Happy Birthday Matt!!

Looking at this baby picture of Matt makes me look at my own kids and wonder, Is it really possible that they can go from this...To this...To this...? I Love you Matt! Thanks for taking such good care of us. Life is Fun with you! Life is rewarding with you! Life is complete with You!
Happy 31st Birthday!

P.S. Doesn't Scott look just like Matt did when he was little?

Chase's Big Race...

Okay so the title of this post makes it sound like something it wasn't, it actually wasn't a BIG race at all. It was one loop around the block. The only reason I called it his big race is because he put the whole thing together. He came down one morning and asked me to check the weather and tell him what the warmest day of the week was going to be because he wanted to have a bike race. I told him, and then he showed me what he had been working on. He made a sign up sheet that said...
"Enter to win a bike race. The cost is one dollar to enter, and the winner gets all the money. Ages 5-10 can race, you need to bring your own bike. Sign your name if you want to come. Practice, get a good bike. The more people, the more money. You can come to cheer or watch for free."
He then went door to door through the neighborhood and had people sign up to either race or cheer. He brought along a zip lock bag to collect people's money while he was out.
Thursday was the big day... He had 6 people who came to race, and friends and families that came to cheer. The kids were so cute, they spent 20 minutes before the race started "warming up"In the end Chase ended up winning the race, which he was very excited about. I was also excited for him, but I was more proud if him for getting the idea and then throwing the whole thing together. He has such a driven personality. Ever since he was a little guy Matt and I have always said that we just hoped we were doing a decent job teaching him, so that when he gets older he has a testimony of the gospel and wants to make good choices. Because he's going to do whatever he wants to, there's no stopping him when he puts his mind to something.

Happy St. Pattys Day...

I managed to get a picture of Chase this time before he headed off to school. He got himself ready, and was very excited about all the green he was able to find for himself, but was a little disappointed that I wouldn't shave a Mohawk, and spray paint it green (obviously my tendency to overdo the Holidays has worn off on him) He stayed up late with Aspen and Zoe the night before working on his third leprechaun trap. He made 2 outside, and this is the one he made for his bedroom....We haven't caught a leprechaun yet. Matt told the kids they needed to practice their jokes just in case they do because if they catch one they have to tell him a funny joke so he will give them some gold. My day has been very entertaining listening to the jokes they have made up for the occasion.Zoe and Aspen were sure that they also were under dressed without green pants, green shoes, and green hair. But were very excited about their fancy new necklaces, and quickly forgave me. Scott is just happy to be here, He loves his button that lights up, and has already broken it. Good Times!

Happy Anniversary... Trip to Vegas!

Matt and I had our 9th wedding anniversary on February 17th, but we waited to celebrate it until this last weekend because my parents were in town so we could go away for the weekend. We headed down to Las Vegas for a little R & R... Seriously other than the shows and restaurants we went to at night we didn't do much of anything. We woke up late, ate breakfast, came back to our room and played a round of phase ten before we headed off to our day at the spa. Then we would come back and get cleaned up so we could go get some good food and watch a show. It was so relaxing, and the time crept by so slowly so by Sunday we were refreshed and ready to come home and jump back into the busy life of 4 kids, 2 church callings, a job, a house, a yard, school, homework, dance, soccer, voice, etc...

One of the shows we saw was "Legends in Concert". It was fun! They had 4 impersonators who impersonated, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson. They were all really good, but Michael Jackson was AMAZING! He looked, sang, and danced just like him. I would have been content just watching him all night.

The other show we saw was "Phantom". I have seen Phantom twice and never really liked it all that much so I wasn't super excited about going again, we actually tried to get a refund on our tickets. But we ended up going and it was Awesome. I'm not quite sure why I liked it so much better this time, but I think it was probably because we were so close. We had such good seats and could see all the actors so closely, and the sets were just incredible. Matt really liked it to, It was really cool!

Just an interesting side note by the way... Like I said we waited to go to Vegas until now because my parents were in town and offered to watch our kids for us while we were gone. Well it turned out that my Mom ended up having surgery on her mouth the day we left, and was down in bed the whole time. My parents didn't tell Matt and I because they didn't want us to feel bad or cancel our trip. So a couple days into our trip we found out that my Mom was at home while my Dad was taking care of our 4 kids for 4 Days, all by himself. Which most of you know what that includes but just to get the point across, He was doing hair, homework, cooking, cleaning, playing, reading, church... the whole nine yards. I felt so bad about it when I found out that I was ready to pack up and head home early, but he assured us he was just fine. I didn't even know that was something a Grandpa was capable of doing but he did. I came home to a clean house and all my children still in one piece, and they had been having a blast. Go Dad! Your Man of the Year in my book!

So here's to looking back on 9 wonderful years with Matt which among other things have included...
5 kids (almost)
4 houses
19 church callings
4 dogs
6 hospital stays
5 yrs school
5 jobs
And much, much more!!
And here's to looking forward to an Eternity Together... Sounds good to me!

I must make pregnancy look fun....

Because every time I turn around my girls have baby dolls shoved up their shirts.

Really though, it is fun to be pregnant when your kids get old enough to be excited about what is going on. Every morning, everyone likes to take turns talking to Lola, Aspen insists on coming with me to my Doctors appointments so she can hear the heart beat, and while reading stories at night I usually have one or more hand on my stomach waiting for her to kick. Needless to say, we are all really enjoying this pregnancy so far!

Chase's Baptism...

We had such a wonderful day on Saturday. Thank you so much to all our friends and family who came and shared the day with us.
Chase was glowing. He woke up that morning and ran into my room and said "Today's the day... I just can't wait." Then when him and Matt were getting dressed in the baptismal clothes he told Matt he had butterflies in his stomach that had been there all morning. He is such a good kid. He bore his testimony on Sunday and told everyone about the experience he had before he got baptised. He said he wanted to make sure he was joining the true church so he had been waking up early and reading his scriptures and praying everyday to know if what he was doing was right. He said he didn't get an answer right away so he kept praying harder and harder. He told everyone that one morning he finally got his answer. He felt so peaceful and knew that he was joining the true church. He knew Heavenly Father wanted him to get Baptised. It was such a powerful testimony, especially coming from an 8 year old boy.
The program went so well. My Dad spoke about Baptism, and Matt's Dad spoke about the Holy Ghost. Aspen sang the musical number, she did such a good job. I was kind of nervous for her. Chase asked me if I had the butterflies at all during the day and I told him I kind of felt nervous for Aspen and he said "Me too, because sometimes she sings that song way to high. So the whole time she was singing I kept saying in my head... come on Aspen keep it low, just keep it low." It was pretty funny.
After the Baptism we enjoyed hanging out with our friends and families, eating good food, and watching a video of Chase. Thanks again everyone who came and shared this day with us, and made it so special.