Easter Dresses

I decided I really enjoyed making the girls Easter Dresses last year so I did it again! I was lucky enough to get EVERYTHING I needed for less then $25! They turned out so cute, and I was even able to throw together some matching purses from my left over fabric. I'll post some pics of the girls in them on Sunday when they are all gussied up for Church.

Park Fun

A few weekends ago we decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having! We took the girls over to Lakes Park where they have these fun Surrey's for rent. Then we let Aspen ride her own bike around for awhile. She loved it and had to make sure to wave and say HI! to everyone she passed.

After riding bikes for almost an hour we spent some time on the playground.

We had a great time and love to spend time as a family outside! Hooray for the beautiful weather!

Cleaning Motivation

I have been really struggling with getting Aspen to help clean up in the evenings. She made it SO slow and painful it was hard to not just get mad and then do it myself after she went to bed. So.....today I decided to try a new (for me) method using a timer/race.

I set a timer for 10 minutes and told her we wanted to see how much of the playroom/family room she could get pick up before it went off. She got really excited but just 1 min or so into it and she lost her excitement. Then she came up to me and said "Mom I can only clean fast when you cheer for me like a cheerleader!" Next she decided that she need to be doing a sport, no not make cleaning a sport, she needed to be pretending to be playing a 'real' sport. She choose.........The Superbowl! So for the next 8-9 min I cheered her on to "Go Aspen Go, Beat that Timer, Win the Superbowl!" And guess what, when that timer when off after 10 min the room was pick up!

Now she is resting to get ready for the Basketball Championship (once again SHE chose the sport) which will be her bedroom. I hope we can keep the motivation up and I'll be resurrecting the use of my timer for myself as much as for Aspen. I forget how much it helps to have a reasonable time limit till you get to do something else! Here's to hoping and Hard work!

Key West

The last weekend in January (the 28th-30th) Brent and I were able to go down to Key West--our first trip just the two of us since our Honeymoon! We enjoyed the drive down (about 5 hours) we borrowed his parents convertible so they could have the van while the watched the girls. So once we hit Key Largo for lunch we cruised the rest of the way with the top down! We enjoyed a good lunch at a little restaurant call Calypso Grill that was off the beaten path (thanks GPS!!) and a leisurely drive with out anyone asking us when we'll get there and 'I need to go to the bathroom...'

DAY 1

That afternoon we got to our Hotel The Marriott Beachside Resort, it was beautiful (and free thanks to the trip Brent earned from work!) and discovered they had a free shuttle every hour to Downtown Key West, so we parked the car and never had to move it till we checkout 2 days later! That evening we went to Mallory Square where they have street vendors and performers and the best view of the sunset. It was a lot of fun to walk around and watch the performers, there were some real characters out there!

This was one of our favorite performers! There was also an older Haitian man (he said he was 52 yrs old) that did tumbling and jumping over concrete! He even jumped over a girl on a bike through a small hoop held by a member of the audience. I love seeing the sail boats against the beautiful sunset.


After sunset we decided to get some dinner before to many of the partiers showed up! We tried Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville that first night. Then we walked up and down the main drag of Key West Duval Street. Duval Street just over a mile long end to end and goes from one side of the island to the other and if you need ot find ANYTHING in Key West start on Duval Street.

We found the Key Lime Pie Factory that first night (one of the best discoveries of the trip!) We really enjoyed Key Lime Pie treats that weekend, we had the pie at least 3 times, Stewart's Key Lime Pie Soda twice (even stopped at one on our way home just to have it one more time!) and Key Lime Pie gelatto! So if you are in Key West looking for Key Lime Pie treats we recommend the Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory.

DAY 2

To start off the day we got to enjoy another perk from Brent earning this vacation from work...the FREE breakfast buffet. It wasn't just hot plates with old food, they had fresh fruit and fluffy eggs and huge sausage and bacon PLUS made to order omelets, fried eggs, and Belgium waffles!

We had picked up quite a few brochures and talked to your concierge about what sites were 'must see' on the island. We ended up at Pirate Soul Museum and it was pretty cool-no photography allowed-it took you through the life and times of being a Pirate in the Keys and Caribbean and even had real Pirate booty on display!

Mile 0 Marker
This little white house was quite interesting it has been used by quite a few of our Presidents and Pres Truman even spent 170ish days of his term down here and signed some important bills while here! A lot of people (including us) didn't even know it was here we just kind of stumbled across it while walking around off the beaten path a bit.

Light House Museum. We just looked around out side, it was a very beautiful light house and right across the street was Ernest Hemingway's house. I didn't get any photos cause the wall was to high and we decided to not pay the $20+ to get in...

Then we made on our most important food discoveries of the entire trip...BLUE HEAVEN. Brent's parents had been down to Key West last year and all Russ could talk about was this place were they ate outside and there were roosters wandering around and the food was GOOD. So we did a little research and wandering ourselves and found Blue Heaven.

Here is one of the many Roosters that just wander around the courtyard.

This is the courtyard where you eat and there is at times hours long waiting to get one of these seats!

We stopped in for lunch and since we were still so full from our breakfast decided to split something. We ordered the Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwich...now listen and listen well if you are ever in Key West you MUST try Blue Heavens Jerk Chicken. You can have it has an entree a sandwich or in a salad it does not matter, just try it. It was the BEST jerk Chicken either of us had ever tired and though we were stuffed we seriously contemplated ordering ANOTHER sandwich!

That afternoon we hung out at the hotel a little more (I was 8 weeks pregnant so need some rest time) then headed back out to Duval Street for some dinner. We ate at a place called Duffy's and had some interesting steaks marinated in teryaki sauce, but then had free key lime pie for dessert :). On our way back to our shuttle pick up spot we wandered in and out of the many art galleries along Duval Street. We also got a good laugh when a large white convertible drove down the street with two Drag Queens sitting in the back with a blow horn advertising their Friday night show...sadly no picture.

Day 3

After the nice relaxing time we had been having we seriously contemplated staying just one more night...sadly it was not meant to be. So we packed up the car checked out and headed down to the southern tip of the island to see some of the last sites.

This is the Southern Most House in the USA and is an B&B (you would NOT believe the prices to stay at anything that says 'southernmost' in the name!)

This is the LINE to get a picture at Southernmost point. It's nice though because if you want the person in front of you stays and takes your photo and then you take the photo for the next and so on and so forth!

Here I am at Southernmost point. Just 90 miles form Cube (and a whopping 120 miles from continental USA!)

We had a great weekend and enjoyed beautiful weather..shorts and tee shirt during the day pants and light jacket/sweater at night. We ate LOTS of GREAT food, relaxed, and walked about 20 miles (mostly up and down Duval street). On the way home we once again really enjoyed just being the two of us...we stopped at a sports bar/restaurant (once again thanks GPS!) and ate a leisurely lunch while Brent got to watch is IU Basketball game.
We are already talking about when we can go back again!

Christmas 2009

Okay Okay, I know I'm just over a month late...but better late then never right?!

Anyways here are some pictures from our Christmas Day Festivities!

This is our very first 'full size' Christmas Tree. We upgraded from our 4 ft tree on a table this year and Aspen was SO excited to have a big tree.

First Order of Business Christmas Morning...Stockings!

If you couldn't tell that's a 2 Liter of Coke Dane is hugging.

We gave Dane a new MP3 player and a 5 movie pack of Bruce Lee. He also got some new clothes, a rubix cube, and a new wallet.

Daddy wanted to pick out one gift each for the girls that was specifically from him. He gave Ella golf set and Aspen a recorder.

Each of the girls got a new Color Wonders book that came with 5 new markers.

My mom sent me some fun scrapbooking stuff! I can't wait to have the time to use some of it.

PS Aspen took this picture!

This year my little Sister Kimberly had our family for the Smith gift exchange. She made the girls these adorable tutu's and gave us a new Wii game.

As is usually the girls were spoiled by their Grandparents this year! Among the other things they gave them G&G Smith gave them this fun Art Easel and G&G Culbertson a table with 2 chairs. We have them set up in our 'play room' and Aspen loves to pretend that she had her very own school room.

And I have to tell you of ALL the gifts they received this year these two are used EVERY DAY!

Before...After!

We had Brent's Parents over for Christmas Dinner/lunch. We made our very first Prime Rib and it was SO YUMMY

The girls had fun sitting at their table for our meal.

My little Ballerina's actually playing nice!

Twirl and jump, leap and spin. Dance Dance Dance!

With the Christmas Money from Great G&G Smith I bought the whole family new toothbrushes. We upgraded to power toothbrushes (except Ella who is still a little young she got a new Eeyore toothbrush)

Each of the girls received a game for Christmas this year. Ella got Elefun, and boy is it fun! The played it at least 30 times that afternoon!

Aspen got Princess Yahtzee JR that we played that afternoon while Ella was napping and the family got Zingo (a fun play on regular Bingo) but games are fun and worked well for the attention span of a non stop 4 yr old.

Ella's Goodies

Aspen's Goodies

We had a great Christmas and have really begun to enjoy it just being our little family. Each year it gets more exciting as the Girls are starting to grasp the idea of Jesus' Birth being the focus of Christmas and that it is just as much fun to GIVE as it is to RECEIVE.

MY New Years Resolution

My mom posted this Article from the Dec 28th issue of the Deseret News.....

2010 GOAL IS TO LOOK FOR MORE JOY AMID MOTHERHOOD MAYHEM

After our first child was born, my husband and I sat in the hospital recovery room together watching our new daughter sleep.

"Can you ever remember feeling this genuinely happy?" he asked me. I could honestly reply that I couldn't because that moment was so full of joy, relief and promise.

But after that quiet day in a quiet hospital room, the serenity of that moment escaped as I was catapulted into motherhood. Sometimes I feel like I was tricked.Don't get me wrong--I love being a mother. I chose to be a mother and I feel lucky to be one.But sometimes in the day-to-day chaos of playdates, macaroni and cheese and scraping Play-doh out of the carpet, it gets difficult to really enjoy motherhood. It gets difficult to go back to those first few moments when motherhood was purely filled with joy.

So this year, my New Year's resolution is to restore some of that motherly joy to my life. This year, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of being a mom. Sure, I already love my daughter. But I'm going to focus on really enjoying her. She's actually a pretty hilarious toddler who can make me genuinely laugh if I just let her. She's also an endearingly sweet little girl who is so full of joy that I can't help but feel happy when I'm with her.

So, yes, I'll still keep up with playdates and housework and all the monotony that comes with motherhood. But I'm hoping to also find those fleeting little moments of joy in motherhood, like when my daughter runs in to kiss me every morning and I plead for five more minutes of sleep. Maybe I should realize how lucky I am to be greeted in such loving fashion every morning.

Or I could truly enjoy our pretend tea party with the baby dolls, rather than just getting through it before I have to go make dinner.

That's a motherhood moment of joy that I know I'll miss when my daughter is a teenager and doesn't want to sit down to chat over make-believe cookies anymore.

When that day comes, I'm sure I won't dwell on the headaches and hassles of motherhood but relish the memories of those joyful moments.And maybe that's the truth of motherhood--joy comes in snippets, in little moments that we have to grab onto tightly and refuse to let go.

So I guess that first maternal moment in the hospital room wasn't really a lie; it just wasn't sustainable. Real life was destined to take over, and it would be silly to expect a lifetime of meadows and smiles and constant happiness.In fact, that would be plain old boring.

So this year I'll be taking the motherhood mayhem in stride, but I'll be seeking out those elusive, but infinitely precious, joyful motherhood moments.I'll be holding on tight to those moments that whisk me back to a serene hospital room where I was truly, genuinely happy because I knew that being a mother was exactly who I wanted to be.

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a fun New Years Eve!

Welcome to 2010 may it be exciting, eventful, and all you want it to be!