Family Home Evening

Last night Matt had a coupon for Panda Express. The little kids have never eaten there, so Matt thought that the kids would really enjoy going into a local restaurant, sitting down and ordering their food. He was right, they loved it. When we showed up our friends were eating their dinner and then 3 other LDS families also arrived during the evening. At one point they brought out the panda for all of our families to get a picture with. After eating out, we went home and played bingo with the kids. We used words that related to the gospel and the kids loved it. We gave them each a container of skittles and then played at least 4-6 times. It was a great evening.

Paige ate most of her skittles and Bailey wanted to get a bingo very bad.

Carter was very excited when he finally got a bingo. This is Carter shouting out BINGO.

By the end, this was all that Paige had left of her skittles. She was on a sugar high!!

Hayden patiently put those skittles on his paper hoping that everything would line up 5 in a row and he would get Bingo too.

Madalyn and I called out the words and Matt played with the kids. The only hard thing was that Matt kept getting BINGO. Eventually, we would just look at each other and Madalyn and I would just continue calling out words waiting for one of the children to win. The kids loved every minute.

Enjoying life!

This last 7 days have been fast, furious and fun. I have enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, played at the park with the girls, spent time with family, enjoyed 4 days with Gina, organized my house in preparation of the baby, traveled to Albany for a sister sleepover, and went out to dinner with a great friend. I am feeling very blessed tonight as I blog about my last week. I have been given many joys in my life and I am so happy to be alive. These pictures are a puzzle of activities that I have done and people that I have loved spending my time with.

The weather was beautiful and I have been telling Bailey and Paige that when the sun came out we would head to the park and play. I kept my word and we spent 2 days playing at the park. These are great days to be remembered.

Bailey is great at swinging. She can pump her legs very well and goes super high. I would have to say that Bailey and Paige's favorite thing to do at the park is to swing.

The girls also love to go up and down the slide. I love this picture of them going down together. They are wonderful friends.

My beautiful Madalyn up on the top of the toy structure. I told her to look at me and this was the great picture that I got.

This picture is of Gina and I. It was actually taken last year, because I didn't grab out the camera and take a picture of us this time. What was I thinking? Gina came for 4 days and helped me do errands, cook, clean, organize, talk, and enjoy life's simple joys. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed every minute.

We traveled to Eugene and the kids got to play with their cousins at Grandma's house. As always, they had a wonderful time together. Matt took this awesome picture of Hannah, Taylor, and Madalyn. These girls really love each other a lot.

Jeff spent some time reading to all the little ones. They love Uncle Jeff he is very good to them.

Amber flew in from Arizona to see everyone. We hurried down to Eugene to have a good 24-48 hours with her, Ashlee, Jeff, Tricia and Darren. Oh how we love Amber Jean. Here she is reading to Natalie and Paige. The kids love Amber and we had a great time with her. We will miss you Ambee!!

On Friday night, after dropping Gina off at the airport, I quickly headed down to Albany to have a sister over nighter at my sister's home. Here we all are: Me, Carda, Meg and Christine. We talked, ate, did craft projects, cut hair and painted nails. Very fun!

My little sister is 20 weeks behind me in her pregnancy, so we thought it would be cute to take a picture with our tummies touching. I think that we matched our clothing very well for this picture. Would you agree? I only have 3 weeks left. Boy am I excited.

Christine, Meg and Carda putting their heads together thinking of a great idea. No, just being silly. Thanks Meg for a wonderful evening and morning. You were a great host. When I got home from Albany, Matt and I went out to dinner with our friend Molly and had a great evening. Life is good, I couldn't ask for anything else.

Sprint Triathlon 2010

This weekend was Matt's first sprint triathlon of the season. We woke up early on Saturday morning and traveled to Lebanon for the big event. He wasn't feeling so hot. He had gotten a cold and felt like his head was going to explode. His heat started at 9am and so we arrived for him to have time to prepare. He did a very good job for how he was feeling. He did get a flat tire during the bike ride but he gave it his ALL.

Getting ready to go and sign in.

Lebanon Community Pool. #100

Matt was chatting with the other competitors before the race started.

Keep going honey!!

Matt getting ready to transition from swimming to biking.

Heading off on the road for a 12 mile bike ride.

Returning with his bike to get ready to transition to the run.

You are looking good, keep going.

It has finally come to an end and Matt is ready for it to be done.

Way to go Matthew.

Matt and Rich. Two friends who enjoy going to these sprint triathlons together.

Father and Son CAMP OUT

This last weekend, Matt took the boys on a father/son camp out. Matt hurried home from work and loaded the van and took off with the boys. They came back on Saturday with chocolate around their mouths, bare feet, the same clothes that they wore on Friday and smiles on their faces. It sounded like they had a great time together.

Getting ready to leave for the camp out!

This is the camp set up. They slept in a 2-3 man tent and ate hot dogs, smores, fruit snacks, candy bars and who knows what else that first night. I have learned to not question the nutritional value of the food they eat at these events.

Carter enjoying a moment in the camping chairs by their tent.

Looks like their early morning breakfast. Hopefully this was a little more healthy.

A jog down memory lane!!!!

So, this morning I got to thinking about the prom dances that Matt and I went to and I went to my photo box and pulled out our two pictures from my sophomore year and junior year. I laughed pretty hard looking at my sophomore year pictures. I thought that for family history sake and to give all of you a laugh for the day, I would put them on our blog to make sure and have in our 2010 blog book. Remember, we lived in the 80's and 90's so don't laugh too hard. Big hair was in, puffy sleeves all the rage, big bows placed everywhere and yes, tiel green dresses were hot. Enjoy!!!

1991

I did not like this dress at all. I had gone shopping with my Mom and she said that she loved this dress and if I wanted to get a dress it would be this one. I was nervous about wearing it. Right before, Matt picked me up, I was crying and not wanting to put it on. A lady that I babysat for put my make-up on and I got home and looked like a clown, so I tried to wipe it all off. When he got to my house, I put on a happy face and tried to act unfazed about my make-up and dress. Needless to say, I took it to college in hopes that I could sell it to a girl that was going to go to Homecoming. Sure enough, I sold it to a roommate for very cheap. Thank you for taking it off my hands.

Matt's dad rented a Mazda Miata for us. It was so fun and fast. Matt was very excited to drive it. He took my to a very nice restaurant in town and when we started to eat, he splashed ketchup all over his white shirt and I went to the "ladies room" and dropped my bow in the toilet. We were quit the combo. Good memories!!

1992

My junior year, I told my mom that I had a dress in my head that I would love to try and find it. We searched high and low and she ended up sewing the image I had in my mind. I love black as you know, so I wore black and I had it simple but classy. I felt so good. I did my own make-up and hair and designed my own dress. What more could a girl ask for? We had a blast that night and enjoyed every minute.

2010

Now it brings us to this weekend. Almost 20 years later! Boy does time change and get better. I had the best prom date anyone could ask for and thankfully, I will have him forever.

PROM 2010, Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you that read our blog. We have had busy days but fun days. Matt was in charge of prom for his high school and so of course I had an invitation to go with him. Matt and I went to prom my sophomore and junior year together and so this brought back many memories. I bought a dress from Motherhood for $17 and I didn't show Matt because I wanted to surprise him the night of prom. Well, he was busy the entire day running back and forth to the venue and running home. So, I got all dressed up and drove with one of his co-workers to the location. When I got there I was so excited to see him and surprise him with the dress (by the way he looked very handsome too). He walked up to me and said "honey, can you go over there and do this for me". My balloon deflated and then I smiled knowing that he was worried about making sure everything was ready for the students to enter their prom. We had a wonderful evening and the 2010 prom went very well.

Although I didn't have my prom date with me before the prom started, I had Madalyn take a picture of me all dressed up so that I could put it in the babies new book. I wanted the baby to know that we went to prom when I was 35 weeks pregnant.

We got home at midnight and I told Matt I really wanted a picture of us together for memory sake. This is officially our 3rd prom picture.

MOTHER'S
DaY

Matt made me a great breakfast of french toast, bacon and omelette's. Oh so good! The kids woke up and we all ate together and I read their sweet cards and enjoyed the smell of roses!

Sunday evening the kids ran out into the front yard and started chasing each other around. This is Paige trying to capture Bailey.

Aren't they cute kids. What a blessing to be a mother!!!

Early Mother's Day gift!

On Thursday, Hayden came home from school and told me to close my eyes, sit down on my bed, and put out my hands. I followed his instruction and he gave me the sweetest card that spelled out MOTHER, and a magnet with his picture on it saying I Love You Mom! It warmed my heart. I think that one of the best things about Mother's day is the sweet and simple gifts that you receive from your children. They are cherished forever.

Hayden wanted to read his card out loud to me. Of course I was happy to hear!

Giving him a little smooch for the sweet words he said.

Opening my magnet that he made.

This was my early Mother's Day gift!

Madalyn's almost done with track season.

No this picture isn't from the other post that I did a couple of weeks ago. I haven't taken any pictures to blog about for a while so I thought that I would post another track meet that Madalyn had yesterday. She did a good job! We told her that she needed to grunt more and make noises. This track meet was for 6th graders only and Matt announced some of the meet. At this meet it wasn't embarrassing for Madalyn to stand by Matt and I. She actually crossed the field with her arm in Matt's. Pretty cute. After school, the boys got off the bus and we all jumped in the van and headed to the high school. We made it just in time to see her throw the shot put. We missed the discus though. I gave Matt the camera and he got into the arena to get up close shots. She only has one more meet left. This morning she said, "mom is track almost over"? I said, "yes, only one more meet". As a teenager, I felt like track lasted forever, but as a mother, I think that 1 1/2 months is nothing. Boy, does our perspective change over time.

Taking her practice throw.

The kids and I standing behind the rope waiting for her turn to come again. They all behaved very well. That always makes you happy as a mother.

She is ready to launch that puppy. Do you see Matt's former colleague in the background laughing? He knows that Matt and I are a little wild when it comes to picture taking and I am sure he was trying to avoid the camera shot.

Her final throw. Every time that she would step away from the ring, Matt and I would begin to coach her and tell her to give it her all, make some noise, grunt, get another P.R.. We like to embarrass our children. We really aren't that extreme though.