Author: Jess

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Colorado State Parks

The Art of Naming Objects While on a Road Trip

“You know – that thing. The flash bag, “ I said to Sam as we hike up the trail to Rife Falls.

“When you say ‘flash bag’ I think of strobes & speedlights,” Sam says.

“Right…I guess I do have one of those. I meant the REI backpack. What are we going to call it? It needs a name.”

Turns out when you have a car full of stuff and very little space, having names for things really helps. Especially when you are trying to find something in a hurry or figure out what in the world the other person is talking about. We could always play 20 questions but that would take longer than I’d like since I’m not very good at it.

“Let’s just call it the diaper bag. That’s what I’m using it for anyway,” I say.

Perfect.

 

Hiking Rifle Falls & Camping at Rifle Gap

 

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Faith Most Popular Posts

Take a Deep Breath, then Leap

I rolled over in bed this morning, and lay there quietly watching the sun filter through our curtains. The kids were still asleep in their beds and for the moment, all was still. “This is it,” I thought to myself. “This is the day we finally leave.”

 We have been planning and scheming since last March. So many late nights, dreams, aspirations, and excitement all rolled into one adventure. Sam mentioned to me that this is really our chance to start over – even though our travels are not permanent, even though we will eventually come home, for now, we can be whomever we want to be. Our family can be whatever we want it to be. I don’t know what to expect. I feel like we are standing on the edge of the light looking into the darkness, the unknown. I think it takes a lot of faith to do what we’re doing – and I hope the faith I have is enough.

Sam and I linger slightly in bed, but soon its time to get up and get going. My calm before the storm moment is over. Sam is up first and he dashes down the stairs to figure out a DVD burning problem for one of my clients. I hop in the shower, getting that over with so that I can put the last load of towels in the washing machine. As I’m drying my hair and putting my make up, Rachel wanders into our room, still heavy-eyed with sleepy.

 “Mom?” she says, “will you cuddle me? I’m scared.” This is a first for her. Up until now its been excitement and anticipation, but I think the reality of what we are doing is finally starting to sink in. We cuddle in the bed for just a few moments before I need to get up and get going again. Hopefully it was enough to reassure her that everything will be okay.

Pandemonium ensues.

There’s something about the last 2 days before a big vacation. No matter how much you prepare, how much you clean, there’s still enough to do that it is almost overhwelming. Pack up the bathroom. Wipe down the sinks. Get the kids breakfast. Burn photo CD’s for clients. Don’t forget to put everyone’s PJ’s in their suitcase. Too much bathroom stuff – not going to fit in the duffel. Cara has an accident – have to clean her up. Shove shoes in corners and under seats in the car. Pack the cooler for lunch on the road.

Everything is finally loaded, the sheets have been cleaned and put back on the beds ready for those who will sleep in them over the next 6 months, and the rooms have been double-checked for anything we might have left. Walking through our house is almost surreal. Its so…. empty. Nothing in the closets, all the toys put away, the floors swept. It’s time. We say a family prayer of thanksgiving and ask for protection before streaming out the door and climbing into the car.

We take a deep breath, and then its time to leap.

 

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Mommy Diaries

Spring Cleaning

 

If only it were THAT easy. Wow. Remember all the cleaning that, as a house owner, you are “supposed” to do on a regular basis? Blinds? Baseboards? Wiping cupboards inside and out? How many of you actually DO this? Don’t be shy. Raise your hands where I can see them! Hopefully most of you are better than me, as I seem to be very talented and putting this type of housework off until.. well… never.

In 3 weeks we’ll be house swapping with another family for a few months. Never just became tomorrow.

Out comes the dust mop, and the broom, and the insane long honey-do list of everything we ever meant to do with the house since we moved in.  Suddenly every speck of dirt laughs at me, and every smudge on the wall is mocking my efforts. I sat down with the kids and we made “The List”. Everything that needed to be cleaned, washed, wiped down, wiped out, or removed before we left. Its long. And scary. And daunting. Even more so when your cleaning help consists of a 7, 5, and 3 year old. I decided that we would pick 1 thing everyday and just do it. Little things like “wipe down all the doors in the hallway” or “wipe baseboards in 1 bedroom” or “wash walls in the kitchen”. It has definitely been more manageable in bite sized chunks, but after only 2 weeks of this we are completely and utterly slacking. Gone. Poof! It doesn’t help that we’ve been sick (cleaning up after my 5 year old at 1:00 am on my birthday is a total riot – let me tell you!) so I’m hoping that starting… umm.. next week, we can get back on track.

In the meantime, our house swapping partner and I have agreed to not judge.

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Mommy Diaries Most Popular Posts

A Buzz Lightyear Birthday Party

Surprisingly, we have a little daughter that is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. Not princesses, not My Little Ponies, not the entire Toy Story Clan. Just Buzz. And occasionally Zurg because, well, they are arch enemies after all. We have a bucket of little Disney figures (purchased long ago for another child) that has a 2″ Buzz Lightyear character. I can only assume that is where her obsession comes from, as her and Buzz have been best friends for months. So, when her 3rd birthday was fast approaching I mentioned the idea of having a Buzz Lightyear party and she immediately agreed! All she talked about for weeks was her “Buzz Lightyear cake” and how amazing her party was going to be. And, amazing it was. 🙂

For the record, I love decorating cakes. Even when I was little, I’d decorate all my siblings cakes with cute little figurines and colored buttercream frosting. Pretty quickly after we starting having kids, we purchased a little cake decorating set and I think I’ve done one almost every year for each of my kids. However, I have this amazing neighbor that pulled off a wickedly cool fondant cake for her daughter a few months ago and I begged her to teach me. So, she did. Voila!

Fondant is really not as hard to work with as you might think – my friend helped me cover the cakes with the two different shades of blue, and my awesome cousins who were staying with us at the time helped me cut shapes, and roll balls. I think it turned out pretty good, yes? Rachel (who had the coolest My Little Pony cake a few years ago) asked me why her and Andrew didn’t get really awesome cakes for their birthdays? Ugh. The bar has been set.

One of our little birthday traditions is that we have a HUGE breakfast. Sam and I (well, sometimes just me) decorate the kitchen the night before while they are sleeping so its “go time” as soon as they roll out of bed. Each kid has their favorite breakfast – and Cara’s this year was waffles with strawberry syrup and whipped cream. Yum!!

Sam & I had a huge hike to go on with the Young Women in our ward, so we postponed festivities until later that evening. We had my family over for dinner, presents, and cake & ice cream. Rachel & Andrew were super cute with their presents! They spent a lot of the morning writing stories, drawing pictures and wrapping them in LOTS of wrapping paper. BUT, it was so cute to see how excited they all were!

We got her a “Big Buzz” and she was immediately in heaven.  Epic battles between Buzz & Zurg commenced.

The cutest thing was that we had to tell her that Buzz couldn’t blow out her candles, she had to actually do it herself.

Party on the inside too!! This is actually super easy to do – you just color the cake batter in a few different bowls and then layer it in before baking.

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General Information

Happy Birthday to My Crazy Baby!

I can’t believe it’s already been 3 years! To know she’s my last and watch her grow up is both exciting and sad all at the same time. I have such mixed emotions about my kids getting older. But, then, who doesn’t?! For those of you that don’t remember, Cara’s birth was fairly miraculous. I’m so grateful that she was born healthy, that I was okay and that we both came home from the hospital on time. It could’ve been so much worse.

We have decided that she really is a “silly woman” (which she will tell you on a regular basis). She loves to tease, make silly faces, and talk silly. Sometimes all at the same time. Currently, she is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear (something I find ridiculously adorable) and her favorite color is blue. Recently, she really has loved playing with her older brother and I can even see glimpses sometimes of her little imagination being sparked. Today when she pulled out her 2″ Buzz figurine and Andrew had Zurg – he fired on Buzz and “shot him”. Cara sat for a minute, looked down at Buzz, looked up at Andrew and then said “Buzz is running away! Come get him!” and ran into the other room so Andrew could chase her. I Love moments like that where my children just connect with each other. It makes my heart sing.

Cara also loves her music class,  the plasma car still (and we have at least 3 pairs of ruined shoes to prove it), play-DOH, Duplos, and sleeping in her “fort” that Andrew made for her over her bed.

Although she’s 3 tomorrow we still haven’t made any progress on the potty-training front. As much as I would like to be DONE with diapers its just not happening yet. Sam came up with a great motivational idea today so we might try that in the near future and see if we can make any progress. Mostly I just don’t want to push it and make us both miserable. Our summer is going to be chaotic enough.

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite photos of her over the last 3 years, because really, what’s a blog post without something pretty to look at?!