Happy 30th, Cade!

 My wonderful husband left the "decade of decisions" and is an old man now :). I wanted to make this birthday especially special so I made some plans. First I got a hold of 30 of his closest friends and family members and asked them what one of their favorite things is about Cade. I took each of those responses and put them in balloons and had them blown up with helium. While we were in AZ we celebrated with German chocolate cake and butter pecan ice cream- two of Cade's favorites! He opened some gifts (one from all of us was a new computer for his road bike) and I brought up the balloons and he read all of the responses from people that love him. A lot of common ones were they love his humor, how he is so good to his family, and the spiritual giant he is. My favorite thing about him is his patience. If he weren't so patient we would not have ended up together. He was patient through our relationship before marriage and he has been extremely patient after. And I am forever grateful for him!!!

After our AZ trip we met up with some close friends who will most likely be moving soon- Matt and Kelsey Egan. We both got babysitters and went to Olive Garden together! It was one of the first times in a LONG time hanging out without children. We could actually talk and talk! We love them and will miss them when they move!!

Then my family came over the following Saturday and we had J-dawgs, watermelon, corn on the cob and ice cream cake. Some of Cade's other favorite things! We had SO much fun...that I forgot to take any pictures :(. But it was very yummy food and very fun company.

I am grateful for my old man :). I am a better person because of knowing him. I love him and grateful for his 30 years of life!!!

Swim Lessons Disaster

Well...let's just say that $40 went down the tube. I was so excited to put Emma in swim lessons. She LOVES the water and loves going to the pool! So perfect combination, right? Well, I don't know if it's because it was a male teacher, or if I couldn't get in with her, or it was a new pool- or all of the above! But the first day Emma would NOT get in the pool without me no matter how much I tried. finally by the end she sat in the water on the stairs. The second day I decided to just hand her to the instructor and she and the other little kiddies went around the lazy river together...Emma screamed the entire time! Really, the entire time. So needless to say, the third day she would not even get close to the water. As soon as we got to the pool she said "mommy lets go home!"

Well, I guess she wasn't ready. But tons of kids her age and younger love swim lessons. Oh well. Better luck next year!

My little Dancing Monkey :)

I cannot believe Reese is only 7 months old and is ALL OVER the house! She started scooting around in her 5th month and now 2 months later is crawling, climbing stairs, walking along furniture and walls and is into EVERYTHING! I have to try to keep up with her and make sure she is not going to hurt herself. She climbed the entire flight of stairs a couple weeks ago...and she didn't even seem tired! She got to the top and immediately took off into the room of her choice. Crazy girl! Reese just LOVES to get around and explore. I do love how she is so good at playing and entertaining herself. I mean, she does want to be around me and cries if she is left alone for a while (which I can't do anymore since she is so mobile), but she can play by herself a lot longer than Emma ever would.

Reese also loves Emma. She laughs at her and follows her around. She wants to be in her wake and follow what she is doing. I love seeing them together and Emma is really good with her too. Emma is a good big sister and helps show Reese the course. Sometimes I catch Emma trying to be the mom already though. It can be pretty funny. Reese will start chewing on a shoe and Emma runs over there saying,  "eeeww Reese! Eeeeewww!! Yucky! Put that down!" Or "Reese, that's my toy, don't touch!" And it's funny how Emma is all of a sudden so interested in toys that she hasn't touched in over a year :).

Another thing I LOVE about Reese is her smooth dance moves! It started in her high chair where she would start wiggling around when I was trying to feed her and it was so cute but at the same time made it hard to get the food in her mouth! Then she started doing it while sitting on the ground. Now whenever she hears music, she just wiggles her little body all around and it is SOOOOO cute! She can really get her dance on! I took her shopping today and she heard music over the intercom and she immediately started dancing in the cart! Oh, cute girl!

Emma is also a HUGE trooper as we try to get Reese to sleep all the way through the night. We tried having them share a room however at the same time we were trying to get Reese to sleep through the night....it didn't work. So now we may try again since...Reese sleeps 11-12 hours straight now! Hope we can keep it up!!!! (Please, please, please!) She has slept through the night for almost a week now!!!

My cute girls! Oh, I love them! And it's much easier to love them when I've gotten a full nights sleep :).

Mutual with my wondeful girls!

I have now been the Young Women's President in this ward a couple months shy of 2 years. And I LOVE IT! The first year was definitely trial and error in a lot of ways because it was my first time for many things- girls camp, New Beginnings, learning how to be a leader, teaching lessons a couple times a month, etc. I have definitely learned much from these wonderful girls! There have been stressful times and a lot to do all the time, but once I learned how to get organized and delegate I could really start enjoying the relationship I can have with these girls. I have become so close to many of them and love being able to spend so much time with them.

These are just some pictures from some of our activities. I will post soon about girls camp (which could not have gone better in any way. It was wonderful- nothing shy of miraculous!). I love these girls!

Going to the temple:

Mother's Day strawberry dipping for our Girls Camp fundraiser:

Sarah Robinson, one of my very best friends and my Laurel advisor. I've loved getting to know her so well over the past couple years and grateful for her friendship!

Our annual Lip Sync. Us leaders did "I Say a Little Prayer for You":

 

Visiting the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, going to City Creek for ice cream and pizza, then walking through temple square. Such a fun, fun night!

 

Man, I sure LOVE these girls!

(Kenedii and T'naiha Williams)

 (Melissa Walker. SO sad she had to graduate and move on)

(Krista Clark, Madie Horton, and Emilee Gonzalez)

 Our Where's Waldo activity. We went to the mall and had members of our ward dressed up in disguises. The youth were in groups and had to find all the members of our ward. Then we talked about being ourselves and loving who we are and not letting the world change us but being our best selves. This was last October (as you can see me VERY great with child) and we're doing it again this coming October.

 

 

Bishop Anderson and his old lady :).

Cade was one of the hardest for the youth to find cause he looked like a normal person but no one could recognize him! They are so used to seeing him clean shaven, short hair, and in a suit on Sunday :). (Wow- my belly is huge!)

We have SUCH a great time at activities! Sometimes it's hard coming up with a different activity EVERY week, but aside from the stress, it is so much fun!

Jen's Baby Shower

I got to throw a good friend in my ward a baby shower. Jen and David got chosen by a birth mom to be parents to a baby girl! The shower I threw was for our ward members and 50 of the 80 people invited came! It was so much fun and I had a lot of help from all the lovely ladies in my ward. We just held it at my house, but it turned out so fun. It was low key. Just lots of treat and ice cream sundaes. It was so wonderful to see how many supportive people we have in our ward. I hope Jen felt loved because she is!

 

 

These are wonderful ladies I have had the opportunity to work with in the Young Women's. Ruth (the shortest one :)) just happened to be in town from Boston! We got to hang out some and I loved seeing her!

Now they just got back from picking up their baby girl a couple weeks ago. We are SO happy for them because they have been waiting for this time for years! They are going to be such great parents! It's a great reminder to NEVER EVER take for granted the opportunity to be a parent! We are very, very blessed!

Strawberry Days Carnival with the Bleak's

In Pleasant Grove there is a huge celebration in June called "Strawberry Days". They have tons of activities, parades, rodeo, pet shows, baby contests, carnivals, and on and on. I was really hoping to do lots and get really involved this year. However, my girls were sick for most of it and Cade was out of town for the first part of the week. But one night we took the girls to the carnival and met up with Nathan and Steph and the boys. It was so fun spending time with them! And Emma especially misses her cousins. She loves seeing them and it was fun to see how excited they get on rides! Their favorite had to be the car rides...or maybe for Emma the dragon she got to ride in? It's a toss up :). It was fun to have a night out with them!

John Vizzard's Wedding

 

Clear back in March, Cade flew down to Arizona to be a best man at one of his mission companions wedding. John Vizzard and Cade have always been great friends since their mission but John's protests of Utah don't bring him up here too often :). For the past several years he was working and going to school in Arizona so we get to see him most holiday's that we are down there. John met Marisel in their singles ward there in the valley and they got married the first of March. Since we had just gotten back from Taft's blessing the end of February, I did not go down again for the wedding. Marisel is from Panama and a gorgeous girl. I go to meet her this last 4th of July and it was fun getting to know her! We are so happy for them. John has always been such a great friend to Cade and we are happy he found Marisel!