Oooohhhh!!!

So, I have this dream. I want to find a cabin somewhere and lock myself in for an entire weekend and do nothing but make stuff. I have so many ambitions - so many new things I want to try, cute little things I want to make for my kids, quilts to sew, cutesy little kitchen towels to make... the list goes on and on. BUT I have a house that I need to keep clean, 2 kids who starve for my attention even though they are far from being attention-starved by any shape of the imagination, a needy dog, a spoiled cat, and a husband who works harder than any living being should... oh, and that whole daycare thing I'm trying to get up and running.. more on that later. (Need an awesome daycare?! I know of one!!!)
OK, maybe I need to lock myself up for a week.. or a month.. oh, but what would happen to my house? Or I could just stop sleeping. I've actually considered that.
Anyway. I saw these tonight and almost DIED.

CUTEST CLIPPIES EVER!!!!!
Let me just say that having a little girl has forever shifted my ambition to make cute little crafty things. I REALLY want to make these!!! They are SO CUTE!! I got it at this website - Little Birdie Secrets. Awesome awesome awesome blog that walks you through - or at least points you to someone who will - darling projects.
Insomnia for the purpose of making cutesy little things, here I come! :)

My New Food Blog

I love to cook and I really enjoy trying out new recipes regularly, so I decided to start up a new food blog. It can be found here --> www.paulsonpantry.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!

Princess Spunk and Other Stuff

It's another Steve-free night :( - he's out helping a family remodel their bathroom - so I'm taking some time out to blog about what's been going on, post some DARLING pictures, and watch So You Think You Can Dance - so glad that's on this season!!!

So, in the next two weeks, the house will get a fire inspection and a health inspection and after that we're DONE getting ready for the daycare and I'll hopefully have that license in my hand.

There are SO many things I need to blog about.. like the fact that we have a dog. Or our INSANE garden. I think I've picked like a thousand cucumbers and have more peppers than I know what to do with. And, I was totally amazed this year by how many tomatoes a single plant can yield. And, don't get me started on the spaghetti squash. Or my infatuation with fall and how I'm counting the days.. but tonight it's all about Kathrynn, my spunky little princess (don't worry, Joe will get his own post, too). She's been so cute and so sweet lately and has been a total HAM for the camera, so I've got some good stuff to post. Plus, she just had a really bad night tonight. She was sad and uncomfortable and went to bed early.

Anyway, less talk, more action...



Here she says she's a baby. :) This is one of my favorite facial expressions!

Having so much fun!!!

Reading "Go Dog Go," her favorite book - I have to read it EVERY night and several times during the day.


I just love this little girl - she has so much light and is full of love - and she's fun and spunky and just hilarious. Tonight, she was pointing out my eyes and nose and cheeks and chin and then looked up at my hair and said, "Mommy, you're a chocolate head." (She had just asked for chocolate because she was trying to go potty.) She is an absolute mommy's girl and I just love that. She brings so much joy into my life. :)

Because I'm a Nerd Like This...

Thanks, Nie.

I have become consumed by a blog that I somehow tripped upon a few months ago - The Nie Nie Dialogues. There's something so unique and beautiful about it and it seriously touches my heart. It's written by a remarkable mother of four who was in a terrible plane accident a year ago and suffered burns on 80% of her body. I've read the story of the accident and her life since, but have been curious about her life previous to the accident, so about a week ago, I decided to start from the beginning - she's been blogging for about four years. And, I have to say, that just from reading her blog, a change has come in me. I'm about 18 months from her current post, so I haven't read everything yet, but what I have read has truly touched my life for good in so many ways.
She has such an optimism, such a true love and spirit for motherhood and for being a good wife and homemaker. Her focus is on the joy that her family brings her and the simple and beautiful things in life. She has brought out things in me that I've been trying to bring out on my own, and through the inspiration that I've received through her blog and her amazingly sweet spirit and strong faith, I find it effortless to do the things necessary to complete the day to day tasks in my life while maintaining a sweet spirit in my home. My love appreciation for Steve and our children has grown exponentially. I see so much more in them than I have before.
Steve is truly a knight in shining armor - though a humble one. Any problem always seems instantly resolved when he comes into the picture. And he always helps everyone so willingly, and I'm more in love with him than I can say I've ever been. Joe and his amazing spirit and raw talent and pure little testimony of Christ. Kathrynn and her amazing spunk and LOVE for life. You can see it in her eyes all of the time - she loves life and she means to live it to the fullest. And Drew, with her longing for peace and comfort and her gigantic heart.
I just needed to express my gratitude for the things she has shared with the world and for the amazing life she has lived and created for her children. She has also taught me not to take a single moment for granted. I'm able to see now the work I am here to do and don't want to lose a single moment idly standing by.

Other things...
Remodeling our home is nearly complete, though not quite all of the way complete, which is why pictures haven't been posted. I'm getting a lot of grief for not posting said pictures, though, so I may just give in and do before and almost afters.
We are inches away from starting the day care. My fingerprints finally came back (sent the first batch in in March), so now we're just ironing out the last few details and I'll be turning in my paperwork hopefully in the next week or two. And away we go...
Steve has started school this semester, working on his pre-reqs for Nursing school. He is the busiest person in the world right now and every moment I have with him is treasured.
This is totally the beginning of a new phase in our lives. It feel like we're walking into a tunnel and there's a big giant light at the end of it, but it will be a couple of years before we get there. I can say with assurance that this will all be worth it and that Steve is going into the best possible field for himself.
I've felt so many little changes within myself - all for the absolute best. Little ways to take care of my family better, like focusing more on having whole foods in our home and making everything I can from scratch rather than buying processed, ready made foods. This will definitely change things in my coupon adventures, but I think the benefits will be worth it.
And, best of all, I feel fall coming in. The light is different, leaves are starting to hint that they'll be changing color soon and the wind won't stop blowing. It's almost like it's blowing the new season in. I love fall. It is my favorite season, hands down, and it's the time of year that I feel most alive.

We Are an OCD Family

The Culprits:


The Acts:

First, we have all of the yellow toys together...


And then the pink toys...


And this little number - I was just informed that it's a workshop. :)

The Night Joe Duped Me

So, I was putting Joe to bed and he was gathering up all of the animals that he sleeps with when he asked me where his cat was. I told him that I didn't know and maybe he should do without it tonight, but he looked so bummed out that I went looking for it. After a good 10 minute search, I went back into his room and told him that I couldn't find his cat and that we could look for him in the morning. He looked heartbroken. And then, he got this sly little look on his face and pulled the stinking cat out from under his covers and just laughed and laughed and laughed! It was there the whole time!!! He totally got me! He's ONLY FOUR!!!!!! :)

He's just like his daddy. :)

YEA!!

I'm sure this is old news to a lot of you, I'm just SO excited that the New Moon trailer is out!!!

In Case You're Wondering What We're Up To...

Since it's been forever since I've graced the pages of my blog or facebook page.. here's what's happening with the Paulsons...
(I'll go oldest to youngest just for fun)

Steve:

• Is seriously a stud.
• For the last month or so has been going to a night class Monday-Thursday and hasn't gotten home until 9:30 each night.
  
• In his 'free time' has been remodeling our house, including creating a pantry, rewiring and redoing the plumbing in our basement, creating an entire new room and closet which will be the play room for the day care, building a fence, putting sod in our back yard, creating a grape arbor in the back, planting the grapes that will go with the arbor, building an awning in the back so we can have a little shade, etc. More will happen this weekend, including planting honeysuckle, raspberries, and blackberry bushes.
  
• Has LOVED having a grill and takes over dinner most weekend nights, which I have loved.
• Gave me a rose bush for Mother's Day. So sweet. :)
• Gave me another Mother's Day surprise, which landed him in the emergency room - he had severe abdominal pain that came on fast and turned out to be a kidney stone. Not a fun few days for him.

Julie:

• I've finally found that "click" that involves having a consistently clean, together home. Amazing the correlation between lack of time spent on the internet and cleanliness of my house.
  
• Have gotten a little too involved in my calling. I'm an Activity Day Girl leader (8-11 year old girls) and have been SO busy with it. We just did a big mother/daughter dinner/program for mother's day and I seriously thought I was going to lose my mind before it was over. We had another activity last night that I ran - I think I'm done planning activities until summer's over.
• Although, my class has sharing time this Sunday, so I'm not totally off the hook.
• I've been trying to help Steve as much as possible with the house stuff. I even dug a post hole - I have a lot of respect for how hard he works for us.
• I've been painting the playroom during Kathrynn's naps.
• Have been taking names in my quest to get back down to my pre-Joe weight. I've lost 16 lbs since I started trying (like MONTHS ago..) and am lighter than I was pre-Kathrynn. Only about 10 more lbs to go. :)
• Have been loving having the piano - I've been able to sneak a little time in here and there to play and it is just wonderful to have around.
  

Drew:

• Is very excited to summer vacation and spending a couple of months at our house.
• Has mastered the pogo stick.
• Makes Steve consistently nervous as she grows cuter and cuter and more and more comfortable with boys. :)

Gandalf:

• Is loving the warmer weather and spends all night outside hanging out with the "Yowler."
• Which leads to him sleeping all day long.
• Scratched the heck out me the other day when I was teasing him. I had it coming.

Joe:

• Has been betrothed to the cutest little girl in the world. :)
• Is enjoying the idea of irony. Just as I was putting him to bed tonight he told me it would be hilarious to go to sleep with his sunglasses on and did and laughed and laughed and laughed.
  
• Is SUCH a great helper.
• Informed me the other day that I don't get stinky. I appreciated that. :)
• Has been showing some serious talent with music and art. We hope to hook him up with some piano lessons some time in the near future.

Kathrynn:

• Is an obsessive hugger. It's seriously sweet most of the times, but gets to be a little too much at bedtime when she needs like 20 hugs in order to be satisfied or in the middle of the night when she's crying because she wants a hug.
• Is seriously ready to potty train. I'm just not so ready. Scared out of my mind, really. But, she talks about it, is enamored with her new "big girl pants" and even sets up a diaper and wipes in the usual changing spot when she's ready for a new diaper. I need to just bite the bullet and get her going. Maybe next week.
• Is a button pusher. A big one. If there's something that irritates a particular person, namely Joseph, she will do it. Over and over again. And laugh hysterically. We need to find something to channel that energy into.
• Loves to play "Ring around the rosies."
  
• Oh, did I mention that both kids got croupe the day after our little emergency room trip. Fun times.

Picture time.
Kathrynn's favorites napping position...


Steve's home.. More pictures later. :)

Our Beautiful New Addition

No. Not THAT kind! We got a piano!!!



First, I have to say, I love my husband!!! He picked it out all on his own - can you believe that?! It's gorgeous! He found it on KSL (for those of you not in Utah, it's a newspaper website that lists free classifieds, so anything you want to buy is basically on there because everyone lists) for a STEAL and tried to track me down to get me to go look at it with him but I was was out and about on the impossible mission of finding the right shoes for our kids - hard work. I have the pickiest boy in the world and one of those girls who has to try on EVERY shoe in the shoe aisle.
So, he went without me and told me that he knew, without a doubt, that I would love it - and I DO!

It's an antique and is in AMAZING condition. It's an upright grand piano - it was originally a player piano, but that part was removed and the doors for the player part of permanently closed. It still have the original finish and doesn't have a scratch or nick on it - and it's beautiful. It sounds wonderful, too! I haven't had a chance to play it yet. The kids jumped on as soon as I put the bench under it.

I'm so excited! And, you'd better believe they are too. :)

Happy Easter!

Just Let it All Out

So, today's definitely a tantrum day for Katie. She's two and making sure we're ever-aware of it every second of the day. Today's tantrums, so far, have consisted of (this is in the last 3 hours alone..)
1. Waking up
2. Wanting a pillow on the couch
3. Wanting a second pillow on the couch
4. Wanting a third pillow on the couch
5. The frustration of not being able to fit on the couch with so many pillows
6. A pillow falling off
7. Being put back in her bed for the ridiculous tantrums
8. The fact that I went into the bathroom and actually shut the door *gasp*
9. Something that happened downstairs with Joe that I didn't really bother to check on because I'm a little burnt out on the tantrums already this morning
10. Wanting to play with Cootie
11. Wanting eyes on the Cootie
12. Wanting the eyes off of the Cootie
13. Wanting to move the shampoo bottle
14. Being put back in her room for even more ridiculous tantrums
15. Blocking the door when I tried to open it to let her out

And now we're calm.. for now. I give it 15 minutes. Is it a full moon or something? Maybe the psychotic weather changes. Probably no rhyme or reason. She's just 2.
I've been doing what the pediatrician suggested and just let the tantrums take their course and not reinforce bad behavior. It's just getting a bit ridiculous.

Don't Lick Shopping Carts

...especially WalMart ones.

Ugh. Joe. Joe is going through a whole "nonsense is hilarious" stage where he does and says things that make no sense because he thinks it's oh-so-funny. Well, on Tuesday he decided that it would be just hilarious to lick the shopping cart at both WalMart and Costco. First of all, WalMart is the grossest store in the world in my view and secondly, Costco definitely has it's share of little kids gracing its carts. I warned him that he would get sick, that he would throw up, but did he listen? Nope.

Is he listening now? Oh yeah. He's gone all atomic on me again and is throwing up every couple of hours. That'll teach him.

I know, I'm not sounding very sympathy. He's getting more sympathy than he really needs when he does get sick and is getting a big cartoon day on the couch with his trusty bowl, I just wish he wouldn't have gotten sick out of sheer lack of intelligence on his part. He SOOO knows better.

All About Steve

He never reads my blog, so I feel allowed to do this.. though I think he'd kill me if he saw it, so that's more motivation to get a few new posts up. :)

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Man Vs. Food or How It's Made -- I love the first one, the second puts me to sleep in a matter of minutes
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? cucumber ranch
3. What's one food he doesn't like? Olives. Weirdo.
4. You go out to eat. What drink does he order? Diet Coke
5. Where did he go to high school? Provo High and the one in St. George that's not St. George High.. Ugh! What is it?!
6. What size shoe does he wear? 12
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Norman Rockwell pictures
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Philly Cheese Steak
9. What would he eat every day if he could? Something really bad like Hostess cupcakes.
10. What is his favorite cereal? Cookie Crisp
11. What would he never wear? Skinny Jeans
12. What is his favorite sports team? He's not into sports (thank goodness), but will support the Jazz and the Spurs.
13. Who did he vote for? Obama
14. Who is his best friend? Joe (not our son, Joe, his best friend Joe whom our son Joe was named after)
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Get all girly-emotional.
16. What is his heritage? Dutch, Mexican, major church history ancestry.
17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? His favorite was the mint-chocolate chip ice cream cake I made one year.
18. Did he play sports in high school? He played tennis. He's really good at it. That's why we never play together.
19. What could he spend hours doing? fixing our house.. well, that's what he DOES spend hours doing.. :)
20. What is one unique talent he has? Steve is exceptionally talented at cleaning and organizing, and transforming so-so homes into masterpieces. I'm SO GRATEFUL for him!

Update

I've been unable to update for the last while because the whole sleep deprivation thing is still going strong. I took Kate to the doctor for her well child appointment on Monday and learned that all of this is totally terrible two related. Kathrynn DOES have eczema, I learned, but it's not bad enough for the whole not sleeping at night thing. I'm sure the first night when her rash was full blown it was, but I think she enjoyed the comfort me of holding her all night so much that she wants me to do that every night all night regardless of whether or not she needs it. So, after a little chat with Kate's doctor, Steve and I decided that it would be best if he slept in the spare bed downstairs for the week while I retrain Kathrynn in the fine art of sleeping her own bed all night long. Some nights have been pretty good - 15 minutes of crying and done. Others, like last night, not so much. I'm really hoping we get back to normal. I miss sleeping. I miss falling asleep next to Steve. I miss being able to get up early and go to the gym. I haven't been to the gym in 3 weeks. That stinks. I can't tell you how much that stinks. I haven't gained 20 lbs or anything, I just miss the focus and energy that I normally have.

We've also been busy renovating the house to be day care ready. I'm really excited about the plans that we have - everything's going to be wonderful and really nice. I'm SO grateful to have a husband who knows how to do this kind of stuff. We're building a cupboard, making a play room from the random nothing-room in the basement, putting up a fence in the back yard, putting in grass, etc. Lots of work, lots of fun. :)

We're also having some beautiful spring weather. Too bad it's going to snow this weekend..

OK. I'm tired. New pictures below. Enjoy. :)

Our Little Girl is Two

Seriously, the last two years have FLOWN!
Our spunky little princess turned two last Saturday. It's amazing to me to see how strong and vibrant she is. Unbelievable to me that she spent the first five days of her life in NICU as I see her run around like a maniac with so much energy.
Kathrynn really is a princess. She is a total girly girl - she loves clothes, loves dressing up, has to have her shoes on as soon as she's dressed, loves having her hair fixed up - the works. :) She ADORES her brother and I'm so grateful that they're such good friends.
I love our little girl and am so grateful for her!

Kathrynn's Birthday Party

Joe Boxer

The kids had fun with Steve's new boxing gloves. :)



I love this face. :)

A Beautiful Blog

I found this blog a couple of weeks ago and I highly suggest that you go read it, too. It's written by an amazing woman who was in a plane accident last summer - she has the most beautiful spirit and I love reading what she has to write. It really uplifted me this morning after another sleepless night. (By the way, we're on our way out the door to the doctor to find out what the heck is going on with Kathrynn.)

On the Mend

Well, we found the culprit of the rash. A new container of a certain detergent I'd been using for quite some time that didn't sit well on my little girl's back. This particular shirt tipped us off. She was trying to rip it off the entire day and I realized I had washed it in that detergent before switching back to Tide. I had been getting sick of the old stuff - it was making all of our clothes dingy, so I switched last week. We changed her into something fresh from her birthday party (more on that later) and she was miraculously better. She slept ALL night that night!
So, on Monday, I washed ALL of her laundry - clothes, bedding, blankets, towels, socks, etc. in Tide and no more crazy itching! Her back is a mess from all of the scratching, but she's feeling much better. The two of us have been catching up on lost sleep all week. Of course, now she has decided that she's above napping - like hasn't napped in WEEKS. I'm attempting to get her to take one now. We'll see how that goes. And, she gets really hurt feelings when it's time for bed, so I've had to hold her and rub her head and play David Lanz until she falls asleep the last few nights. Lots less mommy time, but I think I'll take that over getting 2 hours of sleep for the night.

First Sign of Spring

Sure, we got a foot of snow this week, but look what I found in the flower bed when it all melted!!

Baby Tiger Lilies:

Baby Tulips:

I can't tell you how long I've waited for this day. :)

To Sleep.. To Dream

I'M SO TIRED!

First off, I hope I don't sound like I'm whining about being a mom. I love being a mom more than anything and I adore my children. I'm just really really tired.

Let's just say that if you're female, and live in my house, you haven't slept a lot this week. The last 4 out of 5 or 6 (I can't remember any more) nights have been awful. Kathrynn has a rash on her back that is causing her a ton of discomfort and we just figured out what was causing all of this yesterday.

Kathrynn typically doesn't wake at night, but when she does it's usually very easy to get her to go to sleep. Not this week. A typical night starts with her going to bed easily, but is followed, several hours later, by a blood-curling scream that can only be comforted by holding until she falls asleep - which can take anywhere between 1 and 3 hours.

The first night I thought it was just a bad dream, but was floored by how difficult it was to get her to sleep. The second night I thought maybe it was 2-year molars coming in. The third night consisted of two 3-hour holding episodes with a 1 hour break for sleep between them. At this point I was still thinking maybe it was the molars and tried Infant IB.. didn't work. Then yesterday, I was getting her dressed and noticed a huge rash on her back (that a couple of days before was a dry patch on her shoulder). I called her doctor and the suggested Eucerine for her back, so I rubbed her back with it for like half an hour last night - let me tell you, SHE LOVED IT. But, then it came time for sleep. She woke up at 1 a.m., screaming again. I held her until 3, when she finally fell back asleep and put her to bed. Half an hour later, we were back up until about 5, then up again at 5:30 until 6 or 6:30. That last time I rubbed her back with more lotion and put her down. She slept until 10, so that helped a little this morning since she's decided she's anti-nap now, no matter how tired she is.

The problem here (besides the obvious lack of sleep), is that you have the GIRLS of the house sleep deprived. So, we have Kathrynn, who is being hyper-sensitive about everything because she so wiped out and me, who usually does EVERYTHING and can currently hardly function. Ugh.

Our wonderful doctor called this morning (she is seriously awesome) to check on Kathrynn and suggested Benedryl, which we will try tonight to see if we can get some rest in. Wish us luck! :)

Can't Help But Smile

Steve just emailed me the cutest thing in the WORLD. You can find it HERE. It's a "screen cleaner."

What a Gentleman

When I was in college, I dated a guy for the sole reason that he held down the button on the water fountain for me to take a drink. I'd never seen anyone do that before and it totally blew me away.

Well, the other day, we were in the church building and Kathrynn wanted to get a drink from the water fountain - it's a new found obsession of hers now that she's figured out how it works. Well, she stepped up on the stool, and what do you know, Joe held down the button for her. I actually gasped. He is a natural-born gentleman. He pushes his chair in when he leaves the table. He willing shares his toys with all girls (except Kathrynn.. sisters are the exception, I think). He even used to give his food - hand fed to her mouth - to his favorite little friend in San Antonio.

I'm so grateful my little guy is such a sweetheart. I REALLY hope it sticks - between his consideration for girls and his need to have everything neat and clean, he's going to make some woman very happy one day.

On that note.. there's a little girl in our ward who has had a crush on him since the fall. I didn't know that 4 year olds could hold on to crushes that long, but I asked her mom yesterday after watching her follow Joe everywhere and she confirmed it. She's still "in love" with Joe. That's how she announced it to me and Steve in church one day, "I'm in love with Joe." :)

The Night I Almost Peed My Pants

I had a fun little experience last night that will forever go down in laughable history.

I had put off taking the garbage cans out during the day and went outside at dusk to do it. It was a GORGEOUS night! Not even a chill in the air. So there I was all la-di-da down my loooong driveway with the recycling can when I see this car drive slowly in front of our house, pass the drive way, back up, and then pull IN to our drive way. Now, I totally am a fan of Ogden, but it doesn't come without fear, especially when it's getting dark and I'm out alone. So, my thoughts were: 1st - they're looking at the house next door (it's for sale), 2nd - Um.... 3rd - Oh Crap! I'm usually not that paranoid, but I didn't recognize the car and the way he passed and pulled back to pull into my drive when he saw me freaked me out. So, there I stopped dead in my tracks by our front porch stairs as the car pulled up to me. The window rolls down and this HUGE guy leans out and says "Hi." (By the way, I can't see jack when it's getting dark..) I respond, very nervously, "Hi..." and he replies with "Is your husband home?" "UMMMMMMM..." At this point I had backed up completely up the stairs with the recycling can between me and the car and, depending on the next question, was ready to make a run for it. Then he leaned out his window a bit more, and said "It's Gary." Ugh! Gary is Steve's friend who he goes boxing with (one of Steve's new things that he LOVES!) and he came by to see if Steve would go to the gym with him. I proceeded to tell him how much he scared me and led him into the house.

The irony of it is that Gary is a police officer, so I couldn't have been more safe! Steve thought it was all very funny and came home from boxing with some good self defense tips for me to use next time I'm in a 'questionable' situation. :)

Kathrynn's First Trip to the Potty

I almost feel embarrassed for her, posting this, but it's a highly exciting thing! Kathrynn used the potty for the first time today! You can't even know how excited I am about her being willing so much earlier than Joe was - he was such a battle. By the way he's been potty trained for quite some time now. I finally told him it was up to him, totally and he never turned back.

Anyway, trying to spare you the details, it was quite obvious that she needed to go potty, so I sat her down on the special toilet cover that we have for her and there she went. All the while, Joe was cheering her on, letting her know how big she was and how he wanted her to go potty like he does and the ever so memorable "Poopies are brown and yucky!" to which Kathrynn would reply "Eww! Goss!" (she says 'goss' instead of 'gross') It was all very amusing.

I'm not going to push her too hard on this, but I have a feeling she'll be much quicker than Joe was. What, with Joe cheering her on and her enthusiasm to do everything he can do, we can't lose. :)

Utah, the State of Highly Motivated People

Every morning I get up way earlier than I would like to go workout at the gym. And, it's not like I jump out of bed, filled with enthusiasm and energy, or that I am by any means a morning person, it's just the only feasible time for me to do this.
So, this morning as I got to the gym I noticed that the parking garage was remarkably full. Then, when I walked in I saw a TON of people working out. What was the deal?! It was 6:15 a.m. So, as I checked in at the front desk, I mentioned to the guy working this morning that it was really busy and he told me that when he got there to open the doors at 4:50 this morning that there was a line of about 25 people at the doors. And, since then he had had over 200 people check in. That's 200 people in an hour and half BEFORE 6:15 a.m. HELLO!!!!

Maybe this is why Utah is so high up in the healthiest states list.. and why they can charge so much more for memberships in Utah than they do in Texas - the demand is higher, so they can push the prices up so much higher, and NOT provide free childcare like they do in Texas - which is the only reason why I go at 6, by the way.

Now, sure, I am one of those crazy people who gets up ridiculously early to go work out every day, but I HAVE TO!! I was just amazed at how many people were up and out of their beds at the gym this morning!

Utah Food Co-Op

One of my friends introduced me to an organization here in Utah that does a food co-op that is just AWESOME! I got everything above for $23. Everything is local, so you're supporting local organizations and you get everything for about half the normal cost. Best of all, everything was GREAT quality.
This month's shared includes:
2 lb chicken breasts
1 lb beef stew meat
1 lb pork spare ribs
1 lb lean ground beef
5 lb Red Potatoes
6 oranges
6 apples
1 bunch green onions
1 head red leaf lettuce
3 artichokes
1 package mushrooms
8 kiwi
1 loaf Stone Ground Artisan Wheat Bread
16 oz rice

There is no hardship requirement to join this group - all that you have to do is dedicate 2 hours a month to service to qualify. Most church callings more than cover that!
If you're in Utah and want more info about it, go HERE.

Kids at Play

This is Joe's new favorite thing to do to Kathrynn. Lucky for him, she worships the ground he walks on, so he can get away with it. :)



Every week we make a run to Costco for milk, bread, eggs, etc. and every week the kids have a heyday with the boxes. They're pretty creative, I have to give them that. :)

Valentine's Festivities

We had a fun time this Valentine's Day! Joe was SO excited about a new holiday and we were busy making and delivering valentines and treats.









We had heart pancakes with strawberry syrup and pink milk for breakfast. Pink milk is now Joe's new addiction. He has to have it every day now. :)



The kids and I made brownie hearts for their friends. They had more fun eating the leftover batter than they did making the brownies. :) I, unforunately, forgot to get a picture of the brownies before dropping them off, but they were way cute! :)