Make It Yours

I bet the head of advertising for the City Creek Center thinks they're pretty clever:)

Well since there was such a hype about it, AND since Targhee helped dig the hole for it:) we thought we should go see what all the fuss was about. 

Of course our first stop was food!  

The food court gave us the variety we needed.  

Philly cheese steaks and McDonald's:)

Our next stop was a no brainer...

Singing the Ariel song (ah ah ah)

coloring

The princess castle.  

When you looked in the mirror a princess would appear. Can you imagine anything more magical?

Ice cream and a smoothie at Roxberry Juice.

Too bad the food court doesn't do parking validations...

TJ rockin the stroller.

He and I made quite a scene in the parking garage.

I went back to the car to feed him since I wasn't quite sure of a good place to go 

(turns out there are mother's areas in the women's bathrooms- huh- who would have thought!)

I didn't want to pack everything away in the car just to take it all back out again in 20 minutes, so I just left the stroller outside of the car.

Well, it must have been rush hour because that parking garage went from empty to filled in less than 10 minutes of sitting there.

People would walk by and then pause to examine the abandoned stroller.

You would think there was a bomb or something in there, the way they squinted their faces to see if a baby had been left.

I just laughed behind my tinted windows.

The parking security guard even stopped to have a look.

My window was opened just a crack and I had to yell at him from inside "That's mine.  Sorry!"  I think I scared him a little:)

I could see I was making the general public uncomfortable so I ended up putting the stroller in the car anyway-lol

The joys of being a nursing mom.

So, I'm afraid I'm not much of a shopper.  Ok, let's be honest.  I really despise shopping.  I don't like spending money on over priced things, especially when I don't have money to spend:)  I just don't find the idea of having things just for the sake of having them desirable.

I about threw up in my mouth at the price tag of this disgusting shirt

$475!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

What??  Who has enough money that they would blow it on a shirt that looks like it belongs on a mail man?

I don't get it.

Anyway, we decided to bid Babylon farewell and head across the street to a place much less worldly;)

Temple Square

"Come on Leilani, let's go see a statue of Jesus."

"And THEN can I get married in the temple?"

Love her:)

I always have to go see the Christus.  It has a special place in my heart since I saw it every day for 18 months.

So it turns out we didn't make City Creek ours.

It was lovely, but I probably will not be dying to go back anytime soon.

Spring Time and Baby Animals

We went up to the American West Heritage Center in Logan Saturday to see the baby animals.

Leilani is in love with animals lately.

What princess doesn't have a spread of woodland creatures gathered around them at one point during their movie? 

Therefore she thinks that all animals should rush to her side and sit on her lap (or if it's a bird, her shoulder) while she tells them stories and sings to them.  She's quite disappointed when the magpies and robins in our backyard don't comply with her wishes. 

So, this was the perfect scenario.  They let you walk right into the animal pen and pet and hold to your hearts desire.

donkey

goats

lambs

pigs

horses

more goats (apparently a different "brand")

calves

bunnies

chicks and ducklings

"I held some chickies.  They were SOO cute and tiny!"

And of course the highlight of the whole trip.  

The pony ride:)

She got to ride a pony at the circus a few months ago and has not stopped talking about it since.  She was on cloud nine riding a pony again.  There was no extra fee for the rides and it wasn't very busy so she got to go TWICE!  Woah!  Talk about one lucky girl:)

Even though she is a two year old in every sense of the word, she always keeps us laughing.  

Some of her recent quotes.

"Darn it! ...I don't know what darn it is"

"Am I cute?  Is my dad gonna whistle at me?"

"No thanks.  I'm just restin"

"Is TJ fussin?"

To a little girl at the park, "My name is The Kitty"

"I'm gonna go exercise so I can get strong." 

After I stuffed last years summer sandals on her feet, "They fit perfectly!"

"Is mommy going to get married?"  "I already got married.  I married Daddy."  "Can I marry Daddy TOO?"

Targhee often calls her out after she toots by saying, "I heard that!" to which she promptly replies, "You heard nuffin!"

Friends

A wise friend of mine who will remain nameless... (ok Heather, it's you;) shared with me her experience with being social while being a stay at home Mom.  

Having friends is something that is an actual need of mine.  You know, there's water, shelter, food...and friends.    That's never really been difficult for me because I've always been working or at school or involved in other sorts of activities, but when you're a stay at home mom that can be a pretty tricky thing since, well, you're home.

I really do enjoy being social but at the same time am not usually the one to do the initiating.  

Well, Heather, my friend, helped me understand that if I wanted to make and keep friends I needed to be the one to call and invite people or else we would all just be sitting in our homes feeling bad for ourselves because no one ever invited us to do anything:)

So

I have been making a more conscious effort to be the initiator. 

Especially since Leilani loves having friends over and often asks if she has any friends to play with that day. 

(But please do not be offended if she does not act as happy about it when you actually come over.

She's two...nough said:)

We have really enjoyed our friend visits and hope our social network will continue to grow.

Stay tuned - hopefully you're our next visitor:)

Mawiage! Mawiage is what bwings us togeva today...

One of my roommates/best friends from college got married last week and I was fortunate enough to be able to spend the day with the wedding party.  Thank you to my wonderful husband and mother who stayed home to watch Leilani and my amazing mission companion who watched TJ while I was in the temple.

The beautiful bride, Lyric, and I.

So happy that weddings are one of the things that bring people together:)

My other roommates Ashley and Stevie.

Seriously some of my favorite memories of my life are with these women.

They had a waffle buffet!  How genius is that!!

I could have eaten them all night.  Oh wait...I did!

(p.s. Ashley and I are notorious for fantastically horrible face shots:) 

Best room roommate and life friend, Stevie:)

Lyric and McCade's chocolate chocolate cake

The real fantastic four:)

I was so nervous all week about this event because it was the first time I would travel somewhere with TJ, but he was the most amazing angel anyone could have asked for.  He slept when he needed to sleep and ate when he needed to eat and was happy the rest of the time.  What a sweetheart!  Thank you TJ for allowing me to have a good day with my friends:)

Never Gets Old

I don't know how many times we've gone and fed the ducks now, but for some reason there is still something thrilling about it:)

I just like it because it means there's good weather so we can be outside.

We ate some lunch on a picnic blanket and I just sat and enjoyed the sounds of outside.

It brings me joy!

We gave the birds our left over brown honey wheat bread from the Outback.  Turns out ducks aren't really fond of that kind of bread so the seagulls took over.  At least it didn't go to waste:)

Happy Easter! Happy Easter!

I was proud of that one:)

A family tradition I have tried to keep going:)

Every Easter (or the Saturday before, I believe) I would wake up to the house lined (literally) with candy eggs.  

Every ledge, every corner, every door frame.  

We would race to find our baskets and then frantically scoop as MUCH candy as possible into them.  The funniest thing about this, is that after all our baskets were full we would declare a basket filling winner, and then immediately dump the entire contents of our baskets onto the kitchen table and evenly distribute each piece back into everyone's baskets. By COLOR! When I say even, I mean even:)  Why?  Well, my oldest sister declared this the new rule when my second oldest sister would always win the candy scooping contest and then have more candy than she did:)  

I loved this tradition and have done it in my college apartments with my roommates and now with my own family.

Please notice the candy drool!  She did not even need to be prompted for that one!

She got the candy scooping down pretty good.

The Easter Dress.

My mom made this for her.

I helped...

I made the bows-lol

She calls it her Rapunzel dress and demanded Eugene (aka Flynn Rider...aka Targhee) be by her side for picture taking. 

The happy family... *kinda

*Please see next picture.

THIS is actually what we were dealing with ALL DAY!!

I find humor in the picture only because it's the day after...and all my mom wanted was a cute picture with Leilani in the dress she had made.  Do you think she was going to cooperate?  Nope!

Egg hunt at Grandma Cole's

She lost interest in finding more eggs.  All she needed was a squishy rubber bunny:)

Finding Easter eggs is very serious business to the Cole men.

Or not:)

The booty

This is how TJ searched for eggs.

A Tinker Bell dress.

It was worn the rest of the day.

Dinner at Grandma Bishop's

Egg hunt at Grandma Bishops

(Easter is just another word for candy overload!) 

Leilani with Myriah, one of the little girls my sister is fostering right now.

I feel like this picture needs to go in a magazine or something.

Little girl in a Tinker Bell dress, with a mouth full of candy, counting Easter eggs with her dad.

Love it!

I love holidays and the family traditions they bring mostly because it brings families together.

But among all the festivities, we did not forget the real person who brings families together.

Our Savior Jesus Christ.

Because of Him, our families can be sealed together for eternity.  We will be able to see those loved ones who have passed on again and we will be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven again.  I am truly grateful for the life of our Savior and his sacrifice for us.  It was a world wide sacrifice and yet personal to every one of us. 

He Lives!