Mick, Nat, Fischer, and Grant

Sweets Candy Factory

2012-02-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

I've taken a tour of the Sweets Candy factory a couple of times, but this was the first time I've been with my own children. The other times I was just setting up appointments for nieces and nephews and stuff. So it was different for me this time. Fischer was so funny responding to everything the tour guide was saying. Grant was a total pill. I had to hold him pretty much the entire time so that I could hold his hands down so he didn't pull off his hair net or they would've kicked us out of the tour. He got pretty heavy after a while but he LOVED the samples they gave us throughout the tour. If you haven't ever done this tour, you should totally do it because you actually get to be on the factory floor and see stuff up close instead of just in a video or from a walkway above the factory. It's really awesome, and like I said before, free samples of what they are making.

RaNdoMnEsS

2012-02-04T10:50:00.001-08:00

We've been doing all sorts of fun stuff lately. So, I thought I'd throw a quick post on about some of the fun things we've been up to.

JAZZ GAME

The boys and I rode the "Jazz Train" (aka Trax) from our house to the Jazz game the other night. They LOVED riding the train! Grant did so great even though the ride lasted about 45 minutes. We got some pretty great seats in the lower bowl and the boys watched the game intensely like they always do. It's so funny that they can sit and watch these long games and be so good paying attention and cheering. (But they won't go to a movie theater with me to watch a movie). Here is Fischer. It's half time which is why all the seats are empty in the background.

RODEO

We also took the Sweenys (Mick's sister's family) for a real "American" experience and went to the Rodeo with my family. Audrey (the oldest of the two cousins) loved it. Jasmine just likes to be the social butterfly. Here they are with their dad Matt. They loved meeting "real cowboys" and taking pictures with them.
As usual, Fischer couldn't take his eyes off the show. He didn't even want to go with Uncle Matt to get a treat because he didn't want to miss anything. I had to wait until they were changing events and nothing was happening to take this picture.

SMALL WORLD DAYS AT SCHOOL

At school Fischer has different fun days throughout the year and they get to dress up. They had Cowboy days that I posted about before, and this time was a cultural day where they got to dress up in a different culture's clothing. Lucky for us we are well equipped to handle these fun dress up days. This was an outfit Mick brought back from one of his trips over to Japan.

COOKIES AT KATE'S

We got to go to Katie's house and make cookies with the Sweeny cousins and Aunt Sara. The kids had a blast and made a mess. The adult sisters just had fun hanging out and chatting.Oh, and earlier that day Jasmine had her super hero stuff on, so Fischer wanted to wear his thinking she would still have hers on, but she had taken them off. That didn't stop Fischer from wearing his the whole evening though.

Team Hewitt Pictures

2012-02-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

We've been trying to make sure we get in everything we can with Mick's sister Molly (who is in town from Singapore) and her little family before they head back. So the Hewitt clan did the dreaded family pictures. Other than Grant, everyone was GREAT. They turned out really cute. Here are the kids waiting in the lobby. Fischer, Grant, Carter and cousin Jasmine (visiting from Singapore).I wasn't real excited about doing family photos being giant and pregnant, but I did it anyway of course, thinking that I would get to be in the back and hide my hugeness. Didn't turn out that way though. I was right in front. Here are a couple of pictures. My boys are darling, but I'm never happy with the way I look in photos.

3 Generations of first sons all named Michael.CousinsThe Whole Hewitt Team

Sweenys on the left front corner: Matt, Molly, Audrey, Jasmine
Sofonias in the back left corner: Brad, Sara, Taylor, Carter
Gobles in the back right corner: Trenton, Amy, Elliot, Maggie
Hewitts in the front right corner: Mick, Natalie, Fischer, Grant
Mike and Karen in the middle, with Katie

First School Picture

2012-01-29T19:14:00.001-08:00

I know that this is a little late in posting, but I just got the CD and put the picture on my computer. This is Fischer's first school picture and it's darling right? He never does a real smile like that for me, it's always just one of those smiles where he's just showing his teeth and he's not really smiling. I'm so happy it turned out so cute.

The Annual Reading Party!!

2012-01-22T16:19:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to go again this year to the annual KUED reading marathon party. Fischer read all his minutes and got his invitation to go to the party! We went with our usual party companions, Aunt Moey and family. We got lots of fun stuff, did lots of fun activities, and of course we met lots of fun characters. Here are a few fun pictures.

Martha the Dog from Martha Speaks

Princess Presto from Super Why

Buddy from Dinosaur Train

DOG from Word World

Cat in the Hat

Two Years Already?

2012-01-21T14:46:00.001-08:00

My Baby Grant turned 2 this week! It's hard to believe that two years has already come and gone since he was born. He is such a darling little terrorist. He is ALWAYS smiling (or screaming at you) and it melts your heart. He is talking ALL the time, although I can't understand a lot of it, I totally understand the message he is trying to get across with everything he says, it is so animated.

He is HUGE and can tackle anyone he comes in contact with (including me - the dude is so strong). It's hard to believe with his size sometimes that he is only two years old. He has made it easy for me to exercise every day since carrying him around is a total workout in itself I haven't done any other exercising.

He is following right in his big brother's footsteps being obsessed with Basketball, Cars, and any electronic device he can get his hands on. He is 100% boy and I'm sure he is going to love having a little brother as much as he loves having a big brother.

He was lucky enough to have basically 3 birthday celebrations this year. He had one with the Smith side of the family (and Aunt Moey who also has a January birthday) where I made this cake for him, and as usual it didn't turn out as awesome as it was in my mind.The next day was a birthday celebration with the Hewitt side of the family (and cousin Jasmine who had her adoption day celebration the same day) where he blew out candles on this cake that he shared with Jasmine.Then the next day (on his actual birthday) he got to go to his favorite "eat store" Texas Roadhouse where he indulged himself in his favorite rolls by eating about 4 total. He LOVED it. He didn't love the saddle though, that they bring over when it's your birthday while they give you a big "yee-haw." This is actually a special birthday because his Aunt Molly, Uncle Matt, and cousins Audrey and Jasmine were all in town for a very rare visit to the states from Tokyo and got to celebrate his birthday with us. That probably wont happen for him or any of my kids again for a very, very, very long time.

My 3 Sons !?!?

2012-01-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

We've had that show (My Three Sons) on our mind a lot lately, so I thought I'd put up a quick picture of each of my boys for everyone to see.

FISCHER

GRANT

BABY BOY #3

(Coming on or around May 15th)

Yes, it's true. We are having another baby in May and it's going to be another boy! Two more and I'll have the basketball team I've always wanted (ha, ha, Mick is never going to go for that). We are starting to work on that all-consuming process of coming up with a name. Fischer has had plenty of suggestions though like, Fischer-Fischer (named after himself), Pablo (named after one of the Backyardigans), and Jimmy Chitwood (named after the character in his favorite movie - Hoosiers). It will be fun to see what name we end up with, we have a terrible time coming up with boy names.

Catch Up!

2012-01-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

We are still here! Thought I would just do a VERY short catch up of the last 3 months.

HALLOWEEN:

Grant fought us every time we tried to put on his costume. He wore it for about 15 minutes and wore the hood itself for about a minute total time.
Fischer on the other hand couldn't get enough of his costume. Luckily he had plenty of opportunities to wear it. He got to wear it to his last soccer game, to the Syracuse pumpkin walk we go to every year, to his school party and parade, etc. But his favorite time was wearing it to his cousin Carter's school because he got to march in the parade with Carter (who is a 6th grader and wore a matching Darth Vader costume). He thought he was pretty hot stuff, especially when he got to go to Carter's class party too and they won the costume contest together.

THANKSGIVING:

We had the whole Smith fandamily at PawPaw's house this year. It was quite the crowd. It was strange not having my mom there for the first time, but we kept busy to keep our minds off of it. We had fun crafts planned making cookie turkeys, gumdrop christmas trees, and our favorite of the day were the chocolate houses each grandchild got to decorate that Aunt Moey put together for everyone. And then of course we hit a couple of the good midnight Black Friday sales since we were up playing games and hanging out anyway.

CHRISTMAS:

Christmastime was filled with lots and lots of activities. Fischer's school program was so cute. He was pretty much the star of the show, of course. We went to see lots of gingerbread houses, puppet shows, the annual Sing-In downtown, and lots more.
Here are the boys in their Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Hewitt.
Here we are on Christmas morning on our way to church.

2011-11-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

We were SO sad when our annual Halloween party with the Simons got cancelled due to illnesses. We went to Aunt Sara's instead to carve pumpkins with them and have a little "get together." Fischer and dad are in charge of cleaning out the pumpkin (but as you can tell by Fischer's face, he doesn't like that part). He doesn't like to get dirty at all - not a usual boy.
Then, Fischer is in charge of drawing the design on the pumpkin- and he did a great job.Then mom is in charge of carving it out along the lines that Fischer drew. Turned out pretty cute if you ask me.

The (Great) Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Every year we venture out to the find the Great Pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. The boys loved it as usual. They were running all over showing us every pumpkin. I'm pretty sure Grant said the word "pumpkin" about 500 times in the 30 minutes we were there.This was the best shot we had of our family with the boys' eyes at least mostly open. All 3 of them couldn't look towards the sun without closing their eyes.Fischer found one he thought was pretty good.I think this was their favorite part though, who doesn't love a wheelbarrow ride?

T-Ball Again

2011-11-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

This was our second season of T-ball and Fischer loved it just as much as the first. (I, however, think it's about the most boring thing I could ever have to sit through.) He was for sure the cutest on the team decked out in all his garb. He also had to slide into EVERY base. It was so funny. He would keep us pretty entertained at an otherwise deathly boring event.

Disneyland Take 2

2011-10-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

We did it again...Disneyland! This time we did it with the whole Hewitt family (except Molly, sorry Mo!). It was SO great!!! Fischer was so cute and he loved having Grandma and Grandpa there to share all of his favorite rides with. I made all those darling shirts with the major help from my awesome SIL Karla! We got SO many comments on them as we wore them around the park. People were asking us where to buy them. They were that big of a hit! I could go on and on about how much fun and work it was, but I'll just post a couple of really cute pictures instead.

Classic Dumbo picture with cousin Taylor

We went to Mickey's Halloween Party and got a TON of candy trick-or-treatingTake a look at our stash! The picture doesn't do it justice either.
Grant LOVED the characters, especially Woody!Fischer's favorite ride again... Autopia 1000 times.Bumper Cars with CarterGrant hanging with Grandma and GrandpaWhen all is said and done, you know this is how we all felt really..

Foot Fracture

2011-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

I know this happened forever ago, but I finally got some pictures of it to post about. It's been almost 5 weeks since Grant was at his gym class and let go of a bar and fell onto a padded mat, only to find out he had fractured his foot. It's been kind of a nightmare until about the last week and a half. Now he is getting it off on Monday and we couldn't be more excited about it. We choose to put him in an Aggie Blue cast with me having the idea to paint the "A" on it. It turned out SO cute. Here are a couple of shots of him and his cast.
(Oh and the pacifier is back because it was the only thing we could soothe him with when he fractured his foot. The pictures would've been cuter if he didn't have one in his mouth, but oh well).

He is Awesome!

2011-09-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

So, here is just a picture of my 3-year old waterskiing all by himself (on a U-board). How cute is this picture and this boy! He's so awesome! I love him! Thanks for the picture Aunt Ali!

Fischer is 4

2011-09-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today is Fischer's 4th birthday. I have a love/hate relationship with birthdays for my boys. I hate that they are getting older, I hate the stress of trying to make it a perfect day, but I love watching them open presents and get excited about everything, I love seeing their faces blowing out candles and planning all the fun stuff. So half the time I'm stressed, and half the time I am loving every second of it. Lucky for me, Fischer got to have 2 birthdays basically. We had one party yesterday with the Smith Family and his September birthday cousin, Dexter. Then he had another party today on his actual birthday with the Hewitt Family and his best cousin Carter that has the exact same birthday as him (except he's 8 years older). Both parties were awesome! He loved every second of both days. Here are a few pictures...

We can thank PawPaw for this darling dress up! :)Yeah, it wasn't easy, but I got him a Lego Star Wars cake, that had a flat picture, just like he wanted. I'm not that talented, so we had to outsource this cake. It was PERFECT for him and for Dex. They both loved it.I blew up 75 balloons and put them in his room for him to wake up to on his birthday. He didn't enjoy them as much as Grant did, that's why there's a picture of Grant in here instead.Fischer LOVED ALL of his presents. It seemed to be a Star Wars Theme Birthday with many of his gifts being Star Wars shirts, guys, lightsabers, etc. Thanks to everyone for ALL of the gifts. He was totally spoiled this year, just like always.Yes, I am that mom. I made him another birthday cake for his birthday party with Carter. They are both HUGE baseball fans, so I thought a baseball cake would be perfect. Fischer agreed, so that's what I made. It turned out a lot cuter than I gave myself credit for, and it tasted great too! Bonus!

Yes, we really did!

2011-09-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to the Utah book Festival at the University of Utah expecting to meet some fun people like Clifford, Curious George, and other book characters. Well, we did meet some of those guys, but we also met my favorite (and the hottest by far) Jazz player RAJA BELL!!! Yeah, we really did. It was awesome for Fischer to meet a real live Jazz player, and it was awesome for me too cause he is even hotter in person than on TV playing the game. Here is a picture to prove it to all of you who are now totally jealous of us!And of course here are a couple pictures of the other (less cool) characters/people we met...

My Little Soccer Superstar

2011-09-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well we didn't know when we signed him up that he would dominate the field, but he totally does. He was actually still two when we signed him up last fall for the preschool teams, but you would never know by his natural mad skills. He scored a two goals in his very first game! There were even several kids that he played against that were almost 5. So that was his fall league. He loved it so much that we signed him up again for the spring/summer league in May. The kid is amazing! Mick was so funny at the games yelling at him to "dominate" and telling him he needs to score 10 goals in each game. He reached that goal several times to tell you the truth! It was a riot. We kept trying to get him to pass the ball to another teammate so they could have a chance to score and he would tell us that he couldn't do that until he reached his 10 goals. There was even one game where the players on the other team all said they didn't want to play any more (because they had no time with the ball and stuff) so we made Fischer switch his jersey around and play on their team the rest of the game. He LOVED it!He was especially excited about the medal he got at the end of the season. He wore it proudly for many pictures (like this one with Grandma and Grandpa) and for many days after that.Then we have our darling little Grant who grinned and played on the sidelines at every game. Grant just loved the end of the game when Fischer would share the treat he got from the team.

Donor Monument Ceremony

2011-09-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you know about this, but there is a monument behind the Salt Lake Library that honors organ/tissue donors. It's a really pretty glass wall and every year they add names to the wall of people who have donated that year. Then, they have a big unveiling ceremony and re-unveil the wall with all the new names on it. My mom didn't have a lot of good organs to donate, but she was able to donate her eyes amongst a few other things. So, she had the honor of having her name on the wall. My dad and my sisters all went down for the ceremony. It was very bitter sweet. The stories that were told were sad and wonderful. I'm so glad we could be a part of it.

It's kind of hard to see, but if you look real close you can see her name on the wall right there by my finger. Selma A. Smith
We had to take this picture like my mom. She was such a poser. She would pose for every picture. It was classic of her to put her foot up on something and her hand on her hip for pictures, so we tried to do that in her honor in this picture. We aren't as good at it as she was.After the ceremony we got to go out for breakfast at one of my new favorite places ... The Original Pancake House. It's in Sugarhouse. They have these eggs that they call "the Joe" that are to die for with sausage, onions, spinach and something else in them. They are so yummy. Plus I had pumpkin pancakes to go with that were amazing too. You have to go there sometime if you haven't ever been! We had so much fun laughing so hard. My dad acts like he is so embarrassed when he's hanging out with my sisters and me, but we know that really he is loving every minute of it.

and...we're back

2011-09-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

So, for many reasons that I'm sure most of you are aware of, my life had many unexpected curve balls thrown at me, hence I've been MIA from the blog scene for a while. I also have freed myself from the chains of Facebook. With that in mind, I have decided to get back into the swing of things to keep those important enough to me to check my blog, informed on the uneventful life we lead.
There's no real way to catch up on the last 8 months of our life, so I thought I would just throw in a few photos of this summer. Then, I'll work on doing a much better job keeping my blog up to date.

Can't Get Enough PBS Characters!

2011-01-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

We got to meet some of Fischer's favorite PBS characters last weekend with some of his best cousins (Leini and Whitney). Here are a few pictures of the awesome fame filled day.

Buddy the Dinosaur - From "Dinosaur Train"

Word Girl

The Cat in the Hat

Sid the Science Kid

Martha the Dog - From "Martha Speaks"

My Baby Is One!

2011-01-19T19:04:00.000-08:00

So, Baby Grant turned one year old yesterday! I can't believe that the year has already gone by. I swear Grant's first year went by twice as fast as Fischer's first year. That means if we have any more kids in the future it will be going by exponentially faster so I better make it all count!

Grant is the sweetest baby in the world. His is ALWAYS smiling. Everyone comments on how adorable his big blue eyes are and his giant perma-smile. He gets so excited about everything. He is huge, and I love it. He's pretty much in the upper 90th percentile of OFF THE CHARTS of every measurement each time we go into the doctor. His fingers are as long as Fischer's and his toes are about that long too. I love everything about him, from his wispy hair, to his huge slobbery kisses. I am so happy he's my baby boy.

A Taste of December

2010-12-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a little taste of a FEW of the things we've been doing this December.

We saw the gingerbread houses at the Gale Center.
We went to the Festival of Trees for the first time. Fischer LOVED the gingerbread houses and the trees that were decorated in sports themes.We had to do the temple square trip taking advantage of the warm nights we had in December, but of course that meant that there were a million and a half people there too.
Grant has just been tasting whatever he can find in the pantry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

So, from all the fun things we have been doing lately, Fischer has ended up with 4 different turkey hats to sport this season! Thanks to story times, neighborhood craft class, etc for making this possible! He's totally loved donning a new one each day and trying them all on Grant too.

Curious George

2010-11-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

Yeah, since I'm pretty much the coolest mom around and try to find all the fun opportunities for Fischer (especially the free ones), we just couldn't miss out on the chance to meet one of his favorite people...Curious George. I thought maybe he would be shy like he was with some of the characters at Disneyland, but I was way wrong. He kept getting back in line time and time again to see him, give him hugs and high fives until George finally had to leave. It was so cute. He was so excited.

Grant's First Haircut

2010-11-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Grant had his first haircut last week. The funny thing is that you look at him from a little ways away and he still looks bald, so why the haircut right? Well, as you can see from the pictures, he had a few whispy hairs to take care of. We went to Aunt Moey's salon and he did a pretty good job holding still. He's so handsome now!

Playing With Sage

2010-11-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

Fischer loves his friend Sage. He always can't wait to go and play with her. They live up on the "tallest mountain" just like on Dora. Anyway, they are so cute together. Fischer loves to do everything Sage does. He has no problems with any of it obviously! (And yes, those are her pajamas he's wearing too.)

Costumes, Costumes

2010-11-20T10:20:00.000-08:00

So, besides Jack Jack, Grant sported a couple of other costumes for some other Halloween parties we went to this year. He is such a good sport. So cute right? I couldn't find the blue tights for his Super Man so he had to go bare-legged. He does have a cape on the back too, you just can't see it. Darn it.The turtle costume was too cute. The best part was when he was sitting he would tip over backwards and then he couldn't get up or roll over and would just lay there stuck on his back like a real turtle. Ha ha so funny.

As Requested...

2010-11-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures that don't do our freaking awesome Halloween costumes justice!We didn't even get a close up of Jack-Jack and his adorable little curl on top of his head! Lame. Oh, and by the way, Violet is in our family photo too, she was just invisible for the shot.

We Love the Fall Fun!

2010-10-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

We LOVE to do all the fun things in the fall. We went to Cornbelly's this year with Fischer's little friend Sage. They had a ton of fun, but it was so cold we had to cut our trip short there. We also hit the Gardener's Village with some neighborhood friends, found all the witches, and turned in the scavenger hunt sheets for our cookies. Fischer had a great time. I told him he could ride the pony so he had to dress appropriately. He's such a riot!

My Soccer Star

2010-10-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Fischer is the cutest little soccer player ever. We signed him up for soccer as soon as he was able (in fact it's sooner than he should have). He was technically only 2 when he started the season so we were a little worried that he would get run over completely by all the other kids (since he was going to be playing with 3, 4, and 5 year olds). However, he is loving it! At his first game he scored 2 goals himself with sliding kicks. Since then he hasn't done as well as the first game, but he has scored at least one goal every game (even though sometimes the goal is for the other team). He looks dang cute while he's out there though. He loves his giant cheering section too. He's got a lot of support.This is Fischer with his super great coach.

He's already 3!

2010-10-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Fischer turned 3 on September 19th while we were celebrating in Disneyland this year. He had his own birthday celebration there and got to decorate his own cake, got those cute party hats he's sporting in the picture, and Mickey and Minnie showed up. How many people can say that Mickey and Minnie came to their birthday party? We also had a family birthday party for him after we came back from California. How about my awesome cake! That's my first one done all by myself. I was pretty proud of it especially since it was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and for those of you who have made cakes like this, you know that cream cheese frosting always stays soft no matter how much powdered sugar you add to it, so it doesn't make the fun shapes out of the frosting tubes like it's supposed to. However I made it look pretty darn good if you ask me. We got him this marble thing that he wanted real bad. It's been AWESOME! He played with it the first day he got it for over 6 hours! Oh yeah, score on the birthday present!What sucks about being three is that now you are expensive. You cost to go anywhere. When you are 2 and under you get in free to pretty much everything. But now that you are 3 you are going to cost a lot of money. But you are pretty cute at 3. You say the funniest things. Fischer is a total riot most of the time. I'm so happy to have him as my little guy. Can't wait for more birthdays in the future.

Jesus Is Coming!

2010-10-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

So, most of you know that we live right next to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. As we drive by it every day, Fischer says, "there's my temple!" The it's usually followed with his wonderful rendition of the song, "I love to see the temple." Well, one day he asked about the Angel Moroni on the top. Mick told him who it was and Fischer asked about his horn. Mick told him that he was supposed to sound his horn to announce the coming of Jesus. Fischer replied, "oh. Okay."

This morning, months later, we woke up to a car alarm going off in our neighborhood. Fischer comes into our bedroom and says to Mick and I, "I heard Moroni on the top of my temple. He was blowing his horn. It sounded like this, 'honk, honk, honk, honk,' I heard him on my temple when I was in my bed!"

So, I guess that means Jesus is coming right?

Utah State, Hey Aggies All the Way!!

2010-10-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

Go Aggies! Go Aggies! Hey Hey Hey!

Oh yeah, we LOVE when our Aggies win, but we super love it when they beat BYU!!! We are proud to be Utah State Alumni!

Seriously Soooo Cute

2010-09-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

I LOVE these two boys. They are the cutest things ever right? They are the light of my life. I love them so much!

Disneyland and Birthdays

2010-09-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

We took a family trip to Disneyland and totally overdid it. We celebrated Fischer's birthday while we were there and he LOVED it. He liked being with cousins more than he actually liked riding all the rides. The cousins were so cute in their matching t-shirts. Fischer got to go to a birthday celebration and decorate his own cake and Mickey and Minnie showed up. So he was telling everyone that Mickey and Minnie came to his happy birthday party. It was a lot of fun, and I could write a lot about it, but I wont. I will say that I learned several things from this trip about what to do and not to do so hopefully the next one will be even better! But we did get some dang cute pictures. Here is just one. If you want to see several more, you can go to this website that has my online album posted. http://picasaweb.google.com/nataliehewitt

Bucket List?

2010-09-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted for a long time and I saw this on Michelle's blog and thought it would be an easy fun way for me to get back in the game. So here is "The Bucket List." Place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not. It's not MY bucket list, but it has some good ones to think about.

Things you have done during your lifetime:

(X) Gone on a blind date
( ) Donated Blood - I've tried and been turned down MANY times
(X) Skipped school
( ) Watched someone die - No, thank goodness
(X) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico
( ) Been to Florida
( ) Been to Hawaii
(X) Been on a plane
( ) Been on a helicopter
(X) Been lost
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
( ) Hugged a homeless person
(X) Swam in the ocean
( ) Swam with Stingrays
( ) Been sailing in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons - almost a daily thing for me
( ) Ran a marathon
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Volunteered at a soup kitchen
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Seen the Northern Lights
( ) Been Parasailing
(X) Been on TV
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(X) Made prank phone calls
( ) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Fed an elephant
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Fired a gun
(X) Been to the Opera
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Serenaded someone
( ) Seen a U.S.President in person
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
( ) Driven a race car
(X) Been to a National Museum
( ) Been to a Wax Museum
(X) Eaten caviar
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone to the movies
( ) Been deep sea fishing
(X) Driven across the United States
(X) Been in a hot air balloon
( ) Been sky diving
(X) Gone snowmobiling
(X) Lived in more than one country
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
(X) Enjoyed the beauty of Old Faithful Geyser
(X) Seen the Grand Canyon
(X) Seen the Statue of Liberty
( ) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
( ) Been on a cruise
(X) Traveled by train (trax?)
(X) Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horse back riding
(X) Ridden on a San Francisco cable car
(X) Been to Disneyland OR Disney World
(X) Been in a rain forest
(X) Seen whales in the ocean
(X) Been to Niagara Falls
(X) Ridden on an elephant
( ) Swam with dolphins
( ) Been to the Olympics
(X) Walked on the Great Wall of China
( ) Saw and heard a glacier calf
( ) Been spinnaker flying
(X) Been water-skiing
(X) Been snow-skiing
( ) Been to Westminster Abbey
(X) Been to the Louvre
( ) Swam in the Mediterranean
(X) Been to a Major League Baseball game
( ) Been to a National Football League game
( ) Swam with sharks
( ) Been White Water Rafting
( ) Written a book or screen play-(dissertation)

I WON!

2010-08-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd let you all know that I won something! I won 4 Bees tickets and a free parking voucher! How's that for awesome. I don't win stuff very often, so this is a big deal for me. Fischer is really excited for the game!

My BIG Baby

2010-08-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

We took Grant in for his 6 month appointment and found out he just keeps growing at an exponential rate. He's only in the 80th percentile for his weight now, but his head is in the 95th percentile, and he height is off the charts. It doesn't even register in the percentile, it's over 100. Needless to say it doesn't surprise me anymore that I just had to buy 18 month size close for my little 6 month old baby. He's super cute though. He's been so much fun!

Funny Fischer

2010-07-29T21:28:00.001-07:00

So, I'm back on my blog because Fischer has been making me laugh so hard lately with some of the things he says. I'm not going to take the time to fill everyone in on the last 2 months of our lives though...so don't get too excited.

Here's the story behind the picture. My friend and I took our kids to the Thanksgiving Point farm where Fischer got to ride the pony. So, my friend and I were on one side of the ponies, and another lady (who we didn't know) was on the other side of the ponies watching her kids. After the ride was over, Fischer ended up over there by that lady, so when I went to help him get off his horse, the lady was laughing her head off. She said, "Your little boy is hilarious. Did you hear what he was saying when his pony would walk over on my side?" I said no of course, cause I was talking to my friend. She said, he would say, "Giddy-up! Oh, yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about!" Yup, sounds about right for Fisch. He is so funny saying things ALL DAY LONG that crack me up! I am already frustrated that I haven't been making it a priority to write them all down. There are way too many too, it would be a full time job. He's such a great kid.

Picnic Time

2010-05-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Just a fun family picnic at the beautiful Daybreak Lake. We rode bikes over to the North Shore and had a little Saturday evening picnic. Who doesn't love this place?

I Can See!!

2010-05-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

So, after what is pretty much a lifetime of not being able to see, now I can!!! For Christmas, My Birthday, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day I got Lasik surgery for my gift. All I can say is that my life has changed forever.

This is me getting prepped for the surgery. This is me and the doctor just before going in.

Baby Animal Days

2010-05-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

So here are just a few pictures to highlight our annual trip to Logan for our very favorite Baby Animal Days. We've gone for about 7 years straight and wouldn't miss it. Fischer rode the pony all by himself and this year they even had baby black bears that he got to pet. It was pretty cool.

Make Up For Lame Time

2010-04-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

So, to make up for the lame time we had at that first Easter egg hunt, I Easter egg hunted Fischer out! We had an Easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Hewitt's house a week before Easter. Then we had a hunt at his playgroup on the Friday before. On the Saturday before, we went to the South Jordan hunt AND the Riverton hunt. And of course on Easter itself Fischer had his own hunt from the Easter Bunny (who we called Santa this year because the child is TERRIFIED of the Easter Bunny and did NOT want him coming in our house, whether he was bringing presents or not). And we also had the HUGE Smith family hunt on Easter afternoon. So, needless to say, we have so much candy at our house, I could open a candy store. Here are some pictures from each hunt.

This one is the Hewitt family hunt.This one is our playgroup hunt. We didn't let cold weather stop us at any of them!This one is at the South Jordan hunt.

This one is the Riverton hunt.This one is the hunt in our house on Easter morning.

This one is the Smith family hunt.

Don't Do It!

2010-04-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, this year was only the second annual FM100 Easter Egg hunt, so I figured probably not THAT many people knew about it right? WRONG! I'll never be able to talk Mick into going to another "family fun" activity again. We took Fischer's little friend Sage too. What a disappointment for both of them. I'll just say a few things about it.
*Freezing cold
*TONS of people
*Muddy
*Parents who acted like animals
*OVER 12,000 eggs (and we came home with ONE!)
*Totally not worth itCan you see the millions of people in line behind us just to get into the park? NUTS!!! Plus, there were 3 times that many people in front of us believe it or not.

First Trip to the Dentist!

2010-03-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

Fischer had his first dentist appointment. I know I was like a crazy mom there taking pictures, but it was a memorable thing I think. He did such a great job. He got x-rays taken and held so still for it. He got his teeth cleaned by the really nice dental assistant and he had the dentist check out all of his teeth. It helped that he got to watch Cars on the ceiling. He was so cute. Here are a couple pictures.
Getting x-raysGetting teeth cleaned After the dentist gave him great news of no cavities!

Disney On Ice

2010-03-15T20:51:00.001-07:00

I know it's not a very creative title sorry. Mick surprised Fischer and me with tickets to Disney on Ice. Although the only Disney movie Fischer has seen so far is Cars and The Incredibles. But Mick knew that Fischer's newest idol "Lightning McQueen" was going to be there, so we had to go. It was a blast. Mick even spoiled us with 4th row tickets in the middle of the sideline. They were fantastic seats! After Fischer got over being terrified initially, he thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the show. It was so adorable watching him. I wish I could've captured him watching the whole show on video. It was more fun to watch him than the show itself. Thanks Daddy for the fun tickets.

Smiley Face

2010-03-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

So Fischer busted this out with his magna doodle this morning. "Mommy, I made you a smiley face!!!" Holy Crap dude. That is a freaking awesome smiley face for a two-year-old right? He's hilarious. I love this kid!!

Spring Snow

2010-03-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's not officially spring yet, but once March comes around you pretty much tell yourself that the winter is over - right? So, I should accept the fact now that we live in Utah and it's pretty much normal to get a beautiful Christmas-type snow storm in March. So, Fischer and I made the best of it. He wanted to shovel snow of course, so we shoveled snow, even though all the snow had melted by the late afternoon. We also built our first snowman together. It was hard to get a picture though, because Fischer said it was too bright out there and wouldn't look at the camera.

Filled With Glee?

2010-03-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

You should be if you aren't! Ok, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times right? Glee seriously is the best new show out there right now. If you haven't taken my wonderful advice yet, you should totally be watching this show. It's been on a break for the last couple of months, but new episodes start on April 13th! So, if you didn't watch the first 13 episodes, they are available on DVD now so get caught up so you can be ready for some more amazing episodes in April! (Oh, and did I mention that it won the Golden Globe this year for best Comedy or Musical Series? See, it's not just me who loves this show.)

Finally!

2010-03-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

So this has seemed like forever, but we are finally getting better over here. We did get to come home from the hospital after a whole week there, but since we have been home we have still been sick, taking Grant into be sucked out several times a day, and not sleeping, but it's getting better! We are getting there, slowly but surely. If anyone else gets this, please call me for some support! We are now experts on this disease.Here is Grant feeling MUCH better in the Hospital. Here we are on our way out of the hospital with one of our amazing nurses! We love you Primary Children's!At home and feeling great! Doesn't he look amazing!

Just Some Pics

2010-02-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

This is baby Grant's turtle nose. He's getting his nebulizer treatment.

Holding mommy's hand.

More Like Monsoon

2010-02-21T17:09:00.000-08:00

So much for raining, it's more like a monsoon for me (of course a monsoon to Mick and me is more like a sprinkle to others of you). But... just when we thought it was bad enough, we've been having to take Grant into the doctor every day for follow-ups with his rsv, and we've had to take him into the hospital 2 times each day for suction treatments. Well, we took in Fischer too for a follow up, just to find out he's got horrible ear infections in both of his ears, and a fever of 103 on top of that. The poor kid. His ear are about to burst. So we added antibiotics and ear numbing drops to the dozens of meds the poor boy is already on. But that wasn't the worst of it. Yesterday we couldn't get Grant to eat. We took him in for his 2nd suction treatment at the hospital that night, and they ended up admitting him to the ER. Since he's an infant they had to transfer him (by ambulance) to Primary Children's. So I have Fischer sick at home, and Grant sick in the hospital. It's been a rough 5 days for us.

Oh, and did I mention that this weekend we were supposed to be up in Park City for a little weekend ski vacation that we had planned months ago. Yeah, that didn't happen. What a waste.

When it rains, it pours

2010-02-18T23:26:00.000-08:00

I thought that was a fitting title since it's been raining outside today. Well, Fischer got a runny nose the day before yesterday and by the next morning he had a horrible cough and fever so we took him in to the doctor. Come to find out, he has RSV. Nice. I have basically locked myself up in our house going crazy by not going to all the fun things I usually do, in an effort to avoid any RSV (having a newborn and all) when it rears it's ugly head in my house anyway. Well, by this morning we had Grant to the doctor too. He is of course RSV positive as well, and they even sent us to the hospital with him. He had to be suctioned out, and has to keep going back for the treatments every 4-6 hours if necessary to keep him from being admitted to the hospital. So, I haven't really been able to enjoy the accomplishment of cleaning my house, because the last 2 days have been miserable dealing with two very sick children, and a very stressed husband. Mick is so good at taking care of the kids. Luckily he's been able to take the time off to be the life saver. I wouldn't be able to do this without him, because he's doing the brunt of the work. He's great with sickies. So, don't come over to our house, we've got the RSV over here. Hopefully we will make it through this and be back up on our game in one to two weeks. (If only it were a one to two day illness, seriously 7-14 days can get to be really long!)

Mick's New Toy

2010-02-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

So last week Mick got what he calls his "new toy." It's called a mifi (pronounced "my-fI" - they rhyme). What is it you ask? Well, it's a little thing that's about the size of 3 credit cards stacked up that is basically a portable wireless Internet connection. So, we can hook up to 5 computers to it wirelessly and be on the Internet wherever we are. Mick wanted to test it out so on the way to Gammy's house on Sunday we let Fischer bring the computer. He was able to be on the Internet playing pbskids.org all the way to her house wireless. It was pretty crazy. He was Skyping people too and video calling them. We just turn it on and there we had our own little "hotspot" in the car with us as we drove. It is wild how much technology changes in such a short amount of time. To think of the differences in what Fischer and Grant will be able to grow up with and what Mick and I grew up with is nuts. The weird thing is that they wont know any different. Anyway, I took a picture of it to mark the occasion. Fischer was in heaven!

Valentines

2010-02-16T18:00:00.001-08:00

This year Fischer and I did several things to celebrate Valentine's Day despite the fact I had a new little one to juggle. You will see how much fun we were able to have in the pictures. We got some valentines for Fischer (basketball ones of course) and we spent a long time writing everyone's names on them. Fischer writes these tiny intricate "letters" and it is so adorable to watch. We made our famous Valentine sugar cookies, we went to Valentine story time at the library, went to our little craft class and made a valentine box and exchanged valentines, and then on Valentine's Day Mick took us to our favorite brunch at the Market Street Grill and we opened presents. It was a great holiday. Grant seemed to really enjoy his first holiday in our family. So many more to come.

Milestones

2010-02-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

So, I feel like I hit a big milestone yesterday. I had both kiddos home and I managed to clean the house. It was quite the feat for me actually. I even managed to get all the laundry done, including everyone's sheets, gave everyone baths, made dinner and lunch, and I even was able to take a long shower at the end of the day and shave for the first time in so long I don't want to admit it.

I know many of you are cleaning your houses every week, or even every day, like it's no big deal. But for me, it was a feeling of accomplishment that made me feel like I really can be a mom of two and survive, even with a huge lack of sleep.

So, I think that all of the moms out there are either freaking amazing, or they are lying about how easy it is to have kids. I don't know if it's my type A personality or what, but it totally kicks my butt. I love, love, love my kids, but man it's not easy for me to do this whole mom thing. I think the sleep deprivation is a big part of it. Anyway, it is definitely worth it though.

Better Late Than Never

2010-02-06T18:39:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been almost 3 weeks now, but we have a new baby boy at our house. Grant Andrew was born on January 18th. Again, like with Fischer, our experience was not as planned at all. We thought for sure we would know what it was going to be like since we'd been through it before.

I was due on Jan. 28, so we scheduled the C-section for the week before (January 21). We were mentally planning on going in bright and early that morning, having had a good night's sleep instead of being up for 72 hours straight, have the C-section, know what we are doing and enjoy our time in the hospital. It didn't go that way at all though. Instead I had contractions all day long on Saturday, all night long that night, all day long on Sunday, all night long that night (already I'd been up for over 48hours) and called the doctor to find out we needed to go into the hospital to just get monitored to see what was going on. Well we got there and found out I was already dilated to a 5 and 100 percent effaced. So, plans changed again, we decided to go ahead and try to deliver vaginally (it's called a V-BAC which means vaginal birth after cesarean). So, that was about noon, and the baby was born that night at 10:30 pm. So, again I had a baby after almost 72 hours straight of being awake. However, I wasn't able to relax at that point. When the baby came out, he was having major difficulty breathing and wouldn't cry. They had to call in the resuscitation team who ran in and was working on him for what seemed like forever. Anyway, long story short, it was all VERY scary, and the baby was in the NICU that night, but everything is good now. We were able to go home on Wednesday, and almost 3 weeks later, I am finally feeling like I can do this.

He is a beautiful boy! Like Fischer, he has perfect features, will most likely have our beautiful blue eyes, has beautiful color, SUPER long toes and fingers, and very much loved. His names are Hewitt family names. Grant is the name of his great grandfather (and the middle name of his grandfather), and Andrew is the name of his great-great grandfather (and the middle name of Mick). We are so happy his is part of our family.

And that makes 7!

2009-12-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

So, today Mick and I "celebrated" our 7th anniversary. I put that in quotations marks, because we don't really do anything to celebrate our anniversary, besides go out to dinner or something simple like that. Every year it's so crazy to think that it's only been that long because Mick were together for so long before we were officially married. I could say a lot about being married to Mick for the last seven years, but I wont bore everyone with the details. Mick is a wonderful husband and father. He works so hard and takes very good care of us. I feel very lucky to be married to such a wonderful man. Love you sweets!PS: Oh, and the pictures, yes we did elope, but I didn't want to regret not having someone to take pictures, so I did get a photographer.

Natalie? Really!?!

2009-12-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have NEVER been more disappointed in the results of survivor! I pretty much can't say anything about this besides it totally SUCKED! Russel so deserved to win. It is SO lame that Natalie won. I'm sure anyone who is cool at all is with me on this opinion!

sing a long!

2009-12-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

So this year I talked Mick into braving the 25th annual Christmas Carol Sing-a-long downtown. It was a little cold waiting for the doors to open, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.
My sister and her family came down to go with us too. We had a lot of fun. We were close to first in line, so we got our pick of the seats. We chose to be at the top of the lower bowl for quicker access to leave when it was over. We got free hot dogs and drinks, and some other free tickets to go to a Jazz game and Buzz games and stuff. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. We sang a ton of songs, and there was a special appearance by Jon Schmidt. He was great. Fischer loved it and sang along to all of the songs. Jingle Bells is his favorite and I got a great video of him singing it at the top of his lungs along with everyone else. I think I may even go again next year.

the littlest elf

2009-12-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

The fun never stops chez moi. We went to the puppet show at the library the other day. It was called "The littlest elf." It was pretty cute.
Fischer watched and it kept his attention the entire time. He has such a great attention span. Way better than any other two year old I know.

new "shubble"

2009-12-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

Daddy came home one day with a new "shubble" (as Fischer calls it) that was just his size to help shovel snow. Fischer was anxious to get right to it.
He would scoop it up and carry it over to the side to dump it out just like he's supposed to. What a great helper.

gingerbread houses!

2009-12-15T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is the second year in a row we have gone to the Gayle Center to see the gingerbread houses on display. Sadly, despite all of my advertisement, there were less entries this year than last. Fischer still enjoyed it though. We brought along his friend Sage as usual, and they were loving the different things they saw. Fischer's favorite was a huge gingerbread barn.
The details on some of these houses were crazy!

My life Will suck without Glee!

2009-12-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

So, if you took my AWESOME advice that I was trying to give out since I saw the pilot episode early for this show back in the spring, and you have actually been watching the best show on tv right now, you will totally "get" the title of this post!

I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! Unfortunately tonight was the fall finale. I cried as I have done in several other episodes. I don't know what I am going to do without Glee to look forward to for the next little while. Sure Christmas is coming up, and I'm going to have a new baby in 6 weeks, but those things pale in comparison to the joy that watching Glee brings me. (Ok, not really, but you get the idea.)

Hopefully, to the losers out there who have not been watching this show, they will start showing re-runs of it and you can start enjoying it too. I could say a lot more about it, but I may start to sound a little obsessive. So, I'll stop with that saying I seriously love this show.

Shout Out to Mickelle

2009-12-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give a little shout out to my good friend Mickelle who introduced me to a yummy treat that I now crave every so often (especially being pregnant). For those of you who haven't tried the Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor pistachio pistachio, you gotta give it a try, especially if you like pistachios! Thanks to Mick for surprising me with it yesterday! It was wonderful.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was with my family this year. Unfortunately all of my siblings weren't able to come. Besides my little family my brother and his family were the only other ones in attendance besides my parents who were hosting of course. Despite what I had anticipated without everyone there, it turned out to be a GREAT Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun. Just wanted to throw some pictures up for you all to take a look at.
I that picture we were all playing a little Thanksgiving Bingo that I had made for the occasion. I made a couple other Thanksgiving themed games too. We had fun with that.
That picture shows what the kids spent almost the entire day playing with. They found these boxes in my parents basement and they were in heaven all day long.
Here we are all sitting down to dinner. The empty seat is mine of course cause I'm taking the picture.
And here are the kids enjoying their Turkey Dinner too. And this is actually before Thanksgiving. Fischer and I went to one of our usual before the holiday fun activities and we went to a special Thanksgiving story time at the library with Sage and some other friends. They made these cute hats there that they loved wearing.

Yet another trip to the zoo

2009-11-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

The whole gang this time around.

Dang, I really love the zoo. I think I like it more than the kids do. It's so fun now though to see Fischer really see the animals move around and do silly things. He loves it. He especially loves it when his cute cousins and his friend Sage comes. We even got to ride the train on this trip. It was a beautiful warm day in November too, you don't get those very often. Here are just a couple of pictures.

Halloween Night

2009-11-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

Fischer had a really fun Halloween night. His friend Sage came over and went trick-or-treating with him around our neighborhood. Then we went over to Aunt Amy and Uncle T's to trick-or-treat with cousins Maggie and Elliot. I made Halloween Stew and rolls and a bunch of Mick's family members came over and hung out. We also got to watch "The Great Pumpkin."

Friday's Halloween Activities

2009-10-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

On Friday Fischer and I went to the school where we volunteer once a week (the same school I used to teach at) for the costume parade. Fischer wasn't too into the costumes as much as he was into the basketball hoops hanging in the gym.

That night we went over to our friends house (Scott, Diana, and Sage) and had dinner, made caramel apples, carved pumpkins, and made a fun candy corn garland craft. The kids had a BLAST. We didn't get home until about 11:30 and Fischer was acting like it was 4 in the afternoon ready for a whole night of fun. We had a great time!!

Thursday's Halloween Activitiy

2009-10-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Fischer and I had our little gym class and then we went to Discovery Gateway for the first time. We went with Diana and Sage again. They are so much fun to hang out with. We stopped at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch first and used Fischer's free birthday kids meal. It was so yummy. We thought the children's museum would be a little more decked out for Halloween and have some fun Halloween things to do, but it was pretty much how it always is, except for some hay bales and scarecrows around. So we took a picture with that and called it our Halloween activity for the day. Fischer did have fun with some teeth that he got the other day though, in the car. He's hilarious.

Wednesday's Halloween Activity

2009-10-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

Today we had a Halloween Party for our mommy and me playgroup. We had such a huge response to our invite that we ended up having it at the church. I'm so glad we did because it was a big hit. The kids got to make some crafts, played ghost bowling, read Halloween stories, played "put the nose on the pumpkin," played "hot pumpkin" (like hot potato), decorated sugar cookies, and passed out fun treats to all of their friends. The kiddos were so cute. They all came dressed in their costumes. It was so much fun, Fischer had the time of his life.

Tuesday's Halloween Activity

2009-10-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we went to the Riverton library for Halloween story time and craft. They read about 5 different stories and sang some really cute Halloween songs. Fischer loved it! At the end they made little ghost windsocks and got to color witches. It was quite the success.

Monday's Halloween Activity

2009-10-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Fischer got to dress up again on Monday to go to our TinyTot class at the library. They did a little costume parade around the library and got to trick-or-treat. They sang some Halloween songs and got to color Halloween pictures. He had the most fun karate kicking down towers he was making with his blocks. He does a great job acting out his part in costume. Also his little friend Sage was there too, as Little Bo Peep. Cute costume!

A weeks worth of Halloween fun!

2009-10-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

This week Fischer and I are doing something "Halloween" every day. It actually started last Saturday with the Hewitt Halloween party. Then on Sunday we had a Sofonia Halloween Party. The rest of the week I will post one at a time. But here are some pics from the first parties!!! Fischer in his Japanese Samurai costume that Mick brought back for him from Tokyo.
Halloween Stew and homemade donuts... a Hewitt family Halloween tradition.
Playing Halloween Bingo. Mick won a dollar! And of course Fischer helped himself to WAY too many donuts. Whose kid is this?

It's the most wonderful time of of the year

2009-10-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

And no, I'm not talking about Christmas time. I love Halloween time. I know there are many of you out there who hate it and think it's the dumbest holiday ever, but you just don't know how to enjoy it I guess. :)

We took our annual trip to the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk yesterday. We LOVE it. I mentioned last year that we used to go to the Logan Pumpkin Walk every year but have since had to change the tradition now that we don't have any immediate family members up there and the trek is too difficult with so many children. So, this is our 3rd year in a row to the Syracuse one. I must admit I like it A LOT better than the one in Logan. It is ALL pumpkins.
This year my mom tried to count all the pumpkins. She counted 1348, but I don't know how accurate that is.

Fischer had the time of his life with his cousins and with the pumpkins. He ran around looking at all of the pumpkins up close and inside. He saw tons of characters that he recognized and the kids loved dancing to the Kung Fu Fighter song at the spot where all the Kung Fu Panda characters were carved in the pumpkins.
After the pumpkins we all got to go to Gammy and PawPaws house (now that they live in Syracuse it's awesome) to have donuts and hot chocolate. That may have actually been Fischer's favorite part of the evening.

Another New Fav!

2009-10-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this is the funniest show on TV since the Office. It's called Modern Family and it's hilarious. I must admit that sometimes it's a little "dodgey" but it's one of those "laugh out loud even though you are watching it by yourself" shows. I know it sounds like all I do is watch tv, but seriously, when there are shows on like this and Glee, who can keep themselves away?

The Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

So, we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Fischer LOVES it. Out here where we live we drive past pumpkin patches all over and every time we pass one, he yells "Punkin Patch Mama. Go Punkin Patch Mama!"
He's been begging Mick to take him, so we found one sliver of time that Mick could squeeze us into his schedule and headed out. Here are a few pictures from the adventure. What cute boys I have! Love the daddy/son relationship these two have.

Just FYI

2009-10-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

So, on Monday Fischer and I braved the WinCo Foods store. It just opened that day, one in Midvale and one in West Valley City. When I use the word "braved" that's a bit of an understatement. I don't know why I do these things sometimes, but we wanted to check it out and couldn't pass up some of the coupons, like bar s bacon for 98 cents, or green giant veggies for 24 cents, or my personal favorite boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 98 cents a pound. Yup, we bought a ton of chicken to stock up for the winter and it was WAY cheap. If you haven't heard of this place, be warned that it's about as big as a costco or sams, but ONLY has groceries. They don't have any books, toys, dishes, computers, etc... just grocery store items. Also, it's like those stores in the sense that they don't accept credit cards, just cash, checks and debit I think. But we got a ton of groceries for a great deal.

umm, you all are watching this right?

2009-10-15T21:53:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I have been waiting for this show to come on since I saw the sneak preview of the pilot episode clear back in MAY!! When I saw that pilot and I'm crying at the end, I knew it was a show I was going to love. I didn't know I would love it as much as I do!! This is seriously my favorite show on tv right now. If you haven't seen it, YOU NEED TO! But, don't just get started on whatever episode they are on now, get on www.hulu.com and watch it from the first episode. You wont be sorry!! I laugh, I cry, I feel good. It's awesome! Don't tell me you don't love it too!

Making Cookies

2009-10-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

Fischer just had to help me make Halloween sugar cookies the other day. He did a great job rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters. He also loved using a "shovel" (spatula) to scrape them off the counter and put them on the cookie sheet.

Witches Galore

2009-10-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

On UEA weekend, Gardner Village did their annual "wee witches weekend" where they had all the fun witches out and fun crafts and activities for the kids to do. So, once again, Sage and Fischer got to hang out again. A few pictures from the occasion.
Here is one of the fun witches dressed up in my favorite color so we had to get a photo
Fischer and Sage loved spending time coloring the haunted houses.
They spent forever in the petting zoo touching all of the animals.
Fischer has to talk about water whenever he sees it. There were witches out there on the water too.
They made cute spider suckers too. They loved it. We had a great time (despite the boat load of people that were there with us).

hooray for fall!

2009-10-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

We love the Black Island Farm in Syracuse. The last couple of years we have been able to go with Moey's family to do the fun things there. They have giant slides, a hayride out to the pumpkin patch where you get to pick out your pumpkin, a "corn box" instead of a sand box, a jumper pumpkin to play in, a little train ride through the corn fields, a kid corn maze, and more. We have such a blast every year. Here are a few pics from the trip.

Fischer found the pumpkin he wanted and raised his hand waiting patiently for the farmer to come over and cut it for him.

He was pretty proud of himself and carried it all the way back to the hay ride.

He's not afraid of anything. He LOVED the huge slides. I didn't love helping him climb up the ropes to get there though.

Of course the train is always a big hit. I took this picture from the little train car I was in.

Fischer LOVES his shopping cart!

2009-10-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Fischer got a new shopping cart for his birthday. It's adorable. It's like a "real" shopping cart, except miniature. It's metal, and has real wheels and even a folding chair seat for a baby. Well, since it's a "real" cart, we want him to use it in the "real" stores. So, I tote it around in the back of the car for whenever we go to a store, and he can push around his own cart. It's so cute. Here are just a couple of pictures.

This kid is awesome

2009-09-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a clip of Fischer doing several of his basket ball tricks, including the slo-mo Michael Jordan slam dunk with sound effects. He's hilarious.

2 Already?

2009-09-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FISCHER!!

I can't believe that he is already two years old!

He is such a sweetheart, and he is so smart! I can't believe in two short years he is already so amazing! Here are just a few of the things that make him fantastic!

1. He knows almost all the letters of the alphabet, and even knows the sounds of some.

2. He can run a computer better than most adults, with a mouse or a track pad. (Seriously, you should see him.)

3. He shoots hoops with about 90% accuracy, knows how to dribble and pass.

4. He does the best cookie monster and count impersonations.

5. He knows ALL the Wiggles songs AND all the actions that go with them!

6. He can ride his scooter as fast as I can walk.

7. He plays baseball and soccer like a professional.

8. He can pretty much run for hours straight without stopping.

9. He will ALWAYS give you a huge smile, hug, and kiss with those big blue sparkling eyes.

10. He makes us the happiest parents in the world! We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

We love you Fischer!

France!

2009-09-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

The pictures pretty much say it all for us. It was a FABULOUS trip. We spent 5 days in Paris and 2 days in my favorite city of France, Strasbourg. Arc de Triomphe

Crepes

Eiffel Tower

Sacre Coeur

Notre Dame

Louvre - Venus de Milo

Versailles Gardens

My apartment for half of my mission in Strasbourg, France

Restuarant in Strausbourg that I ALWAYS wanted to eat at and Mick and I finally did.

Strasbourg Cathedral

Boy or Girl?

2009-09-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Ask Fischer, he will tell you. He knew what we were having long before we did, we just didn't listen to him. You can hear him for youself.

More Summer Fun

2009-08-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

Fischer and I were able to go check out the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point with his girlfriend Sage and her mommy Diana. We LOVE doing stuff with them. We've been able to hang with them a lot this summer and we have enjoyed every minute of it. The kids were actually a lot more interested in the boring stuff than I thought they would be. Of course every time there was a computer, Fischer had to try it out. He's a total computer nerd like his daddy. My favorite part was going to eat lunch afterward though. You've gotta love the JCW's Fries! Yum.

Cooking with Mom

2009-08-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

I know that many of you are going to think that I am a terrible mother for letting my child cook with me like this right next to an open flame, but he loves it. He is usually very careful and follows directions very well. I just can turn him down when he's saying in his sweet little voice "mama, turn peas" (which translated means "mama, can I have a turn please?") So, here he is stirring the spaghetti noodles. He's such a great little helper all the time.

Smash Burger was a Smash Hit!

2009-08-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday Fischer and I got to spend most of the day with my brother Jer and his kids. When I picked him up we had found out from his wife that this new burger joint called Smash Burger was having their VIP trial run day where you get to come order and try the food out for free. So, we got lucky once again and had an amazing lunch... all for free! It's a little place up in Sugarhouse. Everyone should try it out. The Smash Fries are really great with rosemary and garlic on them. Yummy. The kids had WAY more food than they could eat!

Salt Lake County Fair

2009-08-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

We took Fischer and a few of his cousins to the fair. We knew that he would LOVE seeing all the animals. Especially, unlike the zoo, you can get real close to them and touch them all if you want to. He was a riot freaking out with every animal he saw screaming the name of the animal and the sound it makes each time. He loved it. He really loved the petting zoo though. He chased all the animals around and kept petting and touching all the animals he could reach. They had a good time. And of course, Mick had to get a treat. Good ol' funnel cakes at the fair.

LA-GOON

2009-08-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

During my sister's Stake Lagoon Day we (Fischer, Mick, and I) went up and met up with the rest of my family that night around 7pm. That gave us about 3 hours, which is just enough time for us to enjoy Lagoon. Pretty much we just let Fischer ride all the rides he could with his little cousins. I wasn't sure if he was going to enjoy them at all since he wont even play in the little splash pool here at Daybreak. I was totally wrong! We couldn't keep the kid from trying to get on the rides. It was really fun seeing him enjoy himself so much. His cousins were so cute riding all the rides with him too. He really loves his cousins.

Family Party Fun

2009-08-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

This was just one of the many family parties the Smith family has every year. We love getting together for any occasion. The kids love getting together as much as we adults do. Fischer LOVES the twins. He is now obsessed with all babies in general. He also loves to play polly pockets with the girls.

Happy July 24th!

2009-08-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

My family with my brother's in-law's family will brave the parade route downtown Salt Lake every year. They get there at 5am the day before, stay all day and sleep on the street that night. It's pretty crazy actually. Usually we go down and hang out from about 6pm to midnight then head home. Sometimes we'll get up early and go down and watch the parade with them.

This year, with Mick being out of town, it was a free for all for Fischer and me. We decided to brave the entire thing! We packed up everything in the house and headed down for the long haul. You may think I'm crazy, but my sister did it this year with her two little girls and brand new set of twins! She's a trouper.

Fischer LOVED it. He played with his cousins all night, ate all kinds of treats and we slept on an air mattress for about 7 hours over all. (Well, HE slept that long, I didn't sleep at all.) The parade was neat and Fischer loved all the horses the most.

We went home for a nap, and then headed up to my brother's house in Layton for festivities that night. We did the good old fashion sparklers and fireworks in front of their house, played some games and had a good time.

Ogden Rodeo

2009-08-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Fisher and I went to our very first rodeo this year! The kids all got free tickets for participating in the Children's Parade, and my sister and her family love the rodeo so we went with them (and my dad). It was actually really fun. My sister's nephew participated in the mutton busting and actually ended up taking first place. So that made it real excited right at the first. Fischer enjoyed sitting on my sister's lap more than mine. I guess because she was a more experienced rodeo watcher. Obviously there was a bad fall happening when I took this photo.

My 5 year old niece took this great shot of the excitement going on at the show. Pretty great shot for a 5 year old.

Ogden's Children's Parade

2009-08-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

Every year we go up to Ogden to participate in the Children's Parade they do for the 24th of July celebration. So far, we have made it in the Ogden Standard Examiner Newspaper the last 3 years. My sister does such a good job making sure all the kids look adorable, that we are hard to pass up when it comes to photo ops for the paper I guess. This year Fischer was HILARIOUS riding on the rocking horse. The kid waved at people on the sides of the route the ENTIRE time. It was a riot. Everyone who had a camera took a picture of him. It was adorable. My sister even dressed up her brand new twins. She's a riot.

Children's Gardens

2009-08-06T09:22:00.000-07:00

We went to Thanksgiving Point to the children's gardens with our friends Diana and Sage. We also had some new friends come along too. Fischer of course didn't enjoy the Noah's ark where everyone got to play in the water and get wet, but he sure did enjoy feeding the fish, playing with the musical instruments, and climbing on and through everything he could find. Too bad it was so blazing hot, or we would've enjoyed it even more.

Happy Birthday Mick!

2009-07-16T17:17:00.001-07:00

We typically have very uneventful birthdays here at the Hewitt home (at least for the adults), but we at least went out to dinner (at Chili's because Mick says it's family friendly and they have corn on the cob which keeps Fischer busy for a while). Mick's sister Sara also made him an awesome Oreo ice cream cake and we had some family members over that night to eat it and hang out in the back yard with the fire. It was fun.

Mick is now 32 years old and is amazingly successful in his life. He is a very hard worker and a wonderful dad. He loves Fischer almost as much as I do (ok, maybe the same, but that's a whole lot). He loves being proud of Fischer and showing him and his tricks off to everyone. He supports us very well and takes great care of us. We love him very much and are happy to have him in our lives. Happy Birthday Mick.

Annual 4th of July Trip

2009-07-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Mick's family grew up going to their cabin in Star Valley, Wyoming during the summer. We all loved hanging out in the Tetons on the 4th of July and seeing the amazing fireworks in Jackson Hole. Well, they have since sold the cabin, but Mick and I still love to go every year. Most of the time our great friends from Logan meet us up there and we get to play together. Luckily this year they were able to come again. I took TONS of pictures. I'm not going to put them all on this post, instead you can go look at them on our web album by clicking this link here.

Here is a little rundown of what we did each day.

Thursday: Drove to Afton, Wyoming and ate a late lunch snack at Rulon's Burger Barn (you know... it's the hometown or Rulon Gardner). They have AWESOME fries. Then after a nap we went up a little canyon to the Periodic Springs. We did the little hike with Fischer and BBQ'd up some hot dogs. It was SO beautiful. Everything is SO green this year. Fischer discovered the fun of throwing rocks in the river/lakes and did that for about an hour. It was very hard to pry him away from that.
Friday: Hung out for a little while in Star Valley looking at the old cabin, driving around, seeing what real estate was for sale. Then we drove on to Jackson Hole, took a nap then headed out on the town for dinner and shopping. I got the cutest flip flops. I was so excited about them.Saturday: We went to our 4th parade of the season on the 4th of July in downtown Jackson Hole. Next we headed to our favorite spot in the Tetons... String Lake. We just relaxed there and threw rocks in the lake because it was actually quite chilly. Our friends met up with us there and we had a little BBQ lunch. Got rained out early so went back to our hotel and took a nap, then we went to dinner at our favorite Jackson Hole place Bubba's BBQ. And for the finale we saw another AMAZING fireworks show. We are never disappointed with that awesome show up against snow king mountain echoing everywhere. It's beautiful.
Sunday: We took a little day trip up to Yellowstone. The weather didn't cooperate too much with us, but we saw Old Faithful and went on another little hike. Then on the way back home we stopped at Colter Bay and cooked up some tin foil dinners at the lake. It was an awesome evening.Monday: We got to ride up the tram in Teton Village to the top of the mountain. It was really cool. Then we spent the afternoon again at String Lake, had lunch and hung out for a little while. After that, our friends went home and we drove up to Jackson Lake Lodge. Mick has always wanted to stay there since he was a kid, and he finally was able to do it. We ate dinner at the amazing restaurant there that overlooked the entire Teton mountain range. It was beautiful.
Tuesday: We took a road in the Tetons that we had never taken before. It went along the Snake River and we saw some pretty scenery that we had never seen before. Then we headed home.

Parade #3

2009-06-28T21:22:00.001-07:00

Yup, we went to our 3rd parade this month. It was in Herriman for "Fort Herriman Days." Fischer loves them (with the exception of the loud noises that come from the police and fire men). Fischer always loves the horses. This time we were able to bring along Fischer's girlfriend Sage. It was her first parade, and she loved it too! We also made Mick come along on the family outing. He's not a fan of the loud noises either (as you can see by his earplugs). There's more to that story, but you'll have to ask him about it.