The Atwater Family

2011-04-08T15:39:00.001-07:00

Introducing Ian Atwater!

Ian was born on March 22nd 2011. He was 8 lbs 7 oz, 21 inches long. He has been such a great baby! I have been enjoying every minute with him...even the middle of the night feedings. I just can't wait to snuggle with this little guy. He is happy and healthy....and we feel so blessed to have him as part of our family.

At his 2 week checkup the pediatrician suggested we go and get an X-ray done. He thinks that Ian might have something called Hip Dysplasia. We are still trying to figure out what that means exactly but basically there is an abnormal joint structure, resulting in the two joint bones losing contact with eachother. If he does have this he will wear a brace to correct the problem. We are happy that we caught the possibility while he is so young, and that we can fix it early. We will keep everyone updated on what we find out.

The kids all adore Ian! They have all become such great little helpers!! I was changing Ian's diaper the other day and Brooklyn was helping me. She noticed that he had man parts, pointing at them she said, "Look mom, Ian has a turkey!" I laughed so hard!! Seriously kids say the funniest things sometimes.

Birthday Season

2010-11-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

Cameron and Wesley both had birthdays. Cameron turned 8 yrs old...man I can't believe I am getting that old! We let each boy invite one friend and we went to Chuck E Cheeses to celebrate and to Liberty Land.

Cameron got a rip stick for his birthday and is really good at riding it.

Cameron got baptized this Saturday. We are so proud of him for making the decision to be baptized. He is a great kid!

Fun Facts about Cameron:

Loves Thai Food and Cup of Noodles
Loves Fishing, could go everyday if we would take him.
He is very social..has an easy time making friends. Wants to spend most of his time outside with his friends.
His favorite movie is Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Cameron loves chocolate...chocolate cake, chocolate candy, chocolate ice cream, etc..
He is very coordinated and catches on to things quickly. He started riding a 2 wheeled bike when he was just 3.
He is excited to play basketball this winter.
Is SO EXCITED to start cub scouts, he has been counting down the days, hours, minutes.
He loves and looks up to his dad and wants to be just like him.
Cameron is a good kid, good brother, good friend, and good student! We love you Cameron!

For his birthday Wesley got a Trick Trike, a bike that you can do 360's and tricks on, he spends his afternoons riding his new bike.

Fun Facts about Wesley:

Wesley loves to laugh and to make others laugh. He is quite the goof ball sometimes!
Loves cereal, he could eat it for every meal of the day.
Favorite candy is gum!
Wesley loves to be in the water and to swim. He learned to swim without a life jacket this summer.
Loves to be active...jumping on the tramp, riding his bike, swinging at the park, and just playing with his friends.
Loves his mom...always gives me hugs and kisses and tells me he loves me.
Wesley has sucked his thumb since he was a baby...he just got a thumb sucking retainer put in to help him stop.
Wesley loves, loves babies! He is looking forward to a new baby brother or sister

We feel lucky to have Wesley as part of our family!...We love you Wes!

Kid's say the funniest things!

2010-10-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

So I had to take Wesley and Brooklyn to my first Dr's appointment. This was a bad time to take the kids. I ended up needing a pap smear and an ultra sounds so we ended up being there for quite a while and it happened to be right at lunch time...let's just say the kids were not on their best behavior. The poor Dr. probably thought I was nuts, having another kid.

My Dr started talking to Wesley and told him how I am going to be tired a lot. And that I am going to need some help around the house. After talking to him a while he asked Wesley "so who's going to help out your mom?" Wesley thought about this for a minute and then replied, "JESUS".

It was pretty dang funny!!

I think all he knew was that it wasn't going to be him.

Can't Hardly Wait!

2010-10-27T18:10:00.001-07:00

Can’t Hardly Wait!

We have some precious news today!
A brand new baby's on the way!
We feel so very, very blessed,
Boy or girl, we cannot guess!

We're full of joy and happy tears,
Can't wait to meet our little dear,
And hold our baby snug and tight,
Just rocking gently through the night.

We're glad to share this news with you,
And share all our excitement, too,
For it is time to celebrate,
We think that we can hardly wait!

by Andra Mccoy

Baby 4 is on it's way! Due date is April 4th. Here's a look at the first 3...Cameron, Wesley and Brooklyn all at 2 wks.

First Day of School

2010-10-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Cameron started 2nd grade this year. He is enjoying school and taking off with his reading and his math. He was student of the month for the month of September.

Wesley started Transitional Kindergarten this year. It's kindergarten for students who are not quite ready for Kindergarten. There a 4 teachers instead of one, less students, and more structure to the day. Wesley enjoys going to school and can't wait to get off the bus and tell me that he was good at school and that he got a stamp on his hand. (If you follow rules and listen to the teachers then you get a stamp on your hand at the end of the day). He is slowly progressing, we are hoping we might be able to get him caught up to go to first grade next year.

Mock Photo Shoot

2010-09-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

For my birthday my sister-in-law Jess gave me a style makeover and photo shoot for fun! Her sister's as a hobby do a style makeover and photo shoot for mom's that just don't feel sexy anymore. I was quite nervous going into it...I hate getting my picture taken, especially in front of people I don't know all that well. Well I was quite surprised how much fun I actually had. They took me shopping and made my try on all sorts of styles that I would not have normally picked for myself, then they did my hair and make up and took some pictures. There was absolutely no pressure...they helped me with posses and facial expressions. Thanks guys for the fun day!!

Hike to the Grotto in Payson

2010-08-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

We have to hike the Grotto every summer. We hiked the Grotto with my brother Brian and his family. The kids had fun running around and loved getting wet of course.

Wake Surfers!

2010-07-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend my brother's rented a boat and we were able to take it to Deer Creek and try out Wake Surfing. It's a special boat that creates a wave on one side of the boat that you can surf on with a surf board. It was such a blast!! Cameron wake surfed between Jon's legs and had a ton of fun riding around on a tube with his cousins. Wesley was apprehensive about getting on the boat but once we started he had a lot of fun as long as he could hold on to something. Brooklyn loved riding on the boat and loved watching the wake surfers. She thought it was pretty funny when they would wreck. Thanks guys for the super fun day!!!

I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get up since I was not able to wake board when I tried last. After a couple of tries I got up and had sooo much fun!!

Me and my 2 super cute sister-in-laws!

Even grandma gave wake surfing a try!

Thai Food, French Pastries, and Laughs

2010-07-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

It is always fun to have Brian and Jess in town because Jess is a great organizer/party planner. When they are here we end up doing lots of fun things together. I stole all of these pictures off of Jessica's blog...I always forget my camera.

We decided to head to our favorite Thai food restaurant Sawadee in Salt Lake City. We had so much delicious food! After stuffing ourselves full of Thai we were still able to leave some room for dessert. We then had some french pastries from a little bakery. We had lots of yummy food, fun company, and a night out without our kids.....What else could you ask for?

Palisades Vacation With the Simons Family

2010-07-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Right after San Diego we headed to a rental home by Palisades Lake near Manti with the Simons clan. My brother Mike was in town from Sweden and my brother Brian was in town before his big move to Korea. We had all the family together except for my sister Stephanie. Stephanie and her family were sorely missed!!!! We hope that we can get them back out here to visit before too long! I had so much fun spending time with my family! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

The water was beautiful and perfect temp! The first day at the lake I pulled a leach off of my finger..which pretty much ended my time swimming.

We spent our days playing games, riding 4-wheelers, swimming, fishing, playing at the lake, paddle boats, cliff jumping, playing in the river, going for walks, laughing and eating good food.

One of the days Jon and Brian decided that they wanted to cliff jump when we all knew that we weren't supposed to because we got in trouble last year. So they took a few kids with them and took the paddle boat over to the cliffs. Well after cliff jumping for a while a ranger came to talk to them. They were able to talk themselves out of a $1500 dollar ticket. The ticket would have been $300 per person.

Jess took all the kids over 6 to play in the river by the rental home. The kids had a blast playing in the water. There was a deep part in the river that my nephew Porter was playing in. After joining him Porter informed me that he had made it a hot tub...gross! I encouraged a mud fight between the cousins and there was not one that made it out without being caked with mud first.

One afternoon I guess to kill sometime we made up a game. If your name was chanted then you had to dive into a tiny blowup boat filled with water. This was hilarious! Even grandpa got in on the action.

Wow! The Simons men are sure white! That's not the sun reflecting that is Simons reflecting!
Picture with most of the grandkids. Missing terribly Stephanie, Tim and 4 of their girls. We were lucky enough to keep Rylee for most of the vacation.

San Diego Beach House Vacation

2010-07-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

Well after our string of bad luck we decided that we were not going to be able to make it on the beach house vacation. After selling our trailer and being convinced by Jon's family that we need to go, and the Atwater's being willing to pull our weight a little bit with food, trip expenses, etc... We decided to drive our little white Prism and go on vacation.

Jon's mom took Cameron and Wesley most of the time in her mini van so I must say the white car was a little bit uncomfortable being tall and everything but it was quite enjoyable! Without Cameron and Wesley we enjoyed a drama free, fight free, quiet trip.
We picked up my niece Rylee from her grandma's house in Las Vegas on the way and we were lucky enough to have her with us for the entire week at the beach house. I enjoyed spending some time with Rylee but only wished that I could have spent a little more time with just her. Rylee suffered a really bad sunburn the 2nd day at the beach so she stayed indoors a little bit more the next day or so.

Here are some highlights of our trip. We spent our days boogie boarding, attempting surfing (well Jon anyway), playing on the beach, building sand castles, bubbles, kite flying, sunbathing, many game of horse shoes, Frisbee, swimming in our private pool, walks on the beach, collecting sea shells and baby crabs, playing games, and a night at Seaworld, day at seal beach, California burrito's, fish tacos, and eating lots of homemade wonderful cooked food! It was overall a great trip!

The kids loved the vacation. The boys would tire of playing on the beach and they were a little afraid to play in the ocean...so they wanted to swim in the pool all day long. Brooklyn couldn't get enough of the beach and the ocean.

Bad luck comes in 3's.

2010-07-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

So Jon and I had a little streak of back luck! First Jon was taking Cameron for a ride on his dirt bike around the block and got pulled over by a sheriff. He got a ticket for Cameron not wearing a hat, no insurance, and no motorcycle endorsement on his license. Which basically just means BIG ticket!

Then I was driving the Land Cruiser on the freeway the next day with my kids when all of a sudden everything electrical turned off. The radio all the controls on the dashboard, the windows, etc...and the battery light came on the dash. Strangely enough I was able to still drive home. Well come to find out that it was our A/C pulling to much energy from the battery. Hearing that we have a problem with the A/C is my worst nightmare. After putting $1800 into our Expedition a couple of years ago to fix an A/C problem that was never resolved. Well after putting $1000 it appears to be fixed.

The next day I was driving and came to a stop sign. There was a truck in front of me stopped. All of a sudden he started backing up for no apparent reason...so I honked my horn. He continues backing up until his tow hitch rams my car and then he drives off. The tow hitch ripped my bumper but no real expensive damage was done luckily.

This all happened days before our family vacation to San Diego with the Atwater family. Due to bad luck we decided that we better not go on the trip.

4th of July Celebrations

2010-07-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the 4th with the Atwater side. We went to Clint and Season's for swimming and for a BBQ. We then went to rock canyon park to watch the stadium of fire fireworks. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. The kids were pretty upset that we left before the finale to beat the traffic...but Jon was watching a big UFC fight with some friends and I was not up for being stuck in traffic for hours.

My Baby is two!

2010-05-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it my little Brookie just turned 2...my baby is all grown up!! Brooklyn is such a joy and a blessing to our home. Brooklyn is a funny, loving, beautiful, active, clever, strong willed, mama's girl, singer, dancer, courageous, dare devil, loves water, full of life little girl.

For Brooklyn's birthday we took the all the kids to see Shrek 4. Brooklyn lasted about 45 minutes and then she was completely done so mom and Brooklyn left the movie....I'm not trying that again until she's like 5!!

Brooklyn absolutely loves water (like her daddy), so we decided to take her to Pleasant Grove pool to play. Even though it was freezing she was perfectly happy and could have stayed there all day. We went to grandma and grandpa's house for presents and cake.
Brookie's Favorite Things: Right now Brooklyn walks around all day singing and dancing. She loves jumping on the tramp, riding her bike, swings, cheese, barbies, horses and water.

Day 5-Our last day :(

2010-05-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

Day 5: 4 wheeler tour through the Puerto Rico countryside, gathered fresh mango's, hiked through rain forest Mt. El Yunque, dressed up and checked out the dining at our resort The Gran Melia, and hung out in the music lounge.

We started our day off with a 4 wheeler ride through the beautiful country side. The ride was more like a mud ride. We drove through lots of mud and water. It was super fun and gorgeous scenery!! After riding in the mud for a while we decided to hike to a cave.

One lesson I learned the hard way is, do not hike in the jungle with muddy teva's. My Teva's were so caked with thick slimy mud that I could not hike the trail without my feet slipping around in my shoes. They got so muddy that my velcro was not sticking anymore and my feet were sliding through the front of my sandals. Which made hiking extremely difficult. Then to add on top of that we were hiking through a non-existent hiking trail with millions of mosquitos. After falling a couple of times and nearly 100 mosquito bites I made it to the cave.

The cave was pretty cool it had Indian writings on the walls and we saw an enormous toad who stuck it's tongue out at us.
After our 4 wheeler ride we gathered fresh mango's...they were delicious!

After our ATV tour we headed to El Yunque to explore/hike the rain forest. Our favorite part was hiking to this beautiful waterfall. We stayed at the waterfall and played in the water and slide down the rocks into little pools of water. It was fun...the boys never wanted to leave. They enjoyed it maybe a little to much!

After hiking we went back to our resort to watch the sunset, dinner, and a night out in the night club/lounge.

We were excited to go home and see our kids who we missed...but we were also sad to say goodbye to our paradise. We loved our trip to Puerto Rico and we would love to visit there again. There were so many things that we didn't get a chance to see and do...and so many things we would love to do again.

Thanks Clint and Season for coming with us....we had so much fun, laughter and memories with you two!!

Day 4

2010-05-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Our favorite beach, ferry, back to Puerto Rico, explored our resort The Gran Melia, swam in the huge pool.

We woke up early so that we could spend the morning hanging out at our favorite beach...Red beach.

Took the ferry back to Puerto Rico and checked into The Gran Melia. This resort was awesome! I felt a little out of place because it was so fancy. We felt spoiled!! We all felt a cultural shock going from living among the locals and their shacks on Vieques to the fanciest place I have ever seen.

Discovered that Jon can talk to birds. This parrot took quite the liking to Jon and his bird talk.

On Vieques you can find wild horses everywhere. In Puerto Rico they have stray dogs everywhere. They are nasty matted down dogs with sores all over their bodies. It was pretty sad to see them....at least the ones we saw were friendly.

Day 3

2010-05-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Day 3:
Our original plans for today was to rent 4 scooters and explore and beach hop. After seeing the driving on the island for the last 2 days we decided that they drove like maniacs and that we wanted to live so we opted out on the scooters for the day.

On Vieques no one wants to pay for feed for their horses so they just let their horses run wild through out the island. Instead of other wild animals there were wild horses EVERYWHERE!!

We saw an almost 400 yr old tree...it was so cool!

We explored many beautiful beaches on Vieques island. We checked out green beach, pirates cove, blue beach, Navio beach and last but not least Red beach. Red beach was our favorite beach...soft white sand with crystal clear beautiful blue water. There was one thing in common with all the beaches....they were our own private paradise. Most of the beaches we visited we were the only ones there, we had the whole thing to ourselves. We snorkeled, body surfed, explored, gathered many huge conch shells and other seashells, and of course sunbathed.

Pretty much the only rule that we made was that we were not going to eat any American Food. We only wanted to eat local food. We pretty much ate from all the little shacks and trailers along the streets that everyone warns you not to eat from when you travel. We loved the food....it was cheap and we are still alive to tell our story!

We decided to eat a little fancier our last night on the island. When they say whole lobster...they mean WHOLE lobster.

Day 2

2010-05-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Day 2: Exploring the island, Abe's all in one tour; snorkeling, kayaking, explored the mangrove tunnels, mud baths, and the Bio-luminescent bay.

We started the day off exploring some of the beaches that the island had to offer. We ate lunch of fish and chips at a little place in Esperanza (yummy!) and then headed on our snorkeling, kayaking tour. We decided to bring some disposable camera's on the tour since we were going to be kayaking and thought that they might get wet. And we didn't want to take any chances of our camera's getting stolen. This was one of my biggest regrets! We didn't get really any pictures of our favorite experiences of the entire trip.

All the locals in Vieques start the morning, the afternoon, and the evening off with alcohol. They can pretty much be seen drinking at all hours of the day and night. Our tour guide drove us to the beach with his alcohol in hand.

We started the tour off in double kayaks. We kayaked to a gorgeous private beach that was only accessible by boat and played and snorkeled the afternoon away. Kayaking and snorkeling are now my favorite things to do...I think I could have been there all day. I was amazed how easy it was to float on top of the water and swim with flippers. We saw a lobster and many beautiful colored fish. We were able to touch and pick up a star fish. We however to my relief did not see a shark or Manaray again.

I found a huge conch shell in the water while snorkeling...after making sure that nothing was still living in the shell I picked it up and kept it. One of the tour guide's lectured me about taking the shell because it could be a home to a hermit crab or something. After giving it much thought I decided to keep the shell anyway :)...your only in Puerto Rico once. Our tour guides were actually pretty dang awesome and they made the tour a huge success.

After snorkeling our tour guides gave us some drinks to enjoy on the beach. After drinking a few glasses of it we realized we had been drinking alcoholic drinks. Now, I just wanted to make sure that you were still paying attention. We were offered alcoholic drinks we declined and drank some mango juice instead. The tour guides were bewildered that we had refused.

Next we hoped back in the kayaks and went and explored the mangrove tunnels in our kayaks. For those of you who don't know what a mangrove is they are trees that grow and live in salt water. They multiply like crazy and create this organic compost...eventually creating land. They are so important because they house many small baby fishes, and other marine life.

The mangrove trees create natural tunnels...we kayaked through and explored many tunnels and lagoons through the mangrove trees. We stopped to eat dinner in our kayaks and then had mud baths/pedicures with the soft mud compost from the trees. The mud has been rumored to be miracle mud. The mud is highly enriched with vitamins and minerals.

As we kayaked out of the mangroves it started getting dark. We started to see that our oars started glowing and sparkling as we moved through the water. We kayaked back out the mangroves and into the bio-luminescent bay (aka mosquito bay) were we hopped out of our kayaks and swam in the glowing sparkling water.

It was amazing!! It is so hard to explain but I will try. There are tiny micro-organisms that live in the bay. When they come into contact with another organism or shaken they create a bright burst of blue light. Mosquito bay is the perfect place to see this...the bay is small and shallow and the entrance to the bay is narrow so the organisms get trapped and protected in the bay making it very bright. We went on a pitch black night (no moon and very minimal light from the small city in Vieques that could be seen). The water around you as you moved would light up and sparkle. You could let water drip down your arm and it would just sparkle. This was by far my favorite part of the trip. It was so magical!!

Day 1 Puerto Rico Vacation-Vieques

2010-05-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

After 10 years of marriage and a college graduation we thought it was about time we went on a real vacation without the kids....this was a first for us. We wanted to go to the Caribbean and we didn't have time or extra $ for passports so we headed to Puerto Rico. It was a great choice! We traveled with Jon's brother Clint and his wife Season. We had such a blast!

After my brother and his wife were robbed in Puerto Rico a couple of weeks before our trip...and had all their belongings stolen (laptops, camera, wallet, bags, snorkeling gear, etc...) we were a little hesitant about going there. But we are glad that we didn't change our minds. We loved it!

We spent our vacation snorkeling, kayaking, swimming in the Bio-luminescent bay, 4-wheeling, hiking in the rain forest, trying all kinds of local foods, tasting fresh mangos, coconuts and bananas, drinking many pina-coladas, body surfing in the ocean and lots of time relaxing on the beautiful private beaches.

We heard about the Bio-luminescent bay and knew that was going to be our main attraction. We heard that it was going to be the brightest in the Mosquito bay on Vieques island an 1 1/2 hr ferry ride from Puerto Rico. We decided to stay our first 3 nights in Vieques. We rented a Jeep and a 2 bedroom home on top of pretty much the highest point of the island overlooking everything. The view was breathtaking.

Day 1: Our arrival. After an 1 1/2 hr ferry ride from Puerto Rico to Vieques island...we arrive and get settled.

View of the main city Fajardo from the ferry.

Pictures of our rental home...amazing views of the island.

This is what most of the locals lived in on the island. Our rental home was one of the nicest by far. This shack was one of our neighbors.
When we arrived in Vieques we explored the island a little and then ate at Bili's restaurant...in a tiny little city (I guess that is what you call it) in Esperanza...the food was delicious!!! We spent every night hanging out with the locals in Esperanza. It was a cute little strip on the island with lots of charm and character...it had a few places to eat and a couple of places to shop along the beach. They would light it up with white lights at night. We saw a little shark and a manaray off the pier our first night in Esperanza. Which made me a little nervous for my first snorkeling experience which was going to be the next day.
Later that night we came back to our rental home and enjoyed the salt water swimming pool....well actually it was FREEZING so the men enjoyed it the most. They worked in their snorkel equipment....they had to make sure that it was all working, right?

Jon's new toy

2010-05-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

Jon officially sold his DS four wheeler and purchased a street legal dirt bike with the money. He is pretty excited about his new toy. I took it for a spin last night and I must say I wouldn't mind having one of my own.

Bountiful Baskets

2010-05-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Last week I signed up for a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. You make a $15 contribution and you get a large amount of produce from local farmers. It's the same produce you get at the grocery store but for half the price. Last week I got apples, bananas, cantaloupe, melon, 3 pkgs of black berries, kiwis, tomatoes, spinach, radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, artichokes, and more. They have additional items you can purchase every week. Last week they had a Mexican themed produce pack that had jalapenos, cilantro, limes, squash, green onion, garlic, avocados, tomatillos, etc... I also got the extra tortilla package. 3 packs of extra large flour tortillas, 2 pkgs small flour tortillas, and 2 pkgs of small corn tortillas. With the extra packages I spent $30. The picture shows everything I ended up with excluding the tortillas.

If you are interested check out the following link for pick up date/time and locations: Bountiful Baskets

Dinosaur Museum-Grandma's Birthday

2010-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

For my mom's birthday last week she took us to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point with her grandma's pass. The kids had a lot of fun. They could have played for hours in the water and sand.

We made grandma a birthday cake so after we went to her house and had cake and watched her open her presents. All the kids pitched in on a present and got her the picture of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. She loved the present. Later we went to Mama Choo's for dinner. Happy Birthday Mom!!

Babysitting

2010-04-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I watched Asia and Kingston while Clint and Season where in Las Vegas. They were such good kids...I couldn't have asked for them to be any better. Having five little kids is a challenge but the kids were good and they all played well together.

One night I put the 3 little kids all in the bath, Asia, Kingston and Brooklyn. I got Asia out first and put her in her pajamas, then I got out Kingston and put him in his pajamas. While I was putting on Brooklyn's pajamas I heard a splash. Kingston jumped back in the tub with his pj's on. I took Kingston out of the tub and I was in the process of changing him into some dry clothes when I heard another splash...Asia had jumped back in the tub with her pj's on. I was draining the water so luckily there was only about 2 inches of water in the tub. They were both so happy to be back in the tub splashing and kicking around. I got a good laugh!

Spring Break FUN!

2010-04-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

Last week during Spring Break I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point to the barn with some friends. They kids had so much fun!! The weather was nice at home before we went, but as soon as we got to the barn the wind picked up and it was freezing! Luckily, I was smart enough to pack the kids each a jacket....but I forgot one for myself.
Brooklyn had so much fun riding on the horse that she didn't want to get off. She cried half way home because she wanted the "Hosie". She has developed quite the love for horses.

Happy Easter

2010-04-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

This year I didn't throw the usual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We decided to try out the Payson City egg hunt. We woke up late and got to the starting line about 30 seconds before they unleashed the candy crazy kids. Cameron took off and fought his way through the massive amounts of kids and ended up with a full basket. Wesley was so excited to get 1 egg that he started running back towards me...just so he could show me what he found. I yelled for him to turn around and grab some more. By the time he caught on that you could get more than just one they were gone. Cameron was nice enough to share some of his with his brother and sister. I think that from start to finish the egg hunt lasted like 20 seconds. Next year I think I will stick with the neighborhood egg hunt.

On Easter the kids woke up and found their baskets. Cameron got a new swimsuit, some swim goggles and a bunch of candy. Wesley got a kite and a bunch of candy and Brooklyn got a new outfit and some candy. Sounds like they got alot of nice things....right? No, Cameron and Wesley spent the morning fighting over the kite. Cameron was trying to trade Wesley what ever he could think of to get his hands on Wesley's kite. So the Easter bunny has now decided that all kids get the same things in their baskets

After the 1st session of conference we decorated Easter eggs then headed over to Jon's mom's house for lunch. Then we had dinner over at my parent's house. We had lots of yummy food...but after a long day we were ready to go home and relax.

March Moab Madness

2010-04-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last month we took a trip with some friends to Moab. We had such a blast! I must say that this was the first trip that we did not end up breaking our vehicle...so I am happy! We love our Land Cruiser, it is one mean rock climbing machine. Here are some of the trails that we did: Metal Masher, Cliff Hanger, Goldbar Rim, and Steel Bender. I even drove the Land Cruiser through most of the Steel Bender trail. We had so much fun and we are already looking forward to our next trip.

2010-03-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wesley started horse therapy at Courage Reins in Highland. Courage Reins was created to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities through therapeutic horse back riding. So far I have been impressed! The first 15 minutes of class Wesley grooms and gets his horse "Hella" ready to ride. Then the rest of the class he is riding. They teach him how to start and stop and turn a horse. He is taught proper posture, and verbal techniques. They also play games on the horse like around the world and simon says. At the end of the semester Wesley will go on a trail ride and will participate in a horse show.

Brooklyn is now in love with horses. She tried everything she could think of to try and get a ride on one. She even went and put on a helmet so she could take a ride.

The Loose Tooth

2010-03-06T20:40:00.001-08:00

Wesley lost his first tooth today. When I woke up this morning he informed me that his tooth was REALLY loose. We tugged on it a few times with no success, so we decided to just leave it in there a little longer. A little while later I gave him some fruit snacks for an afternoon snack. He ran into the kitchen to tell me the exciting news that his tooth had fallen out. I asked him where his tooth was and he said, "I ate it". Apparently his tooth got stuck in a fruit snack and he swallowed it. So here is my question....does the tooth fairy still come when there is no tooth to put under the pillow? I teased him and told him we will just have to wait until it comes out, you know, what goes in must come out, right?

2010-03-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

The other day the kids went down stairs to play with their toys in the basement. A little while later the boys ran upstairs to tell me that Brooklyn hurt herself and she was bleeding all over her mouth. I ran down stairs to check it out and sure enough there was blood all over her face...or so I thought. After several minutes of searching and being unable to locate an owie I found the culprit; a brown crayola marker that Brooklyn made her afternoon snack.

Chuck E Cheese Fun

2010-02-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

Before my sister moved to Georgia we had to get in one more trip to Chuck E Cheeses. My kids love the place, they could go there every day and be completely happy. The kids had alot of fun spending time with their cousins before they moved. We miss you guys!

Staying Busy

2010-01-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't updated my blog for while so I thought I would let everyone know what we have been doing. We have been staying busy!

I started a new blog with my sister Stephanie called Get Together Ideas. We created the blog as an outlet to share the things that we love, cooking and baking, parties, quick and easy crafts. We are also having giveaways of some of our favorite things. Go check it out if you haven't already. During the week we are pretty much home bound. I watch 2 of my neighbors kids during the week, which keeps me busy and only partially sane.

Jon started his last semester at UVU a couple of weeks ago.....Hip, Hip, Hurray!! I cannot wait till this semester is OVER!! I am so proud of Jon for sticking with school over all these years. He is staying pretty busy between getting in over time at work, and night school. He tries to fit in basketball and fun together as a family whenever he gets a chance.

The boys are getting cabin fever!! The sun was out yesterday so we went to the park by our house and played for a while. I am so ready for winter to be over! Cameron is taking off on reading and Wesley is progressing well at school. Wesley will probably be starting Horse Therapy. We will be going in for an assessment with CourageReins next month. Brooklyn can tell you what sounds all the animals say, ex: Horsey says "neigh", and can sing Twinkle, twinkle little star....she is so cute and keeps us smiling.

Christmas Spirit

2009-12-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas time! I love the holiday spirit, putting up our Christmas decorations, Christmas music/carols, cookies, hot chocolate, sledding, building snowmen, the birth of our Savior, Santa Clause, Watching Christmas movies and having popcorn and julius, seeing lights, traditions, and so much more.

Here are some pictures of us putting up our tree. I think it is about time to invest in a new pre-lit tree. Our tree is gorgeous but you have to put each individual branch together and then string on all the lights....it takes us a couple hours to put up completely.

This last weekend we had our Ward Christmas party. It feels good to have it over with...Jon and I are on the activity's committee and put alot of our time into the preparation. We had great food, great decorations, a great program, a huge turnout, and a visit from Santa himself. We ended up trying to make it a service project as well...we had a food drive. I couldn't believe how much food our ward members donated. We had over 4 heaping shopping carts full that we delivered to the food bank.
Cameron asked for ice skates (?)..not sure where that came from. At least it is easier then his request of a camper trailer/toy hauler last year. lol.
Wesley talked about how much he loves Santa and that he was going to hug him...well that is exactly what he did. He ran up to Santa so he was the first one on his lap he gave him hugs and asked him for candy for Christmas. We did not have time to get out camera ready so there is no picture of Wesley.
Brooklyn just cried and was happy once she was off Santa's lap and a candy bag in hand. Maybe next year!

First layer of snow

2009-12-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

The kids woke up to a tiny layer of snow on the ground. So of course they grab the boogie boards and head outside. They had alot of fun pulling each other around the yard on the boogie board.

Cameron is 7

2009-12-07T13:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to my determined, coordinated, smart, very tall, strong willed, leader, friendly, loving, happy, handsome 7 year old. We love you Cameron and are so glad that you are a part of our family.

Wesley is 5

2009-12-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow! Happy Birthday to my curious, energetic, compassionate, strong willed, loving, tease, happy, friendly, goofy, handsome 5 year old boy....We love you!!

2009-11-10T12:41:00.001-08:00

Wow it's been a long time! A lot has happened since I last posted but I will try to catch you up fast. Last month the boys both had birthday's. Cameron turned 7 and Wesley turned 5. We decided to let each of them invite one friend and we took them to pirate island. They had alot of fun! (I personally like Chuck E Cheese way better). We decided to be pretty cheap with gifts this year and stuck to a $25-$30 budget. The boys would have never known...they loved their gifts! The boys both got skateboards and have been busy learning how to ride them. Cameron is pretty good at it, and Wesley is learning. Wesley enjoys sitting and riding it down the driveway.

I started babysitting for a neighbor a couple of months ago. I babysit Mon-Thurs so most of the week I am home bound and busy. The kids are cute and I am able to make a little extra $.

I love Halloween! In my opinion you are never too old to dress up. We went to our ward's trunk or treat the night before Halloween. On Halloween we went to my parent's to have a little dinner and to make edible graves. Then went to Jon's brother Clint's house and had more fun, food, and a little trick or treating. We still have loads and loads of candy!!

Last Friday we let the kids ditch school and we all went to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Simons. I am usually not a very big fan of the zoo, but it was so much fun. The weather was perfect, my kids were good, there was not very many people there, the animals were all alert and active, we saw a baby elephant, baby giraffe, and baby monkey (all so cute). I could have watched the monkeys all day! The kids had fun riding the train and the merry go round, but riding on Grandpa Simons's motorized scooter was by far the kids favorite! I brought my camera along but the batteries died while trying to take the first picture....typical!

Win a trip to Disneyland

2009-10-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

Go to sweetlifeinthevalley.com or http://www.outandaboutwiththefamily.com/ and enter to win a two night stay hotel room for four, four park-hopper tickets for 2 days to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure Park and Dinner on Saturday night, and airfare.

Born to Dance!

2009-09-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn's got the moves!...she must get them from her mom:) I thought this is cute so I will share. Sorry about the interference midway through.

Gone Fishin!

2009-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Cameron has been obsessed with fishing for the last 2 years. While most kids turn the TV on and watch cartoons Cameron is watching the hunting/fishing channel. He would be happy if he could fish every day. After lots and lots of persistently asking, Jon took Cameron fishing last night at Utah lake and they caught 2 catfish. Cameron was so excited when they caught the big one...he could hardly contain himself.

One busy month

2009-08-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

August is always a busy month for the Atwater family. It is pretty hectic with the boys getting back to school, my birthday, our anniversary and Jon's birthday all int he same some month.

Yesterday was our anniversary. WOW....we have officially been married for 9 years. I can't believe how time flies by. I met Jon at a UVSC dance at seven peaks almost 10 years ago. Jon had just returned home from his mission to New Zealand and he still had that missionary glow that I fell in love with. The day after we meet he took me tunnel singing at BYU. Our first offical date we went ice-blocking and to Squaw Peak (I know what you are thinking...we went to see the pretty view :). I pretty much fell in love from the get go.....we had the same goals for our future, he loved the gospel, he liked to be adventurous and have fun, he was good with kids, and lets not forget he was tall, dark and handsome. We were engaged after 8 months of dating and then married in 4 more.
I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband, a best friend and a great father to my children. Thanks for putting up with me these last 9 years.

Aspberger's

2009-08-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

After a couple months of meeting with Pediatricians and Behavioral Psychologists, Wesley has been diagnosed with Asperger's Autism. I feel a little relieved to find out why certain behaviors are happening...and his diagnosis may help give me direction on ways to work with and help Wesley over the years. I am however, scared about the stigma that comes with the diagnosis that he is a certain way and that he cannot be helped, or that this diagnosis will be an excuse for his behaviors. I am excited about Wesley's future I know that he is going to require a little more love, attention and patience then most children...but we are ready for it. He will need to be continually taught boundaries, and social norms. We love Wesley so much and want the best life possible for him.
This is all so new to us so we are still finding out with this all means....if you are interested here is a pretty good link about what this diagnosis will mean for Wesley.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/tc/aspergers-syndrome-symptoms

Wesley. O. Wesley

2009-08-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

I came out of the restroom last night to hear Cameron laughing hysterically (never a good thing) while yelling for me to come and see something. I ran into the kitchen to find Wesley on top of the counter with the dish sprayer in hand squirting the entire kitchen including Cameron. I ran to turn off the water and got drenched. The look on his face was pure delight...he had found the coolest, funnest thing ever. I didn't really find much humor in the situation until I cleaned up the puddles of water from my kitchen and sent them both to bed early; then I had a good laugh.

Wesley informed me today after lunch that he was still hungry and asked me if I would help him cook a corn-dog in the microwave. I am trying to teach both Cameron and Wesley how to use the microwave so I told Wesley to pull up a chair and I would show him how to do it. I put the corndog in the microwave set it for 50 seconds and then ran out into the backyard to pick a few tomatoes from my garden. A few minutes later I opened the back door to find that Wesley had set the corn-dog to cook for another 23 minutes. Smoke was billowing out of the microwave and the stick was up in flames. I managed to get it out luckily before it started our house on fire. I feel blessed that the only after affects of the microwave incident is a stinky house. I guess the boys won't be cooking things by themselves for a little while anyway:).

Snowbird trip with Jon

2009-07-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

The kids went to sitters and Jon and I spent Saturday night up at Snowbird. We havent' really been anywhere over night without the kids...so this was a long awaited break. We spent the day riding the alpine slide, the tram, and went swimming. Jon's brother Clint and his wife Season came up and we went to dinner and stayed up late chatting and playing games. We had alot of fun!!

I finally did it!

2009-07-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to cut my hair short for a long, long time now! I have always chickened out until now. I chopped off 11 inches of hair and I feel like a new woman. I am still learning how to style it but I am pretty happy with the change.

Weekend at Palisade Lake

2009-07-27T12:59:00.001-07:00

We spent a couple of days with the Simons family up at Palisade Lake near Manti. It was alot of fun...thanks Jess for setting it all up for us! We spent our time playing at the lake, riding 4 wheelers, campfires, staying up late playing games and just chatting.
The cousins spent an afternoon catching frogs by the lake. They ended up catching around 30 frogs. My sister-in-law Jessica came out to find that Cameron had killed most of them with his pocket knife (from his tackle box). She then told him that if he is going to kill God's creations he is going to have to eat it. Cameron was horrified with the thought of having to eat one....hopefully he will learn his lesson. Next time we will make him really eat one :).

4th of July Festivities

2009-07-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we woke up early and headed down to the Provo parade. The parade was fun and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. Next year we need to find a spot with some shade. After the parade we headed over to Salem pond with some family for a picnic lunch and some swimming. Later that night we went to Rock Canyon park and played games and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. The fireworks however were kind of crappy this year.
I am so grateful for this holiday and the chance we get to celebrate our independence. I am so thankful to all the soldiers out there that sacrifice so much to preserve our freedom.

Hikes, Hikes, and More Hikes

2009-07-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

I forgot how much I love to hike and to be up in the mountains. We hiked up to Diamond Fork hotpots last week and I fell back in love. My goal for the rest of the summer is to go on a hike once a week. If anyone knows a good spot or if you would like to come along just let me know. This week we did 2 hikes. We hiked the Grotto up Payson canyon. I am sad to say that I have lived in Payson 3 years and this was the first time hiking it. It is a short hike but the water fall is really beautiful, there is a little pool of water below the waterfall and the kids had a blast playing in the freezing water. Yesterday we hiked up to Stewart Falls in Provo canyon. This hike has been the hardest hike yet...the hot pots were longer but the trail was more rigorous a little harder for the small children. The waterfalls were gorgeous and the kids had fun playing again in the freezing water. Any takers for hiking somewhere next week?

Hike to Spanish Fork Hot Pots

2009-06-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took all the kids hiking to the Spanish Fork hot pots with my sister-in-law Jess and her 7 kids. Jess had mentioned that it was not a very long hike well we soon found out that it is a 2.5 mile hike (5 miles). I am pretty proud, we hiked 5 miles with 9 kids under the age of 10 and a baby on my back. I worried about my kids whining and that they would want me to hold them the whole time...but they did fantastic. Both Cameron and Wesley walked the whole way with very minimal complaining. And Chloe was the only one who got to see someone in the nude. The 2 older girls ran ahead on the trail on the way back to the cars. They said that a man who was walking up the trail in just a towel had his towel slip off and they got a sneak peak. The girls handled it pretty good, hopefully they aren't to traumatized. The hot pots, and the waterfall were fun, the kids could have played there all day. Thanks Jess for fun afternoon.

Father's Day Giveaway

2009-06-10T08:06:00.001-07:00

Head over to keepingupwithmom.com and enter a best buy giveaway just in time for father's day:

1-Blue Insignia 7.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

1-WHITE Insignia 7″ Widescreen LCD Digital Photo Frame (pictured in black)

1-Black Insignia 1.8″ LCD Digital Photo Keychain

Huge Cousin Sleepover

2009-05-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

My brother Mike just moved to Sweden this last week.....but before he moved we had to have a huge cousin sleepover. My sister-in-law Jessica (whose husband is deployed and in Afghanistan) decided to volunteer to host a sleep over at her house with all the Simons cousins over age 4 which means almost 20 kids under the age of 12. I think she is nuts (no not really Jess) so I decided that she might need some help with all these kids and volunteered myself to help out at the sleep over; what was I thinking! No not really...the kids had an absolute blast running around all together....and it wasn't nearly as crazy as I thought it might be. We got the kids to finally settle down and go to sleep about midnight; about the same time Jess and I got medicated (Ambien) for the long night ahead of us. The rest of the night and half the morning where a slight blurr to me, but I must say I got a great night's sleep. Thanks Jess, for planning such fun family parties!!

Kindergarten Graduate

2009-05-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah!...Cameron graduated Kindergarten last week. He had so much fun and learned so much this year. But I must say I am glad that kindergarten is over and we are now on to first grade. Cameron is so ready to be at school longer and with all his older friends....he gets so bored while he waits for his friends to get home everyday. I have enjoyed this year and having him around though it will be sad to have him gone so long next year.
His teacher Mrs. Syndergaurd planned a cute graduation program with lots of singing. I think Cameron gets stage fright though. He would say a word here and there with a look like a deer caught in head lights. I don't think he likes to be infront of a group (must take after his mom).
Last Saturday I got a message on my phone that they wanted him to give a talk in primary the next day on Sunday. As soon as I told the poor kid he was going to need to prepare a talk he started saying how sick he was. The next day Sunday morning he continued to say how sick he was and that he couldn't go to church and give his talk because he was ssoooooooo sick. He even made himself puke! I told him that he could stay home but if he stayed home he would not be able to go to his aunts house later that night for a family party/sleepover...he was instantly healed and feeling great. What a faker!!! I don't blame him though, I feel the same way when I am asked to give a talk in church too. I don't know why he was so nervous...he did a great job.

Happy Birthday To You

2009-05-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well it is official Brooklyn turned 1 yesterday. We decided to take Brooklyn swimming in a pool for the first time. She could not get enough of the water she absolutely loved it. We decided to celebrate with a small family party and just have her grandparents over. Grandma and grandpa Simons and grandma Atwater came down and had pizza and cake with us. We have lots of funny pictures of Brooklyn eating her 2 different birthday cakes. She was hilarious, she would just dive in and take huge bites....she ended up being quite a mess. Thanks everyone who made her birthday a day to remember!

Brooklyn's turning 1

2009-05-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my baby is turning 1....wow time flies by! I had to get her 1 year pictures taken and Season did a fantastic job. We went to this cute orchard in Provo. Brooklyn loved to grab the dandelions and either tickle her face with them or eat them. If you need a photographer for any occassion check out http://www.seasonatwaterphotography.blogspot.com/ Thanks Season!

Warning LOTS OF PICTURES!!

Welcome Babies

2009-05-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law Amber had her twins last week at just 32 weeks. Emalie and Clayton are both just over 3 lbs are stable and breathing on their own. They are so tiny and cute. We are so excited to welcome these two sweet babies into our family, they are a blessing as well as a miracle. My brother Stephen and his wife Amber have been married now for 18 years. They were unable to carry a child full term so after 9 years of marriage they adopted their first child Porter their first miracle baby 9 years later they adopted their 2nd miracle baby Jake who just turned 1 a couple of months ago. After 18 years of marriage, 2 adoptions, and an almost hysterectomy they just had a set of twins. We are so happy for them and I have witnessed with my own eyes that miracles really do happen! Congratulations....we love you guys!

Boy Cousin Campout

2009-05-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

My brother and his family are moving to Sweden next week (we are sure going to miss them) so I thought we needed to get all the boy cousins together before their big move. We had a boy cousin campout in our backyard. We had dinner up Payson canyon of hot dogs and then we finished off with smores of course. If you take a close look at the pictures the boys are all wearing safety glasses. I am thinking that we may need to have some fire building tips because the fire was extra smokey....luckily Jon had a few pairs of glasses in the car.
Later we came back to our house and the boys watched the movie hook and then fell asleep in our tent in the backyard. In the morning Jon took the boys fishing at Salem pond. We had alot of fun but we definately needed naps afterwards....I never knew boys could be so hyperactive and silly. Hopefully the boys had fun and that they will have some fond memories of time spent with each other. Hope to make this a yearly tradition.

He can ride on two wheels

2009-05-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

We bought Wesley his first bike about a month ago. He had a hard time pedaling at first but finally he was able to ride with training wheels. Last week he mastered the art of riding on just two wheels. We put Wesley's training wheels high so he only used them when he started to tip and he caught on real fast. He was alot of fun to watch learn to ride a bike....he is a very determined kid. He would fall off and get hurt but he didn't care he would just hop right back on until he could finally ride. People probably think that we beat the poor kid with all the bruises covering his legs. He is quite proud of himself that he can ride on 2 wheels he thinks he is a big kid like Cameron now.

Slip-N-Slide fun

2009-05-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Why does 60 degree weather feel so warm after a cold winter. My kids have thought that it is summer the last couple of weeks with all the warm weather. They are always begging me to let them get wet. We had a neighbor day of fun on the slip n slide last week.

Where O Where is the Sunshine!

2009-05-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

I definitely have some spring fever, and I am in desperate need of some sun. I keep having day dreams of sunny California weather taking walks along the beach, body boarding, and sunbathing. The last couple of days have been rainy so this afternoon when the rain stopped and the sun peeked out of the clouds we headed over to Salem pond for a little R&R. The boys decided that they needed to get in the water and take a dip...I think that they are pretty crazy it was only 60 degrees this afternoon and the water is still freezing but they had fun and we even sent Brooklyn in, I have a feeling she is going to be quite the bathing beauty this summer. She loves getting into water, even if it is freezing cold.

Handy Manny

2009-04-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

So Cameron came in the other day announcing that he was Handy Manny (from disney channel). He got into my makeup and made a mustache with my brown eye shadow and then he hooked up his plastic tools to his pants. I got a good laugh so I thought I better post a picture.

Happy Easter

2009-04-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Friday I threw our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Last year we had about 60 kids (egg hunt got announced in primary), so this year I didn't spread the word much myself just invited a few neighbors and told them to spread the word. Well this year we ended up with about 15 kids and half of them were my relatives that I invited. So the egg hunt wasn't much of a success and I ended up taking home a ton of cookies. Jon spent Friday at the sand dunes with some buddies. Sunday we had dinner and a mini egg hunt with the Simons family. I of course forgot to pull out my camera for any of the Easter festivites...but I did manage to get a picture of Brooklyn in her cute Easter dress and 1 of the Simons Easter dinner.

FHE--Bean Museum

2009-04-02T20:53:00.001-07:00

For family night this week we went to dinner at Gloria's little Italy in Provo, then went to the Bean Museum, and ended off with some BYU creamery ice cream cones. The kids loved the museum. They had a reptile show while we were there and they got to pet a real turtle, snake, and lizard and they couldn't get enough. Here is a picture of our fun FHE the girl is a neighborhood friend that came along.

Where did my baby go!

2009-04-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Brooklyn is 10 months old she is getting so grown up on me. She is crawling all over the house, eating big girl food, and pulling herself up to the furniture....she will be walking before we know it. I took her in today to get a check up and here are her stats: weight 54%, length 73%, and head 99% (yeah she has a big head). She is our first child to be under 85% on the charts for length. It will be interesting too see how tall our children really end up being. Who knows maybe we will get a runt in the mix. Here are some cute pictures of Brooklyn. She has been such a joy to our family and her brothers just adore her.

Wesley Thinks He Can Dance Too!

2009-04-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

He gets his moves from his dad!

Sweat Block

2009-03-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

My uncle Scott invented an anti-persperant called Sweat Block many years ago. I used the product for over a year myself in my sweaty adolesent years and it worked great. I always wondered why they didn't advertise this stuff better, because it really does work. I was so excited when I saw an article on KSL today about the product. It was just shown on Rachael Ray and got great reviews. If anyone has problems in this area, check it out. Sweatblock.com

So He thinks he can dance!

2009-02-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

I had to take this video of Cameron he thinks he is a dancer. This is Cameron's interpretation of hip hop...enjoy:).

Clint's 35 yr Birthday Party

2009-02-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we headed up to Sundance with the Atwater family. For Clint's (Jon's brother) birthday this year his wife Season planned a big suprise birthday party and invited us all to stay in a big cabin over night. We had alot of fun talking, laughing, eating, and playing games. The men stayed up until 3am playing a never ending fusball tourament that lasted hours. They got so into the game that they were sweating and their hands hurt the next day, lol......thanks Season!
I think we should make a cabin trip a yearly event! We missed those who weren't able to come.

Sand Dunes Glamis California--Boys trip

2009-01-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

The last couple of years Jon and a few of his friends have headed out to the sand dunes in Glamis California. Tired of the cold weather here in Utah they really enjoy their trip to Glamis with 70 degree weather. He went to Glamis for 4 days and came back with a tan, while I waited here wearing thermals and shoveling snow.....no I am not bitter :). Here are a couple of photos of their adventure in Cali.

Babies, Babies, Babies

2009-01-30T11:58:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn is 8 months old and she is slowly weaning herself from everything. She hardly nurses; she just pulls off every 2 seconds so she can see what's going on. And she has decided that she is too good for her baby food. If I try to feed her baby food she will hold her mouth close or spit it out at me. I have thrown away countless full jars of baby food that were going to waste in my refrigerator. If I try to feed her chunky things she just chokes on them. So all that I have been feeding her lately is little pieces of bread or the baby crackers. So I am left in a hard spot of deciding what to feed the poor girl, I know she is not getting all the nutrition she needs....any ideas?

Favorite Soup Recipe Zuppa Toscana (olive garden)

2009-01-19T10:47:00.001-08:00

ZUPPA TOSCANA SOUP RECIPE:
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
1 lb ground Italian Sausage (I use Jimmy Dean hot sausage).
1 1/2 tsp crushed red peppers---(didn't have so I just added Cayenne pepper)
1 large diced white onion
4 Tbsp bacon pieces
2 tsp garlic puree
10 cups water
5 cubes of Chicken bouillion
1 cup heavy cream
1 1b sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes (I added more potatoes).
1/4 bunch of kale

1. Saute sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, saute bacon, onions and garic for about 15 minutes or until onions are soft.
3. Mix together the chicken bouillion and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook until boiling.
4. Add potatoes and cook unil soft, about 10 minutes.
5. Add heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage.
7. Add kale just before serving (I add the kale when I added the heavy cream so it cooked a little). Delicious! Buon Appeitio!

Girl Friends!

2009-01-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you."
- Elbert Hubard
There are a few friends that I have still from elementary school. We all have very different personalities but we have managed to stay friends for almost 20 years (wow we are getting old). We try to get together about once a month and do dinner, a movie, games, playgroup or just sit and chat and reiminince of the old days.
A couple of weeks ago I got together with a couple of girl friends that I have had since I was 11 and we went to Olive Garden and then sat at a friends house talking into the late hours. I have so much fun with these girls and I truly value thier friendships.
Here are some pictures of us throughout the years!

Sledding fun!

2008-12-26T10:39:00.001-08:00

With all the snow falling the last week....we decided to have a little bit of fun. Jon hooked a sled to my 4-wheeler and we pulled the kids around our cul-de-sac....it was quite the hit with the kids and so fun to watch.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas, and holiday season. We have been so blessed to have such great friends and family. This year was filled with food, friends, family, and a whole lot of fun. We are so thankful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and for the gift of the atonement. I am thankful for the Christmas season where we really have the chance to reflect on the Savior and his life and try to make our lives more christlike throughout the year.

Cameron and Wesley love Christmas and they both got pretty spoiled this year. Although Christmas is about Christ and not about the gifts that we recieve here is a rundown:

Cameron got some Heeley's (shoe skates), a sled, a remote control car, some pj's, an outfit, and mom made him a new blanket. Cameron got some board games, a webkins, and some magnetix from cousins and grand parents.
Wesley got a tool box, a sled, a remote control car, some pj's, a new jacket, and mom made him a new blanket. Wesley got a webkinz, stuffed animal, game, a bath robe and blanket from cousins and grandparents.
Jon got some money to go on his Sand Dune trip with his buddies to Glamis California in a couple of weeks.
I got a new coat and some boots.
This Christmas has been fun and we have made alot of enjoyable memories this season with our friends and families....Thank you all, and we love you guys.

Gingerbread Houses

2008-12-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

So my goal is to make a gingerbread house with my kids every Christmas holiday. I was not quite up to making the gingerbread this year so we substituted graham crackers. The kids had a couple of friends over and we decorated our gingerbread houses.

Simons Christmas party

2008-12-09T13:39:00.000-08:00

Well it was time last night for our annual Simons extended family Christmas party. We ate yummy food, decorated cupcakes, and had a visit from Santa Clause. When we told Wesley he would be seeing Santa he was so excited and told me he was going to give him a great big hug. Wesley had to be one of the first to see santa and then he wouldn't leave the poor guy alone ( I wouldn't be surprised if we recieved a restraining order). Wesley told Santa that he wanted toys and Cameron told him that he wanted a snow board (not sure were that came from). I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens on Christmas. After Santa left Cameron came running so excited to announce to us that Santa drives a blue car.

Tagged

2008-11-28T19:24:00.001-08:00

So I have been tagged by my friend Natalie and since I have not blogged for a while I think I will do it.
1. What is your current job?....stay at home mom, a little real estate here and there, and an occassional shift at the Golds Gym daycare.
2. What color are your socks right now? No socks, barefeet or flip flops...unless I absolutely have to wear shoes.
3. What noise are you listening to right now? Listening to Jon play guitar hero in the other room.
4. What was the last thing you ate? My mom treated me to fajitas and chips and salsa from Los Hermanos....love it!!...thanks mom :)
5. Can you drive a stick shift? That is a funny questions...not sure! I have tried a couple of times but I have never had to drive one I have always had an automatic.
6. Who is the last person you spoke to on the phone?...sister Stephanie
7. Do you like the person who tagged you?....yeah, love you Nat
8. How old are you today? 28
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Football...gotta love BYU!
10. What is your favorite drink? Water, or pepsi.
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? yep, with a brother-in-law who does hair it would get done pretty often. However, it has be all natural for almost 2 years now.
12. Favorite food? I love all food! I love Mexican food, Italian, Asian, Polynesian, you name it I will pretty much eat it.
13. What is the last movie that you watched? The last movie I watched was Twilight.
14. Favorite day of the year? my Anniversary or my kids birthdays. These are the days that have been the most significant and the most rewarding to me.
15. How do you vent anger/stress? go to pilates and or yoga class, hot bubble bath, curl up in a blanket and read a good book.
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? I don't even really remember playing with toys much (I always wanted to be outside or playing with friends). I could play house with shampoo and conditioner bottles in the bath tub for hours though.
17. What is your favorite season? Fall...love the food, the colors, wearing sweaters, and the cool but sunny weather.
18. Cherries or blueberries? Prefer cherries but love them both.
19. Do you want your friends to actually do this tag? sure, if they want.
20. Who is the most likely to do this tag? who knows
21. When was the last time you cried?...not sure don't cry too often.
22. What is on the floor of your closet? Just cleaned my closet...there are some dirty clothes hampers and some shoes.
23. Who is the friend that you have had the longest that you are tagging? Shelly Powell.
24. What did you do last night? Ate some Thanksgiving turkey of course :).

okay I am tagging the Shelly's, Brook, Lindsay, Shannon, Rickie, and Marybeth.

Fishing, Fishing, and More Fishing

2008-11-28T19:04:00.000-08:00

For the last 2 years Cameron has been obsessed with fishing, it is practically all he talks about and wants to do. Which is kind of hard when neither Jon or I really know how to fish. Because Jon is not a real big fan of fishing I would take Cameron fishing myself. I would take Cameron to Salem pond to fish at least once a week for just about a whole year; until I had Brooklyn. I would buy a package of worms, tie the line, hook the worm (yeah, kicking and screaming but I still did it), and cast, all by myself...yes, I am proud. We caught a few and once a really huge carp. Well Jon has taken my place as Cameron's fishing partner. Jon has been really frustrated with fishing (and about ready to give up) because he has been 'skunked' for pretty much the entire last year. Well last week Cameron and Jon met a seasoned fisherman at Salem pond and he taught them fishing technique's and a few fishing tricks. Today they went to Salem pond to test out what they learned and they finally caught some fish...they caught 5 fish. I have a filling that there are going to be a few more fishing trips for this family in the near future :).

Before and After pics

2008-11-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

So ever since I found out I was having a girl I have been so excited to dress her up in cute clothes and to do her HAIR. Do you see a problem with these pictures? Brooklyn was born with practically no hair and she still at 5 months has no hair. I guess I will just have to keep dreaming of 2 cute little pig tails.

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Yesterday was halloween and we had a lot of fun. The Atwater clan has a halloween party every year over at Clint's house; so we headed over there for a little while. We made scary face pizza's. Everyone else went trick-or-treating however, we just got called to activities committee in our ward a couple of weeks ago so we left and went to the Trunk-or-treat that we were in charge of. This was the first Trunk-or-treat we have ever been too. It was fun we had hot chocolate and donuts. There were a ton of people there...I would say about 1/2 of the people were inactive members of our ward who came out...which is great. It was kindof weird/but nice to be home and all done trick-or-treating by 7:15, we are usually out all night.
I over heard a girl telling her friend that a lady that was handing out candy at the trunk-or-treat would not give her a piece of candy because "your not active in our church"..I about died. Isn't that the whole point of these things is to get to know ALL OF YOUR NEIGHBORS. People like that give the church a bad name. Well all in all we had a great Halloween...hope you did too!

My Favorite things of Fall

2008-10-29T10:06:00.001-07:00

Fall is my favorite time of the year! Here is a list of some of my favorite parts of fall: I love chilli's, soups, and chowders, pumpkin cookies, caramel apples, Halloween, weather in the 60-75, how the trees change to beautiful colors, rides up the canyon, sand dunes, walks, jumping in leaves, and family pictures. So here is yet again some more fall family pictures. We love having 2 very talented photographers in the family. Thanks April for taking these pictures. If anyone is interested in pictures check out seasonatwaterphotography.com and aprilatwaterphotography.com

More family photos

2008-10-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry I know lots of pictures this time.

New Family Photos

2008-10-28T20:48:00.001-07:00

Thanks Season for all the adorable pictures...they all turned out so cute!

More Pumpkin Pictures

2008-10-28T20:46:00.003-07:00

Here are some more cute photos of our little pumpkin in a pumpkin patch.

Our Little Pumpkin!

2008-10-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

I made Brooklyn a pumpkin costume this year out of Tulle, and I had to get her picture taken in it. So thanks to my very talented sister-in-law Season I got a bunch of really cute pictures that I needed to show off.

Brooklyn Eating Solids

2008-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

I started Brooklyn on solids (cereal), and lets just say she wasn't to big of a fan. So we moved on to baby food. She likes baby food alot better and here are some pictures of her eating big girl food. She is hard to feed because she sticks her hand or her fingers in her mouth after each bite. She is a finger sucker and she is getting her first tooth so it is rare that you don't find her with her fingers or entire hand in her mouth.

Halloween Party

2008-10-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

So I decided to let the kids have a Halloween party and invite a couple of friends over for food and crafts. They decorated their own scary face pizza's, we made tye dye pumpkins shirts and we decorated pumpkin sugar cookies. The kids had alot of fun and especially liked their shirts. Cameron and Wesley want to wear theirs every day.

Mutual Dell

2008-10-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

Fall Break....sleep over at mutual dell. My sister Stephanie, sister-in-law Jessica and I decided to be daring and have a sleep over at the Mutual Dell cabin up American Fork canyon with all of our 15 children under the age of 12. The kids had alot of fun making yummy treats, dancing, playing games, and watching movies with their cousins. We were pretty suprised to get all the kids to bed by 10:15. However we accidentally left a window open all night so I only managed to really sleep for maybe about an hour; because I was frozen all night. Although there wasn't much sleeping and I was pretty exhausted the next day it was worth the memories and not to mention the kids had a blast.
Monday night we headed back up the canyon to Mutual Dell and had a big Simons family night. We had soups and bread sticks, played soccer and Jessica gave us a great lesson the Plan of Salvation. Thanks, we had alot of fun!

Happy Birthday Cameron

2008-10-12T14:04:00.001-07:00

So we have been pretty busy with Birthdays this last week. Cameron turned 6 on Friday and since he had a friend birthday last year this year he picked something to do as a family. We went to Liberty Land in Lehi...it was alot of fun. Friday was in the 50's and quite windy to say the least. We were the only ones there for a couple of hours. They just had a worker follow us around letting us on the rides. So even though it was freezing there were no lines and we got to ride on the rides longer because there was no one waiting behind us. They have gocarts, a roller coaster, bumper boats, a train and other kid carnival rides like a carousel and airplane ride, etc..., miniture golf, laser tag and this month they have a haunted house.
Cameron got a fish tank from Grandma Simons so yesterday Jon went and picked up 4 goldfish with Cameron for his fish tank. Well we got back from church this afternoon and All the fish were dead. Yeah, I think we might be the worst goldfish owners ever!! I think we will attempt buying goldfish one more time...anyone have any pointers on how to keep goldfish alive.
Cameron has been a joy to our family these last 6 years. Cameron is bright, very social, picks up things fast, and adores his little sister. Even though he is 6 and in school now...he still wants me to read to him all the time, give him hugs and kisses. He isn't always the nicest to his little brother Wesley but he loves him and hopefully one day they will play well together. Happy Birthday Cameron we all love you!

More pictures of wesley

2008-10-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Wesley!

2008-10-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Wesley turned 4 years old....he is getting so big. We had a family birthday party at his favorite place, Chuck E Cheeses. He had fun running around playing with all of his cousins; he had 30 cousins there. Wesley has been a blessing in our home for these last 4 years. He is loving, curious and full of energy...we love you Wesley.

Sand, Sand and more Sand

2008-09-21T13:27:00.001-07:00

This weekend we took the kids and went camping at the Sand Dunes. I bought a new tent for Jon for his birthday so this was the first time testing it out. It is huge! We had an air mattress for Jon and I, Brooklyn in her portacrib, and wesley and cameron on foam mats, and we still had plenty of room. The tent is 16 ft in length. We had alot of fun...well except for only getting about an hour of sleep! We camped next to a group of boyscouts and we will just say that they never went to sleep. The kids had alot of fun...Cameron only got off his 4-wheeler to eat, sleep, or to play in the sand. He was in heaven right along with his dad. Wesley enjoyed playing with our friends kids and getting rides. I had alot of fun riding my 4-wheeler and I am finally getting used to riding it. We did have kind of a scare though.....I took Wesley for a long ride and on our way back we were riding over some whoopdidoos kind of fast and so we got some air Wesley grabbed ahold of the throttle cable to keep from falling off and it came apart so we went full throttle. We started going out of control and going full speed, we headed into the brush and up a hill and started to tip over. I was able to catch Wesley as we fell off by the helmet with my arm and with my leg I was able to keep us from rolling. I pushed the brakes hard and I was able to kill the engine. Neither of us really got hurt just a little shaken up.
Saturday we had a pretty good rain storm, and a wind storm that would never let up...thank goodness for some friends that came with us who allowed us to sit in their toy hauler instead of fighting the elements. Jon wants our next big purchase to be a camp trailer/ or toy hauler (yeah right). It would be a little easier to camp in a trailer with kids instead of in a tent that is for sure. But camping in a trailer just doesn't seem like camping to me.

Birthday Party

2008-09-14T21:12:00.002-07:00

Last weekend we went up to Morgan UT and celebrated with Jon's grandma her 90th birthday. The kids love going there! They love seeing "old" grandma, and love running around seeing all the animals on the farm. We got to see Jon's extended family which we don't get a chance to see very often. Happy Birthday Grandma...we love you! Picturs below are pic of Grandma Bohman, Grandma Atwater with grandkids Adika and Brooklyn

More Pics of Brooklyn

2008-09-14T21:12:00.001-07:00

I feel pretty lucky to have 2 sister-in-laws that are photographers and who are willing to take pictures for me. If anyone is need of a photographer I know of 2 good ones.

To benefit the Nielson family {aprilatwaterphotography} will be auctioning off in silent auction a family photo session which includes:
-25 Hugs & Giggles Christmas Cards
-family photography session from April Atwater Photography
-4X6 prints of all the photos taken at your session
-8X10 print
-high resolution Cd of all the photos taken at your session
So hurry up and make a bid by Sept 20th....go to sweetlifeinthevalley.com and find instructions and more information about the Nielson family.

Pictures of Brooklyn

2008-09-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law Season took some 3 month pictures of Brooklyn. Thanks!...they turned out cute.

Wesley, Wesley, Wesley

2008-09-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

Wesley got some yogurt out of the fridge and this is what he ended up looking like after he ate it. I am not sure why he is such a messy eater. He is as messy of an eater as he was when he was a baby. This kid has no sense of cleanliness or hygiene. He could care less if he was covered in mud from head to toe. He is such a curious little boy and he is always making BIG messes. I find myself getting frustrated with him, but he also brings so much happiness to my life. He always wants to come cuddle with mom, give me kisses, hold my hand, and tell me he loves me. He is always excited to see me. He is sociable and is always trying to meet new people. He loves being the center of attention and loves to make people laugh. He loves to sing and to dance to a beat. He loves grandpa's (any grandpa), and he is always saying the funniest things. I love you Wesley!

First Day of School

2008-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

Cameron had his first day of Kindergarten last week. He was so excited to go to the same school as all of his older friends. He was a little disappointed when I told him he would not get to eat lunch at school until 1st grade. After school Cameron asked me why he is taller than everyone in his class. He is only about a foot taller than all the kids in his class....but I guess it's what should be expected when you have giants for parents...right?

Hogle Zoo

2008-09-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

The day before school started we decided to take a family trip to Hogle Zoo. The kids loved watching the animals especially the monkeys, the giraffes and the huge snakes. There was a cute new little white baby monkey that would cling to it's mom's tummy fur while she walked around. (how easy would that be if our babies held on to us as we walked around!)

Elvis look alike

2008-08-27T21:19:00.002-07:00

So Jon has been told several times that he looks like Elvis Presley. What do you think?

Pictures of when we first met.

2008-08-27T21:19:00.001-07:00

OUR 8 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

2008-08-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

This last Monday we had our 8 year anniversary......holy crap 8 years! I can't believe how time flies by! I have known Jon now for 9 years of my life. On one hand the last 9 years have gone by so fast, on the other hand it seems like I have known Jon forever. I am so thankful to be married to such a great guy who is a great father and who is truly my best friend. Looking forward to many great years to come. Pictures above are some photos of us when we first met...most of our good pictures are in scrapbooks so these are the ones I could come up with.

Remember..............

2008-08-03T21:27:00.004-07:00

Ummmmm, only if you feel so inclined :-)

Heres What you Do
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.