Tidbits of Easton

This kid cracks me up.. His laugh is contagious! He has the funniest sense of humor, and makes me laugh so hard! He says the darndest things all the time, and loves to tease! WOW. I can't say enough of how much I love and adore this little man, he brings such a fun-loving feeling into our home!

Oh and can I brag for a moment..cause he knows all his colors and how to count to 10 already!! I know, I know, there might be other 2 year olds out there that can do the same thing, but it really surprised me the other day when he counted all by himself! SO there you have it.. He's got the smiles, and the smarts! My favorite thing he does is gives "squeezes" where he tries to give a bear hug but it feels like he's strangling me.. He is full of fire, really fiesty at times, but he can melt your heart in an instant!! I love it when he says, "miss daddy" and wants me to call Nate at work.. I love it when he says, "luv ooo" for Love you! I love it when after I tickle him he says, "ticko me". And when I catch him doing something naughty and tell him to stop he says, "I NOT mom!" Hilarious.. I love it when he and Emily play together and actually get along.. I love how he says "yeah" with such a drawl, its so cute! I just love my little boy, who is ALL boy! I needed to write some of this down so I never forget how adorable his little personality is at age two!

Kindergarten!!!

Emily is LOVING kindergarten. She asks, "is it time for school yet?!" What a blessing. She is so thrilled with her teacher who they call, Ms. B. Emily has always been one to make friends easily. And such a quick learner!

Her first day of school was kind of crazy. She has the afternoon schedule so she can spend mornings with daddy since he leaves for work in the afternoon. It just seemed like the time crept up on us really fast and I wasn't quite ready.. Plus we walked, and I was stressed we would be late cause I didn't know how much time it would take to get there.. After the first two streets Emily was complaining that her feet hurt. It wasn't the ideal walk I was expecting, to say the least. But we finally made it and had to wait a few minutes before they opened the doors.

She went in so willingly with her teacher greeting them all. I helped her find her seat with her name tag and she was thrilled to see some cute paper to color on.

Easton wanted to color as well and was so ticked I told him it was Emily's paper to color on. Then came the wailing and knashing of teeth since he came UNGLUED. ( I think it was my teeth that were knashing). I was so embarrassed and was so glad Nate was there to take the child out. The parent's all understood hopefully and I gave Emily a kiss and wished her good luck! As I turned one last time to look at her she was smiling and waving goodbye. Was that my baby girl sitting there at a desk, in a school classroom?? Where did the time go?! She looked so grown up and memories of her as a baby came flooding in to my mind. She is the sweetest girl and I am so glad she loves her class. I will have to get used to the new routine but I like the fact that I can come home from dropping her off and put Easton down for a nap and have some quiet time to get something done..or to read a book. Yeah! Those are rare times during the day at our house so I will for sure take advantage of it. Still can't believe our Little Miss is in school!! Way to go Emily, we are so proud of you!!!

Blog templates that I like..

Hey this is for Tara, who wanted to know where I found my blog template.. I wish I knew how to create them myself, it seems pretty complicated and plus I don't think I have the right program, (photoshop) to figure it out... So I randomly pick from a google search "cute blog templates" and see what pops up... The cutestblogontheblock.com seems popular but it has been super slow at least for me to even view them. So this one I got from Onecuteblog.blogspot. I know the bandwidth is an issue for some of these programs but I'll just switch when they run out of space! I like change too.. Its fun. Oh, another one I look at is Leeloublogs.blogspot. The old template I had was from blogginbeautifully.blogspot.com but they ran out of space so I got a funky little display sign saying to upgrade to Pro.. Very annoying. This computer stuff is a learning process for me, I LOVE the internet, because if I have a question I can usually figure it out. What would we do without this lifeline?? Do you even remember the days before the internet? It will be interesting to see what the next 20 years brings as far as technology goes!

Chris and Tanielle are having another GIRL!!!

New member of the fam...

The other day I took the kids to D.I. for some scavenging for toys/books/whatever.. Its been awhile since I've been and it was fun to browse the aisles. Emily and Easton took to the toy aisle while I looked for some nicer kids books. It wasn't long before I heard my name coming from Emily who was so excited about her find. She found this adorable little stuffed, pink, glittery Unicorn. What love! I could NOT say no to her, so this unnamed Unicorn came home with us. The great part of this whole trip was coming home to show Daddy... Easton was way into his lego blocks that we found, while Emily was thinking of a name for this new member of her family.

Emily: "I know what I'm going to name her mom!"

Me: "what!"

Emily(with great exuberance): " HORNY"

Nate and myself: Bursting spit out our mouths with laughter!!

We would like to officially welcome Horny to the family....

Seeing the Goodman's

MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY


The year was 1999. I was turning 21, and had decided after much deliberation to become a nanny. The family that hired me had two children, Kathryn (Katie) and Michael. Katie was 6 and Michael had just turned 2. Before this, the only place other than Utah that I'd been was Hawaii, where I lived with my family for about 4 years... I truly was in for an experience of a lifetime! The Goodman family welcomed me with open arms, and made me an instant part of their family. I had to adjust to the new lifestyle of "living on the East coast". Their home was nestled amongst many tall trees in Maplewood, New Jersey. It was raining as I arrived and I was just glad to have made it after a cancelled flight and lost luggage which is a story for another time! They were having a "good bye" party for the nanny that I was replacing which was a bit overwhelming but nice to be able to meet some other of her friends that lived in the area. I met Katie and Michael who were excited with all the guests and excitement of getting a "new Nanny".

They were such adorable kids!

The transition happened quickly as Tiff was leaving in a few days and had only that much time to show me the ropes. I was so thrilled to be living in a different part of the country that I had never seen before, and excited to get to work. I loved being able to be with the Goodman family for one year and was sad to leave them! I had no idea how attached I would be to these kids, they were my family!! I had many opportunities to see and do so much on the East coast, with weekend trips to Manhattan, spending time in DC, and going on vacation with them to the Jersey shore and Williamsburg, VA. I loved my road trip with friends up to see Niagara Falls, and Palmyra, NY to attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I loved being involved with the Singles group there, and had opportunities to go to the DC Temple! It was always fun to attend the singles ward in NYC which was held in the building that is now the Manhattan Temple! It was awesome! Many memories and experiences!!!

I was so lucky this past week to have the Goodman family FINALLY make it to the west coast to see many sights that they've not seen before! They stayed with us here in Tooele, and then down in Hurricane with my parents, since we were taking them to Lake Powell for the day. The kids have grown up, Katie now is 15 and Michael is 11. Its so weird to see them grown up because my memories of them are the cute little 6 and 2 year olds! I am so glad to have seen them and I hope to see them more often in the future! They are like family, and I just love 'em!!

Sue and Mark treated us to a fun day at Raging Waters! I felt like a kid again screaming down the slides! We loved the wave pool too!

Here we are with everyone plus Tiff, their first nanny. She is from Brigham City so she came down to SL for the day to see them! We had lots of fun reminiscing!

Kate and Michael loved playing with my kids, and Easton loved their entertainment. Kate has turned into such a great babysitter! I'm glad they are returning the favor!! =)

Here we are at Lake Powell. My parents were so sweet to be their personal tour guides! Plus I got to go with much thanks going to my sister Lisa for taking on the kids ALL day long! Thanks you guys! We had a blast tubing, jumping off rocks, and splashing all the lizards! Its amazing how even though I've been to Powell so many times, we still find as Mark said, "hidden gems".. Love that place!

I was thrilled to see the Goodman's, its been way too long! Can't wait to get together again, hopefully sooner than later!!! I just love you guys!

Chillin at the Johnson's

It's not very often that you come across friends like these. I tell ya, for me to feel COMPLETELY at home with them is huge. Today was a "good mom day", where I feel like I was such a good mom! I don't think I yelled or raised my voice once! Most of my "good mood" came from Emily having a friend come play... It's so nice, it keeps the kids busy and so inthralled with playing that I don't have, "mom, I'm so bored", or "(screaming) Easton took my toys!!!!" SO with much thanks going to some of our bestest friends, Matayia & Bergen, oh and Tanielle and Chris of course! It was so nice that Tanielle asked us to come in when dropping Tayia off! It turned out to be such a nice, relaxing evening plus Chris bought us Pizza to top it off.. Thanks Chris! Seriously, it was so funny cause Chris came home from work to find Tanielle propped up on one couch and me on the other, both with a book to read and the kids were, well, running around playing! Could it be better?! He just laughed at us kicking back, too bad its not ALWAYS like that..really Chris its not. =) SO I just have to thank my greatest friends for letting us chill with you tonight, you're the best!

Here are two of the best little "mommies" ever! They are always taking such good care of their babies!

Their smiles say it all, they are full of life!

Easton fits right into the crowd, he really does hold his own with all these girls! What a cheeser!

Favorite past-times! I've lost count with how many nightly routines we've shared with the Johnson's! We've been blessed to have you in our lives!

TomAto, TomOto!

Our tomato plants have largely exceeded the space that we put them in! The poor pepper and cilantro plants are buried under the jungle of tomato vines!

However, amidst the chaotic growth, we have found numerous fruits! The kids were ecstatic when we found a ripe tomato to be plucked from the vine!

They devoured it after we sliced and salted it. It gives me a sense of accomplishment as I see the picked tomatoes on my kitchen window sill. With prices in the grocery store almost double from what they were even a year ago, I am thankful for our little tomato jungle. I can't wait to make salsa and have fresh tomato bacon sandwiches! Yum!

I love this time of year when all the produce "comes on".. I love getting the fresh cucumbers from Grandpa Wiley's garden, along with zucchini, and much more! Salads taste so much better when you know where the veggies came from! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Wiley for the bounteous produce! I look forward to apple season too! Last year we made a ton of applesauce which unfortunately hasn't lasted long in our house.. We love that stuff!

Other than that, there really hasn't been much excitement around here. Nate and I were able to go on a date last Wednesday thanks to Tanielle! Nate came up with a great idea that I thought sounded so romantic but when Emily heard the idea she had puppydog eyes! He thought we should drive up American Fork canyon to a lake up there and have a dutch oven dinner! So with me being a softy, I opted to do that WITH the kids on another day. I told Nate we should do something that WE don't get to do often with the kids and save the lake dutchoven dinner for a family outting.. So being the boring routinist that I am we went to dinner and a movie. But seriously, we don't eat out very often, and if we do its usually McD's or Wingers..with the kids. It was nice to stroll around JL (jordanlanding) sipping on a Jamba juice, catching a movie and then slowly eating my meal at Johnny Carinos, a nice Italian place. Very nice and relaxed! Thanks Tanielle for babysitting the kids for us! You forget how NEEDED alone time away from the kids is. I need to plan our dates more frequently! Any fun dating ideas from you all would be nice, since I rack my brain trying to find fun, creative and CHEAP dates to do!

My inner Princess!

I did this fun little quiz to let me know which princess I am more like.. I admit to loving the outdoors, and I feel like I have good common sense so its not that far off!

Try it its fun!
You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Fillmore loop of the Paiute Trail 2008

Our last planned ATV trip of the summer went down in the "memory bank". We made it yet again, after 2 LONG day trips in the mountains above Fillmore and Kanosh. G&G Wiley, my sister Lisa, and her man Aaron came and joined us for the week. We had a great time camping, riding, and swimming in the sweet KOA pool. I tell ya, I will look back on these times and wonder how the heck I managed camping in a tent in 100+ degree weather! I certainly lost my fair share of sweat this trip! (just knew you wanted to know that!) The weather was supreme up in the mountains, so we left as soon as lunches were packed! There is something that is so invigorating about being up in the mountain air, smelling all the many scents of nature. I feel "free" if you will, and life can't get any better! On our second day, we ventured over into Kanosh canyon, which I can't remember the mileage details, it seemed like at least a 60 mile ride. It wore me out, mainly because we weren't as high in the mountains and it was HOT. I had to stop at one point and splash water on Emily and I from a small stream for fear of heat stroke! We stayed plenty hydrated but it was still HOTTER than well, you know.. Anyway, I was proud that my sis came through an ATV champ, and I have to brag that I dusted both her and Aaron on some of our various races! Maybe I'll let you guys win next time! hehehe.. I love the "after the day look", as we all resemble just plain old DIRT! Loved Aaron's "dirt-stach"..

Here are some BEFORE:

And AFTER:

Its good to be back home, even though the unpacking still is in process. I look forward to settling into routine once school starts and Emily starts Kindergarten! I'm so glad we've done so much this summer, we definitely filled our hearts and camera with many great memories!

Here's a few scenery shots we took::