Birthday Dinner

Our happy little family :)

We took a drive to Orderville on Sunday to have a birthday dinner with mine and Owen's families. It is actually really nice that both our families live close together because we get to spend so much time as one big happy family. Really, it is a blessing in our lives because we don't have to argue about where we are going to spend our time--we can do both.
Highlights....
1. Jill made my cake from scratch because I am a bit bratty and won't eat cake out of a box--my mom and grandma ruined me.
2. My mom of course threw my favorite food in there--Mashed Potatoes and cabbage salad.
3. Owen got me the Twilight series...I am so excited about it! I am already half way done with the third one. --Thanks also to my parents, brothers, and Owen's parents for their gifts... decor galore! I am stoked about this too.
4. We ended up talking outside and pulling weeds??? While finding the remains of Tyler and his friends the night before???


There is nothing like spending quality time with family...

Owen started school this week and it doesn't seem like it is going to be too bad of a semester for him. He actually feels a little bit better about things because we were able to change around a few things in his schooling and he will be able to get done 1 year sooner. I started at the preschool as well this week and I am really enjoying it! It is a learning experience for sure but I good one indeed. It is amazing how much you can learn from little children! Many of the children I work with have special needs. Things like speech, physical and/or behavior, but is really amazing seeing how strong some of these kids are.

Just another weekend...

We had yet another great weekend. We went to Orderville and had a few eventful memories.
1. I became a fan of the twilight series...we went to my parent's house, I saw it sitting there and well that was mostly what I did for the next few days we were there. Now I am dying to get my hands on a copy of the next one.

2. Owen's work (co-workers) came over to the Ponderosa on Wednesday to have a company retreat. It turned out really great and Owen was really excited about that!

3. Of course we watched the Olympics and rooted for the US in every event!!

4. I worked for the development and got to have lunch at the pool with my dad over at "Bart's Bistro". --good bonding time--I told him all about the vampires in my book. Here is a normal day with dad and Tyler hard at work.
5. We went up to the pool with Jann, Jill and the kids (Owens' fam) and had a little mishap. Julia (2 yrs old) was being daring and wanted to go down the big slide at the ZPR pool. So Jill went to the bottom to go catch her. Well when Julia came down the slide, (with quite a bit of force and speed)she slammed her legs right into Jill's throat. It knocked the breath out of Jill and her throat was hurthing bad, and she felt light headed etc etc. Jann was really nervous because she was afraid her throat would swell and she wouldn't be able to breathe. So we cut our swimming time down and Owen and I ran her down to Mt. Carmel to meet up with Gerry so he could take her to the hospital. Everything turned out alright and she was just bruised really badly which we are really glad about but it was kind of traumatic at the time!

6. Owen had the game of his life. I guess the new baseball coach in Valley decided to have a baseball game between the highschool team and some of the alumni boys. Owen was so excited about this! He got all decked out in all his old highschool stuff. The alumni team did really well for not having any practice in them and they ended up winning the game pretty good. Owen's only wish now is that they will work out the same thing with the basketball team.

7.We were able to go to the Blue Belly Grill at ZPR with my parents, Owen's parents and Jill(his sister) and Gerry. Blue Belly is the new fine dining restaurant at the resort. Jann and Jill did some service for my mom so she wanted to take them out to dinner with their hubby's to say thank you. And well Owen and I didn't do much service but we surely came along for the ride. :) It was really great and as always wonderful company and food!
So moral of the story we had a great weekend. Owen will start school on Monday--which I don't believe he is too excited about. And I will be starting my job at the preschool on Monday as well-- which I am excited for! That's all folks!

Quite the week indeed

It has been quite the week for us. We were able to make a quick trip up to SLC early last week. Owen had a training to go to for work so I decided to go up as well and visit our newest little Nephew (Kason) and Kori too. She entertained me by taking me shopping at Gardner Village--which I loved, it was such a cute quaint little place! (Thanks Kori:)
Then before we knew it we were on our way back to Cedar. I continued onto Orderville to help my aunt Pam and her family move into their new house and help with tending the quadruplets. Owen had to stay in Cedar and work. It was so hard being away from Owen for three days. It is the longest we have been apart since he left on his mission. But the three days were eventful! The kids kept me busy and tired and moving was exhausting. I hate moving so bad, but we got through it but I don't envy my aunt having to unpack now. Her house isn't quite done but she had to move anyway because her old house was being rented. (I will post a few pictures of new house). We also saw a baby horse that was only born about 2 minutes before we got there. That was neat! Alot of the Neeleman family was in town so I got to visit with them which is always good. Owen came to Orderville and we were able to go to church there and spend a few days with his family. We finally made it home last night and I was definitely glad to be sleeping in my own bed! Long story short we have been busy and are hoping to now chillax this week.
Here are a few pictures of the outside of her house. I don't have any of the inside but lets just say...it's amazing! It is a beautiful home!

Backyard Makeover

We have been working very hard on our backyard. For the two years we have lived here and probably for quite a few years before that it has been a jungle out there. It did have a sprinkling system set up but only for part of the lawn. So, for the past few weeks we have been dealing with the sprinklers, weeding, planting pine trees, and spreading around the dirt getting it ready for sod. We had planned to get it on Friday and Owen talked his family into coming over and helping. Well the people we ordered if from told us, after an hour of us waiting that their machine wouldn't work and to come back next week. We were pretty mad but we were able to get it Saturday morning from another place. Gerry and Jill and their kids had a sleepover at our house on Friday night, which is always fun for us to have company. Many thanks to Jill and the kids for helping us out! It was a long day using muscles that I just don't use very often, but we finally got the sod laid yesterday and we are very excited! It will be so nice to actually have a backyard now. Owen is still working on his rock walls for the flower/vegetable gardens but we finally have grass! Yippee!