Attack!!!

So, I got all 3 kids in bed, and went outside to chat with Kira for a bit. Chatting is what we do best! We were out there for maybe 40 minutes. Not way long. I noticed that the birds were acting funny...flapping really fast, swooping all over the place...then I realized that they were bats out getting their dinner of bugs. That's interesting to me because we live in the middle of the city. There aren't bats in the part of Salt Lake that I grew up in, so I guess I'm not used to seeing them. Anyway, I came inside and counted no less than 14 mosquito bites! Grrr! I've never gotten that many in my own front yard before. Camping, sure. But 40 minutes in the driveway?? Man! I guess I better carry one of these everywhere I go from now on:
Or maybe one of those new mosquito fans that you just clip on yourself and wear outside. Does anyone know how well these work? I'm curious.
So anyway, I guess I must be pretty tasty!

A Little Late.....Father's Day!

I hate to brag, but.............

Trevor is most definitely the BEST dad in the whole wide world!

He has shown Kenzi his unconditional love, and shown her what a real father is supposed to be.

He accepted Ashlin as his daughter just days after marrying me.

He helped bring our sweet Jamison into this world, and has such a wonderful love for his son.

On a daily basis he:

Changes dipers

Cleans up messes

Dresses at least one of the kids

Plays "monster" with the girls

Teaches them new things

Laughs with them

Hugs and kisses them

Tells them how much he loves them

Lets them climb all over him

Helps Kenzi clean her room when I tell her to

Gets up to give Ashlin a bottle if she wakes up in the night

Walks Jamison around the house and soothes him when he cries at night

Thinks of fun things to do together as a family

Works so hard to provide for us, no matter what the cost

Makes sure we are all healthy, happy, and safe.

This is only a small fraction of what our amazing Daddy does for our family.

(after reading this list, I'm starting to wonder what role I even play in this fam....do I do anything???)

Father's Day was fun! (at least I hope it was!)

Trev had to work in the morning, but when he got home there was a note on the front door that said "We Love Our Daddy! Why......?" And when he came inside, there were little "Why" notes left all around the house where he could find them and read why we love him.

He had a special Father's Day dinner for him. He got to pick the entire menu {{barbecue pork ribs, mashed potatoes, dinner salad, peach jello, and cookie-dough ice cream for dessert!}} and he ate off our "You are special today" plate.

After dinner, he opened his presents:

A new Tshirt from Kenzi

A golf shirt from Ashlin and Jamison

A bottle of imported sparkling lemonade (his favorite)

A free game of golf at a course of his choice

And a new set of 450 thread count sheets (he's totally obsessed with sheets!)

We Love Our Daddy!

Love you, Baby!

My Thoughts at 3:16am

I wonder why it is that when all 3 of my kids are finally sleeping through the night, I'm wide awake??

I'm eating a huge bag of parmesan flavored goldfish that Chels gave me today.

I've decided that Chelsea should just let me take over and decorate her entire house the way I want. Ha!

I'm realizing that there's nothing to do this late at night.

I'm excited for the "big move." Maybe we can start tomorrow...?

I really wish that a certain family member of mine would stop throwing childish fits to get attention. It's annoying, but at the same time puts me into a worried tizzy, and scares the pants off me.

I love Trevor so much. I can't get enough of him.....he's snoring kind of loudly right now though.

I don't know why my left eye is swollen and hurting right now.

I wish I could sleep.

I'm sick of my house ~ I'm ready to move again.

I'm impatient with Trevor's work....make up your minds on the transfer already!

I'm hot. Temperature wise. hhahahaa!

I'd rather not drive anywhere tomorrow. 6 hours today with no AC was enough for me!

I HATE the countertops in my kitchen. Bleh!

I adore my baby boy. He's just such a loveable little guy!

I think I'll go lay back down and try to get some sleep.

I might clean my backyard tomorrow.

I can't wait for all the girls to come to my house again for "Happy Hour," I've missed it.

*Goodnight*

I hope.

Whew! Long Week!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the Earth! We just had a busy, but fun week! First we were able to go down to Delta with the fam for Mom and Dad's ward's Youth Conference. It was fun to take the boat down to the res and play in the water for a few hours. It was just a little day trip for our family, but was still a great gettaway! Kenz loved the water....Ash was a little uncertain and clung to Mally. Trev, of course, had a blast driving the boat all day long and playing with the young men and women.
Ashlin remained apprehensive about the water and stayed ashore most of the time with Grammy.

Kenzi on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the water and waves!

You know me - I just enjoyed being with family.

Jamison was SO good the whole day!

Monday was Great Grandma Whittle's funeral. It was the happiest funeral I've ever been to. She's beed wanting to move on for so long now, so it was just so good for her to have finally passed on. She lived to be 102 years old. This picture of my sisters and me was taken outside the church just after the funeral.Then our little family headed up to my parent's condo in Jeremy Ranch, Utah (just west of Park City.) We got to spend the whole weekend up there with them playing, swimming, shopping, and just relaxing away from home!Ash got a little more used to the water during the week.

I think Kenz might be getting a little too used to the fabulous life...what do you think??The condo is just about 10 minutes away from Jordanelle reservoir which is one of my dad's favorite places to go boating. We spent a day there as well. This is a funny picture of Baby J in his life jacket!Ashlin's also learning to like the boat....which is good since we spend so much time on it during the summer!Kenzi went tubing with Uncle Kyle a few times and couldn't seem to get enough of it. My mom kept yelling to my dad to slow the boat down, but Kenz just wanted to go faster and faster. She just loves it!

It was such a fun week, but I'm glad to be back home and sleeping in my own bed again. Vacation is great, but it can certainly wear a person out!

The Princess Festival!

{{Click images to read better!}}

This was SO awesome! Kenzi and her half sister Taylor dressed up as princesses, and we went and spent the day at the festival. All of the proceeds went to help children in Kenya, Africa. They first got to make pretty tiaras, and then they met Ariel from "Little Mermaid."

Then the adventure began.

The Blue Fairy took them all around the land of "Hatfieldadelphia" and they helped save Snow White from eating a poisoned apple, helped turn the beast into a prince, helped Prince Charming rescue Rapunzel from a huge tower, told the prince to kiss Sleeping Beauty to wake her up, and helped another prince find Cinderella. They then became "true princesses" by fighting off the evil fairy!

In celebration, they were invited to the Grand Ball where they got to dance with an actual prince!

Afterwards, I bought them each a fairy wand and magic ring, and we got their hair done in up-dos.

The coolest part of the day though, was when the brought out some "African Princesses," little girls they had acutally saved and brought here from Kenya. They were so beautiful, and you could just see the joy on their little faces.

I just about died when Kenz danced with Prince Charming! It was just so precious!

It was such a fun day! I'm definitely going to make this a yearly tradition for our family!

Graduation and Prom

Yesterday, we celebrated my "little" brother's graduation (though he actually towers 2 feet over me!) He's so awesome and I'm so proud of him! He worked so hard to get where he is now. For celebration, we planned to go boating on the lake and then go out for dinner. Unfortunately, the weather didn't agree with our plan, and decided to pour rain and produce loud thunder and lightning....so we skipped the boating idea and went straight to the dinner part. Kyle chose Tucano's Brazilian Grill for our little party, which was fine by us! We LOVE that place!

As always, Kenz was a bit picky about the food and didn't eat much. Ashlin on the other hand, pretty much ate anything we put in front of her!

It was so much fun! Congratulations Bo-Bo!

A few days ago, my friend Stephanie and her sis-in-law told me about this fundraiser for Steph's neice's elementary school. They were hosting a "2nd Chance Prom" for adults to help fund the school. When I heard about it, I was SO excited to go! Trevor got all dressed up in his old high school tux, and I put on a dress I'd worn to a formal my junior year. When we got to Trev's mom's house to drop off the kids though, the zipper on my dress completely busted! Apparently my, uh, "lady features" have grown significantly since high school! Ha ha!

So I ended up wearing a pretty outfit of Meg's. It worked out great. The dance was so much fun! They had this dance hall completely decked out with balloons and lights, there were tons of refreshments, and we even got our pictures taken! I didn't really get any good pictures because we were having so much fun dancing! There was a live band there who played tons of hits from the 50s to the 80s. They were pretty dang good! Thanks for letting us know about it, Steph! Next year, we want to get a huge group together to go with us!! Let me know if you're in!

{I took like 5 pictures of me and Trev at the dance, but he couldn't keep his silly eyes open during the flash! Ha ha! This is the best one.}

My Husband Rocks!

Okay, so my friend is doing this awesome thing where she does one post a week about why her husband rocks.....I'm stealing her idea! (Sorry, Les!)
I just love it and I'm excited to do it! I just don't know where to start first! After thinking for a while I decided to start with a recent sweet gesture of his. These happen often, but this one was extra sweet.
A couple of days ago, I was on the verge of a melt down. My depression had flared up, I wasn't feeling well, and let's just say my kids weren't being on their best behavior. I called Trevor at his work and just cried and cried to him, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do at the moment. Later that night when he came home he brought with him a little bag, out of which he pulled a small box and handed it to me. It was new perfume! I had been wanting some Juicy Couture perfume for a long time, and he bought it for me because he wanted to help me to feel better. He just holds me and talks to me in a soothing voice when I get that way, and he can calm me down so easily. I really appreciate his little 'surprises' like this. Though I don't really need the things he gets for me; flowers, clothes, etc; he gets them for me to show me how much he loves and cares for me. He's just so thoughtful. He rocks!

P.S. I had to acknowledge this as well, and it kind of goes along with the story. That same day when I was so upset, I came home at night to find a bouqet of flowers by my front door. They were from my amazing friend Leslie with a little note that said she was thinking of me that day. How blessed I am to have such loving people in my life!

Kenzi Says the Darndest Things!

Today while I was working on putting together some food in the kitchen, Kenzi came in and was dancing around me - needless to say, she was kind of in my way. I told her to head outside and play. Her response? She giggled and went out the back door. Once she was outside, I heard her say (in a radio announcer-type voice,)

"Whooooo's annoying? I am!!"

That got me laughing pretty hard. Later, as I was cleaning up and everyone was getting ready to leave my house after a meeting of "Happy Moms Club," Kenzi turned to Steph and I and yelled,

"Mom! Don't put me with a nap!!"

It's funny because she's usually better with her words than that, but it still made me chuckle. My mother-in-law told me I needed to write it down now before I forget, and I figured if I put it here on our family blog, I can't lose it!

Giving Summer a Proper Welcome!

It was a beautiful Friday, 85 degrees outside, sunny, and the last day of school for Trev's little brothers and sisters. I was feeling in a summery mood, and really wanted to do something fun for the kids to kick off the start of summer. Lack of energy, however, led me to settle for something less than the zoo or a water park. Instead I packed up my kids and headed to the dollar store where a filled a bucket with tons of stuff..... Candy, water balloons, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a fun sprinkler, soda pop, and silly string.

We took our "bucket of fun" over to the Parents' house and let the kids run wild. They spent hours and hours...

and
I also brought over our bubble machine. Though it's quite small, you'd be surprised how many bubbles this thing can produce! They spent a good amount of the afternoon catching the..
Little Ashlin isn't really one for much water or activities like that. She spent most of her time off playing by herself, which she is perfectly content to do. She enjoyed her time
Speaking of Ashlin, while we adults were later playing cards indoors, Ash came walking into the room looking like this:

My first response was "where on earth did she find that much chocolate candy lying around??"

But alas, I was wrong. It wasn't chocolate after all.

It was.......

Boy, was that fun to clean up!

You probably don't know this, but my kids are crazy night-time people. We'll be over at Trev's family's house really late, 1:00 or even 2:00am, and all his siblings will be asleep all over the house. Even Tyler and Mallory who are teenagers will fall asleep no matter where they are quite early. My kids on the other hand, will be running circles (litterally!) around they heaps of people lying all over the floor. Vaughn and Meg have always been baffled at how awake and hyper my girls are at midnight.

But....

They were TOTALLY wiped out.

I took pictures because this is seriously the first time they have fallen asleep at that house just like everyone else does. We call it "Peterson Survival Sleep!"

We're looking forward to many more days of summer! Really, they're all this fun when you're part of this family!