TEAM BEARDSHALL

Baby B Week 28

2012-02-14T17:20:00.002-07:00

Happy Valentines Day....

Sleepy Head

2012-02-08T18:44:00.005-07:00

We have had a house full of sickies lately. Steve actually was sick enough he needed to take a day off work....which hasn't happened since he caught phenomena about 7 years ago! Sometimes it's not "mental" as he would say.

Katy told me today...."mom, my runny nose won't go away". That is the part about being sick that usually stays around the longest, the congestion and runny nose.

I'm impartial but aren't those eyelashes to dye for! Ha....

I am lucky enough that I can usually take a nap when I need it....which is A LOT lately! I just tell Katy that we are going to go take a rest (for some reason if I call it a nap it doesn't have the same charm). We go up on my bed and turn some shows on and she is out in 5 minutes. The shows get turned off and we take a snooze!

A few days ago she was so exhausted from being sick and not sleeping very good the night before, a nap was just what she needed. I couldn't resist the opportunity to take these.

Those lips! I always joke with Steve that you know he's really in his deep sleep when his mouth opens up a little while he is sleeping. I'm going to go ahead and say Katy get's this super cute trait from her dad!

Feel better sleepy head!

Baby B Week 27

2012-02-08T16:21:00.005-07:00

Oh my, I am super glad I am doing this series...but I feel like such a dufas sometimes! I'm not sure if I should be smiling or serious. I can't seem to pull either off lately (I feel like my smiles are fake looking). That is what happens with the self timer I guess. I was a bit late for this one...considering I'm 28 weeks in 2 days. Oh well. Here is week 27 for you anyway :)

Lazy Days

2012-02-04T21:57:00.008-07:00

Saturday morning.

I decide to whip out the old camera and take some pictures. I feel like I've been using my iPhone so much lately I've been neglecting my camera.

I ask Katy what we should do. She, of course, decides it will be a great idea to jump on her bed....something I'm sure Steve has okayed when I am not there. I hesitate, but think what the hay and we get to jumping.

Katy's personality is full blown funny right now. She comes up with the most interesting things and has quite the imagination. We were driving in the car the other day and she spits out (from the back seat) b-s-h-a-l-l. We all laugh at her attempt to spell our last name and tell her that is a great job. Her brain always seems to be going 100 mph with things she is trying to learn. She asked me the other day what the word recruited means. I'm sure she heard that on dads sports radio.

If she's not thinking of things to ask us, she's thinking of things to do with us. Such as having a fashion show. She had me help her dress up in about 10 different outfits. Each time she'd come down the stairs she asked dad if he was ready to take her picture and would make me introduce her as the fashionable Katy...followed by what she was modeling for us. Chuck and Colt were looking at us all as if we had gone mad, wondering what it was we were doing.

Speaking of Chuck Norris, it was his birthday on the 3rd. It's funny to remember a birthday for a dog but his birthday is the same day as a friends...which has always made it easy to remember.

I informed Katy of this and she got really excited and started planning his party with cake and cupcakes and dog shaped balloons. We actually got together with some friends on Friday to make some cupcakes and hang out. Katy was sure that we were getting together to make cupcakes just for Chucks birthday.

We opted, instead of cupcakes, to take Katy to the store to pick him out a present. We got him a new dog bone, and one for Colt too. We didn't want Colt to feel left out. When we were checking out Katy was informing the gal that worked there that the new bone was for Chuck Norris's birthday. I then explained that Chuck Norris was our dog and it was his birthday. She was sweet and told Katy that was the perfect present and she was sure he'd love it. She also asked Katy if she would wish him a happy birthday from her. Katy excitedly said she would!

He's a great dog, and I feel lucky to have him. Even though he is kind of ornery with Katy sometimes (mostly when she is sitting on top of him, can you blame him?), you can tell he loves her. He's always wanting/willing to get in on the action. Even if it means he might get jumped on!

Yup, my Katy is all grown up it seems. Steve tells me every day how old she is looking. I try not to notice, and yet...cant seem to get enough of "these times", maybe that is why I was ok with the bed jumping today.

She's an incredible person, we feel so lucky to have her.

Baby B Week 26

2012-01-29T16:30:00.004-07:00

Ha I know that all I have been posting is weekly updates....I'm not trying to turn this into a baby blog. I just want to post more meaningful things. So I do have some posts in the works, no worries there!

This week we had another ultrasound. Here is a breakdown of our ultrasounds.

Week 8: Check to make sure everything was fine with the previous miscarriage.

Week 18: Find out what we are having.

***Think little buddy has a cyst on his kidney, scheduled for another ultrasound

Week 20: Follow up ultrasound.

***Think you have two ureters on one kidney.

Week 25: Follow up ultrasound.

***Back to thinking you have a cyst on your kidney. But this time instead of one cyst on one kidney you have lots on both kidneys.

Who really knows what that means. I liked the thoughts of the ultrasound doctor. She said these ultrasounds are great to have, but because we are not able to take an ultrasound of little buddy himself we have to just look at them as road maps on the next steps after he is born. At this point in time there is a good possibility that I will have another ultrasound about 34 weeks to see if they want to change their minds again...and for sure on little buddy himself when he gets here.

We'll see what the next few weeks have in store for us...aside from getting bigger! That is one thing that has been a constant!

2012-01-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

Baby B Week 24

2012-01-18T22:03:00.001-07:00

Baby B Week 23

2012-01-03T17:44:00.002-07:00

Ha, it still seems as though I am basing this series on the fact that I am due on May 4th (although my doctor said to expect this guy anytime between April 23rd and the 4th). I was told today that I am measuring big and since my fluid levels are normal I am going to just put a disclaimer out there that I am between 23 and 25 weeks.

My appointment today was good, although it makes me a bit stressed. I got a chance to follow up with my doctor on my last ultra sound results. It seems, the way she was talking, that surgery may be inevitable for little buddy. I asked if it would be the kind of thing that we could wait a bit on or if he'd be a newborn. She said most likely if he does have surgery it will be as a newborn.

I'm glad that we know what is going on, and I think that I am still so blessed that it could always be much worse...but I am still a bit worried about everything. Crazy to think that a laid back mom could be stressing about something, but I am. I guess because only time will tell I will have to learn a lesson in patients.

2011 Awards Ceremony

2012-01-01T14:22:00.009-07:00

2011 has been an incredible year for Team Beardshall. We were really lucky to be able to experience all these great moments. You can check out last years awards here.

This years awards ceremony is brought to you by Chuck Norris and Steve's favorite drink, Diet Coke!

Best way to celebrate your anniversary, and feel really old at the same time moment!

Best DIY lipstick goes to me and a whopper!

Best going to the doctor moment goes to Katy and her yogurt raisin incident, hey no broken bones this year...SCORE!

Best organization of a read-a-thon goes to Katy and her animals

Best "party like a rock star" / "I don't need a nap" moment

Best silly faces go to Katy and I, we got a lot of practice in this year

Best White Trash Moment goes to Jon and Michelle

Best Disneyland moment goes to Katy when she got her Mr. Potato Head

Best Angry Birds impression goes to Katy in the camping box!

Best hair cut by Amy goes to Chuck, doesn't he look so handsome!

Best way to get out of taking a picture for mom moment goest to Steve

Best falling asleep moment goes to Katy and Grandma Ida

Best Kiss goes to Steve and Katy.

Best daddy daughter shot goes to this beaut, Steve and Katy are the cutest!

Best surprise goes to Little Buddy

Best smile goes to Katy and Steve, Moab makes you do that

Best remember when moment goes to the Belgian Waffle Inn

Best self timer shot goes to Chuck and his butt!

Thank you for sharing all of these moments with my family and I and for reading our blog. I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be a fantastic year!

XOXO Team Beardshall

2011...signing off

Baby B Week 22

2012-01-01T14:08:00.002-07:00

December Recap

2012-01-01T13:07:00.004-07:00

December recap....instagram style!

1. Riding on Trax to visit Aunt RaNae at work.

2. Katy's beautiful picture of me on the chalk board wall.

3. Hot Chocolate! A new favorite of Katy.

4. Lights at Thanksgiving Point...it sure was cold!

1. Sleeping out under the Christmas tree, a new tradition.

2. Letters to Santa. So glad she didn't actually have to sit on his lap!

3. Eating yummy sushi at Happy Sumo.

4. Eating the gingerbread house....that icing was good!

5. Not sure how Katy got to end up on the couch for our sleepover! That floor was sure hard!

6. Too much fun, falling asleep running Christmas errands.
1. Finding out we are having a little boy...hey buddy!

2. Meeting Rudolph at the Thanksgiving Point lights.

3. We decided that 3 scoops was best for our hot chocolate.

4. Pretty Katy in the morning...
1. More Happy Sumo, happy anniversary to Steve...8 years!

2. Don't worry...Steve helped us make our gingerbread house a U house!

3. Making homemade fudge, so yummy!

4. You could always find Colt curled up like a present under the tree.

5. Anniversary self portrait!

6. Temple Square lights, under my favorite tree.
1. No names on the stockings yet....maybe once we figure out what we are going to name this kido I can get going. We'll see.

2. Katy and Chuck taking a nap. One of my favorite pictures ever!

3. Not sure Chuck is ready for another kid. At least he is a good hider.

4. Last self portrait of 2011...what a year!

signed, sealed, delivered

2011-12-29T07:32:00.004-07:00

We hope you had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Baby B Week 21

2011-12-26T22:10:00.004-07:00

Yeah, I didn't really get around to making a picture last week because I was so sick. I think I had a little of everything...although the throwing up is normal and it was not any more than I usually do, so I think that one was little buddy!

Christmas was AWESOME this year. Katy seriously made Christmas so great. I thought it was fun last year, but it fails in comparison to this year. Santa always left our stockings by our bedroom door so he does that for Katy too. She woke up at 5:00 am asking if it was time to get up. I got her to go back to bed but she was up again at 6:00. It didn't matter because she was SO excited about her stocking. Everything she pulled out of that puppy was the BEST present in the world. She was even elated about the orange and apple :). Then we really had a laugh when she was completely satisfied with her stocking and was shocked when we told her that Santa had probably left some presents down the stairs.

Baby B Week 19

2011-12-13T17:33:00.003-07:00

Well you are officially a boy! I am not too surprised, although we did think you were going to be a girl. I guess most of the old wives tales were right. It's weird to think we will have a little buddy around here soon. Steve was excited for sure. I am excited and think it will be perfect to have one of each, but I am SO in girl mode right now. Steve keeps telling me that I need to make sure I am not going to decorate this nursery girly. It needs to be manly! I have to get approval on nursery items, per Steve!

Katy has been so funny this pregnancy. At first she was convinced she was having a brother. Then a sister. This past week it's been a boy again, and yet she cried when the ultra sound tech said we were having a boy! We have her on video saying that she is sad because she loves girls more than she loves boys. She was making us laugh, she kept saying that the baby was all slimey and we were going to have to give the baby a bath. She is excited to meet him though and said that she will be a great big sister.

I got a call last Thursday requesting me to go in for another look at his kidneys. They were concerned that he had a cyst on one of them. After I went on Monday they told me that there is no cyst but that one of his kidneys has an extra tube draining to his bladder (normal kidneys only have one tube draining into the bladder). This could mean a number of things, so they are going to keep an eye on it. I have several more ultra sounds scheduled, another one in 6 weeks. As far as they can tell at least the one kidney is functioning completely normally because my amnionic fluid is at a normal level. The one in question may be functioning normally as well. They say only time will tell. Worse case scenario is that he will have to have surgery. We are hopeful that things will work out just fine, and feel incredibly blessed to live in a time of modern medicine. I feel like little buddy is in great hands!

We really can't wait to meet him!

baby B Week 18

2011-12-04T16:43:00.002-07:00

I thought it'd be fun this week to put the old wives tales to the test. I am basing my information off what I found here.

1. This one you can do just by looking south: if you're carrying high, break out the pink. If your bump is low you're carrying a boy.

-NOT SURE ABOUT THIS ONE, IT'S JUST THERE!

2. According to legend, 140+ beats per minute indicates a girl, and below 140 a boy.

- Boy. My doctor couldn't even find a heart beat the first few appointments, which freaked me out!

3. Craving ice cream every single day? Some people believe this means it's a girl. If you have to have salty or sour stuff, then it's a boy.

- Boy. Give me nachos and chips all day, and put some french fries on the side! Ha. When I was pregnant with Katy all I wanted was lemon aid and oranges!

4. Lefend has it that the Mayans determined a baby's sex by looking at the mothers age at conception and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If one's even and one's odd, it's a boy.

- Boy. I am 28 years old and it's 2011.

5. Chinese Birth Chart. This ancient method uses your age at conception and the month you did the deed to determine gender.

- Boy. Found here.

6. The ring test. Pop off your wedding ring and tie it to a string. Hang it over your belly. If it swings in a circle, a little guy's in your future. If it goes back and forth, you've got a girl.

- Girl, according to this one. My friend Holly is convinced that back and forth is a boy, so that would win this one too!

7. Sick as a dog during the first trimester? Signs indicate you're having a girl. Little or no morning sickness points to a boy.

- Girl on this one. I have been sicker than a dog for sure this go around. I was not sick one day with Katy.

It sure will be fun to find out...but like I said above: whatever you are, you are exactly what we wanted!

So what do you think???

Belly Baking and Cookie Exchange

2011-12-03T08:39:00.004-07:00

My sweet friend and neighbor Angela had a cookie exchange party. I, of course, was ecstatic to go because cookies and me = good times! It didn't take me long to find yummy holiday cookies on my guilty pleasure pinterest. I found some cute holiday pinwheels found here.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1 c butter, softened

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 t peppermint extract

food coloring

3 T milk

powdered sugar, for rolling out dough.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. I am impatient, as I have stated before, so I just popped my butter in the microwave. It's probably a bit past "softened" but hey it works!

Add egg, vanilla, milk and beat until incorporated.

***Katy and I made two batches. She helped with my first (experimental) batch. When I was reading the instructions found on the website it did not mention adding the peppermint extract so the first batch did not have that included. In my second batch I only added a 1/2 t. It was a good flavor in the cookies but I liked the ones I made without the extract...so it's your call :)

***Have recipe handy if you have questions!

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.

Gradually add the flour mixture until combined.

Remove half the mixture from the bowl and add the food coloring to half. Even though it was noted to use the gel color I used my runny red....it was not very red and I ended up running out. Luckily I had some pink from a cake for Katy a while ago I used. It worked much better.

On a sheet of wax paper roll out each piece of dough, about a 1/4 inch thick. Carefully slide the red dough on top. I ended up just flipping over my wax paper with the red on top.

Roll dough into a log, creating a swirling effect.

This was the hard part for us. My dough was so soft that when I went to pick up my log it stretched WAY out. When I made my second batch I actually made two logs with half of each of the dough. It was much easier to handle that way.

After you have you log, roll in sprinkles.

Put in the fridge and let chill for 2 hours.

Again with the impatience. It was probably only an hour for me, but it worked fine.

Pre heat the over to 375 degrees F. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick you cut your cookies.

The party was SUCH a blast! Angela had us play some really fun games. We all played christmas charades. There was a tie so we all picked a number between 1 and 20. Lucky number 7 won me some super cute cookie cutters.

When we were done with the games she had cute boxes made up for each of us with our names. We then had to go around and vote for our favorite cookies. There was a most unique, prettiest and best tasting (voted on by her husband). After we voted we gathered cookies to take home in our boxes. She had yummy food to much on. Then she announced the winners. I think I was the winner of prettiest cookie, so I got another prize of an oven mitt and some kitchen necessities! Whoo who0!

I wish I had brought my camera with me because Angela did such a GREAT job of decorating for the party, plus her house is decorated so cute. Yup, she is going to need to come to my house and help me out!

What a great way to start the season of treats. Hopefully I can pace myself with these delicious goodies!

Miss Reindeer

2011-12-02T22:43:00.003-07:00

Katy is really pulling out all the stops this year. Her imagination is going WILD with everything swirling around in her pretty little head.

And I feel like since Halloween her ideas have really been kicked into high gear, so it's no surprise that she is just as hilarious when it comes to Christmas.

"cheese face"

I am of the belief that it's good to talk about things and events coming up, so you know what to expect. We have been talking a lot about Santa Clause. We talked about how he brings you presents, but you have to been on the nice list and not his naughty list. When we were done with our Santa talk I told her it would probably be a good idea to write him a letter so he would know what to bring. She stopped me and asked "mom, can we just tell Minnie Mouse what I want for Christmas?", ha that threw me totally off and made me laugh.

"Katy Minnie Mouse doesn't bring us our presents so we have to write Santa"

"But I don't like him"

"We are just going to write him a letter, you don't have to see him"

"Oh, will you take my letter to him?"

"Well, when we write a letter we just put it in the mail box"

"So I don't have to see him?"

"Nope, that is the postman's job"

"Oh, ok"

Also is it rude I am trying with all my might to sway her opinion about the Dora kitchen? That is not something Santa will be bringing (aside from my aversion to Dora and the fact that it's like 80 bucks!), I think Santa is pretty much done. Hopefully I can sway her the way that Santa might already be taking!

We'll have to see if Katy warms up to the idea of Santa yet!

Gobble Gobble

2011-12-02T22:23:00.005-07:00

The stuffing has landed, the stuffing has landed...for me at least. That is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving! Something of which I volunteered to make. I also decided to go ahead and volunteer for our famous 10 layer jello. Remember last time we were at moms I did the jello and it did not turn out so well! Ha, Steve kept telling me "PATIENTS", but that is something I have a hard time with some times. Instead of letting each layer chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, I went ahead and popped it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Ha, worked like a charm!

I also cooked the Turkey (!), not really....

But I did make this guy. We are the lucky owners of an awesome popcorn machine that was given to us that we decided to use. Yup, filled with yummy movie popcorn! Also note worthy is Britney's super cute place setting turkey's just there at the bottom of the picture! Aren't we so crafty!

Other fun crafts we did included turkey faces...

Katie you are looking good!

And turkey apples. I LOVE Thanksgiving so much. I love spending time with my family. I also have so much to be grateful for...Steve is the most amazing person I know, and I am lucky enough to call him my husband, Katy is the bomb digity and we have so much fun teaching her and learning with her every day, I have my health, we have everything we need, and we are grateful for our new little baby! I LOVE SO MUCH, we are so blessed!

Britney made the cutest "gratitude rolls" she asked us all to email her things were are grateful for. Every time you opened one up you had to read your message. Mom opened hers first it said, "I am grateful for my two new grandkids due in 2012". We all laughed, because mom was not sure what was going on! We are all so happy for the Barkers, after all they do make super cute babies! Congrats, thanks for sharing your news in such a FUN way. We are so excited. Thank you to my mom for having us all over, and for being such a wonderful mom! We love you!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great!

Baby B Week 17

2011-11-29T16:02:00.001-07:00

Party Time Excellent!

2011-11-27T09:01:00.007-07:00

Another year gone by and another national holiday celebrated! Katy had a great birthday. It was on Thursday this year.

She has an account at America First Credit Union, they mailed her a post card wishing her a happy birthday and giving her a free kids meal from Chick-fil-a. We told her we could go there for her birthday. So that is what we did. We opened presents earlier of course. She was so happy it was her birthday. She kept saying things all day like "I love you mom" or "this is the best birthday ever!!!" She knows how to make you feel good!

A few months leading up to her birthday we kept asking her what she wanted to ask for. She would name things but then add that she wanted them for Christmas. We had to remind her several times that she gets presents for her birthday too!

She really wanted a friend party, but I am going to try to hold off until she is 5. I may have to do one next year, we'll see. We opted for a little family party with grandparents and such instead. I told her we could have a rainbow party. She was excited about that idea.

Katy helped me make a wedding cake...I mean a birthday cake! Ha, this thing was huge! She just kept saying, that is a humongous cake mom! I had her help me frost the layers. We put chocolate frosting in the middle. I didn't notice but we didn't get them all on quite straight and the cake was a little crooked. *Note to self, make sure they are straight next time. I think that will make it much easier to frost the outside!* I couldn't find a cake stand I liked that wasn't a fortune so I opted to make this one out of a Michaels 40% coupon candle holder and a DI dollar plate. The plate was already blue so I only spray painted the bottom. Technically you can't actually place food on it if you spray paint the surface. I worked out nice I can still use the plate with no problems.

It was pretty delicious! We were all laughing when we cut the cake we had to cut the slices in half so everyone only had 3 layers...otherwise we'd not have been able to finish the piece!

No national holiday celebration would be complete without decorations. Katy is still a bit leery when it comes to balloons (I'm trying folks!), but she was ok with these ones for the most part. I was blowing them up the night before her birthday. I had to make Chuck go into the basement he was having a break down trying to eat all of them. Colt was at work with Steve, but I can imagine he would not have been that annoying!

Katy thought it was cool when she woke up, she said the Birthday Monsters (a Sandra Boynton book) had come to decorate! It was pretty cute...even thought it took me a gaul darn hour to put them all up :) I figured I could share the credit with the monsters, seeing that they did a fabulous job!

More colors!

Her new "cheese face" is so funny to me. I tell you what I have never told her to say cheese, but for some reason kids pick up on that stuff. She is hilarious!

She thought blowing out her candles was pretty awesome. She almost got them all by herself!

One happy birthday girl. Thank you so much for mom, Katie, Roger, Joanne, RaNae and Ken for coming over to celebrate with us! We had a blast with you!

Happy Birthday Katy, you are wonderful!

Katy Remix 3rd Edition

2011-11-24T07:53:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I'm actually posting on how my sweet newborn baby bundle has turned into one sassy 3 year old!

Little Miss 3 Year Old! I just LOVE her crazy hair. I opted not to fight about doing it and just go with it! Let's be honest I still don't know how to do girls hair still and Katy has the most beautiful hair around!

I guess they don't pop out as 3 year olds (thank goodness, I don't think any amount of my "old lady strength" could pop out a 3 year old), and changing from a 2 year old to a 3 year old doesn't happen over night. Everyone said that Katy's 2nd year would fall into the "terrible two's" category, and we've had our moments of drama...but I think the transition was pretty smooth. (Let me reiterate the point of "we've had our moments of drama", because we have!)

I've learned a few things as the owner of a 3 year old:

I've learned that potty training is not all it's cracked up to be, and that no amount of coaxing or bribing or talking about it will help you get there any faster. They will do it when they are ready. Katy is more stubborn than I give her credit for!
I've learned that I am still totally a pushover when it comes to disciplining, and that her "going to sleep problem" was probably partially caused by me hoping into her bed to lay with her at her cute little requests! Thank goodness Steve is around here!
I've learned that Katy is a SPONGE when it comes to information. She always asks me to clarify when I use a word she doesn't know the meaning of. The other day she asked me what ".com" means, what?!? Ha, can't wait to see what she comes up with this next year!
I've learned that even though Katy totally knows how to push my buttons, I love her more than imaginable! I'm going to soak up these years, who knows what her teenage years will bring (ahhh!)! In the words of Olivia's mom..."Katy you really wear me out, but I love you anyway!"
I've learned that Katy is going to be the best sister in the world. She is always talking about how she is going to share everything with the new baby (mind you, she is an only child and doesn't know the meaning of share!). She tells me that she is going to make the new baby so happy, but that she is not going to help change the poopy diapers! Oh man!
I've learned that Katy is just how I always imagined my kids would be....AWESOME! :)

Katy we love you more than words, and can't wait to see what this next year brings. Happy National Holiday!

Let's see how this past year went down:

November 2010. Popping balloons on her birthday.

December 2010. Getting her first hair cut with aunt Katie.

January 2011. Making suckers with aunt Britney. What a funny smile!

February 2011. Taking our Valentines Day pictures.

March 2011. Learning how to ride a bike.

April 2011. Taking pictures in the daffodils.

May 2011. Playing in the ocean for the first time. She LOVED the beach!

Photo taken by Tara Whitney

June 2011. Playing in the pool with Brynn up at Snowbird.

July 2011. Getting her face painted by Jenny at the Beardshall family reunion. So serious.

August 2011. Playing up in Park City.

September 2011. Gettin' dirty in Moab.

October 2011. Gettin' crafty with mom for Halloween.

November 2011. Livin' it up as only a party girl can!

Here's to working on your 4th year!

Check out our last remixes here and here.

Baby B Week 16

2011-11-21T17:15:00.004-07:00

I realize that I am about a week behind, but here is week 16 anyway!

Baby B Week 15

2011-11-09T19:35:00.005-07:00

Baby B.

For all intensive purposes we are going to go ahead and go with the 15 weeks per the first ultra sound. I was originally due on the 23rd of April (which would put me at about 16 and a half weeks) but with the first US it put me at May 4th as my due date. Seriously? Don't tell a pregnant woman that she is going to have to wait longer to meet her baby! We have our next US the first week in December...and although I am excited to see what we are having, I'm more excited to see if they change me due date again (come on April 23rd)!

Week 15

This week I finally am feeling that I am getting "back to normal" somewhat. I have been so super sick with this baby. Throwing up has been welcomed because it actually makes me feel better for an hour or so. Steve has been such a GREAT sport. I feel like I've been much more ornery this go around (Katy must have been an angel baby because I felt great the whole time with her). Steve keeps telling me he would feel the same way if he was so sick all the time! He's also been super helpful about keeping up with the house because I have been lacking in that department as well! It's not all day now just for a few hours here or there! Because it's Katy's birthday in a week I though it would be fun to take my picture with her this week. She will be 3 years old! Not too shabby for the self timer!

Also, although I have no pictures to prove it, I am showing much sooner this go around. I can't button my pants. I am holding out for H&M on Friday to open, hoping that they may have some of there maternity clothes in the store (please bless they do!). I'll get some pants then!

Until next week!

4 x 12//October 2011

2011-11-05T10:03:00.003-06:00

October 2011.

I feel like fall is finally in the air. October has been filled with some pretty great things. We got to tell people we are having another baby, hang out with dad at work, go to Chuckie Cheeses to celebrate being fully potty trained, we went to Gardner Village, Wheeler Farm, get a new iPhone, do some fun Halloween/Fall projects, take some naps, carve a pumpkin, scoop some goo, go trick or treating with aunt Katy, and I have been trying to gear up for the holidays and Christmas (I'm crazy I know)! Like always we tried to make the most of things.

We are able to finally make it up to Silver Lake....we've been meaning to do that for a while. Since this weather has been totally crazy (and unusually warm) I wasn't thinking we'd need much more than a light jacket. Oops, there was a breeze so we made our stroll quick! We brought blankie along for added comfort! The colors were beautiful, but I was expecting more red, mostly it was yellows.

Katy sure has been making us laugh. She has taken a liking to calling me mother. She also is really into characters. She always tells me every day that we can be whatever character we want. She picks something else to be every day. Very random indeed. One day we are piggies, the next day we are ice cream cones....no idea where she comes up with this stuff! Oh and we have to address her as baby piggy (or whatever we are being that day), while she calls us mommy piggy or daddy piggy. She also whipped out the character stretches this month. I almost looks yoga moves...it is hilarious!

She is excited for the baby to say the least. Everything is centered around babies and how cute they all are. I tell her, when we brush her teeth, that we need to get rid of all the sugar bugs. She tells me that they are so cute and small and that they are happy when they get to go live in her toothbrush! We were out at the store the other day and she was putting her mouth on the shopping cart. I told her ewww! Don't do that there are germs on there. She asked again (for the millionth time what germs are), I told her that they are mean little guys we can't see that will make us sick. She proceeded to tell me that they are all cute little baby germs and how she loved them all! What? Where does she come up with this stuff? Makes me smile.

We head up to the lake after church on our way to the Beardshall's for Sunday dinner. We had stake conference so we took advantage of getting out early.

Katy was SO tired by the time we got up there, she was so snuggly!

But she is sure getting heavy! I had to make Steve carry her most of the time. She told us she was too tired to walk. Man we spoil her!

Here is to a great November!

Happy Halloween

2011-11-05T08:34:00.005-06:00

Halloween never disappoints for sure. It's my favorite! Katy really did have a good time this year, aside from all the scary stuff! That is another story for sure. Let's just say I'm glad in a way it's all over too!

We opted to carve pumpkins on Friday night. We met Spencer and Jenny for dinner on Friday night. We had to get our pumpkins before we got there, yup we didn't get around to that until then! Katy had fun riding in the wheel barrow and picking out our pumpkins. She did a great job!

At first she thought the "goo" was gross but after a minute she realized it was fun! She had fun "scooping" with mom. Steve doesn't do goo. I'm happy to scoop all the goo to get our pumpkins carved! I made a silly face, Katy made Minnie Mouse and Steve did a Mac Apple!

Katy had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be this year. For months she wanted to be Aerial so we drove down to the Disney Store. The Aerial costume was SO stink in cute, but she was sure that she needed a costume with a tail. I searched and searched until we found this beaut. She was all for it and we were set for Halloween...until she informed me that she was not going to be Aerial! What?!?

She would change her mind every day and tell me things like...I'm going to be a monster, a farmer, an ice cream cone, a doctor, Minnie Mouse. I'm sure there were others but that is all I can remember for now. For our ward trunk or treat she opted to be Minnie Mouse (a costume we had, because that is what she was last year), so I was ok with that.

She surprised me when she decided to actually be Aerial on Halloween. She looked good and seemed to be pretty impressed with her red hair. Katie hooked us up and gave us some spray color the last time I got my hair cut. I wasn't sure if it would look good because it wasn't fire engine red, but it actually looked really good!

I know Steve is a scrooge about dressing up, and that usually doesn't discourage me from dressing up. But I was not feeling so great this year and opted to be lame and not really even get ready at all! We had Katie over for trick or treating and pizza. We had a great time!

We left a bucket of candy on our door step and all went trick or treating together. There was no game to keep Steve glued to the TV this year, so he joined us!

Our little neighborhood is perfect. It's basically one big loop. We hit up the outside, stopped and ate dinner, and went back and got the inner side of the loop. Katy got a TON of candy. We were even lucky enough to get a king sized candy bar! I helped with that one!

I saw this on pinterest but I but glow sticks and put them in jars of water. They were glowing ok and then Katie found that if you shook them up they really glowed good. But when I opened the door a few minutes later they were pretty much dead. So it was good for a bit of fun....but kind of more work that it was worth!

october outings

2011-11-03T18:35:00.005-06:00

We were lucky enough to get out and see some of the sights this October. One night, when we were board, we drove to Gardner Village and got a watermelon sucker. Man I love those things! When we got there Katy reminded us that she didn't like witches. So we avoided them and were on our way.

Britney called me and wanted to come up and get together. When we pulled up to Gardner Village again Katy said, "I don't like this place". But despite her hesitating we had a good time. No pictures by witches of course!

She did like the ducks though.

We also ventured to the pumpkin patch with Robyn and Hayden. Although I totally didn't pick out a pumpkin that day. Guess I forgot. Katy and Hayden thought the mini corn maze was fun. I think the maze aspect was defeated when they were just going every which way!

Hayden and Katy also liked the tractors they had there.

It was a hot day. I've been super surprised at how nice the weather has been for October. We have been very lucky in that regard...to have a nice fall.

Yup, some pretty fun times to be had around here!

what to do

2011-11-03T18:00:00.004-06:00

October was filled with some fun holiday crafts. I seriously LOVE Halloween...everything to do with it. Katy likes Halloween but none of the scary stuff (which is my favorite). We've had a rough month in regards to going to bed because she is scared of something different every night. Scary pumpkin faces, witches, bats. These are just a few of the things we've been dealing with.

I used to work with a friend that, no joke, had a fun Halloween activity planned every day in October. And although I would have loved to do that...who am I kidding, I was not that organized about the whole thing. We tried to do the 13 days of Halloween. We had a pretty good run, but I don't think we actually did an "activity" every single day.

We did have a great time with some of our crafts.

Case and point, the painted pumpkin.

Katy wanted JJ bear to help out.

She also requested a ghost and a bat...which I gladly helped with. This pumpkin pretty much was a hot mess of colors when we were all done!

We also opted to make some sugar cookies. I guess we are a family that is ok with cooking in our underwear. Katy was a great helper!

Wow the cookies I made were HUGE. Hey that is all the cookie cutters I had. Katy didn't mind though. There was more room to fit all that frosting and sprinkles on! I just missed her bending over and taking a big mouthful of frosting off the top. Don't you love the face..."what, I like frosting!" I think she get's that from her mother :)

Steve, Steve and Steve

2011-11-03T17:39:00.004-06:00

Many of you can appreciate and know that Steve and I are a MAC family....so it's no surprise that Steve was all in when BIL Steve called to ask if he wanted to sleep out for the new iPhone. We dropped him off about 8:00 the night before. Can't you sense the excitement here in this picture. I guess this was an ode to Steve Jobs.

The new iPhone has proven to be another great device!

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.Everything else is secondary.” Such an inspiring quote from the late Steve Jobs

Potty Trained...YEAH Baby!

2011-10-22T23:34:00.005-06:00

I seriously never thought I'd be writing about how Katy is potty trained, because she has been so stubborn about the whole thing. We've tried several times and we were bound and determined to "get er done" this time! She was always good at going #1 but we were having a hard time with #2.

Steve is a genius...so I am totally giving him all the credit on this one but he came up with a brilliant idea. Every time Katy was "taking care of business" she'd run off to the corner and make sure we knew not to talk to her or look at her. It's like it just hit Steve, this idea, out of no where. He had a talk with Katy...a full house moment if you will...and they decided that they would put her potty chair in the corner so she could have some privacy. That is what did it, she just wanted us to not be all up in her grill! So as of September, we've now get to deal with public toilets flushing too loud! and germy toilet seats! Yeah!

It was smooth sailing from there. We said if she didn't have any accidents for a few weeks we'd take her to Chuckie Cheeses. Much to our delight (that she was finally there) and dismay (because we'd have to go to Chuckie Cheeses) she did it! And if that's not enough I found a coupon so we got pizza, drinks and tokens. Katy talked before we went about how she'd be so excited to see Mr. Chuckie himself, until he was walking around to the tables. She DID not want him to come see us! Also it's been quite a while since I've been there but does anyone remember those creepy robotic singing guys? They still have them! We also had to sit where we didn't see those...much too disturbing for Katy! We did have fun playing the games though. She got a purple ninja and a pink slinky.

Good job Katy we are so proud of you!

Colt

2011-10-22T22:54:00.003-06:00

So Colt has be a GREAT addition to our family. I am still in awe that the shelter he was in was going to put him to sleep the following day before a Lutitent in WVC decided to take a chance on him and see if he'd be a good drug detection dog. His 5$ investment to get Colt and train him has made Colt worth about $10,000!

I still rack my brain to figure out how he ended up at the shelter. I keep thinking that no family would want him to get away because he is AWESOME!

WVC has a contract with some dog food companies that they can get dog food for the K9 unit. The only problem is Steve is not technically in the K9 unit because he is still in the CSO unit. So when he got Colt and they tried to just keep the food coming, they were told no. Steve tried to get some chain stores like Petco and Petsmart sponsor him, but no luck. And however it worked out the Valley Fair Mall decided to step in and take the reigns. They have decided to sponsor him. The only catch is that Steve has to work a few hours once a month where the public can meet and interact with him at the mall. They call it "Two with Talos". Ha that is his real name. Not sure the whole story but something to do with an Eagle Scout project and the kid naming him Talos. They didn't love it and came up with Colt...but because they didn't want to hurt any feelings they call him Colt Talos. Who knows!

We went with Steve his first week and people were EATING Colt all up. Steve jokes that Colt makes him more likable because people don't just see a guy that writes tickets, their hearts are melted by the sight of Colt and Steve then becomes the greatest guy around! Steve also had Colt stuffed animals to sell to help raise money for the Giving Tree.

So as part of his "Two with Talos" they wanted to make trading cards and posters with him. Steve told the committee at the mall that I would take pictures of him. I'm happy with what we got considering he's a dog and could care less about posing for pics! We used a lot of treats that day :) Colt is also going to be giving out his "pawdagraph". They took a cast of his paw and made a stamp he can put on your trading card! Ha, it's so cute. Come check it out if you are in the neighborhood!

3 x 12//September 2011

2011-10-22T22:31:00.004-06:00

September 2011

Again, I realize that September is way over...and yet here I post. Because I remember nothing of September I have vowed to get October done ASAP so it's fresh in my mind. Also of note this month, I am realizing why Steve hates my "self portrait shots". We'll have someone else take them for October!

Anywho, September has left us.

Some highlights of September were:

- Camping up at Jordenelle again and going to Swiss Days with my mom. We had a blast camping with grandma. We did have one incident that mom forgot to bungie off the bed and Katy slipped right out when we put her to sleep! Poor thing. I think my mom still has a fresh picture in her mind!

We ate lunch at The Store. They had great sandwiches.

Katy thought Swiss Days was pretty fun. We actually got up earlier on Saturday morning and went into town. We caught the end of the parade. Katy covered her ears, she thought it was loud!

- Going to our favorite place, MOAB!

- Celebrating Steve's big 30th birthday!

- AND KATY IS POTTY TRAINED!!!! (That will be a whole post in and of it's self.

Something else to note for the month of September is how great of a husband Steve is. I have been feelin' super sick with this pregnancy and he has been so sweet. I don't remember if I was ornery or not with Katy (I seriously don't remember being so "testy"). I keep telling Steve that I am sorry. He just reminds me with a smile that I am pregnant, and he wouldn't be a pile of sunshine either if he was throwing up or on the verge of throwing up all the time! Dirty laundry and dishes are taken care of by Steve. He has been extra great about keeping the house clean, and I SO appreciate it. I am the luckiest gal around town.

Until October!

another one bites the dust

2011-10-22T10:01:00.004-06:00

I realize that Steve's birthday was last month, but I think a special birthday post is in order...

Regardless of what Steve says about being 23, he is biting the dust this year at the BIG 3-0! Adios twenties. It's been a fun 2 decades for Steve....lets recap, shall we?

1981: Born.

1982: Started walking. Sort of. Climbing on EVERYTHING! Loved to pull out the bottom utensil drawer in the kitchen and sit in it.

1983: Found his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. First set of stitches is received.

1984: Learned how to push your parents by pushing any button imaginable, and ripping labels of everything in the new RV. First broken bone, broken foot.

1985: You're a super duper pooper! Finally potty trained...that was rough!

1986: Kindergarten. ABC's and eating delicious glue on a popsicle stick.

1987: More broken bones, broken arm

1989: Despite telling me how much you don't like to play soccer, you sure played a lot of soccer!

1993-1996: Jr High School and the so called "awkward years"

1997-2000: High School. Went skiing all the time. Somehow managed to get good grades despite your 35 absences in some classes!

2000: Went to Utah State for one semester. Wondered if you'd ever meet anyone cool enough to marry.

2000-2002: Served an LSD mission to Houston, Texas.

2002: Came home from mission. Planning on going back up to Utah State to go to school.

2003: Went with friends to hang out with some new girls. One of so called "new girls" walks in late. You promptly declare that you are sure that you know her from somewhere. Talk to girl all night. Girl gives you "raspberry" in a game of silent football....you are smitten. Leave get together, come back 10 minutes later to ask girls to join you for a late night meal at the Denny's. Set up date for following week where you tell girl that you are not going back to Utah State (despite what you were saying at first get together), something you decided right then and there.

April 2003: Girl leaves to go to school in Hawaii for the summer. Work two jobs extra hard. Talk to girl and email every day.

June 2003: Girl returns from Hawaii. Spend every night together.

August 2003: Purpose to girl. Girl says yes.

December 2003: Marry coolest girl in the world, the one you wondered if you'd ever meet. (release white doves)

2004: Working full time at 911. Going to school full time, thinking you may become a nurse. Living at the married student housing (cinderblock castle) at the University of Utah. Buy 1100 soft. condo in Holladay, UT. Great neighborhood. Car stereo gets stolen twice, and tries to get stolen once.

2006: Decide to become a police officer. Trying to find a way to have someone else pay for the academy to become an officer.

2007: Buy home in Riverton, UT. Welcome Chuck Norris to our family. Graduate from University of Utah in Psychology and Criminology.

2007 and 5 months later: Steve graduates from the POST academy (courtesy of WVC) becoming a police officer with West Valley City.

2008: Decide that keeping up with the "5 year plan" it would be a good time to try to start trying to have a family.

2008 and one month later: Find out that you are in fact going to be adding to your family in November.

2008 and nine months later: Welcome Katy RaNae Beardshall to our family, celebrate our 5 year anniversary the following month.

2010: Promoted to CSO division of WVC police department.

2011: Added Colt to our family as Steve becomes a K9 officer.

2011: Decide to add another member to our family...baby bambino to join us in 2012.

It's been a great 29 years for this boy. He's grown into an incredibly handsome husband and father. Sometimes I pinch myself (then I pinch his butt because I LOVE pinching) that I'm married to him! It's not all rainbows and sunshine but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy 30th to my muffin top, my wild stallion, my Steveo!

The Utes won the game against BYU for Steve's birthday. Katy was happy about this.

And so was steve.

Here we go again!

2011-10-19T18:32:00.005-06:00

Ha, I know I totally look awkward because I was running to get in the photo, but that's the best I got for ya.

Depending on how you choose to look at it I'm between 12 and 14 weeks (DON'T ASK...we'll talk more about this later), and we couldn't be more thrilled!

Excited to see what this pregnancy brings, I think I'm totally in denial because it seems like so long since I had Katy cooking in the oven. I like to think we have a "good recepie" so it will be fun to see what this kido turns out to be.

Picture Perfect

2011-10-17T19:59:00.006-06:00

I feel like I've been busy lately taking pictures of some of my favorite people! There are SO many, but here are some of my favorites from recent sessions.

More to come....

Moab Birthday Bash Weekend

2011-10-10T21:20:00.007-06:00

I honestly can't think of a better way to celebrate Steve's big 30th birthday, than to go to Moab...his favorite place in the world! And although he is still in denial that he is 30 and not 23 AGAIN, I think he had a great time.

I think Katy is starting to see why we love Moab so much....because she loves it! As you can see.

We started our whole shin dig out by taking the back road into Arches. Jordyn and Carter tagged along because Chris and Wendy went to Flordia. Jordyn ended up riding with us most of the time, but she sure liked the "jeeping" we did!

The three gossips. Arches is seriously the most beautiful place around! people come from all over the world to enjoy the beautiful scenery found here, and it's just in our back yard!

This is Katy's new "cheese face", not sure about this one...but it does make me laugh! She was having a blast with Carter at the visitors center.

We tried to find a way to tame all these wild animals!

They did a pretty good job too.

For the most part...this guy just couldn't be tamed :)

The following day we took a trail up to one of our favorite lookouts for lunch. Actually we were going to eat our picnic lunch up there but Steve locked the keys in the truck at the campground. We had to hang around for AAA (thank you Roger for being prepared, I think we use it more than he does!), so we ate our lunch at the campground!

But, as always, the view is great!

You can't tell but Katy just woke up from a cat nap. Man nothing puts her to sleep better than riding on the trail.

Ha, us in all our camping glory! No make-up baby, Steve that is :)
Our last day we headed back to Arches and hit up a few favorite spots for kids. The windows was a great start.

Katy is so funny....she just wanted to do everything by herself, including climbing up all 100 stairs! We had to help her a bit (or we'd be there all day) and she did not like that!

Roger and Joanne are always up for an adventure!

Jordyn and Carter were both great with Katy. I think she liked having them around!

Beautiful!

Sand Dune arch was a favorite place of the trip. Carter duplicated the arch in sand, not too shabby indeed!

Jordyn and Katy opted for a Rapunzel tower. Well, I think Katy was calling it that at least! Ha

Man oh man, we had SAND in places we didn't know we had! Poor shoes, those things are still bright red with sand!

Don't blink but that is a lizard in Carters hand. Ok you can blink because he is actually dead! Yuck!!! Ha, they found him on the rock. Carter really wanted to catch a lizard the whole time, with no luck. He was trying to convince Joanne that he needed to keep this guy. Also of note, they swear that he was moving when they put him back on the rock! Ha

Ok, so I was a slacker a bit on the trip with the camera because we also hit up main street in time to see a homecoming parade for the high school. We also ate out on Friday night (in celebration of Steve's birthday) at Zac....all you can eat pizza, salad and soup! Yum!!!! Man they have some dang good pizzas.

On Saturday (our last Arches day) we watched the U game against BYU. It was funny that we were all decked out in our U gear and everyone kept asking what time the game was on, or go UTES! Although Steve's actual birthday was on Sunday I think that was the icing on the cake to watch that game. At half time we made him go back to the trailer and get Katy's jammies. I had Carter and Jordyn set up some decorations and we surprised him with silly string and cake batter cookies when he came back...complete with candles! Ha! It was a great day! We love you STEVE!

3 x 12//August 2011

2011-09-27T16:43:00.001-06:00

American Fork Canyon in the camping box

August 2011

Don't judge that it's October next week and I am posting about August here (and can't really remember what we did in Aug). I think the term "lazy days of summer" is to blame here. And yet, we haven't been too busy with anything in paticular. My house is actually a mess right now. But I am choosing to post my thoughts here instead of clean my toilets...can you blame me?

From what I can remember...

We celebrated the anniversary of our engagement, went to Jordyn's baptism, bought the camping box, went to some K-9 demonstrations with Steve, ran in the K-9 2K (came in 4th place...boo yeah!), went swimming with the dogs, went up to Mountair, went to Snowbird, and just enjoyed summer time.

We got some pretty killer deals on some back to school deals for the art box. Katy has thought many times that it's a great idea to practice her clown makeup. Steve curses me for not getting the washable kind of markers. Hey, they weren't 40 cents like the "regular" markers were! I think she looks pretty, she will be great at applying lipstick I'm sure of it.

Went "swimming with the dogs", not really....no humans allowed in the water. This was a fund raiser for the West Valley animal shelter. Let me tell you it was crazy. They wanted Steve to come with Colt, which meant Chuck got to join in on the fun too.

Katy was quite upset that she, herself, could not go swimming. She was better when she could put her feet in, although one of the lifeguards told her to get out of the water! Ha, she was not so happy then.

Steve just kept chucking Chuck (ha, no pun intended) into the water. When he'd pick him up Chuck would start paddeling his paws even before he was in the water. Because of the drop off we had to pluck him out of the water. Colt jumped in just fine. I think they both had a good time!

We went with Jon and Michelle up to the cabin at mountair. This was my best shot....I was too pre-occupied with the smores! We had a good time....great family night activity if you ask me! Thanks again!

August was a great month....I can already tell you September has been a great month, but more on that in a week!

More from the Box

2011-08-27T08:01:00.002-06:00

The camping box made an appearance again last weekend. Our adventures brought us to Jordanelle, after American Fork Canyon was sold out. We don't have a boat a jet ski or anything that would make enjoying the water a bit funner, but I still think we had a pretty great time!

Dogs are not allowed on the "beaches" so we set up camp off the beaten trail. The boys sure had good time. And you would have never know it but Chuck is quite the retriever, especially in the water. I think he secretly doesn't want to have Colt to have the last word! He looked good out there even though he looked like a drown rat!

Katy just kept laughing hysterically at the dogs fetching the sticks we found...

And getting knocked over by the waves! Aside from throwing mud at anything she could!

We hung out in Park City too. We got to go to the park and hit up the outlets. We even got to hang out with Ken and RaNae (who were having a weekend getaway in PC as well). It was a great weekend! We are pretty much going to be out of town about every other weekend the next little while. I guess you could say we are just trying to soak up the last moments of summer!

A day in the life.....

2011-08-18T19:38:00.004-06:00

Catching up on Steve's iPhone dump for the last little bit. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Family night drive up Rose Canyon to overlook Kennecott Copper Mine.

2. Taylorsville Day fireworks in June. Notice Steve's gun earmuffs? Those worked like a charm on the boom-boom sparkies.

3. Hangin' out at Snowbird

4. You could even see Tooele up there at the overlook. And I know the 5$ per car goes to charity when you go, but it's free when you take our way!

5. Diggin' for rocks in Grandma Joanne's garden.

6. Bee sting at the pool. Steve taught me that if you put white toothpaste on it...it feels much better. My cousin Brooke gave Katy a glow bracelet, we told her it would keep the bees away to get her to go back outside!

7. Watching the K-9 trials in Herriman. Way cool to go and watch if you've never been.

8. She even got Grandpa Beardshall to play in the garden with her one night.

9. Watching fireworks with Paige and Blake on the 4th of July.

10. Pretty flowers at Snowbird.

11. More Taylorsville Days. You can't see it but Steve is reading "Busted" a one dollar magazine you can pick up at the gas stations. You can read about all the people that were arrested the previous week. Kind of sad but kind of some funny stuff in there too. Steve, of course, loves it!

12. I felt bad she was having a hard time with the noise level on the 4th. She was not very happy. It wasnt until a few days later she was saying her ear hurt. Because it was after hours I decided to take her in to the insta care. She had an ear infection so bad her ear drum had ruptured and it was bleeding like crazy when they checked it. We felt SO bad. She was kind of off a few days before that but never mentioned that her ear hurt or that she didnt feel good! Parent's of the year award!

1. Chuck in the new truck...poor guy can't see very well with those stubby legs!

2. I think Grandpa even got a bit wet!

3. Trying on Steve's glasses, Uncle Ken's face makes me laugh in this picture....like he's trying to decide if she really looks good in oversized glasses or not!

4. Colt has a good view from the back there.

5. Dog lake. We pull of the hot sweaty mess pretty well!

6. Thank heaven for scrubbies....we got ready for bed before our overlook family night!

7. RaNae and Ken came to Taylorsville Days with us. We had a blast and got treats before hand.

8. Steve scored us free tickets to the Days of 47 Rodeo through work and we sat pretty close behind President Monson. He was so CUTE with everyone that came to say hi and all the kids that kept yelling for him to turn around and wave! He's quite the comedian!

9. The new truck...it doesn't have a name yet. I cant tell if it's a boy or a girl yet? Still working on that one. The Jeep never had a name but we knew she was a girl!

10. Why???

11. Why?????

12. I see where Katy has become quite the expert at pulling faces...more fun at the rodeo!

The Camping Box

2011-08-16T18:36:00.006-06:00

We didn't make it up to Silver Lake on our "anniversary celebration night" because we were a little side tracked making an offer on THE CAMPING BOX.

Years ago, before either of us had kidos, we went camping in Moab with Rachel and Andrew Davis. I like to think that I'm always prepared but we forgot some essentials needed when camping. Enter the camping box. If I remember correctly they grabbed it on the way out from his parents, and it was loaded with everything you could ever need while out in the wild...it had salt, pepper, sos pads, garbage bags, pots, pans, utensils, tampons...you get the idea. It was genius for sure. When we got back, we immediately made a camping box of our own, which we've made good use of up to now.

When we bought the pop up trailer, Steve got to work transferring everything from the camping box into the trailer. Steve says it needs a good name....I keep coming back to just calling it "the camping box". What do you think? Any ideas?

I LOVE the 90's teal green and yellow theme. Steve has big plans for this bad boy.

We enjoyed some great camping food of course. Hot dogs and chili (my favorite....I kid, I kid, I hate hotdogs! ha) and grilled cheeses. Katy was dying over the zoo pals plates so we had to get those too....do you see my horse looking at you?

Katy wanted some chips. I asked her to smile for a picture and I'd get her some. This is what I got....

beautiful!

This is Steve's best impression...

And this is what I get with a picture together. Nice.

This picture will FOREVER make me laugh out loud when I see it. Katy was up playing in her bed and thought it might be funny to do her best impression of an angry birds pig. Pretty striking resemblance right? So funny!

Mostly it was just nice to be out in the fresh air and lounge around. We went up American Fork Canyon, and if you haven't been there you are missing out. I think it's one of the most beautiful canyons in Utah for sure. We actually go up there so much that we got an annual pass (it does cost to get in, bummer).

Katy just kept telling us how much fun she was having. She'd be doing something and then have a "freak out" moment where she needed to lay down on the ground and giggle.

I cant seem to get this guy to smile at me. He walks around all day with a permagrin on his face and when I whip out the camera, nothing! Steve's been doing some research on his rescue puppy and we are thinking more and more that he may be a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and not a chocolate lab....which is what the shelter was thinking. What are some key features of a Chessy? Amber eyes, wavy mane, white spotting and webbed feet....check, check and check!

*On a side note we are thinking that he may be younger that 4 years old (which is what the shelter guessed too). Maybe that's because he keeps eating loaves of bread off the counter when we are gone, and when we decided to keep him in the basement this week while we were gone, he took the liberty of chewing up the door jam! AHHHH! Good thing he is cute and his coat is not shedding as much lately :)*

Chuck doesn't have pretty eyes to take pictures of, and he doesn't smile for me either, and his nose got in the way of my shot....but he is my best bud and he is a super spooner, especially when you are camping! I also am fond of his Ewok lips!

We tried to get a picture of Steve and Colt together, but as you can see it was a bit of a struggle with Colt not wanting to hold still and Steve forcing a smile through his frustration! Hey, we tried and this picture makes me laugh.

We went on a walk after dinner. I scrouched down to get this shot...and Katy thought she'd do the same. It was fun in our camp ground. Katy kept telling everyone that she went to the bathroom on the potty (we brought the small potty with us....in yet another attmept at this DANG potty training thing), and that we were sleeping in the playhouse...which is what she calls the trailer. Perhaps another good name? Might be too girly.

She kept telling us all night long how she was not tired. I'm sure that the more she was telling us that, the more she was trying to convince herself that she was not tired! But she surprised us and fought it until about 11:00pm!

We seriously had a great time. I cant wait to see where the camping box will take us next!

Famous First Words

2011-08-15T14:16:00.003-06:00

I think it's fair to say that Steve and I clicked from the moment we met. By the end of the night we had a date set up for the following week. It was magical, romantic and very classy....we went to the Belgian Waffle Inn. I think I remember Steve saying it's the best waffle you'll ever eat.

In all seriousness it was the funnest date I'd been on. We went to the movies (where it was 50 cent movie night), and to eat at the Belgian Waffle Inn, and drove around into all hours of the night, I'm sure. I think in total our date was less than 5 dollars! Okay, maybe it was over 5 dollars but that was only because Steve got an OJ with his waffle (something of which now gives Steve tremendous heart burn :) we're starting to show our age a bit here).

The night Steve purposed we went there for dinner again, and sadly that was the only two times I've eaten there. Now, we are not the couple to celebrate the anniversary of every little thing that has ever happened to us....but I've always thought it would be fun to go back there on the night we got engaged and then head up to Silver Lake, where he purposed.

I don't think a thing had changed...so it was fun to go back and remember our crazy first date. It was fun taking Katy there too, even though I don't think she understood the significance of it all. We weren't able to make it to Silver Lake because we had something come up (more on that later) but we did have a great time. And I think Steve's famous first words of "the best waffle you'll ever eat" are still true...but I think it all tasted so good because I was there with my family just how we started eight years ago with Steve's purposal!

Katie and Zach

2011-08-15T14:07:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Steve and I went on a date to the drive in (of which I didn't take any pictures). Before we headed out we met Katy and Zach so I could snap a few quick pics of them together for fun.

We had a good time together!

The Tara Whitney Experience

2011-08-11T08:01:00.006-06:00

I keep thinking of a masters card comercial when I try to write this post. You know the ones where they go through a list of items like....gas to california: $$$, food: $$$, hotel: $$$, ect, ect. The last line would be easy to write....it goes like this...
Meeting TARA WHITNEY: Priceless!

Ha, truly meeting Tara was a dream come true of mine. Cross that one off the bucket list (literally!). I've been "blog stalking" Tara for, like, forever. My father-in-law kept asking us on our trip...."why her?", "what's the big deal?" Well Tara is the big deal, really.

But let's get serious though...what a JOY to work with Tara. She was amazing. I emailed her on a whim of mine just to see how much she charged and if she was even available. She was super sweet when she emailed me back. Let's be honest here, though, she was more than your average photography session you'd normally get. Was she worth it? YES, a million times over!

Here is how we started our relationship:
(my email)

Tara,

You are AMAZING!!!

I'm afraid to ask (because if I put a price on your work it would probably be in the millions!), but I am interested in doing a session with you when we come to So Cal in May on Vacation.

So what can I tell you about myself? My husband is a ridiculously good looking cop (what more could a girl ask for?), I have a supermodel daughter, and I'm best friends with Chuck Norris (my dog)!!! Ferris says it best for Team Beardshall...."Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it!" Life is what you make of it so....LIFE IS GOOD!

I would love just one shot of us together (Katy is 2) just how we are....perfectly imperfect, just like you always say!

We wont take up much of your time and you can seriously just take one photo of us, but I think you are very inspiring and I would love some inspration in the form of a family picture from you!

You're the BEST, thanks for your time!

Amy Beardshall

She emailed me back shortly after that, and our "relationship" began. We put our deposit down and she took some time getting to know us. We had to fill out a family questionaire and send a picture of us together. She used that to find a location she thought we'd like.

Meeting her was just like meeting an old friend (maybe because I'm a stalker and read what she writes all the time!). When we met that night it was seriously hurricane force winds. I was kind of nervous about that "ruining" our pictures. But she assured me beach hair is awesome. After our time together I KNEW she worked her magic, I could just feel it. She was great with Katy and didn't think we were weird at all when we told her that pretend farting and burping always make Katy laugh (are we bad parents?)...she was all for it and joined in the fun!

She emailed us the next day saying "You guys are so awesome. Thanks again - enjoy Disneyland!" Yes, Tara said we are awesome! I will always remember that. I told her that after our shoot Steve told me "that was not that bad". Bravo to you on that one, that is a HUGE compliment coming from Steve! She told me when a dad says that was not that bad it's like he's saying THAT WAS FREAKIN AMAZING!!!! ha ha ha!

Thank you again for this AMAZING opportunity Tara. I will have these forever. I knew my family was amazing, but for you to capture us like this, through your lens, is like putting that into words (or pictures in this case!).

So here we go....these are my FAVORITES (sorry there are so many!)

My most favorite picture ever!

Thanks again Tara!

3 x 12//July 2011

2011-08-08T14:34:00.004-06:00

photos taken by Tara Whitney May 2011

Seeing that this is a place to record my thoughts and what we've been doing I feel that I need to get a little personal this month, for posterity sake :) July 2011....

We did a lot this month. We had some great times and some really hard times this month. I guess you could say that we've been on a bit of a roller coaster ride.

We visited Britney and took pictures in the Poppies, celebrated the birth of our GREAT country, went to the drive-in several times, hung out with friends, had some BBQs, went to a pool party, had a Beardshall family reunion, roasted marshmallows, had some great nights with mom and Katie, went to the days of 47 rodeo, hiked up to dog lake and had an outpouring of love and support from family and friends.

I have realized more this month how important my family really is (as if I didn't already know) and how things are not always up to us. This month we had a miscarriage.

I'm not naive enough to think something like this could never happen, just hoping it wouldn't. I think the first week was dealing with it, the second week I was really sad, now I'm ok. It's hard to have to wait even longer for something you are so excited about. I just have to remind myself that it's not the end and life moves on. Steve has been GREAT, and I feel super BLESSED to have Katy. She has made this all easier for sure. We had to go in a few times and decided it was probably a good idea to tell Katy what was going on....checking on the baby. I had an ultrasound and they were concerned I was having a possible tubal pregnancy, but couldn't tell for sure. They said I had to go to the ER if I was in pain or bleeding at all. I of course ended up in the ER and just ended up having a miscarriage....which was kind of a relief in a way (not to be a tubal pregnancy).

I was putting Katy to bed the next night and this is how our conversation went:

K: I love the baby.

A: Our baby wasn't ready to come yet. We have to get a new baby.

K: Where are the babies?

A: In heaven?

K: With Jesus?

A: Yes, they are with Jesus.

K: Will we get a new baby?

A: Yes, we will when the time is right.

K: (excitedly) Jesus is going to give our baby a hug and then send it to us!

A: Yes Jesus will give the baby a big hug and send them to us.

K: Ok. I want a new baby.

A: Me too!

Everything happens for a reason, even though it's hard to know why. I know I'm in good hands and I feel blessed to be able to have the family that I do have. I'm certain we'll have another kid when the time is right. Steve and I were saying how we think our family is the BOMB. I love the dynamics we have created and love the time I get to spend with them. Katy knows who's boss but she also knows we can have a rip roarin' crazy fun time. Steve was saying that he wants our kids to feel that we are their best friends....without trying to be the "best friend". We want to create a place our kids want to be because they have such a good time with us. We want our kids to feel like they can come and talk to us about anything. So that's what we are going to continue to do in the meantime, have a great time with our BOMB DIGETY family!

Thank you for all the love and support of our family and friends. You guys are awesome...we have truly felt loved and appreciate all you have done for us! Let's see what August has in store for us....

Photo taken on iPhone up at dog lake, July.

Take a Bath

2011-08-02T15:27:00.003-06:00

If you want to have a good time in the bath, make up some bath paints. They were super easy and SO fun. Katy sure was entertained. I found this great idea on Pinterest, although I've seen it a few places.

I've been trying to think of fun things Katy and I can do with stuff we already have lying around the house. This was a perfect solution for an afternoon.

Katy said that she was painting a picture of us hiking up the mountain!

We've since made extra to keep in the bathroom. I'd suggest a smaller brush too, it'll last longer that way! But it was worth the 5 minute effort to make and was oh so easy to clean up!

Chuck Norris

2011-08-02T14:56:00.004-06:00

Chuck Norris got a hair cut this week....professional of course. We totally butchered him last time. You can imagine he was not happy. But Chuck Norris got over it when we bought him priceless Ming Dynasty vases to practice roundhouse kicks on! I've got to go clean up now.

Pool Party!

2011-07-26T21:53:00.005-06:00

So my friends are awesome and have decided that we don't hang out enough. What do you do about that? Plan to get together more. We are going oldest to youngest and are trying to get together about every other Friday. One Friday will be gals/kids day and the other will be for everyone. Angela had the gals over for a water party our first time. Katy and I didnt make it because we were getting over a cold and didn't want the kidos to get sick. So you can imagine that I was happy when we could make it to Michelle's night together at the Schmidts for a pool party/BBQ. Let me tell you, we had a BLAST! Ha I think it was throwing Katy off when Dr. Schmidt came out to say hi! Thanks for the good times we really did have a BLAST!

The boys....whoo whoo!

We had Grayden that night. Wendy and her family went to see Harry Potter and decided it would be too scary for him. I think he was happy to find out we were going swimming. He kept saying that he was going to bring his mom and dad back to come swimming!

Michelle and Abbey. She was quite the diving board jumper for sure!

Bryson and Kyson making the shot!

Ha, Anna was such a CHEESE! I was lovin' taking pictures of her. Hey Anna, let's hang out and take more pictures. She could probably do that all day!

Katy liked the hot tub best. She especially loved to put bubbles on Steve's head!

Jon was pretty good with Abbey when she was so small. Now the torch has been passed to Anna. Katy attempted but I think Anna takes the cake on this one! Good try Katy! On a complete side note...Steve won the farmers tan contest! Ok we really didn't have an actual contest but I made him the winner!

Ang and Kyson. Love that it's just his head floating there in the bubbles!

Tommy was stinkin cute too! He thought it was cool to see himself in the lens!

Talia was having a pretty good time as well in the hot tub!

Katy was pretending to be Marley. She makes me laugh that she always wants to pretend to be a dog! Hey I guess that is what happens when you are a dog family!

And I of course couldn't resist taking some shots of baby Siena. The many faces of Siena! She is a cuttie too. I guess our friends all just make really cute babies! We missed Andrew and Rachel and Luke and Marin...oh and also the Cannons! Until next Friday!

Let Freedom Ring

2011-07-23T08:15:00.004-06:00

The 4th of July weekend was such a BLAST! I think (aside from Christmas....who could compare) the 4th is my favorite holiday. I just love the atmosphere the fireworks and time with family. Love, love, love! Oh and I love all the carnivals and "town days" that every town here in Utah has. We were seriously going non stop all weekend.

After we got back from Britney's Steve picked us up at my moms and we headed to the Riverton days celebration. Katy really wanted to go on the merry-go-round. She always calls it the carousel. She loved it and it only cost 4 dollars! Sheeze! Ha. Luckily I didn't have to buy a ticket to stand next to her. It was making me laugh my head off when the pink horse we were riding on was super rickety going up and down. I'm surprised it didn't just break off the track. I guess that is what you get with carnival rides that get taken down and put up who knows how many times!

I love the picture above because sometimes Steve is just as bad as Katy when it comes to taking pictures. See funny face and not paying attention to me face above! My family...gotta love it!

Katy and I tried to get a picture taken but the ride behind us what too loud she kept saying. I guess she was a bit distracted! Ha :) After we got back from the fair we slept in the tent (see June post) in the backyard. It was so much fun. Much better than our sand dunes experience!

On Saturday we drove up to American Fork Canyon. This canyon is BEAUTIFUL for sure. We may be kind of nerdy but we got a season pass so we can go up there all the time! Like I said it's beautiful....and I forgot my camera!

Saturday night we went to see Cars 2 at the drive in with Wendy and Chris in Steve's new truck. Yes we have another new car. I think I'm resined to the fact that Steve wont keep a car for longer than 3 years...even if it is your dream car Jeep Wrangler! Ha, hopefully this truck will be his new dream car for another 3 years!

Jordyn, Katy, Grayden and Carter at the movies. I had a good time at the movies with you guys. You are welcome to come any time. Ha, Steve gets us in for free because he's a cop. You can imagine we spend a lot of time there...which makes us kind of white trash but I'm embracing it!

Monday we had a blast. Most notably we headed over to Roger and Joannes. Holladay has a pretty great fireworks show across from where they live. For the festivities Steve made his famous home made root beer. He always makes it for Halloween but we decided that the 4th was another day we need to make a tradition. I opted to make homemade ice cream. MY FAVORITE! Actually the funny thing is I made it earlier that day and put it in the freezer. By the time we got there I pretty much didn't need the ice cream maker....so you don't necessarily need to have an ice cream maker to enjoy homemade ice-cream! You should give it a try it's my Grandpa Ferguson's recipe.

Dad's Lemon Ice Cream

2 quarts milk (that's 8 cups)

1 1/2 C heavy cream

1 1/2 C lemon juice (I use limes)

5 C sugar (to taste, I use a little less)

2 1/4 t. lemon extract (this one I usually use the lemon, but lime extract is good too!)

It's seriously my most favorite summer treat. It's not quite ice cream, or sherbet. Kind of like a combo perhaps! Give it a try, seriously you will LOVE it!

I found some morning glory sparklers in the dollar bin at Target. We had a good time lighting them off. Katy watched on Steve's lap. She was not too impressed. She did watch the fireworks with her special headphones aka Steve's gun earmuffs! All in all it was an excellent weekend for celebrating! We are blessed to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Happy Birthday Brex!

2011-07-22T23:20:00.004-06:00

Brex was SO fun to take pics of. He was up for anything. Good thing I had my longboard in my trunk! Happy Birthday buddy! Paige you are beautiful! You and Gavin look like you have things pretty well figured out! Cute cute family!

Paisley Poppy!

2011-07-22T22:06:00.006-06:00

Britney and I have grandiose plans for taking pictures all the time. But for whatever reason A LOT of them never work out because we are both just running around non stop. Also the fact that we don't live all to close to each other doesn't really help. For instance, we wanted to do bunny pictures for Easter up in the cherry orchards. Didn't happen! That is just one example.

Last year we talked about taking pictures in the poppies. She has a field of them up by her house. We weren't really sure when they were going to make an appearance because we weren't even sure if winter was going to end or if we'd ever see spring or summer for that matter.

Britney texted me a picture of the field a few months ago that was totally green and had a frowny face on it. I assumed that they had all bloomed and we had missed all of them. Ha, that's the pessimist in me...remember the last photo ideas we had that never came to pass? Well it turns out that they hadn't even boomed yet.

I'm glad we made it up to them this year. I think we'll time the light better next time...but man o man we had a great time!

Katy kept trying to pick all of them!

Katy's new favorite thing is the underbite smile. Now something to know about the underbite face....this is straight from Steve. When he is deep in thought he pulls out the underbite. Why? Not really sure but I also know it's not all Steve because this is also straight from Grandpa Roger. Yup, when we were in the same ward and he was in the bishopric he did that same exact face when he was thinking up on the stand. Ha. I always thought it was cute....but really this brings it to new levels!

Grandma Kerry joined us. It was so nice to have her along for the ride. It's really not a bad drive but it seems so much faster when you have someone to chit-chat with!

We were trying to do peek-a-boo. Even though Katy has done this a million times...I think Brynn takes the cake on this one!

And this one is for record purposes...Katy being SCARED of EVERYTHING!!! Since she wasn't smiling Britney pulled out the clown nose. And, as expected, she wasn't a real big fan. So funny!

All in all a successful run of things!

Thanks for the great time Brit and Brynn!

summer treats

2011-07-17T09:18:00.003-06:00

Chuck sure loves summer treats....

Glad we decided to eat them outside!

the BIRD is the word

2011-07-17T08:40:00.003-06:00

Snowbird. What can I say about this place? I love it, it's a tradition, it's a blast! My grandparents bought a unit up here day one, which means my family and I have been going to Snowbird since before I was born. After my grandpa passed away and because our family is getting SO big we all take turns sleeping at snowbird. So every 4th year my mom and sisters and I can go and spend the week up there. When it's not your week you are welcome to come up all day every day....there just isn't room for you to sleep over. So seeing that it was not our year we went up for a few days of swimming. Mind you this was in JUNE, and I cannot believe how much snow was still up there. There was a big pile of snow right behind the lounge chairs, which made me laugh.

Tuesday Britney came up. Mom and Grandma Ida came up with us and we spent the afternoon at the pool. Katy and Brynn were making me laugh for sure!

Brynn was so nice to share her blow up tube with Katy, because she loved it!

Brynn seemed to have a pretty good time pushing Katy around on that thing!

Ha, not the most flattering light, but a fun picture non the less!

Mom and Grandma had fun watching us play in the pool.

TJ and Gage were quite the dare devils in that pool doing all sorts of jumps, flips and throwing each other off the edge. TJ was growing his hair out so he could to the Justin Beiber hair do. Katie cut it a few weeks ago and it looks really good!

After we went swimming we went up to the Plaza and got some ice cream, yum!

My cousin Tyler was up from Seattle with his super cute family, we had a fun time playing with all of them. His daughter asked Grandma Ida if I was a teenager, oh yeah! I still got it!

Mom and I went back up on Friday and that's when Katy got stung by a bee. I had just gotten in the water, Katy hopped out and wanted to go and jump in. She was deciding where to jump at when I saw a bee flying around her head. I didn't want to scare her but wanted her to move. I asked her to come to me and that's when she spotted it. She was scared and went to cover her eyes and that's when she trapped in in between her face and hands. Luckily it only got her hand and not her face, but she did get it twice. Poor thing. The rest of the day she didn't want to go outside because the bees were going to get her. She didn't mention it for a few days but did start having an aversion to "guys" a few days later.....so that is what we are dealing with now a days....GUYS!

A day in the life.....

2011-07-11T15:44:00.003-06:00

Just catching up on some way old iPhone pics....

1. Making a fort with dad....the chairs on the ottoman is not a good idea!

2. Checking out the rabbits at the IFA store for Easter.

3. Colt laying on Katy in the car. Not sure if she's happy about that or not!

4. This girl can work an iPod like no ones business!

5. Colt sneaking on my bed to take a nap. Oh man! The Hair!!!!

6. Falling asleep in the massage chair at Brookstone, we may have to invest in this one!

7. Checking out the U of U bookstore while we visited Grandma Joanne.

8. She always has to try on hats when we are shopping!

1. Trying on the rabbit helmet at Target. We ended up getting one at the safety fair this year.

2. Checking into our hotel in California.

3. Sleeping under the desk in Vegas on the way down.

4. Poor Colt! Katy thinks he's a horse!

5. Trying on those hats again!

6. Falling asleep at dinner in California. No massage chair required!

7. Whiskey Pete's on the way back from California....bathroom break!

8. Playing with her Tangled app, we love pascal!

Fun as usual!

Big Daddy

2011-07-11T13:45:00.003-06:00

Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a dad.....

It's really hard to put into words how lucky Katy is to have a dad like Steve. Really, I don't know too many dads that get to have the same type of relationship that Steve and Katy have. His work schedule allows him to be with her most of her waking hours. She always gets up in the morning naming all the things she is going to do with dad for that day.

He is the kind of dad that will ALWAYS get the race car shopping cart (I hate those things they are a beast to maneuver through the store), that washes his car several times a week...with Katy's help (her favorite), will take her to Walmart just to go to the toys section for her to look around, he never makes her brush her teeth unless she wants to!!!, and will even let you eat chips for lunch! What's not to love.....he'll also love you unconditionally, tell your mom about 50 time a day how cute you are, and give you more kisses that you want.

Thank you for being the best kid of dad a kid could ever hope for Steve. We love you more than you know and hope you had an EXCELLENT day!

3 x 12//June 2011

2011-07-07T22:03:00.004-06:00

Holy Tolito....June is history. Even though I am not totally caught up with June postings yet, let's go ahead and get it out there before it's gone because I don't want to forget all the fun we had this month.

We hung out with Brynne for her birthday, hung out with friends, had swimming parties, hung out with cousins, took lots of tubbies (summer brings out the grodie feet!), went hiking, hung out with our friends, did crafts, ran a race, read lots of books, went to Snowbird, got stung by a bee, ate some popsicles, celebrated fathers day, realized I need a remote for my camera (see above self time sequence!!! Colt's not even in the last one, he was sick of taking pictures by that point!), date night/temple night with Steve's family, 2 police shootings in WVC, watched Steveo help with a K-9 demonstration, slept in our tent, watched fireworks and pretty much just had the BEST June ever!

We actually got around to our spring cleaning too folks! I told my mom that and she laughed out loud and reminded me that it was, in fact, summer! Yeah, yeah. But I guess it's better late than never, right?

Katy is SO hilarious right now. She is officially, if she wasn't already, a big kid and a "real person" as I like to call her (not sure what that made her before). I know I am always writing about potty training but more updates on that....she totally has the peeing down but has yet to poop or go in a public restroom. I think she'd be happy to go in a diaper until she is 8 if she didn't have to go into the public restroom! You'd think maybe she got Steve's germafobia about public restrooms but I think she's just scared of the LOUD flushing. *Oh a side note, one time we "camped" in a KOA type campground when we went to Moab. Steve wore his flip flops into the bathroom to take a shower. Little did he know that the stalls were super small. I guess he was bending over to grab the soap and his butt touched the shower wall. He practically came out SCREAMING saying that his butt has touched the wall and that he probably had an STD for all he knew!!! Hence the germafobia*

Since being stung by a bee up at the pool at Snowbird, Katy is really worried about all the "guys" she sees! Steve picked us up from my mom's house after work when we went to visit Britney. On our way home she was totally tired and practically asleep (maybe that made it worse) and all of a sudden started SCREAMING that the "guy was going to get her!" What? We thought she saw a totally creepy dude on the side of the road until, who knows how, Steve spotted a misquote in the back seat flying around. So all the bugs are called "guys" and they are all "going to get her". I was thinking that we were doing good about the bee sting, because she didn't mention it for a few days after it happened, but I guess it heightened her fear of other "guys"....kind of like how I did not care for spiders but had horrible experiences in Hawaii with HUGE cockroaches that I am now more "fearful" and "messed up" from spiders.....make sense? I guess it does in my head! Oh and I just have to write about how Steve has taken the liberty of teaching Katy that we don't ever say no to mom or dad, just strangers and weirdos!!!! So I had to laugh to myself when I thought she saw a weirdo or stranger on the road that scared her!

This month she has pulled out the phrases like "what's the point, mom?", "what you talkin about?", and "Katy's in the HOUSE, ooo ooo" She is seriously like a sponge. We went to cousin Blake's game and she was pretty much repeating everything the guy in front of us was saying...."come on guys, let's get em'", "go Brighton"....she was making everyone laugh. I have also noticed that she has a tendency to get a bit bossy and likes to tell people what to do. Like when I tell her she can't do something, that she doesn't agree with, she'll run over and get right in my face and say "no mom, you can't do that!" I guess that is her inner diva coming out!

If this even makes you laugh or not....who knows but Steve got a Truck this month. He is the funniest guy I know. Forever he was OBSESSED with Jeeps and said that they were his dream car and he had to have one, so we made it happen. I was convinced that our car buying days were behind us (we've seriously had like 20 cars between the two of us!), because he had his "dream car". Well I guess his dreams have changed and he got a HUGE F150. He is convinced that I will now drive the Jeep and we'll get rid of my jalopy. Whatever, I totally am in love with the Jeep and am kind of shocked that he wanted a truck and will miss the Jeep, but someone has to be practical here. Besides I really do love my car. It's dependable and it get's me to where I need to go....and it does it at 35 miles to the gallon! Thank you very much! He acts as though I am making him sell the Jeep! I think that is somewhere we have agreed to disagree because Steve has a hard time believing that a really don't care about what I drive, and he always feels bad he get's the "nice" cars. Hey if it makes you happy do it, but I really don't care whatsoever so let's capitalize on that and go from there...because just as I don't get the car thing Steve doesn't really see the appeal of having someone totally RAD take our family pictures (although he loves them). So there you have it.

Here's to a great JULY!

Dude, where's my van?

2011-07-05T21:57:00.005-06:00

Ha, every year I do this...I ask myself the same question. Why? Then I run this crazy race and I realize that even though I am totally crazy I have a total blast....although I was asking myself "why" more than once this particular year! Let me explain....

For whatever reason I always get stuck with wonderful start time or 5:00AM IN LOGAN! Ask yourself, do you want to wake up any earlier than you need to? Me neither....so I enlisted the help of my sister Britney.

Let's back up a step here. Suzie is awesome and has worked with my mom, for like ever (yes I just said like, because that's how long it's been!) so she is pretty much just like a sister of mine. I jumped on her team last year and had a blast. Nicole and I got to know some pretty great people. We obviously had a good time so we decided to do it again minus the 6 crazies we had last year. That meant we had to find more people. In the end, because of injuries and whatnot, we had to switch it all up and we got two guys we knew nothing about except that they were friends of her friends. Sounds safe enough right? Steve was not extremely excited about the fact that I would be hanging out with 2 single 30 something guys (he was thinking I was going to get kidnapped or hurt or who know's what....I guess that's the cop coming out), but like I said I was pretty much stuck with them so we tried to make the most of it!

We had a meeting the week before to decide all the details. My van decided to bring our food. I emailed the two guys to see if they wanted to pitch in (no worries if not, of course) and they were down so we gave them the simple assignment of ice and rolls. To start it all out they didn't bring anything. So once we picked everyone up we made them stop and get a dollar bag of ice and a dollar bag of rolls....thanks for pitching in! Ha.

We finally got to Britney's house. They let us sleep in the basement...where they had a king size bed and TJ's and Gages beds. Need help with your math? That equals 4 places to sleep. Got it? Well they had us upstairs for waffles (so sweet). One guy went down, the other one followed him about 5 minutes later and we followed about 10 minutes after that. So there were 4 girls and 2 boys and guess where all the girls slept? ON THE FLOOR!!!! Yes that is right, at my sisters house 4 girls had to sleep on the floor because one took the king bed and one took TJ's and Gage's room!!!!! SERIOUSLY? Yes, this is actually what happened. I figured since I had to deal with these people for the next 2 days pretty much that we'd make the most of it, not a big deal. I think in the morning I made a passive aggressive comment about how that was "really considerate" of them to leave us a nice comfy place to sleep!

So off we went. When we were running I felt that we had a pretty good groove. It was "nice" trying to get to know one another. Really though.....it was smooth sailing. Great time. I got to snap this pic of everyone at our first big exchange. Here's the gang, minus me and Cameron (who was running). This leg was awesome because runner 6 got to wear a sombrero the last half mile in exchange for a free meal from cafe rio. You looked good Nicole! Actually I do believe Cafe Rio had a van that said funny things on it like "extra meat"!

Another reason I was having a good time was the fact that we got to run through some of the most beautiful scenery!

Pretty much what you are pushing for it this beaut.....the one mile to go sign! Once you see this bad boy you are home free! It's a good thing!

One of our "favorites" in motion. I am grateful that he ran the same leg I had to run last year....which sucked! And I'm even more glad that the other one had to run #3 spot, which is where I was supposed to be until we made the switch and I opted for an easier leg. If nothing else that is what I am grateful for them for!

Good old Nicole. This gal is my running buddy extraordinaire! We always have such a blast. This was her second leg, which was NOT FUN for sure...she is a champ because this leg sucked!

Too bad Nicole couldn't enjoy the beautiful view because she was probably cursing this leg! I'm not even going to tell you about our second exchange down time....but let's just say they ate all our food and left us steaming mad when they left us hight and dry in the parking lot! Let's just say these guys were painting a pretty BIG picture of why they were still single!

After Nicole's leg it was about 9:30...plenty of time to get to Oakley and eat dinner AND get a decent amount of sleep, we thought! Pretty much all the gals wanted to just go ahead and sleep at the exchange site so we would already be there and not have to worry about getting up early to drive to the exchange. We slept at Morgan High School last year and were late to our exchange, not to mention we had to get up way early....AND you actually had to pay to sleep there this year. Sleeping in a room with 500 people snoring in sync on wrestling mats was not appealing to me! One of the guys had no problem whatever we decided but the other was being such a BUTT! He kept saying that he really wanted to sleep in the high school because it was about "quality of sleep and not quantity". Are you kidding me....there is NO quality of sleep whether you are on the grass or a sweaty mat! I'm pretty sure there is no "quality" sleep in this race in general! We finally got him to go to Oakley but he got lost on the way and we finally got there at 11:30! Let me remind you that we had not eaten yet and were starving and tired! Well the Polar King was open and they wanted to go grab something to eat. They promptly went in, ordered, and sat down to EAT for 45 MINUTES! I was livid, but really what was the point. Among Melynda telling me under her breath that she felt likes she was talking to her 4 year old, we were just holding on to the fact that we would only have to be with them a few more hours!

By my last leg I was totally dragging because we pretty much didn't eat dinner when we got there we were so hammered and felt like sleep (what little we got) was more important! The dragging in motion!

I was happy when my leg was over though! At least my ladies were awesome!!!!!

Lacey totally kicked butt, along with everyone else that ran!

Poor Melynda.....this picture doesn't even do her poor blisters justice because they were NASTY and they looked like they hurt so bad! She rocked it too. Her leg's sucked too!

Just in case you cant read this dude's shirt it says "running sucks".....by this point, I couldn't agree more!

Here's our team....minus Cameron again because he was running! You know the dude in the back is totally trying to get in our pic! Love it! Even though we had to run with two butts I had a great time, and have had a blast laughing about our experiences! Thanks ladies I really did have a blast! Thanks for listening to my rants and raves! Good bye Wasatch Back...until next time!

Having some fun this summer!

2011-06-25T00:14:00.000-06:00

Not to be a pessimist (because I really try not to do that) but do you ever feel that summer is over before it begins? I guess because summer has sprung on us so fast I want to make sure we are making the most of every moment!

I ran across this sweet idea and had to run with it. I love the idea of having something...wether it be big or small....to do everyday!

make something MONDAY: crafts or projects

time to read TUESDAY: weekly trip to the library

what's cooking WEDNESDAY: baking or cooking

be thoughtful THURSDAY: write letters, make cookies, do a service project

somewhere fun FRIDAY: go swimming, visit a museum, get out of the house

I'm actually putting some of the finishing touches on my calendar so this week has been kind of random, but last week we really had some fun!

For our monday craft, we tried our hand at colored rice. I know it sounds weird but we seriously had a blast doing this one!

I just used about 1/3 cups of rice per bag and we did 5 colors. According to the website we used about 4-5 drops of color and a few squirts of hand sanitizer (I guess this helps to "set" the color). All I had was bath and body hand sanitizer, but it worked fine. It took quite a while to dry so maybe do this first thing in the morning?

So pretty!

We called it her toys magic sand box!

I thought this would be fun, but seriously this entertained her for an hour at least!

And, as you can see, she was pretty warn out afterwards!

Tuesday we made our weekly trip to the library. I would say previous to this I went about every other week....but I don't think it's a bad idea to go weekly. It sure it nice to add some new books to our nightly reading. And it's nice to see what she likes. Usually there is a used section in the library and we've been able to find some of our favorites there for less than a dollar!

Wednesday we made dinner from our new favorite cook book...our best bites. My SIL Heidi turned me onto this book/website and they are awesome! I think she got her copy at Deseret Book for close to 30.00, but Costco was carrying it and I snagged it for about 15.00! I would highly recommend it (or just snag the recipes off the website)! I mean I LOVE food network, so you'd think I'd like to cook more...but I felt like I was stuck in a rut making the same thing all the time. I really feel inspired by this cookbook! Oh and it's yummy and usually pretty easy too! Also, thanks to Heidi, I've been using these shopping lists and have found that they keep me SO much more organized. They have really helped me keep the grocery budget in check. Give them a try...you will feel so much better you did!

Thursday we were helping a friend out by having Bailey over to hang out for the afternoon....but let me tell you we had a blast! It's fun to have a buddy practically next door. They unanimously decided that painting would be a good idea. I think they were right! In the end I almost felt as though they were helping us out by letting Bailey come over because, like I said, we had a blast and it was nice for Katy to switch up her day. Bailey was cracking me up, she kept wanting to know where Steve went. I had to explain that he was at work!

Friday we went hiking up Milcreek Canyon. It's a favorite place of ours because dogs can come. We decided Colt will not officially be a part of our family until he comes hiking with us! We tried to go to dog lake, but the top of the canyon was closed due to all the snow!!! I cant remember what hike this was but it was beautiful! Katy actually hiked about a half a mile all by herself!

Toward the top when the trail "opened up" and we got these incredible views! Katy insisted on holding Chuck. Dang I need to remember what days you can have your dog's off leash because that was annoying, but we felt like we needed to follow the rules!

Colt was happy to lay spread eagle in the freezing cold water any chance he had! Luckily for us he didn't get Guardia by drink all the stream water!

Katy LOVED all the flowers. I felt like since most of them were dandy lions that she picked, that was okay! Ha!

Saturday night Jon and Michelle had us over for a BBQ. We had a great time, even though you cant tell by this picture! It was great to see everyone and it was such a beautiful night! Thank you again for the great time!

SOOOOOO...hopefully this little post inspires you to do some fun things with your kiddos this summer. Oh and hey if you have any great craft/fun ideas shoot them my way!!!

Scrub a dub dub, Katy in the tub!

2011-06-23T22:27:00.006-06:00

I know that this is totally a random post, but let it be noted that Katy LOVES the tubby! We finally got around to getting some bubbles (poor deprived child) recently and she LOVES it even more!

But she still hate's her picture taken.....

Seriously mom?!?!

Ok, maybe I could laugh a little!

I have to laugh at her little divot under her nose! Ahhh, so cute!

Happy Birthday Brynne

2011-06-23T22:18:00.002-06:00

The big joke with Steve and I is that Katy is part of a Brynn/Brynne sandwich. My sister's Brynn is 6 months older than Katy and my SIL Heidi's Brynne is 6 months younger than Katy...thus making her part of the sandwich!

We were able to go to Wheeler Farm to celebrate with her.

The birthday girl! I can't believe she is 2. I cant believe I have a 2 and a half year old!

Katy and Brynne (for the most part) get along pretty well. Today was a good day!

They thought it was so funny feeding the ducks. Oh and let it be noted that I have officially decided that I HATE geese! They are mean and ugly and jerks and I hate the hissing! Ok, I feel better now!

Happy National Holiday Brynne!

McDuff & Mr. Chuck

2011-06-22T22:43:00.003-06:00

So among other things, we have started into our summer plans. I have tried to have something planned every day (more on that later). Tuesdays are "Teach me Tuesdays", which means it's the day we make our weekly trip to the library.

You never know what you're going to find at the library, and I'm happy to say that I stumbled onto McDuff! I've heard of them before, in fact...we were told (back in the day) when we were at obedience class for Chuck...that he looked just like McDuff. Also let it be noted that Rosemary Wells writes these. Let me help you there, she writes the Max and Ruby books we love so much. She doesn't illustrate these but I love her stories. Oh, and I LOVE these pictures. Yup, these are defiantly a favorite...we'll have to see if there are more stories we can pick up this next week!

Our own little McDuff the Chuck! AHHHHHH......not really! Poor guy, he's seen better days. Yup, I whipped out the ol' clippers last week and failed miserably. Who knew cutting a little wirey dog could be so hard? Even though we totally butchered Chuck, I think he is still my cute little McDuff!!!

Thanks for being a good sport buddy!

Memorial Day

2011-06-22T17:59:00.004-06:00

Memorial Day = Awesome! I love it. What a wonderful holiday to share with your family to celebrate our blessings! We got to kick things off with Steve's family. We went to the graves and then out to lunch at the Chuck-a-Rama....Papa's favorite. I think he'd be proud! It seems like we've done this a few years now...I hope we keep this tradition running because it's a blast!

The gang.

On Sunday of the weekend we always have a BBQ at Grandma Ida's house. What a fun tradition. My Grandma lives up by Brighton High School and has the most incredible back yard ever!!! We always called it her secret garden. I have also always been amazed with my grandma's knowledge of horticulture and such. She is AMAZING!

Please excuse the fact that Katy doesn't match at all. I needed a quick jacket as we were walking out and this is what I ended up with! Hey, don't blame me it was cold that day. In fact it started raining just as we went into the garage to watch old slides of my mom and aunts and uncle growing up. SO FUN. I remember my great grandma Lewis had these slide viewers you could use to look at the slides...I felt like I was back at Great Grandma Lewis's house!

The Barker Kidos!

Mom, Zach, Katie, Grandma and Steveo

Hey we get a lot of good use out of all our names. Katy with Katie and Brynn with cousin Bryn. Actually if you really want to laugh cousin Bryn named her son Andrew (like my cousin and her brother Andrew) but they call him Drew instead of Andy (which is what we call my cousin). Who knows what we will recycle next around here!

Tara Whitney Pictures!!!!

2011-06-22T15:13:00.002-06:00

Ok I don't know if you will even be as excited about these as I am, but Tara Whitney actually took our family pictures and I couldn't be more happy!!!!

If you want to check out our gallery....

go here: http://tarawhitney.com/clients/beardshall/

Password: beach

What do you think?

California Vacation Extravaganza///Son of a Beach!

2011-06-20T22:08:00.004-06:00

We spent our last few days having a few more adventures. We headed to Hollywood, but didn't quite make it down to the walk of fame before our meter expired....

We went to the international police museum, but it was closed....

This pretty shiner under Joanne's arm was due to a fall we experienced in McDonalds the day before. If only you were there! I mean it was quite funny after the fact. She tripped on a chair and had her hands full of a drink and catsup. Both RaNae and I didn't know what happened before she was on the floor! Poor thing, we spent the rest of the trip laughing at her!

When all else fails go to the beach, too bad we couldn't go in our suits. We made the most of the day by playing in the sand, shopping and going to dinner.

Sun set was pretty cool even though these pictures don't even do it justice.

Until next time California! We had a BLAST!!!

California Vacation Extravaganza///Disneyland!!!

2011-06-20T16:15:00.002-06:00

Enter Wednesday and Disneyland....where all your dreams come true! It rained Wednesday morning but not as bad. We opted to make this our disneyland day since it would probably be more busy on Thursday.

Now Katy is 2 and a half...and free, bonus!....so I was thinking that we were going to blow her mind. And we did, but not in a way I had expected to.

The fam dam in front of "Mikey's castle". As you can see Katy has a weakness for sugar just like me!

I don't ever recall going on Dumbo...but was told that Katy would love it and that would be a good way to start out day since it can take longer to get on as the day goes on. In line Katy was making me laugh so hard because she kept saying..."No it's not your turn, it's my turn" when anyone in front of us got on the ride. Can you say ONLY CHILD! Not being very good at sharing is another post! Once we were on the ride she was in heaven. "This is SO fun"....followed by giggling! She kept telling me that she was flying! (on a side note Roger was not too excited to be on Dumbo...even though he went for Katy...he kept referring to how he was the oldest one on the ride! Ha, Katy will always remember that though!)

The dumbo ride what where the fun stopped!

Now I think that Peter Pan is my MOST favorite ride, but that seemed to be the busiest ride of them all...like an hour wait. Since we were trying to hit up both parks we opted to go on the carousel, which she loved, followed by Mr. Toads wild ride, which she did not love! We can't seem to agree on who's idea it was but I am sticking to my guns on this one and saying that it was Steve's idea, and a BAD one at that. It was dark and loud and she HATED it! Cried the whole time. Poor thing. Ok, noted she doesn't like dark loud rides. Lesson learned.

We thought it would be fun, and a good idea to hit up the Small World ride. It was going good until we got in the tunnel and she lost it again. She was not feelin' the LOUD music and singing. By the end of the ride she seemed ok. This was the start of the end of rides....because she didn't go on anything else after that!

This was us before that all happened. She was sitting up front with RaNae and Ken before she turned around scared out of her mind!

We decided it would be a good idea to split up and Steve and I took Katy up to Toon Town. Lots of fun for Katy. We even got there when all the characters were out. Hey! Do you want to get your picture taken? NO!!!!

I LOVE Pluto so I opted to get my picture with him alone! We thought that would warm her up to the idea, but it didn't!

Steve of course had to flex us some of his muscles!!!! Woo, go dad....he sure is strong!

Since Katy wasn't going on anything she started asking about Pascal. We always say how he is our favorite caracter on Tangled. I told her we could probably find one at Disneyland. I did some research and found that you can, in fact, buy a cute stuffed Pascal at Disneyland. So we went to find one. Only problem......THEY WERE SOLD OUT! The gal that was helping us informed us that they had been sold out for months and they couldn't keep them on the shelves. Gee, thanks! This was not turning into the best showing for us here! We did find Max the horse on our way though. She was ok getting her picture with Max! Say Cheese!

After lunch we made our way over to California Adventure. While we were going on Soarin' over California Steve and Katy checked out the shops. Steve told me Katy stopped him dead in his tracks when there was a sign for a make your own Mr. Potato Head. This thing was adorable, it was 20 bucks and if you could fit it in the box you could have it. Let me tell you, that thing was brimming!!! We couldn't really shut it all the way but the gal that checked us out said it was no problem because she was so impressed with our stuffing skills! It has a Mickey Mouse hat, camera, clock, Minnie Mouse bow, Mickey doll, wizard hat, Mickey balloon, pirate eyes....pretty much anything you could think of we shoved in the box. As you can tell, she LOVED it. She wouldn't let that thing out of her sight all day.

Roger and Joanne even humored me and posed for a quick pic!

This picture made me laugh because it was a nicer day in the fake backdrop than we had, but it was the perfect day to go because it never really rained....which kept everyone away and also not too hot.

Me, Steve, Roger and Uncle Ken

Ha, if you know me I am kind of a wuss when it comes to dropping straight down....as you can see by my face! I have been skydiving, but something about dropping straight down get's me every time! What a fun ride though....too bad I seriously wussed out and only went once!

Since Katy was not going on rides I kind of had to force her to go on this one! Something about the huge Mr. Potato Head that was out front talking to everyone threw her off...I can't imagine why! She kept saying I don't like him, I like my Mr. Potato Head. He cried a little, not as much...and said afterwards that it was her favorite ride. Yeah right! But cute none the less!

The Mr. on the boardwalk, so CUTE!

Katy found ways to entertain herself in between things with some fun Tangled apps Steve downloaded for her before we left.

Sporting our Mickey Mouse watches. Joanne got one and RaNae and I were jealous and had to get one too!

Yup, all in all a great day.......

I think Even Mr. Potato head would agree! Don't you think Steve and Ken? Until next time!

California Vacation Extravaganza Part 1

2011-06-15T15:37:00.002-06:00

I feel now that the weather has been nicer, I've been neglecting my blog (journaling). But I am feeling that I am getting behind so here is our May California Vacation Extravaganza update for you! Ha, you're so excited I can tell!

I actually did not take advantage of my camera enough on this trip, so i am sorry I don't have more interesting pictures either. But here is part one none the less!

We left Saturday morning and headed to Vegas. We spent the night there and were able to meet up with Steve's cousin Suzie and her family. We got pizza and ate and talked. I do believe Katy was loving the fact that there were so many kidos around. They have 4 of the cutest kid's I've met and they are so well behaved too. They just have a great family. Both Suzie and Steve are great parents. Steve even took Katy up the stairs so they could look at the toys up there. Oh and they are expecting one more, a girl. I say keep emceeing when they are that cute and well behaved!

Sunday morning we were able to go to church with them at their ward. Katy even went to nursery with Ryder. I was impressed to say the least. After church we moseyed on to California. I'm not sure what the deal was but we totally hit BAD traffic on the way there, right on the state line. It's like Vegas has all these awesome wide lanes...and when you get to California it goes down to two lanes. We were stuck in traffic a pretty long time so we didn't get to our hotel until it was pretty late.

When we got to our hotel Katy kept saying over and over...."this is SO fun"! There were Disney pictures all over the walls. We got to go swimming that night with more "this is SO fun" comments and happy screaming/giggles!

Monday Roger had a work meeting in the morning at his headquarters, so we hit up the swap meet that Ken had found. Roger didn't feel too bad he didn't get to go to that one! But he did hit it up as we were getting done. Doesn't this look fun......?!?

Steve was really hoping that he could find a cell phone case but didn't find one.....Not sure why! Doesn't that look like a place you could find a cell phone case?

The rest of Monday we spent hanging out and shopping. Monday evening we had our family pictures on Seal Beach. Like I said in my previous post it was Hurricane force winds! Not what I was expecting, but I can't wait to see them none the less. Tara Whitney was AWESOME!

Tuesday we were supposed to go to Disneyland but it was super rainy, SO....we did some more shopping. We were actually planning on going to Disneyland but changed our mind when we got to the cars. Fortunately for us Uncle Ken found a great mini golf course!

We have a running joke in our family that Ken is the King so I felt that this was an appropriate picture for him....

Ken is actually a big golfer....RaNae, not so much! But she showed us all up when she was the only one to get a hole in one! Go Nae Nae!

Katy had a blast, of course! Even more so when she got to choose the purple ball! They were all out of pink ones.

We did get some sun that day, which is always good when you've had a full morning of rain! Like I said we were planning on going to Disneyland...hence the running shoes with jeans. Oh my, I really am pulling out the grandma card in this picture (no offense to the grandma's out there). I'm not really against running shoes with Jeans....but not skinny jeans! Ha, oh well. At least I wasn't wasn't being judged for my choice of shoes!

We even found a strawberry stand on the way back to the hotel where we picked up some YUMMY strawberries!

3 X 12//May 2011

2011-06-01T23:03:00.007-06:00

May 2011.

I am seriously buggin' at the fact that it's June today. May went by like the blink of an eye, but what a blink it was! I feel like we've been runnin around non stop all month. I guess that is what my life entails a whole lot of the time. I have to laugh (to keep from crying) as I'm typing because my fingers hurt so bad. My finger hurts...now your back is going to hurt because you just pulled landscaping duty! Ha! Anyone, anyone? Happy Gilmore. Sorry to get side tracked there. I hope I don't sound like I am complaining but my fingers are splitting more this month than they do in December because this weather is crazy and my hands have been so dry. Thanks mom for that....bad finger cracking problems, I'm convinced I got that from you!

I have to start this months post off with the fact that Osama Bin Laden is currently dead. I find it ironic that May is the month that we celebrate Memorial Day. I day to remember fallen soldiers, those who fought to make our country what it is today. A country full of freedoms and liberties. A country which I am ecstatic I live in. I like to think that we can remember this particular Memorial Day holiday as one for the history books, because this year I am celebrating not only those fallen soldiers but those that are currently fighting to save and keep those freedoms alive and well. I can only imagine what it would be like to be actively fighting a war across the seas, or to have a loved one over there. I just want to say thank you to all those who have sacrificed to protect and serve. And thank you for those valiant efforts to catch a real scum bag, to put so much on the line..including your lives, to bring justice to pass this May. That is a truly exciting feat! Thank you!

What else has been happening this month?

Katy continues to make me laugh out loud at least 10 times a day with stuff like this:

Taking her love of reading to a whole new level. Making sure everyone can see the pictures as she reads to all her stuffed animals!

We were also able to take part in Steve's cousin Mike's wedding to sweet Sarah. We are glad you are part of the family now. Here is a shot of the fam dam.

I was trying to get everyone to "squeeze in" so we would all fit in the shot. Too bad for me I'm the only one doing it. Sorry I'm totally up in your grill Kyle! Also I am jealous that Wendy has pockets in her skirt....I want pockets!

The wedding and festivities were at the Grand America. This was one of the beautiful days we got to enjoy this month.

We got family pictures taken in California by Tara Whitney. Yes folks, TARA WHITNEY! She was truly awesome. I can't wait to see what she comes up with because the weather in California was totally crazy too! It was seriously hurricane force winds on the beach. I'm quite confident that although we will all totally look like ragamuffins, we will have some pretty dang good pictures. More on that later! (please bless that I looked better than this in our pics! She kept telling me not to squint so much....now I see what she was meaning!)

Did I mention that we went to California, because we did and it was AWESOME! Joanne, Roger, RaNae and Ken all joined us and we had a blast! We hit up Disneyland/California Adventure in one day! More on our whole trip coming soon....

Oh and don't forget that it's that wonderful time of year where Colt is "blowing his coat". That is what Steve continues to call it. Whatever....I get like this much hair out of him at least 2 - 3 times a day! Ewwwww! I told Steve Colt is not allowed in our house unless he brushes him 2 times a day, minimum!!!!! Katy was rolling on the floor the other day and was covered with hair! So the vacuum continues to make multiple appearances daily, and I am fighting tooth and nail to keep this out of my house....because heaven know's I could use some help not to be white trash covered with dog hair!

All Katy seems to want to do this month is go outside. She wants to play at the park or go "wash my car" with dad. We try to sneak out as much as we can with this cold rainy weather. Her sense of humor is making more and more of a showing this month. I find her telling herself jokes in the back seat while we are driving and laughing to herself! Going on vacation proved that Katy is not that bad of a person to have to sleep with. When we first got back she couldn't understand why I wasn't hopping into bed with her to go to sleep. I told her that we could only sleep together when we are on vacation. "I want to be on vacation again mommy" Me too!

We got new church callings to be nursery teachers, which is fitting because we have 4 nurseries in our ward! Steve also got certified with Colt, which means they can go on calls now, and we are coming along with potty training....any thoughts on the whole poop situation? How do you master that one? Life is good!

an ordinary girl who became a mom

2011-06-01T21:30:00.007-06:00

I never quite know what to say about being a mom....

Steve suprised me with a new CD (Britney Spears....my guilty pleasure he says), Katy slept in unitl 8:00 and I felt blessed to be a mom.

Katy is 2 and a half now. She likes to play dress up (especially with a crown, and high heeled shoes) and read books. She wears a size 6 shoe.

I remember when I was pregnant with Katy I wondered if she would be a soccer player like me, or if she would like to run. I wondered if she would have perfect handwriting like Steve, or his sense of humor.

I could have never imagined what Katy’s addition to our family would come to mean to me. And I’ve learned how wonderfully bittersweet being a mom has been. It’s learning how to hold on and let go at the exact same time.

It’s finding Katy’s favorite stuffed animal under my pillow at night. It’s finding catsup in my hair at night or crumbs in between my boobs. It’s finding my make-up brush in the toilet, or a wad of toilet paper on the bathroom floor. It’s feeling accomplished at her ponytail that I put in without her saying “owww mom you are hurting me”, just to turn around and find that she has rubbed her blanket all over her head making her, once again, look like white trash! And other day's it's waking up with beautiful hair!

It’s trying to convince her that chocolate milk is not a food group, nor can we treat it as such! It’s also when Katy can completely melt my heart when she randomly stops what she is doing to look up and say “I love you mom” or after I tell her that I’m proud of her for something that she has done saying, “I’m proud of you too mom!”. Of all these fact’s none is truer that the fact that I am completely smitten with being a mom! Who wouldn't be with that cute face.....

Who would have ever thought I'd feel this way? I was always the person who was totally uncomfortable with a newborn baby...and somehow I always managed to make them cry! I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but who would have ever imagined I'd actually be pretty darn good at it (most of the time, when Katy is not falling off the longboard I left on the ground, or shoving marshmallows in her mouth out of the cupboard when I'm not looking!)

So thank you mom for being the wonderful example of a mom you have been to me, I've learned so much! Thank you Mrs. Joanne for everything, and for raising a son that I am SO proud to call my husband. He's a great dad! And thank you Britney for always letting me call you non stop with ALL my questions....since you seem to be right in the thick of things with me. So here's to all the moms and moms to be out there! Happy Mothers Day!

And let me leave you with the most heart felt, adorable note Steve left me (hopefully he wont mind me sharing):

Luvie,

So the older I get and the longer we've been married the worse I feel like I get at writing sappy love letters, but the more I feel like I fall in love with you. I definitely come out leaps and bounds ahead in the wife category. Every day I am told that I found one of the few perfect ones. As a wife, I'm confident I couldn't have done better, and as a mother I KNOW your as good as they come. Katy tell's me all day long that she want's her "momma" and I know it's because her Momma rocks! It isn't every momma that runs around the house screaming and yelling while dancing and saying, "I'm gonna get you." Amy, Katy is the best daughter because she has the best mother. Katy and I both know how lucky we are to have you. We wish you the happiest Mothers Day.

Love Always,

Steve and Katy

:) Cue the hallelujah choir! I am one lucky girl!

Smash it UP!

2011-05-22T19:38:00.004-06:00

Is Oliver the cutest ever? What a happy go lucky kid. Mom said he just had a nap, but I'd guess he's probably pretty happy most of the time. I guess anyone would be if they got a whole cake to themselves!

Woops...we got the feeties a bit dirty. Good thing mom caught it and we cleaned them up. I snapped this one before we noticed!

He was such a HAM! I was lovin' this shoot. He made my job super easy!

Thirds the Charm

2011-05-22T19:06:00.004-06:00

Bryson and Angela sure know how to make cute babies! Siena sure was a great baby! Oh and she smelled so brand new too! I think I'm in love! Their other two kidos are pretty great too! I am still convinced that she is a miniature version of Talia, their oldest.

snips and snales

2011-05-22T18:43:00.001-06:00

James is certainly a mans man. I don't think theres been a time we got together that he didn't ask for a ball or try to throw something at me! He was on the go the whole time! What a cute kid!

Mom always has these two lookin' GQ!

Cute Kidos

2011-05-22T18:27:00.004-06:00

I think the title sums up this post pretty well! Thanks for the great times!

Cute Jilly was trying to help me make Harrison laugh!

This one made me laugh out loud.

Mr. Landon

2011-05-22T18:15:00.004-06:00

Mr. Landon was so much fun to photograph! Seriously, he was awesome! I'd like to think that I can call him my friend now. Oh and, might I add, I had a blast with mom and dad too. They are great parents that I admire so much!

Dancin' Shoes

2011-05-09T20:00:00.002-06:00

I have some catching up to do on the blog but I had to post this quick shot of Katy in her dance attire. She is pretty excited about class. I, of course, am loosing my mind and totally forgot that it started last week! No worries we are ready for this weeks class. Oh and Steve insisted that she needed some dance clothes. We hopped over to Old Navy and found this beaut for 5$! Score! Can't wait to her what she has to say about class!

oh baby

2011-05-06T15:52:00.003-06:00

Very cute before and after....cant wait to see how the rest turn out!

3 x 12//April 2011

2011-04-29T21:34:00.003-06:00

April 2011.

If you could pause for a moment with me and have a moment of silence for April, because it's outta here! I was hoping that the last few days in March going out like a Lamb were going to be here to stay...but alas April showers (and FREEZING cold temps) were here to stay. And might I add that it was actually snowing today! Crazy for sure.

April took no prisoners as we made the most of every moment, as we tend to do around here. We got to hit up the sand dunes, get a new dog, get a raisin stuck up our nose, throw up at the dinner table, go to three easter egg hunts, smell some pretty flowers, celebrate Easter with our families, get sick, and celebrate the resurrection of our savior.....whew!

But seriously I think the thing I'm most surprised about is how cold the weather has been. Where oh where has my nice spring weather gone, where oh where could you be? Do you think that spring is going to make an appearance here? I am questioning whether or not I have sessional depression. Katy begs me every day to head out to the park or go on a walk. We try to make it work where we can. I think we are both getting some cabin fever here.

Katy continues to make me laugh and question weather or not she is 2 and a half or 12? She seems so grown up, except in the potty training department. Ha, perhaps I have no idea what I'm doing here but I just keep asking and she just keeps going. I think I am scared to go full out and have accidents. She is more and more interested in going and has even asked a few times this month, but no poop yet! May is my month where I am actually going to make some efforts around here in that department......and yet other times she seems like she is 12! I cant believe how grown up she is. Katy has always been good at entertaining herself and using her imagination. This month she is very fascinated in "what you want to be?" I asked her, "when I grow up (?).....a mom". Katy informed me that she was going to be a doctor. Not sure where this fascination came from because this was before she had to make a visit to Dr. Schmidt to get the raisin removed. I asked her what kind of doctor she wanted to be. "a PINK one!" Not sure what a pink doctor does but it sounds like a good time to me.

Colt, our new police dog, has been a pretty great addition to our family. Steve got Chuck when he graduated college and was convinced that he had him wrapped around his finger. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to KILL Chuck when we first got him and he was pooping all over everything. But I think I surprised both of them when Chuck became my BEST FRIEND (so cliche). Truth be told, I think Chuck would pick me over Steve in a heart beat :) No one spoons like I can. Colt, is totally awesome though. I was worried that Chuck would have a hard time with the whole situation but they are fast becoming best buds. I still cant believe I have two dogs before I had another kid, but we are really enjoying this addition to our family. I do think Colt likes Steve better at this point, but I am trying my darndest with my treats and peanut butter! Katy loves all animals but has found Colt particularly interesting and is convinced she must ride him like a horse. He is so kind and gentle that he usually just politely moves out of reach...poor guy, we try to keep her at bay. Being able to rough house more with him, because he's bigger, has made her a bit more "rough" with Chuck. He has seemed to not like that very much. Oh and I took him running the other night and LOVED it. He was a really good motivation, like running with someone, to keep going. He was sad when we had to stop. That will be a pleasant change of pace in that department!

Steve continues to be awesome, as usual! I am very blessed to have such a great family. We are far from perfect, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We have some fun stuff planned for May so I am hoping that the weather will join in and have some fun too!

Some Annie Love

2011-04-25T21:22:00.005-06:00

Love this girl!

Sleepy Head?

2011-04-24T22:25:00.004-06:00

I wished I looked this BEAUTIFUL when I woke up in the morning!

Beautiful Day

2011-04-24T21:38:00.007-06:00

I first want to say how grateful I am for my knowledge of the resurrection and why we celebrate Easter. Yes, we have many fun traditions when it comes to this holiday, especially when it comes to candy *wink*, but it's nice to be able to stop for a minute and appreciate this great blessing in our lives.

We started off our holiday weekend at the Beardshall's for an Easter egg hunt, lunch and the Easter story told by Miss Joanne and the famous flannel board stories! The kids were having a blast, but I think Paige was the most helpful!

I love how Katy carries her basket like it a purse!

Family photo time....awww!

Today, despite my feeling like complete CRAP (I've been hit hard by the cold bug, dang I haven't been sick in a while!), we had fun. After church we headed over to my moms for dinner. When I got there I realized that my mom had a heaping bowl of my FAVORITEs, Robyns Eggs (let's be honest, what's not my fav when it comes to sugar?). I don't know about anybody else but when we were little (I had all sisters) we loved to make lipstick with these beauts. I seriously couldn't help myself and just started to go to town. Lucky for me my family is fun and they all joined in!

Here's our best shot. We found that the blue ones make the best lipstick.

I think this one is pretty funny of TJ and Gage! They were both making us laugh so hard when they were playing with Katy and Brynn's parasols they got from Grandma Kerry!

Katy is at a really fun age to celebrate the holidays with. Growing up the Easter Bunny always hid our baskets for us to find. Same holds true here in our home. But the Easter Bunny was nice this year and helped Katy out with a trail of candy leading her to where it was. It was funny when she woke up. I heard her open the door and say "wow mom there's candy out here!" Then she shut her door, perhaps in disbelief? She opened it again and just kept yelling "mom, mom, mom theres candy out here"! I had to help her find her basket. It was hidden in the dryer! She was lucky and got some of Mo Willems pigeon books (a favorite), Max and Ruby beanie babies, and a princess flashlight!

I am again grateful for my family and the resurrection and our knowledge that we can be together forever! Happy Easter!

Daffodils!

2011-04-24T21:26:00.006-06:00

One of my favorite flowers. I had to hop out of the car again and snap a few shots on the way to the gateway. Not the best light but I still love these shots!

Steve said I was not allowed to go there buy myself....kind of a scary area. I was glad he came to help me get some shots!

You can see last years shots here

Super Fun

2011-04-16T19:49:00.004-06:00

And thus the Easter Egg Hunting for the season starts. We had a little Easter egg hunt with playgroup yesterday. And our cute little neighborhood had one this morning. Katy was LOVIN' it for sure. Wow, I'm kind of glad the eggs were mostly filled with one piece of candy because she got a TON of eggs. We have a few more to go so we'll see how much more we can find.

She wanted to play at the playground after. She kept telling me to watch her basket so no one would get it. She is super into things being "MINE" lately and seems to think that everyone else must want them too. She also had to remind me not to eat any. Why would she even need to do that?!? Ok, I've been known to steal a few (a lot) of the good Halloween candy :)

It's (commercially) beginning to look like Easter around here. I've made Katy one dress from pillow cases I've found at the Down East Clearance center for less that 4 bucks. I think I'm going to try to make one more by next week if I can make the time! I love Down East. By the way I found $42.50 in a duffle bag I just bought there! BOO YA!

The tall tales of Katy!

2011-04-11T20:53:00.005-06:00

I think I'll start todays tales with a little story about last night.

Picture us all sitting down to dinner at the In-Laws. Everyone's sittin' pretty enjoying the good food. Mrs. Joanne even made Katy a special pizza on a tortilla. Katy was enjoying all the fruit that Grandma and Grandpa Beardshall brought over, but she would not even try the pizza. She's old enough to know better so I told her that she needed to at least try it or she couldn't play with the doll house after she was done. Still no takers. It went back and forth like this for a bit. They she decided that she would test the waters and licked it. Anyone? Does anyone else have to deal with the licking? It's so funny to see that little tongue pop out and give it a try. Well because we had already been bickering back and forth for a bit I think she had mentally psyched herself out by this point. The mere lick of her food was making her gag.

Now I have heard many a tall tale about how Steve was the biggest gagger/throw-upper this side of the mississippi when he was a lad, but for some reason I just never figured I'd have to deal with this myself. Why? Because, let's be honest, who wants to deal with a gagger?

She finally took a bite and spit it out. I had had it by this point and decided it was time for us to make a graceful exit before we really got a show. I put her on the couch and told her that she couldn't play with the doll house. She was crying and wanted her blanket so I went and grabbed it for her. Not two seconds later, with blanket in tow....I got that show I was trying to avoid! Vomit everywhere!!! Now I would say it's just Karma if it was Steve that got sick all over....but it wasn't Steve it was me!!!! And if the truth be known, Steve has a hard time with vomit himself. He was very helpful but was, himself, on the verge of getting sick! We cleaned up and had a tub.

Steve was asking me why I was being so hard on her and forcing her to eat her food! Ha, that was not the case at all. And let me tell you.....that Tangled movie that I was going to save for a poop in the potty day, she's already watched it many times. So I guess I'm just trying to at least stick to my guns on this one. Steve is actually a HUGE softie for this little gal. He'd probably spoil her rotten if I gave him the chance. I am thinking that I will be taking the "you go to bed hungry" route for the next few years for now and not the "you have to try at least one bite!" I DONT really want to deal with that one on a regular bases.

Our next tall tale takes us to this afternoon. I got a call from Steve, frantic on the other end looking for the tweezers. I could hear Katy in the background screaming. I told him where to find them and asked what was up. He told me everything was fine, but he'd have to call me back. I got a call back not 10 minutes later where Steve had explained that Katy had taken the liberty of shoving a yogurt covered raisin up her nose! With no use getting it out she got to visit Dr. Schmidt this afternoon. And I guess raisins plump up when they are exposed to moisture...snot! That thing had expanded to the point they had to get out the extra long grabbies! But, alas, the raisin was removed and the disaster was averted!

She graciously posed for a picture for me today, pointing to her nose!

I guess this girl is just keeping us on our toes. Let's see what tomorrows tall tales take us!

Hello my name is.....

2011-04-09T19:03:00.004-06:00

I saw the name tag idea on an old post of Tara Whitney and had to try it. Love how they turned out. Here is a little sneak peek of little baby Annie. She is such a CHAMP being born 8 weeks early and all.

Layla

2011-04-07T22:24:00.005-06:00

Layla was a perfect lady. She was all about her necklaces and was quite dainty eating her cake. She was a fabulous cake smasher. She's also super, duper cute! Happy Birthday!