...And Today and Again Tomorrow!

What in the world is going on around here?  We've had -3 temps, ice everywhere, and rolling power outages!  We've already checked the news and school is closed again tomorrow!  We've been hanging around the house again today.  Finished any sort of laundry I could do, organized, cleaned my house, made homemade cinnamon rolls, held a feverish Max, and clipped all my coupons.  Now I know I have a whole other day to get stuff done around here.  Kind of nice, but I think my kids are wanting to get out and do something.  Max is sick so it's good to lay low with him and let him get better.  Hopefully it will warm up around here before the Superbowl!

School is Closed Today!

We had a little winter storm come through the area and it left us a bunch of ice and a little snow.  School is out today and Ry isn't going into work until later so we're enjoying a little bit of free time.  We don't really have snow clothes like I did growing up in Ohio and Pennsylvania so we have to make do with what we've got...including our fun snow equipment.  Ry made a little sled and pulled the boys on the ice for quite awhile.  While they were outside and freezing, I was washing sheets and organizing my spice cupboard.  So fun, right?  Now we're enjoying some hot chocolate and snuggly warm blankies straight from the dryer!

Office, continued

So here is a pic of where we moved things.  We took the big desk and moved it out from the window and put up against the wall and we took the little computer cart and we're going to sell that at the neighborhood garage sale.  We took one bookshelf and put it where the computer cart was and kept the other bookshelf where it was.  Then we took the big chair and put it in the opposite corner of where it was. 

As the day progress, we went through all the stuff that we took out of the office and tried to see what would could part with. Thankfully I had previously gone through ALL of our files and paperwork to clean all that out a week ago so we didn't have to do that too. Here's where we're at now. Still have a few boxes left to go through so this isn't our finished product yet. I still need to go to The Container Store for a few things and find some artwork.

I really like this layout better than the one we had before. It lets in a lot more light and I feel a lot lighter having thrown out all that stuff. I guess I grew up moving so much that we just purged each move so not moving anywhere for the past 4 years is really throwing me off. More organization to come as I attack my spice cupboard and my "station" so get ready!

Office Organization

Still working on the office right now, but we have rearranged some things.  I've got a general idea of what it's going to look like, but I've still got to work on the little things.  I really need to head to Ikea and The Container Store for some organization helpers.  And I need to get some cute stuff to hang on the walls.  Any ideas?  Here's some before pictures:

It was just not working for me.  The desk was covering part of the window, my overflowing church bag, binders everywhere, disorganized papers, books, no decor on the walls.  Not good.  So we took everything out of the office Friday night and then started moving furniture around.  As we were moving stuff I was getting a little worried since I wasn't really liking any of the layouts that we tried.  Plus with Internet plugs and furniture sizes we were limited to where things could go.  I started saying the line from Meet the Robinsons..."I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through!"  Finally we came up with something that worked and once the furniture was in the right places we went to bed.  So I'll post some after pictures of where we're at right now.  Definitely not a finished product right now, but we're getting there.  I'll keep you posted with any good finds! 

Suzy Q 1996-2011

I feel the same feeling that I felt the night I read Where the Red Fern Grows with my mom in 3rd grade.  Remember how sad it was when his dogs died?  I'm seriously crying with tissues right now.  What in the heck?!  My poor little cat had to be put down today, so sad!  The cat is technically mine, but she's been at my parents since I left for college.  I begged and begged for a cat and finally when I was a Junior in high school, my parents broke down and let me.  We got her when she was about 3 years old.  She was a feisty cat and would rarely let you hold her or pet her, not a lap cat at all.  But she was lovable and would do funny stuff.  She would always be up in the mornings with me when I was getting ready for seminary and then she'd tried to sneak out the back door when I left.  There were many times that I had to chase after her in frigid Ohio temps with wet hair trying to get her back inside.  A few years later I left for college so my parents had to keep her for me and they permanently kept her after I married Ryan since he's not too fond of animals.  So we visited her regularly whenever we go over to my parents.  My kids loved her, but were also petrified of her.  She would randomly hiss at them so if she was near by they would want an adult close in case she pounced, haha.  Well, she got really sick these past few weeks and if got bad enough that we felt like she was suffering.  So sad, but I'm glad she's not suffering anymore.  Okay, seriously I'm going to stop crying now, this is ridiculous!

Office Makeover

This weekend Ry and I will attempt to do a little face lift on our poor office.  It tends to be the dumping ground for papers, books, studying materials, random projects, stuff for callings, and all that kind of stuff.  I'm just going to try to work with what I've got, maybe just change around the layout.  I think we're just going to take everything out of the office and try to get a vision for the room.  I saw that on Peter Walsh and I'm hoping it works out for us.  I'm about to take apart he computer so if you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know what.  Wish me luck!

Big Boy Bed...sigh...

Sleeping in a bed is a novel idea, isn't it?  You'd think one would want to sleep in their bed, but not in our house.  Max has said good bye to the crib once he started escaping during nap time so we went straight to the bed.  Now if we could get him to stay there, that would be great.  I tallied up how many times Ry and I put him back in be done night and we got up to 61!  We're trying out the Super nanny method where you have your normal routine, say good night, and walk away.  Then once they come out you tell them to go back to bed and you put them back in.  If they escape, you don't talk to them, don't make eye contact and then carry on the process of returning them back to bed over and over until they realize you mean business. So far, not much progress.  With Ethan we just ended up locking the door, but Max's personality is so different than Ethan's.  He's totally fine if you sit in the rocking chair in his room and read a book until he falls asleep, but that's just not realistic.  Eventually he'll learn, but until then..."back to bed, Max!"

Sad Days Ahead!

I knew this day would come, but I tried to not think about it so maybe it wouldn't happen.  And now she's gone and it's so sad!  This picture was taken right before I had to say good bye and you can tell we're both about to cry :( Kaitlyn and I met here in Texas almost 4 years ago.  Ethan was barely 16 months old!  She was in my ward and lived just a few streets over and she had a little boy Ethan's age.  I remember that summer we hit it off and have been friends ever since!  We have been through a lot together...motherhood, pregnancy, new babies, colic, busy husbands, Activity Days, crafting, sad days, good days, you name it.  I feel like she's the sister I never had and has been a true and loyal friend.  I could always count on her to be there for me and I could always just be me and never have to explain myself.  She never judged, always listened and I just love her!  Her husband recently finished school and a few weeks ago they packed up and made their way to Colorado.  It's sad to not have her here, but when it's really bad I just watch "Baby Hands"

I even sent her to Colorado with her own set of "baby hands" for when times get tough.  When I gave them to her I was half laughing/half crying.  How sad is that?  Anyway, Kailtyn, I miss you!

Making A Come Back!

Excuses, Excuses!  I know!  I know!  I haven't blogged since October!  Maybe I'll try and come back to this whole blog thing.  Should I?  I think I might.

Things have been going really well in our little household.  Max has turned 2, Ethan has turned 5, Ryan turned 30 and I've had a birthday too.  We had a great trip to Europe, celebrated the holidays with family, and now it's time to get on with the new year and have new experiences.  Hopefully documented experiences on the blog!  So here's to 2011, and trying to get back to blogging.  I'm posting a few of our recent family pictures that we had done by our favorite photographer, Toni. 

Now here's a little bit about what we've been up to lately...

Maxwell:  Max has turned into such a big boy!  He's sleeping in a big boy bed now and is trying to start on the road to potty training!  He loves trash trucks, trains, school buses, semis, motorcycles...you get the picture.  Every Wednesday morning you'll find him waiting by the front door to catch a glimpse of the trash truck.  Thankfully his uncle found a way to burn clips of trash trucks to DVD!  Best Christmas gift ever!  This boy is just so darn cute!

Ethan:  We all know this boy is full of life.  He still says the funniest things and his teacher at school calls him her "old soul" since he acts like a man in a boy body.  He loves school and has started reading.  It feels like a new world has opened up to him!  He gets to start up soccer this spring and I look forward to my days watching my boys playing sports.  Time to break out the camping chair!

I'm busy doing the usual motherhood deal.  Trying to balance being a wife, taking care of kids, household, myself, calling, etc.  I really want to get my house totally organized.  I've been feeling the urge to purge!  Hopefully I'll have some fun projects to post in the next little while.  I'm feeling inspired, just have to find a way to do it!  If you have any great ideas for office decor or what to do for my spice cupboard, send them my way!!!

Oh Ryan, the love of my life!  Working, working, working!  He's doing the balancing act too.  He's been home a little bit more lately so we'll enjoy that while we can!

So how have you been doing since I've been away?  I've finally got all my blogs migrated over to Google Reader.  What a fiasco!  I used to be a Bloglines user, but since they switched to Merchant Circle everything went crazy and I seriously didn't read any blogs for 2 months!  How sad is that?  Now I've got everything set up and I finally feel like I'm back to the blog world.  I feel like I've missed so much!  I'm hoping to get some pictures uploaded from my camera and put a few old ones from the past few months and then I can start some new stuff.  Drop me a line and let me know how you're doing!

Paris Day 1: Arc de Triomphe

We woke up around 4 am so we could take a taxi over to the train station and took the Chunnel over to Paris.  I don't even know how long the ride was since I totally slept the whole way there.  Jet lag and waking up early super early just put me over the edge.  We got into Paris around 8 or 9 am and took a taxi over to our hotel, dropped our bags with the concierge and went off to site see.  We decided that we would do everything on foot that day so we got out our map and figured out all the places we wanted to see.  Our hotel was near the Arc de Triomphe so we walked over there first.

Paris has this great pass that you can get for 2, 4, or 6 days and it basically lets you get into just about every museum or tourist attraction (except the Eiffel Tower) for the cost of the pass so we picked up a 2 day pass for each of us when we got to the Arc. There were a bunch of stairs that we had to climb to get to the top and when we got there the view was beautiful!  This pictures is overlooking the Champs-Elysee where all the great shopping and specialty stores are at. As you can tell there was a little bit of fog that the sun was trying to burn off. It was a beautiful day in Paris that day. It was sunny and about 75 degrees with a hint of crisp in the air. Perfection!



 

.

This is looking at the opposite side of the Champs-Elysee towards downtown. 

This is just looking up side the arc.  The detail is gorgeous.  After the Arc we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.  We decided not to go at night since we were so close and we were anticipating our exhaustion to be quite bad by the time it got dark so we did a day time stroll.

Day 5: Making our Way Back to London

Day 5 was Tuesday and our final day in Harrogate with the Smith's.  Colin served us up a true English breakfast and Beryl packed us up her famous cookies for our trip back to London.  We got one last look at their beautiful garden and I was seriously jealous of the apple and pear trees!  Oh the things I could make!

Here's Colin pulling out some carrots for me to eat for my snack in the car. They were so good!

And here we are with Beryl, the hostess with the mostess!
We had a little tearful good bye and it was mostly me doing all the crying. I got a little attached to the Smith's and to Harrogate, I was really sad to leave. We had to though so we headed out to the city to do a little shopping to get some souvenirs. On our way back to London we stopped in Leeds so I could meet Bernard.

It was fun to hear the memories that they shared from Ry's mission. I think he was a little shocked to not see him in a suit as you can tell in the picture.

We got into London around 6 and had to turn in our rental car. I let out a huge sigh of relief when we gave back that car. I was so worried about getting in an accident while we were over there so it was nice to have everything turn out fine. We had to take the Tube in to downtown London to get to our hotel. We stayed at a really nice Marriott in Grovsner Square so we could be close to the train station that next morning. We ordered room service and got to bed early since we had to wake up super early for our next adventure.

The Trip Continues: Day 4

Day 4 started off with a beautiful English breakfast at Betty's.  My friend, Liz, highly recommended it so we met her there and had a wonderful time!  After that we went off to go sight see and travel around Ry's mission. We headed off to the York Minster that morning.

The city of York is surrounded by this very, very old city wall and I thought it was just so cool! Plus, I love this picture because it gives you a good feel for what it feels like to drive on the other side of the road.

After York we decided to go check out Leed's Market.  Not quite what I was expecting, but we did find Ethan a shirt for $1.  We walked up towards some of the departments stores and I found this one place that had the CUTEST accessories ever! Plus they were pretty cheap so I was in heaven! Part of me wished that I bought more now that I look back, oh well. That night we headed over to the Turner's for dinner.  This was a miracle because Ry wrote down their address, but left it back at the Smith's house.  Ry's cell was back at Liz's being charged since we didn't have plug in converter thingys to convert the voltage and all that.  So no phone, no address, just sheer memory.  Well, all these years that Ry has proclaimed that he can't remember things were totally proven wrong.  He drove us right to their house (well we did have to take a few detours)!  The Turner's took us over to meet Jean and that was so fun to meet her!  Ry has such great memories of Jean and her conversion story so I couldn't wait to meet her and she sure didn't disappoint!  After dinner we went out for Indian food and it was DELICOUS!  Oh my! 

It was so fun to hang out with the Turner's! I even learned a few things about being politically correct in British culture that surprised me, but that's a whole other story. Anyway...we stayed up way late talking and the great thing was that I didn't have to wake up early! Gosh, I love vacation!

Day 2 Addition and Day 3: Harrogate

I totally forgot to put in the pub that we visited on our way to Leeds/Harrogate! Ryan's mission president took him there once and the meal he had there really stood out to him since they rarely/never went to pubs there. So we hit up the Bracken Fox and Ry ordered the same exact thing he ordered 10 years ago. We had a few totally "American" moments while we were there. We stood there in the lobby to wait for someone to seat us, but then we realized that we just had to seat ourselves. So we looked over the menu and waited for the waiter to come over and take our orders. We seriously waited for 10-15 minutes and then Ry noticed that you had to go to waiter and order. Finally we learned to go to them to pay the check too. I'm sure they just rolled their eyes and thought, "typical Americans" and laughed.

Day 3: Sunday
We headed over to Harrogate ward for church and I was able to meet a lot of people that Ry new or worked with while on his mission. The best part though was seeing my friend Liz! This is seriously too good to be true! So Liz and I went to nursing school together at BYU and you have to understand that BYU nursing students are a breed all their own. It's hard to explain, but seeing her was like being with someone that truly understands me. We just think a lot the same. Anyway...Liz lives in the same exact ward that Ry served in and the same ward of the Smiths! How crazy is that! So not only did I go to learn more and Ry's mission, but I got to see my friend too! How lucky!

So after church Ry got a lesson in how to make Yorkshire puddings. I have to admit that it was pretty fun to watch my husband try to cook, not his usual domain. Sister Smith totally out did herself and did a beautiful spread. I seriously felt like I was having Thanksgiving dinner when I was there. The weather was just like Thanksgiving time plus all the food and all the family it was wonderful! We got to meet Colin and Beryl's daughter, Ruth and her 4 kids. So cute! This little one was my buddy for the day. She's Ethan's age and just so precious!

After dinner we went out for a walk out my Old Mother Shipton's Cave. There's a beautiful bridge out there and the remnants of an old castle that dates back to 1215!

After our little walk, I went back to the Smiths to go take a Sunday afternoon nap (which I rarely ever get at home) and Ry went out to drive around and see a few people. I had to pretty much drag myself out of bed after awhile so I would actually be able to sleep that night. When I got done I snuggled up next to the fire and read a book. I sat there eating some shortbread cookies and thought I had ended up in heaven! It was truly a picturesque moment! Too bad I didn't have my camera!

Day 2: Drive North/Warwick Castle

Our second day I woke up with a jet lag headache. It was so hard to wake up! We got everything packed up and ready and enjoyed a great English breakfast at the hotel and then hopped on the bus over to the rental car place. This time it was only a 5 minute bus ride, haha. We got our car and paid a little extra for GPS, but it was totally worth it! GPS seriously saved our trip! I get really car sick so for me to try to read a map and try to direct Ry in a place that I have no idea on top of driving on the other side of the road and with all those roundabouts...thank you GPS!!! This was the view from my seat.

I have to be honest and tell you that I was super nervous about Ry driving, but I should have known better that it all came back to him after a few roundabouts. He actually knew how to drive around England really well. I was quite impressed. Our kids love Shaun the Sheep on Disney so I had to take a picture and tell them we saw him on our trip.
On our way north we stopped at Warwick Castle. It is one of the few preserved castles in England so we had to check it out. The weather was perfect, sweater weather with the sun shining. Ahhhh, love it!

We toured the castle and checked out all the sights and I think Ry is touching the fire place that is specifically roped off...oops.
We climbed the towers and got to see some pretty spectacular views of the city of Warwick and the surrounding areas. Again, those skies are so blue and beautiful!
We decided to take a tour of the dugeon areas and they do this whole presentation about how horrific it was there. Well, in doing this they call people out to make things interesting. I ended up getting called to the court to be tried as a witch so on the way out of the castle that day I put myself in the stocks and had Ry give me a good BOOOOOOOO!

After the castle, we took a walk into the town of Warwick and had lunch outside and took in the sites. Then we started back on our drive to Harrogate. Of course we had to stop at a rest stop and buy all the different types of English candy to try. I found a few favorites that I really liked and Ry reminisced with all his favorites from his mission. We got to Harrogate that evening and Ry drove me around to wear he lived and to some of the places he remembered. It is such a beautiful place! We stayed with a family that Ryan was close to while on his mission, the Smith's. I think Ry felt like he walked through a time warp when he walked into their home. It felt like no time had passed even though it had been 10 years since he had been there. We enjoyed catching up and having true English scones while we visited. I was seriously spoiled rotten the whole time we stayed there. You will hear a lot more about the Smiths as our story unfolds. More to come...

England Trip Day 1: London

We left Thursday afternoon from Texas and landed in London at 8 am. We tried as much as we could to sleep on the plane, but you know how that goes. We ended up waiting in customs forever since we got in a line that was letting all the people with children go in front of everyone. For a split second I wish I had my kids there to get us in front of the massive line, but then I realized that I could stand in line in complete silence and I was okay with that. We stayed at a Marriott near the airport so we could pick up our rental car that next day so we just headed over there to drop our stuff off and then took the underground into London. Our first stop was the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. It's just so crazy to see so much history with a modern city in the background. It is truly unreal! I know I look really happy in this picture, haha, I didn't know when Ry was taking it.

After doing some exploring around there, we had to go some true English Fish n Chips! It was so good! Oh, and ketchup in England does not taste the same as it does in the states, fyi.
So we ate our fish and chips overlooking this...So beautiful, look at those skies!


So after some refreshment we took the Tube over to see Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey. Well, we got up to sidewalk to find tons of police and barricades. Come to find out the Pope was in town and was making his way over to the Abbey in a few hours. We didn't stay to see him, but it was kind of crazy to see people camping out to see him.


Westminster Abbey was closed so we didn't get to go inside, but at least we go to see it. I also found a typical English phone booth and had to take my picture inside acting like a Japanese tourist.
We walked around a little bit, but decided to get back on the Tube and go to Harrods. This place was incredible! So much to see and so expensive, but so cool!
We got a few things at the food shops in Harrods to try out, but got them to go so we could head back to our hotel. By this time it was around 6:30 pm and we were so tired (we had been up since 6am the day before). So we got on the Tube back to the bus station and hopped on a bus to go back to our hotel. Well, we didn't realize that our stop was the 1st or 2nd stop so we missed our stop, but we thought that the bus route was a short one and would loop back around to our hotel. Ummmm...nooooo! We ended up on a double decker bus in the middle of London for 3 hours! The whole time I'm singing the theme song to Gilligan's Island..."a three hour tour...a three hour tour". The bus driver was really nice and helped us get to where we need to go and it really helped us stay awake a little more so we could flip our clocks that night. Thankfully we had bought food at Harrods because we ended up eating on the bus. Needless to say, we had a full adventure our first day in England. That's the only way to do it, right?

England or Bust!

Ry and I just got back a few days ago from a trip of a lifetime! We had so much fun and I can't wait to post some pictures for our friends and family. Many of you know that Ryan travels a lot with his work and while it's hard to have a husband gone...there are some perks to it. We have been saving our flight miles and Marriott points for awhile now and decided to make a trip to England to see Ry's mission and to see the sights. While we were making our plans we also decided to head over to Paris since we were so close and it's pretty easy and cheap to go there. Our wonderful mothers traded off having the boys for the time that we were gone so I didn't worry about them one bit. It was really a stress free time for both of us. So here are a bunch of posts about our trip so skim through if you don't want to hear the travel log.

Girls Trip 2010

I just got back in town late last night after many flight delays, but I'm home and quickly back into Mom Mode. Ry ended up getting bumped from a flight a few months ago and he was kind enough to give me the voucher so I could go for a visit to Utah! I headed up there on Thursday and got to spend some time with my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kay and my cousins. So good to see them! I had the best time! Then I headed down to Salt Lake with some of my friends from Cali and had a little weekend with them. You can read all about it on Carly's blog. I had a blast! Miss you guys!

A Child's Prayer

Ethan said the prayer tonight and this is what he prayed for...

"Father, bless us with good water on this land." and
"Father, bless us with food that we won't eat candy."

I guess no more Twizzlers for dinner. Darn! Out of the mouth of babes!

Mom, We Love To Drive You Crazy!

This was the title and picture on the front of my Mother's Day card this year. Sums it up quite nicely I think, haha. We headed out to Cabela's one night to pick up some camping gear for a family camp out. Yes, that's right, camping gear.

!!News flash!!

Ryan bought camping gear! I know, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground too! I think he's finally come to terms that father/son campouts will be happening and that his sons might not find sleeping in the van as fun as he does. I'm soooo not a camper either so this will all be new to me. I just hate waking up all sweaty and gross and having bugs all over the place. I guess it's something I'm just going to have to learn to love, right? Welcome to life with boys!