OH MY,, Am I ever behind on updating. It's sad really, I look at blogs and I like them but when I look at my own I just don't feel like doing it. Last night my husband looked at it and said, When was the last time you updated this? Uhmmmmmmm...
So we have been pretty busy. We spent the summer in Utah. When we came home we got ready for the kids to start school again with Landon in kindergarten this year and Lauren in 3rd grade. Then soccer season started and I was helping coach. Practice was Mon, Wed, Fri with games on Saturday. Morgan turned two in October also, I can't believe my baby is 2. For Halloween we made a surprise trip to Utah. We haven't been in Utah for Halloween in 5 years. We made a plan for our family and Aunt Jana to all show up and surprise my parents. Natalie and Whitney both knew we were coming. Jana got in at about midnight and we arrived at 1:30 am, When we got there we went upstairs and woke up my parents and they nearly died. The WHOLE family together. All the grandchildren trick or treating together for the first time. Pretty awesome!!! We had a great time. Tim and Matt and Dan Schneider all packed up their dirt bikes and went to Moab for the weekend. They had a great time. We came home from Utah on November 1st and left for a week in Florida on the 4th. Florida was great. We went to Disney and Sea World and the beach and a fun hang out day by the pool. Now we are home from all that and are trying to get back to normal. So,, busy busy busy, but, mostly fun fun fun! So here are a few pictures. The pictures are all in reverse order but I didn't feel like fixing it so sorry..

Some kind of Summer

I haven't updated my blog in ages/ months but our summer consumed us. What a blast. We spent 6 weeks in Utah/Idaho. Then came back to get ready for school to start. Most of the pictures I would put on here are on Facebook. If you are looking at my blog, we are probably Facebook friends as well. So refer to that. I will start normal posting again once the kids head off to school and I am just home with my lone partner in crime-Morgie. Hope you had a great summer also!

We love Missionaries

My kids absolutely adore missionaries. If they see them they think it is party time. Hopefully when my kids get older they will remember all the fun they would have with these wonderful boys. Good work Elders!!

Lauren's Baptism

We just had an Amazing weekend. Lauren turned 8 on April 11th. She was supposed to be baptized on May 1st but we didn't know if our new church building was going to be ready to we waited a month so we could plan on having family be able to come into town. My parents and sister Natalie and her baby Alivia arrived Friday. The baptism was Saturday morning at 10a.m. It was really so amazing. The talks were wonderful. My Mom and Natalie sang "What Heaven sees in you" with the music being recorded by my sweet cousin Adam Eskelson(thank you so much Ad.) The testimonies were so sweet. The whole day was perfect. Everyone was crying. Then afterwards we had root beer floats and cake and fruit. Sounds random, but it was So Dang Yummy. She was also confirmed that day. On Sunday the Bishop spoke about how much he enjoyed the baptism and how strong the spirit was there. I was one proud Mom. I am still on a high from it. The family left today to head home. It was so fun to have visitors for such a special occasion.

These are pictures that my dear friend Jon Henderson took of my kids. These are a few of the better ones.

My WONDERFUL husband surprised me (sort of) with an amazing vacation. Our eleven year anniversary was this month. We have not been a a real vacation since our honeymoon so it was much overdue. I was originally told we were going to Las Vegas of a couple of days but as it got closer I knew something fishy was up.

A sweet neighbor slept over on the Friday before we left because we had to be up and on the road to Sea-Tac at 1:30 for a 6am flight. It wasn't until about 3am that day did I found out that we were flying to LA. My mom flew into Yakima that afternoon and stayed for the whole week to tend the kids.

(this picture of Tim is in Maztlan)

Our ship was called the Sapphire Princess. It was ridiculously beautiful. We left LA on Saturday, then were at sea until Tuesday. Our first stop was Puerto Vallarta. The weather was perfect. We walked at least 5 miles that day.

(this picture of me is on Lovers Beach in Cabo San Lucas)

Our second stop on Wednesday was in Mazatlan. We walked around for a while then went on a 4 wheeler tour. It was really fun and really dusty. We went way north on the beach and rode all over in the sand. Then we had lunch at the Shrimp Factory.

(this picture is the Cabo arch on the southern most tip of the Baja Peninsula)
p.s. I took all these pictures myself with my own camera


Our ship was truly amazing. I took this picture of the Atrium. I don't think I knew my way around until the last day.



This is Lovers Beach in Cabo (technically its divorce beach on the pacific side but that is depressing) We had to take a crazy water taxi to get to the beach. You can see the front of our ship in the background.

this was on our ATV tour in Mazatlan

This is our ship in port in Puerto Vallarta.
The whole trip was wonderfully surreal. When we got home I broke down in tears when I saw my kids. I missed them so much. I was so glad that they were wonderfully happy with grandma and that she was willing to do that for us. I think my sea legs are just starting to go away. The house has been wobbling since we got home. What a blast! Thank you my wonderful husband!!

Birthday and a BIG surprise

Lauren turned the big 8 on April 11th. We had a whole birthday weekend that started with cupcakes at school on Friday. She still loves bugs so the decor is fitting. Then on Saturday we went to the mini put-put and the arcade. We stopped at Dairy Queen after for an early dinner and a Blizzard. Yum. Then on Sunday after church we made a cake. Tim decorated the whole thing. Lauren came in at the end and helped put the candy things on. She used the part that said "happy birthday" and wrote "by my dad" on the side of the cake. SO clever, She turned some of the p's upside down and broke a couple of letters to make the M. It was so sweet. Lauren Loved her birthday and we love her. She will be getting baptized in May. I can hardly believe that.







The big surprise is that Tim is surprising me with a vacation for our anniversary (which was last week.) All I know is my mom is flying up to tend the kids and I need to pack a swimsuit. I thought we we going to Vegas but now I think that I have no idea what we are doing or how long we are going for. That is pretty mind boggling for me because I like to be organized and have lists. It's my version of OCD. I am so excited though. Tim and I have not been on a real vacation since our honeymoon, 11 years ago. So, when I get back I can tell ya'll where we went!!