Fishing w/ G & G

Jeff's parents invited us on a fishing trip, it was short notice, but we pulled it all together and we had a great time. The kids loved fishing and became pretty good at catching them. Landon and Owen just played around on the boat and Grandma kept them entertained and happy. Jeff and his dad both caught pretty big catfish, but croppy is what we were catching a lot of. Madie caught a small bass, but it was under the required size so she threw it back.

Madie and Ethan turned out to be pretty good little fisherman

Jeff and his dad with Jeff's catfish

Papa giving Madie fishing lessons, Grandma keeping Owen entertained, the child fishing rod we brought kept Landon very busy, Grandma brought some books for the kids to read and Ethan read and reread them.

Ron and his catfish and then helping Jeff get his out of the net.

Jeff caught double fish about three times (what a show off :)

We all had a great time hanging out on the boat and the kids did so much better than I thought they would. Even Owen did really well, he didn't sleep much, but stayed pretty happy and he loved "driving" the boat. Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa for bringing the boat up and sharing some special time with us. We'd love to do it again sometime.

Her & Him

Seeing them together makes me happy. I don't play any instrument and I don't even read music (I really need to learn) so I can't help her practice. I wish I could, but when I see him helping her I am glad they have that special time together. It has been fun to see Jeff tinkering around on the piano and picking it back up. It's so nice to hear music in our home, it makes me want to learn myself. It's on my to do list, maybe someday. Until then I am happy to watch them together because I know it makes them happy too.

11 Years Ago Today...

I was on my way to the temple to marry my best friend. I remember that as we were pulling into the parking lot I saw Jeff and his parents walking across the street to enter the temple gates. I remember feeling so completely joyful about marrying Jeff.

(just a disclaimer, our scanner doesn't work, so these are pictures of pictures,

so the quality isn't that great)

These past 11 years have been amazing. They haven't always been easy, marriage is hard work, but I couldn't have picked a better partner to work with. We have lived away for almost all of our married life. We have had to learn to depend on each other and help one another. We have created four beautiful children together. There are so many things about Jeff that I love and am thankful for.

I love that....

Jeff is an adoring husband
he is a wonderful and attentive dad
he isn't afraid to make dinner and when he does it's always pasta
he is willing to do dishes, and change diapers
he is ticklish on his neck
he will only use Irish Spring Original Soap
he always has his nose in a book
he isn't scared to do hard work
he is a hard worker
we laugh together often
we often are thinking the same things
he is always willing to give me a back rub and does almost everynight
he doesn't need the finest things in life to make him happy
he supports my talents and cheers me on
he's willing to watch a chick flick if it makes me happy
he loves history and has read many books about it
he is loyal and trustworthy
he is smart at things that I suck at
he is a master of Excel and spread sheets (it seriously amazes me)
he loves learning and reading about space
he loves brownies
he hates nuts in baked goods
eats Honey Nut Cheeiros almost every morning
he uses a level and math to hang pictures
he has beautiful green eyes, strong hands, and nice lips
has a good sense of humor and can laugh at himself
he speaks Italian
he's an engineer, but also very creative
loves being outdoors
he doesn't judge me when I struggle


I could go on and on. I feel very blessed that Jeff is my husband and friend. Eleven years has gone so fast. Jeff I love you with all my heart, ll years ago was the happiest day of my life, because from that we have created a wonderful life and filled it with a beautiful family. Thank you for making me so happy and for being the amazing man that you are
Happy Anniversary!!!!!

My Family Pictures

We had our pictures taken at the beginning of October and I am just now getting around to putting them up, but they turned out so cute, I just had so share. I need to start thinking about Christmas cards and which pictures I want for the house. I am so happy that the kids actually cooperated and we really ended up with some cute ones.

I can't believe they are actually all looking at the camera

Me and My Girl

I love this one of Jeff and Ethan

10 Years by the Numbers

It's hard to believe, but Jeff and I have officially been married for ten years. The time has gone by so fast and I can't imagine having spent the time with a more wonderful person. Here is a break down of the last ten years by the numbers:

-3 states
-3 apartments
-3 cars
-2 houses
-3 1/4 children
-thousands of miles traveled
-thousands of laughs
-hundreds of tears
-2 Bachelors Degree
-1 Masters Degree
-Lots of friends
-7 wards
-12 callings
-2 Lawn mowers
-1 collapsed sewer pipe
-1 backyard start to finish
-6 nephews, 2 nieces
-6 vacations
-infinite number of drives to see family
-2 time zones
-thousands of diapers
-100's of sleep deprived nights
-2 fallen trees
-3 hospital stays
-thousands of meals
-4 cameras
-100's of books
-3 T.V.'s
-2 beds (not including the kids)
-3 couches
-3 computers
-100's of movies
-endless amounts of Love

These are just a few things that describe the last ten years, but what cannot be counted in numbers is the way that Jeff has touched my life. I truly feel blessed by this last ten years and all the wonderful memories that have been made. I can't wait to make more memories and mark off more years. Here's to the future. Jeff I Love You more than you will ever know HAPPY 10th ANNIVESARY!!!!

McBryde Botanical Gardens

On Monday Jeff and I headed down to Poipu to visit the McBryde Botanical Gardens. The gardens showed a great variety of Hawaiian plants, flowers, and trees. They were all very interseting and like nothing I have ever seen before. So many of the flowers had a wax like feel, not what you would expect from looking at them. It was neat how many different varities of Palm trees there are and a lot of the trees and plants had berries on them. Here are just some of the beautiful things we saw.

Kauai- Sunday

I truly hope that everyone isn't sick out of their minds at seeing pictures of our trip, but I have to post them. It was such a great experience and for journaling's sake I need to do it.

Sunday morning Jeff and I went to church in Kapaa. It really is amazing that no matter where you go to church the same things are going on in every ward. The building itself had a really open floor plan. The chapel was a building all it's own with three sets of french doors on every side of the chapel and a set at the back. It was nice to visit another ward and the talks were really good.

After church Jeff and I headed down to Port Allen on the southern end of the island to go on a boat tour of the Napali Coast. There were 18 of us and 4 crew memebers on the boat. The boat had two stories and there was plenty of room for all of us to lounge around. Heading out of the harbor was pretty bumpy, but once we got past the breaking waves the view was gorgeous. To see the Napali coast you have to go by boat, plane, or helicopter. The boat ride was five hours long and it was the highlight of our trip. While on the boat we passed sugar cane factories, beautiful remote beaches, saw the beautiful mountains, we snorkeled up againist a tall rock wall, we ate yummy food, we relaxed, and I took lots of pictures.

Fields of Sugar Cane and a Sugar Cane Factory

This is the rock wall that we snorkled up againist. The boat in the lower right corner is a lot like the boat we were on, and in the same location where we snorkeled. We saw some cool fishes while we snorkeled and we saw and swam with our first sea turtle. In the lower left side of the rock there is a round "eye" in the rock. The "eye" was a tube that lava flowed through the rock when the island was being made.

View of the Napali Coast

A remote beach. There are many remote beaches along the coast that you can only get to by boat, this is one of them. You can see a cavern off to the left of the beach, it is actually an arch and the beach countinues under and off the other side of the arch. The early Hawaiians actually lived in the valleys between between these moutains when they first settled the islands. It is hard to imagine that they could live in such a terrain.

Napali Coast

This mountain range is so breathtaking. The ridges look like they were folded or creased. It was literally one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

View of the Mountain Range as we headed back to port.

If you are ever in Kauai I highly recommend going on a boat tour you won't regret it. Jeff and I had a great time and the scenery couldn't have been better. The ride in was pretty choppy, but well worth it.

Kauai- Saturday

So on Saturday Jeff and I decided to head up north again this time to Ke'e Beach for a hike and to do some snorkeling. As we drove to Ke'e beach you pass by beautiful fields of Toro (a Hawaiian Plant used to make Poi and other things) and quaint small towns.

Beautiful fields of Taro


Ke'e beach is literally at the end of the road and where the Napali Coast starts. The hike Jeff and I did leads to a "Secret Beach", a beach that you can only get to by hike, or by boat. The hike is quite long, so Jeff and I did not go the whole way. A lot of people that hike in also camp for the night (it's a twelve mile hike). Even though we didn't go all the way the view from the trail was breathtaking.

Ke'e Beach Below. The brown that you see in the water is actually coral reef and is where Jeff and I snorkeled after lunch.

View of the Napali Coast line from the trail

Another view of the coast from the trail and Jeff

After Jeff and I did the hike we went to Hanalei a cute little town for some lunch. We found a great little sandwich shop for lunch (Hanalei Gourmet) and then headed back up to Ka'a beach for some snorkeling. We snorkeled for a good while and saw some pretty cool fish. This was my real first time snorkeling in the ocean. I was pretty scared at first because I couldn't touch bottom in most places, but I figured it out and Jeff and I had a great time. We were pretty tired afterwards though. People had seen some sea turtles while we were there, but Jeff and I were bummed because we never saw any. After we were done snorkeling we headed back to Kapaa to get freshened up and to have some dinner. We ate at a mexican place that was good, but we eneded up having to wait for 45 minutes for our food. Needless to say we were both starving when our order finally came. Saturday was great because I really got a lot of confidence in snorkeling and we saw some beautiful scenery.

Kauai Trip- Friday

I've decided to break our trip down into days so that it is easier for me to sort through pictures and also to do some journaling. So lets start with Friday. Jeff and I arrived in Kauai on Thursday after flying all day long. By the time we got to our hotel it was dark outside, and we both were suffering from jet leg and time changes so our adventure didn't really start until Friday.

Sunrise from our room taken by Jeff who got up earlier than me everyday.


We stayed at the Waipouli Resort and Spa, located in Kapaa. Jeff and I were really pleased with the room. It was more like an apartment really we had a full kitchen, a living room, a large bathroom, and a bedroom with a lanai. We bought some groceries on Thursday night so we could have quick and easy breakfasts every morning. Friday morning we enjoyed a yummy breakfast on the lanai and then headed out to Snorkel Bob's to rent some snorkeling equipment. Jeff had been to Hawaii two times before for work, but it was my first time. Jeff had gone snorkeling on one of his prior trips, but I had never snorkeled before. We decided to head to Lydgate Beach for me to practice snorkeling somewhere fairly easy. Lydgate beach has a rocked off swim area from the ocean. They have a good variety of fishes, but it was never to deep that I couldn't stand up, so it was a great learning place and Jeff and I had a lot of fun.

After snorkeling at Lydgate for a good part of the morning we headed up north to visit Kilauea Lighthouse. Before going to the lighthouse Jeff and I stopped at a great little bakery / pizzeria for lunch. It was tucked back in a group of shops and it had some of the yummiest looking things in it. The people were friendly and the food was great. We then headed to the lighthouse which was just down the road. They lighthouse sits at the northern most point on the Hawaiin Islands. From the lighthouse you can see beautiful panoramas of the coast and if you are lucky (we weren't ) you can see monk seals on the rocks below and if you go in winter you might even see a whale. Even though we didn't see any seals or whales, we saw plenty of birds that we haven't ever seen before.

View from Lighthouse Point

Kilauea Lighthouse

Not the greatest photo, but hey you never know how they will turn out when you ask some German guy to take your picture.

After the lighthouse Jeff and I kept heading north to do some more snorkeling. After attempting to snorkel at a really bad spot, Jeff and I found a really nice swimming beach and enjoyed the water and resting on the beach. Unfortunately the sun sets earlier there than at home so it felt like the days were pretty short. Jeff and I headed back to Kapaa for dinner and found a great place (Kauai Pasta) for dinner. The food was so delicious, Jeff served a mission in Italy and he was surprised at how true to Italy the food was. You can't beat yummy food at a great price.

Our first day in Kauai was great. The snorkeling was fun, the food was great, and spending time together without the kids was refreshing. More pictures and journaling to come.

It's Been Awhile

I know it's been awhile, but I'm back. Jeff and I just got back from an amazing get away to Hawaii without the kids. We left last week for Utah to drop the kids off at Jeff's parents house and then we flew out the next day for Hawaii. Jeff and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary in August and we have talked about taking a get away trip for our ten year anniversary for some time and we did it. We went to Kauai and we had a great time snorkeling, swimming with sea turtles, taking a boat tour out around the Napali Coast, visiting a botantical garden, seeing Waimea Canyon, Waterfalls, and most of all enjoying being together without children. We had a great time and I took a lot of photos, but I also have a ton of stuff to put away and I am totally tired since we caught a red eye flight coming home and I a trying to get my internal clock back on a normal schedule. I am so grateful to my mother and father in law who did a great job keeping the kids busy and entertained. I also want to say thank you to Jeff who spent so much time planning for this trip, I loved spending time with him and remembering what it was like to only focus on each other. I will try to post some pictures tonight.

One Busy Life

Well here I am a blogging slacker, but what can I say life is just pretty busy lately. Here is a little of what we have been up to.

Memorial Day Weekend Jeff took Friday off and while I babysat for my Friday swap Jeff ran around and bought the final plants for our front and side yard planter beds in the front of the house. We had curbing put in last year and finally it's all coming together. We got a Hydrangea, Lilac, Azalea, and some grasses for the side of the house. We kept the dogwood that was in the front planter bed and got rid of everything else. We added another species of Dogwood, some Lavendar, a Bluebeard, a Abbotsword Potentilla, and few other plants that I can't remember what they are called and I can't find the tags. I also have two beautiful hanging flower baskets that I got for mothers day and my planters of flowers in front of the garage. Jeff worked on Saturday and got the individual sprinklers set up to water the plants and last night he finished shoveling the rock into the planter beds and around the trees. Jeff worked really hard to get it all done and it looks great.

On Monday we took the kids to the zoo and had a little picnic. Landon had a blast at the zoo. His favorite was the lions, the giraffes, and bobcat. All the kids had fun, but it was neat to see that Landon was finally old enough to atually recognize some of the animals we saw. Madie and Ethan had a fun time sliding down the slides they have at the zoo and Ethan couldn't wait to see the penguins. We found a nice shady spot outside the zoo to eat our picnic, they weather was great so we couldn't have asked for anything more.

On Monday night Landon came down with a fever and had it all day tuesday. Yesterday I took him to the doctor and the poor little guy has another ear infection. This will be his third ear infection plus a sinus infection since December. We are going to make an appointment with an Ears, Nose, Throat specialist to try to find out what hte problem is. All the infections have been in the same ear so I am afraid he is having problems draining in that ear. Landon also has a very bad gag reflex and so whenever he is congested we get lots of throwing up, in the last two days he has thrown up twice after gagging. We have cleaned up more throwup with this kid than Madie and Ethan combined. When Ethan we little he too had lots of ear infections. We took him to a ENT Specialist as well and he was a candidate for tubes. This all happened in the spring summer and so we decided to wait until the fall and she how he did. We were lucky with Ethan because after that he grew out of the infections and has only had about two infections since then. I am hoping that since it is the same time of year with Landon and the same problem, that maybe he too will grow out of it, but we will have to see.

Ethan has been having some emotional clingliness lately which is about driving me batty. Ethan has always loved a good kiss and hug goodbye, but lately you have to give him a hug, a kiss, wave until out of sight while blowing kisses and hugs. they actually brought Ethan to my class on Sunday because he was crying that I didn't say good bye, Ahhhhh!!! Jeff and I have a trip to Hawaii planned this summer and I don't know if the problem is stemming from that? He hears us talk about it, but also expresses excitement about going to Grandma's house so I am really confused. Jeff left the other day and waved to Ethan, but Ethan didn't see and he had a melt down because he thought that Jeff didn't wave. After a time out he finally calmed down, but boy oh boy he had quite the hard time getting over it. So if anyone out there has any suggestions I would love to hear them, because I just don't know what to do about this sudden seperation anxiety.

Landon's Birthday is tomorrow and I can't believe he will be two already. Jeff's parents are coming up tomorrow so I think we will wait and celebrate Landon's Birthday on Saturday. Madie has her last day of school next week. It is hard to believe she has completed another year of school. Well that is about what is going on here. I can't wait for Madie to get done with school and start going through the house and dejunking. I started today and I think I have a bigger mess than when I started. I can't wait to get a handle on all the clutter. Well that's about what's been going on here. I promise I will get some pictures up of the house and our zoo trip. Now if I can just get the house cleaned in time for guests I will be doing good.

Kiss, Kiss

Landon and Jeff have such a sweet relationship. When Jeff comes home Landon stops whatever he is doing to rush over and give Daddy a hug and kiss. I often hear that Landon looks a lot like Jeff and he defintely takes after his dad. I often see Landon make some of the same facial expressions that Jeff does. Jeff is such a great dad and Landon loves his daddy very much.

Checkers

Madie decided she wanted to learn to play checkers, so the other day while I was at the dollar store I saw a checkers game and decided to buy it (granted it's about the most cheaply made checker set you could buy). Jeff sat down with her and taught her how to play. On Sunday she wanted to play again so Jeff and Madie played and had a great time.

HAPPY 9th ANNIVERSARY !!!

Today Jeff and I have been married for nine years. Time goes by so fast, we have actually known each other for eleven years now. Jeff and I lived in the same building and were in the same ward up at College. It was 1997 and Jeff had just returned from his mission a couple of weeks earlier and was starting his second year of school (he was able to get a year of school in prior to going on his mission) and I too was entering into my second year of school. That first semester of school we knew each other and would see each other at church and around the building. We even had dinner as apartments together, but it wasn't until after that Christmas break that we really started hanging out and becoming friends. Jeff and I would sit and talk for hours with each other, he would help me with projects for school, he and his roomates would hang out with me and my roomates, we would go on drives, he taught me how to drive a stick shift, we would go to movies and other fun activities together, and when he or I would go on a date with someone we would talk about it with each other after. Jeff became my best friends. Little by little I started to see him in a new light I realized I was having feelings for him. He was there for when through some hard times and I really appreciated his kindness and compassion. After a summer apart and a little wishy washing on both our parts we finally realized that we were in love.

Jeff proposed at the beginning of April 1999 and on August fifth 1999 we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was the best day of my life. I hardly slept the night before and I remember that when we got to the Temple and we were looking for a parking spot I saw Jeff and his parents crossing the street to enter Temple square and I felt such joy. That day was so special; to be with him in such an amazing place to be surrounded by our family and friends was a dream come true. Jeff has been and is an amazing husband and father, he is my best friend. The past nine years have been filled with there ups and downs, but that's what life and marriage are all about. I am grateful that we have had each other to lean on, learn from, share with, and comfort one another. I look at all that we have accomplished, the special children we have created, the memories we have made and my heart is full. Thank You Jeff for being the companion I dreamnt of, for being my best friend for so long, for loving me with all my faults and making me want to be a better person. I love you with All My Heart. Happy 9th Anniversary !!!!

Cookie Time

Jeff made cookies with the kids the other day and they had such a good time. All you have to do is mention cookies and the kids go nuts. The were good helpers; they helped crack the eggs, add the chocolate chips and of course sampled their fair share of dough. The just couldn't wait for the cookies to come out so they could eat one.