Craig, you're not going to like me much.

Starting tomorrow at midnight, until at least Sunday afternoon, I'm not going to be much fun. I'm going to be a pretty neglectful wife, mother, sister, friend, with my nose pressed into the last twilight book. Sorry fam, I've got to keep my priorities straight. :-)

I'm in love

I'm sorry, but I just LOVE summer. Growing up in California was a wonderful thing for me. It starts to warm up by the end of February, March is blissful, as is April, and you can swim by May. Oh yeah, and it stays pretty warm well into October. We never even had to bundle up on Halloween. Yeah, I miss that. The weather in Utah has been hard for me to get used to. I mean come on people, snow in June, that is just not natural! I've really tried to love the cold, and granted, the snow can be fun... for a time. But it just can't compare to the heat. I love the heat. I'd just rather be sweating than shivering. I love that we can swim, and go for bike rides, and just have fun outside. Summer means theme parks and snow cones, and camping, and fireworks and heat!!! Oh and did I mention, heat! I love that if I need to run somewhere really quick with the kids, I don't have to spend 45 minutes getting everybody all bundled up, snow boots and all and then trying to keep them all clean and warm. Not so easy when it's 15 degrees, and there's slushy snow and mud everywhere. I swear it's like the "I can't put my arms down!" scene from A Christmas Story everyday. I love that today when I needed to take Ethan to his check up we all just threw on some flip-flops and jumped in the car. Low-maintenance... like I said, I love summer. Here's a taste of our summer, thus far.

.

I'm such a teenage girl

So for Hannah's Birthday we decided it would be fun to rent High School Musical. If you can believe it we'd never seen it before, we're like the only ones on the planet I'm pretty sure. I wanted to buy it for her, because I'm getting a little sick of cartoons, and they LOVE musicals. Side note: why is it that Walmart has just about every high school musical merchandise you can imagine: t-shirts, posters, lunch boxes, CD's, Barbies(yes that's right little mini Troy Boltons, and Sharpe's), and so on, but NOT the actual movie, does that make NO SENSE to anyone else but me? So anyway, we rented it because I couldn't find it for sale, and the kids totally loved it. Actually, so did I. I swear I've been singing Breaking Free, and We're All In This Together, nonstop for the past 3 days. I know, pathetic. I almost don't care that the same thing that appeals to 12 year old teenyboppers totally works for me too. It might bother me except for I'm pretty sure that the Disney company has actual magical powers. I've never seen anything Disney: cartoon, theme park, merchandise, or whatever, that wasn't top notch. They just know how to make magic, and they do things the right way. So I guess I'm a High School Musical fan now. To be honest it really did remind me of what it felt like to be in high school, you know, except for the whole spontaneously breaking into song and dance thing. Although, all the little dance numbers did make me feel a little nostalgic and kind of wish I was back in Cheerleading again. That was seriously so fun. I will never regret being a cheerleader, those were some of the best times I had in high school. So anyways, I don't really know where I am going with this, but if you haven't seen High School Musical, I highly suggest it. It's cute. I'm seriously considering driving down to the Redbox tomorrow to rent High School Musical 2, you know... for the KIDS. Go Wildcats!

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah

I just wanted to wish my little Hannah Bee, Happy 4th Birthday! She is such a sweet little girl, and I haven't always been the best mom to her, she's kind of my guinea pig, but she always gives me another chance. She is the most loving, spunky, imaginative child I've ever met. Hannah is also very strong-willed, nobody tells her who she is, and I love that about her. It might be my favorite characteristic of hers, or maybe the way she's so cuddly, or maybe how she loves to help, or her cute little voice, or her chubby little cheeks, or her cowlick that drives me nuts, or the way she loves to sing to herself. I don't think I could choose, I love every bit of this little munchkin. Happy Birthday Hannah! I can't believe you're 4!

Baby Backpackers

I have two words for you... Hard Core. My kids are little soldiers! We decided to do a little test-run hike on Saturday afternoon to see if it will be an appropriate family activity anytime in the next 10 years, and they did AWESOME. We seriously thought we might make it 200 yards, but they ended up hiking over 2 miles. They didn't even want to go back to the car. Here's the trick, just tell your almost 4 year old daughter that it's Snow White's forest and give your 2 year old son a stick, and tell him it's a sword to "protect us." They'll pretty much take it from there. I swear Hannah spent 3 hours singing hi-ho and whistle while you hike... I just feel bad for the other hikers, it wasn't exactly serene with Carter yelling, "I'm gonna sword the bad queen!" at the top of his lungs.

Notice in the video, Hannah keeps talking about the magic water and the queen, oh and Carter totally biffs it at the end.

Warning: this post is about breasts

So if you don't know me all that well, or you're my father-in-law, you might not want to read the rest of this post. It may make you a little uncomfortable. There, you've been warned.

So when I was a teenager and it became apparent that I might be heading into that oh-so-joyful time of your life called, Puberty, I was actually pretty excited. When your a late bloomer (like me) you have no problem with the prospect of getting your period, not to mention the chest that comes with it. And by the way, it actually is way better to have it, than to be the only one who doesn't (just to set the record straight for all you early bloomers out there.) But back to my point. I waited for the lovely chest that would inevitably follow my baptism into womanhood. I waited and waited and waited. And for some cruel reason, the chest part of puberty never showed up, and I was left feeling a little disappointed when I finally reached the age of 18 and realized that this was all I was ever getting. Disappointing. Then I met Craig, fell in love, got engaged, prepped him on the fact that my chest was non-existent and that I wore a padded bra, got married, and then got pregnant, and boom, hello my chest showed up, 8 years late, and with a fat belly and swollen ankles, but dang it all, I had boobs. Then I had Hannah, got engorged and they got HUMONGOUS! I decided then, that I should probably never have a big chest... it just looks wrong on me, I'm to short for big boobs. But I could do for some normal sized ones. I mean is size A asking too much? I don't think so. So when I nurse I'm a nice healthy size A. Problem there is that the smallest size nursing bra that anyone makes is a B. Apparently no one as flat chested as me ever nurses. Yeah, so I have to wear a bra that's too big for 8 months. Lovely. But still, I'm loving my healthy little size A chest. Which brings me to my present situation. I'm done nursing Ethan, it's over, chest gone. And after nursing three babies, let me tell you, of the little that was there to begin with there's not much left. I'm talking almost non-existent, sad day. And I know I'm 25 and it really shouldn't bother me, but it still kind of does. Kind of superficial, but sadly true. I kind of wish I had something there, I don't love feeling so deflated, and it's kind of hard to feel sexy with a teeny-bopper chest. Here's the thing that I'm starting to figure out though, and it's changing my life. My body isn't perfect, but it is. Yeah, I'm dang short, I have chubby cheeks, and a SUPER flat chest. But so what? There's nothing wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with the way I look. I look in the mirror and my pathetic excuse for a chest and tell myself that it's a beautiful thing that I've given up the little amount of breasts I had, and let my hips get a little wider, and the skin on my tummy a little bit stretchier, so I could bring three amazing children into this world. And it really is a beautiful thing. The Lord has blessed me with a body, as small as it is, that can carry a baby and deliver normally, without complications. That's a beautiful gift. Some people can't ever have babies. And I am beautiful, in my own unique way. Who made the rule that there was one perfect body type, anyway? Even more than that, when I look in the mirror, I ask myself what kind of person am I on the inside, what kind of character I'm developing, and to be perfectly honest, it's not always pretty. There's so much more to beauty than what meets the eye. How many times have you met a real looker, got to know them, and then were surprised by how ugly they all the suddenly got. And on the flip side, you'll meet some average looking phenomenal person and they become the most beautiful person in the world to you? I think if I had to chose, I'd go for door #2. And that kind of beauty has nothing to do with what you wear, how well you put on your make-up, or the size of your chest.

Harry Potter...For your viewing pleasure.

It took Carter FOREVER to start talking. He was kind of the strong silent type for about 2 years. Now I realize he was just storing it all up for later. I thought I might give you all a taste of his funny little personality. To explain the video: we're reading Harry Potter at night with the kids, and we always joke around and say "Harry Potter" with an accent which the kids just think is so hilarious. Well, the other night Carter just starts saying it with an accent too. It took us a minute to realize that he was mimicking us, but it is so dang funny. Ah, our little linguist. Oh, and please excuse my pathetic attempt at an English accent, it's pretty bad. hehehe.

Breaking Dawn

Am I a total geek for feeling all worked up and unable to sleep because I know that I only have to wait 24 more days to know how the Twilight series ends? Please, if there are any of you out there going through the same ordeal, let me know so I won't feel like such a ridiculous dweeb.

Rockclimbing

While up in Idaho this weekend we decided to go rockclimbing. It's been a few years. Doing so confirmed 2 things: Craig's still got it, and I still don't :-(. Oh well. Here's the proof.You can't tell but, he's about 60-70 feet in the air here. Yikes.

Mother of 3? Oh yeah, that's me.The whole group, minus Craig. Don't we look so hard core in our harnesses?

catalog mother

You know you’ve really transitioned as a mother when you’re yelling things like “Craig come check out this poop,” and you’re genuinely excited about the extremely large terd that your eight month old just ejected out his little bum, grunting and red-faced. Yeah, I’ve become that mom. Speaking of being “that mom,” do you remember when we were young and it was totally popular for moms to order like a whole trunk load of matching clothes from the JC Penney catalog, and you spent the next year dressed identical to your younger sister. Then, your mom loads you all up in the family van and trucks you down to Olan Mills to get a nice little portrait taken in your perfectly coordinated early 90’s ensemble. I’m totally that way now, which by-the-way I totally used to bag on. For the 4th I thought it would be just “too cute” to have all three of the little munchkins in a matching little patriotic tribute, which inevitably sent me running all over town with the previously mentioned munchkins looking for the perfect little flag t-shirt that they might just have in sizes for a 3, 2 year, and 8 month old. Right, easier said than done. Well, I did conquer, and I was totally stoked about their extreme matching patriotic cuteness, and spent the day obsessing over them not getting said ensemble dirty, and then found myself even more elated when little cousin Luke showed up unexpectedly matching as well. Can life get better than 4 cuties under the age of 4 all wearing the same shirt? Hmmm, only when Hannah decided to be a total stink when I was trying to take that all-too- important, proof that you were matching at the fireworks on the 4th of July just before you turned 4 picture. Here’s your proof, and yeah, Hannah never did uncover the flag on her shirt. Arrrrr.

President Price

Craig had an amazing mission president. I've met him a few times, and his is an incredible man. He and his wife have been either mission presidents or serving missions for probably the past 10 years. They've served in Russia several times, and in China. He is seriously one of the most boisterous, dynamic, loving, and genuine men I have ever met. The last time we saw them they were getting ready to go back to China having just gotten home from Russia. About a month ago Craig got an email from Sister Price saying that President Price had cancer and was not doing well. Today we got good news, he's doing much better, but he is still in the ICU, unconscious and still on a ventilator. Believe it or not, this is an improvement for him, having already suffered pneumonia in both lungs, a collapsed right lung, sky-rocketing and plummeting blood pressure, full oxygen on the ventilator, mucus plugs, etc. She says while they have far to go, it does look like he's taking a turn towards recovery.

I wish I could convey to you how important President Price was to Craig's mission. How important he still is to him. Russia can be a hard enough place to serve, but beyond that President Price was a beacon to Craig at a very difficult time. I'm am so grateful for this man, I know that Craig wouldn't be who he is today if it weren't for his love and guidance. Everyone should be so lucky.

I have just one request of you all who might be reading this. Pray. Please, please, please keep President Price and his family in your prayers. They need all they can get.

This is a picture from Craig's mission: Vladivostok, Russia: President Price is seated on the far right. Craig is standing right in the middle of the second row.