Ang is done with medical school, and Trevor has his RN, we can start a family clinic!!!

Happy Birthday

Today would be my Mom's 60th birthday. It's kind of weird for me to think that she would be that old, because this is the picture I have in my mind of how she would look, since I have no memories of her face. I'm not trying to do a tribute, because I don't know where I'd start, or what I'd even say. I just know that today is her birthday, and she isn't here to celebrate.

I know that everything has happened for a reason, and I would not be where I am today had things not tanspired how they did.  At the same time I can't help but feel like I was cheated a little. When I was younger I always thought that it would be so much easier when I "grew up" not to have my mom here, but I was very wrong. I feel like I need her now more than ever.

I wanted her there on my wedding day.  I didn't know what a wife was supposed to be like.  She cooked, cleaned, sewed, gardened, canned, and all other domestic things you can think of.  Unfortunately, I was too young to observe those things and am nothing like that. I wish she could have taught me some of those things so I could have contributed more to my marriage and family.  Instead I had a father who worked full-time, cleaned the house, cooked the meals (if you call it that :o) ), did yard work, etc.  So my expectations weren't exactly realistic when I got married.   

I wanted her there when I gave birth to my children, when I brought them home from the hospital and didn't have a clue to what I was doing. I wanted to call her at 2 o'clock in the morning when I couldn't get Jace back to sleep or when I found out I was pregnant when Jace was only 6 months old.  I want to ask her what I was like when I was a baby (my dad is not a very good historian in that department :o) ).   I want that connection that daughters have with their mothers.

Here is the last picture I have of the two of us. I only have a couple of pictures of us together because she was so sick when I was little. This is shortly before she passed away and she was very sick and swollen from the radiation and chemotherapy. I get teary eyed everytime I look at this picture because she died when I was 2 1/2, the same age as Jace is now. I can't imagine how much courage she must have had to leave us behind.

I do not feel sorry for myself, I just can't help but think of what I'm missing. All I can do is try to be the mother that my mom would have been, and be there for my children. She is such a big part of my life and I love her so much! Even though I don't have a single memory of her, I still feel like I know her, and she knows me. 

My dad was blessed to have married a beautiful and caring woman that I am lucky to have as a parent. I love her so much and cannot imagine our lives without her. She has completed our family in so many ways. There is not a sad ending to this story.  We all continue to live and grow. And like she said in a letter she wrote to me before she passed away "Remember, Families are Forever".

Happy Easter!

We had such a nice Easter this year! I know I sound redundant, but holidays, amusement parks, etc. are so much funner when you have kids! Our Easter Weekend started out by going to Tooele to participate in the Taylor's neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. It was so much fun! It's such a great idea too, hopefully when I make more friends in my neighborhood I can do the same thing here!



Jace did the Easter Egg hunt last year, and could hardly contain himself when he saw Shelly's front lawn covered with Easter Eggs and candy! Here he is already to go!



Brooklyn was excited too! Unfortunately, both of my kids share my love for all things sugary and sweet.
Jace had to stop and eat some treats. It's way too tempting to just keep them in your bucket while your hunting.


Brooklyn caught on really quick, and didn't even seem side-tracked by the candy or what was in the eggs.

She is, however, irritated by her Mom's constant smooches. I just can't seem to leave those cheeks alone!


Jace looking exhausted with all the rewards from the hard work. He so graciously helped Brooklyn carry her bucket, although I'm sure he was eyeing some of her candy!



Here's some of the group hunting. Ry couldn't participate this year in hunting because he just turned 10 (apparently there's an age limit, can you believe he's 10?!). He was a great help hiding the eggs though.

After the hunt there was a pot-luck breakfast that was so yummy! I love this picture because it tells so much. Kylee is sweetly smiling, and Jace is saying "cheese" and thinking "if she doesn't take the picture now and let me get back to my candy, there's going to be a tantrum!". Tara obviously isn't thrilled about the picture and is touching her oh so cute belly. Brooky's oblivious and stealing some food off of Tara's plate.

Next we colored eggs. Jace was in heaven stirring the different colors of water. The boy can't get enough of all things liquid.

By the end his face and hands were stained yellow. He got it all over his clothes too, but thankfully it didn't stain.


Rylan Tara & Brooklyn enjoying the festivities. Yikes, it looks like Brooklyn's going to take a drink of the coloring!

On to Easter Sunday. The kids looked adorable in their new Easter clothes, but both were grouchy and didn't want to take pictures. Here is Jace making sure we don't forget his chocolate milk at home!

Here's the princess putting on a little drama. Sunday mornings are always an event at our house!

This is one of the best family shots we got. Jace is cheesing it, and Brooklyn has a marshmallow in her mouth (the only way we could get her to take the picture) but it's still cute. I just love my little family!

While we were at church the Easter Bunny visited and left some fun toys for the kids (as if they needed anymore). I'm glad that the Easter Bunny has learned that if you get something for Jace you also have to get it for Brooklyn too.

Then it was off to Grandma & Grandpa Barnes' for their annual Easter Egg Hunt. It was a little more difficult to find the eggs this time, but Grandpa was a good help!

Jace is digging through the goods. Geese, when did Easter turn into Christmas! My kids got spoiled!! We had a yummy dinner and celebrated the Ry Guy's birthday. I made myself sick eating too much junk & Easter candy! Now I'm ready for spring!!