Wild Wild West Hoe-Down

Well - it has come and gone. My baby is now FOUR YEARS OLD!!!! Here are some pictures of her Wild West Hoe-Down birthday party. She had a blast.

Krystal has such good friends. I'm so grateful to live in this city with so many incredible people!! Here she is with Sophers (left) and Max-a-roo (right) ... she says that Max is the cutest boy in the west! :)

This group of kids amazed me. Aaron's party was about as WILD as it could get. These kiddos would have been content to sit and color/decorate their cowboy hats the whole time! :) I was so lucky to have Marissa and her friends help me! They are awesome!

The rest of the pictures are pretty blurry. Granted - my camera is having issues - BUT ... the kids are SO wiggly too! :)

Lasso practice:


Sidewinder Jump:


Krystal lassos the pony!

A little fun when it all is done...

Happy Birthday my sweet angel! You bring so many smiles and lots of joy into our lives. We are lucky to have ya!!

To Kent and Leisy, Love Aaron

Aaron asked me if we could find a song that he could play on the piano that would show Kent and Leisy how much he loves and misses them. As we looked through the music store - he found this song titled: "Russian Sleigh Ride". His eyes immediately lit up and he said, "This is perfect!"

So, voila - Aaron loves you Kent and Leisy clan ... we all do!

Love Languages

Tyler had me get this book from the library for him to help him research more ideas for the intense marriage counseling he's been doing lately. So, I ended up reading it too -- along with about 3 other books by this same author. :) I find his ideas very interesting and mostly inspiring.

The basic idea is that everyone has a particular "love language" in which they thrive. The 5 different "love languages" are: 1. Quality Time, 2. Words of Affirmation, 3. Gifts, 4. Acts of Service, and 5. Physical Touch.

After reading the book - I discovered that my love language is Acts of Service and Tyler's is Physical Touch. At the end of the book is an extensive quiz to take to determine for sure ... and we were both right on. My Mom, Dad, Kristy, James, and Melynda were all Quality Time ... with close second languages. Due to copyright laws - I'm not sure I can post the quiz on my blog. But, I'm very curious as to what each of you think your love language might be? How do YOU show your love for others (spouse and children mainly)? How do you FEEL love from your spouse? Use only those 5 categories to decide which one fits you best ... and let me know.

Then check out this book if you're interested. I found it to be very insightful ... albeit cheesy at times. :)

PS - Thank you Leisy!! Here is the website to take the quiz to find out what your love language is: http://www.greaterquest.com/LoveLanguages.asp

More Krystal ...

Today in Primary, Krystal gave the 3rd Article of Faith. She's been learning it ALL month, and was so SO excited to recite it today in Primary. She did a fabulous job!

Here she is in a rehearsal. I love this girl!

What Goes Around Comes Around

We have a quirky family. Those of you that know us well can agree whole-heartedly. :) So ... my whole life ... whenever I vacuum - I really like the vacuum lines to line up and be straight. Weird, I know - but it just looks right to me ... and I know I've vacuumed every square inch! :)

Since Krystal has come around - I've had to learn to live without my neat, nice vacuum lines. She calls them "stripes" in the carpet and absolutely HATES them. So ... she usually follows me around while vacuuming to vacuum out the stripes. Tonight she came AFTER I was done - and I was able to catch her on camera.

Silly quirky girl!

Is quirkiness just genetic?

Oh, and just so I never forget ... a few Krystal-isms:

1. After several nice days - we had a small snow storm. Krystal got out of the car, looked around at all the flurry-ing snow and said, "Man, mom - the weather man must be really angry today!"

2. To Tyler in the middle of Sacrament Meeting: Krystal - "Daddy, I really like to hunt!" Tyler - "You like to hunt? What do you hunt?" Krystal - "eggs" (We must have been talking about Easter coming up or something.)

3. After a long silence in the car: Krystal - "Mom - what was that bad word again?" Me - "I'm not going to give you a list of bad words to choose from." Krystal - "Well, Santa Claus doesn't like it when we say bad words." Me - "You are right."

Our Draper Temple Experience

We really procrastinated going to the open house - but, I'm SO glad we were able to get tickets and go on one of the last days available. We all took the day off from work and school - and had a fabulous time together.

Of course, Marissa's glasses broke RIGHT as it was time to get on the bus. AGH! And they would not stay on her face unless she held them up. She was very worried that she wouldn't be able to see any of the temple. We were asking around frantically if anyone had access to the church's library so we could get some tape ... and some genius volunteered a band-aid. Halleluah! Worked like a charm. And - thank heavens she actually had new glasses ordered - they came in a couple days later.

Marissa's bandaged glasses: haha!

Krystal and Aaron were extremely excited about the bus ride. Tyler and I were quite impressed with the lot of LAND ONLY available for $350,000!!!! near the temple. It wasn't much bigger than the land our house is on. WOW.

We had an incredible time - I loved that it was a "silent" tour. Marissa especially loved everything - which pretty much kept my tears flowing the whole time - because I couldn't help thinking about her growing up and the whole "I love to see the temple ... I'm going there someday" issue seemed extra close to home. It helped that Krystal sang that particular song quietly the WHOLE time we were walking along. :)

Marissa and Aaron's favorite was the "mirror" room. Krystal still insists her favorite was the "cookie" room. :)

I'm so SO glad we took the opportunity to go. What a memorable experience!

Wouldn't it be nice ... ?

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday ... that's MY kinda week!

Aaron's 7th Birthday

Aaron had a super fun birthday this year! He invited 10 friends over for a SPY party ... so a lot of the day was spent setting up ....

Here is the balloon pit all ready to go ...

We had the Millers over for Dad's yummy thinnies first thing in the morning. It seriously felt like Christmas to me. Aaron was so excited he was skipping all over the place.

He got a Fuzion Scooter to keep him busy this Summer ...

Kristy and James helped us finish setting up for the Detective Training Obstacle Course. The kids loved the balloon pit!

Here are some random shots of the partay ...

The "Laser Room": (Marissa had 2 of her friends come to help ... I would NOT have survived without them!)

Here is AJ in part of the Booby Trapped kitchen:

Here are the kids in the Detective Disguise Relay:

After the obstacle course ... destroying the pit:

Happy Birthday, my sweet buddy!!

Shadow suspect line-up. Only two kids picked their own profile. :) Aaron invited ONE girl to his party (bless her heart). The funny thing is .... Aaron thought her profile was his .... and Rachelle thought Aaron's profile was hers. hahahaha!

I think it was a good day. I'm so lucky to have my Aar-Bear. He is seriously the best son I could ask for. Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Cast Away

Well, it's been over a week now - but Krystal DID finally get her cast off. Haleluah!! Bathing a 3 year old with a bag over her arm is not the funnest thing I've ever done, to say the least. I only got pics with my cell phone - and the USB ports on our computer are dorky and temperamental ... but, I was finally able to get the pics downloaded ... with a lot of patience, motivational words, cussing, and jiggling of cords for my computer. :)

Here is Krys giving us her tough face before the cast comes off ...

She's not worried AT ALL ...

Aaron, on the other hand - can't even bear to watch (notice him in the background) hahaha! So sweet. He was SO anxious. (No worries - he got a sticker too. :))!

She was a little wary of using her arm the rest of the day ... and pretty much kissed it every few seconds or so ...

The first thing Aaron said when the cast was off (and after he finally looked) was, "Wow, her arm is so skinny!" It really was, even though this picture doesn't show it that great. It just seemed so delicate and weak. (It's totally back to normal now ... a week and a few days later).

Now, keep in mind - I'm not sure it is totally like me to post pictures such as this last one. But, Kent told me to be sure to take a picture of her arm after the cast came off. It's pretty nasty, but cleared up quick ...

She was sportin' the grooviest outfit that day, eh? Ahhh - to be 3 again. We're happy to have her arm back!

Perfect Score!

We knew he would do fabulous -- but, we were quite surprised at what a little performer Aaron is. He didn't act nervous at all for Piano Festival this year. He was the first one in his group to play ... just walked right up on stage and played like a professional! After his first song ... the audience all started applauding. He was a little surprised - and looked out into the crowd with a big huge smile. His next song was the best I have ever heard him play. Some guy came up to him afterwards and said, "I'm sure you got plenty of stars on your certificate ... you are amazing!" (If you get a star with your score - that means a judge gave you a perfect score - 100% - not very common). Aaron had two judges ... and as you can see -- TWO stars!!

WOW!!!

And here's M and Dee at the Jazz game last night We had a blast with M and the Jacksons! Thanks Brand and Teener for keeping Krystal and Aaron. Definitely good times. Aaaaand - the Jazz rocked!