Cinnamon Rolls and Cockroaches?

Yesterday morning we cooked up some of my mother's amazing cinnamon rolls for breakfast. For the special occasion I sat at the little table with Byron and Taryn. I was talking to Taryn and called her "sweet pea". Byron said, "and I'm your little bean, right?"

"Yep, your my little bean."

"And sometimes I am your little cockroach too, right?"

I quickly explained to Byron that he did not want to be my little cockroach, because I don't really like cockroaches. They are gross.

"Oh!" After 30 seconds of silence pass he then proceeds to give me amazing information. His little face lights up and he says, "mom, did you know that your sinuses are right under your eyes?" Poking me in the cheek he adds, "right here."

"Wow, I did know that my sinuses were right there, where did you learn that? Did dad tell you that?"

"No. I saw it on a TV commercial, and did you know that when you are sick little green guys run around in them and yell and dance and stuff?"

I just had to laugh! I didn't think they showed sinus commercials during morning cartoons? I'll have to see if Steve knows any more about this! Children are so funny. I'm always surprised by what they find amusing or what sticks and what doesn't.

I sure love my little Bean!

Byron is king of a  mountain at the Grand Canyon!

Summer Fun With The Texas Cousins!

On August 10th we got one of the true treats of our summer! The Baker family flew in from Houston, TX for their summer visit! We were determined to show them a good time. I pride myself on being the family pictorian (haha, I came up with that myself, nerdy I know :) Because of this I end up with ridiculous quantities of pictures. By ridiculous I literally mean hundreds!!! So here I will subject you to a very few of my favorites. A bit of a picture marathon!

We started off with a welcome back Party for Robert and Ashley on Monday night! Swimming and yummy food at the Ashworth's (parents). The kiddos were in heaven!

Ashley and Robert the adorable couple of honor!

On Tuesday Kristin and I took our five children to Town Square, a new mall with an outdoor park. Grandma Jean accompanied us and took us to lunch at the Claim Jumper! The children had a great time playing in the water and running around the park! Lunch was delicious and fun too. It was a great chance for me to visit with Kristin and Grandma Jean!

Five cute cousins on the caterpillar! Taryn is so cheesy, wonder where she gets that?

Derek, Byron and Shayla loved the maze! They ran around in there for quite awhile!

This is one of my favorite pictures! Six years apart and they adore each other!

That night we had dinner together and birthday cake for two true greats: Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jack. Their birthdays are a week apart, August 10th & August 17th. The cake is a family favorite, five flavor cake. Yummy! Then we played some fierce rounds of Rock Band!

The birthday couple Grandpa Jack & Grandma Jean!

Rock Band with Aunt Elyssa! Taryn ROCKS the drums and Byron loves to sing!

On Wednesday, Kristin and I loaded up our five children in Nonni's minivan for a little road trip to St. George, UT to visit more greats! First stop Grandma Bev's house! We had lunch when we arrived. The fun there included a raucous few rounds of the candy bar game, its just not a trip to Grandma Bev's without the candy bar game! The great grand children also got to help make white chocolate popcorn. And:

Derek and Byron enjoyed a couple matches of wrestling.

Playing a couple hands of Old Maid!

Grandma Bev and the five great grand children. Taryn, Byron, Shayla, Junior & Derek!

Next stop Grandpa Dallin's house.  I wish I had taken more pictures there. The children loved  playing on the playground, Byron loved Ty's bedroom for it holds everything "boy", and they even watched a little Star Wars! Taryn got the royal treatment from Katie! We had dinner there and got to visit with Grandpa, Judy and my cousin Charise came too!

The girls! Shayla, Taryn and Katie!

Grandpa Dallin and my little family!

Thursday was Ashley's Birthday on August 14th, and Steve's is August 16th! So we had another party that night. Our friends the Slighting's brought a really fun blowup water slide for the kids! We had scone tacos, ice cream cake and more fun with the cousins!

Byron flying down the slide! Superman style!

Tyler, me and Taryn posing for a picture!

I had to throw this one in! The only thing better than a scone taco? 

A scone with butter and raspberry jam! What a cute face!

The birthday cuties! Happy Birthday Steve and Ashley!

This is just the first installment of pictures. I will post Visit Part II : The Family Reunion another time! I'm sure I would tear my hair out trying to arrange any more photos! I love my family and it is so much fun to hang out and spend time with them! Hope you enjoyed the photo marathon!

The Law of Perpetual Motion!

I really wish this law of nature didn't exist. I wish that once I sat on my couch for 20 minutes (to assure my baby that I'm not going anywhere else today and we don't have to be attached at the hip) that I could just hop up and clean as easily as I sat in the first place. Not the way it works so here I still sit looking at my dirty floors and picking Taryn up and setting her down every few minutes! So it is. At least I know when I get moving it will be easier to stay that way, at least till dinner.

I think that relationships could also fall into this category. Our relationships with others are either perpetually disappearing or continuing on at a lovely connected pace. I love reconnecting with friends I have fallen out of touch with. Especially when if feels as if we never lost the forward motion in our relationship in the first place!  I went to Laura Mitchell's wedding reception this past Friday, and it was so fun to see Ann and their whole family! The Mitchell's were friends with my parents when they went to BYU and our families have been friends ever since. Good times and fun memories! I actually felt like I had kept in better touch with Ann than I had in recent times because of these blessed blogs. I love reading my friends blogs or finding them on facebook and checking out pictures from their lives, finding out when marriages and births occurred. Definitely a blessing of this information age.

So again I ask, why is it so hard to contact people that I haven't contacted for a long time? I get all nervous when they don't write me back as quickly as I anticipated, did I say / write something wrong? We care far too much what other people think. I know first hand. I even got a little stressed about how open I was with Ann and Sarah, did I talk too much, etc.? Am I a walking, talking TMI? It is so silly. I have a live journal account too, and when I think something is too strange, akward, or personal I write about it there instead. I just read through it. I have some really good entries! Why am I such a chicken about sharing? Is it because I'm not as funny as some, well written as others, witty enough, honest enough, too honest? I suppose I could go on all day. Alas, I just try to remember this quote:

"What other people think of you is none of your business!"

It really is true. There is always someone better or worse than you at everything you do. Others will sometimes not like us, even if they have no reason or are wrong. I could stress myself out about such matters on a daily basis. All simple truths.

Reality. Others are just glad you share. Most people don't think you are bragging. Honesty is refreshing. Catching up with my friends for hours on cyberspace is a lot of fun and a great stress relief. I believe blogs and other means to share ourselves allow us to share our talents and words of wisdom (even when we are not feeling wise). I will continue to put myself out there, and talk myself into thinking that I'm really not that silly, foolish or TMI because I want to and I know you want to read! ;) And like Ann said in a recent post of hers, you just have to pretend you are so confident and then everyone will believe it.

I am funny and amazing. I am bordering on the worlds most accomplished blogger. My wisdom is profound and everyone wants to read it! Hey, that is a good start!

I guess my point is that it is important to reconnect, get our relationships with our family and friends moving again. Revive them. Even if it just means providing a way for you to find them, or looking for them. I think it is all part of the gathering! I can't speak for anyone else, but I love getting the chance to reconnect and be a better friend! I love finding out how people I knew and loved, how things turned out for them and remember that I love them still. I think that relationships are much more important than many other things in this life. Even more than I realize! I love you all, really I do! I wish I were a better friend regularly! Just know that I love you.

Taryn Talks!

No really she does! I'm suppose I'm typing that to convince myself more than anyone else. Her current vocabulary consists of these words. Mama, Dad, Do (dog), up, "No, No, No", bye, hi, more and hot.  The funny thing about her communication is that she is so casual about it that you almost don't realize that she spoke at all, or that it is a big deal. I'm sure some other children learned to speak even earlier, but I'm still surprised at her skills and age. She is just so good at communicating. She signs more words than she can say, and she always manages to communicate her wants. Very well. Here are a couple of funny Taryn Talk stories! Of course there was the finger wagging "No, no, no!" story in the last post. 

Well today she was sitting on Heidi's lap in Laurels. I was helping to shift from opening exercises into our individual class. Apparently Taryn tried unsuccessfully to get my attention by saying, "Mom, mom, mom." Heidi thought that was cute and to be funny said, "my mom." Taryn then proceeded to argue with Heidi saying, "my mom." "My mom." "My mom." After three rounds of the "my mom", Taryn just leaned over ever so slightly and bit Heidi on her arm. Conversation ended! (Don't worry, she just tasted her. Just enough to let her know she meant business I guess :)

When we were at the Grand Canyon Taryn was cruising around the porch in front of the Gift Shop while my mom and Karalee watched her. Back and forth she toddled and anytime anyone tried to pick her up she would veer away. After a few passes she noticed an elderly gentleman sitting alone a few chairs down. She kept walking closer to him cocking her head to each side and looking into his face. When she caught his attention she lifted her little hand into a wave and said, "Hi!" Then turned and toddled back.

She is so funny and never misses out on the joke. If your laughing, she is too. A very forced laugh, but a laugh all the same. She even covers her little mouth while she chuckles. I'll have to pay attention to see where she gets that from. She is in the copy and mimic stage! She does everything her mom, dad and big brother do. It is so cute! I just love her!

Taryn sporting her new shades!

Taryn loves sunglasses and has never broken a pair. She is amazingly gentle with them, so we bought her this pair from the gift shop. She thought she was pretty cool, but she still seems to want whatever pair I'm wearing!

Gathering the Family!

That is what I feel like I have been doing this past week! It all started by going down to Tucson, AZ to collect my adorable sister Ashley and her amazingly handsome-when-bald husband Robert!  :) He is FINALLY done at the cancer clinic, and his bone marrow transplant went well.  Now he will just have to go back for check-ups every 6 months, and when he is cancer free for 5 years we will officially say he is in remission!

Then there is Elyssa who has returned home for her "summer" from BYUi. She attended the Winter/Summer semesters and will be home until next January! On Sunday evening Kristin and her children Derek 9, Shayla 7 and Junior 1 will fly in from Houston, TX.

Now the time has past that they were here and they have headed home. Yet I still feel as if I am gathering the family! And by gathering I suppose that I also mean reconnecting. I have visited with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins and friends in person and over the internet. It has been so fun to catch up with everyone. It makes my world feel a little smaller and more connected! I think that gathering is important. We are meant to be connected and work on our relationships together. I want to know all my family members, not lose track of them. I have always felt very motivated to visit. Every member of my family and extended family has amazing things to share with me and teach me. Now I feel like I'm rambling. So, I'll be off to gather!