Jake's Birthday

Jake's birthday was pretty cut and dried. Spiderman cake. Spiderman webslinger. Birthday party at the Nickel-caid. As long as those three elements were part of the party, it didn't matter what else happened. Well I like easy and it doesn't get easier than this! Here's how it all turned out...

The webslinger was a serious hit! I was pretty impressed with it's ability to spray silly string at such a crazy distance!

Here's the cake, not my finest writing but the spiderman turned out great I thought.

Here's some of the nickelcaid pictures.

April Fools

As is tradition, I just couldn't help myself from tricking the family with dinner. This one turned out amazing except for when you bow you head for dinner prayer, you can smell what you are eating, which got people giggling before the "Amen".

This is definitely not tomato soup and grilled cheese! You're looking at Vanilla pudding dyed red and Angel food cake sprayed with light oil and pan toasted for the grilled look with orange frosting in between. Yeah, it only takes about a bite and even Tyler was asking for real food. Super sweet overload!!

I grew a garden!

Actually, that is inaccurate...I planted a garden. All I really grew from it was tomatoes, corn (which died before it could be harvested), Bell peppers and Dahlias. What I planted was corn, bell peppers, strawberries, carrots, onions, green onions, Beans, Sugar snap peas, tomatoes, Cilantro and Dahlias.

My dad made me these beautiful planter boxes for Mother's day, Brian bought me the dirt for mother's day (yes, my husband gave me dirt for mothers day) and I planted everything. Things were growing and looking beautiful until...something. I still have no idea what happened, but something did. Oh well, The tomatoes were amazing and the Dahlias were the size of Jake's head. So that's something!

Brothers

Just a few moments caught on camera to prove that brothers aren't always in the classification of worst enemy, they can also be a best friend.

Where have we been?!

...Everywhere! I'm a little behind, which might be the understatement of the year! Let's do a quick re-cap for informational purposes.

Since Memorial day we've been to Washington twice, once was for the heck of it and very last minute, but worth it and fun! The second was for The Gough family reunion, which was an absolute blast! After the reunion my family returned home without me and I was joined one of my absolute favorite people in the world, Ryley. Who was kind enough to spend a week letting me drag her all over Washington in an effort to show her everything since it was her first time there. And she put up with going to a DMB concert at the Gorge which was the original purpose of the trip. That was July and I'll post some pictures soon.

Oh, also in July I helped my dad move my 90 year old grandpa and his house full of stuff of 40 years down to UT where he could be closer to those who could care for him. That was an adventure. Between July and August Brian and I said goodbye :) to our old ward and our first home :( and moved to Daybreak with my parents. Knowing that we would be moving to Kansas in less than a year, we decided it would be prudent to save some money and live in mom and dad's basement for a bit. Also relieving the stress of trying to sell the house last minute. The move went smoothly, and the boys have never been happier. Where as before Jake was the only one with friends in our ward and immediate area, we now live on a street with 13 boys ages 6,7,8,9. It's wild and noisy, but heaven! The kid's new school seems nice. They are really un-organized compared to the last school, but I guess the principal is pretty new, so I'm sure that will come with experience.

We are really really happy in our new ward. Everyone is so nice and so normal, it's truly changed our bad opinion of UT. It's been nice living with my parents during this crazy time as well. Which brings me to about current since everything now has been the main events for the last few months.

Brian has started a masters program in counseling at the University of Phoenix. In addition to working full time, this has been a big undertaking. In January I will be starting a 500 hour yoga certification program that will be very intense but amazing. It will take me 6 months to complete.

Well, I think that's good for now, I'll catch up more later.

Memorial Day Hike

For memorial day we went for a hike up Butterfield canyon. For myself who hasn't spent much time in the Utah "wilderness" This was a bit of a rude awakening. I guess I expected more trees. And maybe not a large road that people walk ("hike") up. And maybe a little more natural beauty. Don't get me wrong, once I started thinking of Butterfield canyon as a uphill walk in a barren desert I found some things to appreciate and it didn't end poorly.I think I just need to lower my expectations of hiking here.

We did get a couple of cute pictures and it was these very photos that encouraged me that it was time to cut my hair, ASAP!

Barren, that's just the only word for this landscape. And BTW, we just went around a fence and found a horse trail. :) I don't "hike" on roads.

Tyler found more cool looking sticks that I've ever seen! That doesn't really justify carrying around 5 of them and hitting people with them (on accident of course) but it gave him something to do beside pick up paintballs.

A little recap

Jake turned 6. That was a big number for me. I don't know why, since it really is just like 5. Maybe because he is starting 1st grade in 2 months and that means gone are the days of a little buddy to run errands with me. I'm a little concerned I'm going to forget how to talk without Jake around to constantly badger me with questions about the most random things. The highlight of his life right now is he got a "web slinger" (Spiderman) you see in the left picture. Thank you Hasbro for the opportunity to clean silly string off my yard.

Tyler and Abbey have formed a bond I never would have expected. The problem is that Ty asked Brian for a dog for Christmas. Brian said, "sure, if you can manage to be nice to the cat for a year". Well, It's June, you look at the picture and tell me if you think we're going puppy shopping this December....

This one belonged with the Jake turning 6 but I'm too lazy to drag and drop it. :)

Tyler earned his Bobcat award. He LOVES scouts like nobody's business. He was pretty proud of himself that day.

A bunch of other random little fun fam facts:

1. I have attempted to grow a garden this year thanks to my wonderful parents who gifted me with 2 very Large planter boxes for mothers day that my dad made for me. I'll let you know if anything grows!

2. Jake has started realizing that uncomfortable feeling in your tummy actually goes away if you sit down and eat some real food besides cereal and water. I'm already dreading the grocery bill for the teenage years.

Actually, we're pretty boring...We'll have to work on that!