Happy Birthday Dear Avery!

Avery celebrated her 8 year Birthday at The Lion House courtesy of my mom. My mom booked this party a year in advance sine the parties here book up quickly. Needless to say, Avery has been anticipating this day for a year. It was so fun to be with her and her close friends and cousins. They got to pull taffy the way the pioneers did, play pioneer games, dress up like pioneers, have lunch and eat her Lion Cake. There is a story that goes along with each birthday cake baked at The Lion House. The chef throws a gumball in the batter and bakes it with the cake. If you get the piece of cake with the gumball in it, you will have good luck for a year! No one got the gumball at the party, but Avery found it the next day while having left over cake! At the end of the party, the birthday girl gets to choose a porcelain doll from the mantle. Avery chose a darling doll and all the girls were jealous and sad they want to have their birthdays there too. It was a lot of fun. Happy Birthday Aves!

GO FIGHT WIN!!!

Avery has been taking Cheerleading for the past 6 months and loves it! Since she started, our household vocabulary has included words such as: Pike, Toe Touch, Cartwheel etc. She wishes she had practice every day (I on the other hand can barely keep up with once a week). Avery had her first recital on December 12th. She did awesome! I found myself choked up during her performance because she really surprised me. She was the best one up there, and even did a stunt at the end of the performance. We were very proud of her. She looked like an official cheerleader! Way to go Avery!

Jackson's Birthday Party

We celebrated Jackson's 6th birthday at my sister's house with his cousin Izzy, who turned 2 one day before Jackson. The kids had fun hitting the Nemo piniata with a bat. Jackson was really enthusiastic about his clothes ( ha ha - as you can see from the pictures). We try to get those necessities out of the way first.

Jackson Ryan Turns 6!

Jackson turned 6 on November 23! We can't believe how time has flown. I know it sounds so cliche, but we feel so blessed to have Jackie in our family. Jackson has been asking if it is his birthday for approximately 364 days. For once, it was nice to say YES! It's your Birthday!

Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a gift. That's why they call it "The Present" - You did it MOM!!

I haven't posted forever, but life has been hectic with Holidays etc. Now that the holidays are over I am excited to post everything that has been going on in our family in the last 2 months.
My mom completed her chemotherapy treatments and radiation treatments for Breast Cancer in the middle of November. Little did she know that her family and very closest friends had been planning a surprise party for months to celebrate this huge accomplishment. We had it on Friday, November 21st at my sister's ward house. We decked it out in pink. I have to say, for a ward house, it looked pretty good. We had a band, a clown (my uncle), a toast by my Grandpa, Nile, and my Step Dad Ty. Needless to say it was an extremely emotional evening. My mom was 100% surprised. I have never seen a reaction to a surprise party than the look on my mom's face. She looked like she was either mad or going to pass out. It was a lot for her to take in and to grasp. There were 100 people in attendance that evening. All of my mom's family from Boise, ID drove in town for the event, including my grandparents, which was the most meaningful of all to my mom. Also, my mom's dearest friend in thew whole world flew in from Seattle to be there. It was a very special night. One I will never forget. Here are a few pictures from that night - everyone wore pink in celebration.

Do we look scary or what?

Josh - you play the pirate roll so well! Ha ha. He looks very serious and mean. Me however, I can't decide whether I look like a pirate or Daniel son from Karate Kid!

Annual Family Halloween Party

Every year my uncle Tracy throws a Halloween party. His family goes all out every year. No one ever comes close to comparing to the preparation and thought that they put into their costumes each year. It is all a secret until that night. We had a great time with Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head ( mom and Ty ), Scooby Doo and Friend's ( My sister Alisa and her family ), The Joker ( My nephew Braiden), Minnie Mouse ( my step sister Kimber), Gorilla ( My step brother Rob), The Incredibles ( My step sister Heidi and her husband Riley and theur kids), Tarzan and monekey and bunny ( My sister Erin & her kids Sam and Izzy), Peter Pan and Family ( My uncle Tracy and his family) and of course out pirate clan. We had a great time and this is a tradition we look forward to every year.

Ahoy thar Matey!

Check out these scary pirates! This is the first year everyone actually agreed on a "theme" for Halloween. Avery looked like a very sassy pirate! Jackson called himself "Captain Jack Sparrow" and Miss Priss Sage, referred to herself as the "pirate princess". They looked great and had a great time trick or treating. Avery went with us in our neighborhood and then went with one of her friends and her 16 year old sister. She got home at 10:00pm with a ton of candy. It was a very memorable Halloween and it was so fun to see the kids so into trick-or-treating this year. In going through their candy, I was a little disappointed in some of the candy choices people handed out. I am sorry but Valentines Day taffy? Come on! It was hard as a rock, how rude! Mary Jane's? Also hard as a rock and where do you find nostalgic candy these days in bulk? There is a reason those are not in high demand anymore. I know the economy is bad, but sheesh! Remind me to save my marshmallow peeps from Easter this year to hand out to kids for Halloween next year!

Carving Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins on Halloween eve. Avery and Jackson liked the feeling of the pumpkin guts on their hands. We were only able to carve 2 pumpkins since we lost 3 since going to the pumpkin patch. One rotted in our garage, one was rotten when we cut the top off, and the other lost it's stem. Money well spent.

Sage misses her Daddy

Josh has gone back to JP Morgan Chase and is again, back on an airplane every week. It has been hard for everyone to get used to. The first trip he took when he went back to Chase, we were all a mess including Josh. We have gotten used to him being home every night for the past 6 months, and now he is traveling a ton. I had to capture this picture of Sage that I took with my cell phone last week when Josh left out of town. We wnt to dinner before his flight and I got in the car with the kids and he said goodbye. Again, there was many tears and wailing ( Avery ). Josh and I looked back at Sage and her lip was curled, and she had tears streaming down her little cheeks and was sniffling. We both starting crying. It was so tender. This picture definitely doesn't capture the whole emotion, but you get the picture. Broke our hearts.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

For those of you that aren't aware, my mom has been battling Breast Cancer since last Spring. She has completed 8 Chemotherapy sessions within a 16 week time frame, and began her 30 daily radiation treatments a couple weeks ago. She has 20 more Radiation treatments to go until she is finished. I added an approximate countdown on the sidebar of my blog in her honor. My mom is amazing. She has been such a trooper and is such an example to me. Way to go mom!!!! You are almost done! Keep the Faith! I love you mom! You are my hero.

Pumpkin's for the "little Punkin's"

And in the end..........Each of us found a pumpkin, shared a night of laughter, and a lifetime of memories.

Pumpkin Patch

I am sure every fellow blogger is going to have this exact same posting, but what else is October for but a good Pumpkin Patch. 24 cents a pound is very deceiving when you are dealing with pumpkins. We piled pumpkins in our cart, until everyone made their final decision on their perfect pumpkin. 100 lbs and 5 pumpkins later - we completed the Halloween tradition. It was a little cold, but everyone had fun taking turns pushing their cart, looking for pumpkins, and laughing at Sage's ridiculous hat.

What was I thinking showing her this hat?

We decided to go to the traditional "Pumpkin Patch" outing for family night which happened to be the first chilly night of the season. I was getting the kids socks out of their drawers and when I was in Sage's drawer I found a hat from last winter. I pulled it out and showed it to her ( thinking she would have no interest), and she would NOT take it off all night. She insisted putting it on by herself, so instead of looking "cute" , she looks like she has a cone head.

Halloween Craft

Ok well my sisters, and my mom and I got together last night during the Priesthood session of General Conference and decided we would do a simple craft. We completely under estimated the "simplicity" of this craft. What we thought would take an hour, took over 4 hours! So, I had to show it off since it actually turned out cute! Martha Stewart would be proud!

Last days of Summer

As I mentioned, the park's have been very good to us and our kids this summer. We have found a lot of fun parks in the valley and have made a lot of good memories this summer. If I had to give a theme to how we spent our summer, it would have to be Parks, parks, and more parks. Our kids LOVE the park. Avery and Jackson have mastered the Monkey Bars, and Sage has mastered the social aspect of meeting, befriending, and mothering every other child at the park. She is a social butterfly, and a busy body. She is not afraid of much at the park - which scares Josh and I to death. We have had so much fun watching our kids play together this summer at the park. We will definitely miss these nights during the cold Winter months.

Park Discovery

The summer long nights are coming to a close too quickly. Our summer nights consisted of frequent park outings including take-out and new park discoveries. Josh found this great park in West Jordan. It is HUGE ( as you can see from the picture). Everything in it is little replicas of businesses in the area. Police station, hardware stores etc. There is one way in the park and one way out - which is nice for parents since it is a huge maze inside.