weekend trip

on friday we headed up to hurricane, utah with some good friends to camp and hike. all the campgrounds were full so we did some easy backyard camping. we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores then pitched a big tent. nash & havey were so excited to use their new mummy bags. they had been carrying them around the house for two days. nash, haves, and emma took turns telling spooky stories (i wish i had recorded them, they were hilarious/pathetic). i think nash's went something like "there was a huge dinosaur. then there wasn't. then it came back. then it deaded." and haven's was a mash-up of nash's and emma's stories. it was a beautiful, cool night-i can't remember the last time i could see the stars so clearly. i wanted to stargaze all night, but once the kids finally passed out steve and i were visited by a snoring monster who will remain unnamed...so we moved camp indoors to finish the night.

we woke up saturday and had a big breakfast then headed to snow canyon to hike around the petrified sand dunes then drove a little farther to the soft sand dunes. when we got to the soft dunes haven said "wait, mom, i thought we were going to the garden of dooms?!" i'm not sure what was going on in her little head. the kids didn't last too long with sand entering eyes/noses/mouths/socks and it was pretty hot so we called it a day and stopped at marv's burgers (where steve and i tried our first picadilly chips) in saint george before heading back to hurricane.

it felt so good to get away and out of the ugly vegas desert. i'm realizing i'm going to need more trips like this to survive vegas life. plus it was a good trial run to test the kids limits with camping. i think they did pretty great and we are all excited to get back out again.

my {havey} baby is three!

it was a very long, very good day. "the best birthday ever," according to the guest of honor, who was spoiled rotten by friends & family.

happy birthday, havey grel!

babies

not much is going on over here, so i thought i'd share a few pictures from last week. nash and haven are loving their new baby cousin. haven is unbelievably cute when she holds baby palmer...this soft side of her comes out that i rarely ever see. she pets him, kisses him, sweet talks him and helps him with his binki. it's the only time she's ever been able to just sit still. she's obsessed with babies and the idea of having a baby sister. her favorite thing is to shop for her baby sister*. everywhere we go she is constantly picking things out and telling me she needs it..."for my baby sister, mom!"

a few days ago haven's little friend, carly, was over. haven immediately took carly by the hand and baby-talked her into doing whatever haven wanted. she's a master manipulator and loves to be in charge. i even found her with carly's hand in one hand and her other arm loaded up with all her hair stuff. she was on her way to her room to do carly's hair. as you can see by the above photo hair styling is something we're really good at 'round these parts ;) wide-eyed carly looked like she was unsure about the whole situation but didn't know how to get herself out of it. i intervened and we settled on applying sticker earrings instead.

i'm guessing haven's sweet ways wouldn't last into the crawling stages (when baby becomes a threat) if she actually had a baby sister, but seeing her act like a little mommy makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. and maybe a little scared for "the other guy". haven can be a pretty tough girl, so when i see little glimpses of sweetness and light i die inside. can you believe she turns three this week?! can i still call her "havey baby" when she's three? oh, if only i could freeze time.

*as you know, no baby sister exists. and, no, there is no sister or brother on the way. just clearing that up in case you were starting to wonder.

mother's day

i usually don't eat breakfast, but i certainly expect breakfast in bed on mother's day and my little dears didn't fail me. i loved hearing them downstairs working on their pictures (nash's was a train track on one side and a glass of chocolate milk spilling on the other side. haven's was a beautiful mess of scribbles.) they tried to sneak up the stairs to "wake" me up so i faked it. it'll be a heck of a day when they can ever sneak up on me; they were born with built-in megaphones. nash wished me "best mother's day" with a big hug and kiss just about every chance he could get. and haven worked very hard on a project in nursery to give to me but then loved it so much she couldn't part with it. the girl lives for projects and can spend hours on them. i think she is related to me.

bevie played his part as the bhe (best husband ever - which isn't unusual for him) and did as much as he possibly could with his gimpy arm. he even made me a delicious dinner...avocado sandwich (quite possibly my favorite food) and quinoa salad. and then, of course, there was my awesome gift: new bedding! when we moved here we lost a part of our bed somewhere along the way. i was pretty upset about it because it was a platform bed (no box spring) which meant we basically had to start from scratch and get a whole new mattress set and are back to having that with no actual bed, just a metal rail. not only that, our old bed (which was from ikea) had ikea bedding and it didn't fit the new one. it felt like we were living in our first apartment again and the regression was killing me. enter my beautiful new bedding. i am in love. and it may have gotten me out of my "i hate this freaking rental house" funk!

i feel a few projects coming on...



i wanted to take a picture of my bedding now that it's steamed and looking sharp, so thought i'd spice it up for you;) self timer + me jumping on a bed without hitting my head on the ceiling = a messy bed that isn't looking so sharp. go figure.

happy may day!

in years past we've done fun "may day" things, but this year it snuck up on us. and for good reason! steve had surgery on his shoulder on monday and was home most of the week + we welcomed a new nephew to the family on wednesday (2.5 weeks early)!


i got to be there for the birth and photograph every second of it. alison made it look so easy that i'm considering a vbac for number three. yeah, right. i think the little dude looks just like steve and i can't get enough of him. i forgot how much i love baby boys. okay, i didn't really forget, but its fun to remember just how much i love them. girls are alright, but boys...they tug at my heartstrings. enough to make me think i miiiiiight just want another one. we'll see if i can get my fill with this guy for now, though.