Happy Mother’s Day to me!

This Mother’s day has brought me a lot of wonderful surprises. Most holidays in our family are pretty low-key but not this time! My Mother’s day festivities started off with a Mother’s Day tea with Katelyn’s preschool class. They performed some fun songs and even recited a sweet little poem. They also served us vegetables and dip and cupcakes accompanied by a tea cup of apple juice. Katelyn was so excited when I arrived for the program. She escorted me in and sat me down and presented me with all kinds of special surprises she made. Continue reading “Happy Mother’s Day to me!”

Spring break, winter break, whatever

This past week was spring break, although it felt much like winter break — even in usually sunny St. George. The temps were in the 40’s and 50’s the first few days so we spent most our time indoors. We took the kids to the theater, the indoor pool, and we even took a quick trip to In-N-Out Burger. Our idea of fun in the sun didn’t quite happen. Continue reading “Spring break, winter break, whatever”

Happy 3rd Birthday to our little princess.

Seth and I were startled from our sleep this morning as Claire danced into our room singing about how today was her birthday. She is such a princess. She twirled about the house all day knowing very well the whole day was all about her. Claire has a way about her that often captures the hearts of everyone she meets. We had an Easter egg hunt today at our church and the activity leaders insisted that before we began everyone needed to sing to Claire. Of course she was the center of attention again. She loved it. After the egg hunt my neighbors told Claire to come over for her own special golden birthday eggs. Everyone wanted to do something special for her on her big day. Continue reading “Happy 3rd Birthday to our little princess.”

Dad on SportsBeat

My dad was featured on SportsBeat on KSL this last weekend. He is a pretty amazing guy with a really cool story, and I thought Kathy Aiken did a pretty good job of telling his story in just over three minutes.

The best part about it was showing it to the kids. They were all so excited that their grandpa was “famous.” A few of Jacob’s friends also saw it and were pretty excited about the whole deal. Funny.

Anyway, here is the clip. Enjoy.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=7552607898650852970&hl=en&fs=true

That’s what I get for trying

So following along with my New Year’s resolutions, I have been reading some books on healthy cooking. The past few weeks I have tried to cut out a lot of the enriched flour, saturated fats and simple sugars and implement some of the healthier foods into my life as well as my children’s lives. Some things have gone over really well. They don’t seem to mind whole wheat tortillas, whole wheat noodles, organic peanut butter or skim milk. They even like the flax and soy protein shakes, but I guess I crossed the line when I added tofu to our meal last night.

We had tofu stir fry. The kids just stared in amazement. “What are these white rubbery chunks Mom?” I explained it was tofu and then they insisted on knowing what animal it was from. After explaining its origin they seemed even more confused than before. I told them they had to try it but if they didn’t like it then they didn’t have to eat it. Needless to say Jacob spit it across the room and we all laughed. He was so upset he flipped his plate upside down making a big mess. Claire was on the opposite end of the table spewing it all back on to her plate saying “I don’t like it. It is disgusting.” Meg and KK ate it but would prefer they not eat it again. Truly it doesn’t taste bad. It really doesn’t have any taste at all, but the texture is kind of gross. I am not sure I am a big fan myself. Continue reading “That’s what I get for trying”

Some modest milestones

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game using a GPS, and it’s our latest family hobby. You can find out more about geocaching by reading the FAQs and also on wikipedia. Our family loves being outdoors and exploring this beautiful state, and so geocaching is something we can all enjoy together.

The kids particularly like finding caches and rifling through all the toys and treasures in the cache. Jacob and Megan are getting to be expert spotters and can usually find a cache if we can get them to within 20 feet. I’m becoming very adept at knowing the general location of the cache from a distance, and Manina prides herself in finding caches everyone else has given up on. We make a pretty good team, although it can be awkward when other non-geocachers (muggles) are watching you trying to figure out what you’re up to. Once, I got accused of being part of an elaborate drug-smuggling operation.

We hit a few geocaching milestones on our trip to sunny St. George this last weekend. Continue reading “Some modest milestones”

The things we love

Happy Valentine’s day! Some people hate it, some people like it. Seth and I don’t really care either way, but there is no question that my kids love any day that they can cut out hearts and get lots of candy – wahoo! My kids are young enough that the simple traditions are never left forgotten. Every year we cut out hearts and write the things we love on them and post them on the door for the month. Everyone that reads this blog is probably listed on our door (friends, brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc). Of course books, video games and barbies made the list too. So here’s our tribute to all of our amazing friends and family that we love so much! Continue reading “The things we love”