Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Derek's 30th birthday

We started Derek's birthday off with a Mannheim Steamroller concert on Saturday night. The music was awesome and the company was even better. We went with my parents, Candice and Chris, our friend Brooke(who's birthday is the same as Derek's), and her friend Dan.


Last night I threw a surprise party for him and it turned out better than expected! (Thanks to Candice's ingenius ideas and help)



Everyone did a great job of keeping it a secret and he was quite surprised!


Our delicious food from La Grande Orange pizzeria along with a picture of the birthday boy in his birthday suit. Well, almost. Love the hairstyle!


He's one lucky guy! :)


The friends


His traditional birthday cheesecake with 30 candles!


The dessert- Arlecchino's gelato!

In honor of Derek's birthday, I thought I'd make a list of 30 things I love about him:

He supports and loves his family and does it well!

He's an excellent businessman and is successful in each of his 4 companies.

He's a hard worker.

He's very dedicated. He just started a 3 month exercise program that is very strenuous, but he sticks to it, even if it means going to the gym at the crack of dawn or 10 at night.

He has a great sense of humor. It's very similar to my dad's which is why they get along so well I think.

He has big muscles which is good considering I have none.

He makes friends easily. That was very apparent at the concert when by the time we left, he was making lunch plans with the 75 year old woman sitting next to him. Just kidding.

He loves to play and wrestle with the kids.

He helps around the house (mostly the outside, but he's getting better about the inside).

He's affectionate.

He enjoys spending time with his family.

He lets me decorate the house however I want and I know it's alot more girly than he would like.

He knows everything about cars.

He lets me pick out his clothes.

He'll eat my cooking and always says it's good, even if it looks or tastes like poo.

He's always up on the latest technology and loves having all the new gadgets. That's why I got remote start and navigation in my car for my birthday 2 years in a row.

He's good-looking!

He loves the gospel and is a good example.

He'll go shopping with me, even though it's his least favorite thing to do.

He's not afraid of scorpions (or anything really).

He likes to make up words to songs when he doesn't know the real words and it can be quite entertaining.

After 7 1/2 years of marriage, he still opens my car door.

He likes romantic comedies- Sleepless in Seattle is one of his favorites. But maybe that's just because he likes Meg Ryan. :)

He secretly wants to be the lead singer in a band.

He has been told by more than one person that he looks like the guy in the new James Bond. He likes that.

He likes to dress up. Any excuse to wear a nice tux or suit!

If he wants to do something, he does it. He got his pilot's license not too long ago because he's wanted to do it since he was a little boy.

He likes nice things and likes to keep them nice! Especially our cars- they are almost always spotless! (And with 3 little kids that's not easy to do)

He's ambitious. He sets high goals for himself and really tries his best to achieve them.

He's the best husband and father I could've asked for!

Happy birthday Derek! I love you!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Radio City Christmas Spectacular


Last weekend Derek and I took the kids to see the Rockettes and it was amazing! If you ever get the chance you have to go! They have Santa, the dancing Rockettes, a scene from the Nutcracker, and the Nativity. I got a little bit emotional when we first walked in because the show had just started and the looks on the kids faces were priceless and I am so grateful that we are able to take our kids to do fun things like this. There is nothing better than spending time with my family and we are very blessed. I love Christmastime!

Fun day at the park


Heather introduced Candice and I to a great park close by and it was a beautiful day, so we packed up the kids, picked up some Costa Vida pork salads (yum!) and off we went. We were the only ones there and the kids were in heaven! The only negatives were ants in Jonah's pants (see Heather's blog) and it had just rained, so the slides had pools of water at the bottom and some of the kids got wet (hence the girls in their undies).


They loved rolling down the hills until they started itching and then we noticed big red welts all over their bodies. Ah well, they still had fun.



Thursday, November 29, 2007

More Thanksgiving weekend


My nephew Adam's first birthday was also on Thanksgiving so they played duck, duck, turkey for the birthday game.


This was Clara on Friday evening at about 6:00 p.m. after 2 days of festivities and no naps.


My favorite part about Thanksgiving(besides family and food)- decorating for Christmas!

We have a busy month ahead so I'll have lots to post about!

Happy Thanksgiving......... a week late


Clara had a Thanksgiving performance at preschool - doesn't she look thrilled to be there? (She's on the top row)


She's happy now that it's over!


Cute cousins!


Our Thanksgiving feast in my parents backyard. I forgot to take pictures before everyone dug in, but it was so yummy!



Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Organ Stop Pizza

I remember going to Organ Stop Pizza once, a long time ago and don't really remember much else, but my first thought when Derek said he wanted to go there for dinner last night was "We are the biggest nerds- no one goes there!" And I was kind of embarrassed to walk in. Let me just say- my kids thought they were at Disneyland. I was laughing tears because they were so funny to watch! They were clapping, dancing, singing, they were in a trance! I was pretty impressed with the organ playing myself. Oh, and the place was PACKED. So if you're looking for some good fried zucchini and pizza and even better entertainment- take your kids! I guarantee they'll love it! And it's a lot cheaper than Disneyland.

I wish I had pictures of the occasion but my camera is broken at the moment. Boo hoo.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Happy Halloween!


Before trick-or-treating



At Granny and Grampa's house- Janie already knows what Halloween's about! She SCREAMED bloody murder if she was ever without candy. Great.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Halloween Party

Saturday night was our ward Halloween party, so Derek took the kids for a little while so I could get ready for our adult Halloween party later that night.

Oh yes we were! Danny and Sandy, that is. And no, that is not a wig- Candice put my hair in sponge rollers that morning.



What will we come up with next year?


Thursday, October 25, 2007

Back to Cali

Derek had a convention in Carlsbad a few weeks ago, so I sweet talked Kelli into driving with me and the kids to meet him there the last couple of days.
It was pretty windy and cold when we arrived, but the kids wanted to play at the little water park at the hotel so badly! They quickly changed their minds once they felt the water.

They decided the jacuzzi was the place for them.


After warming up, they decided to give it another try and loved it!



Shopping at Carlsbad Premium outlets was NOT for Janie, I guess.



Clara and Clay pretending to ride the little cars they had outside.




There was a festival going on and they had some cool sand sculptures, good food, music, and lots of booths.




Hopefully our next trip to Cali will be longer!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Perfect Bag

I have been looking for SOOOO LONG to find myself the perfect purse. And when I say long I mean for the last year at least! I even went so far as to have Derek shop every day for 4 days in New York last week(he was already going with a friend for fun, not just to find me a bag) and I gave him strict instruction as to what I wanted. This was the criteria:
- White in color (surprised?)
- at least one outside pocket for keys and cell phone
- at least 2 inside pockets for little stuff
- zips at the top
- 2 straps
While Derek was still searching, I happened across this one on ebay- my favorite! It had everything I wanted and it was a steal- $22! It just came in the mail and it was better than I imagined. It's perfect.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Our new addition

No, you're not seeing double- or I guess you are - we now have 2 dogs. We thought Shadow could use a friend and hopefully they start to like each other because so far they either fight or stay as far away from each other as possible. I laughed when the previous owners told us his name- Cosby. Get it?

The Joys of Motherhood




Friday, September 28, 2007

7 Times the Lucky

Last weekend we celebrated our 7th anniversary. It was my year to plan, so we went to Sedona and it was so much fun! Many thanks to my mom and Candice for watching our kids. I had the great idea to take the arctic cat (the contraption you see behind us) and of course Derek was thrilled because I don't like to go out in it very often.


When we got there, we drove up to the airport which is on a hill, and this was the view from the top.


Our hotel was having a car show on the golf course which was a bonus because Derek loves, loves cars. It rained for a couple hours in the morning which put a damper on things, but then the sun came out and it was beautiful!


Us sitting in the arctic cat waiting for the rain to stop. Derek made this roof out of one of our old umbrella covers- it worked pretty well!


We climbed some rocks to get a great view of the scenery.


Doesn't that look fake?




The end of our trip- we were wet and muddy, but it was definitely worth it! We had a really good time. Can't wait for #8!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Janie's 1!

Today was a good day for a couple of reasons. First, Janie had her 1st birthday! We had a small celebration with family and we had pizza and cupcakes. And secondly, I have a one year old and I'm not pregnant again- hooray!
She was kind of oblivious to her presents which I figured would happen, but she got lots of cute things from Candice, Granny, and Dorothy! (and of course mom and dad)

I was impressed when she really tried to blow her candle out!


She had no problem polishing that cupcake off! I couldn't have asked for a sweeter, cuter baby. Love you Janie!