Who Loves A Messy Face Picture?

mmmmmmm... chocolate pudding

Note to Self

Lengthy phone conversations are not without consequence...Yes while I chit chat with my mom about politics and swimsuits, Brielle creates a Baking Soda Wonderland.

8 Years!

8 Years ago today Kevin and I were sealed for time and all eternity. We celebrated on Saturday night by going out to "The Melting Pot" for dinner and then doing a session at the Winter Quarters temple. After the temple we took a walk around the grounds and Kevin tried his hand at temple photography.

This Years Gardening Lessons Learned (so far)

By and large, I am pretty happy with my garden this year but here are a few things (for my own remembrance) that I have learned:
1. Plant sugar snap peas instead of regular peas because it takes so so so many shelled peas to give you an amount worth eating.
2. Don't leave town the first week in July -it seems to be prime pea and bean harvesting (or if you do tell your neighbors to reap the fruits of your labors).
3. Commercial tomato cages just don't cut it- for next year I need to contact the Thomas' for making your own tomato cage information. As you can see, I used some unconventional methods to keep my tomato plants from toppling all over everything. (I used twine to tie them to our tv cables on the outside of the house).

4. Stagger the planting of bean rows. Right now we are getting every day more beans than we can eat and before I know it the bean plants will die so it would be better to get them gradually throughout the summer rather than "bam"- way too many all at once.
5. Don't cram plants- the seed package spacing guidelines should be followed to a point. I sort of overpacked a few things. (ie cucumbers grow everywhere out of control!)

Great Summer Moments

Slip n Slide

Tiffany helping me celebrate my birthday.

Shadow Lake Concerts

Happy Birthday Melissa!

This baby pic sums up Melissa's personality to a tee!

I thought I'd quickly hijack the blog to wish my wife a very happy birthday! Our family is so blessed to have such a loving, kind, compassionate, talented (if you haven't checked out her cake blog lately, you should!) and patient (you have to be with me as a husband...) wife/mother. Melissa is the kindest person I know, full of charity toward others and full of love for her children. It's Melissa's kind heart and gentle disposition that first attracted me to her when we met - not to mention that she's smokin' hot!. I love her so very much and am so very grateful for all that she does for our little family!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

(PS - I tried to find a recent picture of Melissa to post, but pictures of her are mysteriously missing...hmm)

30 Years Young

From this...To this..
in just 30 short years... my what a good looking guy! He couldn't possibly be 30!
On July 4th we celebrated not only the birth of this great nation but also the birth of this great guy. His favorite gift (as you can see) is the magic bullet (as seen on TV) that he got from his parents. We celebrated with gifts, family, friends, a barbeque, and fireworks. It's quite a milestone to be 30. This guy just gets better with age.
We tried as hard as we could to hold on to our cake tradition this year but a few changes had to be made. As I was without my supplies, there was no piping on the cake and I figured it would be a good year to give up some of the control. So Makenna was the designated berry designer. She had just a bit of direction and did a terrific job.

Happy Birthday Kevin. I love you more and more each day!

Pennsylvania 2009

We just got back from our trip to Oma and Opa's house. The kids had a blast and created some great memories. It was an extra special trip because we also got to see Aunt Jennifer, cousin Aurora, and Great Oma (or Tic Tac Oma as she liked to be called) while we were there. Here's the photo tour...

It all started on our Southwest flights. The older two did great but Brielle was not exactly our best flyer. Nevertheless we made it!The caption here: Farmers Market Feeding Frenzy Fun
Jen made the girls these cutie patootie matching dresses- aren't they sweet! Below is a short
but cute video of the girls making some great music together :)

Brayden has a special gift. He is just full of love. He's never put off by differences. I've seen it time and time again. His great grandma doesn't speak a word of english but did that stop Brayden from being her buddy- not for a second- he loved to spend time with her. I think this picture below is priceless.

Hershey Park- Good Times were had by all...

The rain was a bit of a hinderance in our Hershey experience. We went to the park the night before our full day with just Brayden to hopefully get some bigger rides out of the way. Well before we reached our first coaster, most of the rides started closing due to weather. We got onto the "swings" and just as the ride started up the heavens opened and the rain poured! So after that thorough swing soaking we fled the park. Then the next day after many hours at the park the rain came down again. Kevin and I were in line for a roller coaster which kept opening and closing due to weather when again we were soaked by rain. We ran to meet Opa and the kids under the only shelter we could fine- a Pizza line- so we got some dinner and ate in the line as the rain poured down, and then once again we fled the park.
We met Opa at his work for an early dinner and played at a nearby park. It was a fun time.

Last time it was Makenna but this time it was Brayden who was enthralled with the dogs.


Tinkerbell the pony was a fun new attraction with her cart. The kids loved these rides behind the pony.

Brielle loved to look at the horses but was quite nervous about touching them... well until she saw her siblings riding the horses--- and then of course, she had no fear, and had her turn at riding too.

What's wrong with this picture?

Love These Kids!