It's a Wonderful Life

Last night was my annual Oscar party. We had a big guest list this year: me, Erik, Jackson, and Wyatt. :) Actually Erik even had to leave for a bit because he had a priesthood meeting! It was still fun. We have been trying to see as many nominated movies as possible (yeah for Clean Flicks!) but really the point of the Oscars is not seeing your movies win. Its eating lots of food, being very competitive with our Oscar pool, and seeing lots of fun dresses. This year I thought the show itself was great with Hugh Jackman as host. He did lots of fun musical numbers that Jackson enjoyed quite a bit! (I loved the one with Beyonce , the couple from Mamma Mia, and the High School Musical people that Baz Lurhmann choreographed) Since I rightly knew I would win our Oscar pool, I didn't even bother buying a prize (sorry Erik). Welcome to my crazy nerdy side!! The part I love best is deciding what food to make. We have some food item that represents each of the best picture nominees. Our m...

Well, it wasn't exactly a tropical vacation but our trip to Utah was very nice! We left Wednesday morning and seven hours later we were in Provo at my sister Kathryn's house (we had to make lots of stops for Wyatt). It was so much fun to stay with Kathryn. I had never seen their Provo house since it was all gutted out and remodeled and it is sooo cute! I'm very impressed with how it all turned out and Pete is only a block away from BYU where he teaches- nice! Anyway, we had a lot fun hanging out and playing, but because Wyatt is such a bad traveler I wasn't able to visit many people I wanted to, hopefully I can next time. We left Provo on Friday evening and then met up with Brent and Molly and their kids, Jon and Maggie, the Hunts, and Erin for dinner in Layton. It was fun to see everyone, but also very quick. We stayed with Kaitlin and Josh on Friday night and Erik went with the boys for some "rabbit hunting" Sat morning. Jackson kept asking if daddy was g...

Here is what Valentines Day looks like for a family with a little boy and a nursing baby (i.e. no romantic stories here) 1. Have fun looking at little boy go through his Valentine bucket or his "cool prizes" and eat chocolate chip pancakes. 2. Little boy goes to friend's house to play and husband works on basement (he's almost done mudding and taping! :) ). 3. Get everyone ready to go ice skating, however like so many times little boy wants to do something else, baby doesn't want to nurse so we can leave, and pretty soon its too late to go. 4. Go to cheap Mexican restaurant and the arcade. 6. Put little boy and baby to bed. 7. Watch half of a movie and go to sleep. All in all it was actually a fun day. It's funny how my perception and expectations change as our family grows, I'm sure eventually Erik and I will be able to go on dates again.

So, today is the 200 th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. I'm kind of in a " lincoln phase" right now which is really great timing since there is so much going on with him and his birthday. I just finished listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about his presidency called Team of Rivals (now I listen to books in the middle of the night while I feed Wyatt) and I'm just in awe of him. If anyone has any good suggestion for other Lincoln books, let me know! Do you like Jackson's Lincoln costume? Such a realistic hat. At the PAT meeting last night it was all about Lincoln. They had a lot of cute activities including seeing how you measure up to his 6'3" (or is it 6'4"?) frame with a shoe size of 14.

So, Jackson had the saddest tantrum I've ever seen tonight! Erik had to take the Scouts to the pool at BYU -I and Jackson really really wanted to go. However, I was not about to take Wyatt and Jackson in the freezing cold and have to park way far away from the Hart and try to keep track of Jackson swimming while holding Wyatt in a sea of Scouts. When Jackson realized he wasn't going with them he freaked out like I have never ever seen! It was so sad. His lips were trembling, he had a wild look in his eye and he was trying to stop Erik from walking out the door. He was screaming and crying, "Mom can take me and just feed Wyatt at the pool!" ( Apparently , this is what he thought was stopping me) So, I did what any good Mom would do and I started to bribe. I started out saying we would go to the pool this weekend. Then I said we could go get an ice cream at McDonalds tonight. Then, I said we could get any treat he wanted. Then, I said we could go to the store and pick ...

This week, Jackson turned the big 0-3. This birthday was the first time I felt sad at a milestone of Jackson's. I just feel like the clock is going way too fast and I'm going to miss some of Jackson's growing up. Aside from all that though, we had a really fun time celebrating! Jackson is such a funny guy, always making me want to laugh b/c of what a little man he wants to be. He pretty much copies whatever he can of Erik. His imaginary play consists of hunting elk and deer (this is pretty funny to watch b/c he doesn't have any toy guns so he uses vacuum hoses!), camping, building things, "fixing" his engines (he lays underneath his tricycle just like Erik does with the cars), and cooking (he only copies one things of mine- not fair!). He loves music, and to my chagrin he loves country music best. One day I heard him singing a song I had never heard before and then I found out it was "Country Boy" by Alan Jackson which has now become his very favor...

The Pinata was not the hit I thought it would be (no bad pun intended). I think because it was in the basement where everything echos, it was too loud for Jackson. After the candy was all out, Erik wanted to stop and clean it all up before we continued with the next thing. Who else cleans during a party? He's funny. Jackson "reading" his clue for his chaser (like a treasure hunt for presents). Blowing out the candles Like Christmas, we had to keep him on task so he would finish opening all his presents. After each one, he would say "lets play with it right now. " This present was good to save 'till the end b/c for the rest of the night he didn't get off of it. With his elbow pads, knee pads, and helmet from the Urrutias and Hunts he looked pretty funny too!