Salt Lake City Cont.

On Thursday we took the kids down to the Gateway Mall. They have some really great fountains there that the kids loved running in. And again they loved playing in the backyard. It was the first thing they would do in the morning right when they got up before they ate breakfast. We had such a blast. Thank you Trista, Brynlee, Stockton and Beckham for showing us such a good time. We miss you guys. On Friday we met up with Grandpa Smith at Sharon and Jim's. The kids were so excited that he drove up for the Johnson Family Reunion.

Next stop: Salt Lake City

On Monday we drove to Salt Lake City to visit Trista, Brynlee, Stockton, & Beckham. The kids were so excited to see each other again. They had soooo much fun playing in the big backyard. On Tuesday we took the kids to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. They loved feeding all the animals and having a pony ride. It was a fun day!

Vacation recap: 1st Stop Grand Junction

The first stop on our 3 week adventure was at my Mom's in Grand Junction. This was a great way to break up the driving a little. I was really worried about how the kids would do, but they were great. We stopped in Vail for lunch and made it to my Mom's in about 5 hours. The kids loved helping my Mom fill up her bird feeders and they also loved playing with my sister's new puppy Maggie. We got there on Saturday and left Monday morning to drive to Salt Lake.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

It's my Mom's birthday today and she is on her way here right now to spend the weekend with us and I am so excited. She wants to go to the Zoo so that is where we are going when she gets here. I love my Mom. We have a great relationship that I am so grateful for. We talk on the phone every day when she is on her way home from work. I have to say that one of my Mom's best attributes is how she has kept our family together through some very difficult times. Now that I am a mom I look back and realize how much my Mom sacrificed for me and my sisters and brother. She always put us first. She is a get up and go person. She loves to throw everyone in the car and just drive some where just so that we could say that we had been there. She took us to Disneyland every year usually by herself. Something I would never try to attempt with even 3 kids. She has raised 4 pretty great kids and 1 really great one (ha ha just kidding). The picture below is of me and my Mom and Corbin when we went to the Temple to do my Dad's work and for my parents to be sealed and for me to be sealed to my parents. This was a great day. I love you Mom and hope you have a great birthday today and feel honored that you would choose to spend it with us!

You have got to be kidding me

Okay people if you are following along you know that Ella = accident. I was up stairs today getting ready and I hear Ella start crying. Easton is down for a nap and Elise is watching "Hannah Montana". She starts to come up stairs trying to tell me what happened while still crying and finally she says that she hurt her chin. I tell her to look up and she is bleeding from her cut that she got a month ago while we were at the car wash before we left on our vacation. I asked her to tell me what happened and apparently she was sitting, yes I said sitting in her little chair and fell out onto a toy and hit her chin in the exact same spot. You have got to be kidding me.

I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago a lady in our ward came over to borrow some baby things because they were going camping and I went up stairs to grab something for her and when I came back down she was consoling Ella. We have a couple of open house signs in our garage that are pretty heavy and they fell on Ella. They hit her right above her knee and then scrapped down her shin. This poor child. I'm seriously thinking about taking her to the dr. and having her looked over.The worst part is, is that if you know Ella she has the sweetest most loving personality. I feel so bad when she gets hurt and it seriously happens everyday. What a sweetheart.

Worth every penny

Easton learned a new trick when we were on our vacation, how to climb out of the pack n' play. Needless to say it was quite the challenge trying to get him to nap or go to sleep while on our vacation, but towards the end he did really good and I thought he had pretty much given up on it. Then when we got home he started climbing out of his crib and because all of our kids share the same room right now (if you want to know why you can ask my "attention to detail Realtor husband", just kidding honey please come home tonight), it was becoming some what of a problem when he started climbing into Elise and Ella's bed. One morning at the crack of dawn I went down there and caught him sitting on Elise's bed. Not a good thing when you have to then put up with cranky little girls that have been woken up way too early. We were hoping that eventually he would stop or maybe forget one day that he could still do it, but Monday was the last straw. I went to go check on him at nap time, that had now already gone on for at least 45 minutes of me yelling at him to stay in his crib and go to bed and this is what I found.

In case you are wondering, that is lipstick smeared all over his face. Apparently he found Elise's purse and a tube of lipstick. Why does my six year old have a tube of lipstick you're now wondering? We're not going to go there. Let's just say it was a gift. Anyways, it was all over him, on his shirt (from Gymboree of course), the carpet, the rug, his blankie, the closet doors, the air purifier, his feet, his hair, and the worst part was that he pretty much stuck it right in his ear. I stuck him in the bath and proceeded to scrub him down which he was not happy with. Luckily, soap and water took it right off of him, except his ears (I am still trying to work on that). I wiped down everything in the room except for the carpet, changed him and put him back in his bed and told him to go to bed. At this point he knew he was in trouble and fell asleep in about two seconds. Then I called Corbin and said these exact words, "don't even think about coming home tonight unless you have gone to Babies R' Us and purchased a tent to fit over Easton's crib, oh and by the way you are in charge of getting the lipstick out of the carpet." He called me later and said I hope this works it was $75. Ouch. Before Easton went to bed that night we put it on his bed. He was not happy, but we are!

1st grade here we come

Before we left on our vacation we attended Elise's Kindergarten graduation. She loved her teacher, Mrs. Emmons. She did such a great job making friends in the middle of the school year. Of course the two blonde's hit it off right away and Elise and Rylee have had so much fun playing together and having sleep overs. I was really worried about how she would do moving in the middle of the year, but she did great! We really enjoyed watching their little presentation on what they learned this year. She is very excited to start 1st grade. Although I think I'm going to have a harder time with her being gone all day. But we don't need to think about that for a few more weeks. She is going to a brand new school next year called Clear Sky right down the street from us and she has already gotten a letter from her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Sweeny. So 1st grade here we come!

NILMDTS

My very good friend Amber volunteers for an organization called "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep." It is a very special group of photographers in many states that offers their services free of charge to families that have given birth to babies that don't make it. They have either passed away before birth or very soon after. When she joined she asked my if I would be interested in going with her. Not only is it a good idea to have an assistant, but it's obviously something that would be hard to do alone. On Sunday night she called to let me know that she had received an email requesting a photographer. I can't begin to imagine the pain that these families are going through. The goal of the organization is to hopefully help these families begin to heal by having beautiful pictures of these little ones. Even though they are not on this earth very long, their lives make a difference and pictures are the only way to prove they were here, that they mattered, and that they will never be forgotten. As we were leaving the first hospital we found out the there was another request at the hospital across the street. It was a long night, but I left feeling like I had found my niche in the world, a purpose, a little way of helping others and giving back. What struck me was how grateful the families were that we were there. They took the time to thank us for what we were doing. The website is amazing, please take a minute to check it out. http://nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

Friday Fun

We went to a new park today.

We played in the fountains.

We made a new friend.

We explored the stream.

We rode a wild bug.

We spun until we got very dizzy.

We pretended to be spiderman.

We didn't want to leave, but Mom knew it was time to go.

We're still here

We got home from our 3 week adventure last Tuesday about 2 in the morning. So between trying to get the house back together and getting back into our routine I haven't had much time to blog. We also have not been able to turn our computer on, but luckily Danny came to our rescue last night and it's up and running again, but we had to wait for the part to come in. Thank you Danny!! And now that things have calmed down a bit I realized this morning that Amber has all of my personal pictures as well as the photo shoots I did on her computer. So as soon as we get some CD's together we will be back in business. I just wanted to let you all know that we made it safe and sound. We are so happy to be back in Colorado (I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I planned on going to Las Vegas in July, probably that I was really missing everyone). You were all worth the heat. We had way too much fun with Trista in Utah and then Grandma and Grandpa in Vegas. Not to mention all the other friends and family that we got to see. So just hang in there with me and I promise that I will have a run down of all our fun activities with pictures very soon. Thank you to all my wonderful family and awesome friends that took such great care of us and made this a trip that we will never forget. Especially to those three hot babes I got to hang out with at the pool all day and stay up talking to until 5 in the morning, you know who you are. And to Grandma and Grandpa Smith who watched my kids, fed my kids, bathed my kids, took my kids swimming, played with my kids, and of course spoiled them so that they didn't want to leave so that I could work and play. We love you all and already miss you tons!!!