The Richards

Ann's Burial in Panguitch

2012-02-01T12:12:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning we packed up and headed down to Panguitch to bury Dave's mom.

We really liked the white casket, it's so pretty

Everyone took a rose off the top to save

I love this picture, Grandpa is tenderly touching the casket, so sweet.

Rob & Dave

All the siblings with their darling mother

Now all the outlaws

The whole Kay and Ann Richards family

Each grandchild got a balloon and all at the same time they released them and said good-bye to Grandma

Dave saying good-bye as we were heading out of town.

The burial was nice, and it was also comforting to have the whole family there, we all stayed the night and spent time together after the burial.

Ann Richards Welcomed back to Heaven

2012-01-19T21:35:00.000-08:00

Ann Richards

| Visit Guest Book

Cottonwood Heights, Utah
Ann Mickelsen Richards, 69, returned to her Heavenly Father on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 after a decade of frustration and confusion at the hands of Alzheimer's Disease, yet smiling and usually happy all the way. She was born September 22, 1942 in Caliente, Nevada to Alva McKay and Hazel Chapin Mickelsen. She married Frank Kay Richards on September 18, 1964 in the St. George Temple in a ceremony officiated by Rudger C. Atkin, temple president.
Ann was a graduate of Panguitch High School, and the Holy Cross Hospital School of Nursing. She worked as a Registered Nurse at Imperial Valley Hospital in El Centro, California, and LDS Hospital, and Alta View Hospital in Salt Lake City, retiring in 2000. The final several years at Alta View she was one of the nursing supervisors.
Ann was a talented musician, playing the clarinet, and baritone saxophone in the high school marching band, as well as performing on the piano in various community and church activities.She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served as Primary President of the Garden Park and the Butler 18th Wards. She also served twice as the Relief Society President of the 18th Ward.
Ann enjoyed camping, hunting, hiking, and fishing. Twice with her family she spent a week at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico. She received The District Award of Merit from the Boy Scouts of America.
Ann is survived by her husband and their seven children and spouses; 10 grandsons and 10 granddaughters: Jeff and Penny Richards, Moab; and their daughters Brooklyn, River, London, Indiana, and Geneva. Robert and Nikki Richards, Gilbert, AZ and their son Jacob. Leslie and Gerry Trelease, Cottonwood Heights, and their son Larsen and daughter Morgan. Audrey and Christopher Fish, Woods Cross and their sons Austin and Tyler. Paul and Jen Richards, Riverton, and their children Dallin, Kaitlin, Preston, Parker, and Brynne. David and Shawna Richards, North Salt Lake, and their sons: Logan, Makay, and Hunter, and baby girl expected in April. Stephen and Angela Richards, West Jordan and their two daughters Olivia and Jacey. She is also survived by her three sisters and two brothers: Mary Hall, Christian Mickelsen, Marlene Goodrich, Joyce Tolley, and Mark Mickelsen.
She was a friend to all and her countenance beamed warmth and friendship to everyone she met. Complete strangers would feel like they've known her for years. A talented homemaker and mother, she excelled in all areas of cooking, baking, sewing, etc.
Funeral services will be Friday, January 20, 2012 at 12:00 Noon in the Butler 18th Ward, 6600 Greenfield Way, Salt Lake City where friends may call Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and again on Friday morning from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. Burial will be on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in the Panguitch City Cemetery. Funeral Directors: Magleby Mortuary, Richfield, Salina and Manti. Online guestbook atwww.maglebymortuary.com
Her family thanks everyone at Neighborhood House on Vine Street, and the staff at Care Source Hospice for their kind and delicate compassionate service to this very special person.

She was an amazing person and raised an amazing family, I am so lucky to have known her and to be sealed to her and the rest of the family forever. We will miss her tender spirit, but know that we will see her again. We love you Ann!

Makay's 4!!!!

2012-01-14T19:40:00.000-08:00

Even though his birthday is only 3 days after Christmas we still think it's important for him to be able to celebrate it. So this year we did a P.J. breakfast party, it was a lot of fun.

We played a animal freeze dance type of game, the kids acted like the animal that was called out when the music was on and when the music stopped they had to freeze. It was a great game for young kids.

Not sure what animal they are being right now, but does it really matter.

Present time

Makay loves puzzles, so he was happy to get some more for his birthday.

I made this cake, it is supposed to look like a monkey

That night after Dave got home from work we went bowling, this has kind of come a tradition on birthdays for us.

Hunter got in on the action too and really liked it.

I can't believe my little Makay is already 4 years old, it seems like just last year he was my little baby. We love you Makay and it's a pleasure to have you in our family.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-04T12:42:00.001-08:00

Every year we go to dinner with Dave's parents and then Grandpa comes back to our house to read the boys the night before Christmas. It is a great tradition that we really enjoy.

Once Grandma and grandpa left the boys were so excited to open their two presents that night they immediately started wrestling.

Hunter climbing on Logan

Typical Hunter attacking Makay

Every Christmas Eve the boys open P.J.'s (pretty typical) and an ornament for something that they did or really liked that year. The kids really like seeing their ornaments on the tree.

Makay got a puzzle ornament because he LOVES and will spend hours putting them together.

Logan got a swimming ornament becuase he took swimming lessons and he can do cannonballs all on his own now.

Hunter got a ladder for his ornament because he climbs on everything!!!

The picture is blurry because Hunter was running out to the living room, I could barely get in front of him to take the picture.

We like to have the kids walk out youngest to oldest, it was so cute how excited they were

Logan got more transformers

Makay got a remote control bulldozer from Santa

Hunter had fun tearing open his presents, everyone else's and wondering around

The mess after the opening

Hunter showing off his stocking

My mom made this quilt for dave with all his old "hoop-it-up" t-shirts, it looks awesome and it was a huge surprise to him.

Dave finally got his t.v. on the day after Thanksgiving and we got a new camera so we kept things pretty low key for each other.

This was the best picture we could get of the boys after church, Hunter is not into to stopping to take pictures these days.

Other then the boys being so excited they could hardly stand it on Christmas Eve it was a great two days! The kids are at a really fun age of being happy with what they get and not having too expensive of wish list. We are going to enjoy that while it last. It was also really fun to see how excited Hunter was even though he really didn't know what was going on. Merry Christmas!!!

Trimming the Tree

2011-12-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

My kids are definitely in the Christmas spirit. they have been begging to put Christmas decorations and the tree since the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving weekend was so busy for us that I told Logan we would put the tree up next weekend, and trust me he asked everyday!

To try to keep them entertained during the week we spent one day making a Christmas chain, which I think every kid loves.

Here is part of our chain , once we made ours at home they both came home with their own from school, now we have three chains to help us countdown for Christmas.

Finally it was Saturday and time to put up the tree

Here's how Hunter spent most of the time

Logan was so excited and actually every helpful this year, his job was to hand the branches to Dave and I

Makay wanted to open all the ornaments and hand them to people to hang on the tree

Of course you have to put the star on first, and Logan insisted on having this job.

Even though Dave and I weren't quite in the Christmas spirit yet given everything that we have going on it was a lot of fun to put up the tree and some other decorations with the kids. It is so fun to see how excited the kids are about the whole Christmas season not just the presents, it also helps us as adults remember the joy of the season.

Temple Square

2011-12-12T12:46:00.003-08:00

We decided to go to Temple square to see the lights the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we wanted to go before it got too cold. Even though there was a ton of people there, it actually wasn't too bad once we got away from the really busy places like the reflecting pool.

Logan

Makay

Dave took most of the pictures so I had to get one with him in it to document that he was there, guess it's a little dark.

Dave took this beautiful picture

They had lots of nativities for different countries all over, it was neat to see how they were painted.

Here's how Hunter spent most of the night

This color was one of my favorites, mostly because you don't see it a lot.

We met up with Grandma and Grandpa Richards

We had a lot of fun going to temple square and seeing the lights, it always helps us get into the Christmas spirit.

Fetal Echocardiogram

2011-11-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago when we had our routine ultrasound, that Dr. saw that the left side of the heart was a little bit smaller then the right side. She didn't give us much reason to be concern, but said that we should do a fetal echocardiogram at primary children's to give it a second look. Today I had the fetal echo and the Dr. there saw the same concerns about the size of the left side of the heart. The left side of the ventricular wall looks great, the concern is with the Aortic arch. The Aortic arch is looking too thin, right now it's fine because as a fetus that part only deals with 10% of the blood flow, after the baby is born and detached from the placenta it will handle 100% of the blood flow. There is also a slight concern with the Aorta and that it is too thin as well, although not as much of a concern. In 6 weeks I will go and have another echo and we will track the growth of the the Aortic arch.

If it hasn't grown enough it is called coarctation of the Aorta which is basically that the artery is too narrow. If that is the case we will discuss what the plan of action is. Certainly this is not what we want to hear, but we are staying positive and hoping that the heart will grow and develop the best it can. We are staying positive and know that the Lord will comfort us.

The Adventurous Hunter

2011-11-23T15:12:00.001-08:00

I thought I would document how "busy" Hunter is these days.

Here is what happen before we put the locks on the cupboards, I was only in the other room for a minute.

Here's how it starts, sitting on the floor looking at the ladder

Then he climbs up with his silly little grin.

On the bed finally

Now getting down

Back on the ground to try it again

We put the ladder on the top bunk, but it doesn't matter he has figured out to how to get up and down without the ladder. The boy has NO fear.

Optimus Hunty

Hunter is so cute, so busy, and so determined. He thinks he is as big as the older boys and wants to do exactly what they are doing, and if you try to redirect him he just grunts at you and pushes his way back to the direction he wants to go. We just laugh most of the time, good thing he's so stinkin' cute!

Makay's Preschool fun

2011-11-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the school year Makay went on a field trip to the fire station, by far one of his favorite places!

Here he is getting ready to watch a fire movie, one of the only times he will smile

Fireman Brian all dressed up in his gear, sorry it's so dark.

He LOVES fire trucks

Here he is holding the ax

His whole class, he had a great time!

# 4 is....

2011-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

So I guess we can make a GIRL after all!

We had our ultrasound today and we are having a girl, we are super excited to have a little girl to help mellow out these rowdy boys, but if she's anything like her mom she will probably just join in. When the ultrasound tech first said we both said oh, almost in a state of shock, I pretty much just assumed it would a boy, so far that's all we know. Now that it has sunk in a little I'm getting a little more used to the idea.

All three of our boys were easy to see and moved around in their ultrasounds, but our little girl did not want to be disrupted. She had her chin tucked down, her arms close to her face and legs crossed curled up in a ball. It was fun to see her and of course find out what we are having.

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-01T13:55:00.001-07:00

Halloween was so fun this year, the boys really had the trick-or-treating down.

Here's Makay at his pre-school Halloween parade

He was Batman last year, but insisted on being it again, which saved me some $$

Here's most of the kids getting ready to sing their Halloween songs

I made these chocolate covered donut holes for a party, they were delish and easy!

Napoleon and Kip...AWESOME!

Our Halloween evening started at Dave's work where everyone was dressed up and the kids filled there buckets all the way. That was enough candy in my opinion.

Scary Skeleton

Batman

Cute cow

Dave's dad's bday is on Halloween so we almost always go out there to see him and show the kids off to the neighbors

The two skeletons

This house was decorated so scary and Logan loved it. He kept staring at this person and didn't want to leave. He LOVES scary stuff.

Makay, Logan, Grandpa, Hunter, Morgan, Tyler, and Austin

We end the night trick-or-treating with cousin Morgan in her neighborhood. The boys knew exactly what to do, they would run from one house to the next YELLING at the top of there lungs trick-or-treat! They got lots of comments like " your the loudest we've had", or "your going to get a sore throat yelling like that". It was hilarious and so fun to watch.

After nonstop trick-or-treat since 4 pm til 8 pm Mom was tired, and so were the boys!

It was a really fun night!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-25T14:28:00.001-07:00

While Dave is still deer hunting in Panguitch we decided to go to the pumpkin patch with our cousins the Fishes.

There is a really cute pumpkin patch in Farmington that has lots of different kinds of pumpkins and squash, it also has a haymaze.

Here's my cute Hunty trying to pull himself up.

Believe it or not I am holding up all of them, so cute.

Logan, Austin, and Makay in the haymaze

All the boys in the wagon

Trying to hold Hunter for the picture

Logan, Austin, Makay, Hunter

Logan acting scary!

Here are all the boys before we leave, Hunter (blue) and Tyler (red) not interested in taking the picture as usual.

Makay went a couples weeks earlier with his preschool, but Logan didn't get to go so he was dying to go. We might have to go again with Dave it actually get some pumpkins to carve. We had a lot of fun going with Austin Tyler and their parents.

Number FOUR is on it's way.

2011-10-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

This may come as a shock to some of you, but we are pregnant again! We are excited to add to our already rowdy bunch, and I am due around April 10th, I am also excited to have a spring baby. I have heard from many people that spring is their favorite time.

Now to help answer some questions that some of you might have here we go;

Hunter is almost 14 months and they will be about 20 months apart

We like having our kids less then three years a part so we were thinking of having another one sooner rather then later, but this is a few months sooner then we were planning, but we are excited for Hunter and the next one to be close buddies.

Logan and Makay both want the baby to be a boy, I will be happy with either, a boy would be great four boys is fun, and something I am already used to. A girl would be fun because it would be different and we would have a lot of new things to buy.

We are planning on staying in our house for the time being, 1) I don't want to move Logan in the middle of the school year, 2) Dave has been at his new job for less then a year and we want to wait until he's been there a little longer. The good thing is that babies don't move much for the first little while, it will be tight but we will make it work. Lastly, Hunter and the baby will share a room.

Here is our little one at 13 weeks, everything looks good and has been going well.

Camping 2011

2011-09-27T20:28:00.001-07:00

We ended the summer with our one and only camping trip for the year. On Labor Day we went to Fairview with our friends the Deverall's for some camping and four-wheeling. I wasn't super excited to go at first, just because camping with a one year is a lot of work, and I was afraid it was going to be cold. It actually turned out to be fun and I packed some many blankets and warm clothes that we were all toasty warm all night.

Makay's ready for his ride

Makay, Jadon, and Logan enjoying a mountain man breakfast, yum!

Cheesy photo

My cute Hunty trying to figure out how to get around on all this uneven ground

Makay and Miah, so cute

Just waking up, don't laugh at the hat it kept me super warm all night.

Look what I found

Good Morning scowl

Climbing on the rocks

Trying to wrangle Hunter and feed him a bottle

Playing in the dirt, their favorite past time

All in all it was a fun camping trip, everyone slept well and it's always good to get away from the city. I was also definitely ready to pack p and leave on day three, one can only take so much camping with small children. I'm glad we went and that we had such a fun time!

Transformer Party

2011-09-07T13:10:00.001-07:00

Logan is 6! It's a little crazy that it's been 6 years since I became a mom, it's also gone by really fast. I guess it's true what they say, "it goes by way too fast."

Anyway, Logan is OBSESSED with transformers, so having a transformer b-day party was the only choice. My brother-in-law helped me make these awesome invitations, and Logan was super excited to hand them out to all his friends.

We played three games total, but only seemed to get pictures of this one. They had to "transform" into Bumblebee and Optimus Prime and do an obstacle course. It was really funny to watch the kids run in these over sized clothes.

After the games it was time for presents

In between each game the kids would retreat back on the tramp, that was a lifesaver! Between the kids that were invited and the siblings that came with some of them there was a total of 17 kids, mostly rowdy 5-6 year old boys.

It was so hot that day getting wet on the tramp seemed like a great choice.

Time for cake, the highlight of the day I'm sure.

Logan with his buds getting ready to start on the cake. In the background you can see our Megatron display on the cardboard. Every kid got two water balloons and tried to destroy Megatron, the extra balloons were used for throwing at people, naturally.

Logan had a great time and got tons of transformers which is what he was hoping for. Thanks to everyone to came and helped out with the party. We love you Logan!!

August is busy

2011-08-29T13:40:00.001-07:00

My Mom and sister came to visit in the beginning of August, it was a lot of fun to have them here, but I didn't take as many pictures as I should have so here's what I got.

Here we are on the Bountiful Temple grounds on Sunday.

The boys sporting their newly saved heads

Here we are again

Awe...how cute

After the temple we went to Mueller park which is a little trail by our house

Pretty scenery, but don't like the way I'm standing

We also made it to Temple Square but this was the only picture I got

Hunter was trying to escape

Every second Sunday we have dinner with Dave's family, we also celebrate the birthdays for the month, here are some of Hunter and Logan's favorites

Optimus Prime

Bumble bee jammies

Along with having Hunter and Logan's birthdays 8 days apart Logan also started Kindergarten on the 22nd. He was so excited and was definitely ready to go.

Here he is transformer backpack and all. He had a transformer birthday party as well, but that will have to be a post all of it's own.

Hunty turns One!

2011-08-19T15:03:00.001-07:00

For Hunter's birthday we hiked up to Lake Mary which is up by Brighton ski resort. Dave's dad, brother and his two daughter's joined us. We got to the top of the trail at 11 am and I think it's 1-1 12 miles to the top.

Here we are just starting out

Makay, Logan, and Olivia

It didn't take long before the kiddos needed to stop and have some treats

Logan and Olivia had a good time hiking together, when getting ready for this picture Olivia said "Logan come sit by me like were married", ha ha

Olivia, Steve, and Jacey

Logan and Grandpa taking a break

We finally got to the top and Hunter was excited to get into the dirt.

Grandpa in front of Lake Mary, it was really pretty and a bit cooler up there then in the Valley.

Makay took his shoes off and dipped his feet in the water

Getting ready to head back down and Logan climbed up on this rock and yelled "I'm the king of the world".

Heading down, Makay made it half way up, he had no interest in walking down.

Logan and Olivia leading the way

Logan was still in good spirits toward the end

Makay had enough and was down for the count

Hunter was out as well, and I was also happy to see the bottom, my traps were killing me.

St. George

2011-08-11T13:29:00.001-07:00

On the weekend on July 30th we went down to St. George for our friend Joe's wedding, we were excited to get out of town and spend some much needed QTT (quality time together).

Here's Makay counting while him and Logan played hide-n-seek

Being able to stand up and look at himself in the mirror was Hunter's favorite part.

Logan feel asleep keeping Hunter company, ahh brotherly love

We had to be to the temple by 9:00 am, the ceremony was lovely.

By the time we got out and were waiting for them it was already 95 degrees!

My cute family

Trying to get all the boys to look, yeah good luck.

The cute couple...Mr. & Mrs. Smith

After the temple we went back to the hotel to cool off and rest, then headed off to the luncheon

Here's how Makay spent the luncheon, we tried and tried to wake him up, but no luck.

Hunter spent his luncheon enjoying anything we would give him

After the luncheon it was pool time! We love the water and spent a good amount of time there.

Dave and the boys

Hunty and I

This is what you get when you tell Makay to smile

Best belly-flop picture ever!

I'm doing a cannonball, but Dave didn't quite get the tuck

Logan showing off his cannonball skills

Finally a picture where they are all looking, but not smiling

I really enjoyed the live mariachi band

Not too much cake smearing

The night ended with dancing, the brothers are enjoying the money dance.

When we left on Sunday we decided to take the scenic route home, we went through Cedar City to Panguitch

Here are my cute kids huddled in the car, they did really well on both drives and handling the heat.

I was a lot of fun to get out of town and to be there to enjoy Joe and Moni's day.

Summer Fun

2011-08-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy this summer, but have also had a chance to have some fun. The boys have enjoyed playing on their slip-n-slide.

Hunty and Makay had some fun of their own while Logan was at a friends

They just opened a splash pad (which is basically just lots of fountains shooting from the ground) right by our house, it also has a park connected to it so you can go back and forth from park to water.

Logan

Makay and his cousin Austin

Hunter doesn't seem afraid of anything yet, he went straight for the fountains and sat right next to it while it sprayed him.

Hunty love the water, he couldn't get enough

Hunter's bleeding feet after all that crawling on the cement

Not quite walking yet, but already being mischievous

This summer Logan and Makay got to do two sessions of summer camp, they went three days a week for an hour. It was nice to break up the day and good for them to get out and do something different every time. I forgot my camera for the first session, but they both did sports of all sorts which was a lot of fun. They were introduced to mainstream sports, and also played different games. They weren't in the same class which was really good for Makay to do something on his own.

Here's Makay in his second session class which was art. I wasn't sure if he would like it, but his teacher's were so cute and he really had a great time!

Getting ready to start

The finished product, nice glasses

Logan was supposed to do the art class, but didn't want to on the first day so they let him switch to the sports one again.

Relay Races

Playing dodge ball

As much fun as summer camp has been I'm glad it over with, it sometimes made it hard to schedule around, but the kids love I'm sure we will do it every year.

I look forward to August being a little more low key and getting ready for school to start, Logan off to kindergarten and Makay to preschool. It's going to be a little weird to only have Hunty to run my errands with, but I'm sure I'll manage.

4th of July

2011-08-01T09:30:00.001-07:00

Since the 4th was on Monday we went Eaglewood golf course and watched the big fireworks at one of my client's house on Saturday the 2nd, Sunday we didn't go anywhere but our neighbor were doing fireworks and we had a fun little block party, by Monday we decided to have a BBQ with Dave's parents and our cousin Brian ad his daughter Kate joined later and brought some aerial fireworks.
We started with the small stuff

Boys waiting for the show

Overall it was a really fun weekend, we enjoyed going to see the big fireworks, bu it was also nice to keep it low key and hangout with family and friends.

I Want to Drive that Fire Truck

2011-07-05T15:30:00.001-07:00

Two fire trucks and two ambulances were doing some training exercises right by our house so while Logan was at a friends house I took Makay over to watch them. The whole time we were watching he's saying "I want to drive that fire truck, not the ambulance only the fire truck".

So once the firemen finished up and were standing around talking we walked over and asked if he could look at the fire truck, they said of course and let him climb right into the drivers seat. Makay was so happy! I haven't seen a smile that big too many times. They let him start the engine, and honk the horn, and of course gave him a fire hat. What a fun experience for him to have all by himself.

American Fork Half Marathon

2011-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

On Saturday June 25th my friend Kaci Morgan and I ran the American Fork half marathon, it was both of our first time running a half marathon, so it was nice for us to run it together. Preparing for the race started Friday night, I spent the night at Kaci's house because we needed to be down to AF to catch the bus to ride up the canyon between 4:15-5:00 am, the race started at 6 am! We tried to go to bed at 9:00 pm, but who knows what time I really fell asleep. We woke up at 3:40 am, got dressed, ate some breakfast, and were on our way.

I didn't bring my camera, and Kaci's phone camera wasn't working so we didn't get any pictures before the race. It started at the top of AF canyon and ended at AF high school, 13.1 miles. I had a goal of finishing around 2 hours, so I knew I needed to keep a pace of about 8:50 minutes per mile. The nice thing was that the race was pretty much down hill for the first 7 miles, that certainly helped me keep my pace up, however at about 5 miles I was done going down hill. I also started running next to a great lady at about mile 6 and we kept pace with each other for about 4 miles, and I probably would have stayed with her till the end but at the 10 mile water stop I had a hard time getting my goo open so I had to stop and open it and drink the water. Once I got started again it was hard on my legs, the first 10 miles felt great, dare I say easy, the last 3 were rough, including some up hill terrain. Even though the last three were ruff I still managed to get a good time and finished in 1:57:20 unofficially. I am super excited about that, it is nice to have the accomplishment under my belt. Not sure what the next step is, but anything really.

Here I am enjoying some chocolate milk to help with recovery

Time to stretch it out

The boys and I enjoying some grub

All my cute boys coming to cheer on mom

100% of the proceeds go to help fight cancer

Showing we still have some strength

Kaci was done with picture time

All done and ready for a nap.

All in all it was a really fun experience and I know I will do another one. Kaci thanks for doing it with me you rock!

One of the Only Sunny Sundays in June

2011-06-20T20:55:00.001-07:00

One Sunday we decided to go walk around temple square, we weren't planning on staying very long, but we did and had a great time. Here we are on the roof of the conference center after our tour.

I think the boys favorite part were the fountains

Taking a break

Yummy

Hanging out and sweating

Dave took this cool shot

Knowing Makay he would fall in

This was a display I hadn't seen before, it shows the inside of the temple, It was really cool to look at and see the rooms that you hear about, but don't get to go in. I was also telling Logan that dad and I got married in this temple, and a non-member over heard and said really you got married in there that's awesome. I pointed out the sealing rooms and said that's were they preform the ceremony. It was a really neat experience.

This was right after we listened to part of an organ concert in the tabernacle.

On top of the roof of the conference center.

We didn't take a lot of pictures in the conference center, but really enjoyed the tour. It was nice to here about the different art pieces and see some areas we didn't know were there. And the roof was full of lovely wild flowers. It turned out to be a much more meaningful trip then we had planned and was a nice moment with our family.

Hair Cuts

2011-06-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

Since summer is upon us (although the mother nature has forgotten to send it to Utah) it was time for the boys to have their hair cut. I really like the shaggy look and think the boys look so cute, but with all the sweating, sand box playing, and dirt throwing it is much easier to wash their hair when it's short.

Before

After

Makay's was the longest, 1) because he hates gets his hair cut, 2) because his falls really nicely and I just love it.

a little mullet in the middle

After (and with no tears, amazing)

Hunter's was really long on the sides, so I cute around the ears and a little on the back

He's pretty impossible to get a picture of with out help. I can't bring myself to buzz it just yet, I'm not ready for him to be that big.

Logan's Graduation

2011-06-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Dave was so proud of Logan that he bought him a trampoline for graduation, ha ha. We have been wanting to get one for a while and Dave got this off ksl for a great deal. We affectionately call it Goliath due to it's small size.

Getting ready for the program

Logan and his best bud Sam

Cute puppy

"How much is that doggy in the window..."

"Lemon drops and gum drops..."

Our cute Graduate!

Good job Logan we are so proud of you and are excited for you to start your new adventure in Kindergarten.

I forgot Easter

2011-06-02T13:14:00.001-07:00

I guess I forgot to post our Easter pictures, so better late then never.

Hunter trying to get the egg

Makay helping Hunter

Where's the candy?

Hunting with the cousins

We don't have any pictures of Logan because we didn't get over to the otherside where is age was hunting until he was done, don't mind that it only took two minutes for the eggs to get snatched up.

Easter baskets

Here comes Hunter, move the candy

What's Happening...

2011-04-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Thought I would give a little update on what's happening with us;

We'll start with Logan, it seems like he is by far the busiest. He is still enjoying preschool this year, but is also looking forward to going to kindergarten after summer. He is also doing swim lessons twice a week, so that he will have a little more fun swimming this summer. He is also playing soccer once a week, as much as he like kicking the ball in soccer he likes joking around with his friends on the team even more. He also keeps us entertained with his knock-knock jokes and telling us stories. He also such a great big brother and really cute with Hunter, and of course his best buddy Makay.

Logan completely submerged

Logan is #3

Makay isn't doing quite as many activities, but he certainly keeps us busy. I thought that he would grow out of his curious, mischievous, and needy personality. He does spend a lot of time playing trains, reading books, and doing puzzles. If he's not in there he's in the bathroom "brushing his teeth" w

hich means sucking on the toothpaste tube, and using his toothbrush to scrub the sink, gross. Or you can find him in the pantry standing on the water bottles on the floor to try to reach something to eat, or pushing his chair around the kitchen to get in the fridge, or on the counter. We are constantly saying "Makay, where are you?" When he's not getting into things he is super snuggly and sweet. Whenever I get home from the gym he says "mom, I missed you at the gym" followed by a big hug. He's one of a kind and we love him.

Helping me cook

Hunter is not missing a step when it comes to keeping up with his brothers. When he's awake he

wants to be in the room playing with his brothers and fits right in. He is doing his best to roll, scoot, and contort his way around the room. I wouldn't say he's crawling, but he certainly gets around. He is such a mellow baby that goes with the flowhe is always smiling and happy, which is such a blessing. He is also a great eater and so far eats everything we offer, be it baby food or table food. He is also gaining weight and chunking up in his own right, however he is no tank nor are any of my kids. He has had three ear infections already, but hopeful it will warm up and he won't get anymore. We love having him in our family.

Finding the toys under the bed

Dave is keeping me company at home these days. For those that don't know he was working for Zions bank and about 5 weeks ago they dissolved his position. At first I thought I would totally freak out and have a nervous breakdown, but surprisingly I haven't. Clearly this is not something we wished for, but we are also looking at it as an opportunity for him to reevaluate what it is he wants to do. With him not working I have picked up a lot of clients at the gym, in turn he as really stepped up to the plate at home. He does laundry, dishes, cleans bathrooms, and of course takes care of the kids. We know the Lord has something great in store for him, the question is always what and when.

I am staying super busy! As many of you know trying to take care of small children and get anything else done is a chore in it self, but I am also still doing training at the rec. As hard as it can be to be this busy it is also a great blessing to have such a great job right now. Through this whole situation we have really tried to put our faith in the Lord. I know that there are more important things then what happens in this life, and that the Lord's timetable is much different then mine. We are looking at this as an opportunity. the most important thing is for Dave to be happy with the career that he is doing, if that means that it takes time to figure that out, then that's o.k. he's the one who has to work for the next 30ish years. Dave is an amazing person that has a lot to offer, and there is no reason for him to settle for being less then 100% happy with his situation. I like to think of our marriage as a team, we have to work together and support each other when time are tough, if that means I have to contribute more to the finances then I'm happy to do so and grateful that I can.

All things considered we are doing well, we have each other, the gospel, our health, and the love and support of our family and friends.

Kids say the darnedest things

2011-04-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not very good at coming up with my own blog post I took this one from my dear friend Kaci. Three years old can be a hard time for parents and kids, but it can also be so funny! I swear three year olds say the funniest stuff, here's some of the latest out of Makay's mouth;

4/3/11 Dave was hugging Makay and pinched him, Makay said "That's a bad choice Dad".

3/14/11 Makay: "Mom, Logan pushed me. Go get him and put him in time-out."

2/10/11 Makay: "I not a mister I Makay".

10/10/10 When Hunter is crying, "Hunter, I'm coming". "It's o.k. Hunter I right here".

June 2010 Makay: "Sorry Momdad" whenever you would tell him not to do something.

Of course these are the only ones I have written down, I will have to be better he says funny stuff everyday.

Logan is also pretty funny these days, his are a little older, but I still have to laugh.

April 2011 Logan: "Where's Dad?"

Me: "He's at the temple."

Logan: "What! He went to go marry a different girl?"

March 2011 Logan: "Yes sir mom." When asked to do something.

January 2011 Logan: "Oh my, go to the bathroom if you need to toot. That stinks."

January 2011 Logan: "Hi dad, How those new shoes treatin' ya?"

October 2010 Logan: "I wish dad were here so there are two parents to take care of us." Said while Dave was at the Deer hunt

What Makay ???

2011-03-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

This brochure for The Children Place was sitting on the bed and Makay picked it up looked at it and said "There's me and there's Logan". I just started laughing so hard. He is the funniest kid ever!

Best Field Trip Ever!!!

2011-03-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today we went on the BEST field trip with Logan's Pre-school. One of his teachers works at the U ushering for football and basketball games, so we took the front runner, then trax up to the U and were able to go down on the football field. Needless to say I was super excited when I heard this, and I made sure we were all decked out in our gear. The boys were mostly excited to ride the train, and just run around, I was mostly excited about getting on the field.

Waiting for the train, and not very happy about it

On the front runner

Go UTES!

I'm way more excited then the boys

Both Am and Pm classes and some of the siblings

50 yard line baby!

Practicing our 3-point stance

I'm awesome!

We're #1

He's so excited

Makay enjoying "the game"

Zak, Sam, and Logan

We finally started heading back around 11:00 am, but after waiting for both trains we didn't get back to the Woods Cross station until 12:30, and we started at 9:00 am. It was super fun, but also super tiring. It was also nice to spend time with my older boys, and have a little mommy/son date.

Six month stats, and other news

2011-03-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

Today Hunter had his 6 month check up and he is normally the most content and mellow baby I have ever met (thank you). However, this week he got his second ear infection in two months, so we have been to the doctor every month since he's been born. It might be due to the fact that we have all been a bit sick. The last two weeks the boys had thrown up only after they have had milk, we thought that was interesting, first it was Makay, then Logan. So we have been off cow's milk for almost three weeks and the boys love it. We did almond milk first which we all like, but since it is so expensive (even on sale and w/coupons) we are trying out rice milk to see what we think, since we can buy it from Costco. This week I was in bed all day on Wednesday with a terrible head-body ache, and Dave came home from work because his head was spinning. The aches are gone for me today but I am still not 100% and after Dave drank some emergenC he felt great this morning. Clearly something is going around our house, and I'm sure the gym where the boys and I have been a ton lately. Having lots of clients his great $$, but not great if we are all getting sick.

Hopefully spring and warm weather will come soon and we can all get feeling better. On to the stats:

6 months:
Wt: 14.2
Ht: 27
Head: 43.5

4 months:
Wt: 12.12
Ht: 24.5
Head: 42

2 months:
Wt: 8.9
Ht: 21.75
Head: 38.5

2 weeks
Wt: 5.11
Ht: 20
Head 34.75

Birth
Wt: 5.4
Ht: 20

Although he had a slow start he is gaining weight nicely, and developing some rolls on his legs and chin. He is also doing the normal six month stuff, rolling, almost sitting by himself, grabbing things around him, and eating anything we offer him (just like his brothers). Sure he's not the biggest kid, but none of my boys are. We are just so happy that he is healthy and in our family.

No red meat =...

2011-02-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

Well let me just start by saying I have not felt much like my self physically since Hunter was born. The first few month were tricky due to the hemorrhaging, I wasn't too tired, but I also didn't feel quite right. Then of course we have the appendix right before Thanksgiving. Again I seemed to recover fine, but every time I would try to workout I had no energy, and didn't feel like I could give enough. I did try to keep in mind that my baby was only a few months old, but I also remember after Makay I bounced right back. As the end of the year was approaching, and the end of the Holidays more importantly, I was looking forward to being slightly less busy and able to have a better schedule.
January comes and I'm feeling some what better, but still not great. My workout routines are erratic at best, and with the intensity I want. I'm not sure what's wrong. on Monday February 7th I give another go, do a pretty easy run at a pretty easy pace, then do some ab exercises and call it a day. After that I get the kids and we head to Costco. I feel fine driving, but once I unload everybody and make our way into the store I'm feeling pretty light headed and very weak. I continue to get my groceries, because I don't want to come back, but also continue to feel terrible. I finally make it to the bathroom and feel a little better. Once I start checking out it comes back and now I am seeing mostly black with silhouettes of people. I decided to order a smoothie and sit down and take a break. I sat there for at least an hour before I felt o.k. enought to drive home. Anyway long story short, I felt weak and bad all week and on Friday had another lightheadedness spell after the shower. So I finally called the Doctor and got some blood drawn.
Yesterday the results were in and I was right on the borderline of being anemic, with low iron and vit-B12. So for now I am going to start taking an iron and B12 supplement and increase iron in my diet and retest in a month. I'm glad it's something that can be fixed some what easily, and I hope that the results will be more favorable next month. Now I know that this is not all due to the lack of red meat consumption on my part, but that certainly doesn't help. I can't say I never eat it, but it is never my first choice. And the saddest part is now that in-n-out is finally here in Utah, I have felt sick the last few times I have eaten it.
Hopefully taking the supplements will give me more energy and help me get back to a good exercise routine.

Diapers for one!

2011-01-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Makay is going on the potty. On Sunday after church the boys were running around with out their clothes on. So I asked Makay if he wanted to wear underwear, and so he did. After a little reminding he went pee on the potty multiple times. He was so proud. So he has been wearing underwear all week and has done a great job going on the potty. Although he refuses to sit on the small potty, oh well.

I'm also super excited to only have to buy diapers for one kid. When Makay was born we bought diapers for two kids for over a year. Glad that is not the case this time.

Is This Normal???

2011-01-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Logan must be growing or something, almost everyday this is how the story goes around lunch time.

I make him a full PB& J sand-which on some pretty dense 100% whole grain bread, he also has some sort of fruit, cheese stick or glass of milk, and something crunchy (cheddar bunnies, or rice cakes). I think this a lot of food for a 5 year old. I try to mix up what I feed him so it's not the same thing everyday, but it doesn't matter. And a sand-which seems to fill him up the most.

It doesn't seem to matter what I do when he's done he says he's still hungry. What in the world. At this point I usually tell him he has to drink a full glass of water before he can have anything else to eat, because I think he's probably thirsty and not hungry. And since he doesn't like water that much he stops asking. (If I really thought he was hungry I would give him more food). Any suggestions

I guess it's true boys will eat you out house and home, what am I going to do when my three boys are teenagers? Live at Costco I guess.

Vegas Baby!

2011-01-05T12:04:00.001-08:00

Three days before Christmas we went to the Maaco Bowl game in Las Vegas with our friends The Lambert's and no kids. Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law and her family for watching our kiddos.
We had so much fun! It started with a hilarious drive down with all four of us signing/screaming at the top of our lungs some of the best power ballads from the 90's. Great CD Kim, I need a copy.
Then when we got to the Hotel and were checking in we saw the football players walking out of the lobby, so Kim and I ran over and gave them high-fives as they were walking out. I was too busy being excited that I didn't get my camera out, Kim has the pictures. We saw The Kruger brothers Jordan Wynn, Coach Wittingham, and got a picture with Matt Asiata. It was awesome!

The game was still fun even though we lost, and it was so exciting to be there with so many other die hard Utah fans. This is certainly something we will do again.

The team heading back into the locker room after warming up.

A Little naughty, oh well you know the saying, "What happens in Vegas..."

Here's Dave's spread at the Rio's Carnival World Buffet.

Dave and Jason in front of the World Series of Poker room at the Rio that they show on ESPN

Here's the view from our room, not too shabby huh.

The Planet Hollywood was really fun to stay at, and the rooms were pretty sweet as well.

Aww, the love birds at Ceasar's Palace

Pretty cool shot right, it almost feels like we are really in Paris

Dave kept yelling Peter out the window until Spider-man turned around, it was pretty funny.

Since there was some crazy raining and flooding in Southern Utah Dave had to pull of the road at 60 mph to take this shot. Never mind that I was sleeping, and he almost sent us off the edge to get the picture. It was worth it. "River shot"

It took us 7 1/2 hours to get home, due to some stopping and the time change. So here's Dave trying to entertain himself, and us as well.

We also hit up the Planet Hollywood Breakfast buffet, and it was sooooooo good. We stayed so long that they started bringing out lunch, which the guys totally took advantage of. Dave didn't feel like eating again until the next day, at lunch. Good times.

This was the first time we had been away from our kids since Makay was born (not because I'm a sappy mom that doesn't want to leave her kids, more because Makay was a hard baby and tiny toddler). It was so great to spend time with my Husband! And much needed.

Thanks to Jason and Kim for driving and taking care of all the reservations, we definitely need to do it again. Double Rainbow forever!!

Makay is 3!!!!

2010-12-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

My little Makay turned 3 a couple of days ago, and I can't believe how fast it has gone.

12-28-07, the day we met.

My little man is growing up.

Thomas Birthday Party

We played a Thomas bulls eye game.

Everyone taking turns throwing the bean bags

Cute Elise was the only girl with all these loud crazy boys. She kept a safe distance from the chaos.

Yummy Cake!

All the kids waiting for me to open Thomas and set up the tracks

It was a great, loud, crazy party!

Then we went to lunch at Red Robin with Grandma and Grandpa

Playing with his new Thomas

Here's the piece of cake we all shared

It was a fun day and Makay is such a fun little boy. He is really loving and sweet, but can be very cranky when things don't go his way. We love him so much and couldn't imagine our life with out him. Him and Logan have become best friends and it pulls at the heart strings to see the love they have for each other. Hitting each other in the head means love right?

Happy Birthday Makay!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

We tried to take turns and have the boys open some together, then Dave and I would open one, but that didn't work too well. So we just let them open and start playing, then we opened ours, but I didn't get a picture of ours. It was a great day!

Christmas Snap Shot

2010-12-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we had a family Christmas party and we split up into two groups and took turns taking pictures of your own group acting out different Christmas activities. It was a lot of fun coming up with the pictures and looking at what the other group came up with. Here are some of the favorites.

The Nutcracker

Snowman

Christmas Tree

Cheesy Christmas Card

they are holding cheese

Think modern family

Icicles

Mistletoe Madness

Who Needs an Appendix?

2010-11-20T16:17:00.000-08:00

So on Thursday afternoon around 3:00pm I and some cramping in my stomach, mostly feeling like I needed to pass gas. My friend Elizabeth and I were at kangaroo zoo letting the kids play, it wasn't too bad there since I was doing a lot of sitting, but once we got up, loaded the kids in the car, got back to my house and unloaded the kids I could barely walk. Elizabeth had to make dinner, when Dave got home we ate I felt a little bit better, but not great. We were all sitting around visiting, but the pain was getting worse. I wasn't sure if I had eaten something bad for lunch and it was just working it's way out or if it was something bad. Around 10:20 I decided I should go to the hospital. I wasn't doubled over in pain, but I knew the pain was not going to go away, and Elizabeth was still there, so I would rather go now, then wait for it to get unbearable and have to call someone to come over at 2 am. So she took me to the hospital while Dave stayed home with hers and our kids.

Once we got to the ER we got right back to the room and they gave me some morphine for the pain, started an IV and drew some blood. The test came back and everything looked good, which kept the Doctors a little puzzled. My pain was now isolated down toward the right ovary area, however since my white blood count was normal they didn't immediately diagnose it has an appendicitis. I was then taken to have an ultrasound to see if it was an ovarian cyst. Did that and everything looked great, which was good, but yet still no solid explanation. By this time the pain was getting a little bit worse and more isolated. So the ER doc called the surgeon and told him to admit me and they would recheck my white blood count in the morning.

I finally get all moved up to the room and admitted at 4:30 AM. I get to sleep until 6:00am until they come and draw my blood, by this time I couldn't really go back to sleep because of the pain and being so uncomfortable. The test come back and my white blood count is up which means infection. So the surgeon comes in at 10:00 am and says he will get me in soon. Dave comes around 11:15 am while Elizabeth stays home with the kids. He gives me a blessing and I get taken down to get prepped at 12:00 pm, I say good bye to Dave and am in the OR by 12:30pm. the next thing I know is I'm waking up in the recovery room at 2 pm. The rest of the day is spent falling asleep and talking to people on the phone to explain the whole story.

Saturday morning I had to get my last bag on antibiotics and the I could be discharged and go home. The surgeon came in and said my appendix was about 2 hours away from rupturing, but because my colon was laying on top on my appendix is why it took so long for my white blood count was took a while to raise and why I didn't have a fever. He also did the operation through my belly button and made two other tiny incisions so that I won't have a huge scar on my stomach.

Now I am back at home and my wonderful husband as been taking care of me and the kids, he's amazing! I am thankful that everything turned well, and that it got taken out before it ruptured. After all that has happen during Hunter's birth and now, I hope we have a less eventful three months.

Halloween Fun

2010-11-09T09:15:00.000-08:00

Well since it has been forever since I have posted get ready for Halloween picture overload. I will try to be better about posting more often, but to be honest that depends mostly on what my three little monkeys are doing at the time. We had a lot of fun this Halloween, Logan LOVES Halloween so much, he can't get enough of it, and Makay joins right in on the fun. It is so awesome to see how they interact and treat each other. They may fight, a lot, but the love each other so much too.

The master carver! We carved pumpkins for FHE and Dave did great, the boys lasted about 10 minutes, they were not that into the carving, but sure enjoyed them once the were lit up.

I did this one

Dave did the other three

My sister came into town the Tuesday before Halloween so we decided to go to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. Despite it being cold it was a lot of fun and lots to do for adults and kids. We might make this a yearly tradition. We didn't due the corn maze, 1) because we have very small children and would have probably been there all night, 2) because I had to get to the gym that night. Maybe we will try the maze next year.

The huge jumping pillows

Dave and Logan jumping

Chuga-chuga-moo-moo

They put some plastic ducks in those troughs and when you pumped the water it would push the duck to the end. The kids loved it.

Duck Races

Entering the Haunted Creature, it was a little scary, but I'm a wuss.

They had these tractor bike type things that were actually kind of hard to pedal, but Hunter and I finished. It was really fun to race my sister.

Kristina beat me fair and square, lame

The funniest part of this was Logan was to big to have his feet down so he had to have them on top of Dave's legs and they were flying up and down when Dave pedaled.

Happy Family

Here's how Hunter spent most of the day, bundled up and close to mom, it was a little chilly.

Here's my little pumpkin in all the pumpkins

Logan in his Halloween parade for school

Logan and his buddy Sam at Pre-school

We got all dressed up and trick -or-treated at Dave's work, his work is really into it, everybody dresses up and they have a party.

Sadly this is the only picture we have of Hunter in his costume

Dave was Wolverine

Napoleon and Deb, "Do you want to buy a boondoggle?" It's a little scary how close the resemblance is.

Of course we ended the week with Trick-or-Treating, despite the cold weather

Our niece Morgan and the boys, we had fun going around her neighborhood.

What do you believe in?

2010-10-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was General Conference which is always a great time to listen to the brotheren of the church, it is also a time to reflect on ones self and see how we are doing. I do admit it is sometimes hard to sit and listen and not fall asleep or be preoccupied by another project, but a wonderful learning experience it is for us. As some of you might have noticed President Packers talk has caused quite a stir and my friend Kaci sent out a challenge to all her friends to bare your testimony, so I am accepting her challenge, and ask you to do the same.

My brothers and sisters whether you are of my same faith or not is not important to me, what is important to me is that you know that the Lord loves us, all of us! I have a great testimony of the plan of salvation and of the gift of free agency. We were all in Heaven together and made the choice to come to this earth knowing (I believe) that it was going to be hard and at times unbearable, but we still chose to come and to take the challenges that we are dealt head on. We are free to chose everything in life, we are not forced to do anything, sometimes we make great choices that lead to amazing blessings in our lives, and sometimes we make terrible choices that lead to horrible consequences, but one thing remains the same GOD'S LOVE! Along with his love is the most amazing gift of all, the atonement! There has never been a time when I felt the love of Heavenly Father more then when I was on my knees sobbing for forgiveness and working my way back to the light of Christ. We must look to the Lord for all of our answers and we must study and pray if there are issues we do not understand. I love the gospel and have seen many miracles in my own life. Please remember that the prophet and apostles are telling us what the Lord wants us to hear, there are his mouth piece. One of my favorite quotes is "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it!" Just think of how marvelous that day will be when Heavenly Father and Jesus welcome us home with open arms.

My love to all!

Dumb Hackers

2010-09-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

I don't really check my email much lately, so it took me a while to see that my account had been hacked into and sent out a weird email about a MAC computer, sorry if any of you got it. Then When I went to my contact list to send out an apology email my contact list was completely empty. I hope this doesn't cause a problem for all of the people in my list. Needless to say I will not be using hotmail anymore and will be switching to gmail. I guess it was only a matter of time I have been using that for 10 years. Now I need to send a message to hotmail and hopefully they can recover my contact list. Stupid hackers need to find something better to do.

Super Heros Unite

2010-09-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

For Logan's Birthday we did a superhero theme, it was so fun. We had the kids walk through the bat cave, they really liked it.

My friends Elizabeth made all these capes with the kids initial on them and then they decorated them.

Here's everyone listening to how to play superman tag

Run, don't get tagged

Here are the three supermen trying to get the villains

The super hero's need a recharge

yummy

Super Hero's at play

Getting ready to go fight crime!

Superman!

Dave made these awesome Spider-man cupcakes, good job babe!

Lastly time for presents

Logan had such a great time at his super hero party, and thanks to all his friends for coming and making it SUPER!

Logan's 5

2010-09-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little boy is 5 years old, he's not so little anymore. Logan has really grown up this last summer and is really figuring out who he is. Logan is so sweet with his new brother; when we are driving he puts the binki (b) in Hunter's mouth, he always asks to hold him and when he is holding him he rubs is nose with Hunter's. It's so sweet. He is also the best helper when I'm feeding the baby and I need him to get me something. We are so happy to have him in our family and are so excited to continue to see him learn and grow. We love you Logan!

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

We went to a dinosaur park on his actual birthday (8/27) with some friends, but his party had to be delayed due to having a baby. Five fabulous years with our boy, he is so sweet, cute and funny. Lots of Love

Hunter's birth

2010-08-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

After his first bath at home
what a face

Only a few minutes old

Proud parents

It all started Tuesday night, the Dr.'s office called and said that Thursday was really busy for inductions and wanted to know if we wanted to wait until Saturday. Not really, once we knew it was Thursday the thought of waiting two more days was not that appealing. So went about the rest of our day thinking I still had two more days. Wednesday morning at 8:30 am (of course I was still sleeping) my phone rang, and I didn't want to answer but I saw it was the Dr. so I thought I better. The lady on the other end said tomorrow is really busy is there any chance you guys want to come in today? The next step was to call Dave who was already at work and see what he thought. My mom was flying in from the airport at 1 pm, so I needed to figure somethings out.

Dave called back and said let's do it, my work is fine with me taking the rest of the day off. So he was going to leave at 12pm. Luckily my friends Elizabeth was already staying with us and she was able to help us out. So I needed to be to the hospital by 11 am, so we got ourselves and four kids ready to leave by 10:40ish. The plan was that Elizabeth will drop me off at the hospital, then go drop her kids off at her sister-in-laws, then go pick up my mom from the airport, then bring her and my boys back to my house, then come to the hospital for pictures. Wow, what a lifesaver!

Dave got to the hospital at 12:30 and I was all checked in and hooked up to the patocin (don't know how to spell it) for about 45 min. At 12:45 pm the doc broke my water, which made the contractions more intense, so by 1:30 pm I got my epidural. At 2:00 pm the nurse checked and I was at a 4, so we figrued it would still be a few hours. Around 3 I started to feel pressure and I was trying to explain to Dave what it felt like, and I said no way I'm at a 10 already, I think I'm just getting close. So when the nurse came in I told her I felt the pressure, so she took a peak and she said well it looks like your ready to have this baby, let me go get the Dr. I think it was around 3:15-20ish when she got there and shortly after that I started to push. It only took 2 10 second count pushes and a couple of half pushes and he was out.

Now the moment of truth, how much does he weigh? We were all anxiously waiting. 5 lb 4 oz, and 20 in long. Sweet, what a relief! And I can't believe how long he is, the boys were both 18.5 in. He came out wonderfully healthy, and looked great. Once I delivered the placenta we looked at it and it was only about the size of Dave's hand and it had a crusted edge around it. the Dr. said that's what it does when it has shut down, and decides it doesn't want to grow anymore. So her it looks like we did the right thing. At this point things are going well, hunter and I are enjoying some skin to skin, and he has already nursed a little.

Time to head up to recovery, here's where the excitement starts. Once we get up to the 3 rd floor I feel a gush of blood, but I thought no big deal, you never know how much is coming out. Then I move to the bed in the recovery room and I tell Dave I don't feel good, and start to get really light headed and pale. Dave looks down and see pools of blood on the bed. He tells the transporter girl, um there's a lot of blood we need a nurse. At this point I'm pretty out of it and am not sure what's happening. the nurse gets there and pushes on my stomach and I feel a wave of blood pour out, and hear her say oh man. I'm in and out the whole time, not really with it. The Dr. comes in and tells me I have a blood clot in my uterus and she needs to manually extract it. During all this my blood pressure dropped to 50/30. After she removed the blood clot, they gave me some medicine to make my uterus start contracting because it just kept pumping out blood.

Once the clot was removed I started feeling better for a time, and was really hungry so I thought I would eat something, well I guess my stomach wasn't ready for that and I started to feel really nauseous and just wanted to go to sleep. They put some anti-nausea medicine in my IV and I was off to sleepy land, for a little while anyway. I guess I put everybody on high alert and couldn't get more then a 20 min nap before people were coming to draw blood, check vitals, check bleeding everything. I finally started feeling better around 9 pm.

Thankfully Hunter was an angel the whole time in the hospital and has been ever since we have been home. The boy loves to sleep and is a great eater, caught on to nursing right away. He wakes up every 3-4 hours to eat and then goes right back to sleep where ever he's laying, crib, bouncer, on your chest. He is just perfect and shows no signs of being premature. We are so blessed that he has come to us with no problems. We love him so much!

Hunter Scott Richards

2010-08-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hunter and mom enjoying skin-to-skin

Hunter using his lungs

ready to go

Daddy and his new boy

So cute!

Weighing 5 lbs 4 oz, and 20 inches long. We are so happy to welcome this beautiful boy into our family. We were so glad that he broke into the 5 lbs and that he is perfectly healthy, and should be just fine to go home with us tomorrow. Heavenly Father truly has blessed us to make sure Hunter got to us nice and healthy.

Sorry that the pictures are out of order and that their aren't very many blogger was having some problems. More pictures and the whole story will come later on.

Bed Rest??

2010-08-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

Not quite, but close. Here's the update on the baby, about a month ago I had an ultrasound because I was measuring small. This was not a huge surprise because I had the same with Makay, but I was further along about 34 weeks, this time I was only 31 measuring 28. So the ultrasound went fine he was just over the 10th percentile, and all the blood flow and fluid looked great. We scheduled another one for one month later. That was Tuesday this time the news wasn't as good, but not terrible. The fluid and blood flow through the umbilical cord looked great. However, he has dropped under the 10th percentile and had only gained about 1 pound in a month, they estimate about 4.2 pounds. This was not great news, the Dr. is worried that the placenta has stopped working as well as it should. I had a non-stress test later that day, during this test they monitor his heart beat and it looked great. We felt reassured after this that he was doing well.

Today I had my weekly visit with Dr. Loewen and we talked about what all this means. Well it looks like we will be having our baby next Thursday. By next Thursday I will be 37 weeks, so by this time the baby's lungs will be developed and he will be able to come into the world. I had my reservations at first, but my Dr. reassured me that she feels perfectly confident that he will be just fine. It is better for him to come out and get the nourishment he needs, then stay in if the placenta is not giving him what he needs. With this decision the Dr. said I was to take it very easy, which I thought I was already doing, but this means no more work or outings that involve a lot of walking. anyone who knows me, knows this is going to be hard for me, but I will keep my eye on the prize and take it easy.

We are putting all of our good thoughts and prayers out there that everything will go smoothly and that he will be perfectly healthy and a good weight. We are excited to have him join our family and look forward to meeting him.

End of summer = fall

2010-08-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

I know summer isn't over yet and maybe I'm jumping the gun a little, but I'm so excited for the fall because that means...College football! (Hence the new background) I am so excited for the up coming college football season, not only are we die hard Ute fans, I pretty much love watching any college football game. And now that my house will be full of boys it's official we will be a football family. Whether they play it or not, we will watch it. So here's to a great football season just around the corner.

Makayisms

2010-08-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from my friend Ivy's latest blog post, so I thought I would do the same. I think this age is so funny, he thinks he is just as big as everyone else and will tell them all about it. He is such a chatter box, totally opposite from Logan, he didn't talk that much at this age, so it's very foreign to us.

Here are some of the things he says on a daily basis; comes and pulls the covers off me and says "mommy breakfest", then he runs into the kitchen opens the fridge and says "this" pointing to whatever he's in the mood for. He isn't picking, but particular he knows what he wants so if you grab the wrong thing he pushes it away and says "no" with quite the scowl. Once you get the right thing he shakes his head with so much enthusiasm and say "uh-huh".

He also likes to talk to Logan's friends and will say things on the lines of; " hey guys" and runs to show them where their room is. He also says the typical "I did it" when he does the buckles in his chair, or if something doesn't work like he thinks it should, he says "ah man".

The funniest and sometimes a little annonying when you are trying to talk to your spouse, he is obsessed with car washes. I guess it's because one time we got the car washed when he was in the car and now he can spot them a mile away. Anytime we pass a car wash he says"mommy wash, see" and he'll keep saying it until you respond back. Or if we are driving on a road where he knows a car wash is he'll say, "mommy, where's the wash?" until we get to it. Along with car washes he loves train track, so every time we get in the car he ask, "mommy train tracks, peeas".

Lastly, yesterday he started carrying around a car and saying " 1,2,3 blast off".

Thanks for letting me rant about my sweet 2 1/2 year old. I figure I better write it down now while I remember, because before I know it he'll be all grown up.

Summer Fun

2010-07-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's already the middle of July! The summer really does fly by, here are some of the fun things that we have been doing over the summer.

We went to play in the fountains at the Gateway, it was a lot of fun. Since it wasn't too hot the fountains were a little cold so the boys didn't really spend too much time in the water.

Logan covering up one of the holes

This is about as close as Makay got to the water, he loves water, but wasn't too sure about the fountain.

Taking a break and sharing an apple.

Here are my cute boys on the 4th of July

We went to the bees game on July 5th and it was a lot of fun! When we got there it was pretty hot, so the boys found some shade provided by the light pole. If Logan is sitting down Makay will always plop down right next to him, so cute!

Rolling down the hill, this nice open grass was quickly covered up by many, many blankets, and people.

A lady with her two kids squeezed herself in between us and another family practically on top of our blanket. I was really annoyed at first, but it turned out to be nice because then the kids played during the last 2 innings. My boys are so social they pretty much make friends anywhere, wonder where they get that from?

We got this sand box from Dave's parents and the boys have enjoyed it so far. It's not very big, but the seem to be loving it.

Makay made a friend at the Centerville parade on July 3rd. They spend a while running around in circles.

Logan on on of those bouncy slides, but this one had water on it. Sorry it's blurry.

Makay down the slide at the park on July 3rd

On July 3rd we went to the Centerville Parade and our friend's band was also playing after at the park/ carnival thing they had. It was fun and all the booths were really cheap, so we might make that a tradition.

We have a few more summer adventures planned and then it's time to start getting ready for the baby.

Disneyland

2010-06-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am finally posting the Disneyland pictures, it's o.k. that we have already been home for a month.

We started to day on the "steam train" as the boys call it.

Here we are ready for a day of "magic"

Small world was closed last time we were there so we were really excited that it was open this time. It was the first ride we went on, and we didn't have to wait long at all.

Thumbs up! All ready for the ride

Wow Logan you are strong!

Ready for the rescue rangers coaster

Click, click, click ready for the drop

going down...ahhhhhh

Got to love Dumbo!

this one we waited about an hour, but it's classic you have to do it.

I'm ready to see some pirates...Arg matey

This was Logan's favorite ride, we were able to go on it twice, hardly any waiting.

Grandma, Logan, Dave on Winnie the pooh

Makay enjoying it as well.

Time for a lunch break

It was really nice to have a break from the crowd in the shade and eat our packed lunch

We took the traditional picutre after lunch when it wasn't so crowded and we could get a decent picture.

Rocket Rods, these were a lot of fun! I lot it would be just like Dumbo, but they were much faster.

We got to sit in the very front of the monorail, the boys really enjoyed being able to look out the front.

Lastly, autopia, Logan drove all by himself with no help from dad

Our camera ran out of batteries, so we didn't get any evening pictures. It was such a great day! And the boys did awesome for walking, no naps, and lots of waiting in lines. Thankfully it wasn't too busy so we waited the longest for Dumbo and Autopia, other then that it was probably about 10-15 per ride.

The love family vacations and it was so fun to go to Disneyland, and see the boys reaction to all the creativity. I'm already thinking about when we can go back.

Sea World

2010-06-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

Getting our sun block on for the day.

My two penguins

In the shark reef

The end of the new Blue Horizon dolphin show, it was so good.

Dad and Makay (he's so tired)

I think this is Baby Shamu

After the Shamu show

Climbing in the "shipwreck"

Logan in the "jumping place"

We were in Elmo land right when elmo and Grover showed up so we were second in line to see them.

Dave won this dolphin by making 3 baskets, good job babe!

Enjoying cotton candy at the Sea Lion show

After the Sea Lion show

After two days of parks Makay had enough, so cute.

Logan showing his Shamu fin, well kind of.

It was a packed day, full of shows, playing, rides, lots of walking and animal seeing. It was a lot of fun to see the boys reaction to the animals, and spending time as a family. After we left Sea World we had dinner with our friends Gary and Bliss, it was fun to see them and sit down and eat.

The Beach

2010-06-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

Two love birds at the beach

We of course had to build a sand castle

and then let the boys destroy it

Us girls stayed out of the water

Makay spent most of his time eating at first.

Dave and Logan were very brave and went in the water, even though it was pretty cold.

Someone was a little tired after the beach

Playing at Grandma's

Me, Kristina, Mom, and Grandma
(don't mind my funny face)

The camera battery died so I could only get these pictures downloaded so I guess the trip will be posted in phases. Here's phase one so stay toned for the rest of the trip

Happy Birthday Davey!

2010-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Today is Dave 32 birthday! It's a little crazy to think that he is now officially in his 30's, and it's also kind of nice. Well as you expected here is a tribute to the love of my life. Thanks for being one of the best things that has ever happen to me in my life, and for being such a great and undertnading husband, partner, and BEST friend. As if that wasn't enough thanks for being such an amazing father, our boys are lucky to have you as their dad. Thank you for setting a good example for them as a worthy priesthood holder in our home, they couldn't have a better dad. Well before this gets anymore sappy, I Love you so much, and am so glad that we are on this journey together.

Flashback

2010-05-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

In a couple of weeks we are heading to California to go to the beach, Disneyland, and Sea World. I am so excited and I can't believe it's already been two years since we were there last. I took a trip down memory lane and enjoyed some pictures of the last time we were there. Logan was 2 1/2 and Makay was almost 6 months. Wow, they sure grow up fast.

It was so hot that day, as you can tell by the sweat on Logan's forehead
For beingso young Makay did so good that day, he loves being out in big crowds and didn't fuss at all. We'll see if we have as much luck this time around.

We all look so different

Logan and Aunt Kristina, I'm so excited for the beach, I just hope it's fairly warm since the weather has been so weird everywhere.

We added and extra day at Sea World this time because Dave has never been, and we thought the boys would really enjoy it. Along with all the fun parks and beach day, some of my old friends from the singles ward are having a BBQ and little reunion so I'm really excited about that. Hopefully there will be no hiccups and the trip will be wonderful.

A New Job for DK

2010-04-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we found out that Dave got offered a new job with Zions Bank. He is getting out of the retail side of banking and moving downtown to the executive side. He is going to be part of the marketing department for Zions. Some of what he will be doing is responding to peoples questions and/or comments on Zions facebook page along with many other things. He is really excited to start this new adventure and to try a different side of the banking world. I am so excited for him to continue to grow in his career and experience something new.

I am of course so thankful to the Lord for this wonderful opportunity, for my amazing husband to take on new challenges, and provide a great life for the boys and I. I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be a mother and to teach my children so they can grow up and become responsible, caring, hard-working men. I am thankful for my good health, great friends and great family. We have truly been blessed.

Baby # 3

2010-04-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

Even though I convinced my self this next baby was a girl apparently I was wrong, so much for mother's intuition. Boy # 3 is on is way and I couldn't be more excited to add to our craziness. I thought I was going to be sad if this one wasn't a girl, but I'm totally fine. Clearly we like boys at our house so let's add one more.

Easter 2010

2010-04-13T14:31:00.001-07:00

The finished product

Three boys dying eggs
Makay, Will and Logan

Makay found one egg and just wanted to get it open

Logan found the rest

On the Friday before Easter we had a little Easter party with our friends Kaci, Will and Ethan. It was a lot of fun for the boys to decorate cookies, chocolate marshmallow eggs, and dying eggs. Makay and Will (who are both two) mostly wanted to eat the frosting and dump all the sprinkles out, but that's o.k. It was still a lot of fun. Ethan is only a few weeks old so he didn't participate, but maybe next year.

Look what the Easter bunny brought?

Two cute boys
(sorry it's sideways)

Logan couldn't wait to eat the bunny cake

Or the jello eggs

Easter was a lot of fun this year, Logan was really excited about his bike and seeing what else the Easter bunny had brought him. Makay liked the bike after he found the two pieces of candy in his basket and tried to eat them first thing in the morning. It was also important for us to explain to Logan what Easter is really about, and that went o.k. He might not get the full concept yet, but we will go from there. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter and may we always remember that the Lord gave his life so that we might live again.

What is that?

2010-04-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Makay walks into the room with something brown on his index finger...

I immediately grab his hand so he won't touch anything and I ask "what is that?" He doesn't reply.

I take a quick sniff in case it's chocolate...to my dismay, it's poop. Gross!

I guess that's hos way of telling me he needs a diaper change. I want to throw up just typing out the story.

He definitely keeps me on my toes.

The many faces of my little rascal...

Mr. Sneaky got his "b's" out of the drawer

Is it so wrong?

2010-03-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

Is it so wrong for me to wish for it to be in the 70-80's everyday? I am so tired of the cold weather! I know it hasn't been winter cold lately, but I want to be able to go outside and play with my kids or go for a walk and not get cold. I'm happy to wear a sweater, but the wind chill factor has got to go. I do come from the sunshine state, so I love the sun and warm weather, and I think that has been passed on to Logan. He keeps asking how many days till summer? And even if he goes outside and it's a little on the chilly side, he comes back in in a few minutes because it's too cold.

Another reason I need the warm weather is so Logan will go outside and play, all he wants to do is watch T.V. all day long. This is our big battle right now, I try to redirect with fun things to do, but he might do them for a little while, but then he begs to watch more t.v. and sometimes I don't want to fight him and let him. We need it to be warm so we can get our butts, go outside and keep the t.v. watching to a minimum. Tell me I'm not the only one who's 4 year old only wants to watch t.v.?

It Always Seems to Work Out

2010-03-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

After a long life with the Audi we did finally get a new car. We are very excited and I think it will be a prefect car to last a long time. Our wonderful friend Aaron Morgan races cars out at Miller Motor sports park for fun, with this hobby of his he is always hearing and finding good deals on cars. Well lucky for us we came upon a great deal. Aaron received a car from from Nissan as gift a couple years ago it was a 2004 Nissan Sentra with only 244 miles, that's it, can you believe it. The car has been sitting at the raceway for years, so it needed a new battery, and the hood needs painting, but other then that it's in great shape. As Aaron told us about this car, and we told him about the problems we were having with the Audi Dave and him worked out a deal. In the end Aaron sold us the car for a good price and we are so excited to have a car that is pretty much brand new for such a steal. Thanks Aaron, we owe you.

This is not the first time something like this has happen to us, the first time we were blessed out of no where was when my first car, the white wagon, broke down on the freeway. This car was done, not worth repairing. So we were stuck with only one car for a few months, it wasn't too bad at first but after a while I was getting tired of being stuck at home when Dave was working in Park City. We decided to start looking for a car, we wanted an SUV, but we didn't want to spend a lot of money. One day Dave was looking on the internet and saw a 1999 Durango for $5,800 being sold at an Audi dealership. We thought this was a little odd, so we went right over there. It turns out it was a trade in and they just wanted to get it off their lot. This was a great price because normally that year was selling for around $8,000. We knew this was a great deal and bought it that day. I know that being patient and not jumping into something that might have been too expensive, the Lord blessed us.

The next time we were blessed was when we had to move from our Midvale house. We needed to be moved out with in 30 days, so it didn't give us a lot of time to figure out what we were doing. We weighed the pros, and cons to buying a house or going back to an apartment, I was also pregnant with Makay so we knew we needed at least 3 bedrooms. We decided that we would look for one week at houses and if we didn't find anything that we liked, that was in our price range then we knew we would be back in an apartment. Luckily our bishop at that time was a realtor, so we didn't have to worry about finding one we trusted. We looked all over the Salt Lake valley, but everything in our price range was a dump, and you all know I'm not into the fixer uppers. We thought we could check Bountiful, but that's the furthest we would go. This was the first house we walked through, and we both loved it immediately, and it was a great price. The people that were selling it totally remodeled it and were selling it for such a good price. We went home and put an offer on it that day. The next thing you know we are moving in under our 30 day time line. Once again we were blessed with a great deal at the time we needed it.

And now with the new Nissan another blessing at just the right time, for another great deal. There is no question in my mind that the Lord has put these things right in our path. He has blessed us these times and many more, but I won't list all of them. As Dave and I have entered our 30's we have realized how and what we should spend our money on, and that the things that we want will come when we can afford them, to me this means paying cash, except for cars and houses. As we have tired to live this way in the last few years we have seen the blessings poor down. I know this sounds so cliche, but it's true. Now we are not prefect, and I would love to say that we have no debt, but that's not true. However, we are trying desperately to not acquire new debt, for things that we just don't need. I also couldn't see this wonderful pattern of blessings and not document it, and thank my Heavenly Father. Life is not always easy, but when good things like this happen it makes it a little bit easier to handle.

The Best $ 46.79 I ever spent...

2010-02-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

For some time I have wanted a new vacuum. I even tried to convince Dave to get me one for Christmas and I promise I wouldn't be mad because it's what I wanted. So I went shopping around to find the one I thought was the best, for the best value. Of course in my dreams I would love a Dyson, but spending $ 300 + on a vacuum isn't really in the budget. So I looked around for what had Dyson type features, but wasn't so expensive. After searching and really thinking about it I found the Bissell Power Force, and it was only $ 46.79 at Walmart. Now this was a price I could handle. When I got home on Saturday I spent an hour vacuuming the living room, I talking under the couches, behind the entertainment center, along the edge of the wall and carpet. It was fantastic! I told Dave this was the best $ 46.79 I ever spent. Now keep in mind this is the first NEW vacuum I have ever had, we never had a new vacuum with attachments growing up (sad I know), and we didn't buy one when we got married. I have only had hand me down, mediocre vacuums till now. I finished up vacuuming the rest of my house today, with the same intensity and excitement. So if any of you need a great vacuum go for the Bissell Power Force, it's AWESOME!

Totally Disgusted

2010-02-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well today Makay and I were enjoying some one on one time while Logan was at school so we decided to go to Paradise Cafe for lunch. We just happen to be sitting be the drink area and as we were eating I notice three moms with their three boys who were about Logan's age, (maybe younger I later noticed one was still in diapers). At first I thought how nice a little lunch date, then in my nosiness I was watching what the mom's were getting their kids to drink, just out of pure curiosity. To my shock and disgust they all got their boys orange fanta full to the top. Now I know this is not really any of my business what those mom's are giving their children to drink, but for some reason this got me so fired up, because I see this all the time, lots of places, this time I decided I wanted to post about it.

The reason it gets me so mad is because it seems in our American culture that kids are kids and they shouldn't have to "eat healthy", or worry about what they are eating. I don't think we should make kids preoccupied with fat content or calories, but we should teach them that certain things are better to eat then other things, and eating a candy, cookie, or some other sweet is fine every once in a while, but not all the time. It is so important for kids to learn healthy habits when they are young so that when the do become adults and (as we have all seen) it is not as easy to eat what we want and look great as it was when we were 16. As most of us are entering our 30's and having children we realize that you have to be more responsible fort what you put in your body. As parents WE are responsible for what goes in our children's mouths. And if they learn healthy habits when they are young it will not be as hard for them to eat that way when they are in our shoes.

As we all know obesity is a big problem in the U.S. and I 100% believe that the majority of the adult population that is obese today did not eat healthy as children. I really feel strongly about this (as you can tell). Children by nature are going to want to eat things that are sweet, but just because they want it doesn't mean they should have it when ever they want, that's what parents are for. Just as much as we are worried about protecting the outside of our children's bodies with sunblock, we need to be concerned about protecting the inside of them as well. All of the extra additives that are in the food these days, and of course all the chemicals in soda, are not good for our body. It is not designed to digest those chemicals, so they end up just staying in our bodies and build up plaque on our arterial walls, which decreases blood flow, and can cause high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and many other things. I know these things seems like stuff that happen to other people and not us, but guess what? We are becoming the next generation of adults, and as some of the guys have noticed your metabolism starts to slow down at 30, for women it's about 35. Taking care of yourself is a REAL job, why not give out kids an easier time by teaching them when they are young.

My hope was not to offend anybody, it was to get this of my chest and share my thoughts about helping our kids and ourselves be healthy, if we don't teach them, who will?

The Boys Annual Pictures

2010-02-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

Alright, the jig is up

2010-01-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well for those of you who haven't heard I'M PREGNANT! I'm super excited about having another little one to join the ranks, but it is so overwhelming to think we will have 3 kids, wow. Now we will be out numbered, and the thought of taking three kids somewhere by my self is a little daunting, but non-the -less I will survive.

I am 8 weeks a long and I have not thrown up, but feel disgusting and nauseous all day long, yuck! The first trimester is not always my favorite, up I know it's a really important part. Being prego and having two other kids to take care of is really tiring, props to all those other moms out there. I am also super busy at the rec., which is good an bad. Good because of lots of extra $$ to save for a hospital bill, but bad because I'm so freaking tried most of the time. So far the kids have been really cute and Makay will say "baby" all the time and Logan will say stuff like "the baby's not here yet, why do I have to do that". Got to love kids right.

I'm due around Sept. 10th I'm not really going to be hung up on the date considering I was late with Logan, and got induced 2 days before Makay was due, but still didn't feel like I was even close to going into labor. I'm actually hoping I go a little late ( I know big jink) so late it's a little farther from Logan's b-day which is Aug. 27th. As for the gender at times I think it's got to be a girl, I don't know if I could handle another boy, so much wrestling, but as some of my friends know girls can be so whinny, and dramatic, and that's something I'm not used to. It really doesn't matter either way, but it is always fun to speculate. Anyway, I am so excited for this new adventure and I'm just curious does this make us a big family now??

New Car

2010-01-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

Well the poor Audi is finally done. It has been a great car and has served us well, after countless trips to California, one to Colorado, and back and forth to Park City for three year it has had enough. We knew it had some problems for a while, but we didn't know how bad until we took it in. It has always run great, but recently it developed an oil leak, then the headlights broke (don't ask me how that happens), once that happen we knew we need to take it in. Well to our dismay there was a whole laundry list of things that were wrong and the cost to just get it ready to register was $2,000 and the amount to make it drivable for a while was twice that. Now that may not seem like a lot, but the car has 200,000 miles and we think it's paid it's dues. We are not sure what kind of car will come next, but we must now say good -bye to our beloved wagon. I'll keep you posted on what we find. and it aynbody wants a 1998 Audi wagon that runs great, but has a lot of random stuff to fix let us know and we can work out a price for you.

One Day....

2010-01-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

So I really need to mop the floor, it's gross! Since both of my kids are sleeping, right now would be a great time to do it, but why would I do that when I can spend all this time on the computer. As much fun as this is I will eventually get off the computer and do it, but one day I will have a cleaning lady. I have run this idea by Dave a while ago and he just laughed at me, but earlier this week I said one day I would really like to have a cleaning lady to do the hard core stuff, like mop my floors, deep clean my bathroom, clean my base boards, and probably dusting. I hate dusting. If I have someone to do all that then it wouldn't feel so over whelming to clean the house. I don't love dishes, but there not to terrible so I'll do those and laundry. Until then I guess I better go mop the floor, and fantasize about when I will have that cleaning lady.

Makay's Birthday!

2010-01-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

For Makay's birthday my niece Morgan spent the night, then in the morning we went to a place called kangaroo zoo. It's a place full of blow up slides and toys, it was a lot of fun. Logan spent most of his time with Morgan, and I was with Makay. Unfortunately all the toys had a 150 lb weight limit so Dave couldn't go on them, he was on picture duty. There were a few toys for only the little kids, but of course Makay got bored with that and only wanted to go on the big slides. It was a nice little workout for me to climb up to the top while holding him.

Me and My boys going down the slide

My Niece Morgan playing with us

Logan Head first

Makay enjoying the 2 and under zone

Him and Logan were tackling those yellow pillars in the background forever

He got a vacuum for cousin Morgan

And more cooking stuff and clothes

Good job Dave on decorating the cake

I am having to hold his arm because he wants to touch the flame on the candle.

Oh my little Makay, I can't believe he's already two, but at the same time I can't believe he's only two. My days are spent telling him to not climb on the counter, don't touch the Christmas Tree, don't climb behind the couch, get out of the fire place. Needless to say he is very busy, he likes to be where the people are and like lots of attention. He is talking really well (compared to Logan at his age) saying the usual "mom", "pot", "up", "spoon", "thank you". All of these are the typical two year old things. The reason I feel like he's older then two sometimes is because he trys and pretty much does whatever the older kids are doing. If they are climbing on the playground, playing soccer, rollerskating, you name it he does it, and rather well I might add.

He keeps us busy, and we love him to bits. Logan and him have the greatest time together, and I love having my two little boys tackling each other. Happy Birthday Makay I look forward to all the adventures you will take us on.

Christmas 09

2009-12-29T13:45:00.001-08:00

Here's Logan Christmas Eve, he wore the hat to dinner with Gma and Gpa and didn't wnat to take if off. So cute!

Getting ready to open Christmas Eve presents

What could it be?

Matching pj's of course, they also get to open their ornament representing something they have done, or really enjoyed that year. Logan-preschool, Makay- oven mitt that says "Love to cook", Shawna- road bike, Dave- 4-wheeler.

Makay's pile

Logan's Pile

Shawna's Pile

Dave's Pile

Makay playing with his new pots.

We ended up taking more video then we did pictures that morning, as you can see. I really wanted to hear Logan's reaction, unfortunately our video camera is old school and can't be put on the computer. Oh well.

Later Christmas night we went to see the lights at temple square, as you can see by our attire it was freezing. We were there for about 45 minutes, which was plenty of time to quickly walk around and let the boys enjoy the lights and get back to the car with losing any limbs.

It was a wonderful Christmas this year, Logan finally got the Santa concept and ran right to bed when we said it's time for bed and then Santa is coming, once he laid down he said "I love this season." Dave and I just laughed. Makay followed Logan's lead most of the day, and they were so cute together. I was so excited on Christmas morning to see the boys reaction, and wasn't thinking "what was I getting?"

We also had a great time explain the nativity to the boys for family night. Although we love presents we love our Savior Jesus Christ more. We are so thankful for his sacrifice and everlasting love for all of us. May we remember him always.

Logan's Pre-School Christmas Program

2009-12-21T15:03:00.000-08:00

Logan and his buddy Jack getting ready to march like toy soldiers.

Each child had a chance in the spotlight and the teacher's read what the children told them they wanted for Christmas. Here's what Logan said, "Logan wants a big red truck for Christmas, and his Mom wants new running shoes, and Dad wants a basketball and golf passes". I almost fell over, I guess he's paying attention to what we've been putting on our lists.

Taking a break in between songs

Logan singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Logan was the sheep in the nativity, but he didn't like wearing the mask

Santa made an appearance at the end of the program and Logan asked for a BIG red truck

This Christmas program was so darling. Normally Logan hates to sing and never does it, but he did pretty good at the program. I have been so pleased with all the fun things Logan has been doing at pre-school, he is getting to experience so many great activities. I am so thankful for the opportunity for Logan to go to school.

Who Am I ??

2009-12-14T14:49:00.001-08:00

This post is inspired by my good friend Marci. She posted on her blog about who she is and asked all that read 'who are you?' I wanted to treat this as a tag. So if you read this you're tagged and you need to tell us who you are on your own blog.

Who Am I ? What a loaded question, as I sit here and think it's hard to not list of titles like, wife, mother, friend, daughter, trainer, etc. Although I am all those things I think we need to go deeper, what makes me tick, what is my driving force, what am I passionate about. For now I will address the first thing that comes to mind.

I'm a woman that is passionate about sports and exercise. I know this isn't a shock to most people, but here's a little background on why. For as long as I remember I have loved playing and watching sports, I played flag football at 5 yrs. old, then on to t-ball, soccer, track, cross country, and swimming. I have not always been the best at all of these endeavors, but I have always enjoyed it. After high school and the constant practicing and competing I took a little break, it wasn't til after having Logan that I got back into it. As we all know when you get pregnant you gain weight, and after you have the baby it's not always as easy as we hope to lose the weight. My goal after Logan was to get back into shape, I didn't have an exact number in mind, but mostly just wanted to fit back into my pre-baby clothes. So I decided to train for a triathlon and play soccer on an outdoor team. With these new developments I was feeling rejuvenated, I felt a zest for life back.

As life goes on we had baby #2 Makay. And as life got busier, but again I found my self going back to 5 k races, triathlons and soccer. As Dave and I like to say I got bitten by the tri bug. I don't really know why I love to train, compete, and race so much but I do. What I do know is that training, competing and racing gives me an opportunity to have me time, it gives me time to reflect on a day good/bad, reflect on things in my life, just time. Which can be hard to find as a mom, wife, housekeeper.

I encourgae all woman to find what gives them their zest for life back, whatever it might be. There are many other facets of who I am, but I will save them for another post, as I have rambled long enough. Lastly, ladies please find out who you are? You deserve it, deserve to feel a zest for life, not just be living.

Pictures like these

2009-12-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

So We had our ward Christmas party on Friday and after dinner there was a visit from good old St. Nick. The kids were all lined up and signing songs with Santa, so I was standing up there with Logan and holding Makay. After the singing they made their way into the Relief Society room for a photo opp. Please enjoy the series of events.

Here's Makay giving Santa a skeptical look.

Now shying away from a nice hello

Last, pure terror! Why is this strange man holding me?

Call me crazy, but I really like this picture, I think everybody needs at least one of picture of their kids screaming with Santa.

Apple Pie and Hair Cuts

2009-11-27T09:11:00.001-08:00

So I was feeling very domestic and do it myself the week of Thanksgiving, so that's what I did. Logan's hair was getting quite out of control and even thought I like it long, we decided it was time to chop it off. And since I was doing one kid I might as well do the other. They both hate getting their hair cut, so it was a very tearful experience.

Next, I decided to bake a homemade apple pie from scratch, dough and everything. Along with my apple pie I made garlic and bacon roasted mashed potatoes, now those were easy and very tasty. I think they will become a turkey day tradition. Since you can't taste my delicious pie you will have to settle for the picture. Please enjoy.

This is my first ever homemade apple pie (well pie in general). I got the recipe from my sister and I was on my way. I was very nervous, but it turned out really good. The dough was a little tricky getting it into the pie dish, but other then that it wasn't too bad. It was a great success, although I'm not sure I'll do it again.

I forgot to take a picture of Makay before his hair cut. He cried the whole time I used the clippers, but once I got to the scissors he was fine, well I still had to hold him, but at least he wasn't screaming.

This is the face I saw the majority of the time, he hates getting his hair cut. Can you believe how long it is? Poor kid.

Yikes, that's a lot of THICK hair!

Don't let the smile fool you those red cheeks mean he was crying the whole time I was using the clippers also, refer to picture above and you can imagine how long it took. And our clippers suck, we need new ones.

This is the final look after I tried my best to clean it up with the scissors It's a lot shorter then I wanted it on top, but oh well I'm sure I'll get better each time I try. (If I try again)

Oops, I totally forgot to put on the attachment.

Last Couple of Days

2009-11-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

I have taken some fun pictures of the last couple of days, so I thought I would post some. On another note I am loving Logan going to Pre-school, not only is he making all sorts of fun crafts and participating in fun activities I feel like he well be much better prepared for elementary school when the time comes. I am so thankful for the opportunity to send him to Pre-school.

A couple of pictures of the fun things Logan's been making at Pre-school.

Here's what Dave and I found when we went to tuck Logan in when we were going to bed...hilarious.

Makay stuck in the leaves

Speaking of Makay what a handful this little tyke is, he keeps me on my toes. Some one his latest he loves to cook. The first thing he does in the morning is get his pot and wooden spoon that I have set aside for him to play with and starts cooking, however, one pot and spoon is not enough, so he is constantly trying to get into the the drawers and cupboards for more pots and spoons. Walking around saying "spoon" and "cooking" in the most pitiful voice. As much as this drives me crazy I'm sure one day I'll look back and miss it. The question is when is that day going to come? Oh well he's my little Dennis the Mennis, and I love him to bits.

Here's our backyard once all the leaves had fallen.

Logan's New Bed

2009-11-10T22:09:00.001-08:00

So for the past couple of weeks Logan has been having a hard time, he seemed very irritated, wouldn't stay in his own bed at night, and everything was a battle during the day. After about a week of me pulling my hair out while being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), and thinking somethings got to give, we decided that it was time to get rid of Logan's car bed. Logan was really sad at first, he totally started crying and stayed in his room for sometime. However, once he saw how big and fun his new bunk bed was he was happy to say good-bye to his car bed.

So long, it's been great!

Ta-da here it is, the lifesaver. It's only been a couple of days and I can already see a difference in his attitude. Not only is the new mattress so much softer, it has a flannel sheet set that keeps him toasty warm, and he hasn't been in our room since he got his new bed. Thank you so much to Rob and Nikki for the bunkbed, and now none of our guest have to sleep on an air mattress anymore. What a difference a good nights rest can make.

Terrific Tuesday!

2009-11-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

Terrific Tuesday is what our ward is doing instead of Super Saturday, not only did I go to terrific Tuesday tonight, I had a pretty terrific Tuesday all together.

It started off with a Dr. appt. that actually gave the boys good quality time with Grandma and grandpa, and me time to read part of a good book as I was waiting.
Then a quick visit with my hubby, that's always nice.
Next off to the chiropractor, the boys and I got adjusted, and they did pretty well for their first time, got to keep that immune systems up.
Back home to make dinner and off to terrific Tuesday to make some awesome capes and tutus for Christmas.
Now it's time to hang out with Davizzle.

As I write this out it doesn't look to great, but I feel very balanced and accomplished today. Good night everybody.