eric and mandy

Nathan's Talk

2012-11-18T19:42:00.002-07:00

Nathan was very excited to give a talk in Primary today. He did a great job and spoke loudly and clearly.

Baby Wes

2012-10-15T21:04:00.003-06:00

Molly's Party: Painting Seashells

2012-09-10T10:39:00.000-06:00

Molly's Party: Balloon Fun

2012-09-10T10:36:00.003-06:00

Molly's Party: The Cake

2012-09-10T10:36:00.001-06:00

Molly told her Nana she wanted a green butterfly and did Nana deliver! Molly loved it every bit of it. A big thank you to Nana, Granny and Ashley!

Molly's Party: Slip 'n Slide

2012-09-10T10:26:00.001-06:00

We had a slip 'n slide for some fun at the party. Everyone had a different approach to it. Some were more creative, others were a little scared.

Molly's Bday Room

2012-08-14T11:31:00.001-06:00

A birthday surprise from Nana!

May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!

2012-03-22T21:32:00.001-06:00

So excited to go see the Hunger Games in just a few hours! Ashley and I are going to be so cool with our awesome shirts.

A New Kind of Family...

2012-03-12T16:36:00.001-06:00

For my Mom's 50th birthday we had some pictures taken of our family. Let me tell you it is a lot of work to get 5 women outfitted for a picture and then pose them for a picture. We searched high and low for outfits, Mom still wasn't happy with hers,walked into Kohl's a few hours before the appointment and came out with the perfect top.

We call this one the ABC Family picture...cracked the photographer guy up

Check us out! We can lean on a wall! For some reason this one was especaily hard for me...

My mom also wanted a picutre of all four of us in our letterman jackets. 3 swimming, 1 track and field.

Planetarium

2012-03-12T16:27:00.002-06:00

Saturday my mom took the kids to the planetarium and they loved it! Nathan came home and told me that Saturn has rings and Mars is his favorite because it's red.

Molly loves The Backyardigans especially the episode 'Mission to Mars'. So to be on Mars was very exciting for her. She loved every minute of it, and being on the Moon. She keeps asking me if I want to go to the Moon again with her.

A Moon rock, very exciting for Nathan because he loves rocks.

It's Mario Time!

2012-01-24T13:27:00.003-07:00

We had Nathan's 4th(!) birthday party on Saturday. We had our Utah family members over fun and dinner

Holding up a '4' was a little confusing for some of the kids.

I asked Ashley to come out earlier in the week to help to decorate the wall. Thanks to her, plastic tablecloths, conctuction paper, poster board and the internet, we created this awesome scene! Nathan looked at it and said it looks just like world one! That was enough for me.

I planned a few games around Mario. Pop the Boo balloons-it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be but eventually we popped all the ghosts.

We also played freeze tag, it was pretty fun until someone cried but that seems to be how all toddler games are.

Mario, Mario, Luigi was probably my favorite game. The kids just thought it was hilarous.

At one point the other kids decided to carry Nathan around, and by the time I found my camera again these two were the only ones left!

Nathan took present time very seriously.

Hey Mom!

2012-01-06T13:40:00.001-07:00

Look what I did today! Look at all the Christmas cuteness!!! For reals there 10 new posts for you, and everyone else, to enjoy!

Christmas 8-2nd Christmas

2012-01-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Nathan counting

Molly counting...yes she does have more, some people were concerned that her Christmas would be sad with Santa only bringing Mario and controllers...safe to say Molly was spoiled with all things Tangled.

Mario shirt and pjs! Nathan was a little sad when the sons-in-law got Mario pj pants, but moved on and then Christmas morning he was very happy to get his own.

Molly has to have every scrap of paper off before she will look at what is inside the box.

Kristen gave her a box of princess dress-up, which Molly now loves!

Da Lo.

Molly opened this shopping cart, realized there was a seat for her baby and immediately looked for Baby Rapunzel to go in the seat.

We gave my mom How I Met Your Mother on DVD, she was shocked and happy, score for me!

These days any family gathering isn't complete until we see everyone's tricks. We got a fire pit that I don't have a picture of, but I'm very excited for summer to come! Although with the weather we've been having lately I could probably bust it out soon!

Christmas 7- Wii Dance Party

2012-01-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

After the little kids went to bed the big kids had a Just Dance 3 party! It was a ton of fun, everyone had a blast!

It was obvious early on that Lauren had played before, those teenagers know how to have fun.

Eric is very good, don't let him fool you. He currently has the record on California Gurls!

This is Halloween! Seriously one of my very favorite songs, as Daniel said it will get you out of your shell quick! I just laugh every time I do it, Kristen was laughing hysterically and asked why it's my favorite and I just laughed, because it's amazing!

Christmas 6- Christmas Eve

2012-01-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

We get to open a few presents Christmas Eve, cousin/sibling presents and the pjs.

Claire had Molly this year and got her an awesome Rapunzel piggy bank. Molly loves to put the pennies in, keeps her quiet for a few minutes so it's always fun!

We go the the girls Trouble and Sorry. One of Nathan's favorite games is Sorry and wanted to share his love.

Nathan received Connect 4 from Carmel and really likes it. He also go Angry Bird band-aids as a bonus present.

Christmas 5-The Nativity

2012-01-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

After our Fake Christmas morning we went to West Jordan for more Christmas activities. We read and acted out the Nativityl

You know there was a cow somewhere! And she's adorable!

The sweetest little Mary ever!

Joesph was more interested in checking the cow then looking after his family

I'm a shephard, NOT a hippie...

Christmas 4- Christmas Morning

2012-01-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

This year Santa called me and asked if he could come Friday night the 23rd instead of the 24th. He also mentioned that we would be getting a Wii, I decided that it would be ok to get a Wii Saturday morning when we could play all day instead of Sunday morning when we couldn't play. Did that make any sense? Basically we had Fake Christmas Eve and Fake Christmas morning. The kids don't know that though so don't mention it to them. Anyway, moving on...Nathan woke up first and hung out with us in our bed for half an hour and then could wait no more. So we went to wake up Molly, very nice. And it worked! She woke up very happy and pleasant.

We opened stocking first and found some fun things like candy, bath tub colors, and book and a toy

Then we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage. Well most of us did, Molly's day doesn't start without oatmeal!

Then back to the tree to open the presents!

Nathan recovered quickly from the disappointment that this present wasn't Mario and controllers.

The main event!

Chirstmas 3- Movie Night

2012-01-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Rheanna mentioned that she had never seen It's a Wonderful Life, I know completely un-American! Well I took matters into my own hands and invited them over for dinner and a movie. Eric and I decided the kids would be happier watching a different movie in a different location,so we put a TV in Nathan's room and put on a Christmas movie up there. Nathan was so thrilled with a TV in his room it was scary! We had to tell him that it was only for a little while, every morning that the TV was still in there he was so giddy. The TV is now back in the basement, and Nathan is surviving.
The kids actually did pretty well, I gave them popcorn. Rheanna enjoyed the movie, as she should, and has whole list of Christmas movies she's never seen, including White Christmas! Don't worry I've already put movie night on my December 2012 calender.

Christmas 2- Sing-Along

2012-01-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

For the second year, we went to the Larry H. Miller Christmas Carol Sing-along. It was a lot of fun. The special guest this year was Alex Boye, he's one of the black guys in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Seriously, that's how he introduced himself. The man has legs made of jelly, he did some of the craziest dancing I've seen.

Christmas 1-Cookie Party with Santa!

2012-01-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

In the middle of December one of our great neighbors invited us over for a cookie party with a very special guest, Santa!

Goin' Back in Time! 2- Cuteness in November

2012-01-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah I made him pose for this picture and this is the face I get...but he did make this little tower all by himself and was very proud of it, before I made him take a picture

One day Molly decided that she didn't want to sit in the booster sit anymore. Therefore it immediately had to go to the basement, she put it on her back and was about to go down the stairs but we stopped her to take a picture and then came up with a safer method to take the booster down.

Goin' Back in Time!-1 Church History Museum

2012-01-06T10:10:00.000-07:00

Over Thanksgiving (I know-it was a very long time ago) Eric's brother Todd and his wife Katie and their kids came to visit. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to visit the Church History Museum, they have(had by now maybe?) a way cool children's exhibit on the Book of Mormon. So off we all went downtown, our family, Justin and 4 kids, and Todd, Katie and 2 kids, Lincoln and Mercedes.

Before the BOM exhibit there was a quilt exhibit, it was pretty neat, there was a magnet board to make quilts and these crazy boxes that you could practice threading, the big kids really enjoyed that.

In the BOM exhibit there was a boat, the kids loved it!

The Gold Plates were crazy heavy

There was a dance video, it was awesome.

Nathan asked for the skirt before you all start to accuse me! There were lame vests for boys, who wants a vest when you can have a skirt!

The kitchen and the play food was a huge hit.

This is the best picture I have of all the kids, it's really hard to get everyone to look at you at the same time for any length of time..kids..

Gingerbread Train

2011-12-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Mad Hatter-Halloween #8

2011-11-01T13:30:00.001-06:00

Maren asked me to help her put together a Mad Hatter costume. I loved how it turned out, it's pretty much legit! To see more check out Cailin or Maren's blogs

Trick or Treat1- Halloween #7

2011-11-01T13:24:00.000-06:00

Every year we go to Eric's office for lunch and trick-or-treating. The kids have a lot of fun and I enjoy see Eric's coworkers dressed up.

Baby Bear had a lot of fun. We went down one side of our street and about two houses back up the other side he proclaimed he was done. Goofy kid!

Goldilocks loved every minute! These two kids cracked me up, when in costume they called each other Baby Bear and Goldilocks. The part that got the most comments? Molly's wig, it really made the costume!