Memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

I realize that I haven't posted in a long time, and that this is kind of a cop-out. However, I think it sounds really fun, and you all better comment! Everyone knows that I've had MANY embarassing moments in my life, so I don't get embarassed easily these days. Feel free to share anything.

Summer Fun!

I'm writing this post for several different reasons. First, to celebrate that after living here for almost 5 years, my yard is finally just how I want it. Well...pretty much. Secondly, I want to document all the fun things I've done for my kids this summer so that I can quit feeling so guilty about what a dud I have been since the all-day-sickness started. There are going to be a crap load of pictures, so we'll see if I can arrange it in a way that won't make it look all crazy.

It's been a really long road getting our yard where it is now. We had to move a shed over our house with a crane, tear out and re-pour our driveway, rent a bobcat to remove a bunch of gravel, put in a sprinkler system, lay down sod, install a fence, and finally...set up a swingset! Oh yeah, and plant two trees, but they look like they're dying so I can't quite count that yet. If anyone has any tips on keeping newly planted trees alive, please let me know. It has all been so much work! Many thanks go out to my husband and everyone that helped him get everything done. We couldn't have done it without you! The kids love to play in the back yard, and I love to send them out there when they're driving me crazy.

Now, on to the bragging about how much fun my kids have had this summer. A couple of months ago we had a girl's day out with Randall's side of the family. We went to the Alpine Museum which has a bunch of stuff that used to belong to Randall's Great, Great...Grandma. It was so fun to be there and see things like a spinning wheel that his Grandma used so many years ago. We also heard a lot of stories about his ancestors. His Grandpa was killed trying to protect the people from Indians. He has the biggest gravestone on top of the highest hill at the Alpine Cemetery. We went and saw it later on that day. The view and the gravestone were so beautiful. I totally love to see really old things and stand in places that my (or in this case my children's) family members stood decades ago. It's just such a cool feeling. We also had a picnic and played at a park near the museum. It was a great day! The kids were amazingly good at the museum, and loved playing with their cousins at the park. Thanks Jacks for planning this for all of us!

I also spent the afternoon at a bouncy house place with my friend BreAna earlier this summer, and I blame the pregnancy brain for not getting any pictures of her and her cute kids. We were quite the crowd...me with my nausea, and her about to deliver her third child. Carter loves all the bouncy stuff. Lydia gets intimidated easily, so since it was a little crowded that day, she stayed pretty close to me and BreAna's grandma and sister-in-law. I'm really proud of the picture of Carter going down the slide. My camera's really slow, and it took me like 20 tries to get it. When you consider that he had to climb all those stairs in between each one, that's quite a long process. I realize that the kid with his bum in the air that's breaking the rules is more of the focal point, but I don't care!

We spent some time at Wheeler Farm with Tara, Jay, Laura, and their kids. I don't even remember the name of the event, but there were a lot of booths, a cute little train that drove around, bouncy stuff, and of course the usual farm animals for everyone to enjoy. This picture of Tara's boys on the train was taken before they started screaming in terror. Laura was even nice enough to take Carter to the Mommy and Me Day at the Zoo later that afternoon, and from what I hear, they got to eat all the ice cream they wanted!

Carter loves to "go swimming" in our backyard. I put it in quotation marks because I'm from Vegas, where a lot of people have real pools. Somehow this pool that I bought for $5 at Big Lots 3 years ago just doesn't seem to cut it. They have lots of fun, but I think it might be time to shell out the big bucks ($20-$30) and get them a better pool.

And last but not least...the crown jewel of any kids summer...Lagoon! Okay, so really it would be Disneyland, but we're too cheap to go there, so for our kids, its Lagoon! I was so nervous that I was going to be too sick to really enjoy it, but it was such a fun day. Carter and Lydia both loved all the rides so I didn't have to force any screaming children onto rides to make myself feel like I got my money's worth. Meleah wasn't a fan of the few rides we put her on, but she was perfectly content to sit in her stroller all day. I've discovered that it's kind of nice to be prego when I go to Lagoon, because then my husband can't pressure me to go on a bunch of rides that I'm terrified of. I think I was less nauseous at the end of this day than I was the la

st time when I went on all the crazy rides with Randall. Fortunately, Jay was there to go on the big rides with him. They even went on this big bungee ball, shoot yourself up in the air thing that I never would have gone on. All in all, I think my kids have had a decent summer so far, and we still have the cabin and a few

family reunions to look forward to. Hopefully these memories have helped them get through the last few weeks living trapped in the house every day eating goldfish crackers, string cheese, and frozen waffles.

Stimulating Conversation

While I was making tacos the other night, Carter was cutting olives with a butterknife, and Lydia was "wiping off the table" when I overheard this insightful conversation:

Carter: If you were a olive, I would eat you.

Lydia: You can't eat me! I'n a big girl.

Carter: I wish I was a olive. Then I would eat me!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

So, cameras have obviously come a long way since I was a baby, but you can kinda see the resemblance, right? Fortunately for her, she doesn't appear to have my stubby hands, feet, legs,...What isn't stubby about me really?

Happy Birthday Meleah!

Well, it's been a while since I've written and my reasons are two-fold.

1. I really enjoy being in a reclined position these days, especially if my kids are being good, and I can rest my eyes a little bit. I have yet to find a way to lay down, close my eyes, and blog at the same time, but when I do, my posts will be much more frequent.

2. I don't want my husband to see that I've written a new post and wonder why I'm too sick to clean the house and make him dinner, but not too sick to play on the computer.

However, I don't want all the people that I talked into blogging with me to think I've given up on it, so here goes.

Although I've been tired, grumpy, pukey, and lazy lately we still managed to celebrate my little Meleah's first Birthday. Now that she's officially one I feel a little less crazy for being pregnant right now, even though this is by far the closest gap I've had between my kids.

I generally do a delicious cake rather than a cute one for their first B-day since they don't remember it anyway. This year's choice...Strawberry yogurt cake. Thanks go out to Jana and Rachel for putting it together for me! As you can see, Meleah loved it.

Ben and Taryn were in town for Memorial Day so we got together with my side on Sunday and celebrated her Birthday a day early. Isn't it odd that Lydia's Birthday was on Easter this year and Meleah's was on Memorial Day? Anyway, the next day was her actual Birthday and we had Randall's parents come over. I even frosted a chocolate Costco muffin for her to blow out the candles again. Aren't I a nice Mom? Unfor

tunately, she reached for the flame this time, so I ended up looking like a crazy woman screaming and running to her on her Birthday video. My spastic behavior did save her from actually burning herself, however. Other than that, her Birthday celebrations went off without a hitch.

I honestly can't believe it's been a year since she was born. She

has been my smallest baby, even though she eats more

than my other two kids combined. She just seems too little to be one to me. I have truly loved getting to know her little energetic squinty nose personality. That probably sounds weird, but she loves to make this cute little squished up smiley face that looks exactly like a face I used to make when I was a baby. I'll have to have my Mom send a picture of me to show you. She's getting very close to walking and once she does I'm going to be in big trouble. She gets around fast enough as it is! I'm so excited to continue to watch her grow and celebrate many more Birthdays with her!

This is for you Holly!

What's the best thing you cooked last week?

I suppose I would have to say stir fry, even though it was not all that impressive. I didn't overcook the broccoli like I usually do, so that was good.

If time, money, and babysitting were no object, where would you go, and with who?

I would go to Hawaii with my husband. He would love to see the Pearl Harbor memorial from WWII, and I would love to hang out on the beach. It would be great to bring my kids with a babysitter because I know if I didn't bring them I'd be thinking the whole time that Carter would love to see that...or Lydia would love to taste that...etc, but I would definitely want some alone time with Randall. Ü I would also love to take my kids to Disneyland.

When was the last time you cried?

I'm kind of embarrassed to say, because I really don't cry that often, but it was just last week. Fortunately, since then I've discovered that I'm pregnant so I can blame my little outbreak on that. Besides, we all need to do what we have to do to get babied every now and then, right?

List 5 things you were doing 10 years ago:

This happened to be my favorite year of High School, Jr. Year, and I didn't write in a journal so my memories are not as detailed as Holly's, but here they are:

1. Preparing to go to Prom with Casey Randall, and being SO excited about it. Or possibly already having gone, and having had a great time other than forgetting to wear Mascara of all things, spilling a huge cup of RED slushee on my cream dress, and having my date's only dance be with some girl that was on Prom court with him because we had to race out and get to our show after the Prom announcements.

2. Hanging out with Ryan, Randy, Travis, Jason, Lindsey, and Leah and doing stupid things.

3. Hanging out with my friends from my grade and making videos (or was that sophomore year?), hiding walkee talkees behind pop machines to try to confuse strangers, hanging out at Lindsey's and eating all of their food (which I have since discovered must have been pretty expensive for Lindsey's poor parents), having sleepovers, four wheeling, and just having lots of fun.

4. Deciding I didn't like Casey anymore, until I heard that someone else did, so I would start liking him again...

5. Not being as involved with my family as I should have been, but still loving them all the same.

List 5 things you were doing 5 years ago:

1. Carter was a little over 2 months old and I was FINALLY feeling like I could possibly do this whole Mom thing (even though he didn't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time).

2. Living in my in-laws basement apartment which was actually really fun.

3. Being super excited that Lindsey and Julia were getting married in a couple of months and hoping they would be having babies soon so that I could talk with them about poop and spit up.

4. LOVING being a wife and Mommy.

5. Going through cookbooks and making things like home-made rolls and calzones for dinner that my husband still requests to this day. Unfortunately for him, they've been replaced by instant rice and rotisserie chicken that I picked up from the store on the way home from some errand.

List 5 things you were doing 1 year ago:

1. Getting so excited to have a new baby in the next couple of weeks.

2. Stressing out about having a new baby in the next couple of weeks.
3. Having our driveway replaced and making plans for our fence.

4. Trying to figure out how we're going to pay for our driveway and fence.
5. Feeling guilty that I couldn't do a lot of Lydia's physical therapy exercises because I was the size of a whale.

6. Loving being a wife and Mommy.

List 7 of your favorite hobbies:
I know they're looking for things like playing tennis, or collecting rocks or something, but I don't like any of those things, so here are my hobbies -
1. Eating

2. Cooking in a clean kitchen, and having someone else clean up the mess I make.

3. Scrapbooking

4. Blogging
5. Reading
6. Doing Variety Puzzle books

7. Playing games that don't require a ton of thought or energy.

Name 5 of your favorite foods:
1. Any fruit excluding all melons but watermelon. All fruits have to be the perfect texture in order to be on my favorite foods list. No mushy warm apples, gritty pears, dry oranges, etc. are allowed. I especially like strawberries, raspberries, and perfectly ripe and cold watermelon.
2. Grandpa Jensen or Bob's mashed potatoes with either Bob's fried chicken or Grandpa's marinated turkey. Grandpa's creamed potatoes and peas are also acceptable.

3. Chicken madiera at the Cheesecake factory.
4. Chicken alfredo at the Olive Garden.

5. Lettuce wraps and almond cashew chicken at PF Changs.

Why didn't they give us 7 Favorites for this one instead of the hobbies category? I could have thought of 7 Favorite foods A LOT easier than hobbies.

Name 5 places that you have been:

This is really sad, but here they are -

1. Southern Nevada

2. Utah

3. Tiajuana

4. Southern California

5. Billings Montana/Yellowstone

List 5 of your favorite memories:

1. My wedding day.

2 My children's births (yes, even Lydia's C-section and Meleah's natural delivery).
3. High School - what I realize now was a very care-free time even though I thought I was stressed.

4. College - after I came home from SUU and was working at Safekey with all my friends, and spending hours and hours in a hot tub at Julia's house.

5. Dating Randall. I still have to bring out his old e-mails occasionally to reminisce about how sweet he was to me. Ü

6. I have to add another one and say that although I complain, I have totally LOVED these last five years watching my children grow and laughing at the things they say and do (which totally overshadow the times when I'm screaming and crying about the things they say and do).

I'm tagging Cari, Laura, Tara, Steve & Jess, Taryn & Ben, Jana, Rachel, Mom & Dad, Mindy, Heather, Erica, and anyone else that hasn't done this yet.

Baby on the way!

Those of you that read my blog should feel so special because you are the first to hear that little Stewart #4 is officially on the way. We are very excited, and frankly a little scared, to be bringing yet another baby into the world. I'm six weeks along so the fun part (morning sickness) has just begun. Week seventeen can't come fast enough for me! We are so blessed to be able to have a large family, and I hope I can remember that in the months and years to come!