24 years OLD...

This is Cate...one of the 4 darling kids we watched this weekend. They were so cute and we had a fun time. With that said, it is a good thing you have children one (in most cases) at a time. Going from 2 to 6 would DO ME IN!!



So then Saturday we got to drop our kids off and head to The Fray concert. It was an entertaining night


I came to one large conclusion after this great concert...

I am old! Here is my reasoning...

First, the opening bands did very little but completely annoy me! I just wanted them to turn it down.

Second, when The Fray finally came onto stage at 9:30 I was yawning and ready to lie down for bed!
And lastly, I wanted to SIT and actually enjoy the music for the LARGE majority of the time!
It does make me feel better to know that my sweet sis-in-law, who is also 24 felt pretty much the same as I did, and she doesn't have kids!

Big fan of middle man on the right!

Lastly, my little man has a favorite new hobby...sticking his tongue out like this...I think it is the cutest!

Tomatoes, Freckles, Rags, etc...

So early this spring I planted my little tomato plant and it grew, and grew, and grew...until now it literally takes over the pathway next to it. So the other day as I was reaping my rewards, I found this...

What a beauty! Now those are some tomato growing skills I have! Anyway, I LOVE home grown tomatoes and will be so sad to leave my nursed plant behind when we move.

So looking at this picture I am noticing the freckle on Tyler's pinkie...cute! Ava got a little freckle on her cheek (ahhh!!! she is doomed :( ) and so we have started kissing freckles at our house. It is adorable when she climbs up on mine or Ty's lap and starts kissing us all over our face to get all our freckles!

I took this picture at least a month ago and forgot to post it. Christian fell asleep on his playmat and Ava, being the wonderful big sister she is, decided that he NEEDED a blanket. So she quietly scurried around the house finding every burp cloth and wash cloth she could find and slowly piling them high onto Christian! Hilarious!

I love these kiddos!

Raising Arizona...or Ava...

So first off we had another big run today...8 miles...it really did kill me! ...but I am sure it will get easier, sometime?! I'll keep my time to myself considering I have quite a few hard core runner friends! Thanks for all the pump up music ideas, they definitely helped me out at times.

Now for my question...

So now that a have a sometimes sweet and sometimes not-so-sweet little 2 year old I get to thinking. Of course every mom wants to raise their children well and teach them to be good kids and even better adults...my question is HOW???

Lucky for me I have 2 wonderful examples, my mom and mother-in-law and countless examples of good parenting around me. But I am always wanting to pick peoples brain about little tactics. So, with concern for my children's well-being I turn to you...the blogging world, scary I know. Let me know what you think. You know the little bits of advice you've received or rather the special traits or abilities you admire in the mother's that you look up to most.

Pump Me UP!!

So as I was running this morning I caught a quick glimpse of this...

Seriously? SO CUTE! Christian had fallen asleep and I look down to see his big sister holding his hand. I melted! I always think of the many ways she could be torturing him as I go on long runs, but I was pleasantly surprised today. Maybe a fluke, maybe she is the sweet girl my imagination makes her out to be! :)

My cute boy! Ava didn't let him sleep that long...she needed a play mate!

So let me start my next thought with a story...

I thought I was doing so well in my 1/2 marathon training when this past Saturday my friend Alie and I ran 7 miles! I came home to my sweet husband that is just a "little" behind in his training (can't blame him when he has to work 16 hours days for 14 days straight) proudly telling him how far I had run. So that night comes, we put the kids to bed and he said, "I just really need to go running. I think I will run about 4 miles or so." So time goes by, and by, and I am starting to wonder whether he passed out on the road somewhere. Then I hear the door open and get his ipod thrown at me. You see he has the Nike + which is a cool little device that tells you how far you have gone, how fast you ran, all the cool stats. So I look down to see it read 7.58 miles!!! What? He isn't even in shape yet! Let's just say he hurt a little more than I did the next day. In his words, "like a baseball bat to the knees."

So this means war...I realize it is a war that I will most likely never win, but I am competitive and will try. So I need some help. I am in a mad search for good pump up songs. 7+ miles takes (me at least) a long time and good music is key. So let me know if you have a song that just keeps you going...thanks :)

We're Coming to America...Today!

So the title comes from the theme music that Ty and I had to sing to each other as we watched the fireworks together this Fourth of July. What a fun holiday...I love it! So here is what ours encluded...

Ward breakfast, Ty was incharge of the whole thing. I really wanted to get a pic of him in his apron and my kids at probably the only time during the day with their clothes clean and hair nice, BUT my battery in my camera was dead, so do your best to imagine...hard I know!



Then after some good battery charging we headed to a pool BBQ at the Pharris'. It was tons of fun with great food and even greater friends.

Christian and little Maddie

Cute girls at the party

Here is Ava just helping herself to some leftover fruit dip...that's my girl!

So after the fun part-ay, we gathered our things and headed to Central park (in Santa Clara that is) for the firework show. This is where Niel Diamond got the best of us!

Three nerdy accounting husbands playing their games, just kidding, we wish we could do them too!

Ava loved running around with Hayden!

Christian was great. He fell asleep right before the fireworks and slept through them all!

Thanks Niel and Uncle Sam...it was a great Fourth of July!!!

It's New York City Baby...

WARNING: This is a really long blog!!

Okay, so Ty has had this whole week off, which I am loving...except that it is cramping my blogging style! We are just having so much fun, there isn't time for blogging. (Ty, you know I am kidding and would love for you ditch work everyday :) )

So anyway, here is an attempt to catch up...

Yes, we are officially moving, just to Santa Clara which is in our old ward. We are really excited because it is a nice neighborhood and we will actually have MORE room than we need...is that possible out here, or have our views just been altered? For those of you who know, we are moving into Annie's house, who we will miss as she moves to Utah to buy a house and have a wonderful life.

And now for the AMAZING NYC Trip...

So all my siblings, except Lisa because of 2 week old Elsa, and my parents met my sister that lives in Prague in New York for a wonderful week. I am now going to try to pack all of our activities into this, oh so small blog!!

We flew on the red eye flight, which was wonderful with a 4 month old...yeah, not so much. He was good, I just didn't sleep! Oh well. We threw our bags in our hotel, and headed out to get breakfast at Norma's. Thanks for the suggestions Chels it was AWESOME!! So those of you that know me well, mostly those that have lived with me before know that I could eat cookies or cake, or whatever dessert we have for breakfast. Well that is exactly what I had at Norma's. Chocolate Decadence French Toast! It was French Toast made out of chocolate bread with strawberries and pistacios on top...and a little chocolate dizzled on top. It was amazing. My sis took a picture of it so I will post it when I get it from her. Everything else looked really yummy too!! So later that day my sis, Amanda and I were able to go to the show Mary Poppins for free because of a nice lady in the airport that caught an early flight so she gave her tickets to us! It was very cute, we really liked it. Then we walked around Times Square and ate dinner at a BBQ place there.

Amanda and I at Mary Poppins

Amber, me and Amanda in Times Square

Day 2: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, my parents bought lunch for any of us that could resite what's on the Lady Liberty's tablet. My mom's grandma and grandpa came to Ellis Island so we took pictures by their names.

This was Christian 95% of the trip...he was a little angel. It was obvious that not many kids are around in NYC, he got SO much attention! And he loved it of course!

On our way home we stopped by Ground Zero, which for some reason surprised me that nothing was really there but a HUGE construction site.

So that night was Jersey Boys!!! I LOVED this show. (Disclaimer...a lot of language for those of you that might see it). The music is AWESOME. It is in San Fran right now and I am totally taking Tyler. It got over at 11pm or so, but we had all the energy in the world from the show! And Fergie was playing right next door.

I had to snap a picture of this store. Is that seriously there slogan? Clothing Bargains for Millionaires? Too funny...we didn't stop!

From here on out the days blur together so here is what we did...

The Empire State Building

My cute boy and his new shoes!

About to head across the Brooklyn Bridge

Christian and me at Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn.

At church/ the Temple

Central Park

Amanda and me at WICKED!!! LOVED IT! I am driving Tyler crazy with the music now!

Christian loved his uncle Jake by the end of the trip

Serendipity then down the street to Patsy's for lunch. Then to a cute little childrens store where we picked up this cute outfit for Ava...that she literally puts on EVERY single day!!!

A few things I forgot...Les Miserables, "The March" (a gay parade) we sure did get more than we wanted that day! Walking around SoHo, Fifth Avenue and just enjoying being in the big city. We had a blast! Thanks sisters, mom, dad and jake! :) It was a trip to remember. If you can think of something significant that I missed, let me know.

Okay so believe it or not there are more pics on our smugmug site...if you can handle more NYC go ahead and check them out.

Family Pictures

So while we were in Utah we had Haley take some family pictures for us. She did a fabulous job...as usual. You should all check out her blog and her site. These are a few of my favorite pics. Thanks Haley, it was a pleasure, as always.

Haley made the slight mistake of mentioning "boogies". Ava knew just what to do. I love this picture though!





Okay, so I loved them all. The rest of the pictures from the shoot are on our smugmug site. Feel free to check them out.