Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Utah for the weekend!

This is how my SLC, UT weekend started.
Delicious oatmeal with my mom. 
and it only got better.

On Wednesday afternoon, the kids were supposed to nap.  They didn't, but that's ok.  They hung out with Liz 'til Steven got home. I flew with my mom, Don, and JT.  I read a book for part of it, then played Monopoly on JT's iTouch.  We met up with Kat, Martin picked up JT from us and we laughed for a bit before seeing Kat's new SLC place.  We woke up, picked up the rental car, and ate at the Corner Deli/Bakery/Something at the mall where my good friend Cami works!  Thank you Mom for my oatmeal, and thank you Kat for eating the bananas in it:) 
I got to see Cami that morning before our impromptu SLC picnic with family.  I was jealous that she was going to leave to go see Emmalee that weekend and almost said yes to driving with her, 'til I realized I was there for a beautiful SLC temple wedding weekend.  Stephen and Stepheni were getting married that weekend!!!!!!!!  More on that later, I just had to post the first photo from my camera:)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Boy's Weekend (posted by Steven)

So with Tiffany in Utah for her brother's wedding, I guess I need to update the blog. Tiffany has been gone since Wednesday. Single-parenting is rough. Dylan, Isaac, and I went to Tarpon Springs on Saturday with Uncle Andre and Barbie. Here are some photos of the excursion.

The typical tourist photo:


My favorite part of the trip were the numerous bakeries:
This is a corner of a huge candy store full of hundreds of barrels of sweets.  It was Dylan & Isaac's favorite part of the trip.  They were like kids in a candy store.
 
Dylan caught this:

These photos are not from Tarpon Springs, but are just to show that I fed the kids at least once while Tiffany was gone:
Hurry home Tiffy!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I ♥ church youth

I'm loving having the excuse to do so many fun and good and quality things because of my calling at church. 
I got to go to the beautiful Orlando temple (where Steven and I got married) and got to ride in my own comfy mini van listening to uplifting iPod music thanks to one of my YW girls.  (That's a plus because I also got to go running in the morning instead of going on the bus with the rest of our congregation.) We're planning fun activities doing things like salsa dancing and cupcake decorating and good scripture reading programs.  This is getting better all the time:)
Look how cute these kids are.  It's funny that all of the color is on the right. 
This is our bishop.  He's the best.  He really cares about the youth at any cost.  He spends so much time to make sure that everything runs smoothly, including paying for this whole group to go to a yummy dinner at Chevy's on our way to Lakeland. 
Here we are at the youth dance.  It's fun to dance, I don't dance enough, most people don't I think. 
Here's my brother, doing his dance with some glasses some girl put on him.  I love him:)  And so do the other youth.  He is friends with everybody, so other kids circle around him.  Or maybe they think he's weird. 
Either way, I hope you kids all have a fun first day at school in the morning!  I can't wait to hear about it! 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Anniversary Flowers

Steven got me flowers for our anniversary. 
I wanted to take a picture of them so I could remember them. 
So I loaded up the kids in the double stroller, laced up my running shoes, and ran to Lake Seminole Park. 
I was so sweaty and it was so humid that my lens kept fogging up.  What a dreamy-effect pain.
Then Dylan and I waited while Isaac had to go potty. 
Lately I've been searching for the light. 
Dylan asked "Is there sparkle in my eyes now Mom?"
Their hair gets sweaty so quickly.  I just go with it.  These pictures are so I can remember how they are right now, and that's how they are now! 
Dylan asks "why do you take so many pictures Mom, why?"
I tell him it's so I will remember every part of their lives.
And their cute personalities.
When I first found out that I was having a baby, I pictured a boy.  It's because I have little brothers, and I have babysat mostly boys.  One thing I love about brothers is how they laugh while they wrestle.  It gets rough some times, but they don't ever stay upset.
We went back to the little creek, the whole point I ran in the hot Florida sunshine pushing 2 kids and a stroller packed with everything but the kitchen sink and shirts for us. 
I wanted to try out this location for future photo shoots.
This one isn't my favorite shot of my Dylan, but I was practicing getting both eyes in focus even at an angle like this. 
And I kinda do like his little expression here.  There's no fooling him, he knows what I'm up to. 
Oh yea, back to the bouquet of flowers from my honey. 
I love this one.
Boys fishing with flowers.
OK, so I did pack shirts for them, and a picnic lunch. 
Isaac was more into cleaning than into playing at the park. 
I just watched as they played.  They're like tough boys at times, but Dylan wanted me to walk over to the red turtle with him because there were other kids in the area.  Then he just wanted to rest.  I wasn't planning on taking any photos at the playground.  I was just going through the photos, but my kids are so cute, don't you think?
Then we ran home and swam in our pool.  Man I'm glad we have a pool.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

8 is Great!

Happy 8th Anniversary Steven!

(most photos by http://www.memoriesbyfritz.com and my late night snap shots of my scrapbook do not do them justice.  Use crazy Fritz for your wedding!)

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Happy Half-Birthday Dylan!

Dear Dylan,

Today you're four and a half years old. 

You have acquired a strong personality and let it show sometimes.  I'm blaming it on the two days/week you're at preschool.  You sometimes stick your bottom lip out and get a little attitude.  Luckily, you do it to be kind of funny, and not seriously trying to go against something.  I can reason with you easily, and you ultimately aim to please.  Your thing lately is to tell me that something is boring.  You heard the word "bored" and asked what that was, and when I told you that you could be bored if something is boring, you now kind of use them interchangeably.  Oops.  I should have given you a better definition, but at least I know you're listening. 

I think you're so cute:)  I love your brown eyes and your dimples when you really smile. 

You ask when you can now play in a real Tball game again.  You liked it, but the season is over.  Maybe we'll let you play soccer next! 

You know how to make us laugh, and even will tell us "I'm trying to be funny."  One day when a car with its base turned way up came by our car at a light, you said "I can even hear that music from my bottom."  It's true that the vibrations shook our whole bodies:) 

You are good at sharing. 

Your favorite food is a PB&J as usual.  You will eat a banana in the morning before your vitamin or treat you negotiated the night before.  You like cereal and request I mix two kinds for you.  You like broccoli and chicken too.  You will sometimes tell me that you don't want to finish your food because it isn't healthy.  If it isn't, I have to agree.  Sometimes you tell me "no, I'm hungrier than that" when I offer you a certain food when you want something else. 

Every evening you ask me what we're going to do the next day.  You love going places and seeing friends and family.  You love to go to Grandma's house after church each Sunday. 

You take naps sometimes, but other days you tell me you weren't tired.  Today you claimed that Isaac was bothering you until I pointed out that he did go to sleep.  You replied quickly with, "I said he bothered me a LITTLE bit."  I like how you're quick on your feet, and how you know that was funny, but we'll have to work on what exactly lying is. 

You like to sit and watch movies with Daddy, and ask us to sit and cuddle with you on the couch. 

You are learning your letters.  You know most of the letters and their corresponding sounds.  You can start to read.  You have one book that you can read all by yourself.  It's "I Can."  You know it by the photos, but because you like to make me happy, you run your finger under the appropriate lettes in the words as you go along the pages. 

You like to sing and can cary a tune.  I love to catch you dancing and/or singing.  You sing to some of your lulluby CDs.  There's a song that repeats "Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him in the morning, Praise Him in the Evening . . ." and you think it's the "Raisin" song.  (Repeat it aloud and you'll remember why.)  You can say the ABC song too. 

You like to say things how you learned to say them, like the word "Yellow."  Uncle JT works with you to say "Y' Y' Y' Ye-llow" instead of your habit of saying "Le-llow."  You can do things extremely well when you think about it.  Sometimes you like to just be silly though.  That's ok b/c you're a kid. 

You love to swim and just learned how to do front flips in the pool! 


I love you so much, but you already know that because we fight about who loves the other more than all of the cars on the road, or the signs on the streets, or the clouds in the sky, or whatever is out of our car window at the time. 

Love,
Mommy

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Once Upon A Time . . . In a Deep Dark Forest . . .

In this magical place,
We hung around,
And waited,
For our friends to join us, 
For Shaylyn's 9 month portrait session.
Then we played [and accidentally snapped a branch into Isaac's face but it luckily just made everybody laugh and didn't phase him.]
Then we wrestled,
And were silly,
And really silly,
While Shaylyn watched.
 

The End.
{This was a mini mini session with a best friend. We only waited and hung around for like 3 minutes while she unloaded her stroller.  My kids are not usually invited on photo shoots.  We had a small window of opportunity before my and 2Dylan's dad's soccer game.  (We're on the same team.)  Shaylyn is starting to walk and has the most tan legs of any little baby, so we wanted to capture this part of her 9 month old life real quick even though her photog friend is coming in town to take their family photos next week.}  I'll be posting a couple more pictures on my fishy face photography blog soon.