Una Vida Hermosa

Xander Turns 1!

2010-08-08T17:19:00.002-06:00

Serendipity Outlet

2010-04-21T01:03:00.001-06:00

25 Random Things That I Adore About My Husband

2009-02-14T07:23:00.004-07:00

In honor of my husband on this Valentine’s Day, here are some random thoughts about why I adore and admire my amazing Drue:

1. He’s an excellent soccer player which makes Spring and Fall weekends very exciting in our household.
2. He will always remain a kid at heart.
3. He’s willing to eat the chocolate off of seafoam for me so I can enjoy the yummy honey flavored foam.
4. When I’m sick he takes care of the kids, the cleaning, the cooking, the shopping….everything including me.
5. He helps with everything in #4 even when I’m not sick!
6. He is capable of fixing anything around our house, but is also wise enough to recognize when his time is better spent hiring the job out.
7. He is always encouraging and complimentary to me when I go golfing with him even though I am embarrassingly horrible.
8. He is an incredible example to our daughters of the kind of man, husband and father I hope they will marry someday.
9. He makes the world’s best crème brulee and cheese fondue! Yummmm!!!
10. He DVRs any sporting events that I’m not interested in and watches them when I’m asleep rather than when we’re watching tv together.
11. He excels at everything he does whether it’s work or play.
12. An example of number 11…he was named the 2008 Employee of the Year in his office.
13. He only speaks Spanish to our daughters which has been a great way for them to become bilingual and a good way for me to slowly increase my Spanish vocabulary.
14. He has a great smile that brightens any room.
15. He’s easy to please by giving him tasty baked goods.
16. You could never tell by looking at him that he’s addicted to baked goods. He’s got an amazing soccer player’s body ;-)
17. He tries to always assume the best of people.
18. He is slow to anger, and quick to forgive.
19. He enjoys listening to NPR’s Car Talk and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on Saturday mornings.
20. He wakes me up every holiday or special occasion by singing to me our family “Happy” song which he made up when we were newlyweds.
21. He can dunk a basketball.
22. He’s Salem and Sutton’s favorite person in the world.
23. One Halloween I needed a cowardly lion costume for my work costume contest, but I was incredibly busy with work and didn’t have time to make the costume myself. Even though Drue had no sewing experience, I came home one day and found that he had sewed the entire full-size costume for me!
24. He is always kind when people ask for his technical expertise, no matter how technologically challenged they may be.
25. He shows us on a daily basis, through the choices that he makes, that we are his top priority.

A Very Belated Catch-up Post

2008-12-07T00:56:00.019-07:00

Bare with us here as we try to cover three months worth of events and pictures in one posting.

We all joined Drue for his business trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in October. We took advantage of this opportunity to go visit the Everglades (you know....where they're always finding dead bodies on CSI Miami). We didn't find any corpses, but we did find miles and miles of beauty.

We took an airboat ride through the everglades. Drue, feeling responsible for the safety of our family, volunteered to sit on the outer edge of the airboat so he could protect us from any alligators. Alligators can apparently jump out of the water about the same distance as their length.

Maggie and Sutton were happy to take an interior seat!

Here's one of those lovely alligators. Fortunately none of them decided to demonstrate their jumping prowess.

We spent a lovely day at the Ft. Lauderdale beach. Salem could spend hours playing in the sand.

Sutton enjoyed the sand too after a period of reacclimation.

Our beach beauty!

Drue buried Salem in the sand during our last trip to Mexico. Salem now demands a repeat burial at any beach we visit.

We ended one of our fun days in Florida with a delicious meal at the melting pot. We're all huge fans of fondue. The girls loved being able to cook all of their own food. We enjoyed the meal as well, but we were most happy about the girls surviving the three-hour meal without any meltdowns or tantrums!

We visited the Lion Country Safari during our last day in Florida. This is a wonderful safari where we remained in our car and drove through hundreds of acres of open land where the animals were allowed to roam free. It seemed much more humane than zoos and we hope that someone in Utah will choose to invest in a habitat such as this for the animals.

This is Sutton's imitation of an elephant! She makes sound effects and all!

Drue's vigilant focus kept this rhino from ramming into our rental car. That would have been an awkward insurance conversation.

There was island that housed about twenty monkeys. One of the monkeys was walking around with an empty water bottle. Just as Maggie asked Drue "What do you think he's doing with that bottle?", the monkey walked up to the water, dipped the bottle into the water filling it up, then proceeded to drink from the water bottle! That's better manners than some humans we know!

Check out that long black tongue!!!

The Lory birds loved eating flower nectar from Salem. Salem was quite intimidated at first, but quickly enjoyed this fun opportunity.

After seeing all of the animals in the Safari we went to the other portion of the park that housed rides and exhibits. We enjoyed a relaxing paddle boat ride.

Shortly after our trip to Florida, Drue and the girls joined Maggie on a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico for one of her conferences. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort so Sutton quickly developed an addiction to Pina Coladas.

The resort we stayed at was part of a sea turtle preservation program. Each year after the sea turtles come onto the beach and lay their eggs, the resort employees take the eggs into a turtle estuary to protect them from other animals and the elements. They care for the eggs until the turtles hatch and then they release them back into the ocean. We were lucky enough to be invited to be part of "La Liberacion"-- the release of over 400 sea turtles. We were each allowed a sea turtle to hold, assign a name, and then release into the ocean.

Here's Maggie explaining to the girls the importance of releasing the turtles onto the sand and allowing them to find their way into the ocean rather than directly placing them into the water. This short walk that the turtles take into the ocean allows them to familiarize themselves with this specific beach so that twently years from now, when they become reproductively mature, they will return to this exact beach to lay their eggs.

We allowed Salem the honor of naming all three of our turtles, so as you could have guessed, she named them Ariel, Jasmine, and Cinderella. I wonder if we have to pay Disney some rolyalty for that?

And they're off....we all cheered on the turtles as they took their momentous march.

Salem was quite worried about her turtles making it safely to the water because there were sand crabs burrowing out of the sand trying to attack the turtles. Fortunately, Ariel, Jasmine, and Cinderella all made it safely. A few of their friends were not as lucky :(

Salem quickly became best friends with the bar tenders at the pool bar. She was delighted to have her water wings on so that she could independently swim up to the bar and order her share of pina coladas and strawberry daquiris.

We got to celebrate Salem's third birthday while in Mexico. She was so excited when everyone at the nightly resort show sang happy brithday to her!

Salem adores playing with older girls. She and her new friend Caden were inseparable.

Salem and Drue enjoying the Real Salt Lake playoff soccer game.

We love Halloween! This was the first year that Salem got to choose her own costume. She wanted to be a doctor...easy enough...we have all the supplies handy. Sutton was an adorable little Chick.

Salem got to start soccer this fall. Here she is in her Argentina soccer uniform and Diadora cleats...following in her Papa's footsteps.

Way to go Hull '05!!! Hopefully we'll soon have Hull '07 playing out on the field too.

A fun day at the zoo for all four Salem grandkids: Kaden, Salem, Kardin, and Sutton.

Salem is becoming quite the artist-- mostly abstract. She loves painting...and is getting better at keeping the paint on her paper.

Sutton has started joining Salem at gymnastics. Sutton is now a Diaper Daredevil and Salem has graduated up to Tumble Bees. Here's Sutton doing her favorite gymnastics activity: jumping and playing in the foam pit.

Sutton's class is a parent-and-tot class so either Maggie or Drue always accompanies her. Drue usually gets chastised by the instructors when he goes...adults are not allowed on the equipment :(

This is Sutton's contribution to Salem's soccer practice.

Thankfully, Salem's soccer programs consists of teaching the kids skills and having them run drills. They only get to play swarm ball during the last 10 minutes of practice.

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon out bowling with our good friends Jo, Jim, Aiden, and Maya.

Salem had a great time and beat out both Maggie and Jo! Maggie's planning on using the ramp too next time.

We love going to the Park Silly Market on Main Street in Park City. It's held every weekend from Spring to Fall. There are lots of street vendors, artist booths, a farmers market, and on this day there were great shows. The show in the background was an amazing demonstration of Capoeira which is a brazilian martial art that mimics dancing.

They also had a fun petting farm at the Park Silly Market. The girls loved seeing the animals. Unfortunately our friend Maya didn't enjoy her experience as much...the goat ate Maya's hair :( !!!

Out for a beautiful hike in Pinebrook with the family. Pictured are Ana, Bassam, Kardin, Kaden, Maggie, Sutton, and Suma.

Salem and Sutton love seeing the animals when we visit the zoo, but their experience is never complete without getting a ride on the new zoo carousel. Salem insists on riding the elephants; Sutton doesn't seem to have a preference as long as she gets a ride.

Salem made great progess during swim lessons this summer. She can now float all on her own!

Drue and the girls celebrating the big 33! He requested funnel cakes for his birthday dessert this year.

While the funnel cakes cooked the cousins had fun out on the hammock. Pictured are Parker, Salem, Sophie, and Abe.

Drue doesn't celebrate a birthDAY, he celebrates a birthWEEK! Here's a second birthday cake that Maggie's mom made for him. It was a delicious ice-cream cake with chocolate ganache....yummmm!

Salem's First Day of Preschool

2008-09-06T04:06:00.004-06:00

Our big girl all ready and excited for her first day of preschool. Salem was insistant on taking her back pack to school despite the fact that Maggie couldn't think of anything that Salem would actually need to put in her back pack.

Salem outside her school.

Salem's favorite outdoor activity at school: playing in the sandbox. Salem's favorite indoor activity at school: circle time and art class.

Salem's school held a fun ice-cream social to get all the kids and families introduced. It's fun to see Salem making new friends.

Sutton of course had to have her turn on the tire swing as well.

Each of the classrooms in Salem's school has a few pets to care for. Salem's room has this large guinea pig named Sonny, a salamander, and a fish tank with 7-8 fish. The other classroom has a rabbit, sugar gliders (that the teacher carries in a belt pouch all day), and birds. The third classroom has kids with significant allergies so they don't have any pets for the year. There are also two wonderfully mellow dogs who roam the halls and the playgrounds.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. That Salem did so well during her first week of preschool.
2. Delicious fresh produce from our organic farm CSA. This week we received green beans, squash, zucchini, corn, onions, eggplant, beets, and cucumbers.
3. Salem's contribution to this week's list: Sutton.
4. That Salem and Sutton slept in until 8:00 and 8:30 am respectively this morning.
5. Long weekends. We have all sorts of fun things planned.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old
Salem's response when Maggie asked her what she wants to dress up as for Halloween this year: "Mommy, I want to be a doctor like you!" Soooo cute! Salem has recently learned what Maggie does for work; she doesn't seem to understand what Drue does yet. We'll see if she changes her mind before Halloween.
"Mommy....you and Papa are my best friends!" Salem's earning all the brownie points this month!

Sutton Turns One!!! A belated July Post

2008-08-30T07:31:00.008-06:00

We delighted in celebrating Sutton's first birthday last month. We had a fun relaxing party and BBQ for her at one of our great local parks. Sutton has been an amazing addition to our family. She is sweet, loving, playful, coy, and a bit shy. Upto her birthday she had definitely been a Mama's girl, but she's quickly discovering how fun her Papa is and gets quite disappointed when he leaves her sight. She adores Salem and spends most of her day following her around. Her favorite activity seems to be playing with Salem in Salem's room. At the time of her birthday she was cruising all over the place, but not yet walking independently. She could say five words: Mama, hi, oh-oh, eyes, and mo (for more). She had two little teeth that had just erupted within the previous month.

Since Sutton couldn't walk yet, she insisted on crawling everywhere and on everything! She could climb up to any surface so it was quite a challenge keeping her from getting hurt. Now that she's walking we're trying to keep herself from getting hurt since her mind seems to think that she can run, but her balance and coordination aren't quite there yet.

Suttton with her panda birthday cake that Maggie made for her. She, similarly to Salem at her first birthday, had limited interest in her cake.

Of course, the little interest she did have had to be in the black frosting!

The terrific big sister enjoying the party.

If we had to describe Sutton's personality with just one picture this would be it.

Sutton is finally comfortable enough with the grass to crawl on it.

Watch out Usain Bolt! Sutton's practicing her race-starting position!

Salem enjoying her favorite item out of her party favor bag.

We ended the evening with our own Olympic trials. The racers included (from far to near) Aaron, Wade, Kaden, Ana, Eddie, Parker, Drue, Bassam, Patty, Sakshi, Tamy, and Maggie (behind the camera). Heat #1 was won by Drue. Bassam edged the rest of the field out to win heat #2.

Happy Anniversary

2008-08-09T04:18:00.005-06:00

This post is in honor of this incredibly wonderful man who I had the amazing fortune of marrying 11 years ago today. He has been my comforter, my beacon, my guardian, my solace, and above all, my joy. Happy anniversary Drue. Te amo siempre.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

1. The past eleven wonderfully amazing years.
2. Drue's never-ending smile; it brightens up our home.
3. The incredible example that Drue is to our daughters. I can only hope that they will be fortunate enough to find men like their father when they grow up.
4. Drue's dashing good looks (with a soccer player's body to boot! :) )
5. My best friend....Drue. Salem says he's her best friend too!

Our July in Review

2008-07-30T17:15:00.006-06:00

We had such a wonderfully busy July that we've been delinquent with posting. Two of our biggest events in July were terrific birthday celebrations for Sutton and Drue. Those two events warrant their own posting so please refer to those postings for images of our birthday celebrations.

Salem and Sutton are really enjoying playing together now that Sutton is a bit older. Here's Salem taking Sutton for a 4-wheeling ride! Salem is quickly developing her driving skills given that her passenger often times tries to climb in and out of the jeep during the ride.

The three oldest Salem grandkids (Salem, Kaden, and Kardin) hanging out at the park!

Sutton doesn't like to feel left out just because she's the youngest so Drue made sure she got her turn too.

Drue and Salem out doing evening yard work. Salem can't get enough of Drue so she tags along even for chores around the house.

A few weeks ago Drue came home and asked me "What can we do to make it so that you bake more?" A number of responses popped into mind, but I fortunately responded with the same affection with which the question was asked. Those of you who know Drue well know that he is crazy about his baked goods, pastries, desserts, etc. He's definitely the one with the sweet tooth in our family (thank goodness for his incredible metabolism!). So to satisfy his cravings, Salem and I surprised him with some homemade funnel cakes. Drue prefers them plain with powdered sugar; I prefer them with lots of fresh fruit and cream.

One of our favorite things about summers in Park City is all of the great free concerts. On most evenings you can find a free concert somewhere in town. This one was at the Deer Valley Resort. They have terrific musicians there every Wednesday evening. So we pack a picnic, grab the blankets, and enjoy a wonderful evening in the mountains. You are all welcome to join us any time.

We celebrated the 4th of July with our now traditional concert at the Canyons Resort (another one of those great free concerts). The Canyons always puts on a big celebration on July 3rd with a concert featuring the Disco Drippers followed by a big fireworks display. The kids had a great time dancing to the music and Sutton was quite enthralled with her first exposure to fireworks.

I included this picture to point out something new that I learned about Drue after almost 11 years of marriage. Apparently, his favorite part of the 4th of July parade is the marching bagpipe band (seen in the background). Who knew?!?

Tiger Woods doesn't need to be nervous quite yet, but Salem's coming up on his heels!

Salem and her good friend Claudia hanging out at the pool. The weather has been so nice that for the last 4 weeks we've held our weekly play group at the Promontory pool. I must say it's a bit of work for each of us moms trying to manage a 2 year old and a baby in the water, but the kids are having a great time together that it's worth the extra work.

Salem rocking out to the music in the locker room after our swim play date. Too cute!

We had the opportunity to attend the Morrison family reunion this month. The Morrison's are Drue's mom's family. Here's Grandpa Hull playing with Salem, Kaylee, and Sutton. He kept them incredibly entertained.

One of the traditional highlights of the Morrison reunion is the pinata for the kids. Sutton got a hold of one the suckers and did not let go until she had licked every last morsel of sugar off of that stick!

Our current favorite musician is a wonderfully talented artist here from Park City named Mary Beth Maziarz. This is Mary Beth at one of her concerts at the Homestead Resort in Midway. It's one of our favorite concerts to attend (yes...another free one) because it's a much smaller, more intimate venue. It was a perfect evening to relax on the lawn and enjoy amazing music.

Salem was enjoying playing with one our of best buddies Aidan during the concert.

Salem and Maggie sharing the love.

Sutton has never allowed her lack of teeth to get in the way of her eating. She's very much enjoying all the fresh produce of the season, even if it is almost as big as her own head.

Drue and the girls dancing to Mary Beth's music. Salem has now transitioned from asking for her own music (children's music from her music classes) to requesting some of our favorite songs. Her current favorites are "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" by Doris Day, "This is Our Life" by Mary Beth Maziarz, and "Rosas" by La Oreja de Van Gogh.

We got Sutton a bike trailer for her birthday gift. Here are the girls all prepared for their inaugural ride. As you can see, we had to keep them distracted with snacks so that they would leave their helmets on during the ride.

Drue rarely gets to sleep in, but on the few occasions that he does, he likely doesn't get restful sleep because this usually becomes his sleeping arrangement as Salem climbs into our bed and snuggles up to him. She adores her Papa!

From the 40s to the 90s All in One Week

2008-06-24T16:07:00.007-06:00

We went to see Kung Fu Panda for the second time this week. Our good friends Jo, Maya, and Aidan joined us. Salem's favorite character is Tigress.

We celebrated Kaden's 6th birthday on Friday. Here are all four Salem grandkids helping blow out the candles. Kaden is an amazing cousin, nephew, brother, son, grandson, and friend. He's thoughtful, kind, loving, adventurous, intelligent, and an incredible math whiz! Happy Birthday Kaden! We love you!

Thanks to Ana for sending this sweet picture of Kaden, Salem, and Kardin.

Kardin and Sutton having fun at the birthday party.

How many men with graduate degrees does it take to put together a birthday present for a 6 year old?!?!?!

The present is finally assembled and Kaden gets to enjoy the inaugural ride!

The biggest kid of the group also got to enjoy a ride (the weight limit is 180 lbs.).

Salem enjoyed a ride too (although she can't quite reach the peddles).

We ended the celebration with some fun sparklers.

Aaron and Becky joined us for a nice picnic at Drue's soccer game this week. The soccer player in the picture is Wade, Drue's older brother. They've been playing on the same soccer team for over a decade now.

A cute picture of sweet Salem.

We went to a fun country festival with Aaron and Becky. It was a beautiful summer evening with music, good conversation, and great company. Sutton was persistent for over an hour and taught herself how to stand up independently! As you can see by the expression on her face, she was quite proud of her accomplishment.

Salem getting a swinging blanket ride from Drue and Aaron.

Salem giving Sutton a ride in the new sled we bought at a garage sale. They're already looking forward to snow sledding, but we're hoping to have several months before they can use this sled outdoors.

We attended a bug show at the library today. Here are Salem and Kaden checking out all the bugs. They had tarantulas, scorpions, praying manti, roaches, millipedes, and many others.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

1. That the temperature here in the mountains is 10 degrees cooler than in the valley (now that Salt Lake has hit the 90 degree weather).
2. That the girls are capable of napping in our laps so that we could go to the movies during nap time and enjoy watching Iron Man.
3. White peaches. We just discovered these last year, but we're now hooked. They are sweet, juicy, and delicious.
4. That we have so many fun activities nearby that we can enjoy.
5. Watching Salem develop frienships of her own. Seeing Salem and her buddy Maya interact brings a smile to our faces.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

Maggie: "Salem, who's my big girl?"
Salem: "I'm not your big girl Mommy"
Maggie: "why aren't you my big girl?"
Salem: "I'm not your big girl Mommy...because I'm your PRINCESS"
She's absolutely right! She is our sweet princess. After reading her bedtime books with Drue at night, she likes to end her evening by having Maggie tell her a story about Princess Salem. We adore our Princess Salem!!!

A Beautiful Fun-filled Week

2008-06-18T23:43:00.005-06:00

Salem and Sutton started their first summer session of swim class this week. They are both in a parent-tot class so both Drue and I have to hustle home from work to get to the pool. We're all having a terrific time.

Salem has almost perfected the belly-flop! Sutton is a bit more apprehensive, but she's getting more and more confident with each lesson. She can now "jump" into the pool and go under the water for a count of 1. Salem stays under for a count of 10-12.

We decided to make a caramel apple bouquet to take to Steph and Wade at the hospital as they welcomed in baby Dallin. Salem loves helping in the kitchen and thought this was a great project. Maggie enjoys all the extra help in the kitchen...most of the time :).

Salem proudly displaying her completed caramel apple bouquet.

We are all so excited to finally get to meet Wade and Steph's newest addition, Dallin Thomas. He's an absolutely beautiful baby and very much resembles his adorable three older siblings. Salem is already very much in love with her newest cousin and talks about 'Baby Dallin' every day. Sutton seemed intrigued, but wasn't crazy about the idea of Maggie holding another baby.

After our visit to the hospital we stopped by a local restaurant for some lunch. Drue and sutton enjoyed relaxing out on the patio listening to the water in the nearby brook.

It's hard for us to believe that our sweet baby girl will be a year old a month from today.
She is sweet, gentle, playful, inspiring, and incredibly patient.

Maggie's so glad that Sutton has nearly perfected her straw technique. It's makes drinks at restaurants much easier.

Drue, Salem, and Sutton enthralled with the birds in the brook.

We planned on taking the girls for a game of miniature golf, but the course was closed for a private party so we took advantage of the batting cages instead. Salem may be hooked now. She was quite impressed with herself for hitting all the balls so well (thanks to her Papa's help of course!)

Salem is slowly climbing out of her shy cautious shell and is becoming more and more adventurous. She was quite proud of herself for sliding down on her stomach.

We joined our good friends Jo, Maya, and Aidan for a fun trip to the Children's museum. Here are Salem and Maya having great fun at the water station.

Jo and sweet Aidan posing for a quick picture. Aidan was incredibly patient and tolerant while the wild two year old girls ran from one station to the next.

Salem's favorite activity at the musem was flying the helicopter.

Sutton's favorite activity was playing with the magnetic letters.

Drue broke away from his office to join us for some lunch at the Gateway after our trip to the museum. We of course had to fit is some fun in the fountains prior to lunch.

Jo and Maya enjoying the cool water on a hot Spring day!

Drue and Salem picking up our first food box for this farming season. We decided to support a local farm by joining a CSA (community sponsored agriculture). Each week, for the next four months, East Farms will deliver a box of fresh organically grown produce from their farm in Kaysville. The cool weather this Spring in Utah has delayed the growing season for the farm so this first week's produce consisted mostly of greens, some of which we've never heard of before but we're excited to try new foods and new recipes. We received red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, radishes, arugula, mizuna, and tat soi.

40 Degree Weather in June?!?!?!

2008-06-09T22:39:00.010-06:00

We decided to defy the cold weather by having a picnic at the park. The girls had a terrific time eating on a blanket, playing on the playground, and watching the ongoing girls lacrosse game.

Drue and Salem pretending to be Spiderman and Spidergirl (they had sound effects and all).

This was a busy week of soccer...Drue had 4 games within 8 days! We're glad to say that the 32 year old body is holding up great!

Drue, Becky, Aaron, Grandma Hull, and the kids fit in a fun game of Croquet after Sunday dinner. Becky (and her baby girl) were the winners.

Sutton practicing her wobbly walk with Grandma Hull.

Sutton with her cute cousin Kaylee.

Salem at her gymnastics graduation from Tumble Bugs. We are very proud! She has now mastered an independent summersault and a full flip on the rings. She'll be moving on to Tumble Bees next season.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. A beautiful sunny 70 degree day today (Maggie's idea of perfect weather).
2. Family and friends' blogs. It's so nice to stay in touch with you all.
3. Sutton's belly laughs at her silly sister and Papa pretending to be dogs.
4. That our tire blow-out occurred just as we were approaching the off-ramp and Drue was able to handle the car without any difficulty.
5. Picnics. We had several this week with all of the soccer games and we've decided that we love eating outside!

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old
Salem now has a routine to watching Drue's soccer games. She always examines him for any injuries as he comes off the field. Often times he has scraped up knees and her response is always the same: "Papa...who did this to you? Tell me who did this to you Papa...show me who did this Papa." Drue loves that she's so protective of him.

Where did May go?

2008-06-03T02:30:00.007-06:00

Sutton's new favorite snack: beef jerky! She seems to enjoy teething on a big slab of jerky much more than any other teether/toy that we've found.

Maggie's brother Bassam with his two boys Kaden and Kardin. Salem and Kardin are giving Suma, Maggie's mom, a run for her money when she has them both. They are both terrific kids, but they're definitely taking full advantage of being 2 year olds!

We were very lucky to have Maggie's cousin and his wife come for a short visit from Egypt following our cruise. This is a picture of Dina, Maggie's cousin's wife, and Samia, Maggie's aunt.

The two rugrats! Salem and Kardin enjoying a ride on the trike.

Cute Sutton with a mouthful of corn. Eating pureed baby food is a thing of the past for her...she's all about gumming her way through table foods now. One of these days she'll get a tooth to help her along.

Salem proudly modeling her new galabeya (traditional Egyptan dress) that she received from Maher and Samia, Maggie's aunt and uncle.

We finally had a chance to visit the zoo this week. Although it's sad to see the animals so confined, Salem is so fascinated by them that we try to make at least a weekly visit to the zoo when the weathr allows for it. Sutton's favorite on this visit was watching the elephant drink water using it's trunk.

Salem was so impressed with this beautiful peacock. Nature is so amazing!

Salem's current favorite is the gorilla. In case you can't tell, the gorilla is shading his head from the sun by placing a folded blanket on his head. Salem thought this was quite silly!

Here are Salem and Drue with Drue's parents, Dan and Linda. They have both been working tirelessly for months now renovating and remodeling a home in their neighborhood that was severely damaged with a house fire. The results are absolutely beautiful! Dan says that he wouldn't have had the confidence to take on such a big project had he not learned so much when he was helping us during our home construction. We're incredibly grateful for all the help Dan and Linda gave us with our house, and we're sure that David (this house's owner) must be equally thankful for both Dan and Linda's incredible dedication.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. Salem's interest in playing with Sutton. We hope this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
2. A resounding 9-0 victory at Drue's soccer game this week.
3. Great mangos!! Mangos are our family's favorite fruit and Costco has some perfect ones right now.
4. Beautiful evenings that are perfect for a fun family walk around the neighborhood.
5. Maggie's parents' willingness to watch the girls so that we could get some yard work done. Neither of us are crazy about yard work, but it's nice to spend a sunny afternoon out in the yard together, even if it is spent pulling weeds.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old
Salem was working hard at trying to get Drue's attention, but Drue was distracted helping his nephew Logan: "Hey Papa, look at me......Papa...look at me......Papa......look at me" Drue had yet to respond. "Hey DAD....look at me." Salem knows all the right buzz words to get our attention. Since Drue only speaks Spanish to Salem, we've always referred to him as 'Papa' not 'Dad', but Salem seems to have quickly figured out that using an 'unusual' word will quickly get Drue's attention!

Cruising the Mexican Riviera

2008-05-27T15:57:00.013-06:00

We spent a terrific week cruising the Mexican Riviera with Maggie's family. There was a total of 14 of us all pictured below.

Top row: Drue & Salem, Maggie & Sutton, Tamy (Maggie's brother), Sakshi (Tamy's wife), Bassam (Maggie's brother), Ana (Bassam's wife) and Kardin

Bottom row: Toudy (Maggie's father), Maher (Maggie's uncle), Samia (Maggie's aunt), Kaden (Bassam and Ana's oldest), and Suma (Maggie's mom)

Sutton was a dream baby being incredibly patient through hours and hours of sit down meals. She was quite adventurous with her meals and tried almost as many foods as we did, which is quite impressive considering that she has yet to get any teeth.

Mealtime meant dividing and conquering...usually Drue with Salem and Maggie with Sutton. How will we ever manage when we get out-numbered?!?! Drue wins the award for most patient father of the year. He didn't complain even once despite Salem's requests to 'go potty' during every single meal.

Maggie felt adventurous and decided to try escargot for the first time...anything is palatable if drenched in a rich garlic butter sauce. Drue's adventurous eating consisted of trying some eggplant...which he only did because he was challenged by Maggie's father. Toudy agreed to try the escargot if Drue tried the eggplant. They both determined that the foods were better than expected. I wonder if that means we can stop cooking an alternative vegetable for Drue when we're having eggplant for dinner?

The four of us on our first formal evening. The girls loved being on the ship. Salem quickly learned the way to all of her favorite spots one of which was a dome within the casino where she could go yell "Hola" and listen to the echo of her voice (Drue's so creative with entertaining the girls).

There isn't a story behind this picture. I just had to share this great picture of my handsome husband.

Salem was excited to return to our cabin every evening so that she could meet her new towel animal friend. Maggie attended a class to learn how to create all the animals so that the girls can continue to enjoy our towels at home.

We have to thank Brandan and Becky for turning us onto Sandra Boynton books years ago when Sophie was a baby. Her books are family favorites, especially Blue Hat Green Hat which had to make the trip with us and continues to get lots of laughs and giggles no matter how many times we read it.

The first port we visited was Cabo San Lucas. This picture is of some of the many sea lions lounging on the rocks in the Sea of Cortez. We took a boat ride that toured us around the popular sites in Cancun and got to see some amazing nature.

Salem and Kaden took turns getting buried in the sand by Drue. I think Salem still has sand in nooks and cranies after this fun afternoon on the beach.

This is a picture of Maggie's mom and aunt getting reeled in after parasailing. It took some convincing to get them to go, but they both had a wonderful time even though they did get dunked in the water twice.

Our next port-of-call was Mazatlan where we spent a magical day horseback riding on the beach at Stone Island. The area of the beach we rode on was pristine...nothing but untouched gorgeous beach on one side, and lush green coconut groves on the other.

Salem was too young to go on the full ride with us, but the guides were kind enough to take her on a short guided ride which she absolutely loved!

The horseback riding wiped out Drue and Salem so they found a nice shaded hammock on the beach and drifted off for a much deserved nap.

Our last port-of-call was Puerta Vallarta. There are many beautiful areas of this great city, but we have to admit that the highlight of Puerta Vallarta for us was the 90 minute couples massage on the beach.

The girls had a great time playing in the pool and at the playground while we got our massages.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. The opportunity to enjoy a wonderful, fun, exciting vacation together as a family.
2. Our big comfortable bed. While we really enjoy travelling, it's always nice to come home to our own bed. Drue's cousin Aaron built us a beautiful bed when we built our house.
3. Princesses (this is Salem's contribution to the list today). Maggie considers herself a bit of a tomboy so she's not sure where Salem's obsession with princesses is coming from...it must be nature not nurture, right?!?!
4. The rain (we're trying our best here to have a positive attitude). All the recent rain has made the view outside our windows incredibly green and beautiful.
5. Long weekends. It's so nice to go to bed on a Sunday evening excited about yet another day that we get to spend together playing and having fun.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old
"Ohhh...look Papa and Mommy...I see fish in the water and they are saying to me 'Hi Salem...come play with us' ." Salem had great fun watching the fish in the water in Cabo San Lucas.

Happy April

2008-04-28T22:34:00.004-06:00

Sutton has now started 'the climb'. She attempts pulling herself up on anything that she comes across. With all of the extra exercise, she is slimming down and starting to look more like her lean older sister.

Salem was having a great time playing with her cousins Parker and Logan during Drue's soccer game.

Salem and Drue celebrating together after Drue scores a penalty goal during last week's shoot-out. Drue scored a beautiful goal that helped seal the Vikings' victory.

Salem is quite intrigued by any kind of instrument. We brought home several instruments from Egypt that she loves playing with, but her favorite is definitely Drue's guitar.

Both Sutton and Salem look forward to music class each week. The next-to-last song during class each week is always the 'instrument song' where they get to play any instrument of their choosing. Sutton's favorite is the drums.

Even the excitement of Drue's most recent soccer game couldn't keep those eyelids open. Salem crashed halfway through the game. It was an intense game with lots of action, but was an unfortunate 2:1 loss for the Vikings.

Salem developed a high fever Saturday afternoon so she spent the rest of the day and most of Sunday resting in our bed. She would wake up briefly to watch some "Jungle Book" or "Little Mermaid" and to get a sip of what is now our traditional hydrating liquid when we're sick. Drue used to call it pregnancy juice, but we need to come up with a new name for it since we all like to drink it when we're feeling under the weather. It is made by mixing a 1:1:1 mixture of orange juice to cranapple juice to Sprite. This is what the nurses at St. Mark's hospital serve to every mom right after she's delivered her baby!

We're so happy that all of the snow is melted off of our deck and the weather is nice enough now that we can hang out and relax in the hammock. We enjoyed grilling and spending time out on the deck tonight.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:
1. Sutton's incredibly sweet and playful personality that we're getting to know better and better each day.
2. The sweet boys at the Jeremy Ranch Elementary school playground who could have been irritated and annoyed by two-year olds playing on their playground but instead were kind, patient, and helpful with Salem and her friend Alex while they enjoyed the jungle gym.
3. The resiliency of a 2 year old's body. Salem was quite sick over the weekend with fevers as high as 104.5 degrees, but she seems to have made a quick recovery and was feeling much better and more playful today.
4. "Deck weather". We love hanging out on our deck relaxing, playing, grilling, and just enjoying the beautiful weather.
5. Ibuprofen. We seem to go through a lot of this at our house. Drue tends to need it after most soccer games and it's the only medication that helps when Salem has a fever.

Finally Some Warm Sunshine

2008-04-14T21:59:00.010-06:00

Drue's soccer season got underway this weekend. Going to Drue's soccer games is our favorite spring and fall activity--great weather, nice parks, tasty snacks, and outstanding soccer! The team pulled off a great 5 to 1 victory.

Salem enjoys watching the game, especially joining in on the yelling from the sidelines. But her favorite part of Drue's game is when the half-time and the end of the game whistle blows so that she can run out onto the field and find her Papa.

I have to admit that there are few times that I feel more proud of my husband than when I watch him having a great time with our girls.

Sutton is just getting her first exposure to grass. She's still undecided-- she doesn't enjoy the texture on her feet, but she can't resist playing with the grass with her hands.

We went to Sugarhouse Park to break in Salem's new tricycle. She's still working on learning how to pedal so until then we'll be using the push-bar so that our walks will cover more than 5-10 feet.

Sutton loved watching the birds and ducks at the park. She, however, has yet to grasp the concept of feeding the ducks...why give the ducks perfectly good bread that she can eat herself :-)

Sutton got to swing for the first time this weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Hull's house. She was all grins from ear to ear.

We are very proud of Salem and the wonderful big sister that she is to Sutton. She was happy to give up her time in her favorite swing so that Sutton could experience swinging. She stood next to Sutton the entire time gently swinging her and encouraging her.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

1. That Drue is so incredibly handy that he can fix, build, and create anything that he puts his mind to.
2. That Drue recognizes when his time (and the time that he spends with us) is valuable enough that he hires someone to fix, build, and create whatever he wants to.
3. Good teachers. We were worried that the girls wouldn't enjoy this session of music class because their teacher, Miss Kirsti, is on maternity leave. But they both seem to adore their new teacher, Miss Stephanie.
4. Being able to carpool to work together. This normally can't happen since our offices are in opposite directions (Maggie's in Heber and Drue's in Murray), but this week Maggie is attending an EMR conference that is being held only a few blocks away from Drue's office.
5. The excitement and anticipation of an upcoming vacation. We're going on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera with Maggie's family in a few weeks and we're all getting very excited.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

Great encouraaging words from a big sister as Sutton starts to become impatient in her carseat during a drive home: "Don't be sad Sutton...we're almost home and then mommy can hold you."

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

2008-04-09T20:06:00.009-06:00

We normally try to publish our weekly blog on Monday night after the girls have gone to bed. This Monday night, however, we were too busy watching our KU Jayhawks win the NCAA national basketball title!!! It was a photo finish during regulation with Mario Chalmers sinking a beauty of a 3-pointer to tie the game with 2 seconds remaining. It was all KU from then on out during overtime. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!

Salem and Maggie went on a date to the movies this week. They saw Horton Hears A Who. They both had a great time and Salem is still talking about the bird that tried to scare the elephant.

We are having so much fun with our girls at their current age. We love watching what good friends they are becoming. We caught them holding hands in the backseat while driving home the other night...so cute.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Kamas pool with our friends the Hemmerts and the Christensens. Here are Drue and Salem with Jared and his youngest Preston.

Salem and her partner in crime-- Kardin. Salem is so lucky to have such a wonderful cousin to grow up with...even though the two of them cause all sorts of trouble for Maggie's mom.

There (fortunately) is not much sledding snow left around our house so we drove up to one of Maggie's brother's properties for some fun in the snow. Here's our sweet Sutton ready to hit the slopes with Maggie's mom, Suma.

Our two cuties hanging out in the sled. It was a 10 minute hike from the cars to our sledding area so the girls enjoyed having Drue pull them while they relaxed in the sled.

The men ended the day with a race down the hill. Drue was leading the pack, closely followed by our friend Eddie, and we're not sure if that was Tamy or Bassam running into Allie (Bassam and Ana's dog) higher up on the hill. The 'big kids' seemed to be having just as much fun as our young children.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

1. Ice cream cones to top off a long day of hard work and play. This has been our favorite family treat for the past two weeks (even Sutton sneaks a lick or two).
2. Salem's manners. She's become particularly fond of the words 'please' and 'thank you' lately and it's absolutely delightful.
3. Having a physician in the family so that we didn't have to make time to go in for office visits to treat Drue's sinus infection and Maggie's strep infection.
4. Salem keeping her 'big girl panties' dry all day long!
5. Having bluetooth capability in our car. We try not to talk on our cell phones while driving, but it does happen on occasion and it's so nice being able to have our conversations directly through our car speakers instead of holding our phone.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

This is neither wise nor silly...nor from a 2 year old. It has been one of the sweetest sounds in our home this week so we thought it deserved a mention. Our sweet 8 month old Sutton started saying 'Mama' this week. Surprisingly, she uses it specifically for Maggie most of the time, particularly when Maggie sets her down.

Seriously...More Snow?!?!?!

2008-03-31T21:54:00.006-06:00

We headed down the canyon to Sugar House Park for playgroup this week. Our playgrounds in Park City are a bit of a mushy slushy mess right now. One of these days the snow will stop (although the Valley seemed to get more snow out of today's storm than we did).

Sutton reached another much-awaited milestone this week. She can now sit by herself and eat her puffs with more puffs making it into her mouth than on the floor. Maggie's delighted about this new development since Sutton can now keep herself entertained sitting at the island while meals get prepared.

Salem is in the midst of potty-training. She gets to choose a 'present' when she poops in the toilet. She accomplished this great feat this week and chose a train piggy bank as her present. She had a great time painting her train.

Here is Salem with her beautifully painted train and her much-coveted Spider-Man. Salem's cousin Kaden gave her the Spider-Man as a reward for pooping in the potty. Salem adores Kaden and now walks around the house making Spider-Man sound effects (which she of course learned from Kaden).

We spent an afternoon at the pool at Promontory this week. Although the outdoor pool is heated, it's still a bit to chilly for our skinny little girl (lucky for her she seems to have inherited Drue's metabolism). Salem had a great time in the hot tub.

Drue doesn't even stand a chance...with a smile like that Sutton already has him wrapped around every one of her fingers.

Salem loves going to her gymanstics class every Saturday morning. They always start class playing with the parachute while singing songs, singing the alphabet, counting, and learning colors.

Salem's teacher then leads them through two different obstacle courses with various equipment and tasks for the kids to learn. Salem is getting quite good at the balance beam.

She enjoys hanging like a monkey from the bars.

Followed by swinging on the rings.

Then her favorite...running and jumping into the foam pit.

The last portion of class is spent jumping on the trampoline. Salem is working on learning the 'seat drop'.

Class ends each week with the kids getting stamps on their hands and feet which Salem then proudly displays for the remainder of the day.

Salem enjoys the rings in gymnastics so much that we installed rings for her in our basement. She and Drue are getting quite creative with her stunts.

Sutton adores her cousins Parker and Logan. She gets the honor of sitting next to Parker during Sunday dinners and often times tries to grab his face (and food) while he's eating.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

1. Lazy Sunday morning when all four of us can hang out and cuddle in bed.
2. March Madness! Jayhawks are onto the Final Four!!!
3. A South facing house. Our neighbors across the street were all out snowblowing this morning, but with our South-facing driveway the snow melts off quickly. We usually only need to snowblow if we get one of those huge storms (which happened on about 5-6 occasions this winter).
4. Sunday dinners at Drue's parents' house.
5. Tuesday dinners at Maggie's parents' house.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

"Papa...I want an otro shanta". Otro is the Spanish word for other; shanta is the Arabic word for bag. Maggie has learned enough Spanish to understand Salem's Spanglish, but now Drue will need to learn some Arabic since Salem's now throwing that in the mix too.
"Ooooh Mama, there's mucho peepee." Salem was impressed with her bladder capacity while peeing on the potty when she woke up in the morning

The First Week of Spring

2008-03-24T21:50:00.007-06:00

We've had a tremendously fun busy week so we hope you'll enjoy our numerous pictures. We don't have many pictures with the entire family so we had to include this one for prosperity's sake.

Both Salem and Sutton prefer taking showers over baths (they must be following in Maggie's footsteps). Gone are the quick easy days of 5 minute showers...with both girls Maggie's lucky to get out of the shower in under 30 minutes.

We took the girls to the Newpark facility in Park City for the first time this week. It's a great indoor recreation facility with an indoor soccer field, track, fitness equipment, etc. They hold "Toddler Time" a couple of mornings per week allowing the kids open access to the indoor soccer field and bounce houses that they set up. Salem loved the bounce house slide. She was a little timid at first, particularly because the bounce house was filled with older, bigger, tougher boys. But once she got a little comfortable she let loose and was off to all sorts of 'head-first' slides.

And so the love affair with soccer begins...it's almost a prerequisite in our family so we start them early. Salem started to learn how to dribble a soccer ball when she was 13 months old. If Drue can figure out how to do it, he'll have Sutton dribbling before she can even walk.

"GOALASSO!!!" That's what Salem was shouting when I snapped this picture. Of course, she also yells the same thing when she makes a basket on our basketball game in the basement. Drue has made sure she knows which sport ranks #1.

"Look Mama...I'm a princess." Salem's idea of a princess outfit is hiking her sweat pants up to her chest and throwing on her crocs.

Sutton reached a big milestone this week. She can now stand holding on to her toys. We don't quite trust her enough yet to not be close by enough to catch her quickly. Her attention span is still quite short and she often forgets that she's standing up :)

Here's our weekly outing to our favorite store, Costco. It's an addiction that we're unlikely to overcome anytime soon, especially since we hear that there are plans to build a Costco in Park City in the near future.

Sutton is very much enjoying the warmer weather and being able to spend more time outside. She watches the birds that have now returned to our house with such curiosity.

Some of our friends have a great annual tradition of a 'confetti egg party'. You can make confetti eggs by gently drilling two holes on either end of an egg. Blow or shake out the contents of the eggs, rinse out, allow to dry, then stuff with confetti. You can then have fun at your party smashing confetti eggs on people (similarly to a water balloon fight). Drue and Salem had so much fun doing this that I think we may adopt this tradition into our family.

Salem had a fabulous time with her friend Avery experiencing a tire swing for the first time. Drue was quite nervous allowing her to swing since they were swinging quite high, but we're slowly learning how to allow Salem a bit more independence.

We spent some time at the kids cabin in Promontory this weekend. Salem loved watching the little chicks there. We didn't notice that the bucket in the pen is a KFC bucket until we uploaded this picture. It's a good thing Salem has yet to understand the potential connection between chicks and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Sutton's favorite in the kids cabin were the little finches. We had to pry her fingers off of the cage to get her to leave.

We painted eggs for craft time this week. Salem had a great time painting, but I think her favorite thing about craft time is being able to wear the apron that she got from Becky, Brandan, Sophie, Abe, Helen, and Gibson.

Salem's new favorite spot at Grandma and Grandpa Hull's house. Dan built a terrific playhouse for all the grandkids and they've put these cute little kid chairs on the playhouse patio. Salem loves anything that is her size.

5 Things We're Thankful For Today:

1. How much Becky and Aaron love to play with Salem and Sutton.
2. Maggie getting the girls down for bed so that Drue can go play some indoor soccer (time to get back into shape before the outdoor season starts).
3. Maggie's mom Suma's willingness to always watch the kids and her seemingly endless patience.
4. March Madness! Go JayHawks!!! On to the Sweet Sixteen!
5. Our DVR. Now we can quickly catch up on a few of our favorite shows after the girls go to bed. How did we ever get by in the pre-digital age?!

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

"Oooh, I'm going on a bear hunt to get some candy!" One of Salem's favorite books is "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". We apparently don't go on egg hunts in our family...we go on bear hunts :)

Two Girls with Drue's Energy Level

2008-03-16T21:25:00.005-06:00

Check out that perfect plank position! Drue's incredibly proud that Sutton, at only seven months, is already quite proficient at push-ups.

Drue can't get enough of Sutton's amazing strength. She'll balance on his hand for an average of 5 seconds which is quickly followed by her proud smile and giggle.

We spent a terrific afternoon at the Kamas pool with Maggie's mom, Suma. If you've never been there before, it's definitely worth the short drive. They have a very large pool that is entirely designed for young kids with 90 degree water, a jungle gym within the pool with lots of kid-controlled fountains, several slides, and a lazy river. Salem loves it because most of the pool is shallow enough that she can walk around without our help. Who would have thought that a small town like Kamas with only two stop lights would have such an amazing facility?!

Sutton seemed completely at peace in the water. She spent almost two hours in the water and loved every minute of it.

Salem's favorite activity at the pool is the large waterslide. She went down the slide three times with Maggie and at least 8 times with Drue. Salem would ask to go again before her feet even hit the water coming off the slide.

This is the current view outside our master bedroom deck. We're happy to see that the proportion of snow to greenery on the mountains is slowly becoming inversed.

Salem is determined to continue to enjoy the snow while it lasts. This is Maya, Salem, and Alex attempting sledding without sleds during playgroup last week.

5 Things I'm Thankful For Today:

1. Internet video conferencing. This allowed us to talk to several of Maggie's family members in Egypt this week.
2. That no other cars were on the road when Maggie and Salem were driving to breakfast for their 'Mama and Salem' date. The roads were very icy and the car slid a full 360 degrees into a snow bank.
3. Good music, especially when sung by a 2 year old and babbled by an 8 month old.
4. March Madness! Go JayHawks!!! (please no 1st round departures to a 16th seed this year)
5. A nice relaxing afternoon with a good friend. Drue stayed home with the girls while I had a couple of relaxing hours of hot-tubbing, good conversation, and great laughs with my friend Jo.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

"Mama, I really want to do crack". ?!?!?!?! After a puzzling conversation Maggie finally realized that Salem wanted to do 'crafts'.
"Look Papa...I have fifty dollars!" This is Salem's comment to Drue whether she has a quarter or a one dollar bill in her hand (and no, she has never had fifty dollars).
"Ooh Mama...we're going really faster!"--Salem's comment as the car slides and spins a full 360 degrees on icy road conditions. Thankfully there was a nice cushioned snow bank to stop our progression.

A Week of Warm Weather

2008-03-05T09:58:00.013-07:00

We absolutely love living in the mountains. For us it means perfect summers, amazing fall color landscapes, steps away from peaceful hikes, deer and moose in our back yard, no inversions in the winter. This winter it has also meant LOTS of snow. It's been beautiful to live in, but we all have a bit of spring fever now, especially after a week of warmer weather here.

Fortunately the above snow bank has now melted to about half of that size. I (Maggie) have even become quite adept at running the snow blower (although cars driving by may argue with that as they've unfortunately been showered by snow on more than one occasion). It's actually quite easy now that I know that I can electrically start the snow blower (a fact that Drue forgot to mention when teaching me how to use the blower; he got a very frustrated call from me after 15 minutes of trying to pull-start a cold snow blower).

Salem and Sutton's playgroup decided to take advantage of the warm weather this past week and hold our playdate outside at one of our local parks. The girls had a fabulous time sledding.

We love the playground at Willow Creek Park, even when it's covered under feet of snow.

Our bathing beauty! We headed South to St. George this past weekend for some R & R. This was Sutton's first exposure to a pool and she absolutely loved it!

Salem had a great time playing with her cousins Jaxson and Madison in St. George. She remembers them fondly now when she looks at her pull-ups. Her pull-ups have a picture of three princesses (Cinderella, Ariel, & Belle) that Salem has now affectionately renamed Jonny, Jaxson, and Madison :)

Salem agreed to a brief pause from throwing rocks into a nearby stream so I could snap this picture. But the remainder of Drue's hike was spent finding rocks to skip on the water under Salem's direction. We're so incredibly lucky to have someone with Drue's energy in our household.

Wise (or mostly silly) Words From a 2 Year Old

A conversation between Salem and Drue that I overheard today (translation in parantheses for those who don't know spanish):
Salem: Is Sutton mi hermana (my sister)?
Drue: Si (yes). Quien es mi hija (who is my daughter)?
Salem: Sutton is!
Drue: Quien es mi otra hija (who is my other daughter)?
Salem: Salem is! And what is Mama?
Drue: Mama es mi esposa.
Salem: Oh, I have a bag too!!!
Salem confused 'esposa' (wife) for 'bolsa' (bag) :). 2 year olds are just too cute!

5 Things I'm Thankful For Today:

1. The way my girls' faces light up when they see me after I've been gone to work
2. Terrific parents who take excellent care of our girls so I can go to work without worrying about them
3. Finally, a full night of sleep with no one other than Drue in our bed. Salem was sick with a croupy cough for a couple of days so was sleeping with us (she likes to sleep with her arms wrapped around my neck, her fingers playing with my hair, and her feet kicking Drue's neck/face
4. An incredible husband who gladly indulges me with my projects and helps me set up the exact template that I want for our blog
5. Heated car seats...it was very cold out tonight on our way home from dinner