Catch up time

Jessica says it is time for me to post on our family blog, so here we go! Life is great! Today is Max's 5th birthday. Jessica is feeling great in her 2nd trimester. Gracie is a sassy little lady in her pink glasses. I am loving my new job with Cambridge Financial. There you have it. For the best part of blogs see the pictures below!

Max's Transformer cake

The party






Birthday Morning


Max's G Q


Preschool Graduation. Max got the "Big Hunk" award from his teacher, Ms Connie.




Us at the Zoo






More of the G Q
Easter Sunday





There you have it folks. Happy Blog Stalking!!

Life is good.

I am pretty much the worst blogger ever. This is probably the best scrapbook my kids will ever have because I'm not very crafty, although I am going to try and get some stuff done this summer. Anywho, I just wanted to write down a few things that have been going on in our lives lately.

My birthday is this week and Mike has been spoiling me to death. I love it. It has been the best birthday, and it's not even until Tuesday! We went to the zoo yesterday and I loved watching the kids get so excited about all of the animals. They are so curious. I love Max's creative imagination and Gracie's pure joy.

Mike is loving his new job at Cambridge Financial as a financial planner/ advisor, and I am loving it too. It has been so much better than we anticipated. Things are going great and I love the fact that my husband isn't out knocking doors this summer. He has a lot of flexibility with this job and I love the gift cards and perks that salesmen get. We got a new Dyson with one of his gift cards from Best Buy and we love it.

I am just enjoying my stinking cute kids and trying to be a better house wife. I am almost 21 weeks pregnant with our baby girl. The first part of my pregnancy was a little tough and I spent a lot of time on the couch. Mike was very patient with me and the dirty house so I'm trying to be much better at keeping the house clean now that I feel fabulous.

My performing group had their recital on April 29th and it's such a relief to have it done. I am thinking I will take a break next year and let myself adjust to being a mother of 3.

I am also loving my new calling as YW president. I love the girls and I love hanging out with them.

Max is adorable as always and is convinced that the baby should be named Zoey. I really like the name Zoey, but I'm not sure if it's her name. He kept saying, "We already know her name mom, it's Zoey! Got it?" I'm tempted to name her Zoey just because it's a good story.

Max did awesome at our performance last month and sang really loud. He loves to be on stage and he is natural little performer. He always wants to make people laugh. He is very sweet to his little sister and is very thoughtful and loving all the time. He knows just how to make me smile everyday and he always says very sweet things that make my heart melt. I am really going to miss him while he's in kindergarten next year :(.

Max has his last day of school on the 25th and he also has his program that day. I can't wait until it's warm enough outside for us to buy a swimming pool and spend lots of hours outside with the neighbors.

Gracie is turning into a little sweetheart. She's not as sassy as she was before. The doctor adjusted the prescription in her glasses and I think it has helped her to be less frustrated. Although she can see better, she is still cross-eyed so we are going to have to meet with a surgeon at Primary Children's to see if surgery can help with her Strabismus. He isn't taking new patients until July so we will have to patient until we can get an appointment.

Gracie LOVES to sing and although she can't get the words out fast enough, she mouths the words to her favorite songs while the rest of us sing for her. She loves the ABC's, eensy weensy spider, monkey and the alligator and Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. It's so fun watching her grow up and get more personality. She loves playing with her baby dolls and coloring. She also enjoys stealing toys from Max and running away. She is a sweetie and loves her daddy more than anyone else in the whole world.

She is also very girly. She loves wearing frilly "pincess" dresses and putting on "nake up" with mom in the mornings. I love the few hours we get alone together each week while Max is at school. It's a good chance for us to snuggle and play without her trying to compete with Max for my attention. Which is hard, since Max can't stand it if someone else it getting his attention!

Overall, we are loving life. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family. Mike and I make a great team. He is such an awesome dad and takes great care of all of us. I couldn't have found anyone better matched for my personality. He is my best friend and I am so happy to have found him.

My kids are the cutest in the world, of course, and they make my life amazing. I honestly can't think of a better job than being able to stay home with my little sweeties. I hope we can have a few more kiddos to finish off our family. I love being a mom. I don't want to do anything else.

Max the Great!

Max is my little actor. He is always playing some kind of character. He is such a sweetie and always wants to invent things or make new creations. I love the way his little mind works.

Max insisted that he have a Captain America mask with feathers on the side to go with his Captain America shield. He was very disappointed that I didn't sew him one. Apparently my mask making skills are lacking. This mask was below his expectations, but he enjoyed it for an hour before Gracie destroyed it.

He never has a straight face when we take his picture. He always has to pose!

This wasn't even the same day and he just had to put his foot up on the arm rest because it makes his look more powerful.

He thought Gracie would really enjoy a wonder woman mask. Since she is always trying to steal his costumes, I agreed to make her one so she would leave him alone.

Here they are playing the drums. Max says he wants to be a rock star or chef one day.

He always knows the correct pose a rock star would choose. I love his cute happy personality. He makes me smile every day. I am so lucky to be his mom.

Max was dying to do a science experiment the other day. I tried getting him to make a lava lamp, but he always goes for the volcano. It's his favorite science experiment. He was so proud of his creation!

I love the fact that he is sticking his tongue out here. I always do that when I'm concentrating. He was so proud that he was able to make it explode on his own!

Max is a really good big brother and is always taking care of his little sister. He does get frustrated when she destroys his school projects. I think she just likes hearing paper rip. Poor Max.

Max is very cautious, as most everyone knows, and he doesn't enjoy doing anything that's risky. If Gracie climbs up on anything he screams for her to stop because it's too dangerous. We love his sweet spirit and is always saying something to make us chuckle. He is learning to read and is always so proud of himself when he sounds something out on his own.

I can't believe Max is going to be in Kindergarten this year. I am going to cry. I'm not kidding...

Crazy Gracie.

What can I say about my sweet little Gracie. She has been quite sassy lately! She just got her new pink glasses and within an hour they were broken! I'm still not sure how she was able to break them, but she did it in record time.

Gracie has strabismus and is far-sighted and had to get glasses last week. She is only 20 months and she is very cute with them on. She actually doesn't seem to mind them too much and only takes them off occasionally.

Gracie is a great eater and will try anything. She loves fresh fruit and vegetables and mac n' cheese. She also loves any type of soup or yogurt. She always eats better and faster than her big brother.
Gracie is very good at throwing tantrums. At least once a day she looks like this.

She also LOVES music and dancing. Anytime there is music on t.v. she stops what she is doing and does a little dance. She loves having jam sessions on pots and pans with her big bro.

Gracie also LOVES Elmo and every time we get in the car she screams "MO MO!" She knows we have the video in the car and tries to demand it every morning when I take Max to preschool.

Gracie loves to dress up. If there are any clothes on the floor she will find a way to get them on. Max's underwear and socks are her usual favorites. She also loves any shoes she can find.

We love our little Gracie. She is starting talk a lot more and get extremely frustrated when we don't know what she is asking for. She is very independent and loves her baby dolls. She is always putting them "night Night." She loves her daddy and if he is home she refuses to be held by anyone but him. Daddy loves it!

Christmas 2010!

OOOh! I love Christmas time! We had such a blast this year. We got to enjoy Ben and Amber's wedding in the beginning of the week and we had a long break from reality. The kids were very cute and really enjoyed their presents!

Max and Lisa are very cute with each other. When we go to my parents house they disappear and play together all day long. They were examining Santa's cookies in this picture. And eating fudge for breakfast:)
This is the only thing Max asked for for Christmas. An Iron Man helmet. He was extremely spoiled and got so many things I can't even remember them all. What a lucky boy!
Every year we read the Polar Express. Gracie was enjoying the pictures.
Decorating the cute cookies. So fun!
Gracie loves Buck! Every time we go to my parent's she starts yelling, "Buck, Buck!" Grandpa was nice to let her play with him a lot!
Max and Gracie are good little buddies now. Here they are wrestling and Max screams, "Hurry Mom! Get a camera, we are doing something cute!"
Grandpa Ray and Grandma Bev love their Great Grandkids. Max and Gracie are very lucky to have lots of Great Grandparents and Grandparents that adore them!
Gracie loved her new dress up box that Max gave her.
Watch out! Here comes a mad woman with a baby on board!
Max loves Grandma Bev. She always reads him stories.
Since Gracie always steals everyone's jewelry Santa thought that she would love some of her own.
The kids are so cute! We had a great time! Sadly we stopped taking pictures after the morning and didn't get any at the Ulrich party later that day.

My sweet little angel!

My Gracie Kay is growing up so fast. She is already 18 months old! I really can't believe how much they change in such a short amount of time. Gracie really is a sweetie. Here are some cute things she has been doing lately.

She has always loved Daisy and wants to kiss and hug her every chance she gets. Daisy was her first word and the only word she said for about 5 months.

She loves her big brother and they are starting to play so well together. It's so fun to see Max taking care of her. Tonight they were both pretending to be puppies.

She LOVES her new motorized 4 wheeler that Grandma Kim got her for Christmas. It is hilarious to see her hop on it and zip off. She is a little daredevil and I kind of love it.

She loves swimming and playing the bath tub. She scares me a lot because she likes to dip her face in the water and blow bubbles. Max is always trying to save her life in the tub. I am always there watching, but he can't understand why she would want to put her face in the water. He has always been very cautious.

She will eat anything and everything you put in front of her and always eats more than Max does. He is going to be a skinny mini. She is just the right size and I'm so happy she has caught up to and passed many kids her age with her weight and height. You would never guess that she was 8 weeks early.

She is starting to talk more and more every day. She mimics me a lot and knows how to get what she wants now, so she isn't throwing tantrums anymore!

She loves to sing and dance. She surprised us at Christmas time when we realized she knew all of the actions to 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town,' I had been forcing Max to sing it for everyone and one day we noticed she knew it too. It was so adorable.

She sleeps really well and is always a happy baby in the morning.

She loves her little baby dolls and calls them 'babayee.' She kisses them and rocks them and puts them 'nih night.' She always has a baby in her arms.

She loves to dress up and play in my make up, which kind of scares me a little. I always have to be on the look out for abandoned chap stick. She will put it all over her body if I don't watch closely.

She is a sweetie and knows how to ham it up in front of new people. She blows strangers kisses in the grocery store and says 'Hi' to people when they pass us.

She loves books and if she ever goes missing we can find her in Max's room on the bean bag chair looking at his books or playing his piano. She insists on shutting the door when she does this. It's almost like she already needs her privacy. It's funny.

She is a snuggly baby and will rest her head on my shoulder if I sing to her or rock her. I absolutely love it!

I love my little Gracie Kay! She is so fun to have around!

Catch up post!

Halloween! The kids were very excited about their costumes. Max insisted on being a magician after we saw a lame magic show at the Heritage theater.

Brooke took these pics of the kiddos. I love them!

I just think Max and his cousins are so cute. They all play really well together. They are probably playing Angry Birds on the ipod or something. Kids these day and their technologically advanced toys!

We had our Christmas recital last Thursday, now I can finally relax and catch up on months of lost blogging. I have just been posting pictures to facebook because it's so much faster and easier. I don't waste too much time on blogger anymore, but I do like the journal aspect of blogger.

Rydgee, Emmy and Max. They sang so well!

Tia, Faith, Jericka, Abby and Brigette. I absolutely love their costumes.

Max and Emmy have been buddies since they were born. They are betrothed...

Whitney and Danzi! So cute! They tell me the sweetest little things in class. Kids are awesome. I love teaching.

Max and Lisa have the best imaginations. They are best buddies. Lisa takes awesome care of Max and Gracie and they disappear for hours when we are there.

Mike and I got to go on another awesome FREE cruise thanks to Living Scriptures! We had to wait a long time in the airport so we started taking strange pictures. We are dorks.
The classic before dinner pose. We have a million of these and in most of them we are wearing these outfits. We are cheap!

Barbados street market after a long day on the beach. We loved Barbados!
This was a lookout point in St. Lucia. Our cab driver tried to rip us off. Big surprise.
We rented vans in Antigua. This island was also really fun. We spent a lot of time exploring in these awesome vans. I had to sit on the emergency brake the whole time, but hey, it was an adventure!
This was in St. Maarten. We rented 4 wheelers and went up to Fort Louis.

Before we left the kids were very interested in the cruise brochure. They are so stinkin' cute. I want to squeeze their cheeks to death!