Alyssa's Special Day

April 9, 2011
Alyssa's Baptism Day
Everyone who was able to join us for her special day!

Our little family!

Alyssa with Grandma & Grandpa Saul

Alyssa with Grandma & Grandpa Robison

We love you Alyssa, and are so proud of you!

Celebrating 14 Years!

This year Eric and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary.
On April 4, 1997 we were married in the Manti Temple.

I can honestly say after 14 years, he is still my best friend and I can't imagine life without him.

We had plans to go to St. George for a few days later in April, so I will post about that trip later. Happy Anniversary honey. Here's to another 14 wonderful years!!

Preston's 12th Birthday!

I feel like such a crappy mom because for some reason I
have NO pictures of Preston's birthday. :(

We did have a small party for him. Our family, Grandma & Grandpa Robison, his Aunt Celia, Uncle Jeff, and Cousin Whitney went to Pirate Island! Other than having to wait FOREVER for the food, we had a good time. They have Karaoke, which was entertaining to say the least. :)

Preston turned 12 this year, got the Priesthood, and started passing the sacrament. He was so excited, and loves every bit of it! He has thoroughly enjoyed young mens, and scout camp that he got to go on this year.

For his birthday he got money from Grandpa & Grandma Saul, money from Grandma Wittick, some new ties from Grandma & Grandpa Robison, from all of us he got a really nice sleeping bag, a Star Wars Wii Game, the Fablehaven 5 book, and a new tie tac.

We love you Preston, and are so proud of you!

P.S. Just last month he was made the new Deacon's secretary in our ward.

Alyssa's 8th Birthday!

Finally catching up!! First up: Alyssa's Birthday!

This year for the kids birthdays I wanted to do something cheap, fun, but different. I decided to buy a huge bag of balloons and blow them up while they were at school. Since Alyssa's birthday is first, she got the first batch. Here is a couple pics of 72 balloons all over her room.

It would have been fun to do twice this many, but trust me 72 was enough. She loved it and thought it was so cool to have that many balloons in her room!

For her birthday she wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken, so we invited Grandma & Grandpa Robison over, and just ate, and opened presents. First off she got a new bedspread (you can see it in the background.) The jammies she is also holding were from Grandpa & Grandma Robison.

One of her favorite other gifts, a Justin Beiber shirt!! Also, the sheets next to her new bedspread are from her Great Grandma Wittick!

Next up was a really cute scripture bag from Grandma & Grandpa Saul.

And finally, her very own brand-new set of scriptures engraved with her name!

She was so happy! Here is a final shot of her checking out all her stuff. We let Preston take the photos, so we didn't end up with a shot of cake, or grandma and grandpa sitting there on the couch.

This year we also decided that instead of just adding to a already full toy collection, we would do a "room makeover". (Thus the new bedspread, sheets.) Here is a quick pic of her newly painted room and bedspread which she knew about and picked out herself along with the paint color. We still need to paint her dresser, and add a few more accessories, but it is a start. You can see before pics in the top picture of this post with the balloons.

Maybe we can add a bookshelf, along with a few more things for Christmas. We also need a valance or some curtains too! At least it's a start!

We love you sis! We're glad you had a fun birthday!

Don't Know Where to Start....

Believe it or not I have wanted to blog many times over the last 6 months. I love reading others blogs, and I have just decided mine is too boring.

I have a hard time writing creatively, or finding things that I think are worth blogging about. Something will happen, and I think, "that would make a good blog post." Then by the time I get around to bloggin about it, I don't think it's that exciting anymore.

I love pictures on blogs too, and I seem to be lacking in the picture taking department. That is another reason for my hesitation. We didn't even get pictures on Halloween. How sad is that?

I have sat down a few times trying to organize what pictures we do have and from which events, picking a few to highlight and give anyone who may be reading this an update. Needless to say my follow through has been at level 0.

So at this point, I am just going to bullet a few things we've been doing since my last post!

September:

*We went to the CentraCom summer party! My kids had a ball with the bounce houses, retaining wall, games, cotton candy, and snowcones. Eric works for such a great company, we are SO blessed!

*Eric marched in the governor's day parade. I did get some cool pictures of this. It was hot, but it is always neat to watch this event.

*Eric got promoted to a Sr. Master Sergeant in the Air Force. WAHOO!!!


October:

*Grandma & Grandpa Saul came and stayed with us for a few weeks! It was so nice to have an "RV parking" driveway for their motorhome. It worked perfectly.

*Halloween was fun as usual. The kids love to dress-up, and this year we had a new ward, new school, and new neighborhood. It was great. Preston was an army guy, Jaida and Alyssa were both witches, and Cade was a cowboy again. Our ward had a big dinner, then a trunk or treat. The kids were also able to go trick or treating around the neighborhood, and go to a haunted house that our neighbors put on every year. They thought it was pretty cool!!

November:

*This ended up being a big Usborne event month. I had a booth near the end of October. It was quite successful, and I ended up booking 3 preschool book fairs, and 4 home shows. I already had a few events scheduled as well, so this really kept me busy through the end of the year. It was great! I really love what I do!

*For Thanksgiving we were able to go to Eric's uncle Jim and Aunt Barb's house in Baggs, Wyoming. This was so much fun. We thought the weather might change our plans, but it turned out to be nothing. We loved seeing family and spending a few days together.

December:

*In December we enjoyed a few Christmas parties, and getting ready for the holidays. It was fun to decorate in our new house.

*Christmas was wonderful. The kids were able to get some fun things, and we just feel so blessed to be back in a home again. We had a few ups and downs in 2010, but overall it was a really good year.

January:

*Eric turned 41!!! :) (He will love that I posted that. Ha Ha)

*I attended Usborne regional training. It was great, and I love getting together with all my Usborne friends!!

February:

*Eric had 2 guard drills this month. The last one being a HUGE inspection. They passed with flying colors and he was thrilled to get it overwith!!

A couple other things are in the works and changing for us, but I will post later about that. We have also already started our family's birthdays for the year, but I will create posts for that soon too.

Watch for more updates, hopefully soon!

First Day of School 2010

When we first moved, or knew we were moving to Santaquin I looked into the schools and decided to enroll my kids in C.S. Lewis Academy, a charter school here in town. My kids didn't complain about it, but they weren't necessarily thrilled with the idea. I thought that smaller class sizes might help them, and I felt like the uniforms would be a good thing.

Throughout the summer I was having major anxiety about this. I just couldn't settle and feel good about my decision. Many people have done similar and loved it, so I kept trying to convince myself that I would too. I knew because of the change it would take some getting used to, so I left things alone.

About 3 weeks before school started I changed my mind. I just couldn't rest with my decision, so I pulled them out of C.S. Lewis and put them in the local elementary. AAHHH, finally I can rest. I don't know what it was about it. I guess it is just not for us, at least not at this time.

Excited to start on their 1st day!

Alyssa was a little nervous and shy at first. She didn't want to go in her classroom or anything. A few girls came up to meet her, and introduce themselves, and she still was a little hesistant. Finally I got her to go in with her teacher, and she seemed to relax a little.

Here she is with Mrs. Nilson.

Overall they are thrilled with where they are at! They have loved their classes and their teachers, and seem to be making friends and adjusting really well. Finally now I will be able to sleep at night! :-)

Here's to a great school year!

A Day at the Children's Museum

One of the last Saturdays before school started, we decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum at the Gateway. We hadn't been up there yet, and Preston had got a coupon for us to go, so we figured why not?

Here is the kids outside the museum. Cade refused to get in the picture. I think he was ready for a nap at this point.

And you can't go up to the Gateway without playing in the Splash Pad! I guess we should have brought our full blown swimming suits!

We definately had a fun day!

Orchard Days Parade 2010

Eric had to go to guard the weekend of Orchard Days, so it was just me and the kids for the Santaquin Days Parade. They always love to see the floats, horses, motorcycles, and of course getting the candy!!!
It was perfect weather, and slightly overcast, so not too hot! I just posted our favorite parts that I was able to get on camera. Enjoy!

The End!