Carson turns Five!

For Carson's birthday it was pretty much dragon centered. I told him he already had a dinosaur party and an animal party previously so pick something else. So he chose dragons! His cake was fantastic, thank you Julie. As far as decorations went, I photoshopped Carson's head on How to train your dragon, and called it good. We ate dragon eggs(edamame) and pizza pockets. The kids ate it all. We decorated hats and opened presents. Earlier that day, we visited the Aquarium, very fascinating for being so far away from the ocean. Carson and Morgan refused to touch the Rays (malia touched it just fine, no surprise there). So after some coaxing, bribing, not much happening. So Wes took Carson's hand and shoved it into the water. Immediatly Carson was frightened, then after touching it was ecstatic! It was so untypical of Wes to do and I'm sure the other parents had their thoughts, but it became the highlight of Carson's day. Morgan followed suit on his own right after. They loved seeing the eel, and the blue poisen dart frog and the jellyfish.

Carson said it was the best day in his whole life. mission accomplished.

Next up, Morgan's already planning his "Survivor" birthday. uhhhg, good thing they're only once a year! (I added some pictures of Carson last summer, he loves his dinos!)

St.george and first race

We went to St. George the first weekend in March for some much needed suntime. My family took the kids, so grateful for that, I know they are busy and how hard it can be to babysit, but I know I am such a better mom with breaks.

We did this fun little mountain bike race, only about 15 miles but made me realize how much I could use some endurance training. The downhill was fun but the uphill not so much. Bike Fix hooked us up with some jerseys and it was fun to race as a team. Wes's chain broke the first five minutes, I don't know if he just has bad luck at races or he's super hard on his bikes. He fixed it and finished. I completely missed the finish gate and by the time I realized it and pedaled back I had gone from fourth to eleventh. Booh!

Anyways, I have come to terms with the fact that I need to road bike to get some endurance skill and I swore I'd never do it- (frankly, it scares me-cars, storm drains you name it). But the good people at bike fix are starting group rides and offered to loan me a road bike, so here goes nothing.

Malia turns 2!

Malia thinks she is 5, if you ask her, that is what she'll say. She knows the abc song and loves to ride her scooter. She watched me remove my contacts one day and said,"why are you taking your eyes out!!?" She also loves to draw like the boys. She covers the whole page and will tell you all about it.

Her birthday was fun. Grandma Julie made a tinkerbell cake, just what malia ordered.

White baby tiger

We had the awesome chance to go see this little kitty- A neighbor of Wes' family is a vet who takes care of Lagoons animals. Apparently lagoons zookeepers didn't know their white tiger was pregnant (seriously?) and she had her babies on the cold cement, three of which died. She walked away from them as if to say to the zookeepers, "See what you've done? I need to be in the wild!" They are only $20,000 to buy. I'll take two.

He had the cutest baby roar I've ever heard! It's like alvin and the chipmunks meets Aslan.

Anyway it was a rare opportunity one I and the kids, esp. Carson will remember for a long time.

Winter Fun and Museums

One thing about winter that drives me crazy is having to stay inside. Last couple of weeks we have tried to get out often. We went sledding, built a humongus snow fort/slide, went to the dinosaur museum, and to the church history Museum in salt lake city.

It takes about 3o minutes to get the kids all dressed up to go outside, sometimes they're begging me to go and sometimes I'm begging them. I have a little thing for good gear esp. gloves and boots. Too often when I taught skiing the kids would complain of cold because they had on very cheap gloves. If you can afford a 50$ ski ticket for your kid, you can afford good gloves. (I went to Jans in PC, they are 50% off downstairs) It's worth it because they stay out longer and have more fun. So anyway, the day after the snowstorm we built a huge fort, something I haven't done since elementary. It took about 2 hours and I was sore the next day. But a good workout! The kids also look and feel healthier when they spend time outside.

The museum of Church History was great. There is no charge and it has greatly improved since I went last at five years old. It's alot like the gateway museum for kids, lots of fun things to do centered around the history of the book of Mormon. Malia spent quite a while dancing the spanish dance in front of a mirror. I definitely recommend it and don't know why they don't advertise it better.

The dinosaur museum gets old for me, maybe from spending a whole summer inside it helping paint the murals, but Carson loves it. He takes off the minute we get inside and rattles off all the different dinosaurs he sees.

Happy birthday Wes

I am glad for birthdays. It encourages to get me to get out and celebrate the lives of those I love, and in Wes's case, rarely see much. So I was happy to spend the day away, with just him. It was nice to go skiing and get to know each other again.

Carson said the other day, "Before you guys had kids you were Jess and Wes." Although I admit at times I miss being Jess and Wes, I will never be happier than as Mom and Dad. Even though sleep is often interrupted by cold little feet finding vacant spaces in our bed, and I often times stay in my jammies way longer than I should playing legos with the kids and transforming Optimus Prime back into a truck for the fortieth time for Carson. I overly worry about their health, I pray daily that thier bodies will be strengthened and preserved. I've never really felt that being a mother was my area of expertise and rely heavily on prayer and intuition to get me through the day. Regardless, I have never known greater happiness than what I feel when I look into their smiling faces, as they play like the lilies, carefree, reminding me of the constant watchful eye our Heavenly Father has on all His children.

Carl Bloch Exhibit

I have to thank Carl Bloch for helping me have a more christ centered christmas. We had the oppertunity to see his amazing oil paintings in their originaly at the Byu Museum of art.

I went with the expectation of a to see a religious art show and came out completely awed by the fact that it had touched me so. My first impressions were of the amazing qualities of the artworks themselves, and how he paints like Rembrantde, with fantastic depth and contrast. Then I saw the painting of Christ in Gesthsemane and while discussing it with my sister came to a deeper appreciation for not just the technique and genius of the painting, but for the message and feelings it was bringing to my heart. The pains of suffering and the ultimate peace the Gospel brings when we put our trust in God.

There aren't very many older paintings of Christ that invoke such spirituality and I mostly credited that to lack of inspiration from God through the dark ages. But I looked into the dates of the religious commissions he had done and found them to be after the restoration of the gospel which meant he HAD to of had devine revelation in producing these works. Needless to say the show enhanced my appreciation of good religious art immensely, and created in my own heart a greater desire to produce more christ centered art myself one day.