LOVE-ly day

i'm back! my internet has been having some issues the last few days, and i've been too busy to deal with it. it feels good to be blogging again. first, have to blog about valentine's day. this is sort of my SPT - love, me - what are you going to do for yourself for valentine's day? for years i have been wanting to make valentine's day a big love-fest for my family but have always let the day get away from me. so this year, my valentine to me was going all out - at least as far out as time would allow and it was SUCH a fun day! i woke up crazy early (partly ethan's fault) and made heart shaped pancakes with strawberries and powdered sugar - extreme close up provided by allie...then i made everyone a special lunch with their favorite sandwhiches, love notes and really yummy sugar cookies. i was tempted to cut the sandwhiches into heart shapes but then thought of my poor boys having to open them in front of peers and co-workers and decided against it - you're welcome boys. i cleaned the whole kitchen after everyone left, shoveled the snow - no comment, and then cleaned the entire house! yup, i rock, it looked awesome for about four hours. i started lisa's killer jello salad to get ready for red dinner and helped ethan get his play group valentines ready, he was more interested in the candy. i checked the mail was so happy to get my LOVE SWAP package from ashley - so cute, she did a great job including things for each letter of LOVE, an idea that i quickly abandoned for the package i sent off! thanks ashley!i got ethan and i ready to go to the grocery store, got to the garage and realized my van's battery was dead! CRAP! so lauri saved me with a jump and i should've taken a picture because we felt like powerful women with the car hoods open and cables running to and fro. at the grocery store i was like a machine - i LOVE this feeling of getting in and out of there fast, this is usually thanks to a good list. at the grocery store the manager was randomly passing out single roses to all the women and wishing us a very sincere happy valentine's day. i could tell he really meant it, something in his sparkling smile that told me he was having a ton of fun. it was kind of a pitiful looking rose on thursday, but it's starting to open and today it's making me feel so happy! i delivered cookies to allie's class party and then bolted home to work on more dinner prep. one of our favorite things to eat around here is my sister-in-law jen's chicken parmesan recipe and since it's red, well that worked out nicely for the evening's plans. (this is before it went into the oven)some how after school and before dance, the kids and i managed to frost and deliver over NINE dozen valentine cookies to neighbors - this is actually the only tradition (before today) that we have, it's so chaotic but very fun. every year taylor makes this huge mess and complains about not being able to lick his fingers, funny kid. ethan "helped" by eating one and making a big mess. he decided that he didn't like getting the frosting on his fingers so he took to eating it like a puppy would. wierdo.spencer was the delivery boy, and i neglected to get a pic of him. after dance my mom came for red dinner - my dad had stake basketball responsibilities - on valentine's day - what the hey?it was so fun! lauri had this really cute idea earlier in the week to make cherry cool-aid heart shaped ice cubes to put sprite over. i couldn't resist copying her idea, and since she doesn't ever look at my blog i could've taken credit for this cute idea, but she's my bff so i have to be nice. this pic does not do it any justice, seriously, they were so cute. her husband works for coke, so she couldn't buy cherry 7-up for her daughter's class party, but there's no such thing as cherry sprite. so this was her solution, love it! we'll definitely do it ever year. note: she used metal heart muffin tins to freeze her kool-aid and i used silicone. we decided the silicone was the way to go because the metal tins ended up making it harder to remove the cubes in one piece. at dinner i gave everyone their own box of chocolates and a kiss. my mom stayed and chatted, it was great fun to have her over. yesterday i got a be-lated valentine's day gift from patsy, these adorable note-cards from the good things stationery place we both love, plus her cute card knocked my socks off! i was just looking at the MS good things crafty for kids! i'm so excited to find a fun crafty idea for play group in here!this thoughtfulness totally made my day, yesterday (friday) for whatever reason, was a bugger of a day and this really made me smile - thanks patsy! by the end of the day, poor ethan had been drug all over kingdom-come and only fell asleep at the grocery store in the truck/cart thing that he loves to ride in for about ten minutes (i was kicking myself that i didn't have my camera). he was especially wiped after waking up before the sun that morning and i had to laugh when i found him like this. he was trying to climb up on the couch and couldn't stay awake for another second! funny, this is exactly how i felt at the end of this very LOVE-ly day! but it was worth every last bit of energy that it took. i will definitely be making it a big to-do every year. happy valentine's day to all!

*is valentine's day a big deal at your house?*

*are you a machine at the grocery store?*

*do you have a love affair with personalized stationery?*

*do you know how to jump a car?*

play group love

it's been so fun having eileen home from africa because she comes to tuesday play group faithfully. today she hosted play group at her house and the kids loved decorating valentine cookies.

of course, they loved eating them best of all.

it's so fun for me to see the relationships developing between the cousins, drew and sam especially are such good friends. dan and ethan don't exactly love each other, ok, they fight constantly, but some day when they've grown out of their "this is my space, my toy, my blanket, my mommy" phase and stop trying to bug each other, they will be great friends! of course, play group is more fun for the moms than for the cousins, i've appreciated so much this year cultivating friendships with each of them. they are a great group of girls and we need a self portait next time!

sunday is for birthdays

tonight was sunday dinner at mom and dad's to celebrate laurel anne's third birthday! she is such a cutie and ALWAYS so smiley and happy that it is pure joy to have her in the family. she loved having everyone sing happy birthday to her, especially the ...dear laurel anne... part, she smiled big and wide for that. she got a princess blanket from grammy and i think she enjoyed opening the gift (squealing with excitement before she even knew what it was) as she did the blanket itself. she loves grammy. and we love her! happy birthday laurel anne! i also have to say that today is my cute sister-in-law jen's birthday who i adore but don't have any photographs of her handy to post along with this. i should've grabbed a picture of her cute super-model self when she was here visiting last. she has been working really hard and has lost a lot of weight and looks so fantastic! her super model looks are not the only thing i love about her, she is full of all sorts of great stories and even yummier recipes AND she's the only person i know who knows her taste buds so well that she can tell you what color m&m she's eating without looking! what the hey? jen you're so cool! we're so lucky to have you in our family, the moore's "cool" meter went up when you joined the fam for sure!

**do you like opening the gift as much or more than the gift itself?**

**can you taste the different colors of m&ms?**

snow enduced claustrophobia

i was feeling so sick of the dang snow yesterday when i woke up and found a few more inches needed to be shoveled. especially because the weather man said of our storm a few days ago that it was the last one for a while. HE LIED! i feel like the only memory i am going to have of this winter is of me shoveling the driveway. i'm grateful for the water, but wow, none of it is melting and i feel like pretty soon i'm not going to have any place to throw it! i was feeling so sick of the dang snow until i went to eileen's yesterday for her to tend ethan. she lives further up on the "benches" than we do and wow, what a difference in the amount of snow they get! i was kicking myself that i didn't have my camera! so today i was up there again and this time i came prepared. this is the parking lot by their condo, i had ethan stand there next to it so you could see how tall it is, it's insane! look at the giant snow plow mark next to ethan, it's small compared to the size of this mound. and, it goes all around the entire condo complex! talk about claustrophobic! i'm going to be grateful that we have gotten about half this amount and stop complaining about the snow.

**do you have to shovel snow taller than you can throw?**

**do you think we should invest in a snow blower?

meatball breath

kristy and i made the ridiculous drive out to ikea today to find a few specific things for my house. i need a few new picture frames, a lamp, a small table to house a large plant in a corner and that's it i think. i ended up only finding a plant table that i liked, everything else was a bust! ehhh! can i just say though, how fun it is to hang out with kristy! last year we spent a TON of time together working on our school's fundraiser, we co-chaired the event together. we knew each other of course before this, but the biggest blessing that came from that event was a wonderful friendship that will last a long long time! the best part of hanging out with kristy is her honesty and all the laughter that seems to follow in our conversations. today i got a little taste of what the next few months getting gift baskets ready is going to be like and i am excited! not not so much about the fundraiser mind you, but the hanging out with kristy full-time part. we should have more than this year than last anyway because now we know what we're doing and are a little less stressed about the whole thing. and, after having lunch at the little ikea cafeteria, we highly recommend their sweetish meatballs, yum - except they gave ethan (and i can only assume me) bad meatball breath. so, eat them and then chew gum.

**can you ever find what you need at ikea?**

**have you tried ikea meatballs?**

**do you have friends from too much volunteering?**

blogger friends

i am one of those lucky ladies who gets to volunteer with such fantastic women! i'm lucky to have met them through school but we all also happen to be blogging and that one thing has brought us all closer as a group. it's funny to me that something as large as the "world wide web" could be responsible for bringing five women from the same city closer together. i'm grateful for friendships built on every day looks into our lives, looks that seem more real that the average relationship. probably because blogging is like a journal entry and you get to sort of peek into that person's personality and get to know them a little better. i'm so glad that i have blogging friends that live near by, especially ones that i see all the time at school! we decided after today's lunch that we need to have a blogger lunch once a month for no other reason but FUN! i'm in! i also have to say that eileen kept ethan for me which was so fabulous. the best part was not having to share my coke or wondering if ethan was running behind the bajio counter - his favorite place to go when let loose in that place! unfortunately, ethan slept the whole time he was at eileen's so they never got to play. she said i need to bring him back for an actual play date. hmmm, i think she can twist my arm! ps where's kristy in this picture? :)

**how has the world wide web improved your life?**

**do you love bajio salads?**

**do you have a great mother in law?**

tuning out

when your kids were small did they have a favorite movie that you liked at first but then after listening to it ten thousand times that the mere sound of the opening credits might melt your skin off? well, right now, ethan loves ratatouille, which is a great show, i used to really enjoy it. it's been in the dvd player in the van for a while now, maybe two months and i've just had it, i can't take it any more. ethan doesn't want to switch to a new movie, he's content to watch the rats cook in the kitchen over and over and over. so yesterday when we were out running around i reached a low that i haven't before. headphones. i actually turned the sound on the headphones and put them on ethan's head just so i wouldn't have to listen to the movie. he loved it, he thought it was so cool to wear them and was happy the rest of the afternoon as much as i wanted to run around. AND i actually got to listen to the radio, AND to make the pot even sweeter, a journey song came on! so it was a success, but something about it makes me feel like a terrible mother!

**how do you feel about rats in the kitchen?**

** what do you think about dvd players in cars?**

good mornin' baby

for as long as i can remember with any of my kids, i have always had a sort of morning tradition with them. as soon as i hear them awake in their crib, i start saying, "are you a good MOR-nin' baby?" before i ever open the door. then when i get into their room and they can see me, i ask it again and they're almost always smiling. then i say, "you ARE a good mornin' baby!" and they laugh. ethan is no different and today i happened to have the camera in my hand (taking spt pictures) when he woke so i decided to document this little tradition. ethan is usually a good mornin' baby, he has been a pretty good sleeper lately so he wakes up happy. (but first a big good mornin' yawn).if you look close you will see the awesome cowboy baby quilt that patsy made for ethan was he was born. it's gotta be the coolest baby boy blanket i've ever seen! i also have to add that lately ethan has been developing a cheesy camera smile when i ask him to show mama his smile, it's pretty funny but hopefully it will be short lived. photographers usually don't like to ask their subjects to say cheese!

SPT - fill in the blank

i completely missed lelly's spt last tuesday, so have some repenting to do this week to be sure it gets done! once again, my tuesday was too hairy, so again i have an SPW meaning wednesday edition. i laughed when i read this week's challenge but knew exactly what i would post about...this is the official, fill in the blank phrase (her challenge for this week)...

the other day, i was in my _____________, and i noticed this _______________. my only thought was, "why do i still have this hanging around my house?!?"

i am a manic closet cleaner, i start to feel seriously claustrophobic to have too much of anything crammed in the closets/cupboards and right now mine are ripe for the pickin' if you know what i mean! so my spt fill in the blank goes like this...

the other day, i was in my laundry room, and notice these piles of clothes to give away. my only thought was, "why do i still have these bags (filled and ready for delivery) hanging around my house?!?this spt was perfect for ethan and i's schedule today - stay home and clean EVERYTHING! i have so many projects around the house, and the three new inches of snow that i shoveled this morning made staying home even more compelling! one thing you should know about me, and something that i tell all my family and neighbors, is that if you come to my door at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and i'm still in my pajams, it's been a very productive day! when i get dressed and ready, i feel like i need to go run errands, sometimes as an excuse to run away from all that feels overwhelming in my home. if i don't get dressed, i'm not presentable (like this self portait) and by not being dressed and presentable, i sort of force myself to stay home and be productive. so today was a pajama sort of productive, which is good. i got lots of laundry done, many pictures hung and even cleaned my bathroom! this is me, happy and unpresentable in my pajams, standing in front of my very clean kitchen sink and counter. i still have tons to do tomorrow but at least i've made some head way on it all. at least i got those pesky bags of clothing out of my hair! as always, thanks lelly for the journalling spring board.

**can you be productive in your pjs?**

**how do you feel about junk in the closests?**

having been born of goodly parents

i've been inspired by karrie's memory lane posts and have decided that i need to start doing them every so often to try and document the pre-blogging days. i've been searching through old photos for whatever reason lately and couldn't help but laugh out loud at a few of these oldies but goodies. scanning is such a pain! but these were worth it! i love this photo for a few reasons, one, look at my cute mom!! it's so fun to see her twenty years old and with hair that is back in style! (she has cute hair now, i just think it's funny that this hair cut is back in style) i also think this photo is funny because having babies wear things on their heads is totally my family, now i know i wasn't left out. i have tons of pictures of my brothers and i as babies wearing all kinds of things on our heads.

this is one of my favorite photos because i swear i can remember this! actually i just have memories of wearing these headphones (which i also have pictures of) and listening to my dads records, especially elton john don't go breakin' my heart. i still love elton to this day. i also love that i'm pretty sure my dad still has these boots, if not now, he did until really recently, i used to clomp around in them thinking my dad was a giant in reality he has very small feet, size 8 i think. i'm not sure what else it is that i love about this photo, something about my dad wanting to be a good dad by feeding the baby but still trying to hang on to his youth. that doesn't really describe what i'm thinking but it kind of does and more importantly, i can totally relate.why this picture? i don't know, it's just funny and something about it speaks to me. it surprises me how much i look like my mom and dad both, it just depends on the day. my dad looks a lot like grandma (his mom) and i think i do too, until i see my and my mom's senior pictures side by side. she's a lot cuter than i was but there's no denying i'm her daughter. this is just a great photograph, probably courtesy of my dad. i love the bandana in my cute mom's hair and of course the smiling baby with the tiny legs and big diaper butt don't hurt. this picture says, "pure joy" to me, in both of our faces.

so why these pictures why now? i don't know, just something about them spoke to me and made me smile, something about seeing my parents all young and first time parents. it's a story that i only get to experience through photographs and i could spend hours (and have) sorting through them, studying the details of each one. i see how they are like me when my kids were first born, although i cringe at some of my old hair dos and clothing and my mom just always looks cute. did she ever have an ugly stage? i haven't seen proof of it yet. i on the other hand, well, let's not talk about it.

i'm so thankful to have been "born of goodly parents". they don't like to take credit for anything, but the truth is, none of us are in jail, we all graduated from high school, my brothers all served missions, almost all of us are married, those that are married good people, we have great kids, we all have testimonies and love the gospel, what else is there? i know that it wasn't easy raising the four of us, probably still isn't, but they did a great job and i for one will be forever grateful that they did. love you mom and dad!

a new hat

i am a woman of many hats, actually i don't know any women who aren't and sunday i got a brand new one to wear. i was called to be the girls camp director of my ward and after i got over the initial, "oh dear" shock of it all, i started to get excited, in a nervous kind of way! i really did not have great girls camp experiences growing up, well at least after marci moved away and so i have always felt like i would do anything besides girls camp. i'm just not really a nature girl, i mean spider-lover kind of nature girl. i couldn't find a great girls camp picture (what the hey?) but i did find one of me on the pioneer trek when i was fifteen. do i look super happy to you? a few years ago i went with my old stake and had a wonderful time, mostly because i wanted it to be different for my girls than it was for me. it was what i needed but i struggled a little with homesickness too. i start to miss my kids when i'm apart from them for too long, my cute hubby too. i'm a little stressed about leaving ethan, i'm not sure i'm ready for that yet, he's still so little. but i'm soooo excited to be going with allie for her first year! she'll help me to not be so homesick. i'm sure it will work out but my head is still swimming with all the details to sort out. and there's that pesky "all or nothing" personality trait of mine which makes it difficult for me not to dive in and want every minute of it to be fantastic. i'm sure it will be great, i'm sure it will be better for me probably than the girls who attend, but i am excited. so there you go, any good ideas, especially themes, let me know, i would love to hear them! hopefully i'll be able to take off the webelos leader hat some time soon. i hope they can find someone to replace me soon.

**did you love girls camp growing up?**

**do you get homesick easily?**

**will you share you great ideas with me please?**

who is that girl?!

i would like to preface this by saying it is late in the night and i can't sleep and sometimes these late night ramblings can get out of control. so, consider yourself warned! i was going through some old photos of mine, you know the ones in the box that you hardly ever look at. why is that? maybe because they're sort of ridiculous, prom hair and dresses that make me cringe, not to mention the prom date's hair! yikes! i wouldn't go back to high school if you paid me!

while rumaging around in the old photo box i came across this beauty. i think this picture is only about 9 or 10 years ago when rich and i were dating but it feels a million miles away from where i am now. we used to take the kids to the park on sundays and i brought my camera a lot - imagine that. rich secretly got a hold of the camera, got the shot all ready and then called, "hey wende", hence the "huh?" look on my face as he snaped this photo of me. he told me at the time that it was one of his favorite photos of me because it was so candid. i can almost guarantee that he doesn't remember even taking this photo now, but that's another story.

so i'm looking at this photo thinking, "who is this girl?" she's so young, and content and THIN but she shouldn't be because besides being in love with rich, it wasn't that easy of a time. how was i keeping it all together and finding so much joy in every day? i remember having real joy, especially in my children who were so little and so much work and i was single. how did i make it all work? now when everything is great in my life, and i mean, really great, i struggle so much with finding that contentment, or joy in the every day things.

for about a month now, maybe more, i feel sort of edgy, not like irritable or anxious necessarily, but really like i'm on the edge of something, trying to keep my footing steady. feeling like i'm on the edge of a very pivitol year for me, for my life, i can feel the changing coming and i'm a little nervous but excited sorta. it almost feels make it or break it even though i'm sure it's probably not that dramatic. i'm just struggling so much lately being motivated, to do anything that isn't really required, and i HATE that feeling but not enough to break the laziness momentum. i don't know that i would trade places with the girl in the photograph, not today anyway, but i do wish i could remember her joy secret. i just remember feeling so good, so energized, so full of life every day but i shouldn't have because i was also completely exhausted!

maybe its the snow right? winter blues are normal? i warned you that it's late at night and i'm kind of tired, even a little loopey from the tylenol pm starting to finally kick in. but this photograph sort of through me a little and this blog of mine wouldn't be an honest look at me without at least exploring this anxiety. good for you for making it this far!

no more sleeping under the stars for our cars

this is not the fanciest photograph i've ever taken, in fact, it's not even a great snap shot. but it brings me sooooo much joy to look at it. why would that be? just two cars in bad need of bath in my garage, what's so joyful about that? well, the keys words in that sentence were in my garage. glory glory hallelujah! for several saturdays now i've spent time in the bitter cold cleaning out the garage, selling tons of old furniture on ksl.com and tonight it finally happened for me. i parked both cars in the garage. to make things even sweeter, there's supposed to be a whopping snow storm tonight which means tomorrow i won't have to clean off my car! Yee haw! the garage still has some work, making places for random things, etc. but that can wait until the summer because it's clean enough for now! i'm so happy!

hope! - UPDATED 2/4!

"this february 2nd at 12:20 and 7 seconds, punxsutawney phil, seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators...emerged reluctantly, but alertly, in punxsutawney, pennsylvania, and stated in groundhogese...i definitely do not see a shadow!!!!" he predicted an early spring! how could that possibly be with all this snow laying around here? well, we can keep our fingers crossed that the germans really know how to spin an old wives tale.

**how do you feel about groundhog day?**

**did you watch bill murray today?**

**EDIT! after patsy's comment i looked into it a little further and found that on the actual punxsutawney phil website (yes he has one) that he did declare six more weeks of winter! i originally saw the story on yahoo and they had gotten their facts wrong! i'm so bummed! not that i was really putting all my faith in an oversized rhodent, but it was nice to have a glimmer of hope. six more weeks of winter? sheesh? we're going to be hunting easter eggs in the snow! sorry to raise your hopes...

silver lining

i think i may have said somewhere on my blog recently that i really don't mind the snow, it's just part of living here in utah and besides we need the water - real bad. and you know, this is mostly true, at least it was before i lived through our current winter season. as of today, i think i have finally had my fill of the fluffy cold white stuff. and you know, it's not even so much the snow as it is the bitter freezing cold temperatures which make me think, "do i really need groceries today?" i think part of my winter blues is coming from feeling trapped in the house, i'm ready to play again. the kids however, have found the silver lining and it's called sledding almost every day. it's called a snow fort in our front yard built mostly by the boys and their friends. complete with a deep hole for storing snow balls. it started as a way to hide and throw snow balls at the mean boys who walk passed our house on their way home from school. the mean boys are a blog for another day, and even though they deserve a good snow ball flogging, i am the grown up and had to help the kids see why this was not such a good idea. the last thing i need are mean boys' mothers on my telephone. so, it became just a cool place to hang out, or rather, a freezing place to hang out. i was shocked today when i drove up my street to see how high the piles of shoveled snow are getting, and it's not even close to being over, it's only january! where are we going to put the rest of it when it comes? and speaking of shoveling, the fort is so high that today when i was trying to clear the driveway, i couldn't throw the snow high enough and it kept sliding back down -ahhh! at least someone is having fun with this weather, is summer here yet?

**are you sick of the cold?**

**are you surprised how much cold kids can tolerate in the name of fun?**

**what will you do first when the warm weather comes?**

snockered

hey, when you're two and you're tired and your mom is too busy to lay you down for a nap...you sleep where you land. poor kid. where's his mother?

baby love

yesterday, the only day of beautiful weather, i drove to lehi to visit my cute friend dayna and her new baby jordan! if you haven't heard me say yet that i have the best job on the planet, i'll say it again. holding and photographing newborns is such a JOY! dayna was my neighbor in our last house and she has since moved to lehi with her husband's work. i miss her like crazy because she is one of the most delightful people i know. we had babies (her taelen, my ethan) only five months apart and i would walk over to her house during the day to borrow something or ask a question and end up staying for hours talking in the living room and holding her baby looking forward to having a baby of my own! dayna is just super easy-going like that i miss her cute smile. i was shocked at how big taelen is now, she's twice ethan's size, told stories the whole time i was there, is potty training and changed her own clothes! and, she was a total HAM! i loved being able to get a few shots of her funny faces. she kept saying, "take a picture with my eyes closed!"little ethan is....well, no where near any of that! jordan is of course an absolute DOLL and besides not being able to get her to smile (dayna can usually get her to do it by talking to her) she was an absolute dream baby. these are just a couple of my favorites. i joked that we should put her in a flower pot like an anne geddes baby because she was so snockered she would've slept through anything. this will be one for my portfolio for SURE! so cute! it was especially nice to not have ethan, he played with ashton at apey's house - thank you apey! next time i will bring him to play with taelen. i need to make a goal to get out there more often, after yesterday i decided the lehi isn't really that far away!