Andrew and Melissa Hatch Family

One Crazy Year

2012-01-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

Andrew and I were talking the other day about how we couldn't believe Asher is already a year old. Then we started naming all the things that have happened since we welcomed Asher into our family. It started right after he was born with his seeming inability to sleep for longer than an hour for the first 6 + months of his life. You may think I am over exaggerating. I'm not. To me it was a miracle that I could even get through the day every day. I have never been so incredibly tired, spent, exhausted...you name it. Oh, the hopelessness I felt. I read all the books, tried all the tips. Nothing helped. Just thinking about it even now makes me want to cry. Well, enough said. I am happy to report that he is now only waking up 2 times a night on average. My other boys were sleeping through the night at this point, but with him, I will take what I can get.
Okay, so we were super sleep deprived starting off the beginning of the year. Then Andrew started working like a madman to finish up his dissertation and all his PhD work. He officially graduated in August but worked up to the day we moved to a new state in September. Literally, he worked on the day we packed up the moving truck. Then started his new job in Arizona almost immediately. I started homeschooling the boys for the first time which is an adventure in and of itself. And even though we have only been settled in this house for about 4 months, we just recently found out that an offer we put in on a house has been accepted and we are on our way to becoming first time home buyers! Which means yet another move is in the very near future. We have had quite the eventful year, and we are so glad that Asher was here with us to enjoy the ride.

So, in case you haven't guessed, all these pictures are of our sweet little Asher on his first birthday!

It really goes without saying that I love, love, love this boy. He has stolen my heart, with his sweet kisses, his super cheesy grin, his love for his brothers, his happy disposition, his beautiful blue eyes, and his cute love handles. He truly has a special spirit about him. It's funny, because when I got pregnant I really wanted to have a girl, but now that he is here I would not change a thing. I actually love that we have 4 boys. When people stop me in the grocery store and say, "Oh, wow! All boys, huh?" I am proud to say, "That's right!" I look forward to so many adventures with my house full of boys while still enjoying the time I have with them now. Heavenly Father really did know what he was doing when he sent Asher to our family, and I am grateful for it every day.

Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-11T21:37:00.001-08:00

I had to start off with the above picture because this pretty much sums up how pleasant taking family pictures is with little kids. Parker is smiling though, as always. He is such a happy kid. :)
We decided last minute to get some family pictures. People have been asking for updated pictures and we haven't had any family pictures taken in three years, and of course that was before we had Asher, so we thought it was time. We were rushing around the house on Saturday trying to scrounge up some outfits that we thought might work and get the boys dressed and ready before the sun went down. Of course, if I was prepared I would have bought new outfits for the everybody, given all the boys much needed haircuts and had them dressed and ready in plenty of time. But that is not how things worked out. All things considered though, I think we got some decent shots.

Glen Canyon

2011-12-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

Andrew and I have lived in three different places outside of Utah since we were married, and have driven to Utah from all of them. On our drive home to Arizona after Thanksgiving last week we decided this drive is by far the prettiest. What was the ugliest you ask? The drive from Northern California to Utah. Hands down. For those of you who have driven that route, you know what I mean. Okay, Okay, I must admit there are a few pretty parts once you get into California, but the whole drive before that is harsh.

Graham Cracker Houses

2011-12-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

After making these, Parker said to me, "Will you please take a picture of our houses and put them on the computer so our Grandma's can see?"
So, by request, here are their beautiful creations.
The above house is Carter's.

Parker's

Tristan's

And Asher's (he had a little help with his).

Since I didn't get a picture of Asher with his house I thought I would throw one in of him by himself. He is a cutie. Love that boy!

FHE at the Mesa Temple

2011-12-04T14:51:00.001-08:00

Last week we took the kids to see the lights at the Mesa temple. I must say I was pleasantly surprised at what a good job they do. I mean it's no temple square, but they have a decent sized visitors center and they have a ton of lights and displays to look at. And the best part is you don't freeze like you do in Salt Lake! We were in light jackets and we were perfectly warm.

I can never get Tristan to look at the camera. It drives me crazy. This was the closest I got.

Our House

2011-10-14T12:43:00.001-07:00

I had originally titled this blog post "Adventures in Arizona" but the whole time I was uploading the pictures I was singing the song "Our house, in the middle of our street..." So I decided to go with that. ;) As you might have guessed the above picture is a picture of.........our house.
Below are a few pictures of the inside. My favorite part of the house is the master bathroom complete with walk in closet, which means our closet isn't so full that we can't shut the door anymore. Yay! Also, after doing laundry at a community laundry room for almost our entire married lives it probably comes as no surprise that the laundry room is another favorite.

What amazed me was that we went from a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment to a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house with a garage and the house was still relatively full. How in the world did we fit it all into that small apartment?! All I have to say is that there was no space unused. Every corner, under every bed was as full as it could be. It is so nice being in a place where we can fit all of our stuff without tripping over each other.

One small little blessing, our check engine light kept coming on in our van and we could not figure out what the problem was. To make matters worse the registration was expired, so we were basically driving it around illegally. After a ton of stress it miraculously turned off and I took it straight away to get the emissions done, and somehow it passed! Funny enough on the way home, not even two minutes after I left the emissions place, it turned back on again. So we still have to fix it, but at least we can drive our car around legally now!

About two days after we moved here Asher learned to crawl. As you can see he has wasted no time and is now into everything, the little cutie.

What great little window washers we have.

Don't get me wrong, life isn't all rainbows and sunshine now that we are in a house. It has been a bit a of an adjustment for all of us. Andrew went to work on his first day sick as a dog with some flu thing we all got just days after moving here. We still only have one car that Andrew takes to work all day, and while he is gone the boys and I are trying to get to know people and make new friends, which is hard sometimes. We are also short one bed and a dresser for Tristan (who is sleeping with Carter for the time being), a dresser for Asher and a couch for our living room. Those things will come eventually and we are learning to be grateful for what we have been given. We truly are very richly blessed!

Done!

2011-09-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

After all of Andrew's hard work he is now officially finished with school! I really can't believe it. Finishing his PhD was something that always seemed so far away, but looking back now it seems like the last five years have zoomed by. I am so proud of him, he has worked so hard for this and although at times I know he wanted to quit, he kept at it until the end. Good job Dr. Andrew Hatch, we love you so much!!

So what now? Well, Andrew has accepted a job at ASU in Tempe, AZ and we are moving at the end of the month!!! We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives!

Tristan Turns 3!

2011-09-04T18:11:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Tristan's 3rd birthday last month. We did a combined party with the Romney's along with a lot of our friends and neighbors. It was a fun BBQ and water balloon fight, I really think Tristan had a good time. Thanks Romney family!
I tried to upload the video of us singing happy birthday to him but I couldn't get it to work, so you will just have to settle with a picture of his Captain America cake.

Goodbye to Good Friends

2011-08-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Being in student housing it is kind of inevitable that you will make great friends only to have to part ways in a few years time. We have already had to say goodbye to some great families and this summer was no exception. Most of the people we have come to know really well have moved away over the last few months. I really wish I had taken the time to get pictures with them but this is really the only picture I got. I worked with two of these lovely ladies and we became really close over the years. Both of these girls, plus the six or seven other families that moved away this summer will be missed!

2011-08-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like this sometimes? I know I do.

6 months!

2011-08-07T20:21:00.001-07:00

Sea Life

2011-07-16T09:24:00.001-07:00

(Andrew took the above picture in Oceanside, I think it's beautiful!)

I must admit, spending a day at the beach is not really my idea of fun. I know that many of you would strongly disagree with me, but it's true. I don't like the the sand that gets everywhere, the planning and the hauling of all the beach toys, blankets, snacks, umbrellas, towels, boogie boards, children and whatever else back and forth to and from the car. I do however love sea life. Seeing a dolphin or a seal at the beach makes the whole trip worth it, and since we will most likely be moving in the near future we have tried to take some extra time to enjoy the ocean.

While we were sitting and waiting for the dolphin show at Sea World, Parker turns to me and said, "Mom, my eyes are really bright right now, would it be okay if I may please borrow your glasses for a minute?" So cute.

Aunt Jennifer

Grandma and Grandpa Albertson were able to join us for a day at Sea World. We were super happy they came, it was a great day.

Asher enjoying a little ocean breeze.

He caught a fish!

What have we been up to?

2011-05-30T08:05:00.001-07:00

It has been months since we have posted, so here are a few updates.
This picture was taken today of our cute, chubby little Asher, he is getting so big. He is 4 months today. During the day he is a very pleasant baby that loves smiling and chatting with his brothers and reaching out and grabbing things. Night time is still a big struggle, we are desperately trying to get him to sleep. He usually wakes up 6 to 7 times a night and sometimes it takes me an hour or so to get him back to sleep.

Here is Tristan loving on Asher. He is surprisingly very sweet with his little brother. He is also trying to grow up big just like his big brothers. He is their little pantomime. He is constantly repeating everything they say and do. He also loves animals and bugs. He will sit forever and watch a spider or ants crawling on the sidewalk, and is always pretending to be some kind of animal. Some of his favorites imitations include a dog, a horse or a frog.

Here is our latest fire station tour. Tristan LOVED the fire trucks, just like any little boy.

This is Parker on April Fools Day. For dinner we did "cupcakes" (meatloaf with mashed potato icing) and for dessert we did "mashed potatoes with carrots and corn" (ice cream with caramel sauce and a side of yellow and orange candy). The boys laughed forever about our backwards dinner and still talk about it. They are so funny. Parker is also growing so fast. He will be starting kindergarten after the summer and I know I will miss him very much, he has always been my little buddy. He is very good at reading and loves to play games on the computer, he would play all day long if we would let him.
Although all the boys really love Asher, Parker is really the most doting on him. I know I can always count on Parker to keep Asher entertained, and Asher's face lights up any time Parker is around.

This is us at Carona del Mar on family night. Although we just went to look at the water, Carter walked back to the car soaked from head to toe. Carter loves playing at the beach. He also loves all things Star Wars. I am not really sure how his obsession started but he is a Star Wars fanatic! He loves reading books about Star Wars, he loves drawing pictures of Star Wars characters, playing with his Star Wars legos and going outside so he can play Star Wars with his friends.

Andrew has been working like a madman, he recently got a paper accepted for publication. Yay! He is now almost done with his second and third paper and then on to his dissertation! He is planning on defending in August and then who knows where life will take us. Stay tuned for more updates.

As for me, I am still adjusting to life with four kids. This has been the biggest adjustment so far, I think it has been hard because I am just so very tired from staying up with Asher the night before. But four months later I can now say I feel like life is returning to normal somewhat. I only have one more month of work until I am done and although I know I will miss the job and have greatly appreciated the extra income, I am anxious to focus more of my time and energy to my family.

And last but not least this is a picture of Parker's last day of preschool. He has loved having friends over for preschool and now it's on the next phase of life.

Do children make "you" happy?

2011-03-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

I recently read this article in Deseret News and I quite enjoyed it, see what you think.

Blessing Day

2011-03-15T20:21:00.001-07:00

Isn't he beautiful?

When we were in Utah a few weeks ago we were able to bless Asher. It was so nice to be surrounded by family for this blessed occasion and we are grateful for all those who were able to be there. I really loved the blessing Andrew gave Asher and thought there was a wonderful spirit there. Asher truly is a special son of our Heavenly Father and I could feel His love for him.

I feel really bad. We spent a ton of time taking pictures with my family and by the time we were done every one was ready to eat. So we thought we would try and take pictures with Andrew's family after dinner but half of Andrew's family was gone by the time we thought about it again. I am sad we missed out on the opportunity to take pictures with them considering a lot of Andrew's siblings were there.

Asher Love

2011-02-21T08:38:00.001-08:00

I already uploaded most of these pictures on facebook but I realized that some of you don't follow facebook much so I posted them here as well.

A big THANKS to all of you that helped us out when Asher was born. Including Andrew's mom who put up with us for two whole weeks! My mom, dad and sister who were able to come for a week and help, and for all those who have brought us meals or treats or have taken the kids so we could have a little break. We have felt so very blessed over the past few weeks to have such great family and friends. We love you all!

Birth Story

2011-02-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

We are sitting in the hospital right now waiting to be discharged and so I thought I would take some time to tell the story of how baby Asher was born. Sunday morning I woke up around 6 am with contractions around 15 to 20 minutes apart, but I was not alarmed because I had been having contractions just about every night for a week. It was my last day being on call for the month and I had a few calls to take care of in the morning and continued to notice contractions but was not hopeful that it was the real thing. At 1:00 we were off to church, during sacrament meeting my contractions were coming about every 6-8 minutes and I told Andrew we should probably leave after sacrament and not stay for the other meetings. I then remembered that Parker had the scripture and prayer in Primary and knew he would be sad if he missed it so we decided to stay for that. After sacrament my contractions slowed down again so we decided to stay for the rest of the meetings. I was really feeling quite strong contractions during the last hour of church and about 10 minutes before church was out I was really ready to leave. We rushed to get the kids after class and tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. I sure do hope that I didn't offend anyone during church who tried talking to me, I really wasn't myself during those three hours!
We ran home and finished packing our hospital bag and called the doctor, then we said goodbye to the boys. Luckily Andrew's mom had flown in that Wednesday before and was there to stay with them while we were gone. My contractions were so strong and frequent during the ride to the hospital I thought we would be having this baby sooner rather than later. Little did I know what a "strong" contraction felt like....but I would soon find out. When I checked into the hospital around 5:30pm I was dilated to a 5. Oh, how I thought it would be more. My friend and doula, Bridget arrived at the hospital about 20 minutes after us and was very helpful all throughout my labor, both Andrew and I were very glad to have her there. Thanks Bridget!! The doctor came in around 8:00pm and at that point my contractions were very strong but still manageable, he checked me and I was very disappointed to hear that I was only a 6. All that time and pain and I had only dilated 1 cm! The doctor then broke my water and my contractions got to where I felt I could no longer calmly manage them and I was feeling discouraged that the baby would not come for hours yet. At that point I told Andrew that I wanted an epidural and that I didn't want him to argue with me about it.....at all. He told me that they were going to get me an epidural and I think that the thought that I would not be in pain much longer helped me to calm down. Shortly after that I started feeling a lot of pressure and the urge to push. When I felt the pressure I knew the baby was coming soon and that I could deliver this baby without an epidural. They checked me and I was at a 9 and fully effaced. They had the doctor come in and they were getting ready for the baby to come. Shortly after they came in I told them I needed to push and that I was pushing. The doctor asked my not to push because he was still gowning up. I guess I didn't care because I was pushing anyway! The baby's head came out with one push just as the doctor was slipping on his gloves and then one more push and he was born at 8:51pm! I have to say there is nothing like holding your newborn baby in your arms. They are so precious.

So although I was asking for an epidural I still delivered the baby all natural as planned!! Shortly after delivery I was asked if I would do it naturally again and I was doubtful, but the longer it has been since the delivery the more I think I would probably do it again. My recovery seems to be so much better than with any of my other births which I don't know if I can credit to a natural birth but it has still been nice. :)
We are so happy to welcome baby Asher into our family!

Welcome Baby Asher

2011-01-31T14:26:00.000-08:00

We just had our fourth beautiful baby boy. Here are some fun pictures

Melissa's cute belly just before delivery

Our beautiful son, Asher!
7 lbs 13 oz, 19 inches long.

Cute little grunts!

Look at all that hair!

Religious Americans as Neighbors: Insights from American Grace

2011-01-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

Religious Americans as Neighbors: Insights from American Grace

We found this to be an informative and interesting summary of a recent landmark study about religion in America, titled "American Grace".We hope you enjoy reading it, it includes additional links for more details and information.

One More Month!

2011-01-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to give an update about my pregnancy but I thought I would do a little blurb about our Christmas. As we do every Christmas we spent our Christmas in Utah. It was so great to see family and we really had a wonderful time. The boys seemed so grateful for every present they received and were so happy even to open a pair of socks. They were very cute. Andrew got me a new camera which I love! I have wanted a smaller camera for years and I am already taking many more pictures than I did with our big bulky camera.

The below pictures were taken yesterday. I am a little over 35 weeks. I am due February 8th so I have one more month tomorrow! This pregnancy has gone by pretty fast and hasn't been too bad. No major complaints. Andrew's mom will be coming at the end of the month and my hope is I will make it that long because otherwise we have no babysitter, which is a little stressful, but I am trying to stay positive and hope I don't go into labor early!

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup

2010-11-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from the sisters cafe. There are so many great recipes on their blog, I have made multiple things from their site and have never been disappointed. I made these weeks ago and am still thinking about them, and I am sure a few of you have heard me talk about how good they were. So here's your chance to try them out for yourself!

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 c. flour
3 Tbs. brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
1 c. pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 Tbs vinegar
2 Tbs oil

In one bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs, oil and vinegar. Combine dry ingredients separately and them stir into pumpkin mixture just until combined. Heat your pan or griddle (lightly butter or oil if it is not seasoned), using about 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot with apple cider syrup.

Apple Cider Syrup
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbs. corn starch
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 c. apple cider
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. butter

Mix sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg well. Add apple cider and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, use within a week or two.

Halloween

2010-11-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

The trunk or treat is always the highlight of our Halloween festivities, especially this year when the kids weren't able to go trick-or-treating because of the holiday being on a Sunday.

Tristan was so entranced by all of the decorated cars. He would stop at one that was all decked out and stare at it forever and talk to the people about how cool it was. He kept saying, "wow, that's pretty cool!" He loved it.

The above two pictures are from our Hatch family Halloween Party, it is really fun just to celebrate together as a family.

While Andrew was in the Netherlands in the beginning of October my mother-in-law came to stay with us. She was nice enough to help me make Carter and Parker's costumes this year. Parker was a vampire and Carter wanted to be a king. They would not have turned out nearly as well if she wasn't here to help. Thanks again, Colleen!

I wish we could have gotten Tristan to dress up. He absolutely refused to wear any costume we put on him and I had 4 for him to choose from. He is one stubborn boy. In this picture he is wearing the vest to his cowboy costume and even that was a struggle to get him to wear.

Birthdays at a glance

2010-11-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that Tristan's and Parker's birthday are 3 months apart and I am just getting around to blogging about it. For Parker's birthday I let him pick what he wanted to eat for every meal, and he told me he wanted bacon and sausage for every meal. That boy loves meat. I talked him into just having it for breakfast. Luckily he agreed.

I am still getting used to the fact that he is 5 years old already! Happy Birthday bud!

Unfortunately we were moving on the day of Tristan's birthday and by the time we got around to celebrating it I was super tired. So Tristan's birthday was very simple, luckily he didn't seem to mind :)

He is such a cute boy. We love having him in our family!

Happy Halloween

2010-10-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Utah in pictures

2010-10-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

I had to throw this picture in. Andrew holding a baby girl is not something you are likely to see again for some time. :)

Lounging out.

Here is the famous Hatch family candy launcher. I actually think this is a new and improved model. Those Hatch boys are always thinking of ways to make things bigger and better. Below is the family waiting patiently for candy to rain down from the sky.

Doesn't he look stylin' in his pink and purple jacket?

The boys visiting their Grandpa Hatch

I miss those Utah mountains! This is the view from my grandparents front yard. Right about now I'll bet those mountains are covered with the beautiful colors of fall.

Hanging out with the family

We got the chance to go up to Flaming Gorge with my grandparents while we were in Utah. I went there a lot as a child and going back brought back some very fond memories. I almost forgot how pretty it is there. Above is a picture of the boys chilling in the trailer.

The boys decorated some pine cones for me and since they would not last the trip back to California Andrew took some pretty pictures of them.

Grandma and Grandpa Albertson

As always, we had a ton of fun visiting Utah and I am already counting down the days until we get to visit again over Christmas.

Catching up

2010-10-19T07:48:00.001-07:00

I have been really, really bad about blogging lately. Our desktop is acting up so Andrew downloaded all our pictures to his laptop and for some reason I never think to blog when he is home. A lot has happened over the summer including both Carter and Tristan's birthday, a trip to Utah and us moving to a different apartment because ours was being torn down, and of course us finding out about #4, but we did manage to blog about that. I decided to start with the furthest back. Carter's birthday was in June, he asked for a Speed Racer cake and a pinata. We had a lot of fun making both and I think he had fun on his birthday.

Baby Boy Number 4 and Counting

2010-08-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

We just found out the gender of our baby today, we are happy to announce we are having a fourth boy, can you believe it? Well anyway, we are excited and look forward to having our fourth baby. We originally posted this as a survey to see what people might guess it would be but we couldn't wait to tell everyone.

Here are a few pics.

Graduation

2010-06-10T12:37:00.001-07:00

Sorry to disappoint any of you who thought I might be talking about Andrew's graduation. That is still a little ways away.
This year I did another preschool co-op with some of the mom's in the ward. It was such a great class that both Parker and I enjoyed. The mom's were so creative and Parker loved getting together with his friends every week. At the end of the year we decided to do a short "graduation ceremony" at the park. Thanks Jackie and Von for the diploma's and balloons! They were so cute!Congratulations Parker.....

Brooke....

Millie....

and Blake!

Mmmm....Butter!

2010-06-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

One of Tristan's favorite things to do is get in the fridge. He does it constantly!!! Shortly after him discovering his new trick I started noticing bite marks and chunks missing from almost all our butter sticks. I thought it was pretty gross that Tristan would think to bite straight butter...yuck. Later I was talking to another mom that said kids actually will crave fat when they are not getting enough because it is good for their brain development. Well, the next day I caught him red handed! The picture above is him sitting next to a half eaten stick of butter while trying with all his strength to open a sour cream container. Since then I have noticed him opening the fridge and going straight for the butter before anything else. I already give him whole milk and now he is downing butter sticks, how much fat does one kid need?!? I'll bet this means he'll be really smart.....right?

Introducing....

2010-05-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

I know you have probably all heard of the Cricut. It cuts out all sorts of images from paper. They are really neat and I think it would be great to have. Well, I got an email today introducing the Cricut Cake!

"This easy to use personal electronic cutter precisely cuts frosting sheets, gum paste and more! Cricut cake is so versatile, it's the perfect companion for every occasion in life, including holidays, birthdays, weddings and graduations!"

I believe it, don't you? Especially the part where it says "it's the perfect companion for every occasion in life." Okay, so the promo is super corny but I still want one. I just don't want to shell out the $400 it costs to get it.

Mother's (a sentimental post)

2010-05-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

By the end of every Mother's Day I feel so very grateful for fathers! I have such a sweet husband that takes the time to make sure that I have a nice relaxing day off. He let me sleep in so that he and the kids could make Mother's Day cards for me. He got the kids ready for church, cleaned the house, made dinner, got the kids ready for bed and did it all with a smile on his face. I think Mother's Day is good for him too because he realizes just how much I have to do on a normal day. ;) Thanks for everything, Andrew! I love you!
I am truly grateful for all the mother's in my life and for the good example they are to me, and I would like to say thank you to my wonderful mother for being so great! She has always been my #1 cheerleader and has supported me through thick and thin.
Andrew emailed me this article this morning and I loved reading it. It made me realize how important the role of a mother is and how quickly time passes. We only have a few short years to be home with our children, we need to take advantage of each and every second!
For you young mother's, if you have a few minutes to read this article please read it!

LDS.org - Ensign Article - Daughters of God

I feel so very blessed that I have to opportunity to be a mother. I love my children with all my heart and think they are amazing! I am going to try this year to be a more patient, loving and kind mother. My children deserve it!

Goodbye Mrs. Natalie!

2010-03-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

This is Parker's Mrs Natalie. She has been his preschool teacher every Thursday morning for the past year. Parker loves her and she is so sweet with him! I think he secretly has a little crush on her. He is always writing notes to give to her and he often asks where she is when we are at church (her and her husband are also in our ward). In January we found out that she and her husband are moving to Utah. Parker was so sad, and so were we! They have been such a great family to have in the ward and we will miss them very much. So thank you Mrs Natalie for being such a great teacher to out little Parker and good luck in Utah!

So now that Mrs Natalie is gone I have decided to teach Parker at home, hopefully all will go well. Wish me luck!

Harvard's "Mormonism 101"

2010-02-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

For anyone interested in an enlightening and interesting read about the Mormon faith, I recommend this talk to you which was given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks as part of an annual lecture series at Harvard Law School called "Mormonism 101".

Fundamental Premises of Our Faith - Talk Given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks at Harvard Law School - LDS Newsroom

Time away

2010-02-02T21:06:00.001-08:00

My sweet Grandparents have been planning on going on a family cruise for their 50th anniversary ever since I can remember. Well they celebrated their 50th anniversary last month and we were so excited to celebrate it with them by going to the Mexican Riviera! In all, 17 members of my family were able to be there and we had a blast!!!

This was our wait team on the ship. They served us all week long and they were awesome! Dewa (on the right) even cried when we left. They were so sweet.

This is a picture of Cabo San Lucas. It was beautiful there!

Our second stop was Mazatlan. I think this was our favorite port because we had such a good time. We took a boat ride to a place called Stone Island. On the Island there are no hotels and no other tourists. I felt like we really got to see what Mexican life was like. It was kind of humbling seeing the conditions some of them lived in with no electricity or running water. It made me realize how many things we take for granted. But we really did have a good time there. We were able to go kayaking in the ocean, and we also got to ride on a banana boat that was being pulled by a fishing boat. Our favorite was going horseback riding along the beach. It was so much fun. The only other time I have been horseback riding before this was on a small trail where you were pretty much nose to tail with the other horses. This was much better than that!

Do you see that beautiful scenery behind us? Amazing!

There was a man walking around the beach with his iguanas so we stopped to take a look and he kept saying, "Take a picture, take a picture." So we thought, why not, and took some pictures with the iguanas. Then after we were done he said, "50 pesos." We should have known he wanted money.

On our boat ride over to Stone Island we passed right by our ship so we were able to get some great pictures of it.

Any guess why this rock is so white? Yep, it's bird droppings. Our tour guide called it a Mexican glacier.

I thought the prettiest port of all was Puerto Vallarta. I was amazed at how beautiful it was. We were able to go zip lining there which was a first for me, I was a little nervous about going zip lining in Mexico but once we got there I surprised myself by having a really good time!

After we were done zip lining they had a hut with a few animals inside. I was so excited when I found out you could actually go inside and hold them!

Here Andrew has a scorpion on his forehead, and tarantula in his hand and a python around his neck. No, thank you! Crazy man!

Here is a super cheesy picture of us sitting next to our towel animal.

So as you can tell we had a lot of fun on our cruise to Mexico and for any of you that are thinking about doing a cruise, you should DO IT! You will not regret it!

What did we miss while we were gone? Well, we missed 7 days of straight rain, a tornado warning at Carter's school but most of all we missed our three beautiful children. I don't think I could of handled another day without seeing them. I was so excited to come home to them, and then about 5 minutes later I was ready to be on the ship again. Just kidding!

Thanks a million times to my wonderful mother-in-law who was brave enough to take our kids for a whole week! We thought we were leaving her in the beautiful California sun, boy were we wrong. Thanks again, Colleen!

Growing

2010-01-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things is to watch all that our kids are learning. They continually surprise me with how much they know and how much they are growing. One thing that I really enjoy is listening to Carter and Parker pray. They have been really creative with their prayers lately and they seem to be making a real effort to pray like Andrew and I. Carter can go on for minutes about all that he is grateful for. I love it! I love watching them develop an understanding of God and Christ and love hearing them talk about Samuel the Lamanite, Thomas S. Monson, the Liahona and other church related topics.

The other day I was walking out the door to go to a work meeting when Carter poked his head out and said, "Bye mom, don't forget to listen to the spirit." Then Parker came out to say, "And don't forget to follow the prophet." What great reminders those were! It's good to know that all those times when we tried to teach our children about the scriptures or tried giving them a family home evening lesson weren't done in vain! Because quite frequently I feel like not a word is heard.

On a completely unrelated topic, Tristan has said his first phrase! It's "Wow, that's cool!" I wonder where he got that from? :)

Create

2009-11-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

I very often feel like I am not creative or talented enough, but I know with God's help all things are possible. I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but in case you haven't, you really should watch it. I love the message it sends and could watch it over and over again!

Yet another Halloween Post

2009-11-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

We had a very eventful Halloween this year. We had a lot of fun with the kids and are happy that they are at the age where they can actually enjoy what's going on. We kicked off the Halloween season by going to a nearby pumpkin patch. They had a petting zoo and hay ride and a few other fun things. Carter was very sad that he had to go to school and miss out.

I decided to do our first Hatch Halloween Party. I sent Party invitations to the boys a week in advance to get them excited and we spent all week making Halloween decorations for them to put up for the party. The day of the party we all dressed up as a family and ate mummy dogs (pictured above) for dinner and carmeled apples for dessert. We also read Halloween books and watched a Halloween movie. It was a lot of fun and I hope to carry on the tradition year after year.

The above picture is part of our decorations for the party.

We also went trick-or-treating at a nearby shopping center, where they did a costume contest. This is Carter and Parker parading their costumes.

This is Tristan accepting the first place prize in the costume contest. He got us a $10 gift certificate to Yogurtland. Whoo hoo!

I told myself I was going to try and be creative this year and make the boys' costumes myself. After many hours of inexperienced sewing and a lot of help from my wonderful husband, Carter and Parker had some pretty good looking Jedi knight costumes!

I didn't have enough time to make Tristan a costume, maybe next year. Plus, I think this costume is so cute I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use it again.

We also did a few other things this Halloween, including a ward trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating at a Retirement home. Needless to say, after we took our costumes off on Halloween night we were ready for Halloween to be over, but we had a great time and made a lot of fun memories with our kids.

Happy Halloween!

Firsts!!!

2009-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Life is full of firsts, and with children every new experience is fun and exciting. Today Carter had his first day of kindergarten! He was so excited. His teacher sent him some magic confetti in the mail with instructions to put under his pillow the night before his first day to help him sleep soundly (but I think it actually had the opposite affect). When he woke up I was shocked at how quickly he was dressed and ready to get out the door. I think it must have been some kind of record! I thought he looked so handsome for his first day of school, but then I am a little biased.

It wasn't until Carter lined up with all the other kindergartners in his class that I realized Carter is kind of short! All I can hope is that in the end the tall genes that we know are in there somewhere will win out over the short ones. :)

Carter has never been a super chatty kid, and today was no different. When I picked him up and asked him how his day was all I got out of him was one word answers. After a lot of probing I finally learned that he went across the monkey bars all on his own and had a friend push him on the swing.

I can't believe he is in school now. Not having him around all the time will take a lot of getting used to both for me and for Parker, who kept saying, "Mommy, I miss Carter."

We also had another first recently in our family. Tristan had his first birthday last month!

He was so cute trying to get a hold of his cake the whole time we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and we so rudely kept it just out of his reach.

He absolutely LOVED his cake and dove right in the second he could get his hands on it and ate just about every crumb!

This past year has gone by so quick I can hardly believe it. We love that cute boy!!!

Fun With Photomacrography

2009-09-05T15:02:00.001-07:00

The other day I took the kids out in the Verano Garden's to search for bugs and take some fun pictures. They didn't all turn out perfectly but they are still fun to look at. I figured I would post a few here for fun

Note: photomacrography is just a fancy word for macro photography or close-up photography which usually tries to get an object to appear life-size or larger on a 4" x 6" print with no cropping or digital zoom. All the pictures seen below are straight out of the camera with no digital cropping or enhancement.

Here is a picture of a Ladybug Carter and Parker found, I love these bugs.

Carter picked up an ant and wanted me to take a picture of it crawling around on his arm. The ant was very fast and between the ant moving, carter moving his arm around, and my limited stability, I couldn't zoom in very far to take the picture. Carter really likes to look at it though.

I had to wait a while for this Dragon fly to land but I got a few good closeups

This was a big nasty bug we spotted eating someones food in the garden. This is actually a big melon looking thing and there were seriously 10 or more bugs like this guy along with tons of flies, fruit flies and some other weird bugs going to town on it.

The boys spotted several butterfly's floating around but it was hard to get in close enough to take an actual picture. This one kept flying away but if I waited patiently it kept coming back to land on other flowers around me so I finally got a good picture.

I noticed a swarm of bee's pollenating the flowers so I trudged out in the middle of the flower patch and had a lot of fun trying to get these pictures while trying not to get stung.

After we were finished we sat around on the grass looking at the pictures then I decided to get a picture of Parker's eye. I think it is pretty cool how well you can see the muscles around his Iris. If you look closely you can see me in the reflection holding my camera up to his eye.
(click on the picture for a closer look)

Check out the eyeballs on this bad-boy. It looks like a brown widow to me but I couldn't get a closeup of it's belly to be sure. (click on the picture to get a better close-up)

All these shots were taken with an 18-55 canon lens mounted backwards to the body using a reversing ring on a Canon Rebel XT camera body. It was bright enough outside I didn't really need a flash but it came in handy on a few of the shots when you want a really fast shutter speed. The depth of field is limited because with the lens mounted on backwards I lose all control over the aperture settings but most of them came out ok. It would be a lot of fun to get a dedicated macro lens (hint, hint) but for now this is good enough for me to tinker and play with.

Thanks for looking, I hope you liked them!

Three Reasons Why I Love My Husband

2009-08-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

There are so many quirky things I love about Andrew, I thought I would share some of them.

#1. He is really handy.

Our apartments complex is famous for having valuable stuff left near the dumpster by people who are moving out. Although there are great things to be found, I feel we have had our fair share of dumpster treasures and it is someone else's turn to benefit from them (in other words, I am tired of bringing home more junk to fill our already small apartment). The other day Andrew comes walking home with his arms full of wood and a big smile on his face. He was obviously thrilled with the discovery, but I ,on the other hand, was not so thrilled. He reassured me that I would be happy with it when he was done, so I trusted him. That day he went to work and 2 days later I had a handy can rotator!

He got on the computer and designed it and built it in 2 days! I was so impressed! Now I only wish I had a bigger pantry so he could build me more.

#2. He is always thinking!

A couple of weeks ago Andrew decided to try putting our camera lens on backwards to take some pictures, and here is the result:

this one is of a spider that was sitting on our window sill.

And this is the button on my scripture case.

It is so funny to watch him taking pictures of all these obscure things while trying to hold the lens backwards on the camera. The other day I was outside our front door playing with the kids and he comes walking out with his camera and asks if he could take a picture of my cheek. As his camera was millimeters away from my face I thought, "I wonder if anyone is watching us from their window right now?" I can only imagine what they would think if they saw us. Oh well. The cheek pictures actually turned out pretty good, but unfortunately they got erased so I can't post them.

#3. He always makes me smile.

You all know the workout program infomercials where they have the before and after pictures of people that go from "drab" to "fab!"

This is one example, but not a very good one. For the after picture imagine this guy on a beach with a spray on tan.

One night Andrew and I were looking at some of those super cheesy pictures. Andrew thought they were so fake and just a result of the direction of lighting and exposure that he was going to take some before and after pictures just to prove how fake they really were. So he set up the tripod and took some before pictures with his gut hanging out and a melancholy look on his face. Then he went and worked out and took after pictures. The two pictures were only taken 30 minutes apart and I was amazed at the difference! All he needed was a nice tan and a beach background and he would be all set.

Andrew was really embarrassed about me posting these pictures, but I talked him into it anyway. For documentation purposes :)

This is the "before" picture

This is the "after" picture

Big difference, huh? I especially like the farmer's tan!
Andrew is always doing things to prove his theories, but this one was probably my favorite!

Well, those are a few, but not all, of the reasons that I love Andrew!

Some Good Mormon Messages

2009-07-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

Carter turns 5!

2009-06-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is for the friends and family that weren't able to be there to sing Happy Birthday to Carter.

And I apologize in advance if watching this video makes you dizzy, I didn't do a very good job of filming it.

The Day has Arrived

2009-06-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

When moving to California we didn't really like our apartment so we tried every thing we could think of to try get out of it and nothing we tried worked. Little did we know it was actually a blessing in disguise, because if we had moved to a different apartment we wouldn't of been able to have the Smith's as neighbor's. We have been lucky enough to get the greatest neighbors anyone could ask for. The Smith's have become like family to us and we have really come to love them. Our kids have also become great friends with their kids. In fact, Carter whole heartedly believes he is going to marry their daughter someday, and I would have absolutely no objections there! One thing we also really appreciated was their willingness to babysit our boys, even when it was last minute. It's not easy to find a good babysitter when you have three rambunctious boys, so we were very grateful to them for that. They have done so much for us and have made the past three years here great.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. The day I have been hoping would never come is here. The day the Smith's moved away. They have completed their time here and are now moving on to bigger and better things. Carl has graduated with his M.D. and is going off to practice his hard earned skills in New Mexico. I knew I was going to be sad when this day came around but I surprised myself by crying..........a lot.

This is them pulling out of the Verano parking lot for the last time :(

Here are a few pictures at Carl's recent Graduation from Medical School, Congratulations Carl!

I was so bummed to see that Amber was cut out of the picture taken of all of us together, but what do you do.

We will miss you guys a ton! Thanks for being such great neighbors!

On the Move

2009-04-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Our cute little man is now crawling. I really can't believe how fast time has gone by. Him and his brothers are growing so fast that I feel like if I blink I might miss something.

This is a picture of his first time standing himself up against something. You could tell he was so proud of himself.
Next step: Walking!!!!! What am I going to do with three mobile boys????
Any advice?

Books

2009-04-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

When asked in preschool what Carter's favorite thing to do at home was he replied, "play in my school books." He loves them and will work quietly in his books for hours. He impresses me every day with how much he is learning.

This is Parker's favorite book ever! It is one of the very few books that he will not only ask for but actually sit and listen to for any extended period of time. We found it at Costco and it is a called "Disney Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales." It's the traditional nursery rhymes and fairy tales but with a Disney twist. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Firehouse

2009-04-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

On a normal day our boys like to pretend to be monsters, bad guys, transformers or pirates. On the day of the tour of a near by fire station they came home pretending to be firemen saving peoples lives. I was so happy to see them take a break from the fighting and pillaging :)

Thanks for arranging the tour Wendy. The boys loved, loved, loved it!

Camping!!!!!!

2009-04-08T21:35:00.001-07:00

So I have been a HUGE slacker when it comes to blogging lately and have a ton of catching up to do.
A few weeks ago we went camping with some friends. It was a lot of fun and the first time I have been camping in a few years. It was beach side camping which is a whole lot different than what I am used to in Utah. There was also an In-N-Out within 5 minutes of our camp ground so not what you would call wilderness camping, but I was surprised by how much I liked it.

Here is the boys getting ready to do some fishing.

Here is Carter wishing his Daddy wasn't out so far so he could join him in said fishing trip. All this talk about going fishing and he gets left in the dust. Poor kid.If you were ever hoping to find Parker in the water you would be sorely disappointed. He never set foot (or toe, or finger or any other body part) in the ocean at any time, but was perfectly content hanging out on the beach all day. He actually kept himself very entertained.

Now it may look like Andrew is taking the arms off these poor children but they were actually loving every minute of Andrew playing in the waves with them. We had a hard time getting them to stop playing with Andrew so he could help pack up. He was really cute with them so it was all worth the delayed packing.

Here is Andrew surfing! He was so happy I got a picture of him standing up :)

Thanks for inviting us to go camping Carl and Amber. Hopefully we can do it again before you move........sigh :(

Needing advice

2009-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

I am looking for some modest undershirts. Everything I have tried that I think will work still ends up being a little too wide in the neck for me. I know there are some good online companies, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice as to what your favorites are.

Happy Anniversary

2009-03-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

We have now been married for six years! And what a great six years they have been! I feel lucky everyday to have such a wonderful husband.

Even though we weren't able to get a babysitter for our Anniversary(because the kids had coughs) we still had a fun time as a family celebrating another year of bliss :)
And we look forward to many, many more!

Yuck...Yuck...YUCK!!!

2009-02-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

Even looking at this picture gives me the creeps!

Andrew took the boys camping over the weekend and Carter brought home a little surprise.
Yep, a tick.

Carter was very patient while we got it out (it took about half an hour of tugging) and he didn't even seem grossed out when we showed him the pictures afterwards! Andrew, on the other hand, is still have nightmares about it!

Valentine Festivities

2009-02-17T21:59:00.001-08:00

I really got into the spirit of Valentine's Day this year, I did all the things I usually say I am going to do but never end up actually doing :) Maybe it's my way of rebelling because I am in a house full of boys and it's the only time of the year I can make everything pink and heart shaped.

We started by making Valentine place settings (which I didn't get any pictures of) and we then decorated sugar cookies.

I continued to go overboard by spending hours the night before Valentine's decorating the front room with with tons of hearts, and setting out "treat" bags for all my boys.

For breakfast we had pink heart shaped pancakes. They didn't look too pretty but it's the thought that counts.....right?

For dinner we had yummy salmon and salad.
And since we had such a healthy dinner we decided to gorge ourselves with chocolate fondue for dessert, and it was sooo goood!

We also made valentine's for some of the neighbor kids but only delivered a few of them. I guess we will have to save them for next year ;)

We also took these pictures of Tristan over the weekend and I thought he looked so cute I had throw them in as well.

Half Birthday

2009-02-12T20:43:00.000-08:00

Tristan is now 6 months old! We are so happy to have this sweet little guy in our family. Things Tristan loves are playing with his brothers, watching his brothers, playing with anything he can get his hands on, being spoon fed, going for walks, being outside, pulling hair, putting everything in his mouth, playing peek-a-boo and being tickled. Things he has learned is to sit up by himself, laugh, get his brothers to laugh, grab and hold things, roll over, sleep through the night (well...sometimes) and he has also learned how to be the center of our world and we love giving him all the attention we can!

Happy Half Birthday Tristan!
We love you!

Random Favorite Pictures

2009-02-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

I was going through old pictures and picked out some of my favorite from when Carter and Parker were younger.

Enjoy!

I Love Technology!

2009-01-27T14:40:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wanted to crop an image to a different aspect ratio, i.e. switch from landscape to a portrait layout, but just couldn't quite crop it without cutting out some of the picture content you really like. Well I was looking through some picture imaging information and discovered this dandy new image processing tool called seam carving also known as content aware image resizing that does just what you would want it to do, with some compromises of course. To get a feel for what I am talking about, take a look at the three images below. The first one is the original image which was taken in a 4:3 aspect ratio cropped to portrait landscape of 8x10 (5:4 aspect ratio) with 2824x2253 final pixels, a compressed version is shown below.

I then downloaded and processed the image in the nifty program called Seam Carving Gui and "resized" the image by highlighting each of us as regions not to tamper with and told it to convert the image to a portrait layout 8x10 (4:5) image with pixel dimensions of 1800x2253 and this is the final result (compressed version shown here).

Et Voila!

Now comparing the two images you can see certain distortions (the compromises I spoke of) especially with regards to the sun, the rocks to the right, the waves to the left are noisier and slightly curved, and a few other small details, but overall I am quite impressed. The horizon is still flat, sun, ships, and rocks still present, and we look exactly the same.

For comparison, here is the original image cropped to the same dimensions (1800x2253) using the traditional cropping technique.

As to which is actually better is arguable but I was able to keep the sun and some other details intact using the seam carving method that I couldn't do with the cropping method. My one complaint is that the output file from the seam carved image is only a 306 kB jpg file indicating some loss in picture quality when compared to the original image starting with 2.85MB, and the standard cropping method still yielding a 1.57 MB jpg file size meaning much of the image quality is retained in a "lossless" manner. A substantial file size reduction despite having the same exact same number of pixels. Of course the alternative is to take the cropped image above and paste the sun back into the picture which may even yield a better result but this method is fun to use and pretty cool. It turns out there are all sorts of versions of this process implementing different algorithms and such written in all sorts of different programming languages if you want to check them out. I only tested a couple (an ImageJ plugin and some other one called Dirt) but I found the Seam Carving Gui software to be convenient, inexpensive, and faster than most. Apparently this technique is already incorporated into Adobe Photoshop CS4 if you have it already but since I don't have the software I can't really try it out.

Enjoy!

Big....Long....Tongues

2009-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

You are probably wondering what this post is about. Well don't worry , it's just about our trip to the San Diego Zoo on Monday. We had a great time, and the boys were so good. Carter walked the whole day and never complained of being tired. Yeah, I know, amazing!

This is a little clip of the boys feeding the giraffes

I loved Parker's reaction at the end.

Making Waves

2008-12-29T23:01:00.000-08:00

This morning, while trying to get me out of bed, Carter discovered something.

"Mommy, when I smack your arm it makes waves!"

Is that his subtle way of telling me that I need to spend more time in the gym?
I was curious as to what he would say about his dad's arm so I said, "Does Daddy's do that too?"

After trying it on Andrew he said, "Um.....yeah." Then he paused and tried it again, "but not really."

The truth hurts!

Family Pictures

2008-12-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

We finally got some family pictures and I wanted to post them. Melissa and I can't decide between the two family photo's. Which one do you pick as your favorite? the first picture or the sunset picture?

First family Picture

Sunset Picture

Aren't we cute together

I'm so lucky to have such a beautiful wife

November in review

2008-12-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

Andrew and I have been married 5 1/2 years and this is our very first Christmas Tree! I thought I would celebrate by blogging this momentous occasion. It all started off by me saying, "I think we could get a small tree to fit in the corner." When all was said and done we ended up with this 7 1/2 foot beast, but I thought it turned out pretty good considering our budget.
We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We did Thanksgiving dinner with a few other families who decided not to brave the holiday traffic to do Thanksgiving with their families, and had a lot of fun!

This was the kids table. All the kids had a blast. There was a little playground right outside that was all fenced in so we were able to send them out to play and not have to worry about them.

Is that what it would be like to have a fenced in yard? Ahh, how nice that would be?

Later that weekend we did a gingerbread house with the boys.

Their job was to put the candy on the gingerbread house and they did a great job. They also did a great job eating it. Andrew thought it tasted like it had been doused in lighter fluid (it was a store bought kit and tasted very chemically-is that a word?) but I guess the kids liked it because they have already eaten half of it.

I had to put in this cute picture of Andrew reading 'The Cat in the Hat' to the boys on Thanksgiving night.

And the most exciting news of all is that Parker is potty trained! It's been about a month now and we have not had any accidents in about 3 weeks! We are so very happy that he is potty trained, having 2 kids in diapers is no fun.

Tristan

2008-11-17T21:23:00.001-08:00

I got some cute smiles out of Tristan today! Here they are.

And here is one of us for good measure

7 Tag

2008-11-14T15:22:00.001-08:00

7 Things I can do:
1. Eat cereal everyday for breakfast
2. Play the piano
3. Make almost any recipe into whole wheat (went through a whole wheat kick, learned a lot, including that Parker cannot have any large amount of whole wheat without breaking out in hives.)
4. Live on a tight budget
5. Go over a month without any candy/desserts (tried it, don't recommend it)
6. Be patient
7. Make my husband happy

7 Things I cannot do:
1. Buy anything unless it's on sale
2. Eat sushi
3. Watch any sport on TV (besides the Olympics)
4. Sleep in (like Rena, I have tried but I just can't seem to do it anymore, must be all those years of waking up early with the kids)
5. Take a good picture- I am not very photogenic
6. Sew, knit, crochet...(and the list goes on)
7. Go a day without kissing my cute boys

7 Things that attracted me to Andrew:
1. He makes me feel pretty
2. His awesome water skiing/cliff jumping abilities
3. His "never give up" attitude
4. His smile
5. His testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ
6. His willingness to make the 2 hour drive to Ephraim, UT to see me while we were dating
7. his willingness to help others

7 Things I say most often:
1. Please stop whining
2. You are so cute
3. You need to be nice to your brother
4. What do you say?
5. I love you
6. Share with your brother
7. Please leave Tristan alone

7 celebrity admiration's:
I don't think I have any celebrities that I really admire.

7 Favorite foods:
1. BJ's spinach and artichoke pizza
2. Peach crisp
3. Anything chocolate
4. Sweet potatoes
5. Peanut butter
6. Turkey wraps
7. Indian Food

7 People to tag:
1. Abby H.
2. Dani C.
3. Teresa H.
4. Abby B.
5. Jackie B.
6. Amy P.
7. Andrew H.

His First Creation

2008-11-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

Parker absolutely loves Wall-e! He gets so excited every time he sees Wall-e on TV or at a toy store. He also frequently asks me to find Wall-e clips for him online so that he can watch them. I thought that since he has such a love for all things Wall-e, I would set out to make him a Wall-e cake for his birthday.

When the time came for actually decorating the cake I knew that I was not going to have time to do everything myself so I asked Andrew if he could help me by mixing some icing. In the end he took over the project and decorated the whole thing! It was his first decorated cake and I think he did a great job!

I loved how he put "Park-e" instead of "Wall-e."

When Parker was younger he would always refer to himself as "Parky" so I thought it was quite appropriate.

Happy Birthday Parker!

We Love You!

Halloween at last

2008-11-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

I know we are a little behind getting our Halloween pictures up, but we have been so busy with all the prop 8 stuff on top of our already busy schedules that I haven't had much time for posting. Although I am glad we were able to do so much to help out with prop 8, I am truly happy that it is Nov. 5 and election day is passed :)

The boys got most of their candy at our ward trunk-or-treat. This is them sitting in the back of our van after they collected all their candy. As you can tell Tristan had had enough of the trunk-or-treat and was ready to go home.

We didn't get any pictures of Tristan by himself on Halloween so I thought I would post this picture of him with his pumpkin shirt. Yes, I know it is sideways, but I am not quite sure how to rotate it.

Andrew took part in the pie eating contest, even though he didn't win the boys loved cheering him on!

I was lucky enough to get this shot of Doug shoving pie into Brady's face at the start of the contest.

Carter and Parker really like Halloween but LOVE Christmas and are very aware that Christmas comes after Halloween. They also know that Christmas means a trip to Utah. Parker woke up the morning after Halloween so excited and said to me, "Halloween is over and now it's Christmas, so are we going to Utah now?"

Fun with the Fam.....

2008-10-15T13:35:00.001-07:00

While we had family in town for Tristan's baby blessing (and since we won free Disneyland passes, woo hoo!) we were all able to go to Disneyland. We had a ton of fun and happy kids, what more could you ask for!

My Grandma and Grandpa Albertson, Amy, and me w/Tristan walking into the park

Of course because it is October everything is decorated like Halloween. It's fun to be there at night when all the pumpkins are lit up.

My sister's and I getting ready for "Honey, I shrunk the audience!"

Tristan slept most of the day while I carried him arround in the baby carrier. My back was killing me by the end, but Tristan sure was happy.

My Grandma just had surgery a few weeks ago so we had to get her a wheelchair, which meant we got to go to the front of every line! I sure do love my Grandparents. Not just because they got us onto every ride fast, but because they are great!

This is my nephew, Kiyden. He is so cute, I just want to squish him.

I think Carter looks so grown up here playing video games

My sweet little Tristan did so well for a full day at Disneyland, he was quite the trooper.

The boy's, as always, had a blast and stayed from about 10:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night! They lasted longer than I did.

Standing in line is one of our favorite things to do.

Some of Andrew's family joined us late so we weren't able to get any pictures of them at Disneyland.

Smiley Tristan

2008-10-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Here is some cute footage of Tristan smiling after taking a bath

What a bundle of joy.

Favorite Quote of the Day

2008-10-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

Carter's response to Andrew playing a computer game called Dune,
"Daddy, Heavenly Father doesn't like you playing these mad games!"

I totally agree!

Updates

2008-09-17T18:37:00.001-07:00

Tristan is now five weeks old! He really is a pretty content baby and like all babies loves to be held and talked to. He is now officially afraid of his brothers although they love him to death and still ask to hold him any chance they get. He will now smile at you when you talk to him, maybe, he is pretty selective of who and what he smiles at. I have yet to get a picture of him smiling, hopefully I will get one soon and will post it as soon as I do.

One day Parker brought me a pair of gloves and a clip on tie and asked me to help him get them on so he could go to work. Soon Carter followed suit and did the same thing. Carter took them off shortly after putting them on, but Parker kept them on almost the entire day!

Incidentally this was also his first day of preschool, which he loves. It actually is just a group of us mom's who take turns teaching at our houses, reguardless, Carter loves it and can't wait for Monday to come so he can start preschool again.

Our New Addition

2008-08-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a little bit of my experience with Tristan's birth. Mostly just so that I can look back on it and remember details I otherwise would have forgotten, but also for anyone who might be interested in hearing how it went.

The morning I was scheduled to be induced the hospital called me at 5:30 am to tell me they were too busy to get me in and asked that I call back every three hours until they had an opening. I pretty much figured I would not be getting induced that day and just hoped I would have the baby before my parents had to go back home. To my surprise I got a call that afternoon from them asking me to come in.
When we got to the hospital my nurse checked me and I was dilated to "almost" a 4. I had been having contractions all day, but that really wasn't anything new, so I was surprised to find that I was dilated that much. Who knows, maybe I would of had the baby that day anyway. They started me on a low dose of pitocin at around 3:30 pm. After getting my epidural at around 5:00 pm, which didn't really do much for my pain but it sure sped up my labor, I went from a 4 to a 10 in about an hour. After finding out I was fully dilated the nurse went to get my doctor. She came back a bit frazzled and trying to hold back tears while telling us that my doctor was doing a c-section and she couldn't find another doctor to deliver me. Whether she had been crying because of my situation or something else I will never know, but seeing her like that didn't really put me at ease. Any way, she told me not to push (yeah, right) and left the room in search of a doctor. Luckily she found one quickly and the baby was born a few minutes later at 6:18 pm!

Here are some of our most recent pictures of our little Tristan!

This is the first time Parker held the baby, he did such a good job and I was so proud of how gentle he was with him.

Tristan is a pretty good sleeper and so far sleeps right through the loud noises his brothers make.

Carter and Parker LOVE their new brother, maybe a little too much. They never want to leave him alone and I constantly have to make sure they are not being "too nice."

This is a picture of Tristan's first bath after coming home with us.

Tristan has a shocked looked that he gets every so often. I am just starting to realize that he gets it a lot more often when his brothers are around.

We are so happy to have Tristan in our home! And even though he adds a whole new level of craziness to our lives, we could not imagine him not being here and we love him very much!

Pictures of Tristan

2008-08-14T15:49:00.001-07:00

As Promised here are some pictures of Tristan and Family!

Melissa just going into labor

Tristan ~5 min old

Tristan's Ear

Tristan's Hand

Tristan's Feet
(they had black ink on them so I made it black and white)

Tristan's Hair

Carter holding Tristan

Mommy's tummy just before going into labor

Post delivery tummy

Tristan Born

2008-08-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

I don't have my camera with me right now so I can't post a picture but I just wanted to post that Tristan was born at 6:18 weighing in at 7 lbs 12.5 oz and 19.5" long.

Where is Heaven?

2008-08-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

Carter: Mommy, where does Heavenly Father live? (We talked about this last night in FHE so I guess it was on his mind)
Me: He lives in Heaven
Carter: Yeah, but does he live in Utah?
Me: (Not quite knowing how to respond) Well, the prophet lives in Utah, but Heavenly Father lives up in Heaven
Carter: But listen Mommy, I think that Heaven is by Utah

Horton hears an AAAAh! and Baby News

2008-07-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

This is our fish, Horton. We have had him quite a while and the boys are surprisingly fond of him. When changing his water we typically only have to change about a third, but the other day we decided to completely change it because it was so dirty. While Andrew was pouring some of the water out into the sink, and before he could get a cup underneath, Horton decided to take a leap out of his fish bowl and strait into the garbage disposal. If it were just me I would of had to declare the poor fish dead (I have no idea how to take apart a garbage disposal.) But luckily for Horton, Andrew was the one changing the water and immediately decided he had to be rescued. So Horton spent the next 20 or so minutes in the garbage disposal while Andrew was banging on the pipes trying to get him out. He finally completely removed the gargage disposal and turned it upside down to get Horton out. To my surprise and the boys relief, Horton lived through the whole ordeal and lives to die another day. I think next time we will be a little more careful when changing Horton's water.

On a completely unrelated note, today I went to the doctor and had an ultrasound and the baby is already measuring over 7 lbs! Carter was only 5 lbs 14 oz and Parker was only 6 lbs 2 oz. I am technically only 36 weeks so I can only imagine how big he would be if I had to go another 4 or more weeks. After the ultrasound the doctor checked me and I was 2 centimeters dilated and we started to discuss my due date, which was originally the 16th and was later changed to the 23rd. Some how without even trying I talked the doctor into inducing me the 13th of August (really I wasn't trying he just volunteered) Truthfully I would much rather go into labor on my own, but having family here to watch the boys has been a big concern and something that has been stressing me out quite a bit. With a scheduled delivery we can better plan to have someone here to help out while I have the baby. So, we are probably going to be having our baby on August 13th unless I go into labor earlier or we change our minds and cancel. We will make sure to keep you posted :)

Naptime troubles

2008-07-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

I love Parker. Let me just say that before I go into how frustrated he has made me lately.

This is our afternoon nap routine. I lay Parker down, read him a story and then say, "Stay in bed and go to sleep." Parker responds cheerfully, "OK mommy!"

1-2 minutes later he walks out of his room with a big smile on his face. I chase him back in his room and sternly tell him he has to take a nap, only for him to come out a minute or so later. We will practice this routine for about an hour or longer until I finally give in and let him stay up.

Normally I would just say that he has grown out of naps, even though his four year old brother still asks almost daily for a nap and goes down without any trouble. The problem is he hasn't grown out of them his body just seems to work on a schedule where he doesn't get tired until about 4:30 or 5:00 pm. Then he will either be EXTREMELY cranky until bed time or fall asleep on the floor somewhere, and then when bed time rolls around we start the whole thing over again, because he just woke up 2 hours earlier and is not yet sleepy .

I am at a loss at what to do, this has been a problem for a long time. One I would like to remedy before the new baby comes, and before I go insane. Any suggestions anyone? Please help!

Our trip to Utah

2008-07-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

We had a great time on our last Utah trip. We had a family reunion with Andrew's family and were able to do a lot of fun things. We were also able to spend a lot of time with my family as well. My sister had her first baby, very exciting! The boys were also able to go fishing with Andrew, my dad and my grandpa on my grandpa's fishing boat. They were each able to catch a fish and had a great time doing it! My only regret was that we left our camera at my sister's house and weren't able to take any pictures of their first fishing trip. We also did a ton of swimming, although we didn't take pictures of that either.

I was going to do a slide show but I ended up not doing one (truthfully, I haven't figured out how to yet) so I know there are a lot of pictures but I hope you can enjoy them.

This is us (Andrew's family) at the Marriott center in Provo waiting for the Stadium of Fire fireworks to start. Great fireworks!

For the family reunion we did a talent show. Half way through I forgot I was taking pictures of it, so I didn't get very many pictures, but here is my favorite one. This is Andrew's brother and sister doing a skit.

Carter went out on a tube for the first time. He was so funny, the above picture is a before picture and the picture below is an after picture. He looks a little more calm in the second picture don't you think?
By the way that is Andrew's sister on the tube with him, you can't really tell but she is about 34 weeks pregnant. What a trooper! I felt silly having her take him instead of me, knowing that we are both due at the same time. But I guess it didn't bother me enough to switch places with her.

Parker also went along with us on our boat trip, but he wasn't feeling very good so he just sat on my lap with a grumpy face the whole time we were out.

This is the boys catching candy shot from a home-made rocket launcher at Andrew's mom's house. All the kids thought it was awesome.

Who wouldn't love catching candy that was falling from the sky?

And last but not least this is Carter holding his newest cousin. Amy did a great job and had the baby in record time, after only a couple hours in labor and a few pushes! Not bad for her first baby! He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and is as cute as can be.

I Love My Dad

2008-07-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

As I remember my Dad Verlin's Death 1 year ago today I wanted to post some thoughts and feelings pertaining to his life as I remember it. He was a good man, who often felt like he was trying his best, but always sought to improve and do more. I have had many feelings for Dad and often feel close to him, but it has been very good for me to view my other Family member's blogs expressing their thoughts and feelings. I remember him often taking time to discuss spiritual matters with me, and trying to help me understand concepts I might have had questions about. I admired his hard work, countless acts of service, thoughtful prayers and priesthood blessings, love for his family, joy in play time/time with family, and love for the beauty of the earth. Most of all I knew he loved his wife and although I often tried to remind him how lucky he was to marry such a wonderful women, he never needed to hear it because he was almost always thinking about it already. He was pleased with his childrens accomplishments and loved to help us out in times of need. I often feel in my heart that I need to live a better life and work harder to let him know that I do remember him and that I love him. I think the best way to honor someone is not only to talk of them, but to mirror their actions in our own lives. This is why I call him my hero and role model.

Whoops!

2008-06-17T12:47:00.001-07:00

I guess while we were changing our blog around we accidentally made it so nobody could comment on our blog except us. As much as we love commenting on our own blog entries, we have decided to open it up to all you as well, so you can feel free to leave comments from now on :)

Carter turns 4!

2008-06-15T22:23:00.001-07:00

I can't believe we have a four year old! Carter is growing up so fast and we are so lucky to have him in our family.

This was my first attempt at a sculpted cake. It was very time consuming and I ended up having one cake fall apart on me so I had to bake two. Even then the face didn't look quite right and I worried the whole time it was going to fall over, but Carter loved it and that made it all worth it!

Parker saying "Look Mommy, I eat my cookie like a doggie!" Something he thinks is so funny

Decorating cookies

Some of Carter's birthday guests. He wanted a lot more but we had to narrow it down for him. Our apartment can only fit so many people.

Carter loves sprinkles. Can you tell?

We filled Carter's room with balloons while he was sleeping, he thought it was pretty cool waking up tp a balloon filled room.

Carter got a new bike and a leapster for his Birthday. Luckily he loves both. He has become quite good at his bike and loves to go bike riding with his daddy, and we are hoping that the leapster will help with those long car rides to Utah.

Disneyland

2008-06-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

We have really enjoyed our time at Disneyland since moving to Southern California. Our passes aren't good during the summer and we will be having the baby before we can go back. This was our last trip as a family of four, things will get a whole lot more complicated after this summer!

Carter dancing while waiting for the Electric Parade

This is the face Parker makes when you ask him to smile for the camera

Outside Tarzan's Tree House

Andrew's brother Ammon and his family were also there. The boys loved seeing there cousins and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

Carter checking out the water

Parker loves the carousel, but refuses to ride by himself.

The boys love Disneyland and ask to go almost everyday, it will be a long summer of telling them "no"

My Dad

2008-06-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

I feel like I miss out on so much not being at home in Utah, especially on days like this when I would love nothing more than to wish my Dad a Happy Fathers Day in person and tell him how grateful I am for him. So I guess I will have to let him know in other ways what an awesome Dad he really is.

10 things I remember about my dad (from when I was younger)

1. Going fishing- It may not have seemed like I was enjoying myself at the time, but now looking back on it I am really glad I was able to go.

2. Going camping- One of my favorite things!

3. Going to Air Shows- My Dad really loves planes and I really liked going to air shows with him. I also enjoyed going to the museum at Hill Air Force Base.

4. Going to the dump- I know this sounds kind of funny, and I think I only went with him a couple of times, but for some reason I liked going to the dump with my dad.

5. Going to the caves at Timp.

6. Going to the state fair- I don't think we ever missed the state fair. It's funny because looking back on it now I don't think that we ever rode a single ride or played any of the carnival games, but I still looked forward to going every year.

7. Getting Valentines from him- My dad had to leave for work very early when I was younger, but every Valentines Day he never forgot to leave a Valentine for each of us.

8. Him always pointing out the ducks- My dad loves duck hunting! Whenever he would see ducks flying by he wouldn't ever miss the opportunity to point them out and if we were really lucky he would maybe tell us a little duck trivia.

9. Watching him play Turoc- A video game my dad loved to play and for some reason my sister and I loved to watch.

10. Having long talks with him- They may have been few and far between but they were always great!

I love you Dad!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Father Sons Campout

2008-05-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

Carter and I went camping a few weeks ago and had a lot of fun

The Tent Carter helped me set up

The first thing Carter wanted to do was take his shoes off in the tent

Carter chillin' in the tent with the lamp, "his favorite"
Carter and I chillin' by the lamp

Carter taking it easy in the chair during the fireside

Carter and Daddy trying to keep warm

Carter in the van ride up with his two friends Michael and John

Carter learning how to shoot a BB Gun

Daddy showing Carter how to throw a Tomahawk

Carter Trying it out for himself

Carter making a Mother's Day card for Mommy

Forgotten recipe

2008-05-19T15:48:00.001-07:00

This is a recipe that was in Andrew's missionary cookbook. I used to make it a few years ago and then I kind of forgot about it. We were out of bread yesterday and I remembered this. It made me remember how much I loved it, it is among my favorite of breads and not too hard to make, and I have never had it turn out bad. It is kind of a sweet bread, but we eat it with everything. I have had a couple people ask me for the recipe so I decided to post it.

SWISS BREAD

1 c. milk
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter/margarine (I would suggest using butter)
2 pkgs. yeast dissolved in 1/2 c. warm water
2 eggs beaten
5 c. flour

Let raise 1 hour, knead down let raise again. Cut into three pieces and braid into bread pan. Bake @ 325-350 F for 1 hour. Butter top of loaf when you take it out of the oven.

This is all the instructions it comes with but like I said I have made this many times and never messed it up. I would suggest making this into two loaves because it makes a lot, and I bake them on a cookie sheet instead of a loaf pan, but I am sure that it would turn out fine in loaf pans also. I just make it that way because that's the way Andrew makes it. Enjoy!

A to Z tag

2008-05-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

I was A to Z tagged by my friend Jackie:

A: Attached or single- Attached
B: Best friend- Andrew Hatch
C: Cake or pie- Depends, probably cake
D: Day of choice- Saturday
E: Essential item- My cell phone
F: Favorite color- Green
G: Greatest accomplishment- My boys!
H: Hometown- Sandy, UT
I: Indulgence- Chocolate (but there are many others as well)
J: January or July- This one is easy, July. January is one of my least favorite months and July one of my favorites
K: Kids- Carter, Parker and boy number three is on his way
L: Life is incomplete without- My 3 (soon to be 4) boys
M: Marriage date- March 14, 2003
N: Number of siblings- 2 sisters
O: Oranges or apples- Apples
P:Phobias or fears- Heights
Q: Quote- "If you always tell the truth you don't have to remember anything" -Mark Twain
R: Reason to smile- I went to the dentist today and I only have 1 cavity (It's been a while since I have been to the dentist and I was expecting much worse)
S: Season- Summer, we usually get to see a lot of family in the summer which I enjoy
T: Tag five friends- I decided not to tag anyone
U: Unknown fact about me- I enjoy gossip magazines. This is one of my guilty pleasures, the place I go to exercise has a big selection of gossip magazines so I have recently become hooked on reading them while I use the elliptical
V: Very favorite store- I would have to say Old Navy
W: Worst habit- Procrastinating
X: X-ray or Ultrasound- Not really sure what that means, but I have had more ultrasounds than x-rays so I will say ultrasound
Y: Your favorite food- Indian or Thai
Z: Zodiac- Taurus

Oops, I forgot!

2008-05-08T20:14:00.001-07:00

This has been a common phrase you hear from me lately. This pregnancy has affected me in many ways, most of them not being very pleasant. Something that has seemed to have gone since becoming pregnant is my memory. I have forgotten birthday parties, baby showers and doctor's appointments.
My most recent lapse of memory was my most embarrassing by far. Andrew and I were asked to say the prayer in sacrament meeting last Sunday, and of course I forgot and we were late walking in so I missed hearing my name as the person giving the prayer. After the opening hymn I was busy trying to get the boys to fold their arms when I noticed someone a few rows up trying to get my attention. As soon as I saw him I immediately remembered I was supposed to be saying the prayer. We were seated in the very back of the gym (our ward is very big) so by the time I got half way there the first counselor was already up and asking someone else to say the prayer and I had to set down next to someone in the front while the prayer was said. Needless to say everyone seemed to notice and tried saying things to me in attempts to make me feel better, but it actually made me feel worse because it made me realize how many people noticed.
This incident has confirmed what Andrew has been trying to tell me for months, that I really need to get a planner. Although I would probably forget it everywhere I went anyway.

Our day at the ARC

2008-05-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

We have a recreation center (The ARC) across the street from us, which is really convenient for Andrew and I to go exercise. Normally they only allow kids on Saturday's and you have to pay for them, but last week was family day and we were able to take the kids swimming for free which was perfect because it was really hot that day. The boys had a blast and have been asking to go back ever since.

Andrew's new favorite thing is rock climbing, he would go every day if he could. He just bought new rock climbing shoes and a harness, so now he goes even more and he loves it.

Carter was also able to go rock climbing for the first time. We thought he would love it since he is like a little monkey and climbs on everything. He was thrilled to go but got a little intimidated by the huge wall when we got there and didn't dare climb too high.

Parker tag

2008-04-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Parker's cousin Hyrum tagged him so now we get to share 8 things about our little Parkey (as he used to call himself)

1.Doesn't show his true colors to just anyone. Parker really isn't the same around other people as he is around us. Even around people he really likes he is quite reserved and quiet. He really thrives in his own element (a.k.a. home with the family) and doesn't like to be taken out of it or anyone put in it for extended periods of time. For example, anytime we go somewhere and Parker gets sad he comes up to Andrew or I and says "I want a hug and go home". It sure is a shame he doesn't open up to more people because he sure is a cutie once you get to know him.

2. He's very good at memorizing books, songs and movies. I am always surprised to hear him singing along to a random song while it's playing on the radio. Parker even loves singing along to one of Andrew's French Cd's that we always listen to. Memorizing movies is also another one of his many skills, even if he has only seen the movie a couple of times I'll find him quoting line after line.

3. He loves to pretend to be animals. His favorite thing to be is a dinosaur, and he does a pretty good job, Carter is actually scared of his dinosaur. Other animals he likes to pretend to be are dogs, tigers and frogs, but my personal favorite is his horse. He is the cutest horse, he gallops and neighs perfectly.

4. He is quite the copycat. He likes to do anything his big brother is doing . He will often follow him around step by step and repeat whatever Carter says.

5. He is very cuddly, and a bit of a mamma's boy. Andrew and I really enjoy how cuddly he is, considering how Carter was never that way. He always comes up to me for no reason in particular and gives me a big hug and says, "look mommy, I give you hugs!" I love it.

6. His favorite toys- anything with wheels. Out of all of those things, he likes the train the best. If we go to Disneyland without riding the train , Parker is devastated. He also loves firetrucks, if we ever see one he gets so excited and says so emphatically "Wow, look at that firetruck, it's so cool!"

7. Has recently discontinued nap time. This is a new development that I am not so fond of, especially considering that Carter still takes naps. I really don't know what to do with him because he still fights going to bed early even though he is exhausted. Hopefully we will work something out soon.

8. He is a very sensitive and caring boy. Parker really is a sweetheart and we are so happy that he is a part of our family. Sometimes we worry he gets left behind in his brothers overactive shadow, but we love him and he holds a special place in our hearts!

We are going to tag Alyssa

Carter updates

2008-04-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Since Andrew and I aren't able to afford preschool, at least not here in Irvine (the cheapest we have found is $265 a month!) we have been trying to teach Carter from home. We were able to get a few preschool books from the book store and in about two weeks time he has gone from only being able to identify a few letters and numbers to being able to identify all his numbers and letters and telling us the sounds for most of them. He also knows all his shapes and colors. I am not trying to brag or anything I am just really impressed with all he has retained in such a short amount of time. I was worried about him being ready for kindergarten, but I think if he keeps this up he will do just fine.

Carter has also recently shown quite the interest in the baby and talks about him all the time. Last week we made the mistake of telling Carter the name we are thinking about for the baby. He now calls the baby by his name and tells everyone about "Baby Tristan in my mom's tummy."

This is a conversation we had this morning.

Carter: "Mommy, I am so excited for Tristan to come."

Me: "Yeah, me too."

Carter: "I am going to take such good care of him."

Me: "What are you going to do for him?"

Carter: "I am going to give him bath's and give him hugs and I will let him sit on my lap when we go for rides in the van. I love Baby Tristan!"

Finger Paints and Legos

2008-04-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

When we first got finger paints Parker didn't think they were so hot. I thought that if he just got his hands dirty he would realize how fun it was, so I made the mistake of putting his hands in the paint and he flipped out. He acted as if I had just given him some deadly disease, so after he calmed down he took to dancing in the living room while Carter got messy. After a few times of Carter trying out the finger paints Parker came around and decided to try it too. He now loves it and will play longer and get messier than Carter.

Carter loves building with his blocks, sometimes I am impressed with his creativity. This one is a ship that he actually built in just a couple of minutes. I just wish I could get the same focus and devotion while trying to teach him his preschool material.

Preggy pictures

2008-04-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

Mom, this is for you! I think that having someone take pictures of me is one of my least favorite things, especially when it is of my growing stomach. I had forgotten how much I disliked it, but here I am after many requests I finally have posted pictures of my pregnant belly thus far. This picture was actually taken a little over a week ago and my belly has grown since then so maybe in a few weeks I will post another picture. While on the subject of our pregnancy, we had our full extensive ultrasound yesterday and everything looks good and the baby looks healthy and, yes, the baby is still for sure a boy!

Enjoying Conference Weekend

2008-04-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Before having kids I never realized how much they get in the way of you doing pretty much anything for longer than five minutes. This includes talking on the phone, paying bills, doing dishes, making dinner, playing games of any kind and of course listening in church. I don't think Andrew and I have really been able to listen to conference since Parker was born. Luckily this conference weekend was a little different, the boys slept for both of the afternoon sessions and were pretty good during the morning sessions. I realized how much I enjoy watching Conference and was surprised when the two hours flew by, as opposed to when I was a kid and would count down the minutes until it was over.

Carter also seemed to realize that conference was special. Last night after blessing the food for dinner Carter said, "Thank you for conference Daddy!" I thought it was very sweet, but us watching it and him knowing it was important sure didn't persuade him to want to watch it. While getting ready to watch the last session he said to us "Conference sure is a long movie." And when given the choice to watch it or take a nap the clear winner both times was taking a nap.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be counseled by our church leaders twice a year and hope that in the future the boys will have the desire to watch and will enjoy Conference as well.

Trip to the San Diego Zoo

2008-04-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

My Aunt and Uncle came and stayed with us a few days and while they were here we were able to go to the San Diego Zoo. I would say that my favorite thing by far was the orangutan's they had such personality and loved playing and interacting with people.

Our weekend in Vegas

2008-04-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Las Vegas last weekend for a baby blessing of our nephew. Andrew's sister and brother-in-law were nice enough to let us stay with them, which Carter loved because they had a really big back yard with a trampoline and a playhouse and four wheelers. Parker also really loved the four wheelers and was always asking to ride it.

Are you as fast as me?

2008-04-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

So I tried out this speed test and these were my results

86 words

Speedtest

Easter Fun

2008-04-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun Easter weekend, this is also the first time that Carter and Parker really got excited and enjoyed doing all the activities. Parker loved coloring the Easter Eggs,he could color the same egg for about 10 mintutes before he would dye it.

We also did an Easter Egg Hunt with some neighbors. Both of the boys did a pretty good job of finding eggs.

The boys each had a bubble gun in there Easter basket, which they played with all morning long out on our porch.

Hello Everyone

2007-06-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our Blogspot page. we are trying out a few new ways participating in the internet world.