Keep It On the DL & A

A New Year

2012-01-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am totally behind in posting, but I definitely wanted to make sure and post a few things about Christmas. We had such a fun time! It was full of family and friends. Austin is at a fun age, he loves the lights, songs, and of how can we forget the presents. Even now he wakes up in the mornings and says "Wahoo, Christmas Day!" I have to remind him that we already had Christmas and it will come again in a year. I guess it didn't quite click yet.

For Christmas we had many fun parties with all of our family.
Here are the dad's and Jamie making Gingerbread houses. They were supposedly "helping" the kiddos. They were all very creative.

We had a great Christmas morning. Austin absolutely loved his presents. He loved the Dinosaur Train that he received and held onto those dinosaurs for days. I can't seem to find a picture of him with his dinosaurs. We may just have taken video...oops.

Josh had a hard Christmas. He started getting a cough before Christmas, then being around so many people during the holidays it seemed to get worse. We got him tested for RSV and sure enough, he had it. So for the rest of December and most of January we have been home bound. He didn't have to go to the hospital, we just had to watch his breathing. He is doing better now, but still has that yucky stuff in his throat. It guess it can take months to get completely over. Yuck!

A few weeks ago, we were able to bless our Joshie. We just had a small gathering at my parent's house. We did the blessing and enjoyed a dinner afterward. It was really fun to do it at the house.

These boys are growing up so fast.

Austin is now 2 1/2 years old. He loves to play with trucks, trains, balls, and dinosaurs. He loves watching Super Why, and Dinosaur train. These shows are awesome. He saw a stop sign the other day and he said, " S T O P, that spells Stop." Yeah, pretty crazy. He just soaks up everything. He is so fun to have around. He says the funniest things.

Josh, is now 3 1/2 months old. He is HUGE! You wouldn't guess it by how much he spits up. Whenever I feed him, I have to have a blanket close by. Not a burp rag, but a blanket to catch the pool of milk that he spits up. But time will fix that.
He smiles so much! It's so fun to see his whole face light up when he smiles. He started grasping onto toys and looking around everywhere. He is such a good sleeper, finally! He now will go to bed around 9:30 and sleep until 3 or 4. Then sleep again until 8 or 9. It's pretty great..now if only we could get Austin to do the same :)

We are so excited for 2012 and the memories that will be made!

Our Family of Four

2011-11-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

I am so very blessed to have a wonderful family. I sure love my boys.
First, I need to introduce you to our cute little Joshie or I guess, Joshua Daron Bergstrom. He was born on October 7th at 8:03 am. He was 7 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long. He has lots of dark hair (not as much as Austin did though).

I sure wish we got a picture of Austin and Josh, but whenever Austin was at the hospital he was running around.

Everything went great. It was a planned c-section, so the drive to the hospital was very relaxing for the most part. We signed in, they got me ready, and we were talking during the whole procedure. Crazy! We stayed for 3 nights in the hospital and then came home. I was, wait I am STILL so tired! Josh is not a good sleeper. He spits up all the time and wants to eat more. So after 4 exhausting weeks, we got him on some medicine which seem to help a little bit.

Austin sure loves his Joshie, every morning he walks out and asks, "Where my baby Josh go?" He is used to the idea of Josh with us all the time. Although, some days it's hard for him when I'm feeding Josh and he just wants me to play with him RIGHT NOW! That's why we got him this train. Yay for trains!

We had a great Halloween. Austin absolutely loved it!! We went to my Dad's work and get a TON of candy, then we went to Daron's work and received even more candy, and then we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and received more! Austin was in heaven.

Austin loved his Elmo costume. Cute Kezzie was a troll, and Jaden was Spiderman (with fake muscles and everything!)

I sure love these boys (and I love the one that took this picture too :)

Cannon Beach, Oregon!

2011-09-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

We had such a great time on our big family vacation! This year we went to Cannon Beach, Oregon. We've known about this trip for a year now, since it was for my cousin's wedding, so the anticipation finally came to an end. What a fun time we had!
Austin was so cute carrying his own suitcase onto the airplane. He loved that suitcase!!

We stayed there for 7 fun filled days. We rented a beach house and shared it with us, my parents, and sister Jamie, 1 Aunt, 2 Uncles, and 5 cousins. Yes, there were 14 of us in that house. Thank goodness it was large!

We walked to the beach everyday. Austin called it "My Ocean". He loved it! He didn't like the waves though. Oregon is definitely NOT a swimming beach, which we knew, so we enjoyed other aspects, like building sandcastles, finding starfish, walking and running in puddles, sitting and enjoying the fresh air.

We went to Tillamook Cheese Factory. Great times, yummy ice cream! My cute cousins came with us.

We also spend a day in Seaside which is the next town by Cannon Beach. They have a fun boardwalk.

This is also the end of the Lewis & Clark Trail! What a view they got when they reached the ocean!

Fun Cousins

A Carousel, which Austin enjoyed.

We also went to Haystack Rock. It was incredible. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed playing in the sand.

Austin loved to lay and roll around. Needless to say, he never was completely free from sand until we got home and bathed him a few times!

Jamie was lucky enough to ride with my Uncle Dave from their condo back to our house on his motorcycle! Cruising on the coast, they looked very cool :)

My cute parents and Jamie Cakes!

We also spent a day driving and viewing different sites along the coast. We stopped in Oysterville which is a town that thrived in the 1800s. The houses are still there. The trees were huge!

We also stopped in Astoria and walked up all of the 164 stairs to the huge Astoria Column. It was an absolutely beautiful site. Now remember I was 8 months pregnant and for sure showing it. So I would get these stares from people, and one said "Wow, Good for you!" Yes, I know. I'm just glad it didn't put me into labor! The view from the top was definitely worth it. Austin hated being up there on the top. He cried the whole time. So we took pictures fast and headed back down.

Austin loved playing in the sand with my cute cousins Gracie and Rayona. They took good care of him while we were there.

When it was low tide we could walk out to these rocks and see the amazing starfish.

Wedding Time!
We had a huge BBQ at our house the night before the wedding. We had fun decorating and talking with family.

The Wedding!
A wedding on the beach? Why not! It was a gorgeous day...almost too gorgeous. We were baking in the sun during the ceremony. This was the set up. It was basically right there on the beach. There were so many people around enjoying the day.

Cute Paul & Cally

Wedding Dinner/Party!

The Wedding Dinner was amazing! The food was great, the location was perfect. What a great night we had talking with family and enjoying great food/drinks (I think we were the only ones that did the alcohol free version of the drinks :)

Cute Cousins

We had such a fun time! Austin was great the whole time, except for the nights. He is not a good sleeper when we are away from home. He would wake up at 5:30 or 6. It was crazy! So we didn't get much sleep. We stayed up late playing games and having fun, so the early mornings weren't very fun. Thanks mom and dad for taking him on walks while we could sleep in a little.

We certainly loved our vacation. We will definitely go back to Cannon Beach!

Camping & The 4th of July!

2011-07-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Okay first our camping adventure....

My parents go camping quite a bit during the summer. They invite us each time. I have to admit, I'm not much of a camper. I like all of it, except for the night times. I'd rather be in my nice comfortable bed. I know lame, right? Well, having an almost 2 year old makes camping even harder. We decided to try it out and Austin had a wonderful time during the day. He loved playing on the huge slide!

He also loved exploring the tree house. This is a REAL tree house. It's incredible!

The night time was, how do I put it, TERRIBLE! Austin woke up and ended up sleeping with me. I basically stayed up all night. I found my little sister's Ipod and played games and listened to music from 2am-6am when Austin woke up for good. Yikes. I told Daron we are done camping until next year...or the next year....or the next year :)

This summer has been so great, who needs camping when we can bbq in our backyard!
Austin has loved eating whatever Daron cooks for us.

We had a wonderful 4th of July. It's my favorite summer holiday :) I love the traditions, food, parades, fireworks, Daron having the day off, I love it all!
This year was so fun! Since Austin is older he was able to enjoy more of the events.
We first started out with a traditional waffle/strawberries/whip cream breakfast at our house. It was wonderful as usual!
We then ventured out to the Kaysville parade. It was a perfect day! I was expecting a 96 degree day, but the clouds stayed and the temperatures were very nice. It even started sprinkling at the end. It was great!

Part of the gang, so excited to see the parade! This is the first time in years that we haven't had a member of the family or neighbors in the parade. But it was still so fun.

Aren't these kids cute! Jaden, Austin, and Kezzie waiting for more candy...

The fam, sporting our red!

Austin couldn't get enough of the candy. They just kept throwing it at him, and he kept eating it. We loved when the Taco Time float came by. They were throwing out Rice Krispie Treats. So I knelt down by Austin, hoping they would see him. Whenever someone went by we would yell and they would look at Austin, so they threw treats to him. He would pick up 3 and hand them to me, I would put them behind his back and then we would yell for more :) We ended up getting around 8 or so! My poor sister kept getting pegged in the head with them, ending up with nothing! haha...we have to laugh about it, right Sar !

Cute grandpa with Kezzie....precious.

The sisters.

After the parade we went to my parents, had a wonderful BBQ, came home about 4 ish, put Austin down for a nap, took a nap ourselves, woke up at 7, ate dinner, then met Daron's sister Katie at the Kaysville Junior High for fireworks. Phew! We were able to relax and have fun watching fireworks. Austin didn't like them. He didn't cry, he just clung on to Daron or I and we had to hold him tight the whole time.

We had a great day and we look forward to next year, hopefully we can get Austin comfortable with fireworks by then :)

Lately...

2011-05-17T04:24:00.000-07:00

I have to first start out by saying how blessed I am. I have a wonderful husband who works so hard for our family and never complains (it helps that he likes his job). He is such a good daddy. I love watching him play with Austin. Austin definitely get's so excited when dad is home so they can wrestle with each other and run around the house. I am so grateful for Daron and I love him so much!!

Okay now that I've put that out there (I'm not usually too gushy on here...am I??) we have news....I am pregnant! Yay!! Due date is October 12th and it's a baby boy. We are excited to have a little brother for Austin. He loves babies, so let's hope that doesn't change when the baby comes and never leaves. I don't think I'll even start with how the pregnancy has gone. Let's just say I wanted to stay in bed all day, throw up, and then sleep. But I can't when I have a very active little Austin. So for the first few months it was miserable, but now... SO MUCH BETTER!!! Yay! Thank you Daron for making me pancakes when I couldn't eat anything else!

Let's get to some pictures...
This little boy is so cute. This is is first pair of pjs that are two piece. He loves his moose and car pjs now! This is what he does when I he says "cheese".

Austin is so funny. This is his new position for when he falls asleep in his carseat. When the hands go behind the head, we know he is relaxed!

My little sister Jamie graduated from high school! Crazy! She is such a cute girl and I am excited that she chose Utah State to attend. Is there a better school?? I think not!! We love you Jamie Cakes!

My cute boys...

Oh the Memories!!

2011-04-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's already been two weeks since returning from our fabulous vacation. How time flies. We had such a fun time in California. The main reason for our visit was to see Daron's parent's who are serving a LDS Mission. We were so excited to see them!
We flew down with Daron's sister Katie and her husband Chris and their little girl Libbie. We had such a great flight down. No turbulence, which makes me so happy! Austin loved it as you can tell by this picture. Snacks, Apple Juice, Cartoons....what more do you need??

We flew into Long Beach and then took a shuttle to Anaheim where we would be staying for the next four days.

Our first stop was Disneyland! Oh what can I say about Disneyland. It's simply magical. The last time I was in Disneyland was my first year of college. I went down with my family and our good friend's the Roundy's to watch the Davis High marching band perform. Kimber, my little sister was in the band, so it was so fun to be there. My friend Erin and I rode all the big and scary rides.

This trip to Disneyland was very very different. I saw Disneyland in a whole new light. Instead of a kid, I was a mom. Instead of California Screamin' I rode It's a Small World. It was actually really fun to see Austin and how he loved Disneyland.
Austin loved any type of car that was lying around Disneyland. We played in most of them. Libbie was so kind to put up with Austin. He would follow her around the whole trip!

He also loved this big ball with water spraying all over it. What kid wouldn't?? He got soaked!!

He liked It's a Small World. He just laid back and relaxed. This was the first time I have been on this ride. It's amazing! Not thrilling by any means, but just amazing with all the moving dolls and creativity. Wow.

He LOVED the horses on the Carousel...until the last day when he was completely DONE with rides.

Just a cute picture of my boys, enjoying the sun (while Utah was getting 3-4 inches of snow!!)!

Us after the Finding Nemo ride.

I love this picture. Austin loved to be on Dad's shoulders and put his hands under his chin to contemplate life.

Ready for a fun day with grandma and grandpa at California Adventure!

Grandma spoiled the grandkids by buying them a souvenir. Austin got his first pair of Mickey ears! We weren't so sure he would keep them on, but he loved them!

We took Austin on quite a few rides. They are all loud and dark. He was soon squirmy and ready to be done with rides, as you can see by his face below...

Austin loves cars, so we thought he would like to drive in one. He loved it...until it started moving!

Daron, Grandpa, Katie, and Chris stayed to see the World of Color. I on the other hand went back to the hotel with an exhausted little boy to go to sleep.

Our family picture by the Mickey face.

We also were able to go to Goofy's Kitchen. This was a much needed sit down, nice restaurant. It's a wonderful dinner with many Disney characters right there mingling and dancing with us. We all loved the food, and Austin and Libbie loved the characters. Austin's favorites by far were Minnie and Cinderella. Smart boy :)

The last part of our vacation we spent in Ontario. This is where my in-laws are serving. It was so neat to see their little apartment and to meet the people that they are serving. They are truly inspiring to me. They are having a hard time, but they make the most of it!

We were able to stay with a wonderful family that is in their ward. They have lots of extra rooms, which we filled up. Shirley also made amazing orange rolls, and scones on our last day there. They have fresh strawberries galore! Yum!

On our last day, before flying home we spent some time in L.A. and then Long Beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! Palm trees, blue skies.
We went to the gorgeous L.A. LDS Temple and visited the very high tech visitors center. They have a ton of cool things there.

In Long Beach we walked along the pier and looked at the shops, walked to the lighthouse, Austin and Libbie rolled down the grassy hill. It was so much fun. A great way to end the day.

This last picture basically sums up our trip. It was sooooo much fun that we were so, completely, exhausted every night! We played hard that's for sure. Now that we've recuperated, I'm ready to go again!

Austin's Favorite Things part 2

2011-03-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

And finally Austin's other favorite thing...playing with water! Whenever we go to the Discovery Gateway we no doubt spend half the time playing in the water area. He loves it! So this is his little water area at home.

Message to Grandpa and Grandma

2011-03-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

This video is a little message for Grandma and Grandpa Bergstrom who are on a mission in California. We will see you soon!

(New Post below :)

Austin's Favorite Things part 1

2011-03-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

So I was going to make one big post, but I'm not sure how to upload more than one video per post when using YouTube...any suggestions?? Anyway I will have to split up the posts for now.

Austin is so dang cute. We love all of the new things he is doing. He still seems like a baby to me, but when I look at him I can't help see a big boy! Lately these are a few of his favorite things:
This video is the jumping, twirling, eating trix video.

His absolute favorite things to do right now is to play basketball, and take out the trash. He loves it! Tuesdays are his favorite days because he helps Daron take the trash out to the street and then we get to watch for the garbage truck to come pick it up. I literally have a heart attack trying to make sure we get to the window in time for him to see it.

His love of basketball comes from seeing my little sister Jamie play her Young Women's bball games. Every morning for weeks after we watched her play, the first words out of his mouth were "Jiji Bajetball" Meaning, "Jamie Basketball". He loved watching her, and now we have a little hoop that he will play with for quite a while during the days. He also loves seeing basketball on tv. Which has been nice for this whole March Madness time.

What I've been up to...

2011-02-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I've been slacking on my posts lately. But I have a good excuse...kind of. I started another blog! Yay :)...kind of.

First I need to explain. Lately I have been feeling like I need to do something more. I have wanted to find a passion and I didn't really have one. I hear other people talking about what they LOVE to do, and I wanted to find something like that.
What did I love to do?
Then it hit me.

I love to get good deals.
I love to make yummy food.
I love watching the total for my groceries go down...down ....down all from giving them a piece of paper (coupons)
I love getting 720 diaper wipes for $1.
I love it!

So I started my blog on how I do all these things. I've actually had over 300 visits per week, which really surprised me. So it's going strong!

You can sure check it out at eatpraysave.blogspot.com

Feel free to leave comments or email me with questions. I would love to share my passion with you!

Below is my most recent posting. I have to just say that I love my baby boy! He is such a jabber mouth. He talks non-stop!

Feel Good Friday!!

Happy Friday Everyone!

I've decided that I want to start a Feel Good Friday post. Basically it will be anything that makes you feel good. I would love to hear from you!

If you have something that makes you feel good, please share. We all need a little more "good" in our lives. Email me at eatpraysave@gmail.com and I will post yours in the next few weeks. You can include a picture if you would like.

Today I'm going to do it, and I want to show you my little boy. I was doing the dishes and I suddenly realized he was being very quiet, which usually isn't a good thing in his case. This is what I found.

He was having so much fun dumping the baby powder all over his room! I just looked at his face and thought, wow what a lucky mom I am to have such a cute little boy. He makes me feel so good, even if he decorates his room with baby powder! Have a great Friday!

Favorite place on earth!

2011-01-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

We found it! It's not Disneyland (although I'm sure that will be a close 2nd). Austins favorite place on earth is Discovery Gateway! My friend, Lisa, told us of this place and we had to check it out.
What's better than balls?

And water??

...or driving around in different animal cars.

and playing with Dad! We thought this was awesome. They have a real channel 5 set. Humm...future reporter?

There was so much more! Austin could have stayed there forever. We had a fun time with Darons sister Katie and her little girl Libbie.
And to top it off, we can get six people in for free for the next 6 months! It's pretty awesome. So let me know if you want to tag a long with me and Austin. I'm pretty sure we will be going there often during the winter months.

A very long, yet exciting post...

2011-01-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

Why is it that blogging is so hard to do? I actually wake up at nights and think in my head of something that I need to blog about, and yet I never do it. I know, my thoughts at night are totally crazy. It's even worse when I read a book or watch a movie right before bed, I suddenly am reliving what I just saw or read, only my version. Wow, randomness, anyway back onto what I was going to blog about...
Christmas! I know you thought it was over, but us slackers have to get our Christmas post on here.
Can you find Austin??? Not the one in the blue, that is Jaden. If you look behind the tree, you can see his shoes. This is his favorite thing about the tree, a place to hide!

We had such a fun time together as a family. Austin learned who santa was, and what he said. Every time he saw a red hat he would say, "ho, ho, ho!" It was really cute! He did actually see santa and he screamed, really loud! He didn't quite think he was a jolly man. The pictures are on Darons phone, so you'll just have to imagine that.

We had many parties leading up to Christmas. We got together with fun friends from out of state and in state that we never see. Which was fun like always. Crying from laughter and all :)

We had so much with family. My cute aunt Cindy has us over for a Christmas game night and exchange. We draw names for gifts, which is wonderful (less stressful, and cheaper!) and then we eat tons of good food and open our gifts and play games. This year we did Minute to Win it games. It was hilarious to watch them eat oreos off their foreheads and get them in their mouths. Luckily I didn't have to do that one, I was privileged to put Vaseline on my nose, stick a string in my mouth with a fuzzy ball on the end, and try to swing the ball up onto my nose, where is would stick. Sound fun?? I couldn't get the swing thing down, so I lost. But oh, the memories (which once again are on Darons phone).

We had a great time with Darons siblings on Christmas Eve. Since his parents are on a mission we had his siblings and family over to our house. First, we went and saw the Christmas lights at the Layton park and then we came back for a ham dinner. It was my first ham. I must say, it was really good. We had a great time exchanging gifts and trying to communicate with our missionary parents over the computer. Skype and google don't work so great from their apartment. Bummer, but we saw them for a few seconds.

Daron and I had to finish wrapping presents, so we stayed up till 11 or so and watched Elf.

Christmas Day! We slept in until 8:30. It was wonderful. Daron got up first and we started making a breakfast casserole, since Austin was STILL asleep. He woke up at 9 and we ran and grabbed him, then headed for presents. We took our time opening presents. Austin was so content with the cups that he opened, we worried he wouldn't want his "big" present. But, alas he LOVED the lawnmower he received. Austin loves the real lawnmower in the garage, he can even say it, and he smiles every time he does, so this was very cool for him.

Austin also got a forward facing carseat. He loved playing in the box, or his "house."

Later, after naps, we went to my parents for dinner. It was more presents, more wonderful food, and family.

Daron and Austin playing with toys (Daron looking very studly in his cute shirt:)

Some of the gang, hanging out.

Kezzie, learning how to crawl, and looking so cute!

We had so much fun together during Christmas. I truly am grateful for a time we have to celebrate life and Christ. I've decided that next year we need to implement a little more activities centered around Christ. I've got a few ideas already. What a wonderful year we have had and we are so excited for 2011!
The End

December

2010-12-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Oh what a fun month it's been so far. Even without the snow (we don't have much in Farmington!), I feel in the Christmas spirit. It seems we have been busy the past weeks. We have spent a lot of time with these guys...

Darons parents left a couple weeks ago for a mission in the San Bernadino, California mission. We won't see them until April! I am so blessed to be married into a wonderful family. We are counting down the days until we see them again.

Along with presents and Christmas trees, December also bring lights! We were able to walk around Temple Square and see the beautiful nativities. It was pretty cold, so as you can see, we bundled Austin. The best part for Austin was the water fountains. He loves it and kept saying water, over and over.

We also, FINALLY, got a new family picture. I have wanted a new family picture for months. We called my very talented cousin, Curtis and his cute wife Amanda. Curtis took our pictures, while Amanda was making sure we looked good :) I think they turned out really, really good!

We had my entire family there. Even though it was FREEZING, the kids actually did pretty well.
My entire family...

My cute niece, Kezzie.

We have done quite a bit more in December, but I will have to track down Darons phone so I can download more pictures!

Picture this!

2010-11-24T11:47:00.001-08:00

Okay I figured I should get these up before Thanksgiving! I finally down loaded these from Daron's Iphone. They actually look pretty good.
This year we started a tradition of going to Packs Pumpkin Patch. It's in west Farmington, it's awesome! Austin found his pumpkin as well as an airplane. I know, totally talented boy.

Picture with mom

What we did with the pumpkin.

Our little buffalo on Halloween.

Austin had to try out all the candy. He bit each one (still in the wrapper of course). We figured the trick -or- treaters wouldn't remember from which house they got the smashed candy bar :)

With Grandma Bergstrom and Libbie Lou aka the blue fairy

Pics of our trip to Salt Lake

Austin loved the train (This is his "cheese" smile)!

And we LOVED the Melting Pot

Daron said that this was the BEST food he's ever tasted!!! It was WAY expensive, but totally worth is for the experience. We had so much food, and it was all amazing. Austin did great sitting there for 2 hours! Thank goodness we had a window to look through.

This was a fun little outing. We then walked around the gateway, watched the water show, and then headed home.

Hum...

2010-11-10T11:54:00.001-08:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I'm in trouble. Our camera broke a while back, so I feel that blogging is worthless. Aren't pictures what you want to see?? We've been using Daron's nifty difty Iphone for pictures. He needs to figure out how to get them on the computer, and when he does you can see...

1. Our cute little Halloween buffalo
2. Our fun little outing to Salt Lake on the Front Runner- Eating at the Melting Pot (yum!)

But most excitingly (is that a word??)......

Wait, this needs a little preface. For the past few years...yes years...I have begged and pleaded Daron to go to Disneyland. I love it there! But we always end up with other big vacations, and he doesn't have "that" much time off work, so needless to say we have not been.
So now for #3

3. Darons parents received their mission call. I bet you can't guess it...

Disneyland!!!!!!!! Or I guess to be technical it's the Anaheim, California mission!!
They leave December 6th, which is coming up way too fast. We are so excited for them. They are the kind of people that would do anything for ANYONE! They are truly great examples to us, and we are going to miss them lots and lots. But we know they are doing a wonderful service. Of course now, we HAVE to go to Anaheim, so we Have to go to Disneyland ...right? We are already planning a trip April or May sometime. :)

I will post soon, when we get the pics online, or after Black Friday :) :)

I'm so glad when daddy comes home...

2010-09-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

This is what happens everyday...

"oooh is that Dad home??? I better go crawl over there and see..."

wait for it...

There he is!!

"Don't leave me ever again!"

And this is just cause he's cute :)

Here ...fishy...fishy...

Happy Birthday to ....US!

2010-09-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

Daron and I share the same birthday, which brings a lot of confusion to many people. Yes the same day, AND the same year. We're pretty much twins. Sharing the same birthday is kind of crowded for two people to share, so we've decided to have a birthweek. That way we both get spoiled for a good amount of time :)
We started our birthweek with a trip to Taggarts Restaurant. Daron's parents took us there. It's a good 45 minute drive. It's near Morgan. It was wonderful. I had the yummy French Dip w/ Battered fries! I love fries, and battered just makes it better. Daron ordered the Salmon, which he enjoyed.

After dinner we went outside to see the peacocks and fish.

Thank you Mom and Dad Bergstrom for a wonderful meal!
On our "Real" Birthday, Austin and I played all day and then partied with Daron at night. We went to the Pizza Factory in Bountiful. We discovered two things. First, we loved the bread and salad. Second, not so much the pizza and pasta. Now we know.
Austin loves restaurants! He enjoys smiling at all the new people.

After dinner, Daron took me shopping. We went and tried on hats at Target...

for me, not Austin.
Then we opened presents. Austin was in awe as Daron opened lots of shirts and a game.

He helped me open my present...

Wahoo! One that works (Thanks Katie for helping Daron)!

We also celebrated for the rest of the week by:
Watching the BYU Game at Daron's brothers house. Daron held cute little Grace.

My family celebrated our birthdays with a fun BBQ! We also received our gift Cards to the Melting Pot and Teppanyaki. We are excited to use these. And thanks for the cute shirt and the fun game Catan. For those that don't know that game, you seriously have to try it out. It's only a two player game, but so fun. Daron and I played it for 3 hours the first time!

I experimented and made a Rachel Ray recipe. Pretty good, too much work though.

And of course, our free meals at Red Robin!

Phew! We had a great birthday. Here's to being 27!!

So Cool...Again!

2010-09-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm not really the type to show off, or tell you how cool I am. But, this is something that I just need to share, and yes it pretty much tells you how cool I am. Are you ready (If you get confused just keep reading, it may make sense in the end)???
On Monday I go shopping to Rite Aid and Walgreens. I check a few key blogs, look at my coupons, fill my purse with crackers and cookies (hey, it's for Austin) and head out the door ready to get some good deals. I arrive and go at it. Yes, the sales people know me, and Austin. They probably refer to me as the "coupon girl." But, mind you, there are many of us out there. So this particular day I went to Walgreens and spent $9.20 and I got back $10. So thank you Walgreens for paying me to shop at your store.
I continued on, this time with a smile on my face, to Rite Aid. I had a scenario in my mind and hoped it would work. I have coupons, and Rite Aid coupons, and Video coupons. My total before all these coupons was $45..something. Then the magic happened...it kept going down until I reached the total of $14.13. Wahoo! Oh, but that's not the best part of it. I got $7 back in "up" money (basically free money to buy whatever at Rite Aid) oh and I get to submit about $6 or more in rebates, which I will get back as a check, pure money. Do you see the grand total?? Yes, I paid about $1 for all that you see below!!

These are expensive items (yes that's a full pack of diapers), so to get them free is AWESOME!! They are things that we use regularly. The picture below has the Walgreens items as well as the Rite Aid. So with that $1 back, I got all this for free :)

Go ahead...say it...I'm pretty cool huh! If you want to know my secrets, let me know, I'm happy to share.

Austin is 1 !!

2010-08-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

Our little baby boy is one year old! This year has been filled with so many fun memories. Austin has brought us so much joy. We find that at nights we are content by sitting on the couch and watching Austin play, crawl, stand, laugh, smile, drool...you name it. He is such a fun boy. We love him!
We had a family party for him. It was supposed to be held at our cute park close by. I had all these great games planned for the little kids, and big kids, but of course we had a freak summer storm. So, my wonderful games were bypassed and we scrunched into our house and tried to party that way. It all worked out. We even attempted the pinata during a break in the storm.
When I went to pick out the pinata I tried to think of something that Austin would like, and recognize. I found a cute little doggy. Austin loves dogs. I somehow forgot that we would be smashing the heck out of that dog. Austin just kept smiling at the dog, wondering why in the world I wanted him to hit it with the bat. Oooops..

All in anticipation of the candy to drop...

Austin got spoiled! Thanks to all that came and helped with that.

The cake. I was imagining Austin "going at it." We all started singing to him. If you can imagine 25 people singing and staring at you, you would probably do what Austin did....he cried. It was sad, but once I gave him the cake he was a little better.

On his real birthday, Austin and I were able to play all day long. We did whatever he wanted to do. Like open and close the cupboards, climb the stairs, throw toys, go on a walk, took a long nap, and played with the neighbor girls (who adore him!!) I had a Young Womens event that evening, so Daron took care of Austin. As you can see below, he experienced his first happy meal.

He is so big and so fun. I am amazed at how fast he picks up on things.
He now says:
nana = Banana
baba= Bottle
ba= Ball
up=up
dada= dad
datu= Thank You
Num num= anything edible
And he can sign "all done"
I'm still waiting for him to say "mama". He will say it on occasion if he is mad. Hummm...
The stats:
21 pounds (20%) I know! I totally thought he was huge! I guess I should feed him more happy meals.
29" (40%)
And a large head...still.
We love him!

We LOVE Summer!!

2010-08-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

I love the mornings. Austin usually sleeps till 8 or later, so he is a happy baby when he wakes up. He wakes up and starts talking. I usually let him talk for a while so I can wake up and get ready. He's so fun to listen to. A couple weeks ago I walked in to see this...

The day has come that he is climbing up in his crib. Since he realized he can do this, this is what I see every morning and nap!

Darons work had a party the other week, where we were able to go eat dinner and watch a Bees game. It was really fun. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, and not too cold (I didn't even need a light jacket...get it??:)

Our excited faces after the game, even though they didn't win.

Austin loves being outside. We found a little park close to our house. It has a lot of grass and nice tennis courts and a great park. This is how Austin crawls in the grass. Tongue out and everything!

On Saturday we were able to go up to Bear Lake for a Barlow reunion. It was so much fun! Austin LOVED the water. But even more then the water, he loved eating the mud. He would roll his hand over the mud and watch it, grab a handful, and stick it in his mouth! We would say no, and wash his mouth out, just for him to do it again. Little stinker.

Austin loved snuggling with dad.

Cute boys!

These are very cool castles my cousins built. I had to keep Austin away from them, they were so tempting to go smash.

Austin went on his first boat ride. I didn't get a picture in the boat, but he enjoyed it. We went water skiing. I was able to get up and stay up for awhile, it was so fun! Daron got up....and that's about it :) And kudos to my Aunt Cindy who looked like a professional at 50 years young!
We had a great time. Austin fell asleep all the way home!

Bonners Ferry and Jackson Hole

2010-07-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

Why is it so hard to come back from a vacation? We had so much fun up in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. We left on the 17th of July and carpooled with my parents up to Bonners. The town is so beautiful! Pine trees and rivers everywhere, what more could you ask for? It took us two days to get there, since it's a 12 hour drive. Yes, Idaho goes that far. Bonners is about 30 minutes from Canada, so we were heading for an adventure. My Aunt and Uncle live up there, we were meeting my mom's side of the family for a reunion.
On our way up, we stayed at Georgetown Lake. It's by Anaconda Montana. It was beautiful! Even little 3 month old Kezzie came!

This was the first night that we had Austin in a tent. I was sooo nervous! It was chilly, so I bundled him in I don't know how many layers. He really liked rolling around in the tent (as seen below), but when it was bed time he SCREAMED! Yes SCREAMED! I couldn't do it, so I took him out of the pack n play and went back out by the fire and we just sat there until he fell asleep. Once he was asleep, I put him in his bed and he did pretty well. Daron and I didn't sleep well, since we were thinking of Austin the whole night. He cried a couple times, and then fell back asleep. After he fell back asleep, I would get up and look at him, making sure he didn't move blankets over his face. What a night!

Once we reached Bonners, we stayed very busy. They have so much to do! They have a very nice pool, which we swam in daily. It was so nice. Austin LOVES the water! Whenever he saw the pool he would start kicking his legs.

We also went and played tennis. My Aunt is really good, so it was so fun to play with her.
Don't we look professional :)

We also played another tennis...table tennis, otherwise known as Ping Pong! This is a Reynolds tradition. So fun!

We did so many other fun activities that I didn't get pictures of, including:
Golfing (boys)
Fishing (boys)
Hiking
Bike Riding
Card Playing
Volleyball
Singing to Songs
Eating yummy food
Visiting with family!

Here are the Reynolds siblings...two brothers weren't able to come.

Two of my cute cousins. They LOVED playing with Austin.

Me and my sisters, relaxing :) That's right, ,we didn't do make- up or hair all week. That's the best! It was so fun to be together.

After Bonners, we headed to Jackson Hole where we were meeting Daron's family. We decided to drive 10 hours in one day. Yikes! Austin did extremely well! With a little help from Baby Einsteins, and a lot of toys we made it to Jackson! We again camped that night. Austin again cried before bed, so I picked him up and had him sleep with me in my sleeping bag. Bad idea! I was wedged in one position the whole night. My sweet baby took up basically the whole sleeping bag, leaving me to squeeze against the side. Oh what we mothers do for our babies :) He slept good, even though I didn't. All I was thinking about was the hotel room that we would be sleeping in the next night. Yes, that got me through it.
The next day we had to hurry to get to our white water river trip. I didn't bring my camera, I'll have to get pics from my cousin who took pictures. It was so fun! It was Darons first time, and he very enthusiastically said it was worth it. Good times.
After river rafting we went and got ready for a night at Bar J. If you haven't heard of them, you need to go. It was awesome. A great dinner, and fun entertainment.
Our family, at the entrance of Bar J.

Daron's family. We had such a fun time there. Austin didn't like all the noise, so we wondered around a lot. Thank goodness they had a lot of other things to look at.

Our last day in Jackson we wondered around the shops and then came home. As you can see Austin was tuckered out. It was so fun to have Daron with us 24/7. I think we need to go on vacations more often!

Summer Fun!!

2010-07-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a blast! I can't believe it's almost August! July has been full of adventure.
The 4th was awesome, with parades, BBQs, friends, and family.
My mom and Austin had a great time!

My friend Shellie came home for a day and it was so fun to see her and her boys. She has one of each hair color, blonde, red, and brown!

My sister Sarah and her boy Jaden, and Austin and me at the K-town parade!

Since it's been such good weather I try and do something active with Austin once a day. We go on A LOT of walks. I've started going to the park with some girls and their kiddos from our ward, it's so fun to be out and enjoying the sun.
I also get together with these wonderful girlies...

We met at Erin's place, since it's right across from the temple. Who can beat that location?? It was so fun to talk and walk around and then go back to an air conditioned apartment.
We tried to keep Austin and Grace hydrated :)

Firth!

2010-06-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we ventured up to Logan to stay with some good friends, Tommy and Jen. We, along with Tommy and Jen and their cute baby Mason continued on to Firth Idaho. Where is that, you may ask??? It's between Blackfoot, and Idaho Falls. Our friends, Jacob and Anna Newman, have a beautiful piece of land, cute house, and lots of chicks, oh and a cute Ava and baby Emma. We had 4 couples up there, which meant 5 kids. We met these couples in Logan while we attended Utah State. We have continued visiting each other through the years. Before kids, we would play games and talk and laugh. This visit was a bit different. With all of the kiddos, no games were played. But, there was a lot of talking and laughing! We ate YUMMY Cafe Rio Burritos, homemade style, and took a tour of Jacobs cool Taxidermy shop (Daron loved it so much he wanted to take a fish fin with him....sorry Jacob!).
Austin even got to ride an elk (That's an elk, right Jacob???)

Daron and I stayed in Idaho Falls in a hotel. Austin did soooo well! We slept in a nice king size bed. I'm still trying to convince Daron that a king size bed is an essential part of life, he hasn't agreed yet. We swam in the cold pool, and then went to church, in Firth, to the Newmans ward. Very good, they even talked about potato harvesting. Ava also gave her first primary talk, which of course we all went to hear. She is a natural! After church we walked around by the Idaho Falls temple and took pictures, attempted to feed the ducks, and ate yummy sandwiches and chips and salsa. We had so much fun with these wonderful friends. It was a much needed getaway!! Thanks guys and yes we will definitely be back!
The Newmans

The Drapers

Cute Jack

Tommy and Mason

Family Photo

P.S. Another New Post Below

Randomness!!

2010-06-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, since it's been awhile here is the update on our lives...
No More Chili!!
Daron is very innovative. He made us a new pantry with a lot more room for cans. Before I would stack all of my cans and then I wouldn't know where they were. I would keep buying things since I didn't know if I had them or not. Hence the title. We have A LOT of chili now. I can put a new can in the top and they will roll down. Totally amazing!
Before

After

Austin is teething... can you tell???

Yummy toes

Yummy table

Sad baby

Another one!!
Austin received his 3rd haircut. This one was professionally done by Aunt Katie.
Before

After

I received a haircut as well!

Kezzie Anne

2010-05-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

I know it's been FOREVER since my last post. The big news lately is I have a new NIECE!! Kimber and Kyle have a baby girl, Kezzie Anne. She is such a cutie pie.

Look at these long, skinny legs!

What a doll

I forget how small babies are!

Kezzie was born on April 30th. We went to the University hospital to see her and while we took turns watching Austin we had to take pictures of him on the very cool couch...

My Mom

2010-04-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have the greatest mom. Yesterday was her birthday. I remember growing up and making the most bizarre cakes for her (since it's April fools day). We would put water balloons in a cake pan and then frost them with chocolate frosting. As you can imagine it was very lumpy and rolly. But no, we thought were were the coolest people ever for thinking of such an idea. Mom would never find out right? How about when we put cardboard in the cake and then made it seem like this was definitely a normal cake. And finally, when we made a cake that tasted disgusting and served it to her and everything, just waiting for her to say something....but no she was too sweet. I think we had to keep asking her if it tasted okay. Oh mom, what we put you through on your birthday!
My mom is definitely the coolest. She loved it when we had friends over. When I was dating Daron, he would call my mom just to talk. My mom has a way with people. I think she get's it from her dad. My grandpa would stop and talk to anyone, where ever we were. She is kind of like that. She is very easy to get a long with.
As you can see she LOVES her grandchildren. She spoils them so much. There are always smiles when grandma is around.

Lastly, my mom and dad go on a vacation every year, just the two of them. I love that. My parents love to spend time together and just talk. My mom tells me many times that my dad is her best friend. What a good example she is to me and Daron.
We love you lots mom!!

Just because...Here are recent pictures of Austin. He is 7 months old and I can see crawling in the near future.

He sits up really well.

Smiles in his cute sunday outfit

Caucus 2010

2010-03-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

Last night our little family ventured out to the Republican Caucus. As we were nearing closer to Centerville Junior High we noticed there were a TON of cars, which equals NO parking. We found a nice street to park on and then walked up to the school. This was the first sign that this Caucus was going to be very different than the last Caucus we attended.

Pause...The last Caucus we went to was for Fruit Heights/Kaysville. There were 10 people from our precinct and it was really quick. We elected our leaders and were on our way.

Now back to this year. We get into the Junior High, meet together in the Gym to hear the platform, and then headed to our individual precincts. In our precinct alone there were about 75 people. I've always thought it would be fun to be a State Delegate one of these years, but definitely not this year. Not with this crowd. We had the co-founder of Franklin Covey, attorneys, Deputy director for Bob Bennett, a woman who had PRINTED out her speech to become a delegate, and many others who were very very knowledgeable about what was going on in our government. I was very impressed. We had each nominee make a speech and answer questions that we had. It was so entertaining and amazing to hear what they had to say. The basic question is, What do you think about Bob Bennett??? Should he stay? Should he go?
Most people there believed he had done an excellent job, but it was his time to go.

That's when Daron and I wanted to talk to our friend Clint who works in D.C. for Senator Bennett. After we got home from the Caucus we talked to him and he informed us what Senator Bennett was really up to. Something that Clint said was that Senator Bennett is one out of two Senators that has successfully carried out a filibuster. That is pretty impressive considering Republicans don't have much of a chance anymore in Congress. I can't see a brand, spanking new Senator doing that.

I feel that in this time of change in the White House, it's good to have a Senator that already has some power over the other Senators. Since Senator Bennett most likely will NOT be running after this next term (if he is re-elected) I feel he should stay in for one last term. This whole thing with the Health Care plan is crazy. Bennett of course did not vote for it, and so it would be interesting to see what he proposes if he were to stay.

Politics is crazy, but after studying it in college I love the debates and learning about what's going on. I could go on and on, but I will stop for now. I'm glad we went to the Caucus. It was fun to be a part of the democratic process.

Tradition Lives On! & 6 Months!!

2010-03-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

First I have to start with our cute baby who turned 6 months old! He is so fun to have around. I love this age! I find myself so excited to play with him everyday. He is rolling all around the house, giggles a ton, and is sitting up really well. He LOVES real food, reading books, touching my face and pulling my hair. He also LOVES his daddy. He gets so excited when Daron comes home. Daron is so cute with him.

Here are the stats:
Height: 26 inches 33%
Weight: 18 lbs 8 oz 68%
Head: 69%

He's huge!

His silly pose!

Tradition lives on! Over President's Day we traveled with my family down to St. George. We started this tradition last year. I was teaching and antsy to get out of the snow, so we all went to St. George, rented a house and just played. This year was so nice since I wasn't pregnant (sorry Kimber) and we could enjoy little Austin.
We went biking

We swam in a nice heated pool. It was 65 degrees outside and 90 degrees in the pool! Austin LOVED the pool. He just kicked and kicked and smiled. We will definitely be doing some swimming this summer.

Austin loved being with his Grandpa

..and Grandma and Cousin Jaden

Has anyone heard of the game Hilarium?? It's hilarious! We played this one over and over. (Sarah I love the monkey gestures)

We stayed up late, ate lots of yummy food, got killer deals at the outlet stores, and enjoyed the SUN! I can't wait till next year!!

I'm Done!

2010-03-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

I've played basketball my whole life. Jr. Jazz, comp teams, school teams, and yes, even church ball. Last year I was called by the stake presidency to serve as a stake young women's sports referee. I was pretty excited. I love playing sports and thought this would be fun to socialize with the youth while being active. Boy was I wrong. The socializing was great, but the refereeing was terrible!

If you could all think back on the days of church ball, you will remember how totally crazy it was. Parents were all up in arms if a foul wasn't called. If I called every foul that happened, they wouldn't be playing at all. It was literally like...foul, travel, foul, travel, slide..into a travel, travel, foul, foul, ....air ball. Daron took pictures of the scores.... 2-4 at half time. Welcome to Young Women's basketball! We had one team that was using the elbows, swearing, and denying everything. Wow.

I finally made it through the season. I learned a lot! If ever I am playing, or coaching, I will feel for the refs, and try not to argue with them. By the way, we went to the BYU basketball game on Saturday and I was watching the refs. Who would voluntarily want to be a ref? It seems like cruel punishment to me.

It must be the hair!

2010-02-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

I go shopping once a week for groceries. Austin of course comes with me, and is usually in his car seat. Sometimes he's covered and sleeping, sometimes he's wide awake playing with toys. But, no matter what, it seems that some random stranger will want to look at him. Yes, some even lift up the blanket. At first it freaked me out. Okay, it still freaks me out. Most people wait until I lift the blanket up and then they look in and their comments begin. "Oh what a cute baby!", " She is so cute!" To which I just respond, Thank you. What am I supposed to say? "Can't you tell by his BLUE outfit that he is a boy?" Apparently not, so I just don't go there.

Also, when Austin was sick a few months ago we went to see an on call doctor. When he first looked at Austin he said, "You're so cute you could be a girl." Daron still doesn't know how he feels about that one. I just think to myself, it must be the hair.

5 Months = Fun!

2010-02-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Austin is now almost 5 1/2 months. I've decided that this stage is sooooo fun! I've heard though, that it only gets better. This was one of the pictures for his 5 months. As you can see he is trying to cheat. His legs are so strong. He loves to push himself up to standing.

He rolls over all the time. He likes to roll from tummy to back. When he's on his back he likes to keep it that way. He does turn on his side and move around the floor.

He fits in his jeans! Wahoo. He looked like such a grown up.

He gets the giggles. It's so cute how he finds random things so funny. This is one of the nights that he was sitting and just laughing.

p.s.

2010-01-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

If you read the new post below you know that Austin was close to rolling over. He must have known I posted that because the minute I published the post we went out into the living room. I put him on his tummy and he rolled over. I sat there for a second just staring at him and thinking...huh...he's on his back...that means he rolled over, right...wait he rolled over!! Yeah! So I clapped and smiled and he smiled and giggled. I hurried and called Daron and then put him on his tummy and he rolled over again. Wow. So fun!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2010-01-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful time of year we just celebrated. I know this is a little late. We had a wonderful Christmas, full of family and friends. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with the Barlow Family where we ate yummy food and opened some presents.
This is my Nephew Jaden. My dad was in charge of getting the two grand kids their gifts. If any of you know my dad then you would know that he is very much a computer guy. So, Jaden and Austin received their first laptops. This is Jaden playing with his. Cute boy!

On Christmas we went over to the Bergstroms. Where we, once again, had yummy food and opened presents. Austin truly got spoiled this year. For some reason pictures are not downloading into this blog. So I will have to get more later.
On December 25 not only did we celebrate Christmas, but Austin turned 4 months old! We had so much fun with him during this holiday season. He has grown so much and we are loving the changes that happen. The stats for this month are:
Weight: 16 lbs (80%)
Length: 24.5 (40%)
Head: Big (90%)
4 Months Old:

Once I can figure out why the pictures aren't downloading I will post a video that I took of Austin moving around. He is so close to rolling over. He found out though, that if he is to arch is back and move his legs real fast that he can move in circles on his back. He is hilarious to watch. I have to keep moving him back to where he started and then he just moves around again. What a fun little boy.
We also had tons of fun with our annual high school friends reunion at our home, and a night of games on New Years at the Bergstroms. We loved getting together with so many people this season and catching up.
Happy New Year to you all!!

It had to happen....sooner or later...

2009-12-07T11:01:00.001-08:00

Our baby went from this:

To this...

So Cool

2009-11-18T20:14:00.000-08:00

This last weekend Daron and I found out how truly cool we are. Let me explain...

#1 Reason why we are so cool
Friday night Daron came home to a wife and son who had a long hard day. He gets the idea that we should order Cafe Rio online, get it to go, and rent "UP". Sounds great! So we order online our Cafe Rio and order our video from Redbox online. We go get the video which is all ready for us. Then we head to Cafe Rio where I go inside. It is PACKED!! I go to the "To Go" cashier where I hand them my printed out order which states it should be ready at 6:30. It was 6:30. The nice cashier looks on his nifty difty computer for our order....searching...searching...nothing. He smiles, then leaves. Hum. He comes back with his manager and they start searching...searching...nothing. I am then told to wait for a minute...five minutes....ten minutes.... at that point they say "order for Daron". Yes yes that's me..."Sorry we are out of wheat tortillas". Okay I'm thinking, give me the only other kind you have. So they have to go do that. Finally they have our order ready. This is where the cool part comes. First I have a coupon for a free dessert (key lime pie!). Then I have a buy one get one free. Next the manager asks if I would like a free dessert for the inconvenience. I tell her I already have a free dessert. So she gives me chips and salsa and a free drink. Yes I get all of that for 8 dollars. I didn't even mind that I had to wait 15 minutes. Who can pass by free food. So cool!

#2 Reason why we are so cool
On Saturday Daron and I didn't have any plans. We basically stayed in all day. We decided that we wanted to make some yummy pumpkin rolls. So I found a nice step by step video online and we start making them. I must say that before we started I saw pictures of pumpkin rolls that other people made and they did not look very professional. They all said "Don't expect much your first time." So I didn't. Except they turned out so good!! I must say we are definitely cool.

The Roll

Close Up

Ready to serve...yum!!

He definitely thinks we are cool

What I do when I'm bored...

2009-11-10T13:40:00.001-08:00

I was looking through Austin's dresser and found all these cute hats. So I did what any other stay at home mom would do...a photo shoot:)

"Don't look at mom and maybe she'll stop"

"Um...these chubby cheeks make it hard to keep my head straight"

"What up homie?"

"Are we done yet?"

(The hat has a big "Y" on it. Brought to you by Daron's cute sister Katie and her husband Chris)

Then I took a picture of his big belly.

Yes that's what we do all day while we are home!

Halloween was tons of fun. We had a party with friends at our house. Daron and I love having parties. So thanks friends for putting up with a crying baby. We hope you had fun:)
This is Austin and cute little Grace all dressed up on our party night.

oh baby oh baby!!

2009-10-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

What a way to start a post huh? This is Austin right after a bath. His hair is curly and crazy and his eyes are huge!! He enjoys baths for the most part. We can always count on him to set off a pee fountain when we set him in the tub. It makes us laugh.

Austin turned 2 months old which means we were able to go to the doctor and see how much he weighs! And oh baby oh baby he weighs 12 pounds!! He is in the 75th percentile in weight. But wait for it...he is 21 1/2 inches meaning he is in the 5th percentile on height. Yes folks he is short and chubby.

This past week we were able to spend time with my good friend Erin as she and Eric were married. They are such a cute couple.

I also have been obsessed with cooking Zucchini bread. I love the smell, the taste and the recipe is soooo easy. Yum..

And last but not least I'm totally obsessed with taking pictures. As you can tell Austin tends to take over the posts. Sorry but I think he's cute so I take a lot of pictures. Here are a few more of him smiling. He does it all the time now.

Autumn Adventures

2009-10-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Daron and I were able to go with some of Daron's family to the BYU vs USU football game in Provo. We were so excited...except this was the first time we would be leaving him...

...and for 8 hours! I was of course was nervous but he was in good hands. Grandma Bergstrom watched him while Daron and I were able to have a wonderful time out. It was so fun to be with Daron. I felt like a college girl all over again...flirting with a handsome guy:) We met up with my bestest of friends Erin. Her and fiance Eric were at the game so they came and joined us.

We also were able to bless Austin that same weekend. We totally forgot to get pictures of our little family. So we will be doing a reenacting pretty soon here. Daron did such a good job blessing Austin. I feel so lucky to have a wonderful husband worthy to bless our little boy. It was truly a special day.

The grandmas!

While it has been somewhat warm Austin and I have been going on a few walks. Jessica my neighbor and her little boy accompany us. Austin is so cute bundled all up in his car seat.

Our friends the Warners took pictures of their little girl with an object every month to see the growth of their little girl. I loved this idea. So this is Austin when he was 1 month old and Daron's old teddy bear. Austins face cracks me up. "Hurry up already mom, I'm going to fall over!!"

Austin

2009-09-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already been a month since Austin was born. How time flies!! Here are just a few reasons why we love him so much.

This is Austin after a bath. His hair is totally crazy. He reminds me of those 80s rockers.

Every once in a while he will smile. I don't think he knows he's smiling yet. I love those smiles!

He is so cute when he sleeps. He is doing better at night. I usually get a 4 hour chunk of sleep an then it's every two hours.

His cry is so cute! He really doesn't cry too much. He grunts all the time which is pretty funny. People think he is "filling his pants" but no he's just grunting. This is him wanting food. When he wants food he wants food. As you can see his face turns red and his cheeks expand.

What can I say? He makes us laugh!

The sweetest face in the world!!

He is growing up so fast. It's fun to see the new things that he does daily. We are loving this!!

Our Baby Story

2009-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is the story of Austin Boyce Bergstrom. You may be wondering who this is since it is not one of the names that was up in the running for our baby boy. But once we saw him we couldn't call him any names that we had picked...so back to square one and then onto the right name....Introducing Austin Boyce Bergstrom.

Our story starts last Monday August 24th. I had my doctors appointment at 4:00 where I was told I was dialted to a 2 and thinned 80%. Pretty good. I also was having stronger contractions that day. I didn't think anyhting of it and we made plans to be induced on that Wednesday August 26th.
Austin had better plans. I was hoping that he would come on his own and he sure did. Monday night Daron and I got home from my sisters house and started preparing for a long night of contractions. We were starting an episode of the West Wing when all the sudden contractions began coming every 5 minutes. This happened so suddenly! The biggest fear for Daron and I was to be turned away from the hospital and having to come home. So we decided to stay home as long as possible. We didn't even get to the beginning of the episode. Daron was putting wet washcloths on my forehead, I was working on breathing, and crying at the same time. It hurt! Finally I couldn't handle it anymore and around 10:00 we headed to the hospital. That was the longest 15 minutes of my life.
After arriving, the nurse came with a wheelchair, rolled me up to a room, and they started the examination...am I ready??? They told me I was dilated to a 7!! No wonder I was in such pain. They gave me an epidural and got me all ready to go. By 2:00am I was pushing and little Austin didn't want to come down. So we waited and pushed again at 4:00am. The dr. decided that Austin would not make it through the birth canal. It was just too tight. We did more pushes and Austin's heart rate dropped once he was making his way down. This backed up the doctors thoughts and we went in for a c-section. I know it's a very long story but everything worked out just fine. Austin was born at 5:52 on August 25th. He weighed 7lbs 6 oz and 191/4 inches. He is the cutest thing in the world. We stayed in the hospital for the 4 days while I recuperated and while Austin kept getting stronger and stronger.

This is Daron changing Austin's diaper. Daron had a lot of practice doing this at the hospital.

Now we are home and trying to figure out a sleeping schedule. He hasn't done very well. He just wants to stay awake and play. So I would love any advice on how you get your little ones sleeping.

Sunday morning...time for mom to sleep and dad to take care of Austin.

Wide-eyed baby while we were putting on the bumpers.

Cute Dad loves his baby boy!
More pictures and exciting adventures of our little boy coming soon!

Still waiting...

2009-08-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

While we are waiting for our little boy to arrive we decided we need your help. We are still undecided on a name. We have narrowed it down to two but we want your input. So look at the names on the right and select which name you think would fit our little boy. I am 40 weeks and he is still sitting comfortably in my tummy. We've decided if he isn't here by next Tuesday then I will be induced. That's the update for now. Hopefully next time we will have pictures of a baby:)

Waiting Game...

2009-08-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering...No we have not had our baby yet. We still have 11 days...but whose counting. In order to keep my mind off of what lies ahead we have kept really busy. The following are just a few things we've done lately. For those of you who want to see how I look pregnant...here you go:)

Fun double baby shower up in Logan! You guys are great!!

A fun get together with the old but good roomies! Lindsey in front in not pregnant but she does a good imitation ey?

Last weekend I had the fun surprise of having two friends from Austria come and visit. For those that don't know, I went on a study abroad about 4 years ago to Innsbruck, Austria. I had so much fun and met some great friends. Edith was one of those people that you just click with. She and Victoria came to visit and tour the United States. So Kathy and I had the privilege of showing them around good 'ole Salt Lake City. We took a tour of temple square, ate some yummy food, and hiked up Ensign Peak. Yes I hiked up Ensign Peak. I had never done it before and it was only a mile or so. Piece of cake right? Wrong! I did not realize how steep it was! Daron had to push me basically the whole way. It was great...and it didn't put me into labor:)

Victoria and Edith at the top of Ensign Peak

Us after we went and watched music and the spoken word. Yes Daron is sporting his new handbag:)
Daron and I also took a great birthing class at Davis Hospital. It ended up that we were the only couple attending that session. So obviously we had that one on one which was great! Now we know everything...haha. I bet it will all leave me when we are on the way to the hospital. oh well!

What's Up Bergstroms??

2009-07-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

After school was done I told myself, "Lisa, now you have no excuse not to blog at least once a week." Well as you can see I have found some excuses. So this is our whirlwind of the top ten things we've done these past few weeks.
10. Fourth of July Kaysville Parade!!

Daron and my little sister Jamie enjoying the water part of the parade!

Sideways Daron with eating plenty of taffy. The best part of the parade, besides the Davis High Band, was Mayor Roundy's float. They are our good friends so they dumped a whole box of taffy over our heads. Then my friend Erin gave me my own stash of licorice and peppermint taffy.
9. Fourth of July BBQ's
For breakfast on the 4th we had my family come over to our house and we made Belium waffles loaded with fruits and whip cream. Yummmm!!
For lunch we went to the Roundy's for a BBQ where there was tons of great food and company.

For dinner we went to Daron's parents house to have another BBQ again filled with wonderful food and company.
8. Fourth of July Fireworks!

7. Girls Camp- I had the wonderful opportunity to go up to Camp Aeries for our ward Girls Camp. I decided I would only go up for a day since I'm already having trouble sleeping through the night and camping isn't my thing right now. So for the 15 hours that I was there I had a great time. We made all sorts of crafts, sang songs, played games, and ended with a testimony meeting. What a great group of girls we have here!!
6. Real Soccer Game.
Our friends Josh and Jay gave us some extra tickets they had to the Real Soccer Game. The last time Daron and I went to a Real game we were at the very top of the stadium which was fine...but this time we were a lot closer!! It was so hot that day but once the sun was shielded by the clouds I could finally breath. Real won 1-0. It was awesome!!

After the game we went to Paces Dairy Ann. We all enjoyed a nice rainbow. Our baby also enjoyed a nice hamburger and french fries. What! He was hungry!! Then we hurried off to see the fireworks in Farmington. Thanks again Mills Family we had a great time!

5. Baby Shower Time!
My great friends Erin and Amber threw a fun baby shower for me. We had wonderful food and a great time socializing with close friends. Thanks guys!!

4. Sprinklers and Gardening
Daron had been sooooo busy working on lawn and garden around our house. He has had to fix our sprinkling system and pretty much re-do a lot of it. He is simply amazing how he can just figure out how to fix it. What a man! He also has taken good care of our garden weeding, killing bugs, and watering. I will show a picture soon. So far it's growing great!

3. Coupons
I've joined with you crazy women who are coupon fanatics. We are now getting four newspapers every friday, saturday, and sunday just for the coupons. It takes time to cut them all out and organize, but what a reward. My mom is so good at finding deals that I just follow her and somehow coming out the store getting tons of food and hardly paying anything. I love it! It is like a little job since its a little time consuming but its worth it. If anyone wants to start I'd be happy to help you!

2. Baby Shower!
My Aunt Cindy and cousin Melissa had a family shower for me. It was so fun to be with all the girls. We played fun baby games, ate wonderful food, and I of course was spoiled once again with presents. Thank you to all those that came. It was so fun!

1. Lagoon
Daron and I found out that we could go to Lagoon for FREE. That's right just for being Farmington residents we can get into Lagoon free of charge. We of course can't ride rides for free but we can get into the park and see the entertainment, walk around pioneer village, and once our baby is big enough we can get discounted tickets for him to ride a few rides.
So on Monday Daron and I went and watched a show and walked around. We love the amusement park atmosphere. We are excited to have a free date night activity that gives us our exercise and makes us feel like kids again.

Camping+8 months Pregnant=SO TIRED!!

2009-06-26T10:58:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Daron and I set out on our only camping adventure for this summer to Smith and Morehouse reservoir. I agreed on this because my parents have a trailer and Daron and I could have one of the beds. I thought that sounded great. The only problem was the bed mattresses are very thin and me being 22 pounds heavier (I know!) it wasn't as comfy as I thought it would be. When we came home I was exhausted! It took the next couple days to recuperate. Isn't that sad! But all in all it was a wonderful get-away with family.
Below: Daron pulled a dead tree out of the ground and started to burn it.

Below: Daron trying to catch a fish...which he never found. But doesn't he look like a true fisherman??

We fished, played horseshoes, Frisbee golf, card games, ate yummy food and as always laughed and laughed. It's weird to think that next year we will have a 10 month old baby to bring with us! We are looking forward to it!

Life after Junior High

2009-06-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

The day that I've been waiting for has finally arrived....summer! Last Friday was my last day of school. Leading up to that day I was antsy and ready to be done, but as Friday approached I was very emotional. I could of course blame that on my pregnancy hormones but I think a lot of it was just me. I knew that I would not be returning next year which brought more emotion. I have truly loved teaching Junior High. This year was soooo stressful and hard but it was very rewarding.
On Friday my 9th graders had to report to first period. I had 10 out of 28 show up. We talked and signed yearbooks waiting for the time to report to the assembly. As they were leaving these two students said to me, "We are really going to miss you." Now these were two students, a boy and girl, who really didn't seem that interested in Geography. They showed up on occasion and did the minimum required. Now they say something nice the very last day. Who knew?
The rest of the day was fun but very unreal. I still felt that I would have to get ready to teach the next week. These are just a few of the things I will miss...

1. Seeing the excitement as students grasp onto a new concept.
2. Begging - "Mrs. Bergstrom can we go outside. Pleeeaaaassseee!"
3. Excuses - "I'm late cause I had to help my friend to her class" (right for 15 minutes???)
4. Random student comments "Mrs. Bergstrom I have two suggestions. First you should bring us treats tomorrow, and second we shouldn't have to take this test." (As you could have guessed I didn't take either suggestion)
5. Interacting with amazing teachers!
6. The stuffy smell of my portable by 7th period.
7. Students giving me advice on what to name our baby.
8. Watching my first period group of boys study hard for their map quizzes and then comparing scores when they get them back. (All these boys showed HUGE improvement by the end of the year!)
9. Trying to keep my 1st period awake and controlling the hyperness of my 7th period.
10. Students telling me thank you and how much they have learned! What a rewarding job.

The next two weeks I will be teaching summer school at my Junior High, but then I'm officially done. I'm grateful that I was able to teach at least a year but I am truly blessed to be able to stay home with our baby. Daron has received a great education and has a great job. I'm grateful that he provides so I can stay home. I know I will go crazy but it will be worth it:)

"But what if she's not...that would be mean!"

2009-04-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Remember Junior High? Remember the awkwardness of everything...braces, zits, boys, popularity??? Since I get to go to a Junior High everyday I get to see these things happening all over again. It's because of this awkwardness that I had a hard time deciding how to tell my 8th and 9th graders that I was pregnant. It should be easy right? "Hey students just so you know I'm pregnant....okay well then...what were we studying...oh maps okay let's move on." Hum...yeah that wouldn't work. So when I brought this issue up with Daron he said just wait until they notice, "let them squirm." Okay good idea.
So last week I came back from spring break. By then I was 21 weeks and well lets just say you could tell I gained a few pounds. I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything. Pretty soon I heard my students talking to one another saying stuff like..."you ask her", or "But what if she's not...that would be mean!" That's when I just laughed to myself and waited for that brave soul to ask if I was pregnant. Nobody asked...and they kept talking with each other. This went on for a couple days. Finally a girl came in first period and loudly asked, "Mrs. Bergstrom are you having a baby?!?" Finally! That day I was able to tell all my classes that yes I was having a baby. They were so excited! I didn't realize how fun 8th and 9th graders are. As of now I have a whole list of baby names that girls keep bringing up to me, since I told them I would take any suggestions. Sometimes Junior High can be fun.

Cheese

2009-03-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

So I thought everyone would enjoy that little throwback to the 90s. And to make it even more exciting it's true! And Lisa is the cheese! Or should I say the cheese is Lisa! And we even have a name for our little cheese: Colby Jack!

So that's our news. Cheese half ink a hot dog!

Here's our little hot dog as of today...

...sleeping soundly with what appears to be a full stomach :)

And here's mom to fill in some of the details that I most certainly have left out.

This is Lisa now...We have waited to post a blog till we knew what it was. We have a little boy not a hot dog on the way. The due date is August 22nd! We are very excited and I hope he has a potbelly just like his dad:) (see picture above).

St. George!

2009-02-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time in a small, smelly portable I was sitting during my prep period wanting to leave the snowy, cold weather. It's at that moment that I called my sister and we decided we wanted to get away. After calls to my parents and other sisters we figured out a great plan. Head to St. George. This was over Valentine's weekend so why not make it more special and surprise Daron with this exciting adventure. So for a week or so my family and I put the details in order without the husbands advice. We found a house to rent (which included a pool and hot tub), signed the boys up for a tee time for golfing and got substitutes to teach our Sunday school class. Wahoo all ready to go. Except...I didn't know what clothes Daron would want in St. George, or how to get golf clubs in the car without him finding out, or how to get him to take a day off of work. Humm...so I decided to tell him the day before we left. That way he could have some excitement to look forward to. He loved it!

Daron whipping around the corner in his go-cart.

This is the house we stayed in...very nice..and for sale if you have an extra $350,000

Party!!

2009-01-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

For the past couple years we have been getting together with friends from high school over Christmas. Since many friends have moved out of state this seems to be the time when we all come home. This year we were able to have the party at our home.

Our fun game of 3 stage Charades. Josh acting out something. Christopher Columbus was it??

Shawn proposing to Erin...again acting out something. I totally missed Shawn and Clint doing the Elvis move. We had tons of fun and lots of laughs!

There were friends that left early and we didn't get their picture.
We sure had a fun time. We will see all of you again next year...same time same place.

For New Years Daron and I were able to play with our families again. We first went to Daron's family to play a mad game of Bingo. We even had prizes!!

Daron's brother and wife. Hard core bingo players!

Daron and Libbie in the background. And little Bronco up close.

Then off to the Kaysville City party. They had free food, dancing, bingo (again), and music.

My cute parents.

My great friend Erin Roundy and I singing Dancing Queen. Also singing were my sisters and mom. We were amazing!!

Then to the parents house we drove. We finished the night with competitions on Mario Kart and banging pans at midnight. Happy New Year to all!!

Christmas and Much More

2009-01-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

Since this is my official last day off until school starts again I figured I should blog otherwise it probably won't happen again until my next days off. So here goes.
Daron and I had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went over to Daron's brothers house for a party. We ate tons of good food, walked around the Ogden Village and exchanged gifts. When we got home Daron and I read Luke 2 and other scriptures about the birth of Christ. Then off to bed. We awoke to find some fun gifts under the tree. We did a lot of shopping together and online (Since I slept through black friday...darn alarm clock)
We were able to get a Kitchen-aid mixer and a digital camera. Now you will be able to see more pictures. Wahoo!!

This is our messy living room after we opened our presents. Oh Daron was able to get a steal of a deal on his golf clubs. Thank you Bukoos!!

My cute nephew Jaden at our Christmas party.

My parents gave Jamie (and the rest of the fam) Rockband. Good times!
On Christmas our power went out at our house. It's true...thank goodness we had already made our gourmet breakfast. So we went over to my parents a little earlier to get ready before our Christmas party. Then my sisters and their hubbies came over and my wonderful Aunt Cindy and cousin Melissa. We again ate wonderful food and exchanged presents. What a good Christmas! Oh and our power was back on when we got home. They replaced the green box thing out front. We should be good for another 20 years or so:)

Christmas Time Tag

2008-12-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely Hot Chocolate. Although on rare occasion I don't mind a swig of Egg Nog.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped. Everything was wrapped. Our stocking gifts were wrapped. After we opened everything we had a huge mound of wrappings that our cats used to love playing in.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored. We have white on decorations but outside and on tree definitely colored. More christmasey:)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. Humm...where do you get some of that?

5. When do you put up your decorations? The weekend after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Well I love ham and potatoes, and homemade anything. I love food!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? As a family on Christmas eve we would drive to the Layton park and see the lights. While we were driving we would try and find Rudolph's nose. Of course any red blinking light we swore was Rudolph.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Oh sad I still remember this. I wanted to know for sure and my parents told me. I was really sad.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. We would open one gift from our siblings. That was fun. I still remember one Christmas we gave my little sister Jamie some type of art thing that was supposed to raise when you paint it. Sounds cool right?? but Jamie being 5 or so had the saddest little face. We tried to hype it up but to no avail. I still feel bad...we should have gone with a doll.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? We get a real tree every year. My mom loves the smell and I do too. So this year I convinced Daron of the importance of a real tree. I think I've converted him. We decorate with colored lights, thin tinsel, and any ornaments we have. We hide the not so pretty ones in the back.

11. Can you ice skate? Yes. But I get bored. Something about going around in circles doesn't thrill me. Ba humbug!

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would answer ...a cashier. I thought they were the coolest. One year I received a toy cashier box with fake food and a scanner and everything. I took out food from our cupboards and started scanning. I loved it.

13. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being surrounded by the people I love. I love attending many holiday festivities with my wonderful husband. We had a blast this year. And Of course the celebration of Jesus Christ. I enjoy singing in the church choir for our Christmas performance.

14. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? So now it's a dessert huh. Well I love my mom's homemade peanut butter cups. Also Daron received some chocolate, Carmel pretzels...so good!

15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Growing up my sisters and I would wake up at 5:30 or so and go see our presents out by the tree. We would giggle and whisper. Then we go wake my parents up at 6:00 just to find my dad all ready with a camera waiting for us to jump on their bed. Good times!

16. What tops your tree? Well we didn't have anything this year so we had a bit star ornament that we stuck towards the top of the tree. It looks good.

17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I'll admit I really like both. Although this year it's been so fun and fulfilling to be the giver.

18. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Carpenters, chipmunks, Faith Hill, Martina McBride. I like all those holiday albums...oh and of course Bing Crosby...I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

19. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? yes, but there is a lot of good too

I tag anyone who would like to do this. It's my first tag and it was kinda fun:)

3 Years...already?!!

2008-12-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

It's true Daron and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary last Wednesday. That day was much like our wedding day three years ago. Cold, a little snowy, and...cold. I tried to find some of our wedding pictures to show how truly cold it was, but I can't seem to find them. Uh oh...that will be my project for next week:) I truly am blessed to have a wonderful husband. We have so much fun together and he keeps me smiling. Here's to another 70 years...or more:)

Upside Down Frown

2008-12-15T14:17:00.001-08:00

Frown-
Last Saturday we were sad. Our annual BFF Christmas party in Logan was going on without us because of a ginormous snowstorm that left at least a foot of snow on our front yard between Saturday morning and Sunday night, and is continuing today.

Enter friend with tickets

Upside Down Frown-
Yay! We had a friend call and offer us two tickets to the Jon Schmidt Christmas Concert at Kingsbury Hall. So instead of driving to Logan in a snowstorm, or staying home sad, we were able to see Jon Schmidt, who was as amazing as ever.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Wilsons for their generosity :)

Dates and Nuts

2008-12-13T07:38:00.000-08:00

For the past two Fridays, my wonderful wife has taken me on two fantastic dates.

Date #1
This one was a secret, which was a lot of fun because we got to explore Salt Lake City on foot, which is something we haven't done before. Come to find out it was all just to take up some time because we had a couple hours to kill before...The JAZZ game! Yes everyone, my wife got some tickets from a fellow teacher, and took me to the Jazz game. I haven't been to a game in a long time, and it's been even longer since I've been to a game and not sat in the nosebleed section.

Oh, but before the game we were looking for a place to eat. We are not what you would call "connoisseurs of cuisine", so we were just looking for someplace new that looked good. We must've been on the wrong side of town though because every menu we looked at was at least $25/person, unless you wanted to be cheap and pay $15/person for a hamburger. No Thank You! So we found our way back to The Gateway and took whoever had the shortest wait possible, which was Applebee's, and we enjoyed our meal, then the Jazz game!

And the nuts...
We rode trax for the first time that night, and it appeared that some Jazz fans don't hold their booze (not to be confused with Boozer, the guy who sits out because of a sore earlobe) very well. Let's just say it was a very interesting experience, and we'll leave it at that.

Date#2
Yesterday, once again, my wife took me on a date. And once again, she got tickets from a fellow teacher. And once again...ok, we didn't go to a Jazz game this time, but our date was more fitting for the season. We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square Christmas concert. It's amazing how they turn the Conference Center into a performance hall, full of fancy decorations, a stage for dancers, and they even had our own Davis High bell choir (along with some other bell choirs). The decorations were beautiful and the music was incredible! The Choir sang with Brian Stokes Mitchell, whom we've seen twice now this year (last time was at A Capitol 4th concert in Washington DC), and they had Edward Herrmann share Longfellow's Christmas (the story behind "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day") and the Christmas story from Luke 2. I recommend that if any of you have a chance to see Motab's Christmas concert that you take the opportunity. It's worth it!

Our House, in the middle of our street...

2008-11-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are finally getting around to blogging about our new house that we've been in for over a month.
We closed on the house on September 19 and started moving things in the next day. A week later, voila, we are in our new house. The inside has been completely repainted and carpeted, which is very nice. The outside is a different story. Lots of work to do, including taking down 3 or 4 trees, and removing another huge stump. We are very grateful to Reed and Diane for allowing us to save up money by living in their house while they were on their mission to Montana. Now if only I could get Lisa to go through and unpack and organize all of her boxes of which I was unaware until moving day...

And in case you were wondering what the inside looks like, well you'll just have to stop on by! (We do have a spare room with a queen-size bed in it, and we are more than happy to be your bed-n-breakfast :)

Still an Aggie

2008-10-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

Last week Daron and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the BYU vs USU football game. I knew that we (the aggies) didn't have a chance to win. Honestly, I was just hoping we would make 1 touchdown or even a field goal and I would be happy. Daron's parents bought the tickets for us, so there we were sitting amongst the fanatic BYU fans wearing our USU Aggie "Show us your A" shirts.
I felt a little intimidated walking up the stairs to our seat I just knew everyone was giving me the evil eye. Then I remembered that conference was the next day so really they better be nice or they would have to repent. Anyway the game started and what do ya know BYU came out fast with a couple touchdowns. Suprise ....surprise. But the best part of the game was when the Aggies actually scored...not just once but TWICE. YEah buddy! IT was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I was just praying they didn't fumble it when they were so close to scoring and for twice they didn't. So I gave the old guy next to me (yes he was the only other aggie fan in the section) a high five and together we smiled for the next 5 minutes until BYU would make another couple touchdowns.
When all was said and done we had a good time and even though we lost we atleast scored. Oh there was a funny sign that a BYU fan was holding. "Show us your A, and we'll bring the Woopin". Mean...but clever. Go Aggies.

I'm an Aunt!!

2008-10-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

Introducing Jaden Keith Van Noy, the cutest little boy ever!! My sister Sarah had her baby last Sunday. We are very excited since this is the first baby on my side. On the way to the hospital my parents and my little sister were going crazy. They were soooo excited to meet this little guy, and of course Daron and I were too. Now we try and make up excuses to go see them just so I can stare at Jaden. He has cute big eyes and lots of hair. Welcome to the family Jaden we love you lots and lots!!

Missing the Moose

2008-08-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

This was almost our car.

Last weekend, Me, Lisa, Kimber, and Kyle were driving from Fruit Heights, UT to Carter Creek, UT (HAFB) by way of Evanston, Wyoming, to meet the Barlow family. When I noticed that it was starting to get dark, the following thoughts started going through my mind as I was driving:

Q: Where are you?
A: In Wyoming, the middle of nowhere.

Q: Is it dusk?
A: Yes.

Q: What often happens when it gets dark in the middle of nowhere Wyoming?
A: Big game (Deer, Elk, Moose) begin to come down out of the hills and possibly come onto the road.

After this series of thoughts, I felt like I needed to put my glasses on and drive a little slower. This turned out to be a greatfully heeded prompting, as a big bull moose ran out in the middle of the road. I slammed on my brakes and skidded into the oncoming traffic lane, but there weren't any cars that were coming. The moose followed us into the other lane and finally stopped when after we had come to a complete stop.

After letting our heartbeats return to normal we then were able to drive past the big bad moose and continue to the campground with no harm to the four of us or the car. It was definitely a blessing!

This is our moose's twin that I found online since none of us had a camera at the time.

Wedding Day

2008-08-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

Erin, Brittney, and I wearing pink and we didn't even plan it!!

I know it's been awhile but a little over a month ago my wonderful friend Kathy got married. It was a beautiful day, even though it was about 100 degrees. I think I would take the heat over snow like at my wedding (although I wasn't in a big dress). Anyway the day was perfect. We had a luncheon after the ceremony where we heard from the new couple. Friends and family were also able to share stories about the bride and groom. Erin and I had to relive some high school moments. Which I'm sure Kathy appreciated!!

So I'm not sure how to rotate this picture...but tilt your head and you can see how gorgeous she looked!

Erin and I...what you can't see is that Erin is wearing hot pink high heels. That a girl!!

At the luncheon Daron found that the grooms suite had a huge big screen tv as well as what any guy would want...a video game system with Halo. Yeah it was pretty funny to see the differences between the bridal suite and the grooms suite. Clever.

Aaah.... Vacations....

2008-07-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since our return from Washington DC, but I had to document our fun times we had. We arrived in Washington DC late at night. We were tired and hungry. Our destination was Alexandria where we would be staying with our wonderful friends Chris and Deidra Hartwell. The only problem...how to get there. Our problems were solved when our great friend Clint said he was on his way to pick us up! What great friends. He took us on a car tour of DC by night. The monuments were lit up and looked amazing.

Deidra was able to give Daron and me a private tour of the Capitol. It was so cool to see the places where history has been made. My favorite part of the Capitol was the old Supreme Court room where Marbury v Madison and other great cases were held.

You can see the monument behind us. We were going to rent some paddle boats and go around this lake, but we decided why pay for something that is going to make our legs sore and tired???

We walked up 99 stairs (yes Daron counted them) to get to the top of the Old Post Office. This is the view at the top!

Cute Daron in front of the White House. He was a bit disappointed with the size of the White House. He said "They make it look bigger on the TV show the West Wing."

High School reunion at the Temple. As you can tell Shaun was very excited.

We couldn't help ourselves!

We went to Mt Vernon which was amazing. Next time we will plan for more time there. It was a really hot day, but well worth the effort of going. Daron and I decided no matter how much deodorant we used, we'd be coming home sweating anyway. Darn humidity.

Deidra and Chris made a wonderful 4th of July breakfast. We were truly spoiled while staying with them. This is two years in a row we've been with the Hartwells on the 4th. Let's continue the tradition!

Capitol Hill was packed!! We had to get a stamp in case we left the area and wanted to come back in. We felt like celebrities when all these people wanted to get in and the police wouldn't let them, then we came up, showed them our stamp and they parted the way to let us through! We really are cool.
We were able to watch the concert right before they did the fireworks. It felt so patriotic being there on Capitol Hill with hundreds of people waving their flags. I love the USA!!

Garden Fresh

2008-06-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

My aunt gave me a fair warning that they have never had success with their garden. So Daron and I put that soil to the test. We decided we might as well plant as many things as we could in hopes that something would come about. To our surprise almost everything has worked! Daron and I go out daily and look for more greenery or signs of life. Our most exciting things are the HUGE potatoes and the peas that are actually already there. Yay for us. I think gardening will be something we continue to do forever.

These are our HUGE potatoes...you must see in person...they really are big

This is Daron standing by our Squash...can you tell which is which???

Farmer Lisa. Need I say more?

Fish and Ice Cream

2008-06-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is me.

So, as newly indoctrinated bloggers, you'll have to cut us some slack until we get into the habit of blogging about our adventures in everyday living, or as we'd prefer to call it, the wondrous and exciting adventures of D & L. The real reason we started this blog is because NBC approached us about filming a sitcom based on our lives, but they said they need a script first. So here it is! (Ok, now I'm off topic.)

Anyhow, we wanted to go fishing a few weeks ago but since we're beginners we didn't know exactly where to go. With Lisa's sister Kimber and her husband Kyle, we decided to go up around Pineview reservoir, which is up Ogden canyon for those of you who don't know Utah. We started in search of a quiet place on the Ogden river where I could try out my fly fishing skills. After finding what looked to be a relatively (and I mean relatively) slow spot, we got down to business. We only lasted about 30 minutes though because the water was way too fast and way too muddy. Since the whole river was like that we decided to go to Pineview and see what we could catch. But let me tell you, if you want to fish on a lake that you don't have to hike to, it's gonna cost you! So, discouraged at the fact that we'd have to pay to find a decent fishing spot, we drove around and found what we thought would be perfect! Little did we know, until we walked about 100 yards, that Pineview was so high that most of the beaches were gone, and the only ones that were still there were being occupied by either jet skis, or kids swimming.

Kimber and Kyle

At last we gave up and decided that since we had come this far, we might as well enjoy the scenery. We pitched our chairs and just hung out for about an hour before deciding to go home.

Still happy with no fish or ice cream

One final note:
If any of you have been to Pineview you will be familiar with a certain gas station where you can get a cheap soft serve, and self serve, ice cream cone. This was our final hope. But, as was the theme of the rest of the day, the machine was broken. So we left for home with no fish, and no ice cream to show for our struggles.

Oh, and this is my wife that I am so proud of for learning how to eat sunflower seeds!

Day 1- The Sunfire has set

2008-06-04T07:42:00.001-07:00

Our new car- Pontiac Grand Am

Day one of our whole new blogging experience. Daron said I get to write first so ...here goes nothing...Since we don't have any kids to talk about and show pictures of I thought I would talk about the next most important thing...our car. Yes our first car died a few days ago so we felt we should say a few words in remembrance. Yay car thanks for all you did ....the end.So now we've moved on and bought another car. The story is a long one on how we got this new car but let's just say our plan to get only hotdogs and ice cream at Larry H. Miller didn't quite work out that way. I also found out that Daron is a born negotiator. He was awesome and got the price down almost half. Anyway stay tuned for more pictures of our incredible exciting life with cars.