mark.marianne.justin.ashton

Baby Noah

2011-08-26T14:26:00.000-06:00

I have another new nephew!! My brother Daniel, his wife Emily, and their boys Andersen and Henry welcomed baby Noah on 08/15/11 (sometime early in the morning) 7 lbs 10 oz. We can't wait to finally meet this little guy!!

6th Grader!!

2011-08-24T09:11:00.002-06:00

Justin is a 6th grader! How did this happen? Who gave him permission to grow up? Time sure flies! I love you buddy!
... and with a new school year comes a new football season! Go Braves!!

Ouch!

2011-08-08T16:40:00.001-06:00

Ash had an altercation with my headboard... The headboard won. Scars are cool, right?! Ash was super excited to visit Papa in his hospital to have his staples removed! Dad just finished up a heart surgery when we arrived... which is why he's sporting such an awesome hat and mask :)

Clayton Arthur Edgson

2011-07-11T16:11:00.002-06:00

I'm a new aunt again!! My sister Katie and her husband Nic welcomed a beautiful baby boy this past weekend. Clayton Arthur Edgson was born on 7/9/11 at 3:49am. 8 lbs, 20 inches, and LOTS of beautiful dark hair! We are totally in love with this little man :)

Lake Powell 2011

2011-06-26T17:48:00.000-06:00

Worst Blogger EVER award... RIGHT HERE!!

Sorry...

I'll try to be better :)

So we just got back from a fantastic trip to Lake Powell with some amazing friends. Much better weather this time! Can't wait to go back!

Ashton stayed home going on tractors with Dardi and Papa, and doing construction on his "work site" with Meema!! He had a blast!!

Coconut Cream Pie

2011-01-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

Do your kids ask to bring a coconut home every time you visit the grocery store? Mine do... and I always say NO... until now. I caved. We bought a coconut, and brought it home. When we unloaded the groceries I said, "well, now what?" to Justin, who just shrugged his shoulders. So after some thought we decided to see if we could make coconut cream pie from an actual coconut. I decided to document the occasion, since it probably won't happen again :) LOL!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

We had a fantastic Christmas Vacation at our house filled with family and fun activities! Even though we don't (usually) go anywhere for the break, I think this is my favorite vacation of the year. I get to spend time with family and just relax... and ski of course ;)

(notice the awesome scratches in my coffee table? gotta love toddlers...!!)

Happy New Year

Playing catch up

2010-11-15T18:57:00.014-07:00

Do any of you ever get so caught up with Facebook that you forget you even have a blog?? Guilty!! Then to be told by your kids grandma that she misses seeing new pictures... ouch my heart! Sorry to those of you in blog~land who actually read my blog! I'll try to be better I promise!! Oh, and Karen, this one's for you! We love you :)

Since so much has happened since May (omg... has it been that long??) i might as well just post pics documenting that last several months. Enjoy!

St. George with Nikki and Garth and NO kids! So much fun :)

Staying in a cabin with friends Jenny and Mont in Oakley. SOOOOO beautiful!!

Lots of trips to the pool

Hanging out in the theater room Mark finished! YAY!

Making parking lots is so much fun :)

First time up close to a REAL tractor!! SO exciting!!

Chillin out with Ginger dog ;)

Working on the backyard

LAKE POWELL!! (part one)

Mark's birthday party!

Football Season! Go Braves!!

Shucking corn with Papa :)

LAKE POWELL (part two!)

Blowing tire on the truck on our way home from the lake... SO scary!!

Uncle Tyler's wedding

Ashton loves his new cowboy hat :)

1st day of 5th grade!! Justin's growing up too fast!

The Lion King

Goofin around :)

Hogle Zoo

Playing on the dirt bikes with Papa

Handsome boy ready for church :)

Sleeping with tools cuz he's "such a worker guy"

Halloween

Snow!

Still alive... and 30

2010-05-03T18:49:00.000-06:00

Wow it has been a long time since the last blog post...

Nothing really new around here...

except...

I turned...

30!!

I have to admit, it was depressing. I know I know, it's no big deal... unless its happening to you. Now it's been a couple of weeks and i'm just fine. I survived. I have the BEST BEST BEST friends (Nikki and Kayci) who collaborated with Mark to throw me a black balloon party. I had NO idea he was going to do what he did.

I drove up and found these hanging from the outside of my house and though... O.M.G...:

Then I walked IN the house and found these:

We had a little party planned but I had no idea Mark was going to do the balloons all over the house, and buy a cake!! He also bought me the most beautiful wall sconses and turquoise candles (the accent color of my kitchen) to go on top.

When my friend Nikki showed up she had a tiara and a feather boa for me to wear... cute.

In other news:

Justin started lacrosse again and is loving it. Here he is playing goalie!!

and Ashton is still the cutest thing... ever!!

Happy Spring!!

Broken

2010-02-12T18:56:00.004-07:00

Ashton is broken. Apparently he takes after his accident-prone momma. Friday afternoon I took off early from work so I could take Ashton to his 2 year well-child doctor appointment. I stopped at home first to get some lunch. While I was getting something to eat Ashton asked for some cereal. I turned to the pantry to grab some and Ashton got so excited he started dancing around on the bar stool he was standing on. Well he danced a little too much and stepped right off! Mark and I were both within 5 feet of him but we couldn't catch him. He fell off sideways and his left hand hit the floor first. He has fractured his elbow. So he's in a little blue cast for the next 3 weeks. You'd never know he was broken though; he's climbing on and jumping off of everything! Maybe his new cast gave him super powers?? ;)

What a decade!

2010-02-01T09:29:00.009-07:00

Today is Justin's 10th birthday! I can't believe he's already so "old"! We had a very eventful week of birthday celebrations starting with Ashton's 2nd birthday back on January 23rd. Saturday night we had friends and family over for pizza and cake. There was great conversation, delicious deserts and fun had by all!

With Justin turning 10 it has caused me to take pause and reflect on the last decade. For me, it has been filled with tremendous highs and a few lows and a lot of growing up. I had an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19 which threw me headfirst into adulthood. Justin is truly my best friend and I can't imagine my life without him. He has always been my little sidekick and my bestest buddy. We have a relationship unlike most and I feel truly blessed to have him in my life. I met my love, Mark, back in December of 2003 and we've had a rollercoaster of a ride; but I wouldn't trade it for anything else and I'm so happy to be on this ride with him. I blindly left my job at Zions Bank in 2005 in hopes of finding something better only to land the most terrific job with Operating Engineers Credit Union 1 month later. I built my first home, by myself, at the age of 25... only to think it's time to build another one 2 years later! Crazy, I know. We welcomed Ashton Scott to our family in January of 08 and we're all madly in love with that little stinker! We've added new pets and had to say goodbye to a couple along the way. We've made so many new friends and made incredible memories.

It really has been an amazing 10 years and I'm so excited to see what the next decade has in store!

California!

2010-01-03T08:14:00.021-07:00

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I have been writing this post since January 3rd... but life with an almost 2 year old, a new super cute puppy, a full time job, and a crazy busy life has made actually finising this post pretty hard... but I did it (yay me!) Anyway, here is :)

After 4 months of constant planning we finally got to surprise Justin with a fun trip to California. Christmas morning he woke up to find his stoking full and new suitcases packed. He had a letter that he read aloud stating that he and his whole family were going to DISNEYLAND!! With careful planning between Mark and I and Santa Clause we were able to put together a fun filled trip to California which included trips to Disneyland, California Adventure, Lego Land, USS Midway, and Huntington Beach!!
Our flight left at 11:02 and being Christmas Day we thought we'd better get there early; especially since we were traveling with Ashton and all of his "things". My mom came to pick us up at 8:30 (of course we weren't quite ready to go...). We finally got to the airport and realized that I had left Justin's Lego Land ticket at home. So my mom then turned around to pick it up and bring it back to us. She is AWESOME! What Justin didn't know is that there was another surprise in store for him. Soon after arriving at Salt Lake International he saw a few familiar faces... his good friends Bubba and Kaleb and their parents (who happen to be our GOOD friends) were coming with us! After spending the morning in SLC where the temperature was a balmy 8 degrees, it was very VERY nice to walk off the plane in Long Beach where the weather was to hit about 67 that day! The only bad thing about the weather was that my whole allergy system was hibernating in the Utah cold weather. All of a sudden I felt like Melman on Madagascar... "NATURE!! It's all over me!! Get it off!!"... my allergies went NUTS!

We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott which was a pretty nice hotel. We were happy with it. It was within walking (LONG) distance from Disneyland. We went to the Park on Christmas day and apparently so did ALL OF CALIFORNIA. It was SOOOO busy, but we had fun and it was exciting for the kids to be there.

Day 2 was spent "hanging out". We went to my favorite restaurant, El Torito, in Dana Point and walked on the harbor. The boys went through a gate they weren't supposed to and got stuck... it was VERY comical!!

Day 3 was spent at Lego Land. None of us had ever been there before. I have to say it was probably one of the prettiest parks I've ever been to... but pretty boring. The rides were geared towards young kids (most of them) and the lines were very long. The coolest part was mini land where they made entire cities out of Lego's, very cool.
Day 4 was a long day. We traveled to San Diego to visit the USS Midway museum. The museum was very interesting and I think the boys had a lot of fun. I had no idea that the tour would take as long as it did, but it was self guided so that was nice. We got some pretty cute pictures too! I would recommend anyone who enjoys history to check it out.

Day 5 we were back at Disneyland and California adventure for the day and a good time was had by all. The park reached capacity by 10 am... note to self... NEVER visit Disneyland around the holidays again.

Day 6 we were supposed to go to the beach. Everyday had been beautiful so we had high hopes until we woke up to major rain fall for the entire day :( BOO! So we had cabin fever in our hotel and I thought I'd go nuts!!

Day 7 was New Years Eve. We woke up and went to Disneyland. I took Ashton on the kiddie rides and he was terrified. I laughed! I'm so mean... We went home for lunch and returned to California adventure where we stayed for the remainder of the day. This day was by far my favorite. The new years eve party there was incredible!! There were dance parties all over the park and lots of loud music that Ashton loved! The lines on this day weren't nearly as bad as they had been on days past. Mark and Justin stayed in the park to ride rides after the new years countdown. They were able to walk on to all the rides and had SO much fun!

Day 8 was our go home day. It had been such a long week and I think everyone was ready to go home. Since we missed our beach day we decided to hit Huntington Beach before our flight home. It was BEAUTIFUL! They boys played in the ocean and Ashton jumped in the waves. We went to Ruby's on pier for lunch which was good food, but HORRIBLE service. Hopefully the girl working the take out window was just having a bad day...

All in all we had a wonderful trip! It was so much fun to be with adult friends while the kids had each other. I can't wait until we can go again! We're already planning our next vacation... to the Caribbean...NO KIDS! lol :)

Ginger

2009-12-02T21:28:00.010-07:00

We have a new family member. Her name is Ginger. She is a 5 month old Red Nose Pitbull Terrier. She is the most loving and mellow dog. We love her SO much. Zero our Pekingese seems very happy to have a friend in the house again. They love to snuggle together on the couch. We got Ginger from a family in Pocatello Idaho. She was one of nine puppies! They had been calling her Bella... Mark said he couldn't keep the name Bella because it was too close to a Disney name and also fed my Twilight addiction... LOL... Plus we have a few neighbor dogs named Bella and that could get confusing. Anyhow ~ It just so happened that my sister and her husband were on there way down from Pocatello to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving when I came across this puppy on ksl.com. We had just watched the movie Marley and Me for the first time as a family and it pulled on our heart strings to have another puppy in the house. My mom whacked me on the head with a menu when we went out to lunch the next day for getting a 2nd dog, but I'm really REALLY happy with our decision. We didn't tell Justin about the puppy. Mark and I wanted to keep it a surprise. We just kept telling him we had something special for him but he had to wait until the end of the day. Justin got a few tears in his eyes with Ginger finally showed up. It was perfect.

Family Pictures

2009-11-11T21:41:00.014-07:00

My brother Stefan was kind enough to take some pics of our little family up in Mueller Park Canyon today. I got re-inspired to have some cute pictures after seeing my brother and his family post some super cute one's!! Ashton, of course, decided that today was a good day to skip his nap. He was NOT cooperative. Other than some major Ashton frustrations I think most of the pics turned out pretty cute! Thanks Stefan!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T18:50:00.002-07:00

Back from Idaho

2009-10-18T20:46:00.007-06:00

We had a great (short) trip...apart from my camera breaking (boo hoo!!), loosing my car keys in the football stadium (and then finding them 20 minutes and a heart attack later), and gaining at least 10 lbs from the muffins and Cheetos we ate in the car. I have to say that for the crazy day that Ashton had (2.5 hour drive to Pocatello, going to a 3.5 hour football game, immediately over to the 2 hour volleyball game and then on to an amazing dinner at Ruby Tuesdays) he did amazingly well... yes there was a short time during the football game that he transformed into a little devil child and screamed like a banshee... but other than that, he was great! We met Katie at her office and drove over to the stadium together to watch Per's game. My mom decided to come as well and met us at the game. Unfortunately neither Per or Katie's teams won (Katie's was SO close!!) But it's always fun to go watch! After dinner with Katie and Per and Per's cute parents we went to sleep at Katie and Per's cute house in Old Town Pocatello. I love Katie and Per! I love my boys :~) Enjoy some pics of our trip~~~

~KatiePer~

2009-10-16T10:45:00.016-06:00

We get to go visit these guys this weekend! We think they're pretty awesome! Our favorite Canadian and Canadian in training!! Uncle Per plays football for Idaho State and Aunt Katie coaches Volleyball. They both have home games this Saturday so the boys and I are headed to Spudland! We haven't seen them for a couple of months so we're all pretty excited. I love my little sis so much! I wish she lived closer!

Justin has a home game against Murray this weekend as well. We're doing half time treats. Hopefully we can get another win... did I ever mention that we WON last week?? Finally!! Bountiful-28 Highland-0 The boys were so excited!! Definitely a morale booster! I guess I also need to paint a very large paper banner for the boys to run through tonight too... busy!!

Mark will be staying home to work on our basement and it's endless projects. I love this man so much! I miss him already and we're not gone yet!!

October... finally!!

2009-10-01T15:04:00.027-06:00

I love fall. I finally get to wear the copious amount of jackets that reside in my closet. For those of you that listen to Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear... you'll understand. Jackets are a must! They make you look thinner and more put together; not to mention they cover the puppies! All summer I feel blobish (my own word) so I'm always thrilled to feel a little crispness in the air.

We celebrated Mark's birthday in September. Since we're saving for a very special Christmas (more to come on that later) we decided to keep the birthday pretty uneventful. We did get a new TV and some family room furniture though. Yay!

Justin is halfway through his football season. He is doing such a great job and we're very proud of how hard he's practicing . It is so much fun to be a part of this team. I love going to the games each Saturday. We were able to attend the University of Utah football game vs. Louisville. I went with Justin and Ashton and Justin was able to march in with and meet the Utes. It was really fun! I'm shocked Ashton lasted as long as he did :) We rode the Trax train for the first time too!!

My dear sweet Ashton has had yet another illness coupled with a pretty traumatic injury to his knee. Last Sunday Ashton and I had a walking to the park date with our friends Kayci and little Tyler. We walked out to the garage to get the stroller. Ashton ran out around my car and tripped on some of the corner metal that Mark is using to finish our basement with. It had been left sitting between the two cars in the middle of the garage floor. The way the metal was angled made it comparable to paring knives sitting blade side up just waiting for an unsuspecting victim to trip and fall on them. We called my dad (doctor dad, md...) who was on his way home from Idaho. He said he was almost home and to quickly meet him at his house. Ashton and I drove up the hill so "Papa" could investigate the injury. Luckily no stitches were necessary, just a few butterfly bandages to hold it together (which Ashton promptly took off the second his pants were removed). He will have some pretty gnarly scars... cool dude :) ... on to the illness... This past Tuesday morning I received a call from Ashton's daycare stating that he had some spots developing on his bottom, stomach and back... I of course think their overreacting about some diaper rash and begrudgingly make my way over to the center to pick him up. When I arrived I was shocked to see the blistery bumps that were developing before my eyes. I packed Ashton in the car and headed back to work and awaited my lunch break. 1:00 came and Ashton and I made our way to the instacare (since our doctor takes Tuesdays off and Ashton ALWAYS seems to fall ill on Tuesdays). They took his temperature (100 F) and the on call doctor came in to ask some questions. She asked if he had blisters on the bottom of his feet or the palms of his hands... off came is shoes, and sure enough there were blisters. He was becoming covered in these bumpy red blisters. The doctors diagnosis: Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Treatment??? NOTHING. You have to wait it out while your baby is covered in painful blisters and feeling sick sick sick. I can give him Tylenol and a hug. That's it. So Mark and I have taken turns taking off work to be with him since he's not allowed back into daycare until he's well again. It's really the saddest thing. Especially because he's only 20 months old and you can't explain what's happening to him. So sad :(

Mark has been hard at work finishing a theater room in our basement. I am SO excited!! He is doing such a great job!! We're to the point that we can now shop for paint and carpet / wood flooring! YAY!!

Sorry for the lack of blogging happening... life is crazy. Happy October everyone!! Enjoy your jackets ;)

Football Season

2009-08-29T15:58:00.009-06:00

Football season has started!! Justin made the "A" team with the Bountiful Braves 9 year old gremlins. This year he's # 78. He's WAY excited! They are working their butts off and it paid off today when they won their first game against West High School!! Go Braves!!

We'd love to see people at his games. You can see his gremlin's schedule HERE and field locations HERE.

Back to School

2009-08-21T09:59:00.002-06:00

Good luck in 4th grade buddy!! We love you!

It's a fact. I make BIG kids!!

2009-08-06T11:05:00.011-06:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take half the day off of work so I could attend appointments for both of my kids. After Justin and I picked up Ashton from daycare we decided we had a minute to sit down for lunch. We decided to go to my most favorite spot for lunch in Bountiful, Plates and Palates (if you haven't been there, you must go!!). The three of us dined on salads and panini's. YUM!

It was soon time to go to our first appointment which was Ashton's 18 month check up. We were thrilled when Dr. Black said there were NO shots this time! We went over all of his developmental milestones to make sure he was up to par. We discussed all of the fun things Ashton has been up to lately, such as: thinking every object is a cell phone and holding it between his shoulder and his ear and talking "sassy" just like his mommy, hearing the word TACO on TV and repeating it ALL. THE. TIME, walking around and reprimanding people while throwing his hands up and shaking them about (it's so hilarious!), and getting really good at his sign language for PLEASE, FINISHED, and MORE. The nurse came in and said well, Ashton's a very tall little guy! He's almost 3 feet tall (35.5 inches!!). I got to thinking about the formula for figuring out how tall your kids are. I'm not sure how true it is, but I was told that if you double the height of a 3 year old that's about how tall they'll be when an adult. So if Ashton is only 1... how tall will be be when he's 3? And if I double that...?? Is the circus going to call looking for the 10 foot man? Oh gosh... maybe the NBA? Think of the possibilities!!

After Ashton's appointment we decided that it would be fun to stop at Keva Juice before heading up to Justin's orthodontist appointment. I got the Keva Kolada. again... YUM!! Finally it was time for Justin to sit in the chair. Dr. Feller kept looking at Justin's mouth, and then his x-rays, and then his mouth and then said, "How old are you again???" to which Justin replied that he was 9. "I don't believe it!!" replied Dr. Feller. "You have the mouth of a 12 year old!!". After talking about how far advanced Justin's mouth was we decided that we'd take his braces off next month (he's only got braces on the top because they had to use the palate expander to fix a cross bite... I think I blogged about this... look for the medieval torture device!!LOL). After a 6 month break or so from the braces we'll throw them back on all of his teeth. So he'll be completely finished with braces by the 6th grade... This was starting to sound strangely familiar. I had braces from 4th - 6th grade also!

So it's official. I make BIG kids. Who grow up WAY too fast!! How do you make it stop??

Lake Powell

2009-07-27T09:48:00.018-06:00

What a horrible blogger I've been. To my own defense... I had a FABULOUS vacation and then Mark was out of town on a business trip to Indianapolis and things have been busy busy busy. Now I'm home sick from work feeling really yucky... what a better time to update the blog?!?!

So Lake Powell was absolutely wonderful, as usual... except for the fact that Mark and Ashton stayed home. Mark has a new (really great) job and hasn't been there long enough for his vacation time to kick in. We couldn't afford for him to take a week off unpaid, so he stayed home. Ashton stayed home with Mark, call me selfish... but I really didn't see it being a relaxing and stress free vacation having to watch a toddler on a houseboat floating on a lake that is 300+ feet deep. YIKES!! So Justin and I left for a week of fun in the sun with my folks and some of my siblings. My brother took over 1200 pics and I took a bunch myself. So instead of trying to explain our fun, I'll just let you see it in pictures. Enjoy :)

Tubes

2009-06-30T11:12:00.002-06:00

Ashton had ear surgery this morning and got tubes in his ears. The doctor said they pulled out lots and lots of goopy gunk. So he should start hearing and speaking much better now. Hopefully this little guy will stay healthy! :)

Goodbye Michael...

2009-06-26T12:47:00.003-06:00

To Michael Jackson: THANK YOU!!!

For giving me memories to last a life time.

*Breaking into a giddy chuckle every time I hear "Thriller" and envision me, Kayci, and a thriller dancing Mark going down the dock at Lake Powell... tee hee hee...

*My mom taking mine and Dan's Michael Jackson record (like a real record...) and breaking it into a million pieces... and me following her down the driveway as she was going to throw it away... screaming, begging her not too throw my beloved MJ record away... all because Dan and I thought it would be SOOO fun to use her other records as Frisbees... whoops...

Good times... thank you... goodbye...

Diet Anyone...??

2009-06-15T10:32:00.005-06:00

So about a month ago my mom and I were eating lunch at Biagis (YUMMO!!) and decided we'd go on a diet together. We knew our trip to Lake Powell was fast approaching and it'd be nice to be SLAMMIN in our swimsuits!! Well the next week grandpa Clay passed away and between the stress, sadness, and copious amounts of Swiss chocolate consumed the diet never really started... in fact it went in reverse... YIKES!! After everything settled down we decided we'd start again. I've been doing really well with my food but I think I really just want to tone up so I thought I'd take up running again... which was all good in theory, but then Utah got stuck under a constant HURRICANE and I couldn't go out and run at all. So I've got about 2.5 weeks to go. Does anybody have any diet or exercise secrets they'd like to share?? You know, the kind where you drop 10 sizes in a week?? Ha ha ha! No really, I'm serious!! I have to look good in THIS!

Grandpa Clay

2009-05-24T18:09:00.006-06:00

Many of you know that my grandpa Clay passed away last week. We attended a beautiful funeral service for him yesterday. He was such a truly amazing man. We will miss him so dearly. I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and well wishes.

Clayton R. Hurst 1927 ~ 2009 Clayton Riley Hurst, adored husband, father, grandpa, friend, Bish, Chief, Bwana and Pres, passed away May 21, 2009. Heeding the poet's advice, he did not go all too "gently into that good night," which will not surprise any who knew him. He loved life, but after years of illness and decline, Clay is now with beloved family and friends in joyful reunion. Clayton was born June 30, 1927 in Helper, Utah, the cherished only child of Mary Matekovic and Nathan T. Hurst. The family moved to Salt Lake City and then to Reno, Nevada, when Clayton was a young boy. A child of the Depression, his family was "as poor as dirt," but thanks to his mother, he always looked snazzy. From childhood on, he was a hard worker, delivering groceries by age ten and driving a school bus when he was 14-years-old. An adventurous spirit, he learned to pilot a plane at age sixteen. Clay was blessed with a bright and inquisitive mind. He graduated from high school early and enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17, much to his mother's dismay. After basic training in San Diego, he was posted as a corpsman at the naval hospital in Dublin, Georgia. Following his military service, Clay enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he met a lovely co-ed from Las Vegas, Norma Jean Carruth. In the midst of their courtship, he accepted a call to serve in the Swiss-Austrian Mission (1949-1951). During his two-and-a-half years of service, he developed a life-long love for the language, people and land. After his return, he and Norma were married in the St. George Temple on November 23, 1951. Back in Reno, Norma taught school while Clayton completed a degree in German and chemistry. The young couple moved to Houston, where Clay worked for New York Life. Work took them to New Orleans, then on to Denver and eventually to Los Angeles. They settled in La Crescenta, where they lived for the next 35 years, reared their four children and forged many enduring friendships. Clayton and Norma's home was a haven of love, learning, much laughter, great food and lively conversation. Any "reproving betimes with sharpness" was unfailingly followed by "an increase of love." Our childhood home, indeed anywhere our parents lived, was literally a refuge for anyone in need who might knock at the door. Home is a sacred word in our vocabulary. After several more years in the insurance business, Clay and two colleagues established the benefits consulting firm of Olanie, Hurst & Hemrich. His keen mind and gregarious nature made Clay a successful businessman and endeared him to many as mentor and friend. Clayton's greatest work, however, was that of an eternal nature: family, friendships and service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He especially loved, and had a marvelous gift for, teaching young people. His church work included serving as a bishop three times and as President of the Switzerland Zurich Mission (1983 - 1986). He is survived by his loving wife, Norma; children and spouses, Scott and Holly Hurst, Kathryn and William Smith, Barbara Hurst and Joseph Ney, and Susan and Steven Rhondeau; 16 grandchildren and 10 1/2 great-grandchildren. Dad truly experienced joy in his posterity. Other loved-ones include sisters-and-brothers-in-law, Barbara and Vern Albright and Carole and Murton Bowman and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins who were a profound and loving influence in his life. The children wish to express deep-felt thanks to the staff of Wentworth-Coventry Assisted Living (Lupita, you are an angel), and Rocky Mountain Hospice: Dr. Bretton Newman, Dina, Brandon, Mike, Alane, Josh, Tyler and the Bens. They deserve a medal, as does our Mom, Dad's number one fan and caregiver. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, May 27, at 12 p.m. at the Monument Park Ward, 1005 South 2000 East, Salt Lake City. Friends may call on Tuesday evening, May 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, 2350 East 1300 South, and Wednesday from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. prior to services at the church. Clay really disliked attending viewings; this time he doesn't have a choice. To ease the pain for the rest of us, Swiss chocolate will be on hand. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Missionary Fund of the LDS Church. Interment: Salt Lake City Cemetery. Online condolences may be sent to www.larkincares.com

Feet

2009-05-12T16:37:00.001-06:00

I got this in an email and thought it was HILARIOUS!! So of course I had to share...

Alright ladies, it's that time of year once again!!! I think we need to be reminded of a few things. So my sisters, PLEASE, raise your big toes and repeat after me below...

The Open Toed Shoe Pledge
As a member of the Cute Girl Sisterhood, I pledge to follow the Rules when wearing sandals and other open-toe shoes:

I promise to always wear sandals that fit. My toes will not hang over and touch the ground, nor will my heels spill over the backs. And the sides and tops of my feet will not pudge out between the straps.

I will go polish-free or vow to keep the polish fresh, intact and chip-free.
I will not cheat and just touch up my big toe.

I will sand down any mounds of skin before they turn hard and yellow.

I will shave the hairs off my big toe.

I won't wear pantyhose even if my misinformed girlfriend, coworker, mother, sister tells me the toe seam really will stay under my toes if I tuck it there.

If a strap breaks, I won't duct-tape, pin, glue or tuck it back! into place hoping it will stay put. I will get my shoe fixed or toss it.

I will not live in corn denial; rather I will lean on my good friend Dr. Scholl's if my feet need him.

I will resist the urge to buy jelly shoes at Payless for the low, low price of $4.99 even if my feet are small enough to fit into the kids' sizes. This is out of concern for my safety, and the safety of others. No one can walk properly when standing in a pool of sweat and I would hate to take someone down with me as I fall and break my ankle.

I will take my toe ring off toward the end of the day if my toes swell and begin to look like Vienna sausages.

I will be brutally honest with my girlfriend/sister/coworker when she asks me if her feet are too ugly to wear sandals. Someone has to tell her that her toes are as long as my fingers and no sandal makes creepy feet look good.

I will promise if I wear flip flops that I will ensure that they actually flip and flop, making the correct noise while walking and I will swear NOT to slide or drag my feet while wearing them.

I will promise to go to my local nail salon at least once per season and have a real pedicure (they are about $20 or $25 and worth EVERY penny).

I will promise to throw away any white/off-white sandals that show signs of wear... nothing is tackier than dirty white sandals.

April

2009-04-25T19:14:00.011-06:00

We had a busy month. Here's some cute pics of what went on...

I had a birthday! My last birthday in fact :) I'll be 29 forever, right??

I got a camera from mom and dad and Mark did things around the house for me.

This is the first pic I took with the new camera

This is where Mark took me for dinner

This was some of our yummy food

This was my desert...

This is what was inside!! mmmm....

This is my post Cheesecake Factory happy face :)

Mark bought and installed this pot rack for me.

Mark tiled our garage entry...

Mark also tiled our main entry!! I love it :)

Justin got me this awesome bracelet

I had a birthday party with some friends (thanks girls!!)

We bought yummy Popsicles at Costco! Yummo!!

Ashton loved his pop too :)

Ashton got to come to work with mom and throw candy at her with Maria! Fun!!

The boys got quality time with Dad

Justin started LACROSSE!!

He's the goalie. He is awesome at being the goalie!

We watched.

He froze :P

The team did great!! :)

Not Leukemia... What?!?!

2009-04-23T15:19:00.003-06:00

I got a call from the Bountiful Instacare today, the same one that I took Ashton to on Thursday. I guess they sent his blood to another lab for further analysis. It came back with a platelet count of only 35... no I'm not really sure what that means in the whole scheme of things, but they said that is LOW and BAD and DANGEROUS. They said I was to take him immediately to the ER at Primary Children's... GREAT. So I called my mom and she met me at the daycare. We road up to the hospital together and checked in. The doctor said she wanted to run a whole bunch of tests and just rule things out. Okay...sure... whatever you want. So they poked Ashton (again) and extracted 3 things of blood to test and then they hooked him up with an IV. They came to the conclusion that the rash he's got is really patiki eye. I guess that is when the blood vessels are breaking underneath the skin. After about 3 hours of waiting for all of the tests to come back the doctor finally came in with the news. She said that his platelets are still low, not as low, but low. And his white count is low. The good news is that he doesn't have Leukemia. (At this point I nearly fell over... LEUKEMIA??? Are you SERIOUS???). We have to go back to the hospital in a week to re-check his blood and make sure that with the virus going away that his blood levels come back up. So cross your fingers. We're feeling really blessed right now that it turned out as well as it did. Now if we could just get him healthy, that would be much better!!

Sick... again...

2009-04-22T09:43:00.002-06:00

I believe I've posted about Bilateral Otitis before... well, it's back and this time it's brought it's friend Infected Throat. Aren't we lucky?? (Can you hear the sarcasm oozing from my tone???)

I got a call at work on Monday from Ashton's day care: "Hi, Marianne. Well, 1st of all, Ashton has a really high fever and 2nd Ashton has a really bad rash. You need to come get him." Sure enough, when I got there he was burning up and did indeed have a rash. **The rash I wasn't so worried about since Ashton's allergic to milk and may or may not have had a taste of ice cream the day prior (shhhh....).** But the fever really had me worried. When Ashton got sick with the metapheumovirus last month, it all started with a high fever. So I took him home and gave him Tylenol and he seemed to be fine... hmmm, maybe he's teething?? I'm not so sure. So Tuesday I brought him to work with me and my mom (LOVE HER!!) came and picked him up for the day. She said he got another fever and gave him some Motrin. By the time I got there after work he was burning up again so I took him to the local instacare. His fever was at 104. YIKES!! Then they hooked him up to the machine that checks his oxygen and blood pressure. His oxygen kept going from 88-95 (which is OK, not great...). I started to freak. Seriously?!?! We were just in the hospital. I don't want to go back!! So then they check his lungs, they sounded good. I started to feel a little bit relieved. They then check his ears, "Oh boy" the doctor says, "This one is pretty badly infected, let's check the other one. Oh man, this one is really bad too." Then the doctor wants to check his throat. "Oh wow little man, look at all that puss growing on your tonsils, no wonder you're not a happy guy." Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself... 2 ear infections?? Again?? This has to be like 10th infections he's had this winter! The doctor says he's concerned about the height of Ashton's fever and wants to do some blood tests. He says he'll send the nurses in. After being held down by myself and another nurse and a 3rd nurse trying to find a vein for about 20 minutes (and poking him all over the place) they finally get what they need. Ashton is now drenched in sweat from trying to escape the needles. A few minutes later the doctor comes back and says that the blood test came back fine (phew!!) but he'll need to be on antibiotics for 10 days to treat his ears and throat. I can deal with that. Much better than going back to the hospital!

Later that night I called my dad (Doctor Dad, MD) and relayed our nights events. He said he's talk to a specialist at the hospital today about Ashton's condition and hopefully they can figure something out... tubes perhaps? I don't know. But something needs to happen. His poor little ears can't take any more of this infection business.

Spring Break and Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T11:46:00.011-06:00

Well, Spring break didn't quite turn out like I had planned... a few months ago we thought we'd take a vacation since Justin had a week off of school. You know, something short and sweet and AWESOME like Disneyland!! But then Ashton got sick and spent our "vacation" in the hospital... so we made due with what time we had. I am lucky enough to work with a guy who's wife works at Park City Mountain Resort... his family doesn't ski (CRAZY I KNOW), so she gets all of these free passes just for working there and gives me several each year. So we got to go skiing for free on Friday and Saturday. That resort is my favorite by far. It is HUGE and super nice, but the best part is the Baja Cantina. This is the most AWESOME Mexican restaurant (aside from El Torito... which we don't have here in Utah... sad (**SIGH**)). It is so much fun to be able to ski and then go to a nice sit down restaurant, then go back and ski some more. We also got to ski with my little brother Sam. Sam is an AMAZING skier. He is sponsored and wins all types of awards for the tricks and jumps he can do on his skis. It was really just awe inspiring. It was really exciting for Justin to be able to see his uncle doing what he does best and I'm sure he had so much pride seeing people stop to watch Sam and go "ooohhh ahhhh wowwww"..

Justin and I woke up early on Easter morning to make eggs and pancakes. I did the pancakes and he did the eggs. He was so excited to help. After church we stayed up at my moms and had dinner with my family and grandparents and my aunt Barb and her kids. Justin and Ashton had their egg hunt. Justin was almost beating the door down as soon as he saw all of the candy outside. Ashton was so cute!! As soon as he saw Justin picking up all of the candy he got right into it and started throwing candy in his own bag.

So all in all it was an awesome weekend, not Disneyland... but sometimes family time is even better :)

Cute Nephews

2009-04-02T14:46:00.012-06:00

There should be a rule against family moving far away. Who can I talk to about this? Seriously! My newest nephew Henry has new pictures and he's just so stinkin cute! I just want to squish his little cheeks but I CAN'T because he's so far away. I miss my little Andersen (A- Dog, not to be confused with J-Dog (Justin)). I found a baby picture of Andersen and think it is SO adorable how much these two little guys look alike... See for yourself... don't pass out from shock over the cuteness!!

Andersen

and

Henry

Ticket To Ride

2009-03-29T22:24:00.000-06:00

So my family and I have discovered the most FUN board game!! (***Side note*** They may have discovered it WAAAAYYYY before I did, but I'm taking some credit none the less!!). So this game is all about building train routes around a country or through countries and trying not to get blocked along the way by the people you're playing with. It is seriously so fun!! I guess there are are all sorts of different versions of the game. We usually play the Europe game, but today my mom and dad and I played the Switzerland one. I lost. DANG IT!! I still had a blast though. So if anyone is looking for a fun and somewhat mentally challenging game, go get it!!

Welcome to the Sweet's!!

2009-03-28T18:42:00.000-06:00

My friend Brenda moved into her new house in Tooele over a year ago. I'm such a bad friend cuz I just barely went to see it TODAY!! My boys had so much fun with her husband Nick. He took them riding on the 4-wheeler in a field near their house. Justin said as we were leaving that he'd like to move there! We'll definitely have to visit more often :)

Happy Monday . . .

2009-03-23T12:08:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Utah is all I can say about the past few days. We had the most BEAUTIFUL weekend with 70+ degree weather. So warm that Justin was able to play outside with all of the neighborhood kids and by the time I saw him again later that evening his arms were FRIED! Then, this morning I woke up to SNOW. BLAH!! Now normally I enjoy the snow because I am a skier... with Ashton (love him!! Squish his cheeks!!) I haven't been able to hit the slopes as much as I'd like . . . sigh . . . so I've found my self jumping on the "we hate the snow" bandwagon. My sister Katie and her hubby Per (Nic to those who don't refer to him by his AWESOME middle name!!) are in town for spring break. Their plan was to take Justin (who has the day off) out and play all day... well they are currently STUCK in the snow...grr... hopefully they make it down the hill in one piece! Southern Arizona is sounding really good right now!

Ashton had an exciting Monday morning of peeing on his mom (that would be ME) not once, but TWICE before they had to hurry out the door and make it to school / work on time. Thank you baby Ash man for making my mornings so exciting!!

My Mark is spending his snowy Monday looking for the ultimate job, trouble is... that the rest of the country is doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. I really hope he finds something wonderful! I told him that my co-worker Maria and I were looking into Culinary Arts school for fun. He said he'd be happy to make food for people. He'd open up his own donut shop! Now if that's not a change in pace, I don't know what is! Mark the cupcake man!! ha ha ha!

Happy Monday everyone :)

Happy ST. Patrick's Day!!

2009-03-17T08:39:00.000-06:00

Happy ST. Patrick’s Day!

Hope you're all wearing green!!

Happy to be home

2009-03-12T10:52:00.001-06:00

After 6 nights and 7 days at the hospital we were finally able to bring Ashton home yesterday. He's still has a little ways to go before he's at 100% but he's getting better. This whole experience was a crazy whirlwind of emotions. I never dreamed he's have to be admitted to this hospital. After he got admitted I figured they'd let him go the next day... and then the next day... and then the next day... but he was such a sick little guy. We would think he was on the mend, but then the next day he'd crash again. I'm just glad he's out and feel so blessed that we have a healthy and happy little guy. We sure do love him to pieces!!

Some of the "grey clouds" of our experience:

Having to see Ashton sick in the hospital .

Having the nurse miss twice before finally getting Ashton's IV in on the 3rd try.

Having to watch Ashton have his suction treatments.

Not being able to see Justin very much .

"Sleeping" on the parent bed (not a bed... pull out chair thing) in the hospital and getting 20 minutes of sleep in a row is a good thing.

Hospital getting so full that you had to share a room.

Hospital food.

Having severe bronchitis while trying to care for your baby who's in the hospital.

Some of the "silver linings" of our experience:

Awesome staff of PCMC.

My Dad coming in to the ER and sitting with us and then giving Ashton a blessing.

My Mom finally able to come visit after her trip.

Amazing neighbors who brought (and are still bringing) dinners for our family.

Wonderful friends who visited and sent messages of love and support.

Ashton's daycare teacher who came to see him in the hospital.

Dardi, Stefan, and Karen who helped watch Ashton in the hospital while Mark and I worked.

Getting to spend almost a full week day and night with Ashton.

Mom bringing me PF Changs... mmmm. yummy!!

Having an excuse to eat a weeks worth of junk food (excuse- no fridge, no microwave).

Having time to read.

Justin getting to spend 4 of the 6 nights at Dardi and Papa's house... it was like a vacation!

Thank you again to all of you!! We love you!!

Ashton Update

2009-03-10T11:37:00.001-06:00

Today is day number 6 at the good old Primary Children's Medical Center. They are still having to do deep suctioning, albuterol treatments, and oxygen. He's gotten his spunk back during the days and loves to play with the nurses. They brought all sorts of fun toys in for him. The struggle comes at night when he just won't breathe deeply enough and his oxygen levels plummet. They said we might get to go home tomorrow if they can convince Ashton to start drinking more, but at the moment he just thinks drinking is silly and doesn't want to play that game. They took his IV out so he's off his fluids. Their philosophy is that now he'll be thirsty and need to drink... we'll see how that goes. Thank you to EVERYONE!! I have the greatest network of friends and family members, we are truly blessed to have so many people that love and care for us.

Human Metapneumo Virus

2009-03-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

My Ashton is sick. So sick that he's been admitted to Primary Children's Hospital for a few days. He has Human Metapneumo Virus which is kind of like RSV's less popular twin. I guess it's a relatively newly known disease (2001). He was immediately put on oxygen and has to have his "brain sucked" every couple of hours after his nebulizer treatment. It is NOT fun. So everyone send happy thoughts and prayers his way.

Welcome Baby Henry!!

2009-02-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

I have a new nephew! My brother Dan and his wife Emily and their oldest boy Andersen welcomed a new baby boy on Monday the 16th. I'm so excited to welcome Henry David Hurst who was born weighing 7 lbs. and 1 oz and measuring 20.5 inches. I am SO SAD that they are living so far away in Erie, PA. I can't wait to meet this little guy!! Check out their blog: http://thelilhurstfam.blogspot.com

Justin's BRACES!!

2009-02-09T18:29:00.001-07:00

After a long wait... today was finally the day for BRACES!! Justin was so anxious and excited. He was thrilled to pick his RED and BLACK rubber band colors (since he's currently on a U of U kick!!). Check out the before and after pics!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Happy Birthday Justin

2009-02-01T13:13:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Justin! I'm officially the mother of a 9 year old. Somehow that makes me feel OLD!! I guess not so much the age, but maybe the fact that his feet are bigger than mine, he is almost as tall as me, he has great conversation, etc... Justin is such an amazing boy. I'd love to take credit, but Justin is a product of his own making. He knows what he wants and goes after it. He is a master negotiator. He has told us he wants to be President someday, but only after he's been in every branch of the military. He loves to make money. When he found out that professional athletes make money, that is all he talks about. He wants to be a professional football player. He started out in the Gremlins league this year and immediately asked how much he was going to get paid. Justin is an amazing big brother. While pregnant with Ashton I often worried what kind of an effect having a new baby in the home would have on Justin. He has far exceeded my expectations and has become such a nurturing, loving, and kind brother. Justin is the first one to come running when he thinks something is wrong with Ashton. I'm so lucky to have such a great little helper. I love you Justin and hope this year is fantastic!!

Happy Birthday Ashton

2009-01-23T16:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Ashton!! I can't believe my baby is 1!! Time sure does fly. It seems like only yesterday I was pregnant and planning for my maternity leave. I love this baby SO MUCH it hurts. He has been such a light in our little family and I can't wait for the years to come! Ashton has a few new tricks he's picked up just recently. He loves to grab the TV remove and hold it behind his head and say, "Hah-oh???"... like he's on the phone! So cute. He also has been saying "Eh-oh" when he drops things, but has now decided to warn us by saying "Eh-oh" BEFORE he drops something... isn't he kind?? He has moved up from the infant class in day care. Now instead of sitting in high chairs to eat their meals, they all sit together at a TINY table with TINY chairs. It is the cutest thing EVER!! I brought in miniature cup cakes for his birthday party today. Can you imagine all of them sitting together having miniature cup cakes at their miniature table?? Too cute!!!

Papa's Famous!!

2009-01-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of years my dad has been part of a coalition of Utah doctors (Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment) who are speaking out against air pollution. He has had meetings with the governor a few times as well as heads of the LDS church. Most recently they have been speaking out against a proposed power plant being built in West Bountiful. The other night my dad was on the news. Justin's face lit up with pride when he saw his Papa speaking. He immediately called my dad after the story aired and told him he saw him on TV!! How exciting is that??!!

Watch the video by clicking on the link below:

http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=90396@video.ktvx.com&articleID=90396

http://real.ksl.com/video/slc/sid_video/1061434.ram

Sick Baby :(

2009-01-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

My Ashton has been sick since right around New Years. He started out throwing up and then got a crazy rash. My mom took him to the doctor and he said that Ashton had Eczema... NOT... a few days later he was even sicker and coughing with a crazy fever. We took him to the instacare where we were told he had bilateral otitis (double ear infection). They also heard him wheezing so they put him on a nebulizer. Poor little guy!! Last night I was dying my hair in the bathroom. Ashton loves to be in the bathroom with me, he just hangs out and pulls the vent cover off and crawls in the cupboards. Well I sat down on the edge of the tub and Ashton crawled over and put his head between my feet and fell asleep on the rug. I think he's pooped from all of this being sick business!! He seems to be on the mend today... cross your fingers!!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful holiday season filled with family and friends. It's been so great I haven't had time to blog about it... Now that it's all over I can finally sit down and download my bazillion pictures!

This Christmas season it was so much fun to have my whole family here. We got Dan, Em (and baby bump!!), and Andersen from Erie, PA. , and Katie and Per from Pocatello, ID.!! We were able to visit with Mark's mom, brothers, and nieces on Christmas Eve and my whole family on Christmas. This was also Ashton's first Christmas so it was really fun to get him in on our families traditions. Children make Christmas morning amazing. It was so much fun to have Justin come in and tap on my shoulder to wake me up so I knew that Santa had come. He was bouncing up and down, but still trying to be so quiet. He told me he heard the reindeer on the roof! So cute!!

New Years was a blast at our friends Garth and Nikki's house who live just down the street. We feel so blessed to have so many incredible people in our lives! I think often we take for granted how lucky we really are. I'm so excited to see what 2009 brings!

In between Christmas and New Years Justin and I were able to sneak away for a FABULOUS day of skiing/snowboarding at Solitude. He's getting SO good!!

Christmas Eve~

Merry Christmas!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!

SKIING / SNOWBOARDING

Justin and I had SOOOO much fun!!

FUN VIDEOS!

Baby Talon

2008-12-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know this family from Adam but I'm feeling compelled to ask for help, good thoughts, and prayers in their behalf. Recently some of you may have heard the story of Baby Talon being taken away from his family by a Minnesota Native American Tribe. This family is fighting to get their baby back. Please read their blog: http://talonsadoption.blogspot.com/.

Sleepy Ashton

2008-12-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

My Ashton usually has a rough time sleeping. At daycare each day he usually takes two 20 minute naps and then he'll sleep all night long at home... as long as he's in bed next to ME. Bad bad bad habit, I know. If I try to have Ashton sleep in his crib, he wakes several times during the night. Any advice on this subject would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!! So I was quite taken aback last night when while sharing a pumpkin cheesecake with me from the Cheesecake Factory (YUMMY!!) all of a sudden Ashton is snoozing in his highchair. Then after being transported to his crib (which he usually doesn't sleep in) he ended up sleeping until FIVE this morning!! WAHOO!! Though it has me wondering... WHO DRUGGED MY BABY!!?? ha ha ha!

Twilight, Idaho, Halloween...etc...

2008-11-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while... reason being that the cord that connects my camera to my PC got chomped on by my own little Edward Cullen. I went to download the Halloween pics of my boys only to find the metal part of the cord that goes into the camera was completely flat because Ashton bit it. For some reason he loves eating paper and cords (real safe, I know!!). So I'm at my moms getting the pics off the camera and hopefully will be able to get a replacement cord sometime soon. Here is a pic of my little guys on Halloween. Justin was the guy from 'Scream', complete with a pumping heart that pumped fake blood all over the face of his mask - SICK. And Ashton was a bumble bee. This was the same bumble bee costume that Justin wore when he was a baby. So cute!!

I saw Twilight today with my OH SO PREGNANT friend Kayci!! Kayci was due 4 days ago. We told Tyler (the baby) that he'd be in big trouble if he decided to come during the movie. He was a good little bean and obliged. I loved the movie. I have heard people say that they really hated it, but I thought it was great!

The boys and I went up to Pocatello Idaho this weekend to stay with my sister Katie and her husband Per. Katie is now the assistant coach of the volleyball team and Per plays for the football team We attended both of their games and ate at Chili's twice!! YUM!! It was a fun trip and we always love seeing them... and they both WON their games!! Go Bengals!

We've also been dealing with a crazy orthodontic device with Justin over this past month. We were referred to go to the orthodontist because Justin has a cross-bite. He was told that the roof of his mouth was to small so he had to get this totally mid evil device called a rapid palatal expander. I had to turn it with a little key twice each day and it very quickly widened the roof of his mouth. Within two weeks he had a gigantic space between his front teeth. CRAZY!!

Mark is finishing the family room in our basement for my Christmas present this year! I am SO SUPER EXCITED!! I think it's probably making him crazy having to come home from his construction job only to do construction on our own house. I love him for it though!!

Halloween in the work place.

2008-10-31T11:52:00.000-06:00

So my co-worker, Maria, and I decided it would be fun and entertaining to go GOTH for Halloween this year. Our company has a costume contest each year for the best branch and for individuals. What makes this picture so hilarious is that this style couldn't be FURTHER from our personalities!!

Ashton's vintage photo shoot.

2008-10-13T22:30:00.000-06:00

Ashton had these cute vintage photo's taken at his school. Aren't they precious??!! I LOVE HIM!!

Justin's Football Pics...

2008-10-13T22:27:00.001-06:00

Take a look at the team picture. Justin is in the back row in the middle...

Me: Justin, why does your face look like that?

Justin: That's my tough face mom! He told us to look tough!!

Me: Everyone else is smiling

Justin: They just don't listen mom...

Yes, that's my son. The listener!! ... RIGHT!!!

Kangaroo Zoo

2008-10-13T22:14:00.000-06:00

We FINALLY made it to the Kangaroo Zoo!! Justin was so excited! We live about 4.5 seconds away from the place but have been SOOOO busy lately that we just haven't been able to go. We took Justin's friend Kaleb with us on our adventure. Ashton LOVED the bouncy things!! (Side note: Kaleb (the friend) ended up splitting his lip open and bleeding profusely from the mouth. Justin bounced himself right off the bouncy thing and landed flat on his back which knocked the wind out of him. WHY can I not go somewhere and leave with out someone getting wounded?!?!?! Ha ha ha! Oh well, they both got over their injuries and had a blast!)

(This one (well, ALL of them!!) turned our a little blurry... guess that's what happens when you try to self portrait one handed with a crappy camera phone!!)

Dark hair cuties and Ashton's meal time fun!!

2008-10-01T12:15:00.000-06:00

So to save money I have been coloring my own hair for a couple of years. I always find myself needing just a little bit more color by the end... so this time I used two boxes and had some left over. Justin decided he'd like to try "Soft Black" on... so we did it!! YES, we colored his hair!! I figured he's a boy, who gets hair cuts monthly... and if it was awful, we'd just shave it off. I actually think it turned out quite cute!!

Last night we figured out that Ashton does NOT like the Beef and Vegetables baby food. Notice his "Are you SERIOUS??!!" face. SO FUNNY!!!

Happy Birthday Marky Mark!!

2008-09-17T10:07:00.000-06:00

I love you baby! Hope you have a fabulous 31!!

Justin is #90! Go Braves!!

2008-09-09T20:01:00.000-06:00

Justin gets an "X" on his helmet because of his size...basically saying, "Watch OUT!"

Justin and his best friend BUBBA

Getting ready to play!

HIKE!

Look how big my #90 is!!

Good game guys!!

Ashton loves watching big brothers games!!

Adventures with a big balloon. . .

2008-08-20T08:30:00.001-06:00

I guess you could call this a public service announcement of sorts... I'm not sure why, but with Justin in my life, STRANGE things are always just around the corner. A prime example of this strangeness factor occurred on Monday at the Willey Honda dealership in Bountiful. I was on my lunch break at work and had just picked Justin up from his summer camp day care. I have been seriously toying around with the idea of getting a new car, so we stopped in at the Honda dealership to have them give me a value of my 1999 civic (for sale if anyone is interested...). While I was waiting for this value one of the other salesmen saw that Justin was getting restless and offered him a balloon. Now this was one of the big car dealer balloons, you know the type. Justin, of course, immediately started to suck the helium out of the balloon to make his voice sound funny. He was walking around the dealership screeching, "HELLO" over and over again in this high mousy voice. I asked him to go outside with the balloon if the was going to do that, so he did. The showroom I was in was surrounded with full length windows so I could easily see Justin and his balloon. All of a sudden he was walking while sucking the balloon and I could see his eyes roll back in his head and he walked straight into a stucco wall at full speed and then fell directly back on the concrete hitting his head. Then I heard this blood curdling screaming. I ran out side to see exactly what happened. There was blood on the wall from where his face hit and his face was bleeding from all of the cuts and scrapes on his forehead, nose, lip, and his mouth from where his teeth bit through his bottom lip. He also had an enormous goose egg on the back of his head from hitting the concrete. Justin had passed out from sucking in too much helium. I too had been a fan of sucking on balloons when I was a kid too... so really didn't see the danger in it when he was playing with this one balloon... boy was I wrong. I have since researched at length the effects of helium on the brain to find some scary information. Apparently sucking helium is in essence the same as asphyxiating yourself because the brain isn't getting any oxygen. This can lead to strokes and possibly death. SO SCARY!!! Justin has learned a very valuable lesson and is telling everyone he knows what happened to him so that they too can know the dangers of sucking on a helium balloon. Moral of my little story... DON'T SUCK ON BALLOONS FULL OF HELIUM!!! Check out this link for more information... http://www.kidzworld.com/article/505-did-donald-duck-inhale-helium

August 2008... so far...

2008-08-17T18:16:00.000-06:00

So far August has been INSANE. We went to visit Katie and Per up in Pocatello one weekend. It was so much fun to visit their cute little house! We spent that Saturday at Lave Hot Springs. I'd never been before so I was expecting greatness... it was great, but mostly it was the same as Cottonwood Heights swimming pool. Ashton had a great time floating in his whale floaty and Justin spent the entire day jumping off of the platforms. I thought I'd have a heart attack when he decided to jump off of the 3rd (TOP) platform!! He's such a nut!!

Justin was also baptised... finally... I say 'finally' because he turned 8 back in February but this was the first stake baptism we were able to attend due to the craziness of our life. My brother Stefan baptized Justin and my dad confirmed him. It was a really special day for our family. The primary had a special towel made for Justin with his baptism date on it.

Saturday afternoon was spent at my 10 year high school reunion. I know, I'm an old fart!! It was really great to catch up with old friends and see people with their growing families. I'm really lucky to have such great friends!

Today we went to the ZOO. It was Ashton's first trip to the zoo. I'm not sure how exciting he found it, but Justin and I had a great time!! Our favorite part was the bird show. It was a nice "last hurrah" before Justin starts back at Wasatch Peak Academy this Thursday.

Last but not least... FOOTBALL. Oh my gosh!!! is all I can say about football. My Justin is 8 years old and has started his first year of Bountiful Braves Gremlins Football. I'm used to baseball which usually involves maybe one practice a week and a couple of short games... Football is a different beast. Justin practices 5 days a week, two hours a day. He's not supposed to miss any practices or games. Basically my life goes like this... Don't sleep much because baby thinks sleeping is silly, get out of bed, get all 3 of my boys ready (Mark included), get both boys to different day cares, go to work, get off work, pick up Ashton, take Justin to football for TWO HOURS, come home, make dinner, go to bed, don't sleep... and then REPEAT!! My only saving grace is knowing that Justin is an amazing athlete and someday hopefully all of this sporting will at least bring him free college if not more. GO BRAVES!!

Ashton is 1/2!!!

2008-07-23T23:19:00.000-06:00

I can't believe my little man is 1/2!! I know it seems strange to bake a cake when your child is only turning 1/2...and can't eat cake... but hey, any reason for a party... right?!?! It was a great day to celebrate because the Mueller Park Junior High fireworks were going on. It was Ashton's first experience with fireworks and he was mesmerized! So cute!! Time sure does fly. It seems like yesterday that I was a walking blimp waiting to meet my little bug. I really am so lucky to have such a wonderful baby. He is the most mild mannered, happy, loving baby. It's truly intoxicating to be around him. Every day when Mark and I wake up he's smiling and pinching our noses telling us all sorts of stories. Whenever big brother Justin is around, you're sure to find a huge smile on Ashton's face. We're so happy he's in our family!

Strange things are afoot at the Hurst-Stewart home...

2008-07-20T15:35:00.000-06:00

Our weekend was supposed to be filled with fun family activities and lots of relaxation...

Saturday we went to Liberty Park to see the Animal Planet Expo. That was a lot of fun, saw a lot of cool things. Then we walked around the pond, rode some rides, played in the fountain... oh, and found out that those dungeons and dragon guys who fight each other with sticks really do exist...WEIRD!!

Sunday was supposed to be a fabulous day of nothingness...until Justin barreled through the door crying because he had handcuffs stuck on his wrist. Of course our first thought was that these were toy handcuffs and easily removable... WRONG. We soon found out that these were bonafide real handcuffs that Justin and his friend TJ found at TJ's house. TJ claims he got them from his cousin and told Justin that they didn't have a key for it before Justin decided to try them on for size (good one Just). We live next door to a SLC police officer, but of course he was still at church. We decided to drive to the fire station for help. The firemen got a kick out of it but said they didn't have a key and had to call the police to come help. The police finally showed up at the fire station and also seemed to get a kick out of the hand cuff fiasco. After a couple of tries with different keys, Justin was free. I'm sure the policeman was thinking, "hmmmm... nice... wonder where he got these... hmmmm....".

Aren't weekends the BEST?!?!

Family Pictures 2008

2008-07-10T20:57:00.000-06:00

My mom thought it would be a good idea to take some family pictures before my brother Dan and his wife Emily and their son Andersen moved to Erie PA tomorrow for medical school. It's always so funny how you take 100 + pictures but only like 5 really sort of turn out. I think these ones are cute!!

My little family (Marianne, Mark, Ashton, and Justin)

My little family again (Mark of course forgot to take his sunglasses off)

My sister Katie and her husband Per (Nic) and their dog Maddie

The whole family (Marianne, Mark, Ashton, Justin, Holly, Scott, Dan, Emily, Andersen, Stefan, Sam, Katie, Per)

My brother Dan and his wife Emily and their son Andersen

My Boys: Justin and Ashton

Lake Powell 2008

2008-07-08T06:41:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful 8 day vacation to beautiful Lake Powell. This trip was incredible in so many different ways. This year my dad bought a new house boat… with AIR CONDITIONING!!! That was incredible. There were a lot of people on this trip which made it incredibly crowded. We brought Ashton which was both incredibly rewarding and incredibly hard at the same time. I’m still trying to loose my baby belly so I felt incredibly FAT… hopefully next summer I won’t be the biggest girl on the boat!! Especially next to my size nothing sister and sister-in-law!!

Justin was an amazing little wake boarder this year. He has officially graduated from the child size board to the adult Liquid Force board. I think he was very proud of that. He did all sorts of jumps, butter slides, and his own “tricks” that amazed everyone. He did get a pretty nasty sunburn on his lips… hopefully they don’t fall off!! We had a great little cliff to jump off of right behind our boat. He was always going over with Papa to jump off.

Mark learned how to do the stand up Super Jet Jet Ski and loved it. It was also Mark’s first experience on a moving house boat. He’s only ever come down and stayed on the boat in the marina or camped with friends. I think he really loved taking the house boat up the lake and having an entire bay all to ourselves. Mark even got to drive the houseboat back to the marina for a while.

Ashton did amazingly well. Much better than I could’ve ever hoped. He loved riding in the ski boat and he really loved the water. Especially when mom let him swim naked. Ha ha ha! We brought his Baby Einstein Jumper with us which was truly the one item that saved me throughout the trip. He loves that jumper. He’ll sit there forever and jump and play with “Mr. Sunshine” and the music.

I spent a little too much time in the SUN on Tuesday and ended up with sun poisoning. If you’ve never had the joy of experiencing such poisoning count yourself lucky!! I was stuck in a hot boat with 16 people sick and vomiting. Then to make matters worse... I had to stay out of the sun for a couple of days! I guess I learned my lesson… all things in MODERATION!!!

All in all it was an absolutely wonderful vacation. The best part being that my little family got to spend 8 full days together.

Twilight

2008-06-21T12:18:00.000-06:00

So about a month or so before Ashton was born my sister-in-law, Emily, told me about a book series she had just finished and it was, "SOOOO GOOD!!!". So she let me borrow the
1st of the series, a book called Twilight. I started reading right before Ashton was born and I litterally read half the book one Saturday morning. It really was good. But then Ashton came and i've been busy ever since. Well about two weeks ago I decided i'd read durring my down time at work. Well... now i'm ADDICTED to these books!! I'm really not much of a reader outside of the Harry Potter series, but these books have litterally mezmerized me. I finished the 1st book and had to go out that night to buy the 2nd (New Moon)... only to finish the 2nd book two days later and had to go buy the 3rd (Eclipse)...I finished the 3rd book last night and now i've got to wait until August 2nd!!! to get the 4th book. So the point to my little blog is, GO BUY THESE BOOKS!!!

Tagged

2008-05-30T12:31:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. Change all
The answers so they apply to you, and then send this to your friends
Including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will
Learn
A lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time did you get-up this morning? As much as I’d LOVE to sleep in until my alarm goes off at 6, I usually get woken up by some cute baby babbles coming from Ashton. So this morning I think we were up around 5:45… fun, huh?!?

2. Diamond or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Seeing Indiana Jones tonight… does that count?

4. What is your favorite TV show? LOST!! I absolutely LOVE this show and now I’ve got Mark and my sis and her hubby hooked too!

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? I grab a Yoplait yogurt as I’m running out the door and eat it at work.

6. What is your middle name? I don’t have one. It’s always been a soar spot for me. Who doesn’t have a middle name?!?!

7. What food do you dislike? Cottage Cheese... YUCK!!

8. What is your favorite CD at moment? I’m loving the Baby Einstein lullaby cd right now.

9. What kind of car do you drive? A Honda Civic, or a GMC Sierra.

10. Favorite sandwich? PBJ’s

11. What characteristic do you despise? People who feel they have to interject their opinion, even when it’s not asked for.

12. Favorite item of clothing? Cute new cropped jacket I just got at Harold’s… it’s SO CUTE!!

13. If you could go anywhere in the world, on vacation, where would
you go? Mark and I are going to go to Paris!! We finally have enough F.F. miles! YAY!!

14. Favorite brand of clothing name? I love banana republic

15. Where would you retire to? After our trip to Canada last summer, Mark and I decided we want to be Canadians some day 

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Recently they’re not very memorable… I just wish they would stop!!

17. Favorite sport to watch? Basketball

18. Furthest place you are sending this? Idaho

19. Person you expect to send it back first? Kayci

20. When is your birthday? April 15, 1980

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? I used to be a major night person (Lindsay, you’ll remember that!!)… but lately I can’t seem to keep my eyes open past 10 pm!! So I guess I’m a morning person… yet I’m always late for work.

22 What is your shoe size? 9 or 9.5

23. Pets? Zoe – american Staffordshire terrier, Zero – Pekingese, Fire – beta fish

Where's question 24?

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Justin is a cub scout and is getting baptized next month, and Ashton’s most recent medical appointment showed us that he’s in the 90% for height and 50% for weight… so he’ll be a string bean just like his dad!!

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A doctor like my dad

27. How are you today? BUSY at work which is GREAT!!

28. What is your favorite candy? I love black licorice! I know, I know… you all are yelling EEEWWWWW right now, but it’s yummy!!

29. What is your favorite flower? Lilacs

30. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? June 29th… going to LAKE POWELL!!!

31. Question missing also.
32. What is your full name? Marianne Hurst (or pseudo Marianne Stewart since I’m with a commitment phob!! They were calling him Mr. Hurst at Justin’s school yesterday… that was pretty funny!!)

33. What are you listening to right now? B 98.7 on the radio at work

34. What was the last thing you ate? Cherry flavored salt water taffy. Thanks Maria!!

35. Do you wish on stars? ALWAYS

36. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Periwinkle

37. How is the weather right now? It looks beautiful, and the guys coming in keep saying it’s really warm out there.

38. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom, she called to see if I wanted to see Indiana Jones tonight

39. Favorite soft drink? If they could hook me up to a Diet Coke IV, I’d be a happy girl 

40. Favorite restaurant? For lunch: Plates and Palates in Bountiful, for dinner: Cheesecake Factory

41. Hair color? Dark Brown (Today)

42. What was your favorite toy as a child? Erma, my life size cloth doll I carried around with me

43. Summer or winter? Summer for heat and boating, and winter for skiing and Christmas

44. Hugs or Kisses? Kisses from all of my boys

45. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla

46. Coffee or Tea? Tea

47. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes!!!

48. The last time you cried? Sunday, I teared up during Justin’s talk in sharing time

49. What is under your bed? Boxes of swimsuits… yes, I have an obsession.

50. What did you do last night? Watched the LOST finale with my boys after Justin’s baseball game

51. What are you afraid of? The unknown

52 Salty or Sweet? SALTY

53. How many keys on your keyring? 5

54. How many years at your current job? 3 years at OEFCU, 6 years in banking

55. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

56. How many towns have you lived in? 4 (Salt Lake, Bountiful, Logan, North Salt Lake)

57. Do you make friends easily? I have always been painfully shy. I think I’ve come out of it a bit, but it is still a struggle for me.

58. How many people will you send this to? As many people as I can remember their email…

59. How many will respond? Hopefully all of them 

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-27T09:07:00.000-06:00

I was so looking forward to this Memorial Day weekend. I had thoughts of sleeping in, doing fun things with the boys, and having great BBQ's... well Friday morning we awoke to horrible coughing and a snotty nose... Ashton was sick. The worst was when his little nose got so stuffy and he couldn't breathe while he was eating. He'd get so frustrated and all I could do was get the ball syringe and suck his brain. I don't think I slept more than 8 hours all weekend... can we RE-DO the weekend?!?! PLEASE?!!?! Now it's Tuesday morning and he's finally starting to feel better.

Justin gave a talk in sharing time. He was SO nervous, but he did such a good job!! There were some pretty big words and he only needed help once. When he got done he ran over to sit with me and said that he almost cried... isn't that so tender??

We did have a yummy BBQ at my moms last night. My grandma Vi and grandpa Bob are in town from Corrona California for the week. It's always so fun when they're here! Katie and Per were also down from Pocatello and they're staying all week!! We're so excited. ~After the BBQ Justin, Ashton and I went back home to hang out with Mark who had just returned from work. We stopped at Maverick and got some ice cream. We all snuggled on the couch and watched Enchanted. It was a fun night!

Oh... and I got Ashton's school pictures on Friday! They are so cute!! Check these out!!

Jibber Jabber

2008-05-21T15:56:00.000-06:00

Ashton has started talking... well, sort of. He says things like, "oh ah ah owww oh ah" over and over again. His little face gets so animated. He is most talkative when he's just woken up in the morning. Mark and I end up late to work because we can't stop laughing. SO CUTE!! I'll have to figure out how to record it.

Happy Mothers Day!

2008-05-13T08:52:00.000-06:00

Happy Mothers Day all you mommies out there! My moms day was wonderful!! Justin and I went and had McDonald's for breakfast (yummy...) and then headed home so he could give me the present he had bought at Target. Justin brought out my present and was so excited for me to open it... It was a HUGE abalone necklace on a gold chain (ha ha ha). Apparently my sister tried to direct him to some other jewelry but he just kept saying, "NO, I know she'll love THIS one!!"... and after some tears from Justin my sister finally gave in. He also gave me a really cute silver bracelet. I asked him which one he'd rather me wear that day since they didn't really match each other, and of course he chose the abalone necklace. I wore it with pride!! My honey Mark is letting my get curbing in the front yard for my mothers day present!! I'm so excited!! Thanks baby!!

So after presents and getting ready we headed out to Mark's moms house to bring her a gift and have some lunch. It was fun to see her and her other boys. We went to Olive Garden for lunch, apparently with the rest of Salt Lake... it was PACKED!! So yummy!!

Later that night we headed to my moms for dinner which was amazing!! We had a Santa Maria Tri-Tip roast with funeral potatoes, rolls, yummy salad, and all sorts of deserts! We gave my mom a digital photo frame that had two openings for photos. She loved it. I love my mom so much! I'm so lucky to have not only a wonderful mother, but also a best friend. I love you mom!

Narcolepsy???

2008-05-13T08:45:00.000-06:00

So if you check back a few blogs you'll see Justin asleep on the bar stools with his sweet fingerless gloves. Well, it has happened again!! We went over to my moms house for mothers day dinner. This was also the night of the Survivor finale... those of you who know me well know that I'm obsessed with two shows, Lost and Survivor. So my mom set up the DVR so I could watch the 3 hour finale after everyone went home. Well 9:00 rolls around and finally everyone is gone. I start to watch the finale thinking that Justin is watching TV somewhere or asleep. When the show finally ended I went to look for Justin and couldn't find him. Finally I saw some big boy feet sticking out from underneath my moms kitchen table. Justin had crawled under the tablecloth and fell asleep sprawled across the chairs! I think my little man is narcoleptic!!

1st Meetings...

2008-05-08T11:16:00.000-06:00

So Ashton's grandpa Garry (Mark's dad) came over on Saturday to meet Ashton for the first time. Mark's little sister Marissa also came (she's SO cute!!). We were very excited to see him and have him meet Ashton and also see our new home for the first time. I got some great pictures that I wanted to share. Then I got to thinking that it would be fun to post pics of some of Ashton's other "1st meetings". So... enjoy!!

Almost ready to meet the world!!

Ashton's first picture. HELLO world!!

Meeting Mom

Meeting Dad

Meeting big brother Justin

Meeting Papa Scott

Meeting Dardi (grandma Holly)

Meeting Grandma Karen (a.k.a... grumpy grandma :) )

Meeting Great Grandpa Wayne and Great Grandma Connie

More 1st's to come!!!

Ashton's new tricks

2008-05-06T08:39:00.000-06:00

Ashton has learned a few new tricks this week.

His first amazing trick is sticking out his tounge. It's really funny because he doesn't just stick it out, he sticks it out and then sucks on it while it's out.

His second amazing trick is sucking his thumb! Now he's been sucking on his knuckles for a few weeks now, but just couldn't figure out how to quite latch on to his thumb. Well yesterday I was sitting at my desk when all of a sudden I hear this snorting coming from my bed. I look over and sure enough he's figured out his thumb... but at the same time he's sticking the rest of his hand over his nose... which is causing him to snort.

Ashton's Look-alike Meter

2008-04-17T14:26:00.001-06:00

So I decided to try this "look-alike meter". I keep getting comments from people saying things such as: "wow, did you contribute ANYTHING to this kid??" ... it was starting to annoy me. So I did this look alike thing hoping that it would tell me that Ashton is either a good mix or looks like me even a little bit... and it comes back with a whopping 16% more like Mark. Now, I've been looking at other peoples "look-alike meters" and I have NEVER seen any ones with a percentage that high. So now I guess it's official. My beautiful Ashton looks nothing like me... oh well, at least he has my crazy feet!! Ha ha ha!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Bumbo!!

2008-04-17T09:30:00.001-06:00

So a few days ago I wrote about the check that "grumpy grandma" sent to the boys to buy cotton candy and ponies... anyway, I failed to mention what we bought for Ashton. Ashton got a Bumbo!! This is seriously the greatest invention of all time. He LOVES it. He just sits there and his little head bobbles and he couldn't be happier. He loves to sit in his Bumbo and watch cartoons. I've never been around an infant that is so fascinated by the television... not so sure that's a good thing... but for now it's so dang cute!! His favorite at the moment is JoJo's Circus on Disney. So cute!!

LOST!!!

2008-04-16T16:38:00.000-06:00

I'm obsessed with Lost!! New episodes start next week!! WAHOO!!

Which Lost Character Are You?

More on Lost. Created by BuddyTV

Happy Birthday To ME!!

2008-04-16T11:01:00.000-06:00

So yesterday was my birthday. My mom asked me if I felt 28... umm... YES!! I'm a mother of two beautiful boys, one of whom is 8 years old and I'm afraid will soon turn my hair grey. I have reached a point in my life where I actually care about sunscreen because I don't want wrinkles. OLD!! That is what I feel! I had taken the day off of work and hoped to sleep in (since I'm the birthday princess). Well 7am rolls around and Ashton is wide awake and if he could talk I'm sure he's be saying, "HELLO!! It's 7 now and you need to GET UP!!". So we got out of bed and wondered around the house. I went to change Ashton and of course he peed on me (a birthday present I'm sure), so I cleaned him up and put a wipe over him while I grabbed a diaper out of the closet. I went to put the new diaper on and he peed on me again!! Now, he is smiling the whole time he's doing this. I've come to the conclusion that he is fully aware of his functions and he thinks it is the greatest game in the world to pee on mom. GREAT GAME!! We had planned on spending the day skiing/snowboarding since about 5 days ago the weathermen here in Utah had predicted about 80 degrees in the valley... well I should have known better than to believe a weather report that far in advance because we ALL know you can only predict Utah's weather about 24 hrs. in advance. It was due to SNOW and the temperature dropped 50 degrees from the day before...grrr... just my luck. Oh well, it was sunny still and the storm wasn't due to hit until later in the afternoon. So I tried to wake Mark and Justin up (quite a task) to tell them we had to hurry and go so we could beat the storm... Well about 2 hours later we were ready. We headed up to Brighton and had a fabulous time! Justin and Mark were on their snowboards hitting jumps and playing in the terrain park and I was on my skis just enjoying the day. The storm finally did hit and we had to leave. I'm glad we went, it was so fun to get one last day in this season! After skiing Justin and I went to pick Ashton up at daycare. When I arrived I noticed his sweat pants were in a plastic bag in his cubbie. I asked the teacher what had happened and she in formed me that Ashton had peed on HER too and all over his pants when she went to change his diaper!! SEE?!?! He knows!!! Later that evening my family (mom, dad, Stefan (brother), Sam (brother), and Brooklyn (Stefan's friend)) took me out to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square. Mom and dad gave me a new i-pod!! YAY!! Anyway, I was really excited because we always go to the Spag for every one's birthday and they always give the person who's birthday it is a special super yummy desert... well out come all of the waiters to sing and I see one single scoop of ice cream with a candle in it... "WHAT IS THIS???!!!???", I thought to myself.. this is NOT the special super yummy desert I had hoped for! Sad day. So I made Mark and Justin take me to Cold Stone later that evening and that made everything better...mmmm... cake batter ice cream... mmmmmmm!!

Antelope Island Adventure

2008-04-14T09:27:00.000-06:00

So Justin has been in a very adventurous mood lately. Always wanting to go out and discover new things. He asked me if we could go out to Antelope Island because it had been years since our last visit. So Saturday we packed up the car and Justin, Ashton, and I made our way north. It was about noon when we left and I had a hair appointment at 3:30 so I figured we had plenty of time... boy was I wrong. We got on I-15 and when we hit Centerville it was bumper to bumper traffic (at noon on a Saturday???). SO what should have taken us 20 minutes ended up taking us about 1 hour to get there. We finally made it to the fee box to get on to the cause way. Justin was SO excited at this point. It is so beautiful out there, I really should take him more often. We drove toward the island and Justin was reading the brochure of every activity we could do. I thought we would visit the beach, look for some buffalo, and then hopefully grab some lunch. When we got to the parking at the beach I was discouraged when I saw how low the water line was. It was literally a 1 mile walk to the water from the parking... OK, I'm idiotically in high heals and now have to walk 1 mile in the sand... but off we went! Justin ran as fast as he could to get to the water, I on the other hand was trying to maneuver walking in sand while holding an infant, my purse, my camera and my shoes (which had to come off because walking in sand with heals in impossible!!). We finally made it to the water! So I grabbed my camera to take some cute pictures and it was DEAD!! I had been taking pictures all day but of course as soon as I'm on a desert island with no batteries to be found it decides to die... oh well... on to plan B! I grabbed my cell phone and started taking pictures... not quite what I had in mind, but they really did turn out cute! We ended up spending all the time we had at the beach and didn't get to go exploring for buffalo, so I told Justin we'd come back in a couple of weeks and spend the day there. So... more pictures (hopefully from my camera!!) to come!

Airbrushing an 8 year old.

2008-04-11T15:03:00.000-06:00

So Justin came home last week with his individual school photos (Spring Addition). I pulled them out and was immediately struck by how soft they looked. They AIRBRUSHED him!!! The picture is flawless!! Some might think this is ludicrous...but I have to admit I was quite jealous! Think of how fabulous I would have looked all through elementary school if they had airbrushed me too!!

Passed out!

2008-04-11T14:15:00.000-06:00

So yesterday after watching Survivor (of course!!) Justin, Ashton, and I made our way to the Centerville Target. Justin and Ashton had received a $50 check from "Grumpy Grandma" (Mark's Mom... and NO we didn't give her that name!) with instructions to spend it on Ponies and Cotton Candy... Well Target seemed to be completely out of Cotton Candy and Ponies so I sent Justin to the toy section. I wondered around the store picking up some groceries when I hear him bellowing my name (mom???.... MOM!?!?!) because he wants to show me what he has picked with his half of the money. Justin picked out some fingerless bicycle gloves and some small mountain lion figurines. Of ALL of the toys he had to pick from in Target... he comes back with fingerless gloves and cats. Amazing. ANYWAY... we got home and got ready for bed. He put on his gloves and then asked if he could have a cupcake. I gave him a cupcake at the bar and then made my way to my room for a few minutes. I couldn't have been gone more than 5 minutes and when I returned I found Justin passed out, sprawled across two bar stools and an UNEATEN cupcake still sitting on the counter! Those of you who know Justin will know that this is VERY RARE that he would be anywhere near an uneaten cupcake. He must have been a tired boy!!

Ashton Scott

2008-04-04T12:50:00.000-06:00

On 01/23/2008 we welcomed Ashton Scott Hurst Stewart into our lives. He is lovingly known by several names in our house...such as: Booga, Chubbo, Buggy, Lover Face, Brother, Ash Man, Ashes, Baby...hmmm. I wonder if Ashton will ever answer his to his own name?? LOL!!

I feel like my Ashton is such a blessing. I had Justin 8 years (almost to the day) earlier and I figured I would always be a mother of one perfect son. Surprise!!! I get another perfect son! Just when you think you have it all figured out, nature has a funny way of playing tricks on you. I couldn't be happier.

So Ashton didn't have a "real" name until he was 1 day old. If any of you know Mark, you know that he is the MOST indecisive man on the planet. He called my belly "Connor" for months, then decided he didn't like that name as well as Ashton... then about 2 weeks before the birth he was back on Connor... then at the hospital we decided to go back to Ashton because we couldn't decide on a spelling for Connor (I like "OR" and Mark like "ER"). Poor baby was probably so confused!! Ashton fits him though! And truth be told... I always liked Ashton lots better than Connor, but if I had told Mark that he would have stood firm with "his decision" because that's just the way guys are, right?!?!

Ashton is such a flirt!! When he smiles he'll crinkle his forehead and nose! SO CUTE! He loves to be held upright so he can look around. I call him my passenger because as long as he's being held doing whatever needs to be done, he's happy! The other day I tried to put him in a baby carrier strapped to me (like a knock off baby Bjorn)... he wouldn't have anything to do with it! I guess just wasn't the same.

Ashton started at Puddle Jumpers daycare on Monday. That was SO hard!! He has been at Kindercare for the past 4 weeks, but the price and location just weren't working. I was so sad to leave because the girls there absolutely adored him. I have been pleasantly surprised with Puddle Jumpers though! They were so excited he was coming and had everything already labeled for him before we showed up. They took a "1st day" picture and also gave me a "Parent's Survival Kit". So far, I'm very happy with them. They seem to love my Buggy!

Justin William

2008-04-04T10:22:00.000-06:00

I love my Justin. He never ceases to amaze me. He is brilliant, athletic, loving, kind, beautiful, and funny. This little boys has such a bright light. I really think he'll practice law when he's older. You can't just tell him "no". He has to negotiate EVERYTHING. He'll explain his view to you over and over and over until you finally cave in. Sometimes it gets extremely frustrating, but I just have to sit back and laugh at how his mind is always going.

Justin is a master of everything he does. I taught Justin how to ski when he was just 2 years old. He picked it right up. Two Christmases ago he asked for a snowboard. I thought it would be interesting for him to learn since I didn't know how to snowboard and Mark (who does snowboard) usually goes on a different day than us... but Justin picked it right up! Justin asked for a Rip-Stick (2 wheeled wobbly skateboard) this year for Christmas... he and I watched the instructional video (which told us that some tricks could result in DEATH if not performed correctly) then Justin went down to the basement and hopped right on... CRAZY!! A couple of weeks ago Justin decided he wanted to learn how to ice-skate and he did great! He amazes me every day with how athletic he is. Oh, and he is a wakeboarder! I love this kid!!

Justin has been the best big brother! He is constantly helping me with Ashton. He'll ask me if I've fed him and changed him. If he hears Ashton cry he comes running to hold him and make him feel better. I feel like such a lucky mom!
Justin is in 2ND grade. He's attending Wasatch Peak Academy which is only a block away from our new home and we can see it from our front door. It is Justin's 3rd school in 3 years, but this one is a keeper! He's learning Spanish as part of his curriculum. I told him I'd take him to Spain in a couple of years when he's learned some more Spanish... he replied with, "mom, I'd rather go to Mexico."... WHAT?!??!!! So, guess we're going to Mexico :)

I hope my Donald Trump Jr. knows how much his mommy loves him!!

Easter 2008

2008-03-26T12:12:00.001-06:00

We had a fun Easter this year! We started Saturday night dying our Eggs. Justin and I started doing our eggs with Mark nagging in the background, "That better not get on my granite!!"... but by the end of the night he was jealous of how much fun we were having and joined in the egg action. I have to admit, we have some sick egg dying skills!! LOL! On Sunday we got ready for the day and Justin went to church in the new outfit Dardi bought him. After church we attempted to take a picture of all of the grand kids (Justin , Andersen (so cute!!), and Ashton) together in their new Easter outfits (again, bought by Dardi) but i'm not sure we got a good picture. Justin never looked at the camera, Ashton had his eyes closed because it was so bright, and Andersen wasn't interested in having his picture taken. Oh well. Better luck next year I guess. We had a fabulous dinner which included barbecued ham and funeral potatoes (which I made, I'm so proud!!). Later that evening we went out to my aunt Barb's house for desert. We got to mingle with all of the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. It was a really fun night.

Jumping on the blogger band waggon

2008-03-24T11:53:00.000-06:00

Well for as long as I can remember I have been a follower... and here I am doing it again. I'm jumping on the blogger band waggon! I have noticed so many of my friends and even some family have these great blogs and I just seemed like such a great idea. So here it goes...