Joel & Kambrie's Cowley reception

Phew! I'm on a blogging marathon today, so scroll down to see all of them. Yesterday (5.21.11) was Joel & Kambrie's reception in Cowley and it was very nice. Brenda had the idea of doing icecream Sunaes so we had those and then delicous cake that Aletha Durtsche made. Stetson & Kandace were in heaven with the sundaes and definitely had more gummy bears than should be allowed to a 2 or 4 year old. Kambrie brought all her decor from the Lehi reception and added her personal touch to everything and it turned out great. It was fun to see some of my Cowley friends and to be with family. Michael unfortunately got called out to work right before the reception and so I had both kids under my tutelage, and one of them might have knocked over one of my dad's lamps during the reception. Eeek! After having Michael gone the last few days on 12 hr shifts, it is HEAVEN to have him here for a day to help with the kids. Stetson has been ornery lately and I'm a bit perplexed about it, especially with the little one due in just weeks now. I'm so very excited about the prospect of having a sweet newborn in my arms AND not being pregnant anymore. I'm at "that stage" where I'm tired of it and ready to be done! I'm having a doula and looking forwward to a wonderful birth experience.

Why grandmas are the greatest

In my experience, grandmas are little peice of heaven on earth and put a bright spot on our lives. Every time Stetson & Kandace drive by gma Dorothy's, who is actually their great-grandma, they yell "lets go play at gma Dorothy's!" She always has fun things for them to do and treats them like royalty, so its nice to have her in town if I ever need someone to watch the kids for a couple hours. Yesterday I was supposed to go help get Joel's reception ready so I took them over to gma Dorothy's and they were having an indoor picnic when I got back! After the picnic we went home, I prepared my YW lesson and then we went to see RIO, which wasn't the greatest movie, but the kids LOVED eating popcorn and sprite. Stetson even got to sit by his cousin Ben (one of his favorite people).

Let's rUmBLe!!

We've been having lots of gloomy weather lately, so on Fri (5.20.11) Jill and I took the kiddos to rumble park in Cody. Its a huge ware house full of big blow up things for the kids to jump and slide on. The first time I ever went was with Michael and we were the only ones there, but not this time! It was packed and it made the little kids a little nervous but everyone had fun anyway.

picnic

Lately Michael's been working a lot of 12 hr shifts, so he's either gone all day or home all day. We mostly prefer the home all day. :) On one of his days off we had a picnic in our front yard and I just wanted to share! We had egg salad sanwiches (Michael made them, delish) apple slice and chips.

Michael plants our garden

I'm thankful that Michael comes from a family with a rich background in farming/gardening/canning, etc. because it makes it easier for me to do my part. He really likes it and plans way in advance and gets the job done right. A couple of weeks ago Michael went to his dad's farm to get a load of manure and brought it back and spread it all over the garden and then tilled it in a few times. Then we (mostly him) planted our seeds (those green things are our onions coming back) and pretty soon here we'll plant our tomatoes and melons. I think we'll get beter at this gardening thing every year, but I think the best way to do learn how to do something is to just do it, so thats what we're doing. Hooray Michael for being such a great gardener. :)

sign me up

I saw a picture of a very pretty woman on a blog with REALLY short hair and I wanted to cut mine like that so bad. I thought "if she can pull it off, why can't I?" I cut my hair pretty short when I was prego with Kandace. Being pregnant makes you do crazy things. I liked it but I sort of felt like I'd had a mastectomy, like I'd lost some of my woman "ness." JUST THINK, how much EASIER life would be with hair this short?? I mean SERIOUSLY?? What mom of young kids doesn't need one less thing to worry about and hassle with. I blow dryed and straightened my hair today (and fixed it) and then we went to Cody today (I'll blog about that later) and my hair was a big frizz ball by the end of the day. Awesome, all that work for nothing. Could I possibly blog about anything more ridiculous? No, but I just wanted to share.

Easter at gpa Simmons

We spent the last half of our Easter Sunday at gpa Simmons for some dessert and an easter egg hunt.

On the road again

Last Th (4.28.11) was the first day of our Utah adventure last week. I have an old roommate who lives in Farson, WY which was on the way so we stopped. I'd been wanting to for a while and we finally made it happen. I love this girl. For one, she lives in Farson, and no offense to any Farsonians, but really, it doesn't seem like a dream destination but she is the type of girl who loves life, deals with it and makes the best of everything/anything that comes her way. Her husband teaches at the K-12 school there which is right across the street from her house. She's a super duper mom and I'm grateful for the example she's been in my life. I got to go home with her once to Dayton, ID when we were roomies and I remember it well. She comes from a large, hard-working LDS family and you could feel a special spirit from the moment you walked in the door. Her stay at home mom was the queen of everything domestic and good (canning, mothering, nurturing, etc.) and her quiet but comical dad was the superintendent of their school district. We watched general conf. that weekend and when we sat down for dinner we were taking turns talking about our favorite talks and Becky's mom suddenly burst out that "she just wanted Jared (Becky's single, older brother) to marry someone with dark hair and brown eyes so she could have a brown eyed grand baby." LOL

Joel & Kambrie get married

My baby brother Joel & his very beautiful bride Kambrie got married last Fri (4.29.11) and it was beautiful. There was a WONDERFUL spirit there from the moment the officiator started to speak. I feel so blessed to be a member of this church and to witness precious moments like this. I am SO grateful to have such great family and to be a part temple weddings. It was also great to see family that we don't get to see very often. The only drawback was the weather! I thought for sure it would be beautiful in Utah and almost didn't even pack coats (I grabbed them last minute as we left the house on Th). I was glad I did. Well anyway, lousy weather made for grumpy kids and so Stetson would have NO part in the picture taking and Kandace wasn't thrilled about it either. My camera died when Joel & Kambrie came out of the temple so this one with my gma Foulger is the best one I could get of them coming out but I love it. Who better to get a picture with than my crazy grandma who I LOVE??!! :)

Our less than impressive family picture HA HA

luncheon and reception

After the wedding we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building there until it was time for the luncheon. This is the first decent picture I was able to get of Stetson. He was NOT having any of it at the temple right after Joel & Kambrie came out. Finally it was time to go to the Lion House (Brgham Young's house) for a delicous lunch. I was seriously dreading having a nice sit down dinner with my very wiggly munchkins in tow, but I was pleaslantly surprised at how awesome they did. Michael sat by Kandace and I sat by Stetson. Michael always is a HUGE help and I'm grateful he's such a hands on dad. Gma Foulger sat next to us and we had a good little visit (mostly the same questions asked over again because she's getting a big forgetful) :)

I was pleasantly surprised when my 2 cousins showed up. Laura was in town for women's conference and Rachel lives there. Rachel is holding Laura's baby, Brynn.

4.30.11 Discovery Gateway Children's museum

We were lucky enough to stay with Jan's sister Diane, who lives in Sandy, UT. Diane is going to be a great gma some day! My kids must have sensed the family resemblance or something, becuase they loved Diane! I think nyone who is a friend of gma Asays is a friend of theirs. :) Whenever we would get in the car to go somewhere during the weekend, they were always asking when we could "go backy to Diane's."

Beautiful spring weather we woke up to on our last day

The last day of our trip we took the kids to the Discovery Gateway Children's museum. I'd wanted to take them somewhere fun while we were in Utah and this seemed perfect, and it was! It makes me so happy to see my kids having fun and doing something thats hopfully a little stimulating for their little brains. After this we had lunch and headed home. We were grateful for good roads and a safe arrival home.