Everyday Adventures

I have put together a photo book online, and had it printed for every year that we've been married. A "yearbook" of sorts to quickly and easily recollect past years and fun times without taking too much time, shelf space, money, etc. And for those of you who know me well, you know I am NOT a scrapbooker and never will be so this is my meek attempt. Well, as I was looking through some of the photos from the past year I realized we have a ton of pictures of vacations or birthdays, family visiting or special occasions, but not a lot of everyday occurrences. These pictures were my effort to capture some of our everyday adventures. The times when you usually don't take your camera because they seem so mundane. Now I will have some to include in our photo book this year. I will have to post more later because I have yet to capture some of them on camera, but here are a few:

One of our usual visits to the Beach

Playing in the toy "corner"

Buckled into the car seats

Feeding the llama who lives behind the back fence of the property

Eating breakfast


Jared Biking to Work

Grocery Shopping

Go Utah State!!!!

So my sister Kelsey goes to Utah State right now along with my two brothers. It makes Jared and me a bit nostalgic because that is where we met, dated, and were newlyweds. For Jocelyn's birthday, Kelsey sent the girls some Utah State tattoos or "stickers" as we call them at our house. We made her this video to thank her for the stickers, but I thought it would speak to all USU Aggie fans (which actually includes almost all of Jared's siblings and ALL of mine, in-laws included).

Halloween at Our House

I love holidays. Everything from St Patrick's day to Thanksgiving to 4th of July and everything in between. Jared thinks I go overboard, but I love decorating for them, listening to holiday related music, making traditional holiday food, dressing up,you name it. This year for Halloween we participated in it all and I think we are sufficiently "halloweened out." That doesn't mean I'm stopping. Jocelyn and I already put up our Thanksgiving decor and I'm pouring over my recipes involving cranberries, turkey, and mashed potatoes...
So some of our halloween fun included participating in an event at our local Disney Store where kids could come up dressed in their "disney costumes" and play games, go on a parade around the store, etc. It was actually a highly chaotic and disorganized event but I put that fact aside to enjoy the fact that Jocelyn was running through the mall in a princess dress and glass slippers and that Lillian was thrilled to see all the other kids dressed up in costume along with her. We also went to a dance party at the library one night (which actually ended up being Lillian and I dancing with the librarian and other kids to tunes such as "thriller" while Jocelyn sat pouting on the side because she was in a "shy" mood as she informed me on the way home). We've carved pumpkins, attended a halloween party at a friends house, a "trunk or treat" and carnival at the church, and hosted a "spooktacular" dinner at our house with Jared's coworker and family. As I stated earlier: thoroughly halloweened-out. We dressed up as the three little pigs and Jared was the big bad wolf. Of course, our noses lasted for 1 second, ears came off after 2 seconds, sticks, straws, and bricks were lost after 3 seconds and people were wondering why we were all dressed in pink with funny tails on. You can't win all of them, right?

Joining the Blogging World

I've fought against the trend for a good 15 months now. First with the excuse that I had a new baby, then with the excuse that we had an anciently slow internet connection (a valid excuse I must say), and then that we were busy moving. Now these excuses have all slipped away, so I am finally crossing something off of my "to-do" list! I am entering the world of blogging...
I've done decently well at keeping up with friends' blogs and I really do enjoy reading their posts and seeing pictures of their darling kids, but now I'm going to put myself out there and see how it goes.
I even told Jared 5 months ago, when looking at everyone's cute blogs "I think it comes down to this: I either spend time with my children or I blog about them." Well, I am going to attempt to do both now that I'm getting a full night of sleep. Hopefully I succeed and, if not, perhaps I'll keep my sanity by connecting with old friends and other moms amid the daily grind of diaper changing, feeding, doctors appointments, cleaning, whining (both from me and my children), laughing, laundry, cooking, etc. So I'm not making any promises of how cute, current or clever my blog will be. It is what it is, and I refuse to put any pressure on myself~