Josie's Birthday Party!

Josie had such a fun birthday. We woke up Friday morning and she got to open all of her presents from us before school. She was so excited to go to school. She had a great day and we took treats to her class. Then it was time for the big birthday party. She has honestly been planning this party since her last birthday. I am totally serious. She knew that she wanted to have a pajama party, watch High School Musical (3 came out just in time), have a pillow fight, eat pizza, have popcorn, play a few games and decorate cupcakes. She planned the entire thing. She was so glad that her day had finally come.

We decorated our front door so everyone could see that it was Josie's birthday. She loved this.

Here are all of the little girls eating pizza. She had them wear their pajamas and bring their favorite blanket and pillow. They were such a cute group of girls, very loud, but definitely cute.

Here is Josie opening all of her presents from her friends. They were all so excited for her to open their present to her. It was so sweet. Kate, of course, had to be in the middle of everything.

And, here is the pillow fight. The girls had an absolute ball doing this. I was worried that someone was going to get hurt, but they were laughing and having so much fun, I didn't make them stop. They were breathing hard and sweating when they were done. It was so funny.

All in all, I think the party turned out great for Josie. I always get worried about birthday parties, but I think the girls had a great time. I am glad that Josie has so many great friends. I hope that she had a great day.

Josie Mae - 7 years old!

Today is Josie's 7th birthday. I can't believe my little girl is already 7 years old. I can still remember so clearly the day that we found out that we were having a girl. Going into the ultrasound I was totally fine if it was another boy, but when they said that we were going to have a girl, I couldn't even believe how excited I was. We were so glad to have her become part of our family. Since the day that she was born she has brought all of us so much joy and happiness. She is the sweetest, happiest and funnest little girl.

Taylor and Brenden were so excited to have a little sister. This picture is so precious to me.

This is Josie's 1st Christmas picture.

It was sure fun to buy dresses and frilly clothes after having 2 boys.

This is Josie at 3 years old. She is such a pretty little girl.

I love this picture. Josie was hamming it up for the camera.

This was on the day Taylor was baptized.

Josie has always been the best big sister for Kate. Since Kate had to stay in the hospital for 8 days after she was born, Josie was so excited to finally have her home. I remember when we walked in the door with Kate for the first time Josie was squealing with excitement to finally have her baby sister home with us. It was so cute.

This is Josie when she was about 4. She looks so sweet.

I can't believe how much she has grown up since then.

Josie was so excited to be a witch when she was 5.

She thought she looked scary, I think she just looked cute.

Josie is such a special little girl. She honestly is like sunshine in all of our lives. She smiles constantly and is almost always happy. She has the best laugh that is totally contagious. She has so many friends and is a good friend to others. I am so proud of her and the amazing little girl she is. She is the best sister to Kate and is so patient with her. She lets Kate play with her stuff and even with her friends when they come over. She is a wonderful daughter and I am so grateful to be her mother. Happy Birthday, Josie! We love you!

Draper Temple Open House!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple Open House. It was so great. Steve wasn't feeling well so he didn't go with us but we went with my mom, Pat & Kelli and their kids, Sharla and her kids and Joe & Barbara. It was a really neat experience for the kids. They loved being able to go inside the temple and see all of the beautiful rooms. It was amazing. It is a really beautiful temple. Josie wanted a picture of her and I outside of the temple for her to put in a scrapbook that she has made. The pictures are kind of blurry, but you can still see the beautiful temple in the background.

This next picture was taken at the chapel next to the temple where they had some refreshments and some amazing pictures. I really loved this picture of Christ so we took a picture in front of it. It was a great day! I am so glad that we went. Taylor was so amazed by it that he decided that he wanted to go to the temple dedication which will be broadcast in our stake center. He and I went and met with the bishopric in our ward and got tickets for us to go. I think it will be a great experience for us both! We are so blessed to have so many temples so close to us!

Taylor's Science Fair!!!

Last Friday was Taylor's Science Fair. This is the 3rd year in a row that he has had to do a science project, so we were glad to get this one done. He worked on it with his friend, Taylor H (yes the same Taylor he had his head collision with). It was fun to work with his family and get this project done. It turned out pretty good and the boys were excited about it. They did a great job! During the science fair Taylor got more attention for his eye than he did for his project.

February 19th

Every year on February 19th (since that is the day that my dad died), my family gets together and meets at the cemetery, has dinner together and then does something fun together to honor him. This year we decided to go bowling at BYU, but when we got there the lanes were all reserved so we just hung out and let the kids play on the arcade games there. The kids really had a fun time and it turned out great anyway.

Harlem Globetrotters

A few weeks ago we took the kids to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the ESA. It was really fun. Even the girls really liked it alot. We went with our friends, the Rowleys, and the kids had a great time.

This picture was taken while they were doing YMCA. Josie really got into it. It was fun!

More Pictures of Taylor's eye!

Well, as the week went on Taylor's eye looked worse and worse. The swelling went down, but he was left with this horrible black and blue eye.

(I tried to flip this picture the right way, but everytime it uploaded blogger flipped it back! Annoying!

Taylor's Shiner

So, yesterday morning I was getting ready to head to the school when I got a phone call from the school telling me that Taylor had hit his head and I needed to come and get him and take him to the doctor. Well, considering that a month ago Taylor had 2 different head injuries within about a 4 day period which the doctor says gave him a couple of mild concussions. They made us keep Taylor out of everything (school, sports, everything) for an entire week to prevent him from hitting his head again, because he was worried that if he did it could cause pretty serious brain damage or worse. So, when I got this phone call, I may have freaked out just a little bit.

I ran to the school to find that Taylor hadn't hit his head, but got his eye pretty good. He was playing football and he and his friend Taylor H ran into each other. Taylor H also had a goose egg on his forehead, but this is what Taylor looked like when I saw him.

Pretty scary, considering his history. I ran him to the doctor and after the doctor checked him out, he decided that there was no head injury and that he was fine. Thank heavens. I was so worried about him. After his concussions, the doctor told me about this thing called Second Impact Syndrome. If your child has a head injury, DO NOT google this thing. It scared the crap out of me.

This is what Taylor looked like this morning. The swelling has gone down into his cheek and he definitely looks like he has some eyeliner on. He could hardly open it this morning. I told him that I am going to make him wear a helmet everywhere. I'm sure you can guess what his reaction was to that! What am I going to do with this kid? He hasn't had stitches or any broken bones, but he just likes to scare him mom to death with these little head injuries.

He is fine and went back to school right after the doctor yesterday. The doctor said that he could continue with all of his activities so he even went to baseball practice last night. He doesn't like everybody staring at him, but I guess he will have to deal with that until it gets better. It's hard not to stare at him. He looks pretty scary!

Wow, I can't believe it has been 6 years!

Six years ago today, my dad passed away. I can hardly believe that it has been so long since I have seen him. I miss him so much and wish that I could just talk to him, even for a minute. He was such a great dad and I love him so much. I am so grateful for all of the time I did get to spend with him and for the wonderful memories that I have. He was so good to me and my kids. I just didn't want today to go by without remembering him and recognizing him for the wonderful father that he was! I am so thankful to know that I can see him again someday! I love you, Dad!!!

Thank you!

I just wanted to end my posts of our vacation with a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with our kids while we were gone. Both of our moms did so much for our kids. Taylor and Brenden got the stomach flu while we were gone and Josie and Kate got colds. I know it was a ton of work for them to take care of our kids and I just want them to know how much I really appreciate them. I'm not sure if either of them even check this blog, but I just wanted to thank them for everything. The kids had a blast (even though they were sick) and have already asked when Steve and I are going again so that they can have their grandmas come and stay with them. We love you both so much!

Allyson, Kelli and Sharla also helped take the kids when they could and I have some great ladies in my neighborhood who pitched in. Cheralyn and Britney were so willing to help. I just hope that they all know how much I appreciate them. We are truly blessed to have so many people around us that are willing to help. We definitely could not have had such a great trip without all of these people.

So, thank you to everyone who helped. I hope you know how much we love and appreciate all you do for our family. You are all amazing!!!

Outdoor Adventure/Zip Line

On one of the days were were in Puerta Vallarta, we did an outdoor adventure excursion. We got to ride mules up the mountain, ride about 10 different zip lines and repel down a waterfall. It was SO much fun. If you ever get the chance to do something like this, you HAVE to do it. It was so amazing. Steve and I absolutely loved it. I was feeling really sick while we were doing this and still had an unbelieveable time.

Steve and I raced each other down one of the zip lines. They gave me an extra push and held Steve back and he still beat me. I thought I was going pretty fast, but they warned us that the men usually win. It was so fun.

This is us freefalling down this waterfall into some very COLD water. I couldn't believe how cold the water was. It totally gave you a shock to your system, but it was still really fun. The kids who took us on the excursion were way fun and made it even more entertaining. We met one guy who, after he found out we were from Utah, asked us if we were LDS. We told him we were and he told us that he was too and that he was just baptized about 6 months ago. He told us a little bit of his story and it was so neat. He was such a great kid and we were so glad that we were able to meet him.

We have a ton of pictures of this excursion but didn't want to put them all on here so they are on my facebook account if you want to see them.

Puerta Vallarta, continued

The sunsets were absolutely amazing from our hotel deck. I actually took this picture. It looks like it could be on a postcard. It was so beautiful.

We spent alot of time out at the pool. It was so great because we could just sit by the pool and they had people who just served drinks. We ordered pina coladas, bahamamas, copacabana's, and they were SO yummy. They were all non-alcoholic, of course. I think we were the only ones there who didn't drink, but it was really fun. I could totally get used to being served like that. And since it was an all-inclusive resort, we didn't have to pay for anything. That makes it even better.

This is another view from the lobby in our hotel. You could look out into the pool and then the beach was right there. It was absolutely beautiful!

I started getting sick a few days into the trip and realized that I probably had strep. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy being in a foreign country and being that sick. We took a taxi to a grocery store and picked up some great antibiotics, which immediately made me start feeling better. I am still not quite 100%, but am getting there. I am just glad that I was able to get my hands on some antibiotics without a prescription!

We took more pictures of the trip, but I just posted them on my facebook account instead of putting them all on here.

Trip to Puerta Vallarta

Steve and I had the chance to go to Puerta Vallarta this past week. We couldn't decide whether to take it or not because it is so hard to leave the kids and everything, but decided we would be dumb not to take this opportunity to go on vacation. I am so glad that we went. We had a few mishaps and the ordeal with Belle kind of put a damper on everything, but it was so worth it. We had such a great time. We stayed in a beautiful, absolutely amazing all inclusive resort, right on the beach. Our room was fabulous and the hotel was so great. We ate great food, met and hung out with really fun people and had some awesome adventures. And it was like 83 degrees the entire time. PERFECT!

This is Steve and I with our friends, Dirk & Trudy getting ready to hang out by the pool. We had never meet these guys before, but within a few minutes, it seemed like we had known each other forever. They were SO fun. We hung out with them almost the entire time, ate dinner, relaxed at the pool, got massages, went shopping, and did just about everything with them. They were so fun and made our trip even better. We hope that we will be able to keep in touch with them. We had alot in common and it was great to get to know them.

This is Steve and I just outside of a flea market near Puerta Vallarta. It was so hot that day. We didn't find too much to buy, but it was a fun experience anyway.

This is the view from the beach to our hotel. This hotel really was amazing. It had everything you needed. We hardly even had to leave it the entire time we were there. It was GREAT!

Belle, after Malea got her back!

Malea emailed me this picture of Belle that they took after the got her back. Hopefully she is not too traumatized by everything that has happened to her. I think we will appreciate her alot more and hopefully she will love being with us more, too.

Belle (our dog) is lost!

So, we just got back from vacation and although I have lots of things to do, I do not feel like doing any of that stuff so I thought I would update my blog and post some of the crazy things that have happened at our house in the last week or so.

Last Friday, Steve and I were trying to get ready to head out of town. A girl that works with Steve offered to take Belle while we were gone so our moms wouldn't have to worry about her while they were taking care of the kids. We got Belle all packed up and ready to go and we took the kids with us to Provo to drop her off. We were dumb and didn't really give Belle a chance to get to know them or their other dogs and we took off. About 15 minutes later they called us to tell us Belle is freaking out and doesn't want to go in their house. So we told them we would run in a store and be right back there. BIG MISTAKE. We should have ran right back there. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. We got back there about 20 minutes later and Belle had totally ran off. It was dark and freezing cold, not the best conditions for finding a little dog who had no idea where she was. We looked and looked and looked, no signs of Belle. We drove around for hours and did not find her. They kids started bawling and it finally hit me that we probably were not ever going to find her. It was too cold and she would probably freeze to death. We decided to take the kids home and get them to bed and then maybe we would go back over and look. However, once we got home we realized that we probably would not be able to find her in the dark. The only problem was we were leaving the next morning at 5 am to go on vacation. I cried and cried and cried. My eyes swelled up until they were huge and we hardly even slept that night. We got up in the morning and left on our trip, thinking that there really was no chance of getting her back.

This is a picture of our cute dog, Belle, we emailed it to the girl (Malea) who was watching her for us so she could make some flyers to put up around her house.

Malea made flyers and distributed them around her neighborhood, called animal control for us and did her best to find her. No luck. We emailed Malea everyday and there was no news. We thought for sure Belle was gone. On Wednesday night we finally got an email from her saying that someone had found her, fed her and made flyers to hang up saying she had found a cute little dog. While she was distributing the flyers, she came across Malea's flyer and called and Malea and her husband went and picked her up. YAY!!!!!! Belle is alive and well. Can you believe that? I am still in a little shock from the whole thing. We got home too late last night to pick her up, so Steve is picking her up from Malea's right now. The kids and I are so excited to see her. Stay tuned for pictures of the wonderful reunion with our cute dog. I am not a dog person, and neither is Steve, so it is a miracle that we even have a dog. I didn't realize how much we love Belle and what a great dog she has been for us.