One amazing man

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers in my life. My dad, Chris's dad, grandpas, but especially this handsome guy...

We snapped this picture quickly after church before we headed to Grandma Sharps house for a yummy Fathers Day dinner.

WARNING*** What will follow will be an outpouring of mush about Chris.

I can't say enough how lucky I feel to have Chris as the father in our house. He is incredible, I have said it before and I will say it again. He is the most amazing husband and father I know. Our kids adore him, first thing they say every morning when they wake up is... "Hi mom, where is my dad." They always have to know where he is and when he is coming home. I try not to act like it hurts my feelings ;). But I really can't blame him, I count down the minutes til I see him again too. He puts most guys I know to shame. He is one of the most kind, giving, generous, selfless, hardworking, dedicated men I know. And the best part?... he is all mine :D

All of his awesomenss can be easily demonstrated in the last 3 days of life around our house. Tuesday I came home in distress because I had been put on bed-rest. How was I going to do this? I have 2 very active children that demand attention throughout the day, most of which requires me to be on my feet. While I blubbered and panicked Chris hugged, reassured and set to work figuring out a plan. (one of the many reasons he is my perfect other half. When I panic he remains calm and just fixes it.) He spent an hour making phone calls and by the end of the night had a solution to the problem. He then proceeded to clean the house so I could go to bed relaxed. Amazing... right? The next day he got up early and got most of his work in before I even got up he then spent the rest of the day cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and entertaining the kids. Not one murmur of complaint, even though over night his duties literally had doubled. He just did it, all of his work and all of mine. Happily he did it. The next day? Same story... up early to get his work done then he took us all to the pool. I sat poolside relaxed, munched on wheat thins and watched the incredible father of my kids watch, entertain and play for hours on end with the kids in the pool. Today is the first day he has left is my side the house is clean, the laundry done, and several people are on call in case there is anything I need. He is incredible. He makes me want to be better. My children adore him. I adore him.

I know that everyone feels like they are the luckiest girl to be married to whomever they are married to ( which is great! We all deserve to be married to our perfect other half) but I seriously feel as if Heavenly Father hand picked him out the billions just for me. I haven't figured out yet quite what I did to deserve such an awesome guy, but I'll take it.

Happy Fathers Day Chris, we couldn't make it without you!

28

The man in our lives turned 28 a few weeks ago. I am terribly slow at documenting things. Chris's birthday are always hard for me because he does SO MUCH for me on my birthday. Because my birthday falls on Valentines Day he feels the need to spoil and pamper me from sun up to sun down. He is hard to compete with. Not to mention that our anniversary his birthday and fathers day are usually all within a 4 week period. I tend to run out of fun ideas. Luckily for me he is one of the most laid back people I know and doesn't care for a big to do when it comes to himself. He is pretty selfless like that. One of the million reasons I love him :)

I let him start the day out with a nap. Ha, sounds silly but it is something he never gets to do.

While he was napping I cleaned up the house, and wrapped a few presents.

Kaden was SO excited for daddy to open his presents. He said more than once "hey dad this present is for you, but we can share right!" Too bad none of his presents were toys Kaden wanted to have.

He really wanted P90x for his birthday, infact that is all he asked for. Later he mentioned he might want Insanity instead. So... he got both. Along with some much needed summer clothes some wrenches and cologne.

These kids sure do love to be with their daddy. They gave him a few birthday hugs before we sent them to our good friends the Egberts house.

With the kids gone we headed to Tucanos for Chris's traditional birthday meal. We go there every year to use his free birthday meal coupon. It kind of takes the surprise out of the day but I am pretty sure he would be heartbroken if I took him anywhere else. He looks forward to it all year long.

When we came home I told Chris the day had ended, we were just going to have some cake and icecream with the kids and take it easy.... I lied.... I think he knew all along. I had invited all of his friends over for a little suprise party. The started arriving about 6. A huge thanks to everyone who came. Chris loved having you all there and you made the night so fun.

This was the cake I came up with.... use your imagination....stretch it....stretch.... ok its a circuit board. It was the nerdiest cake I could think of. However the idea didn't translate as I had hoped. Regardless it tasted pretty nummy.

Chris and a couple of the friends who came to celebrate.

The highlight of the night for most of the men was playing NBA Jam on the wii. We were able to tear them away to play one game as a group so the women could play as well. As soon as it ended the wii was back on and they were back to playing.

Chris's actual birthday was on Sunday. We had celebrated the day before but I didn't want the actual day to go without note so I made a big breakfast. Chris was at meetings for most of the morning but he was able to come home right before church to enjoy his pancake covered in whip cream with one candle.

Happy Birthday Love! We are so lucky to have you in our lives. I could list a million reasons why you are the greatest but I am saving that for the fathers day post. Like I said... I have to spread out my ideas.

Sand Dunes

Right after Pine Valley we went to the sand dunes with my family. It was definitely a trip for Chris, I had strict orders from my doctor that I was not allowed to ride on any four-wheeler. So I went knowing I would mostly sit around and watch the kids. That is mostly what I did but it was still a fun trip. Luckily I had a few camp partners who weren't too interested in riding either. So we played games and chilled at camp together.

Mom and Katie soakin in some sun while the boys were out riding the hills

Of course there was the typical trip break down. I don't know that I have ever gone on a trip like this with my family where something hasn't stopped working. Luckily these experiences have made my father very handy! Within about an hour it was up and running again. They just had to take apart and put the carburetor back together... twice.

Jason had a few sweet jumps on his motorcycle and got some pretty good air.

Chris is not nearly as familiar with four-wheelers as my family is. We grew up riding them and always went on fun four-wheeler trips. But in true man fashion he didn't want to be left out of the fun and so he tried to jump the four-wheeler off the same hill Jason was jumping his motorcycle...

Not bad for a newbie on a heavy four-wheeler!

He is a natural he'll be jumping the motorcycle in no time!

Just to prove I was actually on the trip.

Hmmm... what could be so interesting in that bucket??

.... checking it out

Grandpa caught a lizard for Kaden. Kaden watched it for awhile then decided it should be free and dumped it back out on the ground. Guess we won't be keeping many snakes or other creatures caught at this house... dang... ;)

Diggin in the sand and showin a little crack.

I guess it was contagious...

They were so proud of their sand castle

Grandma and Grandpa found a pond where there were lots of tad poles. The kids went back with buckets and caught 10 or 20 of them. They were so excited, it reminded me a lot of growing up in Honeyville and catching little guppies at the reservoir. It seems like we always had a big bucket of tiny fishies outside. I was happy my kids got a little taste of that. We did not however bring the tadpoles home. I didnt want to transport them for the 3 hour drive.

Kaden thought he should hold one in his hand... I am guessing it didn't live too much longer past this picture.

It was a fun trip even though I couldn't ride. The kids had a blast and my mom and Katie made for good company back at camp!

Pine Valley

We went camping at Pine Valley with Chris's Family the end of May. Silly me thought it would be warm since we were camping near St. George.... NOT! It was cold... like really really cold. It snowed one day. I didn't pack well for cold weather, but luckily some friend in St. George pulled through with some winter clothes for the kids to borrow. I didn't get lots of pics because it was so wet I didn't want to pull my camera out but I did snap a couple while we were down at the lake fishing.

Dad and Taycee snuggled up. Taycee was wearing grandmas jacket on top of all her other clothes and jackets.

She tripped out of the tent the day before so she had a few battle wounds on her nose.

Daddy keeping her freezing hands warm...

Taycee was trying to return the favor.

My cute little boy in his way to big jacket.

The kids loved to fish, Taycee would try to cast out but would just snag some moss by her feet. She didn't care one little bit though, she would still scream "I got a fishie, I got a fishie!"

Oh how horrid I look. Oh well. The joy to camping is no make-up, and no doing of the hair.

Aren't we an attractive couple?

Kaden fishing with uncle Bent

Even with the cold it was a fun trip. The kids slept like rocks in the tent with grandma and grandpa. My pregnant body didn't do so well the first night so Chris and I went home a little early. Sleeping on the air mattress made both my legs numb, it wasn't so fun. The night we left it snowed during the night and those who stayed woke up to an inch or so on the ground. BRRRR

Luckily we were back at grandmas house warm and showered. :D

Kadens Birthday

Against my will Kaden turned 4. I begged and pleaded and bribed but he did it anyway. It is a good thing another baby will be here shortly or I might have had a come apart at the fact that my baby boy is huge and big and not even close to being my baby boy.

The little stud was lucky enough to have 2 parties. We started the fun off at Chuck-E-Cheese the week before his birthday for a party with Grandma and Grandpa Webre and friends. Kaden had never been to Chuck-E-Cheese and he was in heaven. We had pizza and cake and he played the night away with close to 100 tokens.

He requested a giraffe cake, I thought cupcakes would be the easiest way to accomplish that. That seems to be where the thinking ended. I made a lemon lime refrigerator cake with a cream topping, it's called a refrigerator cake because it is suppose to stay cold. I didn't realize that to make a giraffe it would have to be on a very very long board that wouldn't fit in a cooler. Results? I very melted goopy cake...

Oh well, he squealed with excitement and loved it anyway. That is why kids are so great.

Kaden loved dancing and watching himself on the TV'sWe were glad the Egberts joined us so Kaden could have a friend there.As always he was a very gracious present opener gasping with excitement with every present he opened.The party crew minus Chris who was taking the picture.My BIG birthday boy with Chuck himself.Then on his actual birthday we had another party in St George at Grandpa and Grandma Claytons house. This time he requested a big tractor cake. I thought things through a little better this time.He was oh so excited as alwaysThank you to the dollar tree for providing one of his favorite presents...

He spent the rest of his birthday playing on his new leapfrog from grandma and grandpa. It took a good week before he would put it down.

I think I am in denial that my baby boy is not at all a baby anymore. He is smart, funny, clever, sweet and my bestest buddy. He is constantly making me laugh with the things he says and does. He learns things so quickly and often surprises me by the things he understands and knows. He has such a tender heart and is always the first to share his toy or help out the other kids around. More than once a day he will randomly tell me how much he loves me or how great I am. He does wonders for my self esteem. He is the easiest child to discipline because all I have to do is tell him he is being naughty and he instantly tears up and says "I am sorry mom". His imagination is wonderful and I love listening to him come up with stories. He is a joy to have around and I am so thankful he was sent to be mine!

Here are some of the most recent funny things he has said

Kaden got his first ear infection since he has had tubes so we took him in to the doctor. When the doctor came in to see him he asked him if he had any girlfriends and Kaden said "well I have my Taycee and my mom and my daddy is the bestest boy ever."

The other day he was talking to Chris on the phone at work and when Chris said he had to go Kaden said "ok dad, I promise I will never let you down" I know I am pregnant and emotional but he said it so sincerely that it almost made me cry. Ha

We had just said prayers and Kaden looked at me and said "Mom I can't fly huh" I said "nope buddy people can't fly" and he said "yep, I guess that is just for dragons and Heavenly Father".

I had been fighting Kaden for almost an hour to lay down and take a nap and it just wasn't happening. Finally Kaden came downstairs and before I could talk he raised his hand to stop me and said "mom, mom, mom, I am hungry... I am berry berry hungry. Christopher made me hungry" (??? what?) then he held up his finger, smiled and said "I have and idea, you make me a sandwich and I will watch a show real quiet." haha my little bargainer.

We were in sunbeams talking about things that smell and taste good and bad. I brought up cows and Kaden raised his hand so excitedly, I asked him what he wanted to say and he said "I went and saw cows once, I pulled on their pee pee's and milk came out!" ( Kadens class is 90% girls, and luckily I don't think they quite understood what he meant.) I had to explain when we got home from church what an udder was.

Kaden found an eraser that was shaped like a moose head and he gasped and said to me "MOM WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?" ( he was so excited) I said "I don't know buddy I haven't seen it before, it must have come from one of the junk drawers." he relpied "no mom, Jesus threw it down here for me." I said "oh really?" he said "yeah he threw it down from the sky." then he looked up to the ceiling and YELLED " HEY JESUS, DID YOU THROW THIS DOWN HERE FOR ME??" few second pause... he looks at me "he said yes." then looks back at the ceiling "THANK YOU JESUS" then a few minutes later he said "man, he is such a good boy."

Can you tell he makes me laugh daily? The stories go on and on.

Happy Birthday Buddy! We sure do love you, thanks for being such a bright part of our life.

5 years

It came, our 5 year anniversary. I seriously can not believe how fast 5 years has gone by. I also can not believe how different life is than what I expected it to be 5 years from when we got married. I definitely did not think we would still be in school, nor did I imagine we would have our 3rd child on the way. A PHD was never in the plans when we got married and I wanted to work and save up money for a few years before we even started thinking about kids. Funny how life has a way of changing your plans.... and just for the record.... I wouldn't have it any other way. ( well maybe the done with school part ;))

Here we are 5 years from the day we said I do.

We had big plans to do a big Lake Powell part with a bunch of friends for our anniversary but things just never worked out. Instead we spent 3 days at this beautiful place...
The Tahitian resort in Las Vegas. IT. WAS. AMAZING. Go there, you will be ever so glad you did. I am not a Vegas fan, I hate smoke, and naked women and I don't gamble... so there isn't much for me in Vegas. But this place was like a little mini paradise. It was at the very end of the strip, there is no Casino in the hotel and it is geared towards families. I loved it. I never wanted to leave, if I didn't have 2 children that were waiting back at home I might not have.

We spent 2 solid days laying out by the water reading

and kissing behind waterfalls. :D

and looking up at skys like this

more reading

We spent lots of time floating around this lazy river

This handsome man grilled me some taquitos. This place was so great. They actually had a large bbq area and they provided the grills and grill utensils.

Hottie

It was so beautiful outside, we loved just sitting on the patio. I had forgotten how nice it is to just sit and enjoy a meal without worrying about who's throwing what on the floor or what is going down who's shirt.

While we were there I hit my 33 week mark. So we snapped a quick belly pic before we went out for the night.

33 weeks

Then reality came crashing in and we had to leave. It honestly didn't seem fair. I will be going back sometime, probably with kids, but still I will be back.

Happy 5 years Chris! I can honestly say I love you just as much today as I did then... actually more.