Sisters

I never had one but I am glad that these two have each other. When I was pregnant with Vivi, I was so worried about how Maya was going to take everything. I've read so many stories of older siblings doing horrible things because of jealousy or reverting back to their baby days. Would Maya know that we love her? How would she react to the new baby? I am blessed. Maya is the best older sister anyone could ask for. She plays with Vivi, she helps me out with Vivi, and most of all she loves Vivi. There are moments of jealousy but mostly she shows it by trying to get the attention back on her (e.g singing louder, being more obnoxious...etc.). The neat thing now is that Vivi is starting to pay a lot of attention to Maya. She watches her when she plays and when she sings and a lot of the time she has a big smile on her face.

Yay for sisters!

Hunt for the Elusive Grayling...over at last.

would you like a fish?


The summer before we left for Korea we just about camped ourselves silly. On one trip up to the Uintahs we were out to find the elusive artic grayling. Well folks, we finally found 'em! (after 2 years...)


Well, I guess Daniel found and caught them. I was technically at home asleep in my bed when Daniel snuck out this morning on an impromptu trip up the Uintahs after his grayling obsession.


The grayling has an awesome dorsal fin! I guess it lost some of its purple hue on the trip home in the icebox.

The others Daniel caught:
I guess now we're on the look out for a good grayling recipe....when we find one I'll let you know.

Summer Fun

Yesterday I was reminded of what summer should be like. Hot sunny days, cooler pleasant nights, best friends, and lots of fun. We had the neighbor kids over to have fun in the kiddie pool and, of course, popsicles!

Here's a picture of Maya and her best friend, Keri, from next door.
Cute, eh? I didn't actually get any pictures of them in action...I was too afraid to get shot with streams of water from the pool. They had fun watering our lawn and our trees.
Here's another picture of them off to more mischief next door:
I did get some pictures of Vivi in the pool, though

Needless to say we'll have the pool up again real soon.

Some Sunshine

Creative Culinarian

I just wanted to let you all know that I finally got my food blog up and running. I don't know why I am doing another blog...I barely can keep up with the ones I have. This one though is a little more personal, it's my own little recipe box. I like to try out a lot of different recipes and I want a way to keep track of the ones I tried and liked. I also run into a lot of interesting facts about food that I would like to write down too. You are all more than welcome to visit and try out the things I am trying out and give me some feedback on what worked for you. You can find the link for it under "Our other blogs" on the right-hand side of the page.

Spring Routine

After having two kids my body is......well, not in its best shape. Actually, it's done horrors to itself and since the weather has been getting nicer and the inevitable trip to the pool is coming soon I decided to get my butt back into shape. What was formerly called just the Orem Recreational Center (now the Orem Fitness Center) has a great schedule of aerobic classes that they offer all year. I LOVE aerobic classes. Sounds cheesy, probably is cheesy, I know. But I am not really good at keeping myself motivated enough to get a good enough workout on my own on a treadmill or elliptical machine. I do much better when I am in a room full of people and an instructor watching and pushing me. The same goes with taking independent study classes versus regular classes in college. When no one is watching, I am a quitter....sad, but true. Anyway, I am on my second week of classes and still going strong! What do they say about habit forming/breaking? If you can do it or not do it for two weeks than it becomes a habit...? On Mondays and Wednesdays I do step aerobics and pilates, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I do kickboxing and yoga, and on Saturdays I do yoga and an awesome latin dancing class called Zumba. I get Fridays off. Exercising has been really great. Not only do I get all the physical benefits of regular exercise but I also get some time for myself. I love spending the day with Vivi and Maya but I need some "me" time too. Well, maybe since I through this little bit of knowledge out into the blog-o-sphere it will be extra incentive to keep it up...I mean you guys are probably going to ask me about it sometime and I would like to say that I am still going strong and a little closer to my health and weight loss goals. 

Innocence

The other evening, while I was changing Vivi's diaper, she turned her head toward me and smiled. This wasn't her first smile (she's been smiling for awhile now), but I was particularly caught off guard by its frank innocence. As I finished putting on her diaper she kept gazing into my face and smiling. I couldn't help but think of how babies come into this world full of trust. They have to...they have no choice but to put their full trust into those whose job it is to care for them. How horrible it would be to abuse that trust. As I picked her up I started to think about the children in the world who aren't taken care of; the ones who are abandoned and neglected, abused and exploited. I think that crushing a child's innocence is probably the worst crime human beings can commit. 

I hope that I can continue to love and care for my babies. They (and all the children in this world) deserve at least that.