Our Ten Year Anniversary... Woo Hoo!

Wow! Time sure flies! I married my best friend on February 20, 1999. I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful person. He is truly an amazing father and husband and I feel so lucky to be married to him. He does so much for me and our family!

I scanned some of our wedding pictures in. I can't believe how young we both look- does that mean we look old now?

For our anniversary Ed's sister watched our boys... again... thanks Triska! and we went on a date. Originally we had planned to go on a cruise or other fun trip for our ten year but we decided to keep the money in the bank and do something here in town. We went out to eat and then went and stayed at a themed hotel room downtown. It was gorgeous. And guess what- yep, I forgot my camera. The room was so pretty if you want to see it go here. We stayed in the Rome room. When we arrived we had chilled sparkling cider and cheesecake to eat. There was a 8 foot projection t.v. that came down from the ceiling, there was a chromalighting tub (fancy name for jetted tub that has lots of different lights in it), and a huge steam shower room. It was such a gorgeous room. It was very elegant which is different than other times we have stayed at themed rooms. In the past we've done jungle type rooms so it was something different to not have the rain forest sounds and monkeys ooh ooh ahh ahhing over our heads. In the morning they brought us some juices, hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls, and fruit, granola and yogurt parfaits. It was such a relaxing fun night- and a bit cheaper than a cruise :)

Well we had a blast that night. And I am still completely in love with my hubby and can't wait to see what the next ten years brings us... I see visions of teenagers and consumption of tons of food since we have 3 boys, but it ought to be interesting anyway!

Finally!

I have just one word... dang COMPUTER! Okay, technically that's two words but sheesh! I know that we just can't live without computers but sometimes they cause more headaches than they are worth. My computer has been acting crazy lately; therefore, I have kind of dropped out of blogland for a while. Hopefully I'll be back now! I'm just working off a different computer. January and February is always our craziest time of the year. We have 4 birthdays, valentines day and our anniversary. And we always like to throw a sport for the kids in there too just to top it all off. Here's what has been keeping us so busy:

Ed got a new truck. It looks just like his other one except it's new. Hmm... go figure! He's ecstatic though so I'm happy if he's happy. If you look closely at his feet you can see he is wearing socks with the flip flops- what a fashion statement :) Love ya anyway hon!
Tegen turned nine. My baby turned NINE!!! I can't believe it! He's getting so big. This what we love about Tegen- he's so smart, he's funny, he keeps me on my toes, he's a great big brother, he's loving, he usually does what we ask of him without too much complaint. He's a joy to have in our family and we love him so much! They always get a room full of balloons on their birthday when they wake up- they still love it every year even though it's not a surprise!

The boy is absolutely obsessed with Guitar Hero... and yes- he can definitely kick my ummm... behind...

Look at that cheesy grin- how cute is he? We had pizza and cake and ice cream then took him down to Lava Hot Springs with a couple of his friends. He was in heaven. He takes after his mother and loves HOT water.

Four days after Tegen's birthday is Talen's. See why we are so busy? Talen is such a special little boy. Everyone in our family loves him to pieces. I don't know what we would do with out his little personality in our home. He cracks us up. Yesterday he told me "Mom, I'm sure glad you're my mom. You're the best mom ever. If I didn't have you to take care of me I would just have to live with my kids (his brothers) and that wouldn't be good. I would miss you." Ahhh... he melts my heart- seriously!

He has been begging for a camera and a scooter... Lucky him I guessed right when I went shopping. He loves them them!

We are mighty sick of cake and ice cream. Between my birthday on the 18th, Tegen's on the 31st, Talen's on the 3rd and my dad's on the 8th I really don't care if I ever see cake again.We decided to change things up a bit and go for cupcakes instead... oooh! What a change!

Even though we have been way busy I am thankful for it all. It means that I have a family to celebrate with! And there is honestly nothing more important to me than my family. I feel so blessed!

Yikes! The big 3-0...

Well, last Sunday I officially turned... gulp... 30! Yikes, that seems so old to me. I still can remember being in high school and it seemed that 30 year-old's were ancient. Now I'm one of them and I don't really feel a day over 18. Okay- maybe my maturity level has risen a bit, then again maybe not- but I really don't feel old at all!

My weekend started out fabulous! One of my best friends in the whole world, SueAnn, took me to the sneak peek at Red Robin for lunch. I had a delicious guacamole burger and onion rings and yummy pomegranite blueberry lemonade. Yummy! This was the first time I've ever been to a restaurant before it is open to the public. Fun!! Thanks again SueAnn!

On Saturday I decided that it's been a while since I've done a project in our home so I decided to paint my master bathroom and put up beadboard/wainscoating. I love how it turned out! Thanks to my hubby for always helping me out when I decide on a whim to tackle a project!

On Saturday night my sis-in-law, Triska, offered to watch our kids overnight so we could go on a date. So we loaded them up with their church clothes in tow and took off for a fun-filled night. We went to Pocatello and ate at Buddy's Italian restaurant. Yummy! Then we went to Lava Hot Springs and sat in the hot pools... Ah it was heavenly!

On Sunday we went to church, picked up our kids, then headed to my mom's for dinner. It was delicious! I was spoiled too! I got a new Ipod touch. It is SO much fun!!! A Shiatsu mat that you put in a chair and it massages your back. I love it! And I got an indoor electric grill from my parents. I can't wait to try it out. Grilling inside in the winter- what could be better than that?

Sorry there are no pictures of my fun times, but I think I was thinking... Do I really want to remember the day I turned 30??? Oh well! There will always be memories!

Ice Fishing

On New Year's day Ed took the boys ice fishing... Brrr! Where was I? In my toasty warm house of course! Our brother-in-law Mitch has all of the equipment and a big tent and 3 boys that are our boys ages so off they headed. They were gone for about five hours. Ed said they caught over 100 fish. Most of the fish they caught were tiny little Perch but the kids loved it so much.
Here is Talen's big Trout... He was so proud!

Tray also caught a pretty big Trout!

Here is all of the kids holding up their catch of the day. Ed said they would take a fish off the hook and immediately another one of the boys would say "Fish on!" Ed tried talking me into going with them, but I think that this favorite past time of theirs should be a father/son outing ONLY! Boy time is good... really good... especially if the word "ice" is anywhere in the title.

Merry Christmas!

I don't know why I have been dreading doing my Christmas post. I think it's because there were so many good or funny pictures to choose from that I had a hard time deciding which ones I should put on here. We had a fabulous Christmas! I hope you all did as well. We were SO busy as I'm sure you all were! On Tuesday my dad came up from Utah to spend some time with us and my brother Kris and his boys who is home on leave from Kansas. It was nice to spend some quality time together! No I did not really plan the matching outfits- it's because we had family pictures earlier in the day:)
On Wednesday night, Christmas Eve, Ed's side of the family always does a big Christmas Eve party. The kids all exchange gifts (pictured below) and the adults do a white elephant gift exchange. It was absolutely hilarious this year. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. For one of our gifts Ed and I did "Shaving Barbie"- thanks Holly! There were many other funny gifts. Ours wasn't even the funniest!

Santa stops by the party every year and the older grand kids think they have figured out who "Santa" is. This year Santa tried to trick them, but no such luck. If you look closely beneath that beard you might be able to guess who Santa was this year. I haven't sat on Santa's lap in years!!!

Santa came while we were all asleep on Christmas Eve and we woke up on Christmas morning to a lot of nice things. A tradition that was started in my husbands home as a child was that Santa hid presents all over the house and left clues for them to be found, so that is what Santa does for us! After they read a clue they go in search of the present and bring it back and whoever's present it is opens it while the family watches. The boys all love it and it makes Christmas morning last a little bit longer.

This is the madness and total chaos that our house was after we opened everything! CRAZY!!!

Doesn't he look a little too happy about his socks? I just thought that this was a funny picture! My mom has given Ed socks for the last 12 years so now it's a tradition and she has to keep it going!

We were so blessed this Christmas season. I know the world has commercialized Christmas so much that the true meaning of the holiday is almost unrecognizable. While I do enjoy gifts as much as the next person I am thankful to know that the real meaning that we celebrate this special holiday is to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I truly am thankful that He was born and spent his life being such a remarkable man! I am thankful that we have such a wonderful holiday to celebrate Christ's life!

Three Kids For Sale... Any Takers????

Okay- I won't actually sell them but you can definitely borrow them for a little while. I know... You look at these cute little innocent faces and think what could they ever do wrong... right? Well... With Christmas just around the corner you'd think that they'd be a little more conscientious about their behavior. They fight and fight and fight some more... AHHHH!!! I can't take it anymore. I never thought I'd have to pull out the old "Santa is watching you!" bit, but believe me it's been a life saver a couple of times this week. By life saver- I mean THEIR lives. Maybe they'll get a lump of coal in their stockings. Okay, now that that's out of my system... they sure are cute, but I have decided that school is a good thing. It's keeps us ALL occupied!

One quick story that I thought was so funny, a bit irreverent, but funny! Talen brought me a picture of the Idaho Falls temple and we were asking him who was on top and he said Angel Moroni. We said good job then asked what Moroni is holding and he thought about it really hard for a minute and said "Hmmm.. A shotgun?" Well- guess that's one we've got to work on. He now knows it is a trumpet :)

Merry Christmas to you all!!! I hope you all enjoy the holidays!

Our trip to Utah...

So sorry- be prepared for picture overload! I couldn't decide which pictures to post!! We went to Utah over the weekend with our boys and some of Ed's family. It was such a fun relaxing weekend. This was the view from our room. It was gorgeous! We stayed at the Marriott and had valet parking. This was a first for us. It was awesome- we just called from our room and told them to have our truck ready and we'd walk out the door to our truck pulled up to the front and warm. It was so fun!
My boys were obsessed with the revolving door at the hotel. Each time we went out the door they went around and around and loved it! Although it got really old to us!

Me and the boys with Ed's mom and sister Shanda and our niece Sierra.

The lights at temple square. I wimped out and decided to hang out at the hotel with Meisha and my mother-in-law. I was freezing because it was snowing, but Ed said that once they started walking it was warmer. What a good hubby to take the kids without me!

I think this is so beautiful!!! It's a picture of the boys standing in front of the temple. I love it!

The boys loved looking at the lights! Apparently Tegen takes after his mom because he was frozen according to Ed!

Ed and the boys and Paul, Sierra, Cason and Tylee in the pool

Ed would throw the boys up and they would do flips in the air. They had so much fun!

Meisha and Talen sitting by the pool- HA! I finally got a picture of you!

It was so gross- the hot tub had tons of bubbles and the kids would coat themselves in the foam then jump in the pool. Sick- but whatever floats their boat I guess! We had a lot of fun. Sorry to all my family that we didn't get a chance to see. I wish there had been more time! One funny thing that happened that I don't have a picture of... Ed came out of the bathroom the first night we got there and said "Am- what is air-o-mu-thrapee?" I spelled it like that so you can maybe understand how he pronounced it. It was the bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotion. It was from Bath and Body Works... Aromatherapy. I thought it was hilarious and we kept teasing him all weekend about the airomuthrapee in the hotel rooms! We had a great time- thanks to Ed's family for making it so much fun!