Cameron is Special

I just can't get enough of this boy! The little boys were visiting their grandma in California for a week and yesterday was a happy reunion. Cameron wore his joy school crown all day, and came to the grocery store with my mom and I. He pushed his little cart around and my mom let him put anything he wanted in his cart. He inspected the apples and got a rotisserie chicken. "Let's get one of those little turkeys for me!" And tried to sneak 7 packs of ding dongs.

My dad has been in the hospital all weekend with a weird heart thing. They still aren't sure what was wrong with him but have done enough tests to know he's not going to have a heart attack anytime soon. My poor dad looks so tired and feels so crummy.
Good thing he has these special boys to keep him company!

Want to Come?

I am so excited. I love love LOVE the end-of-the-year recital. This year's duet recital is featuring some pretty fierce ladies, some of whom I've taught for all 3 years I've been teaching at BYU. OH am I ever going to MISS YOU when you graduate!

(Thank you Beth Johnson in the photo above for being a good sport:) And a really good singer.)

Dear Emily,

Dear Emily,
Thank you for the beautiful flowers.



Thank you for being a welcoming loving sister-in-law and for the cheerful bucket of spring I found on my doorstep last Monday night. Thank you for being aware of others in the midst of your own life. It says so much about what kind of person you are. I love them, and I love you!

Tara

Jennif

I know, I know, I've been a terrible blogger this week.

I'm writing this as if anyone noticed I hadn't blogged in a week, but who am I kidding, I went on a blog-fast for 4months (exactly the time it took me to meet and marry scott) and everyone was just fine. I just have to say things like that every once in a while on the blog to make myself feel popular.

So here's a little tid-bit for ya
I photographed this pretty girl recently. If you want to see more pics of my pretty sister Jennifer (jen-jen, jenny, jblo,jennif, rejinef) you can click on my photo blog link on the right.

Let's talk about an embarassing but maybe-you've-done-this-too moment. Today I saw a PERFECT STRANGER at Target and before I could stop myself I called her by name and had a nice little conversation with her about all these details of her life and these things we had in common...because just the night before I had linked on to her blog from a friend's blog. Creepy of me, I know, but if you take that part out of it it was a lovely way to make a new friend:)

Let's also talk about this smoothie that I simply cannot stop drinking: It is brown and green and it's ingredients include spinach and kale and it is DELICIOUS! Don't believe me ask the dishes.



If you want to drink lots of green leafy vegetables and make your taste buds do backflips, here is your magic:
Blend 2 cups Spinach and 1 cup Kale with 1 cup OJ. Blend til a smooth pretty green color, and take the kale off that big stalky stem in the middle before putting it in the blender. Then add 1/2 banana, 1/2 c frozen bluberries, 1/2 frozen raspberries. Blend, then add ice, then enjoy. It tastes fruity and fresh and is low in sugar.

Let me see what else I took pictures of...
Oh yes, Cameron and Jake must have come over for another slumber party because I have a picture of this:

which is just about the cutest thing in the world. Scott loves to tell these boys bedtime stories almost as much as they like to hear them, and then they go home and tell their mom all about the details of Scott's life when he was a little boy. It is always amazing to me how many details they absorb.

This slumber party we decided it would be fun to get our jar of change and let the little boys get money out of the jar as we went around town to do things. I thought they would think it was fun to pay for things. Instead they got nervous whenever they were supposed to give their "moneys" away for things like ice-cream and dollar store toys. Cameron got really big brave eyes and handed the ice-cream guy a penny. As a result these two little stinkers had big pockets heavy with change by the time we tucked them in at night. Jake decided to put his "moneys" in his pillow for safe-keeping overnight. When he woke up the next morning they weren't there, and no matter how hard we looked we could NOT find those moneys.

Jake kept asking Cameron if he could have some of Cameron's moneys and Cameron kept flatly denying him. Jake would come to me and in the sweetest voice say "he's not givin' me moneys cuz he's MEAN" and I would tell him Cameron was a very nice boy and ask him again. After 3 go-arounds with the denying/he's mean thing I decided it was about time to pull out all the stops.

That's right, I told him about the little boy who got a bike and a new train for Christmas, and how he saw the other little boy who didn't get anything for Christmas. He decided to share and gave the unfortunate boy his new bike and train and he felt SO HAPPY. It makes us happy to share, even happier than when we have the things ourselves. It makes us happy to make other people happy.

Cameron sat and listened to that story and then got some "moneys" out of his pocket and handed them to Jake. Then he put a big grin on his face and came and sat on my lap. He remembered you were supposed to feel happy at the end of the story. I told him how proud I was of him and how happy I felt. Then he turned around and showed me his smile, threw another penny and jake, and showed me how his smile got bigger every time he tossed a penny at Jake.

Oh I'm going to miss those boys. I love those little stinkers.

Jake helped me make buttermilk pancakes with buttermilk syrup for breakfast:






cute little stinker.




Oh I have this picture on my camera, too. Which means that we made home-made spaghetti noodles last Sunday. It was kind of a disaster but it was sooo yummy.

Arizona and Valentines Day

Scott and I drove down to Arizona last Valentine's /President's Day weekend. We didn't decide to go until Friday at noon, and two hours later we were on our way. In the midst of our packing flurry, my romantic hubby decided it was a priority to surprise me with these:

because he didn't want me to "go without" on Valentines day while we were out of town. I hated having to leave those beautiful roses behind! What a nice husband. He's nice even in the middle of the night when my sleep talking wakes him up. He drives me to work so I can put my make up on in the car, drops treats off to me at work, listens to me analyze my day, tells me I'm pretty with my retainers in (I'm not), goes to the grocery store with me on Saturday nights and snuggles with me while we watch Mary Tyler Moore re-runs. I keep being surprised at how much I like this marriage thing.

Anyway, this roadtrip was fun. We hadn't been on a roadtrip since we had just started dating and went to Southern California with some friends...on the way back everyone ditched us and squished into the other car so we could be alone and we just talked and talked and talked. Scott even went 15 miles UNDER the speed limit on the way back home on that 1st roadtrip so we could have more time to talk.

I keep digressing. This was such a fun time to just sit in the car and eat sunflower seeds and see the snow melt outside our windows as we drove down to sunny AZ.

We stayed with my cousin Kelly and her family:

(to see more of their family pics visit my photography blog, link on the right)


Here's us with Kelly's kids Daimon and Ellie at one of the many many restaurants we went to while there. The best thing about AZ, besides the sun and getting to show Scott where I went to high school and seeing my dorky pictures on the choir wall with the "Rachel from friends" haircut which I thought was SO awesome, was the FOOD. We ate and ate and ate and when we were so full we didn't think we could stuff another bite in, we went to Grimaldi's and got a pizza. Yes, Grimaldi's has a franchise in ARIZONA!!! I HAD NO IDEA!!!!!!!!!!I've craved that pizza at least 3 times a week since I moved away from NY 3 years ago.

We also saw Confessions of a Shopaholic (loved it, loved the book) and helped Kelly pick out new perfume:


Here's Kelly smelling my Gum Package to clear her nasal passage between sniffs:



And here's my Valentine, loving every minute of this gum sniffing exhibition.



A couple days into our trip, my parents heard we were having so much fun that they decided to fly down. Good thing, too, because my mom found 2 awesome tables at Dillards for a quarter of the price Thanksgiving Point and Dear Lizzie are selling them for. We made quite a scene at Dillards packing them up, and Scott and I drove them back up to Utah, and now I have one sitting in my living room. Thanks, Mom:)


BTW here is my new yellow purse, happy president's day to me:) TJ MAXX is better in AZ, too.


Apparently AZ really misses my sister Katie because they named a store after her:

I'm jealous, KaBloom.



Miss you, sunny Arizona!

Mickey's Stupid Clubhouse

A couple weeks ago Cameron and Jake took my mom and I on a date to go see Mickey's Clubhouse at the Energy Solutions Arena. We piled into the car, buckled them in their carseats armed with snacks and pull-ups and almost 2 hours later, we STILL hadn't gotten there because of a massive wreck on the freeway. Poor little boys.

And not that I have anything against Disney, because I don't, but the show was kinda dumb. Although who am I to complain because more than a few unsuspecting Japanese kids had to sit through our dumb show at Tokyo Disneyland when they could have been on the rides.

All in all I'm glad I got to go on a double date -Me and Cameron, Mom and Jake...I love spending time with these little boys and my mom.