The Park

I spent the weekend at my parents house. Reid pulled the girls in the wagon at my parents' house.

Alvin at the park. He wasn't so sure about the wood chips

My dad pushed the kids on this swing so hard and fast. After a while they were getting pretty scared. Other parents were pushing their kids on it so nice a slow, and then my dad gets my kids on it and pushes them like they were big teenager kids. It was funny.

Memorial Weekend

This past weekend we visited my Grandma Johnson's, my Grandma and Grandpa Brinton's, my aunt Genevieve's, and my cousin Genevieve's graves.
Reid and Clara standing over Genevieve Brinton's grave. She died in a house fire when she was less than 2 years old. I can't imagine how my grandma and grandpa ever made it through that tramatic time. They say they were loved a supported by many friends, family, and ward members.

My dad and Alvin looking for my dad's parents' graves. It took us a while to find them. It is hard to remember where they are when you only go once a year.

We cleaned the grave too. I mean Chauncy and my dad cleaned the graves:)

Applique Shirts

My friend Amy and I teamed up and made these applique shirts. We had been talking about it for so long, but we never found the time to get together, go pick out the fabric, pick and cut out a design, and sew them on. So this is how we did it. Amy is an artist and I am a seamstress and so she picked out the fabric and drew all the designs and then made two of every design and then gave me the designs and hers ironed on to her shirts and I sewed them all on. I feel like I had the easy job. We make a pretty good team though. We had an english class together in college and we asked the teacher if we could write our paper together and to our surprise he said yes. We also use to make fun highschool color outfits that we would wear to the games.(orange and blue, yes we were hot!!!) We made a pretty good team then and we still do now. She and I are so much alike it is like having two of myself when we do something together. Anyway here are a few of the shirts I made for my kids, Amy made me a lot more that I can use in the future, but my kids didn't need that many shirts.

Just random pictures

Clara finally wanted me to make her a ruffle shirt and she wore it.(only to church and then she wanted it off as soon as we got home, but I'll take it) I think since she sees me making them for other people she felt like she was missing out. Here we are in matching shirts.
We went to Noodles & Company the other night and ate outside and so I got some cute pictures of the kids playing around.

Chuck E Cheese

We went to Chuck E Cheese last week. The kids were in heaven. Especially Alvin. He couldn't believe his eyes. There was so much to look at. He loved getting on all the rides.

Alvin and his friend Mason. Mason is the youngest of a family who has kids all my kids' exact ages and genders. They are all best friends. As you can tell Alvin is loving Mason already:). It has been great to have them so close to us.

Ham and Swiss Sliders

I got this recipe from my friend Katie. My mom and I made them on Sunday and they were so yummy. I could have eaten 5 of them myself. Anyway here is the recipe...

Ham & Swiss sliders
24 good white rolls, if you are in utah we like shirley's or judy's
24 pieces good honey ham
24 small slices swiss cheese

1/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup miracle whip

{poppy seed sauce}
1 1/2 TBSP poppy seeds
1 1/2 TBSP yellow mustard
1 stick butter, softened
1 TBSP dry minced onion
1/2 tsp. worschestershire sauce
in a small bowl, mix together mayo & miracle whip. spread into both sides of the center of each roll. place a slice of ham & a slice of swiss inside of each roll. close rolls & place into a large baking dish or heavy cookie sheet. place sandwhiches very close together.
in a medium bowl, whisk together all of the poppy seed sauce ingredients. pour evenly over all of the sandwiches. Let sit until butter sets if butter was too melted. cover with foil & bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. uncover & cook for 2 additional minutes. serve warm.
** sandwiches can me assembled a day ahead & kept in the fridge ready to bake.

Funny things my kids have done or said lately.

Reid loves to wear his soccer outfit and puts it on most days when he gets home from school. The other day when he was wearing it my client asked him "Reid, what position do you play in soccer? Do you play goalie?" and Reid replied "No, I play with Coleman."

The other day when Clara had the stomach Flu and was up all night throwing up I asked her in the morning "Clara do you need to throw-up?" and Clara said "No, I ran out of throw-up"

Reid said on one of our bike rides this week "It's such a nice day to be outside on a bike." Cute little boy.

Clara loves to make of names for people and her nicknames for Alvin are "Sally"(don't ask me where she got that one) and "Mister Manny"(again don't ask I have no idea).

I had a garage sale yesterday and Reid and his friend Coleman made signs that said STOP and put them on all the trees in the yard.

And last but not least, the other day one of the moms of one of Reid's friends from school said her son came home from school with one of our checks (yes a real life check) and it said on it "To John, One Billion dollars, signed Reid Hazar." She asked him where he got it and he replied "Reid said if I let him cut in line in front of me then he would give me one billion dollars and he gave me this check." She told him he couldn't cash the check and he was very upset with Reid for tricking him. Can you believe Reid?

Alvin

Alvin still isn't walking yet, but he is now standing alone.
This is the usual Alvin. He is still such a grumpy guy. I am working so hard all the time to try and figure out how to make him happy. I had to take a picture of this side of him cause this is him most of the time. It has been hard, because I feel like I am doing something wrong. As a mom I am always blaming myself. I guess that is a typical mom.

Wanting me to hold him. The day this was taken he wanted me to hold him all day, but even when I held him he wasn't happy so this picture was taken when I just set him down because I couldn't take it anymore. Poor Alvin.

My mom and David always have all of these theorys of why he is this way, but my theory is that he just doesn't sleep enough. so he is always tired. I can't get him to take good naps. He sleeps through the night, but wakes up from his naps shortly after I put him down and I can't get him to fall back to sleep, he will cry for hours. (Seriously hours I have tried it) My other kids as babies eventually gave up, but not Alvin. A lot of my day is spent trying to get Alvin to take a good nap. Any tips?

Projects I have been doing

I made these shirts for my niece Chloe and my friend's daughter, but I made Clara model them. In case you are wondering why I didn't make one for Clara it's because when I asked her if she wanted a pink one like these ones she replied "Yes, but without that stuff on it." So basically just a pink shirt. Clara is so particular with her clothes like I have said before. Anyway, I first made one of these shirts for myself and my friend Amy and then thought how cute they would be on little girls. I am working on some applique shirts for my kids too, let's hope Clara will wear them. I will post them when I finish.

Alvin saying no

Instead of just shaking his head no, Alvin shakes his whole body to say no. It is so funny. We like to see him do it so we often just offer him stuff that we know he doesn't like just to see him do it. Now you will notice that on this video he actually says the word "no", but that is really the first time he said it, and now has been saying it ever since. It is so cute, and I am glad I got it on video.

The Mothers in my life.

I just wanted my mother-in-law to know how much I appreciate her and all she does for us. She was the most amazing mother to my husband. David is constantly telling me how much she did for him and his siblings. She is so involved in my kids life even though she lives in Arizona. She is such a caring mother-in-law to me too. My kids love her and miss her so much. She wants to know everything about them and is always sending them cards with stickers in them for every little and big holiday. They love it. She has always had a love for children's books and her love for them is so contagious. Because of her we now have a huge collection of books that my kids and I love. I think my kids will always thank their grandma for their love to read. She is such a great example to our family. We love her and thank her.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I wanted my mom to know how much I love her are how much she means to me. My mom is the best person to talk to if you are having a bad day or need help. She always makes me feel like I can handle anything or helps me if I can't. Even with rheumatoid arthritis, she is there to help me as much as she possibly can. She is always up for any outing. Even if she is having a bad day health wise, it is very uncommon for that to stop her from having fun. I remember when I was younger and we had planned to go clothes shopping and she woke up feeling really bad she would take me anyway. It meant a lot to me and I don't know if she knew I noticed that she didn't feel well and took me anyway. I know it was just shopping, but that is a very special thing to me:). She is also the greatest grandma too. When she watches my kids she doesn't just let them play or let them watch a movie. She plays with them the whole time and wants to take them to all kinds of events and activities where I am usually the one saying it seems like too much work to go. This is how she was as my mom growing up. Taking us everywhere, to everything. I feel so lucky to have her as my mom. Thank you mom.

Oreo Truffles

I made these for mother's day and they were a dream. Fun and unique.

OREO Truffles

Makes approx. 50 one-inch truffles or 100 half-inch mini-truffles

Ingredients:

18 oz. package of OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

8 oz. package of Cream Cheese, softened

*16 oz. Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate or Chocolate Chips, melted

**Directions:

Crush the cookies into fine crumbs in a food processor.
Add softened cream cheese; mix until well blended or “until you have mud.”
Roll cookie mixture into balls, about 1-inch in diameter for full size truffles or 1/2 inch diameter for mini-truffles.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir until smooth.
Roll the balls in chocolate to coat completely; use two toothpicks or forks to remove the balls from the chocolate, allowing the extra chocolate to drip off.
Place on a wax paper-lined baking sheet.
Refrigerate 30 minutes until the chocolate forms a hard shell.
Store leftover truffles (if any) in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Provo River

Last weekend we had to stop and let the kids see how fast the river was running after all the rain and melting snow. It was so pretty and the kids loved to see it.
The kids also love to go in the jogging stroller on this jogging trail. I took them on it yesterday and the river was still running very fast. Ever since Reid was a little baby I have taken him jogging with me. And ever since we have lived in this house we have been going on this jogging trail (since 2003). Everytime we go over a bridge like this I will say "that sure is a rickety old bridge." and Reid will say back "it sure is a bumpy old bridge too". And then we will both laugh. Year after year he will always reply the same, even if we haven't been jogging through the whole winter sure enough as soon as it gets warm and I go jogging again I say the same thing and he replys the same way. (now and when he was just starting to talk) I love it. It is our little inside joke. Reid and I always laugh and Clara doesn't know why it is so funny.