Eight Years

I am one of the luckiest women to have married Brian. He is so good to me and is a wonderful dad too.

The quality isn't the best because these were scanned in.
Look how young we were!


In front of the bountiful temple the day we got married.

When I look at these I can't help but think that we had no idea what we were in for. Being married has been the happiest time of my life. There have been a few hard times but mostly it has been wonderful. Brian has always been my best friend. He is hilarious, kind, hard working and has a strong testimony. I still get excited when he comes home from work.
I would do it all over again. And I hope to have lots more anniversaries here and the eternities too.
I love you Brian.

Activities

Kyle and Blake, playing with some of their Christmas presents.


Kyle, you handsome little guy!


The paint around Blake's mouth is proof that he still needs to sample things just to find out how they taste.
Thanks to Aunt Dixie for the markers, paint, brushes and paper. They are all very nice! The boys will be busy with these for a while. Thanks again!

More Bouncy Ball Woes

Blake is talking so much now! One of my favorite words he says is "YEAH!" because of the way he says it.
Last time we were at WalMart, as a reward/bribe for being good the whole trip, I told Blake he could have a bouncy ball. I put 2 quarters in my pocket just for this purpose. So, after checkout, I say, "Blake, do you want a ball?" He responds "YEAH!!!" So cute. So we go over to the ball machine, put in the two quarters, turn the handle, and ... nothing comes out! Yes, I got ripped off. Poor Blake. I momentarily forgot that I was at WalMart and figured maybe a manager could assist me. But there are no useful managers to be found there. And since it was four days after Christams, the service desk line was wrapped around the building.
Sorry little buddy. Maybe next time.

White Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. There is so much snow on the ground I doubt we could even drive down the street if we wanted to. Our laundry room has been transformed into the mud room and we shovel our driveway more often than we get mail. But it is pretty.
It was way more fun to watch the boys open presents than to think of celebrating the last of my twenties as I turned 29 on Christmas Day. Here are some highlights-


Santa brought Kyle an Optimus Prime transformer, which he has been really wanting.


Blake had been so good about not messing with the presents before Christmas. It didn't take him long to get into it.


Sorry about the cropping, but I still liked this picture. We had to go sledding. I never appreciated how much work it is to get two little people bundled up, boots hats gloves, dig out the inner tube and fill it with air. Before we even started I was almost ready to be done.



As is tradition, the kids love the box. Brian made them a little house out of the box my RECLINER came in. Yes, I got a recliner. I am spoiled. It is even a lazy boy. I need it, I'm getting old.
I love Christmas.

Oh the joys of parenthood...

Right after we finished our bathroom, I walked in there to find Blake up to no good. He had done his best to fill the toilet with everything he could think of. When I caught him the wastebasket was upside down in the toilet, the contents floating around. Well, I did my best to resolve the situation. However, it was completely plugged. We tried everything to get it working again. But on day five we realized whatever was in there would not dissolve. So Brian had to once again remove the toilet. Once it was out, we could finally see what had caused the problem. The culprit?

Never would have guessed that a 50 cent bouncy ball could have caused such a problem.

Done

The downstairs bathroom is finished.



Brian did such a good job! Thank you!



Now for the other 100 projects to do around here. :)

Thanksgiving

I love thanksgiving. It is a good excuse to get together and eat yummy food. And in the quiet moments to contemplate all the wonderful blessings we have. Brian's neice went into labor that day so most everyone went to visit her. But Bonnie still came to our house and it was fun to have her.




Blake loves butter. He would eat an entire cube if I would let him. While I was cooking it got really quiet. Quiet is bad. I looked over and there was Blake, on the table eating butter. This dish was full before he got ahold of it.

We found our way to Star Valley where there was quite a bit of snow.





Dad and Kyle built a snowman. Kyle mostly just ate the cereal that we used for the eyes. It was a pretty fun holiday.

It's Time

When I created this blog 2 years ago I really felt like I should make it private. But part of the fun is connecting with friends you have lost contact with. So I left it open for whoever. But it is time to make safety a priority so I am also going private. Please leave me your email address if you would like access. You may leave it in comment form here or send it to me at tara826@yahoo.com.
Take care.

Tile

We accomplished a little something around the house this weekend. New tile in our downstairs bathroom.
It is nice to have a handy husband. Thank you Brian for spending your Saturday working. I know it wasn't much of a break after doing the same thing all week.

Here is Brian removing the old floor. Our home is not very old but this floor was in bad shape.


It was a lot of work and pretty messy.

This is what we started with:



The wallpaper was pretty awful. So my big helper Kyle and I removed it. If Kyle looks younger here it is because these pictures were from back in May.


And here is the semi finished result. You can see we still have a ways to go until it is done but the tile is such an improvement. What do you think?

Happy Birthday Dad!

I hope you have a great day!

I miss you!