Jake and Jarica... and Lincoln... and Wesley!

date

2012-02-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

After all the moving craziness we decided to take the boys for a fun night out.

We joined Tara, Jared, and Cohen to let the kids jump their little hearts out.

They had a blast.

We headed to Applebee's and spotted my famous husband and bff on the wall :)

Ashley is in the white shirt, and Jake is the one making the crazy face in the top right pic.

Wooo Hoo.... Pine View Tennis STATE CHAMPS!!! :)

Also, I'm pretty sure that's Ashley and Jake were dating :) haha...good times!!

Moving

2012-02-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

The first time the boys got a "professional" haircut :)

Linc loved it..

Wes... was SO angry at first. We turned on "The Letter Factory" and he was fine after that.

While I packed this was my cute view.

I love how Lincoln loves to practice his homework.

He's getting so much better at writing his name.

This was my first time moving WITH KIDS.

Wow...It was a lot harder :)

I felt bad how much T.V./ iPad playing had to go on that week,

but it was the only way to get stuff done fast.

also....my friends and family were HUGE helps to me.

What would I have done without them?

I am VERY grateful for all that they did to help.

This is how we change lightbulbs :)

We don't have a latter...obviously.

I'm so scared of heights so I HATE doing this!!

We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to Jake's brother's and bro-in-law Darren,

Mike, and My Dad for all of their help moving.

Everyone workin hard...except Jeff...he just came to eat doughnuts.

(jk..he helped a lot, but he was pretty sad that I caught him eating instead of working when the camera came out)

Moving is exhausting.

I'm so glad it's over.

Now for the unpacking, organizing, and decorating of the new house :)

January Highlights

2012-02-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

Jake got a new iMac.

He taught Link how to play Angry Birds on it.

They all love it.

I got to go help at Lincoln's Preschool. I brought a snack and read them a story.

It was so fun to watch Lincoln at school.

He is such a good boy. I am so proud of him.

I love watching these two brothers play together.

They take some LONG baths together. One thing I love about my house is that it's so open.

They can be in the bath and I can see them from the kitchen and the living room.

I'm gonna miss that.

We put our house up for rent.

These are some of the pics of our house I posted.

The first day it was posted we found our renters.

I was amazed at how fast the whole process went.

It was such a blessing really.

I know it was meant to be, and an answer to prayers.

We are sad to leave our house and the friends that we've made there, but it will be so nice to be closer to everything...and to be saving $700 a month.

We immediately started going through things.

This is from just our master closet. 10 TRASH BAGS FULL of clothes and shoes going to the D.I.

It felt SO good to get rid of so much stuff.

Playing with the Dyer's

2012-02-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas break I got to watch the Dyers. We hadn't seen them for 4 MONTHS!!! It was so fun to get to play with them again. My kids were in heaven.

I watched them at their house, but Lincoln is weirdly allergic to something at their house (we can't figure out what it is) and he gets horrible asthma can't breathe, and coughs until he throws up. It's HORRIBLE!

I watched them at our house for the rest of the break. We went to the park one day. I love these kids!!

Christmas Morning

2012-02-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

I woke up early and started making breakfast. Lincoln woke up in time to help me put it in the oven.

Balldern taped up the boys room so they could bust out in the morning...but unfortunately Link woke up in the night and ended up in our bed the rest of the night :) (maybe next year)

We decided to let Wes sleep in a little longer and we let Link see all his stalking stuff.

He was SO excited about every little thing he pulled out of his stalking. So cute!

Wes was still a little sleepy, but definitely knew it was a special morning.

After stalkings we ate breakfast and then headed into "the elf room"

This room was off limits for about a month. Elf's were working hard on a new room for the boys.

They couldn't wait to FINALLY be able to go in the new room.

We gave Lincoln the key in his stalking.

We opened all of the presents in their new room.

It was such a fun Christmas.

The boys were SO excited about their new bunk beds!!

They were so cute.

For Link's first nap in his high bunk bed he wanted his daddy to take a nap with him.

So Jake got up there with him.

Pretty sure Jake was asleep before Link.

It was definitely different to have Christmas at our own house with just our little family...

but it was so fun, and I loved seeing my kids get so excited for everything.

Christmas is the best!

After naps we headed over to MaSue and Mike's to open more presents.

They got spoiled as always...THANK YOU MaSue & Mike!!!

Also, I can't leave this part out... On Christmas Eve Jake and his Dad and Brothers all had a big Tennis Tournament....

Jake Won!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve we had everyone come over to "the parents" house and Sue -once again- had such a fun night planned. She put some gingerbread cookies into the oven with the kids, then took them downstairs and read the gingerbread boy story to them. As soon as she was finished guess who showed up in the back yard???

A GINGERBREAD MAN

We all ran after him, but he was FAST! We chased him all over, but we couldn't catch him.

He ran back into MaSue's house and got back onto the cookie sheet. It. Was. Crazy!!

So, So, So Hilarious!

Then we all gave our presents to "the parents" and they gave all of the couples their presents.

As always Sue did such a cute display and theme of our presents and we loved everything.

They are so good to us!

She gave all of the Grandkids new slippers, but they had to wait until Christmas to open their gifts from them.

After presents most everyone left to be with their in-laws for Christmas Eve.

Since my parents were gone we stayed there for the traditional

FONDUE DINNER!

I love this tradition. It's so fun, and yummy!!

The boys got their own little table.

It was weird just having the 8 of us, but actually kinda nice too :)

Much quieter that's for sure!!

After dinner we opened our jambes.

I was surprised how excited my boys got.

Wesley LOVED it and before we put them on him he hugged them, then laid down on the floor and snuggled them :) I think he thought it was a new blankie :)

This is what happened when Linc got his on...

Haha..these pictures crack me up!

Wes giving MaSue his famous "Cheek Kisses"

I love how he does this. He grabs your cheeks and lays one on you!

It's the best!

We made cookies that morning for Santa, so we headed home to set them out for him.

Also, Lincoln got a call from Santa a few days ago requesting Chocolate Milk too :)

We set out the cookies, chocolate milk, and the carrots for RUDOLPH (Lincoln's favorite reindeer)

The kids went RIGHT to bed. Seriously not one sound out of either of them. It was crazy! They usually talk to each other for like an hour.

Grandma & Grandpa Great

2012-01-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

{December 22}

Jake's Grandparents invited all of Jake's siblings over for Family Home Evenings. Each of us took turns going over each week for FHE in the month of December. They were so cute and planned such a fun night for us with games, prizes, songs, and a scripture cake. Jake and Jared did a little lesson while the cake cooked. It was so much fun. We are so lucky to get to live so close to them.

Early Christmas

2012-01-17T13:46:00.000-08:00

{December 21st}

We went over to Nanna and Pappa's house to have an early Christmas with them before they left for Christmas. The boys were SO excited, and loved their presents. Thank you so much Nanna and Pappa!!!

Madsen Christmas Party

2011-12-27T21:33:00.000-08:00

:: December 19th, 2011 ::

Once again, Sue has thrown another great Party. We are so lucky to have her. She makes the holidays so fun! We all got together for a delicious dinner together, then she planned a cute little FHE with all the kids. It involved each of them holding a candle, so needless to say nobody had a free hand to take a picture for fear of someone catching on fire :) Then we sang Christmas songs until....

Santa showed up! This Santa is awesome. He answers every ? you ever wanted to Ask and has a VERY detailed answer for you. The kids were in heaven. Just soaking it all in. Then they each got to sit on his lap and talk to him, and he even brought them a little gift to open.

After Santa left, we played for a bit...then had some yummy Hot Chocolate before we left.

We are SO, SO blessed to have so much amazing family so close to us. There are going to be a lot of changes this next year...a lot of people moving, so we’re trying to take advantage of times like these as much as possible.

Thanks Mike and MaSue for another fun family party!!!

School Santa

2011-12-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

:: December 12th ::

Lincoln had a special visitor at Preschool. I got to come up and take pics and he him and his cute little friends at school. He was so excited to show me around, and show me this Batmobile that he loves at school...so much that it is what he’s asking Santa for at Christmas.

Countdown

2011-12-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

:: December 5th ::

Jake and Linc on Family Night making our LInk Christmas Countdown. Lincoln was so excited. He loves ripping off a link each night before bed.

Let the countdown begin!!!

North Pole Breakfast

2011-12-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

:: December 3rd ::

I LOVE, LOVE this new tradition I saw on Pinterest. The first day our elf Balldern came to stay with us, he brought us a North Pole Breakfast. Complete with snow covered doughnuts, hot cocoa w/ floating glaciers, new elf cups, Christmas Crunch cereal, a letter for each of them, a new book, etc. It was such a fun morning. I seriously can't even describe how perfect this morning was. Seeing the look on their faces all morning and seeing how special and magical it was to them (especially Lincoln) was seriously THE BEST!! It was a quiet, peaceful, magical, perfect little morning breakfast with our little family that I hope I can always remember.

They LOVE Balldern. Welcome to our house!!

Hopefully he'll have mostly good things to report to Santa each night :)

Ward Party

2011-12-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

:: December 2nd ::

We had our ward Christmas party and Santa was there. Lincoln was SO excited to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted (a batmobile, bunkbeds, and an ironman with a car). I LOVE seeing the magic in his face this time of year. It. Is. The. Best!!!!!! He is SO into everything, and it makes it SO fun!!!

Wes, on the other hand wasn’t a fan. He sat on his lap only long enough to get a candy cane...then he was angry and wanted nothing to do with Santa after that candy cane was in his hand :)

Oh Wessy

2011-12-27T20:59:00.000-08:00

:: December 2nd ::

Oh man. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve found this boy with a marker, pencil, pen, crayon, etc. and a HUGE graffiti mural all over the kitchen floor, and random walls in my house. Ahhhhh....Lincoln never had this phase, but I’m hoping Wes will pass it soon. As soon as I see him in action he runs and colors everything within reach as fast as he can before I can get to him. He thinks it’s HILARIOUS! Me...not so much!

Santa and his Reindeer

2011-12-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

:: December 1st ::

We were running a bunch of errands, and got word that Santa and his Reindeer were in town for a few hours. We tracked them down but I stayed in the car with sleeping Wes while Jake and Linc went to check it out. It did not disappoint. Lincoln even got to wear Santa’s magic hat!!!

O-ChristmasTree

2011-12-27T20:52:00.000-08:00

:: Nov. 30th ::

Decorating the traditional Elf tree from Jake’s childhood. He loves those elf’s. His Mom made them when he was little and he has now passed on the love of them to our boys. They think they are the greatest.

They may have had more fun in the big bin our tree was in, than they had decorating the tree. O-Well...whatever makes them happy!

I love getting our tree up. It brings such a good atmosphere and spirit into our home. I LOVE Christmas time. It always passes too quickly.

Hives

2011-12-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

Nov. 29

Hives

Lincoln woke up from his nap with Hives!! I’ve never seen Hives before, so I didn’t know what was going on. I may have freaked out. It looked SO crazy. I called the Dr. left a message with the nurse and when I didn’t hear right back I just decided to drive over there and try to get him in. I woke up Wesley and loaded them up. As soon as I got down the street the Nurse called me back, calmed me down, and told me to try some Benadryl first :) Oh ya! I didn’t even think to try that...duh! I couldn’t even think I was so freaked out by the sight of him. Sure enough a few hours later it looked a lot better. Then the next morning he was fine. I was VERY relieved! :)

I can’t figure out what caused his allergic reaction, but hopefully we don’t have those show up again!

The Beach

2011-12-11T12:26:00.001-08:00

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to the beach.

I love the pic of Wes jumping from bed to bed. He was doing it non-stop. Well, unless there was someone in his sight with an iPad, or iPhone. He's OBSESSED. Have I mentioned that?? I love the pic of him cuddled up to Mike playin some angry birds.

As soon as we got there Wes walked straight down to the water and sat down (before I could get his suit on). He got soaked, cold, and muddy, but he was happy as could be.

All of the kids were LOVING playing together on the beach.

I wish we could all just hang out at the beach like this all day everyday.

Nixon liked the beach a little TOO much.

He ate SOOOO many large handfuls of sand/mud. mmmm...

Wes tried it out, and as you can see, wasn't as fond of it as Nixon.

Haha...that pic of him gagging makes me want to gag.

Lincoln and Jayden were on a mission to find all of the seashells the beach had to offer.

Lincoln would get SO excited to show me each and every one. Then he'd save it in this bucket with instructions for me to not let ANYONE touch them, they're too special.

We went out for pizza and Wes was looking good sportin his shirt and shoes, but no pants. Nice.

They were still SOAKING wet.

After pizza we went to the movie. We saw the Arthur Christmas show and we all loved it. It was SO cute.

It was Wesley's first time to a movie theatre, and he did great! I only had to take him out once for a min, but he made it through.

That night we got the kids in bed and hung out with Janie and Skylar.

We had some great conversation topics going on :)

I'll spare you all, but we were laughing so hard.

Good times!!

What a perfect day!

Disneyland

2011-11-30T15:30:00.001-08:00

Wow...Disneyland was amazing...but Disneyland during Christmas...was AMAZING!!

We had SO much fun!

Sue made all the kids these cute backpacks with snacks and treats in there. They loved them. Especially Wes. He never wanted to take it off. Every time it was a battle.

We got there a few min after it opened and it wasn't too busy so we hit up the rocket ride...

then the buzz lightyear ride (one of MANY times). This ride was awesome. The boys were in pure heaven on this ride.

They loved getting to ride the rides with MaSue and Mike too. It was so fun to be there with them.

Linc called Nanna & Pappa to tell them all about it.

Linc and I rode this roller-coaster. He wasn't scared at all, but after the ride he said to me, "That ride made me not breathe!" haha.. he actually rode it with Jake first, and right after he got back on with me, so I think the two times in a row kinda did him in :) He was so brave though...I was even scared.

We got a great spot for the parade. We waited patiently for it to start...then when it finally started...

Mia pee'd her pants. The puddle started running down the street so everyone sitting down jumped up...haha.. perfect timing.

The parade was awesome. We all loved it. Me, Janie, and Sue even started to get teary at how awesome and magical it was...weird I know...but it's true.

The 2 ugly step sisters came right up to Linc and flirted away with him.

OMG, if you know Linc, you know that this was PERFECT for him. He was eaten it right up.

And Santa was even there. When Linc saw him he got so excited and said, "Oh, Mommy...is this TOWN??" Because of the song "Santa Clause is coming to town!" haha..

The Finding Nemo ride was on a submarine and I thought it was amazing. They did such a good job with this ride. We loved it. Mike even braved it. He gets super anxiety and claustrophobic, but he made it!

Wes had been wanting to ride the ~~Carousel~~ horses ALL day, and we FINALLY got around to it when it started to get dark. He LOVED, LOVED it.

It was AMAZING at night. All of the lights were awesome. Here we were waiting in line at It's A Small World. The kids hadn't had a nap all day...just too much excitement to sleep through, and they were exhausted at this point. Especially Wes. As soon as we got on the boat he snuggled right up to me. As soon as the ride ended he ZONKED out before we exited the boat.

We bundled them up and in this pic Linc was pretending to be asleep, but then he finally passed out also. Jake and I had a peaceful dinner to ourselves while they slept. It was so nice.

They slept for a few hours, and then we woke them up for the Firework Show, and Fantasmic. It was SO AMAZING!!! Best part of the day FOR SURE!!! I'm so happy we stayed, and woke the kids up for it. It was definitely worth it.

If you go...DON'T MISS THIS!

We had great seats, and Linc keeps talking about the big dragon that blew fire out of his mouth onto the lake. I didn't take any pics, we just enjoyed it.

Oh, and Jake, Me, Jeff, Janie, and Mike went on Splash Mountain while Sue watched all the sleeping kids. It was a blast. We got wet...and cold...but it was worth it. I'll try to post the pic, it's a good one.

Seriously, how beautiful is Disneyland at Christmas...have I said yet that I LOVED it???

It totally got us in the Christmasy mood!!

Thanksgiving in Cali

2011-11-30T14:59:00.001-08:00

We woke up EARLY Thursday morning at met at the Parent's house at 6:00 a.m.

We loaded up and headed to California.

Sue is the best. She had these cute travel bags for each of us. They had snacks and drinks in them and a cute mickey mouse silhouette on the front to get us excited for DISNEYLAND!!

The kids were GREAT on the drive there. When we got there we couldn't quite check-in to the hotel yet, so we headed to a park close by so that the kids could run around.

Wes is OBSESSED with stuffed animals. Lincoln never cared for them, but Wes is the opposite. He would not let me take this toy from him. For the first half hour of playing at the playground, he drug this animal all over the place (getting it so nasty dirty)

Lincoln loves to RACE. He's actually pretty fast too.

Wes looks so big swinging. This was how I got that dirty stuffed animal out of his hands :)

Haha...these pics crack me up. Linc and Jayden are racing and Linc is trying to hold his arm in front of Jayden so he won't beat him :)

All the boys played football.

The weather was perfect!!

We headed back to the hotel where we had Thanksgiving dinner.

I thought Jake took some pics of the dinner on his phone so i'll have to get them.

Sue is the bomb. She brought tables and chairs and tablecloths, centerpieces, dishes, little thanksgiving presents, a thankful tree, and packed up pies, drinks, everything.

We set it all up in our hotel room and they picked up a turkey dinner close by.

She thinks of everything. Always.

If it were me, I would have just gone out for dinner...but we did it Sue style.

We have SO much to be thankful for. I can't believe how incredibly blessed I feel this year.

I'm so grateful for my loving Heavenly Father who blesses me even when I feel like I don't deserve it.

Kristi :: November 18th

2011-11-30T14:47:00.001-08:00

Me and the boys flew to Arizona for a very special occasion. My sister Kristi got to go back to the Temple and I was SO excited to get to be there with her. I am SO incredibly proud of her. She has been through A LOT but it has only made her stronger and closer to her Heavenly Father. She just recently got divorced, but she is doing amazingly well. Even though it hasn't been easy, I have never seen her happier. The reason....she has strengthened her testimony and has an incredible relationship with our Savior. What a difference that makes in your life.

I am SO grateful for her and for what a great example she is to me. I have learned so much from her, and I am so grateful for how much closer we have grown over the last year. We have spent COUNTLESS hours upon hours on the phone, and I have loved every second of it.

I'm so proud of you Kristi, and I love you so much!!

Trick-or-Treating

2011-11-21T15:55:00.001-08:00

This is obviously so late….but it had to be docummented. We went Trick-or-Treating and met up with their little cousins Cohen, Jayden, Mia, and Lily. Lincoln and Wes had a blast going door to door recieving candy. I was surprised they weren't more scared. Wes kept saying everything was "Gary" but he wasn't affraid of anything. I was happy…that way I didn't have to carry him the whole time. Wes also loved carrying his bag. It was about the size of him, but he insisted he carry it all night.

I was never a big Halloween fan, but now that I have kids it is so much fun! I just hate all the nasty scary and skanky costumes.

Family Pictures

2011-11-21T15:00:00.001-08:00

For the first time EVER in our married life...we FINALLY got real family pictures taken. It was definitely time, and I am so glad we have them! My friend Chelsy with http://bcouturephotography.com took them. I love how they turned out! She did such a great job. Thanks Chelsy!!

Wes :: 20 months

2011-11-14T15:18:00.001-08:00

He loves "ooo ooo ah, ah's" (the sound monkey's make) that's what he calls monkey's. haha!

He's talking so much now. Here are the most frequent phrases I hear daily from him.

I do it (I hear this ALL the time!!!)

A bite please mommy

Mom, watch. or Mom, look!

Go Daddy's work (when we bring him lunch)

Go MaSue's house

I go potty too

I talk a Nanna (wants to call her on the phone)

A show...peease Mommy

iPad PEEASE (he's OBSESSED)

He's a pretty good eater, he copies EVERYTHING Lincoln does or says, they play really well together, he doesn't like to share at all, loves candy (thanks Halloween), he's so ticklish, he loves to play with Daddy, he's gotten SO good at feeding himself with a spoon (cereal, yogurt, soup, etc.), he loves to watch shows/movies, but he's selective. He likes Dora, Diego, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Lion King, and Letter Factory.

His hair is getting so long. I put it in a ponytail...he HATED it.

Jake and I are always saying how much we LOVE this stage he's at right now. It's the best, seriously. We can't get enough of him. I LOVE, LOVE this age.

Room Changes

2011-11-14T15:10:00.001-08:00

I woke up on Friday and decided to switch things around. I moved EVERYTHING from Lincoln's room into Wesley's room. Including his QUEEN size heavy bed, big old heavy T.V, a dresser, bookcase, and his T.V cabinet. I did it all by myself, and it was not easy :)
I organized all of their toys...and realized they have way too many. And, I moved all of Wesley's clothes into Lincoln's room.
Once everything was cleared out of Lincoln's room we put a sign on Linc's room

For Christmas we are surprising them with a new room. They are going to share Lincoln's room, and Wesley's room will be a guest room/ playroom until we have another babe (no, I'm not prego).
I think it will be good for them to share a room. I always liked sharing a room growing up. It is definitely harder for them to go to sleep though :) Lincoln's been taking naps on my bed and at night it's getting better. When they're in the new room it should be easier since they'll be in bunk beds and won't be able to see each other while trying to fall asleep. I hope!!

It's been fun to decorate their new room though. Jake's been designing some stuff for me and I'm so excited to get it all done! I think they'll love it!

Tyra

2011-11-14T14:52:00.001-08:00

Lincoln was SO excited when I picked him up from Preschool. It was his turn to take home the class "pet". Luckily it's just a stuffed animal :) He took this so seriously. I loved watching him take such good care of their "pet". She came with a little suitcase that had her bottle, jammies, blankie, and instructions.

Lincoln is loving his Preschool. He is ALWAYS sad to go in the morning though. He says he doesn't want to leave me. Jake takes him in the morning on his way to work, and there's always tears shed when I tell him it's a school day. Every time I pick him up from school though, he tells me how much he loves school, and his teachers and friends (particularly Mason & Cruz). It's hard to get him to tell me what he learns each day though. He's learned so much though already.
Here are some of the things that I know of..
Knows the pledge, all of the days of the week, my phone number and almost Jake's (needs a little work still), can recognize all of the letters 1-10, but then it gets kinda hit n miss after that, has gotten SO good at tracing, he's known all of his letters and sounds for a while, but he can write them pretty good now, and letters 1-10 also, and he knows his left from his right, has known all of his colors for a long time, and knows his shapes.

I am so proud of him. He's such a smart little boy, and loves to learn. I made him this little book the other day. I just printed off all of these pages and put them in sheet protectors...it's genius! He can just use a dry erase marker and then hey just wipe right off. I love it because I don't have to keep printing these pages off. Just wipe and re-use! Love it! Thank you Pinterest!

Denver :: October 27th

2011-11-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

We flew to Denver for the weekend.

My boys are such good little flyers (usually).

Yes, it's always a little stressful for me to fly by myself with the two boys, but they really are SO good.

On the flight to Denver we sat behind a 3 year old boy and his Dad and the boy was CRAZY! We couldn't even take off because this little boy was throwing a HUGE fit (beating up his Dad) and wouldn't put on his seatbelt. I looked over at my boys sitting patiently and kissed them and was SO grateful for how well they travel!!

Waiting for Aunt Shauna. They boys were so hyper when we got to Denver. They were having the best time, and were quite entertaining for everyone around them :)

I helped my sister make this costume for her little girl for a pre school party.

Isn't she the cutest???

On my side of the family there is mostly girls. It's quite a contrast to the Madsen side, but Lincoln LOVES playing with his little girl cousins. Seriously, he was in heaven. I couldn't even get him to stop and talk to me when there was a cousin in sight. He had a blast.

My sister got food poisoning, and was MISERABLE that night and the next day. My Mom watched her kids and mine the. whole. day. I went to my other sister's house, Lori to help get ready for the party that night.

It was a crazy busy day. But so fun (well, maybe not for my Mom :)

My boys borrowed some snow clothes, gloves, boots (all pink) and played in the snow.

I SO with I had a picture of this.

My Mom said they had a blast.

On the down side....they destroyed Shauna's house in the process :)

But...they did have fun....and Shauna did get to rest and get better.

I made these invitations for her party.

Lori and I were busy party planning. We got SO much done this day. It was kind of amazing.

I made signs, a questionnaire game about Paris, water bottle labels, found pictures to use for the giant 16, printed them off, and made it, set up the photo booth, went shopping to find Paris the "slam dunk" outfit for her party, made cotton candy, and the list goes on and on.

But...we pulled it off.

The party was so fun, and Paris had a GREAT day.

I can't believe she's already 16!! She's so grown up. She's gorgeous inside and out!

Some of her friends at the party

She also had 16 diff. boys deliver her a pink rose randomly throughout the day at school.

By the end of the day she had 16 pretty roses.

Also, we have a tradition in our family that my mom started with all of us girls...I love it.

It's called a morality ring. It's a pretty ring that we wear on our ring finger to remind us of the importance of staying morally clean until marriage.

It was a fun party, and I was glad I got to be a part of it. I'm so proud of Paris and what a good girl she is. She's everything you want your 16 year old daughter to be!

Flying home was a little stressful. Tears may have been shed...again!

I had only slept for about 5 hours in the last 48 hours, and I was rushing to get to the airport.

We were almost to the Airport when I realized I left my WALLET!!! ah.......

Which means I didn't have my license, so I couldn't fly!!!!

We went back and got it, then took a bus to the Airport, and had a long night at the Airport.

The kids were pretty good...considering that Wes hadn't slept all night, and only a little the night before.

Thank goodness for the iPad.

When we got to St. George about 2 min before we landed both kids Zonked out. I couldn't carry both of them and our bags off the plane so I tried to wake up Linc, but he was OUT and wouldn't wake up.

Luckily a nice lady and old man offered to help me. I carried Linc, she carried Wes, and the man took my bags.

We looked pretty funny walking up to Jake as a whole entourage carrying our passed out children.

We got home at 11:30 p.m and it was a pretty long day!

MaSue's Annual Halloween Party!!!!

2011-11-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

::October 24th ::

Ok, get ready for picture overload.

I couldn't leave any out. Well, actually I left a TON out...but there's still a lot!

Sue throws the BEST Halloween party around!! Seriously!

She has some VERY lucky grandkids who get to attend.

She goes ALL out, and the kids have SO much fun.

We had a spooky and yummy dinner.

Check out those cute Trick or Treat bags. They have the kids names embroidered on them.

The party people...

The superhero's

More party people.

and the dreaded group shot :)

Here's all the mom's prepping.

This was the best we could do!

It's rough getting 15 kids to look at the camera...let alone at the SAME time.

Especially when 12 of them are under 4 years old!!!!!

That seriously has to be some sort of record.

MaSue told a spooky story, gave out the bags, and they headed downstairs to make the black cat potion.

They cut out jello jigglers.

Made Halloween snow globes, and here's Jake looking confused trying to follow directions to make a spider web :), and MaSue making a magic potion.

It gets pretty loud when all of the Madsen's are together.

I found Wes plugging his ears trying to block out the sounds :) haha!

Thank you SO much MaSue for all of your time and hard work planning this fun party!

We had such a good time!!

I feel SO blessed to get to have such an incredible family. Not only is my family awesome, but I have the BEST in-laws I could have ever asked for. Seriously...they. are. the. best!!!!

How did I get so blessed??

Lincisms

2011-11-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

When my Dad and Jake went to Priesthood together My Mom, Linc, Wes, and I went out for ice cream. On our way home Linc asked, "Mommy, when are Daddy and Pappa gonna be home from their date?"

I was getting annoyed with Lincoln for not listening to me and he says to me, "Mommy, can you please just talk nice to me?" I said, "ok, sure...Lincoln, could you PLEASE listen to me?" Linc said, "oh...sure, and thank you for talking nice Mommy."

When my parents were watching him for us they kept asking him if he needed to go potty when he woke up. Lincoln was getting annoyed with them asking him over and over so he said, "Nanna, am I standing up holding my business?" She said No... and then he said, "Then I DON'T need to go potty."
** "the kids" used to call it their "private business" so Linc started calling it that...and now he just calls it "business"

His new favorite phrase is... "Mommy, you hurt my heart when ________ (insert whatever I told him he can't have/do)" for example. When you told me I can't watch Spiderman...nice!

Almost everyday he'll tell me he has a surprise for me. He'll whisper in my ear , "You're a princess!" He's such a sweetheart.

He's girl crazy already. On the plane he was looking at a magazine and saw a pic of 3 Disney Princesses...I caught him kissing the page. He got all embarassed when I asked what he was doing and said, "No...Mommy look over there, don't see me!" Oh boy...we are in trouble!!!!!!!

He seriously says funny things on a daily basis, but here are a few off the top of my head.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

We went to the Pumpkin Patch over by my Mom's house this year.

We were pretty bummed that they were closed when we went :(

The kids didn't care though. They still got to feed the animals, and run around the pumpkin patch.

How cute is my Mom? I hope I look that good when I'm her age!

She's such a great Nana, and she adores my boys almost as much as they adore her!

Too bad they wouldn't look at the camera though :(

Then, for family night we let them paint their pumpkin. They had fun, and added so many colors over and over that it ended up being a black pumpkin :)

I made these bats that I saw on Pinterest and I loved how they turned out.

Lincoln and Wes loved them too.

This is random, but look what we found by WESLEY'S CRIB!!!!!!

I'm STILL freaking out about it.

:: October 19th ::

2011-11-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

It warmed up again, so we headed to the splash park for the last time this summer. Janie and Max met us over there to play too. Max forgot his suit, so Wes gave up his. He looked a little white trash running around in just his swim diaper, but o-well. They had a good time!

Every time I pull out the camera Wes cheeses it for me :)

Notice Linc's crack hang in out...nice!

They were not so excited to leave. When I made them get dressed they were so sad.

This bottom pic of Wes is the face he makes when he really wants something...haha..love it!

:: October 10th ::

2011-11-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

I have been LOVING the cooler weather. We've been having such beautiful days lately and we are trying to take full advantage. I love this park. It has great toys for the kids, it's big, and has a GORGEOUS view!

We love park days!

Conference Weekend

2011-10-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

:: October 1-2 ::

I LOVE Conference weekends! They seriously are the best!

I found the BEST idea on Pinterest (I may be a little addicted to this website).

We went shopping with the boys the day before to get some supplies for our "Conference Store"

So here's the idea.

I put a price on everything in the "store" and then filled up a jar with "Conference Pennies"

Right before Conference started Jake, Linc, and I decided on the 3 "Secret Words". For the Saturday Session the words we chose were: Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Scriptures. On Sunday we chose: Prayer, Prophet, and Holy Ghost

Every time he heard one of the words he'd yell, "Secret Word" and I'd give him a penny (and put it in his own little wallet). He LOVED doing it, and he listened SO, SO well.

He seriously sat through the ENTIRE 1st Session. On the couch, listening for "Secret Words". He also liked listening for any other church word he recognized. Baptism, temples, testimony, prophet...etc. At the end of each Session we'd count his pennies with him, and he'd figure out what he could buy from the "store". It was also a good little math lesson for him :)

This is definitely a new tradition at our house!

This is what Wes did most of the day!

Jake & I finally finished our collage.

The boys played outside with their new squirt guns.

Wesley is always sitting in his room reading books to himself.

On Saturday night Kristi & Dave came to stay at our house and watch Conference with us on Sunday.

My Mom & Dad came over and we also had Jason & Justin over for breakfast.

We made Panini's for lunch, and Kristi refused to let Jake take her picture :)

Lincoln fell asleep durring the second Sunday Session.

I loved cuddling him while he slept!

Wes :: 18 months

2011-10-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

I am LOVING this age SO, SO much!!

You are the SWEETEST little boy. Right in the middle of your playing you'll come over to me, hold onto my cheeks and give me the sweetest little kisses. You love to give kisses when it's your idea...but if I ask you for a kiss, you think it's so funny to shake your head (and body) "no" as fast as you can and run away. You want me to chase you for a kiss.

You are SUCH a little charmer. You have this way about you and give the most flirty little looks. You love to wrap people around your little finger. You're pretty dang good at it already :)

You have the cutest smile

When you wake up your lips are SO big and full... I love it!!

You never can focus on the T.V. for more than a few seconds....until Dora. Right before we left for Cancun I turned on Dora for the first time... HE.WAS.HOOKED! Talk about love at first sight. You watched the whole thing, and has been asking for Du, Du, Dora a million times a day ever since!

You've figured out how to jump. You're always watching Lincoln jump and and have wanted SO bad to do it, but couldn't quite do it. About a month ago you figured it out and now jump all the time! One of your (and Lincoln's) favorite things to do. You guys jump off of everything.

You two are such good little buddies most of the time now. You hardly ever fight lately and play so cute together.

You still LOVE, LOVE your blankie. You are so cute with it, I LOVE it!

You love to read books. I find you all the time sitting in your room with books scattered all around you, and you're just talking to yourself. Cutest. Thing. Ever!!

You love airplanes, animals, and shoes.

You're very independent, and wants to do things yourself...but knows when to ask for help. You'll say, "Mom...need help"

You're talking SO much now. The last month your vocabulary has blown up. I can't even write all the things you says. You're talking in short sentences and will repeat anything I tell you to.

You says the cutest prayers. Not all on your own yet, but you'll add your own parts to it.

You almost always calls me "MOM" even though most of the time I make you say "Mama" afterwards. You prefers to call me Mom. It's kinda funny, what 1 year old calls their Mom, Mom? Even Lincoln still calls me Mommy. Not sure where you even picked up "Mom" from, but it does sound pretty cute coming from you. I might have to stop correcting you I guess.

You are SUCH a Mama's boy!!! You LOVE me, and I LOVE IT (Most of the time)!! You won't let Daddy put you to bed if i'm around.

You like me to sing "I love to see the Temple" (at least 10 times) and rock you before I put you to bed.

I could go on and on about all the cute little things I love about you, but I have go play with you instead since you just woke up...but just know that

I LOVE EVERY LITTLE THING ABOUT YOU!!!!!

Nursery

2011-10-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

My baby's old enough for Nursery now! We was VERY ready to go to Nursery, and loves it. I think it helps so much that he's in there with Lincoln too. He has a great time, and does fine as long as I sneak out. He just doesn't like seeing me leave him.

Here's a cute pic of him at his favorite time...snack time!

I love that I can now actually listen to Jake's Sunday School Lessons!!

Quotes

2011-10-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

Jake made these for me tonight and I love them.
They're going on our entryway collage that is under construction.

Jake's 27...not me :)

2011-09-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

So, I thought I was 27 for the last 3 months. After I posted my B-Day post a few people called and informed me that I was only 26 :) whew! Good thing they did or we would have been celebrating Jake's 28th Birthday instead of his 27th!

We had just gotten home from our relaxing getaway so his Birthday was just really low key this year. We just wanted to hang out with our kids. I invited his parents over for dinner and we just ate, sang, ate cake, opened presents and just hung out the rest of the night. His brother Jason came over too, and it was such a fun night.

Lincoln wrapped his own present for Daddy all by himself...he was so proud!

BTW...this B-Day cake was SO yummy! It had an Oreo cream layer in the middle

Jake said it was the best cake he's ever had!

I was relieved, cuz it took me a LOT of time!

It was also Janie & Skylar's 5 year Anniversary so I offered to watch Max so they could go out.

We tried to let them have a sleepover in Linc's room...they were SO good, but at 10:30 they still weren't asleep, so I had to separate them. They had fun together though, and were so cute!

After a few hours Mike got hyper. Him and Jake were pretty entertaining!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!

So glad you were born!

The Kids Vacay

2011-09-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

I told Lincoln that him and Wes were going on a Vacation too. They were going to Tara's house, and Nanna & Pappa's house. This made him excited instead of sad that we were going on Vacation without them.
They did really well while we were gone (so they say :) I think it helped a lot that they were together. Also, they really had such a fun time while we were gone. We are so lucky to have such great family close by to take such good care of them. They just had a blast.
Here are some pics Tara emailed me while we were gone.

Flying kites at the park

Hanging out at MaSue's, Riding the Carousel, and Playing at the Splash Park

I gave all the boys a little wrapped present for each day that we were gone.

They loved getting a present everyday.

Nighttime is always the hardest, so the present the next day gave them motivations to go to sleep good so that they could open the present the next day.

One present was these muffin tins to eat their lunch in. They loved it.

Eating birthday cake at Cohen's Grandma's house.

Lookin Dapper for Church.

Aren't they all SO handsom??

It was so nice get these pictures while we were away!

We missed them so much, but loved seeing that they were having a great time without us.

It made it easier for us to just relax and enjoy just eachother.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU

Jared, Tara, Mom & Dad!!!

Cancun :: September 16-21st

2011-09-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

It was our 5 year Anniversary! We wanted to do something big, so when we found this awesome deal on Living Social we snatched it right up! This place was seriously AMAZING. The pictures do no justice. Words can't even describe how great our getaway was. We did NOTHING. Just reserved a bungalow on the beach, read books, layed out, swam in the ocean, walked on the beach, ate, ate, ate, drank a billion Pina Colada's, got a couples massage in their incredible Spa (so sad I didn't get any pics), watched a movie (there's a funny story about it, but I can't share it on the blog...but good memories :), slept in, and just RELAXED!!!
The deal was all-inclusive and came with a free upgrade to their exclusive red-level section of the hotel...which was awesome. Anyway...i'll just let the pics speak for themselves.

Park City :: September 2-5th

2011-09-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun weekend with ALL of Jake's family. His parents rented an awesome cabin in Park City, and it was so fun to be all together for the weekend. The kids had a blast being all together with their cousins.

Mike and Sue always plan fun things for our vacations. They set up a scavenger hunt for the kids, shopping at Swiss Days for the girls, and golfing for the boys, hot tubbing, minute to win it games, limbo, mafia, family pictures, etc.

Limbo

New Jammies from the scavenger hunt

Fun cousins and uncles

Make a wish...

Gaming

Julie caught me sneaking Oreos

THANK YOU, THANK YOU to MaSue and Mike for the fun weekend!!

We had a blast.

Preschool

2011-09-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little boy goes to Preschool!!!

He was SO ready for it. He's had no problem going to school, and loves it.

He's such a smart boy, and I am excited to see him learn and grow so much.

I'm so proud of him.

The first day after I dropped him off Wes was so confused.

He kept looking over at Lincoln's carseat and saying, "Gincoln, Gincoln...are you?? "Er, Gincoln Mom??"

Incase you don't undersand :) ... (Lincoln..where are you. Where's Lincoln Mom?)

Tears were shed though.

He's just growing up so fast.

Arizona :: August 20th

2011-09-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

I said I didn't want to see another Airport for a LONG time...but 2 days after I got home from Oregon...I flew with the kids to Arizona.

I must REALLY love my sisters :)

Kristi wanted me to come...so I came! I'm so glad we did. We had a great time!

I'm so mad that I didn't ever take my camera out. I don't even have ANY picture of my sisters...How did that happen??

The boys were SO good on all the flights there and back.

When we got to SLC we met up with Jake (he happened to be working there that day) and he got to fly home with us. This is only the 2nd time (i think) that he's flown with me and the kids all together.

It is SOOOOOO much easier to fly with him helping me.

Wish he could come with us every time.

Our Last Lay :: August 19th

2011-09-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

After almost 5 years of watching "the kids" it has now come to an end. It was SO hard for me making the decision, and following through...but I know I made the right decision, and it was time for me to just focus on being a Mom to my own two crazy boys.

We are going to miss them SO much. I cried a lot the last 2 weeks leading up to the last day.

They picked out a cute new wallet for me (Rowie's holding it) and got Wes and Linc a new game, and I made them a book with pictures I took with them over the last few years. They loved looking at the book, and remembering all our funny memories.

Just typing this and looking at all the pictures is making me miss them so much!

I really love these kids and I feel so blessed to have gotten to spend so much time with them.

best. job. ever.

We love you "kids"

Stuck

2011-09-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

We spent the ENTIRE day in the Airport...missing flights. It was a long day, but the kids were really good (Considering the circumstances). We were disappointed, but that's just how it is when you're flying standby...so I was ok with it. That night Grandpa Ray came and picked us up and we headed to Aunt Jan's to sleep. The kids were exhausted...no naps for the day.

We had to leave EARLY in the morning...like 3:30 am early :(

I put the kids to bed at 8, and when I went to get in bed at 11:30...Wes woke up.

All of Jan's household was asleep so I was trying to be quiet. Wesley just needs to cry for a few min, then he'd fall back asleep...but I couldn't just let him cry and wake everyone up...so...I held him.

ALL.NIGHT.LONG.

Seriously...and he would not let me sit down or he'd cry.

He didn't sleep the whole night.

So neither did I.

He can't fall asleep in my arms, but FINALLY at 3:00 am he lost the battle, and FINALLY fell asleep.

I laid him down and got ready to go to the Airport. Then had to wake him up 20 min. later.

(the day after this...my arm couldn't even straighten all the way. I was SO sore from holding him all night)

Day 2 in the Airport:

All of that would have been worth it though, IF we made the flight.

But....we didn't get on.

The flights were SO booked and it looked like we wouldn't make it on that day either.

I was exhausted and could not spend another day in the Airport.

Jake was busy ALL day looking at options for us and trying to re-rout us.

Finally we found a solution. I was going to fly with the boys to...I can't remember the name of this place...some tiny town with a tiny Airport.

The flight from there to SLC looked a lot better but there was only 1 flight so if I missed it...we'd have to fly back to Oregon.

We parted with my Mom (She bought a ticket to SLC) and were off.

We got to this tiny town...then found out it didn't look like were were getting on afterall.

At the last second the lady told me we could get on.

I was SO happy!!! FINALLY we were gonna make it home.

I got the kids and ran onto the plane.

While trying to find our seats we realized there actually wasn't room for us.

They only had 1 seat open and they wouldn't let me hold Linc and Wes on my lap.

They made us get off :(

They had to get our stroller from under the plane, so we were standing in the jet way. All the sudden the JET WAY STARTS MOVING!!!!!

I freaked out...completely. I started yelling at Wes and Lincoln to run, and they both started running the wrong way. I was carrying all our luggage and trying to run after them.

Then luckily they stopped it. We were all fine, and got off....

I got back into the Airport and started crying...a lot.

I was so frustrated, disappointed, exhausted, and stressed out and just wanted to go home SO bad.

Long story short...(ya, even though this seems long...it is def. the short version)

We flew back to Oregon, missed some more flights.

Waited, and waited.

I FORCED my mom to get on her flight without us...completely against her will.

Once I got her on the plane, I was SO sad to be alone.

I talked to people who had been stuck there for 5 DAYS!!!!

I could NOT do it another day.

By a MIRACLE...we FINALLY got on. It was the last flight of the day, and we were the last ones on the plane. I wanted to cry for joy.

As it worked out, my mom couldn't fly out of SLC until late that night, so when we got to SLC we were all on the flight home together.

It was really late, and she held Lincoln so he could sleep, and Wes actually fell asleep in my arms, which was another miracle.

I was so happy to have my Mom with me. I don't know what I would have done without here for those 2 days.

Flying for free definitely has it's benefits, but it can be stressful also!

I didn't want to see an Airport for a LONG time after this.

Oregon :: August 14-17th

2011-09-28T11:38:00.000-07:00

My Grandma and 2 Aunts live in Oregon. I took the boys and met my Mom there to spend some time with them for a few days. I am so glad we went. My Grandma and Aunts have never met Wes, and only seen Lincoln when he was a baby. I hadn't seen my cousins in...I don't know...too many years to count. It was so good to see family that I don't get to see enough.

BBQ at Aunt Sharon's.

Great company.

Delicious food.

Beautiful Scenery!!!

Her place is SO beautiful. These pics don't even begin to do it justice.

Wes was in heaven being around all her dogs.

The dog was licking his toes :)

Reading books with Grandma Great

Grandma insisted on babysitting the boys while me, my mom, and aunt Sharon went jewelry shopping. We had so much fun.

Don't my mom and her sister look so much alike?

Lincoln kept asking my mom... "are you Nanna?" He was a little confused sometimes.

When we got home, Lincoln picked this GORGEOUS flower for me out of Grandma's yard.

Sharon & Jay came to the Zoo with us.

I was a little nervous about it since our last Zoo experience was...not so great.

This time is was MUCH better. It was a better Zoo, and the kids were actually happy this time :)

I'm so glad we decided to go. It was really fun.

Seriously, isn't my mom GORGEOUS?? She does not look like she's in her 60's.

I hope I inherit her good jeans!

Lions, bats, and Wes cheezin' it in the bat cave!

Such a fun trip...up until this poing :)

until the next post...

The Fair :: August 10th

2011-09-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

We went to the Fair with Jared, Tara, and Cohen...All the boys LOVED the Fair, and were all SO brave on all the rides they went on.
Here's some cute pics of the night!

Jake's iPhone pics

2011-09-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

These are really random, but good memories so I wanted them in the book!

Yep...it's poop!

SO happy these days are finally over.

Until we have to potty train Wesley :(

Check out his sad face though!!! It's the best!

Jake's business trip to Atlanta...

can't remember the name of this place

Father's Day Breakfast with Shauna's family

Lincoln's sign that reads "Happy Father's Day" he made all by himself.

We've spent a lot of time on Airplanes the last few months.

This is Jake's flight snack

Jake at work

Lincoln our Viking

I won concert tickets on the radio in Springdale.

It was a fun date...lots of memories :)

Wes had a fever...

I put him in the tub to try to bring it down.

Went to get his towel real quick...

when i came back I saw that he'd pulled his blankie into the bath with him :)

He loves that thing.

Look how happy he is to have it...even if he does have a fever!

Man we love this boy!

I LOVE this pic of him

Lincoln's first PLANK!!

haha..he loves to do it.

He thinks he's being so funny.

IHOP plank

more jake at work

This place is just in a parking lot by our house...

has THE BEST margarita pizza's (other than NY of course)

Dinner-time

Remember Light Brights???

They're the best

Lincoln loves it!

Wes

Linc

The "Kids House"

2011-09-12T22:20:00.001-07:00

:: July 8th ::

So this is what we do all summer. We’re at “the kids” house for 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. My kids LOVE “the kids” and are so excited to come to work everyday. I’m so thankful that they love it as much as they do, and I think it’s so good for them. The kids are SO cute with my kids. They’re like brothers and sisters.. I love these kids so much!

There is a lot of riding bikes, racing cars down the driveway, fighting over cars, racing down the street, rescuing Wesley from wandering too far away, tea parties, making cookies, playing on their swing-set, playing make-believe, coloring little crafts, puzzles, games, slip n sliding, building forts or tents, playing lego’s, movies, and of course playing their DS’s and my ipad. Those are some of the favorites anyway.

Love all these kids!!!

Swimming Lessons

2011-09-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

:: July 6th ::

Lincoln took swim lessons from a guy in our ward John Henderson. He was such a great teacher and Lincoln loved it (most days). It helped him a lot. It was only a week long, but he is doing so good. He’ll go under water and swim about 7-8 feet by himself and LOVES it. I’m so proud of him and how quickly he’s catching on. He’s getting pretty fast too. Good job Lincoln.

Quick story:

After the first day as we were walking to the car he says to me,

”That was a really good class. Thank you for finding it for me Mommy!”

haha...what a little sweetheart huh?

On the 3rd class, while John was with another kid Lincoln hopped on the kick board and floated off the big step. He got off thinking he was still on the step and could touch but couldn’t. Jake ran over and grabbed him out of the water, but he was under for a while. It really scared him....and us. After that he wasn’t such a fan of going under the water anymore. For the last class he was really nervous.

(Linc and his swim teacher John)

Update: About a week after swim lessons he completely caught on. He does so good now. He can swim all the way across MaSue's pool all by himself. He knows how to come up for air and everything! We are so proud of him.

27

2011-09-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

June 12th :: My Birthday

Jake was so sweet for my birthday. He planned a little surprise getaway for us in Vegas. We dropped off the kids at my Moms and Jake told me we were going out to breakfast at a new crepe place that he invented :) We were on our way, and I didn’t think anything. As we got on the freeway he had me open the glove box where he’d wrapped up a little picture of a tower + Donald Trump. It took me a min, but I finally figured out we were staying at the Trump Tower in Vegas. He secretly packed me, and the kids.

He was pretty bummed out when we got there and he realized that he accidentally unloaded my bag at my Mom’s house with all of the kids stuff :) Oops!

We had a blast thought. We went shopping, ate, hung out by the pool, and just relaxed! Oh, and Jake almost accidentally took us to a strip club :) This wasn’t Jake’s birthday, it was mine, so we decided not to go :) haha. Sorry Jake!

I’m so lucky to have such a sweet and thoughtful husband to make me feel so special. He always does such a good job making every holiday a good one! AND, so lucky to have such great parents that will take such good care of the boys for us ANYTIME! They’re the best!

Can't believe I'm 27!!

****update:: I've been informed that I am not 27...I'm actually 26! :)

Haha...I'm pretty happy to have this new information!

24th of July :: Wilstead's Cabin

2011-09-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

The Wilstead's let us stay at their cabin (can't remember where it was...that's so bad) and it was AWESOME!! It had a gorgeous view, and the weather was perfect. Only us, Janessa's family, Julie's family, and Jason were able to go. We missed having the whole crowd, but it was kinda nice to have things a little more low key with it being so much smaller of a group this time.

I think the kids wore Jason out this night!

Lincoln found a spiderman cape and mask...he was in heaven!

I think he had it on for hours. This boy loves Spiderman.

Sue always plans fun activities for us. This night we played the candybar game.
Check out Lincoln's death grip he has on his candybar bag :)
He was SO sneaky about his candybars.
I guess it paid off cuz at the end of the game he had 4 in his bag!

Darren took us on a Rhino ride to show us this awesome swing.
The pictures don't even do it justice.
It was SO fun!
I could have stayed there all day swinging. We all loved it.

Wade liked it a little more than the rest of us :)

The whole crew

Linocln LOVES picking flowers and giving them to me.
If he see's a flower...it's guaranteed he's gonna pick it and give it to me.
He picked some for MaSue too...what a little sweetheart huh?

We got a little camera happy! Here's all the happy couples!

Lincoln driving the Rhino.
The top right pic is the cabin.

The boys went shooting.
Jake finally got to try out his new gun I got him for Christmas.

The kids made a fairy house.
It got destroyed before I got a pic of the final product, but it was SO cute.
They spent so much time on it.

I LOVE these pics of Linc and Tylee.

Janessa's cute family!

She is such a good Mom. I am amazed by her positive attitude all the time.

Having a two year old and twins is not easy, but she never complains.

Thanks for inviting us, we had a blast!!

4th of July

2011-09-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

We celebrated early with my parents on Sat. I’m so horrible...didn’t take one pic :(

On the 4th we did the traditions. Went to breakfast at IHop, then to the park festivities, then swimming, fireworks, and making s’mores. It was a fun day. Most of the family was out of town this year, so it was a much smaller group than normal.

Lincoln was sure missing all his cousins. He was pretty excited when Tylee showed up that evening!! He finally had someone his age to play with :) He's pretty spoiled with ALWAYS being surrounded by so many kids to play with. He loves it.

Wes and Link LOVED the fireworks!! Mike always puts on a good firework show. This year there was a fire across the street from his parents house. It wasn’t a house thank goodness.

Father's Day

2011-09-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

I know...I'm so behind it's rediculous.

I have so much to catch up on. Hopefully I'll be caught up soon.

The good news is that my blurb blog book for 2011 is up to date with my posts....yay!! :)

Anyway...So Father's Day.

Jake is such a good Daddy! I love watching him play with the boys. He’s pretty rough, but they love it! They have so much fun playing with their Daddy. There is nothing I love more than seeing all three of them playing and laughing together.

I’ve been working a lot more hours in the summer, and Jake has been such a big help. When I’m home he’ll help out as much as he can and it is much appreciated!

Thanks for all that you do for our family, and for being such a great Daddy!

Happy Father’s Day!!

Madeline's Baptism

2011-06-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

:: June 4th ::

This was such a quick trip. I flew to Denver (have I mentioned how much I am LOVING these flying benefits??) on Sat. and home on Sun. I was in Denver for less than 24 hours, but I am SO grateful that everything worked out for me to be there with my cute niece Madeline for her Baptism day.

She is my sister Lori's 4th child to get Baptized. She is seriously such a sweetheart. There is not a bad bone in her. I love her so much, and am so proud of her and the choices she is making.

She was getting a little tired of smiling from all of the pictures, so I was pinching her cheeks to perk her up for our pics :)

Here's cute Madeline with me, Lilly, and aunt Lisa.

My sister-in-law told me abou this cute idea that her father-in-law does for the girls that get Baptized. He gives them a white rose after the Baptism.

My Dad wanted to start the tradition as well. Isn't that such a sweet idea? I love it!

After the Baptism everyone came back to Lori's for some yummy food. She made ALL of it. Homemade Cafe Rio salads, fruit, brownies, and cupcakes. There was a LOT of food for a lot of people. Lori did such a great job. It was a really fun night. She sure knows how to throw a good party!

Check out the view of her backyard. It's SO pretty. The pic doesn't even do it justice.

My Grandma flew in too. I haven't seen her for quite a while since she lives so far away it's hard to get together as much as we'd like. She is such an incredible Woman. The more I learn about her, the more I love and admire her. It was her Birthday also, so we were able to celebrate with her.

Also, a little shout out to my sweet hubby for watching the kids so I could just go by myself since it was so quick.

It was SO relaxing flying by myself. I even got to fly First Class on the way there....awesome!

It is SO much easier to fly alone, but I did miss my little travel buddies. They're getting to be pretty good little travelers.

I promised Lincoln he gets to go on the plane with me next time.

The Fort :: May 22nd

2011-06-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Forts are the best.
Jake went all out on this one.
We left it up for 2 days.
When I had to take it down Lincoln was not happy about it.

Cohen came over the next day and they played in here most of the day.

We got Lincoln a sleeping bag for his b-day. We have plans to go camping, so we busted it out and tried to get him to sleep in the fort. He pretended to sleep, but no such luck.

They had a blast!

We got the iPad2 a while ago. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Best invention ever. I don't know what I did without it now. My kids love it, and there are some great pre-school apps for Link.

Wes is starting to learn how to use it too.

He turns it on, slides his little finger along the arrow to unlock it, then just swipes away at things! :)

What Women Want :: Sisters

2011-06-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

:: May 20-22 ::

My Mom and sister Shauna are Estheticians, and my sister Lori is a Make-Up Artist. They are all amazing at what they do. My sister Shauna found this incredible new device called NuFace.
She was amazed by it, and got all the sister's, my mom, and even my nieces to come do a booth at the What Women Want Expo.
The device uses micro-curent technology to tone, tighten, and lift your face. It's seriously INCREDIBLE. It's an at home device that people can use. It's like pilates...but for your face. The more you use it, the better the results...but you can see immediate results after doing it one time for a few minutes. And...It really works.
We did one side of people's face at the expo so they could see the difference, and it was amazing. Everybody loved it, and it was fun to get to work with my sisters and nieces.

Check out my little niece Jane. I am OBSESSED with her. She is so cute, I just want to squeeze her all day. Lincoln was so cute with her. He LOVED her, and wouldn't leave her alone.

I was getting her dressed and Lincoln said, "Mommy have her wear this dress so that she'll be a little princess!" He seriously wouldn't let her leave his sight.

Wesley on the other hand...wasn't as fond of her. He liked her, but did not like her playing with his toys.

Haha..I love the pic of their hands :)

Gotta love learning to share!

We hung out at my house the last night and talked, and talked, and talked...

I'm sure Jake was loving it ;)

Then my nice McKenna sang and played the guitar for us.
She. Is. INCREDIBLE!!
and not just because I'm her Aunt.
She's seriously got a gift.
I could listen to her sing all day.
She's only 12. She'll hear a song, then just sit down and instantly play it. Even if she's only heard the song once. Amazing!

It was SO fun to have ALL of my sisters (and 3 nieces) in town for the weekend.

I've always loved having sisters, and knew that I hit the sister jackpot...but seriously...I have the BEST sister's ever! I love each and every one of them SO much! They are all incredible women...not to mention GORGEOUS. We have so much fun when we get together. I love it!

Lincoln's 3rd Birthday

2011-06-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

Every year it's a tradition for the birthday boy to wake up to a room filled with balloons!
(this year there wasn't that many...I almost passed out with each one.
They were ridiculously hard to blo up.)
It makes him so happy to wake up to that fun surprise.

I wanted him to do what he wanted to do on his special day. I gave him some awesome options...he chose to watch movies over EVERYTHING. I have cut way back on his T.V time since that's all he wants to do, so it had been a while since he'd watched T.V at our house. He was in heaven. Wes watched it for about 5 seconds before it exceeded his attention span.

When Wes woke up from his nap I was just getting out of the shower. I told Link to go in and talk to Wes. When I came in I found this.

They were playing so cute together, and Wes was giggling so much!

Another great thing about being 3....

He's old enough to chew gum!

He was really excited about that. He's been waiting so long to be 3 so he can have gum. :)

He tried REALLY hard not to swallow it. I think he went through about 6 pieces of gum in a half hour though. As soon as he wanted to swallow it he'd spit it out..and reload.

By the end of the day though he could chew one piece for close to an hour :)

We decided to only do Birthday parties for our kids every other year. On the off years we'll just do our family party. We asked MaSue to watch Wes for us so we could just focus on Lincoln for the night. He loved going on a "date" with us. He chose Laser Mania. We did some arcade games, glow in the dark mini-golf, then cashed in our tickets for some sweet prizes.

I didn't really take any pictures, I just wanted to enjoy the night with our not-so-little boy!

Here's a few form Jake's phone:

After playing our little hearts out we headed over to Pasta Factory for dinner. Or, as Lincoln would prefer..."lunch"

When I ask if he wants dinner he always says, "no, I don't like dinner."

If I just call it lunch, he's fine with it. Weird kid! Whatever works!

After dinner we went back to MaSue & Mikes to get Wessy (Who Lincoln really missed. He couldn't understand why we weren't taking him with us. When we were leaving he said, "But Wesley loves us!")

My parents came over and we had a little celebration.

I set this up earlier in the day, and it was torture for him to have to wait to open all these presents.

Next time I need to remember not to set up so early :)

Nobody else wanted cake, so I just picked up a 25 main cupcake for the birthday boy.

I know it's pink, but it's the best flavor :)

His old sunglasses were starting to fall apart. He loves the new ones. He always tells me it's too bright outside and he needs his glasses. He posed for these all on his own! Haha...must take after Jake!

Wes was already fighting for the glasses.

We lost his "blankie" at Jake's graduation. I think I was more sad about it than him. We got him a replacement. It's not quite the same, but he's done fine with it. I'm pretty sad we lost the old one though. I wanted to save it :(

Madsen Grandparents gave him Woody & Buzz.

Kindred Grandparents gave him a new balance bike.

I think he had a great day! He is a very loved little boy.

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

Mother's Day

2011-06-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

I woke up to my sweet boys all making me breakfast.
After breakfast Jake gave me my gifts. After I opened them I asked Lincoln
"Lincoln, did you get Mommy a present for Mother's Day?"
L- "oh no!! (huge frowny) I forgot I didn't get you a present!"
M- "you didn't?"
L- "No! I'm sorry...but I will."
M- "What are you gonna get me?"
L- "How about I color you a really good picture at nursery?"

haha...those are the best presents anyway! :)

Jake & I spoke in Sacrament Meeting on Motherhood.
Jake did such a great job. He is a great speaker, and I feel so blessed to get to be his wife.
He said sweet things about me, and made my day so special.
Both of our Mom's (and my dad, and SIL Tara) were there to hear us speak.
Our family is the best! How did we get so blessed?

Jake took this picture before church.

After church Jake made dinner (our favorite. Chicken Wraps.) while Lincoln colored me my present.

What more could a girl ask for?

I am so grateful to be a Mother.
It's hard for me to put into words the way I feel about my boys.
I love them beyond explanation.
Motherhood is hard. Really hard some days. But it is the BEST thing in the world.
I completely 100% LOVE being a Mommy.
I love getting to spend all day everyday with my little side-kicks.
I love playing with them, and learning from them.

I am also so grateful for my Mom, and MIL. Really honestly I can't think of 2 better women than these 2. They are INCREDIBLE in every way. I am so blessed to get to learn from them.
They do so much for us, and are the best examples of what Motherhood is all about.

Happy Mother's Day

Graduation

2011-06-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

::May 6th, 2011 ::

The day has FINALLY come!!! Jake Graduated from DSC with his Bachelors in Business with a Visual Arts Technology emphasis. I couldn't be more proud of him. He has been working SO hard. It's tough to work full time, and have other side jobs on top of that, and going to school full-time, and being a father of 2 crazy boys, and husband! He has managed to do it all, and do it all AMAZINGLY well. Seriously. He does a great job at balancing it all, and NEVER complains about it.

I've been complaining about it way more than he does. We are both happy to have that out of the way though!

His graduation was awesome. He was in the 100th class to graduate from Dixie, and more importantly...

PRESIDENT MONSON spoke at his graduation! How incredible is that?? Pres. Monson got his doctorate degree, so he agreed to speak as well. He did an incredible job.

I love this pic of Sue taking video in one hand, while taking pics with the other :)

We couldn't get enough!

He walked right past us. Talked and shook hand to everyone around him at arms length. Sue and I were SO mad at ourselves. We were 3 rows back...there was nobody infront of us so we could have climbed up and shook his hand and talked to him....ahhhhh....I'm still mad. What were we thinking?? We decided we were just star struck and weren't thinking straight. He hung out for quite a while right by us so FINALLY we got the sense knocked into us and ran down.

We missed him by about 5 sec.

They were ushering him out and wouldn't let him stay. I tapped his shoulder though...

so at least I got to touch him!! :)

He is such an incredible man. Just being in his presence is such an incredible gift.
I got teary eyed just being so close to him.
He has such a powerful spirit about him.

Jake had a great seat also. He was on the second row right in the center.

Lincoln liked daddy's "silly hat and cape"

When all the grads were walking up to meet their families we ran right into Jake. Lincoln was SO excited to see him, and was SO proud. These pics are blurry, but it was so cute how proud he was!

I know I look crazy in the bottom right pic, but I had to post it cuz how cute is Lincoln??

He was so sweet! Couldn't be more proud of his Daddy!

Afterwards we celebrated some more at The Brick Oven.

All of his siblings were able to come (minus Jeff), and his grandparents, parents, and my parents.

I gave him the surprise i'd been cookin up! The tickets to NYC. He was definitely surprised this time...FINALLY!!

Our family is the best. Always there to support us and celebrate with us!

Thank you everyone for coming. It meant so much to us that you were there!!

Congrats Jake!!

Cinco De Mayo

2011-06-07T21:46:00.001-07:00

Jake was excited to bust out his Guayabera from his mission for the mexican holiday.
Here's Wes & Daddy in their festive Guayabera's

We had some seriously yummy Carne Asada taco's.

Don't you love our beautiful backyard full of tumbleweeds?

And yes...Lincoln spilled that drink. Twice.

My friend Lacy gave me some of her homemade salsa...

I could seriously drink this stuff. I think I might have.

This is what the boys do non-stop at our house.

They love to trow off all the pillows and jump, wrestle, flip, and hide in them.

They can't get enough of it.

And yes, he does land on/kick Wes in the process.

Wes is tough, and usually laughs when it happens though.

Pre-Party

2011-06-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

:: May 1st, 2011 ::

Our fast-Sunday Birthday Celebration at the Madsen's.
This Month was Mike, Hallie, and Lincoln!!

Lincoln LOVES it when everyone sings Happy Birthday, and LOVES it even more when he gets to blow out the candles. He's been waiting all year for this!

Wes is gettin pretty good at going down the stairs now.

It'll be such a relief when I don't have to stress about him falling down the stairs all the time.

MaSue gave him his first tast of a popsicle...of course he loved it!

Daddy helping Wes beat up his big brother.

There's a lot of wrestling/tickling going on. Poor Julie :)

Never a dull moment at the Madsen's!

Day 4 & 5

2011-06-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

We woke up...loaded up all our stuff, and met up with our old friend Dustin Boothe and his cute wife Alli.

They live in Manhattan while Dustin's going through med. school. He took time out of his busy studying schedule to meet up with us for Brunch before our flight. It was so good to see him, and get to know Alli better. I LOVE her, and wish we had more time to hang out with them. Next time I guess.

This top picture was taken from the elevator in the Marriott Marquis. Their elevators are glass, and they are sped up. I lost my stomach ever time we went down. Every time we went up our ears had to pop.

We decided last min. to change our plans and head to the beach. It was a risky move, and we didn't know if we'd get on, but we risked it and made it on! In the jetway we booked a rental car, and a hotel. We used Priceline and got awesome deals on both. When we got there we went to dinner at PF Changs, then just checked into our hotel.

The next morning we woke up early to sit in the hot tub. It started raining, and looked so overcast. We were pretty bummed.

It was POURING really hard as we left the hotel, but by the time we got to the pier it had stopped. Luckily!

Ate some yummy breakfast by the pier. Seriously this bakery was yummy. The hot chocolate, muffin, and the ham and cheese crissant... delish!

Rented bikes...this was the best! I think riding bikes is so much fun cuz it reminds you of being a little kid.

Jake is still a little kid :)

The pic at the bottom right I took right after he had an awesome biff right in front of people. Haha...he flew up SO high. I was cracking up, but the other witnesses weren't sure if it was ok to laugh...which made it even better!

He's always trying to show off for me.

Lunch at Charlie's Chilli

Drove down to a Beach I've been wanting to go to for a few months.

It was a LONG drive. Jake was not so patient. He was worried we weren't gonna make it back in time to catch our flight. The drive was beautiful so I didn't care.

El Matador Beach

Gorgeous!

Wish we could have stayed there longer...we'll be back!

Flights were all booked, so we went to Vegas and stayed with Janie and Skylar, then headed home early the next morning to be back to work.

I came home to sick little Lincoln. :(

EVERY time I leave him he gets bad Asthma. It makes me so sad to see him like that.

Took him to the Dr. and he said it was really bad and wanted to put him on a steroid. :(

I hate having to do that. This is the second time now. It's better than the alternative though.

The next day he was already feeling much better.

Wes was happy as ever...like always!

The vacation was MUCH needed, and we had so much fun together.

Thank you to Tara, My Mom, and Sue (last minute)

for takin such good care of the boys so we could go...

you guys are the best!

Day 3 :: NYC

2011-05-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

The pic on the Left is the view from our hotel the first night. We thought it was ok...but then the 2nd night we stayed at the Marriott Marquis in Time Square. It was AWESOME!!
The pic on the right is our view from our hotel room.
Much better :)

We loved this hotel. It was so nice, and the view was incredible!!

Daytime View:

Nightime View:

This day we decided to take advantage of not having kids as alarm clocks. We slept in until 10 am. It was fantastic! I didn't know if I could still sleep in. I can! Especially since we didn't really sleep the night before.

For lunch we went to Lombardi's. Glen suggested it. It's his favorite pizza. It was incredible!! Glen makes it just as good though. They taste almost exactly the same.

Across the street from Lombardi's is Rice To Riches. They have all different flavors of rice pudding.

It was delish, and such a fun place.

I love how they give you the little tupperware, and the cool spoon that you eat it with.

I swear eating it with that spoon makes it yummier!!

Little Italy

Cafe Capri for dinner. Yummy homemade mozzarella.

Jake asked if they had any drinks besides wine. They said...uh...beer?

Haha..we got some italian sodas. Mine was discussing...Jake's was good.

He traded me. Sweet huh?

Got a hilarious picture drawn of us in Time Square, saw Top of the Rock, and Trump Tower.

And the Mac store of course!

Jake couldn't contain his excitement.

Picked up some Billy's Bakery, and ate it in Time Square.

It was really late, but look how light it is.

We pretty much ate our way through New York!

We ate SO much! All. Day. Long!

Good thing we walked everywhere to get our apetites back quickly so we could eat again.

Day 1&2 in NYC

2011-05-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

:: May 11, 2011

We left on Thursday. Tara had the kids the first 2 days, and my Mom had them the last 2 days. We flew out of STG (love the new airport..btw) to SLC. Ate dinner, then took the red eye flight to NYC.

I got about 2 hours of sleep...Jake got about 20 min. :( We were both pretty tired when we got there, but so excited to be there so we survived.

Here's what we saw on our first subway ride.

We called it the Subway Sandwich. Awesome. you should have seen his entrance, and squeezing in between. haha..it was great!

We couldn't check-in to our hotel until about noon, and it was 6 a.m. They let us drop off our bags, then we walked down to Time Square. We watched them film a segment for Good Morning America.

Then walked to Central Park.

After about 20 min. in Central Park our exhaustion set in full force. We couldn't take it any more. We searched fro a place to lay down. We started on benches. Haha...we looked like bum's off the street passed out on the benches...then after about an hour we moved to the grass under a tree and slept for probably another hour or more. It was the best nap ever though, even though we looked hideous.

When we woke up we were refreshed and ready to go!

We ate lunch at this place called Virgils BBQ.

We heard the BBQ and banana pudding was the bomb. We thought the BBQ was pretty good, but not the bomb....but the pudding...SO GOOD!! We didn't get a picture (we devoured it too fast) so you'll just have to imagine it.

Then walked around some more.

We headed down to Brooklyn for some DELICIOUS pizza. It's called Grimaldi's Pizzeria.

OMG, seriously so good!! It's under the Brooklyn Bridge.

As you can see, the line went down the street. We got there just in time though and had no wait. We saw the massive line as we left. This is seriously torture to post about this pizza. I want some SO bad.

After the Pizza we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Jake is obsessed with me taking pictures of him. He LOVES it and wants to pose non stop! It's embarrassing. Haha...ok so maybe not.

In the last tiny pic on the bottom left, I was laughing so hard I was crying. I was down on one knee so I could get it all in and Jake had had it with me taking pics of him. He was so mad and kept telling me to get up. I refused until after we took the pic, so he said, "fine, i'll marry you just get up!" A big group of people all turned and stared at us. I was crying...but from laughing, and these people thought they were witnessing some romantic moment between us!! I still got the picture though! :)

Saw some more sites: Ground Zero, a cute park where we got attacked by squirrels (don't let that cute face fool you...they were intense), and the famous Bull.

Rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty!

It was a long day. We packed in a lot, but it was so fun!

Surprise!!!!

2011-05-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to surprise Jake our whole marriage. He ALWAYS finds out about it, or has some sort of idea. I HATE it. I try so hard, and think I can pull it off, but somehow ~~something always slips through the cracks~~ he always pokes his nose into my business and finds something he shouldn't. It's his fault...not mine!
Anyway...So I planned a surprise getaway for the two of us. There were two main reasons.
#1 Because he got his Bachelors
#2 Because our honeymoon was our first, and LAST real vacation that we've had together with just the two of us. I've always been nursing and brought the babe along. (which was almost 5 years ago!!!)

We were definitely way over due for a vacation. I made two of these:

In my defense though...they looked a lot better in person. I promise!

The whites look all patchy and diff. color in the pic, but you couldn't tell when they were printed. Thank goodness!

Ok, this was SO hard for me. I spent SO many hours trying to figure out how to do this. It would have taken Jake 20 min. tops to do it. I had so many ?'s that I wished I could have asked him while trying to make them. I did it a crazy way, and I'm sure he would laugh at me if he saw me doing it. It made me appreciate his graphic design knowledge once again.

It was success. He was finally surprised!! I even called his boss, and got work off for him. I'm the best, right?

Stay Calm.

2011-05-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am SO behind. I really hate it when I have too much to post about, I just get too overwhelmed and stop....making me even MORE behind. Anyway, I can't find pictures of Lincoln's 3rd Birthday, and Jake's Graduation :( They were on a separate memory card, and I just went to upload the pics, and there are NONE on the card.
I'm trying not to freak out. Maybe they are on a diff. card. I REALLY really hope so. Pres. Monson spoke at Jake's Graduation and it was AWESOME!! I'll post about it HOPEFULLY when I find the pictures.
Until then I'll be out of order.

Easter

2011-05-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

I know...I'm SO behind! No words...just pictures!
HAPPY EASTER!

Airplaines

2011-05-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Although my kids were not quite themselves the entire trip, they actually were SO good on the planes. The two that took us there, and the two that brought us home. They were really, really good. People kept commenting on how good they were being, and how brave I was to do it alone! :)

On one of the flights home I got an AWESOME seat. We were right behind first class, and we had SO much leg room. Wes loved that he could get down and play on the floor.

To keep get their ears to pop I put apple juice in Wes's bottle (which was a first, and he loved it), and let Link chew gum. He thought it was pretty exciting!

Jake picked us up al the Cedar Airport. We were all really excited to see him, but Wesley could not stop saying "Dada." He HONESTLY said it over and over the ENTIRE way from Cedar-Hurricane.

As soon as we were home. Both of my kids were back to their normal selves. THANKFULLY!!!

Saturday

2011-05-18T13:06:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we headed over to watch Cameron's Football game.
He did awesome, and it was so fun to get to watch him play.

After the game we headed over to THE BEST mexican food (other than actually being in Mexico) ever. My sister told us about it, and when we pulled up and saw on the windon "Sonoran Style Hot Dogs" Jake was sold! He went on his mission to Sorora and LOVED the Hot Dogs there. He talks about them non-stop. They weren't as good, but the taco's were SO DELISH!!!

The bottom pics are perfect. Caden being such a good boy, just sleeping away...while my kids were so angry!! haha...that's pretty much how the trip was.

Then we went to the Phoenix Zoo. I was so excited to go. I thought everyone would love it.

Unfortunately...that's not quite how it went down.

It was about 90 degrees so I loaded on the sunscreen. Link rubbed it and it got in his eyes. Right at the beginning, so he was screaming for the first 45 min. Nothing calmed it down. Poor kid. It pretty muched ruined the Zoo experience for him.

Wesley probably would have loved the Zoo, if he had had a nap that day....and if Lincoln wasn't screaming in his ear most of the time.

Maybe next time we'll have better luck :)

McKenna, Cameron, and Caden had a good time though!!! Thank heavens!

Check out the bottom right pic. haha...Lincoln always puts his hands down his pants. Not sure why. I'm trying to break that habit.

Finally we saved the day and just gave up trying to see all the animals and just let them play at the little splash park. They didn't even wait for us to put on their swim suits...they were just too excited to get in there so we decided to just be ok with them looking a little white trash.
They had a good time, and that's all that matters, right?
Check out Wes dipping his finger in the water, then tasting it....ewe!!

They were SO much happier after this!! And so were we!

This cute girl on the bench is my sister Kristi.

She helped me SO much for the 11 days. I would have lost my mind without her.

She's the best! I loved getting to spend so much time with her.

Friday

2011-05-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

Jake few out to see us/help me for the weekend. We were all SO happy to see him. We picked him up from the Airport early Friday morning, and headed over to the Freestone Park.

We rode the little train that takes you all over the park. The kids loved it!

And saw the ducks.

Jake was making Wes chase Lincoln. Haha...they both thought it was the funniest thing ever!!

Look at all the cute babies in the bottom right pic. They were so cute!!

My sister Kristi watch ALL the kids for us so that we could go do something. Jake was so sweet...he picked shopping. Not that he loves it, but he knows I do. What a little sweetie huh?

We had fun shopping and eating delish shakes.

No pics.

Then, that night we headed over to their elementary school where they were having a "Family Fun Night!" It was pretty fun. They had an awesom petting Zoo (the only pic is this top blurry one :( I was a little too busy to take pics :) And a bubble machine that Wes, Link, and Caden LOVED. A dance party (I have the FUNNIEST videos of Lincoln & Caden that maybe i'll upload later), food, bounce houses, and tonz of games.

The highlight of Jake's night was when Wes pee'd on Jake!

It's kinda hard to see the wet spot on his shirt, but it's there! :)

It was a fun day, and wore the kids right out!! And us!!

Arizona

2011-05-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

My sister Lisa & her husband went to Paris, Vienna, and all around for 11 days. I took my boys and flew to Arizona to watch her 3 kids. It was really fun, but REALLY exhausting. Her kids were great...mine....not so great. They were both SO whiny the entire trip. Mostly Lincoln...I couldn't stand him. He was crying/wining (sp?) probably 90% of the 11 days! The trip started off a little rough. The morning we flew out he got pink eye..in both eyes. He had a fever, and wanted to be home. Ha...only 10 more days I told him....he didn't like that idea :)
After his pink eye cleared up (and it spread to Wes) he just kept up the crying and complaining...about EVERYTHING. The poor kid really wanted to just go home, back to "his house, his bed, his car, his toys, his daddy, etc...."
My sister has Caden (3 yrs) who is SO good, and laid back. He had preschool and swimming lessons.
McKenna (12 yrs) who has YW, piano, voice, guitar, and tennis lessons.
Cameron (10 yrs) has scouts, football, piano, guitar, and tennis.
They are busy kids! I'm so glad I got to go and get to spend time with them. They are such good kids, and so fun to be with. i wish they lived closer :(

They have an awesome backyard that we had so much fun in.

Caden gets to ride the bus to preschool. Lincoln was SO incredibly jealous. He wanted to get on the bus and go to school so bad!! He would watch the bus all the way down the street until it disappeared.

Family Home Evening:

dying easter eggs

My niece McKenna is amazing at the piano. Has been since she was tiny. She can play anything she hears. She also has an incredible voice. I loved listening to her play and sing. She's unreal!

My boys loved Cameron. They thought he was so cool. Even Wes would let him hold him, even when he didn't want anyone else but me.

Swimming

2011-05-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

The day before me and the boys left for Arizona we took the boys swimming. We warmed up the hot tub and the boys loved it. Wesley was so relaxed. I thought he might fall asleep! I LOVE that the weather has been warming up so we can spend our days in the pool. Lincoln has been getting so much better at swimming. I'm hoping he'll have it down by the end of the summer.

milk

2011-03-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

We are going through a LOT of milk these days. Link & Wes have their own gallon and they go through almost an entire gallon a day. We need to just buy a cow pretty soon.

Lincoln loves to have a sippy of milk while Wes drinks his bottle.

These two are an interesting duo. They love each other, but they also LOVE to tease each other. I can't even believe how easly on this has started. It's been going on for months. It started with Wesley being the tease actually...but now Lincoln does it just as much..if not more. I hope they start getting along a little better and playing good together pretty soon.

On the other hand, Wes gets SO excited when he hears Lincoln or sees him after it's been a while. Lincoln is always looking out for Wes, and tells me when he thinks he might be in trouble (playing with something "dangerous" as Lincoln says). If we go somewhere without Wes Lincoln says, "Oh Mom, we can't just leave Wesley...he loves us." I know the fighting just comes with being siblings, and especially brothers.

3.27.11

2011-03-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Wesley took his FIRST STEPS on his own. It was the cutest thing ever. He LOVED all the attention and applause and kept trying so hard to keep doing it over and over again. Lincoln was so cute with him too. He was so excited, and always wanted him to walk to him. Me and Jake were having him go back and forth between us, and Lincoln would run to my lap when Wesley was headed to me...and run back to Jake when it was his turn. He holds out his arms and says, "come on Wessy"

Wes has been practicing hard to try to get this walking thing down. He's still pretty unstable, but I think he'll have it pretty soon with how determined he is. His record as of now is about 8 steps. He just gets too excited and tries to go too fast. I think he'd rather run, than walk.

Lincisms

2011-03-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

* His first smiley face drawn all by himself!

A few months ago Jake was getting ready for church. He now teaches Gospel Doctrine in our ward, so he pulled out his suit that he hadn't worn since blessing Wesley. When Lincoln saw him in his suit he said, "Daddy...are you the Prophet?"

I can't remember exactly what we were talking about, but Lincoln said something and I asked him if he was positive. Then he said, "Positive?? Like, Positive Monson?"

-Driving in the car I was talking on my phone to Jake.-
Mommy: K, hurry and tell me cuz my phone's gonna die. (right after I said that...my phone went dead)
-I hung up the phone and was not happy my phone was dead before I could say what I needed to say-
Lincoln: Mommy what happened? Did you phone die?
Mommy: yep, it did.
Lincoln: "Oh....i'm sorry. Did it go to heaven with Heavenly Father?"

Here's my favorite one. Lincoln was sitting by me on the couch. Out of nowhere he tells me,
"Mommy, you're my FIRST princess I ever want."
How cute is that?? It was so sweet. He tells me that now all the time, and I LOVE it. That night he wanted me to "dance like a princess in his room" while he went to bed. How could I turn that down? I pulled Jake in with me, and we danced like a prince and princess.. we were laughing so hard at how lame we were. Jake was kinda giving me whip lash with his intense dipping and spinning.

I was in a hurry to leave and Lincoln was going potty. As soon as he finished I flushed the toilet while he was still sitting on it. He started giggling and said, "Oh, Mommy I like you to flush, it makes the water splash my bum and it's ALL TICKLEY."
Now everything is "Tickley". He says it a lot, and I don't blame him...it's a fun word to say.

Lincoln ALWAYS wants to "watch a show" or a movie. I don't like him watching one every day. I'm always telling him he's watched too many shows, and he doesn't need to watch one today. He always comes up with a new approach that might work. The other day he said, "Oh, Mom...I have a good idea. How about you turn on a show for Wesley. That would make him happy!"

**He's saying funny things ALL the time...these are just a few off the top of my head that I want to remember.

Wes' Dr. Stats

2011-03-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

We went to the Dr. the day after his b-day. Here are his stats:

19.3 lbs. - 7%

29.25 in. - 32%

He's gettin bigger. Can't quite move him to the forward facing carseat yet though. Probably pretty soon though. He seems like he's had a little growth spurt in the last few days though. All the sudden he looks so much older to me.

I don't give my kids any of their immunizations until they are 1. Then, when I do start them I only do 1 shot at a time. It takes longer, but I feel better about doing it this way. I just want their little immune systems to be stronger so they can hadle all the shots better. I really dread doing them though. Wes had his first shot, and he was SO sad.

The Party

2011-03-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

We just had a simple little family party to celebrate. Here's some of the party people with their trucker license's.

The dirt cake

This was his first taste of chocolate ever. He was a little unsure about if he was supposed to eat it or not. It didn't take him long before he dug right in though.

He loved it, of course!

I was excited when I found this "i dig dirt" bib. I think the cake got everywhere except on the bib.

Thanks everyone for all the fun presents.

I got him this fedora hat that I was so excited about.

he HATED it. We tried so hard to just get one cute picture of him in it. No luck.

Finally my dad posed in it for us. :)

I can't believe my baby's 1.

We love you so much Wes, and hope you had a good day!

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy!!

the invite

2011-03-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

I put Jake in charge of the invite.
He didn't want to have to print them and mail them out since it was just a little family party, so he made a little website for it.
I thought it was so creative and unique. I loved it.
Click here to see it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WESLEY!!

2011-03-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

He’s over it now, but the first few times he saw someone blow a bubble (with gum) he FREAKED out. He was terrified for some reason. Luckily we got it on camera before he got over it cuz it was funny/cute/and sad all at the same time.

He loves to slap people in the face. Don’t love this one.

He tries to say basketball. It comes out “bah bah” and he also tries to sing the potty song that I sing when Lincoln goes potty. At the end it says potty potty potty...and it’s Wes’s favorite part. He’ll say “pah, pah, pah” and smile so big. He also waves bye bye and says “ba,ba...dada” It’s really cute! He also says “Hi” really clear, and in the highest voice. He’s copying how I say it...it’s pretty funny.

He’s really ticklish just like Mommy, and Link.

Him and Link are already fighting like brothers. Wes is such a tease. They have a special brotherly love though too. Wes gets so excited when he hears Lincoln. I love it when I walk in on them playing together and Wes in busting up at something Lincoln is doing. He has the cutest and softest little giggle, and Lincoln loves that Wes thinks he’s so funny.

He’s not a picky eater (so far) and he’ll eat whatever I give him. He doesn’t like the same taste over and over though. I have to give him a bite of something, then a bite of something else...then he’ll eat forever.

Loves his binki, but only has it to go to sleep.

He's a little obsessed with his penis. EVERY time I take off his diaper he wants to touch it. The entire time I'm changing his diaper I'm trying to keep him from grabbing it. :) He's mad when I get the new diaper on.

He has 8 teeth. 4 on top, and 4 on bottom.

His eyes are still really blue, and his hair still has a tiny hint of red to it.

He ate Rocko’s dog food a few weeks ago and when I tried to get it out of his mouth he bit me...hard. It made me bleed. I guess he liked it. He smelled like a puppy for about an hour after.

He’s getting really fast at crawling. If we raced, he’d probably beat me. And getting better at standing. The other day he stood for probably 3 min. He was playing with a toy, and once he realized what he was doing he sat down. I’m not encouraging walking though. I’m not ready for that yet. He’s gonna have to figure it out on his own, cuz I’m not helping. I want him to stay my baby as long as possible.

Wesley, you have brought so much love into our home. I can’t even describe the sweet spirit you have always had. You are such a little sweetheart. I am so blessed to get to be your Mommy. I love you so much, and am so thankful you got to come to our family. We all can’t get enough of you. I love spending every day with you, and watching you learn new things and figure things out. Please stop growing up so fast. I’m trying hard to soak in every stage, but you’re changing so quickly. I really can’t believe you are a year old! I'm not gonna lie...I'm actually pretty sad today. I just know that too soon you're not a baby anymore and I really love this baby stage. I hope you have a great birthday, and know how much you are loved.

Happy Birthday Wessy!

Love, Mommy

to infinity...

2011-03-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

and beyond!

I hear that phrase about 200 times a day

Lincoln has been loving Buzz Lightyear for about the last 9 months now. He hasn't seen the movies as much as you'd think, but he plays Buzz, ALL THE TIME! It's really cute...and he gets so into it. He WILL NOT respond to any other name if he's in his pretend mode. If I say Link, he says, "NO...I'm Buzz!!"

Anyway...these pics were taken a few weeks ago. Our bed has been on the floor for a few months (long story) so it's the perfect height for lincoln to take flight. He runs as fast as he can at Jake, and he helps him flip over. Lincoln Obviously LOVES it, and will be so sad when our bed frame FINALLY comes.

He always pretends to push his button on his chest, then shoots his "wings" out like this. haha...so cute!

I love this picture... such handsome boys! We love our cousin Coney!

blog book info

2011-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

I've had a few people ask about more details from the blog book. If you are wondering, I did it through blurb.com. The one I did was the standard landscape in the hardcover with an image wrap. It is 10x8 inches and mine was 280 pages. The normal cost for that is $76.95, but I had a groupon coupon ($20 for $60 at blurb) so it ended up being cheaper for me. You can have up to 440 pages, but that is the cap.

Blurb can get all of the pictures, and text from your blog and automatically puts in in the book for you. You have to change the layouts to how you want it cuz it's not perfect. It can be as time consuming as you make it...depending on how much of a perfectionist you are :) Once you get a system down it really does go pretty fast though.

Also, This year since I'm caught up I am going to try really hard to stay on top of it. My goal is to slurp (add the new posts to the book) my posts at least once a month. I'm gonna try to do it every fast sunday so I don't have to do the whole book at the end of the year.
Hope this helps answer your ?'s

Scared

2011-02-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

First of all, my Mom is the best! On Saturday night she came all the way out to my house to watch our kids so that me and Jake could have a night out. How nice is that?? Unfortunately Lincoln fell asleep early so he was asleep when she got there and stayed asleep the whole time :( She got to play with Wes though!

So, we went to dinner and then to a movie. When we came home both of the kids were asleep so we just talked to my Mom for a while. Wesley woke up and was pretty mad. Jake went and got him and I made him a bottle.

Here's where the scary part comes in.

He was crying when Jake put the bottle in his mouth, and usually he'll stop crying and start drinking. Not this time. A few drips of formula got in, but then he started coughing. Jake stopped with the bottle and leaned Wes forward. I thought no big deal, he does this and will work it out. My Mom started freaking out a little...(but she has a tendency to do that) and I still wasn't worried. Then I saw that he stopped coughing, and also stopped breathing. Then I noticed that his lips were blue, I FREAKED! When Jake saw me freak, he freaked. Right after his lips turned blue, his WHOLE FACE WENT PURPLE!! I was so freaked out and had no idea what to do. If he was choking on something I would know what to do, but it was just a few drops of milk. What do you do?? My Mom grabbed him from Jake and Wes started pulling out of it and got his color back. He cuddled with me in the rocker for about an hour after that (which was the best). I felt SO horrible. I was at a loss of what to do, so I just freaked out which didn't help at all. I felt like such a lame Mom. I couldn't get the image of him turning purple and not breathing out of my head. I still can't. It was horrible, and I never want to see anything like that again.

Round 2

2011-02-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

I potty trained Link a few months ago...and HATED it. I did it for a month, and although he did pretty good, he was still having pretty frequent accidents and I was too frustrated so we went back to diapers. I haven't pushed the idea, but ever since his cousin younger than him Max got potty trained it has peaked his intrest. On Sat. MaSue put him on the potty a few times...he never went, but he tried. Then on Sunday he wanted to go potty, and actually went. He wanted Choneys (that's what we call his big boy underwear.. it's spanish) on. So I let him wear them, and he kept telling me when he needed to go potty. He did SO good, and even pooped on the potty. He only had one accident. He kept his diaper dry that night and went potty when he woke up. I wasn't really up for potty training...but he's been doing it pretty much on his own this time. It has been SO much easier. He had only 1 accident on Mon. too...but it was only a tiny bit. Then Tues. came and he was great....until I had to take him to work at 3. From 3-6 at work he had 3 accidents. Ahhh... This is where we went wrong last time. He does GREAT....when i'm home. The problem is that we're not home very often.

the fruits of my labor...

2011-02-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

This is why I blog.
I'm SO happy with my blog book. It came about a week ago, and I LOVE it. I'm so glad I have posted more this last year, and that all of our memories will not be forgotten...they are recorded, and bound in a book. It is a lot of work, but it's so worth it. I'm posting these to motivate everyone to post more, and to turn your blog posts into a book. You can thank me later.
These aren't the best pics...but you get the idea.