For a good cause

Today is "Nie Nie Day." I learned about this from my cousin Sarah's blog. She is donating artwork, or rather auctioning off her beautiful children's artwork and all the proceeds will help this family out. A couple, Stephanie and Christian Nielson, were severely burned in a flight accident 2 weeks ago. They are recovering from severe burns and in a chemically induced coma in the hospital but it will be months and months and a huge medical bill until they will be able to join their 4 little ones at home again. NieNie is well known in the blogging world and has such a great following that some of her friends have started an auction day just for she and her family. So if you are feeling generous today please check out Designmom's blog and find a blog that is holding an auction that you can bid on. There is a long list of people's blogs of people who are also donating other items.

I have no connection to this family other than I went to school with a man named Chris. It is his sister NieNie. And then I worked on a show w/another Chris and NieNie is his wife's sister. And this Chris and his wife Jane (who's blog is fun to read as well) are the one's who took in the 4 children while their parents recover, and they just had their first baby! There is a lot of love surrounding this family and if you can find it in your budget and heart find a place to donate money. And if you win an auction you may get something really nice out of it, other than the good old feeling of helping another out. Happy Nie day!

I should have laughed

Well, I've always wanted those classic "oops" shots of my kids making a mess of themselves. But after I clean I hate to mess it up. It stresses me out. But tonight I asked for it. I came home today, an hour after I drove around the stupid Fort Union construction, upset that dinner was going to be so late and then I found this. Tyler was watching them. They both looked like Aboriganee children. But my house looked even worse. I had just spent all morning cleaning it and came home later than I wanted to expecting to have screaming, hungry children but instead found this. I couldn't really laugh. Tyler was and so I told him to grab the camera. But as I entered it got worse.....powdered sugar and granola all over the counters, floor, chairs and children. Safety pins, rubberbands scattered about, smashed oreo's on the living room floor and Samuel's potty toy cut open! He managed to reach it from the highest shelf. I knew I should have left it in the car (until he poops, which hasn't happened for days....grrrrr). After my laughter and filming, I broke down. I was so upset becuase I had just spent all this energy and time getting my house nearly spotless and then coming home to realize Tyler had obviously not been watching them at all and that I had wasted all that time!!!!!! He told me to leave, get out of the house so he could mend the problem. He washed the kids up, cleaned up the mess and finally fed them the cold rotisserie chicken I spent an hour buying. I went shopping for kids clothes that I needed to get.



It was okay fun! And then I indulged and bought my new favorite treat. A chocolate chip cookie dough chocolate frosty! Yum-o! Well, I hope that later on I'll look on this moment and laugh.

Animal Planet

Today Samuel and I watched Animal Planet together and I learned some interesting things. He saw what mating turtles look like and then it calmed down a bit after that. We learned about lizards, who have been around since the time of dinosaurs. The first image is of an African lizard doing a "thermal dance." They set their tail on the sand and simultaneously lift one front foot and the opposite back foot and switch, fairly quickly, while standing, to keep as little of their bodies on the hot sand at once.

This second is a chameleon. They have such long tongues! And big bulging eyes that only look at one thing at once, their target. Otherwise they are always wandering looking at two different things.

I should add to this random post that I thought they are very talented animals and I was glad to learn these few facts about them. Pretty talented little creatures. I would say they are both cute but I didn't really find the chameleon that way. When they showed his face close up zooming in on his target he looked like a creepy old man, wetting his tongue for the kill. But the dancing lizards were awesome! So talented!

Here it is folks

This was the photo on the front page of the SLTribune Living section yesterday. I look....."awed" or more like "odd." Some friends in the ward kept a copy for us. Good thing too because we forgot to buy a copy of it and I couldn't find it online until today. We can keep it for the kids books, their first appearance in a paper. And they even spelled our names right.

Colorado Trip

These post are a little out of order but I had a lot to catch up on.

After Lake Powell we continued on to Colorado to stay w/Tyler's parents. My sister also lives in Denver now (Tyler and I both grew up in Arvada, until 8 years ago, my parents moved to Utah) and we kept pretty busy. B/w reading Breaking Dawn , eating more food, playing more games and exercising and letting the kids roam free while I slept in :), we saw Dark Knight again, jogged w/my sisters-in-law, went to Heritage Square, did some service for the stake, went to play group and finally had my 10-year class reunion.

Here are a few snapshots of our trip. First Heritage Square. We went down the Alpine slides and Samuel and Jocelyn loved it! And then Samuel was brave enough to go on the roller coasters that were big enough for a companion adult to go along.

Here is Samuel and G'pa getting pedicures.



Then as part of the 10-year Reunion we went to a Rockies game, got rained on for an hour, were on the big screen, and it was my sister Rose and her boyfriend's first pro-baseball game. Pictured are me and my two sisters, 3 of Tyler's sisters and his mom and dad and Rose's boyfriend.







Samuel was a lousy sleeper in Colorado too. After CO we continued on to my parents for a few days where Samuel stepped on a nail and he and Jossy played with the hundreds of grasshoppers jumping in my parents yard.

But now we are home, after nearly 3 weeks. It took me nearly a day to recover but I think we're back on track now. I've got to get into the swing of things before Tyler starts school. We started potty training Samuel again after he saw a picture of a "crane that picks up dirt" in a Little Critter book. So I used bribery. I told him he could have one like it if he pooped on the potty which hasn't happened yet. Ugh. I hope we can get through this trial or I'll end up homeschooling bcse he's not allowed into schools. Prayer, patience and other things have not worked yet. Maybe a blessing? Magic? A miracle? A potty trainer. We're seriously thinking of hiring one. If they exist. At least he's back on his sleep schedule (going to bed by 9pm instead of 11pm, until we can push it back to 8pm) and doesn't awake at night anymore. Jocelyn has been a trooper through the whole vacacy. I think it's the age, to be honest. She's been fantastic and my "favorite"child through all of this.

Anyway, my trials are centered around Samuel right now. If I can get through this phase w/o losing it then perhaps I'll be able to get through the teenage years w/o having a hernia, heart attack or anything else that starts w/ an H. Welcome home to us!

Declaration of Indepence

Tyler heard about the Declaration of Independence being displayed in SLC for only 2 days so we decided to make an outing of it while our floor was being waxed. Well, after 2 hours of waiting in line (at least it was air conditioned) we were able to see it. It is not the original but one of only 25 copies left. It is not signed by anyone and it is typed not written, like the original. But it was published the same night as the original and witnessed by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams as it was printed. This man bought a $4 frame at a flea market and later found this folded and tucked behind the original art in that frame. He sold it for 2 million dollars. Lucky him!

Aside from our overtired children (luckily I brought snacks for them) and somewhat unpatriotic (due to their hyperness) we had a neat experience. We were able to see the newly renovated capital building. It's beautiful inside! So neat! And Tyler was so good to take the kids up and down the stairs and around for the first 45 minutes. There was a neat video being shown hosted by Reese Witherspoon who's ancestor (somebody Witherspoon) signed the original. Then as we got our chance to view it up close (and fortuanately, to my relief, our children did not touch or knock it over due to it's nature on this table. Maybe bcse Tyler told Samuel the gaurd with the gun may have to use it if he did anything naughty) this SL Tribune reporter asked to take our pictures and took our names and qoutes from us. We haven't picked up a copy yet to see if we made it in or not.

But aside from all the waiting and hoopla, it was a neat experience. I've never seen the original and probably won't for a few years. It is so special to view this piece of history. The founding fathers breathed on this document! They wrote it! They are the reason our nation was so successful many years ago (can't say the same today, our politicians are probably making the forefathers roll in their graves right now). They were inspired men! I love America!

Oh, and for any of you who are dumb like me, and should never be asked the dumb questions on Jay Leno's show bcse I would put America to shame. I seriously had to ask Tyler if the founding fathers were the "fore" fathers or "four" fathers, like the one's on Mt. Rushmore. How dumb am I? Tyler informed me that the men on Mt. Rushmore did not even live in the same time period as each other ( I could have figured that out if I actually knew who was on the monument)! Duh. I am ashamed to admit this. Did any of you ever wonder this? Maybe if I had paid attention in US History I would have noticed the spelling. Oh, and I honestly thought chili's came from Chile. Ya, I am a little blond sometimes.

Oh, and for you Denver-ites, it's coming to Denver next !

Breaking Dawn

I am a fan of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series of teen Vampire books. I know, it sounds so juvenile and freaky doesn't it? But what can I say, I was hooked from the first book. But if I were to be quizzed on the content (not the lame-o Facebook quizzes, those are no good) I must admit I know I would not be able to beat Tyler or my brother-in-law Grant. One, because they are smarter and probably better test takers and two, because they know the story and details so well. In fact, it was Tyler's idea to attend the midnight release of Breaking Dawn instead of waiting for our copy from BN in the mail. Needless to say, he finished it in 2 days and it took me nearly a week (only because I was at Tyler's folks and distracted by my vacation time). The photos are courtesy of my sister Jennie. At the release we were certainly underessed and overaged. Tyler and Grant were 2 of about 5 other males picking up their copies. And these teen girls were dressed like they were going to the Prom. Weird ?!?! Jennie is showing off her copy of New Moon as she had not even finished that yet. And then she is indulging in the vampiric chocolate. Oh, and Tyler is wishing for me to be the next Stephenie Meyer, just so he doesn't have to work. Did you know she only was originally paid $750,000 for a three-book deal from her publishers? But for this fourth one she received $1 per book and 1.3 million copies were sold by or before the first day alone? She woke up a million and then some dollars richer! Wahoo for her. Well, I honestly don't believe I will wake up with a fantastic dream and sell it is a book or even a play. And even if I did sell a play, let's be realistic, who makes that much money selling play scripts? oh, dream. It is fun to dream, though, isn't it? Perhaps this is why I loved this series so much. To escape. I could go on to review this book but I should save it for goodreads. Hope you all enjoyed it (I know some of you could care less, and for that I think less of you. Kidding!!!!!!!!!! ) and it's been entertaining folks. And no, I am not flipping you all off in the picture above. I am pointing out, w/my cell phone, the huge zit on my chin. I guess I should have been more lady like.

Lake Powell

Each year Tyler's family goes to Lake Powell, Utah. They have a time share on a quaint houseboat and it's one of our favorite things to do as a family. This was especially fun this year as we taught Samuel how to "swim." He had his life jacket on but he was so brave and not afraid of the water. He even jumped off the small ledge of the boat and rode in the tube behind the boat and wasn't afraid of the speedboat this year. Samuel's place in the world, other than home, is Lake Powell. He LOVES to fish especially with his grandpa. The first day Jocelyn dropped his pole into the Lake and I freaked out. I was so upset bcse it's his special $10 Scooby Doo pole. Well, luckily it was only 12 feet down and one of my sister-in-law's friends dove down and grabbed it.

But my biggest fear each year since we've have children is that they'll fall in the water or get seriously injured. Or like one year when Tyler was much younger he hid in one of the cupboards, for what seemed an eternity (so I've heard), while his mom was near hysterics, everybody including aunts and uncles searching frantically, ready to call search and rescue, he announced his location, playing a bad trick on all the family. So, hopefully Samuel or Jocelyn will not follow in daddy's footsteps.

Other than bat poo falling on us in our sleep, Samuel having to sleep b/w me and Tyler bcse he was "afraid of the dark" and eating way too much junk, I had a great time. I love sitting around playing Euchre, an Indiana'n card game, talking and swimming. Love it! It's always great to be with family. And Lake P is especially magical to Tyler and I since it was here that I wrote in my journal "I think I am going to marry Tyler S." I certainly didn't know for sure it would actually happen. He proposed to me in that very bay and now our children can enjoy the beauty and peach this lake offers. Thank you to my in-laws for providing such a fun trip!