Fun with Kids

This post caused so much anger in me and my wife. I took several very cute and very funny videos of the kids this day. Sadly the videos would never upload (they were probably too big and we lack the necessary software to reduce the size).

So Sam and the Mads came over on Saturday so their parents could enjoy a day on the town. Jenny was in the shower still, so as soon as Sam walked through the door, he ran right past me, of course, and went looking for Jenny. Luckily she came out soon, else we would have had a break down.

After watching some Sponge Bob, Mads had to play with some shoes. Sam loved it too.

And of course, no time with Jeff and Jenny would be complete without playing house. Mads was the mom, Sam the dad, I was the son and Jenny was the sister. Why she wasn't the daughter the world will never know. Jenny, I mean Sister, and I both had broken legs and we had to go get our pictures taken (x-rays).

This was Sam's favorite time as well, shoes can be so interesting and yet so challenging at the same time.

[Insert video number #1: Halarious video of Sam getting stuck in a sandal while Maddie played verbal house while hiding in the closet. You'll just have to immagine it.]

After Sam awoke from his nap (check out his hair), we had to play outside. Sam likes to observe his surroundings before venturing out to the playground.

Maddie's favorite toy is the rocket ship.

[This was a video of Mads sitting on a rocket ship (modeled from the space shuttles); it's one of those bouncy things. Maddie fervently insisted that she was never coming back despite my deep desires that she return because I would miss her. The video ends with us having an arugment as to weather or not she sould be licking the handle bars. I pull one of those cartoon switch-aroos where I say "no", she says "yes" and we go back and forth for a while until I switch to "yes", she falls for it and starts saying "no, you shouldn't be licking the handlebars".]

My favorite part is when the parents came strolling in...

[This really wasn't my favorite part, but It's funny]

Sam takes off with Jenny in tow

And just when they are about to have a happy reunion...

Sam makes a b-line for a ball. Ah, to be young...

Catchin' up

Jeff LOVES Harry Potter. LOVES it. So, here we are at the new movie back in July. Jeff was so excited to see it and got his expectations way too high from what people said about it. I really liked the movie. He was disappointed. Poor guy.

The next week we went to the Vernal temple. We just did a day trip... 3 hours there and 3 more hours back. It was kinda brutal being in the car. I just get to the point where I'm totally done with the day. Jeff is very patient with me. We forgot to take the camera so we stopped at a Walgreen's and got this awesome steal for only $4.19. It was on clearance. When we got to the temple, we had to check it. Nothing is more manly than Jeff handing the temple worker a pink Disney princess camera and writing his name on the paper for it. We'll post the pictures from this when we get them back.

After Vernal, we went to the Bees game for the 24th of July. I love Utah holidays. Seriously great. We couldn't find our actual camera, so we finished off our great disposable one at the game. It was fun and I love fireworks.
The day after that, we had a game night with our friends. Tara was in town for the Bees game so we played Quiddler with Tara, her sister Kayleigh, and the Jensen's. We love these people!

Here are the Jensen's. They were in the branch presidency where Jeff and I met. They're hilarious and so fun to hang out with.

A few more Snowbird pictures

This was the end of our little hike on the paved trail. The kids loved it. My mom took at least a million pictures.

Here is Maddie on the trail. She was a little stubborn about going up the slight incline.

Here I am with Crystal (my friend since forever). I know, we're looking great without showers and after sweating all day.

Snowbird

A little late, but here are a lot of pictures from our week at Snowbird (end of June to the 4th of July).

Here are a few reasons I LOVE being up there!

Sam liked the rocks and wood chips more than the playground. Nature is cool.

Mandy and me. I don't know how we got sparkly eyes, but I like it.

My Maddie Mooshka broke her leg so she didn't get to do a whole lot of playing. Poor kid was so exhausted and fell asleep like this:

These are the swings at the all abilities playground they have. Sam kinda liked them. Maddie loved them. Funny thing about them making the playground for "all abilities" is that they put wood chips down and wheelchairs don't really roll through wood chips. Seriously? Did they not think that through? At least the swings are cool.

Best husband ever with 2 cute kiddos. He's going to be such a great dad!

Tetherball, anyone?

Here we are riding the Tram. I love this guy!

The view at the top of the tram...and yes, that is snow at the end of June!

We had a great time and were also really happy to be home again! Thanks for the fun week fam!

Man Date

Jeff and his BFF Dave had their first man date this evening. I chaperoned. I'm nice like that. Dave came over (Mandy was sick and couldn't come) and we ate spaghetti and chatted. The boys planned out building projects and the fact that they would like to have a big workshop. They couldn't have a workshop with anyone else, right?
When they're together I can't help but think of the song, "Reunited..." I don't know the rest of the words but it's that really cheesey '80s song. Dave is leaving to go back east for 4 months. He leaves the end of this month. The bro-mance will have to be rekindled in December.

Pimp Panther

Yes, this is an update on the gym pimp.

I think that I forgot to mention his black leather fanny pack that he wears with the sunglasses and the feminine tank top, etc. It really completes the ensemble.

Anyway, today I was thrilled outta my pants to see the pimp at the gym. He was wearing his usual garb and after his strenuous workout on one machine and chatting with his buddies, he put his t-shirt on to go home.

It was a white t-shirt, of course, because that seems to be his trademark. The best part of this experience: a picture of the pink panther on the front of the shirt wearing bling. At the top of the shirt it said, "Pimp Panther."

My day was complete at 9 this morning.

Buy a shirt, support a GREAT cause

As the majoriy of you know, our niece Maddie was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. I know Emily (my sister) also blogged about this, but we want as many people as possible to spread the word!

This is Maddie. She'll be 5 next month and starting kindergarten.

To support her (how could you not want to? she's sassy, spunky, bossy, and cute!) we are participating in the hydrocephalus walk at Sugarhouse Park in September. The team name is Frilled with Life.
If you want to join Maddie's team, we would love to have you. Or, if you would like to and are able to donate money, we would love the help in our fundraising efforts!

The coolest part is Maddie's preschool teacher. Her husband has a band who will be doing fundraising for the cause too. The Jon Dansie Band will donate the profits from the sale of their "Frilled with Life" t-shirts directly to the cause and 10% of all sales during the month of August will also be donated.

How amazingly awesome is that? Please let anyone and everyone know and help us meet our fundraising goal to support Maddie and other little sassy pants like her!

16 and pregnant

I have a confession to make. Jeff and I have been watching this show on MTV. We both yell at the TV at how ridiculous these teenage couples are. I'm sure we're a real sight as we tell them what they should do, tell them how selfish they sound, and how difficult it will be for them to raise a child.

Stepping on my soapbox:
My passion on this subject comes from an infant adoption class I took this summer as one of my electives. It's an area that I've become pretty excited and opinionated about and think I would love working in adoptions, but I also know it would be hard to be totally objective and support both the birth parents as well as the adoptive parents if the birth mom changes her mind.

Anyway, 16 and pregnant has made both Jeff and I realize how much society glamorizes teenage pregnancy and how "fun" it is to choose to parent the child. I mean, at the age of 16 (give or take a couple of years...) what could be better than to have a little person to love you and always be with you? You get to play dress up and buy cute clothes and toys and all your friends will be so excited because you'll have a baby they can come and play with! The boyfriend is always going to stay in the picture, right? And both of the birth parents will be AWESOME at raising their child because they have such good examples of parents as you can see on any of the episodes on the website. SO FRUSTRATING! This really is how so many teenagers think.

The reason for this post is because at 2 a.m. (I know, amazing that I was awake. I don't know what the deal was...watching TV AND staying awake?! Have I become a normal human being as I stay awake late at night? Hmmm...for anyone who really knows me, you know that I generally require at least 10 hours of sleep to properly function and as soon as a movie or TV show starts at night, I'm done for) we were watching the episode of Catelynn and Tyler.

We were very impressed with these 2. Both grew up in super dysfunctional homes. Tyler's dad, Butch, was in and out of prison and Catelynn's mom, April, looked like she'd done a little too much meth over the years. April and Butch were totally unsupportive and thought Tyler and Catelynn should be the parents because they would be such great parents. If you want to watch the story, it's worth it. I'm not a really big advocate of MTV so the fact that we're all about this one should say something. This episode was awesome though. The two teens were way more mature than their parents and were thinking only of the life they wanted their baby to have rather than how fun it would be to play dress up and have somebody to love you all the time.

We were just thrilled that they followed through with their choice to place their baby for adoption and the gift and blessing they gave to the adoptive parents who so badly wanted to have children but were unable to do so.

We're glad they used this story because maybe other teenagers will learn SOMETHING from it even if they just know that adoption is an option.

My moment of glory? I got all emotional and cried. True story. I am my mother's child.

Jeff's Freaking Out

("Jeff's" is a contraction, it's not possessive; i.e. I'm still freaking out)

I was having another one of my freak out sessions this morning. They have been occurring more and more lately. It was the clutter on my desk that was doing it, along with the clutter on my desktop (running and switching between 15-20 windows). I realized I was feeling claustrophobic. I've never been claustrophobic before. So in order to give myself some more space, I increased the screen resolution to maximum. I need help...

BTW, this was my first post on our blog. I've got a great wife!

Gym Pimp

There is a man who frequents the Gold's Gym in Sugarhouse. My sister and I refer to him as the pimp. I wish more than anything that I had a picture of him, but I will do my best to describe the awesomeness of his existence.
1- He is somewhere between 40 and 50.
2- He has a large pot belly and reminds me of my little nephew Sam.
3- He always wears white.
4- He LOVES BLING although he generally tones it down to a large silver chain during his workout. (see definition number 2, or maybe 3...not number one on the link.)
5- He always has bright white new basketball shoes. One pair even has some leopard print around the tongue and the heel. It's pretty classy.
6- He wears feminine-looking tank tops similar to this except the main part is white and the trim is a variety of blue stripes.
7- His cover up shirt is a white t-shirt with neon yellow, pink, and blue lettering that says BLING! all over it.
8- He is balding, but has little gray stubble on his head.
9- Last time I saw him he wore sunglasses similar to this but with bright white frames.
10- His usual workout consists of him checking himself out in the mirror, doing approximately 2 1/2 repetitions on one machine, chatting with his gym buddies, then checking himself out again. I've never seen him do more than that.

True story here.
You can't make this stuff up.

Addiction

WebMD.
I absolutely love it and am obsessed with it. I have to restrict myself because I could seriously spend hours on that website. I don't actually think that I have serious illnesses, but I love to put in a symptom on the symptom checker and see what it could be.
How lame am I?

Summer woes

There are a few things that just really annoy me. One happened yesterday. I was at my parent's house helping my mom with some stuff and it was a toasty day outside. When I left, I put my sunglasses on which I had left in my car and they totally burned my nose and behind my ears. I hate hot sunglasses.

Bro-Mance

Meet my sister's "ruggedly handsome" mountain man boyfriend Dave. Their first date was at our wedding reception and so Jeff and I like to take credit for the beginning of their great relationship. We also get to share anniversaries of sorts so it apparently has created the unbreakable bond between the boys. We've been at Snowbird this week and the male bonding has been, well, cute.

The new BFFship began last night in the pool and hot tub. The boys decided to launch each other off their shoulders. It was purely awesome. Following an hour or so in the water, they spent some time in the steam room together sweating out everything they could. I can only imagine what they discussed to enhance this newfound relationship.

Here are the new BFF's playing Wii. They heart MarioKart.

And here they are with the bean dip they created together.

If all that doesn't just scream true bromance, I don't know what does.

Second Love of my Life

Obviously, my husband comes first. I have found a new secret love though. The Space Bag is absolutely amazing. I was using them at my parents house and am totally hooked. I could vacuum pack things all day. I love them. My dad even ordered some for me because I was so thrilled. I packed 7 big quilts into one bag and sucked all the air right out! It's a great stress reliever. I also love infomercials so go ahead and click on the link. You will be happy you did.

A-MA-ZING

In our efforts to visit all the temples in Utah before the end of the year, Jeff and I decided to have a little weekend getaway in Logan. We stayed at the Providence Inn and absolutely loved it. If you're ever just needing a break and want to go somewhere totally relaxing, go here!
This is the jetted tub. I was absolutely thrilled with it! It was ginormous.

Here is our breakfast. They have 5 different options to choose from and bring it right to your room at a time you choose! It was glorious. I absolutely love chocolate milk. I don't think there is a better tasting beverage anywhere on the planet.

Us in front of the Logan Temple.

And, finally, Jeff after examining the stone on the temple.

We had a great trip and can't wait to go back!

B.U.E.

Jeff and I babysat little Kaitlyn and out of the 100 or so pictures we took, this one was my absolute favorite. It's just classic! Here's to the Best Uncle Ever (B.U.E.).

All About Jeff

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!
Thanks for being the best husband I could ask for. I can't imagine my life with anyone else.
I love hanging out with you all the time and am excited for whatever our future together holds.
I love that you make me laugh and that you don't have an indoor voice at all.
I love the competitive side that comes out when we play games.
I love that you are so enthralled with Alton Brown on Good Eats.
I love that you like to experiment with random seasonings when we cook and that it usually turns out pretty tasty.
I love that we don't have to fight about the toilet seat or toothpaste or little things like that.
I love that you open the car door for me every time we go somewhere.
I love that you will pause whatever you are watching so that you can listen to me.
I love that you wish there were adult-sized swaddle-me's.
I love that you are a handy man.
I love you and hope you have a fabulous birthday!
Here are just some random pictures.
This one is when we took Avery to the Living Planet Aquarium.

Oh...the engagement photo shoot. We HATED being engaged. We just wanted to get married.

While we were dating, we did a lot of random fun stuff like going up the canyon with our friends...now we're boring and just hang out at home most of the time. I absolutely love that we get to hang out every evening. It's so great!

This was the best day ever...and super long! Happy birthday, Jeff! I'm so glad we're married and I couldn't ask for a better husband!

Here we are on the plane to Oregon for our second reception. When you're 2 un-petite people, the plane seats are a wee bit cramped. It's a great excuse to cuddle, though...even when it's forced...

FUNemployed

That would be Jeff's term for my current work situation and I love it. He's so great to let me be unemployed even though it's summer.
Thanks to everyone for the comments on my moments of glory. I'm all better now. More than anything with that last post, I just wanted to say how great of a husband I have and how classic my experiences are when I'm sick. Good times.
I'm in school from 8-5 this entire week and it's not bad at all. However, there is a woman with pink and black and gray hair who is a head nodder probably in her 50's. It kills me. EVERYTHING the professor or guest speaker says is followed with an enthusiastic nod of agreement like she would have said the exact same thing. I love watching crazy social work people. It's pretty much the highlight of my day.

Moments of glory

I've been sick.
Diagnosis: "Parainfluenza. It looks like the flu and it looks like Pneumonia, but it's a virus that just has to run it's course."
Awesome.
I've been a miserable mess. Jeff has been amazingly awesome with this whole thing. He's cooked dinner, done all the dishes, cleaned the house, taken care of the bills, gone to work, made sure I was comfortable, and gotten anything and everything I could possibly need. He's a rockstar and I couldn't ask for a better husband.

He even stuck with me during my moments of glory at Instacare on Saturday:
1- The nurse gave me Tylenol to get my fever down. Shortly after, I was taken to the x-ray room to get chest x-rays where I proceeded to puke up everything left in my system all over the floor and my pants. Jeff helped me over to a bed in the next room. The x-ray tech came to get me after I was a little more steady on my feet and said, "I got it all cleaned up. I didn't want you to slip." Yeah. That would really top off my day to slip in a puddle of my own vomit.

2- Because of moment of glory number one, the Tylenol was no longer in my system. In walks the nurse with a suppository. No dice. I made her check my temperature again and it was ok enough that I came away suppository free. Although, it would have added to the day...

3- Because I kept getting light headed and puking, I had the wonderful opportunity to have my first ever IV. Now, I'm a woos when it comes to needles and blood in general. Throw the fact that I'm totally done with the day and not feeling so spectacular and you get an emotional Jenny. The nurse couldn't find a vein and I got poked a couple of times. It hurt and more than anything, I was just exhausted so I started crying. Again. Seriously? I'm 26 years old and I cried because of an IV and having to get fluids.
I am officially a woos.

We came away from our 3 1/2 hour day hungry and exhausted. Jeff continued to do all the stuff around the house and make dinner. I continued to lay on the couch which has been my home for the last 5 days.

Jeff is the most patient guy ever. I am the worst sick person ever. It's a good combination.

Scandinavian fun

The Scandinavian festival consisted of the following adventures.

1- Lion's Club breakfast with Maddie bossing everyone and pouting, Sam looking confused,

and Jeff summing up his feelings with this classic look:

2- Awesome parade with vikings, lots of candy, missionaries (what other parade would have missionaries riding their bikes in it? seriously), small town royalty, cloggers, dancers, and local law enforcement and ambulance. There is quite a large turn out for such a small town thing. Emily and I LOVE the parade. Greatest thing ever! It was a little cold and rainy, but fun.

3-Free Snow College clothing for me and the kids. Pretty sweet. None of us had jackets and the local WalMart only had summer clothes out, so I was thrilled about the Snow alumni booth...even though I went to SUU. Yay for free jackets! Oh, yeah. And the traditional and very much awaited Sanpete turkey and picadilly chips for lunch.

We were all really glad to finally get home. I love this tradition and I also love the time on Saturday when we get to go back home! Thanks for the great trip, Newbold fam!