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!

Mommy, We're on a Train!

I Heart My Ward

For Mother's Day weekend I organized a Book Club overnight retreat in Park City. It was a blast! I loved my ward friends before the retreat, but I love them even more now. It reminded me of going to girls camp-lots of fun, fun, fun. You'll have to visit my book club blog to find out more about it: Eastridge Neighborhood Book Club.

I Heart Kiara & Kate

Dear Kiara & Kate,

Sometimes you give Mom a headache and she feels real tired, but she can't help but love you! 

Love,

Mom

Eastridge Neighborhood Preschool Co-op

One of the highlights of the year has been Kiara's little co-op preschool. There are 6 moms and 6 children that participate. Once a week we took turns hosting preschool at our house, each Friday for 1 1/2 hours. We kept it very simple, but it was mostly to give the little ones a chance to socialize, learn how to share, etc. 

I was in charge of preschool at my house the Friday before Mother's Day, so I had each child hold up a sign that said, "Mother, I love you" and then decorated frames and printed the photos out on my printer, wrapped up the gifts so the kids had something to give their mommies.

Grace

Kona

Austin

Lizzie

Eli

La Jolla (La Hoya)

I left out our favorite part of the trip (at least for me)-La Jolla Cove. We fortunately asked a local at one of the beaches what his favorite beach was and he told us that La Jolla Cove was beautiful, and it really is! We found a quaint little restaurant to eat at and then walked around the board walk after dinner. La Jolla is also where the temple is.

San Diego

Kiara held her doll tight on her first plane ride (that she can remember). Dereck had a break from school, so we decided to take advantage of it by going to San Diego. We had a fun, exhausting/relaxing, memorable, wonderful week! 

We spent time at the beaches and parks as well as at the very touristy attractions

(San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and Sea World).

We stayed at "Paradise Point" on Mission Bay. The girls loved the little patio where they fed many a duck. An occasional wild cat came by and even a skunk!

There were many opportunities to put our heads in cutouts and take photos:

The girls enjoyed morning walks and swimming. We really didn't need to go anywhere to have a good time, but they did love the San Diego Zoo especially. 

There were lots of babies at the zoo in April: monkeys, gorillas, panda, lions. It was fun to watch this baby monkey cling to its mother while she swung around the cage.

Do you wonder what this gorilla is thinking?
It was fun to feed these colorful birdies called lorakeets.