I really hate myself for saying that last title outloud...

Dare I say it out loud--Spring is really here?!?

First off--thanks for all the nice comments. Holy moley--if I were even half the person that you all made me out to be, I'd be ecstatic! I know where to turn to if I'm ever feeling down. I really do have the best family and friends a gal could ask for!

The Owens & Olsen clan spent an IDYLLIC weekend in Midway, eating tin foil dinners, 'mellow-roasting and S'more feasting, playing outside if there was daylight to be found, setting up the Tee Pee, visiting the cows and riding the Surrey bike. We even got a bonus visit from the favored aunt Lindsay and her friend Sam! Lucky us! Midway is my slice of Heaven. So many great memories growing up and it's so fun to watch my kids fall in love and create their own memories up there.

For FHE, Ash decided that our activity should be a lemonade stand. This has replaced her financial plan of loosing teeth to earn an income, which is good because she was running out of teeth.

Lemonade anyone?

My thoughts (today) on pregnancy

I am awake. Mostly due to the fact that I had to use the restroom and also physically wake up so I could heft my belly from one side to the other to get comfortable, and this is no easy task now-a-days! As I was trying to get back to sleep, my mind kept going through the millions of thoughts about this pregnancy. Alone and with my own thoughts is a rare place to be in this household, and even much less likely in a month or so! An hour and a half later, I'm still awake, so I'm putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard as the case may be. It's all such a jumbled mess, I'm hoping my thoughts make sense!

Each night once the kids are down, Casey and I unwind in the basement family room. Without fail or asking, Casey will take my aching right leg and give it a great rub. As silly as it sounds, it's one of those little things that reminds me that he loves me and that he appreciates what bringing each child into our family has done to my body. I commented to him the other night as I made funny sighing noises that just came out as I was trying to "gracefully" get up off of the carpet that now that I'm thirty, pregnancy is NOT for wimps! My leg looks like it's been through a war zone due to pressure on those veins, along with the exhaustion, stretch marks, pudgy body and belly. I'm at the point in my pregnancy where it takes real courage to just leave the house & face every day knowing I don't look exactly how I'd like to!!! Oh the vanity of it all. I'm embarrassed to say that I can get caught up in it.

Then random things gently remind me of the MIRACLE of it all. I was sitting next to my visiting teacher in church on Sunday. She's an awesome lady whose kids are growing up and starting to leave the nest. I had my elbow resting on my belly and was holding the hymnbook along with her when this little girl gave a great big kick. Susannah looked at me and said "Even I felt that!" We started giggling, looked at each other as I mentioned what a great feeling it was and started tearing up. She whispered how she missed and had forgotten what it was like and I was relishing the moment of THAT FEELING. It's true that you can't explain in words until you've been lucky enough to be pregnant. The great and wonderful things really do far outweigh the hard stuff. There truly is something beautiful about it. It's just that the traditional definition and characteristics that define beauty are tweaked & put into a new perspective.

So, I will take the aches and pains, as I know so many dear friends who have far more difficult aches and pains from struggling to bring children into their own families. The exhaustion and sleep-less nights are a sign that I've had a healthy pregnancy and am nearing the end, where so many have been robbed of that miracle. And with each new child has brought a new stretch mark or two, and a new "ailment" that will most likely leave a permanent mark on my physical body that will be my reminder that I am a mother, and I will try to treat them as a badge of honor, rather than an imperfection. For the next few weeks in particular, I'll try to remember that the miracle of it all trumps any woes, every time.

April General Conference

Love so many things about General Conference weekend, and am really looking forward to sustaining President Monson, a new apostle, listenening to the choir (shout out to mom!) and especially learning from our General Authorities and the spirit.

My awesome aunt Brit found this GREAT general conference packet for the kids and was nice enough to share it with me. I thought I'd pay it forward and send it along to any who might be interested. Here's the link.

Happy Conference weekend!

April Fools gone a-fowl...

As long as I can remember, I have always LOVED April Fool's Day. I could get into some seriously pathetic pranks I've tried to pull off, but will settle for the time that I put saran wrap on the toilet, which is actually not a bad trick. But I was the brilliant one that left a note on the tank that stated:

Go ahead, use this toilet.

There's nothing wrong with it,

just some small repairs.

Signed, The plumber

Right--I'm sure the unsuspecting victim would then think..."Oh, well if it's just MINOR repairs, I'll go ahead and use it then." And my mother always made me feel like I was smart. As I look back, I'm not so sure...

Today was no exception. It started off great with green omelets, a maze that is impossible to finish and a "new job chart" that had the kids cutting the front lawn with fingernail clippers, hand washing their clothes and having to stand outside holding them up in the air so they could air dry and setting alarms at 12 am so they could make midnight snacks for everyone in the family. The kids were totally shocked and surprised when I hollered "April Fool's!" and thought it was hilarious and got right into the spirit of it all.

Ty combed his hair all by himself in a funky 'do and both kids wore mish-mashed shoes to school, thinking they were hil-ar-ious!

I told the kids after swimming lessons that since it was April Fool's Day, we'd have dessert for dinner first. Here are the lovely cupcakes...

Of course, they weren't cupcakes, but really meatloaf with colored mashed potatoes on top. This was the reaction I got from Ty...

Then this by Ash...Followed by this...

In case you can't tell, it's Ash running off in tears saying she HATES April Fool's Day. Apparently I didn't learn in parenting 101 that if you tell your kids that they are going to get dessert first, and it really turns out to be something as unexciting as meatloaf and mashed potatoes (even though I felt they WERE cleverly disguised, thank you very much!), then you'd better be prepared for meltdown of the century!

So, thankfully I had a "dinner" to redeem the holiday and myself as a mother. Chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes w/ gravy and toast with jam, as seen here...

Oh, surprisingly a much better response when it really turns out to be coconut covered marshmallows, ice cream w/caramel sauce and sponge cake with pureed strawberries. So, if any of you decide to try a shenanigan like this next year, make sure to serve the "dinner" FIRST and not the stupid "cupcakes"!

Most of the ideas came from familyfun.go.com. I think I will send the counseling bill to them for the damage that was surely inflicted on Ashlyn;) I thought it was fun anway!

Nerd Alert!

99 words

Speedtest

Try it out--kind of fun, you know, in a geeky sort of way...

My little getaway...

Since Casey got to take Ty to the Jazz game and Ash to Disney on Ice, I figured I was due for a little fun myself...A weekend retreat! Imagine enjoying a relaxing hobby, say oh, I don't know.... scrapbooking. Tables set up so you can leave the mess out the entire time without kids "helping out" or having to clean-up after getting all of the above said junk set up after only accomplishing one or two layouts. Let's add in 12 other fun girls, and big comfortable beds whenever you decide to hit the hay all in the beautiful Heber Valley. Sounds great, right? It get's better...
Meet Marcie, your personal chef, concierge and cleaning lady! Waking up to a breakfast that you didn't have to think up, buy groceries for, bake and then clean up. And you get 3 great meals that appear when a little bell rings to let you know that your next meal is waiting for you, along with plenty of snacks, drinks, dessert. You name it, she thought of it. She rocked. Everything was WONDERFUL!

A HUGE thanks to my sister, Liz, for inviting me. I love you and especially loved getting to spend time with YOU. I was one pampered girl, got a lot of creative juices flowing and even got some scrapbooking done to boot! Who's in next time?

And on a related note...

What could be better as a kid than having your dad all to yourselves for a whole weekend? How about adding in dad also doing the grocery shopping. Is this a weekend of eating in heaven for a kid or what?

Pizza? Check

Pringles? Check

Swedish Fish? Check

Hostess cupcakes? Check

Movies? Check

Oh, and I guess we'd better throw in milk and yogurt for good measure.

What a fun dad! Probably a good thing we don't eat like this every day though!

Daddy/Daughter Date

Case & Ash had a fun little date last week. Ash reported that dad opened every door for her and even let her sit up front by him--she felt so big and special. The biggest decision of the night for Ash was where to eat--oh the debating between some of her favorites...Panda Express, Chuck-a-Rama, Sizz...How is a girl to chose? The steak won out and Sizzler was the destination for a night of fine dining;).
Casey kept the next part of the date a surprise, and boy was she ever! They ended up at the Disney Princesses on Ice and can we say, she loved it?!? She's loved dressing up since she was two, so it was great to see that 4 years later she still could enjoy it (and I'm so relieved that she can still be excited about it and doesn't think she's too old for it!). She called me on the way home because she couldn't wait to tell me all about it. I LOVE this age, and even more, I LOVE this girl and her daddy.

Dedicated to Phil, the Hamster 2007-2008

So, this was a new situation as a mother that I had last week...

Ty was playing with one of his closest buddies who happens to also be my cousin last week. They get along so well and just love any minute they can spend together--love these boys!

But this playdate took a tragic turn! They happened to be at another cousins house and decided to go into 11-year old Spencer's room to play with his toys and his hamster, Phil. Shall I preface this right now with the fact that Spencer ADORES this hamster? As in, he insisted on holding his beloved pet in the family Christmas Card photo because he loves it so much, not to mention that he happens to be one tender, sweet 11-year old boy!

Well, somehow the little boys got Phil caught between two objects and couldn't figure out how to get him out on their own. My little cousin ran up to get his mom, but it was too late, and Phil had passed on... Oh Dear!

We feel SOOOO bad for poor Spencer! How do you make restitution for something like that? And what are we going to do if the law passes that makes cruelty to animals more than a misdemeanor?!? Okay, this is not an appropriate time for humor...

Well, we made a treat and Tyler hand wrote a letter:

We hope the relationship will be preserved!

Remember When

Thought this would be fun to meander down memory lane...

20 Years Ago: 10 Whopping years old. I had glasses, feathered bangs, a frizzy perm and would wear awesome combinations like a long-sleeved white button down shirt, florescent geo-print clam-diggers, huarache sandals with two co-ordinating socks and one side of my hair up with a butterfly claw. Either that or Units. WOW. That's quite a visual! Amazingly, I still had a healthy dose of self esteem and plenty of friends! I loved elementary school. My teacher was Mrs. Moody. One of my best friends was hit by a car and survived after a series of what I consider miracles. I loved soccer, swimming and playing with my friends.

10 Years Ago: I had gotten back from Jerusalem, living with fun roommates down at BYU--one of my favorites being my older sister, writing to a missionary pretty regularly and dating. Happened to see a really cute guy give up his chair during Sunday School so that some girls that had come in late would have a seat, and jokingly said "DIBS!" to my friend sitting next to me. A couple of weeks later, actually got to have a conversation with this cute guy at a party and hit it right off. We ended up spending a majority of our free time with each other from that point on. It didn't matter what we were doing, we just couldn't get enough of each other! Things were getting a little more serious by the time the missionary got home and I dated both at the same time for a little over a month (which seriously STUNK--I wouldn't ever wish this situation on ANYONE!) and just felt like I really needed to see where things lead with Casey. Well, obviously things lead down a great path and we both felt that we'd found just what we'd been looking for, so we got engaged Oct 14th, planned our wedding and were married Dec 29th!!! Love this guy!!!

5 Years Ago: We were living in Charlottesville, VA--what we sometimes dubs as our "Camelot" years. Casey was in the middle of med school, Ash was our world and we had the dearest friends and neighbors that became our family away from family. Ty joined our family and we couldn't have been more excited! We learned to appreciate the great families we came from as we were away, but couldn't have imagined how our experiences at UVa would strengthen our own little family. We were also building debt up to our eyeballs:)

3 Years Ago: Casey graduated and we were offered a spot for residency at the University of Utah Internal Medicine program. We were thrilled that our kiddos would actually get to be near grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! We celebrated by heading down to Florida and enjoying Disney World with extended family. We lived in my aunt & uncles home while they served as mission presidents, and grew to love so many in their neighborhood. Intern year for Casey was a BEAR--I feel like we didn't always handle it as gracefully as I'd have liked, but we survived it all the same!! This was a very significant year for us as well because we lost Casey's mom, Trish and my grandmother quite unexpectedly. These two women had such tangible impacts on us, and still continue to, to this day.

1 Year Ago: We were house hunting and found our home (almost exactly a year ago, in fact!) and couldn't be happier with our home, neighborhood and community. Ash was in kindergarten, Ty was finally rounding the corner of a rough toddler stretch (seriously, I lost count of how many times I felt that I was failing this kid as his mother! Thankfully, he's such a sweet boy now;) and Tink was our happy, content baby. We moved in at the end of summer.

So Far This Year: We've settled into the groove of being a family of 5 just in time to prepare to welcome a new little girl in 2 months! Casey is almost done with residency, I'm almost done with being prego, Ash is almost done with baby teeth, Ty is loving preschool and Ali is almost done with wandering the halls at church and being in nursery!

Yesterday: Finished "Austenland", got Ash off to school, went to check on my poor mom who has kidney stones and got some bonus visits with Liz and her kids, my aunt Laurie and my Dad while I was there, picked up Ash from school and went to the park with the Pelo's on a really nice afternoon. Got materials to sew costumes for Road Show from the awesome director, Becky (And YES, apparently this stake still does Road Show's, and no, this is not in my comments from 20 years ago, honest!) Made dinner. Had a great visit from Casey's sister, Robyn where we got to talk about our pregnancy questions and concerns! Got the kiddos in bed just in time for Casey to come home to kiss them good-night. Tried to convince Casey that we REALLY need a vacation;) Got bummed when he was talking about the fact that we need to make sure we're being responsible and putting the money in things like our kids educational funds, our retirement, saving for the backyard improvements and replacing his 13 year old car. Went upstairs and started reading The Ensign. Really enjoyed the articles and felt guilty for acting like a baby:) Totally fell asleep at 9:00. How embarassing...

Today: A nice, leisurly Saturday. Had some fun kids in the neighborhood over for much of the day to play, took all three kids to the grocery store, made dinner. Casey got home around 6 and we watched "Barbie Mariposa". Now this one was a real winner! Put the kids to bed, Casey asked me where I'd like to go on a trip (Awww, what a nice guy, even when I was a little pouty!) watched the Jazz game while I worked on Road Show costumes and Activity Day crafts.

My fingers are tired, and I commend anyone that even made it this far!! Try it out for yourself--it's nice to remember fun things from your past that you'd forgotten about!

Quick Ty-isms

Ty & Casey having a conversation:

"Ty-guy, what did you have for lunch?"

"Umm..I don't know. I think you'll have to ask the girl you married."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ty & Casey went to a Jazz game last night. As they passed the Temple, Ty said:

"Is that Disneyland?"

"Nope, that's the temple."

"Oh, so is it the Disneyland temple?"

Pigs are flying...

It came out of my husbands mouth the other day...

"If I had to do it over again, I would have gotten a mini-van."

I am shocked! This from a guy who swore he would NEVER get a minivan. We were just looking at SUV's with 3 rows, and I got him to actually sit in an Odessey 3 years ago. Now that was a feat in itself, so I felt a small sense of victory just to get him to think outside of his "comfort zone". We actually really wanted a Pilot, but at the time, they had just come into the market and we could only buy new and didn't quite have the funds for that! So, we've been just fine with the Explorer.

But I just had to write it down so that my loving husband won't forget that these words were uttered when we get the shopping bug again. Any shout-outs from the mini-mom's out there?!?

Activity Days

So, really, I have a fun calling. I get to spend every other Wednesday afternoon with a group of 8-11 year old girls doing various things like taking cookies to widows, going and doing a library tour, making scripture bags and just being amazed by all the excitement and energy that 12 elementary girls can possess! And I work with two ladies that are really quite honestly, some of the most amazing women & personal heroes of mine.

Yesterday we had a discussion about the sacrament and then taught the girls how to make homemade bread. It was a really great activity--all spread out around the counter, kneading dough and remembering exactly what we are covenanting to do when we take the sacrament each Sunday. We made some loaves to be used for the sacrament on Sunday and each girl got to take home a small loaf to share with their families.

So, if you visit the CR 4th ward this week, I'm sure you'll see some girls inspecting the trays for their contribution to the meeting! I really love these girls!

Spiderwick, Sharks and Earthquakes, Oh My!

Ash has just recently gotten really into reading the Spiderwick Chronicles. Isn't she too young for this? The librarian at her school suggested it to her and she devoured the first book in one night, insisting that it wasn't scary. I've seen the commercials for the new movie and she is BEGGING to see it. Well, I'M too scared to see it. So, a date with dad was in order. Can we say obsessed?!?

Tyler has also been obsessed lately with sharks and earthquakes. He read some books from the library about them and every question lately is "So, when is an earthquake going to come anyway?" or "Did you know that sharks eat surfers because they look like they are seals, not because they want to eat us?" I'll be sure to store that one away in the old brain, considering we live in a land-locked state! I guess I forget that there is something so intriguing about the unknown, mysterious and sometimes a little bit scary things in life. I constantly struggle between overprotecting and allowing my kids to explore things in all facets of life. I guess this is a tight-rope walk that all mothers walk, finding the fine line that they want to venture on.

Tink is teetering everyday on that fine little line--the curiosity of a 17-month old! She's fascinated with the dishwasher, anything with buttons, with STANDING on every chair, rather than sitting, and just wants to be in the middle of everything! Oh boy...

Are you sad you won't have a brother?

Ash was talking with Ty about how we're having another sister join the family. She was feeling bad for Ty, since he'd be the only boy and asked, "Are you sad you won't have a brother?"

Ty, lifting his arms up and shrugging replied matter-of-factly, "Well, Jesus is our brother. So I already have a brother!"

Of Course!

I {heart} Valentine's Day

Thanks to some savy ideas that I was able to lift, Valentine's Day was very sweet! We had the usual heart pancakes (which hallelujiah! is a treat for the kids. Could you ask for an easier breakfast?!?) I got to volunteer at Ash's class party, which was a blast. First graders are just such a fun age group! After school we played Valentine's bingo, that a sweet friend shared the template to so I taught myself how to digitally scrap! Thanks to her generosity, it turned out great. I just may be hooked!

Dinner, a video and smoothies topped off the night! I made some coupon books for Casey as well as the kids and they got some new Sunday clothes. I was surprised how excited they were about the gifts--maybe because they weren't really expecting it, like Christmas or a Birthday. Ty has come upstairs wanting to redeem a coupon every day we've been home. Today the request is Chuck E Cheese. We'll see if it can work!

A few days ago I asked Casey if there was anything he wanted, and he couldn't think of anything. So, I got him something very unromantic that he had mentioned that he needed a couple of weeks ago--and he still loves me despite the boring gift! He got me something sentimental from when we were dating and some beautiful flowers and a dinner date for later this week. A simple, sweet Valentine's Day with people I love the most. How lucky...

St George photos!

Much needed break...

The kiddos & I got back from a terrific weekend in St George. Swimming, shopping, hiking and sand dunes were some of the highlights. We even lucked out with playing with some of my cousins while down there, whom my kids ADORE!! I snuck away for a few hours to see a few of the mansions in the Parade of Homes down there. Pretty amazing! We also discovered Ty's new love of Uno, and pretty much any board game for that matter. Ash loved the pool, collecting rocks and being Olivia's shadow and Ali loved the sand dunes. We sure missed our hard-working dad, though!

Just the recharge we were looking for...Now I can face the next storm!!!!

That's it. We're headed to St. George and there's no stopping us.

As is often the case, when I should finish the packing, I got sucked into the blogging world and decided to change my template again. I'm trying to teach myself how to do more digital stuff, so forgive all the busy-ness and multiple-personalities that my blog has been experiencing. It's sure fun though! Maybe next time I'll actually sit down and write what's actually HAPPENING in our family's life! Ha ha! Happy weekend everyone!