Memorial Day Weekend

Jim had to work for the first part of the long weekend so the kids and I took a quick trip down to Salt Lake to see the grandparents.


On Saturday I took Crew and Paige out in the double jogger and enjoyed running around Sugarhouse looking at all the beautiful plants and blooming trees. Hailey stayed home with Grandmommy, she has broken her little toe and is trying to stay off of it so it will get better. She crashed on her bike last week and somehow fractured her little toe, nothing else got hurt, thank goodness.


Later that day we went the Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah for the Toadally Frog Exhibit. I forgot my camera so I took this picture with my phone, not too bad for a phone pic.



After dinner at The Spaghetti Factory, we ended the night watching the first Night at the Museum.

We drove back to Idaho Falls on Sunday so we could spend Monday with Jim's family at their annual Memorial Day picnic at Tautphaus Park. Jim's mom said their family has been doing this picnic for over 100 years.

The kids are always excited to ride the little rides, the same ones that

were there when Jim was a kid.

All Crew wanted to do was ride the train, here he is with his cousin Anna.

Here he is when we told him there were no more

tickets for the train, such a classic "Crew" expression.

All in all, a fun, nice weathered weekend.

Spring Break in Mexico 2009

I am back-tracking a little and posting about our trip to Mexico in March for spring break. Let me apologize in advance for the number of pictures; it's for the posterity. It was by far, the best family vacation we have ever been on. This year we were trying to decide between a relaxing beach vacation or a busy Disneyland/World vacation. I am SO glad we opted for the relaxing choice and SO glad we got in and out of Mexico before the swine-flu hit! We flew into Cancun and stayed a little south at a place called the El Cid at the Riviera Maya. I did have a few complaints but the nice thing about a little time in between now and then is that I only remember the good parts! We have so many photos, it would be insane to post them all so here are some of my favorites that we took.

The kids had a great time playing on the beach.

Here we are at the pool, it was huge! They had a great area walled off for toddlers and Crew spent tons of time just hanging out in the water.

Here are Jim and Hailey jumping off the cliff at the pool. She was so brave!

The girls spent a lot of time at the Kids Club making bracelets, playing games, learning songs, having water balloon fights and the list could go on. Paige is semi-fluent in Spanish after spending so much time with the cute girls working there.

Here the girls are painting ceramic turtles. They were so cute and a great keepsake.

Crew was too young to go to the club so he spent a lot of time with us which was great (most of the time).

Moving the giant chess pieces around on the giant chess board.

Crew and his daddy - he is SUCH a daddy's boy!

Paige at the beach...

Karl the Iguana, he was outside our door every morning. He actually ran towards us one day and the kids freaked. Now that we're home, we still talk about him. When Crew wants out of the grocery cart, all I have to do is mention Karl and he's happy to stay put! I'm cruel, I know.

Paige and Crew, getting along, wow!

Hailey on the balcony...

Crew on the balcony, ready to swim...

Headed out to eat...

We seem to have an abundance of pictures of Crew since he was with us 24/7! He wanted to wear his hat this way for some reason...don't know where he saw it but anytime we tried to turn it around, it went right back to the side or the back.

Headed to the airport to go home, he loved carrying this backpack.

A self-timed family portrait right before leaving, giving the vacation a "thumbs up." I think Paige was throwing a fit off to the side for some reason.

Mother's Day Resolutions

Somehow, with the approach of every Mother's Day, it seems I've been keeping a little list in my head of all the things I'm doing wrong as a Mother. While on one hand, it's nice to be acknowledged and appreciated, on the other hand, it's horrible what we do to ourselves (or at least what I do to myself) on the inside. By the time Mother's Day has arrived, I've decided I don't deserve any appreciation and acknowledgement and feel guilty for the entire day. I know, it's not rational, but somehow I always end up feeling this way!

A couple of reasons why I've questioned my mothering skills lately...

Yesterday after going to the gym, my friend Kaylene and I decided to take the kids over to McDonald's to kill some time. She's got 2 kids, both 2 years old so Crew has a great time playing with them. Somehow, Crew snuck out of the playland and out of the double doors (meaning he had to open two doors himself) at McDonald's and was heading for the drive-thru driveway. Luckily, an older lady who happened to be sitting facing the window noticed him and ran out and grabbed him apparently right before a car came driving down the drive-thru and could have very easily not seen him. She brought him back into the playland where I was negligently chatting away and explained what happened. My stomach dropped immediately and I couldn't help myself from falling apart. I am still having flashbacks to what could have happened. It was a good wake-up call to be more aware of his increasing independence.

I've had a 21 year-old babysitter coming on Wednesdays for 2 hours while I go volunteer in Hailey's class for an hour and then run errands for an hour. It's been great, up until last Wednesday. My friend brought the babysitter to my house (she doesn't have a car, long story), as soon as she got there she started explaining to me that she doesn't think she's the right fit for our family, in other words, she could not handle Paige's tantrum's. Not wanting anyone to take care of my children that doesn't really want to, I told her thank you for letting me know and I promptly took her home. I have mixed feelings on this one, part of me feels like my parenting skills are lacking because my 5 year-old is still throwing tantrums, and the other part of me is a little frustrated with this babysitter. If Paige sees any vulnerability in an authority figure, she takes full advantage of it. She told one babysitter she was "the worst and most boring babysitter in the world." Luckily, this girl has 4 younger siblings and didn't let it phase her.

These two examples are just a tiny peek at why I am feeling inadequate lately. I guess it's good to have wake-up calls every now and then and try to improve upon your behavior or lack of behavior. I love being a mother and it's the most important job in the world to me. In some ways, it's hard being your own boss because you can be your own worst critic and then it's not followed up with any positive reinforcement (or at least the kind we're used to). I need to remember that the hugs and the "I love you's" from my children are all positive reinforcement.

My goal for this Mother's Day is to try to allow myself to enjoy it. Mother's Day is going to become my new "New Year's Day" and I'm going to try to start fresh and set some goals that will help me be a better mother. Especially with summer coming, I'm going to have to have my game on!

Dance Recital

Hailey and Paige had their 2nd annual ballet recital last Saturday. It was amazing, truly magical! The costuming for the ballet was incredible. It was one of the best cultural experiences I've had in Idaho Falls and it was FREE! Can't beat that!


The ballet was "The Ugly Duckling" and was centered around a farm theme. Paige was a yellow duckling and Hailey was an eggplant. Both girls did an incredible job. They were exhausted after all the preparation and practicing! I can't imagine what it will be like when they're older (hopefully they will keep dancing)!

Here's Paige in a pose after accepting her flowers.

You can tell here she's tired, she's rubbed the mascara under her eyes.



Here's Hailey in an arabesque(?)...sooo happy to have received flowers (since I forgot last year).

I love this picture of her so elegantly holding her bouquet!

It was a fun night.

Don't let this picture of Grandpa scare you, sometimes he can be a little wacky...at least he didn't have his gross buck teeth in for this picture.

Now I just have to figure out how to do this blogging thing. It took me way too long to do this...hopefully I will catch on soon.