she's crafty...

I had big plans for today, but we stayed home all day being crafty instead. Mel and I saw a cute way to organize hair bows, but we had a crafty itch and decided to scratch and save some cash. We sewed three ribbons around a metal ring, which served as the hanger, and then hot glued the flower and jewel on. I was happy that they turned out way cuter than the ones at the store selling for $36.
So, I guess I am a little selfish for telling my mom and sisters what I was giving them for their birthdays and telling them they had to help me make them. Oh well. They love me and their travel pillow and blankets anyways.


Two years ago I made Eden a nap mat cover with matching pillow and blanket. When she was done with preschool, I took it over and it has traveled with me ever since. My mom and sisters have been asking me to make them one, so I finally got around to it with their help! We cut and pinned and spent the rest of the evening covered in silk and fuzz. Inhaled fuzz and all, you are more than worth it! Happy early/late birthdays!

I had a photo shoot tonight with an adorable 2 year old girl named Andie. I had a hard time getting her to smile because she was busy checking everything out, but I got some really sweet pictures. When she put on the heels she said, "I happy now!" Girls will be girls!

Speaking of two year olds, apparently while I was gone I missed a minor home surgery. Landon stuck a button waaaay up his nose. Everyone kept telling him to quit picking his nose until he told them about the button going up there. It took a little pair of tweezers, Uncle Jeff’s steady hand and a cooperative toddler, but the stars aligned and the button came out. Moral of the story: Do not sniff buttons.

just call me Annie (as in Oakley)

Today was $2 Tuesday for all of the venues at Thanksgiving Point, so we loaded all the kids and gear in and caravanned there. As we exited the freeway I couldn’t figure out why there were so many more cars than normal on the frontage road, and then I saw them: lines. Lines of cars, lines of people, lines of animals, lines of strollers, lines wrapped around every building…lines everywhere! I can just imagine what Damian would have been saying as we crawled through the parking lot trying to get the heck out of there. Unbelievable! The things people do for a couple of bucks. You couldn’t have paid me to fight those crowds!

So, what do you do with two car loads of kids clamoring to escape? You call movie theatres, local aquariums, and Chuck E. Cheese to see if they are also experiencing ridiculous amounts of patronage. Then what do you do when they tell you they are? You drive .2 miles to Cabela’s! Yes Cabela’s the sporting goods outdoor store. There you can see dead animals and live fish for free without the lines! Brilliant!


The kids bought it and we spent a couple of hours wandering the exhibits and aisles of camouflage. They were as happy as clams and I had my game face on as my dad challenged me at the shooting range. We each had 20 shots. When the targets were hit they would change color and then trigger some kind of movement. Whoever thought of the skunk actually spraying when hit was pretty clever. I do have to give my dad credit for finishing mere seconds before me with a perfect score, but I was so proud when my last shot activated the target…20/20 baby! Just call me Annie!

Dumpster Dive

Eden and her cousins, Ashlyn and Paige, took a sewing class at JoAnn’s. They had so much fun learning something new. They each picked out their fabric and in the end came home with cute tote bags. Their teacher said they all did a great job but they had the most fun digging through the trash. On her dumpster dive, Eden came up with a bracelet made out of foam beads and a bouquet of greenery she plans to use at her wedding. That will save us a pretty penny in 15 years or so!

news flash:

After I finally got up the nerve to try to turn on all my camera equipment, I was thoroughly relieved to find that it works!

Unfortunately, our video camera is toast and hand foot and mouth disease has spread to Eden and Landon. Since Wednesday we have gone through two boxes of popsicles and a bottle and a half of Motrin. Three kids with 103 fevers is not fun.

Beijing 2008

I love the Olympics! During the finale of Beijing’s opening ceremony tonight while the torch bearer ran flew with the final torch, one of the commentators said, “The opening ceremony trophy needs to be retired right here.” I have to agree…seriously! I mean the bird nest itself was phenomenal, the detail that went into the ceremony was mind-boggling, and the precision of the participants...it was like scary weird precise. I wonder how many rehearsal hours they logged. What a show!

Check out these awesome photos captured during the ceremony:

Opening Ceremony photos

My favorite part was at the end when the cute 7 year old boy led China’s athletes out with their flag bearer,Yao Ming. He was one of the 10 survivors out of his class of 30 during an earthquake a few months ago. He freed himself from the rubble and went back in to free two more of his classmates. What a little hero.

The events I am most excited about are watching Michael Phleps covered in gold, diving, gymnastics, cheering on Dara Torres, and women’s beach volleyball. Although that one is not so good for my self esteem…bring it on!

I was lucky enough to go to several Olympic events in Atlanta 1996, and watching the summer games always brings back lots of those memories. I had never been to anything like the Olympic games. There were so many cultures represented in the crowd. People dressed differently, spoke different languages, but it seemed like everyone was happy and equally thrilled to be there. Instead of being just a faces in the crowd, people were amazingly determined to meet strangers and trade pins. It was one of the neatest experiences…until the bomb went off. I was right there for that part too, but that is a whole different story.

Anyways, let the games begin! Go team USA!

Good News or Bad News?

You know it is bad when the pediatrician says, “Oh dear, this breaks my heart. Here I need to draw you a picture,” and then proceeds to say words like ‘disease’ that you are not getting good news.

So, the bad news is that Carter has ‘Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.’ It is a virus that he picked up somewhere in the last week that has caused him to have a 103.5 fever and ulcers in his throat and down his esophagus. Poor kid. He is absolutely miserable and supposedly will be for the next week or so. Yuck. The bad part is that we have the hand and feet ulcers to look forward to, as well as the sharing of his disease for the last week that we are in Utah. Why do we always get sick when we travel?

Are you ready for some more bad news? Did you notice this wordy post has no pictures? Yesterday we were out boating on Utah Lake with the whole Dudley side of the family (minus my studly husband). Lindsey’s hubby, Jeff, is an amazing wake boarder and wake surfer so I thought I would take a little bit of video to show Damian. I pulled our video camera out of my camera bag, leaving about $2500 of camera equipment safely inside. I captured some awesome footage that unfortunately will never be seen due to a huge wave crashing over the front of the boat and into afore mentioned camera bag.

My cousin, who was driving the boat, was laughing hysterically at how soaked Kaylee and I were until I sprang up dispensing the contents of my bag to everyone who was warm and dry. I haven’t had the nerve to try to turn anything on yet. I wanted to give everything ample time to thoroughly dry. I am hoping my camera will survive, but I think the video camera is a victim of the tsunami since it still has condensation on the inside of the lens.

My good news might not give you a warm fuzzy like it gives me, but Damian got his ticket to fly out and help me drive home! 8 days and counting…I miss my husband!

My Big Bro

Since Todd, Kim and the girls drove in from Sacramento, we have packed so much in! We had a Hanna Montana birthday party for the girls (check out my cute invitation- yes, I am full of myself), Macy’s baby blessing, her luncheon, a trip down to BYU complete with bowling, a Rice family cookout, the kids and I visited with Grandma Hunt, all the kids had a blast at the Barn (one of those places with inflatables), we kept the dressing rooms hopping at Nordstrom Rack, and had sleepovers. I am tired already and tomorrow we have boating and an adults dinner on the agenda!

It has been so much fun to be together though. I don’t get to see my brother’s family nearly as often as I would like. It is hard for me to think of their older girls as teenagers, but they are, and amazing ones at that. All their girls are so sweet, but they are smart and talented as all get out- way more smarterer than me, and you should hear their list of accomplishments. Pretty impressive!
There is something about being with my brother that just makes me happy. I have pretty much worshipped him since I can remember. When I was little, I was convinced he could walk on water. Even though I know now that he isn’t perfect I still hold him up on a pedestal because I am so proud of him, all that he has done and continues to do.



He has the best relationship with all of his 5 girls. If you spent any time with them it would be obvious that they are his pride and joy, and he absolutely adores his wife. They make each other laugh constantly, but they also have PDA like newlyweds! Maybe it has just been too long since I have been with Damian, but I admit I am a little jealous!

I admire my big bro so much that when he dishes out a compliment it really affects me. Just like I would never want to let my dad down, I feel the same way about my brother. He makes me smile, he makes me laugh, and he lets me know that I am doing a good job just living life. Thanks Todd, your words bring me encouragement and your hugs reassure me of your support. I am so grateful for my big brother. I love and admire you and your adorable family so much!

Family Reunions

This evening we got to visit with Damian’s Grandma in Bountiful. My kids call her Grandma Great and even though we don’t get to see her as often as we would like, my kids were excited to see her! She spoiled Eden and me by sharing some of her beautiful quilts with us. She is a very gifted quilter, but she would never admit to it! The kids were thrilled when she showed them some of her treasures and let them take home two bags full of blocks. It was great to be able to spend a little bit of time with her. We’ve been blessed with such an amazing family!

Then we headed to the Rice family gathering at Aunt Jan’s. I loved seeing everyone together and listening to Kim wipe the floor with 5 guys acting like the University of Utah was paradise. Go Kim! The kids had a ball jumping, splashing and meeting cousins they didn’t know they had.

It was just awesome to have everyone together. My adorable Rice grandparents were the hit of the party and we all wanted recent pictures with them, so we took turns holding their chairs up so they wouldn’t tip backwards down the mountain.

You can tell from the pictures that some of us were more valiant than others. I am sure that has nothing to do with the amount of love we have for you, Grandma and Grandpa! Check out that group, and I think we are missing 18!

Macy's Blessing

I was so happy to be able to be here for my adorable neice’s baby blessing. My mom made Macy’s blessing dress using some lace from Lindsey’s wedding dress. It turned out absolutely gorgeous! Too sweet!
Jeff blessed her at church and officially gave her the name of Macy Jean Erkelens. I couldn’t believe how many friends and family were in attendance, but the neatest part was that Macy had three of her great grandfather’s standing in the circle as she was blessed. Such a miracle!

After the blessing, Lindsey and Jeff hosted a luncheon at their clubhouse. Everything was classy and really yummy. The colors were pink lime green and brown. Linds is so creative! She had coordinating touches everywhere. I made some sugar cookies that hopefully were classy enough for the atmosphere!

I have to fight with all the girls to hold Macy, but I usually win. She smells so good and is so sweet that when I hold her I just want to eat her. Ok, weird. I guess my love of food rivals my love of babies, but that is always what I think about as I am getting my baby fix. I love that little (chocolate covered?) peanut! See, food again.

For her blessing I made her a bracelet out of the beads that came off of a purse that was made to go with Lindsey’s wedding dress. I strung the beads in one long strand so that it would fit around her wrist three times for her blessing, and then she could wear it as a necklace at her baptism. It turned out really sweet. If you want to see more pictures of my beautiful niece, check out her Smugmug gallery:

http://jamilynphotography.smugmug.com/share/RWpwcaXHW2Jws

We're All in this Together!

Girls night out usually refers to a night of ‘I have got to put on unmommy clothes, get the heck out of the house, devour some form of chocolate, laugh and sometimes cry with my girls until the wee hours of the night or I am going to go absolutely crazy.’

We had girls night tonight, but it wasn’t the usual! Melanie and I decided to plan an afternoon of activities to lead up to the surprise of the High School Musical tickets my parents got our girls. We had so much fun (we even took a turn walking the catwalk despite the strange looks from the other adults in the store), and I am pretty sure the girls liked it too!


I made an invitation to give the girls a heads up on the evening’s agenda and then found matching HSM t-shirts at K-Mart. They were so excited when they opened them. The invitation read:

Get ready to be:
Glamorized at Sweet n’ Sassy
Hair, makeup and nails @3:45 pm

Photographed by the infamous
jamilyn photography
Prepare to work it girl!

Entertained by Broadway’s High School Musical
Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City @8:00 pm

They were all so surprised and excited! It was really cute to see how into being made up the girls got. You could tell they were surprised and that they were in heaven during their glamour session. They just ate up all the attention we could muster to give them, and Eden worked the catwalk!



High school musical was a great production! There was only one super cheesy part that I could have lived without, but I really enjoyed the play and the music. My favorite part was that the t-shirts the girls were wearing had a pocket on the bottom that when pushed would jam, “We’re all in this together.” My sisters and I had a blast embarrassing the girls by making their shirts sing whenever we could.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the tickets! I think we might have a new yearly girls outing tradition on our calendars because we had so much fun. Next time though I am getting my toes done too.
Go Wildcats!

piCTuRe PeRfeCT

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from a photo shoot with my Uncle’s family tonight. They have such a beautiful family that I love, and they are lots of fun too! Barbie & Ken even stopped by. Check out their incredible yard!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I feel so lucky to have been able to be with both my parents on their birthdays this year so that I could spoil them a little bit!! The kids woke up early this morning to make my mom birthday cards. They were so excited to give them to her that I had to hold them back from waking her up. While we let her sleep in, we made her Hootenanies and a smoothie for breakfast.

Hootenanies (aka German Pancakes)

This is one of our family’s favorite breakfasts! We have it at least once a week!

6-8 eggs

1 C flour

1 C milk

¼ C sugar

¼ tsp salt

While blending ingredients in the blender, melt 3 T butter in a preheating oven.

Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

Mom, I don’t know how I got so lucky to have you for a mom, but I don’t know what I would do without you! I have been thinking about some of the reasons why I love you and this is the tip of the iceberg…

MY MaMa:

- she taught me to love chocolate

- she knows how to smooth anything over

- she is a creative genius

- she truly considers her possessions just ‘stuff’

- she has an uncanny ability to tune out fussy kids (and grandkids ;))

- she has mastered the art of turning conversations

- she will drive a mile out of her way to turn at a light

- she never complains

- my friends growing up called her little mama

- she is one of my best friends

- she makes everyone in her presence at ease

- she always puts things into perspective

- she has an obsession with purses

- she doesn’t do things half way

- she can’t remember her kids names

- she uses knives to get things she can’t reach

- she always leaves things better than she found them

- she and her sister struggle to hear and talk but they understand each other perfectly

- sometimes I still cry for her

- she is more hip and up on pop culture than I am

- she isn’t ashamed to cry when she feels the spirit

- she tried really hard to teach me how to cook and sew before I left the house

- she is beautiful

- I have never heard her yell

- she is tough as nails

- she’s quirky too (eating m&m’s in bread)

- she has no idea how talented she is

- she owns 101 pair of glasses and still can’t find any

- she loves her husband and family more than anything

- she is MY mom and some days all I want is to be with her!

my favorite day of the week...

Sunday is my favorite day of the week! Every Sunday we wake up early, (correction: Damian wakes up early and I sleep in until the last possible minute that I think we might be able to get everyone fed, dressed and to church on time) and get to go to church. There are so many reasons I love Sundays at church: seeing our friends, the common values we share, the principles taught, my kids getting two hours of gospel-centered instruction by someone other than me, but mostly because of the feelings I feel there. Those feelings of peace, comfort and truth usually catch me off guard, but they are a tangible reminder of why I choose to live my life the way I do despite feeling overwhelmed and crazy at times. Okay, most of the time.

Today we went to my sister’s church in Draper at 9 am. We felt at home as we snuck into one of the rows in the back right after the meeting had started. I know, shocker. I was late. I was kicking myself for getting up and making smoothies for breakfast when Landon poured his all over his fresh out of the shower body and nice church clothes. Good tardy excuse, right? I was completely frazzled trying to keep 3 kids happy and reverent as we sat there. It was one of those Sundays when I wonder why I even attempted to go to church because I couldn’t listen and I was struggling to keep my good mommy face on. But like clockwork, those feelings came and I knew that I was right where I was supposed to be. Knowing I made the choice to be there despite the chaos made me proud. I love Sundays!

Another reason I love Sundays is because it is the one day of the week that I know we’ve been commanded to keep holy. Besides going to church, I cherish the family time without distractions of errands and keeping up with the pace of the world. When I can steal a Sunday nap like today, it is a guilt-free pleasure!

Surf's up!

As soon as we got in town I had a run in with my typical traveling to Utah illness. Like clockwork it happens every summer. I guess I stress myself out too much preparing to leave or something, but I was so bummed because it was the last couple of days I would get to see Damian and I had to miss out on a day of boating with my family.

The boys are going through some kind of weird fascination with their boy parts and anything that has to do with bodily functions. I know, it sounds like just a boy thing, but Carter and Landon have issues. They find potty talk of any kind absolutely hilarious. Today on the way to the lake, Damian was rockin’ out to some song on the radio, which apparently rocked Landon’s body. Landon said, “Dad, my johnson is dancing in my diaper!”

When they got to the lake, Carter was eager to jump in and surf with Damian. Damian bribed Landon with a pack of Skittles to get him to surf with him, but try as he might Eden wouldn’t cave. Eden came home mad because her brothers were making fun of her that they got to pick a treat out at the gas station and she didn’t. I don’t know how daddy’s little girl could let her daddy get away with that one. Deal or no deal, daddy that was naughty!