Where did it go?

Dear Time,

I miss you. I wish you were around more often and I wish I could share a lot of things with you.
I feel like you aren't around when I need you and I feel like you don't want to be a part of my life. What gives??

Sincerely,
Me

So, lately, i've been struggling. Mainly with the fact that I feel there is NO time to do anything anymore. I feel like my life has hit the fast forward button and I can't seem to slow it down. With me, when this happens, I usually get REALLY overwhelmed, stressed, depressed and frustrated which leads into panic attacks. Don't worry, I had one the other night.. so not fun. First one I've had in a LONG time.

Here's the thing.. I'm SO grateful for my life. I couldn't ask for a more patient, kind, loving husband and father to my sweet girls. I have THE BEST children ever. Yes, I'm allowed to say that. I worry about them a lot. Probably more than I should. I've been feeling WAY behind on so many things and just feel like I can't catch up. Meanwhile, I watch my little ones grow up so fast and wonder: Where did it go? Where did all the time go? Lately, Hailey has been obsessed with her scrapbooks.. which I am SO grateful for making and she wants to look at those and hear stories about her when she was a baby. While looking at them with her, I just can't believe how fast she has grown up.

With the fact that Nate is gone so much with work, auctions, church, sports, etc., i'm trying to find a way to simplify. I'm trying to get some time back that has decided to take a vacation and let the busy life take over. I'm so done with it. I really just need a break or I think i'm going to lose it. Anyone else feeling this way? I remember when I was a kid.. it seemed like the summer days just lasted FOREVER! Now I feel like I don't have time to even shower most days.. ewe. I know, sick. what can you do?

I feel sometimes that I may seem ungrateful for what my Heavenly FAther has blessed me with. As I look back and look in the present, I am SO grateful. I can't even believe how blessed I have been. I just miss time. And selfishly, I wish I had more.

Jalepenos and Sour Cream

So, here's a funny story. Today I made fresh salsa. K, that's not the funny part. I was cutting everything up, including Jalepenos. Well, I didn't think about it, and after touching them, I touched my nose. Washed my hands after, of course, then all of a sudden.... BURNING SENSATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was dying. My nose was ON FIRE!

So, I call my mom. I asked her to get on google, since I couldn't really see... with my eyes all watery.. pretty much she just laughed at me the whole time, like a good mother does. As I'm debating on whether or not I should hang up with my mom or call 911, she gets some answers for me. Some included alcohol, white vinegar, SALT (I tried this one-don't recommend it), milk, and Sour Cream.

So, naturally, I grabbed the sour cream and covered my nose in it. I spread it all over the place. Immediately I found that the burning was going away! It worked! Just then, Hailey walks in from playing outside and says to me, "mom, you have boogers."

the moral of this story is: get latex gloves for handling spicy objects, always have a supply of sour cream and just laugh at brutal honesty by little ones.

Landscaping and Yard Work

I decided this year that it was time to do something about our yard. It's always been ok, however, it needed some help. So, in the front yard, along the walk way were some flower beds full of weeds. It was bad. So, I dug out all the old dirt and rocks and bark and weeds, filled it with new clean dirt, flowers and plants and some accent lighting. I also added a couple flower pots with bright colored flowers in them. Our Jasmine bush is completed with a lattice for it to climb up! Love it. This is how it looks now...



Then in the backyard, I decided to make a platform on the grass for our BBQ. I wanted to make more room on our deck so i could put a swing or glider bench on it. I have a love for swings and other things similar. So, I dug out the grass and dirt to make it level enough so that the bricks would fit level with the grass. Thus making mowing a whole lot easier. Picture this: Me, Hailey and Addy at Lowes. The girls are in one cart, while a flatbed cart is full of flowers and plants that I was dragging behind the cart with the girls... then another flatbed cart full of bricks tagged along. It was quite a sight. Needless to say, a sweet lady saw how difficult it all was for me to do alone and helped me out to my car. :-) So after a couple days of hard work and sweat, I love how it all turned out! So, here you go, Allison.. I finally blogged about it! :-)

Sad faces, Home Runs and Grass in the mouth

I love warm summer nights combined with Nate hitting home runs.
I just wish that I had a million eyes in my head so that I could actually be able to watch him, busy Hailey and curious Addy all at the same time.
I decided to take my macro lense to the game the other night to see if I could get some fun shots, and indeed I did.

Gotta love close-ups from far away!

This is our friend John. He and Nate are good friends.

This was just too good of a shot not to share. Hillarious.

I absolutely LOVE watching him play. He's just so good at the game.

This little bundle of sweetness just melts my heart. She LOVES to crawl around in grass.. and even more, loves to eat it.

And this little princess had an unfortunate run-in with the gravel parking lot at the game which resulted in this:

And this was the better hand of the two. Her left hand is all wrapped up still after a long half hour of me cleaning out little pebbles and dirt. Poor girl. It was a very sad night with a few wake ups in the night due to hurting hands.


Love the sun.
Love the smell of fresh cut grass.
Love the cool breeze on a warm summer night.
Love the smell of a soft ball glove.

Good times.

Let the games begin...

I was able to take the girls to one of Nate's softball games last week. Usually his games are later and the girls are in bed. Of course they both were filthy by the time we left from playing and crawling in the dirt. Addy's little friend Ellie was there to watch her daddy play as well, so they had fun hanging out.

This picture cracks me up. This is Addy's new face that she makes often.. followed by a scrunchy face smile.



I didn't get any pictures of Hailey at the game.. she was too busy exploring. We love going to Nate's games. Good company, good entertainment, good times. Let the games begin...

Happy Birthday to Me!

I have a confession. I haven't been the happiest person ever this week. Let me tell you why. Reality hit, BIG TIME!

Reality check #1:
Birthdays as an adult, just aren't as fun as when you were a kid or teenager. Growing up, my mom did 'Birthday Week'. This included: favorite meals all week long, shotgun all week long (riding in front), no chores all week long, favorite tub of ice cream all to ourselves, two favorite cereals all to ourselves, birthday surprises in our lunch all week, birthday signs all over the house all week, etc. The list goes on.

Reality check #2:
I'm getting older. I realize, i'm not old, just OLDER. This concept has really never hit before.

Reality check #3:
I have kids. So no matter how much I want to have just a relaxing day and happy day, there is bound to be whining, tears, hitting, time out, bonks, messes, sugar highs and lows and tired arms from holding a two year old and 9 month old at the same time. Although, there are MORE good things that come out of that as well, like hugs, kisses, hillarious statements that usually don't make any sense, laughs, goofiness, etc.

Reality check #4:
It's just another day.

Having said that, I've been quite bitter this week. I was not looking forward to my birthday and honestly, just wanted it to pass and be done with. Mind you, I usually LOVE my birthday. I'm a HUGE birthday fan. This year, something has changed. I was bitter about it.

Well, let me just tell you what transpired today. I woke up this morning in a not very good mood. Went in to check on my monkeys who were playing in Addy's crib. In comes Nate and asks Hailey if she wants to go somewhere with him. They return about 40 minutes later and Hailey runs in with flowers in her hand yelling "Happy Birthday Mommy!" Then Nate pulls out breakfast from Kneaders.. yum!
We hung out for awhile all together when Nate gave me my first gift.. a card. Let me tell you, I was SO excited. There is nothing that means more to me than to hear how much he loves me and appreciates me. Yep.. I cried. Along with the card was money to get some new clothes which I have been wanting for awhile now. I was SO EXCITED. Then.. He had to head off to an auction in SLC. The girls and I went to a birthday party for Sol, their little friend who was turning 1. They had SO much fun. It was great for me, because they were out of my hair and having a blast! :-) Then, my cousin Rachel came over to babysit while we went to dinner at Tucanos... yum again!
After dinner, we came home, put our VERY tired and cranky babies to bed and when I came downstairs after singing B-I-N-G-O to Hailey for the 30th time today, Nate told me my present was on the kitchen counter. I went in the kitchen to find a brand new video camera. AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! WHAT THE??? I could not believe how much he took care of and spoiled me today... and yes, I cried again.

Now, I feel guilty for how bitter I have been all week. At the same time, I think it helped me to be even more excited at all the surprises Nate had up his sleeve. Those of you who know my past with holidays, know how much this means to me. He is the best. I can't even tell you enough how much this all meant.. and what it comes down to, the sweet words on the card he gave me this morning.

Aside from this, I have AMAZING friends and family who have given gifts, left messages, texts, facebooks, phone calls, etc to wish me a happy birthday and I have never felt more thought of an loved as I have today. It's quite overwhelming.

Thank you everyone and i'm sorry to my birthday for hating you! :-)

I love you Nate, for making my day the best it could possibly be.

Love it.

This picture makes me laugh EVERYtime I see it. Sweet Addy makes the funniest faces sometimes and precious Hailey is so done with me taking pictures of her. This was Easter Sunday and they looked Adorable!

Here we go...

So, I woke up this morning excited to put new letters on the wall in Hailey's room. They spelled out Hailey and Addysen. I've been transforming Haileys room slowly into both the girl's room. So, new pictures on the wall include the two of them and not just Hailey anymore. Well, as i'm cleaning up her room after adding the fun new letters to the blank wall, I had a CRAZY thought....

As some of you know, we put Addy in our room and moved our bed into our office so that the girls wouldn't share a wall and Addy wouldn't wake Hailey up 6 times a night. Now that they both sleep through the night, I knew it would be inevitable that they would eventually share a room.

So... as crazy as this is.. I decided to move Addy's crib into Hailey's room. NOW.. they are sharing a room. I'm really excited, but also quite nervous. They both sleep so well right now, I hope I don't screw that up. I guess time will tell. People do it all the time, right?

Now, I really wanted to surprise Nate and he was working today.. so I went ahead and moved our bed back in our room by myself, mind you! :-)

Anyways, here are some pictures of the girls' room.

Princess Party!

Hailey got invited to her little friend Skylan's princess birthday party. Everyone was to come dressed up like a princess. It was SO cute and SO fun. Hailey has been gearing up for it all week and has been so excited. They got to play games, put on makeup, eat lots of treats, and just be girly girls! It was a blast.

Vegas Baby!

I know it's been a long time since i've blogged. To be honest, I haven't really been in the mood. Nor has there been much to blog about.

However, my girls and I took a little trip to Vegas. The main reason for going was because my little niece Marley was being blessed. She is ADORABLE! I wanted to take her home with me.


Hailey was busy doing so many fun things. Playing in my parents backyard, for one. It's a parking lot for battery powered cars.. I think they have about 10 of them. She had a blast checking out my mom's waterfalls.

Hailey and Lincoln became jumping buddies. Lincoln came over to play lots while we were there and Hailey loved it.

Addy enjoyed sitting in the cars. She was content to just be able to sit outside without freezing to death!


Addy also had some fun bonding time with Grandpa.

The girls got to meet the 'Cookie Monster'. Actually, it was my brother, but they thought it was pretty cool.

He dressed up like that for Preston's birthday party. It was a blast. The girls had so much fun playing at the park and eating treats.

At that party, some of us girls got our groove on.. haha. The spider walk. It was me, Jenna, Andrea and Becca!

I got some fun girl bonding time with Hailey and Addy.. and loved every minute of it.


Addy had some bonding time herself, hanging out with Uncle Jared in the jumper.

Last but not least, Hailey got to take a swing at an Elmo Pinata! It's not the first of pinatas for her, but she loved every minute of it.


Nate flew in for the weekend and for the blessing. It was a great time with my family. Lots going on, but so much fun. Addy fell in love with her Uncle Damon and Hailey couldn't get enough of playing with her cousins. While we were there, Matt and Kristy had their baby girl Madison.

We are so lucky to have such great families. Now, back to the snow and rain and clouds that irritate me to death! But i'm grateful for the break that we had! So long Vegas.. thanks for the great weather!