A Tribute to Good Friends

This Summer is my ten year high school reunion. (scary!) To commemorate this event, my friends and I spent a weekend in Salt Lake together. We had such a blast! I am so blessed to have such good friends and to have been able to keep in contact with them for so many years. This post is dedicated to my friends and all the reasons why I love them!

Kami, Lisa, Shauni and Melanie (it took many tries to get this picture!)


Lisa shows off some of her purchases.


Kami was the good friend who agreed to give Melanie her shot.


Our "nice" hotel. (But it was a really good deal!)


40 reasons why I love my friends:

1. They listen to me even when I don't have anything interesting to say.

2. They will watch Steel Magnolias with me (and cry at the end).

3. They know me well enough to know that if I am in the hospital after having a baby, I would rather have them bring me ice cream than send me flowers.

4. We can go six months without seeing each other and when we get together we haven't missed a beat.

5. They will talk about things like body hair and stretch marks without getting grossed out.

6. They still hung out with my when I had tootsie roll bangs and the 80's haircut (in 1999).

7.We are almost thirty and we can still stay up until 3 am at a sleepover talking about boys (usually our husbands and kids, but boys all the same).

8.They can sing along with me to "Insensitive," "Sweet, Sexy Thing" and almost anything by Tom Petty.

9. Road trips.

10. Choir trips.

11. Drill trips.

12. Spring break.

13. I love that Lisa has 6 kids under the age of 5 and her hair still always looks perfect.

14. I love that Jen already thinks about how her 3 year old's wedding invitation will look.

15. I love that I can talk to Kami on the phone for 2 hours and still have more to say.

16. I love that Mel had enough self confidence to date a guy who wore overalls- in college.

17. I love that Lanae fell out of a moving vehicle trying to get a guys attention.

18. The world's best book club. (Thank you Jen!)

19. Our Senior trip and everything that went with it.

20. Melanie's condo at snowbird.

21. Between the six of us, we have 15 kids and 2 on the way (congrats to Mel on the twins!).

22. I love that I was at Lisa's house often enough to frequently see her mom in her bath robe.

23. I love that Lanae nicknamed her black and white car "Micheal Jackson."

24. I love how Melanie skis.

25. I love that Kami will tell me what she really thinks about the clothes I try on when we are shopping.

26. They know, and frequently call me by, my middle name.

27. I love that I know if they prefer to dip or crunch saltine crackers in tomato soup.

28. Our trips to Las Vegas, California, New York, Florida, Tennessee, Ensenada, Disneyland and St. George.

29. They all came to, and dressed up for, my Halloween parties.

30. Girls night outs.

31. Scrapbooking.

32. Our apartment.

33. Belly button rings and (almost) tattoos.

34. Play dates.

35. We all agree that you have to hold an imaginary microphone when lip syncing.

36. I love that Lanae doesn't hold a grudge that she was my "service project."

37. Twinkies and Twizzlers.

38. We can do better than "not ugly".

39. When I have a parenting question, one of them is bound to know the answer.

40. They make me a better person.

Husbandless and cleaning up puke

Today marks day seven of Colby being out of town. It has been a long week. I have to admit, I was mildly jealous when I talked to Colby today and he was at the mall- and he had just spent the afternoon at the lake. I spent my day cleaning up puke. Carter has been sick and started throwing up at about 6 am this morning. By the time I put him to bed at 8 he had thrown up about ten times, been in six or seven different outfits and taken five baths. For some strange reason, Carter being sick made me miss Colby even more. I don't know why because even if he was home I would have been the one cleaning up puke, it's just nice to have some company while cleaning I guess. I found this picture so I can remember how much I love my boys. Not that cleaning up throw-up made me love them any less, I love my kids all the time. I just love them more when they're healthy!

Trip to Utah Part II

We spent a weekend with my family at a condo by Jordanelle reservoir. The kids had so much fun boating and playing with their cousins. Colby and I looked forward to putting the kids to bed so we could stay up late and play games with the adults. We also discovered the "Dairy Keen" restaurant, which was a cute little burger joint with awesome shakes.


The Stewart grandkids posing for a picture on the back of the boat. For some reason, Carter decided he was scared of the boat (even though he went boating multiple times last Summer). He cried every time we went out on the water. Lets hope this is just a phase!


Grandpa let Carter help him drive the boat in an effort to get him to stop screaming. It seemed to work, but a few minutes later he was crying again and wanted to get off the boat.


Ammon and Carter with Grandma and Grandpa Stewart at The Gateway. Grandma and Grandpa took the boys to Build a Bear Workshop and they had a blast! They now have two new buddies to take to bed every night.


Ammon with his doggies Scrappy and Cook da Book. We hope these will pacify his desire for a pet dog until we have a house.


We had a picnic at Liberty park and let the kids play in the wading pools. It was a hot day and a nice way for them to cool off. Above, Ammon, Kalii, Baylee, Natalee and Carter at the park.


All the kids playing in the wading pools. The boys like to chase these little McDonald's ball down the waterfalls and rivers. Carter even let Buzz Lightyear get in for a swim.


We went to the zoo with Scott, Aleese and some of their nieces and nephews. I wish I had a picture of the whole group of us. We had a fun day spending time with them. The highlight for the kids was the white alligator. Carter is still talking about the white alligator that we saw at the zoo.


Ammon and Carter playing at the Children's Museum. They loved these flippers and goggles.

One last boating picture. What a fun trip we had! It was so good to see our friends and family. Believe it or not, I still have more pictures to post!

And so it begins....

I just got my USB cable in the mail from my parents (Hurray!) so I have many, many pictures to post. I'm going to start chronologically from the beginning of the Summer. These pictures are of our trip to Utah (well, the first part of the trip anyways). We kicked the week off at Frost's house. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins.

Ones of our first orders of business was lunch with Grandma Frost and Megan at Artic Circle. The kids love their playground (and I love it cause it's not stinky). Plus, you've got to love their complimentary kids cones.

Grandpa Frost and Colby wrestling with Megan and Carter. Megan was visiting Grandma and Grandpa from Texas. After one day together Carter told me, "Mom, Megan's my best friend."

Another one of my priorities was to get my hair cut. I love my "hair girl" Jen and I have yet to find a replacement for her in Iowa. After going six months without a hair cut- I was in desperate need of one! Here I am, showing off my new cut with my cute little family.

We took the kids to the bounce house at Classic skating and they loved it. Carter made me pretty nervous with some of the daring feats he attempted (he honestly believes he is AT LEAST four years old). Ammon's little face got bright red from all the running and jumping.


We had a barbecue in honor of Jared and Carolee and baby boy #2 (Congratulations again, you guys!) Bugs and Ammon got into a water fight with Grandpa Frost. (Don't they look mischievous?)


Carter was content to sit back and watch the action, and get disgustingly sticking from spilling Sprite all over himself.

Carter, Ammon and Megan in their PJ's. They were all insistent on wearing these backpacks around. Megan's was so big she had a hard time standing up straight!

We went to Provo for Daniel's high school graduation. I tried to get a picture of Daniel walking to get his diploma at graduation, but he had them announce the wrong name and I missed it! This is as good as I could do. Carter and Ammon caught piggybacks to the car with Colby and Uncle Scotty, because we had to park "weally" far away.

We attempted to get a picture of all the Frost grandkids and it was quite a zoo! After we took a lunch break, we actually managed to get a pretty good picture. After this experience, I realized why some animals eat their young. Stay tuned to see even more of our trip to Utah.....

A lack of posts

We have had a busy month! We spent three weeks in Utah, then I immediately went to girls camp for five days. When I returned from girls camp we got our first visitors (Hooray!!). Mike, Kim and Megan stayed through the fourth of July and we had a blast! It has been a great month. The bad news is, I left the USB cable for my camera at my parents house in Utah so I can't download any of my pictures. I have so many pictures I think I will have to post every day for a month to get caught up. You all have something to look forward to!

Buzz Lightyear Teeth

One of our first stops in Utah was to see Grandpa Frost at his dental office. Colby had been prepping the boys for months, telling them that Grandpa was going to use "Buzz Lightyear tools" on their teeth. They were amazingly well behaved, and all four of us were cavity free! Because I neglected to thank Crystal in my "end of first year" speech, I would like to thank her now for being the dental hygenist of the family and teaching me the importance of flossing!

Grandpa Frost cleans Carter's teeth. For about a week after this, Carter would give us a big toothy grin and say, "look how clean my Buzz teeth are."

Ammon watching some cartoons while he waits for Grandpa to come in.

Although Ammon did not look like he enjoyed getting his teeth cleaned, he didn't kick, scream or throw up on anybody and he held very still.

Carter looked so cute sitting in this little chair, he didn't even fill up half of it!

Dam to Dam race

This morning I ran in the Dam to Dam 20K race (for those of you who aren't math wizards, that is 12.4 miles!). The Dam to Dam race starts at the Saylorville Lake dam and finishes in downtown Des Moines. This year there were 4,800 participants- making it the largest 20K in the nation. It was a beautiful morning and I reached my goal of running the entire distance. I had a finish time of 1 hour 51 minutes (that's a pace of 8 minute 56 seconds per mile), my finish time was faster than I expected- so I was happy with myself. The bad news is, by the time I crossed the 12 mile marker I was ready to crawl to the finish line. The good news is, I didn't crawl across the finish line!



My running partner, Celeste, and I on the homestretch. I am smiling because I can see the finish line!




Me and my boys after the race. (the kids were actually registered for a 100 meter race, which is why they are in their running clothes. Ammon threw up 5 times before they met me at the finish line so we decided we'd better skip the kid's race and take him home.)

Camping!

Thursday night we took the boys camping up at Saylorville Lake. It was a blast! The campsite was only 10 minutes away from our house (which came in handy when our friends the Bomstas forgot a couple vital things like their tent and sleeping bags and had to run home to get them!) We made tinfoil dinners and smores for dinner and had muffins and fruit for breakfast (we were glad that we hadn't planned a cooked breakfast when our breakfast got rained out).


Carter, Ammon and Cannon eat their smores.

Carter helped Colby put up the tent, and they did a great job!


Carter, Evelyn, Bri, Cannon and Ammon hanging out in the tent.


Carter kicked Colby out of his camping chair and claimed it as his own for the trip.


Evelyn, Makayla, Cannon, Ammon and Alivia hang out in front of the tent.

One year down....

Colby is officially done with his first year of school! I feel like we should have a ceremony or something. We have been in celebration mode for the last couple of days; we went out to dinner, had a BBQ, rented a movie from the library and slept in until 8 am this morning!


Colby and the boys picking out a movie at the library. Aren't they handsome?


Colby pushing Ammon, Cannon and some random kid on the tire swing at the BBQ.


Carter is all geared up for summer!


Colby showing off the BBQ apron he got for his birthday.

Although we didn't have a ceremony, I have prepared a short speech to thank everyone who has helped get us through this first year.... (I've always wanted to give a speech at a ceremony!)

I'd like to thank my Mom for sending cards and packages for every major or minor holiday (she even sent me a Mother's day card!), I'd like to thank Kami for calling me every week and keeping me up to date on the "Utah gossip," I'd like to thank Susan for being my personal recipe consultant, Celeste for being a great running partner and motivating me to go running even when it is 5:30 am and/or raining, Ammon and Carter for going everywhere with me and being my constant companions, I'd like to thank Colby because he's the world's best husband (and really he's the reason why we are here!), I'd like to thank Karin, Emily, Ann,Elizabeth and all of you other faithful bloggers for keeping me entertained with your blogs when I was husbandless, Tonya for trading babysitting with me and giving Colby and I much needed date nights and last but not least, the Macaroni Grill for providing me with employment and discounted food. Here's to three more great years!

Happy Birthday Colby!

Today Colby is turning 28! He can no longer tease me about being an "old woman" because we are now the same age again. Unfortunately, Colby is going to spend the day studying for his last test (it's tomorrow AM), but after that we are going to celebrate for two months!
Colby is hands down the world's best husband and best daddy. Here are all the things we love about him:

-I love that he works at the school (from Ammon)
-when I grow up I'm going to be a foot doctor and a daddy and a garbage truck driver and go to the same school as daddy. (from Ammon)
- he reads me stories (from Cart)

-Whenever I come home from work, the house is clean and the kids are in bed. It is so nice not to have to worry about what I will find when I come home.
- I can cook anything and Colby will eat it. Most of the time, he even says it's good.
-he helps with the dishes.
-he makes me laugh.
-I don't want daddy to go to school today (from Carter)
-he makes me breakfast in bed and gives me back rubs when I have had a really long day.
-he gets really excited when I make food that he likes.
-he is very kind to others
-he doesn't like contention or confrontation so he's a great peacemaker.
-he helps get the kids ready for church.
-he gets really excited when Carter wakes up dry and gives him fives when he goes potty.

This is what Colby has looked like for the last 10 months.


-Dad plays with us all the time and he teases us (from Ammon)
-he gets really mad when he looses his x-box soccer games and he yells at the TV.
-he is very unselfish and always thinks of me and the kids first.
-he gives great hugs.
-he works very hard in school and studies very diligently, even when I try to talk him out of it.
-he plays soccer with me (from Carter).

We hope Colby has a great birthday! We love you daddy!

Mother's day

Mother's day this year was great! Colby made me breakfast before I had to go to work (okay, the work part wasn't that great). When I got home, the boys gave me gifts. I got some new running clothes and the official Mother's day present from preschool (Ammon's little handprints with a cute poem). When I opened Ammon's present, I actually cried. It just made me feel like a real Mom. After we ate our free to go from Macaroni Grill (long story, but my boss bought our dinner), we decided to go on a bike ride. We rode up the Neil Smith trail to Saylorville Lake and it was beautiful! It was such a nice day. Isn't Iowa beautiful? Kind of makes you want to visit, ehh?

The bike ride ended up being longer than we anticipated (when all was said and done we had gone 12 miles), so when we got to the river we got the boys out of the trailer. They had fun throwing rocks in the water and running around on the grass.


Throwing anything they can get their hands on into the water.


I love this picture, it looks like it could go on a postcard or something.


The spillway was very full, and pretty intimidating to watch. The water would splash clear up to the fence. It made me nervous just standing above it.

Our new additions

Apparently, Ammon has been feeling like our family is incomplete. Originally, he requested a baby sister named Karlee (due to the fact that his best friend has a baby sister named Karlee). Then, after they had a lesson on pets at preschool, he asked for a dog. Neither of the above seemed like good options, so Colby and I suggested a fish. That seemed to satisfy him. We now have 4 little new additions to our family. Ammon named his fish Flash and Carter named his Picasso (I would like to tell you that he is an artistic genius, but he got it from Toy Story). We also have Danio and Sylvester Girl. The boys are so excited to have pets. They help feed them and they talk to them. Ammon has said more than once, "Flash is so happy in his new home."


Colby getting the tank ready.


Little fish are really hard to take pictures of, this is the best I could do.


The boys watching their fish eat breakfast.


Carter said, "I love my Picasso fish, he's so cute!"