Yeah, It's Been a While

Hey, remember how I have a blog? Remember how I used to update it fairly regularly? Yeah, me too. So I'm back, but I'm not going to promise the [blogging] world. Things are busy and facebook tends to be fast, but kind of more a time suck when you add it all together. I don't know, I'm torn and apparently in a stream of consciousnesses kind of mood....moving on.

Thought you all might enjoy an update of what's been going on. One child is off to school and the other three are still asleep, so I'm going to listen to vicious wind outside and ruminate and reminisce.

So we've been up to a lot of things. I'll start in December...

Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis....We had so much fun at this event! I am continually impressed with all the wonderful work that the Arthritis Foundation does in this community and the events that they put on are amazing! Siobhan was the youth honoree for the event and she did a great job! She gave a speech that was very articulate and moving. Video will come soon-it's on Carson's phone. We had a misshap of illness though. Right after the kid's run, she had a spell of violent throwing up! So sad on her special day! But she was a trooper. We had a great time that day-vomiting aside!

Festival of Trees....Audrey and I both performed in the Festival of Trees with our Irish Dance school. We had a blast! As a result of her adorable performance, Audrey was even picked to dance on a kid's DVD which should be out in the next few months.

Christmas happened and so did my birthday-the Christmas post at least will be at another time when I can post all the pics and videos. Christmas really should be it's own post anyway, not thrown into the mix of a run of the mill update post, don't you think?

Jr. Jazz....Siobhan played basketball this winter. She had a great time and no problems with the JIA! She was the only girl on her team, but totally held her own! She was also the tallest. Favorite memory of the season, after a girl on the other team stole the ball from her, she came over to me on the verge of tears because someone 'just took the ball' away. I told her to steal it right back. She did!

Preschool for Mr. Will....Mr. Will started speech therapy back in November. He has been very delayed in the his speech and vocabulary and after a lot of testing we found out that he has concentration/attention issues and memory problems as well. So we started having a speech therapist come into our house twice a month to work with him. Now that he's three, he ages into the school districts preschool program. He goes to a 'special needs' preschool two mornings a week and he loves it! He gets to ride the bus which is the high light of his day! Oh, and he's improving so much with his speech! It seems like everyday he has new words that he can say. We are so happy! I plan another post about this very soon!

Standing Man...So Ethan can stand against anything and it's so cute! He's starting to cruise too which is so fun to watch! He still won't crawl on his knees though. The other day I put him down on the floor of the living room to play and went into the kitchen. About two minutes later, i couldn't hear him. Yeah, he was upstairs. So I put him back in the living room with more toys and turned my back. Two minutes later, he was upstairs again! Fast little guy!

Carson's Amazing!....Carson has been working out a lot over the last year and has lost 40 pounds! His BMI is down to 16.9!!!! I'm so proud of him! He's been working hard! He's also kept busy with his responsibilities in the Elder's Quorum presidency.

Vegas...We took a short trip to Las Vegas on New Years Day and stayed overnight at the Excalibur. The girls loved being able to stay in the Castle! It was nice to get away and do something fun as a family! Carson's mom met us there and stayed with the kids so we could go out. It was a very quick trip but lots of fun!!!

I'm doing some fun work with the Arthritis Foundation which is keeping me busy. I'm helping to organize the upcoming walk in May and Siobhan is helping also. We are planning on attending the Foundation's gala in a few weeks where Siobhan will present an honoree with the platter that she made. We're super excited for that! Siobhan and I were also chosen to attend to Arthritis Foundation's Advocacy Summit in Washington DC in mid April and we are really looking forward to that! Well, I'm looking forward to that, Siobhan doesn't know. We're surprising her at school on Weds at their weekly assembly!

Soccer....Siobhan just had her first soccer game on Saturday and scored 2 goals! But then she got wicked hurt and couldn't play the rest of the game. It's all good though. She's excited to keep playing!

St. Patrick's Day....Me and Audrey both marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade down town and performed in the Siamsa. It was so fun! We also had a super fun party the night before with all the kids friends! It was so much fun!!!

So there you have it, a comprehensive update of what's going on in our family. I hope you enjoyed the read and lack of pictures. I have a reason for that. I got a new phone for my birthday and the camera on my phone is better than our digital camera so I use the phone for all of my picture taking needs. I just don't know how to get them from the phone to the computer. I know there are ways like emailing them to myself and then copying and pasting them into my picture library. But that's a lot of steps and I'm kind of lazy. I need to find an easier way. Love ya'll!

Monkeys and Elephants and Dinosaurs, Oh My!

A few weeks back (well, like a month ago) we went to the zoo! We don't venture out for things like that very often because Carson and I are seriously out numbered by the amount of kids we have. But we went with Grandma and Grandpa so that helped a lot-a few extra hands.

We've been looking forward to going to the zoo for a long time because Carson's company installed a bunch of air compressors for a dinosaur exhibit. The air compressors made the dinos move and some of them even sprayed water. Since we have a little boy in our family who adores anything of the dinosaur persuasion, it was bound to be a big hit!






We also saw elephants, and I didn't know this, which are apparently Audrey's favorite animal. We spent a lot of time there listening to the one of the zoo people (docent?) talk all about the elephants they had there which were a grandma, a mommy and a baby girl. So fun!

This is a big elephant outside the habitat. It does a little bit of moving and water spraying which Carson's company also did.

We also saw the monkeys which is always fun! There was this one baby monkey (I can't remember what kind-black with big, white, long tails-sort of look like a skunk) who kept bouncing all around the habitat and he had fun jumping up to the window and making faces at the girls. So cute!!!

We had a great time at the zoo!

Iamges From The Fourth

Mr. Will, Kate, Audrey, Siobhan, Caroline, and Lindsay...all the cousins (who were present) waiting for the parade in Grandma's neighborhood.

Carson and Mr. Will

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge? Nope, just William and Kate

Audrey loved the parade! She and Siobhan received lots of compliments on their dresses from the parade participants.

Easter Sunday

Forgive me for not writing much more than captions. But I know most of you show up for pictures anyway. Easter was fun, pretty standard. I made the girl's Easter dresses (out of vintage curtains and material from the thrift store) and boy's bowties. Everyone got fun Easter baskets filled with goodies. The girls each got some pants, Mr. Will got a toy from Dinosaur Train, Ethan got Cars, I got the book To The Rescue and Carson got a new belt. It was a fun day as always!

Carson and Ethan. Ethan didn't get a bowtie fore a few reasons. 1. I didn't have time. 2. He doesn't have a white button up shirt. 3. I figured a bowtie would bug a little guy that small. But he really doesn't need it. He could be a wearing a paper sack and still look adorable!

My initial instinct was to make my own patterns for the dresses. But instead I went with an online tutorial for Audrey's dress and a vintage pattern for Siobhan's. Yeah, that didn't work too well cause everything that I cut out was WAY too big. So I ended up having to make up my own patterns anyway. But I'm so pleased with how the turned out! Nobody had anything even remotely similar at church! I had a to do a lot of new techniques that I've never done before so it was a good learning experience!

It doesn't get any better than that does it?

Sometimes they really do love each other! (They've been fighting a lot lately!)

The boys! Aren't they so handsome! And yes, I did convince Carson to wear the bowtie willingly!

We can never get a good family picture and forget about me ever getting in one. We need to learn how to use the timer on the camera.

The girls...I got my skirt at DI! I love thrift stores!

Mr. Will...he's always got to be doing something!

First Meeting

Here's some fun pictures of Siobhan, Audrey and Mr. Will meeting Ethan for the first time at the hospital. Siobhan and Audrey were immediately taken with the handsome little guy and Mr. Will was just excited to have all the Oreos and Sprite that a little guy could want from the snack area. So all in all, it was a pretty great experience for all involved! Now, enjoy looking at how cute my family is....especially the kids!

Siobhan loves being the biggest sister. She's even changed Ethan's diaper...one time by herself without telling me. She actually did a great job, but was instructed that from now on, she can only do it with Mommy or Daddy's permission and while we're there with her. She loves him so much!

Love this picture!!!! So sweet!

Audrey is, as always, her sweet loving self with him! Every time he cries, she says, 'Mommy, I think he wants more boo boos milk!' She enjoys babysitting him while he's in his bouncy seat.

While at the hospital, Mr. Will just pretty much ran around and was very cute yet very indifferent to Ethan. However, things have changed a lot in the last six weeks. He loves to give Ethan hugs and kisses and is always concerned when he cries. Even though I caught him dragging Ethan across the floor one evening, he just wants so badly to play with his little bro!

Best picture we could get of all four.


Wow, this family is getting big!

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BTW, the stuff on Siobhan and Audrey's faces are Utah Jazz tattoos.

We May Not Be Important, But We Felt Like It

Well it's no secret that we love The Jazz! It all started with Carson being a super fan and I only said I was a fan by marriage. Then the kids got all excited....people started getting jerseys....season tickets became involved, and then there was nothing I could do. I, yes me, learned not only the starting line-up (which has changed drastically-you suck D Will) but also the entire team. We watch games as a family and 'Santa' brought us all Jazz PJ pants and Ethan may or may not have come home from the hospital in a jazz onesie with a jazz blanket wrapped around him.

I tell that story so you will know why this is awesome! The Jazz do fun things for those who hold season tickets. While we don't actually own the tickets (the company Carson works for does) we do still have the opportunity to take part in the perks-mainly because we're the ones who really appreciate it. So the day before I went into labor we got to go to Energy Solutions Arena for a tour and to have our picture taken at center court with the Jazz logo. We were even able to go into their locker room (it's surprisingly small). We got to sit in the players seats and the girls had fun deciding which chair was D-Will's. It was super fun if you're into that sort of thing. We haven't gotten the picture yet that they took of us (they had a professional photographer) but we got a bunch of our own pictures to document our adventure.

The girls thought this whole thing was pretty cool. Not sure where Siobhan learned to do the bunny ears, but it's pretty funny!

I guess Mr. Will enjoyed himself....its hard to tell with him sometimes.

How many kids can say they slam dunked at Energy solutions? Well two out of three isn't bad. Audrey's scared of heights apparently.

We never could decide which chair was D-Wills, so we just told the girls they each sat in it.

Everyone in front of D-Will's locker room stall.

Me and the girls in the press conference area.

Edit....Note that we are all (aside from Mr. Will) wearing number 8 for D-Will (he still sucks by the way!) aside from Mr. Will who is wearing number 26 for Kyle Korver. Korver doesn't play for the Jazz anymore as he left right along with Boozer to go play for the Bulls after last season (they suck too). Mr. Will has a Williams jersey but it's too small.

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This is a picture from when I used my pregnancy to get D-Will's autograph.....another story for another time.

Surprise!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but that has more to do with the fact that I'm trying to limit my computer time (some days more successfully than others) than anything else.

But I did want to post about our week last week. On Sunday (the day after Christmas) we got a doorbell ring at a random time in the afternoon. Nobody ever comes over and they never ring the doorbell. Well, I never expected that my Dad and Debbie were about to walk through the door! They drove all the way up from Arizona to surprise us! It was so fun to see them. We got to do Christmas all over again and the girls had a great time re-acquainting themselves with them. It's been a while since the girls have seen either one of them so it was way fun!

While they were here, we got to do some really fun things! Avo Mike (that's grandpa in Portuguese) spent Monday afternoon and night here while Debbie went to visit some friends in Clearfield. He was so great to watch movies with the kids while I finished some projects and then stayed with them during quiet time so I could go do some Christmas returns/exchanges.

On Tuesday, he took Siobhan to do some birthday shopping while I ran some errands with Will and Audrey then lunch at Panda Express (which Audrey affectionately refers to as 'Polar Express'). Later that evening, after we reconnected with Debbie, they took our family to Tucanos (a Brazilian steak house) which is always a treat. Siobhan ate 20 chicken hearts. No, you read that correctly, 20 chicken hearts along with all the other meat they brought around. While she ate the other stuff, she just kept asking them to bring her more chicken hearts. We were going to go see the lights at temple square, but Mr. Will had had it by then, so we headed home to put the kids to bed.

I felt bad that on Weds. a big snowstorm hit! Like a huge storm! So we weren't able to spend as much time together as Dad and Debbie needed to head back down to Provo before it all made the roads bad.

On Thursday, I had a doctor appointment and they were gracious enough to come up in the morning to stay with the kids. And since my car hadn't been dug out of the snow, Dad took me to the appointment which was awesome! I hate shoveling and cleaning off my car especially when there's like a foot of snow and it's freezing with more snow falling. It definitely made my life easier. They also made us dinner that night which was a big treat not only because the food was great, but also because I didn't have to make it! Score! The kids ate it and everything so it must have been awesome!

On Friday, Carson took the day off of work so we got some projects done then Dad and Debbie came up in the late afternoon. We were invited to small party with all of Carson's old roommates so We went down to Alpine, while Debbie and Dad went to dinner and to see the temple lights. Then we got home, put the kids down, and they stayed to sit with the kids while we went and celebrated New Years. It was such a treat because Carson and I have never spent New Years Eve out anywhere and we rarely make it to midnight as it is! It was so great of Dad and Debbie to giv eup their New Years Eve so we could go enjoy ours!

On Saturday night we were finally able to make it to the temple all together to see the lights! They were beautiful as always, but it was *really* cold! We spent about 45 minutes looking around before the kids had had it. I wish we could have stayed there longer, but it was fun see what we were able and a great way to wrap up the holiday season. Also a great way to spend our last night with D&D!

The time of their visit was a great! I've had a lot of people in the ward taking the kids a few days a week to relieve my stress a little bit, but of course I didn't want to inconvenience people during the holidays. What a blessing in disguise to have Dad and Debbie come when they did and they were so great to spend so much time with the kids so that I could get stuff done or even just take a nap. Such a huge help! And going through all the days that we spent together makes it seem like the week went by so fast (which it did). But we had so much fun and the kids had a great time! Every morning when they woke up, the first thing out of their mouths was, 'When are Avo Mike and Debbie coming over?'

I so much appreciate that they were willing to drive all the way up here especially on Christmas day and the day after to come and help us out! Hopefully, we'll get to see them again sooner rather than later!The kids with Avo Mike and Debbie on their last night in town. for some reason, I didn't take any pictures while they were here (I'm so mad at myself!) but I did this cute one with all the kids.

Thanks again Dad and Debbie!

The Merriest of Yuletides!*

*Or, a photo essay of the Mitchell Family Christmas, 2010. Some of my favorite moments!


Everybody Matching in their Christmas Outfits!
*I made the girls their skirts this year. I was very happy to get to Sunday morning the Sunday before Christmas and to actually have something beautiful for the girls to wear. It didn't happen last year. I used a thrift store skirt that I got for $7, this tutorial for Audrey's skirt and made up the pattern for Siobhan's (it still needs some tweaking).Mr. Will got a new gray sweater and Carson wore something to great to match as well. I wore a gray skirt with a little shimmer and a black shirt. It was fun to all match! Yeah, I'm bragging a little, but I was so proud!


Visiting Santa to Put in Last Minute Orders!

*We had a great time visiting Santa at the mall and we didn't even have to wait that long!

Taking Treats to the Fire Fighters on Christmas Eve!

*We've been looking for an opportunity to give a little bit of service that would fit into our budget. On Wednesday I found my inspiration. We decided to take treats to the firemen who are working on Christmas Eve. There were three of them there that night and they seemed to appreciate it! We took them Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. I used this recipe. They gave us a tour of the station and the kids had a great time! Definitely doing it again next year!

We All Got Matching Jammie Pants!

*Santa delivered matching jammie pants to all of us. We are becoming die hard Utah Jazz fans so it was only natural for us to get Jazz jammie pants. Mommy may or may not have made them all. Super fun!

A Subtle Introduction

*Mr. Will got Toy Story 3 underwear in his stocking. We haven't started to potty train yet, but more introducing him to the idea little by little. The girls keep calling the underwear panties which is really funny!

Finding the Pickle!

*We do a German tradition where you hide a pickle ornament on the tree and whoever finds it gets a special extra present. Audrey found it last year and she got a My Little Pony. It was Siobhan's turn to find the pickle (or at least we hoped she would) and she got some Tinker Bell toys. They looked for a long time and you can see in the picture how close she was!

Everybody Got New Bikes!

*Shhhh, don't tell Siobhan that we got here new two wheeler from DI for $5. They both both loved their new bikes but Audrey was getting a little frustrated with the peddling. Luckily, it was a rare NOT white Christmas in Utah so the girls got to take their bikes out for a spin.

*Mr. Will loves the bike he got from Carson's brother's family. He can't reach the peddles so he just walks it along. So cute! He's already mastered the 3 point turn!

It's a Pillow Pet!

*Pretty much all Audrey wanted was a dolphin Pillow Pet. For some reason, the Dolphin was a little allusive, but we, err, I mean Santa, found it. She's sleeping with it right now!

Sister Time!

*I love it when these two play together and I think it's so cute when they sneak off and find a secret corner to play with just each other. So cute!

So Much Tinker Bell!

*All Siobhan wanted was a Tinker Bell balloon (a toy that looks like her hot hair balloon in the second movie) unfortunately, it could not be found. We did get her some other things that she thought were just as good. She also got Tinker Bell toys and clothes from her grandma.

Other Memories With No Pics but Are Worth Mentioning!

*To start the Holiday season, my Father in Law took me to see the Radio City Rockette Christmas Spectacular. In a word, AMAZING!

*We ended up with 3 Christmas trees. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.

*Both girls asked for Jazz jerseys but they were pretty much all out. They both got gift cirts to receive the jerseys at a later time.

*Audrey got dance classes and Siobhan got gymnastics. They are both so excited!

*Carson got me some red Vans! Sooooo cute!

*I got a Carson a Utah Jazz garden gnome. So funny!

*Audrey got a black eye! :( She was trying to pull her stocking down and the heavy metal stocking hanger came down with it and hit her right in the eye. It was bleeding and super scary! I think that if it had hit her even a 1/2 a millimeter in any other direction, we would have been in the ER or calling those fire fighters. She's fine and her vision is just as good, but it was very sad and scary!

*Mommy also got a pair of nike running shoes from Carson's bro's family. They are awesome! Can't wait to break them in after I pop the kid out!

*My father in law got me a new end table and new lamps. I've never had either one of those before that wasn't found at a garage sale or a hand me down!

*I had the privilege of attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert featuring David Archuleta and Michael York with my bestie's family--they ended up with an extra ticket. It was amazing and that kid can sing!

*We were so blessed with so much abundance and a wonderfully loving family!


Merry Christmas Everyone!

Something Learned

This past weekend, our stake was lucky enough to have Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Jon M. Huntsman Sr. here for our stake conference-we were getting a new Stake Presidency (I linked these two articles because I thought they were very interesting). I went to the adult session on Saturday night which was amazing but was unable to go to the general session because Audrey and I both woke up feeling crumby. But Carson went with Siobhan and came home with some great insights. He shared the most profound and age appropriate ones with us for Family Home Evening. The one lesson that stuck out the most was when Elder Ballard talked about not raising our voices in the home. He spoke of this as pertaining to all ages in the home and all situations. He talked about parents not raising their voices to their kids, the children not raising their voices to their parents and even using a quiet voice to express excitement and joy. We all agreed in FHE that we would do our best to not raise our voices to one another and to try to use 'inside voices' as much as we can. Siobhan taught us how to grab our outside voices and throw them outside-like they do at school-so we made sure that we all sent our outside voices out the door.

Carson and I started this all yesterday and got the kids on board last night. So today was our first full day of all of us trying to keep our voices quiet and 'inside' appropriate. Let me just say, it was a amazing! The kids were so much more obedient and got along so much better! We all enjoyed our day so much and we didn't even do anything out of the ordinary. I'm not saying that I'm going to be perfect at this. Believe me, as hormonal and uncomfortable as I am, there is a great potential for slip up. But I've seen the blessings of it and I can say that for today, it worked! I will say this, I woke up needing to pray really hard for the patience and energy to be able to do interact with my kids this way. But it worked and I'm excited to try it tomorrow!!

And Now A Picture just Because It's Cute!

Siobhan took this picture of Mr. Will and I one morning after he woke up.

The Great Pumpkins!

The week of Halloween, we were going to carve our pumpkins for FHE. Well, that didn't go as planned due to the girls choosing to not clean the playroom. So we did it the next day. Siobhan got to go get a pumpkin with her preschool class and then we got a few more from Wal-Mart. (Siobhan was so proud of her cute little pumpkin!). So we had the girls design their pumpkins then Daddy and I went to work cleaning them out and carving them with the girls supervision if you will. It was super fun!

Siobhan and her cute pumpkin. She drew the face on and made sure that it had one triangle eye, a square eye and a diamond nose. She loved it!

Carson doing all the hard work. Carving pumpkins is not his favorite thing, but he was a good sport!

Audrey showing the 'angry' face that her pumpkin was making.

So proud of how their pumpkins turned out!