Saturday, November 1, 2008

Six Months and Counting

Leah is 6 months old! Can you believe?!?

I can't.

She has grown so much. She's interacting with her brothers, reaching for things big and small, rolling somewhat, and eating some solid foods. It's amazing how happy she is. She is constantly smiling. I am grateful for the light and joy she brings into our home. Her brothers love her very much. You can't find two more kinder and loving brothers than Ben and Ike. Here are some recent photographs/videos of her. Enjoy!












I love her laughter! It's addicting, isn't it? :P



She is cute. I was somewhat afraid to have a girl, but I can honestly say that I am very happy to have a daughter. I'm not afraid anymore. Woohoo!!!

Halloween 2008

Trick or Treat!!! Halloween came and went as fast as a Jackalope in the sights of hunter's shotgun. Before I go into who was what, jack-o-lanterns, and candy mountains, let me say this:

Halloween is a dying holiday here in the United States. Fear and lack of community are holding Halloween hostage. Parents are afraid to let their children go trick-or-treating door to door for fear of weirdo's, oddballs, and/or crazies. The lack of community feeds that fear. Most home/apartment/condo dwellers do not know their neighbors. Many neighbors are too caught up in the lives, too busy with work, and sometimes even, too self-absorb to get to know their neighbors. Other neighbors are shy and timid; thus keeping to themselves in their safety zone. What is this world coming to? Hmmmmm?!?

*breathe in*

*breathe out*


okay.... I'm done.


Thankfully, we live in a wonderful neighborhood where there is a sense of community, a sense of family. Neighbors aren't just neighbors, but they are friends. We are very blessed to have such wonderful neighbors.

Benjamin and Isaac enjoyed carving pumpkins; wearing their costumes; handing out popcorn (I give out individual microwave popcorn packets instead of candy to change up the monotony of candy--if there is such as thing) to trick-o-treaters; going trick-o-treating; and most of all enjoying their candy haul.

We read this wonderful article that give a great way to regulate candy. In short, you let your kids eat all they want after trick-o-treating and then allow them to only have candy for snacks and dessert. The kiddos are allowed to hold their own candy if they stick to the rules. This regulating of Halloween candy teaches them how to eat candy in moderation. This seems to work. The boys are learning responsibility; and they don't feel like we're withholding their treats.

Isaac loved being a dragon. When you asked him, "What are you?" he would reply "I'm a dragon!" then turn around, wag his bum, and say, "See my tail!"


Ben loved the muscles on this Spiderman costume. He'd sing the spiderman theme song: "Spiderman Spiderman. Spiderman Spiderman. Spiderman Spiderman. Spiderman Spiderman." (sung to the Spiderman Theme song)

Trick or Treat!!!


We did pumpkin carving at Grammy's home. It was fun to watch the boys do their thing. :D



The boys enjoyed cleaning out their pumpkin innards.




They each drew a face on their respective pumpkins. Tom tried to decipher their sketch and cut out the face. The final products are found below.


From top to bottom, Tom's jack-o-lantern, Ben's jack-o-lantern, my jack-o-lantern, and Ike's jack-o-lantern.

I don't know how to end this post. . . . so um. . . THE END!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Me Mosaics


I found this concept on Jess's blog. Her Mosaic was cool looking. And so of course, I wanted to look cool as well. Thus the Mosaic. It's really easy and fun. It's kinda of nice see 'me' visually. If you have the time, give it a try. :D See if you can put the answers with the picture.


The Concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into
Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into
fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
Aimee
2. What is your favorite food? Chinese Food

3. What school did you go to? BYU

4. What is your favorite color? Red

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Christain Bale

6. Favorite drink? Boba Drink

7. Dream vacation? European Cruise

8. Favorite dessert?
Peach Pie
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
Entrepreneur
10. What do you love most in life? Tommy-boy

11. One word to describe you. Unique

12. Your nickname. Aimers

Spontaneous Vacationing

Tom and I decided to take advantage of Cindy's mom's--who is the wonderful Rilla--generosity and go down to their condo in St George, Utah for a little R & R. This is as spontaneous as vacations get for us. We decided on Sunday, September 28th and left Friday, October 3rd. Jimdy and Lora Beth joined us for our little reprieve from the real world. We arrived at the condo Friday night, unpacked, put the kids to bed, and enjoyed a little Tom and Aimee time before the rest of the crew arrived. It was a very leisure weekend.


On Saturday, we watched General Conference (For those who are not LDS: Every 6 months, the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hold a conference for all members giving spiritual and uplifting sermons or talks), did a puzzle, ate lunch, watch conference, went swimming, ate dinner, talked politics, put the kids to bed, played games, talked some more.


On Sunday there was conference; and we went to Snow Canyon State Park for some hiking and nature appreciation. The landscape was breathtaking.

Enjoy the pictures.



We went home after a wonderful weekend of vacationing the right way: taking everything slow.

Month of Family Togetherness

Instead of cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry, vacuuming, disinfecting the bathrooms, or even catching up on world wide news, I decided I would use this 'free' time to let you--my friends and my family--know what a wonderful month September has been.

If I had to label this month I would label it: Family Time. Tom and I are working harder to spend more valuable time with our kids. "What do you mean by valuable time?" you might ask. What I mean is more direct interactions with the children. We try to do more kid friendly activities like miniature golfing, bowling, hiking, or even picking grapes as a family.

Here a few activities we enjoyed as a family.


We celebrated Grammy's birthday on September 11th.


Happy Birthday Grammy!


















The Huggies bought a boat and invited us one Saturday to go boating with them on Utah Lake. The boys had a blast. Isaac didn't like the cold water as much. He ended up taking a nice nap on the bow of the boat with Claire. Ben and Mike had fun jumping off the boat and swimming in the lake. However, it took Ben some time to gain the confidence to swim around the boat by himself. Ben and Mike even went on the tube. Funny thing is the boat wasn't going fast enough so the tube submarined and dumped Ben and Mike into the water. But Ben got back on the tube and went again. I'm very proud of him. He was very brave.


We went miniature putting at Trafalga. It was a lot of fun. Tom beat me somewhat fairly. :D I should have won, but my tennis elbow started acting up. ;)


We went to CornBellys. Ben and Ikey really enjoyed the different activities there. Isaac's favorite activity was watching the chicken robots sing and tell corny jokes. Ben enjoyed watching the piggy races.

Ducky races: On your mark. . . get set. . . GO!!


Let's play in the corn kernals!!!

Friday, August 22, 2008

A Stab at Picture Editing


What did I do to this picture? :D
I know it's easy to spot. But hey, you have to admit it's not too bad.


Summer Lovin'

What a wonderful summer it's been! I'm sad that it's coming to an end. Anytime is a great time to bond with family and friends. However I've learned over the years that summer-fun makes those bonds even stronger. Those sun-kissed strengthened bonds weather the cold and harsh winter months of below freezing seclusion--say that 10 times fast. :D What a wonderful season to get to know those you love and have yet to love even better.

Summer is a great time for everyone and everything. Yessirreebob! :P

Instead of reading about our wonderful summer so far, you get--yes GET--to watch my rough/sloppy attempt at film editing.

Please feel free to pop some popcorn, grab a soda and/or mineral water, kick up your feet, and enjoy our family's summer.


ENJOY!!!!