Omniture's Carnivale!

The day after Ray's birthday, his company had their annual summer party for all employees and their families. Last year, they rented out Seven Peaks water park for the day and this year the theme was Carnivale and they rented out Thanksgiving Point and had lot of blow-up slides / obstacle courses for the kids as well as a ferris wheel and another dizzy ride for the kids and adults. They also had cotton candy, snow cones, face painting, games and a cool cow tractor ride as well as a hamburger / hot dog dinner for everyone. Jackson and I ducked out a little early but Ray and Kaden stayed until after dark and listened to the band and watched the fireworks display.

My company just had their annual summer party up at the Park City Resort and we all got to ride the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster which was a blast but we forgot to take the camera so no pictures of that, maybe next year.

Happy 30th Birthday, Babe!

Ray and I are the same age again. Ray's 30th birthday was on August 1st (and I'm just barely getting around to posting about it but at least I'm still in the same month!) Having Ray's birthday on August 1st takes some real planning because if I wait to look at birthday when I turn the calendar on the 1st of the month, I've already blown it! Anyway, I planned ahead this year and I know that Ray likes ice cream so I planned to get him an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Does anyone have any idea how many kinds of ice cream cakes you can choose from? I finally had to break down and ask him and he wanted one that wasn't on their website...a fudge nut round cake with Pralines n' cream ice cream. For his birthday, I splurged a little bit and got him tickets to go see Cold Play in November. I asked him (after I'd already bought the tickets) if he could go see anyone in concert, what concert would he want to go to. He said he couldn't think of anyone he'd want to see in concert so I was a little deflated but figured we could sell them on e-bay if he didn't want to go but when he got the tickets, he was excited since it's one of his favorite bands. We had a great day...Ray took the day before his birthday and the day of his birthday off work. We took the kids to daycare and spent the day before his birthday just the two of us going to a movie (Dark Knight) and a nice lunch and we spend his birthday with the boys and went swimming and had a nice family day. Here's 5 things I love about my sweetie:

1. He always kisses me goodnight
2. He is very supportive of me and all that I try to accomplish
3. He is a super dad and the boys scream in delight when he walks in the door
4. He helps around the house and does ANYTHING I ask him to do (even toilets and cleaning the cat litter).
5. He does everything in his power to reassure me on a daily basis that me and the boys are the most important people in his life.

Thank you for being such a great husband and an amazing dad...we love you and are so glad you were born...you are such an important part of our family! I love you babe!

Children's Museum

We finally made it to the Children's Museum. What's funny is we visited the one in Seattle before we visited the one in Salt Lake City and we were living in Salt Lake City at the time. What is it about where you live that you never go do all the things you could and then when you move away, you vacation and go do the things you didn't do while you lived there. Does anyone else do this or are we just really lame? Anyway, enjoy the pictures of our visit to the Children's Museum...next time we'll go on a weekday...we went on a Saturday in the middle of summer so needless to say, it was a madhouse! (The last picture is not from the Children's Museum, just a cute picture of fireman Jackson).

Hot Summer Dayz!

Summer is definitely here in Utah and after going up to Seattle, it feels even hotter! We're pretty much in the 90's every day and I just realized we really kind of live in a desert, no wonder my flowers are burning up and not to mention, parts of the lawn. But, it does allow for a lot of water fun so I've been trying to get the pool and slip and slide out whenever possible. If I can get the pool out and filled up in the morning, the water is usually just right in the late afternoon. Here's some pictures of our pool fun.

Jackson loves having his little shovel and throwing the water at me.

You probably can't see it but his sucker has a funny looking mouth on the other side so when he sucks it, he looks like he's got hillbilly teeth but I couldn't get a good shot of him with it in his mouth.

Rain, Rain Go Away...Wait! Come Back!

Well, as any of you out there know (at least those of you that still check our blog), it's been quite a while since I posted. I'm not going to blame it on anything other than pure laziness. But, hopefully this new post will catch up for the last couple of months. I think my last post was just after Mother's day. Just after Memorial Day weekend, we took a family trip and went back up to the Emerald City (Seattle for those of you that don't know) and we had a surprisingly great time. I really don't get too excited about traveling with small children so I was really not looking forward to the trip with Jackson, especially since he really doesn't sleep anywhere but his crib. But, we forged ahead...pack n' play, car seats, diaper bag, bags, and all. Even though we lived there, we did the tourist thing and stayed in Seattle for a couple of days and then spent the rest of our time up there with Ray's family. Kaden was so easy to travel with and had a great time. Despite my hesitations and expectations, Jackson was great...just as long as we got him his naps! Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Jackson's idea of "helping" mom pack for the boys.

Mom and Kaden in front of the fountain on our way back from the Seattle Aquarium

"Catch of the Day"

Our little jellyfish

Kaden enjoying the rides at the Seattle Center

Captain Ivar's junior diver

At the Seattle Aquarium sitting on the ancient otter

Two of my favorite boys

Family picture at grandma & grandpa's house on Lake Morton

The fish grandma & grandpa caught that morning in the lake

Grandma & Grandpa Balls

So that was our trip in a nutshell. Ray and Kaden are going back up in August for a family reunion at his parent's house on Lake Morton but Jackson and I will stay home and maybe hit the family reunion next year. I'm a little (okay a lot) nervous to let them go without me but I'm sure they will be fine and travel safely. Kaden is so excited to go back up and swim in the lake and go down the slide on grandma & grandpa's floating dock.

Catch Up!

Well, I know I've been a slacker blogger but it's time to finally catch up. So, since the last (real) posting for Kaden's birthday back around March 17th, we've had Easter, Jackson learned to walk, Kaden learned to ride a two-wheeler, and Mother's Day. So, I'll take each one and expand a bit.

First, we had Easter. Since Easter was one week after Kaden's birthday, we really tried to keep it low key (yeah, right) so that we would avoid Kaden getting spoiled...I think it partially worked. But needless to say, Kaden had quite the two weeks with presents galore. We did talk about the true meaning of Easter though but I'm afraid he focused more on the Easter bunny than Jesus so we need to do better with that next year. With so much focus on his birthday, it seemed like Easter was here before we knew it. I hope Easter doesn't fall in March EVER AGAIN!

So, after Easter, things were really hectic with both my work and Ray's work and just life in general, as well as trying to get our basement finished (yes, we're STILL working on it!) It's really hard not to compare your kids and I know that you're not supposed to, each one is an individual and each one learns and progresses at his/her own pace. But, since Jackson was just getting ready to turn 15 months on May 23rd and he had really shown absolutely NO interest in walking (whenever we'd try to walk with him, he'd go straight to his knees and crawl), and Kaden was walking by his first birthday, we were getting a little worried but low and behold, on Thursday, April 17th, I went to pick up the boys at Debbie's house (our daycare provider) and Jackson took 4 or 5 steps to me. Whew! What a relief. Now he's walking all over and I'm so glad because we can go outside now and he's really content to just toodle around the house, he thinks he's pretty cool now that he's walking like big brother.

Now that he's walking, he's tackling other things like climbing into and on top of things...

Yes, in and out of the laundry basket...glad it was clean clothes inside.

A week or so after Jackson's big breakthrough, I went to pick up the boys at Debbie's house again and when I got there, she told me to come outside because Kaden had something he wanted me to see. So I go outside and there he is in his helmet riding a bike with only two wheels! No training wheels, just riding around in circles and the look on his face was priceless, you could just tell he was SOOOOO incredibly proud of himself and even more proud of showing me what he'd accomplished. I was so proud of him riding his new bike with training wheels and here he was, less than two months later riding without training wheels. But, we've had quite a few spills and some pretty nasty scrapes, but he's still in one piece and riding every chance he gets.

So, last but not least, today is Mother's Day. Yesterday, Ray surprised me with a diamond pendant and matching earrings and Kaden and Jackson gave me a pillow (see below) that they made at Debbie's house. Kaden also took me on a date to see Speed Racer (probably more my idea than his) but it was fun to go...just me and him.

Today was great also, the boys let me sleep in and made breakfast for me. Although the primary kids went up to sing during Sacrament meeting, Kaden was a little too shy to go up. But, I'm sure he'll have plenty more chances in the years to come. Kade has the best Sunbeam teachers, Cal and Suzy, who are not only great teachers, but they are some of the few close friends we have in the ward. When he came home from class, he brought the two items below for Mother's Day also.

In case you can't quite read it, it says, "Mom, I will grow to be what I am. And I will be the best Man I can be. Because you were my MOTHER. Love, Kaden"

But, no matter what gifts I got, the best Mother's Day gifts I've ever received will always be...

I am so grateful for my boys, and even though I'm not the perfect mom, they love me unconditionally despite my weaknesses. The love between moms and their kids is AMAZING and beyond explanation. Even on my rough days, when I think the boys MUST be just waiting for dad to come home because mom is crazy, they still want to be with me...they teach me so much.

You Know You Live in Utah When....

1. The ice cream truck that comes through your neighborhood plays church hymns instead of children's songs.
2. One of the callings in the Relief Society is "Birthday Specialist" (the person in charge of keeping track of sisters' birthdays and getting them on the monthly newsletter).
3. The person in front of you in line at the customer service counter in Wal-Mart is a young VERY PREGNANT polygamist "sister wife".
4. One of the T-shirts on the Wal-Mart discount rack says "I'm a Member of the High Priest Golf Association"
5. The church you actually attend is not the church closest to your home.
6. One of the first questions you get asked after accepting a new job is whether or not you're LDS.
7. One of your co-workers is named Russell M. Nelson, Jr.
8. Every other billboard along I-15 is a new mormon movie that will be released soon.
9. The high council representative for your ward has starred in both Mobsters and Mormons and Singles Ward.
10. The local news reports daily on some aspect of the LDS church (negative or positive).

We just started noticing all these crazy things that only happen in Utah and thought we'd share. I promise to post more later with pics...it's been VERY hectic here the last while. Stay tuned....

Happy Birthday Kaden!

Kaden is now officially 4 years old. We had his birthday party on Saturday with his cousins and some of his friends from the ward. We had it at Gymcats and the kids got to swing on the rope and fall into the foam pit, jump on the trampoline, swing on the bars and rings, jump in the bounce house, and run all over the place. Moms and dads got to join but mostly the kids got to run around and get all their energy out. We did presents and cake there too so when it was all over, we just had to grab the kids and go and didn't have to worry about any of the mess. IT WAS GREAT! I think the kids had a great time but as easy as it sounds, it was still a lot of work to get ready for it. Invitations, cake, goodie bags, RSVPs, presents, etc. But, seeing the kids have so much fun...it was well worth it.

I loved my friend Sarah's collage of Kennedy's pictures from birth to age 4 so I'm going to do the same. It's amazing to see pictures next to each other and realize just how much Kaden has grown up. I can't believe he will be 5 on his next birthday and then off to kindergarten and then I have a feeling that at that point, time is going to fly even faster than it already has. We had a great day and I'm so lucky to have such a sweet little 4 year old. Since this blog posting is dedicted to my sweet Kaden, I'll share some of the things I love about him:

1. He is the BEST big brother...he loves Jackson so much and has never even had one second of anger or annoyance toward him, just pure big brother love.
2. He is extremely forgiving of his parents and is so quick to hug us and tell us he loves us even when we're not the easiest people to love at that particular moment.
3. He is kind to others and people love to be around him.
4. He has so much confidence in himself...he can try anything and talk to anyone.
5. He has a smile that just melts my heart and reminds me what is really important.

Enjoy the collage of pictures of our sweet Kaden over the last 4 years. We love you sweet boy.

WE LOVE YOU KADEN!

Ugggg....Family Pictures

We were much overdue for family pictures, especially pictures of the boys since Jackson turned 1 at the end of January and Kaden will turn 4 in a couple of weeks so it was time to get all done up and head to Kiddie Kandids. All I can say is I'm so glad they allow appointments now and it actually went very smoothly. Since we hadn't had a family picture since Jackson was about 3 months old, Ray and I decided to join the fun too. All I can say is I'm glad it's over, the new pictures are on the wall, and we're covered for quite a while. Anyone else get extremely uptight about family pictures or am I the only one. Well, below are the fruits of our labor on Saturday. I know they're hard to see but I'll post bigger ones when we get them.

Monster Trucks!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, most of you have probably given up on us. But, I finally found some time on a quiet Sunday morning. Just to catch you up, Kaden and I went to the Monster Jam monster truck show at the Energy Solutions Arena a few weeks ago while dad stayed home with Jackson. It was fun, we got pit passes and went down on the floor before the show to get autographs from the drivers and up close looks at the HUGE trucks. Kaden went last year with dad but wasn't as into it this year so I'm not sure if we'll go next year or not. I thought it might be a yearly tradition with my sister's kids but not so sure now. Oh, the fun of having boys...enjoy!

This is Kaden with cousin, Kasen, in front of Arachnaphobia

Kaden didn't want many pictures in front of the actual monster trucks but really liked the beat up cars that the monster trucks were going to crush.

Kaden getting his shirt signed by the Monster Trakker (Maverik) monster truck driver...doesn't he look totally freaked out and ready to dash?

Another picture in front of the beat up cars

A picture of the pit party from our seats.