St. George

I have always wanted to see a show at the Tuacahn, and I've always wanted to see Les Miserables. I got to do both this weekend all in one shot. My sister, Alicia, and her husband Jonathan came with us at our request so they could watch our kids while we went to the show. We were glad they were able to come for that reason, but more than that, they were a good time! They were able to see Big River on Friday night. On Saturday we went to Snow Canyon and played in the sand and sun.





A dip in the pool before heading to the show:Isn't this a cool photo of Nick, taken with our waterproof camera? And here we are at the Tuacahn. The show was AWESOME. I loved it, and think we should go again.

I Am Crafty

I finished another project - a fall wall hanging. It turned out pretty cute, if you ask me... :) Now I need to catch Nick when he has a few hours (ha!) to help me make a wood rack to hang it on the wall. And another photo shoot of my dear Maren at 6 weeks. I love this one with her raised eyebrow.

Wenderful

Can I just say I have a great wife? I was amazed at how patient she has been with my schedule getting more and more busy lately. Between new church duties, conferences at work, and the upcoming gardening classes, I know she can really use a break and some time alone with her hubby. But what amazed me even more was during attempted potty training day last weekend. Ellie had at least 10 "accidents", although I'm not sure how much of an accident those later ones were. After I cleaned up one or two of them, I was ready to go back to diapers. But Wendy was such a trooper -- she kept persisting in keeping Ellie in underwear, despite knowing full well that there would be more pee to clean up.
Life with my wenderful Wendy is great. I just wish I had more time to just be home with her! It'll happen, though, right? Someday schedules get less busy, don't they?

Quiet Sunday

It is Sunday afternoon and both kids are sleeping (Maren in her swing and Ellie crashed on the couch - that's a first) and Nick is out and about doing Elder's Quorum stuff, so I'm taking the opportunity to write a bit and post a few photos. This week has just been so busy, and I'm afraid it is only going to get worse as Nick has been accepted into the Master Gardener's program through the USU extension, which means he'll have class two evenings every week up into December. That, plus Elder's Quorum visits once a week means that I'll be a single mom for the next couple of months. Oh boy, sounds like fun.
Wednesday evening I hosted book group, which means I spent the entire day cleaning my house (and then trying to convince Ellie not to make a mess) and cooking up a storm. Hosting doesn't mean that I have to cook a giant meal, but I wanted to, and I enjoyed it. My mom always fed people - I think that is a way she shows her love - and I feel the same. I had a marvelous time with my girls. I personally think the best part of the evening (besides the conversation) was the yummy pavlova, and I'm not congratulating myself on a job well done (it was cracked and quite ugly). It was just so delicious with all the best fruits of the season. Nick and I will be doing that again soon.
Thursday evening we went to the temple as it was our stake's temple week. It was so so nice to be there and just feel peace. And many thanks to Cynthia for watching our kids.
Friday night we actually were all together as a family, even if we were just out for dinner and to buy Nick some work pants. Pretty exciting stuff.
And Saturday was another 'get things done day'. Oh, and we attempted to potty train Ellie. She wore underwear the entire day and made it to the potty once... after cleaning up around 10 accidents, she is back in diapers and we will try again another day. There is one positive spin on the experience - she will at least sit on the potty for more than two seconds. Oh, the fun!

Ellie playing with sidewalk chalk. Yes, some actually made it on the cement.

Maren grinning at herself in the mirror. She is such a happy, smiley girl.

The girls in the tub.

Two Year Old Trouble

Ellie has really been in to mischief lately. On Monday morning, a friend came over and we worked on some quilting while our kids played. Ellie came to show me her hands, which were covered in suds. Our dear children had found some bubbles and had dumped the solution on Ellie's table in her bedroom. Thankfully it wasn't on the carpet, but it still made a big bubbly mess. That evening I was busy with Maren and Nick was trying to get some things done on the computer when we discovered that Ellie had climbed up to the bathroom sink and was pumping the soap onto her hands, and then rubbing it all over the counter. At least she is a clean child. We took her clothes off and prepared for a bath. First I gave Maren a bath and instructed Ellie to stay out of the water until I had dressed the baby... well, she decided to take off her diaper in preparation, which was poopy. Thankfully, Nick happened to see her and we quickly got things cleaned up. Gosh, two year olds are fun!

Maren is growing so fast. She is getting chubby cheeks and little rolls on her thighs. She has been smiling for over a week now and is a grinner. I even got a laugh out of her the other day. She is a good sleeper - she takes 3 to 4 hour naps in the day, and wakes up once at night. We are so grateful to have her (and her sister too, despite the messes) in our family.

Blessing Day

Yesterday Nick blessed our baby Maren. It was such a wonderful day. We feel so loved by our families who came to support us.

Maren in the beautiful dress Grandma Brown made for her:

What a smiley girl!

Our happy family. Notice Ellie's ready to run out of Nick's arms? I think she was more concerned about her cousins that were playing in her room without her. Grandma and Grandpa Johnson
Grandma and Grandpa Brown (my dad is wearing the kangaroo tie I bought him in Australia - he wears it at any special 'Wendy' occasion)
Aspen and Ellie. These two are so cute together! It's great having cousins the same age.

The girls were playing together while the adults were chatting when we heard water running in the bathroom. That could only mean trouble! They had locked the door to buy them some more time - and this is what we found:

Just Some Photos

I don't have anything exciting to report, so I decided just to post photos today. Here is one of Nick and Ellie reading in bed. Notice that Ellie has her 'baby', and is rubbing the baby's dress. She always does this. I'm scared we'll lose that baby someday, and that will be a sad, sad day. And here are some photos of Maren (who will be a month old tomorrow!?!!). I have had fun taking photos of her and playing with my camera. Maybe someday I'll get a real camera and learn how to use it.


A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of me that looked a lot like Ellie. However, I also think that our girls look a lot like their daddy, so I'm posting a photo of him as a baby (with his sister, Megan). You tell me what you think. This is a photo of Ellie when she was a month old. My girls definitely have similar features - they are both so darn cute!