Wow a Year Old

I am not sure Mandie will get around to posting for a bit, but I thought I would get on and make a quick post as I had an interesting morning. It seems that for the last 2 years we have had a baby in our house at all times, but this morning my little baby girl turned one, yeah I know ONE. Now I have two little one year olds in the house and thank the Lord for this blessing. She was willing to give me a big hug and just let me hold her this morning what a great gift she is. I love my little Tahlia and realize the Lord knew we needed her. Tahlia, Happy Birthday. You are loved.


We decided to have donuts to help us celebrate... Tahlia loves donuts!


Jannuzzi's sent Kairi a present and I forgot to take it with us to her birthday party, so we decided to have her open it on her birthday. It turned out to be nice. Thanks for the doll and toy Jannuzzi's!

Easter

We spent Easter in Idaho again this year. It is always fun to go and visit my family. It is a big trip now packing for 6 for just a few days but it is always worth it. We let the kids color Easter eggs last Thursday night. They absolutely loved it. Reagan and Kairi were double and triple dying their eggs... most of their eggs turned out pretty well. Camden and Dane just wanted to keep dunking their eggs. Dane even decided to try drinking it! Crazy Dane! No major spills happened though. On Easter morning we woke up and had breakfast, let the kids go through their Easter baskets and then we had to get ready for 9 o'clock church. Reagan was pretty upset that there weren't any eggs to get. We didn't want to do the egg hunt until after church so we wouldn't be late. So, we had the Easter Bunny write a not explaining when the egg hunt would happen. That satisfied her for awhile. We went to church and then came home and waited for Dane to come over for the hunt. Alan and Bryce had hidden the eggs. So, about 12:30 they started finding eggs. They had a blast! Dane was using his chin and every other part of his body that he could to gather eggs. Reagan took off running getting as many as she could. We had to remind her that there were younger people that still needed to gather eggs. Kairi and Camden had a great time finding eggs too. When they emptied their candy I was amazed at how much fits into eggs. We had way too much candy! What a fun tradition we have started with out kids. On Monday, after we got home, we talked about the reason we celebrate Easter. The girls were really receptive. We have great girls that are learning so much about the gospel. I can see that they will be teaching me many things.
























Camden and Dane wanted to eat all the candy that came out of their eggs.

Weekend at Duncan's

We went to Idaho for Spring Break/Easter. We did a lot of things in four days. Alan and my brother Bryce went golfing twice. My sister's, mom and I went shopping, we colored easter eggs, had Tahlia's birthday, Kahler was blessed and then Easter Sunday. We had a great time... it's always hard to go back to normal life. It is so nice to go and spend time with my family. I miss them a lot. It is hard to have us inundate their lives when we come so thanks to my family for putting up with us. We love you all!




Tahlia loves Kahler!




I think the kids ate more cheese than they put on the pizzas.


I'm not really sure why Dane was in the fridge, but it was a cute picture moment.


Camden loves Kahler too!














Cute Kahler in his blessing outfit.

Tahlia's 1st Birthday

I can't believe that my baby is 1! We were not planning on having a baby after Camden but Heavenly Father had another plan for us. I can't imagine her not being in our family. She is such a joy! Here are some things we love about Tahlia:
1. She is happy.
2. She loves to be with her family
3. She is trying to be so independent
4. She has cute chubby checks
5. She gets so excited to see her mom and dad
6. She completes our family
7. She has an infectious smile
8. She makes us laugh

I don't have words to express how much we love Tahlia. I'm so grateful to be her mom. Happy Birthday Tahlia!


Tahlia started opening presents by herself but with older siblings that soon changed.




Tahlia mostly got clothes because we already have too many toys.




She couldn't keep the flower on her head long enough for a picture.


We thought that she would be more aggressive with her cake. She started digging into it but then started eating everything that she got on her fingers. She ate more of the cake than the rest of our kids did! Then we gave her a spoon and she was able to eat more of the cake and even try and feed others.


She loved feeding her dad.




Before we knew it everyone was eating cake with Tahlia.

No More Baby Car Seats!

We have taken Tahlia out of her baby car seat. She is almost a year and we getting harder and harder to put in it because she hates it. She loves sitting forward like the rest of the kids. A few days before we moved her out I caught her climbing in her car seat. She is crazy but we love her!

30th Birthday

Well, it's official, I'm 30 years old. People keep asking me if I feel older or weird, but I can honestly say I don't. It is different saying 30 but not weird. I feel like I have accomplished so much in my life that I should be 30. I have been married for almost 7 years, I have 4 kids, I have a teaching degree and I'm going to start my masters program this summer, I have a house and am active in a great ward. I have a lot to show for my 30 years. Alan, surprised me for my birthday and got his parents to watch the kids for the whole weekend. He took me to a place called The Homestead in Midway, Utah. It is up past Park City and is a really pretty area. We left last Friday April 3rd after I got off of work. We actually drove through Provo Canyon to get there because it's a pretty drive. Saturday morning we ordered breakfast into our room and had a pretty lazy morning. Around 11:30 we went to see what we could find in Midway... there is nothing. We had to drive to Heber to find a store or restaurant. We went back the Homestead a little before two because we had an appointment to swim in their crater. The crater is 60 feet deep and his filled with natural mineral water. It is around 90 degrees all year round. People come from all over to scuba dive and experience the crater. I had never seen anything like it... After our swim we had appointments for a massage. I love a good massage. No one is as good as my sister Leslie though! It was really relaxing. Then we went back to our room and got ready to go to dinner. We found a local restaurant to eat at. It was so nice to eat our food right when it came to our table instead of getting our kids ready to eat first. Saturday ended with us watching the NCAA tournament. Sunday came to quickly. We had to check out by noon. What a great weekend away. It was just what I needed. Thanks for the great birthday Alan.


You walk into the crater through a tunnel. To the left is the dressing rooms... a little scary.


The walls inside the crater are naturally made by the mineral water, we were asked not to touch them.




This is were you could sit and soak if you didn't want to swim out. Not too many people can sit and soak though.


A group of scuba divers about to go under.


You can climb to the top of the crater and look down. It's 60 feet to the waters surface.




We saw a lot of deer up there.

March Happenings

I know that it is mid April, but I haven't had time to update my blog for awhile. Not much happened in March so here are a few random pictures of what did happen.


Kairi taking care of Tahlia.... she loves do things for her.


Camden and Tahlia taking a bath...


Reagan had crazy hair day at school. She was excited for about a week before. Her teacher had cancer so she is wearing a wig and told the kids if they all did their hair crazy she would not wear her wig. It's a little hard to see Reagan's hair, but she had a blast!


Camden helping with Saturday clean up... he tries really hard!


Tahlia crawled under the table while Camden was sweeping and started to eat leftovers from breakfast.


Someone in our family can always be found doing some kind of an art project.


Reagan is doing so well learning how to write. We got her a notebook to help her organize her writings.