6 Months Old

Little Miss turned 6 months old yesterday. Craa-zy! She is still a happy little girl and brings her family a lot of joy. She rolls all over the place and is very efficient at getting what she wants this way. If we turn our back for 20 seconds, she is outta here! We have found her "hiding" under the futon, our bed, and the coffee table. Little Miss is thisclose to crawling. She gets up on all fours and then does "the rock and flop" while she tries to get everything coordinated. She's very good at scooting backwards while up on her knees, she just hasn't quite gotten the forward thing down yet. She's 19 1/2 lbs. She loves to give us kisses where she totally grabs our face and lays it on us. Nice slobbery, stinky kisses. What a happy little baby!

The Rock

and Flop

Surprise!

I Feel Old.

Tonight Big J came home from a birthday party, got a drink, and then point blank asked me if Santa was the one who left presents on Christmas Eve or if it was us. It totally took me by surprise and I could tell he was already having some strong emotions about it. I asked him why he was asking and he said that a girl in his class told him it was the parents that left the presents not Santa. GRRRRRR. I asked him what he thought and he said, "I don't know what to think." It was at this point that my brain went into a coma and I stood there and just looked at him and tried not to cry. Luckily, my husband came in around that time and broke the tension long enough for me to regain some composure. I decided that if he was old enough to ask, then he was old enough to know. Even though I didn't want him to know.

So, I basically told him that Santa Claus was a tradition that was passed down to represent the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of giving, but that there was not a person named Santa Claus that came to your home and left you presents. We tried to make it seem cool like he was now "in the club" and had the grown-up responsibility to continue to keep the secret from the younger kids that didn't know yet. We told him that as long as he "believed" then Santa would still bring him presents. I think he was really disappointed, though. He cried. I cried. We hugged.

This of course led to a discussion that there was not a giant rabbit that filled your Easter basket and that there wasn't a little fairy that left you money for teeth. The more we talked about all the characters the funnier it got.

His next question? "So are you and Dad the ones who eat the cookies we leave out?" Heck yeah!

I think in the end he was ok with it, but I am really sad to have that part of his childhood be over. Waaaaaaaa!

Volcano of Vomit

Two days ago Little J threw up at school and had to come home. I asked him if he had made it to the bathroom or atleast a trash can, but he didn't. He puked right there in the classroom during center work. His description of what happened is still cracking me up.

He said he was about to tell his teacher that he felt like he was going to throw up but right then his "mouth opened really big like this" (he demonstrated by opening and even put his hands up to show how big it was) "and then it was like lava coming out. Like a waterfall. It touched every part of my mouth!" I asked if it got on anyone else and he said that 2 kids jumped up on their chairs and a little bit got on another kid's jeans. Yuck! Poor janitor that had to clean that up. I should give them a little Christmas present to say thanks.

Thanksgiving

Little Miss's (?) first Thanksgiving. (She was actually sleeping during the eating part...)

You know you are lagging behind when your dad calls you and tells you you need to update your blog. And include pictures. So I will do a quick post here to tell about Thanksgiving.

It was fun.

The End.

Just kidding. Ok, a few more details. My sister Tori and my brother-in-law Sei and two of their kids - Taj (age 6) and Liv (age almost 4)- came to visit and it was great. I had a lot of fun with her here and I think all the kids had a great time.

Little Miss met her aunt and cousins for the first time.

We visited Wonderscope which is a local children's museum and Kaliedoscope which is a free art workshop place sponsored by Hallmark. (Yes, I realize that is a lot of scopes). We also had a "leftover pie party" the day after Thanksgiving. Everyone brought their leftover desserts to share. The adults hung out visiting while the kids ran around outside in the dark with flashlights and doing who knows what. Tori and I also went to another friend's house and made jewelry one night. She owns like 2 million beads, stones, pieces of old jewelry, etc. and let us come over and make bracelets and necklaces. The entire 4 days they were here was a great time! Unfortunately, I realized I didn't take that many pictures of the many goings on. So here are some from Wonderscope:

Should I be worried that Little J looks so joyful at the prospect of cutting me with that scalpel?

We will be off to Texas to visit for a few weeks at Christmas. It is snowing here now. The HIGH tomorrow is 16. So, yeah, I can't wait.

A picture in honor of Winter. Little Miss in a hand-knit sweater and hat (now you know I didn't knit it, but isn't it gorgeous? A friend made it.)

PS Did anyone else besides me not know that you can spellcheck on here?

Who is this kid??

So my 9-year-old got all responsible on me. He had come home from school on Friday because he wasn't feeling well and had a stack of homework he was suppose to bring back on Monday. Well, Saturday was crazy, as you can read from the post below and then Sunday he just forgot about it and messed around all day until Sunday night. By the time he remembered, it was time for bed.

Now you may think I am mean, but I am a big believer in natural consequences. And since I had told him earlier he needed to get his homework done and he chose not to do it, then I wasn't going to let him stay up to finish it when he finally decided to get around to it. But, to my complete and utter surprise, this morning when I came downstairs at 5:30 in the morning (because Little Miss has been going through a growth spurt and has decided to keep waking me up anywhere between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. to eat) there was Big J at the kitchen table working on his homework! He had set his watch alarm for 5:00 a.m. so he could get up and finish it before school. Whaaaat?? After I got over my shock, I was really proud of him for being so independent and taking responsibility all by his own initiative. I have hope for the future!!

Craziest Day Ever. *Edited to add picture*

Yesterday was a crazy day. I haven't had one this bad in a long time. It just happened that so many things ended up being on that day. We started at 8:00 in the morning and got the kids in bed at 9:30. During that time it was go, go, go. We literally had 10 scheduled things to be at, 3 of which we just couldn't do logistically with everything else going on. Even eliminating those 3 things we still had overlapping events. And then of course there are all the unscheduled things you have to get done on Saturdays.

To make it even more challenging was the fact that our second car decided not start. Totally dead. So not only were there all these things to be at, we only had the one car to get there with! JC decided to get our backyard raked (the front has already been done like 5 times already)while I was toting people here and there - 28 large brown paper lawn bags filled and still not done. Whew! And poor Little Miss just had to get yanked around from place to place and basically didn't eat or sleep all day. I'm glad it's over. Too bad Sunday is never truly a day of rest...I think we could all use one!

So my second son has a weird habit. He comes home from school almost everyday with "treasures" he has found. The thing is, it is all TRASH. Crap he's found on the playground or literally in the trash can and for some strange reason he comes home with it. Some of his treasures include: an eyeglass lens, a girl's headband, an arm of a Mr. Potato Head, a bubble wand, an empty Fanta bottle and an empty box for latex gloves. He keeps them all on the headboard of his bed and gets really upset if I tell him to get rid of them because they are trash. What the heck? I am scared he is going to end up like one of those people on Hoarders who thinks everything is a treasure and they live among their clutter and mess to the point they can't even take a shower in their own house because it's filled with 400 empty rolls of paper towels!

A Historical Moment

So today is the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. I will sum up exactly what I remember of this day, 20 years ago:

I was 15. My dad was watching the news and my sisters and I were flitting around doing who knows what and he said, "History is being made right now and you aren't even watching!" Then I stopped and watched (for about 20 seconds) people jumping up and down and climbing around on a wall.

Profound, huh? I wish I could say I was so insightful at that moment in time, but yeah, I've got nothing. Pretty much the only thing I think I knew about the Berlin Wall was that there was a Disney movie (I can't remember the title - help me out!) about a true story of a family that made their own hot air balloon to get over it. History indeed.

A Word to the Wise

Now that fall is here, don't forget to practice safe leaf raking:

The One Where I Confess I Think Halloween is Dumb

I think Halloween is the dumbest pretend holiday. Homage to the macabre? Really? I don't like the premise behind it. I don't like the gallons of candy. I don't like all the hoopla about some weird day everyone decides to dress up and beg at doors and let perfect strangers give their children things to eat like that is a normal thing. Bah humbug, I know. I think it is fun only for the fact that I like to see my kids have so much fun. So I pretend to like it for them. I dress up every year. I head up the classroom parties. I take my kids to the trunk-or-treats and trick-or-treating. This year I even took inspiration from my sister and had a Halloween feast of sorts. So, that being said, here are some pictures:

Little J was a zombie thing. I don't know. He always picks the dead stuff - ghost, mummy, zombie. I get creeped out looking at this picture.

Big J was Anakin Skywalker. Only because I won the costume in a giveaway. He wanted to be Michael Jackson because recently he has been thinking MJ is awesome because he got into the Weird Al Yankovic song "Eat It" so I had to show him it was parodying "Beat It" and so that opened up a whole new world. I just couldn't bring myself to figure out a MJ outfit when we had a perfectly good one (and he's loved Star Wars much longer than he's even known about MJ).

Little Miss as the happy ladybug on her very first Halloween.

Little Man as a tiger. Except he wouldn't wear the hat. He held it the whole time instead. And this picture is really about the only picture we have because he refused to be in any pictures.

Me the pirate with a cute little ladybug again.

The "feast." I really just threw together things I already had. Next year will be better! We had "witches fingers" (chicken strips with green pepper nails), "mummy dogs", "eyeballs" (except I was going to make them bloodshot with food coloring, but I didn't have any), "bones" with "blood" (breadsticks shaped into bones with spaghetti dipping sauce), "witches brooms" (big pretzel rods with fruit rollups for the straw), and then the boys wanted to make "spider webs" out of fruit roll-ups, too. Admittedly, not the most well-rounded meal, but it was festive. What was the most fun about this is that the two older boys totally helped make everything and we had a lot of fun doing it together.

All in all it was a hectic, but fun weekend. (Even if I do think Halloween is dumb :-)

Some Fun Giveaways *Edited*

I won another giveaway recently - an Anakin Skywalker Halloween costume. Just for taking a minute to enter and now my boys think I'm the coolest mom ever. I already have a stash of other items I've won that are starting to give me a pretty good jump on Christmas presents and they didn't cost me a cent. So here are a few more fun giveaways available to you (being shared at the risk of lowering my odds of winning :-) Some end really soon, so enter fast!

Strider Running Bike - Ends 10/26 here

Vat 19 Tuffo Waterproof Blanket - Ends 10/27 here

Tinkerbell and The Lost Treasure DVD and fairy wings - Ends 10/27 here *I WON*

Hexbug and Nano Bug Microrobotic Creatures - Ends 10/27 here

Kolcraft Tiny Steps 2-in-1 Activity Walker - Ends 10/28 here

Sleepy Wrap - Ends 10/29 here

SproutBaby $50 Gift Card - Ends 10/30 here

Pulse Yoga DVD - Ends 10/30 here

Hasbro Games - Candyland Sweet Celebrations and Girrafalaff Limbo - Ends 11/2 here

$50 Tiny Prints Gift Certificate - Ends 11/2 here

*NEW* Barbar 1900 Tourmaline Cordless Combo (curling iron and flat iron set) - Ends 11/3 here

Your choice from LuShae Jewelry collection - Ends 11/6 here

Kolcraft Jeep Wrangler Unlimited G-Edition Stroller - Ends 11/10 here and Ends 11/16 here

$40 Visa Gift Card - Ends 11/12 here given away by this blogger here

Asking a favor of you

Attention all 6 readers of mine:

Please go vote for my sister (http://swampbrat.net/) for the John Lennon award here. It only takes a second, but will make a big difference. Thanks!

P.S. Do it by Tuesday.

Where to start?

It's been a while. Does anyone else just wonder where the day goes and then wonder where the week went? And now I'm looking at the month wondering where it has gone. Some things of note that have happened over the past month or so:

Two of my children had birthdays. Big J is now 9 and Little Man is now 3.

Big J chose to take his best buddy to Worlds of Fun for his big day. We had a little celebration and cake here and he had donuts for a treat in his class at school, but there was no big party, just the amusement park. It was just me, Big J and his friend. It was perfect weather and not crowded. It was fun. Except for the fact that after 3 rides I puked. And they weren't even hardcore rides. This is from someone with season passes to Six Flags growing up - the bigger the ride the better. I am holding to the theory that the medication I am on can cause dizziness and so I think it made me even more sensitive to the motion of the rides; however, it was pretty lame by any standards.

It started on the very first ride. Then Big J wanted to go into that ride that spins really fast and the floor drops out from under you and you stick on the wall. I used some serious Jedi mind tricks to not send puke flying all around to stick on the wall, too. When it ended, I was sweating and could barely walk down the ramp. Just for the record - that ride is NOT FUN. But I was sucking it up trying to be the cool mom and all, so then we went on a roller coaster. It wasn't a big one, but it was called the Boomerang because it went forward then came back the same route backwards. When I got off of that I knew I was going to hurl. I was scoping out my strategic path of acceptable bushes as I walked off just hoping I wouldn't puke right there on the platform. Then I saw a bathroom across from the ride exit and pretty much abandoned my parental responsibilities as I ran in there and tossed my cookies. I was better after that, but still a little queasy. Lucky for me the boys thought the log ride was the best ride ever and rode it like 20 times.

Little Man had a small celebration with us on his actual birthday, but then we had the big party this past weekend when my parents were in town. He had a Hot Wheels party. Originally, he told me he wanted a "blue" party. Not Blue's Clues, just a blue birthday party. But then he opted for Hot Wheels because he is all about motor vehicles and manly things like that. It was a relatively calm party and I think he and his guests had a lot of fun. We had the big car mat out with a box of cars and then a few of the ramps and things for them to play with at will. We played pin the wheel on the race car. We decorated individual race cars to take home and had a Hot Wheel pinata. Then everyone got to take home a goody bag of Hot Wheels themed items like gummy race cars, chocolate cars and tire-shaped bubble gum.

It's hard to believe both these boys are the age they are. I love them!

I ran the 5k I committed to here. I finished it in 30:36, about 3 minutes slower than my "normal" time. I knew that was about where I would finish, although my goal was to do it in 30 flat. However, I was surprised to see that in my age division for females I was 13th out of 83 and 152nd out of 669 total women running the 5k. So despite still not feeling like I'm in shape (except round is a shape, right?) I was ok with it all. And I was really proud of my husband for running his very first 5k. He beat me by 8 seconds.

And since we are on the subject of commitments brought up in that post, I am reporting on my weight loss attempts and can say that since that post I have lost 8 more pounds. So obviously I am not going to make my goal of losing 14 pounds by the end of October, but it is heading that direction slowly. I have not been as diligent as I should have been the last 2 weeks, so I am recommitting to step it up right now.

Little Miss is 4 months old. Now tell me that didn't just fly by! I took her for her 4 month check-up and she weighed in at 16 lb. 12 oz. and 25 1/4 inches. A RUNT compared to her brothers at this age. All of them were at least 2 pounds heavier and at least 2 inches longer. I guess it is good she is more petite since she is the girl. And who am I kidding? She's got thigh rolls that don't quit! It was still weird not to have a baby that is off the chart, though. She is hanging out in the dainty upper 80s to mid-90s percentiles. She is still wonderful and the best baby ever!

I have a lot more I could write about, but I will leave it at that for now, except to say that we finally figured out what to have Little Miss be for her first Halloween - a ladybug!

More Great Giveaways For You To Enter!

*Ending October 13th:

48 super cute Monster Cupcake Toppers here

*Ending October 14th:

$50 gift certificate to Sprout Baby (organic baby food and more) here

Custom Happy Halloween Banner here

Uprinting 250 business cards giveway here

*Ending October 17th:

24" x 36" custom vinyl banner here

Sam's Club $100 membership here

*Ending October 19th:

Wubbzy Goes Boo! DVD giveaway (5 winners) here

If you want a complete list of awesome giveaways, follow me on Twitter (swampbaby1).

PS I promise to do a real post sometime very soon. We've been busy!!!

Two Giveaways that End 10/7

Awesome Strider Running Bike giveaway here.

King Kongo handmade items for boys giveaway here.


P.S. I won another giveaway this week, just for taking a few minutes to enter. I won a Kaskey Kids Sports Action Figure Set which I plan to give as a Christmas present. So go check these giveaways out! You may get lucky!

To What Do You Aspire?

Little J and I had a conversation on the way home from the Royals game Friday night about what he wanted to be when he grew up. It started with us seeing a taxi on the highway and went something like this:

Little J: What do you have to do to become a taxi driver?

Me: Um, probably drop out of school and not have a good enough education to do anything else.

Little J: Huh? What's an education?

Me: What you get when you go to school and then go to college. It's how you learn certain skills so you can get a job.

Little J: Oh. So what do you have to do to become a limo driver?

Me: Pretty much the same thing as what you have to do to be a taxi driver.

Little J: What if you just want to buy all the taxis or limos?

Me: Then you would own the company and be the boss of all the drivers.

Little J: Ooooh! (thinking...) So what about a policeman?

Me: Policeman have to go through a special academy to learn how to be a policeman.

Little J: Like how to shoot bad guys?

Me: Some. They have to know how to keep safe while taking down the bad guys and how to help in emergencies and things like that.

Little J: Hmmm. So what about people who build buildings?

Me: What about them?

Little J: How do you become someone who does that?

Me: That depends. Do you want to be the one who comes up with the idea for what kind of building should be built or the one who is actually doing all the work building it?

Little J: Both. Well, the one that comes up with the ideas.

Me: Then you need to go to college and get a degree to be an architect.

Little J: What's a degree?

Me: It's what you get after you go to college and learn how to do something. You take certain classes to learn what you want to be able to do and after you are done with them then you have a degree in that subject. And if you have a degree, you usually can get paid more money.

Little J: Do you have to go to college?

Me: Only if you want to get a good job that pays you lots of money.

Little J: Oh. Bummer.

So there you have it. My son will either be a taxi driver, a limo driver, or the owner of said companies, a policeman, or an architect. But hopefully he will go to college either way.

Bonus Material:

We saw an SUV with "Just Married" written on the windows. I pointed it out to the boys saying, "Look that car says just married." To which Little J replies,"How can a car get married? Does it kiss another car?"

The Vandal Strikes Again

Remember this post?







How naive was I to think it was all behind me now?








I present to you The "Yo" Collection:





Still looking for more pieces to add to the collection...

What possesses him, I will never know.

I Should Go to Vegas, Baby!

Really I should. I'm on a winning streak. I've recently gotten into blog giveaways. My sister is a serious blogger and actually makes money with her blog, and she is the one who got me into the giveaways. Since I started signing up for them (which has only been since the beginning of this month), I have won 4 giveaways! For real. I have won the brand new Disney DVD: Mickey's Club House "Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland". I won a 24x24 wall print of my choice. I won a Kernel Season's 3 Flavor Gift Basket. And I have won 2 free Sun Detergents. Giveaways are fun and so easy and quick to enter! Here are a few I am in now. Go check them out and test your luck! (Or don't and up my chances of winning!! :-)

1. Rolled 18 x 24 Poster Print Giveaway: here and here (same prize, different contests)

2. A Month Supply of Luvs Diapers Giveaway: here

3. Yoplait Whips! Summer Cool Down Gift Bag Giveaway: here

4. Kaskey Kids Sports Action Figure Set Giveaway: here

5. Eden Fantasies $25 Gift Certificate: here

6. Lysol Disinfectant Giveaway: here

7. $20 Giftcard to Shade Clothing: here

The Definition of CUTE!!!!

Now tell me that didn't just brighten your day!

A Summary of the Last Few Days - in Questions

1. Has your 6-year-old ever put dried beans and corn kernels in your bed as a joke?

2. Don't you think it is pathetic that I need to cut 6 minutes off my current Fat-A time to get back down to my "before" time on the 5k?

3. Have you ever received a "Patriotic Star" at school for good behavior like Little J?

4. Isn't it great that Big J started piano lessons?

5. Did you know my doctor said that in 6 months I can probably try to start weaning off my high blood pressure medicine?

6. How exciting is it that I won a free Disney DVD "Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland" from a blog giveaway?

6. Can you believe my little girl is 3 months old today?

I Remember

"We love death. The U.S. loves life.

That is the big difference between us."

- Osama Bin Laden

It is amazing to me that it has already been 8 years since 9/11. I'm sure everyone has their "where were you?" moment when you found out what was happening. For me, I was in the kitchen of our six-plex apartment in Provo, Utah, feeding Big J a breakfast of cut up bananas and Cheerios. He was 12 days away from his 1st birthday. JC was out of town on a business trip in Atlanta. (He was actually suppose to fly back that day, but when all the air traffic was shutdown, he didn't make it back for three more days). He was the one who called me and asked if I was watching the news. I wasn't, and so he told me planes had been flown into the World Trade Center buildings. I turned it on in time to see the first building fall. I remember I just stood there shocked. Not even comprehending exactly what I was watching.

And then I prayed.

I saw a documentary about 9/11 this week on the National Geographic Channel and seeing the footage brought back the same sadness and disbelief I felt the day it happened. I am not a great journal keeper (hence the blog) but it just so happens that when this happened I had just started a journal about a month before and was writing in it regularly. Here are a few excerpts from what I wrote that day:

"...I cannot even describe what I feel. As I watched with the rest of the world in horror as footage of the actual planes crashing into the buildings, of the smoke and fire and debris, of the massive destruction, of the fear in the faces of the people running for their lives, of people choosing to jump to their death instead of being burned alive, of the towers crashing to the ground...the list goes on...I felt fear, disgust, and shock. The security (possibly false) that I had always taken for granted in this country was suddenly undermined. I just kept asking, "How could this happen?!"...

I think about how many lives have been directly and indirectly changed today. Those thousands of people who died just got up and went to work or got on a plane and now they are dead. I can't imagine the terror the people in those hijacked planes must have felt as they realized what was happening. These were normal moms and dads, sisters and brothers, co-workers and friends and now they are dead. It makes me sick and very, very sad...

There have been monumental things happen during my lifetime (to name a few - the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall coming down, the Challenger blowing up, the Oklahoma City bombings, Columbine, the Gulf War - even things like CDs, the first colored pictures in the newspaper, the Internet, etc.) but I know I will remember this day, these images, and these feelings most of all...

It's crazy to think I've been a witness to all this. It frightens me to think what kind of atrocities are to follow. What kind of world will my kids have to face? I watched *Big J* playing and laughing and learning today just as he does everyday, having no idea history was being made. I wished I could just hold him and protect him from all the evil in the world. But then just as quickly as that thought came, the thought that he is our future also came. He is the embodiment of pureness, innocence, and righteousness. He is the embodiment of the light and hope I still feel. There is evil in the world, and a lot of it, but there is also goodness - a lot more of it. And that goodness will prevail."

On Weightier Matters

I'm fat. I'm not saying that as a 16-year-old teenybop in a size 2 that wants all her friends to go "oh you so aren't!" or as one of those stick people who say this when they get a little bloated. I am overweight and out of shape. I am trying to fix both of these things, but the fact that it is even a fact is depressing.

I gain a lot of weight when I'm pregnant. Every single time. With or without exercise. Winter or summer. Old or young. Since the day I gave birth to Little Miss, I have lost 43 pounds total. I realize this is like twice the amount of weight a lot of my friends even gain when pregnant. Since a week after having Little Miss, I have lost 25 pounds. All this would sound like I am really excited and bragging or something except for the fact that to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight I still need to lose 14 pounds. That's right - I gained 57 pounds when I was pregnant.

*Cue fat picture:

Taken at 39 weeks the day before I was induced with Little Miss.

To get to my ideal/goal weight I still need to lose 33 pounds because even though I was "fit" before I got pregnant, I was still too heavy. And what's even really more sad than that is that that goal weight is on the high end of what is recommended for my height and not even the lowest I've weighed as an adult. It is actually 15 pounds heavier than what I would consider the perfect weight for me. Are you keeping up? Anyway...

Now that that little whine is all out -

It has worked for me before to post my goals and report because then people are asking me about them and I don't want to feel like a loser. Except for the fact I want to be a loser - of weight - yeah, you get my point. So my immediate goal is to lose the 14 pounds to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I will do this by the last day of October. Lofty? Maybe. But I'm going to rock it! By next summer, I will be my ideal weight. *gulp* First things first, though.

I've been watching what I eat and I have started to run a little again. The word "run" being used as liberally as possible. *What's that sound I hear? Oh, it's my thighs rubbing together!*I signed up for the KC 5k on October 17th as a motivator. Funny that last year at the same event I was running the 1/2 marathon. Hmmm....

I know I need to exercise every day so I am going to start doing that and hopefully I won't totally suck by the run. My issue is time management right now. Because you wouldn't believe how often I walk around in my workout stuff and other things take over. I just need to do it.

So there you have it! Full confessions and what I'm going to do about it.

Have you ever been THIS tired?

Little Man didn't quite make it to the putting-on-your-pajamas part after his bath:

A Post With WAAAAY Too Many Pictures

On Thursday we flew out to Utah to go to JC's only sister Denisse's wedding. It was a whirlwind, sleep-deprived weekend that we crammed full of fun stuff before we flew back Monday night. We didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to, but there are only so many hours in a day! We did get to see a lot of JC's family that came for the big day, most of which I haven't seen in years and years, and spent a lot of time with them. So that was really fun and I also saw several of my closest friends which was awesome.

It was nostalgic to see our old stomping grounds! I have such great memories of my college years. Both JC and I attended BYU and then lived in Provo for I think 5 (?) years after we were married, so it was fun to eat at places we liked and see places we used to go, see the mountains again, etc. So without further ado, I will post a plethora of pictures that only begin to scratch the surface of all the ones we took:


On our way! The boys and the baby were great on the plane rides. Even coming back when we had a 2 hour layover and didn't land until almost midnight.

The Manti Temple. Denisse and Antony were married here.

Daddy's girl.

The bride and groom. Antony is half Spanish and half English. He grew up in England so he speaks English and Spanish with an English accent :-)

Tony and his cute family came up from Mexico City.

Having fun at the reception. There was a live mariachi band part of the time that was really good and so fun.

I put this one in solely because you can see Little J to the right waiting to catch the garter. He has a balloon wrapped around his head. He looks so tiny next to everyone else but he didn't want to miss the action!

All the brothers. Oldest brother JC, youngest brother Ivan (ladies - he is still available and so, so cute), 3rd brother Alex and 2nd brother Tony.

The brothers and the one sister. Hmmm....sounds familiar.

Alex with his cute family came from Issaquah.

Abuelo and Abuela with Little Miss. This was their first time to meet her and only the second time to see Little Man.

I couldn't resist another picture of her all dolled up. Plus, I'm never in any with her, so I thought I'd include it.

Attempting to hike up the mountain to the Y. We didn't expect to make it the full way with all the little kids, especially with how steep it is and how hot it was, but they put in a good effort. This is at the second turn (about 1/5th of the way up). Little J picked me huge sunflowers on the way back down the trail. We are with our good friends the Bells. They graciously let us stay at their beautiful home even though we found out later that they are actually going to move to Las Vegas this week!

At the base of Bridal Veil Falls. There use to be a tram that took you from the base of the falls all the way to the top of the mountain and there was a restaurant up at the top. I went there once. All of it was destroyed in an avalanche later on. You can still see remnants of the tram there.

Little Man stuck his foot in the freezing water and was happy to just throw rocks from then on out. In this pic you can see the three different levels of the falls. You can actually hike up to the middle part on a trail, but we didn't do that this time.

Proof she was there.

The "Giant Rock" as dubbed by the boys. As you can see by Big J's shorts, they got soaked attempting to conquer it. But they did succeed in the end.

The Provo River right next to the falls. That is a guy fly fishing in it. I went tubing down this river once. Good times! ...not really. It was freezing cold and I got banged up pretty good. But it's fun to say I did it.

My old college roommates and very best friends. These are some of the most amazing women you will ever meet. They are each so talented, smart and fun. I had a blast reconnecting with them and we always pick up where we left off. I love these ladies!

We also took the boys to BYU campus to show them around, get BYU t-shirts, and visit the art and science museums. The campus is so beautiful! It has always been beautiful, but the new buildings and new landscaping look awesome. All in all, it was a really fun trip and I am so glad we went!