Darin, Haylee, Matthew, and Lindsay Gunnerson

To the Zoo!

2012-01-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

Matt, Lindsay, and I went to the zoo today with Kristy and Eliza. We had SOO much fun! It seriously was a magical day. It seemed like every animal we walked up to would get as close to us as they could --especially the monkeys, tigers, the gorilla, and the peacocks. It was nuts!

We had one really funny part of the day. Kristy gave Matthew some money to buy some food to feed the ducks

Here is a picture of Matthew and me feeding the ducks.

Next thing I know, my gloves are in WITH the ducks! Ha ha!

Linds was a little sleepy towards the end.

Look at that gorilla yawn!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

Happy 1st Birthday Lindsay!!

2012-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little Lindsay just turned 1. What an amazing year it has been! And what an amazing little girl she is! She has been such a blessing in our lives! We had a little party to celebrate, including a light lunch, a SHORT video of Lindsay’s first year, and of course a cake smash! It was a perfect day, with the exception that it was really overcast—which made for less than great pictures. You can totally tell which pictures are from the actual party and which are from a different day. Oh well. Here are a few of the pictures from the day.

The invitation (no jokes family)

I sent Darin to Costco to get some rolls. He came back with rolls, and a dozen roses for me, and a dozen roses for Lindsay—what a sweetie!!

All of the Hodgkinson cousins.

Lindsay and me.

The table and the “Lindsay tree” with all of her owl pictures.

Cake bites.

The cake! (I saw one like this online, and just decided to give it a try. It didn’t turn out perfect, but I was really happy with the way it did turn out).

The little owl beanbags/hand warmers that I made out of leftover fabric from Lindsay’s bedding.

Eating the cake!

And finishing the day in the tub. (I LOVE the frosting in her hair!)

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Debt

2012-01-20T14:03:00.001-08:00

Debt. I’m not a big fan. I avoid it even more than I probably should. I worked really hard to get scholarships/save money to pay for college. I was one of the lucky few to come out of college debt free.

I didn’t have my own car until my junior year of college (although my parents were extremely generous in letting me borrow their cars—thanks parents).

With the exception of our home, there has only been one other thing we have been in debt for….

This cute girl right here—worth every penny!

We’re happy to announce that as of today, she is officially bought and paid for! Wahoo!!

30 before 30

2012-01-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

My friend Jess recently did a 30 before 30 post. And, since I have just over 3 years until I turn thirty, I made my own list. I've been looking over it for a week or so, but today decided to post it for the world--it makes me feel somewhat more accountable. So, here you go world--my 30 before 30 (in no particular order).

1-Take the kids to Disneyland
2- Run a ½ Marathon
3- Have another child
4-Do the Dirty Dash or some kind of Mud Run
5- Go to the Festival of Colors
6- See “Wicked” on Broadway
7- Improve my photography skills
8-Go to “The Forgotten Carols”
9- Master a song on the piano—preferably “Claire de Lune”
10- Buy new kitchen cabinets
11- Get new living room furniture
12- Read a classic novel (Pride and Prejudice, Les Miserable, etc.)
13- Do a big DIY project—(maybe make Linds a play kitchen)
14- Try the iFly in Ogden (or something else that makes me nervous)
15- Go to the Hill Field Museum
16-Go to the Daughters of Utah Museum to see the two headed lamb
17- Invent a new great recipe
18- Do SOMETHING with our cement pad.
19- Take the kids to the beach
20- Try a new food (a fig perhaps)
21- Try at least 3 new restaurants
22- Sew 2 dresses for Lindsay using the fabric from two of my old Prom dresses
23- Make a quilt
24- Do the 100 push-up challenge
25- Read the Standard Works!
26- Try a difficult recipe with using at least one ingredient I’ve never heard of
27- Re-learn how to do a back-flip on the trampoline
28- Write a children’s book (just for my kids—not to be published)
29- Go on an over-nighter with just Darin
30-Go to a show at Tuachan

And there you have it! I'll keep you "posted" on how it goes! :)

Snow Day!

2012-01-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

After weeks with no snow, we finally got some! We were so excited that we took advantage of every minute! We built a snowman, a snow fort, made snow angels, went sledding, and had a snowball fight! Then, we came in and enjoyed some hot chocolate!

Happy New Year!! Welcome 2012!!

2012-01-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

Wow!! What a year 2011 has been!! It is amazing to think of everything we have gone through in the past year! Lots of ups and downs—mostly ups! We’ve had so many blessings and tender mercies throughout the year! Thank you to all of our wonderful friends, family, acquaintances, and even perfect strangers who have blessed our lives!

For New Year’s Eve, we had my parents over for some games, food, movies, fireworks, and more! It was a really fun night! Thanks mom and dad for coming over!

This was my “balloon drop” that I made. It came undone at like 8:30ish, so we had a practice celebration! Matt LOVED it!

I love this picture...check out Matt drinking his "bubbly."

Just A Little Project

2012-01-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

I found this cute puppet theater online. I really liked the idea that folds up and doesn't take much storage space. But, it cost $65!! Yikes!! So, with my mom's help we made a new puppet theater for less that $5! I even like ours better, and Matt LOVES it!

Happy Hanukkah!

2012-01-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

Matching Pajamas

2011-12-31T10:03:00.000-08:00

Every year I try to make matching pajamas for our family. This year I wasn’t quite as motivated. So, I just made everyone wear their old jammies, and then made a new "nightgown" for Linds.

Oh, and can you see our Christmas tree in thebackground? I LOVE it!! Ben and Kristy cut it down for us! It smells oh so good! Thanks Ben and Kristy!!

….and I promise Matt’s pants aren’t too short for him, it is just the way Darin is holding him in this picture.

Layton Lights

2011-12-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

Let's Hear it for the GILRS!!

2011-12-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

I love these girls. I love Cafe Rio. So bringing them together made for a wonderful afternoon!(and I also love the lone boy, Matt, on the far right).

Gunnerson Christmas Party

2011-12-27T10:28:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun Christmas Party this year (as we do every year). We started off with the MOST DELICIOUS meal of the year! Oh, so yummy! We played some basketball, did our gift exchange, more basketball, dessert, the nativity, and lots of visiting!

Christmas Day

2011-12-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

I could hardly sleep all night I was so excited! I woke up first, finished making our traditional Christmas Breakfast Casserole, and hopped in the shower. While I was in, Matt woke up, so I opened presents with wet hair. Matt LOVED finding empty cookie plate—so cute! We all had a great time opening and giving presents, and YES, Matt did get his “blue car and book!”

After opening presents we got dressed and went to my aunt’s house for breakfast, then to my parent’s ward for church, followed by eating left-overs from the night before at my parent’s. the rest of the day we relaxed, and had Darin’s parents over that night and received MORE gifts! (THANKS DAD AND MOM!!)

After that, we were getting ready for bed and we heard a loud knock on the door. But when I answered the door no one was there, just a gift from “Santa.” So, just in case “Santa” reads our blog—I just wanted to say THANK YOU for your EXTREMELY generous gift!!—and YES, it was our “Best Christmas EVER!!” Thank you!!

(My favorite picture from Christmas)

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T08:52:00.000-08:00

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas Eve. We spent the day preparing, cooking, and playing games. In the evening we went to my parent’s house for an AMAZING dinner—(ham and cheese sandwiches, broccoli salad, spinach salad, potato salad, potato chips, bbq chips, crab rounds, shrimp, black olives, green olives, cheese ball, cream cheese and hot jelly with crackers, veggie dip, deviled eggs, eggnog, chocolates, caramels, peppermint ice-cream with hot fudge, and more!) Then we watched Luke 2, opened presents, and played with the presents. The hit of the night was that the boy (adult boys) got remote control helicopters. It kept everyone entertained! Thanks mom and dad for all the great gifts, great food, and great company!

We came home, baked and set out our cookies for Santa, tore off the last link in our Christmas chain, read our last Christmas book, put on our matching pajamas, put the kids to bed, then Darin and I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” then we danced to “The Christmas Waltz”—I LOVE that song! It was a PERFECT Christmas Eve!

Guess Who's 11 Months!!

2011-12-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

Once There Was A Snowman!

2011-12-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

Matthew had his two buddies over for a little snowman party. We started out with breakfast.

I made these snowman pancakes with bacon scarfs.

We sang snowman songs.

We played pin the nose on the snowman.

We had a snowball fight using cotton balls.

We had some snacks and watched "Frosty the Snowman."

I got the ideas for snacks from my sister-in-law Jadi. You can see her party HERE.

And Matt gave the kids a bag of "Snowman Soup."

These kids really are so cute! They always have so much fun together...and the moms kind of like each other too.

Lights at Temple Square

2011-12-20T14:14:00.000-08:00

The kids all bundled up together. They really do love each other.

We went to Deseret Book and got some yummy Gingerbread cookies! Matt loved watching the awesome gingerbread machine that the Barrus boys made! Click HERE to watch their project! AMAZING job Jesse!

Matt and me on "Lover's Lane."

Darin and Matt.--You can see Matt's teary eyes. He didn't want to go.

Lindsay liked coming home to the warm house.

Run run as fast as you can....

2011-12-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

...you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

My cute cousin Krista came over to make some Gingerbread Men/Women with Matthew and me. Matt made such a big mess, I think we changed his clothes 3 times, but it was fun. While the cookies were baking in the oven we read “The Gingerbread Man” and “The Gingerbread Girl”—both very cute books. It was a GREAT day!

(Matt looks like he has a "dead tooth" in this picture-- but its just because he snuck some of the dough).

(Notice frosting in his hair, on his face, and on his clothes).

(Smooching Krista goodbye).

(A few of the gingerbread men/girls we made).

Lindsay Update!

2011-12-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

We’re so happy to report GREAT news for Lindsay! This week we went back into Primary’s for a CT Scan to see if the surgery is working or if she’d need a shunt. I was nervous that she would hate getting strapped down and that she’d wiggle too much, but she was just perfect! She never cried or wiggled. You can see in her picture that she was even smiling—and the pictures don’t even show her with the straps on her head.

After the scan we met with her doctor and he said that she’d not too far off of where her head size should be for her age and she’s almost on the charts! (When she was born her head was 48cm and now it is 50cm). He also said that her ventricles look about the same size (a good thing), and her cyst looks like it may have shrunk a little (a great thing). Most likely she isn’t going to need a shunt, and we don’t even need to go back to Primary’s until the summer! Wahoo! Thanks for all the prayers! Miracles happen!

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!

2011-12-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

Darin and I received some free tickets to see Annie at Pioneer Theater Company. It was so well done! We LOVED it!

My mom and dad came with us, and they took us to dinner at Noodles and Co. (So yummy!!) And I asked my mom to take a picture of us--and this is what we got! ha ha! (Luckily we have a better one from my dad).

And a big THANK YOU to Ben and Kristy for watching the kiddos!

Baking Up A Storm

2011-12-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Matthew has been helping me bake dozens and dozens of these cookies for our neighbors. This was the first recipe I ever posted on my food blog. If you’d like the recipe click HERE.

Rub-a-dub-dub Matt and Linds Paint in the Tub!

2011-12-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

I saw this cute idea online—but I didn’t realize how much Matt would love it! However, there were 2 bad things about it:

1- It was REALLY hard to get him to stop!--He would have painted all day if I would have let him.

2-I didn’t chose a very good paint—it took me FOREVER to get it all off! (But on the plus side, I have a super clean tub now!)

Sinterklaas Came to Town!

2011-12-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

Sinterklaas came to our house and left some yummy chocolatesin our shoes. My sister does this too—butshe has some cute Dutch shoes that she leaves out. Hopefully one day I’ll have some cute Dutch shoestoo!

When I was growing up, each year at Christmas, my great grandma Mimi would give eachof us a fifty dollar bill and a Droste Chocolate Letter of our first initial (Iwas always so jealous of my mom because she got more money and her chocolate W seemed so much bigger than my chocolateH.) I won’t be giving my kids a fiftydollar bill each year, and I won’t be shipping in Dutch chocolates, but I canmelt some chocolate chips and make them a little letter each year!

Reading Count Down to Christmas

2011-12-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

Matthew and Lindsay get to open one Christmas book each night until Christmas. I know it's not the most original idea, but they are both really excited about it!

Dinner and a Movie

2011-12-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

Last week we were supposed to go to the Bountiful City Light Parade but, because of the windstorm it was canceled. Instead, my family came over to our house for some yummy pizza (provided by mom and dad), a delicious salad (thanks to Heather), breadsticks, and a fancy hot chocolate bar (provided by Ben and Kristy). We also watched “Elf”—Best movie ever made! I was pretty proud of my awesome “stadium seating” to fit everyone—even though most the adults stayed upstairs and visited. It was nice ending to a hard working weekend.

One Reason I LOVE my Neighborhood

2011-12-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

I looked out my window to find 40+ men and 6+ trucks cleaning up the tree that fell down across the street.Similar groups cleaned up my parent's yard and my grandpa's yard.

“Everyone knows It’s Windy”

2011-12-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

This is honestly one of my favorite songs—I love it! And I’ve had it stuck in my head with the bigwind storm we’ve had (even though this song is not about wind). It has been unreal up here in DavisCounty! I went for a little drive aroundour neighborhood, and you honestly couldn’t go 1 block before you’d findanother huge tree down!

Our problems are diminutive compared to most of our neighbors. Some of our shingles came off, our gate to our back yard broke, our Christmas lights shattered, and one of our rain gutters came off. My mom got hit pretty hard, and my grandpa even worse! He lost probably 15 trees in his yard alone, and he lost his fence to his swimming pool. I think I know how we’ll be spending our weekend.

Here are just a few pictures—we had lots more—and I stopped taking pictures because it was just feeling redundant.

This is the tree directly across the street from our house. The tree fell and barely missed their house. (We've joked with several of our neighbors that we were going to go cut that tree down in the middle of the night--because we all hated that tree--we're actually REALLY glad it fell down!)

Two of the kids in my neighborhood standing next to the tree.

This house is about 5 houses away from us. The house got hit with a light post and a tree. They're in Poland right now, and don't even know this happend!

Look at those roots! Almost as tall as the house!

I found this trampoline in the church parking lot!

This tree was blocking the road on Davis Blvd.

The first truckload of stuff from my mom's yard. And you can also see part of the tree on her roof.

Darin and I were going to go to the Nutcracker this night—butwith no shower, we decided to pass it up. Instead, we cuddled by the fire in our dark cold house.

…the power came on later that night, but we were having somuch fun that we just decided to keep all the lights of and pretend the powerwas out—using candles and flashlights to get around. It was a fun adventure!

Our prayers to those who have worse damage--and anyone is welcome to come stay in our spare bedrooms if you need a place to stay!

Thanksgiving Weekend in Sunny Arizona!

2011-11-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we drove 12 hours down to Arizona to stay with Darin’s brother Geoff, his darling wife Jadi, and their adorable kids Kaden and Kaylee! We arrived late Wednesday night, visited for a little while, then headed to bed.

Thurdsay morning their neighborhood does a yummy pancake breakfast which was so fun! Then we went to the park followed by lots of cooking and lots of eating! Jadi is such an amazing cook and hostess! Everything looked so cute—she even gave the kids little Thanksgiving gift bags with treats and toys! Lindsay got a doll and Matt got a Dinosaur—they LOVED it!

After dinner we headed to another fun park—Matthew sureloves his cute cousins! Darin and hisbrothers kept trying to do tricks, stunts, and obstacle courses on these cementwalls. They were so funny! We headed home, watched some movies andlooked through the Black Friday advertisements.

I didn’t take any pictures from Friday (nuts), but we mostlyspent the day shopping and going to the park.

Saturday Darin, Matthew, Lindsay, and I headed to Mesa tovisit my wonderful Grandma Hodgkinson! It was so fun to see her, and she had just redone her whole house—it wasBEAUTIFUL!! We wished we lived closer becausemy grandma is so much FUN!! We went outto lunch, did some visiting, then headed back to Geoff and Jadi’s.

After the kids took some quick naps we went to anotherdarling park, and even got a few family pictures taken. The kids were still pretty tired so they didn’tcooperate too well. This is the best onethat we got.

And here is one of just Lindsay and me.

After pictures we went to the Mesa temple. It was so pretty! They do Christmas lights like they do ontemple square, but you don’t have to bundle up! We LOVED it!

The whole weekend was just PERFECT! It was really relaxing, but it was really funtoo! Thanks again and again Geoff andJadi!! We love you guys so much and missyou already! Thanks again!!

Lindsay is 10 months!

2011-11-19T17:11:00.003-08:00

Her two bottom teeth came in!
She’s still not crawling—but she’s still having Physical Therapy every other week to work on it.
She’s still super happy!

A Sneak Peek!

2011-11-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

Yes, we will be wearing matching pajamas on Christmas Eve again! My mom helped me make this “nightgown” for Lindsay today—I think she looks so cute!

Oh Yes We Did!

2011-11-19T17:00:00.001-08:00

Matthew wrote a letter to Santa this week. He asked for a blue car and a book. He was so excited to color a picture for Santa, and put the letter in the mailbox.

After we put the letter in the mailbox I said, “I love Santa!” Matthew got REALLY upset and even started to cry a little and said, “You don’t love Santa! You love my dad!!” How cute is that!? And yes, I DO love his dad—LOTS more than Santa!

Now, I’d like to get a little feedback on the whole “writing to Santa thing. Trying to decide if we should make it a tradition, or is it a little selfish to write to ask for what you want? Matthew had so much fun doing it, but I have mixed feelings. Thoughts?

Harry Potter Party

2011-11-19T16:40:00.001-08:00

We had a little Harry Potter Party this weekend. (Does it still count as a party if it is just our family?--the kiddos were sick so we didn't end up inviting anyone over) We ate some yummy food and then watched the LAST Harry Potter (finally)—and I loved it! I only took pictures of the food.

Pinkalicious

2011-11-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

I threw a baby shower for my friend this weekend. She wanted to keep it small, so we were able to do a sit down lunch. It was simple but really fun! We had chicken noodle soup, potato cheese soup, salad, and rolls.

One funny thing about this shower…I wanted to do a “pink” theme, but I also wanted to base the shower off of a book—so I thought of doing “Pinkalicious.” I made my plans, and then went online to see if anyone had ever thought of doing a Pinkalicious party. I found some REALLY cute ideas via pinterest, and clicked on the pictures which took me to my sister-in-law’s blog! Ha ha! No surprise, she always has the most original, darling ideas! Great job Jadi!

Once there was a Snowman!

2011-11-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

I love this snowman that Darin and Matt made. I especially love the tomato eyes, zucchini nose and mouth, and the leaves for a head dress and skirt.

Quick Trip to the Cabin

2011-11-01T10:20:00.001-07:00

I LOVE the cabin in the fall!!

Darin and I went up to the cabin this last weekend. It was a short trip, but it was really fun. Nothing like sitting by a warm fire and watching scary movies up at the cabin!

The only bad thing about this trip was right as we left I said, “I hope we remembered everything we need.” Followed by, “I guess all we really need are the diapers, wipes and our clothes, and I know that we have that.”

We got up to the cabin and less than 5 minutes later, Matt had a dirty diaper. So, I went to get the diapers, and guess what…no bag! I remembered everything but the bag I had packed with the diapers, our clothes, underwear, makeup, etc. So, Darin had to make a quick trip to town to buy some diapers. After that, it was a very enjoyable weekend!

Oh, and my two sweatshirts were in that bag, and it was SUPER cold---luckily there was a coat up at the cabin for me to use!

Mr. Toad's Great Adventure

2011-11-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

*Disclaimer: I let my dad chose the title of this blog post—this post has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Toad.

We has an awesome Halloween Party with my family last week at my parent’s house. My sister planned lots of fun games for the kids, and we all had a GREAT time! The kids made q-tip skeletons, a relay with ghost shaped marshmallows on a spoon, picking up “witch hats” (chocolate chips) with a straw, and more. We had soup in bread bowls that looked like pumpkins and decorated Halloween sugar cookies. It was such a fun night!!

We went as Captain Hook, Peter Pan, Wendy, and Tinkerbell.

Sucking up Chocolate Chips or "Witch Hats" through a straw.

The two Tinkerbells.

Q-tip Skeletons

I did this every year that I taught school. I gave each of the kids a paper with an outline of a grave yard. Then I let the kids color in everything but the sky with crayon. Next, we paint over the top with water color. What the kids don’t know is that I had colored a ghost with white crayon somewhere on the paper, so when the paint goes on a ghost appears!

Carving Pumpkins

2011-11-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Carving pumpkins was so much fun! I gave Matt options for his pumpkin and hethought triangle eyes were about the funniest thing on the planet. He also was insistent on having a sad pumpkinwith teeth. Darin did a spooky hauntedhouse and I did two ghosts.

Trick or Treat

2011-11-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a mom! Halloween is extra fun again! The most fun it has ever been in my whole life! This was the first year I have taken Matthew trick or treating—and he LOVED it! I first took him to the retirement home. The old people were SO excited! It was really cute! Then I took him trick-or-treating to my parents’ and grandparents’ houses. Then Matt went trick-or-treating on Main Street with his buddy Daxton. Last we did like 4 houses in our neighborhood. It was so fun!

We also have some awesome neighbors that chose a theme every year and dress up as a family! This year was Aladin—don’t they look AMAZING!!?

Playing in the Leaves

2011-11-01T09:17:00.001-07:00

Matt's Halloween Party

2011-10-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

Matt had a little Halloween Party with a few of his buddies. These three kids were all born within a month of each other and they LOVE getting together (and it helps that their moms like each other so much too). We played “ghost bowling,” turned the kids into toilet paper mummies, made mummy hot-dogs, colored jack-o-lantern faces on oranges, made string cheese ghosts, read 3 Halloween books, ate lunch on spider plates, drank from mummy juice boxes, and more!

When the party was over, 3 seconds after we shut the door from Matt’s friends leaving he said, “Mom, that was so fun! Let’s have another party right now!” Looks like Matt has a little of me in him after all!

Lindsay had fun too!

2nd Annual Gunnerson Donut Night

2011-10-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up my family made donuts each year on the Family Home Evening before Halloween. My mom would make the donuts and then it was up to my siblings and me to deliver them. I wanted to keep the tradition going, so our first two years that we were married we did it. It was way too crazy trying to watch Matt, making donuts, and delivering them. So last year we just invited people to come to us! It is a lot easier, and it is more fun to visit a little longer with our neighbors!

This year we invited about 50 families on our street. (We live on a “T” so we invite both streets). This really is one of my favorite nights of the year! One of the reasons I love it so much is because I realize that I have the BEST husband ever!! I was running a little behind and didn’t make any dinner, so Darin picked up Subway for us, he vacuumed after Matt made a mess on the floor, and then he stood and fried all the donuts while I dipped! I seriously LOVE that guy! Thanks SOO much Darin!

Here is a picture of some of the donuts…and there were even MORE!

Haylee Dipping!

Darin Frying!

Lindsay was such a good girl! She didn’t go to bed until 10. You can see here that she is exhausted (with super messy hair), I LOVE those glassy tired eyes of hers!

Another harvest, Ballet West, Breakfast, and then some.

2011-10-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like my blog titles are lacking creativity? I do.

Darin and I were able to go to Capital Theater to see Ballet West’s Dracula. We even got to sit on the 3^rd row! We could hear the dancers breathing! I loved it! It was also fun because we sat 3 seats away from a guy who we think was the director.

Matthew got to have a “sleep-over” at Grandpa and Grandma’s—even though we picked him up at 10 he loved it!

The young men and young women did baptisms for the dead and then came over to our house for breakfast afterwards! I forgot how much teenagers eat!! Luckily I had more food in the fridge!

Darin and Matt did another harvest from the garden. We have A LOT of carrots! If you needs some come on over! We loved looking at the abnormal carrots. I posted my favorite one! We also have another bunch of yummy bell peppers!

Darin’s parents brought back this cool trike from the Philippines. Matt LOVES it! And Lindsay even likes to go for rides! So cute! Thanks mom and dad!

We had a pre-Halloween breakfast this morning! Ghost and pumpkin pancakes! Matt loved it!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

2011-10-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Happy 9 months Lindsay

2011-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

3 Generations of Friends

2011-10-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Let’s see if I can write this without too much confusion….my friend Lindsay and I recently found out that our grandmas were friend in college and their spouses (our grandpas) were in the same mission together. Our grandmas’ sorority group would get together once a month for dinner, and our grandpas’ mission group would get together once a month for dinner—so our grandparents were with each other twice a month! My grandma died a few years ago, and Lindsay’s grandpa died a few months ago and we just now made the connection.

Yesterday we went out to lunch to visit and catch up! I wish we would have made the connection earlier so we could have had my grandma there and Lindsay there before she moved so far away! Thanks so much for the fun day Sue and Dorothy! We love you both! And Linds—we missed you loads!

Oh, and mom—thanks and love you too!

Alpine Loop

2011-10-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Last night we did the Alpine Loop for FHE. This was my first time ever doing it and it was spectacular! (Thanks mom and dad for the suggestion). If you have some extra time this week you REALLY should go drive the Alpine Loop! AMAZING!!

I packed up the kids, packed a picnic dinner, packed the camera, the extra lens, sweaters, blankets, etc. We got out of the car to take a family picture, and I got this ONE picture…

And then my battery died! AHHHH!!! Sooo soo sad!!--especially because it is beyond blurry!! And my phone doesn’t take quality pictures at all. Darn!! That was the only bad part. I think Darin was probably secretly rejoicing so I wouldn’t make him stop every 20 yards to take a picture.

One thing that made me laugh was half way through the Alpine Loop Matthew said, “Are we there yet?” Then we explained that we had been here the whole time and he said, “Awe man! No more trees!” Overall, it was a WONDERFUL night!!

A marriage, a missionary, and more!

2011-10-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful weekend! Darin and I had a “stay at home” date night on Friday. Darin bought us PIZZA (my favorite) and we watched Zoo Keeper! I LOVED it! Saturday Matt and Darin worked in the yard while I was at Young Women Volleyball. They had a nice harvest too!

Saturday my cousin Scott married darling Harriet and their reception was beautiful! Congrats you two! We love you both!!

Sunday we went to my cousin, Chandler’s farewell. She did an amazing job and will be an incredible missionary!! We love you Chan, and we will miss you lots!

Sunday evening we went for a family drive around Bountiful to see the changing leaves—they are gorgeous! I LOVE Bountiful!!

Gardner Villiage

2011-10-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Matt went to see the witches at Gardner Village with a few of his buddies. They always have so much fun when they are together!

(I just love this one)

Thanksgiving Point

2011-10-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Last night we met Darin at work, then headed over to Thanksgiving Point to do the Corn Maze. I couldn’t believe how much there was to do! My parents just got back from a cruise to Europe, and I think I took more pictures in our two hours at Thanksgiving Point than my parents did in their two weeks in Europe!

We did the corn maze, the jumping pillow, a hayride, watched a pig race, a haunted house (that was too scary for the kids so we left), the cow train, watched the singing chicken show, a grain train ride, looked at a pumpkin display, went in a corn house, played on the trains/cars/boats playgrounds, and more!

It was a really fun night, with the exception of about 2 minutes when I thought we had lost Matthew. I’ve never been more scared in my life! Darin found him quickly, and Matt didn’t even know that anything was wrong. Thank goodness for answers to prayer!

My Two Pumpkins with the Pumpkins!

2011-10-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Living the “SWEET” Life!

2011-10-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Darin and I had a “cooking date” this week. We made two desserts—neither of which turned out. So, I salvaged one of the desserts (our failed cake) and turned it into Halloween cake balls with Matthew.

While we waited for them to dry, we went outside and played in the rain!

Matt was a great helper, and he LOVED the finished product!

A Wonderful Weekend!

2011-10-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

We had yet another fun and busy weekend. On Friday night we went to our friend’s house for a Halloween dinner party. She is absolutely amazing! The pictures I have don’t do her decorations justice—especially because she handmade, carved, sculpted, and painted nearly everything. Everything looked really spooky, including the food! It was a wonderful night!

Thanks for the AMAZING night Barbie! You're the best!

Saturday morning our niece Lissie got baptized. She looked so cute, and we are so proud of her. Matthew wouldn’t let her go all day long. Even when they got family pictures taken, he just joined their family. Thanks dad and mom for the yummy dinner afterwards!

(I just love how Matt snuck right in there)

Saturday night we had a Stake party for the 10th year that our stake has been organized. There was lots of food, bounce houses, train ride, cake walk, and a mechanical bull! It was a great night, and a wonderful weekend.

Sweet is the "PEACE" the Gospel Brings!

2011-10-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our Young Women Evening in Excellence Program. It turned out great, and all the girls did a wonderful job. They decided to do a “Peace” theme, and they spent a lot of time cutting out the decorations. Barbie and I spent an evening decorating the cookies that Darin, Matt and I made, and I thought they turned out pretty cute. We have the best presidency ever! They all did so much and helped a ton! Sure love you girls! So, without further ado here are the pictures from our night!

The awesome cookies--fun to do, but took a LONG time!

The happy center-piece!

The dessert table

One of our girls played the saxaphone and did awesome!

We took these pictures after we were almost done cleaning up so we're missing over half of the young women.

A Taste of Halloween!!

2011-10-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Darin, Matthew, and I made a quadruple batch of sugar cookies for our Young Women Evening in Excellence--but I snuck one for Matthew and decorated it like a pumpkin. I just love this cute messy kid.

A post on the actual cookies and evening in excellence coming soon!

A Call to Blog

2011-10-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like every second of every day is packed? I feel like we have been so busy with so many things lately that I have to remember just to breath. We’ve been busy doing a lot of fun things, but I just haven’t been taking my camera with me—and I rarely do a post without pictures.

It is only October 4th, and already my calendar looks like this:

September looked the same way. We are just so BUSY! But, I will make it a goal to keep the camera with me so that I can document what we are up to—and to put up pictures for our reader, Grandma—love you!

For starters, here is a really random picture that I LOVE! I was comparing my hair color to Matt’s, then I just made a wig on him using my hair and my sister Heather snapped this shot. So, here is what Matthew would look like if he were a girl!

For my 5 readers in the world—stay tuned, there will be more posts coming soon!

Conference Weekend

2011-10-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

Darin’s parents got to fly back home for General Conference this past weekend. It is always fun to have them here. Darin was able to go to two sessions of conference at the conference center (thanks to his dad). I am looking forward to reading and re-studying this conference for the next 6 months!

Over the weekend we had a family dinner. We had ribs, brisket, funeral potatoes, rainbow jello, coleslaw, dill bread, creamed zucchini, peach cobbler, and rhubarb cobbler. It was really fun to have everyone over—we sure love our family! Thanks for coming everyone, and as always we missed you Geoff, Jadi, Nate, Janie, and Tom! It’s never the same without you.

8 Months

2011-09-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Utah State Fair

2011-09-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

Last night we went to the Utah State Fair for FHE. We loved seeing friends, animals, art, veggies and more. We loved eating cotton candy. We loved smelling the fried foods—but didn’t love smelling the animals. We even loved listening to a bit of Weird Al. It was a GREAT night!

Guten Tag!!

2011-09-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

Recently we were talking to one of our neighbors who grew up in Germany, then later went back with her husband and served an LDS mission in Germany. As she told us a little about her childhood/mission I decided it was time to take another “trip.” I know a lot of people think that our “vacations” are really silly, but I LOVE them! It is so fun to read and study about the country, watch videos, listen to music, look at pictures, try new food, and more. And we really do learn a lot!

For our trip to Germany we borrowed a German cookbook from our neighbor (which got a little confusing because their measurements are different than ours, and they have ingredients that I couldn’t find), and we made Brats (yes I burned them--sad), German red cabbage (which was REALLY good), and German Potatoes.

Matthew wearing his lederhosen.

After dinner we watched a few short informational videos (and got our pictures taken in front of a few landmarks), then we listened to some classical German music (Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven), then watched a German movie.

At bedtime we read a few non-fiction German books, then told Matthew the story of Hansel and Gretel (a German story by the Brothers Grimm).

The next day this handsome German chef made us German Pancakes.

It was a fun short trip--and we don't even have jet lag!

Labor Day Weekend....(and then some)

2011-09-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Hydrocephalus walk. We had breakfast first, Matt got his face painted (he loved the cheerleaders), did some dancing, then went on the walk (but we got a little side-tracked by the ducks in the pond). My goal for team Lindsay was to raise $100, and we raised $600! Thanks so much for everyone that donated, and everyone that came! A special thanks to Shannon, my brothers, and my parents! You guys are the best!! Love you tons!

(Linds eating some banana and LOVING it)

After the Hydrocephalus walk, we went to my sister-in-law’s family cabin. We had so much fun! We played on the swing-set, the teeter-totter, the trampoline, went on a hike, laid on the hammocks, watched a movie, ate LOTS of yummy food, fed the horses, relaxed, made the BEST smores ever (using Recess Peanut Butter Cups), laughed a LOT, and MORE!! Thank you Rick and Heather for an AMAZING weekend! We had so much fun!!

(cute little Lindsay fell asleep on the hike).

(Darin and me at the waterfall).

Monday we did flags with the YM and YW, went for a long run, went to the park, went for a swim at Grandpa's and then had a yummy picnic pizza dinner in the back yard. And Matthew loved chasing the deer.

Tuesday Matthew, Lindsay, and I headed up to Red Butte Garden with our friends Angie and Daxton. Matt LOVED getting to see and hug Curious George. Darin came up after work--always fun to have him with us!

It was a GREAT weekend!!

Random Pieces of August

2011-08-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here are a few things that I missed during the month of August.

We went swimming nearly every day. It has been SOO SOOO nice having a private pool with these two little kiddos. Thanks Grandpa for letting us come every day!! (And there are a few weeks left before the pool closes---anyone up for a swim!?)

Matt and two of his buds.

This girl LOVES to swim!! (Especially with her daddy).

We had LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of dinner parties—fun to be with friends and family!-- Thanks Heather and Kristy for planning this fun one!!

Darin has been growing an awesome garden this summer!! He has grown tons of different kinds of tomatoes, potatoes, yard long beans, green beans, soy beans, climbing beans, sugar snap peas, red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers, chili peppers, lemon cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, melons, spaghetti squash, crookneck squash, butternut squash, summer squash, zucchini, asparagus, corn, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, carrots, swiss chard, black berries, raspberries, grapes, our fruit trees, and more! It has been so fun to cook with fresh produce from the garden! And, I’ve even been canning—I’m sure there’s more ahead.

We went to the fair with the Young Women (Lindsay sat on the camel)

Darin had scout camp
I had girls camp, but they didn’t allow any babies so I had to miss most of it.

I sent this card board version of myself to be there with the girls.

But I did enjoy the time that I got to be with them on the last day!

Lindsay’s little friend Greta turned 1, so we did a little cake smash photo session for fun. I think that Matt and Evelyn ended up eating more cake than Greta did.

So long August! You were a great month! Hello September!

BUSY SATURDAY

2011-08-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

We had an EXTREMELY fun but busy Saturday! I spent the morning cooking in preparation for the rest of the day making cookies, deviled eggs, a vegie tray, and potato salad. First my friends and I threw a Dr. Seuss baby shower for our friend Miranda. Boy! I sure do have creative friends—everything turned out DARLING!! Thanks Camie for all your work, it was so much fun!

After the shower we went to a surprise party for Darin’s brother, Nate. He just finished his masters and we’re so proud of him! Way to go Nate! I brought a vegie tray--I had to take a picture because the tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers are all from our garden! Good job Darin!!

Saturday night we went to a wedding reception, but I accidentally wrote down the wrong address—so we missed it (sorry again Dana, we’ll get your gift to you soon). After the missed reception we went to a BBQ for our YW Presidency and families. Matt was having so much fun I could hardly snap a picture of him! Thanks Jena for such a fun night! Love you guys!!

1st Day of School

2011-08-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the first day of school for lots of people. I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids, and I really wouldn’t want it any other way, but today my heart yearns to be back at school. I miss teaching SOOO much! I only taught for 3 years, but I still dream about it all the time and I am so excited for the day I can go back. There is so much that I miss.

I miss the kids

I miss the diversity of the kids—not only in ethnicity and academic level, but their personalities too!!

I miss recess and racing all the kids in the school and telling them that if anyone could beat me, I’d buy them a candy bar. (I did this until I was like 7 months pregnant and only lost once!)

I miss all the celebrations and how in first in third grade EVERYTHING can be fun—from reading to learning fractions!

I miss all the holidays! The fun holiday books, activities, parties, and integrating the holidays into every subject! One year the kids made 4 foot Christmas trees and they earned an ornament each time they passed off a different math section—it was REALLY motivational, and it was also lots of fun! We would also do math scavenger hunts to find the leprechaun on St. Patrick’s day, tongue twisted alliteration pumpkins for Halloween, thankful story books for Thanksgiving, and so much more!! Oh, how I miss teaching during holidays!!

I miss the science projects.I miss seeing the kids' faces when the discoved something new.

I miss working towards on a goal as a class, and seeing the satisfaction the kids would get when they reached their goal. (One year I told the kids if they would have a perfect reading month I would buy them a class pet—then when they reached the goal, I convinced them to get a Venus fly trap for the pet—ha ha ha!!)

I miss my coworkers. They are such great teachers, and I learned SOO much from them! They are so creative and they care so much about the kids actually learning! They make learning fun! We had so much fun together and I think we worked off all our calories each night from laughing so hard! I miss them lots.

This last picture is a picture of me on my very first day of teaching. I was so nervous I was sweating like crazy. One of my students said to me, “Miss Hodgkinson, I think you spilled your water in your armpit.” Oh man! I sure do miss those kids! Also, the teachers always made fun of me because I wore 3" heels on the first day of school. (As seen in the picture).

So, to all of my teacher friends, and to all of you kids going back to school, I hope you have a great first day back, and a great school year as well! And just remember, there is one person that is super jealous that you are there.

Happy 7 Months Lindsay

2011-08-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Happy 7 months to our sweet Lindsay! I love how some moms (aka my awesome sis-in-law Kristy) make cute lists of all the things that their baby is up to. I’m not that ambitious. In fact, I am starting to lose interest in blogging all together.(GASP!!) But I make myself do it for my lone 3 readers in the world! (This is for your Grandma!)

Anyway, back to Lindsay. I’m not going to make a huge list about what Linds is up to, but just wanted to mention one thing I don’t want to forget.

#1- Lindsay is a lady!

I know that sounds weird, but I have thought it ever since she was born. Even when she burps, she has an expression on her face that almost says, “Pardon me. That was very un-lady like.” Ha ha. I am being totally serious though.

Lindsay has her physical therapist coming tomorrow. So we may have new updates on her tomorrow. But overall she is doing AWESOME!! Happy 7 month birthday my sweet little lady! Lots of love to you!!

Team Lindsay T-3 Weeks!!

2011-08-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! The Hydrocephalus Walk is in 3 weeks!! It is free to come, and we've already met our fundraising goal! (Thanks Ben!!) We'd love to have everyone join our team and do the 5k with us!! This is not limited to close friends and family--we'd love EVERYONE to come!! Click HERE if you'd like to join our team! See you in 3 weeks!!

I love to see the temple…

2011-08-07T13:28:00.001-07:00

This has been a busy, hard, fun, happy week! Darin had scout camp this week and we missed him a lot while he was gone. I sure love that man! He got to come home a little early because two of the kids got sick, so we enjoyed spending an extra long weekend with him! We were going to go to the zoo, but it was REALLY crowded so instead we headed to temple square. Matthew loved seeing the Christus, going in the museums, and going on trax for the first time.

I LOVE this picture of Matt pointing up to the Christus and saying “Jesus” with a big smile!

Lindsay had fun too!

We also went to a birthday party for my niece Annie. Matt LOVES being with his cousins!

We also went to the Boondocks in Kaysville for our first time!! We had so much fun doing the bounce house, bumper boats, racecars, bowling, batting cages, carousel, and more!

Just wanted to announce that….

2011-07-28T08:14:00.001-07:00

I did my first caterpillar pushup last night—(with Matthew on my back!!!) Good work in “boot camp” girls!! You did awesome!!

Gone Fishing

2011-07-26T08:42:00.001-07:00

Last night we went with my uncle, aunt, and cousins up to the N. Ogden trout farm for FHE. Matthew was in heaven! He loved catching the fish,and I loved watching him! Matthew wanted to do everything by himself, and Darin was so patient with him showing him how. It was beautiful up there, and a perfect night! Thanks Wilsons! We love you!!

Pioneer Day Weekend

2011-07-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

We had such a WONDERFUL Pioneer Day Weekend! Friday we went to the Bountiful Parade.

Friday night we went to my sister’s to watch the Mueller Park Fireworks.

Saturday morning was sad. We’ve had Darin’s parents visiting from the Philippines, and Saturday morning they went back (miss you mom and dad). Saturday night we went to our neighbors for a BBQ, games (including darts, a jump house, yoyo competitions, jump rope competitions, double Dutch, and stick pull), and fireworks.

Since Sunday was the actual pioneer day, I copied my cousin Amy and made red, white, and blueberry pancakes. (You really should check out her blog....it is so cute!) Sunday we went to my sister’s for a birthday dinner for my mom! She’s the best ever!! Happy birthday mama!! Love you!!

Parade Float Preview Party

2011-07-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

Last night we took the Young Women down to South Town Expo to look at some of the floats that are going to be in the parade this weekend. My Laurel advisor, Barbie, made 20 floats this year! She is AMAZING!! She made this Kung Fu Panda float—it is my favorite! If you have time you should go there too! They have lots of fun things for the kids (sitting on some floats, face painting, balloons, and more), and it is all FREE!! It’s also a great way to see the floats if you don’t want to sit in the hot sun!

Matt and his friend Andie got to sit on the float with the little mermaid, and then she gave them each a seashell!

Matt's face right when we walked in! (He was so excited!)

The AMAZING float Barbie made!

My cute Young Women

Feed the Birds Tuppence a Bag

2011-07-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

Today Darin, Matt, Lindsay, and I headed to Liberty Park for a picnic and feeding the birds. Another one of those “perfect moments.” I was glad I had the camera to get a couple cute shots.

Lindsay is 6 months!!

2011-07-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 6 month birthday my sweet Lindsay!! We went to the neurosurgeon today and got a CT. The doctor also measured her head and she is at 47cm. (Only 1 more cm until her head is the size it was at birth!!) Everything is still growing, but it is growing in proportion to her head (that is a good thing). I asked him if Lindsay is in the “clear” for not needing a shunt, and he said he’s still not sure, but she’s doing really good! We don’t even have to go back to Primary’s for SIX more months!! Wahoo!! Linds has her 6 month appointment with her pediatrician on Wednesday, so I’m excited to see her stats!! Here head is still big for her age, and it always will be, but we’re grateful for no shunt! Yay Linds, we’re so glad to have such a happy report! Thanks for all the prayers—we’ll hope it continues!

LJ Gunnerson Reunion 2011

2011-07-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun family reunion at the cabin this weekend!! Friday night mom and dad did an authentic Philipino dinner, then we roasted marshmallows and made smores.

Saturday morning the boys went fishing while the girls did facials, pedis, and made jewelry!

The boys with their fish.

Matthew won an award for the BIGGEST fish! (He caught TWO!!)

In the afternoon we went for a short hike, searched for butterflies, played pool, watched movies, took naps, played some games, played tetherball, and shot BB guns.

Saturday night we had a dutch oven cook off with some REALLY yummy dinners! Then we got some different awards.

And here are a few fun photos.

Thanks Chris and Heather for all your planning and mom and dad for all your work!! We missed you a ton Geoff, Jadi, Nate, Janie, and kiddos--hope to see you soon!!

Happy 4th Anniversary!!

2011-07-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Darin and I had a wonderful 4th Anniversary! Saturday I went to Wes Truman’s funeral. I thought that it was going to be such a sad funeral and that it would be hard to celebrate our Anniversary right after going to the funeral, but I was wrong! (As I often am). The funeral was AMAZING!! I cried a lot, a little because of sadness for Lori and her sweet kids, but mostly because I feel so blessed in my own life—especially to have a testimony of the gospel. It was fun to hear new stories about Wes, as well as reminisce on things I knew. What an amazing guy! And Lori was remarkable! She looked beautiful, and she gave an amazing talk full of faith, hope, and love. My heart still breaks for Lori, but she made me appreciate and love Darin even more than I did before!

After the funeral Heather, Rick, Ben, and I went out for sushi. I can’t remember that last time that I was together with just my siblings. We had so much fun! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. You know that kind of laugh that you are so embarrassed that you are laughing so hard, but you just can’t seem to get in under control? It was like that for at least an hour straight! We got a flat tire on the way home (but luckily I have two awesome brothers that changed it in a hurry) and hit a bit of traffic so we got home a little later, so right when I got home I fed Lindsay and Darin and I headed straight for our date!

Darin got us a reservation at The Melting Pot! Mmmm….so yummy!!

I love every chance I get to be alone just with Darin! I feel so blessed that Darin is that man that I ended up with! I couldn’t have gotten a better husband and father for my kids if I had a million years to search! He really is the best for me in every way!

After the melting pot we went to Liberty Park to go for a paddle boat ride, but there were no paddle boats, so we just enjoyed a nice walk in the park and enjoyed visiting with each other.

I love being with Darin, and I love that our kids love being with Darin too. You should have seen Matt’s face when we pulled up from our date! He yelled, “Hey!! That’s my daddy!!” Then we all just sat on the grass looking at clouds! And luckily for us, mom snapped a picture! It is times like this when life doesn’t seem to get any better! I am the first to admit that life isn’t always perfect at our house, but I am glad that life can be filled with perfect moments like these.

Sunday was technically our actual anniversary, and I was really glad that we celebrated on Saturday because Sunday was SUCH a busy day! I had Ward Council in the morning, followed by 3 hours of church meetings, where Darin taught Young Men, and I taught Young Women. We came home, ate a quick bite of cereal, then Darin went to a Young Men’s meeting, then he came home and a few minutes later I had a Stake Youth Fireside. It wasn’t until about 8 o’ clock before we were able to just sit down and relax together.
Since Lindsay is still nursing, and doesn’t take a bottle very well, we can only be gone for a few hours at a time. And since we went to Anniversary Inn for the 1st night of our honeymoon, I thought it would be fun to go there again. So, I recreated the “Presidential Suite” at our house.

>

(I know I’m silly, but Darin is nice to put up with me.) It was a WONDERFUL anniversary weekend! Thanks Darin! I love you!!

Happy Anniversary Darin!

2011-07-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary Darin! Thanks for the best 4 years of my life!! I LOVE YOU!!!

To Lori

2011-07-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Spencer Wesley Truman
February 15, 1981-July 4, 2011

My cousin Lori is the most darling and righteous person I have ever met. I remember joking with my family when we were younger that Lori would NEVER find a husband worthy of her. But, we were VERY wrong! Wes was the PERFECT match for Lori! Wes loves Lori (here) and Lori loves Wes (here).

I remember sitting at their guest book with my cousin Whitney at their wedding reception. I remember just watching the two of them together and thinking to myself, “I hope I can find a husband like Wes.”

A few years later I was able to take Calculus with Wes down at BYU. He was always so nice to save me a seat twice a week, help me with questions (so I wouldn’t have to raise my hand in a class of over 100 people), and just talk with me between classes.

We LOVE Wes AND Lori. They have been more than amazing examples to me and to my family. Every time things seemed overwhelming, or I felt discouraged with Lindsay’s condition I would just think about Wes and Lori. I would read and reread their blog for words of encouragement.

Last year the Truman’s did a family home evening on the Plan of Salvation. You can read her whole post here, but I just want to share part of what Lori wrote.

“We talked about what happens when people die. We talked about the spirit world. We discussed the reality of the Savior's resurrection and the reassuring truth that we can be together with people we love even after the separation of death. It was a meaningful, memorable conclusion to our little series of field-trips - maybe my favorite of them all. The cemetery proved the perfect spot to testify that Christ will truly come to earth again and that resurrection will really happen.”

What is this thing called death
This quiet passing in the night?
Tis not the end but genesis
of better worlds and greater light.

O God, touch Thou my aching heart
And calm my troubled, haunting fears.
Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure,
Give strength and peace beyond my tears.

There is no death, but only change,
With recompense for vict’ry won.
The gift of Him who loved all men,
The Son of God, the Holy One.
Gordon B. Hinckley

I hope that they can feel that same spirit this weekend. Love to you Lori. Our heart aches with you and for you. Thank you for your example of unwavering faith. Love and prayers. “The Gospel’s True, and WE LOVE YOU!!”

Happy 4th of July Weekend!!

2011-07-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

We had a WONDERFUL, but BUSY 4th!

We started on Saturday and had a ward breakfast. Darin's scouts did a nice flag raising ceremony, and the food was yummy!

Sunday we went up to Kamas for our niece Liv's baby blessing, followed by a yummy lunch at Rick and Olivia's. We also got a few family shots while we were there.

Monday morning we went to my aunt's house for a yummy breakfast!! We have such an awesome family!! I just LOVE being with them!!

Monday afternoon we went up to the Gunnerson cabin for a yummy BBQ. It was so fun to see all the cousins again. We don't get to see them enough.

Monday night we watched fireworks with our neighbors. It was a beautiful night!!

Tuesday morning I hiked up to Ensign Peak with my aunt Kathy's Young Women, and I gave a little talk on based off of President Uchtdorf's talk, "Your Happily Ever After." It was the PERFECT temperature and a BEAUTIFUL morning!

Would YOU Like to Walk With Us

2011-07-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that Lindsay has Hydrocephalus, but if you are like me (or at least like me 5 months ago), you probably don’t know much about Hydrocephalus. I have learned a lot about it recently, and have joined the “Hydrocephalus community.”

There is going to be a walk on September 3rd 2011 in Sugar House Park. It is to help raise awareness and raise money for research. We would LOVE you to join “Team Lindsay” and walk with us! We may even come back to our house for some Root Beer Floats! It is free to do the walk, but donations are welcome!

We look forward to seeing you! Click HERE if you’d like to join our team or donate money.

Play Date with Linds and B

2011-06-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Two of my darling roommates, and two of my best friends, Bridget and Lindsay, came up to Bountiful to visit me! I seriously LOVE these girls! They just make me so happy! We had such a fun time together! We spent the morning just catching up, reminiscing, and visiting! I can't believe the memories they have! They remembered a LOT of funny things we did that I had forgotten! I felt justified not exercising that day because my tummy got a workout laughing so hard!

Lindsay and her name-sake.

Our little babies got a chance to meet each other for the first time too.

Remember this picture?

Well, here are the real results 7 years later. The two cuties together...Lynlee and Lindsay, only 5 days apart!

(Side note--my cute friend Annie made this darling dress for Lindsay--thanks Ann!!)

After getting carried away talking we headed into SLC for a little picnic and concert at the Gallivan Center.

Matt liked going in the water with Lindsay.

After the concert we headed over to the Gateway mall. (Also- LOTS of fun memories with these girls shopping at the mall). We stopped at the fountains before we left to let Matt run through, but he was a little scared so we headed back to my house.
Again, we got carried away visiting and giggling like school girls, they helped me get dinner ready, and then we said goodbye. It was a bitter goodbye especially because Linds is moving out to the east coast and will be there for 3+ years. I will miss her dearly.

It was a GREAT day! Thanks B and Linds for coming up! And thanks a million Lindsay for actually planning the whole thing! Love you BOTH!!

Painting the Garage

2011-06-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

Darin and I painted the garage this weekend. It looked like we got "tagged" (I learned that word while I was teaching in Rose Park--ha ha!! I love the things that the KIDS taught ME!!) The before picture doesn't show how bad it was before--we had all red, green, neon yellow, and black sprayed all in our garage before. So, we just used some left-over paint from our house and used it on the garage. It isn't a perfect job, but I think that it looks a lot better!

Here are a few before and after pictures:

Liberty Park

2011-06-25T08:07:00.001-07:00

I love my friends!! I especially love that our kids are friends!! They get along so well and we always have so much fun together! Today we went on a playdate to Liberty Park. Matt was in heaven, especially when my parents showed up! Friends and grandparents at the same place at the same time--Does it get any better!? Thanks again Ang for planning such a fun day!

Life is Great!

2011-06-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last night we had my parents and grandparents over for hamburgars and root beer floats. After dinner Darin was on the phone making plans for Scout Camp. Matthew said, "Daddy, phone in pocket! You in backyard with me!" I totally reminded me of those LDS "Isn't it about time?" commercials. Darin put away his phone and went running through the sprinkklers with Matt. He is one lucky boy to have such an awesome dad!

Here is a short movie of them running in our backyard sprinklers.

Yesterday morning Matthew came in wearing Darin's shoes and said, "Bye Mommy! I go to working with mine Daddy!" So, I took a quick photo:

And our little Linds is AWESOME!! Look at this picture of her holding her head up!! WAHOO!!! Go Linds!!

Lindsay is 5 Months

2011-06-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

I am pretty sure that Lindsay is super woman!! I am so amazed at how fast she is improving! She is such a good, happy baby and we love having her around! It really only seems like she cries once every 3 days!

Lindsay's physical therapy is going really well! In the last month she has held her head up on her own and she even rolled over! The only concern we have right now is that she isn’t standing or pushing with her arms. Most babies have a natural reflex to push against a surface when there is pressure on their feet or hands but Linds doesn’t do that yet. But, we’re working on it. The only reason that that’s a concern is because if she doesn’t get used to the feeling, she won’t want to walk later on. But other than that, she is doing super awesome!

And here is the addition to the owl pictures:

5 Months

4 Months

3 Months

2 months

1 month

5 days

Youth Conference 2011

2011-06-22T16:01:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we had a Youth Conference for the Young Men and Young Women in my church. I am learning that I need to be better at delegating because I was starting to get stressed out right before. I know that things don’t always go according to plan, and it was true for Youth Conference—but it was even better that I was expecting!!

We had a great time! We went up to the Gunnerson Cabin (thanks again Al and Vicki for switching weeks with us). We played LOTS of fun games, did a few service projects, ate yummy food, had leadership training, a fireside, a testimony meeting, and a few other things. We had 29 people attend—3 less than I was expecting (we missed you girls!)

I was really happy with the way things turned out. We were especially grateful to our neighbors for lending us their suburban, because Darin went up the night before just to have things set up, and found the road to the cabin was cover in 8 inches of water!! A big HUGE thank you to Darin for all his work!! He technically didn’t have to go because he is with the Decons and they weren’t invited, but he came up just to help me out! What a guy!! Thanks Darin—LOVE YOU!!!!
And it just wouldn’t be a proper blog post without a few pictures, so here they are:

Oh, and I think that Matt and Lindsay had a great time too! Lindsay was always be held and cuddled by all the girls, and Matthew couldn't get enought of the Bishop! It was really cute!!

Happy Father's Day Darin!!

2011-06-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Let Summer Begin!!

2011-06-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

We went to my brother's house this weekend for my niece's 2nd Birthday. We had a yummy BBQ, played on the swing set, in the sandbox, and just enjoyed visiting with each other. It made it feel like summer is officially here! Thanks Rick and Heather!! Here are a few cute pictures from Saturday night.

Children’s Museum at Discovery Gateway

2011-06-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

My friend Suzanne had some free passes to the Children’s Museum and she let us tag along with her and her two cute girls! We had so much fun! This was Matthew’s first time going and I really think that he could have stayed there all day long. He loved the building blocks, the balls, the little play area for kids 2 and under, and of course, the water! Here are a few pictures from the fun day! And thanks again Suzanne for such a fun time!!

Ok, so I know that this last picture isn’t that great, but it makes me happy! I had been watching Matthew the whole time, but he was so busy playing he didn’t really notice me. When he went into this little “bird house” I tapped on the window and waved to him. When he saw me he got so excited! Then he started to announce to all the kids (that he didn’t even know), “Hey! That’s my mommy!!” I don’t know why, but that really just made my day!

GREAT NEWS!!

2011-06-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Lindsay held her head up while she was on her stomach!! We are SOOO excited!! Just thought I'd share! YAY LINDSAY!!!

Another Week

2011-06-06T07:58:00.001-07:00

We've had another wonderful week! We have loved the nice weather and it seems that we have spent nearly all day every day outside! It has been great! We’ve had a fun and busy week including Lindsay’s physical therapy which she is doing AWESOME!!! She even held her head up while on her stomach for a couple seconds! Yay!! Go Lindsay!!

We also went up to our cabin this weekend! So pretty up there!!

Matt and Darin playing with a goat at Rick and Olivia's house.

Matt LOVED playing in the stream, but he fell in and got pretty dirty!

We went to Darin's brother's house for a yummy dinner, getting the kids together, and Heather and Breanna even gave us a pedi with sprinkle toes!!

Whenever I look at Lindsay’s head, I really don’t feel like it is that big., but this picture can kind of help you see how big it really is. This is a picture of Lindsay and her cousin Liv. Liv is 1 month old, and her head looks tiny compared to Lindsay’s, and Lindsay’s head is smaller now than when she was born! But, it is just more cute head to love!

Oh, and I went to a baby shower for my cute friend Lara! We've been friends since 5th grade. I've always been jealous of her big fat lips...and I still am!!

This picture was taken after Matt and I had spent all day at the park. He sat down in his "time out" chair and fell asleep about 30 seconds later!

Thanksgiving Point

2011-05-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

Matt and I went to Thanksgiving point with our friends Kendra, Alayna, Cami, Cole, Summer, Lisa, and Ellie. We saw lots of fun animals, went for a pony ride, a buggy ride, fed the animals, played with some toys, and had a picnic. Thanks Kendra for planning such a fun day!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a wonderfully busy week! This weekend the Young Women and I did a surprise baby shower for our secretary Jena Larsen. They made all the presents for mutual on Wednesday night then we surprised her with a brunch Saturday morning.

(My first time making cake pops! They are pretty yummy)

The rest of Saturday we spent working in the yard. Matthew stayed pretty entertained because one of my YW came over and let Matthew play with all of her pets. He LOVED it!!

Matthew and the pets:

Saturday night we went to our friend's house for a yummy BBQ--Thanks you guys!!

Sundays are always wonderful! I had two of my cousins come help me teach the Young Men in our ward and they did a super job!! So cute! After church we had some friends over for dinner, Matt had a nice bubble bath, and we had our favorite Wilson's over for a visit!! Thanks for coming you guys!! Matt loves you to death!!

Monday morning I ran a 5k, and it was HAILING for half the race!! Is it really almost June? I did a lot better than I thought I would--my best time so far this year (also my 1st 5k this year ha ha!!) That night we went to my parent's for a yummy BBQ. We also made it to both of my grandparent's graves.

Cousin's Sleepover

2011-05-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend Darin had Scout Camp so I invited all my cute, beautiful, fun, happy, funny, loving, sweet cousins over to my house for a sleepover. I think that Matthew was in HEAVEN having 6 girls giving him lots of attention. And I was in HEAVEN just being with these fun girls!! I love them SOOO SOOO stinkin much! What a great night! I haven't stayed up that late since college! We made pizza, ate pizza, talked, ate, talked, watched movies, talked some more, got a few winks in, made crepes, talked, played, and talked! Thanks so much for coming! Love you all!!

Here are a few pictures from the night/morning:

My cute cousins:

Making Pizzas:

A few random shots:

(I had a hard time figuring out the automatic timer...and I LOVE McCall biting Abbey's shoulder)

Lindsay is 4 months!!

2011-05-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Many people have asked about Lindsay's update...and she is doing GREAT!! She qualified for Early Interventions this last week and they gave her a few tests to see how she is doing. She passed her vison and hearing test (yay) and here are her other scores:

Cognitive: 4 months (right where she should be)
Language: 4 months (also right on)
Fine Motor: 3 months (a little behind)
Social/Emotional: 3 months (also a little behind)
Gross Motor: 4 weeks (we need to do some work here!)

She also went in for her 4 month wellness check up and here are her stats:

Height: 75%
Weight: 50%
Head Circumference: Still off the chart, but getting closer to being on the chart!

Lindsay overall is doing great!! She is so happy and fun to be around! She loves "singing," smiling, laughing, and being with her family. She hasn't thrown up in a month (hooray!) and her eyes have been up, and her head is soft! We are so glad! Thanks for all your sweet thoughts and notes! We are so happy to have a great report!!

And last but not least the traditional owl photos!

4 Months

3 Months

2 months

1 month

5 days

Fun Weekend

2011-05-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

Darin and I had an EXTRA fun weekend. Earlier in the week I got "asked out" on a date--by my super cute husband!! He "picked me up" and we dropped off the kids at my parents house (thanks so so much mom and dad!!) Then he took me bowling, to Mikado's for dinner, and then out to buy me a new pair of earings! How lucky am I!!? Love that man!!

We were planning on going back to the sidewalk chalk festival on Saturday night, but it was way too cold, so we headed back Sunday after church.

Here are a few of our favorites:

And just a few of the fam: