Sunday, August 23, 2009

The things we learn in Primary

On Sundays at dinner we have each tell about what we learned that day. Casey starts telling us a story about what he learned...
Casey:So Jesus told Nephi and Aron not to eat this fruit.
Mom: you mean Adam and Eve?
Casey: yea, and they were not supposed to eat this fruit or they would have to leave the island
Dad: you mean the garden?
Casey: Yea
Dad: it wasn't Jesus it was Heavenly Father
Casey:Yea
Have Chad and I slacked a bit in the teaching of the story of Adam and Eve to our children??? Hmmm...

It is official

What started out as job to help make ends meet for a couple of months has become permanent. We are officially members of the Costco family and it looks like we will be staying.
After working at Costco for 1 year and 1 month Chad was given a promotion to be the supervisor over the meat department. Costco is such a great company to work for. I want to say Congratulations to my baby! I have been so proud of you and all the work you have done to support us this last year and a half specifically, but really for the 10 years of our marriage. Thank you for the crazy hours you work and the long hours you put in still working 2 jobs. I can't adequately express my love and appreciation for all you do for me and the kids, but I want to let you know that I do appreciate it. I know you were not excited about starting at Costco and even less excited when they asked you to start training in the meat department, but I'm glad you did it anyway. You even admitted to me the other day that you are enjoying it :). I know you are still tired a lot and don't always enjoy the hours, but I'm grateful for your work ethic and your desire to support your family no mater what. I married a great man and I want you to know that I know it. I love you, thanks for everything.

Our home improvements

When Chad was working for Henly Homes they did a house in this tile that is made to look like wood and Chad liked it. The supplier has some leftover in a warehouse and offered it to Chad a good price. After losing his job with Henly he finally had time to lay the tile! We also got new floor boards and once they were in we had a bunch left over so we decided to put up a chair rail. Well when you have a chair rail, you have to paint! so here are pictures of the work we did a month or so back. The next project is a desk for the computer.


Oh and the picture of Tyler in the ceiling... Our cable hookup was on wall, but the TV was on the other. We ran the cable under the carpet, but obviously that is not an option with tile so we had to reroute the cable hookup to the other wall. We took it through the ceiling hence Tyler crawling through the ceiling.


Back to school!

WOO HOO!! School has started. The morning dawned bright and early with a lovely breakfast from the pancake fairy in the form of Teddy bear pancakes for breakfast. What a special way to start this joyous occasion
On the way out the door Aiden was quite upset that he did not have a back pack like everyone else, so Tyler let him wear his backpack.
School starts at 8:15 and since I had to be at work at the very same time I got someone to cover my shift because I didn't want to rush and not get them all dropped off the proper classes. Here is a picture of the kids all posing on front of school while we waited for the gates to open.
Casey with his teacher Mrs. Voss. Casey is starting the fourth grade this year and is excited to have lots of his friends in his class. He even gets to sit by his best friend Joey. Casey is excited for this new year...can't you tell my the joy in face?!?!
Courtney and her teacher Mrs. Norris. Mrs Norris was a first grade teacher last year and has moved down to kindergarten this year. Courtney doesn't know anyone in her class, but is very excited to make lots of new friends. She is very excited to finally be going to school. Courtney's class is the sprout class, which I find very fitting for her...flowers and all.
Tyler is going into second grade and we were lucky enough to get the same teacher Casey had, Mrs. Mayville. We love her and Tyler is loving Second grade so far. He also has lots of friends in his class.
After dropping the kids off and getting out of there way past when I would have had to be at work. Aiden and I ran off to Walmart to pick up all school supplies that I did not get for the kids yet. It was tough convincing them to go without them on the first day, but I assured them I would go straight over and get them. Let me tell you it was so fun to juggle three lists of supplies, scour all the different isles, keep Aiden from grabbing things off the shelf as we passed by and retrieve all the thing that he threw from the cart. I thought this was going to be easier with only one kid!
Every one enjoyed their first day of school and I enjoyed pretending like life was normal again and I didn't have work waiting for me on Wed. Aiden took a super early nap and I got the house cleaned. It was great. I find that I like when school is in. Not only because the kids are there and not at home picking on each other, but because I operate much better on a schedule. Here is to a new school year

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Our 10th Anniversary

It all started off with roses and a beautiful card.

On august 6th Chad and i celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. 10 Years !!! We had planed on taking a cruise for our 10 year, but alas finances did not permit. We have not given up on the idea though, just postponed it :). I found out my parents were going to be in town on our anniversary so I jumped on that chance to ask my dad to stay with he kids so we could get away. He of course said yes and away we went to Scottsdale to stay at the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch. It was so beautiful. We got it off of price line, so we got a great rate.Here is our view from our balcony over looking the Lily pond.
Here is our king size bed. Chad has been asking for one for a couple of years.
Chad laughed at me, but I had get a picture of thew bathroom too. it was so pretty. I loved to sink. To that Chad said I obviously don't look at pluming magazines !?!?!?! obviously.

I know I'm a dork, but I was impressed with the name brad toothpaste and the individually wrapped cotton balls and q-tips.

We ate dinner at the fancier restaurant the the hotel had to offer. It was an Italian place and I enjoyed the food. we started off with bread and oil and bread sticks.

They had a menu to choose items for an anti pasta appetizer. We had a cheese that I don't remember the name of, but it was very much like a Bree, proscuitto, Bruchetta with roasted tomatoes and a caprese with the freshest mozzarella I think I've ever had.

I was so excited for dinner i forgot to get a picture of it!! It was yummy. Chad had a fettucini past with veal and a red sauce. I had a breast of Chicken over portabello mushroom and potatoes. The ck was so great. It had a perfect seer on the skin that was crispy and the meat was perfectly cooked. I swear it was the best piece of chicken I've ever had. Then they brought us as a complimentary dessert for our anniversary a creme brulee !!! my favorite dessert of all. What are the chances. It even came with fresh berries, again my favorite way to have it. And with dessert came a card signed by all the staff at the restaurant, how sweet.



When you eat at this restaurant you get tickets to ride the godole which is one of the main reasons we chose this hotel so off we went for our ride.

it was so neat and romantic. the gondolier serenades you with a couple of songs in Italian. The ride is about 15 min and it was lovely. The gondolier had a great operatic voice. I was very impressed.

We also chose this Hotel for the great pools they have which we unfortunately never got around to swimming in. We did get a couple of pictures of them though. Here is me trying out one of the cabanas which was very comfy by the way



one of the pools is a beach pool complete with sand. The kids would have loved it! These kids had a quite a sand castle built. I guess it is easier to built one when the waves are not constantly tearing it down.

After sleeping in wonderfully late we haded downstairs to have breakfast. Chad had Belgian waffles, boring. I had Southwest eggs Benedict. It was a poached egg on a homemade biscuit topped with a grilled tomato, chorizo, guacamole and Chile hollandaise with potatoes. it was so yummy I couldn't eat it all, chad had to help me.
After breakfast we went back to our room and promptly fell asleep til check out time. I wish we could have stayed another night but my parent were leaving the next morning. After checking out we checked out we did a little window shopping and went to the movies. The only movie playing was the proposal which I had already seen but we saw it anyway. i still liked it and Chad laughed quite a bit too. We had 6:00 reservations at the melting pot since I have dreaming about it since our last visit. it was as yummy as I remembered and this time we even got one of the private booths complete with a little curtain for privacy. It was very cozy.


After dinner we headed home, our night away was over. It was so nice so relaxing and so filling. I think we each gained a couple of pounds.

Daddy's eating habits

As I looked over Chad's desk the other day I realize that it told a very real story of his eating habits. Here is a picture of his desk. Messy, yes but what do we find on a closer inspection.....
An empty bag of Flipps, Chocolate covered pretzels.....
An empty bottle of Pepsi and an empty super big gulp cup....
An empty bag of Twizzlers, but wait those are not just regular Twizzlers those are jumbo 18 inch Twizzlers....
A cup used to dispose of the shells of sun flower seeds, an empty Mike and Ike box, an empty bag of caramel flavored Quaker rice cakes and yet another empty bag of Twizzlers.
Now I realize that half of this I did buy so the blame is partly mine. The kids an I try to tell him he should not eat so much junk food, but he is a grown man and makes that choice for himself. I try to get treats to stock that he may have some every once in a while. Unfortunately he does not see it the same as I and eats it up as soon as buy said treats. Well anyway... I thought it was funny when I saw his desk and had to take this moment to document it for the children :)

Court in Cheer

Court participated in a cheer class this summer. In offered through the gym I work at. I figured since she has always watched her brothers at sports and stuff, it was her turn for a class. She had lots of fun and loved to recite her cheers and show me the moves they learned.



With her teacher

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I got a hair cut!

Bad picture, but I had to show it off. I got it cut and I'm loving it. Chad really likes it too. It is so easy to care for.

It a good thing he is only two and doesn't realize I forgot his birthday

It's not like I don't when his birthday is.....I just didn't realize the 20th had actually arrived! I called chad and he reminded me that it was Aiden's birthday. What!!! is it the 20th? We were on our way out to go the the pool where we met friends of his. I desperately started thinking about what we could do for his birthday. He loved pizza, so we got pizza for dinner. He got his very own small pizza.

He loved it. And his brothers and sister were so excited for him. I went to Fry's and got him this cute giant cupcake decorated like a base ball. I then proceeded to drop it on it's side when I got home. Could this get any worse?!?!

Again, luckily hi is only turning two and doesn't realise how terribly things are going. He did get to go to Disneyland too (see previous month). He still had a great day and the kids loved singing to him and wishing Happy Birthday all of the second half of the day.
Here a coupl of videos. One is his blowing out his candles. The next one, he got a birthday card from his greatgrandparents. In the card was 3 dollars and when he opened it he said "my dollar" it was cute, and I didn;t know he knewthe word dollar. so we had to get it on video. I only wish I had gotten it the first time when he opened his card. In the last one the kids were asking him how old he was and he kept saying 5!