More Family Pictures

Last month we got some new family pictures taken with my family. I added a few of them to my blog, but didn't put them all on. Here are a few more:

This is my mom with all of the grandkids:

The kids were so funny getting their pictures taken. Hunter and Savannah totally cracked me up through the entire process. Their family pictures were so funny. I loved it. Ben is always entertaining and he didn't disappoint us during the photo session. He is the funniest kid with a hilarious personality. As you can see Kate and Savannah have the same shirt. This was totally by accident. We showed up to the photo shoot with the same shirt. I thought that was so funny. Now it is Kate's favorite shirt because Savannah has the same one.

This is me and my girls. Josie and Kate are so fun and sweet. I love being a mom to both boys and girls. It really does bring alot of fun and excitement to my life.

And my handsome boys, all 3 of them. I love this picture. I just can't believe how grown up Taylor and Brenden look. I love to get a picture with all of them smiling. That is a rare occasion.

All in all I was pretty happy with the pictures. I can't wait to get them all back so I can update the pictures in my house.

My 34th Birthday!

Today is my 34th birthday. I have to admit that it really isn't so bad to be 34.

We just had a normal day at church. The primary kids were cute and sang happy birthday to me. After church I had a few friends stop by to wish me a happy birthday. That is so nice. Even some from my old ward. Who would have thought that they would remember my birthday. It was so sweet. Then we went to my mom's house for my birthday dinner. She always tries to make our birthdays special. I really love and appreciate her for this. My whole family was there, including my Grandma. For my birthday, she handwrote me the sweetest birthday card. She told of some memories she had of me and it was so sweet. It made me cry. I am so grateful to have that from her. It was the best present she could have given me. I will always treasure it. My family gave me some really nice gifts and when we got home there were cookies from some other neighbors who remembered my birthday. Steve and I are always amazed at how sweet people can be. It was so appreciated. My primary presidency took me to lunch on Friday for my birthday. They are also so great and I love them and appreciate them so much. Steve's parents gave me a gift card to get a facial at a local spa. I have never had one before so I am way excited for that. They are really great to me as well.

As you can see, on this my 34th birthday, I am feeling extremely grateful for all these wonderful people in my life who make me feel special and touch me in so many ways. I love them all and hope that they know it. Thanks everyone for helping me to have a great birthday!

Quick Trip with the Family!

Steve has been asking me all week what I would like for my birthday and I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted. Then, since the kids and I were out of school on Thursday and Friday for Fall Break, I decided that it would be fun to go up to SLC and stay overnight in a hotel and then go to Park City and shop at the outlets from Friday afternoon to Saturday night. So we got it all arranged, you gotta love the deals on hotels at Priceline! At first, the kids (mainly the boys) did not want to go at all. They just wanted to stay home and play with their friends. I had to keep reminding me that this was for my birthday and they didn't really have a choice anyway. We left around 3:00 on Friday and headed up to the Gateway. We thought it would be fun to go to The Clark Planetarium. I took the kids there a few years ago, but Steve has never been. These next few pictures are of the kids looking at all of the exhibits there. I took tons more pictures but none of them turned out. The lighting was really bad there, but I'm not sure why the pictures didn't work.

We got on a huge elevator. The kids thought that was pretty cool.

Steve, Brenden, Josie and Kate went to the 3D movie, which they really liked alot. Taylor and I decided that we would rather go shopping at the Gateway. I know this is totally surprising to anyone who knows Taylor. He absolutely HATES to shop. But, for some reason, he wanted to go shopping with me. He and I had a blast. We went to lots of the cool stores up there and saw some fun stuff. I really enjoyed just hanging out with him for a little while. The next 2 pictures are of us just hanging out on the streets of the Gateway. We were waiting for Steve and Taylor and got a little picture happy. It was really fun.

After we had dinner, went to the movie and did a little shopping, we headed back to our hotel to go swimming in the pool. It was pretty fun, even though the water was really cold. We ended up spending most of the time in the hot tub, which was fine with me. It was nice and relaxing. After we got done swimming we got dressed and headed out for a late night snack. It was fun, because that is not something that we usually do at our house. When we got back to the hotel, everyone was SO tired and we went right to bed.

When we woke up the next morning, we just got ready, checked out of our hotel and went to breakfast. The kids all wanted to go to Carl's Jr. to get their French Toast sticks. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was fun and the kids really loved it. Since we were so close to the Energy Solutions Arena, Taylor HAD to stop and get some pictures next to the John Stockton and Karl Malone statues. All of the kids really enjoyed this.

This is Taylor putting his hand in the mold of Karl Malone's handprint. Holy Cow! He is one big guy! Taylor thought that was so cool.
He sure has big feet, too.
Then we headed up to Park City to do a little shopping. I LOVE to go to Park City to shop. There are a few stores that I ALWAYS find great deals in. The kids got a little restless, but I was able to go on a shopping spree for my birthday while they hung out at the park. We didn't last too long there, but I was able to get the stuff that I wanted.

All in all, it was a really fun trip. I think that everyone really had a good time and enjoyed being together.

My new job!

Those of you that know me very well, know that I like to be busy. With Kate being in preschool and the other kids in school all day, I decided it would be nice to get a job at the kid's school (plus it is always nice to make a little extra money). I had tried to get a job before school started but I didn't, so I just put it out of my mind and figured that everything works out the way it is supposed to. A few weeks afer school started I got a call from the principal at my kid's school offering me a job as a Resource Technician. Since I started working, things have been a little crazy around our house. That's why I have been slacking on my posts. I am really enjoying being at the school with my kids and helping these resource kids. It has been quite an adjustment for me, since I have worked from home for so long. I work around 4 hours every day and I am really enjoying it alot. I get to help some 3rd graders, 4th graders and 5th graders who just need extra help. I get to go into 2 5th grade classes every day during social studies to assist a few of the kids that get behind and just need someone to help them. I have loved learning about American history all over again and helping all of these kids. I have met some really great people at the school, too. I also get to help with lunch recess duty. I am on the playground with the 1st and 2nd graders during their lunch recess. This has been alot of fun because the first thing I see when I go outside is Josie running up to me to give me a hug and a kiss. I also get to see all of her friends and it is so fun. Most of the primary children in our ward go to our school, too, so I get to see all of the kids in my primary. They are so sweet and always come over to say, "hi." I really love to be around these kids.

Back to things working out the way that they are supposed to. The job that I had applied for before, I now know was not the right job for me. I don't think that I would have enjoyed it nearly as much as I do my job as a Resource Tech. I wouldn't have been able to work so closely with the kids and I find that it is really fun and rewarding to do that. Hopefully I will still feel this way about my job when school gets out. It is great because I have the same days off as my kids and will be off all summer. What more could I ask for at this point in my life.

So, you may be wondering, what is Kate doing during the time Annalyse is at the school? Well, she goes to preschool two of the days and on Wednesdays I trade tending with my friend, Britney. Kate gets to play with her son, Blake, while I am at school and then I watch Blake for her for a little while after school. Kate loves Blake and they play really well together. So it works out great for Kate. On the other 2 days, Kate goes to daycare at my next door neighbor's house. At first, she was having a really difficult time. But now, she absolutely loves to go to Judy's house. I am so relieved. I was feeling really bad about leaving her. But when her and I were home all day together she missed Josie so much that is was really sad. I think now she is getting more playtime and she is liking it alot.

I have had to shuffle around alot of my responsibilities, but for the most part things have worked out pretty well. My primary presidency has been great to help out and work our meetings around our new schedule. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law Sharla are helping get Kate to preschool for me. I appreciate everyone that is helping me out and making it possible for me to take this job. I feel grateful to have this opportunity and hope that I can do a good job. These kids are really important and I really want to help them in any way that I can. One of the things that has been hard for me is not being able to go to lunch every once in a while with my friends. I always loved to do that and I am missing it a lot. Now I have to work around my schedule. But, I guess there is a time for everything and right now I get to spend lunch time with a lot of cute kids. How great is that?

Who knew going potty could be so tiring!!!

I had to take a picture of this. It was so funny. We couldn't find Kate anywhere in the house. I was getting a little nervous so I sent everyone running around the house trying to find her. This is what Steve found in the bathroom:

Apparently, Kate was so exhausted from going to the bathroom that she just laid down right on the bathroom floor to rest from the tiring event. She was so funny. She hadn't even flushed the toilet. I am curious to know if maybe she even fell asleep on the toilet and then just kind of fell to the ground. I guess we'll never know. Steve says that I shouldn't post this picture, but I think that it is so dang funny that I can't resist. So, I apologize to anyone who might be offended. It's amazing how kids really can sleep anywhere. I wish it were only that easy for adults.

We sure love our sweet Kate!!!