April celebrations

We made a trip to CA and saw the Cardinals (Seth's favorite team) play the Giants.

This is Albert Pujols!

We celebrated 3 birthdays in April. Leah's 1st birthday was April 12th. We were in northern California for the week so she had her birthday at my Grandma Zwahlen's house in Modesto.



Then we were back in Utah for Seth's grandma Lorraine's 80th birthday party. (Lorraine is Leah's middle name). Ironically Leah always cried around Grandma Lorraine.

Then it was Bowen's third birthday with a John Deere tractor cake! Bowen loves anything to do with John Deere. I even made him a John Deere quilt (pictures to come).

(I made this skirt for Leah. I was so excited it matched this shirt so well!)

Easter Surprise! I left Leah in the room with the Easter baskets, and later I found her with all the heads eaten off the "peeps" and most of the other candy all eaten. Who knows how much sugar she ate!

New pics of the kids (1 and 3 years old)

Check out our kids photos here

Just keep clicking Next to see all of them!

St. George and St. Patricks

St. George trip: we went to watch our nephew Keyen and Seth's brother Court play. They are both Seniors in high school. Keyen has a scholarship to play football at SUU, and Court is getting recruited for baseball, but hasn't signed yet. Just a couple of cute pics:

Grandma Gay and Grandpa Dane

Aunt Claudette, cousins Zoriaha and Gemma

St. Patrick's Day: Green eggs, green grapes, green milk!

February re-cap

Grandma Lorie broke her ankle (she slipped on some ice). She had surgery and everything, but still babysat my kids for me while I taught piano lessons. What a trooper!

Reading with grandpa Barry.

I'm trying to be more festive this year, so for valentines we had pink somewhat heart-shaped pancakes with berry syrup. (I made it in my vitamix: berries, sugar and pectin)

decorating sugar cookies...

New hair bows for Leah

Bowen often makes this silly face, even if I'm mad at him, I have to laugh.

Happy Birthday to me! I am 26 now. Seth got us a condo to stay in down in Mesquite, NV. We took the kids and had a lot of fun getting away. We don't gamble, so there wasn't a whole lot to do...

We visited a state park in NV

Leah can do many things

I know this video is long, but Leah waves a lot at the end, so keep watching!

I thought I would share some updates on Leah. She is now 9 1/2 months. She crawls everywhere and can walk along the furniture. I'm afraid I may have an early walker. She has two little bottom teeth and just today I noticed one of her top teeth poking through. She says dada, mama, hi (well sort of), and loves to smack her lips, suck her thumb and give big open mouth kisses. She is learning to throw a ball (lucky for Bowen), and is good at eating paper! She can also drink from a straw, and is very good at eating icecream.

She only cries when she is being constrained such as when she is getting in her car seat or high chair, and especially when I have to change her clothes. I wonder if this has something to do with her future personality. Maybe she will always hate being pushed (I am scared about one day having a teenage daughter). She also doesn't like being left in a room by herself. She cries and cries until someone comes back into the room.

Bowen (2 1/2) is an active boy. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I do aerobics at the church and he loves running around. Basketball is his thing right now. The hoop that occupies our front room right now is the best investment we ever made. Even though it's cold he still asks to go outside and dig with his trucks. He can stay out for over an hour in the freezing cold.

I discovered a super fun indoor activity for little boys. All you need is this:
And this:

And one of these:

He spent hours digging the cotton stuffing and it was super easy to clean up. (I would have taken a picture, but I have misplaced my camera again! I guess it's time to clean again).

Merry Christmas

Audrey and Leah

Bowen and Cyus

Leah and Trajen

Bowen watching cars (in heaven)

My decorating (so I can remember for next year)

This video show what Bowen sounds like and I wanted to try out my new camera!

We had a wonderful Christmas! I hope all of you did to! On Christmas Eve we ate dinner (shrimp and crab) at Seth's parent's house! We should make that a yearly tradition! (I seem to be putting ! after every sentence. I'll try to calm down). We also read the Christmas story in the Bible, and Bowen actually sat still. Then we went home, and Bowen had a "long winter's nap". He slept until 9:15 Christmas morning. Leah was very patient to wait for him to wake up, haha. So we finally woke up Bowen to see what Santa had brought him. Seth keeps saying, "Bowen, I'm Santa." I don't think Bowen really gets it yet, but he was sure excited to see his choo-choo-train Christmas morning. He loved everything (most of is presents had wheels).

Leah took a nap while we let Bowen watch "Cars" and then we headed over for more food and fun with Seth's family. Bowen got to play with Zoriaha, Cyus and Trajen. And Leah and baby Audrey spent some time together too. It was so fun to be with family and enjoy this special (my favorite) holiday. (I am already sad that it's over, I think the week after Christmas is the most depressing week of the year).

Christmas Card

Every year I try to pick a Christmas card that totally captures my family. I spend hours and hours searching for the right one...just kidding.

Usually, I just choose the one that looks decent and that is somewhat cheap. I've never looked at the shutterfly Christmas cards and Holiday cards, because I thought they were way too expensive. Come to find out that they are really a lot better looking than the Walmart or Sam's club ones that I have done in the past. And they're not too expensive if you can get a promo code (which I am earning through this blog post).

I used shutterfly to create Leah's birth announcement earlier this year:


I just love their selection, and their quality is unbeatable. One day I hope to make a 12 month photo calendars so I can enjoy my families pictures all year long. The only problem I have is that I think of this idea at the beginning of December. I should really start this project in January. Maybe that will be one of my new years resolutions.

Here is a preview of my family Christmas card:

I would love to send you all a Christmas card so if you think I don't have your address please email it to me!