This is us at our best...

Hello World!!!

2011-11-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

Just added two post that briefly tie in our first 6 months in cali. It has now almost been a year. I cannot believe how fast time has flown. I will try to add tons of pics my next post and catch up on some other fun things we have been doing. Hopefully I will be back soon.

First 6 months in Cali...

2011-11-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

Finally After a month of the Hotel life we found the city we felt would be best for our little family. The only problem was we couldn't find the home we wanted and didn't know if we wanted to rent or buy. We decided to do a short term lease in the school district we were wanting our kids to be in. Basically we took what home we could find. I never did take any pictures but I am sure you would have enjoyed seeing our sea blue carpet and salmon pink tiled bathrooms. The house was straight from the 70's with a mini oven (which none of my cookie sheets fit into), a dryer (which forgot how to work once it turned 40 years old) and a kitchen sink which drained water through a pipe onto our plants below our kitchen window (had to see it). As for the back yard, there were glass plates to cover any holes in the ground and lots of potted plants yet to be planted. It was very interesting but it kept us warm... Well on day two after we got the heater fixed when it broke down in the middle of the night.

We had such an adventure. Not only did we have crickets make room in our home but we were welcomed by a baby rattle snake on our front porch the start of rattle season. After 6 months we finally found a more permanent home and one which was a little more newer and needed less maintenance.

We have defiantly created a lot of memories here in California. But seriously, I love it. It has been a great growing experience for our own little family to have each other to rely on. We also live within an hour of Matts brother and his wife who are amazing. It has been so fun to get to know them and their kids better. They have been a great help in helping us adjust to the move. I really enjoy living close to them.

We all have also been very blessed to meet great friends here in cali as well. The area we are in thrives on family and faith. Tate and Addie have made lots of friends. Matts new job has sort of left me a single mom a lot of the time, which is hard, however I have made such great friends who know just what I'm going through. It is so great knowing we can help each other and have each other to turn to and talk when we are stuck with toddlers all day and night.

I have sooo many pictures which I will hopefully add in the next day or two. I have almost a years worth. Know that we are good and hopefully I can get back on track with updating our blog.

Life in a Hotel...

2011-05-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

We were crammed but we made it out alive. We lived in a hotel for our first month in california. During this time we got Tate into school and it seemed everyday we were exploring houses and different cities. I also had to keep the kids entertained so I made it a point to go to a different beach once a week and find other fun activities near by. Here were a few of our favorites.

BEACHES:
Both Tate and Addie LOVE the beach. It seems each one has something different to offer. My favorite beach had to be in Malibu. We went during low tide and were able to explore some of the sea life on shore. We found some hermit crabs and seashells. There was also some awesome caves you could go through since the tide was so low. We had a blast.

PARKS

We also found this fun park called Brandons Village. I told the kids that they had to make a friend each time we went and you know what...? They actually did. They got really well at introducing themselves which really helped them adjust to all the changes.

RECYCLED ART
My favorite find was the Create Studio, where you can create art by recycling items. You will have to check out the facebook page.

Addie and I used a soap detergent bottle and made a princess.

Tate wanted to make a super hero and we just so happened to find a wooden picture frame shaped as a person. From there we broke a bouncy ball with a light in it and used it as a chest piece (simular to Iron Man), and added fabric and paint to it.

I am seriously dying to go back. The kids and I had so much fun.

Goodbye Utah...

2011-05-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

Our final days in our home were as hectic as ever. We just finished our Christmas only to get everything packed away the next few days after. We had several different piles of boxes and luggage. We had our suitcases for the Cabin, where we would spend right after we move out of the house, boxes full of necessities for the next month (While we live in our hotel) and of course the biggest pile that was to be put in storage until we find a more permanent home in Cali.

Of course on the official moving day we were hit by a huge snow storm. This couldn't make me happier to move to sunny California ;0) Our house was freezing since it had to be left open all day for the movers. Once they got everything loaded the plan was to leave for the cabin. However the storm was too bad for us to drive in and we had NO BEDS or BLANKETS. This gave me the perfect excuse to invite me and my family over to our neighbors house for a sleepover. It was hard enough saying goodbye to them earlier that day so it was nice to hang out one last time before we take off. These particular neighbors are basically part of our family. Matt and I met them years ago when we lived in West Jordan. We were all so close that when we all learned on the new development in Draper, we both decided to move up there together. Basically it really sucked having to leave them behind. Plans are to become neighbors again as soon as we move back to Utah or once we get them to cali... (I wish)

The next morning, after our sleepover, we had to say our goodbyes one last time. It was just as hard the second time. Once again weather wasn't great but we knew we needed to get going. The picture above is the pic I took just as we were leaving.

I am never going to buy a baby....

2011-03-07T22:03:00.001-08:00

today Tate asked me if I ever have to get shots like him and Addie. First thing that came to mind was all the blood test and needles I had to get when I was pregnant with both of them so I told them about all the shots I had to get when I was carrying them in my belly and when they were born.

"So you see", I said, "I have had to have many shots given to me as a mom".

At this point Tate replies, "I am never going to BUY a baby If I have to get all those shots"!

Last Christmas in Utah.....

2011-01-30T21:07:00.001-08:00

I don't know if I will ever catch up but here are some great pictures from Christmas....

This year we had not one, not two, but THREE elves visit us. Aren't we lucky?

Two of the elves visited us last year and both Tate and Addie couldn't wait for their return. Each evening the elves would come to life and have all sort of fun. Once we woke up we would receive a letter (and sometimes a mess) telling us of their nightly adventure. Here are some of the things we woke up to...

A hut made of blankets!

A Toilet Papered Room

An Indoor Snowman

Each year Grandpa Ted has a Christmas Party hosted at his complex.

On Christmas Eve My family gets together for dinner and a Christmas program. This also always includes the Nativity Scene put on by selected family members and sometimes a visit from Santa.

Then of Course the kids favorite day of December, Christmas Morning!!!

2011-01-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

These past few months are pretty much a blur. I can hardly believe we made it through them. So much has happened and basically we are all beginning our new year on a wild new adventure.

Way back in September Matt heard of a job opening in Utah in Bio Tech. This was something Matt had been wanting to get into, but he knew chances were slim. He went for it anyways and luckily his experience in working with cardio vascular system and as a specialty rep got him an interview. From there the process was a roller coaster. The more Matt learned of the company and its products the more knew he wanted the job. However, the interviews would continue to go well only to send him on to the next interview. The interview process was the most intense and extended interview process Matt had ever had. The longer the process went on, the more doubt Matt had about getting the job.

Finally Matt reached the final interview with the VP of the company and left feeling great. A few hours later Matt received a call letting him know that the decision of his outcome would take longer than expected because of another individual who also just began the interview process for the same position. By this point Matt was crushed. He had never known with such surety that he wanted a job. The long month of Interviews extended to being another month of waiting for an answer. Both Matt and I were sure he didn’t get it and all I heard from him was how “this was a once in a lifetime opportunity”.

Finally towards the end of October Matt received the call. Bad news… Matt didn’t get the job. However, they really wanted Matt to work for them and would give him any other job available! We were pretty sure that that was the end of this, especially when they mentioned an opening in California (which is of course, little on the pricy side). Matt was bummed and I too was sad to see him so disappointed.

The next day Matt received a call and a job offer in California. We were shocked to hear the offer and soon realized that this opportunity was defiantly doable. The only thing that would keep us from leaving was all of our family and close friends. We have been very blessed to live in such a great area with so many kids. Our children have loved having so many other children to play with every day. Our neighborhood has also been one of the most supportive neighborhoods we have lived in. Everyone is constantly helping each other out. Not only do we have a wonderful co-op set up during the day and for Friday date nights, but people are always making meals for you when you are sick, just had a baby or in need of some support at the time. I knew it would be hard for us to leave, but I also knew that this was a wonderful opportunity for Matt and for our family. It would be a great experience for us and would give us the opportunity to really depend on each other more rather than those around us.

We had less then 24 hours to make a decision. Matt and I were up literally all night trying to decide what would be best for us and our small family. I don't even know if we knew what our decision would be until seconds before we have an answer. It was all pretty crazy.

From there we got our house ready as quick as possible to sell and it was sold in a few weeks. Soon after the holidays came and Matt has been out of town for pretty much half of the time. This has left me to keeping the house clean, getting Christmas shopping done, finding a school for Tate and everything else it takes to move and keep life running as smooth as possible.

For this reason I just am going to rush through the rest of the year with pics and brief descriptions.

Halloween 2010

Toy Story cake for a friends little boy

Baby Shower Gifts

The Door

2010-10-09T15:36:00.001-07:00

For a long time now we have struggled getting our kids to stay in their room when it is time for bed. We have threatened time after time that if they don't stay in their room that we would have to lock them in. The threat never even scared them and after a while we got a little desperate. Finally on one of those nights when Tate was being his usual self and testing us to the extreme, Matt finally pulled out a rope and tied Tate's door to another door holding it shut. It was quite the knot and Matt and I were finally able to go down stairs to get some time to ourselves. 30 min. later Tate yells "I got out"!

...So much for that Idea.

After that night we realized the rope wasn't going to keep Tate in his room. We had to go to the next level. Tate told us we would never be able to keep him in his room and so Matt switched Tate's door knob with another Door knob which couldn't be opened without a key. Not only, could it not be opened without a key, but we no longer had the key and we turned it around so it would be locked from the outside of the room rather than the inside....

Before I go on, I must mention that many of you are probably wanting to turn us in for child abuse or something. First off I never said that this was the best solution, it is just after a while we had to make are threats turn into reality so that Tater would realize how serious we were. I also do not claim to being the best mom. I realize I am far from being that...

Back to the story...

Now the lock was officially on and we told Tate we wouldn't lock his door unless he didn't stay in his room and go to bed. Tate's reply, "I can still get out"! Of course we asked him if that was a threat and of course Tate challenged us by continuing to go out of his room for the next while. That was it, Door LOCKED!

Back downstairs Matt and I were basically beaming with our success. We could finally relax! This time within 10 minutes Tate was above the stairs yelling "I got OUT" and was basically running around beaming with his own success. We were both chocked and when we went up to Tate's room we learned he had snuck a pair of kid scissors in his room and somehow managed to get the door opened with scissors that obviously weren't even close to the shape of the missing key.

From then on we had to make sure Tate wasn't hiding scissors or anything else that could open his locked door. Eventually Tate learned that we won and we no longer had to lock his door. However, during this struggle we soon found our ideas weren't all that great after all. Infact we quickly saw how pay back was in the making.

The first time we learned this I was down stairs when I suddenly heard Matt yelling to get him out. I ran up stairs to see what the problem was and the kids had locked Matt and themselves inside the room. Addie got a thrill out of this and soon saw it more as a game. Several times Tate would get locked in his room and we would see Addie quickly run away leaving him in his room screaming to let him out.

Each time this happened it seemed someone was always around to let the individuals locked in the room out. However that kind of luck doesn't last long. On this one particular night I had the kids choose a story and we all laid in Tate's bed to read it. Matt was gone and so it was just the kids and I. While reading the story Addie got up and begin wondering around the room. The next thing she did was close the door and start laughing. "I locked us in" laughed Addie. I ran to the door and of course we were locked in. I checked around Tate's room for anything that could open the door... NOTHING! I knew Matt wasn't going to be home until late and so I started sweating at wondering what we would do. Luckily I then realized my phone was in my pocket. I dialed a neighbors number and explained to him that we were locked in Tate's room. We were then saved by our neighbor who kindly came into our house and let us out of Tate's room. VERY EMBARRASSING!

This was not the only time this happened. Another day Addie kept playing with the door and locking everyone in. The day continued to not be her best and she was sent to her room. In her room she had a child proof door lock and that way she couldn't come out. I had promised Tate earlier that day that we would hang up his U of U football poster on his door so both of us went in there and I closed the door so that I could hang the poster up. As soon as I was done I went to open the door. Addie had locked it and never shut it. Tate and I were locked in the room. I yelled for Addie to let us out and it then dawned on me that she too was locked in her room. I checked my pockets and I did not have my cell phone. I wondered how long we would be in the room for.

My only option was to find someone who was outside to come in and help us. Four houses down was one of my close friends who just so happened to be getting in her car. I began yelling out Tate's bedroom window. It took a few tries but finally my friend noticed me yelling from afar. At first she just waved, but then realized I was yelling for her to come over. She came to our house and from the second floor window I asked her to run inside and let us out.

So that is the story about the door. Surprisingly we never got to switching it back and since we moved. I can only imagine what the new owner of the home is going to think when they move in and see the lock on the outside of Tates door. I am sure our neighbors will have some great stories to share with them.

Addie Turns 3

2010-09-15T15:53:00.001-07:00

This is obviously way overdue however this was one of favorite things this last year. In September we celebrated Addie's birthday. I have tried to throw a special birthday for each of my kids once they turn three since they are starting to understand a little more about what's going on. From there we have a large birthday every 3-4 years.

Since this was Addie's first birthday party I went all out. Addie decided she wanted a princess birthday party and face painting was a must! We invited Addies friends in the neighborhood and I began to create a princess atmosphere in my home.

Everything started coming together and my art buddy was willing to face paint at the party. Then a couple of days before the party one of my cute neighbors offered to come as Snow White. I told Addie that a special guest would be coming to the party and she was so excited to find out who it would be.

I was so excited to see my Friend Kara (The Face Painter and artist) get all dressed up for her part as the princess face painter. After seeing her I decided I better get dressed up for Addie's Birthday Ball as well. So I ran in my room and squeezed into my wedding dress. Yes, I am sort of a dork, but Addie loved having her mom dressed up as a princess and I have to admit that I sort of enjoyed playing the part of a princess as well.

All of Addies Friends began to show up in their princess attire. They were first led to the kitchen to make crowns. After there crowns were made the girls got to visit the official "Princess Make-up Artist", Kara. She did a wonderful job face painting. I was able to do a couple of faces as well since she had more than enough work for her.

After face painting the girls got to get a picture taken at the carriage. They were all so cute!

At this time I asked the girls "what does every Princess need to have with her at the ball"? It took them a while to get the answer, but eventually someone said a prince. This is when I said i couldn't find a prince, but I had a frog they could all kiss. We then played "Kiss the Frog" which was basically like Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

This was when the Special Guest arrived, "Snow White". I have never seen such a perfect Snow White. My neighbor was seriusly better than the Snow White at Disneyland. She came in with an Apple and Birthday card to present to Addie. The kids then gathered around for a story.... Now for the best part. Snow White then took the girls to the back yard and gathered them around the fire pit which she called the "Wishing Well". Each girl was given a coin and told that they were to make a wish. Before they made a wish they all sang with Snow White her song "I'm Wishing". It was so darn cute! I was so bummed I didn't have my video camera, but I was able to get the end of the song recorded. MIchelle, you are the best!

After the song the girls each made a wish and threw their coin into the wishing well.

So just when you think the party is over.... it's not. Each girl got to have their picture taken with Snow White. Snow White then said her goodbyes and we ate cake and ice cream. Mission was accomplished and everyone had a blast!

Thanks to everyone who helped make the party a success. There were so many mom who helped out. Once again, "I have some of the greatest friends and neighbors"!

Paul McCartney Concert

2010-09-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have known me for years I have always been a huge Beatle's fan. The best part was my dad is who introduced me to them and he is a fan as well. In 8th or 9th grade my dad surprised me and took me to the Ringo Starr and His All Star Band Concert. This was such an awesome night. My dad even snuck in his video camera and we got some video before someone came to worn us no videos allowed. I have the best dad.

Later in life my dad continued to surprise me by taking me to several different Beatle Tribute Band concerts. A few years ago I took my dad to the Oldiesfest which was also a great time.

Well when I heard Paul McCartney was coming I had to take my dad. I was starting to get it all planned when my dad, the great guy he is, had the same idea. We ended up each buying our own tickets so that we could get better seating and I took him out to dinner. I was in heaven at the concert. It was absolutely amazing.

First 1/2 Marathon!

2010-09-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

This summer I accomplished my first half marathon! This has always been a goal of mine , but it just took me some motivation and a buddy to join me to do so. I didn't get any pics but I assure you I did it and I even finished.

During the summer I had ran two 10k's and ran them in under a 8 min mile. I was hoping to keep up that rate even though I knew the run would be much longer. However, there were things I had to take under consideration....

Anxiety Bladder
There has to be a real name for this somewhere but since I am unsure as to what it is called I will explain it to you. Everytime I know I am not going to be able to go to the bathroom for a while my bladder get an anxiety and has to go like every 5 min. Seriously! I knew this would happen but tried to go to the bathroom as soon as I could before the run as possible. The problem is with the run I did (Provo River 1/2 marathon) the lines are horrible. There was no way I would make it to the bathroom a second time before the run and so I went for it. At about the halfway mark my bladder couldn't hold it much longer. Luckily there was an porter potty and I went pee faster then I ever had in my whole life. This lost me some time... :0(

Down Hill Run NOT as easy as you'd think:
The Provo River 1/2 marathon is basically all downhill except for this one point at about the 6th or 7th mile were they have you back track on a slight up hill run for about a mile (at least that is how long it felt to me) and then back down....

I did some up hill running before the run but no down hill runs. I figured I was in good shape and my knees wouldn't give in, which they didn't, but my thighs and calves.... ugh! I don't know why I couldn't have figured it out on my own but running down hill uses so many more muscles. Muscles you rarely use so that you control yourself from tumbling down the hill on your head. At about mile 10 my legs felt like bricks. I swear I wasn't even running but I was sure trying...

Regardless of these challenges I still ran in 1:50:12 that is a 8.25 mile. Woohoo!

Cousin getting married...

2010-09-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

My cute cousin finally tied the knot in Aug. She is such a beautiful girl and I couldn't be happier for her. She was kind enough to trust me with her custom made cake topper. Her now husband collected M&M figurines and so they wanted a unique M&M wedding cake topper that they could keep and add to their collection. They looked around but couldn't find what they wanted plus the prices were outrageous so she asked me if I would be willing to make one for them. I of course said yes, but had to admit I knew nothing about making a cake topper. I just went with it and with clay I created this....

Since this cousin and her family has always been super supportive to my family I wanted to make sure I did all I could to help so my mom and I got together and hosted a shower for her. My moms camera had more pics, but here are a couple of what was taken from my camera...

Congrats Gillian and Jon!!!

4th of July

2010-09-15T15:45:00.002-07:00

The 4th of July is always a holiday my kids look forward to. I wish it was because they understood the main reason for the celebration, but it is actually because they look forward to our neighborhoods yearly 4th of July Block Party. This year my neighor Tami and I sort of took charge and then the craziness began....

My Sister, husband and their kids stayed the night before at our house. When we woke up, we all woke up to the strongest winds ever. The party is always held outside and we knew it had to go on, so we just went with it. It will probably be one of the mist memorable 4th of July block parties... We set up as much as possible but with the wind things weren't wanting to stay put.

First off we had the parade around the neighborhood.

Afterwards we plugged in all of the grills for the pancakes and as we were cooking them, the power we were using had an overload and quit on us. This left only half cooked pancakes. The only solution was bringing the grills to someone's house and cooking there. I took on the job as the runner who ran up and down a hill to Tami's house picked up the cooked pancakes, ran them back down the hill and onto the food table. Great WORKOUT, seriously.

Eventually everyone got fed and the games/activities were to begin, only problem was the wind and the cold. Luckily we have a very supportive neighborhood and several people opened up their garages to host the activities.

I did face painting again this year and was super excited to tryout my new face paints. I did face painting with a few other of my talented neighbors. It was crazy as usual but with the walls of the garage blocking the wind everything worked out.

Overall it was an exhausting event for the adults, but the kids loved it and hopefully next year we can get rid of the wind and plan ahead for the power overload which we should had already done since it happened the year before.... ;0)

Brother Visits

2010-09-15T15:45:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite memories this summer was when my oldest brother came to visit. Since being on his own her has lived all over. Most recently him and his wife are living in Japan with my adorable niece, Parker. Since they have had her I have not seen her other than pictures and skype so this visit was a major deal.

It was so fun seeing my brother as a dad. Overall it was just great hanging out with him and his wife. The bonus was getting the WHOLE family together again. It has been a couple of years since his last visit.

Tate graduated Pre-School

2010-09-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

Anderson Family Trip

2010-09-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Way back... when the summer began (in June) we had an Anderson family vacation. It has been a long time since we have been able to all get together and finally we did. We went up to Matt's family's cabin and spent a week there. We did tons of four wheeling, hiking and even horse riding. My brother in law had a buddy bring his horses to the cabin. There was even a pony for the smaller kids to enjoy.

Some other activities we did were decorate t-shirts and the girls all got to make their own dolls. It was defiantly a vacation to remember.

Valentines

2010-03-01T22:46:00.001-08:00

(YUP, this is a bit old. I started it and never finished, but here you go.....)

We had the craziest Valentines week, but I absolutely loved it! I have sort of been on a kick lately of parties, so I thought it would be awesome to invite a few of Tate and Addie's friends over for a valentine party. Last minute my nieces and nephew joined too, so that their mom and dad could go out for their anniversary. There was defiantly going to be a party!

Tate really wanted to decorate the house for valentines and so I had him help me pull something together. It turned out pretty cute for it being cheap hand made decorations. I didn't even have to spend anything since we just collected things around the house. ...

Speaking of Tate helping me, I swear I know how to spell Valentines. I had Tate string the letters on and at some point they must have gotten mixed up. For some reason I didn't even notice until everything was all hung up. I wasn't about to pull the sign down and get the letters reorganized.

We had some cousins and a couple of friends come over. We ate heart shaped grilled cheese, decorated cookies and played a couple of games. Overall it was a success!!!

Superheroes in Training...

2010-03-01T22:07:00.001-08:00

My cute mom is always wanting to do memorable things with her grandchildren. Last summer she held a tea party for the girls and their dolls. It was so fun. Of course she then wanted to do something for the boys. I gave her the idea of something with super heros. From there, this is what we came up with.

Made Capes

Found these adorable certificates to print at Designergirl007

Then my sister in-law and I made these fun cupcakes!

"Ok, I am a little crazy since this was only for two little boys, but what the heck, we all had fun."

Then we had to have some games so that the boys could complete their Superhero Training. Like the "X-Ray Vision Test" where we blindfolded the boys and had them guess what it was they were feeling in the bowls. (We had pasta, rice and cut up tomatoes).

The favorite was the "Speed Test". We have a small hill in our neighborhood where the boys could sled. As they slep I timed them and had them race. They had a blast!

Our last game was "What are your senses? Test". We had a list of questions we read to the boys and they had to answer them. One of the questions was a scenario where they had to pretend a bank was robbed and tell me how they were going to stop the robbers from getting away. It was so fun to hear the boys crazy answers.

After games we decorated mask and ate pizza!

Finally the boys were officially sworn as Superheroes! They could choose their own name, which Tate chose "Batman 6"???? I don't get it either?.... and then we signed their certificates and took pics. Tate's sort of looks like a mug shot. I hope this isn't suppose to be telling me something.

Looking for New Sitter......!

2010-03-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it just takes four hours to show a husband how hard being a mommy really is.....

So about a month ago Matt watched the kids while I had to head out. I was gone about 4 hours. I told him to watch dinner, which was a roast in the oven, and most importantly... OUR KIDS!!!

As soon as I walked in the door Tate came running to me yelling, "Mommy, Addie peed all over the floor". I walked to the family room to see Matt sitting on the couch in loss for words. I have never seen him so overwhelmed. I asked him what else happened and he told me how Tate broke a lamp and dinner got burnt. Right then I see Addie running in the kitchen naked. Her hair looked wet and I asked Matt if she just got a bath? Matt then told me how he had given her a bath.... over an hour ago. I then asked, "Why is her hair still wet". "Oh, it's not wet", Matt said, "It's Vaseline"! So to top everything off, Addie had gotten into some Vaseline I had in a basket on her dresser for when she was a baby. She thought it was lotion or something and rubbed it all over herself and hair....

It took me three days to get the Vaseline out. I tried Corn Starch and Baby Oil. I read online you could use peanut butter or raw egg, but honestly that just seemed nasty. Luckily my cousin reminded me of Basic H2, which is an all natural degreaser and it got most of it out. After the second wash with it, her hair was back to normal.

Here are some pics of the Corn Starch washing.... Addie thought it was so funny!

Words from Tate....

2010-02-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

Tate is full of questions. You never know what he is going to say... One day he was trying to figure out his future so he began asking questions...

Tate asked Matt, "So when I have kids you'll be a grandpa right? And when I become a grandpa, you'll be dead?"

Speaking of death, Tate has been really interested in what happens after you die and wanting to know all about heaven. One day he was crying and saying how he didn't want mommy or daddy to die. (It was very emotional) Then, he asked Matt, with huge tears in his eyes, "Is there even an All A Dollar in heaven?".

Somehow, all this talk on heaven got Tate thinking that Church and Heaven was the same thing. On Sunday we told him we were going to church and he asked to bring some of his toys. These toys were load and not appropriate for church, so I told him that "We don't need to bring toys to church". Tate then got really sad and on the verge of tears said, "But Mom, there are kids in heaven too and they need toys"!

This last Monday we talked about service for our family home evening. Here is a script on how it went....
Matt: "Tate, do you know what service is"?

Tate: "Yup"..., "Isn't it when you give all of your toys away to someone who has no toys"?....... "Then Santa Clause will bring you MORE NEW toys"!

Tuesday we were outside playing. Tate looked up in the sky and pointed to a rocket/shuttle in the air which left a stream of smoke behind it.
"Look", Tate said, "It's the bad guy chasing after Spiderman"!... (The Green Goblin is the bad guy). Tate then continued to yell in the air, "Bad Guy...... Bad Guy.... Get over here"!

Lately, Tate has really enjoyed the movie Free Willy. There is one particular character in the film who is of Indian decent and takes care of the whales. Well, in our neighborhood we have tons of construction going on. There are allot of trucks and workers. As we were standing outside, this white truck drove by. Tate's mouth dropped and he just starred at the man driving the car. "Mom" he said, "That's the guy from Free Willy"! He continued to tell me how he knew it was him. He had the same hair and skin color, drove a truck.... of course it was him!

I love Tate!

Here I am....

2010-01-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

Once again I am months behind on blogging. I will quickly try to catch up.....
December was such a fun month. Christmas Break was the best since we had so many fun events and family get together. Although it was rather hectic.

Weddings:
We had two family weddings once again. This was defiantly the year of love or something. I don't think I have ever even been invited to this many weddings. So Matt and I's nephew got married to a cute gal and then the week after my sister got married to a wonderful guy as well. Let's just say those two weeks were full of family fun.

Skiing:
Since I am not carrying any babies in my belly, I thought I might as well take this opportunity to take on skiing. I have only been once my whole life, and that was not the best experience. I was in my early 20's, never been, it was snowing hard and I was thrown on a blue hill my first time down. Seriously! Basically you can imagine how a beginner would feel about these circumstances... After that awful experience Matt told me her would take me when he started teaching a Tate. That made this year the perfect year.

I did alright my first lesson and we decided to take another trip out to the slope on a day without Tate. We had so much fun. I wish I took pictures, but I am horrible at that. Basically you could see me going down the hill in all sorts of unique ways (backwards, sitting down, laying down, etc.). It may sound like I didn't do to well, but I did. We just had some funny moments of me trying to get up when I fell. I hated trying to stand up after a fall.

Projects:
During December I was also working on a super huge project! My parents had given me my old doll house and I really wanted to make it over for Addie. I got a late start so I sort of had to rush it. I am still not quite finished. I have one of the rooms with no furniture, plus would like to do something with the attic. I have some more ideas of things I would like to add later on. Hopefully I can get to that soon.

Anyways, these are pics from start to finish. My cute boy, Tate, helped me paint the furniture since I was in a time crunch. He was very excited to be involved in this project.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

Best Birthday Week EVER!!!

2009-11-18T22:45:00.001-08:00

I am not a big birthday person, but I do like the fact that Matt and mines birthday is so close together. This always gives us the opportunity to splurge and do something extra fun for out birthdays. This year we had something extra big planned. Earlier in the year a couple of our friends approached us about the U2 concert in Las Vegas. They had a couple of extra tickets and so Matt and I decided we would purchase them as our birthday gifts for each other. We planned a road trip to vegas but as time came closer to the event, we got approached about another fun opportunity. We just couldn't pass going to California so we worked out an excellent plan.

With the help of Matt's awesome sister, who invited us to a beach house in Carlsbad CA., she watched our kids while Matt and I took off for vegas. That next day she and her husband took their kids plus Tate and Addie on an airplane and flew them to Cali. This was their first airplane ride and from what she says it went pretty smooth. I don't know if I believe her, but I sure appreciate her help so that we didn't have to make another trip back to utah from Vegas and back to california. That would have been a pain.

So let's start from the beginning...

Before we left to Vegas, Matt had his birthday. Because we had the other events planned, the kids and I wanted to do something small for him. We took it upon ourselves to let the neighborhood know it was his birthday. The kids helped me choose the "Almost Over The Hill" sign and hat. I made the two posters with the saying, "Your Hearing's bad and you're going gray, It must mean you're turning 30 today"! Creative, I know :0)

Two days later we left for vegas.

The U2 Concert was awesome. Best part was when I realized The Black Eyed Peas were the opening act. I love The Black Eyed Peas. They put on an awesome performance. After their act was of course U2. They throw the ultimate outdoors concert. I was in awe the whole time. Of course the company of our friends only added to the fun. Good times!

The next day we Matt and I got back on the road and headed to Cali.

When Matt and I arrived at the beach house, we were welcomed by a group of dolphins that were right outside our window and jumping close to shore. It was amazing. We had so much fun the whole week. We went to many great restaurants thanks to matt's sister who takes notes on one of those food network shows which shows you the best places to eat. We had a lot of great food! Here are some pics.

This was the bets pizza place ever. The pizza was cheap and tasted pretty good.

This is Tate, Addie and their cousin. I love this picture

These are a series of picture I took of my brother in law, who I talked into catching a seagull. Although my brother in law was left with some wounds, and the bird lost it's lunch, the seagull was not harmed.

Sorry Scott, I had to post these ;0)

While in Cali, we had to spend a couple of days in Sea World.

I am debating on wether or not I want to scuba dive with these.... Hmmm?

Tate loved going on the rides and getting soaked on them.

And don't forget fun at the beach...

I am back with a Major Overload!!!!

2009-11-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

I am so sorry I have been behind on blogging. Life has been busy, but good! I have been busy with the holiday seasons on my blog and my hubby and I have also been enjoying some fun getaways and vacations with the kids. I was in Florida last month and when we got home Matt's parents had purchased a beautiful cabin which we are enjoying every second we can, I came home to four wheeler my husband felt the need to splurge on and I filled my calendar the rest of October with some awesome trip for the rest of the month. I just posted a ton of pics and post and I still have even more. I had the Ultimate Birthday weekend and that post will hopefully come soon with all of our halloween pics.... "Man, I'm behind".

Know that we are doing well and have not fallen off the face of the earth. Hope you all had a great Halloween!

The pumpkin patch

2009-11-01T22:16:00.000-08:00

We made our little family outing to the pumpkin patch again this year. This is one thing I look forward to when the fall arrives. After picking out our pumpkins, we went home to carve our pumpkins. We first finished Tate and Addie's pumpkin. They had a lot of fun cleaning the pumpkin out and cooking the pumpkin seeds.

I picked out a pumpkin also for me. I wanted to attempt another 3D pumpkin. Sadly I sort of ran out of time and we took off out of town (Which was awesome). We got back on Halloween and I had to hurry and finish my pumpkin. I did it in about an hour. The whole missing eyeball came about because I kept messing up on the eye and so I finally just took it all out. Here was the final pumpkin.

Tea Party

2009-11-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

My mom has been wanting to do a tea party with all of the granddaughters for a long time now. Finally she got it all put together and I was able to join in on the fun. My mom set up an adorable table with dolls and tea sets. Each girl had to bring a doll to join them at the tea party.

First the party started with sandwiches and cupcakes. After that all the girls got to color their own paper dolls. We then went outside and turned on some music. All of the girls danced around. It was so cute. When the dancing was done, we went back inside and my mom and I helped the girls make hats for their dolls.

The girls had a blast and are excited for next years tea party!

Best Friends Wedding Take Two...

2009-11-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

So in my life I have been lucky to not have one, but two very close friends. It just so happened that both of these friends got married this year. In Sept. My longtime friends Darcy got married. We have known each other since we were 3 years old. Darcy was always the sweet and innocent one while I on the other hand just got us in trouble.

We have had so many great memories from diapers to dating and so forth. We use to think we were so funny dressing up in her parents old clothes, sneaking outside and then knocking on her front door and selling things to her parents. We always thought they had no clue who we were. Then there were the days of our art classes together. We spent most of our time in the halls... wether it was sneaking out to get our free soda's or getting kicked out of class and spending the rest of the time on the floor in the hall. Good times!

Darcy is one of the most giving people out there. She constantly is giving to everyone and is always mindful of her friends needs. Basically, she has been a better friend then I have ever been. I love her so much!

Darcy had a fun shower with that Naughy or Nice theme I like so much. I put together a cute gift basket for her.

I was so excited to be in her line and be a part of her beautiful wedding. I have to say that her wedding was lovely. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was so fun. I partied like I was in high school. Loved it! It was also nice to be surrounded by old friends and Darcy's family who I have always concidered a second faimily while growing up. I didn't realize how much I had missed them until all of the wedding events began taking place. I think this was one of my favorite weddings.

Congrats Darcy and Danny!

Addie turned 2

2009-11-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

Time flies like no other. My little girl turned 2 in September. We had a small birthday with the grandparents. Addie thought it was the best day ever.

She loved all of her gifts and was so excited to have a party with both grandparents. Her and Tate love their Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Because of our crazy year I didn't get the chance to make Addie's cake. I was sort of bummed, but it did relieve from some stress.

At the end of the day birthday #2 was a success!

My little fishies

2009-11-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

So this summer we did lots of swimming. We had swim lessons, went swimming at local pools and our favorite... boating. Since I got so behind, I never got any of our swimming photos up.

Both Tate and Addie are in swim lessons. Tate loves it. In fact this fall we put him on the swim team. He loves it. Addie I think finally is enjoying her lessons. We are continuing them through the fall to make sure she keeps up her swimming. She loves water, but doesn't necessarily like being told what to do. Where did she get her stubbornness from?

Anyways, here are some pics from our swimming adventures this summer.

No more crib...

2009-09-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

I wish I were saying, "No more binkie". Instead it with out with the crib and in with a bed. Poor Tate was getting in a lot of trouble one day and I had it. He was sent to his room and at the same time I out Addie and bed. Next thing I knew, Addie was walking around upstairs and Tate was running around with her. "TATE!", I yelled. "Did you let Addie out of her bed and room"? Tate promised me he didn't, but I didn't believe him. He was just causing way too much trouble that day.

Tate went back to his room and Addie was put back in bed. Well a few minutes later Addie was out again. This time I decided to give Tate the benefit of the doubt and after I put Addie back in her bed and room, I watched under the crack of the door. Sure enough, Addie was getting out of the crib herself and opening her door. Matt and I have since taken the crib down and Addie now has her own bed.

Now for the binkie dilemma. I was about to kill two birds with one stone. I decided we would face the new bed, no binkie thing all at once. We have tons of binkies so I cut 2 of them. Addie was devastated. She kept crying, "broke", "broke"! When I tried to put her in bed with the broken binkie, it got worse. I just couldn't face it. So that story is going have to wait for now.

The Summer of Snow...

2009-08-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have almost had a full summer of Snow. Not the white stuff, but my husbands parents and siblings. Seriously though, I have really enjoyed it.

With that being said, the Snow clan has had several events planned this year. We had our cruise, a wedding, reunion and most recent Matt's parents 50th anniversary. This was a great honor to be involved in as I have great respect for both of Matt's parents. I am so lucky to have them as my second parents. Matt's dad is the funniest man and such a fun grandpa. Matt's mom would do anything for her family and both her and her husbands life is revolved around serving their children and grandchildren. They are full of so much love and support.

Everyone was given a responsibility for the 50th. I was asked to draw a portrait of the in-laws in their younger years, with the temple in the background. I am so rusty right now and it gets very frustrating only being able to draw once a year if even that. After many pencils being thrown and piles of eraser dust accumulating on the floor, I finished my masterpiece. I shouldn't even show you the pictures I worked from because the drawing probably doesn't fit them exactly. Of course I have an excuse though. I had to work from 4 pictures of Matt's mom because of how I set the picture up. Also the wedding picture provided was not the best pose to work off of as well as it wasn't all that clear. This made it very difficult. I was so relived to have it over. But being I don't get to draw like I once did, I was still somewhat happy with the results. Here are some of the pics I worked from and the final portrait.

Before the event began we did a mega family picture. We got almost everyone there. This is quite a miracle when you know the size of family Matt is in. There are 8 children all whom are married and have children themselves. There is even great children now. I know there is well over 30 grandchildren and great grandchildren. We were also able to get some pics of Matt, I and the kids.

Matt emceed the program and did a wonderful job. All of Matt's siblings created the perfect 50th anniversary celebration. The decorations were awesome, the food was delicious and there was a wonderful slide show created from the "millions" of pictures Matt's mom had taken. I am not joking when I say millions of pictures. She is the picture queen, although it is obvious we couldn't fit all of them in a slide show.

Happy 50th Claude and Coleen !!!

Best Friends Wedding...

2009-08-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

In my life I have had 2 long time Best Friends. Both are getting married this year. The first wedding has already come and gone. This was my BFF Laurie. We met way back in Jr. High. At first I was totally annoyed by the girl, feelings were mutual. I thought she was Little Miss Perfect sporten her large BYU earrings and private school girl BYU uniform (not really, but it looked like it), she though I was this crazy, hyperactive girl who was on the border line of crazy. I think we both just gave each other the evil eye for the first while.

Long story short, we had a couple of classes together and one day The Beatles came up in conversation and BOOM! We became friends because of the same interest. After that we were hardly apart. We had a bit of a goofy relationship and loved creating stories about the Beatles and us hanging out and getting married. We even had a pretend wedding for Laurie and George one day. I could go on and on about our crazy adventures...

After graduation we decided to go to college and room together. Again, we went on more crazy adventures and here was where I learned how true our friendship really was. I loved having fun, but soon found myself in a bit of trouble. Laurie could see this and she wasn't about to stand back and watch. She warned me of the direction I was going and constantly kept an eye out for me. She constantly made sure I was staying away from anyone who would bring me down in life. It was because of her and her constant concern for me that I got through a rough spot in my life. She was my family at that time and since, I consider her a sister. I went through so many hard decisions at that time and she supported me in it all. Even since I have had to turn to her for major comfort and support on even larger trials that have come my way. She is the most amazing girl!

So enough of this mush, Laurie met this wonderful man away at school this year, where she was getting her masters. I was super excited to hear when they finally got engaged. With a little help from our friends we through an awesome shower with a "Naughty or Nice" theme. We had games planned, but hadn't seen each other for so long that we just bagged the idea and visited. It was super fun.

I was able to go to Laurie's wedding ceremony and it was beautiful. She looked amazing in her dress.

I just want to congratulate Clint and Laurie and let them both now how excited I am for them. I love you both and can't wait for your next visit so that we can get together again.

About exactly 1 month ago....

2009-07-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

We had our neighborhoods 4th of July celebration. We have done this each year for the last 3 years. Each year I help out and this year was no exception. Me and a few other fun ladies form the hood have been planning this event for a while now.

The morning started with the children's parade, where the kids decorate their wagons, bikes, etc and parade around the neighborhood. We then had a marvelous breakfast with one of our neighbors special pancakes and another neighbors yummy homemade syrup. Afterwards we got ready for games, face painting and baloon tieing. The day continued with relay's and water games. It was super fun for the kids and a bit kayatic for those of us who were throwing it together. But overall, the tradition will continue on as we get ready to plan our next years 4th of July celebration!

It's a bird, no it's a plane.... Nope, it's just Tate learning about gravity!

2009-07-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Who is this wonderful child I created? I know exactly who he is, yet I am not sure he knows who he is. So we were outside on the porch. Tate was catching grasshoppers, which is his new favorite hobby, and I was sitting on our bench. Tate decided to join me gor a minute and climbed up to sit next to me. Next thing I know, I see Tate step back to the edge of the porch and take off towards the other end. He then jump with his arms stretched outward and his body flat in the air. He also did some weird twist/flip thing that I have no way of describing, but he had no attention on landing on his feet. Therefore he landed flat on our unfinished flower-bed full of rocks. Ouch!

Tate obviously started crying and was covered with dirt and mild scrapes (luckily). I asked him, "What were you doing"? He then said, "I was trying to fly". I couldn't help but laugh. My four year old is so obsessed with super heroes, webs and flying. It was bound to happen. I am just glad this took place on our two foot patio and not from the roof of our house.

My husband told one of his co-workers of this incident and his co-worker replied something like this.... "It children like yours who we have to make labels on costumes and capes, that say "WARNING! Wearing this garment does not enable you to fly"". For those of you who know Tate, he is wearing a super heroes costume or Super Here Pj's on a daily basis. I think he learned his lesson.

Yanni Voices in Concert

2009-07-05T23:20:00.001-07:00

I love blogging. I really do. Recently I was given two tickets and backstage passes to the Yanni Voices concert. For those of you who follow my other blog I am sure you heard all about it. It was awesome. I took my sister with me knowing Matt wouldn't appreciate it as much as she would. They had the most amazing violinist there.

Afterwards we got to go back stage and meet the singers. One was even a BYU graduate. It was so fun and I was so glad to be able to spend the evening with my sister.

Mommies Little Girl!

2009-07-05T23:18:00.000-07:00

Isn't he adorable....

2009-07-05T22:47:00.001-07:00

Being a parent you get really excited over every thing your child accomplishes. Tate recently made it through his first year of pre-school. Even though he has one more year left he and the other students took part in the pre-school graduation. Matt and I were really excited to attend the event and see Tate sing with all his classmates. I had also taken the time to work with Tate and help him memorize his one line for the his program.

The day arrived and we got him all dressed up. We even invited Grandma and Grandpa. Below you can judge for yourself if we expected too much from our little guy....

Tate was not a happy camper as you can see. I finally just decided instead of snapping the best picture I would try to take the worst possible picture ever. It wasn't all that hard. Tate didn't even budge out of his seat except for when his teacher came to give him his graduation cap.

Let's just say my adorable little boy has mommies attitude. We did however get a nice picture of Tate and his teacher. he really did love his teacher. She was awesome!

Maybe next year...

What is with the new blog name???

2009-05-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

I am really considering changing the title of our family blog. I think "Our life is like a Sitcom" would be more suitable for us Snow's. This must be why I love my life so much. It seems like it all started when we first met....

Many years ago...

Matt saw me and we hit it off. Our so I thought. Matt used his smooth talk and got me to go to the institute social. We danced practically every other song.... Long story short, Matt also danced all the other songs with some other girl. Both of the other girl and I must have been thinking the same thing, "We sure got this guy hooked". At the end of the night I went to say goodbye to this tall and handsome fellow only to find him sitting mighty close to some girl (The other one from the dance). I just told him I was leaving and he got up and said he wanted to say goodbye to my friends. It was pretty odd since he hardly knew my friends and then immediatly asked me for my number. Hmmm? I gave it to him and waited for him to call...

1 Month later:

Still hadn't heard from Matt. I did however run into him after class one day. He somehow had the nerve to say, "I was going to call you the other day....". He wasn't so smooth at that moment. Right then and there he asked me out and I hated to hurt the poor guys feelings who had just put his foot in his mouth, so I said, "sure".

9 Months Later:

9 months later we were married.

7 Years Later:

We are happy to say we have two of the cutest kids who were not planned. In fact they were anything but planned. Some may know the story, others may not. Basically birth control has no power over God's will. Or Matt just has to stop believing he is a doctor and knows which birth control works best...

So this last May I received a phone call from my mother in law. She mentioned how our 7 year anniversary was coming up and asked if we wanted her to watch the kids. I was shopping at the store, at this time I immediately stopped my cart. "Crap", my anniversary was the next day and I had completely forgotten. Good news is I knew I could count on Matt to forget too. I called my hubby up and asked if anything special was coming up and he answered "no". I mentioned May 23 and of course he said, "doesn't sound familiar". I was off the hook since both of us had forgotten our 7 year anniversary... Our is it our 8th?

So you see. This is "Our Life at It's Best". I have to say I love every minute of it and even though Matt and I suck at remembering our anniversary, let alone our own birthdays, we love each other for the best or the worst. I feel extremely lucky to have Matt at my side to laugh when laughter is needed and to support me when I am in need of comfort. He is truly awesome and I don't think I could have found a more perfect match for me.

So with this post I bring you "Life at Our Best".

The Cruise

2009-05-26T20:58:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how fast time flies. Our cruise has already been over for 3 weeks now. It was a great getaway and a much needed vacation. As hard as it is to leave your little one's, I believe it is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself and your relationship with your spouce. You really do need that time together. I came home ready to conquer motherhood again.

So back to our trip. Since I have taken so long to post you will all be getting the short version.

We took a red eye flight on our way to Miami. Since it was so late and Matt and I were a bit gitty, we decided to plan a little joke on Matt's siblings we were flying with us. We were the first to arrive to the airport and found a nice hiding spot in the corner where none of his siblings would see as as they approached our gate. As soon as we saw them walking towards the gate Matt sent his sister Karen, who got all the flight scheduled and whom works for Delta, a text saying something like, "We were watching a movie and fell asleep. We are just leaving and are going to be late...". Right then we hear Matt's sister something like, "No way". She was really getting nervous, then Matt's brother had to remind her that it was Matt. (He is known for playing jokes on the family). Anyway, I think Matt and I thought it was the funniest. I guess you had to be there.

Well we arrived to the ship tired and hungry. Then the cruise began. Our first stop was Grand Cayman. This was where I was to take my first scuba adventure. I was all sorts of nervous. When they informed us our first dive was 110 feet deep and we would be going through tunnels... I was out. I jumped in the water to make it seem like I was all for it, but immediately said, "I am going to pass". They talked me into going to down for a bit to see if I could adjust. I went down touched the bottom and headed right up.
I did however do the second dive. This one was a much better fit for me. It was pretty cool to see the reef up close and swim with all the fishy's below. The coolest part had to be when Matt and I spotted a 4 foot silver fish swimming below us. We decided to swim a little closer and as we did the fish didn't even budge, it just looked at us and then we noticed the fish was a little freaky looking. We did follow it a bit but tried to stay our distance, which was probably good since we found out afterwards it was a Barracuda!

Then we enjoyed the night life... Or in other words we caught up on much needed sleep!

Our second stop was Roatanne. This was my favorite stop. The island was small and beautiful. I loved the people and the culture. I had thought this would have been one of the most touristy islands, but it was defiantly the least. Here we did a zip line though the jungle and Matt ate poison walnuts. Leave it to my hubby to be so daring.

Third stop was Belize. Here was where Matt and his brother took another scuba trip and got to use a really cool bathroom which was connected to the ocean.... in a way. I nearly died riding in a van with Matt's other family members, on the roads of belize. I think they said there were only 4 stop lights the whole city, so you can only imagine the kind of driving that was going on there. I still don't know if they follow speed limits. Besides the death ride we took an amazing hike in the jungle and did some cave tubing in a river. It was pretty awesome.

Of course all the while we enjoyed the "all you can eat" meals and ice-cream. I think I had 3 or more ice-creams a day. One night Matt and I decided we were going to order 3 desserts to share. the waiter misunderstood us and brought us 3 desserts each. We also celebrated Matt's parents anniversary coming up.

Sadly the Swine Flu runied our last stop. We were suppose to go to Cozmel, Mexico but instead got shipped to the Florida Key Islands. We went here on our honeymoon and there wasn't a ton to do, but it is a cute island. We did end up having a lot of fun though and rented bikes which we rode around the whole island. So all ended up well in the end.

Finally we arrived home and I was so excited to see the kids. Tate told us to leave again and Addie wasn't sure how to act. She was crying one second and laughing the next. It was pretty funny. All and All, it was a great vacation and Matt has great family. Good times.

Coming Soon!

2009-05-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

Recently Matt and I took a much needed vacation with his family and NO KIDS! It was so awesome. As you can see with my last couple of post I am really behind. I don't even have Easter up yet. I hope to get some pics and stories up for you by next week. Maybe sooner. I have a feeling I may get even more behind as summer gets closer. I can't believe how much we have going on. Ugh! This is why our vacation was so awesome and much needed. In the mean time I am catching up with everything that was left behind waiting to get done. So until then know their is so much more to come.

Oh ya... and I went on my first official dive in the ocean. I got to be honest, I sort of whimped out of my first dive which would have been awesome. But swimming in tunnels 100 feet sort of freaked me out. But I did I did go on the next one and i have to say that is an accomplishment for me.

Addie's All Girl!

2009-05-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

It shocks me how kids sort of just take on their own traits. Everyday Addie is always bringing me what she wants to wear. For a while it was always shoes and a beautiful coat. She recently got a tutu to review from TutuPosh Boutique and loves to put it on and dance around the house. She is so funny and ALL GIRL!

Tate's Birthday Week!

2009-03-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

So Tate had his birthday back in March and I still haven't posted all the fun pics.
On his official birthday we didn't have anything planned, so last minute we called Tate's good friend and our neighbors to join us at Chucky Cheese. Tate was so excited. Addie was scared of pretty much everything, but after a while the mini-merry-go round became her favorite.

This year we decided to have a small birthday. Last years birthday took a lot out of me and this year we had no time to throw a huge bash. I didn't even make the cake, which I was actually bummed about but seriously these last two months have been CRAZY!!! We invited the family over and of course Tate's love of his life, one of our little neighbors. They both have the same fighsty personality and energy. They are so funny. Tate even gave her his old spiderman costume because he got a new one from mom and dad after his old one had been through so much.

Tate was so excited about his birthday this year and can't wait till the next one. He keeps talking about his 5th Birthday already.

Mine would be the kids that eat the paint chips....

2009-03-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

So Most kids would get a hold of make-up, markers or paint and draw all over themselves and others. Oh no, not mine. They choose to eat whatever they get a hold of. This is why I have to have a hawks eye at all times. Of course this is also impossible. So one day Tate wanted to paint. I pulled out all of the art supplies and the water colors and let Tate at it. When he was finished we started cleaning up. Phone rang.... I got distracted. Bad mom!

Well Tate had grabbed the art kit brought it into the living room and dumbed it everywhere so as I was talking on the phone I began cleaning it up, loosing track of what ever it was Addie was doing. As I was still chatting I picked up the box to bring it into the kitchen. I looked at Addie sitting at the table, who then smiles at me revealing a black mouth full of black teeth.

I immediately hung up the phone grabbed her began to wash her off but realized...... I had to take a picture. Then I called poison control. I know, wouldn't you do that first? I was pretty sure water colors weren't poisonous. Oils, that would not be good, Acrylics hmmm not the worse, but not the safest. Just to be safe about the water colors though I called.

Addie was fine and I was left with a beautuful daughter who had a black mouth all day. Adorable!

Multi tasking just isn't my thing. Those who say, it's natural for a mom, I disagree. Still, it won;t stop me from trying.

Some adorable pics of Tate.

2009-03-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

I took these one sunday when the kids actually let me get them dress AND FIX their hair. This is not an easy task and honestly I usually give up and they go to places looking like this...

Ahhhh!

Anyway this is Tate at his best!

Well.... minus the funny faces.

Mission FAILED!

2009-03-14T21:21:00.001-07:00

Oh my, I must be crazy. Seriously, what was I thinking? My fear of water does not go way because I learned to swim.
So I went to my class and for the first hour I was really trying hard to not freak out. I went under water did our simple exercises and would come back out of the water extremely relieve to still be alive. I kept telling myself, "Your ok and your doing GREAT Tasha". Keep in mind I WAS TELLING MYSELF. So finally it was time to move from the shallow to the deep end of the pool. I was fin for the first 5-10 min., but then 13 feet seemed a lot more like 100 feet to me and I sort of flipped out. Well I stared getting worried and tapped my instructor to say I am ready to go up for air. He tried really hard to calm me down and get me relaxed. He really is a great instructor and for a few minutes I did calm down. He had me looking at him and breathing slowly. Then he passed me on to Matt and whoa... Freak out time once again. I started breathing crazy and blowing bubble everywhere and so my instructor smacked me in the face. Well more like he hit my forehead with his palm of his and. It got my attention and I don't blame him one but. I needed something to distract me before I hurt myself. Well the instructor gave in to my demands of letting me go up to the top and I was so relieved. Then I burst into tears. Yes, very embarrassing. I was so disappointed in myself.
Anyway long story short. Mission to completely overcome fear of water.... FAILED. For now that is. I still got some crazy in me because I am going back tuesday to attempt it again. Maybe....
Well the good news is Matt did awesome. I am a little bummed because I really want to experience the whole swimming under water and living the life of a fish thing. But for those of you who have true phobias, I am guessing you know where I am coming from. I realize i is all in my mind, but man your mind can really cause you to think all sort of things. I know I was breathing totally fine under water. I did it for several minutes. But once my mind started running I swear no air was coming out of my mouth piece. I am so frustrated.
I will keep you updated on my mission to conquer my fear. Not that you care, but I feel better thinking you do ;)
Oh, and thanks Brandi for keeping all thoughts to yourself..... Ok I am totally calling you to see what the rest of your comment should have said. Dang you! Just Kidden.

Am I crazy?

2009-03-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

So last year for some reason I got on a kick of conquering fears. Maybe it is because of after having two kids I felt the need to be motivated towards something. It seems I am taking one extreme to the next. Let's run through last year.
So I had not ridden a bike for years. In fact I don't even know if owning a bike for one year at the age of 8 even counts. Especially if I hardly rode it.
Where we live we see bikers everyday. I think that is what gave me the thought, "I want a bike". So I got my bike and Matt kept getting on my case about riding it. I was extremely nervous. When i finally rode the bike, Matt laughed and then he got mad. It was then he realized I was telling the truth about not really ever riding a bike. He was not too happy about putting so much money towards a nice rode bike. I had to prove him wrong. With the help of my extreme friend she talked me into taking one of my first rides on a up hill ride. For those of you familiar with Suncrest in Draper Ut. My first ride took place on the Utah county side of that hill. I almost killed myself. When we rode down the hill I almost killed myself for a second time. I made it though and then developed a love for biking. In fact before the weather got real bad I took my bike on the other side of the hill. This is the South Mountain side and I don't believe I remember any flat spots. I just remember it being a lot more steeper then the other side. That was the only time I made that ride. It was a killer. So I accomplished my fear of riding a bike and speeding down a steep hill.
My other fear has always been water. Some of my favorite sports are the water sports. This does not mean I can swim and am not scared. I hate putting my face under water. If you dunk me, I WILL slap you. I hate not being able to breath. The thought of drowning terrifies me. I have always been fine if I had a life jacket on. In all honestly I sucked at swimming because I never swam. Because I took on biking I decided I can now take on swimming. This was a 3 month struggle. Seriously it was. There were days I would totally freak myself out and have to get our of the water. I just couldn't breath. Well I didn't give up and now I actually can swim laps. Last year I swam 1 mile without stopping. For all of you who are swimmers, I know that is easy, for me it was an accomplishment.
To end my year off with a bang I entered my first Triathlon. It was just a sprint, but it took a lot of work and energy. I like to think it took even more energy then usual since it was done outside in October in the rain. Not sprinkling rain, this was a ton of rain. I looked like a sewer rat when I was done and my legs were frozen. But it was awesome.
So this year I am off looking for a new triathlon and maybe a half marathon.
Well, don't think I am going through the year without conquering yet another fear. So how is this, scuba diving. Talk about just learning to swim last year. What am I thinking. I also tend to think I am clostephobic (a word I can;t even spell) so this can't be good. I have done snorkeling and It took me a while to adjust. I wanted to freak out but I didn't. So I am wondering if that makes this scuba diving thing a bad idea? Probably, but I am a bit competitive and Matt said if I don't do it, he will still do it without me.
We will have our first dive in a pool on Saturday. I will tell you how it goes. If I make it out alive that is. I realize it is a pool. That is basically a kiddie pool compared to the ocean. Oh wait, that is more like a Barbi size pool meant for toy dolls compared to the ocean. After all the certification is over we will be using a great scuba skills when we go on a cruise next month. Please don't scare me with your comments of near death experiences while scuba diving. That will not help this situation. It will probably put me in a worse situation because I am going to scuba now, we paid a butt load, and I really don't want to be thinking of those scary experiences while I am 60 feet below in the ocean. Encouragement only please or just comment on some random thought.
Well I hope you enjoyed my crazy rambling of thoughts.!

Tate is 4!

2009-03-12T13:38:00.001-07:00

I got very courageous when I added this picture. Especially since I have no makeup. What was I thinking?

I cannot believe how fast time flies. It is just crazy. I remember how frightened I was be a mother. I had no clue what to do with a baby. Pregnancy, I had no worries. It was when the baby was turned over to me that concerned me.
Four years later here I am with two kids I am chasing around. I am happy to say I love it and I can see the change a child brings into a persons life. To be a mother is such a rewarding blessing. It has given me opportunity to grow in ways I wouldn't be able to learn and grow otherwise. As for Tate, I could never imagine life without him. He loves having fun and is always trying to make people laugh. There are times when he tries to be funny and it just isn't funny, but I appreciate how he loves to laugh. He loves to make matt and I happy and is always concerned of he makes us mad or sad. He has so much sympathy towards people, animals and his action hero toys (lol)! I love Tate and I am so glad he broke me in to motherhood.
I hate to see him grow so fast, but look forward to the many years ahead and all the many more lessons he will teach me. Even though I feel a lot of motherhood's lessons have already involved "Patience", I have a feeling there is more lessons on patience to come. Tate will always be my precious baby boy and I love him so much.
So we went to Chucky Cheese yesterday with Tates little friend Ellie. Last minute we had to do something becuase he was so excited to turn 4. They are best buds. Well i will post pics of that event later. We also have birthday bash on Sat. with Tate's cousins. After last years mega car Birthday we decided to take it easy this year. I am even buying a cake. I am actually a little bummed because I always love the challenge. Although we still will have a theme, "Spiderman" of course!
Happy Birthday Yesterday!

Catch up!

2009-03-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

I have really had a hard time keeping up with my motherly duties, church callings and all my blogs. Especially my family blog. Needless to say I have a ton of pics to add.
while back we decided it would be fun to take Tate to the huge tubing hill in Park City. Tate decided he wanted to take his cousin Tate along, while Matt and I decided we wanted to leave Addie behind. It was lots of fun.

A few weeks back we heard on the radio that Spiderman would be in town at the Kid Safety Fair. We had to mark our calendars. So on Saturday we got Tate and Addie in the car and took off to our family outing to find spiderman. It was packed. Everyone and their child had the same idea. Honestly though, we loved it. It was a little crowded but it was so worth seeing how excited Tate was. They also had several free events and games. So here are some pics.

Tate's favorite part....

On Sunday I actually got everyone looking decent for once. PLus everyone was on time! Addie looked so dang cute and I wanted to get a picture of her. She wasn;t making it easy. In a funny tone I told her she was being naughty. She decided to take it on herself to go to time out.
She has been so funny lately. Every time we say, "No Addie", she goes to the corner and puts her nose to the wall. It is so funny. I have a really hard time staying mad at her.

Here are some pics I did manage to take. Not that great I know. You will also notice Addie has three binkies. Let's just say she is a little attached to those binkies. Lately she freaks out if she doesn't have at east two of them.

To end our fantastic week i thought it would be fun to make cookies together. I am always hesitant to let Tate and Addie help me because they fight over who's turn it is and fight over who gets to stand where on the chair. It went pretty well, except Addie threw Flour on Tate's face, which at first he was pretty mad(Then when Matt and I laughed he decided it was funny too). Then somewhere between all the fighting and bickering I added too much of something or not enough of something else. In the end our cookies turned out horrible. The memory was great though!

Tate Chronicles. Must read if you need a laugh!

2009-02-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

So what you are about to read is what came from Tate, my 3 almost 4 year old. Don't mistaken his word as truth or fact. I promise you he has a vivid imagination. Here are two hilarious stories you can enjoy...

Tate is now in Pre-School and loving it. Almost everyday he comes home with some homework in which we will sit down and do together. This last week Tate learned about careers and his teacher sent him home with a pretend job application to fill out. It came to one Q. That asked , "What is your mothers/fathers name?". I first asked him what my name was. Of course Tate said, "Mommy". I tried a different approach. "What does daddy call me?". Tate still said he didn't know. So I told him, "Tasha Snow".
"Oh", said Tate.
I then continued to ask him, "What is Daddy's name?". Tate again said he didn't know. So this time I asked, What does Mommy call Daddy?".
Tate then looked up and quickly said, "Stupid"!

First of all I honostly never call Matt stupid. In our home we teach Tate that stupid is in fact not a nice word. ButI have to admit it was pretty funny!

This next storey happened earlier this week.
So the other day Tate asked Matt about tithing. Matt took this as a great opportunity to teach him and so that night we all sat down while Matt taught his little lesson. He began by pulling out ten pennies. He explained that for every ten of something you have, you give ten back to Jesus. He went on to explain with ten dollars you give one dollar back to jesus, with $20 you give $2. He then asked Tate to count how many pennies he had on the table. Tate counted 10. Matt said, "I will give you those pennies if you give one to Jesus". Of course Tate said yes! Then some sort of miracle happened... or so we thought.

Tate looked up at Matt and said, "Daddy, I have a lot more money hidden in my bedroom".
"Really", said Matt. "Do should we go get it and give 1/10th of it to Jesus?".

Of course we thought Tate was really getting a hang of this tithing thing and about to share a percent with Jesus.

"No", said Tate. "I want to keep it there so it stays hidden from Jesus"!

So much for the lesson on tithe.

What you cookin?

2009-02-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

So I had the funniest picture to take the other day, but could not find our camera. Blame it on the man of the house! So speaking of the man in the house. It is time to start to wonder about him. Usually Matt is always the one on top of things. I am always the one you can catch making silly mistakes. Not this time!
So I asked Matt to help make the kids lunch. Tate wanted chicken nuggets so I nicely told Matt to get them cookin(Can you really nicely tell a man what to do? I don't know). We the microwave had been beeping for a while telling us the food was cooked. I decided I would get the food out of the microwave. So I opened the microwave door and..... nothing was there!
"What the heck?", I thought. I turned to Matt to ask him if he even got them their food. He claimed he put it on a plate and in the microwave. I opened the microwave and informed him it was turned on, but nothing was inside.
We then searched around the kitchen for the plate of chicken nuggets. Finally I gave up and decided I would make a new plate for the kids (without Matt's help). I opened up our dish cupboard and low and behold, there was our plate of chicken nuggets.
I guess Matt got the plate out, added the chicken nuggets, put it back in the cupboard and turned on the microwave.

I guess you had to be there. I am just so happy to see Matt do something like this. I am always the one being made fun of and now it is his turn. lol

Horse'n Round!

2009-02-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

My kids literally run to the door when daddy comes home. Matt is just the funnest dad. So I took some picks of them in action. Addie got a kick out of this.

Going Private Going back????

2009-02-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

So now that I went private, no one is sending me their love anymore,. What is that all about? Plus I notice some of my good friends never even accepted my invite to view my blog! I am sort of blogger depressed right now. So I decided to go off the privacy treatment for a while and I will probably go back in a week or so.
So just want to make sure anyone who does not have access to my blog and would like to, let me know. I also realize there was a handful that never sent an invite to oops(including my hubby!) and I like to pretend they would like access to see me and my adorable kids(Just Kidding). So let me know if I missed you!

If I already invited you and you excepted, your all good. No need to resend me your email. Everything is saved.

Sorry my life has been a bit boring lately hopefully some more exciting things will go on soon. Love you all!

5 current giveaways!

2009-01-29T15:36:00.001-08:00

SO just a heads up I have 5 current giveaways going on at Catch the Drift... (Heart necklace, child's apron, RuffleButts, FruitaBu Snacks(5 winners) and my favorite See Kai Run is giving away your choice of a pair of children shoes). Check it out at "Catch the Drift".

A much needed weekend!

2009-01-20T13:54:00.000-08:00

So we have been planing on taking a little trip up to our friends cabin for a while now. What do ya know, the kids get sick right before we leave. I was so bummed. Luckily Matt's mom came to the rescue and we were still able to go up for one night..... Even better, no kids! So here are some pics of our much needed time away...

We were first welcomed by this scary bear on wheels. REALLY SCARY! lol

A night full of Rock Band!

Lesson learned! Never start a snow ball fight with Matt. OK, actually I am totally waiting for pay back!

Tate has a closet full of hookers!

2009-01-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

I know I was a little worried at first myself. I was down stairs and had the baby monitor on. Tate was in his room upstairs with Matt. I over heard Tate say something about "hookers". I listened closely and then heard him say "I can't get my clothes on my hookers"! Ok, Tate calls hangers, "hookers". He kills me he is so funny!

One more giveaway added!

2009-01-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

The "Good For You Girls" Giveaway!
You could win an awesome skin care kit!

So I promise next week or sooner I will get my cute family back up on the blog. I am just trying to get this other blog going and hopefully soon things will get easier. P.S. Layers clothing giveaway coming SOON! Plus a couple of more are scheduled to start.

Just kidding we got 2 GIVEAWAYS!

2009-01-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

So not only do I have the Scentsy giveaway going on, I now have an awesome giveaway sponsored by "Tiara's Boutique". Tiara's boutique will be giving away an adorable tutu with your choice of color. Don't be fooled though because Tiara's boutique offers much, much and much more then tutu's!

Check it out Here!

We got a Giveaway!

2009-01-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

So I am still trying to finalize the detail with the Tutu giveaway. Hopefully all will work out.
In the mean time I do have a giveaway available.

It's a Scentsy Giveaway!
Go to "Catch the Drift..." to check it out!

Giveaway Coming Soon!

2009-01-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

So I have to let you all know, just in case you don't ever go to my Mama Snow Blog.
Sometime this week I will be starting my fist giveaway of 2009. This is for an adorable Tutu from Tiara's Boutique. You have to check this site out.

There is so much adorable little girl stuff. I can barely contain myself. There are not only tutu's but wands, crowns costumes and my favorite fairy wings. Keep posted because it will be coming soon!
I have some other giveaways in the works for later this month. If all goes well you won't be disappointed!

So be prepared! And don't worry I will let you all know when the giveaway is ready to go!

Mama Snow

Christmas Overload!

2009-01-02T13:37:00.001-08:00

And no I am not talking about the extra pounds I added on through the holidays. I am talking about all the pictures and things I just added. There's a lot of them. I added them in separate blogs and there would have even been more except I neglected to carry my camera around all season long. We had parties, reunions, sledding, Tate's first ski outing and more.
I added what I had and to start with I added a picture of our outing with my good friends Laurie and Rachel. We got together before New Years and what made this even even greater was we got to meet Laurie significant other. They are such a cute couple.

Well enjoy all the new blog additions!

Christmas Morning 2008

2009-01-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was awesome! Honestly if it weren't for the kids, Christmas wouldn't be half the fun. They are just so funny on Christmas Day. I am also sure if we didn't have Tate and Addie our tree would be empty underneath, because Matt and I are just not that good. Just Kidden.
Tate was obviously the most excited but surprisingly enough Addie got into it a little as well. We took more Video of Tate. So the pictures pretty much contain Addie. Maybe I will try to get a video up soon. The cutest video we got was of Tate when he gt his Spiderman underwear. He was so excited he just had to strip down and put it on. I should have known.
Tate was very appreciative of all the gifts Santa gave him. All and All Christmas was a hit!

Anderson Christmas Party 2008

2009-01-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

The Anderson's Christmas party is always held on Christmas Eve. We always eat dinner first which is yummy soup in a bread bowl. I love this meal. Afterwards we have a little Christmas program which includes some musical number, which were done by all the kids this year. They were all so cute!

Then of course we do our traditional nativity scene. Somehow Matt became the donkey at the Anderson's family party. Not that I didn't have a part to play in that. Also we got lucky enough to have Spiderman join us this year as one of our wise men.

As you can see Matt loved being the donkey!

After the program we eat my Aunt Leslie's famous bread pudding and then we open gifts from my parents.
Addie loved her doll grandma and grandpa gave her.

The Snow's Christmas Party

2009-01-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

This year at the Snow's Christmas Party Matt's sister Karen came up with the great idea of doing the nativity scene. I love watching the kids get all dressed up and watching them as the story comes alive. Ok, truth is it wasn't the perfect nativity scene it's hard to not laugh when my husband is the sheep and his brother is the donkey, but it sure is fun to watch. So here are some pics from it.

After words the kids waited for Santa to arrive which he did.

Addie did not like Santa at all!

Tate really enjoyed Santa but his favorite part had to be the overload of spiderman gifts. Tate had recently lost his spiderman toy, (who only had one leg). He was so excited when not only got one but two spidermen toys. To top it all off Grandma and Grandpa Snow gave Tate his new favorite PJ's, Spiderman Pj's. We still can't get him to get rid of his halloween costume! Amidiatly Tate tore off his clothes and put his new pajamas on.

When Grandpa Ted says jump, "You better jump".

2009-01-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

The title basically just expresses the control that Grandpa Ted has on us or at least would like to have. We love our Grandpa Ted though he is the funniest man you will ever meet. On Thanksgiving Ted gave us a list of thing we must do for him. One being decorating his door for Christmas. Supposedly where he lives they decided to have a contest on the most decked out door. I am not sure what ever happened but he defiantly had the coolest door. My mom, I and the grand kids all got together to cut out snowflakes and hand prints for the wreath on the door. I then painted a character of my Gramps with a Santa hat. All the kids made cards and here was are finishing project, minus some cards we accidentally left behind. I think grandpa loved it and the kids enjoyed their day visiting and decorating grandpa's home.

Finally!

2009-01-02T11:49:00.001-08:00

Well almost. Finally Tate lost one tooth. Tate actually lost his tooth about a week before Christmas, but forgive me for having an overload of Christmas seasons To Do's.
So who pulled the tooth? I did. The right way of course. His tooth has been REALLY loose for a while and who knows what it was hanging onto in there. I finally just asked Tate if I could pull it, he said yes and there you go. The tooth came out no problem. Tate didn't even cry. Dr. Matt has now been banned from teeth pulling and now we are waiting for tooth #2 to be ready.
Here is a picture of the handsome fellow himself. Not the best pic, but you can see there is one less tooth!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

So after much debating of what to do with my Christmas Card and the small selection of good pics to choose from, I decided I couldn't really neglect the true sides of my children. So I made two cards one more traditional with the cute sweet side of my munchkins and the other with a combination of attitudes.

ANyway Hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

Love the Snows

Calling all Slow Cooker Recipes!

2008-12-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

Please Please leave me some easy Crock Pot recipes. I am in need of new and yummy recipes. I am especially interested in Crock pot recipes because they are easy and you can get your meal all ready before the day begins. This is useful for this busy time of year. Please leave your recipes at my Snow Queen Blog!

The Reality of Christmas Pictures!

2008-12-08T19:23:00.000-08:00

She may not be walking, but she can dance!

2008-12-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

So Addie can actually walk she just chooses not to. Her most recent trick is her arabesque, This is a ballet term. Addie just thinks it is the greatest thing. We just ask her to do an arabesque and she gets this big smile on her face and lifts her leg. It is so cute!

Just because you work with doctors.....

2008-12-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

Doesn't mean you are a doctor! Yes this is directed to My husband! For those of you who don't know, Matt is a Pharmisutical Rep. For those of you who do know what he does but aren't aware of the crazy side affects, let me share. Since Matt has become a Rep he also seems to think he is some sort of Doctor. One great example is 4 years ago when Matt seemed to think "The Family Planning Method" was a great way to prevent getting pregnant. He went on and on about how he studied this and knew it would work. One month later I was pregnant! This is just one example. Most recently Matt decided that his Doctors skill meant he has some Dental skills.
Poor Tate is about to lose his two front teeth. We have sort of been waiting for the past month or so for them to fall out. The other day Tate got mad and threw his face on the table. This caused his teeth further trauma. Now they will fall out any day. It seems like Tate keeps bumping his teeth and they keep bleeding more, so Matt decided it was time to pull them out. I wasn't against pulling them out, I just wasn't sure Matt's method was best. I let him go ahead anyway.

As you can see this is right before he went in to pull those suckers out!

This is after... As you can see the teeth are still in! Right after this was when Tate screamed in pain! You can almost sense the pain in this picture.

So as of today Tate still has his two front teeth, which are crooked and VERY wiggly.

My Two Dad's Pics

2008-12-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

So the story is below and here is the cute pics I took of Tate's Projects. He is so proud!

FREE Countdown to Christmas Gift!

2008-12-04T14:39:00.000-08:00

I really do try to keep this focused on my family but I just had to tell you about this awesome fun and educational website I just found. Right now they are offering a FREE Countdown to Christmas which includes games, animations, stories and more throughout December. If you want to hear more go to my Mama Snow Blog.

Oh ya! Here is a little video to give you a sneak peek!

Mama Snow

P.S. My blog is going private soon so get me your emails if you haven't already done so!

Going Private

2008-11-30T18:35:00.001-08:00

So the world is a pretty freaky place and I have come to the conclusion that my family blog will be going private. I will probably be doing so in the next week or two. So if I don't have your email you better get it to me. I know some of you don't have blogs, but are close friends of mine and check my blog out sometimes. Just send me your email and you should still be able to view it. If you are a stocker who has never come forward, it is time you do so. Otherwise you are out. JK
My SnowQueen Blog will still be opened to all viewers and I hope you all continue to visit it.

Black Friday info, Poll and FREE Fries!

2008-11-26T06:54:00.001-08:00

Check it out on the Mama Snow blog!

I have two dads....

2008-11-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

So my little boy is growing up and with him, you never know whats coming.
So the other day we were getting in the car to go to pre-school. I realized I never checked his backpack from the last weekend figured I'd better check to see if he had homework. So I quickly grabbed all the papers and went through them. I checked their itinerary of what they did in class and noticed they talked about families. "So Sweet", I thought!
His class talked about how some families have just a mommy and some families just have a daddy and so on.... The paper then described how they asked the kids to go through magazines and cut out people to represent their "Funny Family". This is when I pulled out Tate's picture In the middle I noticed Tate's picture in the middle. To the top was a baby girl, my guess was it resembled Addie. On the bottom the pictures were of,.... TWO MEN????
I'm not stating my opinion on how I feel of Prop 8 here. Don't put words in my mouth. This has nothing to do with that. The point is I am a female and Matt is Male. We are not a same sex couple. I was just laughing at what his teacher must have thought. Tate is a very stubborn kid and if he wanted to put a certain picture on his paper, he will fight to do so. I am sure his teacher couldn't really change his mind.
I decided when I picked Tate up I would ask him about his family picture.
When Tate jumped in the car I pulled the picture out and went through each person. Tate pointed to him and said, "That's me".
As he pointed to the baby he said ,"That's my baby girl Addie".
"OK" I said "So who are these people"?
Tate pointed to the man with dark hair and said "That's Ella's Daddy, Dr. Bott".
Dr. Bott is our neighbor and dentist, and actually the picture sort of did resemble him.
"So who is that man", I asked Tate.
"I dunno, but it's not my daddy"!
What a relief. I was beginning to wonder if Tate new something I didn't. Just kidden.
Matt and I just laughed.
So a couple days later when Tate came home again from pre-school, we went through his bag. On this day they talked about things that they were thankful for. I pulled out Tate's paper which had a tree with leaves. I each leaf was suppose to be something Tate ws thankful for. The big leaf on top said "Jesus". I thought that was sweet. Another leaf said, "My dad".
"That's a good one", I thought to myself.
The last leaf I was totally expecting to see me, but no. The other leaf said "Dad".
Once again, two dads!
OK now I'm worried! (I'm really not, I am just enjoying this moment!)

So I took some pics, but I will post them when I get the chance!

Awesome deal at Snapfish for photo cards!!!

2008-11-18T13:34:00.001-08:00

Seriously this is another ridiculously Great Deal at Snapfish. If you want to hear more check out my new blog for the details.

www.Hail2theSnowQueen.blogspot.com

New Blog! A must see!

2008-11-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

So my name is Tasha and I am a blogger addict. Just kidding! I have started another blog though and in it I will post reviews, great deals and where to find some awesome giveaways. All the information is there. I will post more about it later, but there is a awesome deal right now.

FREE 8.5 x 11 snapfish photo book!

So check it out now because you got to get moving by Friday Nov. 14, 11:59 p.m.

BY the way me new blog is
www.Hail2theSnowQueen.blogspot.com
I know, "couldn't I have come up with something better"?

Fun in October!

2008-11-02T07:56:00.001-08:00

October has been like my December should be.... Crazy! We have had a lot of fun though. There is so much we've done and I have so many pictures. I decided that I would just post all the pics and give you a breef run through of all of our activities. We have had many Halloween parties to attend. One was at my grandpa's retirement residency, Tate's pre-school, and then the Snow's yearly Halloween party.

Between the parties we attended Thanksgiving Point Cornbelly's, three different times with three different group. Below I show the pics. with my side of the family. While there My lovely brother and adorable hubby decided it was fun to tackle Tasha in the corn maze. Matt nearly killed me while mistaking me for a real football player, while thinking he was in a real game. Ha ha ha..... not really!

We attended a dinner theater event at Gardener Village. The best part was Matt, his brother and dad were pulled up in stage during YMCA. Matt did a cool toe touch off the stage and then a girl ran up and gave him a dollar bill. Had to be there I guess?

So I could go on and on, but as you see the last pics are of halloween and our pumpkin creations. Tate did the spider man one, but kept throwing a fit that it wasn;t looking like a spider so I helped a bit using a stencil. Later Halloween night Addie's two little friends stopped by to show off their cute costumes so I took some pics.

The Great Pumpkin Patch!

2008-10-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

So this year I decided to start a new tradition. Can you believe I have never been to a real Pumpkin Patch before? I know, Crazy! So since I thought this looked like so much fun I decided that we would make a family outing of it and it was so fun. We got some cute pictures and then went out and beyond to search for the perfect pumpkin, or two......or three.
Tate loved running through all the pumpkins and Addie enjoyed riding on her daddy's backand the wagon.
Can't wait for next year!

The show must always go on...

2008-10-04T19:20:00.001-07:00

So I wasn't sure I even wanted to post these pics. My face looks like a blow fish, I have no make-up (yikes!) and I was soaked and wet. I figured under the circumstaces that most of you would all be understanding. So if the pics really do disgust you ,just look away.

Kara and I

The Swim

The Bike

Kara at the finish line

The Run. (I figured my legs looked allot better than my facial expression. So here's to a better view.)

Me being so happy!

So the day finally came for me to do the triathlon. Of course I couldn't sleep much the night before. You'd think it was the night before Christmas or something! Anyway all through the night before it rained. All the day of the triathlon.....It rained!
I always imagined it being warm with the sun shinning down on me and just a little breeze on my face. Oh no, it was wet, cold and there was far more then a breeze on my face. I am sure for the crowd it was like watching a bunch of drenched sewer rats running along the street. Yet, it was still awesome.
Before we got started I was sure Matt wouldn't come. I told him to not worry about it because it would be too cold and wet for the kids. Yet he surprised me and came anyway. I was so excited when I saw Matt, his parents and my kids walk in and stand by the pool to cheer me on. I seriously really appreciated Matt's parents coming all the way from Bountiful, just to sit in such cold weather and watch the race. They are so thoughtful and supportive. It meant so much to me to have some family and support.
So lets start with the swim. My friend and I went on Wed. to practice and my fear for the water totally came back. I was basically freaking out and didn't even know if I would be able to make 2 laps the day of the race. I knew I could, but my nerves were totally taking over. Plus I really am not a fan of swimming with no life jacket. Well the day of the race something new took over, probably excitement, and I totally swam the 300 meters without even stopping! It was so awesome! I even passed a few people.
The bike part went great as well, except for I have no rain proof jacket so I wore some cotton jacket (not the best idea). Even before I finished my first lap I was soaked. I made it through though. Since you go a little faster on the bike the rain felt like hail as it hit you. I was almost wondering if it was snowing it hit so hard. I made it though with not much of a problem except I was freezing.
When I got to transition for the run I decided to shed the drenched jacket and basically run in nothing.... Just kidding. It felt like nothing though. I wore my cute little shorts and top that I swam in. BY the time I got off my bike I literally felt nothing. Running in wet shoes was like running with cement shoes. I didn't know if I would even be able to walk. I started to jog though and eventually I told myself, "Why stop jogging? If you can't feel anything what does it matter!".
It was so awesome getting to the finish line and seeing Matt and Tate waiting for me.
As for my friend, she did awesome. She is an excellent swimmer and was totally passing a ton of people. She is way more athletic then I and she finished with no problem. Well, other then the loss of feeling in her hands and legs as well. Poor girl was so cold her lips were purple the whole drive home. Well I am so glad I found such a great friend,motivator and partner to do triathlons with. Kara your awesome. Can't wait for our next race and lucky us, it's in November...

The Circus

2008-10-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

So a while back I took Tate to the circus. He absolutely loved it. His favorite part was the motorcycles in the cage and the tigers. Tate's was also very excited because his cute cousin Raegan and Grandma also joined us. It was so mice to just have mommy and Tate time. He is such a funny little boy.

Drugs are NOT cool....

2008-09-30T21:14:00.001-07:00

You Belong in 1960

You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too.

What Year Do You Belong In?

Triathalon Confession......

2008-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

So those who I speak to often knew of my crazy passion to do a triathlon this summer. Well summer is pretty much over and I obviously have not followed through on the idea. After having Addie I swore to myself I would lose all the weight and to do so I would motivate myself by taking on a challenge or two.... or three. So I got back into jogging right away, then I really got crazy and decided to learn how to swim, (I mean really swim, not just use my arms and legs to stay above water swim). Honestly swimming is just not my thing. I think I did some swim lessons in early grade school a couple of times and that was it. I have always had a fear of water unless I had a life jacket on. SO this had been a rather BIG accomplishment.
Anyway I got started with that and then as I posted in an earlier post, I had the "Everyone is doing it", thought and got into biking. Which to say the least I was also VERY new at.
Sadly I kept eating like crap and even though I was working out I wasn't losing those extra Addie pounds and I kept pro-longing my triathlon dream.
Well Guess what? I got my butt in gear and I am officially doing my first triathlon the first of October. I want to say,"yippee", but I am actually a little nervous. I got the Biking and Jogging down no problem, but the swimming still suffers. Oh well because if I said I was going to do it I am going to do it. Luckily I have a motivating friend who is going to join me and in the mean time she is keeping my butt in gear and pushing me like no other. She is going to do awesome. I have been working hard and only have 3 more pounds left to get to pre-Addie days. Still, I can not even bring up pre-Tate days until a much much later post. But pre-Addie is a good start.
So wish me luck in my crazy adventure. I am sure I will post more on it after it happens.

Catch up continues.....

2008-09-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

So we have been so busy lately. After many challenges we got our dang sod finally in. All we have left is the plants, HALLELUJAH!
In the mean time I been doing many art projects. It seems when one comes they all come. Hopefully after this next week I will have those all caught up with, I have left many people waiting on me...... Sorry! So enjoy some of my pics I have been meaning to post.

Girls night out was a success! I always miss my friends after we get together. They are all so fun and so dang cute.

Tate and his friends continued to try to help work in the yard these past weeks. I think they were as helpful as me!

And Tate started Pre-school. he loves it and so far I just love his teacher. She has been awesome.

So our neighborhood has been taken over by bees. Seriously these poor kids have all been stung. Our neighbors poor daughter and Addie both had their first bee sting. It was so sad. And Tate has been stung a marvelous 6 times. Actually it isn't that great except for he is so use to it now that he gets stung cries for a couple of minutes and is ready to go back outside and face the bee's. This year his arm and hand swelled up almost double its size. Well my neighbor and I decided to get the three musketeer's and take their picture. Addie is obviously the happiest since that was not the day she was stung....

Fondant Recipe

2008-09-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

So here it is, the Marshmellow Fondant recipe. Sorry it took me a while to get up....

(Marshmallow) Fondant Recipe  

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)  
2 to 5 tablespoons water 
 2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)  
½ cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

NOTE: Please be careful, this first stage can get hot.
Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 ½ minutes total. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY - palms, backs and in between fingers, then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. (By the way, this recipe is also good for your hands. When I’m done, they are baby soft.)
Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. If you have children in the room they will either laugh at you or look at you with a questioning expression. You might even hear a muttered, “What are you doing?”

Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant is sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about ½ tablespoon at a time then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

Its best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.
Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic- type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.

MM Fondant will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make 2 batches on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant can be prepared well in advance.

If you are covering the whole cake with a layer of fondant, I would roll it out on wax paper. This makes it easier when you have to transfer it to the cake. You can just lift the wax paper off the table,flip it over on top of the cake and then peal the wax paper off. Now you can smooth the sides etc.
If it isn't looking smooth, just add water to your hands and try smoothing it or if you get a hole somewhere you can add another peice of fondant and smooth it on with water. This makes it less noticable.
The best way to cut out shapes is use cookie cutters. Another awesome tool I used to cut off the access Fondant along the edges and for cutting stripes was a pizza cutter roller thing. I also had all these other cool tools for clay, which Tate used for play-doe and they worked awesome for alot of things.
Color- Coloring the fondant sucks. The darker and richer you want the color, the harder it will be. I did learn for black or brown you can add coco powder in the Fondant while you adding the sugar. This make a brown color fondant. Then to richer the color you add some food dye or color paste. it really helped my brown darken.

Girls Night Sat. Sept.6

2008-09-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ok all you old High School Gals. Laurie Mackay is in town and we all got to get together so here are the details.
Sat. Sept 6, 6:00 p.m. at "The Old Spaghetti Factory" in T-ville. Come if you can and maybe after words we can all catch a movie or add something else to the evening. Hope to see you there!

My baby is turning 1!

2008-09-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Wow were did the time go. Addie is going to be one on the 5th. She has been such a great addition to our little family. We love her and Tate both so much. Addie is such a silly girl and loves to rock out to music. I will have to catch her on video some time. She is finally crawling and pulling herself up. Soon enough I am sure she will be taking her first steps. I can't wait.
We had to celebrate her birthday early so we invited our families over to our house for some cake and ice cream. Matt and I have the greatest family. Those who could, came to wish Addie a Happy Birthday and spoiled her with gifts and Attention. It was so fun to have everyone there and enjoy each others company.
Once again I got a little carried away with the cake. I love making cakes now that I learned how to make fondant. I still have a lot to work on but was pleased with how it turned out anyways. My sister in-law told me to post the fondant recipe so I will be doing that sometime this week. It is very messy but very easy. I guess depending on how you look at messy being something easy!

Summer has to end some time....

2008-09-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

So since summer was coming to an end I have been trying to fill my days with some fun final activities. We have been to lagoon several times this year and our last visit was with my family. It was fun hanging out with the family. I even tricked my cute mom into going on Rattlesnake Rapids and told her that you hardly got wet. Of course she got drenched and I don't think she was too happy but she tried to be a sport about it.
Last week we finally made it to Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. My cute friend and her little boy joined us.
We recently went to the children's museum but I forgot my camera so I will have to still some pics from my cousin who came along. So here are some more pics.

Lake Powell

2008-09-02T14:05:00.001-07:00

So each year we get the chance to go on our favorite trip to Lake Powell. Honestly it hasn't exactly been my favorite trip for almost three years now. Between the babies not wanting to sleep in the heat, Being pregnant and having to sit on the side line or like last year being in the middle of having a baby, I thought I was never going to enjoy Lake Powell ever again. Well my sweet mom took on the job of watching Addie for the week so Matt, Tate and I got to go and enjoy ourselves. It was awesome. Tate was so good and absolutely loved it. So here are some pics of another great week in Lake Powell!

The Funny Farm!

2008-08-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Usually Big extended Family Reunions get a bad name and I am one who tends to put them in this category, but this year I was proven wrong. Matt's family has this big reunion every other year and I have to admit each year the family oever it puts forth alot of work and time and they always pull off some pretty fun activities. This year Was Uncle Tom and Aunt Joyce's turn and since I have been part of the Snow family the reunion Tom and Joyce pulled off years ago has been one hot topic. So I have been very excited to be a part of the reunion this year. And let me tell you, they did not let me down. It was awesome! So here is a breif outline. The was supposedly almost 180 people. I am sure that counted the babies and toddlers. So we camped out on their land on the farm. Every morning when we stepped out of our tent we were welcomed by dry cow pies. YuM! Some of our activites included horse back riding, a large water slide, pig chasing (for the kids), Mud football, and my favorite the pig race. So here is some pics and video.

High School Friends

2008-08-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

This is short notice but Lindsey Bodine Record is coming into town and we wanted to try to get some of the old friends from HS together. So if your interested join us Tuesday 11:00am at Taylorsville Park on 2700 West. Just bring a lunch for you and your kids if you have kids and we will be be eating, playing and chatting. You can call me or email me if you have Q. Hope to see some of you there.

Water Monkey

2008-07-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

So I am not one to push my child to do something they are just not ready to do. For example crawling, walking, and potty training. Sometimes kids just know when they are ready more then we do and all of them are on their own schedules. But when it comes to swimming I am a strong believer in teaching them ASAP. Especially if you plan on being around water allot during summer time and if your child is determined to be independent and is good at disappearing at a blink of an eye. It is so hard to teach a 3 year old water safety and I would be much more relaxed if I knew Tate was aware of what needed to be done just in case he fell into water and got out of my sight. So I was determined to find him a great swimming instructor. I learned in group lessons there were just to many kids to focus on and most likely it wouldn't be until next year or later when Tate learned to swim. At a community pool they had to be very easy going and wouldn't push the kids to hard. It was more about fun. So I heard of this lady who did privates in her backyard pool in Pleasant Grove. I admit the first lesson freaked me out a bit and Tate wasn't that happy about it either. They definitely pushed the kids to swim. He was in excellent hands though and they constantly were there for him. Anyway he LOVES his swim lessons now and he can float on his back and can swim on his belly. The belly needs some work because he won't use his arms and won't take a breath, which helps. But I am just so glad he has learned these important water skills. He has really improved. I hope he never has to practice these skills during an emergency but I am so comforted that he can do these things. Plus it makes swimming that much more fun. So if anyone lives near P.G. let me know and I will give you the info. For private swim lessons the cost is VERY REASONABLE and during the winter months they have a bubble so the child can continue lessons as often as you would like so they won't forget what they learned. So enough already I am just so excited for Tate.

Catch up!

2008-07-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

So way back around the 4th of July we went to freedom festival. It was a lot of fun. The had all these free crafts and activities for the kids. Tate's favorite was the large Python. I hope this isn't the start of some fascination with snakes. There is no way i will allow a snake to stay in the same house with me. My brother would always bring hope creepy things and keep them as pets. I still remember the snake he caught and when it got out of the cage. I was the one who found it and I also was the one who picked it up and threw it out side. Surprisingly it was never seen again! Sorry Nate if I never told you, I think I did though because I was so happy to get rid of that thing.

Memory Lane!

2008-07-18T14:13:00.001-07:00

So I really like this new post my friends are doing so I thought I would give it a try. I realize this is perfect opportunity for everyone to harass me. Just beware, if you share something I don't like I may just have to post something equally embarrassing about you.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I or you and Matt had together. If your husband is my husband friend, get the dirt. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is the most memorable for you.

2. Next, if you feel so inclined, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you...!

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

So You Think You Can Dance?

2008-07-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

First off I LOVE this show. Second I am P.O.'ed because I totally had opportunity to go to tonights showing and maybe meet some of the dancers, but Matt said no! What is that all about? Actually I do understand, it's just it would have been awesome to experience it and see the sweet dances. I have totally gone over my personal budget this year and Matt has been more then accepting with that thus far. But asking for $500 more dollars just wasn't going to cut it :( So here is the deal. My sister owns a dance studio in South Jordan, Utah Dance Artist. Both Thayne, who was cut last week, and Gev were dance teachers at her studio. Gev called her up and gave her two tickets to Thurs. show. I sort of begged her to see if I could talk Matt into letting me go before she asked anyone else. Well you know how the rest goes. So tonight look for my sister. I will just sit on my couch in self pity while I imagine how cool it would have been to be there and hang out with my sis. Just had to share and wine a little.

The 4th of July!

2008-07-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

My day stated off at 6am when I forced myself out of bed to do my bike ride. Then at 7 am I took me and my sexy biker shorts to put up flags with the Young Women. Yes, in our ward the Young Women and the Young men take turns with the flags. After I went to help set up for our neighborhood 4th of July Block Party! Let me fist start off by telling you we have the cutest neighbor Jennifer who put together the whole thing. I try my best to help, but she is one hard person to keep up with. She is amazing! So after setting up we had a little parade at 10:30 am. Matt and Tate had decorated his scooter for the parade.
After everyone stays for game and food. Me and a few other neighbors did the face painting. After cleaning up The morning had caught up with me and the kids and I took a nap. Later that night we hooked up with some fellow neighbors and hung out tell the fireworks came out. We wanted to watch Thanksgiving Points fireworks form our house but found the whole neighborhood outside lighting fireworks instead. Tate had a blast! So here are some pics.

Reunited

2008-07-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

So I had one of my long lost cousins get married this last week. Actually she wasn't lost we just hadn't seen each other for over 13 years. When we were younger my family would always make a trip to visit her family in St. George, but after a while everyone seemed to get scattered around the U.S.. So when my mom and I got an invite and saw it was in good ol' St George we decided to make it a road trip. Then when the cousin found out we were coming she got a really crazy idea and asked me to sing at the reception. What you got to understand is my cousin is like the most awesome singer ever, so it was very intimidating. It went well though.
Over all it was so fun to see Melissa and meet her new husband. They are such a cute couple and we wish them the best. The wedding was beautiful with beautiful words and very nice reception after.
It was also fun to spend a few days with just me and my mom and no kids.

My Fairy Tale.......

2008-07-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

So it seems like everyone is doing it these days, so why not? I know some may agree that I don't fit in the princess category. I am sure Laurie will have a few opinions to share. Matt on the other hand said I was most like Ursula. When I informed him Ursula was not a princess, he said he knew and described how she was the evil sea beast who wanted all control over the sea. After that remark I really showed Matt my Ursula side.
After words Matt thought it looked like so much fun that he wanted to see what Disney prince he was. (Ok he really didn't but he played along). Crazy enough we perfectly matched up as a Disney couple. It was pretty funny to how similar the characters descriptions were to us as well. I guess underneath our crazy relationship there really is a fairy tale!

Which Disney Princess or Prince are You?

Tasha, you are Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.

Matt, you are John Smith from the Disney movie "Pocahontas". You love to explore new places and will probably meet your true love along the way. She will be much different from what your used to, and you can both learn new things from each other.

I like to ride my bicycle......

2008-06-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

Ok so I totally got to brag for a minute here. Just Kidding, this really isn't that cool, but for me it was a pretty BIG accomplishment. So I live in Suncrest. Suncrest is basically a big hill. This is where many bikers love to ride. After seeing this I got motivated to buy a bike. (Ok spending money actually didn't take that much motivation, but riding it did...) So for those of you who know me well, I am not athletic at all. The last time I owned a bike was when I was like 8 years old. It had pom poms on the handle. I didn't ride it much so I think my parents probably got rid of it with in that year. That is my ONLY back ground with bikes.... Seriously. No one seems to believe me. Matt didn't even believe me until I got on and rode the thing. Instead of laughing at how bad I was and how I couldn't switch gears, he was pissed I talked him into spending hundreds of dollars on this rode bike.
So basically it has been sitting in our garage for a couple of months and I have been to scared to ride it. Well on Saturday, long story short, my friend talked me into riding bikes with her. So I did. Then she tricked me into riding up to the suncrest market, which is a full up hill 2 mile ride. I have walked this thing a few times with my kids in a non-jogging stroller and it is a killer, so I was VERY hesitant. I am so bad at per pressure and gave it a shot.
I'm alive.....and I made it. It took almost an hour the first time but we did it again on Wed and did it in 30 min. Yes, and I did it a second time. Down hill, well that hill is freakin fast. Except I use those breaks like I use a steering wheel. So before you know it I will be doing the full South Mountian/Suncrest ride. Or maybe not? Anyway I was pretty pumped and had to share it with the world.

Craft ideas???

2008-06-22T12:47:00.001-07:00

So I was asked to come up with a craft for our Young Womens Camp. Does anyone have any great ideas?
Thanks for the help!