the maui's

I can't walk Mom

2011-02-27T22:41:00.000-08:00

Nixon was downstairs, and yelling for mom, as usual. "I can't walk Mom" was what he was yelling over and over, but at the time, I wasn't sure what he was saying, as he is only 2, and his finger is permanently stuck in his mouth. After about 5 minutes or so, I leisurely make my way down to see whats the trouble, if there is no screaming, I'm in no rush! He's sitting on the ground by the diaper drawer, in his feet pajamas, saying " I cant walk Mom" I was holding Kam, so I grabbed his arm up and helped him/ half dragged him over to the couch so I could see what was up.
He said his foot hurt, and that he couldn't walk. So I start pushing on his ankle, toes, etc. and nothing was causing more pain... finally I discover a bulge at the arch area of his foot.
Low and behold it was a large paper clip in his feet pajamas, Roxy errrrrrrrh. I unzipped his jammies just enough to get my arm down the leg to fish it out. Then he says this one too, and yes, he had another large paper clip under his other foot.
Can you imagine taking a few steps with those suckers under your foot- ouch.

Another Nix story.

So today is Sunday, Nixon has had croup so he and I missed church today, he spent the whole day in his jammies, and was really upset about not going to church, as he wanted to see his buddy Luke. So, he got in trouble for coloring with brown marker all over the mud room cubbies. While he was crying in his time out, he kept begging for Luke... He wanted to put his shoes on to go see Luke, he wanted to go with mom to go see Luke, he wanted to go see Katie (Luke's mom). Luke, Luke, Luke. He just kept whining and crying for Luke. It was funny and pathetic.

Another Nix story

Nixon loves little Kam, the past few weeks I have found him in the morning in her crib. This is cute, but also very alarming. He has been known to put pillows over her face, smash her face with his big chubby baby man hands, climb on her, try to pick her up on his own... you see where this is going. Fortunately he has yet to do anything terrible, or be caught red handed if you will. I go into see him laying next to her, sucking his finger, or talking to her. Its cute, just scary, and also annoying because he wakes her up. So we put the baby gate up in front of her door. The fist morning he found it, he kicked it over. I heard the gate fall and jumped out of bed. But of course the baby was already awake and Nix was just climbing into the crib. Its been a few days now, and he has not kicked the gate over since. So there is hope!

When Nix gets up from his nap, he likes to wander around the house before letting anyone know his is awake. Its a ritual. He usually ends up wherever Kam is. And she is usually taking a nap too. Either in her crib or her car seat. This happens almost daily, and its annoying, and cute, and so Nixon.

4months old

2011-01-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

4 months and counting

Kamryn is 4 and half months old! Time is flying by. I thought I had better post what she's been up to, so I don't forget.

Rolling: My brother and his family came for New Years (from Las Vegas) and my lovely mom came too! She actually came a few days earlier, so we got to spend some QT with grandma. While she was hear Kami rolled over. A few days prior to this Kami had rolled from tummy to back like 2 times. But with Grandma here, she wanted to show off so she started rolling from back to tummy as well! Go Kamryn. This was right around her 4 month b-day.

Scooting: With Rolling comes scooting, and Kam loves to scoot all over, well with in a 2 foot radius of her blanket. Kami is rotating 180 degrees, and scooting off her blanket all the time. the best is when I find her rubbing her face into our carpet. Gross. I better bust out the carpet cleaner- like today!

Rice Cereal: Lucky for us, I actually recorded Kam's first experience with baby food. This was last night (1/12) and the kids got a kick out of it. Kami made the typical sour face after every bite, but she continued to eat it, and seemed to like it.

Sitting: Kami is not sitting yet. However when we prop her in the right position, she last in the sitting position for 30 seconds or so before her head finally collapses in front of her, near her feet. She's getting close!

Sleeping: Kami I believe is safe to label as our worst sleeper so far. The past few weeks I have been out of bed anywhere from 3-5 times a night, before I finally bring her back to bed with me. And even once she is sleeping all cuddled up to me, she still freaks out and has a good cry, almost every night, well this is usually morning 4 or 5am. I'm sure Maui appreciates this.

Kamryn is such a sweet little baby, we love having her in the family, and her siblings love her too. Even though Nixon has this crazy game where he calls kami "the bad guy" and enjoys throwing pillows at the "bad guy"... he loves her too, and enjoys holding her and laying by her and talking in her face, and of course trying to sneak her candy and fruit snacks.

Life with 4 kids is CRAZY, or it brings the CRAZY out in me, for sure. I said it after Nixon, "3 kids is hard." And I'll say it again after having Kamryn, 4 kids is hard. Perhaps now that I have written this down, I wont forget it. If in 1.5years, I start getting this crazy idea about having another baby, I'll just return to this blog entry and remember how crazy I felt with 4.

Being a mom is the only job I ever wanted, and if I got to do it over and pick again, I wouldn't do anything different. But it certainly is the most emotionally draining, time consuming, patience testing, job out there. My kids drive me crazy and push me to my limits every day, but for some crazy reason I wouldn't have it any other way. Having kids has forced me to prioritize my life and they help to remember that when I think I'm about to explode with anger or frustration all I need to do is kneel down and pray for forgiveness and help, and my Savior is always there to lift my burdens!
Love you kids, and love you Maui- thanks for putting up with my crap:)

I made a fool of myself

2010-10-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

While this would be a common statement you might here from the mouth of Desi, this post is in regards to Riley making a "fool of herself". So the stories goes...

At the end of preschool on Friday Riley was allowed to take ONE tootsie roll. She took her one and then proceeded to put a whole handful in her coat pocket. Her teacher noticed and asked her if she only took one, when Riley said she did, the teacher nicely told her that she saw that Riley had taken more and that she needed to put them back. Riley reluctantly put the handful back, saying that it was an accident!

When Riley got in the car, she flopped onto the floor and began bawling. I tried to get her to tell me what happened (even though the teacher had already told me). I coaxed her into telling me. Through all the tears and bawling, she finally replied "I'm crying because, I made a fool of myself". I couldn't hold back my laughter, it was too funny to hear her say that, which perfectly summed up how she felt about the whole situation. Although she admitted to feeling like a fool, she refused to admit that she took all the extra tootsie rolls on purpose. Her story is, it was an accident.

I made a fool of myself.... holy cow, it was funny! you should have been there.
I love my little drama queen!

kamryn at 1 month

2010-10-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some cute pictures of Kamryn- Enjoy
Don't overlook that gigantic birthmark!! It is located in almost the same spot as my younger sisters. So, thanks Mom and Dad, for passing that birthmark gene 2 generations . At least they also passed along being super smart and super good looking! :)

Kamryn has long, dark eyelashes! All the kids do, they can thank their Dad for that!

I edited this photo myself. Photoshop is far beyond my abilities. But this lame little program called Picasa fits right in. I lightened the background, and brightened it up a bit. I guess that is probably all I did. Oh yeah, I did give it a little tint- or something.

Little Kamryn is doing really well, and growing like a weed.

She weighed 7.6 lbs at birth
6.14 lbs when we left the hospital - 2 days later.
7.14 lbs at her 2 week check up
9.9 at 1 month

Great weigh ins Kam!

Baby books say between 2 and 3 months your baby will start to smile. Well on Thursday she smiled 2 times! The first time was even in front of a nurse, and she said : Whoa, look at that she is smiling! And then later that same day she smiled again. Truly, no gas followed these smiles, so it wasn't that she was just gassy.

Kamryn is also moving her head like a champ. She will follow me with her head and eyes as I walk by and she will follow toys as well. Her head and neck seem really strong too. I like to carry her over my shoulder, and she keeps her head up very well.

Sleeping habits could be better. She is still waking up a few times a night. Usually falling asleep around 10 or 11pm and waking up at 2:30 or 3:30am. And then again almost always at 5:30. This means we are usually up for at least 30 minutes, usually more like an hour, as it takes her awhile to fall back to sleep.

The kids still love her, and pay too much attention to her. Riley picks her up all the time, even though she knows she is not supposed to. Nothing terrible has happened yet, but kamryn usually lets out wale, that informs me Riley is trying to pick me up!!! Help!!
Roxy obviously is a bit more careful, and can pick her up gently. Nixon treats her like a toy, he is very interested in her and loves her, just not gently.

I believe all this love and attention is why she cries with such force and volume, she is so use to the noise around her, that she knows if she wants to be heard, it has to be loud!

All in all we are loving her, she is so adorable! I love to snuggle with her at night, after the older kids are in bed, that is about the only time I can really enjoy her and pay attention to her! Thats the life of the youngest of 4 children.
Roxy will soon be turning 7, then it won't sound so crazy. Saying 6, 4, 2 and a new baby makes me sound a little crazy. In November when I can say: 7, 4, 2 and baby, that will make a world of difference, don't you agree?

Funny story, I don't want to forget. When kamryn was about 2 weeks old, we were putting the kids to bed a little earlier than normal, like at 7:30. Anyhow, we were all upstairs and kamryn was sleeping downstairs. She of course woke up, and started crying. I ignored it for a few minutes, then she stopped. About 2 minutes later I venture down the stairs to go check on her, only to find 5 or so of my young women had come into the house, and had the baby. They were at our Tuesday night activity, a few houses away, and decided to come say hi. They came to the back door, which only had the screen shut, and could hear kamryn crying, so they let themselves in to go get her. They decided to come find us, and were about to come upstairs with the baby when I ran into them. It was funny, and almost creepy. Only because it could have been anybody letting them self into my house to get the baby. But i was happy to see the YW, it had been like 4 weeks since I had seen them last, and I realized, whoa, I missed these girls.

baby kamryn

2010-08-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

i have much that needs to be posted... like riley getting her ears pierced, bear lake reunion, and roxy's first day of school. all need time and attention, but first i wanted to post about our new little bundle of joy-

Kamryn Mauerman
August 26, 2010

I was lucky enough to be induced about 5 days early. Being induced is so different from going into labor naturally, its so much..... better! This labor was so similar to roxy's where i was also induced. I was able to get an epidural before my contractions got bad, my pain scale topping at like a 5. Once i was actually induced at about 10am we welcomed our baby about 4 hours later. the good doctor B did come and pop my water, and after that everything started progressing much quicker, that was about noon, and she was delivered at 1:44 pm. Just a quick recap for ya,
Hopefully that wasn't TMI for you.

She was 7 pound 6 ounces, and 19.5 inches long. my smallest baby yet!

riley and her look alike! we told riley how the baby looked like her, the pride in riley's face is undeniable! About the time of this photo Riley asked us "did she come out with the bow on her head?" and shortly after that she asked, in a very conclusive tone "so she doesn't have any feet yet?"

Roxy and Riley with their new baby sister. Nixon was around here somewhere, he was going crazy in the hospital room, running around and acting like an adorable little 2 year old monster.
He did see the baby and said "baby" and he gave her hugs and kisses. He now will ask "where's Kamryn" he loves his little sister, and wants to hold her, he just doesn't know how to be soft and gentle yet.

Nixon had a birthday shout hooray

2010-07-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

Nixon has turned 2! It was definitely a 3rd child event. We sort of kept forgetting about the birthday. However we did have mini birthday celebration with one of my YW friends Jackie. And then after she left, Nixon's little buddy Luke was playing outside with his dad, so they came over and had cup cakes with us. So 2 friends, and his sisters, what else could a 2 year old ask for?

Nixon did get this awesome tool set; hard hat, drill, chain saw, skill saw, tool belt. Yes, very manly, he loved it.

At 2 years:
Nixon loves Barbie, Dora, and now Diego (thank goodness). He is kind over Yo Gaba Gaba. Nixon loves to play with his buddies in nursery, but is awful through sacrament meeting.
He finally likes the pool, and will float around with just his arm floaties, he likes the deep end of the pool, and doesn't like us trying to help him get around.
Nixon is a good little talker, with more words, and small sentences coming together everyday.
Nixon loves sports balls. Basketball, soccer ball, beach balls, bouncy balls.
He likes to kick and jump, dance and twirl. He likes karate, and will put on shows with Roxy and Riley.
He thrives on attention and loves to entertain us.
He likes cereal in morning, and makes the biggest mess. He is OCD about the placement of his blankie for nap time. He loves nap time and bed time, and usually lays right down.
He does have a blankie that he drags around. He now sucks his pointer finger, after me putting band aids on his thumb for a few days (trying to get him to stop sucking his thumb).
His newest favorite phrase is "No Way" I say this all the time, so I assume he got it from me. However I only first heard it the day I came home from girls camp. His favorite word is Candy or Gum, which are also his favorite things to munch on.

That is Nixon in a nutshell. Happy Birthday little Buddy, we love you!

girls camp mania

2010-06-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

I have been eating, drinking, and dreaming girls camp for the past few weeks. And out of our whole girls camp board (8 of us) I am doing the least... but my mind has definitely been taken over by girls camp. We started out with a modest 18-22 campers, and now just 8 days before we are up to 28. AHHH. That is alot to work with, and to accommodate for. I still can't believe it.

But the cool thing is I have seen first hand the Lord softening the Young Women's hearts, and providing ways for them to come. Girls we thought for sure would not come are coming! So even if it is 10 more girls then we thought, we are happy to have them!

So I get to go to Bear Lake and stay at this awesome play house. Pickleville play house to be exact. Our first counselor's family owns this cabin and the play house, and we get to use it for the week. So fun.

Our theme is BOOT camp. B- building O- on O- our T- testimonies. Its going to be a good mix of boot camp style activities and then a spiritual twist on it all. Our girls camp director is awesome and has thought of the most amazing ideas.

I'll finally be 30 weeks prego at Girls camp, so that gives me somthing else to look forward to. The last 10 weeks, go by quicker then the middle 10. Our second counselor will be at camp for the week too, and she is 24 weeks pregnant. 2 pregnant mama's at girls camp. What a sight.

lets catch up with some cute photos

2010-06-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Part of our San Diego trip. At Seaworld, the dolphins were swimming in circles, at a pretty fast pace (in front of that glass window) this freaked Nixon out, he didn't like it. He called them sharks. It was super funny, he kept yelling SHARK!

What kid doesn't love the water fountain? Nixon loves it too! It gives him somthing to look forward to during church.

Don't overlook that mischeivouse face. He can be such a stinker, and I think this photo speaks 1000 words.

Here we find Nixon deomonstrating his brute strength, by pulling this weighted handle. This was taken at the Thanksgiving point farm, and he loves all the farm animals, especially the little ponies they get to ride.

Riley celebrated her 4th Birthday!! She had a dress up birthday party with a few friends. Nixon sported a tutu, and Roxy wore a witches hat, other than that most everyone looked all fancy nancy.

This was so long ago, I can't remember much- sad. But she had a fun time, enjoyed being the center of attention, and so forth.

I took Riley to her 4 year check up, she is 20% on height and 40% on weight and that = 80% BMI. The Dr. called her stocky. What? Are little Riley, well she is definitly small but not tiny and breakable looking, so I guess she might be stocky. She still mostly weres 3T clothing, and even some 2T. It's funny to see picutre of Roxy when she was first 4 years old, she was always big (but dispursed evenly 95% for as long as I can remember) so at age 31/2 or 4 Rox was wearing clothes that drowned Riley still. Riley is much smaller.

This is Riley watching a youtube video on crocheting flowers. She made a nice knot of yarn around her crochet needle. She was also intrigued by a youtube video on the duct tape crafts. Youtube is so child friendly- and you can feel confident knowing they won't see anything terrible. ha ha, not really.

We went to San Diego with some friends during spring break. Disney parks did a service promotion, where if you gave a day of service they gave you a free day at Disney land. Our service was collecting stuffed animals for a foundation that takes them to children in Indonesia. 60 stuffed animals later, we had 3 park passes. Pretty cool, eh?

Roxy and Riley got to meet Tinkerbell ( when the Tinkerbell movies came out, we decdided Riley looked like Tinkerbell, sometimes we call her Tink for fun) Riley was especially excited to meet Tink and gave her a super big bear hug.

This was Hat day at Roxy's school, doesn't she look so cute? Kindergaten has come and gone, and Rox is so excited for 1st grade, and more then ready. She is such a smarty pants. She's already reading Jr. chapter books, like Nate the Grate and Flat Stanely. I give most of the credit to this awesome reading program: The Distar reading program, Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. It worked so well for Roxy, we started right after she turned 4, and then we got lazy and she didn't finish until 5 1/2 or so. But if I had been more persistant, she could have finished before she even turned 5.

I posted this on face book, so most of our friends know, but we are expecting a baby girl!! She is due on Aug 31st. So at this point I have 11.5 weeks left. 2 trips to Bear Lake, one for my Young Women's girls camp and the other for my Dad's family reunion, and then she will be just a few weeks away. I know the summer will go by fast, it always does, but I might be okay for this one to go slowly. I really wanted to get Nixon potty trained before the baby, and at this point that is seeming most unlikely. We also need to move him out of the crib, and that too is just not going to happen. So we have alot to do in 11 weeks.
All the kids have about the same age gap (just over 2 years apart) and this time around, I am seeing that boys develop at a slower pace then girls do. Nixon turns 2 in 2 weeks, and both Rox and Riley were potty trained and sleeping in twin beds by this time... If Nixon had that kind of freedom, well I don't know, it would be bad, he already loves to leave the house and go to the park, and run away from me whenever given the chance. Yeah, he runs and doesn't even look back.

tooth fairy time and a duct tape party

2010-06-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

My tooth is loose, it won't come out. My tooth is all I think about.

The night before our duct tape party Roxy lost her first tooth! You might assume it fell out on its own, but no. In an effort to continuously traumatize Roxy, Brian popped the tooth out with dental floss (literally it flew about 2 feet)! In his defense the tooth desperately needed to come out, since the permanent tooth broke through a week ago. Since she had not lost any teeth, the permanent tooth came up behind the baby teeth. This might be normal, I'm not sure, but it sure looked messed up!

So now Roxy has entered into the goofy looking phase (don't tell her). We are anticipating large crooked teeth and other odd features, that all add up to one goofy looking kid. This phase for some (myself included) can last until the late teen years. For others (fingers crossed for Roxy) it might only last until age 12 or so.

DUCT TAPE TIME

I bought some duct tape to start practicing "duct tape crafts" for girls camp. Luckily for me, Grandma was here, so she took over and helped the girls make these amazing things:

Duct tape Rose
Duct tape flip flops
Duct tape wallet
Duct tape purses
Duct tape bracelet

Below are some pic's of the girls modeling their creations

2010-01-01T12:17:00.001-08:00

Its been awhile since I last posted... Roxy did help fill in the gap with her awesome paint project! I don't know why I have been feeling especially busy ( too busy reading) these last couple of months, but I have, so blogging has naturally fallen by the wayside.

Nixon- Has just turned 18 months, and our little big boy can now officially be in nursery (we however had been serving in nursery since he turned 1, so he has been in for 6 months now). Still the same, when your baby hits nursery age, he is not such a baby anymore, and the church block goes by a bit easier. Hooray for that. He loves to babble, he is will be a talker, like his mom, like his sisters. He has a few words, and more coming every couple of days. He can say: ball, cat, dog, mom, dad, nose, hug, two, juice, milk, and i am sure there are some more out there. He loves to dance, and can find a beat to shake to just about anywhere. He loves to give hugs, and will hug any kid who looks willing. He loves to turn in circles, do summer salts, and try to jump. we just cut off his Mohawk, he had it for about 4 months- i miss the lack of character that was so visible before... My dear friend gave us her sons toy work bench, and Nixon loves that toy. It is the first thing he wants to play in the morning and the last thing he wants to play with when I am trying to put on his PJs.

Riley- Loved Christmas, and all the new junk that came with it. She is still super girly, always changing clothes, putting on dress up, and looking at her self in the mirror. She loves to watch movies, and I believe she earns the title as the "laziest kid" in our little family. When it is time to clean up she claims a tummy ache, and ankle ache, or she is just too tired. She loves her thumb still, and is sucking on it too much, we need to do something about that, one of these days. She loves nursery, however she will be sunbeam soon, and is excited for that too. She still loves to follow Roxy around, and play with all of Roxy's friends, who for the most part, are very accommodating. Oh yeah, she loves to beat up Dad, or Roxy, whomever is close by, she is positive she is the toughest in the family, and that just might be true. She loves to do kung fu type moves and does not hold back at all- watch out!

Roxy- Angelic Roxy, loves kindergarten, loves learning, loves reading, and loves projects. She is the best helper, but usually needs to be asked about 5 times before she is ready to act. She is always looking for ways to serve or do something nice for someone. She loves to pull on Nixons ears, and he hates it. She has so many friends, our house is usually full of kids. Brian went snowboarding last weekend, and she was pretty mad, that he didn't take her. she loves to spend time with her dad- and he loves that too.

That's an update on our kids in a nut shell, I don't feel so bad now about not blogging.

Take that, New Years Resolutions!

Roxy's Picture of Christmas Night

2009-12-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

it was really fun making this, it was probably the best i could do. but i'm not sure if it's the best i can do. i bet i could do better but here's the picture

thank you

love Roxy

king kong

2009-09-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Nixon at 14 months is now master of the stairs. I would say it happened at 13 months, because it has easily been 3 weeks since this photo was taken.

So we put up this bench at the top of the steps to block the stairs, because our 2 posts are not lined up, so the baby get did not work very well. The bench did the job just fine until mid July when Nixy would try so hard to get over the bench to follow whomever down the stairs. Finally one day he got over. And then several more times that day. Brian and I watched him climb down the steps one time that day (still dumbfounded that he could get over- alive) I think he was retrieving his toy that he had thrown down the stairs, any ways we watched make his way down the steps and then over to the front door- where I kid you not, he pulled the handle and popped the door open. We laughed and went to go get him. It was the first time he had opened the door, and I was hoping it was a fluke. But of course it wasn't. The 2 easiest doors to open are the garage door and the front door, and Nixon seems to know this. Now I have to keep the doors locked, which is not so easy with the girls in and out all day.

Needless to say the bench is no longer our stair blocker, it quickly turned into being more dangerous then helpful.

first day of school

2009-09-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

little roxy aint so little anymore, she has finally started kindergarten. it has been a long time coming... she has been ready for this for about 2 years. roxy has always been exceptionally bright and confident. so school is going to be cake for her.

she did say, and i quote "this is a dream come true!" this was said the day before school, when she realized it was only 1 more day away. i don't want to completely mislead you, roxy has had several "dreams come true" but she was and still is very excited for this.
enjoy these photos...

posing by the climbing rock

sitting with riley and elise while waiting for the bus.

about to board bus, with no reservations whatsoever. cute little kid who has no pants...

me trying to sneak on the bus- i am like a flipping papparazzi

we returned to the porch and riley was noticeably quiet. as we were climbing the steps, with slumped shoulders she said, "well, i guess its just us now."

Yep that's my boy...

2009-09-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

provo river 1/2 marathon

2009-08-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

the first week we moved back to EM i ran into my old running buddy and we scheduled to start running together again. we did this through all of may, usually running 3-4 miles a night. around the first of june we did a practice run for our neighborhood 5K, the gals we went with were fast.... and so we heard tales of a half marathon from them. needless to say, i thought "i could do that."

valerie and i immediately started training for the provo river 1/2 marathon. 10 weeks later, the furthest we had ran was 11 miles, and we were averaging 20-25 miles a week in training. we had a pretty good pace, not fast by any means, but not slow. we were both feeling very confident in the 13.1 miles that awaited us.

the race was nearly fun, it started out with us meeting at the riverbottoms in provo at 5AM. it was dark and cold, and crazy crowded. finally we were able to load a bus, and we were bussed up to vivian park, and then all the way up south fork (according to maui) where we then dumped off in this big open field with hundreds and hundreds of people. another hour or so of waiting in the colding morning mountain air, the race finally started a little after 7. we ended up in the back of the crowd, with about 3/4 of the runners in front of us. this was all good, i think it felt less intense knowing there were not hords of people passing us, because they were already in the front.

i am so happy i had valerie to run with, otherwise i would have probably given up and did some walking. with her motivation we were able to run the whole way!

2 hours 26 minutes later, we finished our run, and we ended up back at the movie theater parking lot, were it all started. it did feel really good to finish it, and like a big accomplishment. however i did not experience a "runners high" or anything of the such. all i could think was that we were finally done, and we could cut back on the running- no more sore knees, aching feet, etc... i am not itching to do another race- that is for sure.

car seat cover

2009-07-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

before

awhile ago my friend allison posted some photos of her toddler car seat that she had re-covered. she did an awesome job! and it is just like me to think "i could do that" i finally did it. fortunately a car seat is something you use all the time, so i actually had to finish this project. amazing.

the car seat cover looks decent from far away, that is all i am gonna say. riley appreciated it, she referred to her car seat as a boy car seat, so almost anything would have been an improvment.

after

overnight camping in AF canyon

2009-07-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

a couple weeks ago we loaded up the car and drove 20 minutes to the af canyon. we had loads of fun, well everyone except for me... i was busy worrying about running into a cougar, bear, or anything on four legs. i spent most of the night listening for noises by the river. somehow we survived the night, and here i am to tell the tale.

mid week camping is the way to go. thanks am-ex for laying off my husband, otherwise we would not be able to take these wonderful mid week excursions....

on our way home we decided to do the timp cave. we had a 90 minute wait, so we ate lunch, and used the bathrooms (running water is a treat even after 1 mear night of camping).

so i did not know what to expect with the cave, all i had heard was that it was a steep hike. i did not link steep to paved... so i was pleasently suprised to see a paved trail. it was kind of tiring, especially caring a 1 year old in the baby bjorn. maui ended up carrying riley (3) about half of the way. it is only a mile and a half up, but it took about an hour and a half to get to the top. then the tour was about 30 minutes, and then going down the trail was much quicker.
the cave itself was interesting, beautilful, magical, a little boring for a non nature apreciator like myself... what can i say -nature equals animals.

here are the kids around the camp fire pit, the fire has hypnotized them.
my eagle scout made us a wonderful fire. notice the raging river right behind our tent. our children are not wonderers , so camping next to the river did not seem like a bad idea. until the bears came down to catch some fish, right next to the tent. this is what i had imagined going on the whole night. so i did not actually see a bear in this river, but i do have a very vivid imagination.

Nixon at age 1

2009-07-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

nixy boy is now 1, and life for him is looking sweet.

him at the zoo, 2 days before his b-day. that is a large stick pretzel that he is working on

he is: walking, babbling, grabbing toys, practically saying "mine", laughing all the time, going up stairs - but no guarantee on getting back down, turning down cheerios in the hopes of something better, and all around a fun little kid!

he loves his big sisters and is always trying to keep up with them and their many friends who constantly fill this house. luckily all the little friends and of course his sisters like him too.

his favorite food is watermelon or strawberries. following behind those would be cheetos
( i know i am a really good mom). he just recently became acquainted with apple juice, and he definitely digs it.

he is not way into tv, but when we put on yo gabba gabba he will tune in. he really likes the awesome music the show plays, and will naturally go into a squat like dance movement while listening to the good tunes.

you might think, what a cute kid, but wait til you see his baby photo, he has come a long way...

i am kidding, he was a little goofy looking as a newborn, but hey i am not gonna write that down anywhere....

FLASH BACK

nixon was born 8 pounds 8 ounces and 20.5 inches tall. he was 1 week early, with next to no problems, all in all a short and quick birthing experience- not to get too gruesome.

the big sisters

mommy and baby

i had to throw this picture in, its not really a good photo, but this sums up our time at the hospital.
brian and i have really enjoyed orem comm. hospital, for the births of our babies. we pretty much have a good time, goofing off, and taking funny photos, and chillin out.

when i am pain, i tend to get giddy instead of grouchy. having a baby is almost like one of the rare nights out that we get-
A DATE?.... dare i say.
this is getting weird. nevermind.

Rafting with an "experienced" guide...

2009-07-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

Mean Girls

2009-07-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well at first I was so excited when Roxy's training wheels came off. However something seems to happen when you get the feeling of the wind flowing through your hair, something about the open road that just calls to you. Unfortunately Roxy seems to have taken to that a little too quickly...

She's moved on and left us, she's joined up with the Hell's Satans bicycle gang!!

Sure these little girls look innocent enough but man I'll tell you they are trouble so watch out! If your swing set is tipped over, or you have hearts and skulls spray painted on your monkey bars it's a sure sign the Hell's Satans have paid you a visit.

Roxy if you see this we just want you to know we still love you, no matter what things you have done, or how many little boys you have pushed down in the mud. We miss you and you are always welcome back home.

training wheels are for sucks

2009-06-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

roxy got her bike at age 3, it was a bit big, but hey it was free. she quickly learned to ride with training wheels, but never very well. not anymore...

there was a teeny weeny bike laying around at the park, with no training wheels. roxy's friend picked it up and started riding it, so when she finished, i told roxy to give it a try. i also bribed her with a dollar, she needed a little motivation. i helped her by holding the bike upright while she peddled around the b-ball court. after about a minute or two, she was off on her own.

a few minutes later maui's tool kit was spread out all over the garage floor and roxy and her friends had taken off her training wheels.

attention all cougar fans

2009-06-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

when we go to the zoo we always take a few minutes in front of the cougar cage. i stare in amazement at those cats and know that they would love the chance to break out of that cage and attack us. they are powerful animals, and like all animals i do not like them.

several years ago, when we first moved out here to Eagle Mtn. there were plenty rumors of cougars, and even a few spottings. i have always been quite certain i would stumble accross one while jogging through the neighborhoods or up by the golf course. i have basically been waiting for this inevitable (that is really how i feel) meeting. now, don't get ahead of me, i have not come face to face with a cougar yet. but my neighbor did.

saturday afternoon one of roxy's friends house had 3 cop cars in front of it, and a little crowd of neighbors as well. roxy was begging to go over there and see what the trouble was. being the secretly nosy person that i am, i said no. but we continued to stare out the window.

turns out a cougar was running around the neighborhood and was finally cornered at this neighboring house, and had fallen into the window well, where they then tranquilized it.
the cougar was first seen in another persons window well, a few streets away. they called the cops and animal control peeps, and they chased it around for a while, where it then ended up 3 houses away from us.

CRAZY

after they knocked the cougar out all the neighborhood kids got photos with the cougar.

Click here to see the video clip.

lil' walker

2009-05-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

Nixon is now 10.5 months!!!

after much deliberation it is decided that nixon is officially walking. yesterday at our park he was cruising around in the wood chips, he would take a little stumble, but get right back up and continue on with the exploring. i was surprised at how well he did, with the uneven and new texture. pretty cool. and in our opinion this makes him "officially walking."

roxy started walking like a champ between 10 and 10.5 months old as well. if memory serves correctly riley was walking at 11 months.
pictures will come soon! our computer is having problems up the wazoo.

life at ponderosa

2009-05-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

brian's high school sweet heart, tyson apostle stole the show on survivor season 18. he was recently voted off the show, which makes it less entertaining, however for our first season watching, we are now fans.

tyson played it cool, and a little blunt on the show, but now that the possibility of being voted off has passed he has put down his guard, and the "life at ponderosa" clips on the survivor web site are hilarious and show how funny he is. so, any fans of the show, go check out these clips, and tyson can win over your love. just like he did brian so many years ago.....

mi casa es su casa

2009-04-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

for those of you who opted to not take high school spanish, you have no idea (well you probably do know..)what this post is about.

i need to tell dona maria (my high school spanish teacher) thanks, for teaching me such phrases as: mi casa es su casa, me llamo david vargas. and that is all that i remember, since it was nothing short of a miracle that i passed 2 years of spanish, whithout being able to speak more than 2 sentences....

we finally "closed" on our house!!! it now feels appropriate to tell everyone about it. as brian and i were both pretty certain it was not going to work out, for various reasons. well it did. and i could not be more elated.

the mauis are moving back to the Ranches, hopefully in the next 2 weeks. our 3 kids who all share a room, here at my moms, will now all have their own room!

we will be excited for friends and family to come and see us at our new house, and of course please feel right at home....

and since our company might not be enough incentive for a visit, we will be living right next to the neighborhood park and pool.

Blog Layout Construction

2009-04-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

You may notice that Desi hasn't been posting pics in the last few entries, well that's my fault. You see I recently had to play musical chairs with my hard drives, as one of them was failing. So during this process I ended up loosing a few files from my computers, luckily not our pictures, movies, TV shows, or music. You know just the boring stuff, budgets, work documents, etc...

Well one of the tragic losses was all the original blog layout photoshop files, brushes, illustrator vector art, cool picture frames with the tape on them, and so forth. I had some big plans for the layout when I started most of it worked really well, some things I never got to work like custom video frames, and video in the Polaroid frames in the header. I also had a lot of new ideas to spice up the ever changing header, so now the question is do I try to recreate this layout from scratch again so I can keep updating the banners etc, or do I go in a completely new direction. I welcome reader (and writer Desi) feedback...

nixon at 9 months

2009-04-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Nixon had a birthday too. we did not celebrate or even really acknowledge it, but 9 months is a great milestone. he and riley had a joint Dr.'s visit. lucky nixon he did not need any shots!

weighing in at 17.9 pounds 10th %
measuring 27.5 inches 21st %

nixon is still crawling, but he now loves to stand. on his own. for maybe 10-15 seconds at a time. he is itching to walk, and crawls on his feet about half the time. however, when he needs to get somewhere quick, he goes back to the regular crawling method and can get to his destination like a bolt of lightening.

he is such a little guy, and his growth chart proves it. but he is built solidly and still has an enjoyable amount of chub on the legs, arms, and cheeks.

according to the developmental survey he could be talking more, but he only says da-da, and of course the high pitched squeeling. he could also possibly know to hand over a toy, when i put my hand out. we have yet to try this, but i am very confident he would not know what to do. if he was not napping this very moment, i would test my theory.

all in all we love this kid. i remember when we found out we were having a boy, and i thought "what are we going to do with a boy?" well i now know the answer... nothing different than what you do with your girls. especially if you just dress your baby as a girl. i am sure when potty training comes i will be singing a different tune when i see pee on the wall, because he has missed the target!!!

some more on our check up with Dr. Connor.

miss riley had a great visit, they did her first vision exam, being the composed person that i am, i ducked behind the corner every 5 seconds or so to let out my laugh. (i am not sure what my problem is, i always laugh at my kids, especially when i see them doing grown up things, such as: eye exams, hearing checks, the dentist visist, when roxy gives a talk at church, or when i see roxy singing in the childrens choir- so inappropriate...)
her exam consisted of a circle, apple, house, and a square. the nurse had her name them as she showed them, and then riley coverd one eye at a time. the poor kid kept saying triangle. she did know the house shape and the apple, and got those right a few times. we need to work on our shapes.

poor riley
miss riley did get 1 shot, and i am proud to say she did not cry or squirm. i have some of the bravest kids. of course they cried a little when they were babies, but other than that roxy and riley have always been really brave for shots. no tears, etc... i think they get that from me :)

.

riley's weight 29 pound 41st %
riley's height 35 inches 19th %

Roxy was not such a little kid, she always ranked in the high 90th %

OK folks, i am sure you really enjoyed reading this stuff.

happy birthday riley

2009-04-05T23:28:00.000-07:00

april first came and went, and riley turned 3!!! our little april fools day baby has gown so quickly.

it all began with chubby cheeks, a smidgen of black hair, blue eyes, and olive (jaundice-ish) skin.
she quickly developed a contagious smile, and maintained a very happy and playful disposition.

about the time riley entered nursery (18 months) she quickly learned how to not share, maybe even hit if she did not get her way, and that crying usually got what she wanted. by 2 she was good at the above mentioned and being the good parent that i am, i let it slide.....

now that she is 3, she will magically become more accountable for her actions, and will quickly learn that the "golden rule" will always provide the best outcome.

at age 3:

riley loves to sing, twirl, and be princess. she always wants to brush her own teeth, (even though her big sis will still let us do her teeth), she says sweet prayers to heavenly father, and never wants any help (when we try to help she will send a nasty glare our way). attending church is the highlight of her life, she loves the social interaction of her nursery class. she does not have a quiet voice and can be quite disrputive during sacrament meeting. she cries when roxy goes to play dates, and wishes she too could go snowboarding with roxy and dad. she loves movies and just recently has enjoyed watching the tv show yo gabba gabba. she knows most of her alphabet, and can count to 20 with a few missing numbers. she is very dramatic, and cracks us up all the time. she calls roxy her "best sister" and she wants to do everything roxy does. she loves playing with nixon and getting in his face, and he loves the attention- most of the time. she still sucks her thumb, and drags around a pink blanket amy made for her.

we love riley(buzz buzz or buzzy) and we are excited to see what this year will bring

Teleporting is not all its cracked up to be

2009-03-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

I woke from my sunday afternoon nap to go and retrieve my crying baby, before he woke the whole family from their afternoon slumber. I stood up next to my bed and decided to teleport myself about 5 or 6 paces into the landing of the basement. My teleportation was running smoothly til I got to my exit point, and our stupid wood step stool got into my way, and I stumbled all over it. The sharp edges jabbed me quite well. Being the old fart that I am, I needed to show off my battle wound.

here is the step stool, which caused me so much pain...

My story might seem a little confusing, and truth be told, I am confused too. And teleporting was the only logical explanation...

I woke from my nap to retrieve nixon from his room. I remember standing up next to the bed, and the next thing I knew I was in excruciating pain and laying on top of the step stool just outside my room. I just don't remember moving away from the bed...
Either I was drunk (not likely), sleep walking (although I know that I woke up )
or I teleported. I am freakin awesome !

first word- first tooth

2009-03-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

"Da- Da" this wonderful word has been rolling off of nixon's tongue for the past few days. and, it seems like he knows what he is saying. he certainly doesn't say "da-da" to me. he says when he sees his papa. it is so adorable.

Since nixon is talking he decided to grow some teeth too. well a tooth. he is 8.5 months old, and he has a tooth, both girls did not get teeth until they were 1. this unexpected tooth might be forcing some big changes in nixon's "diet" we shall see.

8 months and counting

2009-03-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

Nixon is now 8 months and 4 days old.

he is still cruising around the house on hands and knees. yesterday he pulled himself to standing from the fabric on my jeans, not my leg, just the jeans. he loves standing, and taking a few steps with his walker. he can walk about 4 or 5 steps with the walker/pusher thing, before he falls backwards.

here is a funny picture of one of his adventures.can you see the huge grin behind the binky?

needless to say, he did take a pretty good fall about 30 seconds later. instead of helping him get off the guitar case i video taped him. and of course i did not hit the record button- so i missed it!

nixon had his 6 month check up about 2 weeks ago. when the doctor asked how he was sleeping, she all but laughed when i told her his sleeping habits:
- swaddling
- nursing (at least 2 times per night)
- rocking to sleep
- needs the binky- essentially all night
- wakes up at least 4 times per night

he is such a stinker.... she said he needs to be sleeping through the night (duh) and to try out the Ferber method, as this was the most common.

so the first night we let him cry himself to sleep (with the binky)
he still had a good cry, probably 30 minutes or so, but he did sleep through the night- AMAZING-
the second day was about the same, but a little less crying. i remember thinking, whoa this is great, i feel so much better (now that i had had some continuous sleep). i was happier, less cranky, and feeling really positive about his sleeping habits.

of course, something had to happen, and it did. nixon got sick, he could hardly breath, he was very congested. he also was running a fever for 3 days. ranging from 100.5 to 101.9. so, of course i canned the ferber method, and babied him. it has been about 1 week since then, and we are doing better, but not as good as those first few days.

last night he went to bed at 7:30 and cried for about 15 minutes, found his binky and finally fell asleep, he woke at 4:30, and again 6:30, and then up for the day 7:15.

that was long and probably boring.

lets do some hair

2009-03-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

doing my girls hair is such a chore, and a crappy one at that. whenever i would put in the time, it was a total waste of time. b/c in a few short hours, what i managed to do with their hair had fallen out or simply looked redic (as quoted by kim-from kath and kim) to begin with.

in eagle mountain there were plenty of moms who magically made their little girls hair style look flawless. and now here in south jordan i see it too. i think it is actually a prerequisite for moms in utah....i'll look into that.

i didn't know how it was done, i guess i can barley do my own hair (so this might be where the problem began). my girls would not even sit still for pig tails, they hated having their hair combed, and frankly i hated doing it. usually by 11 am, we would venture down that road.

anyhow, i think i finally asked my friend Natalie how she did her daughters hair (or maybe she told me, b/c she felt so sorry at my pathetic attempts) she referenced me to the awesome blog about doing hair. obviously doing hair comes naturally to some, but not to me. so this blog with step by step instructions and pictures, was right up my ally.

seeing and reading how to do hair took care of one side of the problem, the other side was my time and energy. i initially thought, i don't want to spend 30 minutes doing there hair, nor do i want to fight for 30 minutes with each of them while trying to brush out the tangles.
however roxy was excited for a pretty hair style, i even let her view the blog and pick one out. riley was persuaded with the usually- candy.

to sum this up, here are some pictures of the hairdos i have done the past few days. i do think it is fun to try and do this stuff. i know they are far from perfect, but what the heck have a look.
and do visit the hair blog. it is a lot of fun and educational for some.

2009-02-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

after working on her music, roxy takes a little chill time.

notice riley's eye color- hazel/green. right? (i hope your computer justifies this)
the same as me, the same as roxy. the last time i checked (maybe 4 or 5 months ago) she still had blue, blue, blue eyes. i know that kids eye color can change, but i thought that was more like when they were 1-1.5. roxy's changed from blue to green when she was about 1.5.
WEIRD

nixon is just chillin here, he has his signature drool all over his face, and is looking like a stud.

saturday shredding

2009-02-23T13:57:00.001-08:00

maui went shredding this past saturday with his buddies matt and mark. he of course had loads of fun. they took some awesome pictures that i wanted to share.

side note: we had our 8 year anniversary last week. brian got some new diggs. something neutral that allows him to blend in on the slopes....

see what i mean, you almost did not even notice him. right?
below is matt's backside, they took a 45 minute hike to get to some sweet powder.
pictures above and below of this alleged sweet powder run.

matt cruising down the mountain side

And speaking of all things sweet and anniversaries.....
I got this awesome new snow jacket as well. technically it was not my anniversary present, it came just a few days ago. but we had to get it, it was an awesome deal from brosociety.com
i can't wait for a chance to try it out.

It looks and feels like old worn out leather, but would hold up just fine in possible rain showers, thanks to the 15K waterproofing and taped seems (whoa, i sound like brian).

what is going on with those kids

2009-02-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Nixon 7 months-
he is enjoying the freedom that comes with crawling. he likes to discover new territories and see places of the house on his own terms. especially the bathroom.
he really enjoys cheerios, and ritz crackers. then i remembered these crackers called...Mum Mum. we have been getting Nixon these as well, they are way less messy and a little bigger, so he can hold on to it and work for a while.
he also likes fruit snacks, at least the one that he found on the floor. this was a few weeks back, he had a big grin on his face, and clearly was in fruity heaven until i jabbed my finger in there to retrieve the potential choking hazard.
We have been trying to teach him "mama" but he will usually respond with a "baba" sound. not bad. just making noises at this point, but soon enough those first words will come.

Riley 2.75-
is kind of like the boss of the family. i think she is more bossy and demanding then the rest of us combined. she is also a drama queen, and loves being theatrical: "oh, mom i love this soooooo much" or "i am just so upset." come to think of it rox was like this too, they don't get it from me.....
riley really likes nursery, she loves to play and see her friends from church. she is very disruptive during sacrament meeting, always trying to play with nixon, in her non library voice.
Her favorite books are Dr. Seuss, she likes Bears in the Night, Green Eggs and Ham (my childhood fav.), ABC's, There's a wocket in my pocket... We read these at nap time and usually again at bed time, and both the girls love them, and have most of the stories memorized.
keeping with this author riley really likes Horton hears a Who (the movie).

Last night we saw a commercial for a concert featuring the Jonas Brothers, and riley said "Mom, its camp rock. i mean jonas brothers." i felt so proud at that moment. i have been drilling the jonas brothers into them, as well as the movie camp rock ( 1. because it is a disney tv movie, that i thought was super cute 2. because the jonas brothers are super cute, and i actually like their music, as well as their clothing style-kidding- inside joke, you wouldn't get it :)

Roxy 5-
this kid is growing up too quickly. she is a good helper with nixon, almost always willing to be bribed into watching him, or cleaning up his toys.
she really likes Miss Julies preschool, and all the kids in her little class. she likes reading and doing ridiculous math problems that maui will throw out ( 5+7-3) she can usually figure these out!!!
her current favorite tv show is Martha Speaks, it is kind of silly, but she gets excited when it comes on. everyday, 2 times per day.
roxy also likes to make mini movies of herself with our camera. she always has the camera and is taking pictures or filming herself. she is usually singing in these mini movies... i need to post one.

she was trying to come up with a valentines day song- singing and playing the guitar. she does not fully understand that she doesn't know how to play the guitar, b/c she can play the guitar. her valentines day song had many fa la laaa's in it. and a 'doe re me fa so la te doe' too.

roxy got a computer set up just for her and riley. brian put on some cool kids browser and roxy could be set for life. she loves this independence and the fact she can get on whenever she chooses, instead of fighting with me over the computer. she also got an email address..... are we moving to fast??? she has to check it everyday at least 2 times.

Deer Post Dos

2009-02-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

So someone asked on the comments what really happened. I think this is the best illustration of how it all went down.

Deer -1 Maui - 0

2009-02-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

they prance through the night, blend in with shrubbery, and love to play chicken. you know what i am speaking of.. deer. aggressive, bold, wild and downright dirty, deer. i have never been an "animal person" i can practically see the germs crawling all over them. but i do remember once upon a time, seeing deer frolicking in the green backyard of my child hood home in Washington, and thinking "so beautiful..."

i am sorry to say times have changed, and after a deer attacked our poor honda pilot a few nights ago, i will NEVER be able to look at them the same again. i should start by saying; thank goodness maui was driving because had it been me, i would have managed to not only hit the deer, but definitely would have hit on coming trafic and then some. so, responsible driver maui, was behind the wheel, as we were headed home from looking at some houses in eagle mountain. he saw the deer, 2 to be exact, and slowed down to let them cross redwood road. one deer decided to stay at the side of the road and spook other cars while the other ventured into the middle of the road ( i can only assume to play that chicken game). maui was rolling along at about 10 miles per hour, and had veered off the to the side of the road (like the generous driver he is) to let the deer cross, when all of the sudden the deer jumped back at us, full of aggresion and wild behavior. after hitting our car, breaking our headlight, cracking the bumper, and the grill the deer ran off into the hills.

roxy and riley saw the whole thing, and needless to say, were devestated by the incident. very worried about the deer. when we got home they did not want to get out of the car, and roxy was convinced the deer was stuck to the car somehow. 1 day later roxy abruptly said "can we just stop talking about the deer?" clearly she would like to put this behind her.

i can't tell you how many times my mom has told us to be careful on that road ( the redwood road stretch between saratoga springs and bluffdale) i would mindlessly say "okay." she says this with good reason, as there are constantly dead deer on the side of this road, and they are frequently spotted in the hills. after 4.5 years in eagle mountain, it took us moving to so. jordan and re-visting e.m. to meet up with one of them deer. i do feel bad for the deer... but: deer, family, deer, family, deer, family, i chose family. and i am so thankful that we are all okay, and that the deer incident was not any worse.

Friday Night Lights

2009-01-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

Seriously you didn't think this was really about football did you? You should know us better than that by now.

So Friday night was Roxy's first snowboard day of the year. It was a good time, or in Roxy's words it was GRRRRRRRREAT!

Here's a few pics:

Roxy packing her gear out to the car.

What happens when she can't hold onto all of her gear.

All strapped in and ready for the first run.

Friday Night Lights

Video

End the night with some chicken stars from Carl's Jr. Not a bad night.

Nixon is crawling

2009-01-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

with the new year, nixon has hit a milestone of his own, 6 months. and a moving machine. he crawls all over, and manages to find every spec of garbage, which he immediately will test out by putting it in his mouth.
he has been sitting up since he was 5 months old, and probably for the last 4 weeks, he has become a sitting pro (really he could make a career out of it). and, and, and, and he knows how to get into the sitting position from laying down. oh what fun.

nixon is still full of smiles, and loves to play peek-a-boo. he loves his sisters, and especially his mom -me!!! he gets really excited when i come into the room, and can't wait for me to pick him up, and give him some cuddle time.

Shredfest 5.0

2008-12-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Well this is Maui again, Desi is slacking on her blog so I guess I'll fill in the gaps, although that means you have to read about more snowboarding...

So Shredfest is an annual event that I started 5 years ago, as all my friends and I have gotten older a lot of them have moved on and left the state to be high power attorney's, or grad students, or PhD's of some sort or another. We have been spread out a crossed the nation, but a lot of them still return home to Utah around Christmas time. So we get together once a year with whoever is in town and hit the slopes.

This was the 5th Shredfest and it was awesome. It was puking snow over the Christmas holiday, and we showed up on Saturday the 27th to Brighton. As we got in line for the crest lift we found out that this lift was broken for the past 3 days!! That means that no one had riden these runs for the last 3 days that it had been puking snow! Powder Powder Powder all day long. Good times.

Shredfest 5.0 Crew

This was the last run of the day, and you can still see untracked snow in the background.Desi getting fresh with Dana

Snow Day

2008-12-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

Well as you can tell by my capitilzation, this is Maui. The past three Wednesday's in a row have been "Quad Wednesday" at Brighton. You can get a lift ticket for 1/4 the price. I've been hitting it up with a friend of mine, and this last Wednesday the 17th Desi was able to come with us. It was a great day. Sun shine, new snow, and really really really cold.

Tuesday night I asked Desi if she might want one of her Christmas presents early. Of course she assumed that she got a new snowboard, so I tried my best to disappoint her and say "new board what are you talking about?", but in the end I guess she's pretty smart. So she got to unwrap this:We had a fun day, with some of our friends. Although it got cut a little short, something about Desi wanting to get home to Nixon or something like that, anyway here are a few pics from the day.

temple square

2008-11-29T20:37:00.000-08:00

this year at temple square, it was a nice temperature. warm enough that a coat was good enough. my goodness, last year was miserably cold when we took are trip to see the lights.
my big brother came for thanksgiving, so we got to go with him and his family to see the temple...

Nixy poo, he is now 5 months old, and he rolls all over the floor, and can sit up for a few minutes

me and the girls, roxy age 5, riley age trouble..... 2.5

rox and her cousin elan

flash back

2008-11-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

Lets take a mini walk down memory lane.....
Remember that holiday that passed by not too long ago? Halloween.
I intended to post the awesome pictures of our pumpkin carvings. I assumed they would turn
out that way, b/c they just always do. In the midst of taking the top off the second pumpkin I gracefully slide my fingers down the blade of the knife. Ouch. Blood instantly started oozing, 1 minute later I was off to the Hospital. On the way their I made the normal cell phone call to my insurance to find out where my HMO allowed me to go, and ended up at the insta care on 90th South. 3 large stiches later, I returned home to finish the pumpkins, here are the results.

Cinderella- Brian did this one

sarah palin- poor sarah, i could not finish the details in her face, due to my sore and bulky finger

These pumpkins are from 2007...

Twilight, Best movie of the year?

2008-11-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

this photos is from me and my sister's favorite scene: they are in the school parking lot, and finally "together" and everyone is "staring." sadly, it only lasts for a moment, and then off to the wilderness again.

unfortunatley, no. don't get me wrong, seeing the movie was like Christmas morning, it just fell short in many ways.

The script: good grief, tell me stephenie was unhappy with this. i realize the script couldn't be as awesome as the book, it just screamed "made for tv."

The special effects: the movie obviously is not loaded with this stuff, so that was good. but what they did have to modify, like the running and fighting, was soooo cheesy looking, again "made for tv movie."

those were the 2 big down falls for me. i loved robert pattinson (he really grew on me) and kristen stewart did a good job as well(just take out the hospital scene where she botches it big time). i don't think anyone plays the "suffer in silnece" better then her.

i read a review that i felt was right on with the movie. he said that robert and kristen had a really good on screne chemistry, and my second time seeing the movie, i completely agree.

THE MIDNIGHT SHOWING

thursday night, my aunt called with an extra ticket to the midnight show, i obviously went with her. the hype at the theatre was contagious. when the movie started everyone gasped and screeched. when they first showed edward there was screeming. i felt so...at home, and that i finally found a place where i "belonged."

share your feelings on the show.....

heaven on earth?

2008-10-08T13:28:00.001-07:00

if there was one place an avid water sports nut would pick as "heavenly" it would have to be lake powell. we were lucky enough to go this past september, and we had a ball. the great thing about powell is the calm water factor; if the water is choppy cruise around for 10 minutes or so and you'll find the right stuff. wake up at 7 or 8am and there will be calm water, go out at dusk and it is still there waiting for you. calm water. glass. the good stuff.

going on this trip convinced me that we NEED a boat. my kids love the water, they are brave, and always waiting for their turn. i am not brave, i hate the water, but somewhere along the lines i learned to try to ignore the fear, and just get wet.

maui and roxy wakeboarding... riley wanted a turn soo badly, but it just didn't happen

here is me wakeboarding, it is fun, and when you only get to go every other summer, it is hard on your body.

here we see randy fishing (these are the fish that i am sooo afraid of - what if one actually touched my leg while i was in the water )

the house boat we rented, it was.... errrrr kind of clean, but way better then camping

the water weenie is for serious riders only: like roxy and riley

and while riding the weenie it is important to make the right facial expressions, take note of my face 3 heads back- always important to LOOK COOL

wake surfing is just like real surfing (kidding i have never been) but it is a lot of fun, and if you are just chillin holding the rope the whole time( that is how i ride) then it is relaxing and i would say easier then wakeboarding.... the point is to ride the wake, about 5-8 ft behind the boat, when riding the wake you don't hold the rope, and you just trail behind the boat. when done right it is awesome. brian was able to go for 3 or 4 minutes with out the rope. pretty cool.

A beautiful sunset!!

Relaxing around the campfire.

baby ties

2008-09-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

i have a very crafty mom. she decided to start doing some crafts at work, to help pass the time. the first craft she brought home was this adorable tie she made for nixon. he got so many compliments on it, she decided to make some more, and try to sell them.

the ties will fit newborn to 1 year, if you have a toddler or older, she can make them in that size too.
a tie is $10, and i can mail it to you for $12.

40 years

2008-09-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

the year was 1968, great and terrible events occured all around the world; the vietnam war was nearing a close, martin luther king jr. was assasinated, richard nixon was running for the oval office, david o mckay was leading the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. amid this and much more 2 young people met at BYU and fell in love...
that is where the story of keith and jenni began, today they celebrate 40 years together, with their 8 children, 5 children in-law, and 14 grandchildren.
we had a fun evening eating, and enjoying everyones company. while keith and jenni looked back at what they had accomplished, and look forward to another 40 years...

roxy and one of her favorite cousin's courtney(looking all lady like)

my first twilight party

2008-09-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

better late then never. right?
last night our book club got together to discuss "Breaking Dawn" it was more of a party then a discussion. people brought Twilight themed desserts : pizza, vampire cup cakes, chips and blood - i mean salsa-, tiny little cherry tarts, butterscotch hard candies, and bite size pieces of a big hunk bar. We played a twilight version of jeopardy, with the craziest questions. i have read these books several times, and was confident i would know most of the answers, sadly i did not. but i do believe my team won! thanks Steffani for going with me!

the mitch hansen band

2008-09-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

i spent an entire afternoon trying to find this band- "The Mitch Hansen Band". i am sure i am ages behind the rest of the twilight fans, but that is how i roll.

amazing... he has a whole album inspired by the twilight series. my favorite is called "lullaby" it is very sweet, and soon, hopefully will be playing on here, so all can enjoy!!

flippin awesome blog layout

2008-09-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

just thought i should mention that maui made this awesome page, so far he has put in at least 6 hours, but it looks great, and i really appreciate it. now you know. don't think for 1 second i had anything to do with this.

bear lake 2008

2008-09-03T09:35:00.001-07:00

every 2 years we go to bear lake with my dad, with his whole, huge extended family. it is a pretty typical mormon style family reunion - you don't know half the people there, and you stick to your own immediate family, and socialize outside that group, very minimally. they can be very exclusive - kidding-
the girls with their favorite older cousin elan. elan lives in las vegas...

nameless middle child

2008-09-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

i realized i have mentioned very little about our middle child- how typical of me. riley is 2.5, and a little monster. she is stubborn, bossy, and does not like to share, but she has the cutest little face, it is hard to stay mad. i usually find myself laughing at her bad behavior. she likes to do what her big sister is doing... ride bikes, jump on the tramp, sing songs, steel roxy's guitar, play dolls, and watch whatever movie she is into for the week- this week it is "Monsters Inc." 2 weeks ago it was 1 of 3 "Shrek" movies. i like to call her shrek, when we do her hair in pigtail buns - she resembles him in a way. anyhow, if you call her something other than her name, she will correct you with "I not shrek, I riley."Here she is driving Grandpa Dan's boat!!

living with grandma

2008-09-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

spring 07 we decided we were ready to move on up into a house. we put a deposit down to build a home in eagle mtn. brian wanted to sell once summer hit, and at the time our townhouses were selling for around $175K. super smart desi thought, lets wait til fall (since the builder had yet to give us a projected finish date) and we could probably sell for more!! we did wait til fall, well we listed at the end of August. 12 months later we finally sold our townhouse, for $153K.

now we are at my mom's house in sojo. i am pretty sure roxy and riley could not be any more happy about living here, they love seeing her everynite, and tend to ask about her whereabouts several times through out the day. she has 2 good sized bedrooms in her basement, and a huge family room too. this area we have taken over, we have the majority of our furniture in the family room. all three kids beds (2 beds and a crib) line one wall in their room- my mom jokes that it looks like an orphanage- and there is still plenty of room for their dressers, rocking chair, and some play area. it is a big change to essentially live on 1 level- after living on 3 in our town house. 1 level is the way to go.

once january hits we will start looking around for a house, which is very exciting. i have basically been looking at houses, religiously, since we listed our house, 1 yr. ago. I can spend a good 2-3 hours looking at houses online, it is a fun hobby for the time being. we initially thought we would return to eagle mtn., which would mean a larger and newer home, but it would be really nice to live near the freeway, and a little closer brian's job in west valley. our friends, geoff and amanda live in cottonwood heights, lately i have been checking houses out in that area. with brian, and now roxy's obsession with snowboarding, it would make sense to live close to the canyons. we will have to wait and see....

here we see roxy reading riley a story - yeah she can read 1st reader books, she's freakin smart.

little nicky blue eyes

2008-09-03T00:26:00.000-07:00

that is not really going to be what we call the newest edition to the family, in fact nixon is short enough, i might not ever come up with a nickname - but my mom said she was going to call him that (nicky blue eyes), and i don't think i have heard her say it yet, but now i will randomly call him that - thanks mom.

nixon is just over 2 months, and he is smiling all the time, and laughing, basically just adorable, hugable, and loveable. The girls ignore him most of the day, and then when they realize he is around they like to climb on top of him, give him kisses, and talk really loudly right in his face. we took him to bear lake when he was 4 weeks old, and we will be taking him to lake powell in 2 weeks. he is gonna grow to just love the water. the water, i am actually afraid of the water, everytime i am in the lake, i can't help but let my mind wander to the unknown, whenever i fall off the wakeboard, i swim to my board as quick as i can, and lay on top of it as much as possible. you know, so the fish or other water monsters will attack that instead of my legs.

here are some super cute pics, of my super cute baby boy - nixon

the office

2008-09-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

i get a little ocd about alot of random things- one of which is tv shows. I am so excited for the 5th season of "the office". i hold a special place in my heart for each of the characters, including creed. maui has the previous 4 seasons on our xbox -media center thing a ma jig- and i could watch re-runs all day... if the kids would allow it.

my sister and i love kevin's face, it is soooo chubby and round, you just want to plant a big kiss on it, and he has the funniest facial expressions.

little debbie and the snack cakes

2008-09-02T23:31:00.001-07:00

about a 9 months ago maui decided to start playing the guitar. he called his little bro up and started taking lessons, and bam he got signed a few months later, that's when the dough started rolling in.... well actually his brother randy invited him to join the family band- "Little Debbie and the Snack Cakes". this band consist of randy (little brother) hillary (randy's wife) and debbie (little sister), and unless they decided maui was not good enough -brian (I like to switch between calling him brian and maui, hopefully confusing people). roxy (my almost 5 year old daughter) started going to band practice with him, and soon enough she had some small back up vocal parts. band practice became the highlight of her week. fast forward a couple of months, and the band performed at the annual BBQ, featuring randy's awesome regular band - "Much Bigger Diamonds", "Little Debbie and the Snack Cakes", and hillary's grandmothers band (who has been together since you were in diapers). long story short, i will post some awesome pictures of the band, and you can see Roxy in her "Rock n Roll" out fit. my mom, grandma, and lil sister came to see the performance... they were early, it got quite packed, really it did.

what to blog about

2008-09-02T23:24:00.001-07:00

at 12:24am i decided to start a blog. first things first- google 'what to blog about'. well, do i want a topical blog, or a personal blog. i just want a blog, it is far past time (which happens to be my favorite time) to jump on the blog bandwagon. i am assuming i want a mix of topics and personal things on my blog. the only blogs i really read are my brother's, and my sister chanel's, also my friend Steffani's.
Oh! i just thought of my first blogging topic- for my personal/topical blog.