Utah trip

We went up to Utah for my cousin's wedding. It was going to be a quick weekend trip, but we ended up staying the whole week because Ben's parents were coming to Utah too. This was Kylee's first time on the riding mower and she quite liked it.

I am so glad I stayed longer because I ran into my long lost friend Lynn. We were best friends all growing up, but she moved away in 8th grade and we lost touch. This is her little girl Alyssa. She is so cute. Lynn looks so good too and seems so happy. It was so good to see her again after all these years. I should have taken a picture of her too.

My mom fixed Kylee's hair (i'm totally retarted at fixing her hair) and it looked so cute, so I had to take a picture.

We went to Mindy's house to see Ben's parents. They were having a baby shower for Kiera that day too, so I got to join in on the festivities.

Ben's mom and Mindy bought twinner dresses, shoes and hats for Kyla and Kylee. They looked so cute together.

3 generations of Volmers. How sweet. Ben's dad is doing much better now after a 3 month battle at the Huntsman Cancer Center. We went on a walk up Provo Canyon and it was so pretty. Zac thought we were in the jungle. You know you live in the desert when your kid thinks utah is the jungle.

The river was really high and moving really fast. We saw some kayakers and it looked so fun. I think I would like to try that sometime.

Me, Zac and Kylee at Bridal Veil Falls. You can't see too good, but I cut my hair off. It doesn't even touch my shoulders now. I was a little nervous to do it, but I like it and it will be so nice for the summer.

It was good to be at my house for a week and spend time with my mom. I am also glad that we were able to see Ben's parents.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANNY!!!!

I only had to use a little bribery to get Zac to sing on camera. We love you Mom and hope you have a great birthday.

Angels game and the Beach

We went on a spontaneous trip to California last weekend because Ben wanted to see the Angels play the Mariners (he is a Mariners fan, but the Angels are his second favorite team). The highlight of the trip for Zac was his critter finding adventures. He caught 7 snails and a crab.

We went to downtown disney just to walk around. Zac loved the little lego table.

The weather was beautiful at the beach. Kylee loved digging into the sand and putting it in her mouth of coarse.

She found this frisbee and would not put it down. She kept putting sand all over in it and then dumping it out.

We went to Salt Creek Beach which usually has a great place for tide pools, but the waves were so big that Ben didn't want to take Zac out there, so they went on a lizard hunt instead.

This beach reminded me of the Oregan Coast.

Zac actually took this picture of us. He is a regular photographer now I guess. As you can see Kylee wasn't really into the game. For the first half she wanted to walk up and down the stairs and for the last half she fell asleep on Ben.

She was really into the cotton candy.

Zac enjoyed the game for the most part, but he was more excited about the cotton candy and the fireworks at the end (he used to be deathly affraid of fireworks, so that was a shocker). I love fireworks, so that was my favorite part, but I also love going to baseball games.

We had pretty good seats and the mariners won, so Ben was happy.

It was good to get away for a weekend and relax. I'm sure we'll be dieing to go to Cali. more this summer when it's blazing hot around here.

Easter weekend

We went to St. George for easter and had a really fun time. I guess Zac wanted to give Kylee a happy Easter kiss or something.

There is a new park close to my parents condo that is totally amazing. Jenna and I were re-living our childhood on this swing. Of coarse there were no swings quite this cool when I was a kid.

We went to some hill to throw the eggs down and Zac was in heaven. We also went on a little hike after and Zac found about 50 paint balls. Kylee was not too sure about the hike. She would only let my mom or Jenna hold her.

Zac is blowing bubbles and Kylee is trying to keep up with Molly (Jordan and Jamie's dog) on chewing up all the toys.

He's so proud of his creations.

Kylee can't decide if she wants to go in or out, so she goes out and comes in 2 seconds later. She does this in repeated intervals all the time.

I have to write about what Zac said when we were talking about why we celebrate easter. I ask Zac if he knows why we celebrate easter and he says "because that's when Jesus died and then was resurrected" Then I ask him what it means to be resurrected and he says "that's when your spirit comes back into your body" All this is stuff we have talked about many times, so i'm not surprised that he knows the answers. But then we start talking about how lots of people were so happy when they found out Jesus was resurrected and Zac pipes up and says "Well when Mary went to the tomb and Jesus wasn't there she says 'what have you done with him?'" I am guessing he learned this in his sunbeam class, so he really does get something out of going to church. I am affraid Zac is going to pass me up in a few short years. We had a wonderful Easter and are so grateful for the atonement and resurrection of our Savior.

WE FINALLY BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!

We finally bought a house and moved in a week ago. I can't even tell you how nice it is to have some space and to not have people living above us. We have been in a 2 bedroom apartment for almost 4 years and with 2 kids it was getting a little cramped. It was a lot of work getting into this house. We bought it from the bank, so it was really dirty and needed new carpet and paint. My mom came down and helped me scrup the place for a week (my brother Jared and Dad helped a lot too, so thanks so much all of you for helping us so much). I should have posted some before pictures because it doesn't even look like the same house. This is our kitchen and I have so much space to cook now and store food. I'm in heaven.

This is kindof the dining room area just off of the kitchen. We still need to get an area rug and maybe a new TV stand. I am loving the fire place. Sometimes in the morning when me and the kids are eating breakfast we turn it on for a few minutes to warm up the room.

This is the guest bedroom downstairs. Now if anyone wants to come and visit they will have a place to sleep. Jordan and Jamie were the first ones to try out the bed. They also have a little dog who loved our little doggy door. Yes we have a doggy door and no dog and I don't plan on getting one any time soon.

This is the view you get when you first walk into the house.

This is our loft upstairs. It is huge and we spend a lot of our time up here. This room is one of the main reasons I wanted this house. Of coarse we still need a TV stand and some pictures hung up, but it's going to take me a while before I dare pound holes in my newly painted walls.

This is the master bathroom. I have always wanted a big tub. Our closet is really big too which is good since we have no bedroom furniture yet.

This was supposed to be a picture of our master bedroom, but i'm not sure what happened. It's really big, but not that exciting because we have no furniture or pictures up.

Kylee's room is painted pink. It looks so cute. Her white bedroom furniture was mine when I was a little girl. I'm so glad my mom saved it.

This bed is what Kylee will sleep in when she is older. The day bed was also mine.

Zac is sleeping in a full size bed now and so far he hasn't fallen out. He has come pretty close though, as you can see. We painted one wall in his room blue and he absolutely loves it. When I was trying to talk him into sleeping with Kylee one night so my dad could have his bed he said, "But mom how will I see my blue wall?" I told him he could look at it all he wanted the next day.

These are some of the palm trees in our back yard. We have around 40 palm trees in our yard.Oops! Zac's room again. (I don't know how to erase pictures once i've posted them).

My kids play outside for hours. It is sooooo nice to finally have a yard (even though there is no grass). The cement patio is really big, so Zac can ride his bike, scooter and 4-wheeler out there. He can also drive his remote control car and draw on the cement with chalk. Kylee is even learning how to ride the 4-wheeler. They both love the swing too. Right now the weather is so nice, so it's fun to just sit outside on the swing and relax.

I think we will be spending the majority of the summer in here. This is a mini pool, which can also be heated for a hot tub. Ben and I have been in it twice already. It works just fine which was lucky because we didn't know if it even worked when we bought the house. I think we are going to have to refinish it soon though because there are little pebbles coming off all over.

Fun times in the back yard. We are so blessed to be able to buy a house. There is still a lot of work to do in the yard and i'm hoping to be able to get the outside painted in the next 6 months, but i'm very happy with our house. Thanks again to my mom, Jared and my dad for all your help.

Fun times at the homefront

My neighbor Bonnie gave Kylee the cutest duck robe and slippers. She tries to get right back in the tub when I put them on her.

Zac got these wings at preschool because they were learning about bugs. He wasn't very happy about me taking his picture (surprise, surprise). Kylee loved wearing the wings, but mostly she wanted to bite them (another big surprise).

I think Zac is trying to pretend he is a bacugan. If you have little boys you will probably know what these are.

Do we have a little gangster on our hands???

Kylee still hasn't mastered feeding herself, but she loves to try.

Kylee is trying once again, while Zac is playing away on his xylophone that we made in preschool. It was my turn to do it and we had the letter X. My mom and dad helped me construct these magnificent instruments.

My children are very busy and very messy. Kylee is into everything except her toys. She loves to dance and sing and whenever she hears any song she instantly starts spinning in circles (ring-around-the-rosies). She likes to babble, but doesn't say too many words yet. Zac has taught himself how to play on the computer (i'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing). He is always asking for snacks, so I don't know why he is so sinny. His new complaint is, "that's not fair". It's probably good for him to realize that fact now. Life certainly isn't fair, but we wouldn't progress if everything was easy. As hard as it is to be a mom sometimes it is also a lot of fun. I think if I didn't have kids I would be a much more self absorbed person. They force you to become better and put others ahead of yourself. They help you to realize what's really important in life.

Zac feeds Kylee fun dip!

The other day Zac was eating fun dip and he decided to share with Kylee, which is rare for him. She was loving it and everytime he stuck the stick in her mouth she didn't want to let go. Both of them had yucky green mouths for the rest of the day.

I also have to write about what Zac said to me the other day, so I won't forget it. He was dumping his milk on the table and I got mad at him and told him to stop acting like a baby. He just looked at me with a serious face and said "Well mom, you need to stop acting like a mad woman." Needless to say I wasn't mad anymore after that. I seriously felt like I was dealing with a teenager at that moment. Maybe he will get it all out now and be a sweet perfect teenager, but I won't hold my breath.