Happy Birthday Braden!

Braden is 9 years old today!

These are a few pics from his party on Saturday. The boys had pizza and then Aaron took them all to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

L-R: Kadin, Austin K.

Braden, Rowan, Austin C.

Austin K- He is Mr. Personality, let me tell ya! He has an appreciation for Run DMC so I like the kid.

photo album for Linda

Just wanted to share a little book I made for my aunt Linda's birthday. It's a little 6x6 album so she can put pictures of her grandkids inside and Uncle Mike can enjoy it too:) Hope they like it...

The "d" on the front was cut by the Cricut. I cut 4 of them and glued them together. It makes it look like chipboard, I learned this little trick from 2peas.

On the last page, I used one of my favorite stamps. It says: "Life is a great bundle of little things." so true...

I love making mini albums, they're a lot of fun. Just wanted to share it with you in case you're looking for an idea!

some of my current faves

I was going through some of my pictures that I took over the summer. These are some of my favorites. The one with Heston and the banana makes me laugh. He loves bananas and it shows!

First day of school

We officially have a 4th and a 1st grader now. The house is really quiet...Heston doesn't know what to do. It'll be a fun year...busy but fun.

My Grandma goes in for surgery tomorrow. She has a tumor on her colon. The tests came back negative for cancer so we are all hoping and praying it goes well. They have to take part of her colon out too so she'll be in the hospital for a few days. She's 81 and has always been healthy...I think she will do great. She is one of my closest and dearest friends. If you would pray for her, I would appreciate it so much! Thanks!

Thursday

What's one of the worst things that could happen in the summer here in AZ? If you guessed the air conditioner going out, you're right. We have 2 a/c units and the one that's in our kitchen went out a couple of days ago. The guys are out replacing right now...I can't tell you how happy I am!

2 days and counting for the release of "Breaking Dawn"! I was really hoping the book would have been released a few weeks ago while I was on vacation and had some time to sit and read. I love these books but I'm the most non-productive person when I'm reading them. I saw this article on USA Today about Stephanie Meyer.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-07-30-stephenie-meyer-main_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Hang on to your hats folks...

because this will be a long post. I took around 300 pictures. Don't worry, I won't post them all. We had a great month in Utah. We did so many fun things and got to visit lots of family and friends. I'll edit some and post them on Flickr when I get around to it.

The kids at the lake in Vernal. My brother Wes has a boat and he pulls this thing behind it. It was a blast. Good thing we were on a lake because I think I may have peed because I was laughing so hard.

This was at our Hammond party at my sis-in-law Alisha's house in West Jordan. The grandkids broke a pinata.

They are all growing up so fast! There are 18 grandkids on Aaron's side...13 boys and 5 girls. This is Paige, Whitney and Jessica

On the way home...13 hour car ride...

This is Kaia. (my cousin Jamon's little girl) I told her to give me her Cowboy princess wave...love the belt buckle. Aaron took the kids camping and my parents and I went out to SL for a family reunion. We drove out on the wrong day! So we went to Temple Square and walked around.Heston and Aaron taking a ride on Dad's tractor. Wes finally proposed to his girlfriend Ricci (hence the Hallelujah cake). They're getting married in October.Ma with the kids. I had to include a picture of Bzzy, the cat who used one of his 9 lives while we were in Vernal. Dad and Heston at the Rodeo

I could not get this kid away from the tractorPaige lost her 1st tooth This is the green dinosaur that greets you as you come into Vernal. The city has started to dress him up for all occasions (he's got his rodeo duds on) Hearing my dad go on a rant about how "the tax payers money is being spent on dressing dinosaurs" or "pretty soon that dinosaur is going to spawn little fellers" is a hoot!







My hometownPaige and Hunter (Ricci's daughter)at the rodeo. The shirts are a little cheesy but you can get away with that at the rodeo.Braden and Gavin (Ricci's son) at the rodeo. This picture cracks me up! Braden's shirt says "8 seconds to glory". I hope I haven't scarred my child. Gavin's expression is priceless. Howdy Pardner! at the Rodeo

11 years

Today is our wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married for 11 years...it makes me feel old. Happy Anniversary Aaron! love you!
I turned 33 on Monday. It was a rough one for me. I don't know why but it was. It's really pointless to get all wrapped up in how old you're getting. It happens to all of us and there's not a dang thing we can do about it.
I'm very blessed and I still have my teeth so I'm doing alright.

My rental car

When I come to Vernal for my visits, I usually just drive my parent's car. Mom got a new car and she's been driving a borrowed one so I needed something to drive. Grandma came to the rescue and is letting me borrow her car. (Thanks Grandma!) It's a 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Get this...30 year old car and it has 28,000 miles on it. (Needless to say, Grandma doesn't drive much)

Driving around in this car makes you appreciate modern conveniences like FM radio, adjustable seats and over-the-shoulder seat belts. It does have AC but it's not working. I had to laugh when the kids asked me, "What's that knob on the door?" to which I replied "That's how you roll down the window."

Happy Birthday Aaron

It's birthday and anniversary season for our family!!

I just wanted to wish my husband a Happy 34th Birthday. Love you!

Happy Birthday Paige!!!

Just wanted to wish our little Paigey a Happy 6th Birthday! We're having a Tinkerbell party at the splash park tonight and she's so excited.

Greetings from Vernal ,Utah

We're having a nice little visit here in Utah. I hope to post some pictures soon.

We had an interesting day on Tuesday. Dad and Braden were driving around the neighborhood and they noticed a cat that was laying on the side of the road. The cat was black and white and it looked just like my parents cat named Bzzy. Dad came back home and he and I looked everywhere for Bzzy and couldn't find him. So Dad went back to see if the cat was Bzzy and he brought it back home. He came in and said that Bzzy had been run over. Bzzy is my Mom's favorite cat. He's been in the family for 14 years. Wes found him when he was a kitten and he survived lukemia. We knew Mom was going to take the news pretty hard.
She came home and he told her, she was devestated. Dad and Braden buried the cat and made a headstone.
Later that night while Mom and Dad were out in the garden, guess who walked out of the garage?
Bzzy.
My dad buried the wrong cat! We all went from being sad to being so relieved and happy. It was crazy! Aaron was on the phone with Braden when Bzzy came out of the garage. Braden told him, "Bzzy is back from the dead!"
Happy ending to the story.

I hope to post some pictures soon...coming here is like going to a different country. My Vernal accent is starting to creep back...dang it!