The Thompson Family

Santa 2010

2011-05-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

In Eagle Mountain the firemen drive Santa around on a Saturday morning and he throws out candy to the kids. Just listen for the sirens then run outside and wave to Santa!!

At our Ward Christmas Party, Santa came for a visit! He even brought one of his cute little elves.

Chase's first visit to Santa.

I don't know why Riley gets so timid when he sees Santa. You'd think he'd be used to this by now after 6 years of seeing Santa. But he still gets nervous.

Christmas Activities 2010

2011-05-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun this Christmas season. We started by decorating the Christmas tree!

I don't know why it's my job to do the lights. When I grew up, my Dad was the one to always put the lights on. But I guess if I want them done right, I have to do them myself. :) Cody thinks I should just wrap them around the tree, but I'm used to my Dad wrapping them around each branch. It takes a LOT of time but it's worth it when it's done. This year I'm going to see if I can pack the tree away with the lights still on. Maybe next year I'll just buy a pre-lit tree!

Once again we put on all of our homemade ornaments. This year we made garland by cutting strips of christmas ribbon and making a chain.

Is Chase helping or is he trying to take OFF the ornament?

Riley putting on the finishing touch!

We went to Temple Square to see the lights. We hadn't been since Riley was only 7 months old! Here's a little story that happened that night. As you can tell we were all bundled up because it was freezing. When we were all done, we started to drive to my parents. As we turned around the block Cody asked where his wedding ring was. We both thought it must've come off in his gloves. We searched the gloves and we searched the car but there was no ring.

The only thing we could remember was that Cody had taken Riley to the bathroom and he had to take his gloves off when they went in. We realized that the ring must've fallen off in the bathroom of the visitor's center. We quickly drove back to Temple Square and Cody got out to go check the bathroom. As soon as he got out, Riley and I decided that we should say a prayer that Daddy would be able to find his ring. No sooner had we ended the prayer then Cody got back in the car. As he was walking away from the car he thought that he should check his back pocket. As he felt his back pocket he realized there was something in there and there was his ring. We're not really sure how it got there, all I know is that I am so grateful for answered prayers! Oh and this was only 4 days after our 10th wedding anniversary.

The next night we had our first Wilgar Family Christmas party. We decided that we were going to play one of the games where you sit in a circle and pass the present with the story.

We also decided we'd play Minute To Win It.

Playing Minute to Win It was a lot of fun. We didn't really keep score or anything, we just let anyone who wanted to try the game do it and then we'd see who did it with the best time. Here's a few of the games we played.

Jingle in the Trunk

Reindeer Nose Dive

Face the Cookie

Christmas Card Cliff Hanger

Christmas Conveyor Belt

Merry Fishmas

We all had a lot of fun, especially the kids. And it was great to watch everyone try to do these silly tasks.

We drove home that night because there was supposed to be a big storm coming. The next morning we woke up to 13 inches of snow.

Halloween 2010

2011-05-17T12:46:00.001-07:00

For Halloween this year, Chase was a turtle. Haha, obviously he was an elephant! And I must say he was a really cute elephant.

For Riley, he wanted to be a skeleton so I made him a skeleton costume by using black sweats and ironing on some white felt. Chase had some black sweats too, so I went ahead and made him one too. It was cute to have the two of them matching, but for Halloween Chase still went as an elephant.

A couple nights before Halloween, we sat down and carved pumpkins as a family. Riley's favorite part was digging out the guts. :)

Cody made the big scary pumpkin, mine was the ghost in the doorway, Riley made a really cool vampire, and then we made a moon for Chase.

Cody also dressed up for Halloween. Can you find him? Where's Waldo? My brother made this hat a few years ago when he was Waldo. So we borrowed the hat, bought a pair of geeky glasses, threw on a striped shirt, and Waldo was born.

We went to Boo at the Zoo and had a great time looking at the animals and doing a little trick or treating. Here's Riley's costume with the mask I made him. I also painted all the bones with glow in the dark paint. Unfortunately we couldn't get a picture in the dark with the bones glowing but trust me it was really cool to see the glowing bones walking down the street. One funny thing about the costume, one day when we were going to school one of the girls in the carpool said that her mom was going to buy her costume. Riley promptly said, "My Mom makes costumes." I just thought that was hilarious and I was happy that he was proud that his mom made his costume instead of buying it.

Trunk or Treating.

It started pouring rain during the trunk or treat so it didn't last too long. Thankfully the rain stopped when it was time to go trick or treating.

Fall Break (10/14-10/15/2010)

2011-04-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

For fall break we planned a couple of fun filled days for our family. The first thing we did was go to Trafalga to use the fun passes we won from Pony Express Days. We all played miniature golf.

Then Cody and Riley got to go and play laser tag. Then I was the lucky one that got to ride in the bumper boats with Riley. The kid totally soaked me. He would not leave me alone and he squirted me right in the face. This might not have been so bad if it was hot, but it was October and night time. We were both pretty cold by the time we were done. The funny thing is that there isn't really a time limit and after about 5 minutes I was done. I told the guy running the thing and he helped me out. He said he couldn't believe I even lasted that long. Then Riley and some other kids kept going for a while longer. He was so soaked by the time he was done. We actually had to take his shirt off and hold it up to the car heater to dry it out. But all in all we had a lot of fun and the best part was that it was all for free!! We even got large dippin' dots for free!

The next day we decided to drive into Salt Lake. We went to the Utah Museum of Natural History and we were able to watch a dinosaur show. Of course Riley loved this. At one point he even got to be part of the show and pretend to be a dinosaur. Unfortunately there were so many kids that it was hard to get a picture of him.

After the museum we stopped by to see my brother Scott, since he only works a few building away from the museum. Then we drove up the Big Cottonwood canyon to have a picnic. After our picnic we found a couple geocaches. One of them was called an earth cache, that's where you find something earth made. That's what the picture below is, we found Quartzite.

After we found the geocaches we took a hike up Stairs Gulch. It was a short hike but it was a little steep which got a little difficult carrying a baby. It was still a wonderful hike. The fall colors were beautiful and you could here a stream, it was so peaceful. It was a fun-filled day in the outdoors.

We definitely had a great family fall break!

Now you see it, now you don't! (10/6/2010)

2011-04-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

After almost 10 years of marriage Cody decided it was time to shave off his goatee. For some reason he felt like he should. He hadn't been clean shaven since he attended BYU-SL while we were dating.

It took Chase a few minutes to decide whether he wanted this strange man to pick him up.

Not even two months after he shaved off his goatee, Cody was called at the Executive Secretary to the Bishop. I guess it serves him right. :)

First Tooth!!! 9/13/2010

2011-04-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

What day for teeth!!

Riley lost his first tooth.

And Chase is getting his first tooth. Notice it's the same tooth.

Soccer Time!

2010-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

This fall Riley played soccer. He absolutely loved it and he scored a goal on his first game! Unfortunately that was one of the only goals their team scored the whole season and it was the only game they won. But at least their team still had a fun time playing.

At the end of the season we took him to a Real Salt Lake game. My brother Scott absolutely loves soccer and has season tickets so we got to go with him. Luckily Real won in the last seconds or else Scott would never let us go to a game again.

First Day of School!! August 25, 2010

2010-11-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

Riley started his first day of 1st grade today! It's his first time eating lunch at school! He wasn't nervous at all, but I was concerned about whether he was going to be able to handle it, he did just fine. I guess he's just growing up and doesn't need me as much anymore.

Once again he left as soon as the bell rang and he didn't even give me a hug good-bye.

Bath time!!

2010-11-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

Chase has finally learned how to enjoy his baths. Look at that splashing!!

Bee's Game

2010-11-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

Since Riley played baseball and Cody was the coach, we got free tickets to the Bee's game.

We had awesome seats. The only bad thing was that it was really stormy that night. When we first got there it started pouring. Luckily it stopped shortly after it started and it only sprinkled on us for a minute during the game.

Doesn't Riley look thrilled in this picture. I don't know what his problem was, I don't think he wanted to eat his hot dog.

He was much happier when he got the foam finger.

July 2010

2010-11-10T09:57:00.000-08:00

July was another fun-filled month. We started with spending the 4th of July with my parents.

Now that Lagoon no longer does fireworks we had to go somewhere else to watch the fireworks. We were able to go with Hope and Brian to his Uncle's to watch Davis High's fireworks.

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

We had Carma and Chad came for a visit and we took the kids to the zoo.

Chase enjoying a sno-cone.

We went to Tracy Aviary.

Later in the month we went to Idaho. We got to go boating. It was Chase's first boating trip.

Riley was able to drive the boat.

We went to the horse races in Ammon, Idaho.

Riley picked the first winner! In fact of all his picks, none of them were lower than 2nd place!

We also took the family to the drive-in. Thanks to Cody's dad we were able to travel in style and comfort. We saw Toy Story 3 and the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Amazingly enough, Riley stayed awake through both movies!

Finally, we went to the Ammon pool and took Chase swimming for the first time.

The water totally wiped out Chase, he fell asleep only minutes after I took him out of the pool and got him snuggled in a towel.

We came back to Utah and we went to the Ogden Dinosaur Park.

To finish out the month we took our very first Thompson Family camping trip! We went to a campground by Squaw Peak in Provo with Cody's friend and co-worker Todd and his kids.

After dinner the kids and the dads went geocaching, little did they know that they'd end up hiking over a mile. But at least they found what they were looking for.

Chase did awesome, he slept so good. Unfortunately, we had some noisy neighbors and we weren't able to go to sleep until after 1:00 a.m. and then we were up around 6:30 a.m. Oh well, we still had a great time. It was a perfect way to end our summer.

Brothers!

2010-08-13T11:47:00.001-07:00

Just some cute pictures of Riley and Chase

They both fell asleep in the car. Notice Chase's foot in Riley's eye.

6 months old!

2010-08-13T11:19:00.001-07:00

Here's just a bunch of pictures of Chase.

June 2010

2010-08-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the summer we were able to see our best buds, Joe and Liz Sharon. They were here visiting from Tennessee. We got together and we played Lego Rockband, while the kids played and watched a movie.

We also did one of our long time traditions, going to Leatherby's and getting Rob's banana split!! As always it was absolutely delicious and we had a blast getting to hang out with our friends.

Next, we went to Hogle Zoo and saw the baby elephant, Zuri.

We finally got to fly a kite! Riley's been wanting to do this for over a year and every time we tried the wind was either too strong or wasn't consistent enough to keep the kite up. So we finally got to fly the dragon kite.

Robyn and Matt came to visit, and while they were here we did quite a few things. The kids played Lego Rockband.

We went to the Lehi Fire Station and the kids got to go on a tour and try on the firefighters' clothes.

Left to Right top row: Ben, Haley (Scott's girlfriend), Christian

Bottom row: Cole and Riley

We went to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens with my parents.

We all went on a tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory. Even Chase had to wear a beard net on his head.

Since the kids are getting older and we had many of our boys playing baseball this year, we decided to play a family game of baseball.

My Mom

Then on the very last day of June, my sisters and I went to see Twilight: Eclipse. What a great ending to a fun filled month.

Robyn on the left, Hope on the right

Baseball

2010-08-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

Riley played Coach Pitch baseball this year and Cody was his coach.

Unfortunately, between dealing with Chase and somehow becoming the Assistant to the coaches (helping the kids get ready to bat and keeping the line up in order), I didn't get to record Riley at the bat as much as I had planned. I missed some of his best hits. He really did a great job, I was so proud of him.

Look at that stance, doesn't he look like a pro.

Cody did a great job coaching too. I had one parent tell me that they were so glad he was their son's coach because he's so great with the kids. Our Assistant Coach told him that if he coached again next year that he'd really like to be his Assistant again because he was so great to work with. I also saw a great improvement in all of our kids. By the end of the season every single one of them was able to get a hit without having to use the tee.

I'm just so proud of both of my boys!!

Pony Express Days

2010-07-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

To start off our summer we were able to celebrate the great city of Eagle Mountain! To start off the week, we got to go on a Scavenger Hunt, seeing some of the businesses that are in Eagle Mountain. Then you turned in your items from the Scavenger Hunt and you were entered into a drawing. Riley ended up winning a pass to Trafalga, a fun center with mini golf, go-karts, batting cages, etc.

Here's one of the items from the Scavenger Hunt. We had to take a picture in front of the stadium for the rodeo. Maybe I should have picked an area that didn't have all the port 'o potties.

When we turned in our form for the Scavenger Hunt, they were having an animal show and a petting zoo.

They also had a baby contest, so I entered Chase. Unfortunately he did not win, I don't think he was dressed up like a cowboy enough (there were babies with belt buckles and cowboy boots). At least I got a really cute picture of him taken for FREE! So it was totally worth entering.

The next day was the geocaching event. If you don't know what that is, it's kind of like treasure hunting with a GPS. We were given 5 sets of coordinates and we had to find the box with the password. We turned in our forms with the passwords and were entered into a drawing. Riley once again won something. He got a set of planter boxes from Home Depot. And Cody won a date night to Trafalga, so now we have 3 passes to Trafalga.

The night of the drawing they had a carnival, Riley had a blast. I'm not sure how much fun Chase had, doesn't he look thrilled.

To end the week full of fun, Eagle Mountain had a parade. It was really big, they had over 120 entries! Here's a few pictures of us sitting at the parade and one with Cosmo. Cosmo wanted us to dance, so we did hoping he'd throw us a shirt. But he didn't throw us one, he only had so many and we were at the very beginning of the parade. Riley got a ton of stuff though, probably 4 lbs of candy, 2 frisbees, a toothbrush, a mini football, and many other items.

It was a really fun week and a great way to kick off our summer!

Last Day of School

2010-07-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hooray!! It's time for summer!

We decided to start a family tradition, the last day of school we will make homemade pizzas and calzones. Here's Riley's lovely creations. Can you guess what his favorite toppings are?

Apparently this one is a dog.

Kindergarten Graduation

2010-07-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

HE MADE IT!!

Riley graduated from Kindergarten!

Riley's teacher had a cute presentation for their graduation. There was a mom that made caps and gowns and she also did a slide show of all the kids in Riley's class. It was amazing and yes I did start crying during the slideshow.

Mrs. Joy (the Teacher's Aide)

Mrs. Spaulding, Riley's teacher

Riley's 6th Birthday

2010-07-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been six years that we've had Riley in our lives. Although, I can't imagine our lives without him.

Riley decided that he wanted to have a Bakugan birthday party with his friends. The stores have Bakugan plates and cups and stuff but no games. So I had to come up with the ideas on my own. I decided to make a big memory game and make bingo cards with different characters from the Bakugan TV show.

Memory Game Wall

Bakugan Bingo (even Grammy joined in with the kids)

Riley doesn't like cake, so I made him an ice cream cake, but instead of using cake I made it with brownies. I purchased the edible image and put in on my ice cream brownie. This was my first attempt doing anything like this and I think it turned out pretty good.

That night, for dinner, Riley chose to go to Pirate Pizza and both sets of grandparents and my grandma were able to come. Pirate Pizza is sort of like Chuck E Cheese except for it has much better food. You can get steak and shrimp but you can also get pizza. The kids can go and play the a rcade games and get tickets. Riley had a lot of fun and he got these fun little balloon animals and laser gun there too. Yes, he was definitely spoiled.

Kindergarten Bug Concert

2010-04-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we found out that Riley was going to be having a bug concert at school. We were told that all the kids had to dress up as a bug. Some of the suggestions were, red clothes with black dots, yellow clothes with black stripes, black clothes with socks filled with cotton attached to the shirt. So I asked Riley what he wanted to be, can you tell what he chose?

In case you don't know, Riley chose to be a praying mantis. Not necessarily the easiest costume, but I think I made it work. They sang 5 songs and this one was my favorite. It's called the Ugly Bug Ball and it's from the disney movie Summer Magic.

Easter 2010

2010-04-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

This Easter was conference weekend. Robyn and Matt came from California so Matt could take the boys to the Preisthood session at the conference center. Unfortunately, Robyn left the egg dying stuff in their car, so we had to wait for them to get back from conference. They got back around 10:30 (they went out to dinner after). So at 10:30 at night the kids were dying eggs. Let's just say I did not have the patience for Riley to paint every egg with a paintbrush. I tried to get him to just color each egg one color, but as you can see he still did his fair share of painting.

The next day we had snow on the ground. Just perfect for an easter egg hunt! We went to Hope's for the hunt. We had 5 kids searching for eggs and my mom said that they each could find 20. They started searching and Hope's son Zach quickly filled up his bag. The guys had put 40 of the eggs in the grass so it would be easier for the 18 month and 3 year old. Well Zach ended up with 30 because he also found the ones that were hidden for the older boys. I had to take some from his bag. He was not very happy with me. Then after we kept searching for 10 more eggs my mom realized that 48 and 42 does not equal 100. Oops! Oh well, the kids had a great time anyways.

Family Movie Night

2010-04-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

We started a new family tradition. Every friday night, Cody stops off at Redbox and picks a movie. Then we all get in our jammies, and we get our pillows and blankets and watch the movie together. This particular night Cody also got Riley a McDonald's happy meal. The box turned into a viking hat for the movie How to Train your Dragon.

Riley eating way too much chocolate.

Cute boy, almost 3 months old!

2010-04-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some pictures of Chase.

How you doing?

St. Patrick's Day 2010

2010-04-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

This year we decided we were really going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and have a GREEN dinner. Of course the only thing we could think to turn green was breakfast food. Green eggs and pancakes. We even used green plates and cups.

We even had green milk. (Ignore the pink pancakes, we had leftover mix from Valentine's)

Riley's special glasses to find leprechauns. (You can't tell but he had a green milk mustache.)

Doesn't Chase look thrilled about the festivities.

He just sat there and blew bubbles.

Grandma's 90th birthday! March 12, 2010

2010-04-23T06:57:00.001-07:00

With the passing of my Granddad, my Grandma, Mollie Heath, decided to move to Utah and live with my parents. Now she's able to spend time with her grandkids and great grandkids.

A month after she moved here she had her 90th birthday!! It was great that she was here in Utah because we were able to spend this special day with her. My Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda also came for the birthday since they live in Seattle, Washington and Utah wasn't too far to come. 10 years ago my Uncle Steve, my parents, Scott and I went to Virginia to celebrate her 80th. Crazy how time flies by.

(A little side note: On that trip to Virginia, Cody and I realized that I flew home from Virginia and he flew home from his mission in Washington D.C. on the exact same day. And the airlines lost our luggage! We could've been filling out forms, at the SLC airport, for our lost luggage at the same time! Kind of crazy.)

Anyways, back to my Grandma's birthday. So what do you buy a 90 year old woman? I asked Scott this question and he told me what she wanted. A pony! What? She told my parents at dinner one night that she always wanted a pony and my granddad never got her one. Then she looked my mom right in the eye and said, "I'd take care of it." We thought this was so funny so we decided to buy her a pony. A my little pony. We made sure it came with a grooming kit so she could "take care of it."

It was a great idea, it made her laugh. Which was good, since I know she was missing my Granddad terribly. I'm so glad that she had all of us and we were able to spend that day with her.

Chase's Blessing

2010-04-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

On March 7th, 2010 we blessed Chase. It was a very special day.

Cody's parents and his sister's family came and my parents, Hope's family, Scott, and my grandma were all there. And Chase finally let my mom hold him. This was only the 3rd time my mom was able to see him and it was the 1st time he didn't start screaming when she held him.

Cody headed on over to the church about an hour before so we'd be able to get a seat. There were 4 baby blessings in our ward that day and we already have over 600 members. So in order to make sure we could sit together, he had to get there as soon as the other ward's sacrament meeting was over.

Sacrament meeting started and the bishop announced the order of the blessings. He started with a baby girl and then said that CASEY Cody Thompson would be next. Oops, wrong name! At least the bishop wasn't the one giving the blessing. Although, Cody was then afraid that he was going to accidentally say Casey. He didn't of course, he gave Chase a beautiful blessing. And Chase didn't cry during the blessing!!

I got up and bore my testimony and thanked my Heavenly Father for this precious little boy. He may have taken a long time to come to our family, but we are so grateful that he's finally here.

My precious boy

I am also so grateful to have a wonderful husband that holds the preisthood and that is worthy to bless our little boy. He is an awesome husband and father, I couldn't ask for anything more. And I know I've said this many times, but I am again grateful to know that my family can be together forever.

Riley's 1st Science Fair

2010-03-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

Riley had his 1st Science Fair this year. Each student in his kindergarten class picked an arctic animal. Then they had to draw a picture and write 3 facts about their animal. Then they had to make a model of that animal.

Riley chose the Killer Whale.

The 3 facts he chose:

1. They are the largest of the dolphin family.

2. They eat other whales.

3. They use echolocation (Although, if you ask him to repeat these facts he calls it echocorrosion.)

Here is the picture that he drew himself and the model he made out of salt dough.

(Can you see the water coming out of the blow hole? Riley just had to have water.)

William E. Heath June 3, 1921 - January 11, 2010

2010-03-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

When my Mom went back to Virginia, she thought she was going to help my grandma. A week or so after she arrived she went to a doctor's appointment with my Granddad. They found out the he had tumors in his lungs and on his spine. The doctor said that he probably had a year or so left to live. At my Granddad's age there really wasn't any treatment that he'd be able to handle, it might even cause him to die earlier. The best thing to do was to make him comfortable. He decided that he wanted to move to Utah to be closer to his kids and grandkids. They started making the preparations.

A few weeks later things seemed to be progressing a little faster than the doctor thought they would. It no longer looked like my Granddad would be moving to Utah. There was no way that he'd be able to handle the trip. This was really hard on us, because for a few weeks we knew that our grandparents would be coming soon and we'd get to be with them for the time they had left on this earth. The reality now was that we'd never get to see my Granddad alive again.

Christmas came and went and then Chase was born. My mom told my Granddad that he had a new great grandson (another little missionary is what he said when he found out I was having another boy) and he said, "Chase" and smiled. At this point my Granddad wasn't too coherent. He was able to listen to anyone who spoke to him, but he wasn't really able to respond. A week and a half later he passed.

This was a devastating loss to my family. He was the only Granddad I ever knew. He was the best Granddad I could have ever hoped for, I loved him so much. He gave everything to his family and he loved us all so much.

The worst part was that I was not able to go to his funeral. Chase was only two weeks old and he was still having problems with jaundice and I still wasn't feeling so great myself. The trip to Virginia was just not possible for me. It was very hard for me to know that my whole family was in Virginia and I couldn't be there to say good-bye. My only comfort was knowing that I will see my Granddad again and I know he is in a better place and with his loved ones that passed before him, especially my Aunt Polly.

One of my favorite memories was playing Uno with him. When I was little, I always had to sit next to my Granddad. And whenever I got a Draw Four or Draw two, I would get this silly little grin and I would tell him that I had a lovey. I don't know why I started calling them lovies but I couldn't wait to give them to him. He would just smile and laugh in his cute little way. I loved his smile, he would just light up the room. You could always see how happy he was to be with his family.

Me at the zoo with my grandparents

Riley hanging out with Great Grandpa

I will miss him so much but I am so grateful for all the time I was able to spend with him in this life and I look forward to seeing him again in the next.

Troubles!

2010-03-31T18:53:00.000-07:00

Things went really well during Chase's delivery but things were not so great after. That night I got the worst headache I've ever had. It was excruciating when I sat up and it made it very difficult to take care of Chase. I told the nurse and she said that I might have a spinal headache. A side effect of the epidural. They said if my headache didn't go away I might have to have a blood patch. A blood patch is where they take blood from my arm and then inject it into my back to fill in an air bubble that is causing my headache.

Unfortunately, my headache did not go away and I had to have the blood patch. I felt instantly better and I was grateful for the relief. The next day was New Year's day and we were able to go home. That night my headache started coming back and getting worse. The next day I had to call the Dr. and they suggested that I go back to the hospital and have another blood patch done. Apparently, it can take more than once to fix the problem.

I went back to the hospital and this time they injected a larger amount of blood into my back. Again I felt instantly better and I was ready to go home. As we started to go home I felt a headache coming on again but I thought this might be because of sleep deprivation or dehydration.

Two days later, Monday, I was feeling worse and unfortunately I was all by myself. Cody's parents had to go back to work and since my Mom was in Virginia, she was not able to come and help me out. Cody had to go back to work because the school district does not allow you to take off the day before or the day after Christmas break.

I called the Dr. once again and they talked to the head anesthesiologist and they determined that I needed to come in and have a consultation. I had to call Cody and have him leave work to take me to the hospital once again. After speaking with the anesthesiologist he determined that I still had a spinal headache and I could either wait it out or have another blood patch. He said that if I was a normal person (yes, we all know I'm not normal) he would suggest to just drink caffeine and it would cure itself, but since I was a brand new mom and I needed to take care of a newborn, he would suggest I do another blood patch. Now the blood patch was kind of painful and I really didn't want to do it again. I finally made the decision to once again have a blood patch and once again I instantly felt better. And thankfully, this time it did not come back! I now had a horribly bruised back, but that was something I could deal with.

On top of my issues, Chase had jaundice. The day we came home Chase's bilirubin count was a little high. The hospital delivered a machine called a bili blanket. It was this little rectangular pad that glowed that we were supposed to put under his clothes 24/7.

My little glow worm

Every other day we had to take Chase to the hospital to get his foot pricked. After about a week we were finally able to take him off of the lights because his levels came down. Then we had to test him again and unfortunately his levels started to go back up.

The Dr. decided that we needed to run some more tests to make sure they weren't missing anything. We put him back on the lights and had more blood tests done. I was so worried that there was something more seriously wrong. Thankfully all of the tests came back normal and after another week we were able to take him off the lights permanently.

All good things happen in blizzards!

2010-03-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

It was 12/30/2009! The day had finally arrived, Chase was scheduled to be born today. At 6:20 a.m. we got a telephone call from the hospital telling us that they had a room for us as soon as we could get there. They told us to take our time because the roads were really bad. Perfect! We had had another huge storm and there was a lot of snow. Just over 9 years ago Cody and I were married during a blizzard and now we were about to have our second precious baby boy in yet another blizzard.

Cody's parents had arrived two days before, so they were all prepared to take care of Riley while we were at the hospital. We slowly made our way to the hospital once again and finally got there at about 7:30 a.m.

Around 2:30 I started feeling a lot of pressure and I knew the time was getting close. I was doing much better this time. I only threw up once as opposed to when Riley was born. At about 3:15 the nurse came in and told me that the Dr. was delivering another baby and would be in soon. The Dr. finally came in around 3:30 and 3 pushes later Chase was born (3:34 p.m.). He was 6 lbs 12 oz and 18 1/2 inches long.

Riley was thankfully able to come and see his new baby brother. There had been a few scares with the H1N1 flu and there had been restrictions that no kids would be allowed in the hospital. These restrictions were lifted just a few weeks before Chase was born. I was so happy that Riley was able to come and see us. He was able to go watch Chase get his very first bath.

Grammy and Papa Bear Thompson came to welcome Chase (their 8th Grandson and their 10th grandchild) to the world.

I told my family not to come. It had continued to snow all day long and there were over 100 accidents on the freeway. My Mom was still in Virginia because she had found out that my Granddad had cancer. My Dad came home from Virginia but I really didn't want him driving in the snow. This was my parents 12th grandson and 15th grandchild and this would be the first one that my Mom would not be able to see for a while.

Scott and my Dad came the next day. Hope didn't come because she had sick kids and she didn't want to risk any of us getting sick. Carma and Chad, Cody's sister and her husband, came and saw us the next day also.

It was one of the happiest days of my life. It took us a long time to bring Chase into our lives and I am so grateful that he's finally here.

I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for entrusting this precious little boy to us. I'm grateful to a wonderful husband who is always there for me, and I'm grateful for Riley and Chase and the joy that they bring into our lives. And most of all I am grateful to know that my family can be together forever!

Our first Christmas in our new home! (2009)

2010-03-31T18:12:00.000-07:00

It was our year to go to Idaho for Christmas, but since I was going to have a baby in 5 days we were not making the trip. Since my sister's were also going to their in-laws for Christmas, my parents decided that they would go and have Christmas with my grandparents in Virginia.

So this year we were going to be able to spend Christmas as a family in our new home. We also invited Scott over to spend the day with us.

On Christmas Eve, Riley got his Christmas jammies from Grammy Thompson and we made cookies for Santa.

We had a very quiet Christmas morning, since we only have one kid. Riley started playing with his new toys, Bakugan! (What he asked Santa for.) Then we turned on a movie for Riley and then Cody and I took a nap. It was a nice relaxing Christmas.

(Nice hair)

Scott came over later and we had a nice Ham dinner. Then we played games until about 1 in the morning, which was a little late for me. But I made it, no Christmas baby for me! Now Chase could come whenever he wanted.

Not time yet!

2010-03-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

December 22, 2009 was an eventful day. It was the last day of school for the year and everyone was preparing for the Christmas break.

That afternoon I started having frequent contractions. So I called Cody to see when he was coming home, hoping that his principal would let them leave early. I had been really nervous that I would go into labor while Cody was at work and I wouldn't be able to find someone to watch Riley or take me to the hospital. This was the last day that I'd have to worry about that because Cody would have the next week and a half off of work and we'd definitely have Chase before he went back to work.

Cody was able to come home early, but my contractions were only about 15 minutes apart so nothing to worry about yet. This was all a little new to me, with Riley I never had steady contractions. In fact, I never really remember having contractions at all until I was induced.

A couple hours later, we were watching the BYU Bowl game and I noticed that my contractions were getting closer and closer. Eventually they were 5 minutes apart and I knew that my Dr. told me to go to the hospital if my contractions ever got that close. So I slowly started packing an overnight bag for Riley. We were lucky enough to have many people that were willing to take Riley. We chose to take him to a co-worker of Cody's named Laura since she lived close to the hospital. We called Laura and told her that we were on our way to the hospital.

As we pulled out of the driveway I realized how bad the weather was outside. It was one of the worst storms we had had so far. Great! Just what we needed. We started driving down S.R. 73. A couple of miles down the road we ran into the police blocking the road. They told us that there was a horrible accident and we needed to travel through the Ranches of Eagle Mountain. We didn't know where we were and we had no idea had to get to the main street of Lehi from here. Cody was in a little bit of a panic and told the police officer that I was going to have a baby! The officer seemed a little alarmed but didn't really care. He just told us to find our way through the Ranches. We started winding through until we found a road we recognized.

By this time, it had taken us quite a bit longer to get to Lehi and Laura was getting a little worried. She was going to meet us at the hospital so we didn't have to make an extra trip to her house. We finally made it to the hospital around 8 p.m.

They got me hooked up to the monitors and checked to see if I was dilated. I was only at a 2. After a couple of hours of constant contractions, now at 4 minutes apart, they checked again and there was no change. The Dr. did an ultrasound to make sure that Chase was good and then they sent me home. They said that even though I was having regular contractions, since there was no change, I was not in labor. The Dr. then said that if I got to the point that I couldn't talk through my contractions then I needed to come back. This was very frustrating to hear since it had been since a long trek to the hospital and the weather was still bad.

At this point it was now or never, or at least not for 4 more days. If Chase came right now we'd be able to come home Christmas Eve. And since I did not want to be in the hospital on Christmas Day and miss our first Christmas in our new home, he was going to have to wait until AFTER Christmas. So we picked up a very disappointed Riley. (Not because his brother wasn't born but because he couldn't spend the night at Laura's.) Then we carefully and slowly drove home. By now my contractions were 2 minutes apart but I could still talk. We got home at about midnight and we all went to bed.

I then put myself on bed rest, sort of, until after Christmas. Oh and in case you were wondering, we were able to watch the rest of the bowl game in the hospital and BYU beat Oregon State 44 to 20!

Decorating for Christmas 2009

2010-03-30T12:30:00.001-07:00

Now that we have a home and not a small little condo, we have a lot more to decorate. We started by putting up Christmas lights for the first time!

You may notice that only a small portion of our house has Christmas lights. This is because Cody was scared to death of our roof. He climbed up to the top of the roof and he looked down and told me that he now needed to change his pants. Then Riley was thoughtful and said, "Dad, don't fall." I wasn't too keen on the idea anyways because the roof is really steep. Cody said that if he was able to put the lights up that they would be there forever because he was never going to get up on the roof again. I told him to get off the roof and we proceeded to put the lights up around the shortest portion of our roof. Next year we'll try to put them up around the garage!

Now that we have a living room and a family room, we decided to put up two Christmas trees. I put my Christmas tree in the living room

and Riley was able to decorate his own tree. He actually made all of the ornaments, he swirled paint inside plastic bulbs and glued sequins on foam ornaments. Then Riley asked Cody where his tree was.

Riley also made a gingerbread house all by himself (I just put the frosting on for him). I personally love the tree marshmallows on the roof.

I was able to put up our stockings, I even added one for Chase. And we put up our beautiful nativity, my favorite decoration.

I just love decorating for Christmas!

Thanksgiving Dinner 2009

2010-03-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I got a call from my Dad saying that my grandma had fallen out of bed and was in the hospital and my Mom was on her way to Virginia to be with her. He followed this announcement by saying that Thanksgiving was cancelled. I was still in shock and didn't say anything at this time. Later that night, I talked to my sister Hope and we didn't like the idea about Thanksgiving being cancelled. We both had in-laws that we could go to, but I was 8 months pregnant and I was not about to drive to Idaho Falls. Hope had to work the graveyard shift at the hospital the night before Thanksgiving so she didn't want to have it at her house, so we decided that we'd have Thanksgiving dinner at my house.

Now that we had our own house, we actually had room for everyone. This was going to be our first Thanksgiving in our own home! I called and invited my Dad and he said he'd talk to Scott and decide if they were going to come or not. They decided to make the trek down to Eagle Mountain.

With some coaching from my Mom, thousands of miles away, Cody and I made the turkey, the dressing, the gravy, the rolls, and the pies. (My award winning pie of course) Hope brought a fruit salad and mashed potatoes. Scott and my Dad brought the cans of green beans, green and black olives, and the cranberry sauce. Even though my Mom wasn't there, we were able to come together as a family and have a great Thanksgiving dinner. Scott informed me that I did a great job and that my Mom would've been proud of me. That was the greatest compliment I could've received.

Pie anyone?

2009-11-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we had a chili/pie cook off in our ward. I decided to make a coconut cream pie. There were a total of 29 pies and I won 1st place! I couldn't believe it, I honestly didn't submit the pie thinking I would win anything. But when it came down to the pie contest they said there was one clear winner by far and then 3 people tied for second place. The criteria for judging the pies were: Did it look good? (Would you buy it at the store?), the crust, if the pie was set up, and of course the over all taste.

I would just like to thank my sister Robyn who gave me the pie filling recipe and my mom who gave me the awesome crust recipe and who taught me how to make it!

(I would've taken a picture of the pie but of course it was all gone and I really didn't think I'd win. But here's a picture of what I won!)

Halloween Fun

2009-11-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

We've had lots of fun this Halloween season. First, we started by going to Harvest Fest in Idaho Falls. At Harvest Fest, the kids played games, decorated cookies, rode on a train, went through a corn maze, and did many arts and crafts projects.

Here's Riley with his cousins Zach and Nathan.

The next Halloween activity we did was decorate sugar cookies. Riley has grown immensely in his artistic abilities since last year. Riley was very aware of what color he used to frost each cookie. Notice the bat and the moon and the witch.

Next we went to the trunk or treat for our ward. I had asked Riley what he wanted to be for Halloween and to my surprise he chose to be a scarecrow. That was easy enough for me and very inexpensive. I must say, he made a pretty cute scarecrow!

The next week we went to the school's Halloween carnival. Riley had a blast playing all of the little carnival games. He got a picture with the bearded lady.

And he won "The Grand Prize!" (that's what Riley called it). One of the activities at the carnival was to guess how many candy corns were in the jar. Riley finally decided that he wanted to guess 514. Cody asked what he would get if he won, to his dismay, I told him that Riley would win the jar of candy. Just what we needed, more candy! Later that evening Riley and I were out playing some game while Cody was waiting to get us cotton candy. The next thing Cody knew they were asking if Riley Thompson was in the gym. Cody told them that he was Riley's dad, they informed him that Riley won the guessing game. Apparently, there were a total of 506 candy corns in the jar and Riley's guess was the closest. Later there was a lady that saw us holding the jar full of candy and she asked if we had won. When we informed her that we did and that there was 506, she told us that she had seen Riley's guess and she decided to guess a few more than him, her guess was 518. She seemed a little upset that she didn't win. We just thought it was funny that she wanted to win that badly, especially since she was competing against children.

Here's Riley holding "The Grand Prize"

Our next activity was to make haunted houses out of rice krispie treats.

Last, but not least, we painted pumpkins. Riley decided this year that he would rather paint his pumpkin instead of carving.

I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween season!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

First Day of School

2009-08-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Riley started his first day of kindergarten yesterday. He was so excited, he could not wait to go. He told me when he was eating breakfast that he thought he was going to miss me. I told him that he'd be having so much fun that he wasn't going to have time to miss me. Then he asked me if I was going to miss him. I told him of course.

As we got to the school he couldn't wait to get to the door. School hadn't started just yet so he had to stand out and wait a little bit. He walked over to the line and forgot all about me. A few minutes later he finally looked around and waved at me, but that was the last time he looked at me. Once the door opened, he rushed in without even a glance in my direction.

This is him anxiously waiting for school to start. Look at that smile.

I hadn't felt sad at all, but once he walked in that door I started to tear up. I had to hurry to the car so none of the other parents saw me crying. Then the tears just kept streaming down my face and I couldn't make them stop. I was happy for Riley and how excited he was, but my little baby is no longer a baby.

When I picked him up later he told me all about his day. He told me that he wasn't at school for very long. If he could, I think he would've loved to be at school all day long. I'm just glad that he loves school right now and that he's so excited to learn new things.

It's a...

2009-08-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

BOY!!!

We found out yesterday that we are having another baby boy! We're very excited, especially Riley. He can't wait to have a baby brother. The best part is that everything looks great and I'm measuring right on my due date (January 6, 2010)!

I guess I should change the look of my blog, it's a little girly for all of these boys. :)

Summer 2009

2009-08-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by. Cody's already back to work full-time and Riley will be starting Kindergarten next week!

We started this summer off by going to Yellowstone with my family (Robyn and her family, Hope and her family, my parents, and Scott). It was definitely a long three days in the car, but we did get to see some really cool things, including 6 bears!

The Grand Tetons

Old Faithful

Mammoth Hot Springs

The Falls

One of the bears we were able to see

The buffalo we got stuck behind. He decided to walk in the middle of the road, he wouldn't go right because he'd fall of the cliff, and he wouldn't go left because it was straight up. Luckily he finally moved to the yellow lines so we were able to squeeze past him or we might still be there following him down the mountain.

After Yellowstone we went to Lagoon. It was probably the worst day to go, only minutes after we got there, it started pouring. Since I'm pregnant, I obviously didn't go on any rides. Thanks to my brother living in Farmington, Robyn and I got in for free and we just watched Riley and her youngest, Cole, ride the kiddie rides. We weren't there very long until we all decided to head back home and dry off. A few hours later the rain stopped and we were able to go back and get a few more rides in. Riley had a blast riding all of the little rides, then we had Cody come join us (he had been riding the rides with the bigger kids) and he was able to go on a couple rides with the little boys. I think Puff still scared Riley to death, he is not a roller coaster boy. Then the boys decided they wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel. Robyn and I were a little nervous that they were going to get to the top and freak out, but they ended up loving it. Who knew!

You can see in the picture how wet it was. Poor Riley, he looks like he's freezing.

Riley looking a little less than thrilled with Puff, but trying to smile while he holds on for dear life.

Our brave boys on the Ferris Wheel.

A Successful trip on the Ferris Wheel, they loved it.

The next week we were finally able to close on our home and move in. We got everything moved to the new home and started the unpacking process. All of you that have moved, especially with kids, know how long that process can take. I'm just glad we only had one kid to move. How on earth do we accumulate so much stuff? My real question was, where in the world did we keep all of this stuff when we were living in our tiny condo? I have definitely decided that we will NEVER move again. Luckily we bought a house that we really could stay in for the rest of our lives. After being in our home for only a week, we took off to Idaho.

We spent a week in Idaho having a family reunion with Cody's immediate family (Carma and her family, Ty and his family, and Cody's parents). We were able to get family pictures done, go to the zoo, and go boating. The kids just had a blast being able to play together!

We were boating for 8 hours and the kids could've just kept on going but the adults were wiped out! All of the kids enjoyed riding in the tube. Here's Riley with his cousins Cade and Gabe.

Just having fun with cousins Cole and Nathan (Yes, Riley has cousins named Cole and Nathan on both sides of the family, we also have two Zachs.)

We came back home to finish unpacking and now here we are, the middle of August and the summer is over.

It's About Time...

2009-06-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

I guess I should finally let everyone know the goods news. We are going to have a baby! We actually found out that I was pregnant the day that our condo went under contract. It was a big night for us. I actually couldn't believe it, so I had to take the test twice just to make sure.

The next day was Riley's birthday, for one of his presents we announced that we are going to have a baby. He is so excited, now he just can't wait to find out if he's getting a brother or sister. He wants a brother of course. When we went to the Dr. a few weeks ago the Dr. asked if we had any questions, Riley promptly raised his hand and said, "I have a question, what kind of baby is it going to be?!" The Dr. just laughed, he gave Riley a picture of the ultrasound (we did an ultrasound because it was still too early to hear the heartbeat) and he asked Riley if he could tell what the baby was going to be. Riley's sure it's a boy!

I have been more sick this time than I was with Riley so everyone tells me it's a girl. Even the Dr. said that, then he said he's usually right about 50% of the time, haha. Cody and I don't care if it's a boy or a girl, we just feel blessed to be having another baby.

I do feel really bad though, because of the timing, I won't be the biggest help when we move in a few days. I just get to sit back and boss people around. :) Oh well, Cody doesn't mind, we're both just so happy!

Finally!! Our New Home!

2009-06-09T11:27:00.001-07:00

After months of looking at homes and putting many offers on short sale homes (stupidest thing I've ever heard. There's nothing short about the process!!) we found the perfect home!

We are so excited about this home. The person who built the home was never able to live in it so it's basically brand new. The bank owned the home and there were two offers made the first day it was listed. Luckily, our offer was the one the bank picked. The timing couldn't have worked out more perfectly and this home really has everything we wanted. It has plenty of room for Riley and run around and play. He's so excited, he can't wait to move. He actually wants to pack boxes. (We'll see how long that lasts, once we actually start packing.)

We'll be closing on our condo this Thursday, June 25th and then we'll close on our home around the 3rd or 6th of July. So we'll be with my parents for a week or so. Which again, works out perfectly because my whole family is going to Yellowstone June 29th for a few days and then we would've been at my parents anyways to hang out with my sister Robyn and her family. I'm just grateful for how everything has worked out!

Total Slacker!

2009-06-04T12:59:00.001-07:00

I have been a really bad blogger these last few months. Now I feel like I'm so behind that I don't know where to begin, so much has happened. Since we've done so many things I decided to do 4 separate posts. Make sure you scroll all the way down to see everything we've been up to the past few months.

In March we decided that it would be a good time to move. With the prices of homes and the interest rates we thought it was a good time to try and find a house. We put our condo up for sale and started the waiting game. One good thing was that I really kept the house clean since it had to be show ready!

We had a couple offers but one fell through because the girl lost her job and the other offers weren't good enough. We finally got an offer that we would accept and we will now be moving out at the end of June. So this next week, we will start packing up all of our stuff.

Right now, we haven't found a house that we will be moving to, but it's okay. Since Cody works at a Jr. High, we can live with my parents or his since we're off for the summer. Hopefully, I will be able to post something about our new house soon!

Thomas the Train

2009-06-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend we went to Park City with Cody's parents and his sister and her family. Memorial Day we all went to see Thomas the Train. They had some fun activities for the kids.

They all got temporary tattoos.

They got to play with some lego train sets.

They got to draw with chalk and make bubbles.

Then the main event, they got to ride Thomas the Train!

Riley couldn't wait to ride the train, he has always wanted to ride on a train.

Riley's cousins Nathan and Zach. They got to take a picture with Thomas and Sir Topham Hat.

I think Riley's favorite activity was eating Cotton Candy. He just loves Cotton Candy! He didn't want to share with anyone, the little pig.

Riley's 5th Birthday

2009-06-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that my baby boy is now 5 years old.

It's amazing how fast time flies by. He's going to be starting kindergarten this year!
(I don't know what he's doing in this picture.)

We decided to have a birthday party this year. Riley said that he wanted to have a dinosaur party. So I made a volcano cake. (It was supposed to have smoke coming out of the top but I didn't have time to go get the dry ice.) Oh well, the kids still thought it was cool.

Here's all the kids helping him open his presents!

Then we had a dinosaur pinata! It was a little more difficult to break it open then I thought. We eventually just had to rip it open, but at least all the kids got an opportunity to take a whack at it.

California

2009-06-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

We went to visit Robyn and Matt during spring break. Scott also took a trip to California during that time, so we were able to hang out with him. While we were in California we all went to a Padre/Dodger game. Matt loves the Padres and Cody loves the Dodgers, so it's always a good time.

Cole, Christian, and Scott

Robyn and Scott (Scott decided that he is a Padre fan)

Since we had plans the next day in San Diego we stayed with Matt's parents that night. They made us feel so welcome. They even saved a special orange so Riley could have the opportunity of picking an orange off the tree. (The orange was really stuck on the tree, so Riley needed a little help)

The next day Robyn, Scott, and I took the kids to the zoo while Cody and Matt went to another ball game. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning or a strange flu bug and I was not feeling well at all. Plus, the stop and go traffic on the way to the zoo did not help. At one point Scott talked me into getting a wheelchair and he said he'd wheel me around the zoo. I was so sick I decided to do it. (Don't I look thrilled)

When Scott started wheeling me around I started feeling even worse, I don't think the rolling along was helping. I decided I'd go back to the car and lay down while everyone walked around the zoo. Cole was tired and wanted to go home anyways, so Scott said he'd take the kids to see a few things while Robyn took me back to the car and then he'd bring the kids to the car. What a nice brother, he was so caring to me and he was really sweet with the kids.

That weekend was easter so the kids were able to decorate easter eggs and then they had an easter egg hunt.

Other than getting sick, we had a great time in California.

The Draper Temple

2009-03-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to go the Draper Temple's open house. We were really excited to be able to show Riley the inside of the temple. On the tickets we had, there was a map showing us where to park. Riley took the map and showed me the way to get to the temple, then I explained that we had to go park somewhere else and then we were going to ride a bus to the temple. As soon as I mentioned we were going to ride a bus, his eyes lit up and he said, "Awesome." As we got closer to the temple we asked him if he was excited to go to the temple and he said, "Well........I'm excited to ride the bus!"

He really did love the temple and he'd get a little frustrated if he saw a staircase that we didn't get to go on. He was getting tired by the end, but he was still upset because he said we didn't get to see all of the rooms. He told me that his favorite parts were the pictures and the sparkly lights. They do have some amazing pictures and murals. And the chandeliers were absolutely gorgeous.

One other thing that concerned him was our shoes. I had told him that we would have little booties that we'd wear over our shoes so we wouldn't get the temple dirty. Well, they no longer have the booties, they have plastic runners that protect the carpet. There was a part where the plastic ended because the floor was tile, Riley was so worried and said we couldn't walk on it because it would get messy. I explained that it wasn't carpet so they'd be able to clean off any of the dirt. Later he walked right up to the end of the plastic runner, where three ushers were standing and he said they couldn't stand there. Of course they were a little confused and I had to explain to them that he didn't think they should be standing on the carpet without any plastic. Luckily, they understood and thought that he was very thoughtful.

Here are some interesting facts about the Draper Temple. (These are some of the things they told us on our 6 minute bus ride to the temple.)

The Draper Utah Temple was the twelfth temple built in Utah and the third built in the Salt Lake Valley, following the Salt Lake Temple (1893) and the Jordan River Utah Temple (1981).
All of the art-glass windows created by Utah artist Tom Holdman for the Draper Utah Temple miraculously survived a fire that left only a portion of one window damaged, even though the art studio itself was so badly burned, it was condemned. There are 221 exterior windows, 50 interior windows, and 432 door panels for a total of 35,420 hand-cut pieces of glass. The windows incorporate the Log Cabin quilt pattern used by the early pioneers.
The Draper Utah Temple is built of the finest materials including granite from China, Makore wood from Africa, and limestone from France.
The theme carried through the Draper Utah Temple is of the sego lily—Utah's state flower.
The Draper Utah Temple has the largest sealing room in the state of Utah.
Ordinance rooms in the Draper Utah Temple feature hand-painted panoramas of mountain scenes, a depiction of Draper's Corner Canyon and its view of the Salt Lake Valley.
The baptistry of the Draper Utah Temple is located on the downhill western side of the building, which allows for natural light through floor-to-ceiling windows.

Happy 30th Birthday Cody!!

2009-02-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

For Cody's 30th birthday Riley and I made a list of the 30 reasons we love him.

We love Daddy because... (Riley did come up with these on his own)
1. He reads books to me.
2. He helps me put my blankie on.
3. He gives me treats.
4. He gives me presents.
5. He plays games with me.
6. He pushes me on the swings, but not too high.
7. He loves me.
8. He tells the truth.
9. He gives great hugs. (They really are the best hugs.)
10.He makes me laugh.

Now it's my turn, I love Cody because...
11. He never lets me stay mad, no matter how hard I try.
12. He makes me feel safe.
13. He is always willing to help me around the house.
14. He works hard.
15. He loves helping people.
16. He has a big heart.
17. He is patient with me.
18. He is my best friend.
19. He knows me inside and out and for some reason he still loves me.
20. He listens to me.
21. He always supports me in anything I do.
22. He is a wonderful father.
23. He takes care of me and Riley.
24. He is very considerate and thoughtful.
25. He brings out the best in me.
26. He is selfless.
27. He is sensitive to others’ feelings. (That’s why he’s such a good counselor.)
28. He puts up with all of my crap and never complains.
29. He is a great kisser.
30. He loves me unconditionally.

We hope you have a wonderful birthday! We love you very much!

Homemade Fun!!

2009-02-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

One of my friends had this posted on her blog and I finally decided to bite the bullet and post it on mine too. I personally just did it to get a free prize! I have no clue what I'll make, I guess it will depend on the person that gets the gift from me.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. That gives me a good eleven months to get it done!
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange (but don't expect my gift to be too strange because I am not good at coming up with strange things:).

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! *Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!*

Polly Heath

2009-01-18T17:45:00.001-08:00

My Aunt Polly passed away yesterday morning. About two years ago Polly was diagnosed with Cirrhosis of the liver. The doctors gave her about a 50/50 chance of making it two years. At that time she decided she wanted to spend more time with family. Polly lived close to my grandparents in Virginia, but it had been a long time since she had seen my Mom, her only sister.

(left to right: Polly, my Mom, and my Uncle Steve)

She came and visited my Mom in the summer of 2007. Cody and Riley were able to meet her and we were able to spend a lot of time with her. Riley and Polly developed an instant bond, they were buddies. Everytime we were at my parents house, Riley would immediately go looking for Polly. We were lucky enough to see Polly again that Christmas when she came with my grandparents and then once more this past summer.

Shortly after Polly returned from her last trip here in Utah she was diagnosed with cancer. Some of you may remember that my Mom then went to Virginia for 9 weeks to help take care of her and my grandparents. Over a week ago Polly took a definite turn for the worse and my Mom quickly returned to say her final good-bye. Polly was asleep most of the time but the nurse said that she knew Polly could hear her family talk to her. At one point my Mom started talking about Riley and Polly opened her eyes and smiled.

I'm so grateful that Riley was able to meet Polly. They loved eachother so much. I'm also very grateful that I was able to gain more of a relationship with Polly these past few years. I'm sorry for the pain that she has endured and I am grateful that she has finally been released from that pain. We are also grateful for the knowledge that we have that we will someday see Polly again.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

2009-01-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

It's taken me a while to finally write something about our Christmas break, so here it goes, sorry if it's a little long.

We are lucky to have Cody working at a school so we got a full two weeks off and we spent one week of that with my family. We arrived at my parents, in Farmington, on Christmas Eve. We made cookies for Santa, and then we spent an eternity in the kitchen preparing food for the next day.

Even Cody and my brother, Scott, decorated a few cookies.

Riley was so excited for Santa to come, I thought he'd never fall asleep. Every little noise he heard he'd jump up and say, "Who's that?" He finally fell asleep around 11:30 and then Santa finally came. Santa came through and Riley got his glowing red light saber. But the biggest hit was a plane that he got to go with his GeoTrax train set.

My whole family was there for Christmas. My sister Michelle and her family came from Arkansas, Robyn and her family came from California, and Hope took the long trek from Layton. Oh and of course my brother Scott was there. Not everyone was staying at my parent's because there's just too many of us. This leads into the most exciting part of Christmas. Christmas night we looked outside and noticed that it had been snowing and the driveway was covered. If you know my parent's house, you know that this is definitely a problem. If you don't know my parent's house let me describe it to you. My parent's live on main street in Farmington but the house is set up on a hill so the driveway is a big steep hill. If there is just a little bit of snow on the driveway your car can slide all the way down and across the street into the neighbor's yard in a matter of seconds. So when we saw the snow we knew there was only one way to get down and go home, SHOVEL it. So some of the men went out and started shoveling. The problem was that the snow was coming so fast that once a patch was cleared, it was quickly covered again. Cody told me that he needed someone to come and salt the driveway, so I immediately went looking for the salt only to find out that my Dad only had about 2 cups left! This definitely was not going to cover the driveway. Now the dilemma was that we had 3 families parked at the top of the hill that needed to get down to go home but we needed salt in order to do this. My nephew Josh decided that he was going to brave the driveway and drive down so he could go buy salt. Now remember, this is Christmas night, where was he going to go? Farmington isn't really hopping with retailers and everything they had was, of course, closed. So that wasn't going to help. Finally, I found out that my mom had some salt in her car that she was going to use for gifts. I promised to buy her more if we could just use the salt now. I went back in the house and told everyone that the men were going to clear the driveway one more time and salt it and then they had about 5 minutes to get down the driveway!! Now the funny thing was that it still wasn't as easy to just drive down the driveway, picture this: At the top of the hill someone was in their car prepared to drive down, the rest of their family was walking down the hill just in case something unexpected happened, then someone was standing across the street to watch for cars. Once the coast was clear the person driving the car would carefully go down the driveway and then park so that the rest of the family could get in. What a fun time!! Luckily, everyone got to where they needed to be safely.

Friday, after Christmas, my niece Mati was baptized. I thought there was a lot of family at my parent's house for Christmas (24). That was nothing, add my brother-in-law's family and our total was 74 people at the baptism!!

Saturday morning we had family pictures done. This might be the last time ALL of my family is together. Michelle's kids are quite a bit older. Her son, Josh, will probably getting married this year and her son, Jared, will be going on a mission. So we took this opportunity to get one last big family picture taken.

(If you care, here's the list of people in this picture. Back row (sort of) left to right: Michelle's son Josh, Robyn's son Ben, my brother-in-law Brian (Hope's husband), my brother-in-law Matt, Hope and her newest addition Nathan, Robyn, Scott, Me, Cody, Michelle, my brother-in-law James, Michelle's kids Ashley and Jared. Front row: Robyn's son Christian, Hope's kids Justin and Katie, Robyn's son Cole, My Mom, she's holding Hope's son Zachary, My Dad, he's holding Hope's son Camden, Riley, and Michelle's daughter Mati) Whew! That took a lot longer then I thought.

After the picture we all decided to go bowling. It was Riley's first time bowling, he loved it! I represented the girls with a 101 and a 102 but then my Mom beat me on her second game with a 109. My Dad was the highest scorer of the guys, I don't remember what it was though. Here's a few snap shots.

Later that night all the girls went to see Twilight (that would be my third time)! We definitely had a fun-filled weekend.

Monday, Robyn's boys and Riley went sledding down my parent's hill. Here's Riley going down the hill on his belly. One time feet first and then head first. For some reason he wouldn't use the sled.

We had a great Christmas, with little drama, which is always a plus when you have 4 girls in the family. I hope everyone else had a wonderful and safe Christmas!

Happy 8th Year Anniversary!!

2008-12-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

(Engagement Photo)

I can't believe that 8 years ago today Cody and I were married in the SLC temple. As I look outside this morning I notice that the day is nothing like it was 8 years ago.

Cody and I were married at 7:00 am, which meant everyone had to be at the temple at 6:30. We had to be at the temple at 6!!Since it was so early in the morning I had my hair done the night before at midnight. Then I slept on the couch and I tried not to mess up my hair. Not that I was really going to sleep much the night before my wedding. Then Cody came and picked me up at about 5:30 am. We started our trek to the temple in a BLIZZARD! The weather was so bad that we almost missed our exit because we couldn't see. Thankfully, we made it to the temple (and so did the rest of our families) safely and we were married bright and early. But after the ceremony we looked outside and realized there was no way we could take any pictures. Our photographer was so understanding and said that we could just come back another day. So we went back about a month later and took all of the temple pictures. Our families weren't there but it was so much more laid back and relaxing then it would've been the day of our wedding.

(Cody's favorite pose, we even had some tourists take our picture!)

After we left the temple, we all met at Joanie's restaurant in Kaysville to have our wedding brunch. It was really a beautiful luncheon. Then, since we were exhausted, we went to our hotel room and took a nap. And so did everyone else. Thanks to the nap, we were well rested for our reception at my parent's church in Farmington. The next night we had another reception in Idaho Falls.

Thank you Cody for marrying me that cold December morning. These 8 years have been wonderful and I look forward to spending FOREVER with you.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

2008-12-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

We had our Ward Christmas party this weekend. Santa came and all the kids got to sit on his lap and talk to him. Santa asked Riley if there was something that he wanted to tell Santa about. I think his mind suddenly went blank because he nodded his head with this dazed look on his face. We had to tell him to tell Santa what he wanted. Then he remembered and he told Santa that he wants a red light saber that glows in the dark. Santa told him that he thought his elves had been working on some of those, so I guess we'll see!

I've been tagged!

2008-12-03T08:29:00.000-08:00

I generally don't do these but I thought this was simple enough that I could handle it.

8 Shows I watch:
1. Chuck
2. Dancing with the Stars (Now that that's over I'll start the Bachelor in January)
3. Biggest Loser (Go Michelle!!)
4. Ugly Betty
5. The Office
6. Smallville
7. Numbers
8. How I Met Your Mother

8 Restaurants That I Like To Eat At: (These are restaurants I like to eat at but rarely do.)
1. Robintino's
2. El Matador
3. Olive Garden
4. Red Lobster
5. Sakura
6. Black Angus
7. Chili's
8. Sandpiper in Idaho Falls

8 Things I Did Today: (Very exciting!)
1. Decorated the Christmas tree
2. Took Riley to preschool and then realized that preschool had been cancelled for today so I brought him right back home.
3. Cleaned the Kitchen
4. Went to Enrichment night
5. Practiced our Presidency lesson for Relief Society.
6. Played the piano. I just love when I can pull out my Christmas music.
7. Updated Family and Friend mailing addresses
8. Made Crock pot Chicken for dinner.

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Christmas!!!
2. Spending time with family.
3. Giving people their Christmas gifts!
4. Our 8th anniversary (coming up on the 15th)
5. Cody's Christmas break and just hanging out.
6. Watching The Office.
7. Doing some crafting tomorrow for fun not because I have an enrichment night to do it for.
8. Getting my house totally clean. I hate unpacking after a long trip!

8 Things On My Wish List:
1. A House! Our condo is great but it would be nice to have at least one more room that I could put my Cricut, sewing machine, and any other crafts out.
2. I'll have to copy my friend Liz and say a walk in closet. I would love to have more closet space to hang all of our clothes. I feel like our rod is going to break one of these days.
3. A bigger kitchen. Maybe we'd eat in the kitchen more often if it was bigger.
4. Finally feel great! At least I'm feeling a little better, every little bit helps.
5. Lose 20-30 lbs. That would be awesome.
6. More patience.
7. To go on a cruise some day.
8. An hour long massage! That would be nice after spending all day crafting!

Twilight Premiere!!

2008-11-23T14:32:00.001-08:00

Thanks to a family member of a friend, I was able to attend a premiere showing of Twilight on Thursday at 7:00 pm. (I didn't have to stay out until 2:30 am!) It was so much fun. Eight of us drove to Jordan Commons in my friend Jill's Excursion and on the way we listened to the soundtrack. (We liked the soundtrack even more on the way home after we saw the movie.) We had dinner and then got in line to go into the theatre. As we approached the door to the theatre we found out that they were scanning us with a wand to make sure we didn't have any cameras. Of course we had cameras!! So Laisa and I had to run all the way back to the car to put our cameras away. The "guards" were from Summit Entertainment and since we were getting a special preview we couldn't take any pictures. They wanted everyone to take their cell phones back to their cars too. Since everyone had phones, they compromised and just let us turn them off. Luckily, I did take a couple pictures while we were eating dinner.

(Me and Jill)

As we walked into the theatre they handed us VIP badges. (Thanks Laisa for taking a picture and posting it on your blog so I could steal it.) Some of the badges had symbols or words on the back that meant you won a prize. A few of us in our group won a bookmark. Then we finally sat back and enjoyed the movie. I absolutely loved it! I was expecting the worst, but I was pleasantly surprised and I can't wait to see it again!

Toilet paper anyone?

2008-11-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

So this is a little embarrassing but it's too funny not to share.
Yesterday I went in the bathroom and realized, after it was too late, that we were out of toilet paper. I called to Riley and told him to go to the other bathroom and get me some toilet paper. A couple minutes later he came in holding three squares of paper. (I had just put new toilet paper in the other bathroom the night before and I had left the rest of the package in there on the floor.) I explained to him that I wanted the whole roll, not just a little piece. He said that he couldn't get the whole roll out, so I told him to just bring the whole package.

A few minutes later he walked in like this

I was so angry that he had just ruined an entire roll of toilet paper but I busted out laughing. Apparently, he never saw the entire package of toilet paper sitting right in front of him! When he said he couldn't get the roll out, he didn't mean from the package, he meant he couldn't get it off the toilet paper roll holder. So he just unrolled the WHOLE roll and brought it to me. Thanks Riley, you are so helpful!

Where are my keys?

2008-11-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

Today, Riley and I went shopping to get the last few things that I needed for my enrichment night tomorrow. We were at our last stop, Walmart. As we were getting closer to the car, I reached in my purse to get my keys. I have a special pocket that I always put my keys in, but they weren't there. So I started looking through my purse and I said, "Where are my keys?" Riley said, "Maybe they're in the car." I said, "I hope not, because the car is locked." I'm sure you can all see where this is going. Yes, the keys were in the car, in fact they were still in the ignition! Now I'm not always the best at locking my car, but I've tried to be much better. I honestly don't even remember flipping the automatic locks as I was getting out. But I did.
Now the question is, how do I get my car unlocked and how do I get home? The only other key that we have is on Cody's key ring and he is over 20 minutes away. Also, I didn't really want to call him and make him leave work. I did try to call him to see if he had any ideas on how I could break into our car. Then I realized that he wasn't even in his office today, he was out somewhere in the school, so I had no idea how to even get a hold of him. So I started calling everyone I knew in my ward that was in my cell phone or that I knew by heart. Apparently, everyone else was out for the day too. I finally got a hold of my friend Tanya and she was able to give me the number for the police department. I called the police station and 10 minutes later a nice police officer was there to unlock my car. It only took him about 2 minutes and my car was unlocked. I'm so grateful to be home and to know where my keys are!

A Snack?

2008-11-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

We were watching TV the other night and we saw one of the previews for Twilight. Riley was there with us and when the preview was over he looked at me and said, "Why does him think her's a snack?" Okay, I know his english wasn't great but I could not believe he was perceptive enough to realize that James was talking about Bella when he said, "You brought a snack."

On that note, I can't wait until the movie comes out next week. I know things will inevitably be different than the book, but I'm still very excited to go and see it on Thursday!!

I love to see the Temple

2008-11-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Cody and I were able to attend the wedding of our friend Kristin at the SLC temple. It has almost been eight years since Cody and I were married in the SLC temple. As we sat in the sealing room, waiting for the bride and groom, we had time to remember our wedding. Cody was sure that we were sitting in the exact same room that we were married in. He said that it looked just like it. :) Of course they all look the same so I'm not really sure if it was the same room or not. But it was kind of fun to think that it was the same room.

As the sealing continued, I was reminded of the covenants that we made and the blessings that we have been given. I am so grateful that we were married in the temple. I am grateful to know that we have been sealed to eachother and to Riley for time and all eternity. I am grateful that I was also born in the covenant and that I'm sealed to my family. We are so blessed to know for a fact that we will be together in the next life. My grandparents are not LDS, they hope and believe that they will be together again but they don't have that assurance like we do.

I am so excited for Kristin and Jared and the life that they have begun together. You could not mistake the joy they had in their faces as they were joined together forever. Thanks again for letting us be part of your wonderful day!

Halloween Fun

2008-11-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. Of course carving was a little difficult for Riley so he helped us poke the holes and then he had fun drawing pictures on the pumpkins. Cody helped out a by gutting the pumpkins and then using his power tools to cut the small circles. He also carved the tiny pumpkin. I ended up doing most of the carving. I think next year we'll only get one pumpkin!

Halloween day was a lot of fun. Riley and I went to the elementary school where I used to work and watched the Halloween Parade. It's always so fun to see all of the kids in their costumes. It was also really great to see everyone that I used to work with. Then we went to Cody's work. Then we stopped by the District Office so I could see some of the ladies there that I didn't get to say good-bye to. That was fun for Riley because they let the kids come trick-or-treating there. If we would've had time he could've filled his whole bucket there, but we had to leave and go to preschool. It was definitely a full day of Halloween fun.

That night, I took Riley trick-or-treating while Cody stayed home to answer the door. We went with our friends the Christensen's. It was a lot more fun for Riley to have some other kids to go with instead of just going with me. I couldn't believe it, but we ended up going for 2 1/2 hours. There were a few times where we went into the house's and we sat and talked for little bit so it wasn't 2 1/2 hours straight. I'm just glad that it was such a nice night, it was perfect weather for trick-or-treating. I always hated it when it was so cold that we had to bundle up in our coats and stuff and then you couldn't see our costumes.

Shaelee and Tanner

Now this was Riley's first time really trick-or-treating. Last year we had a trunk-or-treat, and the years before that he was so little we just went to a couple houses. So I tried to coach him before he went. I told him to just go to the door, say trick-or-treat, and then say thank you. I told him that even if they had something he didn't like to say thank you and then Cody or I would eat it or we'd throw it away. He was doing pretty good, then at one door I noticed that he said something to the person at the door but I couldn't hear what he said. When the three kids came back, I asked the older kids what he said and they told me that he said, "I already have this treat." I guess I didn't train him well enough. :)

One Lucky Girl!

2008-10-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

I just have to say how lucky I am to have Cody for a husband.

I haven't been feeling very well for a LOOOOONG time. We still haven't figured out exactly what's wrong. Lately, I've been very stressed out and concerned about what's going on with me. Last night Cody came home with this beautiful bouquet of flowers and a message for me.

Instead of buying a card he played this video for me.

I am so grateful to have such a caring and understanding husband. Thank you Cody for putting up with me. Thank you for always being there for me. And most of all thank you for loving me.

Mmmmm...Sprinkles

2008-10-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Last week we decided to make Halloween cookies. Riley and I cut them out and baked them and then when he got home from preschool we decorated them. Riley had a great time frosting or "painting" the cookies. He eventually got a little lazy with the frosting as you can see on the bat cookie. He finally said, "Mom you can put the frosting on and I'll decorate." He loved the sprinkles, M&M's, and candy corns. He especially loved sneaking a few candies in his mouth while he was decorating. It was a lot of fun to do this together. Believe it or not, we've never made sugar cookies before. I always had good intentions, but with working and other things going on, we've just never done it. I'm so glad that we were able to make cookies together this year. It's so great to be home with Riley!

Halloween's almost here!!

2008-10-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly October is flying by. I'm obviously not very good at keeping up on my blogging since I haven't posted anything for almost two months!! Honestly, we just haven't done anything too exciting to talk about.

As Halloween approaches, Riley keeps asking me if it's Halloween yet. Once he got his costume (he's going to be a Storm Trooper), he figured that Halloween must be close. He started asking every night if he could put his costume on and go outside Trick or Treating. Finally, to stop the questions, I decided to make him a countdown so he could see exactly how many days left until Halloween. This has seemed to work pretty well until today, he took his Tootsie Roll and then he brought me one too! I guess he's trying to make Halloween come a little sooner.

(I know it's a little late for this year but, if you like the countdown, I got the instructions from http://heartlandpaper.com/ then go to their blog and you can see all their upcoming and past projects.)

Something exciting for today is that my Mom's finally coming home!! My Mom has been gone for 9 weeks. She's been in Virginia taking care of my Grandma (she broke her hip) and my Aunt Polly (she was diagnosed with Lymphoma). I know I don't see my mom all of the time, but I can't believe how much I've missed her just knowing that she wasn't there for me to go see. I guess I can never move too far away. One thing I've really missed is that Cody and my Dad have season tickets to the BYU games and my Mom usually comes with my Dad and we get to hang out. I've really missed that time together. I'm glad she'll be able to come this weekend, I can't wait to see her. WELCOME HOME MOM!!

Bear World

2008-09-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to Idaho. While we were there we went to Bear World. Surprisingly, we had never gone there before, even though it's not that far away from Idaho Falls. We decided this summer that when we went to Idaho we would finally go to Bear World. We told Riley that we would go and for the past month and a half he has been marking his own little calendar with stickers, counting down the days until we would finally go to Bear World.

(Me, Grammy, and my cute little bear cub, Riley)

I can't believe how close you actually get to the bears. I thought it was funny that they told us you had to keep moving because if you stopped the bears could climb on the car. It was a little difficult to get any pictures because you have to keep your windows rolled up. But I had a few that turned out.

After we drove through to see the bears, we went to the little amusement park and petting zoo. Riley was being a scaredy cat and he started screaming on the first ride. The cars went up in the air and then they started bouncing and he did not like that. I think he was afraid he was going to fall. After that he'd only go on the train.

One of Riley's favorite parts at Bear World was the petting zoo. He said he loved petting the big pig.

Riley's other favorite part was the bear cubs. That was my favorite part too. The bear cubs are in an area all by themselves over by the amusement park. Riley loved watching the baby bear cubs run and play.

Sleeping with Darth Vader

2008-08-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

Recently we found out that Cody has Sleep Apnea. For those of you who don't know what Sleep Apnea is, here's an explanation.

Sleep Apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing. Most people have about 5 pauses an hour, when Cody was tested he had about 60 pauses! So pretty much about 1 a minute. We thought he might have a problem when about 6 months ago he started snoring louder and more frequently than ever before. A couple of times I woke up and I could hear him choking. It scared me to death so I made him go to the Dr.

It was clear that he had Sleep Apnea so now he sleeps with a CPAP or oxygen mask. As he breaths in and out it sort of sounds like Darth Vader breathing through his mask. I thought it might bother me a little bit but it doesn't. It's actually kind of soothing and it's very quiet. Cody won't let me take a picture of him with the mask on, so here's a picture of what the mask looks like.

Cute, huh? I'm just really glad that we have found the problem and that he can breath again. He feels so much better every morning now that he doesn't wake up with headaches from the lack of oxygen. And I'm glad I don't have to sleep with earplugs anymore. I was starting to wonder if we were going to have to sleep in different rooms his snoring was so bad. I'm happy that we can sleep in the same room again!

Dinosaur Museum Craziness

2008-08-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

This last Tuesday, Riley and I went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays in August and I knew that Provo and Alpine School Districts had started school so I thought it wouldn't be too busy. HAHA!! Boy was I wrong. We got to the museum about a half an hour after it opened and the line was already out the lobby doors, around the corner, and down the side of the building. I could not believe it. It probably took us at least a half an hour just to get to the front and pay.

We went with my friend Laisa and two of her kids and my sister Hope and her five kids. Eight kids and three adults, what were we thinking!! Actually it wasn't really bad, the kids were great. But it was so busy that they didn't really get to do all of the hands on stuff. All in all, we all had a fun time and the kids loved seeing all of the dinosaurs.

(Keilana, what a doll!!)

(Camden, Riley's cousin, they're only 11 days apart)

Back to work!!

2008-08-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

This week was Cody's first week back to work. For those of you that don't know, Cody is a Counselor at American Fork Junior High. He worked there last year for his internship. He loves his job and loves helping the kids.

This was my first week home with just Riley. I should've gone back the same day as Cody to take care of new student registration. I definitely did not miss that stressful day.

Since we just got new carpet I didn't do much other than just clean up all of the mess around the house and try to organize everything. Even though I was doing a lot of cleaning, Riley and I had a great time together! I'm really looking forward to this year with him. I've already bought a bunch of stuff so we can have our own little preschool together. I know Riley can't wait too, he keeps asking me when we're going to start preschool. He's so excited about learning.

The other thing I did this week was read Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight Series

I just could not put the book down, once Cody got home from work and we had dinner, I picked up my book and just read until it was time to go to bed. I finished the book Wednesday! I enjoyed reading all of the Twilight series so much. (I didn't start reading them until this summer). Now I'm just sad that it's all over. I need to start something else, any great ideas?

Summer Away from Home!

2008-07-16T09:30:00.001-07:00

This summer we decided we'd celebrate. Cody and I are both done with school, no homework for the summer!! And I am now done with work. (Now my real work begins at home!!)

To celebrate we decided to take a long trip. We were pretty much gone the entire month of June. We started in San Diego for 1 week. We stayed at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido. I know it sounds like a retirement home but was actually a really great place. There were tons of families and lots of fun stuff for the kids. We had a barbecue pad right outside our back door and a hot tub. It was a community barbecue and hot tub but nobody was ever out there when we were there so we had it all to ourselves. The pool was great and they had a splash pad where Riley could just run around and play.

While we stayed in Escondido we went to a Dodger game in LA.

We went to SeaWorld for a couple of days. (One day to view the shows and the other day to walk around and see everything, both days to feed the Dolphins.)

We went to another Dodger game at Petco Park. (Andre Ethier)

After the baseball game we went to Ocean Beach and then to Sunset Cliffs. While we were in San Diego it was pretty cold, apparently it's called "June Gloom," it was overcast and the high was maybe 68. So we didn't really play in the ocean because it was freezing, but we had a good time building sand castles and just hanging out.

After our week in Escondido we went to Anaheim for a couple of days. I'm sure you can guess what we did there. The first night we were there we went to Medieval Times. Riley absolutely loved it. When you get to Medieval Times, everyone gets a crown with a specific color on it. You cheer for whatever knight matches your crown and you sit in that Knight's section. We got to cheer for the blue knight. While you're there they feed you soup, a roasted chicken, a rib, bread, potatoes, and for dessert an apple turnover. The whole time you're eating you watch the knights compete in different tournaments. Our knight was pretty good but in the end when they did the jousting he lost. It was a lot of fun to watch, Riley especially loved the horses.

The next day we spent all day at DISNEYLAND and California Adventure!! This was Riley's first time at Disneyland and my first time since I was 18 months old. We had a blast, we were having so much fun that we just kept right on going for 13 hours!! I can't believe Riley lasted that long, Cody and I were wasted. Riley had some pretty cool things happen to him. When we went on the Monster's Inc. ride, at the very end, the Monster Roz is standing there talking as everyone's leaving. It's not someone in a costume but someone is obviously watching from somewhere and can make her mouth move and they speak for her. She said as we were leaving, "Young man in the front row, what big ears you have." (Riley was wearing his Mickey Mouse ears.) Then she said, "Are those your real ears?" Riley was dumbfounded he just stared at her and didn't know what to say, he just shook his head. After the Monster's Inc. ride I went to save us seats for the electrical parade. While I did that, Cody and Riley went to the Talking with Crush interactive video. Crush was on a movie screen but he could move around and talk personally with the audience, asking and answering questions. At the beginning Crush moved over towards Riley and talked to him. He asked him his name, when Riley told him Crush said, "Rocking Riley." Then he asked him where he was from, Riley said Utah but it sound like Utalk and Crush said, "Yeah, I talk." Then he asked Riley who he was with and Riley looked at Cody and Cody said, "Who am I?" Riley looked at Crush and said, "Who am I?" Of course everyone laughed, then Riley finally said that he was with his Dad. Crush asked him if he could talk with his Dad and he said yes. Crush asked Cody's name and then he called him, "Cowabunga Cody." Crush asked him how many kids he had and Cody said one, Crush said, "You're just starting, I have 65." Cody and Riley had a great time talking with Crush, I'm sorry I missed it. :(

After Disneyland we went and visited my sister Robyn and her family in Hemet. We spent a few days there just hanging out at the pool and playing SingStar and RockBand.

Left to Right: Christian, Ben, Robyn, and Matt

We traveled home and spent one night at home and then we were off to Idaho. We spent a few days in Idaho. While we were there we went boating, and to the zoo and had a nice time relaxing. I spent most of my time reading the Twilight series. I just couldn't put it down.

While we were at the zoo I found out that my sister Hope had her baby boy, Nathan. So on our way home from Idaho we stopped at the hospital to see the baby.

We then came home for a few days to finish out work and then we went to Farmington to visit my parents, my Grandparents, my Aunt Polly, my Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda, and my sister Michelle.

(Left to Right: My Mom (Sheila), Uncle Steve, Aunt Polly, Front Row: Grandma and Granddad)

It was a nice little family reunion. Now we're finally back home for a few weeks before Cody goes back to work! It's amazing how fast the summer can fly by!