lazy sunday afternoon

now that the snow is gone for good (hopefully) we are definitely enjoying our backyard more...




it was a very blustery day!



yes, i have a lot of freckles.


some geese went honking and flying by and she whipped her little head around SO FAST.
"duuuuuuuuck!" (close enough.)



paul made this john deer tractor quilt in 10th grade for a home-ec class.
he claims he thought it was an "outdoor clothing" class...uh-huh.

hope you had a great weekend!

happy mother's day!...(a couple days late)

this mother's day was oh-so nice. paul got me some pretty roses and the pioneer woman cookbook. (i also read her other book recently - of how she and marlboro man got together - and it was such a fun read! go borrow it from someone.)

church was lovely - i'm usually in the nursury for 2 hours with the toddlers, but a couple husbands (mine included) watched the kids so me and the other nursury moms could go to relief society - where we got chocolate covered strawberries at the end of the lesson and i hoarded mine and didn't share it with anybody. because that's what being a mom is all about - hoarding treats and not sharing.

for mother's day dinner i tried my hand at making shredded hawaiian bbq chicken in the ol' crock pot and i think i loved it. nope, i don't think - i TOTALLY loved it. it's so stinkin' easy - there's only 4 ingredients in the whole recipe! nice.

as an ode to the little person that (officially) made me a mother, here are my favorite pics of me and pen-pen:

whoa - is that a new mom or what. greasy hair, no make-up and awkardly holding her month-old baby. but i think i look pretty happy so that's good haha.

(you may have noticed that i purposely skipped a hospital pic of me and newbornpenny...and that is because i don't think anyone should have to post a picture of themselves after giving birth. that's just my expert opinion.)

aw, penny at 7 months. i LOVED this age. so bubbly and cute.


at her 1-year birthday party. such a cute lil' nugget. (you too, paul).


i wanna say...18 months old? this is one of my all-time favorite pics of me and the penster.

...and this is a close second.


thanks for letting me be your mom, penny! it truly is awesome.

p.s. a shout-out to my own mom-lady for also being awesome. i never would've learned to toilet paper a house or say early morning family prayers without you.

welcome baby elsa!

i am so in love with my beautiful new niece!

elsa marie wren
born april 25th, 7 lbs 3 oz

isn't little elsa the cutest?!! i can't believe she has all that hair! and those ruddy cheeks and cute little lips - she's the prettiest little newborn! i'm so happy for lana and kris, little elsa sure is a doll and healthy as can be. i'm positive she and penny will be good friends. :)

happy easter!

this year we spent easter weekend in northern california with paul's brother's family - wes + tami and their kids, evan + makayla (and a little boy on the way). penny loved hangin' with her cousins and a good time was had by all...

on friday we went to the zoo:

makayla LOVED the deer, i think the feeling was mutual.
evan spider-monkeyed it up to the top of the cut-out board...there he is!
saturday morning we went on an easter egg hunt with some neighbor kids, it was so cute! afterwards, penny cared more about playing with the plastic eggs than the candy inside...we helped her out with the candy part.
then some easter egg dyeing saturday night...

evan showed me his egg...and then carted it around oh-so-nicely in his wagon.

i love this picture - while we were dyeing the eggs, we put some little heart stickers on penny's fingernails and she was OBSESSED with them. she kept saying "ooohh...pitty!"
penny enjoying her chocolate bunny on easter morning, haha.

the cute kiddos all dressed up on easter sunday.

it was a fun, full weekend and nice to visit with family! thanks for having us wes + tami!

see ya in two years, derek!

we had a really nice open house last night for derek before he entered the mtc this morning. my aunt margo hosted and we just sat around, ate good food, and chatted all night.

pointing to his mission on the map: brisbane, australia.

i'm so proud of my little bro. he's going to live in australia for two years and have this incredible missionary experience and i'm so excited for him. i'm gonna miss the little bugger but i'm so glad that he has chosen to do this. love you derek!

what, don't you videotape your kids snoring?

pennygirl had a bit of cold this week and it resulted in some awesome snoring.
that lip puffing in and out kills me! so cute.

better than nothing.

sorry my posts lately have been few and far between...nuthin much is going on! but here's some pics of penny outside in the fresh air between sessions of general conference two sundays ago.

*such a paul face.

i just thought she looked so funny in her pj's and "combat boots". one day when she looks back at this blog (after i've made it into one of those blog-turned-into-a-book things) she'll be like "sooo...did you ever dress me in anything than pj's?" and i'll be like "nope."

i really enjoyed general conference this year. growing up it was THE MARATHON OF LONG-WINDED SPEAKERS THAT NEVER ENDED but now i look forward to it every 6 months. their words really are modern day revelation and i like how each talk makes me think a little harder or differently about some particular topic. i like just setting aside normal routine for 2 days and just listening and being restful and feeling the spirit. i kind of feel rejuvinated, ya know?

i feel like i've been busy lately and i looked at the calendar this morning and i am so exited to say that i have NOTHING scheduled on the calendar for this week! it's completely blank! it makes me giddy. maybe i'll take penny on a walk today since i understand that it's supposed to be snowsville starting tomorrow through the rest of the week.