St. George Trip - part 1

At the beginning of May, I took a trip with the kids to St. George so I could attend the graduation of my younger sister, Ruthanne, and her husband, Austin. The following weekend was the baby blessing for my nephew, Preston, who is Nick and Summer's baby boy. To save on gas money and so I could play with friends, I decided to spend the week in St. George sandwiched in between the two weekends. It was a blast, as always, and I wanted to share some of our adventures!

This is my darling sister, Ruthanne, the one who recently invaded my blog and left a post ;) She and Austin both received their bachelor's degrees from Dixie State College. They even walked through the "D" together! It was so sweet. This is the WELCOME sign my older sister, Margaret, and I gave her for her classroom. She was in the Elementary Education program just like I was, and I kept thinking back to three years ago when I graduated. It's an exciting accomplishment! I was so proud of her that night.

I met up with my sweet friends, Jodi Atkinson and Jaime Monk, at the new Hidden Valley Park in Bloomington Hills. It's the coolest park with these enormous umbrella-like coverings that shade all of the playground equipment and benches. In the hot summer days of St. George, you need shade like that. It has a great splash pad, too. Even the playground equipment is more unique than at other parks, however, somehow it was the drinking fountain that provided the most fun for these three rambuncious kids! :)

Here is Jaime's little Emalee, my Emily, and Jodi's little man Tate. They were so silly together! It was fun to watch them play.

Jonathan was having a blast, climbing and crawling everywhere. I swear he is way more fearless than Emily ever was. He really keeps me on my toes!

Jodi, Jaime, and I were having such a great time catching up with each other and talking that we decided we should have lunch together as well. Where else? Cafe' Rio of course! On the way there, Emily and Jonathan were adorable in the back seat playing peek-a-boo with each other, blowing rasberries, and making other silly noises with their mouths. At a red light, I turned around a snapped a quick picture. They can be so crazy sometimes. I love it!

Later that day, I drove out to Washington to spend time with two of my best friends, Kristal and Brandi. We met at Brandi's so she could give us a tour of her cute new house;) Then we walked down the street to play at her neighborhood park. It also had a splash pad, so I stripped the kids down and let them go at it. We were having so much fun that I was distracted and didn't take many pictures, but here's one of Jon crawling like a wild animal :) Funny, huh? And the other is of Jon and Sophie spalshin' away. Too cute!

Later in the week, I went to say hello to Jocey Anderson Hobson, who lived next door to me all my life. She was my best friend as a kid, making forts in the lava rocks, playing "kick the can", dressing up and putting on shows, and of course swimming and running through the sprinklers all summer long. When I was Emily's age, I had long hair and lots of it, just like she does. So you can see why my mom freaked out when Jocey cut one whole side of my hair off. (You know what that's like, right Rach?) A little while later, sporting my new short hairdoo, I was playing in a box, and Jocey was pushing me around in it. It would have been funny to get a picture of Jocey's little girl, Andee, pushing Emily around in a box. I didn't do it, but I did get some fun shots of them playing together and hugging each other to say good-bye.

My sweet Grandma Lang just makes me smile. She spoils my kids with hugs and kisses whenever she gets a chance! :)

The Sonju's are such an amazing family. I feel very blessed that I had the opportunity to nanny for them. Although Macey and Madi have Down Sydrome, it doesn't stop them from developing their talents and abilities. And they have more friends than anyone I know! Here I am with Madi, my little buddy, who's not really little anymore. Can you believe she's already a teenager, Caralee and Janese?



Emily really enjoyed playing in the playhouse with Madi, while Jon was inside just being silly with Macey. He's learning how to make scary faces, can you tell? :)

How can you not smile when you see these happy faces?!

Ruthanne Invades Blog :)

Hello Wade & Catherine's Family & Friends!
Catherine left her blog open so I've been reading everyone's blogs! It's fun to read about other people's lives!! Especially people I know. By the way, this is Catherine's little sister Ruthanne. I'm currently living at her house for the next 5 weeks with my husband. It's been a little crazy. Austin, my husband, got accepted to the University of Utah and had to start taking classes immediately. I didn't want to have to live in St. George while he was up here so I talked to my nice sister and convinced her it would be fun to let me live with her. :) We just found an apartment, but it's not available until June 25th. Anywho...let me update you on my life. haha Austin and I have both graduated with our bachelors a couple of weeks ago. Austin will attend the University of Utah while he gets his Masters in Finance. He will also work part time doing accounting work for a company. I am going to be a 2nd grade teacher this August. I'm really excited! I'm also kind of nervous!
Also, Julie- you are way too funny! I was laughing out loud reading your blog! I'm thinking that maybe I'll start a blog, but there's just one little problem. Everyone posts pictures of their kids and talk about how cute they are. Austin and I don't have any kids!! Oh well. Peace out! Keep up the blogging!

Marathon & Discovery Gateway

My brother, Randy, and his family came to Salt Lake a few weekends ago for the Marathon. My sister-in-law, Andrea, ran the half marathon and did awesome! My cute nieces, Brooklyn and Whitney, ran the 1K Kids Run. They were so pumped up and excited to run it, and we were just happy to be there, cheering them on! I took these pictures with my cell phone camera, so they are a little blurry, but hopefully, you can still enjoy them!

My niece, Brooklyn, is the one on the left in pink, slapping hands with the crowd. :) My big bro is in the red, running along side her. What a great dad!

Cath, Emily, Whitney, and Brooklyn

After the Marathon, we enjoyed a Pork Salad at Costa Vida (lovin' it!) Then we played at Discovery Gateway, an amazing children's museum. We hadn't been before, since it's a little pricey, but Randy and Andrea were generous and paid for all of us. We were so grateful for that! Because it was our first experience, it was a novelty for us, and the kids were absolutely fascinated with everything there (we were, too)! Emily was particularly amazed by these tunnels that wind around each other and balls shoot up through them in all directions. It's interactive, so Emily could put a ball into the tunnel and it would shoot up real fast, so it was like her own little science experiment, again and again. So fun!

Jonathan loved crawling up this tree house and playing peek-a-boo with us. What a funny little guy!

Just chilin' with daddy!

Discovery Gateway was awesome, and we decided we will definitely need to go back. But the best part of the day was simply spending time with Randy and Andrea and their girls. Even when Wade and I lived in St. George and they did too, we mostly only hung out with them when the whole family was getting together for special occasions. Now that they're in Southern California and we're in northern Utah, we've really missed them, and it was so great just to spend time with them like friends. I have always known how lucky I am to have an older brother like Randy, but watching him with his family and seeing the amazing father and husband he is, makes me proud to be his sister. I love ya, bro!

Old McDonald Had a Farm, EIEIO!

It was my turn to teach Joy School and the theme was "Farms." The kids really got into this lesson making animal sounds, galloping around like ponies with scarves as their tails, and creating farm animal puppets so they could sing "Old McDonald" over and over again! All of us moms were excited to surprise them with a visit to Wheeler Farms as a field trip the next day. It was awesome! Here are some highlights...

In the car on the way over, Emily used her pretend phone to call Grandma and tell her that she was going to the farm. She's so spontaneous sometimes, it kills me! :) I'll be driving along and hear her talking to somebody or something, so I'll turn around and find her "on the phone" in a very serious conversation with Grandma or Etta or Beau the dog or whoever! The other day, she "called" Elyse and said, "Your mommy, Miss Taffy (Kathy)...she go walking with my mommy, otay (okay)? You miss her? Me too. Otay, good bye." It reminded me of my cousin Karen's little guy, Ethan, who has similar "conversations" with Buzz Lightyear! Kids are so funny, aren't they? I love it!
Here's Ems chasing the ducks. This was, by far, her favorite part of the farm! She ran around just giggling and giggling...running after the ducks and finding it hilarious that they ran when she ran... too cute!
Jon and Gibson loved watching Etta and Emily chase after those funny ducks!
The tree house was a hit! The girls climbed up to the top, and then would peek out the windows and say, "Hi mommy! Look at me!" to each of their moms. It was funny! Here's Emily with Salote and Elyse climbing back down, ready to go enjoy more of the farm. We had such a great time on the farm! I just wish I had more pictures to share, but it was one of those days that I was enjoying myself as much as the kids, so I didn't take as many shots with the camera. I usually take pictures on the tractor ride, but just as we were all seated on the wagon, ready to go, the tractor engine started with an especially loud roar and freaked Emily out! She jumped up, crying, and ran for the stairs to climb off the wagon, when I jumped up after her and all the moms yelled, "Stop the tractor! Don't go yet!" Luckily, I was able to swoop her up in my arms as she hit the bottom step. I then tried to calm her down and convince her that "It's not scary. It's fun, I promise"...I don't know if she ever believed me. Strange enough, she usually loves the tractor ride, but obviously this time was different. You have to have a little drama on every field trip with kids, right?

After visiting all the animals, even the darling baby chicks :) we sat down at a picnic table and enjoyed a yummy lunch together. I loved spending time with my friends, away from the noises of the big city, and just enjoying country life a bit. What a good day!

Grandparents are Special!

Wade and I both feel so blessed to have parents that are the sweetest grandparents to our children. And we also feel blessed that our grandparents are still around and can be a part of our children's lives, too. We think that grandparents are so special. Wade's Grandpa Reed is the most amazing man! He's 95 and has the energy of a 25 year-old. He even went white water rafting a couple of years ago. Since he lives in the most northern part of Montana, we don't get to see him that often, so we were excited when he came to town.

Our little family with Great-Grandpa Reed

Wade's dad is the kind of grandpa that gets on the floor and plays with the kids. Who do you think is having more fun, Emily or her grandpa? :)

Father and son relaxin' in the recliner...We're going to have to buy one some day because Wade's a big fan of recliners! And as you can tell from the picture below, the kids are pretty fond of them, too, all that rockin', who wouldn't enjoy that?

"Just one more snuggle, Grandpa"

Meet in the middle

Two of my good friends and I decided to get together earlier this month to celebrate their birthdays. Since Cherie' lives in Saratoga Springs and Cynthia lives in Ogden, they decided we could all meet in the middle at my house in Sugarhouse in Salt Lake. Between our three families, we have 7 kids under the age of 3! It was a NUT HOUSE with lots of giggles and screams and, of course, lots of fun! :)

Cynthia was one of my best friends growing up. We met in 7th grade and were inseperable! She thought the world of me and helped me see the best in myself. You need friends like that in life, but maybe especially in middle school. I was really lucky to have her. Some of my favorite memories are the slumber parties she and I would have with Katie, another solid TRUE friend! We would stay up all night and play the game of "Life," play "MASH" and watch romantic comedies, like While You Were Sleeping, and eat treats! To this day, I still can't eat an EL fudge cookie without thinking about how we would "bite" the dumb boys heads off! :) Good times!

Cherie' and I became really close when we served together in the Relief Society presidency in the student married ward at Dixie College. When you serve together, you can't help but connect spiritually and in other ways. I love this girl, and I want to be more like her! She is soft-spoken, patient, gentle, and kind--all the qualities I want to develop more. She married Jonathan Dick, one of the cool guys I sang with in the Institute Show Choir, Inspiration. (Pause here for a shout out to my Inspiration pals who read my blog: Julie, Spence, Melissa, Aubrey, and any others! I love you guys!) Ironically Jonathan and Cynthia are cousins, plus Cynthia and Cherie' lived in the same ward for a few years. So the three of us girls have these connections from the past PLUS all of our kids are born within WEEKS of each other. So it's fun to get our kids together to play while we moms chat...or at least "try" to chat over the craziness of the noise the kids make. ;)

Making changes

I just love "The Biggest Loser"! It's so refreshing that there's something on tv that is all about making postive changes in your life. That show is literally changing lives and not just for the contestants, but for America as well! I was excited that Ali became the first female "biggest loser"! She has been an inspiration to me! She went from being lazy and depressed and using food to cover up her pain to being a determined, postive, animal athlete!



The theme song for the show totally empowers me. I ask myself all the time, "What HAVE I done today to make me feel good?" When I was 9 months pregnant with Jonathan, and at my heaviest weight, something snapped inside of me, and I thought, "I want to be healthy. I want to be my best self, and I never want to be this big ever again, pregnant or not." As most of you have experienced when you're pregnant, you feel like eating everything in sight, but I didn't need to be eating the junk I was eating. I wanted to make a change. That's all it took, and I've been on fire ever since! I'm so passionate now about my healthy lifestyle changes, and I'm thrilled that these simple changes have influenced my husband and children as well! Since post-pregnancy, I have lost 36 pounds, and I'm happier than I've ever been because now I'm taking care of ME so that I can have more energy to take care of my family too.

I really believe that it's not about having the perfect body, it's about being the best YOU. For me, I wasn't as concerned about the number of pounds to lose, I just wanted to be healthy and look GOOD in my skinny pants! ;) First I would need to FIT into those skinny pants, and then I would shoot for the looking good part! I read books, like Eat Right, Walk Strong by Leslie Sansome and Body for Life. I even pulled out my textbook from my college Nutrition class so I could educate myself on what's healthy and what's not. I soon discovered I was doing a lot of things that weren't healthy... Yikes! So I just took baby steps to improve my nutrition and exercise habits. I bought wheat tortillas and wheat rolls for sandwiches, low-fat or no-fat dairy, ground turkey, chicken, salmon, and lots and lots of fruits and veggies! I still had white rice and white bread from time to time because I knew I couldn't cut ALL bad carbs out of my diet overnight. It takes time, little by little, to make these changes. I started drinking a glass of cold water before every meal and working on portion control. And now, even when I do have ice-cream 2 to 3 times a week, I scoop smaller portions, and if I have worked out earlier that day, I know I can afford those calories, especially if it's at 2 in the afternoon and not 11 at night!

I discovered Turbo Jam, which is the most fun I have ever had working out! It pumped me up every morning, and I found myself wanting to get out of bed at 6am to work out, as crazy as that sounds! My friends and family have played the biggest role in helping me get in shape. Many of you would ask me how I was doing with my weightloss goals, and it helped me stay on track to meet those goals. Kathy, my amazing walking partner, was/is always so positive and encouraging. She's been like my personal trainer, coaching me along the way. I don't know how I could have done it without you, Kathy! And then of course Wade has been my partner in crime to help our family make these changes permanent! He's been really good to help me prepare healthier meals and to cut up fresh fruits and vegetables for Emily and Jonathan. (And to hide the Nesquik so we all don't drink chocolate milk as often!) I feel proud of our family and I feel proud of me. And it feels good!