Trip to Denver

Carson and I got to go to Denver at the end of March for sweet baby McKenna's blessing. The drive was soooooo long, and it was made longer by the fact that we hit a snow storm and had to stop at a hotel just 2 hours from our destination. Although with the storm, traffic was bad the next morning too, so it took longer than 2 hours to get to Megan and Andrew's. I won't be making that drive again till I forget just how long it took. Anyway it was way fun to visit with family, and to meet my new beautiful niece. We ate good food, played foot tag (I still can't believe we got beat by my Dad), watched movies, and visited the Four Mile Historic Park.

Waiting for our tour at the park. 

 Kynlee thought it was fun to slide down this hill.

 My strong guy!!

 Finding these stilts was the best part of the day.

 Of course my Dad showed us all up by being the first one to be able to walk on them.

 The best step-mom in the world playing with Payton and Kynlee.

And of course these beautiful girls on McKenna's big day. The blessing was beautiful, and I can't wait till we all get together again. 

Yep I am Pretty Much Amazing!

So once upon a time I had a plain white T-shirt. Sadly this shirt went the way of most of my white shirts and got a couple stains on it. But this time rather than getting rid of this one, I was inspired to refashion it. So with some well placed lace I got from my mom's large craft supply, and a few minutes of sewing, I now have a new shirt that is way more fun than the old plain one I used to have. I know, I am pretty much amazing!

The Easiest Taco Soup Ever!!!

This is the best soup, made even better by the fact that it takes just minutes to put together. 

In a large saucepan mix:

• 1 can drained corn
• 1 15oz can of tomato sauce
• 15 oz water
• 1 15 oz can of black beans (drained)
• 1 15 oz can red kidney beans
• 1 can diced olives (If you like olives, which I do!!!)
• 1 package of taco seasoning (I use McKormick, but you can use whatever your favorite is)
• 1 lb cooked ground hamburger or cooked shredded chicken (or you can leave the meat out completely if you are too lazy sometimes like me, it is still delicious)

Heat soup and enjoy with cheese, and chips. You can also add sour cream, diced jalapenos, or stewed tomatoes. Pretty much you can alter this soup however you want, it is versatile and easy, pretty much amazing. 

The Best Daddy in the World...

...built the cutest baby girl in the world the greatest sandbox in the world!!! She loves it.

(I helped some, but it definitely wouldn't have happened without Carson)

Daddy is way too good to us, and I don't know what we would do without him.

Big News!!!

Kynlee and Carson have something that they want to share with everyone.

That's right there are 3 babies in my belly. Can you believe it! Because I still have a hard time believing it. 

Seven weeks ago I headed to the Dr. by myself, now I know that was a bad idea, but I was not expecting this so at the time that did not occur to me. Then during what I thought would just be a routine 10 week appointment my Dr. tells me that there are 3 little babies in there. WHAT!!!!! After that he just kept having to ask my if I was OK, while him and the nurse just went on and on about how exciting this is. I am surprised I did not pass out. Then I had to go out to the car and call Carson, who of course did not believe me. I quickly learned that any time I told anyone, they would first ask if I was joking. Have you ever tried to convince anyone that you were not joking about something you were still having a really hard time grasping yourself? Well I have, and in most cases it would cause me to start crying. Luckily my Dad happily called everyone for me and I got to avoid crying on the phone with all my family members. I am dealing much better now, and even starting to get a bit excited, although I am still really scared and nervous about what the future holds. 

Our little ones are not due until Sept. 2nd, but we will welcome two little boys and one little girl into our family most likely sometime in July. 

And here are the lovely pictures of my rapidly growing belly

I made this dress from two maternity shirts so that I could do a fun pregnancy series. ( I got the idea from merricksart.com) That was before I found out I was having triplets, so the dress might not fit clear till the end, but I will use it as long as possible. (Or just stop taking pictures at that point because I will be so mortified of my size)

Anyway the pics go as follows:

• wk 10: This is the day that I found out, do I look a little shell shocked?? I started getting sick around 6 weeks, which really surprised me because I did not get sick much with Kynlee, but it all makes sense now. Didn't really have any cravings, but I lose my sweet tooth for about the first trimester while I am pregnant (which I managed to line up with all those yummy Christmas goodies that no longer sound appealing to me at all)
• wk 12: No more morning sickness, just a headache in the evenings that lined up nicely with lounging around and watching the Olympics for 2 weeks. Craving quesadillas with salsa.
• wk 15: Life is great, I have lots of energy and don't feel sick at all anymore, but definitely starting to feel self conscious about my growing belly since my Dr. still measures me as if I were only pregnant with one baby so I am always measuring about 6 weeks ahead.
• wk 17: I am still feeling great and trying to decide how to decorate a gender neutral nursery. Craving chocolate covered strawberries and the coconut tres leche cake that my sister is hopefully making for me this weekend. 

Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed about everything, but since life has a way of throwing curves into our plans I have been trying to live by the words of our modern day church leaders.

As Joseph B Wirthlin would say, "Come what may and love it."

Happy Birthday Carson!!!

Even though I am a bit late on this post, it is definitely still worth mentioning that Carson had a birthday!!!!!

The poor guy had to go back to school and work that day. We were lucky to have a nice Holiday vacation, but it all ended on his big day, happy birthday to him. Kynlee and I tried to spoil him in the small amount of time we did see him.

He was nice enough to let Kynlee help him open his presents. 

 I tried to make Carson an ice cream cake, but it did not turn out nearly as fantastic as I had it pictured in my head (especially after it fell out of the freezer, yeah I struggle with life).

Kynlee and I are so lucky to have such a hard working man in our lives who takes such good care of us. 

Happy Birthday Carson!!!!!!!

An Imperfect Christmas!

So I saw a little thing on the news in December about how we make ourselves miserable trying to create a perfect Christmas for ourselves and our families. The segment went on to explain how we need to plan on not having everything be perfect for Christmas in order to easily enjoy the holiday. I realized that I have been doing just that. Not that I make myself miserable, but I plan too many things that we have to get done before Christmas. 

This year I was going to make all kinds of Christmas candies and goodies, in reality I only ended up making 2 things, and the cookies always look way better in my head that they turn out in frosting. The lack of Christmas baking is better for our waistbands in the end though.

I was going to learn a handful of new Christmas songs on the piano. I practiced all the Christmas songs in the hymn book lots for my calling, but I only casually played the other ones that I was going to learn. Oh well I guess I will just have to play Christmas songs all year.

I was going to read the dozens of the Christmas books from the library that I look longingly at the rest of the year but force myself to wait to check out. I only read 2.

I was going to get my shopping done early, but the 23rd of December had us in crowded stores doing Christmas shopping for my procrastinating brother-in-law.

We had fun doing a white elephant with family on Christmas Eve, but it started way later than we had planned because kiddos did not want to go to bed nicely that night. 

Our child could have cared less that we spent a whopping  $7.50 on toys for her, all she wanted was the candy in her stocking.

And Christmas is always crazy in Moab between us trying to bounce back and forth between families trying not to miss any of the fun.

And you know what.... it was all perfect

 This pretty much summed up Kynlee helping frost the cookies. She would put frosting on a cookie, lick it all off, then add some more, lick it off...you get the idea.

 We made gingerbread houses with Grandma Sue. Kynlee thought having all that candy and frosting within her reach was awesome.

We did a live nativity at my Dad's house. Carson and Andrew were enlisted to be wisemen (I think they were thrilled about it) We also couldn't get anyone to play Joseph, so we will just pretend he was out getting diapers.

 We celebrated winter birthdays for Carson, Andrew, and Alex.

 Marie's white elephant gift. She sings "Don't you wish your Grandma was HOT like me."

 Dad trying on his white elephant gift.

 Checking out the goods on Christmas morning.

 This is the best picture of the 3 of us on Christmas day.

 Nathan trying on one of the little girls hat. (good thing he doesn't read my blog).

 Kynlee trying out her new high heels from Papa and Marie, she actually walks pretty well in them.

 Kynlee thought it was great to climb up the pile of presents at Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dan's house.

 She also loved the little tent they gave her.

 And finally our third Christmas back at home. Kynlee really liked the body spray that Carson got for me.

 My new shoes!!

 Carson's much needed new shoes. He was still wearing the ones from his mission, and they were not even black anymore.

 And the very best part for this little one was when she finally got this candy out of its wrapper. 

I hope everyone else had just as imperfect a Christmas as we did, and took some time to do some service, and reflect on our Savior and his love for us.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!

Sledding!!

We got to go sledding in Moab over our Christmas break, and even though it was just a short little trip, we had lots of fun. 

Dad was the bravest of us and tried the hill first, as usual he went all the way down and hit the road at the bottom before stopping with a nice crash. 

 Megan looking super cute in the awesome hat I made her for Christmas. (I have the pattern memorized if anyone else wants one)

Andrew and Alex ready to brave the hill.

 My first time down. I'm not nearly as fearless as I used to be with things like this. I don't really like these flat sleds because they are pretty much designed for you to go down head first on your belly. Well that was not appealing to me, so I insisted on going down like this. I did end up kicking snow in my face with my feet out in front though, so it probably wasn't the best plan.

 Cheznie watching the show.

 Cute little Kynlee enjoying running around in her snow suit.

 I'm not sure if she is very happy to go down with me.

 Here is where Carson and Andrew decided that we would all race down. I won the first race, and I would have won the second race if I hadn't ended up in a big bush with snow and sticks all over my face letting Andrew have the victory. Luckily I didn't feel anything except the cold on my face when I crashed.

 Carson and Kynlee going down.

We always manage to have good times with family in Moab!!!