Vegas Trip

Friday was my brother's wedding in Las Vegas Nevada. The whole family packed up and left the house at 4:00am. It was probably one of the smoothest trips I've taken with the kids. The Wedding was fun and spending some time with family is always the best. Then on Saturday we hung out with Jason's old friend Robert and his family we went to a park called the splash pad or something like that. It was so much fun to play with the kids. Then later in the afternoon we went and hung out with Jason's other long time friend Jeremy and played in his pool. Eden loved the pool. She was so relaxed that she practically went to sleep there. The Austins have this thing called a wet bar in their pool that is perfect to sit on for babies and Eden really loved that. Josh was as usual a water baby and Eric needed some coaxing. Sunday we rushed over to attend the ward that Jason grew up in and many of the same people that were there when he was there were still there now so it was good for Jason to see so many old friends. Then the trip home was not so smooth Josh had to go potty every ten minutes and the kids fought and cried a lot but we made it home with out any acts of parental violence, so I'd say we did pretty well. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

 Josh and Eric outside the reception

 Nana and papa 

 Brianne and Jason

 The happy couple, my brother and his new wife.

 Me and my dad don't we look so tired?

 Josh busy coloring

 The reception, they rented out a section of the macaroni grill, it made for a nice relaxed place to celebrate Chris and Chris.

 Eden at the water park

 Jason and his close friend Robert Thistle

 Eric was having so much fun but he's at a stage right now where any time I pull out the camera he frowns at me. Stinker!

School Luau Day

This week at school it is all school spirit. Every day the kids are suppose to do something different. Yesterday was crazy hair day and frankly I forgot which Josh is not going to let me forget again. Today was Luau day so being that Josh is a desert child and has never been to the tropics. I did the best I could but thanks to a friend for the flowered lei I think we pulled it off. Eric and Eden didn't want to be left out either so they got into the spirit of it too. Please excuse miss Eden's hair we hadn't done it yet.

 All bright and ready to go to school!

messy hair girl

 but oh so happy

Greek Pizza

This is the Greek Pizza I made from scratch. And it was very tasty!
First I made the Pizza dough using Walmart's pizza mix so all I had to do was add water and let it rest, I know I cheated.
Then I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Then I rolled out the pizza dough and started layering. First I put a thin coat of olive oil, I sprinkled garlic salt on the crust then I put a thin layer of mozzarella cheese down, then came the spinach followed by the tomato slices. Then the sliced red onion and finally the crumbled feta cheese.
Cook for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven or until golden.
This pizza has a great deal less calories than your average pizza and is soooooo tasty.

Father's and Son's

Last night was our wards Father's and Sons camp out. This year it was held at Piramid Lake at a place called the Willows. Both Eric and Josh went this year with Jason and from all the pictures and floods of stories I take it they had a good time except for a little crowd camping close by that was very rowdy all night, but other than that the boys had a really good time, watching soap being made and building rockets and canoing on the lake. They also had fun playing with all the boys from our ward and the Wildcreek ward. I'm so glad that my husband sees the benefits of camping with his boys. I think that as they keep doing it their relationships will grow so much closer as two sons and their father should be.

 This guy was from the other ward but taught the boys how to make soap from scratch. Jason said the lesson lasted about an hour and Josh was the only kid who sat and watched the entire presentation. 

I think Josh has a thing for chemistry and science.

Jason says this was towards the end of the lesson as you can see it's pretty much just Josh left.

 Look at that smile. Josh standing with his soap.

which by the way smells really bad.

 Apparently Eric tried to sample every beverage at breakfast and was happy with none of them.

 While Josh was busy with his soap lesson Eric and Jason built the rocket.

 Kjar brother team work!

 Josh and Eric after shooting the rocket.

 This was taken just before donning some Life jackets and going canoing.

 A picture of half the crowd that came.

And while the boys were busy doing that the girls did this to our toes.

 Pink for Eden

and

Purple for Mommy

I look forward to joining Jason and the kids for a family camping trip soon.

Girls Night

Jason took the boys camping so Eden and I invited a bunch of friends over and had a girls night complete with nail polish and sundaes. It was soooo much fun I now have purple toes and Eden has fuchsia pink toe nails. It was fun being able to do girlie things. I look forward to when Eden is older and it could be something she and I share for years to come.

 Eden's pretty toes

Giving her a bottle while we painted was the only way to keep her still. She was so excited from all the girls at my kitchen table.

My friend Melanie told me next time to paint her nails while she is asleep.

and of course what night is not complete with out little girls putting on makeup and sparkle! At this point Eden was in the back ground munching on her bananas.

Baby Love

I really believe that it is truly ingrained in every little girl the ability to love babies and to nurture those babies. I know there are women out there who say they don't know how to care for a baby but really do any of us know exactly what to do when a child enters our lives? They don't come with instruction manuals after all. We have to rely on the help of others. There's an old saying I grew up hearing, "it takes a man, a women and God to create a baby, it takes a village to raise a child." None of us can do it alone, we have to rely on others and ask for help when needed.
This morning my beautiful little girl Eden who is a baby herself was playing with a baby doll that her brother gave her. She was hugging and kissing her baby with all her might and even though Eden is a baby she knew that her baby needed love. We all learn by example, my mother showed me how to love by loving me and my daughter knows how to love because I show her daily. It is an endless cycle as long as we continue the example of just loving the children that come into our homes.  I love being a mom and am grateful that I have children that are all to willing to let me love them as they are.

 Kissing Baby

 What do you get when a blue eyed man and a brown eyed women have a child?

A green eyed Boy!

Thanks for reading!

Learning to ride a bike

Josh asked us to teach him how to ride his two wheel  bike today so we took him to the school parking lot and he did so well for it only being his first time. I'm just so impressed with Josh. I've discovered that he is such a gifted individual, he can do anything he wants in life because he puts his all into it. On a side note I know he isn't wearing a helmet but we haven't found one yet. I promise Josh will have a helmet very soon.

point reached

A man came home from work and found his 3 children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn around the garden, The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and no sign of the dog, walking in the door, he found ...an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, the throw rug was against one wall, In the front room the TV was on loudly with the cartoon channel, the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel... She looked up at him, smiled and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world do I do all day?...
''Yes," was his incredulous reply..
She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.'

 

I found this story on facebook and it made me laugh.

So true we wives do so much that goes completely unnoticed for our families but if we were to do absolutely nothing for a day our homes would probably look something like this times ten.

It is good to be a mom but its even better to hear the words Thank you from the ones you serve daily.

Which I might add my husband is very good at.

This is not a reminder to Jason but to other men to remember to say thank you to your wives for all that they do for the home.

Sin

Eden's Pediatrician has decided that Eden has out grown her sensitivity to dairy and has asked that I slowly start to introduce dairy back into my diet so that her body can get use to it through the limited amount of breast milk I have left. So today was the first day that I truly partook of cheese in over 8 months. Let me tell you it felt like I was breaking the word of wisdom with every bite and that is not a good feeling. I guess I too need to slowly put dairy back in my diet for my mental sake. Granted there are still things I will not put back in my diet like covering everything in cheese I'm not a big fan of cheese anyways maybe next time I'll try something a little better than cheese, you know ice cream sounds more enjoyable. At least Eden didn't show any signs of discomfort from the food I ate today that is a vast improvement.

Family Picnic

Saturday was so beautiful that it would have been wasteful not to enjoy the outdoors. Jason and I decided that we would eat outside the boys decided if we ate outdoors then it just had to be a picnic, so we pulled out the picnic blanket and the basket, made sandwiches and some other yummy food and ate in the shade in our own backyard. It turned out to be the best picnic ever.

 Family picnic

 don't mind the lack of makeup or the fact I look like I didn't brush my hair. The picnic was after the gym.

 Eden all ready to chow down some food!

 Eric the ever busy little man getting his share of the food. All by himself. That's his big thing right now, he has to do it by himself.

 Josh was trying to do good for the ants by feeding them cookie but instead he was squishing them. It's just ironic that he was wearing his bug shirt and playing with bugs. The bad part was he kept trying to give the bugs to me. We all know I don't do bugs.

 of course being that it was 87 degrees out, we just had to run through the sprinklers.

 And top the fun with a drink of juice.

That was a super fun afternoon. I love it when April feels like July!

Beautiful day

The weather has finally brightened up and we went out to play in the sun. The kids were so happy to be outside that they even let me take a picture of them but in all fairness I let Eric take a picture of me and Eden.

 My new favorite picture of Eden!

 Now that is the smile  that I love on Eric it has a sort of mischievousness about it.

 You know us we just have to have the sunglasses.

 This was Eden's idea of wearing her sunglasses.

 Eric's relatively good shot of Mommy and Eden.

not to bad may be we have a budding photographer in the family.

I look scary in this pic, but I thought my husband would get a good kick out of it as well as my parents.