Husband

Well after my last post I was able to sit down (lock myself in the bathroom to be precise) and unload via email to my dear husband. And he did a wonderful job "listening" and went on to share some things he had also been thinking about. And there was one part that stuck out to me that I thought a lot of other moms/wives who read my blog could relate to. So I decided to share...hope that's ok babe. I mean, I am giving you credit for this wisdom, right?

"Remember, because we learn best by analogies and stories, and our day to day

lives generally revolve around running a household, the prophets tell us to
make our house a refuge from the world. Running a household is our life.
Life is work. Most days, it's HARD work and we get to the end of the day
exhausted. Even if we had nowhere to go, just keeping the house in order is
a full time job (just ask Omi...). Well, I thought there is a spiritual
lesson here to be learned. "

Omi is Jason's never resting always cleaning something or feeding someone Grandmother who we named Lydia after, so to say we adore her is quite accurate. And yes, I am having a much better week, so far...knock on wood! The biggest difference is in Noah's moods. He has been very joyful and easier to talk to and get interaction from this week than he had been before. And for those of you who have met mini Jason then you know how rough life is when Noah is cranky. We start piano lessons with a Sister in the neighboring ward tomorrow. For both Elina and Noah a half hour each, so I am excited and so are they! We'll let you know how that goes!

Sundays

I am absolutely baffled at how quickly my children came home from church today, inhaled some rice pudding, and passed out! And the worst part is how I am actually frustrated and complaining to you all that all three of my children are asleep. And at the same time, that is no small feat. But when you go to church from 11-2 and start your after church nap at 3, well you do the math. We are going to be up until 10 at least. Oh how we miss you 8am church!

So I got a lot of "How are you doings?" and "Man, I can't imagine coming to church with three kids while my husband is deployed" after sacrament today. I didn't think we were that bad. I only had to leave with Noah twice, one timeout with his nose on the wall in the hallway, 3 string cheeses, 2 color wonder books, one flying puzzle piece and we didn't even scare off the nice Young Women who was probably bribed by her parents to come sit with us. So when I get the sympathy check ins from all the ladies afterwards, all I could do was laugh. No answer, not even a "keeping up appearances" answer, just a laugh. I guess I didn't have anything nice to say so "just say nothing at all"!

Someday they will be big enough to sit by themselves. And someday I will be able to hold Jason's hand and actually hear what they are saying during the talks. And someday I will only carry my scripture bag to church. And someday I won't have to leave from teaching my primary lesson to change a poopie diaper. But that day is NOT TODAY! :)

Renaissance Festival

On Saturday we went to one of our family's most favorite place to be. The Colorado Renaissance Festival! To my children, this is the equivalent of Disneyland!

Noah and Elina with Twig the fairy.

Lydia and her beautiful French Braided hair with flowers woven into it. Yes, she pulled it out as soon as her Mummi would let her!

Elina and Noah getting their face/arm painted by the same lady we have been going to for 4 years!

Mummi the Fairy Queen!

Lydia CRASHED after a chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick!

Noah and two knights after the joust show. And then below you will see Poppi bandaging the good knights wounds. Yes, Poppi and Noah wore matching outfits, courtesy of Mummi's sewing talents. She also made her own purple dress!

Elina and Noah were both heavy enough this year to do the jumping ropes. And they had so much fun! Elina was even doing backflips and frontflips like a pro! Noah was a little more reserved, but still had a blast going "really, really high!"

Last video is of Noah in the Washing Well Wenches show! They pick people from the audience to participate and when Noah saw allthe guys raising their hand he jumped right up on the bench and followed suit. ADORABLE!

cache valley cheese factory

On your way from Cedar City to St. George is a little town called Beaver UT. And in Beaver you will find the Cache Valley Cheese Factory. All my life I can remember stopping there with my grandma and grandpa Burnside to get a special treat we called "squeaky cheese". It is really just the fresh cheese curd from the big cheddar batches they process there, but when you chew it it makes little "squeaks". What a treat it was from me to be able to share this with my children as we drove to my grandma's house this summer!

LG ALLY

WOOOOO HOOOOO! I just got a new phone, if you can't tell from the title of this post. And it is amazing! I can already tell how convient it is going to be in my busy life like directions and online banking. But the best thing I am looking foward to is a free app called skypemobile. I can call jason in iraq anytime from my phone as long as we are logged into skype! Oh my goodness! I'm so spoiled!

Elina's PreK Graduation

Noah's End of year Preschool Performance

Skateboarding

A lot of the "big kids" on our street have real skateboards. And my "little kids" were a bit envious. Until their Mummi found mini skateboards at the PX and included them in their easter basket bundle. So the other day I sat at the bottom of our drive way and took some pics and a video shot so that Mummi could see what delight she gave them!

Taking the trash out...

I had lots of help taking the trash can out to the curb this evening. Well...Ellie was pushing. I think Noah was surfing!

TP Mess

This morning while putting in my hot rollers for church Elina comes into the bathroom and informs me "You've GOT to come see this!"

So I followed the trail...

And followed...

And followed...

And found a geniunely happy little boy who exclaimed "Look at the mess I made for you, Momma!"

What could I say? I think it's worth one roll of toilet paper.

Bedtime

Its Sunday night and after a long day at stake conference my kiddos were jammied and put to bed about 2 hours ago. And I watched some Amazing Race and doodled around on the internet for a while. Then I got up to go get some mommy love aka double lemon supreme pie from the schwanns man!

And found my girls in bed like this:
and can't forget my Noah:

Ahhh, life as a mommy is good! Goodnight everyone!

Cinnamon Rolls

Yesterday evening we went to grab a few groceries at Walmart. Elina was being such a good helper by taking bags of frozen things into the basement and putting them in the freezer. But I was a little worried that she might forget a bag or forget to close the freezer lid, so I went down just before bath time and checked. Everything looked good...til this morning. I found a bag of Rhodes rolls (72 count!) that I forgot to put in the freezer!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! That bag apparently had an amazing seal, because it was very full of air and yeast! And I couldn't very well through away a $7 bag of dough. So what you ask is a woman to do...make cinnamon rolls!
This is the picture right before I started cutting them up to bake. Mind you by this time my kids are FREAKING out! They haven't had breakfast, gone potty, or gotten dressed. None of our morning routine because I was so focused on getting this dough baked and not wasted.
Unfortunately things were way to hectic to take a picture of the finished product. But my neighbors can attest to how delicious they were. I choose to give all but the ones we ate for breakfast away, because the more you eat the less I do! And let my tell you, in all of my 25 years of baking I have never made such yummy cinnamon rolls. We got 2 dozen very large, very gooey amazing cinnamon rolls. And topped it off with cream cheese frosting of course. I just might have to leave out a bag of frozen rhodes rolls every time I feel in the mood for cinnamon rolls from now on.

Garden of the Gods

Sunday afternoon we packed a picnic dinner and headed up to the Garden of the Gods State Park here in the Springs. Keira put it very well on her facebook "Garden of the Gods is a natural red rock formation in Colorado, and you can walk around and some people rock climb, but its just really peaceful and beautiful :)" I grew up camping at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas, so taking my kids here is very special to me.





In this picture Noah is adamant that he is ok to go by himself. Luckily Keira was insistent that he needed help! Because there was about a 4 ft. drop off the other side.







I love this pic of Elina! Like I SOOOO see it going in her wedding slideshow some day!







Awesome way for the kiddos to get all their wiggles out. They slept so good that night, and went to bed very easy!



These pictures are of "kissing rock" formation. And the last shot is Elina appearing very embarrassed when we told her to imagine she was kissing Troy Bolton for the picture!