St. George

We spent Labor Day weekend in St. George with our little family and Papa and Grandma Leslie. We had a blast! Cory and I wanted to go on an inexpensive family vacation this year over the holiday weekend and thought St. George would be perfect...thanks to Ron and Les for letting us crash their weekend down there! Our time was filled with LOTS of swimming (sorry no pics), hiking, zooma rides, seeing The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn, and spending time together. What a fun weekend, hope all of yours was just as fun.

Maya and I were thrilled to have Grandma Leslie join us to The Little Mermaid. The show was AMAZING and Maya loved it! It's so fun she is getting to an age where she and I can go to things like this together, I love them and I have a feeling she does too (Me, "Maya did you like the show?" Maya, "No I LOVED it!")!

At the bottom of The Narrows getting geared up to squish through. Cohen did awesome he only freaked out once with a "Hold me Hold me" when things got a little tighter. It was so fun to do this as a family last time we were in St. George Cohen and I got left behind for naps...not anymore!

A Day on the Harley

Cory and I went on a day trip to Bear Lake on his Harley. We had a really good time just being together. Our little group consisted of Ron and Leslie, Brandon and Marinda, and Joe and Kim. All I have to say is I do not envy Cory's annual bike trip that lasts a week, one day was plenty for me!

Growing Pains

Maya 4 years old

Cohen 21 months

There are lots of things you learn when you are a mother. You suddenly find yourself the holder of a variety of titles; chef, laundry service, maid, friend, the referee, problem solver...etc. the list can go on FOREVER! One of the biggest things I've learned is that life never stays the same and neither do your children. As soon as you begin to feel confident and proud, like you have it all figured out and you are understanding your children perfectly, the curve ball hits and your onto a new stage/phase of your child's development. Then, once again, you find yourself thinking okay, okay what do I need to do differently and how can I navigate through this? I have come to believe these changes are Heavenly Father's way of keeping us mothers (or maybe just me) on our toes and constantly learning. These moments are my growing pains.

I recently experienced one such episode of "onto the next phase" growing pains that was so hard for me to figure out. I felt like I was in no man's land and had no idea what I was doing or how to even address certain situations. That week was full of several, "Um...how do I even respond to this" moments. I hated feeling that way. I find myself just wanting to talk about my frustrations when I am in these moments of mothering. Cory is great, he listens and gives his advice but, let's be honest, it is much harder when you are with your children ALL DAY and they are not. What seems so big to you maybe doesn't seem that big to them. Then there are those times your "I don't know what to do" vents to others are met with criticism. That's the LAST thing any mother needs, aren't we tough enough on our selves? So, in the middle of feeling frustrated I decided I just need to pray and turn to our Heavenly Father, He won't judge me and He will help me. What I learned was so significant and has made such a difference in my perspective of "growing pains". Our Heavenly Father has given us these special little spirits to guide, teach, and love in a way they are just on "loan" to us for awhile. He wants us to ask for help even if we think it's silly to ask. Maybe that is not a new revelation for some of you but it was for me. I can always ask Heavenly Father to help me think of things to get Cohen to eat more vegetables or how to react to a sassy little Maya (or what ever the current hard thing is). I am so grateful for His love and His influence in my life as a mother. I'm sad it took me so long to realize He does care about all our "little" worries but that is something I will never forget! So here's to all those mom's out there who ever experience frustrating times in raising children, keep it up we're doing the most important work of all!

Home Sweet NEW Home!

We've been in our new house for almost one month and still can't believe it's ours! Building was so fun and stressful at the same time. There were so many decisions to make and things to pick out. When it came time for the interior to be finished I was just hoping everything would look good together, and it does! One of the best things about building is you get to make your home exactly the way you want it. Cory and I are so happy we decided to take this route, we absolutely love our new home! The best part of all is knowing we will never need to move again (married for five years have moved four times) because there is plenty of room to grow (hooray for our final/grow old together/grandchildren come visit us at house!).

Along with a brand new house comes an unfinished yard with lots of dirt. Needless to say that is way too much temptation for a four year old and twenty one month old. I gave up on day two from trying to keep the kids out of the mud and just decided to let them enjoy it. One of our favorite activities in our fancy dirt filled yard is to fill the kiddy pool with water and have fun "working" in the dirt and making mud. The dirt fun will end tomorrow (bitter sweet) because the yard is getting put in! I'm looking forward to many more memories in our backyard.

Maya and Cohen "Working"

Maya was "shaving"

Cohen's cute muddy feet

So, with our new house also comes uninterrupted internet access. Hopefully that means I can stay on top of our family blog. No promises but here's to trying!

Warm Weather

The weather lately has been so warm (funny when fifty degrees feels like a heat wave) and we have really enjoyed being able to go outside. One of my favorite things about Utah is when the weather gets like this people start wearing shorts and t-shirts...love it! Cory had part of last Friday off so we decided to head to the park and play. The best part was watching Cohen. He is old enough now to just "play" and he had a great time. I can't wait for summer and all of the outside fun!

The down side is winter is supposed to return this Friday with snow and cold temperatures. All I have to say is "BOOO!"

Lately...

I haven't posted much the last couple of months so here is a little bit of all we have been up too.

Happy Halloween!


Maya with her cute friend Bella


80's something I guess...this was thrown together but it worked. I was looking for something last minute and I thought what do I have a lot of.....ding, ding, ding....spandex, tights, and leotards! Love Cory for going along with it!


Fun in the snow

California again...

We have visited the sunny state of California a lot this summer. First, we went to Disneyland with the whole Burt family and then we headed up north to Modesto to visit my parents (Grandma and Grandpa Wasden). We had so much fun traveling as our own little family and then visiting my parents. There is nothing like being home, especially when my mom makes breakfast every morning and does our laundry...you can't help but love moms! It was also great to visit with my dad, I really miss not being able to just sit down and talk with him more. Hopefully one day they will be a little bit closer! Here's a little of what we did.

Monterey Bay Aquarium




Thank you Mom and Dad for a wonderful trip! We created so many lasting memories, we love Grandma and Grandpa Wasden!

On the train with Grandma


The Lorikeets at Miche's Grove




Cohen really enjoyed his first oreo, thanks Grandpa!



Being Silly


Swimming, of course!