Top ten ways you know you live at the cabin...

10. You're children's feet occasionally look like this...

(The other morning after breakfast as I was changing Ali's diaper I noticed her foot was absolutely nasty. I had given her a bath the night before, and the other foot was just fine. I don't know what happened to make her foot so crusty and gross.)


9. You are competent at building a fire with any or all of the following: an egg carton, an old cereal box, or a worn out pair of jeans.

8. You drive to work in the dark in a snowstorm and drive home from work in the dark in a snowstorm.

7. You snow blow the driveway at night, snow blow again in the morning, and get stuck coming into the driveway after work.

6. You're 27, married with 3 children and experiencing having roommates for the the first time.

5. The goats... need I say more?

4. You have managed to fit a master bedroom, playroom, nursery, office, and laundry room all into one room (and are capable of making it look like you don't live there).

3. Since there is no Wendy's within reasonable driving distance... you've suddenly discovered your domestic side and have tried more new recipes in the past few months than in all your previous married life, and since most of the cookbooks you own are in "storage" the trove of internet recipes has become invaluable.

2. Sledding, cooking, and reading have become the three activities that fill the majority of your free time.




1. You live life like you're always on vacation because...
well, it's the cabin!

Tag, you're it!

I've been tagged, so here it goes...

Seven things you may not know about me:

1-Ten years ago... I was in my senior year of high school. I was finishing up a not so great year of basketball. The year before we took the 3A state championship, but my senior year we got beat in our playoff game. It was heart-breaking. I decided not to run track that year, and instead decided to scrimmage with the college players at CEU in the afternoons. I spent a lot of time at the gym getting reading to start college where I played volleyball and basketball.

2-Five years ago... I was in my first year of graduate school at USU. I was juggling the cutest one-year old boy ever, classes, clinic, a very patient husband, church, and home. It was also around this time of year that I decided I didn't have enough on my plate. I had always wanted to run a marathon and decided to go for it. I started training in about February and ran the Top Of Utah that fall.

3- 5 things on my "to do" list: Tomorrow I plan to 1) Get the kids up dressed, fed, off to school etc. 2) Go to the library; Wednesday is story hour 3) Go grocery shopping 4) Finish the laundry I started today 5) Call Mom, Britta, Nora and Alisha.

4-Things I would buy if I were given a million dollars: That one is easy! I'd buy our family a house! Not to be too specific, but I'd pick a two story, brick home with four bedrooms up, three baths including a master bath, walk-in closet, laundry upstairs, great room, vaulted ceilings, central air, basement, office, playroom, disposal and dishwasher (sometimes those little things get overlooked), big backyard, nice neighborhood, cul-de-sac location... have I missed anything...

5-Also, you may not know... While growing up I always put that Math was my favorite class in school. This is a little ironic and a little sad in my opinion because I went into Speech-Language Pathology which requires nothing more that MATH 1050 and Stats. I have ambitions to take some more math classes just for the fun of it someday. Call me crazy.

6-Now I'll back track a little on my previous "thing". Don't think that I don't love my field, because I do. If anyone is trying to decide on a major, Speech-Language Pathology is the best. I loved going to college, and I love my job. No, not my domestic-goddess/full+++ -time job. I'm talking about my very, very part-time job as a Speech-Language Pathologist. It is so perfect for our situation right now. I could rave on and on, but I won't... on to the next bit of info.

7-Yesterday I... baked bread and made lunch for 18, went snowshoeing and sledding, drank hot cocoa, played some fun board games, watched some of Shrek, and tried to gear up for real life again. (Gear up for real life... that almost makes me laugh. I've been used to running from thing to thing most of my life. I can honestly say that I'm currently enjoying (most of the time) the luxury of some simplification in life. I do have to make a fire to keep us warm in the mornings, but life has a very different pace right now, and we have more that enough time to stop and smell the roses. Ok, ok if not roses in the dead of winter then the wild flowers growing out in the green house:)

I tag Alisha, Melanie, Jen H, Jen P, Deirdra, Liz and anyone else who feels like spillin' some random info. Write 7 things about yourself that you can stand to share with the world and then tag 7 others.

Snowboarding!!!

For living in The Place that has the The Greatest Snow on Earth, I sure haven't taken advantage of it enough. However, thanks to my wonderful husband I've had a few fun experiences hittin' the slopes. One of the best ever was yesterday. Thanks to Grandma Christy, who has taken up snowboarding herself and was nice enough to be our patient teacher, and Tom's sister, Nora, who was willing to swap babysitting, we were able to enjoy a beautiful day at Brighton. Tom seemed to be a natural doing s-curves with ease. I wasn't quite as skillful but felt good about my heal side to toe side transitions (which I had a hard time with the first time I went). This was only my second time, my first being February 8, 2006, (I still had the tag on my coat, ha!) I'm really hoping that next time the time between trips won't be as long. It was a really fun day, and after my sore muscle heal, I'll be ready to try again. Hopefully that will be this season, but we'll have to see.
It was a great day. The snow was fabulous. We had blue skies, and it wasn't too cold. Here are a few videos. Check us out. The videos are of Tom, me, and Grandma Christy in that order:).

Hectic but Happy

We had a very happy Valentine's Day this year. It was a busy day, but it ended well. Bentley had a fun school party in the morning. Then we spent the afternoon at the doctor's. Ali had a well child check, and Bentley had bilateral otitis media (aka ear infections in both ears:). After all that we still made it to Salt Lake in time to go to Chili's for dinner (barely). Grandma Christy watched seven children while Nora, James, Tom, and I went out. Whenever we go out without the kids I feel like yelling, "Freeee" (Just picture Dr. Marvin on What About Bob.)

Chess anyone?

Grandma Christy has been teaching Bentley how to play chess. He returned the favor by trying to teach Emma. Their dialog was so funny. He's not to the point where he can play, let alone teach, all by himself, but he sure knows the lingo. Lots of talk about kings, queens, and castles. My favorite was when they were talking about where the "horses" can go. Bentley was trying to show Emma, but she had ideas of her own. Sad to say there was more that one argument during the whole ordeal.

Adventures in Price

It has been a while since my last post. The reason... we haven't been at "Woodland View Drive". A week from last Tuesday, the kids and I decided to go to Price. We didn't make it back home until Saturday. Here's a small sample of the week.
Bentley and Emma impersonating "Prince John" (from Robin Hood) with their ring pops.
Bentley and Emma with some fun new toys.









Emma with 'curlers'... "honestly what does she need those for?"
They didn't work anyway. She actually looked a lot cuter with the curlers in than when they were done and we took them out. After all what could possibly out do those natural curls.

Ali chillin' in her high chair.









Incriminating photos of why it takes me a couple of days to recoup from most of my trips to Price:) Luckily the hour this was taken doesn't show up with the picture.
And Daddy, so glad to have his family back again.

Snowed in

It is Sunday afternoon, and we should be at church. However, this morning we got a call to tell us that church was canceled. We are having yet another big storm! Along with the big storm last Monday. We had one on Thursday night. Tom had to be in Heber that night for work, and he didn't even make it back. On the way home (at 1am) he couldn't see to drive (sound familiar), so he turned around and stayed the night in Heber.


Luckily today we can stay in where it's warm.





With all the snow outside, and not a lot to go and do I tend to get the munchies.
Lately we've been baking some fun things. Here's a sample of what we've been up to.
Emma and her pizza. (She got a bakers set with her own rolling pin, apron, pizza pan, etc. for Christmas, so she now is my best pizza making helper.)

More bread...









Chicken broccoli braid. (The recipe says to use refrigerator rolls, but it is much better with homemade crescent rolls, and you might notice I made it in the shape of a wreath rather that a braid.)










And here are the kids enjoying some good 'ol homemade chocolate chip cookies.











(As I was taking the pictures Tom made the comment, "You're going to blog about bread again?!" So sorry if this is less that exciting, but hey, that's life, or at least its ours right now:)

Cabin scenery

Just wanted to share a little sample of the fun scenery on the way to Bentley's school. All we need are some pictures of the alpacas and some of the bulls and you'd just about have it all. Oh wait, but we can't forget the goats too.

The pictures of the birds in the field that are hard to see are wild turkeys that like to hang out with the bulls. The pig is a harry guy that gets out and walks along the road every now and again, and the horse is one of two that stand in the field and look like they're really cold.
Here is Emma teaching Ali what a pig says.

A little bit of summer

Tuesday we decided to have hamburgers for dinner. Tom was kind enough to grill them outside for us... in the snow. We both agreed that they tasted like summer, but we think they taste even better in the winter than they do in the summer. Figure that one out.

Snowed out

On Monday we had quite the storm. It was predicted to be a bad one, so I had planned to stay in. The only thing I had to go out for was to pick up Bentley from school. The wind had been blowing really hard, but we made it to the school as the snow was beginning to fall. We picked up Bentley just fine, but then on the way back the storm had hit. We were ok driving through Kamas, but as we left town, the lack of any wind break made it so I couldn't see a thing. I've driven in storms before where you had to watch the lines or the little posts on the side of the road in order to stay on the road, and in Logan we had some pretty bad fog where it was difficult to see the road, but this was the worst I've even driven in! I don't know if I just hit a bad spot at the wrong time, but like I said before I couldn't see a thing! I slowed way down, but I wasn't sure if I should stop for fear that someone in back of me would hit me from behind. Well, my dilemma was soon over because I ran off the road. The kids were pretty upset, but amazingly I was somewhat calm. I got out my cell phone to call Tom just as a police officer pulled up. I saw what I thought were lights in the front, and then I couldn't see them anymore. Then I could barely make them out in back of us. The storm was seriously that bad. I couldn't even tell if there were two police vehicles. Well, the nice officer pulled me out, and then when he found out where we were going, he recommended that we stay in Kamas until the storm passed. We took his advice. We went back into Kamas were we had lunch at the Summit Inn.
















They were so nice there. The kids said they didn't want pizza as we were ordering, so the lady made peanut butter and honey sandwiches for them even though they don't have them on their menu. Then after we were finished she gave them each a scoop of ice cream. Sometimes a little kindness goes a long way. After lunch we went over to the fitness center where we hung out until Tom got off work. He came over and we climbed the rock wall before we all went home. It was quite the day!