Little blog about everyone

Ok, we still haven't gotten a new camera so I don't have any cute pictures to go with all the stuff we've been up to. We have done plenty of fun things, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point, swimming at the new Rec Center, colored Easter eggs..... I think in this blog I'll tell what each member of our family is up to!


Shaun~
Shaun continues to be the rock in our family. He goes to work everyday (with NO vacations because he's the only one there!) and sells all day long. He does want to hire a secretary soon and we recently had the tenants in the upper floor of our offices move out. We are trying to find some new tenants and Shaun is just busy, busy, busy! He's a great Dad and we are so grateful for all the hard work he puts in for our family and I'm especially grateful that he lets me stay home and take care of our cute kids.


Patrea~
I've been on a huge self reliance kick lately. I've put together our 72 hr kits (awesome ones we could actually survive with..... tents, hatchet, EVERYTHING we need to survive.) and I've stocked up and rotated our food storage. (Sorry family for making you live on expired crap I had in there!) I started a garden in my back yard for vegetables and I planted a little patch of strawberries on the side of the house. I've also been experimenting with cooking with bean flour and bean puree (yes, you can substitute it for butter or oil, so much healthier!) and it's a good feeling to know that we'd be ok if there was a disaster. There have been so many lately, earthquakes, tsunamis, and most recently tornados in the east. Anyway, I LOVE not being employed anymore and being able to devote all my time to my family. They make me so HAPPY!


Isaak~
Isaak loves all things boy. My Mom recently bought him a toy sword and he's always carrying it around. He loves Lightning McQueen and Buzz. I've registered him for Preschool in the fall, and I think he is going to love it. His best friend continues to be Montana next door. She is constantly at our house and he is constantly telling her how much he loves her. He got a monster truck that he can drive around for Christmas and she has a little Barbie Jeep so their favorite thing to do is ride around the circle. I'm amazed at how good he is at steering and driving. It's not really that different from driving a real car except no brakes. He's full of kisses and snuggles and is always telling everyone how much he loves them. SO SWEET!


Lila~
Lila is the most beautiful girl I've EVER seen. And her personality fits it. She is so sweet and SO smart! Everyone is suprised at how much that girl talks! She sings, tries to count, and repeats a lot of things that Isaak says. She LOVES her Daddy and goes to bed a lot better for him than she does for me. Lila loves books and about 25% of the time I will find her in the piano room thumbing through a book. She adores her brother and follows him everywhere. If she wakes up from her nap before him, I've got a fight on my hands trying to keep her from walking up to his room to wake him up. I love that cute little girl!

ANOTHER trip to my sissy poo's house!

I just got back last night from another trip to Missouri! Jared just got home from his mission a couple weeks ago and Jordan is leaving in a couple weeks.... they both wanted to go visit Angela so we all piled in my Durango with the kids and drove! We had such a great time, and the kids were so good! Shaun had installed some video screens in the headrests, plus one for the front and filled a hard drive with about 100 movies so we were so spoiled on this drive. While we were there we had a fire with shishkabobs, played steal the flag until midnight one night, played games, visted Adam ondi Ahmen and Liberty jail, played outside ALOT, set up an elaborate scavenger hunt for the kids and at the end they found a piniata and some kites.... we had such a great time! I dropped my camera and broke it about halfway through the trip so I don't have pictures from Liberty Jail or Adam ondi ahman, but Shaun was just telling me a couple weeks ago how we need a new camera anyway, so now we've got a good reason. :) This first picture is my favorite time of day in Misssouri. They have amazing sunsets and you can hear the frogs in Angela's pond.... it's so perfect and peaceful. Here's some pictures of our fire and our kabobs. (SO YUMMY!)

Angela, Brady, and Jared

Jordan and Angela

Me and Sam!

I had put the kids to bed before our fire, but Isaak looked out the window, saw us having fun and sneaked out to join us. How can you say no to this cute face?!

Sam and Miriam

I think Isaak spent at least 40% if his time jumping on the trampoline with Charlotta and Lincoln. They had such a great time outside enjoying the wide open spaces!

Yes, we look cheesey, but here's my girls!

I can so imagine Tristan in Lederhosen. Doesn't he look like the cutest little German boyJared and Sam

Lila was so thrown off by this trip. She wanted me to hold her 100% of the time, but no complaints here!

and I broke my camera about 5 min later..... bummer!

Thanks so much Jared and Jordan for all your help with the kids, it was a great trip!

Some February pictures

Last weekend Shaun and Isaak had a boys night out and went to the Monster Jam! Isaak ate his weight in popcorn and they both had a great time! This month has not been very eventful.... except for a couple of milestones.
1. Isaak learned how to use the potty! He is very good at it and is having fewer and fewer accidents. He even insisted on using the urinals instead of the toilet when he and Shaun were at the Monster Jam. :)
2. We got rid of Lila's binkies. I had to cut them up before throwing them away or else I know I would have been digging in the garbage later trying to find them.
3. We got rid of bottles for both the kids. This one is a little sad for me. Isaak has always loved his bottles, but he's adjusted just fine to having his milk in a sippy instead.

Other than that, February has been filled with trips to feed the ducks at the cove, playing in the sandbox on warmer days and Isaak playing in the snow on the colder ones, Isaak playing with his Montana....... basically we're just excited for Spring to get here so there is more to do...... and for our trip next month to Missouri! I have on nephew going out on a mission the beginning of April and one that just got home on Friday. They both want to take a trip out there, and I'm always wanting to go, so we are all taking a road trip to Angela's to see some church sites, play games, and just relax. We might even take a trip up to Chicago afterwards to see Melissa and Levi's house. We'll see how things go with the kids in the car. :) The rest of these pictures are from this month, so enjoy!

Changing her baby's diaper, so cute!

Counting down the days till Spring!

Our moment of fame

Shaun and I were on the news last night for an interview about baby monitors and privacy. Click on the link to see us!


Beware the baby monitor

Isaak's 3rd Birthday!

Isaak's 3rd Birthday was last week! I can not believe how fast my little baby is growing up! The night of his birthday his two best friends from next door, Montana and Abbie came over to help celebrate, along with Grandpa Ric and Grandma Jo. Here's his Lightning McQueen cake....

And the CrAzY kids....

Lila with Grandpa and Grandma....

For presents he got some Leap Frog videos, an inflatable climbing wall, some building blocks that make a tower, a truck from Abbie and Tana, a memory game and a cute outfit from the Hansen grandparents, a buzz light year and a magnet toy story thing from the Hoard grandparents, and a sonic letter game from the Woodford grandparents! Spoiled rotten!

And here's what the kids did the rest of the night!

On Saturday we tried to go on the Heber Valley Railroad. We drove all the way up there (at record speeds, too because we thought we were going to miss it) only to find out that they had closed for the winter because of mud slides. You can see my disappointed face in this picture.....

But Isaak still had a blast walking all around the trains and climbing on them!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy! I love every moment of being your Mommy!

9 years

Today is our 9 year anniversary!! We're planning on going out for dinner and a movie tonight..... and I've posted pictures of my present! As you know, I started this huge task of painting the whole main level of our home. After it took me three crazy night I finished the living room, then Shaun offered to help me and we worked like crazy right after the kids were in bed till 2 am for 3 nights straight. We decided to leave the piano room for now because we can just close the door and not think about it ( I'll tackle that one in a couple weeks). Thank you, thank you honey for helping me get our house back! No more tape and paper everywhere, no more furniture pulled away from the walls! I've still got to hang up all the pictures, but you get the general idea from these pictures. Love you honey! Happy Anniversary, I'm STONGLY considering keeping you another 9 years!! :)

Paint

Sometimes I am a curse to myself. A couple weeks ago I decided that I'd really like to repaint our piano room..... then I decided I'd like to repaint the living room.... then why not do the entire main level? I was super excited about this project and planned to do it in sections so it wouldn't be too overwhelming. I told Shaun about my plans and he offered to check out prices for hiring someone to do the painting for us. Super sweet! Long story short, we hired someone, he was SUPER unreliable, he taped and put on one coat of paint on some of the trim, then we had to let him go. Now the whole house is a disaster, with tape and paper everywhere, the furniture pulled away from the walls and all the kitchen appliances put away. So my last week has been spent painting after the kids are in bed like a mad woman trying to get this house back in order. Poor Shaun finally volunteered to pitch in even though this is my mess and is helping to make it go a lot faster (plus we get to listen to our book while he helps!) Anyway, we're shooting for getting it done before our anniversary on Wed and Isaak's birthday on Thurs. Wish us luck!