Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

This morning we went to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  We have a big breakfast with everyone bringing food, then we have Easter egg hunts, where different ages go to different neighborhood yards.  Afterwards the kids all cash in their empty Easter eggs for a fun prize.  At the end of the hunt, there are age appropriate games at many different homes.  It is always a fun event and it is great to spend time as a family and as a neighborhood celebrating the Easter holiday.

24th of July - 2013

The 24th of July was pretty low-key for us, but still fun.  Ashley is not enjoying the heat, at least in part because she is 8 months pregnant.  Despite this VERY hard pregnancy, she has been a trooper.  We went to our city parade and then were lucky enough to have her family join us and watch our city fireworks.  Jonah loves fireworks and refers to them as “pop pops.”  It is fun to celebrate our state and all that it has to offer.

Two Great Photographers

Photographer(s) #1: Kelly and Stacey - We had some close friends take our engagement pictures and even some family pictures on the same day.  It was really kind of them and we really appreciate it.  Not only do they do photography, but they do wedding videos as well.  They were even kind enough to shoot our pictures a second time for us (because of how we looked, not because of how they took the pictures).  We will definitely hire them in the future to take more family and individual pictures.  They did an awesome job.  As great as they are as photographers/videographers, we are even more grateful to call them our friends.  Check out their great skills at Stacey Jewkes Photography.

Photographer #2: Justin Hackworth – We certainly did not want our good friends working on our wedding day.  We wanted them to spend the time with us and be relaxed.  So, Ashley found a great photographer by the name of Justin Hackworth.  He seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  When I wasn’t paying attention, I never noticed him.  When I looked to see if he was around, I thought his camera was going to catch on fire.  He did a great job for us.  I won’t post any of the pictures that he took; I am sure Ashley is going to do a wedding post complete with pictures.  You can view his work, or even order pictures, at Justin Hackworth Photography.

Happy Birthday

This weekend, the kiddos turned the ripe-old age of six. Kent and I were so excited for them to come early Friday afternoon so we could open presents and celebrate. T-Bone really wanted to have a friend party and Ado really wanted to see the new Tooth Fairy movie. We decided we could make both kids happy by inviting our friend’s Evan, Kenton, and Jeremiah (poor Cadey stayed home sick with mom) to dinner at the new Pirate Island restaurant in Orem followed by the Tooth Fairy movie.

We had a great time and I highly recommend taking little boys to this pirate themed restaurant. They will be in heaven.

I’ve had to sit through a lot of kid movies this past year and sometimes I wonder how I’ve made it through to the end of the movie without hurting myself or those around me. The Tooth Fairy movie is surprisingly on the verge of being enjoyable. It has a good message about believing in the tooth fairy and believing in you. I have to give it to Dwayne Johnson , “The Rock”, who chooses to star in children movies rather than R rated gangbuster, tear-em-to shreds, poor acting, B movies.

Kent and I decided before Christmas we would save our money to get the kids a Wii. Like most boys, T-Bone loves video games and we wanted to have something we could all play together as a family when we have the kids on the weekend. We got Ado a Princess and the Frog game that she absolutely adores.

Friday night after the kids went to bed, Kent and I decided we would play a game or two. Before we started I told Kent we were not to end up Wii junkies, I expected to see him after we marry and playing video games all night was not acceptable, and the Wii is not part of a date night. Then we started playing. I was shocked when it was I who insisted we play just one more game again and again. I’m a little embarrassed to say I didn’t stop playing until 2:00 a.m. when I got a one word text from my mom that said, “HOME!”

This weekend sure was a lot of fun with the kids. I find myself loving them more and more as time goes by. I hope this will be a great year for them.