♣ happy st patricks day!! ♣

Yes!!!!!!! this post finally marks me being up-to-date. i never thought this day would come :) and hopefully after this i won't be so far behide again. anyways.. back to this post.. i did a party for st. patricks day and i invited our neighbors over. we first made their hats. then they had to go in the back yard to find the lepercun (just a paper one i colored) and then they had to follow him to the rainbow (colored with chalk just outside our front door on the sidewalk all the way around to the closed garage door). once they got to the end of the rainbow i opened the garage and they found the pot of gold (chocolate gold coins) inside with necklaces. so then we went back in and decorated cookies. it was a lot of fun. :) here's the cookie decorating part.

and here's my beautiful rainbow :)

"trains fun!!!"-lex

well... we got free tickets to go see thomas the tank engine from abbott's grandma. both boys and even elaina was so excited about it. before we went we had a train party and were watching thomas a couple times that day. I shot this video i'll just put on here too the day of thomas....





after naps we drive all the way to the e-center (about a half hour drive). i had no clue what to expect. it turned out to be a stage play. we got to be in a suiet (can't spell it..sorry) it was nice because the kids got to run around then then watch the show somemore...then go run around. most of the time both lex and elaina were totally into it. i had enough tickets so my friend hannah and her son henry could come too. henry had no idea who thomas was...but he loved it. so it was good times had by all. :) here's some pictures...



this is kayleigh (abbott's aunt..yes they're close in age) lex, hannah, and henry.

here are 2 more videos i shot 1 before and one during....




at the intermission lex was very upset that the trains were gone. so i had to explain that they come back after a little while. :) so during the break we went out to get a treat. lex decided he wanted a snowcone. so that's what we got. man...it was a mess. all the kids shared it but elaina was the one that ate most of it. and only after she started eating it with her mouth i noticed that it stains. no matter how much i tried to wipe it off it was stained on her face....


and the "best" part about all of this was the next day when she pooped her diper.... yeah....blue everywhere and it stained her bottom too. i took a picture of it but i'll spare you guys from seeing it. lol

amber's 30th b-day!!! :)

well i decided my 30th birthday was going to be the best birthday ever. so i planned it. and it was :) earlier in the week cory took me out to dinner at a really nice resturant. it was really good food. and he gave me the new U2 cd!! woo hoo!! i love it :) then we went to lowe's to get some shelves for our closet and then went to marie calendars for pie. it was a great night alone with my husband. :) i just love him.


so the day of my birthday my mom and i planned on taking a sleigh ride. since it was during the week abbott got to tag along with us. so my mom, the kids, and i went up the canyon and met this guy who gives rides. it was so cool! the kids loved it! and so did we. it was about 18 degrees that morning. pretty cold! but we dressed really warm so it was fun. these are pictures of us on the sleigh ride...



as you can see the sleigh had no sides. we sat on bales of hay. so we had to hold on to the kids so they wouldn't fall off. elaina got a little concerned but everyone had a great time. the guy owns some elk so he took us out to feed them. the kids had a great time with that!!

so once we feed the elk he took us all around his property . it was cool! so here's video of us on the move..

when we got back the guy was nice enough to let abbott and lex sit on the horses. abbott still talks about sitting on the horse. elaina was too scared to do it. lol she's so cute.


well after the sleigh ride we took off to our next adventure and we went sledding. i've been wanting to go sledding on my birthday since we've moved to utah. and since i was in charge... we went and had a great time!!! here's the pictures from that..



i carried elaina and the sleds up but made the boys walk. but everyone went down a bunch of times. even elaina. and she loved it! :)


after that we all came home and the kids slept really well and i got ready for the final phase of my birthday.


the day before my birthday i decided i was going to have a party. and since i really love cows i had a cow party. i invited our neighbors over and also my friend hannah and her son henry. we went to go see some cows cory and i found on a drive about 20 mins away from our house. the kids had a great time feeding them.

after we saw the cows we came back to my house to eat pizza, play games, and have cake. it was so fun to have everyone there. i love having parties and it was great having family and friends around. here's the start of the party on video....

we played pin the tail on the cow, a game called blind cow, and a versen of "don't eat pete" but we had "don't eat bessie". the kids had an awesome time and as long as my kids have a great time i'm very happy. here's some pictures i took of the party itself after the games...

abbott's birthday was in the beginning of march and then it was mine and then we just went last week to a cousin's birthday party. as soon as lex gets wind of the words cake, or party, or presents his one track mind says that we need to have another birthday party. it was so fun! :) one of the best in my life. here's to another 30 years :)

choo choo!

we went to a model train expo in ogden. cory was working so i took the kids by myself. they had such a great time and so did i! when we first got there we rode on this little train they had outside. they both loved it! we rode on it again before we left to go home too.

it was so cool to see all the models and to watch lex as the trains raced by us. it so so fun to watch lex. we stayed at the first model for at least 10 mins. and there were hundreds of them to look at. we were so busy looking at them i didn't take any pictures until we went upstairs and saw the lego train set. it was crazy!

then we went outside and since it was being held at a train museum they had full size trains that you can climb on. very cool. we've been there couple times before and lex is in heaven every time he gets to go. elaina gets little freaked out because they're so big but she loves to climb on them too. :)

introducing....abbott!!

i started watching a little boy named abbott at the beginning of march. lex and abbott get along very well together. they have a good time. :) abbott is very hard to deal with sometimes but he's been through a lot in his life. he's a good little kids though. i just love him. :)

yeee-haw!

elaina does funny things all day long. :) so here's her being funny. and also she wears a necklace my mom put on her. we both thought she would take it off within a couple of minutes, but we were wrong. she always points to the necklaces i wear all the time and then she shows me hers. she still has it on. :)

bumper cars

one night after having family night we decided to have lex and elaina sit in some empty boxes we had laying around and have them drive in their "cars". cory and i sat on the ground and push them into each other and had races against each other. they both loved it. :) you can't see it very well. but still if elaina finds an empty box she'll get in and say "a ride!" it was a lot of fun.

ewww mess!

so since my mom's been here she's brought out the stool so the kids can see what i'm doing while i'm cooking and help me cook. but now the kids know how to get up...they can't seem to stay out of what's up there. so anyways...elaina thought it was fun when she found the peanut butter one day. we've had lots of things like this that have happened over the last couple of months. but it's fun that they can get what they want. it's just not so fun when they get what they want and then cover themselves in it.

sacramento here come..again

well this was not a planned trip. i heard that a family friend of ours passed away. her name is diane jenson. she was my life growing up. she put me in all of the stake plays. we actually went to sacramento for her funeral before i did the aladdin play. i was so glad i did that play just because diane was a big part of my life and so i got to deicate my preformance to her. anyways...she was also the one that put me in strauss festival, other small plays like roadshows and a pioneer play, and also she put me in dance festival. she was an amazing person that touched so many peoples lifes. she also came up to my wedding and her husband did the pictures for it. a long time ago i decided if ever diane died i would be at her funeral. so that's why we went. my mom and the kids and i got to go. we stayed at my sister cherie's house. this is the kids hanging out the day after we got there watching cartoons.









this is natalie, elaina, lex, and nick.

the day of the funeral i went with my 2 sister and my mom. i saw a bunch of people i knew when we lived in sacramento.

they had this picture there on the sign in table picturing diane dancing into heaven and everyone waiting for her to begin her next production.

these are my friends i hung out with when i was a teenager. susan, me, ruth, and nathalie. it was great to see them and be with them. we decided to get together the next day while i was still in town.

the next day we met up with our old neighbor michelle. she lived acrossed the street from us when we first moved to sacramento. so we went to lunch with her.

we went back to cherie's house and whenever the penner girls get together we play games. and we're talking playing for hours and hours. :) of course when you go to sacramento...you have to go to leatherby's to get ice cream. mmmmmm. so we took everyone and went. michelle came with us and her husband joined us. also bryan my brother in law met up with us too.

elaina ate her entire icecream. she takes after her mom..the little oinker. :)

that night my family took my kids with them and i went off to play with my friends. :) we went over to ruth's house and looked at pictures and saw a videos of one of the dance festivals we were in. we just hung out and talked and it was so much fun!!!! i loved every second of it. it was like getting my batteries recharged after years of having them dead. i can't even explain how great it was to see them again.

on sunday we went over to camille's house and hung out and of course...played games. :) the kids all just played and ate treats. we had a great time.

ben passed out in the middle of the floor. it was a great party. :)

we went home the next day but we stopped off in reno (the last round table pizza) to eat some pizza. sooo good. elaina was just drinking the ranch. sick.

oh no!!!! the wolf!!!!

the last couple of weeks in the afternoon lex and my mom play shadow puppets. my mom is the snake that tries to get lex and i'm the wolf that gets lex. lex just laughs the whole time. he loves it. so here's the pictures during one of our chases.

life is a mess

I let lex and laina play downstairs in our dried corn box. i told them to keep it in the box....knowing that was never going to happen. so this is what became of it...

the floss squad

so since our trip to the dentist lex loves to floss his teeth. he's gone through all of the floss int eh house over a weeks time. pretty much he loves to taste it. it's like candy. :)

aladdin play

I decided I wanted to be in the play our ward was putting on for church. they put on aladdin. I was cast as a townsperson. then it just buildt from there. I got a solo part, then I learned how to jungle for the prince ali song, then i volenteered to help paint sets, then I was designing the sets, then I was asked to do the flowers for the sets, then that lead to being the sort of asst. director of the play because the person who was asst. director quit. sooo..needless to say it kept me very busy for a lot of months. thanks to my mom and cory they watched the kids so i could do the play. I love most of it. but i was really ready for it to be done. I help finish the elephant for prince ali. when he finished lex and laina were with me. lex and i got on. but elaina was too scared...

here's me in my full makeup and costume and me juggling and yes...it took a lot of pratice but i did it!!....

these are some videos that i took of the behide the scenes and also some videos of me on stage takin by my mom! thanks mom :)

this is me on stage during the opening scene. i'm selling veggies and fruits tot he townspeople in the market place. they person up front is kathy (the one that did my makeup). she's the narrator of the play.
this one is better if you see it in a dark room.

I didn't get the part of my solo part filmed. but it's ok. my mom was still learning to use my camera. great job mom for getting everything else!! lex and elaina came to every night performance i had. they would get their pj's on and drive with grandma and grandpa to come see it. and they did really well the whole time. i would come out every night to say hi to them but they didn't want to have anything to do with me. elaina was very freaked out. i even took off my nose and head wrap. they still wouldn't come to me. by the 3rd night they both knew it was me but they still wouldn't go near me. poor kids. :( so the last night cory got to see the play and i took this picture of elaina while i was in full costume.
you can tell in her face she's freaked out. poor girl prob. had nightmares. so it was fun while it lasted but i was glad it was done. :) i won't be doing another play for a very long time.