4th Annual Girls Trip!

Nicole, Oakley, Layla, and I hit up St George for the 4th year in a row! This year we saw Newsies and it did not disappoint! It was excellent! Tuacahn does a great job with their plays and this one was probably my favorite of the ones we've seen (Little Mermaid, Upon a Wish, Peter Pan, and Newsies).

We stayed with my grandpa and Zing. It's a long story, but we ended up going with my grandpa to some lady's farm. He met this lady at a restaurant where she had a parrot with her and he asked her about it. She told him she has a farm with lots of exotic animals. He told her his great granddaughter was coming to visit and asked if we could go to her house and see her animals. So that's how we ended up there. Of course, we were all dressed nice, not expecting to get dirty, but we ended up walking through dirt corrals FILLED with goat, sheep, and horse poop. I also grew up with horses and we kept our farm area significantly nicer than this lady did! It was disgusting and poorly planned out. Anyways, she had over 130 animals of over 30 different species. We saw sugar gliders, snakes, a macaw, parrots, hedgehogs, emus, chinchilla, rabbits, horses, cows, goats, sheep, cockatiels, turtles, etc. Her house was completely disgusting, as you can imagine with that many animals inside and out, and I was so glad when we left. I grew up with animals, but the way this lady kept them was so messy and smelly! We finally left when one of the sheep kept chewing on mine and Oakley's skirts! Poor Oakley, she was so freaked out! It was quite the experience. My crazy grandpa, always making us do weird things we don't want to do. That's a story for another day...

 We also enjoyed eating out and shopping, of course! The 5 hour drive always flies by when I get to chat with Nicole. I seriously look forward to our trip every year. Can't wait for next year!

Quick Update

I should be going to bed right now, but all day long I planned to update my blog after the kids went to bed. I never get a chance to sit down at the computer long enough to update during the day, and Mitch is usually using the computer at night for school. He is out of town this week, so I've been telling myself every night he's been gone that it was my chance to update. Unfortunately tonight while I was at a meeting and the kids were home with a babysitter (Brandon Whitesides), Marcus dropped a 5 lb weight on his toe and the result was a bloody mess. His toe is not broken, thankfully, but he will definitely be losing his toe nail. Soon. I'm so thankful for my friend, Tami Halford, who is a nurse and lives across the street. She came over at 9:00 pm to help me clean and bandage the wound and assure me that I didn't need to take him to the doctor. I don't do blood, at all, and I was on the verge of puking the whole time, so I was SO grateful for her! Now it's all bandaged up and Marcus is sleeping peacefully. And poor Layla. She cried almost as much as he did! (Though I must say Marcus was so tough and didn't cry nearly as much as I expected!) Layla felt so bad for him, and my idea for her to be a nurse or doctor won't work because she was as queasy as I was, poor girl! So this update will be quick because I've got a messy kitchen and I need to go to bed so I can be ready to babysit Vivian at 8 am tomorrow morning!

Here are a few things I want to remember:

Marcus and his best friend, Mason Mudrow, are quite the pair. They are in the same Sunbeam class at church and apparently they're causing trouble. I have asked their teachers if Marcus is good and they always say yes, but then I hear from Mason's mom that they're knocking chairs over, wrestling, and smoosh-hugging each other, lol. Their teachers have learned to not let the boys sit by each other, but sometimes it just happens and that's when the trouble ensues. I'm thinking they won't be in the same kindergarten class .... a couple of Sundays ago I heard that they were knocking chairs over in Primary, so Mitch and I talked to Marcus about being reverent at church and not causing trouble with Mason. Marcus then told us that, "If I can't cause twouble wif Mason, then I will just make a new fwiend and we will cause twouble togevew." I told him he can't cause trouble at church, not even with a new friend, so he said he would cause trouble at home. I told him he can't cause trouble at home, and he said, with slumped shoulders in an exasperated voice, "Then where can I cause twouble?!" Before I could answer (because I was trying to muffle my laughter), Layla chimed in and said, "Outside!" No! Not even outside! Hahahaha. I'm not concerned and find the whole thing humorous only because I know Marcus doesn't want to cause trouble, he just wants to play and have fun and doesn't understand why church is not an appropriate place for that. It's hard when you're a 4 year old boy at church with your best friend and are expected to sit still for 3 hours!

The other weekend Marcus ran in my room at lunch time and said he had made me lunch. I was so happy, thinking he and Mitch had made me lunch and I thought it was SO sweet! As I went to give him a hug and say thank you, he slugged me hard in the shoulder and said, "It's a knuckle sandwich!" Stinker! I still laugh every time I think about it. He totally got me.

We had the Whitesides family over for dinner recently. They have three sons ages 8 to 12 and a 6 year old daughter. We just love their family and Liz is one of my best friends. Liz and I are planning an arranged marriage between their son Cameron and Layla. :) After dinner the kids were playing downstairs when we hear crying. Apparently Cameron was playing with a ball and Layla asked for a turn. Cameron wouldn't give her the ball, so Marcus walked over and slugged him in the face (Cameron is 8 years old, and a big 8 year old at that). I go back and forth between being mad that Marcus would hit someone, and proud that he stood up for his sister in the only way a 4 year old knows how. Of course we talked to him about it, but I am still impressed with his bravery at taking on a kid twice his size! Ha! Now we just need to teach him to solve those problems differently...
Later that night they were all downstairs again, laughing about something. The Whitesides are all hilarious, but especially Cameron. I don't know what he said, but he made Layla laugh so hard that she peed her pants! She came running upstairs so fast and into the bathroom, so embarrassed! Poor girl! Luckily the other kids didn't know what had happened. Fun times with the neighbors! ;)

Marcus turned 4! I can't even believe it! I don't even know where to start, but I can say that he makes my heart so happy. He is a happy, hilarious, handsome little dude. It is just fun to be with him and soak in his sunshine. He was a blast at his birthday party because he was extremely excited for every present. It was great! He let Layla help him open all of his presents and she was sweet and very excited for him. I just love them! Marcus was spoiled, of course, and we were grateful for our awesome family who celebrated with us!

Learning to write his name is our goal for this summer!

Playing with cousin Viv.

Painted nails!

We also finished both of Marcus's preschool groups. This was bittersweet because while I was excited for summer, I truly enjoyed teaching these cute kids! I am grateful for their moms, who are all great friends, and that we could work together this year for preschool. LtoR: Marcus Bott, Taysom Molyneaux, Anna Lifferth, and Mason Mudrow.

Went on a family bike ride one Sunday after church. This needs to happen more often!

Tried to hike Duel Canyon, but went on the wrong trail and ended up on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It was still fun. The kids LOVE hiking. I just wish there were more kid friendly hikes near by!

Got ice cream after the hike and then washed the cars!

I helped with field day for Layla's school. I remember my field day as being actual field games and we had pizza. Layla's school rented a 20 foot blow up water slide, a blow up relay bounce house, and had more water games than I ever thought possible. It was amazing and so much better than what I had as a kid! I brought Marcus along and he brought a bucket of Transformers to play with while we were there ... he ended up with a group of 6th grade boys surrounding him and playing with him. Pretty sure he was in little boy heaven and he kept telling me he "made SO many fwiends!"

Liz and I each made a sign that said, "Welcome to summer"! and hung them on our garage doors on the last day of school. It made me happy for the kids as they rode/walked home from school and saw the sign. Some would cheer and others told me they liked it. I just liked the excitement around school finally being out!

We went boating and can't wait to go again! The water was still freezing cold, and both the kids shocked me by getting in the water, especially Marcus! Layla is a fish and always loves to swim, but Marcus getting in was a surprise! Must have been my dad's crazy example of swimming in freezing cold water. They had a blast!

I'll have to write more about our summer next time I get a chance. I'm exhausted and need to catch some zzzzs!

Spring 2017

March was an exciting month for Mitch! It was his birthday, the big 36! We celebrated with dinner at Benihana with Kevin and Nicole- always a good time. Layla was SO excited to give Mitch his gift from the kids that she thought of all by herself: a hug box. Basically the kids decorated a giant cardboard box with glitter (what was I thinking?! Glitter was everywhere!) and then hid inside the box. Mitch opened it and they popped out and gave him hugs. It was adorable and Layla was so proud of herself. :) I was touched by her sweet thoughtfulness; she is a sweet girl. We gave Mitch a new drill and celebrated with both of our families. I think he felt special and loved, as he certainly is!



Then came a super proud wife moment! In March Mitch was awarded an award through his work with a team of people that he managed. This team created new software for a missile system, in more or less words, and they have been traveling to other companies to present their system. The best part was that they had an award ceremony in LA and paid for me to fly out there and attend. It was great that I could be there to support him. They had a nice dinner and presented the awards to each team. While I don't fully understand everything Mitch does at work, and most of it is classified anyways, I know enough to know that I am very proud of him and his accomplishments!

He even got a professional photo taken for the award. So handsome!

I was gone for less than 24 hours, and my dad had just had hip replacement surgery, so I asked my friend, Liz, to watch my kids while we were gone since my parents couldn't. My kids have never slept over at another person's house besides their grandparents, so this was new for them. I knew they'd be fine at the Whitesides house, and that they'd have fun with their kids, but Layla missed me so much and cried a lot! It really surprised me! But it made me feel good because she does love me. :) I gave her a picture frame from off of my nighstand (as we were leaving to drop them off at Liz's she started crying and said she wanted to take a picture of me). On one side is a picture of the kids when Marcus was an infant, and on the other side is one of mine and Mitch's engagement pictures. She took it with her and slept with it, then set it on her desk at school the next day! That's how much she missed me, poor thing! But they were very well taken care of and had lots of fun.


St Patrick's Day happened. There is no leprechaun at our house, but we all wore green and had green pancakes and green milk for breakfast. Marcus wouldn't eat the green pancakes so he had cereal. Maybe next year.

We also celebrated sweet Evelyn's second birthday. She's the cutest little thing with a spunky personality. It's fun to watch her grow up!

Out to dinner and dessert with our friends, the Whitesides and the Irelands.

Layla had another piano recital. She played Minuet 1 and did great! I think she knew afterwards that she could have played even better and was a little disappointed, but overall she was happy with herself. I was proud of her and her hard work!

With her piano teacher, Tami Baker.

April Fool's Day was during General Conference this year. While we were watching the Saturday morning session, I pretended I was baking something. I cut capital letter Es out of brown paper, put them in a cake pan, covered it with tin foil and put it in the oven, all without anyone noticing. Then I set the time for 1 minute. When it beeped I told the kids to come have a brownie. Get it? They were so excited! I had already bought lots of candy for a game we were playing during General Conference so Layla said, "Geez Mom, you're really spoiling us during General Conference with candy and brownies!" Ha! I pulled the pan out of the oven and told them to take off the tin foil. Their faces and reactions were priceless when they saw brown Es and were disappointed! Mitch and I laughed so hard. Marcus just kept saying, "Those aren't brownies, Mom! It's just paper!" It was awesome.

Brown Es.

Layla has amazing primary teachers,
one of whom is my good friend, Kellee Mudrow.
They made the kids in their classes these notebooks
for conference.

For the afternoon session on Saturday we drove out to Promontory Point to see the place where the two railroads met and the Golden Spike was driven in the ground. It was fun and we learned a lot about railroads and trains. We also stopped at the rocket farm, aka Mitch's other love, at ATK and checked out the rockets. Always interesting because Mitch knows so much about it.



After that we had dinner with Mitch's parents, which was nice. On the drive home we were stopped at a red light, waiting to get on the freeway. Mitch said, "I can't see the light to see when it turns green because of the sun." I told him I could see it and would let him know. Then BOOM! a loud sound and all of our heads hit the back of the car seats. Some lady in a giant truck had rear ended us! It shook me up a little to think of how badly we could have been hurt. This was also the same week when I learned that I have a precancerous mole! Whew, life is crazy! But I'm so glad we are all okay and the car got fixed and all is well, There is less than a two percent chance that my mole will develop into anything, so for now I'll just get it checked every 6 months.

Every Friday I get together with Liz and we do something fun.
The week of St Patrick's Day we made rice Krispie treats that
didn't quite turn out because we were too busy gabbing. 

After all that craziness it was spring break for Layla! She had an entire week off of school. We didn't really make any plans because Mitch's work was busy, but we ended up getting a spring break deal on a hotel room at the Zermatt resort in Midway, so we took the kids there for a night. It was fun! They have a carousel and swimming pool. Layla is our little fish and didn't even mind the frigid cold water. She would swim from the indoor pool, under the opening to the outdoor pool and she reminded me of a polar bear, ha! Marcus was hilarious because he wanted to "ride the bench" on the carousel. He cracks me up.

Marcus mini golfs sitting down.

The next day we picked Oakley up and she slept over! Layla chose to have Oakley sleep over instead of a friend birthday party, and I was so happy with that! We had pizza, cupcakes, and ice cream that night and watched Moana. The girls and Marcus slept in sleeping bags in a fort in Layla's room that night. The next morning we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then I took the girls mini golfing. It was a fun time and Layla had fun, which was the whole point.



The next day we went to church, then Layla asked us every 5 minutes when our families were coming over so she could open her presents. They did finally come over and she got wonderful gifts. We gave her a pair of rollerblades and I am loving watching her learn to rollerblade. She is improving and getting the hang of it. Another proud mom moment watching her learn something new. I was also proud when she was opening gifts and let Marcus help her open all her presents. He even used his toy saw to cut the ribbons, lol. They are such great friends!


I still can't believe Layla is 7! She amazed me every day. She frustrates me sometimes, but I am always in awe of her intelligence, love for learning, sweetness, thoughtfulness, and sense of humor. I love her and loved celebrating her all weekend long. She teaches me so much and I am proud to be her mom!

Wearing the skirt and shirt my mom made
her for her birthday.

The next week was Easter. We had a fun time and the kids had four Easter egg hunts in two days! Now we have an insane amount of candy in our house! On Saturday we went with several of our neighbors and had a hunt with eggs that we all pitched in. That was my favorite one of the four because there were lots of kids, but not too many like the city egg hunts. Saturday night we celebrated with my family. The food was divine and we had our traditional bunny cake, of course. Sunday we had a peaceful day at church (once we got there, that is. It's always a struggle getting there by 9 am). But church really was special on Easter Sunday with beautiful music and inspired talks. Sunday school is always hilarious because we have some jokesters in there, but I learn a lot too. Then we headed to Mitch's grandma's house for another fun egg hunt and lunch. It was nice to see that side of the family again- it's been a long time. The rest of the day was relaxing and playing at home and it ended so nice!

Remember those candy eggs that turn your lips colors?
We taught our kids all about them.

Sleepy, drooly Easter bunny.

Two days after Easter and WAY too much candy, the kids and I all had dentist appointments! No cavities at least and the kids did great! Layla had sealant put on her 6 year old molars and it took about 20 minutes and she was so patient. Marcus did great for his second cleaning and was well-behaved while waiting for everyone else. The dentist said that Layla's two front teeth are almost in, which was reassuring because the baby ones fell out over 3 months ago! I've been waiting to see those new teeth, but I'll enjoy her toothless grin a little longer. :)


Marcus is always a laugh a minute, but the other night he said some things that I hope I never forget. So the back story is that Mitch plays Xbox with his friends sometimes and they currently play a game called Destiny. The kids love to play it too because they can make the guy do funny dance moves. Also, I keep telling Marcus that he should grow up and be "a doctor who takes care of sick babies" because he loves babies and kids and then he could help them (and I don't think he'll remember the word "pediatrician" quite yet). A couple of nights ago he was mad because we were making him get ready for bed. This happens every night. He was crying and carrying on when he said, in a dead serious voice, "I want to be a dad so I can stay up early and play Destiny! I don't want to be a doctor who takes care of sick babies! I want to be a dad and stay up early!" Oh my, I laughed so hard! First of all, he can't say his r's, l's, or th's properly, so pretty much everything he says is hilarious and cute. And then he wants to "stay up early" and his whole concept of dads just kills me! We told him that his dad is an engineer and goes to work every day to pay for  his Destiny game, and not to mention our house and food.We suggested that he be a doctor who takes care of sick babies so can buy his Destiny game and pay for his house. I'm hoping he'll take our suggestion. :)

It's raining today. Just another typical spring day in Utah. We try to go outside every chance we get before it gets too hot. I'm just waiting for Layla to be done with school! I'm excited for this summer and all the fun we'll have!

Loved watching my kids walk down the street
together with their umbrellas.

Date with Mama!

Marcus had a preschool field trip to Chic Fil A. It was fun to be the only ones there and to see how they make everything. Yum!

We still love babysitting Cousin Vivian, or "Little Cutie" as Marcus calls her. I left her on the bed one morning while I did Layla's hair and came back to find Marcus reading to her. The sweetest!

 We let Layla have a "late over." Instead of a sleep over, friends come over and stay late, in this case 9:00 pm. We ate pizza and watched Moana. It was insane. She invited 5 girls from school and they were SO very loud and hyper. They had fun and we had headaches! Ha, ha! Probably won't do that again for a while ... someone else's turn to host!

 Finally got a shot of Marcus peeing standing up. Why does this make me laugh so hard? I think it's because he looks like a little man.

 Hit up the dinosaur park with the fam.

 My sweet grandma Miles turned 89!

 Marcus took a nap the other day! This NEVER happens any more. Somehow I convinced him to lay in my bed with me, and after about 10 minutes of wiggles, he fell asleep, all snuggled up to me. It made my whole day. He is the best snuggler and he still looks like my baby boy when he's alseep.

 Layla got several Lego sets for her birthday and Harvey won't leave her alone when she's working on them. He can be so obnoxious, but it's pretty funny. Sometimes. Layla is a good sport about it.

 Nothing like free samples at the grocery store to make Marcus's day!