and still more ....

Wyatt is a tough, no-fear climbing kinda kid. Notice all the boys sleeping- I think we worked them a little too hard on our trip.

a few more pics

more trip pics

Trip

So we just returned from a week and an half long visit to Utah. It was a busy trip but lots of fun. Nate spent hours at the Ogden cemetary searching for his relatives headstones. I think after five trips to cemetaries we finally got most of the names he was searching for (thanks for the help Jill!) Nate also spend hours helping my parents fix things around the house- as soon as they signed the papers to buy the house things started falling apart! Thankfully Nate made a last minute decision to drive the truck to Utah instead of taking the car. He was then able to hual a bed, a washer and dryer, and water heater for my parents. It also made it possible to bring home all the stuff we bought while we were there (chairs for the dinning room, food storage shelves, sewing machine, etc.) He worked hard during the trip and I love him for all he did for me and my family. Nate did have some fun while on this trip- He and I left the kids with my parents and flew to Texas to his 10 year High School Reunion. It was fun to see him with his friends from high school. I was jealous there were so many girls that wanted to talk and hug him! We had a great time with no kids and being able to sleep in for the first time in four years! I think we will be leaving the kids more often. Thankd Mom and Dad for taking such good care of our precious little ones! After we went to Texas we spend the next week playing- we took the kids to the Zoo, the Church museum where they had an exhibit called I Am A Child of God, Aunt Alicia took the kids to the Dinosaur park (thanks alicia- it was a blast even if Mara was scared of everything and it raining and Bracken's blowout) We had a picnic at a park in Bountiful and lots of other fun things. It was a great trip and we are all now trying to catch up on sleep. We hope to be able to visit again soon!

Weekly update

This week was pretty good. Tuesday we went to the movies- this week it was Charlotte's Web- we really enjoyed it. Tuesday night we had book club at our house. It was our first meeting- I am really excited to be part of a bookclub and see what kind of books we will come across. I just finished a book, Eclipse, it is the third in a series (Twilight and New Moon were the first two) and it was really good, but now I am totally bummed we have to wait a whole year before book number four is published! Oh well, at least with the book club I will have lots of good books to read until then. Wednesday, the kids were snacking on some veggies and I had to take some pictures because Mara was making "recipes" with her veggies. Wyatt joined in and they had a lot of fun eating their snack. Friday we spent the entire day at Meineke trying to get the car fixed. I had been in last friday to get the timing belt and water pump replaced in preparation for our trip next week. Since last Friday the car has not been running well. So, I told them what was happening and they went to look at it. After about two hours they thought they found the problem so they got the part from the warehouse and worked on the car for three more hours. They were sure they fixed it so I took it for a test drive and it was even worse then before. I finally had Nate come and pick us up and we spent the rest of the afternoon driving around with him while he worked. They finally called at about 5:15pm saying the car was ready. We drove over to get it (a half hour drive) and it ran beautifully! Thankfully, all the labor was free and we just paid for some of the parts they had to use (Nate wasn't happy about paying for teh parts, especially when he saw how expensive they were!). I beat Nate and the kids home, so I got out of the car and locked the doors and went inside. Nate gets home and tries to unlock the car and the alarm started going on and would not stop no matter what we did! He finally had to undo the battery. So, Saturday morning (Nate's birthday) he is outside trying to figure the car out, he finally gets ahold of the guys that worked on the car. An hour or two later they finally get it all figured out. Let's hope that is the end of all of that! The only good thing that came out of all of this was that while we were waiting for six hours I decided to take the kids on a walk. We found a store close by and I ended up finding a cute outfit to wear to Nate's high school reunion next weekend! Well, that was a long story-sorry. We leave this Thursday to go to Utah to visit family and friends, then Nate and I will be headed to Texas, then back to Utah to get the kids and spend more time with family. Can't wait to see everyone!!!! oh yeah- I cut all my hair off! Nate wasn't too thrilled, but I love the change!

Busy Week

This week was full. Tuesday we were invited to go to Great Harvest Bread Company for a free tour. They take you back where they make the bread and show the kids how bread is made, from grinding the wheat to cooking it in the giant oven that can hold up to 500 loaves at a time. The kids got to knead some dough and bake their own roll. While the kids bread was baking they took the kids outside and read to them and gave them a cookie. It was a lot of fun! Wednesday we had Mara's friend Madisen over to play we baked "princess cookies". Friday, my friend Emilee saved me-she watched my kids for over six hours while I sat at a car shop waiting to get our timing belt and water pump replaced. It was only suppose to take 2-3 hours! I thankfully had a good book with me (Twilight-if you haven't read it, you should!) Emilee celebrated National Watermelon day with the kids- they loved it. Yesterday was National chocolate chip day so we had Madisen over again to make chocolate chip cookies. Wyatt finally put two words together this week!!! I have been worried about his speak but he is finally starting to talk. Most of his two word phrases are "again please", "drink please", "hold please", etc. Not much variety, but hey it is a start!

Last night's dinner

So, last night for dinner I tried a new recipe for turkey burgers. They had slices fo green onion mixed in with the burgers. Mara asked what the green things were and without waiting for a reply she said she didn't like them and wouldn't eat the dinner. The rule at our house is you have to at least try it and then if you don't like it you don't have to eat it, but you have to try it. She took a bite and said it was good. Then she didn't eat any more of it. A few minutes later she said, "Mom, we shouldn't have the same dinner over and over again. We should have lots of different dinners instead." I asked if she felt like I made the same things over and over again. She said no. Nate started laughing and realized she was saying that she didn't want me to make THIS dinner over and over again. We asked if that is what she meant. She said, "well, this dinner is good, but I don't want to have to eat it ever again!" I guess she just wasn't ready for a turkey burger with dijion mustard, gueyere cheese, and green onions. They rest of us, even Wyatt, sure enjoyed them though.