Hong Kong Visitors

Last weekend my brother and his girlfriend Tiffany from Hong Kong came and visited with her parents. Her parents were here for the first time in the US so my brother was showing them all the sights of Utah, Vegas, and California. They were so much fun. We couldn't understand each other without Tiffany there to translate for us, but we really loved being with them. Tiff's parents loved Seth and Jaq, and the kids didn't seem to know that they couldn't understand them, but spent hours playing blocks and other games with our visitors. I think the first time Seth realized they didn't understand him was right before they left when a moth flew in our house and Seth wanted to catch it and show Cordelle. Well Tiff's mom just caught it and threw it in the garbage. Seth kept telling her that he wanted to show his dad, but obviously she couldn't understand him so she just threw it away anyways. He was way upset about it, so I tried to explain the concept of different languages to a 4 year old and I cant say it got through. Pretty much he was a little upset at her for a second, but like most things, got over it! Anyways here's some pictures we took with them when we took them to Cedar Breaks. Its been awhile since we've been up there so it was fun to see everything. Mostly they were just amazed by the snow! How funny. I guess Hong Kong is on the coast so they had to go all the way around the world just to see the snow. :)

Cordelle Turns 30!!

Can't believe I forgot to mention that Cordelle turned 30 last month!! We had fun at a bed and breakfast down in LaVerkin and spent the next day shopping in St. George. Then on his real birthday we invited some friends over and had our first party in our backyard. 30 years! Love ya babe! Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAQUELLE!!

Jaquelle turned 2 on the 26th! I love this age. I know sometimes its the whiney, fit throwing, clingy stage. But its also when they start saying really cute things, or really normal things in a really cute way. And for girls, it starts the dress ups and the babies, and wrapping the babies...oh, seriously my little Jaq is so adorable, I really cant get enough of her. So here she is in her new birthday outfit before church (and the sunglasses were really just an accessory to the outfit, but she started to pose so cute in them, I couldn't resist).

I know this one is blurry but her seeing her laugh like this just makes me smile.

"I have the silliest mom in the world."

"Oh mom, please no more pictures! or at least stop with the I'm-gonna-get-you's."

...in running stance preparing to bolt away from the photo shoot.

Once again my friend Patrice has outdone herself with this cake. I know it seems boyish to have a Buzz Lightyear cake at a girls birthday party but she LOVES toystory and especially Buzz, so thats what I wanted. Looks so good doesn't it? (cakesbypatrice@blogspot.com)

Happy Birthday little girl, I cant believe your two!

Cedar Weddings Sky Fest 2010

Just one of the festivals that I love in Cedar! My kids love this every year.

Zi-AH-n

We love to make fun of everyone not from Utah that says Zion as "Zi-AH-n" instead of the hickish way we say it as "Zi-in." Okay I'm only mentioning it because we decided to use our national park pass from Kolob and to go to Zions since it was good for a week. So we packed up the kids and hiked Emerald Pools. It was a hike we've done before, but its always new fun with kids, especially kids that can hike on their own now. Anyways I love Saturdays that aren't spent cleaning or doing yard work (although the next week I can definitely tell when we've had such a mini-Saturday-vacation). And this Saturday was nuts. It was Zions till noon, then the Golden Corral in St. George for lunch, straight home to watch BYU get slaughtered by Airforce, then straight to the SUU football game, swing on by Little Ceasars for a 9:30 dinner and home for bed.
Anyways here's the pics from the day.

Check out this toy creation Seth and I made one day during quiet time. I think it was more fun to set up then play with but still cool dont you think?

If you could hie to Kolob....

Labor day weekend, we of course went hiking. I think its officially becoming a labor day tradition in our little family. So this year Neal and Brittlyn were here, so they came with us to Kolob, the Northern most part of Zions. They were smart and brought their national park pass....us...well, lets say $25 later we bought a one week pass to go on a 1 mile hike at the end of a road that took us only 10 minutes to get to. So there's not a whole lot of day hikes in Kolob, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful. And its nice to have actually gone to Kolob canyon since it seriously is like 15 minutes out of Cedar. The kids loved it and had a good time. Poor Brittlyn had a shadow seriously all weekend long cause Seth would not leave her side. But really its her own fault. Anyone who spends 2 and 1/2 hours playing trains with him Saturday morning is bound to win his undying affection for life.

Neal and his girlfriend Brittlyn

Seth's first day of Pre-school

Seth has officially started school (well preschool) but he LOVES it. The first day, he had a mini melt down when I left, but apparently he just lied down on the couch they have for reading and eventually calmed down enough when they got out some snacks. He told me he fell asleep on the couch and when he woke up, he was happy and not crying anymore. I never did ask his teacher if he really did fall asleep. But if he did that would explain the reason for him being so irrationally sad when I dropped him off the first day. And I totally feel responsible for this one because we kept him up too late the night before at Cordelle's work party. Bad mother moment. So we went to bed early that night and the next day he was pumped and ready to go back so no harm done.
The only other preschool mishap we had was this last week. Apparently he really had to go to the bathroom and being the shy, non-confrontational kid that he is, just kept on going to his stations and outside for free-time before he had a little accident and then was hysterical about it (because that is the way he reacts if even the tiniest bit of anything gets on his underware) and probably because he's never done that before. Seriously, when his teacher called me cause he wanted to go home and change, I almost didnt believe her cause Seth almost never had any accidents the whole time he was potty training or since. But of course here at preschool he would. I felt so bad for him, cause I think he truly was just embarrassed about it. But his darling teacher Mrs. Douglas was great with him and reminded him that he could always tell her if he needed to go and showed him again and again where the bathrooms were. Come to find out, Cordelle did the same thing in Kindergarten, so maybe this is somehow genetically his fault. :) Needless to say I MAKE him go twice before leaving in the morning now. I'm glad he's too young to be afraid of what the other kids might think of him. That part of real school does not excite me. But he was ready and determined the next day to tell Mrs. Douglas if he needed to go to the bathroom. So lesson learned. Anyways I LOVE having some one on one time with Jaq and I think he really does love school. So I'm glad I decided to put him in even if he will do 2 years of preschool.

We have GRASS in our backyard

It was a CRAZY busy two weeks, where I didnt see Cordelle from the second he'd get home till way after the kids were in bed. And poor Krista, my neighbor, felt my pain, as her saintly husband helped Cordelle every step of the way. But now...grass....no more weeds and 8,000 sq. ft later we have a mini soccer field! I love it!

Being silly on the back porch

We were out on the porch the other night and started taking these random pictures! Some Cordelle took, but most were taken by Seth (if he's not in them, he's taking it), and I think we were finally able to get one or two with a timer. Anyways it was a random fun family photo shoot.

We've been seeing this one a lot with our announcements so we were trying to recreate it....its not so romantic with a weathered wooden chair and bbque in the background.