The Blur

We started the craziness off with deciding to go to Park City for the night before our anniversary-literally decided like the day of.  We went to Ruth's Chris and had amazing steaks! 

Went swimming and just enjoyed hanging out not getting kids to bed :).  The next morning we got breakfast at Great Harvest-I am sure he will love this pic of him eating and listening to Max Hall do a radio interview about the event, picked up some stuff from a sponsor for the event, dropped the car off to the auto body repair place to finally be fixed from when we got rear ended (we were slowing down for a stoplight and the driver behind us was not watching and just slammed into the back-seriously scary because her car got stuck under the back so she was revving her engine trying to get unstuck and it took a second to figure out what the heck was going on!) and came home. 

(They had the car for a week, fixed the exhaust, put a new back gate and side panel and it totaled about 4000.00 and her car was totaled I am sure.  Her whole front was smashed, air bags out etc.  This is why we PAY ATTENTION when driving!!)

  But back to the post...It has been a great 8 years being married! Challenging at times for sure, but we have learned a lot about ourselves and about each other and I am grateful for have this guy forever!

 Ryan was changing the tall lights in our living room and this little monkey surprised us all and climbed up in about 2 seconds so we snapped a pic and took it back down and out to the garage asap!

 Ryan had to go to Vegas the day after our anniversary so we decided since we had a rental car to just take everyone.  Another last minute decision :)  as dropped Ryan off to work for some meetings and came home to check the house, see the kids, do laundry, and pack as fast as I possibly could so we could leave.  It was pure craziness for a few hours getting them ready, lunch, Alli to school, naps, trying to pack while kids wanted to be held etc etc. but once we finally got off around 3 (wanted to leave around 1)-I picked Alli up from school a few minutes early and we went and got Ryan from work and headed straight down.  It was such a fun trip though!! I love trips because I feel like I can forget about everything going on at home and purely enjoy my kids and husband! We made stops each way to visit our friends the Skinners in St. George.  There are hardly any pictures because going swimming alone with 3 kids or eating in restaurants alone with 3 kids requires all of my focus so it is a positive experience :).  But we had a  during the day while Ryan was at the show.  We went to the arcade, hung out and played in our room while Cam took his nap, and went swimming.  Then we met him and the other guys for dinner at a strip mall by our hotel.  Ilene fell asleep in the car, slept through dinner, and was out for the night! The next day we checked out-seriously so crazy because I needed the car and we weren't ready to pack everything out when Ryan left so I got all of our stuff-which was a lot our to the car all loaded up on the stroller with Ilene helping me.  Alli watched Cam :).

 Then we met up with our friends at this cool place at the base of a mountain.  There was a really long boardwalk path that made a big loop.

 Part of the path went by this cave with a tiny little trickle of water coming out.  The girls thought this was a fabulous combo and pretended they were cavemen from The Croods.

 And then back to walking/running.

 And then climbing on all the rocks around it.  They love this sort of stuff!

 Alli and our friend's oldest daughter Marley were the guides...

We went and picked Ryan up and headed home with a stop for pizza and hanging out in St. George again with our friends.
That weekend we started celebrating Alli's birthday.  She had a special date with my mom and went to lunch and picked out her presents.  She was in heaven!

 Loving snuggle time with my big girls!

 Loved her candle in her ice cream.

 We have the best neighbors who came to her family party.  We seriously love Lamar and Julie so much! Grandpa Lamar and Grandma Julie.

And a random shot from making the video to promote/explain the event.  

My Big BIRTHDAY GIRL

Girls playing with one of Alli's toys.

She got a cute little watch from Cam :).

Alli with her present from Ilene-a My Little Pony she can decorate

Well it is no secret that Alli loves horses and lately the obsession has turned more to unicorns.  So she decided on a unicorn birthday party and we had the idea to surprise her with a "unicorn" at her party.  She was thrilled when she found out and she and her friends had so much fun going on rides! The prices was more reasonable than I had originally thought it would be so that was a major plus!

 















We started the party by making these "super cool" unicorn headbands :).  I only got 2 blisters hot gluing them together for the kids...but they actually looked cooler in real life.  We made the horns from clay and baked them before and then the kids painted/decorated them when they came in.  After they dried while the kids did games and "unicorn rides" I put them together.  Here was the end version.

 SO many fun, thoughtful presents from her cute friends.

 Yummy cake and unicorn horn ice cream cones.

For her birthday dinner she wanted to go to "the place with the birthday saddle" which is Texas Roadhouse.  These girls love them some ribs!

 They are so goofy.

 Cam wasn't totally sure about the pony at first.  

But eventually he warmed up a bit and thought it was pretty cool. It got windier as Alli's party went on and I thought we were going to have quite the storm, but luckily it held off and no rain until after.  

I love her happy little face even though it is kind of a blurry picture! I love doing birthday parties because of how special it can make my kids feel.  It truly doesn't take much to make it a fun party they will remember! I remember so many fun birthdays from when I was little and I really hope my kids will have fun memories and remember feeling special when they grow up too!

Alli with some of her favorite birthday presents-wearing her shirt from G& G Bowler, her unicorn and pegasus from Grandma leading her herd of unicorns mom and dad gave her...one happy girl!

 Alli has started wanting to try doing her own hair sometimes... she wanted a picture to see how it looked.

It may concern me when her hair looks like this, but so far she has only gone to school with her own hair do once.  But I am also proud of her for figuring out how to put her hair in a ponytail because in my book that is a crucial-almost used daily-skill!

 And now doing Ilene's hair.

 One of the things that added to the craziness of March is we had some news stations that wanted to do stories getting ready for the event we were planning.  This was awesome, stressful, overwhelming, amazing, exciting, and stressful (yup needed it in there twice) at the same time.  It was so great because through the exposure we found more families/kids deserving of scholarships and also received funds to make more scholarships! 2news were the first to come and they were so so so great to work with.  Their interview was so thorough and honestly I felt like I sound like a goober-especially when I was surprised by the money-but other than that I am pleased with it.  Ryan snapped this pic when it aired a week later.

This was the family who came to talk.  They have had some crazy life situations thrown at them and I am so so glad we got in contact because their great kids want to play so badly, but haven't had the chance to.  It will make a big difference for their 3 darling kids.  Their mom is so sweet and so on top of it-I was so impressed with their family!

 Yep Mr Cam sportin' the sunglasses and no pants :).  Notice that GIANT bump on his forehead?? We were walking into church and he just tripped-throwing his poor noggin' right into the RS room door corner.  I am so so amazed it didn't split open and it actually looks amazing compared to what it originally was :(.  It truly made my stomach sick to see how big his bump was right after-like no exaggeration 1 1/2 in off his poor forehead and a black line down the center.  So So terrible.  He thinks he is big enough to walk, but sometimes his darn shoes catch on carpet and this time he fell...

 He is seriously the sweetest, craziest, smartest, busiest, funniest, coolest, etc etc I can't find enough adjectives for this dude.  He seriously is just the sweetest, but most determined little dude. .. just like our girls.  If they set their mind to something they will do whatever it takes to succeed-for better or for worse!!

 Ryan picked an ice cream cake for his birthday and Alli was such a goof ball licking her plate that I couldn't resist a picture for blackmail ;).

 Or maybe I needed 4 pictures...

 The week of the event we got an email from Big Budah (we had contacted him the week before) asking if we could meet him and do some segments to promote the event.  He was so fun to work with even though it was ridiculously early!!! My word it was ridiculous.

 Alli wanted to come with us and my mom was so kind to come halfway through the night and stay with Cam and Ilene.  Alli loved the microphone and all of the events she could showcase.

 The next day we did interviews with ABC4 and then after Ryan picked Max and Dennis up from the airport they did a radio interview.

 A few pictures from the event-Utah's Ultimate Athlete.  Prizes at the end-we did door prizes throughout and 1/2 hr winners and the bigger door prizes at the end.  By the end of the event I was so exhausted, but it went really well! Everyone there had a really good experience and a lot of fun.  I didn't get pics of the food truck and the inflatable slide that were outside, but I know my kids like the slide a ton!

 The kids' division winners.

One part of the course.  

Cute girls playing or doing the course :).

Can Alli just smile ;).  Haha love her crazy poses.  The girls had a little picnic after the event before Julia and Audrey left.  

 So So gross, but so out of control boogers that a pic was in order.  Seriously have you ever seen such a giant booger??

 This little guy (and his sisters) love playing outside.

 I just love his cute smily face.  Kids can be so much work, but man I wouldn't trade it for anything else!!

 He made me so nervous with his fearlessness on his wiggle car that when he put Alli's helmet on for the Strawberry Shortcake scooter thing I did not object at all! He had a couple crashes, but luckily never hit his head or got hurt-but he made me think he would sometime!

 Just another shot of his poor bruised forehead!

 My mom made Leprechaun cake for St. Patty's Day

 Ilene loves this skirt we got at a skirt party.  I just love the shirt she paired it with :).

 Ryan's ice cream cake with such a darling little helper.

 After dinner and baths daddy and Phil were lifting and the kids were all piled on Grandma for some stories.

 Another goofy girl shot!

 And a studly little guy!!

 Alli is the BEST big sister ever.  She is also the smartest! It is kind of a pain hauling the wiggle cars back up the street so she thought to bring the wagon and pile them (along with cam and Ilene) in to walk them back up and she is totally willing to pull it up.

 Bryan and Annie came down to Wyoming and Salt Lake for their spring break so we went up and met them for dinner one of their Salt Lake nights.  The kids had fun getting wiggles out before driving home.

 And they loved playing at the Children's museum!

 I just really love being in primary with my girls! I love primary anyway, but having them there just makes it all the better! I can hardly believe Ilene is a little sunbeam, but I love her smiley face and waves to me from the front row and I love how Alli is so thrilled to be there close to her.  Alli is so sweet and loves to have me in primary with her and now she takes such good care of Ilene-walking her down from Sacrament meeting, helping her get situated etc.  Love these sweet sweet girls (who can also be definitely not so sweet ;)  ).  

 Going through the girls' closet we found this darling headband Ilene wore as a baby and had to try it on Cam.

 He is such crazy wild man-always making us laugh and always laughing so so hard himself which is so stinkin' cute to hear!

 And he is FAST.  While putting a show on for Ilene so I could get Cam to sleep (under 1 minute) I came out to this...

 That same week he got into the flour and also into the vaseline... so hard to keep up with this kid! Good thing he is so darn cute!

More pics from the event-it was really great getting to know these guys, they are such talented guys, but so relatable and fun to be around.

 
 Some of the winners at the end who came back for the prize ceremony.  I wish we could have gotten a picture of everyone who was there or even just all of the athletes who came to support us :(.

 The winner of the Blendtec...lucky guy!

 

 So her tooth that she injured a few years ago is so so loose and the new tooth is coming in, but we are having a hard time getting her to actually let go of that original tooth!