Missing baby??

If you're ever at my house.. and notice that Kapri has gone missing.. just take a gander out the back door. Its almost guaranteed you'll find her there.

Catch up... not ketchup.

I'm about to take you on a journey, a trip through the last few weeks of our lives. But first, a quick question. Why do some people say its catsup, and others, ketchup?? All of the KETCHUP people should get together and work this quarrel out. Its all the same stuff, right? There is enough confusion in this world without condiments being thrown in the mix.

So, I have a bunch of pictures from fun things we've been doing lately. I feel like I never have time to catch up (haha.. there's that word again) on my blogging. I use this mainly as my journal, so I can look back and remember things we've done. I have a horrible memory, just ask my sister Shonni.

So... last weekend I finally got around to planting my garden. (You can read about my cow manuer adventures here.) Early Saturday morning I met up with my Mom, sister Jalynn, and sister-in-law Kim, to go to garage sales. We started in Highland..

Dear people of Highland.. its a GARAGE SALE. You cannot try to sell used childrens Juicy Couture sweat suit for 40 dollars. People go to garage sales to get GREAT deals. The end.

We found a couple of good deals. Jalynn got a coffee table for 5 bucks.. she's in the process of refinishing it. I got a chair that I'm going to paint some ridiculously fun color for pictures. We also stopped at Walmart and Home Depot and stocked up on dirt, poop/dirt, plants, herbs and FLOWERS. We headed back to Jalynn's house and decided to stop at The Nook and Cranny on State St. in Lehi. I have a love/hate relationship with this store. Sometimes you can find some great deals there, but mostly, I can't stand the clutter. OH THE CLUTTER. But, its worth rummaging through, cause you might find a great steal of a deal. On this visit, I happened to find a vintage baby scale, which I have been wanting for quite some time now. I even managed to talk them down on the price 20%!! Sometimes I think I get some type of a "high" when I get a good deal on something. Like clearance shopping at Target.. ahhhh the glory of finding an adorable dress for Kapri, and its only $3.48, or some ridiculous price.

When I got home I wanted to get started right away on the garden. Kapri LOVES being outside, so she was eager to help. If you notice, in my post, I used my foot a lot to move the dirt around. This is because, as much as I hate to admit the girlyness, I HATE DIRT IN MY FINGERNAILS!!! Hate it. Kapri on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind. She was digging her hands in the dirt like crazy.




After I finished the garden, and a few flower pots, we showered and headed over to Jalynn's for the evening. They had a fire going.. which brings up a whole new set of stress for me. FIRE. (Sorry to do this Shonni, but....) My little sister fell into a fire when she was 2. Luckily my uncle was quick to grab her out, but she was still badly burned. One of her hands has grafting on the palm, and we are constantly shoving it into the kids faces and saying "THIS is why you don't play around the fire!!" Shonni loves this. (*sarcasm font*)


We pretty much spent the entire time blocking Kapri from running towards the fire, she, in turn, thought it was a game, and kept trying. As a form of distraction, Ashlyn got her barbies and dressed her up in a cape.


Then we decided its time she learns to jump. We spent the next twenty minutes peeing our pants laughing. I would say, one two three JUMP. (Then I'd jump HIGH into the air. Well, my feet would leave the ground, for a milisecond.) We kept saying, one two three jump, and Kapri was doing this head banging, full body whipping, grunting movement. Her feet would not leave the ground, but she sure thought she was jumping!!



On Sunday played with BUBBLES!! Not only does Kapri love them, but Spanky is obsessed with them.










On Sunday night, Cody cooked a DELICIOUS stir fry and noodles dinner. MMMM mmmm!!

He's been whipping out his cooking skills alot more often lately, and I am sure not complaining!!

On Tuesday night we met up with my Dad, Shonni and Josh to go to dinner at the new Japanese restaurant, Fong, in Pleasant Grove. Kapri had her very first potato bug experience.. she was a little confused, but let it crawl all over her arm!!




Phew.. thats it. For now anyway.. tune in for more LATER!! Cause my life is exciting, and I wanna share this excitement with you. Because I'm sure your life is lame, and needs some spice. Right? Right?? Hello...

What is THIS you ask??


This is my nephew Kelby.. he'd be such a lady killer if only he'd CUT HIS HAIR!! He's just doing it to make me crazy, I know it.

Mother's Day...

It still seems weird that I am a mom. A mother to a little girl. Thats such a scary thought to me. I am responsible for a life.

I remember when I was younger, I would see other people's kids mis-behaving, I would always say to myself "my kids will never act this way". HAHA. Jokes on me. Because, the truth is, EVERY kid acts that way. The crucial part is how you act in return. I have learned that discipline is exhausting. I always find myself having an argument with myself. "It'd be easier, and more relaxing, if we just let her throw the rocks around." "Tawnya, get off your lazy butt and MAKE her stop throwing the rocks." More often than not, I give in to the "smarter" side of me, but its not always easy.

This parenting thing is tough. But I'll keep on chuggin'. Because, toughness aside, its all worth it.

We went to a park in Highland to meet up with my family for a picnic.


Kapri was in HEAVEN with all of the dirt and rocks. That girl loves getting dirty.


We celebrated 5 Birthdays while we were there. Jalynn, Josh, Shonni, Jonathon and Lynsie. (Jonathon was too cool to blow out candles.)



Addison wasn't having a good day..


But surely Papa could snuggle those grumpies away.

Kapri was really upset that we wouldn't let her dive into the pond. Ashlyn had to use her mighty muscles to hold her back. She is very adamant about getting her way, hard headed like her Dad, and me. She was doomed from the beginning.


Kapri LOVES Ashlyn. I think its bordering an obsession.


After the picnic we headed over to Cody's mom's house for dinner. (Has anyone else ever noticed how much my life revolves around food. No wonder I'm not a size 2.)

Kapri loves riding with the window down.. it must be the feeling of the wind blowing through her hair(s). (Haha.. just making light of the NO hair situation.)





Cody's step-brother, Tim, and his wife Ashley were there. They've got two kids, Taisha and Brayden. I snapped a few pictures of them while we were lounging out in the front yard.

Click here to see more.

Kapri LOVES going to Grandma Annie's house. I wonder if that has anything to do with all the treats she gets. Or it could be all of the fun stuff they have to do there!!


We went for a ride on the three-wheeler again. Kapri loved it and didn't want to get off.


We headed home that pretty late that night. Kapri zonked within minutes of getting in the car. Guess we wore her out.

The HAPPIEST place on earth!!

Well.. mostly.

I have been putting off blogging about our trip to California because of time.. and I still don't have any. Time, that is. But, alas, here I am. Its 11 o'clock at night.. and I'm actually done with work before midnight... so I blog.

So.. if you remember this post in January, we made blankets for the Disney Give a Day Get a Day project. We used those free tickets and took a trip to California in April. Cody's mom, Annie, came along, she was excited to go to Disneyland with her grandaughter, and she ended up being a lot of help. Now, let me just tell you.. I always swore I'd never take my kids to Disneyland until they were old enough to remember, and I still stand by that. However, we were free, and kids are guests of Mickey (FREE) until they're two. So.. we went.

Cody insists on driving through the night. We miss traffic, and it means we get there early in the morning and have one extra day. I disagree.. I hate driving at night, but this is one argument I let him win. I was hoping Kapri would sleep the whole way, but she decided that wasn't happening. She slept for maybe a total of three hours. Not good, considering she sleeps 12-14 hours a night at home.

She took a short nap in the morning once we got to my Grandma's, and then another short nap before we went to lunch with my Uncle Dennis. Thats it. We went to a chinese restaraunt for lunch and I ended up having to take her out ten minutes into our meal. I should've taken this as a hint towards how the rest of the day might go.. but I didn't.

We headed to our hotel in Anaheim, got cleaned up, and headed to Downtown Disney to walk through the shops. Kapri did okay for the first hour or so.. she rode in her stroller and people watched.


THEN all hell broke loose. She wouldn't sit in her stroller, she wanted to walk. So.. we let her walk. Then her shoe fell off (of course it was her converse sneakers, which I have a love hate relationship with) and I had to practically hold her down, with Cody's help, to put the dang thing back on. She was screaming and fighting to get down. Just as Cody was getting frustrated, I was trying to explain to him that people don't care that she's throwing a fit. A man walked by and yelled "The Happiest Place on Earth, right??!!" We all laughed, it was some much needed comic relief for the moment.

As we started walking to find a place to eat, Kapri decided she'd had enough. She screamed and yelled.. and threw herself down. She didn't want to be held, she would not go near her stroller.. and she didn't want to walk. To cut a long story short.. I walked out of Downtown Disney holding a screaming, wiggling, very un-happy one and a half year old. People were staring, and I didn't care. I kept running this thought through my head "What were we thinking?? Why did we think this would be fun?? Disneyland is not the happiest place on earth!!" the entire way.. which happens to be a good half a mile.

Instead of eating at a fun restaraunt in Downtown Disney, we had to make a quick stop at McDonalds. At this point I was still wondering how on earth we were going to get through the rest of the vacation.

Fast forward to the next day. (Kapri slept GREAT, phew.) We got up, got ready and headed to get breakfast at IHOP, then went to the park. First thing we did once we got in, got our stuffed pretzels. Yes, we had just had breakfast.. but how often are you at Disneyland?? They were delicious.. wish I could have one right now.





We got in line for the teacups.. only to find out, after waiting for a few minutes, that the ride was having issues and closed. Yay. We headed over to Its a Small World, which coincidentally happens to be the most annoying ride in the entire park.

KAPRI LOVED IT!!! Her face lit up.. and she couldn't look around fast enough. I looked at Cody and said "THIS makes this whole trip (and the drama) worth it." It was so fun to see her get excited over the music and props.


We went on a few more rides (and yes, we made it onto the teacups before we left), then Kapri was getting fussy so we headed back to the hotel room to give her a nap. After she slept for a few hours we went back to the park.


We went on The Pirates of the Carribean.. I had no idea what the ride was, just that there was no height limit on it, so Kapri could ride. We got into the boat, which didn't have a lowering lap belt or anything, so how bad could it be, right? So you just slowly float down this river, past old houses, men rocking on chairs. Then you go into a tunnel, a very dark tunnel. As we're moving along we hear the people on the boat in front of us drop.. then scream. Ummm.. WHAT was that?? Then, the boat fell out from under us.. followed by a big SPLASH. Remember, its pitch black. Kapri flew up against my chest and stiffened up. She fussed a little, but I'm pretty sure she was more upset about getting wet. We ended up going on that ride again before we left that night.



We ended up staying at the park until about ten. Kapri actually lasted a lot longer that I thought she would. We went to Disneyland on our honeymoon, and Cody was actually disappointed. He thought the castle was tiny. I don't think its the same if you go as an adult. He said he had a lot more fun this time, taking Kapri. Everything seems so much more magical and exciting when you're a kid.

Before we left Mickey and Minnie came out. (They were the only characters we saw, besides Hook, the entire day.) We shoved our way up to the front of the group (I'm pretty sure people were cursing at us) so we could get a picture. Kapri had NO idea who or what they were.. but we had to get a picture.


The next afternoon we headed out to Huntington Beach. We walked through the shops, and then walked down to the water to stick our feet in.





Then we headed down the pier to eat at Ruby's!!



Yep.. thats a seal. Arrr Arrr Arrr. (imagine me doing my best seal impression, slapping hands together.



I LOVE THIS PLACE.


We got lost on the way back to the hotel, and ended up going the wrong direction.. for a looong time. Once we got back to the room we were all ready for bed.

We got up early the next morning and headed home.. EXHAUSTED. This was, in no shape or form, a relaxing vacation, but we LOVED it!!

Right, Kapri??