Conference Weekend

This past weekend we went down to Maryland to visit my family. We had a very fun and relaxing weekend. Friday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. Josh loves going there so we try to go everytime we visit. He loved the sharks and manta rays.

We also saw the 4D film Planet Earth. Josh was so into it. He wore the glasses the entire time. During the show water sprays in your face and things poke you in your back and flick your feet. Its really fun. Well it didn't seem to phase Josh at all. He didn't even say anything about the water spraying him until after the show was over. The boy was into it!

Natalie loves the water, so watching the manta rays was torture for her. She didn't want to watch them swim, she wanted to be swimming with them!

That night we partied!...Grandpas (my dads), Josh's, and Natalie's birthdays are all within a few days of each other so we had a little celebration for all three of them! Grandma made Grandpa his favorite cherry pie and made Josh and Natalie a fun caterpillar cake.

On Saturday we watched General Conference and ate yummy nachos. Between sessions Grandma did an easter egg hunt with Josh and Natalie. They LOVED it. Natalie was a little unsure of what was going on, so Josh filled her basket for her. She just liked to take the eggs out of her basket and put them back in. Josh on the other hand had a ball. It was cute, when he first started collecting eggs he was putting all the "girlie" colors (pink, yellow, purple) into Natalies basket and putting the "manly" colors (orange, blue, green) into his basket. Then he noticed that some of the eggs were dinosaur heads so Natalie ended up with all the eggs that were not dinosaur heads and Josh's basket could only hold the dinosaurs. Funny boy! After he would find all the eggs. He would dump the candy out of all of them, then put the candy back in all of them, and we would hide them again! I think he hunted the easter eggs 7 times!!

[The pictures are up top. For some reason my computer would not let me drag them down. Annoying.]

It was such a gorgeous day that we got the kites out and went kite flying. This is the first time Josh has ever flown a kite, but the boy knew just what to do. He loved flying the spiderman kite!

Grandpa got Joshua hooked on popsicles. I can't even begin to count how many popsicles he ate while we were there. Now all he wants to eat is popsicles. When I ask him what he wants for breakfast this is his reply, "Ummm, popsicle mom." No Josh, we can't have popsicles for breakfast. "Ummm, orange popsicle mom." Thank you Grandpa!!

The kids love to go to "Uncle Max's" house, as Josh calls it. It is not Grandmas or Grandpas house. Thanks for a great weekend Mom and Dad!

"Happy Day" Joshua!

My baby boy...you are growing up too fast. Today you turned three! You bring so much happiness to our little family. You LOVE dinosaurs, crocodiles, lions, and monkeys. You will play and play with your box of them, you have such a great imagination, I often find myself wondering what is going through that little mind of yours! Your favorite dinosaur is "Sharp Tooth" and you love to pretend to be him. You will stomp around, jump on things, and growl like him. You are so fun to watch!

You love your sister, Natalie. You are a great big brother to her and she absolutely adores you. You always want her to be in the same room with you and love it when she will play with you as long as she doesn't mess up what you are doing! She loves to give you kisses and sometimes you like it but most the time it bothers you! You two will sit and laugh and laugh with each other, I have no idea what you are laughing about but you guys know and it is so cute to watch!!

Some of your favorite things: You love chicken nuggets (with lots and lots of ketchup!), cereal, and mac-n-cheese. You would eat popsicles all day long if I would let you! Your favorite cookies are oreos, but you have to have a glass of milk to dip them in! Your best friend is "Mack" (Max) Hale. You love to play swords, especially if it is daddy playing with you. You get excited to watch daddy play basketball. You enjoy coloring, painting, and drawing with markers. You will always curl up in my lap and read books. I love this time I have with you. If we had time, we would read every book on your book shelf. You always look up at me with those sweet blue eyes and say "One more Mommy" holding up your cute, chubby little finger. How can I resist? Your favorite person in the whole world is your daddy. You always ask for him when he is at work. And when he gets home you run up to him and give him a big hug! Sometimes, when you wake up, if daddy is already gone to work you get pretty upset. You are definately a daddy's boy!!

We are so glad you are in our family! We love every little thing about you Joshua!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!

Pay It Forward!!

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a gift from me during this year.

When and what will be a surprise!

There's a small catch though....

Post this same thing on your blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in.

Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift.

*Don't forget to post this on your blog first,then come back and leave a comment on this post!*

Lost

I have been terrible at blogging ever since our camera ended up in the bottom of the pool. We have been so busy around here and are having a ton of fun, but no pictures. I hate not having a camera. I never realized just how much I used it until now that it is gone. I feel like I'm missing out on chapters of my kids lives! (Even though it has only been a little over a month!!) I'm also one who loves to look at pictures and I don't really like to blog without being able to put pictures up. So sorry to those of you who are like me and LOVE pictures. I don't have any. I'm thinking I will have to use some of our tax return to purchase a new one. I wasn't completely satisfied with my last camera. Any suggestions for great cameras you love?!!

I'm lost without my camera.

VALENTINE TAG!!

♥ How long have you been together? 7 years. (Married almost 4 of them!)

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? A couple weeks.

♥ Who asked who out? It was a mutual understanding! No one really "asked" each other out. It was just kind of a given thing. We just knew!

♥ How old are each of you? I'm 23, he's 25.

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? Its pretty much the same. We see each others entire families about the same...which is so nice!

♥ Do you have any children together? Two crazy little munchkins!

♥ What about pets? Heck no! I'm not really much of an animal lover. But I am told that one day we will have a dog because "every little boy needs a puppy" so says my hubby!

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Not being able to be as spontaneous as we would like. Little ones change a lot!

♥ Did you go to the same school? Yep, our junior and senior years of college we both attended BYU-Idaho. Loved the college days. Life seemed so simple!

♥ Are you from the same home town? We both grew up in the military so don't really know exactly where our "home town" is! I claim Maryland. He claims Virginia. So that being said, I guess not!

♥ Who is the smartest? I think it would have to depend on what it was we were talking about! But overall, I would like to say myself but I can't he definitely is.

♥ Who is the most sensitive? Definitely me.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? We LOVE Chipotle!

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Tokyo, Japan.

♥ Who has the craziest exes? Good question! I don't know if either of us have had "crazy" ones. We were both pretty picky when it came to dating.

♥ Who has the worst temper? Both of us are about equal these days, but I would have to say I probably loose mine more. Mark is more mellow.

♥ Who does the cooking? I do most the cooking, but he is an excellent cook. He loves to cook breakfast foods so if we cook breakfast, instead of eat cereal, Mark does the cooking and when we have breakfast for dinner he always cooks it!

♥ Who is more social? We both make friends very easily but I would have to say I am probably more social. Being a stay-at-home mom you tend to do things with other moms quite a bit. You've got to to keep your sanity! You can only talk to a two year old for so long before you insane!

♥ Who is the neat freak? ME! He likes things organized, but I am a freak about all kinds of cleanliness. He says I'm OCD when it comes to things being straightened up and everything having its own place and being put away just right!

♥ Who is the more stubborn? We are both very stubborn and so are our children! (hmmm...I wonder why??!)

♥ Who hogs the bed? I think it depends. But I would have to say him. He is such a heavy sleeper so he never knows when he is laying right on top of me!

♥ Who wakes up earlier? He does for work. But on the weekends he usually still does because he lets me sleep in. He's such a great guy!

♥ Where was your first date? We were going to go see a movie, but it was sold out. So we ended up going to Barnes and Noble and out to ice cream.

♥ Who has the bigger family? Me. I'm one of six and he's one of four.

♥ Do you get flowers often? When we were dating all the time. Now that we are married, not as often, and I am just fine with that. Although every once in a while I will get a special delivery!

♥ Who is more jealous? Definitely me.

♥ How long did it take to get serious? Not very!

♥ Who does/ did the laundry? I do. I hate it too! I don't mind putting the laundry in but man do I dread folding it!

♥ Who’s better with the computer? Definitely him! I just know how to blog and shop online and that is about it! What more do you need to know!!

♥ Who drives when you are together? He does! It must be a man thing but he never lets me drive. And I am just fine with that!

I tag...Tara Hale, Brittany Miles, Kayci Bitton, Haylie Harris, Heidi Fransen, Lauren Olsen, Sam Vojak and Alicia Wall! Do it before Valentines Day!!

I-like-a-you-Mom!

When I talk to my mom on the phone, which is just about everyday and sometimes multiple times a day, I am always telling her the cute and funny things my munchkins say and do. She told me that I need to start writing these things down because in a few years I'm not going to remember them and my kids would have so much fun later reading about the things they said and did when they were little. So I have set a new goal for myself to be better at recording these cute things they say and do and what better place to do it than on my blog!

Josh is talking so much more now and it is so much fun to actually know what he is thinking. Well his newest and cutest phrase is "I like-a you Mom" or "I like-a baby, Mom" or "I like-a daddy, Mom." He says it for everything. His toys, snack, dinner, whatever it is if he loves it he "like-a" it too! It is so adorable and makes me smile everytime!

Sorry there are no pictures. We are still out of a camera. Who knows how long it will be before we get a new one :(

Great Weekend...Bad News

This past weekend we went out to DC to see Marks brother Andrew and his wife Antoanela be sealed in the temple. She wasn't a member when they got married, was baptized 2 years ago, and they were sealed on Saturday, January 24. Their two little girls were also sealed to them and I loved being able to see those little babys with their parents. It made it more of a reality that my munchkins are sealed to me as well. It was a very special day.

Marks dad is back from Iraq for 2 weeks so it was great to be able to see him and spend a few days with him. What a great Papa he is and we are so grateful for all that he does for us. We all went to the Air and Space Museum in DC and it was fun listening to him explain some of the things that they use over in Iraq that were on display there. Josh was fascinated by all the "big planes" as he called them!

If you are wondering why there are no pictures...thats the bad news! We all stayed in some condos in Old Town Alexandria for the weekend and they had a pool, so of course all of the cousins want to go swimming. Well Josh, thinking he is a fish, got a little too brave and Mark ended up having to go in after him. The camera was with him. And that was that. Josh was saved...the camera was sitting on the bottom of the pool. All our pictures are gone. I am sad. We had a lot that I hadn't put on the computer yet and then all of the ones from the weekend. So it ended up being a much more expensive weekend then we had planned! But thats okay. Things happen! We laugh about it later!!

So until we get a new camera...my posts will be lacking pictures! We had a great weekend though and loved being with Marks entire family for such a special occasion!