Road Trip and a Wedding ... Part 1

On Friday we packed up our kids and our car and headed down the old Hwy 89 towards Kanab. We decided to take our time and make a couple of stops on the way down so that the kids could see some interesting things in our state. Our first stop was the Freemont Indian State Park in Sevier County.
There is a visitor center and a musuem. We went in and watched a 16 minute movie and then we went through the museum. They have a new childrens section in the museum where they can play in a hut that is made to look like an authentic Freemont Indian Hut, they also have a spot with microscopes so the kids can look at rocks and a little library section. After we went through the museum we hiked on 1 of the 16 trails to see the Petroglyphs, pictographs and pictoglyphs. I'm not sure what this is below, but the trail was full of them.

Our next stop was at Big Rock Candy Mountain in Marysvale. I tried to find some of the history of why it's called that and here is what I found out:

Oh the buzzin’ of the bees

In the cigarette trees

Near the soda water fountain

At the lemonade springs

Where the bluebird sings

On the big rock candy mountain

Shortly after the release of the song in 1928, some local residents, as a joke, placed a sign at the base of a colorful mountain in Utah naming it “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” They also placed a sign next to a nearby spring proclaiming it 'Lemonade Springs.' These names stuck, and the mythical Big Rock Candy Mountain of the song became perhaps one of the most recognized geologic sites in west-central Utah.

The mountain itself is beautiful. It looks so different than the rest of the mountains around it.

We met up with my parents, grandma, and my sister Tori while we where there and we went for a little hike. Notice the baby carrier. My sister in-law Jen gave it to us and I love it. It works great.

Me & Lucas, Dad & Paige, Grandma Elaine, MaKady, Tori, Mom(Jared was taking the picture)

Our last stop before we got to Kanab was this little house located in Circleville Utah. This house was the childhood home of Butch Cassidy.

After our last stop we headed on down to Kanab. We pulled into town around 4:30 and we all checked into our hotel rooms. They we met up with Tabi and Kole for dinner at Escobars (a small mexican restaurant with awesome food.)

After dinner my dad and Jared took the girls swimming, while Tabi and I went over to Kole's moms house so I could start working on the cake. Friday night I was able to get the whole cake baked and the rice crispies formed. I got back to the hotel room around 10:30 p.m. It was a long, but very fun and eventful day.

To Be Continued............................................................

Good Eating

In my last post I mentioned that we ate at a new resaurant in St. George. Our friends the VanDerHeydens' have a new restaurant. It's a Wing-Stop. It's the only one in Utah and let me just tell you that the food and service is awesome!!! We got the family meal with 4 different kinds of boneless wings, it also came with potato salad, french fries (they are the best I've ever had), and veggies (celery and carrot sticks). There are so many different flavors of chicken to choose from that by ordering it this way we got to taste 4 of them. My personal favorites are the teriyaki and the garlic parmesan.

So if your ever in St. George stop on by and have some yummy chicken. The address is:

2376 Red Cliffs Drive, in St. George, it's in the Pineview Plaza close to the Stadium 10 theatre.

Stop in and have some of the best chicken ever, and say hi to our friends!!!!!

You can also check the website here.

Little Trip

We took a little trip to St. George this past weekend. The weather was perfect, warm but not hot. It's my favorite time of year in St. George and it's the time of year that I miss living there the most. We got to wear our short sleve shirts and capris. The best part of the whole trip was going to the Vernon Worthen Park in the middle of town and taking a nap on a blanket while the girls played on the playground. We did a little bit of shopping, and we ate at our friends new restaurant (I'll post on this later). We also took a few pictures. I can't wait until our next trip.

Bridal Pictures

We got to come down to ST. George this weekend so I could take some bridal pictures of my beautiful sister and her fiance. They are getting married next weekend and we are so excited for them. What a cute couple. If you want to see more pictures click here.

Smothered...

Smothered with mothers.... I guess it was bound to happen in a house full of girls, but our new little additional is the recipient of many loves, hugs, cuddles, holds, etc. He is going to be a spoiled boy. Everyone wants to hold him constantly, especially Paige. She pouts when we tell her that she can't hold him, and when we aren't looking she will pick him up and hold him. I caught her one day carrying him up the stairs. It's a little unnerving.

Both of the girls are such great helpers. MaKady is getting really fast at making a bottle and she is willing to change any diaper. Paige doesn't like the diaper department, but she will hold him and keep him entertained when I am trying to get other things done.

Thank goodness for these girls. They are fabulous helpers/mothers. I'm not sure how I would manage without all their good help.

Piano Recital

My talented MaKady had her first piano recital on Saturday night. She has only been taking piano lessons for about 6 weeks, but she did great. MaKady is a lot like me, she loves to try new things but looses interest really fast. She has taken ballet, violin, hip/hop dance, softball, and now piano. Maybe this will be the one thing she truly loves because she is catching on so fast. We will see.

Cousins

We are so lucky to have great family. We went over to Ephraim on Friday for our nephews birthday party and the girls had a great time playing with their cousins. They also had so much fun blowing bubbles with Aunt Janilee in her kitchen!!

Lucas and cousin Adam are so funny. These boys are going to be great friends.

Schedule, What Schedule???

I guess it was wishful thinking or something, but before I had Lucas I kept thinking of all the things I was going to get done at home once I was on Maternity leave. What was I thinking? I have been so used to just having the girls. They can pretty much take care of themselves, entertain themselves, feed themselves, etc. Well, now that we have our sweet baby Lucas things just don't work out as planned. Before I could get everyone up, dressed, fed, house cleaned, etc before 7:15 in the morning when we had to be out the door. Now I'm lucky if that is all done by 10:oo am. Then by the time I get all of that done, I am so exhausted I can't do anything else but hold my baby and watch a movie. Maybe one of these days I will get back on schedule, but for right now, there is no schedule!! And that's okay.

Baby Lucas

Last week my sister Tabi was here with her camera and she took some really cute pictures of Lucas. Thanks Tab. They turned out Great!!

Thank Goodness

Thank goodness for my mom who came down last week to help out with the new baby and mostly to entertain the girls. We loved having her here. She is so creative. She made these fun chocolate dipped pretzels with the girls and they had so much fun. My sisters Hannah and Tabi also came up from St. George to visit. Yay for family!!

He's Here...

On Thursday night, February 5th we were in Levan and I started having contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart. By the time we got home they had slowed way down and I decided it was probably false labor and I went to bed. Friday morning around 4:30 I woke up with contractions again, but they were really strong and they were about 4 minutes apart. I didn't want to get my hopes up so I got up and took a shower and got the girls up and ready for the day. Around 6:30 the contractions hadn't slowed down so we decided we would go to the hospital and get everything checked out. We took the girls to my friend Dani's house and we went over to the hospital. They got me hooked up to the monitors and then the nurse came in a talked to me. She said my dr. was out of town on a skiing trip and that the on call dr. would probably want then to stop my contractions and send me home. Then I could visit with my dr. this week.

Well, that is the last thing I wanted to hear, but I did want my own dr. to deliver the baby so I agreed that they could stop my labor and send me home again. I said a little prayer and then about 8:30 my dr. came in. I was suprised, shocked, excited. I knew he was supposed to be out of town. He said that technically he wasn't supposed to be there, but he wasn't leaving to go skiing until the afternoon and he said "let's go ahead and get this baby delivered." I was so excited and nervous.

They got me already and into the operating room. The baby was born via Cesarian.

Lucas Jared Mangelson was born on 02/06/2009 at 9:47 am. He was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 21 1/2" long.

Everyone was shocked to see how big he was. He is so sweet and a handsome boy and we are so happy that he has finally joined our family.

Lucas before his bath
Jared and baby Lucas

Our first family picture with Lucas

Lucas enjoying some tummy time at home.

We were able to come home on Sunday. The dr. said that normally after a cesarian that women stay 3-4 days, but I was ready to come and we were both doing so well. It was nice to come home a little early.

Smile!!

We had a friend of mine take our pictures on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and she did a such an awesome job. We decided to have pictures taken before the baby, and we will get more after the baby. Part of the reason, is that I have some nice pictures of me when I'm pregnant with Paige. In one of the pictures it's just me and MaKady, Paige loves that picture and at her request, she wanted a picture with her and my belly for this time. I think the pictures turned out great. Now I have checked everything off of my list of things to do before the baby gets here, so we are just sitting around waiting. The dr. said everything is looking good.

Crafts, Cookies, & Contractions...

CRAFTS: We decided that since the weather was gloomy we just wanted to stay home this weekend. So the girls and I got our creativity flowing and we got to work. Saturday afternoon the girls made these cute flower valentines.

COOKIES: On Sunday after church we made sugar cookies. We have a really fast, really yummy recipe that we use that doesn't make a million cookies. They had so much fun cutting them out and decorating them. We love weekends like this when the t.v. isn't on 24/7, because if you know me, you know that I despise when the t.v. is on. It's just such a waste of time.

CONTRACTIONS: On Saturday after the girls finished with their flower crafts I started having contractions. This is not unusual for me, so I took some tylenol and started making dinner. Well and hour later I was still having the contractions every 5 minutes, but at that point I figured I could finish making dinner and we could eat before we did anything. Another hour later I was still having contractions every 3-5 minutes and we had eaten dinner and cleaned up. I called my friend Dani and we drove to Orem to drop the kids off with her and head to the hospital. We got to the hospital, went straight to labor and delivery and then got set up in the room. The baby's heart rate was good, but the contractions were coming strong and fast. The nurse called my dr. and he said he really didn't want me to have the baby that early. Thus resulting in me getting 3 shots. Finally 4 hours later the contractions stopped and we headed home.

I let myself get excited for a minute, but then I remembered how bad it could be if I had him that early, so I am thankful that they were able to stop my labor and send me home. I had a dr. appointment today and he said everything looks good. I haven't had any more contractions, and I am finally 36 weeks. The dr. said if I go into labor now they won't try to stop the labor they will just deliver the baby. I'm hoping/praying to make it at least 1 more week.

It's That Time...

It's time for Girl Scout Cookies in Utah (it's different for each state). If you are one of the lucky ones that happen to live close to us, this darling girl will be ringing your door bell in the next week or so. If you don't live close to us you can go to the cookie website here or the Girl Scouts of Utah website here and find a troop or a booth near you. Support your local Girl Scout!!!

And just for your information, the following are the cookies available this year:





Trefoil - shortbread cookies are shaped like the Girl Scout Trefoil design








Thin Mints - round, mint-flavored cookies covered with dark chocolate







Tagalongs - round cookies with a layer of peanut butter on top, and covered in chocolate









Sugar Free Chocolate Chip








Samoas - covered in caramel and toasted coconut, and then striped with chocolate






Do-Si-Dos - oatmeal cookie top and bottom surrounds a peanut butter-flavored layer inside




Lemon Chalet Cream - sandwich cookie has a touch of cinnamon-ginger spice with lemon frosting center







Dulce - De - Leche - New for 2009 - milk caramel chips and stripes

Engagement

This weekend my sister and her fiance came up so I could take some engagement pictures for them. They were so much fun to work with. We wanted to take the pictures in ST. George where they both live, but due to my current condition they came up to me. It was freezing, but they were awesome and we got some really great pictures.

Starting Fresh

So if any of you are like me, you like to start the new year with a clean house. You take down all your Christmas decorations and start cleaning out closets, etc. One of the other things I do is to make sure my house smells good. I love scentsy, and its very convenient for me because my sister Mary sells it. So if you are interested here is a link to her website.

Ring in the New Year

We had a really great holiday season. The girls got what they wanted for Christmas. MaKady got a Nintendo DS and Paige got her Barbie car. It was really nice just to spend so much time at home with the girls. Jared and I both had a lot of time off of work.

We were able to visit with Jared's family on Christmas eve and then we went to my parents house the day after Christmas.

For New Years we just stayed at home. We got the baby's room all ready and we took the girls bowling. It's one of their favorite activities. (Sorry for the blurry pictures).

Candy

Me & My sister Mary

My sister and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening baking cookies and making candy. It was so much fun. It's been a couple of years since I have done it, so I wanted to do it this year. We made Pinwheel cookies, toffee, caramels, & peanut butter truffles. Yea for baking. It really helped me get into the Christmas spirit (as weird as that may sound).

Birthday party

Trinity, Paige & MaKady

My sister Mary and her daughter Trinity came down for the weekend. We celebrated Paiges birthday with some homemade pizza, cake, and a trip to Jumpin Jacks. The girls had a blast. Paige picked out the topping for her cake. She is still at that age where she thinks it's fun to mix Christmas and her birthday. I'm sure that will change.