Blog Issues

Recently I experienced some technical difficulties while trying to change the background of my blog. I thought I had fixed the problem but apparently all my contacts/blogs that I follow under my "Family & Friends" heading were completely erased. So now I have a problem - I do not have the addresses of any of my friends and family's blogs! So if you are reading this and would like for me to be able to see your blog again then would you PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT so I can have your blog address? Thanks!!! I promise I won't try to do anything fancy with my blog again!

sidenote- if you know how to fix the funny html script that is visible at the top of my blog could you let me know? I really appreciate it!

Care for a cupcake?

I made these cupcakes for a lesson that I taught to the Laurels in our Young Women class. Don't they look delicious?!

Yes, from the outside they look simply irresistible. And if you were to lick the frosting you'd agree they are pretty sweet! Even the gold foil wrapper made these cupcakes special. But here is what you and the young women did not know - if you were to take a big bite out of these cupcakes you would not sink your teeth into yummy cake, but styrofoam instead! These cupcakes were mixed in with real cupcakes and as the young women chose which one to eat they quickly realized that some were the real thing while others were just imitations. I used this idea for my lesson on temple marriage - the real cupcakes represented temple marriage with all the blessings and sweetness that come from a marriage that will last for eternity, while the fake cupcakes represented earthly marriage, it is still sweet but you are not receiving all the blessings that you could be. The girls loved it, especially after I gave them all real cupcakes - no one had to eat the styrofoam!

Mother's Day 2010

I had the most wonderful Mother's Day this year. This was the first year where the kids really participated in the gift-giving/picking-out. Natalie's class at school made books of their families to give to their moms for Mother's Day, as well as multiple cards. Natalie was sooooo excited for me to open it (and it was like pulling teeth for her to wait until Sunday morning!)

As you can see the kids were just as excited as I was!

(of course Tyler had no idea what was going on but wanted in on the action)

Dan let Nathan pick out my flowers - we all had a good laugh about it :)

My three sweet children who make me the happiest momma in the world

After a few days my flowers actually started looking really pretty and here they are 2 weeks later! Here you can also see the cute cards and book Natalie made for me as well as the flower handprint card that Tyler made at church - I love his man paws!!

I feel so blessed to be a mother, especially the mother of such wonderful, sweet children who make me laugh every day and bring such incredible joy into my life. Natalie, Nathan, Tyler - you are my world and I love you more than words can say. Thank you for letting me be your mother and for all the fun we have together!

Tyler is 2!!!!

I can't believe it! My baby is 2 years old!! I guess that means I have to quit calling him "baby" now. :( But I'm sure Tyler will appreciate that, especially when he's 16.

We kept Tyler's birthday pretty low-key this year - in other words, he didn't have a party. We just spent the day together as a family and did all of Tyler's favorite things!

Tyler got a big package in the mail...

what could be inside??
Tyler was convinced the cardboard packaging was the present (and he was quite satisfied with that!)

Oh my! It's a big red wagon!!

Thank you Grandma Karen and Grandaddy Al for the awesome wagon!!!

Here is just one of the awesome adventures the kids have already had with the wagon...

Good times!!

We spent the afternoon at Hogle Zoo in SLC
Getting excited to see the animals!

But first, let's go on a train ride!

Classic Tyler look - concerned (I promise he really does love riding the train)

Next we played at the fun playground full of huge animal playscapes

The snake slide was by far the favorite

Climbing in the spider-web

Shall we go see some animals now?

Tyler watching the monkeys - he is crazy about monkeys!!

Natalie hanging out on the "roaring" elephant (totally scares Tyler)

A beautiful girl on a beautiful day!

Nathan's favorite part of the zoo - the cotton candy!

(insert your own fun caption here)

The best experience we had at the zoo on Tyler's birthday was getting to feed the giraffes. We were outside their pen watching them when Nathan suddenly dropped his water bottle inside their fence. I tried to reach it but to no avail. So we went inside the giraffe house to try to find someone to help us - that's when this nice worker came over and got the water bottle out for us. We thanked her and moved on, but not before Natalie repeatedly told her that we were at the zoo for Tyler's 2nd birthday. A few minutes later the worker came over to us and asked us if we'd like to feed the giraffes a special treat - bread! She offered since it was a special occasion. Of course we couldn't refuse!

This is Riley - the only boy giraffe at Hogle Zoo

Check out that tongue!

The most surprising thing was that Tyler was not afraid to feed Riley (it probably helped for him to watch Natalie & Nathan do it first)

You can't tell it, but Tyler had such a good time feeding the giraffe. What a fun treat for his birthday!

And what did my kids take away from that experience?

How to make giraffe faces!!

Next, we moved on to the big cats

Then skunks...

"Make a skunk face!"

Natalie fell in love with a sand cat

Then it was time to go!

Next stop - Chuck E. Cheese's!

No birthday is complete without Chuck E. Cheese's!

Look at that concentration!

Tyler's favorite ride

Time for pizza!!!

More games...

Turn in the tickets...

And enjoy the prize!

Now it was time to go home and eat some birthday cake!

It was thoroughly enjoyed!

What a fun birthday! Tyler I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did - you are such a sweet and fun boy, you are such an important part of our family and I am so happy you are in it! I love you more every day as I see you grow and mature, and I know your brother and sister love you so much. We all feel so blessed to know you Tyler - thank you for being in our family!