Pouring Rain

It's been raining on and off all day. Poor Camilla just wants to go play outside and slide at the park. I'm too much of a wimp and I really don't want the little guy out in the cold right now, so we have been home bound today.  We did however manage to slip out to Walmart today. I also managed to bake cookies, bagels and pizza sticks this afternoon. The bagels sat rising on the counter for a little longer than usual as I had an afternoon nap with the kiddos today. The dough was a little dry when I went to boil it, they still look delicious though and I am just waiting for them to come out of the oven! It's been a semi productive day today anyways. If Camilla had her way, I think this would be her today....She takes after her Momma and loves her bare feet!

Splashing at Gramma and Grampa's in the early morning (still in her PJ's)

Enjoying standing in the rain

A Photoshoot

Yesterday my sister took out her nifty camera and used her mad skills to photograph my kiddos. I am in love with all of the pictures that she took of them! She is still editing a few, but these are the ones she got done yesterday. She did a fabulous job and is super talented! It was fun to watch her and be a part of it.

 Our smiley little guy...

  I have always wanted to take a picture like this of my baby and now I finally have one!

 She also took this gorgeous picture of my little girl. I am definitely blowing up and framing it!

We tried to get a few of the two of them together, and only ended up with a couple good ones!

We tried to throw some sports in there for the little guy!

And I jumped in for a few.

Nightime Serenade

This weekend was wonderful! I love getting out of the city and going 'home' to the acreage. Mr. Hyrum has been having some trouble at night time lately. The nights that I am most tired, it seems he has the hardest time getting to sleep. On Saturday night, this happened. It was shortly after 1:00 in the morning and we had just finished a movie. Mr. Stannix and I headed to the spare room to get some sleep.  I had to feed Hyrum before bed, but for some reason, he was having troubles eating and started crying a lot. I got up to bounce him in the moonlit room. Once he calmed down a little bit, I could hear the frogs serenading us through the open window in our room. It was the best sound in the world. It made everything so peaceful. There were no buses rushing up and down the street, no loud cars or music, no streetlights...Just the frogs and the quiet. I rocked my little man for a long time before he actually decided to eat and go to sleep but it was such a special experience to take a step back from the business of the world and enjoy the quiet of the night. I watched his little eyes look around in the moonlight and studied his little face. I think he finally drifted off shortly after 2:00 and I was able to cozy up in bed and listen to the frogs put me to sleep. I loved it! Those are the things you just don't experience in the city.

May Long

This weekend my parents invited us to the acreage to spend some time out of the city.  It's been quite eventful to say the least. We got up nice and early and packed up the car and the kids. We left and noticed a strange grinding noise in one of our tires. We weren't sure what it was, but it wasn't too awful sounding, so we pressed on. We made it two blocks and decided it sounded bad enough to pull over. We pulled into a 7-11 parking lot and Mr. Stannix hopped out to check the tire... As he was checking, I remembered that there were little fingers playing with rocks by our tire the other day, and these little fingers dropped some rocks into our tire and the rocks were now making a horrible grinding noise as they wedged against our brakes. I hopped into the drivers seat and Mr. Stannix had me pop it into neutral while he slowly pushed the car back causing the rocks to come slowly un-wedged. We tried pliers, pens and sticks to get them out, but had no luck. I thought we maybe could just take off the tire so we could reach, but that would take so much work. Thankfully, we have AMA and today it payed for itself. We sat in the 7-11 parking lot for almost an hour waiting and then getting it fixed. While we waited, I bet Mr. Stannix a kiss that the tow truck would come from my direction (and it did).  The guy took off the tire, wiped out the rocks and put the tire back on. Poor Camilla started screaming in the backseat when he jacked up the car. He said, "Oh, I didn't realize there was still people in the car! DON'T open any doors!". The poor girl looked so sad, and I had to comfort her through a closed window. Hyrum, thankfully slept the whole time! We were glad that there was no damage to our brakes or anything else, and we took off to Gramma and Grampa's. When we arrived, these beauties were waiting on the counter for dessert.

The kids did great in the car. Hyrum only screamed the last 7 minutes of the drive and Camilla woke up super happy from her nap. She could not wait to get outside when we arrived. She ran around in her bare feet all night long! She was Daddy's go-getter when he was practising horse shoes.

I got a kick out of watching Camilla carry these heavy horse shoes to her daddy in her bare little feet. I also enjoyed soaking up some sun with Mr. Stannix on the deck!

I am loving this warm weather and hoping the rain stays away for the weekend!!

Camilla had a fun ride on Uncle Arland's shoulders. She also enjoyed when her Daddy would throw her up REALLY high in the air and catch her. Man, I love her giggles, and I seriously love that picture of her and her daddy. Her feet are so dirty in it!. Hyrum is getting lots of snuggles from his Aunt, Uncle, Gramma and Grampa. I'm looking forward to getting some rest while the kiddos enjoy time with family. Life is good. How special our families are.

Behold Your Little Ones

The other night as Mr. Stannix and I studied the Conference Ensign together, I was given a good reminder about how special children are. Jean A. Stevens quoted the scripture in 3 Nephi that talks about when Jesus took and blessed the children and said to the multitude "Behold your little ones". She went on to quote Elder M. Russell Ballard when he said: "Notice that He didn't say 'glance at them' or 'casually observe them' or 'occasionally take a look in their general direction.' He said to behold them. To me that means that we should embrace them with our eyes and with our hearts; we should see and appreciate them for who they really are: spirit children of our Heavenly Father, with divine attributes". Sister Stevens goes on to say, "There is not a more perfect place to behold our little ones than in our families. Home is a place where we can all learn and grow together...It is here in our families, in an atmosphere of love, where we see and appreciate in a more personal way the divine attributes of His spirit children". 

The whole talk was amazing, but that was definitely my favorite part. How special our little children are in our lives and what great examples they are to us of being loving and forgiving. My newest goal is to take time to 'behold my little ones' and not just 'casually observe them' throughout the day. I want to look into their eyes, gaze upon their faces, admire their rosy cheeks, study their little hands and feet and enjoy their smiles. I want to be able to recognize their divine attributes and enjoy the special spirit they bring into our little home.

Papa's Twinkly Eyes

I absolutely love this picture! It was taken at the Old Spaghetti factory on Saturday night when we went out to Dinner with my Dad and my big brother. I love the action that is captured in this picture. The twinkle in my Dad's eyes, the bowl of ice cream all eaten up, Camilla playing with her Uncle Chris, and Hyrum's sock falling off.

There's just something about my Dad's eyes in this picture that totally captures my attention.  I have always loved my Dad's eyes and I was lucky enough to inherit his baby blues. His eyes in this picture are full of life! They look very loving and almost proud as he is snuggling his new grandbaby. To me, it seems that they are  twinkling with delight. I especially love the little smile lines on the edges of his eyes showing a life of love and hard work.

Camilla loves spending time with family, as this picture shows so well. I love how she plays pretend, but I admire how intently Uncle Chris is playing pretend with miss Camilla, causing her face to light up with happiness and love. He's such a great Uncle!

Lastly, I love how Hyrum is sitting so calm and cozy in his Grandpa's arms, and how his sock is half falling off.

What a great night that was!

6:00 AM

What does your home look like at 6:00 in the morning?

Mine looks a little something like this...

5:30 ~ Hyrum and Mommy come down stairs to change a diaper and snuggle
5:35 ~ Mommy crashes on the couch from a long night with a stuffy baby

5:45~ Camilla hops out of her bed and runs to our room

5:50 ~ Camilla makes her way downstairs and snuggles her cold body into Mommy
5:51 ~ Camilla falls asleep again for a few minutes

6:00 ~ Daddy snaps a picture of the sleepy heads on the couch

Nana Visits

On Monday, Mr. Hyrum had his 2 week check up. He weighs 8 lbs 11oz and is all healthy and well. He's such a great baby! Nana also came to visit us on Monday! It was a beautiful almost-summer day outside and we had a lot of fun! After lunch, Camilla cooled off on the deck with a popsicle from Nana and Auntie Faith. It was delish (I shared)!

She thought it was super yummy and had a nice colorful face when she was finished!

Nana also got to snuggle baby Hyrum for a while!

Later in the afternoon we took off to the park with the puppies. Camilla loved kissing and hugging them and getting outside! It's her favorite place to be.

She even got to help Nana walk the big puppy!

While we were at the park we bumped into Camilla's little friend. They were a bit shy at first, but raced down the slide and played on the swings together at the end of the day.

With temperatures above 20 and bright sunshine, you couldn't complain too much! I think my arms are a little pink after our time at the park. We had to wear bug spray today for the first time this season as the mosquitoes were horrible! It's like they appeared over night!! It was fun to visit with Nana and Auntie Faith for the day. Camilla didn't want them to leave after! We are excited about the warm weather this week and looking forward to more afternoons at the park!

Camilla had such a long day that she fell asleep at the dinner table!! After supper I took her upstairs and changed her into her Pj's. Sadly, no bath tonight. She went to bed dirty face, sticky hands & all.

Passenger's Side Mirror

Saturday night my dad took us and my brother Chris out for dinner to The Old Spaghetti Factory. Usually we park in the underground because it's only $3.00 after 6:00 PM. Today, Mr. Stannix and I found a free meter right across the street from dinner. We debated whether or not it was free after 6:00 PM. Before we unbuckled the kids, Mr. Stannix got out of the car to check things out.  I sat in the passengers seat, waiting to hear back. While Mr. Stannix checked out the meter, I checked out Mr. Stannix. He looked pretty HOT I'm not going to lie. I couldn't resist whipping the camera out of the diaper bag and snapping these beauties. (What I wish I'd done was snap one of his reflection in the mirror, that would have been artistic, and more romantic)....

I think it was the glasses and the unzipped sweater. Not to mention, I love my man in a plain white tee.  He laughed when I brought out the camera, but agreed to a few snapshots. With him being so busy lately, it was nice to take a break from life and just enjoy dinner and time together with family. I had the biggest grin on all night and admired Mr. Stannix all through dinner. After dinner, we loaded the kids into the back seat and then Mr. Stannix patiently waited with my door held open for me to come around and get in. I walked around the car, marched up to Mr. Stannix and gave him the biggest smooch ever, right in the middle of downtown, then hopped into our car. I looked across the street at these old guys on their parked motorcycles and their jaws were open so far they almost touched the pavement. I felt proud to have a husband who keeps chivalry alive. We rolled the windows down low and drove down the big hill and across the bridge back home. We rocked out to some music and laughed together. I felt like we were dating again and had an empty backseat. I was flying high on love and enjoying every moment. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who is my best friend and understands me so completely.

Sunday Snapshots