{Mother's Day}

Mother's Day was crazy again this year! I love it though! After early-morning Church we went to Brunch with my family to celebrate Mother's Day with Rondi, Julie, Dolly and me. We decided to try the Gathering Place at Gardener Village this year. We ended up having to sit outside--which wouldn't have been a big deal if they didn't have a cute little stream running through it making my kids go nuts if we tried to make them sit and eat. It was beautiful though, and I have to thank my dad--Grandpa Brad--for making the sacrifice of sitting facing the sun so that the kids could be in the shade. It was a gorgeous day.

We then went over to David's mom's house for a nice dinner with the family. There were a lot of kids running around and Isaac had a blast! Eli wasn't sure what to make of it, but we had a good time. David and the boys gave me a beautiful necklace with Isaac and Eli's names engraved with a charm of their birthstones attached. I LOVE it! Here is a picture of a similar necklace since I didn't take a picture of mine. We gave both David's mom and Rondi their own necklaces with the names of all of their grandkids engraved on each of them. Happy Mother's Day to all! I can't tell you how grateful I am to be a mom to Isaac and Eli. I can't imagine my life without them. They bring me so much joy and love. I love you boys!

This is similar to my necklace--although mine have a green and purple birthstones and the names of my kids on them. Love it!


Dolly, Dylan and Jonathan

Julie and Beau

Eli with a soul patch of chocolate--yum!

{Little Fish}

Isaac started swimming lessons again in April. He did two sessions this year instead of three because poor Eli was having a hard time watching. By the end of the 45 minute class he was miserable and I was trying everything--even candy--to try to keep him happy. All he wanted to do was get in the pool with Isaac. Poor guy.

Isaac LOVES swimming and he is a lot better than last year. I'm so proud of him. I feel like of all of the sports a kid could be involved in, swimming is the most important because it can save their lives. Not that Isaac is a great swimmer at this point, but he is getting better and better all the time. Here are the pictures I took of swimming this year.

Last day of session 1. He got to go on the big slide.

Class time.

One of Eli's better days. This was before he decided to start throwing his toys and binky's in the pool--I'm sure he thought, "If I can't get in, at least my toys can." LOL!

I SO wish this pic wasn't so blurry! I LOVE this expression. I wonder what he was thinking?

{The Big Race}

Back at the beginning of the year I let some friends convince me to run a 5K in April as part of the Salt Lake Marathon. A 5K? Me? Now, I know what you might be thinking...have they seen how out of shape Tara is? Funny. I was thinking the same thing. Blah. So, I sort of recruited my cousin BreeAnn to undertake this challenge with me, and I have to say that I wouldn't have been able to do it without her. We motivated each other and it was awesome. My best buds Kelli, Jen and Lori were running too, but Kelli did the FULL marathon and Lori and Jenn did the HALF marathon. I am telling you--what an incredible experience watching them all come in. I also have to mention that my rockstar sister-in-law, Julie kicked some serious butt in the half marathon as well! Anywho, here are photos of the BIG race. I was terrified and even though I didn't run as long as I'd hoped to, I still got my best time for going 3.1 miles. Yay, me! Next year I'm gonna do the half marathon. There. I said it--now I have to do it!

Oh yeah, the night before the race Lori, Jen, Kelli and I had a pasta dinner party. We had super yummy food and Kelli made the awesomest (is that a word?) cupcakes I've ever seen! They looked like spaghetti and meatballs!

BreeAnn and me waiting at the starting line.

Still waiting.

Off we go!

Right after the race--please excuse the red and shiny faces--we just ran our first 5K!

My 'girls'. Lori, Kelli, Me and Jen

The spaghetti cupcakes.

{Easter 2010}

Easter this year was a lot of fun. Even though I was terrible at remembering to take pictures of everything (like the boys in their Easter church outfits). The night before Easter we colored eggs. Yeah, we waited to do it until after Eli was in bed because we just knew it would spell disaster if we attempted to let him 'help'. Maybe we're bad parents for leaving him out of this part of our Easter tradition, but we would rather call ourselves smart for doing it. You can form your own opinion. Hee, hee! Anyway David and I pretty much let Isaac color them all. We had to do a BYU egg--it was a requirement, and I think it turned out pretty cute. It's hard to draw a Y on a while egg using a white crayon, but I have skills.

Easter morning Isaac found all of the hidden Easter eggs before Eli found them and decided they were balls. We had to help Isaac a little, but he did awesome. Then we let them open their baskets filled with candy, video games, books, toys and snacks. Oh, and Isaac's new swimming goggles--see pic below. We topped the day off with a wonderful Easter dinner at David's mom's house. Mmmmm. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, too!

{Birthday}

On March 27th we celebrated my dad's birthday. We met my family at a restaurant called Smash Burger in Draper to eat together. We had never been there before, but had heard really good things about it so we were excited to try it. I have to say that it was fabulous, in my opinion--especially the flash-fried veggies. Mmmmm.

After eating we went to a playground at a cute park in Draper. I'm not quite sure how Branigan and Julie knew where this park was, but it was perfect for the kids. It was the first time that Eli had ever been on a swing since most of the parks by our home don't have swings. So, I put him on one right when we got there. He LOVED it! He was laughing and squealing--it was great. Little Beau loved the swings, too. Isaac ran over to the slides with his cousins, Jonathan and Dylan, then they eventually ended up on the swings, too. It was a little chilly, but overall a great Spring day. After we played at the park we went to Cold Stone for some ice cream. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Eli going down the slide--he loved them

Grandpa Brad pushing Isaac on the swings

Eli being a 'big boy'

Cute little Beau with his daddy, Branigan. How cute is that picture? You can see my dad and Isaac along with Tyler holding Dylan in the background.

Jonathan with Grandma Rondi and Julie (looking like a super-model) in the background.

David and Eli--I love how happy Eli looks in this picture

Eli swinging high, and SO happy.

{Cheerios}

Eli loves Cheerios. Every time I turn around he is trying to get in the pantry to get more Cheerios. I finally just gave him the whole container. He loved it and thought he was such a big boy. Note: If you come to our house and want Cheerios they may or may not be contaminated with Eli slobber. Most likely not, though, because later that day Eli, ever so kindly, dumped the container of Cheerios on the floor. Thanks, Eli. A whole container of delicious Cheerios wasted.

{Valentine's Day}

I know it's a little late for posting about Valentine's Day, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Ha, ha! If it weren't for technical difficulties with my camera this would have been posted over a month ago, so there. Valentine's Day was pretty sweet this year. David hates Valentine's Day, so I'm not going to even talk about him. Is there a name for people like that? I mean, a Grinch or a Scrooge for someone who dislikes Christmas, but what about Valentine's Day haters? Anyhoo, I got up early and placed wrapped gifts for everyone on the table that I decked out with a pink table cloth, red paper plates and cute napkins with hearts on them. I planned to make pink pancakes and strawberry milk for breakfast with fresh strawberries. Mmmm. So, the boys woke up, opened their gifts--books for both and crayons and coloring book for Isaac. Nothing big, but enough that they were thrilled. Then I was off to make breakfast. It was delicious, thank you very much.

Isaac with his book

Eli opening his gifts with the aid of the Valentine Grinch

Another shot of the boys with their loot

Strawberry milk served in an adorable cup that my awesome Cousin, BreeAnn gave me for Valentine's Day. At least somebody loves me. =)

The pink pancakes