My Little Tough Guy

I guess this is what happens when you have a big sister.

The perfect combo: sports pjs and Cinderella slippers.

Oh, but he's such a cutie!!

I love that face!!

We've got some royality at our house. He may be wearing a dress but he knows who he is. He loves to tell us, "I'm a PRINCE!!!"

Family Pictures

A Jazz Game (of sorts)

Does Than loves sports? Of course he does!! And basketball? Loves it. Utah Jazz? Loves 'em. He found out that the Jazz were holding a scrimmage that was open to the public and free, so we decided to check it out. Than and I try to go to at least one game a year and Sara is always asking if she could go with so we thought this would be a good trial run-through. The doors opened at 6:30 (not too late) and they were only going to play for 2 quarters (not too long). What a perfect way to test out how they would do before we to go to a real game and spend a bunch of money!!

The result? Well, they started the festivities by filming a couple of commercials with the crowd in the background. That was long and boring and afterward Than said, "I feel duped." Then the new radio announcer did this Q&A thing while the players did some exercises on the floor. That was pretty boring to me too. But probably interesting to all the people there who went to get a sneak peak at what the team looks like before the season starts. Then the music started!! The kids loved that. The scrimmage was interesting but the kids spend most of their time playing with our phones. What did parents do before having cool cell phones? By the end, they were both so ready to go. So it was a good experiment for us. Maybe we'll try a real game this year, maybe not. I guess that's really not a good experiment if we came to no conclusion afterward. But at least we had some fun.

At the end of the game, Aaron had no smiles. But Than did!

Some Snipets from Summer

What a busy summer!!! Deciding to move, getting the house ready to sell, looking for a new house, packing, moving, unpacking, making new friends . . . Plus some fun vacations and great times with family. Wow!

I've just spent the last hour finally figuring out how to download all of the pictures from my spiffy new camera to the computer (it really was complicated--I had to install special software and everything) and now I am all ready to put them on the blog. So here are a few of my faves from the summer of 2009. And only a few because I never have the patience to upload lots of pictures to blogger. It always seems to take FOREVER!! If anyone has some tips, please let me know!

Aaron's birthday. Remember how he loves shoes? I think he's even saying "shoes!!" in the picture. Look at the delight in his eyes.

More birthday. Yummy cake.

Now here are some pictures from our vacation to St. George. Than, Sara, Aaron, and I drove to the Grand Canyon one day to check it out. It was totally worth the drive for me and Than and totally awesome to see. We went on a teeny-tiny little hike, more like a stroll, but the kids got wiped-out and we had to carry them back to the car.

My guys!!

The 2 cutest kids in the world.

One of the precious pictures that I'm not taking.

Here's more St. George. This is what we did every other day that we weren't seeing natural wonders of the world. SWIMMING!! We were so fortunate to be able to stay in a house with a pool. Thank you grandma and grandpa!

Sweet Sara

My cute hubby!!

Aaron's 2nd favorite thing to do in the pool. His 1st favorite? Jumping off the side and being dunked under water.

Daredevil Sara. I think this picture is awesome!

One last picture in front of our first home.

And now I've said this before (and I'll probably say this again): I'll never go this long with out blogging again!!

What happened in June

If you still read, here's a QUICK recap of our goings-on in June. No pictures, sorry.

1. Aaron turned TWO!! My baby is not so baby-ish anymore. We had a couple of celebrations for him and he got tons of presents. Thank you family!! His favorite? Shoes!!! His least favorite? Superman Cape. He got a bunch of plaid shorts and polo shirts--he is so stylin' with his new duds. He also got his first real haircut (hated it) and now he looks like a little man. My neighbor made this awesome cake that looked like a dinosaur--it was super yummy too.

2. We sold our house and found ourselves a new one. We looked all over the place for "the perfect house" and it turns out that it's just a few miles away. So we are staying in the same town, for now. It's really nice and I love it and I can't wait to move in and show it off. If it all goes well, we'll be in the new house by the end of the month. But I won't say too much now because I don't want to jinx it.

3. We just got home from a family vacation with Than's family. We rented a house in St. George that had a pool and now we all have nice tans. We went to Las Vegas one day to visit some friends, went to the Grand Canyon on another, and just kicked it by the pool the rest of the time. Sara and Aaron loved loved loved the pool! By the end of the vacation, Sara was swimming from end to end (with her life jacket and floaty on). Aaron just wants to jump in and go under water. He's fearless. Totally Scary!!

So June was great. Here's to a fantastic July!!!

Circus Day

Today was Sara's very last day of preschool forever!!! Kindergarten here we come (in 3 months)! At Sara's preschool they don't do any type of graduation, but they do have a big party on the last day. It's called Circus Day and all the teachers dress up like clowns and the kids get to go to each classroom and sing and dance and eat otter pops and goldfish crackers. Sara has been looking forward to this since Circus Day last year. But who wouldn't? Otter pops and goldfish crackers--that's the best of the best if you're a kid.

Sara and her teacher, Mrs. Smart

I was calm, cool, and collected until we went to say good-bye to her teacher from last year. I don't know why that got me, but that was the moment I realized just how big she is getting. I think it is so easy to think of your first child as a baby forever. Maybe that's how it is with all your kids, or maybe it's just me. But at that moment I realized she is not a baby at all. Suddenly, I was swept up with so many feelings: I was so proud of Sara and all that she has accomplished this year and so sad that these days don't last forever and so happy that she IS growing up and becoming such a smart, funny girl.
So I cried happy/sad tears and held her hand as we walked to the car.

Sara on the first day of preschool (August 2008)

Sara on the last day of preschool.

Look how much she's changed. What a cutie-pie!!

For Andy

Let me start with my excuses: I can't find my camera, my computer is being lame-0 and takes FOREVER to do anything, and the weather is getting nicer so we spend more time outside and less time sitting on our bums (but I guess I do a lot of bum-sitting outside too). But April's almost gone and I haven't posted anything, so this I do now out of guilt.

• We started off the month "trying" to watch General Conference, or Jennifer Conference, as Sara likes to call it. We told Sara all about King Benjamin and how the people listened to him while sitting in their tents and then I made the most beautiful blanket-and-chair-tent that there ever was. Sara and Aaron had snacks and toys and blankets in the tent and loved it for about 15 minutes. But, by golly, that thing had to stay up in the middle of our living room for 2 days!!! It was just to magnificent to take down.

• Easter was fun. We had a big family dinner at my mom's. The kids loved their Easter baskets. They each got a couple stuffed animals and bubbles. Sara got a bunch of hair bows and Aaron got a hat (which is now lost). We had many, many different egg hunts. One at my sister's, one at home, and a neighborhood BBQ/Easter egg hunt. And lots of playing with the eggs around the house. We use the plastic ones and fill them with candy. Don't go thinking we play with hard boiled eggs all the time. Guess who is still eating all the candy? Every time I have some I think, "stealing candy from a baby sure is fun."

• Last week we went to the zoo. I didn't have my camera with me, but I did have my phone so now I do have some pictures to share. Than was going to dinner and the Jazz game after work, so we met up with him for some lunch at Greek Slouvaki (YUMMY!!). Then I headed off to the zoo with the kids. We have a membership, so we usually only stay for 1 to 1.5 hours. This time we got there at 1:00 and didn't leave until 4:30 and had so much fun! Sara got pooped-out in the middle, but we stopped for ice cream and then she was ready to go again.

Aaron sitting in his stroller with his blankie.

Sara sitting on Rhino.

We had to ride the train before we left. I know their faces are cut off, but I just love how happy they both look.

And of course, playing with the ball.

• One day we went to KFC for lunch with my sister. Sara wanted butter for her biscuit, but I couldn't get if for her and neither could my sister, so we told her to ask one of the cashiers. She hesitated for a moment, and then she did it. Now she has no fear of store workers. We went to the mall to buy some baby clothes for my friend and her new baby girl and Sara made friends with the workers. She told them why we were there and started looking for clothes for herself. She then asked them to help her find size 5 clothes. The best was when she found a dress and asked them to help her find leggings to match. And then today we went to Walmart, where she bought some bubbles with her own money and paid the cashier by herself. She exclaimed, "Mom, I got my first receipt!!!!" Oh, what have I done to my daughter?