arizona!

we went to arizona last month so i could attend the accp pharmacotherapy prep course with my friends jamie and dan. when we got into town i felt like i was home. i LOVE arizona and miss it so much!will and asher hung out during the day while i was at class and we met friends every night for dinner. we were able to get together with andrea & justin, daisy & dan, lindsey & kenny, and all my friends from work. sadly, we missed tom & holly because they were here while we were there!

jamie, me, and dan in class


me and dan


i LOVE this picture: delaney, me, asher, lindsey, and roman. asher thought there were too many babies... the twins thought he was CRAZY!


lindsey and roman. we discovered on the trip that lindsey is this amazing gourmet cook and she has been holding out on us all these years!


will, asher, and jack at the botanical garden. (thanks for the tickets holly!)


the family at the botanical garden


this is my new favorite butterfly shot.

happy easter

asher LOVED easter, mainly because he thought the little plastic eggs were balls and he soon discovered that if he threw them hard enough, smaller edible balls would come out of them!




he looked like such a big boy in his new easter clothes!


my handsome boys

easter egg hunt?

not so much. asher just found a bike and car to ride and will and i picked up a few pieces of candy. at least we got a picture of all three of us.

my favorite boys

just wanted to post a few of my favorite pics of my favorite boys.

google reader

so i thought i was doing pretty well, getting into the blog world fairly early on and such, but i just discovered google reader a couple of weeks ago and i have to say, it has changed my online world! (thanks bonnie!) this came at a time i was beginning to feel overwhelmed by blogs! it has made things so much easier. although i am probably the last to know, i just wanted to share the joy with any of you fellow stragglers out there.

bone thugs n harmony

and no, i'm not referring to the rap/hip-hop music sensation. that's what linds and i have nicknamed asher and liam. ever since they became mobile, they have been serious trouble. a common phrase when we are hanging out is, "ought-oh! where are the thugs???"


don't be fooled by their innocent appearance.


asher made liam proud when he reached a box of fruity-cheerios off the counter and dumped it all over the floor. it was the best day of their lives.


a lone thug causing trouble.


asher wishing liam was there.

port-a-kid

for many of you, this may seem normal but i have an extremely un-portable kid. he prefers to sleep only in his crib. occasionally he will doze off in the car and even less often in the stroller, but he ALWAYS wakes up when i try to transfer him to his bed. one day after a run in the rain he fell asleep. he looked so cute i had to take a photo. i carried him inside, took off his coat and gloves, and laid him on the couch by my dad while i went upstairs to change. amazingly he stayed asleep! then i had to take my dad home so we loaded him in the car seat and i couldn't believe it when he didn't wake up. we drove to my mom's, carried him inside, laid him on her couch, and never once did he open an eye. i had to document and publish this amazing event because i am not sure it will ever happen again!

ball!

asher has some sort of radar for finding balls everywhere we go. when we are out running he starts to cry if we go too far between seeing one. a couple of weeks ago when we were out he got really excited and started yelling ball! ball! ball! but neither me or my dad could see one. i finally realized he could see the moon and thought it was a ball... you know, a big white ball that was sort of stuck in the sky.


asher, grandpa, and the ball


asher and grandpa

love this girl

liz came over a few weeks ago and we had matt take our picture. in high school we took pictures together almost every day but i think it has been like 8 years since our last one. it was long over due! it is sooo great to have a friend you can count on for anything, anytime. sometimes we talk like 5 times a day but i never get sick of her. (hopefully she feels the same!)

snow!

just realized i hadn't posted a single photo of asher playing outside this winter. he would walk where we had shoveled then stop and turn around when he hit snow. it took a lot of courage to finally walk in the snow.

slide show

i made a slide show for addi's birthday. it is ~15 minutes long. since it was such a huge file it had to be compressed quite a bit, so the pictures aren't so great, but it has my favorite songs in it.
click here to view.

happy birthday princess!

today we celebrated addi's third birthday.
i am so grateful i was able to spend two wonderful weeks with this precious child. she has forever changed me as a person and i am so humbled to be her mother. i miss my baby girl like crazy.

it's tough business, this losing a child thing.
hanging over every holiday and family gathering is an undeniable sense of incompleteness.
someone is always missing.

we love having a birthday party every year to celebrate addison's life.
thanks for all the love, phone calls, and letters.
we love that you remember our little girl.

happy birthday addison! we love you!

secret weapon

this thing has changed my life. seriously. it took about a month of linds telling me how much she LOVED hers for me to break down and buy one. next time i will listen, sis. what is the worst part of sweeping? trying to get all those damn dust bunnies collected in the dust pan. it makes me sooo grumpy. but with this little beauty there is none of that! this thing will suck up whole cheerios and tiny little carpet fibers. i can't talk it up enough. definately worth the $30. and here is a little tip. if you go to the swiffer website they will send you a coupon book for $5 off. i bought my mom one for her birthday and she loves it too!
so there you have it, my secret house-cleaning weapon: the swiffer sweeper vac.

happy birthday other sis!

i feel really left out that i'm the only sister born in may, but happy birthday anyway!
i'm so sad my big sis moved to new freakin' jersey.
here are the five things i miss most about you:
1. stopping by your house late at night, knowing you will always be up and usually have popcorn or some other yummy treat to snack on while we watch late-night t.v.
2. tasting all your great new recipes and taking the occasional trip to bombay house for chicken tikka masala and rose milk with you and the fam. i know- i could go without you, but it just wouldn't be the same :(
3. breaking into your house in slc with my roommates to raid your cupboards or escape from crazy stalkers at smiths and leaving you funny notes.
4. just hanging out and being funny, usually during one of the aforementioned late-night sessions. we are always so much funnier in the middle of the night!
5. sharing our love for salt lake city and all our favorites: bill and nada's (an order of hashbrowns involves toast), grunts and postures, the red iguana, all the great old shops on 9th and 9th, hatch family chocolates....




happy birthday, sis! love you! miss you!

happy birthday sis!

it's my baby sister's birthday and i just wanted to give her a shout-out.
here are 5 things i love about linds:
1. she loves my kids. really. and sometimes we can fool them into thinking she is me, but we have to be careful about our bangs and things like that. her kids aren't as easily fooled, but will usually take me as second choice.
2. i think she is funny and she thinks i am slightly retarded and a little funny, so we have fun being funny together.
3. we often buy the same clothes and shoes and we don't mind. some sisters would, but not mine. we have the same favorite stores: charlotte russe & forever 21. we both felt bad for charlotte russe when 21 opened.
4. she is really fun to be with and talk to and i love just hanging out with her. wednesdays are always fun because we hang out after she gets off work and eat lunch from pat's express and laugh.
5. sophia. she is the same age as addi and loves her. of all my nieces and nephews, soph loves addi the most. every time she comes to my house she wants to look at addi's clothes and play with her things. last week she asked me to put addi's picture in her locket so it would be just like mine. i love that little girl.






happy birthday! love you linds!

to my cousin sara

hi! i lost you! i used to get to your blog from your name on a comment but i can't do this anymore as there is no link. your blog is one of the funniest i have found and i want it back! can you leave me a link?
thanks!
love you!

concept of size

i am back from a long holiday break. we have been very amused these last few weeks watching asher struggle with the concept of size. we took this picture when he was trying to ride his toy dump truck. i guess he figured if he can drive his car, why not his dump truck?



here is a size comparison of his rider-car with his dump truck:




for christmas asher got a fisher price little people animal sounds farm. he was very excited when he tore off the wrapping paper and saw it. will and i hurried to remove the outer packaging and when we finally got it out asher immediately grabbed the two-inch horse, neighed, put the horse on the ground and, well - rode it. he bounced up and down for a few seconds making a clicking sound before realizing this particular horse is no fun to ride.
luckily his uncle dan got him this clifford-esque dog for christmas that he can ride. no wonder the poor kid is confused about size. (note the aforementioned horse in his hand in this picture)

asher's walking! (and wrestling snowmen)

i have to admit, i was a little worried. after we bought him the car for his birthday, he wouldn't even try walking. he'd just hop on the car, drive to his desired destination, get off and play awhile, then hop back on and drive somewhere else. at church last week there was a cute girl walking around and he wanted to impress her, so he smiled and walked on over to her. oh the power we have over men.

fall pictures

bonnie watched asher one afternoon and took all these great pictures. i LOVE the way they turned out. thanks bonnie! favorite?

scotty the dog

scotty the dog, 105 went to doggy heaven on friday november 23, 2007. scotty was born in early december 1991 and met his adoptive mother, lindsey, on christmas day. he was very happy in his home on aspen way. it was there scotty met the love of his life, simone. they spent many happy months frolicking before the fateful day when nancy took bob barker's advice to heart. it was a low point in scotty's life, but before long he was back to his old self (well... almost) playing with doggie toys and pretending to bury bones. when the family moved to their new home on scenic drive, scotty had new places to explore and enjoyed many adventures. perhaps his biggest achievement was earning a role in pat's hit music video "i can only imagine" starring lindsey and sean. besides acting, scotty's other talents included finding bags of treats, playing fetch, and making children laugh. in his later years, scotty spent his days on the deck, sipping rain water, eating grass, pooping, and eating the grass out of his poop. scotty is survived by his mother lindsey and his step-father jacob, his sister and brother: soph and liam, his aunts and uncles: damon (tiffany), candace (alan), pat (kelli), and mindi (will) and his grandparents:michael and nancy. he was a smart and friendly dog and will be missed. time will not erase the little yellow spots he has left in all of our hearts.