Ten Years!

Ten.  TEN YEARS!  The beginning of May, Jacob and I celebrated our ten year anniversary.

A lot can happen in ten years.

A lot has happened in ten years.

We started as a family of two and are now a family of SIX.  SIX!  It's really amazing what ten years will do.  Yes, yes, I know it's all relative.  Many people have been married for a lot longer than that.  Someday in our gray hairs we'll look back and giggle.  But for now, it's a big deal and we wanted to celebrate!

For the past few years Jacob and I have talked about doing a big vacation for our 10 year anniversary.  We toyed around with a few options but eventually decided on.....

....HAWAII!

Can't you just hear the waves?  Taste the pineapple?  Smell the salty sea air?  Want to pull your hair out from saying "Aloha" 76 times a day?  I miss it already.  It was beautiful.  So without further ado, I hereby document OUR HAWAII TRIP.  

Since we flew out of Vegas Friday morning, we decided to get a cheap room in Mesquite the night before.  We made it down just in perfect time to hop on our plane and be on our way.  With the exception of the first hour, this is what I saw the remaining 4 1/2 hours on the plane:

 Water.  More water.  I always love being able to watch out the window when I fly, so I got a window seat.  Well, I didn't clue into what it would mean to be squished next to the window for the nearly 6 hours we would spend in a plane.  So I got smart and changed our returning flight seats to an aisle seat.  I prefer leg room over the hours of watching the Pacific Ocean and figuring out a new way to move my legs to get comfortable!  But, we made it, and it didn't take long for me to turn into the ultimate tourist and start taking pictures at the airport.  I just couldn't help myself.  I WAS REALLY, TRULY IN HAWAII!  Pinch me, Jacob!

We made it out of the airport, found the shuttle for our rental car, got a car all situated and headed on our way to our new home for the next 7 days.  I just have to add it was a HUGE bonus to have packed the GPS.  That little device saved our bacon and made our trip so much better!

We took some appreciated advice and decided to get out of Honolulu and stay in a condo out near the North Shore.  The drive up there was amazing.  I felt like I was driving through the exotic plant section of the Home Depot.  We were both in awe.  The vegetation was gorgeous!  And the flowers- oh the flowers!  Jacob loved all my little pit-stops to get pictures of flowers.  Like this:

And this:

And these too!

 Oh my heart.  So amazing! 

Here is the view from our lanai (balcony):

Um, can you say heaven?  I LOVED listening to the waves each night and morning.  

Speaking of night,  Hawaii is 4 hours behind us.  So what that means is that by 7-8:00 Hawaii time, we were so beat!  Thank goodness the sun goes down early so we didn't feel like we were missing out on anything.  Early to bed, early to rise.  Like, 5:00 in the morning rise!  Not too bad considering we got to watch the sun come up.  This was our little welcome gift for our first morning in Hawaii:

The best things in life really can't be bought.  So incredible.

Okay, all this talk of flowers and sunrises got me off track.  I need to finish off our first day.  So, we got to the condo then decided to get out and tour around our new little area and grab some groceries to have on hand.  While out and about, we drove past this awesome little fruit stand.  Pull over, Jacob!

I MUST try some coconut!  Grab a good one Jacob!

This guy and his wife own the fun little fruit stand.  For all you BYU football fans, come to find out the man who runs it is the father of Reno (Junior) Mahe.  Kind of fun!  He was a really nice man and cracked open my coconut in no time: 

First, drink the coconut water:

Second, try not to gag on coconut water.  Who really pays for this stuff?  Bleh!  I wanted so bad to like it!  Nope.  Not gonna happen.  I didn't want to offend the Mahe's so I had to pretend.  Did you know there is a LOT of water inside a coconut?  Well, there is.

Third, eat the coconut.  Ok, so here's the deal.  Jacob botched the whole getting a good coconut deal.  I at least like to throw some blame his way.  I think mine was a really young coconut because the inside was....how do I explain it?  Gooey?  Chewy?  Soft?  Rubbery?  Once again, disappointment.  But hey, the flowers were amazing.  And it makes for a great drinking-out-of-a-fresh-coconut picture, right?  Of course!  At least we came back to the condo with an amazingly fresh and ripe pineapple so it more than made up for it.

And well, that pretty well sums up our first day getting into Hawaii.  Oahu, to be exact.  So far...amazing!  Despite some coconut issues.  Stay tuned for day two!  And three and four and five and six and seven.  And wishing there was eight and nine and ten and eleven and.........

A Beautiful Day

We always love going up north to visit family, but we especially love going up north for very special occasions.  The end of April we headed up to Logan for just such an event:

Marlene and Jesse's 

Wedding!

We had a good day to play before the big celebration.  Jacob and Ty headed out with the boys to do all sorts of cattle wrangling.  The girls stayed back at Grandma's house to enjoy some cherished time with COUSINS!  If the boys were going to be out cattle wrangling, the girls were going to do some puppy wrangling.  Poor little things.  I'm talking about the puppies:

Kenna loved that this one was so snuggly:

Allie just loved having something to pester:

And Lexi wasn't quite sure about a nippy little puppy.  Which is best because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take much for the puppy to get annoyed with a nippy little toddler:

I am pleased to say no puppies were harmed during the filming of the puppy wrangling.  Mostly.  Probably just emotionally scarred.

Now on to the BIG DAY!  

The heavens were so thrilled for the newly created eternal family, they were weeping.  Literally.  Yep, it was a bit rainy.  Okay, fine, it was really rainy.  But even rain can't damper such a beautiful event!  Here we are waiting for the happy couple to come out of the temple:

Kenna and Grandpa trying to stay dry:

Jacob and Seth taking shelter.  Look Seth, you made the blog again!  You handsome fella, you!!  Attention all single ladies!!

This dapper young man is available and quite a catch, so get in line!  He he he.  We love you Seth.  Not so sure you'll feel the same after that (insert big smiley face here).

 Not even rain can get Aunt Julie down:

These wonderful ladies all have smiles too.  And take note of Grandpa who is so darn proud to be standing there with all those wonderful ladies:

Here they come!  Such a beautiful bride!

Hooray for a beautiful new family!  And new cousins too!

After a few quick pictures at the temple we all headed down to the Coppermill for lunch and some more (dry) pictures.  Here are all the siblings...

...minus 2.  Andrea and Ben came down for the big day but ended up in the hospital with sweet little Aleah who had a nasty virus making it difficult for her to breath.  Second was Elder Benson who is so dutifully serving down in Mexico.  But have no fear, we still got to love Uncle Benson a little bit too!

Uncle Benson has done a really good job randomly moving about the house and giving everyone a good scare now and then.  


We love you Marlene and Jesse! (Shout out to G&G Otte who took Lexi Lou back to their house for a nap.  It really was best.)

Ty Man and Mommy waiting for some of that delicious Coppermill grub:

Marlene is known for being such a giving person, and her wedding day was no exception.  She had a little thank you to hand out to everyone.  She doesn't ever stop!  All the kiddos loved helping to pass out her sweet little gift:

 

 All in all it was a perfect day. 

C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S to the new eternal family! 

We were so grateful to be part of your beautiful day!

A New Post

Wow.  I am so impressed with my extremely creative title for this entry.  That one is going to pique some serious curiosity.

I'm not sure I'm quite convinced that it's already May.  Not to mention that May is nearly half over.  The past month has passed at mach speed and once again, I need to update!  I have a LOAD of pictures and all sorts of excitement to catch up on like a wedding and a trip to Hawaii (yes, I know it's awesome!), but I guess I have to go back to Easter....


Behold the yearly egg dye:

A few things to note here:  First, Lexi is not a part of the egg dye.  That is called nap time strategy.  Second, Ty and Allie have their glasses on upside-down.  Don't ask questions.  I sure don't.

Back by popular demand was an Easter scavenger hunt.  The debate is still out on who exactly the Easter Bunny is and just how much interaction occurs between Mom and the Easter Bunny.  I do not divulge.  But when there is candy and a scavenger hunt, sometimes you just have to be satisfied with the fun of it all! 

Yes, Kenna has a basket on her head.  Once again, sometimes you just have to be satisfied with the fun of it all ( I remind myself often of that).


Maybe the biggest Easter surprise came later that afternoon when we got a new arrival at the farm.  We proudly introduce to you the new horse, Lightning:

And of course a beautiful Easter Sunday.  I am really digging the backdrop of the chain link fence.  I have some mad photo skills.  I'm just glad they all are looking at the camera.  That is picture success to me!

This was the other option:

Ha!  Good thing they're so darn cute.

I also need to document Kenna's performance for the Second Grade Talent Show!  And thanks to my lack of arms, I opted to use the camcorder so here is the only measly picture I got.  But now we can forever remember Kenna played the piano at school on April 22, 2014!  She did a great job.

THIRTY FOUR!

In honor of my 34th birthday, (YAY!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!) I thought I'd share with you a few gems about yours truly.  Get excited, this is some good stuff!

Ready?....

Here we go....

Aaaaah, what a coot widdle chubby wubby!

 I'm pretty sure I never did lose a few of those chins.




Seeing as though I entered the world with little to no hair, it's obvious I overcompensated throughout the years.  Let's have a look.

Here we are just a few short years into my life.  It's obvious none of my children:
 A) look like me when I was a child (probably an okay deal)
-and-
B) definitely didn't get my dark brown eyes I had as a wee one

 I think maybe I was entered to win the tightest curls competition.


 Like a lot of little girls, I enjoyed a few years of dance lessons.  This one in particular has to reign supreme among all my dance pictures.  Why's that?  Well, you see, I was certain I would look so very cute with dimples.  Here is my darndest attempt at trying to have a smile with dimples:

Ahha ha haa haa haa!  Seriously classic!  That is dismal dimple failure.  I think someone upstairs took pity on me for this one and blessed me with children who have naturally cute dimples so something like this would  never.  happen.  again.



Moving right along to 5th grade.  I am a product of the 80's!!!!  Hence the neon and the hair.  Jacob captions this with simply,

POOF!

 I think my theory of overcompensation has been proven.  Allie was sad to hear I no longer have those earrings.  Darnit.  And Kenna keeps asking me if I really did that on purpose.  I quote exactly from Kenna, "Mom, did you really know that was happening?  You meant to?!"  I have to be honest.  Yep.  Sure did.




Perhaps I had some post traumatic stress disorder from my fifth grade portrait, because here's what happened in 6th grade:

Puberty is kind to no one.  NO ONE I tell you.  HA!  Love it!


This last pic, however, is a culmination of my thirty four years of life.  I think it's pretty obvious I am one blessed individual.

 So grateful to have these ones by my side to celebrate my day because, well, it just wouldn't be me without them.  The first thirty four years have been awesome (despite a few hair mishaps).  Can't wait for thirty four more!

I looked out the window and what did I see........

.......Well whaddaya know?  It really does look like popcorn! 

I LOVE this tree in our backyard.  No, it's not an apricot tree.  Perhaps the song is a bit biased.  Spring must be here!

...If not for blossoms, at least for the anticipation of Easter.  Here is Ty fresh off the bus from preschool with all his Easter loot.  Oh, excuse me, here is the Easter Bunny fresh off the bus from preschool:

Apparently when you catch the Easter Bunny in a photo he pulls a really crazy face.

Speaking of Ty and crazy, here is what happens when he and Lexi come across a stray marker:

Hence the reason markers stay waaaaaaay up high in the cupboard and require a fairly large amount of begging and pleading for me to get them down.

Speaking of Ty and Lexi, I caught these two snuggling on the couch the other day.  It was one of those sweet little mommy moments that makes my heart just beam:

Of course when I pulled out my camera to sneak a picture Lexi jumped right up, but fortunately I got them to recreate the moment.  I love these moments.  Especially to help counter the moments when Ty thinks Lexi is his WWF opponent.  She is so patient.  And yes she managed to find a binky.  Fortunately she could care less if she loses it.

We had our first full family campout in the camp trailer!  Okay, so it was in the backyard.  Baby steps folks, baby steps. 

 I don't know about you, but it looks as though Kenna is picking her nose.  Maybe our backyard adventure wasn't as fun as we thought it was...



We even watched a movie on the large screen iPad.  Oh yeah.

Good thing it was only in the backyard because one certain little toddler decided she needed to roam the entire trailer while everyone else wanted to sleep.  Needless to say, Lexi and I ended up back in the house for the night.  I can happily report, however, last weekend we had our first official away-from-home campout in the trailer and Lexi did much better-- many thanks to the pack-and-play.  This time we even managed to get 10 miles away from home!  We are big time.  Sorry, no pictures.  But it was really fun!

And one last pic to send you on your way-
Ty has had a fascination with guitars lately, and would find anything he could to pretend to be a guitar.  So he earned enough stickers on his reward chart to go and pick out a guitar.  It's pretty much just a glorified noise-maker, but he's a happy camper with his guitar!  Rock on buddy, rock on.