Yes, He is the Real One!

We went to the festival of trees! We have a great time! We love to see Santa and I swear he is the real one. Sonnet is posing by the fairy tree. She loves fairies and so she was trying to pose like one! Somebody got hungry and so he wasn't have the best of times. After he saw Santa he was ready to go. He was also a little disappointed because Santa only let him tell one thing he wanted and he got shushed. I think maybe because it was Friday and he had probably already seen 1000's of kids.

You can see they were very excited to see Santa and had a lot to say. Sonnet rushed right up and gave him a huge hug! She loved Santa. She doesn't even really know what he does yet.

Peyton ran right up to him and was ready to tell him what he wanted.

I couldn't get a really good picture of all three, so we have a really cute one of her and a good one of him! Thus the problem of having two kids to take pictures of.

Looking forward to the old boy making a stop! And yes, he is the real one by the way!

School Shopping and Aquarium-Take 2...where did my post go?

I already did this post once...I'm not sure where it disappeared to? But we just recently went school shopping in Utah...Yes that means that summer is over, but we are ready physically for school to start! We did some great shopping and for the first time we went up to the Park City Outlets. I loved them and they had so many great, fun kid stores...that we pretty much found everything we needed.
Andy always likes to joke with me about outlets, because while I find good deals, I for some reason buy more thus spending what I could have saved..I've always told him I've never been a quality girl, but quantity! But I recommend the outlets..They have everything you could want!

My next favorite things we did were to go to two of our favorite restaurants that we only go to when we go to Boise or Utah...We are glad that PF Chang's and Cheesecake Factory aren't local or we would go broke...but they are worth every penny. Andy and I call it the quality scale.

Wendys=20.00$

Olive Garden=40.00$

PF Changs and Cheesecake=80.00$

See the quality of the food doubles by twenties..ha! I know that doesn't make any sense unless you have eaten at them.

We love the lettuce wraps at PF Changs. And our kids even liked the lo mein they had. At the cheesecake factory my favorite things are of course the cheesecake, but the salads are probably my most favorite...

We ordered cheesecake to go and sadly one of our pieces got left in the fridge in our hotel room. Some lucky cleaning person got a nice treat. My question is though, do you think they really ate it? Most people seem to think that they would, but I wouldn't eat it so I don't think that they did? Any thoughts? Ha!

Another one of our favorite places to go is to the Sandy Aquarium. This was our second time and Peyton just breezed through it and seemed a little bored, but Sonnet loved everything and would stand and look for a long time at all of the cool fish and exhibits. Peyton kept wondering when we could go back to the hotel and swim!

These are my cute frog wranglers!

There is another place in there where you get to pretend you are driving a boat. Peyton loves this place and of course, sister had to do it too!

This part is my favorite part of the aquarium. It is where the jellyfish are and they sit and swim around and it is dark and the light changes and they just keep floating. I love to photograph them and also to watch them! They are so cool!

Sonnet wanted to pet this big old octopus, maybe because it was behind glass, because when she had a chance to pet the sting rays...she wouldn't! I don't blame her. They are pretty slimy.

Peyton ran right to the sting rays and wanted to pet them and said he was going to pet them (he wouldn't last year!) I happened to catch the whole process on film. You can see one right by where he is standing. Then he tentatively puts one finger out to touch it, but it suddenly flaps its (wing?) and it freaks Peyton out! (third picture in this series). It was hilarious!

As you can, they are kind of creepy looking. I had no desire to put my arm in this year, but I did last year!

Andy was the only one brave enough to actually touch them this year!

You can see she doesn't want to stick her arm in that either!

The cute little explorers going on an expedition! or at least posing for a cute picture!

We had a great time school shopping and doing some fun stuff too!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...

So this summer we read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Peyton. (I got this idea from my friend Megan S...thanks!) and we knew we were going to Utah to shop and so we decided to take a tour of the Sweet Candy Company so Peyton could see how a real candy factory works. Let's just say it was pretty cool and that he had 1000 and 1 questions. But it was all worth it. The candy shopping at the end was also fun! We had to wear these groovy hats through the whole tour. Didn't we look styling!

The tour showed us a bunch of different things and how the different types of candy was made. My personal favorite was the orange sticks because we got to see the whole process. We were showed the cool machines and how they do things and we got to try candy along the way. It is definitely cool to see American manufacturing and how they have a machine that does everything. These pictures were all taken in the candy gift shop. My personal favorite was above...the huge orange jelly beans. I didn't end up buying anything though...I was quite proud of myself. However Peyton choose buttered popcorn salt water taffy, Andy got a bag of the tropical mix because it had coconut in it and Sonnet picked out swedish fish.

My favorite comment of the day was when Peyton was telling granny and pop about the candy factory and he said they had candy clear up to the clouds. This was when they showed us their storage room and where they keep the candy. That was cute.

The famous Salt Water Taffy that you buy at Broulim's all of the time. However, not all of their flavors were out. Andy was sad because we couldn't find coconut...only in the mix!

Peyton with his purchase!

Another one of my favorites...orange slices!

These are the fun mixes that they only sell as mixes! Just so you know! :-)

We loved the candy tour but Peyton kept wondering where Willy Wonka was! ha!

Garage(Garbage) Salin' It!

So Pam decided she wanted to have a garage sale. She has moved into a new home and had a lot of stuff she wanted to get rid of. We all ended up adding in a few items and we all made some money. It was a lot of work for her and some work for the rest of us. We held it at Angie's house in Idaho Falls. We all had a hard time watching our stuff leave for less than we knew it was worth, but we made it through it. We decided to have another one in three-five year!

We were amazed at some of the funny things that people do when they come to garage sales. First of all people show up earlier than when it starts just so they can get a good deal and see all of the stuff. Second they like to make a deal. If something says five dollars, they want it for three. I've learned to mark things up a little higher and I might actually get what I'm asking for. Third, people buy really stupid things if they are cheap. Why would people buy some of the things they do? Fourth, some people are very strange that come to garage sales. I thought it would be mostly moms, but there were some strangees...(Pam called them all meth users!). Finally I've learned some people get some really good deals. We sold one of the Andy's fossil watches cause he owns three and it was a ninety dollar watch that someone paid 10 dollars for. Also some little Mexican lady bought 12 pair of Pam's dress pants for .25 cents each=3.00$. As she was leaving Pam said she just walked away with 600$ worth of my clothes!

We ended up making over 600$ and I walked away with 200 and less junk! It was an interesting experience.

Once we finished, we went to Craigo's to enjoy some of the fruits of our labors!

Now that is a nice day...

I had such a wonderful day on Memorial Day. In fact, I had just a plain nice weekend. We awoke late (9:30 am-that's sleepin' in at this place). My wonderful hubby cooked breakfast. It was nice, while I sat on the couch wrapped in a blanket reading a good book. Ate a nice, long leisurely breakfast. Had no where to go. Put on working clothes went outside and weeded my strawberries. Mowed the lawn---there is just something about that nice first mowing that makes it feel like vacation. The kids were outside playing all day. They had dirty faces and dirty hands and climbed and dug and got in the way and ran and played and fought.... Peyts got to go give lunch to Pop and little Sonnet got all sticky and red and blue faced from eating a popsicle while riding with me on the lawn mower. Andy was home all day. We ate a nice summer lunch a turkey sandwhich with pickles, cheese, mustard and mayo, cabbage salad, and cherries and blueberries. It is so nice to not have leftovers...they get very old after a while. I kept thinking it would rain, but it just stayed nice and overcast. Got 10 rows of our garden planted, came in had a nice hot shower and a quick supper. Kids listened to book and giggled while Andy read to them. I cooked dinner and we ate. Got my first sunburn of the summer, feels good. Put kids to bed and they were so tired that one feel asleep in the place we put and little Sonnet went limp when we rocked her. She must have really been worn out. I would love to fall asleep that way and I think I did while receiving a nice footrub trying to stay awake during the movie. My leg muscles ached and my face was hot. It was a nice way to inaugerate the summer! I hope more of those days are to come!

Our Little Girl...

It has been a long time coming and with a little trepidation that I post this for various reasons...none of them having to do with us being overjoyed that our little girl finally made it here...But just for safety and legal issues, but I figure you gotta live life...and we are so thrilled with our new little addition. It has been such a blessing in our lives and we want to introduce you to her. Here are a few things our little Sonnet is doing. You can see how much she is blessing our lives! We are working on a project...coloring a kitty and doggie. She loves animals, especially our cats..much to my yuckiness ( I don't care for them...dirty and gross)


Let's just say, I learned something from this picture: long hair, suckers, and eating in the backseat do not mix. Sticky...but
Really enjoyed her sucker...thanks Peyton's piano teacher! :-)

She is becoming very attached to her brother and follows him around all over the house...sometimes to his frustration. She also will call him "Baby" and he doesn't like that. He goes around saying "Don't call me Baby"...it reminds me of Mad, Mad, World. But it is cute none the less. I sent Peyton over to granny's house to get something and I heard, "Peyton go bye, bye" and I walked into the living room and this is what I saw. She stayed there until he got back. It made me smile.

So my dad joked that I never liked playing with dolls when I was younger, but let me just say, it is so fun to have a girl. I mean how many cute blue, green, black, red, and gray shirts can you buy for a boy? I will admit boy's clothes have gotten cuter, but having a little girl to dress up and fix their hair is so much fun. She is a pretty good sport. I saw this exact outfit at Children's Place and wanted to get it and she humored me by wearing the hat...I think she looks so cute! But maybe you can see some of her frustration with me..! :-)

This was a fun moment when Peyton finally had someone to play with besides us...It has been so good for him and I think her to have a sibling. They are doing fairly well...but we still have some things to work on!

She loves Peyton's stuff...much to his dismay and I caught her with his hat and his Star Wars dude, but it was too cute to resist taking a picture!

(More of brother's toys...) Let's just say he has too many to often notice and he shares fairly well..

While I was trying to get dinner ready, my two little computer geeks were just going at it. It was too cute of a picture to pass up! And no I don't let them do this often!

This was another attempt at my trying a new hair-do and hat. I must say just one word: ADORABLE!

Little Sonnet has not had a lot of chances to be in the snow...some came from some where very warm...She loved it. She was a little frustrated at how hard it was to walk at first, but she caught on quickly. She also discovered how fun it was to eat the snow...which we really have to watch!

:-) She doesn't understand yellow snow yet...and we have a lot of that.

This is my first attempt at using all of those silly things that go into girl's hair. Let's just say it didn't really work...any ideas on how to get them to stay in? It looked cute for about as long as this picture..!

This was after the first day here. They are getting along already. I thought it was pretty cute!

She also doesn't mind getting dressed up and playing a little rough with her brother. He likes that. She is dressed as a knight right here if you can't tell.

This is her discovering how much fun stuff there is to get into in brother's room. She is also styling in some of his glasses! Ha!

We are so lucky and still have a ways to go to make all of this happen, but we just feel so blessed to have this little one in our home. We hope that things will continue to go well and she will continue to adjust. She is such a happy, sweet, loving little girl and one more added bonus. She eats better than Peyton does! How nice is that! :-) We love her determination, her stubborness and how she just loves everything she sees and learns. It has been a pleasure to introduce you to her.