Draper Days Continued

The fun continued from the Children's Parade to the carnival at Draper Park. Kiara actually rode her first pony and loved it! She keeps talking about "Rocky". Hopefully she'll keep it up when we go to Canada!

Kate and Kiara both rode the traditional train (barrels pulled by a riding lawnmower).

Later that night we went to the Draper Rodeo and even stayed until the fireworks this time! Thanks to the Lowder's for joining us! I think the girls liked the snow cones more than anything. Kate didn't want to use her straw.

Draper Days

Last night we went to the Draper Children's Parade. I've never seen so many children in one place---not even at a Herriman Ward Primary. It was a lot of fun to dodge the toddlers on bikes and to make our wagon resemble the American flag. 

The kids paraded behind a Police tank to the Draper Historic Park where there was a magician show and popsicles (that they ran out of right before our turn). I think the girls had a lot of fun.

The Pony Chronicles

A neighbor generously donated a grocery sack full of My Little Ponies to Kiara and ever since, they have been found in unusual places all over the house. I started to take photos of all the different places the ponies have been and I always asked Kiara what they were doing.

Kiara & Her Ponies

"Mommy, a rainbow!"

Desk Invasion

"They're pushing."
"It's a gate."

Watching Kate Eat
Contemplating What the Ponies Will Do Next

Cool Kid

I have loved watching Kate develop her little personality. She knows how to get what she wants, but she is also so giving. When Sister is crying over a lost toy, Kate will try to find it for her, and she is almost always willing to do a trade. 

She is not just happy in the morning, she is ecstatic. When I go to get her in the morning (she sleeps from about 8pm-8am) she is jumping and laughing and so happy! She loves to make people smile and is always making friends. The other day at the park Dereck and I lost sight of her, but we quickly found her sitting up at another family's picnic table ready to be served pizza. 

She has her moments, like most 2 year olds, but she is still so lovable. I love you, Katie Bug!

Jackson

What is it about the Jackson reunion that I miss so much when I come home? For me it is a bit of "heaven on earth". It is cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters, father, and grand-
father. It is cool, dark nights and walks in the morning just to get the newspaper. It is a time to make important decisions---like what hike to go on, what game to play, what movie to watch, and what type of junk food to eat (Cheetos or Doritos?). It is enjoying God's creations. It is teasing, laughing, and loving. It is a time to appreciate my blessings.

I'm Sorry, Mom!

Now that Kiara is in swim lessons, I am getting payback for all of my stubborn and uncooperative actions when I was in swim lessons as a kid. I was THE worst student in history. If my face ever got a drop of water on it, I struggled with my eyes closed to the side of the pool where my dry washcloth was waiting to wipe off my face.

Kiara refused to get her face wet each day of swim lessons, so I gave the teacher permission to put her face in the water for her. She seemed to be fine until two days later when I went to put her swim suit on, she ran away from me and said she would not go to swim lessons because she would "die". So we were back to square one. I promised Kiara that I would tell her teacher that she did not have to get her face wet. Any ideas, anyone?

My Little Girl Has Graduated...From Her Very First Year of Preschool

I wrote in an earlier post about our neighborhood co-op preschool. What a great way to do preschool for 2 and 3 year olds! I organized a little graduation party/family barbecue at Hidden Valley Park (near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon) for the little ones. 

Kiara, Grace, & Lizzie

Eli, Austin, Kiara, Grace, & Lizzie (we are missing Kona!)

Misc.

Kiara's Big Day

"Carebear Countdown"

Spring Recital, May 28, 2008

Cutest Baby Mason at Lezli & Kate's Birthday Party

Happy 2nd Birthday, My Katie Bug!

Dog & Duck After Bathtime

Books

Kiara has a thing about lining up things:

A rare moment-Kiara and Kate getting along and Kiara "reading" to Kate:

NYC, Part II

This is Dereck and I conversing atop the Rockefeller Center. Okay-it's really some models having a photo shoot. 

Here we are on top of the Rockefeller Center, which I thought was way cooler than being on top of the Empire State Building. There are really great views of Central Park.

New York City is one of America's oldest cities, and I liked seeing the old mixed in with the new.
Does this scene look familiar to you? Like on Enchanted when the prince jumps off the bridge at Central Park right into an oncoming bike race?
Sunday morning we set out for church. I was too busy looking at my map to realize we were walking right under the temple. Church is held in the bottom floor of the temple building, but when we got there, we found a note that church had been moved to a different location due to renovation of the building.
Dereck and I in front of the temple. These are the kinds of photos you get when it's just the two of you:
My handsome Dereck at Grand Central Station:

The City That Never Uses the Bathroom (we couldn't find one)

Dereck "surprised" me for my 30th birthday and took me to NYC! What a man! I hate surprises so I squeezed it out of him before we went. We had a wonderful time! We stayed with Dereck's friend, Steve L., a couple of nights and took the train into Manhattan. The last night we stayed across the street from the Rockefeller Center, which was way cool.

We packed as much as we could into 2 1/2 days. We took the subway and walked everywhere, which is pretty easy as the island is not very wide. We really wanted to take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, but the line was a couple of hours long and we didn't want to waste minutes, so here we are at Battery Park where we could gaze across to the Statue. Can you see it?

We made the mistake of going to the Ground Zero Memorial Museum in the morning, which left me crying all day. There were two large walls lined with photos of people who had died.
But the thing that really got me was this photo of a police officer and right next to it a photo of him with his kids.
Here's a photo of Dereck reading a list of all whom died:

Firetruck at Ground Zero Station:

Dereck had to see the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street:

Sisters

At Grandpa's pool on Saturday Alicia (Nonny) was wanting me to do all sorts of stupid human tricks (swim like a torpedo, let me swing you like a discus, etc.) but she said I was a stupid human. (I know you love me, Nonny!) Another thing Alicia likes to do is assign me a face to make. Here are some of our silliest faces. In one we are being woodpeckers and in the other she said to look like Hilary Clinton (you'll have to guess which is which). 

And can I just say it was so so fun to have Jessie here for Mother's Day weekend? It was way too short as always but it was so great to be with her (and to not be the only one subjected to Alicia's commands to do stupid things).

Why We Blog

Blogging seems to be the thing to do these days. I started my blog right after Kate was born (about 2 years ago). I felt a need to share my life with my sister who lives in California and I wanted to know more about her life. So I first started a blog called Three Sisters so Jessie, Alicia, and I could keep in touch. It turned out that Jessie never got on the internet or checked her email, but I continued to blog because it gave me an outlet and a way to chronicle my family's life. 

Life as a stay at home mother is very private. I can't hardly tell Dereck what I did all day because it can all seem very meaningless (I washed three loads of sheets and made beds, I scraped blueberry yogurt off of the kitchen curtains, etc.). But when I sit down to write, it doesn't seem so meaningless. I read an intriguing article in Wonder Times by Catherine Newman called "Confessions of a Mommy Blogger". I liked how she put it into words:

"You are not alone. If there's a single fact to take from the 70 million blogs that inhabit the Internet, it's this: Whoever you are — however thrilled or frantic, bored or despairing, buoyant or afflicted with love like an aching in your bones — someone out there understands. Especially if you're a mother. Someone out there is still awake with a restless toddler. Someone out there has swigged the last of the cooking sherry [or eaten the last of the chocolate chips], or dotted a nursing newborn with Doritos fallout. And someone is writing about it." You can read the whole article here. 

Baked Beans

These baked beans are my favorite for taking to summer barbies (as they call them in Danny Deckchair) in a crock pot. Yum!

Cook together:
1 lb. bacon, cut up
1 lb. ground beef
1-2 onions, chopped

Put above ingredients in a baking dish or a crock pot and add:
2 cans drained kidney beans
2 cans pork and beans (not drained)
2 cans butter beans (not drained)
1 c. sugar
¼ c. + 2 Tbls. Molasses
½ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
½ c. ketchup

Bake in 350 oven for ½ an hour or in a crock pot for 2-4 hours (I prefer the crock pot method).

Happy Mother's Day!

After descending from my Park City book club retreat, we had a great Mother's Day get together at Alicia & Luis's house. They know how to host a great party. I was in charge of the cake and Costco did a great job making it!