Climb Every Mountain

Nothing like hiking a mountain to get the college kids into book mode. The parental units are out this way to take the Bro to BYU and the Sis to BYU-I. Brandon and I ditched the kids for the day (thanks Ashley and Mike!) and joined them on a hike to Mt. Timpanogos. We decided we'd let the Newlyweds (UVU-ers) also came along.

The lovely group, oh so happy to be at the top.

Still happy to be at the top ... 20 seconds later ... when we took a picture from the other direction.

Utah Valley. "Oh my gosh darn heck, it is so freakin' amazing!"

Not sure

why my mosaic is so small but it is way too late for me to care enough to fix it. Click on it and it will show it bigger.

Good night.

Mosaic Meme

Courtesy of Jill

1. Name? Bethany

2. Favorite Color? Red and yellow

3. High School? Royal High

4. Favorite Food? Mexican.

5. Celebrity Crush? Drawing a blank. My heart belongs to one man and fortunately he is not a celebrity.

6. Favorite Drink? Diet Coke

7. Dream Vacation? Florence, Italy -- with Brandon this time

8. Favorite Dessert? Brownie sundae

9. What you want to be when you grow up? Children's choir director

10. Your favorite thing in this world? Besides my family? Water.

11. One word to describe you? Stumped. It is way too late for me to think of one single solitary word that describes me. Hmmm . . . perhaps complex? Nah. We'll stick with "stumped."

12. What was your favorite school subject? Music.



1. SJ510C_90034_Bethany, 2. tulip field, 3. Royal High School Edinburgh, 4. Tacos de Asada, 5. Question mark, 6. Amazing Circles: Diet Coke Cans, 7. "La mia casa è il mare e con un fiume no, non la posso cambiare", 8. Brownie Sundae @ Chocolate Room, 9. Chicago Children's Choir, 10. Summer Splash, 11. Untitled, 12. "Music was my first love."

And because I know you are just dying to play along ...


Here's what you do:

• Go to Flickr search and pick out a photo for each one of your answers to the questions below (I didn't post a picture for all of them).
• Click on the picture you want and copy the URL
• Open another browser, Mosaic Maker, and paste the URL for each picture into the desired space. (You'll see directions)
• Once you have selected, copied and pasted all of your pictures, click Create to make your MosaicClick Share (at this point you can copy the html and paste it into your post)

NieNie

I had never heard of Stephanie Nielson until recently when blogs that I regularly read announced that she and her husband had been seriously injured in a small plane crash. I have since discovered that she kept up a super blog, she is the mother of four adorable children, she is incredibly talented and ridiculously creative. And oh how my heart now aches for this family. Her sister, c jane, regularly updates her blog regarding the recovery of the couple. Both have burns over significant portions of their body. The recovery will take months, if not years. The hospital bills are expected to reach the millions.

What a boost of faith to hear how family, community, and bloggers have united to help this couple and their children. Today has been declared NieNie day and nearly 100 websites are participating. Check out Blog Segullah for more details.

My Sister and I Are Different.

CASE IN POINT

For the record, I attended Ricks College, now sadly known as BYU-Idaho. My sister will be following in my footsteps in a couple of weeks.

My thoughts as the day I would meet my first college roommates for the first time slowly approached ...

"I wonder if we will wear the same size so that we can share clothes."
"Maybe one of them will like to do hair. She can do mine for church and dances and stuff and I can do hers."
"I wonder what color their comforter will be. I hope it matches mine."

My sister's thoughts ...

"Wouldn't it be funny if I walked in with a coffeemaker box? I mean, I wouldn't actually have the coffeemaker, just the box with other stuff in it, but my roommates wouldn't know that. What do you think they would do?"

Trip to the Beach 101

Rule #1: Do not go only 3 days after your son has spent a week with rotavirus. He will be weak, tired, and extremely irritable.

Rule #2: Do not leave at 11:00 am and expect the kiddos to be OK with pushing back their naps, especially if you have already broken rule #1.

Rule #3: Do not apply sunscreen while sitting on the sand.

Rule #4: If you choose to break rule #3, do not allow child to rub his eyes because sand will get in them. When this happens he will then proceed to cry for 1 hour before you give up, pack up the car, and go home.

Ah yes, if only we had known these special rules about three weeks ago. Then a failed trip to the beach would not be in our memory log. (Alright all you Californians. Stop snickering. I realize this isn't a real beach, but it is as good as it gets around here.)

Thank goodness for the redemption trip this past weekend!

Seriously.

Read this.

The end.

Post Number Three aka The Kids Are Taking a Good Nap

These pictures are for family and friends that know these people. It has been a month of reunions and I have loved it!

Notice the clock in the background? Yes, it we talked until after 1 am.

Different day, same shirt. I must be a mother.

Perhaps one of the cutest girls ever!

Marie wanted to eat the flowers.

Mr. and Mrs. W.

Another Olympic Moment

I was able to watch the first two sets of this game and then had to go back to being a mom. It killed me to turn off the TV when they were tied 1-1, both sets being very close. I was so excited to find out that the US won! What a game!

City Boy Meets Tractors

Once or twice a year my family made the drive to "the farm." My grandparent's home. As soon as I hear the word farm nostalgia instantly sets in. I can ride a horse. Heck, I can saddle a horse. I have witnessed branding day. I know what a Rocky Mountain Oyster is, although I have never partaken. I have hauled hay. I have climbed a haystack. I have fed cows. I have explored a chicken coop. I have held a baby lamb. I know what sheep poop looks like. My grandpa, he was the ultimate cowboy. Grandma? Well, she wrote the book on being the All-American Grandma.

I know that my kids will never have the farm experience that I had. But whenever I get the chance I love to take my kids up there and give them a small taste of country life. A couple of weeks ago was one of those times. That morning William and I went on a walk to find tractors. That isn't too hard to do out there.

As I look back at these pictures I realize how "city" my boy looks! I mean, a Newsies hat?! Can you get anymore city than that? Somewhere deep down he has a little country in him because he was in heaven when we found this field.

And here he is pondering his life. Thinking that perhaps he was born into the wrong family. City folk who like things like basketball games and malls. Poor kid.

There goes the hat.

And there goes my boy. Down the lane. Off to be a farmer.

William-ese

If only I wrote it all down, this post would be a lot longer. These are just a couple of common conversations with William lately.

William: Guess what?
Daddy: What?
William: Guess what?
Daddy: What?
William: Guess what?
Daddy: What?
William: A train crashed into a truck.
Daddy: That's terrible.

seconds later

William: Guess what?
Mommy: What?
William: Guess what?
Mommy: What?
William: Guess what?
Mommy: What?
William: A train crashed into a boat.
Mommy: Oh no, a boat?
William: Yes, a boat.

____________________________________________

William: Goin' to sing a song about a temple.
Mommy: OK
William: (in a sing-song voice)I love see da temple. The temple over there (points to picture on wall). Temple stuck.


William: Sing song temple.
Mommy: OK
William: I love see da temple. I'm goin' on a train.
Mommy: I'm going there some day.
William: No. Going. On. TRAIN.
Mommy: Oh, sorry.
(What was I thinking?)

4 years down, an eternity to go.

I love you, my sweet, wonderful, handsome "Idaho farm boy". You have made my world wonderful. Thank you for dedicating your life to our family. Thank you for your hard work, your love, your patience, your wisdom, your humor, your kindness, your testimony, your dedication. Thank you for helping me to become a better me. Thank you for giving 100% to our marriage. Thank you for the last 4 years. I am looking forward to the rest of eternity.

Watch out Picasso!

A little sunshine, a little nakedness, a little sidewalk paint, and TONS of fun!

Olympic Moments

Since the start of the Beijing Olympics I have been spending the majority of my computer time sitting in front of the T.V. instead. I heart the Olympics. Seriously. They rock. So, blogging has been and will be put somewhat on hold so that I can be an obsessed fan of the United States. Yippee!

I missed the Opening Ceremonies because of a family outing to the local amusement park. I hear it was absolutely spectacular.

Since then, however, here are some of my favorite moments ...

Michael Phelps and teammates take the Gold in the Men's 4X100m Freestyle relay. Entering as the underdog they surprised everyone by taking the lead in the last second and shattering the world record. They won the race by 2/10ths of a second. Now Mr. Phelps just needs to work on keeping those pants on. Yikes.

The U.S. Women's gymnastics team had a rough start last night, but still managed to finish second behind China as they head into the finals. I fell in love with this woman, Martha Karolyi, by the end of the night. What a cheerleader! She was just what those girls needed to keep their heads up and finish strong.

Of course, I have to include my high school sport, water polo. The women's team won their first game against China. The score was 12-11. A little too close for comfort if you ask me. It should have been a blow-out. This was China's debut in women's water polo. USA is the defending world champion and until this game held their opponents below double digits for 8 years. I hope they can step it up and go on to win the gold.

Go USA!

Then and Now

College roommates: December 2000

BFFs: August 2008

Words cannot describe how much I love this girl! She is getting married in a week and I am thrilled for her! She is most definitely at the top of my list of people that have "left a handprint on my heart." We saw each other this past Saturday for the first time in nearly 5 years. How time flies. The only thing that could have made it better was about 10 more hours to chat and laugh. I love you KJ!

My Little Pony

Marie sported her first ponytail at church today. I was so proud. I finally feel fulfilled as a mother of a little girl.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

When I asked William what he wanted to name his fish he said, "Fish and Blue Fish." Creative, eh? Brandon and I thought we would be a bit more creative. Meet Peacock and Mars ....

The video is a tad longer than I like to put on a blog. The length is for our sake. You will probably get the point after about 30 seconds. I assure you that my feelings will not be hurt if you stop there. Heck, I won't even know!

Yay for friends!

When my sewing machine went kaput a few weeks ago I was in the middle of sewing a couple of sun dresses for Marie. I knew I had to take the beast to the shop and had no idea how much it would cost or how long it would take to fix it so I called a good friend to see if I could borrow her machine. Seriously, if I had any idea how nice of a machine she had I don't think I ever would have asked. She was so generous to let me borrow it and it was love at first stitch for me! I now know what my kids college education fund will go to I am going to start saving my pennies for.

Anyway, this is one of the dresses I made.


And with the extra material I had I decided to try out a tutorial I found for a tiered skirt. It turned out so stinkin' cute. I must warn you, however, that I did not use any of the math in the tutorial. I used the numbers that she provided because that size worked for Marie. So if you decide to try it out, do so at your own risk!

Marie is practicing her "pouty model" look here.

The Post brought to you by the letter T ...

I remember a few months ago I read a book that showed the play patterns of toddlers. I would try to explain the diagram but I know that my words would not do them justice. Basically, they showed that between 2.5 and 3 years of age a toddler's attention span increases significantly and they begin to spend more time at one activity. More time as in more than 2-3 minutes, which is what William was averaging when I read the book. I am so thrilled to say that he has finally started to prove the diagrams correct! I am loving the time William spends playing with his toys, doing crafts, reading books, etc. Not only do I have more time to get my chores and such done, but I am also able to spend more time with him on preschool-type activities.

This last week we focused on the letter F and did a lot of activities about fish. We even went to the pet store and bought a couple of fish. Alas, as I looked for pictures to add to this post I realized that I didn't take any pictures of our fishy adventures, or even our fish. I do, however, have pictures of him entertaining himself for longer than 2-3 minutes at a time. {sigh}

Chips, trucks, trailers, and tractors. No wonder he has such a big smile on his face. The truck, trailer, and tractor were my gift to him after he got over his rotavirus. It was my little celebration of health. He has loved playing with them and the big rig that Grandma S. gave him. And I can't forget to mention his rosy cheeks. He looks much better than he did in this post. Wouldn't you agree?


This wood truck was 88 cents at WalMart. William and I had a great time painting it. (He'll be starting his job at Maaco next week.) Plus, when he was bored with that he pushed the paintbrush through the truck window about 50 times (a service not currently offered at Maaco). What a deal!

William found a lone bean on the counter and started to move it from his tractor to his dump truck over and over again. I took advantage of the situation and gave him a pile of "rocks" to play with. We were both in heaven. He played with his trucks and rocks and I was able to clean the kitchen in peace. The only thing I'll do better next time is put it all on a cookie sheet so that I don't have to sweep the floor.

Oldie but Goodie

This is from back in April. It's blurry. The lighting is bad. Yet. The moment is wonderful. My baby sister, Sara Marie, cuddling with my baby girl, Marie Noelle. Marie was named after Sara Marie. I love these two girls. With all of my heart.