Blog Book

My friend Helen made a book of her blog and I thought it was so amazing that I decided to do one for myself. I can't believe how awesome it turned out! I'm so happy because I'm not that good at writing in my journal, but now I have a gorgeous photo journal of all the big events that have happened over the last 6 months. I plan on doing one every 6 months and hopefully someday we'll have a big 'This is your Life" Bookshelf full of blog books! If anyone else is interested the site I did it on is blurb.com. It slurps your blog into it's book creating program and then you just have to format the pictures and pages the way you want. It takes a little bit of time but it's well worth it! Here are some of the pages I did.

Mother's Day Weekend

I know sometimes people think of mother's day as getting a break from the kids, but I just wanted to have a mother's day where I got a break from cleaning, but still got to enjoy being with my sweet child, who is the whole reason I get to call myself a mother! So to celebrate on Saturday we took Teya to the zoo. She loves it there and it's so fun to see her find so much joy in her discovery of animals. We had a great time at the zoo and then on Sunday Taber took over all the menial tasks of motherhood (diapering, cleaning, cooking, doing dishes, etc..) and just let me play with Teya and have all the fun. It was a great day and I'm definitely coming out of the weekend feeling refreshed and excited about being a mom ; )

Another Utah Trip

Sorry I haven't blogged in forever again! We just got back from Utah last night after a wonderful week of visiting family. I got to go to Women's conference at BYU with my sisters which was AMAZING! Also got to go to Taber's sister's graduation from the U of U. We had a great trip and Teya did awesome on both flights. Still, that's definitely the last time I'm flying with her before the baby comes. I'm just getting too big and uncomfortable to handle that 4 1/2 hour flight with a toddler! Anyway, the posts below chronicle some of the highlights of our trip. Hope you enjoy!

Regan's graduation and hanging with the Riggs

The main reason for our trip to Utah was to see Taber's sister Regan graduate from the University of Utah. Obviously that's a pretty important event and we definitely wanted to be there to support her in her big accomplishment. The graduation was really great and Teya didn't do too bad at it either. At one point we did have to bust out her DVD player so she'd be quiet during the speakers, but for the most part she did all right.

Me, Taber and Teya standing with the graduate

Teya happily plugged in during the convocation

After the ceremony on Friday we all went out to lunch and then for the next few days just enjoyed hanging out with together in Salt Lake. We went to temple square, swam at the hotel, went to see Iron Man, ate at yummy restaurants and went out on late night ice cream runs. It was a really fun weekend and we'll definitely miss hanging out with family.

Teya, Taber and Brett at Temple Square

Teya with her beautiful aunt Regan
(you can tell where she gets her hair color from!)

Swimming with Grandma KarenMatching green with Great Grandma Louise

Temple Square

While we were in Salt Lake we took advantage of the opportunity to walk around temple square and enjoy the gorgeous flowers and the beauty of spring. We saw lots of couples getting married and Teya kept pointing at the brides and saying "Princess mommy! Princess!" At one point she also pointed to the temple and said, "I go in the castle okay mommy?" While we were there we got to see the Joseph Smith movie playing at the Legacy theater. I was a little nervous about bringing Teya to see a movie that isn't a cartoon or made for kids, but she actually sat through the whole thing so it worked out quite nicely.

Women's Conference

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was being able to attend Women's conference at BYU with my sisters. My youngest sister Liz wasn't able to come because of work, but me Rachel, Naomi and Sarah all got to attend and I must say it was quite amazing! Sheri Dew spoke at the opening session and talked about the power and the influence we have as women. It was so inspiring. We also went to classes about enjoying motherhood, eliminating distractions in our lives, stress busters, and the temple. I left feeling so uplifted, empowered, grateful, and motivated to be a better person and especially a better mother. It's definitely what I needed as I've been having a little anxiety lately about having another baby. Anyway, I love my sisters and am so glad that we got to spend the whole day together learning and laughing and just enjoying one another's company.

The Uda girls in order from youngest to oldest
Liz, Sarah, Naomi, me, and Rachel

Aquarium and the Mayan

On Wednesday my sisters, my mom and I packed up the kids and took them to a neat little sea life aquarium in Sandy. They had everything from sting rays and eels to jellyfish and sharks. Teya loved seeing all the fishies and was especially excited when she got to the tank full of "Nemos and Dorys" They had a touch pool too that you could reach in and feel the sting rays as well as mini-touch pools with star fish, sea cucumbers, and other fun things. Teya didn't want to touch the rays, or "Mr. Ray" as she called them, but she was all about the starfish and cucumbers. She laughed her head of every time she felt one of them, it was pretty cute. After the aquarium we took the kids to a restaurant called the Mayan. When you go in it looks like a Disneyland ride. Everything is decorated and in the middle there is a huge rock cliff with a waterfall and diving pools. We got seated right in front of the waterfall, which we thought would be so great for the kids. At first Teya thought it was pretty neat, but then the show started. They had Mayan warriors jumping off the waterfall accompanied by thunder, lightning, and a waterfall surge. Teya buried her head in her hands and kept saying, "No mommy! I don't like it!" finally she jumped into my sisters lap (who was further away from the waterfall then I was) buried her head in my sister's chest and didn't come out for the rest of our lunch. At one point she did let us give her a little taco, but other than that she was way too scared to be peeled off of my sister. Eventually she just feel asleep in Sarah's arms. It was pretty adorable. When we got back to the house and her Uncle asked her what she did that day, I thought she would talk about the fish or the sharks but instead she enthusiastically said, "I see a waterfall!" I guess even if it was a little scary at least it's something she'll never forget!

Teya and her cousins outside the Mayan

Clinging to her taco while buried in Auntie Sarah's chest during the show

One tired (and scared) little girl

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The other morning I woke up to the sound of Teya's little voice on the monitor. It took me awhile to figure out what she was saying, and then I realized she was actually singing. It was so cute because she was all alone in her dark room, laying in her crib singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When she got done she shouted "Yay!" and gave herself a round of applause. I went in to get her and she said, "Mommy I singin!"

So I tried to get a clip of her singing it again and this is the best I got. Since I've never really taught her the words she just kind of slurs together a bunch of sounds to mimic what she thinks the song says. Still, if you speak or understand toddler you can tell that she is indeed singing Twinkle Little Star. Pretty cute if you ask me!

Happy 30th Birthday Taber!

Today is Taber's birthday and last night we had a big party to celebrate him turning the big 3-0! Because it was a special birthday we had to do something more than just cake and ice cream, so I organized a BBQ in our backyard and rented a huge bounce house for the "kids" ; ) Naturally it was the teenagers and adults who had the most fun in it, but the little ones had a blast too! We had the bounce house set up all day so luckily Teya, our little jumping bean, got her fill of it before all the big kids came. Later in the evening we got some of the men and youth to have a wrestle mania tournament inside which was quite entertaining! So anyway, Happy Birthday Taber! We love you and hope you had a great party and have a great birthday today!

The birthday crowd

Blowing out candles (with Teya's help)

Bounce house and BBQ pics
Wrestle Mania Smack Down!