Happy Birthday to Ashley!

Our sweet baby girl is FIVE! I can hardly believe it! What a lucky mommy I am to have little Ashley in our home and my life! Looking back through pictures of her as a baby tonight, I feel so happy to have such a beautiful, wonderful daughter. From the moment of her surprise conception (when Luke was only three months old!) she has brought excitement and energy and emotion into our lives!

Her arrival was memorable. I felt so much joy holding our infant daughter in my arms, feeling so content with one sweet son and a new perfect daughter. Her face was like a porcelain doll, oh! I adored her! Where ever we went when she was a baby, people stopped us to comment on her cute, curly, red hair! It was so much fun!

Ashley is such a sweet, kind and tender-hearted girl. Her voice is soft, her touch is soft. I learn a lot from watching her. The bond we share as the only two girls in the family is special. Sandwiched in between two bigger (sizewise) brothers we sometimes worry, but we see the way she looks at them, and them at her and know that she'll be fine her whole life ... It's pretty sweet actually the friendship those three have.

Saturday she had a fabulous #5 Birthday Party, "the most anticipated event of the year", I should have called it. And she was happy!

Taking treats into school today, should be more fun. Happy Birthday, Ashley! We Love You!!









We gave her a big-girl booster seat for her birthday. Ordered in PINK, of course!

Working in New York

This is a picture that Tyler sent me from his phone yesterday. So cool that he is working in New York City!

Check It!

So this summer when I was in Utah I saw a couple billboards along the freeway about the company "Dear Elder.com". It is a website that makes emailing and sending packages to missionaries faster and cheaper.

The billboards stated that the company was looking for the "new face of Dear Elder.com" and said to "nominate your elder today!" I knew Drew (my brother) was cute enough to be the face of Dear Elder.com and his story is definately unique with his challenges with my dad and trying to get out on a mission, so I nominated him!

After some good advice from my aunt to be brief in my essay, and just connect them to the stories and news articles that had earlier been written about him when my dad was sick, I found a handsome picture and sent my entry on its way.

TODAY I got a call... and WE WON!!!

Seriouly, it came out of the clear blue sky and I was shaking as if I'd won the lottery. It was so cool to actually WIN a contest I had forgotten all about - and I'm not sure Drew even knows about!!

They are going to contact him by mail tomorrow and he has to accept the offer. When he does they will sent someone out to take his pictures on a prep-day and then, get this, he will be THE face on their website homepage, THE face on both of the billboards between Salt Lake and Provo and on their mailings!! So fun!!

The crazy thing is that he will still be serving the whole year that he is representing the company, but I'd bet that many people will recongize him around campus when he gets back. And he'll have me to thank for it! :)

Pretty exciting, huh? It's definately been a ride for him the last four or five years since being in high school and my dad's diagnosis. But man, he is right on track now and so happy!

What a hunk of burning love, I tell you.

For all those Wicked suggesters.

I bought our tickets to Wicked for Tuesday night! We are very excited. Monday night I got us a 'New York Lights at Night' bus tour that I hope will be a good choice for seeing the most stuff in the least time. Among the list (and some of the few places that I recognized) are: Times Square, Madison Square Garden, Brookly Bridge, a view of the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Center site, etc. Should be nice.

Tyler will be working during the day so I don't know how much venturing out I will dare, but someone suggested eating and shopping at Serendipity? Has anyone been there or heard of that?

Any other suggestions?

Awesome, Inspiring Video

This video is a grand slam! Sent to me from a CatholicVote website, I am touched and inspired by its messages! So important, and right on! This video is definately worth three and a half minutes of your time. Sit back and enjoy. Let's VOTE!!!

New York City, here we come!

Hey, when life gives you lemons, buy lemonade. That's what I always say. :)

Tyler's been put on a project in NYC this month so we decided that it's in our best interest to take advantage of this opportunity and travel there together! With his flight, food and lodging paid for by the company, it's cheap to only have to buy a flight for me!!

So we just finished solidifying our plans. My mom (thank goodness for awesome grandmas!) is coming, the kids are fine because they had so much fun with Nana last week, and we are leaving in two weeks!

I am very excited because I have only seen New York in the movies. We plan to see a show one night (Wicked?) and maybe do a city tour or something, I need to look more into that. Tyler will have to work during the days, and so I guess I'll just have to figure out how to entertain myself...

alone in a hotel room, are you kidding me?! I daydream about these things!

So I just wanted to share that news. Two years or so 'til the next baby comes (if we have control over it, which we never have...) so we may as well enjoy traveling alone while we can! :)

Eastlake High School Reunion - 10 years later!

Friday night was my 10-year reunion. It was really fun actually to see so many faces that I haven't seen since I graduated and headed off to BYU. It was great to get our old group of girls together, minus Hillary who couldn't make it (we missed you!), for a photo. I should dig up an old one to post with it on here. The night was a success and I am happy that we were there!


Karen, Megan, Jessica, Kristine, Jana, Me and DeeDee

The Whole Gang

A perfect get-away!

Here are some of the many pictures we took this weekend. It was simply dreamy being with Tyler, like the old days without kids, walking casually hand in hand everywhere instead of rushing like maniacs to keep the kids off the street and out of the lakes (I could only imagine!)... These first few are at Pike's Place Market and along the waterfront. As you can see we hit it on a perfectly beautiful day!











Later we went to Gas Works Park to watch the sun set. Tyler was in heaven and we got a lot of nice pictures and then we hustled over the "Troll Bridge" to see him before dark.


Sunday, just before heading to the airport we squeezed one last event in, canoeing at UW. I wish we would have had more time to play and have fun splashing and tipping each other, but we had to be mature, because we had a plane to catch. Shucks, it was still nice.




Ali and Blake are always awesome to be around, they think of fun entertainment and are quite the hosts! Their company, house and food were delightful!

Sleeping in . . . in Seattle!

Tyler and I have left the state of Arizona and have NO kids with us! This is the first time we have left the kids for this long.. in six years since Luke was born! Every year we do get away for a night or two for our anniversary but this is feeling like a real treat! Four days away!

Nana is in town holding the fort down and the kids were just fine saying good-bye to us. She will do an amazing job and we'll be back before we all know it!

Staying with Ali and Blake is so fun. We are seeing their place for the first time, and loving the relaxation of a nice dinner and stroll along the streets of downtown Seattle. It was a beautiful night tonight. Tomorrow Ali and I have facials scheduled with my friend Jana, and the boys will go hang out at UW and play tennis. My ten year high school reunion is tomorrow night so that is the main attraction this weekend... a major blast from the past for both Tyler and I since we both went to EHS!

Seattle is such a pretty place and we have many fond memories of living here. The greenery, and the water so close... when the sun is shining it is dreamy. We are happy to be here!

SHOCKING what can be done in a week! YES!

Obviously, this week we have been diligently working on the rental - and by diligently I mean this is all I have done besides the basic needs of my children (minus the fall off the counter, that was careless). It has been exhausting and overwhelming at times and satisfying to see our efforts pay off.

Tonight we showed the house for the third time to a very nice family who is interested in renting soon. It was fun to let our kids run around the empty home and have a good time and to feel like it was quite "nice" as of this evening, since every day before I would leave them in the car or have them swim in the pool. They couldn't come in.

It is still not perfect, but it is definitely miraculous how much better the place looks. Now a healthy, happy family can actually live there! So we are happy! Tomorrow the vents will all be cleaned and the maids come, Ty hauls off a few more loads of junk and we are DONE! We will have hit our goal to leave for Seattle Thursday ready to rent the place out!! Awesome. Check out these befores and afters:

The Entry

The Family Room Entertainment Center

The Den

The Master Bathroom


A special shout out goes to Blake and Ali again for coming this weekend and being SO helpful to the cause, and to my great husband who juggles it all without complaint or frustration, or anything ugly. He is amazing. And to my feet who have put up with all this crud for the most part in flip-flops . . . and to my back . . .

Happy Birthday to Luke!

Today is Luke's 6th Birthday! It's hard to grasp how quickly time has flown since I had him, my first little baby. We are SO happy to have him in our family!!

Luke is a very special boy. In his room there is a leaf that I have framed that has special significance to me, and just this week he asked me to tell him the story behind it. I said "Before you came into our family, mommy and daddy wanted a baby so much! We tried to have one two times but both times something went wrong and the baby died. Mommy started to get very sad and scared that she might not be able to have her own healthy babies. Every day we would say our prayers and ask Heavenly Father to bless us with a perfect baby to have in our home. After many months of waiting and being scared to try again, mommy was walking home from school on a beautiful fall day and saw a leaf drop off a branch and swirl to the ground right in front of her and I caught it! As I walked the rest of the way home I studied all the parts of the leaf and how perfectly it was made. Just then, I felt a whisper to my heart "If I can create leaves that are so perfect in symmetry and design I can give you a baby that is healthy and perfect!" Tears welled in my eyes and I felt a warm feeling inside and knew that we would be able to have a baby ... and we were! And it was YOU!"

It is such a blessing to be mommy to these precious little children. He was beaming when I shared this story with him and now knows a little better how much we longed for him and how much we cherish him!

He is such a good and fun boy. A great, obedient, smart, happy and helpful kid. He has been a joy to have as a buddy over the last few years and I love him so much!

Fun at the school 50's Dance

Friday night the kids had their first school activity. They were very excited about it and we all had to get dressed up for the fun! Luke was beaming with happiness there and Ashley loved the hula-hoops. We all danced silly together, watched them do the limbo and had dinner.