Dad's 37th

This post has been a long time in coming. I just don't quite know what to write about a man who is literally everything to me. He is the best man I've ever known. The kindest, smartest, most faithful, most wonderful man. Anyway, I truly love him and am eternally thankful to be a part of his life.

Mike is the best daddy on earth too. Our kids adore him to no end.

Happy Birthday MY LOVE!

Baby Shower for Lucy!!

My sweet neighborhood friends gave me a baby shower. While we were in Germany, I gave away all of our baby girl clothes. Don't ask why cuz it's a long story. Anyway, they knew that we had none and so Jimmy Sneider organized a shower and invited all of my dear friends from the neighborhood. These women have been a wonderful support to me through a ridiculous trial with an even more ridiculous neighbor. And they've been there to laugh and enjoy life with. I love my neighbors.

Brittany's 14th

Yep it's official, Brittany turned old. Well ok not old just 14 but she thinks she's old. We had a super fun party for her.

Being the oldest, Brittany has lots of responsibility in our family and she really steps up to the plate. She babysits, cooks, cleans, and makes her siblings love her. We are so very thankful for her and the wonderful 14 years she's been a part of our lives here on earth.

Brittany is such a fun person. There are always laughs to be had when she's around. She's also as smart as can be. She's super energetic and just an all around great gal. Happy Birthday Miss Britty!

Aunnika's 9th

On March 8th we celebrated the birth of our bubbly beautiful Aunnika. She's nine years old now. Aunnika is a sweet energetic girl who brings all kinds of fun and happiness to our family. Aunnika plays the piano and dances ballet, tap and jazz. Jazz is definitely her favorite. She loves to play with friends and has an amazing imagination. Aunnika is incredibly brave and does all kinds of crazy things trying to keep up with Michael. Aunnika LOVES clothes but they have to be just right. I would never presume to pick something out for her. She likes to dress beautifully every day. We love Aunnika and are so blessed to have her in our lives.

The month of February was relatively mellow. Well I guess our life isn't really mellow no matter how few extra events we have because, well, we have so darn many non-extra events.

Anyway, we did have one really super fun unusual event. We had a party at our friends, the VanWagoners. It was a get together for a bunch of our friends we had known in Enid Oklahoma. There are several families living in the Colorado Springs area and so we all got together and just visited and ate. It was really wonderful. Rochelle and Jared VanWagoner hosted the whole thing. The Travis and Karen Higbee, Jeff and Jennifer Lakey, Jaydee and Shaunda Burns, and our family were the attendees. Good times were had by all.

We did our annual cookie party for valentines day and we also had our annual family formal dinner. I really love making such a big deal with the fine china and candles etc. for the people I love most in all the world.

The Chinese new year was on Valentines day so we celebrated a day late but had yummy Butter Yaki (a tradition introduced to us by my SIL Heather) and read our fortunes to celebrate that. While we were eating the Butter Yaki Hans out of the blue declared, "this isn't yucky. It's delicious!" We all thought that was quite funny.

One final event that is worth mentioning is that we had a little fender bender. Normally that wouldn't be worth even mentioning or remembering but it was such a maddening experience. We very gently bumped into the back of a car at a right turn on our way home from church. It was no big deal and so we thought we'd just check to see if we'd done any damage to their or our car. When Mike got out to check, the driver of the other car also got out and was totally fine. He went to the side of the road and made a phone call, we thought he was calling the police to report the accident. He then went back to his car and talked to the passenger and then they asked us to call the police and an ambulance. Huu? Well, we called the police and told them that the passenger of the other car was complaining of some neck pain. They sent a fire truck, an ambulance and two police cars. Now both of the jerks in the other car were faking total incapacitation. They were both carried out on stretchers with neck braces. We did all the police reports etc. and then came home. Mike got the camera and went back and took several pictures of their car that had been left since they were both headed to the hospital. We also took several of our van and then called our insurance to let the know that these idiots would be calling with all kinds of lies about their terrible injuries. I was so ticked. I was very pregnant and it didn't bother me one tiny bit but these guys were claiming to have been in so much pain they couldn't move and so on and so forth. Well we did get a call from their lawyer asking what kind of insurance coverage we have and how much it covered etc. We didn't tell him anything. I hope they don't get a thing. I hope they end up having to even pay the ambulance and hospital bills but I'm sure they won't. I'm sure that it will all be covered and they will probably even get money out of it. Then they will go off and do it again. I'm pretty sure they were trying to cause that accident. They started to go and so we started to go as well and then they suddenly stopped. Well we can't prove anything but there you have the story of the month.

Happy Birthday Handsome Hans

On Feb 11th Hans turned 5!!!! This means 5 year old powers. I can not begin to tell you how I love 5 year old powers. You see, when a child turns 5 in gains very special powers. Such as the ability to tie his own shoes, make his bed with no wrinkles, do his big 5 (morning jobs) without any help OR being asked. Unloading the dishwasher every meal without being asked, and so on. You see, at 4 they are learning how to use their special powers but at 5 they can do all of these things without even being asked. That's what I love.

Those of you who know Hans, know what a delightful kid he is. He is REALLY happy about 90% of the time. He is so much fun and loves to tell stories and jokes to make others laugh. He likes to dance and run and all kinds of crazy other stuff. Anything that sounds funny, loud and uses lots of energy, that's my boy.

He is such a smarty too. It is so fun to teach him. He learns quickly and loves doing it. He knows everything there is to know about all African animals and most of the other animals in the world too. His knowledge of animal facts never ceases to amaze me. He LOVES animals. He also loves Star Wars and knows lots of facts about that too. Just a super smart kid.

So for his birthday, we had a family party. In the morning he woke to lots of Africa decorations with wild animals of Africa plate, napkins, hats, balloons, streamers etc.

We took a fun trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to go to there African animals display. The kids loved that but wanted to go to the rest of the museum too. Unfortunately we didn't have time but we will be going back there for sure.

We had a fun gift giving for him where all of his siblings gave him cool African animals.

He had a fun Crocodile cake and watched a youtube movie of a Croc attacking a wildebeest. Very cool.

He had a great day and we sure do love having Hans in our family. What a guy!

JANUARY!!! Well we had a lot of fun. We spent the first week finishing our Utah vacation and of coarse loved that. When we got home school and all of our regularly scheduled activities started again. Dance, Piano, Basketball, Youth activities, etc. Some of the fun extras were:

Michael participated in his last pinewood derby and guess what? Dad was here!! It was so great for him to finally have his dad here to help him and cheer him through it all. Mike lamented that he didn't have the expertise of Uncle Ammon to make the fastest car, but I think his presence was the best thing of all.


Another super exciting event, was a youth temple trip. It was Allison's first time going and she had a wonderful experience. Brittany was great to guide her through it all with her vast experience and they both had a really good time.

Next exciting event, Mike and I got to go to a concert. Neither of us have ever been to one before and while it was not quite what I expected, it was a lot of fun. The weather was amazingly awful but it was still packed and loud and crazy and fun. It was LeAnn Rimes and while she is a country singer it seemed a little more pop than country. Anyway, we had a fun time and hope it won't be our last concert.


pictured here is another of our pizza parties that we try to have every-so-often and that we all love. So January was a good and busy month and amazingly we didn't have a single birthday to report this month.