Happy Happenings.

Well it wasn't my intention to neglect my bloggity blog for two whole months.  Not that I post all that often, usually just once a month.  It really is hard to blog more often with "red tornado", she would insist on helping which means blog posts would read as follows: aklsdjflaksjdgkhjaskgjalkdfjgklkdfja.  I guess that would be more interesting/entertaining then some of my posts.  Maybe I'll have to have her type one for you all.  So lets play catch up, shall we.  We shall.  October was awesome, it is my favorite month therefore it is awesome simply for being October.  Nathan was able to join us for our Halloween fun, if you all remember, last year he missed out due to a business trip. Halloween festivities started off with going to 'Thriller' at Tuacahn.  Nathan's sister Suzanne and her family came down and went with us. It was my nieces first time going and we all had a blast.  Love that show. 

 I took Amelia to the library Halloween carnival, trick or treating around the mall, and trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Her favorite treat this year was suckers and smarties.  Mostly just suckers.  Of course she refused to say "trick or treat"due to her shyness but she would say "thank you", so I deem the evening a success.  She dressed up as a garden gnome, and loved it.  She would have worn her costume for a week if I let her.  Halloween has turned into our mommy daughter fun day. We usually go out for lunch, get a cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy and go to halloween activities around town.  Then we join up with Nathan after he gets home from work for more fun.  I love it.  Its one of my most favorite days.

 I also painted a huge (7'x7') Halloween backdrop for a couples Halloween party we went to.  I love any excuse to paint.  Nathan and I went as Prince Ronald and the Paper Bag Princess. We had to tell everyone who we were, obviously reading books about princesses who save themselves aren't common here.  We probably would have had a better time at the party but right before we arrived I smacked the side of my car into the garage.  Total buzz kill.  I was trying so hard not to hit our new car that I smacked the side of the garage, awesome.  Did you catch that slip?  Thats right, we got a new (well used but new to us) car!  We are super excited.  Nathan's car needed to be replace bad, its turned into such a lemon since we've moved south.  So after much research and debate, we have replaced our Nissan with a 2010 Subaru Forester. Nathan picked it out and everything.  It's blue.  We call him "Foster Forester" or "Subie Foster"or as Amelia calls it "blue car".  Thats right, we name our vehicles.  Its just something we do.  Amelia is really attached to "blue car", we have temper tantrums over not going in "blue car" when Nathan is at work.  I think she might need a Subaru addicts support group. PS my car is all shiny again after a trip to the body shop. 

November was kinda a blur month for me, I'm working on not being sad the entire month.  Its a work in progress.  I tried to surround myself with pumpkin baked goods and candy corn, which seemed to help.  I'm proud to say Nathan and I did our civic duty and voted.  Its nice to see that even with different political views we seem to stay respectful.  Amelia was proud to get a "I voted" sticker even though she didn't vote.  Her vote would have went for Curious George, if she was allowed.  Thanksgiving came and we hosted dinner for the second year in a row, my dad and sister were able to join us.  We decided not to join in on the mass family gathering that was to occur with both sides of our families up north.  It was nice to be able to give my sister the option of a quiet/mellow Thanksgiving.  I also did a little Black Friday shopping with some friends.  Of course I would join in on Black Friday madness, sometimes you just need a little crazy in your life.  The good kind of crazy, the kind that lasts for a few hours and you can go back to the non crazy stuff.  I rounded off the end of November with celebrating my mom's birthday with daisies and Diet Coke.  I think she would have chuckled that the only daisies I could find were weird multicolored spray painted ones.

December is on us and I'm excited to go visit family, we will be up North for a week and I can hardly wait.  I'm so excited to take Amelia to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork, one of my family traditions.  Amelia loves Christmas lights right now, she calls them "light lights".  She had a blast putting up the tree and decorating.  Although it was quite the power struggle between the two of us, her putting everything on the tree in one spot and me taking it off to have her put it on elsewhere.  Nathan just stood by and laughed.  Incase you were wondering where he was during the ordeal.  We have already made gingerbread trees and hearts instead of gingerbread men.  Amelia wanted to use the tree and heart cookie cutter, who was I to limit her creativity? Amelia really loves to help these days.  She will gladly help you with cooking, singing, painting, wrapping presents, working out.  And many more tasks.  Somedays its frustrating, but then I remember how lucky I am to have her in my world.

She is really into Spiderman and superheroes right now, we couldn't be more thrilled.  Spiderman is her favorite, proving she is more and more a mini-Nathan.  She loves to count to ten and skip the number four and sing 'twinkle twinkle little star'.  She loves to read stories and she will take 6-9 books to bed with her during nap time and fall asleep looking at them.  'The Lorax' is her favorite this week.  She is really into building caves (instead of forts) and hiding.  Mostly she is a spunky and sassy 2 1/2 year old who is now potty trained. I actually lucked out and Amelia potty trained very easily.  And the angels rejoiced. When she is 16 I'm going to tell her how I shared with the internet her potty training success. As every proud mother should.

 Half of my halloween backdrop. 

 My little gnome.

 Thanksgiving down south.

Welcome to our family "Foster Forester".

Paper Bag Princess style.

Amelia painting pumpkins. Notice her brush strokes- we've been practicing. 

Zombie stole my seat. That'll happen at 'Thriller'.

   

The last bit of summer fun...

Amelia is starting to come down with a cold so I thought while she is sitting quietly next to me watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse I would update the bloggity blog.  I've been meaning to jump on here and post something but its virtually impossible during the day with Amelia, she tends to want to take over what ever I'm doing.  Our summer has flown by and I didn't get as many projects done as I would have liked but thats alright.  I am really looking forward to the fall and the cooler weather, its nice to be able to play outside again.  It really is hard when your toddler wants to play outside but it's too hot to do so.

Our last trip of the summer was in August.  Nathan's sister Sharon graduated from the "college in utah county that we don't not mention its name".  8 out of 10 of Nathan's siblings were able to attend so we had a mini Wheeler reunion of sorts.  It was so much fun to visit and see family.  Amelia loved seeing all her cousins, even though she can be quite shy and timid around people.  We went on a fun little hike up to Bridal Falls in Provo canyon with everyone.  Amelia thought feeding the fish was the coolest thing, in fact thats all she was interested in doing.  She sure does love fish, but not to eat.  We also went to Wicked with most of Nathan's family.  It was FANTASTIC.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  Its currently playing in Las Vegas and I've toyed with the idea of seeing it again.  I loved how a lot of us Wheeler gals were singing along ( I should say mouthing along), it was really hard not to.

While we were up north for Sharon's graduation we also visited with Nathan's grandma, and my family. We tried to see as many people as we could but it seems like we are always short on time. We did manage to squeeze in a session of family photos, which was quite the adventure in itself.  Amelia was well behaved for the first 10-15 minutes or so but then for the last 30 minutes she just cried.  I can't tell you how much I loved being "that parent with the screaming child".  Lovely.  Just lovely.  We also visited my best friend who just moved from Logan to Utah county, she is now 3.5 hrs away instead of 6 and I couldn't be more excited.  Our girls played like they hadn't even been away from each other, minus a few sharing problems.

Amelia is quite the character.  Her favorite thing to say to me is "no way mommy!" I think she is 2.5 going on 13 some days.  She is really into cooking lately, she loves to play with her play kitchen and chop all of her wooden vegetables.  She even makes "nummy's" for her stuffed animals.  If she knows you are making something in the kitchen she wants to be helping.  She's also getting into Mickey Mouse, she is constantly wanting Nathan and I to draw Minnie or Mickey. Or she will scribble and come show us and tell us its Mickey.  I'm so grateful she hasn't gotten into princess'.  I'm sure that day will come, I'm just glad its not yet.  She still has her little entourage of stuffed animal friends that go most places with us, Curious George, Sheepie and Puppy are glued to her side most days.  She is still picky with food but she has put on about 1.5 lbs which is great for her.  I'm hoping that at her 3 year old check up she won't be in the 9th percentile for weight any longer. 

Some new and exciting things have happened for us....wait for it....wait for it....are you thinking Amelia will be a big sister?! 

Well you'd be wrong.  We got a piano!  Didn't see that one coming, did ya?!  My dad brought down my mom's piano for me, its the last thing that belong to my mom that I haven't brought down to our house.  Its been hanging out at my Dad's house until we could coordinate schedules to get it down here.  Amelia loves it.  She plays on it almost everyday and even sings.  I'm still getting used to having it here and the new layout of my living room.  I can't wait for Amelia to take lessons in a few years, hopefully it will click for her, unlike myself.   Lets see.... the other exciting things we are doing is car shopping.  Since moving down to southern Utah our Nissan has had nothing but problems.  Luckily Nathan just drives it to and from work which is less than 10 minutes away.  It really has turned into such a lemon of a car, so we are ditching it for something better.  This is the first time Nathan's gone car shopping and he is really enjoying it.  He currently has his heart set on a Subaru, but we'll see.  I am looking forward to not worry about the Nissan always stalling out.  

We are also headed to Los Angeles, California, in October.  I think it will be our last trip of the year.  I'm hoping to go to the Getty and take Amelia to some fun places.  If we have time we might go to the beach for Amelia.  I'm really looking forward to October, its my favorite month with my favorite holiday.  If only I could figure out what Amelia should be this year.... We are just excited to have Nathan around for halloween, last year he was on a business trip and missed all the fun.  

Hope you all had a good summer, and happy autumn. 

Family photos

The 3 musketeers

Close up. Gotta love that red hair.

The only time Amelia was happy during family photos was when she was jumping on the bed prop.

 Amelia tears. Taking family photos is just so terrible.

 Amelia chalking it up.

 Amelia came to Roman Art camp one day this summer, this is her wearing her Bulla (good luck charm) and carrying her Roman shield.

Nathan and I at Aladdin at Tuacahn. Complete with 3D glasses. 

Bridal Falls. Notice our t-shirts, Nathan said we needed to make sure that although we were in utah county they knew we were not fans of that unmentionable school. He's hilarious. 

Nathan and Amelia feeding the fish at Bridal Falls.

WICKED. Need i say more?!

Three Wheelers Four Corners

Well its already July and once again I've turned into a blog slacker.  I'm sorry.  Things just get rather busy around here.  Nathan needed to take some time off so we decided it was time for another trip.  We love traveling, and hopefully Amelia will grow to love it too.  We decided to visit Nathan's brother Daniel and his family in New Mexico.  The neat thing about visiting New Mexico was also seeing my old college roommate Lisa and her family.  It was a 10 hour drive. A LONG 10 hour drive, with views of desert and not much else.  Amelia did pretty well, she did get a little fussy when she wanted to watch Curious George and we were out of internet range.  We were able to stop at Four Corners on the way to Albuquerque.  While its impressive to see/stand in four states at once, there really isn't that much to see.  It's the type of place you jump out of the car, take a few photos, and leave. Once we got to Albuquerque we had a lot of fun hanging out with Dan, Rachael and their kids.  Amelia had a lot of fun playing with Sarah who is just 10 days older then she is.  It was nice to be able to help Rachael out and catch up. It turns out Dan and Rachael are even in the same ward as Lisa and her family.  Small world.

We stopped by Lisa's house and had dinner with them, then we used our mad dancing skills (or the lack thereof) and  played a dance game on their xbox kinect. It was hilarious.  Lisa's mom was also visiting from Utah and it was really fun to catch up.  Amelia loved running around playing with Lisa's two little boys. She had a blast swimming and playing on their swing set.  Amelia tried so hard to get the boys to come down the slide with her, but they were a little shy.  We had the chance to go with Lisa and her mom to the aquarium and the children's garden.  The kids were in heaven!  Overall our trip was a success, it was great to visit with family and friends.  We left wishing everyone was a whole lot closer to one another.

This summer is our summer of trips it seems like.  We've gone to San Diego and Albuquerque.  We are going to Salt Lake (in August) and Nathan is flying to Montreal next week.  Amelia and I are not going to Montreal, and we are plenty jealous of Nathan's trip to Canada.  Amelia is also starting a parent/tot swim class this summer, she will love it.  She loves to play in the water.  I am currently teaching Roman Art Camp at the art museum, its fun to see how much the kids learn and enjoy the projects.  Nathan has been playing volleyball, but it has wrapped up now. Overall this summer is going fantastic, we've been traveling, swimming, boating, barbecuing, and spending time with friends and family.  The best part is, summer is  not even half way over.  Leaving plenty of time for more adventures.

We also had my uncle John, aunt Nancy and my cousin Caitlyn come visit us from Kentucky. They came down to see us with my dad and had a fun weekend in the desert.  I think its been 10+ years since I've seen my aunt and uncle, so it was really nice to catch up and spend some time with all of them.  We took them to Snow Canyon to explore the dunes and some of the beautiful red rock.

A little bit more on Amelia, she is two and boy do we know it.  She really loves to play outside, and is much more daring then I would like.  She goes down the big slides at the park all by herself and loves to climb until she gets stuck.  Amelia also loves to read/look at books in bed.  She will climb into bed with a book and fall asleep looking at it.  She gets that from me.  She likes to play "possum" and pretend to sleep in the most random places.  Her hair is finally starting to get longer but it also looks to be getting lighter in color in the back.  I'm hoping she keeps her lovely red hair but time will tell, and she will look darling with whatever color hair she has.  She can be such a little character.  Having a toddler can be such a delight but it can also be incredibly stressful.  Its a good thing that the good days outnumber the bad.

Ring of Fire- Solar Eclipse

Aunt Nancy and Caitlyn in Snow Canyon

JUncle John trying to adjust his camera

Amelia and Aunt Nancy

Nathan trying to wakeboard for the first time

Amelia on the boat (eating some Cheetos) 

Four Corners 

Swimming with her buddy

Amelia riding a starfish

Amelia checking out the shark tank

The three amigos

Butterfly on my shoe in the children's garden

Amelia riding an ant in the children's garden

My cute old (who isn't old) roommate Lisa and her son

Beach beach sandy beach, feel the sand, on your feet.

Yes the title of this post is from a Wiggles song. I have a toddler, which means I am subjected to horrible catchy songs that get in your head from a variety of children shows. I am subjecting you to my pain.

A week ago we returned from our trip to San Diego, it was AH-MAZ-ING. First off, many of you know that the heat is not my best friend. In fact, I generally despise the heat, especially where we live. It was very nice to visit San Diego with its beach breeze and 65* highs.  Amelia was a trooper on the drive and did super well until about an hour away from our destination, she was a little restless and wanted to be done.  The drive back was pretty much the same.  Amelia loved playing in the sand at the beach and the bay. Our hotel was less than a block from the beach and right on Mission Bay. Needless to say we played in the sand a lot. We also discovered that Amelia and I in a little hotel room is not good, we both tend to need some space when tantrums arise. We ate at some amazing restaurants, specifically Phil's BBQ, it was rated best bbq by Yelp in 2010, and we agree hands down. Seriously the best BBQ we've ever had. We also had the chance to visit the San Diego Zoo (one of my favorite zoo's).  It was fun to share it with Nathan and Amelia.  Nathan was impressed that the San Diego Zoo is a non-profit organization, so any money spent at the zoo, stays at the zoo.  Amelia was impressed that the "woof woof's" (referring to dogs) play with the cheetahs. Zookeepers also walk the dogs around and other animals, like wild porcupines. Amelia was in heaven.  Overall, the trip was a success and next time we are hitting up Sea World.


In other news, we had a great Easter, once again Amelia was sick. We thought she had chicken pox from her vaccinations but turns out she contracted (from some other neighborhood kid) Molluscum Contagiosum (which is a pox virus).  The crappy thing about Molluscum is that it can take up to 2 years for the bumps to go away.  Amelia only had bumps on her arm by her elbow and a few on her leg.  They can go away on their own or take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to go away. Her pediatrician recommended some antibiotics that she takes 3x a day for 2-3 months, it has a 70-80% chance of clearing up the bumps. I'm happy to report that she has been on it for 3 weeks and they are mostly gone. I'm hoping next Easter Amelia won't be sick, right now we are 0-2.  Amelia loved dying Easter eggs and going on Easter egg hunts.  Holidays are becoming so much fun the older she gets.


Things are starting to wrap up for me as the school year is coming to a close.  I'm teaching the final lessons in the art program at an elementary school these next few weeks.  It's on Leonardo Da Vinci, I'm very happy to be ending the year on such a high note.  Volunteering for the school art program has been such a delight, watching the students eyes get big as I talk about techniques or specific artists is energizing.  Amelia comes along with me, she has become very well behaved in the classrooms and the kids get so excited when "the red tornado is here!!!!" However,  there is no way I could do what teachers do five days a week for the whole school year.  God bless teachers, they are amazing.  School tours at the museum are also wrapping up, which is nice.  I am scheduled to be one of the teachers for the summer camp at the museum, this summer is Roman Art.  I will miss dressing up as Poseidon (Greek Art was last summer) I guess I technically still could and just go by Neptune, having a trident is just too much fun.


Nathan is excited because co-ed volleyball is starting up again, he loves playing volleyball. We love watching people get intimated as they see him block spikes at the net.  Nathan and his sidekick Amelia do everything together, they are two peas in a pod.  He is excited to go camping this summer and put Amelia in swim lessons.  Nathan has really become a valued employee at his job.  We are so proud of him and all the hard work he puts in.  Nathan is currently reading The Last Chevalier by Alexander Dumas, he is enjoying it but says its not nearly as good as The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers.

 Amelia and I dying easter eggs

 Sorting through her easter basket

 Amelia and her posse. Curious George, Biscuit, and Sheepie. They come everywhere with her.

 Taking the posse for a drive. Curious George is up front with her. 

 Nathan and Amelia waiting to get on the bus at at the San Diego Zoo.

 Too tired to see the panda. 

 Amelia loved the fish and the turtles, she loves any type of aquarium or underwater viewing spots.

 Amelia loves dogs. She made instant friends with this Akbash at the Zoo. This dog hangs out with the cheetah, and is about the size of a Great Dane. 

 Nathan and Amelia planning out which parts of the zoo to see. 

 Orangutang: Rare red apes. We love our little red headed monkey.

  

 Amelia and the Orangutangs.

 I thought this was incredibly fascinating. This orangutang came over to the glass where this older gentleman was and placed his hand on the glass, the gentleman reached out and did the same. Then they just looked into each others eyes for a good 15 minutes. 

 Me frowning over the loss of arctic ice in the polar bear exhibit. 

 Amelia giving the polar bear statue some love. 

Amelia and Nathan. My two favorite people. 

 A dog (not the Akbash) and a cheetah playing. Amelia thought this was pretty neat. 

 Last time I was in San Diego a seagull stole my churro at Sea World. This time I was able to eat a churro without it being stolen. It was awesome. I did share with Amelia.

Amelia thought it was pretty tasty. I'd rather share with her than a yucky seagull any day.