Ping-Pong, Crepes and ConcoXions

My amazing cousin Ann Marie (middle in the photo below) orgainized a ping-pong tournament and crepe party with a bunch of our extended family on Saturday. It was held at my parents' house and was a wonderful success! Except for my grandma, all of the other adults took part in the competition and everyone had a great time!

The crepes were absolutely amazing, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures. We had just about every type of meal and dessert topping you could possibly imagine. We also pulled out the air hockey table with was a huge hit as well, especially with the kids. I love Parker's competetive expression in this photo.

It was a great chance for us to get together and have a lot of fun!

The kids had a blast playing as well: croquet, hula hoop, swings, slides, football . . . the fun goes on and on.

Thanks Ann Marie for organizing, my parents for hosting and everyone who came for a fantastic day!

P.S. Ann Marie has this fantastic business doing a non-alcoholic drinks bar. ConcoXions caters specialty drinks and smoothies for weddings, business events and small or large parties. Check out their website at www.concoxions.net.

I Love to See the Temple: An "Interior Tour"

The Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is a recognizable landmark to anyone familiar with Utah, but many have never been inside. At temple square there is a new exhibit in the South Visitor's Center on Temple Square that features a scaled down model of the temple with two walls open so that you can see all of the rooms.

Brad and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple and I have been inside many times, but there are some rooms I have never seen. In the model they have included all of the furniture and decorations so that it looks exactly like the real thing. Here is a link to KSL News video about it and you can see pictures and a video of it here.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

I love attending the temple. I feel such peace and joy every time I am near and especially when I go inside. If you'd like to learn more you can click on the links to see more photos of the outside of the Salt lake Temple or the other 152 LDS temples. Here is a video clip if you want to understand why the LDS Church builds temples.

Developing New Skills

With so many berries in season I decided to try making some mixed berry jam. We have enjoyed the strawberry freezer jam so much I've made more and it still won't last all year. Today I bought a container each of strawberries, black berries and blueberries. Jason and I had to eat some plain, but most of them made it into the jam. For those of you like me who are new to making jam, I'll give you a little tutorial.

First, you wash and pull the stems out of all the fruit. Next you put one layer into your bowl and smash it with a potato masher. You keep adding layers of fruit until it is all mashed. Next boil your pectin in water or fruit juice. (I use the Ball No-Sugar-Needed Fuit Pectin.) The directions for that are right in the package (along with intructions for all kinds of jams and jellies). Afterwards you can mix in however much sugar, honey or artificial sweetener you want. (I added two cups, since the blackberries were kind of tart.)

Then you just pour it into your jars. They're in my fridge tonight, but tomorrow I'll move them to the freezer. They'll last up to a year in the freezer and three weeks in the fridge. I'm so excited that I'm learning how to perserve my own food. It's a small step, but it's something! Another skill I am hoping to develop is gardening. I planted a bunch of flowers and am dilligent about watering them, but I don't really feel like I know what I'm doing. Some are flourishing and some look kind of wilted. I can't seem to tell if it's because they need more water, less water, more sun or maybe just some MiracleGro. I am so pleased with the plants that do grow well and am learning as I go with the ones that struggle.

These Violas make me happy every time I see them. When I bought them a few months ago there were just a flower or two on each of the six-pack. These are among the flourishing flowers. We have two kinds of tomatoes: cherry and "Bonnie" that are a hybrid slicing tomato. The Bonnie plant looks absilutely beautiful, but it doesn't have any tomatoes yet. The cherry tomato plant looks pitiful, but it already has a bunch of little green tomatoes that are 1-2 cm in diameter. I guess looks truly can decieve.

I love that our little strawberries are groing too. We picked up some bird netting at Lowes to make sure we will be able to eat the fruits of our labor.

This Dianthus plant is one of my very favorites. Last year was my first attempt at any gardening at all. I planted the Dianthus last year and just left it to get snowed on all winter. In the spring I plulled out the other dead plants, but the Dianthus was still alive, so I left it. It is certainly thriving again!

I am not the only one learning new skills. About a month ago I started letting Parker play around on http://www.pbskids.org/. He has really enjoyed it, so last week I let him try http://www.starfall.com/ as well. Parker has been starting to read lately. He's been spelling for a while, but only had the patience to read a word or two at a time. He still won't read much at a time, but I'm amazed at what he can do!

Fun with Friends and Fun Without

Our fun this weekend started on Thursday night. My sister Angie came up for dinner and then played with the boys while Brad and I went to the Temple. They had tons of fun, but I don't have any photos. Afterwards, she took the boys and me down to Salt Lake. We slept over at my parents' home that night. Bright and early the kids were up and wanting to go outside. I had forgotten their jackets in my car, so we made do with some oversize clothes. Parker's kind of reminds me of a quidditch robe from Harry Potter. The boys had a great time playing!

My good friend Mary is in town from West Virginia and am so glad she was able to stop by. We're both expecting little girls in September!

Her boys, Elijah and Caleb, are only a few months older than Parker and Jason, so the boys all had a great time playing together.

Shortly after they arrived the sun came out for a beautiful day to be outside!

Boys sure love playing with water and balls. They also found some bugs too! Getting a picture with all the boys looking didn't work out, but here are a few of our attempts.

That night Brad came down and we met some friends for dinner. We hadn't seen most of them since our wedding, so it was great to catch up. Back: Tyson, Ellie and Kristen Cramer, Sean Colvin, Aspen Anderson, Kristi Cummings, Kelleigh Cole, Josh Cummings, Kim Cummings. Front: Ashley and Ryan Green, Brad and Me. (Annie and Morgan Hadlock were there too, but had to leave before the picture.) This morning (Saturday) Brad wrestled with the boys. This is a very regular activity in our house! Anytime Jason sees anyone lying down, he runs over and dives on top!Jason is our little monkey. He loves climbing everywhere, but tight little spaces seem to be his favorite. He really likes climbing through the shelf on this little desk. Often Jason will hurry around to climb through again, but other times he'll sit perched on the corner of the couch and revel in his accomplishment. What a funny monkey! We hope you've been having as much fun as we have!

Our Beautiful Baby Girl!

I had my target ultrasound today and everything looks perfect! She's 1 pound 3 ounces and measuring exactly right for 22 1/2 weeks. I'm so glad that she's healthy! I love the 4D imaging that they can do these days so that you can actually get a glimpse of what she really looks like. Obviously I'm very biased to say she's beautiful already, but being her mother I can't help myself! In this first one she looks like she's asleep with her arm near her face.

In the target ultrasound they check out nearly every part of her inside and out. Here she is kicking her legs at the bottom of the screen. She kept kicking the whole time. When we were listening to the rhythmic beating of her heart, it was periodically interrupted with the boom of her kicks!I like this last one because it looks like she's laughing to herself. I can't wait to see that adorable smile when she makes her appearance in September!

Fun in the Sun

Parker got this cool sprinkler thing for his birthday and has been begging me daily to play with it. Well, today was his lucky day! Since it was going to be so nice (80 degrees!) we also picked up a cute kiddie pool at Wal-mart and invited over some friends.

The kids had such a great time playing in the water!

We moms had a great time too, just visiting and enjoying the weather. (I'm sure they all really appreciate that I'm including these photos.)Jason thought the water was a little too cold for him, but Parker loved it! Thanks Sydney and Shannon, Aidan, Micah and Emily, Isaiah, Tyler and Leah and Braxton, Taevon and Amy for coming to play! We look forward to doing it again soon!

Springville

On Saturday we took a trip down to Springville to visit Grandma Pratt. We love visiting with her and try to get down there every few months if we can. The boys always have so much fun showing off to her and playing at her house.

Parker helped Uncle Mark plant more flowers in Grandma's yard. Parker was in heaven helping with the garden. Jason walked around smelling the flowers and "helping" as well. Thanks Grandma, we had a great time as always!

Mother's Day!

I had a marvelous Mother's Day! Brad didn't have any church meetings, so he was home on Sunday morning! That itself is a rare treat and I loved it! He made a delicious breakfast and got the kids ready. It was a wonderful start to the day!

In church that morning Parker went up front and sang with the Primary kids. I LOVED IT! I was worried he'd get stage fright, but he sang his little heart out for most of the songs! Jason also went to nursery for the first time. He walked in, saw the toys and didn't look back. The Priesthood men and youth took over the Primary too, so I could just enjoy Sunday School and Relief Society. It was so nice to not have to entertain little Jason and just enjoy the lessons. Parker enjoyed having Mallory, one of the girls that babysits for us, helping out in his Sunbeams class. Afterwards we went to pick up Jason and he had fallen asleep during nursery! What a funny kid!

Brad got home shortly after church too! Hooray! We had lunch and I got some presents from my boys! Then we took a walk and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

That afternoon we headed down to my parents for a wonderful time. Here's a shot of the boys with my wonderful mom.On Saturday we were able to visit with Brad's parents. I seriously have the best mother-in-law ever!The boys are super-lucky because they have all four of their great grandmothers alive and living nearby. We were able to visit all of them except Brad's grandma in Springville. We'll be heading down there next weekend. On Saturday we visited with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson. We sure love them! On Sunday we went to both my grandmas. Here is my amazing Grandma Ipson!We visited with my Grandma Cannon as well, but unfortunately I forgot to pull out the camera, so a picture from last year will have to suffice. You can see how much the boys have grown, particularly Jas! I hope to be just like her someday!I had a fantastic Mother's Day! Most of all I am so grateful for my little family! My husband and little boys have given me the opportunity to be a mother and I absolutely love it! I can't wait to also be the mother of a little girl this fall! I definitely feel like the luckiest woman in the world! (I hope that you feel just as lucky too!)