Some Favorite Things

I am finally responding to a tag that was on my friend Natalie's blog about favorite things. I think it was supposed to be four favorite things, and hers were all beauty/pampering items, but I decided to post six just random favorite things. Here they are:


1. My camera. No surprise there, I love documenting fun times, milestones and just regular, every day life.





2. Cover up stick. Some lucky gals look beautiful without any makeup, but I definately need the assistance of this must-have makeup staple to even get anywhere near.




3. My body pillow. After using this while I was pregnant with Christian, I can't give it up or sleep well without it. For some reason, it's name is "Bob."






4. Doggie diapers. A necessity if you have a twelve-year-old Yorkie and new carpet.






5. Instant hot water tap. It dispenses nearly boiling water at the push of a lever. We use it all the time for instant oatmeal, hot chocolate, cup-o-noodles, condensed soup, and even for pot filling if I'm being too impatient to wait for the water to boil (which is almost all the time.)



6. Our three DVR's (basically the same thing as a TiVo). I love not being tied down to a schedule to watch tv programs that I like! The machine just records our shows each time they're on and we watch them when we get around to it. I also love being able to pause or rewind in the program and fast forward through the commercials. Trust me--get one and you will not regret it!

I would like to tag: anyone who sees this and would like to show their favorite things!

Happy Easter everyone!! We had a fun time with all sorts of Easter hunts and also a reverent celebration of the resurrection of our Savior.

But to start with, here is Faith last Thursday doing her best horsey (or as Christian calls it, a "neigh") impersonation. She tried to give him a piggyback ride, but tipped over backwards when she tried to stand up!

On Saturday morning, we went to the Kaysville City Easter scramble, but there were so many kids under three that there was nothing left on the field for Christian's age group by the time we got onto the field.

Faith fared better and got a few eggs and some candy. Luckily, they had a stuffed animal for each child as they were leaving the field, so Christian didn't end up completely empty handed.

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Later that day, we went to Tony's parents' for their annual egg hunt and dinner. The kids had a blast hunting for the eggs, especially in all the scrub oak.
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Some of the eggs had candy in them, some money, and some little slips of paper that coresponded to a gift that either Tammy or grandma had for them. Here is Faith holding up one of the outfits that she got.
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For dinner we had had ham, strawberry/cottage cheese/jello salad, baked beans, corn and, our favorite, potato salad!! Tony & I always look forward to Easter dinner and Fourth of July barbeque because of that delicious stuff!
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After dinner, Tony convinced Faith to let him "wiggle" her extremely loose top tooth.

With a quick yank and a squeal from Faith, it was out! Right afterward Faith said, "Wow, that didn't even hurt a bit!" I bet very few children have had the Tooth Fairy and the Easter bunny visit their home the very same night, but that is what happened to Faith!
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Saturday night we colored eggs and my darling little buddy made that a challenging event. He loved plopping the eggs into the cup of dye and then grabbing it out and dumping it into another color. He kept saying "boo" which meant "blue," the only color he knows the name of. He also liked to clutch them so tightly that his little fingers would poke through the shell!

On Easter morning we had an egg hunt and then the kids played with the goodies from their baskets. Faith was so excited that she got a chick that "peeps" when you hold it.

Christian looks very excited over his first Hot Wheels car in this picture.
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We had a nice program for Sacrament meeting and I especially liked the choir numbers and a musical number that featured what I think was an oboe. Christian went into nursery, but apparently bawled the whole time. I so hope he will start to like it soon!

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Right after church we went to my parents'. They have a jelly bean and gift hunt and then Easter dinner. .


Here is Faith just after finding her gift bag. She got lots of fun things including some Littlest Pet Shop pets, a tiny bunny stuffed animal, earrings & a shirt.
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Check out her gorgeous Easter dress! I even found that the hot pink color started to grow on me, it looks so pretty with her coloring.
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Here is Christian playing with a velcro baseball & fuzzy mitt set that he got in his gift bag. He also got a pop-up book and an outfit.
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Being a boy, his Easter outfit was a bit of an afterthought (sorry, Buddy!) and luckily Old Navy still had some cute stuff left Saturday evening. Doesn't he look snazzy?

On Monday, we went with Tammy, Lana & Zach to Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake. Tammy had won some tickets from a radio quiz and wanted to check it out. What a fun place!! Christian loved the water play exhibit which had a waterfall, pump, this mini bathtub that you see in the picture, and loads of other features.
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We also went to the "Sesame Street presents: The Body" exhibit there.

This picture shows a part demonstrating some of the functions of the digestive system in a silly way. You can "chomp" the mouth up and down, turn the wheel (like Faith) to churn the "stomach acid," and (like Zach) push the "poop" button to hear some interesting sounds and see the plastic poop come down. At the top right corner of the photo, you can see the giant nose that "sneezed" complete with wind and water mist.


On the roof there was an AirMed helicopter that the kids could climb in and check out.
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Some other fun things at Discovery was the farm exhibit where you could get up on a big fiberglass horse, a grocery store where you could "shop" or stock shelves, and a creativity station. There was also an exhibit with plastic balls that you put into holes or have them sucked up bank drive-up type tubes and then you could watch were they traveled through transparent tubing.
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After the Discovery, we made a stop at The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some caramel apples. What a fun day!
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On Tuesday afternoon, we went with Joy, Sierra & Lily to the Layton park to play and feed the ducks. Faith is such a great helper, here she is doling out bread to the little ones.



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Christian loved throwing sand, the slides and the swings,






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And Faith pushed Sierra on the swings, played in the sand, and then held Lily while Joy pushed Sierra on the swings.

It was such a beautiful day and then BAM--waking up to snow this morning. I can't wait to have spring back!!!

Saturday night Tony surprised me with . . . A NEW CAMERA!!! It's a Canon Elph with lots of bells and whistles so it should take great pictures. I've just started playing with it and figuring it out, but I think I will love it.

Last Tuesday, I got to babysit Sierra & baby Lily. Faith loves absolutely loves holding her and Christian was very interested, as well.

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Faith drew this awesome Lepricon during art time at school on Friday. The most amazing thing is that she reproduced a nearly exact copy at Tony's parents' Sunday evening because she wanted to show them but had forgotten the original!

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Here is Christian with my mom

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and Tony's mom. He sure loves his grandmas!!

On Sunday we enjoyed an Irish feast that my dad made. Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and colcannon (which was basically mashed potatoes with cabbage and seasoning). Yummy!!

Here is Faith modeling her St. Patrick's Day hair tutu that she wore on Monday.

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Here is a pic of Christian & his kitty that didn't make the cut for the blog header. If only Misty would have cooperated better!

Here are the kids eating Chic-fil-A nuggets at the Layton mall food court yesterday.

And here they are sporting their new shades that we picked up at the mall.

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Last night we watched our brand new copy of "Enchanted." We LOVE that movie!!! Even Christian payed attention to the parts with animals in them and did a little dancing during the musical numbers.








Here is a new scrapbooking layout I completed:

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And here are some pages from my old scrapbook. A typical page (with our pets as the subjects) from 1997 showing our dogs enjoying our bed, which is where they all slept every night. I thought it was uncomfortable at the time, but I had not yet slept with KIDS!

And for the pièce de résistance, this gem preserving forever the proof of Tony & my being the biggest nerds ever. Some of you may have had bigger glasses, but I bet it was way before 1997! The cute baby is Sarah's oldest, Brendon.

Nothing too exciting going on at our house this week. We've had some beautiful weather the last couple of days and went to the park on Sunday evening. Speaking of Sunday, Christian went to all of nursery for the first time!

Here is Faith after setting out a selection of stuffed animals and dolls in a storage tub "bed". Later, Christian got jealous of their comfy digs and sat in the storage tub to watch TV.





Our real animals discovered a comfy bed themselves. One of the kids had put my body pillow on the couch and Crumpet & Misty quickly figured out that it was a great place for a nap.




Is it mischief time yet? Of course it is at my house--24/7!! Here Christian's standing on a chair at the island (Faith, will you PLEASE put the chairs back in the living room after you have used them!!!!!) getting into the markers. Luckily, I caught him quickly and only the tip of his finger and edge of his mouth were blue. He seems to be quite pleased that he managed to decorate his hand and get a quick taste before I took them away!






Taking a quick break from his world of discovery and mayhem, he ponders his next move atop his mighty steed.








Faith has been reading up a storm and is enjoying every minute of it. She read all the books that her kindergarten teacher usually sends home with the kids, and now Mrs. Schaefermeyer has had to come up with some more advanced selections.







Here is Christian actually being a helper and letting the cat in for me.











Bet you couldn't guess that he ate ravioli for lunch!









And lastly, here is Faith today wearing a shirt that my mom just gave her. Faith could hardly sleep last night she was so excited about it!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad who turned the big 6-0 yesterday!! We love you!!!

Sorry about the "chipmunk" music! My sister-in-law, Tina, and then my mother told me that the music was playing too fast. What is so weird is that it worked fine on my computer! Hopefully it's working correctly now.

p.s. Tonight Tony & I were watching CMT and they had "One Hot Mama" (click title to see video, BUT BE FOREWARNED THAT IT IS VERY SEXY) as one of the sexiest country music videos. It's a few years old and I've seen it before, but it made me chuckle. Bless all you husbands out there--mine included--who still "see" us as hot mama's (or at least pretend to ;)

Sorry for the music obsession lately, it's been pointed out to me that some of you only read this blog to hear about and see pictures of my cute kids (bite me, Tina!). But I use this blog as my journal, so I like to post whatever strikes my fancy at the time :D

Ok, so Tony came home Monday night, read my blog, and told me that I had the wrong Cinderella song on here!! I can't say that I'm too surprised by that taking into consideration #1 - my memory, #2 - that I saw the video for the first time right before church on Sunday amidst my running around getting together stuff for my primary chorister gig, and #3 - the song I found did have Cinderella in it and was about a little girl growing up. So, I've added "Stealing Cinderella" (click title for lyrics) to the top of the music queue so you can all enjoy the correct song. I kept the other one as well, because I like it, too.

Another thing that I just have to post, did you see David Cook on American Idol Tuesday night? He ROCKED!! He was so good that it raised his sexyness factor above all the other contestants! (And that's not easy, have you seen these guys this year?) Anyway, if you missed it, here's my new crush rocking an '80's Lyonel Richie classic: click here for video on YouTube.

And lastly, I finished another scrapbook page:

Yay it's March, now bring on spring!!!

We have mostly been hanging out at home this last week. Here is Faith enjoying one of her very favorite activities, drawing.

Have you noticed that I've updated the "about us" section over on the right? I also changed the music to some songs about family life and growing kids. I totally relate to the lyrics of "Just Another Day in Paradise" (click on the titles to read them). My friend Rachel Hood mentioned in her blog hearing "You're Gonna Miss This" and I just had to put it on here. And a new one that Tony just showed me the video of (be forewarned, it's a tear jerker if you have a daughter), "Cinderella." I also have "And Then They Do," at the bottom of the list. Listen for awhile to get to it, or you can click on the songs individually at the very bottom of the blog (scroll ALL the way down, just above the map).I hope you liked my selections about kids last week, I especially love "Let them Be Little."


Faith is the greatest big sister! She is such a helper, I don't know what I'd do without her!! She's going to be the best mom ever.



I just had to take a picture of this, even though Tony thinks it's gross. For some reason, one half of a cut onion got tossed into the pantry behind some stuff and I just came across it the other day. I have no idea how long it's been in there, probably a month or two. I can't believe that after being cut in half, getting moldy, and without any light or water, it grew into such a big plant!



Here's Christian at the sink . . . again. It sure keeps him busy, though. I use it as my secret weapon when I need to get something done and he's extra clingy.

A cute succession of photos that I got when I was trying to get the kissy pic for the blog header:

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And the adorable smiles that melt my heart!

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We had a fun afternoon at McDonald's on Friday with Ann & her kids and Natalie & her kids. The little ones had a great time and us moms got in a much needed chat, I can't wait until next time!

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Faith got to go to a sleep over with her cousin Zach at Tony's parents that night after we met Lana & Tammy at Arctic Circle (yep, fast food lunch and dinner that day). Faith got to make a cute Easter craft foam project, go to one of Zach's Junior Jazz games, and then play some Ski Ball at the arcade.

Here is my second digital scrapbooking layout:

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I don't know if you can click on it for a larger version or not. Last time I said that, my mom pointed out that it didn't work! Anyway, I'm totally addicted to "digiscrapping" and am having a great time with my new hobby. I even made a PURCHASE and spent ACTUAL MONEY! Nine dollars and ten cents, and even though it killed me to do it, I love the kits I got. What is really amazing is how much neat stuff I've gotten for free!

Here is my adorable little sleepyhead.

With my camera doing worse and worse (now the internal battery won't stay charged) I've been taking less pictures, but

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my friend Carolyn gave me a great idea that she saw on one of her friend's blogs. I think she called it a "blast from the past" or something like that. I thought it would be fun to put on some old photos and pages from my infamous old scrapbook.

I'm not exactly sure when this picture of Faith was taken, I guess my camera batteries had died and when I replaced them I forgot to set the date. The date on the picture (which I cropped out) had the year as 1994. I think it is from spring '03 and she is just younger than Christian is now.

And just to show that Faith wasn't always a complete angel, here is this one of her proudly displaying her artwork on her giant art pad . . . and the floor . . . and her hands & face!! She sure looks happy about it, I know that I was happy that the markers were Crayola washables ;)

And now on to the really embarassing stuff, an old scrapbook layout. Just to surprise all of you, I managed to find one not featuring our pets!!!!

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Here are Tony and I at one of the only two high school dances I went to (both girl's choice). This spring formal was not fun, as we had to wait forever in a hot, claustro- phobic hallway for most of it just to get this picture. We did have a fun dinner at my house beforehand where little Joy waited on us and a video party at my friend Liz's afterward.

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So, did you like this little trip down memory lane? Please leave your response, or any and all requests in the comments section (Mom--you just click your little mouse arrow on the word "comments" at the end of the post. You're welcome. He he!)