Vrooom!!....Sleep is good again!

When we got back from our vacation time in early June the first item that we wanted to attend to was to get Nolan a new bed. We'd been looking at race car beds, but couldn't bring ourselves to swallow their usually high price tag. Thank heavens for Craigslist...and some serious sale stalking on our part-we found one for $40! Had I known how much Nolan would love it, and that it would finally be the solution to him sleeping through the night-we would have bought him one back in December! Oh well, live and learn...and now we get some pretty decent sleep!


Here is the assembly team...

The completed project...

And the wonderful results!!! Yay!

Our Tucson Visit

We were able to spend some time down in Tucson also with Matt, Val, Naomi and our new nephew Gabriel. We had lots of fun in the sun and enjoyed the heat and sunshine. We went on lots of walks, played in a nearby fountain, had mexican food and were able to attend Gabriel's blessing. Kenny was able to fly out for a couple of days before starting his summer research, and it was so nice to have everyone together. We had a great time watching the cousins interact and catching up. Can't wait until next time. Thanks Tucson Merrell's!

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial day with the Farnworth (my Mom's) side of my family. We decorated and shared Pepsi and Maple bars at my Grandpa Farnworth's gravesite in Orem. Those were two of his favorite things-and may have actually sustained his life on some occasions when he wouldn't eat much else. Grandpa was always willing to share a Pepsi-he would always crack it open and let you have the first sip. We may have attracted some weird glances and I'm sure people thought we were quite strange pouring Pepsi on his grave-but if you knew our Grandpa you would have understood. Afterwards, we all visited an aquarium in Sandy and enjoyed a great dinner together at Grandma's house. It was a great way to bring the trip to a close.

Utah Pictures Slideshow

While we were in Utah we spent a couple days in Springville, and the rest at the cabin in Mount Pleasant. The weather was all over the place from the low 90s to snow and rain at the cabin-but that didn't make the fun stop! We even had a chance to take a day trip up to Pocatello, Idaho to visit our dear friends the Forsey's whom I grew up with. They had just added Lydia to their family and we got to meet her for the first time. What a great trip!! We made lots of memories and took lots of pictures, I wish that I could share them all, but I hope you enjoy the first installment!

Ahh...Utah...We missed you.

I can't believe that our trip to Utah and Tucson has already come and gone since it seemed like we were looking forward to it forever!

But we are so glad that we were able to go, and we made some wonderful memories and took some fun pictures!

Here are a couple to get things started...I'll be loading a slide show later.

Mother's Day Rocks!!

Here is a little run-down of the awesome Mother's day that I had this year. I was a little worried at first since it's the first one being so far from our extended family-but it was actually more than I could have even imagined. I received roses on Saturday from my parents-Thanks Mom and Dad Whittaker-what a great surprise! Kenny and Nolan made breakfast, and made a homemade card for me-yes, Kenny actually used some of my scrapbooking materials and it turned out really nice! I was asked to speak in our Sacrament meeting, and it was just such a great way to prepare and share Mother's day with all of the amazing Mom's and families in our Branch. We were able to web-cam the Merrell's later that night and I got to chat with both of my brothers-while trying to track down own my Mom. What a great day!!

A little side note: I kind of bought myself my own Mother's day present "from" Kenny & Nolan the Thursday before while checking out a rummage sale down the street from our house. I came across the exact same dinner ware that my Grandma Whittaker had-I only had a serving platter from the set but I just loved it. When I asked about it and was told that it was a set of 12 place settings for $25-I got teared up and knew that I really had to have it! It was a very exciting discovery and Kenny agreed that it would make an excellent Mother's day present.

Caught card making!!

Grandpa Merrell's Visit

Grandpa Merrell came to visit after a business trip to Chicago this last weekend. We had a great time hanging out at home, going to the Zoo, and having dinner at Oscar's custard shop.

"Ring around the rosies"...

Monkeying around at the zoo...

Watching for tigers...

Mmm...chocolate chip cookie dough custard

Explaining to Grandpa the wonders of Bob the Builder.

An object in motion....

Or maybe a Nolan in motion (as our case may be) remains in motion...

"Moments"

So as I'm sitting here playing with some new page elements for our blog, (gotta keep up with the "e-blogging Jones" right?) I started thinking about what I should post about tonight.
It's midnight-Kenny's in bed he's been studying for next week's exams and actually fell asleep putting Nolan to bed, so he's conked out. I hear Nolan start crying in his room-he's rolled off of his mattress again-it's just on the floor right now, we're getting him a toddler bed soon. So anyway, I go in there and scoop him up and lay him across my chest to help him fall back asleep. I realized just how big my little boy has gotten! When I first laid him on my chest as a newborn he was around 5lbs...now he's 22lbs 19mos and he lays across my whole body, WOW!
I started thinking about Elder Ballard's talk that he gave on the Sunday session of this last conference about young mothers. He said, "First, recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction."
I can't think of any better way to describe motherhood than that. Some moments will touch your heart and burn into your memory forever, and some you just hope that you can make it through so that you can move on to the next thing. However, whatever the moment is we have been put here to share those with our children-the Lord is trusting us to do that for him. What a huge responsibility!
When we say our prayers with Nolan together at night, he folds his arms and usually listens for his cue to say "all done" which to him means "Amen", but I think that I like his version better. "All done" means that we can give all of our thanks, and problems and desires to the Lord and then retire for the night knowing that we are in good hands.
Well tonight I have recognized that my role as a Mother, Wife & Daughter have brought me my greatest, happiest and most important "Moments" and I am so thankful for each one of them.
To all of my Mother's, Grandmother's, Sisters, Cousins & Friends- Thank you for being a part of my best "Moments" and keeping my in your good hands!
Happy Early Mother's Day!!

Nolan's Chores

Nolan has been developing his independence lately, and I've been amazed at how much he understands and can do for himself. So of course I've been trying to use this to our advantage and I'm proud to say that Nolan has his own set of chores that he loves to do.


1-Throwing his own dirty diaper in the garbage can. (Usually not the poopy ones though)

2-He loves to help with the dishes...or you may more recognize it better as splashing the bubbles all over himself and the floor.

3-He loves to put the dirty laundry down the laundry shoot and says "one, two, three...go!" each time.

4-He is in charge of loading the silverware into the dishwasher and does a really good job too!

5-He's in charge of the Swiffer...although we've had to monitor that a little more closely lately since it's funner to lift it up high and smack it into Mommy, Daddy or the cabinets.

6-He loves it when I vacuum-he goes crazy and runs and shouts all around the house while I'm doing it and occasionally he'll come try to push it with me.

So that is a sampling of his chores for now...he may actually have more than Kenny does! Ha ha-just kidding...well mostly.

Getting his dish-pan hands.

Cleaning off the wisk for me.


Ready to clean the tub!