A Great Date

I gave Joe two Rangers tickets for Father's Day. I'm glad he picked me to go with him (that was my plan all along) We had a couple in our ward babysit, and we were gone for a full 5 1/2 hours. :)

It was a great night. It wasn't too hot and the time went by way too fast.

We even stayed for a fireworks show afterwards. It just made me realize that we need to get out more. :)

Mom's Visit

My mom came and stayed for a week. We had a lot of fun and it was so nice to have her here. (and not just because she helped with the kids and the cleaning and the weeding and planting flowers and the laundry and all the other stuff! :)) We checked out a museum while she was here, and got Jacey's room all set up, and just had fun. The weather was still nice so it wasn't too hot outside.
Thanks Mom!
Come back any time! :)

Swimming Party

The boys wanted to have a "swimming party" in my bathtub. They had tons of fun swimming and the rug in front of the tub was soaked when they were done.

Jacey turned 9

Jacey had her 9th birthday on the 26th of May.

We went to Chuck E Cheese on Memorial Day (the day before her birthday):

We also painted her room and she got a new bed, dresser, and nightstand.

When my mom came to visit she helped us get the room all set up.

School got out..

My mom came down to visit a few days before school got out. Jonah "graduated" from 5th Grade! I can't believe he will be in middle school next year! Jaren "graduated" from preschool and will start Kindergarten. Here are some pictures of the end of the year parties and graduations...

Ducks

When I opened the kitchen blinds this morning this is what I saw....It caused quite a stir with the kids when I said, "There are ducks in our yard!" They ran from the table where they were eating breakfast to watch the ducks. Jacey even brought Jamaica (our cat) to see. She wanted to go out and 'meet' them. One duck started across the street and the other two followed. Then someone walking past scared them away. And we went back to eating breakfast and fixing their lunches for school.

Preschool

I can't believe there's only a month left of school. I had a Parent Teacher Conference for Jaren this week (I know, a PTC for preschool??). The teacher gave me some of Jaren's work and I thought his self portrait was so cute! The first one he did back in September at the beginning of the year. The next one was done this week. There is improvement: more detail, arms, hair, background, etc. He has really learned a lot and has had a lot of fun. He will miss preschool in the summer, but is very ready to go to Kindergarten and be like Jonah and Jacey.

The Yacht

Joe had to travel for work last week. He was in Florida working on a Yacht! A 198 foot yacht!

the yacht had a glass elevator for it's 4 levels.

Where the yacht was docked

Update

It's been a while since I posted any thing. There was a lack of photos between the February Birthdays and Easter. I suppose it might be from the lack of major holidays. I have put together a couple of collages from the past few months; mostly Easter :)

Coloring Easter Eggs:


On the hunt...



Easter Sunday:

Jaren had a "Spring" party that strangely seemed like an Easter Party :)

We spend 3 or 4 days at the park after school when the weather is nice. I happened to have my camera on the day that Jaren had his school party so I snapped some pictures.

Popcorn Popping!

We have a popcorn tree! The kids are very excited every time we look out the window :) I have learned this is a Bradford Pear tree... not an apricot tree... but I didn't know that we had flowering tree in front of our house since we moved in the summer. All over the city we have popcorn trees... even pink popcorn and purple popcorn. They are so pretty to see and we get to sing the song over and over.

We also have dandelions, bees, and other pretty flowers coming up!! It's Spring!
We are supposed to be in the low 80's today!

Airport and Going Home

Our flight was delayed a half an hour because of the snow, so we stayed to visit with Grandpa for a little bit. Grandpa had the good idea to tag the kids with luggage labels so if they got lost someone would know who they were! I'm going to do that from now on when we fly, although I'd rather they just not get lost!We walked around to wear out the kids. They liked the moving sidewalks. :)
We played on escalators, and elevators, gave piggy back rides, went on the moving sidewalks again, and the elevators again, but after one of the kids pushed the 'alarm' button and sent an airport worker to meet us when the doors opened at the bottom, we were done with the playing around. We decided we'd better get through security and grab some lunch before we took off.

The plane ride home went well after we sat on the plane for 45 minutes while it was de-iced. The kids worked on their make-up work that they needed to hand in the next day. (Funny how we hadn't even thought about it the whole trip) Jaren was happy and Jaxon was WIPED OUT! He slept almost the entire flight! It was nice. I guess going to bed late every night and playing all day with cousins and grandparents will do that to you.

We saw this cute bear at the airport...

This is the tallest escalator I've ever seen! I admit I don't get out much, but I was pretty amazed by how tall it was. (I don't know why anyone would pick to take the stairs next to it!)

We had a great trip and it always makes us wonder why we live so far away. We will be back to visit soon I'm sure. Until then....

SNOW!

The snow was beautiful! Although it seemed more like Christmas than February. It just kept falling! I got some pictures: here's one of my favorites.

The kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. It was great!

Jaren's Birthday!

Jaren woke up to SNOW on his birthday! It came down all morning long! We were packing and getting ready to go to the airport. He was excited to fly on his birthday. He got one present in Utah, and then when we got home he got to open some more. Like Jaxon, he got a little shorted on his birthday because we were traveling, but we tried to make it special anyway. We got home late on his birthday so he didn't even get a birthday dinner (unless PB&J's count) or a cake. So we will finish celebrating his birthday on Saturday!

Jaren is very thoughtful of others. He is sweet and caring and says the most sincere prayers! I can't believe he's 5 already! He is VERY excited to start Kindergarten next year and be like his older brother and sister!

Happy Birthday Jaren!

Draper Temple

We were able to go to the Draper Temple Open House. We had a group of 25 of us. It was so beautiful inside. The wood work and chandeliers were amazing! My kids were so excited to go and see what it was like inside. Jonah and Jacey both said it was different than what they always imagined the temple to be. Other favorite parts were the cookie refreshments and the bus ride up to the temple! :)

Turkey Steaks

We got together at my mom's house again on Monday for Turkey Steaks from Maddox. We can't get those and Codee agreed to cook some for us! They were scrumptious! Thanks Codee!

Then Codee got a hold of my camera... :)

My Family

We got together on Sunday with my family for a birthday party for Jaren and Jaxon and Valentine's Day. We had lots of yummy food, lots of laughs, and lots of pictures!

The Wedding

I didn't take any pictures at Joe's Mom's Wedding. :(

Joe had the camera in his suit coat at the lunch and open house, and I didn't even think to get it out! Hopefully I will get copies from other people!

The wedding was nice! It was great to see people we hadn't seen for awhile.

Jaxon's birthday

My little baby turned 3 on Feb 10! I can't believe it! Jaxon had a great birthday even though we were trying to pack and get ready to fly to Utah the next day. He didn't seem to notice :) I made cupcakes so we wouldn't have a huge cake left over while we were gone and just froze the rest.

Jaxon is definitely my most energetic child and he loves to make people laugh. He had quite an audience in Utah with all of his cousins. He wasn't afraid to put on a show! He is so fun!
Happy Birthday Jaxon!

6 months

It was six months ago today that we moved into our house. Although we have a few boxes of books and some boxes that we are storing in the attic and closets, I would say I am unpacked.

For the most part, the kids like their new school. There are some days when they want to go back to their old school. Jonah will be in middle school next year, so he will see and know kids from both old and new schools. That will be nice.

In some ways it seems like we have always lived here and it's hard to think of the old house. We pass our old neighborhood on the way to the Post office or the library, and occasionally we will drive past our old house. It looks lonely even though people live there. The blinds are never open. Our current house feels like home.

But on the other hand, it feels like we just moved in. You would think we did if you looked at our bare walls. I haven't hung pictures or painted yet...mostly because that's not really my forte'. :) I want to do these things, but don't have confidence in my decorating skills.

One of my very favorite parts of the whole house is the laundry room! In our old house it was right in the kitchen. Now it is off the kitchen in it's own little room. The part I love the best is the clothes hanger right above the dryer!
It has saved me tons of time to just hang the clothes up after they come out of the dryer (instead of putting the clothes in the basket and saying, "I'll hang them up in a second" and then forgetting or getting busy and hours later having to put them back in the dryer to freshen them up. I hate to admit, but sometimes that cycle would repeat itself 2 and sometimes 3 times..I don't iron unless I absolutely have to!) Now, I can hang them up as they come out and I don't have to think about them again.

I like having more space... although sometimes it's just more space to clean! It's amazing how the kids can spread their toys into every room!

Joe has lists of projects that he wants to do. Someday he will have time to wire the whole house so we can turn the lights off upstairs when we are downstairs. And change the temperature in our house from just a phone call when we are away. Maybe he can even figure up something that will clean toilets... We can always dream, right?

Yes

School is closed today for this! It looks pretty innocent, but the ground is covered with a thin sheet of ice. It is 20 degrees - very cold! I can understand why they closed school because buses have to be able to get to school and they would be sliding all around on the ice. The only problem is now the sun is out and it's 28 degrees and things are starting to melt. It's supposed to get up to 40 degrees today, so things will melt by this afternoon, but school is still cancelled. I guess it's a bonus day! We are getting some work done now and having some friends over after lunch. Fun! Fun!

This is our backyard patio..

This is Joe's truck. He parks it outside and it was a popsicle this morning! The doors were frozen closed and it took a while to thaw it out! His work had a delayed opening so he had some extra time to get it warmed up and drive on the icy roads.

Ice

Our city is shutting down. School was dismissed early today at 12:30 pm. All schools were closed at that time. Jacey's gymnastics class through the city's recreation center is cancelled today. Businesses are closing early. The commute is supposed to be "treacherous!" It is 30 degrees and raining. Not snowing. It is really nothing but a drizzling rain. It seems a little much to shut everything down, but I'm sure that the highway overpasses and bridges are probably frozen. :) and the roads may become icy later today.

The kids loved getting out early! They've had fun with their extra time. Although it would have been fun to go outside and build a snowman on a 'snow day'... but nope, there's no snow!

Hopefully the big ice storm that is expected later tonight won't be too bad and school will be back in session tomorrow :) Or if not, I at least want snow!

Being a Mom

It's good to laugh at the fun things about being a mom. :)






Enjoy!