Contest!

My blog friend, Kate, from My Next Life, is having an amazing contest on her blog. She's giving away an original painting valued at $800 for free! All you have to do is a leave a comment on her blog. Make sure to mention that I sent you (then I get another entry, sneaky sneaky!) Since I own hardly any furniture of my own, I would use the painting (if I win) as inspiration to start acquiring some furniture! Check it out!

Red Butte Garden

We had a break in the (unpleasant, wet, rainy, cloudy, cold) weather and enjoyed a GORGEOUS day at Red Butte Garden. Man, that place is so beautiful! Charlie loved all the water features, shrubbery tunnels, giant sand pit and the lizard sculptures. I loved having John there to chase Charlie around.

Family history stories

My grandparents on their wedding day with their parents

My grandparents, Harold and Beverly, with their siblings as attendants

The other night I attended the viewing of my great Aunt Ruby. She was my father's aunt, my maternal grandmother's sister. My brother, Steve, and I went to represent my parents who live out of the country and by extension, my grandparents who have passed away. While we were there, we saw our Aunt Pat, another one of Grandma's sisters and she told us some great family stories! We loved listening to her and seeing her vibrant personality and sparkling blue eyes. She looks so much like Grandma!

Aunt Pat told us that she was close with all of her sisters growing up, but had an especially close bond with Beverly (my grandmother). They looked alike and lived close by each other (one on Hubbard Ave. and one on Wilson Ave.) They shopped at the same grocery store and the cashiers would get confused and ask, "What did you forget?" not realizing that the person they had seen earlier was a different sister! They often would wear similar outfits to events without coordinating it- they once showed up to a wedding in identical clothes! They both drove gigantic Packard cars. They even had the same watch! One time when Aunt Pat and Uncle Dee were serving a mission in Canada, my grandparents went to visit them. Aunt Pat's watch was in the bathroom and Grandma put it on, not realizing it wasn't hers.

On that same trip to Canada, my grandpa was wearing a pair of Dockers pants, which were a new casual khaki style. Uncle Dee (who only had dress clothes with him on his mission) kept commenting on how great the pants were, asking, "What are those called again? They sure are great pants!" When Grandma and Grandpa left to go home, Grandpa left his Dockers for Uncle Dee.

My one of my favorite stories about my Grandma came from Aunt Pat at Grandma's funeral in 1999. She said when they were growing up, they'd play with baby dolls and Grandma's babies were always girls. Aunt Pat asked what she would do if she had a boy one day? Grandma replied, "I'll throw him in the "banure" pile!" And of course, my grandparents ended up having five sons and no daughters!

Aunt Pat and Grandma were expecting babies around the same time and ended up delivering within days of each other at the same hospital. In those days, women and newborns stayed for five days. Aunt Pat said she remembers sneaking into each others' rooms to visit. Aunt Pat had a girl and my grandma had her fourth boy (my Uncle Matt). My grandpa kept teasing, "You got OUR girl!" and apparently mentioned it a lot throughout his life!

Aunt Pat told us that my grandma dressed her five boys so immaculately. They always looked so nice. But she and her mother (Lily Watkins Searle) noticed that there was always a pleat or ruffle somewhere on their dress shirts. Aunt Pat thought Grandma just had to sneak something girlie in there! Grandma Lily wasn't as positive- she thought that they would turn out to be "sissies".

After Aunt Pat brought up Grandma Lily (my great-grandmother), Steve mentioned that he has a daughter named Lily, who has quite the vivacious personality. Aunt Pat said that's just how her mother Lily was! Her family would be laughing at the dinner table about something and her father (Keros Searle) would say, "Now, hasn't this joke gone on long enough?" and Lily would look at him like he was crazy! She was the spunky one and he was the reserved one.

Lily was the 32nd child of John Watkins, a Mormon pioneer (he traveled in the Martin handcart company across the plains) and a polygamist. Lily was his youngest child. He had a dream before she was born of a beautiful baby's face nestled in a calla lily. When he awoke, he said the expected child is a girl and her name will be Lily.

Aunt Pat has a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter named Lily. We chatted with Uncle Dick, Aunt Ruby's husband and he said he also has several progeny named after Grandma Lily. Aunt Pat told us she has 57 great-grandchildren! Uncle Dick and Aunt Ruby have 140 grandchildren and great-grandchildren combined! What a wonderful legacy! My grandmother didn't live to see any of her great-grandchildren, although my Grandpa was alive to meet his first great-grandchild, Kate. Now my grandparents have 36 great-grandchildren (including those expected this year).

It was such a wonderful opportunity to be there and talk to my relatives that I never get to see and hear such wonderful stories! I'm so glad I had that chance!

In the "wee" hours of the morning

I woke up at about 2 am to Charlie crying and crying. I waited to see if he would go back to sleep on his own but he kept crying. So I got him a little drink of milk and headed into the dark nursery to give it to him. He normally just reaches for the milk and stops crying but he was really upset. I reached down to check to see if he'd wet through his diaper and jammies and my hand came into contact with skin! He was totally naked! I turned on the light and saw his fleece jammies totally unzipped, one leg completely out and his diaper off. Poor thing was soaking wet! I got him up and changed his clothes and of course, by then he was more awake and wanted to read some books. Toddlers are so funny.

Happy Birthday, Sissy!

I just love this lady! It's been so fun to see her become a mom this year- she's really grown into this new role and is totally rockin' it out every day. I really respect her and how hard she works to make life for her family a lovely one. Happy birthday, Catherine! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you!

At our weddings:



From our childhood:

Easter 2011

We dyed Easter eggs this year with Sam and Lily. I didn't want them to get their clothes dirty, so I had them put on some of John's old t-shirts- they were so cute in those giant shirts and they reminded me of when I was a little girl and wore my dad's shirts as nightgowns. I had a plan to keep Charlie occupied but also out of the dye and luckily it worked! I put him in his high chair with his own eggs (plastic) and bowls (empty) and he was so happy! He felt just like one of the big kids. I had Sam and Lily decorate their eggs with stickers to keep them out of the dye and we got some interesting results!








We planned to have our Easter egg hunt on Saturday. As we were waiting for Charlie to wake up from his nap, I went outside to check to see if the Easter bunny had visited yet. As I was "checking" in the backyard, I heard a loud rustling under the porch. It freaked me out so I went in and had John and Steve go out to investigate. Sure enough, my fears were realized and they found a huge, injured raccoon under the porch. Yuck. We obviously couldn't have our egg hunt outside with a possibly dangerous and/or rabid raccoon wandering around so I talked to the Easter bunny and he agreed to move all the carefully hidden eggs inside to the living room. Meanwhile, we called everyone we could think of to help us get rid of our guest. Let me enlighten you all- animal control, the division of wildlife, the fire department, and the police department, and Terminix will all NOT be willing to help you and will keep re-routing you to the other agencies. Without going into details (to protect the parties involved), we ended up taking matters into our own hands and the poor creature wasn't a problem any more.

The kids didn't care about being inside anyway and we had a great time watching them hunt for eggs. Charlie was a little bit sad and frustrated having to compete for the eggs but he got over it once we opened a few candy-filled eggs for him.






On Easter Sunday, we went to church and enjoyed the great lessons, hymns, and talks that focused on the Savior. After church we met up with John's family for a yummy dinner and money hunt. All John's siblings are grown (and some have kids of their own) but his parents still hide money all over the house for them to search for. It's so much fun and everyone is really into it. They best part is that the money is mostly in coins and it isn't hidden in eggs- picture quarters balanced on door frames and hidden between books. John and I didn't rake in the cash this year because we were hunting with Charlie but it gave us both so much joy to teach him the game and then watch him search the house for the coins.

It's been fun to start traditions of our own with Charlie and incorporate some of the ones of our childhood. From my childhood, I remember Easter baskets and candy but I mostly remember getting new Easter dresses and my whole family going over to my grandparents house to show them our outfits. My grandma took a picture of our whole family together each year and I love those photos now!

Here's a one of our Easter portraits

We had a nice celebration, what are some of your Easter traditions?

Papa Mark visits!

My dad was in town for a couple of weeks in April and it was so much fun to have him! Charlie would wake up in the morning and call for "Papa!" first thing. We had so much fun with him here- he made a new swing for the big kids when he was last here and they got good use out of it. The weather was mostly rainy but we got outside on the few nice days. Sam and Lily had a bunch of sleepovers, Dad helped Steve and Kerry move, and we even had a combined March/May birthday party for half the family (John, Grandpa, Charlie are March birthdays and Steve, Lily and Cat are in May- we had everyone together except for Cat) so there was lots of quality time together.






Two of my favorite guys- my dad and my little boy!

Baby Niece

I just got to Skype with this little cutie. Guess what she can say like a champ? "Baba". I will choose to believe that she's saying my name. What a little love. I can't believe she's going to be one year old soon!! I'm so excited to see her this summer!

Happy Mother's Day!

Nothing makes you appreciate your own mother more than becoming a mother yourself! I'm grateful for my mom and all the other wonderful mothers in my life (aunts, mother-in-law, sister, and sisters-in-law) who I see in a different light now. I love you!




I'm grateful for Charlie who taught me how to be a mother and for this next little boy who will take it to the next level!

Charlie- 24 months

John made this little pillow recliner one day for Charlie and he LOVED it!

Showing off his cute little scowl in the sandbox in the backyard

Charlie's talking so much more and doing the funniest things. Man, I love that kid and he is at a great age.

He loves things that are big. He says it the cutest way, "Beeeg!" So as we're driving around town, I hear "beeeg tah" (big truck) or "beeeg bus" (big bus) from the back seat. The other day he said "That's a big bus."

He loves when he hears an airplane in the air. He stops everything, puts his hand to his ear and says, "Lissen. A pane!" (Listen, airplane!) Then we have to search the sky until we see it and then we wave to the plane and say goodbye. Now that the weather is heating up, he gets confused by lawn mowers- they sound like airplanes you know.

He loves to point out the mama, dada and baby in groups, pictures, books, on tv, wherever. If he's playing with two toy cars, the big one is the mama or daddy and the little one is the baby. Then he'll often point out his Mama and Dada, which we love. This weekend for the first time, he recognized that he's the baby and said, "I baby." So darling. (Just in time for him to be dethroned as the baby in a few months.) Luckily, if I ask him if he's big or little, he loves to tell me he's big, so hopefully he'll still think it's cool to be big in September.

Right now he's playing a game where he falls down, then looks at me and asks, "Otay?" to which I'm supposed to reply, "Oh, are you okay?"

His favorite food recently is french fries. He loves them (let's be honest, who doesn't?) He can now ask for them and often will. He calls them "foof fies".

I taught him how to be "soft" and he'll take his little hand and rub it so softly across my cheek when I ask him to be soft.

He loves to be in the backyard. Despite new sand (thanks to Grandpa Mark) and new toys (thanks to the Easter bunny) in the sandbox, he still prefers digging in the dirt garden beds most of the time. We're trying to train him to pick up rocks and put them in his bucket (might as well put him to work, right?) The other day, Johnny was helping him and came across a big rock and said, "That's a big guy" which Charlie repeated every time word for word after that.

I've been visiting a chiropractor (whom I LOVE) for my pregnancy related aches and pains in my back and hips. It helps me so much and I really believe that going often will prevent other health problems. I've been meaning to get Johnny and even Charlie scheduled for that same kind of preventative care but just hadn't gotten around to it. Then last week, Charlie fell off the couch right onto his neck. It was really scary and I knew that he'd need to be adjusted by the chiropractor. So the next day, Charlie had his first visit to Dr. Kristina. It was so interesting to see how she adjusted his little body- it was so gentle! She just adjusted him while he played with toys in her office and he was so still and good for her.

Charlie loves the wonderful people in his life and has certain games he likes to play with each grown up when he sees them. For example, when Grandpa T gets home from work, Charlie grabs him by the hand and says, "C'mon! C'mon!" and takes him downstairs to the treadmill. He wants to watch Grandpa walk on it and walk along with him for about a minute and then he's done. But he will not give Grandpa any peace until they've performed this little ritual.

Johnny bought himself a bunch of Rokenbok (it's a combination building/marble run kind of toy- click on the link if you can't envision it) in college. Yes, college. He has had fun playing with it every now and then but it's mostly been in storage for years. But one morning John got up with Charlie and when I woke up, I found them building towers and ball runs. They build and play with it almost every morning. It's so cute to see them building and working on it together and Charlie loves it! It's a little too old for Charlie so we mostly just have the ball run set up for him.

He's starting to understand sharing and being kind and taking turns. He's still learning but I'm proud of his progress. I'll ask him which truck I (or Sam or James) can play with and he'll choose one out of his toys. If he wants something another kid has, he'll try to offer a different toy before he takes it. And a few times, he's given toys to other kids completely unsolicited.

He's our little pal and we love him a lot!!

Vote for Fictionist!

Our boys Fictionist are rocketing to the top of the Rolling Stone competition. Can you believe that these guys from Salt Lake and Provo are getting national attention and are one of four finalists left competing for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine? I can, actually, because they're wicked talented and driven and always have been. Please vote for them by rating them 5 stars, sharing and liking on Facebook, and Tweeting about them. While you're there voting, you can download some of their music for FREE.

They deserve this big break! VOTE!

And for those of you who aren't too tired and pregnant (like me), they're playing a FREE show tonight in Provo with Paul Jacobsen and the Madison Arm. Check it out.