Busy busy

Wow! Has a whole week really gone by? I feel like this week was gone in seriously two days.  Crazy.  I feel like I've had about 2 or 3 hours of down time this whole week.

Last Friday was my grandma Stephenson's funeral. She had dementia for several years but what lead to her health decline was a skin cancer removal surgery about a week before her death. I remember her as petite (only about 5'2 and 100lbs), vibrant, quick, thoughtful, and probably one of the classiest people I have ever known.  She taught me to crochet, cross stitch and knit.  She also permed my hair when I was 11 or so.  Mostly I just remember her as making me feel special and important.

In the past couple of years I've only seen her maybe once or twice a year and we only live an hour or two apart.  Why have I seen her so little?  Probably just because I just feel really awkward around old people that have a hard time remembering who I am.  Does that sound just so heartless or what?  I hate that about myself but it's the truth.  Trying to make conversation with someone who can't make conversation is just really hard.  At the funeral I was really sad because of the grandma I knew when I was younger and the way  I remember her.

So what has been consuming my days?  Car searching.  I finally found one, and purchased it BY MYSELF. Torry hasn't even seen it (he's gone hunting for the weekend, and said go for it if I found a good deal).  It's a 2003 GMC Denali with about 100k miles on it.  True I would love something newer with less miles, but this just happens to be in our price range.  Even better is that we paid CASH; no car payment.  Torry & I have owned 2 sedans (the LAMO Volvo and the Hyundai Sonata) for the past 9 months.  The plan was to save up and get an SUV.  Well we got the SUV just sooner than expected.  The kids love it.  Camden has asked several times, "Mommy, can I go play in the car?"

Katelyn is gone at her friend Janae's house for a sleepover, Torry is gone hunting, and my brother Rob went fishing all day with friends.  That leaves me Rob's wife, Tiffany, Camden & Lucy.  What do we do? Go shop.

First we went to make a few changes at Ivory Homes design center (Did I mention we are building a house?).  Tiff helped me make some decisions on the flooring.  I changed the carpet & hard flooring.  Tile is still the same.

Anyway, then we went to Hobby Lobby to make these (see right).  What are they, you ask? Totally awesome pom pom jars, one for each of my kids.  When they do something good, they get a pom pom.  When the jar is full, we will go on a trip to the dollar store and they can pick a toy.  It was Tiff's sister's idea, and I copied it.  I thought it was such a cute idea.  Hopefully it will help them want to finish dinner, do chores and be nice to siblings.  We'll see how it works...

I also picked out a few bead chains at the craft store to make some necklaces.  (the white & turquoise beads)  Each necklace will only cost me a total of $5!

After the craft store we went home for a bit then decided to go the Women's Expo at UVU where I got the necklace on the left.  I know, I know, these seem to be everywhere right now but I love it.  And it was only $15.  I've got to try to find something to wear with it tomorrow to church.

Well, off to watch a Dateline NBC show on Drew Peterson who killed his wife. Or I might watch something on Netflix (yay! I signed up for an account!).  Torry's still gone hunting so I have control of the remote. ;)

Annoying Day- Not Completely

Torry's car got fried yesterday.  Nice.  So we've had this Volvo for about 2 years.  We were excited because we were able to pay cash for it, and not have a car payment.  Not anything fancy, but at the time it worked.   Well the yesterday, Torry was driving home from a hunting trip in Richfield when the engine overheated and stopped running.  And won't turn on again.  And there was oil bubbling from the engine.  That's not a good sign.  We're thinking it's going to be $3-$4k just to fix our $5,500 car.  Awesome.  And we were planning on selling it this fall anyway to buy an SUV.  Just wish I had that same $3-4k to use for the new car. Not repairing the old car.

Tennis today was annoying.   It's really like my brain was not working.  Maybe it was  the time? I woke up at 6a to be there by 6:30.  The coach kept giving me pointers on my ground strokes (like follow through, "shaving" the ball and turning my body before I hit). I would remember his pointers for 2 shots, then revert back to my old ways of doing things.  I didn't do very well this morning.

Kate & Camden were totally on each other's case today.  It's like they were doing everything they could just to bug each other.  I even bought them new toys today (which I NEVER do except for birthdays and Christmas) because I feel like they have been bored lately. Annoyance.

On a more positive note,  I was able to enjoy these sweet moments with my kids.

Lucy has been insisting on eating at the bar with Kate & Camden.  I love her cute hair.  It's like this baby fine, thin hair that will not do anything that I want.  But I love it.

Haha my mom usually picks the veggies every other day or so.  Well, she forgot for a few days.  And we got some giant zucchini.  Giant.  I'm giving them to Torry's co-worker for her to shred freeze. 

Lunch.  YUM.  Blake (my 24 year old awesome brother) made me this lunch.  To.Die.For.  So so so good. It was a balsamic vinegar reduction drizzled over tomatoes, mozzarella, and toasted bread with thyme on it.   I've just got to figure out how to quickly make this so I can have it every day.

Cute Kids & Tennis

So I'm turning into my mom.  I now play tennis. A few times a week.  And I absolutely love it.

I started going back in June.  I've always wanted some sort of activity to keep me in shape that's not lifting weights and running. I've tried both, and I really don't like either one.  So, tennis is now my thing.  I think playing soccer in high school really has helped me.  I feel like I've caught on quickly and I'm getting better each week. 

After picking up Camden & Lucy from the gym daycare, Camden really wanted McDonald's for lunch.  So we went to Burger King (so much better than McDonald's.)  Awesome, right?  I worked off all these calories at tennis, then ate a Whopper Jr, small fry and Diet Coke.  So healthy.   Anyway on the way home, this was my conversation with Camden.

C: "When I'm a dad, can I be a police man?"

M:  "Sure.  You can be whatever you want!"

C: "Can I be a Burger King man and a police man?"

M: "Yes.  You can be whatever you want."

Right then I look in my rear view mirror and he has a giant smile on his face and whispered "Yes!"

It was hard for me not to say, "No you can't be a police man, you'll get shot." and "No, you can't be a dirt bag and work at Burger King as a dad."  But I'm trying not to limit my kids. Reach for the stars, honey.  Hopefully just not for the Burger King and Police man stars.  But I didn't say that.

Lucy ate her chicken nuggets the whole way home with her Burger King crown covering her eyes, resting on her nose.  She wore that thing around all afternoon.  So cute.

Katelyn had her SEP conferences this afternoon with her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Woodbury.  She is doing great!  Her teacher said Katelyn is great to have in class. She is quick to follow directions, always finishes her work first, and seems to be the only kid to know how to whisper. (Pretty sure that came from me whisper-yelling "Be quiet! Lucy is sleeping!") 

She knew all of her letters, and only missed 4 letter sounds.  She does tend to reverse her letters and numbers and write them backwards.  We will work on that.

Rob & Tiff (my brother & sister-in-law) are coming back from Texas tonight! YAY! They have been gone all summer.  So excited for them to come home.  

I've got a cleaning bug..... going to clean the bathroom and do some laundry.

Falling Behind

So lately I've had this overwhelming feeling that my life is moving so fast I can hardly keep up, much less remember it all.  I know it's so so so cliche but I feel like I've blinked and Katelyn is suddenly in first grade.  Camden is in his 2nd year of pre-school and Lucy is almost 2 years old. Seriously?  Am I that old?  Maybe if  I were to take just a few minutes and write it down I could remember what I did last week, last month or maybe last year.

It makes me sad how day to day memories fade.  I heard a quote that made me bawl.  "The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make... I did not live in the moment enough.  This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs.  There is one picture of the three of [my children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six four, and one.  And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded and how they looked when they slept that night.  I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book bed.  I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less"  (Anna Quindlen, Loud and Clear 8, 10-11."  Ugh.  I read one lazy Saturday morning in bed and it made me feel awful.  I got in the shower and just bawled.  Then I came to the decision that I really need to be better at recording my days.  Even though they may be sometimes the same as the previous day, I know that there will be a day that I long just to hear Lucy's little voice say "no", Camden's play car noise and Katelyn's constant talking.

So instead of feeling like I must write for an audience and everything that comes with that, I've decided to just write for me and my family.  Because even though it is a little inconvenient now, hopefully it will be priceless someday.

THS Cheer!

So this week I signed Kate up for a Timpview kids cheerleading clinic. It was daily from 4-5:30. Kate learned some cute cheers and got to cheer at the THS basketball game yesterday. Yes, she is the only one there with a huge poofy skirt-oh and don't worry-she had a matching bow. Anyway, it was a good experience for Kate to be able to spend some time with Jenny cheerleading before she graduates high school this year.

Doing the cheer during half time.

Kate & Jenny- my sister.

The cute men in my life.... Camden did pretty well for an almost-2-year-old sitting on the bleachers watching the game and watching Kate.

Ice Cream on a Snowy Day

So yesterday Kate was gone most of the day playing at friend's houses. It was so nice to be able to take a nap and catch up on Oprah while Camden was napping (I was so sleepy because the night before I was up until 2am shipping out orders). When Camden woke up we went to the post office to drop off the orders and on the way home we picked up ice cream cones from Mcdonalds. He loved it! By the time he was done it was a soggy cone full of melted ice cream goodness. Then we played with.... you'll never guess.....cars.

Funny little guy.....

So yesterday, I was doing dishes and Camden got a bag of trail mix and wanted me to open the bag. It was almost lunch time, so I said "No, put it back". I watched him turn around, and what I thought go put the trail mix back into the pantry. Instead I went to go find him a few minutes later, and he had dumped out the entire bag on the ottoman! Little stinker... so I put everything back in the bag and put it in the pantry.
So this morning I was upstairs getting ready for the day when Camden sneaked downstairs when I wasn't watching. When I went to go look for him, I found him again with the bag of trail mix dumped on the ottoman. Except for this time he had picked out all of the M&M's and was happily sitting on the first stair with his little pile, munching on his M&M's at 8:30 am.

Christmas Day

I love Christmas!! Torry and I stayed up until 2am on Christmas Eve getting toys ready for the next morning, but it was so worth it. Santa brought a pricess bicycle for Kate and a train table for Camden which were both total hits with the kids. Once Camden saw the train table he hardly wanted to open any other presents. And when we did get him distracted long enough to open a present, he would look at it and throw it over his back to start playing with his train. Torry's parents and Grandma came over for the big morning.

After we had Christmas morning we drove down to my parent's house where we opened gifts and had dinner. We put the kids to bed and played the funnest game... Wits and Wagers. If anyone needs a great game for a group of people, that is it! We tried to play a few weeks ago when we had some friends over for dinner but it was a bit distracting because we had kids running everywhere. But when we could sit and concentrate, it was a lot of fun.

For Christmas, Torry and I got a new 50" tv and an entertainment center. YEA!!! We needed one so bad. You can see on the bottom shelving unit that we are missing one of the boxes that the tv sits on (it came with 3) but one of them was broken. So for now we only have 2 until we return the 3rd tomorrow.

And.....so my wedding ring suddenly stopped fitting several months ago. You would think that I gained a lot of weight, or that I was preggers, but nope! So for Christmas, Torry bought me a new wedding ring!!! Wahoo! It's beautiful and I love it. Such a good hubby. :)

Santa Pics!

Sooooo, it's been awhile, eh? My new years resolution is to update our family blog more regularly. I will stick to this one!

We went to see Santa Clause today. Kate was so excited, we rehursed what we would say to Santa several times in the car on the way to the mall. #1: I've been a good girl. #2: I want a Princess bicycle.

Much to my surprise, Camden was so excited to see Santa! I was sort of expecting him to be scared of him. I think he's watched enough Christmas movies this year that he knows who Santa is.

Afterwards we went on the mall train. Yes, a train. It's a cute little 4 car train that drives down the middle of South Towne Mall on the bottom level. It's a little pricy ($3 bucks per person!) but my kids absolutely loved it. As we were sitting in the car, Kate would say "Chug-a-Chug-a" and Camden would finish and say "CHOO-CHOO!" It was really cute.

A Day at the Park

Today the kids and I went to the park for a little bit. They absolutely LOVE being outside in this beautiful weather. Camden had more fun playing in the bark chips than he did swinging on the swings or sliding on the slide.

Hanging out with the Stephenson Clan

(My siblings- from right to left Rob-23, Blake-21, Jenny-17)

Easter Egg Hunt

Coloring Easter Eggs

Jenny's Prom

The Wilcox fam went to my parent's house for Easter Sunday weekend. We were so lucky that as soon as we got there, my 17 year old sister, Jenny was just leaving for the prom, so we got to see her off! She looked gorgeous!!!

On a business note.....

So, I've decided I seriously need to figure out how to deal with stress when it comes to my business. I take things extremely personal, over-analyze, over criticize EVERYTHING and it's seriously driving me nuts.

For example- through my back end of my website there is a way to see who has found my site through other people's site's. (So, if you post my site on your site, your site name will show up on my backend that someone clicked on it through you.) So, I always enjoy going through these- many time blogspots-, looking through pictures of people's daughters wearing our products. Well, I went to one tonight and instead of the happy pictures I saw, I found her talking about how she wants to start making bows and posted a utube video on how to make them. She also posted links to our site showing how she "wants to make them look just like this:" Seriously??? SERIOUSLY???

Or if I go to church and I don't see at least one person wearing one of our bows, headbands or flowers I get all bent out of shape.

Why am I like that? I'm really considering calling Dr. Laura asking her how to deal when my blood starts to boil, my face turns red and steam comes out of my ears. Because it eats at me! And I want to just forget about it, and say, "Well, that's just part of owning a business". Why can't I do that???

On a happy note, we just added these car seat canopy's that I LOVE. They're online and at the kiosks right now. We don't make them (thank goodness!!!) but a local Utah company does.

Camden is Walking!

Camden has been walking like crazy the past week. While crawling is still his main mode of transportation, learning to walk has obviously become top of his priority list.

Kate & Boston Play Date

Boston is one of Kate's best friends. She is a year older than Kate, but they have so much fun together. It's so cute to watch their little imaginations grow. Her mom, Lindsi, and I trade off every other week hosting the play dates so the girls can have fun together and we each get a week to get things done that are normally more difficult with one extra kid.

Workin' Out

Camden's First Birthday Party!

LOL I just love this picture....Torry's parents gave Kate these glasses for Camden's birthday so she wouldn't feel left out. This picture is completely priceless.