Showing posts with label Eagle Mountain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eagle Mountain. Show all posts

Friday, March 28, 2014

Once There Was a Snowman, Snowman, Snowman...

With spring officially here I can finally wave goodbye to winter. Although, I couldn't help but look back at one of our favorite winter traditions that we missed out on. Which of courses is strange and was started quite randomly. Every winter we like to make a unique or themed snowman. It started when my oldest son made his first snowman. He was 2 1/2 and we chose some random things to go on the snowman. He was so excited to show Dad it when he came home. Ever since then we try to make a fun snowman every year.




This year we had an early snow towards the end of October. I was right before my brother left on his mission so we decided to have some fun in the snow before he left. Especially because we knew in Utah the snow would be gone within a day.

We came up with this concoction. Which was just colored water and a plastic knife from the dollar store. We also used wood to make the X eyes.







We made this one the following year in honor of my brother. He was serving his mission in Mexico and missed the snow. Since we missed him in Mexico, and he missed the snow by us, naturally we needed a Mexican snowman.


Last year we made this mailbox snowman. I remember seeing a picture somewhere, so when the snow wasn't sticking too well, the idea of stacking it against the mailbox was a perfect solution.  The kids were making up all kinds of reactions they thought the mailman would have when they came for the mail.



This year the few times we had a good snow we weren't able to play in it. Usually someone was sick or it melted before we had a chance. So this winter we didn't do one :(
So hopefully this fall we can have the most epic snowman of all.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Things I {Don't} Love Thursday 6/27


 
One of my favorite blogs is Lulu & Sweet Pea. One of my favorite things is her link up on Things I {Don't} Love Thursday. I try to stay optimistic and positive through most situations, but to vent a bit every now and then is ok. It can even be helpful and therapeutic. Here is my list of things I am currently not loving.
 
 
1. Lately I have been hating my son's allergies. His eyes get all puffy and red, poor baby. It is very windy in Eagle Mountain, and the pollen count has been very high. I use an allergy medicine and lavender around his eyes. I would love any and all suggestions to help him with this.
 
 
 
2. I hate that the 1st month of summer has almost come and gone! I love summer so much, I hate to see it pass. We crammed our summer full of adventures and it is making it fly by too fast.
 
 
3. I am not loving this weird back flow water pressure blah blah blah. I have never in my life even seen them until we moved to Eagle Mountain. They aren't meant to go below 20 degrees. Hello, I live in Utah it gets below zero every winter. Apparently if you don't take major precautions they break yearly. Since we didn't know this, or anything about it, when we moved in last fall ours is broken. We have been too busy to fix it. I keep ignoring it, hoping it will just go away.
 
 

Monday, April 1, 2013

Weekend Wrap Up

What a busy and fun weekend we had! Friday was a tight squeeze do to a last minute doctor appointment, so we had a quick frozen pizza for dinner. Then we met Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Jacob at Kadan's Art show. He is very talented and we are fortunate enough to have someone local who teaches art from her home. He loves it!
 
Then we all gathered at our house for some coloring and dyeing eggs.
 
 
One of my favorite thing to do is wrap rubber bands around the egg before soaking them in a dye. Then after it tries you can take them off and you get this fun looking egg.
 
 
 
We also do things a little backwards in our house. We have made a special request for the Easter bunny to come on that Saturday instead of Sunday. That way we can focus on the real meaning of Easter on Sunday and the fun things the day before. Plus this year the bunny was super mischievous. He tied a different color yarn to each kids basket to help them find it. Getting water in the middle of the night was quite the work out, I assure you.
 

Saturday morning was spent searching for eggs, eating too much chocolate and following the crazy mess to their baskets. The kids were surely spoiled this year.

 
I know I keep saying how wonderful my neighborhood is, here is just one more example. Instead of the madness at other local egg hunts we did one in our own neighborhood. We donated 10 eggs for each kid who wanted to participate, then went looking down one of our streets for 10 eggs.  The kids loved it and ended up with some goodies, money being their favorite.
 
Then off to Grandma's house. We were celebrating both Easter and 2 of my kids birthdays. We had taco salad, cake, lots of deviled eggs and good company.
 
We did end up doing an Easter pinata, even though it wasn't in the plans. Usually my mom has such a large yard we do an egg hunt in her back yard. We thought it would be fun to get a puzzle and put the pieces in each egg instead of candy. Although the puzzle pieces we bought were slightly too big for our eggs. Oops. Our solution was a pinata filled with candy instead. What's a little family fun with out a pinata?  My family loves pinatas, maybe because were Mexican?!
 
 
 
 
Then Sunday morning was low key as we got ready, besides me being extremely nervous because I was asked to sing in a trio in church. The kids Easter outfits for church I bought at the end of last summer when I was still pregnant. I have wanted to go to Hawaii for a long time so they have fun luau and pineapple outfits from Gymboree. The pineapple ones are fun because those that know my Dad knows how much he loves a good pineapple.
 


 
 


Then for Easter dinner I invited my parents over to join us. My kids love when we break out the china and have a "fancy" dinner. We had a yummy roast with lots of vegetables. Everyone in my family, kids included, loved fruits and vegetables. As you can tell that was mostly all our side dishes. A nice laid back dinner, with good conversations and company was the perfect end to a long week.
 
Let me know what you did this Easter weekend. I love hearing about other people's traditions, old or new. Either leave me a comment or tweet me.

 

 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Cookies

Another reason I love Eagle Mountain is the nice and generous neighbors. We have one that had extra sugar cookies from the holidays she was giving away. The kids were so excited to frost them, they didn't care that they were pumpkins and Christmas trees. Finally for an afternoon snack we decorated the cookies.  While the cookies were in the oven I decided to make some yummy frosting. Adrianna got to the blue batch while I was mixing a pink batch, she is one of my messiest kids.
 
 


 Kadan wanted blue frosting to represent water Pokemon.

Yesenia used every kind of sprinkle I brought out (good thing I only put half of them on the table.)
 
Adrianna just painted hers and didn't eat any of it. I think she was full from all the frosting she snuck.
 
 Mean while the baby slept. Ok, I played with her a little bit too! You know how some people say, "I'm not really a baby person," or things similar to that, I totally am a baby person. I love me some baby time.  Overall the kids had a blast, and the countdown till Dad gets home went by quicker.
Some odd reason my dad thinks I am so cruel to his granddaughter, weird?!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

I'm Not Inclined To Resign To Maturity

Since we live so far from reality in Eagle Mountain our options for TV are few and far between. There is pretty much only 2 satellite companies available out here. We also decided since I chose to stop working we had to make budget cuts, and TV was one of them. We did purchase a digital satellite however, which allows us limited basic channels which fulfils my Survivor withdrawals. One thing I miss is channel flipping and believe it or not re-run watching. After the kids go to bed Steven and I usually cuddle and watch something together. I am also very fortunate to be the "remote holder" in the family. I decided last week to watch re-runs of Psych just as if I had cable again and it was the only thing worth watching. Thank goodness for Netflix I was able to do this, although watching this show reminds me of my brother.

My brother Daniel is currently serving a 2 year service mission for my church in El Salvador and Belize. He is and was my partner in crime. We have some of the oddest and most fun random memories together, a lot like Shawn and Gus in Psych.
For instance last year we decided to do a paper route together. It only lasted about 2-3 months. We were always tired and it was very crazy, but looking back we had fun bonding together in those wee hours of the morning. Lots of Krispie Kream donuts, good talks, broken shoes, and learning how particular people are about their newspapers. One morning one of our porch delivery clients had their sprinklers going off so Daniel tossed it up his long stairs and it landed on the top step. The next day we were informed that they complained it wasn't on their porch, they had to take a whole 1 step down to get it.  The next day we decided to rubber band the newspaper to their door knob, hopefully it was close enough for them that time.
We would take turns napping and watching kids during the day

Daniel and I would love to randomly challenge each other to things, where Daniel usually would win. Such as this video clip of who can hurdle the hedge.

Daniel is currently having fun sharing his goofy spirit with the people of El Salvador right now and loving it! He says his Spanish is coming along although it is very different than the Spanish he is familiar with from home. He said in his recent email that he and his companion are still like Shawn and Gus. That they had their shoes and backpacks stolen so they decided to just keep knocking on doors in their socks. It was a good conversation starter apparently. To keep up with Daniel's shenanigans his blog is http://elderdanielmckenna.blogspot.com/



Another person I think of when I think of Pysch is the person who recommended the series to me the first time around, that was Alex. Alex was a dear family friend who left this world far to early. He loved a good joke, the Texas Longhorns and his family. Which is why Daniel and I decided to do this prank on him shortly before he passed away last year. Daniel and I went to Rue 21 on a Tuesday night before Alex's movie night. In the store's clearance section they had an ugly Twilight shirt with Edward and Bella's face on it. For three dollars that shirt was worth hearing Alex's laugh. After the movie we went to thank and talk to Alex. I told him I was disappointed because Daniel had told me we were watching Twilight and I showed him my shirt. Daniel and I even held straight faces. He knew I was kidding but I'm not so sure his other friends in the room knew that, oh well!

My family loved Alex and look forward to the day we get to see him again. Its funny how such a simple thing like a show can bring so many fun memories of some amazing people.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Quick Update

Here we go again. It has been a while since I have blogged and I have decided to start it up again. Only this time I am managing chaos from one place, not all over the country. Steven is working for my parents family finance business again and we are no longer moving where the wind blows. We have moved to what my dad calls the sticks. We are in Eagle Mountain which is about 30 miles towards the middle of nowhere, literally. The closest gas station is 10 minutes away, grocery store and other services closer to 15-20 minutes. Despite the long drives and stocking up on supplies it is beautiful out here. We see huge hawks, deer, coyotes, and lots of road kill. The neighborhood we landed in is AMAZING! So many kids, serving neighbors, and a close elementary school. We wouldn't take back our choice for an instant!
We also have a wonderful addition to our family. The sweetest baby girl joined us November 20th.She not only has added much joy to our family but lots of kisses, diapers, lack of sleep and using one arm for everything. I know how fast this newborn stage passes, so I have decided to limit cooking, cleaning, and laundry so I can soak up as much baby good times as I can!
I am also officially a mini-van driver. I guess the most likely to drive a mini-van award I received growing up finally came to fruition. I have to admit it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I tried to get a SUV, but Steven fell in love with this gold Kia Sedona and we haven't regretted it since!
So the next several blog posts will most likely be a mixture of catch up and current affairs. Enjoy!