Green Gables

We just spent nearly two weeks in Oregon. The first few days was with my family and the last of the trip was with Ryan's family. My sister Stacey just bought her dream home which has turned into the dream home of all those who enter. This house is 100 years old and just oozing with charm. I wish I would have done better to photograph my sisters decor style and all the little touches she has added to this home, but no such luck. My sister Stacey has more home decor style than anyone I know, and that's saying something, well, she and my mom are tied at the top of my list. This home is 6 bedrooms, music room, living room, two large family rooms, an office, a huge laundry room, and just many other splendid little details that you have to see to believe. The property is so beautiful and was just such a pleasure to have be the setting for our family reunion. So without further adieu, here are a few charming photos.

I love this stove, it looks like it belongs in Hogwarts

Farewell to Paradise

I have some great blog posts coming up about the changes in our lives, but I can't move onto those until I have a tribute to my time spent at my parent's new house in Paradise. I lived there from June 1st-July 28th....four weeks longer than anticipated. I loved EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF IT. Being the youngest I have spent many years being alone with my parents, I LOVE having them all to myself and it was so nice to draw strength from them. They have the most peaceful spirit about their home and themselves and I just soaked up as much of it as I could.


















I also love the insane amount of family I saw during my stay there. That will never happen again, but I loved the week day pop-ins and I know Emma was in cousin heaven. The views and weather were just so pleasant and I'm glad I was able to transition into this new life they have started and let go of being sad they sold (or are trying to) Liberty.




















What I will miss:
Fresh flowers in the fridge
an endless supply of diet green tea
Lydia asking for Papa first thing in the morning
Emma not waking me up in the mornings (sorry parents, but at least I enjoyed it :)
Maple Bar doughnuts from Macy's
Having breakfast on the patio
The best hot tub ever made
The softest and highest quality carpet
Feeling like a kid again in the coziness of my parent's feathered nest

What I won't miss:
cement floors
tile floors
stone corners
a super duper heavy sliding patio door that the kids can't open themselves
being locked out while hot tubbing
the chirping birds in the morning
the hay fields agitating my allergies



Thanks mom and dad for all you have done for me. It might not seem like much to you, but it has made all the difference to me. I love you!

Summer update

Last week we headed to Bear Lake for a girl's day trip. Why have we not been doing this more often? This could be our Utah version of Sauvie's Island (in Oregon.) We all had the best time and just loved lounging on the beach. The other girls seemed to be having a good time reading their books, laying out, and visiting while I chased after Lydia all day. My time wasn't relaxing but that will come soon enough. For now I wouldn't trade the constant care and supervision that an infant needs for anything in the world. I just wish Ryan could have been here to delight in Lydia's discoveries like I did, he has missed so much these past two months, it makes me so sad for him.

We keep plenty busy while living in my parent's house. We still see a lot of family and the girls have loved living here. We are a MONTH longer than we anticipated and we are all anxious to get into our house and be a family again. When I can, I leave Lydia home and I wake up at 5 and work on the house until noon when Lydia wakes up. Ryan is currently living in the storage space down in the garage with all the spiders. He works on the house any spare hour he gets. Due to his obsession with perfection things have taken longer than expected, but it will be worth it in the end. My favorite thing when I go to North Ogden is to stop at the Straw Market for breakfast and the best cinnamon rolls ever!

There are soooooo many different birds where my parent's live. Mostly they are beautiful, some are annoying. This little species of bird is so swift and agile that they like to fly in and out of the different balconies on the property. Sadly for them the windows look like more of nature and so they fly full speed ahead and usually result in death. This little bird lived for a few minutes before he gave up the ghost. So we had a funeral for him and buried him in the backyard. these were Emma's words "Dear Birdie, I will never forget you and I will love you the rest of my life, dear, dear yellow bird."

We love exploring the area around my parent's property. There are some great hikes right in their backyard that leads down to the river where there is plenty of wildlife to be found. I love having meals on the back patio and just sitting out there to visit and talk.

For the 4th of July we spent half of it in Liberty and half in Logan. Friday night we went to a concert and BBQ with my sister Sara and her family of some friends we had in the valley. Emma loved dancing in the crowd and when I went to take her photo I couldn't find her anywhere. Finally I looked up on stage and she had made her way up with the singer and the band and was dancing with them, she's a little young to be a groupie but it was sure cute.

Kylee and Brody joined us Saturday for the cutest hometown celebration that this country puts on. We enjoyed the booths and activities at Liberty Days, along with dinner at t-Roadhouse and my favorite fireworks display ever. Liberty would make Norman Rockwell proud.

Monday we had a great progressive celebration going to different homes and parks all day long doing fun activities for the whole family. I'm so thankful to live in this free country and I'm even more thankful to live in the wonderful state of Utah. God Bless America!

The Blink of an Eye

FINALLY! I updated my photo blog. Blogger is not a user friendly program, so no wonder I put it off for so long. But feel free to check it out to see some photos of family members or friends you may know.

Sweet One

Our little baby turned one this last week. I am so sad to see her growing up. She has been such a delight and the joy I find with her is as if she were my first all over again. I am tickled with how her One Year Old photos turned out, but just in case anyone is wondering...yes, it was a lot of work, and no I don't think I will be doing it again. But we'll see ;)

I made this special little cupcake for Lydia, but I was a little disappointed when she just picked away at the top of it and then signed all done after a few bites. It was good, I tasted it to make sure. She is just a picky eater. But I sure do love watching babies go to town and make a mess out of their cakes...which that's kind of weird for me, but it must be the only situation where I think the mess is cute. :)

Emma was so darling all day and so excited for Lydia's birthday. I know there is a lot of "anti-spectacle birthday" people out there, and I am sure some people/most will look at this post and think PA-LEASE! But let me just say...yes I am aware Lydia will have no memory of this day, and she doesn't even care. But I care. This is a passion of mine. My kids are my whole world, and for me, spoiling them on their birthday is one of my ways I show them how very very glad I am to have them in my life. So Lydia probably won't remember her birthdays for many years to come, but when she is older and reflects back on her childhood (through photos and home video) I want it to be with the fondest of memories and a sense that she was truly cherished. And in the process, it is fun to have an older sister who knows what is going on and to have an excuse to invite family members over.

Summer schedules are kind of crazy and it is hard to accommodate everyone's schedule. So my sisters couldn't join us but I was delighted to have the Jensens, Hatches and my parents be the party guests. They are the ones who know her the best and who she knows the best and who have invested so much time and love into her. Also it was very neat for Lydia to have her great Grandma and Grandpa attend as well and I think it's so neat to see a relationship that is 4 generations long.

I made a Candy Bingo game, Lydia Trivia (that just happened to rhyme) and also a candy bean bag toss where you got to keep the candy inside the bean bag every time you scored in the bucket.

Ryan and I just adore both our girls so much and I can't think of another man who I would want to help me be the best I can be to raise these girls.
Happy birthday to our little sweet one!

We-are-FAM-I-LY!!!

This is just a typical day in my life right now, family, family family! Pop ins, play dates, lunch dates, babysitting, festivals, you name it, we do it together! My friend Carrie asked me if I have made a lot of new friends, I laughed out loud. Friends? What are those? I haven't seen friends (except for you Carrie :) In weeks, possibly months by now. I am so busy with family and I love every minute of it. Below is s'mores by the fire with the Caspersons.

My little Lydia turned one this week :'( I have just loved every minute of my life with her. It really makes me smile inside to see that she has quite the fan base and some of her fan club members come in the most surprising form. Like this little boy. Cute isn't he? Quite cute actually. But he loves to run and play with his older boy cousins but he will always stop what he is doing to hold Lydia or play with her and he gets so excited over her little victories, like standing on her own, or trying to talk. I always loved my nephew Spencer, but he just shot himself to the top of my list.

My niece and nephew work at the Logan pool so they hooked us up with a killer family discount pass. We went there Friday and LOVED it. Crowded, but a great way to pass a hot summer's day.

Emma went down the slide all by herself. I didn't cry like I likely will on the first day of Kindergarten, but I did see this as a big step for her, and for me! It was so nice to know she is becoming more independent and brave and gives me hope that maybe it will be fun to watch my kids grow up, even though it means they will be growing further and further away from me. I can't think about it. So anyways, Yeah for Emma!

COUSINS! COUSINS! COUSINS! Emma is in HEAVEN! She sees so much of her cousins. This was at Firehouse Pizza on Tuesday night when kids eat free. Hello! Free! Weekly tradition here I come :)

There has been one acceptation to the cousins trend and that is in my friend Carrie who lives in Ogden. Carrie has been sooo good to take Emma while I run errands for our home or take Lydia to Dr's apts. or whatever I need to get done. I stole these photos from her blog but we don't want to leave Addi out in all of our day to day adventures. Thanks again Carrie! I promise your turn will come around.

So speaking of Dr. apts. We got Lydia her one year shots and took her to a dermo appointment for her little face rash. Turns out it is just from saliva and likely thumb sucking. Hmmm. I hate going to the doctor. Not quite as bad as I hate changing a dirty diaper, but they might be tied. We waited for an hour before we even saw the dermo. Hello nap time. These photos below are of us trying to pass the time.

Father's Day we met and had a picnic and then all went for a hike. It was a great day to be together and I really missed having my sister Stacey and her family there with us. My brother-in-law Todd just recently lost his dad and I had his family heavy on my mind all day and I just really tried to live in the moment.

This man here...in the above photo....I'm pretty sure is my husband. It looks like him, but I hardly see him any more so who knows. Ryan lives in Liberty in my parent's guest house since we moved all of our stuff into storage. My parent's sale failed two days before they were supposed to close. So poor Ryan goes to work all day, then goes over to our new house, works his guts out there, goes up to Liberty around midnight and repeats the schedule every day. He comes up to Paradise on Sundays and the girls just LOVE having him home. I LOVE having him here and really miss his company and just having him around, he is just sooo likeable. I hoped we would move in July first...HA! Now I'm hoping the weekend after the 4th...hoping! Eventually we'll be a family again...right? Right?

More posts to come soon. I'm on alternate computers so it's hard for me to post the photos I want, and none of them are edited...I feel like it's the stone ages just posting a raw photo :)

Best Places to Raise a Family

Forbes has recently released their top ten cities that are the best to raise a family in. They ranked them on seven different categories... the cost of living, the prevalence of home ownership, commute time, median household income, housing costs, crime and the percentage of young adults who graduate high school. Here were their results for top ten cities for families...

10- Buffalo-Niagra Falls, NY
9- Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
8- Knoxville, Tenn.
7- Pittsburgh, Pa.
6- OGDEN-CLEARFIELD, UTAH
5- PROVO-OREM, UTAH
4- Syracuse, NY
3- Rochester, NY
2- Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa
1- Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa


The best is that with all the other cities they have a beautiful photo of the city skyline or some famous building or monument of that city. With Ogden and Provo they just have a photo of a lake and some beautiful mountains. Oh well, it's the mountains and the lakes that keep us so family centered...or at least that's the way it is with my little family.

Carried Away

My friend Carrie (Carried Away photography) did me the hugest favor ever and came up to take one last photo shoot of me and my little family here on this property. This is the exact same spot that Ryan and I had our engagement photos and it just seemed very fitting that I would end my stay at this home with a family photo. Thank you so much Carrie, it was so nice to be on the other end of the camera for once ;)