Beach Day

Our last day of freedom was spent on the La Jolla beach.

I love family beach pictures!

Cort and the boys- so cute!

Jack decided he would collect shells to bring home to everyone and spent the whole time finding the perfect shells for Granny, Pa, Kyle, Baby Ben, and Sha Sha. This is what he came up with...

Shannon's shell is the pistachio shell that Jack found on the beach just for her!

Happy Easter!

This Easter we were driving home from Disney Land and got to stop in Mesquite at my BFF's house. It was so great to hang out with Mary and Tyson and their kids. They spoiled us and we had such a good time!
We took the kids to feed the ducks.

Tyson caught a lizard and told Jack he could bring it home (thanks) Jack was afraid of it at first so I told him he couldn't keep it because he wouldn't hold it so he just picked it up and was carrying it all over. So I had to let him bring it home... lucky me?

Sweden is so fetching cute! She was not afraid of the lizards at all! Her and Jack had a great time getting to know each other. I think we could possibly arrange a marriage here.

Mary even had a easter egg hunt for the kids. They got a TON of candy for the ride home!

Eating a Easter breakfast.

And to make the day even better Sandi, my other BFF stopped by on her way home with her kids.

It is so much fun to see my friends and their kids. They are both so cute and such good moms! Love ya girls- let's do something together soon with Meg too, maybe like go team driving with each of us in charge of the brake, gas, blinker, or steering wheel. Or we could walk around town being "hanger buddies" or go pee in the high school bushes for old time sakes, catch stray cats and put in people's cars, saran wrap cars, ice and oreo cars, play night games at Benson, or walk from Sandi's to Mary's house with our eyes closed, or sleep in the parking lot of Big J's, or jump naked on the tramp and make another pact... We had so much fun together and will always be BFF's! Thanks Mar for the hospitality and SO good to see you both! Love ya!

Sea World

Right hand, left hand, SHAMU, SHAMU!!! If you have ever been you know the cheer! We were sitting right in the middle of the arena pretty close to the front and thought for sure we were going to get soaked, but luckily we didn't even get wet! The Shamu show was so awesome!


Hank loved to look at the Sea Lions, he did not want to leave and hung on to the glass wall for a while looking at them. What a tough little kid!

Jack's favorite part of the whole day was seeing Elmo and Big Bird- he thought that was really cool!

Chilling in the chariot after a couple really long days.

After Sea World we went to a restaurant to eat and both the boys were dead asleep the entire time- this doesn't happen with my boys if you know them, they have NEVER slept in public so they must have been REALLY tired! We had a great time and were sad to have it end.

Disney Land!

We had such a good time celebrating Jack's 3rd birthday at Disney Land! We ate at Cheesecake Factory and they sang to Jack and gave him a cup of icecream.


We got to Disney Land at 11 a.m. and didn't leave until midnight! We put the boys in the chariot and pretty much ran all day! We only had one day to have fun because we wanted to go to Sea World also on our short trip. The boys were troopers and we so much fun all day. They fell asleep about nine so Cort ran and got on some big rides, then we woke them back up at 10:30 so they could go on more. Jack even got to wear a happy birthday pin and got a lot of birthday wishes everywhere we went.

You just can't go to Disney Land without getting this picture...

At first Jack and Hank were a little nervous about the rides but they warmed up and soon Jack wanted to go on coasters!

Disney Land wouldn't be complete without a huge turkey leg for a three year old!

Meeting Mickey Mouse

The theme was celebrating while we were there which was fun because that is just what we were doing!


More fun rides

Jack, Goofy, and Mom

The boys' favorite ride- BUZZ LIGHTYEAR


Bugs Life 3D movie was so fun- Jack and Hank got a little scared of the special effects but in the end really liked it.

What a fun way to celebrate a special day! Happy Birthday Jack!

Jack's 3rd Birthday!

We have a bad habit of making our kids' birthdays into birthMONTHS. We partied all month of March because Jack's birthday isn't until March 31st. We took Jack and a few of his little buddies to the fun park to play in the soft play. They had a blast and were so funny together.
Jack, Sawyer, Wyatt, Bryce, Luke, Burk, and Hank

Opening the presents

After we went to Big J's to eat lunch.

Then we had another party with some family and friends at our house. Jack has been talking about what kind of cake he wants for his birthday for about four months now. Every day was something new. I went to Disneyland with some friends a few weeks ago and Jack was so sad he didn't get to go so, we decided about a week before his birthday to take the boys to Disneyland for Jack's birthday. We had a Mickey Mouse birthday to tell him he gets to go to Disneyland.

Jack got a pony saddle for his pony Maggie from Granny and Pa and was so excited to try it out.

Jack, Daddy, and Grandpa Rod

Some family and friends at the party.

Opening the Disney Mickey Mouse book to take to Disney Land!

Blowing out 3 candles!

Preschool birthday party. Jack wanted to bring all his "best friends" pink bubble gum ice cream- his favorite. I work while he is at preschool but Granny and Pa were able to go to his party with him.

I know I say and think this every year around Jack's birthday, but where does the time go? It seems we were just having his 2nd birthday party. Jack is getting so independent. He is such a loving little boy that can just make your day. He has such a tender heart and is so sweet to everyone. We love our little Jack Jack!

Girls Weekend!

Every year we try to have a girls weekend and go shopping and to the scrapbook expo in Salt Lake. Even though none of us really scrapbook it is still fun. We had a blast and laughed our heads off all day and night.
We learned how to make a bumble watch-at the scrapbook expo- see we really don't scrabook...

About 11:00 at night we all started getting a little silly, maybe because we had been walking around all day and sitting at our scrapbook table looking at all our scrapbook stuff which we don't really use. So we decided to play "Truth, dare, double dare, promise to repeat, or star." We were laughing our heads off and were probably a little delirious.
Chelsie had to go around to five tables and offer people some of her popcorn.

My mom had to go to the Cold Stone booth and see if she could get them to sell her an an ice cream that normally cost four dollars but she only had two dollars.

I don't have a picture of Shannon because we were all laughing too hard to take one, but she had to go up to a random stranger and give her a hug and say "Aunt Jill, I haven't seen you for so long!" Shannon is really good at doing these sort of things so she did it so seriously and the girl was SO confused!
I have a picture of my dare, but will spare you because I had to go to the announcer booth in the middle of the expo dance for 30 seconds and beg to win a prize. Yeah- we are all dorks and all related!

The next day we went shopping and just did "whatever we wanted" We had such a blast and I look forward to next year already!

Hey Everybody it's Family Night

Are you singing the family night song now?
One of our favorite nights is Monday night. Cort and I take turns teaching FHE and it is amazing to me how much Jack remembers and learns. I had to give a talk on FHE a while ago and we have been pretty good at doing it. I always had FHE growing up and we think it is so important to teach our kids the gospel in our home.
For family night we dressed the boys up as missionaries complete with Elder Jones nametags and Book of Mormons. We talked about some friends and family that are on missions and wrote them letters. We also talked about saving their money so they could go on missions some day. It seems like a long ways away for Jack and Hank to go on missions, but then I think about how fast the past three years have gone that Jack has been here and it will be here before we know it. It is never too soon to start talking to your kids about missions- haha that commercial can be used for a lot of things!

And one of Jack's favorite things to do as a family is to play duck duck goose and put a puzzle together. He is getting really good at doing puzzles by himself. I love to see his wheels turning and trying to figure things out.

Scooby Doo

Now that we live in the "country" we have wanted to get the boys their own puppy. Max our chocolate lab is really good with them but we got her when we were first married and she is more our dog and is getting kind of old. So we surprised Jack for his birthday which isn't for another month with a chocolate cocker spaniel. He was so excited when we pulled up and he saw the puppies on the grass and we told him to go choose one.

Jack bringing his new puppy home. We conned him into naming the puppy Sam and that is what we called him for a few days but Jack was having a hard time remembering his name so we let him change it and of course he changed it to Scooby Doo- his favorite cartoon recently.

Jack was so excited to give the puppy a bath and carried it around with him EVERYWHERE!

It was so cold outside still when we got Scooby so he stayed inside until it warmed up, and as soon as it warmed up a little he was right out into the garage. I guess we aren't very good puppy trainers because we could not potty train him and I was so sick of cleaning the floors. The first weeks I kept asking myself WHY WOULD I GET A PUPPY??? The whining, chewing, pooping, and peeing. I was about to go crazy but then I would see the boys on the couch holding Scooby or Jack cuddling with him and telling me "my puppy is so cute" or telling Scooby "you are my new best friend".

And now that Scooby lives outside and Maxamillia tolerates him a little more Scooby is such a good dog and Jack and Hank absolutely love him!