It's the BEST DAY EVERRRRR!!!!

As Spongebob and Patrick like to sing "It's the best day ever!" and for Oakley it has been the best weekend ever! She turned 5 today!! YAY! She started her celebrating last Saturday. First off she started the day with swimming lessons where they sang Happy Birthday to her.
Then off to a family party at the park! So many great presents! She was so excited to get $20.00 from her Uncle Shane and Aunt Paige. She loved all the clothes and toys from her Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts and friends.

Then it was time for cake. We had candles, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't forget something like the lighter!!! HELLO!! So she blew out the candles that were not lit:)



Today on her real birthday she had a party at the pool with her friends. They were so nice with the fun presents they brought her! She had a blast.

I love Oakley so much. She is the ham of the family. She keeps us so entertained with all her funny jokes, facial expressions, and comments. She has been my little buddy this year and I will be sad when she goes to Kindergarten next year. Happy Birthday Oakley!! We Love You!!!

Moab!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We had the BEST weekend ever! We left for Moab Friday morning and stayed until Monday. We went down with 6 other families from our neighborhood! We went to the Arches, the Arts Festival, and alot of playing at our camp site. We had alot of rain, our tent ended up getting flooded and thanks to our awesome neighbor's, they let us camp on their site! We had so much fun playing and pot lucking! It was the best weekend! We are glad to be home, but look forward to going again next year!!!

Kitchen Remodel

Here are a couple of pics of our kitchen. It is almost done, Yay!!! We started out with blue swirl Formica counter tops, flower wallpaper, orange cabinets, a creamy yellow sink, and all different colors of appliances. We put in granite tile counter tops, a new sink and fixture, newer appliances that my aunt gave us, and we stained the cabinets, stripped and painted the walls and put in Mosaic tile back splash and new outlets. We are going to stain our bay window, and put in new flooring. I am so grateful for Matt and all his hard work! He has been so awesome to help me get it done! The pics don't do it justice! I am so glad that he knows how to do so many different things!! Thanks babe!

Locks of Love

My little Tay cut her hair today. She was excited, I thought I would start crying at any moment.

It's just hair right? She has always had long hair. I have never cut it short for her because I loved it long. But it's not my hair, it's hers. She should have a voice in how she looks. So my awesome little girl decided she wanted to cut it short and donate it to Locks of Love. She has witnessed her brother and other men (and a woman), shave their hair off to support one of Matt's old co-worker's wife who had cancer. It made a huge impact on my kids. I am so proud of her for making this choice! We cut it really quick this morning before school so she could show her teacher who leaves on Maternity Leave today! Good job Tay! You look so cute!!

Mother's Day

Aww what a fabulous day! I was spoiled with cards from the kids! Taylor's class made their Mother's a cookbook with their own recipes in it. Taylor's recipe was wheat bread. Here is her recipe: 7 cups of wheat. Heat up the wheat and you will have bread. How cute is that? She also gave me a pretty card with flowers she colored on it. Parker gave me a card that said I was the best cook and so nice to him:) All 3 of the kids also gave me a card after church with a magnet that had their picture on it. I also got 2 pair of exercise outfits, a pair of shorts and a planter with flowers. Matt was so great! He made breakfast, lunch and dinner and let me take a Sunday nap! Doesn't get much better that this:)!!!

Random Thoughts.......

We went to my aunts house and she has painted all of her upstairs. I love it! So I go home and decide I need to paint. I bought some paint awhile ago to do Parker's room, so I pull it out and get going. Parker helped my move all his furniture out, and then we ripped out the carpet and pad. I will miss the beautiful red, yellow, orange, shag carpet! NOT! The room is full of wood paneling. My solution?? Paint it! So Parker is getting a red and blue room because he loves the Utah Jazz and the Utes. Red AND Blue??? Yep. Not great for resale, but fabulous for my son who is the only one downstairs and needs to have a fun room that he wants to be in.

I am painting and I hear Tay throw a fit. I hear Matt put her in her room. She screams for awhile. Not once does he come and get me to make me deal with it! Love it~!!! He starts to put them to bed and still doesn't bother me. Who is this?? I would be bugging him like crazy asking for help! Fabulous night!

Parker and 4 of his friends are playing and one of the boys gets wrestled to the ground by another boy. He thinks he could have been "Killed". Seriously!! No joke. All the boys go home. Next thing I know there is the dad of the hurt boy wanting to talk to Parker and find out the story of what happened. Parker goes out and tells the dad what happened. I am so proud that he is not afraid or intimidated by this father. Also it helps that the dad handles it so great and talks about everybody's side of how they felt. To Parker it wasn't a big deal. He didn't do anything, so he has nothing to worry about when he tells his side of the story! I am so amazed that he is growing up so fast! What a great kid he is!

Church yesterday- Our lessons are on Self Reliance and Serving. I love my class on Service! What an amazing group of people! I am in awe with how cool these people are! We laugh (yes in church we are allowed to laugh), share stories and just have a really great discussion. I learn how much more there is to Service than I thought before. My goal is to put myself out there more. Be aware if people need to talk ( I have a problem with talking too much so I guess I need to listen more), be aware if they need help, understand that it's o.k. to ask for help.

With all these little things going on, I am so grateful for such a great life. Matt has a job and works for a great person and has great coworkers. Our kids are doing great! They are healthy and happy. Their needs are met more than I would have ever thought we would be able to provide. We have a fun, old, charming house that we love. We have such great neighbors and friends. We are blessed! Life is great! We are happy! Isn't that all we really want in life is to be happy?


"Whatever it is you are feeling is a perfect reflection of what is in the process of becoming" Author unknown

Great Influences

I am so grateful for such amazing people in my life. Today I had my Visiting Teachers come. I have new ones, and I have to say I was so excited to hear it was them. These two are ladies who I noticed right away when we moved in. Not only are they beautiful on the outside, but they are equally stunning on the inside. They are the type of ladies who go out of their way to make people feel welcome, special, and unique.

They were so kind today to ask how I do when Matt travels. His traveling is a whole new thing to our family and it has taken some adjustment. We love having him around and doing things as a family. So as we were talking they told me that if I ever need some "ME" time, that they would take my kids. One of the ladies just had her 6th child not too long ago. She is a wonderful talented mother who takes such great care of her kids and who also plays the violin in a orchestra. The other lady has 2 kids, and somehow also manages 3 part-time jobs. What amazing ladies!

Here I am with 3 kids and I get to stay at home with them. I don't have as many commitments as they do and yet they offered to take on another! Serious, how kind can you get! They really made me look at myself a little more today. I often feel like I should help out my ladies more often than I do. The other day I went to visit one of my ladies and I asked her if I could do anything for her. She asked if I could take 2 of her children next month for the day while she did an activity at the kids school. I told her I would check my calendar and get back to her. Honestly, I was hoping that I might have something that day! How sad is that!!!! I thought of all the things this person has done for our family and then called to let her know I could take her kids. I shouldn't even have to think about it. I think so often we are so consumed in our own lives that we forget to give a little too! So thanks to my V/T ladies! Your 1 visit already have taught me so much:)