Saturday, December 4, 2010

Just go Google yourself...

Okay...have we all been guilty of googling ourselves, to see what comes up--right?
(or is it just me?)

I find it rather entertaining. For example, a man called a few days ago to order a wood watch, and remarked that he had read a newspaper article about us moving to Mexico. I said, "Oh, are you from Peachtree City?" "No...but Google is an amazing thing!" He was from Washington, and was probably just googling our business to make sure it was legit!

Anyhow...I don't recommend just googling yourself...that's old school. I recommend you should GOOGLE MAP yourself!

Here is our van in Mexico (and our rental house behind):

Jared getting out of the car in Skagway...(In case you were wondering, you can virtually "drive" down the street and see him in the process of getting out. Yes...it's sooo exciting!)
And the van, yet again, in Skagway! There used to actually be a photo of me taken from the alleyway to the right of this photo. Unfortunately, they removed it. Must have been what I was wearing...
So...can YOU find yourself on Google Maps?

Have you ever SEEN the Google car?!! I have! I have!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Cool Birthday parties


One thing Utahns are good at--throwing amazing birthday parties. I will never be as cool as them.

Here are some of the goodies from Ella's last themed b-day party she attended (Lava Girl):




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Adoring Sisters

Have I mentioned how much these girls adore their brother? Well, they do!

And sometimes...Ethan actually appreciates it!


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Pumpkins & Candy with Photos


On Halloween weekend, Ella asked me in ALL SERIOUSNESS:
"Is it a law to have a lot of candy when it's Halloween? It's not? I thought it was!": )
We had the opportunity to carve pumpkins this year.Maiya drew this pumpkin face all by herself, and Papa helped cut it out.

I LOOOVE this happy pumpkin face!


Ella did 2 pumpkins (the back side of my Dad's, as well as one of her own):


I think they were both still grossed out by the pumpking innards...


And I love the precious photos of them interacting while I was trying to take a nice photo of them:
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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Thanksgiving Point Shindig...

We took the girls to the Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point this year. It was a lot of fun, and the weather was just right!




I seriously need to build one of these in our backyard. Who'd guess that water, tubes, and floating duckies could keep kids entertained for so long?
Okay--dumb question. Of course they would!

So...put some duckies in the half cut pipe, use the water pump to pump a stream of water in it, and watch it float to the other side. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat again.


This was Jared's idea...


And they lasted about 5 minutes in the corn maze. Perfect!
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The baby boy...

The much anticipated photos...

Ethan is now 4 months old, and growing like a weed!

Here are some photos from the past month!









He is a super happy baby. It's rare for him to be grumpy, and he just makes me happy happy happy!

Particularly when he poops/pees on the potty!

Yup--you read that right. He really does.
On a regular basis.

Photos to come...
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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Ella's Firsts...

Getting caught up, here...Ella had her first day of Kindergarten back in August...



She also played soccer for the first time...



This photo makes her look very serious and athletic, but I will admit that she was definitely the least fierce on the team.Quite unlike her Mommy...(but perhaps that is a good thing?!)



Also, Ella's first bike was stolen. Dang it. That makes me mad!
Oh well...I told her not to leave the bike out! I hope the lesson has been ingrained...

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sisters!

I can only hope and pray that they will always be best friends!



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I know, I know...

I know that I have a habit of appearing, and disappearing (such as last month when I posted a billion posts in a few days' time, and then disappeared for another month)...but this is as good as it is going to get, right now!

I am happy to say that business has been going well, and Jared and I have been staying busy. Our Flower Jewelry Wholesale Biz has slowed down (because we were marketing specifically to Alaska, and now that season is over), but we're hoping to begin marketing to other locates before the end of the year (i.e. Hawaii, Florida, etc). We're also rebuilding our catalog and tweaking and adding new items. Exciting!
The Wood Watches Rep business has been booming! Because of this, we think we will be ready to move to Mexico in January. Yes, I did say MOVE. In case you haven't been following this blog for long...Jared and I took the girls down to Mexico in the winter of 2008/09, and we fell in love with Lake Chapala, Jalisco (Mexico is divided into states, just like the US). This is central, near Guadalajara, and is located about 5 hours inland from Puerto Vallarta. It is located in the mountains in a beautiful setting with gorgeous weather (no heaters or A/C needed), and a simple village life that we love. Just thinking about it makes me smile!
:::sigh:::
So, we have about 2 months left in Utah, visiting with my parents who have been so gracious to let us live in their home with our noisy three children.
This summer has been almost surreal. I guess it is because I haven't experienced a non-Alaskan summer since 2001, and Jared hasn't since 1999. It was weird to know that each day the weather would be much the same (dry and warm or HOT!), and the sun would be shining! We decided to try to live it up, and enjoy some beautiful weather and activities!

We bought a Season Pass to Seven Peaks Water Park & Trafalga. We showed up at Seven Peaks on Labor Day to pick up our ID cards that get us into both parks. The water park was packed, so despite the girls' pleading, we told them we would return the next day to go to the water park. Instead, we went miniature golfing!

An Aside:
I call miniature golfing "Goony Golfing", which is the name of the park I used to go golfing at as a child in Topeka, Kansas. It was seriously awesome (at least when I was a child!), and I have fond memories of characters such as the big T-Rex who lifted his bone to reveal the hole:
Back to my story...

We skipped the busy water park, and went to Trafalga in Orem, Utah, instead. They have a nice course (although not nearly as cool as the dinosaur, ghouls and other crazy characters found at Goony Golf!).
We had a great time, and girls practiced their skills. This is a funny photo of Maiya golfing, because it makes it look as if she actually golfed. But her idea of golfing was a one-handed drag of the putter (?), and then picking up the ball to put it in the hole.

On second glance...maybe Maiya does have the ball hidden in her hand?!

Ella is ready to go on miniature golf tour...
The next day, after Ella got out from school, we held to our promise and drove the girls out to Seven Peaks Water Park for an afternoon of water and fun! When we arrived, there wasn't a soul there. AWESOME! A crowd-less park!
Well, awesome until we realized that the park was CLOSED.
And not just for the day...for the SEASON. Yup--you got it. Labor Day was the last day.
Classic.
So...we took the girls to a new outdoor "water park" in Spanish Fork (free!) where they ran around and seemed quite satisfied.

We also took them (on another day) to go raspberry picking at a local Berry Picking farm in Mapleton, Utah. We managed to down 2 1/2 pounds of berries by the next day.
My favorite part was seeing how much made it into the girls' buckets. Ella collected more than I thought she would...but Maiya didn't get ANY. That is because EVERY single berry she picked went into her mouth. Gotta love that girl!.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The summer is now over, and we are quickly moving into Winter. Not without some fun Fall weather, however. Last weekend it was dreary, cold, and rainy. The clouds were low on the mountains, and I almost felt transported back to Alaska. Well...ALMOST.
That is, if I could have ignored the construction, traffic, and overall nicety of the neighborhood here (Alaska is much more modest, to say the least).
But I must admit...it was a fantastic summer, and I do not regret leaving Alaska one bit!
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Monday, September 20, 2010

Bloglines is Closing

For all those of you who may use Bloglines, you may have heard the news that it is closing permanently. So sad!! Bloglines has been my program of choice, to follow all the blogs I enjoy reading. It notifies me when there is a new post, and is has a reading pane, so I don't have to visit everyones' blog individually...saving me lots and lots of time!

Well, good news! I have found a great alternative to Bloglines (its perhaps even BETTER!): Google Reader. Click below for instructions on how to export your Bloglines list into Google Reader:


Happy Blog Reading!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Saying goodbye...

It's sold!!

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Grand Coulee Dam Viewpoint

Jared decided to wait the arrival of some extraterrestrials...



When they didn't arrive, he instead hoisted some of the kids to the top of the structure.



And when the little kids started begging to go up, too...Jared decided to get his hand-dandy work ladder out of the van for them.



I shot this photo of Jared's legs dangling just moments before he decided to JUMP OFF the building.



:::shaking head:::

I don't even know what to say to that...

...except that I hope my children surive their youth with an example like that.
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