Oh My Goodness.

Oh my goodness.
I am going to use my blog as a place to complain.
I try to not do this because I want to be able to go back and reread my blogs and not get crabby.
But it's happening.
Sorry.
Here I go.

Never mind. I typed it all out and I feel better now. Not 100% but probably 80? So I deleted it. No need to put all that negativity out there.
Kudos to me. I did a good thing.
And I am going to praise myself. :D Because it's one of those days where I just need some compliments.

And now, I am going to share the link on facebook. Because sometimes, I want to let the world know that I don't suck.

Thanks for reading.

all by myself

Oh man world. (Or few random followers) Today is one for the books. Today I took all three kids out by myself. Now I know most women or men wouldn't think this is a big feat because well, you probably do it all the time. I however, never have. We just got a second car last Monday and I just was scared about it. That's all. The idea of taking all three out in public alone seemed overwhelming. But I did it folks. And it was great.

Except here is my one bad experience today. We went to the dinosaur museum in thanksgiving point and there was this mom there with her two boys and I promise you, her one son who was probably 7 was the biggest cry baby I've ever experienced. And that includes my colic babies. Seriously. Adam accidentally splashed him in the face and he screamed. Screamed people. Gah. Then he tripped over Adam and he flipped out. The mom was like "oh my poor baby. Too bad some moms don't watch their kids better. We should just leave." (As she puts siren her book to rush over to him. Hypocrite.  As you can tell this mom out me in fine firm. I get crabby folks.) Good riddance I tell you. (Adam fell over and just got right back up. He's 1. This other kid, not so much.) So this kid who barely fell kept screaming about his leg and his owie. Then we ran into him later in the sand quarry and Mikey threw sand at him so I told him no that it wasn't okay and if he did it again we were leaving. So naturally he does it again so I tell him we are leaving, and I apologize to this mom and she goes "pfft. Okay, fine." Gah. If I was violent, I would've wanted to hit her. ( It's possible I'm more violent then I realize haha)

Now here are some pictures of the happy memories.

Mikey loves to jump over the cracks.

Adam shaking off his hands. 

This girl. She is just gorgeous. And truly, so sweet.

Whole big magnetic wall and he chooses to make a dinosaur on the floor. Whatta kid.

Thanks for reading!

A pumpkin patch!

Cornbelly's! It was so good this year! 

Jake's dad is in town for a few days so last night we went to cornbellys. We were pretty excited about it because Mikey had been taking about a pumpkin patch for weeks. Seriously weeks. I'm considering making "pumpkin" a swear word in my house so I will stop hearing it all the time.  

The entire time we were there Mikey kept being like pumpkin? Mama I want a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. But in the mean time we went in the kiddy maze, went in the corn kernel beach thing, watched the pig races and a bunch of other things.  Mikey ran too fast in the maze and I lost him for a minute which was significantly less fun than the rest of the trip but Mikey thought it was hilarious. Adam was obsessed with this mechanical band thing. He was dancing around and nothing could distract him from this band

 It was adorable. Natalie was a good little girl just hanging out in her stroller. Also Abby and Jake's dad provided a delightful little picnic for us so that was great. It is so awesome that you can bring food in. And to end a great night, they did a fireworks show. Now I don't love fireworks like the rest of the Logan's do but I do really love watching my kids watch them. They are all just so awestruck by them and I love it. There is something so special about watching your kids experience something magical. :)

Now just a few pictures. I forgot my camera and I really hate the camera on my phone so I took just a few.

Adam watching the silly mechanical band.

Mikey was just so excited.

They loved that corn kernel beach thing. I liked it okay except they kept eating it which was but cool.

Thanks for reading!

Favorite Time of the Year

I love fall. L-O-V-E! Love it.
It's beautiful. The colors, the smell of the chill in the air. Ah. Excellent.
I love sweaters and scarves and socks and boots.
I love hot chocolate and stew and soup and cinnamon rolls.
(I realize you can eat/drink all of those anytime but there is something about this time of the year that makes me want them. Like how I want strawberries all the time in summer)
I love poppies and "In Flanders Fields."
I love turkey and stuffing and cranberries.
I love the decorations and colors
I love potatoes and gravy and rolls.
I love watching conference in my pjs and eating cinnamon rolls and m&m's (everyone has their traditions right?)
I love staying up to midnight snacking on Chinese food.
I love making sure all my kids (and Jake and I) have their hair washed on December 31.
I love Christmas trees.
I love presents.
I LOVE nativities.
I love Christmas movies (especially on Hallmark)
I love the idea of fresh starts.
I love the good memories of the past year and the promise of more to come.
I love cheese covered in wax. (shout out to Grandma Elaine.)
I love stockings and new pajamas.
I love pumpkins and paper bats and witches and ghosts.
I love candy. (keep it real folks, keep it real)
I love that Christmas is probably the one day of the year that I talk to everyone in my family.
I love big breakfasts.
I love sweet potatoes and pumpkin pies.
I love candy canes, but only the mint ones (sorry Jeff, I know you love the other flavors)
I love The Night Before Christmas.
I love Mickey's House of Villians.
I love watching all the Harry Potter movies over Thanksgiving week,
I love watching my kids eyes get wide when they open their presents.
I love SNOW!
I love the smell of winter.
I love Temple Square lights. And the Thanksgiving Point lights.
I love special Christmas church clothes.
I love singing Christmas hymns all of December.
I love that since I am Canadian I can put up my tree as early as I want because Canadian Thanksgiving is in October so I am not skipping a holiday.
I love scarecrows and hay bales.
I love rice krispie trees.
I love gingerbread houses.
I love haunted chocolate houses.
I love corn mazes and pumpkin patches.
I love it all! I could go on forever.

Starting in October, we have General Conference, then Canadian Thanksgiving, then my birthday, then Halloween, then Remembrance Day, then American Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Years. It's just the best.
Really. I am always so happy this time of year. :D

My kids.

I love my kids. I truly believe I have the best kids in the world. They make me crazy sometimes (aka Most of the time) and I'm constantly telling them my head is going to explode but do I ever love them. They are beautiful and smart and precious and just the best blessing in mine and Jake's life. I love my nieces and nephews too.and my neighbors kids and my others friend kids but I'm thankful everyday that these are the kids I got. 

I just love my life.

Thanks for reading!

A Year in Review!

I like to celebrate things. Anything honestly. I make my family wear BYU clothes every week for the football game. I acknowledge month-days. It's fun. I like to make a big breakfast every holiday, no matter how small. The most recent celebration we had was September 13- Our Moving Anniversary!
That's right folks. We've lived in EM for a whole year.
You know what the best part of celebrating is? Looking back and seeing how far we have come.
So with out any more delay! Our last year in review!

We moved! Yay!
We got a new car.
Adam started walking.
Jake got a raise.
Mikey started to use sentences.
We got to host our first Thanksgiving with my brother and his family.
We did our first Christmas in our house.
Adam turned one.
We had our baby girl.
Jake lost his job. Bummer.
Jake got a job 2 weeks later.
We went to St George for a week. (it was for Jake's work but it was probably our first actual vacation that we did just for us, well minus the honeymoon. That was exciting)
We planted our first garden.
We went to a family reunion which was awesome. And then a few weeks later, we went to Hawaii to spend time with the Logans. Also awesome.
I finished completely decorating one room. And had started on a bunch of others.
Mikey turned 3.
Mikey started preschool.
Natalie started crawling.
We ate pizza on the floor on September 13 2014.

We had a good year. Not the biggest changes but a lot of firsts and a lot of others that weren't firsts but still crazy exciting.

We love it out here so much. We love our house, and neighbors, and friends, and ward. We don't love the flies but every bright sky has a cloud right?

We've been truly blessed this past year and can't wait to see what the future brings us.

Thanks for reading!

The Moroccan Faux Wall Paper.

I did it. I finished it. I started to redo Natalie's room in March? Maybe April, but either way it took forever. I was well on my way but then we went to GA and then we had visitors that were staying in the guest room which is also Natalie's room. So, after my sister left for AZ and before Jake's sister got here from HI I finished it. The wall took forever. Seriously. But be excited about the pictures I have.

Her room is one of the favorites in the house. I think it's because for such a long time the boys weren't allowed in and now it's probably the nicest room in our house haha. So when I went in there with a camera Mikey got very excited. (his new favorite word in cheese so pictures are big deals.)

Here is a shelf that I had in the living room downstairs but I moved the room around and then the TV was in the way of it so I painted it brown and put it up in Alie's room. The picture of the beach is Hukilau which is the beach that Jake swam her piko out (her umbilical cord.. it's a tradition) Also, I have a bag of sand from the beach to put in that little empty jar but every time I think about doing it Natalie is sleeping and the jar is in there. Like right now, at this moment, I should fill the jar but what do you know!? Alie is asleep.

This is a little table I got at Target like a year ago for, wait for it... $5! I got two so that we could use them as side tables in our room but Jake kept moving them to use as footstools and such. It drove me nuts so I moved them into the guest room because at least then, I wouldn't be constantly reminded of the fact that Jake was misusing them. Haha. Don't worry, I'm over it now. Well Adam climbed on one and broke it and the other one I painted and now, voila! It's a side table. It has finally fulfilled its purpose. Eventually I'll get something to put on it, like a clock but all in good time.

And here it is. The main event. The Wall. Yes, it needs to be capitalized because it is that important. This took forever. First, I printed out a design from a website and then, once I cut it wrong, I came up with my very own design haha. It was supposed to be more symmetrical but truly, I think this looks much better. All of the websites that I saw had a neutral wall with a slightly darker pattern stenciled on top. Well, I wanted the wall purple and I already had the white paint so I threw caution into the wind and went for it and I am glad I did. So I had to trace each and every line on that wall and then I went over it with a paintbrush. It was rough. But I am so proud.

Also, I love the curtains I put up. I bought them right after Jake and I got married and then they didn't work in the space I wanted them for so I meant to return them, which I never did. And good thing! I went to Home Depot... or Lowes. Probably Lowes. And bought 6 hooks and then I crossed the curtains... I am not explaining this well but you can kind of tell in the picture. It's cute. That's all.

After Mikey was born, I decided that I always want to have a picture of Christ in each of my kids rooms. I went to Seagull Book and found this picture for $20! Way to go me! I love this picture! It's so cute and it looks great in the room. I seriously recommend Seagull Book for anyone who wants a picture of Christ. It came framed and everything, for $20. What could be better!

Here is Natalie's crib. And her name. The boys have their names over their beds so I did it with hers too. Her's is purple because that is the theme I went with. Purple, brown, white, with a little turquoise. The crib bedding is all hand sewn! Yay for me! 

Okay, look at the headboard. I love it. (is that getting repetitive yet? Because I love this room) It is just four 1x6 boards screwed into the wall, painted brown. And the frame above is one I got from Costco about 4 years ago which matches really well. 

And the pillows... the white-ish one I bought a year ago. Well I bought two and Mikey and Adam took a dry erase marker to one so the remaining one gets to go in here for the guests! Also, Jake picked out the purple pillow cases. Way to go Jake!

Finally, the last picture. This is my mom's old rocking chair. The chair isn't broken, the one piece on the back is just turned because that is a favorite pastime of the kiddos. It goes so well in there and makes the room a little sentimental for me.

I love this room. I am so proud of it. I'm not very good at decorating but I sure want to be. My dad told me once that I could be good at anything if I try. So here I am trying. Wish me luck. Hopefully next will be the kitchen. But not for a while because this month, I want to deep clean the house. Wish me luck on that... a lot of luck, I'll need it.

Thanks for reading!

Batman Mickey Mouse Party

Well friends. The day has come and gone.. well almost gone. Mikey turned 3. I have been a parent for three years and in case you were wondering, it is still so hard for me. I feel like every day I am trudging through the mud of life and only some days I get to wash off my legs. But those days I do, man oh man am I ever happy about it. And let me tell you, Mikey's third birthday party was one of those days that my legs were clean! I feel like I nailed it. Now, let me tell you all about it.

A few weeks ago, I asked him what he wanted for his party and he tells me he wants a superhero and Mickey Mouse party. Seriously? No, I am not going to do a completely opposite mixed theme birthday party. No way. I kept asking him and he kept saying Superhero and Mickey Mouse, so a week and a half ago, I said how about Batman and Mickey Mouse and he was so excited. So the planning began. I made really cute invitations, if I do say so myself. I found a picture of Mickey Mouse dressed as Batman and used it on the invite. And then I planned everything in red, blue, black, and yellow. 

He also wanted a BBQ with hamburgers and hot dogs so we did that and a bunch of random snacks and a cake and cupcakes (more on that to come)

As for the activites we did a photo booth, coloring books, a candy counter, bubbles, and Pin the Symbol on Batman. 

We got a pretty good turn out. 

AND I AM SO PROUD OF IT! I have terrible luck with parties and this one went so well so I am so glad.

Here are some pictures for better details of the party.

Each of Mikey's little friends that came got a picture taken at the booth with Batman, Mickey Mouse, and Mikey and before they left I printed them off for them to take home. Also, I made capes for each of the kids to wear at the party.

Here is our food table! We had Hot Diggity Dogs, Bat Burgers, Willy's Watermelon, Joker Juice, Poison Ivy Pasta Salad, "Chip"s and Dale's Dip, Pete's Pretzels, Gotham Goldfish, Daisy's Delicious Garden Vegetables, Alfred's Amazing Cake, and Clarabelle's Cupcakes. All of the food had cute little labels that I made, the batman ones had the bat symbol on yellow paper and the Mickey Mouse ones were red with his silhouette on it. It was fun to come up with different names- although to be completely honest, some were from Pinterest.

Also, the back drop was made from three plastic table cloths that we cut and braided. And I really liked the way it looked. And then we taped balloons to the top. Fun.

(the we I am referring to was Hannah, Eliza, Jake, and I- we made a good team)

The birthday boy with his dad and brother! Notice the capes. :D

Mikey's little girlfriend coloring at our coloring station. We bought a bunch of cheap crayons and a coloring book, ripped the pages out and let the kids go to town.

We went to Winco and got a bunch of bulk candy for a candy counter so all the kids got to make their own treat bags. We got Peach-O's, Tootsie Rolls, Gummy Bears, balloons, Gummy Worms, Candy Necklaces, and suckers. I put them in mason jars so it'd be cute and bought cheap gift bags from Walmart.  I think it was a pretty big hit.

Candy Counter and Bubble table

Coloring Table

So as for the cake! I have a friend who makes absolutely gorgeous and incredibly delicious cakes and I normally like to get them from her but I wanted to give it a shot and I am so glad I did. While it wasn't as good or nice looking as Mandy's, it looked pretty good. I forgot to take a picture of it but you can see it in the picture below. I made it in the shape of Mickey Mouse and then put the Batman symbol on it and then his name underneath. We also made a bunch of cupcakes and Hannah helped me decorate them and they turned out really cute. Of course, I don't have pictures of them either. Geez. It's like I was busy or something haha. But I filled the cupcakes with a chocolate almond whipped cream and oh man, it was so good. I recommend doing that. 

 He got so many presents! He was so spoiled. We got him a doctor's bag, a coloring book, some underwear, and a Batman t-shirt with a cape attached to it. He also got a Mickey Mouse helmet, a Cozy Coupe gas pump, a huge coloring pad, a toy smart phone, a car rug thing, a rocket launcher, a few Batman figurines, a Batman hoodie, a Batman shirt, a dancing card, and a toy car. He is so excited about all of them and honestly, I don't think I can pick one that is his favorite. He loves the gas pump. But he also ran around giving everyone check ups with his doctors bag. And this morning he played with the rocket launcher for so long. It was adorable. But honestly, he has played with all of them so much. He is so lucky to have so many friends and family to celebrate with him!

And then here are some pictures that I took of the cake and cupcakes after I realized that we didn't have any. But cute right? I am proud of them. Plus, they tasted good which is really the most important part.

And then today, James and Arianne came for dinner and we had a tempura night and it was delicious. Also, he woke up to a bunch of balloons outside his bedroom. (It's a little tradition I want to start. For each birthday you get a bunch of helium balloons in the morning. I think it'd be so fun) And in nursery, Mikey's class sang to him today and he got some candy or something. I think all in all, his birthday was a great one. I am so glad the party went so well and that Mikey had such great days. 

He is such a lucky kid to have so many friends and family and we are so lucky to have him as our son! We love him so much and man, if you are all lucky, you will get a chance to know him.

Thanks for reading!