Happy Birthday Emma

Our Sweet Little Emma turned 3 on Sunday. She brings such joy to our family, it was fun to shower her with attention. Here she is blowing out her candles.

Hunter decided to put them all in a line leading to her.

Today we had a birthday party for her. Everyone came to see "What's cookin?" and we had fun doing all sorts of cooking activities.

First everyone got to decorate cookies.



They all had their own unique style.

Then, I gave them all a bunch of ingredients, (wheat, flour, oats, water) and I let them measure and stir and bake whatever they wanted. This little girl is making sleeping beauty cake.

Here they all are hard at work.

Opening presents is always a highlight. This gardening kit was especially perfect for Emma, she wanted to go outside and try it out right away.


All the girls seemed to have fun, even our youngest guest (Emma's cousin Olivia) was all smiles.
We love our Emma and feel so lucky to have her in our little family. It's always fun to hear her singing in the house and recently she's found another hobby, dancing. Grandma Jeanne let our kids watch the show, Dancing with the Stars, at her house and I think they learned a thing or two. Linsey plays the piano and Hunter and Emma dance, then they quietly stand in front of Linsey waiting to be judged. She pauses, thinks hard, takes her time and then proudly announces that it was PERFECT!

Happy Birthday Emma!

A Week in Paradise!

Last December, Jared and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. We always said that we would take a big trip, something memorable. Really, we wanted to make up for our honeymoon which seemed absolutely wonderful at the time. We went to the beach in the middle of the winter. We were poor college students and because we got married over Christmas break and had to get back to BYU for the new semester to start, we only had a couple days. We have always regretted that we didn't do something more.....

Around our 5 year anniversary, we started tossing the idea around with my brother and his wife that when we hit 10 years, we'd go on a big trip. My brother Chris and I are only 18 months apart. Starting about High School, we became really close and in college we both lived at the same apartment complex, I could see his bedroom window from mine. We both met our spouses and the 4 of us became great friends. We all got engaged around the same time and were married within 6 weeks of each other. It seemed like the perfect plan to take this trip with those who shared the memories of when it all started.

The plan: a 7 day Caribbean Cruise, Spring Break, no kids! Here's a glimpse of what we referred to over and over as Paradise!


The 5 star ship was amazing! We felt like we were living the big life, everywhere you go people wait on you and treat you like royalty.

The food was fabulous! If you haven't gone on a cruise before, trust me, the only problem with the food is possibly too much of it. Every night you eat a 5 course meal and there are buffets and dining areas open all day long and even throughout the night. There was also an ice cream parlor and hot pizza available around the clock, plus, if you were too lazy to walk to the food, you could always pick up the phone and ask room service to bring it right to your room....

On the top deck of our boat there was a huge screen TV. You could sit under the stars and watch movies (this was Monday night and they showed the big game for all the sports fans). There was a pool and hot tubs you could relax in while watching, or you could lay in lounge chairs.

Here's a better day time view of how that looks.

We went to 5 different islands. We were completely amazed at how all of them were so different. Some of them were lush and green tropical rain forests, some were dry and almost desert like, some were wealthy, some we were glad to be leaving before dark, but all were wonderful and we had great experiences everywhere we went. Here are some highlights.

I loved all the great beaches. White sand, blue water, sunshine, a slight breeze. It was all so perfect.

Jet skiing in the ocean was definitely a highlight! This is actually my brother and his wife, but we had the only waterproof camera so there were no pictures of us. I'm sure we got just as much air on the waves.

At Barbados, we got to swim with sea turtles. This was our first time snorkeling so we didn't take our underwater camera with us, just hoped to figure out the snorkeling thing first. Once we got the hang of it we started bringing the camera. We'd bring things to feed the fish and they would come and eat right out of your hand.

No vacation is complete without fishing, so we spent one morning with a guide and set out to catch bone fish. It's a science I decided, they explained to us that fishing for bone fish is all about patience. You have to wait for them to come to you and then you get only one shot to cast your fly line in just the right spot. If your fly lands on top of the fish it will spook them away. It's ideal to have your fly land a foot to either side of him, but you don't want to take too many casts because that also will spook them. Precision is the key. They took us to a great spot and while Jared had two strikes, I only caught a star fish.

St Lucia was one of the prettiest islands we got to visit. We chose to do a canopy tour there which turned out to be an amazing experience. There is nothing like riding a zip line through the rain forest.

Here we are all harnessed and ready to go. It's not the best look, but everyone looked the same so it was okay.

It felt sorta like a scene from Indian Jones.

Here comes Jared over the river.

On the last zip line my brother let his camera roll. It actually turned out really well and gives you a good idea of what it felt like. Check it out!

It was fun to come back to the ship every night and get all dressed up for a nice dinner and entertainment.

Here we are toward the end of our trip. All smiles. This is my sister in law, Tally.

Here is Jared and my brother, Chris.

This trip was truly a week in paradise for us. We loved every minute of it and the memories are something we will cherish the for rest of our lives. I'm so grateful for an amazing husband and 10 wonderful years of marriage.

Snorkeling in the Caribbean

We had so much fun our our Caribbean cruise. I have tons of pictures I'm sorting though and I'll try to get some posted later today. One of the highlights of our trip was snorkeling. It was so neat. We never got any pictures of the sea turtles we saw (we even snuck a touch), but here are some of the cool fish we swam with in the ocean!

Easter

Happy Easter!

It's hard to get the "perfect picture" where everyone looks at the camera and smiles all at once. We tried and eventually gave up, but everyone looked cute in their new holiday church clothes.

The kids had fun at the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt!

Here's a couple more attempts at the perfect picture. Emma has decided that this growl is her new smile.

Easter dinner was a smaller group this year, but we still managed to have enough food to feed an army. Yum! Jared's brother Mat and his wife Bri , baby Olivia , Jared's mom and dad and my parents. It was a wonderful day.

Hope you all had a nice Easter!

Friday Fun!

The kids had no school on Friday! Yahoo! We decided it would be fun to take a trip to the Pacific Science center with some friends. Here we are after unloading everyone from the car.

10 kids vs. 2 moms. We were slightly outnumbered but all the kids were very good. Tara and I got really good at doing head counts. I think I was still counting to 10 in my sleep that night.

Aren't they cute?

Emma and Natalie have been friends since birth.
They are only 4 weeks apart and live 3 doors down.

Emma loved the water exploration area. Thank goodness they had these plastic bibs to help keep her clothes dry.
Linsey spent a long time checking out the tide pools. They had areas where the kids could touch plants and shells and even pick up hermit crabs
Hunter found this toilet and became fascinated with watching what happens when you flush.
As you can see it is cut in half and when you push the lever you can see where the water travels. So interesting!
The butterfly garden was a hit. Large butterflies are flying all over and they land all around you, sometimes right on you. They especially seemed to like my jacket so I had several little hitchhikers.
Hunter found a small snail and he was really disapointed that we couldn't take him home.

It was really cute and tiny.

Carly was a little startled by this butterfly landing on her, but everyone around her thought it was real exciting. Check out Linsey and Alyssa's faces in the background.

Here the kids are at the dinosaur exibit.

You can see that Emma is a little worn out, it was a fun packed day and a great way to spend a day off of school.

February in Review

Well even with the extra day February seemed to go by so fast. As I told my buddy the other day. Everyone always told me that the years would start going by faster and faster, I just didn't expect it to feel like this.
So I'll give you the rundown on the whole month in one post.
I'm all about going on trips. I think it's fun to have a trip to look forward to. I'm also a very driven person. I really like to earn my fun. So when I'm home I feel the constant need to be working on something on "the list." When I'm on a trip I can truly relax because my list is back at home. Everything seems more fun when you do it while on a trip somewhere.
This month we traveled to Couer D' Alene to visit the cousins. I really like going there because our kids love it so much and, once they are all in bed, we have a really good time hanging out with Camille's brother Chris and his wife Tally. We've known them since we were dating (the second time) and they got married six weeks after us. In fact we are going to spend our ten year anniversaries together on a cruise to the Caribbean in April (see what I mean about trips). Plus, they always plan such fun activities. This trip we did something I've wanted to do for a long time. We pulled out the redneck and went to the Monster Truck show! It was pretty cool but one of the LOUDEST things I have ever been to.

Here is the fan favorite taking a jump.


Here is Hunter's reaction. He has earplugs in but it was still too loud for him.


The next day we drove up into the mountains and went sledding. We went to a place where you pay and they have a rope tow that pulls you up the hill. Linsey got sick the night before and Emma got too cold but Hunter was all over it. He'd go all by himself. Here he is cruising down the hill with his hat pulled down over his face. He didn't like the snow in his face so he jump in the tube and pull his hat down and just go till he stopped.


We also got invited by Matt and Bri to a hockey game. I must admit that I didn't have high hopes of being entertained but it was one of the funnest sporting events I've ever gone to. It's SOO much different watching it in person as opposed to TV. We really had a good time.

Aren't they cute cousins?


Here's Camille and Emma outside the arena. Aren't they both just so beautiful? By the way, Camille has lost 7 pounds since New Years. WAY TO GO CAMILLE!


The kids had more fun on the statues out front than they did watching the game.


Hunter is all about comfort... and treats.


One final February story.
I took Emma with me to the video store the other night to pick out a movie. She kept pointing out movies that had someone holding a gun on the cover and saying "look Dad, they shoot." You'd be surprised how many movies have a gun on the cover. I never really noticed until a 3 year old decided to point out every one around the New Release section. The next day Camille had promised Hunter and Emma that if they were good she would take them to the dollar store and let them pick out something to buy with the money they earned from doing jobs. This is usually a pretty predictable affair with Hunter choosing a ball or car and Emma choosing a horse or doll. This time however, Emma went straight for the coolest looking machine gun in the whole store and immediately wanted it. Camille tried and tried to convince her to get something else but she wouldn't budge. She wanted that gun. And she got it.
The dollar store is right next to Albertsons and Camille needed some bread so she took the kids in with her and Emma carried that gun, red bobbing curls and frilly pink dress, and shot at every person she could see.

Here is our mercenary posing with said weapon...she is still taking it everywhere.