My mother's Day

Emily made my mother's day extra special this year. On Saturday I overheard her talking to Bart about making me breakfast. Later that day she came across a jewelry box in the garage and asked me if she could paint it. I set up her paints and left her to make dinner. A little while later she, trying really hard not to give away my present, asked me if she could "borrow" a ring from my jewelry box. She left the room only to return a short time later and handed me this beautifully painted box and told me to not open it until Mother's Day. Wow was I surprised when I opened it the next day to find one of my rings inside the box.


Early the next morning as I was waking up I heard the sound of little feet scurrying into my room. Trying to "act" asleep I soon heard them make there way back to their room. A little while later, thinking Emily had went back to sleep, I arose and as quickly as I made it out of my door Emily was stopping me asking me why I was awake. I told her I always wake up early and she said but it's mother's day and you are suppose to stay in bed because we are making you breakfast. She then added "on mother's day you aren't supposed to do anything and daddy is suppose to do everything." (Thanks to whoever instilled that into Emily's head) As I pretended to go back to sleep Emily begged Bart to get up and make me breakfast. Breakfast was great. At church Emily filled out a questionnaire about how well you know your mom. I laughed at her response to the question "what does your mom like to do" Emily said "She likes to cook, that's about all, Oh and wash dishes"

Emily always knows just what do give me for mother's day starting as a five week old she slept through the night for the first time on mother's day. Man am I lucky to be a mom to my girls!!

Hole in the Rock

For the past few years my family has been talking about going to the Hole in the Rock for Easter. Each year we've abandoned the idea for a few reasons. 1st it's located in a remote location in South Eastern Utah. 2nd there is usually a newborn infant in my family and who wants to take a newborn on a trip that requires 7-8 hours of driving on a rough road. 3rd we haven't been able to all be together for Easter in a few years.
So this year when Allyson announced she and Matt were coming for Easter and since nobody has a newborn, I told everyone we should go to the Hole in the Rock.

Why go there? Well often on a Sunday afternoon my dad would thumb through history books about our ancestors including one about how his great grandpa Wiff Pace and his brother James Pace who helped the early Mormon settlers move from Cedar City and New Harmony to Bluff Utah. After I married Bart, I learned from his Family History Buff Aunt Harriet that Bart's paternal ancestors were in the same company. Since I was fatiguely familiar with this story and the strong family ties, I was pretty excited to read the book Undaunted by Gerald Lund. After reading it I knew I wanted to go and see all these landmarks described in the book.

Our Easter started out bright and early with my mom's annual Easter Egg hunt for the grand kids. It felt like winter but the kids managed to still find the Eggs despite cold hands and cash them in with Grandma Becky. Then we all loaded up our caravan and set out for the Hole in the Rock stopping at first Dance Hall Rock (this was where the Saints camped out for a few months waiting for the Hole in the Rock to be blasted into a road). Then we stopped ate lunch at Hole in the Rock Arch. Finally we made it to the Hole in the Rock. It was an awesome sight. I couldn't help but think what kind of people would get to this break in the cliff and say "we can go down this". It's funny to think they are the same people who named the landmarks things like Devil's Garden and Hell's Backbone. (Matt pointed out how opposite it is in Hawaii where all the landmarks have heaven names) interesting huh?
After we played around at the top while the most adventurous ventured down to the bottom where it meets Lake Powell, we loaded up and made the trek back. A trek it felt like when with an hour to go Jane decided she had enough with the traveling and yelled at the top of her lungs to get out for the remainder of the trip. I'm pretty sure Matt, Ally and my mom won't be signing up to travel with us anytime soon. After Bart mentioned how miserably long the trip was I reminded him that at least we didn't have to do it in a wagon.

So much to do with the Cat & the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2

What happened when I planned my 5 year old's birthday party hoping that the weather would cooperate and it can be done in the back yard. Well it started snowing so I moved on to plan "B" and ended up with 17 kids running around in my basement. All I can say it good thing our downstairs renters moved out a week before which left a very empty basement.
Despite a change in plans the party turned out perfect. Emily and I have been planning this party for months. The inspiration came from my sister Allyson who threw a "Dr Seuss" baby shower for her sister in law. I fell in love with the invitations and committed Allyson to do some for Emily's birthday. After she hooked me up with this life sized poster of "The Cat in the hat" the ideas started to flow.


Here's the invitation Ally so nicely prepared.
The front

The back

I originally had this great idea to tape cat prints in my driveway leading to the back but due to increment weather I used them instead for decorations. For food we served Goldfish in a fishbowl, corn dogs, veggies, and my sister Brooke's Rainbow Jello that I set in clear plastic cups. Here's my basement after we set it up.




When the guests arrived they signed their name on a name tag. Then they colored hats using markers, dot paint and stickers
As the guests were finishing eating and making their hats a surprise visitor arrived. The Cat in the Hat joined the party. Bart being the best dad in the world agreed to Emily's plee to play the cat for her party. This was completely Emily's idea. A few months ago while we were shopping online at "Oriental Trading" buying party favors and things, Emily noticed a Cat in the Hat costume. She turned to me and said someone should be the cat at my party. I replied really who? Emily replied "Hmm. It would have to be someone really tall (pause) Hey I know Daddy could do it." Later when I informed Bart about this idea he asked me why I didn't immediately derail that idea to which I replied I never derail Emily's ideas. The kids just died when they saw the Cat arrive. Bart did a fantastic job!! The best part when after the games and the cat's job was done. Jane started getting fussy so the cat told everyone he needed to go and picked up Jane and headed up the stairs. One of Emily's friends was very concerned and came up to me and said "Hey you better stop him he's taking your daughter"
When the Cat arrived he sat down and read the "Cat in the Hat" book by Dr. Seuss
Then we played pin the tail on the cat.

Next we played a game where the kids each took a turn being either Thing 1 or Thing 2. Basically they had to race to pick up a mess using the thingamajig (stroller).


Thanks to my creative and smart sister in law Mary for rescuing me and making these hats using a feather boa and then gluing it on a hat. Don't you think they turned out perfect!!
We tied up the party with Emily opening her presents, singing the Happy Birthday song while Emily blew out the candles on this cake I made and then of course eating the cake.



In the middle of the party something hit Emily and she didn't feel so great. She barely made it through opening her presents and blowing out the candles and then she curled up with her new mini pillow pet on the ground until it was over. Poor girl! Later that night she told me "Although my tummy hurt I was just so happy to be part of the party.
As the guests left we gave out a bag of party favors which included a swirly lollipop, Dr. Seuss pencil, bookmark, fish notepad, and cat in the hat stickers.


PS. I need to send a special thank you out to Google for supplying me with most of the ideas for the party. Life is so much easier with google around!

PPS: If anyone has a need to throw a cat in the hat party come my way. I have a whole box full of decorations, games, and some left over party favors.

Some things never change

When Jane was just a tiny baby she could get so upset it was almost impossible to calm her down. After trying just about everything I discovered that if I blew into her ear saying sh..sh..sh..sh.. she would finally relax. Recently Jane had one of those days where she was way past tired and frantically upset about who knows what. I tried and tried to calm her down but nothing was working. Finally I found myself blowing into her ear sh's and she instantly relaxed and even smiled a bit. Occasionally now if Jane gets upset she'll say hold me and then press her ear to my mouth and say ear, ear...
Even though Jane is as or even more independent, fearless and strong than most kids twice her age she's still my baby at heart.

And the winner is......

Last week Bart came home telling me he wanted to enter a contest that he heard announced on one of the sport talk radio stations that refers to itself as "the manly morning show". The prize was a round of Golf at Thanksgiving Point and a gift certificate to Wingers. Bart explained that they were looking for people to submit pictures of themselves with a celebrity and the one with the most famous celebrity would win. Piece of cake for Bart right? The problem was picking which celebrities to choose. So we stayed up way to late that night looking through his celebrity album and finally we decided on these pictures.

Muhammad Ali (this one I picked out because I think it's awesome) Michael Jordan (someday ask Bart what Jordan said to him after he chased him for a solid week trying to get this picture)
Who's this mystery man.....
Micheal Jackson, did you guess right?

I then had to help Bart sign up for a Facebook account since that is where the pictures were submitted. The next morning Bart wakes up to a call from the radio station. They interview him on the air about these pictures and especially the Michael Jackson picture. Bart nonchalantly answers their questions and refers them to a website that one of his buddies has that talks about his Micheal Jackson encounters. On the way to work I for the first, and most likely only time, voluntarily tune it to this "manly morning show", which usually makes me gag when I'm forced to listen to it with Bart. I did so just to see if Bart was the winner. What I didn't expect was to hear that the topic of conversation was all about Bart and whether the Micheal Jackson photo opt was real or not. People were calling in claiming it was a great photo shopped picture. Others called Bart a big fake, liar etc. One even said Bart was the biggest wet blanket, whatever that means. I was thoroughly entertained listening as everyone disputing Bart's OCD. As I got to work they still hadn't come up with a conclusion so I moved on with life thinking it has caused too much controversy to win. Bart doesn't hear from them so we both forget about it. Randomly a week later Bart receives an email saying they've done extensive research and found him to be legit so he's the big winner!!!!
Now I tease Bart that since I did the technical work he has to take me golfing with him at Thanksgiving Point. He doesn't respond but I know he's thinking, Yeah right you haven't gone golfing since we had children and even then you couldn't get the golf ball off the ground. There's no way I'm going to humiliate myself, nor do I have enough golf balls to take you with me, it's not like the old UofU golf course".
I actually don't want to go golfing and wished he could have won a tropical vacation instead but at least I'll enjoy dinner at Wingers with him.

An undisclosed location

This past winter we have had so much fun sledding on a certain hill that wishes to remain anonymous. I (I mean it) has no desire to become crowded like Sugar House park. My girls especially like it when daddy can come as well as their cousins. I like it because Bart's brother JB brings his awesome camera along and gets great shots. This last time Emily informed me I was not invited because I was in charge of staying home and making hot chocolate and toast. I complied and enjoyed a rare moment alone in my house.

My snow angels




Jane is one tough chick. She has no problems going at it alone


According to Emily this picture was taken moments before the sled took a turn for the worse hitting a jump dead on which sent both Emily and the sled into the air but in different directions. How Ben managed to hold on is still a wonder to everyone who witnessed it.

The Lempo

Every night Jane requests the primary song "I love to see the Temple" as her bed time song, only she pronounces it Lempo.
A week or so ago as we were driving up to Bart's parents I was so proud when Jane rather excitedly points to the temple and squeals "Lempo, Lempo, Lempo". I was having one of these moments thinking I've taught my girls so well giving Jane so much praise and then I was snapped out of it when we reached the top of State Street and Jane once again squeals "Lempo, Lempo" as she points to the Capitol Building. On the way home she got on a role squealing Lempo at the Capitol Building, the real temple, the Cathedral of Madeline, and any church we drove by. Now whenever we are in the car she is on the lookout for a temple. OK so maybe she's overgeneralizing a bit and I can't count my role of teaching about temples as done.
The cutest time for me though was when we were driving south on state street at dusk and got stuck at the red light at North Temple. Jane points to the temple and proclaims "Lempo lights pretty." Yes Jane I would agree!