New Car for Mom

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to me!!!! For Mother's Day we traded in our Toyota Sienna minivan for a Honda Pilot....for me!!!




I know it sounds a little selfish and spoiled, but I really hated being a "minivan mom". I was never happy with the minivan or driving it, so I pouted and got my way. Hey, I drove it for about two years, it served it's purpose, but my new car is soooo COOL!! Not to mention it is 3 years newer, has 50,000 less miles, gets 4 mpg better and seats an extra person!! Total upgrade right!! I guess I'll have to let Kenny drive it every now and then too or he'll try to talk me into letting him buy another motorcycle or RC car!!

Spring Yard Work

Well we have been trying to beautify our yard and give our house a face lift. Some of our projects include fencing in our yard, but we haven't started that yet. We got a little side tracked and ended up cutting down our apple tree and planting a new tree in a different part of the yard. We cut down the apple tree because 1) we HATE fruit trees. The apples weren't good anyway and we hated picking up the rotten apples. 2) we recently came into possession of a trampoline and needed a place to put it 3) did I mention we HATE fruit trees? Next we decided our house looked a little lifeless so we constructed and painted shutters for the front windows to display our new, energy efficient windows. Well, now the front door looked old, so we bought a new storm door and are planning on painting the front door to match the shutters. We want to do so much, but never seem to have enough time!!

No more rotten apples squishing between our toes!!

Oddly enough, this tree is a flowering pear tree, not the fruiting kind though :)

What do you think? Total DIY!!

Scared me half to death!

So I know I haven't blogged in a while, but nothing really has been happening, until the other morning.

I woke up early and went to the gym before Kenny left for work. I got home at about 7:30 and as I am opening the door I hear Livvy say, "Mommy!" My first thought was, great she's awake now I can't go back to sleep!

Well, I couldn't see her as I opened the door because she was in the kitchen. I walked into the living room and looked up as she ran into the room....and my heart stopped.

One look at her face, I see she covered in blood. All the blood drains from my face. But, oddly enough she has a huge grin on her face and Kenny is laughing. Hearing him laugh pissed me off! How could he think Livvy's face is funny...unless he hasn't seen it yet.

I say, "Why are you laughing? Have you seen her face? It is covered in blood!" He just laughs more and says, "It's not blood, it's her vitamin."



I was so confused, how could her vitamin be making her head bleed? Then I realized what happened. The night before, I gave Livvy her vitamin at bedtime. I guess she didn't chew it up like I thought she did. Instead, she kept it between her cheek and teeth all night long. As it dissolved and as she drooled it got all over her bed, face and hair, looking horribly like blood.

You can imagine my relief when I realized it wasn't blood, but a lovely artificial red food coloring that has stained my daughter's cheek and hair. Luckily, I was lazy and hadn't put the freshly washed sheets back on her bed and she fell asleep right on the plastic mattress so the dye wiped right up off of it.

Next time, I'll make sure she chews the vitamin completely before letting her go to sleep!!

Our trip to NYC

Okay, so we got back from our 5 day visit to NYC on Tues. To be honest, NYC is awesome. There are people everywhere, lights, cars. It is busy and noisy and so cool!! My ears hurt once we got back to our room our first night out because it was so quiet. We ate lots of yummy food, rode the subway, saw very interesting people. The posts that follow show pictures from the spots we visited. We really enjoyed our time away from the kids, but were happy to be back and see their smiling faces again.

I just wanted to write down a few things I noticed about NYC:

Couples don't hold hands. People looked at Kenny and I like we were weird.

Snapple is huge out there. Everyone drinks it.

Every restaurant has a "What to do if Someone is Choking" sign. Makes me wonder how many people have choked there.

Probably 75-80% of the people smoke and drink coffee. There is a Starbucks on every corner it seems like. I almost thought I was in Seattle.

A lot of restaurants don't take credit cards, but there is an ATM in every one.

The street vendors selling food...BEWARE!! It might smell and taste really good, but the payback is hell.

People don't return your smile. Sure they're friendly, but no one seems to smile.

Taxi drivers are crazy!!! They dart in and out of traffic, I was surprised I didn't see an accident once.

Our trip was great!!! I ate like a pig, but didn't gain any weight. Probably because we walked about 45 miles. It was nice to have a break away from the kids, but we did fight over who would get to hold the baby first and who Livvy would run to first when she saw us at the airport. So take a few minutes to look over these posts. I recommend taking a trip to NYC yourself, but skip the cheesecake. New York cheesecake from Costco tastes much better in my opinion.

Times Square

We walked to Times Square our first night. It was sooooo neat to see all the people, lights, traffic. There really is a pulse to the city. Yummy smells were coming from bakeries and vendors. This is one place everyone should experience at least once in their lives.








Kenny at the largest Toys-R-Us in the world. There is even a ferris wheel inside!!


They change lights on this sign every day.

Ground Zero

We did go to Ground Zero. It felt a little weird asking New Yorkers for directions to the spot where their city and our nation suffered a great disaster. But people were nice and gave use directions. The spot where the towers stood is now surrounding by a 12ft fence because they are starting to rebuild the spot. Excavation is still being done as well, they say that since 2004, they have found DNA from 1800 people lost in the 9/11 attack. I guess I can understand the fence and wanting to keep people out of the debris still left there.


This is the stump of a tree that is outside a church across from the towers. I believe it was a 100 year old Sycamore tree. When all the debris fell when the towers came down, this tree blocked it and none of the windows in the church broke. The church became a place people came to for comfort, counseling, the fire and policemen came here for rest and food. It became a memorial in the days after and they still hold worship services here every Sunday.


This a picture of what they plan to do at the site of the North and South Towers. Memorial pools at both the sites.


This is a jacket from one of the firemen. In the picture behind it shows how they slept on the pews during the rescue/recovery effort.


A picture drawn by a child about how the towers fell, but rebuilt by love.

A piece of the tower.

The Temple

We went to the Temple on Conference Sunday. Since the Stake Center is the main floor of the building, we thought we might get to watch a little of Conference. Unfortunately, the building is closed for refurbishing. :( It was still neat to see the Temple in the middle of Manhattan. We just got off the subway, looked up, and there was the Angel Moroni.