Jeff's Birthday!!

Jeff's birthday was really fun. So fun that I forgot to take pictures!

This semester has been a crazy one already and I knew Jeff really needed a break. I would have liked to surprise him, but he usually does school work on Sat.  so I let him know ahead of time that we'd be doing something fun. That way he got in all the extra hours during the week. Then,  Shar & Trav watched the boys so we could go on an all-day date.

It was WONDERFUL to have so much time together. We spent the day eating lots of yummy food, shopping for his birthday gifts, and just talking and enjoying the time together.  It was perfect and so much fun!!  

On Sunday we did our family celebration. The boys helped make Jeff's yummy dessert and we decorated. They loved drawing on each balloon for Jeff! 

We just got him one of his favorite study snacks since he had picked out his gift on our date the day before.

We absolutely love Sundays because it is our one day with Jeff all to our selves.  

It was so fun to be able to celebrate him and show him  how much we love him!!

Happy Happy Birthday, Babe.

You know how much I love and appreciate you, so I'll save the mushy stuff for your card.

Love you! 

Here's to being 31!!

Family Photos Fall 2012

We decided to try out Fotoflyaway this year for family pictures. They did not disappoint!  The photographers who worked with us were absolutely amazing. They were so much fun and were able to get our kids laughing and smiling naturally. It was wonderful. 

We sure love our boys and think these photos captured them perfectly!!

Our sweet Weston...looking so old!  

Funny funny Tave always making us laugh!

 Mischievous Ryder, melt my heart!

Adorable Callen giving us his serious look!

 These boys have my heart.

 Our family of six. 6!  Love them.

I adore this family of mine.

So in love with this man.

We saved our favorite family photo for Christmas cards....so you'll have to wait until then to see it! ;)

Jeff's Birthday Celebration!!

The boys were pretty insistent that Daddy have a cake & party. And since we had done the big part of Jeff's birthday as a date with the two of us, we figured they deserved to be in on some celebrating too! 

I made a cake that Jeff likes better than others (spice cake) and we did the whole singing she-bang.

It was simple and sweet and just right. (according to Jeff!!)

Singing to daddy:

I love how you can see West helping in the corner:

Ryder was SO funny, he didn't know what to think of the candles: 

Then we gave Jeff his gift from the boys:

We made a cars track t-shirt**!! Then the boys each picked out their own car that goes with Daddy's shirt-  so the cars only come out with the shirt!! (that way they'll be excited about using it on the track)  I did the drawing and the boys picked the colors. Then they helped draw the lines on the road. It turned out really cute:

Giving daddy his car massage:

Ryder has discovered the joys of wrestling and rough housing. So seeing daddy on the floor pretty  much meant the car massage was over... 

and it quickly turned into a 'get daddy' session!

It was a hit, though, and next time maybe we'll try it when this crazy little man is sleeping. ;)

**idea via pinterest, found here.

Happy 30th Birthday Jeff!!!

My fabulous hubby turned the big 3-0!!  

I wanted to really make this birthday special...but let's face it, he's in school and working all day, every day and I'm pregnant with three kiddos at home. 

Life is busy.

So the week long trip to Hawaii will have to wait until an anniversary after he has graduated!  :)

In the meantime, we tried to do a bunch of fun things to let Jeff know just how much we love him.

He came down the stairs in the morning to 30 balloons attached to 10 of his favorite treats and 20 notes of things we love about him.  It was a fun little surprise:

The boys and I brought  him lunch at work. J-Dawgs for Jeff & I (his request, mmmm) and Mcdonalds for the boys. Perfect. It is always so fun to see him in the middle of the day!! 

Ryder parked himself in a desk and was so cute sitting there:

Jeff helped the boys put together their toys, they were pretty thrilled:

Playing in Dad's classroom is always fun. Ryder decided this ball was the best seat:

And West & Tave's favorite activity is always drawing on the board:

We brought the 20 balloons with notes so Jeff could read them throughout the day:

I made Jeff's favorite dinner for when he got home. And I told him I would make ANY dessert he wanted.

Since he's not a fan of cake, he just wanted ice cream. 

Easy-peasy. We took the kiddos with us to Cold Stone to celebrate in style:

And of course he had to blow out at least one candle for those 30 years!

His gift from me was a long (8 hour!!) date on Saturday. 

(Thanks to Shawn & Abby for watching the kiddos in the day 

and Steph & Brett for the evening babysitter swap!)

I let Jeff pick what he wanted. So we:

Went to the temple, out to eat, and to a movie. We really wanted to pick up his present but it won't get to Costco until Feb. 3rd. So you know where we'll be that weekend, Jeff can't wait! :)

Happy Happy Birthday, Babe. 

You know how much I love you. 

6 years. Aug 5-6th

Since we were camping with the fam. on our 6 year anniversary, we celebrated a few weeks later.

It was simple and sweet and just perfect.

Thank you to our wonderful family and friends who watched the boys so we could have a night away! 

The boys all started out Friday at friend's houses, then Jonathan & Rachel watched them over night and then Shawn & Abby had them all day Sat.  It was so wonderful to have time to ourselves and to go where we wanted on our own schedule. It was pretty much heaven. :)

We have a tradition of doing sealings at the temple every year on our anniversary. We decided to try to go to every temple while we're here in Utah and close to so many. We are so blessed. 

We went to the Jordan River temple:

Afterwards we went out to eat and then headed back to our hotel in Draper.  It was nice being out of the provo/orem area.  

Sat. we slept in (bliss) and then Jeff surprised me by taking me to our favorite place for breakfast: Kneaders. Mmmm...cue mouth watering.

Then we went to a movie and then to the Provo river to do some canoeing.

It was so calm, quiet, and serene.  We loved it!!

We've had so much moisture this year, so the river was really high. We had to crouch down super low in the boat to go under this bridge:

It was hard to take a picture of Jeff, who was behind me and I was crouched down on the floor of the canoe...so it had horrible lighting, hence the black and white:

Our view once almost to the lake:

After our canoe trip, we headed to PF Changs.  This is where we went to dinner after Jeff proposed, so it was fun to go back.

The past 6 years have been amazing.  I love this man more than I ever thought possible.

Happy Anniversary, babe!

Happy Father's Day!!

I have been so blessed to have the most amazing Dad. I look up to him in so many ways and am forever grateful for all that he taught me and does for me & my family.  Because of him, I had the bar set pretty high for my future husband.  I am so lucky that I found someone who would be an incredible father to our children.

I know that is due to the amazing example his own dad was to him. 

We are deeply blessed to have wonderful father's who we love so very much.
Happy Father's Day Dads! 

This doesn't quite cover it, but Thank You for everything.

Jeff is the best dad to our boys. 

He plays with them, laughs with them, and teaches them.

I love watching them together and seeing the magic that happens when a daddy loves his boys.

We spent the day together and it was perfect and relaxing, just how Jeff wanted it!

The boys drew him pictures:

And then gave him the shirts THEY picked out for him:

Tave was a little excited, and told him about an hour before Jeff opened it that we got him a Transformer shirt. Silly  kiddo, where was this when I needed it: ;)

All in their transformer shirts. (I am dying over this adorable shot!)

Ryder loved our special father's day dinner of calzones:

These boys love to wear their daddy's shoes:

My favorite guys:

I hope we were able to show you  just how much you mean to us!

Happy Father's Day, Babe!