Monday, September 20, 2010

twrightphotography.com

let's start with my youngest, Isaac aka "isee". literally 2 days after i tell joel that is not my favorite nickname and i want to stop using it, scarlett starts calling him "isee". what are you gonna do? it's so cute when she says it. he is 19 months and 21lbs. he wears a lot of 12 & 18 month stuff but can still fit into 3-6m shorts. he's got the cutest little bum! he loves to give kisses and snuggle mama. he loves to read and go down the slide. he shoves all of his food in his mouth and eats just about everything we feed him. he's a mischievious little boy and likes to run away from his mama when he gets the chance. i love him to pieces.
scarlett bean is also 19 months ;) and about 20 lbs. i put her in a 0-3 m dress the other day and called it a shirt. she looked adorable but it was a little snug when I was taking it off. so today she's wearing a 6-9 month shirt. she is a cutie who is really starting to talk. she also loves to kiss and snuggle. she is really helpful too. she brings mama just about anything i ask for. she has the most infectious laugh and she can shake it on the dance floor. she is very good at sharing and when she brings you something she says, "dain doo" aka thank you! she is slightly more well behaved but only slightly. her favorite place to play is in the middle of the road which is very annoying! luckily we're on a cul de sac so we get very little traffic.
miles is 5!!! and i can't believe it. he is taller than ever 49 inches i think. and weighs about 50 lbs. he's in size 6 stuff mostly. he's one of the tallest kids in his class. he's my big boy helper. he is so great with the twins and when he comes home from his dad's he's always picking the twins up saying, "who's my baby girl? who's my baby boy?" i love it!! he is currently in karate and is obsessed with his sensei. he loves it and is so excited to go every time he has class. our neighbor across the street is in miles' class at school. they play together 2 or 3 times a week after school. he is great with the kitty and is very cautious since xander got his "nuts cut off" last week. he's a man in a childs body cause everything he wants needs to be "adult". he wants books with no pictures, and glass not plastic, he doesn't care much for his toys (unless someone else wants them), he still loves his veggies and even asked for brussel sprouts last time we were at the grocery store and we still check every time to see if they have "pomegramitts" yet.
landyn is the big boy in the house. at about 48 inches and 60 lbs i can barely pick him up. i don't know how his mom does it cause she still carries him all of the time. he is fascinated with toys and puzzles. he could play for hours in his room with his toys which is pretty typical i guess, but so different from miles. he LOVES his dad and always wants to spend time with him. he enjoys camping too! he calls himself an eating machine and that's no joke. he could eat all day long until you bring out the veggies that are green. :D also very typical for his age. we still get to see quite a bit of landyn even though he has also started kindergarten. the afternoon schedule has definitely gone in our favor. he's great with numbers and i can totally see this kid being an accountant one day.
then there's us. not much new. joel is still doing carpet and enjoying it. i'm still a stay at home mom and never want to quit. we are in our new house 724 N. 480 W. Orem 84057. we've got fruit trees and plenty of room for the dogs. we have a room for everyone, even uncle spencer who we love having in our home. joel is scout master in our ward and you know he loves that! i'm the compassionate service leader. setting up dinners for all the preggies and sickies. ;)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Audra Mei Mitchell

this beautiful baby girl was born at 9:12a on July 17th to Joel & Weedle Mitchell
she is very tiny, only 6 lbs 5 oz at birth at a little less by the time they brought her home
Mom and baby are healthy and doing well!
Congratulations to my brother and his wife on their 3rd child in 3 years!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

shooting the twins

wish we could have gotten family pictures with the boys too but it wasn't our night and it just didn't work out. luckily I found someone on ksl.com offering a free family shoot each month and we got picked for July!! so really soon we will have some new family pictures. :D in the mean time, enjoy these. isaac totally out shot scarlett...again but every picture isaac looked super adorable in, scarlett was in the background crying. lol it just turned out that the best pics of me and joel have scarlett in them. also can i just say how glad i am that awful beard is gone? yes, I'M SO GLAD!!

3 months later...

So far this has been an amazing summer. At the very end of April our annual family pass to the Tracy Aviary and Ogden Dinosaur Park expired. Joel had the day off and we had both of the boys so we took them up there for a farewell visit. While we were there we met a family with twins and after talking for a moment found out it was their 2nd set of twins! They had 7 year old boy/girl twins and 1 year old boys. :D That is always fun.
These kids had a great time walking around and the twins got to swing on the swings. (It was their favorite thing to do at that time.) We had a Burger King picnic and took a bunch of pictures. Here are just a few.
In May, Joel and I took our first ever vacation together and went all the way to Park City! It was such a fun vacation. We started off by getting massages at the Massage Cabin where Emily works. The prices are so reasonable ($35 for an hour) that we couldn't pass it up, especially when Emily and Nicole had openings. Then Joel surprised me with a reservation at the Dakota, a resort at the Canyons. Our room was amazing! Seriously, one of the nicest rooms I'd ever stayed at. We went out for sushi at the Flying Sumo which was fabulous by Emily's recommendation! We stopped at the grocery store on the way back and picked up some hot chocolate (Stephen's peanut butter cup) and Ice cream (haagen daz java chip) and popcorn. We had the nicest little kitchenette in our room and we wanted to take advantage. And after we make a stop at the pool and hot tub we had yummy snacks.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the resort and that was delicious. The best eggs benedict I've ever had. The make their own english muffins (which tasted like pizza crust) and cure their own ham. Un-believable! After breakfast Joel let the front desk know our TV wasn't working properly and after sending someone to fix it, they decided they would just switch our rooms. Our new room was bigger than our first apartment. The kitchen was amazing! Two fireplaces, a washer and dryer, view of the pool, jetted tub, double headed shower...it was unreal.
That night we went to Cirque du Soleil's Alegria! at the E Center. An amazing show to say the least. We had excellent seats (which I found for super cheap on ksl.com). We were both blown away and I'm pretty sure it was the first time Joel didn't comment on how "he could do that". ;) That night Emily and Jennie & boys came up to Park City and we went to TenPin and danced the night away. It was a such a fun vacation. I loved every minute of it with my honey. The twins were with my step-mom and dad and the boys were with their other parents. 
In June I took the kids out to California for a final disney trip before the summer blocked us out. It was so fun. I love taking the kids there. It makes me as happy as it makes them. My mom even splurged one night and got us a hotel in Anaheim so we could do a double header at the park. I also went to San Diego and got to spend some much needed time seeing a few of my favorite people. None of whom I got pictures of but I did get to meet Gunner Von Pierce, Kim's adorable redhead baby boy. I got to spend some quality time with the Bramwells who also let us stay at their lovely home. And last but not least, the Neylan's and I got to meet their sweet baby Aubrey. Beautiful children all around. We had a great time! The day that I got back into town, I unpacked and repacked for a week in Snowbird with the Mitchell's. We swam and played lots of cards and ate delicious meals and had a great time. Again I didn't take many pictures but I did get this cute one of Isaac in a hand towel after he showered from swimming with Daddy and Landyn.
As soon as we got back from Snowbird Joel and I got ready for Trek. It was an incredible experience. Neither one of us went on trek when we were in high school so we were both very interested to go. In fact the last four wards that I have been in have participated in Trek while I was living in the ward boundaries and this is the first time that I have ever been asked to participate as well. I loved every minute of being a "ma". We had a great group of youth, two of which joined us the day before we left. (And boy were we lucky!) Everyone did an amazing job trekking and pulling/pushing the handcarts. It was an incredibly spiritual experience for everyone. The first picture is at Independence Rock in Wyoming. It was basically a message board for anyone traveling the Oregon and Mormon Trails. They told us a story of a woman whose husband had left before her to set up a home and she didn't even know if he'd survived until she got to I.R. and saw his name carved in the rock and she knew he'd at least made it that far. Unbelievable! We got to go to Martin's Cove which President Hinckley has been quoted as saying "it is the most sacred place on the Earth he has ever been to". We got to see the Sweet Water River where the 4 "Valley Boys" carried the people of the Martin Handcart company across the river all day long because they were too weak and weary to cross another river in that cold. We went to Sixth Crossing where the Willey handcart company was rescued. We went to Rock Creek where so many of the Willey handcart company were buried. All of these places were sacred. The last night we camped in Wyoming we had a HUGE dinner of  steak, and potatoes and corn and biscuits and a cherry cobbler dessert and as we left that line they handed us a tiny sack of flour and told us this was the adult ration of food for the saints in the Martin Handcart company before their rescue. I was sooo hungry and tears came to my eyes as I felt the pain they must have felt. And as a mother what I would feel not being able to feed my children. I'm so glad I got to go and I hope that one day we will be able to give our children this same experience.
Two days before I trek I went blonde. I'm having more fun and I love it. It's not Joel's favorite but I wanted to try something new. :D
This 4th of July we did Stadium of Fire with our good friends Ryan and Tiffany and Paige. We sat outside the stadium and watched the whole show. It was wonderful. The kids did fireworks the whole time while we sang along to Carrie Underwood, who is gorgeous by the way. Joel did announce a day or two before the show that she is the only blonde he's ever been attracted to. :D Thanks babe! I also put in my blue contacts which don't look so creepy with the blonde hair. Funny story about those contacts. When Miles saw my eyes he said he wanted blue eyes. I told him I could do it for him but I would have to touch his eye. He asked if it would hurt and I told him maybe just for a second but then it would be okay. While we were at the pool later that day he came up and asked me what color his eyes were and I said brown. His response, "ugh! I touched them so many times! I thought they would be blue by now." Then Sunday we went to church up in SLC with Joel's parents and siblings and then had a BBQ and swam. Yes I recycled my shirt cause I loved it so much.
This pretty much catches us up. Facebook has most of the rest of our happenings. We are looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa coming out to visit us from California! We are also anxious to meet our new niece/cousin in just 2 more weeks. How about the name Brielle? I saw that on fb the other day. And this week we are having fun visiting with our Grandy and Grumpy from Minnesota. We've been lucky cause Joel has been really busy with work but we are hoping to take a trip to MN to see the LaClaire family and meet little Mason (who I hear is about as big as the twins even though he's more than a year younger than them). Actually I weighed all of the kids today. Landyn 59 lbs...Miles 52 lbs...Isaac 21 lbs...Scarlett 19 lbs. Yes my 5 year olds are in the fifties and my 18 month olds are barely breaking 20 lbs. 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

little miss determination

this little girlie was walking back and forth in the hall with her hands behind her back. it was...strange. she just went back and forth, and back and forth all the while with her hands behind her back. finally, inbetween a load of dishes and a load of laundry i picked her up. she immediately started to cry. so i put her back down and without missing a beat, she put her hands behind her back and started walking again. this is the moment i realized what she was doing: practicing walking!! she was trying to do it without depending too much on her arms for balance. i was amazed by her determination. she did it for about an hour and now today she is walking like a pro! i can't believe it. she is much steadier on her feet and doesn't have nearly as hard of a time balancing herself. i'm quite sure this little beauty is going to accomplish some wonderful things in her life and i know this will be a story i will share with her again and again.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter!

We had a fun Easter/Conference Weekend at my Dad's house. We did puzzles, ate, played games, ate, watched conference, ate, colored eggs, cooked and ate some more. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Stake Pioneer Trek Activity

hahaha...this is Emma Green, Shyenaia Luna (two of our "daughters") and Me & Joel in our pioneer get-ups Wednesday night at a Stake Mutual. The other Ma in our ward (Tiffany) made all of my stuff: bonnet, apron & skirt; talk about talent! She spent so much time making everyone else's stuff she didn't have enough time to do her own. But she did make her daughter, Paige this adorable bonnet. Love it!

We had a lot of fun playing pioneer games and square dancing. We're really excited for this summer. Even though it's a lot of work for everyone involved, I think most people are really getting in the spirit of things and getting super excited. More to come!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Happy 5th Birthday MILES!

it was five years ago today that I had this beautiful baby boy!
he is 46" and 51 lbs
he wears size 5 pants & shirts and size 13 shoes
he can ski, swim, ride a bike, climb a tree, play the wii
he loves to sing & dance
he can spell his name & can recognize all his letters
he looks forward to getting baptized, passing the sacrament, being a boy scout & being a missionary
he loves disneyland & his grandma's big house
he is extremely helpful, especially in the kitchen & especially with his baby brother & sister

i'm a lucky mama to have such a handsome son!
happy birthday little man!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

March in a nutshell

This is what my everyday life looks like. The twins pulling everything out of every drawer 5-10 times a day and me picking everything up. :D I really love nap times. (Which is actually going on right now as I blog.) In the first pic I love the smirk on Scarlett's face like, "yeah, I know, I'm really good at this!" The second one I missed Isaac sitting back seat of Scarlett in the little box. The third one Isaac is sitting on top of Scarlett which is why she's crying. Of course I had to get a picture before I took him out. 4th is reading time for Isaac. So cute! 5th I went out to grab something out of my car and that is what I turned around to see. 6th is St. Patrick's Day green and just a lot of grins and giggles on the stairs. (Next to the bathroom it's their favorite place to play.)
Last Month ended with a trip to California. My sister took a bunch more pictures but the only one I took was of me and my friend, Kate at her son's baby shower! She's now got a beautiful baby boy named Lucas. He is such a doll. Kate was probably 37 weeks in this picture and retaining quite a bit of water that even her face was swollen. She probably is gonna hate this picture but they're good to have so afterward you can look back and say, "Wow! Look how skinny I am now!" Congratulations Mama!
GROUP DATE NIGHT: started at with me & Joel going to the temple. Then we met up with Emily and her roommate & their boyfriends for some shish kabobs and then on to Bowling. No one had a stellar game. If I remember correctly I think most of the time we were just happy to break 100. I had to throw in the last picture of me and Emily cause when we saw it we just started cracking up. We thought we looked exactly the same and had the exact same expression and everything.
A couple of weekends ago Auntie Dionne was pet sitting Poncho. Poncho is the sweetest dog ever and He's also the size of a Horse! All of the kids loved him. I was probably the least interested...definitely. Anyway, these are my 46 & 45 inch boys standing next to him. MASSIVE!
Landyn's 5th Birthday was March 15th. He came over and daddy took him and Isaac to Chuck E. Cheese for some fun while Miles and I got things ready for the party. Isaac's favorite game was daddy's favorite game. :) We had a Bakugan cake and Auntie Jane did some face painting. It was a lot of fun. Grandma even sent Landyn 3 new super awesome Bakugan's to add to his collection.
Miles, Emily, Robyn, Nicole, Nate & I went to Color-Me-Mine for a birthday-ish treat. Miles, Emily & I went last year and Miles really liked it and when they had their customer appreciation day (complete with Donuts aka: Miles favorite treat in the whole world, especially Maple Bars) I had to plan a trip. He chose a RICE BOWL and I chose an elephant piggy bank and Emily did a mug. We had lots of fun and got lots of compliments on our items. I'll post more pictures when we get them back on Saturday. This picture below is Miles trying to stand right in front of me cause he wanted to be in the picture alone. Little stinker!