Holland Part 4

The last few days were spent in Amsterdam. Here are the sites and things we did:

We visited the Rijks Museum where they have many works of art from Rembrandt and Vermeer. We also went next door to the Van Gogh museum to see his works of art.

While visiting the museums, we found the I AMsterdam sign, so we had to get some pictures there in front of it.

We walked through the giant Flower market where we picked up our wooden dutch shoes and of course bought tulip bulbs to bring home. Hannah was so excited to buy her tulips!

We visited the Anne Frank house/museum. It was very interesting to see the house she hid in and learn more about her life. Hannah was really fascinated in Anne Frank and said it was one of the things she remembers most. I hope she remembers it when she learns about Anne Frank in school... odds are she won't be you never know.

This is the skinniest house in the "world'. It is the reddish blds (three over from the left).

There were pancakes houses all over the city and after seeing one pancake we knew we had to get one. This is the one Ella ordered. Ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Seriously, who wouldn't like a pancake like that? My daughter that's who... she only at the ice cream. But i ate quite a bit and let me tell you, it was GOOD!

This is Ella with her aunt Jamie. It took her awhile to remember Jamie and learn her name, but once she did.... Ella wouldn't stop saying it and loved being with her aunt!

This is us out in the city enjoying the sites. My camera at this point started to give up the ghost. Good thing we were almost done with the trip.

Holland Part 3

The next few days of our trip were mostly traveling on the canals with a few stops here and there.

Here is a great picture of life on the canal and one of our boats. That is my brother you see on the boat :-)


The houses along the canal were some of the most beautiful i have seen. Many of them were so nice and all of them had the most beautiful gardens and yards.


One night we missed a bridge, so we had to pull over on the side of the canal and dock for the night right outside of Utrecht. We went out for a walk and found the most fun playground for the kids. The next day, we got on our way and we rode through Utrecht and the its covered bridges. Here is what Utrecht looks like from the front of our boat.


Obviously, we had to go through these bridges too. It isn't a great pictures, but it shows just how small the bridges were and how we had to maneuver through them. We had moments were we weren't sure we could make it or we had to duck and hit the decks!


This is the infamous bridge of our trip. No one manned the bridge and we couldn't read Dutch so we didn't know how we were going to get through. We spent 1 1/2 hours sitting waiting for this bridge to find out by the locals in this very small town that it opened automatically at 6:00 pm. Needless to say, this is the bridge that we joke about quite a bit and will always remember as it set us back quite a bit on our trip that day.

General Conference Past

This weekend is General Conference for our church. It is a time to learn important principles and hear messages that help us become better people and more committed to our faith. I found this quote that I loved from a past General Conference and wanted to share. I also wanted to share this new site I found them on... Mamas Who Know... check it out.

10 Things about Jake

It is the same story for most moms, your younger children have less pictures, less movies and less journaling about them. I realized yes, this was true for poor Jakey. So, here is a little bit about my little guy, so that i have something written about him and his developments. He is almost 16 months old and here are the funny things he does:

1) He loves to head-butt. I mean loves it. He thinks it is so funny. And he doesn't do it just a little bit, but he does it a lot and hard. If you aren't paying attention, my little guy can really hurt you! Believe me, we have had our collisions!

2) He loves airplanes. On our trip to Holland, we spent the night by the airport and he went bonkers watching the airplanes fly over head every 2 mins. He would point up into the air and say his word for "plane" with the biggest eyes and smile. The other night the girls said they saw a plane and he heard the word and pointed to that sky and said something in his little own language.
He definitely knows the word "airplane".

3) He loves animals. Every time he sees an animal he squeals and won't leave the animal alone. He is just so excited to see the animal. Sometimes the animal doesn't even have to be alive. In Holland, there was this mini cow statue and Jake ran up to it and squealed and wouldn't not leave the cow. I tried to lure him away, but he was not going to have it. He just kept touching it, laughing and looking at me and pointing to the cow.

4) You can tell Jake has eczema on his cheeks. He has had it since we has 6 months old. No matter what cream or antibiotic I give him, it will not go away. Every always comments about how "rosy" his cheeks are...

5) His hair is so blonde! He gets comments all the time about his hair. 6) He loves books and love to pretend to read them just like his sisters. 7) He got a Woody and Buzz Lightyear for his birthday and he took to them automatically. It is amazing how kids instinctually like Toy Story. 8) He has been walking since he was 12 months old but he still walks like he just learned last week. He is always falling over, stumbling and bumping into things. I am not sure why, but he is the funniest walker/stumbler.

9) Every morning when Hannah leaves for school, Jakey runs to the door and stands there waving and yelling "iye, iye" sorta sounds like "bye". He does it until he can't see Hannah anymore. It is so darn cute!

10) I love this guy. He is so much fun and really such a good kid that just loves to be a part of the family and be a part of life.

Holland Part 2

The next stop was a little town called Loenen. There were two highlights of this town.

The first was a little bakery that had more chocolate than pastries. The cutest little chocolates ever. Owls, hedgehogs, mice and mushrooms... all chocolate and filled with yummy chocolate hazelnut fillings. Probably the best chocolate in Holland.

The second highlight was the biking we did around the town. It had the most beautiful homes and each home had a name. We rode down this country road and found windmills, reflecting ponds with bridges and gorgeous streams and yards.



I asked Hannah what her favorite part of the trip was and she said three things: 1) Riding in grandma and grandpa's boat 2) driving the boat and 3) riding on the back of mom and dad's bike. This picture captures one of those moments.

Activity Day - General Conference Journals

A few weeks ago for our Activity Day, the girls made General Conference Journals. I figure they were getting old enough to start really listening to General Conference and what better way to motivate them than to have them decorate their own journals so they can write notes as they listen.

Here is a link to show how you can decorate a simple composition book.

And then I saw this link where they used pictures of the apostles as tabs so you could write the notes according to who gave the talk. i thought that was a great idea too.

The girls really loved decorating their journals. We will see this weekend if they actually use them!

Holland Trip Part 1

We started our trip in Strand Horst where we picked up our boats. We headed out and our first major site was this beautifully large castle. We knew we were in for some great sites and a truly wonderful trip.

Our first stop was in the cutest little town called Weesp. Every time we went through a town, there were three things each town had in common 1) A church with a gold clock tower, 2) an ice cream shop and 3) a windmill.


This little town was so picturesque and so we took a lot of pictures. Here are just a few of them from Weesp.


I love this picture of Hannah with her grandpa!

And I love this picture of Jake!

Hannah in Weesp.

Everyone rides bikes in Holland. They are everywhere! But none are as cute as this little red big that was in the front of a shop in Weesp. Love it!

We spent the night in Weesp and parked right by the church. So every 30 mins, we could hear the loud chimes of the clock. They were pretty until it was 3:00 am and you were hearing them every 30 mins. We learned a valuable lesson that night. Do not park the boat by churches.

Big We Holland Trip

Just got back from our family trip to The Netherlands. It was a blast. So many fun moments, pictures and memories, but for now I am going to post some pictures the capture the trip in a nut shell. I will get back to regular blogging after I adjust to the jet lag, get the laundry done and unpack!

Our first windmill siting.

Here are our official t-shirts for the trip. I love how they turned out.



Amsterdam had a big flower market. Of course, we brought home tulip bulbs to plant in our yard.

Our trip was all about the bridges. We had to wait for bridges each and every day. And they were all different and unique.

The kids passing the time on the boat.

A typical day on the canals of Holland. So pretty!

Activity Day Binder Sheets

About a year ago, I posted some Activity Day binder sheets I had created for my activity day girls. Every since then, i have recieved about 1-2 requests a day for these sheets. For a year, I have been emailing them to people, but I have finally got my act together and decided to make things easier for everyone. I have posted them on the web, so you can download them yourself without having to ask me for them and wait for me to email them to you.

It will make my life a lot easier and yours too, but I will miss your daily emails and kind words... they always make me feel so good. Hopefully, everyone will find these sheets helpful and easier to access now! Here are the links to the download pages.

Cover Sheet
Article of Faith
Articles of Faith Tracking Sheet
Faith in God Tracking Sheet
BInder Tracking Sheet
Gospel Standards


And here is a link to all my downloadable pages on scribd.

I want that...

I saw this photo and thought... he stole my idea. I love Latte bowls. Every time I walk into Anthropologie and see them I say to myself "I want to collect these bowls and then display them." But I don't every do it because a) i don't have the storage space and b) or a place to display them. But I love them. They are perfect the perfect bowl. Always colorful and pretty and the perfect size.

I wish I had a fun place to display these pretty bowls. maybe someday!

Lost Teeth!

Hannah's two front teeth have been loose for quite some time. I can't pull out teeth or even watch them wiggle for that matter and Chris just figures they will fall out on their own when they are ready (which is code for "he doesn't like to pull them either").

So, days before 1st grade, Hannah hit her front teeth with her knee and one of her teeth came right out. Which was perfect, since they were so close. But then she was left with this one tooth that was so loose and crooked, it looked like it was smack dab in the middle of her mouth.

Hannah came out of the bathroom one day and said "mom, do I look like Ray the Firefly?" It took me a minute, but I realized she meant Ray from The Princess and the Frog. I told her she did kind of look like him and she was so pleased with herself. But what i didn't tell her was that there was no way, I was letting her go to 1st grade looking like Ray the Firefly!

So, I gave it until Sunday and then I called our neighbors (the husband is a dentist) and asked (and kinda begged) him to pull the tooth out. So, we headed over and after a few minutes and full intrigue by all the kids, Hannah's second front tooth was finally out!

Hannah was sad, she didn't look like Ray anymore.. . me not so much!

Big We Trip

I am fortunate to have been able to travel with my family to many exciting places all around the world. A few of my favorites: Syria, Tonga, New Zealand, Vietnam and Turkey to name a few). My parents love to travel and so since many of us didn't get married until we were older, we got to accompany them on my many of their travels. When my parents would talk about traveling and trips, we would always have them clarify "Is this a BIG WE trip" or a "SMALL WE" trip. Meaning, was it the whole family or just the parents going on the trip.

So, now whenever we talk about going on family trips, we call it a "BIG WE" trip. Since, all of us have since married and now have kids, the BIG WE Trips have been scarce and slowly coming to an end, but not quite yet! We have one more BIG WE trip coming up and it really is a BIG WE trip.

It is everyone. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. All of us are going to Holland to travel through the country via the canals and canal boats. I am excited for this trip, but at the same time fearful of the 20+ hours plane rides, the jet lag and traveling with all three kids (plus 3 more cousins).

But to add to the excitement, my parents decided to make t-shirts for the trip and they asked me to design them. So, here are our BIG WE trip t-shirts. It is a simple design (I gave everyone 4 to choose from and this was the one everyone picked). This trip will definitely be an adventure and ready or not, we will be stylin' fun family t-shirts for the adventure!