My Summer Survival Items

If I think too hard about surviving 11 more weeks of being pregnant, I can get really down, so here are just a few of the items that I am relying heavily on to get me through this HOT, LONG summer...in no particular order...

My heating pad...I have 7 little words to say to you, O heating pad..."I love you, sweet, relief-bringing pad!" I don't know what I would do with out this baby. He gets me through the long days and all the back pain!

My 101 pillows. My poor husband has a sliver of the bed left after I get cozy.

Books, books and more books. I have read more books in the last 6 months than I have my WHOLE life!

All I can say if you are not currently cooking with a crock pot WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??!!! There is nothing that makes me happier than to have a nice, warm, yummy dinner ready for me at dinner time. My brain and body shut down in the evening and I don't know what I would do with you this brilliant cooking contraption.

We just got a new pool for the back yard, and I am LOVING it. The kids don't fight in the pool, they don't make the house a mess when they are in the pool, and I get to sit in a lawn chair under and umbrella and read! What could be better?!

And LAST but not LEAST... My survival Item #1... My man! We just celebrated our 10th year anniversary on the 23rd! He is my support, my cheerleader, my sanity. He lets me sleep in, tells me I am beautiful and completely denies the fact that I am getting old and fat! He makes me laugh and keeps me grounded. He honors his priesthood and leads and directs our home in a peaceful, easy going manner.

When I first saw James at a singles ward in Layton, UT I knew that I knew him. Though I had never met him before I knew his face. I wracked my brain the whole church block trying to remember where I knew him from. As we became friends and started dating I quickly realized that he was my soul mate, my spiritual companion and that I did know him. The spirit bore witness to me that I had known James in the life before this one. I never questioned that I was going to marry him and be his wife.

We married young, I was only 20, but there has never been a day, not even on our hard days, that I have regret starting a life with him.

One wise woman once said that you know you have a good man when he will swim threw shark infested waters to bring you a lemonade. Yup...I got one!

Happy 10th James and here's to a lot more!

**Check out the latest "My kids say the darndest things" on the side for a good laugh and the next post about our fun camping trip**

Another Fun Summer Outing

My grandparents have a cabin in Logan, UT that we like to go to a couple of times a year. We spent 3 days there, with just our little family. It was so fun. We had a very relaxing time. On the last day we went to Bear Lake and spent the day there. Here are some highlights.

We had a really scary experience the first night we were there. We were roasting marshmallows by the fire, having a great time getting sticky. Tyler was sitting in a chair and bent down to pick up a stick off the ground. His chair began to tip forward, and before we knew it he had lost his balance and was falling face first into the fire! The fire was this big...I had him re-enact how he landed the next day (below). James reacted with lightning speed and pulled Tyler up, and I yanked his shirt off. To our amazement there wasn't a single singe on him. Not a single burn mark. It was too close to home for us because when Tyler was only 2 years old he fell into a fire when we were camping. The fire wasn't quite as big, but it was almost the same situation. He fell in, James yanked him out and I yanked his pants and shoes off. And again, not a mark on his body. This little man of mine must have something pretty important to do in life, because we have witnessed true miracles, TWICE! where he could have been badly injured. I am very humbled by these 2 experiences. AND--it will be a long time before we roast marshmallows again!!

We created a little lake with-in a lake for Malia to happily play. She loved it!

Family Fun and Cute Pics

Summer vacation has begun!


When I haven't felt like sleeping or puking...or sleeping...we have been having some fun!
We had a fun weekend with James' family at the Hansen reunion in Manti, Utah. We had a great time, and enjoyed spending time with everyone. Here are some pics from that weekend.

This is the "cabin" aka: mansion/lodge we stayed in. It is James' Aunt and Uncles cabin. Equipped with 9 bedrooms and every other thing you could imagine. It was in a beautiful location and we hardly noticed that it rained the whole weekend cause we were having so much fun.

Hot tubbing it

This is Malia's new funny face. Just try not to laugh...

Playing in the shower while Mom does her hair!

After our fun weekend we stopped by my sister Tami's house and had a picnic lunch. She is a great aspiring photographer and snapped these great shots.

Kylee and my nephew, Spencer.

Just an update on our little man still growing inside of me...HE IS GROWING! I get a comment or two DAILY on how big I am. I really have gotten huge. I feel like I should be delivering tomorrow, not 3 months from now! I just don't know where I am going to fit the rest of this growing boy! He is very healthy though and we are so excited to have him join our family.

MUD

The first sunny day in a long time + Rain the night before + dirt +my kids=