In your prayers

I just have to do a post about this sweet little baby Gracie. My cousin Anne told me about her and sent me to the families blog to learn more. I have been sitting here crying my heart just pouring out for this little family. Gracie was born with only half of her heart a big 8# beautiful baby girl and she is not doing so well. You can follow her story here. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers!

Easter Pictures (that's it for Easter I promise)

I am a little late with the last of my Easter pictures. I always need to get "the" picture for my Easter cards and this one is the winner. Easter cards you are thinking to yourself- they will be in the mail in the next few days I promise! My list of things to do in the crafting area is starting to pile up so I am kicking it into high gear!

Here are a few of the outtakes! Man photographing two kids is soooo much harder than one!
Dylan had an outfit change. I just did not love the vest I had gotten him and his Uncle Jeff got him his first ever tie! Not a clip on one either! DO not look too close in this picture- I had to tie the tie.

I also have been trying to get Kate's 1st year picture. These are cute but I really want her standing with this antique stroller that Aunt Debbie has. In Dylan's 1st year picture he his holding onto an antique tricycle. I will get those done very soon- she is 14months old already!

Kate and Buttercup!
She had had enough with me! It was way past nap time! Sorry my beautiful Kate!

Trials and being Grateful

I am at Susan's house watching her kids and have been since Tuesday night so I have a little more spare time than usual to be on the computer. I found Jen's blog through my friend Jamelle's blog and she made a post today that I think has gotten a lot of people thinking. If you have time go read it and read all the comments, they are wonderful! The jest of her post is how we all have trials and we do not always show them so we should not be judgemental to others. It is a wonderful lesson we always seem to need to be reminded about.

Our lesson on Sunday in Relief Society was from The October 2007 conference talk O Remember, Remember by Henry B. Eyring. It was a wonderful lesson and another reminder to be grateful. He told of a story about how he came to writing in a journal every day. Before he wrote he would ask himself this question, Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today? Every night he recorded all the big and little things that answer that question so his children could read it and be reminded of everything that had been done for them. If you have not read or heard this talk I suggest you do. I am not a good summarizer!

During this lesson my thoughts turned to my bff Susan and all her trials and how she is such a wonderful example to me! I love checking her blog to see what she is grateful for. (she writes one thing in every entry)

Christina and Ella

Here are some quick pictures I took of Christina (Sean's girlfriend, my brother) and her daughter Ella. They are so beautiful and I love having them with us! You guys make Sean so happy we love you!

Family Picture

Here is our dorky Easter picture! I think Dylan and Marc were so handsome! And I had a warm fuzzy in Relief Society holding Kate in her pink, full dress like this is who I am, a mom of a toddler girl! Thank you Aunt Shonnie for the beautiful dress and the wise words to always dress her in pink!

Rabbits, snakes and lizards

Here is a tid bit of info not all of you know about me. I grew up in a household of all sorts of animals! I love everything and we always had guinea pigs, rats, bunnies, lizards, snakes, birds, tarantula, fish, dog and cats. On Easter I love getting pictures of my kids with the bunny they have now "Fez". My parents have trimmed down a lot as we have grown but they still have a corn snake, a bunny, cat and dog.

The snake is kept in the kids bathroom and Kate always loves to look at him. When Sean noticed he promptly took him out for her to see. She liked him but got a little nervous when she saw his head for some reason.

He made poor Christina (his girlfriend) hold it-she is a good sport!

Ok so I have a cute story to tell about my little Sam. We had an Iguana in the family room in a mesh cage that my dad had built that was like 3 feet long. The stupid thing liked to climb to the lid and try to get out. One day I was being a bad big sister, I was supposed to be babysitting Sam and I was but I was also taking a nap on the couch when he woke me up yelling fire,fire! I sat up to see that the Iguana had knocked his heat lamp down and it had caught the newspapers on fire! (just a little one) I do not know what I was thinking but I yelled at him to go get some water (I think he was about 3) he ran to the kitchen got a tiny cereal bowl filled it with water ran back to me handed me the almost empty bowl (spilling it from running) and ran his little body right out the front door leaving me to save the house! I have to admit the Iguana went to a new home shortly after that!

All Dressed Up

I remember as a kid coming home from church on holidays and having to stay in our church clothes for just a little bit while we set up the camera on the tri pod to get a family picture. This year I decided to bring my camera to church and after sacrament (our meetings are backwards) anyone who wanted a family snapshot met me outside for one! I just deleted Mindy's family picture! I am so sorry Mindy I am at a friends house and when I get home I will add it back on!

Easter Morning

Looks like the Easter Bunny came! They each got new books and bathing suits! Dylan was very excited and we left Kate alone for a couple minutes and found she had opened an egg and shoved every piece of candy in her mouth including the egg wrapped in foil!

Lemon Curd

I have seen this on a couple blogs and got the brilliant idea to make a ton of it and package it cutely and pass some out to all the women in my ward on Easter Sunday. It was pretty easy except I always decide to do things like this last minute. It started Friday I made some to smear in between a lemon cake I made for our dinner on Sunday and thought it would be cute to share because I did not need very much! Anyway my hunt for a cute and inexpensive way to store it in was the trickiest part. I had wanted tiny glass jars with lids but could only find a few and they were .99 and i needed about 40 so walking through Michaels I saw the terra cotta pots on sale for 3 for .99 much better! I put the lemon curd in a dixie bathroom cup and then in the pot covered with a clear wrap tied with a bow and matching label on top. Here is the recipe:

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1T grated lemon zest

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter

In a saucepan combine all ingredients and cook over medium heat (if the heat is too high the eggs will curdle). Cook 6-10 min and occasionally whisk until thick enough to hold marks from the whisk (about the consistency of pudding- it will thicken more as it sits after done cooking, I found I kept cooking to get it thicker and then the eggs would curdle anyway)

It can stay in the fridge for about 3 months. Spread on your favorite cake, in between layers of a cake or on a piece of toast! Enjoy!

1st Sack lunch

On Friday Dylan was able to bring a sack lunch to school because they were going to walk to a park and have an Easter egg hunt and eat lunch with his classmates! This is probably a good indication on how I am going to be every time he enters a new stage in his life! Not good! I can not believe I am going to have a five year old soon! He is growing up to fast!

Decorating Easter Eggs

On Thursday we went to Sara's house to hang out, decorate eggs and go on a walk. We had a ton of fun watching Dylan do all the work!
Kate just ate the whole time- sometimes that girl is a never ending pit!


He was so proud of his work! Great job Dylan!
Ellinor was having fun watching!

Easter Gift from Gigi and Papa

We received a package the other day from The Popcorn Factory and Gigi and Papa! Inside there were twelve popcorn ball eggs and frosting and lots of candies to decorate them. On the first day of spring Brett had us over for a bbq and egg hunt, so we brought them as an activity for all the kids to do. They had a ton of fun! Thanks Gigi and Papa! We love you lots!

Weekend Getaway

Marc and I have not been on any type of vacation together since before Dylan was born. I know pretty sad and I have to admit it is mainly my fault- I always want to bring my babies with me! So we decided once Kate was done breast feeding (which was in January, so it still took me a little to plan) we would leave them with Grandma and Pops and go to Glenwood Springs for a long weekend. We left on a Friday and came home on Sunday. We had a wonderful time visiting the hot springs pools, eating out, shopping, and sleeping in. I have always wanted to try the Hanging Lake hike so we had decided to go on Saturday as our activity. Marc had done research on the internet and said it was suppose to be an easy hike, so when we got there and I saw this sign I was a little freaked out! I am incredibly out of shape! We decided to give it a try. It was straight up and so snow packed it was a sheet of ice! Right before you get to the top it is a big incline right up against the mountain and there are guard rails to hold on to but the snow was as high as the rails. I look up and see an elderly couple on their bums cursing with an English accent trying to slide down the mountain! We had to climb over to the side to let them by and all I kept thinking was, I am going to break my first bone at age 30! I have a very active imagination! Anyway it was well worth it, and I want to go back this summer! In case you are wondering I only slid twice on the way down but caught myself both times!

Difficult?!?! I kept saying to Marc, he kept asking me do you want to go back?



This was at the top. The water was so blue and crystal clear, very pretty!

There was a little hike to this spot, a hole in the rock with water spilling out.
This is how incredibly clear the water was! Fish everywhere! Thank you dad for my macro lens! I love getting so close to the wildlife!

These sheep were on the side of the highway on our way back to the hotel! So cool to see all the wildlife outside the Zoo.

Dylan and Kate had fun with Aunt Wendy on Friday and Grandma and Pops the rest of the weekend. Dylan got to go to the Museum of Nature and Science with Grandma and Pops and no Kate! Thank you very much!