thats not bird poop...

Mae and I were playing on the floor today. We were having a great time and I decided to lift her up. That's usually one of her favorite activities, but not this afternoon. So I looked up at her and got my eye closed just in time for...



SPLAT. Yeah, she spit-up all over me. Can you even see it on my ear? I was just glad I got my eye closed in time! That's the last time I play with her!

instant grassification...

We moved into our BEAUTIFUL Springville home in December of 2005, almost 2 years ago. We have loved almost everything about our charming 106 year old home, except for our vacant yard. For our first two years of occupation, all we had was .18 acres of dirt, weeds, a chestnut tree and a maple tree.

When we bought the yard, there was a sprinkler system installed. We thought all we would have to do is stick heads on the funny pipe and plop down sod. Well...the person who designed and installed the sprinkler system was either 5 or had no common sense. So it was back to the drawing board.

We so badly wanted a yard, but ran out of time and money last year. We dedicated ourselves this year, and BARELY made it. We started to realize about mid-August that the summer was coming to a close and if we indeed wanted it to happen this year, we were going to have to enlist some serious help.

Enter Toby and Justin. Toby and Justin have been Jayson's best friends for awhile, and they are quite experienced in the landscaping arena. So we sprayed our weeds for the seventh time (seriously), tilled, and in one day, the boys created us a sprinkler system.


Every time there was a piece of heavy machinery in our yard, Jayson would yell to me "get the video camera!" To date, we've had a tractor from the Sumsion farm, a borrowed tractor with a tiller from Mapleton city, a rented bobcat, that thing in the picture above that would tear your face off, and a stump grinder. That thing above was driven by a guy who trenched out our sprinkler system in about 20 minutes. Unbelievable.


Mae got to spend a lot of time in the yard with her dad while I went to work for Jayson. She was SUCH a trooper and hardly every complained.


Here are our trenches with the sprinklers in and glued. They did this all on a Saturday, then installed the heads the following Monday and Tuesday. After that it was rake, rake, rake, and grade, grade, grade.

Here's Justin installing the sprinkler system. He worked so hard.


Here are some before sod/after sprinkler pictures.






The day our sod arrived, we found a pretty big problem in the shape of a 100 year old tree stump. We tried some different tactics, but in the end we had to rent a stump grinder. Only when we got it to our house, the battery was dead. So after trying to jump start it, we finally called in Ace and they came and fixed it. Luckily, the guy also ground out about half the stump.

Here's our sod on the truck!!!!!!!!!!!! We had to wait a week from the time we ordered it until it shipped, and we thought it would be forever, but we needed every last second of that week to prep the yard.

It was announced in the Elders quorum (the adult men) of our ward (Church congregation) that we would be laying our sod, and we had about 40 people from the neighborhood show up. We were floored to have so much help. It only took about 40 minutes to lay all the sod. It went so fast I hardly had time to take any pictures.


We even had some kids who were willing to help. It was so amazing.


I couldn't believe it! In 40 minutes, I had a lawn!


Afterwards, we promised everyone J Dawgs (maybe thats why so many people showed up?!). We all sat on the lawn and enjoyed. It was a lot of fun to relax in our yard!

Here are some after pictures. We love having a lawn and can't wait until its a little more established so we can really play on it.



Thank you to everyone who helped us in our yard. We can't thank you enough. We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy to have it.

how do they learn these things?

"Oh! Its for me?"

"Hello, this is Mae. Hey! How are you doing?"

"Oh my gosh, today I had the most amazing bottle. It was warm and delicious and creamy...."

we're not the only ones!

We've been busy. So so so busy. I keep reminding myself that September and April are like that for us. But I've really felt like a terrible parent lately. Mae is always being toted around and spends a lot of time in her pack-and-play while we're catering or working. I feel like I take
advantage of the fact that she's such a good baby, and maybe exploit her a little.


So Saturday night was all about Mae. We tried to do things that she'd like and give her a break. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner (we could tell that's what she wanted) and saw this...



This poor little boy was asleep outside the kitchen at the restaurant. I'm pretty sure he was the son of the owner. I'm not sure whether I was relieved or felt even worse, but all I could say was "we're not the only ones!"

teeth!

I had to put this up because it shows her two recent additions so well.

I love my husband...

i don't think anyone has as much fun as we do.

my bruce willis...

It was a HOT summer.

In an effort to beat the heat, or maybe just for a new look, Jayson got a makeover. After we got back from Portland, he requested that I shave his head. No big deal I thought. We started with a pretty long attachment on our clippers, and boy was I glad we did. There were several "oh craps" and several layers taken off. In the end, he got the shortest all over. Oops.


We thought about saving the hair...then we decided that was nasty so we took a picture instead.


Here he is. Pretty sexy, huh? Almost looks like Bruce Willis.

After we did it we kept looking back at pictures and I think we both wondered why we wanted to cut it so badly. It has been a good change and it will grow out. Or maybe he'll decide he wants to keep it forever. Whatever!

South Fork

Our family has a long standing tradition of going to South Fork Park for Sunday dinner. Mom always loved it up there, and was always planning picnics for us. We've missed Mom and decided to meet up in her honor. Tricia made a delicious salad and we played for a few hours. It was such a nice afternoon up Provo Canyon.

We had some cookies, and Mae discovered them and (can you tell?) chowed them. Max, Kirk and Tricia's dog, wished he could have some too.

Drew and Mae had a blast together.

Jake and Kirk practiced for Jake's upcoming football season.


Joshy was more interested in the water. He thought it was hilarious to put his face in the water. Sara soon followed.

South Fork is one of my favorite places. We need to get up there again soon because the leaves have started to change, and its SO beautiful.

they grow up so fast...

Our daughter Mae is unbelievable. There is nothing like being a parent. Mae is the best thing that's ever happened to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. I stand by that statement.


Here she is with some blueberries. She is such a finicky eater, but that morning she was all about blueberries.


She has become quite the crawler. She can get around so fast! And boy does she get into EVERYTHING.


We took a trip to Salt Lake the other day and she was so cute by the temple.

Here we are on a hay ride. I love that snuggly bear!


This picture doesn't need any explanation. It's just Mae in a cauldron.


We are so lucky to have such a well mannered baby. She is always SO happy and so easy. She is always up to whatever we have her do.

Mae and Jayson play so well together. She loves her dad.

Mae and TV

I hate to admit it, but I caved. I finally plopped Mae in front of the television and hoped she would watch so I could steal away for a few minutes. I think I tried to find something educational, like Nursery rhymes or Signing Time. It may as well have been Terminator 2 (ha ha!) because she only sat still long enough for the picture. I guess I should relish the fact that she doesn't love TV now--but sometimes I just wish she would sit still!


Seriously, have you ever seen anything more adorable? She's hugging her penguin for heavens sake!

small victories

So...I gained 40 pounds when I was pregnant. That's quite a bit, especially if your baby is only 5 pounds of that. Lets just say I used pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted, including 2 chocolate milkshakes a day.

So I paid the price and that weight has been clinging to me like I clinged to those milkshakes. I worked pretty hard to lose it, and I had lost a majority of it. But I was getting to the point where I just wasn't accomplishing what I wanted. I finally decided to join weight watchers after seeing many people succeed at the program. I've been doing pretty well, I've lost 13 pounds since joining weight watchers 5 weeks ago. But the biggest victories have come on nights like the one pictured above. I finally got into some old pants of mine that I haven't worn in 1.5 years. Obviously I'm not done, but I feel SO SO SO SO SO SO SO much better. I would highly recommend weight watchers to anyone who is looking to make a life change, even if weight is not an issue. Eating better just FEELS better.

Watch Mae shake it!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

check this out

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!my sister amy created this for me, and it is by far the funniest thing i have ever seen. check us out.