Grandpa Otis

We made an very short trip to Idaho (A day trip you could say) to attend my dear grandpa Otis' funeral. He was such a character and loved to be around children. He always had little gifts and gadgets for the kids when ever we saw him. Since, we moved to Utah he would send little packages to the kids. We are going to miss those little surprises in the mail, but we will always remember our dear grandpa Otis.

Grandpa Otis and Carter at his 1st year birthday party. Grandpa didn't look any older, but Carter has definitely changed through the last 8 years.

During our visit to Idaho we got to visit with most of our family there. We even took a little detour off our route and visited with my sweet grandma Elsberry. She is my last living grandparent left and we just couldn't leave Idaho without stopping in to see her. She was so excited for the visit from us. We had some good laughs like always.

We also appreciated our visits to our parent's house/grandparent's homes and saw them for a short time before we headed back to Utah the same day. It was a long drive with 10 hours of driving in one day, but it was well worth it to be able to see everyone and attend the funeral. We were glad that we could fit it in and be back to celebrate Ashlynn's birthday the next day.

Mother's Day

I am so lucky that I get to be the mother of these cute and adorable children. They teach me each day to take in the simple things of life. Our days can be busy and rushed but, they always seem to have fun and laugh a lot. Our favorite days are when we can spend time with each other being silly and having fun as a family.

They made me cards and dish towels with their hand prints on them and washed my car. It was so sparkling clean and smelled yummy with the new car freshener placed in it. I was mostly surprised by my new reading tablet. They get to enjoy it as much as I do.

I also would like to take a moment to recognize all those women who are inspirational to me and my kids even if they don't have children of their own yet. There are some great women that show pure love to me and my kids and are good role models for all. Happy Day to all women!

A Cub Scouter...

Look at this boy...He is just growing up and starting new adventures in his life. He is now offically in the Wolf Den in Cub Scouts. He has been coming along since I was the Den leader of this group, but I was since released and placed into a new calling when he started scouts. We were both a little sad, but he is liking his new leaders. In this picture he is being welcomed into the scouting program and picking out a cheer to do at pack meeting.


Here he is being his silly self waiting for all of us to get into the car before church.

What a handsome boy!

Finished kitchen pics

We finished the kitchen makeover last week. It was quite the project for us. We had to finish it in sections due to our time restraints. It was really hard to see a messy kitchen for the last month, but it was well worth the wait. I decided to paint the bead board a dark red with a black glaze over the top to match it to the new island look. I love how it turned out! We are still thinking about adding some drop down pendant lights above the island. We are now done with kitchen for now and moving on to other things and will come back to the lighting decision later.

Easter Excitement

Our neighborhood puts on a annual Egg hunt for all to attend. Each family donates to the hunt and the extravaganza is located in about 3 yards combined, separated in age groups. The kids loved being there with their friends. We are so blessed to live in such a great area that does these kinds of fun things.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the Easter Holiday. We had a yummy ham dinner with Tracy and Craig's Family. We are truly grateful to have some of our family close by to celebrate this special holiday.

Carter's Baptism

This is Carter's signature move. He is such a character!


Carter celebrated is birthday and then the next weekend was his baptism. He loved all the extra attention for two weeks celebrating both big days.

Carter chose the program schedule and it included:
Sam: Opening Prayer
Trey: Talk on Baptism
Annie sang while Gail played the piano
Tom: Talk on Holy Ghost
Confirmed by: Dad (Matt)
Closing prayer: Ashlynn
We then had tacos and brownies at our house for family and friends. It was a great day!

Diving for Eggs

The kids took part in our local swimming pool's Egg dive. Carter was there for a friend's birthday party and Ashlynn joined in on the fun too. The kids had a great time finding eggs in the water.