exploring antelope island

We made the trek out to Antelope Island. I must admit, to my recollection, this was my first visit. It wont be my last. What a fun place. We have much exploring to do still, and are hoping to make it out there this summer for a camping trip.

Wrong way Katy *wink*

making it onto the couch for the first time

Will was beyond excited to find that he could climb onto the couch. It's a new adventure everyday around these parts!

A day with daffodils is a tradition that started when Katy was almost 2  and I yelled "STOP" to Steve in a shaddy part of town. He, of course, humored me as he always does. But I wouldn't be suprised if he thought I was a bit crazy. At least he was there to protect us!

Now we make it a point to go and snap a few pics with one of my favorite flowers, the daffodil...and my most favorite people!

waking up with will

March according to my iPhone

4 x 12 March

March 2013.

March is one of my favorite months, but that may be because I celebrate my national holiday. This year was kind of a big deal, seeing that it was the BIG 30. Katy and I decided to celebrate by performing random acts of kindness. We drew Katy's dance teacher Miss Crystal a picture to tell her how much we love her. After dance we picked up cookies and took them to Aunt Katie's work. We left random post-it notes with uplifting messages around town. There was so much that I wanted to do, but it was harder than I thought to complete everything I wanted in a day. It did make me more aware of how going out of your way a little, can make a huge difference in someones day.

For my birthday Katy wanted to take me back to Color Me Mine (we went there last year) and I requested (again) the Porcupine Grill for dinner. That chicken noodle soup was SO calling my name. We found out that night that Will thinks its hilarious to scream at the top of his lungs in the restaurant. I can assure you it was not that funny to the people sitting next to us.

In celebration style my sister Britney came up that week as well, with a gift and a fun day of hanging out and going to lunch. I also got to go out to dinner with all of Steve's sisters, aunt and cousin...while my brother in law watched Katy and Will. When we got back, Will was sleeping on Chris. I am starting to think that Will is a mans man, unless I just have awesome brother in laws because I tell you they have the touch with that boy.

Other things we did this month? We got to visit Great Grandma Ida with my mom. We made it to the park a few times this month, once with my mom for a picnic. Will discovered how much he enjoys climbing onto everything, including the couch and the chairs at the kiddy table we have. We had dinner with Steve's cousin Spencer and Jenni. While there Katy was shown Jenni's studio (she is an AMAZING artist). Katy wanted her own studio after that for all of her "projects." We made silly faces. We played in the snow (YES the snow, what in the world!?!?). We celebrated cousin Hayden's birthday. Chief got the ol' snip snip. We celebrated the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ with Easter. And we had some easter egg hunts.

In March Steve went on a guys weekend to Vegas with his work buddies. He said, before he left, that he was worried to leave me with 3 dogs and 2 kids. I am pretty laid back by nature (most of the time *wink*), so I figured we'd be fine. Little did I know that by Thursday morning, when Q peed on the corner of my bed, I would be crying. This dog is the most well behaved of all 3 dogs and has never had one accident in our house EVER. Nice time to start! We survived and were overjoyed to see Steve come home! I will say this, Steve is a champ when it comes to those police dogs. I think I had such a hard time when he was gone because he never asks me to help with them. He said when he was told he would be getting another dog (something I was so worried about making work), that I would not be affected. He has been true to that statement. But mostly I just missed his cute, adorable face!

A whirlwind of a month, but that is how we do it around here.

Twelve on Twelve March Edition

It's fun to get to look at your day in pieces. I love being able to see these moments frozen in time. Chuck is my favorite shaggy mister. Katy always seems to have some type of electronic device in her hands (help us teenage years). Seeing Steve off to work. Watching him with his dogs. He even taught Q how to give hugs! How Will puts EVERYTHING into his mouth, and how he is always getting into trouble. How Katy is a hippie and loves everything about her plate. How Will loves the water and has fallen into the tub more than once, head first! How Katy and Will accompany me to young women's about 90% of the time, and I love having them there.

These moments are everything that make me who I am.

February according to my iPhone

4 x 12 February

February 2013.

February is kind of like the armpit of the calendar year, am I right? Perhaps that is just the case for Utah but usually it's kind of BLAAA as far as secenery and weather are concerned. You can imagine, however, how February in Carmel California would be a welcomed change of pace.

We were randomly invited by our friends the Schmidts to spend time in California with them. It was the perfect random road trip adventure to break things up for this month. Our kidos had a blast of course. I do wish that we could say that we didn't have to deal with the throw ups and poops...but we survived.

Side story for you. Steve called me the other day and went on and on about how we would be getting another police dog. Yes, another dog. Apparently a lot of other agencies have dual dogs and they thought it would be a good idea to give it a try and they figured Steve would be the perfect candatite. I am imagining it has something to do with the fact that Steve is one of the hardest working cops and they knew he could totally handle it. Rewind....to our conversation about getting a dog. I felt like I was in a dream. He was so excited and going on and on about how this is crazy and he was so glad they chose him to do it and how everyone is saying it cant be done and he was excited to make it work. I stopped him at the end of the conversation and jokingly started having a conversation with my self that went something like this: "Oh Amy how do you feel about that?" "Well Steve I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the idea and it scared me a bit" at which point he paused and said that he was so sorry for not taking a minute to see how I would feel about all of this. I told him that even though he was crazy I loved him and would support what he needed to do. He has told me multiple times how lucky he is that he married me because pretty much this would not happen for anyone else because their wifes would say no way jose.

"On the way home" (as Steve describes it) from Carmel we stopped in Wellington, NV to pick up Steve's new police dog Chief. Imagine me saying on the way home while doing air quotes because this little stop on the way home took us WAY FAR out of our way. We left California at about 6:30ish in the morning and did not return until after midnight! Let me tell you how fun that was with poor Will  throwing up all overhimself and having a blow out every 10 minutes and having a new puppy in the car. Good times? Not really. But overall our trip to California was pretty perfect!

As you can imagine most of the rest of the month was spent trying to potty train Chief in my house with a kid that is crawling around. Not recommended. I do have a bit of a disclaimer though, I absolutly HATED Chuck when we first got him. For realsy. Hard to believe now because he is seriously my sidekick and best pal in town. I do feel as though I have 5 kids some days, but we make it work...and Steve works so hard. I don't really have to do much when it comes to the police dogs, but I still like to put it out there that I am awesome for dealing with all of this *wink*