365 Days of Cute

I have tried every uploading method possible and I can not find a way to upload pictures onto blogger without them looking de-saturated. GRRR.

I took my little Addi Boo out for some 1 year pictures. She was pleasant as can be but would not give me a true Addi Boo smile. *sigh* oh well, good thing she is cute with any face. I couldn't pick my favorite because I love them all for different reasons. So you can just scroll fast ;)

Tahiti?? Yes Please.

Remember last year when we went here? Well we loved it so much that we went there again! It was suppose to be an anniversary trip but Chris's proposal defense delayed it for a few weeks so instead it became a mothers day/anniversary/fathers day/ Chris's birthday vacation. It was long awaited and much enjoyed. If I didn't miss my kiddos so dang much I might have considered staying there FOREVER.

 We didn't do much... besides lay by the side of the lazy river read books and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It was HOT like 107 so we would sit out for about 20 minutes then spend about an hour floating in the water. It was heaven.

 We really really missed our baby. We had never both left her at the same time before. Luckily Heather and Evan were watching her and they only live 30 minutes away from the resort so Day 2 we talked them into coming and visiting us for awhile. We were so excited to see our baby and she LOVED the lazy river.

she would rest her head every now and then to recoup from all the splashing and squealing.

 Evan made sure Heather took full advantage of the water features :D

 Look at that beautiful scenery

It was a great trip that I am sure we will be repeating again and again. :D

In other news

Well the first and most important news to report is...

CHRIS PASSES HIS PROPOSAL DEFENSE!!!

can I please hear a 

HALLELUJAH!!

Now let's be real for a second, was I worried? No. Not one bit. I mean come on the man is brilliant. Was he worried? Yes. Yes, Yes, YES! He greatly underestimates his abilities. His defense was on the 13th, his birthday was on the 12th. One of the biggest reasons I didn't do anything big or fun for his birthday was because I knew he wouldn't enjoy a second of it. In fact I am pretty sure he was mentally in a room in front of a board of professors presenting and defending the entire day of the 12th so birthday festivities would have been pointless. He was a ball of nerves Wednesday morning and counting down the seconds til 10:30 arrived. I think we both were, every two minutes I would check the clock and think about what he was doing at that moment. A lot of his nerves probably stemmed from the fact that the last 3 students in his department to do their proposal defense failed and had to start over.

At 12:02 I got a call from a very happy man. He had passed. More than passed.  The entire board had nothing but positive feedback and compliments. And so just like that we are on to the last final months of this PhD journey. Hang on folks, we just might make it through this.

Next on the news feed is our floods... yes floodS with an S.

  

It started about a month ago. One Sunday we walked downstairs and found very wet squishy carpet. After much searching and wall bashing and grass cutting the plumber determined the flood was due to an old sprinkler line that was left open and somehow turned itself on (cross talk between wires) and flooded the entire backyard during the night which then ran down into the foundation and flooded the basement.  We did a little sprinkler work and problem solved. So with that my entire basement was unloaded into my garage, the carpet was ripped up walls torn down and 4 weeks of repair painting and cleaning took place. This Saturday everything was suppose to be moved back downstairs and I was going to get my basement and my garage back. 

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Yesterday I spent the day at my mom's house. When I got home late last night I smelled a familiar disgusting smell.... dirty flood water. I walked downstairs and sure enough same flood same area, problem  NOT solved. So I guess it might be another month before I get my garage and basement back. For now we will continue to park our cars in the driveway since the garage looks like this...

This make flood number 4 in 2 years.... I think we have reached our flood quota for a lifetime! :D

And that is the news for now.

Then, he turned 29

Chris's birthday was kind of boring this year. haha.  The very next day was his proposal defense (more on that later) so he spent the majority of the day at work. His birthday present was suppose to be the bikes we bought for the family earlier in the month so I didn't really have any fun surprises for him. The kids make it hard to go anywhere fun to eat dinner so I just made his favorite dinner (enchiladas). As I was brainstorming during the day what I could do I asked Kaden for some ideas. He said without hesitation "I want to give daddy a treasure hunt" so we did. Kaden made all the clues by himself. I have never seen such an excited little boy. He couldn't wait for daddy to get home. As soon as he walked in the door Kaden said "DAD WE HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU!" Then he handed him the first clue.

Chris was such a good sport. He played right along and searched extra hard for each clue before finding it.

One of the clues was a pan

The final clue was the car where there was a nice little hot pink "treasure" box waiting for him

Inside were a few little things for his bike, some squirt guns, his old watch that I had fixed and a bag of milky ways. 

For his cake I made mini cream filled lemon cup cakes... which are TO DIE FOR. Seriously, I have never had a better cupcake. Sweet tooth fairy ain't got nothing on these.

One cake mix makes 75 mini cupcakes... we had a lot to go around.

I had to get a picture of Kadens "clues" he drew for Chris. They were so cute. My favorie was number 3-the "TB" which was the T.V.  

1- Piano
2- Basketball hoop
3- TV
4- Computer
5- Bed ( he had a hard time with that one)
6- Tub
7.- Frig
8- Pan
9- Car

Happy Birthday Chris we all love you so much. You are the greatest husband and father a family could ever hope for!

Girls Weekend

The first weekend in June Chris was kind enough to send me away for a girls weekend with my sister Jenny. Maybe he did it for his sanity as well as mine, I think that I was running a little low on the sweet and patience meter. Either way it was a good time.

We started the night shopping at City Creek and then headed to Hale Center Theater to see the Sound of Music. It was a fabulous musical that we both thoroughly enjoyed. 

We spent the night in Salt Lake at the Pavilion Inn. They gave up complimentary tootsie rolls. :)

What is a hotel stay without a few jumping on the bed pictures?

The next morning we went and got massages from the massage school in Salt Lake. Our hotel clock was running 10 minutes behind so we were a little late for the massage but it all worked out. Our plan afterward was to go to a water park and spend the day. When we pulled up at cowabunga bay it was so windy that it blew my hat off so we opted to find a free pool somewhere. 

Jenny's friend in Provo suggested a free pool to us and we headed out. When we got to the pool I realized it was just a pool at some college apartments. I was a little hesitant to go but figured it would be fine for a few hours, then we saw a HUGE pool party sign with balloons and a bbq being set up. I REALLY didn't want to stay then, I felt so out of place and awkward. Jenny insisted it was fine, and that I didn't look like a 27 year old mom with three kids crashing in on a college pool party... hahah....yeah. I agreed to stay for a little while, but once the music started blaring and and the pool was swarming with 19 year olds I called it quits and we went to get a jamba juice.

 

After the pool fiasco we headed up to Aunt Bettys Cabin up Provo Canyon. Grandma Halladay, Aunt Betty, Mom, and Aunt Julie were all up there. It is so beautiful up there and we spent the next 2 days eating and hiking and eating and playing games and eating. :D

Monday on our way home we met Chris picked up the kids and headed to Cherry Hill for the day.

It was such a fun weekend and a great way to recharge my batteries.