Happy Father's Day!

Although Kyle was in Brazil over Father's Day we couldn't just skip it all together... He is way to good of a dad not to get a bit of attention for it! Here are just a few highlights from our late Father's Day celebration.

When daddy got home he was handed 8 tickets. Each ticket had one of the following words/phrases on it: family movie, movie with mom, dinner, dessert , devotions, tuck in time, bath time and presentation for you! He was told to put them in the order he would like the evening to go in, sit on the couch and be prepared to do nothing.

Here are some pictures of the fun...

He picked bath time first, followed by a family movie.

Next was dinner.

Presentation:

(which was Adison singing You belong with me and the big 3 doing a little Father's Day rap)

Dessert:

They are capable of being so much cuter but I feel like a bad mom if I don't let the kids help.

Adia made this plate for him about 5 years ago and we still put it to good use.

Next was devotions, tuck in time and then we fell asleep nice and cozy on the couch during the redemption of his movie with mom ticket.

It was a fun night for an awesome dad who our family is beyond blessed to be led by!

For discussion box that night the question was tell us your top 3 things you love about your dad... to end this I think I will list as many of them as I can remember.

Adia - He takes good care of us, He taught me to snow board and he is a very kind person.

Avery - He works hard, he loves me and he plays with me.

Kenyon - He fights me, he is funny and he loves me.

Adison - I am a princess, daddy is a prince and I love daddy!

Kaden - Daddy's truck

Mom - He is truly a good person and such a great example to our children.

He loves Jesus and follows him well.

He is very patient which serves the children and I well!

Kristen Really Moved Here!!!!

Kristen is one of my best friends ever and has been since high school graduation. We have known eachother our whole lives but our friendship didn't get really strong until our senior year. She is such a great friend and I love that she totally gets me. It's always fun to have a friend who knows your entire story and still loves you the same! Here we are on my wedding day.


Well, when Kyle and I moved out here is when Kristen and her hubby Mike (also part of our graduating class) started telling us they might like to live here someday too. Kyle and I tried not to get our hopes up year after year that we would discuss it. But now the day has finally come and I am so excited to have such a great friend so close by. I'm sure we will have so many good times with our families!!! I feel like a sister lives by me now. :)


Here is a picture of her beautiful new home that has provided lots of fun for Kyle and I as we help her get settled. This is not a great picture because I was taking this for the purpose of showing my dad something.

And here is one of our fun projects we get to do together. She is letting Adia bring up her 2 horses to keep at her house and we are all very excited! Kristen actually loves horses (one of the few things we do NOT have in common) and is going to help Adia train them. Adia's horse Sierra is only 2 and the other one Nevada (names Adia choose not knowing about the beer Sierra Nevada). My dad is bring them June 11th so we are going to start painting and cleaning out this cute tack room thing this weekend. I will show the before and afters later!

Kristen is about a week and a half away from having her 2nd baby. Her daugther Taylor is only 16 months so she is in for a treat. Maybe Cindi or Leah should send her some tips on what that is like! Well, her in-laws threw her a little shower last weekend and I got to bring some decor, cupcakes, favors and games. It turned out great and it was fun meeting all Mike's family. I would have pictures of her with her hubby but he is actually still down South trying to finish up work quickly before the baby pops out (as in she is due on the 30th).

Can you tell she is 38 weeks pregnant?

Here are a few pictures of the fun stuff I got to make!

THANK YOU to my good friend Glory, who is amazing, for teaching me how to make such beautiful cookies.

Anyway, I am just so excited to have Kristen here and wanted to share a bit of the fun we have been having so far. And just for kicks I added this picture of us from our Senior year. This was at JSB (Junior Senior Banquet). And don't tell anyone but Adia was actually in my tummy in this picture. Kristen is on the top right and I'm on the bottom far right.

Baby Shower Bliss

This past weekend I had the privelage of hosting a baby shower for my dear friend Stephenie. She is due pretty soon to have her 2nd baby girl and I was so excited when she said I could do this for her. In the first 3 years of our marriage I hosted about 15 showers and since we have moved here this is the first one I have done. It turned out SO CUTE and for those of you who know me well you know "cuteness" is always my goal! Plus I am super lucky to have a wonderful party loving, party genius kind of friend named Glory who helped me out with the details and helped a ton. Oh and it extra helped that her daughter had a birthday party the day before that just so happened to be using the same color scheme so of course I got lucky with some of those things too. Also I have to give myself credit here for doing the cutest and the cheapest shower I have ever done all in one party. I was very resourceful (aka borrowed a lot and made a lot).

Now before I show you all the pictures you have to know that I saw a blog post awhile back to the theme of "she's going to POP" and have wanted an excuse to improve on it for since I saw it. Well, this was my chance.

This was on thw wall at the entrance to my house and everyone signed it after the shower for a scrapbook page for baby Railey...

Here is the table at a glance. It's actually turned here for good lighting but this is what you saw as you walked in...

The party POPcorn (it was all themed around this) and you can see on the sides the buckets used to serve it...

Here are some of the goodies...

and the drinks...

Party decor (& my gift to her)...

Party people...

Party favors...

Although for the sake of my blog I am focusing on the party details I have to be honest that in the end I look back at that day as a special day with some great friends. I really do feel so blessed to have such a great group of girls in my life! When I moved here I felt so alone for so long and now I feel surrounded by close friends who I really love and appreciate so much!

Christ Has Risen!!!!

If ever there was a reason to celebrate it is now, in this season, for this reason -

CHRIST HAS RISEN!

Here are some pictures of how our family has been celebrating our risen KING!

Dying eggs with friends...

Eating candy with friends (and without)...

Making "Thank you for the cross" cakes with friends on Good Friday...

Going to a church party to celebrate with our church family...

This little candy monster kept finding chocolate and even when she said she hadn't had any - her tongue told us the truth.

Watching friends from church get baptized...

Spending time with family having a yummy Easter dinner...

Notice where Kenyon is - he cuddled and climbed on Ty all day. It was a super special treat to have Uncle Ty with us for Easter as well as our Petersen cousins (and their parents).
Finding our Resurrection eggs that the bad guys stole so we wouldn't talk about Jesus... but they didn't win - we found every egg and celebrated the truth about Easter.

Going to church...

When I think about what Christ did for us and that he truly conquered death and has promised us a new life with him I am overwhelmed by how rich those words are and how hard it is to live in that reality every day. I so appreciated our pastor sharing these words from Paul in regards to the resurrection of Christ... "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

And this picture has nothing to do with Easter but I just had to show it because the teeter totter is Kaden's newest love... the boy is truly a thrill seeker and scares me!

San Jose Trip

We just got back from a short trip to San Jose where a few fun things happened. Most importantly while we were there we celebrated Super T Day! March 23rd is the day Tristan was born. We went to his favorite place and celebrated his life that we are all so glad to have been a part of. We have missed him so much! Knowing he was such an awesome kid with such a giving heart we knew he would have wanted us to have a blast on his special day - and so we did! Thank you Lord that we will be with him again soon - I seriously can not wait to worship Jesus, with Tristan, in heaven! I talked to my brother a few days before T's birthday and although he is hurting and misses T terribly he couldn't help but giggle over the fact that having a bunch of little ones around helps keep smiles on everyones faces. The little ones have such strong faith and they get a bit annoyed by the tears for the brother who is in "the best place ever". Here are some pictures of our birthday party for T - a true holiday in our family (Kyle stayed home from work and Lauren even got to skip school!).

Another highlight of my trip was seeing my good friends Tiffany and Kristen. I miss both of them so much and it was really nice to be with the girls! Tiffany has 2 precious kiddos and although they are both adorable her daughter Mia stole my heart - she is the funniest little girl full of smiles and such a delight to be around! I hope Tiffany believed me when I told her what a good mom she is and how impressed I am with the little girl and boy that she is doing such a great job mommying!

And here is Kristen's little girl, Taylor, so cute and so glad I finally got to hold her! Kristen lives down South now so I rarely get to see her. Where did the days go when she practicaly lived with me - miss you! Oh and thanks for making my dad feel like a king by loving his horses - he can't wait until you come back (and neither can I).

And last but so not least was the birthday party for Brooke. She called me about a month ago and asked me to do a party for her. So we did a Fairy party with the family...

She wanted me to teach them how to do cookies...

For lunch we had flower sandwiches, fairy fizz (punch), fruit wands and more...


After lunch they all went to the fairy make over station and did themselves up so pretty - or at least they thought so!

Here is all the beautiful fairy's and one little boy who just couldn't stand missing out on the action!

And this is how you would look at your party if your annoying little sister (notice Erin's guilty face in the corner) blew out your birthday candles for you! Of course we had to re light them and try again (which then put Adison in tears because she didn't get a turn either).

Being at a fairy party can get rough on a boy so he decided to ditch the girls and climb on dad.

And a quick shot of the BABY boy who had a great time too... how is it possible he will be 1 in less than a month??? NO!