Presenting her Royal Highness, Princess Lizzie

Lizzie turned 5 on Saturday. Oh my heck! It still feels weird to say that. The morning started out fantastic. Lizzie bounded into our room at 6:50 a.m. to let us know it was her birthday. She snuggled up to me and said, "Guess what Mom?" I said "What" "When I tell people that I'm 5 now I'm not lying." She's been so full of quotable moments lately. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday breakfast and she said chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream. I know all of you healthy eaters out there are thinking no way would I serve that to my child. Might as well give her a bowl of ice cream. But honestly could you say No to such an adorable 5 year old?

She looks a little tired but after 3 chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream she was ready to take on the world.




Lizzie had a friend birthday party with a very royal theme. It was so much fun to have all of her friends come in their fancy clothes. Sorry for the boys and the whole princess thing but you guys all did great.


I was so frazzled trying to get stuff ready for the party I didn't take too many pictures. We dolled up our basement with white lights and balloons and played lots of fun games all with princesses in mind. For Sleeping Beauty we played that when Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger everyone had to fall asleep. (You turn off the music and they stop dancing) Cinderella we passed an old tattered shoe and when the bell went off whomever was holding the tattered shoe got to wear the slippers and ring the bell for the next person. Ariel-princess charades (because Ariel can't talk). Snow White they had to find the poison apple (marked with a green string) and Jasmine we had to dig in the sand for jewels. It was lots of fun and we had a good time playing the games.


I've always wanted to make these and decided that they would be perfect with the treat bags as magic wands. We had so much fun making them and I wouldn't hesitate to make them again. I posted a tutorial on how to make them on my other blog here.



I've learned that children don't eat cake, they smash the cake to little crumbs, lick off the frosting and then drink the ice cream so I decided we'd have ice cream and cookies. So glad that I did but I couldn't quite give up the whole birthday cake thing. I figured we'd eat it with the adults later. This was my attempt at a Jewelry box. It probably could be considered cute but after looking at a friend's blog and her perfection on cakes I think I'll just be all right with my mediocre performance. (Mac I swear I'm going to have you make my cake!!!) ((my birthday is in 21 days!) )


Lizzie still looks excited to eat it and I think that's Kennedy double checking my math on the candles.

Living Planet Aquarium

Have I mentioned what a week last week was? Well on Friday was Lizzie's first field trip with her preschool class to the Living Planet Aquarium. Me and 4 children (I didn't realize how crazy I actually was until I got to the aquarium) ((It was made clear to me after we got home that I wasn't really crazy. I could have handled it just fine if Will hadn't been cutting his 7th tooth!))

Lizzie, Cassie and Abby waiting to go inside the aquarium. The line was the first sign of me being crazy. Ps I'm not sure why Abby's eyes look so possessed in this pic. They had a sign that said no flash photography so I turned my flash off and most of the pictures turned out weird. Oh well.

Abby was obsessed with the "nemo" fish. We watched Nemo on our way there and Abby was so excited that she "found" Nemo. Then she tried to find Daddy and Dori it was really cute.
Lizzie got to touch Sting Rays ('That black rock looking thing is actually a sting ray) It was really cool Abby was excited to touch them too but when she got to the touch tank a sting ray jumped right up next to her head and tried to give her a kiss. That was the end of Abby's love of Sting rays.
Lizzie wanted to run around all crazy like and I was trying really hard to capture the excitement but my camera just couldn't keep up the crazy kids.
This was our last attempt to get everyone in a picture in front of the frogs. Ya Abby wouldn't stop but still it was fun. Next time I go I think I'll try to either have more adult help or less babies cutting teeth.

Lizzie's Preschool

I have a number of posts to do today whereas I'm a ginormous slacker ok i 'm not a slacker just busy living the moments out. Anyhow As Lizzie has been doing her awesome preschool stuff she's made many a cute projects. And the clutter queen in me desperately wants to hold on to every single piece of artwork. I was talking to a friend who said as a child she suffered from the same disease but her mom (bless your heart sister crowshaw) would take pictures of it and then put it in a scrap book for her so she could look at it without the mess. So thus I've done with Lizzie's projects. Please mom's feel free to copy and play with your kids.






This is Francy Fish. They had a whole day talking about fish and stuff and sweet Lizzie loved making the fish so much she knew her little sister would want one too. She asked her teacher if she could make one for her sister at home and sure enough she brought them home. Lizzie is such a thoughtful little girl.

The letter Ff was a theme for the whole week.


At the end of Letter F week they made this little aquarium all building up for the field trip at the end of the month to the living planet aquarium.

Jumping Jelly Fish. This was for the letter Jj a ziplock bag with hair gel and glitter. Seriously so cute.

I have a number of posts to do today whereas I'm a ginormous slacker ok i 'm not a slacker just busy living the moments out. Anyhow As Lizzie has been doing her awesome preschool stuff she's made many a cute projects. And the clutter queen in me desperately wants to hold on to every single piece of artwork. I was talking to a friend who said as a child she suffered from the same disease but her mom (bless your heart sister crowshaw) would take pictures of it and then put it in a scrap book for her so she could look at it without the mess. So thus I've done with Lizzie's projects.

Happy Anniversay

I failed to post on mine and Jeremy's anniversary but as I was browsing through my pictures I came across this one and today is my parents 32nd wedding anniversary. They were married in the Provo Temple and there isn't a day that goes by that i'm not grateful for it. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. We love you!

Sweet moments

I had just finished doing the girls hair (a big task here in our house) and they ran downstairs so they could "practice for their program" no real program was happening but the fact that the two of them were having so much fun playing together I couldn't help but snap the picture.

Maybe someday they really will play together but for now I'll enjoy the music of being little.
ps the first picture reminded me of that greg olsen painting of two girls on the piano or maybe this one

Just overheard.....

Lizzie and Gracie pants are over playing LPS (littlest pet shop for you non-little-kid-toy knowing people). And this was the conversation heard as the pretended to be little cats and dogs:
Gracie: "Excuse me, but do you have any hand sanitizer?"
Lizzie: "No. I think not."
Gracie: "Oh, I have some. Would you like some hand sanitizer?"
Lizzie: "Yes, Indeed."

What??? Seriously what kid asks for hand sanitizer and what kid uses the word "indeed".

Lizzie's First Day

Lizzie started Preschool this week. She was so excited! Wednesday morning she woke up at 7:00 and before I could even get to her she was dressed and eating her breakfast with her back pack on. The poor girl had to wait until 12:15 to go. She has been so in love with school and I think it's totally feeding into her big girl attitude. Although when I dropped her off I asked her if she wanted me to walk her in and she said, "NO, I'm really brave mom." and just as I was ready to pull away she stopped me and opened the passenger door climbed in and gave me a big kiss and hug and said," I love you Mom." Such good moments. Anyhow all is well in school and she is excited to meet all the new kids and let them all know what she knows.


Lizzie was really confused why we were taking her picture outside our front door. But that's where we took all of our first day of school photos.

Slacking? Maybe, but here's a long post to make up for it.

Well here it is way over 2 weeks since I last posted but there is good reason. I've been busy soaking up all the last of summer. I mean I love fall and there are so many fun things to do in the fall but for some reason I just felt it necessary to say goodbye to summer and the craziness that comes from it. So here is my post to the end of summer with some pix that I may have posted but maybe not.


Our summer started out with our 1st family vacation to Zion's Nat'l Park. It was awesome.

We visited with lots of friends through out the summer but it was sure nice to get together with the Phillips family. Lizzie was reconnected with Sophie and has missed her since they left.

What is a summer without watermelon? This is Jace a friend of ours son. We've had a great time playing with them through out the summer.

Will has been such a trooper learning how to content himself in the stroller while his older sisters cut loose and run wild and fancy free. I'm sure next year he will be all over the place.

Lizzie took swimming lessons this year and has now qualified herself as a fish. She's a great little swimmer.
She can't wait for next year when she gets to go in the deep water. She loves to swim.

This is Lizzie and Jackson who helped each other not drown during their first swim lessons together.

The 4th of July is a big deal here on our block and somehow I failed to post anything about it. This picture is of our neighbors kids who are all so close to Will's age. Poor little Hannah on the end is going to have to learn how to tough it out with these rough rolling boys.



We always sing Happy Birthday to America on the 4th of July just before lighting off fireworks with a monster Cupcake cake. It's now become my favorite tradition.

We became amazing outdoors men this year and took multiple camping trips and now that we own both a tent and a 4 wheeler I'm sure we'll have plenty more camping adventures. (K i love Abby's hair in this pic simply for the fact that it was in revenge for her keeping me up the entire night before. Yes, I'm a terrible mother!)

Jeremy had his 10 yr reunion this summer and they had a fun little get together with Cotton Candy, bouncy houses, and a yummy lunch. It really was so much fun to see all of Jeremy's old classmates.

Lizzie still calls Cotton Candy "rotten candy" she sure can eat a lot of something that's so rotten.

Abby loves playing in the water and these few pix demonstrates pretty much all of it.
Pouring out all the water. Only to find that she can do it again and again.
Until she says she's all done.
I think Will is all done with being in the stroller this summer. But now that he's completely mobile and pulling himself to standing and everything now at the ripe old age of 8 months I'm sure next summer we won't be able to keep up with him.

All in all a great summer and now we're looking forward to an equally pleasing fall. Lizzie is starting preschool. The leaves will begin to change. We will celebrate our anniversary, birthdays and Halloween and then before we know it it's Winter and the craziness that ensues. I hope everyone else had a well balanced Summer and I can't wait to see what the fall brings to us.

Will the crawling machine

So like 3 weeks ago I was going to post about Will and how he had turned 7 months and started crawling and stuff like that and here we are 3 weeks later and Will is nearly 8 months old. I have some video of Abby helping Will learn how to crawl. It's a little bit longer than what I'd like and you can hear Lizzie in the background complaining about cleaning her room but Will is still the star as he starts to scoot around. Will is now 7 months and 3 weeks and has really become quite the mobile child. I thought he'd want to crawl more on the carpet but he prefers the wood floors because he can push himself around a lot faster. After looking at his onesies and how dirty they are I remember why it's hard to pass on those 6-9 month clothes. Anyhow he sure is a cutie!

Rain + Camp = lots of muddy fun

Once again we found ourselves camping this weekend. We were able to go to another favorite fishing spot of my family called Potter's Pond in upper Joe's Valley. This time with my dad and all of his brothers. It was pretty rainy the entire time we were there but the rain parted long enough for us to get in a couple of fishing trips and a few horse rides and our new favorite past time mud slinging in the 4 wheeler. We bought a tent and tried sleeping in that this time around and honestly it wasn't that bad. So who knows maybe we'll get camping a little more now.

This is my uncle Lynn and Lizzie on Lynn's horse. This brought back so many memories of me riding along with my uncle Lynn.

Lynn's daughter Jessica (my cousin) and Abby. As soon as we got to camp all Abby wanted to do is be by the horses. Jessica wasn't quite prepared for the tantrum that came when it was time for Abby to get off. Uncle Lynn came to the rescue and insisted that Abby go for one more ride.

Abby was happy to once again get her way and actually came off the horse a little nicer this time around.

Lizzie made a new friend while we were camping and they found lots of fun ways to get super super dirty. This was a shot of their hands after making Mud balls the size of Apples.

This is the 4 wheeler after a serious mud slinging battle with the Mountain. Everyone got so Muddy while we were up there but i guess that's what you're supposed to do when your camping.


I'm having trouble loading a video of Jeremy on a serious muddy trail from my camera. We have more on our video camera but I need to buy a cable to get that on the computer. There were many many amazing trails up there. On our way back from one such adventure it had started to sprinkle and by the time we got back to camp it was hailing. Jeremy and I were soaked to the bone and had ding marks all over us from the stinging hail. It was such a blast!

Our encounter with a Kodiak!!!!!

When we were camping last week I failed to mention Jeremy's favorite part of the whole trip. I failed to mention it just simply for the fact that I wanted better pictures but I guess that'll have to come later. We went to Price before we went camping so that Jeremy could purchase a little toy for himself. He picked up a Yamaha Kodiak '05. It was a good deal and now Jeremy is just bustin' at the seams about his new baby. In the 4 days we were there Jeremy put over 130 miles on it which is a lot for a 4-wheeler. He was able to get it a little muddy and nearly dumped me off the back of it in an attempt to forge a river. It was great fun to have it for the trip and now we can't wait to get back into the mountains to dig up some new trails. Anyhow we only got a few pictures of it and it is currently waiting patiently at my brother's house for us to come pick it up on Friday. So here's a few pictures for Jeremy to help him get through the rest of the week without his new baby.

Me and my new arch nemesis (i guess it's ok I like to ride too!)

This is where Jeremy tried to dump me (I know it's not a huge river but that water was still wet and cold!)

Jeremy forging the stream sans Andrea so I could document the mud slinging.

You can't see it well from this angle but it was like a 2 foot drop into the "river"

Jer had to peel out here and the 4 wheeler was sliding and slinging mud every where. But don't worry Jeremy made it safe to the other side when we realized that I had to cross the river somehow...

Post about Pete

We took last week and had our annual family camp out at Pete's Hole. This was my favorite place to camp with my family growing up and has yet to fail us for entertainment. It was nice to hang out with my family and see my kids with my parents. It rained and Abby and Will got sick. Our camp was sprayed by a skunk not once but twice yet through it all we still had a good time. Here are a few pix depicting our trip.

A pretty good picture showing the beauty of the little fishing hole.

Lizzie was so so so excited to catch this fish. And I was so excited to stand next to her as she reeled it in. My mom fried up the fish that very night and Lizzie devoured her prize catch of the day.

All of the grandkids couldn't wait to go fishing with Grandpa. Unfortunately we were rained out but we at least got our poles wet.

Lizzie loved fishing and by the end of the trip was quite the fisher woman.

We did some trail riding and found this stuff called "snow"! We couldn't believe how much snow was still there. It was totally worth the trip.

The ridge was still packed with snow!

Another favorite pastime during camping is playing cards. We had plenty of time to play with all the rain we had.

Mom and Evan were teaching Lizzie the ropes of UNO.

Abby had a hard time adjusting to the whole camping thing not to mention getting sick. Nap time was really hard but after one long hard battle we found Abby asleep like this.

She totally fell asleep on a bag of dirty clothes. I think I could have fallen asleep anywhere too. It's nice to be home now where schedules are a little bit easier to follow.