bridal veil and deer creek: take 1

grandpa hansen and us went to hike bridal veil falls.  it was really fun.

the kids got right into the water and had no fear.

i don't know what it is about a little boy and his grandpa, but

CUTE!

can't wait to get in the water.

this girl loves her dad.

i forgot how beautiful utah is. 

amazing!

the kids and i walked in the water and played around until a storm came.

grandpa and dad on filming duty for olivia.

olivia was crazy and wanted to jump in! 

DEER CREEK

we promised the kids we would go play at the beach, aka deer creek.  with the storm coming in we didn't know if we could.  but the kids ensisted and we got out and play.

i loaded up on some beach stuff at the dollar store and the kids had a blast.

even with the wind!

beautiful view. 

i miss these mountains.  nothing like it in indiana.

you can tell how windy it was by the girls hair!  yikes.

the weather didn't get much better so we played for awhile and then went home. 

visiting

we got to visit with grandma and aunt madge. 

we had a great time and aunt madge had the most fabulous vintage toys.

we played outside, colored and had lots of treats.

cute grandma jo

kale and some of the cool toys.

thanks for spoiling us! 

WE LOVE YOU!

day 3 of driving: flaming gorge!

on the third day of driving we stopped at flaming gorge in utah. 

it was beautiful and refreshing.

we went down to the water and threw rocks in, brett got in the water with the kids.  we saw fish too.

it was a great break from the car.

these are our shadows. 

olivia, stacey, brett and mallory.

this little cove was great for telling/showing the girls about an echo.

it was fun to yell all sorts of stuff.  kale even got into it.

there were lizzards all over the place.  running everywhere and brett almost caught one.

i took a picture of this because the lizzard is on the side of the cement barrier.

they were so cute.  kale really wanted to "hold" one.

the view.

beautiful.

roosevelt

we stopped in roosevelt, where brett went to high school,

to see his uncle scott and brett's grandpa's grave.

it was a really neat experience. 

brett and the kids at the gravesite.

the kids with uncle scott and aunt sheranna.

we had lunch and the kids got scott under their magical "cute" powers and got some toys out of him.

thanks scott!  they were very entertained the rest of the way to springville.

brett and uncle scott.

scott is holding a picture olivia drew for him. 

she was really cute on the trip making cards and pictures for all of her family.

liv would draw something and say the picture said

"i love my whole family".

goodbye

one of our favorite families is moving. 

the madsens.

for the last 1 1/2 years we have celebrated almost every holiday with them.

2 christmases, 2 easters and many things in between.

we are going to miss them.

here are blake and kale. 

here are the big kids.  these four LOVED eachother. 

they were adorable together and had TONS of fun.

maybe alittle too much fun on a couple of occasions....

good luck to the madsens, hopefully we will see you again!

surprise visitor

this is brett's uncle cody.

he called us up the other day and said he was in town.

so of course he came over for dinner and hung out with us!

the kids loved him, of course.

he will be by often because of business.

we are excited to see him as much as possible.

 i think he likes these kids? 

it has been so amazing to realize, as the mother of these mother little people, how many people love these kids of mine.  so many aunts and uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles, grandma's and grandpa's, nana and papa and so many great friends.

it is truly a blessing in our lives to have such a great family and friends around us!

thank you for loving us. 

we love you right back!

road trip!

we have decided to go on alittle road trip.

we are going to drive to utah, then to canada, back to utah and then home. 

a total of 8 days in the car.

i don't know if we are going to survive, but we are going to give it a try.

we will be gone for 30 days, go through 11 states, go by 13 temples and see tons of family.

we are so excited.

all because of my mother.

on the phone the other day, nana was talking to mallory.

NANA: are you coming to my house soon?

MALLORY: blank stare

NANA: oh, if you came to my house, we would have some much fun. 

we could go to the tot lot and all sorts of stuff.

don't you think that would be fun?

STACEY:  we are still thinking about it...

NANA: (in a really sweet sad voice) well, i'll just put my wish in that you will come to my house.

how can i say no to that?  nana!

we are going to find out if 2 weeks is enough time for you to get sick of us!

projects

these are some of the projects i have finished lately. 

crayon rolls for the girls and some cousins.

headbands.  tutorials here and here.

cute huh?

2 notepad/marker folders from placemats from the dollarstore.

felt dinosaur playscape. 

i changed the lights inbetween the kitchen and the playroom!

all by myself.

it only took 2 phone calls to my dad.

i can't believe what a difference it makes.

my dad was very proud of me!

before                                                                                                      after

the reason all these projects are getting done is because i have finally started to

organize my craft room

(a.k.a. the laundry room).

  i can actually see all the crafting/sewing stuff i have and have started to get in the crafting spirit much more often.   i love it and just wish i had more time to craft and sew.

more projects to come...

splash park

our church playgroup went to the coolest splash park the other day and the kids LOVE it!

it has a great park, picnic area, the splash park area and the water from the splash park is made into a river bed with rocks that the kids can play in. 

i don't know if that made sense at all, but whatever.  just know, really cool.

emily, mallory, olivia. once they had there was treats in my bag, they were over there for quite awhile.

stevie.  isn't he cute.

kale was scared at first, then when he figured it out he loved it.

olivia "helping" kale go in the sprinkler.

trying to drink the water.  GROSS.  i have a pretty funny video of this too.