Harper Hoorahs

Happy Hearts Day!

2012-02-14T21:53:00.001-07:00

Our day was full of Valentine's goodness...

The kids and Ryan got shirts and I got a lovely new scarf... plus candy all around. Ryan's fancy wrapped Symphony bar had an iTunes gift card stashed inside. We had tasty heart-shaped muffins and strawberries for breakfast... yum!

Fruit salsa and heart cut out cinnamon tortilla chips went to work with Ryan... and I took some to visit my friend Loretta who is in town from Alabama. We had so much fun visiting and chatting that I didn't take a picture. I love seeing her though!

Sophia and I got to go into Coleman's classroom party to help with a craft... we made flowers and cute little mice out of lollipops.

I love being in the kids' classroom, I wish I could find a way to go more often.

Here are my cuties. Sophia's smile is so cheesy! She likes to ham it up when we pull the camera out.

These were the fun Valentines we made for the kids to hand out... Olivia's says "Look WHOOOO's wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Olivia" and Coleman's says, "Valentine, I've got my EYE on you! Love, Coleman." Cute, cute! We made them by personalizing some business cards (only about $6 for a pack of 50--that's like grocery store prices!) through Heritage Makers.

Dipping our own strawberries should be an annual Valentine tradition, I just decided :).

Since someone in our family (who will remain nameless) doesn't like strawberries, I dipped some graham crackers too.

This was my Valentine craft this year... circles of felt, a whole slew of straight pins, and a heart shaped piece of styrofoam was all it took to make this beauty.

One of Ryan's coworkers made a great template that I loved, so I swapped in our names and made it into an 8x8 canvas. So cute!

I adored all of my love notes from my sweetie and this print... it's our family photo printed on aluminum. It's water-proof and scratch resistant, so it could even go outside somewhere (although it might fade in direct sunlight). It is impossible to capture the coolness of this print in a photo... so you'll just have to come on over to take a look at it in person.

**Did you do anything special to celebrate the day?

Baby Girl Shower

2012-02-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

We had a baby shower here the other night for Ryan's aunt Troi who will have a baby girl next month!

I have loved these easy pendant banners. They make things feel so festive! Our menu included cucumber sandwiches (baguette bread with seasoned cream cheese, cucumber slices, and dill weed), fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips, spinach artichoke dip with pita chips and baguette bread, mini chocolate chip cookies, oreo truffles, and chocolate mousse-filled, ganache topped cupcakes. We drank Brazilian lemonade and had a marvelous time.

My favorite part of the evening was our musical addition... Jane is my friend that is a talented harpist. During our annual Young Women's Service Auction last year she auctioned off playing for an event... I won the bid, and she got to play for the shower. The guests loved it!

I love cupcake toppers too... they are so pretty and so easy to make.

Yummy desserts...

...and healthy-ish foods too.

The mom-to-be was happy and it was fun to celebrate her baby. I was having so much fun visiting that I didn't take any photos of her or our guests... but we had a great time and she got lots of cute things for her baby.

**Any fun suggestions for future showers?

Goodbye, Mullet

2012-02-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Poor Sophia's hair... it has just started to fill in, but the back had some wispy long pieces that made her hair very reminiscent of a mullet.

If she were willing to keep anything in her hair, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but although she doesn't mind having things put IN... she waits only a few seconds before taking cute things out (much to my chagrin... and that of her sweet aunts and friends who continually provide us with darling headbands, clips, flowers, and bows).

I finally decided we needed to trim off the back wispy hairs and see if we can get a hairstyle going on.

Regardless of bad hairs, she still has an adorable smile :).

There they are...

She was great as they put the drape on her and cut the back of her hair. When I asked if there was anything we could do about the long pieces in front the stylist kind of laughed and told me that no, we'd just have to see if that would fix itself.

Soph did allow her to put a little ponytail up there... we'll have to try that around here, too. It doesn't look much different from the front, but the back looks much, much better.

She was great to sit and get her hair cut, but she loved the slide and balloon best of all.

Grow, hair, grow!

How Sweet It Is

2012-02-13T15:57:00.001-07:00

We had our Young Women's New Beginnings a few weeks ago... we borrowed an idea from my creative and brilliant friend Kristy (who's blog is private) and themed our night around candy. We made these cute candy bar invitations...

...that had a golden ticket inside (a la Willie Wonka) with all the information.

We had a table for each of the values with real candies in that color and some lovely wrapped candies. We wrapped up a bunch of balls, rolled towels, home decor items, etc. in tissue paper and then cellophane to look like big candies. We had a table for Virtue too with gold wrapped caramels, but I guess I didn't take a picture of that table.

I loved the big suckers we made... this one with a big bouncy ball and a wrapping paper roll...

...and these with paper plates and wrapping paper rolls.

We covered every possible surface with candies.

Our banner said, "How sweet it is" and we served ice cream sundaes on the long table. Each of the girls got to take home a bag full of candy, too. Yummy!

My friend Jessica (another amazingly talented person) made the cute paper lollipops to go along the back wall. It is always hard to decorate a whole gym for events like these, but this idea was fun and it turned out great.

The decorations and treats were cute, but the best part of the evening was that all of our Young Women got together with their parents and leaders and we were able to talk about Personal Progress and the YW/YM theme for the year. We welcomed in a whole new group of girls to Beehives, too. It will be a great year!

It really IS sweet to be a part of this organization!

Home again, home again

2012-02-13T15:11:00.001-07:00

I will not lie... I loved being away for awhile, but I LOVED going home to our cute kiddos. They were very well taken care of and loved by my sister Lindsey (in fact, word is that Soph started calling her "Mom" on day one!) and I think they survived okay, but I was grateful to be back with them. My favorite thing of all was seeing Sophia's face as we walked in the door.

Thanks Heritage Makers for a great trip... and thanks to Lindsey for making it possible for us to go!

**Where is your next vacation?

Marvelous Mexico

2012-02-13T15:07:00.001-07:00

Our next (and last) port was Cozumel, Mexico.

We went to a place called Paradise Beach. We paid a small fee (like $2) to be there and rent a lounge chair, then another $12 if we wanted to play with the toys. Ryan and I took out a canoe (and miraculously didn't tip over, even though my balancing skills are lacking) and I had fun lounging on these pads.

There were all sorts of bouncy toys and trampolines out in the water...

...and lots of beautiful sand and coastline.

The water was warm too! Have I mentioned that I love the beach?

I loved this pier with the straw thatched hut at the end.

They had lounge chairs set up in perfect rows... you can see Ry with his camera trying to capture all the fun everyone was having.

My best pina colada ever... I swear the waiters laughed (at least inwardly) every time I asked for a frozen drink without alcohol.

The chips and guacamole were to die for. They were so good I just might have to plan another trip to Cozumel so I can eat them again. Yum.

My favorite part of this beach was that they had a tent with a couple of massage tables in it. For a low fee ($30 for 30 minutes) a lovely woman rubbed the upper, back half of my body. Swimsuit? No problem, she slid it on down. I would generally not appreciate lying half-naked on a massage table out in the middle of such a public place, but there was a sheet covering things that needed to be covered, and once she got the scented oils and her hands going, all of my cares melted away.

Ryan found this (creepy) bird. Coleman kept asking us for pictures of wildlife, but they we didn't see too many animals, so he had to take pictures when he found some!

I liked this pelican. He hung out on the pier for awhile.

Ryan got a couple of good photos of him too.

And an action shot! I know you were all waiting for that one!

Ryan went out in a parasailing boat and saw this turtle... it's a little hard to see, but it's right underneath the splash...

...and he went parasailing! He said it was fun to do, but wasn't as exciting as he thought it might be, and even got a tiny bit boring coasting up there. The others in the boat said he was a pro and made it look easy.

Gentle touchdown :).

Then it was decided that the HM Corporate Staff (spouses included) needed to go on a team building activity on the water weenie. Good times.

I have to say that being flung off of this in the warm, salty water off the coast of Mexico feels a whole lot different than being thrown into the cold, clear water of Bear Lake. I like the warmth much better, but the salt, not so much.

After our fun day at the beach Ryan went back to the ship to edit pictures and work on a presentation while I spent some money at all of the shops. I haven't decided if my Spanish helps me or hurts me in those situations... but it was fun to speak it with so many different people. I found some great silver jewelry and some fun things for the kids. I also (finally!) found a nativity set that I liked. They had all sorts of nativities made out of fish bones (which I'm not opposed to in any way... but I didn't love the way they were carved) and I finally asked a guy who took me "upstairs" to another big shop. I talked my way into a comfortable price and came home with this beauty:

Nothing wrong with displaying a couple of nativity sets in February, right?

I loved Cozumel! I would love to go back and spend several more days there.

**Have you been parasailing (or do you want to go?)?
**Would you be comfortable getting a massage on the beach?
**Do you want to make me a pina colada?

Beautiful Belize

2012-02-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to go to Belize... I"m not even sure why, I think someone told me years ago how beautiful it is, so I've had in my mind that I needed to see it myself. When Ryan told me our trip would include a day in Belize I did a happy dance for a ridiculously long time. It did not disappoint!

We took a quick ferry ride from the ship...

This was our ship from the ferry... it is huge...

...and when we got to the port we got on this fun bus to take us to our high adventure cave tubing activity.

We had a bus ride that took us through the country to the depths of the Belizean jungle...

...and had a hilarious tour guide. Their company tag-line is "Butts Up" because the water is low enough that they do the guests a favor and tell them when to put their butts up so they don't scrape bottom. Our tour guide told us a bit about Belize... did you know that the national language their is English, but they have people who are of Mayan, Latin, and Creole descent also?

I thought this sign was hilarious.

The water table is so high there that they have to "bury" their dead above ground.

Belize isn't a wealthy country... but I still thought it had it's charm.

Many of the houses are painted bright colors...

...and it was funny to see people riding in the backs of trucks with all manner of foliage. We saw a man riding a bicycle with his wife in front of him, she was holding a baby on the handlebars and there was a young child behind him.... I wish I'd gotten a picture of that!

I loved seeing the different architecture. If I'd had more time I would have liked to have knocked on some doors and asked to see the insides of their homes. I'd probably need a lot more time to make Belizean friends so I would feel comfortable asking people to see their houses :).

Ele was a new friend that came on the trip with her sister who is one of the top consultants. We figured out that lives just a few blocks away from us. She was the life of the party!

Ryan and Ele and I all had the same shoes, so we took a photo, because we are nerdy like that.

We had a minute to go the bathroom, then got in line to get our tubes and head lamps.

Look at that funny tan line! Heaven help me.

We crossed a small river (the same one we would be tubing on)...

...and went for a hike through the jungle.

Aren't we cute with our rockin' headlamps?

We split into groups of eight or so and the guides hooked us together. The current was so low and slow in many places that not only did they tell us "Butts Up!" but they actually had to swim to pull us along. They would speak to each other in Creole on and off which gave me a little bit of a complex.

The inside of the cave reminded me a bit of Timp Cave... a lot of neat stalagmites and stalagtites.

It was really interesting... and they kept telling us not to open our mouths (for the bat droppings) but we never saw any bats.

There is a lot of superstition connected with the caves... many people from the Mayan culture believed that the water dripping from the cave ceiling was "virgin water" or that if you allowed it to drip on your forehead you would become pure again.

The jungle was beautiful... we didn't see many animals, but we did see some white toucans fly overhead. No one was fast enough to get a photo, and I can't even find one online anywhere... but they were really beautiful. I promise.

The tour company even fed us lunch... a lovely traditional tamale....

...that had a whole piece of bone-in chicken... not my idea of a yummy lunch, but that's okay.

This was one of our guides... there were more than a few awkward moments as they swam us down the river.... I already felt like a lazy, fat American and then one of the guides started to tell me that Creole originated because slaves developed it to speak about their masters without them understanding. Awesome.

They had a table set up with handicrafts for sale. I wish I had made some purchases there! I held out for shopping by the port, but I should have grabbed those bracelets while I could.

We spent a little time shopping near the port.

I recently decided that I when I got rich and traveled the world (and had a place to put them) I would collect nativities from each of the countries that I visited. Well, I'm not rich yet, and I still don't have more room to store and display things, but I'm not sure I'll get back to Belize any time soon, so when we found this neat nativity we bought it. I had been hoping for a beautiful wood-carved nativity that I saw on someone's nativity from around the world website, but there were none to be found. I am still glad we decided to get this one.

We hopped back on the ferry to head back to the ship for dinner. I loved these photos that Ryan took of the Belize coastline. I'd love to go back some day!

Cruising the Caribbean

2012-02-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

Our first cruise experience was a fun one... it was definitely a work trip (especially for Ryan) but we had a great time with fun people and a whole lot of activities on the cruise ship. The theme of the Heritage Makers trip was "Party on the Seas" and that it was.

Our ship was the Liberty of the Seas...

...and it was BIG with lots of boats for escape in case we ran adrift or started to sink (I'll admit, with the Italian cruise-liner accident I was a little nervous)...

...the Liberty of the Seas is a part of Royal Caribbean International. It was a great ship!

Ryan usually had his camera with him... part of his job was to be the official photographer of all the company activities.

Part of my job was to hang door signs several times throughout the week for all of the consultants.

We were also in charge of signing activity cards... each of the consultants and their guests could get points for attending company and ship activities and at the end of the week the ones with the most points got to pick prizes first. They were all excited for those prizes and very happy to participate. We took pictures of some of the events.

We had a nice cabin... I expected to feel claustrophobic, but I really didn't. I was a little worried too about motion sickness so we got some patches from our doctor, but didn't need them. There were a few times that we could really feel the boat rocking, but for the most part it was smooth sailing. Our shower was cozy, no?

The bathroom wasn't huge, but it was big enough.

We even had a little sitting area next to the bed (that was great for holding camera equipment and other random things... not much sitting going on there :) ).

We even had a balcony, which I loved. This was our view from our balcony before we set sail.

The ship had so many activity areas. I thought our kids would have loved the pool and water toys.

They even had a rock wall on the top deck.

Obligatory picture of my on the deck (with my rockin' "Party on the Seas" t-shirt).

The inside of the ship was kind of like a mall.... the royal promenade had a lot of little shops and cafes. When we were inside it was hard to tell we were even on a ship.

There was a fun burger restaurant on one of the upper decks.... onion rings to die for. I managed to get a lovely sunburn on our first day out in the sun... I really had planned to use higher SPF sunscreen, but in the glory of the sunlight I only put on 15... big mistake! And I wore my swimming suit with the funkiest neck straps, so the remainder of the trip I had awesome lines. Oh well, next time I'll do better :).

One of the nights was formal night...

and Ryan got to set up all of his equipment and take a whole lot of photos.

It was such a big group that it was hard to get everyone in it, so he got up as high as he could and took a photo looking down.

We managed to sneak a photo in too.

I loved being on the deck and watching the big wake behind us. I was hoping for more ocean ambiance... but there wasn't a strong scent of saltwater.

Ryan spent a few minutes on the deck, but most of his "free time" was spent editing photos and chatting with consultants about ways to improve things on the IT end of the company. It was very apparent that they all love and appreciate Ry, which was fun to see and hear. I had several people tell me how glad they are that he works there and that they've never had an IT guy quite like Ryan... he's really approachable and willing to find ways to make things happen that need to and that can make their jobs easier.

I liked the animals that our room steward made out of towels (and my sunglasses).

We had an assigned table for the week... generally the ship assigns people one table for the whole trip, but we wanted to have the HM staff members sit with as many consultants/guests as possible, so we stayed put at one of several HM tables and our guests moved around each night. It was a great time to get to know so many of the consultants.

The ship had a "White Nights" party, and it was a party...

...I even got into the spirit of things and danced :).

These are the top achievers from Heritage Makers...

...and this fun shot was taken our the window of one of our cabins with many of the consultants leaning over the decks of five other cabins. Fun shot!

On our last day we spent some time at the Flow Rider... a simulated wave for people to boogie board or surf. It was fun to watch so many people give it a shot. Ryan was a pro...

...and even got up on his knees.

The last night we had the annual Heritage Makers costume party and awards ceremony. The theme this year was movie characters... so Ryan and I put together these lovely costumes...

Napoleon Dynamite and Deb! Ryan had "Tots" in his pockets (they served them in the dining room for breakfast) and I had some awesome boondoggle keychains in my fanny pack.

One of the consultants dressed up like Napoleon too... and although Ryan had a few good lines and a decent Napoleon run, she pulled off the dance moves like a pro. The costume party was a lot of fun (some people went all out on their costumes!) and it was hilarious to walk through the ship to the dining room.

I overheard someone (not from our group) say that they had missed the announcement about the costume party and they wished they had been a part of it.... and several parents stopped Mary Poppins and Bert for a photo opp. It was great fun!

Some of our other activities on the ship included miniature golf, a wild night of karaoke, shows, a roaring time playing Telestrations (one of our new favorite games), a Sunday worship service, a few business meetings, and a whole lot of laughs. On our way to Belize we passed Cuba and I saw it with my own eyes. That is noteworthy, right?

I know that some people LOVE cruises, and I fully expected to be in that camp before we left... but after it's all said and done I still feel a little ambivalent about them. I wouldn't say that I'd never go on a cruise again, but it's probably not my top choice for future travel. The food was plentiful (and I didn't have to cook it OR clean up after it... hooray!) but the food wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be. It sounded really good on the menu and often looked really good, but when it came to eating it, it wasn't that great. I loved having some time with Ryan, but our trip was so scheduled and filled with activities that it didn't feel very relaxing. I am sure that was more a result of the nature of our trip and not so much the cruise itself. I loved our destinations though... (more to come on Belize and Cozumel) and would love to spend some more time in both of those places. I loved being in the warm ocean air, it was delightful!

After the week was over I really was most grateful for the time we had to be with the people Ryan works with. Someone stopped us in an elevator and asked if Heritage Makers was a company or a family... I laughed a little bit, because of course they are a company, but in many ways they are a family too... and they are definitely all about family and preserving relationships and memories. It's a company that we are proud to be a part of.

Sunny Florida

2012-02-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

In January Ryan and I were invited to go on the TAC (Top Achiever's Club) 2012 trip with his wonderful company, Heritage Makers. It is an incentive trip for the consultants that work the hardest to build the business during the previous year. We were going as corporate staff... therefore a working vacation for us both... but I am not afraid of a little hard work, especially when it means a break from the routine of life (no cooking or making my bed for a week!). It was hard for me to leave my cute kiddos, but my amazing sister Lindsey came up from Arizona with her two boys to stay with our kids and she took great care of them (Sophia was calling her "Mom" by day two!). It was a great trip and it was so fun to meet all of the people that Ryan works with. HM has innovative and unique products that help preserve family memories... and it is a positive work environment for Ryan, which I love.

At the SLC airport, all of the corporate staff showed what their "vacation" would be like.

We had a day in Florida before we boarded the cruise ship...

...and spent the morning buying and assembling treats for the consultants.

Then... we got to spend the rest of the day with David and Katty and their son, David Joseph. A few months ago they moved near Miami and we were thrilled that Ft. Lauderdale was close enough for them to take a day and come spend it with us.

They took us to a beautiful beach in Hollywood, FL.

The water was cool ( it WAS January, so what am I complaining about?) but the sun felt nice and I loved being there. I love the beach!

Ryan does not love the beach, but he was a sport and came anyway.

We saw all sorts of jellyfish like this one... I hadn't ever seen jellyfish like this before, but they were all over and most of them were really small and tangled in the seaweed. Katty got stung by one, but not one of us peed on her wound to make it better. The lifeguards had some vinegar and that made it feel better :).

There were lots of restaurants along the boardwalk, and we chose a place that made philly cheese steaks.

Good sandwiches!

After the beach we took Ryan back to the hotel (he got to do a little bit of airport shuttling for some of the consultants that were flying in) and David and Katty took me on a driving tour of Miami and Miami Beach. It is really a beautiful and clean city.

Leave it to David to know where to get the yummy treats... this bakery specialized in all kinds of Latin pastries. It was fun to eat some of the treats I had in Chile and to try some of the tasty things that David ate in Argentina when he was a missionary there.

He knew just what to order.

I can't remember the names of most of these, but my favorite was the alfajor (bottom left) which is a cookie sandwich with manjar (dulce de leche) in the middle and then covered in chocolate. I loved eating those on my mission... and this one did not disappoint!

One thing for sure is that the Cole kids can eat :).

We stopped for a bit at Miami Beach. I love the smell and the sounds and the peacefulness of being near the ocean.

It was so good to be with David and his family. I miss them!

Goodbye, ocean... till we meet again!

I also got to see where they live which was fun... love the palm trees.

After our day out we gathered with a few others from HM to eat at the Bubba Gump Shrimp place... not my first choice (I don't like seafood...) but it was a fun atmosphere.

Great company, and they make a mean pear and berry salad.

Sunny Florida, I want to come and visit you again soon!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

We had a great Christmas!

Megan and Erin and her family came over for our traditional "Breakfast for Dinner" on Christmas Eve. My mom likes to host a brunch on Christmas day, so a few years ago we started making breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we had french toast, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and orange julius. We make cookies together (for Santa, of course!) before we wrap up.

The kids were excited to open their gifts from Grandpa Cole. The boys got cash which made them so excited and all of the girls got some cute jewelry boxes with lip gloss inside.

Sophia was thrilled with her box.... she has carried it around for days, saying, "bah!"

Liv's was purple!

Did I mention that the boys were excited about their money?

We loved having Erin's family and Megan come over!

After the party wrapped up we moved on to our tradition of new PJs. The kids were excited about their new duds.

Sophia wasn't too interested in opening gifts, but Ryan was good to help her with hers.

We still have believers (three!) at our house, so we hurried off to bed after we left cookies and milk and carrots for our nighttime visitors.

On Christmas day we got to go to church at 9 am. My master plan was to wake up and let the kids look through their stockings and open a few gifts (new church clothes) and do the rest after we got home. Ryan and the kids had another plan... so, majority ruled and we woke up at 6 am to enjoy all the goodness of Christmas morning with plenty of time to get ready for church.

I loved this look on Olivia's face. The funniest part is that she got THAT excited about a box of gobstoppers. Classic.

That Santa is a clever one. He brought the book Goodnight Moon to Sophia, and Ryan got Goodnight iPad. It is pretty funny. (And is written by Ann Droyd... get it? It took me a minute.)

Soph loved her new baby.

Coleman was excited with everything he opened. He's such a happy kid.

Church was lovely. Olivia and Coleman played their Christmas hymns for the prelude music. Ryan and Olivia sang in the ward choir, Ry sang with the men of the ward too. I even sang with Ryan and several other couples. I thought it was wonderful to be at church and feel the spirit and worship the Savior on the very day that we were celebrating his birth.

Aren't they handsome boys?

Sophia's favorite gift (for the moment) was her new baby doll.

Olivia was thrilled to have a new camera... and she has been taking at least 100 pictures every day since then. She confessed that every morning she takes a few self-portraits right when she gets up because she thinks it's fun to capture her sleepy face.

Coleman was so excited for a new Wii game... Harry Potter Years 5-7. He also loved his Ninjago alarm clock.

Ryan loves his new gadget that plays music from our phones without even being plugged in. While it was his gift and a surprise for him, I have to admit that I have gotten the most use out of it thus far. Lucky me!

My favorite gift is this beautiful canvas that Ryan made. He did a collage of our family photo shoot and the Proclamation to the World on the family. Love it!

My mom knits sweaters for each of her grandchildren. Amazing, no? Sophia's sweater is darling, and Soph is pretty darling too. I loved this picture!

I love Christmas... it's busy and can be stressful, but I love giving gifts and seeing the joy on these beautiful kids' faces when they open the thing that is just perfect for them.

**What was the best gift you gave this year?

Best Ward Christmas Party Ever

2012-01-10T16:12:00.002-07:00

So by disbanding the ward activities committee, our ward was left at having the Elder's Quorum in charge. Of course they are great guys, but they are men. When our bishop's wife heard that they were going to be putting on the ward Christmas breakfast, she volunteered herself and all of our young single adults to throw the party. They involved so many of us in any way that they could, and the result was amazing. I am not taking any credit for any of the amazing things they did, just thought you might like to see what a fun party they threw. They had a Polar Express theme and we all got to go in our PJs.

A week or so before the breakfast they delivered golden tickets to each household.

We had to turn in our tickets at this darling ticket booth. If for some reason we forgot to bring our ticket, we could do a song or a dance to get in.

One of the hallways was transformed to be the inside of a train.

Our kids LOVED riding on the train.

One of our ward members made a fabulous conductor and acted the part during the whole party. He punched tickets and spoke with a voice that sounded just like the conductor from the movie.

Doesn't he look great?

A couple of my friends crafted this beautiful train out of cardboard that was just inside the gym after we got off the train. It had a functioning headlamp and even emitted "smoke" out of the chimney.

The tables were covered with white butcher paper and then strips of black paper glued on to make them look like train tracks. Genius. I also love these boxes of crayons (wrapped to look like gifts) that were on each table so the children (and adults!) could color on the tables.

While we were eating breakfast the young men and college boys passed out hot chocolate while they played the song from the movie.

The conductor got into it and sang along! He was so much fun.

Breakfast was delicious! Many of us helped by signing up to bring a breakfast casserole or fruit. The ward provided pancakes, yummy buttermilk syrup, drinks, and hash browns.

Santa's appearance was brief... there wasn't time for all the kids to sit on his lap (which was okay with me...) but he invited all of us to the back of the gym where there was a "Mrs. Santa's Bake Shop" and we could frost a cookie. Dessert for breakfast? I think so!

My favorite part about our ward Christmas parties is the annual ward talent show. We have a talented ward! So many signed up to play the piano that they had to tell them all no (and have decided to hold a separate piano festival later this year). Our ward has put together a jazz band for the last several years. This year Ryan was invited to pull out his trumpet and join. He figures it had been at least 15 years since he had really played. After a fancy (and pricey) tune-up at the music store, his trumpet was ready to go. He did such a great job! He is standing in the back right corner if you decide to watch the video.

He also got to play in a brass quintet:

Olivia's clogging group performed their number too:

It was such a fun event. It is really neat to see all of the hard work of so many people pay off. I was so glad I wasn't in charge :).

December Miscellany

2012-01-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

December was full of all sorts of goodness and busyness...

We took the kids to the Church History Museum before seeing Temple Square Lights...

There were so many fun hands-on exhibits...

Sophia and Liv loved the dress-ups...

...and Olivia rocked the latin dancing.

Sophia looked super-cute in her hat and gloves (even though she didn't keep them on for more than five minutes! Poor, cold girl).

The lights were beautiful, as always. We expecially loved the nativities.

We visited the Festival of Trees with Grandma Cole and met up with Megan and Erin and my dad who came into town for a few days. While we were there we got to see many people admiring Megan's work.

Megan's tree was amazing! It was fun to be there with my cute Grandma. We all got a little teary-eyed when the volunteer asked if we were interested in learning more about the cute boy the tree was done for. She reached for the story and Megan told her that she had written it and designed the tree because it was HER cute little boy. Moments like that are hard.

My dad stayed with us for a few days. He likes to get us a kit for decorating a gingerbread house most years... the kids had a lot of fun doing it with him this year. Sophia was all about shoveling the candies into her mouth. (Let's be honest, that's what we all wanted to do.)

We had a very fun Christmas party with the Harper side of the family, and I didn't even think to get out my camera. Can someone remind me next time? There was this funny picture taken of Ryan though...

Great hair, no? It was so fun to be with the Harper clan! We missed Ry's sister Traci and her family and of course his parents, but his brothers and aunts and their families and his grandparents were all there.

I got to participate in one of my favorite traditions... my friend Marilynn's cookie exchange party. This year I made some sugar cookies (recipe from Our Best Bites) and decorated them to look like poinsettia cookies. I loved the way the white ones looked...

...but the red ones looked orange and despite using no-taste red gel food coloring, they tasted like red food coloring. Oh well!

You can see other recipes and photos from that fabulous party at the Christmas Cookie Collection blog. I am hoping to add her appetizer recipes there too, they were SO yummy.

Such a fun group of friends! Marilynn is in the red... she is an amazing cook and mom and friend and all-around person. We joke that some day we are going to open a catering business together, but really, I would just be the grunt worker, all the talent is hers!

Coleman's class did a fun gingerbread play. Sophia and I got to go and see him do the songs and dance with his apron and baker's hat.

Love those smiles!

Of course December was full of mailing and receiving beautiful Christmas cards... and we thought our neighbor gift was pretty clever this year (and useful!). It was also very, very corny. Apologies to our neighbors that we love dearly!

We gathered at my mom's house a week before Christmas.... she likes to have our kids re-enact the nativity... Sophia was so thrilled to be the cow. Eliza was a cute donkey!

Tayden was Joseph, Liv was Mary, and Abi was the angel.

Cute wise men, no? Evan, Brady and Coleman loved the crowns.

Cute group of kids! They all swapped costumes and did it over again (and again!). It seems they all want a turn at being Mary... or Joseph... or the angel.

We got to go and visit Grandma and Grandpa Cole. They've had rough year with their health, and we are so grateful they are on the mend. Sophia LOVED sitting with Grandpa...

...and then she followed the fun snow globe over to Grandma. We love that the Coles live close enough that we can see them fairly often. They are wonderful to us!

I wanted to introduce the kids to potato latkes. I remember eating them in elementary school as a kid and loving them, so I thought it would be fun to make them during Hanukkah. I think it a bit ironic that the photo is in front of my "SIMPLIFY" sign, because there wasn't a lot simple about making these. Coleman said, "Hmm, they taste like hash browns." So much for introducing cultural awareness.

We made a LOT of treats in December. Caramels and toffee and cookies, oh my! One of our favorite treat making sessions was when we invited a few friends over to decorate sugar cookies.

The kids were much more creative than I was in their use of colors and toppings.

Don't you just love a good sugar cookie?

Aside from making several Christmas gifts (which I didn't take any pictures of!) I managed to craft ONE lovely item for our home this year. My multi-talented cousin made a very cute felt rosette tree and I wanted to copy (see hers here). Mine didn't turn out as so very cute as hers did, but I like it all the same. Yay me.

And finally, I spent a good part of December reading and listening to the Book of Mormon as part of my Personal Progress project for Virtue.. We started reading the Book of Mormon as a family earlier this year, but at 6 or 8 verses a day, it was taking us a really, really long time to get very far. I decided at the beginning of December that I wanted to finish by the end of the year, and I did! We had already read 1st and 2nd Nephi, so I started with Jacob and made it through to the end. Thank goodness for podcasts and naptime! It was really cool to read it in such a condensed amount of time as I was making note of the characteristics of virtuous people. I loved reading/listening this way! A fun project summarizing my experience is in my head and should be in the works soon.

We also went to an awesome ward Christmas breakfast that is deserving of it's very own post, so that is on it's way... Christmas pictures to come, too.

Overall, our December was full of goodness... family, friends, gifts galore, treats and more treats, many great lessons from the Book of Mormon, and lots of great and worthwhile activities!

**How would you summarize your December?

Clogging at the Mall

2011-12-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Olivia wanted to try out clogging when an opportunity arose to take a class with her good friends. Although we aren't sure it will be a long term interest, she has enjoyed it for these last few months.

Liv is on the second from the left on the front row.

I am pretty impressed with how much they have learned in just a few short months.

Liv and her friend Anna... so happy to do something fun together!

Christmas Recitals 2011

2011-12-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we got to attend piano recitals for Olivia and Coleman. They both worked hard on their songs...

Olivia played "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" out of the hymnbook. We sang along for the first verse and she embellished the song a bit the second time through.

Coleman played a duet with Ryan--"Up On The Housetop"

Coleman also played "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" (and we all sang along... I'm pretty sure my voice is way too loud on this recording... so I apologize to the few of you that will actually press play and watch/listen).

We were so glad that Grandpa Gee Gee and Grandma Jan could come. They have always been so supportive of the kids' piano endeavors!

Sophia enjoyed the refreshments after both of the recitals!

Getting a picture with all of the children looking and smiling is proving to be difficult. Oh well.

Coleman loves that two of his good friends were involved with the recital. We all love that all of the kids in both recitals are (or were) in our ward. It's so fun to see our friends and neighbors progress in their musical talents.

We are especially grateful for two great piano teachers and for children that are willing to practice almost every day (even if there are occasional tears and complaints!). We love piano!

Chance's Hundred Acre Wood

2011-11-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

It's time again for the Festival of Trees! My sister Megan has been working hard for months and months to put this darling tree together in Chance's memory. Many people donated money and time and ideas and the end result is fabulous!

Each tree has a plaque where people can read the story of the person that the tree was made in memory of. I loved what Lauren wrote:

Our sweet Chance was taken from us much too soon. He spent his last 3 ½ weeks at Primary Children’s, receiving great care as he valiantly fought to stay with his mom and family. As a baby, Chance would go to sleep listening to the music from Kenny Loggins’ “Return to Pooh Corner”. He loved Winnie the Pooh; in fact, there is a Pooh bear on his headstone to remind us of the carefree and joy-filled days of Chance’s young childhood. He brightened the lives of all who were lucky to know him.

In the song we hear: “a few precious things seem to follow throughout all our lives.” Chance was certainly a precious boy who eternally impacted many lives.

His mom, Megan, would sing to him the rest of the song:

“After all’s said and done, I was watching my son

Sleeping there with my bear by his side.

So I tucked him in, I kissed him, and as I was going,

I swear that Old Bear whispered, Boy welcome home.”

As Megan kissed Chance for the final time in this life, in a room at Primary Children’s, we know our Heavenly Father whispered, “Boy, Welcome Home!”

Megan made beehives and plaques with famous Pooh sayings and darling "Hunny" pots. The tree also had pinecones and sunflowers and bees flying around. Megan put together puzzles, my mom made a cute quilt (right hand side of the above photo), she got an autographed photo of Kenny Loggins and she is playing his "Return to Pooh's Corner" song.

Megan found all kinds of books and puzzles to go under the tree...

...and she found so many darling Pooh and friends figurines. It all came together perfectly!

My mom and a few aunts and cousins came and helped us on decorating day... it was so fun to see all of Megan's hard work come together.

Many of the trees are donated in memory of someone who has passed away. As we decorated and I looked around, I was struck by how many people were there and how much time, money, and effort goes into the Festival. Collectively, there has to be a lot of grief and sadness, but on the other hand, there is a huge amount of love and healing. I love that people are able to put their energy toward such a good cause. All proceeds go to Primary Children's Medical Center.

The Festival is going on Wednesday, November 30th to Saturday, December 3rd at the South Towne Expo Center, and this cute tree is on row C, number 9. For more info, visit their website at www.festivaloftreesutah.org. If you are in the area, I hope you can go and visit "Chance's Hundred Acre Wood."

Sunflowers

2011-11-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

This yummy recipe, a fancy decorating tip, and some mini chocolate chips helped me make these beauties:

Maybe not quite as artistic as Van Gogh, but much tastier.

Leaves!

2011-11-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

It took our trees a whole day or two to shed most of their leaves... we raked and raked and the kids jumped and jumped. (In their defense, they raked a bit and bagged the leaves too!)

Little Quirks I Love

2011-11-21T21:53:00.001-07:00

Just like all kiddos Miss Sophia has some of the funniest habits. She loves to get ready for prayers (not always when it's really time to pray) and "folds her arms" like this...

She also has a thing for ice. The way she gets it off of the floor when she drops it is both horrifying and amusing... it might be a little less horrifying if the maid at our house (that would be me) had a regular schedule for cleaning our floor.

And this is her, so proud of her innovation in not letting any of her ice go to waste. Waste not, want not.

She likes to show us her body parts too, and more often than not she shows us her nose by putting her digits inside of it.

Funny girl!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T23:10:00.000-06:00

Oh, Halloween! This year the Harper girls went with a bakery theme...

...and the boys decided to do their own thing. Coleman made an awesome Harry Potter...

...and Ryan advertised the new bakery and Harry Potter on his Facebook page, which was resurrected from last year when it was too rainy to wear outside.

We carved pumpkins last week at Tim and Laura's house... The pumpkins we grew this year were late in blooming and growing, so when it was time to harvest them they were still green. We learned that green pumpkins are a whole lot cleaner to gut and carve, so that was a bonus! Olivia did a candy corn and musical note, Coleman did a Harry Potter lightening bolt. and Ryan paid homage to Steve Jobs with the Apple icon (note that the Apple pumpkin is lit up using the flashlight app on Ryan's iPhone, which is sitting inside his pumpkin). Today I decorated a mini pumpkin to look like a cupcake for Soph.

We made some tasty "Eyeballs" (Sour Cream Raspberry Cake Bites) to send to work with Ryan...

...and we went and saw the kids in their costume parade at school. Coleman was one of dozens (hundreds?) of Harry Potters, but added his own flair to it. He walked by me so quickly that he didn't even realize I was there (even though he said hello to our friend that was sitting right next to me). Silly kid.

Liv was looking good in her baker's uniform.

Later in the day I got to go into Olivia's class for her party. She was wrapped in toilet paper like a mummy!

I should note (realizing that I should have gotten over high school a long, long time ago...) that one of the other moms was dressed as a perky cheerleader, in her own costume from her high school days. I chuckled to myself thinking about how beautiful and thin and smily she was and that I was right back in the role that I can't seem to break out of, no matter how hard I try--frumpy and sitting off to the side serving food (I was in charge of the drinks). It's funny how insecurities resurface in situations like that, regardless of how many years have passed. The cheerleader mom was so nice and friendly, which made my unease all the more unsettling.

After school we got our treats ready... we handed out cookies and crackers and other "baked goods" (although I think it was lost on all the kids that came to our door... they were just glad to get a big package of anything).

We had a spooky drink (with a frozen brain) to go with our homemade pizza for dinner.

Liv wanted her bag to say "Sprinkles" over the cupcake. Coleman's bag has the seal of Gryffindor on it.

Sophia was so excited to go trick or treating (although she wasn't too excited about keeping her cherry hat on her head!). She lasted for about a block or so before she was ready to come back home (or before Liv was ready to not hold her or chase her anymore?). She and I hung out and passed out candy while Ryan and the older kids cruised the neighborhood seeking the sweets.

Soph and I had a few treats of our own!

**Did you dress up for Halloween?
**Are you ever unwillingly transported back to high school (or some other insecure time in your life)?
**Favorite Halloween treat?

Concerto in G Major

2011-10-30T15:10:00.000-06:00

Olivia has an amazing piano teacher who pushes her (almost as hard as Ryan does) to improve and conquer challenging songs. This time, it was "Concerto in G Major" by Robert Vandall for a festival competition. She has been practicing for almost three months, and truthfully has shed more than a few tears over this piece. It was complicated and fast and 13 pages long. The festival was held yesterday, and Liv rocked it.

Olivia played it so well, without a mistake. It was incredible to see her play! The judges thought it was perfect, too, and awarded her 40 out of 40 points! Her teacher said that it is not all that common to get a perfect score, but she earned it. It was my turn to shed a couple of tears when we realized she had gotten a perfect score. Definitely a proud mama moment!

Liv was happy that Grandma Stover came to hear her...

...and Grandma Jan and Grandpa Gee Gee were there too. They have been such strong supporters of our kids' piano endeavors!

Ryan definitely deserves to bask in this glory. Liv's skills have long since surpassed mine when it comes to playing the piano, so it is Ryan that gets to be by her side working out the kinks and perfecting her song, section by section.

Coleman and I were happy to be a part of it too, she did great. Watch for yourself:

Fall has Flung

2011-10-30T14:54:00.000-06:00

Fall has arrived to our little corner of the world, and we love it. To us, fall means...

Trying out new recipes...

Individual homemade chicken pot pies were a big winner...

...and homemade donuts were kind of "meh." I'm in search of a great recipe for crumbly, sour cream donuts, a-la Krispy Kreme kruellers.

A drive through the Alpine Loop...

Costumes and scary teeth of all kinds...

Carving pumpkins and eating yummy food at Tim and Laura's house with Ryan's brothers and their families:

Spooky soccer scrimmages (Olivia's team likes to dress in their costumes to play some monster ball)...

Freezing at late soccer games (wishing I had remembered to pack this sweet girl a hat and a thermos full of hot chocolate!)...

Getting Halloween cards from Grandpa Cole...

And making and delivering lots and lots of caramel apples...

This year, I thought I was a genius and I (mostly) solved my pesky problem of the caramel sticking to the cellophane bags by putting the apples in a round, plastic 8 oz. deli container before bagging them. My goal for next year is to not get pulled over whilst traveling between friends' houses delivering said packaged apples. Didn't get one this year? Make sure our paths cross next year during my two week caramel apple making blitz!

**What are your favorite fall traditions?
**Could Sophia look any cuter than she does wrapped up in that scarf?
**Did you make (or eat) caramel apples this year?

Pierced Ears!

2011-10-30T13:55:00.000-06:00

We decided several years ago that Olivia could get her ears pierced when she turned 10, but by the time that birthday came, she had seen Oprah getting her ears pierced and was convinced that it was too scary. I kept trying to tell her that it hurt, but just for a minute, and then it was done. She didn't believe me and decided to conduct her own research (interviewing everyone she knows). Her young friends told her that it didn't hurt at all, so she felt all courageous and wanted to do it. By then soccer season had started and since she couldn't wear earrings during her games, she had to put it off. Since fall soccer season ended a few weeks ago, she decided it was time.

I remember paying ten dollars or so to get my ears pierced, so I was shocked at the hefty price tag (but shouldn't have been, since they talked me into doing the 14K gold earrings instead of stainless steel... to which Ryan said, "What? There was a cheaper option!?"). Liv was so nervous and squeezed my hand so hard I thought it would fall off, but she let the worker do it. Truth be told, I was a little worried that she would only let her pierce one of her ears. After it was all over she told me that when her friends said it didn't hurt, they probably meant that it hurt, but just for a minute. Hmmmm, did I ever have or share that thought with her? I guess the time of the mom knowing everything is over!

She looks pretty cute with a little bling in those ears!

Six Years

2011-10-19T17:47:00.000-06:00

Six years have passed since Mr. Chance left us. Some days it seems like just yesterday that we heard his laugh and looked at his beautiful blue eyes, with eyelashes that were longer than any I have seen.

We remember him every day, and miss him, and love him. Today I got to spend a couple of hours with my sister, Megan. We laughed and cried as we remembered Chance's brightness and joy and all of his crazy antics.

We looked through pictures and I found one that reminded me so much of Sophia's latest smiling habits.

Chance brought so much joy to so many people, and now that he is gone it is hard not to feel an achy hole in our hearts, especially for Megan. I loved reading through the beautiful obituary that my sister Lauren wrote because it captured who Chance was and what we all feel about him. We miss you Chance!

2002 ~ 2005 Chance Tyler Fulton blessed our family with his birth on Nov. 15, 2002. He departed this life on Oct. 19, 2005 after suffering in-tractable seizures since Sept. 26th. Although his life on earth was short, his influence is forever reaching. His death leaves a gaping hole in the hearts of his loving mother, Megan Wirthlin Cole, and his father, Tyler Kay Fulton. Our "almost" 3 year old was looking forward to celebrating his birthday. He loved superheroes, especially Spiderman, and wished he could be one. Chance proved himself these last 3 weeks with his superhuman strength and bravery ...he is truly a hero in our eyes. Chance loved to listen to music and to dance. He was his mommy's sweetheart, but his bright smile, beautiful blue eyes, and engaging personality made him everybody's baby. He enjoyed going to nursery at church and he loved to play with his cousins, who were his best friends. Chance found joy in all things, including throwing any ball around and watching his uncles compete in their sports. He liked to help his Grandpa Mike mow the lawn and hear his grandma sing. His grandma and grandpa just took him on his first camping trip, and he also got to visit his Grandpa Cole in San Diego, where he relished playing on the beach. He loved to ride on the bus and on the back of his mom's wheelchair. Chance was a strong-willed, stubborn little boy who made us laugh with his antics and smile at his joyful spirit. Now we mourn the absence of his little feet running, jumping and dancing. He never did anything half-way or half-speed. Chance is lucky to have a large family who loves and adores him. Chance also leaves behind many other loved ones and friends. The family would like to thank the wonderful staff at Primary Children's Medical Center, especially the fantastic doctors and nurses who cared for Chance. Chance, until we see you again, you will live in our hearts and memories, and our happy thoughts. May you rest in the arms of Jesus.

Coleman's Baptism

2011-10-11T13:26:00.000-06:00

This handsome boy chose to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Coleman has been preparing for his baptism and confirmation for a long time, and is grateful to finally be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ.

We were so happy that so many family members and friends were able to share his special day with him.

He was so excited to plan out the dessert table for the luncheon--Sugar cookies in the shape of the number 8, pumpkin bread, Oreo Truffles, Cookie Dough Truffles, chocolate chip cookies, and cream puffs.

I feel so blessed to be Coleman's mom. He is thoughtful and kind and full of love for people around him. He is happy and intelligent and hilarious. I love that he chose to follow Jesus Christ and I love that Ryan was able to baptize him. My heart overflows with love for this kid!

Tips on Organization

2011-10-03T21:28:00.001-06:00

There are so many great organization blogs/websites out there, so this might be redundant information for some of you, but last week I went to a great Relief Society class about organization. These are some of the thoughts I came home with... they are brief, so if you want more of an explanation on something, just ask in the comments.

Being organized isn't about how an environment LOOKS but how it FUNCTIONS.
Calendar! Get it out of your brain and onto paper (or planner, iPhone, etc.)
HOMES (find one for everything) - SIMPLIFY - ROUTINES - FINISH
Ask yourself: What is the best use of my time RIGHT NOW?
Routines - Commitments - Chores - Projects
Bedtime Routine: "Neat Your House" Put everything in its home (FINISH), Prepare tonight to make tomorrow easier.
FINISH--part of going to church is putting bags, books, clothes, shoes, etc. away, part of dinner is doing the dishes.
Clutter/Paper 1. Incoming--Stop it at the door, deal with it only once, sort and conquer. 2.Rotating--file system (HOMES for everything) Binders/file folders--move from piles to files. 3. Outgoing--Recycling, donations (DI), returns (Great to store these in the car)
KITCHEN--Clear off countertops (is it a friend or freeloader? tool or trinket?). Clean out cupboards--open doors and drawers, take it all out and only put half back. Condense--"point of first use" ABC management (put things you use daily in your A space, the least frequently in your C space, etc.)
CLOSETS--Determine how much of everything is enough and get rid of everything else (ie 22 ties--one for each work day of the month). Use the rule--if one comes in, one must go out.
STEWARDSHIP--Depart with STUFF to bless the life of someone else... Less is more because more is a chore.
RETIREMENT--best things to do... own your own home, have food storage, no debt.
Children do what you INSPECT, not what you EXPECT
Be EARLY--run ahead of the game.
GARAGE--build a wall to put your stuff behind (genius--if only my garage was big enough!)
Simplify your children's lives so they don't have to deal with so much stuff.

**What is your favorite organizational tip?

Should you be practicing?

2011-09-30T14:49:00.000-06:00

Olivia is preparing to compete in a piano festival next month and is learning a 13 page movement of a concerto piece. Between juggling soccer, school, friends, clogging, church activities, chores, and trying to have a little fun, Olivia often feels just like this:

Hip Hip Hooray

2011-09-18T23:30:00.000-06:00

Sophia started Nursery today!

On My Honor

2011-09-16T10:48:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the Wolf Den!

Equal Opportunity Employers

2011-09-16T10:48:00.000-06:00

Sophia likes to climb on the table, so I finally decide to put her to work.

I wish housework made ME this happy!

Being Eight is Great!

2011-09-12T21:39:00.001-06:00

This handsome boy turned eight today! He said all day long how he was "so spoiled, but the good kind" and when I asked him why he felt spoiled he said, "You know, all the presents, all the love..." I love this kid!

Last weekend we took him with two of his buddies to Trafalga to celebrate and they had a great time!

Today he got his very own set of scriptures, some cool new stuff for Scouts which he gets to start on Wednesday, and an awesome Star Wars retro lunch box.

Olivia made him a wallet and gave him a book too!

I loved this expression on his face when he opened his gift from Ryan's parents. He is so enthusiastic and happy and grateful for things that people do for him.

We let the kids choose their birthday breakfast and dinner. For breakfast we had colored pancakes (we put different colors of pancake batter in squirt bottles and draw pictures or write words with the batter... it's pretty labor intensive, but the kids love it). For dinner he wanted a variation on his all-time favorite (homemade mac and cheese) that he thinks is as gourmet as it comes. We had cheese fondue... cheese sauce and lots of dippers--carrots, celery, noodles, crusty french bread, steamed broccoli, and the best of all HOT DOGS! So glad we could eat something healthy from all of the food groups :). The kids loved it though, and felt very fancy dipping their food in their own little dishes of cheese sauce with a fondue fork.

He had visits from Grandma Jan and Grandpa Gee Gee (but we didn't grab a picture, darn it!) and from Grandma and Grandpa Stover, calls from the other grandparents and lots of his aunts, and fun cards and gifts in the mail. People were good to this good boy. I am so grateful he came to our family eight years ago!

We Will Never Forget

2011-09-11T21:19:00.000-06:00

I can remember in great detail the feelings I had on September 11, 2001. I am sure you can too. I sat in the same chair all day long, rocking 3 month old Olivia, glued to the TV and watched the news, hoping for any kind of understanding or resolution. Today, as we watched some of the memorial services many of those emotions were brought back to the surface.

Ten years later, we feel more "hope smiling brightly before us," yet at the same time realize that the world is a different place after 9/11. We will never forget.

I had a powerful experience in Stake Conference today as I sang with our Young Men and Young Women a song that is based on the theme for our youth this year (13th Article of Faith). I felt it was an appropriate and timely response to the horrific events of 9/11 and all of the aftermath. The world is filled with darkness and people who make choices that hurt others. We need not despair, there is hope and light to counter it all.

We Believe (listen here)
Jenny Phillips and Tyler Castleton

Darkness rages now
More than it ever has before
But our faith is sure
We are standing tall
We are standing strong
We can clearly see between
Right and wrong

Chorus
We believe in being honest
We believe in being true
Chaste and benevolent
Doing good to all men
We believe all things
We hope all things
We seek the virtuous
All that is praiseworthy
We're standing sure
We believe

We are not deceived
By the forces that fight against what's right
Our trust is in Christ
He leads us to joy
He leads us to light
He leads us to all good things
In this life

Chorus

Our mighty God has given us
So much good to find
There's just no room for darkness in our lives

Chorus

We're standing sure
We believe

Where is a Girl Scout when you need one?

2011-08-26T11:40:00.000-06:00

Our new window decor!

Summer Visitors and Activities

2011-08-23T22:57:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that summer has come to an end! As I've been looking through photos from this summer I decided to condense a whole bunch of activities into one post, lest you get bored.

Here goes...

Early in June my good friend Kim came to visit for a bit from Indiana. We met Patrice for lunch and had a great visit. We missed Loretta who was our other pal in high school but didn't come to visit until later in the summer. It is so fun that we still see each other (usually at least once a year) and still consider each other our best friends. These ladies are wonderful!

Ryan's sister Traci and her family came to visit in June, so we had a Harper BBQ. It was so fun to get all of the Harper cousins together (of course we missed Mikkie!), they don't get to be together very often and they have such a great time together. I love the picture of Ryan and his brothers and sister.

We went to the zoo! It was HOT and we were dismayed to find out that our zoo no longer "carries" lions or hippos. Some of the new exhibits are neat though. I love the photo of Sophia consulting the zoo map as if she would be our tour guide (top left).

Olivia got to be in the Steel Days parade with her soccer club (Xtreme). Sophia and Coleman enjoyed the parade (and all the free candy) but were especially excited to see Liv.

Loretta and her cute kids came to visit from Alabama! Patrice and her kids live in Davis County and we met at Loretta's parents house for a yummy lunch and let the kids play. Each of us has an oldest daughter (and they all wear glasses, they thought that was cool). The girls swapped Cinderella stories about all they had to do to help with the younger kids and around the house, so they wanted a picture with the babies on their hips (see bottom left). It was so fun to see them all! This day we missed Kim, who had returned to Indiana with her three kids. Between the four of us there are 14 children... amazing!

Our good friends the Reis' came from California to visit... we spent as much time as possible with them and went to the Scera pool and Discovery Park. Olivia and Madi and Brandon and Coleman would move in together if they could (and often plot how one of our families can move so we can live by each other). They are finally starting to grasp the concept of needing a job in order to live in a certain place, but we enjoy whatever visiting time we can with them.

Matt and his family came out from Connecticut for a couple of days and we met them and Lindsey and her boys and my mom at the This is The Place Heritage Park. I am sad that I didn't take any pictures of Matt's cute boys! They have a ton of activities there including pony rides, gold mining, a train ride, a barber shop (complete with a free shave) and a bunch of other "working" shops with people in period dress there to explain it all. My kids liked the mountain man and I liked the pharmacy full of natural remedies. We all liked the "saloon" that sold ice cream. One of my kids asked if all saloons sold ice cream back then :).

This year some of the descendants of Sophia Mason Crook (who my Sophia was named after) decided to add a marker in the Payson City Cemetery for her. She is buried somewhere in Davis County (where she died) but as most of her descendants settled in Payson they felt it appropriate to put it there. She was a remarkable woman of great faith and determination. We went down with Grandma Cole to see the marker and after wandering the cemetery for what seemed like hours, we found it! Maps and coordinates in that cemetery seemed to be helpful at the entry gate, but when we got into the cemetery we got all turned around. It was still fun to be with Grandma and enjoy a cold ice cream cone with her after we were done at the cemetery. She is a great lady and I feel blessed to have such a close relationship with her.

We had a full, fun summer... but alas, it is time to get back into the groove of school.

**What are your summer highlights?

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-23T22:51:00.000-06:00

Coleman and Olivia started school today! The summer seems to have gone way too quickly, but I think both of them were excited to get back. I felt a lot more busy this summer than I wanted to be... so I am hoping that the transition back to school and our fall schedule will prove to be a good one. Maybe I'll even be able to tackle a few of the organizational projects I wanted to do over the summer.

But ready or not, we have a second grader and a fifth grader... it's hard to believe!

Coleman wasn't feeling good at all yesterday or today, he kept saying he was fine so he could go to school, but then he'd get dizzy when he stood up and wouldn't eat because it was too hard to swallow. I made him stay home this morning so we could go to the doctor to make sure he didn't have strep (his symptoms seemed to point that direction). He didn't. He was so worried that he wasn't going to get to eat lunch at school today (it was pizza day).... but he made it and he loves his new teacher. I asked what he was most excited about and he said, "It's too hard to pick! The store my teacher will have (for good behavior)... recess and all the new recess things (they just put up ball walls and badminton/volleyball nets)... everything!" Then he said there are things he isn't excited about, namely the changes to the menu (they are trying to offer more healthful foods). Funny kid. He will do great in second grade!

Olivia was thrilled when our class lists came out that two of her best friends, J.D. and Anna, are in her class this year. She was grinning from ear to ear. She said she was most excited about her teacher that is so nice. I hope she has a great year--I remember fifth grade being full of so many fun activities.

I think this little girl is the only one NOT excited that school has started... she was already bored today with the kids gone. She has loved having them around all of the time to play with her and get snacks for her. She is going to get into some trouble, I can already tell. We did enjoy our time together though and got to read several books and play together, uninterrupted. I loved nap-time too! Today there was too much to do to snooze with her, but I might have to make a habit of getting a quick power nap each afternoon.

**What is your favorite school memory?
**Are you looking forward to the new fall schedule?
**How often do you nap?

Ryan's a Star!

2011-08-23T22:35:00.001-06:00

Every year Ryan's company has a convention where their consultants gather to get new ideas and get excited about new products. As a programmer, Ryan doesn't get many chances to be a superstar, but this is a time that he gets to present his department's work for the people that are using (and selling) the software. His work this year included changes that consultants have been asking for for a long, long time. His announcement brought the crowd to their feet:

My favorite comments on their facebook site said: "Ryan Harper, Director of Technology, HM, you now have a whole room full of BFF's!! Thank you so much for all of the studio enhancements coming our way!!"

and "I think we need to start a Ryan Harper fan club! He had no idea how just one specific change could cause a group of grown women to cry! Lynda said we would freak out and we did! Wow! What an exciting day!"

Ryan has groupies! Fun for him.

They also have a fancy banquet to end the convention, and they invited me to come along. It was a fun chance to dress up and get my hair done (by my ultra-talented friend Raylyn).

Doesn't the back of my head look cool? I should have her come over and do my hair more often!

The thing I loved best about the banquet was seeing how much Ryan is valued at work. His coworkers the consultants couldn't say enough good things about him, and it was fun for me to see that everyone else sees how great he is. Way to go Ry!

Bear Lake 2011

2011-08-23T13:46:00.001-06:00

Ryan's family has been going to Bear Lake every August since he was a baby. It is something our little family has grown to love and cherish--the activities are fun and exciting, and it's relaxing to be away from the pressures of home and work, but we love, love, love being with our family and spending time with them. One of Ryan's wonderful aunts mentioned in a Family Home Evening that we had last year that Bear Lake for her was like a sanctuary--a safe place she could go where she knew she was loved and accepted.

After Mikayla's accident last year, we honestly didn't know if we would ever be able to go back and still enjoy being there. That day was traumatic and horribly difficult, and the days and weeks and months following have been equally hard. There were several family members with us that day, and many of them decided that they wouldn't be going back to Bear Lake. I can understand and appreciate that, and in many ways I felt the same thing. At the same time, I felt drawn to go back. I felt like if we returned we would be able to continue on our journey of healing. Ryan and I discussed it at length with each other and with our older children, and decided that for our family, it would be a good step for us to go back there and continue building good memories.

We made our traditional stop at USU for delicious Aggie ice cream. I believe their ice cream is the best... and Ryan claims that BYU Creamery's ice cream tops it. We are convinced that the only way to determine for sure would be a side by side comparison, but the location of the creameries and the nature of ice cream makes that difficult. My conclusion is that whichever ice cream we are eating at the moment is the best! This day it was Aggie Ice Cream--lemon custard and raspberry sherbet for me, cookies and cream for Coleman, lemon custard for Olivia, and a triple for Ryan--pralines and cream, caramel cashew, and cookie dough. Sophia just kept her mouth open the whole time and waited for someone to fill it with a bite of deliciousness.

As we pulled into Garden City and drove toward the condos where we were staying (and have stayed for the past several years, thanks to the generosity of Ryan's parents and grandparents) we were all flooded with memories of the day that Mikkie left. It was particularly hard to drive by the pool house and get out and hear helicopters flying overhead (they were there this year for Raspberry Days as part of the fair). The last time we were there, we sat on the lawn and watched and prayed as the helicopter came and took Mikkie away. Her sweet older sister Faith said that the helicopter was taking Mikkie to Jesus. The weekend ended up being full of bittersweet moments--hard memories from the day of the accident, but also great memories with Mikayla and all of our other family members.

While we were in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday Ryan's cousin Jen shared her testimony--and while she was speaking I felt strongly that Bear Lake is a sacred place for our family. I don't know if that sounds crazy, but we have spent so much time with our family members there, and it's the last place that we were with Mikayla before she left her earthly existence, and to me it feels sacred. It was Ryan's grandma Lucille's favorite place... she passed away in 2005, and Bear Lake hasn't quite been the same without her, but when we are there, I can feel of the love that she has for us. I can imagine Lucille and Mikkie, taking an afternoon off from whatever they are doing and sitting together, eating a raspberry shake, and checking in on us, making sure we are being good to each other and having fun. I felt very blessed to be there again.

The lake has risen EIGHT feet this year! We used to walk at least a mile down to the water's edge from the condos (and we started driving down a few years ago), but this year, the "beach" wasn't far away at all. Unfortunately, a lot of the good sand to play in is buried under the water 100 yards out. The kids still found enough to build a sand castle with and we had fun in the water. Cheri brought the fun jet skis and we all got to take a few rides, even Sophia (where was her mother during this?!?).

We always have fun in the condos--eating yummy food, talking, playing games (this year the new favorite game was "Telestrations"--check it out, you won't be sorry!), eating more food, and just being together. Cousins Brian and Richard played some tunes on their ukeleles and sang to us too. I love watching Ryan's "cool cousins" play with our kids. The aunts told me that when Ryan was a teenager and young adult, he and his siblings were the cool cousins that played with them. In turn, they now entertain our kids--give them endless piggy back rides, take them to the park, and generally make them feel like they are a part of things. I loved watching them all take such good care of my children.

Sophia was tuckered out after a day in the water and snoozed with Ryan. I love the picture of her with the camera and my flip flops. She's growing up way too fast. We were so glad that Denver and Jan came up! It is always so good to be with them.

When it was all said and done, we were very grateful to have spent a few days at Bear Lake. It will of course never be the same after last year's accident. The heartache that we feel because Mikayla isn't with us will never go away, but I am convinced that because of her, we can choose to be better. We will remember and cherish her always, especially her cute little smile as she dug into Laura's purse one more time for gum and lip gloss, or her giggle as she hopped from person to person in the wagon to get one more bite of a famous raspberry shake from whomever would share with her.

Bear Lake is a part of us, and will continue to be.

Oh, the places you'll go!

2011-08-19T15:09:00.001-06:00

At the end of July I got to spend several days with our Young Women at Heber Valley Camp. It has been said that HVC is a temple without a roof, and I can see that after spending time there. Our YW were there Monday to Friday... and because Sophia is still up at night I didn't stay the whole week, but drove up and back each day. Ryan was great to take some time off to spend with the kids while I was gone. If you read his posts from those days, you'll already know that they survived without me and had a fabulous time (and even asked me when I was home for good if I could please go for a "Spa Day" so they could hang out with Dad some more!). Sophia did great (and was glad to have me home during the night). I loved being with the girls as much as I could, and despite getting pulled over for speeding on the way there one day, I didn't mind the driving too much. Luckily the officer was kind and let me go with a warning. Anyway, it was wonderful and it was exhausting.

Our theme was "Oh, the places you'll go... write your own story" and had a strong Dr. Seuss influence. I loved talking all week about the ways we can direct our life's path by the choices we make.

Here are a few little highlights from my camp experience:

We had heard stories of bears wandering through the camp. Just after we pulled through the gate and turned around a bend, I spotted the bears! They were so still they looked fake, but I was still sure I spotted them. I told my friend that was driving about them, and she did a quick U-turn so we could take a picture. We quickly realized that they were in fact FAKE--made of wood. We still took a picture, and a cute missionary couple stopped on their golf-cart. They were laughing at us and saying, "They aren't real!" We didn't feel very smart, but that's okay. If you look really hard you can see a black bear, right in the center of the picture... also there are two little bears climbing on the trees.

Humanitarian bears... our girls paired up with one of the sewing inclined ladies in the ward to do the sewing of these cute bears before camp, and while at camp they stuffed and finished them. By the end of the week the pavilion was full of bears to donate to our local police department and fire station.

Our class was in charge of a little activity and we did some Minute To Win It games. We stacked cans and paper plates...

... we stacked blocks on our heads...

...and the favorite was trying to eat move Oreos from the forehead to the mouth, using only facial muscles.

One of the mornings we spent several hours at the High Ropes Course. When I was 15 or 16 our youth group went to a high adventure camp in Beaver ("B is for the B in Beaver High School..."). I have strong, negative memories of not being able to climb up over a wall and being pushed over by some of the young men. It was humiliating and painful. This Ropes Course brought back some of those same feelings, but now as a YW leader I was able to see the lessons that could be applied to each activity. The leaders were invited to participate in the zip line, which required climbing up a pole and walking across a wire before getting to the jumping off point. I was afraid, but wanted to appear confident and able in front of the girls. I think I was trying to fake myself out into believing I wasn't afraid.

It was so neat to see the girls cheer each other on. I got teary-eyed with several of the girls that were very, very scared, yet did it anyway. I was grateful that all of our girls were willing to cheer me on... they believed in me! That is a great feeling.

Ryan is sure the pole is only 40 feet high, but it felt like it was at least 100 feet off the ground.

We were safely and securely fastened with a harness and a rope attached to a missionary at the bottom. It was still terrifying. I actually slipped once, and didn't fall far because the missionary stabilized me and helped me gain back my footing, but it shook me up and scared me. There were many moments that I didn't think I could finish. I was sure they would have to help me off or scrape me off of the ground.

I just wanted to make it safely to the Eagle's Nest so I tried to go as steadily and quickly as I could. I felt so relieved when she clipped me in there.

Then came another terrifying realization, that I needed to let go to go down the zip line. I have done lots of zip lines before, and I love them, I feel like they are such a rush, but for some reason this time I was scared.

I probably should have asked her to push me, it would have taken less time, and probably would have decreased the fear I felt.

But I did it! I jumped! And as soon as I let go, it felt like my stomach muscles ripped away from my insides. It hurt so bad! I didn't even really enjoy the ride because it hurt so much, and after I got off I wanted to throw up and cry and double over in pain.

I have tried to learn some life lesson from climbing the pole, walking the wire, and going down the zip line. There are all sorts of parallels to the gospel that I can make... I wasn't really excited about doing it, but I knew I wanted to conquer it. I didn't want to stay afraid. Many times in life there are challenges that can hold us back if we let them. I ran into some small challenges along the way. We always encounter things that are hard or hinder us in our progress. I loved that I was never alone. Particularly during the hardest and scariest time, I was safely anchored in and the missionary was there to save me from really falling when I slipped. I had to make some course corrections and get back on track. Even when it was over, I was in pain, and it lasted for several weeks (I'm still a little sore). Why is that? I survived the challenge! Many trials in life leave us different than when we started, sometimes that pain is lingering, but when it's all said and done, we can be stronger for having done it. My attitude about this particular course... I've done it. No need to repeat, thank you very much! (Hopefully the hardest of life's trials are like that too... one time only!)

We hiked and sang and and laughed and spent some time on the lake. There were canoes (Fast Eddies and Stable Mabels) for the girls, and these awesome paddle boats for the leaders to ensure safety and order. Honestly, I'm not sure we would have been able to do anything if the need had arisen because our boats were very slow and hard to maneuver. However, I did really appreciate the few minutes of silence that we had on the lake. It was beautiful there!

Camp awards were given out each night... I always left before they did this, but they made an award for me anyway:

I got the "Most Primped-Up Award" (I guess showering each day and applying make-up usually doesn't happen when you stay at camp all week, and you aren't supposed to wear anything besides t-shirts. So noted for next year). Last week we had a post-camp activity and they awarded me the "Life Saver" award, so I got this cool helicopter. It was because of all the things that I was able to bring back to camp during my trips back and forth... I think they included a new air mattress, contacts, craft supplies, citronella candles, breakfast foods, homemade cookies, ziploc bags, and birthday cupcakes and surprises.

I loved being a part of camp! We have a great group of leaders and girls, and it was a privilege to be with them. I spent many weeks at girls camp as a teenager, and some things are still the same. A few (big) things have changed... namely the cabins and bunks instead of tents or sleeping outside... and it seemed to be a lot more scheduled than when I went... but the basic idea of camp is still the same. It's a place where we can build relationships with each other, have a great time, enjoy nature and appreciate God's creations. During the course of our time at camp, there are many opportunities to learn and grow and develop our testimonies of Jesus Christ. No wonder everyone loves it!

**Do you have any experience with Girls Camp?
**Would you have done the zip line?

In Memory of Mikayla

2011-08-14T22:20:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that it's been one year since this sweet girl left us. I know that for our family it's been a hard year, seeking to understand and trying to heal. I've thought a lot this week about the covenant that I made when I was baptized to mourn with those that mourn (see Mosiah 18:9). Through this experience with Mikayla we have had many opportunities to mourn and grieve, but also to be comforted by people who are willing to mourn with us. I am convinced that one of the great blessings through all of this is the strengthened relationships that we have with Mikkie's parents and the rest of our family.

Mikkie's parents wanted to spend some time today together with family members remembering some of the wonderful things about Mikkie.

We met at Mikayla's grave this afternoon. It was a beautiful and sunny day, and although it was sad and hard, it was also so good to be with each other and draw on each other's strength. Laura's dad and Tim shared their thoughts and testimonies. We sang some primary songs (and finished with Mikkie's favorite: "I Am Like A Star Shining Brightly"). Tim also sang a beautiful song that he wrote to Mikayla. I was overcome by the evident love that Tim has for his daughter. I feel grateful that their family can be together again. My respect and admiration for Tim and Laura has grown a lot this year. They are strong and faithful and continue to lift others around them.

Laura wrote a beautiful blog post (read it here) and encouraged people to do something productive with the sadness and grief that we feel, and forgive someone today. She suggested letting go a white balloon.

Sophia didn't want to let her balloon go... but Ryan finally helped her release it.

Aren't the white balloons beautiful against the blue sky? I love what Laura wrote about why she chose white: "White symbolizes purity, cleanliness, truth...I also think of heaven and angels, reminding me of Mikkie."

Laura's sister found some live butterflies online and had them shipped to her overnight. Mikkie loved butterflies! Tammy made the correlation too that butterflies are a symbol of change... we are all changed because Mikkie was a part of our lives, and we are certainly changed with her death. I would like to work on using this experience to be different, in a better way. We opened up the envelopes (that had a little butterfly food in them--although I'm not sure what butterlies eat when housed in a wax paper envelope?) and let the butterflies go. Some of them needed a little coaxing. We sort of expected them to all fly away quickly, but I think they were all still waking up. Many of them stuck around for awhile and landed on the flowers near Mikayla's headstone, sort of like they wanted to be around her for just a bit longer too.

Sophia's been making this funny face lately.... so Ryan had to make one too.

Mikayla also loved bubbles, so they had big bubbles for the kids to blow. I loved the determination on Faithy's face!

Everyone was fascinated with the butterflies.

Sophia loved the bubbles. Ryan said he could hear them popping when they hit her in the face.

Here is their sweet family... Laura, Tim, and Faith. We love them and continue to mourn the loss of sweet little Mikkie. Laura's sister put together some little favor bags for the kids, full of things that Mikayla loved. Lip gloss and bubble gum for the girls and bubbles and bubble gum for the boys. Everyone worked really hard to make a really hard day good too.

These suckers were made by a friend of Laura's parents. It was just another example to me of the many ways that people have shown their love and concern for our family during this hard time.

This year has brought many opportunities to reflect again on the things that I know to be true... families can be together forever--Jesus Christ made that possible. The atonement is not just for forgiveness from sins, but also to help our hearts heal. We need to take time for the most important things--particularly cherishing the moments and experiences we have with our loved ones.

Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell

2011-08-13T23:48:00.000-06:00

On our last day we went home by way of Lake Powell and met Mike there who took his boat. We stopped for a "short" hike to Horseshoe Bend, which is just outside of Page, Arizona. Yes, it is as hot as it looks. I think it was 105 degrees that day.

The kids complained a lot on the way there. Both of them thought they were going to melt. (I thought the same thing!) But, we tried to teach them the lesson that good things come after hard work and perseverance. There would be a pay-off for all they were doing to get there.

Sophia was a good sport... she got carried, of course. We plastered her fair little head and body with sunscreen... we still couldn't get her to keep her hat on.

Isn't it cool? I think so. I thought it was amazing... the kids were underwhelmed. Coleman said, "That wasn't really worth it." Bah!

Olivia kept pausing on the way back and acting like she was going to die. My patience was running thin... but we finally made it back to our (hot) car.

The best part of Page was finding Sonic for some cool drinks!

When we got to Lake Powell we met up with Mike. Ryan, Liv, and Coleman went for a boat ride with Lindsey and her boys. Coleman did some tubing...

...and he even got to drive the boat. They all went for a swim in the lake and had fun!

While they were out on the boat Sophia and I went to the "swim beach" a ways down the shore. It was so hot... we couldn't stay on the towel or play in the sand... and going in the water (also hot!) was a joke. There were prickly things and floating things and rocks that hurt our feet, so we lasted there for only a short while. I tried to call Ryan and got this message when I tried to turn on my phone:

The only thing it would let me do is call 911 to ask for assistance! I'm no dummy... it didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion that if it was too hot for my phone to work, it was too hot for a one year old and her mama to sit out in the sun. We promptly high-tailed it to the car and sat with the air conditioner on full blast until Ryan and the kids were done.

Overall it was a fun and exhausting trip... I'm not sure if you can call five days, four national parks (and recreation area), and 1,000 miles in the car a vacation, but we did have good times and saw lots and lots of beautiful sites. We especially loved being together and being with our extended family!

Isn't Life Grand?

2011-08-13T23:26:00.000-06:00

We were only a few hours away from Grand Canyon, so we figured we would get our money's worth (we bought the Annual Interagency Pass for National Parks and such) so many of us from the group went to there when our time at Zion was done. A little history would be enlightening--my mom worked at Grand Canyon cleaning cabins during the summers of her college years. It was her favorite vacation when she was a kid, and it continues to be one of her favorite spots. She is always trying to talk someone into going to Grand Canyon with her. We were glad that it worked out this time, and she knew of some great lookout points and simple hikes to go on.

We had to get the obligatory photo underneath the Grand Canyon Lodge sign.

I love Sophia's expression in the photo above!

We drove and hiked and looked and oohed and aah-ed and took lots of photos. The sun was bright so our expressions were kind of goofy in most of the photos, but we had a good time. We drank lots of water too. It was hot.

Our last stop was an old Native American Granary. It was a 1/2 mile hike (or so?) and we wanted to hurry, so we half-way ran down and back up the trail. I learned again where I get my "we need to hurry!" from (my mom was hurrying us all along) and Coleman and Olivia kept asking me why we needed to run. Poor kids.

We saw variations of this view on our way out of the park as we drove to Jacob Lake (which actually doesn't have much of a lake, did you know?). It was late and we were tired and hungry and Sophia was cranky, so we kept telling the kids to give her snacks (Teddy Grahams, cereal, pretzels, etc. from the best trail mix ever that Lauren made). The road was so curvy and windy and Sophia didn't feel so well. About 30 minutes away from Jacob Lake Liv told us she thought Sophia was going to be sick. Sure enough, there was vomiting. A lot of it. Yucky and smelly. We pulled off to the side of the road and waved as all of the other cars in our group passed us. My mom said she was sure we had stopped to photograph the beautiful sunset :). Lindsey was kind enough to stop and check on us, but there wasn't much we could do. We cleaned her up the best that we could and made our way to Jacob Lake where we promptly bathed Sophia and all of the parts of her car seat. Good times on the family vacation!

We decided that Grand Canyon is amazing... and it is good to visit there every 10 or 15 years or so. We might be tempted to get to the South Rim sometime soon though (we need to make good use of our interagency pass!).

**What's your favorite national park?
**We aren't the only ones with throw-up stories while on vacation, are we? What's yours?

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

2011-08-13T22:56:00.000-06:00

Zion Ponderosa Ranch had so many fun things to do... the best thing was hanging out together in the great house. When we weren't running to a national park we had a great time at the ranch.

We swam (that's my awesome mom on the slide!)...

We ate... and ate... (we made Cafe Rio salads with Brazilian Lemonade when it was our night to cook)...

Sophia went to sleep in the corner while we played games (Ticket to Ride and Trivial Pursuit).

We played on the swings...

...and Sophia was SO cute... she was happy to keep swinging while we...

waited and waited in line for Liv to go on the bungee trampoline...

...and when it was finally her turn, the power on the machine didn't work! She was so disappointed, but she got another ticket to do another activity.

Coleman miniature golfed! He even got a hole-in-one.

We braved family photos! Ryan was so great, I don't think he loves taking family photos, but he was willing to do it for us. We had some challenges with the sun and shadows, so there is a big hole in the top left corner, but it was just too bright there. Looking at it now, it looks like a perfect spot for Matt and his family. We missed them so much! We should photoshop them in (wink, wink).

Look for the above family photo on the blog header soon...

... and these are all of the Cole kids and grandkids. Again, missing Matt and Ashley and their boys, and always missing Chance.

Above are the Cole siblings (minus Matt)... David, Heather, me, Lauren, Erin, Lindsey, and Megan.

We zip-lined! We had to climb 3 huge flights of stairs to get to the top... and the first time we climbed it we didn't know that we had to check in and get our gear... by the time we got to the top and realized that, Olivia decided it was way too high. After she couldn't do the trampoline, she decided to do the zip line. It was fun! Did I mention that my mom is cool? She did the zip line too! That is her in the bottom right corner.

Our "special" boys found any wild-life they could, including this blue-bellied lizard! There is a Blue-Belly Grill at the ranch, and when they found this guy we figured out where they got the name.

The kids blew bubbles and played on the stairs (scary!) and we had pow-wows in the closet (which was as big as most of our bedrooms) where Grace and Sophia had their matching jams on.

We really appreciated my mom and Mike for making the arrangements for us to stay at such a fun place!

Zippin' Through Zion

2011-08-12T14:42:00.000-06:00

We spent one of our days in Zion National Park and had a great time. My mom and Mike gave us cool Zion's t-shirts for Christmas last year, so our family sported them for the day.

You aren't allowed to drive into the park very far any more, but they have a handy shuttle bus that takes you anywhere you need to go... and luckily wasn't that crowded. Lindsey and her boys got there the same time we did, so we got to spend the morning with them.

We hiked to the Emerald Pools and had a great time! Sophia did NOT want to keep her hat on her head (but she DID want to keep her finger in her nose). Ryan had Soph in the pack for our hikes and she did pretty well. I was trying to help Lindsey with her boys a little bit... they were great, but were wanting to hop and run ahead, so I was trying to keep track of Jonah (four years old) since Lindsey was with Jaxton. Lindsey overheard a woman telling her hiking companions what a horrible parent I was for bringing such a young boy on a trail like this. She said something to the effect of "Now that's just bad parenting right there!" Lovely. If I had seen her again I would have given her a list of all the ways that I am a bad parent, but certainly hiking on a fairly easy trail with plenty of water and sunscreen isn't one of them.

We finally found a way to keep Sophia's hat on her head... she just needed to fall asleep!

After the Emerald Pools hike we met up with the rest of the group near the lodge for a picnic lunch.

Sophia stayed asleep for a few minutes like this!

After she woke up from her nap, Soph was in a funny, funny mood.

She kept picking the grass and throwing it on Grandpa. Ryan got the cutest video of her (notice, no hat!):

After our lunch and a little break we loaded onto the shuttle bus again and hiked to Weeping Rock. It is such a short hike with a fun ending... the kids loved the dripping water and the cool shadow of the overhang.

We loved being at Zion with our family!

Mammoth Cave

2011-08-11T16:24:00.000-06:00

The next day we tried to go on a hike, but were informed that most of the trailheads required a four-wheel drive vehicle to get to. We drove along a windy road for a long, long time and still couldn't find the trail we were looking for, so we finally gave up and headed back to the house, where we met up with a couple of my sisters and their families who were going to go to Mammoth Cave. It looked like a relatively short drive and an exciting thing, so we decided to go along.

It turned out to be about an hour and half away! So much for a quick trip. With a name like Mammoth Cave, we figured it would be gigantic and huge... and it was really a hole in the ground that went on for a long, long time. It was pretty cool though.

There were a few entrances and several different passage ways. We took flashlights and head lamps with us because it got dark really, really fast.

Aren't we cute? (my sister Erin and me)

The ceiling got lower and lower... there were some spots that I had to crawl on all fours, but it was the perfect height for Sophia! She cruised right along. In the photo above are Andrew, Nathan, Coleman, Josh, Tayden, Olivia, Emma, and Sophia.

The Loutzenhiser boys

Erin and Tayden

Overall, it was fun... just a lot of driving to get there! (We were glad it was free!)

Bryce Canyon and a Birthday

2011-08-10T22:23:00.000-06:00

At the end of June we headed out on an adventurous reunion for the Cole/Stover family reunion. We met up with part of the group at Bryce Canyon on our way to Zion.

Megan with Coleman and Liv...

Our little family at one of the many lookouts...

Liv, Emma, Soph, Katty, me, David Joseph, David, and Megan...

Olivia!

Coleman!

Bryce is beautiful, no?

I loved this view of Ryan and Coleman looking at the beautiful scenery.

Heather, my mom, me, David, Lauren, and Claire

Ryan and the kiddos at "one more lookout" before we got back in the car to drive to Zion.

My mom and Mike arranged for us to stay in a couple of great houses and cabins at Zion Ponderosa Ranch, which is just outside of Zion National Park. The first night we had a little pow-wow to establish some rules and guidelines (and of course sign the liability release form!). Mike put together some fun bags for each of the grandkids with some snacks and a water bottle and some little prizes. They thought that was SO neat!

Our "camp directors"

That day happened to be my 37th birthday and my sisters brought cake! It was fun to spend my birthday with so many people from my family... out of 12 kids, 11 were there... from Idaho, Nevada, California, Utah, and Georgia. We greatly missed Matt and his family who weren't able to come at the last minute. We had close to 50 people there! Our family has grown up in a lot of ways. It was so fun to spend time together and see some beautiful sites.

Twelve Years!

2011-08-03T21:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we celebrated being married for twelve years!

We spent a lovely evening at the Salt Lake Temple doing sealings and then ate some yummy dinner together.

A few weeks ago Olivia summed it all up for us. She looked at us both and said, "Mom, I'm so glad Dad married you!"

I was feeling pretty good that she recognized what a blessing I was to Ryan... and I started to agree when she spoke again after a brief pause....

"If he hadn't you would be sad and weeping somewhere because you'd be all alone."

Thanks, Ry, for preventing me from being sad and weepy all by myself. I love being married to you! We make a great team.

Dad Stays Home Part Two

2011-08-01T23:30:00.000-06:00

Wednesday
We started off Wednesday by forgetting Activity Days for Olivia! We were making cupcakes for Lisa to take up to camp the next day for a birthday and totally forgot. We were lucky that one of her friends called to ask her to walk. After finishing the cupcakes we did dishes... again... they really never end, do they?!

I did have a chance to teach a life lesson to Coleman today. While we were putting clothes away Coleman was helping out in the closet. He was putting shoes away and made the remark "Mom should give away some of her shoes." We talked about how there are some things you don't say to women :).

We finished up the morning by playing Settlers of Catan, a favorite of Coleman's, and he won. When Sophia woke up from her nap (which gave me a minute to write the previous blog entry) we took off for Airborne Trampoline Arena in Sandy. Earlier this week, Living Social had a deal, and it sounded like fun! They had a good time.

Sophia got to jump around in the kiddie area, and she loved it. I love her jump!

They also had a really cool foam pit with a trampoline at the bottom that the kids could jump into.

I will admit, sometimes I wanted to throttle the other kids in the kiddie area. As you can see there are six large trampolines. One of the kids (who I'm sure loved being around Sophia) would jump right next to Sophia (which would knock her down). All of the other trampolines were completely unused, yet she continued jumping next to Sophia.

They also had trampolines on the walls.

Sophia finally found a little Sesame Street coin-operated truck to sit in, and let's be honest, it was probably her favorite thing (even without the coins).

They also had an awesome dodgeball arena setup that would be a lot of fun. After an hour of jumping they were exhausted. Coleman was dripping with sweat. Both kiddos got a great workout--one hour was totally enough time.

When we got home we made Spicy Chicken Pasta for Dinner. We do substitute half and half for the heavy cream and it's still awesome.

Surprisingly, Sophia liked the spicy chicken and the red/green peppers!

Thursday

We had a very full Thursday. I had a lot I wanted to get done on this last day. First we enjoyed the weekly summer movie at the Cinemark, Madagascar 2. The kids apparently have a tradition of making "trail mix" for the movie. The ingredient list changes with whatever we have in the pantry that Lisa allows them to use. That day, their trail mix consisted of marshmallows, pretzels, cereal, graham cracker pieces, and my all time favorite... croutons. That's right, nice buttery, crunchy, salty croutons. Of course I didn't see them add the croutons to their mixes, it was when I was in the dark theater eating from my prepared bag of trail mix (and sharing with Sophia) that I was treated to a nice crunchy, buttery delight.

After our movie we went to Radio Shack to pickup some materials for our next activity. Ever since I watched this TED talk about Squishy Circuits I've been excited to try this with the kids. The video is only four minutes long. Watch it.

If you didn't watch it, the basic idea is you get a battery pack and a couple of LED's (about $10 at Radio Shack), mix up two different types of play dough using two different recipes. One is conductive play dough and the other works as your insulating dough. We were able to talk about electrical circuits, and what a short is, how electricity travels, and showing the differences between a serial and parallel circuit.

Oddly enough our insulating dough didn't turn out quite right, I didn't follow the directions very well :D. We did end up with something workable near the end though (f it's too sticky... keep adding flour).

Recipes for the dough and helpful documents found here

We invited some friends up to try it out with us (their mom was also at Girls' Camp). Here they are showing our first contraption using the conductive play dough (that we colored purple) and the insulating play dough which we left white.

Coleman was experimenting with what happens if the circuit is in a loop

And this was our final creation. I really have no idea what it was. They started wanting to make a giraffe, but merged into some stunted neck spider with an awesome looking tail.

We finished up the day with 6 holes of disc golf at the course in American Fork, 2 hours of soccer practice, and kids meals at Applebee's. We had planned on a simple Pasta-Roni meal of White Shells and Cheddar (Coleman's favorite), but he indulged us and let us use Olivia's free meal cert and our $10 off coupon. I just didn't feel like making dinner.

I had a lot of fun over those few days, and fully realize that there's no way I could keep up that pace every day of every week! I had a lot I wanted to do in those short 2 1/2 days and kiddos that pitched in when necessary to get things done made it so that we could have some good play time. I really couldn't have had it any better. At least I have another year to plan for next Girls' Camp :).

**What's the funniest thing you've had in "trail mix"?
**Want to play with some play dough?
**Are you going to try Spicy Chicken Pasta?

Hijacked

2011-07-27T12:30:00.005-06:00

Greetings all you blog visitors, Lisa is away at Girls' Camp this week. Since I am taking over the responsibilities for our house this week, it is only fair that I also take over the blogging duties!

I feel like she eased me into this, perhaps lulling me in nice and easy. Monday I just picked up the duties after work. Tuesday I took over at lunch. Today we're all in, and for the most part it's been great!

Saturday

With Lisa's assistance I planned meals for the week. I wasn't about to do that all on my own, otherwise I'm sure the kids would have starved. After getting a good idea about what they'd eat we put together the shopping list and off we went shopping. Olivia was kind enough to help and after a trip to Costco and Walmart (2 hrs) proclaimed that it's fun to go shopping with dad. I suspect the only reason she thought that is because she got to pick out a cereal for the week (Honey Bunches of Oats) and some ice cream (orange/berry sherbet).

Monday

When I got home we had to get started right away with making dinner. Coleman made it clear that he didn't want to help make dinner since it's something he doesn't like. We had a brief lesson about how you still need to learn to cook, even if it's something you don't like. He wasn't sure he agreed, but in his infinite wisdom decided he would help like dad wanted :)

Our meal for Monday night was Creole Franks (affectionately known in the Harper home as Hot Dog Creole. This was something that I grew up liking quite a bit and was at the top of my list for things to make for dinner. Lisa will tolerate this meal occasionally, but it doesn't get made too often unless I make it.

I've always liked cooking, and have made it one of my goals to have them help with all the cooking this week. I think it's a great practical way to teach mathematics (fractions and measurements) and following directions (and testing patience -- mostly mine). They've been awesome helpers and it's been fun.

We had a short Family Home Evening lesson about tithing (even though Coleman thought we didn't have to have FHE since mom wasn't home) and then we went on a walk/bike ride. This was probably Sophia's favorite activity of the evening.

About half way through the walk it started to sprinkle on us, but we made it home without too much excitement.

We had our ice cream for desert, Coleman had his favorite (mint chocolate chip), and Olivia her sherbet, and Sophia some of both. Sophia ate both of the two small scoops I got for her, and then got down from the table and walked around to each table spot and opened her mouth until someone gave her some more ice cream.

After finishing the evening with a little Dr. Who (BBC version on Netflix), it was time to call it a day and everyone was off to bed.

Tuesday

Tuesday certainly proved to be a bit more challenging of a day. I took half of the day off from work only to come home and find out that we have some weird issue with water and the carpet in the basement. When we had our basement finished the closet for the water heater/furnace might have been made too small since the edge of the carpet comes really close to the drain. For whatever reason a good area of carpet pad and carpet are quite wet. I pulled up the edges of both to try to get them to dry out, but I'm still not sure what to do long term.

Another thing I wanted to do this week is to include some activities that would challenge their brains. For Tuesday I came up with the idea that I wanted to teach them the basics of computer programming. I remembered doing stuff with Logo (turtle draw) when I was younger, and thought that might be a good start.

For those unfamiliar with Logo, you create drawings by writing a program of how you want the turtle to move (when it moves, it draws). The simple commands consist of telling it to move forward, turn, and change colors. We talked about angles, and how many degrees in a circle, and went through a couple of brief examples. I found "Logo Draw" for the iPad and they took turns trying to draw something.

Coleman first thought he wanted to do a lightning bolt, but I encouraged him to try doing a square with different colors on each side and here is his final result.

Olivia started out on a rather ambitious task of writing out Family Matters, but after getting stuck on the A thought this was good:

Our activity got interrupted by quite a downpour! Olivia and Sophia went outside to play in the rain (and got soaked).

I had to cancel soccer (again) because of the thunder. I think this is the third or fourth time this summer where we've had thunder right around when we were supposed to practice. Each time it seems the weather totally blows over 30-45 mins later and we could have practiced anyway, but I certainly wouldn't want to be out on a soccer field if lightning does come through the area!

Dinner tonight consisted of chicken quesadillas for Liv and I, and regular quesadillas for Coleman and Sophia. My favorite way to do chicken for these is to cut it into pieces and cook it in a little olive oil and crushed red pepper. Once browned add about a cup of salsa to let it simmer in until the tortillas are ready.

It's also customary for us to have frozen raspberry lemonades with this meal. I use half a can of pink lemonade, 2 cups of ice, a few scoops of vanilla ice cream (3-4), 10-12 frozen raspberries, and water for consistency. Tasty summer drink!

We all worked on dishes together, got ready for bed, and enjoyed 101 ways to leave a game show before calling it a night.

Since Sophia just woke up from her nap, I'll have to continue with Wednesday's activities another time.

Do any of you know what Logo is?

Have you found fun ways to teach your kids during the summer?

Do you want a frozen raspberry lemonade as much as I do right now? :)

The Harpers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days

2011-07-20T01:26:00.000-06:00

Hello, blog friends. How I have missed you. Are you still there?

I have much catching up to do with our summer adventures and so forth, but we have had a couple of days from you know where. Before posting fun photos and cute stories, I had to take a few minutes to document the fact that we have survived these last few days, without totally clearing out our emergency savings fund.

Sunday started out well enough. We woke up and ate a lovely breakfast of toast (with various toppings--Nutella for me, jam for Olivia, cinnamon and sugar with butter for Coleman, bites of all kinds for Sophia) and rushed off to our Sunday meetings. Sophia has been a bit under the weather (just some conjunctivitis, bulging gums where two molars are coming in, and oh, double ear infections that her mama failed to recognize until her well child check a few days ago) but has been on antibiotics and Tylenol for long enough that she is neither contagious nor totally miserable. We got to church though, and she was totally miserable. And loud. So I took her out. I realized we had not given her medicine to her, so we ran home to get it. She was still loud. Did I mention she was loud? Particularly during the lovely group musical number that I was supposed to sing in... we made it back just in time. It was cute as she clapped out loud and yelled "Mommy!" at the top of her lungs. Sort of. We survived church, since that is what you mostly do when you have a busy, tired, 15 month old. We spent the rest of the afternoon tag teaming because of other meetings and appointments.

In the late afternoon, I started complaining about being hot. I am usually hot or cold, but rarely just right. Probably because my comfortable temperature range is 68 to 72. Ryan's comfort zone is whatever is cheapest. But I digress. I really felt hot, and sweaty, and sticky. And Ryan did too. And our thermostat clearly indicated that there was a problem with our air conditioner. Ryan walked outside to check it, and the air conditioner indicated that there was a problem too. It wasn't running. Ugh.

We called the repair place and left a message. Olivia took it upon herself to spray us all with her water bottle (or dump it on Coleman if she felt the need) and we ran all the ceiling fans to try to keep cool. First thing Monday morning the glorious repair person called and arrived within the hour! We had tried to mentally prepare ourselves for the worst... after all, the AC unit is probably as old as our house, which means it has lived a good life and has functioned well for a lot of years. Estimates online showed that a new unit was anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000! Imagine our relief and giddiness when he came to the door with a small, bulging part that he said had overheated. Only $179.32 to fix!!! I quickly told him to hook up the new one, shut the door, and did a happy dance. My kids laughed at me and thought I was weird. He came back so I could pay and they told him that I did the happy dance. Then he thought I was weird too, but it didn't matter, because it only cost $179.32 to fix! Hooray! We didn't have to move to the pool or our neighbor's house for the day, because our house was cool.

We also had our van in the shop yesterday. The check engine light kept coming on and then going off but always coming on again. Some gasket or other was broken and there was a leak in the oil pan. Repairs there were under $500. Another hooray!

I secretly thought to myself (but did not dare say out loud for fear of jinxing myself) that something else was bound to happen, because don't all bad things supposedly come in threes? Anyway, we ended the day believing all was well in our household again.

This morning we awoke to find a large puddle of water in front of the fridge... and water gushing from underneath the fridge. We went downstairs to discover that water was coming out of the vents in the bathroom and office, out of the light in the hall, and out of one of the smoke detectors. Ryan figured out the problem and shut off the water to the fridge, which stopped the gushing and slowed the leaking. Meanwhile, he wanted a sponge to soak up the water in the drip pan, but I don't believe in sponges. They are bacteria magnets and are really just gross. So we didn't have a single sponge in the house. Just after Ryan left to purchase some bacteria magnets, our smoke detectors began beeping and loudly saying, "Fire, fire!" You know how those work, too, right? When one goes off, they all go off? Apparently water in a smoke detector indicates that something is wrong. So, I went through the house pulling them all down and unplugging them.

Ry got home and soaked up all the water and determined that our problem was our water filter. Apparently, when the store that you bought your fridge from sends you a friendly reminder every six months to replace your water filter, it's not just a ploy to get your money. If you ignore those reminders for several years because you don't want to spend $44.36 on a new water filter, you just might end up with a whole lot of unfiltered water in a whole lot of places you don't want it. Good news is that Ryan fixed it all and we can mostly laugh about it. Mostly. Everything seems to be drying out nicely. Phew.

We both agreed that tomorrow HAS to be better.

Science Museum

2011-06-27T15:06:00.000-06:00

We've been so excited to have my sister's family visiting. We don't get to see them nearly often enough! Always on the lookout for cheap (free!) ways to entertain the kids, we ventured to the Monte L. Bean Science museum on BYU campus. The kids loved it!

Olivia and Emma loved the hunts that the museum provided.

Coleman had a great time too but didn't love "hanging" with the girls (Claire, Sophia, and Grace).

We all thought this butterfly (made up of hundreds of smaller butterflies and moths) was really neat.

The best part about this museum? It's in walking distance of the BYU Creamery outlet. We all enjoyed a cold scoop!

Coleman, Andrew, Josh, and Nathan

Sophia loved hers too!

Father's Day 2011

2011-06-26T15:57:00.000-06:00

This Dad is so much fun.

He works hard to provide for his family.

He plays hard with his kids and he makes them laugh, a lot.

He washes dishes and folds clothes and cooks and cleans bathrooms.

He is appreciative of things that we do for him.

He goes out of his way to make life better for people around him.

He makes us all feel happy.

We had a great day celebrating him!

Wisdom from the One Year Old

2011-06-26T15:51:00.000-06:00

When at first you can't get out every single bite of food (corn and black beans in this case) with your fingers...

...bring the bowl to your face.

First Cone

2011-06-14T23:17:00.000-06:00

This cute little girl had her first taste of an ice cream cone the other day... of course she has had ice cream before, but when it's on top of a cone it's a whole different treat. Coleman shared his cone and taught her how to stick her tongue out and lick it.

She was so delighted--she would lick it and laugh for a few seconds before going back for more.

Her little laugh is so cute!

I have to admit, I feel the same way about ice cream.

Thoughts on Grief

2011-06-10T23:33:00.000-06:00

I recently finished a short book by C.S. Lewis called A Grief Observed. It includes some of his thoughts as he is mourning the death of his beloved wife. Grief is something none of us can escape--we all lose loved ones and mourn their absence. Sometimes our family members live a long life and sometimes their lives are cut tragically short through accidents or illness. Regardless of the circumstances, our hearts are broken to be separated from the ones we love. I loved a few of the passages from the book:

p. 21 "You never know how much you believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you trusted it?"

p. 43 "Getting over it so soon? But the words are ambiguous. To say the patient is getting over it after an operation for appendicitis is one thing; after he's had his leg off it is quite another. After that operation either the wounded stump heals or the man dies. If it heals, the fierce, continuous pain will stop. Presently he'll get back his strength and be able to stump about on his wooden leg. He has 'got over it'. But he will probably have recurrent pains in the stump all his life, and perhaps pretty bad ones; and he will always be a one-legged man. There will hardly be any moment when he forgets it. Bathing, dressing, sitting down and getting up again, even lying in bed will all be different. His whole way of life will be changed. All sorts of pleasures and activities that he once took for granted will simply have to be written off. Duties too. At present I am learning to get about on crutches. Perhaps I shall presently be given a wooden leg. But I shall never be a biped again."

p. 47 "Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape... not every bend does. Sometimes the surprise is the opposite one; you are presented with exactly the same sort of country you thought you had left behind miles ago. That is when you wonder whether the valley isn't a circular trench. But it isn't. There are partial recurrences, but the sequence doesn't repeat."

When I read Lewis' writings, I feel like he has a grasp of pure truth.

The Big Number 10

2011-06-04T22:58:00.001-06:00

It's hard to believe that a whole decade has passed since Sweet Liv came to our family. She is kind and generous and thoughtful and beautiful inside and out. We were so excited to celebrate her 10th birthday!

Ryan got to spend the day at a meeting preparing for Wood Badge (a Scout training that he is helping to staff later this summer) and had to leave early, so he woke up extra early to make Liv's birthday breakfast (crepes with Nutella and bananas and a fruit smoothie). She was excited to open her presents with him here, but he walked out the door before we even ate breakfast (pretending to leave... but really going next door to our neighbors where her gift was hidden). She was so heartbroken (which made me heartbroken, even though I knew Ryan was coming right back with a great surprise for her, but who likes to see their child in tears on their birthday?). Luckily it didn't last long, and Ryan arrived at the door with her new bicycle! She quickly forgot her sadness and was thrilled with her new bike.

She loves it, and it's so cute! It's a cruiser and it makes us all want to go for a long, leisurely ride on the beach. Olivia spent a good part of the day cruising around the neighborhood. I can't believe she's tall enough (and old enough) for a women's size bicycle. How the time flies!

Ryan stuck around to eat and watch her open her other gifts... she was especially excited to get the game "Enchanted Forest" from Grandma and Grandpa Harper. Ryan played the same game when he was younger and we know we'll have loads of fun with it.

Sophia loved all the gift wrap and decorations and treats. She seemed giddy all day long, like she knew it was a special day.

We ended the day with a small group of Liv's "besties" that came over for a barbecue, some games (including tetherball--where Ryan was schooled by her friend Brinley), Heavy Heavy Hangover with presents, giant cupcakes and ice cream, and lots and lots of laughs. There may or may not have been an incident with milk coming out of Olivia's nose.

We are so glad that Olivia is a part of our family. I feel blessed to be her mama and be a part of her life.

Love you sweet Liv!

It's A Beautiful Day!

2011-05-31T22:11:00.001-06:00

Last week Ryan and I went on a date--a real date--where we left our cute kids with my wonderful sister Erin and went somewhere all by ourselves for longer than 40 minutes.

Ryan used some of his long-time saved "play money" (that our kids think is like Monopoly Money, when it is actually our discretionary spending money that we each get in our budget) and bought tickets to see U2!!! In 2001 they came and Ryan wanted to go... Liv was a brand new baby and I wasn't going to leave her, so he went with his brother Tim. This time it was my turn to go with him (I think I waited long enough, no?)!

We sat behind the stage, but with the set-up we both thought we had great seats. They had video footage on the mammoth screen, the sound was great, and all of the band members (even Adam Clayton) came around and performed to us.

This I know:

I like going on dates with Ryan.
U2 makes great music.
Bono is a performer and an ego-maniac. (Ryan reminds me that if you earn money like he does, you are allowed to be full of yourself.... while I agree with this, it was almost comical to watch Bono perform for the camera.... I must be getting old.)
Even though it was the end of May, it was COLD.
Speaking of getting old, by 10 pm I was checking my watch (not because I was bored... just because I was tired... and worried about my kiddos).
We left a song or two early to beat the crowd and make the trek to our car, which I swear was parked 2 miles away. It was worth it.

We had such a great time... it was worth the 10 year wait!

Whenever I go to concerts I think about some of the others I have been to... and laugh a little with the changes in my musical interests... James Taylor, Sting, Harry Connick, Jr., Rush, and even Celine Dion and Michael Bolton (remember, Amy???). My dream concert? Simon and Garfunkel, baby. I don't think they tour together anymore.

**What are some of your memorable concerts?
**Who would you LOVE to see in concert?

Best Corn Ever

2011-05-21T14:10:00.000-06:00

We are thrilled to finally have spring-like weather... even though it keeps getting interrupted by periods of rain and gloom. Our favorite new recipe for corn comes from my favorite new recipe source, Our Best Bites. Find the full recipe for Elote--Mexican Style Corn on the Cob here.

First, you shuck the corn and remove all the stringiness you can...

Then, grill it so it's blackened and tasty...

And spread on the mayo/sour cream mixture that is flavored with fresh lime juice, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and kosher salt (I know, it sounds weird, but trust me, you'll be glad you did)...

Grate up some cotija cheese...

And spread it to cover the corn. This is especially delicious while it's piping hot. Make sure you clean your face and floss your teeth after, because it makes a delicious mess! It is SO worth the extra effort.

Soph-a-loaf loves corn... we leave off the sauce and cheese off of hers though :).

**Have you tried this type of corn before?
**If not, will you?

Monkey See, Monkey Do

2011-05-20T12:19:00.000-06:00

She's getting stuff figured out!

Look Who's Walking

2011-05-20T12:17:00.000-06:00

Spring Recital 2011

2011-05-17T11:31:00.000-06:00

It was time again for our Spring Piano Recital. Liv and Coleman's teachers are both our neighbors and friends, so they planned the recitals back to back.

We were excited that Grandma Jan and Grandpa Gee Gee could come....

...and happy that my mom could be there too!

All of the kids in Olivia's group played music from movies. She was assigned "Imperial March" from Star Wars. It was frequently used to work out her frustration and aggression :) and I can honestly say that I am relieved that the recital is past so that we won't have it in our home for 40 minutes each day. It is very true that music sets the tone!

She did a wonderful job though and worked really hard at adding feeling to her music.

Coleman doesn't love practicing, but he loves being able to play the piano and he has quite a knack for it.

I just love his teacher! She is so patient with him and has really helped him to progress.

He started out with "Super Sleuth" which was a fun spy song.

His second song was "Lauren's Lullyaby." We were impressed that he memorized both songs!

Way to go Olivia and Coleman! You both worked hard and performed well!

Funny Girl

2011-05-14T23:25:00.000-06:00

This cute little girl likes to take things out of their containers.

And put them back.

And take them out, one at a time.

And put them back.

And pour them all out at the same time.

And watch, while I put them back.

And take them out, by the fistful.

And rearrange them on the floor.

And then crawl away or do the Frankenstein/drunken walk and move on to another cupboard or drawer or basket of things, leaving messes in her wake.

She likes to pose for photos too.

Handcart Trek--Fourth Grade Edition

2011-05-14T23:19:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Olivia's fourth grade participated in the best activity of the year.

They dressed up as pioneers (Olivia chose her clothes and was convinced that this sweater was "in-style" back then... good thing we had the bonnet to make it a little more official, no?)...

...and got arranged into families...

...and pulled a handcart through the neighborhood. They crossed a stream en-route and stopped for lunch (beef-stew, which was reportedly not that tasty--but "it was food" so they ate it--and dutch oven desserts) and then participated in pioneer games and work-activities before trekking back to the school.

She even had to walk part of the way on crutches. All of the students (and parents) love this activity. So much time goes into preparing for it and it really paid off. Children learn by doing, and I love that Liv was able to learn more about our history and heritage by pulling a cart and playing the part for a day.

Frilled Lizard

2011-05-13T15:28:00.002-06:00

The second graders at our school do a report on animals... and Coleman chose to find out more about the Frilled Lizard. He worked hard on his report and poster and discovered all sorts of interesting facts (thank you Wikipedia!).

He's had a great teacher this year! She really gives him opportunities that challenge him and push him to learn more.

Give the kid a microphone... and away he goes. He may have a future in public speaking!

If you want to learn more about this reptile with a fancy frill, listen to Coleman in his own words (it's only 24 seconds long):

Spoiled Mother's Day Goodness

2011-05-09T20:46:00.001-06:00

Ryan and the kids never, ever disappoint when it comes to spoiling me on Mother's Day. I woke up to a yummy breakfast of chocolate chocolate chip pancakes with Buttermilk Caramel Syrup and a yummy fruit smoothie...

I was showered with gifts from the kids...

Liv made this darling plaque (It says "Some of my greatest blessings call me Mother") at Activity Days...

Sophia smiled and loved me all day long (and called me "Daddy" all day long too... but we don't need to focus on that since she calls everyone and everything "Daddy"... every once in awhile she says "Mama" too!).

Coleman made me this way cool puzzle of him holding flowers for me...

...and it was especially neat since it was double sided and he wrote me a sweet love note on the back...

...and he filled out a Bio sheet all about me...

He also made me the great bracelet I am wearing. I have some pretty talented kids!

In Primary Olivia and Coleman wrote sweet notes saying I was more precious than rubies...

...and Ryan formatted and printed a whole slew of blog pages for our blog book... Hooray! He also found the neatest Eye-Fi card for a new-to-me camera that uploads photos directly to my computer and/or phone... no cords, cables, or anything else required (if I can just remember to leave the camera ON long enough for the pictures to upload!). He is so great at picking out fun and useful gifts.

With our lunch we drank my new favorite beverage (that has enough sugar to fuel a rocket ship)... like all the recipes I am loving these days, it is from Our Best Bites. Try it. Your taste buds will love you. You will find any and every reason to make and drink Brazilian Lemonade.

I feel so blessed to be the mama to Olivia, Coleman, and Sophia. I feel blessed to have a partner like Ryan that helps me be the best mom I can be. I know that I am far from perfect. I know that I make more mistakes than I can count. I know that I will probably have to pay for therapy someday for all the ways I have ruined my kids. I also know that I love my children more than anything and hope and pray that they continue on the path they are on to becoming wonderful, kind, and thoughtful human beings. All of the things they did for me for Mother's Day were great, but the best gift of all is knowing the goodness that is within them and knowing that I get to be a part of their lives.

I am grateful for all of the women in my life that show me what it is to love unconditionally, to serve, to forgive, to teach, to lead, to be courageous, to be humble, to be confident, to be creative, to be thoughtful, to be generous, and to be good. For me Mother's Day is always a good reminder of the kind of person I am working to become.

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T15:34:00.000-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women who give of their time, talents, and energy to mother those around them.

Easter 2011

2011-05-01T22:50:00.001-06:00

We had a wonderful Easter, celebrating with...

...new ties for the boys...

...new skirts for the girls (thanks to Tina from Sewing Tink who made darling skirts and hair clippies for Soph and Liv)...

...a smily, wobbly Sophia, who is successfully taking several steps at a time before plopping down on her behind or falling over.... (She thought it was so wonderful to toddle and crawl around finding eggs filled with treats. She dutifully picked up each of her eggs and plopped it in her basket.)

...lots of hidden candy and treats...

...sugar cookies dipped in chocolate and toffee bits (recipe courtesy of Our Best Bites--I just got their cookbook from my dear friend and I have been baking and cooking my way through it... these cookies are a variation of their sugar cookie recipe--they were tasty--get the sugar cookie recipe here).

...and more sugar cookies with traditional cream cheese frosting. We had (have) sugar overload at our place. We are still working through the piles of candy....

But most of all, we felt grateful for the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He Lives! I loved this message and wanted to share it, even though Easter has passed.

Sunday Will Come

2011-04-21T15:45:00.002-06:00

This is one of my all-time favorite Easter messages. Sunday will come!

Called To Serve

2011-04-18T13:20:00.001-06:00

Olivia and Coleman played this duet in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. It was so fun to watch them play together! We have had weeks of practicing (usually peacefully) and rehearsing.

They love seeing their names in print.

Our sweet music director always gives a little treat to people that do musical numbers. Liv and Coleman were thrilled with the note and brownies she brought by.

80 Years Young

2011-04-17T22:10:00.000-06:00

This cute Grandma Cole of mine turned 80 years old today. She is such an amazing woman! We have a close relationship... I feel so blessed to be a part of her posterity. I love her toasted cheese sandwiches and home canned peaches. I love talking to her on the phone. I love going to lunch with her. I love getting cards in the mail with her clear, perfect handwriting. I love that she remembers the treats that my kids love and that she always seems to have a little something on hand for them (including entire boxes of candy canes for Coleman). I love that she says things how they are (just yesterday she told Ryan he must be some kind of special to put up with me!) and doesn't mince words. I love that she loves me and tells me so. I love that she is my grandma!

She wanted to spend the day with her family--her kids and grandkids and great-grandkids. She wanted to do a temple session together, so we started out the day with a session at the Jordan River Temple. It was great to be there with my aunts and cousins and a few of my siblings and my mom... above are Lindsey, me, my mom, David, and Katty...

,,,and Ryan of course! Then we went to a church for a really nice luncheon that my aunts prepared.

Four generations... me, Sophia, my dad, and my grandma.

Here are my grandma and grandpa with their four kids--Dianne, Michael, Stan, and Channa.

I didn't get any pictures of Erin at the park, so I made her pose with me at the luncheon :).

My favorite part of the luncheon was a tribute that my aunt Channa did for her... she told her life story and talked about the legacy of love, faith, and service she had given to each of us. She has spent her life loving her family and friends (and we all love her!), showing faith in Jesus Christ, and serving all around her. My aunt Dianne made these cute stacking blocks for all of us.

I am so grateful for my wonderful, amazing, beautiful, talented, generous, and loving Grandma Cole.

Instead of learning to walk...

2011-04-17T15:23:00.001-06:00

... I think I'll just use the scooter to get around!

Spring Break Day 5

2011-04-17T15:22:00.000-06:00

On our last day of spring break we had a family picnic at Creekside Park!

My mom came for a bit and helped set up and cook. She is great!

Megan, Jaxton and Lindsey

Ryan was our grill guy... making sure the raw hamburger juices didn't get on the hot dogs. We ate completos. Yummy!

Sophia and my dad who was in town for my grandma's 80th birthday celebration (more to come on that later!).

This plaque is hanging up in the pavilion... Breneman Barr Bitner is one of my ancestors (great, great grandfather?) and his family donated or sold the land to the city where the park is now. Pretty cool!

The kids loved this round thing.... I'm not even sure what to call it.

Jonah and Brady had so much fun together!

The kids kept asking us to push them... my dad gave it a go several times (it was tiring work!).

Sophia LOVED the slides. She has found a new favorite thing to do!

We played a rousing game of kick-ball... David (with Katty and David Joseph) wanted to play dodgeball... but we stuck with kick-ball. It was very fun!

David had flip flops so he tried playing barefoot... the ball left an impression in his foot where he kicked it!

We didn't go out of town for spring break... and we didn't have perfect weather all week, but we managed to do some fun things during the week, especially with my dad and Lindsey visiting... now to get back on schedule and back in school!

Spring Break Day 4

2011-04-15T15:11:00.000-06:00

We spent day four of spring break doing a few fun things...

We saw this cute movie at the dollar theater....

...or rather, Olivia and Coleman and their aunts and grandpa and cousins watched the movie while Sophia and I roamed halls and played on mountains of booster seats.

She figured out that she really likes to sit in "big girl seats" all by herself. And she really doesn't like to be quiet or still in movie theaters, no matter how many snacks you try to give her.

We went and saw Tayden's baseball game. He did great, but it was COLD!

We had a fun pizza dinner and finally called it a day.

Spring Break Day 3

2011-04-14T13:33:00.000-06:00

Day three of spring break took us to a park near our home with my sister Lindsey and her kiddos who are here visiting.

Soph loved sliding with Liv...

...and all of the kids loved to race on this three-slide thingy... Jonah and Coleman took a turn.

Jaxton is such a cutie!

Liv and Linds tried to use the zip-line, but it kept getting stuck.

We blew bubbles and ate cookies and narrowly escaped the rain and wind.

(Said wind blew lots of shingles off of our house and uprooted a big tree in our neighbor's yard while we were inside eating hawaiian haystacks... the kids all agreed that it was the most exciting event of the day.)