Zion's Nat'l Park-Lower Emerald Pools

The next day we went back to Zion's and hiked two trails: Lower Emerald Pools and Weeping Rock. We decided to try out the umbrella stroller for Abby and put Will in the Carrier. Who knew that those cheap 10 dollar strollers could survive such terrain. It was nice to have the stroller with Abby so she could get in and out as she wanted it seemed to pick up the pace of the hiking quite a bit. These are pix of us at the Lower Emerald Pools. I just noticed we didn't get any pix of the actual pool but you'll have to take my word that it was pretty and super cool.

Will ready to go. He was such a good trooper.

At the Emerald Pools there was this cool little place that kids decided to play house in it was really cute.

This was a place a little off the trail that Jeremy and Lizzie took since I couldn't master the stroller up the steep embankment.

This was on the way down the trail. We noticed these mountains and it reminded me of those Cingular/AT&T ads "More bars in more places" and seriously we had cell phone reception through a good majority of the park it was pretty impressive.

Zion's Nat'l Park-Riverside Trail

Well we're back! We took our first real family vacation to St.George/ Zion's National Park. We were so nervous how our three little ones would take to the whole hiking bit. We decided I would take Will in the front carrier and then we purchased a back pack carrier for Abby. Our first hike in Zion's was Riverside Trail (a mile long hike) we thought it would be a good starter hike. It ended up taking all day because they had all of these stops along the way to get your feet wet in the river. We tried switching Will back and forth from the Front carrier to the back pack and we let Abby out every once in awhile to walk on her own. It was tons and tons of fun just long. The amazing part was how well the kids behaved even Will he didn't cry once even when I had forgotten to change his diaper after 6 hours he was still just as happy as ever.

This is our first stop along the way. I really have no idea how Will was so happy in that thing.

Jeremy, Lizzie and Abby. Somehow I think as the parents we looked like pack mules.

This is where Abby picked up her new hobby. Jeremy taught Abby how to pick up rocks and throw them into water. This was the best thing in the world and wherever Abby found water from there on out she threw in anything.

Our Happy little Man. He was so happy through out the whole hike. It was right after this picture I realized I hadn't changed his diaper in quite some time. (He was leaking out of the front carrier) (say it with me eeewwwww)

Cool stacked rocks. Every once in awhile I wished that I was a real photographer.

Happy Birthday Abby

It was Abby's Birthday yesterday and these are a few pix that best explain the joy of the day.
We started out the morning with Abby's favorite Banana Chocolate Chip pancakes. She gobbled them up.

Abby loved them

We went to church after breakfast and unfortunately our church falls right during Abby's nap time. When we got home we forgot to lay her down and thus the melt down of Abby began. She cried all through dinner so Jeremy put her down for a quick power nap. When we woke Abby up an hour later she was still cranky. Someday Abby will watch the video and laugh just like we did through out the whole night.

Abby's cake melted down just as fast as she did so my tower of cupcakes turned into a melted stack of cupcakes.

Abby ate the cake anyhow, after crying when we sang happy birthday to her.

Abby the Artisit

Abby has become quite the artist and has added color to things that wouldn't necessarily have those particular colors on them. Circles are her shape of choice and blue tends to be the color. I'm taking this moment to enjoy her sense of style. Just so you all know these all have been done within the past 2 days. Minus one giant mural she did on our stairway that encompassed large giant blue circles that Jeremy and I washed off as quickly as possible.

This first piece I actually really like. I'm thinking I'm going to try and sell the rights to IKEA or something for their kitchen chairs.

This next piece I like to call self-art I think she took a page out of her older sisters book but instead of multi color went with a more muted black approach. Interesting.
This is Closet Art. Abby had climbed into her brother's closet and went at the blank white canvas in front of her. Once again notice the blue and different size circles. Some of the circles link together making a "scribbled" outline but it was the circles that got her there.



Abby will be two on Sunday and I'm thinking she won't be getting any crayons unless they're the color wonder markers that don't color on anything but the color wonder paper.

Abby holding her weapon of choice.

Hats

I couldn't resist Will in this hat. I only took maybe 28 pictures of him in it but have reserved the best for you all to see. Ya he's kind of cute!

He had a cute spit bubble that popped just as i took this one

Seriously can you get any cuter?

The Perfect Baby????

So Sunday night Will fell asleep around 9:00 p.m. which is normal for him he usually wakes up around 6:30 a.m. which works just fine for me. Abby woke up around 10:30 with a fever of 101.4 and Abby has been blessed with the condition with high fevers she gets the added bonus of hives. So I stayed up with Abby till 1:30 trying to help calm her down and wait for the hives to go away so that she could actually rest. When I woke up around 8 the next morning I felt like I had forgotten something. Will was still asleep so I figured I would just let him sleep for as long as he needed. I went in his room just to double check to make sure he was asleep and I snapped this picture. I figured it wouldn't last very long where as they were doing more construction across the street and all the machines sounded like a monster truck rally.
Finally by 10:15 I couldn't take it anymore and decided to go check on him. There he was in his crib just playing with his toes smiling and enjoying the views. I couldn't believe it It had been well over 13 hours since he last ate and their he was acting as if he didn't have a care in the world. It was amazing. What a blessing though Abby didn't feel very well the next morning and just wanted me to hold her so thank goodness Will was just willing to let me come find him when I was ready. Could Will be the perfect baby? I would have answered yes yesterday but Will woke up this morning at 4:30 hungry as a hippo but I guess the nice thing is he went back to sleep. And here we sit a little after 10 a.m. and he's still asleep. So he may not be perfect but he's pretty darn close.

This is Will when I came in to check on him

Abby not feeling very well. she wouldn't smile for the camera

Abby was really mad that I got up off the couch to take this picture. (She's feeling better today.)

Lizzie and Indiana Jones

So the other day Jeremy was out grilling our dinner and had both Abby and Lizzie with him in the front yard. I was inside nursing Will feeling guilty that once again Jeremy was cooking dinner. Jeremy brought in the steaks and said that dinner was ready when all of the sudden Lizzie came running into the house, "Danger! There's danger outside. Mom, Dad it's an Emergency!" my heart sank; Jeremy dropped what he was doing and ran outside. I was sure Abby was in trouble with something. Then I asked Lizzie to describe the danger to me. She said there was a snake outside. My heart finally came back to me and I sighed. They've been doing some construction across the street raising all kinds of snakes, mostly blow snakes, and bugs from their cozy little homes in the field. Jeremy came back in and all was calm again in our home. Later that night my little brother called from Miami to talk to Lizzie (He's such a good uncle) and this was the conversation I overheard:
"Hi Uncle Garret. Guess what I saw a snake today."
"Ya it was really nice. My Dad ran over it with the car. Snakes are nice when they're dead. They don't bite you or anything. You can touch them and they'll just sit there."
"No I wasn't scared, it was just a blow-up snake."
I had to leave the room I was laughing so hard.
If only Indiana Jones could just remember that snakes are nice when they're dead maybe he wouldn't have the fear of snakes that he seems to struggle so much with.

Bragging rights

So I feel I have the right to brag about my husband for just a second. Just in case any of you were wondering pneumonia totally stinks! I feel like I should be able to function normally but I guess you need lungs without fluid in them to do that so I can't function "normally". So Jeremy has had to step up and step up BIG. He was able to take all of last week off to help run the household and I was so impressed with everything he did. Not only did he do the things I asked but he went above and beyond on in so many ways. He has somehow managed to do the things that I do plus his normal things like taking care of our lawn I even spied him cleaning out the window wells. It's been hard to sit back and watch I love working side by side with my husband so when he's working I want to be right there next to him. Sunday was the best though I mustered up enough energy to help get the girls ready for church. This was the first time Jeremy was ever going to sit with both the girls during sacrament meeting and I just prayed that they would be good for him. Jeremy had such a good attitude about it all and even walked the girls to church. I couldn't believe it. I slept soundly for the entire 3 hours they were gone and when they got home Jeremy ran in to grab the camera to catch this:
I'm so thankful for a great husband who is always there for me when I need him. He really is my best friend and an example to me in so many ways. Thanks honey for all that you do! You're amazing!

mommy contents

So I started my own personal blog where I can rant and rave and not feel too guilty for making huge long posts and be able to finally let out my innerwriter. so feel free to stop by and take a read and leave comments as long as you want. there's a link at the bottom of the page called andrea's crazies or www.mommycontents.blogspot.com

fooey and Will

so it's been nearly two weeks since our last post. i've been really really under the weather with pneumonia but the good news is i'm on the upswing thanks to some serious home care by my sweet husband. my energy level is really low but hopefully i'll be getting that back soon. so i'm posting today. here's some pix of will he's a whole 4 months now. he's grown 4 inches and gained nearly 9 lbs in these whirlwind months and i could not have asked for a happier boy.

yes he poses nicely for the camera

he reminds me of the fonz in this pix like he's saying heeeeey

he sucks his thumb and on occasion can get his whole fist in his mouth

Abby Grace

Full name: Abigail Grace Rawlings but Abby works just fine for her.
Abby's favorite things: Anything princess and pretty. She loves to dance with the princesses and sing along to all their songs. She has started a little bit of Dora and talks back to the T.V. when Dora asks a question. She loves being outside playing on swings and climbing on things that I'm sure some one under the age of 2 shouldn't be climbing.
She loves her Big Sister and baby brother and their names are just some of her growing vocabulary.
Abby loves to dance but not just any dance she loves to waltz and tango. You have to pick her up and put her in proper dance position. But she does love to twirl.
Abby feels deeply. All of her emotions are true and passionate it really doesn't take a much to tell what kind of mood she is in.
Abby loves her Daddy there was this time when I told her to stop swinging in Will's swing and she just continued on ignoring me then Jeremy told her to stop she got out of the swing and walked into the next room only to cry the saddest cry ever written.
Abby does feel it's her job to protect me though. Whenever Jeremy hugs me she'll come and try to pull Jeremy off of me or if we're ever wrestling or goofing around Abby is right on my side trying to keep Jeremy away from me.
Abby is very sneaky and if the house is too quiet you're pretty safe to bet she's up to something.
Abby has beautiful eyes that just lets you know how she's feeling they truly are windows to her soul.
She is shy at first but usually warms up pretty quick.
She is really good at entertaining herself which so isn't the case with Lizzie.
Abby likes to play with Princesses and has to always have at least two at a time so they can sing together.
Abby likes to dress up and be all princessie and always prefers her fancy dress for church.
We'd like to tag: Ava, Alli, Will M., and anyone else who wants to share about their kids.

Lizzie has been tagged

A few things about Lizzie:
Full name: Elizabeth Jean Rawlings but she's been Lizzie from a get go and only gets Elizabeth when she's in deep deep trouble which isn't very often.
Lizzie's favorite things: Lizzie current favorite movie is the Labyrinth with David Bowie it's a really weird movie with puppets she kind of likes movies that scare her a little bit I worry about this but then she reminds me that she knows that it's not really scary because they are actors and actors are people just like us. ( I still think David Bowie is a little scary.) She loves ponies, barbies, reading books and coloring. If it's girlish Lizzie is all over it.
Lizzie is a really good friend. She takes really good care of her friends always remembering to apologize when she's in the wrong with a friend and making sure that everyone is included in having fun. She plays with her friends daily and if she can't for some reason the world might as well be over.
I've been really impressed to watch her in primary if there is ever a new person or someone who is struggling in class Lizzie will either walk with them to Primary holding their hand or sit by them and help them "know" the answers to the questions. Lizzie's primary teacher told me that if there ever is a child misbehaving they'll sit them by Lizzie and they will usually start singing and paying attention like Lizzie.
Lizzie has an extensive vocabulary and is often mistaken for being much older than she really is. She is spelling words and sounding them out which has made for some really unique ways to look at our language ex: she spelled Nails nels and allowed ulawod. Unfortunately she won't start kindergarten till the fall of '09 but I'm sure she'll enjoy preschool this fall. She is very observant and picks up on the littlest things and can recall the tiniest of details at any given moment.
She remembers people's names really well the other day we were talking about her being in day care and she remembered her day care provider's name, her son and her husband (Lizzie left day care at her 2nd birthday). She remembers all of her friends parents names and calls them all by their first name ( I probably should do something about that).
Lizzie loves her siblings and loves to "babysit" when i take a shower or any other given time.
Lizzie is my big helper always willing to help me out.
She is very outgoing and loves to preform at any given time. She started singing in front of large audiences at the age of 2.5 she sang I am a Child of God and I love to see the temple (all versus) in front of a nursing home fhe. The last Primary Program they asked Lizzie to sing I'm trying to be like Jesus with another girl. She wasn't nervous about it at all and has shared her testimony several times.
Lizzie loves to learn and asks a lot of questions.
Lizzie loves lip gloss and hairspray almost to a fault.
She loves her grandparents and really really loves her uncles and has finally learned the right question to which is her favorite uncle: Garret is her favorite uncle garret, Brett is her favorite uncle brett...etc.
Lizzie wants to be a Ballerina and Doctor and a Movie Director when she grows up.
Lizzie is very aware of the fact that she is a Child of God and I think that has helped her be who she is.
Lizzie wants to tag: Devon, Kennedy, Logan Y., Blake, Abby and Haylie.

dinsoaur squeaks or singing?

Will has been making this funny noise and singing, or squawking and it just makes me laugh. These are the happy sounds that I hope as I get older I can always remember.

There's Life out there

This year we're determined to figure out how to make our gardens grow. We're really have no clue how to make our yard look as nice as it did when we moved into it and I was pretty sure we killed off everything that was alive in our yard but Lizzie brought me proof of life in our garden the other day. So hopefully we can get our yard to look as pretty as we would like it to. If anybody has any gardening advice please feel free to share it. We could really use the help.
This other picture of Abby makes me laugh. This is her new pose whenever we take her picture. She had just finished an entire moose bar when I took this picture but I think a good majority ended up on her face.

Utah Weather

I'm so frustrated with the weather out here. On Friday it was finally sunny so we decided to pack a lunch and head out to the park. On arriving to the park we found out it was still winter! It was freezing! So we ate our lunch as quick as we could and tried our best to play on the swings and slides while wiping our running noses. It really made me sad. Saturday was a little better so we went to the discovery museum. Sunday was awesome but we have 1 o'clock church so we made the best of the weather when we came home from church and then yesterday was supposed to be near the eighties but unfortunately living in the windy area that we do the wind could knock a grown person down. So here we are again back to the mid 40's and struggling to figure out this crazy weather. Meanwhile here's some pix from the park.

Abby was at least happy to get on the swings

You can see how pretty the sky was in this pix totally deceiving

Lizzie giving Abby a little push

I love Lizzie's hair whenever she goes in those tunnel slides.

Pretty Dinners

(WARNING: THIS IS SUPER LONG BUT I FEEL BETTER NOW THAT I WROTE IT!)
My mom is a fantastic cook. She's currently the executive chef at a ranch for executives and other such big wigs. Growing up my Mom was an at home caterer. We did all kinds of fancy shindigs along with weddings and large banquets for important people like governors and higher ups. As I worked side by side with her through those hard and long hours to produce these feast of perfectness, people would always say to me "You must eat like kings at your house." I would always laugh along with my mom and shake my head no. We ate normal stuff like mac and cheese, frozen pizzas, and casserole galores. Don't get me wrong Mom could bake the heck out of anything she wanted but we always ate just food. Nothing fancy like Apricot glazed chicken breasts with a side of almond rice pilaf, parsley baby carrots, a crisp dinner salad and black forest cheesecake. I knew my mom could make all of that stuff in a snap for crowds of 50 none-the-less. Yet we ate Hamburgers and frozen french fries for dinner. I never really understood until today. I'm kind of pretty good cook, not like my mom but I can hold my own. Today I was craving something that looked pretty. I know that sounds weird but to me sight is a very very important part of eating. So I decided to make Cream Chicken with mushroom Pillows, Steamed broccoli, Rice with an easy chicken gravy. It's not a hard dinner to make but it sure looks pretty on a plate. I mean when those pillows come out of the oven lightly golden brown and the steamed broccoli is that vibrant color of green it's very pleasing to the eye and thus more appetizing to the palate. As I started on this meal of course the house is in slight chaos as usual, after all what can you expect with 3 kids under the age of 4 the youngest two both under the age of 2. Will has been going through what I call Heaven Withdrawal all my kids go through this at about 3 months where they just cry and the only thing that calms them down in to hold them. I think they seriously are just figuring out how hard life is going to be and they really miss Heaven. Anyhow Will has been doing this for the past couple of days, to top things off Abby is well just Abby. It's not a bad thing it's just a lot of time and energy consuming mommy stuff. Lizzie is on this 20 question thing not to mention the whole "Mom Mom Look at Me!!!!" as she does a little twirl or she's done something with my hair etc. But I can all take this in stride because my knight in shining armor is on his way home to whisk the kids away. My knight in shining armor came home and was stricken with some sort of plague. I couldn't believe it. My dreams of eating a pretty meal where faltering quickly. I gave Jeremy the 3rd degree just to double make sure he was really, really sick and then after the obvious he was sick answers (biggest give away was he lost his appetite) I sent him to our bedroom to rest. I was still determined. Will began to cry and cry and cry then Abby thought she would help then Lizzie thought she could help then they fought over who could help Will the most. Soon enough I had three children who needed help. But there I was chopping my chicken. I figured if I chopped loud enough everything would work itself out. Then sweet Lizzie started singing I am a Child of God. Which made me feel a little better but really didn't help the fact that Will was still crying. So I started humming along. Then Lizzie and Abby decided to "help" Mommy. Now i'm trying to blend the cream cheese and butter while Abby is hugging my leg like she'll never let go and Lizzie is "doing" the dishes a.k.a splashing as much water with a single utensil as humanly possible. Finally I mix all the ingredients together and hurry and pinch off my dough and sprinkle them with bread crumbs to give them a great professional look. Set the timer and run to Will who has been crying and screaming this entire time. When I pick him up his head is soaked with his own neglected tears. I try calming him down and try to find something for the girls to do for the long 25 minutes that dinner will be cooking for. I usher them downstairs and hope to find a movie or something to entertain them but Lizzie wants to watch Toy Story and Abby won't watch it unless it has a twirling princess in it. I decide to cave into Lizzie and pray that Abby will find the cowboy doll entertaining. I run upstairs to feed Will while the rice is cooking in the microwave (thank you minute rice). As soon as I get upstairs Abby starts crying and sure enough in a split second her head is laying on my lap while I'm trying to feed Will. I keep telling myself to breathe and it's all going to be OK. Will finishes eating and spits up everything all over me and himself and he is now soaked, but I have 4 minutes till the pillows will be done so I've got to get the gravy going. I've mastered bullion gravy and whip that up as fast as I can. The pillows are perfect nice and golden and I realize I forgot to steam my broccoli so I decide that frozen corn is going to have to do it tonight. I get Abby and Lizzie's plates out dish up there food and it looks really good minus the corn yellow was just the wrong color but the kids like corn. I call Lizzie up from downstairs and get Abby in her highchair and we say a prayer. Lizzie takes one look at her masterpiece on her plate and says "Yuck! I don't want to eat this." Abby pushes the food around and then dumps her water all over her food and proclaims that she's done and wants down. Lizzie takes two bites and I make her and I mean make her swallow them. Then she whines and cries that she's done and she doesn't want to eat any more. So alone I sit at the table with my almost masterpiece dinner and it was like a light bulb went on. This is why Mom didn't cook like this for us. 1. the kids don't appreciate it. 2. It doesn't seem like it takes that much time but when you're on your own anything longer than 20 minutes is too long. 3. I'm tired! I put all the kids to bed a little bit before 8 and I felt like I could just fall down on the ground and sleep. But no I have a baby and then the clean-up......No I can't complain anymore. I had a pretty dinner and that's what really matters here. And I also had a great enlightening moment on why my Mom did things the way she did. I think I'll go to bed now and plan on something like Mac and Cheese or a frozen pizza for dinner tomorrow.

Lizzie gets a haircut

So Lizzie has been bugging us for months to get her hair cut. Since I am such a big fan of long hair and missing my own long hair I've been just putting Lizzie off thinking she'd stop asking, then on Easter Sunday while I was trying to rest my eyes a little Lizzie came in my room with gum stuck in her hair. I knew it was time to cut it. The next day I kept trying to talk myself and Lizzie out of it but she was dead set on having it done. So we went to our local Wal-Mart and i tried to entertain Abby while the sweet lady made Lizzie feel like a princess. As I was unsuccessfully entertaining Abby and watching this lady do Lizzie's hair I realized a couple of things: 1. Although I've been blessed with super thick and for the most part long hair I am clueless on how to do my own child's hair. I mean watching her blow dry and round brush her hair I should be able to do that but really I can't. And really I need to try different ways to do her hair pig tails and braids are about the extent of my talent and so I need to try just a little bit more. 2. Lizzie looks so grown-up with shorter hair. We only trimmed off a couple of inches which really just evens it out and makes it look a lot fuller but I don't know if it's her face or what after this hair cut I just thought that Lizzie isn't my little girl anymore.

Will at 3 Months

Our Little Will Man.

At first I was frustrated when I took this pic because Abby wasn't looking at the camera but it's now one of my favorite pics. You really can see how much Abby loves her little brother in her smile.

Hooray Abby is looking at the camera with a smile!

I can't believe it Will is already 3 months old. It's so funny with our first I just couldn't wait for Lizzie to get bigger and bigger. Each new thing she did was huge and I couldn't wait for the next step. It took forever for her 1st birthday to come around. Then with Abby, she was born 2 weeks before we moved, 2 days after Jeremy had started his new career and it didn't help that she had an older sister, but we were excited just the same with each new development but her 1st birthday came a little quicker than Lizzie's and she is on the verge of turning 2 now! It makes me want to cry just thinking about how fast Will's 1st birthday is going to happen. A lot of my friends are all having babies around now and as I look at their little precious scrunchy babies and see my rolly polly baby boy I just know it's going to get harder with each kid to enjoy the things they do. Like right now Will coos and laughs at me and every time he makes that gurgley sound my heart feels like every ounce of joy is going to come busting out everywhere. He is such a happy boy and only cries when he needs something, if I can just figure it out what it is. (It's usually food!) I feel so blessed to be in the role of a mother and even more blessed to be able to be at home with them and enjoy these sweet little spirits while they are still little. So thank you to Jeremy for letting me have my dream job, even if I complain about it from time to time. And most of all thank you to my Heavenly Father for trusting me with such special spirits.