5 Years Ago...

So five years ago, about this time, we were falling in love with our newest addition - Alexander!

He was born on June 11, 2004 and was such a quick and easy labor and delivery. I would go so far as to say he was the easiest kid to bring into this world.

... On his "birth" day!...

... A Couple Weeks Old ...

... About 1 Month Old ...

... About 6 Months Old ...

... Almost 1 ...

I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. We celebrated his 5th birthday with family this past Sunday and on his actual birthday we took him to the store to let him choose his birthday present.

It didn't take him long to see something he wanted, and I was very surprised to see that he had his heart set on it and couldn't be swayed into choosing something different...Not even with much prodding from his older siblings.

He was so happy with his choice that he insisted on carrying the Lego set throughout the store. He wouldn't let go of it for anything. And as soon as we got home, he had to open it and put it together. (Lucky for him Shaylyn was willing to help)

On Sunday we went to my parents ward, as my little brother (he shares a birthday with Lex) was being ordained. After church we headed over to my parents for dinner and a party! Lex had so much fun and was so excited about EVERYTHING he got!

It's always fun to celebrate both birthdays at once. Lex thinks it's really cool to have an uncle with the same birthday and loved it when I told him to go and get his "birthday buddy" when it was time for presents and such.


Alexander loves life and gets excited about most anything. It is fun to just watch him somedays because he is just so happy about everything and the simplest things can get him so ecstatic. He is the one in the family that keeps us laughing and the one who really just enjoys life, no matter what life is handing to him.

Happy Birthday 5 year old!

What Happens Next...

Precious Moment #1 - A Failure...

So as a parent, inevitably there will be special/precious things you will want to share with your children throughout their lives, right?

Okay, so yesterday I tried to share one of these so called precious moments with my kids, and it just didn't do what it should have done!!!

Now in no means is this the very first precious thing I have shared with them, just the first one I am blogging about.

Here's the story:

Yesterday I headed to a certain "clothing" shop to purchase replacement items that the dog had gotten a hold of (Note to self - FOLD the laundry ASAP). Well this store just happens to be by the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

Why is this temple any more important than any other one? In all reality - it isn't, but for me it holds a very special place in my heart.

When it was first finished and they had the tour, I remember going as a Young Woman and I fell in love with the building. I decided that was where I was going to get married.

Well most of you know the story and we didn't get married in the temple, but a year later we were sealed. And the temple we went to: Mount Timpanogos. (I am glad Eric wasn't up in arms about the place we went)

Now since that day - November 30, 1999 - Eric and I have not been back to that temple. At first we could argue that it was a distance to go (we were living in West Valley & West Jordan). But now that it is this much closer, we still haven't been back. Hopefully we will remedy that soon, just now that I know how much closer it is to us.

Back to yesterday - after purchasing the items I needed I decided I'd go try and at least get a picture of all the kids in front of the temple. Well, sadly - they are doing maintenence on this temple and so we couldn't get as close as I would have liked.

That was okay, for the most part, I guessed. At least I still had the kids and we were at the temple, so it would all be okay. Well I thought it was until I uploaded the pictures to my computer...Why can't kids cooperate?

Someday I will dress them all in Sunday clothes, turn the camera in a different direction and take as many pictures as I need until I am satisfied! Apparently a few of the kids didn't quite get how special this was to me (i.e. Shaylyn making goofy faces and Nate looking bored of it all...). Oh well - at least my 8 year old showed some sort of interest in my story and our soon to be 5 year old was really excited to see the temple, but that's where his excitement ended...

What Happens Next...

A Love of Mine...

So if you know me at all - you know that I thrive on change...

In some ways I suppose this is a bad thing, but in other ways, I think it's quite nice. For instance, I change my desktop wallpaper monthly....I used to find just random thing to change it to but quite a few months ago I ran across this.

Ever since then, I have changed my wallpaper up and have even been able to make it more personal! For instance, the pic below is my current wallpaper. Lex has a bday this month, so my focus is all on him. I took a pic that I liked from each month of this current year and there you go.

If you have any knowledge of photo programs AND layers, this should be an easy thing for you to use...If not, I would be more than willing to help you out!

Anyway, I just wanted to share one of my loves!

Oh and in regards to my previous post about Memorial Day - the movie we went to see was ANGELS & DEMONS.

What Happens Next...

Memorial Day 2009

Our Memorial Day usually consists of the same basic events:

* Meet up at my Mom & Dad's

* Walk to the cemetary

* Think about/shed some tears over Grandpa & Cousin Greg

* Walk back to Mom & Dad's
* Have a BBQ lunch/dinner

* Play Games

This year was no exception, except that we started a bit later and that night we went to see a movie with Eric's family.

We got to my mom and dad's around 2:00 and were heading to the cemetary by about 3:00. When we got to the cemetary, we saw that my uncle and aunt were there visiting the gravestone of my cousin. My mom visited with my aunt for a bit (my aunt was having a really tough time) and my uncle visited with the rest of us and even hung out with Lex and my soon to be 3 year old nephew.

After the cemetary, we went back to mom & dad's and had our BBQ dinner. Then some of us played Rock Band while others visited. I got Nathaniel to take a nap, but as soon as I put him down so that Eric and I could head to the movie, he woke up.

I hated leaving him with my mom like that,but I heard he did fine. The movie made me kind of sad. They strayed from the book it was based on quite a bit. But all in all it was still a good day.

I just figured I'd share my fave pics from the day. Enjoy!

(My little sister got stung by a bee, take a look at her toe ALL covered in mud!)

(Lex and Tyler with their Great Uncle)

What Happens Next...

A Busy 3rd Grader...

Seriously, do they have to plan every performance that the 3rd grade does for the week before school gets out???

Last Thursday Tanis had a Literacy Night and Friday night he had a "This Is America" choir performance thing...

But before I get to those, I will quickly mention about the Pinewood Derby that was on the 16th. I know I am so behind, but what can I say, life has been busy, busy with all the end of year stuff the kids do and Lex having ball games, practices and what not...

Anyway, so for the Pinewood Derby, despite knowing a few weeks in advance AND having the kit purchased, Eric waited until the night before to start on it. Last year Tanis was all about his Indiana Jones car and they worked on it to make it look just right. This year Tanis only wanted a CUBS car....Yeah, so nothing fancy there....

After Eric got the car cut out and sanded down we had Tanis paint it. The boy went crazy...He mixed colors together and it ended up a big mess of colors. Then when we tried to have him put the CUBS logo on top, he just made a bigger mess. He was really frustrated by that, so I told him I would do it...

Well to redo the logo, I had to paint over his try and though I tried to resist, I repainted over the whole top...He had like a grayish color on it. I also touched up places where other paint colors weren't supposed to be.

Tanis didn't really care. He just wanted his car and wanted to be a the Derby. I don't remember exactly how he did, but I think it was better than last year - which is all that really mattered.

(I know this post has NOTHING to do with Nathaniel, but it was a cute pic of him at the Derby, I just couldn't resist sharing it.)

Onto LITERACY NIGHT -

Thursday, May 22 - The whole 3rd grade at Tanis' school worked on their literacy programs, and what made it extra nice is that instead of piling 4 or 5 classes into the auditorium, they had each class do their thing in their classroom. This made for a good seat - which was great - because Tanis is such a quiet kid.

Tanis' class sang a few songs and then they broke into 5 groups or so and each of the groups recited their favorite poem/story that they had heard throughout the year. It looked like they had lots of fun and they learned lots of fun stories/poems.


THIS IS AMERICA-

So Friday night, May 23 - The 3rd grade from Tanis' school and the 3rd grade from a neighboring school did a choir performance honoring those who serve in the military. There are quite a lot of military people out our way because we live by a base or something.

They held this at the outdoor ampitheater out our way. This was also nice because it wasn't in a crowded gym and the night actually ended up being a good night. It didn't seem like there was a lot of kids there, and Tanis later told me that only 9 kids in his class showed up. Sometimes I wish we wouldn't have shown up, but I was raised differently.

It was nice and I appreciated that my dad, big brother & wife and big sister all came to support Tanis. He was so happy to see them there.

What Happens Next...

Farewell to Preschool!!!

Thursday, May 21st, was Lex's last day of Preschool.

Instead of doing some major thing (like a graduation) with the 6 kids in our preschool, we decided to take a trip to the Farm Land (or whatever it's called) at Thanksgiving Point.

It was a nice day, but Farm Land was incredibly crowded when we got there. Luckily most of the crowds were leaving, so it ended up not being too incredibly crowded as we got into the bulk of stuff.

Lex had lots of fun being with all his preschool friends again, though, and Nate enjoyed the day as well. He even rode his first horse!

What Happens Next...

Mother's Day Projects

So for Mother's Day I made only 2 projects. I guess I kinda jipped my Mother-In-Law and Paternal Grandma a bit by not doing anything extra special for them, but I was running on little time and knew I couldn't squeeze a lot into my week. What I did by for them though, did have thought put into it.

Anyway, for my Maternal Grandmother I made her this tile:

I LOVE, LOVE this picture of her and Tanis taken at Tanis' baptism last summer. I just had to use it. I am not sure that I like the black & white, but it worked best when typing the words onto the picture.

For my mommy I did a scrapbook page. While reading in my scrapbook magazine an idea prompt they gave was: Compare your life with that of your Mother's when she was your age. (Or something similar)

Immediately, a layout came to mind and I knew exactly what pictures to use. This kind of inspiration HARDLY EVER happens to me in regards to scrapbooking, so I knew I had to roll with it.

I love how this turned out. And the picture of my mom's kids is one that my Maternal Grandfather loved. He wanted his own copy and my mom never got around to getting him one before he died. So this picture is so very near and dear to my mom's heart.

P.S. I am the little girl on the bottom right hand side, next to the baby. :D

What Happens Next...