house party

Monica bought a new home in Smithfield this summer and she finally invited us all over to fill her new house with love!! Her backyard walks out to a nice grassy area and a pavillion. We ate pizza and popsicles outside and had a great time. Of course a family get together calls for photo extravaganza. Here are a few...




Mom had the urge to do 2-man sommersaults. She thought it was crazy that no one could do them. I am not sure why she thinks that is an easy feat, but luckily she did not try it for herself, cause it is hard.

I don't think anyone mastered it.


10 grandkids...pretty good looking group of rugrats. Mom loves the lined up pictures of oldest to youngest. The little's were not lovin the photo shoot.


The Bigs that do not appreciate being called kids anymore(mostly the girls...they are teenagers!)
Jacob, McKenzie, Alexander and Alexa.




Rockstars! They make me happy.


Owen unhappy that I would not let him play in the big water drain pipe thing. I know, I am mean. Cute Brooklyn posing.









Unsure if this kid could be any cuter! I love this bottom one with the tree. He makes me smile.

I wish Monica would stop buying crazy, possessed appliances that shoot you in the face when you are trying to get a drink. Seriously, a trick fridge Monica...nice.

We are so excited for Monica's new purchase and had a great time at her new home.

trampoline sleepover

Jason had to stay up late last night doing homework and waiting for Jennifer to get to our house(flying in from Cleveland) so Owen and I decided to sleep on the trampoline at Grandma and Grandpa's. It was Owen's first time...pretty exciting. We got all settled and snuggled and then he said "what we doin out here mom?" We looked at the stars and talked for about 10 minutes and then he decided he wanted to go inside and play. I explained that we were sleeping outside and tried to tell him how fun it was but he started crying. Grandma came out and snuggled with him for a while and got him to stop crying. I sang Rock-a-bye-Baby probably ten times and he was fast asleep. It took me a while to fall asleep cause I got a little nervous. The huge pine trees that used to protect mom and dad's backyard were cut down this summer, so it felt a little too open and unfamiliar for me. Plus, I always convince myself that someone is waiting to attack.

We woke up super early and watched the wild animals enjoy the morning. All sorts of birds and squirrels running around making loud noises. Owen said he had fun sleeping on the trampoline.

6 weeks

cuter every day. cried first real tear(heartbreaking). has started sleeping 10 or 11pm - 6 or 7am. good boy!

Jayse Lyle

8-29-09

healthy baby. happy mom.

month and a half apart.

Congrats Angela and fam. We are so excited to have Jayse in the family!

5 weeks

finally starting to like the swing a little bit. this is the first time he has fallen asleep in it.

smiles and talking has started this week. very cute.

ZOOM ZOOM

Goodbye old Honda. You will be missed...

...sort of.Two car seats in the back of the Honda left us with little to no room. We could not take any other passengers and with two strollers in the trunk I could barely fit groceries in the car. Jason agreed to go and "look" with me. Before the Accord we had a Mazda 3 wagon and I loved it. I have been dying for a Mazda CX-7 since they came out. A cross over that gets pretty good gas mileage. So, looking at cars I thought we would be looking at the CX-7's but when we got there Jason thought it made more sense to get something bigger than a 5 passenger(since that is what we already had). Jason has always talked about getting a mini van and has not showed any interest in an SUV of any type(besides a Navi..get real Jas). Apparently he was not serious about his mini van comments which I was relieved about cause I never really saw myself driving one, especially at 27 years old and two kids. I don't have anything against the mini van though, just not really for me.
Anyway, we decided to focus on the CX-9's. We test drove at least 4, maybe 5. We had an awesome salesman, Karl, who actually started us in the cheapest one, which we were both surprised about. I liked it, but didn't fall in love. Then we just kind of went down the line and when we test drove the silver 2008, I fell. I loved it and so did Jason. A car lot in Orem went bankrupt so Bountiful Mazda got some of their inventory. It was a brand new 2008 with 190 miles on it. After 6 hours with Karl, we finally bought the car. I was worried that Jason would have buyer's remorse, but he was just as happy about the purchase. I am very excited to have our family grow in this vehicle.
Owen went with us and was a very good boy considering the situation. At one point we had to strap him in his car seat in the dealership, but even still, he was pleasant. When we left the dealership we was talking about "ours awesome new car" and calling it Megatron. Karl hooked us up with some free Mazda stuff and so I had Owen model it.

someone's garbage ... my treasure

I have been wanting a bookshelf for all of Owen's books. They are always all over the living room and so I just wanted a cheap little one. I asked my mom if she had one I could use cause she has a garage and three rooms full of randomness. One day we were going down town together and my mom spotted this bookshelf next to a dumpster in the USU student housing parking lot. We turned around and decided that this old dresser with three missing shelves would be perfect for me. My mom has an eye for spotting this kind of stuff. So I called my dad to come and load it in his truck. I said, "Hi dad, can you come to the dumpster and load up an old dresser for me?" He said, "no!"(remember how I said my mom has room fulls of randomness...thus the response. He did not want more "stuff"). When I told him it was for me, he was relieved and happy to come help. Soon after, I got a call from Jason and he asked what I was having my dad do and I told him loading a bookshelf. He asked how much it cost(with some irritation in his voice) and I said, "Jas, it's free...it's garbage." I think this made him a little more irritated. Anyway, me and my mom got a good laugh out of the men's reactions.

BEFORE

DURING

FINAL PRODUCT

It ended up costing me $10. Not bad at all. Jason even made it shorter for me so it's pretty much exactly what I wanted.