My Baby Is Four

I can't believe my baby turned four today! Kenzie had some special visitors here for her Birthday. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Karissa drove their family up here from AZ and Grandmama flew in. What a treat! She was so excited to have them share this day with her! What a blessing you are in our family. I love being your Mom. I am amazed at how much you have grown up in the last year. You say and do so many funny things. I love the crazy expressions you make! Thanks for being my little buddy at home...what am I going to do when you are at school all day?:) Remember that you have been blessed with lots of family and friends who love and support you. Always know that I am here for you. I love you and Happy Birthday my little 4 year old!

Kenzie enjoyed her breakfast in bed...which included: biscuits and sausage gravy, homemade strawberry jam, and juice. Yum! She loves this Birthday tradition.

Matt, Jesse, and Grandmama took the kids to Jump On It while I took Karissa to Urgent Care. We found out she had strep throat...yay medicine! Everyone had so much fun jumping for an hour! I love this picture of Matt with his sweet Birthday Girl!

Kynlee, Karley, Tate, Kenzie, and Presley being silly and having fun on the tramps!
We made homemade pizzas for dinner. The kids had fun decorating their pizzas in their own style! Yummy!

Kenzie was excited to finally have the candles all to herself...blow Kenzie!

All of the cousins enjoying the yummy cake!

Kenzie loved the gifts from Mom and Dad! We love you!

Grandpa and Grandma Nikolaus sent Kenzie a package. She loved the Thumbelina toys, sparkly "K" purse, and new outfit! Thanks so much!

Kenzie is really into Ponies. She got a cute Pony in a bag and a Pony coloring book from Grandpa and Grandma Slider! So cute!

Hey Sister, Soul Sister

Aunt Kristy came up to visit us during her spring break. We had a blast with her here! It was so good for me to have a piece of my family here. We enjoyed visiting and the laughing was nonstop!

After picking Kristy up from the airport, we went and did a session in the Salt Lake Temple. This picture was the best we got...it was so windy!

Kristy bundled up on our ride to the pool. The hot tub was so nice!

One night we had a Rockband jam session. You are a rockstar!

All the girls went to the Dinosaur Museum. It was fun!
That is one big dinosaur!
One foot, two foot, cute foot, huge foot!
Only the "ancient" men kept hitting on Kristy!:)
Karley loves playing with the dinosaurs in the sand and water.

Kynlee and Kenzie about to be eaten by Jaws!

Kynlee's face cracks me up in this picture!

My little paleontologists. They had so much fun digging for dinosaur bones in the sand!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Aunt Kristy made the kids GREEN pancakes and GREEN scrambled eggs for breakfast! They loved it!
We bought matching shirts and decided to take some "engagement pictures" on the dock. It was so funny! We are such a cute couple!:)
The giggles never ended!

Nice pose!

Here we are pretending to jump in the lake!

Aunt Kristy taught the kids how to play Poison. It was fun!

What a goofy group! Nice funny faces!

Thanks so much for coming up here! You are so cute! We had tons of fun and can't wait to see you again! Love you sister!

Draper Temple Dedication

What a neat experience for me today to take Matthew, Kynlee, and Karley to participate, by satellite, in the dedication of the Draper Temple. As we sat and watched the slide show before hand, we were reminded of our visit to the temple a few weeks back, as it showed the beautiful rooms inside the temple that we had seen. It was so amazing to see President Monson and the other leaders dressed in white for this occasion. What a sweet spirit was felt as President Monson tenderly recited the dedicatory prayer. As the prayer was being said, I thought about the many times I have heard this wonderful prophet speak and give council, but that this was the first time I had heard him pray. It was a powerful witness to me to hear the prophet pray to our Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for a prophet on the earth today. The kids enjoyed participating in the Hosanna Shout. They were definitely glad they went. I hope that we will always remember this wonderful experience. This completed temple makes a grand total of 12 temples in Utah. I feel so blessed to have so many temples around me.

Basketball Star

Matthew finished his 2nd season of basketball. He was lucky enough to have the same amazing coach again. He has improved 100 percent from last year! I am so impressed on how much this boy knows about the game. His team went 5 - 3 this season. Not too bad! I had so much fun watching each game! Matthew mainly played his favorite position, point guard. He is a Steve Nash in the making!:) In this position, he would set up plays, make incredible passes, or take it to the hole himself. He has so much energy on the court...never slowing down until the game is over. Each time Matthew made a basket, I would scream loud enough for him to know that his Mom was excited for him! So fun! I know that he will just keep getting better. I can't wait to watch him in the years to come!Going up for the rebound!Playing hard!There is only one thing on his mind...lay up!

In this short video clip, Matthew drives it to the basket and SCORES! Way to go Matthew!

It's Great To Be Eight

Karley turned the long awaited 8 years old today! She is most excited about being baptised at the end of the month! What a fun girl! You light up my life with your smile and comedic personality. You have a wonderful gift to make others laugh and smile. It's never a dull moment when you are around! You are so special and talented in so many ways. I love watching you play sports...what a great little athlete you are! Thank you for being so kind, loving, and sweet! You have been blessed with lots of family and friends who love and support you. Always know that I am here for you. I love you and Happy Birthday! Karley enjoyed her breakfast in bed...which included: scrambled eggs with a fancy ketchup 8, toast, oranges, and juice. Yum! She loves this Birthday tradition.

I love the excitement on her face as she opens her gifts!
We get each kid their own set of scriptures on their 8th Birthday. Karley loves hers!

Karley gets pretty goofy when she is excited! She couldn't control herself when she saw her new "blue" bike!:) She cracks me up...I love it!

Karley's Birthday fell on a "no school" day, so we had her party today. She had a good group of friends come and also her UT cousins. After eating pizza and chocolate cupcakes, and opening presents galore, we all went to...

...Jump On It! It has a bunch of tramps right next to each other. We all had a blast jumping from tramp to tramp!Taking a break for a picture.

Karley jumped her heart out! She loved it!

Matthew made jumping on the side tramp look easy!

I had to show how much fun Matt was having. Cool action shot!

This is the whole group tackling Matt (on the bottom of the pile). The girls had fun chasing him around!

Later, Grandma and Grandpa Slider gave her a little Hymn book to match her scriptures. She also got some Pokemon cards that she loves.

We took Karley to Wendy's, per her request, for her chicken nuggets, fries, and frosty Birthday lunch. Looks yummy!

Now that Karley is 8, she gets to go to Activity Days with Kynlee. She had so much fun and loved having her big sister with her!

Draper Temple Open House

The kids and I went to the Draper Temple open house a couple of nights ago. It sits up on top of a hill overlooking the city. It's so beautiful! We watched a short video at a church building and took a shuttle to the temple. The whole process was so organized. The kids did good and really liked seeing the inside of the temple. It gives them something to look forward to. Kynlee's favorite room was the Bride's Dressing Room. In a couple of weeks we'll be able to participate, by broadcast, in the dedication. So exciting! We had one of those "almost didn't make it to the temple" experiences. On the drive over, my van was making a nasty sound. I looked down and notice the Check Gages light was on. As I looked, I noticed the temperature gage was in the red zone...we were overheating! Oh no, I knew this wasn't a good thing. We were almost to the temple too. I pulled over and called my father-in-law, because Matt was still at work. He assured me that it was best not to drive it. Luckily, Tim and Donna were not too far from us. They came to our rescue and got us to the temple. I was so grateful to them! While the kids and I were at the open house, Matt worked on the van. He is so amazing...a true Mr. Fix It! Even though we ran into van trouble on the way, I was so glad that we took the time to go. The temple always makes me feel good!

I had the shuttle guide take this picture of us in front of the Temple. It was so windy!

After our tour and while we were waiting for our shuttle to pick us up, the girls stayed warm by the heater. Smart and cute!:)

BYU Cougars

We went to a BYU Men's Basketball game a couple of weeks ago. Even though we had nose-bleed seats, we had a good time. The Cougars have a great team! We had so much fun chanting along with the college fans. The kids like going, because they each want to attend college there someday. Good goal! Basketball is the sport of interest right now in our family. The more I learn about it the more I enjoy watching it.

Matt and the kids. We walked over to the bell tower after the game to hear the victory chimes. The mascot, COSMO, was out mingling with the fans. The kids thought it was pretty cool getting a picture with him! Go Cougars!