Taste In Music

I am a BIG fan of music. That sounds really silly (I think most people are fans of music). But I LOVE a good song. Now the definition of that changes per scenario, what mood I am in, are the boys with me, am I working out etc. If I had to make a play list people would probably think I am schizophrenic. My boys however have a specific music it seems they love -- Girl power songs. Over Christmas break Sam would beg to hear Mariah Carrey's "All I want for Christmas" over and over and over. Liam would freak out and do crazy awesome moves to it while Sam yelled "Dance Bro Bro Dance!!" (Sam encourages everyone to dance, including my parents very very old Bulldog Wally) We even put on a show Christmas eve for the family (thanks to the Adams' for making a holiday CD with it on it!) Since the holidays are over we needed to find a replacement song, apparently that replacement song is Single Ladies by Beyonce. They are CRAZY about this song. Unfortunately I don't have her most recent CD (Meet Sasha Fierce-- I think) so we just get lucky every now and then and hear it in the car and then wow does our car go nuts! If I don't at least make some attempt to wave my arms or something Sam yells "Dance mom dance!" I am sure people next to us think I am crazy. I tried putting it on once with the U Tube video but decided it was FAR to risque for my little boys--- well most people that is. So it is up to fate to play it on the radio while running errands. Hope your car rides are as hoppin!

My Kid Could Paint That

Chris and I really enjoy documentaries. This weekend while the boys were taking their afternoon nap we watched "My Kid Could Paint That". It was one I had been excited to watch for a while. It is basically a commentary on modern art and follows a year in the life of a four year old who becomes famous over night for being an abstract artist. It was SOOOOO interesting and full of controversy (whether her Dad helped her, 20-20 sabotaging her career etc.) Although she was four when she started, the movie inspired Chris and I to see what our boys could do. We started them out in their high chairs but found them to restricting for art and moved to the kitchen floor. (I love this photo because when paired with the bump on his head it looks like Liam has completely lost it.) We rolled out a huge sheet of paper and let them go to town. Sam had fun painting his "feets" and then stepping on the paper. He then showed Liam how to swim in the water he had painted. In the end it was a far cry from what the little girl did (she worked in oils on canvas, my boys in extremely washable water color on Ikea paper) but they had sooooo much fun! The finished product hung in our hall way for a while. I thought about selling it to the Met but the boys tore it down after a few days.

DC Zoo

Two days after we returned from UT we decided it was high time we go on vacation.. again. We headed up to DC to meet our awesome friends the Tillmanns for the weekend (Wes had a dental conference he was attending). We hung out at our hotel swimming and letting Sam and Lucy play (they LOVE each other woo hoo!) On sat. we headed to the DC zoo. I love this zoo because of its cost (free) and the fact that it has Pandas! because it was frigged most of the animals were inside which worked out well because the kids got to see them close up. This panda was scarfin down on some bamboo. Sam and Lucy had a great time talking about the animals to each other. Most of the time they were in the stroller Sam had his arm around Lucy because she had told him it was "cary" and he apparently wanted to protect her. Reese was a champ and stayed nice and warm in his snow suit. Liam wanted to run EVERYWHERE and NOT hold hands. I got to see one of my favorite animals the Pygmy hippo. How cute is he!! The elephant was hyper which the kids loved. (I usually don't like taking pictures of just animals, you kind find much better ones of an elephant out there.) It was a blast and Sam cried on the way home saying he "needed his Lucy!"

Quick one-- Shopping High

Our latest Enrichment was on couponing. I had been riveted to the Oprah about this process but it never explained how to do it. Well a lovely sister in our ward took the evening to explain it. I went with a horrible attitude "um I have no time to do this and hate the idea of marching around with a fist full of coupons". I left determined to give it a month and see how it goes. Well I took my first trip last night and this is what I left the grocery store with after paying $1.19!!!! Haaa I was on such a high. Chris laughed and demanded to see the receipt which I have proudly displayed on the fridge. Apparently it can be done. We both were non believers but I think it's not to shabby for a first trip! Here is what I got:

8 jars of Peanut butter

4 packages of Pop tarts

4 packages of frozen veggies (the good steamer kind)

8 Yoplait plus yogurts

2 Packages of Excedrin

1 bottle of wishbone Ranch dressing

In all honesty I could have gotten double of everything but was a little gun shy to walk up there my first time with that many coupons. The lady was really great though and proudly showed the other cashiers what she had rung up. ANYWAY I don't intend to post about this everytime or anything I was just excited for the first trip.

Dino Museum

While in Utah my mom and Sister Felicity and I took the boys to the largest Dino museum in the world!! It is right there at Thanksgiving Point. I had never been and am happy to say I will be returning (although it is a bit pricey). Sam was all gun ho at first but was a little shy about going "back in time" through this amazingly dark tunnel lit with pin hole lights. They LOVED staring up at the huge fossils and being able to touch a lot of artifacts. As always Liam immediately made a friend: I think their favorite (and definitely mine) was this freakishly huge turtle that was unearthed in South Dakota. This thing was 16 feet flipper to flipper! Sam calls turtles Turows which made it even more fun. I also liked the Super Saurous which is the largest dino ever discovered. Seriously could you imagine this thing running at you!!Liam is the size of one of its toes :) towards the end there was a huge shark (I still have no idea why) and Liam tried so hard to climb over the barrier and into it's mouth. While Lemers did that Sam gawked at the wholly mammoth and when I asked him what noise he thought that animal made he trumpeted his huge elephant sound. In the middle of the museum they had this amazing water and sand room that was filled with toy dinos and trees etc. for the kids to play with in the water and sand. You had to crawl through a tunnel to get to the raised portion for kids so it really was strictly a little kid thing. The boys had fun burring their dinos and then giving them baths. At the end of the museum are three large pits filled with fossils covered in sand. The boys hopped right it and began unearthing them with their paint brush's. Liam apparently likes the taste of wood! We enjoyed lunch in the Dino Cafe then I took the boys through one more time letting my mom and Felicity actually relax and enjoy their meal and frankly making sure we got our money's worth :)

Be Better

Alright so I know I have been horrible about posting lately. This is due LARGLEY in part to my New Years goal for this year. When I sat down to think about what my goals where for this year I noticed that they all had one common theme, they began with being better. I want to be a better mom, be a better wife, be a better friend, be a better cook on and on. So I have decided that my mantra for this year is be better. You may think hmmm well be a better blogger obviously did not make the list and to be totally honest it didn't. While I LOVE having this record and printing it out as a journal I felt awful when Sam and Liam would be playing in our play room and I felt that was my only free moment to blog so instead of joining in with them I jumped on and blogged away. So this year I vowed to be better at the IMPORTANT things and so far I have to tell you I haven't ever been happier. For my family I will be a better wife, mother, sister aunt etc. For my friends I will be there when you need me... sometimes even if you don't ask. For myself I will be a better exerciser, pay attention to warning signs that I need a little me time. I will be a better church member and truly strive to read my scriptures everyday, and by such be a better example to my cuties. Sam yelled at a car the other day to "MOVE!" and it really hit home what a sponge he is. While I would love to follow Elder Uchdorfs wonderful talk and be the best, for right now I am striving towards better.

Happy Birthday Chris

This is weeks late (I am sooo on top of things these days!) but Christopher had his 29th birthday!!! His parents took us out to celebrate to bar none THE nicest restaurant I have ever been too. I am talking I don't know how to read the menu, multiple courses and multiple waiters... yeah I was excited. (thank you mom and dad for watching the boys) It was this gorgeous Italian place in down town Salt Lake called Cucina Toscana. It was AMAZING! Lick your plate clean and die of embarrassment from it good. Okay enough about the restaurant and more about the fabulous person we were celebrating. I told Chris I was glad he was going to turn 30 before me because it sort of eased me into it. He said it didn't bother him at all that he was almost 30. He said that it only bothers people who haven't really done anything with their lives and have regrets. By the time Chris turns thirty he will have served a full time mission, been married in the temple, a war veteran, a daddy of 3 (maybe), have a law degree and hopefully be working at a job he loves. I guess when you think about it that way there really is nothing to do but celebrate the wonderful life he has lived thus far. I am SURE even more amazing things are yet to happen! So, happy birthday Chris I could not be happier that you were born and raised to be such a wonderful man!

PS Funny side story. When we went to Cedar to visit Bodily, Chris ended up laughing so hard at one of Bodily's jokes that he passed out and hit his head... yeah now that is what it means to have a good time with an old friend!

hmmmm not to suprising :)..although I was Esme two days ago

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St. George and good Ole' Cedar

Christopher and I hadn't visited our good ole stompin ground of Cedar City for a LONG time and we felt it was high time we headed back. We decided it would be fun to take my little sister Claire and her best friend Annie on a tour of SUU as they are currently filling out applications to colleges. Christ was also very excited to visit one of his best and longest friends Chris Bodily or as we ALWAYS call him Bods. We had a blast taking the girls around campus. Then Claire Annie and Sam and I (Liam spent the night with Chris's parents-- the LONGEST I have ever spent away from one of my cuties!!!!) headed down to the SWEET hotel my parents got for us. The girls swam in the pool while Sam and I hung out in the hot tub! We figured by 8:30 PM IN N Out should be dead... oh wait nope the line was out the door. Sam had fun with his giant train he brought from Grandmas house and only threw a few massive fits. While dragging him to the bathroom after one I them I think a few people were more than worried that he wouldn't come back out :) That is what happens when you throw off a two year olds nap schedule.

Claire and Annie enjoyed the meal in their feety jammies which got a lot of funny looks :)

Although I think they are still pretty set on the Y I think Chris and Bods did a good job presenting their alma mater!

Santa came!

We had a lovely Christmas spending lots of fun time with both families. We slept at my parents Christmas eve and the kids did a cute pageant of Luke 2. We had yummy sandwiches from one of my fav places Kneeders and the chocolate fountain was runnin full tilt. Because I am a total ditz and didn't have a memory card in my camera I have yet to get the pics off my parents camera. Christmas morning though I was prepared.

The boys had a blast opening their presents and playing with their new treasures.

We then felt like a big breakfast so we headed to Denny's. Yup Christmas morning and we frequented Dennys! :) We all sported our jammies including Claire in her feety jammies.

The boys suffered through the five min car ride to Chris's parents beautifully! They loved playing around with their cousins and we enjoyed the noise, the food and fun that is a party involving 30 some odd people, the majority of which are children.