Happy 1st birthday, Van!!

how did we get from this (FRESH out of the womb)....

to this... (3 months)....

to this... (6 months)...

to this... (9 months)....

to this so fast!! (1 year - today at his birthday breakfast and play at the mall slides - it was raining!)

Vander Mander - you're such a good boy and we love you so much! I really can't believe how fast you're growing up. You're our big boy now and we love you more every minute of every day. Happy birthday!


the "dig into his own cake" birthday celebration is pending til dad gets home from his business trip. more pictures to come.

5 years

I think this pretty well sums up our 1st 5 years of marriage...
5 years
4 cities
3 college degrees
2 kids
1 (or 1st) real career and 1st home


Dear Aaron,

Being married to you is so wonderful and so easy. So, thank you. Thank you....

• for kissing me on our first date and every day since.
• for always insisting I eat the leftovers.
• for indulging my love for shopping.
  
• for thinking I'm the most amazing cook on the planet and for preferring my cooking to your endless $50/day and hotel employee dining room possibilities with your new job.
• for sweeping the floor and doing the dishes just because when my to-do list gets a little too ambitious.
• for taking care of the little things that lose me - insurance, car maintenance, toilet plunging and this morning - kiddie barf clean up.
  
• for masking your face when you change stinky diapers.
• for being such a hands-on dad and wanting to spend more time with our kids than I could ever even ask for.
  
• for being the world's best story teller.
  
• for unintentionally helping a spoiled princess become even more stingy than you are.
  
• for being so sexy when you install our new tub with your shirt off... and with Van "helping".
• for making me a better, more mellow, more patient mother.
  
• for always putting my needs, wants, feelings, goals and hunger pains above your own.

Love,
Wifey

Thanks, Grandma and Pa, for watching our kids so we could spend all afternoon playing! We went and did the Bootleg Canyon Flight Lines (where my little bro works - thanks for the hook up Boog!), then a sunset mountain bike ride, then McDonalds Smoothies and a dollar movie, then dinner at Chilis (with a gift card - do you think we're made of money or something?). We had a blast! have you ever been off-roading on a short bus? i have now! :) aaron and my little bro.

the view from the top (see lake mead behind us?). did i mention I'm blonde again?

looking down one of the lines

aaron going down one of the runs. so so so fun!

i've never thought sunset was romantic - apparently it is on a mountain bike.

awww.... 5 years later and we still like each other. cute!

my beautiful babies

i took these a month ago with my mom's camera and then had some fun on iPhoto. i'm really happy with the way they turned out. and more importantly, i really love my precious, beautiful babies. i'm so lucky to be their mom.

"I'll always bleed Cougar blue..."

Steve Young said that the night BYU retired his jersey in 2003. I'm with you Steve. This commercial gives me loud and proud warm fuzzies for my school.

World Class University Commercial from BYU HD Video on Vimeo.

my redheads

Any of you who know me well know that 2 of my 3 best friends (from childhood... like Maggi and I met "in the womb", really!) are the most beautiful redheads you've ever laid eyes on. I got to play with them and their families in the mountains this weekend. It was completely dreamy and just as my heaven will be. I love them so dearly. I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have friends like them.

my reds

5 kids and counting between the 3 of us. i can't imagine what this picture will look like in 5 years.

i love these girls.

mom and her cute squirrel. i was so proud of her - she did the entire hike to the waterfall without help. it was pretty steep and almost 1/2 a mile. such a tough girl.

van sat on the edge of the fire pit for 30 minutes just playing with sticks. he loved it. so did his dad.

seriously, lukey. what are you hiding in those cheeks? i can't tell you what a sweet baby this kid is. and adorable of course.

em and her "russell" (i call him Russ-Russ, but she insists on Russell). yes, we're planning the wedding. and by the looks on their faces they are too.

we're not going to lie. we're the cutest best friends ever. (at baby luke's blessing last month)

our new home - before and after!

i realize this was a LONG time coming! sorry! we're still not done, but Aaron will be working to finish some of the last tid bits soon, so i'll post more pics then if needed.

just as a summary, before we bought it our house:

• had no interior doors
• had no carpet
• had no lighting in the bedroom or living areas
• had no water heater
• had a less than wonderful kitchen
  
• was covered in a thick layer of dirt
• was generally in bad shape

now.... thanks to lots of hard work from Aaron and my dad (and a few people hired out like countertop guys), it:

• has all of the above missing items + some
  
• has ceiling fans in every room
• has all fresh paint
• has all new 2" faux-wood blinds - it's amazing the difference just blinds make
  
• has no dents or holes in the wall

things we love about our house that you can't tell from pictures:

• we are 1/2 way between UT and CA so we get to have lots of friends and family stay with us. if you haven't yet, please come!!!
  
• location - we are close to family and everything else we could ever want to be close to, but our neighborhood is quiet at the same time
• the man cave - aka the 2-car garage. :)
• at almost 1800 square feet all 3 bedrooms are HUGE!
• all of the bedrooms have big walk-in closets
• i have 2 full linen closets and a laundry room big enough to put all of the laundry inside and close the door
  
• not much of a yard to take care of with Aaron as busy as he'll be when he starts with Deloitte next month
• what big windows it has and how well-lit it is for a townhome
  

on to the pictures:

patio before:

patio after:

before: at front door looking up stairs

after: at front door looking up stairs

before: dining room and kitchen area (turn left as you come in the front door)

after: dining room and kitchen area (turn left as you come in the front door)

yes my curtains need to be hemmed....

we LOVE our appliances - we got all 4 (dishwasher, microwave, range and fridge) for $1600 on craigslist.com - 1 year old. YESSSSS!!!!!!!

before: half bath downstairs (continue down hallway from kitchen)

after: half bath downstairs (continue down hallway from kitchen)

before: laundry room (at the end of that same hallway)

after: laundry room (at the end of that same hallway)

sometimes i tell Aaron that I'm not sure what I love more - him, my washer and dryer or my granite countertops. :)

before: living room (turn right when you come in the front door)

after: living room (turn right when you come in the front door)

looking into the dining room/kitchen from the living room

before: master bedroom

after: master bedroom

our little office space in our bedroom. we're thrilled to finally have separate desks. :)

before: master bathroom and closet

after: master bathroom and closet

we fondly refer to this closet as "the 4th bedroom". seriously. it comfortably fits all of our clothes and more + the pack and play. and it's far enough from our bedroom and behind 2 doors so we won't wake future babies who sleep in there. yahoo!!

before: the kids' bathroom (upstairs)
after: use your imagination. new tub. green walls. brown polka dot shower curtain. cute. pics when it's done!

before: kids' bedroom (currently home only to Em)

after: the kids' bedroom
before: the guest bedroom (Van is here until he an Em can figure out how to operate in the same room)

after: the guest bedroom

and this very cute girl said, "mom! take a picture of me too!" after I photographed the closet. we love her.