Just a few things....

Here are just some of the many things that have gone on in our lives since I last blogged....

*Paige turned 7 in August and her and I spent her Birthday in Vegas. It was a lot of fun. To start her birthday off right the fire alarm went off at the timeshare and we had to evacuate. She thought this was a little scary but we assured her that everything was ok. Paige is our little worrier. I wonder where she gets that from?

*In October Coen had his birthday and we celebrated it in Yellowstone. It was a lot of fun too. Too bad dad was not able to come. He had to work but the kids and my mom and I had a fun time.

*Also in October we had Halloween. Paige was Snow White, Johnny was a pirate, and Coen was Blues Clues. I think the kids most favorite part of Halloween was sitting on the porch and handing candy to all the Trick or Treaters.

*In November we celebrated Johnny's 5th birthday on the 22nd. I can't believe it has been 5 years. We had a family party for him and he had a blast. I never knew a kid could get so many presents. It seemed like Christmas at our house.

*And last but not least the biggest thing that has happened during the past few months is I am PREGNANT! I am 20 weeks and am having a baby boy in April. Paige was really disappointed that it was not a baby girl but we told her that it is awesome that she is the big sister to so many little brothers and that she is my little helper. This made her excited and she is already talking about waking up with the baby and walking with him at night. We will see how long that lasts! This pregnancy has been very different from the rest. I have been very sick and very tired. When I went into the Dr.'s for the first time he asked how I was feeling and I told him that this was by far my sickest pregnancy he laughed and said well let's see how the babies are. We all laughed and then a few minutes later he got really serious and said well I am not laughing now but you were having twins. John and I just about fell over. One of the babies had died. He called it a Vanishing Twin. He told me that if I had come in to his office at 8 weeks or so he would have heard two heartbeats and told me I was having twins. I had never heard of Vanishing Twins before so when I got home I looked it up. Apparently it is very common it's just that most of the time no one knows they were having twins. Usually by the time you go to the Dr either you have miscarried the baby and expelled it our it has been absorbed. In my case the sac was empty but had not been completely dissolved. So my Dr. told me that I might have some bleeding and that if I did that I should come into his office to make sure the other baby was still ok. Of course this freaked me out but it was for nothing because I never had any bleeding and my body just absorbed it. When I went to the Dr. the other day to have my 20 week ultrasound there was not trace of the other baby so everything was ok. But this explained all my sickness. The Dr. told me that even though the baby had passed away my body was still producing hormones like I has having twins. I finally started to feel better around 17 weeks and what a relief it was. I think we ate out in the last few months more then we have our entire married life. Now everything is good, the baby looks healthy and we all can't wait to meet our new little addition in April!

Gift of Tongues

Lately Johnny has been finding Toy Story clips on you tube and watching them. He recently found one that was in Spanish. He has memorized the song and can sing it without the song playing now. His fascination with Toy Story clips in Spanish has now moved over to watching movies in Spanish. He wants to watch any movie in Spanish. He now knows the Toy Story song completely in Spanish. He is so funny. I am sure his Uncle Andrew would be proud since he is serving a mission in Mexico right now. If this fascination with Spanish keeps up he might actually be able to converse with his Uncle some when he returns in little over a year. Johnny is so awesome and he keeps us young that is for sure. Here is a video of him singing to the video.Enjoy!

(I'm aware that Buzz is smoking in the video. Don't worry we had a word of wisdom talk after this)

Cookie Monster

Coen is a funny guy. He really doesn't like to eat. Of course there are times this kid will eat just a small bit of something but normally he has no interest that is unless it is a cookie. There is a running joke in our family about how my grandmother will tell you she is not hungry and then when you leave the room she will go and get a cookie or some sort of sweets. I think Coen takes after her. He absolutely loves cookies and not just any cookie he definitely prefers Oreos. Today I gave him some animal crackers and he took the package and looked at the package and pointed to the picture of Oreos on the package and said "cookies". He asks for cookies everyday and when I give him something other then Oreos he yells "No!". It is pretty funny. We obviously have to limit the cookies for him because we don't want his diet to only consist of Oreos but for now we let him sneak a few here and there and maybe just maybe the next time we go to the Dr. he might move up the growth chart and make it past 10%.

King George

(King George himself)

This past weekend John and I were able to go see the George Strait concert. We went with John's brother Ethan and we had a blast. Probably not as much as a blast as the 20 something year olds in front of us who were plastered but we had fun. The past few years we have gotten George Strait tickets in Vegas (he had not been to Utah since 1998 and I was at that concert too at BYU) and I have not been able to attend with John either time so Ethan has gone with John. It seems like those two have started some tradition with King George. It looked like at one point I might not be able to go to this concert either since my babysitter (My mother) left town that weekend. But lucky for us John's brother Devon and his wife Annette watched our kids for us:) Thanks Guys!! It was a lot of fun. John and I don't get out much without the kids so it was really nice to be able to enjoy each other company and listen to our fav. country music. And King George did not disappoint. He is AWESOME!!!!

(Before the concert)

(Ethan looking so dashing in his cowboy hat)

A family vacation, a wedding, 2 receptions, a temple open house and a husbandless weekend.

The past few weeks have been crazy. It all started on Memorial day weekend when we went to St. George. The next weekend we headed to Long Beach California for John's brothers wedding. We only took Coen so that was nice. I still remember when I only had Paige and I thought it was hard and now I have three and wonder what in the heck was I thinking when I thought one was hard. One is paradise. Anyway it was really nice to to be able to go to the Newport Beach temple and see Devon and Annette get married. After the wedding we went to a dinner in their honor and the food was great. Her mom had a few of her friends make some pasta dishes and they were awesome. The next day we headed back home to our other children and life was normal for a week or so. The next weekend they had a reception in Orem that was really cool. They decided to have ice cream machines and toppings for the guests. They were so good. After the wedding and receptions we thought our weekends would be a little calmer. Well that wasn't so, we both volunteered at the temple open house for our new temple the Oquirrh Mountain temple. I may be biased but it is one of the most beautiful temples. I was positioned in one of the tents where the guests come and watch a video on temples. After a few hours a huge storm came and they had to shut down the tents because they didn't feel they were safe anymore so we ran from the tents into the temple. I had an umbrella when I left the then when I reached the temple it was mangled and I was soaking wet. The Angel Moroni also was not so lucky. He got hit by lightening during the storm. It was so crazy. After my shift I came home to John and the kids and he got ready to do his shift at the temple that night. He was doing parking. His shift was definitely not as eventful as mine. He said he was positioned in a cul-de sac by the temple and didn't have to get up out of his seat the entire time. I am so grateful for this new temple in our area. South Jordan is where the temple is located and it is the ONLY city in the world that has two temples in it. I think that is so awesome. And not only that but the temple sits on a bluff and if you stand in the front of the temple and look out on a clear day you can see three other temples. That is so amazing. I can see three temples from my upstairs bedroom. We were told in training that there are many people who only see the steeple of a temple once and that is when they go to do their own work. I am so grateful that I live so close to a temple and I hope that I do not take it for granted. They are the house of the Lord and I am truly blessed to be able to live so close to one. And if I thought this weekend was going to be slower its not. John is going to be leaving bright and early Saturday morning to Long Beach again to help his sister Julie move back to Utah for the summer. I think after this weekend we should be able to get some of our projects done. Namely my mother's day present from John which was to paint our house. I am so excited for this! Even if we haven't been able to get much done on the weekends at least I can say that we were doing very important things. Attending a temple wedding, spending time with family, volunteering our time for the church and helping out family. We are truly blessed.

(Devon and Annette outside of the Newport Beach Temple)

Devon and Annette cutting their cake at the reception in Cali)

John and Coey at a park in Long Beach where we feed the ducks with Meredith, Jake, Ethan and Julie)

(Our beautiful new temple)

(The Angel Moroni after the storm hit)

St. George

Over Memorial Weekend we went down to St. George. It was a lot of fun. We spent most of our time at the swimming pool which was a lot of fun. We did a little shopping and went to the cemetery where both of our paternal grandparents are buried. We were not able to find John's grandparents but we found mine. When Paige saw that my grandpa had a picture of Mickey on it she asked shy and I told her that her grandfather use to work for Walt Disney and she was so excited about this fact that as soon as she got home she called her friend and bragged. It was pretty funny. It was nice and warm while we were there and we had a lot of fun barbecuing and relaxing.

(Paige and Johnny in front of my grandparents graves)

(Paige and Johnny at a park in St. George)

(Coen just toddling around like usual)

The thoughtful sister

Paige is such a thoughtful person at times. She likes to do little things that she thinks you will like. She always gets the Saturday and Sunday paper for John on those mornings. She helps me get Coen out of the high chair when he is done. She will help Johnny when he gets frustrated with a computer game. John always tells her when she does these little things that one day she will be a great mom and she just says " I know dad" and grins. Well, the other day Paige came into my room telling me that she had seen an advertisement on the T.V. for something she thought Johnny would love. I just said OK and didn't think much about it after that. Then the other day I was putting something away in Paige's room and found this on her desk.

She had written down all the information that I would have needed to order this bank for Johnny. I thought it was so cute. What a thoughtful sister.

Zoo Trip

A few weeks ago the kids were off track and were very bored so I called up Uncle Jared to see if he and Thor would like to come to the Zoo with us. He did want to come so we met them up there. It was a lot of fun. Paige and Johnny loved it. Coen just sat there and observed. I was glad that we got out of the house and was able to see the animals before the next round of rain storms hit.

I looked into the bedroom and what did I see..

Coen sitting with a book on his knee.

Today I was clearing up a problem with John's Father's Day gift and heard Coen upstairs just talking away. After I finished my business I went upstairs to see what he was doing and this is what I found.

(Not the best picture of what I actually saw, since I had to go downstairs to get the camera but you get the picture)

He had gotten into Johnny's bed and pulled one of Johnny's Blue's Clue's books off the shelf and was reading to himself. What a silly guy.

Coen Attempts to Sing the Alphabet

I know it sounds nothing like the alphabet but he seems to think it does and it's pretty cute. Notice the shoe? Coen has a major shoe fetish like Paige did (Remember Dana- Paige and Audrey's shoes?).He likes to put on, carry around and eat shoes.

Easter Festivities

Our Easter festivities started out on Saturday morning when we colored eggs. Paige and Johnny loved it. We only did a dozen eggs since that was pretty much all I had. They each got to write their names on the eggs and they loved this. We didn't do anything fancy with the eggs, just color them with normal colors (I know I am a boring mom). They loved it anyway.

(Paige and Johnny looking at the final product)

(Johnny looking at his egg with his name on it)

(Paige showing the camera the egg with her name on it)

After we colored eggs we headed over to my sister's house and had an Easter egg hunt. My kids look forward to this every year. Not only do they get candy but they get money too. I guess I should say that Paige looks forward to it more because she is really motivated by money. Coen could care less about the eggs. He just wanted to play in their little play house and shovel rocks.

Then came Sunday. We went to church and then came home and got ready for family to come and eat at our house. We had 14 adults and 4 kids. It was a lot of fun. Before the family came I attempted to get pictures of the kids. None of them turned out of course but I will still share them because they are pretty funny. Coen did not want to cooperate at all as you can tell.

Easter was great this year. It is so fun to see your kids get excited for holidays. Last night we we had FHE and Paige read an Easter story and then we did an activity that our primary handed out with eggs. Paige was the only one participating but it was so great that Paige could read the story and tell us why we celebrate Easter. It's moments like these that make you realize the important responsibility we have as parents to teach our children about Christ. I am so grateful for the Gospel in my life and the knowledge that I have about the Resurrection and the Atonement.

18 Months

Coen is 18 months today. I can hardly believe it. Most of you know what that means....NURSERY. Outside of Mormon culture I am sure that 18 months is not a big milestone but in the Mormon culture a mother and father long await this milestone. You no longer need to cart your restless child with you during all of your church meetings. Now I might be able to listen to a Sunday school lesson!! Coen is growing so fast. He now is talking more and his personality is getting more prominent. He is such a sweet kid and is such a ham. He loves to play catch with anyone. He loves Johnny's Woody doll and will carry it through the house and put Woody's hat on his head and when it falls off he will just laugh and laugh, it is pretty hilarious. He also loves to compete with his brother on who can scream the loudest in the car (Not my favorite). He also loves when we are driving and when we are going down a hill he will scream "Whee" all the way down the hill. He is also the only child of mine that has a favorite stuffed animal that we call "bear, bear" that he has to have with him when he sleeps. When we go in and check on him at night he is usually cuddling up to his "bear, bear". It is so cute. He is quite an adventurer and we love this about him. We are so glad he is part of our family. Happy 18 month Birthday COEY!

Caught Red Handed

Coen is by far my most busy child. He gets into everything. From the trash, my makeup, my feminine products, Paige's jewelry. It is amazing the things this kids gets into. For the past few weeks John has been coming home and getting upset because someone had pushed his books in on his bookshelf. Any of you that know John know he is pretty obsessive about his books. So I had a pretty good idea who was getting into his books but I didn't know for sure because I hadn't caught him in that act. Well, today I did.

(Making the Climb)

(Making it to the peak)

(Preventive measures in place)

(Sitting and contemplating his next move)

What a Turkey!:)

Do I look like a push over?

As many of you know I have been known to get somethings done that other may not have thought possible. The big green box is one of those. From time to time I have the annoying bill that should not have been billed or a bill that is not correct. I usually call up and explain the situation and all is well. A month or so ago we bought a new car. It's not a "brand" new car but it's new to us so it's a new car. Many people were surprised to find out the deal that we got on this car. And they were even more surprised when they found out I had done it myself. Well the car is great and we have had no problems with it and everything seems to be going smooth. As many of you know especially my family I plan ahead. My mom is a planner my sister is a planner so of course I am a planner. So these past few weeks I have had in the back of my mind the fact that the temporary registration is going to expire on April 1st. I called a few weeks ago inquiring about this to only get an answer something like this " you have two weeks before it expires, there is nothing to worry about." At this point I felt kind of silly even worry about it. Our past cars we had gotten the plates long before the temporary expired so I wanted to make sure all was well. So I just put it back in my mind and didn't worry about it. Well, today I called up since I only have three days before the big day and the women tells me that the DMV sometimes takes a long time with these things. So my response was "so it's the DMV that is slow?" Here response was very quick (I am sure she knew exactly what I was getting at). She said actually we haven't turned in the paperwork yet but it will be here by Wednesday or Thursday. I then told here my registration runs out on Weds. And she said oh that is no big deal police officers won't pull you over for a day or two on a expired registration (she obviously doesn't live where I live). Then she explains if I do get a ticket they would pay the fine. (Oh how generous of them). I say whatever and then hang up the phone. At this point I am not too happy. So I decide to call the DMV and ask them if they have the same policy on "it's no big deal if your tags are expired a few days." As you can guess they do care and even though it may not affect your insurance because it is a none moving violation it still goes on my license. I have never had a ticket in my life and I will not be getting one because someone else can't do their job. So needless to say I called them back and explained to them that this was unacceptable and they told me that the manager would be calling me back. That was at 1 pm it is now almost 6. If they think I will go down quietly they have another thing coming. Just ask Utah Power.

Some regrets

Since being in Young Women's the past few years I have thought about my own experiences in Young Womens. I was not always active and most of my high school years I was not active. Looking back I realize how much I missed out on. I look at all the awesome girls that were in my ward and my high school that were active and think wow was I really that dense to not realize what I was missing out on. Every chance I get I try to let the Young Women that I serve know how much this time in their lives is so important. How 10 years from now it won't matter what you did in high school. That when you get to college no one cares if you were popular or homecoming queen or anything. I look back and really regret the choices I made during those years. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to repent and to make better choices in my life. I remember a few years ago I went to my 10 year class reunion. And it was so great to see everyone that I hadn't seen in 10 years. Right after high school I left Las Vegas and came to Utah. I remember thinking how now I had more in common with the "Mormons" but those were not my close friends in high school. I didn't have many memories with those kids and it really made me realize how much I missed out. I would do anything to let my Young Women and my own children know how important it is to have good friends and those friends that you share common interests. Don't get me wrong I had awesome friends in high school. And I love them to death. But I think about all the opportunities I missed by not going to mutual or youth conference or anything. I missed out on so many other friendships. I had a awesome ward growing up and didn't realize it till I was long gone. I am just glad that I was giving the opportunity to come to Utah and to eventually make it to BYU where I graduated. I love BYU!! I have never been to another college campus where it feels so peaceful and you can feel the spirit. It is so awesome. Even though I have made some mistakes in my life I am so grateful for the blessings that I have been given and I know that my Heavenly Father loves me regardless of the mistakes I have made. Now that I am older and somewhat more wiser I hope that I can teach my children the importance to the youth programs in the church and help them realize they are inspired organizations.

(This is a picture of me that was in my 10 year Class Reunion slideshow)

Congrats Neal

As many of you know. John's family is very musically talented. It is pretty funny to have people come to our house and see our piano and automatically assume it is me that plays. I have to tell them that actually it is my husband that plays. I think this is pretty cool. I think that it is awesome that John can play two instruments. Yesterday we were able to go to John's littlest brother Neal's Suzuki violin graduation. He graduated from the entire program. This took years and years. He is sixteen and started violin when he was young. It is always so strange for me to think of Neal as a teenager. When I met John he was just finishing Kindergarten. When we got married he was Paige's age. I am so glad that I married into such a musically talented family and that I can instill this talent in my children. They may not appreciate it when they are young and have to go to lessons or practice but when they get older they certainly will. For all you family in Cali. that didn't get to see his performance or those who are interested in who awesome he is here it is. Enjoy. He is the one on the far left. And sorry for the sound effects. I was sitting my Johnny and he kept playing with Buzz. ** I am trying to get the video to upload. It is over 5 minutes so that may be the problem. I will keep trying.

Disneyland

A few weeks ago we went to Disneyland and it was a lot of fun. It is so much fun to see Disneyland through your kids eyes. It makes you remember when you were a kid and getting so excited to go to Disneyland. It was great. There was hardly any people and we got on all the rides that we wanted to. One of the days John's sisters Meredith and Julie joined us as well as my friend Korby. It was great to see all of them. The first day we were there it rained really bad for the first couple of hours but in the afternoon things were great. The rest of the days were great. For all those people who live in So. Cal. it probably was on the cold side but for those of us who were leaving freezing temperatures the temperature was great. I hope we can take a trip to Disneyland every couple of years. I know that the kids absolutely loved it and we loved it too.

(This was the kids on the way down with their new sunglasses. I think this was the only time Johnny ever wore his)

(Paige and I in front of "It's a Small World". They redid the inside to add some cool new characters in some of the scenes).

(As many of you know, Johnny loves and I mean loves Buzz Lightyear. Just ask Julie and Meredith they had to take him on the Buzz Lightyear ride several times. Notice Johnny looking at Buzz with awe).

(The kids with the star of Disneyland).

(Coen with his "kid leash" on. This kids was so funny with his leash. He wanted to walk you rather then you walk him. We finally had to ditch the thing and put him in the stroller).

(Paige at "Ariel's Grotto". This is where your little "princess" can eat and see most of the princesses. It was great she got to see all the princesses and get her picture taken with them. It is a little pricey but well worth it).

(Johnny with "Cars". Notice the "Buzz" cup in his hand).

(Paige and I on Dumbo)

(Julie and Johnny on Autopia).

(Paige and Johnny in "Minnie's" house playing the piano).