Celebration

Since my mom is never able to be around when each of the kids have a birthday, she decided to give them all a group birthday party for the year. We tried to go swimming, but it was a wee bit chilly. We still enjoyed playing with friends and cousins down in Kentucky and having a big cake!

Here is Chance with his friend, Boone and cousin, Trey hamming it up for the camera.

Here is Savannah and her cousins, Jaylee and Kennedy after a quick dip in the pool.

Colton's ready for some cake.

Since it was the week of Savannah's birthday, we took her and my sister-in-law, Kristy's, neice to Libby Lu's for a makeover. They had a blast and looked beautiful. Here's some pictures, aren't they beautiful!

Addison Singing

Here is Addison singing her ABC song to Aunt Erika. She enjoyed the attention and loves to watch the video on the camera over and over again!

Week of Fun!

We just spent the past week having loads of fun with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Jeremy and Erika. The highlight of the week was the trip to Kirtland, Ohio to see the temple and the church history sights there. It was such a spiritually uplifting experience which has strengthened my testimony of the church. Here we are after our tour of the temple.

After we toured the temple we went to the church history sites, saw two movies at the visitor's center (one of which was Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration - my favorite of all time), and received an in depth tour from the missionaries there. It was truly amazing to be in the same places where Joseph Smith lived and received many revelations for the church. It was awesome to be in the same places where many heavenly messengers appeared to him, including Jesus! Words just can't explain the experience!

Here we are in front of the Newell K. Whitney store. All of the these buildings are original. It's amazing how well they were kept.

Here is the School of Prophets were all of the apostles met and had many visions and visits from Jesus and others. This is where Joseph would take the revelations he had received to present to the apostles. Chance and Savannah are sitting where the first apostles did.

This is the room where Joseph received many revelations, translated the Book of Moses, and worked on the translations of the Bible.

This was Joseph and Emma's room and their kitchen. This is where they had the twins that they later lost. I have a ton of other pictures that could go on for days!

We also went to the Air Force Museum:

We went to Young's Jersey Dairy where we played miniature golf, fed the goats, had a wagon ride through some of the farm, and had a small little train ride. Chance was at Webelo's camp so he missed out on this little excursion :)

We had a wonderful visit with Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Erika!

Harness Up The Sled Dogs and Call us Eskimo!

I just got back from a great little visit home in Kentucky. BJ had called me midway through my trip with the news that we are going to Elmendorf AFB in Alaska come December of this year! We were a little shocked since it wasn't at all on our wish list, but the idea of it is really growing on us! We don't have official orders yet, but that is the plan as far as we know. So everybody save your $ for a trip to the great state of AK!

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Here's our second birthday in the string of 3! Savannah turned 7 yesterday. It's truly amazing how time can speedily get away from you. We did a small celebration by eating cinnamon rolls (Savannah's favorite) for breakfast - with candles included, had CiCi's pizza for supper followed by a trip to Toys R Us to let her pick out a brand new bicycle "with a kickstand". She has loved riding a bike since she finally took her training wheels off last month. She's our princess ladybug who loves a structured routine and wants to always help out. She loves her brothers despite their sometimes mean and rude comments and has loved having a little sister who loves to be around her. We get to go to Kentucky today and will have a group birthday celebration at Grandma's for everyone - since she never gets to be around for everyone's birthday. Savannah has a special trip planned on Saturday to Libby Lu with her friend Haley for a birthday makeover. It should be a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday Addison!

Addison celebrated her 2nd birthday on Friday, May 30th. It's hard to believe that I was just having her as BJ was beginning his Anesthesia program and that it's already been two years! She's such a little copy cat and will do and say anything her older brothers and sister do. She's VERY vocal and can be heard from miles away when she is upset. Her favorite thing to do is look at books and magazines and sing. She did get a water table for her birthday and it is slowly making it's way to the top of her list as well. Time flies! I no longer have a baby!

All Hail Maximus!

We'd like to introduce you to our newest family member, Antares Prinz Maximus (or Maximus for short). I would've posted this sooner, but Maximus actually chewed through our keyboard cord forcing us to go out to buy a new one! He's such a sweetie and already has begun making himself at home. He loves to chew on rocks and eat dirt. He's quite fond of pooping at the front door and pouncing on Addison. We're enjoying him and his smallness at the moment because we know that it won't last long and he will truly be "maximus".