25

25

I had an awesome birthday surprise this year...

Seriously.. 

Watch. 

 Ok, so the video is a little anti climactic..
(You will learn what awesome deep sleepers I have, and why I want to redo my bedroom :)
but hey,
 My sister and her kids flew in from Chicago and surprised me!
(Thank you Brad and Sara Rencher for flying them out! I was lucky enough to have a birthday close to Brad's :)
I loved it.. and so did my kids.
They woke us up and took us to Sills for a HUGE breakfast!

 I love my family. Thanks Dad for treating all of us to breakfast!

 There is NOTHING I love MORE than spending time with those I love.

It was great having Haley and Mitch in town because it brought the rest of my family down to my Mom's on the weekday of June 20th.

We hung out at my Mom's all day and just let the kids play, then had dinner, and the best part.. played games until early in the morning.
I love playing games, and since Haley and Mitch moved, our late night gaming has almost dissapeared.
So Haley and Sadie made us some Yummy cookies to start it all off!

Then later we took Haley and her kids to Cherry Hill to join in on some summer fun.

Thanks again Brad and Sara for making it possible to have my sister and her sweet family home for my birthday!! It made for a great surprise and an awesome family gathering/party!

I LOVED IT!

Date Night

Andrew and I have always wanted to take our kids on dates.

Teach them manners, how to treat the opposite sex, show them how they should be treated, etc.  But most of all, just get some one-on-one bonding time, talking to them and making sure they know they're extra special to us.

Andrew called Kennedy and asked her out on their first date last week.

She was giddy, ALL DAY! 

I kept asking her, and she would say, " Daddy's taking me on a date, Lucas not coming, just me!"

He took her out to Paces, they got corn dogs and rainbows

(a first experience for both of them).

She was so excited when I asked her about her rainbow, she yelled "IT WAS PURPLE!!!!"

They came home bringing flowers. So cute. She was thrilled; she picked them out... all by herself!

Melted my heart.

 

  She can't stop talking about them, every time she sees them on the counter she tells me one of these statements:

 "Daddy loves me, that's why he gave me flowers on our date!"

"Flowers go at the temple too!"

"Morange and pink, and yellow and blue, but my favorite is pink and purple!"

"My flowers are pretty and yours are BIG!"

:)

While Kennedy and Andrew were out on their date,

Lucas and I had some good fun at home.

It was so interesting to watch him.

I was trying to get him to finger paint, but all he wanted to so was take the lids off,

and put them back on.

  Then he got obsessed with stacking them..

  Then after a bit more of trying he started to finger paint... his legs... not the paper..  :)

 It's so fun to observe your children. Sad to say sometimes it takes forced time to stop and take a look at them in new eyes. But I learned a lot of new things about Lucas. It was a new experience to play with him at home, with out Kennedy.

We hope we can continue these dates forever!

5 in 1

Ok, So this last week was a crazy week. In fact I think I could do at least 5 blog post for all that happened. But in reality.. I will never get to that. So I will just sum it up, and put it all in one long post.

So, it didn't start off great...

Tuesday morning, Kennedy was playing the piano and fell off the bench and split her head open.

Since I was in the next room I didn't see exactly what happened. 

(We have a few different theories of what happened.. but I am still investigating:)

Needless to say I was an emotional WRECK.

 At first glance, with all the blood and screaming, I wanted to scream too. I was so glad I was at my parents. They both helped me calm down a bit, and act like a grown up. After talking to my Mom, she told me that Kennedy would probably have to go up to Primary Children's Hospital so they could have a plastic surgeon stitch it up to reduce the chance of scaring.

But before making the drive, my Mom called a family friend, Dr. Kjar. He said to come on up, and he could meet with us before they open.. so there we were at his office before anyone else had  a chance to get there :)

After he looked at it, he told us we would need to take her to the hospital so he could stitch her up there. He was so great to come and do it for us on his lunch break!

While we waited at the hospital, Kennedy was DELIGHTFUL! As long as no one wanted to touch her.. :) She loved all the attention she was getting. It was good because we had to wait for a few hours.

Grandpa came up to check up on us, and join Andrew in giving Kennedy a blessing.
I honestly think that my nerves were more calmed listening to the blessing. Even though it was for her, I felt so relieved, It helped me get through it, and for what was to come! I am so grateful for the priesthood.

As you will notice.. we had some great entertainment, and was sad when Lucas and Dad had to go.

Now this picture makes me cry. She was out of it, and I had to everything possible to stay emotionally strong at the ER. Just so not fun to see your baby in pain.

This is Kennedy waking up from it. This was so hard for me. It took her a long time to snap out of it, she would look at me, and almost not recognize me. But she did good. In reality I am glad she got it. If she had been awake, It would have been hard to hold her still for all of it.

We were welcomed home by a great support group! Jake, Robyn, Logan, Elisabeth, and My Mom and Dad. Kennedy loved all the attention, and I loved the emotional support!

Aunt Robyn painter her toes and gave her a hand bag. SHE LOVES IT.

She was a little loopy for a few hours so I had her eat in the high chair for safety :)
Kennedy also got some retail therapy. We made a stop at Target for her medication, and she got the watch she had been BEGGING for every time we go to the store.

 Then we headed to Max's Baseball game and she had fun with her cousins.

 And Lucas was delightful all day! Love him!!

Cheer Camp
Ok so to add to my silly emotions, I had to leave the next morning to Park City for cheer camp.

I was so sad to leave my kids, I didn't realize how hard it was going to be. But I was also so proud of my cheerleaders. They worked hard all week and did great!

Oh.. and I had about 3 plate full of raspberries and blueberries for breakfast!

 I loved it. I estimated I eat $15 of berries each morning haha.. it was so great!

 These was extras I took to my room for my midnight snack :) 

Fathers Day!

My sweet Andrew is the best dad ever.

He is such a good Daddy in so many ways! This is  the kids greeting him for breakfast in the morning!

 Kennedy was so proud of her tie she made him in nursrey.. So proud in fact, she wore it all day Monday! :) 

My kids love adore him.

 But hey...  What is not to LOVE?

The ZOO!

My family came down on Monday, and we all went to the zoo! 
It was way fun to go with all the Moms in my family and kids (& Levi :) on a play date type thing.

I think we will have to make another trip with Andrew.. He was a bit jealous we went with out him.

I had to narrow the pictures down to mostly my kids.. I took a good 607 pictures.... haha

 

24th BIRTHDAY!
Thats right! I am the big 24!
I can honestly say that June 20th is the best day of the year! ;)
We have been celebrating all month long... and all week!
I even had my cute niece and nephew over to help party! They were great!
Monday while the family was here we sang and had this beauty that my Mom made...

Tuesday
Andrew and the kids took me out to dinner...
Oh, and Kennedy got her stitches out! She was a CHAMP!! 
Dr. Kjar and everyone in the office was sooo impressed!
 She didn't move a muscle, nor make a peep while he pulled the top layer of stitches out!
Way to go KENNEDY!

(my kids are so dang cute!)

Before                                                    After

June 20th

on the big day I woke up to this...

(If you haven't noticed I am a bit of a raspberrie lover..)
Then we went swimming. It was great!



  

Just seeing my kids have fun is the best present ever.
Then to top it off, Andrew surprised me and came home from early from work!
We came home and had dinner, then put the kids down and watched a movie.

I love him.
I LOVED IT.
Feels great to be 24 :)