Fun Times in '09

Surprise! I know, I know it's been since last March. I've slacked in the picture taking as well so this ought to be short. Lots of pictures and little narrative.





After lots of hard work Madison finally made it!


Lights at Hogle Zoo. Very fun!



Christmas Eve and cookie decorating. Thanks Littlefield's for coming over!




Wait...wait....wait for it.......

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Ashley's first time skiing. She did so awsome! She took an hour and a half ski lesson then went on the lift and down with Steve and I once. Maybe next year she'll be able to do more. I have a great video but can't figure out how to post videos. If you are reading this and know how please help!

Ashley and her friend Madi, who also took the lesson with her.

Now we skip back to Halloween. Steve and the girls love to carve pumpkins.

Ashley wanted to be a witch for Halloween. Oh, but not just a witch... a SPIDER witch. The green part of her costume has spiders and webs on it.

This is me being creative with Halloween. Next year Madison wants to be pink and Ashley wants to be purple. Easy enough!

Skip back to the summer at the cabin. I need to do better next year of taking pictures at the cabin.

Trip into Yellowstone National Park

Awww, how cute is that. Just as Old Faithful is starting.

Ashley and Mary having great fun from a geyser spraying on the walkway.

One of MANY pictures that actually turned out at our county fair.

Dinosaur Museum

Madison's birthday

This year was Ashley's 5th birthday. My kids can have friend parties on their 5th and 8th birthday. Ashley has LOTS of friends. She wanted to invite 24 friends, which we did. A few were late and didn't make it into the picture. Wow, lots of fun and noise!

Easter and Spring Break vacation to Zions National Park. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Littlefield for going with us. We had a great time.

Now for random funny and cute stuff.

For a little while we couldn't get Madison to fall asleep in her own bed. I'm glad she is past that.

Ashley's first day of kindergarten.

These are the green glasses the girls like to wear when they are pretending to be Grandpa Staker. My dad wears reading glasses but they are not green.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Very beautiful!

Funny...but SOOO true

I love being a mom at home with my kids. I wouldn't change it for anything. Each day I love to do the sudoku puzzle from the tribune. Next to the puzzle is the "dear Carolyn" column. This is today's column that I needed to share with all of you. I laughed and thought it was funny. At the same time it is so true. And for the Mom's to be (eh-hem Lori, Emily) there's no going back! :) Children really are a joy. Enjoy the article.

Comparing 'real'job with stay-home mom
While I'm away, readers give the advice.
On comparing »the work of child-rearing with working at a job:
The most exhausting part of parenthood is the fact that for 99.9 percent of the various needs, you can't simply decide to "opt out," or even put them off un­til later; a child preparing to run into traffic takes precedence over anything else. It is the loss of the smallest measures of mental freedom and self-containment.
In comparison, a status report doesn't cry or scream if you are an hour late finishing it, nor feel abandoned if you put it aside un­til after lunch.
A typical staff meeting is un­likely to include your co-work­ers complaining when you bring snacks because they "hate bran muffins, yuck! Why don't we ever have anything good to eat? Billy's team in Marketing gets dough­nuts" — accompanied by, in the case of toddlers, throwing of the objectionable food. Your boss is unlikely to wake you up at 2 a.m. and puke on you, nor need her di­aper changed or a glass of milk, and if she does, you should def­initely leave your job unless you are a live-in care nurse.
If your job begins each day at 6 a.m. with your boss wanting you to carry him downstairs and
make him breakfast, then subse­quently includes a day filled with a host of never-ending, unappre­ciated and (socially deemed) me­nial tasks, ending somewhere around 9 p.m., if lucky, you would have lots of folks asking why you put up with it and hoping you get paid well, as opposed to an aston­ishing number of people wonder­ing "what you do all day."
When a mother does her job, chances are she gets little recog­nition, and if she's doing her job "right," chances are also excel­lent that at some point she will hear with distressing frequency, "I hate you!!! " If you heard that coming from your boss after a successful ad campaign, you'd leave your job, right?
The consequences of failure are heavier for this job than most any other endeavor, with the iro­ny being that because we are hu­man, we are destined to fail with heart-rending frequency.

-"Relaxed"

It's Finally Here

Happy Spring!

That's all. I'm just excited. Well, okay I'm just WAY excited.

Donkey WHAT?

The second year of Donkey Basketball. My poor little donkey didn't know what to do. Also me being such a great donkey rider I was able to make the donkey do what ever it wanted to do. Really all that I did was try to hold on and have fun.

Ashley, Ben, and Madison enjoyed watching thier dads try to hold on to the donkey.

Madison, Ashley, and Steve with the spawn of satan. This little Donkey did not like me being on its back and it did what ever it could to keep me off.

Enjoy these short videos of me falling and trying to stay on the Donkey.

Cute Stuff

One of my favorite things to do before I go to bed is to peek in on the girls. I love to see them so peaceful, warm and ...well.....quiet. It's always a surprise how and where Madison will be in her crib.

A few weeks ago for Family Home Evening Ashley gave the lesson on "Love One Another". She organized and learned this lesson at a primary activity. She was more than excited to do this. The activity was to make a heart out of pipe cleaner. During the coming week we needed to do something nice for someone and place the heart on their pillow. Ashley really surprised me when she decided to fold laundry for me. What a nice daughter! She did a really fantastic job!

Tap, Tap, Tap - TA DA!

Those of you who were at Brent and Lissa's reception know that Ashley loves to dance. Anytime I turn on music I know the girls will be good. Here is a little bit of what Ashley loves to do at home.

New Hospital

Finally I make time to blog. Most of the time, okay all of the time, it's last on my list of things to do. Last month the new hospital was opened in our area. The weekend before the grand opening we went for a tour. Of course Ashley and Madison's favorite part was the helicopter. They were the last ones to see it for the day. I'm glad we arrived before 5:00 because they left back to McKay Dee as we were crossing the parking lot back to our car. That was neat for the girls to be so close for something like that. This better be the only time they're in a chopper like this.

Ashley and Madison having a great day with each other. At random times during the day Ashley will come give me a big hug and say, "I love you because you are my special mom". I'm glad to be their "special mom".