Lots of posts

We're out west.

Read on...

Go West: to the aquarium

We love the aquarium. We're sad that our memberships had expired, but the kids had a great time with their cousins. We'll have to make sure that we get some good cousins group pictures tomorrow. Briton loved the fish. Abby loved the company and the fish.

Go West: to friends and cousins

Last night we had some cousins and friends over to my parents house. It was great. We had in one room 8 2009 babies. (There were only 3 non-2009 kids.) There isn't much better than a room full of babies:)

This is me and 3 of my closest friends with our 5 2009 babies. It was almost as hard to get the 4 of us looking at the camera as it was to get all the kids to look.

My favorite comment of the night was Holli's: "Wouldn't our lives have been a lot easier 7 or so years ago if we could've seen this picture?" (Those were the "Will we ever get married?" and "I'll be too old to ever have kids" days.)

Go West: for a decent haircut

I am not too talented at haircuts, but my mom really knows what she is doing.

It was just a trim, but I sure think she looks cute.

Go West: to grandparents

Grandpa David and Grandma Nancy

Grandma Marva

Grandma Nielsen

Grandpa Ray and Grandma Ellen

One more set of grandparents to go...

Go West: to Idaho

We went up to Bekah and Lance's and had a great time meeting our newest nephew, Carter. We really love him.

The kids also loved Ace.

Presents from grandma and grandpa...

We had a great time!

My Favorite Thought from Church Today

Temple attendance is to time management as tithing is to money management (i.e. if you don't have enough money, pay your tithing; if you don't have enough time, go to the temple).

He's a talker

He says "ma-ma" and "ba-ba" (but only when he's sad).
It is very cute (and so is he).

A Few Unrelated Thoughts

This is a link to a blog that I love:

Simple mom focuses on effective home management. Her ideas have really affected the way I maintain my home (ie clean), manage my time, organize my to-dos and in general view my responsibilities as a home manager. I am sure that some of you already read her blog, but if not and you're interested, there it is. Of course, there are some ideas that I don't find useful or applicable to me, but many have been excellent.

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Abby is becoming a good little helper. She's good at setting the table and she is excellent at putting her clean laundry away. I enjoy having her tag along while I am doing my chores because she gets really excited when I let her help. Hopefully, the enthusiasm will stick with her.

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This was my favorite Briton moment from yesterday: He loves to pull himself up by the dishwasher and play with utensils (not always a good idea). I was doing dishes and he was playing around my feet. I was trying to keep him from climbing up on the open dishwasher door (also not a good idea). I looked down just in time to see him pull the bottom drawer (empty) right out of the dishwasher. The drawer rolled out and pushed him onto his bottom and then onto his back with it landing right on his tummy. He didn't cry and wasn't hurt but was looking up at me somewhat confused (still gripping tightly to the drawer). There was a split second that I wanted to run and get the camera, but that wouldn't have been very nice. It gave me a little chuckle - the predicaments these kids get themselves into!