On the road to being a domestic goddess

When I was in college I found some great friends and together we decided that our goal one day was to become a domestic goddess. Not quite sure what that entails, we decided one day that it meant we became Martha Stewarts (as she is the ultimate domestic goddess) but we quickly realized that her staff makes her job quite easy. So we have each pursued our goal in hopes that one day we would reach our goal. Well, this summer I have made some pretty good strides in my road to domestic goddesshood. For Mother's Day Christian got me a sewing machine. My sewing skills consist of sewing a sort of straight line, but I was determined to win. I made a levi quilt top and only broke three needles. I also made Laine and James curtains...with a little bit of mom help.


James' curtains, he will be getting a quilt and pillow case out of his chosen fabric too.

Laine's curtains. She wanted blue and with fairies. Thank you Wal-mart fabric gods for providing.


Having proven my sewing skills I turned to my knitting. I have now completed the lovely pink afghan. I also finished a lovely purple baby sweater for a friend.

Then to finish the trifecta of domestic goddessesness I took on cooking.

I only wish that I had taken pictures when my 14 loaves (12 were mini) of zucchini bread were done, the twelve jars of jam, the three lasagnas, and the decadent chocolate cake with homemade fondant. Though the jam seemed to present a few problems all turned out well.

Next up- Canning!!!

Back to School

So, it's that time of year again. Laine started school again on Monday, entering the second grade at Upland Terrace Elementary School. Her teacher, Mrs. Brinton, seemed very nice. She's already made some friends and we had one of them over Wednesday afternoon to play. Eve is starting Kindergarten tomorrow. She met with her teacher last week for a little consultation, she checked Eve's skills on things like recognizing colors, letters, and numbers. Since Eve's been reading for a few years now, I think she did ok. Here she is with her teacher:


While Eve was getting tested on counting the number of blocks on the table, James got to check out the classroom.

Then we grabbed Laine on her way out of her classroom and they all went to the playground for a little fun on the slides and monkey bars.

With Natalie back in school too, it's been a busy week for all of us.

Going to the temple and we're going to get married

About 22 years ago my mom brought home a bouncy baby boy. I was ten years older then this little bundle of joy and immediately took him under my wing. He gave us many scares during his life (the day he turned blue still lives in my memory as one of the worse days ever) and he has made us very proud (the Cottonwood game his senior year and his decisions regarding rugby and mission--just to name a few). He became my bud, my shadow. I took him everywhere and spoiled him just like an older sister should. There were trips to Lagoon, the bookstore, and the theater. He participated in things with my friends and really never left my side. He has always been my best bud.

Last week the little boy, who used to have me read to him or watch The Little Mermaid with him many times over, took a sweet young girl to the temple and married her for time and all eternity. We are so happy for them and the kids are excited to offically welcome Aunt McKaye to the family (after months of calling her soon-to-be-aunt McKaye). This marks the end for my parents. All four of their children are married, two of them this year.

It was a fun night and I had fun seeing faces that I hadn't seen in years (I am not sure if Christian had the same amount of fun as I did). Everyone was dressed to the nines and a good time was had by all. Don't believe me, here are the pictures to prove it.

Look sparkerlers! (This picture was taken moments before James thought he would test his parent's knowledge and touch the part that had burned down...guess what they were right, it does hurt.)

Bart being a goof ball with Adam (he stole the camera) getting ready for his big magazine cover.

Look what I found!

We tried very hard to get everyone to look at the camera for this picture. In five or six pictures it did not work.

The same goes for this one. In fact Boston just gave up, that is the top of his head.

See here James and Birdie wer having problems.

My brothers, they are two....special boys.

Wrestle Uncle Addy!!!!

The couple emerging from the temple.

Trouble? What do you mean? We're the most innocent boys around.

Waiting for Zach and McKaye to emerge.

All dressed up and ready to go.

The girls decided to have curly hair for the big day. It was kinda fun putting in the rollers for them.

The wedding dinner was at Gardner Village. They were getting ready to have a big beach party, we couldn't resist snapping our picture for this one.

Doggone days of summer

The end of summer is quickly rushing towards me. Soon instead of taking the kids on outings to fun and exotic places, or to go to the movies, or simply being at home taking care of them I will be in a classroom having fun with a whole new set of students.

I am going to miss being a home, it has been an amazing experience.

Nothing new has been going on here. We are just having a good time and getting ready for Zach's wedding this week. Just a week of cousin outings and family reunions (see pictures below). I also took the kids to school with me this week to help me get my room set up. They had a blast drawing and playing with my rolly chair. While I put up pictures and met with the Student Government officers.

Here are some pictures of the Pia family reunion:

Boston excited to have a yummy Thanksgiving dinner in August.

The family reunion was this year at Wheeler Farm. The rain kinda kept us from seeing everything but the kids did have fun trying to find every rooster/chicken that they could.

The happy couple in their lovely Tibetan scarves

My Great-Aunt ZeZe was in charge of the reunion this year. She had just visited Tibet and decided that the tradition of giving others a scarf as a welcome was a great idea. So she brought one home for all the adults. I thought it looked more like a prayer shawl on Christian though.

My aunt also got pony rides for the kids. I think that the kids rode at least five times. They loved it. Here is Eve on her first go.

James just giggled the whole ride.

And Laine was a pro!

Now from the children's museum cousin outings:

Boston and James decide that they'd rather sit in the back of the helicopter, than in the front. Just in case it did take off.

James played at the water area for at least 40 minutes. I had a hard time dragging him away to discover the rest of the museum.

And Laine became a champion wall climber. This is her fourth time up!

The kids loved the helicopter. They pretended they were Lifelight and played in both the copter and in the "mission control" area. They thought it was great they could talk to each other from the control tower to the helicopter via an intercom.

Eve had a fun time being the Doctor on board. She didn't want to relinquish that purple vest when it was time to move on.

Eve also had fun playing the happy postman, delivering mail to all the residents of town. Even the dog had a mail box.

Shakespeare, Baby!

For those that don't hail from our part of the country, you might be interested to know that there is am annual Shakespearean Festival hosted in Cedar City, Utah (that's about 4 hours from anywhere and 2 hours from nowhere). Natalie and I headed down there this weekend to make sure that she got her yearly dose of thespian theatrics. The kids got to play with their grandparents (three sets of them) while we saw the plays.

First up was the classic ladies' favorite, Pride and Prejudice. Yeah, I know, not Shakespeare, but I'm not in charge of the festival. The performance was pretty good, only slightly ruined by the fourteen-year -olds sitting near us making gooey wimpy noises whenever Darcy and Lizzy held hands. I'd probably also change the casting of Lizzy, cause when Darcy talked about her not being handsome enough to tempt him, I was thinking "Yeah, I understand."

That evening we caught Macbeth. Nat was really excited because she's been teaching it for years and never had a chance to see it. The costumes were great, the swordfighting was exciting, and the guy playing Macbeth did a straight-up-awesome job of looking crazy. It was pretty much awesome all around.

Did I mention the tarts? The tarts are probably just about as good a reason to attend the festival as the plays. They had a killer mixture of blueberry and blackberry in one of them that they called Summerberry. I need to learn how to make those. The cream cheese ones were also stellar. The raspberry, lemon, and apple were tasty but didn't quite keep up with the other flavors. Following Natalie's tradition, we got a tart at the intermission of each play, plus a couple extra at the start of the festival or when we had some free time and apetite between plays.

The second day, we watch Much Ado About Nothing in the afternoon. I liked the live version better than the movie, there were some funny kids in that cast. Natalie still thinks Hero should have ditched Claudio, but I figure the poor kid meant well. Anyway, off to grab some barbecue (wouldn't recommend doing that again where we went) and back to see The Merchant of Venice. Shylock was great, and the crazy Macbeth guy was back again as Bassanio. I liked Portia, as she seemed to be the only character in the play who wasn't a complete jerk.

Anyway, if you haven't ever been (like I hadn't) and you happen to reside in the great state of Utah, I'd recommend taking a day or two and heading down to catch some shows.

Shower the people you love with love

This week brought a whole new adventure in being a mom. Christian went out of town for work for the first time since we got married. He took Laine with them and I stayed home the week with Eve and James. We had a fun a busy week with a family reunion at a water park, two sleepovers with grandmas, a trip to the park, a movie, cousin outings, and just fun all around. Though I have to admit it was a relief when Christian got home, this job is much easier with two around.

So being a mom now means that I get to do things that I wouldn't have done a year ago. I love it though. I like visiting places that I hadn't gone before and seeing things that I hadn't seen in years. This week we took a Bellamy Cousin outing to Wheeler Farm. The last time I visited here it was years ago. Twenty, maybe. It was nice to see that some places never change. We fed the fish, laughed at the pigs, took a hay ride, then participated in about an hour of hide-and-go seek.

Eve and Lu after their spaghetti lunch.
We took about five pictures. Even though James isn't sitting down I think this one is my favorite. I love Boston and Lu mimicking Hilary behind me.


Lu and Eve discover the joys of a dual potty outhouse.Wonder where they got that idea from.
The four of them loved the tree house. We had a hard time getting them down to explore the rest of the farm.



One of the highlights of the week though was I finally got to see Carole King in concert. Carole King has been my favorite artist since I was a little girl. My mom and dad played her music constantly and it got to the point that I was personally offended if anyone did not know who she was or thought Aretha sang a better "Natural Woman" than she did. For my birthday my awesome husband got me tickets to see both Carole and James Taylor in concert. A dream come true. Unfortunately, Christian was gone, meaning my friend Darlene got to attend in his place (Darlene is beginning to like when Christian goes, this is the second time she has benefited by his absence). The concert was incredible and I loved every second. It was even better that I got to see it with my parents. We even took a few pictures! Really it was the best birthday present ever.


Singing "Up on the Roof"

Coming back for their second encore.
Ah, James Taylor. He has the honor of being the first person I ever saw in concert.
Darlene and I ready to enjoy the concert.

Zoo Trip

Growing up I remember going to the zoo most Saturdays. We had a family pass and we would go in the morning. Dad would rent a wagon or borrow one from Aunt Val and then he would take us on wagon ride through all the wonders. He would also get in the front of the wagon and "drive" us down the hills why my mom looked on in terror. The zoo was a fun and happy place that I loved going. But as I grew up we visited less and less. I had not been to the zoo in over 11 years. In fact, the last time I went I was chaperoning my little brother's fifth grade class. There was just no reason for me to visit.

But now I have kids and kids mean you get to go to the zoo. So this last week Grammy (my mom), Aunt Amy, Boston, my kids and me made the journey up to the zoo.

Wow it has changed. I am forever grateful that the big cats are out of their concrete cages and are now able to lounge in size and habitat appropriate enclosures. I am grateful that the rhinos and the elephants now can live in happy elephant land. But what has happened to everything else? The hippos are gone, the bears have been moved until they make them a new place to live. There are no zebras or lions. All the things that made the zoo fantastic just seemed to have disappeared. Even the stuffed Shasta the Liger is gone. What will kids fascinate about now that they can't read about the amazing liger?

All this aside, my kids loved it. They didn't know what was missing and what there used to be. They got to see a baby elephant and got to pet an oversized beetle. There were train rides and carousel rides. Really, they just had a blast. So I guess that means I will be heading back sooner rather than later.




Playing in play land. Laine decided that she wanted to hatch.
both girls decided they were happy to be larger than and female orangutan
The kids, loved these bronze statues around the zoo. Every time we saw one they had to have a picture sitting on it.

See look, another one.
waiting for the elephant show to meet the 800 lb. one year old.