Spring! Boating! Warm weather!

Yay! I don't know if it's the pregnant thing or what but I have the worst spring fever EVER! I am so excited about the warmer weather...I am pretending the bad weather last week did NOT happen!

The kids with Jordynn at the zoo! It was so warm! YAY! Hanna is really not evil!

Yes, we took out the boat last week. We had to see if everything was running okay and we just decided to tag along for the ride! Notice the sweatshirts...it was pretty cold when you got going 40 mph! But I had to post a picture of Hanna here. I couldn't resist posting a picture or that wedgie she had. We were laughing so hard. It's a good thing kids don't notice those things when you're swimming or boating, I would hate that!

The Wedgie! haha

A Way too big Deal!

Okay, I am posting this because of Jon's constant persuading. I participated in the NATS competition this year. Which, for those of you who don't know, it is a competition of vocal students from around the state who compete in seperate divisions, singing 3 classical songs for judges. ( the short version of what NATS is). I did this in march and took first place in my division. I thought...Cool, I'm glad that's over! Uh...not really! I did not know there was a winners performance in April. So last Friday I performed at the Assembly Hall at temple square singing an English Art song (thinking that by the time I sang, everyone would be sick of hearing Italian or German) and it was a good experience! Jon was very cute about the whole thing. I was trying very hard to not make this a big deal AT ALL, but he did not make it very easy by surprising me with 2 dozen roses at the end. That jerk!! haha! My family came to see me and that was fun, they haven't seen me sing since college. We all went out to dinner at the Garden restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was a blast! Here are a few pics of that!

Every one who came to see me! Joan and Ted were there, Jon's parents but they had to run. Thank you to all who came!

What a cutie he is!

Okay this was my prego self standing up there on stage. You can't see me very well but can I just tell you how much turmoil I went through trying to find a "formal" something to wear to this thing being 6 months pregnant. AHHH I barely have things to wear to church!

Oh! I almost forgot!!!! We got to see WICKED last night! It was AMAZING! I had very high expectations having learned a ton of the music for my students and hearing Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith as the original cast doing most of the songs! I was not dissappointed at all!!!!! I loved it and we even had the understudy play Elphaba! It was so good! Thank you Jon for the best Valentines Day gift EVER!

A fun work getaway!!!

We tagged along with Jon this last weekend to his work trip in Moab and Grand Junction Colorado! With Jon's job there are a lot of Perks and a lot of long weeks with him gone and me as a single mom. When he does go out of town, me and the kids usually ending planning a lot to take up the time and eating out a bunch at way too kid friendly restaurants with play places! Well this time...I said, "We're coming!" No Jon loves for us to come and he was actually just given this new territory up to just west of Vail, Colorado! It's crazy, we used to live there and Jon's sister lives there so we will be able to visit often!
This trip we spent a night in Moab then on to a night in Grand Junction then stayed with MaryAnn & Jeff and the kids in Eagle Colorado on Friday night. I have to post some pictures of the resort we stayed in in Moab, it was absolutely gorgeous! Right next to the river and a very nice kitchen, which is a must when having kids with you! I wish I would have taken more pictures but it was harder than I thought to chase those kids around in different cities without my husband there to help me.

This was the view from the front of the hotel room in Moab! The mountains were so amazing. If it wasn't for the wind...which was I guess the worst wind storm they'd had in 10 years... it would have been perfect!


Jon had to drop us off to play for a few hours while he had some meetings. We were supposed to hit the movie theatres to see monsters vs. Aliens, but they had no afternoon showings during the week...lame! So...we went exploring. Yeah, not so much fun when 6 months pregnant! We went down into this cool little forest area and and Hunter was our "leader!" He kept looking back at me and saying, "come on mam!" After that we were all so exhausted we had to sit down to rest for a while. This is where this picture is taken!

"Yay! We're finally here mom!"

We just got these new headphones for the kids (by the way, I will never go back to not using DVD players...they are the best invention EVER!) And they are not in kids sizes. They fit Hunter okay but Hanna's kept falling so if you look close, we shoved newspaper under it to fit. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do right?

When we got to Grand Junction, we went swimming then walked to the nearest place to get lunch! By the time we got back we all had to use the potty and were worn out! I went to the bathroom and came out to find this...Do ya think Hunter's watching daddy too much?! What funny kids!

We loved visiting MaryAnn and Jeff and the kids. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal after eating out so much and MaryAnn is quite the Chef! We especially loved the cookies and

ice cream! Yum! Next time we'll definitely have to do the wings!

It HAS been a while!!!

Over the Easter Holiday so much happens and so many pictures are taken and I have been the biggest slacker in the world! Here are a few of the things that we've been doing this past MONTH!

We soaked up the few good days we had with Spring weather! It was so nice. We went to Wheeler Farm with our good friends Bryson, Megan & Christy! I think the hardest part about this move has been taking the kids away from their friends. We took for granted how close everyone was while we were there and how we could just run over and play. They are missing them like crazy! Soooo we are so glad to be able to go out and do things with them every week!

Crazy Kids!

We get to go on this wagon ride! The kids love it! It'd definitely the highlight of the day!

What a monkey!

I think Hanna is braver than Hunter...by FAR!!!

Feeding the ducks!

The ward we've been going to has play groups on Wednesdays and they invited us last week to their Easter Egg hunt! Noone was over 3 so Hanna had fun and Hunter tried to help...(a little too much)... the little ones with their hunts!

Coloring Easter Eggs!!! It's fun being so close to grandma & grandpa & Shelby, because they love to do all of our crazy family nights with us...at least they say they do!

The Easter Egg hunt at Grandma Formans house!

Hanna's favorite part is of course the cupcakes!

Easter morning! The kids actually picked out a basket for my mom and dad and hid it for them. They loved that but I don't think anything beats finding candy hidden around the house!

We're still alive!

It has been a long terrible week:( of sickies, coughing and house hunting...but we are STILL ALIVE! No it wasn't really that bad, well the sick part has been pretty nasty, Jon luckily hasn't gotten it but the rest of us sound horrible right now! The house hunting part is going great though. It's frustrating at times but really exciting! We have put in an offer on a house we really like but are still looking in the mean time, the market is very competetive. We went to look at this house and 7 other showings happened in the same day...AHHH! Maybe we should have waited to sell our house...jk Jon! (if you're reading this)

Well we are staying at my parents house until we find a home. It's really nice, they have a kitchen downstairs so we are not in their way too much.
It was really hard to say goodbye to our home. I did not think it would be that tough, I was really excited, but to see it empty like that and to have so many friends come by at the last minute for our birthdays, it got very emotional for me. Maybe it was a little of the hormome thing happening but it was hard anyway. I took some pictures of before the move and after, more for my use than yours but here they are anyway. I think the thing that made it so hard was all the hard work we put into the home. We bought it almost 4 years ago after it had been vacant for a couple years and was selling as a HUD home. Great deal but needed A LOT of work. Every room in the house was changed by us. I hope the new couple loves it as much as we did. Okay Okay, enough about the old house...on to bigger and better things right?!


This was during packing week so all the plants are gone. But it still looked like our home!

Wow! That's even weird to look at now.

Well as for other things going on in our life...

The kids really look forward to St. Patricks Day because of the pot of gold the leprechauns leave behind for them! We did fun puzzle this year that ended out in an arrow pointing to where the treasure was hidden. They found it quick and all the gold coins have already been eaten!

Happy belated St. Patricks Day!

The first clue was hidden right on the T.V....had to make it obvious!

One was hiding under the swings!

They finally found it behind a tree! Yummy! Mommy ate way too much of it!

Oh and our ward had a killer Pinewood derby "anything goes" party before we left. I would post pictures but my computer is being dumb so I'll just tell you that Jon took the cake on all of the cars! His aerodynamic version of attaching a rubber band to the car and pulling it down the track...kicked everyone's butt! Oh and his car with a huge brick on top, didn't do too bad in the demolition derby either!

Any ideas???

Well this is it! MOVING WEEK!
We are supposed to close on the house next week and plan on moving out next Saturday! So...packing has been our main activity around here and the kids are LOVING IT!!! yeah right.

If any of you have any great ideas on how to keep my little guys from killing eachother this week...let me know! They are pretty good most of the time but I guess I usually arrange the activity for them to do. Yeah, take that away and they are at a loss in the world for what to do. You'd think toys had no meaning in the world, they want to help and sometime they can but, well you probably all know that you kind of get more done when they are preoccupied! Actually my friends have been amazing this past week and I appreciate them so much. So I think I'm on my own this week...Any ideas for fun things to do for them?? I will be waiting!

One brownie please...or two or three!

Okay so I know I'm pregnant and I shouldn't try to lose weight or anything right now but just MAINTAINING is a good thing for me at this point! So....I have been trying to eat healthy now that I can keep the healthy food down and swallow before gagging! Anyway, I found this amazing recipe for brownies that I just love. Some of you may not be the "box brownie" type but I totally am into convenience these days and if you can find it healthy & convenient...Double plus! It sounds weird but it's amazing!

This is what you do:

1 box brownie mix

1 can black beans

...that's all!

Drain the black beans and rinse. Then fill water to top of can with black beans still in can. Puree the beans and add to brownie mix. Stir with spoon as directed on box and cook as directed on box! Oh they are so yummy and not "healthy" tasting at all! Great serving of Fiber and protein also! Never thought you could have protein & Fiber in such a yummy treat huh? Let me know how the experimenting goes!!!

14 days of Valentines!

I'm sure some of you have done this or heard of this but I did it this year and it was so fun!

You start on February 1st... 1st day of Valentines, and each day from then until Valentines day, you do or give something to your special someone! I did a bunch of research of different people's ideas and created my own. It's pretty cheesy but the 2 weeks prior to Valentines for us, Jon was traveling a bunch so it was fun to send him with little presents!

I thought I might list a few of them for people if they want to use the idea next year! Sorry I didn't post it earlier but he checks the blog all the time while he's out of town to see pics of the kids and stuff so I didn't want to risk him seeing it.

Day 1: A singing Valentine card that welcomed him to the 14 days of valentines! ( I hung it on a fuzzy heart on the front door as he came home!)

Day 2: An invitation for lunch-for-2!! I got a babysitter and all!

Day 3: A gift card for 2 movie tickets and a candy! (3 things it could buy)

Day 4: 4 wallet sized pictures with him and me and the kids! Just fun ones of us playing together

Day 5: 5 kinds of fudge! (gardner village has the buy 4 get one free!)

Day 6: "You are my sweetie PIE" I cut his favorite kind of pie into 6 pieces!

Day 7: Rose petals!...can't tell you the rest!

Day 8: You are "eggsactly" what I want! I cooked breakfast for him with 8 things of his plate. (2 eggs, 2 peices of toast, 2 peices of sausage hashbrowns and O.J.)

Day 9: An invitation for a movie at 9:00...our house! With a box of Crunch-n-Munch and 2 Rootbeers!

Day 10: 10 things I love about you on a cute thing. You can frame it if you'd like!

Day 11: A picture of our wedding day and how I felt that day!

Day 12: A Papa Murpheys pizza in a heart shape! (this was a last minute one! it was supposed to be 12 love notes...I got lazy!)

Day 13: 13 different ways to say "I love you." I posted them in different languages all over his truck. I also added the cute cheesy windo stickers you buy at the dollar store! He still hasn't taken them down!

Day 14: I was in charge of dinner! I made his favorite and prepared a 5 course meal! We put the kids to bed early and ate dinner at 7:00! It was so fun and romantic.

Anyway, I know it's a lot of planning but the nice thing about it is that you can do it on any budget! I got a bunch of stuff at the dollar store and went from there! Here's a picture of the table on Valentines, it was fun to have something new and different! Hopefully if you ever want to do this for your hubby, you can search it and get some good ideas!

This is the gift Jon gave to me!!! Way too much but I am so excited! I have wanted to see Wicked so bad and now I get to go! YAY!