Sheriffs, Keys, String Cheese, and Prayer.

So today I am going to be writing a tale of a tale. I have had lots of time to myself this week, well I take that back. I have had almost NO time to myself this week. Dan has been out of town for work all week. The original plan was that he was to be back Tuesday night. Well, that scenario has changed multiple times and he is still not home. So lets just say I have been wanting some extra adult conversation lately and I have learned to relish the times during the day when the kids are napping. Hillary Weeks sums up my feelings best in her song "My Favorite Things." Check it out I think you'll love it.

Anyways, I will say I have had good moments as well. One of those moments was yesterday during visiting teaching. I was really good to get outside and spend some time with other moms and chat while the kids ran around and played at the park. It was a gorgeous day and the sun always cheers me up. I was able to talk and relieve some of the stress I had been feeling this week playing a single mom. Also this day was a day that I got to witness how some of the simplest things can teach you the greatest lessons.

When our visit was over and it was time to leave we all said our goodbyes and headed to the cars. Ethan and Kiera both got buckled in their seats and I went around to the Drivers side of my car to see where we were headed next, when Susan (name has been changed) had this look. This wasn't the look of someone who had just finished a good visit. Instead this was the look of a frustrated mother, 8 months pregnant, who had just been locked out of her car by her two year old son Ryker (name also changed). Apparently after she put her son in the car she closed the door before realizing her keys were still inside. But before she had the chance to retrieve them, Ryker kneeled on the key chain and triggered the lock button.

Now remember we had just spent about an hour at the park on a nice warm sunny day. Ryker had been wearing a fleece jacket since there was a cold breeze that morning. Now he is stuck in a hot car and he doesn't know how to unlock the doors. The windows were all rolled up and there was no way to get in. Susan tried to get Ryker to push the locks on the door up but he just didn't understand. She also tried to get him to push the buttons on her key chain but to no avail. It was so frustrating to watch and not be able to do anything. Ryker was getting hotter and hotter as time went by. Sweat was building on his nose, and then his entire face, and then his hair. It was pretty scary.

There was a Sheriff parked in the parking lot so we asked him if he could help. He had a slim jim in his trunk (probably from a previous arrest) and he tried using it to unlock the doors. It didn't work, so he went back to his trunk and pulled the wire hanger off of his extra uniform that looked like it had just come from the cleaners and tried to use that. Nothing worked. We were worried. I felt really bad for Susan who just had to stand there and listen to Ryker say over and over "mommy I want out" I was sure the stress was going to put her into labor and then oh boy! We'd really have a situation on our hands.

After another silent prayer and at just about the time I couldn't possibly handle it anymore Susan's husband pulled up in his car and pressed the button from their spare key! Whew! Ryker was soaked but was perfectly fine. The fleece jacket came off and he was free to walk around for a bit. He got in my car with Kiera and Ethan who I had been keeping happy with my stash of string cheese and he was happy as could be.

As that day went on I would think back to what had just happened and thoughts would keep coming to my head. Watching Ryker in that hot car, struggling and not being able to do anything to help or change the situation is probably a lot like what Heavenly Father feels like when we practice our agency and make wrong decisions that get us trapped in sticky situations. And watching Susan struggle and have to watch her son suffer in that hot car with no way to help him could be like our Heavenly Father watching his son Jesus Christ suffer for all of us in Gethsemane. It was a scary situation but at the same time it was a learning experience and a good reminder that Heavenly Father is aware of us and always has been.

File Folder Games

This morning I decided it was time to get crafty and do something to keep my hands busy. I was looking at a friends blog and stumbled across another blog sugardoodle.net and got this cute idea. I am always looking for something to keep the kids busy during sacrament meeting and I am hoping these file folder games will help. All I had to do was print out the templates, color them, cut and paste them onto a file folder (which I had a couple empty ones laying around) and add some magnets (which I just used some of the advertisement magnets that come with our phone books), and whala! Kiera was pretty excited when I was finished and tried them out a couple times each.

Mount Vernon Tulip Festival

This weekend Dan's parents came up for a short visit. They had a cousin reunion in a nearby city and we got to spend a little time with them while they were here. On Saturday we headed up to Mount Vernon for their annual tulip festival. We weren't sure of the weather that morning, but once we got up there it was pretty pleasant and dry. Kiera and Ethan got to spend some time with their cousins Kaleb and Florence too. Kiera loved running around and stopping to smell the flowers. She even gave a kiss to one of the nearby frog statues in the tulip gardens. We had a fun time and I got some pretty good shots of the kids. I love it when we get out as a family. It makes for the best memories. It just goes to show that you don't have to spend a whole lot of money to make lasting memories or to have fun.

Making Memories

So today started off really well. I got a couple extra hours of sleep and woke up at the same time as the kids. We ate breakfast and then got dressed to go play outside. The weather was absolutely wondermous. While the kids were playing outside I decided to get a handle on some of the weeds in the yard. Weeding is such a chore and can be so messy, but at the same time there is something so fulfilling about seeing four or five 5 gallon buckets worth of weeds disappear!

Today Kiera discovered the joys of finding "snakes" and the little "yikes" in the dirt. They were actually worms and beetles, but I like their new names better. Kiera is so smart and she makes me laugh by the things she says. Worms do look like snakes so that must be what they're called right? And she calls the beetles "yikes" because that is the first thing she heard them referred to when I saw one in the dirt where I was working.

When Kiera got tired of playing in the dirt with mommy she went over and was peeking through the holes in the fence. She heard and saw our neighbor kids playing in their yard and suddenly came running up to me with a huge smile on her face. "Mommy I want to play with the kids?" Was she asking me if she wanted to? No, she was asking permission to go. It was soo cute and I couldn't say no to that face. She had sooo much fun over there and when I went over to get her for lunch I made the mistake of asking a question instead of making a statement. I said, "Kiera are you ready to come home for lunch?" She said, "No, I'm playing" Of course not mommy! What kind of question is that? She finally agreed to go after we promised her that she could come play another time. I can't believe my baby is old enough to actually go play with the neighbor kids without me. They change so quickly. I look forward to this summer and spending time making memories with my little ones.

Cake Decorating

The other night I taught a cake decorating class for Enrichment night. It was a lot of work to prepare, I stressed about it more than I needed to, and I had fun doing it. My original plan was to (1)teach everyone how to prepare their cakes for frosting, (2)how to apply the frosting without getting crumbs in it, and then (3)I was going to show them a couple techniques of adding decorations. The first two on my list went pretty well but when it came time to actually decorate the cakes is when we had trouble. The frosting was originally going to be from the Albertson's bakery but they wanted like $4.00/lb for it. YIKES! So instead we ended up getting store bought frosting in the plastic jars. It was too liquid and after working with it for awhile it was too warm and turned to goop. The ladies were really good sports and went with the "flow." Everyone said they had fun and they at least learned a few techniques, so I guess it was a success. Here is a picture of the cake I did for my display. I was very pleased with how it turned out and it was hard for me to cut into it later. I think I am going to send it to work with Dan tomorrow so I don't eat anymore of it. I don't want to loose the biggest looser competition that Dan and I are having.

Babies and Butterflies

Ok so this post doesn't really have anything to do with butterflies but it is about bugs and it is about my children who are no longer tiny but will always be my babies. Today we all went out into the beloved sunshine and played in the yard. The kids had tons of fun playing and Ethan loved getting dirty. I caught some precious moments with the camera and one of my favorites was of Kiera and her new found friend. You gotta watch the video to see what I am talking about. It is hilarious! At least to me it was. Just click on the red link below. I am right now in the process of trying to put together a powerpoint of all the pictures and videos I took of the kids today so hopefully sometime soon I can share that with some of you.

Click her to watch Babies and Butterflies

And of course here's Ethan

doing what boys do best!

Boys will be boys!

Gotta love it!

Just Because

The other day I got the camera out just because and decided to take some pictures of the kids. The weather was beautiful outside and everyone was in a good mood all day so I took advantage of the smiles and got some pretty cute pictures. I also took a picture of myself just for the fun of it. The only picture I didn't get was of Dan since he was at work but maybe some time soon.

It seems like yesterday...

Time flies so quickly. You hear it all the time from your own mother that "it seems like yesterday..." You never really grasp that until you have it happen to you. It has been a little over 3 years since I married my husband Dan and in that amount of time we have had two beautiful children and those children seem to be growing up faster and faster with each day that goes by.
Today Ethan decided to take a huge step in life and when I say "huge step" I actually mean a bunch of little, teeny steps. But he did it all on his own. I was sitting on the couch this evening waiting for Dan to come home from work. I was just enjoying some quiet time and was watching the kids play on the floor when it happened. Ethan all of a sudden decided to take off! He got up and walked several feet, stopped, bent down, picked up another toy, stood back up, and kept walking. Up until now he would only walk next to the furniture or with the help of a push toy or hand from us. I can't believe my baby boy is growing up so fast. This past year has been on of the quickest I have had. Wasn't I pregnant a week ago?
It does seems like only yesterday.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ETHAN IN ACTION Kiera still insists on lending her little brother a hand. Way to be a helper Kiera! However you can see at the beginning of the video that he can do it on his own.

Happy Easter

Today we celebrated Easter. The world we live in today centers mostly around the Easter Bunny, dying eggs, and candy. But this year we tried a bit more to teach Kiera what the real reason of Easter is. We told her that it is a day to think about Jesus and him being resurrected so that we too can be. When we were saying the blessing on the food during lunch time, it was Kiera's turn to say the prayer and she thanked Heavenly Father for Jesus and Easter. She did a really good job. We were sure to take a family photo before we ate and I love how it turned out!

Kiera and Ethan in their Easter outfits. They are soo cute!

What the Easter Bunny left for us this morning. The bunny basket in the middle has been mine since I was little. I think I am going to have to make similar ones for the kids one of these days.
The night before, we all stayed up and colored Easter eggs. We were lucky and only lost one egg because Ethan looked starved :)

Happy Easter!

Easter dress success!

Whew! I finished Kiera's Easter dress just in time. I was able to finish it this afternoon while the kids were playing and watching the Lion King movie. It turned out very nice. I used the same pattern as the Christmas dress I made last year and just made the skirt a tad bit longer. Kiera loves it and says that "it is bootiful!" My favorite part of the dress is the little bows I made for the sleeves. I wanted to make it look somewhat different from her other one. These pictures aren't the best of quality, but I hope to get some Easter pictures taken of all of us tomorrow.
Maybe the next time I take up a sewing project I will make a tutorial of it. But I think dress making is a little too extensive for my first tutorial attempt.

Zipline through the trees

I know you all have been anticipating the video of our ziplining adventure while we were in Victoria, BC. Well I finally got around to it and uploaded it. We had so much fun up there! This was probably the highlight of our entire trip. We went down 8 different ziplines, crossed two suspension bridges, and took a 10 minute ATV ride. If any of you ever have a chance to visit Victoria I highly recommend doing this!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH!

Ok...fine...if you insist

A wonderful friend of mine tagged me in one of her blog postings.

Here are the rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now.

No primping or preparing.

Just snap a picture.

Load the picture onto your blog.

Tag some people to play.

Yes I know it was a little tough for me. No make-up, no shower today (so far), so it is just plain me. But the title of the game is the Babe Tag. So what is there to loose?

The people I am going to tag for this are:
Beverly Tank
Laura Owen
Michelle Glenn
LaDean Glenn
Nicole Martinsen

Have fun ladies! You are all babes in my book!

Conference Weekend

OOOHHHH YES! The sun is here! I am so happy the sun has been with us for 3 days in a row now! Conference weekend was absolutely gorgeous. We spent lots of time outside. During sessions on Saturday the kids and I pulled some weeds in the backyard and played. Then Kiera helped daddy wash the cars! She loves helping daddy and it has become a tradition for those two to wash cars together. Then after the last session on Saturday we went out house hunting with our realtor. We are looking to buy a house soon. We found one that we might make an offer on just to see how low they'll go on it. There are a lot of changes we would want to make on it for us to be satisfied so we'll see how that goes. These are a couple pictures I took of the kids playing outside. Aren't they adorable! I love the hats. I wish I could pull one off as good as these two do.



Then on Sunday after conference we all went for a really long walk. The weather was perfect! We wore t-shirts and sandals and I even got hot! It was great! We were gone for about an hour and a half. I don't know how many miles we walked, but it sure was a long one. Then we drove around in Arlington just driving by houses we saw for sale. The kids were beat by the time we got back.