I seriously feel like this day has been anticipated for the last two years. It’s been a long time coming and it went well for everyone!

Lindsay has been really excited to go ever since she met her teacher and saw her classroom last week. Her teacher’s name is Mrs. Butterfield. I mean, honestly, doesn’t that sound like a name a teacher would have in a little kids book? Too cute. She’s been teaching for 8 years and has a child Lindsay’s age, which I take a lot of comfort in because she really knows how 5 year olds are.

Lindsay set her outfit out on the floor the night before and when I got up this morning she was already dressed and ready for breakfast. We had french toast and I made her take her cute clothes off because that would have really ruined our morning if she spilled syrup on her new clothes, and she happily took them off. She’s good like that. We took lots and lots of pictures of the morning.

We got there like 20 minutes early so that we could take some pictures in front of the school and whatnot, which took roughly 4 minutes, so then they had 15 minutes to play on the playground before school, which was awesome. That’s when we learned that Logan could do the monkey bars. I didn’t know that, did you?? He’s constantly surprising me.

Lindsay after getting ready. She’s wearing the cutest skirt EVER. Seriously.

Walking to get in the car

In the car, ready to go.

In front of the school

Sitting on the school sign.

A cute girl and her little brother who is going to miss her while she’s at school.


Playing on the playground.


Thank goodness for the little shorts under skirts!


Giving Logan a hug. He dropped from the monkey bars and was sad that Jeffy didn’t catch him. Oh dear.

Lining up. Seriously, so many pictures.

Seeing someone from her soccer team in the other teacher’s line.

My new favorite picture. For many reasons.

Lindsay going in, with Mrs. Butterfield saying hello.

Sitting in her seat.

When we went to pick her up, I envisioned getting a great picture of her walking out of class with a huge smile on her face, and jumping with joy. This is what I got…

She looks so confused and unsure about things right at that moment. I was like, Hey! How was it? And she answered with a calm little, It was fun. Then I had to remember who I was talking to. Oh, right, this is Lindsay. My child who can get so easily distracted. What did I expect, she walked out of her classroom onto the playground where the older kids were having recess. She REALLY wanted to go play and really didn’t want to tell me anything. And she didn’t tell me anything about it until we got home. She’s funny that way. But she had a blast and actually wished that she had more homework to do. She’s funny that way, too. She can’t wait to go again!

I’m so proud of this little girl and of everything she’s accomplished in her almost 6 years. She’s amazing and we love her so much!

I will never understand why watching cars crash into each other is so fun, but by golly it is! We went to our first Demolition Derby a couple of weeks ago and we had a lot of fun. We knew it wouldn’t be as loud as the Monster trucks, but it was still loud enough for Lindsay to be screaming hysterically that she wants to go home. Poor thing. I think we’ll just leave her home next time. Logan enjoyed every minute of it, but I think he enjoyed the tow trucks and the backhoe tractor in between each heat just a little bit more than the cars crashing. And once we got some ear plugs in Lindsay’s ears AND either Jeff or I had our hands covering her ears, she seemed to enjoy it just fine. In fact, she didn’t want to leave when it was time to go. She’s such a girl. We left after 2 hours of crashing goodness and the thing still went on for another 2 hours! Crazy! The kids never would have lasted that long! It was a lot of fun though, especially spending time with Laney and Kelly. Thanks for the invite guys!

Us before the hysterical screaming began.

Logan’s favorite car because it looked like Lightning McQueen.

A cute girl and her awesome daddy.

Just fun!

The destruction.



Logan could not stop watching the tow trucks and tractors.

I feel so lucky to have been married to Jeffy for the last 7 years. He is my best friend. He makes me feel so special every single day. He helps me with everything and then turns around and asks me if there is anything else he can do for me. I just hope I’m as good to him as he is to me. Thank you for giving me the best 7 years of my life! I look forward to the many adventures that lay ahead.

I LOVE YOU JEFFY!

The RS in my ward planned some very fun ‘field trips’ this summer to help us have things for our kids to do and an excuse to get out of the house and mingle with other mommies. I really, really enjoyed the ones I went to. The last one for this summer was yesterday and we went up to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon, played in the water and had a picnic lunch. Someone had told us that there was a grassy field right at the bottom of the falls so we walked/hiked up the trail only to discover that there isn’t any grass, just the trail and a bridge. So, we just dropped our stuff down and let the kids play in the water. And play they did! Some kids didn’t mind the FREEZING water and went to town while others weren’t so sure about how cold the water was. Each of my kids fit into one of these categories. Can you guess who was which one?

Lindsay was no dummy and knew how cold the water was, but still wanted to play and climb around, she’s adventurous like that. Logan really wanted to follow Lindsay around wherever she went, but really didn’t like it when his shorts got wet. He soon got over that though and ended up having a really fun time, especially when he saw his friend Jeffrey.
Lindsay climbing up near the base of the falls. We were trying to get a picture of all of the kids that were there together, but I don’t think it ever quite worked.


Logan’s asking Jeffrey if he wants to go in the cold, cold water with him.


The kids had fun goofing around, making poses, throwing rocks in the water, and using their shoes as boats to send down the little stream for me to catch. We only had one close call where I almost didn’t catch Lindsay’s shoe, but I really did have the situation under control.




Cute kids!



Lindsay ended up falling in at one point and was soaking wet. But don’t worry, she later put that to good use sliding down a dirt hill on her tushie creating quite the muddy mess. I was a proud mama. Nothing says having fun like a muddy mess.


Lindsay and her friend, Josh, who she wants to marry.


It was a beautiful day!

We got to watch Hannah and Lia the other day for a few hours and while they were here the kids were painting some pictures. I was always close by because little Lia was trying to paint everything around her (so cute by the way) but I wasn’t really paying any attention to what any of them were painting, except I did notice Lindsay and Hannah painting each others arms. Here were their finished products. Beautiful, right?

Anyway, after a few minutes Logan yells out, “I painted my name!” When I looked over at his paper, I expected to see some squiggly lines and circles because that’s what he’s done in the past and I didn’t think it would be any different that day, but when I looked at his paper, this is what I saw:

Those are 5 letters, however backwards they may be, they are still 5 recognizable letters all in the right order. I’m so proud of him!! Logan is definitely my silent learner. I knew he could draw an L and an O, but I didn’t know he could do the rest, and he’s so good at surprising me. Lindsay later told me she helped him finish his G, but the rest he did on his own. I’m so so so so so proud of him! Way to go, Logan!

We are so blessed that Jeffy works for such a wonderful company that loves us and treats us so well. The company has grown so much over the last couple of years and it’s getting harder to remember who everyone is, let alone KNOW who everyone is. To help us get to know each other better, we have been having a lot of fun activities where we can get together and mingle. The last one was on Saturday and it was a Water Picnic Splash Party. It was at Hatfieldadelphia in Lindon and they had all sorts of things for us to do. There was a water fountain the kids could swim in, a dunk tank, a blow up slide with water at the bottom, a blow up slip ‘n slide, a playground, trampoline, basketball court, volleyball court, balloon artist, and a face painter. Oh yeah, and there was food. Good food! Anyway, we all had a blast with everything there and had a really nice time talking with his co-workers and boss. Out of all of the activities Lindsay loved the face painting the most. She was one of the first ones in line and then stood in the line again at least 2 more times, getting her face and both arms painted. She loved it so much that she woke up the next morning and informed me that she was going to be a face painter when she grew up and had to start practicing right then. So she got her water color paints and proceeded to practice…on her arms. It was all very cute! I love how determined she gets when she sets her mind to something.

Here we all are with our faces painted.

Lindsay got a princess crown and a rainbow on each arm, Logan has an octopus, I have a sunset and Jeffy’s a puppy.

Most mornings these days, the kids get up, and without waking us up, go out to the living room and turn on the TV. Some days they come in and wake me up and ask for breakfast, other days they just wait so patiently for me to get up to get them breakfast. It’s quite lovely actually. One morning a couple weeks ago, I got up after Laura had left for work, around 8:15ish, and when I went out to the living room the kids had some candy in their hand. Where did that come from? I asked them and they were very excited to show me this:

We got Heart Attacked by the Primary Presidency!

It was so sweet of the Presidency to think of my children and to let them know how much they love having them in Primary. I know it showed Lindsay that even though she may be feeling a little out of her comfort zone, there are people here that love seeing her every Sunday. Thank you so much!

The two most important boys in my life fell asleep on the couch the other day and I just had to get a picture of it.

I still think Logan looks mostly like me, but every once in awhile I see a lot of Jeffy in Logan and this picture is one of those times. I think they have the same head shape, same hair line, and the same nose. In other words, totally adorable.

Our little Logan is the master at introducing us to things we’ve never heard of before, or had to deal with before. Examples? Being tongue tied, teeth issues, broken arm, allergic to mold are the ones that come to mind.

Well, he succeeded again the other day. The last couple of weeks, Logan has had these spots under his right arm and down his side. They didn’t seem to bother him or anything. Most of the time they looked like zits, but not just little tiny ones, big monster zits that 3 year old boys should NOT be dealing with. Just like any other parent, we held off as long as we possibly could, but then just had to pop one of those little buggars to try and see what they were. It caused him mucho pain so we didn’t do that again. We finally took him to the doctor because they just weren’t going away.

Let me first say that the day we took him to the doctor they had gone to a summer camp at their gymnastics and it was a Harry Potter theme. When I picked them up, they both had lightning bolts painted on their foreheads. Super cute. So, he still had that on when we went to the doctor. Dr. Cornish came in, and one look at the spots, he said it was something called Molluscum contagiosum, a lot like warts. Doesn’t that just sound like a spell Harry Potter would use??? MOLLUSCUM CONTAGIOSUM!! So, guess what he used to treat them? Beetlejuice, literally! That’s totally something Harry Potter would need to use in Prof. Snape’s class. Totally, totally crazy day. The beetlejuice made the spots blister and now they are starting to scab over and eventually they’ll just fall off. He may need another treatment to totally get rid of them, but hopefully just one will do the trick.

I meant to get a picture of his spots, but I forgot and now they are getting smaller and going away so what’s the point. I googled for a picture, but that was a really bad idea, so you’re just gonna have to use your imagination.

That’s what Lindsay said to us during her soccer game when we told her not to be scared to kick the ball away from the other team’s players. She’s so stinkin’ sweet!

She had her first soccer game on Saturday, and as with most things involving 4-5 year olds, there was plenty of good entertainment. Like I said before she was a little nervous about kicking the ball away from the other kids, but once we explained to her that it’s okay and part of the game, she was better at getting in the big mob of kids surrounding the ball and going for it. It sure was easy to spot Lindsay in that big mob because she was at least a head taller than everyone else, minus one kid, on her team. There had to be some kids on her team that are just barely 4, and she’s almost 6, so that explains some of it. Tall genes explain the rest.

They don’t keep score in this league, but her team totally won 3-1. She didn’t make any of those goals, but she did help get the ball down to their goal each time and then someone else would kick it in. Good teamwork! After each goal she would do a cute little victory dance and have a huge smile on her face. Her coach is awesome and is really good and giving them positive feedback, unlike the other team’s coaches, who would be very obviously upset if their kids kicked it the wrong way or missed a goal. There were two of them and one of them had a whistle around his neck. Dude, they’re 4 and 5, you’re taking it TOO seriously. Anway, here’s some pictures.

A cheesy before game smile. OMG little people shinguard’s are so cute!

Warming up.

The OTHER team and their too much seriousness.

This is what Logan thinks about soccer, especially when mommy forgets to bring any trucks for him to play with. He took this himself. Love those big eyes!


She played goalie for the first 10 minutes and did a good job stopping two goal attempts, even though she’s not paying attention in this picture. The jersey she was wearing was awesome!


Taking a timeout to wiggle her barely-loose tooth. She really wants that baby to fall out, like yesterday.

She looks like she’s checking her heartbeat in this one. She never seemed to be in danger…


Victory dance!

Tonight for dinner we had some hamburger helper AND zucchini and yellow squash from our garden! They tasted sooo yummy and I still can’t believe that we grew them. This is our first garden ever and it’s been really fun so far.

Lindsay helping daddy cut the squash.

Laura has been doing all of the work when it comes to the garden. She goes out and waters it and weeds it (the ones inside the garden boxes anyway. Jeffy pulls the big ones around the boxes) and has obviously been doing a fabulous job because the veggies were delicious. We appreciate it so much! The kids helped her plant them and it’s been fun to see their reactions to the veggies that are growing from the little plants they planted a month and a half ago.

At the beginning of the year, our Bishopric told us of our ward goals for this year and one of them was to plant a garden. It’s been fun to work towards that goal and see how amazing that process is. I can’t wait until we can try some cucumbers, bell peppers, butternut squash, tomatoes and cantaloupe!

Today I ran in the Pioneer Day 10K down in Provo. I had two reasons for wanting to run this race. The first reason was because I hadn’t done a 10K in a year and I wanted the challenge. The second reason was because I wanted to do something for my good friends, Niki and Flavio, who are anxiously waiting to find out if their in-vitro worked. Niki has been on bed rest for 4 days and has one more day to go and then they still have another week or two until they find out. I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to help with that process, but I knew that I could show them how much I love them and how amazing I think they are. I chose the 10K over the 5K because it had what they called “Goliath Hill” at the beginning. This hill was high. It was steep. And it was long. As I was thinking about Nikio and their experience and the journey they need to take to have a child, I felt that the 10K was a good representation of that. I started out good and once I hit the bottom of the hill I still thought I could run up the whole thing, but halfway through it, I had to stop and walk. The hill won and I was okay with that. I kept thinking of Nikio and all of the ups and downs they have had and once I got to the top of the hill I never walked again until I crossed the finish line. My legs got really tired at about mile 4.5 and I really wanted to quit, but Nikio’s example of never giving up kept me going.

I truly enjoyed running this for them and want to publicly thank them for their wonderful example of enduring to the end and having faith in the Lord. Love you guys!

The course for this run was absolutely beautiful. Provo is one of my favorite places to go in Utah County. It reminds me of my childhood, of when Jeffy and I met, and it is so pretty. As I was running, I thought a lot about Nikio, but also of the Pioneers. Looking at those beautiful, magnificent mountains, I thought of how those Pioneers had to walk up and over mountains, pushing and pulling their belongings and loved ones in handcarts and wagons, and suddenly my race didn’t seem so difficult. All I had to do was run. I am so grateful for the Pioneers and the sacrifices they made to get here and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank my Heavenly Father for this beautiful land. We truly are blessed to live where we live.

Near the beginning of the race, at about 1/2 mile into it, a dad pushing his disabled daughter in a stroller passed me, and I was overcome with emotion. He reminded me of the sweet love a father has for his child and the willingness to do anything for that child.

I was lucky to have Jeff and the kids cheer me on during the race. This was the first race the kids got to come to and they really enjoyed watching me take off and then continuing to drive around the course, stopping and waiting for me so that they could give me high fives, cheer me on, blow me kisses and tell me they love me. It helped so much to see their cute little faces and to hear their encouraging words. I am so lucky!

I highly recommend a good run like this every Pioneer Day to help remind us of all the blessings we have in our lives.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Tonight, Jeffy and I went on a date and hung out with 10 other couples from our ward for a picnic dinner and a game of kickball. OMG, it was SO. MUCH. FUN!! We both made some good plays and Jeffy was the “everywhere” man. He was just everywhere the ball went and made some great catches. Jeff kicked a few home runs and I kept the other team on their toes. It was really fun to mingle with new people in the ward and get to know them better. I hope we can do it again soon. The exact same thing. Because I heart kickball. I heart it.

The kids each got to participate in a cooking class at the rec center this past week and they both loved it! They loved getting to do all the work by themselves and it was fun to watch them cook. They both took it very seriously and had big smiles on their faces when they were done. They both wanted to show daddy their creations so after their class, I drove them to Jeffy’s work so that he could taste their creations. It was cute the way they watched for Jeffy’s reaction to their food and when he told them it was delicious, BIG smiles!! I will definitely be signing them up for more next summer.

Lindsay made an omelet and cinnamon rolls. She didn’t want to eat the omelet, but she sure was excited for those cinnamon rolls!
Stirring her egg with milk.

Adding her olives, ham and cheese.



Rolling out her dough. She was actually really good at this and would turn the dough around so make it more circle-like.


Rubbing the butter and cinnamon sugar on with her fingers.


Finished products!


Logan made pizza roll-ups and chocolate dipped bananas.
His dough was stickier so he had a harder time rolling it out. We ended up having to pull it and work with it by hand. We finally got it.

Tomato sauce. I love his face in this picture.

Putting olives, ham, pepperoni and cheese on his pizza.





Tastes good!

Finished products!

So fun!

Logan got to participate in Itty Bitty Ball this year and he seemed to really enjoy it. There were only 4 classes and he missed two of them (all because his mommy wasn’t thinking when she signed him up) but he had fun the other two times. Grandma and Laura took him the first time and he eventually warmed up to the idea and they learned about soccer. I took him for his last class and we learned all about football. It was so fun to watch him be part of this big fun group and he had a lot of fun! There were about 7 or 8 different color teams and they would move around to different stations during the class.
Here he is holding his team banner.

Hiking the ball.

Listening to instructions.

Running with the ball.

Getting ready to play flag football, which consisted of one boy running in a tiny circle with the ball while the other boys chased him and tried to pull his flag off. Pretty entertaining! Logan was SO determined to get his flag and never gave up.


Not sure what he’s doing here but it’s a funny picture.

Throwing the football through the hoop. He was pretty good at this!

Kicking the ball. He was REALLY good at this.


Doing a cheer for his team, the Elephants.

A happy boy with his Itty Bitty Ball certificate.

I would highly recommend Itty Bitty Ball to those of you with little people, especially boys. It was so fun!