Tall and Skinny

Who? Me? No. I'm talking about my two beautiful little children.  I took them to the doctor today for their well-checks and heard exactly what I thought I'd hear.  They're tall and skinny.  "Yes, Dr., I feed my children everyday."

They're still the most beautiful children to me!

We need a swagger wagon.

We took the kids camping last weekend. It was Sophie's first camping trip so we were anxious to see how she did. We grabbed some Wendy's on the way to the site so that we didn't have to worry about cooking dinner at the camp. We set up the tent and built our fire, trying our very best to be patient with Jonah while he asked every 2 seconds if he could roast marshmallows yet.

Bedtime rolled around and we bundled the kids in to 2 sets of pajamas each and threw an additional sweatshirt over the top just to make sure they'd stay warm. Jon and I sat by the campfire and listened to our two little nuggets laughing and talking to each other.

I think I only slept a total of three hours that night--between worrying about the kids and trying to stay warm yet comfortable. Sophie woke up at 5am when the tiniest bit of light hit the tent and the birds started singing. Her first words were, "Daddy! Daddy! Hold me. Car!!" She was done with the trip. We put her between us in our bed and warmed her up and tried to keep her quiet until Jonah could wake up at a decent hour (which ended up being 6:30am).

It was absolutely freezing in the morning. The kids were grouchy. Jon was grouchy. But I couldn't help but enjoy it all. I grew up going camping a lot with my family and have always wanted my kids to grow up loving nature as much as I do. It might take some getting used to but I know we'll be making good memories as we go!

I only had my phone to take pictures, so forgive the quality, please.

Keeping Sophie warm and content in the morning chill.

Beautiful morning

While packing up the car, it was apparent that we'll soon be needing one of these. I never thought I'd be a minivan mom but these advertisements are certainly persuading!

Colorado in April

Jon finished his first year of his MBA (hey-oh!) so we ventured to Fort Collins for a whole week to spend time with my parents. 

We had a bonus visit from Jeff, Audra, and Eva and my Grandpa Herran and his wife Mo even came up for a delicious dinner comprising various meats which my dad smoked all morning.  It was so fun to visit with them.  I don't get to see them often enough.

The weather was uncooperative with our plans to visit Estes Park and participate in other outdoor adventures but I did get to run a 5k with my mom on Saturday morning which was a lot of fun.  It reminded me of the years my whole family would run the Bolder Boulder together.

We did a little shopping at Flatirons.

Jon was embarrassed that I was taking pictures inside the mall...hehehe!

 

We also did a little fishing on the boat as soon as the weather warmed up a bit.  It was Jonah's first fishing trip and he got to use his brand new Spiderman fishing pole.  He even got to real in his first fish (or his "shark", as he now refers to it while telling his fishing tales).

Practicing in Grandpa's pond.

 Lessons from Grandpa

Reeling in the big one!

The Shark

Trophy

 

Other perks of the trip:  Panera Bread, Sophie with Spriggy, and baths in Mimi's big bathtub.

Needless to say, the kids were exhausted by the time we went home.  Sleeping in the car was inevitable.

Jonah's Prayer

This was Jonah's bedtime prayer tonight:

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.  Thank you for our so many blessings.  Thank you for that we could get the sticks and put them in the holes.  Thank you for our so many dreams.  Help us to be nice and to not get the sticks.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

He has recently grasped the idea of thanking Heavenly Father for the good things about his day and its usually something to do with playing golf (insert any other sport here), eating something good, or reading his favorite books.

Jon and I thought this one was particularly good because he was thankful for something fun but also knew he probably should never do what he was doing again. (and I'm not even exactly sure what the stick game was but I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow when I look around the yard)

Sophie's Haps

I finished Sophie's Easter dress in time for her to wear it the week after church.  I only brought dry snacks to church, nothing sticky or chocolate and I watched her like a hawk.  I was so afraid it would be ruined in one wear.  I guess it wasn't the most practical outfit for a toddler...but it sure was adorable!

 

Mad because she can't play in the sandbox in her dress

Sophie's other news is that she had her first haircut this week!  By the time Jonah was this age, he'd already had a couple of haircuts (and much more substantial ones) but all we needed to do was get rid of her wispy mullet (which I thought was pretty cute).

As you can imagine, it was somewhat scary taking scissors to a toddlers neck while they slide around and play in the tub.

Sorry for the blur of the moving child

We love our little beauty!

Easter Fun

Our Easter weekend couldn't have been better.  Despite the frigid temperature Saturday, the kids got to participate in their first Easter egg hunt with our ward!  There was a 5 egg limit per child which means that by the time we got to Jonah, he had to throw back more than half his eggs and this kid wasn't happy about it.  Sophie caught right on and meandered around the field picking her eggs ever so carefully.

Pre-hunt instruction...very focused.

 Sophie was just content to have her pretty basket!

I love this face!!

 Goofy Grin

We stayed in jammies for most of the day and enjoyed the wonderful messages of General Conference.  It was difficult to listen with the kids but Jonah recognized President Monson each time he appeared and would say, "Look, it's President Monson!  He's my favorite guy." 

I always enjoy the talks about family and strengthening our children so that they'll be self sufficient and learn to rely on their own testimonies.  What a challenge we have as parents today.  Our children have such great work ahead of them and it is our responsibility to nurture and care for them in every way so they'll be ready.  I'm grateful for modern day prophets and apostles that know the world we live in and provide direction for us.

My talented egg artists

Generations

Last week we went down to Springville to visit one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants, La Casita.  The restaurant has been there forever.  In fact, a few years back, we found this picture up on their wall (their walls have Polaroids of customers from years past) and I always make it a point to find it:

This is a picture of my dear grandparents (my mom's parents) eating at La Casita many years ago.  I'm sure it was nearly 30 years ago. 

The man working at the front desk asked me who I was taking a picture of and I told him that it was my grandparents.  He looked at the picture and said that he remembered them and that they came often back then.

A day at the park

Last week on Jonah's birthday we took the kidlets to the park for some play time.  I brought my camera along with so I could get some cute pictures of them while they played.

Hopefully we'll be getting some family pictures taken in the next couple of weeks.  I just need to finish Sophie's Easter outfit and we'll be set!

I have a 3 year old

We had such a fun birthday with Jonah this year.  He's old enough and completely understands that it was HIS day yesterday.  I had to remind him several times that if he doesn't learn to share with Sophie, she'll never want to play with him (probably not true but I had to try something).  Sophie is always interested in what Jonah is doing and would play nicely with him if he'd let her...but he doesn't, so she'll steal his toy and say, "MY!!!" and smirk in his direction.  I think she knows she can get to her older brother already.  Good girl!

We started the festivities on Sunday with our family dinner.  I made Jonah's birthday cake into Wii Remotes--or Wii-motes--since he's really only crazy about the Wii right now.  When he looked at it he said, "But I wanted boxing gloves!"  I just used my mom powers and before it hit my ears it turned nicely to, "Wow! Thanks, Mom!!".

The wonderful thing about Jonah's birthday being in March is that we get to outfit him for the summer.  He got lots of new outdoor toys and has really enjoyed being outside playing with the nice weather.  He played his first game of catch yesterday with his daddy and his new glove and ball and had a blast.  We took him to the park where he insisted on bringing his new bowling set (pins and all) to play with on the slide--ski-ball style.

We convinced him that Smashburger was the place to dine on his birthday and I enjoyed myself another awesome burger.  Jonah and Sophie devoured their hot dogs.

I sat in bed a few nights ago, thinking of the night I went into labor with Jonah and I can't believe its been three years.

I love my children more than I could ever imagine and I am so blessed to be a mother.  It truly is unlike anything else in the world.

Something like 18 inches

Who knows how much hair I actually cut off?  Let's just say I went from the longest my hair has ever been, to the shortest.  This was no spur of the moment cut, either.  I have never researched and planned for a hairdo as long as I did for this one.  I figured if I was going to be drastic, I had better make sure I got exactly what I wanted.

First things first:  Find yourself a good stylist! Check.  I don't mean to brag but I have access to one of the most talented stylists.  Laura is truly amazing.  Brilliant.  I knew she'd know exactly how to get to where I wanted to be.

Second:  Prepare the people around you.  To tell you the truth, everyone around me was more attached to my long locks than I was.  Don't get me wrong.  I loved my long hair.  But I was ready for a change.  I began dropping hints of a change to Jon months ago.  Yes, MONTHS.  Just before I left for my haircut, I had a little pep talk with my mother-in-law (I was giving the pep talk).  I think it worked--she didn't collapse when I got home.

Third:  Research the do.  Done and done.  I've been thinking about doing this for years and figured it was the right time and I knew (from many months of observations and digging up photos) exactly what I wanted.

So, here we are.  18 (or so) inches chopped!  I can't be happier!  I may never grow my hair out again!

The End