Family Pictures 2014

Back in July, we got our family pictures taken by our friend Robin. I can't believe it took us that long to get pictures taken. Poor Emma. For the first 9 months of her life, there wasn't much evidence of her on our walls. But now there are lots of pictures of both our girls and it makes me happy. You will also notice that Dave looks different.  He grew out his mustache/goatee for the Stake Youth Pioneer Trek.  I didn't even think about that when planning pictures.  Oh well.  He pulls it off well.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

 And then there's this one.  I think that sums up Dave pretty well.

Angie's Surprise!

I've decided kidnapping friends for their birthdays is the way to go. My friend Angie just had her birthday and some friends and I decided to kidnap her and take her out, with the help of her husband.

We headed to Target, where Angie was shopping. Her husband had let us know which section they were in, so the hunt began. We had to speed down aisles so she wouldn't see us, which was awesome. If only the Mission Impossible theme song were being played! Angie's husband saw us so was ready to help when we attacked. We walked up quietly behind them and Steve, Angie's husband, scooped her up and stuck her in the cart we were pushing around. I blind folded her and the night began.

We headed to Chevy's for dinner and made her stay blindfolded until another friend showed up. It was great to make her wait so long.

After dinner, we went bowling. And it was glow bowl which was way more fun. Lucky I had glow sticks at home to bring, right? Our first game, we played a real game. The second one, we tried to spice things up by having to bowl each round a certain way, aka spinning around, dance walking, bowling through the legs etc. The last couple of rounds were our speed rounds since we were running out of time. So we tried to see who could throw the ball the fastest. Fittingly, Angie threw a 16.1 mph ball, winning.

It was a fun night and we ended with a group picture. We were trying to be hard core but we had trouble and didn't know there was a double flash. Here's what happened.

Ha!  I love it so much.  And then we took a normal one, ready this time, for the double flash. 

Happy Birthday, my super friend Angie!

We Drove to Utah

Yes, we actually drove to Utah. It was a very quick trip. We left the Wednesday before the 4th of July, and came home the following Monday. I'd heard that my sis-in-law, Liz, and her kids, who are currently living in Germany, were going to be in Provo, so Dave and I decided to make the trip to visit them and some of his brothers. I wasn't too worried about Jocelyn. We had plenty of things to distract her. It was Emma I was worried about. But she did fantastic. Both girls were great! Yes, we heard, "Are we there yet?" a few times and Emma had to cry herself to sleep a couple times but that was as bad as it got.

So now to the fun stuff. We started right away. The night we got there, we headed to my old roommates house, where three other roommates met as well, and we got all caught up. We ate, we laughed, we chatted. It was so fun to see them. I miss our fun times we had in college!

The next day we met up with one of Dave's roommate and had breakfast at the amazing Kneaders. Afterwards, we got to see my sis-in-law and her four kids. They are so cute and we had a blast. We first stopped at Ashley and Sara's soccer camp and watched their games. Then we walked around BYU to reminisce, of course making sure to eat some of their famous mint brownies. We hung out at Liz's childhood home and then headed to her sister's house to swim. After we were worn out, we went back to Liz's to eat dinner and play games.

The next day, we headed to Provo's 4th of July parade. Thankfully Liz's family are parade fanatics and were really prepared with a tent so we weren't burning in the sun! After the parade, we went to Liz's so the kids could take naps and then the little ones played in the water and played dress up, naturally!

We had a BBQ at Liz's sister's house and then watched them set off some fireworks.

Ashley's patriotic fruit dish.

We said our goodbyes, and headed to Dave's brother, Josh's house for the remainder of our stay.  Dan and Mike live nearby so they joined in the fun and dad and dad's girlfriend, Teri, also made the trip out to Utah. To finish off with the 4th of July, Josh and Tara's neighbors put off a good fireworks show so we didn't have to travel anywhere.

The next day we went to the aquarium. The girls loved it. We did have a slight scare for a couple minutes when we lost Jocelyn, but luckily, she was still at the whale play area where some nice people were helping her to find us. She didn't know we had moved on and we didn't know she wasn't following.

Emma had her face to the glass anytime she could.  She loved being so close.

I was so proud of Jocey.  She wasn't scared at all of walking on the rope bridge.

Teri and the girls.

This is the play area where we accidentally left Jocey. :(

On Sunday, we went to church and got to be there for Josh's ordination to High Priest. He became a High Councilor. We spent the rest of the day playing games and eating and just enjoying each others company. Monday, we headed back home and made good time. We were home for dinner and FHE and then headed to bed EARLY!

It was so great to see so many family and friends. We miss being close to so many of them. Until next time!

My kids are cuter than your kids!

In the previous post I mentioned that I updated Dave's "DAD" pics. Click HERE to see the first time I did this. Well you wouldn't imagine that trying to get just three pictures would be all that hard but IT IS!! Either one kid was looking away or one was crying or just plain not smiling. It was agonizing. I really don't know if I will do this again. Or if I do, it'll be when the kids are 30. Sheesh. It's not worth the tears or the guilt I felt afterwards for being so mean. But now that it's over, it's always fun to look at the outtakes. So enjoy some of them along with a couple other random pictures of my girls, proving again that my kids are cuter than yours. :)

First here are the pictures I used.

And now the others.

This one isn't that bad, but it looks like Emma is trying to steal the letter.

I wasn't kidding when I said there was crying involved.

She looks surprised.

This actually would have been the best picture to use because it really represents Emma accurately.  Everything goes in the mouth.

See what I mean?  She's trying to eat the grass now.

Just being silly.

And again, things in the mouth.

Oh I want to squeeze them!

I can't even handle this cuteness!

Ze Papa

Father's Day just happened in case you didn't know.  So let's take a look.

Dave slept in but really he didn't.  He ended up getting called into work on Saturday and didn't get home until 3am, Sunday morning.  And then he got up at 9:30am.  So normally, that would be considered sleeping in but since he only got just over six hours of sleep, I don't think it counts.  Poor guy.  But the girls and I tried to take care of him.  I made him Cinnamon Streusel muffins per his request and he got some nice presents and cards.

I updated his "DAD" pictures and gave him some teeth whitening strips (no I wasn't being mean, he had actually mentioned them previously) and a game called Monopoly Deal (so much more enjoyable and quicker than real Monopoly). And here's what Jocelyn "wrote" in her card to daddy. It made me laugh.

I love you! I hope you will have a great day. And I hope you will have a happy Father's Day. And I love mommy. And I have a great truth. And drink lots of water. And I love you daddy. I'm happy to see you. Thank you for coming home.

Isn't that adorable? She actually kept talking but I ran out of room on the card. Anyway, after getting ready for church, we headed to Dave's dad's ward since Dave's cousin was giving his mission homecoming talk. Then we had dinner with the family and then stayed for the drop in party for said cousin. Dave seemed to have a good day and that's all that matters.

I'm so grateful for Dave and my dad and father-in-law for being great men! You're seriously the best!

"Oh yes it's ladies night!"

A couple weekends ago, I got some much needed girl time, thanks to two friends who had their birthdays.  We celebrated my friend Kae's birthday on a Friday night.

The party van is ready!

We went to Sushi Cafe.  It was only my second time eating sushi ever.  And it was good.  I got a Bento Box to ease into it but did try some legit sushi as well.  It was good but I don't think I'll become a sushi fanatic anytime soon. 

After dinner, we headed to a place called Vampire Penguin. It's a shaved ice dessert place. It was amazing! You have never had shaved ice like this. It was more like shaved ice-cream. It was the bomb diggity! I could have gone back for seconds or thirds. 

Are you drooling yet?

No seriously, I want to stick my face in this.

Aside from good food, it was just nice to spend time with good friends.  These ladies are so much fun and hilarious.  We had many good laughs.

The next day, Saturday, we celebrated Christine's birthday. We started by getting pedicures. It feels so good to get pampered every once in awhile. And the chairs at the salon are massage chairs so that's awesome.

And after getting our nails done, we headed next door to Yogurt Villa for some froyo. Delish!

Seriously, I need this every week. There's something about hanging with the girls that is so rejuvenating. But anyway, thanks friends. Let's party again soon!

*Funderland*

Last month, Dave got to take a day off during the week, so we all went to an amusement park called Funderland. It's made just for little kids, so of course, Jocelyn loved it. We spent a couple hours there, going on most of the rides multiple times and brought a picnic lunch to finish off the fun. And because I got the tickets through Groupon, we got some free treats. Here are some pictures of our fun time.