The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point

On Tuesday, my Mom had the day off so we decided to go to the Tulip Festival. It was just my mom, dad, me and the boys. I have always wanted to go. It was beautiful! This is my first time touring the gardens, and in Spring. A couple years ago, during the summer, I worked at Thanksgiving Point helping with weddings as a Fairy Godmother, but the tulips were not around then. My parents wanted to take lots of pictures of flowers they liked to make plans for some of their gardens. I am just going to include some of my favorite flower pictures in with pictures of us.




I am not a photographer in any way and I would love have some friends who are come and take pics for me. Maybe next year! So this is my lame attempt :)

Zac can be VERY stubborn like any child his age. Just because I wanted him to smile of course he was not going to. But still I like the effect... very good glare :)

Papi was tickling him and got a good smile :)




I love these peach-ish ones! It reminds me of those yummy Big Stick Popsicles we had as kids.


The boys loved feeding these fish! They were huge! They would try and swim over each other to get the food-the fish not the boys.



Looking at the geese

Zac LOVED this door. There is a dark archway covered in vines on one side and a "secret garden" on the other side. He could just open and close and run through this door all day!

(This is my hair with no product and hardly any styling-just blown dry.)

Again, couldn't get a good smile


Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us with you! It was a really fun time!

A Day of New

Jon started his new job yesterday, and things went great. They had a brand new 24" IMAC ready and waiting for him, with new software, and even an extra monitor for big projects. They haven't done anything with what they want Jon to do. So he has quite a project ahead. But he does great starting up things like this. And it will be easy to see quick results. He is happy and things are good. The commute wasn't "too bad". I think he is being optimistic-I am just going to take his lead on this :). And he will probably start carpooling next week.

I also had a new thing yesterday . . . Three words: Locks of Love

Before:

(polygamist hair as my sister calls it ;)

And . . . . .




After:

The back:


Sorry if this grosses you out . . .

That is just over 12" gone!! I mailed it in today!

I also have highlights and will be adding more golden and caramel colors as the summer comes.

What do you think? Do ya like it?!

The First Hike of the Year

We wanted to go camping this last weekend, but the weather was not cooperating. So we decided to go on an easy hike instead.

Jon had Friday off before starting his new job on Monday. And Dave was staying with us between semesters.

We hiked a little more than half a mile to see Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove. It was a pretty easy little hike. It had a little cave and a bridge across the river. It was fun to cool off at the bottom of the waterfall in the mist. And in the really warm weather it would be fun to cool off under the falls. The trail goes farther. But that was the perfect length for the first hike with the boys.

These are pics from Dave's cell phone.....

but I can't get them to upload...it says internal error...so maybe I'll look more into that later, or ask Jon when he gets home.

Easter Videos

Zac finds an egg




Max eating jelly beans as fast as he can, so he can get another one!

Easter 2009

Ok, so this is my overdue Easter post. I still haven't found my camera so I have to rely on the generosity of others to get the pics! Thanks family and friends!

This was a little Easter party we went to. The boys really liked the Easter Bunny. There were tons of kids around so they are pretty distracted. That is why I posted 2 pics at least one of each looks somewhat at the camera ;)






The on Easter Sunday I hosted Dinner. And as it happened it seems like almost everyone was going to be in town. We had a great time and it was really fun to see everyone. And I think the food was great if I do say so myself...my first time doing a ham...so easy and tasty!

This is Kari, Emily, Dave, and Jason
(relations: Jason and Dave are Jon's brothers, Emily is Jon's sister and Kari is married to Jason)

Jeremy, Max, Adam, Rachel
(Rachel is my sister, Adam is my brother and Jeremy is married to Rachel)

My mom and dad and Zac

Lexie had finished eating and went to chill on the couch

Zac putting eggs in the basket


Egg in a hole. Adam did a fun job hiding egg



I love these flowers.

This the toy Zac got from the Easter Bunny. It is a flash light with little "lids" you can put over the lights and it projects and image related to the "Toy Story" movie. He loves it!


Max got some Power Ranger keys with sound effects. He really liked those too.

Neutron Interactive

. . . is the new company that Jon will work for! This is our big change-Jon got a new job. He starts in about 3 weeks (after he trains his replacement at HP). He'll be doing Email Marketing and focusing on customer relationships, much of what he does now. There is also a lot of room to grow. We are both excited for this opportunity of growth and change. It is a small business which is Jon's niche. This is especially good for his entrepreneurial drive.

It took lots and lots of consideration to leave Logoworks/MarketSplash by HP, as it has been a great experience for him. He's been there since he graduated-it has been his home. It is going to be a hard transition. But he feels this is the next step for his career and I fully support him.

Congrats, Jon!

Sometimes the excitement of change is stronger than the fear of change,
but that can change too.

It's begun: Spring Cleaning!

I wish this was in my house! Its very cute and organized!

Taking inspiration from a blog I like to follow, V and Co., I started Spring cleaning or more like organizing. (Although the weather is currently not cooperating-3 inches of snow yesterday, a half inch or so today, probably more tomorrow-at least most of it melts off by the end of the day.)

I cleaned out our "junk closet". It is just off the kitchen and has so many different things in it. It is a walk-in closet and has lots of shelves. We have bulk food in there, camping gear, a large cooler, file boxes, a couple 72-hour kits per person, kids craft stuff, stuff needed for homework, blankets for picnics, a large griddle, light bulbs, empty glade plugins, candles, flashlights, water bottles, and just random stuff. Yesterday, I organized it and made it look nice and easy to walk-in to. I seems like closets like this need to be organized every few months.

Then today I tackled my closet! I could clean it every week because there are clothes all over the floor at the end of every week. All moms who have ever been in the child bearing years know how hard it can be to get rid of clothes. You don't want to get rid of your pre-baby clothes because one day they might fit again (ignoring the fact that they will mostly likely be out of style when the time comes). And you want to keep bigger clothes, for the post-baby body, then the post-post-baby body where you are not the same as you were before, but you are not as big as you were shortly after the baby, and you have maternity clothes too.

With the opportunity to get back to my pre-baby weight I have been able to go through those pre-baby clothes and keep the ones that are still in style...or that will work with the current style. And also throw away most of those bigger post-baby clothes, or at least add them to the maternity box if they are worth keeping. I was able to get rid of 2 large bags of clothes and some shoes too. This is really really really good for me. I usually worry that if I get rid of too much I will not have enough to wear.

I still have more to do, but since it is not summer time yet and half the clothes I still need to go through are summer clothes, I'll be waiting for a while.

Now I challenge you! Go through you closet and get rid of stuff you haven't wore for over 6 months!