Eight is Great!

Eight years ago today, Nate and I were married in the Bountiful, Utah temple. It's funny how when you get married, you feel like its impossible that you will ever love your spouse more than you do in that magical moment that links you together for eternity. I can honestly say that what I felt that day was only a tiny fraction of the love we share now, eight years later, and I can only see that love growing. I'm so grateful that we chose each other and that we chose to be married for time and all eternity.
If you haven't heard the story of how we met, you can read it in my anniversary post from last year. I was reading it this morning and loved reliving the excitement and anticipation of our "courtship" or lack thereof.
Thank you Nate, for eight wonderful years full of joy, trials, growth, love, laughter, and beautiful new experiences! I look forward to a future filled with an eternity of waking up next to you!

Backyard Camping....or not.

Nate loves to go camping. Me? Not so much. But I decided that I should just suck it up and be more supportive about it. After all, it's a great way to get away from home, it's relatively inexpensive (after you've got all your gear), it's a great way to spend time as a family, and Nate says it relaxes him. Not much relaxes Nate, so that's a big deal.
So for Father's Day, we got some camping stuff! We bought a Coleman Cabin Tent that is definitely big enough for all of us, we got some air mattresses for comfort, and a small camping stove so that we can have more variety in our meals.
Nate set up the tent in the backyard on Wednesday just to make sure everything was there and worked right. The kids love it! They wanted to sleep in it that night.

Lilly & Jayne playing in the tent

Lilly struck a pose for the camera

So, we attempted a back yard camping trip. It didn't last long. The kids were great. They went right to sleep. I was actually starting to doze off when I felt something crawling on my face. It was an ant. We have been finding a zillion ants in our yard and on our driveway lately. I brushed it off and tried to rest. Then Nate felt one crawling on his arm. That's when we decided to pack it in. Where there are two ants, there are many! So we got everyone back inside. Nate sprayed some ant killer around the tent. When we went out to take down the tent the next day, we found quite a few ants right around it.
Anyway, our next attempt will be in an actual campground somewhere. We're open to suggestions. Somewhere not too far from the Salt Lake Valley would be good.
So that was our camping adventure. We've got the gear! Now we just have to find the time to go camping. Wish us luck!

HE DID IT!!!

I am oh so happy and proud and bubbling over with excitement to announce that my fabulous, hard working, persevering husband Nate earned a C+ in his Spanish Phonetics and Phonology class which means that after a lot of years full of a lot of challenges and trials, he has finally earned his Bachelor's Degree! Hooray!

Way to go Nate! I'm so proud of you!

Fashion Diva

On Saturday we received a fun surprise in the mail. Grandma and Grandpa Barnum had sent some fun new clothes for the kids. There were tutus for the girls, new pajamas for everyone, a new outfit for Jonah, and matching shirt dresses for the girls along with several fun hair clips, bows, and headbands.
Lilly immediately had to put on her new pajamas and her tutu and a scarf in her hair. She pretty much ordered me to get out my camera for a little photo shoot in her fun new stuff.

She wouldn't look at the camera in this one because Sponge Bob was on the television.

Here she is blowing kisses.

She stayed in her new outfit for the rest of the day. Then yesterday we dressed the girls up in their new dresses for church. Lilly got herself dressed, hence the black tights. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not quite that fashion challenged.

Lilly insisted on posing with the giant snake.

Best Buds

My beautiful girls!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun new clothes and accessories!

We love you!

Rainy days are the best days to visit the zoo! We found this out yesterday. Our awesome neighbor works at the Hogle Zoo and offered to put us on "the list". (wink, wink) So my mom, my sister Sarah, and I took advantage of it and took the kids to see the animals in all of their wild glory.
There was hardly anyone else there because you have to be crazy to go to the zoo on a rainy day, right? Probably, but it was a lot of fun. The animals were all very visible, including the tigers which always seem to be hiding when we've come before. We also got there right after feeding time so we got to see all the animals, particularly the monkeys and the elephants, chowing down. We also saw their "Nature's Nightmares" exhibit. Jonah was really excited about that one. We saw some vultures, leeches, scorpions, piranhas, and some bats up close.
We got soaking wet, but had a great time. Oh, and I've got the pictures to prove it!(aren't you all so proud of me?)

Lilly & Jonah each had to have their own umbrella and their own maps. They held their maps out the entire time, even after they were starting to fall apart because they were so wet.

Here's Lilly showing me her map

Jayne really liked seeing the animals this year. Here she is intently watching the elephant.

They have a place in the Asian Highlands exhibit called Grandma's House. We'd never been in there before because it was always crowded, but today there was no one but us. It was fun for the kids to see what an Asian highland home would look like. They got to hit a gong, play drums, and Lilly tried on this fun hat.

And just one more of Jayne because her "cheeeeeese!" smile is my favorite.

So now you can all add "going to the zoo" to your list of fun things to do on a rainy day.

Life as We Know It

I've been having a hard time being motivated to post much of anything lately. Probably because I'm spending so much time reading about consumer economics and how to balance work, marriage, and family. When I'm not reading about them, I'm writing papers about them or doing reports or taking tests. Welcome back to college life, huh?
But, it's good to be doing school again. I love learning and exercising my brain!
While I've been so intellectually engaged, summer weather managed to sneak in. Well, not today(it's raining), but it's been pretty warm lately and the kids even broke out their pool, actually it's more of a puddle now that they're getting so big. I'm thinking we need to invest in a slightly larger one.
Jonah is still in school. He's on a year round track. He'll be done on July 2nd. He's so excited to start first grade in the fall. Today he got to eat school lunch with his kindergarten class. He loved it! He went on and on about how delicious his chicken strips were and he was amazed that he had three different drinks to choose from. Yeah, we don't get much lunch variety around here. It's pretty much peanut butter and jelly or macaroni and cheese.
Lilly got a new haircut. No, I don't have pictures. I know, what kind of a mother doesn't immediately take a zillion pictures of her cute little girl's newest 'do?! But I assure you, it looks great. For now, you'll just have to take my word for it.
Jayne is teething. She's on her last two teeth and she's having a monster of a time getting them in. She's had lots of fevers, lots of fussing, and not much sleep for about a week now. Good thing she's so darn cute. It makes the middle of the night crying sessions much more bearable.
Nate's almost done with his Spanish class. THE class that will make or break that bachelor's degree. Pray for him! Seriously! He's right on the edge of passing and has two more assignments and his final exam. It's been a ridiculously difficult class. He shows me the things they have to learn and do and even in English I don't get it and I like to think I'm a pretty smart person. I'm so proud of him for sticking with it!
Wow. It feels good to just type all this up and send it out into the cosmic universe. My stress is going away as we speak. Not to worry, I'm sure it will be back soon.