Happy Birthday Tyson

I can't believe our baby's 3! Tyson's birthday was on Tues. the 24th (4 days after Ness). He had several parties also and LOVED blowing out as many candles as possible. Everthing he ate on Tues. we put candles on it. He kept singing 'Happy Birthday to Tyson' all week, it was so cute.
This was a jersey Lynn had gotten at the Jazz game. Just a little too big, but he thought he was pretty funny.This I still laugh at. Douglas & Marcie gave Tyson this Lighting McQueen swim suit that he wore SEVERAL days over his pants. Here he's opening a card he got from Nathan & Lindsay :)Happy Birthday buddy!! We love you so much and are so glad you are in our family ♥♥♥

Janessa's Birthday

Our sweet Janessa turned 6 this last Friday. She has been waiting a LONG time for this to come! I couldn't stop hugging her in these fuzzy sweats she got. This was before school. She took treats for her class and got a cute Happy Birthday hat. She chose Pizza Hut, so we took her there for dinner. Other than that, we didnt' do a lot on her actual birthday :)

Saturday morning was her PJ/breakfast party. What are we going to do when these cute girls are teenagers??! They ate, played games, and played some more...Here's the highlight of the party. We look outside and there's a huge sheep walking around in our cul-de-sac! We teasingly asked the kids who wanted a ride and at the end of the party Nessa's little friend said 'so when do we get to ride your sheep?'. We were laughing pretty hard :)I love my grandparents. Here's Janessa with my grandma Davies. They brought her a present last night at my parents. She also had a big party last Sunday with the Lords' side and I didn't have my camera! That was a fun day also. She got a whole week of celebrating! Happy Birthday sweetie!!

Douglas & Marcie's Wedding

Friday was a super, fun, busy day! My brother met a great girl and this was their special day....None of my pictures turned out great. I was trying to move around the photographer and I probably should of shut off my flash. Here's our family with G&G's. Doug's friend took this one for me :)They look good with 7 kids I think!...Here's what Lynn thought of the tux. He was in it for pictures only, then off to the Hillcrest/Bonneville basketball game!YummHallie caught the bouquet!! Granted it was only her, Ness, and Malarie but she felt pretty cool :) She better not be the next one to get married though..!Here's Marcie & Ty. She is so cute with him and he adores her-! Welcome to the family Marcie :)

Earrings & Ty's New Bed

This last Sat. we went to the mall to pick up Hallie from a birthday party and Janessa decided right then and there that she wanted her ears pierced. We watched two 12 year-old friends do their's (one of them actually started crying), but she was brave as ever. She hopped up on the chair and never stopped smiling!

We finally put Tyson in a real bed last week. He slept so well in his crib that we haven't been in a big hurry. Andrew's dad made this bed for him when he was little. I think it's so cute and I love the drawers underneath. We actually had to flip over one of the drawers so Ty can get on it himself :) At the foot of the bed his dad carved AJ (Andrew James). I'm really excited to be using it, and Tyson sleeps great in it so it's been a fun change!!

This is just a cute picture of the kids before church on Sunday. I couldn't resist when I realized they all matched :)

Cruisin' to Mexico

First of all, GRACIAS to these two fabulous dancers! My grandparents are the most giving, energenic, wild, and fun people ever. Two years ago for Christmas they gave us a letter saying they were taking the whole family on a cruise as soon as my aunt & uncle were released as mission presidents. There were 18 of us total and we had a blast! Sorry for so many pictures, I had to narrow it down out of WAY too many! Here's our first look at the boat. Quite bigger than we expected!Here's one of the three pool areas on the boat. This is where we mostly hung out. We never actually swam here because we found an indoor hot tub in the workout room that was much warmer!On the second day they had a volleyball tournament that these hotties got jipped out of winning! They put together an all-star team for the final game and they lost to them, but they still had tonz of fun and did awesome!

And here's their hot cheerleaders!-We had dinner every night at 6:00 at the same table. Our waiter was an awesome guy name Jorge from Peru. The 2nd night was a formal night and there were photographers everywhere taking pictures. This makes me laugh just thinking about it-. Andrew was in HEAVEN with the 24 hour soft-serve. He had 5-10 overflowing bowls every day. Our first stop was Puerta Vallarta on Wednesday. This is our group right off the boat trying to make a deal with some locals. Price for anything is always negotiable, which we left up to grandma! I don't like trying to bargain with people. :) Here's the beach they took us to. It was really pretty. The next place we went was Mazatlan. All the guys signed up for a "Off-road 4-wheeler Adventure". They paid $115 to ride down a dirt ROAD at 5 miles an hour and awe at the piles of garbage and the dust from the 4-wheeler in front of them that they had to stay behind. Needless to say Andrew was quite upset with this "adventure".

Meanwhile in Mazatlan the girls did more shopping and found a beach where we gathered lots of sea shells for the kids.Cabo SanLucas was the last stop and by far the best! It was so pretty and more modern than the other 2 stops. We walked along a beautiful boardwalk until we reached a huge beach.

We rented jetskiis here and just soaked up all the sunshine :)
For lunch we found a Hard Rock that was SO yummy!
Cabo was the only place we took a tender from our boat to the shore. This is the view coming back to the ship. It's a giant- This was a view as our boat was leaving Cabo. Someday I'd like to vacation here again, it was beautiful. We brought Ty back this soccer outfit, and Hallie & Janessa these dresses- along with way too much other junk :)What a week! It was so good for us to get away and have some time together. Andrew's wonderful parents took excellent care of our kids which we are so greatful for! They also bought us flights home so we got home in time for dinner on Sun.! Perfect!! Thanks to everyone who helped make this a great week!!

Christmas Break '08

I can not believe the kids are back in school already! We've been looking forward to this long vacation and it flew by way too fast. We did some fun things though, but of course, most of them I didnt' have my camera (some day I'll learn!).
Santa did well this year, Hallie & Janessa were very happy with their MP3 players. We no longer have their radio blasting to listen to, just thier sweet little off-tune voices :)!
I'm sure I've mentioned before that Tyson is in LOVE with Lighting McQueen. He got these little cars and nothing else mattered the rest of the day (if only I'd of known it could have been that easy!)My second son enjoyed Tyson's tent. Santa should have brought him a matching one, I guess... He kept trying to get Tyson to get in it :)Next we went to my parents who always spoil us way more that we deserve. Hallie & Janessa got Pixo's, among several other things...Tyson got an awesome train set with the table that is set up in his room, he & Andrew also put together his new Lincoln Logs.Here's Lynn with his big surprise. We were all anxious to watch him open this, it was tickets to an Atlanta Braves game, his favorite team. He was speachless! If you know him, you know how he loves sports (especially Hillcrest anything!!) It was a good day for him.Here's Marcie & Douglas, I can't believe my brother's getting married- Feb. 6th!! They're so cute & I'm excited for a new sister-in-law, she's super sweet.Later in the evening we went to my G&G Lords and the kids did another nativity, that I actually got a picture of!

This picture was a few days before Christmas when we got a major snow fall. I tried to shovel the driveway since Andrew was working so late but it was too deep for a shovel and I don't know how to run the snowblower. So we're in the kitchen having a snack and the kids heard this loud noise and go running to the window and my uncle had come and plowed our driveway with a tractor!! SO nice of him! The kids couldn't stop talking about it. Also, a few other things- we had Christmas Eve breakfast at G&G Davies and had a nativity there. New Years Day we went bowling with family. The weekend after Christmas Andrew's parents came and we had a great time with them. We also took the kids to Beverly Hills Chiwawa one day... other than these things I can't really think of what else we did:). This week is crazy also. My grandparents are taking us on a cruise this Sunday 'til the next, so we are busy getting ready for that and oh so grateful for Andrew's parents who are coming to stay with our kids! I swear it never slows down around here, but I wouldn't have it any other way...:)

A Day in the Life of Hallie

Here's a typical day in the life of our sweet Hallie. She wasn't very happy that I was going to be taking pictures of her all day :). Her first thing to do every morning is eat cereal. Her favorites are Apple Jacks and Fruity Pebbles.Next is hair. We cut off about 6 inces a couple weeks ago. I guess she's old enough to decide how long hair her hair is. She had to talk me into it though :)Off to school. Andrew leaves at that time every morning so he takes her on his way. It seems like she's gone all day, but thank goodness she loves it and has lots of good friends there.After school is her 2nd lunch. She's always STARVING and always wants a full meal when she gets home! Looks like today was mini corn dogs, a favorite :)Today was a Thurs. so she had gymnastics, although this is her usual after school attire. She is constantly doing handstands onto the couch or running down the hall and doing a round-off or anything similiar. I think I embarrased her at gym, she would NOT look at the weird lady with the camera!Her teacher is my sister, Stephanie, and thankfully she grabbed her (and her friend Riley) so I could get a decent picture. Steph does a great job, we couldn't ask for a better teacher :)After class I talked her into doing a bridge and she was OK with that. She's a bean pole, isn't she?!After gym is dinner and a bath or shower. She was a little upset I was putting this picture on but it was so cute I couldn't resist. (Sorry babe)! We love you Hallie, thanks for being our sweet big girl :)!