Seeing Through our Eyes

25 things about me

2009-12-18T08:27:00.002-07:00

So I got tagged and thought I would share a few things about myself, but since I don't post a whole lot of anything on facebook I thought I would just blog my answers.

SO,

1. I absolutely love my hair with red in it, but probably wont do it again, because is washes out quickly
2. I love to throw things away, and will finish things just to do so
3. I am the youngest of 7 kids, therefore putting my immediate family over 30
4. I really enjoy running and it makes me feel good afterwards
5. I have to take a shower and get ready everyday so that I feel like a person and not a slacker
6. I really love to read and will read almost anything
7. I also love movies and will watch almost anything
8. I am a scrapbooker
9. I do not really like to shop, but when I get out and find something that works, I love it
10. I wear a lot of accessories and have a lot of shoes, because well they always fit, clothes do not always fit
11. I love to clean, and I love the look of a clean toilet
12. I enjoy doing laundry, but do not like to fold it. Brandon tells me that is because all I have to do is change everything to washer and dryer, and then the work begins
13. I have been married for almost 4 1/2 years
14. Before Brandon and I moved we lived below a 55 year old toy freak, who lived next to smokers, which caused him to have "breathing problems", who lived above a family that cooked curry everyday and it seeped through the walls (get all that)
15. the first car I drove was a manual Chevy, Nova that I got when my brother left on his mission that had a super man sticker on the steering wheel and a smartie in the radio nob to keep the station in.
16. I have been pulled over twice in the past 4 months and now whenever I see a cop car think, will it be me, and what will it be this time?
17. I broke my arm at 5 while riding my TRAINING Wheel bike and landing on grass, went to tell my mom and she told me to go home and tell my dad. ( my mom likes to tell her story, but I think mine is better)
18. I have had stitches or/and have a scar from all of my brothers, which include things like, baseballs, boomerangs, pickle jars, and toe nails
19. I do NOT like sea food and feel sick if they still have the eyes on them where they can look at me
20. I really like to exercise
21. I love music and will listen to just about anything
22. I have a beautiful daughter that just turned one and is fun, so I think she is a keeper
23. I love to sleep, but don't always get as much as I should
24. We recently went to visit my sister and her family in Australia and had a great time
and last but not least
25. I enjoy a good party game, and for the most part like to learn new games.

So I tag who ever feels like do this, have fun
RULES: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

Looking, Searching, and Praying

2009-12-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

So Monday started as any other day, I got up went to the gym came home, Brandon got ready and headed off to work. Claire and I played, had naps, and were just waiting for daddy to come home. Well a little after 4:00 I saw him pull up, thinking it was a little strange, because he doesn't usually get home until after 5:00.

Well Monday didn't end like any other day. Brandon was let got from his job. The company he was working for has done some major down sizing starting with closing his branch he was managing while we were in Australia. The day he was let go, many others were as well. As well as more going on since then.

I tell you this simply because we are in need of work and need your help. If you hear of anything we would love to hear about it. Brandon is trying anything right now, well we need insurance and pay to get the bills paid. Please if you hear anything, we would be very grateful.

We never thought this would happen to us, but no one ever really does, we feel blessed with everything we have, and feel like we are being watched over in this time. This may be a great blessing in the future for us at a different company. For now we are Looking, Searching and Praying that it will be sooner rather than later.

15 Months

2009-12-03T12:43:00.004-07:00

Well our little Claire is 15 months we headed into the doctors yesterday, for a check-up and some shots. Claire did better with the shots, and she got to choose from the toy drawer after wards. She got a fish that squeaks, and soon as she figured out it made noise she was all smiles again. I for some reason don't have any recent pictures of Claire so I will post one of my favorites from her one year old shoot.

Claire is still tall and skinny (even though she seems to eat all day, I call her my bottomless pit)
31 inches 85 %
21 lbs 2 oz 15 %

She is growing great and doing all that she needs to be doing, except for one thing: I will get to that later!
Some things I would like to share about Claire:
-She loves to laugh and giggle and loves to get us to do the same. She will start to laugh and then make sure we are laughing and then keep doing it.
-She loves to talk (well jabber with a few words mixed in) I barely get a word in.
-Her favorite word is No, No and to shake her head. And she knows what it means, and says it will great power.
-She can say Hiiiiii, uh-oh (and knows right when to use it), eyes, no, uh-huh, baby, light, momma, daddy, oh-no (usually coupled with oh-no momma), sometimes we think we hear thank you and welcome. Also when my niece (her cousin) Chelsea is a round she says something that sounds like Chelzee. But will only say it once.
-When she plays with phones her conversations go something like this: Hiiiii (or ello) uh-huh, uh-huh, pause, uh-huh, uh-huh, then hands the phone to me with a huge grin.
-she loves to push and pull things around.
-we have started to be able to do cute do's with her growing hair
-she loves to give loves, but only usually will give them to me when I ask
-she loves David Archuleta and dances when she hears his music (she loves to dance in generally)
-she loves books, but wont let me read them, we just get to look at the pictures at warp speed
-when you tell her to be soft, she turns to you and will rub her hands on your cheeks very softly
-she is very sweet but has a temper and one of the things she throws fits about is the one thing we are trying really hard to get her to do, WALKING.

Claire is NOT walking and we talked for a while about that at her appointment yesterday. She is very active and will do anything to get to where she wants to be, she has even started to climb on things, but will not walk to it. Her doctor game in as she was roaming around the room waiting and when Claire saw her doctor she crawled right over to her and climbed up to try to get into her arms, the pediatrician was great enough to get down on her level and let her do just that. Dr. O said that she was doing great and would most likely be walking sooner rather than later. We talked about whether having been born early and having her heart surgery might have something to do with it as well, but seems fine and will walk when she is ready.

Claire and her walking is absolutely been a crazy experience, she has been set on a chair more for the way she acts when we try to get her to walk then anything. She went crazy and started screaming when she was put down by Brandon and he walked her into her room and she stayed there for a minute. He went and got her and she wanted me, we she came to me Brandon was standing next to me and she started to push and hit and pinch him, back on a chair. Needless to say she was not daddies friend for the rest of the day.

She can walk I have seen her walk to me and to Brandon from being placed on her feet, she just choses not to. Time will tell what will happen. I love this age it is getting more and more fun.

Thanksgiving Week

2009-11-30T12:16:00.002-07:00

Because of the outcome of the game on Saturday I just couldn't bring myself to post any pictures of the week we just had, a little to devastated by it all. (in reality I had the camera with me the whole weekend and didn't touch it once.)

So our fun week started Sunday after church and right after Claire's nap with the poor girl throwing up and not keeping anything down. We stayed home and tried to keep her comfy. She was fine by the next morning.

Wednesday we were givin' some blood to start out the giving spirit. I went to bed Tuesday night went to the gym Wednesday morning and ran two miles, walked quickly down the stairs, past the weight room and straight into the bathroom and into a stall to start the vomiting on my end. Don't worry I went past the weight room back up the stairs, back onto the track and ran other mile, ran down the stairs in the weight room and straight to the bathroom into the stall and decided maybe I should just go home and not finishing the pattern in the last 3 miles as I started in the first 3. Needless to say I was not giving blood that night, and was keeping my fingers crossed so I could eat our Thanksgiving feast the next day.

Sure enough I was great the next day a little dizzy from the lack of food I had the previous day, but made it up quickly.

Spent some great and much needed time with the family, eating talking, playing games, looking through the adds, looking online, talking to my sister and her husband in Australia, and then headed to the mall. The mall opened at 9:00 Thursday night, so some of the girls headed there. Then Toy R Us opened at midnight the BOYS went there, are you shocked because we were. We told them it might be crazy. And they thought the would be back by 1:00, we chuckled and they got back after 2:00. Then the ladies all spread out for Black Friday Madness. Kohl's, Wal-mart, Target, Bath and Body Works, Shoe Carnival, and more Kohl's. After everything was done at 6:30 in the morning we headed into IHOP for some much needed refueling. And then headed to various homes to sleep, mind you I got roped into playing two games a Phase Ten.

I got a call Friday after everything was done from Brandon telling me he was not doing so hot. So I headed over to grab Claire and let Brandon sleep.

Saturday we headed over to my sister, Dera's to watch the BYU vs. Utah game. Just so you know, I graduated from the U, so I support the team, but don't really know that much about football. I do talk a little trash to those BYU fans, because I know enough about football to know that when the score changes on the bottom of the screen someone did something great. (okay, okay, okay, I know more than that). After the game that really was exciting in the end, but a little disappointing, (depending on who you talk to), some of the ladies went and saw New Moon, and I have to say it was pretty good.

So all in all a great weekend minus the 24 hour bug that went around our small family, and the gym (he he he, just kidding I think I stayed away from most everyone) we had a great Thanksgiving week. Hope all yours were as great as ours was!

Seeing Red

2009-11-24T10:22:00.004-07:00

S0 I decided to go for a change in color. I did red once and is washed out quick, this may do the same, but it is a fun change. Aren't we all in need of a change sometimes!

Happy Halloween

2009-11-02T12:47:00.003-07:00

So the night before Halloween, I headed in to check on Claire. Her room as laminate flooring and can get cold, so I head in to make sure she is not freezing. Well Brandon had told me she had done this same thing to him a few days before and said he just laid her back down. She sat up in her bed when she heard me open the door and walk in, but she was still alseep, yup you heard right, still asleep. I headed for the camera. she of course was playing with her blanket, total habit for her.

After she had enough sitting, she just laid back down.

Now on To Halloween day, Claire was an adorable little Ladybug

We went to Great Gram and Gramps house to start out our night to show off and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Carlson's to show them and Auntie Shan how cute those ladybugs really are. After showing off we headed to Grandma Vonnie's and Grandpa's for our fun Halloween party. We played a spoon game, where we had to get candy corn from a bowl to a cup on a spoon. Seeing as Claire is being a little bit sassy about learning to walk, I helped her out. I would hold her hand and the spoon and then help her dump it out. After she figured the game out...
she wanted to do it herself, so she would grab as many as her little hands could and then we would walk to the other side and she would dump them in. (she didn't even try to eat them, surprise, surprise)
Then of course we headed out to do some trick-or-treating. Here is the group that went out to "get candy, get candy, get candy" (Jerry Seinfeld stand-up act)
After that we played games and ate until after midnight. HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!!!

When the Dads are away the Kids will play!

2009-10-24T10:26:00.006-06:00

I have 3 friends I grew up with that have babies all about the same age as Claire. They were all born with in a year of each other. Sadly two of the four of us live out of the state and the third will be moving soon with her husband that just joined the army. Therefore we had to get together and play and talk. Xander havin' a great time!

The gang
Don't worry we will make a mess
Look I can crawl YAHOO!!
Benjamin
Allie and Benjamin

Thanks for coming over and playing whenever you are in town come on over again.

a little lost on what to post

2009-10-13T13:41:00.009-06:00

So we have done a few things since I last posted about Claire's pictures, but haven't quite made it to the computer to post about it. And honestly I felt a little blogged out and needed to scrapbook. I was almost two years behind, but got myself to last Christmas and got pictures in order for the next year, so I will be caught up in no time. I realized how much I LOVE to scrapbook and they may not look that amazing or great, but I just love to look at the pictures and remember the feeling and scrapbook that emotion. That probably doesn't make sense to you, but honestly every page and picture is put together for a reason.
I have now been given the great chance to scrapbook a wedding signing book (you know the one you sign when you first walk in), for a friend, I am excited to do it and can't wait to see how it turns out. Maybe I will post about it.
Now that you have heard about my scrap booking lets get to some pictures shall we.Claire has done this twice in the past two weeks. Sundays are really hard on the poor girl!

We headed to the zoo on Saturday, before it got to cold.
We saw rhino's
Giraffes
Elephants
Monkeys, bears, zebras, and lots of other animals. Claire really likes animals!

While scrap booking one day, it got really quite and this is what I found.
Claire has been having a hard time finish her meals so I bought her cupcakes and told her if she had her breakfast and lunch and finished it for two days she could have one. She actually did it!
Conference weekend, Claire went and asked, (in her own way) if she could have some popcorn of her Daddies. Her way is to stare at you make talking noises and then look at what she wants. Brandon pretended to be asleep so she went for it.

She loves bath time, and she loves to put things in her mouth.
she is also a big cheese ball when you ask her to smile

One Year Pictures

2009-09-22T13:32:00.004-06:00

We got Claire's one year old pictures taken, Janae again did a great job. We love them. Loved the location and the cute props.

Cheese Ball!!

Okay so Claire is a lounger, notice leg up hand out. She does this everywhere we go. Shopping cart legs up back to side of cart, stroller, high chair, you name it she lounges.

Don't you bother me!

Are you Stinkin' Kidding Me??

Mom, please don't make me get any more picture's taken!

Thanks Janae for taking her cute pictures. Love your work!!

Saturday Fun

2009-09-18T12:32:00.003-06:00

So I kind of forgot to post about this, was looking through pictures and so here they are. I ran the American Heart Assocations Heart Walk/Run 5k on Saturday at Sugar House Park and took some time off my last 5k. Before the race

Claire looking like she is having fun waiting for Mom, "GO MOMMY"

Done, in 30:16 I took 2:46 off my last time. hopefully that will get better!

Then we headed home and Daddy headed up to school to get some much needed work done. We cleaned the house and Daddy mentioned he wanted some more popcorn. So we made some.

Claire is a great helper, she was holding my grocery list so I could get stuff written down.

Wanting the popping popcorn

Yum that looks good

Aren't Saturdays fun??

Faith Factor

2009-09-14T16:56:00.003-06:00

As some of you may know I have one of the greatest callings, I am the Achievement Day leader in my ward for all the 8 to 11 year old girls. I love these girls, they are always willing and wanting to do what I come up with. This activity was, I thought, fun. We had faith factor
(sorry I can't take all the credit I got the idea from sugardoodle.net). We divide into two teams and had scriptures written on the board that I would uncover before each new activity. The team that found the scripture the fastest (all the team members in there own scriptures) was the winner. After finding the scriptures they had to tell me the Faith word(s) in the verse(s). Then if there team won they got to pick there activity.

(for the privacy of my girls I will be changing names)

Sour Lips-object to get as much juice from the lemons as possible in 30 secondsGertrude and Pamela are at there best Gertrude, getting the lemon juice out.

Pamela, spitting hers in, hoping she can get more then Gertrude

We had an Ice Melt-object is to have your whole team melt there ice cubes, in there hands, the fastest.

The Brady bunches hands were absolutely frozen by the time they were done

Apparently jumping up and down makes the ice cube melt faster

Next Shakira and Nancy were Breath Taking, object to get the cotton ball of the opposite side of the table

Nancy, blowing so hard her face turned a little red, but working so hard.

Shakira in action, wanting to win, blowing, blowing, blowing.

Shakira and Pamela were ready for bounce. Object to get as many tennis balls to BOUNCE into a garbage can.
Doing great ladies

We had a Drop Zone- Object to drop three goldfish into there teammates mouths before the other team
Megara, Winny, Apple, and Montana all were at there best, never giving up and being cheered on by the rest of the team.

We also had Slime Ball, where teams had to get down to the slime of a grape by taking the skin off. Creepy Crawly, they used a stick to get gummy worms from a bowl to cup to cup and see who had the most in the end cup in 2 minutes. and Black Hole two girls are blindfolded and throwing balls and there partners are holding the bowl to toss into, first to get there two in wins the point.

Thanks for a great activity girlies!!

our last day

2009-09-13T15:26:00.003-06:00

So our last day in Sydney took us to the Powerhouse Museum. We saw lots of fun things. Like this bike that I tried out And this shoe that is made out of candy but is really a bike. My kind of shoe!

And I got to play the piano with my tootsies

We got to see coral beds crocheted. It was amazing, they were all different colors there hand to be a couple dozen different coral beds

And of course we played in the kids area. Well everyone but Claire she was snoozen
Lift this...

Pull or push this

Then dump it and start all over.

After we hit the museum we went and met the kiddos at home and Kevin worked at home that day so we could go SWIMMIN'. They took us the the Sydney Olympic Pool. Now I have taken Claire to a pool before and she sat there and cried most of the time. This time she made me nervous she had no fear and went under the water a few times and I had to grab her and she came up a spittin' . She loved floating on her back and get dumped on with the giant bucket of water, and playing with the other kids. There was a lazy river and a slide. And we all had a great time, thus the lack of pictures, sorry to much fun, not time to pose.

Then we had to say our goodbyes and packed up so we could leave for the airport before 6:00a.m.

Claire and Daddy waiting for our plane to leave.

FREEDOM after our long flight she was crazy and all she wanted to do was crawl, so we let her. then onto our flight home

THANK YOU so much Stacy, Kevin, Madi, Cooper and Rylee for letting us come and stay. We loved visiting and seeing you and all the places you love to go. Thanks for letting us use the Hutchinson Hotel for a few weeks.

A Day of Sightseeing

2009-09-12T14:07:00.007-06:00

So after headed to the Blue Mountains and to see the famous Opera House and the Gardens, the next day we decided to go Whale watching. We kindly asked Stacy if she could watch Claire for us and we headed out.

We saw lots of this...and this...
and this....
but we saw no whales. We got a free trip back, and ended up giving to Stacy and Kevin. Mind you when Stacy found out we would get a free trip of we didn't see whales, she said I hope you don't see any whales. So I am giving credit to Stacy for no whale seeing. But the Ocean is beautiful and we got to see many things on our trip out and in.
Then since we had no Claire we planned to meet with Kevin and we went to the Sydney Tower. There is a simulation about Australia and an observation deck.
The view was beautiful. Kevin lookin' at the sights.
And of course to boys wanted to play outdoors. So me being the youngest child that I am tagged along. We took the Sky Walk tour. They take you outside (attached of course) and we walk along and the guide tells us about Sydney, the truth, the lies and the rumors. Of course there has to be at least on glass floor. (I tell you am an not afraid of heights so much as falling from those heights, is that the same thing??) anywho. So we get to the second much smaller glass floor and she tells us to hold onto the railing and look over, I was feeling good about that, and then all of a sudden movement, and it was getting bigger. Oh too much excitement makes your heart pound, and that is what it did. But we got some great pictures.

Hands up like we just don't care(well I do, but who wouldn't pose for a once in a lifetime picture)Look at the view, gorgeous
Lookin' scared just for me!
Look at us we don't care (again, I did a little)

Mean while back at the Hutchinson Hotel, we had all sorts of fun going on. Cute picture Stace!!

Back to our Adventures

2009-09-09T21:31:00.007-06:00

We still have 5 days left in Sydney to tell about and having a birthday and weekend out of town cased a brake in the telling. So now is as good as any to tell, seeing as the hubby is at school and the girlie is sleeping soundly. We last saw ourselves in Toukley with a rented van and a great time with the Barrs. We kept the van an extra day so that we wouldn't have to make Stacy drive us up to the Blue Mountains. That means Brandon was driving and a few times I was afraid of hitting something, seeing as we drive on the opposite side of the road. We headed up to the mountains and I was warned to not think of Utah mountains when going to see them, they are not the same. Also The day we headed to the Blue Mountains was our 4 wedding anniversary.
The Blue Mountains, when it is not as windy and cold like it was when we got there, the Eucalyptus Trees give off the sense that the mountains are blue
The Three Sisters, the Legend is: The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.
The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.
As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come. There is another Legend saying that they were changed to stone to protect them from danger.
After being in the cold and Claire shivering, we headed to get some yummy hot chocolate.
So we got this cup with a metal cup inside and candle in the bottom, we pour the milk in and put the chocolate pieces in and stir. When it is how we like it we drink from the straw. So good, we decided to come home with one.
Brandon enjoying his cocoa
I also tried this Tart, seeing as sweets are not as sweet, I was able to eat the whole thing without flinching. Sorry I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a picture until Brandon reminded me.

And Claire loved the tart as well, look at her eyes, she was so happy I shared. Then we headed to Wentworth Falls, and saw this beautiful waterfall.

The Next Day Stacy and Rylee joined us in going to the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens.
The Sydney BridgeDifferent sides of the Opera House

Then we headed into the Botanical Gardens to meet Kevin for lunch and then a look around. They have bats in there trees. It was amazing to see.

Then from the Gardens you can go to the Government Building

Stay tuned if you would like to hear more of our trip.

Birthday and Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T15:40:00.002-06:00

Claire had a great birthday got some great presents. It started out with us heading to her 1 year check-up and shots. She is right on track except for her weight. Her stats are:
Height: 30 inches 90%
Head: 45.5 cm 70%
and her weight, which was the deciding factor of if we can use her new car seat is
19 lbs 6 oz 15% we are a half a pound away from being were you need to be to use a big girl car seat. She all weekend we tried to plump her up. Tall and skinny this girl is.
I also was needing to ask the pediatrician about her running eyes, she had gotten a cold a few days before her birthday and I was just wondering if it had something to do with that, seeing as I was wiping gross pus from her eyes every 1 to 2 hours. She said we will treat that and she has pink eye. Great 5 days of a gel on the eyes and we will be back to normal. Though she was not super happy at her party and wouldn't eat her cake and ice cream only pick at it.

I asked Heather (my SIL) a few weeks ago if she could make a Tinkerbell Cupcake cake. and it turned out great.
We opened lost of great presents.
Here is a shot of her sad eyes
eating he cake and ice cream

Then we heading the next day to Delta, Claire let us put her life jacket on so she could ride in the boat. The last times, she just screamed whenever we tried to put it on. This time was succes and she loved the boat rides she got.
Claire and I going to watch Uncle Chad ski.

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

2009-09-03T11:43:00.007-06:00

Well, I can hardly believe it, but today is Claire's birthday. She is 1 and I still can't quite believe a year ago she came to our family. She is a great blessing, and brings joy to us every day.

Crazy to think that she started out so small and has grown to be right on track.

When she is really happy she will bring her hand to her mouth and laugh and smile.

A little about our little one year old:
Crawling on everything, she has mastered the stairs.
She loves to make us laugh and sometimes waits for the reaction and then laughs along with us.
She has 3 teeth, with more on the way.
She is getting the hang of climbing on things and will stand and cruise.
She really loves almost all foods, whatever you give her she will eat.
Bread she loves. You might also notice that she is kneeling, she does this all the time. Her position of choice I think.
She loves to get into any door left open, the freezer is no different. She loves the cold feel of the freezer I think.

She will put anything on her head, paper, books, phones, blocks, and she will wait for you to say "Hello" and then get a huge grin on her face.
Claire for the most part is content with life and ready for whatever comes her way, she does things at her own pace, push her and she might just lick you (that's right I said lick, when she gets mad at me she licks me, I am a little unsure of why, but I am just glad she doesn't use her teeth), but gets really excited when she gets something accomplished.

Happy birthday Girlie, we love you lots!!!

Toukley

2009-09-01T22:03:00.007-06:00

We had the amazing opportunity to go and meet up with Brandon's mission president and his wife, The Barr's. They happen to be from Australia and about an hour and a half from where Stacy and Kevin live. We rented a slightly bigger van, seeing as Kevin didn't want to ride his scooter all the way there, (I don't blame him). We drove through some beautiful places and ended up at a beach to eat some lunch and take a little hike to see the sites.Peter and Genny
Madi of course had to build a sand castle. Stacy and Madz went and checked out the beach for sand castle material. They found some great stuff. And we watched Madi in action.
The finished product, it looks amazing.
Here is the view of the top of the "hike" we went on.
The hill we climbed. We almost lost a tennis ball down the hill a few times, but had people catch it luckily.

Cooper's rocks
After our climb we went down to a beach that had rock pools in them, and the kids had a great time building with the rocks. Stacy said that when they went to New Zealand they saw rock statues everywhere, and every since then Cooper would build one every chance he could, usually they are just one rock on top of each other, but this is what the kids did. Madi's rocks.
here is Stacy's one rock on top of the other, she went pretty high for the rocks she had to use.
Family shot
Here at Soldier's beach we watched the waves come in and as they came in Madi and Cooper would cheer...

...and the holes would fill in, then they would jump in them.
Saturday night Peter took us to a place (strangely enough it was on private property of a mental institution) to feed Wild Kangaroos, nothing like the Kaola Park were they ate out of your hand, not it was safer to just throw it to them. There were dozens of them, just coming out of the bush and the sun was setting.
Here is a shot of the Kangaroo and Joey
Rylee fed the kangaroo's with pleasure until one tried to bit her a little bit.
These were big Kangaroos none we had seen yet were that big.
Sunday we headed to church and then went back to the Barr's for a great lunch and then off to more sights. We were taken to see a pelican feeding. Pelicans are massive, ever seen Finding Nemo??? Well they are not as cute as that. From far away they are beautiful close up they looked completely different. We got to sit up close and watch them get there fish, it was interesting to watch.
After the Pelicans we headed over to see a light house. It was beautiful and then headed down the stairs to yet another Beach.

Stacy and IFamily shot
The Barrs at the Lighthouse
stacy took some great shots of us on the rocks.
Leaving the Barr's was hard for Madi she got so attached. She has already made plans to go back and swim in there pool and go see more sights. And the Barr's are in the Temple two days a week and have been invited over for some Raspberry shakes.

Thanks so much for having us, we enjoyed the time we got to spend and get to know you!! We appreciated you opening your house and hearts to us. Thank you!!!

Her Second white Dress

2009-08-31T12:30:00.002-06:00

The 14th of August was Madi's actual birthday, but seeing as we held something very special that night instead is why we celebrated a day early. Madi got baptized by her daddy on her birthday. It was a very wonderful night.

Madi had this dress made by my Mom, she wanted it to twirl.
Madi and her Dad before getting baptized and confirmed
The happy family
Madi and her girlie friends (she was able to invite some great friends with there parents. Not being of the same faith their parents thanked Madi and her parents for inviting them to this amazing night)
Charlette and Madi (there great babysitter)
The Missionaries
Madi wearing her other dress Grandma Cooper made and her pretty Daisy.
Thanks Madi for having your baptism while he could be there, it was so special and great to see you make this great decision. We love you and all the good choices you made and will make.

Mona Vale and a Little Birthday Celebration

2009-08-28T17:16:00.004-06:00

On the 13th we headed over to Mona Vale Beach and had a good time in the sand and just taking pictures of the cold water (remember it is winter over there)
Family shotI was worried Claire wouldn't do well on the sand, she cried for a little bit and then wanted to play, though she wouldn't crawl on it. The best part of the beach is the fact that no one can stop me from eating as much sand as I can get my hands on. It was funny to watch her eat as much as she could as fast as she could.
All of Stacy's kids love the beach, Rylee does to and we played and played.
Rylee and Claire playing with the beach toys.
Rylee and I buried each others feet.
digging a hole
Rylee fed the pigeon's her crackers that fell in the sand it was fun to watch her run after them to give it to them. (the pigeon's there are so much cleaner there then here, they are actually white.)
And we watched the surfers catch the waves.

After the Beach we got all cleaned up to celebrate Madi's 8th birthday. She had her own Mickey Mouse shaped cake and we sang to her. Brandon never did give her those birthday spankings she needed. She ran away fast.

After cake she opened presents, pillow cases from Grandma Cooper, (shhh, don't let the other grandkids know:) ).
A way cute Build a bear that was a Kanagaroo, some tinkerbell earrings, clothes and a few other things, but you can not forget THIS::

Her brand new Pink Scooter that she rode for days up and down the hallway.
Happy Birthday Madz. We love ya lots!!! Glad we were there to share it with you.

Days 6, and 7...

2009-08-27T17:18:00.006-06:00

took us to The Rocks, Hyde Park, 2 Museums and a VERY Expensive Mall.

Day 6 was Stacy and Kevin's 11th Anniversary, Happy Anniversary again so we headed over to the Rocks, which is an like an Old Town. It was fun to walk through it. We went to The Rocks Discovery Museum, and we found out a little more about Australia. It looked like it use to be a house and it was quite small, but we found this inside:a pinball machine

Then we headed home to watch the kids so the love birds could go out to dinner and a movie

Wednesday we headed over to Hyde Park, walked around a bit and then made our way to the Australian Museum.this is a dinosaur aged Wombat, it is massive
Brandon wants one of these when he dies, they are abarigonal.here is a stuffed Dingo in the kids area. we learned about bones and I rode the bike to see which bones worked as I pedalled, suprisingly more than I thought

had some lunch then had a little snooze

walked around hyde Park some more, it is on two sides of the street. We were in search of the large chess set, but only found the board no pieces, such a bunch of people playing little sets.

Queen Victoria Building The Mall that you walk in and see designer names as stores and 2 shirts on sale for $199.99. So expensive they did not put price tags on there items. That when you know you are high end.

Wisemen's Ferry and the Zoo

2009-08-26T15:29:00.008-06:00

After Dera and Mark went to the airport for there long journey home we headed to Wismens Ferry. A place where the ferry crosses cars and stuff to the other side. They had this fun playground and we had a great time playing. Cooper and Madi of course had to build sand castles on the small beach and were not to happy about leaving to eat. Then we had some Fish and Chips (okay so I had a chicken sandwich and some chips(fries) and tried brandon's fish, still don't like it that much.)
The Lookout to Wisemen's Ferry
Rylee havin a great time playing
Madi building a sand castle
Kevin with Madi and Cooper
The corring of the ferrysCooper's sand castle
Playing on the slide
A few days later after a nice relaxing Sunday and people thinking I was Dera and Brandon was Mark without a mustache and growing a few inches we headed to the Taronga Zoo it was massive. We took the Ferry across the Harbour and headed on a lift to the top and made our way down again. It took us all day to do so. On the lift to the top the animals we saw

Brandon really liked this sign thus the picture
The Baby elephant was the big attraction at the zoo
And my new favorite animal the Red Panda, they are so stinkin' cute

That's right this is a Pigeon
Brandon took this amazing picture of trhe mountain goat and the Sydney Opera HouseBrandon is almost as tall as the World's Tallest Baby

I am not sure what all of the animals are named but they had some interesting ones at the zoo. Only in Australia

Day Two in the Land Down Under

2009-08-25T13:56:00.007-06:00

Well Day two of our adventures took us to Kaola Park. When we all needed to get somewhere Kevin had to ride his scooter. Good thing the two older kids were at school or we would have had to take two trips. I took this picture while in the car and everyone was laughing at me and told me I looked like a real tourist. Just trying to fit the part.Som of the fun things at Kaola Park. The animals were so neat. We got to pet a Koala (not a Koala Bear mind you just a Koala) Claire was asleep when we got to the Koala's so she didn't get her picture taken, but we went back later to show her what they looked like. We go to feed Kangaroos with special Roo Food (Cheerios), that Rylee started eating. (hopefully it was just Cheerios)

We got to watch a Pengiun feeding, they eat there little fishes whole, and they were so cute.

We saw quite a few Kangaroos with there Joey's head poking out. Did you know they have a baby in there pouch and then when that baby comes out (two years later I think) they have another one move on in.

The Dingo is a dog looking animal, but they are wild and mean. Maybe the Dingo really will eat the baby!!

After the Koala Park we headed home and got ready to go to the Temple, Stacy and Kevin's favorite babysitter came over and was nice enough to also watch Claire. We headed to dinner at a Korean BBQ where we sat at the table and BBQed our own food.
Me eating Jelly (not Jello). Sweets there are not as sweet and I really liked that. Wow do we make things to sweet.
Mark eating his Octupus that might I add still had eyes, and so did his shrimp. I made him turn them around so I couldn't see the eyes.
The Gang, minus Kevin who was taking the picture.
After dinner we headed to the Sydney Temple to do a session and take some photos.
What a great way for Dera and Mark to finish there holiday.
What a beautiful temple.

until next time

Australia Day 1

2009-08-24T17:46:00.008-06:00

Well We have made it too and from Australia and had a great time.
Claire playing with the suitcases before leaving.At the airport waiting to leave for our long trip. Claire did better than I thought she would.
We got to Australia really early in the morning and becuase I was worried that Claire would wake up other passengers I only slpet for about 40 minutes. Needless to say we were all really tired. We got there took showers and headed out, (my sister and her family that we visited and my sister and her husband that were almost done with there trip wanted us to stay awake.) We went to Paddy's market (a market we got most of our souvenior shopping done at), then had some lunch (our lunch was tuna fish on crackers, not just any tuna fish it is flavored over there, mexican style, lemon pepper, you name they have it).

After lunch we head over to the Maritime Museum and walk through
3 of the 4 sisters
Being piratesStacy not quite sure what I was talking about being pirates. "r"

Claire and I

Bunken Down in a Submarine
The Globe I forgot I wasn't suppose to touch, There are signs all over the rim of the globe they told me to pose for the picture so I went to turn it to find Utah. (oops)
a boat made out of beer cans
After the Maritime Museum we headed over to the Sydney Aquarium, Claire LOVED the aquarium. She would get to excited and want to grab the fish.
Claire "feeding the shark". Rylee kissing the fish through the glass so cute. Spongebob was in some of the fish tanks, we tried to find him.

Some fun pictures of some of the animals

after the Aquarium we grabbed some dinner and got on the train to head home. We were exhausted and Brandon and Claire fell asleep on the train. If you look closely there is a slight grin, I was still awake.
Brandon was so tired he rolled his pajamas up on the floor and laid down. We all slept for about 13 hours that night and were ready for more adventures.
More to come for our fun times.

Some of the Numbers in my life!

2009-07-20T13:07:00.005-06:00

Dress #3 is finished, (my most favorite I think so far) I did it all by myself except for the zipper (thanks mom). #4 here I come.
Claire had her 1st toostie roll pop and 2 packs of smarties, thanks to 1 of the ladies I visit teach.

Brandon and I went on a date to see the 6th Harry Potter, and a dinner for 2 and I really enjoyed it.

Less than 4 weeks until we head on a 14 hour flight with a 11 month old to the land down under to see 5 of my most favorite people.

I have lost 22 pounds since being back at the gym after my 1st was born. Starting 7 1/2 months ago, they say it takes 1 year to get back into shape, so 4 1/2 more months bring it on. Goal weight is set at _____ (think I am going to tell, maybe when I feel more comfortable) only 10 more pounds to lose for that goal.

I love the numbers in my life, how are the numbers in yours??

Cooper Campout 2009

2009-07-13T18:30:00.006-06:00

Was held in Manti at the Temple Hill Resort. As the name reveals we stayed next to the Temple, which is beautiful, and is lit all night long (which comes in handy sometimes).
We started out on Thursday whenever you could get there. Claire and I headed out at about 12:00 and got there around 2:00, Brandon had work and school so he came up on Friday. We set up camp and played in the water, there is a pool at this "resort", and we also had a kiddie pool that Janae bought. We had amazing dutch oven BBQ chicken and dutch oven potaotes. (is your mouth watering yet?, mine is.)
We hung out and played games, board games,

Bacci (don't know if I spelled that right) Ball, which is a game that you take a small white ball and throw it, you try to get your color of balls, (red or green depending on what team you are on) the closest to the white ball.

Barbies

this year we got T-shirts, janae did a great job on the design

Claire did well through the night, minus the hour we were awake in the middle, all though before this she was having problems as well, so I don't know. Anyways that is were the Temple comes in, she was screaming and everytime I got her back to sleep and put her down she would start to cry again, so finally I got out of the tent and we went and sat by the fire pit and all she could do was stare at the Lit up Temple and about 30 mintues later she was asleep. It was a very peaceful 30 mintues. (bytheway about 20 minutes after posting my last post, I was getting some last minute things packed for our trip and put Claire on the floor, and well she crawled to me, so she is getting the hang of the crawling thing now)

Here she is playing in her play pen.

Friday Started out really early for brandon, some of the fellas go golfing somewhere every year, so there tee time was at 7:14 a.m. that meant he had to leave at 4:30 to get there in time. They had a great time golfing.

While they golfed, we tye dyed shirts

and had a pinata

then we went to the pool, hung out until dinner and pictures at the temple in our chirst,and then we went into Ephraim for some pizza at one of the local resturants. This pizza place we went to was connected to the cutest ice cream/ candy shop ever. You sit at the bar and order you candy and ice cream. So at one point a lot of the kids had change in hand and were sitting at the bar.

We had s'mores and talked around the fire. and then headed to bed. Saturday we cleaned up and headed home, to get cleaned up and play some more. My sister and her family live out of state so we play as long as they are around. So we headed back over to my mom's and played all night, some until 4:30 a.m. playing board games. Then we headed to church, and got back together after church for some food and goodbyes.

It was a great campout, Brandon and I are in charge of planning next year. We missed the Hutchinsons who are out of the country, but maybe they will be home for next years, and I didn't have any major accidents this year YAHOO!!