Summer Update

After camping this past weekend we stopped at a restaurant in Heber called Dairy Keen. It has a train theme and the kids just loved it. They even had a train table inside for the kids to play at and Luke thinking he is the master and commander decided he got to control all the trains and dived them up to the other children.

We went camping this past weekend up in Hannah, Ut. It was fun except we didn't anticipate how cold it was going to be. The kids were fine but James and I were really cold. We kept hearing what we thought were moose yelps and Luke was quite curios about it. He got a little scared and when I asked him why he said.
" The big moose is going to come try to eat me and I'll have to punch his teeth out"
then with big eyes he contiued to say
" The moose will eat the big sticks mom"

nWe went to Liberty Park up in SLC. It is such an awesome park with so much to do. They have a little lake you can take paddle boats on, an Averary, a little carnival, a swimming pool, tennis courts, huge park, pioneer museum, ect, ect. In this pic the kids are playing in the Salt Lake :) Its like a little water play area that is a scaled down version of all the water, lakes and rivers in Ut. Very fun and very cute.

Little Miss Potato head. Bella thought this was a pacifier or something and was walking around with it in her mouth all afternoon. It was pretty funny

i

Happy Birthday Luke!!
Luke turned 3 on July 26. He got this ride on train for his birthday and as you can probably tell by his face was quite pleased with it. He rode it all day long and we had to charge the battery twice.

It was a lot of fun having so much family around. Lots of cousins and grandparents came, our good friends the Dixons came too with there adorable little girl.

After everyone finished eating Bella made the rounds collecting and eating the leftovers. She was a sticky, adorable mess by the end of the evening.

I am not as talented as some people I know, but I wanted to make Luke a train cake so I just used and engine of Thomas we already had and made the cars out of cupcakes

It was really hard for Luke to let other people take turns riding on his trian, he pretty much dominated it most of the evening.

Luke and Bella have such a bitter sweet relationship, I think that just comes with them being so close in age. The absolutely love each other one minute, sharing, and playing and tickling each other. Than the next minute they are each others worse enemy screaming and pushing. Bella tends to follow Luke around and want to play with him, and Luke has figured out that he is bigger than him so he tends to take her toys away, she does have her defenses though. If she starts freaking out, he will generally give her toys back to her.

Oh course we have been hanging out at lots of parks. This one is in Pleasant Grove and it is one of the more unique parks we have been too. I was pretty big and had a castle theme. Most of the equiptment was made of wood.

Steel Days in American Fork. My brother Steven and his family as well as my mom and dad came down and hung out with us. The kids loved the rides but James and my favorite part was the classic car promenade down main street.

Luke thought he was really driving this car, it was cute.

BEFORE
Luke's big boy hair cut. It was such a dramatic change because not only did it get shorter but we finally cut off all his baby blonde. I hated to see it go but the long hair was just to hot for the summer. At least I will always have pictures.

AFTER, sorry not the best pic

We went back for a visit in San Clemente the week before the forth of July. It was nice to go to the beach and visit our old friend and hang out with family. Bella was so silly, she would just lay in the sand, sometimes face down, just laying there. I think she liked it cause it was warm. Luke got to reunite with his best buddy Samson, they picked up right where they left off.

James and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on June 1. We got to get away for the weekend. We stayed at a cabin by Sundance and went mountain biking. It was a little scary at first (this was my only my second time) but once I got used to it we had a lot of fun. We also hiked up to a waterfall the next day. Anyways I can't believe we have been married so long, time sure does fly.

James looking all handsome on the lift.

One of James biggest accomplishments this summer was that he got a projector screen. He asked me if I wanted to get one and I said we needed to think about it, a couple days later he admitted to me that he had already ordered, so here it is. The kids think its pretty cool. The first couple they watched shows on it Bella would look behind the screen and say ware are u. I have to admit its pretty.

What is it with kids and mud puddles. You turn your back for a second and they are sitting in one splashing around. This is up at my sister Heather's house in Heber.

We have spent a lot of time at the pool this summer. This is at the Serra pool in Orem, but we have passes to the rec center in American Fork. Its only two blocks north or us and they have little slides like this, a big water slide, a lazy river, and little toddler play area. The kids really like it. Bella calls it the Baff tub.

Bella is our little artist she loves coloring. We have to make sure we keep all markers and other writing utensils out of reach or she will make her artwork on whatever is closest to, including walls, tables and books.

Yes we finally have a backyard and we love it. They spend hours out there which gives me hours to get things done.

We moved again

Sorry we have dropped off the face of the planet but we decided to move again, closer to my school and James work. It nice to have our own place complete with a real bedroom for our kids and a backyard. We love the area it just a small city called American Fork there are lots of young families and parks. If it didn't snow here I would be sold. Anyways when I find the time and energy I will post some pics.

Bella Bella

So I thought I would give a little Bella update since she has been changing, learning and growing so much lately.

She is my ever faithful companion during choirs, always willing and ready to lend a hand whether or not its wanted.


She is finally growing some hair. Check out this pic she actually has a little curl. I figure it will just be a few months and then she can finally wear hair bows!! Lets keep our fingers crossed.

She absolutely adores her big brother and for the most parts wants to be everywhere and doing everything he is. She is actually quite the trouble maker getting Luke to do things he knows he shouldn't

Mostly she is a sweet little girl who just walks around the house singing and shakin' her booty. Have a little girl is so much different than a boy, I am definately greatful for her sweet disposition and her calming nature.

Luke gets Easter

So Luke finally gets Easter. He really enjoyed waking and finding eggs filled with chocolate all over the place. So much so that instead off collecting all the eggs in his basket and then eating them later, he decided to go from egg to egg eating the chocolate right then, we finally had to just collect the eggs for him and put them away so he wouln't make himself sick.

His favorite Easter toy was these little capsules that when put in water turned into dinosaurs he played with them forever and is still playing with them. It funny how they find the simplest things the most entertaining

Bella got her Easter treats in a doll cradle which she thinks is her new bed and keeps climbing in a breaking. Luckily its easily fixed

So All together we had a lovely Easter weekend. We went to James sister Heather's house friday night and went on a double date with her and her husband Curtis (John, James little brother came too). Then Saturday night we went up to my in-laws. We stayed the night up there and spent Easter with them. The kids really enjoyed seeing there G-parents and we enjoyed playing in there large beautiful yard and just spending time together as a family.

Back to the Grind

I started school again! At Mountainland Applied Technology Center (they have a Cosmo course)I was going to wait till we got a little more settled but things kind of just fell into place and I started Thursday. I am not looking forward to the long hours away from my family but I am really excited about this new school mostly because it seems to be filled with really nice people and the program is way more extensive than my previous school LFBC (also known as hair school Army camp). Anyways if anyone wants to be a hair model let me know, I am going to need a few.

Sibling Love

Luke is such a little lover boy always wanting to snuggle and get "huggies" here is some evidence of him showing love to his little sister.

The kids being super cute together in this video




This is why it is so great having two kids so close in age!

Obsessed Much

Luke with his new bed
Luke reading to Bella on his new bed

Luke's new obsession is with trains he. When we were moving I sold a lot of his toys a promised him when we got to our new home I would buy him more. So the out come is train, trains and more trains all over our house. I finally glued all the track to his table so that way he would stop asking me to constantly fix them. As annoying as they are the trains have been the best toy investment made thus far he spends hours each day playing with them.

Congrats Syed's

One of my closest girlfriends Tracie had her baby! I am so excited for them and there is not much I can do about it two states away except blog

So CONGRATS Syed Family

We know you are going to love having a little girl and Samson is going to be an awesome big brother. XOXO

My other BLOG (and random pics of Bella)

There is not really much cuter than a little girl in a tutu. Here are some random pics of my most recent creations.




So I finally figured out how to put google checkout on my other blog. Check it out and tell your friends Babadooboutique.blogspot.com

I will be updating it more often now that I have more free time.

Getting Adjusted

Sorry no new pics but just wanted to give an update that we are getting adjusted to Utah. It really hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, thanks to all the wonderful friends and family we have out here.

James likes his new job a lot and seems to be very satisfied to finally be full filling his role as a man.

Our marathon training has been put on hold due to weather and a cold, so we decided to run the UVU marathon in June instead of the SLC marathon at the end of April. Hair school for me is on hold until I we get settled somewhere more permanent

The kids are just as adorable and sweet as every Luke is obsessed with trains, cheatos and fruit snacks and Bella is a little flirt making friends everywhere we go, unfortunately she looks like we beat her because she is constantly hitting her head on stuff.

I have to say Utah has its perks. There are so many things to do with the kids it's been fun exploring our new city. It almost makes up for the horrible weather.

We Moved!

Our Last Meal in Ca at Maggiano's in Costa Mesa on our way out of town

So were moved! Were in Utah, and James sister Sonya was nice enough to let us move in with her. James got a job out here, so we will be here for 6 - 18 months while he trains to be a SAP consultant then we are going to move again to a undecided location. Anyways its been a whirl wind and I think its just starting to sink that we won't be going to the beach anytime soon. As far as Utah goes the weather sucks (especially running in it) but its nice to be near family.

The kids are doing great, they FINALLY have a bedroom (previously sleeping in the laundry room and bathroom) and Luke loves playing in the snow. I asked him if he wanted to go back to his beach house or stay here at the new snow house and he adamantly answer "stay at new home with the snow".

We will post pictures when we get a chance right now we are busily unpacking and adjusting to all the changes.

Thanks everyone for all you love, help and support

Star Spotting

So last Friday we went down to the beach and we totally saw the guy from Prison Break, it was the actor that plays Lincoln Burrows which we thought was pretty cool cause we used to really like that show, then on Monday I went down with Luke and there he was again, just hanging out by himself, gettin a tan.

Anyways

You have to love San Clemente this time of year! It has been so beautiful the past couple days. When we were out at the tide pools we saw star fish, crabs, and an octopus. The kids love seeing the sea creatures and playing in the warm water of the tide pools.

This is the pic of the octopus, its all curled up on the bottom center of the rock

Daddys girl

One little P.S. this is a pic of Luke playing his new favorite game. Its funny how you think of fun things to do with your kids then wished you had never mentioned the word horsey ride :)

Adventures of the Job Search

Since James internship ended at the end of December James has hit the job search road hard again. Its actually been a lot of fun because usually he has an interview or appointment it some where far away and the kids and I tag a long so we can do something fun while were out.

We hit up the Spectrum about a week ago and the kids loved it especially Luke. He road on the deer (also known as Bambi) on the carousel and I thought I was going to need pliers to pry him off it.

On another note, Isn't it funny how the more time you spend with people the more you start to look like them.

Prayers

So I had one of those experiences tonight where you are in shock and awe of your child. We were just laying Luke down to bed when James and I relized that we forgot prayers so James asked Luke if he would like to say it, his response was "Oh yes!". So we bowed our heads and I began to whisper in Lukes ear when he goes "shh I praying" a couple seconds went by and I started to whisper in his ear again and he shushed me again. So James and I just stood there and just waited. After a few more seconds sweet little Luke gave a full prayer all by himself. He said thank you for all his friends, toys stories, naps, milk, mommy, and daddy. It was actually quite a long prayer, I was very impressed and deeply touched that at such a young age the influence of the gospel is already taking place. I am so proud of that little boy and am glad that he has so many things to be thankful for.

Squeaky Shoes

Hey guys I decided to start selling these bad boys. They are so cute, Luke and Bella both freaked out, Bella almost walked into the because she was so excited about the noise her shoe were making

I am offering any pair for $10 (plus shipping) to close friends and family so just let me know if you want me to hook you up. All the different sizes and variety that I have are listed on my other blog @ BabadooBoutique.blogspot.com

Boys and Girls Squeaky Shoes. Kids love these cute shoes that squeak with each step your child takes (squeakers can be removed and put back in at your discretion). These shoes also help parents keep track of their adventurous toddlers. I have a variety of sizes available that will fit 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and sz 9 Please visit my site at BabadooBoutique.blogspot.com or you can come just come and check out my inventory. My phone # is 949-973-7374 or email me at SaraBethMortensen@gmail.com

Here is a video of Bella walking in her shoes. She just started walking a few weeks ago so she is still wobbly but she loved getting around in these shoes.

Here are just a few of the styles I have available: