First official friend birthday bash!

My kids get their first friend birthday party when they turn 5 and then every other year after that. Carter has been looking forward to this day since Camden turned 5 almost two years ago. His choice in theme....if you know him at all you won't be surprised....construction. Everything and anything to do with trucks, tractors, building etc. He is a little builder waiting to sprout. Since his birthday is in Feb. I was getting a little anxious about the thought of all those little boys in my house. So I decided to get the church instead....what a great plan, it was much better having room to run around and be crazy.

We let them each build something with play-dough...

Then we had relay races to see how fast they could pick up and dump out blocks in their wheel-barrows...

We had a block building contest...

And finally a pinata....my boys favorite!

It was followed by cake and ice cream and presents.

We had great time and Carter loved every minute of it!

Carter's big number 5

Carter's big day. First stop, McDonalds play land...a parents nightmare and a child's dream! We had fun! His birthday fell on President's day this year so it was a double bonus....no school!

That night the family joined us for pizza, presents and cake. What a fun night we had celebrating a fun little boy!

Pretty impressive cake huh. I was pretty proud of myself and the $20 I spent having Macey's make my day a little less stressful!

Happy birthday Carter boy!

Random winter fun

I have been a terrible blogger this winter, but we really have been doing things. So as I scrolled through all of my pictures from this winter here were just a few of the highlights from our freezing, foggy, long cold winter......yeah it's March....we survived!

Camden played his first year of basketball and loved it. He was our little mustang.....can you believe I am cheering for the great orange and blue.....my old trusty cheer outfit is rolling over in it's grave....I really do still love you Sky View :)!

My three little stooges!

We went to SLC for my birthday and stayed in a hotel. We had fun!
We also took the kids to the Discovery Gateway. They loved it! When we use to live in NSL we had a season pass to the old Children's museum (remember the good old days Katie?) It wasn't nearly as fun or clean :) To bad we don't get down there more often!

My camera battery died after the first exibit....not quite use to having to recharge my camera battery yet....use to the trusty AA's. It was a really fun morning!

And here are just some of my favorite photo's of the past little while.

Happy birthday to my fun loving, squinty eyed, always saying I love you, best snuggler in the world, imaginative, playful, truck loving 5-year old! I can't believe he has grown up so much! Where did my baby boy go? We sure love you Carter and hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday!

The Loves of My Life

By Darin

First: Little Myah. Oh how precious you are. You are my little princess. It is true that you've already got your daddy's little finger wrapped tightly around. One of the most favorite parts of my day is when I come home from work and you come out of hiding and say "boo" with the biggest smile on your face. Oh how I love that little face of yours. You will always be my little princess. I love you Myah girl.--Daddy.

Second: Carter Boy. You sure are a cute little squirt. You make me feel like a true daddy when you come and snuggle with me. I love that so much. It's so much fun to see you grow into a big little boy. And the imagination that you have. I love it! Don't ever let it go away. You are such a sweet and caring little boy. I will always love that squinty little heartmelting smile of yours. Remember--try not to smile!! I bet you can't. I love you Carter--Daddy

Third: Camdoni. You are growing up lighting fast. I love how much fun we have together. I have a great time playing the wii together and throwing the football around or shooting hoops together. I love spending time with you. I don't get enough of it! You are a very special boy. You are such a fun kid. You will always remind me of how to be a kid. I look forward to watch you grow into a fine young man. Don't ever forget that you are Daddy's first boy. You will always be very close to my heart! I love you Camden--Daddy

And last, but certainly not least: Joanna, my first and forever true love. Wow, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are an amazing woman. I can't believe how much more beautiful you get every day! I look at myself and question how I got to be so lucky to have you, my true valentine always and forever! I certainly am a lucky man. You are my best friend. You will always keep my heart pumping forever and ever. You are my inspiration, the love of my life and the most exciting part of my every day. You have a way of making me smile in any situation. In fact, even when I try not to smile, I just can't hold it back! You are not only beautiful, but you are a very hot, attractive and sexy wife. Joanna, I can never thank you enough for saying yes that day almost 10 years ago. You have made me a better person than I could or I would have ever been able to do on my own. Thank you. Thank you for being you. I will never let go of you. You are my valentine! LYAAF--Darin

The star spangled banner

First graders get to put on an American program sometime this spring. Camden has been practicing......pretty funny.....enjoy!

The funniest part....after we recorded this he asked me if I would please put it on our blog...funny boy!

Christmas.....it's about time!

Christmas time.....the month of Dec.....where did it go. It seems it went as quickly as it came! I've been meaning to blog about it for a while now, but just couldn't get myself to sort through all of the pictures and take the time to write about it. I decided now is as good of time as any to finally get it done! So here are my pictures in raw form...I didn't have the energy to do any edits, but most of them are of my kids and they don't really need any edits anyway! :)
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25 days of Christmas
This year I decided I wanted to make the Christmas season a little more special. So starting on Dec. 1 we opened an envelope each day. Inside was something fun to do that day. My goal was to document and take pictures of each days event.....but it became a little more work than I had planned so even though we did do something each day, only a few of them were documented. It turned out to be a fun tradition....one I think I will try to repeat each year!

One of the days.....decorating the Christmas tree. I let loose a little this year and let the boys have at decorating the tree. They loved it and Camden just stared at it for days telling me how beautiful he thought it looked!

One of the days we went Christmas tree shopping for tree #2. We had an artificial tree upstairs and a real tree downstairs. The boys had fun decorating them both....I just didn't get pictures of tree #2.


One of the days I thought it would be fun to teach the boys how to make homemade bread. It was a fun experience. They were amazed watching the dough kneading. Who knew baking bread could be so entertaining.

One day our dinner was all red and green. Nothing is quite as tasty as bright red eibelskievers and green eggs!

And of course one night had to include a visit to see the mall Santa. Camden and Carter had fun although they seemed awfully nervous. Myah would have absolutely NOTHING to do with it!

Some of our other activities included: Sub for santa, making neighborhood treats, sleeping by the Christmas tree, new pajamas, a night of Polor Express and Hot Chocolate, Decorating sugar cookies, writing Christmas letters, making paper snowflakes, learning about the nativity story and much more! I love Christmas time!


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Carter's Preschool Program

Carter's school put on a cute little Christmas program. He looked pretty cute in the crazy little hat of his. He is not bashful at all and sometimes has a hard time singing cause he wants to be waving and saying hello to me! What a cute little stink he is!

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Christmas morning

I don't have any pictures from Christmas Eve. I left my camera home :(. I am suppose to get copies of my mom's but haven't yet. We spent Christmas eve at my parents house eating a yummy dinner of BBQ chicken, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls and veggies and as always creme brulee for desert. Afterwards we opened presents and just enjoyed being together. It was a fun night! We came home and prepared for Santa to visit us. Darin's mom came and spent the night and was able to enjoy Christmas morning with us! It was great. Here are just a few pictures of the morning. I have more but they are on my NEW CAMERA!!!!!! Yeah.....Santa truly delivered for me this year. I still need to learn how to use it, but I am getting anxious to get a better grip on how to use all of the features. So until later here are my last pictures using my trusty fuji film.....it has been a great 6 years!

My little boy is growing up. He wanted and ipod for christmas this year. He had to settle for a Coby....but it's an ipod to him! As you can tell, he was pretty excited!

He also got a new stereo for his room. He did get some toys though. He still wanted a couple of lightning McQueen cars and got his first webkinz that he lovingly named Spikey.We loved having Oma with us!

Carter on the other hand is still very much a little boy. He got a crane, dump truck and tow truck. He was in heaven!Myah was a little dazed by the whole thing. She wasn't quite sure what to think about everything. It was finally the year to give her some girl toys. Living in a family with all boys she has seen her fair share of cars, trucks and balls. She definitely has some pink around the house now!

It was a great Christmas. After presents and a morning of playing we were off to Darin's mom's to celebrate the day with Dan and Allison and their kids. Hopefully I will get pictures of that on here soon! We are so thankful to have wonderful family and friends to share the holidays with and are especially grateful for a loving Savior who has put forth a plan for us to spend eternity together. I love the spirit of Christmas and hope we can make it last all year long!