The Mystery...

Anyone want to solve this mystery for me?? The past several months I have been seeing "tracks" all over in my yard. Finally today I caught of glimpse of the nasty little thing that is causing it! This picture was taken from inside while I was holding Olivia and I barely got him but if you look closely in the right corner, there he is! I went outside to see if I could get a better look but he ran towards me and I ran inside. I am not usually afraid of mice or mice-type creatures but he got me on the element of surprise and yeah... it was a little frightening. I think he is a vole? Why is he burrowing in my nice new grass??! and How do I get rid of him!? Isn't there a nice way to make him leave me alone? I feel bad killing him. Anyone got some ideas?


My poor grass.

Teenager Weekend

Oh to be a teenager again...

This past weekend, Ben's siblings (Sean, Grant, and Sarah) came out to visit us. Sean is leaving on his mission next month and so we wanted to spend all the time we could with him. Incidentally we are going out to Duchesne this weekend to see them all again. So they came out Saturday and we had a picnic in the park, complete with Little Caesars pizza. We then dropped the kids off at a babysitter and went go-karting, mini golfing, and laser tagging. After we picked the kids up, we went out to eat at a new restaurant in Logan called Pounders. It was delicious! I will definitely will be going back, especially since it was cheap too! :) We watched movies until 2am and then woke up the next morning for church. Sunday we had a full house. Ben's other brother and his wife came down for dinner along with Ben's friends from high school Tyson and Scott. It was tons of fun laughing and chatting all afternoon. On Memorial Day we went up to Ogden and played laser tag at a nicer laser tag place and ate more pizza for dinner. I love hanging out with Ben's family. They make me feel young again. Haha. Ben's brothers remind me so much of Ben when he was young. I didn't take a lot of pics but here are a few.

Sean and Livy
Grant thinks he is pretty hot stuff.... he is all talk. Hahaha.

After much effort, I got Sarah to smile for the camera!
This picture freaks me out just a little bit. Haha. Ben loves his brother... maybe a little too much.

A picture of Sardine Canyon on the way to Ogden. It's so beautiful up here!

Yum!

So I tried a new recipe for Sunday dinner and it was so good that Lindsey thought I should post it on my blog... It is Bowtie Asparagus Pasta. It was so amazing that I ate way too much and actually got sick, so there is your warning. Don't eat too much. I found this on a recipe blog but I changed a few little things so here it is...

1/2 pkg. bow tie pasta (it called for a whole package... no way)
1/4 C. butter
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4- 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese (depending on how you like it)
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 pint heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste
8-10 spears asparagus, blanched and cut into one inch pieces
4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1/4 c. toasted pinenuts (didn't add this but I bet it would be good)
1 Tbsp. corn starch
Parmesan cheese, to taste

Boil bow tie pasta in salted water until done.
In skillet melt butter. Add garlic and saute a minute or so.
Add Parmesan Cheese and bouillon cubes. When the bouillon cubes are dissolved, slowly stir in heavy cream and salt & pepper. Add cooked pasta to cream sauce and toss until pasta is well covered. Add blanched asparagus. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon, toasted pinenuts, & Parmesan cheese and toss together. Serve immediately. My sauce never got really thick so at the end I put in the cornstarch and let it bubble for a few minutes and then let it sit. It eventually thickens.

Zoo Day

We actually did something outside! We have been sick so much that it's been hard to enjoy this weather but FINALLY it's summer for us. We went to Hogle Zoo this weekend with some of my family. Andrew had the time of his life running around outside the whole day and being with family. Here are some of the highlights...
Posing with the giraffe.


Andrew kept calling this Zebra "Mad. as. gas. car." He thought it was a character from one of his favorite movies!
Me and Livy with our big hats. She did surprisingly well for such a long day.
This was one of my favorite animals. I don't even know what it was actually but it's so cute up there taking a nap. I wanted to trade places for a day.

We went to the bird show and Andrew had fun feeding the birds tips.


Olivia got to go for a ride in my grandpa's wheelchair. Wahoo! She hated it. Andrew enjoyed riding around on it though.

Dippin' Dots, yummy.

SOMEBODY... gave Andrew icecream when I actually told them only a snowcone. hmm.

Melanie took a break from snapping hideous candid photos of us to ride the carousel. Ben rode a turtle that was actually smaller than him. Haha.

Andrew's favorite thing of the day was probably the train!


The kids were exhausted after such a long day. Notice Andrew's new toy. He won't go anywhere without it. He woke up mid-nap long enough to say "Tiger" and right back to sleep he went.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's 2:40 pm and I have been trying unsuccessfully for two hours to get Andrew to take a nap. Despite my threats, he is NOT in his bed, I hear him in the bathroom. I ask "What are you doing, Andrew?" "Need to go potty" Yeah I bet you need to go potty, even though you just went TEN minutes ago huh? That is what I feel like shouting. I help him go potty AGAIN and Olivia comes crawling in as fast as she can to climb on the toilet. She grabs a toy. I pull Andrew off the toilet, pull his pants up, and just as I grab Olivia she manages to drop the toy right square in the dirty toilet! Wow...

A young mother writes: "I know you've written before about the empty nest syndrome, that lonely period after the children are grown and gone. Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in laundry and muddy boots. The baby is teething; the boys are fighting. My husband just called and said to eat without him, and I fell off my diet. Lay it on me again, will you?"

OK. One of these days, you'll shout, "Why don't you kids grow up and act your age?" And they will. Or, "You guys get outside and find yourselves something to do... and don't slam the door!" And they won't.

You'll straighten up the boys' bedroom neat and tidy: bumper stickers discarded, bedspread tucked and smooth, toys displayed on the shelves. Hangers in the closet. Animals caged. And you'll say out loud, "Now I want it to stay this way." And it will.

You'll prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't been picked to death and a cake with no finger traces on the icing, and you'll say, "Now, there's a meal for company." And you'll eat it alone.

You'll say, "I want complete privacy on the phone. No dancing around. No demolition crews. Silence! Do you hear me?" And you'll have it.

No more plastic tablecloths stained with spaghetti. No more bedspreads to protect the sofa from damp bottoms. No more gates to stumble over at the top of the basement steps. No more clothespins under the sofa. No more playpens to arrange a room around.

No more anxious nights under a vaporizer tent. No more sand on the sheets or Popeye movies in the bathroom. No more iron-on patches, rubber bands for ponytails, tight boots or wet knotted shoestrings.

Imagine. A lipstick with a point on it. No baby-sitter for New Year's Eve. Washing only once a week. Seeing a steak that isn't ground. Having your teeth cleaned without a baby on your lap.

No PTA meetings. No more car pools. No blaring radios. No one washing her hair at 11 o'clock at night. Having your own roll of Scotch tape.

Think about it. No more Christmas presents out of toothpicks and library paste. No more sloppy oatmeal kisses. No more tooth fairy. No giggles in the dark. No knees to heal, no responsibility.

Only a voice crying, "Why don't you grow up?" and the silence echoing, "I did."
By: Erma Bombeck

This made me cry. I have been so stressed and crazy the past couple months. Most of it has been my own personal problems but to add to it... My children have been overwhelming me with the sickness, the teething, the crying and crying and crying ALL day, the sleepless nights, the early mornings, the temper tantrums, the misbehaving, the runny noses, the poopy diapers, the "Andrew do it", gosh if I hear that one more time I think I will go crazy! I know one day my children are going to be on their own and all I will have left is my thoughts and memories. I should have done this... I could have done this... If only I did this... If I could do it again... on and on and on.

Every night I go to bed thinking... What am I going to do with these children? They truly deserve better. They are amazing kids. So for this Mother's Day (I know it's actually over but... yeah I suck) I would like to thank my mother for always being there for me even when I am insane and call her crying only to hang up and the next hour be fine. Thanks for changing my diapers, cleaning my face, being my taxi, raising me practically by yourself and for always being my number one fan. I would like to thank my grandmother who has patiently listened to me whine and complain over the past 22 years and who has been one of my best friends. I would like to thank my mother-in-law who has always been a wonderful example to me of a great mother. It is because of her that I have such an amazing husband who ALWAYS puts me first. I would like to say Happy late Mother's day to all my aunts, grandmothers (Ben's included), friends, and fellow-bloggers who I admire so much. I am glad I am not in this alone and even though I feel overwhelmed much of the time, I feel it an honor to call myself a MOTHER.

Trying to get out of my rut...

Well it's been two and a half weeks since the first sign of our sickness and things are looking up. FINALLY! I still can't hear out of one ear due to a lovely ear infection and my nose is stuffy, but I can actually function and that is a serious plus! It feels like my whole month has just flown right by because we have been cooped up inside. No baking this month, no interesting stories... We are now trying to get out of our sick rut. Andrew was SERIOUSLY spoiled after being sick. I would let him watch movies while he was just laying around and last week when he felt better, he would come up to me and say, "Momma, I'm sick. Watch movie please?" So we are on a "movie detox" and he can't watch anymore for awhile. He is slowly getting better. But he still won't smile for my camera... I am working on a new schedule with him. He is almost at the age to do preschool but I think he is a little young and they are expensive... so... we are doing our own little preschool. I am making up lessons out of the book "Teaching Children Joy," basically the book behind the popular Joy Schools. So each week we work on a different "joy" and each day has different activities, such as: I do an FHE lesson relating to it out of the nursery manual on monday, we go to story time at the library on tuesday, we play with friends on wednesday, we go check out books on thursday, and friday I make up a little lesson with activities. So far it has been pretty fun for him. Yesterday we checked out books relating to the lesson and he had fun reading them to Olivia this morning. So cute! I hope this little preschool will help me stay organized and have things for him to do. Maybe if I find more parents that are interested, I will start doing a real joy school. I really like the idea of the joy schools rather than a pre-kindergarten thing for someone his age. Anyway- I am rambling...

Olivia has grown SO much. She learns new things everyday. She is so sweet. She now walks along the furniture and gets up and down without falling... most of the time. She just started clapping and she smacks her lips when she eats. She blows raspberries when I talk to her and tries to talk back saying, "dadada" Haha. We play this little game when she picks up a toy while I am holding her I say, "Don't drop it..." Then she gets a big grin, swings it around and throws it on the ground laughing. She has such a sense of humor. I could talk about her all day. Haha.It's the end of school today, Ben just got home and we are going to go celebrate or something! Bye for now!