Happy Birthday, Kelli!

Happy Birthday, Kelli! (actually tomorrow, but I will be gone) You are not only a great sister-in-law but are truly one of my best friends. We all miss you so much but your support of Bryan in New York is just another example of the wonderful person you are. We are thrilled that you will be a mommy soon (although my boys may be a little jealous!) Have a great birthday!

A Disney Surprise!

Tonight we had "the BEST family night EVER"! Shannon and I set up a surprise treasure hunt for the kids which ended in each one of them getting a personalized treasure box and a letter telling them that we were taking them to Disneyland on Thursday! I didn't get very many pictures because it was total chaos AND I was trying to video tape. Hopefully Shannon did a better job documenting it than I did. Here are a few:

The kids waiting for their first clue. My poor Crew is teething and constantly has his hands in his mouth.

Crew's treasure box. Each child had their own with pirate coins, disney characters and $100 disney dollars to spend on the vacation. I wish I had taken some pictures of the clues that led them to the treasure - they were really cute!

Chase - one of the first to rip into his box AND get his new Indiana Jones shirt on!

Caden was so cute. Chase and Boston had already ripped through their boxes and were slam dunking, screaming "we're going to Disneyland" but my Caden was still a little confused. So I read him the last scroll which read something like:
What a great treasure!
But there are more surprises at hand.
On Thursday we are all going to
DISNEYLAND!

He just looked at me and asked "is this real?" When I answered "YES" he started going crazy too!

The cookie bouquet we had for dessert.

What a great night. We followed the treasure hunt up with Fuddruckers and then back to the Taylors where we played Disney SceneIt. The boys beat the girls by just 1 point! How lucky are we to have our best friends live just a couple of houses away? I love raising our kids together and can't WAIT for this weekend!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy To Me!

Yes - 34 years ago, I came to this earthly existence! Although I'd like to claim that these dimples on my butt have faded with age, I fear that they may have gotten worse! Despite the morning aches, bruises on my legs, wrinkles on my face, extreme exhaustion by the end of just about every day, I am so THANKFUL to be at this stage in life. I married my best friend, I have the 3 gorgeous, full of energy boys I dreamed of having about 10 years ago (I call it my vision), I have a wonderful family and in-laws, I have the best friends in the world, and I have an "even-better-than-I-dreamed-of" home and neighborhood. I think when I look back on my life when it is all said and done, I would choose to freeze it sometime in the next couple of years. So I just try to embrace and enjoy every day so thankful for our health and good fortune. So thanks to all of my friends and family for all that you do for me and with me. I love you all!

This year I feel especially spoiled. Here are a few of my favorite gifts so far:
Prada purse from Geoff and the boys. The BEST part of the present is that he remember and had it here on time!
A Jamis mountain bike from Shannon and Cory! WOW! I may have to rethink those earrings I was planning on getting you for your birthday!

Margheritaville blender from my mom. I am SO excited to make frozen drinks out on the patio this summer!

Spring Break

We're back! And a big thank you to Shannon for the pictures (I left my camera and card in Hawaii - sorry Kara - I had some cute pictures of our kids!). We wish we lived in Hawaii but we are so thankful and fortunate that we get to go as often as we do. This trip was especially fun because we got to share it with friends. At the beginning of our stay, we spent a few days with Kara and Lance and their adorable children and friends. It was fun to hang out again and Chase learned some cool skim boarding tricks from them. We are so excited to have the Fords move back to Utah!
Crew LOVES the water. He loves to swim, put his head under the waterfall, get toppelled by the waves in the ocean, anything to do with water. Unfortunately, he has no fear of it, which makes me really nervous so we have to be with him 24/7! That should make Powell a very interesting trip to say the least!

The boys! They had such a blast together and all got along so well for pretty much the entire vacation.

OK - so I already mentioned how much Crew loves the water and as you can see here he loves the sand, too! He burries his face in it, throws it, ruins peoples sandcastles, and eats it literally by the handful! So disgusting but I've given up trying to keep him clean at the beach. I think he was embarrassed in this picture!

The bridge at the Grand Wailea. We had a couple of near collitions here but they all survived!

I love being a mom to these boys. Seriously, I can't believe that Geoff and I tried to conceive a girl when we got pregnant with Crew. Our family just works with all boys and I love them to pieces!

My little surfer boy. He is so precious and fun but SUCH a handful right now. Which is why I don't have any pictures of my REAL surfer boys - Geoff, Chase, and Caden. All of them did such a great job surfing this trip. Geoff and Chase bought their own boards and went every morning together for the last few days of the vacation. I love it when they find something to bond over. Next time I'll try to get them in action!

Nickelodeon Night

Tonight for family night we had a Nickelodeon tournament. We played SpongeBob Operation, Nick Scene It, and Nick Trivial Pursuit. All the games were pretty evenly matched so it was a lot of fun. I told the boys that we'll do it again in the summer and I will "slime" the losers. It was too cold to do it today and I still haven't figured out what I will make the slime with.

Nick Scene It is still our favorite of all the games.

Crew thought it was much more fun to lose at Operation than to win!

Chase won the grand prize, but not by much! Caden is getting closer to beating him. Next time I will add Nick Bingo so Caden has a good chance at winning one event. But my sweet Caden did not even complain about losing so he of course got some treats too.

Phoenix

Geoff took us to Phoenix with him last weekend (he was there bidding a couple of jobs). It was clean, warm, had great shopping and restaurants, so we had a great time. It felt great to be outside and warm again - this winter has been too long. We didn't take a ton of pictures but here are a few...
Crew ended up in our bed every night by about 3 or so. Little stinker just can't sleep in hotel cribs - he's spoiled!

We stayed at the Phoenician. I hated it on Friday, it was crowded, no chairs by the pool, the service at the resort was terrible. I later figured out that the basketball tournament was there last weekend so it was SUPER crowded! Saturday and Sunday were much better. This was a huge coy pond. Crew wanted to get IN with the fish!

The hot tub.

Crew making some calls in the cabana. He also had a pad of paper and a pen and he would pretend that he was talking on the phone and then take notes. He had an absolute FIT when I made him leave his paper and pen there at the end of the day. He had work to do!

My darling Beans working on his tan.

What Are The Chances?

What are the chances of this? Last night, Geoff and Chase were playing football and Chase fell hard on his wrist. While I was at the emergency room getting it xrayed, Caden was at home with Geoff and hurt his wrist on the trampoline trying to do a back flip! Luckily, nothing is broken but I have 2 hurt boys!

Did anyone fall for this? I sent my boys to school today with notes explaining to their teachers what happened (they made up their own stories) and asked them to be excused from all writing exercises today. They are so excited! I fear Caden's smile will give him away immediately but maybe their teachers will play along for a little while. Chase also has capsules that pop in your mouth and look like blood. He is going to pretend that he gets hurt during lunch. Hopefully we don't get in too much trouble today. Happy April Fools!