May Visitors

One of the best things to me about owning a house is being able to accommodate visitors besides of course having room for our family to spread out. We don't have many guests outside my family but hey whenever you are in the neighborhood come visit!
Our first guest in May was my best friend Heather and her boyfriend Bryan. She periodically comes down a couple of times per year. Her last visit was a couple of weeks after Aaron was born to come meet him. So we were definitely due a visit. Bryan had friends that asked him to help them move in Orem so they figured this would be a good time to kill 2 birds with one stone. They came Fri April 30 and left Sun May 2. Visited a little Friday and then Bryan went to help move, Eric and Miriam went to Home Depot craft with Eric's family leaving Heather, Aaron and I to play games and visit ourselves. We then met up at Tucanoes for late lunch which was wonderful, thanks Heather for treating! That night we played a new game, All Aboard which was a little hard to understand but really fun once we got going. Heather has been introducing all sorts of new games to me in the past couple of years. Hopefully they will be able to come again soon now that they are engaged, congrats!

Visitor #2 was Zayda York on May 24. Zayda is just 8 days older than Miriam and her daddy is Eric's best friend. Her mom Audrey asked us to babysit while she had a spa day with other military wives getting ready for their sweethearts to come home from Afghanistan. Zayda and Miriam get along on again off again and she's never quite sure about leaving mommy. We've glad you could come play with us! Welcome home Nate!

Visit #3 was for a Memorial Day BBQ to celebrate one year living in our house, hooray! I had been wanting to entertain for awhile and this seemed the best opportunity so we had Eric's friends Mike and girlfriend (sorry don't remember your name!), and Dustin and wife Angelica for lunch. It had been awhile since we had been able to see any of them so it was great visiting and catching up. I tried making shish kabobs and grilled pineapple for the first time. It turned out really well and I'm anxious to try it again for my family.

Idaho Mothers Day Trip

Eric has wanted a new vehicle to get him to work because the Ford Ranger we had wasn't great, ie no power steering and the ignition had issues as well. Besides those little inconveniences was the fact I refused to drive it. So as we are thinking of going camping this summer we're not sure how to do it. All the camping gear doesn't fit well into our car, but we can't put car seats in the truck. So Eric has been keeping an eye out for a new vehicle. He fell in love with a Ford sport trac which is a full double cab and a short bed. It took awhile for him to convince me it was a good idea and then tracking one down. Finally, he found one in Blackfoot for apx $6000. We took the chance and bought it. As it was by Mothers Days coming up we arranged to spend the weekend with my family and whats more we didn't tell them we were coming. It was soo hard not to tell my mom that week to keep it a surprise. On the way up we ordered pizza ahead and picked it up in Brigham City- it worked pretty good for travel food. We were surprised when we got there because nobody was there! Dad and Jennifer were picking up Mothers Day things so was back soon, but mom was at a meeting and we were almost all asleep before she came. In picture above Eric is showing off the old animal counting toy to Miriam and Aaron while were getting ready for bed. When mom did walk in she was totally surprised as we parked farther down the street. She said it was the best Mothers Day gift she could have gotten.

Saturday morning Eric, Aaron, and I headed to Blackfoot to pick up the truck while Miriam went to the park with Grandma and Grandaddy. At the fair ground there is this big rock they can climb around on with a tunnel going through it as well.

Miriam sure loves to play at the park with Bacha (as she calls him). She loves slides and had a wonderful time playing on all the equipment. They also went to see the horses and throw sticks in the nearby canal there. After playing by the canal any time Miriam saw a canal she wanted to throw sticks in it.

We met them at the park with the new truck and Miriam had to fully explore it and try everything out. It's actually quite a luxury vehicle. It is indigo colored, 5 passenger, as you can see by above pic has a sunroof, 6 CD changer, power windows including the rear one, 4 wheel drive, and many other nice features. We've really enjoyed it so far and Eric thinks its fun to drive! We went back home for lunch then set out for Island Park to check out a cabin mom was thinking of renting for the Grover Reunion she was in charge of. It was decided yes it would work then we went over to Green Canyon, an old hot spring pool in the middle of nowhere.Miriam and I had been when she was 6 mon old, but this was Eric and Aaron's first visit and we even convinced Jennifer to come with us. Beyond that this was only Aaron's second time in a pool. I love the kids' swimming suits, Aaron's blue Hawaiian print and Miriam's strawberries (from Aunt Heather). We had a great time bouncing and splashing about. Jennifer brought this inner tube and Miriam had a great time floating in it. It was a super fun activity even if the pool is old and a little scary. Dad didn't think it had changed much from when he was a boy! We were properly worn out and the kids went to sleep on the way home. Sunday we went to church. Mom's ward gave the mothers an inspirational instrumental CD. It was nice to go to relief society. We took some pictures after church while Eric was packing up to go and Dad was making dinner. Miriam loves our kitty, Sheep. She is always talking about the kitty's house ie the garage and chasing her around. I love the first picture where she is enjoying petting her then the second where she has a look of keep her away.

Taking a picture of the girls in front of the house. We always have to play the piano and usually get some cute pictures. I believe I started then Miriam came to help (don't you love her looking over her shoulder?! so cute) and when Aaron saw what was going did his best to get in the middle of it too. My mom has kept most of our old toys and Miriam loves playing with them, its rather nostalgic to see the old toys come out again. We had a lovely dinner than all but Jennifer drove up to IF temple to look around and get some family pictures.

Of course Aaron was asleep when we got there so mom stayed with him while the rest of us walked around the temple. Miriam enjoyed seeing everything, unfortunately the bride garden was closed.

They have these nice pedestals to take picture with the temple on the grounds. It was fun to get similar pictures with the family that we did for our engagement and wedding pictures, a lot has changed in seven years!

They had beautiful tulips that it was fun to get Miriam in the midst of once Aaron woke up. The Elder in the visitor center gave Miriam that temple card you see her holding and she thought that was the coolest ever to have a picture of the "heple" though she didn't want to say anything the missionary.

They have recently renovated the IF visitor center- adding more touch screen presentations and this beautiful Christus statue. I love that He has his arms out and it looks like He is holding us all within His love. I know that my Savior lives and loves me and my family. That He is always watching over us, as He says in the Book of Mormon a hen gathers her chicks. He is the safe port in the storms of life. I'm so grateful to have been raised in a family with this knowledge and that my parents instilled in me through their actions a love of the temple that I hope I can pass down to my children.

This was at the end of our visit and the kids were getting antsy, but I love the imagery of Christ guiding me with my little ones or sending Aaron to me. Also Eric was taking a moment to tell Miriam about Jesus and I love the look on both of their faces looking up at Jesus talking about His love for us.

This was my all time favorite picture. In their rooms I feel strongly about having a picture of the temple, Jesus and our families hanging on the wall after all these are the most important things in our life. I'm going to print this in 8x10 for Miriam's room to remind her of Jesus. I love the purity showing through as she looks up to Him. From there the kids and I went back with my parents to spend a couple more days while Eric hit the road home to go to work.

we just hung out till Thur doing stuff together and having fun. The above pictures shows some of Aaron's favorite things to do. Playing with the vacuum (even though the handle kept falling off and he would have to fight Miriam for it), the balloons mom got me in honor of birthday/mothers day, and these wooden eggs we have from when we went to Easter at the White House. He loved the eggs best of all, whether he was beating them together or just holding literally like 24/7. We were amazed he could crawl holding them.

We also got our customary visit from Aunt Heather. we love seeing her whether its playing games or just visiting. She likes to come and spoil my children. It was nice to get to know her boyfriend Brian a little better also.

Finally it was time to go. Goodbye family till next time!

Miriam's First Solo Prayer

Miriam has steadily shown interest in saying prayers. It's part of our bedtime routine so she knows when it time to say prayers. Sometimes she wants to say so we try and prompt and then she doesn't say anything. Or other times she will repeat a sentence later one word throughout the prayer. Also if she wants to say but wasn't paying attention and we get through the prayer without her we sometimes have to say another one.

Tonight we were getting ready to say prayers, and Jessica asked Miriam if she would like to say the prayer. She said yes, then folded her arms and started 'Dear Heavenly Father'. Thank you we could go to church, something about church again, something about a ball and church (maybe she was talking about nursery?). Bless all of us to go to Bed, Bless Grandma, (maybe something about happy day), Bless Baby Aaron, Bless Baby Aaron bed. Goodnight Moon (the book that was on her lap). Name of Jesus (I think), amen. Amen (more emphasized, when we didn't respond to the first one, because it was quiet). Over all, the prayer was a couple minutes-- the longest prayer I've heard from one so small. It was also hard to understand many of the words, but hey, we didn't prompt one word of her prayer!! It took me by surprise because we haven't done many prayers where we prompt her.

Random April Pictures

Not sure what happened with my posting, guess I got in a slump over the zoo. I was trying to decide if I should just skip forward or try to catch up a couple of months. I about decided to at least be done with April but there were so many cute pictures that were random so I decided one last April post, I hope you enjoy! Aaron has joined his sister in the book pulling off shelf activity. Here we have the before (top right) casually looking at the books, to the deed of pulling books off (left), to the the after math of books piled on the floor (bottom right). I think the most fun they having is just getting everything out.

Miriam is becoming more and more a copycat. Eric was leaning over the couch talking to me when we noticed Miriam in the same pose. She's a cute one.

Conference weekend- how we watched conference. It was harder than ever to occupy the kids so we could listen. Right after Miriam got her 2 year pictures at Target. Unfortunately, this is the last time we saw her cute Easter hat. We figure she dropped somewhere in the store and it was never turned into lost and found.

Miriam has a strange relationship with the vacuum and always has since she was tiny. Most of the time she is scared of it and runs to get out of the way. Yet lately she will plug it in for me and she seems to like being on the other side helping. She is still a little short to keep it always touching the ground.

Miriam likes mothering or helping Aaron. Most of the time he is ok with it. Here she decided he needed to wear her boots for some reason and is putting them on him. (Note Aaron holding/eating the hairbrush. He always has to be carrying something in his hands!)

Big- Medium- Little. I was cleaning Miriam's room and turned to find them lined up this way. Miriam in her rocker she got for her birthday. Aaron on his Uncle Ryan's old Japanese chair. The baby doll on her rocker. Aaron loves these little chairs, he's always climbing on them.

We were at Eric' brother Marshall's house for his son Myles birthday party. Miriam helping the 'babies', Max and Aaron (who are a week apart from each other) outside playing. They weren't altogether sure about crawling on the grass.

Eric and the kids on the swing enjoying the sunshine at the party.

Getting kids to sleep continues to be quite the chore. Eric typically rocks Aaron to sleep first while I get Miriam asleep. I believe they were all so tired that by the time I finished showering this what I found. Often Eric gets Aaron asleep by going to sleep first. I hate being alone at night because it is quite the chore to get both of them to bed by myself. Thanks Eric for being a good daddy!

Aaron is learning what fun it is to get stuff out. I went to check on them and they had pulled all the toys out of Miriam's closet and were sitting in the middle of a big mess. Aaron was trying out all of Miriam's play food. He is "eating" something different in all 3 pics I took! They sure keep me hopping- its a good thing they are so adorable!