Random Thoughts and Pictures

I took these pictures the first morning we were back in St. George.  This is my mother in law's view from her back yard!  I really took these for my dad.  Let's hope it tempts him to relocate here:).  I can not get over the views here.

Not a bad view, huh.  These pictures don't do it justice though. There are soooo many gorgeous views in St. George.  I'm sure I'll always be posting some.

I love this picture of Julien and Cooper.

 And this smile warms my soul!!!!!

 For a few days, two of our trees in our backyard looked like this!  I can't even tell you how much I love having a backyard!  It is everything I knew it would be.

Back tracking here.  The kids started school and love their new teachers, friends, and school.  This is on their first day... 

Jonah entered public school for the first time, once we moved here.  He is a big Kindergartner.  He loves school.  In Utah they do half day kinder, so I get to have him home until 12:15, which I love.  One of the highlights of my day is to take him down to the bus stop; not because I am sending him off, but because he looks ridiculously cute in his new shoes (not shown above) and backpack; and my heart is extra filled with love as I watch his confidence grow, and although I don't want him to leave, I am so proud of how far he has come.

Jonah had a little Easter egg hunt in his class; and Rich, Cooper, and I popped in to watch.  It was cute to see him in a classroom atmosphere. 

 After joining Jonah's class for a bit, we walked over to peek in at Julien's class, but they weren't there.  Just as we were leaving, his class was walking down the halls from recess  and the look on Julien's face when he saw us was priceless.  He yelled out, "MOM, DAD!"  He ran straight to me and gave me a big huge hug and kiss right in front of his guy friends and totally made mama's day!  Then some kid asks, "Julien, this is your mom and dad??  You look just like them!"  Hehe.  He then hugged Rich and gave Cooper a big squeeze and said to his class proudly, "this is my little brother," as he kissed him!  He even looked teary-eyed as we went our separate ways.  I love that he isn't embarrassed of us (yet).  Jonah, on the other hand, makes sure he kisses me before the bus comes everyday.  It's so funny how different they are. 

Here is Jonah before school last week.  I just think he is really cute!

And just so I don't look back and think everything was sunshine and smiles, here is what Cooper has been  up to a lot more often lately...

He has become a lot more whinny since we moved here, for some reason.  Actually, it's been since we put him in a big boy bed.  His binki is also a thing of the past, which he misses a lot, so I think that is contributing to this crankiness.   These pictures were taken right before I took the plunge and started potty training him.  So far we are having much success.  Knock on wood!  I'm so proud of him!!


I think that catches me up for now! 

Family Easter Picnic 2012

We had our family Easter picnic on Easter Saturday.  We enjoyed good food, kite flying, baseball, beautiful scenery (still not over that since we moved back), an Easter egg hunt, and of course good company. 

 Candy, candy, candy!  No wonder they were all sick this week!

We had a great day. 
 **More pics are on Facebook.

My Sister's Visit

My sister and her family came to visit us!  We hadn't seen them in over a year and we had never met her baby who, at the time, was 11 months.  It was so fun to have all of our kids together and watch them play.  I had been dying to spend time with all of them, so it was a real treat!  We took a lot of pics.  I posted most of them on Facebook, but for the blog's sake, here are some of my favs.

 We took them up to Pioneer Park to take some cool scenery pictures.  Too bad I don't know a thing or two about my camera.  But the kids still look adorable, and I love me some red rock.  We took a hundred like these above for my dad.  Love those kids!

Aren't they sweet?!  Makes me miss them so much!

I know we are going to look back on these one day and cry about how little they all were. 

We captured some sweet moments!

Baby Kinley was something to be fought over during this trip.  Man, was she cute!  And so itty-bity!!

It was the first time we had all 5 of our kids together.  I wish my sister would just move here already!  (Probably never going to happen, but I can dream).  I can't wait until we can see them again!  Thanks for coming guys!  We love you so much!!

Jonah's 6th Birthday!

Well, we finally made it to St. George.  We've been here for a month and a half but it feels longer than that.  It almost feels like we never left.  My life in San Antonio is already seeming like it was years ago.  Strange how that happens.  We love it here.  It was a great move for us.  Besides a slow start, business wise, it seems like life is just so good.  I feel so incredibly blessed.  I guess I could go on and make this a totally different post, but lets jump to my adorable son who turned 6 while we were traveling.  Jonah was promised a birthday party once we got to St. George, since we were confined to a truck during his real birthday.  It wasn't ideal for me to throw a party about a week after we got here, or to try to do it while we had company, or to attempt a "cool" birthday cake on top of all that, but some how I pulled it off.  And Jonah deserved it because he has never had a real birthday party and he didn't complain or ask for anything on his real birthday, even though we were driving all day and ate Jack in the Box for dinner (which he fell asleep before he was even able to eat it).  The theme for his birthday was "geography" because he is a 6 year old geography genius..at least in my bias opinion.  He spends much of his computer time on google earth, traveling the world.  He loves to study maps too.  I asked him if he liked the geography theme for his party and he got super excited and gave me the go-ahead.  I started thinking we should get him a globe for his birthday and sure enough, he ended asking me for one for his birthday.  I searched high and low in St. George for that globe.  Funny stories that went along with that, but eventually Barnes and Noble saved the day! 

I'm so not the party planning, cake baking, gatherer type of Mom (wish I was though), but he didn't notice.  He thanked me many times for giving him this party and said he loved it = happy mommy!

As I mentioned, I made the cake.  This thing brought me a lot of stress that day!  First off, I do not have the proper cake decorating tools (just a butter knife) and because I didn't freeze the cake ahead of time, the cake started crumbling when I started frosting it.  The only way to avoid ruining it completely (by it crumbling and having crumbs in the frosting) was to spread a lot of frosting on and not worry about getting a smooth look.  I definitely learned my lesson on that one.  But somehow it still turned out okay and somewhat resembled a globe.  My kids thought I was the witchiest mom around while I was frosting that thing because they were hovered around me; the cake was starting to come apart: they were poking and getting wayyy too close, and I was running out of frosting....that put me in panic mode, so anyone around me got snapped at.  I couldn't relax until Jonah blew out that candle!  I learned that I really don't like stressing about this kind of stuff!  But Jonah felt loved and thought the cake was awesome.  So for the sake of all the stress it caused me, let's take a look and appreciate my efforts.

Some of the lovely faces of people who came to show Jonah some birthday love....

Thank you to everyone that came!  It means so much!  Aren't they all so cute!?!

I couldn't wait to see his face when he saw his globe.  Here it is.  And later I caught him kissing it.  Priceless!

He got some binoculars for his birthday and I found him outside playing with them.  I love these pictures of him...

Happy Birthday to our sweet Jonah!  I am SO thankful to be your mommy!  You are precious beyond words and I love you so very much!