Fingers, Toes, and Talking

The Half-Sleepover

My sister and her hubby went to the Eagles concert last weekend and we got to babysit the girls. They were so excited to come over and have a half-sleepover with the boys. They called it a half sleepover because Amy and Scott came to get them in the middle of the night.

We traded them babysitting for this weekend and we went to see Angels and Demons - which we enjoyed, but that is another post. The trading babysitting thing is one of our better ideas as parents. We love having the cousins over and they had a blast. Right before we put the kiddos to bed, they lined up on the loveseat with their stuffed friends.

Lexi and Her Pals

One of my Laurels is leaving us to go live in the fabulous Bay Area where her dad just got a job. So, she asked me to take some photos of her with her friends, Alee and Kaylie. We had a ball at Thanksgiving Point, in the "free" areas. Here are a few of my faves.

Mr. Giggles

Whenever I pull out the camera, Harry gets into the action. After I took Rocco's pictures, he sat on this rock and just started giggling at himself.

How Cute is this Kid?

My inlaws' super-fun neighbors have a little chunka hunk of their own and for his momma's first mother's day, I offered to shoot a few shots of the little man. He is eight months old, a whopping 23 lbs., and just too yummy for words. The last one is just a quick snapshot of the two babies. Z had just woken up, so he wasn't so animated.

Happy Mother's Day!

My Chunky Hunk

I Just realized I never did a four month post for the chunky hunk in my life, so here we are at four and a half. He's giggling, rolling, "talking" and getting more rolls everyday!

8 Years Together

Happy anniversary Amy and Scott! Congrats on eight great years! We love ya!

Tiera's First Haircut

We took our little girl to PetSmart for her first schnauzer haircut. They did a great job and it was very reasonably priced. She looks so grown up and yes, that is a pink heart tag- it even says "princess." The boys picked it out for her and I managed to find time to be-dazzle her pink camouflage collar with some little jewels. Spoiled.

Tulip Festival

We went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point last week. It's one of my favorite events each year there. The kids were very cute and Amy and I snapped our little photo hearts out. We enjoyed a delicious sundae at the end of the day thanks to Grandma. What a fun day!

Introducing Our Little Girl

I still have so much to catch up on, but here's our sweet little girl - Tiera Jasmine Butterball. (Pronounced TEE-ra YAZ-meen-a) Butterball is what the birth parents' owners called her since she was the fattest of the litter.

We've had her a week now and she is doing well on the potty training, getting used to the boys and their moods of either playing with her or completely ignoring and/or running away from her. She hangs out with Jon every second he is home. She's nine weeks old and Jon's sister Emily and her hubby Troy adopted her brother Garren. As a kid growing up with miniature schnauzers, it's really fun having four in the family now, including Jenny's Hans & Greta, Garren and our little Tyra. Yep, the German breed gets German names. No shedding, no slobber, and little poop. That's the best kinda dog!

St. George Sand Dunes

I'll catch up on the details, but wanted to just post a few pictures quickly today...the boys had a BLAST in St. George and a HUGE thanks to our neighbor and friend, Preston, for letting us stay at his fantastic house and showing us around the area.

St. George and Our Little Girl

We went to St. George last week and I will be posting pictures soon...here's a preview of another post coming soon...

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

While preparing my lesson for Young Women today, I ran across this and needed to share it. It's a beautiful testimony of our Savior.

April SnowDay

It hasn't really been the Spring Break we were planning on, but we had lots and lots of fun playing today at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the snow.

My 10-Day Diet

I've had a few people ask me for this, so I thought I would go ahead and post it. Click on it to enlarge it and you can just print it out if you want. Jon lost eight pounds the first time we did this - and I lost six, which is a HUGE win for me considering I never lose weight while breastfeeding. We're gearing ourselves up to do it again after Spring Break.

Commando

Harry: This pull-up is itchy. (still in the one he slept in)

Mom: Ok bud, there are some Nemo underwear over there, go grab 'em and I'll help you put 'em on.

Harry: No it's ok....I want to go commando.

Guess that means a little less laundry for me!

Easter Part II

Here are a couple more shots from our Easter festivites. We did a little hunt with the cousins and had a delicious dinner and too many yummy desserts. On the way out, my sis and I decided to try to capture the kiddos all together in their Easter duds.

They started on the hammock and then fell off - these are some of my favorites.

Then, the bench - can you tell they were full of sugar? This is the closest I got to a "nice" shot of all of them.

And to me, this is my money shot. Cuties.

Missing Loved Ones...

Twelve years ago today, I lost one of my best friends ever. For those of you who read my sister's blog - she did a post about this yesterday and you may wonder why I am a day late. I was on my mission in Lithuania in April 1997 and in a different time zone, therefore April 15th has always had a different meaning than to the rest of my family - not just Tax Day. As Doc might have said, "a day late and a dollar short!"

My Doc-ee was such an awesome man, and everyone who remembers him knows he was always a "ball of fire." One of my fondest memories is whenever I would get home from a date early, or didn't feel like going out, I would head over to Doc and Grandma's and he would cook up a steak for me and we would play pinochle for hours. Another favorite is one time he wasn't able to come to my softball game at Snow College, while I was playing for UV, and he was on my mom's cell phone right before I hit. He said, "Hit a homer for me," or something like that, and sure enough, I hit that homer, with him on the phone - and he said he heard the crack of the bat!

The beautiful image above is the headstone my mom and uncle designed for their parents. Grandma left us on New Year's Day 2000 - she said on her way out she just wasn't Y2K compliant. She was a great lady too, and made lunches for all her grandkids everyday for years and years. Then Doc would pick us up and take use to school. They really did spoil us! I miss 'em and I can't wait to see them both again.

This time of year, with Easter just behind us, I turn to the Gospel and think of all the wonderful things in store for us. I am grateful for the knowledge we have that families are forever.

Bigger Pictures....

I've been trying to figure out how to get bigger pictures on my blog and I finally did it! These are a couple oldies but goodies....just for fun!

Easter Part I

We had a very nice Easter yesterday. We went to church first thing in the morning, which I actually prefer to the gifts and candy aspects of the holiday. The boys were so excited to see the Easter Bunny had come to the house during church. They quicky found their baskets and then we went outside for a little plastic egg hunt. They even stopped to let me snap a couple quick photos of them in their cute new spring outfits courtesy of Grandma Lorelie.

Harry was the champ of the egg hunt, much to our surprise. He gathered all 21 of his eggs and some of Luke's in no time!

The boys got Webkinz in their Easter baskets and Luke instantly fell in love with his new loepard, he lovingly named "Jack the Jaguar."

Harry's is a chicken he named Cluck. And he quickly built this nest for him out of the grass from Z's basket.

Part II is on its way. Stay tuned...