Fishing with Grandpa

I just LOVE this picture and had to share...wish I had taken more :) Mckay loves his Grandpa so much! My dad has taken Mckay fishing before and ever since Mckay has been asking to go again. So, since it was nice outside my dad was able to take him fishing right out side their house. They didn't catch anything...but had fun anways :) Thanks Mom & Dad for watching the kiddos so I could shoot my wedding!

Happy Spring everyone!

The mother of all catch-up's

despite us all being so freaking sick for a week (we are doing much better now), there has been a lot that went on. So here is a recap of about a week of life at the Howe's :)

Mckay had a Valentines Party at his Preschool for all the Mom's and it was so freakin' cute. He has THE BEST school ever and I am so glad I got to go and see all the fun projects he has been working on.

I wish I had brought my video camera! Because they sang 4 of the cutest songs with hand motions and everything. SO ADORABLE!

The "Love Bug" That he made for me

Me and my little Valentine :)

He really does have the CUTEST classroom. I am so lucky he gets to go to school here. What a fun hour to spend with just my little guy. It's very rare when Mckay and I get to spend time just with each other and I loved it.

So so so much food. We didn't even eat half of it...this actually isn't even all of it :) I wasn't feeling very well so I didn't eat barely anything :(

Stacie and Stratton Surprised us and came up to Party with us! LOVE THEM...they are always so much fun :) and my kiddos love them.

Poor Stratton, most the time the kids were climbing all over him and wanting them to play with them. I don't know how much of the game he got to watch.

Maybe we should have just left them in there and hooked them to the door or something. hehe.
I am lucky because MY snuggie comes with these cute SNUGGLERS :)

So- Stacie & Stratton (have I told you how awesome they are yet? hehe) sent us a package in the mail with all kinds of fun awesome treats. "The Blue Box of Wonder" she called it. When the kids found out it was addressed to them, they freaked out and went to town ripping it open.

All of their favorite things....Bubble wrap, pudding, red vines, animal cookies and CANDY
She even wrote them special little letters which they thought was so cool. And ones for Craig & I too :)

Look at the concentration on their little faces....they did that for about 1/2 hour.

Then they decided to jump on it cause it made more noise that way :)

THANKS STACIE & STRATTON.....WE LOVE YOU!!!

The kids LOVE LOVE bowling, so we got to go spend the day with my awesome parents and take them to bowl on base.

It was so cute watching Ky pick up the 6 lb. ball, which you would think was 20 lbs by watching her. I guess when you only weight 23 lbs then a 6 lb ball IS HEAVY! She only dropped it once. hehe.


K- everyone was laughing at me, so my mom had to take a picture. These are my little brother Joe's shoes. He is 17 and 6'1 and his feet are HUGE HUGE. I didn't want to go to the bathroom with no shoes on and I didn't want to take the time to put my boots on and so I was wearing these things around. He has to be like a size 15 or something!

So that is the summary of the week...

I hope you are all having a WONDERFUL valentines day!!!

Mckay's First Day of Preschool & My New Lens!!!

Mckay had his first day of school on Wed. He actually just turned 5 and really could got to kindergarten, BUT we wanted to hold him back a year since he is right on the deadline...that way he can be the oldest in his class instead of the youngest :)

We had a REALLY REALLY hard time finding him a preschool up here. We were on about 3 waiting lists to get into one, but after calling and bugging this preschool a million times...HE GOT IN! It is so great because not only does he get to do all the important learning stuff, but he also switches off between swimming, tumbling and tennis as a daily activity. It is such a nice school....it better be for the FREAKIN price. But, totally worth it when I see how much he loves it and is excited every day to go to school.

I cried after I got back in the car from dropping him off his first day...silly i know. But, I feel like he is all grown up and from now on he won't be home with me anymore. He will be at school and with friends and it just makes me sad to have him not be my little Mckay anymore :)

Ok enough with the sappiness- So MY NEW LENS!!! Wahoo... I have been wanting it FOREVER. So, I sold my NICE 24-70mm f/2.8L lens (which was really hard for me to do) and was able to buy a fixed 85mm f/1.8. It is gonna be so much fun...I just need to get used to it and practice LOTS more. good thing I have a cute guinea pig. Too bad I had to bribe her with pizza and a trip to the park, so there was only about 5-minutes of good light left :)

ps. I am going to be selling these headband soon...so stay tuned if you are interested :)

Mckay's Birthday Parties...

We gave him his presents right after he had his breakfast..he wanted donuts and hard boiled eggs.

His BIG present was a new parakeet and he was SO EXCITED! It is such a good bird...his name is "peety" I think that is the birds name from "dumb & dumber" hehe. Mckay also go a haircut, which I HATE...but, it will grow right? :)

All morning he played with his new toys and then we went to McDonalds for lunch and headed down to Ogden to meet my sister Kim and her kids at the tree house Museum. They all had such a blast...so many cute pictures I couldn't post them all.

Mckay REALLY loves his Cousin Megan...he calls her his "bestest friend"

After the Treehouse we headed over to my parents house for THE PARTY! He had pizza and a pinate.

All the kids got a turn and then Mckay went again and whacked it till finally....

He busted it open and the kids went crazy for the candy.

Then we did presents...A family tradition we got from the Howe's is "Heavy Heavy hangover" where you hang the present over the persons head and BONK them...then the birthday person has to make a wish for the giver.

Mckay's cake. Usually I make all my birthday cakes and think it is so fun...but, I didn't have the energy this year or think I could stand and lean over a cake for a couple hours. So we bought this one and Mckay LOVED it!

I can't believe that he is 5-years old already...It makes me a little sad to have him so old. This is a hard age cause he has an attitude and is so independent, but GOSH I LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!

PARTY TIME with the HOWE'S

Mckay got a scooter from Mike that Grandpa fixed up for him and he LOVES it!

We decided to have Mckays party at the park as something different and fun...this is my kids favorite park by the Howe's home.

Craig made the best "Chinni" is what the kiddos call it. It was SOOOO good.

Blowing out the cake with a little help from his cousin Bradley.

"Heavy Hangover" from Stacie and Stratton... I think he is a little exited in this picture

I am so exhausted right now and couldn't put a lot of time and effort into his parties...I couldn't even find the energy to throw a "friends" party. But, I think that Mckay had a great birthday anyways. My little boy is getting so big.

Ps. we are in our new 4-bedroom condo...still not unpacked, but we are here and I think I am really going to like it :)

The past month...

I have been SO BAD at taking pictures of our family lately...I just have not been in the mood, plus I am laying down or sitting with my feet up for most of these pictures. Bed rest is not so fun :) And I haven't been updating our blog either. But, here are a few things that we have been up to...some are not the best pictures, but at least I took them right :)

SWIM LESSONS:

Mckay has always been scared of the water, and so we decided to get him swim lessons this summer. He did AMAZING and got over his fear of the water on the first day. It went so well that we enrolled him for 2 courses for the entire month. Mon-Fri everyday for 1/2 hour. HE LOVED IT! Now puts his face under water for a long time, knows how to breath out his nose, and even can kick and do a few strokes. He is our little fish and loves to swim :)

DISCOVERY CENTER AT GATEWAY:

If you have never taken your kids here I TOTALLY recommend it. So fun! There are 3-floors of fun interactive activities for the kids to do. It is a little pricey, but my best friend Amy invited us to come and she had a 2 for 1 coupon. The kids had so much fun and could have stayed for days :) It was so good to see you again Ames !

This was the bubble activity class, they kids had a blast trying to make HUGE bubbles.

Ky even picked one up and it didn't pop till someone poked it.

The Crane entertained Mckay and Tyler for a long time.

They all had a blast playing with the water center. I wish I could have taken pictures of all the cool stuff that was there.

STANFORD FAMILY CAMPING TRIP:

With me being on bed-rest and Kim's kids being sick, we decided to just do a one nighter somewhere close. Mantua in Sardine canyon ended up being the spot. It was just the right amount of time for me :) Too bad I couldn't do anything but lay around..but I know the kids had a blast.

The kids got dirty about 10-seconds after we got there...I should have taken pictures when we left because they were almost COMPLETELY brown with dirt that would not come off!

I don't know if you have ever heard of the game "Ninja" but it was a blast. I only played a couple games before I decided stretching in weird positions was not a good idea. SO FUN THOUGH!

1. Swimming in Mantua Lake...I am surprised they didnt get some weird skin infection being in that dirty lake :)

2. My dad brought his fishing boat and the kids loved ridding in it. Kylin thought she was "THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD" Hanging on and leaning over the front of the boat.

3. Mckay and Tyler getting pulled behind the VERY slow moving boat. But, they thought it was fun.

4. Four wheeling with daddy. You can see the looks on their faces...they had a blast :)

5. Roasting marshmallows of course. Kylin just wanted to set all hers on fire.

6. Our mi nature hike to the non-existant river. Thanks Janna...hehe.

When we got home the next day, I washed them 3 times...once with a scrubber brush to get the dirt off! It was magical dirt or something cause it did not want to come off. I ended up having to throw their clothes away after washing them 2x with no luck :)

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE PARTY!

Since I took at trip to the hospital (no worries everything is fine) and missed the SYTYCD party I was going to, we watched it a day late and had our own little party. We ate on a sheet and had lots of party food. The kids LOVE the show and put on their own little performance! What a bunch of weirdos. I just wish that Kayla had won...