Friends Forever

This week I was able to go to lunch with some friends I've known since 4th grade. I used to call them my BFF's. It's surreal to say we've known each other for over 20 years. Rachael was my best friend for along time even after she moved out of state, and Julie and I seemed to follow each other everywhere through Elementary, Jr. High, High School and College. I'm so happy I know such great people and that they have been in my life for so long. Of course a ton of time seems to go by before we see each other. Rachael moved a lot and we stayed in contact, but I haven't truly seen her for about 10 years. Thank goodness for email and face book to stay in touch. Anyway, with all of us living in different states for the past decade we didn't see each other, but this past year we found ourselves all in the same state again for a moment. I couldn't pass up seeing them again, and so we met at the glamorous McDonald's, so our kids could play while we caught up on the past 20 years or so. Don't only old people catch up on the last 20 years? Surely we aren't old. Anyway, we won't be able to do this again for awhile because Rachael is moving to Oregon next month. It was so great to get together even if it was just at McDonald's. Of course I don't think it's fair that I haven't seen Rachael in 10 years and when we see each other I'm a bloated 7 months pregnant, but I'll take what I can get.
Thank you girls for being good friends forever!

Memorial Day

On Memorial day we were able to meet Shawn's family at the cemetery and put flowers on his dad's grave site. We haven't been able to do this for years and it was good to be able to do that and talk about him with the kids. We want the kids to get to know him through every one's memories. We really enjoyed going and it was a beautiful day!
Afterward we were able to meet with some good friends of ours that we used to live by in Washington- The Wilcox Family. We lived up in Washington for about 5 years in the same neighborhood and last year they moved to Saratoga Springs. We really wanted to see them again, so we had a picnic at a park by our home and they were able to bring their family. It was so much fun to see them, but so weird at the same time to see them in Utah. I meant to take some pictures but spaced bringing out my camera-next time get ready to smile! We loved seeing them! Thanks Shar and Rich for coming up to our home! We are glad you aren't too far away!

9 Year Anniversary!

On May 12th Shawn and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary! I can't believe it's been 9 years! It has gone by so fast. Our anniversary was on a Tuesday so we didn't do too much on that day. I made Monte Cristo sandwiches for dinner, which Shawn loves and he brought me roses. That weekend Shawn was a little sick but we got a babysitter and made it out to dinner at Famous Dave's and then went to see the movie Wolverine. Our "real" anniversary treat will be the beginning of June when we get to go to Vegas without kids for three days! I'll post photos of that when it happens. Until then here is a picture of us 9 years ago before we ever graduated from college had real jobs or ever thought about kids. Now a days with baby #3 on the way we have so much responsibility, but there is no one I'd rather have all of this responsibility with than Shawn! I love you Shawn! I really think you were made for me, because truly I need you. Thank you for making me laugh! Happy Anniversary again! I can't wait for Vegas!

3 year old Robot Will!!!

On May 2, 2009 my William turned 3 years old! I can't believe he is already 3. With the influence of David, his older cousin, Will is really into Robots, so of course we had to have a robot party! It was so much fun! Here are some pictures!


The Robot center piece I made!


Some of the decorations!


Robot cupcakes that my Mom and Emily helped decorate! Aren't they cute!


We played pin the battery on the robot! Notice Will's shirt too- it's a robot dog shirt!


The other game we played was rocket blast off. The kids lined up and shot their rockets off to see who's would got he furthest.


This is Will's prized present from me and Shawn- Roboquad!

Will had a great birthday and it was so much fun to have family be here! Thanks everyone for coming!

Field Trips, Swimming, and Misc. stuff....

I was able to go on a field trip with Claire and her kindergarten class to the Discovery Gateway museum recently! It was an all day field trip- so thanks to Trisha for watching Will for me. I was even able to ride the bus with the kids. It was a lot of fun to see Claire with her friends! I've also been able lately to volunteer at school in the library. Trisha and I switch watching each other's kids to help out in school. It works out great! I love seeing Claire at school and getting to know the people that work there. Here are some pictures of the field trip!

Claire and Isabelle- they became instant friends from the first day of kindergarten!

Claire and Easton pretending to be on the news. Claire was really into it. She was talking about the weather. It was really cute!




Will has been taking swimming lessons for the past month and is doing really well. The first day he was hesitant to get in, but now he loves it!


I get to watch Trisha and Jamie's kids every once in awhile which is great because Claire and Will love having their cousins over. Here is a rare moment when the boys (Gavin, David and Will) are all sitting quietly. This doesn't happen often, nor did it last very long so I had to snap a photo!




Will loves taking pictures. The other day he snuck the camera and took over 50 pictures of just random things. I thought this one he took of himself was funny.

St. George

At the end of April we went to St. George, Utah with Eric, Kirsten and my parents! My parents have a condo down there and they graciously let us tag along. It was great to get away to really warm weather for a few days. We stayed for four days and had a blast. Claire and Will loved swimming. They would've stayed in the pool the entire time, but of course we had to get out to go and eat at In-N-Out. Here are some pictures!

Claire, Will and Shawn swimming!


Diva Claire lounging in the pool!


Will loved jumping to us in the pool!


We got to walk around the St. George Temple!


Claire and Will on the steps of the Temple!


Uncle Eric and Aunt Kirsten with Will and Claire at the Temple!


We also got to go to Snow Canyon while we were in St. George. The red rock always takes my breath away. This is a red sand canyon. I used to come here when I was a kid, so it was fun to bring Will and Claire!


Will loved playing in the sand!


Shawn trying to smile and eat and not be embarrassed while I take a picture of him at In-N-Out. We ate there at least twice. Can't wait to get one up here!


Claire by a palm tree. It's always nice to be standing by a palm tree!

Empty Nesters

We are now empty nesters. Literally the nest on our door was full of tiny birds, and now they have all left the nest. Soon after I posted my last entry the momma bird did come back and laid 4 more eggs (5 in total). She sat on them and sat on them for about a week and then one day we noticed an egg shell by the front door! Sure enough the little eggs hatched. I have to be completely honest. I thought the eggs were much cuter then the actual baby birds, but it was interesting having them around. We actually got to see the mom feeding her babies. You know like the way you see it on the discovery channel. I've never seen it in real life, so that was educational for the kids. The one BIG downside and the reason I liked the eggs better was because once they started eating they also started pooping. It was pretty gross right there on our front door. I also worried about them way too much. One windy night I was so worried that the nest was going to blow down. I had nightmares that I would wake up and find them dead on my doorstep- luckily that didn't happen. They stayed for about two weeks and then left and never came back. Shawn and I are kind of glad they are gone. Isn't that horrible to say???? Hopefully we won't say that about our own kids when they leave in 20 years, but then again, there is a lot of poop I have to deal with inside too and I do tend to worry too much about them too, so maybe it's all the same!