GaRdEN

I wouldn't go as far to say I'm a domestic diva however I have accomplished some rather domastic things this summer (with a lot of help from others:)... Alot of my friends are brillant mothers and can sew and make things that are just BEYOND me:) haha.  I have realized the domestic skills I'm honing in on are: food... Hmmm! Not so flattering but I do love to eat. haha.  No really it's because the last few years I've really gotten into healthy eating, so that inspired me to learn how to cook.  Anyhow one of my dreams in moving home to Utah was to have my own garden.  I had a HUGE orchard growing up and I never knew just how  blessed I was until I got older.  I drove my mother's CRAZY around gardening season this year on the whens, hows, whats, etc.. finally my sweet mother-in-law came over one day and we planted my garden together... I was terrified I would do it wrong, water it too much or too little, I've never been able to keep a house plant alive let alone a garden.  Alas we tried and can I just say it's turned out awsome! It wasn't the biggest or most glorious but for me it was what we needed and could handle! Most of it came through, except my poor cucumbers:( 

We planted: Yellow squash, Zucchini, green beans, carrots, bell peppers, cantaloupe, tomatoes, spinach & a little herb garden:)  

It's been some work to keep up but so fun! We've eaten fresh veggies all summer.  Sometimes we couldn't eat as fast as it was coming so I tried to find some yummy stuff to make that I could freeze which included: Roasted tomato and black bean soup, fresh tomatoe sauce, Raspberry jam, Minestrone soup recipe (i don't like the canned stuff but this homemade recipe of my moms is to die for, it was supposed to be for the winter but I've almost gone through it already), dried Apricots & Pears, along with fruit leather & homemade granola (w/my mama's help)... Clearly not all of this product came from my garden but we've been SO blessed to be given the boxes of fruits and other stuff that made this possible. It's been a fun summer of learning. I may have over dried some of the pears, but hey we all have to learn right;) Seth just calls them Pear Chips:)   A successful garden was a huge prayer of mine and I'm so grateful for the learning experience. Thank you to all of my "moms" that helped me this summer:) LOVE YOU

I didn't get pictures of everything but here's some I did manage to snap along the way...

This lovely artichoke is a picture I took from Grandma Cookie's garden... I didn't know the plants were so pretty:)

{ Just starting out}

{A little futher along}



{Zumba}

I took my first zumba class this week

i completely looked like a white girl on the dance floor

i have zero rythum

my hips simply do not move like that of my beautiful latin teacher

it kicked my butt. seriously like never before

i was reminded that dance is not my thing

it was challenging, exhausting, new &

.... i loved it

i am buying a monthly pass

hopefully the hip moving will improve:)



Gonna Miss You 2

These two beloved parentals

ARE GOING HERE

 {FOR A YEAR AND A HALF}

SO ALL OF US KIDS...

...FEEL LIKE THIS

Nevertheless, we are all super proud of you! We are already saving our penny's to come visit you next summer!!!  Missions are all about service, and I'm pretty sure they'll be experts cause they do nothing but serve their family and friends here at home. They are the two most giving and selfless people I know. I am more than blessed to have them as my in-laws, they are truly more like parents to me.  Instead of saving for a well needed and deserved vacation they choose to fulfill a life long dream and serve a mission together. The cool thing is they met while they were both serving missions 30 years ago.  Now they get to do it together:)  We've lived out of state nearly our whole married life so I thought them being gone would be something we were used to however having lived close this last year shattered any hope of it being easy with them gone. We got used to having them close and we loved it.  They did so much for us, VV taught me countless things about being domestic: my garden, canning and drying food, etc... and we just loved going over and hanging out.  Most of all I will miss them for my boys. Mason LOVES his grandparents. When we pull into their driveway he knows who he's going to see and gets all excited.  I know it's only a year and a half but we're going to miss them terribly. We know their doing what their supposed to be doing so although we already miss them we support them 100%  They are going to be just as good missionaries as they are grandparents.  I think they were born to serve and we'll be lucky if the mission ever lets them go:)  WE LOVE YOU CL & VV.... I mean Elder and Sister McVea. Your family misses you already but we're SOOOOO excited for this journey you two will have! See you next summer:)

This is the night before they drove out, we went over to give them a goodie bag for the long drive, help them pack and say our "see ya laters"

Raspberry Patch:)

Last week my lovely cousin Nik invited me and the kiddos to go down to Payson and pick raspberry's!  I LOVE fresh berries so I was game:) We were a little naive in thinkin we'd get endless buckets picked with three small children, haha. What a zoo! Nonetheless it was so fun. We totally made her single, one child stroller work for all three which made the day even more funny. Such good times! I love hanging out with Nikki and Sophie, Thanks for the fun day you two:)

Sorry Ma, i know you've been waiting for me to post these....

Sept 7th was my dear Ma's 60th birthday {i know those of you who know her are probably shocked she's 60! she's my own my and I don't even believe it. There's definitely nothing wrong with 60, it's that she can still kick nearly anyone's butt on any hike, haha!}  Anyway, she's a pretty special lady, the kind that you know has really never gotten the thanks she deserves. Us kids wanted to do something really, really special for her birthday this year.  So... we cooked up a surprise.  My mom  has done alot of adventurous things, and sailing is always something she's wanted to do.  I took her on a {date} a couple months ago while she was in town and we went to see Charlie St. Cloud (movie about sailing) and she just kept saying how neat the sailing was and I just thought I want to do that for her.  I went searching and found this awsome sailing school company that will take you on sailboat cruise's.  Together with my siblings we all pitched in and made this whole surprise happen.... we even blinded folded her.We took a sun set cruise out on Utah Lake and the water was so nice. The whole night was amazing, our captain was so fun.  I packed a light dinner a board and we just caught up, joked, slipped, laughed and ate for two hours. I loved being with my siblings and ma. I can't remember the last time we did something like that, just us, no kids or spouses (even though we LOVE them). My mom was so surprised and genuinely seemed touched. She got to steer the boat and do anything the captain asked her. She was so excited, it was so cute! I adore her.  As always my siblings were hiliarous and it took all my brother had not to throw one of us in the lake, i just kept reminding him how much work had gone into this and should ANYONE ruin it they might be killed:)  My brother had to travel up here, my sister had just lost her father in law so I know it wasn't easy for everyone to make the effort to be there but I forever thank you for your help, i couldn't have done this without you and thank you for doing this for mom.  Some of my favorite time spent is with you five people. I love you!  And to you Ma, I hope your birthday was fabulous! You deserve a sailboat of your own instead of a two hour cruise alas, none of us married doctors so a cruise will have to do:) i love you mom. you know that. you mean the world to me. you are someone i have always admired and respected. i think you are brave, strong, smart, loving and even a little sassy. you are my mom as well as my friend and you know which role to play at the right time. you have let me learn on my own but never left me alone. i love you. you are an incredible grandmother to my kids. i love the way you connect with them. i love the way you want to show them your world {aka ZIONS :} at as early as 1 month old. i think your a pretty neat lady and i wouldn't trade you for the world. thanks for always being there for me and now for my family. i couldn't have gotten through some things without your support and faith in me. i owe you. hope your stickin around while cause your my mom and i couldn't imagine my life without you:)

XOXO- Lj

Yes, I gracefully {biffed} it on the boat... apparently it was quitely funny to everyone!

{BiG BoY}

....lots of updates coming HOWEVER the a very cool thing that happened last night is priority at the moment....

A certain little boy of mine slept in his big boy bed last night for first time! I am one proud Mama! ...there may have been a few tears and urges to put him back in his crib however I knew I wanted to do it before he was two and that's a month away so yesterday I randomly decided today was going to be the day. He did WONDERFUL!  During nap time he got up three times and started to play but I couldn't be mad because he has no idea he even suppose to stay and this new bed.  I quitely slipped in laid him back down explained it was nap time and this was his big boy bed. Within 40mins he was asleep.  For bedtime he never even got up once and then today for naptime he never got out.  I am SHOCKED & SO PROUD! I thought this would be more of a fight (and it still may come) but so far he's doing great like he has with any transition!  I am consitantly amazed by Mason. He's CRAZY nowdays and showing me all the havoc a two yr old can cause but he also amazes me every single day with how grown up he is and all that he can handle. I love him. I love him with my whole heart. I embrace every new stage because he's does and he constantly shows me he ready!

s.k.y.d.i.v.i.n.g

So I did it! I went skydiving! And No, it wasn't on my 'bucket list' nor do I really even have a bucket list. My sister's in law brought it up and I decided what the heck... let's do it. You have to do something crazy every once in a while to stay young right?! Oh and yes I realize I have two small children:) haha, I got that comment the most "What! you have kids now!" Which yes I realize and yes it made it a tad bit more scary, well actually that's what made it scary! However I've become a wuss since I settled down and knew I didn't want to lose that crazy part of me all together so with Seth's blessing, I jumped. And boy am I glad I did.  It was truly the coolest experience I've ever had.  I've never had a rush like that in. my. life. It was incredible. I've also never had nerves like that. I swear I was going to puke. And I'm not a puker! I knew nothing was going to happened, I felt safe doing this, but still kissing my hubby and kids goodbye before getting on the plane was hard.  My nerves were going crazy! The worst was when I was at the door of the plane, the last two seonds before I jumped, I could feel the wind and see the sky, I swear my heart stopped. I thought "what in the world am I doing"  I held my breath (why I'm not quite sure?! haha) and jumped.  The thing that surprised me the most is you don't feel like your falling, which is the one thing that I feared the worst. A horrible scrambling feeling while your falling, but thats not it AT ALL!  You seriously feel like your flying, even the free fall was this surreal feeling. A couple seconds after we jumped and I started to breath I remember seeing the coolest view with the coolest feeling and I just thought "this is gonna be cool" so soaked it in for all it worth!  My jumper "the fonz" was amazing, this was his 10,521 jump.  He was calm and made me feel so safe. He said I was doing everything right so he let me put my hand in the loops and steer the parachute, it was killer!  The best part was I got to share this with my two sister in laws, Em & Lael.  Lael and Missy decided they wanted this to be for my birthday that was forever go and wouldn't take no for an answer. They are incredible people, and I can't thank them enough for this experience. I love you! Next year, Missy your going us:) (Missy was scheduled to go, but last minute decided to pay for Em to go in her place since she had never been and Missy had gone a few weeks earlier! Like I said amazing sisters!) 

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