Brian and Jessica

Guess What....

2011-11-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

We're

Yep!! We're expecting!!
The picture of the Prego jar is what I posted as my facebook profile picture to break the news to my friends! Ü

Brian and I keep it quite for awhile, just because we've had a couple miscarriages and stuff. Especially now that our kids are older we didn't want to get their hopes up and then something happen.
So when we finally told them, we decided to play hangman Ü

This is what it said once they figured it out Ü Maci was SO happy... She guessed it. I asked Kernan if he just heard what Maci said and he said, Ya! I asked him what he thought and he said, I'm happy! Ü

We took these cupcakes over to my family to tell them the exciting news! Ü

With all 4 of our kids we've told Brian's family on Brian's Dad's birthday! So why stop the tradition with this baby, right?! With the help of my awesomely talented friend Natalie we made this cake to take over to their house...

We had our ultrasound on the 28th of October, where we found out what we are having...
We didn't tell anyone about our appt.. Brian had taken that day off so we could celebrate our 10 year anniversary. So we went and picked the kids up from school and headed to the doctors office Ü
I had only told Natalie about our appt and she was willing to make cupcakes once we found out what it was to tell the rest of our family and friends!

When you took a bite of the cupcake... this is what was inside!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!
I was SO shocked! I have thought from the very beginning of this pregnancy that it was a boy! When the ultrasound tech told us, I was in total disbelief!
I'm still not 100% sure they're right, although her little ultrasound picture is VERY obvious!! Ü
Maci is SO excited!! Kernan growled when we found out, and even broke down in tears while we were in the waiting room, but I think he's better now, although he has told me that the next baby HAS to be a boy... We'll see about that Bub! Ü And Brian is having to figure out how he's going to make room for another Daddy's girl... because Maci is about the biggest one ever! Good thing they both have some time to figure that all out Ü

We had our ward trunk or treat that night. I had made this shirt earlier in the week and I was all ready to put a basketball on my baby, but instead I gave McKenna her first little bow! Ü I got so many complements on my shirt!!

Now I know you're going to ask, where did you get her name?
Well she will be named after this beautiful girl!!
Rylee McKenna

If you don't know, I grew up in Oregon. We moved to Arizona when I was 14. We had a family in OR that we were (and still are) very close with! The Miller Family...
This is their daughter, I baby sat her all the time!! Marcie (her Mom) worked from home and would have me come over and watch her so she could get her work done.
Their oldest son, Todd, is a year younger then me. I've always thought of him as a brother. In fact when we lived in OR and would go places with their family, people were surprised to find out that we in fact weren't related at all! Ü
Anyway, Rylee was always so close to me, I have so many memories of us watching The Lion King! We watched that movie SO many times! Her favorite book was Old Hat New Hat.. Both my kids have copies of that book and I can still read it by heart!
Well we moved to AZ in October of '98. I went back to OR for a visit the day after Christmas, I ended up getting the flu and changed my flight back to AZ to go home sooner. My last memory of Rylee was her crying as her Mom dropped me off at the airport, she was saying "I GO ZEKAKA!" (she couldn't say Jessica very well, I was Zekaka) She said it over and over.
Well 6 months later we got a call telling us that Rylee had drowned in their backyard pond and was being flown to Portland, she held on for nearly 2 weeks. She needed to be put on a lung bypass machine which meant she wouldn't be able to talk anymore, her last words to her Mommy were, "I go home now" Little did we know she meant her home with Heavenly Father. We drove up to OR for her funeral, one of the most spiritual meetings of my life!
When we lost Broc, Marcie was one of the first people I wanted to talk to! Although I didn't have 2 years with Broc, I knew she would know what I was feeling. I remember her and I just crying on the phone. It didn't matter, it was so good to have her and I was and still am, so thankful to know that Rylee is up in heaven with Broc!
So there ya have it... We're pregnant again! Totally thought we were done! It's a girl and her name is McKenna Rylee!! Ü Now I just wish it were April and this was over!! I was known to tell many that I didn't want to be pregnant again, I just wanted a baby... that statement is still true!! But it's a blessing and I need the next 5 months to come to terms with it being a girl and get stuff ready to have a baby again! We don't have a THING!! But we're all very excited! Ü

Halloween 2011~

2011-11-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

Halloween this year was fun, but not the same... We missed Hurricane and my Grandparents street!! But we had fun anyway Ü

Kernan wore his awesome Halloween shirt to school the day of... His sister doesn't think it's so awesome! Ü

They made these cute hats in class that day

Here is our Indiana Jones... His Daddy got him all ready! He even drew chest hair on him! Kernan loved that!

Minnie Mouse and Indy...

Such a cute Minnie Mouse! My Mom and I made her and Jaxin's tutu's (I got NO pictures of her and Jaxin together... :( waa!)

Harper was Minnie too...

I think he was trying to get her to smile, I don't really remember. I just thought this pictures was so cute!! He loves Harper!

We went to two trunk or treats... and our kids only wanted to walk down two streets and then they wanted to go back and help hand out candy!! Brian and I were fine with that! We always end up throwing away candy anyway, so why get a ton?! Ü
Kernan already is saying what he wants to be next Halloween and the Halloween after that!! I'm sure it'll change several times!! Lol!!
Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween!!

Disneyland... Last Trip of the Year

2011-11-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

We went to Disneyland the end of September beginning of October... Our last trip of the year! Our passes expired 3 days after we got home!! So SAD!!

I love Disneyland at Halloween time!!

Kernan sporting his Aviator hat and glasses, right after we rode one of our favorites, Goofy's Sky School Ü Cutest pilot ever... if I do say so myself!

The Pin Traders... Our kids would spend forever here! Looking at all the cool pins! We were smart this trip and ordered 50 pins off Ebay and took those for them to trade! They had so much fun doing that!!

Here's what Maci's lanyards looked like by the time we were headed home! She still wants more!!

Toy Story Mania!! Another one of our favorites!

We got to ride on the Lilly Belle... It's a private car that you have to ask to ride on! It just happened to be going around on our last day so we asked to ride on it! Lillian is Walt Disney's wife and she decorated the inside of the car, no one from the public used to be allowed in it, it was saved for VIP people. Until the 50 year celebration and then they decided to open it up to limited passengers.. You get on at the Main St Station and ride all the way around the park. One of the train engineers rides along and gives you some history and makes sure no one steals anything Ü It was SO cool!

Kernan LOVES going to Downtown Disney and playing in the Lego store! I have to remind him that we are at Disneyland and we need to go ride some rides, not play with Legos!! He'd stay here all day if I'd let him!

Showing off his HUGE bag! His souvenir this trip was the accessories to Indiana Jones... That is who he wanted to be for Halloween!

I still can't believe our year of Disneyland is over!! We had so much fun! In case you couldn't tell in the last year, we LOVE Disneyland!! Ü

A decade...

2011-10-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

10 years ago today I married my BEST FRIEND!!

It's been the best 10 years of my life! I wouldn't want to walk this journey of life with anyone else!

Brian and I have been through a lot in our decade of marriage, some things people never have to go through in their lifetime. I know that I wouldn't have gotten through it all without my ROCK by my side!

It's been a crazy ride these past 10 years... I can't wait to see where the next 10 take us! But I know one thing, I wouldn't want to travel it with anyone else!

I LOVE YOU HANDSOME!!

Thanks for an amazing, wonderful, blessed 10 years!! You're the Greatest and I'm the Luckiest!!

Labor Day Camping Trip...

2011-09-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day we went camping with the Davis family Ü They have their annual Fleming family reunion and we just joined in this year! As well as Jeremiah and his kids...

It was a lot of fun! Very dirty but the kids had a blast, that's all the matters, right?!

They had a little shop where the kids could buy toys for .01, .05, .10 and .25! Such a good idea!
This is one of the things Maci got...

The boys with their toys

Another of Maci's purchases...

Callie bought a sucker, her nose really enjoyed it as well! haha

One of Jason's cousins brought her horse up with her. She gave all the kids who wanted to a ride! This was Maci's first time ever on a horse!

She loved it! She loves all animals!

Jaxin came up camping with us... She also got a turn on the horse.

On Sunday morning they have a testimony meeting as a family... Here are the three amigos during church...

Although it was VERY dirty, the soft dirt really kept the kids occupied!

They sure got filthy though!!

Miss Laine! This was actually pretty clean for her! She was practically swimming in the dirt!

They have a horseshoe tournament between the family members...
Brian teamed up with Jason's Dad, Alan...

Jason and Jeremiah were a team... Neither of them made it to the finals but they had a fun time anyway!

Bode and Kernan were off "exploring" and while doing so came back with a horny toad they had caught! Here they are showing all the kids Ü

They were pretty proud boys!

Laine, this was pretty much how dirty she was all the time! Ü

All our kids, waiting for dinner

Look at how dirty this little boy is!! Didn't bother him in the least bit though! I gave him a wipey bath before bed both nights... He would have rather just gone to bed this messy!! Yuck!

The trip had a sad ending... Poor Laine was the victim of a young girl's bad aim by the horse shoe pit!
She was pretty far away from it but the girl just threw it completely wrong! Jeremiah was sitting on the benches near the pit with Laine right in between his legs, the girl shouted look out and right as Jer looked up, he watched the horse shoe hit Laine in the head! Thankfully she's ok! She had to get 6 stitches but otherwise she's a tough girl! Thank heavens!!

We can't wait to go up with the Davis family again next year! We had a lot of fun! Thanks again for the invite guys!! Love you!

Back to School!

2011-09-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe that I'm sitting here in a quiet house because both my kids are in school right now! It's so sad!

Here's my Kindergartener, just before we were leaving for the first day of school, with Blankie in hand Ü

Our big 4th Grader

My school kids... :(

Our Kindergartener!

I love this picture!

But Kernan was tired of looking up, that darn sun can be pretty bright!

Walking to school... I love these two!

Family Picture Ü
After this, our big kid went to her class with Grandma while Daddy and I went with Kernan

Finding his cubby

Sitting at his desk

Then Mrs. Lawrence read a book, after the book the parents had to leave... We totally should have left before the book!

She read "The Kissing Hand" I had really been holding it together all morning. I prayed and prayed that I would be able to hold it together in front of Kernan... Well it's a good thing I was standing in the back of the room, I totally started crying while his teacher read the book!!
But we hugged and kissed good bye and walked home... Then Brian left for work, and I had a GOOD cry and have been fine ever since!

About the 4th day of school, this is what I was asked to bring in the car when I went to pick Kernan up... Blankie and his two cars. Ü

Kernan really likes school, his teacher is so good! His favorites so far our PE with Coach Cooper and of course, every kids favorite, Recess Ü
Although, he's been struggling the last week or so, last Monday he didn't want to go. When I went to drop him off he was crying and didn't want to get out of the car!
So I brought him back, put him in his pj's and in bed. He cried in there for 20 mins before changing his mind and wanted to go back.
Then on Thursday he told us he wanted to be 4 again so he wouldn't have to go to school anymore!
Hopefully it's just a stage! He has a LONG school life ahead of him!

Disneyland July 2011

2011-09-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm finally getting to our latest Disneyland trip Ü We went for 5 days this trip and it was SO fun!! When isn't it totally fun?! My Mom, the kids and I left early and then my Dad and Brian even joined us for the last few days!!

Here is a glimpse at one of the peaceful moments on our way there... Ü

Yep, all of them asleep at once! Ü Kernan is in the way back, that's why the picture isn't the best...

Loaded and all ready to head to the park!
Love this stroller!!

First thing we did, was wait in line to meet Rapunzel! She's Maci's favorite and is in very high demand! This is a picture from my phone... I felt rushed! Ü

One of our favorite hidden Mickey's! Any guess as to where you can find this?!

I let the kids take the camera while they rode the train around to Tomorrowland...

Waiting for the Asimo show...

Such a cool robot! Technology is really amazing!!

Splash Mountain!! Ü

While waiting in line for Pirates, I got pictures of everyone Ü

Kernan took this picture of me! Not to bad of a photographer!

Kernan loves the Gadget Go Coaster back in Toon Town! This was the best picture I got! haha!

The Teacups, none of us ever ride this, unless Brian is there and willing! It causes us to feel like how Stockton is acting! Ü

My Mom bought me this souvenir this trip... He looks SO cute sitting on my red couch!

Kernan was tuckered out by 7! So we called it a day and headed back to the hotel, got some yummy Del Taco for dinner and let the kids swim

We were so excited to see the Phienas and Ferb show in California Adventure! Kernan wore his sweet Ferb socks for the occasion!

Picture of Ferb with Kernan's Ferb socks...

The new front entrance of California Adventure...

The characters from UP are now in the Grizzly Wilderness... UP is Jaxin's favorite movie!

Waiting in line for Goofy's Sky School, Kernan had to get his "upside-down time" in Ü

Riding Grizzly River... I'd say this has got to be the kids favorite! They spend more time on this ride going over and over! Kernan wanted to get wet while we were waiting for the kids so we went down to watch them go down the waterfall... This is the BEST video!! Ü

We spent a lot of time in the Animation Academy, learning how to draw the characters!

The Dads got to us!! Yay!!

Playing in the splash pad in Bug's Land... I love how he's holding his nose as he runs through it!

So the Phineas and Ferb only showed Friday- Tuesday so we missed them the day all the kids were in the cute shirts, but at least we got to see them at all!! Ü

Kernan going out and dancing the "Robot" with them...

Group Photo

Kernan loved the Jumpin' Jellyfish ride! I call it the Preschool Tower of Terror Ü
He got his Daddy to ride along with him...

Then he got Grandpa to go with him!

And then Grandma's turn!

Saturday's during the summer our passes don't allow us into the park.. So we took a day trip to Hollywood...

We drove by the Los Angeles Temple, kinda by accident Ü It's a very pretty temple!! (then again, which one isn't?!)

After our day in Hollywood, we went to my Great Gram and Aunt Ginna's house... Kernan loves going to Gram's house! He loves to play with all her toys! Ü In fact, he always asks when we're on our way home if we can go to Gram's before we head home! Ü I love that my kids are going to have wonderful memories and just remember their Great- Great- Gram!

Here's a quick snap shot I took of my Great Gram as we were leaving, 98 years young!! I love love love this lady!!

And Kernan got some upside down time again while we were at their house! Ü

Our last day at Disneyland for this trip.. Kernan shooting with Grandpa

I am the luckiest girl to have this amazing guy stand by my side everyday!! He's a hottie!!

On our way home, we saw a double rainbow! The bottom one we could see end to end! It was amazing!

So there's the recap of our July Disney trip... We're headed there again in 29 days! Yes, be jealous! Ü

Our Summer happenings... Besides Disneyland

2011-08-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

So my kids are in school... I'm a loser sitting at home by myself! Ü But I have time to get caught up on blogging now! haha!

Besides our 2 trips to Disneyland this summer (blogging about the second one will be up in a couple days) We've had a pretty low key but fun summer! One thing that has happened this summer is, I got an iPhone! If you know me well you know I LoVe my MacBook computer! I should get paid for how highly I talk about Apple and tell everyone I know to get one! When Verizon finally got the iPhone I was SO excited!! This commercial is SO me!

I decided with rumors of the iPhone5 coming out just 4 months after, I'd be a little bit more patient and wait for that! Well, the time of the iPhone5 coming out got pushed back farther and farther...

Then they came out with the WHITE iPhone4 and I just couldn't wait any longer!!
Isn't it BeAuTiFuL?!

Thankfully my contract was up so I was able to go get one for myself! And I'm in LOVE!!

Here's one last commercial I just have to share!!

So why am I going on and on about my iPhone?! Well because it's brought a strange turn of events to my picture taking this summer... I don't hardly ever carry my nice camera! All these pictures from our summer are from my iPhone! Ü I told you I'm in love! haha! Ok, onto the pictures and stories of our summer...
Kernan LOVES when Daddy gets his dirt bike out and runs it for a minute... It usually means that Kernan gets a ride! I love this picture of my boys!

We've been able to meet up with our best friends the Helms a couple times this summer! I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog, the Helms are our friends we made while we still lived in Hurricane... Well we both moved to AZ the same time! Only down side is they're on the opposite side of the valley! But we've both decided that the opposite side of the valley is better then still being in Hurricane! Ü
Kernan and Kameryn are the bestest of buddies!!

Cooper

The kids up high in the tunnel above us, Kameryn, Maci, Kernan, Cooper and Jaxin

Last month we met up at a splash pad and let the kids play for awhile...

I love these next two pictures! We hadn't been home for more then 3 days from our Disneyland trip in June and Kernan was already mapping out what rides we'd go on when we went on our next trip!

He even hung the two parks maps on the fridge and would study them often!

Every trip we take to the mall includes a stop at the Apple store, or as we refer to it,
"The Most Beautiful Store in the Mall!"
I wish they did child care! I know Kernan would sit here and play on the computer the entire time we shopped!! I love my little Apple boy!

Is it just me or has there been some GOOD movies out this summer?!
We saw Cars 2... Love it!

Here's a quick video of Kernan with a quote from the first Cars movie...

To translate he's saying: "The cutest little town in carburetor canyon"

Brian and I went and saw the new Transformers movie, when we came home and Kernan realized where we had gone he wanted me to take him back! So I'm a sucker and did! Yep, I spent 5.5 hours at the theater that day! Ü But it made my boy happy and was SO worth it! Good thing it's a good movie!
Here he is holding both his Bumblebee Cars in front of a REAL Bumblebee car! Remember the story of him being scared of my Mom's Camero? Well he's since gotten over that, but I don't think we'd ever get him in a YELLOW one! He thinks that they really will Transform!

We've played a LOT of Wii this summer! Here is Kernan doing his morning Yoga on Wii Fit!

This kid is SO funny!! He watches tv and movies UPSIDE DOWN!! I've never seen a kid spend more time on their head then our kid does!!

Here was my view from the kitchen... Silly kid!

A couple cute pictures of Harper Ü
I bought her a couple cute shirts...

I'm telling you, her shirts speak the truth!! She LOVES me! Ü No really I'm not lying!
Here her and Kernan are sharing a stroller ride at the mall last week...

Another thing we've done a LOT of this summer is swimming! Kernan has really learned a lot in that area this summer! I love this picture of him and Kolby!!

The night I took the above picture this child did not want anything to do with getting his face wet!! If you took his floaties off he'd cling to you like a leech! Ü
Here is the same kid the next day... He does things on his own time I'm telling ya!

We spent some time swimming at Poppy's Pool...

After the boys were done with swimming they'd dry off while riding the quad around the backyard...

LOVE this blackmail picture of Trevor! hehe!

We've been enjoying a fun Monsoon season this summer too! I'm convinced that Heavenly Father gives us Arizonians Monsoon season to keep us here through the heat!

The kids have loved going out and playing in the rain!

One night a few weeks ago while enjoying a Monsoon storm, Brian decided it would be a good time to give Kernan a hair cut... Gotta love garage hair cuts! Ü
Here is a before shot! Yikes!

And that pretty much sums up our summer of 2011! I still have pictures from our last Disneyland trip to share and then it's 1st day of school pictures!! I still can't believe I have a Kindergartner, or the fact that I am home alone during the day, but the deafing quiet that is in my house right now proves that I indeed am!

Fourth of July~

2011-07-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July was a laid back one this year! It was really nice!

We went swimming in the early afternoon and then had my family and some friends over for a BBQ in our front yard. We had a perfect view of the city fireworks from our driveway! Ü

All the pictures I took from that day are from my cell phone... I've taken most of my pictures this summer on that... kinda sad, but it's just so convenient! Ü I'll post more about that later...
Watching the city fireworks, these guys were all to excited for the fireworks we bought to set off that I don't think they really paid attention to the city fireworks! Ü

Kernan kept a tight grasp on these!

Who knows what these two were talking about, possibly which ones they wanted to light up first?!

Boys!! They are just born pyromaniacs! Natalie and I are going to make sure we keep this picture so that one day when they're lighting the fireworks for their boys we can show it to them! Ü

Sparklers!

Harper wasn't so sure about them Ü

Best Buddies Ü

It was a fun day! Thanks to everyone that came over! Ü

Disneyland June 2011~

2011-07-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

Summer is HERE!! With that means Disneyland! Our first trip was in June and our next trip is in a week!! We have LOVED having season passes this year!
Poor Rusty, he wanted to go with us this trip! He was trying his hardest to get in the back and ride along!

For my birthday/mother's day present we got a new stroller! It's SO nice! Here it is fully loaded and ready for our first day at the park! Ü

Kernan was being such a ham for the camera!

Checking the hidden Mickey book while waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion...

Love this shot!

We were waiting for the new Summer Soundsational Parade... Kernan wanted to take a picture of us sticking out our tongues and send it to Daddy...

Kernan rode his first roller coaster, the Gadget Coaster in toon town... He LOVED it! That's the first ride we wants to go do when we go this month!

We watched the fireworks that first night, within 5 minutes of them being done, he was in a coma!!

Goofy, Kernan's favorite!!!

We were watching the kids go down Grizzly River, every time the geyser would go off and get a raft he would laugh.. It was a real evil laugh! I'm going to try and get it on video this next time! He had everyone around us laughing at him!

I think this was round 4... I'm not sure how many rounds they did this trip 8 or 9.

Maci's favorites!

We got to ride The Little Mermaid ride for the first time this trip, he had only been open for a week. It is an AWESOME ride!

One of the fun parts of having season passes is we're getting into the history of Disneyland, Mom and I have both read Walt Disney biographies and when we go this time, we're going to go find his burial plot and his studio! This is the bench Walt was sitting on when he came up with the thought to build Disneyland!! Isn't that awesome!! If you want to see it next time you're at Disneyland it's inside the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln on Main Street!

I finally got to meet Mary Poppins and Burt!!! I was SO excited!!

We rode the Mark Twain Riverboat.. We had never done that before!

Of course Splash Mountain!! My Favorite!

Toy Story Mania was our last ride, we went to a few shops to get last minute souvenirs and didn't get on the road home until 5! None of us wanted to leave!!

Of course Ferb was along for the trip! Here he is hanging out with Maci's souvenirs, Chip and Dale! Ü

Once again, we had a blast!! Can't wait for next week! Brian and my Dad are even coming for a part of it!! Yay!!

Harper!

2011-07-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

When we went and took pictures for the announcements, we also took a bunch of pictures of Harper! She's such a good little model! Ü Here are some of my favorites!

Love this little girl!! Seriously! Ü

The Peterson's Get Sealed~ For Time and All Eternity

2011-07-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm behind again... I just haven't been in a blogging mood. It's a lot of work! But I better update soon otherwise my Gram will be calling and we don't want to be worrying her! Ü Hi Gram!

So my brother and his sweet family were sealed last May! Here are some pictures we took of them for their announcement...

The FOREVER family coming out of the temple!

The girls doing their bridesmaid duties! Ü

Our family that was able to make it for their special day... This is my Mom's entire family! It was so neat for them all to be there!

They had their reception in my parents backyard. My Mom did such an amazing job!! Here are some detail shots...

Candy Table... Mmmm!

My sweet friend Natalie made the cupcakes and cake for them... They were to DIE for!! I'm still craving them! If you're in the market for cupcakes or a cake she's your girl! She does amazing work!

Kolby is going to kill me for putting this one on here.. I LOVE it! Ü

This shot was their idea!! Ü

I was my brother's Best "wo"Man! Notice my sweet top hat?!

She is getting so big!!

We of course had to get a picture like this!

I LOVE my brother!!

It was such a beautiful day! Thanks to everyone that was able to come and support them! I know it meant a lot to them! I'm so proud of my brother and his cute family!

Jaxin's Cheer Competition

2011-05-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, Jaxin and her cheer squad had their big competition for the district!

The night before they had theirs though, their boys football team was playing for first place in the district and the girls were of course there cheering for them!

The girls with their sign...

The boys WON!! First in the district!

Next day was the girls turn...

Dancing to some music... I'm sure they were all trying to forget about their nerves! Ü

Getting ready for the "Pom" routine...

They did a show and pom routine, the Pom was my favorite!!

Waiting for the "overall" results... They won 2nd for their Show routine and 1st for their Pom routine... The other school that was their "biggest" competition won 1st for Show and 2nd for Pom, so it came right down to the scores for the different routines!! It was a 2 point difference!

We were the ones with the extra 2 points!! Yep, they WON!! It was SO exciting!!

Jaxin and Coach Trest

Jaxin with the trophy!! Ashton Ranch has now taken 1st place for cheer 4 years in a row!!

Off to get her a Sonic lunch to celebrate... She had to sit in the back of the Camaro! Ü

It was so much fun to go watch her cheer all year, and them winning was just the BEST!! Can't wait to do it all again next year!!

Congrats Jaxin!! So proud of you!!! Ü

April 30th~ 6 years~ A Day to Remember~

2011-04-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

As I sat down to write an entry for today, I thought... I still REALLY like what I wrote last year! Ü I'm not sure I can top it today!

So instead I thought we'd take a look back at all my entries on "Broc's Days"

2 years 4/30/07 3years 4/30/08 4 years 4/30/09

And Last Year... 5 years! Reposted below...
Although it never gets any easier as this day rolls around every year (which it does, every year) I'm so blessed in my life!! Happy Broc Day Baby Boy!! We Love You and are SO thankful you're a part of our eternal family!!! Your sister and brother love you so much and are SO excited to go get your balloons and let them go for you today! Love you and Miss you everyday!!
~Mommy

Why Am I a Photographer?!
I get asked this a lot... And today is a good day to answer that question.

5 years ago today...

My Husband and I faced the biggest challenge we have yet to face, and I hope it's the hardest we ever have to face...
5 years ago today we held our sweet angel boy Broc for the FIRST and LAST time on this Earth.
On Friday April 29, 2005 I was 37 weeks pregnant with our first little boy, we were SO excited!
I woke up that morning feeling contractions but by 10:30 I realized I hadn't felt him move.
I didn't panic. (I'm not a worrier)
I just took the day slowly, by 5:30 I decided to call the nurse...
I didn't hear back from her until 6:30,
when I told her what was going on, she suggested I go to the hospital and get checked out.
So off we went...

That night I heard something that I hope to never hear again,
"Jessica, I am so sorry."
In that instant I knew he was gone.
Broc Christopher Mandile
April 30, 2005

He was perfect.
He is perfect.
And that is why he is gone.
He is too perfect for this earth.
I must admit, I'm jealous.
He will have no trials.
He will have no saddness.
He will have no fears.
i'm jealous.
He is HAPPY.
He is PERFECT.
He is OURS.
I can't wait to hold him again one day.
Families Are Forever.

So why am I telling you about him?!
Because HE is the reason I am a Photographer.

When I was 32 weeks pregnant, I had Maternity pictures taken.
I remember people thinking that was weird.
It was still the "new" thing to do.
I'm so thankful I did them.

Then I have the pictures of my perfect baby boy.
That my sweet friend that took my maternity pictures touched up for me.
She made them perfect.
Just. Like. Him.

And my DEAR friend Melanie, who took my Maternity pictures, and touched up the ones of Broc.
Came to the funeral to take pictures.

I cherish
every. single. one.

Pictures are all I have to remind me of my sweet boy.
Pictures.
this is my Dad... one of my favorite pictures of all time!

And that is why I am a Photographer.
I want to make sure families have pictures to remember all the times in their lives.
In the end,
sweet baby noises will be forgotten
silly things kids say, sadly we won't remember
your wedding flowers will be dead
and you'll forget the feeling of your Grandma's hands.
But if we have pictures of all of that, we'll remember.
I promise you that.
For me, 5 years ago, feels like yesterday.
Because I have pictures to remind me of the emotions.
I'm so grateful for that.

I hope I give that to every family I photograph.
That is why I am a Photographer.

If you'd like to hear Broc's story in more detail, I'm always willing to talk about him! Just ask!! Ü

See DISNEYLAND POST..

2011-04-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that my post about Disneyland never posted!!

So click here to go read it! Ü

DISNEYLAND MARCH 2011

Maci turns 9!?!?

2011-04-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm old enough to say I have a nine year old!! It's just crazy! Kids grow up way to fast!!
Here's her loot that morning... The big box was the one I was most excited for her to open!!

Her day started with dough nuts for breakfast... then I left and went and picked up one of her bestest friends... Chase! Maci and Chase have been friends since they were in nursery together! Ü
We took the girls to see Soul Surfer... such a GREAT movie!! If you haven't seen it you really need to go check it out!

Then we came home and her and Chase got to play all day long, later that night we had Pizza and Cupcakes... Natalie made these super cute and oh so YUMMY "Tangled" cupcakes for her! I love the frying pans!!

Then it was present time! Here she is opening the big one!!

Which had a smaller box inside.. time to open it!

Oh shoot, another box!?!

And then another! She was nice and let her Brother help her open that one!

What's inside it??

A ticket to the Taylor Swift concert!! Yay!!!

Singing Happy Birthday

I told her to make a wish... she was having a hard time coming up with a wish!! Ü Maybe because she already got everything she would have wished for!! haha!

Taking her new bike for a spin...

Later that night her, Jaxin and Chase played truth or dare! They were so funny!! I think she had a GREAT day!! I can't believe she'll be in the "double digits" next year!! Yikes!

My Baby Turns 5!

2011-04-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

I seriously can not believe Kernan is FIVE years old! He was just a baby, wasn't he?!?

Well... he's not a baby any longer!
Here's a picture of his loot Ü

He requested French Toast Sticks for breakfast...
funny side story about those... he refused to eat them just the week before, but I made him try them. I told him he couldn't have anything else for breakfast until he at least tried them! He ended up eating 6 that day!! He said as he was eating them, "You were right Mom, these are good!! They're not disgusting like I thought!" Ü
Who would have thought that would be his birthday breakfast request?? haha

During the day, we went and saw HOP... wasn't the best movie but oh well!
That night he wanted Red Robin! It's his favorite!!

Chowing down on Grilled Cheese... or "Big Toast" as he calls it Ü

Kernan with his bestest friend Kameryn! So glad our families moved to the Valley of the Sun together! Even if we live on the complete opposite side of the Valley!! Ü

Here they come to sing to him! He doesn't like the attention! Everytime I'd say Happy Birthday he'd tell me to stop! So I was worried how he'd react to them singing!

Just being his usual shy self!

He sure enjoyed the whip cream of his birthday ice cream though!

After dinner we headed to our house, more friends came and joined us for presents and cake!

It's blurry... but he's SO excited for his new YELLOW crocs he gave them a hug!

Phineas and Ferb underwear!!

New Train!

We got him an entire new track set to go with the ones he's already got! He was in heaven! I'm amazed at how much this kid LOVES his geo trax!

A BIG kid bike!

The Wall E cake my Mom and I made... he requested Phineas and Ferb decorations with a Wall E cake! Ü

SO Happy!

Seriously, I still can't believe he's 5!!
So thankful for that little boy in our family! He's a goof and is always keeping us laughing!
Kernan's Favorite Things @ the age of 5...
Favorite Color: Yellow
Favorite Food: Macaroni and Cheese
Favorite Song: Black and Yellow
Favorite Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite Friend: Kameryn
Favorite Ride at Disneyland: The Haunted Mansion
Favorite Drink: Strawberry or Chocolate Milk
Favorite Toy: Geo Trax Trains
Favorite TV Show: Phineas and Ferb
It seriously took me like 30 mins and bribing him to get him to answer these few questions!! Little Stinker!

"He Is Risen"

2011-04-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

“In our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: ‘He is not here: for he is risen.’"

Disneyland March 2011

2011-04-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Once again here are our pictures from a FUN trip to Disneyland!

Do you all ever get tired of seeing these?! Oh good cuz I'm not gonna stop them! Ü
Here's our family on Day 1... with Ferb too! Of course!

The Tiki Room is one of Kernan's favorites!! It's one of the original rides that were there on opening day! I'm really getting into Disneyland history now that we go so often! Ü We went for the first time in December when it was raining so bad! I can't believe we had never gone before! This trip we went 2 or 3 times! Kernan will sing the song out of the blue all the time! He loves it!

Here is ONE of Maci's favorite rides, she has many!
Grizzly River!

Day Two... we're in line for Alice in Wonderland
Kernan was being a ham!

Maci, with a jolly rancher in her cheek Ü

In line at It's a Small World... I love this boy!!

Our Goof's

We went to Pirate Island the kids loved it!

If you turn the wheel a surprise pops out of the water... see next picture.

Yikes! A skeleton, he REALLY wants that treasure!

I have a picture of Kernan sitting in this exact spot when he was like 18 months old!! I can't find it for the life of me right now!! But I'll keep looking and post it when I do!

The only charater we took a picture with the entire trip this time... Of course, our favorite!
Goofy!

We got Kernan to agree to go on Grizzly River!! As long as he had the poncho on he was ok with it!

Everyone but Mom, Kernan had her poncho, otherwise she would have been on too! Next time we'll remember more of our ponchos!

My boys... I just love those two!!
Watching the kids go on the Grizzly River A.G.A.I.N!

What happens when you ride Grizzly River, who knows how many times because I lost track?! You get DRENCHED!! Plus you're cold for the rest of the day!!

We watched "Fantasmic" for the first time too! I love having year passes! We do so many things "new" every time because we're not rushing to do the things we really want to do every visit!!
This show was awesome!! I didn't take very many pictures because I was way into watching it, but here's a couple...

This is a new sign that is out between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure... I LOVE it! It's classic Disney and I love classic Disney!

The "three amigos" Ü

Maci being "Goofy"

Mine and Stockton's birthdays were the next week so we both got Birthday buttons on this trip and took a picture in the birthday hats. Not the best picture of me but it was cute of Stockton! haha!

Kernan being "Goofy"! I love my kids!

On Jungle Cruse with Ferb

This was Stockton's souvenir of choice this time...

Buzz Lightyear Ride!

This is one of Eric's favorite rides so we were sure to get many pictures of Ferb playing it for him! Ü

Later that night we did another "new" thing... we went and watched the Michael Jackson's "Captain EO" show.

Ferb enjoying it as well..

Picture outside the Lego store in Downtown Disney... Kernan could spend hours in that store putting together different inventions! He's a big builder of legos and Geotracks! Brian and I predict that he'll be an engineer of some kind!

So that was a recap of our March Trip... Next Disney trip planned for May!! Ü

I'm getting caught up! Next up... Kernan's 5th Birthday! Can you believe he's 5?!?!?

Harper Gets Her Ears Pierced!

2011-04-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

In March Kolby and Jourdan took Harper to get her ears pierced and we went along! I love when little girls have their ears pierced!!
Such a happy little girl!

No clue as to what it is about to happen to her! Ü

Mom though, she looks a little nervous for her!

Yikes! Poor baby!

Don't worry, Auntie Jessica knows that Pepsi makes it ALL better!!

And look how pretty her pretties are!! Ü

Jaxin's a Cheerleader!

2011-04-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

And we're her fan group! Ü

Jaxin tried out for cheer at school this year and made it! We've had so much fun going and watching her at her games! Plus I've been like the "cheer sister" I made them all matching bows, and took their pictures!
Here are some we took just in my parents backyard

In action at the basketball games...

Kernan likes to go watch her! He can spell "rowdy" because of one of her cheers!! See video below!

At the end of each basketball game and football game the girls go out and the team run under their poms Ü

Here's a couple pictures from their team photos I did

I need to get some pictures of her cheering at the football games too!

Kolby's Wedding~ February 4th

2011-04-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

Way back in February (yes that's how far behind I am!!) my parents, Kolby and I went up to ID for my brother's wedding and reception... It was cold, but we had a good time! Kolby took us around to some of his areas he served his mission and showed us around.
Here we are on the airplane... my parents sat in a different row... they were embarrassed to be seen with us! We were on a roll! Ü

This waterfall is right in the middle of downtown Spokane... It's amazing! I can't wait to see it in the spring/ summer sometime! haha!

We went and got Gooies from the Coeur d'alene Resort... They are SO good! My mouth is watering right now!
Here is the quick side story about Ferb in my pictures... Eric has a Phineas that is on his mission with him and we have a Ferb.. we're taking pictures of them on all our adventures while he's gone, so it's the "adventures of Phineas and Ferb" Ü

The Coeur d'alene floating green! I've played this hole many times on our xbox!! Ü It was so exciting to see it in person!

The Wedding!!!
Who knows what my Dad just said to Kolby... we can only guess! Ü

A happy family!

Jourdan with her parents...

The next day we went to Coeur d'alene again... got gooies, and walked around downtown.

Dad had to take a shot at the floating green!

That afternoon was Harper's first birthday party... the birthday girl!

I love this picture! She is so adorable!

Cake time!

Loved it!

Nice and dirty!! Ü

The Reception...

Harper looked so pretty!

Our familia... my Gram and Grandpa Peterson were able to come for the wedding too.

Aww... I wuv my wittle brother!!

On our way to the airport I noticed that the state highways in Washington our George Washington's head!! I thought that was SO weird!! Ü

Alright, that's the recap on the wedding... they're getting sealed in the Mesa Temple on May 14th! So exciting!

Still alive...

2011-04-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... It's be FAR to long!! I don't even know where to start! I have so much to blog about! I mean 2 months worth, shoot!!

I'll try to get caught up here in the next week, only because I'll just be drowning even more in unupdated going ons! Both the kids birhtdays are in the next week and half... Oh so behind!!

But I just wanted to pop in here and let anyone that was wondering know, we are still alive!!

And because we all know blog posts are useless without pictures, here's one from our Disneyland trip in March Ü

Mini Golf Open

2011-02-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

Last month Brian signed Kernan up for a "Mini Golf Open" here in Surprise...
Then last minute he ended up having to go out of town over the weekend so Grandpa stepped in and went as Kernan's Caddy!
Here's our little golfer Ü

Nice form... and I'm sure the tongue helped! He gets that from his Daddy!

Here he is after he got home, he won for "best dressed"! His Daddy was so proud, he picked out his clothes for him before he left! Ü Kernan LOVED that he got a trophy!

He's been so funny ever since then!
I asked him one day to pick up his golf club out of the middle of the floor and he said, "It's not a golf club Mom, it's a Putter!!" Makes his Daddy and Grandpa SO proud! Ü

Disneyland Jan 2011~ Day Two

2011-02-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

Alright, here's day two of our Disneyland trip from last month...
Jaxin and Kernan, on the tram...

We got Eric post cards and mailed them from Main St at Disneyland... Here we are sticking them in the mail box Ü

Ferb with Goofy Ü

Splash Mountain... my Favorite!!

The fire house band doing a show for us, I hadn't ever seen this, it was neat!

Handy Manny!!

I made Jaxin go on Tower of Terror with me! Ü She hadn't ever been...

These two have ridden it a lot, but they do a good job at acting scared!

Here we go!!

Their reviews.. Jaxin is in the middle, undecided! haha!

But it must not have been too bad because she went the second time with us!! So did Ferb!

This trip was a lot of fun (don't I say that about every Disney trip we go on?) it was SO good to see the Tacderan's!! We're all antsy to get back to Disneyland! Hopefully next month! Ü

Disneyland Jan 2011~ Day One!

2011-02-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well, now that February is half way over, I guess it's time to get caught up on January!! Ü Some day I'll be caught up with everything!! haha!

In January I took Maci, Kernan and Jaxin to California to meet our good friends the Tacderan's at Disneyland! When they come up from Hawaii we always go meet them over there! Ü

I love that Maci and Jordan just pick up where they left off every time! You would have no idea that it had been almost a year and half since the last time they saw each other!
We were in line to ride Toy Story Mania!

Out of all the times we've been to Disney lately... this was Jaxin's FIRST time on this ride!!

Temehani.. Jordan's little sister.

Payton...

Kernan was shooting the girls while we were waiting to get out! Ü

Ferb came to Disneyland with us... Really quick, here's the story behind Ferb. You'll see him popping up in our pictures through out the next two years... Eric and Kernan used to watch Phineas and Ferb (a cartoon) everyday after Eric would come home from college, it was their favorite! So we gave Eric a Phineas to take with him on his mission, he's been taking pictures of him at the MTC and once he gets to Croatia he'll take him to different "sites". We have Ferb and he's going with us on our different adventures over the next two years... It's going to be the "adventures of Phineas and Ferb" Ü

We took the Tacderan's to "World of Color" that night... Never gets old!

Well.. like this sign says, See ya real soon! Day two coming soon!! Ü

My Little Brother is Getting Married~

2011-02-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

As you're all reading this, my Mom, Dad, Brother and I are on a plane headed to Idaho... Kolby is getting married on Friday. Not only his he becoming a Husband friday, but he'll become a Dad too!

To say I'm excited for him, would be an understatement. I know he's going to make a great Dad and Husband! These two girls coming into his life are SO lucky! Ü

Congrats Brother!! I love you!!

Elder Massey's Farewell...

2011-01-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

Just as I started to type out this blog... I got our weekly e-mail from Elder Massey! It's seriously the highlight of our week! We just laugh and laugh! Ü

Clearly we love Eric at our house! Not to many people would we drive all night to make sure we were there for their mission farewell talk! And on the night of Christmas no less!! Ya we love him a lot!

It also ended up being our last Sunday in our ward up there, so even though we didn't get home until 2 am! Everyone was up and ready for church at 8 am!! Yep, we're crazy! We just wanted to go to the entire 3 hours of church to say good-bye to our sweet friends we had made and that we were going to miss!

SO glad we made the effort to get home for Eric's farewell! It was the best farewell we had ever attend! Laughing, crying! So good!

I took pictures at the luncheon afterwards...
Eric with his sweet Grandma Ü

Here is Elder Massey's entire family...
Mom, Dad, Step parents and siblings! All except two brothers that are serving missions of their own right now, one is a step brother (serving in Hungary) and one is a real brother (serving in West Africa)

Our family

I love this picture!

Maci loves this one!! haha!

Jaxin and Elder Massey

These next 5 pictures are the BEST! Kernan does not want to pose for a picture with Eric.. can't you tell?!

So Eric whispers "If you smile for a picture I'll put you on the trampoline!"

It worked!!

I love this shot of both of them! The smiles rock!!

So that was Eric's farewell! I can't believe it hasn't even been a month since he left! He reported to the MTC on December 29th! It seems like he's been gone FOREVER!! The next 47 months had best pick up! I'm in charge of keeping up his blog with all his letters and pictures while he's gone. If you'd like to follow his exciting journey as he serves the Lord you can! I also have his address on the side of my blog so if you'd like to write him you can! I know he'd love that! Ü
His blog is
elderericmassey.blogspot.com

Christmas 2010 ~ Part 2

2011-01-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Seriously... Just when I think I'm getting close to caught up, I'm even more behind!! Oh well, I can't say I don't have anything to blog about right now! Ü

Onto Christmas Day!!
Here's our families loot that Santa left... Before the kids got to it! haha!

Santa ate most of the cookies we left out! I bet he gets SO full and doesn't eat for days after Christmas Eve!!

Reading the story of Jesus' birth out of the scriptures...

This is a typical Kernan face... Isn't it adorable?!? :/

Jaxin got a gerbil... I love how they're all huddled over his cage!

There he is.. Indy! Named after the ride at Disneyland... Indiana Jones!

Our kids get underwear in their stockings... Maci is always embarrassed so she usually throws them under the table! haha!

This was my gift from my Dad this year! He made me this awesome jewelery box!! I love it!

After we opened some of our presents we headed out to Ihop for our traditional Christmas breakfast!

This is what my brother did the entire day!! Ü

Where does he get his funny faces from?!

Brian downloaded a fishing game to his phone and was showing my Dad how to use it.

Later in the afternoon we headed over to Brian's parents house... Here are Trevor and Cole throwing a FIT because they had to come in to eat dinner!! It was hilarious, only because it wasn't my kid doing it though! Christtina didn't find it as funny!

Isn't Cole adorable when he's not throwing a fit?! I think he adorable all the time! Ü

I just thought this was a cool picture! haha!

Kernan got 2 REAL turtles as his gift! He loves them!! He was super excited!

The boys were playing tag...

Here are Kernan's turtles... The small ones name is Phineas and the big one is Ferb!

That night we left at around 7:30 to head back up to Utah for Eric's farewell... those pictures are next! Ü

Christmas 2010 ~ Part 1

2011-01-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

I took so many pictures over Christmas that I thought I should probably break them up! Ü

The Thursday before a bunch of Brian's cousins got together with our kids at Christtina's house...

Trevor and Kernan we're playing really well, so well that they shared Trevor's cool lookin' sucker!

Later that day back at my parents, Grandma started on the Christmas baking! My kids were so excited to help her!

Here they are unwrapping kisses... I don't know how many ended up in their mouths! I guess that's the fun of helping!

Mmmm.....

The week before we headed off to AZ for vacation, Verlin (Eric's Mom) invited us over for dinner... It was so yummy we made it for the entire family!

After dinner it was back to baking!

Christmas Eve we headed down to Babyland to set up Broc's Christmas tree for him

Merry Christmas to you Bub!!
Wish you were here to celebrate with us, but I bet the work you're doing doesn't compare! Ü

That night the kids opened their Christmas pj's... Kernan was SO excited about his U of U jammie pants!

The cookies all iced and looking yummy!!

Alright, that's it for part one...
We're headed to Cali in the next hour or so to go to Disneyland!! Happy 3 day weekend!! Ü

Christmas Disneyland Trip!

2011-01-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

The Friday before Christmas we drove down to Arizona, and on Sunday we headed to California with the entire family to go to Disneyland! We got to bring Eric with us for his LAST trip to Disneyland before he left on his mission! My Aunt Rachel and Uncle Matt were also in Cali to go to Disneyland and they were willing to drive him home to UT! It was a trip to Disney none of us will soon forget!!

Here is our family picture when we first got there...

While the "older" children (Brian and Eric included in the children part) went and rode some of the big rides, like Matterhorn and Space Mtn. Mom and I took Kernan to It's A Small World. It was all decked out for Christmas and looked so cool inside!

I love the Hawaii part of this ride! Makes me think of our Jordan and Ohana every time!! Ü

Once we got out of Small World it was about 10am and it started sprinkling...
it. didn't. stop.
Not kidding!
Here are the kids wearing their lovely 99 cent store ponchos! Doesn't he looked thrilled?!

She's so cute! Ü

Stockton, he did not want to wear the poncho! Can ya tell??

Scary!! Eric looks like the grim reaper!

Haha! Cute Jaxin!

Mom and I took Kernan to the Tiki Room. I don't remember ever going in there! It was fun! Plus it was dry inside there! Ü As you can see, after about an hour of the constant rain, we upgraded from the cheap rain wear to Disneyland's... It was a lot better!

Kernan loved this show! He has been singing the "tiki room" song a lot since we've been home!

Shortly after the Tiki Room, Mom and Kernan headed back to the hotel room! It really was nasty with all the rain! It would have been a bit more bearable if it would have stopped and given us a slight break but it was not letting up!!
Brian, Eric and I went and got us some nice hot cocoa to help, we hid next to a food stand to get out of the rain and enjoy it...

This was the sight we watched as we drank our warm beverages...

We were amazed at how many people were still sticking it out!

Once our hot cocoa was gone, we decided it was time for lunch, and we wanted something warm and cozy... so we made a dash for it!

We all got bread bowls! So yummy!!

Eric enjoying his last trip to Disneyland for 2 years!!

This is all Eric and Brian do when they're together! Laugh and laugh! We're totally missing him since he left for the MTC... our days are not filled with as much laughter as they used too be... But we wouldn't want him any other place! Ü

We sat under cover and ate our food, by that time we were ready to call it a day too! So we waited for the kids to come meet up with us so that we could head out. They were off riding more rides with my Aunt and Uncle. It was so fun to just sit and watch people! Oh and LAUGH! haha!

I had to get a picture of the stroller! I still can't believe how much it rained!

Our 3 drowned rats! I think Stockton was glad Mom made him wear the poncho! haha!

On our way to the car...

These are Stockton's hands! It looks like he had been in the pool for hours, but NOPE! Just at Disneyland getting soaked!

We went back to the hotel room to dry out and warm up... We ended up ordering pizza and playing cards. It was still a lot of fun! It never let up on the rain though! From the time we got out of Small World until we left town the next day around noon, it never stopped!! We didn't turn off the windshield wipers until probably 25 miles away from our exit and then it didn't last more then 5 minutes! It was SO crazy!!
That was defiantly a trip to Disneyland that we won't ever forget and will probably talk about for a long time!! Ü

On the HuNt!

2011-01-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to post the pictures from our Christmas Tree Hunt!! So let's pretend it's still Dec and you're all interested in seeing us go find the best tree, OK?! Humor me... Ü

So the weekend after Thanksgiving, my brother drove me home from Arizona and Jaxin rode along...

We needed to go cut down our Christmas tree and Jaxin and Eric said that neither had ever done that, so we decided to go while Jaxin was in town!

So Saturday we headed up to Kolob to look for the perfect tree... Long story short, that trip was a total bust! Here are a couple pictures from that trip...

Don't ask what Eric was doing just before I snapped this picture... Let's just say that boys are SO lucky in life sometimes! The convenience would be handy... Ü

All Kernan wanted to do was eat the snow! That's his favorite part of going out in the snow!

So that was attempt one... Sunday after church we decided to go up to Cedar Mountain and get one there, that's where we had gotten them the 2 years before so we knew we'd have luck, and Kolby and Jaxin we're headed home Monday so we had to go!
On our way up the mountain, we helped a guy and his family who's truck wouldn't start and he was stuck on the side of the road! Wrong place for that to happen!! My hubby is such a nice guy to pull off and help!! I love him!

Isn't he HOT?! Man I'm lucky!! Ü sorry he's taken, find your own!

Pretty view!

Brian couldn't find his snow boots, so he wore his riding boots!! He claims they worked really well, but he looked pretty ridiculous! haha!

The snow was SO deep! They would take a step in and the snow would go up their entire leg! Eric is demonstrating that for us here...

Kernan was of course getting his snack in... the boy LOVES snow!

I stayed on the little road so I wouldn't sink! I was playing around with my camera and my shadow! Ü

Kernan's snow angel!

Maci's snow angel...

Here come the boys with "the" tree! See how deep the snow is?!

Every step Brian took he'd sink, he was getting a little tired of it, if you can't tell by his face! I love that Eric is laughing at him!! That's just how those two are to each other! Love it!

Eric was falling back into the snow...

He's quite puffy!

Eric imprints...

The third one he made into a snow angel...

Eric's angel...

These are the icicles hanging on the side of the mountain as you drive through the canyon!

Putting up the pretty tree!

Kernan was being a super hero... He loves this cape I made for him one year for Christmas when he was like 8 months old! Ü

So there ya have it, our hunt for the perfect tree! Ü Now I can go about my day... I've got LOTS more to update on the blog! As you can tell, we've made it to AZ, we totally miss Utah! But hopefully things here will start looking up! Stay tuned for our Christmas updates! There are a few! Ü
Happy 2011!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hope your Christmas has been good so far!!
We're headed back up to Utah tonight to be back in time for Eric's farewell (he's that kid in the bottom picture, our "adoptive" son) and then we'll pack the rest of our house up and we're hoping to be back to Arizona for good in a week! So no more updates until we're settled! Ü
Merry Christmas!!!

Family Pictures and Announcement!

2010-12-16T07:58:00.000-08:00

First I'll get to the announcement... NO I'M NOT PREGNANT!!

We're MOVING back to ARIZONA! This has been a very hard decision for us, we LOVE living in Hurricane, but unfortunately the money just isn't here for our family to survive. Brian has gotten a job back in Arizona and we're just ready to go back to having a pay check every week!! So we'll be down there for good the first of the year! Crazy, huh?! I've had my moments of tears, I'm going to miss all our friends here, our ward, our callings, etc. I'm sure there will be more as we pack up and actually go too!! But we're excited to come home with friends and family. We're in for a crazy few weeks!! Ü

Alright, onto our family pictures!!
It's scary how OLD she looks in pictures! Makes me sad!!

Kernan was on one! I wish I could post all the pictures I snapped! He's a crazy kid!

These were funny too!! I didn't realize it until we got home and I downloaded the pictures, but Brian was totally shaking his booty as we walked!! They're SO funny!!

Oh I love this man!!!!

Cutest kids ever!!

Eric hopped in a few of our family pictures, since he is a part of our family!! This one made the Christmas card!! This sums up our family when Eric is around perfectly! I LOVE it!

This one is getting blown up for sure! I can't believe that Eric leaves in 3 weeks to go on his mission!

Alright, there ya have it, I'm all caught up for now. Both with pictures and telling you all our news! Ü If you are family and want a copy of any of these, let me know and I'll get them to ya! We're headed to AZ for Christmas on Friday, we're going to head to Disneyland beginning of the week next week! Ü So I'll be behind once again! haha!
Hope your Holiday Season is wonderful so far!!

Naughty or Nice?!

2010-12-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

Once we got home from AZ we went to the mall here in St. George to see the best Santa I've ever seen! Maybe he's the real one, because he is great!!

We had our annual family picture taken with him last year, maybe that is a reason why we were so disappointed in the Santa experience this year... maybe.

So this year we took our best friends with us, Holly, Kameryn and Cooper. Justin was at school.
Kernan went right up to him, he's an old pro with Santa.

I love the look on both Kameryn and Kernan's faces Ü haha!

Telling Santa what they wanted...

Holly thought Cooper was going to freak out when he saw him, but he did really well!! We figured out that he did really well because Maci was holding him! Ü
Once we had Santa hold just him, this is what Cooper thought of that! Aww... Poor Cooper!

I couldn't decide which way I liked the picture best so I thought I'd share both. Ü

Thanks Holly and kids for going with us! So glad we got a picture of our kids together with Santa. We should make it a tradition!

Thanksgiving!

2010-12-13T16:54:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving this year was tons of fun! Although I really didn't take many pictures to document it! My brother's girlfriend and little girl flew in for Thanksgiving, we were all so excited to meet them both!

Here is Harper on Thanksgiving in the cute onesie I bought for her and her cute bow I made! Ya, I was having fun playing dress up with her!! Ü

She is ready to eat! Ü

The next day we headed to take our annual family picture with Santa... Wasn't the best experience, but we got it so whatever...

They wouldn't let us take any pictures so Brian snapped this one outside the display and still got yelled at! Not to happy!

Kernan LOVES Harper!! I was worried he would be jealous but he wasn't at all!

Harper all dressed and ready to route on the Utes vs BYU! The U won! Ü
Start 'em Young and Raise 'em Right!

Sunday my family headed back up to UT and Kernan and I stayed to hang out with Jourdan and Harper longer... My brother wanted to take them to Disneyland because Jourdan had never been so Kernan and I rode along to help out with Harper. You can't tell in this picture but Harper is screaming while Kolby is trying to get her to go to sleep...

This was Kernan during all of this, asleep with his hand over his ear! haha!!

The cute happy family at the Happiest Place on Earth!

First ride was of course... Buzz Lightyear! Kernan's favorite!

Then Jourdan and I went on Space Mountain...

Here are the two kiddos, we were waiting while they were on Indiana Jones.

He was being a goof!

I love the look on Harper's face in this one! Really Auntie Jessica, more pictures?!

Riding Winnie the Pooh...

Then we got to meet Pooh Bear! Harper wasn't to sure about the characters!

Tigger LOVED Harper, ya... Harper didn't really feel the same! Ü

Jourdan and I on my FAVORITE ride!! Splash Mountain! We got SOAKED!

Then we found Santa so we waited in line to get the kids picture taken

Awe, isn't my Brother so nice looking!?

Ya, I don't know about that... haha! Love you Brother!

And I wonder where Kernan gets it?!?!

Harper did not like Santa!! Can ya tell?!

Santa even had his reindeer there!!

Meeting Pluto...

Goofy's house is all decked out for Christmas...

Meeting Minnie!

I love this picture!

While Kernan played around in Goofy's house, Harper and I had a little photo shoot! Isn't she adorable?!

Then she got to meet Goofy! She LOVED Goofy!

We were playing around with the camera while waiting for the parade to start. Look a normal smile!!

Harper showing off her cute Minnie ears!

Our goofy picture! Ü Love this boy!

That was our Thanksgiving, wish I had taken more pictures, but what can ya do?!

Girls ONLY Trip to Disneyland!!

2010-12-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

The second weekend in November 6 of us girls went to Disneyland for a Girls trip!! Ü It was SO much fun!! A different feeling being there without my kids, but fun nonetheless! (ps- Melissa, we did get year passes when we were there in October that's why we're going so much! Gotta get all we can out of it for the year! Ü)

So 4 of us from Hurricane, and 2 from AZ met at our hotel on Thursday night. It ended up becoming a "Mom and Daughter" trip!!
This is how our trip started off... My lovely friend Wendy, well she likes C*#E... Ya, but we're still friends! Ü

Once we met up with the AZ girls, we headed across the street to Cheesecake Factory for dinner! Ü Yummy! My Mom and I

Wendy and her daughter Ashley

My best friend Holly and her Mom Gail
(Gail is the other Arizonian that drove over with my Mom Ü)

We were up and ready to head to the Happiest Place on Earth half hour before the park even opened!! We were all to excited to sleep!!
Ash on her phone...

Now, these clothes on the floor have a funny story... My sweet friend Wendy is O.C.D (or CDO as she calls it, cuz it has to be in alphabetical order!) So she went down the hall to check out breakfast, and I went in to use the bathroom. When I walked in her clothes were on the floor!! This is SO NOT like her, I had to take a picture to document it! She was SO embarrassed! But it made the rest of us feel better, not everyone is perfect! Love you Wendy!! Ü

Our fun group by the Christmas tree on Main St

Walking down Main St... Christmas time at Disneyland is SO awesome!!

In line for the Matterhorn... What else is there to do when you don't have kids to keep an eye on in line?! Check facebook of course! Ü

The Castle is so pretty all decorated! Holly and Ash are pretty too!

Thank you Walt for your wonderful vision of Disneyland!! We love it there!! Ü

On the Winnie the Pooh ride!

Aww... Jack Sparrow!! Just my personal opinion, but Kernan makes a much cuter one! haha!

The 4 of us waited for the Christmas parade to start, while Wendy and Ash went and rode more rides... It is a super cute parade!! But let's take note, I wasn't the only one playing on my phone at Disneyland! hehe!

We headed over to California Adventure to watch World of Color! Wendy snapped this picture, I love it!

So World of Color is still just as awesome the 3rd time you see it as it is the 1st and 2nd!!

So Holly spotted this guy (can you see him to the left of her shoulder?!) Who is it?! He's on GLEE!! We had to get a picture! Ü

In line for our final ride of the night! Indiana Jones!!

So this ride has a good story! While we were in line our first time, a guy came up to my Mom and said, "Here, you have a U shirt on, I'm going to give this to you! It's a pass for 6 people to get to the front of any ride!" See what happens when you choose the right?! GO UTES!!
So we rode Indiana Jones, and then decided to use the slip and go again!!

I drove the second time! It was great though, we got off the first time, asked the guy how we use the ticket and he said go right over to the elevator over there go up and across then get in the other elevator and come down... It took us right to the bottom to get on again!!

As we were finishing up our second ride, I said, "I'm going to try and see if he'll let us go again!" Well, Matt must have thought we were cute because he let us do it again!! This time my Mom and Gail sat out and waited for us to go again...
Thanks Matt!! (cuz he totally reads my blog! NOT!)

Wendy was our driver for that trip...

This next part is purely for my journal and memory, you can skip over it if you want! Ü
So after our 3rd ride on Indy, we were walking down the exit when I realized my phone wasn't in my sweatshirt pocket anymore (must have been Wendy's crazy driving!) I knew I had it at Indiana Jones because it vibrated while we were in line to tell me the battery was DEAD! Ü So I went right back up to Matt and he checked every car as it came around, it was midnight by this time which is when the park closes. No luck! So I filed a case with lost and found and left... what more could I do!? Well 6:30 that morning my Mom's phone rings... It's MY PHONE!! So she answered it and no one was there, she called it right back and no one answered. Well I knew that the lost and found had chargers to charge the phones so they could verify numbers and contacts to put the right phone with the right owner. I couldn't sleep after that, I figured lost and found had charged it and tried calling my Mom because I put her as a contact. So I got up and showered and walked back to Disneyland, while everyone else still slept! Ü As I walked back I was almost to the entrance when I witnessed my first roll over accident! It was so scary!! No one was hurt except the driver of the vehicle, but it could have been SO much worse! Thankfully there was no one in the crosswalk walking into the entrance! After I made sure no one was seriously injured, I went to lost and found and they didn't open for another half hour, so I went and got a Jamba Juice in Downtown Disney. Ü Once they opened lost and found I found out that they had not gotten my phone... which meant someone had my phone!! So I headed back to the hotel, when I got back everyone was up and going and I found out that my phone and called and text several different people! None of the texts made any sense, they were just a bunch of symbols and no one ever said anything when they answered the call!! I put my phone on hold right away! Thankfully I have insurance so for $50 I got a refurbished replacement phone. Well when that one got to me, it had scuffs in the inside of it so I called them and they sent me a brand new Droid 2! I had the Droid 1! So in the end it worked out in my favor, I got an upgraded phone for FREE!! Alright, there ya have it, if you read that whole thing way to go!! Ü

The Castle looks so pretty right now!! I LOVE Disneyland!! (can ya tell?!)

Before we all took off home Saturday we headed over to the Orange County Swap meet...

On our drive home we spotted Cinderella in her car!!

We also spotted the Golden Nugget! haha!!

After my terrible day I had, we stopped in Vegas for gas and dinner and took a picture with our sad faces outside the "terrible" sign!

Here's our yummy dinner out of the back of my car... Costco Muffins!! Left over from our breakfasts!

And this is how our trip ended... Wendy got a Dr. Pepper for the rest of the drive home, is that not huge?! Ü

Thanks girls for such a FUN trip!! I can't wait to do it again!!

I'm still alive!

2010-12-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

I promise we're still kicking! I have a lot to update you on and I'm going to work on it tomorrow! So stay tuned for lots of posts!! Girls only Trip to Disneyland, Thanksgiving, Disney Trip (ya, another one) Christmas Tree Hunting, Family Pictures... I told ya I'm behind!! Ü

Here's a picture to hold you over, we all know I can't post without putting a picture up! haha!

Halloween, finally!

2010-11-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

Alright, I know it's taken me awhile to get these pictures up! Sorry, but here they are...
Friday before Halloween was Maci's class party.... Her brother wanted to help...

Cute ghost craft...

The entire school goes on a Costume Parade, Kernan was on the look out for his sister!

There she is!

After school and work on Friday and before the high school football game, we carved our Pumpkins that we got at the Pumpkin Patch with the Helms family.

Kernan was being a goof!

Here he is showing me his muscles but I used it as an opportunity to get a picture of his cute shirt that Grandma gave him...

Brian gets WAY into carving pumpkins, but it always pays off! This year was no different!

Eric was trying to get Kernan to yell inside the pumpkin but Kernan wasn't falling for it! Ü

Got the drill out, I told you he's serious!

We didn't finish carving our pumpkins before the football game Friday night so Saturday morning Brian brought Kernan's pumpkin into the front room to finish.

Maci carved hers outside later that day... It must be hard work.

Here is Brian's pumpkin... Totally awesome! He free handed this too! He's so good!
Jack Sparrow...

Maci's Pumpkin...

Kernan's Pumpkin...

Kameryn's Pumpkin that her Daddy did for her...

Saturday night was the BIG Trick or Treating!!
Here's our super cute Jack Sparrow! I was so glad he let me draw on his face!

Cutest. Pirate. Ever.

Maci was Lexa... She's the super cute Hurricane High Cheerleader that Maci fell in love with last year during Cheer camp! Here are the two of them last year... Lexa is a total sweet heart and Maci just loves her! She came to Maci's baptism last summer and we asked if Maci could wear her uniform for Halloween and she said Of Course!!

So here is our cute HHS Cheerleader! Lexa let her borrow her uniform, pom poms, hair bow, and jacket with her name on it! Maci was in HEAVEN!!

Kameryn and Cooper came trick or treating with us...
Cutest Cinderella and Prince Charming

Prince Charming... I love that boy!

Cinderella...

Love this picture!

My Grandparents neighbor was walking down the street as the headless horseman!

The kids are running up to go trick or treating at Lexa's house! She wasn't there, but her Mom was so happy to see Maci all dressed up!

Kernan and Kameryn walked hand in hand between all the houses as they went...

So cute! The other cute thing, every house the people would say, "Oh what a cute Cinderella!" Kernan would say, "Actually it's Kameryn!" haha!

Love this picture, don't loose your shoe Cinderella! Ü

After we were done going from house to house we went back to my Grandparents house and helped pass out candy. I think we figured they had 1100+ kids come to their neighborhood!!

Alright, now I'm caught up! Ü Hope you're having a great November... remember to be THANKFUL through out this month! I know I'm taking time to remember the little things I'm thankful for!

The Pumpkin Patch!

2010-10-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

Ya I know it's only Saturday the 30th but here in good 'ol Utah Halloween is today! Ü Trick or Treating will be tonight! The kids are SO excited!! Can't wait to show pictures from all the fun!

But for now, here are the pictures from the Pumpkin Patch that we went to on Wednesday night! Happy Anniversary to us!! haha! Ü It was a fun night!! Our good friends Holly and Justin and their two kids came along for the fun too!
We headed out to the same Patch we went to last year, we had so much fun there! It was a lot warmer this year! Ü

The 3 kiddos giving us their "Jack-O-Lantern" faces!

Maci and Kameryn

Tried to get a picture of Cooper with the pumpkins but he was to excited to see the Tractor coming our way to take us to the Patch! Ü

Kameryn and Kernan are two peas in a pod!! They're adorable! If they don't see each other for 2 days they're bugging us like crazy! Kameryn told her Mom the other day that she needed to come to Kernan's house because he misses her! haha!

Kernan was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin! He knew just which one he wanted!

Aww... there's Cooper! Isn't he adorable?! He's my little buddie! Ü

Oh these two.. they have quite the conversations!! Just check out the next few pictures you'll see they were discussing something important!

This spot would have been much better if the kids didn't have to look right into the sun! Oh well the pictures still turned out cute!

They had pig races this year, that is new! They were super fun to watch! After each race Kernan would say, "Mom I want to watch that again!"

Petting the goats... Kernan got mad at them because they kept trying to eat his clothes!

I wish I had stuck around for just a few more pictures of these two petting the llama! Right after I walked away the llama lunged towards them and they both jumped! haha!

Taken in 2010... Kernan didn't want to stand against the sign, can ya tell?!

2009... Growing way to fast!!

And finally, us on our 9th Anniversary... I LOVE this man!!!

Hope you all enjoy your Halloween night!! We've had a fun weekend so far!!

Go HHS!

2010-10-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

Maci got to do the cheer camp with the Hurricane Cheerleaders again this year! She was SO excited! This year they got special cheer shirts instead of just the plain Tiger shirts... I bought one for myself! Ü I know, I'm a dork! LOL!!
Our Cheerleader!

The back of their shirts...

All lined up getting ready to hit the field!

Gotta stretch first though Ü

Here's her age group ready to go!

Love her face in this one! hehe!

I thought this picture was super cool!

Our football team is totally awesome again this year!! We were undefeated up until last week and now we're 7-1 going into the playoffs! Hopefully we go all the way again this year!

Maci and just ONE of her bestest friends, Cheyenne! (she has many friends!)

This is what her very GRUMPY little brother was doing during the game... Being a Pill!! He was in a mood that night, you can't tell in this picture but he's totally crying because the hot dog Eric went and got for him had lines on it! (it was grill marks, he likes them heated up in the microwave) Sometimes this kid, I'm telling you! It's a very good thing he's cute!! Ü

So now that I'm updated with the first part of the month, we've been to the Pumpkin Patch, Carved Pumpkins and had Maci's Halloween party in her class already! Plus tomorrow is Halloween so we'll have trick-or-treating pictures! I know, tomorrow is Saturday but in Utah, we celebrate holidays on Saturdays, not Sundays! Ü hehe!! So stay tuned! Even more blogging to come!

Eric gets his Mission Call!!

2010-10-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Wednesday after we got home from Disneyland Eric's mission call came! We were kinda surprised because he had his interview with the Stake President the night before we left for Disneyland so it was a week later when his call came. All he cared was that he was NOT going stateside! He just wanted to go foreign, we kept teasing him that he was going stateside since it was only a week!

So Wednesday night we went over to his house with the rest of his family to see him open it and find out where he was going to go!
Here he is covering the important details so as not to jump the gun! Ü

He has been called to serve in the
SLOVENIA/CROATIA
mission!
He'll be speaking Croatian!
To say he was excited, would be a bit of an understatement! Lol!!

I think this face is because he has to report to the MTC on December 29... he was hoping for the end of January so that he could go with us to Disneyland the middle of January when we go, but that's not going to happen...

Eric and his Grandma checking out the map

The happy Elder... He's so ready to go, and VERY excited!!

Here is the video Brian took of him opening his letter... It's HILARIOUS!! He was SO excited!! I'm probably going to get in trouble for sharing it on here... oh well!! Ü

We went to the Temple with him last week! I love going through with someone for their first time!
Congrats Elder Massey! We're so proud of you and super excited for your new adventures!!

9 years ago today...

2010-10-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

I married my BEST FRIEND!

I would do it again in an instant!!
He's my other half, he makes me a better person! We've been through A LOT in 9 years of marriage! Thankfully it's made us grow closer and closer! I love this Handsome guy with all my heart!!

Happy Anniversary Handsome!!
Thanks for being you and loving me!! You're the greatest and I'm the luckiest!!

(make sure you look below this for my update from yesterday! I'm on a blog roll! There will be one everyday this week!! Ü)

Disneyland October 2010

2010-10-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

The first week of the month we got to go back to Disneyland!! We LOVE it there! (in case you missed that memo at any earlier point in my blog writing! Ü)

This trip we bought annual passes, so we'll be going back A LOT in the next year! I already know of 3 more trips in the next 3 months! Yay!!

Kernan got to choose our first ride of the trip, no surprise that he picked the Buzz Lightyear ride!! His favorite! He wanted to ride it with Grandpa! He was SO excited when I told him the month before that Grandpa was coming on this trip this time too!

Eric came along with our family for this trip too! Might just be his last trip before he leaves on his mission! (more on his mission in my next post)

Kernan wanted to ride the tea cups! He does not get that from me!! So Eric and Daddy agreed to ride along...

Eric looks like he's about to loose his breakfast! lol!

You're such a "goof" Jaxin!! Ü

The 3 Musketeers!

We went on the Haunted Mansion Ride this trip, we hadn't taken Kernan on it before but for Halloween they have it all decked out with "The Nightmare Before Christmas" movie stuff and he LOVES that movie so we rode it this trip. I think it's his second favorite ride next to Buzz!

While all the older kids (including my Dad, Brian and Eric) went and rode some of the bigger people rides, Kernan Grandma and I went on the train ride.

Jaxin and Maci got Mickey ears this trip and Stockton got a hat so we took a picture of them all in their hats... even Turtle! Ü I love this picture!

Day Two we spent in California Adventure... Kernan wanted to throw a coin over the fence on the back side of Grizzly Mountain...

Hopefully his wish came true! Ü

We rode Monsters Inc and right as we got out Sully came out to take pictures.. We hardly took pictures with any characters this trip! The kids didn't even have autograph books! It was kinda weird!

We watched the Aladdin performance, it is so cool!!

Our cute Toy Story 3 action figures...

Jaxin was a nice Aunt and rode the carousel with Kernan...

He was being such a goof!

Eric bought Maci an alien toy because she gave him a hug! Yes, you have to bribe my kids to get hugs usually! Ü So while she was riding Tower of Terror, Kernan was enjoying getting to play with it while not being told NO! haha! He spotted Woody and wanted to show him the alien so we went over.
Woody was so cute with him!

Hugs for them both!

To finish the trip we saw World of Color again... My Dad hadn't seen it and Brian had only seen it from the back when he went with the Priests earlier this summer so we watched it... Eric and Kernan were all ready! Although Kernan fell asleep halfway through, we wore him out! Ü

So that was our trip for October! So much fun! I'm going on a "girls" trip there in a couple weeks! Super excited for that! It's going to be so different without my kids, but fun!!
Check back this week for 2 more blog posts... I want to get caught up before Halloween! Ü

Where has the time gone...

2010-10-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Whoa, it's been 5 weeks since I blogged last!! I knew it was bad when I got an email from my Dad last night asking me to update because his Mom was wondering if I wasn't doing it anymore! Sorry Gram! I'm still doing my blog, just haven't taken the time to update!! So here's a quick one for you!! Ü

On Labor Day we went out to the lake with my family... While we were out there I had to go to a photo shoot so I left and came back... when I came back Kernan was laying on the couch in my Aunt's trailer with ice on his head... I guess he was in the Rhino with Brian driving and they went over a bump and Kernan doesn't have the head control like the older guys so he hit his head hard!! From what I was told, I'm VERY grateful I wasn't there when it happened and even more grateful he wasn't seriously hurt! Here is what his head looked like on our drive home...
Nice bump huh?!

Here's a picture of it almost a week later! Poor guy!

The next weekend, our neighbors were having a garage sale, so we went over to check out what they had. Kernan found a box of Knex that he wanted. This kid is going to be an architect or engineer or something! He loves to build things with Legos, Knex, his train tracks, or whatever! So we brought them home and him and his Daddy got busy building one of the things in the booklet...

It's a ferris wheel!

Brian had a smart idea to put it in front of the fan so it would go... I thought this picture was cool!

So that was the excitement of our September! So fun huh?! That explains the slow blogging! Ü As for October, we've been very busy! Trip to Disneyland, Eric got his Mission call, photo shoots, Cheer, etc! So I have a lot to update everyone on still! But this is it for now... I need to go get ready for the Temple! Eric is going through for his first time tonight! So exciting!
Here's something to leave you with.. Remember back in March when I talked about our Relief Society Birthday Dinner?? Well I finally got it uploaded to You Tube.. So check it out! Ü Happy Wednesday!

Our September so far...

2010-09-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

Alright, first off... I still haven't made a final decision on going private or not... I enjoy going blog stalking on others blogs, and I know that private blogs are a bit of a pain in the butt so I'm still trying to decide... But everyone that wants to be on my list will be if I decide to go that route! Ü Plus, now that I know you all are out there, I expect you all to comment more often!! haha!!

So, onto a quick update... Life has been busy here lately! I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on my blog or not but I'm in the Primary Presidency in our ward I'm the first counselor and I LOVE my calling! The ladies I serve with are awesome and the kids in our ward are amazing!! Anyway, about 2 weeks ago we had a Teacher Appreciation Dinner for everyone that serves in Primary. It was a great evening, we had a "Royal Fest" theme and it all went really well!
Here's a look at the decor before everyone arrived...

The Primary Presidency... Love these women!

We're learning that life with 18 year old boys is a bit CRAZY!! My kids love it though!! (and so do Brian and I! They're fun!) This is Eric, he doesn't live at our house like Wyatt but he might as well! He's over here a lot! Ü

Last weekend we went out to drive my Uncle Jeff's derby cars around the track...

Everyone had a blast!! I drove one too, it was a lot of fun while I was driving... Then Brian took me around a couple of times and that, wasn't so fun! I was scared!! Those "boys" are crazy out there!!

Brian and Maci are in this car...

Of course Kernan had to be a part of it too! He didn't do so well though, when he wears the helmet he can hardly keep his head up!! So every turn he'd fall over! haha!

The only down side is the dirt!! The next two pictures are from my phone! I didn't want to get my camera out in all this dirt!

It was nasty!! We all ate dirt for dinner!

The next day we went up to Cedar for my cousin AubriAnna's baptism! It was a gorgeous day and she looked beautiful!!

The entire family, minus Logan, but he'll be home in December from his mission!!

I love this picture of my Aunt Bobbi and AubriAnna!! So pretty!

Most everyone that was there to support AubriAnna

Dad and AubriAnna, so cute!!

So that's a quick look at our past two weeks! We've also "celebrated" our 2 year Anniversary living in Southern Utah! I can't believe it's been two years! We are still loving it up here!!
This weekend is nice and low-key, Wyatt got his wisdom teeth out yesterday so we're just hanging out at home taking care of him. Poor kid! It doesn't make me want to go get mine out anytime soon! I have a couple blackmail pictures of him I'll post soon! Ü
Have a happy weekend... Also take a quick second to say a prayer of gratitude today as we look back on what happened nine years ago... I'm so glad I live in the USA!!

Going Private~

2010-08-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

I've been debating on wither or not to make my blog private... I have an average of 300+ people that come to my blog on a daily basis, and NO ONE ever comments (except you Mom, thanks! Ü) So it kind of creeps me out as to who all you other peeps are! Are you family, friends, long lost friends or what?! So if you're interested in getting on my blog list to view our blog, please let me know!

Thanks!!

We have a 3rd Grader!!

2010-08-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

Maci has been in school for 2 weeks now and I'm pretty sure she's loving being back! Here are the pictures I took on her first day back...
Dang, is it just me, or is she BeAuTiFuL?!? I'm so not looking forward to the teenage years!

Kernan wanted to get his picture taken with her...

We have two of the cutest kids in the world!! Although, I could be a bit bias... Ü

Grandma called to tell her to have a good day and make sure she liked her new outfit! Which she loves, thanks Grandma!! Ü

Sitting at her desk already hard at work!

Brother says good-bye and like that, we left her! I can't believe we have a 3rd grader!!

Where does the time go?! Next year Kernan will be in Kindergarten and I'll be home alone!! But I'm not thinking about that right now! I'm just enjoying having my buddy with me at home!! Ü

Arizona Lake Trip...

2010-08-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

While we were down in Arizona, we took my Dad's boat and the jet ski out for the morning. We had a lot of fun!! The kids swam around as my Dad fished, he'd go along with the trolling motor and the kids would hold onto the ski rope behind the boat. Ü

Look at all those cute little ducklings in the lake! Aww..

I love this picture of Maci!! She looks so little! It's nice to see that my little girl is still in my 8 year old somewhere! Ü

My Daddy!!

Kernan was so excited to go fishing with Grandpa!

Fishing is a serious sport, it takes lots of concentration!

Maci and Grandma took their turn on the jet ski...

Fish on the line!

Kernan did not want to touch it!!

But he posed cute for the camera! I love this picture!!

After we were out there for a few hours we decided to head back... My Dad's boat ended up having issues and the jet ski had to tow it across the lake! I should have gotten a picture of that! It was kinda funny!! Thanks for a fun morning Mom and Dad!! We love you!

Elder Peterson Comes Home!

2010-08-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

A year and week after going out on his mission, Elder Peterson had

to come home due to some serious medical issues that they couldn't figure

out while he was serving his mission. So they thought it would be good for him to come home and figure out what was wrong. My parents got the call on Wednesday evening (July 14th) that he would be arriving at the Phoenix airport the next afternoon at 2:30pm! As soon as my Mom told me, I got busy! There was NO way I was going to sit at home while my brother was coming home! So I packed Kernan and I (Maci was already down there, she went home with my Mom after Disneyland) and we loaded the car and left by 7:30am Thursday morning! We got to my parents house in time to eat and change, Kolby's flight was delayed by a couple of hours so we had plenty of time! Ü

Getting in the elevator to go up and wait for him...

Kernan was SO excited! When I first told him where we were going as I was packing us up, he kept saying, "No Mom, Kolby is in Washington!" but I explained it a few times, and once he got it, all he could talk about was going to get Kolby and how Kolby was going to get his belly! Ü

These 3 were pretty excited too! Ü

Looking for him to come walking up from his gate...

There he is!!!

You can see the look on his face here, it says "I'm in pain!"

In every package I sent to Kolby I included a box of chewy Gobstoppers. We have only ever seen them in the UT gas stations! They are one of our favorites! So I brought one to give him when he got home, Kernan got to hand it to him.

I love Kolby's expression in this one!

And this one, in fact, I think this will be hung in Kernan's room!!

Waiting for his luggage...

Of course, per his request, we drove 2 cars to the airport! Don't worry, he didn't drive it home! He was to doped up on pain meds! lol!!

When we got home we were all curious as to how Cooper was going to react... At first he wasn't sure who Kolby was....

But it didn't take long for him to realize it was Kolby and he couldn't stop jumping on him! He was so happy to see him!

We went to Mayco's for dinner that night, it's one of Kolby's favorites! It was so funny though because he didn't want to change his clothes... He said it would be to weird to go change and that the tie he was wearing was one of his favorites! haha!! It didn't take long for him to get out of the habit of always wearing his suit though! Ü

It also didn't take long AT ALL for Kernan to get comfortable with him!! I think he missed his buddy!!

And buddies they are!! They were almost inseparable those two! Here they are both playing on their iPod touches (well kernans ipod is mine not his, but you know what I meant!)

So Kolby has had 2 doctor's appointments and there still is no cause as to what is causing his back problems. His back and neck hurt so bad to the point that he shakes and his hands can't grip things... It's rather odd!! We hope they figure it out eventually but he doesn't have another doctor's appt until mid September! So it could take awhile! In the mean time, it's nice to have him home! The kids and I stayed there for almost 2 weeks! Brian and Wyatt came down the last 4 days we were there to see him and hang out... We had a good time! I just hope they can figure out whatever it is that is doing this to him!!

LOVE YOU BROTHER!!!

Surfs Up!

2010-08-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

We LOVE to eat with the characters! It's such a neat way to interact with them, and they really spend time with you rather then when they're in the park just signing you book and moving on!

This trip was no different! It's also nice to stay at a Disney hotel so it's right in the lobby! Before we checked out of our room, we headed to breakfast with Mickey and Minnie!!

Stitch was the first to come over to our table... When we were there last October, he was SO cute with Kernan!! Ü

Obviously, Kernan LOVES him!

Stockton does too! Ü haha!

Minnie stopped off really quickly, they were starting a little show up in the front...

Goofy and Stitch were showing us all how to surf... Non of our kids wanted to go join...

But we enjoyed watching from the table! I love this picture of both Kernan and my Grandma!! We had such a good time!

Goofy!! We all held up a 1 for Kolby's one year mark!

Kernan is under there giving Goofy a hug! Ü

Then Jaxin got one...

That turned into a GROUP hug!

That of course Kernan wanted to be a part of too!! Aww, we all LOVE Goofy!!

Minnie stopped by our table again, for a bit longer this time! Ü

And then Daisy! She is so cute!!

After breakfast, we went and packed up and decided to head home a day early...

Thanks Mom (and Dad) for EVERYTHING!! We all had a GREAT time! We LOVE you!!
Can't wait to do it again in October!! Gosh, that seems like forever...

World of Color~ Best Water Show EVER!!

2010-08-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

Alright, so today was the first day of school... so much for being caught up by now!! Ü Oh well, I'll get there!!

So on the 3rd day of our trip (the last day at Disneyland) we got to see the newest addition to the parks...

wOrLd Of CoLoR

I can not wait to get back and watch it again!! (only 2 months but who's counting?! Ü)

Now... as a side note: when you look at all these pictures of all the different movie scenes, remember... the "screen" they are on is WATER!! It's not an actual screen the image is being shot up on! It's water!!! AmAzInG!!
Here is Ariel...

The ocean bottom...

My FaVoRiTe!! Wall-E and Eve!!! I LOVE them!! I also love how in this picture you can see the silhouettes of the people watching it.

Woody and Buzz!

Buzz is defeating Zurg!!

UP!

Aww... Simba! That was Maci's favorite movie when she was one!! We even have two copies of it! Ü

My favorite part of Aladdin! The GENIE!

Pocahontas...

The End... Most amazing show EVER!! Have I said that yet?! just wondering... Ü

Here's a video of the last like 3 mins of the show... It's not the best quality, I took it with my phone while still trying to take pictures at the same time!! Ü

Once we got back to the hotel that night it took NO time for the kids to zonk out!! But that just shows that it was a successful trip to Disneyland!!

I didn't even change Kernan into his jammies!! He looked to peaceful to disturb!

The next morning we got up and went down to have breakfast with the Characters... So I have one more Disney post!! Then it's onto the rest of our summer, I'll get caught up eventually!! Ü

Oh the mAnY faces of Kernan...

2010-08-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

Kernan has SO many different faces he makes!! He was on a roll while we were at Disneyland, so much so that they deserve an entire post all to themselves!! Ü Just look...
This is his very CUTE serious face...

Cheese Face!

He was ASKING for me to take his picture in these!! When he asks, I snap away! Ü

Here he had just won that huge Mickey Mouse from the arcade game!

Waiting in line to see Woody and Jesse... again, asking for me to take his picture!! Love it!

I'm not sure what to say about this look...

Ok, these last ones are so funny!! We were playing at Goofy's house in Toontown, and he was seriously hamming it up for the camera!! So again, I just started snapping! Ü

Cute bootie!!

He was surfing on the boxes...

"Mom, take a picture of me on the pumpkin!!"

And we'll end it with this one... SUCH A GOOF!! Must be Goofy's house that brings it out of him! haha!

Hidden Mickey's...

2010-08-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

When Brian went to Disneyland the month before we went he brought us back a souvenir... We LOVE it! He got us the "hidden mickey" book. It's a book that tells you where there are hidden mickeys all through out Disneyland and California Adventure. They also tell you where they are in the Disneyland Hotels and Downtown Disney...

We ALL had a blast trying to find all the ones through out the book!! Here are some of our favorites!!

Near Main Street Cinema, a "Casting Agency" sign on a door has two classic Mickeys in the design, one at the top and one at the bottom.

"It's a Small World" In the last room of the ride, shadows from the last set of small balloons that move up and down at times form classic Mickey's to the left of your boat. These were SO cool!!

A classic Mickey made of cherries is on the front of a fruit drink stand, which is often located near Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.

Taste Pilot's Grill~ A photo of an engine shows a classic Mickey shape.

Disney Vault 28~ A tiny classic Mickey is stuck on the upper right of the large metal vault door that forms the back wall of the entrance.

Another Favorite!! Ü On the sign in front of the store, swirls in the letter "M" and "C" combine to form a classic Mickey.

A green classic Mickey hides on an axle under a fruit cart that is usually positioned midway along Main Street.

World of Disney~ Blue classic Mickeys are on the corners of the large sign over the entrance doorway to the store.

Some of the engraved personalized brick plaques at your feet feature a bell design. The bell ringer is a classic Mickey.

As soon as you enter Disneyland, turn around to spot the classic Mickey speaker grid on the utility box next to the entrance turnstile. The ticket attendant may be blocking your view.

This is one of my favorites!! This is on the post at the entrance of Splash Mountain... It's small!!

Silhouette Studio~ In the front display window, the outer frame design of some of the displays have classic Mickey symbols. These were hard to spot for some of us!!

Inside the refrigerator in Minnie's kitchen, a bottle of cheese relish on the second shelf in the door has a red classic Mickey "brand mark" at the top of the label. As you can see, we couldn't find that one, they have Minnie's fridge locked shut! Ü

We found a total of 78 Hidden Mickey's! We had a lot more that we could have found but we'd get so busy riding rides and stuff that we didn't always remember to check the book!! Ü We can't wait to go back and find them again and more that we didn't find this trip!! Brian did a good job with this souvenir!! If you haven't checked out the book yourself and LOVE Disneyland like we do, I suggest you pick it up while you're there! It's a ton of FUN!!

Disneyland Rides, Shows and More...

2010-08-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

So Kernan was big enough this trip to ride all the BIG rides, except Indiana Jones and the Screamin' Rollercoaster in California Adventure. But he got to ride all the others! Ü
Our first ride of our trip was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster!! This is Kernan's FAVORITE!

Then we headed to Space Mountain... This was Kernan's first time, and I didn't tell him all about it! I just told him that he was going to get to ride a rocket into space and see stars and meteors... I left out the part of it being fast, DARK and jerky! Ü

He was VERY excited!! But as you can see from our picture, he quickly changed his mind! When we got off the ride and I asked him if he liked it he said, "NO! That was a dumb ride! I'm just a LITTLE boy!" haha! We didn't go on that ride again! Maci did, but Kernan was NOT interested!!

So we decided to go to a slower paced ride... Small World!
My cute Mouse and I...

A giraffe bush!! I asked Brian if he could make our bush by our driveway look like this.. he just laughed at me...

Of course Turtle got to come along to Disney, they both wore their Mouse Ears all 3 days we were there!

We stopped inside "The Mad Hatter" to check out the latest hat selection!

Love this one!!

I love this picture! Our kids are in heaven while at Disneyland!! Can't you tell?!

Next we were off to Splash Mountain! This is our families favorite ride of all!! We usually ride it 6+ times a trip! I was SO excited to take Kernan on it!! Here we are on our log...

And here we are on our 2nd trip down! I got him to ride it twice!! He LOVED it except for the big drop! The smaller ones he was fine with but the big one, not so much! At least he didn't hate it like he did Space Mountain!

Day 2... We spent the day in California Adventure... Check out our cute Toy Story 3 action figures! They are priced very high!! lol!

Getting our glasses on to ride Toy Story Mania...
Maci

Grandma...

Kernan....

Mommy...

Then we headed to Bug's Life Adventure...

The kids rode that one twice... My daughter is SO her father's child! Ü

Then we went and watched the Bug's Life 3D movie, another sweet pair of glasses to model!

The kids thought that was so sweet! Kernan liked the blue butterfly in it!

The kids rode Grizzly Mountain 9 times on Day 2!! 7 of those were after 9:00pm! And it was not warm on this trip!! They were freezing by the time they got back up to the hotel room! We also had a first happen on one of our Disneyland trips... There was an earthquake!! Which closed down all the big rides for 2 hours! Thankfully it was right at dinner time, so we walked out to Downtown Disney and ate dinner. By the time we got back in, the rides were all up and going! Still it was crazy!!

We took pictures by a couple of the letters on Day 3... This is "L" for Logan, my cousin who is serving a mission in the Ukraine.

And by the "I" for Idaho (where Kolby was serving) and as a number one for ONE YEAR!

While everyone was on Indiana Jones, Kernan and I went on a Jungle Cruise! We saw a lot of animals!

These are of course my favorites!

And my favorite Monkey!!

Kernan and I rode Alice in Wonderland, he loves that movie!! (the original of course)

He was SO excited because he got to sit in the front all by himself!

This was the last show we saw before we headed over to World of Color... If you've never seen them take the flag down at sunset, you need to make a time to see it! People were already lining up for the parade later that night, but for this show no one was around. Which makes me sad because people should line up to see it!! If you don't know what they do, here's a brief run down... They play patriotic songs, have a quartet come out and sing patriotic songs. Then they ask people in the crowd who have served or are serving in the different parts of the American Army to come stand around the flag. It's an amazing display of the love we have or should have for our country! Seriously go watch it!

Kernan had fallen asleep shortly before we watched... He can sleep through anything! Look how close he is to the band!

So that was the end of Day 3, after this we headed out to get our spots for World of Color!! Most amazing show EVER!! Pictures coming soon!!

Finding the Characters...

2010-08-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Alright... Where do I begin?! Sorry I haven't posted in forever! We've had a slight change to plans the last few weeks... My Brother came home from his mission early due to some health issues they were not able to figure out and fix out on his mission. So the kids and I were in AZ for two weeks, Brian and Wyatt joined us for the last bit of that trip. Then my brothers and sister came to UT so it's just been a whirlwind in our house!! I have a LOT to catch up on and I'm hoping to get it all up before the start of school on the 11th!! Wish me luck!! Ü

Alright, onto DISNEY pictures!!

One of our favorite things to do at Disney is find all the different characters, getting them to sign the kids autograph books and take their picture with them! This year was no different! First stop once we were inside the park was to buy their books... Kernan completely filled his book by the end of the 3 days! Maci on the other hand was into riding rides and not so much into looking for the characters. So here's who we found!
First off.. this is the Goofy that greats you when you walk into our hotel! We stayed at the Paradise Pier again, love that hotel!!

First sighting... GOOFY!! He's one of our favorites as you'll soon see! Ü

Then we found Buzz Lightyear just outside the Buzz Lightyear ride. That's Kernan's favorite ride!!

Maci wanted to go see the Princesses!! The last couple times she hasn't wanted to because she says she doesn't like them anymore. But when she said she wanted to this time, I was SO excited!! Ü
As you can see though, Kernan didn't like them much! Ariel is the only one he would stand with, and that's because I made him. I think that because they look so much like REAL people he isn't as sure of them as the others... Which is a bit odd if you ask me! haha!

Once we were done there, we headed into Toontown! Where we found our second Goofy of the day! hehe! I love Kernan's face in this one!

The start of our 2nd day at Disneyland... another picture with the Goofy at the hotel! Blanky even got in this picture! Kernan loves his blanky!!

We spent the day at California Adventure... We got in line to see Jesse and Woody and while we were waiting they went in, and the "Little Green Army Men" came out! I thought they were awesome!! They interacted so well with the kids!

Then we went and rode the Toy Story Mania Ride and played the arcades... One of the arcade games had Woody as one of the prizes. A sweet older lady won and gave Kernan her prize! He loved it! When we walked by where the Army Men were Woody and Jesse were back, and Kernan had to show Woody that he had him! Love these pictures!!

While the older kids went and rode Grizzly Mountain... Kernan, my Mom and I walked around. We found Stitch.

And then we saw Snow White... Right as Kernan was about to walk up to her, he said, "Mom, wait I need my Sister!" It was so cute!!

Day 3! First sighting... Lightening McQueen and Mator!!

Once again, everyone was gone riding Indiana Jones and Kernan isn't big enough for that ride yet. So he and I did our own thing while we waited. We spotted Aladdin!! Kernan was SO excited!!

Then we went over to meet Tinker Bell... yes, you read that right! Our son has a little thing for Tink!! But the line was to long at that moment so we didn't see her then, but while we were in that area, Peter Pan and Wendy came by!! I haven't ever seen them at Disneyland before, so that was fun!!

We went back to Toontown and saw Mickey Mouse! I love this picture!! I love watching my kids at Disneyland!! It's the greatest!

Kernan wouldn't look at the camera, so Mickey helped him out! haha!

Part of the group... Some were off riding Space Mountain again...

While Kernan played at Goofy's house, my Mom went and had her picture taken with Goofy! If you're keeping track, that's 3 now! Ü

And finally, Kernan and I headed back to Pixie Hollow to find Tinkerbell! He was so funny, there was another fairy in Pixie Hollow but he didn't want to even talk to her! All he wanted was to find Tinkerbell! Once we found her and Terence, he got SUPER shy and wouldn't even look at them! He's such a stinker sometimes!!

Then he wouldn't look at the camera and smile for me because he was being so shy so instead they all put their heads down! I think it's a cute picture though!! Ü

But we finally convinced him to look up! You'd never know it but he LOVED meeting Tinkerbell and Terence!!

We saw a few more characters but it was at our breakfast with the characters, so I'll save those for that post!! I'm hoping to update the blog everyday to get caught up!! Here's what you have to look forward to... Rides, Hidden Mickey's, Surf's Up Breakfast, World of Color and an entire post of pictures of Kernan's facial expressions!! He was being a bit GOOFY himself this trip!! Ü So stay tuned!!

The Happiest Place on Earth...

2010-07-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

We're back!!
This is where we spent last week!! We celebrated Kolby's hump day, Jaxin's birthday, and Mom surviving Girls Camp! Ü

And I have 240 pictures to go through!! And that's just on my camera!! I still need to get the pictures my Mom took off her camera!! Ü

I also have like 4 videos to share.... We got to see the new WORLD OF COLOR in California Adventure! It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!! I can't wait to take Brian back and see it again!

So here is just a sneak peek of a few (very few) pictures from our Disney trip!! Stay tuned! I'll be updating with LOTS more pictures!! I've gotta figure out how to break them up into smaller posts! Ü
Here is Goofy helping us celebrate Kolby's ONE year mark! Goofy is Kolby's favorite!!

Happy Monday!!

It's been... One Year... 12 months... 365 days... 8,760 hours...

2010-07-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

since we dropped Elder Peterson off at the MTC (missionary training center) to serve his 2 year mission in the Washington Spokane Mission!

One year ago, these blocks said 104... I never thought I'd see 52! Ü

Can you believe that?! One year has gone by!? Although it has gone by fast it also seems like he's been gone forever! But he has blessed many lives and accomplished so much while he has been serving the Lord! Here are some numbers he sent us in his email this week that I thought were super cool so I wanted to share them with you!!

IN 1 YEAR AS A MISSIONARY...

580 LESSONS HAVE BEEN TAUGHT
183 NEW INVESTIGATORS HAVE BEEN FOUND
5,475 DOORS KNOCKED
3,000 PASS-A-LONG CARDS USED
1,100 PAMPHLETS PASSED OUT
215 BOOK OF MORMONS GIVEN TO BLESS LIVES
3 AREA'S SERVED
7 COMPANIONS
7 MONTHS AS SENIOR COMPANION
9 CONVERTS TO THE CHURCH
32 DISTRICT MEETINGS
9 ZONE CONFERENCES
11 INTERVIEWS
17,000 MILES IN A CAR
2,200 PHONE CALLS
700 PICTURES TAKEN
300+ PIECES OF MAIL
365 DAYS OF JOURNAL ENTRY
1,512 DOLLARS SPENT ON NEEDS
2 GUNS PULLED ON ME
1 PATRIARCHAL BLESSING

ALL EQUALS - THE LOVE & UNLIMITED BLESSINGS I HAVE NOW & THAT WILL COME FROM MY HEAVENLY FATHER FOR SERVING THIS MISSION...
PRICELESS...

Happy Hump Day Elder Peterson!! We are all SO proud of you and the wonderful work you're doing for our Heavenly Father!! WE LOVE YOU!!! Ü

Summa, Summa, Summa Time...

2010-06-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

So we've had a busy summer so far!! And I realized today that I really need to update the blog before I get even more behind... And next week we'll be in Disneyland so I need to be up to date before then!! Ü So let's get started... I have lots of pictures to post!!

I walked by Kernan's room a couple weeks ago and saw this.. I had to go grab my camera and get a picture of it! These two are so cute!

So the week after Maci's baptism, Jaxin and Maci attended a week long dance camp... They had so much fun!! Here they are just before we left to go watch them dance!

This is what a boy does while his Sister and Aunt are dancing for all of us! Ü Playing Mom's phone!

The whole group... it was amazing what they learned in just a week!

The next day, we had some ODD weather! A major hail storm blew through and it totally looked like it had snowed!

Brian and the neighborhood kids jumping on the trampoline! It was cold... crazy weather!!!

Alright, fast forward a couple of nights later, Eric (one of Brian's priests) was over watching the Boston vs Lakers game with us and the kids asked if they could toilet paper his car, I said yes! hehe!!

Even Kernan was in on the action!

But before they could finish Eric spotted them out the window and went out to get them! Notice the golf club in his hand?! Ü

I loved this! So creative!! haha! Oh and sorry girls, I blocked his license plate number so you couldn't all track him down and try to propose! lol!

All the kids had a sleep over out in our backyard in the tent that night! It was a lot of fun!! They were up WAY to late, but I wouldn't know how late because I fell asleep! Brian was in charge!

Kernan is the only one that didn't last all night! He came in shortly after we said good night to them and fell right to sleep on our floor!

Brian goes to Cali!
Brian is over the priests in our ward (the 16-18 year old boys) and they have a once a year super activity. This year they decided to go to Cali and hit up Disneyland! Can you believe he went with out the kids and I?! Me either... I just kept saying to myself, "3 weeks for 3 days!" He could enjoy his ONE day because the kids and I are going for 3!
The first stop they hit was the beach... They had fun burying each other!

Geoff and Joe on my FAVORITE ride!!

This is Eric.. I know you can't tell but it is! (i do not take the credit for these pictures, but I do take credit that he even took some! I told him, he could not go to Disneyland with NO camera!) Eric is currently taking video with his phone of Splash Mountain (my favorite ride) which he sends me on my phone to rub it in!!

So while all the boys were at Disneyland the kids and I went and saw Toy Story 3!

We all loved it!! I totally cried at the end! We've already gone and seen it again! Ü

We have spent MANY afternoons on the lake this summer already!! And it's still early in the boating season here!! It's been a blast! Last Monday we went out and took the kids and the Hall's girls with us! Brian showing us how to surf...

Wyatt's turn... Doesn't he look mean in this picture?! He's not! Ü

I have a bunch of sweet shots of the wipe outs! These crack me up!

This is what Kernan does EVERY time we get on the boat! So far every trip out he's slept through parts of it!!

Jaxin

Stockton

Brooklynn

Maci

Halee

Brian on the wakeboard

Oh, look who woke up! Ü

Time to fill up the tube... Can you tell the kids had been waiting for this the entire trip?!

Mmm.. He is SO good lookin'!! Sorry girls, he's taken!!

Maci and Halee on the tube. Halee rocked the tube! She didn't get off the entire time(except for when her and Jaxin got flipped out)!! Their faces in all of these pictures make me laugh!

Jaxin and Halee's turn...

Check out Jaxin's face! To funny!

The driver... Wyatt.

Last Tuesday we were off to Arizona! Jaxin's birthday was on Saturday and I had the birthday girl so I had to get her home! Ü Grandma and Kernan decided to run through the sprinklers one day... Whatever ya gotta do to stay cool down there, ya gotta do!!

Drying off...

Grandpa noticed Kernan had grass all over his legs so he had to spray them off before he went in the house, Kernan started yelling at him telling him to STOP then all the sudden he'd say (calmly) "Oh, it's warm!" So he was fine with getting sprayed all over! It was to funny!

So Jaxin thought her birthday party was on Saturday, her actual birthday. But we decided to change it to Thursday so that her best friend would be able to make it. I guess she had a family reunion over the weekend so she wouldn't have been able to be there... So it was my job to get the birthday girl out of the house for the afternoon and then get her back! So we headed out to run some errands, it was pretty easy to get Jaxin out of the house. She likes to hang with me, so when I asked her if she wanted to come, of course she did! Ü When we got home this was what the front yard looked liked... She still didn't put it together!

The two girls... Halee got to come to AZ with us! It was so fun to have her along! Jaxin and her had a blast! So here they are showing me their purchases from our afternoon of shopping...

SURPRISE!!
And surprised she was!! She had NO clue! It was great!

The decor... I took a bunch of pictures, but this post is way to picture loaded so you'll have to be my friend on facebook to see them all!

Mom had a bunch of fun games for them to play! Put the M on the M&M was a fun one!

Kernan wanted to take some pictures of me... This one was not to bad!

Do you think he was enjoying his cupcake?!

This picture is so funny! Kernan eating his cupcake in the background, the slice of cake that's already missing... so funny!! Happy Birthday Jaxin!! I can't believe you're 12 and at Girls Camp as I type this!! CrAzY!! I feel old...

So we got home on Sunday night... and went out to the lake last night again!

Maci swimming with the boys...

Brian wanted to make sure I got a picture of him surfing without the rope! That's the point of surfing behind the boat is to do it without the rope! Look at that face... Yes, I'm married to a goof!!

Eric had to get his picture without the rope too... He crashed right after!

So that's what we've been up to the last 3 weeks... We're headed out for more fun Monday!! Disneyland here we come!! I can't wait! I haven't even told Kernan yet, we all know I'd be getting asked every minute of the day if we're leaving yet! So I'll wait until Monday morning! lol!
Hope you're all having as much fun so far with your summer break as we are!!

ps- I put the word verification on my blog comments... I've gotten like 50 spam comments on just ONE particular post of mine from last summer and I'm tired of them, so word verification is needed! Sorry!

Maci's Baptism Weekend...

2010-06-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

So it's been an entire week since Maci's baptism, and I'm just now getting to posting about it on my blog... I'm just barely getting back into the swing of things! Last weekend really took it out of me! I have a greater respect for my Mom and Aunts that have thrown these things and I've just been one of the visitors! It's a LOT of work!! Ü
So I didn't get my camera out until Friday (I know, bad me!) But to give you the low down of the other days events before Friday... My parents and Stockton got in town late Tuesday night, Wednesday we all headed up to Cedar City to celebrate my Aunt Rachel's birthday... Just as we were getting dinner ready, Christtina (Brian's sister) text me and told me they were 50 miles out. Well we were about 50 miles away too! So we grabbed our kids and headed down the hill! We pulled into our driveway when Chris text me and said they were coming down the hill and could see Hurricane! We beat them by about 7 minutes! Perfect timing!! Ü
Thursday we just hung around our house, I made almost 50 camp t-shirts for my Mom for their girls camp! She wanted 2 different colors so basically we printed 100 shirts! That pretty much took up all our time! So while we did all that, the kids played and played and played!! Ü Then that night, Jason, Natalie and the kids showed up!! So that was before I started taking pictures...
Friday morning all the men went golfing while the girls and kids stayed home and played/waited for them to get back! haha! Kernan's trains were a BIG hit, I'm so glad he shared nicely with them too! Those were the toys I was worried he'd flip out on, but he actually shared really well!

Eating yummy french toast!

Along with his girlfriend Callie! (to read about their love story click here)

We turned on a movie, this lasted all of about 5 minutes! Then they were back to playing!

The older kids hardly came inside! They were having a good ol time!

After the men got home my Dad came over and took off Cole's cast!! Christtina was SO excited for that!! He had it on for 2 weeks because he had a slight fracture on his tibula (i think that's where it was) they were going to take it off on this day in AZ anyway but because Chris was up here they scheduled it for the next week but my Dad has experience taking casts off so Christtina asked him to do it for her while they were up here!
I love Cole's face in this picture... He's like "Grandpa Scott... what are you doing to me?!" haha!

Once the cast was off, we headed to Sand Hollow!! We love that lake! Here is my handsome boy ready to hit the water!

Callie did not move from this spot the entire time we were at the lake! I guess she did go up to the table to eat dinner but that was only because her Mom made her!! Ü

CAST FREE!! And OH SO CUTE!!!

Chris and her boys... blurry but cute! Ü

The buckets were a big hit! The kids had a blast filling them up and then emptying them again, they did that over and over!

Nitro was worn out... Isn't she a giant now?!

Dinner... Kernan was showing us his booty basically the entire time we were at the lake... After I while I realized that he was probably going to end up burnt there because I hadn't sprayed that skin with sun screen!! But thankfully he didn't! This will be such a good black mail picture one day!!

Loading up.. I just had to have proof that Wyatt carried my UTES chair!! Ü

Once we got home our neighbors were out with their horses and carriage. Kernan was already in the shower, but Kolsen and Trevor got to go for a ride. My Arizona sista's were a bit concerned when they took awhile to make it around the block... Silly girls!! I had to assure them that they were in Hurricane, UT not Phoenix! They will NOT steal your children!! The boys loved it!!

Later that night we turned a movie on in our room for the little kids...
Kernan and Callie, look how cute they both are with their blankies... They had better get married! hehe!

So then it was baptism day!! It was a bit crazy at our house that morning trying to get all 16 people in our house ready! But we did it and it turned out great!!
Here is the beautiful girl with her display table I did for her... We kept asking if she was nervous but she kept saying no! She was just really excited!

Her and brother...

I had to put this picture on too.. Just look at that boys face! Such a crack up!

Maci and her Daddy

Waiting for everyone to come... She looks so ready! Ü

It was a beautiful program! I think the most special part for Maci (and us all) was the talk on Baptism. My brother Kolby that is serving a mission wrote the talk for her and then my brother Stockton read it to us. She told me after she was baptized and we were putting her dress on that when Stockton was talking she looked at the picture of Kolby and started to cry! To sweet!
After wards we went to my Grandma and Grandpas house for lunch and we took pictures in the front yard in front of their pretty trees!

I'm so sad this is blurry!! They all were of the 3 of us! I forgot to check my settings before I handed my camera over... oh well...

Maci's "other" Grandma and Grandpa
(she doesn't call them "great" she has always called them "other" we love it!)

All her cousins and Aunt and Uncle on my side...

Her aunts and cousins on Brian's side...

All the priesthood holders, except Jason who was at our house changing and packing up their car to head back to AZ...

Maci with her Daddy and Poppy...

Brian's side of the family...
Us, Mee Maw (Brian's grandma), Poppy, Emilee, Christtina, Cole, Michayla, and Trevor....

My family... blurry again... bummer!

ALL of my family!! Ü

Maci with Grandma and Grandpa

Maci with Mee Maw...
She was SUCH a blessing to me!! She came and cooked all the dinners while they were here! I can't even express how thankful I am for that!! It was one less thing I had to worry about with everything else! Plus we had leftovers for lunch, it was awesome!! I am SO grateful for it!! Thanks Mee Maw!! We LOVE you!!

Maci and Poppy...

Maci with the Davis'... They had to head home after lunch because Nat had to give the lesson in Relief Society the next day. We are SO thankful they came up, not just to support Maci on her very special day but to see that the drive between our house and theirs is not that bad! So now they'll come visit us more!! Ü We love you guys tons!! It really meant a ton to us all that you came up!

I always get pictures of my kids in my Grandparents tree every summer and I wanted to get some of Kolsen and Callie... It was so funny! Callie would have stayed up there all day she loved it, Kolsen on the other hand was scared! Way to be tough Callie!! Ü

After lunch all the kids played in the water out front, Grandma even turned on the sprinklers...
Cole chased a ball into them! Love the face!

Kernan and Trevor sprayed everyone with their Buzz Lightyear squirt guns! Including themselves...

That night we took Brian's rocket out to shoot it off... It blasted off great, but we couldn't find it after wards! They had put glow sticks on it so that it would be bright but that didn't matter... We had to go back the next day after church and look for it in the day light. They found it eventually but it's not in good shape!

Nice muscles Wyatt!! Ü Really quick let me tell ya who Wyatt is... He's probably going to show up on my blog often so I better fill ya in! (cuz I know you're all just so curious!) Wyatt lived with our good friends the Monk's who just moved out to CA(please hold while I wipe my tears)... He needed a new home and so we offered ours... He is an awesome kid! He has been working with Brian to save up for his mission (he turns 19 in Nov) and it's been so fun to have him here!! Our kids LOVE him, heck we all do!! So that's Wyatt! He's our new son! Ü

Emilee and Jaxin had a blast this trip! They are good buddies! They're only 5 months apart! Jaxin will be 12 in like 2 weeks and Emilee will be 12 in November...

They had to have a goofy shot... and GOOFS they are!! haha!!

So that sums up our weekend! Everyone went home Sunday after church, I went right in and took a 2.5 hour nap and laid around for like 2 days before I felt "normal". Whatever normal is...
Thanks SO much to everyone that came up. I know it meant a ton to Maci for you all to be there and Brian and I really appreciated the support here for our family as well! We love you!!

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

2010-06-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm typing this right now, but when you are all reading this Maci will be the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! And the cleanest person we all know! Ü

That is just crazy sounding to me! Brian and I are SO proud of her and the choice she has decided to make!
These are some of the pictures we went out and took for her invitations...

Maci~
Mommy and Daddy are so very proud of you today! You've made a very important choice that makes both us and Heavenly Father very happy!! But what I think is the neatest thing, is this is the first choice you're making to get to live with Heavenly Father again, and not just Him but also with Broc. I know your little brother is so happy today and so proud of you! You're a wonderful big sister, you're a great example to Kernan. We love you!!

Let's Play Catch Up!

2010-05-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have a lot to catch up on, and I need to get caught up before the next two weeks come... Maci's last day of school is on Thursday, I'm in charge of her end of school party on Wednesday, and then she gets baptized in 2 weeks and we have a lot of family and friends coming to town for that so I'm gonna be busy busy!! Ü But we're excited for all of it!

So first off, here are my kids in the their cute Easter outfits... My new favorite color is YELLOW... don't worry pink, you're still my favorite too! I just have two now! haha!

I even matched the kids, and my Husband thought I looked good so he wanted to take some pictures of me... Don't worry, I left out the ones of JUST me but put this cute one of me and the kids.. I just love these two!

And because he's a goof, I had to share this one!

A couple weeks after Maci's birthday we knew that the guy we had bought her bunny from had babies that were ready to leave their Momma's. We had told Kernan that he could get one... Maci and Kernan were talking about what he should name it, Maci's is named Reese's because that's her favorite chocolate candy, so she said,
"Kernan, what's your favorite chocolate?"
Kernan responded with, "Chocolate Milk!"
He had us all laughing!! So when we got to the day that we got to go pick his bunny out, I said,
"Are you going to name your bunny 'chocolate milk'?"
he said, "No, my bunny name is Harry Potter!"
And indeed that's what he named it! He knew exactly what he wanted his bunny to look like too!
White with some grey on his eye. They handed me the cutest SOFTEST black bunny, I tried to get Kernan to pick it, but he said to me, very seriously, "No Mom that one not right."
So introducing, HARRY POTTER. Picked out just right by Kernan! (this picture is from my phone and 2 weeks old)

Here is a picture of Harry Potter I just took 2 days ago... Baby rabbits grow to fast, just like kids!

Now, remember that black bunny that was just OH SO CUTE that I tried to convince Kernan he needed to choose and he didn't?! Well, I came home with it!! I'm telling you, this bunny has the SOFTEST fur!! It's not like normal bunny fur, it's SO SOFT!! (have you gotten the hint yet? he is totally soft! Ü)
So introducing SWOOPS... named after the University of Utah's mascot!
Here is his picture from 2 weeks ago taken with my phone...

And here he is just a couple of days ago... Don't you want to just come pet him?! You can anytime!!

And here is an updated picture of Maci's bunny... When we brought the babies home, he like doubled in size!

Swoops was my Mother's Day present from my kids... I love him! Brian got me a super cool clock jewelery box that is awesome! I also got called to be the 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency in our ward on Mother's Day. It's been a few weeks now, and I'm loving the calling so far! But the BEST present was our phone call with Elder Peterson!! He sounded SO good! And it was so good to hear his voice! We have to wait 7 months to hear it again... But he's doing so good and having much success on his mission! We are so proud of him!!

Then 2 days after Mother's day, Kernan and I hopped in my car and headed south. My Mom and Brother share the same birthday, and my Mom wasn't to excited about her birthday this year seeing as it would be the first one in 21 years that she spent without my brother. So I thought, well if she can't have my brother on her birthday, she should have her favorite child! hehe!! So we drove down and SURPRISED her!! The only one that knew we were coming was my Dad! He snuck us in the back door, she was sitting on her chair on her computer and heard a little voice, turned around and saw Kernan. She said it took her a minute to realize that it was his voice in her kitchen and that he was actually standing in her kitchen!! Surprise successful!! Ü
I took this picture on my drive down, it is the scariest bridge EVER... The Hoover Dam bridge... It's been fun to watch the progress of it! Although, I'm scared to death to actually drive on it when they get it finished!! I know how high off the ground that thing is, I'm not sure I'll be able to do it!! Yikes!

On my Mom's birthday, my Brother and her planned to go to the temple at the same time. So at 8:30am my Mom and Dad were in the Mesa Temple and my Brother was in the Spokane Washington Temple! So cool!! While they went through the session Kernan and I ran some errands over in Mesa, then we went and walked around the Temple waiting for them to come out...
I decided to take some pictures of it while we were waiting...

I love this look!!

We were laying in the grass in the front of the temple waiting and I thought this was a cool shot...

I wish I would have taken a picture of Kernan running across the grass to my Mom when they came out, but I didn't... Dang it! It was so cute plus, while we were at Walmart when they were in their session, I found a cute "I love Grandma" shirt for him to wear so he had that on! Pictures of him in it coming soon!
Here is what I gave my Mom for her birthday... Don't worry I sewed it together, this is just a picture of it laying out on my office floor.

And the finished product! I'm pretty proud of it! It's the first thing I've ever made using a pattern, and wonder under and appliqueing!! Now I need to make myself one! Ü

One of the days we were down there, we went to the mall... I HAD to go into the most beautiful store in the mall! The APPLE Store!! AWWW...
I sent this picture to Brian while we were in there.. He's in trouble, he has 2 Apple nerds on his hands! Kernan didn't want to leave he was having so much fun playing on the iMac!

I got to bring Jaxin home with me when I left! She had 4 days left of school but she already knew she had gotten straight A's, which meant she got them ALL YEAR LONG! Something I could have never done!! I never even got straight A's once!! So my parents let her come home with me as a reward!! It's been so fun having her! I basically get her all summer with the exception of like 2 weeks when she'll be at Girls Camp! Crazy that she's old enough for girls camp!!
Here are the 3 crazies in their SUNS shirts! All 5 of us wore our Suns shirts Monday, but it didn't show to be of good luck so we'll wear them the day after they win next time! We're hoping they beat the Lakers and head to the FINALS but right now, it's not looking so good!

Then the other day when I took the pictures of the bunnies... I snapped some cute ones of the kids playing with them... They had brought them in and were playing with them in my room...
Kernan LOVES his bunny! It's the only one of the 3 that he'll hold! He always says to me, "Mom, Harry Potter so cute, huh?!" Love that boy! and yes his dad shaved his head, SO NOT happy about that!

Introducing our 4th bunny, Kernan... thankfully just for the hour they were playing! haha!

Jaxin doesn't look to happy in this picture, but I promise she was!! She had just been having a staring contest with Reese's up on her chest! Should have snapped a picture of that, but I didn't have my camera out yet!

And finally, yesterday was the "re- Grand Opening" of Brian's shop and the entire complex... They've had a lot of changes to this complex in the last little bit so they decided to celebrate how far they've come... It was pretty exciting and I'm SO proud of my husband for all the hard work he puts into both these businesses!

He had one of the local dealerships loan them these two NICE cars! A Ferrari and a Nissan GTR

Here's a view from the road looking down...

They had two of the radio stations broadcasting LIVE and Brian was on both of them! The kids and I sat in the boat and listened to him on radio, after he was done he walked over to us and Kernan said, "That was so funny!" haha!

The Ferrari...

The Nissan GTR...

Alright, I think you're all up to date on the happenings of our family... It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, hopefully I'll find some time to update the blog through everything! Until next time... Ü

I'm a bit overwhelmed...

2010-05-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I've been MIA... I promise I'm still here!! Ü I have SO much to update you on, like our newest furry animal additions, my quick trip down to AZ last week, etc etc.. But I don't have the time for all that just yet...

I just want to really quickly get on here and let you all know about my amazing day I'm having...

First off, I'm being featured on Becky Higgin's blog today. I'm taking part in her BIG photography giveaway.

If you're in the Southern Utah area and want to enter for the FREE family session you can do so by leaving a comment under my post on her blog, just tell me why YOU deserve the free session. Or you can enter someone else by telling me why THEY deserve the free session! Just CLICK HERE to enter!

So why am I so overwhelmed?! Well under all my information, Becky added a note:

*Note from Becky: I was deeply touched by Jessica’s post about why she is a photographer. You will be too. And you can read it here on here blog. Jessica, thank you for having the courage to share your story, which will undoubtedly bless each person who reads it.

She also sent out a tweet about it that posted to her Facebook Fan page... Oh My Goodness... I'm completely overwhelmed by all the comments and people who are going to my blog to read about Broc! It's 2:30 MST and I've had 857 hits to my photography blog! So amazing! All the nice comments people are leaving are so touching and sweet! It's just amazing how much power one person can hold!!
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know about the giveaway so if you want to enter you can! And also wanted to let you know that I'm not dead and I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just busy with LIFE! School is out next week and then we have Maci's Baptism and summer so it probably won't slow down but I promise to update SOON! Ü

Why am I a Photographer?!

2010-04-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I posted this on my photography blog today, but wanted to post it on here too... Ü
I get asked this a lot... And today is a good day to answer that question.

5 years ago today...

Maci Turns 8!

2010-04-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

This last Friday was Maci's 8th Birthday! I can't believe we have an 8 year old!! CrAzY!
Warning: Novel of a post with like 50+ pictures!! Just warning ya!!

So my kids don't get big friend birthday parties until their 8th birthday... Maci has wanted to have a Luau party for over a year! Surprisingly she never changed her mind either!! haha! So I've been planning it for awhile now, you add that and the fact that my Mom and I spend way to much time on "party decorating" blogs and she had one SWEET Luau! Ü

These were her invitations... They were supposed to be a message in a bottle but Oriental Trading's shipping got all messed up and the stuff I ordered from them didn't get to my house until the day of!! So this was plan B... I thought they still turned out pretty cute!

Next on the agenda, I bought a YU DU machine with my Birthday money... It's a personal screen printing machine... So I designed a thing in Photoshop and printed it out on a transparency and burned it onto the screen and printed on 13 t shirts for all the kids! It was SO fun and easy!

Here are the shirts...

Here's a close up of the design... Each kid got one, including Kernan! Ü

On Thursday (the day before Maci's birthday) I went into Maci's classroom and took cookies. Her teacher Miss Stout wasn't going to be there on Friday and I give her the option of going or staying home and she choose to stay home, so we celebrated it with her class on Thursday...

She also got her first Birthday present Thursday afternoon... Here is a short video of her reaction...

It was SO fun!! My family showed up at our door! We had been planning this for sometime, I knew I wanted my Mom's help with her party so we decided to not tell Maci and it would be part of her Birthday, I was SO proud of myself for not blowing it!! She was VERY surprised! Yay!! Ü

Here are the kids on the morning of Maci's birthday...

Her loot from Mom and Dad... Plus, Grandma and Grandpa stopped in Vegas to get us Krispy Kreme for her Birthday breakfast! Yum!!

Mmmm...

Kernan enjoyed his too, he had a nice doughnut face after wards!

After breakfast, Kernan got to open his present from Grandma, Grandpa and the kids...
A DS!! His own! He was so happy! No more playing Sissy's pink one! Ü

He took it right out and started playing! He even knows how to charge it when it dies!
(notice the doughnut face I talked about a minute ago?! hehe)

Then it was off to work, time to start putting everything together for the party! I had kept everything that we would be doing and having at Maci's party a secret too... I thought it would be more fun for her that way, rather then knowing everything! She was super excited to start helping!

My Mom made this adorable sign, we hung it in the front yard...

Some of the goodies the kids got... The small buckets were the treat bags that all their goodies went home in...

They each got a pair of flip flops, a t shirt, a lei, a palm tree cup, the girls got a grass skirt and a flower for their hair...

Here is the yummy table! My Mom did all the candy!

Here we have what we liked to call our "Jordan Cupcakes"... Maci said a couple of times that day that she wished Jordan could be at her party... If you don't now who Jordan is, she is the little girl that I babysat in AZ. I started watching her when the girls were 1 and they moved back to Hawaii when the girls were 3.. Our family meets up with their family at Disneyland... We LOVE that family and have such a special bond with Jordan! So these reminded us of her... LOVE YOU JORDAN!!

The cookies my Mom made... She is awesome!

Here's what they look like out of the bag... Aren't those adorable?! She made Train cookies for Kernan too... I'll have to share a picture of that one soon!!

The beverages, or as the cute sign Mom made says, "Tiki Bar Open"...

So, now we have the cake.... I can't even do this cake justice!! My AmAzInGlY talented cousin Kelli makes these cakes, just for "fun" and she does awesome things!! Maci was SO excited that Kelli was going to be making her cake! And so was I! Everything on the cake is eatable, even the flowers! So awesome!
If you want her to make a cake for you, let me know!! I'll give you her info, you can see more of her cakes she's made at the blog her sister has put together for her, kellis kakez She is seriously talented!! Thanks SO much Kelli!!

Here's the whole table display... We had another table set up for the presents and then another one for the craft they made... I love the banner my Mom made for her too!! I'm SO glad she was able to come up for it! The party would have been boring if it weren't for her!! Ü

The guests arrived... and of course went straight for the candy!!

They all made frames that had a palm tree and flamingo on it and it said "aloha 2010". Here Grandpa is lending his assistance to Kernan. I love that my Dad brought his Hawaiian shirt just for the party!!

I took pictures of Maci with each of her guests, I thought this one was SO cute!

Then her brother's turn... He jumped on the surf board like he totally knew what he was doing!! Ü They had been practicing on it all morning!

Such a PRO... I think next time we're in CA he needs some surfing lessons, but I might want to get him in swimming lessons first! haha! But he has GREAT form!! I love his sister's face too... ha

Group shot! Out of 12 people only 2 weren't able to make it, not bad!

After I tortured them with pictures, we played LIMBO...
I love the expression on Maci's face, a little low darling?!

Kernan even joined in a couple times! He had a slight advantage though! Ü

Once we were done with Limbo, it was time for presents! Maci got a lot of cool things from all her friends and Mom and Dad but her favorite present was the one her Daddy got her!!

Introducing, "Reese's", Maci's new rabbit! It is a very sweet bunny and the girl LOVES it but the bunny has a bit of a story...

2 hours after this picture was taken, Maci comes running into the house crying because the bunny is LOST! It got out of it's cage and they can't find it! So we all get up and go out to help look for it. The kids were so cute (at this time I just had Maci, Jaxin, Stockton, Kernan and my cousins, not ALL the kids still) they were calling it like a dog... "REESE'S" Poor things didn't realize that it wouldn't come running like a puppy, and even if it did, it didn't know it's name after only 2 hours!! Kernan was adorable, he said, "Reese's!! Mom we have to yell louder so him hear us... "REESE'S" Mom, why him want to leave him's home, it's so nice?!" It was so cute!!

Once the bunny was put in his cage, it was time to sing and cut the cake... Although, I did NOT want to cut that cute cake!! But it tasted as good as it looked!!

The girls rockin' out to Taylor Swift! Ü This is "pre loss of bunny"!

After the hunt for Reese's was deemed "unsuccessful" we had to head out to Red Robin to meet up with the rest of the family for the birthday girls dinner. She got to pick!

She was excited that they were going to sing to her!! Ü

Mmmm... Spaghetti and ice cream, good birthday dinner!!

Once we got home, Brian took a flash light out to try and look for the rabbit more. We were hoping that the flashlight would make his eyes light up so he'd be easier to spot... But he had no such luck!! We felt SO bad!! She was so bummed, we assured her that they guy we got him from had babies that would be ready in a week and we'd go back and get another one...
Well the next morning, Brian goes out to his shed to work on his dirt bike and what's sitting right there on the step to his shed?! REESE'S!! He caught him and brought him in and was once again his daughter's HERO!! Ü We've since gotten a better cage system and so far no more bunny escapes!!

I had to get a picture of this... My brother has a surf board in his room as decor and so I asked if they could bring it as the prop for the pictures. Well it wouldn't fit inside so my Dad had to strap it to the top!! They got some funny looks and even funny comments from people! Especially when they told them they were headed to UTAH!! Ü

Saturday afternoon everyone went out riding... I stayed home.

(I'm not sure how I got away with that, but it was nice to enjoy the quiet!!)

Brian snapped these cute pictures with his phone and I had to share them!! Our little dude all ready to go!

Stockton and Kernan on the kids quad... I'm told Kernan was riding the quad all by himself and that he did pretty good!! (so glad I stayed home, that makes me nervous!!)

Alright so if you made it all the way through this post you deserve a candy!! (I have some leftover if you'd like some!) I think the party turned out super cute and Maci had a good time! I'm SO thankful to my family for coming up, that was just the icing on the cake! THANK YOU!!
I'm still in total denial that my kids are growing up!! Maci will be getting baptized the first weekend in June.... When did this happen?! Time is a funny thing! Makes me sad...
Alright, well, I'm off to bed.... the post took FOREVER!! More to come in a couple of days...

Our Baby Is 4!

2010-04-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

I'm still denial that my Baby Boy is growing up! Although he assured me yesterday that he is STILL my Baby Boy! So that makes me feel a bit better! Ü We had a fun day yesterday, it was a full day all about him, and although he wasn't to sure about all the attention he had a GREAT day!! He told me last night at 11 when he finally was ready to go to sleep (we have 8:30 church, but he was up and happy at 7:00am!) that he had a FUN birthday! Ü

I have a TON of pictures to share, to start, I know I do this every year for my kids but I love to look back on them when they were little!
Here is our big, bright eyed BOY...
April 17th, 2006

One...

Two...

Three...

And FOUR!
I just LOVE this picture! Isn't he adorable?!

We decided to bake his cake the night before his birthday, that way it'd be nice and cool to ice in the morning... He loves to help me in the kitchen!

Plus when you get to lick the chocolate, that's a plus!! He really enjoys his chocolate, can't ya tell?! Ü

The BIRTHDAY BOY! Eating his doughnut for breakfast while watching Disney Channel...

We decorated his cake after breakfast... All he wanted was his "Aero" train on his cake! This boy LOVES his Geo Trax! He told me where to put everything on the cake! They are all things from his Geo Trax... I'm no cake decorator but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, plus he LOVED it!

Here is his loot from us... Can you say spoiled?!

The kids spent the good part of the morning on the neighbors tramp jumping... Maci in action!

Aww... They are the cutest kids on the planet! Even with crazy tramp hair...

We let him open just a couple presents in the afternoon before we headed to the indoor pool... These pictures aren't the best technically but the facial expressions this kid makes are hilarious!

His first present, Optimus Prime beach towel!! I think he likes it...
(yes, we totally planned for him to open it before we went swimming!)

Then we let him open the present Mee Maw sent him (Brian's Grandma)... Again, watch the facial expressions...

He LOVES it!! A new Geo Trax train! (that makes 5 now!) Thanks Mee Maw!!

I''m so impressed with this boy! He is always thinking of others... When he woke up yesterday morning and climbed up in bed with us, I said... "Bubba, guess what?! Today's your birthday!" and he replied, "Yep! And now next it's Maci's!" I loved how the first thing out of his mouth on HIS day was something about his sister!! Then, my Grandma brought doughnuts and balloons over in the morning from my Mom... As we were waiting for my family from Cedar City to come to our house so we could head to the pool, Kernan grabbed the balloons from my family and said, "I want to let these go to Broc!" and he walked right out front and let them go! Again, love that he thought about letting them go to Broc and not keeping them for himself!!
Although, as you can see, they didn't get to far! They are still hanging on the telephone wires out in front! But hey, it's the thought that counts right?! Ü

The Pool!! We gave him his choice like a week before his birthday as to what he wanted to do, go swimming or go out and ride dirt bikes and quads. Well when we asked him he had just woken up so he was a bit grumpy and didn't answer us... Later that day we were in the car running errands and he said, "Mom, I shink I want to go swimming for my birthday, cuz I'm a really good swimmer, huh Mom?!" So swimming it was!!

This picture makes me sad, it's so blurry but I just can't get rid of it and I had to put it up here!! My boys looks SO cute even if they are out of focus!

After 3 hours of swimming all over the pool this is what happened on our drive home.... Passed out!

We all ate pizza and waited around a bit for him to wake up, which as you can see, he was OUT!! Ü I took this picture with my cell...

But the natives were getting restless and wanted cake and ice cream, so we ended up waking him up, he did not want to wake up, but when there is a present in your face you can be persuaded a bit easier... Although, as you can see he wasn't really all the way awake! haha!

Again, with the facial expressions!! The last present and finally awake! Ü

The candles lit on his cake, the yellow one plays "Happy Birthday"...

But he doesn't like everyone making a big deal about him so this was his face as we sang to him... At least it wasn't like my birthday where he was yelling at everyone to "Stop singing that song!"

And BLOW!

Our little chocolate lover... 3rd generation right there... him, his Dad, and Poppy are ALL chocoholics!!

Playing with one of his new toys... I love how independent this kid is! All the other kids were playing all over, the Dad's were taking my ~~Uncle Jeff's~~ Aunt Bobbi's Mother's Day present out for a test drive and he just played with his new toy! (my Aunt got a Razor, but really, let's be honest.. it's my Uncle's new toy! Ü)

He also got a new suit from Mommy and Daddy... I took these this morning before church... He looks SO handsome!! He likes it because he says he looks like his Uncle Kolby!

This picture is bitter sweet... before I know it he'll be 19 and on a mission of his own! Why do kids have to grow up so dang fast?! But it's my favorite because he looks up to Kolby so much, and he loves this because it's just like him!!

Oh my sweet little boy... I want you to know that Mommy and Daddy love you very much! You were such a huge answer to our prayers and a big blessing to our family! I don't know what our lives would be like without you in it... I'm sure it wouldn't be as exciting, you know how to make us all laugh! You're a ham! You are quite but once you get comfortable you talk a mile a minute. I love how independent you are and how you spend hours a day building your geo trax train, you get up in the morning and say, "Whoa, I got a lot of work to do, I better get busy!" and off you go building a new track! You amaze me with how smart you are! You love to build puzzles and are VERY good at it! It's a bit scary how well you do with electronics! You can work my phone and iPod touch better then I can sometimes! And you play your sister's Nintendo DS more then she does!! I love your loving heart, and how you're always thinking of others. I love when you see a toy that you think Trevor or Chase or Maci, etc would want you want to buy it for them! You're such a good friend! You light up my days and I hope that you'll never get to big and you'll always want to be my "baby boy"! I love you Bubba!!
~Mom

Brian and Jessica

Guess What....

Halloween 2011~

Disneyland... Last Trip of the Year

A decade...

Labor Day Camping Trip...

Back to School!

Disneyland July 2011

Our Summer happenings... Besides Disneyland

Fourth of July~

Disneyland June 2011~

Harper!

The Peterson's Get Sealed~ For Time and All Eternity

Jaxin's Cheer Competition

April 30th~ 6 years~ A Day to Remember~

See DISNEYLAND POST..

Maci turns 9!?!?

My Baby Turns 5!

"He Is Risen"

“In our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: ‘He is not here: for he is risen.’"

Disneyland March 2011

Harper Gets Her Ears Pierced!

Jaxin's a Cheerleader!

Kolby's Wedding~ February 4th

Still alive...

Mini Golf Open

Disneyland Jan 2011~ Day Two

Disneyland Jan 2011~ Day One!

My Little Brother is Getting Married~

Elder Massey's Farewell...

Christmas 2010 ~ Part 2

Christmas 2010 ~ Part 1

Christmas Disneyland Trip!

On the HuNt!

Merry Christmas!

Family Pictures and Announcement!

Naughty or Nice?!

Thanksgiving!

Girls ONLY Trip to Disneyland!!

I'm still alive!

Halloween, finally!

The Pumpkin Patch!

Go HHS!

Eric gets his Mission Call!!

9 years ago today...

Disneyland October 2010

Where has the time gone...

Our September so far...

Going Private~

We have a 3rd Grader!!

Arizona Lake Trip...

Elder Peterson Comes Home!

When we got home we were all curious as to how Cooper was going to react... At first he wasn't sure who Kolby was....But it didn't take long for him to realize it was Kolby and he couldn't stop jumping on him! He was so happy to see him!

It also didn't take long AT ALL for Kernan to get comfortable with him!! I think he missed his buddy!!And buddies they are!! They were almost inseparable those two! Here they are both playing on their iPod touches (well kernans ipod is mine not his, but you know what I meant!)

LOVE YOU BROTHER!!!

Surfs Up!

World of Color~ Best Water Show EVER!!

Oh the mAnY faces of Kernan...

Hidden Mickey's...

Disneyland Rides, Shows and More...

Finding the Characters...

The Happiest Place on Earth...

It's been... One Year... 12 months... 365 days... 8,760 hours...

Summa, Summa, Summa Time...

Maci's Baptism Weekend...

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

Let's Play Catch Up!

I'm a bit overwhelmed...

Why am I a Photographer?!

Maci Turns 8!

Our Baby Is 4!

When we got home we were all curious as to how Cooper was going to react... At first he wasn't sure who Kolby was....

But it didn't take long for him to realize it was Kolby and he couldn't stop jumping on him! He was so happy to see him!

It also didn't take long AT ALL for Kernan to get comfortable with him!! I think he missed his buddy!!

And buddies they are!! They were almost inseparable those two! Here they are both playing on their iPod touches (well kernans ipod is mine not his, but you know what I meant!)