What a Sweet Surprise!

Well, if I would have known my husband would have missed me that much, I would have taken a girls trip a long time ago! Thanks for the sweet love note babe! I just finally saw his post a couple of days ago because when I came home from Utah our computer monitor wasn't working AGAIN! (It's only 2 years old but we've fixed the problem....I think.) I have so many things that I want to post from the past few weeks and I don't even know where to start. BYU Women's Conference was a blast! It is always so fun to be back in Provo and it is always beautiful in the spring. It was such a fun break for me to spend time with my sister Amber! We stayed with my aunt and my cousins and had lots of fun shopping and eating out.... maybe too much fun! It was such a great break to get away and hear all of the great uplifting talks, shop, stay up late, sleep in, go to movies and dinner and laugh with the girls! Thanks girls, and thanks Darren for holding down the fort.... you're the best!

What's a trip to Utah without Cafe Rio!

BYU Campus... so fun to be there!

Sisters! It was fun to spend so much time together!

Temple Square is so beautiful in the spring!

What a fun trip.... but it's good to be home.

I love my sweet wife!

O.K. This is Darren, and I'm not sure if I'm posting this blog right, but I guessed my wife's password so I think I'm in.

Emily comes home today after being in Utah for almost five days - I've been with the kids this whole time, and no one is more excited to have her back than me.

Em - I don't know how you do it. I felt like I was literally cleaning up the house 24/7. Thank you for being such a wonderful wife & mother - I appreciate now more than ever the work you go through each and every day to keep the house clean. I appreciate your ability to do the girls' hair - church is later today and I foresee a little disaster in the hair department (seeing as I couldn't even put Avery's hair in a ponytail very well yesterday for her softball game). I appreciate your patience more than anything, with all "four" kids (I'm including myself in that department). Finally, I appreciate your second job - that of a chauffeur - taking the kids all over the place. I didn't even venture to go to a store or anything with the three of them - I now know why you have such a hard time when you try to do that.

Even though the kids and I had a great time, I was exhausted by the end of every day, and I can tell you we all miss you very much. You are the glue that holds us all together and I don't know what I would do or where I would be without you. Thank you for being a perfect woman - I couldn't ask for a better best friend to enjoy life with, create a family with, and grow old with (although we're still young, right?). I love you, sweetheart!

Darren

P.S. I'm now a little more "motivated" to plan that summer vacation - just for the two of us!

My Birthday Girl Turns 6!

My computer has been down for 2 weeks and we just got it up and running just in time to wish my sweet Avery a very Happy Birthday! I can't believe she is 6 years old! These years just go by way too fast! Avery has been such a joy to have in our family. She is the best big sister to Ella and Logan and such a sweet friend to everyone. She has brought us so much JOY and we love her so much! Happy Birthday my little Love Bug!

Spring Break

I don't even know where to start! We were just busy having too much fun! I thought it would be fun to plan little adventures for the kids and by the end of the week I was EXHAUSTED! We went to Disneyland, the pool, the beach, the pool again, & Avery even had a "mommy daughter date" to the Spectrum. She was so excited! We had so much fun and didn't even get home until 10:30pm! She was so cute and held my hand the whole time. I will be so sad when the day comes where hanging out with your mom on Friday night isn't "cool" anymore. Ughhh, do they have to grow up? We did have lots of fun, now to get caught up on laundry, sleep and cleaning!

Logan and Lucas LOVING the water!

We saw an octupus at the tidepools

Avery even did some rock jumping


Logan was so funny in the sand. He still isn't walking and decided to do the crab crawl.



What could be better than cotton candy and the Disneyland parade!



Our "mommy daughter date"


While we were there, we let the lady try that amazing Gemelli curling iron on Avery's hair... so we had to take a picture when we got home.

Welcome Baby Braden!

My brother Derek and his wife Katie had their first baby on April 4th. He decided to FINALLY come on his mama's birthday. (10 days late) He is a little butterball weighing in at 10 pounds 20 inches! He is precious and it was fun to see them at the hospital! The girls couldn't wait to hold their new cousin. Congratulations Derek and Katie!

I love a good deal!

Cereal for $1 a box! (if you buy 4 or more) Albertsons is having a sale on lots of General Mills cereal until April 8th. I went a couple of nights ago and came home with about 30 boxes of really good cereal. Just make sure and take the ad with you to make sure you get the right oz. size. For example... Golden Grahams 12oz. size is $1, not the 13.5oz. Also, there are certain kinds of Chex that are still full price. Take your Coupons for General Mills too and you will walk out with a few free boxes! Have fun!

Surprise!!!!

This past weekend Darren and I flew to Oregon to surprise his dad for his 60th birthday! We left the kids with friends and family and headed for a quick weekend getaway to join the rest of his family. We spent the first day in Portland and decided to go up to Multnomah Falls up in the Columbia River Gorge. It was beautiful, although we were only there about 20 minutes because it was freezing! We headed to Eugene where we were meeting up with everyone for dinner to surprise dad. We had a yummy dinner and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and being together. Darren and I slept in on Saturday morning until 10:15 am!! What more could I ask for! We had lots of fun.....Happy Birthday dad!

This was his face when he walked into the restaurant to see all of us waiting to surprise him.
The whole gang except for Darren's brother Ryan who was flying in late that night.
Multnomah Falls..... that's us way up there!

Freezing cold in the rain and hail.