Makenna turns Three

Our little princess is one year older. She has the funnest personality and gets prettier every day. She loves to dress up in her princess dress, play in the sandbox, and swing. She loves Dora and Diego. Probably her favorite thing is to play with Parker. I am so glad that she's in our family and that I get to be her mom.

Parker's first day of Kindergarten

It happened. We have a kindergartener. He just loves his teacher and being in school. I was a little emotional in the week before he started school, but just really excited for him on the day of. He's a pretty independent kid, so he just walked right into his classroom with out even a look back at us. He's doing great and we couldn't be more proud!

Labor Day

On Labor Day we went to the plane museum at Hill Airforce Base and then to the Ogden Dinosaur Park. The park was sort of Parker's holy grail. Life-sized dinosaurs everywhere. He was in heaven.

Bear Lake and This Is the Place State Park

We went with some family down to Bear Lake for a weekend. The kids had lots of fun on the beach and riding around in the boat. I'm not much of a sun/beach person, but I made it.(: A few weeks later, we took the kids to This Is the Place State Park. They have a lot of neat things to do that I had no idea were there. Makenna rode a horse there named Banjo and now yells, "Banjo!" whenever she sees a horse.

Trek 2010

Andrew works with the young men and so we had the opportunity, in August, to go on trek with the youth of our ward to Martin's Cove. We were dressed up as pioneers the whole time and got to push handcarts. Martin's Cove is an area in WY that the people in the Martin Handcart Company took refuge in when they could go no further in their trek West because of the weather (snow storms) and lack of supplies. The wind there is constant and gets totally insane at times, so I can't imagine how cold it must have been in the winter with snow blowing everywhere. 20% of their company died along the way and many of them died in or near Martin's Cove. Really, I could go on and on about their story. They had such strength and faith and were willing to give everything (and many did) for the gospel. I knew that the place was special and had been dedicated by Pres. Hinckley but skeptical me wasn't totally sure it would be any different than any place else. I was so wrong. It is hallowed ground. There is a spirit there that can't be explained. I knew that the lives of our youth would be touched and changed, but I never expected my own life to be so changed because of this experience. The pioneer ancestor I represented was my great-great-great grandma Martha Jane Knowlton Coray. She and her husband, Howard, made the trek to Utah in 1850. At the time they had 6 children under the age of 8, including an infant. I can hardly take my 2 kids to the store, let alone my 6 kids thousands of miles in a wagon. I gained so much respect for her and her family. It was an amazing experience. One that I wil always be grateful I had.

(Here we are in our pioneer garb)

And We're Back

I will try not be such a lazy blogger anymore. I don't have any pictures but the kids have said some pretty funny things lately.

One night Andrew and I were tucking Parker into bed. Parker leaned over to me and whispered, "Mom, dad is missing some of his hair." I am not making this up. It really happened. Poor Andrew.

This morning I was running my hands through Makenna's hair as she was petting Sadie. She pulled my hand away and said, "Stop petting me, mom!" I'm a girl, not a dog!"

You gotta love my silly, sassy kids.

Growing Up

Parker on his first day of preschool

Two years later...Parker on his last day of preschool

Such a handsome kid!

Makenna wanted to be in a picture too. (:

I Love My Mom Because...

She was courageous. She was positive. She showed us everyday how much she loved my dad and us kids. She had a good sense of humor right up to the end. She was calm and level-headed. She was smart and confident. She was pretty in a non-fussy sort of way. She was a great teacher. She had gorgeous eyes and hands. She loved to be with her family. She always saw the best in me. She adored, truly adored Parker. She was the best grandma ever. She was faithful. She had a quiet strength that I didn't know I depended on so much until she was gone. She lived a life of service. I knew she loved me without a doubt. She still comes around when I sing to let me know how proud of me she is. I always want to make her proud. She'd drop everything to help me when I needed her. She still does. She's my mother for always. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

Lucky Me

He's funny. He's kind to everyone. He's a great big brother. He always has a hug and a "you're beautiful mom". I'm so glad to be his mother.

(My sister-in-law took this picture and I stole it. Thanks Meggen!)

Our Trip to Moab

Last week we headed out to Moab on a little family vacation. We got to hike around in Arches National Parker and Cayonlands National Park. We even camped (for one night). We aren't brave enough to do more than that with the kids. One night is enough. The second night we got a hotel room (my idea, very smart). Parker was in heaven running around everywhere and climbing on everything. Makenna wasn't so sure and wanted to be carried a lot. It's so gorgeous out there! We are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the county. On our way back home we stopped at the dinosaur musuem in Price. We had the whole place to ourselves! We even took some pictures of "snuggle duck". For those of you who don't know him, he's been Makenna's best friend basically since birth. He goes everywhere with her. Even throwing him in the wash is a big deal for Makenna and it always involves tears. He's pretty much had the yellow loved off of him, his legs are coming apart, and his beak has had to be repaired several times but he's Makenna's favorite thing. Of course, he came on our trip and we decided to snap a few shots of this important memeber of our family.(:

Mommy confessions

I thought it was about that time again.(:

#1 My kids ate chips for breakfast today.

#2 I have read roughly 2 out of like 20 chapters of my Music Civ book this whole semester.

#3 I almost never actually do Makenna's hair. I mean, I brush it, but I have loads of cute bows in my bathroom that I never use. I also refuse to cut it because I am weirdly emotionally attached to her hair (especially the adorable soft curls at the end) and I don't think I could handle seeing it get butchered.

#4 I still have no intention or desire to potty train Makenna. She's not ready, and really, diapers are a pretty great. She's not 3 yet anyway...right.

#5 I did nothing exciting for St. Patrick's Day. No green anything. My kids probably didn't even know it was a holiday. I want to be that mom that does cool and amazing stuff for every holiday, but I know I'm just not.

I'm sure I could go on but I have 2 weeks left of this semester and I really should be reading my Music Civ book.(:

Sick

No joke, this all happened today. So this morning Makenna scratched Parker's eye. I have no idea why. Most of the time they are the best of friends, but occasionally they just attack each other. Siblings. Anyway, after a good cry he seemed fine but all through the rest of the afternoon he kept telling us how much his eye hurt. Finally we decided to run him into the doctor to make sure that it wasn't damaged. All the way over Parker kept telling me that his stomach hurts. As we are walking through the instacare parking lot, Parker stops, bends over, and pukes up everything in his stomach. So I take my now vomiting kid in to get his eye checked out and sure enough, it's badly scratched and he needs a patch. This is what my poor boy looked like for the rest of the day. The stomach flu and an eye patch. It was pretty much the saddest thing ever. Oh,and he had to miss his soccer game. But he does make one cute little pirate.

Egg Hunting

Soccer

Parker's first soccer game. Can you tell he was just a little excited?

Lions and Tiger and Bears, Oh My!

If you haven't guessed, we took the kids to the zoo yesterday. There actually weren't any bears, which was kind of a bummer. We have decided that if you want to see a lot of animals sleeping, go to the zoo in the summer. That's why we try to go in the spring and fall. This was our first trip where both of the kids were old enough to really be excited. Parker did manage to trip and fall right into a muddy puddle of water right at the end, but other than that we had lots of fun. Parker's favorite animals were the spider monkeys and Makenna's favorite was the cougar. We are already training her to be a BYU fan.(: Andrew and I loved the Meerkats. They really have to be the most adorable creatures on the planet.