Our week

Tyler was so happy to be home- he loved playing with Grandma/pa Balls and Ranell all week. But he was so excited to know it was Monday because it means Family Home Evening- He asked me all day, is it still monday... he didn't want to miss it- he had our family home evening game out by 9:30 in the morning and I had to tell him we needed to wait until dad came home so dad wouldn't be sad if we did it with out him. So this is us, after FHE eating icecream as a family- Notice how big Ella is!!!


This is Ella's blessing dress- Our neighbor made it, it is just beautiful!


This is Darren (after an all morning meeting) walking with Ella in Central Park. It wasn't to hot but we did wish we were in shorts and t-shirts-We had a great time in NY- Ella was a champ even on the plane ride

quick update

we need to post some pictures I know... but we are trying to do so many projects right now, I will just write a quick update.

Here is a list of updates:
1. I have bangs and layers in my hair- Hair that has been straight and long for almost 10 years

2. Ella is smiling and cooing alot- sleeping 11 hours at night, and eating like a champ

3. Tyler is at Grandma and Grandpa Balls house in Logan for a week. Darren and I will be leaving for NY on Monday to have a vacation/work conference

4. Darren had Lasik surgery on Thursday and is slowly recovering. He had a more serious kind of procedure due to his cornea being a different shape

5. We have a 25 X 21 foot beautiful colored cement deck- Darren has worked really hard to get the sprinklers all adjusted before the cement was poured.

6. We were supposed to have a fence by now, but all i have to say between the cement contractors and the fence company, I am finished for a while with contractors

7. We get to talk in church today in sacrament meeting

8. Darren has to give a talk/speech at the conference in NY

9. At the conference in NY we are doing a service project - those who know Christi Byrd from VA - we are coordinating it with her, Darrens work and the employees are donating money and we go out and serve/give to the community in NY. So... Darren and I have been come the leaders of our group since we came up with the great service idea. So on Thursday... if everything goes through smoothly...(coordinating between there different groups in NY is very difficult) but if all goes well, we will be helping a very poor school in the Bronx build an educational garden. Very cool. I will post pictures later.

10. It is fathers day, so I will go cook breakfast for my husband!

Blessing Ella

We blessed Ella last sunday, it was nice to have lots of family around. Our neighbor made Ella's whole outfit, from bonnet, to slip, dress, braclet, and shoes. It looked beautiful on her.
We also went up to Logan for Seth's birthday (Grandpa Balls) and tyler loved helping with the yard work! I really enjoyed all the time with the Balls family- It wont be long until we all start spreading out like the Harston family all ready is. But for now, We have everyone in the Balls family close by.

Memorial Weekend

We drove to Koosharem and stayed at my Grandma Hatch's little cabin. It rained a lot on the way down and we woke up with some snow on the hills. All four of us slept in the back of the truck. Which was good because it was pretty cold. Toby had to sleep in the cab of the truck. Then we woke on Sat and drove to Capital Reef. You cant have dogs on any trails so we didn't do much hiking.


Tyler, Darren and Toby spent the other nights in the tent (Toby outside the tent) and Mom and Ella slept in the truck, That way mom didnt' wake anyone up in the night to feed Ella and Ella could cry all she wanted too and didn't bother anyone but me!!!

Ella spent alot of time in the front back strapped to mom. Wrapped up warm.. dont worry!
We went on a hike up a canyon called Little Wild Horse Canyon. Interputation= Little means long, Wild means Crazy to try it with two kids and a dog, Horse means we needed a horse to carry us all out and Canyon, well, that just means a really long hike that you cant get out of. This is what we learned on this adventure. You can look at the map, see it is "only" a nine mile hike and think, that is easy, no problem. But this was a slot canyon, with water to wade through, boulders to climb over and lift toby over, and hot sun to walk through. The nine miles took us just over 6 hours. Pathetic. So next time, we will scale our hiking ambitions down.
TYler was happy to get out of the pack the last mile and hike, and Darren was happy to have that 28 pounds off his back.

We also went to Goblin Valley and talked around exploring all the fun things. We had a great time, and hope that Darren will be less stressed now that his audit is over.

the scary museum

Tyler was so excited to see the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. But when we got there, he couldn't understand we weren't going to see real dinosaurs. So he was a bit nervous going in. They have a great place for kids to play in sand and water. Kids could splash around with their hands, build islands/mountains, put trees and play dinos all over. We had a great time.



Tyler did NOT want to sit on this dinosaur, I had to go up and pet it and sit on it, then he relaxed and posed for this great picture.

my "green" day

I just wanted to share how good I feel today. I rode my bike with the chariot stroller hooked behind to the library today, I had to take back roads - so it was about 3 miles one way- then we stopped at the grocery store got some veggies (and a fresh roll) and rode home 3 miles. It felt great to exercise and take the time. I even remembered to take in bags to the store and reused my grocery sacks!!

no rain here..yet

I dressed Ella this morning in a shirt her Uncle Rob and Aunt Rachel gave her. It is of kid walking in Seattle getting rained on- It is supposed to rain for Memorial Weekend and we were hoping to go out camping and enjoy the great outdoors after Darren will finally be finished with his audit this Friday- lets hope we see him more often now.

We also set up the little kid pool in the backyard- when tyler wakes up from his nap, he gets to swim- thank goodness for no rain-

also on a rainy note- We have been trying to redeem our United frequently flyer miles for MONTHS!!!- Needless to say, I am finished with united- BUT - we will not be going to Costa Rica like we really wanted too. We will be going to Kauai - Hawaii for 10 days in October- it is a rainy time there in Oct but we will still love it- Especially considering we only had to pay 10 bucks for each ticket- Finally our miles have been redeemed!!!

Spring time

We have been keeping busy, even if it consists of feeding two kids and myself. Candace came down and went to the zoo for a day. We enjoyed the time together- Sad thinking they will be leaving soon for Michigan.(?) Tyler loves playing with his cousins - and thanks to Grandma Balls- they had superman capes to run around with- just at our house - not at the zoo:)

Ben and Renee have been helping us with a fun project of building a larger garden box, we hope to have lots of delicious veggies to eat soon- even some zucchini
But our best news is that Ella has started to do more sleeping at night then screaming. We have been keeping her up the last three hours of the day, instead of letting her sleep - I know it might sound cruel- but then she goes to sleep with out screaming for hours- We are all happier! She is just starting to smile- So attached I put an adorable picture of her- SLEEPING!!!

A month ago...

One month ago (and a couple days) we had an addition to our family. Tyler really likes her still, Toby is still very needy, Darren is trying to balance out his life with the stress of the audit and us- I am sure we are not stressful though... And I am getting the ropes of how to accomplish things, stay calm and love my husband and kids- and Toby, even though he clings to me like rice on ... I dont really know what that saying finishes~

I went to the temple and lunch with friends on Sat and Darren stayed home for 4.5 hours with the kids. He said- "This stay at home thing is a piece of cake" then continued to tell me all he had accomplished. Feed both kids lunch, put both kids down for naps, mowed the lawn with Tyler, vacuumed the house... I am sure there was more, but I will stop there. I only mention this because well, 1. I guess I have an amazing husband and 2. I WILL leave him home more often because he does it so well!!!

The other exciting news is I got a zoo pass and I can take an extra person every time I go, so if anyone wants to go, give me a call!