Happy Birthday Grandpa!

My dad turned 55 at the beginning of December. Funny enough, according to Aspen, you die when you're 55, but luckily my dad survived the event unscathed. We were so pleased that he was able to join us for a birthday dinner after church that day.

My dad is truly an inspiration to me. He has had some truly rough patches in his life, as do we all, yet he always seems to have a smile on his face and relies on His Savior to pull him through. Love you dad!



We gave him a picture of Christ for his new office--does he have the best facial expressions or what?

My Birthday

So I can't say that anything compares with the cruise we were on last year for my birthday, but I did have a lovely birthday and was properly spoiled by family and friends alike. :) We only took one token photo of the delicious pumpkin ice cream pie Dennis bought me (and we didn't actually eat for my birthday, but it's hard to put candles in fondue!).

Anyway, we had delicious fondue and then went to a free concert for Lehi Family Week featuring Andre Boyer, which was absolutely fantastic! A perfect birthday celebration that the entire family enjoyed. He is a true performer. Wow!

Since I have a birthday near a holiday, I am a firm believer in celebrating for at least a week, if not longer. I had several friends spoil me and take me out to dinner the week following my birthday, which made it all the sweeter--I'm always happy to drag it out!

Thanks everyone for a fabulous birthday--I love you all!

Happy Birthday Aspen!

So I'm a lousy blogger, I know. The last two months have been absolutely insane, but I did want to celebrate Aspen's 4th birthday--I can't believe my baby is 4!!! Doesn't she look so grown up? This is Aspen modeling her new dress from Grandma Brown:

Connor can never be left out of the action:

I was lazy this year and bought her cake, and it looked great, but it tasted terrible, so I guess I'll go back to decorating my own cakes in the future (although Aspen did love the Little Mermaid, and she got a bracelet and some rings out of the deal):

Aspen got a recorder from Grandma and a music book, plus Sequence for Kids--she loves it.

Modeling her new swim suit and coverup:

A swim party at Grandma's is the only way to go for summer birthdays.

Dennis got me a new underwater camera, so we had to try it out:

On Aspen's birthday, we went to Elia's funeral in the morning, but then we had free tickets to Raging Waters, wahoo!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

For Dennis' birthday, we had the opportunity to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House--what a great start to his birthday! Well, that's not true, I actually took him out for a spectacular dinner the night before at the Melting Pot (yum!), and he got a combined Father's Day/birthday gift--a new GPS that he loves. But on his actual birthday, we loved attending the temple open house with our children and sharing the spirit of the temple with them and talking about forever families and other ordinances performed therein. It's nice to remember our sealing to Shaylee and Devin. Shaylee and Aspen both loved the brides' room, and the baptismal font is always a favorite. We also loved the murals on the walls of the endowment rooms. We are so blessed to live in a time of temple building and to have the opportunity to attend regularly. We are excited for the dedication at the end of this month--we got our recommends today!

Here are some pictures we took after our tour:

February 2009

February was a rough month. Nothing major, but I was out of sorts, obviously not posting, so these first few pictures reflect the month we had.

Last weekend Aspen had a major allergic reaction to something. The poor thing was miserable. Turned out she had a double ear infection in her left ear that exacerbated the allergic reaction. We spent the day Monday at the doctor and then spending $100 on new detergent, soap, lotion, cream, and antibiotics. Whoa! Hopefully we can figure out what it was before she looks like this again:

The day after my exciting ski excursion, I tripped in the garage on Shaylee's scooter. I've always been a lovely bruiser--ouch! (For reference, this picture is just below my knee, and was taken almost two weeks after the accident).

We decided to take a trip to the pet store rather than paying to freeze our toes off at the zoo. We came home with a cute new fish, El Negro, but he didn't last the month. Poor guy!

Shaylee had a birthday! This was one of the highlights of the month (oh, except that she's now 15 and eligible to get a driving permit--yikes!). I think she had a fun week. The Sunday before her birthday we had a fun dinner with Grandma Pearson. On her birthday the family had some yummy fondue. Then the Sunday after her birthday Dennis' family came over for our monthly FHE and we celebrated again. She got clothes, duh, some yummy candy, and a new digital camera from mom and dad. She's almost finished with her Young Womanhood Recognition award so she can get that driving permit--one skirt left to finish (we're so close!!!).

For President's Day, I took the kids up to Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolate Factory in North Salt Lake. They give factory tours, but neglected to tell us that no one was working that day, so we got to watch some fun videos about how the chocolate is made, sample some yummy chocolate, and enjoy some quality time together.

Devin has been playing basketball and really enjoying it, but I think he's ready for soccer to start again.

Shaylee whacked off her hair, and it looks darling, of course.

Connor just likes the bleachers.

Our neighbor made Aspen some new hair bows--aren't they darling?

Random fun pics . . .