Crabtree Look-alike Meter

I stole this link from Brian's aunt...(thanks Erin!!) I had soo much fun with it! the website uses facial recognition software, so I guess its pretty accurate! Now I don't have to wonder anymore... they all look like Bri!! (cept my girl!!)

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Printable family tree - Descendants

Crabtree Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Crabtree Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Jaden at his best

Jaden is a serious goof ball... or he is going to be a cross dresser someday! I don't know!! I sent him into his room tonight to get his PJ's on and didn't see or hear from him for about 10 minutes... so I called down the hall to ask what he was doing?!? (he gets very distracted when he sees a train or a car on the floor!) Pretty soon out he came dressed like a little porn star! I just about died laughing! and had to take a picture... this one is definitley going to be shown at his wedding!! what a clown!

(Yes, its all underwear! undies, "bra" and hat... did I ever show you the picture of him in his diaper and snowboots?? and he was only 18 months old... he must get it from his Daddy!)

Family Home Evening

so... due to the fact that Brian works on Monday nights, and every other Sunday night... we have been falling pretty short in the FHE department! so we decided that it would be fun to do "family activities" on any day that is convenient during the week. This week we decided (very VERY spur of the moment) that we should go out and play soccer on the lawn. Well, I was in the process of making dinner, so we decided to go out after we ate. Now for the kids, this didn't really pose much of a problem... but Daddy and I were a little more affected by a soccer match with tummies full of fish tacos!! So we decided to play boys against the girls... and we girls really got off to a good start, and scored the first goal... (it went right under Daddy's legs... GO MOMMY!) all in all I scored twice on Brian, and was happy with my performance, even though we eventually lost by one (1) goal (yeah, thats it! I know... pretty impressive!) and I only kicked the ball over the fence twice!! (Kind of reminds me of playing tennis at home in Mexico and looking for the ball in Aunt Berthas yard cause I hit it over the fence (its like a 10 foot fence, too!) maybe I need to play baseball, and hit home runs... i dunno!) But anyway, we all had a great time together, and are already looking forward to next weeks activity together!!

The Mall...

So I decided to be adventuresome today, and I took all 3 kids to the mall to play in the "toy" area... so we get there, and the kids of course are really excited (YAY we made it out of the house!!) and what do you know?? there are no toys there... Now being a naturally stubborn, obstinate person, I tell the kids "Lets walk around, maybe they just moved it!" so, about an hour later, and several rides up and down the escalators (sorry Mom... I guess I have been paid back for all the times I made you go!!) I finally gave in and started "warning" the kids that it was "PROBABLY" gone. So to make up for there not being any toys to play on, I compensated with a shopping trip into Bath & Body Works... most of you think that was for me (OK, it was!) but my kids really LOVE that store... especially Jaden! they just run from one display to the next opening bottles to smell... and of course Kayla hates them all, and Jaden loves them all... anyway, they were having a 75% off sale, so I really got some great stuff. They had those oils to burn, that are normally $7.50 for only $3.00!!! So as I was standing there smelling them all, and a sales girl came up to me and started talking, and she gave me some really great tips!! She said that if you add a drop or two into your spray (water) bottle and use it for ironing that it makes your clothes smell really good, (and she said it has never left any oily residue on her clothes before!) too bad I did my ironing last night!! but I am going to definitley try it!! OK, I kind of got off track here! So as we were leaving the mall, (more than an hour later) I notice there is a SIGN right there in the old play area, that says the play area is temorarily gone etc etc... so it would have been really great if I had seen that when we first walked into the mall, but O well... we would have missed a great day at the mall and some fun shopping at Bath & Body... The kids were so good, I even took them to McDonalds to get ice cream and cookies.
It was a good day!!

I am a PRINCESS!

so I found a link where you can do a quick questionaire, and they tell you which Disney Princess you are... not sure who my chick is... but she sounds like a great gal!!

You Are Megara!


Charming and witty. You are always the first person to come up with a wisecrack. Sure, you have an attitude, but that's why people love you. You keep them on their toes. Sometimes you can be misleading, but always end up doing the right thing for the people you love.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Try it... its alot of fun!!

the gang's all here...

ok, jaden wants me to display his picture taking skills on our "log" as he calls it. So here goes!

Jaden: The NEW Sing Song Boy

Jaden is the funniest kid! He refuses to sing at Primary... he says he will only sing the songs that HE wants to sing... so I asked him one day what songs he likes to sing... I bet you can't guess which ones he picked... and I got him on video singing them!! Sorry Kell, you just might loose your status as the sing song boy!!

Ode to my mother...

so for the past week, while I was spending my days at the beach and touring around San Diego, my mother (otherwise known as St. Ellen of Mexico) has been here taking care of my family for me... now that is never a very easy task, even under ideal conditions... but this time, it was about 10 times harder than normal! Jaxson came down with a very serious case of RSV the day before we left, and was really the sickest he has ever been. We used to call him Fat Boy and now we call him Skinny Minnie, because he lost so much weight!! On top of Jax being so sick (and Mikayla and Jaden driving her insane!) she got really sick, with a bad respiratory infection and laryngitis! And we never heard a word of complaint out of her... she just kept saying she was just fine, and could handle it!! what a wonderful Mom and Grandma you are!!! Thank you soo much for always being there for us (not only my family, but all of us in the Turley clan!!) I wish we could clone you so each of us could have one of you to keep, and you could actually take some time for yourself!

Thank you and we love you!!!

our little boy...

Jaxson is growing up so fast!! He is now really doing a pretty good job at sitting up... well, he was before he got so sick again!! (Yes RSV for the 5th time in 6 months... unfortunatley he was REALLY sick this time...) After a week of having to be held all the time, he is kind of starting over again... but he has pretty good muscle control, and if he can get into his "tripod" position, he does OK!! Of course our favorite part is when he starts to tip, and falls over on his head!! what a rolly polly little guy he is!!

He is also really starting to move around alot!! Whenever I put him down on the floor, it is only a matter of minutes before he has scooted and inched his way clear across the room!! Somehow he always manages to get himself wedged between the ottoman and the entertainment center, which he HATES and he screams until someone comes to rescue him... and gone are the days when he screams as soon as he flips over to his tummy... he has finally figured out how to flip back over onto his back, OR he just takes off across the floor. I am in panic mode... I definitley DO NOT want a crawler yet... but I guess that is not really up to me, is it??

the grand finale... Trip #3

about 10 days after we got home from Mesa, Brian and I were off to San Diego for our annual vacation for some "us" time. It is so great to get away from all the stress and the kids (at our house those are ususally the same thing...) and just reconnect and get to know eachother and learn to appreciate eachother again! this year we decided on San Diego for our hot spot... as most of you know, Brian served his mission there about 11 years ago, and had not been back since.

The first day we got there, we picked up our rental car, (the attendant talked Brian into upgrading to a convertible), and we basically had dinner, checked into the hotel and checked OUT of consciousness!! we were both sooo tired that we just dropped! we kind of felt guilty about loosing a half day and a night of our time in San Diego, but I gotta say that we were completley worthless, we were so tired!! so after a really good nights sleep, we headed out to see some sights!

On our second day we visited the Birch Aquarium, the San Diego Temple (where we met two diffrent missionaries one was a sister from Spanish Fork, and the others were an elderly couple from Ogden... it was fun to talk about "home" with them!!), and then topped it all off with a Padres baseball game. We felt bad, because there was hardly any fans there, and half of them were cheering for the other team!! but we had a great time anyway!!

Our third day was centered on the San Diego Zoo... wow, that place is BIG!! when we walked through the gates we had the option of boarding a little open air bus to tour the zoo, or walking around. I know... everyone who knows me is saying "I bet she took the bus!" well, I opted to WALK around the place instead!! I know, in these days its nice and refreshing to see miracles happen, but I gotta say... I was SOOO hot and tired! Brian didn't even break a sweat, and I was about to die! About half way through the zoo, we realized that we were going through "backwards" meaning we were walking through the place going uphill all the way!! but by then it was too late to do much of anything about it, so we just went ahead and walked the rest of the way uphill. By the time we got to the end, we were pretty tired, so we took the aerial tram back down... (see pic above) it was so much fun that we did it about 4 times, back and forth... it was a fun and relaxing way to cool off and end our day!! So that took up most of our day so we just went to dinner and then decided to drive south to Imperial Beach (that is about 5 miles from the Mexico border). We had fun walking out onto the pier down there and watching the surfers and the people fishing off the side of the pier, then on the way home we drove over the Silver Strand, through Coronado Island and over the Coronado Bay Bridge, which is all very beautiful and scenic... we definitley recommend the drive if you are in San Diego!!

Day four was centered around the Wild Animal Park, where they keep and try to breed endangered wild animals... they have two southern white rhinos there (I think from south africa) and they are two of only 8 left on the planet!! we had alot of fun there, some of the hightlights were the lions... They had 2 female lions and 3 baby cubs together, (they have to keep the male lions seperate so they don't kill the babies) and one of the patrons wanted a lion to come over, so he kept pounding on the glass. Before we knew it one of those mama lions was prowling around right in front of us and roaring her head off! she was really getting upset, and you could tell she was looking for a weak spot in the glass so she could get out and eat someone... it was really cool! usually all the animals just sleep the day away and you can barely get a picture of them, but this lion was MAD!! it was great! the other fun thing was the tour called "Journey into Africa", where they keep alot of animals just out in the open and all living together as they would in the wild... it was fun to see the zebras and giraffes and rhinos all out there together. As you can imagine they didn't have lions or tigers out there, as the tour guide said... "that would be a whole diffrent kind of tour!"

Day five we went over to spend the day at Sea World... that was alot of fun too! we saw the Shamu show, the dolphin show, and the sea lion show. It was so much fun to see how just the smallest movement from the trainers, whether it was a flick of their wrist or the way they stand, told the animals what to do! We also walked through a glass tunnel with sharks swimming all around us, we saw polar bears, otters and walruses and we even went on some rides. We went on the "Shipwreck Rapids" where you get in a round boat and go through waterfalls and rapids... we were SOOO wet by the time we got off that ride!! we decided that if we go again, we will do that first, cause it really cools you off, and you need a couple hours for your jeans to dry out!! We also went on a "splash mountain" type ride... Can you beleive it?? Bri actually got me to ride on a roller coaster! that has not happened since I was about 5 years old at Six Flags in Fort Worth TX!! I was soo traumatized I have been afraid ever since! and NO... this experience did NOTHING to help me overcome my fears! I screamed my lungs out THE WHOLE TIME!! I just kept screaming and hoping it was over!! but I survived and Brian got a good laugh at me... and I can say I am proud of myself for having gone, even though I now need therapy!!

All in all it was a fun trip... Considering we never left the hotel before noon, I think we still managed to do just about everything there was to do, and kind of broke the bank in the process, but we have some great memories and some pretty terrible sunburns!! (well, Bri does... he just got redder and redder! Poor guy!)

busy, busy, busy cont... trip #2

about two days after we got home from Idaho, I packed up my kids and drove (with my brother) down to Mesa Az. to go to my niece's high school graduation. The kids really had fun playing with their Turley cousins, swimming and trying to avoid Aunt Robynns little dog. Jaden is terrified of dogs, and the littler they are the scarier they are to him!! We were all so excited to be going to sunny Arizona, since we were all still doing battle with our colds from Idaho... little did we know that it would be almost as cold and wet in Az as it was in Utah!! The high school even had to have their graduation in the pouring rain!! o well, they made the news, so I guess it was worth it!! a pretty memorable event for ALL who attended! and as you know I can never publish a post without adding some of the drama in our lives... so for this trip, I will add that the olive trees in Mesa tried to KILL ME while we were there... I have never in my life had allergies, and I can honestly say that I never EVER again want to have them!! what misery! the other "drama" was with Mikayla... shocking, I know... but between her and me, we really kept it coming! Living up here in the "garden of Eden" we don't really have to be careful of what we touch... Mikayla loves to touch plants, and she was shocked and "pained" to discover what a cactus was!! she grabbed ahold of one, and pulled!!! both of her hands were COVERED in thorns, and it took more than an hour to pick out all the teeny tiny stickers out of her fingers and palm!! and YES she did scream the WHOLE time!! what an experience! needless to say it only took a word to warn her away from the desert vegetation after that!!!

a VERY busy month... Trip #1

OK, so I am sooo way behing on all that is happening in our family!! Brian and I have been traveling constantly this past month, so I have not had even one minute to sit and make any new posts... On May 14th-17th we went to visit Brians brother Todd and his family in Rexburg Idaho... we really had a fun time... despite us showing up with sick kids and them having sick kids when we got there... we sure spent alot of time sitting around the house taking care of sad, sick little kids... but it was so much fun to visit together, and the kids had a blast playing with and getting reaquainted with their cousins!! Almost the moment we got out of the car when we got home, Jaden asked me "When are we going back to Weilands house??" Thanks Todd and Tiff for having us to stay... we had a great time!!!