Otis' first trip back to Utah

Once again all of my pictures are out of order. I was curious to see how Otis was going to react to being back with his mom Roxy and aunt Ash. They were all so funny together. It was like Otis never left Ash. He bit on her ears and jumped all over her like he did when they were together. Roxy wasn't fond of having Otis around. She would run away from him. Of course I would too if Otis was running around me trying to nurse. Joy gave the dog's peanut butter and some of it was stuck on Otis nose so Ash helped get it off
eww isn't her tongue long and yucky!!!

Otis with the peanut butter on his nose

Otis loved the tread mill. It took him a little while to get used to it. But he had to work off that peanut butter some how.

Hanging out with friends

On Tuesday I took Meagan and Rocky out to lunch for their birthday's. We went to Red Robin. I had a great time hanging out with Meagan and Rocky. I wish that I could live in Utah so I don't have to miss so many things.

I also got to see my friend Mindy while I was there. She is so nice. She drove down from Salt Lake City to come and see me and I only got to see her for 30 minutes.

Dog rides - $1.00

Sunday night I spent the night at my sister's house with Ella and Nichole. We had a great time. We played the wii and ate yummy peach pie. The next day I got to hang out with my sister all day long. We went to the mall, Old Navy, and Goodwood BBQ. After all of that shopping we went to Joy's house to hang out for a little bit. While there Ella finally got to ride Ash. She has been trying to ride Ash for about a year now. After that every time we went to Joy's house she would ride Ash around.

The video is a little slow going sorry.

Tyler who hates shopping was lucky enough to go to work with Grandpa. I wish that I would of been able to get a picture of him helping Grandpa at work it just didn't happen. He got to go to lunch with Grandpa. He loves it when he gets to go to work with Grandpa. He cheered when I told him he got to go.

Some Catching up to do

The Elder's Quorum went up to a cabin a couple of weekends ago and spent the night with their families up there. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised to see that there was still a ton of snow up there. When we got there we let the kids run around outside and explore. We brought up our dog and let her play outside too. The roof at the back of the house is level with the ground. Pretzel got super excited and went running onto the roof and jumped off of it and fell the story down unto the ground. She whined and whined but got over it pretty quickly. We has some great food up there too. The next morning we all just lounged around the house. The adults played fooze ball and ping pong both of which I had only played one time. I didn't do as well as I had hoped but had a lot of fun playing anyway.

waiting oh so patiently for dessert

This is part of the bottom level. There is a kitchen, family room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom down there.

Tyler is waiting for his turn on the wii

Anna playing with Kendra

The cabin was 3 stories tall. This is the very top story. It is like a loft with 6 beds up there.

Nate was so nice and took the kids outside to play. Notice that he is outside in the snow with shorts and a short sleeve shirt.

Utah here I come

Nate and I had planned on going to Utah for spring break like we do every year. I was so looking forward to it, The kids were looking forward to it, and Nate was looking forward to it. We were supposed to be leaving last Saturday but Thursday Nate called me on his way home from work and told me that he was not able to go on leave because 3 of his coworkers were having babies. I had to break the news to all of the kids. Some took it well (It's okay mom it's not your fault) while others did not (I don't want to live here anymore, I want to live with Aunt Joy). It was so hard to tell them the news. Then I had to tell my mom which was nice enough to call everyone else and tell them for me. I just couldn't stand giving more bad news to anyone else.

I tossed around the idea of driving to Utah myself. It is after all only 5 hours away. But I wasn't sure if the weather would hold up for me and if I was in the mood to drive with 4 kids and a dog all the way to my parents house. It is 5 hours after all. But I did it anyway. I got up Sunday morning and took to the road about 9 a.m. I went about 30 minutes and it started raining on me. No big deal I can handle the rain. About a hour later it started to snow. I hate driving in snow. I didn't used to be like that. I used to be able to drive in snow just fine. I know all of the precautions. Drive slow. Pump your breaks (unless you have anti lock breaks of course). Until last year and now I have a hard time thinking of driving in snow. I called my mom and asked her what the weather was like telling myself that if it was bad there then I would go home and if it was good weather there then the snow wouldn't last forever and I could make it. All signs pointed to good weather. It wasn't even snowing that bad and the roads were fine. So I continued on my merry way. Then it really started snowing. The roads got worse and worse but they were still manageable. All of the cars were driving 45 mph. At one point a huge diesel decided to pass about 4 cars. While it was passing me I couldn't see out my window at all for several seconds Ella asked why we were driving backwards while it was passing. Finally about 90 minutes later I was out of the snow. Yay. It was still raining but I can handle the rain. I tried to speed out of the storm and race it home. I did hit snow in Ogden again and them some more rain. I made it to about an hour away from my parents house and the wind started. If you have ever lived in Mountain Home you would know all about driving in the wind. As I was driving down the freeway you could see all of the cars getting pushed all over the road. A huge van in front of me was swaying because of the wind. I finally made it to my parents house and it only took me about 6 hours to get there. All in all the drive wasn't that bad. The kids were good. And I made it driving on the freeway in snow. I am glad that I get to spend the week with my family. And I will be even happier when Nate gets here on Friday to drive back with me.

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? ~Source Unknown

Today Nate and I celebrated out 12Th anniversary. We went to Boise and had lunch at Macaroni Grill. I love that place to eat. I decided to go there because it is neutral territory. We both like it. There are only a select few restaurants that we both like. After the grill we went to the mall to pick up some baby presents (sorry Mindi and Carolyn they will be there shortly), and then we went to Deseret Book. The best part was we were gone for 5 hours and didn't have to pay a babysitter. My big girls are old enough to watch the other 2 kids. It is so nice. On our way home Nate and I stopped to pick up a movie to watch together tonight.

I am so lucky to have found this amazing man. He is my best friend. I love you Babe. You mean the world to me.

Happy Birthday Babe!!!

Today my honey turned 30!!!! Which is half dead according to him. I can't believe that he is 30 already. It seems like only yesterday when we were 16 year olds that couldn't go the day without seeing each other. He is an amazing man and such an inspiration to me.

Because Nate is working Nights tonight we went out Monday night to celebrate his birthday. We went to his favorite restaurant, Tucano's. Which opened up here in Boise about a month ago. It was the first time that the kids have gone and they really liked it. The waitress also had everyone sing to Nate. Which he was not happy about but the kids and I loved. We then went to Best Buy and bought me a wii fit (i love it). I know it doesn't seem right that I got a present when we were celebrating his birthday but in my defense it is my anniversary in 2 days. We were just killing two birds with one stone.

We didn't get to celebrate much today because of him working so late. We just went to lunch. He got a garden book from the kids, and a hiking backpack from me.

I love you babe!!! I promise that you are not old. Oh and quit telling everyone that I am older then you.

Girls Night

Friday night was supposed to me just Ella and I home. Nate was going to the temple, the big girls were babysitting while someone went to the temple, and Tyler was going to go to a birthday party. So what do we do... just Ella and I... We go to the movie of course. But things change. The babysitting got cancelled so the big girls were going to be staying home instead of babysitting. No problem I will just invite them to go with me but they decided that they didn't want to go to the movie . It was just Ella and I again. I got Ella all dressed up so that we could go to the movie. We had so much fun. My friend JoHanna came with us. And Ella sat through the whole movie (Confessions of a Shopaholic, I know total kids movie right) She only had to go to the bathroom once. It was funny because she kept shhhing the people behind us. They weren't being very quite. They would try to reason with the characters in the movie. I guess it finally got to Ella. We had a great time. Ella loved that she got her own popcorn which I ended up throwing over half of it away anyway. But it was worth it. I am with Ella all of the time and it was really nice to have a break and be able to do something really fun together. Ella was pretending to be a dog
Yeah that one.

She is doing tricks like a dog too

Otis really just wants to escape. He is running away from her all of the time

Ella has a cool new trick

Usually she does it to both eyes but they just wouldn't both stay up.

Sassy Ella

Smiley Ella

My little bubble blower

Every year Joy and I send each other a Valentine's Day present. This year I got this really awesome watch. Thank you sis and surprise she got Ella some Hubba Bubba. If you know Ella you know that she really likes gum and Hubba Bubba is her favorite. She was very nice and shared her gum with everyone. I was blowing big bubbles at her and she started blowing bubbles herself and she didn't even know it. She is very proud of herself and her bubble blowing abilities.

These picture's look so much like Natalie it kinda trips me out a little. Minus the gum.

Natalie

I had so much fun with Natalie the other night. We decided to go and take picture's on the side of my house. I have never taken picture's next to my fence and I really liked them. Plus I got to spend time with my daughter. She is turning into such a teenager. And I really enjoy spending so much time with her.