Summer 2010

Braden's first day back to school

Today is Braden's official first day of school - starting at 7:30 this morning! We have had so much fun this summer and have loved having 3 months off of work! This summer has been full of relaxing, little trips and lots of yard work. Below are some pictures to illustrate.

My mom, Arrie, and I went to Gardner Village one day

We made some adirondack chairs this summer!

Arrie's first time in the pool!

24th of July in Mapleton - it's a BIG deal!

She always grabs my face like this, but usually she gets my glasses!

Arrie's first boyfriend. He is in our ward and is 11 months old.
She attacks him every time she sees him.

At the end of a LONG morning/afternoon!

Braden and his dad finished our walkway that morning!

At the beginning of August we got to all go to a friend's cabin in Heber - it was SO fun! Braden's parents, my parents, my cousin Amy Kagel, and us.

While Amy was here the girls took a day to spend in Park City!Chowin' down! She loves to eat whatever we are eating!

This is our "Super Girl!" You say that and this is what Arrie does!

Lone baby in the road!

Arrie's first car

She was not happy here - I had to capture it, she has the saddest sad faces

Her 2nd time in a pool this summer, this time with her swimsuit!

And for the biggest part of our summer....Braden put in an entire new sprinkler system! Here is our house one year ago when we bought it:

The lawn might be green...but our water bill was HUNORMOUS! The entire system, we found out this year, was run with funny pipe, there was no pressure.

So, he dug trenches (involving the trencher falling over, and then having to dig deeper by hand afterwards anyways) and laid the pipe, hooked up the heads, and then we found out we had to replace the water main! :) So he dug another trench and got that all hooked up. The grass is only green around our flower beds but here is a pic of the progress so far.

And here you can see our new mailbox!

And this is the new system! :)

The grass is starting to come back - I will post another picture when it is all green and beautiful. Oh, you can also see that we got rid of the railroad ties.

Arrie's walking!

Hey, so Braden and I have been working on getting Arrie to walk by herself. Today she has done really well. This is the first we got her progress on video tonight at Dairy Queen with the family! I can't believe how fast our little girl has grown up. She will be 10 months old tomorrow! I love her so much - I still can't believe she is my baby sometimes.

She is testing the waters more and more lately to see what we will let her get away with - kids are so smart. She has been extremely defiant with eating the last two days. It is cute (now that I am not in the moment but reflecting on it) when she doesn't want something, she will turn her head as far to the side and up as she can, almost seeming to say - "NOPE, you're not getting that in my mouth if I have any control over the situation!" She does love to eat whatever we are eating though - and the good thing is that includes broccoli, beets, fruits, pasta, bread, you name it - she wants it. I think, about her baby food, she thinks: "If this stuff is so good, why aren't Mom and Dad eating it?"

She loves hide-and-seek. I will run behind the wall and she will scoot her way over to find me. She pokes her head around the wall and squeals when she sees me. She loves her grandmas and grandpas so much. She saw DeLanea and Kathy at DQ tonight in the parking lot and got the biggest smile! I swear she thinks, "What the heck! - where did you guys come from? I see you in the strangest places Grandmas!"

Arrie loves Pogi. She will try and get his toys from him and he is very good with her. When she succeeds she holds it up to show us like "look - I got it!" She LOVES ice cream - you can't feed it to her fast enough. If ice cream were dinner we would have no problems. Arrie LOVES her Daddy. Braden has had to work the last two days (Summer has ended) and today when he came home she was taking a nap. So when she woke up, I went and got her and said, "Where's Daddy?" She was looking all around. I took her downstairs to "Daddy" and when she saw him she got the biggest smile. I brought her over to Braden and she just laid her head on his chest - she was so happy to have him home.

Well, that's all coming to my mind about how Arrie is doing at this point. Enjoy the movie clip. I gotta say - it's pretty dang cute! :)

First Family Vacation

We just got back Wednesday night from being up at Snowbird Resort for a few days while Braden had his Yearbook Camp. It was SO fun! We had the most comfortable bed, pretty good food, and just got to spend time away together. We put the pack-n-play up in the bathroom for Arrie because it was super dark. Oh, and a weird thing about the bathroom - there was a curtain that you could open or close right next to the shower that went into the bedroom area! Weird - who would have it open???

Well, Arrie went on her first ride there! Braden took her down the Alpine Slide and she LOVED it! When she got to where I was she stopped smiling - go figure - but she still is adorable and she had a good time. Here are some pics.





Two days later we got me a ticket to take her down again, but after riding the ski lift up and walking up to the start of the slide, they said children under 2 couldn't go down. I told them we did it two days earlier and she was fine, but that didn't make a difference. So they told me I could take the ski lift back down to meet Braden, who was waiting at the bottom. We walked back to the ski lift and they said they weren't letting anyone ride down...SO, we walked down to meet Braden and then I went back up to ride the slide. :) What an adventure! But it was fun riding the slide and then Arrie saw me at the bottom and she was a little confused, it was funny.

It was SO nice to get away and have a little family vacation and it was nice that it was FREE! :)

Andrew going into the MTC

Jen's brother, Andrew, went into the MTC on May 18th. It was the end of school so Braden wasn't able to make it to take him to the MTC but here are some pics! He just left for Peru this last Wednesday and is LOVING it there.





It was so cool how they have you drop off the missionaries at the MTC now. You pull into the parking lot and drive down the hill and pass TONS of missionaries waving and cheering you on. You drive until they tell you to stop and there are missionaries waiting for the new missionary and greeting them. They let you get out of the car and give final hugs. Then one missionary becomes the newbie's companion for a short while to walk him to the front and away from us. It was so cool. I LOVE the MTC and LOVE the spirit there. Braden said he would love to be in Andrew's position and I agree. To relive my mission would be wonderful.

Springville High School Lip Dub 2010

Here is this year's lip dub. We're trying to get 1 million views, so please link to this so everyone you know and they know can watch it! Peace.



Oh, and please comment! Thanks.

Boston, You're My Town!

Here is Arrie again as a Sox Fan! :) I think at some parts she looks like she is actually singing - or at least thinking what the singer is singing! :)

Happy Mother's Day

Real Mothers don't eat quiche;

They don't have time to make it.

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils

Are probably in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors,
Filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried play dough
Doesn't come out of carpets.

Real Mothers don't want to know what
The vacuum just sucked up....

Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?'
And get their answer when a little
Voice says, 'Because I love you best..'

Real Mothers know that a child's growth
Is not measured by height or years or grade...
It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother........

The Images of Mother

4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't know everything!
14 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother? She wouldn't have a clue.
16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's so five minutes ago.
18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it!
35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom...