The Kandells

Dolphin Swim in Puerto Vallarta

2012-01-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

I intend to get around to posting our Disney Cruise we went on over Christmas Break and New Years but since I have a few hundred photos, I thought I'd break it up a bit and post some of the highlights separate.

One of our favorite shore days on the Disney Cruise was the dolphin encounter and kids swim that Ady and Maxwell did.

They both claimed they only "might" touch the dolphin and neither wanted to actually ride on the dolphin but that changed as soon as the kids get on the water with the dolphins. It was awesome to see the kids get to feed, ride and play with the dolphins. They both have talked about it as one of their favorite things from the trip. So glad they loved it, and so proud of my brave kiddies.

Swim Kids Dolphin Swim in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

New Years Eve December 2011

Adyson age 6 and a half and Max age 4 and a half

Grandpa's Funeral

2012-01-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

{Eric, Me and Adyson at Centerville Cemetary}

Last Friday was the funeral to celebrate the Life of my grandpa Stan Smoot. A wonderful man and a life that was well-lived. It was an honor to sing with all my cousins at Grandpa's funeral, as requested by him before he passed.

So many beautiful words were shared and stories than made us laugh and cry. I beautiful day, and a fitting tribute to his legacy.

Love unlimited Grandpa!

{my brother Spencer and I at the viewing the night before the funeral}

{all my siblings minus Elder Austin Smoot who is on his mission for 3 more weeks}

{our family with Grandpa's beautiful casket}

Starburst Christmas Party

2012-01-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

Since I am so behind and December was such a busy month, I had no intention of going back and blogging EVERYthing that happened in December but Ady specifically requested this so her grandma's could see her Dance Christmas Party which we hosted. Ady is on the Starburst Team at The Dance Club which actually consisted for 3 levels, Ady is on the oldest level, so it wasn't just a party for her "ALL Starburst team" it was for the minis and small Starburst teams too. 36 girls in all I think from ages 4-7. So naturally we made it a dance party, moved all the furniture downstairs, had a DJ come and all the girls played games and danced the day away.

Ady was completely thrilled to play hostess.

We also had 2 of my favorite nail girls come and go Christmas manicures for the girls. Thanks so much to Ashlee and Kinzie.

And for Eric and our babysitteres Brooke and Jenny for helping me control the crowd.

The starburst teams with their coaches...

Kandell Christmas Party

2012-01-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

{Kandell, Marsh, Lovell, Kesler, and Desatoff cousins}

{L-R Zach, Maxwell, Adyson, Isaiah, Easton, Lucy, Sophia,

Bjork, Venner, Avery, Saige, Oliver and Violet}

This year we have our first Kandell Christmas Party. Usually the only time everyone is all together on Eric's side of the family is the 4th of July in Ohio.

So it was fun that everyone was here the week before Christmas to get together. We had everyone over Friday the 23rd for dinner, treats and a little cousin gift exchange. When I sent out invites, I drew cousin names for each kids to buy for.

My kids loved this idea. And had lots of fun shopping for their cousins.

It was a fun night being all together and doing the things we love most... watching hte kids play and eating way too much.

The craziness of the gift exchange, 13 kids from age 1 to age 9.

It was a fun night and we are so glad our kids have such fun cousins and a holiday to spend with them.

{sorry i have like zero adult of grandparent pictures, Ill be better next time}

thanksgiving at last.

2012-01-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

This years Thanksgiving was much anticipated at our house. Our kids did oodles of school and home crafts leading up to it and we even got to attend Challenger's Thanksgiving feast at the kids school as a family, eating a lovely dinner in the cafeteria with Ady and her friends.

It as also much anticipated and we would be spending it in St George with Eric's parents.

We hoped for warmer weather but it was a great week all the same.

The kids are always in heaven with the Kandell Grandparents. Grandpa Jim is always cooking something yummy and Grandma Sue always is keeping the kids busy with art, crafts, walks and rock painting. It was a great time.

We did the red rock hikes a few times with the kids, looking for caves and litchens.

Lucy redefined bareback on the St George horse she was fully enthralled with.

Super Grandma on another adventure with the kids.

Another fun feature of the trip was that my family was down in St George doing Thanksgiving with the Smoot side of the family. So we met up with them a few times, for red rock hikes and at Tuacahn's Live Nativity.

We did plenty of relaxing a laying around too.

Thanksgiving itself was great, amazing food prepared by all.

Ady made more Thanksgiving pictures than I know what to do with...

And Grandma Sue had the awesome idea to start a tradition of the kids decorating the thanksgiving butcher paper tablecloth with all their own Thanksgiving picture and sayings of gratitude. The kids loved this.

The live nativity at Tuacahn started the day after Christmas with lights, santa, and a beautiful reenactment of Christ's birth in a pretty setting complete with real camels and lovely music. I highlight suggest this if you are down in St George between the holidays.

The we went over the the LDS St. George temple to see the lights and walk the grounds.

We had such an awesome time. SO glad to have a holiday to count our blessings and just be with family.

Kids with the Kandell Grandparents. Love this one. Right before we hopped back home, and Sue and Jim got some peace and quiet.

swim kids

2012-01-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'd like to once again bear my survival swim testimony.

I know their methods (though hard to watch) are true.

I love that I can drop my 18 month old into the deep end (though I wouldn't)

and she would pop out of the water like a buoyant little baby balloon.

I love that my kids are safe but not afraid of the water.

The end. If your child spends any time around water. Make them water safe. Please!

You will be so glad you did.

the minis.

2012-01-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

This post will only feature information on the teeniest of kandells.

The most important stuff. What our trio has been up to. And some pictures of the day to day Kandell kid happenings.

Let's see. Bath time is a family affair around here. Ad and Max are old enough to notice their... ahem.. differences. So we instituted the "Swimsuit Shower" (or bath) tradition. All 3 participate, it includes bubbles, major splashing and usually some hurt feelings or bumped heads for whoever gets the spot underneath the water faucet.

but its a part of our days so here are some photos.

Ady is the queen of creativity. If she isnt making up some kid of "party" or "art project" then its a weird game that she has Max totally into.

Some of the recent projects have been....

Her clothing she makes from paper bags and adorns with stickers

Her pedicure station she made out of large Jcrew boxes from some of my Christmas orders.

Santas sleigh.... a haunted movie theatre, the weirdest "plays" you've ever seen

and this one picture below, the pirate treasure map.... which led all around the house and if I recall correctly, never really ended in treasure.. just a called off search.

Ady and Max are best friends or worst enemies. Is there any in between for siblings so close in age??

oh yes. and Lucy? she never holds still. like ever.

oh ok. I guess, one time she did.

Max is a alphabet genius. Earning his alphabet crown in record time. On to blending and reading from here.

The worlds coldest BYU fans hitting up the coldest game of the year. With their dad. What a guy.

Lucy's day consists of begging for her milk baba, Im too lazy to care that my 18 month old refuses to drink sippys. Hailey Kandell of 2006 would be shocked at this. Disgusted even. Who lets their 18 month old still drink from a bottle. Well, Hailey Kandell of 3 kids and a busy schedule and 2012 does. Lucy drinks so well from a cup, I do cups by day and bottles for naptime and nigh nigh. And I feel fine about that.

Lucy is into everything, all the time. So thats what I do. Follow her, stopping disaters, saving her from electrocution and keeping up with the messes. I recommend asking for your busiest child first. Get it done right up front. Because having your 3rd be the busiest, well, its pretty crazy here at times.

But she is so fun and so much personality. She wants to do everything we do. All the time. SHe points at your food, toothbrush, comb, telephone and just starts shouting "peez, peez, peez"

I told Eric on our recent family cruise to Mexico that"please" was becoming one of me least favorite words.

But in newsworthy, almost deserved its own blog post kind of excitement. Lucy wore piggies for the first time last Saturday. It was darling.

I love my munchkins. So proud of them most the time and so happy they at least 60 percent of the time seem to love each other. I'm a lucky mom.

And Eric? He's pretty lucky too. He's for sure the favorite parent around these parts.

Lucy especially is head over heels for her daddy.

I tell myself all the time "he's the fun parent, and you cant have 2 fun parents, 2 fun parents is a carnival". Thanks Modern Family.

resolution.

2012-01-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

Hooray for a blog post (albiet short & just foretelling of future posts)

Hooray for 2012, New Years resolutions which include better/more blogging than 2011.

Hooray for a wonderful Christmas. Promising New Years, and a teeny bit of January sunshine.

I promise (in writing) to catch up on this blog with at least 4-5 posts this week.

If there is anyone who still reads this sad and neglected blog of mine.

Hold me to it. Because if I am one thing, I'm good on my word.

See you soon Thekandells.com and readers.

St George

2011-11-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

(Our family at the Swiss Days Parade in Santa Clara)

At the end of September, Eric mom got tickets for her, me and Adyson to go see Little Mermaid at Tuahcahn in St George. So we made a quick weekend of it. I drove down on Friday morning with all 3 kids. Eric would not leave work early so he took a flight down later that night, (hooray for St George's new airport, hopefully we will use the St George house more now) It was also the same weekend at Santa Clara's Swiss Days which we attended both the fair and the parade for.

Here are some highlights from Swiss Days.

I know we took some pics at the Little mermaid, which by the way was incredible! But i cannot find them, maybe they were on my old phone?

I have to preface this next photo with the caption I put under it when I put it up on facebook.

It makes me laugh every time I see it.

"The Dixie High Band got more than they bargained for when they passed Lucy on the parade route" babies gone wild? oh Lucy.

Thanks for a fun weekend Kandell Grandparents! For the show, for flying in to have a weekend with us. Everything.

7 years

2011-11-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

(2 weekends after our anniversary we headed to Vegas for a weekend away, here is a photo from our favorite Sushi Samba)

I suppose 3 month later is better than no post at all.

On August 27th Eric and I celebrated 7 years of wedded bliss.

Although anyone who is married knows wedded bliss actually means: good times, bad moods, fun trips, not so fun plane rides, sexy dates BUT more unsexy ones, more pregnancy sickness than I care to relive, petty arguments, the bond that only bringing children into this world together can give, lost patience, lost wedding ring, late night movies and SVU episodes, late night newborn feedings, the knowing smile we give each other when one of our kids does something to is "so eric" or "so hailey", the other knowing smile when our kids do something "right" despite having imperfect parents. Friday night date nights out, and others at home, birthdays, anxiety attacks, holidays with loved ones, disagreements over who does more dishes (not even close, me!) and through it all being still happy with the choice I made at the youngin' age of 20 when I could have possibly known the importance of my choice. So glad I fell into something perfect. Imperfectly perfect.

Oh darlin' I love you so.... sure do.

(our actual anniversary we had a lovely dinner at Forage. Have you been? Are you a foodie? Do you have 3 hours to eat a bazillion teeny delish courses? Then go!)

(below more Vegas getaway pics)

Disneyland, our fall tradition

2011-11-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

Our Disneyland trip this year was a whirlwind. We decided to add family pictures to our usual quick trip which made everything else a little quicker.. but it was fun and wonderful all the same.

Our first day after spending the day at Sadderock Ranch and Vineyard doing pics. We got the usual sitter for Lucy at bedtime and took Ady and Max to a late dinner and show at Mideval Times. We ate with our hands, we cheered on our knight and Ady was awarded the knight's banner at the end of the evening complete with special photo of her being presented it by her knight. Eric was less than pleased his daughter was chosen as "Queen of Love and Beauty" and that he forked out an additional $25 for this memory to have a photo momento but Ady was thrilled to be chosen as the knights one and only in the crowd.

On the way home in the taxi our kids fell asleep... and we barely got them up to the room with all our stuff and treasures from the show and carrying 2 sleeping kids.

for the next 2 days we hit the park. all our favorites plus some.

but of course starting our day with the Storytellers Cafe breakfast at our hotel every morning is a must. Lu thought the characters were rockstars and squealed with delight when any of them were close by...

(our Ariel, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell)

The next night we order room service for our kids and their "Fairy God Mother" babysitter nad headed out for an hour sans kiddos. We hit the jackpot of sushi restaurants and will for sure be returning for our fix next time we are there.

Then we went back to the hotel to pick up the 2 older kids while Lucy went to bed in the care of the sitter and we took the kids on some big kid rides.

They braved, Thunder Mountain, Soarin (a couple of times, it was their fav) Splash Mountain (hated it, anticipation of the big drop had them both in tears), and Ady braved the ultimate in freaky Disney rides the Tower of Terror. She went with Eric, came out traumatized, but since tells everyone its her favorite ride.. I don't think she will go again any time soon but she earned those bragging rights. So she is using them.

(our amazers sushi find pictured above, and my big kids Ady and Max on Main Street waiting for fireworks on "adults/big kids night" in the park pictured below)

Lu and dad waiting in line for the new Little Mermaid ride, its darling. Lucy and I went on it like 6 times in a row one morning while Eric and the kids hit Soarin again. and again.

(Minnie Mouse and Jasmine)

All in all it was a successful quick trip, a fun tradition we have kept and wonderful to have quality family time. That dad of ours is busy busy lately and we soak up all the dady/kid time we can get with him.

Til next year Diddyland!

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-05T15:30:00.001-07:00

It seems Autumn and more specifically October has come and gone around these parts quicker than I would have liked. I have been worse and worse at blogging. But lucky for me Instagram and the new Iphone complete with fab camera, at least for a phone its fab. And it is keeping me at least documenting my sweet busy kiddies so I'm not missing too much.

Here is our Halloween Festivities in snapshots.

Visits to Cornbelly's

Including one extra fun visit with the Lovell cousins where we ran into the Kesler cousins.

Girls Day at HeeHaw's while the boys were up at the cabin working on the fence with all the Smoot men.

Our kids first visit to a spook alley called the "Springtown Express" a haunted train ride. Kids were not fans.

Making halloween crafts during "Maxwell's sick week" home from preschool for a whole week and we got pretty stir crazy.

Picking out pumpkins at HeeHaws and carving them up at home

1920's Adults Night Murder Mystery Party, me and my girlfriends threw at Stacy's.

I was silent film star Zetta Zarbo and Eric was my boyfriend and mob boss Hal Sapone. I ended up being the murderer But the highlight of the evening was dressing in 1920's garb. We all agreed, they knew how to dress back then and other highlight was our other friend Aubree's amazing meal she catered for the night. She's my new favorite chef.

Fondue Feast for 5, our little family started a fondue tradition for the weekend before Halloween. Everyone helped, Ady even made super spooky Halloween place cards.

Next day we continued the good eating with pumpkin soup bowls with our tomato bisque.

Lucy now only insists on her root beer in goblets. Who is this girl?

Dress up day at school, Halloween programs, Dance Halloween parties.

Trick or treatin at Daddy's office.

The big night.

Ady was a adorable version of Poison Ivy, picked for her long red hair

Max was a super tough Darth Vader, picked for his mask and sword

Lucy was a darling clown, picked cuz mama only has one child who lets her pick costumes any more.

We enjoyed our tradition of trick or treating with cousins in Sandy in the Lovell's neighborhood and this was my favorite year since the weather was so fantastic.

Best Halloween.

Now to catch up on everything else thats been happenin'..... ahh, hopefully someday soon.

Kandell Family at Saddlerock Ranch

2011-10-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our family pictures were taken at the lovely Saddlerock Ranch in Malibu, California by our very talented photographer and friend

Ashlee Raubach.

Foodie Club goes to NYC

2011-10-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

{NYC Central Park Labor Day weekend 2011}

This blog post is the reason I haven't posted in awhile. Our NYC trip was so action packed and busy and I have so many trillions of photos, the whole idea of blogging it seems intimidating. So instead of doing what I planned on doing, blogging the itinerary of pics of every day. I am just show casing my highlights.

Im sure Eric will go into greater detail about all the wonderful food on his We Are Foodies blog at some point.

So here goes.

We have this little club, A Foodies Club. I guess its pretty much barely a club since there are only 6 of us. 3 couples, all equally obsessed with finding fun restaurants in Utah and out of town, and we all love cooking. So every the last couple of years we rotate houses, making fun dinner and trying new restaurants together. Sometimes other couples join us sometimes its just us 6.

So when Eric and I decided to hit NYC for our anniversary we decided to invite the foodie friends and start an annual tradition of the Foodies Trip. Basically everything about this trip was planned around eating. No lie. I think we ate every 2 hours...

That being said plan on 50% of the following photos to be of things we ate and not people.

NYC TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

The Doughnut Plant

Chelsea Market

Central Park

Morimoto's {the tasting menu}

Our attempts at using the Subway

Tourist things like Times Square and Ground Zero

Katz Deli

Little Italy

Jersey Boys

and the most sketchy limo ride ever...(and I shudder to even call it a limo)

Waiting in line at 11:30pm for the most amazing street cart food Halaal. Incredible.

**if you are going to NYC and this is not on your list, call me**

street cafes for breakfast

Dinner at Stripsteak

{well, the food wasn't a highlight but the company and convo was)

The heavenly Cafe Habana

Dim Sum and being racially profiled

and our farewell NYC pizza lunch

I am certain there are so many more things I am missing.. or I forgot to mention.

It was a fantastic trip.

Thanks to the fellow foodie couples The Tornows and Skinroods.

To my mom and Brooke our babysitter for watching Lucy in Utah

and for Jim and Sue Kandell who let Ady and Max vacation in Ohio while we were livin it up in NYC. More on the kids Ohio trip in a later post.

Kandell Fiesta

2011-09-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we held... what may need to become an annual Mexican Fiesta at Casa de Kandell.

I feel like we completely lucked out... 2 hours before the party our house was getting full blown down poured on.... which unfortunately ruined quite a few decorations and also soaked all my table clothes and table runners which never ended up making it back to the party. But about 20 mins before the party was set to start, out came the sun and with some crazy running around.. we got things looking about 80 percent of what it was before the downpour.

The Mexican Party idea came about because frequently on date nights in SLC after going ot dinner, Jazz games or whatever, Eric and I stop by our favorite taco cart in the Sears parking lot for authentic street tacos by Don Rafa. We are obsessed with them. One night while eating our street tacos in the car in our fancy clothes from going to a nice dinner that obviously didn't even fill us up. I told Eric I would love it if Tacos Don Rafa would park their cart in our backyard for a party. Since no caterer could ever pull off authentic Mexico quite the way a taco cart could.

My spanish speaking husband got to work wheelin and dealin to make it happen. And it was sooo worth the headache of stalking Mr. Taco cart. I want him at every function for the rest of my life!

Although another funny story was getting his huge taco cart/van into our backyard. Let see, on one side of our house the van slid into our neighbors fence, which we will be replacing... sorry Sister Christensen! Then on the other side, he almost drove over our in ground trampoline. My stress level was through the roof. But it worked out.

And here's the party...

(my apologies for my rain soaked the air dried frizzy hair... its was the sacrifice I made for re-set up)

(the above party favor thanking everyone for adding "spice to our party" is Eric's famous pebre)

For all the sides, and appetizers that the taco cart did not provide, our friend Aubrey, pictured below catered. Isn't she darling? And her food is even more amazing!

Aub teaches our cooking club once a month but also does private chef work and party catering. I will for sure be using her again. Everything she made was divine.

Now for the good stuff. Mechanical Bull riding was our main entertainment for the night.

Ever since the party we have all been discussing who is going to invest in owning one so it can be at every party from now on.

I was a very nice friend and only posted the fairly un-embarassing photos. But I am happy to possess blackmail now on most of our friends.

I even wore a dress to the party so I didnt have to ride the bull but I ended up changing cuz it did look like so much fun.

Cute party couples... I see some of you avoided the camera.

Eric is the trickiest. The guys had fun swimming.

Thanks to everyone who came to party! It was a lot of fun. I didnt want it to end.

And a big thanks to

Tiffany Bills for all the tags, and food labels

Aubrey Dyches and Don Rafa for the great food

AND of course, Nicole Carmen for the photography

and to Eric for not divorcing me when I almost had a panic attack during the rain storm... but in all honesty I really did feel like my throat was closing in. But thats still no excuse for acting crazy.

Ady and Max's Ohio Trip

2011-09-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

For our 7 year anniversary Eric and I had a trip planned to NYC (post to come) with some friends. We had a sitter at home for Lucy while we were gone but lucky Ady and Max got to have their own vacation while mommy and daddy were gone.... In Ohio. Kid paradise with their Kandell Grandparents all to themselves. So exciting. The day before Mommy and Daddy's vacation to NYC started, I, Hailey flew out to Ohio with Adyson and Max to drop them off for 5 fun filled days on Sunnybrook Road. The kids were in heaven. And it appears they got to do all the fun things that Ohio has to offer.

Mostly that Sue and Jim's yard has too offer.

Feeding the donkeys... which also means picking apples for the donkeys

cleaning the pond

feeding the ducks

swimming

an Ohio fair

Golf cart and gator rides.

A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Kandell, who not only drove me 2 and from the airport 4 times coming and going. But who took excellent care of our kids while we were gone and answered the 1000 text messages from their nervous mother.

Im still surprised my kids ever agreed to come home.

Flaming Gorge.

2011-09-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

Family tradition of spending the 24th of July with my family at the cabin in Wyoming and a day out on Flaming Gorge. I know its been 6 weeks.

But I gotta document the traditions.

Swift Trip

2011-09-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

What is better than

an SLS sleep over in Beverly Hills?

a little day shopping at all our favs

dinner at one of my favorite sushi spots in Hollywood Katsuya

then hitting Taylor Swift at the Staples Center in LA

all with 2 great girlfriends.

Im thinking not a whole lot.

PS. these are only 4 of the ...no lie.... 342 pictures I took of Taylor at the Concert... pics of us from the trip?...2.

Busy-ness

2011-09-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

{Katz Deli, NYC Sept. 2011}

I'm trying not to become disenchanted with blogging because I so love reading the blogs of my friends ad family members who keep up on theirs.

But the simple fact is life is busy and seems to keep betting busier.

So until Lucy is napping or that cowbell I ordered for her comes in so I know where she is every moment (that is child is an escape artist) Im not sure when to catch up.

but I intend to.

I've got lots to cover and hope to really soon....

more to come on...

Max playing soccer with his church friends

a quick trip to LA for the Taylor Swift Concert

Eric and My 7 year anniversary..

Our Foodie Trip to NYC to celebrate the anniversary

Ady and Max's big week in Ohio

Darling Lucy sayings

My dying my hair dark to please my husband.

(no I wont really blog about that)

And our farewell to Summer Mexican Fiesta bash

Which is actually taking place tonight so I really have a lot to do.

Max and Daddy had a blast at Fathers and Sons Campout

2011-08-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Max missed the Fathers and Sons camp out last year because he was sick, so this year he was extremely excited to attend. The Fathers and Sons camp out is a tradition in our church where the dads and all boys aged from as young as you want, up to 18 all go camping together one time each year. I am way excited to attend each year and create some great memories!

This year was awesome. You can see how huge our tent was in the picture above. I had bought this tent when I was like 24 or so and never have used it once. It really was nice, we had so much space it was crazy. I look forward to an entire family outing sometime.

As soon as we got there Max was off to the dirt, the water and doing everything little boys love to do in the woods. The area is up behind Heber, Utah and Kamas and is amazing. We had all the room we wanted to hike, run and as you can see from this picture, get as dirty as we could. Below is a picture of Max taken at like 11 pm covered in dirt and woofing down some dutch oven blueberry cobbler!

I could not believe how much energy he had the entire time. You think kids are excited on Christmas morning? Max was going non stop the entire time. I loved how much fun he had. He was yelling in every conversation just because he was so pumped up. I loved it.
This was Max sitting out from a game he was tagged out on. He was just chilling on this log with a buddy chatting.

So I was pretty surprised how well he slept also in the tent. I however, did not sleep well. I kept waking up to make sure he was okay and had not wandered off into the woods or the stream that ran right behind the tent! Needless to say he slept all night long. However as tired as he should have been he was up bright and early.

We had a dutch oven that the Smoots gave us a year or so ago and made a great dutch oven mountain man dinner

Well we had a great time and cannot wait until next year! I am looking forward to years of fun and memories to make.

School.

2011-08-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

First Day of Kindergarten for Ady

First Day of Pre-K for Maxwell

First Day of realizing mom is so much less fun that older Siblings for Lucy.

First Day of somewhat getting something done for mom.

Yay! For school and a new routine.

Princessing

2011-08-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Has there been a better idea in the history of 6 year old girls summers than Princess Camp?

2.5 hours per day for 3 days straight of princess games, crafts, cooking and dressing up with other princess obsessed girlfriends?

Genius. I submit there has been no better idea. At least not as far as Adyson is concerned.

Or her mother.

We are foodies

2011-08-15T12:59:00.001-07:00

Did you know my husband is an amazing cook, grill master, and now blogger?

Its true. Follow him on facebook or on his new food blog for great recipes and cooking tips.

www.wearefoodies.com

all photos are of food he has cooked/grilled in the past couple of weeks and will be featuring recipes on soon if he already has not.

We're Busy.

2011-08-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

trying to enjoy the quickly winding down summer.

Ill catch up here someday soon.

Tricky Tricky

2011-07-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

Ohio.

2011-07-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

If you have read our family blog for awhile you are aware of our love for visiting Eric's parents home in Ohio where daddy grew up. You are also most likely aware of how insanely green and beautiful it is.

But in case you are not... Ohio is kid paradise, even more than Disneyland, and in this family that is really saying a lot.

Acres and acres of green grass to run and play, the pool, a barn with donkeys that need fed, grandmas darling cottage playhouse, the golf carts to get around the Kandell yard, fishin in grandmas pond, woods and so so so much more.

It's really heaven and we love our tradition of being there every 4th of July with all the cousins.

Here are some of the many many Ohio 2011 highlights

New this year:

Floating, kayaking and canoe trip down the Cuyahoga.

Our annual visit to the Kent Freedom Festival to celebrate Independence Day in quaint Downtown Kent.

New to the Kent Fest tradition this year was the train ride.

Swimming, Swimming and more Swimming

Watching the Kent Fest fireworks from Grandma's front yard then doing some fireworks of our own that grandpa bought. Fun times!

Fishing

Picking berries to make pie

Catching Frogs

Golf Cart Rides

Family 4th of July picnic and firework show

Grandma Sue crafts

The annual massively long slip n slide

And no Kandell trip would be complete without the Kandell cooking and lots of eating.

And last but for sure not least, the most important highlight of every Ohio trip is all that quality family fun and together time.

So happy to spend time with all those people that we sure love.

{taken at the famous Storybook in Kent}

Til next year! We will miss you Sunnybrook Road.

Ady's Mermaid Party

2011-07-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we celebrated our Adyson's 6th birthday. All year long she has been planning her Strawberry Shortcake or mermaid party and this Spring she decided Mermaid theme it was.

I told her if we were going to have a mermaid party and swim in the pool she had to invite a smaller group of friends so I made sure everyone was being watched well in the pool. It was a really fun day, we lucked out with beautiful sunny warm weather and the girls had a blast.

Big thanks to Chef Dad for all the delicious food and to Tiffany Bills for all the paper details, name cards, invites, tags etc... she was great to work with... and even took pics for us the day of the party. Which turned out great. Find her here.

Now on to the party....

When the girls arrived the morning of the party we had a little craft table set up. With Adyson's love of art... a craft project was a must.

I bought little tiaras for them to decorate and wooden mirrors they painted. I really wanted to find hand mirrors like Ariel had in Little Mermaid but this was as good as I found.

I thought they turned out great.

One by one all the girls got called over for their own glitter fingers "mermaid manis" while the rest were crafting away.

Thanks to cute Jo, our manicurist. The girls were loving their glittery nails.

Then it was time for lunch.

Mini burgers on PINK buns I had specially made at a local bakery.

Ham and cheese sandwiches (for the non burger lovers)

Fruit skewers with fruit dip

Ady's favorite kettle chips

and yummy Raspberry lemonade with whole raspberries inside

Birthday cake time, Thanks for another lovely cake Dippidee.

Then it was finally swim time. We rented a huge blow up slide with 2 slides on it so the girls raced, and slid almost more than they actually swam in the pool.

The whole crew ready for presents.

Now for our gift to our party guests...

We went with 13 cent goldfish that Adyson had selected at the Pet Store for her friends and completed it with a bottle of fish food and a tag that said

"Every Mermaid Needs a Fishy Best Friend"

Sorry moms... but I think all the girls were thrilled.

Then with their goldfish and a sugar cookie party favor, everyone left.

It was a great day, Ady was happy with how it all went and we think everyone had a great time.

Thanks to all the sweet friends who came.

Lucy's Zoo

2011-06-29T13:07:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we celebrated little Lucy's 1st birthday with a Zoo Party since our little Lu is so into animals... and food. We partied it up big time.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE CHRISTENSEN (formerly Carmen)

I cannot believe she is 1 already, where did the time go?

When the guest arrived we sent them around back to get their hand stamped for Zoo entry by this little Zookeeper who abandoned the ticket booth as soon as her friends arrived.

Our favorite face painter who we like to have at any great kids party. Also brought her equally talented ballon artist to make the kids some balloon zoo animals

(my 3 little party animals)

then it was dinner time, I love the centerpieces but was so sad, somehow they forgot to put in the little paper animals and Lucy's Zoo pennants in them... and I didn't notice until afterwards.

Amazing dinner by the always perfect Culinary Crafts, the only thing better than their food is their amazing service.

The traveling petting zoo.

The kids were enthralled.

I made these little wooden signs for all over my yard, some of them, like this one above had Lucy sayings on them like"ohh wassat?" which is something Lucy says all the time.

Most of them meant nothing to anyone but us. But I think it'll be funny to look back and remember those Lu sayings.

Kandell family with our 1 year old sister Lu. Ady as you can see Ady changed into her dance Lion costume half way through the party.

Then it was cake and sparkler time... amazingly only one kid got burned...

the tag on the sparklers said "tikkum" for coming to my party, another Lucy saying "tikkum" as she says all the time we think, means thank you.

Happy Birthday LULU!

Time for dessert, delicious birthday cake, candy station and gelato and cookie bar for making ice cream sandwiches... all by Culinary Crafts. Love them.

Then it was time for games and dancing... til the super late time of 9pm...

Lucy actually exited the party around 8:30pm.... tired from partyin' so hard.

thanks to all our wonderful friends and family who made Lucy's 1 year old birthday so special.

We are lucky to have such great people in our lives.

And so is Lucy.

Utah Lake

2011-06-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the boat out for the first time this summer.

The weather was perfect, the kids were happy and begging to tube with Aunt Christa and Uncle Spencer. They were loving it. Bouncing around and telling us "faster" then "slower". Absolutely loving it. Then for a minute we went too slow and flooded the tube washing them all off... they were totally safe, in their life jackets and with Spencer and Christa holding them but they were screaming and sobbing. Freaking out so bad it was almost comical. It totally surprised us since our kids are basically fearless in the water and had already been swimming out in the lake, Also I figured they knew falling off the tube was a slight risk of tubbing. This exact scenario has actually happened before when Ady was on that exact tube. I guess they were unaware of the risk and thus very unhappy to have it happen. Our first day out on the lake this summer may be the last time our kids tube all summer.

and PS how cute is my little brother with my kids? So cute. And he is single... so if you know any cute BYU or Provo girls.. set him up. Im sick of his complaining that he needs a "boo" for things like boating, Lucy's birthday party, family trips. We need to get him a girlfriend asap.

Plus their fear were probably compounded when after they spilled off the tube and were back in the boat. Eric took Christa and Spencer on a "real" tube right which had my kids hanging on for dear life inside the boat.

Summer Things

2011-06-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

What are we up to? Summer things. Summer things like Strawberry Days Carnival with the kids and our friends which is where all these photos are from. We have also been to the Farmers Market in SLC, Strawberry Days rodeo, lots of swimming and snow cones...

I love summer. Everything is better when the sun is out...

How cute is this bunch?

and dont forget the cutest babies/toddlers around Lola and Lucy...

my favorite below is Lola showing us what scared looks like...

Cute Tornow and Harris families

Oh boy. the inflatable hammers the kids won... sorry Rob.

one year today

2011-06-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

One year ago today June 18th, beautiful baby Lucy joined us. She has brought so much happiness to our home this past year. We love her so much and are so happy she is ours.

Happiest Birthday Baby Lu!

Our Healthy Living Kick

2011-06-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so about 4 weeks ago, Mother's Day weekend to be exact, Hailey, the kids and I all decided to get our garden planted and on schedule. Hailey actually had us start this tradition two years ago and this will be summer garden number three. I'm not sure when it started, to be honest, probably growing up in Ohio with my own parents gardening, but I have this strange fascination with herbs, veggies and I even want to like eating raw tomatoes this year. Anyway in addition to this vegetable garden thing, Hailey has been consistently working out with her pilates group for a few months straight, but I have been slacking - until this past monday that is. I just started crossfit over at cross fit timpanogos. To say the least it is killing my trash but I am loving it.

So you can see I am getting back into some healthy lifestyle (hope it lasts) and what is great is we even joined a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) over at Jacobs Cove. Now the way we joined this CSA was kind of a fluke, but I have to say I am glad we did. I heard about it while researching a food truck when the food network food trucks were in town for a reality show and came across the blog at Jacobs Cove. Interested I started reading about how we could get these awesome heirloom tomatoes that all the local top chefs were using and even more, we could get fresh farm produce 365 days a year. Go read about the CSA it is pretty cool, but we bought 1 share in the farm and we get a fresh box of produce every Thursday for the next 26 weeks and will probably go all year round.

all the pics above are from our Jacob's Cove Bounty- taken by my wonderful wife Hailey

So my hope is to share with all of my fresh food loving friends at least some weekly recipes and pics of what we are making with our fresh food! Our Kandell pebre recipe (one of my favs from Chile) is a hit, and believe it or not, it is made with all fresh stuff. Even some of my "fast food only" friends at work are making it. Below you will see some awesome food I made for dinner tonight with today's batch of fresh veggies. (Zucchini, Kale, Collards, Snap Peas, Purple Basil....)

So even though we did not cook with veggies from our own garden today (well we actually own part of Jacobs Cove as a CSA member) we did do a completely fresh meal. By the way our garden is way healthy and we are looking forward to some great stuff from it!

The Pesto was a huge hit with Ady as you can see and I have to say it was awesome. I did not even use or look up a recipe, just wung it! Here is what I did. Took the Kale and Greens that I had no idea what I would do with (ps the idea for pesto came from Jacobs Cove blog links) and threw bunches of them as you can see in the blender. We had some almonds in the pantry and used them instead of pine nuts. I used normal olive oil, salt, pepper and since I did not have lemons I added red wine vinegar. Basically if you have never made pesto before, go get your idea of quantities from a real recipe. Man this was good!

Mexican Vacation

2011-06-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

{Mexico Family Trip May 2011}

Memorial Day weekend we took the kids to Mexico for 5 days of fun in the sun. With our zoo of 3 kids 5 and under, including the ever active Lucy it was so fun but so exhausting... ever get home from a trip and think... phew... now I really need a break? That was us. It was a lot of family fun though and I'm so glad we did it. Good planning my Eric who was in charge of this entire trip.

These pics below are of the kid pool at our resort....we spent many hours on this slide.

Beach time was a huge hit for everyone except mom was was constantly panicking about the kids being too far out in the water with Eric and Lucy eating mouthfuls of sand. By day 2 or 3 I chilled a bit though.

{wondering about Maxwell's facepaint? He was a Mexican wrestler thanks to the arts and crafts time at the Kids Club}

Lucy could not get enough of the waves crashing on her...

One night our hotel did a Mexican Fair where the kids got to ride a bull, play games and earn little mexican bucks for an auction, hit a pinata and have delicious mexican themed dessert bar...

Can you see the excitment turn to fear quite quickly when Max was on the mechanical bull?

Another major highlight of the trip was the ZOO. Let me just say I have never been to such an unregulated zoo. Which is so fun to be up close to feed and touch animals... but a little sketchy... and as you can see below Max paid the price for getting to close to an aggressive duck.... nice little peck in the head.

This monkey below I believe in my heart is possessed by satan himself. I lept at us "outbreak" style.... and here we have Eric taunting him... not the smartest....

We had a lovely locals taco dinner on the beach one night. Great food. Not the best spot to eat with kids who wanted to be under the table digging in the sand.... good way to get some sandy tacos...

And even more amazing than the dinner was the lady who came around selling fresh pastries which my kids promptly dropped in the sand and then stole their parents pastry desserts.

Our last full day in Mexico we rented a little boat for an excursion... the guide took our kids out to see caves {where we told them maybe pirates and mermaids lived}.... we also fed the tropical fish, it was amazing how many would flock to our boat... they were leaping out of the water, our kids were fully obsessed.

Speaking of fully obsessed, here is Miss Happiness herself.

Our last morning the kids swam their hearts out... doing all their favorite things one last time...

Then we packed up to leave, sad to leave but happy to be headed back to the good ole USA.

Is there ever a better feeling after crazy travels with young kids.... than getting back into your own bed under your own roof? I think no.

Adios Mexico! Im sure we will see you again soon.

{ps.. did you notice max do that weird claw thing with his hand like in the pic above where ady is being a ballerina? Its a "panther claw" He has learned it in karate and now I guess its his go to move in every picture. seriously. every. picture. Unless I specifically forbade panther claws}

{Kandells 2011, Ady age: 5 1/2, max age: 4, Lucy age: 11 mos. Hailey age: old, Eric age: even older}

Summer Saturday

2011-06-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

All I can say is FINALLY. Finally, warm weather, finally a Saturday with the kids outside, finally we can make our lunch on the grill and finally these cute cousins can swim and play til they are exhausted.

{cousins Lucy, Ady, Zach, Max, Easton and Saige}

Delicious lunch prepared my my multi talented husband... and amazing pasta salad by my sis in law Lisa. Ill bug her for the recipe if anyone wants it. It was delish.

So ready for days like this to be the norm around here.

Spring St. George Trip

2011-05-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Finally, a post on our trip to St George for Easter weekend... its become a fun tradition to spend a few days leading up to Easter in St George with Eric's parents and his sister and her kids. Our kids count down the days til our Easter trip and the weather is always so much more warm and beautiful than we get in Northern Utah, so here are the highlights of the wonderful weekend in no particular order.

visits to the fountain park in downtown. Even Lucy couldn't stay out of the water...

The annual St George Art's Festival is always on the Saturday before Easter, we have made it another tradition of ours. We mainly go for the amazing food, especially Irmitas's tacos. They are heaven. You cant get better tacos on the beach in Cabo.

{Grandpa and Grandma with all their grandkids, 6 of them all under age 6.}

Every year we go we do the same things, the kids love it, face painting by the local High School kids, (you can never tell what they meant to paint) Ady always insists on getting her hair done at the Paul Mitchell booth, we get balloon animals etc.

Another must visit while we are in St George is the Modern Park, Im not sure what its real name is... but its close to our house and has the coolest modern playground there. Our kids love it.

We also take walks and scooter rides around the neighborhood almost daily

Family Dinners with Max having a meltdown... hope that part doesn't become a tradition

Hanging out in the yard at the house...

enjoying the beautiful weather and views of the red rock canyons, eating ice cream, crafts with grandma, the list goes on...

Sand Hollow Aquatic Center, less than 1 block from our house and always a good time.

Easter baskets, the easter egg hunts..

and of course easter Sunday and and pics with the family outside the cute church we go to in Santa Clara {previous post}

As always it was a wonderful trip and we had a great time with family.... cannot wait to do it all again next year.

Easter Sunday

2011-05-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Ady, Max and Lu Easter Sunday 2011

Easter Sunday pics from Sunny St. George, Im recuperating from sinus surgery this weekend so I ought to have time to catch up on my blogging...rest of the St George trip for Easter week photos and post coming soon...

The whole Kandell family

Mothers Day

2011-05-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful moms out there.

Aren't we blessed to have the best/busiest/most frustrating/truly wonderful job on earth?

A PB&J by Maxwell Kandell

2011-05-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

Step 1. Insert your entire piece of bread into the peanut butter jar to make sure its fully coated. The bread may break as you pull it back out, if that happens just roll it into a peanut butter bread ball and leave it on the counter for mom to clean up at her leisure. After 4-5 pieces you'll get it right.

Step 2. Coat the outside of the bread with the honey, what sense would it make to have the super sticky messy deliciousness on the inside?

... I like it where I can see it...

If you don't have honey dripping from the counter and the entire front of your shirt, you do not have enough. I'd go ahead and squeeze the bottle all over the outside of the sandwich... what doesn't make it on the sandwich is easily taken care of my rubbing your hands in it...

Step 3

Now take a dull butter knife and saw back in and forth on the outside of the sandwich for the better part of 10 minutes. When it never fully cuts in half, give up and tear in half with your hands.

Step 4. Eat

And if you can do all of this with some dirty hands from helping weed the garden, then thats just a bonus.

Now, who wants to come over for lunch? Max will make you something...

Bunco Beverly Hills

2011-04-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Highlights from our Bunco Girls Trip to L.A.

- Katsu-ya

-Jake & Gia sighting

- Linda on the Agenda

- Butter cake is ever better when its free

- "dont freak out but Eddie Murphy is sitting at a table by you"

- taxi rides

-shopping, shopping, shopping

- brief pool time

- lunch at THE GROVE

- CUT

-Wolfgang Puck visiting our table twice, I am obsessed afterall.

- 3 1/2 hour dinner

- Jodee's palm reading for dummies

- The swagger wagon mom was our waitress

-brunch at Vila Blanca, and chatting with Lisa Vanderpump, I have polaroid proof in my purse

- best caprese salad of my life

-sprinkles

-more palm readings

-best girl chats and time.

I miss it already.

Daddy Chiming In

2011-04-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here I am at work and found myself doing something I do not really have often, FREE TIME (albeit a few minutes) and figured I would drop some valuable words to those readers of this great blog.

The Kandell home front is doing well and this week (man I cannot believe it is Friday already) has absolutely flown by. Monday Hailey and I went to Les Miserables at Orem High and actually I really liked it. I wouldn't believe it myself had I not experienced it, but it was great. I even planned and surprised Hailey with the date!

Tues I had youth night with the church and we went to Temple square to watch a movie and each got a famous TACO CART taco afterward. Hailey had cooking class (odd she is taking cooking classes but has not made me a dinner in a long time:). Hint hint.

Wed, to be completely honest I have no recollection of what we did and may have to come back and edit in a bit. (ok I came back and edited this) Wed was my first night of Company Softball! We lost both games but had a blast. Watch out we will contend!

Thur we went and watched Ady play soccer and that was very fun and Lucy was crawling out of control all over the place.

Today is Friday and I am very excited to go see Max at his Karate class at 5.

We have a weekend packed with events from Ady Dance, UFC fight night, Friends coming over on Sunday and oh I want to clean the garage on Saturday too.

I hope Hailey and I can do an Easter post soon as we had a great time down in St George with my mom and dad (Jim and Sue) and the Lovell Fam.

2 less teeth to brush

2011-04-18T19:02:00.003-07:00

Adyson lost both of her 2 middle teeth last week. A huge occasion in her life, and one of those parenting milestones that makes me feel like whether I like it or not, I am getting older. Ady actually didn't even know she was about to lose a tooth, but one evening she was about 10 feet away from me in the kitchen talking and I noticed her tooth quivering in the breeze as she spoke. It was that loose. Once i showed her that it was so loose it was about to just fall right out of her gums, we noticed the one next to it wasn't far behind. With some coaxing and some tricking I pulled the first one. The sight of blood had her freaked for a minute but she soon got excited. Waited until about 2am to catch the tooth fairy before finally falling asleep.

She was thrilled with her dollar, so it didn't take as much coaxing to do the same thing the next night with tooth number 2.

If you see her out anywhere ask her about her new smile, she cannot wait to show it off to anyone who is interested.

Tyrannosaurus-Max is 4

2011-04-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Maxwell turned 4 on March 31st. The following weekend we had his birthday party. As much as I tried to talk him into another theme I had in mind, he is old enough to want to make his own decisions and chose a Dinosaur Party at Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum (one of his favorite places to go ever)

Max made all the decisions of what he wanted for his special day including the guests list, girls weren't allowed at first but he eventually changed his mind.

{Our party room}

We started out with a guided tour of the museum. With lots of hands on exhibits for the kids to enjoy. Our friends who joined us for the party were Beckham Wathen, Easton and Zach Lovell, Ainsley and Cecily Tornow, Linkin Park (no I didnt mispell that) Christian Dowse, and sisters Lucy and Adyson. {adults in attendence : mom and dad, Aunt Lisa, Erin Wathen, Uncle Bandele}

After our tour and play time, we headed into the lab to make our own Trilobites, the kids got to choose which fossil they wanted to make.

hen we headed into the party room for lunch and cake. Max chose Cafe Rio catering for his lunch. He loves rice beans and chicken quesadillas so this was no surprise.

By lunch it was poor LuLu's nap time and she could hardly wait to go home and go to bed.

We sang to Max, had cake, and opened gifts from all our great friends.

Thanks to all our party friends for coming, it was so fun to have you and Max is so happy to have such good buddies to help him celebrate!

Thanks to Ann Elizabeth for the invites, as always

to kidlark for the stickers, labels for favors, and fact sheets and other details

and to Dippidee for all the sweets.

Smoot/Kandell Girls Trip

2011-03-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, Ady and I took a girls trip to Anaheim California with my mom and 2 sisters. To watch my 16 year old sister Christa compete is Cheerleading Nationals. Ady was happy to watch stunting, tumbling and dancing for a couple hours everyday.

Christa did an awesome job! We were so proud of her.

We also spent 2 fun filled days at Disneyland, the weather was chillier than we would have liked and we did get suckered into buying $50's in ponchos during a downpour BUT it was ta lot of fun and so fun to see Ady be all big and brave with the older kids, she wanted all the thrilling rides, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tower of Terror, Soarin etc. She did get turned away from a few for her lack of height, 6 inched too short for Matterhorn and 2 inches shy of Indiana Jones.

Under One Roof Again.

2011-03-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

After getting a couple emails asking about Lucy's RSV status, I thought I should post that she is doing so well. Sometimes I just assume everyone that blogs is on facebook and thus would know she was home. She's been out of the hospital for 8 days now and pretty much all back to herself. We are so grateful for everyones concern, prayers and all. SO happy to have our Lu back.

Atlantis, Bahamas

2011-03-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had out Annual LOW VA RATES (formerly VA PRO) President's Club. This year the destination was Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. Us, plus 4 employees with their spouses were invited, one couple couldn't make it, but we still had an amazing trip and enjoyed every minute with these fun couples. It was a great reward for being the top guys in the office.

Day 1.

We flew through the night to land in Nassau around lunch time our first day. we got checked in and immediately headed poolside for a few hours before hitting up Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill for dinner with the group (it was better than expected)

Day 2.

We all slept in way late to make up for our lack of good sleep on the plane the night before, we relaxed poolside all day, sipping pina coladas, I got a poolside massage, we did all the big water slides and then headed into town in the late afternoon to a local fish fry where everyone insisted we try the local favorite. Conch. We, especially the guys, were hooked.

Day 3.

More pool time, lunch at the locals sushi spot Seaside Sushi (awesome) and went into the shopping markets in downtown for souvenir shopping and Eric was bound and determined to find a local food cart and he did. We all got fun stuff for our kids and headed back to the resort to get ready for the company White Dinner, which we held this year at the One and Only Ocean Club. Another gorgeous One and Only hotel. Wind caused us to have to move our dinner inside but the food was some of the best we have had (white dinner post to come later)

Day 4.

More fun in the sun, more laying around, more slides, more lazy river, more beautiful weather. That afternoon we went on a snorkel tour. My favorite part was all the beautiful homes we saw on the way out to the reef. Oprah, Tom Cruise, everyone vacations there. It was gorgeous. The water was blue and clear which made for good snorkeling. Then that night we hit up NOBU, one of my favorite sushi restaurants followed by some yacht stalking, some mardi gras celebration parade, dancing at the little downtown Atlantis has, and even dancing the night away among some of the funniest dance crowds I have ever seen.

Day 5.

Our final day. We spent the morning soaking up the last rays we could. Doing one last run on our favorite slides, and going to lunch as a group before we left. It was a wonderful trip and we had so much fun. Thanks to everyone who came for making it maybe my favorite President's Club destination yet.

****And a huge huge most important thank you to my mom and Eric's parents for taking care of our most important possessions (Ady, Mac and Lu) while we were living it up in the Bahamas.****

Can we go home yet?

2011-03-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

Lucy + RSV

2011-03-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

Keep our Lucy in your prayers. She is currently being hospitalized for her RSV which took a bad turn in the middle of the night last night. She is really miserable, and having a hard time keeping her oxygen levels up without support oxygen. Poor babe, Lets hope its a short hospital stay for everyones sake.

Bacheloretting

2011-03-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

One of my best girlfriends Sarah Klotthor is about to go from Miss to Mrs. this weekend. And before we head down to sunny Arizona to celebrate her special day with her I had to post a bit from her Bridal/Bachelorette Dinner party we had for her a couple weekends back.

We held her dinner in the private dining room at Bambara in Hotel Monaco. It was perfect for our intimate little group. We had dinner, 4 courses of fabulous food, A Sarah Wedding Quiz with saucy prizes and most of all we had so much fun giving her all of our marriage and other advice. Whether she wanted it or not. It was such a great night, I have absolutely no idea why we don't get this group together more. But don't worry ladies, I'm on it.

Sarah, we could not be more excited to welcome you to the club!

Love you girl.

These boxes below contained the party favors... not treats this time, just black fury handcuffs, and of course the keys to those handcuffs hanging from the ribbon.

and even though Bambara gave us a lovely selection of desserts we all tried, its not a party without themed cupcakes too. Thanks Dippidee.

Photos by resident girlfriend Chelsey Bell. Thanks hun!

Back to Blog.

2011-03-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

{Ady doing her little solo part during her Trio dance at the New York Onstage Competition}

No, I have not come back to blog to announce that Adyson is going to be featured on Toddlers and Tairas. {I think that show is horrid and features parents living through their children at its very worst} But, Ady is wearing a lot of make-up in this photo from her first dance competition above so maybe I shouldn't cast stones. But I am back to say I have a lot of blogging to catch up on and hopefully I can start to this week. Including ....

- Ady's first dance competition and her first Trio (small number with only 2 other tiny friends)

- Sarah Klotthorr's bachelorette dinner party with my girlfriends I threw at Bambara

-President's Club in the Bahamas

- Eric and my kids with Jimmer fever and Eric's devastation with the Davies drama

- Valentines Game and Tapas Night

- Lucy's first month in survival swimming

-and Lucy, Max, Ady photos galore.

Stay tuned.....

Bennett Boy

2011-02-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

{a photo of Bennett I took in Sept at our family reunion}

This is my cousin Mandy's youngest boy Bennett. 20 months old and absolutely darling. I think his little face is perfect and angelic even. He passed away 2 weeks ago. Just fell asleep in his bed and never woke back up. He has touched a lot of lives and brought a lifetime of joy to his family in his short little existence on this earth. I was blessed to have know him and am blessed to witness the amazing faith and grace his parents have faced this trial with. It's inspiring to watch. To take a line from Bennett's funeral and obituary. We feel blessed to know "its not good bye, just see ya later".

If it feels like my blog has been a bit neglected lately it's because in Bennett's memory, I am trying to spend less time on the computer, the phone and other distractions to enjoy more day to day moments with my little blessings.

Love you Bennett and Wilkinson Family.

Feeling Grateful.

2011-01-23T19:35:00.000-08:00

Mobile Lucy

2011-01-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

Lucy had her 6 month appt this last week (were we a couple of weeks behind because of the holidays)

Her stats were

Length - 27 inches (75%)

Weight - 17lbs 3 oz (50%)

Head Circ - 43 cm (25%)

about the same percentiles she has been. Im sure that height will start to taper off soon.

I cannot believe how big she is and even more than that the my 6.5 month old is full blown crawling, not scooting or army crawling but crawling and fast fast. She is gone in 3 seconds is you leave her be. If I am hanging up clothes in her closet, she is down the hall and to the stairs before I know it. SHe is also pulling herself up on anything and everything, including her crib, and trying to stand on her bumper to lean over the top. Why is my 3rd starting the so soon. Its too early for having to buckle her tight into the high chair cuz she tries to stand in it. Oh Lucy Lucy. What is your hurry?

At 6 months Lucy's favorite things are

her siblings

snacks she can feed herself (puffs, yogurt melts)

oatmeal, grain or rice cereal or bananas

toys she can bite on

biting everyone with her 2 tiny new teeth

saying dadadadadada, and new this week mah mah mah and bah bah

crawling around with no restriction, she doesnt like when I barricade her into a certain spot

her crib for bedtime

baths on the floor of mommys shower

putting everything in her mouth

being read to (for the first 2 mins)

sitting in her saucer in the playroom while the kids play

when Daddy gets home

when I get her out of bed in the morning, i love happy babes in the morning

at 6 months Lucy does not love

sitting still anywhere

getting buckled into the carseat, once she is buckled she chills

going down for a nap when the other kids are still playing

getting dressed or changed

cuddling or even laying on my shoulder, she is too big for that nonsense

holding her own bottle, I try and try...

Not may things no the dislike list cuz Lucy is the best baby. She easy going and always smiling.

We love having Lu around.

Now if I could only get her to stay in one place for more than 10 seconds...

P.S.

2011-01-11T15:29:00.000-08:00

Check out what Lucy was sporting Christmas morning when we got her up. Her two front teeth!

She is getting so big. Crawling, cruising, pulling herself up on everything. And not even 7 months old yet.

I'm still obsessed.

Smoot Cabinning

2011-01-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

(Ady with my 2 little sisters, Aunt Christa and Aunt Breanna)

A couple days after Christmas we took Eric's parents and joined my family up at their cabin in Wyoming. The Lovells came down with the flu the night before so they could not make it. A major bummer for our kids.

But we had a great time, Dec 28th is both my dad and Eric's dad Jim's birthday so we had a big celebration dinner made by the Kandell men. It was great.

Lucy spent most of her cabin time, eating and being spoiled with attention.

And we got to play in the snow, snomobiling, tubing and freezing. I am so not a winter girl. But my kids were in heaven. We are starting them out young on the snomobiles like I was. They love it.

Ady even let us pull her behind the snomobile on a tube. And excuse the dude wearing the burglar looking mask on the tube with her. It's Eric. And he looks creepy.

(Jim pulling Eric trying to go off a jump)

So glad we got to spend time with both our families on the cabin trip. Not sure how my brother Spencer avoided being in any photos. He probably didn't think he looked pretty and hid from my camera.

Christmas Morning

2011-01-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

{Christmas EVe right before bed in their Christmas pj's}

We had a great Christmas morning at home with the kids and Eric's parents. On Christmas Eve after all our dinner guests had left, Santa's elves dropped off some new pj's for everyone.

And the kids headed off to bed, although it took them awhile to actually fall asleep.

Christmas Morning we started with stockings then moved downstairs to the kids tree. They were ecstatic opening all their gifts and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the process.

Lucy's favorite and pretty much only gift was a new highchair which she loved sitting in all morning overseeing the gift opening.

After the presents were opened and being played with Eric and Grandpa Jim made a big breakfast and Uncle Bandele came over to eat and play with the kiddos.

Christmas Eve Dinner & Gift Exchange

2010-12-31T10:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve we hosted dinner for Eric's side of the family. Sue and Jim were in town, the Lovells and Keslers came in town (although i dont know how the Keslers avoided be in any pictures, Ill get you next time) and Bandele. It was a fun night full of appetizers, our cousin gift exchange, grandparent gifts and lots of noise.