Mack's 4th Birhday Party

Here we are a month later... but oh well. My baby Mack turned 4 on August 26th, and he's never looking back! He's maturing in many ways. He's doing fantastic in Pre-School... socially and other wise. He loves rock and roll music, drawing, writing, and playing the Wii. Mack had a fun "splish-splash" birthday party last month. We borrowed a huge water slide from the Jensens, got out our own slip-n-slide, had a water balloon toss, and stuck the fin on the sharks! Mack had a great time with all his friends. Thanks to all!

Tagged!... "What You Always Wanted To Know About Ryan And Me"

I just got tagged by my sister Becky. I guess I just answer these questions about my husband and Iso you can find out even more annoying stuff about me...

HOW DID WE MEET?: His sister, Lainie, thought we would make a good match so she set us up on a blind date.

WHERE DID YOU GO ON YOUR FIRST DATE?: Matta's (... sniff...sniff.. tear drop.)

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER?: dated/engaged for 6 months, been married for 8 years in Sept.

WHO SAID 'I LOVE YOU' FIRST?: Ryan, in Portugese I think.

WHO IS TALLER?: Hello! have you seen my husband? Ryan is 6'1'' and I'm 5'2"

WHO SINGS BETTER?: We both sing pretty good. Ryan probably would say he sings better :)

WHO IS SMARTER?: I lose brain cells every baby I have so....

WHO DOES THE LAUNDRY?: Ha Ha Ha...

WHO DOES THE DISHES?: It's about 80/20 with us. I usually do it.

WHO SLEEPS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED?: Right or wrong... we sleep wherever our children aren't. : )

WHO PAYS THE BILLS?: Ryan - I'm really bad at that. When we were first married, I wanted to do it, but eventually I got fired.

WHO MOWS THE LAWN?: Ryan. He's tried to show me how, but there's no way I would do that willingly.

WHO COOKS DINNER?: Ryan is great at cooking, it's just I usually do it. Experience has shown that we don't work well together in the kitchen. We are both pretty stubborn.

WHO DRIVES WHEN YOU ARE TOGETHER?: Ryan : ( I like driving, but I don't like passenger-side drivers.

WHO IS MORE STUBBORN?: Like I said, we both are.

WHO KISSED WHO FIRST?t: Ryan STOLE our first kiss! How rude!

WHO IS MORE SENSITIVE?: I don't know.

WHO PROPOSED?: Ryan. (After I told him exactly what ring I wanted and picked a wedding date.) He serenaded me outside my window late at night with his guitar and song he wrote for me. ahhhhh... The funny part was a police helicopter spot lighted him afterwords as he was getting into his car. (I guess he looked suspicious... maybe that was a sign?...) : )

WHO HAS MORE SIBLINGS?: He's the 5th of 6 and I'm the 3rd of 7 - Hence our personalities: a Social Butterfly (Ryan) and a Mother Hen(me).

WHO WEARS THE PANTS?: I get things started and I have the final word! "Oh, Hi, Ryan... I was just, uh... blogging. yeah, I'll get off the computer now. "

Now I tag Nikki, Brittni, and Tami

Thank you Cards

...I'm proud to say I made these myself!

I still need to pick them up from Wal-Mart

Photo Center, but I couldn't wait to post them!

I hope every princess who came to Maren's party 

felt beautiful!

Maren's Princess Party

Here are some of the pictures from the Princess Party... 

like I promised.  

This is what we did:

Read Princess and the Pea & The Frog Prince while 

the princesses sat on royal pillows

Played "Find the Pea" where they sat on all the royal 

pillows trying to find the "pea" (a golf ball) like real 

princesses.

Took pictures of each princess on the "throne" next 

to the frog prince! (Really cute!)

Painted each princess finger nails (pink, of course)

 

Played "stick the tiara on the Princess"

Had delicious cake... made by my friend, Amy Strong!

Opened presents!

It was over before I knew it, and the girls just played 

with Maren's new presents until it was time to go.  

Ahhh, so much planning and preparing for just 75 

minutes of party.... what can you do?  

I think I've convinced myself that it was worth it! :)

THANK YOU to all who helped me with this party...

AMY STRONG for the wonderful cake 

KIM SKINNER for the awesome invitations

MOM ALLRED for the princess pillows

AUNT CHRISTINE for the accessories/decorations

KRISTEN BRINSON for the drawing of the princess

WE MISSED these princesses who couldn't come:

MACKENZIE

CAMI

KAITLYN

SYDNEY

PRESLEY

I'm learning! Here is my second project with photoshop...

Kade's first day of Kindergarten was Aug.6th. He surprised me at how confident he was. He only wanted me to drop him off at the sidewalk. See how he is RUNNING from the car! : ) I think his favorite party is that he gets to play on the playground until school starts.

At his school, Benjamin Franklin Charter School, they have a flag ceremony and recite the pledge of allegiance outside with the whole school before class begins. (That's pretty cool.) Kade is so independant and obedient. He figures out where he's supposed to be and does what he's supposed to do.

Great job, Kade! I love you!!

My First DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING PAGE!!!

I couldn't have done it without my computer savvy/hunk of a husband! I was just wishing for the time, energy and smarts to create something cute with all these free downloads. Ryan stayed up late with me after the kids were asleep and showed me step-by-step how to work photoshop!
He also helped me spruce up my blog. Doesn't it look great?!
THANK YOU SWEETIE!
I LOVE YOU- but you've created a monster! : )

Mom Looks Different!

Here's the new me! Yesterday I dyed my hair dark. I really like it, and I have to say that my little brother is my inspiration. He was a toe-head when he was little and now sports the darkest hair in the family. My kids were so surprised when I came home. Kade said to Mack, "Mack, you HAVE to see this... Mom Looks Totally Different!" They never said they actually liked it, but that's ok.

Tiny Visitors

Due to the rain a few weeks ago, our retention area was filled with tiny visitors... toads! These are the offspring of those who occupied the retention area. And they are living in our front yard! I don't know how many tiny toads we have, but my kids sure love chasing them. I've never seen toads so small! I got a good picture of one while it was jumping. I was surprised to see the boys pick them up with their bare hands.... I know, they're boys, but still! They are fun now, but we seriously can not have 100 full grown toads living in our yard! What do we do!

Princess Party Invitation

My good friend Kim Skinner made these awesome birthday party invitations.
Stay tuned for pictures from the Princess Party!

Maren turns 2

My beautiful baby girl turned 2 on July 14th!
Here is a video of that morning...



Grandpa and Grandma came by with presents.
I love how excited she got about each one...

Michael & Brittany's Wedding

Ahhh! What a cute couple!

My little brother was sealed to his beautiful bride for time & all eternity on June 21,2008 in the Mount Timpanogos temple! It was probably the most  beautiful sealing ceremony, next to mine of course: ), that I've ever attended!  I'm so grateful to my parents who made it possible for my family and me to attend.  I'm thrilled that I got to see my baby brother/missionary too!  I'm still getting choked up thinking about it now.  Mike and Brittany: You are blessed to have each other and I'm so excited for you as you begin an exciting journey!  I love you!

Kade's surgery

Friday, April 25th, Kade had surgery on both his feet.  His tendons were getting tighter and making it impossible for Kade to walk properly.  

We absolutely love and trust his doctor, Dr. Richard Shindell, but we had a few surprises so far: 

   1. having both feet done instead of just one. 

   2. the surgery took 2 hours instead of 15 minutes.

   3. Kade stayed overnight with alot of pain.

   4. Kade has to stay completely off his feet needing a wheelchair.

Needless to say, our little world has slowed down a little bit.  Since I have to carry Kade to the toilet everytime he needs to go, and he's on Hydrocodone for the pain, we are both tired and emotional.  We are so grateful to those who have helped us out during this crazy time. Who have made us dinners and have showed their love and concern.

Kade is such a trouper!  He definately knows how to roll with the punches.  If it weren't for his great attitude most of the time, I would have lost it!  He's cool with his wheelchair.  He's not afraid to tell anyone about his feet and why he's wearing casts.  Plus, he still does whatever he wants!  He crawls wherever he wants to, he plays with whatever he wants, he still cons his siblings into doing whatever he wants. The only thing is it just takes him a little longer to build his cool forts, and Mack has a little bit of advantage when they fight 'cause Kade can't catch him! 

This experience is building his character, and strengthening our faith as well as patience.  We know we are still so blessed, especially after seeing other kids who have much

 more serious conditions.  He has so many little friends who love him.  We love having him in our family so much.  He's such a sensitive little guy.  Sometimes, he'll have tears in his eyes, and say, "Mom, I'm crying because I love you!"

Can't say much more than that.  Love you all!

Crazy Ladies who like to Run

This is a video of the Relay race I was in on February 29th through March 1st.  I had a ton of fun.  I realized I liked to run.  I have a lot of really good friends out here who like to run too.  We have fun together. 

Ryan put this slideshow together and one of my friends' husband wrote the song.

Hope you like it!!

Ragnar Relay

A Few of Their Favorite Things...

My children LOVE when Mommy...

1. pulls their clean clothes out of the dryer... (superhero time!)

2. teaches piano... (time to watch a show)

3. moves the couch, fridge, or oven... (finally reunited with that 'favorite' toy!)

4. isn't looking... (they can eat cupcake sprinkles out of the can)

These are just a few of their favorite things.

Little Mommy

I caught Maren being so cute with her dolly today.  She was feeding her and kissing her - it was adorable.  She's got the motherly touch already!

Because of all the potty...

For the past 2 weeks Mack has been potty-training...again.  He has filled up his "potty chart" and was deserving a reward.  Ryan was finally able to take him to Target and get him a surprise.  When I was prepping Mack for his outing with Dad he said, with eyes as wide as his grin... "Yeah, because of all the potty!"

What a funny little guy!

Oh, and out of all the items those 2 boys found throughout the store... which were ranging from a kite, to a DVD, to PJs... Mack was as happy as a pig in mud when he came home with a simple push-pop sucker!  

My wallet loves how innocent my children are.

CONGRATULATIONS MACK!!!

April Fools!

April Fool's Day is a day I always remember.  

Growing up I was entertained by my dad's unique ways to trick his kids - I remember alot of them so now I love to 'zing' people on this special day... especially my family.

 

Here are a few of the pranks I played on April Fools Day...

Replaced today's newspaper with yesterday's and put it back outside.

Hid all of Ryan's work shirts.

Hid his truck key.

I got him pretty good.  He never saw it comin'!  Trust me that wasn't even my best work, but it sure was fun.

Rachel eating snails on our cruise

Ryan & Rachel

Mack, Maren & Kade

Maren at the Easter Egg Hunt

I bit the Bullet...

For months I've been raggin' on these "silly" girls 

in the ward who all have a Blog! -no offense Kristen- 

I thought it was so ridiculous and pointless.  

And now here I am, creating my own Blog.  (sigh)  

Just so you know, this will be strictly for private viewing 

and is my way of keeping in touch with my wonderful family.  

My kids are too cute to keep to myself.  

I MUST SHARE THEIR CUTENESS WITH THE WORLD! 

- or at least their immediate family.