Garden

So, I've decided to be adventurous and grow a garden this year. I've always wanted to grow a garden but didn't know where to start. My mother-in-law has a garden every year so I asked her for so advise. She was so kind and helped me out a lot. My peas have started to come up and know I'm waiting for everything else (carrots, radishes, spinach, zucchini, lettuce, peppers, cantaloupe, and cucumbers). I'm so excited for my crops to come in!! Talmadge loved helping me. He as a big help! He especially like raking and hoeing the ground. Mia loved playing in the dirt and water.

Let's Play Ball

Talmadge has started T-ball and he absolutely loves it. In fact I think he likes it more than soccer. I signed him up for soccer for next year just to see if he might like soccer different without me as his coach. If he doesn't like it then we just might have a baseball player. He does a really good job with t-ball. He can throw the ball far and accurately. In fact several people at his games have commented on his throws. This age is the funnest time to watch baseball. They are so cute and do the funniest things! I love it! Keep up the great work Talmadge!!

Eight Years With Eternity To Go

Tomorrow, I will have been married to my best friend in the world for 8 years. It was been great. Sure we have had our ups and downs but when I look back I can't help to think about our wonderful experiences we've had. The top 3 experiences that come to mind are: both receiving our bachelor's degrees, bring 2 beautiful babies into this world with one on the way, and going back to our mission country (Italy). I love Cameron so much! He helps me to be a better person. He is so patient with me and such a wonderful dad. I truly couldn't ask for a better husband. I love you Cameron!!

Summer Fun

This summer was a lot of fun between trips to the zoo (our season pass expired in the end of June...so sad) and swimming, we kept cool and had fun. Here is a slide show of some of the pictures we took this summer. Enjoy!

Injury

This summer has been the summer of injuries.

Talmadge got his fingers slammed in the car door. No, we didn't have him pose this way on purpose. It just happened to be his middle finger that had the worst injury. No, his fingernail didn't fall off. That was amazing since his fingernail was yucky looking and looked like it might come off.

Mia tripped and fell several times this summer. In fact I thought her knees were never going to heal. This is a beautiful picture of her scuffed up nose and beautiful fat lips after a face plant on the concrete.

Its a good things our bodies are so resilient!!

California

While we were in California we visited Cameron's brother and his family. They live in the San Diego area. It is always so much fun to visit them. We always have a blast and the kids have fun hanging out. I absolutely love the ocean! So every time we are in California I always want to go visit the ocean, even if the water is freezing. We went to La Jolla and it was so much fun. The water was really cold but it was fun to play on the beach. There is just something amazing about the ocean. It is so soothing. I honestly could live right by a beach and be completely happy.

Having fun in the water...burr

Mia didn't like the freezing cold water but she sure loved eating the sand.

After visiting the beach we went to Old Town San Diego. That is a real cute area of San Diego. We ate at a really good Mexican Restaurant...California has the best Mexican food!

In Old Town there is the Mormon Battalion Museum. That is a really cool site. We traveled from room to run and learned about LDS people who went to San Diego to fight for the government. In this picture the kids were able to try on gear. Talmadge's was a bit big. He might want to trade it in for a short size so he doesn't trip on it during the journey.

At the very end of the tour you go outside and you can pan for gold, look out over San Diego, pump a water well, climb a wagon, or just walk around and read about people's lives. This was a really fun museum that I would recommend to anyone visiting San Diego...plus it is free!

We all got a "family portrait" while at the museum. Just about all of us fit. Rachel was in Grandpa's arm and wasn't in the picture. Pretty good for a large group!

Disneyland

This year, as a family vacation, we went to Disneyland. We went at the end of April, which was perfect. The weather was nice and there weren't a lot of crowds. The longest we ever waited for a ride was 45 minutes...that was only once. I would recommend going in spring before school is out and enjoy Disneyland. It was truly the best time. Plus we were able to enjoy some fabulous deals. We got free nights at the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel and free day passes for Disneyland and California Adventure. Here is a plug for Get Away Today: They truly had the best deals. We were going to get a package on our own but Get Away Today smashed our best price by about $300. They specialize in Disneyland vacation. If you are in the market for a Disneyland vacation, check them out at www.getawaytoday.com. We enjoyed 4 fabulous days in Disneyland and California Adventure. What a fun trip!! Talmadge loved Splash Mountain and the Rapids ride. He went down both several times. Mia enjoyed running around and climbing on everything (typical 18 month old). Cameron's parents joined to help make the trip a great time. It was a such an exciting trip. I can't wait until the next time!

Easter 2010

This year we colored eggs at Grandma and Grandpa Sommers' house as well as our house. We also had a fun Easter Egg Hunt at Gma. & Gpa. Sommers' house as well as Great Grandma Sommers' house. We had a lot of fun!

Coloring eggs

Mia amazingly liked this hard boiled egg, even though her face tells an different story.

Now it is Grandma's turn to eat the egg.

Talmadge showing off his egg. This year he loved taking all of his pictures with his egg up close to his face...such a character!

Great Grandma Sommers and Mia.

Cuteness

Since it has been almost a year since I've blogged, I wanted to share a few random pictures of Talmadge and Mia showing off their cuteness.

Talmadge wearing Mia's snow hat.

Mia "reading" in Talmadge's suitcase.


Mia loves to put every one's shoes on. Here she is wearing Talmadge's. She is even daring to wear Cameron's size 13 shoes. I really don't know how she walks around the house in his big shoes.


Talmadge getting ready for the witch festival...just kidding...I thought this was adorable.


Cheesing it up on St. Patrick's Day



I know this isn't a very clear picture but I thought it was so cute. Mia, open mouth and ready to kiss her brother

Fishing off the side of the bed.

Chilling in the toy box.

Mia loves, loves, loves, these lips. When you blow on them they whistle. I always know when she has found them because she will whistle for hours.

December Happenings

December brought some fun family traditions:

Talmadge's advent calendar. He had fun taking a "snowball" off Santa's beard which had a number underneath to let him know how many more days until Christmas.

The annual Sommers Christmas Pageant.

Excitedly waiting to see what Christmas brought on Christmas morning.

Mia playing music with her piano. She is very talented, as you can see. She can play with her toes.

Talmadge was super excited for his Lightning McQueen "big boy" bike.

Our Little Girl Turns 1

Our little sweet pea, Mia, turned 1 in November. It was fun family get together.

"My Little Pony" birthday cake

Mia's personal cake

Chowing down!

At first the cake was cold and Mia didn't know what to think but as soon as the sugar kicked in, she loved it!

This was Talmadge...I mean Mia's favorite toy. It was so funny to watch Mia and Talmadge with this toy. They were both excited and loved playing with this ball popper!

Thankful

I love this time of the year when I get a chance to really think about the things that I'm so grateful for.

• I'm so grateful for my family. They bring me so much happiness and joy. They make each day beautiful!
• I'm grateful for work. Even though times are difficult in this economy and jobs can be hard to find, I'm grateful we haven't been too badly effected.
• I'm grateful for good health.
• I'm grateful for my freedom.
• I'm grateful for my faith and the help and strength it is in my life.
• I'm grateful for so many great friends that have touched my life for good.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. We had a few parties and events that we enjoyed from a Halloween festival at the zoo to trick or treating at the library/county building. This year Talmadge was a spiderman and Mia was a little bumblebee. Talmadge had a mask that he loved to wear when we first bought the costume but when Halloween came along the mask was bothering his face so we bagged the mask. It was a blast to have Josh, Jace, and Jairden here to go trick-or-treating. Talmadge loved going around with them. Mia loved watching Talmadge run around and have fun.

The amazing spiderman

Halloween face painting.

Trick-or-treat fun at the library

Birthday Fun

This year we celebrated Talmadge's birthday a couple weeks early since his cousins from Washington were here. Talmadge loves his cousins and most of them aren't able to celebrate his birthday parties with him so we took advantage of the timing. This year Talmadge wanted to have a horse party. We played pin the tail on the horse, and horsey, horsey, pony (duck, duck, goose). We also had a horse pinata for everyone to try to brake. It was a pretty cold afternoon and no one was having any luck braking open the pinata so we finally got a metal bat and had an older cousin swing at the pinata...that did the trick. Talmadge had a blast and loved having his friends and cousins there. Thanks again to everyone who helped make Talmadge's birthday party a success!

Birthday boy.

Talmadge saw this cake in the grocery store when we went there to pick up some items I needed to get to make his cake. He wouldn't stop telling me how much he loved the cake so I thought, "I can make that cake". When I asked how much it was for the kit and the people working couldn't help. It was turning into more of a problem than it needed to be so I just bought this cool pre-made cake. It turned out to be a great idea and ended up relieving the stress of making a cake. I'm glad Talmadge spotted the cake he wanted.

Star Wars

Cameron turned the big 30 this year. For his birthday celebration we went to Star Wars in Concert. To tell you the turn I wasn't extremely excited to go since I'm not a super fan of Star Wars. Don't get me wrong, I do like Star Wars but I'm not fanatical. It turned out to be a really good concert. They had a full symphony playing music from the movies while the actor who plays RT-D2 told the entire story line. After watching the concert I felt like I understood the story line better. In fact I wanted to watch the movies again...which we did. We had a fun time. Cameron's parents joined us. Cameron's dad is a huge star wars fan so it was fun to see Cameron and his dad enjoy this concert. Before the concert we ate at Sette Bello, the best authentic pizzeria in Salt Lake. Every time we eat there it makes me miss Italy!

Here is a picture of the symphony with the scenes from the movies playing behind them.

It was pretty cool to see people get excited and dressed up as their favorite Star Wars characters. This was a picture of a cute family that dressed up their 4 young children.

We even got a few pictures with some of the Star Wars characters...yes that lady's hair really is shaved bald.

The Emperor was such a funny guy. He was cracking out jokes the entire time. He was my favorite character.