What could be better?

FYI: This is a long post with lots of pictures. Great fun, though. Well, we think it is. Don't say we didn't warn you!

Every year, my family goes to Ephraim over Memorial Day weekend for the Scandinavian Festival. We also go to the Ephraim cemetery where my grandparents and great grandparents are buried, the Manti cemetery where some great great grandparents are buried, and the Pioneer cemetery where it feels like we dig up our ancestors every year. Jeff is a little unsure of this tradition, but it's too late now! He's officially in the family.

The festival is truly a small town experience complete with a parade, vikings, and yummy food. Emily, Ben, Maddie, Sam, Jeff, and I were the only ones to go down this year. We drove in the big polyg van (thanks, mom!) and were one big happy family. Here are a few pics of the ride down...

Sam just chillin' before we left.

Maddie was an awesome driver...and made sure we were all safe.

Happy little Newbold fam ready to go.

Jeff was our chauffeur and I was just thrilled to be getting out of town.

We made a couple of stops on the way down. The first was American Fork to meet my dad (who was coming back from a business trip) in a random parking lot. Kinda felt like a drug deal goin' down, but whatever. He got ear muff things for Maddie because she HATES loud noises. There are lots of loud noises at the festival, so it was a great investment.

Next stop: La Casita in Springville. Most amazing Mexican food EVER. Jeff disagrees, but I think he'll come around after a few more trips...

This cracks me up. It's like Jeff and I have our own kid (but that won't be happening anytime soon. Don't be alarmed!)

Sam may or may not be stabbing Jeff.

The ride down was filled with 4-year-old jokes such as :
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Mountain
Mountain who?
The mountain is big!
Hahahahahaha

Yes, we spent at least 20 minutes at a time telling jokes like this. Maddie was thrilled and Sam figured that since everyone else was laughing, something must be funny. He joined in with a few excited squeals here and there.

We finally made it to Ephraim and all went to bed for the night. On Friday, we did the flowers at the cemeteries, Jeff and I went to the Manti Temple, and then babysat the kids while Emily and Ben went on a real live date to the Ephraim bowling alley for the best food in town. The Manti Temple is my new favorite. It's amazing inside and out. We loved it!

I know it's kinda weird that we look so happy at a cemetery, but we like to smile for the camera.

This is our night o' fun with the kiddos. The first one is when we were ALL hiding under a blanket together and the second is of the kids playing in a closet under the stairs. Kinda like Harry Potter's cupboard...

And, here is the temple. It was a great day!

My crafty husband

Jeff is a crafty, stampin' fool. He was stamping cards like mad for all the mothers in our lives. I think he created about 5 cards and I finished a total of one. Yep. He loves it.

Happy mother's day a few weeks ago!

Mmmm...boy

This is our perfect watermelon from Costco. Best ever. We finally discovered a great way to cut it. It's way easier than cutting the slices and sawing them off the rind, etc.

I'm a person!!!

Maddie got surgery on Wednesday and was a little cranky last night when Jeff and I went to see her.
Jeff played with the plastic dishes and food with her. There was a donut and Maddie said,
"Here's a donut for you to eat."
Jeff: "You're a donut for me to eat..."
Maddie (in a very unpleasant scratchy possessed voice): "I'M NOT A DONUT! I'M A PERSON!"

Baby Daddy

I was babysitting Maddie and Sam the other day and Maddie decided we would all play house. Here's how it went down:
Maddie assigned us all our roles: Maddie was the fairy grandma, I was the mommy, and Sam was the daddy. Every time I would say Sam's name, Maddie would correct me and say, "Uh, he's daddy."
After a few minutes, Maddie decided that she and Sam were now sick kids and I was the doctor. We went through the whole, "Look in my throat. Now check my ears. Does everything look ok, doctor?" I told her she was great and her throat looked just fine. I gave her some water and she decided she better take a rest. Meanwhile, it was Sam's turn to be the sick baby.

I asked Maddie what was wrong with Sam and she said, "You mean baby daddy?"
I was dying and said, "Why is he baby daddy?"
Maddie: 'Cause first he was a daddy and now he's a baby. Baby Daddy.

Of course!! What was I thinking?

Me: Ok. Sam, come over here and we'll look at your throat and ears.
Maddie: You mean baby daddy.
Me: Sure. Baby daddy.
Maddie: That's better.

That's what happens when she is surrounded by social workers who work with women who are trying to figure out who their baby's daddy is.

Nursery Love

Nursery on Sunday was rough for no particular reason because there wasn't even any bullying. There were a lot of rancid smells that I could have done without and some tears here and there, but nothing major.
It was really cute toward the end of nursery, however. A little girl named Cambrie and a little boy named Darion (not sure how to spell those correctly...) held hands and danced around. Cambrie freaked out when someone was sitting next to Darion because she wanted to. She was wearing a poofy white dress with a cute pink sash and Darion was wearing a little suit. Um, pretty much the cutest little couple ever. I don't think that people should be against betrothing their children. This would be a perfect match.

Side note: I'M FINISHED WITH MY FIRST YEAR OF GRAD SCHOOL! We thought it would never come.

Crafts, fish, and stir fry

Jeff's fam was in town a few weeks ago for Kaitlyn's blessing. It was so good to see everyone even if it was for a short time.
Avery slept over at our house and we went to a little craft night at my parent's house. Here is a cute picture of Avery and Maddie and Maddie concentrating hard on gluing after cutting everything with her "zizzors." She LOVES to cut things and would do it all day if she could.

This is was what Avery and I created. It took a really really really long time...
Mads and Avery hard at work:
And, here is Sam just being Sam:
The next morning, Jeff, Avery, and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium. Pretty cool, but definitely only need to go once. Avery volunteered her and Jeff to be a part of a presentation in which Avery put on all the layers that would make her a beaver.



Jeff and Avery were brave and touched these sting rays and I took pictures. Did I want to put my arm down in the water with random creatures? No dice.

Kaitlyn's blessing was beautiful. We didn't take our camera, but the dress was perfect and Kaitlyn was great and family pictures after were a blast. I wish we could have taken ten more. :) All the boys were just that thrilled about it...
Conference weekend Jeff and I decided to make stir fry. It was yummy and we felt the need to document the whole process because, well, we had never made it before. So, here is the washing of some of the veggies. The black thing is our Pampered Chef rice cooker. BEST ever. Seriously. You cook it in the microwave, and there is NO mess. Other rice cookers always spit the nasty water all over, but this one keeps everything in the pot. A-MA-ZING. Love it.

And here is the final product. Good job to Jeff for placing everything just right.

Not sleeping

It's 12:30 a.m. I have class in 8 hours. I'm completely and utterly exhausted, but can't sleep. This NEVER happens. I can always sleep and generally only function completely on 10 or more hours. With my insomnia tonight, do I work on my paper that's due tomorrow? Certainly not. Do I post pictures from our week with Jeff's family? Not yet...
Right now, I just have to say that I have the best husband in the world.
He cooks, he cleans, he irons his own pants (because I accidentally put an extra crease in them. oops...), and he always drives so I can sleep in the car.
He warms up my rice bag for me at night and always opens every door.
He'll clean the bathroom even if he doesn't think it needs to be done and doesn't get bugged that I never stay awake during movies.
He takes the garbage out every time because he knows how much I hate that job.
He makes me laugh all the time and is very passionate...even though we have some different views going on...
Most of all, he's so patient with me and is always wanting to be a better husband. Whenever I'm emotional, he wants to talk and does all he can to make it better. Jeff is pretty much just amazing and I'm glad that I get to hang out with him forever and ever. I love you, babe!

Happy Spring

Here is the view from our window this morning. Gotta love the Utah weather. Flip flops one day, snow boots the next.

After having to evacuate our apartment for a short time due to a gas leak at the U (good times...good times), I hung out at my sister's house with her and the kids. Maddie painted a picture for my husband (she never calls him Jeff around me anymore. It's funny.) and then thought it would be a good idea to paint the shirt she was wearing. It is her painting shirt, but yeah. I walked in and said,

Mads, what are you doing? You're supposed to paint the paper, not your shirt.
Maddie (with a look of aw, nuts, I got caught): It's ok. Just don't talk about it.

Me: Do you want me to get you a new piece of paper?

Maddie: Don't talk to me. It's really fine. I just wasn't paying attention.

I think she said she wasn't paying attention at least 10 times during the few hours I was there. Here she is getting her nails painted. She is SUCH a girly girl!

And then there is Sam. We spent probably half hour chasing each other and laughing hysterically. He really, honestly, is absolutely thrilled with himself all the time. This is the look he gives when he's about to get into something...

Sam has become a little dance master. He has this little side step thing that he just started doing and will go across an entire room. It's similar to the grapevine, without the crossing part. He also loves his belly. He lifts up his shirt, rubs his belly, and burps. Such a boy.

Struggling

Yes, I am struggling. Struggling with motivation to do homework. Struggling to not stare at how many small children can play on one small playground. Struggling to finish my very short and simple 3 page paper that requires NO research. Struggling to do anything productive. It's just one of those days. I love spring break, but am not finding it quite as easy to be ambitious as I thought it would be. Lame homework.

Cute kids that don't belong to us

Congrats to Amy and Joey on having their perfect little baby Kaitlyn! She's absolutely adorable and so tiny. It's so rare that I see a baby with lots of hair...we seem to have a bald gene in my family. All the boys are already wrapped around her little finger. Susan got a picture of Joey, Spencer, and Jeff all huddled around her. Classic. Here is a cute picture of the proud new uncle.

After holding little teeny Kaitlyn, we went over to Emily and Ben's and played with Maddie and Sam. Maddie was CRANKY...and that's an understatement. Sam was just absolutely thrilled with himself and everything he did. He reminds me of a little care bear when he sticks his belly out. He's a funny little guy.

I went into Maddie's room to chat for a minute. Here's a bit of the conversation:
Me: Hey, Mads. Can I sit in your room with you?
Mads: Yeah. But just for a minute.
Me: How's life?
Mads: It's a lil bit rough.
Me: Oh yeah? What's going on?
Mads: You know it hurts my feelings.
Me: What hurts your feelings?
Mads: The party.
Me: What party?
Mads: The party when you and Jeff come over.

What the?! What do you even say to that? We hugged and were friends again, but seriously. She's the moodiest 4 year old I've ever met. She does have a broken leg and a UTI right now, but c'mon kid. Where's my funny, friendly Maddie Mooshka?

The mood swings..."I'm frilled" to "Go away!"

We LOVE having 3 nieces and 1 nephew. We miss you, Avery!

Bullies of Nursery

A nursery calling should be ideal, right? I mean, you play with kids, have to prepare a 2 or 3 minute lesson, color, have snacks, and sing fun songs. Done deal. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go that smoothly. Today was our second time in nursery and it was the longest 2 hours of our lives.
We have a few bullies who make it particularly tiring, but ironically entertaining at the same time. But first, there is a little boy named Caleb who is the cutest kid ever. He has dark hair, big blue eyes, and is always smiling. He wears a little bow tie and is polite and plays nice. He's pretty much an angel child. We learned today that he likes to sing the clementine song. When you ask him to do it, he gets a big grin on his face and starts singing in a little 2-year-old voice, "Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin' Clementine..." It's absolutely adorable and I made him sing it 4 more times throughout the afternoon because it's so blasted cute.

Anyway...back to the bullies:

Bully #1: Ella. Ella is out of control. She is the poster child for "terrible twos." She looks absolutely thrilled with herself all the time. Ella likes to take toys from other kids. Now, she doesn't just politely snatch them from their hands. No, no. That would be too easy. She occasionally creates a full on smack down in the nursery and pushes the other innocent small children to the floor. She rams into them every chance she gets and knocks over their block towers.

Bully #2: Jackson. Jackson definitely has the cute factor going for him, however, which makes him a likable bully. Jackson has NO interest in a toy until another kid is playing with it. As soon as Jackson sees another kid enjoying a certain toy (even if he has 5 others in his hand), he heads straight for the other kid and grabs it from them without the kid even knowing what hit him or her! Jackson is good at this. He's also one of the taller kids in the nursery so he has size on his side. Jackson will not sit in his chair, will not sit on his carpet square, and will not play with one of the millions of toys not in use.

Both Ella and Jackson hear their names at least 100 times during the 2 hours of nursery. "Ella, soft hands." "Jackson, give the baby back to Caleb." "Ella, we don't throw the carpet squares at people." "Jackson, let go of Cameron's toy. He had it first." "Share the toys. You each can have one."
Today, we had an incident with the little cherubs. They were all getting a little out of control after the 2 minute lesson, snack, singing, and blowing bubbles. This is where our third culprit, Anya, comes in. Anya is generally a pretty chill kid. She's smart, entertains herself, and is relatively pleasant to be around. Ella pushed Jackson to the floor probably because he just got in her way. Anya, who had been into a pushing match with Ella just a few minutes earlier, decided to help Jackson get up. In her efforts, she got the tightest grip possible on each side of his shaggy hair and pulled. She just pulled and pulled. Jackson looked more confused than ever and in total shock. He had no idea what was going on. We saved Jackson from losing large clumps of hair and then the tears and weeping and wailing came. Understandably so.
This led to several outbursts by random children.
The last 15 minutes seemed like an entire hour in itself. I'm thinking we should propose a mandatory nap time.
Good thing we only have nursery once a month...

Slumber party

Jeff and I had a sleep over with Maddie and Sam last Thursday night. Emily and Ben needed a night away and to actually get some sleep so we trekked over to their place to hang out with the kids.
We didn't really feel like cooking. At all. So, we ordered pizza. (It was really really really good, by the way). Jeff sat on the couch, Maddie next to him, and Sam on his lap. He was trying to feed Sam (couldn't do it as fast as Sam wanted him to), eat his own dinner, and be BFF's with Maddie at the same time. Maddie was "frilled" (that's how she says thrilled. She can say the th sound, but just uses the f sound instead).
Maddie: "Oh, Jeff. This is a great picnic. I love this picnic, Jeff." Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff. She LOVES Jeff.
After dinner, we decided to put both kids in the bath because it's SO funny to watch them play together in there. Once Sam finished grabbing himself and was finally clean, I got him out to get him lotioned, diapered, and dressed in hopes that he would stay still at least long enough for the diaper part. Jeff continued splashing and chatting with Maddie. Maddie decided she wanted Jeff all to herself without me or Sam getting in the way. Here was the conversation:
Maddie: "Close the door, Jeff."
Jeff: "Nope. I'm not closing it."
Maddie: "Close the door."
Jeff: "Maddie, I'm not closing the door."
Maddie: "You can either close the door or have my mom help you close the door."
Jeff: "Did you hear what she just said to me?!"

Ah, the power of choices for a 4-year-old. She's so good at that. She does it all the time and sometimes it catches me off guard so I give in and pick one of the choices she gives me. She's a powerful little manipulator. She has everyone wrapped around her little finger.
Anyway, later that night, I said,
"Maddie, I love you."
She said, "Well, I don't love you."
"Really? Because I really love you a lot."
"Well, I love Jeff and Sam loves you."
"Can't you love both of us?"
Her response? "I'm not gonna answer that."
Bless her little heart. We were friends again a few minutes later and she really does love me, just so we all know. Sometimes I need the validation...
Jeff took her to preschool in the morning after having breakfast with Sam. He was AWESOME with the kids and will be the cutest dad in quite a few years from now.
Seriously...between nursery and babysitting, it's a great form of birth control.

Funniest kid ever

For those who know my niece Maddie, she really truly is the funniest kid ever. Emily gets so busy with her two little munchkins that she doesn't have time to post all the ridiculously funny things they do. She just told me a story and I was dying laughing...

Emily: Maddie, your hair is CRAZY today! We have to brush it.
Maddie: Don't brush it yet. It's just a little confused and needs some time.
Emily: Has it been enough time yet?
Maddie: Yeah, but it's still confused.

She also has the best excuses for things. I asked her why she didn't go to preschool one day and she told me it's because she was "too sweaty." When she doesn't have her glasses on and you ask her why, it's because her "eyes got too hot."
What 4-year-old says things like this?

The moment we've all been waiting for...

But not really. Here is just a little slide show of wedding pictures.

Shuttle issues

I am not a fan of the shuttles here at the U of U.
The ONLY good thing is that I don't have to park. The rest is where my issues lie...
1. I rarely make it on time, and when I do, the shuttle is either late or the driver gets off and says he'll be right back. Who needs to go to class, anyway?
2. The drivers leave MAYBE an inch in between the front of the shuttle and the car in front of them. Seriously, I always get ready to brace myself like the bus drivers from elementary school field trips taught me. Except, I would probably just fly off the seat.
3. It smells bad.
4. It jostles me and is the bumpiest, most uncomfortable ride of my life.
5. Some of the drivers look like pedophiles. Very creepy.
6. If I get on the shuttle to come home that is right outside the social work building where I spend my school days, it takes 30 minutes to get home. Yes, it's a couple of blocks away and it takes 30 minutes. Sometimes I wish that the shuttle would work with MY schedule and not the school.
7. I often get nauseous because of the jerky stop and go motions during the ride.
The shuttle just isn't my favorite. Jeff knows all my issues with it because I let him know about them every time I ride it. He's a patient husband and lets me just vent about the shuttle. Thanks for that!

Yay for birthdays!

Good job, Jeff. He embraced his crafty side and stayed up until 1 a.m. doing this for my birthday.
Duct tape is the cure for everything...especially hanging balloons on cinder block walls and doors.
The balloons on the doors are "so we don't hit our heads." Better safe than sorry!

We did the whole birthday thing at my parents house last night. Maddie loves Jeff. Sam, not so much. He finally went to Jeff and wasn't freaking out so we had to get a picture. The one of Maddie is with "the two perfect leaves." They look just like any other leaf on the plant she picked them off, but these 2 were the winners.

Sam's first birthday is Friday the 13th. He loves chewing on anything and everything...so why not a metal spoon? Here's a picture of the birthday kids. I pretty much just LOVE birthdays.

Our first fire

Not a typical thing to have happen, right? But doesn't every good wife start a fire at some point during an eternal marriage? It took me less than 2 months. True story.
Last night I thought, "I want a tostada." (Thanks to Joey for the idea of how to make it amazing). So, in order to warm the tostada shells, I thought it would be a great idea to put them in the toaster oven. Jeff assumed I put it on the toast setting...which would have been a great idea. Unfortunately, my thinking was a little different. My brilliant idea was to use the oven setting of the toaster oven , but not forget about them. Sounds simple, right?
Well, in the process our photographer from our wedding brought by our wedding book and the disk with the pictures. Of course, I was thrilled and completely forgot about the tostada shells in the toaster oven. Oops. We started looking at our pictures when all of a sudden, the shrill beeping of 3 smoke detectors went off.
Jeff to the rescue! For some reason, when I panic, I do what doesn't need to be done right away: take the batteries out of the smoke detector so that blasted beeping will stop rather than trying to put out the fire that I caused. Fortunately, Jeff is much more logical and took care of the fire instead. One more reason I love that guy. He unplugged the flaming piece of metal and splashed water on it. Our entire apartment was FILLED with smoke and I think I might have caused some lung damage to Jeff. Sorry, babe.

We had to open all the windows and turn on fans. My mom told me that if you put a bowl of vinegar out, it supposedly absorbs the smell. So, we stopped at the store and have a pleasant aroma of vinegar throughout our little apartment. I guess it works pretty well because the smell isn't nearly as bad this morning. It's still gross though. We're very lucky that the only damage was to our toaster oven. Everything else just smells bad. It's a good thing I'm kind of obsessive about frebreeze so hopefully that will help too.

I learned a great lesson and also decided that I win the award for best wife of the year.

Our Asset

I would just like to announce that Jeff and Jenny now have 1 asset. Jenny's car is paid off! Yay! We actually own something. That's all.

A few wedding pictures...

Jeff's brother, Joey, took charge of the camera so here are some of the pictures from him. If you go to our photographers blog,
http://www.lydiagravisphotography.blogspot.com/
she has some of her pictures posted and I quite like most of them.
The wedding day was perfect, but freezing cold! I think the high was 19 or 20 degrees. We were numb by the time we finished pictures at the temple so when we get all our pictures back, our noses and hands will probably be bright red.
Here we are coming out of the temple.

My niece, Maddie, was the first to greet us. Her gloves were soaking wet, but she had to be the first up! It was so cute. I love that kid!!

Jeff's grandparents are the cutest people I've ever met. I absolutely adore them!

Here we have Spencer, Kevin, Andrea, and Amy showing us just how wicked cold it was outside!

Here we are with our parents:

And with the grandparents: