Tim turns 10!

Monday was Tim's 10th birthday! First of all, I cannot believe that I have a 10 year old! Time is going by way too fast for me. Tim had quite the busy weekend. Friday night, his friend Luc Douglas, spent the night. The boys stayed up to 11 playing gamecube and watching tv. Saturday, Cory took Tim and Luc up to the University of Utah for Supercross. They left the house around 12 and didn't get home til midnight. Before the racing at 7pm, anyone with a ticket can go and watch the pros practice, get autographs, sit on motorcycles, etc. I was shocked that the guys stayed up at "that red place" all day!! They survived the wind, rain and cold temps. True supercross fans!! This is Tim and Luc in front of the track. Cory said some of the jumps were insane! Don't worry, you won't catch him on anything like that!! For those of you who follow supercross, "Bubba" won the race! He is an amazing rider, although I like Chad Reed much better! After the race, Tim ran down to shake hands with Bubba. Cory didn't know where Tim was until he snapped this picture of Bubba, in the blue hat on the left, leaving and spotted Tim in the picture. Cory was in total shock that Tim got down there so fast and got to shake Bubba's hand! Monday, we celebrated Tim's birthday at home with a family party. Tim wanted fish for his birthday, so I baked some Tilapia and made rice for his birthday dinner. It was very filling! We had chocolate cupcakes for dessert. Here's Tim with his cupcakes and presents. Notice the 10 candle on top? I had to cut into the cupcake to get the candles to stay put. They were way too heavy for one little cupcake! Tim got the "Fablehaven" books, a lego set (he LOVES legos), a "cool" helmet, and a new bike. Here is Tim opening his lego set!We hid the bike in the back of our truck all evening. After Tim finished opening presents, Cory asked Tim if he could get something out of the back of the truck. Tim went out the garage and I quickly ran out the front door to watch Tim's face as he got into the truck. He pulled the tailgate down and just stared. He didn't know what to think. Then, after awhile, he got all excited and couldn't believe that he had a new bike. I had to get him a bike with blue on it because he is such a BYU freak. Good thing I found one because the red one I had my eyes on would have put Tim into major depression!
I know the bike is a little big for Tim, but he will grow into it sooner than all you think. Besides, his other bike was trashed. I dumped it when the dumpsters were in the neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. I told him that I had taken his bike to a shop to get it fixed. He and a friend were dumpster diving and found it. Darn boys! We are so blessed to have Tim in our family. He is such a fun kid and a great big brother, at times! We love him so much!

Happy 8th Birthday!

Sunday, the 19th was Mak's 8th Birthday! Friday night, I took her and her friend, Haylee Douglas, to see the new Zac Efron movie, 17 Again! It was a cute movie. A little too grown up for 8 year olds though. But Zac was in it!! He is such a cutie!! Haylee got to spend the night. The girls stayed up to 11:30 drawing, talking "Twilight" and reading "New Moon." Here are Haylee and Mak Friday night in Mak's new room.Saturday, the girls were together all day. They jumped on the tramp, played "Twilight" and went to a softball game and a baseball game. Mak didn't get home til 8:30 that night. Here are Mak and Haylee on the tramp.Sunday, after church we had a family celebration for Mak's birthday. Her grandma and great grandma came over for the party. Mak wanted waffles with strawberries and whip cream for her birthday dinner, so we ate breakfast for dinner. It was really good. Then we opened presents. Mak got some books, Twilight stuff, earrings, and tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert in May. She was so excited! After opening presents, we had blue cupcakes and ice-cream. Here are some pictures from the party!Happy 8th Birthday Makayla!! We love you.

A New Room

My little Makayla is turning 8 this Sunday! I cannot believe that she is going to be 8. Where did the time go? I decided to redo her room for this big birthday. So, Wednesday, after getting all the kids to school, my mom and I went to work. Here are some pictures of what her room looked like before:Not too impressive is it? Just stuff everywhere. What a mess!! All the posters came down, the furniture was pulled away from the walls and everything got a good cleaning! We even touched up the furniture with white paint. Mak loves to doodle on everything! Here is what the room looked like around noon:After cleaning and putting the furniture back, it was time to bring in the "new" bedding and decorations. My aunt gave me a bedding set that she wasn't using anymore. It is perfect for Mak. Her favorite color is blue and this bedding has a lot of blue in it, plus some other colors. I was able to use a lot of things from her "old" room, I just gave them a face lift and a new place in the room. After working all day, the room was finished around 2! Here it is:Mak was so excited when she came home from school! Her face lit up when she walked in the room and saw all the blue. The first thing she noticed was the "Twilight" books on her book shelf. I figured that they belonged in her room rather than the office because she is such a "Twilight" freak these days. Notice that I kept her posters? She would have been so upset if I had gotten rid of those. She loves her room now! She likes to read in it and actually goes to bed at a reasonable time now. Hooray for me!

Easter 2009

Happy Easter! We hope you all had an enjoyable Easter Weekend. Ours was really uneventful. The weather was such that we didn't go out camping. It rained, the wind blew and the temps were on the cool side. So, we stayed home to avoid another bad camping experience! We did BBQ with some friends Friday night and the kids played outside between rain showers on Saturday. Sunday, the kids woke up to find new church clothes and baskets full of goodies. They were so wound up for church. Here are the kids just before we went to church. Good lookin' bunch of kids, don't you think?My Mom invited us to her place for Easter Dinner! We ate ham with pineapple, potatoes, green beans, jello and olives. For dessert, we had ice-box cake with whip cream and a cherry on top. WOW! Everything was so good!! And we were together as a family. Here, the kids are getting into more candy! It was a long night getting the kids to bed after their sugar rush!

The Cave

Okay, so Copper has moved out of his kennel at night, and now sleeps with Cory and I. At first, he liked sleeping on top of the covers at our feet. That has changed recently. Below is a picture of our headboard. Notice that it has four compartments: two big ones on the sides, and two smaller ones on top of each other down the middle.
Now take at look at where Copper likes to sleep. In the bottom, middle compartment. Sometimes he sleeps curled up in a ball all the way in "the cave."
Other times he sleeps with his head out, resting on the mattress!
For the most part, he sleeps there every night, through the entire night. And he has no accidents. I tell ya, it was easier to house train him than my kids! And when we tell him its time to go to bed and to get into the cave, he goes! How cute is that?

We're so glad when Daddy is home!

Mak, Katie, Kelli, Tim and Cory!

It is hard for me to remember the last time Cory was home for so long. I think it was last December around Christmas time that we (the family) got to see Cory every day of the week. He was suppose to be in Alaska all this week. But due to the volcano that erupted a while back and all the ash in the sky, his flight was canceled Sunday night! Monday morning, when we learned that flights to Alaska were still being canceled and that the earliest he could get out would be Thursday, he canceled his trip altogether. Hurray for the family! He has been home every night to help me put the kids to bed, namely the twins, and we have had dinner has a family this whole week!! Monday night, he took Tim and Mak to the Jazz game, the best one this week, and on Tuesday, he made his delicious chocolate chip cookies with Kelli and Katie. Wednesday, we ran some errands together and he put fertilizer on the lawn. Last night, he worked on the small 4-wheeler. Cory and I have been able to sit with each other on the couch and watch t.v. after the kids have gone to bed. Just being together without screaming kids is a treat for us. We were so lucky this week to have him home! Next week will be a different story though.