The Croppers

Want to Enjoy these Moments

2012-01-22T22:16:00.001-07:00

I was just thinking the other day that I’ll never be at this same stage of life again. What are the things I want to remember?

That to a 4-year old and a 2-year old, being a Ramen Noodle Gourmet Chef is Enough
That some of the sweetest words are “Thank You Mommy!” And “I didn’t give you a morning hug yet!”
That I am cool enough to spend day after day after day with
That a nightly tetris battle with your husband really can be a lot of fun
That being what the Lord NEEDS is the most important
That placing the needs of my children and husband first really do bring the most rewards
That a trip to the park or the dinosaur museum are – in a child’s mind – like that trip to Europe that I’m dreaming of.
That I don’t have to do large things to make a difference
That laughing, running, and tickling are worthwhile activities
That it’s really okay if my house is not spotless. My children are happy
That surrounding myself with good people is worth so much
That the Lord loves me. He knows my name. He loves me. He gives me reminders through my husband, my children, my family, and those around me.

Happy Birthday Lillie!!

2012-01-13T22:29:00.001-07:00

I seriously cannot believe it has been 2 years already since this princess joined our family!

Her spunky, fun personality is really so much fun. She is also really stubborn, which sometimes wears the patience down, but we still love her as much as can be!

Some things about Lillie:

She loves almost any food that involves rice. Especially if we have stroganoff or chicken sauce with it

Her nickname is “Little Miss Repeat” because she is always saying whatever she hears, and talks all the time. I’d make a list of words, but there are too many. Some of my favorites that she says though are “Awesome!” “Applesauce” and “Thank you mommy!”

I love that she’s really starting to communicate and will let us know what she thinks, with phrases like “Steven! Stop shouting!”

She loves to play with Steven, and I think she enjoys pestering him as well. Must be a little sister thing

She loves playing with friends, and her memory is incredible. My friend came over the other day, and Lillie smiled and said, “Micah’s mom!” She’s good at connecting people and remember correct names for people.

She sleeps in a big girl bed

She’s well on her way to being potty trained and this week has gone potty several times, and even went poopy yesterday morning. All her idea. I’m definitely open to following her timeline since I wasn’t expecting this this soon.

She absolutely loved her birthday! When she first woke up and I wished her a happy birthday, she kind of looked like she didn’t care. However, after Steven was excited for her all morning, her friends were excited for her, and we blew up lots of balloons, she totally caught on. Then when she saw her cake, her first word was “AWESOME!” Then she just would get so excited when she saw it and would say, “BIRTHDAY!” We had a fun party with Grandma’s and Grandpa’s and my sister. She got very spoiled and absolutely LOVED everything she got (Which was a relief since she didn’t like a thing we got her for Christmas). I’ll leave you with some pictures first of the dress I made her for her birthday, and then of my pride and joy of the day (Her cake) and some fun party pictures.

2011–2012 Just another Chapter

2012-01-03T22:33:00.001-07:00

I suppose I ought to review my 2011, if nothing else, to chart my progress on how I’m doing with my life.

I found my posted resolutions for 2011:

Get to the ideal weight for my height
Read the scriptures 30 minutes a day
Become a more patient mommy
Be a more optimist mommy and wife
Take time for myself
Exercise 5 days a week
Make it the temple once a month

I didn’t reach my ideal weight goal, but I’ve seen progress in my fitness goals and personal wellness. I took the time for myself and exercised 5 days a week from running to aerobics. I lost 2 pant sizes, and feel better about myself than I have in a long time. I feel like I’ve become an athlete, and I am strong.

I did pretty good on my scripture reading, but I know that’s something I definitely want to improve upon this year. I’ve set simple goals for myself to immerse myself when I do sit down to read the scriptures and try to take one thing each day to think and ponder on, to help me better remember my Savior.

Sometimes the patience thing is great. Sometimes my near 2-year old gets the best of me. But overall, I think I’m doing okay.

I did make it to the temple once a month this year, and that definitely helps me out. Having that quiet peaceful time to myself is worth so much. I was able to take many dates with my husband to the temple, which I always love, but I was also able to make some trips with some of my best friends, and also my sister. Such a blessing.

2011 has also been good for me in having the peaceful feeling come from the spirit letting me know that I am where I’m supposed to be. I had a really hard time when we first moved into this area making friends, but I definitely have made some great friends out here that have made me a better person. I know that that many blessings come into my life by surrounding myself with great people.

As I think about 2012, it’s hard to pinpoint any specific new goals, but I just think of goals I continually want to work on and become better at throughout the year. We’ll post some anyway

Keep up my fitness routine, and work on keeping good eating habits
Keep running. I had an epiphany a few weeks ago after running one morning. I’m a runner. It is no longer a forced form of exercise, but it’s now a part of who I am. That’s something I never thought would happen. But I think the challenge of it makes it that much more important to me. The few races on the horizon also help the motivation stay active
Put more money into savings
Spend my time just playing with my kids, and forgetting about the housework. It will all get done at one point.
Thoroughly enjoy the 2012 olympics. I have my London calender already, and am counting down the months
Make some cute birthday cakes for cute kids
Continue to build friendships
Become closer to the Spirit so I can be where the Lord needs me when He needs me

Here’s to a new year! Hooray!

New Years

2012-01-03T22:17:00.001-07:00

We headed to Richfield to party with the Rowley’s. We had our Christmas then, with all the food and fun like we weren’t a week late on that holiday. Then we partied it up and stayed up late for the New Year.

And on the way home on Monday, we drove through Gunnison, UT. As we were driving through we stopped so Steven could meet Mater. It totally made his day. I wish I could’ve captured the look on his face when we told him to look out the window. It definitely was a priceless moment.

On Christmas Day in the Afternoon

2012-01-03T22:08:00.001-07:00

After church on Sunday, we headed to Springville to enjoy the day with the Croppers. Lillie has always been enamored by her cousin Ella, and was pretending to be Ella for a bit.

Lillie and Steven got to play Joseph and Mary for the family nativity

And of course, presents are always fun too!!

Thanks Croppers for a wonderful Christmas Day!

On Christmas Day in the morning….

2012-01-03T22:04:00.001-07:00

The festivities started with pajamas on Christmas Eve. I think the kids like their PJ’s. They certainly look cute though

Christmas morning. Steven was So excited! It almost killed him when I said he had to wait till I could go get my camera. Mean old mom. Lill

Lillie with her dress ups from Santa

Steven had a tough wish list this year. Cars 2 and a Woody and Buzz. Luckily, Santa was able to remember all that and kind of wishes Steven would always keep his simple 4-year old requests

Mom got spoiled and got a new knife set!

Dad got his new computer! He definitely was happy!

Playing with new crayons

Wrapped up in new fuzzy blankies

New Church clothes! Yay! Pictures..Boo…

Steven was insistent that Elmo needed a close-up as well

Turning into a big girl

2012-01-03T21:51:00.001-07:00

Lately, Lillie has been asking for a bed. I always thought I’d keep her in a crib till I had to kick her out to bed, but obviously she had different plans. I gave in, and so far it’s an alright change. She have never rolled out, but getting her to go to bed isn’t the most fun. She screams and cries and falls asleep next to her door. But, we always put her in the bed 10-15 minutes after she falls asleep, and she sleeps fine all night. I guess it’s not terrible, because the other day after her nap she said, “Thank you bed.” One day she’ll go to bed like an angel. Until then, I just have to remind myself how cute she is.

Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup

2011-12-18T21:19:00.003-07:00

Picture for soup found here.

My sister gave me this recipe for Tomato Basil-Parmesan Soup. It was delicious. I took it to a family dinner, and had I not sampled it before we left, I would have tried it at all, because it disappeared super duper fast. Luckily, I have stuff to make it again this week :)

Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup

2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with juice

1 cup finely diced celery

1 cup finely diced carrots

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup finely diced onions

1/2 bay leaf

1 tsp. dried oregano or 1 Tbsp. fresh oregano

1 Tbsp dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup flour

1 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cups half and half, warmed

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

In a large slow cooker, combine tomatoes, celery, carrots, chicken broth, onions, bay leaf, oregano, and basil (if using fresh oregano and basil; if using dried oregano and basil add those two ingredients in the last hour of cook time). Cover and cook on low for 5 to 7 hours, until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

About an hour before serving prepare a roux: Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add flour; stir constantly with a whisk for 5 to 7 minutes. Slowly stir in 1 cup hot soup from the slow cooker. Add another 3 cups soup and stir until smooth.

Add all back into the slow cooker. Stir and add Parmesan cheese, warmed half and half, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for another hour until ready to serve.

A Little Bit of Potpourri

2011-12-10T22:57:00.003-07:00

It's been a busy, fun week around here. Well, the weekend anyway (Starting with Thursday).

I love going to Bunko once a month, and the December Bunko is definitely one of our most fabulous. We do a large fondue bar with chocolate, caramel, and cheese fondues. It's something that cannot be missed, and I'm glad I've been able to now attend 2 of these fabulous functions. :)

I'd like to introduce two of my new best friends. For fun, let's call them the tru-pull twins. They are the most fabulous knee braces in the world. But hey, they should be because I had a to pay a pretty penny for them. I actually got just one before my 10K in October due to pain and aching I was having in my knee. After a visit to the physical therapist, I found out I have tilted knee caps. These braces basically just hold my knee cap in proper alignment. After trying one, I was hooked. So I bought another. Good buy. Also, they allow me to still be active and hopefully will prevent the need for surgery in the future.

Yesterday I spent hours with some great ladies in my neighborhood learning how to make chocolates and fondant candy. I won't tell you how many hours we spent working on these lovely things, but it was LOT! :) They are absolutely amazing though, and we made over 200 chocolates. These are some that I got to bring home. YUM!

And tonight I went to Ballet West's "The Nutcracker" up at the Capital Theatre in Salt Lake with my good friend, Meredith. We hope to send our husbands out to something fun like a BYU basketball game to tell them thanks for staying home with the kids. :)

It was such a fun night, and I'm so grateful I was able to go with someone who appreciated it as much as me. Thanks again Meredith! I wasn't lying when I said I may have to make this a tradition. :)

A Little Gingerbread Fun

2011-12-10T22:45:00.005-07:00

I bought a gingerbread village kit at Walmart last year on clearance the week after Christmas. It got stuck in the back of the freezer for a year, and this week got pulled out again. Steven was so excited! I really wanted to do it with all four of us, so it took a few days to get time to do it, but it didn't disappoint. We all had a lot of fun, and Lillie and Steven enjoyed getting to try their hand at become world famous frosting decorators :)

Something Crafty....

2011-12-10T22:40:00.002-07:00

Hooded Towels

I've made a few of these hooded towels for nieces, nephews, and friends. I think they're fabulous. I learned how to make them from my mother-in-law, and my cousin-in-law has a great tutorial here. I made some this week, and the Disney ribbon really gave them a nice touch :)

A Lovely Sunday Overall :)

2011-12-05T10:19:00.005-07:00

Yesterday was not my kids best day. Not gonna lie, it was kind of a rough day. They were grouchy, grumpy, and fought a lot. However, there were a few things that helped me to see the sunshine of the day and smile.

The first would be this:

We started a Christmas Countdown for Steven to help his anxiousness about Christmas coming. Yesterday the day started with it saying 21 Days Until Christmas. While I was getting ready for church, Steven excitedly came upstairs and said, "It's only 11 days until Christmas now!" I had no idea what he was talking about. But when I walked in the door after church and noticed this, I bust out laughing. Apparently 21 days was too long, so he took matters into his own hands. :)

Highlight number 2 was meeting this little lady, Gabriella and visiting with her amazing mother, Genesis. There is seriously nothing better than cuddling a sweet newborn to forget the stresses of grumpy children and everything else. She is just so so sweet, and I'm so grateful I had the chance to visit. And a huge thank you to my sister who watched the grumpy kids so I could take a nice little break :)

And for the record, I love her excitement when Gen took this picture :)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T16:34:00.005-07:00

This year for Thanksgiving, we headed down to Richfield to spend the holiday with the Rowley family. I was somewhat bummed that Richfield had their turkey trot at the beginning of November, because I had been looking for another race to do. So, I decided to create my own race, which was lovingly titled the "2011 Gobble Gobble Trot Trot." I roped a few friends into running this 5K with me, and I would like to thank them for being good sports to appease me. :) Darrell ran with me, as did Kacey, Christie, and Karen. Steve and Todd were excellent to wait at my parents at be our time keepers. We all scored these magnificent certificates and candy bars, while Kacey nabbed herself the grand prize of the Turkey Centerpiece :)

To appease my sobbing and wailing child who didn't get to run the 5K with us in the morning, we did a cousin race later in the afternoon. Here are most of the kids running down the street. What you can't see is Steven who biffed it hard on the asphalt and did a number on his knees.

So to once again appease my wailing and sobbing 4-year old, we had another cousin race in the back yard. This time it was much more successful for my cute little man :)

Tait, Jacob, Steven, Jay, Hayley and Abby (a.k.a. Rapunzel)

Buddies: Jay, Tait, Steven and Hannah after the race

And of course after a scrumptious feast, we took time out for some family photos....

I got this magnificent turkey craft idea a few years ago from a friend at a neighborhood play group in Lehi. I brought stuff for the kids, and we all had fun making turkey apples.u

Thursday night entailed the boys going to play basketball before a lot of us headed to Walmart at 10 p.m. for some madness, but at least we made up for it by sleeping in on Friday. :)

We took a bunch of the kids out shooting. Steven got to shoot a pistol and a rifle. It was fun to see his reaction to things for sure. :)

Saturday I didn't take any pictures. We headed to Darrell's parents house with the intent to go to the temple while they watched the kids. But due to Lillie deciding she needed to get super icky sick, I spent a lot of the day cuddling with her, and Darrell enjoyed playing games with his siblings :) Hopefully she'll be the only one to get sick.

Overall it was a good holiday and I'm so grateful for all of the blessings in my life! Good family, places for the family to play, and delicious food!

Things I've missed posting about....

2011-11-27T15:22:00.004-07:00

Painting fun (We do that a lot....)

Ice Cream Treats

Freezing while watching BYU Football

My very cute (and it works amazingly too!) new headband headwarmer, made by my good friend, Genesis

Haircuts all around (And yes, I only took pictures of the ladies :))

And I'm only a month late posting my cute kids in their Halloween costumes :)

So many things!

2011-11-13T21:44:00.002-07:00

Recently our laptop gave up the ghost. We knew it was getting close, but when our kids decided to use it as a jump board one day while I was in the shower it really gave up the ghost. Luckily, we had gotten everything off that we wanted, so now we just sit and wait for the right deal to come along. My sister is fantastic, and has let us take her old laptop on loan until we get a new one, but that has made it hard for me to post all the fabulous pictures that I would just love to be blogging!

As for us, in the past month and a half:

- We had a delightful Halloween

- Darrell switched positions at work - back to underwriting and funding. Glorious day!

- Steven has been excelling in joy school, and is starting to pick up fundamentals of reading

- Lillie's vocabulary is starting to explode, and she is starting to communicate phrases. I love this time of life. It's great how even the most simple words sound so cute from her. We found an old video of Steven saying a bunch of words at about 2 years old, and her voice and words sound so similar to his! He thinks those videos are absolutely hilarious. I really hope to get her on camera one of these days saying "applesauce" ""Awesome!" Hey Baby!" "Sparkle Toes" "What's up" Or "There it is!" Just so I can remember how cute it was.

- I impulsively cut 12 inches of my hair off to donate! I was in need of a new change, and it really seemed to be just what I needed!

- Enjoyed many trips to Thanksgiving Point

- Froze through a BYU vs. Idaho football game, but it was worth it for Steven and Lillie to have a half sleep over at Aunt Sheri's :)

Things I'm looking forward to!

-Holiday Boutiques

-Thanksgiving

-Meeting my dear friend's sweet new baby who is due in 3 and a half weeks

-Christmas Season

-Going to the Nutcracker

-Lots of Hot Chocolate

As for my thoughts tonight, I have had so many thought swirling in my mind about so many different things that I sometimes have felt overwhelmed. On top of that, Satan has been really mean lately and has made me feel like I'm not very good and that I don't fit in anywhere. He keeps trying to get me to compare myself to all the other amazing ladies around me so that I am not happy. Ug. Talk about frustrating. Friday night after pounding away at the piano for a half hour, I felt a little better and I got some of the motivation I needed to get out of this rut.

Today I was reading in the November Ensign preparing to go visiting teaching, and I was reading "The Privilege of Prayer" by Elder J. Devn Cornish of the Quorum of the Seventy. His talk really was what I needed to read tonight. The quote that really just hit me, and made me just burst into tears the moment I read it was this:

"In His mercy, the God of heaven, the Creator and Ruler of all things everywhere, had heard a prayer about a very minor thing. One might well ask why He would concern Himself with something so small. I am led to believe that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that the things that are important to us become important to Him, just because He loves us. How much more would He want to help us with the big things that we ask, which are right (see 3 Nephi 18:20)?

Little children, young people, and adults alike, please believe how very much your loving Heavenly Father wants to bless you. But because He will not infringe upon our agency, we must ask for His help. This is generally done through prayer. Prayer is one of the most precious gifts of God to man."

The biggest part of this that stuck out to me was the though "Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that the things that are important to us become important to Him, just because He loves us!(Emphasis added)"

Heavenly Father doesn't care if our cares are small, large, weird, crazy, or even dumb. He cares that we want to tell him about it because He loves us! He WANTS us to tell Him about us, so that we can feel His love. Feel His understanding. Feel that we are important. That's one thing I realized I really feel the Brethren wanted us to know this Conference. Heavenly Father loves us so much that He wants us to gain a better relationship with Him.

So, to cap off my ramblings, I got my answer. The thing I need to do to settle my being overwhelmed and my feelings of lack of self-worth is to improve my relationship with Him. And I sure hope that I can do that!

Love Your Body!

2011-10-08T16:28:00.001-07:00

A year and a half ago, I never would have considered myself as a “runner.” I did, however, have a goal to do the Race for the Cure 5K in celebration of my mom, who is a cancer survivor. As I finished that race in May of 2010, I knew I was hooked on this sport. A year and a half and seven 5K’s later, today I was able to run my first 10K! Never EVER thought I could run one mile, let alone 6! My friends, Nicole and Amber, were able to run the Wasatch Woman 10K with me this morning at Thanksgiving Point.

Nicole and I tried to look like we were shivering in this picture so we could remember how rainy and cold it was when we first got there. :)

The weather was cold, but it started to warm up as we got ready to start the race. Nicole was nice enough to keep running with me and motivate me. As we hit mile 1, I was feeling great and knew this was going to be a great race! At about mile 4.5 I got my second wind, and we were almost to the home stretch by then. We did walk for about 30 seconds about 4.75 miles in, so that we could grab a drink, but it was quick and we were able to keep going. The last stretch was awesome, and it was so fun to sprint across the finish line with a time of 1:08:15. Nicole came in a whole second behind me at 1:08:16. :) ( and Amber was like 1:05 or something. Fast and awesome. :)) I was secretly hoping for an hour and ten minutes, so it was fun to beat that. Darrell and kids came as well, and that meant a lot. Even if they did walk up literally 2-3 minutes after I finished the race :) So, overall I loved this race! I will probably not make 10K’s a frequent thing, but I will definitely try to finish off each summer that I can with this race to cap off this accomplishment that represents the completion of many goals!

Birthday Week

2011-10-08T16:14:00.001-07:00

Last week was my birthday! I do absolutely love birthdays, but having 3 in a month takes up all of my creativity :) Anyway, it was a fabulous day, and it’s nice to finally reach the ripe old age of 25. :) When I got home from aerobics, Steven came downstairs and was very perplexed that he had not yet wished me a happy birthday. It was 7 a.m., so he was really cutting it close. :) I went visiting teaching in the morning at the park with my good friends, and sneaky Genesis found out I was going to go buy a Red Velvet cake. Then, she went and bought me one before I could get to the store. So Sneaky! But seriously, it meant so much that somebody actually wanted to do something like that for me. I loved it, and of course it was delicious!
I enjoyed a wonderful evening with my fabulous family going to dinner. My favorite part was Steven’s insistence to sing Happy Birthday every time Darrell mentioned it was my birthday. :)

Later in the week we enjoyed a lovely day at Farm Country riding carriages and Lillie rode a pony. :)

Lastly, Lillie has been obsessed with Temples recently, so I took the kids to the Temple to get pictures to print and put in their rooms. They had a fun time running around!

Just some pics of my cute kids :)

2011-09-20T09:19:00.001-07:00

To take a break from my ramblings, we’ll leave you with some cute pics of my cuties :)

"Be What's Needed"

2011-09-18T21:10:00.003-07:00

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm really excited to be singing in the General Relief Society Meeting this weekend. The last few weeks of rehearsals have been simply amazing. As I before mentioned, we have the most amazing director, Emily Wadley. Darrell is probably sick of me talking about how inspiring she is. But she definitely is somebody I want to become like someday. It's apparent she has an immense love for the gospel, everyone around her, and Church History. Something she spoke of our first rehearsal, and has reiterated every week, is the importance to "Be What's Needed." We all have so many different talents, and the Lord uses those talents to help unify His people (Or in our case, the choir). However, for the unity to happen, we have to be willing to be humble, obedient, and teachable to "be what's needed." Whether we see it at the beginning or not, the Lord knows what we need, and will make things happen the way they are supposed to.

Last night as were were discussing the words to "The Morning Breaks" I was taken back into memory the times I've felt an immense sense of peace or joy that has come from the knowledge that the gospel it true. My mind flashed back to to sitting in the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, New York at the peaceful beauty that surrounded me as the sun peeked through the trees. I went back to the humble testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith that swelled in my heart as I touched the banister walking up the stairs in the Carthage Jail. To sitting in front of the Nauvoo Temple watching the sun set over the Mississippi River with the silhouette of the statues of Hyrum and Joseph. To receiving my endowments in the Manti, LDS Temple. To the days my children were born. To the times when my children are just sweet and loving.

As my mind reflected on these many memories, I knew I needed to remember and learn from these experiences, just as I learn from the history of faithful Latter-Day Saint Women both in the early days of the church and now. It was also a spiritual battery recharge I've been needing for a while.

So, although I'm going to miss singing with this amazing choir and learning weekly from Sister Wadley, I'm thankful the Lord needed me there. I originally thought it was merely an answer to my longing to sing in a choir again, but clearly I needed more than that, and I hope to daily keep that spirit of remembrance in my heart.

The need to journal more

2011-09-18T20:49:00.003-07:00

This cute little lady, Emily, is our choir director for the choir singing at the General Relief Society Conference this year. She's such an amazing woman, and I feel like I know her so well, even though I've only spent a few hours the last month being directed by her. Tonight she talked about how we need to write down all the experiences that we're having to help us learn and grow in life. I found this quote on her blog tonight, and I would like to share it with you.

"Oh there's a lot to say. A lot to remember. A lot to forget. A lot to keep to yourself. A lot to hang on to and a lot to let go of. Sweet moments. Ugly thoughts. Revelation. Pure emotion. Swings, diapers, salad, cereal. Indian, PB, popcorn, apples, did I say cereal? Flying, typing, talking, earning. Headphones, car stereo, ipod. Babies, kids, heartache, victories. Soccer games, concerts, car rides, door slams, dirty floor, laughter. Harmony, kindergarten, colors. Pancakes, lullabyes. Singing, yelling, crying, whispering, kissing, holding, grasping, reaching, wanting, trying, hoping, accepting. Dancing, cleaning, walking, going. Corners, hills. Forgiving. Loving. Sleeping. Yep, that's some of the living. Remember? Remember how I've been living all this time?"

I hope to be able to do better and recording all the things happening in my life, because these times will never be here again. I know that the Lord is watching over me always, but I want to reflect on everything, all the time. Here's to a new day and a better job remembering to journal for me!

My now 4 year old :)

2011-09-10T09:36:00.001-07:00

4 years ago today, we finally got to meet this cute little man in person :)

Even though he came into our family sooner than we ever originally planned, I wouldn’t trade him for ANYTHING!

Steven also started joy-school this week with some of the neighborhood kids. He has definitely been loving it. He has always had a passion for learning, and he makes every day exciting. He asks hundreds of questions, and always wants to know about everything!
Here are some fun thing about our wonderful 4-year old!

Favorite Movies: Cars and Toy Story (All of them, including Mater’s Tall Tales)

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Food: Ramen Noodles and Chicken Nuggets

Favorite Scripture Story: Samuel The Lamenite

Favorite Sport: Running

He loves to sleep on the top bunk

He absolutely loves going to primary every week, even if lately it’s just because he has wanted them to sing to him for his birthday :)

He really does love playing with his sister, and is starting to get along with her, and share with her a lot

Due to other family parties, and a BYU Game today, we did Steven’s birthday celebrations yesterday. A few months back, he got to go to a friend’s birthday party, and since then playing with his friends for his birthday was definitely something he wanted a lot! We did a Toy Story friend birthday party with a few of his friends from the neighborhood. Thanks to my sis-in-law, Jenny, I had some great inspiration. We started the party by reading the kids a story about the Toy Story toys escaping from Sunnyside Day Care. Then, they had to get through an obstacle course which led them to the kitchen. They had to come down the stair, go through the balloon pit at the bottom, climb over chairs, under the piano bench, do a ring toss, and go through a box tunnel. I wanted to take more pictures, but I was supervising 8 adorable 3-4 year olds :)

In the kitchen, we did Mr. Potato Head Crafts. When Steven got up to make his, he said, “I want to make a Picasso Potato.” :) I have an artist, what can I say?

Then, we had presents and cupcakes and ice cream. Steven was not expecting presents, so this was an exciting awesome thing for Steven. His friends gave him such awesome presents, and he loves them! Overall, I think the boys had fun. :) Thanks Debra and Sheri for helping me man the boys.

And last night we had my sister, my parents, and Darrell’s parents come over for dinner, and cake and ice cream. Steven wanted a Woody and Buzz cake this year. I let him find cakes with me online, and he chose one that I tried my best to make. It was fun to play with fondant again, and even though the cake was not perfect, he absolutely loved it! He also loved family being here to play with him. It was definitely one of his best days!

Happy Birthday Darrell!

2011-09-10T09:07:00.001-07:00

September at our house is birthday month, since 3/4 of the family birthdays fall in this month. Last week we celebrated Darrell’s last birthday in the twenties. :)

Friday, the 2nd, was his birthday. We had presents that evening, where he got some clothes and a game. Our friends, the Anderson’s came over to play games and to enjoy homemade ice cream with us for the celebration. On Saturday, Darrell and I went to lunch while the kids played at Grandma and Grandpa Cropper’s, after which we watched the BYU game. The Cougs kept up their birthday streak for Darrell and pulled out the win. :) Go Cougs!! We sure love Darrell, and I hope that we made it a special fun weekend for him!!

And Thanks to Darrell’s parents and Zann and Amber for letting us watch the game at your places.

Ready to Run!

2011-08-27T15:16:00.001-07:00

I sure love me some 5K races. Especially when they are with good friends! I was going to run a relay race today, but things just didn’t work out with that the way I originally hoped they would, so I started to look for a 5K race I could do. I found one, so my friends, Genesis, Nicole, and Amber were gracious enough to come run the Utah Runner Girls 5K in Alpine with me (and of course every single one of them beat me :)). I haven’t been feeling the best this week on my nightly runs, so I was hoping I could still manage a good race. Physically it was an awesome course, but for some reason I just didn’t have it in me mentally to do as well as I hoped. It totally helped, however, that the time I was just about to start walking, Amber yelled at me from behind - “RUN JANELL!!” It totally helped me finish the last mile of that race. But that’s okay, gotta get some bad races out of my system, right? I still finished in 31:41, and I hope I can get over this mental block in the next week or two to hopefully start training for a 10K in October. :) Here are some pictures to document this fun event, because really, it was a lot of fun.

Here’s a picture of the four of us before the race – Gen, Me, Amber and Nicole. Gen is an animal , who is also 25-weeks pregnant with a baby girl, whom she is going to name after me. Okay, she’s really not going to name her after me, but I wanted to make sure y’all were reading. :) But I am so excited to meet her baby girl in December!

Gen and I after the race

Amber and I after the race. So glad I could start and finish with her!!

5 years!

2011-08-27T15:06:00.001-07:00

We were so young and cute back then :)

On the 19th and 20th we headed out for a fun little vacation to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. My sister and mom were great to watch the kids (And paint my sister’s apartment). We headed up to West Valley Friday night to see Joseph up at the Hale Center Theatre, which was fabulous. We also stayed at the Springhill Suites by the airport for a kid free night (yay for sleeping in!!). On Saturday, as before mentioned, we slept in, then went to a session at the Jordan River Temple and had lunch at the Olive Garden. It was a simple, fun weekend, and it was great for us to get away!! I sure love this tall handsome prince charming, and I’m so glad he still loves me, and that we can work together on future goals for the next 5 years, and then to infinity and beyond!

My Weekend Ramblings and Guest Poster - Go Me! :)

2011-08-15T21:05:00.004-07:00

One of the things at the top of my wish-list for life right now is for people to build houses on the empty lots next to us, and for someone to move into the house across the street that has been vacant since before we moved in. I have some amazing friends in my neighborhood, but I've been longing to have some great people right here to help me feel more settled I guess.

Well, Saturday we noticed that a family was finally moving into the vacant house across the street! SOOO excited! :) When I noticed them moving in, I asked Darrell if he was ready to head across the street. :) We roped his brother, Brad, into going to help them, and my sister, myself and the kids went over to introduce ourselves. Turns out the new neighbors have 4 lovely daughters (6 year-old twins, a 3 year old, and a seven-month old). Steven had a BALL playing with the girls while the boys helped move stuff in.

Come to find out, our new neighbors were getting baptized that evening! The missionaries invited us to come to the baptism, and I'm so glad we did. It was an amazingly spiritual experience, and it was so neat to see the gospel in such a new, fresh light in Phil and Amie's lives. They were so excited, and I haven't felt the spirit that strong in a really long time. I'm grateful that they let us share that special evening with them.

Sunday in church they received the Holy Ghost, and it was evident the spirit was again strong in the meeting. I think it touched many people in the audience.

At a time where we live in the day-to-day things of trying to do our best and trying to live the gospel to the fullest, it was just refreshing and wonderful for me to see this amazing family just starting out on a journey I've known for so long. The reminder of wanting to feel that spirit all the time was delightful, and I'm going to cherish this weekend for a while.

On an unrelated note - I was a guest blogger today for a friend - Elise. It does include a giveaway so go check er' out if you want!!

Thanksgiving Point Children’s Gardens

2011-08-14T15:13:00.001-07:00

This past week my friends and I took our kids to the children’s gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It’s fun for all of us to have kids the same age, and we thought this outing would be a lot of fun. They have a splash pad area as you first enter the gardens, so the kids had fun playing and getting wet. :)

Then we headed through the gardens for fish feeding, block playing, and down the hill rolling fun

My Almost 4-Year Old

2011-08-07T20:05:00.001-07:00

I only say that, because he reminds me of it almost daily. I still have a month to enjoy him being a 3-year old though, and so far 3 has been a great time for my little man. I’ll just leave you with all his cute pictures and get to all the sentimental stuffs for him next month :)

My Cute Kids

2011-08-07T19:55:00.001-07:00

They say a picture can say 1,000 words. So I’ll let these speak about 15,000 adjectives to describe stinkin’ cute. :) Thanks again Collette!

18 Months Old

2011-08-07T19:40:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Picture Overload :) This little lady turned 18 months old on July 13. We had pictures taken of the kids the week after, but I’m just now getting them. But the wait was totally worth it. Our friend, Collette, took pictures of these kids up at the Jordan River Parkway up in the Salt Lake Area. My kids were the biggest stinkers, but you’d never tell it by these pictures :) I would recommend Collette to anybody looking for a great photographer at a great price.

Anyway, at Lillie’s 18 month appointment her stats were:

Weight: 24.4 lbs (Somewhere in the 40th percentile)
Height: 31 Inches (Somewhere in the 30th percentile)

She is just absolutely adorable, and her blue eyes can win just about anybody over.

Some of her words and phrases include:

Ball, Flower, Please, Cheese, Balloon, Kitty, Dad, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, Sheri, Steven, Bye-Bye, See Ya Later, Hi Dad!, Hello, Water, Fish, Drink, Step, Jump, Up, Down, Izzy, Abby.

She specializes in car noises, and animal noises such as: horse, cat, dog, pig, bear, and a dinosaur.

Cropper Family Fun

2011-07-31T20:11:00.001-07:00

We had a quick day at home to do laundry and sleep before heading to Midway with the Cropper family. We had rented a lovely townhome up there for everyone to play and enjoy time with everyone. We also had some mad minute-to-win-it action going on, as well as partying, playing games, fantastic dressing up/skit doing and just overall fun-time-having. :) We were also able to be there with Casey and Rachel as they blessed their beautiful little girl, Briella in Heber City. It was a lot of fun, but I’m not gonna lie, it was nice to get home after almot 2 full weeks of being gone. Thanks fam for such a great time!!

Date With the Hubband

2011-07-31T19:52:00.001-07:00

Since we stayed overnight in Richfield after the 4th, we decided to take advantage of my parents being able to watch the kids and headed off for a day to Capital Reef National Park which is just a little over an hour away from their house. We had a picnic, did some sight-seeing, and did a lovely hike up to Hickman’s Bridge. We apparently made it out in time too, since there were some awesome thunderstorms that arrived just as we were leaving the park. Lovely day for us though!!! Love being able to spend some time with my husband without any worried, or screaming children. LOVE HIM!!!!

4th of July!

2011-07-31T18:49:00.001-07:00

Many people know that the 4th of July is my absolute favorite holiday next to Christmas. Not only do I have a huge patriotic heart, but I love my hometown, Richfield’s, celebration. My siblings all feel the same, and our spouses all just bear with us every year. :)

A few of my friends from high school –Kacey, Kate, and Christie(couldn’t figure out how to bring the picture off facebook to here…) – started the day with me, along with my nephew, Nate, and my sis-in-law, Emily who were awesome enough to come run the 5K with me in the morning. I finished with a time of 30:06, which was 4 or 5 minutes faster than last year on that same course. Nate kept me going the whole way so that I didn’t walk.

Then after the 5K, we headed for the parade. One thing that was awesome this year was that the Air Force had some of their F-16 fighter jets fly over before the start. So awesome. :) Here’s our crew gearing up for the parade. Wahoo!

Then it was off to the park for some fun, especially the Steven highlight, kids races :) And then the pool for swimming and money dive.

Then we implemented some intense Rowley Family Minute-To-Win-It Action

And ended the evening with Firecracker cupcakes and lovely fireworks. Ah, I love the 4th. Hooray for America, and Thank You to all the wonderful Troops Who are Out Serving (Particularly the 222 National Guard unit whom a few of my friends have husbands currently serving! Love them!)

Starting to catch up….

2011-07-16T20:46:00.001-07:00

This year for our vacationing, we decided to pack everything into about a 2 week time-span. :) We started by heading out camping on June 29 with my family up Nephi Canyon. The campsite was absolutely beautiful, and despite rain and thunder shaking us and keeping us awake a lot the first night, we had a lot of fun. We played games, went hiking, and enjoyed each other’s company.

Delightful Saturday

2011-06-25T16:37:00.001-07:00

Complete with a parade, candy eating, swimming, flower planting, and sawing giant holes in the garage to create a storage closet. Yep, Delightful :)

Zoo Fun

2011-06-25T16:29:00.001-07:00

Friday, my cousins invited me and the kids to join them and their kids at the zoo. Steven was so excited, and Lillie ended up loving it too. Although, things started a little rough when I lost a fight with a dinosaur…

But somehow I survived. After that, my kids told me I needed to stay away from them. I still took pictures :)

This was Lillie getting so excited to see the Geese

Steven and Meghan measuring up to their inner-orangutan

Steven’s Favorite Animal was the Elephant at the zoo. As always. And baby Zuri is pretty cute.

We ended our trip with a ride on the train. So fun! Thanks Maria and Rachel! Can’t wait to get together again!

Photo Fun

2011-06-25T16:18:00.001-07:00

I’ve had some fun with my camera this week. First, I attempted taking pictures of my new niece, Briella. She didn’t like me though…

So to make myself feel better (;)) I took pictures of my kids. And surprisingly they were actually really good! It was fun.

Fathers Day and Cousin Week

2011-06-25T15:59:00.001-07:00

It was exciting to see both of our dads and my grandpa the day before Fathers Day, and then we had a lot of family time on Sunday! We love our Daddy around these parts! He’s a wonderful husband and father, and he’s the best!!

Monday-Wednesday the kids and I headed to Nephi for Cousin Week with the Rowley cousins. It was a lot of fun, despite one nephew, Colton, deciding to get a fabulous head wound on Tuesday. The kids had fun though, especially Steven. Thanks Jen for planning a great event!

A Baby Shower! :)

2011-06-25T15:50:00.001-07:00

Last weekend a few of my high school buddies got together to shower our friend, Jamie, with a party to celebrate her baby boy! It was fun to get together, eat some yummy food (particularly some AMAZING brownies) and celebrate babies! Hooray!

We have cute Brandon here playing…

And cute Kate

And Jamie practicing for her modeling career

Kate telling a story…

Christie and Reese

Love the happiness on Jamie’s face here :)

All of us

And the cute pregnants :)

The Weekend Review

2011-06-05T16:18:00.001-07:00

Darrell’s brother, Casey, and his wife Rachel had a beautiful baby girl, Briella Ann, on Wednesday. My sister was awesome and watched the kids on Thursday during her lunch break so I could go meet the little munchkin. All 9 lbs, 15 oz of her. And it’s all adorable cuteness, don’t you worry. :)

We went to visit my grandparents after, and Lillie thought she was hilarious pretending to talk on the phone

Saturday was our annual neighborhood party – Hawkslandapalooza!! This really is a great event for our community, and it was a blast. In the morning, they had a kids run and a 5K. Steven was SO excited that he got to come do the kids run. Here we are just before his race

And here he is lined up at the starting line

And finishing the race. I love that you can see the sheer joy on his face!

Here are Steven and Lillie waiting for Mommy to finish her 5K

Finishing! This was seriously the toughest 5K I have ever done, but it was a blast! My good friend, Nicole, ran most of of it with me, and it was nice to have someone to talk to to distract me from the dyingness that happens when running up killer hills. As I crossed the finish line, I was SHOCKED, yet extremely happy to hear my time: 27:25. That is exactly 5 minutes and 5 seconds faster than my 5K a month ago. Funny what staying on a consistent training schedule will do to you!

I was trying so hard not to look near death in this picture

Me and Nicole after surviving the race!

In the afternoon the neighborhood had a free barbecue, free fun for the kids (i.e. rock and face painting, bounce house, live entertainment) and we also had a neighborhood market. I was able to sell some of my homemade bows and flowers, which was a lot of fun. Although due to my lack of sunscreen I now resemble a lobster :)

Thomas the Train!

2011-05-29T18:16:00.001-07:00

To start off our Memorial Day Weekend, we headed up to Heber City with some of my family to ride Thomas the Train! My sister was the awesome one who came up with this plan, and I know those of us who were able to come had a great time! We were lucky to have earlier tickets, so that it wasn’t super cold, and we beat the rain/snow. :) I’ll basically let the pictures tell the story of the day. It was a great day for all!!

And I have to include these last three pictures, of just how awesome my boys are. :) They will learn their lesson to play with my camera when I’m not around.

I knew it would come...

2011-05-19T12:59:00.003-07:00

The day I knew would come at last has come. At last. Lillie has now discovered that she can walk!! However, crawling is still her preferred method of travel. But this morning she was on fire! The funniest part is she will only walk after she's crawled over to her rocking chair. She rocks for a second, then scoots off and takes off wherever she wants to go. :) It should be fun to see when she's ready to branch out.

Yay for the dinosaur museum!

2011-05-19T12:56:00.001-07:00

My piano lessons cancelled on Tuesday, and with all the rain we decided to go to the Dinosaur Museum. Steven had more fun this time, and wasn’t terrified of the dinos, and had a lot of fun playing in the sand. It was nice this time because Lillie could crawl around and have fun as well. :)

This little gem…

2011-05-19T12:49:00.001-07:00

Go ahead, make fun of me for blogging about Nutella. My mom brought this little gem home from me on a recent trip to Italy. I’ve had Nutella here in the states, but wasn’t the biggest fan. However, this Italian stuff is incredible. I’m grateful no one else in my house likes it, because it makes it all mine. It’s in a small jar, so I have been using it wisely to help it last. And everything is in Italian, so I can’t feel guilty for eating it, because I have no idea how good or bad it is for me :)

Battle Creek Falls Hike

2011-05-14T21:25:00.001-07:00

Hooray for weekends!! After letting me go running with my friend, and then doing a bunch of yard sale-ing, Darrell was excited for us to go as a family to go hiking over in Pleasant Grove. It started raining as soon as we got off the freeway, so we stopped at my grandparents and had a lovely visit for a while until the weather cleared up. Then we headed up the mountain! It was a nice hike up to Battle Creek Falls, and we think the kids had fun (despite a lot of whining and tiredness and such from the two of them).

First sighting of water up the trail…

Steven was a little trooper and hiked the whole way up to the falls… ..while Lillie joyfully got to be strapped to me the whole time. She actually did enjoy it, just didn’t enjoy me trying to take pictures of her.

Steven had a lot of fun playing with sticks and throwing rocks into the water along the way.

We even found this cool cave.

And finally the falls! They were very pretty and it was fun to take the day to be together and have fun!

(See the sad, tragic cuteness of Lillie having full out pigtails? *sniff* My baby is growing up).

A fun little crafty project…

2011-05-14T21:16:00.001-07:00

A while back I bought a piece of remnant fabric that I thought was darling. It sat in the bag for quite a while, until I stumbled across this. It was something that looked easy enough, so i had to try it. I thought it turned out pretty cute, even if Lillie didn’t want me to take her picture in it. :)

Mothers Day Weekend

2011-05-14T21:12:00.001-07:00

My family was awesome to wake up early with me on Saturday May 7 to head up to Salt Lake for Race for the Cure. I was the only one from my family who was able to do it this year in celebration of my awesome survivor mommy (our 9-11-01 survivor). The race was a lot of fun, and I’m glad I did it. I finished in 33:30, which is really good for me, and I ran the whole thing. No walky. :) yay! As you can see, my family was thrilled to be waiting for me. Haha.

After the race, we went to the store so I could pick out my Mothers Day present, which was a rose bush for my flower bed. Hooray! It was exciting. Then, because my legs were tired, I sat on the couch the rest of the Saturday while my boys planted the new rose bush. I’m excited for her to bloom.

On Sunday my kids slept in, and my husband didn’t have bishopric meeting until 10. It was fabulous. Then after church we headed to Kaysville for dinner with the Cropper’s. It was a fabulous, relaxing and enjoyable Mothers Day. Thanks to my fabulous husband and kids for making it such!

Tulip Fest

2011-05-14T20:55:00.001-07:00

The first week of May finally brought amazing weather, and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were able to join Steven, Lillie, and myself for a joyful day of Tulip Fest. I have always loved going, so it’s nice to see my kids enjoy it. Even if they did pester Casey and Rachel all day. (I can joke that they’re just prepping them for their little lady to come join them. :))

We’re so glad they could come with us and that we could enjoy the time together!

Girlies Day :)

2011-05-14T20:49:00.001-07:00

At the end of April I was able to get together with a few of my friends from high school for a temple session, lunch, and a stroll at Tulip Fest. It was a great day, and it was fun to see old friends. Now if Kate could just get me all of her pictures, we’d be set :)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T15:22:00.001-07:00

Last Monday we had an FHE about Jesus being Resurrected. We watched the Living Scriptures “He Is Risen” video and read from The Friend magazine. It was the best idea I could come up with this year to get a 3-year old to understand the real reason we have Easter as opposed to just getting candy and stuff about the Easter Bunny. This year I think it worked pretty good, and Steven has wanted to watch that video daily and we get to talk about it. I absolutely love celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ and am so grateful for all He did for us that we might live again one day.

Here are some attempts as getting the kids pictures in their Easter Clothes…. :)

Week in Review

2011-04-24T15:11:00.001-07:00

Monday – Watched my friend’s daughter. It was probably one of the best days ever. Steven seemed smitten by Berkley’s adorableness, and has never been nicer to Lillie than he was while Berkley was here.

Tuesday – My dad brought my Grandma up to Salt Lake as she was being presented an award for being Volunteer of the Year award. They stopped by my house on their way up, which was great, because we don’t make it to Deseret enough to see Grandma. Steven definitely had a good time reading all his books with her.

Wednesday – Lillie got her first experience with full on ringlets. It was easier than I thought. Hopefully it will be something to do more of in the future :)

Thursday – We dyed Easter Eggs after dinner with Steven. He thought it was absolutely awesome! Especially the blue color.

Friday – My brother and his family came to stay at our house overnight. Lillie absolutely LOVES her cousin Kaitlyn, and I enjoyed hearing the giggling that happened the whole time they were playing together.

Saturday – The Easter Bunny left some goodies and books at our house. The kids love them, as do mom and dad. Mom has eaten WAY too much chocolate over the last two days. Good thing her Boot Camp Workout is Monday. :) We also had fun at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. My neighbor estimated “not too many” would be there. There were probably 40-50 people. So much for “not too many.” :)

Saturday also brought a visit from my parents and my sister. My mom, sister, and sister’s roommate just returned from a trip to Paris, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. With their return came prizes and treats for all! (And I mean, who can refuse chocolate from Europe?)

Another flash back Sunday

2011-04-18T12:40:00.001-07:00

I was excited to put Lillie in this dress. However, once I got it on her it was a LOT puffier than I thought it was going to be. She still made it look cute as can be though :) Also, I’m starting to realize how THIN her hair is. I’m still trying to figure out where in the world she got thin hair.

(1987)

(2011)

You know you’re a mom….

2011-04-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

When kids eating applesauce is just plain cute, fun and fills all with joy :)

Little Glimpses of Spring

2011-04-18T12:27:00.001-07:00

We were out working in the yard the other day when I noticed that our apricot tree has blossoms on it! I was so excited. And Steven is even more excited because we have popcorn on our apricot tree. :)

And I’m pretty sure the sunshine and the outdoors is the new best friend around these parts. We will let Mr. Sunshine come around as long as he wants to!

My little man just keeps growing up!

2011-04-18T12:15:00.001-07:00

Since we were able to score a free toddler bed out of my parents shed when Steven was about 2, we have been able to put off buying him a big bed of his own. However, lately it’s been evident that Steven is too big for his toddler bed, as he would slam into the wall almost every time he rolled over, and one time when he climbed in and bumped the wall he held back tears as he said, “I need a big bed!”
Well, finally last weekend after we went to the temple, we went out and bought all the stuff to surprise him with his new bed! We bought a bunk bed so that we don’t have to buy another bed in the next year for Lillie when she gets big enough for a big bed, and Steven loves having them both set up, so we can build caves with them. Happy times for him!!

Having some fun with family :)

2011-04-09T20:31:00.001-07:00

Here’s a picture of my good-lookin, fun-lovin’, hard-working husband and my daughter adoring him. :)

Last weekend was super crazy and eventful. I’ll need to blog about the miracle of my Grandpa later, but I’ll leave you with some fun pictures of Saturday and Sunday of being with Darrell’s family. Saturday night, Darrell’s mom, sisters and I went with the kids to dinner, then to the Provo Towne Center to play in the kid zone and let Steven ride the train. It was definitely tons of fun!

And we had some fun entertainment in between conference stuffs :)

Because things are for getting into?

2011-04-06T15:43:00.004-07:00

My kids love to do what probably every other child loves to do. That is, empty out all the cupboard and play with the pots, pans, and other fun things. Every time Steven empties out the cupboards, Lillie loves to sit in pans. And Steven loves to pull her around. :) It's a lot of fun. And for some reason, my computer won't let me change the order of these pictures, so you get a modge podge of everything in random order.

Ready for BYU basketball (This is an older picture...yes...)

Stylin'

And this last video is for memory sake really. Lillie has the cutest car noise, and I want to preserve it forever. :) Enjoy!

No TV = More fun :)

2011-03-23T16:00:00.001-07:00

Lately, I feel like Steven is always begging me to watch a show. It’s great to put one on for him when I take a shower and make dinner, but other times it drives me nuts how much he wants to watch it. However, I feel we’ve been doing a lot better at keeping the TV off more, and having more fun around here. Some of those things include painting, building with Steven’s fun blocks, cars, and dumping toys out everywhere of course. :)

Steven covered his hands in paint yesterday and just started clapping like crazy. This created a really cool splatter effect on the paper. And the wall. And Steven. and Lillie. Such fun. :) Luckily it cleaned up super easy, and Steven is still proud of himself.

Steven’s Trio Blocks are pretty awesome, and he brought this to me and said, “Look at my vaccum.” Impressive buddy. Seriously. :)

And a classic picture of Steven being obsessed with Lillie’s toys since they are the most new in the house. :)

Back in the Blogging Saddle…

2011-03-21T12:39:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Pete! Don’t ask me why I named my new camera Pete, but it just seemed to click. :) I’m excited that this new camera is exactly what I wanted. Inexpensive (Thanks to Costco), Quick Shutter, Fits in my palm and my purse. It’s fabulous. We’re developing a fabulous relationship. (Forgive all my photography puns through all that.)

For St. Patrick’s Day, I printed off a bunch of pictures for Steven to color. Despite Leprechauns being awesome, as is a pot of gold, the only thing Steven liked was the rainbows. So, for the holiday, we made Rainbow cupcakes. They were delish.

Also, since it’s March, it means March Madness!! Hooray! I would put a picture of my brackets, but that would totally be embarrassing after last weekend, so we’ll just point out the great stuff, like how well our Cougars played on Saturday!! (Yes, they won on Thursday, but it wasn’t as beautiful of a win.) Yes, there is epic Jimmer Fever around here like CRAZY, but my favorite player is still Jackson Emery. However, they all are great, and Saturday was a beautiful team win. My kids enjoyed getting dressed up and singing the fight song.

And Friday, we went to visit my grandparents, and Lillie found these fantastic sunglasses. She thought she was pretty funny.

Some more happenings

2011-03-09T20:29:00.001-07:00

Meet Vanda. She is our new (to us) 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan. She is just a glimpse of the “fun” we’ve had in the last month with vehicles. It started when we sold Darrell’s 1991 Acura Integra. Then a week later we bought Vanda. Then a week later we bought a 2000 Blue Chevy Malibu. Of course, this was followed 9 days later by selling our 1997 Chevy Lumina. So all in all, we’ve upgraded everywhere and hope it turns out to be a fabulous change.

Last Saturday we went to the BYU Basketball game. It proved to be a great experience. Steven deemed it too loud until we got him some cotton balls to use as ear plugs. Then he enjoyed it. And it was fun to see Jackson Emery and Jimmer Fredette play their last home game.

Then you get left with some cute pictures of my kids being cute of course. :) Steven taught Lillie the art of finger painting. And she even let him paint her face. Such good siblings.

If I Listen With My Heart

2011-02-20T21:12:00.001-07:00

Steven is now a sunbeam in Primary, and he absolutely loves it. I think one of his favorite things is singing time. Also, the primary choristers gave out CD’s to all the kids with the songs they’ll be singing this year. The first song on the CD is called “If I Listen With My Heart.” Steven asks for me to play it all the time, and he absolutely loves it. I’ve had so many feelings lately that I’ve wanted to blog, and the title of that song was the best thing to describe my feelings.

I often wonder sometimes why the Lord has given me what I’ve been given. I especially feel this way when I have friends or family go through trials that I want to be able to take away from them so they don’t have to feel that burden. I’ve felt this way when I have friends that want to badly to have babies, but their bodies have things that make that difficult for them. We got pregnant with both our kids within a month of getting off birth control, and so many times I’ve wanted to be able to say to my Heavenly Father that he can take that ability from me for a time and give it to them so that they can be able to bear children.

There are so many other times as well, but I recently found out someone very dear to me is expecting her first child, but just found out that she won’t be able to raise her baby here on this earth once her sweet daughter is born in June. This particular incident has hit me harder than I could ever imagine. When my sweet nephew was stillborn seven years ago, that affected me a lot, but my mom said something about it affecting you more after you’ve had children. A few weeks ago I discovered what she meant. My heart continues to ache every time I think about it.

As I’ve pondered and thought about why we’re given what we’re given, the answer I received was probably something everyone will receive one time or another, but it still was what I needed in my heart. The Lord knows us what we need, and He puts us where we are for a reason! I am where I am, because this is where I can serve the Lord the very best. Other people are where they are at because that is where the Lord needs them. Righteousness does not always mean that you’re never going to struggle with anything. Each of us has special talents and feelings, so He puts us where we need to be to help other people feel His love. Or, He may have someone that only we can help along the way because of what we have experienced. As long as we continue to strive to live the way He wants us to live, He is going to use our best talents to best help His work.

When I was in high school, I heard a talk where John Bytheway quoted a poem that I wrote down, and still reflect on often. I found it here.

My Life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.
Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes!

2011-02-20T20:44:00.001-07:00

I only remembered to take one picture this week of my recipe madness. So, I’ll start with this amazing homemade chicken pot pie recipe given to me by my good friend Christina. ( I encourage you to check out her site not just for the fabulous Thanksgiving Point giveaway she’s doing. She amazing in more areas than just cooking.)

Chicken Pot Pie

1/3 C Butter
1/3 C Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/3 C Chopped onion

1 3/4 C Chicken Broth
2/3 C Milk
2 C Cut Up Cooked Chicken
1 package of Frozen Veggies
Pie Crusts ( I usually buy my crusts, although this time I did homemade, and they turned out fabulously).

Heat butter over low heat until melted. Stir in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat.

Stir in broth and milk. Return to heat and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and frozen veggies.

Place bottom crust in a pie dish. Pour in chicken mixture and put other crust on top. Close crusts together and poke a few holes in top crust before baking.

Bake at 425 degrees for 30-35 minutes

Sweet and Sour Carrots

1 lb Carrots
3/4 C Sugar
1 tsp Corn Starch
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 C Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Green Pepper (diced)
1 Can Tomato Soup
1-2 C Cubed Cooked Chicken
(I usually just warm up 5-6 chicken nuggets, dice them, then through them in. The first time I put chicken in it my husband praised me for going to the work to bread the chicken. HA!)

Peel, slice, and cook carrots in salted water. Drain

Mix other ingredients into a sauce. (Mix sugar and corn starch first, then add other stuff)

Mix with carrots and simmer a few minutes.

Serve over rice or noodles

Creamy Baked Ziti

4 cups ziti pasta, uncooked
1 jar (26 oz.) marinara sauce
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
6 oz. (3/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
3/4 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
1 pkg. (8 oz.) KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/3 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

HEAT oven to 375ºF.

COOK pasta in large saucepan as directed on package, omitting salt. Remove from pan; drain. Meanwhile, add marinara sauce, tomatoes and cream cheese to same pan; cook on medium heat 5 min. or until cream cheese is melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently. Return pasta to pan; mix well.

LAYER half the pasta mixture in 13x9-inch baking dish; cover with layers of sour cream, 1 cup mozzarella and remaining pasta mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

BAKE 20 min. or until heated through.

The Happenings

2011-02-20T20:28:00.001-07:00

Since my camera flash broke a monthish ago, I haven’t taken many pictures at all. (Obviously….) It’s been a good month. This gorgeous princess turned 13 months old last Sunday.

She has now just started standing up to things, but then cries because she can’t figure out how to sit back down

Her vocabulary mainly consists of “mom” “da" “dr” (Drink) and “ba.” Although, she has said “up” and “book” a few times. She jabbers constantly, and seriously sometimes it sounds like she is saying “I want this” or “I want that.” She is definitely not quiet.

She’s figured out stairs, which has been kind of a fun adventure.

She absolutely loves her daddy, and loves to laugh.

Steven has been introduced to the amazing art of fort making. He says fort like a hick, so it sounds like he says, “Let’s build a fart.” We chuckle everytime. We’ve had some good, bad, and ugly forts. :) It’s a joyous occasion.

Also, I’ve been doing learning labs with Steven (Daily learning activities). He is way into the letters of the alphabet, and can sound out most of the letters now. Putting them together is a whole different story, but we don’t mind.

He has started asking “why?” after almost absolutely everything. I knew this stage was coming, but am not sure I’m ready for it.

He also loves getting into trouble with Lillie. The other day I came back downstairs after doing something only to discover that the two of them had unloaded a full container of wipes and a full box of tissues. Joy.

He just wins his way into my heart daily. Yesterday it was raining, so he asked us why it was raining. We told him that Heavenly Father decided that we needed rain that day, so he gave it to us. He seemed satisfied with that answer. Later in the day, we were out test driving mini-vans. The sales-dude was sitting in the back seat behind Steven and Lillie who were in the middle seat. Darrell was asking the sales-dude if the bad weather had made service slow for the day. Sales-dude proceeded to talk a little bit about it, and somewhat complained about the weather. Steven was quick to reply to his complaint “Heavenly Father gave us the rain.” Yeah. Pretty sure that shut the sales-dude up pretty fast. :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-22T16:01:00.001-07:00

Yeah, so this post is a little late. Who cares, right? :) I was just sitting and reflecting on what a great start 2011 has had so far! Mostly for journaling purposes, I want to reflect on what the first three weeks has brought to me.
Of course, as the new year rolled in, I set my resolutions, which included the generic ones:

Get to the ideal weight for my height
Read the scriptures 30 minutes a day
Become a more patient mommy
Be a more optimist mommy and wife
Take time for myself
Exercise 5 days a week
Make it the temple once a month

But really, with the generic, basic goals, it’s been an amazing year so far, and I’m already more positive about life!
I’ve been going to a killer aerobics class in the mornings with ladies in my ward, and it’s so fun! I’m starting to feel more buff, and despite the stupid scale telling me I’ve gained 3-4 pounds (I’ll blame weaning and muscle building), I’ve lost inches and am starting to fit into my “skinny” pants more comfortably. And Darrell asked me if I’d lost weight. We’ll skip the actual stupid scale results here, smile and thank the husband.
I went to Bunko about a month ago -(which had the most AMAZING fondue bar I’d ever experienced, but that’s another story)- but my prize there was a gift certificate to get a hair cut and a manicure. I’m now now longer sporting split ends, and I’m trying out the side-swept bangs look. It’s taken some getting used to, but still fun.
That was one up on getting an excuse to take time for myself.
The same week I got my hair cut and my hands pampered, I hemmed some pants for my neighbor, who just so happens to own the Toe Chateau, where she does foot stuff (i.e. pedicures). For hemming the pants, Jenni then gave me a pedicure! Cue feet feeling ready for a new year.
Then, today I went to the dentist. As fun as that sounds, I was cavity free, and now my mouth is ready for a new year!
Another random thing; I took my wedding ring in for it’s annual cleaning and re-rhodiumed (Whatever that is). Anyway, my ring now looks brand new again, and is also (you guessed it) ready for a new year!
With time for myself, I’m hoping to take a cake decorating class, experience zumba and/or spinning, and I have three 5K’s on my list for the year, possibly even a half marathon.

The scripture reading goal has also, so far, been successful. I’m feeling the Lord carry me through the stressful, ornery times of the day, and I feel more like somebody that I’d want to hang out with. I also feel the He is helping me see the sunshine a little bit brighter on the plain old great days.
Darrell and I were able to start off the year with a date to the temple, and it was an amazing session of just feeling peace and knowing that my Heavenly Father is aware of me, and knows I’m trying my best each day.

Now, to look to the rest of the year!! The GMAT is a “maybe” on Darrell’s list for the year, so I’m going to support him and help him in whatever he needs to do for that. Also a new (to us) minivan purchase is on the horizon. So exciting! Hopefully we’ll throw some exciting vacations and/or outings with the family to toss some extra fun into the mix.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Lillie’s Birthday Party!

2011-01-22T15:42:00.001-07:00

First off, the sad part of the story. On Thursday, Lillie’s birthday, I pulled out my camera to take pictures. Once I started taking pictures, I realized my flash is either broken or burned out (same thing?). That was sad. Also, if the light is not very optimum around now, my camera will not take good pictures at all. Super sad story.
The good that comes from the bad: 3 different people (My dad, My father-in-law and my sister) bring great cameras to Lillie’s party and take dozens and dozens of pictures.
The hard part of the story. Selecting the BEST pictures to put on the blog from her party :) Hence, you may get too many, but oh well:)

Saturday the 15th we had Lillie’s party!! We had grandparents, some aunts and uncles, and a couple friends here to celebrate! (About the max amount of people we could fit comfortably. :))

Lillie was ready for a fun fun day!

My good friend, Ashley, and cake making extraordinaire, came a little early to help me put the cake together. I had never done a fondant cake before, and so she helped me out a lot! It was definitely a lot of fun!

Lillie was happy and ready to party!

Once we got her on a sugar high, it was time for presents! She definitely got spoiled, and we had a lot of fun!! Hooray for birthday!

Can’t believe it’s been 1 year already!

2011-01-15T17:31:00.001-07:00

Thursday our little Princess turned one! This has been quite the year for us, and she has just made it all that much better! From her amazing arrival, to being the light in the days that were rough, to her spontaneous constant laughter, to her fun personality, we love everything about her! I took her in for pictures on her birthday, and am slightly grumpy that I can no longer share them on the blog and facebook through JCPenney’s new format. If you’re interested in seeing the fantastically darling things, click HERE. (It’s just a slideshow).

I took her in yesterday for her 12 month well-child visit, where she got stats and, of course, dumb shots. Glad they’re over. Here are her stats, and some pictures to see just how much she has grown over the past year:

28.25 inches long – 24th Percentile
19 lbs 9 oz – 23rd Percentile

(Pictures of the celebration coming soon)

More Christmas

2011-01-12T10:07:00.001-07:00

We always try to get together with our families over the holidays. This year on Christmas we headed to Richfield to party with my family. I just took a few pictures to show how much fun 39 people have when a reason to party occurs :)

Steven and his “Best buddy” Tait

Lillie was getting into everything, so Darrell put her in this box. It proved to be very exciting :)

We also had a delightful New Years Eve dinner with my fam, and a wonderful New Years Day with Darrell’s family. I’m a little sad to be done with the holidays. They were so much fun with my kids. At least we have all the loot to keep us entertained for a while :)

Christmas Morning!

2011-01-12T09:59:00.001-07:00

This year, for the first time with our little family, we had Christmas morning at our own house. It was exciting to start this tradition, especially since it was our first Christmas in our house. We had to wait forever for Darrell to wake up before we went down to see what Santa brought. But thankfully, it was worth the wait. :)

Steven got tools from Santa, and was excited to get to work!

Lillie got Beads and a dolly. She has always loved beads.

A yummy Christmas morning breakfast!

We all got BYU jammies for Christmas. On Christmas Eve when Steven opened his pajamas, he disappointedly said, “it’s material.” and tossed them aside. IT was hilarious. We showed him they were actually pajama pants though. As you can tell, he was thrilled about a picture.

Opening present. Steven’s cousins gave him some Buzz Lightyear wings, which he LOVES! Lillie also got some great toys.

Christmas Eve

2011-01-12T09:52:00.001-07:00

For Christmas Eve, Darrell got off work at like 10 a.m., so it was a day to party!! We headed to Springville to see Santa, and spend the evening with some of Darrell’s family. Our kids looted up there, before heading home for a night to sleep and hope Santa would come.

These kids definitely make the “Nice” and “Stinkin’ cute” lists this year.

2010-12-19T15:40:00.001-07:00

Steven’s reaction to getting pictures taken makes him a stinker.

This is Steven’s favorite picture. He thinks it’s absolutely hilarious.

This princess is adorable

My cute kids :)

Hm…what can I do to make her cry??

Get me outta here!!

The ones that actually got photoshopped

Snow!!

2010-12-19T15:33:00.001-07:00

Saturday we awoke to a lot of beautiful snow!! As soon as we all had breakfast, we all bundled up and headed out! It was definitely perfect packing snow, so we built some fun snowmen with the kids. Sadly, 24 hours later, the rain has helped melt EVERY last bit of snow. Including both our snowmen. Sniff. This may be the only “Christmas Snow” we’ll have this year, so I’m glad we got this much fun out of it!

Merry Christmas – Salt Lake Style

2010-12-19T15:27:00.001-07:00

Hooray for Friday night Date nights! :) A while back I decided to try and get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert because one of my friends from high school (also a friend of ours from college) was going to be dancing. I was excited when I actually got the tickets in the mail! (It didn’t hurt that David Archuleta was going to be in it too, right?) We set the date, and invited Darrell’s mom and dad to come with us. One thing we learned: the entire world is in love with David Archuleta. We heard that we needed to be early to the concert, so we made great time getting downtown, but Darrell’s parents got stuck in miserable traffic for forever. We made it into the conference center about a half hour before the concert started only to find that there were no seats left!! Turns out that they always overbook these concerts to ensure that every seat will be filled. In other words, all the planned “no-shows” showed up!! So we headed across the street and got to watch the concert via broadcast in the Tabernacle. It was a wonderful concert. We even figured we had better seats there than we would have in the back row of the Conference Center balcony. We decided to get some pictures of the beauty of Temple Square, and ourselves, of course. :) And a big shout out “thank you!” to my sister for watching the kids!!

A Week In the Life of Lillie (Video Style)

2010-12-10T13:46:00.005-07:00

This has been a big, fun week for Lillie! On Sunday as we were going to church I told Darrell that what I wanted for Christmas was for Lillie to learn how to crawl. I know that once she learns how, I'll not want her to do it anymore, but as for now, the fact that she will just sit on the floor and cry when she wants me, or when Steven is bugging her is really starting to annoy me. Anyway, I guess she heard me, cause Sunday night she started scooting.

This first video was on Tuesday when she was really starting to get a hang of the scooting idea.

The second video is just Lillie laughing with her daddy. Darrell can get her to laugh better than anybody.

And the last video is from this morning. She's making great progress and since she doesn't turn 11 months until Monday - she made it before then!

Just because they’re cute…and for record keeping sake

2010-12-05T13:11:00.001-07:00

My sis-in-law sent me a box of clothes that had been mine when i was a baby. I was especially excited to get this turquoise dress, as I actually have pictures of me in this dress. So, of course I had to take some pictures of Lillie wearing my dress today.

Steven felt left out because he didn’t get pictures, so we let him jump in some :)

And just for comparison sake, here is the only digitalized picture I have of me in the blue/turquoise dress. (I actually have some much better ones in my scrapbook). One big difference, I was six months old, and Lillie is now almost 11 months old :)

Go Cougars!

2010-11-21T19:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Darrell and I did something Darrell has wanted to do with me since pre-dating days. That is, go to a BYU game together! He invited me to go to one when we were at Snow, but I already had plans. Then with everything, I just haven’t gotten to one with him yet! So, I bought tickets, and we went! (Of course, 24 hours after I bought tickets, my brother texted me and told me he had 2 extra tickets.) We ended up sitting by him anyway, cause his seats were WAY better than ours :) It was fun, the Cougs won, and it was a night away from the kids. (THANKS Grandma and Grandpa Cropper!!)

(The view from our seats that I bought tickets for….)

The view from my brothers seats :)

I love that my nephew is all excited, and my brother’s face is saying “what are you doing?”

Just a picture of the field from our awesome seats :)

10 months old! (Only a week late on this one)

2010-11-21T19:25:00.001-07:00

Just had to post these cute ones for memory sake :)

My latest recipe find…

2010-11-09T18:59:00.001-07:00

My cousin-in-law, Shelly, requested that I post fun, healthy recipes. I think this one falls under “somewhat healthy” (And it claims it is high in fiber) and it’s something that my boys both love. So , here it is…..

Sausage Broccoli and Noodles
3 packages ramen noodle soup, chicken flavor
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 lb ground sausage (You could even make this healthier with turkey sausage; but use sausage. You need it’s flavor to make this dish work)
3 cups frozen baby broccoli flowerets, thawed

1) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook noodles for 2 minutes, reserving seasoning packets for later; drain and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together sour cream and cornstarch; set aside

2)Cook sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up with a spoon, for 5 minutes or until cooked through

3) Add broccoli, 1 cup water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the ramen chicken seasoning to skillet. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 3 minutes or until broccoli is cooked through.

4) Remove cover and stir sour cream mixture into skillet. Cook for 1 minute of until sauce has thickened. Add noodles to skillet and toss to coat with sauce. Serve immediately.

Per Serving*: 392 Calories; 11 g fat; 19 g protein; 55 g carbs; 6 g fiber

*Disclaimer- The per serving is based on a the recipe saying this recipe makes 4 servings. After making it twice, it clearly makes at least 6 good sized servings, so it probably is slightly less than that. Unless you heap it up and eat it up!

Also, this one is really inexpensive!

I got the sausage for $1.67
3 packages of Ramen for $0.39
Sour Cream $0.88
Broccoli $1.16 (which is actually a lot for me. I usually only pay 88 cents)

So the total is $4.10!

I also served this with a salad, which at this time of year is super cheap as I have carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes from the garden. So add about a dollar for lettuce

So you have a whole dinner for Roughly FIVE DOLLARS! :)