Can now be found at www.joelvotaw.com
This site will be updated and maintained by Jaime Votaw shortly. To follow my stuff, head on over to joelvotaw.com
Can now be found at www.joelvotaw.com
This site will be updated and maintained by Jaime Votaw shortly. To follow my stuff, head on over to joelvotaw.com
Marin totally excited to be about to see Nemo fishes
So another bonus this summer has been reconnecting with old friends. I got a chance to get in touch with one of my dearest high school friends, Missy. We use to be stuck together at the hip all though high school and then after during college too. I watched her first daughter be born and enjoyed all those experiences with them. In fact i was on the committee of 2 that helped name her daughter. She is a dear friend and I am so excited that our paths crossed again. She has 2 more kiddos and so we have spent lots of fun time with them on our trips to CA this summer. Joel has also gotten a chance to visit with some old high school friends too and catch up and he tells me he has really enjoyed that too. I am excited to get to play catch up with such great friends this summer and look forward to all our families getting to know each other again.
Marin and Caswell (Missy’s son) at Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana
Marin making a sandcastle
Marin loving the wet sticky cold sand
It was overcast that morning but Marin’s face was full of sunshine!
Marin and Christian pool side, with Marin in her “kennie” so she calls her bikini.
Christian and Marin who are all bundled up because the 90 degree temps made them chilly
So Carson wanted to try out for Club Soccer this year. He loves baseball mind you but at this age it is SOOOO hard to enjoy them playing baseball as a parent. He was so excited to try out and he made a team. Carson is on the Arsenal 2004 Premier Boys team and so excited! He love to play goalie and he is great in the midfield as well. He has great ball control and is always in the right place to be an asset to the team. He will do great this Fall and I am so excited to watch him play.
Carson in his Arsenal gear!
The kids love to skate and play and so we have taken full advantage of the new indoor skate and jump place in Chandler. It is so much for and Marin loves to go jump too. Here is a cute picture of the boys at play.
Next we went off to see Liberty Jail and the FLDS (Fundamental LDS) temple and see Adamondaion (sp?). Any ways all our LDs friends will know what I am trying to spell. Anyways, it was very interesting for sure. Not much at FLDS site or Adamondaion really to speak about other than it was fun to pretend to be investigators for the sisters missionaries at the LDS visitors center there. The FLDS temple was well weird, my mother in law called it when she said it looked like the emerald city castle on Wizard of Oz.
Off to Liberty Jail, OK that was neat! I can go off on all the feelings I had while I was here and tell you how cramped the quarters looked and such but I won’t. What I will say is that it is well worth a visit and that seeing it in person will strengthen your testimony of latter day prophets. We are blessed to have such men on this earth today that have fought so hard to bring about the restoration of the gospel. Amazing in every way!
Liberty Jail, recreated to exact standards using the old foundation and rocks and stone on the site. Below is the basement of the jail and top level was for the jailer.
Ok so Mother’s Day 2011 is done and over. It was a super great Mo-Day for sure. Jonas made me breakfast (not in bed, we don’t eat in bed) and above is the picture of the meal he made for me. Luckily enough he knew not to pour the milk on the cereal. It was yummy! Thank you Jonas!
Also the boys and Joel got me a little Nano iPod so i can do my run/walk routine and not hold onto my iTouch while I run/walk. The little thing is so stinking small that I worry that I lose it in my purse or car. Carson made me a little Drink coaster and Marin made me a little cup at school with her hand prints on it.
So Joel kept telling me that I had another gift but I had to look for it. I looked and looked and then gave up. Finally he told me what it was, a trip to go see Bad Religion one of my favorite bands back in Missouri. We leave this week for a quick 36 hours trip to Missouri. We will watch the show and then hopefully get in a few Church history sites and then head home. Joel was sneaking again and hid this from me like the NYC trip. Thanks to Joel’s mom who is coming to watch the kids. He told me she had wanted to come visit the kids for the week and I thought how fun and I had started planning all the things to do this week for her with the kids. Alas she will have to do them by herself as we will be in Missouri. Super excited to have a quick get away and watch a great band!
We had the Jensen’s over for dinner and Joel and Jared cooked BBQ with all the goodies and a yummy desert too! Everybody was hurting from eating to much of Joel’s yummy BBQ. Thanks Jensen’s for sharing your Mo-day with us.
It was a great Mo-Day and I am super lucky to have such an awesome husband and kids. Love you all!
Joel promised Carson to take him to the opening game for the DBacks this year and he could bring a friend and their dad with them too. Carson has been waiting ever so patiently for the day to come. We didn’t even have the season ticket package yet and Carson was on pins and needles to go. Tonight was the night and many moons ago he decided that of course it would be Ryan and his dad Todd that went to the game with them. Carson and Ryan have been best friends since their first year of preschool almost 4 years ago. (wow I just suddenly felt old) Carson was waiting out in front of the house for Ryan and his dad to pick them up since 4:30pm today…the game started at 6:40pm. He wasn’t to excited was he? They are at the game right now and I just texted Joel and asked for an update and a picture of the boys and this is what I got back. The boys sure do look like they are having a great time. I am sure glad that Carson has such a great buddy in Ryan we sure do love their family.
So just when I think we are almost have a break in our normal sports weekends we get roped into another year of little league baseball. I know that Carson loves it and he is so good at it that we just do it. So this year he is on a team called the Scrappers, it actually is a good uniform set. He has many of the same boys on his team this year and most importantly his very best friend Ryan is on his team and his dad is the coach this year too. Those 2 boys have been buddies since they had their first preschool class together almost 4 years ago now I think. They had their first game 2 weekends ago and they did awesome and this last weekend was the same, the won! They have at least 1-2 games a week and 2 practices a week so we are VERY busy with baseball right now. Carson plays all the way into May so if anybody wants to come out and visit us in AZ and watch a game let me know there are plenty of them to watch! Carson is having a great time playing and he is doing awesome at it. See if favorite position to play below…
For each of the kids 2 year old birthday’s they got Big Boy Bed. I was super reluctant to get Marin a bed when she turned 2, why well she sleeps in her crib so well and she is still so small and fits so why spend the $. Unfortunately she has been leaning out of her crib when she wants out and it scares me. Yes I know I can get those tent thingies but I can’t bare to put her in that. I think I would really piss her off by doing that anyways.
So this past month I have been looking for beds at all the furniture places in town and online. I have a huge beef to pick with furniture manufacturers. All the boys beds as TONS cheaper but have a bed that has a little dainty leg or comes in white or has a canopy and you have just entered the twilight zone for prices. It is insane! I just refused to pay that much but yet I needed a bed and I was not going to buy her a boy bed. Ahhhh the dilemma.
So I finally added up the furniture and the bedding costs and realized that the furniture at Pottery Barn was going to give me the best bang for my buck especially if I wanted a girl bed and sheets and such too. So it was ordered 2 weeks ago and ever sense I have been hyping up this “big girl bed” thing to Marin and telling how exciting it was and how big girls don’t use diapers any more and how they use the potty and they especially don’t ever use a pacifier (passey) anymore. I figured I could lump all those things in with this right, I was trying it at least worst that could happen is she just sleeps in her bed right.
So the furniture came today, the mattress had to get picked up today and I had to go get the pillow and mattress cover and such too. Today was Big Girl Bed day, the boys just loved it don’t you know. Enjoy some of the events and pictures below.
My car with the mattress and box spring on them. Joel HATES it when people carry things on the tops of their cars. So sad he wasn’t here to witness this beauty. I forgot to take a picture of it all strapped down just right so that is why it looks like it is about to fall off. I was mid way through take down when I realized I didn’t have a picture for Joel. And HUGE kudos to our awesome neighbor Brad (and his brother from CO) who helped me wrangle this up the stairs to Marin’s room.
This is Marin right after I put the last pillow on the bed. She had her “Marin” stool all set up and ready to climb up on her new bed. Yes her hair is a mess inthis picture but she was playing in all the bags and wrappings and such with Carson while I made the bed. Oh well.
This is her right before she went to bed. She was so excited! Not that I ever have to wrestle with her to go to bed but tonight she was READY to go as soon as she got all her noodles down in her belly.
OK I know these last 2 picture are so similar but she was just SOOOO stinking happy with her new bed and her new covers and such she was literally all smiles from ear to ear as I left the room.
So right as I was leaving and turning out the lights she was giggling still with excitement. No literally she was snickering with happiness. I had to get up in her face and tell her how excited I was for her and how proud I was for her being such a big girl. I asked her if she loved her new bed and it was a giant smile she said “uhh huhhh” and then I asked her another series of similar questions and each time it was with a giant smile and “uhh huhh” with a good head nod. I think her toes had smiles on them she was so happy head to toe, I was on the verge of tears seeing her so dang happy. I suppose it was time for the Big Girl Bed.So do you ever wonder what kind of influence you have on your kids when they are young and worry that you are messing them up with different mannerisms you have? Well a few weeks ago I was worried I was imposing a phobia on Marin and thought to myself oh my goodness I am ruining her.
You see I HATE having wet hair touch my back after I get out of the shower or bath or pool. (not that I get lots of baths mind you) It is line nails on the chalk board to me and I will grab a towel straight away and wrap my hair up. A few Christmas’s ago my sister gave me a Turbie Twist and I love the stupid thing so much. It is small and wraps up my hair and it stays put. This Christmas I asked for a new one since my old was one looking pretty bad (I use it everyday). So at Christmas I got 2 new ones. Wonderful I thought right? Well nope Marin was super insistent that she needed a hat on too, she calls it my hat. I thought how cute that was and I had an extra one so why not. Well lets put it this way I finally realized the other day when her “hat” went missing that she HAD TO HAVE one too. I thought to myself oh my goodness I have imposed my phobia of wet hair on her and now she has to have a hat too. I was so upset about this and I have been trying to break her of her dependence on the Turbie Twist. Until…..
Yesterday I had a sitter stay with the kids so I could run to a lunch meeting and a site visit, it is Spring Break and unfortunately life still goes on and I have work stuff to do. When I came home I walked into the pantry to turn off the light and what did I see?

Marin had taken my little baking cups I use for candies and had portioned them off with little marshmallows in them. I thought ahhhh how sweet she was making treats and not only that she was embellishing them with the little baking cups. I thought to myself OK maybe it is OK to rub off on your kids I wasn’t so worried about the Turbie Twist hat so much anymore. I suppose your kids are going to pick up some of your phobias along the way but then again some things that are good too.
I suppose I have not ruin her just quite yet.
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