Twinkle Twinkle

Hopefully Connor's singing talent will develop like Daddy's and not Mommy's

7 Years!

That is right, we have been married now for 7 years! We now have a 4 year old and my "baby" is talking to me in little 2 or 3 word sentences (no, we don't have plans for another one right now). We now have a "real" job and I guess we need to be "real" adults now. Needless to say, we were feeling a little old. It didn't help that my brother brought over an Adam Sandler movie, which he and his wife thought was hilarious, and we didn't think it was funny at all. Okay, maybe we laughed twice, but we thought to ourselves that we are just like our parents when Happy Gilmore came out. We thought that was hilarious and our parents thought it was stupid. But, yesterday, as we were out celebrating our anniversary, I decided that I would not go back if I could. (Caution: I may get a little mushy) I am so thankful that I found John (or he found me). We are a perfect match (not that we are perfect, we just compliment each other well; my weaknesses are his strengths and he can help me work on them) and he is so good to me. He is a wonderful dad and I couldn't have asked for a better man to teach my children. He has gone through a lot the last couple years (dental school was not easy) all so that I can full fill my dream of staying home and raising our kids. The only thing I wish he would do a little more is SING! (If you don't know, it was his singing voice that lured me in. Once I heard him sing, my single life was toast.)

So, enough of the mushy stuff. We had a lot of fun yesterday (oh, and a special thanks goes out to my mom for watching our kids). We first ate at a crepe place for lunch (not near as good as the crepe place in Milwaukee) and then we went downtown. We watched the Joseph Smith movie in the Legacy Theater (which everyone should see!) and then walked around Temple Square. Then we went to the Gateway Mall and checked out a few stores. We ate a wonderful "apple pie" caramel apple from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. (It was almost as good as Amy's Caramel Apples.) Then we went and ate at Tepanyaki, where they cook the food right in front of you. That was fun to watch. And then of course we couldn't have a date without a movie, so we went and saw Hancock. (The first half was great, the last half was a little off.) It really was fun to just "hang out" with my best friend and I look forward to the many years we have ahead of us.

John Mayer Concert

My good friend, Jen, took me to the John Mayer concert last night and it was awsome! I have only been to one other concert (Journey) and this was so much better. I don't remember the name of the opening band, but after that Colbie Caillat performed and she has a beautiful voice! When John Mayer got on stage, you could just feel the energy from everyone, even though it was outside and we were way in the back. He is very good on the guitar and it was fun to see him "rock out". I took a few pictures with my friend's camera, so as soon as I get those I will post them.

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Now playing: John Mayer - Say
via FoxyTunes

Sydney is 4!

I can't believe I am a mother of a 4 year old. Where does the time go? We had a few good friends over and had a lot of fun. Sydney loved having her friends over and got spoiled with all the gifts she got.


And of course the grown-ups had to play a little too. Thanks Mitch for letting us borrow Rock Band.

Our Real Camping Trip

Since we didn't actually camp at our last camping trip, we thought we would give it another try. Although we had a ton of fun last time (when we actually got there) we missed out on all the nightly fire activities, like dough boys! The only thing we missed this time was the stars. Oh darn! I guess we just have to camping again.

Thanks a millions times Jenni


Uncle Mitch built a really cool hut!

Musings of a Stay at Home Mom

I have always been very goal oriented. I tried hard in school to get good grades so I could go to college. I worked hard in college so I could get my Elementary Education degree. (Yes, sometimes I colored pages, but there was also hard work to be done.) But my ultimate goal was to have a family and be a mom. I am now living that goal and occasionally the thought pops in my head that I am not doing enough, I should have more goals, or, my favorite, I have wasted my education because I am "just" a stay at home mom. So I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I have come to the conclusion that I am so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids. It is a lot of work and some days I think it would be easier to have a job outside the home because then I would have something to show for my day. As a mom, you clean and feed and teach, but at the end of the day, the house is a mess (again), the kids are hungry (again) and your kids still aren't listening to you. But I feel that I was made to be a mom. That is my calling in life and I hope I can live up to it. So as for now, I am okay with not having any future goals of returning to school and teaching. I am okay with having nothing spectacular to report when asked "what have you been doing lately?" Maybe down the road I will make new goals, but right now I feel that after my kids are grown, I will have payed my dues and I am going to do what all retired workers should do. I am going to travel! Australia, here I come.

Sparklers! Firworks!

Oh, to be a kid again!

Dirt Roads, Paper Plates, and Motorcycles

For the 4th of July we thought it would be fun to go camping with some of my family. The plan was to meet up on the 3rd and build a nice fire, roast marshmellows, and eat dough boys (thanks Jenni!). Well, it didn't quite work out that way. You see, John got off work later than everyone else, so they gave us directions. Now, anyone who has ever camped with us knows that we usually get lost once, but we always find it in the end. Not this time. The directions we were given we to go up the canyon, turn off on a dirt road right before the road goes up a big hill, and if you get to Mill Hollow you have gone too far. Now that last instruction we were given by 4 different people, at least 2 times each. We got that one down. So, drove up the canyon and ruled out a few dirt roads, never saw this giant hill, and got to Mill Hollow. Too far, so we turned off on a dirt road about 5-10 miles after the sign to turn around. We were also supposed to be looking for our name on a paper plate once we turned off onto the dirt road. Well, even though this road was "too far" we saw some paper plates and read them anyway. Not a single one had our name on it, so we turned around. We spent the next 4 hours, yes 4 hours going back and forth on that canyon road and went up every dirt road we found so we could rule it out. Of course there was no cell phone service. When we decided to turn back at 11 pm, we got a call, but could we find the stinking phone in time, NO! It was my brother, but he didn't leave a message and we couldn't get back through to him. Well, we decided to give the canyon one more run and we drove all the way back up to Mill Hollow (it now being pitch dark), found nothing and drove back 45 minutes to find a hotel (it was 2 hours back home). So this is how we camped that night:
Oh, and I forgot to mention that we had all of my parents stuff, like sleeping bags, food, etc. So, my mom finally calls us at 1:30 in the morning (they got lost trying to get out of the canyon) and tells us that we were supposed to go past Mill Hollow. Right. They put paper plate signs on the Mill Hollow sign telling us to keep going. Who in there right mind is going to look for signs with their name on it on a sign that was "too far", especially in the dark? Also, they said once on the dirt road to follow someone elses signs because they were better. Thank you Wright family, whoever you are. So, the next morning we gave it one more try. There were signs and I just had to take a picture of the signs "we just couldn't miss".
Yep, those little white plates were our salvation. They say "Mandie Keep Going." Should've had my night vision goggles on. So it turns out that the dirt road we turned around in very first was the right spot. Good things to come out of this: 1) John and I have the whole mountain memorized all the way down to the dead dear carcass, 2) we will have a contigency plan next time, like if I am not there 2 hours after I am supposed to be, someone meet me in town!, 3) we are all going to buy bright colored signs in one color, and the best one 4) we still made it in time to go motorcycle riding!!

Me and Sydney tearin' it up

Thanks to my brother, we were covered in mud

This is the view from the ridge we rode up to (taken with a phone, so not great, but you get the idea)

As John was going down a crazy steep hill, the chain brock on him and my uncle had to tow him with his jeep. Welcome to motorcycle riding John!

As we were packing up, the kids thought they would bond with Chleo with Doritos

After everything, we still had a great time and we were very glad we went back up the next morning. We can't wait to do it again!

Roooaaaar!

That is what a dinosaur says, just in case you didn't know. (If you imagine Connor doing it, you will get the full effect.) We had a lot of fun at the Dinosaur Museum and we even got to go with our good friends Noah, Annie and Cooper.

Connor's reaction to the Dino in the entrance

Connor and Little Miss Annie

Sydney is workin' the poses

The kids loved building the toy dino, except when Sydney's hair got stuck to the heavy duty velcro. That was fun getting off.

The water and sand table was fabulous (I think my kids are having sandbox withdrawals)

I almost got all the kids looking

This was the kids favorite part, digging for bones (back to the sandbox withdrawels)This was my favorite exhibit. He is about to be crushed by a whooly mammoth. (really, is that disturbing to anyone else? who puts that in a kids museum? I just had to laugh)

And of course we got to take home our own "fossils".

No Purple Towels!

As I pulled Connor out of the tub the other day, I dried him off, then wrapped him up so he could walk to his room, like I always do. Well, as soon as I let go of him, he threw his towel off on the the ground and started to fuss and point to the towel still hanging up. You see, the first towel I used was purple, the one still hanging up was green. I wrapped the green towel around him and all was fine. He turned around and walked into his room, happy as can be. I guess purple really is a "girly" color and Connor was having none of that. Where do they learn this stuff?

It's Crazy!

That's all we can say. This a picture of the toothbrushes given out at John's new dental practice. I wanted to take a picture of their door with his name on it, but I think he was a little embarrassed by that idea (I will have to do it later when he is not there) so I took a picture of this. I am so proud of John for all he has done to get here. He has more to learn, but I know he will get it fast and the dentist he works for is a very nice guy. Now if only I could get over my dental-phobia all would be well.