Birthday Open House

When we were finally all back from Twin falls, we had Gabbi's other birthday party. We did an open house style which worked out perfectly. Everyone came at what time was good for them and we did cake and ice cream. It went great. There was plenty of room for everyone and Gabbi had a blast. She got clothes, which mom was happy about, not so much Gabbi'. She got some fun toys too. She got a Mrs. Potatoe head. She loves it. She tries to wear the glasses and earrings. Its funny to see her walk around with the glasses on. She also got some books, more play food, and an awesome pair of flip flops. She won't wear any other pair of shoes if she has the choice. They look like they are years old already. I hope everyone had as much fun as Gabbi did.

Twin Falls

For work, Ben had to go up to Twin falls to work at a sister shop up there. Gabbi and I went along for the ride. If I would have know what was going to happen, we wouldn't have. Gabbi got sick. I'm not sure with what exactly, but it was bad. We discovered that she had allergies and that triggered something. She got really stuffy and clogged up and that drained down her throat all night and we ended up spending a lot of time in the bathroom our third night. Gabbi and I ended up driving home that morning at 4 in the morning it was that bad and I just wanted to be in a comfortable surrounding if I had to deal with that. But before all that happened, we did have a few fun times. We went to the Shoshone falls. It was beautiful. The workers said it's not as full as it normally was, but it was still beautiful. One of the cool things about the trip to the falls was a huge population of ground hogs. At least that's what I think it was. I'm not sure. They came up pretty close to us too. It was fun. We also got to eat out a lot and that is what Gabbi enjoyed most I think. She loved getting to color everywhere and one night was family night at the restaurant and she got a balloon horse. She was proud of her horse.

Gabbi's 2nd Birthday

April was a very busy month. A big event for April was Gabbi's birthday. She turned two. My the times fly by really fast. I can't believe how much she is growing. Well her birthday consisted of two birthday parties. Due to the fact that we have a big family on both sides of the family it was easier to have two parties. We had one with my family and one with Ben's family. With my family we celebrated both Kayden's and Gabbi's birthdays at our family dinner on Sunday. We were at mom's house which is always nice. A fun thing we do for family dinners, is when it's your birthday you get to request what you get for dinner. Kayden decided he wanted pizza. Because Gabbi is to young to care what she eats, it was all Kayden. So mom did pizza and salad. Jenny brought cheesecake for Kayden's birthday cake and Ben and I put a cake together for Gabbi. If I do say so myself Ben did a great job. I cooked the cakes, but Ben put it all together. We both frosted it and then I decorated the top of it. It turned out better then I had pictured in my head, thanks to Ben. Got to love the guy. We gave Gabbi a stroller set for her dollies. She has been into dollies for a while now. It's really funny to watch her take care of her babies. She is very careful when she puts them in the car seat or stroller, she caddles the head when she does; it's so cute. She love to feed them and just has a blast. So we figured the stroller and car seat would be a great addition to her babies; and she loves it. She plays with that stroller everyday. She got clothes, play dough, mix n' match doll, and play food with dishes. She has so many toys she doesn't know what to do. When it came to blowing out the candles on her cake it was quite a site. She got scared when Ben lite them. I'm not sure what she was afraid of, but she didn't want to blow it out. So Ben helped her, it was funny. We had a great time with her and her birthday. Kayden turned 11. I can't believe it. That boy had grown like a wild fire. It hard to believe that he will be in young men's next year. He got a nerf gun, i-pod gift money, a trip to bundoks, and an i-pod from Jenny and Brian. That was his big thing that he wanted. He always played with Nana's and Papa's whenever he gets the chance and now he had his own. He was very excited so he could put what he wanted on it'; movies, music, etc. The party has a blast.

Hello

It has been a very long time since I have posted last. Without Internet at our house, I don't remember to when I finally have access. So the next couple of posts are pretty much everything we've done in the last three months. Hold on to your seats.

Family Pic

Here is our mosrt recent family picture. We'll have to get another one soon.

Back Yard Busy

With a house comes a yard. Ben is very excited for the plans for our back yard. We have pulled out a couple of tree and replanted some flowers, in order to expand our garden. We are both excited for a garden of our own. We owe a big thanks to both my dad and my grandpa Hall. We may have the makings of a garden but the tools are a little lax. We borrowed tools from both of them and a heck of a lot of tips. Dad was even nice enough to come up and help us. It will be a long goal coming, but we can't wait to reap it's benefits.

Front flower garden: Before

Front flower garden: After

We rearranged the rocks to make a border instead and moved some of the flowers around to make a colorful pattern. Hopefully when they all bloom, it will look as good as it did in our heads.

Garden: Before

Garden: After

Not everything is as in bloom as the before picture, but once the garden is growing and on it's way it will look better, we think. As you can see we got rid of a couple of tree and all the vines that are growing on our side of the fences. The vines aren't ours, but they grow like crazy. We made the border of the garden out of stones instead of the logs that were there, they were beginning to rot. We plan on planting some tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, and maybe some corn. Hopefully our first year of having a garden will turn our to be a blessing.

Hula Hoop

A new favorite thing. She likes to put the links together and put them around her neck. After playing with them for a little bit, she figured out she could put it around her belly and she started to dance. The radio was on, so that probably helped her want to dance. But I was surprised how she may have put it all together. It was cute, one way or another. Sorry the viedo's sideways, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it.

Cameron is 4

The same night we did our family dinner we celebrated Cameron's birthday. I can't believe he's 4 because that means that's how long I've been home from my mission. My how time flies. Cameron's a stud and had a blast for his birthday. Mom and dad got him a remote control car. He was a pro. It was made for kids 10 and over, but he had no problems at all. He took it in the back yard and had no problems driving it around the yard. He had a blast too. What a smart kid. Too smart for his own good. We got him an activity board, not as cool as the car, but I thought it looked fun. Hope he likes it too.

Easter Egg Hunt

Every other Sunday we have dinner with my family. Each one of us take turns cooking and it just happen to be our turn. It also turned out to be on Easter so mom and dad got a whole bunch of eggs together to do an Easter egg hunt at our house. Mom did over 100 eggs and it was pretty fun to hide them in our backyard, we had some pretty good places to hide them too. The kids had a blast, but of course it didn't take them very long to find all the eggs. It took them no more then 10, maybe 15 minutes tops. Gabbi actually got to find some too and she understood what to do, which made it that much better. Ben had to help her with some of the harder ones, but I could tell she had a lot of fun finding the eggs. In the eggs were candy and coin. Now we need to get Gabbi a piggy bank for all her coins. All the kids had a blast and dinner turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. We attempted a ham for the first time, and Ben did a great job. I even did deviled eggs. I had never made them before, but it was pretty easy and they tasted pretty good too. The night went off without a hitch. I always worry when we do dinner that something will go wrong, but we were lucky this time.

Easter Morning

This Easter was pretty fun. Gabbi actually got to have her own little Easter egg hunt. We made it easier for her by making a trail for her to follow, but it worked perfectly. The best part is that she had a blast doing. She loves to play with buckets and she knew exactly what to do with it, "put her toys in it." In this case, the eggs. We got her a swim suit, an Easter dress, and a shape sorting toy. My mom has one at her house and she plays with it all the time, so we figured she would love it, and she does. She played with it non stop that day, all through conference.

Coloring Eggs

We are not ones for coloring eggs. For me its a lot to do to color eggs, but we got invited by Ben's mom, Angela, to come color eggs with them. We only color eggs when we're invited and I'm glad they invited us because it is fun to color eggs. It's Ben's favorite thing to do. He loves to draw exquisite details on his eggs. He also loves to try new things with coloring eggs. He does a great job too. And when we're all done he loves to eat them or this year we even made deviled eggs. My first ever. I was very proud of myself, I had never made them before.

These two eggs are Gabbi's. The one on the left she colored with a crayon and then decided what cup of dye to put it in. The one on the right Ben made for her. He designed it to look like her shirt, polka dots, bow and all.