Big news!

We're expecting another baby in March 2012! Yep, I do have an excuse for not posting that often over the summer. Sasha is so excited to have a baby brother/sister and we can't wait to welcome another addition to our family. We find out the gender in a little over a month so we're excited to find out what our little peanut will be. Everyone tells me it's got to be a boy since I've been so sick this time. We'll see...I'm just hoping to get over the sickness soon and meet our little one.

Family Photos

Do I realize that it's been months since my last post? Yes. Did I have great intentions of posting throughout the summer and just didn't get to it? Yes. Am I just going to do one end-of-summer post and call it good? Yes. You'll have to wait just a bit for end-of-summer post since I'm not quite ready to tackle it, but I did want to reward the patience of those of you who have still checked our blog for new posts by putting up a few of the photos we just got back from our family photo shoot a few months ago. I still can't believe how grown up Sasha has become! She is such a sweetheart and a true joy - we are blessed to have her in our family. Aaron's cousin, Christine Barlow, took all the photos and was fabulous to work with.

Sasha got ahold of one of Christine's cameras and decided to do some photographing of her own...

Easter weekend

Our weekend was filled with lots of Easter activities and it was a fantastic weekend that we enjoyed with family and friends. We've got tons of photos from the day so I'll just post a few of my favorites today with the hope of more to come soon. We'll start with my favorite photo from the day (taken by Grandma Henson in their backyard). We started out with a mini egg hunt on Friday night since Sasha was dying for some of the Easter candy we had around. We hid a few Cadbury mini-eggs (a few may or may not have "hidden themselves in our mouths"). Sasha loved it and it was a fun way to spend the evening together.

The next morning was the real deal at a park in Draper. Just so you know, Draper has got some serious, competitive spirit because that egg hunt was intense! Sasha barely got 2 eggs thanks to the quick thinking of Aaron, who decided to stop going for the eggs right in front of them and went for the middle. Sasha is enjoying the fruits of her labor below (notice her cheeks full of chocolate). It was a lot of fun and Sasha got to meet Elmo and Winnie the Pooh.

Sasha, Aaron, Rich (our good friend) and Rich's son, Dex after all the chaos was done.

Sasha and 3 of her cousins (Sutton, Salem and Kaylee) on Easter Sunday after my niece, Emma Elizabeth Hull, was blessed. Aren't they just the cutest in their Easter dresses?!
Sasha and her cousin Xander after an Easter egg hunt at Wade and Steph's house. They look innocent, but they are most definitely chocolate monsters. :) We had such a wonderful time being with family and friends and watching the kids play together. We're especially grateful to grandma and grandpa Hull, who drove all night to be with us on Sunday morning, and for doing an egg hunt for the grandkids...and to grandma and grandpa Henson for hosting all of us crazy kids/grandkids and being so generous and thoughtful. We love you!
Twin braids. I was in a hurry one day and decided to do some quick braids. When Sasha saw the result, she absolutely had to have it for herself. Isn't it so adorable how they want to copy everything we do when they're young (yet it's the opposite later on in life)? Such a doll!

Dirt monkey, new job and REAL SL

Our little dirt monkey! Yesterday Sasha and I were swinging on our swings out back. After a few minutes, I glanced over and noticed that Sasha was kneeling on the ground. I thought she was probably doing her typical activity of grabbing long pine needles and dragging them through the dirt. All of a sudden, Sasha layed flat on her belly and took a big bite of dirt. She immediately spit out the mouthful of dirt and stood up to look at me and secure some sympathy for her predicament. Her face was covered in dirt, which she promptly started wiping all over her coat sleeves. I was laughing too hard at this point to prevent the massive amounts of dirt from getting on her coat, but I did manage to persuade her to pause in her dirt wiping long enough to get her in the house to wash up. She wanted to get in the tub because she doesn't like being really dirty so she started stripping off clothing left and right in order to expedite the process. We ran into Aaron inside and I had trouble stopping the giggles again as I retold the story of Sasha's dirt adventure. Thanks for the laughs, sweet Sasha! So, for the last month we've been adjusting to life with Aaron at his new job, which has been wonderful and challenging at the same time. Aaron began work as an account manager for Cisco systems (i.e. routers, wireless connectivity, etc) in mid-February and is really starting to get a feel for things. It has been a challenging transition for Sasha since Aaron was previously working from home for the past year and a half. Aaron watched Sasha on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings/afternoons while I went to work. Sasha loves her papa and was so sad when she couldn't spend her days with him. Now, Sasha is watched by Deanna (our wonderful neighbor, who has 8 beautiful children of her own, who are now all in school) on Mondays and grandma and grandpa Hull on Wednesdays and Fridays. She used to cry everytime I dropped her off anywhere at first, but now seems to be adapting to the change. Another big change for Sasha happened this weekend when Sasha finally gave up her binky. I know, Sasha is 2 1/2 now and long past the time when we would have wanted to get rid of it. For the last 1 1/2 years, she's only had it at naptime and bedtime so we wanted to take the final step to get rid of it 4 months ago. However, right as we started, she got extremely sick off and on for about a month and we didn't have the heart to finally toss it out when she was so miserable and wanting it so badly. Needless to say, it's finally gone and we're so happy about it! It only took 2 nights and one day of some crying and being upset for her to adjust. Phew! Now (as soon as our crib modification set comes) we can put her in a big girl bed and make the final leap in potty training. We've been hitting the part or playing on our playground out back as often as we can when the sun comes out and Sasha loves it. Our tulips are poking through and it just feels like spring should finally be here. We can't wait! We were able to go a REAL Salt Lake soccer game on March 1 and see an impressive 4-1 victory. The game started at 8 pm and it was COLD so we weren't sure how Sasha would handle it. She actually did really well since all bundled up in coats and blankets. We lasted until about 9:30 pm when the score was 3-1 so we saw most of the exciting action. I love soccer and am so excited to pass that on to Sasha. Just yesterday she was kicking the ball around the yard and I couldn't help but feel a swell of happiness to her enjoying herself. I know it's cheesy, but what can I say? I'm sure she'll find her own things that bring her happiness, but I do hope that soccer get a little piece of the pie at some point. :) We were sad that the free tickets for our REAL passes ran out for yesterday's game against the LA Galaxy, but we were still able to go on a double date with Drue and Maggs to a fun (and free) comedy show at Wiseguys. It's great to laugh for a whole evening and have sore cheeks from smiling so much. Thanks to my parents for watching all the kiddos on short notice - they had such fun being all together and thanks to Drue and Maggs for finding the free deal and inviting us to go! It definitely kept me from feeling sad about not going to the game (what can I say, I've always wanted to see David Beckham play). I do have to apologize for the lack of photos - I will try to be better in the future. :)

Share the Love!

In celebration of the upcoming day of love, Sasha and I made a valentine for Aaron. It was Sasha's first time doing valentines and using scissors so I wasn't sure how it would go. Just picture a 2-year old girl with pretty paper, sharp kid-size scissors and glue. It turned out to be such a great time and Sasha loved tapping into her creative side. I think her favorite part was giving the valentine to Aaron - she couldn't wait to give it to him so we gave it to him early. She was so excited and proud to give him something special. I have been so grateful to have him around over the last year and a half (as he worked on building his own company) and see how his relationship with Sasha has deepened. It just makes me happy to see how they play together and how much Sasha adores her papa - plus, it doesn't hurt to have a hubby who understands what it means to take care of a child all day. :) We love you, sweetie!

Aaron had a surprise of his own for me on Saturday when I got home from work. He made me a special valentine. He got points from me just for thinking of doing something, but he took it to a new level. He looked through all my crafting scraps and made a "repurposed" card as an homage to the last year and a half. I don't know if you can see, but he actually cut out the word 'Valentine's' by hand - all I can say is wow. Thanks for the sweet card and, most especially, the effort that went into it.

To continue our post-sickness enjoyment of the winter season, we took Sasha snowshoeing and sledding. Okay, the snowshoeing ended up just being snow hiking because we decided to go on the Bonneville shoreline trail to be assured the joy of basqueing in the sun while hiking. Sasha even hiked for about 1/4 mile of the steepest part of the hike - what a trooper! Notice Sasha's attempt to lean in to the photo after papa asked her to lean close to him for the picture. We didn't get a great photo of sledding, but Sasha liked it. We found the perfect, little hill for her first time. She was hesitant at first, but she warmed up to it after the first time. I loved that the hill had a steeper part up higher that led into a more shallow section. Aaron and I enjoyed the steeper part on a few solo runs and stuck to the shallow section with Sasha. Aaron even attempted to "snowboard" down on the sled and got a lot more speed that he bargained for. He ended up having to bail early, but it was a good time for all of us.

Winter Wonderland...

We've had a wonderful January enjoying Christmas presents, baking, playing in the snow and looking forward to spring. Okay, so let's be honest. The looking forward to spring part has been especially strong this year because one or more of us has been sick over the last month. We're not normally sick very often so this year's fluke is a real puzzler. Needless to say, although we love winter and all the baking and winter fun, spring couldn't come soon enough!

Sasha received an apron from Gibson this year and particularly enjoying putting it to good use while making the pumpkin pancakes from a mix that Brandan and Becky gave us for Christmas. It was delicious! Sasha absolutely loves helping in the kitchen. Her "helping" usually consists of mixing anything and everything while it spills over the sides, using the measuring spoons and cups to pour various amounts of water back and forth and pretty much wanting to be involved in every aspect of making the food. It is such fun to see her learn, although you try explaining to a 2-year old the concept of food poisoning and bacteria as she pleads with you to handle the raw chicken.

Sasha is carefully examining the contents of the package and telling me how we should prepare it.
Sasha (with lots of help from her papa) made her first snowman ever! Okay, so we've slacked a bit on the snow activities due to illness floating around our house like crazy. However, we have vowed to make up for it with the last remaining bit of winter. Sasha's had the flu for the last week with a temperature of 104-106 so we're just focusing on making it through this and then we'll get to some more winter fun.

Sasha was queen of the snowman for the day.

This month, I'm hopefully going to start to selling my handmade cards and little girls' aprons at Serendipity, my brothers' store in Salt Lake. We'll see how it goes. The photos below aren't the best quality, but hopefully you get the idea. The first one was a birthday card for my brother who loves Adidas; thus, the logo and homage to Adidas. :)

Holiday Update

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Yes, that's right, I haven't posted in three holidays, which is a new record. I could make excuses, but the bottom line is that it's about time. I will apologize in advance for only posting a few photos - I left most of the picture taking up to Kim because I was a slacker so I'll have to beg Kim for hers.

For Thanksgiving, we finally decided upon rotating every year so this year we went to Aaron's side of the family for the feast. It was fabulous to have all of the yummy food of the season and spend time with family. Aaron's parents made both a turkey and a ham so it was doubly delicious. Sasha just loved being able to run around and play with Abrie all day. It's so fun to see` those two cousins play together so well.

Christmas sort of snuck up on us, probably due to me being sick for two weeks just before the big day. I'm just happy that we got everything ready and it turned out to be a fabulous holiday. To provide a little entertainment during some of the colder times, we went on an outing to the South Towne Mall. Sasha loves the cars that you can ride there. The best part is that she doesn't even realize that they move (if you put quarters in). She doesn't care because she makes up things to do and loves watching the other kids.

It was fun decorating the tree together this year, although Sasha defintitely had her own ideas about how things should go (i.e. she should be able to handle every ornament as well as take it off of the tree at any given time and place it in a random place in the house). She loves Christmas lights both inside and outside the house. We also found out that she can easily plug and unplug the tree, despite out attempts to hide the plug.

We also decided that we would spend Christmas Eve with Aaron's side of the family and spend Christmas Day with my side of the family (rather than alternate years in order to allow us to see both families around the holiday). We got to decorate gingerbread houses on Monday, December 20 with Aaron's side of the family and had a great time coming up with unique designs and eating lots of candy (which, I believe, is one of the true purposes of the event). Sasha was happy to have a graham cracker with a little frosting on it so she could place pieces of candy on it and immediately remove them to place them in her mouth. My gingerbread house ends up being a typical, square house with some sort of decor, which was no different this year. Aaron usually focuses on making some masterpiece of architecture and could care less about decorating. This year was no exception as made a model of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, which are the tallest twin buildings in the world (and were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 - 2004). They were quite impressive!

On Christmas Eve, we continued the tradition of going caroling to neighbors of Aaron's parents. It was definitely a chilly night so we weren't out too long before the little kiddies decided it was time to come home. It's still amazing to me that the songs sound so beautiful with our frozen voices, which I'm sure due to the natural singing ability in Aaron's family. Afterward, we had some snacks and warmed up a little bit while chatting around the fire. It's always fun to talk and tell stories, especially since Lys, John and Jake were in town. To top off the evening, we watched a classic Christmas movie called Salt with Angelina Jolie. :) I know, it's not the typical movie, but since it's an action/adventure it appeals to everyone so it was the pick of the night. We stayed over night at Aaron's parents house so it was quite the party since there quite a few others staying there: Lys, John, Jake, Shelley, Rob, Grandma GG, Heidi, Abrie and Aaron's parents.

I'd like to say that we all slept perfectly and woke up refreshed around 8 am for a lovely Christmas morning, but the only thing that eventually happened was the lovely Christmas morning. Sasha was up most of the night coughing and finally got out of bed at 6 am with a fever. Her first words to Aunt Lys were, "I don't feel good. I'm sick." It was so sad to see her having such a rough time on Christmas, but since she's 2 and there were lots of people around to district her, it wasn't a big deal.
Other than the sickness, Christmas morning was pretty much the usual chaos since there are so many of us when everyone gets together. We had a delicious breakfast at 7 am since we had to presents earlier at 8 am so John and Lys could get to her family's by 9 am. After breakfast, we all went downstairs to open gifts, which Aaron had organized by name the night before to make it easier to find. I love that Aaron's side of the family opens gifts one by one so everyone can see what that person received. It takes longer, but definitely makes it sweeter as we get to share in each others' excitement.
After opening gifts, we went over to my brother Wade's house. We enjoyed a fabulous Christmas brunch, naps, opening presents, playing games, watching the kids play together, and eating a Christmas dinner together. It was such a wonderful day! We received so many great gifts, the main ones being the Cricut and cartridges for me, a blue-ray player for Aaron and toys and clothing for Sasha. We are so grateful to have such incredible families and truly enjoyed spending the holidays together. We are also grateful for this special time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and all the hope and joy that comes from Him. Sasha said it best when I asked what Christmas is. She replied, "It's Jesus."
Last of all, we celebrated the New Year at Troy and Ang's (Aaron's brother) in Layton. We ate yummy food, including homemade chocolate mint truffles, played Dominoes, Scattergories and various games on the Wii (this includes my first attempt at Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii, which includes both feet and arm motions...it was awesome!). At midnight, those of us who managed to stay up shouted, "Happy New Year" while pulling the confetti poppers. After that we all ate 12 grapes, which is a tradition from Spain. The 12 grapes signify the 12 months of the upcoming year and if the grapes are sweet, then the upcoming year will be sweet. I think the assumption is that the grapes will be sweet so it's a good bet that you'll have a sweet and lucky upcoming year. It was a great night and fun to spend with family. Happy Holidays to everyone - may all your New Year's resolutions be fulfilled (or at least last longer than a week). :)

Halloween, house projects and happiness

There's something special about the holidays and for me it usually begins with Halloween and goes through New Years (sometimes I even count Valentine's Day when I'm feelin it). We had such a fun Halloween with Sasha being the lucky girl who got to wear 3 different costumes (thanks to all those who let us borrow them!) - Minnie Mouse, an elephant and a monkey. Unfortunately, I only have photos of the Minnie Mouse costume so that's all the cuteness you'll get this time. Since Sasha is such a girly girl, this was a fun costume for her. She especially loved the glittery, red shoes and pearl necklace. You might notice that Aaron and I were slackers and didn't dress up, but in our defense, we counted ourselves good with getting Sasha dressed up and we were her accessories. How did we know that Sasha loved Halloween, you ask? Well, for a few weeks afterward, she said, "Trick or treat" every time the doorbell rang.Aaron is my superhero, handyman husband. Let me explain. We've been doing lots of DIY projects lately, some by choice and some not. Here's a list of all that Aaron's done in the past few months:
Replaced the kitchen light with 6 recessed lights after a water line burst and flooded the kitchen through the light.
Finished the huge project known as the playset in the back yard (included clearing and levelling a 20'x20' area that was filled with 3 foot weeds, sanding and staining the playset we got for free through a generous neighbor and putting everything back together for Sasha to play on)
Rewired the TV and internet cables so we could relocate all of our electronics to a new location in the family room (included lots of drilling, installing new outlets, rewiring and patching)
Reorganized our shelving down in the basement
Saved all of our cds digitally onto a network hard drive and got rid of all the hard copy cds (and came out with a few new Wii games in exchange)
Helped with everything around the house and with Sasha when he was able (this is by far on the top of my list and he has been so amazing!)

Sasha is such a doll! She is such a talker and loves to copy everything that we say (I mean, everything). I love how sensitive she is and how she is always anxious to comfort everyone around her. She can immediately sense if something is wrong and always goes to the person who seems in distress. She'll usually pat or rub their back and say, "It's okay. It's okay. You need hug (pronounced hud)?" This girl loves to laugh and play, but watch out if you even think of going against what she wants - you will suffer the wrath!

I'm still loving my job now that I've been there just over a month and learning a lot as I work with new people in different training settings. I love being able to teach circuit training 3 days a week and all the challenges that come with it. Aaron is making progress with SUR Technology (the renewable energy company he, Troy and Mike have been trying to get going this last year). It looks like a project should be going through in the near future so we're excited.

We're so grateful for this time of year and the opportunity to spend time with family and friends. Mostly, we're just happy to have so much fun with our little Sasha as she experiences everything with wide eyes. We can't wait for Thanksgiving this Thursday and the fun of Black Friday to follow. We send our love to all of you, wherever you may be.

New job!

Hi all,

Just wanted to share the good news that I got a perfect, new job! I work as a wellness consultant for a company called RST & Associates. Basically, a company comes to them to get a wellness coordinator/wellness program for their company without having to create it themselves or hire staff. I am contracted out to work as a wellness coordinator for Fairchild Semiconductor in West Jordan. It's perfect because I get to work at a great company, with great co-workers, part-time and good pay. It's exactly what I've been looking for. I just started on Monday and I love being able to work in my field. I work Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings so it fits great with our schedule. I also still get to work one day a month at Serendipity so it's the best of both worlds. We are so blessed! I know you're all really wanting photos of Sasha so I promise that more of those are to come, especially with the holidays coming up! :)

I love September because...

I just love September! Okay, maybe it has something to do with it being both Sasha's and my birthday month (as well as quite a few other family members), but it's also the crispness (is that a word?) in the air and the changing of the leaves.

Sasha got the most adorable skirt from Grandma and Grandpa Henson for her birthday (among many other fabulous gifts). She's such a girly girl so I thought she would jump at the chance to wear it, but she proved me wrong. She was totally against wearing it at first. Now she wants to wear it every day. Girls, go figure! Here are a few cute pics we took of her while wearing it and dancing around the family room.

For my birthday, Aaron planned a special day starting with homemade breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs and toast. This was followed by an exercise class, an afternoon shopping with my mom, dinner with my sweet hubby at Sweet Tomatoes (probably one of my absolute favorite places to eat) and a REAL soccer game. Phew, what a day! The game was incredible! The weather was perfect - warm, but with a little chill in the air, we had great seats and there was a great energy in the stadium. It didn't hurt that REAL won 4-1 and we saw some sweet goals. I even saw my childhood soccer coach at the game. :) It was such a fun day and Aaron was so sweet, making sure that I was completely pampered. The fun doesn't stop there because he has also planned parties with both sides of our family coming up so it's like my birthday will go for 2 weeks. Doesn't get much better than that! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful, thoughtful husband. Thanks, sweetie!

For the last component of enjoying September, Aaron and I got to go on a hike with some friends up north. It was a great hike with beautiful scenery, good company and fall colors. Thanks, James, Vicki and Dmitriy (hope I spelled your names right!) for the fun afternoon!

Summer fun!

We've really been slackers in the posting department, but at least this time it has been due to busy schedules rather than just plain laziness. Here's what we've been up to for the past month and a half:

The first week in July, I was away at Girl's Camp so it was a whirlwind getting everything ready over the 4th of July weekend and leaving the next week. We had a terrific time playing games, doing crafts, enjoying the great outdoors and being together. The girls were so great with helping out and being so friendly to each other. We got back on Friday afternoon so Friday evening and Saturday were spent catching up.

On Monday of the second week in July we left for a family vacation in McCall, Idaho. It was so great to finally get together with all of our family. Pure chaos, but lots of fun! We stayed for most of the week, but end up leaving early in order to attend the funeral of my grandpa Hull. He was a wonderful, quiet, humble, strong man with the best work ethic I've ever witnessed. Although I will miss him, I'm happy that he is with his beloved wife Beth and many other siblings who have gone before.

The third week in July Aaron went on the annual Henson backpacking trip and enjoyed being in nature. John, our brother-in-law, set up a zip line that was fun for everyone (even the dogs)!

While Aaron was gone, Sasha and I went to the huge Hull family reunion in Peterson, Utah and had a blast with everyone. We played "Minute to Win It" and laughed as everyone attempted crazy stunts. It was great to spend time together.

We have loved having Shelley stay with us. She and Rob came to visit and brought their adorable bunnies as well. Sasha was in LOVE!

Here's out little cutie, ready to attend her first wedding. We got to see Tony and Cassie get married in a beautiful place in Bountiful. It was fun for Aaron to see Tony again after so long and support them on the beginning of their marriage. Sasha was really excited to wear a dress, bow and carry her own little purse (I know, is this girly girl really my daughter? yes, apparently girls who grow up as tomboys have girly girls in order to educate them).

Kim, Aaron's sister, went on a trip to China and brought Sasha back this adorable dress for her upcoming birthday. Thanks, Kimmie! It was priceless how Sasha wanted to show everyone her new dress!

Construction. Yes, we've had a construction project literally in our back yard since last December. The photo below is one I took from our kitchen window. We're hoping that most of the actual construction will be done soon and that they'll rebuild the brick wall in our back yard even sooner so we can have some privacy and a barrier from the noise. I won't hold my breath, but a girl can always hope. :)

Kim and Abrie came to visit us for the day and the girls had such a great time together. Abrie and Heidi (Aaron's sister) are in town for a year since Heidi's husband Michael is deployed. Although we're sad to have Michael gone, it has been a joy to have Heidi and Abrie here and see the girls play so well together.

Sasha and I went to the petting zoo at Gardner Village since she adores animals and it was definitely a hit. I think there must've been 15-20 goats there and Sasha probably hugged every one. Here's a photo of just one of the hugs. They had horses, goats, cows, bunnies, llamas, emus, pigs, chickens, dogs and lambs.

What a fun summer it has been! We're excited for Sasha's 2nd birthday coming up and are so blessed to have such a happy, silly, funny, intelligent and loving daughter. She is talking so much more and says the most adorable things. I love this age (even with the tantrums) and I'm so excited to see her continue to grow.

Happily Ever After...

Happy 5th Anniversary to my sweet husband! Here's a little video I made for the event and for his birthday. Enjoy!

MacGyver Diapering

Aaron, Sasha and I had three firsts on Saturday:

1. We visited Promontory Point;
2. We visited the Spiral Jetty;
3. We created a diaper using a maxi pad, a t-shirt and a grocery bag.

After hiking up an old favorite (Adam's Canyon) in Layton, we decided to join Aaron's side of the family for a trip to see the Spiral Jetty. I was excited because I had seen many photos and read information about it while working at UMFA (the Utah Museum of Fine Arts). We packed into the van with not a space to spare and headed out on our 4 hour round trip adventure. Sasha decided that this would be the day for the worst case of diarrhea in her lifetime. We thought it was no big deal since we had one diaper left, but it turns out that it was a decoy. It was a bib posing as a diaper.

Needless to say, we arrived at the Spiral Jetty with no diapers and yet another poopy diaper. Angela, Aaron's sister-in-law, found a maxi pad and offered her t-shirt. We secured the maxipad to the t-shirt and tied it snugly around Sasha's legs. Then we found a grocery bag that Aaron put some leg holes in. We put Sasha's legs through those and tied the handles around her waist. It was basically a MacGyver work of art. Sadly, it also made Sasha appear as if she had a huge growth and walk very uncomfortably. She was a trooper until we made it to a store that thankfully had some diapers in her size. I took a moment to be grateful for the technology of diapers and thought of how it would have been to be a pioneer crossing the plains with a young child. We ended up laughing about the whole thing and chalking it up to a great story.

We had a fun time and enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day with Kerry and Ang, two incredible moms. On the Mother's Day note, I have to say how grateful I am for my mom and my mother-in-law. They are both amazing women and I'm especially thankful that my relationship with my mom has deepened so much over the last year. I am truly blessed!

A New Perspective

Such a powerful and positive way to look at things...

Heartbreaker

I can already tell that Sasha is going to be a heartbreaker because she's already starting denying the fellas. Here's a little sample of Little Miss Attitude with her cute (and persistent) friend Spencer. I love the look she gives to the camera at the very end - priceless.

You are amazing!

Some days I feel like I'm a rock star and other days I wish I could have stayed in bed. This is especially true as a mom. Being a mom is like a crazy rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs, but always worth the ride. I watched this video on a friend's blog and loved the message so I wanted to share it with all of you mom's out there. You are all amazing!


P.S. I have a new goal to keep track of more of these ups and downs by "typing" in my journal three times a week (yes, I've gone for the technology route of typing up the entries on my computer). I'm sharing this little tid-bit with you in hopes of having some accountability and support. Here's to keeping a history of our lives and our families!

I love surprises!

Aaron knows that I love surprises so when I came home from a gym class on February 13, I was excited to find the following sign on the door:

I stepped inside to find a path made out of conversation hearts (sort of hard to see, but you get the idea). The trail of hearts led to little framed signs that Aaron made for me many a few years ago. Each of the frames a title in the center like "I love Becky" or "Becky is my Sweetie" and surrounding it were little reasons why he loves me. By each of the framed signs was a small chocolate treat (excellent taste, I might add).
When I got to the end of the trail, I found two smiling faces waiting for me! Did I say how much I love surprises? Because I LOVE SURPRISES! The best part is that I thought this was the big surprise that Aaron had been hinting at for the entire week. Little did I know (insert devous laugh here)... Aaron wanted to go to dinner and use a gift card that I got for him a while ago. Apparently, I was feeling adventurous when I bought it because it was to a Thai restaurant. Off we went with Sasha and a bag full of back up food supplies for her in case she didn't take to the Thai cuisine. As we got out of the car, I noticed that Kerry and Larry, Aaron's parents who live in Layton, happened to be getting out of their car to eat at the same restaurant in South Jordan. Whoa, what are the chances?!? Wait a minute...you can't fool me. Aaron planned it. Not only did they eat dinner with us, but they stayed with Sasha while Aaron and I went to see Avatar (awesome movie, by the way). So, thanks to my hubby for knowing that I love surprises and making this Valentine's perfect. For Aaron, I happen to know that the fastest way to his heart is through baked goods and thoughtful, homeade gifts. So, I made my first attempt at homeade sweet rolls. Let's just say that they tasted great, but didn't turn out as well as I had hoped since they didn't rise hardly at all. Seriously, I let them rise for 2 hours in the morning and then again after I put them on the baking sheet while we went to church. Aaron was happy so that's all that matters, but if you have a great cinnamon roll recipe, I'd love to get it. For the thoughtful, handmade gift I made the little book below (thanks to Christina for the great idea). It starts out looking like an ordinary book... But when you open it up, SURPRISE! It's a little different than expected. Love you, sweetie! We've been enjoying the Olympics so much that we thought we'd let Sasha join in the celebration by wearing a shirt that's sort of a shout out to all bobsledders, speed skaters, aerialists and any spandex-top-wearing athletes out there. Future Olympian? I wouldn't doubt it!

Hello...again!

I know, I know...it's been way too long. Well, I'm back and promise to be better if you'll forgive me for the longer-than-usual hiatus. We've had so much fun over New Year's and being able to spend lots of time with family and friends. Okay, so sometimes Sasha and I get a little stir-crazy being inside more than usual, but we're surviving. We've still managed quite a few trips to the park or just walking around outside to find treasures (live dogs or cats are the most exciting for Sasha). I have to be careful when I say "park" or "outside" because Sasha assumes that the effect is immediate and we'll be heading out instantly. She is such an outdoor/nature girl. Her loves right now include any living animal, leaves, pinecones, music and pianos. If there is a piano in sight, she wants to play it. She even got in a duet with her cute cousin, Abrie.
The Fireplace - a Tale of Triumph

Over a year ago, we decided to remodel our fireplace because it was gargantuan and a definite hazard. Just picture a fireplace with a huge, black facade surrounded by bulky, square, white columns and golden accents. It probably would have been more suited to a Roman palace. We were so excited to begin the project that we tore out the steps and columns in one night. Yay us for being so proactive. Eight months later, the project was still in the same condition that we had left it - a gaping hole in our family room wall with chairs and various objects in front of it to keep Sasha out. Not to be bested by our fireplace, we decided to again take action and found a beautiful mantle on ksl. A short two months later, we tackled the task of finding tile. At last, we were able to put everything up and remove the barriers that had been there for so long. Drum roll, please...

The fireplace is complete! Okay, joking aside, I have to say "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You" to my sweet honey, my dad and Aaron's dad for working so hard to finally complete this project. I absolutely love how everything turned out and Sasha is very grateful to have free reign of the space again. The photo doesn't do it justice so you'll just have to come over and check it out yourself. Man, it feels so good to complete a project!

We send out a big "I love you" to the newest member of our extended family, Jake Tribe. Congrats, Lys and John - he's adorable!

I promise to post more photos of Sasha soon. You won't believe how long her hair has gotten and all the new words she's coming up with, especially as she copies everything we say.

The other day, Aaron bumped his head and said, "Gosh!" Sasha immediately started copying him as she walked around the house saying "Gosh," but it eventually wore off and we forgot about it. Then, just the other day, Sasha was trying to climb down from a chair, but a pillow was in her way. All of a sudden, she said, "Gosh!" and I couldn't help but crack up. I love, love, love this stage (even with the beginning of tantrums and such) as Sasha learns to express herself more to us. Kuddos to all those moms out there - you are amazing!

Merry Christmas!

We've decided to take advantage of technology and send out our Christmas card online. So, here's the blog version:

Merry Christmas 2009! What a year it has been! We've had lots of fun adventures, most of which revolved around a cute, little toddler you might know, our little munchkin Sasha. It's been so great to experience things as if for the first time with her. I have never seen a child so passionate about so many things...being outside, stuffed animals, real animals (especially dogs), beads, necklaces, jewelry, grandma and grandpa and the list could go on. She loves running around and exploring any drawers, cabinets or compartments. Her vocabulary is growing like crazy and includes words like "mama, papa, wow, dog, happy, hot, and outside." Guess we'll have to watch what we say more closely. :) We celebrated her 1st birthday this year and our favorite part was when she tasted sweets for the first time and decided that she really liked cake (see photo below). In fact, she liked it so much that she eventually just bent over and planted her face in it. That's our girl - go big or go home!

Aaron recently changed jobs and joined a partnership with Global NES, Inc., a renewable energy company based out of Colorado. His company sells and implements energy analysis and reduction measures along with renewable energy technologies. In short, Aaron is super hip. As always, he's working hard on projects around the house and will soon complete the redo of our fireplace. YIPPEE!!

For me, things have changed in ways I didn't anticipate. Since being laid off from my position as wellness coordinator at Regence, I have been able to do some projects for my parents' business so it has been a blessing for us all. Plus, I get to spend lots of time with sweet Sasha.

We love our home in Sandy and continue to make small changes here and there. So far, we have a new roof, furnace, microwave, dishwasher, landscaping and fireplace. Phew! We have loved having a garden this year and look forward to developing more of a green thumb.

We are especially grateful to family and friends for your love and support. At this special time of year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and His message of peace and love. We love you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Aaron, Beck & Sasha

P.S. Here another cute photo for those who endured and read the entire letter. :)