New Toys...

Yep...we got an Excursion and a trailer!!! And we are excited to go Camping! We found both on the Internet, the Excursion in California (we had it delivered) and the trailer was only 45 min away. Matt has been having fun working on both of them. It was weird to drive at first, it's so much bigger than the Mini Van!

One year older & wiser too..... happy birthday to you!

Josh is 8 years old!!! Where has the time gone! We had a B-Day Party with a couple of his friends (and brothers and sister) at Classic Fun Center...and I forgot my camera! Plus having a celebration at G-pa & G-ma's and at home. Definitely too much cake! We had him open all his presents with his new claw toy. I thought it would take longer but he was pretty dang good at it. He's an awesome big brother, very independent, and will try doing just about anything! 8 years old.....I'm getting old!

Happy Birthday Jessica!

G-ma & G-pa had a B-Day Party for her, Josh and their cousin Krew yesterday! We went up to watch Matt's little sister in Junior Miss. We stayed with my sister and she even watched our monsters so we could go. :)

Today Jess and I sang Happy Birthday many times to her, she was so funny! When we sang to her tonight, she sang with us-it was cute! I got a mini cake for her (we've had cake quite a few times in the last month) and a couple presents. I can't believe she is already 2!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a nice day! After Church we ate dinner, which Matt made...it was yummy! He got me an iPod and PINK Starbursts, they are my favorite. :) Then we had a Oreo Cake from Dairy Queen! Yes, I was spoiled!!!

Hubby Tag!

What is his name? Matt

How long have you been married? 8 years.....Our anniversary is pretty easy to remember 9/9/99

How long did you date? about 15 months

How old is he? 27....today is his Birthday! He is 4 days older than me, but 5 days if it's leap year.

Who eats more sweets? Probably me, he is more selective about what kind he'll eat. I like it all....except gummy worms! yuck! We don't buy candy very much so we don't eat much of it.

Who said I love you first? He probably did, I can't remember the details though.

Who is taller? he is - he's 5'11" & I am about 5'7''

Who can sing better? He can. He listens to a lot of music and sings along.

Who is smarter? he definitely is

Who does the laundry? mostly me, but he normally helps fold it.

Who pays the bills? both of us

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? no assigned sleeping arrangements in our bed.

Who mows the lawn? Matt normally does....but last year we got a new lawn mower so now I help out. Our old one was a push mower, our new one goes by itself...it's awesome!

Who cooks dinner? normally me, but he helps out when he can and has been helping with dishes too!!!

Who drives? he does. period. Not very often that I do...he likes to drive.

Who kissed who first? it takes two, right?

Who asked who out first? Me...Valentines Dance our Junior Year. Although he likes to rub in the fact that he noticed me first....we sat by each other in 9th grade and I don't remember.

Who proposed? he did, I knew it was coming though...we picked out my ring a few weeks earlier. Good thing he didn't change his mind!

Who has more siblings? I do. 8 kids in my family, 5 in his.

Who wears the pants? probably him

It's pretty crazy we went on our first date 10 years ago, it really doesn't seem that long ago! We have learned so much over the years and I'm really happy we have come this far. I am excited to see what comes our way in the future! You are such a hard worker and do so much for our family. You are my best friend and I am a very lucky girl! I Love You!!!

Basketball.....

 

 

 

Josh and Jaren liked playing B-Ball this year. They didn't keep score, but they tried to keep track in their head. :) They met Carlos Boozer and got free tickets to a Jazz game!

Sledding at the Park!

Vacation Pictures!

Our Vacation!

We had a great time! We played a lot but also had plenty of time to do nothing. It was nice!!!

• Friday - got everything ready...we knew we were finished packing when we couldn't fit anything else in the car! The kids got their pajama's on since it was almost 7 pm by the time we were ready to go. We got dinner and a movie to go...haha! They fell asleep about half way through, but woke up the last 20 min of our drive. It was snowing pretty good and had 4 inches of snow on the road. We actually didn't tell the kids where we were going. They thought we were going to G-ma Tauna's house! So when they saw all the snow and unfamiliar roads they thought we were lost!
  


• Saturday - We woke up late, drove around, went grocery shopping and Matt took the boys sledding. Jessica and I took a nap:)
  


• Sunday - Matt's little brother, his wife, their little boy and Matt's little sister came up. We went sledding, or tried to anyway....the snow was so deep! It was fun though! Then we made dinner and hung out.
  


• Monday - We ate lunch at O'Rourkes and ate a really good, huge burger. Then stopped to see my sister who works in Driggs. Matt found the OUTDOOR Hot Tub. I honestly didn't think the kids would like it at all. But they did! We didn't go until later, it was dark, snowing, cold, but once we got in no one cared! It was really close to our Room. We wore pajama pants, boots and a coat while we walked over. The hot tub was big too, not your normal size.....and we were the only ones there when we went. We went a couple more times during the week too.
  


• Tuesday - The roads were closed, so we couldn't go to far. We ate lunch at Warbirds Cafe. It was pretty cool, they have a little museum with some airplanes. Justin picked out the one he liked and said he wanted one for Christmas!!! hahaha Then later that afternoon when they opened the roads, Matt's Dad and little sister came up. That night we went tubing at Grand Targee (Ski Resort), The hill wasn't very steep, but we still had fun!
  


• Wednesday - Matt and his sister went skiing, well she mostly snow boarded. They were so sore when they were finished. It was the first time Matt had gone skiing since he broke his back skiing......... The kids and I stayed at the Condo and played games and watched TV. Matt's little sister had to go back home.....the joys of High School...NOT!
  


• Thursday - We thought we would go to Jackson today, but ended up not going. On Tuesday our cars check engine light came on. We had it checked and they said it was a Cam Shaft posistion sensor. Matt called around to see if anyone could fix it...but no one had the part. When we called our Dealer here they had the part and could fit us in Monday. So, we chanced it hoped our car wouldn't die on us.
  


• Friday - Packed our things, check out was at 10 am. Drove around a bit before going to Rexburg. Took Jessica to my sisters house (I actually have 6 sisters & 1 brother...I'm the youngest) while the boys, Matt and I went to the Rexburg Temple Open House. Jessica can be a handful sometimes or an angel other times, you honestly never know what kind of mood she'll be in! It was so pretty and I'm glad we went. The boys were really good and thought it was cool. We went back to my sisters house and hung out for a while with her, her little boy and husband. Then went to Matt's parent's house, his little sister watched Jaren and Justin while we went out to dinner with his parent's. (My sister kept Josh and Jessica) Matt stayed the night at his parents house so he could go snow machining with his 2 younger brothers on Saturday. I went back to my sister's house for the night......
  


• Saturday - Went swimming with my sister, her husband, their little boy, my niece, my SIL, her little boy. Josh and Jaren decided to brave the diving board wearing a life jacket. At first they were being careful but by the end they were having a lot of fun! They will probably always where life jackets in deep water when they are with me....I never learned how to swim. It's on my to do list...one of these days. After swimming, I tracked my Mom and Dad down and met them at a Gas Station so I could say hi. My Dad drives a Semi and he was leaving that night. Then Matt and I met up at his parents house....hung out for a while and ate dinner with them. We left pretty late, I think we knew once we left our vacation was over...it was about 1:30 am when we got home.

We had a great time!!! It's nice to get away from all the daily things going on and spend some time together!

Don't you just love this time of year...

Justin and Jessica both had their turn with a 24 hour bug. First Jessica on Sunday night, she threw 3 times in her bed. Then Justin, same thing Tuesday night. Jaren has had a cough for a couple months now and we've all had yucky noses. Jessica had an ear infection a couple weeks ago too. When will it end!!!

Fun in the Snow!!!

Family Vacation!!!

A week from now we will be on our way to Driggs, ID . . . for a whole week! Who cares if it's not that far away and the population is only 1300. That's actually a plus! We plan on going to Jackson Hole one day, rent a snow machine another day and take the older two tubing at Grand Targhee. We're going to the Open House at the Temple where we grew up too. We'll be in a two bedroom Condo, if anyone wants to come....you're more than welcome to!

About a year and a half ago we signed up for some Vacation Club. Why, we don't know....we clearly weren't thinking! We haven't used it at all. I occasionally check their website to see what they have. Normally it's nothing good. When I last checked, I saw one to Driggs, but the week they had it for wouldn't really work. I decided I would call the next day to see if they had a different week. (When the kids are off track) So...the next day when I called them, the lady said they did have the week I wanted and that I still had a free week and all I had to pay was the $65 cleaning fee!!! I thought we were going to get it for $399. That's better than going through the Condo where I would have to pay $1050 for it. So even though signing up for the Vacation Club was not a smart idea, it worked for this. :) I guess a couple more of these and it will pay for itself.

Christmas Day!

We awoke to presents galore! Santa overspent this year....and we got more than we needed. The kids were so excited! It's fun to watch there faces light up when they open each present. (at least for now when they are still easy to get presents for!) Matt's parents, little brother and little sister came to visit and brought Christmas all over again! I was surprised it all fit in their car! I'm glad they were able to come, since it snowed the day before. It was so pretty though...not so fun if you're the one driving in it. The kids were excited to show them everything they got for Christmas! For dinner, Matt made Prime Rib....It was yummy! He really is a good cook, it's just not that often he has time to.

Pictures with Santa!

We went to the portrait studio on Saturday to have pictures with Santa! If you look close at Josh in this picture he has a little grin and he is playing with Santa's hair! Everyone was good about getting on Santa's lap except Jessica. She was so scared. She got her candy cane early to calm her down.

And . . . . they showed us a flyer with our family picture on it! I guess they thought it was good! I wonder if we're famous now!!!

Later that day we went to get a few things from the store...I actually knew Santa was going to be at Albertsons, but decided to go to the studio instead. I figured there would be a lot of people at Albertsons and a long wait...and guess what there wasn't! We got them taken again! The pictures aren't as good....but that Santa is awesome!!! Jessica was not happy, but she did wave bye when we left. :)

Keeping Busy

We are doing good! Josh and Jaren are playing Basketball twice a week. I should have asked if they could be on the same team, because Jaren's practices are on Tue/Thurs and Josh's are on Wed/Fri. The practices are only 45 min.......but by the time I get the kids ready, drive to and from, it takes a while. So we are keeping busy with that, school, and homework.

Matt is at his parents house helping take down the rest of the tree that they started a couple weekends ago. They have someone coming who owns a crane! It should be a lot easier this time around. He left this afternoon and will be home tomorrow night.

Tonight, we had to go to the Dr's office for Jaren. He has an ear infection. I gave him some Tylenol because it was hurting him.....I hate ear infections, poor kid. I called and they couldn't get us in for 2 hours. Then when we got there we waited for 1 hour! They are normally pretty good to get us back within 20 min but not today.

Family Christmas Party!

My side of the family met at my brother's house for our Christmas Party yesterday. I think it was good we had it early because everyone except one was able to come. :) That's pretty good considering the amount of people in my family. There are 8 kids in my family, one boy - seven girls, me being the youngest. Big Surprise.....my only sister who hasn't had kids yet, is expecting!!! We had a great time. We ate Chinese Haystacks and they were so good. I didn't know what they were.... so I googled it and found out! The adults played a game where we bring a gift, put them all in the middle and someone starts by opening a present. Then the next person can either choose a gift to open or take one already opened! So, I opened my own gift!!! No one took it from me so I got to keep it! I wanted one too, it was a big frying pan with a lid. :) The younger kids exchanged gifts with each other. They had fun playing with their present the rest of the time!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving! We went to Matt's parents house from the 21st - 25th. We had a nice time visiting with everybody.....Friends and Family from both Howard's Family and Tauna's. Tauna cooked and cleaned the day before....but had to work on Thanksgiving, but managed to come home for 30 minutes while everyone was there. I love family get togethers. I just wish they would last longer. It's so nice to see everyone. Thank goodness for Holidays!

Then the next two days were spent trying to remove a huge tree from the side of the house. Trying, because they weren't able to finish. Luckily no one was hurt, but one big branch fell on the neighbors house. Matt was climbing really high, I don't know how he even got up there in the first place. Pretty scary. The kids loved watching from the big window in the dining room, it was like our big screen TV!

Saturday: We had a Baby Shower for Matt's sister, Lynsey. Her and Nick live in Texas and this will be their first baby, it's a girl! Jessica won't be the only girl now!!!

Sunday: We went to my nephew's homecoming. It would be hard to be that far away in a weird place...not sure if I could do it. I guess that's why you go on missions when you're young!

More Pictures!

I'm actually surprised they even came out this good! At first Josh didn't want to smile but was fine after we said he could pick out a treat when we were finished. Jaren kept smiling funny because he was playing with his loose tooth, which was super loose and I pulled it that night...his first tooth to come out! Justin kept tugging on his jacket because it was hot and bothering his neck. Jessica didn't want anything to do with pictures....these two pictures were the only ones of her that came out good! She was playing peek-a-boo with the photographer. :) I really liked the place where we got them done at. It barely opened less than a month ago and it's about a mile away. They print their own pictures so it took 10 min to get them. We went in Saturday evening, but I went today to pick them out because the kids were . . . . . being kids! We have a drop in day care really close that Justin and Jessica have been to once before, so they went there for one hour while I went to Sadie's/picture store, and the other 2 were at school. I wish I would have picked out a shirt with more brown on it for Jaren, he kind of sticks out......

School Pictures

The boys got their school pictures back....OK I've had them for about a month. They turned out pretty good. I'm a procrastinator and waited till the last min to get Josh and Jaren a new shirt....so they came from Walmart. (Josh's favorite color is blue, Jaren's red and Justin's green) Justin's shirt is one he got this summer and it's his favorite! Tomorrow we are getting family pics so we'll get one of Jessica too.

Halloween Night

Here are my goblins from Halloween night! We went to Idaho from Oct 30 - Nov 3. We didn't tell anyone except for my sister Deena. G-ma Tauna & G-pa Howard took this picture at the trunk or treat that we surprised them at!!! Justin was so cold. He didn't want to wear any pants under his costume. I felt so bad...I should have made him where some. We were there for about 20 min, he seemed to forget he was cold once we started walking around to get candy. They got enough candy there, that we didn't worry about going door to door. My Mom was sick so we didn't see her that night, we waited for a couple days to go visit. We went with my sister and her little boy to her in laws house. She gave them stickers, a cute foam craft and of course candy! It was fun! We had a great night!

We're Alive!

Wow....it's been a while since I've updated this thing!!!

Josh & Jaren are off track right now and go back on Nov 5th. We've had a few friends over to play, went bowling, to the library, went to classic fun center to skate and bounce, played every board game/puzzle in our house a few times, made things with lego's - connects - play doe, made some fun art projects........probably more but I won't bore you any longer! Josh and Jaren had a eye appointment last Tuesday, since I was Josh's age when I got glasses....and guess what, Josh got glasses. He was pretty excited too! :) His glasses are a -.75, so not bad....he hasn't complained of not being able to see things and I haven't noticed him squinting either. Jaren's my "artist", so he says. :) He loves to make his own books. He's very imaginative. Justin has still been going to preschool Tue & Thurs for a few hours...but he hasn't wanted to go as much knowing Josh and Jaren don't have school. He just wonders why Josh and Jaren aren't going to school too. Jessica's growing so much...says new things all the time and is getting into everything! She has learned to open doors. We have to make sure the doors that go outside are locked! We went to a Halloween carnival at our church Saturday night. they had 6 different things for the kids to do 1-Cake Walk 2-Face painting 3-Pin the nose on the pumpkin 4-Donut on a string 5-Bean bag toss 6-Fish pond. I forgot my camera though. :( But did get a picture of them when we
got home..........

Funny things Justin says

Justin calls the lawn mower a mow lawn. He even has an old pair of shoes he uses when he "helps" mow the lawn, they are called his mow lawn shoes. :) Earlier he went in the bathroom to blow his nose and said "Hey guys I have boogers because I am a booger brain." hahaha, what a funny kid. Another funny thing...Justin farted and Jessica said eeewwwww, then he said excuse me. Cute little munchkins! But, the fighting that sometimes goes on....not so cute.

Things about me...

Two names you go by
1. Tar (T-air) by brother and sisters when I was younger
2. Mom

Two things you are wearing right now
1. Grey Capri's
2. White T-Shirt

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship
1. Love
2. Trust

Two things you like to do
1. Go on Bike rides with my kids around the pond behind our house.
2. Take a warm bath with no interruptions.

Two things you want very badly at the moment
1. For Matt to get home from work.....it's 10:37 pm
2. A drink of water

Two things you did last night
1. Emptied dishwasher...loaded dishwasher
2. Took a shower

Two things you ate today
1. Salad with ranch, sunflower seeds & grated cheese
2. Watermelon

Two people you last talked to
1. Hubby
2. Kids...putting them to bed

Two things you're doing tomorrow
1. Help Jaren make a poster about him, it's his turn to be student of the week on Monday.
2. Never ending house work

Favorite day of the week
Saturday.....no school, no work, a day to do whatever we want!

Two favorite holidays
1. Thanksgiving...yummy food and spending time with family.
2. 4th of July...It's warm and we are normally visiting or camping with our families.

Two favorite beverages
1. Strawberry Lemonade....the kind from Jaker's
2. Water

Two jobs I have had in my life
1. Artco - Customer Service
2. Waitress - Frontier Pies & Jaker's

Two movies I would watch over and over
1. Sweet Home Alabama
2. Cinderella

Two places I have lived
1. Idaho
2. Tennessee

Two of my favorite foods
1. Spinach Salad from BYU Idaho
2. Dad's Swiss Steak

Two places I'd rather be right now
1. Sleeping
2. Hawii would be nice (I think...I've never been)

Our Anniversary was today!

We just got back from our weekend vacation! We left Friday night to take the kids to G-ma & G-pa's for the weekend...THANKYOU!!! It's only a 3 hour drive, but was about Midnight when we arrived. The kids slept most of the way there. We took there things in the house, tucked the kids in bed........traded cars and left. We stayed at a hotel for the night. The next day we headed to Ogden Canyon to stay at Alaskan Inn......little cabins.(Pictures Below) On our way there we had Olive Garden for Lunch then Maddox Ranch House for dinner and had prime rib. Then on Sunday headed over to Snowbasin to ride the Gondola and take a little hike. After that we stopped at the Mall before meeting Matt's parents half way to get the kids. They had fun with G-ma & G-pa and were in good hands. It was great to get away by ourselves! A little weird, but fun. :) We have been married 8 years!

They have 11 Cabins to choose from.

It's pretty!

My man and I!In the Gondola, way down there is the parking lot. Looking NELooking SW

Cute Kids

Ready to go to church with G-ma Tauna & G-pa Howard.