The Holzers

Haylie's 6th Birthday

2012-02-03T22:37:00.001-07:00

Haylie turned 6 on December 1st. On the day of her birthday she chose to go to JB's for dinner (I know, real classy). She loves to get the salad bar there and then load up on hard boiled eggs and cottage cheese. After dinner she opened her presents from the family and then on the 3rd we had a friend party for her. It was a Littlest Pet Shop Party which is by far Haylie's favorite thing to play with so it was perfect for her. Everyone had a great time. My favorite part was watching Haylie make sure that Zander was treated as a party guest too by making sure he had everything that we gave out. Although she has her moments (don't we all) she can be so sweet to him.
Haylie is really growing up! She is becoming more and more able to do things by herself (although she still insists on help occasionally). She is extremely curious about the world and questions everything. Usually I am the type of person that just accepts things for what they are but she keeps me thinking with the curious questions she is always asking. She also is very considerate of other feelings for a 6 year old. We had a great time celebrating with her this year and are very glad she is a part of our family.

Tearing into the Littlest Pet Shop Rescue Tails Center

A new coat complete with purple fur just like she asked for.

Haylie and her friends playing with her Littlest Pet Shop Pets

The party guest decorating homes for their party favor pets

Yet another Pet!

Thanksgiving

2012-01-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

As Thanksgiving approached this year, Dave and I debated where we should spend it. When we lived in Boise we spent several Thanksgivings at home but since moving to Price we have traveled to my parents house for a few reasons. It is pretty close by for one reason, and I HATE cooking big meals in our apartment with the extremely limited counter space. Not to mention my totally awesome family is fun to hang out with. This year we were torn because the days that Dave had off for the holiday was precious time that he could be working on the house. We finally decided that Dave would stay and work on the house and the kids and I would go to Perry for Thanksgiving. I felt bad for leaving him with a turkey loaf and only the cat to spend Thanksgiving with, but I was consoled by the fact that he would have driven himself crazy sitting around when work could be getting done. So that being decided, the kids and I loaded up on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Perry. We were joined by Alyson and her family as well as Darin for Thanksgiving day. Ryan and his family joined us later in the weekend after spending time with Arika's family.

My mom has a pillow with the quote, "Grandma's House...where cousins become friends". This couldn't be more true. Haylie and Zander love playing with their Harwood cousins. We just turn them loose downstairs and they have a fantastic time. Here they are in a tent they built using pool cues and blankets.

After a delicious meal on Thanksgiving and the traditional "December 1st" party on Friday, by Saturday we were all looking for some kind of activity to get us out of the house. We decided to ride the Front Runner to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square along with every other person on the Wasatch Front. Talk about CRAZY!! We were just glad that we made it back to Grandma's house with everyone we started with and no extra children! We did learn a couple of things for the experience. First to choose a different night next time, and second to pack snacks!! The kids were very grateful to Aunt Arika and her well stocked diaper bag during the train ride home! Here are some shots of the family riding the train and a couple of the kids at the Church History Museum that we stopped in at. It has a cool interactive area for kids. We missed Dave but still had a great holiday weekend and Dave was happy to be able to have time to work on the house. I will have to post all about the house another time.

Haylie dancing with the Flamanco Dancers

Zander enjoying a meal with the missionaries

Halloween

2011-12-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

It seems like there is never time to blog! Here is a run down of our Halloween this year. The 29th of October was my dad's 75th birthday so the kids and I decided to go up to surprise him along with Clint and Alyson and their family and Darin. Dave stayed home and worked on the house. He spends every free moment working on it and I appreciate him so much! Anyway, we carefully planned our arrival time in Perry so that we would all get there at the same time. We met at the Flying J near my parents house on the 28th. We got the kids in their Halloween costumes and then trick or treated to my parent's door. My dad was VERY suprised. We had a wonderful weekend together having a birthday/halloween party, playing games, and visiting. We came home on Sunday the 30th. On Halloween I make mummy faces and mummy fingers for dinner. The kids helped and didn't even recognize the faces as pizza until they tasted them and said they tasted like pizza. I used string cheese, olives and English muffins for the mummy faces and sliced up tortillas to wrap around Little Smokies for the fingers. I give each finger a dot of pizza sauce for the nail.

After dinner the kids and Dave got dressed up for trick or treating. I stayed back to answer the door for the 2 trick or treaters that came while they were gone. Dave kept saying he was thinking of shaving his head and being Charlie Brown for Halloween and on Monday morning he made good on his word. It is still working on growing back to its original length. At least we found out that if he every goes completely bald he has a pretty normal head under there! Zander was a robot for Halloween and Haylie was a black cat (of course). Our black cat, Sam, walked with them around the neighborhood.

My Birthday

2011-10-31T19:20:00.001-06:00

I was going through some pictures and found some that I wanted to blog about but haven't yet. We decided to go to the Salt Lake area for my birthday. Gretchen Rimmasch, my good friend growing up, was having a wedding reception in the area that evening so we thought it would work out well. We took the kids the Living Planet Aquarium. It was a fun place and small enough we saw the whole thing before the kids got tired of it. My parents and Darin joined us at the aquarium and my parents also joined us for a dinner at the Olive Garden before we went to the reception. We ended up getting home pretty late so Dave and the kids and I had cake next day.

Mixa Moxa

2011-09-25T19:29:00.003-06:00

I had to post about this because I know it is one of those things that is so funny and cute now but I won't remember it later. As I may have posted before, Zander has some idiosyncrasies that make him very unique. He shakes and flaps his arms and/or jumps when he gets excited. I have had to tell people that watch him that he is fine and he is not having a seizure, he is just really excited. Another of these idiosyncrasies is that he likes to make little songs or chants when he sees something happening in a rhythm or repeatedly. That is where Mixa Moxa comes from. He likes to get on a chair and watch me make things in the kitchen. Whenever something is being mixed (batter, something in the Bosch mixer etc) he repeats "Mixa moxa mixa moxa" until the mixing is over. To us it is just part of Zander but when he had done it around others it has been known to crack them up. His other favorite is popcorn in the air popper. It is "pop, pop, pop" for that one. Oh, and who can forget his sprinkler obsession. It has a song too..."sprinka, sprinka". What a silly kid! I love him to pieces!

Kindergarten!

2011-09-12T22:14:00.001-06:00

Haylie started Kindergarten at Castle Heights Elementary on August 30th. She was very excited to go and kept wishing the day before that it could be tomorrow already. I hope she keeps her enthusiasm for school. She goes to the same school that I teach part time at so we get to pass each other in the hall every now and then, and I have to admit it is nice to know what is going on at the school. Her teacher is Mrs. Sjogren and so far everything is going great. She has even overcome her fear of automatic flushing toilets! I had the cutest outfit all picked out for her first day of school. What you see in the picture is not it. Haylie is very particular when it comes to clothes. Nothing can be "cute". Pretty much any other adjective is acceptable but if I call something cute it is downhill from there. So, instead of fighting all morning on her first day of school. What you see is what she chose. She did finally wear the outfit to church this past Sunday (it was a dress with leggings) and looked very "cute" if I dare say.

I have to add that I am very proud of both of my kids. They have done so well as I have had to drag them around all over the place to meet my obligations. Between teaching, coaching volleyball, and Young Women, I am always going. They have been so good to tag along or stay with Dave or the babysitter. I will certainly be ready for volleyball to end and to be able to get in a more comfortable routine. Hopefully there won't be too many more days like last Wednesday. I went to the Jr. High at 10 to get the balls ready for our away game and ran a couple of other errands. Then I dropped Zander off at 11 and went to school. At 2:00 I left school early, changed my shirt in the car and got on the bus to go to the volleyball game. I coached the volleyball games, rode back on the bus, changed my shirt again in the car and went back to the school for Back-to-School night at 6:30. That lasted until 7:30 and then I had to get my things ready for a substitute teacher the following day. At 8:40 I finally got home and ate dinner at 9. Those kind of days are LONG! Thankfully Dave is a wonderful dad and I didn't have to worry about Haylie and Zander. I do miss them on days like that though.

For Haylie

2011-08-29T21:19:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow is Haylie's first day of kindergarten so I wanted to write her a letter that she could read later and to help her remember this day later. Since I would lose anything else and this will eventually make it into my blog book, I thought this was a good place to put it.

Haylie,

Where did the time go? I can't believe you are no longer that chubby little baby we brought home that snowy December day. You have turned into such a beautiful little girl. I am so excited for you to start school and show everybody what a smart and caring girl you are. I am so glad that you were so excited today you kept asking why it can't be tomorrow already. I know you will make lots of good friends and am so happy I can be just across the library from you for part of each day. You will do great. Just put on a smiley face and don't be afraid say hello and make a friend! I love you so much and want you to be happy. Good luck tomorrow and don't worry if I cry just a little bit. It is only because I am so proud of you!!!

Love,

Mom

Lagoon

2011-08-28T21:44:00.005-06:00

After the kids and I spent a week at Grandma and Grandpa Oberholtzer's house at the beginning of June, Dave came up on his motorcycle and stayed for the weekend. Then on Monday we went to Lagoon before heading back to Price. Haylie was a HUGE chicken when we got there and didn't want to go on any rides. Zander started out pretty good but as he saw that Haylie was nervous about the rides he started to get worried about them too. We kept at it though and ended up having a good time even though I had to drag Haylie on a couple of rides while she was kicking and screaming. She ended up enjoying most of them and so did Zander. It was nice that he was just tall enough to go on all the rides that Haylie could go on. It was nice spending the day together doing something out of the ordinary. The day started out rainy but by the time we got to the park it was just overcast which made for a perfect day.

On the baby boats.

Driving the car

On the baby whales. These baby rides are the only ones they wanted to go on.

Going for an airplane ride

Zander manning the bumper cars

Grandma and Grandpa O

2011-08-07T19:57:00.003-06:00

We had the opportunity to go to my parents house in Perry, UT a couple of times this summer for various reasons. First, in June we went up so that I could take the Praxis test in Logan in order to get my Utah teaching license. I passed the test with flying colors and we also got to spend the week hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. We spent most of the time at the house just relaxing in the yard or playing in the house but we did make it out for a round of mini golf. Both Haylie and Zander used some pretty interesting tactics to get the ball in the hole. Mostly they just kind of pushed the ball along until it got close to the hole then they would tap it in or in Zander's case pick it up and put it in the hole. They loved any hole that involved the ball going through a tunnel to get to another part of the hole and had to try it over and over.

Dave and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on June 30 so we decided to head through the canyon again to celebrate. We decided on going up to Perry again because there would be free babysitting for a date and then we could stay and celebrate Independence Day in Perry. We got to watch fireworks on Saturday night then on Monday morning we went down to the parade. Perry was having its 100th birthday so there were all sorts of things to do in the park after the parade, including face painting.

Last, we went up last weekend for the annual Oberholtzer Family Reunion. This year is was combined with a Demar and Virginia Hillyard Family reunion at Willard Bay. It was fun to see some of my cousins that I haven't seen in years. We were all meeting at the beach of the bay and as I was looking around and total strangers and wondering if they were my cousins. The reunion also included my younger brother Ryan blessing his new baby girl Xanthe. It is always great to get together with my family. We always have lots of laughs and make lots of great memories. It is just too bad that we don't live closer to Dave's family so that the kids can make more memories with them.

Mother/daughter campout

2011-07-17T22:11:00.000-06:00

Dave and Zander when with other members of the ward for the annual Father/son campout. Haylie was feeling a little left out so we decide to have a little "campout" of our own. Haylie LOVES pretend play so she was super excited about it. We decided to really rough it and go out to dinner, then we stopped at Wal-mart to get all the supplies we would need--s'more makings and orange and yellow glow sticks to make our fire glow. We came home and cut some fun foam in the shape of flames and then used our glow sticks to "light"our fire. Then we made our s'mores by heating them in the microwave and them ate them around the fire. We watched a movie and then got ready for bed and climbed into the tent Haylie made under her bed. You can see she has a slide bed in the background. She hung blankets around it to make the tent. It was a fun night, even if we both ended up in my bed by the end of the night!

Late Easter

2011-07-17T21:58:00.000-06:00

I am getting ready to start another edition of my blog book and I am realizing that I have kind of slacked over the past several months. so in an effort to document our lives the next few posts might seem a little outdated but need to be here for posterity sake.
We had a pretty low key Easter this year. We got to color Easter eggs on Saturday which is getting more and more fun as the kids get older. On Sunday morning we let them hunt for eggs and for their Easter baskets. Not too much excitement but it is fun to see my kids enjoying the traditions that I enjoyed as a child.

A man obsessed

2011-07-11T22:01:00.002-06:00

Zander has a serious obsession with sprinklers. It is almost scary how excited he gets about them. Today he sat on the curb for probably 45 minutes watching the sprinklers across the street run. He loves to see them run but he even has to stop at every sprinkler head he sees in the ground whether it is running or not. We have spent quite a bit of time this summer at Grandma and Grandpa Oberholtzer's house and they have huge yard. Zander spends most of the time we are there walking around the yard and checking the sprinkler heads when they are not on and the rest of the time watching as each of the zones run, all the while asking Grandma and Grandpa which one is going to come on next. My parents were also taking care of the yard and house of their next door neighbors so Zander kept asking about Bob's (the next door neighbor) sprinklers too. It is a very strange obsession that is certainly unexplainable. I have to be careful not to mention sprinklers that I see when we are in the car. If Zander doesn't see them before we pass there is real trouble. What a quirky little guy! Speaking of obsessions, Dave's recent obsession has been our house plans! That is the kind of obsession I encourage so that we can get moving on it. We have secured a lot and will be taking the paper work to the bank this week. If everything goes smoothly we will be breaking ground by the first part of August! Yippee!!! I can't wait use a dishwasher again!!

Zander's 3rd Birthday

2011-05-10T16:29:00.002-06:00

Zander turned three on the 10th of April. It fell on Sunday this year and I have been so busy with teaching that we decided not to have a friend party. Instead we took a trip over the mountain and took the kids to a place called Jump On It. It has a bunch of trampolines lined up together with all of the springs covered. The kids jumped all over the place and exhausted themselves. We also ran some much needed errands and went out to eat at Dickey's BBQ. It was funny because we ordered the large family platter because we wanted some leftovers but we weren't prepared for the quantity of each item that we got. I am sure people around us were gawking at the amount of food. It was a fun day spending the day with each other and having a little change of pace. The only down side was that it took us an extra hour on the trip home since we had to crawl through the canyon in the middle of the snow storm.

On the day of Zander's birthday we had cake and he got to open his presents. He got a motorcycle that he can ride and push with his feet, a kung zhu pet to go with Haylie's zhu zhu pet, a block set, a bubble blowing car and some money.

He insisted that he wanted a train cake that had chocolate frosting and was a triangle shape. I tried to talk him into a rectangle or circle cake but he is a very stubborn little boy and I knew if wasn't like he had envisioned it there would be trouble. Thus we have the triangle train cake. It wasn't minty as you might think and it is kind of strange looking, but it sure made the birthday boy happy.

He was very excited to have a card that played the chicken dance when you opened it. He even chose to bring it for sharing day at the day care.

Zander has always had a great sense of humor, even from the time he was a baby. He likes trains and blocks and playing whatever game Haylie makes up. He seems to be asserting his power by refusing to eat anything we call dinner and refusing to even think about going potty in the toilet. He likes to play trapeze with Dad and Super Mario Brothers on the Wii with Mom (he is Luigi). Lately when he is asked what he wants to eat or what he ate at daycare he responds with a made up word. His favorite made up word is ba blister. Don't ask me what it means. We have been so blessed to have this funny little boy in our lives. He keeps us on our toes with his insistance on things being exactly what he has in mind, but we sure do love him!

Thoughts on teaching

2011-04-19T21:35:00.003-06:00

The last 3 months have gone by in a blur. I have felt like I am barely keeping my head above water in most areas of my life and that is not a feeling I like. Teaching 4th grade has been a learning experience for me. It has made me realize that I enjoy older elementary kids. It has been very hard to come into a classroom and take over for someone else. I was given no information whatsoever and was basically told to be the teacher. The kids really have taken advantage of my lack of information and it has really been an uphill battle to manage the classroom. That has always been my biggest challenge as a teacher so it has really been tough for me.

Haylie and Zander have done really well at day care. There are mornings when the don't want to get up and go but they always have fun while they are there. I am glad that Dave drops them off most mornings because every time I have to I shed a few tears. I feel sad sometimes to think of all the time I am missing with them. I can't wait for the summer when things can slow down a bit and I can be there for them. I have become keenly aware of how much I love them and how quickly they will grow up. Being away from them everyday has given me a totally different perspective.

Next year Haylie will be going to kindergarten and Zander will be going to preschool for part of the day so I have decided that I will job share a teaching position in second grade. I will teach in the afternoons from 11:15 until 2:45. I am excited to have the time at home to keep up the house and spend some one on one time with Zander. The person that I will be teaching with already has an established classroom and just wants to start teaching part time. It should be a pretty easy transition to just pick up with what she has done in the past. Zander will be at preschool for part of the time I am gone and the other couple of hours we haven't decided where he will go. I think it will be nice because I have a feeling that once Haylie is gone all day Zander would get bored hanging out with me all day. I am exciting for the prospect of having something think about and a reason to get up and get ready each day without having it consume my whole life. Only about 25 days left for this school year. Can't wait.

A job

2011-02-08T23:06:00.002-07:00

This is kind of an ongoing saga that goes back to this fall and this post. I got an call last Tuesday from the principal as Castle Heights which is the elementary school just up the street from us. They had one of their 4th grade teachers get transferred to be a prinicpal at another school and so they were in need of a teacher until the end of the year. She got my number from the principal at the Jr. High where I coach and was hoping I would think about "applying for" the position. Now if you read my other post you might think that this is a continuation of my little test and so did I at first. I mean, really, what do I know about 4th grade except having passed it when I was 9? So she asked me to think about it and let her know the next day. I figured I would just call her and say thanks but no thanks.
That afternoon I got a call from Paige who is in our ward, teaches 1st grade at the same school, and has a daughter in the class that doesn't have a teacher. She pleaded with me to seriously consider it and told me her daughter had been praying for a good teacher. So I decided to look into it a little bit more. As I got to figuring what I would making after paying for child care, I realized it is almost the exact amount of money Dave and I are short for the down payment on our building loan. Wow!! I suddenly felt like this opportunity was given to me for a reason. So I found some options for child care that sounded good and decided that I would do it. I went in for an "interview" (like there were so many candidates) and now I start on Thursday. It will be a big change but I feel like we can get through for less than 4 months. I am continually amazed at the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us and knows our needs. I am so glad that I have an education and have kept up my certification. This will be the second time that I have been able to use it when our family needs it and both times the job has fallen in my lap. I am a little anxious about the changes for Haylie and Zander but I have to keep telling myself that it will be for a very short time.

Plans!

2011-01-26T23:26:00.003-07:00

Dave bought our house plans today!! If you have ever built a house you know that it is a bit of an investment. It is becoming a reality! The two lots we are looking at are both in our current ward. (Julie S, I think you might be the only person from Price that reads my blog so that info is for you!) So much to do! I wish I could do more of the work. Dave can't sleep at night because his mind keeps racing with construction thoughts. Hopefully once the work actually starts he can put his mind to rest. He will probably be so exhausted from working then going to work on the house he will be asleep before his head hits the pillow.

House??

2011-01-24T08:19:00.002-07:00

There are still about a million hurdles to jump but it looks like Dave will be building us a house this spring!! I still have to tell myself not to get my hopes up just in case one of the hurdles proves to be too much for us but I am getting pretty giddy in spite of myself. We have a floor plan picked out and a couple of lot possibilities. It will be kind of slow since Dave is going to do most of the work himself along with a friend in our ward but I am going to do my best to be patient. Yippee!!!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-21T21:49:00.001-07:00

Since last year a big snow storm altered our plans for traveling for Christmas we decided to just plan on staying at home this year. It turned out to be a good choice because Zander had been sick the whole week before Christmas and was really down and out on Christmas Eve. Luckily that was the turning point and he felt pretty good for Christmas morning. It was kind of sad to not have other family around. It didn't really feel like it was much different than any other day. I made tons of good food and it went largely unappreciated by the kids. Over eating is just not the same without a bunch of family around I guess. :) We took it easy on Christmas Eve since Zander was not up to much. We did make cookies for Santa Claus and carried on the Oberholtzer tradition of Fondue for Christmas Eve dinner. We read the story of the nativity and used our nativity scene to act it out. Haylie had been waiting all season to do that so she was pretty excited. Then we opened up our new pajamas and got ready for Santa to come.

The kids got up at about 7 on Christmas morning. Haylie was way excited to see her dolphin Pillow Pet. I still can't figure out the craze with these things. As usual the kids got way too spoiled. I feel like I did too this year. I got a carpet cleaner from Dave. I know it sounds really romantic but it is what I asked for. He helps to clean the carpets which makes it a little more romantic! From my parents and Darin we got a Bosch Mixer with a couple of attachments and from Dave's parents we got a Food Saver vacuum sealer. Now I can cook and clean with the best of them! I have used each item several times already. One day we even used all three! Dave and I cleaned the carpet in the living room, I vacuum sealed some ground beef, and made some bread with the mixer!

Decorating Santa's cookies

"Would ya get that camera outta my face?"

A Pillow Pet!!!

Checking out the stocking

Haylie LOVED her gift from Uncle Darin. 20 new Littlest Pet Shop Pets complete with accessories.

Zander's gift from Great Gram Holzer...Tractors.

Working really hard at saying "Cheese"

Oh My!! What blew up in here??

Ballerina

2010-12-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

One Tuesday in Early November I pulled up into our driveway from picking Haylie up from preschool. I got out of the car and looked across the yard and saw a small black cat walking up the neighbor's driveway. The minute it saw us it came right over. Of course, Haylie, being the animal lover that she is began petting it. The cat was frantically weaving in and out of our legs and going for the kids hands. I am not what you would call an animal lover but this one looked so pitiful I reached down and pet it, and felt how skinny it was. It hung around the rest of the day and when Dave came home for lunch and saw how skinny it was we decided to feed it (or her as we found out later.) Haylie spent the rest of that day outside with this poor little cat. We figured we had made ourselves a pet by feeding her but were still kind of hoping that she would go back home. As it got dark the cat was nowhere to be found but was on the porch first thing the next morning. She has been here ever since. Haylie named her Ballerina and the kids and Dave built a little cat box for her to sleep in and get out of the cold. She is a very sweet little cat, and puts up with all of Haylie's affections. She isn't allowed inside so she is a pretty low maintenance pet. She was certainly unexpected but it has sure made Haylie happy to have a pet besides a fish.

Only the newer looking plywood is the cat box. A few people who looked at this picture thought the whole thing was the box. We did not build her a mansion. The other part is a table that was there when we moved in.

She is a pretty young cat and is very playful. She got up on the seat to play with the tassles on the handlebars.

Haylie's 5th Birthday

2010-12-26T22:47:00.001-07:00

Haylie turned 5 on December 1st. She chose to have zoo animal themed party with a few of her friends. Last year for her party I planned a bunch of party games and then was stressed out the entire time trying to get everyone to play them when they really just wanted to play in the toy room. I learned my lesson and kept it very simple this year; shortened the time, had one or two activities besides the present opening and cake, and every went great. One of gifts she got from us was a trip to Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was her first visit and she loved it! She ended up with a dog and named it Isabelle.
When the kids were babies I seemed to post more often about some of the milestones they have reached and what they like to do. I haven't done as good at doing that now that they are older but thought a birthday post was the perfect time to do it. Haylie continues to be a big girl, she always has been bigger than most kids her age. She is about as far from dainty as you can get. She doesn't care for dolls or princesses or barbies and hates wearing anything in her hair. She wishes people who make toys would realize that not all little girls like Disney Princesses. She is extremely curious about the world around her and asks about everything and expects a real answer, if I try to say I don't know then she will say, "well why do you think..." Haylie absolutely loves animals. I haven't posted about it yet but in November we had a stray kitten (not a tiny kitten but not full grown yet) adopt our family. We can't have pets in our apartment and Dave is somewhat allergic to cats so she is an outdoor cat. Haylie spends hours outside with Ballerina (Haylie chose the name) even if it is freezing. I will go out to check on her and see her holding the cat and telling her about how she came to be our pet. She has such a big heart! She is usually very patient with Zander and for her age is pretty good atthinking about others' feelings. I love this little girl so much!! Before she was born I imagined what kind of kid she would be and she is nothing like I imagined. I sure am glad though. The reality is much better! Happy Birthday Haylie! I love you with all my heart!

Haylie at Build-a-Bear with her dog Isabelle.

The monkey cupcakes

coloring animal masks

Opening Presents

Trying out the her new scooter.

Thanksgiving

2010-12-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know this is the wrong holiday to post about on the day after Christmas but I am still playing catch up here. We spent this year's Thanksgiving at my parents house in Brigham City which is always a fantastic place to spend a holiday. All of my siblings except for Melanie and her family were there. It still made for a large crowd...16 people. That wasn't just for the dinner. We all stayed there together from Wednesday through Saturday. Luckily my parents house is like a bed and breakfast. It even has themed rooms to stay in! It is so much fun to get together! I am feeling extra sentimental about it because we just spent Christmas here in Price without any extended family and I felt a little lonely and wished we lived somewhere where family could come visit and not have to sleep out where Santa leaves his loot. Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. We spent the time playing games, talking, and inhaling goodies as fast as Grandma could whip them out. Our kids have a pass to The Treehouse Museum in Odgen which is an awesome place to take kids of any age if you get the chance. We took the opportunity to go on Friday and take my niece Afton while Ryan and Arika attended the temple (the Museum is right across the street from it). Everyone had a great time even Afton, who usually isn't too happy about being without her mom and dad. That night we had our traditional December 1st party. Don't look at your calendar--this was not on December 1st. Each year my Mom likes to give each of us a gift before Christmas, it used to be something Christmas-y that you could use throughout the season although it seem to have strayed from that a bit. The kids can always count on a chocolate advent calendar though. So she gives the gifts on December 1st or over Thanksgiving since most of us are usually together. We were planning on staying until Sunday but, as always, weather dictates our traveling and it decided that we would be going home on Saturday to avoid a possible storm. We did stop in Salt Lake at Build-a-bear Workshop for Haylie's birthday which is an actual reason to celebrate December 1st. More about that in Haylie's birthday post.

Rylan, Camden and Haylie ready for a feast.

L to R Zander, Arika, Ethan and Tayson

Darin--super excited for some mashed potatoes!

Haylie and Zander driving the fire truck in the Tree House Museum.

Girls' Weekend

2010-12-18T08:11:00.002-07:00

In November I got to leave the kids at home with Dave and head to Salt Lake for a girls' weekend with my mom, Melanie, Alyson, and Arika. (my sisters and sister-in-law). We had so much fun together! On Friday evening we went the the Desert Star Dinner Theater and saw Collin Raye in concert. There were probably less than 200 people in the theater so it was pretty up close and personal. We stayed at Little America in downtown Salt Lake and then on Saturday my mom surprised us with Disney on Ice tickets. It was so neat. I think we might have been the only adults there without kids. It was fun though. We then did some shopping and ate at the Cheesecake Factory with Darin (my brother). On Sunday morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word. It was a Veteran's Day edition of it, and really fantastic. I have never been in the Tabernacle when something was going on so it was especially neat. I am so grateful for the wonderful women in my family. I am thankful that we all get along and can have so much fun together. Can't wait till next time, girls! Love ya!

Halloween

2010-12-06T23:25:00.001-07:00

I know it is almost Christmas and I am just now posting about Halloween. I am slowly getting caught up and I need all these posts on my blog so I can make another blog book and have them in it. Our Halloween celebration seemed to last for weeks with various carnivals and activities and then we didn't do anything on the actual day of Halloween. First, the weekend before Halloween, we went to the Spooktacular in downtown Price. There were games to play, a costume contest, and a chance to ride on the famous little blue train. We alway chuckle when we see it because this thing is at every event in this area; the fair, International Days, the Spooktacular, you name it, I don't know how many pictures we have of the kids riding this thing. I don't think I have ever included any on the blog though so here we go.

Instead of carving pumpkins this year we decided to take the easy way out and get Mr. Potato Head style facial features to stick in our pumpkins. It was a lot less mess and they lasted a lot longer which was good since we went to Boise to visit for several days right before Halloween.

My nephew Camden got baptized on October 30 and we were very excited for a good reason to go to Boise to spend time with friends and family and visit our old stomping grounds. We got there on Thursday afternoon and took the kids to Linder Farms. It is a farm in the Boise area that during the fall has a pumpkin patch, corn maze, petting zoo, concessions, and a hayride just to list a few things. We didn't take the kids in the corn maze but they had a blast at the petting zoo and on the hayride. They also went in the little hay bale maze they had set up and LOVED the "corn box" (a sandbox style box filled with corn kernels instead of sand).

The hayride must have frightened Haylie.

"Dr. Doolittle"

Zander wasn't that impressed.

Corn Angels!

As for the rest of our visit in Boise, Dave spent most of his time with friends mountain bike riding and hanging out at two different Halloween parties in his awesome Bob Ross costume (bummed we didn't get a picture). I got to go out to dinner with Kristi, Laura, Alynn, and Jenn on Thursday night. The kids and I spent Friday hanging out with Alyson and her kids. We went to a really fun place called Bounce, basically a room filled with bounce houses and other inflatables. It was a great example of the kind of day I miss about living in Boise--hanging out with my sister at a fun place for the kids. Alyson and I even raced each other in the obstacle course! On Saturday I got to meet up with one of my old coworkers Monica for lunch and then went to Camden's baptism. Since he was baptized in our old stake there were quite a few people at the baptism that I knew and was excited to see. Alyson and I took the kids out trick or treating that night to a few of her neighbors. We traveled home on Sunday and were all Halloween-ed out so we didn't go out trick or treating. In fact we didn't even get any trick or treaters. I guess that is what you get when you live in Utah. We had a fantastic time...too much fun to waste time taking many pictures...oh well.

Moab

2010-12-02T15:10:00.001-07:00

My parents and brother Darin decided to visit Moab this October and Haylie and I went along with them. We are only two hours away from Moab so they came down and stayed overnight with us and then we got up the next morning and drove to Moab. We decided that Zander wouldn't really enjoy the trip so Dave decided to stay home with him and have a boys weekend. As it turned out, Dave got sick and didn't get to do much of what he had planned for he and Zander to do. Haylie turned out to be quite the adventurer. She hiked around anywhere we would let her and declared that she was "made for hiking". We visited Arches National Park on the first day, and then had dinner at the Bar M Chuckwagon. Haylie out ate everyone and then had fun listening to the cowboys (and one cowgirl) sing. One of the most exciting parts of the trip for Haylie was staying in a hotel. She had been wanting to stay in one for quite a while. It was the first time she had stayed in one when since she was a baby. Unfortunately, the pool was down for repairs, but everything else certainly lived up to her expectations. After the night in the hotel we did some shopping for souvenirs and then drove to Dead Horse State Park to check out more scenery. Several movies have been filmed at this location and we even passed another one in the works on our visit there. It didn't look like it was too big of a production. That afternoon we headed back to Price and Mom, Dad, and Darin headed back home too.

Haylie and Grandpa

She thought it was fun to find little seats for herself.

I think this was called Double Arches

Pausing for a rest on the climb.

Look out at Dead Horse State Park.

Grammy Patti's Birthday

2010-12-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Dave's parents came down for a visit in September. They had trouble with their truck on the way here and ended up having to leave their truck here to get a new engine and take Dave's truck back to Wyoming. The good news was that they came back down to pick up their truck and give Dave's truck back on the same weekend as Grammy Patti's birthday! We gave her a surprise party although I don't think it was a very big surprise by the time my helpers finished with the set up. It was lots of fun and the kids always love a party!.

Funny Kid

2010-11-14T22:07:00.002-07:00

Zander has always had a a good sense of humor, even when he was a baby. He also has a way of saying things that just cracks me up. Tonight we played a game together as a family and then when we were done and we told the kids it was time for bed Zander did not take the news well. He told us, "Go away. Go outside and find a new home." When we just laughed and didn't appear to be leaving anytime soon he said, "I'm going to go to my other home." What a little turkey!! I am always afraid that he will grow up too fast and that I won't remember some of the funny things that he says so I had to post this one.

Labor Day Camping

2010-11-03T21:53:00.002-06:00

Coaching volleyball has put me behind on my blogging so I am slowly starting to get caught up. We decided to do a last minute camping trip to Scofield Reservoir over labor day. We went up after church on Sunday and set up our tent. We ate tin foil dinners and s'mores. After dark the kids got glow sticks and had a great time running around the tent and bouncing on the air mattresses. In the morning it was windy and freezing. Our campground only had a fire stand instead of a fire ring so it was difficult get much warmth from it. We ended up eating breakfast in the tent to be out of the wind and then we bundled up and headed down to the lake for some fishing. It continued to be really windy so we didn't get much fishing action. We ate our lunch in the back of the truck and them packed up and headed back home. I remember camping and fishing many times with my family growing up and we always had a fun time. It occurs to me that Haylie is now old enough that she will have a memory of trips like this. I hope that we are making some great memories.

I thought I would feel older...

2010-11-02T22:26:00.001-06:00

I turned 32 this August. Somehow, when I was younger, I thought I would feel so much older in my thirties. I don't feel like an adult that should be taken seriously (maybe I shouldn't be). I have noticed a few gray hairs and a few more laugh lines. I have also noticed that I am just a little bit more stiff after playing a good game of volleyball. It is amazing how time just keeps ticking away and everyone keeps growing and changing. Here are some pictures of my birthday celebration. We went to dinner at Wingers (the only place in town) and then came home and had some cake. Nothing too exciting but it is always great to spend time with my little family.

Frustration

2010-10-25T13:44:00.002-06:00

We found out last night that a house we were hoping to rent in our ward is going to be rented out to someone else. Once again I got my hopes up, only to be let down. It's not like it was our dream house or anything but it would have had enough room to have all our stuff out of our storage unit. It also would have had a dishwasher and a backyard for the kids to play in. I am just so tired of being crammed in this apartment! There are very few houses for rent in Price, and we have finally decided that we don't want to own a house here. We don't plan on being here for too many more years and the thought of having yet another house that we can't sell helped us make the decision to rent. We looked online at the houses for sale in Boise in our price range and it made us sick to think of buying a run down, 30-40 year old house here. I am trying really hard to be grateful and count my blessings. I know that we have a lot more than most people, I am just ready to move forward.

More Special

2010-10-16T20:23:00.002-06:00

Haylie has always wanted to know everything about just about everything. She asks tons of questions and draws a lot of conclusions about the information she gets. That is why she knows that the tooth fairy or any fairy is not real. The other day she was thinking about this and asked me why it was that she knew that fairies weren't real but that most of her friends thought they were. I wasn't sure how to answer that question but I was saved by Haylie once again drawing a conclusion. She said, "I guess I was just born more special than other kids." She said it so matter-of-factly, without any pride or anything. What confidence! Recently, she has been comparing herself to other kids and getting upset when she can't do something that they can. It was kind of heartbreaking to realize she was no longer oblivious to social pressures. I am glad that she has a knowledge of how special and important she is. I told her that she was born more special but not to tell the other kids. Hey, I don't want them to get jealous. ;) I hope she can always carry a bit of that self confidence.

DC-the last installment (finally)

2010-10-02T22:12:00.003-06:00

Our second day in DC we went to Arlington National Cemetery and got to see the changing of the guard. It was a very patriotic experience. It was also EXTREMELY hot. I felt bad for the soldiers in their full uniforms, it must have been miserable for them but you would have never known from the way handled their responsibility.

After visiting the cemetery, we went to satisfy Dave's obsession with cheesesteaks at a place called JJ's Cheesesteaks. They had a menu with at least 20 different sandwiches to choose from. It was delicious.

We spent the afternoon at Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was shot. You have to have a ticket in advance to go in the museum and theater. When we got there they were all given out but luckily a lady in line to get in had 2 extra tickets. They have all kinds of artifacts in the basement of the theater including the suit that President Lincoln was wearing when he was shot shown in the picture above. After a little while in the museum they herd everyone into the actual theater which has been renovated to look like it did when Lincoln was there. The ranger gave a little speech about what happened that night but it was a little redundant after walking through the museum. Dave and I were so happy to be sitting down in air conditioning I think we both took a little siesta!

We had an afternoon flight the next day but wanted to sneak in a couple of things before we headed to the airport. We went the Natural History Museum where we saw the Hope diamond (for about two seconds as we edged our way through the crowd) and lots and lots of dinosaurs. We then rushed to the airport and on our way were notified by Delta that our flight time had changed and would not leave until much later than originally planned. We were glad we rushed so we could wait in this line for over an hour just to check our bag and then wait for another 3 hours for our flight to leave! Overall it was a great vacation despite the waiting. It was fun to be away from the kids for few days and to know that they were having a great time too.

Washington DC Trip: Part 2

2010-08-21T22:28:00.006-06:00

After a long day of riding roller coasters we ate at a quaint little restaurant called the Smokey Pig. It was a delicious BBQ place, complete with complimentary hush puppies. The next morning we got up and drove to the DC area with a short detour through Bowling Green, VA. Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum. It is unbelievable how much stuff they have in each of the museums that we visited. We could have spent a whole day in each museum and still not have seen everything. We saw some very interesting stuff though and were also in awe at the largest McDonald's we had ever seen that was inside the Air and Space Museum.

Huge McDonalds

That afternoon we visited the American History Museum. This was my favorite of all of the museums we saw. It has all kinds of artifacts from American History. I wish that our feet weren't so tired from the previous two days. It would have made walking around museums all day a lot more comfortable.

A "hero in a half shell"

A car from the Dumbo ride at Disneyland

Dorothy's ruby slippers

After our visit to the two museums it was time to meet at City Segway Tours for our tour of the city via segway. I absolutely LOVED this part of the trip. I was a little leery at first when Dave signed us up for this tour because I was afraid of wrecking my segway. Then I figured that is couldn't be too hard if they were letting just anybody ride one. Turns out that I love to ride segways! It started out with a 30 minute instruction on how to ride then the first stretch was a straight shot with our speed regulators set a 6 miles per hour so you really got a chance to get comfortable with it. There were 8 of us on the tour plus our tour guide. You should have seen some of the stares we got from people when they got passed by a gang of segways. We got to see all of the sites of the city and hear a little information from our tour guide at each one. We all got off the segways at the Lincoln Memorial and spent about 1/2 hour looking around there. We also saw the White House, the National Archives, the capital building, the FBI building and Ford's Theatre just to name a few. We also rode past a newer museum called the Newseum. It has artifacts from major news stories inside. Outside have a display case that has that day's newspaper from a city or town in every state. The one from Wyoming was the Laramie Daily Boomerang for the day we were there! Pretty cool! It sure looks different from the days of helping collate it with Mom and Dad. It was a great tour and after we got done we walked a couple of blocks (we did a LOT of walking) and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe before catching the Metro back to our hotel. We knew we were too late to catch the shuttle from the Metro station to our hotel but the hotel boasted being 1 mile from the Metro station so we figured hey, what's another mile, right? Well, it turns out it might be a mile away if we could have flown over buildings and stuff, but it was quite a bit farther (yipee! more walking!). We made it to the hotel and I could barely stand long enough for a shower before I collapsed into bed. This is certainly not the vacation to take if you are looking for some relaxation. Lots of fun and interesting things to see though. Next up, Cheesesteaks and Ford's Theatre!

Dave wanting to be an agent

My first time on the segway

Visiting the Obamas

Waiting to shoot you if you act up

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Cruising--I think they had turned the speed regulator up to 10 MPH!

Capitol Building

The Boomerang

Washington DC Trip: Part 1

2010-08-01T23:29:00.004-06:00

In celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary Dave and I went on a trip to Washington DC. We left Haylie and Zander with my mom and dad on Monday evening, July 19th (I will post some of their adventures when I get pictures from my mom.) We decided to save ourselves a hotel night stay while getting an extra day in the area by sleeping on the plane on the way over. We had to switch planes in Phoenix and Philadelphia before we landed in Baltimore. Needless to say that it was not a very restful night especially with a few children behind us on the Phoenix-Philly flight that took turns screaming for most of the night. I was very glad for my MP3 player to drown out most of it. We took a short flight into Baltimore, but not before I drank a giant swallow of sour milk in the Philly airport...yummy.

Once in Baltimore we rented a car and took off down I95 towards Doswell, VA where King's Dominion Amusement Park is located. We were both impressed by the trees everywhere in that area, especially since we live in the desert here in Price. Once we got to the amusement park we ate a Chic-fil-A (one of my favorites) and then, since we had slept on an airplane and hadn't had a chance to freshen up, we decided that the water park portion of the park might be a good idea. We had lots of fun riding the water slides and finally had to call it quits for the day when a HUGE rainstorm rolled in. It was fun too since I was already wet and still in my swimsuit. We just splashed through the puddles and ran through the rain not worried about getting wet.

The next morning we headed back to King's Dominion to tackle the roller coasters. There were lots of fun ones and since it was a weekday there weren't very many people there. It was very hot there though and I remembered that I am not the biggest fan of humidity. I was sweating like crazy! It was a really fun place but by the end of the day our feet were killing us after running around the day before on hot sidewalks in bare feet and then walking and standing in line all day the next. In fact, sore feet turned out to be the recurring theme of our vacation. There sure is a lot of walking involved in a vacation like this. We spent the next 3 days in the DC area taking in all the sites and museums. That will be part 2. I am too impatient to wait for all the pictures to upload at once.

Ready to ride!

King's Dominion from their "Eiffel Tower"

A fun water slide

This was their new roller coaster for this year, both times we rode it I blacked out for a couple of seconds. We heard several others saying they did too. I will claim that is why I look the way I do in this picture. I have no excuse for all the other pictures though, maybe humidity and TONS of walking??

Dave didn't black out! He was feeling great!

Independence Day

2010-07-31T21:38:00.002-06:00

We didn't do anything too exciting for the 4th of July. On Saturday the third we got together with the Bohmans for a little BBQ and fireworks show. The kids had a great time playing together and the grown ups even had a chance to play a couple of games while we were waiting for it to get dark enough to do fireworks. That is rare when you have 2 two years olds and 2 four year olds running around. When it got dark enough Dave and Will put on a nice little fireworks show for the moms and kids. A few of the neighbors even came out to watch. It was a fun evening, and we were glad that we got to do a little bit of celebrating but I guess it wasn't noteworthy enough to take some pictures. Barely worth the post but I when I go to put it in my blog book I will have to go back and try to think of what we did for the 4th of July this year if I don't post something about it!

A Test

2010-07-29T23:20:00.004-06:00

Back in May I posted about my the decision I had to make about taking a teaching position that I interviewed for. I was so worried about making the right decision and felt so unsettled after I interviewed. I was absolutely relieved when I found out that I didn't get the job. I was, however, submitted as an alternate in case the other person fell through, and that is exactly what happened. The principal called me yesterday to offer me the job (part time with another teacher). After praying about it the first time around and being so relieved and at peace when I didn't get the job, I knew what the answer should be. I prayed about it some more yesterday, this time having made the decision that I would not take it. I knew without any doubt that Heavenly Father was pleased with that decision. The way I felt in May as I was prepared to accept the job if offered was completely opposite of the way I felt when I knew I had to turn it down yesterday. I was completely at peace even with having to call my would-be team teacher and the principal and turn it down. It was like a little test to see if I have learned anything about listening to the spirit and if I would act upon those feelings. I passed!! I am so grateful for the influence of the spirit. I am grateful that Dave has a job that allows me to stay home with my beautiful children.

Bottles are for babies

2010-07-17T21:29:00.002-06:00

I am a little embarrassed to admit that Zander still has a bottle before going to bed each night. I have been trying to hint to him that bottles are for babies but he didn't seem to care too much. Last night he wouldn't drink the bottle so I thought that maybe his stomach was bugging him or something. Tonight he got out of the bath and after he got his PJs on he immediately asked for his bottle. I got it ready and then when I went to give it to him he again didn't want it. He said, "No, bottles are for babies. Bottles are for Afton." Afton is his cousin that is about 14 months old who never would drink out of a bottle. So he didn't drink it tonight either. We may be on to something here. I thought it would be a major fight to get him to give it up but it is looking pretty good! Now, if we can just convince him that pacifiers are for babies too...

10 years!

2010-06-30T08:54:00.004-06:00

One of our engagement pictures

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary. It is amazing to think that 10 years have passed! We definitely have had struggles and trials along with lots of good times. We have had arguments that have made me wonder what in the world I was doing married to someone so stubborn (of course it is never me being stubborn...). We have suffered the heartache of a miscarriage and the uncertainty of job loss. We have shared the birth of two beautiful children, fun times, and countless laughs. I couldn't comprehend 10 years ago how much a part of me Dave would become. Each of these struggles and triumphs bind us together a little more until I can't imagine who I would be if I didn't share my life with Dave. I am grateful for the life that I live and the great husband I have to live it with. He is a fabulous handyman, mechanic, computer repairman, father, and friend. I anxiously wait every day for the sweet sound of a motorcycle turning in the driveway. My best friend is back from work! I am no longer outnumbered by the kids!! The challenges of the day seem to fade a little. I love you Dave! Thanks for 10 years worth of memories. I look forward to many more...an eternity's worth!

Dave's birthday this year

Moab with the Buhlers

2010-06-16T16:07:00.005-06:00

Our awesome friends, the Buhlers, came down from Boise on June 2nd. It was so fun to get to hang out with them again. We seemed to pick up right where we left off. We spent the evening of the second at our apartment and then got up on the morning of the 3rd and headed for Moab. We didn't see much of Dave and Spenser because they were busy mountain biking and jeeping for most of the time we were there. Laura and I spent the first day just trying to stay cool and keep the kids out of dirt and trouble. This spring has been very chilly and the first warm days were the days we spent in Moab so we were definitely not expecting 95 and 100 degree weather. We were camping at the KOA in Moab and were very grateful for their swimming pool. That was how we kept cool the first day. The evening of the first day we decided that we were not going to survive another day of hanging around the campground waiting for the guys so the next day we went to a quirky little place called The Hole N the Rock. It is a house that was built inside the side of a mountain a few miles outside of Moab. They give tours of it which was interesting and then we went to a petting zoo that was across the parking lot from it. The kids loved feeding the animals but there wasn't much shade so we didn't last too long there. In the afternoon when we figured the kids would all be ready for a nap we strapped them in the car and drove through Arches National Park. It was spectacular to see even if we couldn't get out and hike to some of the viewpoints since we had four zonked out kids in the truck with us. At least there was air conditioning! On Friday evening we came back to Price and then headed to Ogden on Saturday to visit the Treehouse Museum and then spent the night at my parents house in Perry before Dave had to fly out to Florida for training and the Buhlers had to head home. We love you Buhler Family!!! Next time we will have to do the traveling to get together! Unfortunately our camera was not working very well so I didn't get many pictures, just a new camera for next time!

Brooklyn, Haylie, Zander, and Isaiah.

Kids getting filthy.
Women doing the work...where are the guys? Taking a picture of the kids getting dirty while their wives make them breakfast!

Haylie's preschool program

2010-06-16T15:44:00.002-06:00

Haylie and Miss Tawnya. (I am not sure why Haylie has that look on her face.)

Haylie finished her first year at the Munchkin Manor Preschool this May. She had a fantastic year there learning lots of new things. She is excited to go back for another year before she will be old enough to go to kindergarten. She has already talked about being excited to help other kids learn the rules next year since she will have already been there for a year. The preschool had an end of the year program where the kids sang some of the songs that they had learned during the year and each child was spotlighted by sharing some of their favorite things. She did a great job. We are very proud of her!

Seeking Answers

2010-05-19T17:33:00.003-06:00

What an emotional ride I have taken the past few days. I got a call last week from a principal at an elementary school here in Price. They needed some first grade teachers and wondered if I would be interested. I had my application submitted for another part time job that I didn't get and they saw I was a certified teacher. I had the idea for my neighbor and visiting teaching charge and I to split the job (she is a teacher too) and then I would only work part time and get to teach. It sounded like a great idea but I just felt uneasy about it. I wasn't sure if it was the thought of change and leaving my kids every day or if it really was not the right thing to do. I made my decision to take the job and then took it to the Lord. I wasn't sure what His answer to me was, so I just kept on taking the steps. I was getting excited for it yesterday and then today I woke up with a terrible feeling about it. I went in with my potential teaching partner for the interview. Since they called me I thought we pretty much had it in the bag and that was making me even more anxious, but I kept thinking it was just thinking about all the changes that would be necessary to accommodate my job. I came home from the interview feeling worse than ever. I knew I didn't want to do it but how did I tell Debbie (by neighbor) after dragging her into this? How can I turn down a chance to make some needed money to build a house next spring? I know now that my uneasy feeling was the answer to my many prayers but I was so afraid to act. Luckily, Heavenly Father loves me and He acted for me! We didn't get the job! I have never been so relieved to be turned down for a job in my life! We are still alternates if one of the other people they hired backs out but I am SO RELIEVED and THANKFUL!!

Haylie can read!

2010-05-06T21:35:00.002-06:00

As a kindergarten teacher I have seen lots of kids figure out how to put sounds together but it is pretty exciting when it is your own child who is doing it. She can only read CVC words (for those not in education--Consonant Vowel Consonant) but that is where it starts! She knew the letters and their sounds before she started preschool this year so I figured it wouldn't take too long before she would be able to read some words. The Letter Factory video by Leap Frog is awesome for helping learn letters and sounds! That is how Haylie learned them all. I came up with a game she likes to play that I call "read it to eat it." She loves saltine crackers with Easy Cheese on them and I have always written letters or numbers on the crackers with the cheese when I gave them to her but now I give her 3 crackers and make 3 letter word with them (cat, rug, dog, mat, bat, bus). Then I have her read me the word before she can eat it. The past couple of days she has gotten much better at it. Then tonight she was reading some of the words in my Bob books. I know this is probably way too much information and a boring post but it's the kind of stuff I love to talk about as a teacher, and I want to remember the idea for Zander in a couple of years. Haylie is growing up so fast!! She only has two more days of preschool this year. She will be going back again next year and then on to kindergarten!

Zander's 2nd Birthday

2010-04-23T22:11:00.004-06:00

Since the weather didn't let us spend Christmas with Dave's family we decided to go for a visit over Zander's 2nd birthday. It had been a little over a year since they had seen the kids so it was good to visit them. Zander is a big basketball fan so the main gift he got was a little basketball hoop to play with outside. He loves it and I love not having to act as the hoop when he wants to play. We had a little party with Grandma and Grandpa Holzer, and Aunt Dawn and Uncle CJ and I made him a basketball cake.
Zander is such a cute little guy. He has become very particular about certain things and if something is not just like he wants it then his favorite phrase is "I don't like it" or "I don't want it". If you offer a snack he won't eat it until it is in a bowl. If you try to cut something up for him that he wanted whole he won't even think about eating it. It is kind of funny, but can get kind of tedious to keep him happy. He has a great sense of humor; today at lunch I was trying to get him to eat his sandwich by making the two pieces of bread open up and talk to him. Instead of eating the sandwich he picked up his sippy cup and started giving his sandwich some juice. He thought it was hilarious and so did Haylie and I.
Generally he is a very happy boy and I am so grateful he is a part of our family. I remember thinking he was such a little stranger to me when he was first born. Day by day I have learned who he is and he is such a joy in my life! I love you Zander! Happy Birthday!

Easter

2010-04-16T22:26:00.006-06:00

We had a fun Easter this year with the kids. They are at good ages to do lots of fun things. We got to color Easter eggs.
We went to several Easter egg hunts. The Easter Bunny even showed up at one of them. Zander wouldn't go near her but Haylie decided to give her a hug. (I say "her" because the person in the costume was the daughter of some people on our ward.) On Easter morning Zander seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed and didn't feel like hunting eggs or finding his basket. He would just point to the eggs as he saw them but wouldn't pick them up. Haylie showed her kind and generous side by getting the eggs and making sure that Zander got as many as she did. Zander did feel a little better after his morning bottle ritual.

Since there was General Conference on Easter Sunday, Haylie wore her Easter dress to church the week before Easter. Zander was sick that week and didn't go to church so the picture of him was from a different week.

Zander's Surgery

2010-03-22T21:27:00.006-06:00

In my last post I wrote that nothing worth posting had been happening but I forgot that I hadn't posted that Zander had surgery on February 1st. Since he was a newborn he has had a hydrocele, which is fluid on the testicle. His doctor told us that it would go away by the time he was about a year old. It wasn't going away and was causing him pain sometimes.

We took him to Primary Children's in Salt Lake where Dr. Cartwright explained that he had a communicating hydrocele which means the fluid was moving back and forth between his abdomen and his testicles because the tube that the testicles come down when he was a fetus never closed off. So we scheduled surgery and the doctor told us that while they were doing the surgery they would check the other side to see if it need repaired as well. It did, so they repaired it and now he has two nice looking scars to show for it.

We couldn't have asked for a better boy for the whole process. Haylie stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Oberholtzer's house the night before the surgery and Dave and Zander and I stayed with my brother Darin in West Jordan. I was worried because Zander couldn't have anything to eat or drink the morning of the surgery and he is kind of a stickler for his morning milk. He didn't seem to care too much and luckily there were plenty of toys and other things to see at the hospital once we got there so he wasn't thinking about being hungry. The surgery took about 45 minutes and then they let one of us go back to see him. I went back and he was just waking up when I got back there and he was pretty upset. He was disoriented and nothing would help until Dave came back with his blankie and Rufus (his stuffed dog). I should have thought to bring those with me to begin with!

We left the hospital less than an hour later and he wanted to get down and walk in the parking lot. He only took his pain medication 3 or 4 times. He was a little sore but otherwise you would have never known he had just had surgery. What a resilient little guy! He sure looked cute in his little hospital jammies!

Bowling and Mohawks

2010-03-09T13:38:00.006-07:00

It's been awhile since I have posted anything. We haven't really been doing anything that I felt was worthy of a post on the blog. Life is kind of dull here at times, but we try to have some fun. This past Saturday we decided to take the kids bowling. We took them a few weeks ago but I didn't bring a camera last time. Everyone had a good time. We weren't on a lane with bumpers so I am glad that neither of the kids care if they knock pins down or not. Zander was shaking with excitement because at this bowling alley the balls are returned above ground so you can see them roll all the way back. After we got home Dave decided to give Zander a haircut. We had been noticing that his hair naturally stands up in the middle and lays down more on the sides so he had a bed head/mohawk look no matter how you combed it. Dave decided to give him a real mohawk since that is how his hair wants to lay anyway. It looks pretty cute for a mohawk. We will see how long it stays.

Christmas

2010-01-15T21:45:00.006-07:00

Our plan for Christmas this year was to go visit Dave's family in Wyoming. As the day we were supposed to travel got closer the weather forecast got worse and worse. We finally decided the day before we were supposed to leave that we weren't going to risk going on snowy roads. Most of what we would have to travel to get there is highway and several mountain passes that are treacherous in good weather. So we quickly changed plans, went grocery shopping for some holiday meals and made the best of our first Christmas in Price. We were able to connect to Grandma and Grandpa Holzer via Skype so they got to see the kids opening presents. It was a nice Christmas but a little lonely not being around any family. I also didn't get many pictures taken of Christmas morning in all the excitement. Haylie got a Littlest Pet Shop Clubhouse and a Tag Reader from Santa and Zander got a race track for cars and a bus and dump truck that are bigger for pushing around.
Before Haylie even looked at the gifts she had to check to see that Santa ate his cookies and drank the Hot Cocoa.
Haylie and Dad checking out the Tag reader.
A Christmas Explosion!!
We got to have Christmas Morning all over again on the Wednesday after Christmas. This time Santa was wearing Brown and came in a big truck instead of a sleigh. Our gifts from Wyoming arrived!! 5 huge boxes! They sure spoiled us. The main gift for our whole family was a Wii! We have had lots of fun with it already. Thanks again Holzers!

We had the traditional Oberholtzer fondue for Christmas Eve and then decided to enjoy some delicious Chocolate Fondue! Yummy! Notice how clean Zander's face is compared to Haylie's. Just another way they are complete opposites.

Haylie's 4th Birthday

2009-12-23T13:50:00.005-07:00

Haylie turned 4 on December 1st. She was pretty sure that she would all of the sudden be able to read and tie her shoes on the day she turned 4. Luckily the excitement of her party made her forget because she would have been disappointed. She chose a puppy party at our apartment for her party. I kept my homemade cake tradition up with a puppy cake and managed to keep 6 little girls occupied for an hour and half for the party. We played Pin the Tail on the Doggie and Doggie Doggie Where is your Bone. Here are some current facts about Haylie. She loves dogs and puppies. She still pretends that she is a dog but not quite as often. She knows all the letters and sounds, can rhyme, and even spell some words with a little help. She loves to go to preschool and often asks us to raise our hand if we want something and not call out. At least she is learning the rules if nothing else! She loves to play with Polly Pockets, Barbies, her brother Zander, and her newly acquired Littlest Pet Shop toys. We love you Haylie!!

Family Pictures

2009-12-18T22:21:00.003-07:00

We got our family pictures taken over Thanksgiving by my niece, Janelle. She is pretty talented and is awesome for doing it for us, especially since our kids are not exactly the easiest to take pictures of. I don't think Zander actually held still once!

Thanksgiving...a little late!

2009-12-18T14:03:00.004-07:00

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents and some of my family members in Perry, UT. My whole family goes there every other year for Thanksgiving but this was the off year so it was just a few of us. My brother Darin, us, my niece Janelle and her roommate, and my parents were there for Thanksgiving and then by brother Ryan and his wife Arika and their baby Afton came on Friday. It was a fun and relaxing weekend. We played lots of games, and lots of delicious food and had lots of good laughs. The only down side was that Haylie was sick the entire time we were there. She got sick on Tuesday and we thought she was better on Wednesday afternoon so we loaded up and went. We walked in my parents house and she looked and everyone and then proceeded to throw up all over me. It is times like these that I realize just how glamorous my life is. Cleaning up all kinds of bodily fluids is really the ultimate display of love for someone. It is a good thing that when you become a mother you get some sort of super power to deal with totally gross things as long as it if from your own offspring!

Getting ready for dinner

Poor sick Haylie. At least I got a nap too!
Haylie perked up a little for dinner.

Honesty List

2009-12-06T21:38:00.002-07:00

My friend Rebecca passed this on to me and after reading her list I thought it might be fun to do so here we go.

Honesty-list ten honest things about yourself.

1. I am a terrible housekeeper. I don't quite understand myself because if I know I have someone coming over I can clean the house in record time but if it is just my family things can get pretty ugly before I find motivation to clean. I feel so much better in a clean house so I don't know why I don't make it more of a priority. Maybe it is the two tornadoes that follow me around undoing everything I do!

2. I have an amazing memory for song lyrics. Especially dorky jingles from old commercials and TV Shows and songs from my childhood. I often sing them when they are in my head. It drives Dave crazy but I don't do it to bother him, they are just in my head!

3. I cried at the beginning of each school year until I was in 9th grade. I would try to explain why but there really is not a good reason. I just pray that I don't have any children like myself. My mom and dad are wonderful people for putting up with it. I always thought as a teacher I would be more understanding of my students on the first days of school but I was surprisingly impatient.

4.I regret not playing volleyball in college. I had an opportunity and didn't take it because at the time I was completely burned out on volleyball. If I would have known all the different ways I would be involved in it later in my life I think I would have pursued playing.

5. I would rather inconvenience myself than someone else. I don't like to ask for help and there have been many times when I think "why didn't I just ask for some help?"

6. I could take a nap everyday. This was great when I had two kids that napped everyday. I could catch a few minutes to re-energize myself. I am probably a little lazy, but sometimes 2:00 rolls around and I can barely keep my eyes open. I must have inherited this from my dad. He is the greatest napper that ever lived!

7. I have a glass of milk almost every night before I go to bed. Ok, since this in an honesty list, I also have a little treat with my milk, some cookies or a brownie. In fact, I should be getting some right about now...

8. I am not sure if I want to be a classroom teacher anymore. I loved my days of teaching, and I am good at it, but I also think I could be happier doing something else. I am not a good classroom manager. I like the theory a lot more than the practice.

9. I wish I didn't care what people thought of me but the truth is that I do. I have noticed that as I get older it matters to me less and less. I always wonder, but spend a lot less time worrying about it these days!

10.I have an unreasonable fear of spiders. Since I have children to protect now I have become a lot more brave and don't freak out quite as much. I hate squishing them worse than seeing them. When I was growing up and would get home after my parents were in bed I remember waking my dad up to come kill a spider for me. Luckily Dave has pity on me and kills them when he is around now.

There you go. That was kind of fun. I pass this on to whoever want to try it out. Another honest fact about myself--I hate making decisions so I don't know who to pick! Just do it if you want!

Halloween

2009-11-07T19:15:00.008-07:00

The kids had a great Halloween this year. Haylie is still trying to figure out what the story is with all of the creepy things associated with Halloween. I have answered a million questions about why mummies are all wrapped up, why witches are green and fly on brooms, and why would a walking skeleton be scary. She is such a critical thinker and my lame answers hardly satisfied. We did find time to have some fun and celebrate. We started on Monday night with some pumpkin carving. Haylie designed her pumpkin and was quite proud of it. Zander was just interested in feeling the slimy guts. On the day of Halloween we went with our friends the Bohman's downtown for a Halloween Carnival. They had trick or treating at some of the businesses and then little games for the kids to play. It was a beautiful day and the kids had fun. Zander was not a fan of his lion costume but once the candy started coming he was a bit more forgiving of it. Haylie was a witch. She loved the costume and she even had a scary witch cackle which she informed was to loud to do while she was trick or treating.

In the afternoon, we went to the lamest trunk or treat ever, then did the traditional trick or treating that night. Dave stayed home to man our door and the kids and I went with a couple of girls from the ward with their kids. They had a great time and I look forward to when the kids are a little older and I can just wait on the sidewalk instead of loading and unloading the kids from the wagon at every house! The pictures are out of order but technology hates me tonight so they will have to do for now.

Bring on the candy!

Dave getting ready to vaseline a pumpkin. Supposedly it makes them last longer.

Haylie was very proud of her pumpkin.

Haylie overseeing the carving of her design

Ew...gross

On main street in Price.

That was quite a load for one wagon!

18 Months

2009-10-21T14:22:00.004-06:00

Zander turned 18 months old on the 10th of October. It is funny how life works--Zander has been the baby and that is how I have thought of him, and then gradually, right under my nose, he has grown up! He has so much personality! He makes me laugh every day with the new things that he comes up with. He loves to do whatever Haylie is doing. We have started letting him do the same bedtime routine as Haylie so as soon and you even mention brushing teeth he drops what he is doing and heads for the bathroom. He also will drop everything when you mention feeding the fish, another bedtime ritual. It is amazing how much he understands about the world around him. He has a ball popper that blows balls up in the air that he is completely obsessed with. He will push the button to turn it on over and over again and then, just like his mechanically minded dad, he looks in this hole and that, stops the ball here and there, just trying to figure out how everything works. He literally shakes with excitement while it is running. He loves anything involving a ball or a vehicle, including motorcycles, or "cycles" and he calls them to his dad's delight. Here are some shots of Zander doing some big boy things. What a cutie pie he his! Lately Haylie has been the subject of most of my posts so this one is just for the Z man!

Playing Play-doh.

Eating Breakfast. We recently put the high chair in storage and now he sits in the booster seat at the table. (Haylie took this picture)
He climbs up on the slide on Haylie's bed. This time it was to see the fishy.

Joining in the family tradition of popcorn and movie night.

New Friends

2009-10-11T19:43:00.004-06:00

One of the biggest reasons that we hated to leave Boise was having to leave behind so many wonderful friends. The biggest thing that I have learned through the experience of moving is that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and when we are obedient He will provide for us. This time he provided in the form of a family in our ward, the Bohmans. Just when I was ready to back up and go back home, a knock came on our door. It was Bonnie (the mom) with a plate of cookies. It turned out she has a girl named Haylee, just a few months younger than our Haylie and a boy named Max who is just one month younger than Zander. As we have gotten to know each other have learned many other similar interests the biggest of which is that we both love volleyball. We have been trying to find people to play with. They probably don't know it but they have been a huge blessing to me.
In Boise we were in a babysitting swapping group that allowed us to go out a couple times a month and watch kids on other weeks. We started the same kind of thing with the Bohman's and it has been great. We even combined the kids last week and got a babysitter so we could go out together and get to know each other better. Here are some pictures of the kids playing on the first night we watched them. They have a great time together.

Zander and Max in the sandbox.

The big sisters helping in the sandbox

Haylie and Haylee taking their horses for a ride.

Matching names and bikes!

Preschool

2009-10-08T22:10:00.003-06:00

Haylie started preschool on September 8th at the Munchkin Manor Preschool. She spent the whole summer telling me that she didn't want to go to preschool or that she wasn't big enough. I could tell her resolve was weakening though as we bought her backpack and got the paperwork in the mail telling us what session she would be in. When the day finally came she was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She was rubbing her hands together and saying, "I am so excited to go to school!" So far she loves it. She already knew all the letters and the sounds they make before she started but she is excited to be learning the sign language for each letter. Here are some shots of her on the first day before we left for school. The picture above is in front of the shool.

Appreciation

2009-09-20T20:47:00.002-06:00

Last week Dave worked 57 1/2 hours. That is 17 1/2 extra hours that I am by myself with the kids. This morning I dropped Dave off at the airport to fly to Florida for a weeks worth of training. Again a week where I am playing the role of single parent. It is times like these that I realize just how much Dave does for me and the kids everyday. Sometimes I get caught up in the monotony of the tasks of every day that I start thinking that I am doing everything to care for the kids. So, as much as I don't enjoy being on my own, I am grateful for the opportunity every now and then so that I can appreciate again what a great father my children have. He is a great teacher, makes a wonderful jungle gym, and loves to spend time with our family. Thank you Dave! We love you and miss you when you are gone.

"I am riding a bike!"

2009-08-25T21:51:00.004-06:00

Haylie finally washed enough dishes to earn herself a new bike! Just kidding...she did have to earn it with good behavior but washing dishes isn't a chore for these kids! Both she and Zander love to wash the dishes. They both cry if they see I am doing it and they aren't getting to help.

Haylie earned a new bike by filled a jar up with "gems" that she gets when she does good things. The first day she got on it she kept saying, "I'm riding a bike!" She had some trouble remembering which way to push the pedals so as soon as she would say that she would put the brakes on and stop. It was funny and as you can see from the pictures, she is very proud of herself and even had no problems passing the trike on to Zander, who can't reach the pedals quite yet.

Zander on the tricycle.

Getting ready to ride!

"I'm riding a bike!"

Pure joy...

and satisfaction

Another action shot.

We bought the bike and helmet at about the same time we bought a backpack for Haylie to start preschool with. That was a big shock to realize that she is old enough to ride a two wheel bike and be getting ready for school. She starts preschool on the 8th of September. I will post up the details of how it goes.

Late 4th of July

2009-08-18T20:17:00.003-06:00

Left to right--Ethan Barlow,Haylie, Isaiah Buhler, Paige Barlow, Lexi Barlow, and Brooklyn Buhler

Zander being contemplative.

Blowing Bubbles

Duck, Duck, Goose!

I found these pictures and realized I should have written about this awhile ago. We were back in Boise over the 4th to get the rest of our things from our garage and also to pick up Dave's truck. It was perfect timing because we got to continue our tradition of hanging our with some of our favorite people for the holiday. I am pretty sure we will never find friends like the Buhlers and Barlows again. I love you guys!! We had a BBQ at Spenser and Laura's place, the kids played outside and we lit some fireworks. Haylie is afraid of everything that is loud so it was surprising that it was Zander cried and not Haylie during the fireworks. The trip was bitter sweet because the reality of the fact that we don't live there anymore really hit me and it made me sad. I have been really blessed to have great friends that are so much fun!

Every Day Life in Price

2009-07-22T21:53:00.008-06:00

We have been slowly been getting used to living in Price. We have met a few new people and found fun things to do around our little apartment to keep us entertained. Zander had some money that he got for his birthday in April that we hadn't gotten around to spending yet. We decided to get a small sandbox that could go on our driveway on the side of the house. He has had a great time playing in it and so has Haylie. He doesn't know how to climb out of it yet so he just sits there and plays and plays and then he says his little word for "all done" when he wants to get out. So cute! I am not a huge fan of the constant layer of grit on the kitchen floor but seeing both of them enjoy it so much it's worth it.

We have been watching the neighborhood rabbits. Most of them are little brown ones but this one is either someone's pet or a domestic one that some one has let loose. It is about twice the size of the little brown ones but it just wonders around.

Sometimes we just hang out in jammies,
or sometimes we let Dad take us for a ride in the bike trailer.
When we really feel crazy we take a swim in our pool! We washed the car in the driveway and the water pooled up on the side of it. It started out as a little wading and ended in this. We felt really classy letting our kids play in muddy water off the car! They were having a ball!

Life is rough when you are the little brother

2009-07-14T20:46:00.004-06:00

Zander is walking now and it has meant a change in the dynamics between him and Haylie. They chase each other around and I am a nervous wreck all day worrying that Zander is going to fall and get hurt. He loves it though and can take a pretty good hit before he starts to cry. Here is one of the hazards of having an older sister. Notice the lovely Disney Princess barrette in his hair.
Zander is now 15 months old and he is becoming more and more like a little boy instead of a baby it seems like as soon as he could stand up from the floor instead of crawling to something to pull up to that he grew up tons. He has been walking for about 3 weeks now. He also is saying lots of words. Some of his favorites are cheese, ball, fish, up, Haylie, dad, mom, stuck, sit, zip, and this morning when I asked Haylie the question I ask every morning, "What should we have for breakfast?", I was surprised when the answer I expected came from the wrong kid. Add cereal to the list! He is getting his own ideas about what he wants to do and when we doesn't get to do them he really can throw a fit. He had some good training from our professional in house fit thrower. He loves to climb the slide that is on Haylie's bed, and uses no caution at all when he gets on top of the bed so I have to either remove the slide or close the door to the room unless I want to stand by the bed all day. Life seems to never be dull with these to kids around. I love them so much, even when I want to scream! Here are some pictures that my niece Janelle took during our reunion in June. It is so nice to have a photographer in the family.

Zander was in serious need of some updated pics for the wall. Haylie claimed she was too busy to have her hair done for the pictures so she missed out.

My Mom and Dad and siblings

Haylie smelling the flowersHaylie and her cousin and good buddy Rylan in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.

Our Humble Abode

2009-07-07T20:32:00.003-06:00

We are renting the end unit of a triplex in Price while we are waiting for our house in Boise to sell. It could be a while but we are hopeful that it won't be long since over half of our belongs are sitting in a storage unit. It is a little weird to go to less than half the space that we had in Boise, but I only have to clean one bathroom instead of three! It is not much but it is nice enough. Here are some pictures of it. I just realized I didn't take a picture of the outside, the kids room or playroom so I will post that later.

Family Room

Our Bedroom...Since that is a futon you can imagine it is rather small. We are getting a bed this weekend now that we can haul it in the truck.

Flattering pictures of the kitchen. Notice the absence of a dishwasher. She was taking the picture!!

The lone bathroom

Sweet Haylie

2009-06-11T22:25:00.004-06:00

These days Haylie is usually a trial of my patience. We don't know any kids in Price yet for her to play with and I overloaded her with buddies during the last few weeks we were in Boise since she went somewhere to play nearly everyday while I packed. So now she wants a playmate every second and she has decided that her best excuse for not obeying is "You know I am just a kid, mom!"
So today she did the sweetest thing and her recent behavior made it even sweeter. I had a bad day today, I was up in the night with Zander, and Dave was in Moab working until 3 in the morning so I had to deal with that alone. I was tired, overwhelmed with everything and just...frustrated. I let a few tears fall and Haylie came up with a doll burp cloth and started wiping my eyes and saying "there is no reason to be sad, do you miss your friends in Boise?" Then she started bringing all kinds of things into my bedroom and set up things for me to do or look at to make me happy. She had a book I am reading, my volleyball, a baby toy for music to listen to, a baby picture of her, a little family picture, some stuffed animals, and infant tylenol in case I started to feel sick. Then she said, "you can take a nap or have an early bedtime and use all of these things, ok?" and I said , "who will watch Zander?" and she said, "I'll watch him" then she pushed me in the room and shut the door. I could hear her close the bathroom door so Zander couldn't get in there and unroll the toilet paper and then she followed him around for a few minutes until I decided I better resume my parenting role.
What a sweet little girl I have. I know that it must be challenging for her to adjust to this new place, but she was so thoughtful. Each thing that she brought in was so carefully thought out. I will have a huge mess to clean off the bed before I go to sleep tonight but it will definitely be worth it. I even took her for some ice cream tonight. Can you believe there is a Cold Stone Creamery in Price, UT?

It is not the end of the world...I think I can see it though.

2009-06-04T15:35:00.007-06:00

We made it to Price, Utah. The town is not as bad as I thought it would be. Trying to fit our belongings into less than half the house that we had in Boise is frustrating but I am working on it. I guess I was too busy packing in Boise to even think about leaving but the night we got here the reality of the situation really hit me. I absolutely LOVED everything about living in Boise and all of the sudden it was gone. I was beginning to think that I just couldn't do it and then, I was reminded that the Lord will carry our burdens for us. I prayed that I would be able to deal with all of the emotions I was feeling and have a positive attitude. Just like that I felt the strength I needed to get me through that day. The hymn Count Your Blessings came to my mind and I have tried to remember those words when I have felt like my situation is completely horrible. There are many challenges to this move but I do have much to be grateful for. I have to work to find some silver lining as I am cramming our belongings in to every space I can find and hand washing the dishes since we have no dishwasher here. One day at a time, sometimes that is all you can do. I am sure someday we will look back and say"remember that rental we had when we moved to Price?" I guess I should just work on making some fun memories! I will post some pictures once we get all the boxes out of the way to take them.

Haircuts and Moving

2009-05-23T22:58:00.004-06:00

Notice anything different about Dave?? He shaved his goatee for the first time in 10 years!! The look on his face in this picture says how he feels about it. He can't wait for it to grow back, and now, three days later he is convinced that the hair on his chin and lip is the slowest growing hair on his whole body. I had never seen him without it so it was kind of fun. He just hopes it will be back in place before he starts his new job in a couple of weeks. Can you see the new bathtub in the background? I will post more pictures of that later.

Haylie also has a new look. She got her haircut last Saturday. She kept chewing on her hair so she decided to get it cut rather than having to have pony tails every day. I think it turned out really cute. Especially if she will let me curl it.

As you can see from the stuff in the background, we are in the middle of the tiresome job of packing for our move to Price, Utah. It is not the most exciting place in the world to be moving, but I know that we are supposed to be there. I had my denial stage when I was sure something would work out for us to stay in Boise. I have finally accepted that my plan is not always what Heavenly Father wants for me so I might as well stop fighting it and start trying to look forward to it. Dave will be working for Emory Telcom as a Network Technician. He is excited for the job. I am excited to downsize some of the junk we have.

I have to say though that leaving Boise will be a tough thing to do. What a great time I have had here. Thank you to all the wonderful people I have met here. Your friendship and kindness have meant so much to me. I almost can't bear the thought of leaving my big sister here. We have grown so close again over the past year. Thanks for everything Alyson. I love you. Luckily the miracle of the internet makes it possible for me keep up with what you all are up to as I continue to stalk blogs and read facebook status updates!

Resourceful

2009-04-29T21:08:00.006-06:00

What a resourceful daughter I have! She cracked me up tonight when she came up with this one. Dave has been doing some major renovations in our master bathroom. The tile job around our tub in there was hideous, and the space for the tub was too small but originally they squeezed it in. So Dave moved a wall 5 inches and is going to redo the whole tub. Right now it is a complete mess as the pictures prove.
But, anyway, we have told Haylie she can't go in that bathroom without shoes on because there is insulation and such on the floor. Tonight both Dave and I were in there, I was going to help him move the tub. All of the sudden the door opens and in walks Haylie with a doll sleeper (like a little bunting) on one foot and the shoe pictured below on the the other foot...the wrong foot I might add. She couldn't find the other shoe so she improvised! I wish I had taken the picture while she still had it on. It was so funny. Then, when I went out into the other room, there was the other shoe. She probably had to search longer for that bunting than she would have for the shoe. You gotta love three year olds! Hopefully not too much longer and I can post pictures of the completed bathroom!

By the way... thanks for the doll sleeper, mom! Do you recognize it as the one you made for my cabbage patch kid when I was little?

One year old!

2009-04-18T12:45:00.003-06:00

These are some shots from last Friday on Zander's first birthday. We had a small celebration but it was fun. Haylie was dissappointed that we all didn't get to eat cake with our hands. Somewhere along the line she had the impression that we were all going to eat like a one year old baby. I am amazed at how fast time flies as you get older. There is no way that a year has passed already! We have had such a great time with Zander in our home. He is still laid back, but is getting more and more adventurous. I feel like I am missing everything while I am away at school. This week he has started sitting up from a crawling position. That is my favorite thing for babies this age to do. I think it is so cute for some reason. So when I got home and noticed he was doing it Dave was like, "Oh, yeah, he has been doing that, and he also went all the way up the stairs on his own today!" What?!? I am missing everything!
Here are some of things about Zander. He weighs 20 lbs 8 oz. He has 5 teeth. He doesn't eat baby food anymore, although sometimes you can trick him if you take it out of the jar. He loves to cruise around in his walker. His favorite game to play is to throw a ball and then crawl after it and throw it again. He is pulling up to things and thinks it is hilarious when he does it in his crib when we lay him down. He is growing up so fast, and Haylie is starting to enjoy playing with him too. They entertain each other quite a bit. I am blessed to be their mom. The teaching job that I have has reminded me how lucky I have been to take care of them every day and I had been taking that for granted. What a wake up call!! I hope that when Dave is back at work and I am back at home when I am feeling the stay at home mom blues I can remember the way my heart aches everyday when I walk out the door to go to work and count my blessings!

Justice was served, and I still got ready to teach!

2009-04-05T07:08:00.005-06:00

Last week was a very interesting week for me. As luck would have it, I was summoned to jury duty and when I called to see if my number had to report, of course it did on Monday, the first day I was supposed to be reporting to the school that I am teaching at. I went to the courthouse, kind of excited and curious. I have been summoned several times before, but never have been selected for a jury. Well Monday, I got my chance. Fortunately, I was selected for a one day trial so we heard the evidence, deliberated, and the verdict was read right at 5:00. Here is some advice. If you are selling prescription drugs, make sure the buyer isn't an undercover cop! There isn't much of a defense for you in court.

So, my civic duty fulfilled, on Tuesday I headed out to Caldwell to tackle my new classroom. I am very excited because, the last classroom I had was in a school that I think should have been condemned. I had mice in the closet there and everything was just yucky. This time, the school is only 5 years old, so all of the furniture was functioning and clean and I didn't find any signs of mice. I didn't even get the willies when I ate my lunch in the room! I used Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to set everything up and write some lesson plans, then since it was parent/teacher conferences for the other teachers on Friday I got to spend some time with Dave and the kids. I sure miss those little guys that I am so used to caring for day in and day out. Dave is doing a wonderful job as Mr. Mom. It will be a nice chance for us to appreciate each other and our roles in the family. I just had to laugh when Dave was complaining that the family room was all clean once that day as he was looking around at the toys and books and everything strewn about. I don't know how many times I have said that exact same thing!

I will meet my new students tomorrow, I am excited. I think it will be a good experience, and help me to keep my teaching skills fresh. Even if they are a handful, it is only for two months, I can handle that!! Here are a few pictures of my new, clean classroom. We will see if I can keep it clean after the students come!

My New Job

2009-03-22T09:41:00.002-06:00

I can't believe how my life has been completely transformed over the past three weeks. I also have learned again that sometimes the plans we have for our lives are not the plans that God has for us. He always provides for us though. After Dave lost his job I applied for a few things that would have helped out but none that I was really excited to do. Then last Saturday my friend Rebecca from my teaching and coaching days in Wilder called me up out of the blue. She is the secretary at Lewis and Clark Elementary in Caldwell now. She told me that the principal was getting desparate for an extended day Kindergarten teacher and she told him that she would call me but didn't think I would want to do it because I was staying home with my kids. Talk about perfect timing! Their possiblities for the job kept falling through and Rebecca thought of me and called a week and a half after Dave got laid off. I am so grateful for this blessing! I am already sad to think of leaving my kiddies here everyday but I know that they have a great daddy who takes great care of them.

So I guess I am back to driving (not quite as far) everyday to get to my full time job and working with a bunch of little Spanish speaking kindergartners. I have a special place in my heart for those little kids already from my teaching time in Wilder. It is only until the end of the school year and then hopefully Dave will have landed a new job and we can get back to normal...whatever that is. I imagine this will be the last time I will have the time to post on my blog for a while between school and Primary and being mommy. I better go dig out all that teaching stuff I have been storing in the attic!

Humbled

2009-03-05T17:35:00.003-07:00

Dave came home from work last Tuesday at about 9:30 am. I was surprised and happy to see him until he told me he had been laid off. What a shock! I couldn't believe it. Over this last week I have really been humbled. It is a reminder that things can happen in the blink of an eye. To not know what is next is a very unsettling feeling, and I feel grateful that we have been fortunate for so long to have good employment. I know Dave can do just about any job he puts his mind to. Hopefully an employer will see the same thing! I am trying to look at the bright side...I got to take Haylie to storytime on Wednesday and Friday at the library because Dave was here for Zander to take a nap. Usually we don't go because it is always right when Zander wants to be asleep.

Dave has applied for every job he can find open, and I have even applied for a few too. We are hoping and praying that he will find something soon. I am grateful for the humbling and for the way it has made Dave and I grow closer. That is one of the best parts of most of the challenges we have faced together. We are headed out to Wyoming today to visit Dave's grandma. Her heart is not doing so well. Dave is really not having a good week. No job and a sick grandma.

On the bright side, Zander is 11 months old today. He can crawl around now and has started thinking about pulling himself up to stuff. We finally had to move the crib down because he was getting up on his knees in there. He loves to throw balls or any small toy really. If it is a ball he will throw it, crawl after it and then throw it again. He usually throws with his left hand...maybe he will take after me!

He finally scoots!

2009-02-11T07:45:00.003-07:00

Zander turned 10 months old yesterday. He is a pretty laid back guy. He finally rolled over just before he turned 9 months and now he has finally figured out how to army crawl and actually moves forward. He could only go in reverse for quite awhile. He thought he was pretty cool yesterday...I had him sitting on the floor in the bedroom while I jumped in the shower. When I opened the shower door after my shower there he was in the bathroom with me. He gave me a big old grin, like "look what I did!" He is getting more and more personality every day. He likes baby food less and less and makes you feel guilty with his stare if you are eating anything and not offering some to him, even if he as food on his high chair tray. He loves to have a blanket by his face when he sleeps. Here are a couple of shots of him sleeping with his blanket. I love his fingers poking through the holes of the yellow blanket.

Where's Zander?

Oh poo...Wal-mart again?

2009-01-22T21:41:00.004-07:00

We have been potty training Haylie since the dawn of time seemingly. She was ready right before Zander was born and we almost had it done and then in the chaos that ensued after, she got off track. We have tried everything I can think of, everything that has been suggested or read. We are finally to the point where she no longer has peeing accidents but pooping is another story. A story that starts last Friday in a time warp I call Wal-mart (how can two hours go by so fast in there?) Anyway, Dave had the day off and Zander was sleeping so Haylie and I went to Wal-mart for some groceries. Of course, she poops in her underwear while we are there. I had no diaper bag or anything (my baby is at home, do I need a diaper bag for a three year old?) Luckily the situation was not too messy. I was able to transfer to the toilet with no mess. We finished the shopping trip and went home.
Now we fast forward to today when I found myself at Wal-mart again. This time with both kids. We are finished shopping and Haylie's favorite thing to do is stop for lunch at the McDonalds there. She had been great in the store so I figured why not? So we are standing there waiting to order and I realize that she has left me another little surprise in the underwear. Maybe that is why she was so good...I had left the diaper bag in the car but since everything went so smoothly on Friday without it I think "I am a pro at this" and head to the bathrooms. I did not take into consideration that fact that there was nowhere to put Zander as I didn't bring his car seat in. So there I was with Zander in one arm and with my other I am, well, I will spare you the details, but you can imagine that it wasn't the no mess incident from Friday. Needless to say Haylie's shot at some McDonalds went out the window...she is just lucky I didn't throw her out with it! Some day maybe she will read this and gain a little more appreciation for me. But for now, I will just keep cleaning poop until that magical day when she realizes how much easier it is to just go in the toilet!

9 months!

2009-01-13T14:30:00.005-07:00

Zander turned 9 months on Saturday. He must have known it was coming up along with his check up at the doctor because he FINALLY started rolling over last week. He is so pleased with himself that when we put him in his crib to sleep he rolls over and laughs. Not just laughs, but cackles. He thinks it is so great that he can see over the bumper of the crib. I am sure it won't be long now before he is scooting all over the house. He is experimenting more and more every day with what he can do. He likes to sit on the floor with a bin of toys and empty it out by frantically waving his hands in the bin. He also thinks it is hilarious when someone folds or waves a blanket in front of him...we can't quite figure this one out.
I took him to the see the doctor yesterday and he checked out pretty good. He hasn't gained much weight since the last check up so we are supposed to work on fattening him up a bit. Haylie got to have her 3 year old check up while were at the doctor's too. I can't believe I have a three year old! I have been thinking I have a 13 year old lately since her new response to anything I say to her is "fine, I don't care" (imagine that in a snotty teenage voice). Where does she learn these things?
She started Sunbeams this year too and so far has done very well. I was afraid that she would want to follow me around instead of staying with her primary class. She is doing great and it almost made me cry to see her in there for the first time. It is kind of fun to be able to plan things for Primary knowing Haylie will now get to take part. Here are pictures of her on her second week of Sunbeams. When you are the Primary President the first week of the new year is WAY to busy to remember to take pictures.

Christmas Elves

2008-12-24T06:58:00.007-07:00

Dave and I have been little Christmas elves over the past several days working on our Christmas gifts for Haylie. When I was a little girl my mom made my sister and I this dollhouse. She has kept it around and we brought it home from her house when we were there for Thanksgiving. I spent hours playing in front of it as a kid and now I will get to give it to Haylie for Christmas. Of course it needed some major work to bring it into this decade and that is what I have been working on every chance I get for the past 3 weeks. It has been really fun to redecorate, but I am glad that it is almost finished. I have a few curtains to make today, and finish up a few pieces of furniture but otherwise it is ready for Christmas Morning.

Here is what the house looked like when I got it. It brought back a lot of memories to see it. Thanks mom for making a great house, and for keeping it around for me.

And here is the newly remodeled house!

I got carpet samples from Nampa Floors and Interior, the wall paper I found at Lowes for super cheap. (I think they must be discontinuing wallpaper sales.) Dave helped by cutting the wood for the furniture. I will post some more pictures when I finish the curtains and the rest of the furniture.

While I have been out in the garage, Dave has been at the sewing machine creating his vision of a cape for our in-house superhero, Superfast! Haylie made up her own super hero name a few months back and now she will have a costume! She runs around saying, "I'm Superfast...I can do anything!!" She will love this. Now we have set the bar high with special homemade gifts. I don't know how long we can keep this up!
Merry Christmas!!!

8 months

2008-12-10T20:59:00.005-07:00

Zander is 8 months old today. It doesn't seem possible! He should still be a newborn! I get sad sometimes thinking about how fast both him and Haylie are growing up. Dave always reminds me that our job is not to keep them little, but to teach them and and help them return to Heavenly Father. I will just have to try to enjoy this time to the fullest. Anyway, Zander is such a sweet little boy. He LOVES to jump in the jumparoo. We are a little worried that the springs will give out because he gets so crazy in that thing. He jumps clean out of the seat sometimes. He also loves Haylie and laughs at just about everything she does...including when she cries (she really loves that).
The silly boy still doesn't roll over and I think it is about to drive Dave crazy. It does make it easy to watch him because he doesn't go anywhere, but we are getting anxious for him to to something else. He is starting to get a little bored with his current tricks. He loves to eat baby food, and we are getting a little more adventurous with table food. The pictures here are just some random shots that were taken over Thanksgiving.

Haylie's 3rd Birthday

2008-12-09T11:45:00.006-07:00

Haylie had her 3rd birthday on December 1st. She ended up having three different celebrations for it too. I guess one per year right? First she had a party with my family while we were at my parent's house for Thanksgiving. The thing about Haylie is that she LOVES the idea of a party. She loves invitations, balloons, party hats, and cake...although she usually doesn't eat the cake. We sent invitations to all her aunts, uncles and cousins, and of course to grandma and grandpa. We opened presents, then sang and ate cupcakes and ice cream. She definitely got spoiled with lots of nice gifts for her birthday.

Her next celebration was on her actual birthday when Dave and I took her and Zander for pizza at Primos and then she opened one more present from us...a doctor's kit which she promptly used to examine Zander and me.

Note the band aid...and ignore the disaster area that we call our family room!

Haylie wanted a princess party with her friends when she found out that they wouldn't be at the party with her relatives so we invited some friends over last Thursday for a little party complete with princess cake. This was much easier to make than I expected it to be. I took pictures during that process that I will have to post later.

Haylie and Daddy

2008-12-04T15:49:00.002-07:00

Haylie and Dave have made up tons of different games that they play together. Usually they don't involve any toys, just our living room pillows and a Dad that can be a horse, a slide, a cave, or a wrestler. Here are some pictures I took after Dave started out being a slide and then Haylie decided to put him to bed. It is so fun to watch them play together!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T21:26:00.002-07:00

We are preparing to leave tomorrow for Thanksgiving to visit my family in Perry, Utah. We all get together there ever other year so here goes another big family get together! It should be pretty fun. My brothers and sister are some of my best friends so it is good to get to see everyone. My parents moved there about 5 years ago from Wyoming to retire and be more centrally located to all of us so it makes trips to Grandma and Grandpa's house pretty easy at least on this side of the family.
I am grateful this year for happiness. There are frustrating and disappointing moments in my life but for the most part I feel happy being a mom to my two little cutie pies and a wife to a very resourceful and handy man. He is so handy, in fact, he recently did some computer upgrades and now it takes some maneuvering to upload pictures to my blog and I am too impatient right now to figure it out. Hopefully I can get some more up soon! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween

2008-11-05T14:53:00.004-07:00

Here is a rundown of our Halloween Festivities...

We found out that even though Zander has no interest in rolling over he does have quite a talent for pumpkin carving! Zander and Dave both went as cows and I went as a cowgirl, but Haylie went outside our little theme. She had her heart set on being a butterfly.

We went to our ward Trunk or Treat and Chili feed. I was hard pressed to get Haylie to turn around for a picture...she was too busy getting the candy. She was really excited to go trick or treating. Haylie has been coming up with all kinds of Halloween related games ever since we got the Halloween stuff out at the beginning of October. From ghost hunting to riding on broomsticks, to trick or treating for pretend candy...we have done it all. I packed up the Halloween stuff today. I have to say I am not sorry to see it go. Now it will be on to imaginary Christmas games.

Here is Zander showing off his sitting skills. He is pretty steady at this point although he thinks it is funny to tip over as long as he lands on his back. He doesn't like to be on his stomach at all. That's part of the reason he won't roll over I guess. He also has a tooth on his bottom left. The time has just flown by since he has been born. It is hard to believe that he is almost 7 months old. He is a happy baby and has made our lives even better.

Haircut

2008-10-29T22:44:00.003-06:00

I took Haylie to Fantastic Sam's to get her first haircut not given by me. She didn't want to lean back to get her hair washed, but she didn't start crying until they took her back to the chair.

I had to bribe her with ice cream to stop crying. Amazing how she turned it off at the thought of a treat!

Here is the end result. I can't believe how much older she looks with it!! She still thought we should put some ponytails in this morning. I am excited because I don't have to do to much to it to make it look cute.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-29T22:29:00.004-06:00

Last Monday we went to Linder Farms for Family Home Evening. We had never been before so we weren't sure what to expect. We ended up having a great time but we used all our tokens before we got to the petting zoo and stuff. We had fun anyway, but forgot our camera so these pictures were taken with Dave's phone. Haylie stayed on the top of the inflatable slide for about 10 minutes until some kid grabbed her around the waist and finally pulled her down. She has become such a chicken about slides!

Funny Kids

2008-10-25T16:24:00.003-06:00

It is so great to be a mom to a hilarious almost 3 year old. She makes me laugh almost everyday with the funny things she says and the conclusions she makes about the world from her limited experience. On Thursday, I had Zander sitting up on the floor. He can pretty much sit there by himself but is still a little wobbly. So I was helping Haylie do a puzzle while he was sitting there playing with a toy and the he fell backwards and bonked his head on the floor. I picked him up and was comforting him. Haylie said, "It's okay mom, it will still work. His head will still work." It doesn't sound as funny when I tell it but it cracked me up! We are just glad that Zander is sitting up since he still thinks rolling over is overrated.

Summer of Fun

2008-10-10T21:56:00.003-06:00

Dave suggested I post some of the fun things we got to do this past summer. His job at URS gives him every other Friday off so we got to do some fun things especially since he doesn't have to be on call anymore like he was when he worked at HP.

In June we went to Utah for my family's reunion. We spent one of the days at Lagoon, and the other at my mom and dad's house doing all kinds of things including a pirate treasure hunt. I realize that there are not any pictures of Zander during these events. He was in fact there but he was too busy eating, sleeping and pooping at this point of his life to ride the rides at Lagoon or be bothered with a treasure hunt!

Haylie flying her airplane. She kept pushing her little controller back and forth, making her plane go up and down about twice as fast as anyone else on the ride.
Haylie and I on the Dragon roller coaster. We are in the very back.
Uncle J.D. as the pirate for the Treasure Hunt at Grandma's house.
Pirate Haylie!!
Haylie modeling the pirate booty...fancy dress up shoes! Too bad her Fred Flintstone feet don't even begin to fit in those skinny little things!

Miracle

2008-09-27T22:37:00.003-06:00

I found out today that a pregnant friend of mine had her water break only 23 weeks along. While I don't yet know what the outcome will be I am praying for her and her family. At the same time I am realizing how much I take for granted the miracle of giving birth to two healthy babies. I was blessed to have relatively easy pregnancies, easy deliveries, and healthy babies. I will try to remember when I don't think I have any patience left to hug those little guys and remember whose children they really are and how blessed I am to be their mother.

Zander David

2008-09-23T13:36:00.004-06:00

Welcome to the World!

Zander in his first professional pictures. He was 4 months old.

Zander and his cousin Tayson. I think Zander was about 3 months in this pic and Tayson was 4 months.

Zander is 5 months old and is pretty laid back. He is happy almost all the time and has been sleeping through the night since he was about 2 months old. He doesn't roll over yet, he just seems content to lay on his back and watch the world go by. His favorite thing to watch is Haylie and her endless energy. When he has free time he like to squawk happily at the top of his lungs, suck his thumb, and grab his foot and suck his big toe or the thumb of the hand holding the foot.

Haylie Ann

2008-09-23T09:10:00.008-06:00

I decided I would start out with a little bit about each of my cute little ones. Haylie will be 3 in December. She is super happy most of the time and has an extremely vivid imagination. This means that one of Zander's blue blankets is a waterfall down the stairs, every toy we own must be rescued from a cage on a regular basis, and we take trips to the beach almost every day. I think she must watch too much TV because she has only been to the beach once and she was only 6 months old at the time. Haylie knows lots of songs but her favorites are the ABC song and I Am A Child of God. As I am writing this she is singing the Wonder Pets theme song and saving her bath toys. Our latest challenge is potty training. I shouldn't say latest because we have been working on it since about 3 weeks before Zander was born. She decided to revolt after two weeks of underwear and now I am back to buying diapers! I guess it will all come in time, but frankly, I am tired of poop!! It will make good stories for her teenage years. Here are some pictures of our Sweet Haylie Ann.

Haylie loves popcorn! I bought this huge bag for our primary talent show and she loved to give it hugs.

Testing out daddy's motorcycle boots

Haylie's "safari hat" aka underwear! Too bad she doen't use them for the right purpose!

She is such a big girl!!

I joined the crowd!!

2008-09-21T15:07:00.000-06:00

I have been a closet blog reader for the past couple of weeks so I figured I might as well join just about everyone I know and start my own blog. I can't believe that with Dave's love of technology we haven't started one before. Of course, Dave is always on his motorcycle forum Boiseriders.net that he created so he doesn't have time to blog I guess.