The Parent's of the Year award goes too....

We get "parent's of the year" award for this one.

first of all, notice Brett's attempt to almost light Cameron's nose on fire and his mom singing "Happy Birthday Dear CAMERON" at Tanner's 4th birthday party...I guess things were a little choatic with that many kids and I am trying to sing and video tape at once which is obviously too much for me to get my own son's name right! I'm sorry Tanner Man...you know we love ya!

Tanner Turns 4!

I had to show how I am nine months prego and almost wanting to die at this point when Tanner's party came along...seriously Joanna, where would I be without you?

Tanner got SO many great birthday presents thanks to all his kind and generous friends...he loves them all!

Happy Birthday Tanner Man! We are so pleased of what a good boy you are! We are really greatful to FUNASTICS for throwing us the BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER! Seriously, I am indebted to my good friend Joanna and her generousity...FUNASTICS ROCKS! Thank you to all of his and our friends (Indi, Walker, Remington, Ruby, Zach, Chase, and Tyson, Clayton, Crew, Kosten, Emily, Jessica, Natalie, Hailey, and Derek, and Reese) who made it to his birthday celebration. We love you guys. Here are some pics!

Cameron's 2nd Birthday - Opening Presents

Let's see how this video turned out (I thought we were just taking a picture at first to explain my holding that pose...and then, just excuse my onryness at the end..please).

Cameron Turns 2!

Cameron turned 2 on October 5th (General Conference Sunday)! Sorry...we are not the best photographers.
He got lots of great gifts including a new scooter from Mom and Dad, cars (still his favorite toy) from Grandma and Granpa Parry...
and a cool new Batman costume from Grandma and Grandpa Alvord!

Thanks! The gifts were perfect and now we are ready for Halloween!
We also celebrated with our family the Gillettes and great neighbors like Jessie and Cassie who came just in time for cake and ice-cream!
Thanks everybody who made it a special day! We love you Cameron! You are such a nice, sweet and cute child

Bounce Play at Funastics!

Good times at Funastics this Wednesday as our friends got together for a play-date on our kids "day-off" from Preschool! Thanks to everyone who came and lets do some more fun stuff in the future!

New Friends

We've enjoyed getting to know our new friends in the ward and having their kids Indi and Walker over for play-dates every other week! Thanks for making our lives fun!

San Diego Trip

Of course we did the beach thing too!

San Diego Trip

This was the cutest ride EVER at LegoLand. Tanner was just the right age to ride these moving horses ride while Cameron was napping!

Lego Land was a lot of fun! Check out the cool lego structures.

The kids just LOVED this part of LegoLand. They could've been happy with this all day! But of course we had to see EVERYTHING that LegoLand had to offer!

Tanner was JUST tall enough to go on some of these big kid rides!

This is really late news, but we enjoyed a little family get-away to San Diego this summer that I never documented. So here are some Pics!

DUDE!

o.k. Tanner cracked me up today, and I just had to write it down! We have a new neighbor friend named David. David is six year's old (and Tanner is three). He comes over to play "Starwars" together and other such fun boy activities. Anyway, David said "Dude. (ya da ya da ya da). and Tanner TOTALLY picks up on this new "LINGO" and starts saying "DUDE." to David. I am in the same room overhearing their conversation and just LAUGHING OUT LOUD! David started teasing Tanner about it a little bit being like "DUDE! DUDE!" and Tanner thought it was hilarious. I don't know if he'll continue to use the word "dude" in his everyday talk, but it was sure funny to hear him talk like a teenager (or like some adults I know real well. ha ha ha!) Tanner is such a smart kid and just picks up on everything! He's a lot of fun and we sure like our new friend DAVID. He's a real sweet kid and welcome over anytime!

Highlights of Summer 2008

Brett's brother MARK came to town and checked out our new house and pool one day! He's so strong!

Playing over at Emily and Jessica's house! COOL DUDE! They are the greatest to my boys. They have soo much fun over there! Thanks for taking care of them too!

Tanner started his FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! He got a new back-pack and waited for the school bus! He is SOOOO independent and ready! It's a tender moment!

Getting to know our new neighbors! The kids have fun playing "dress-up" together and we enjoy having families over for a summer bar-b-que!

Utah Summer 2008

Tanner LOVED Will our newest Nephew, and so did I!

Daddy meeting us at the AIRPORT! FEW! Finally, some relief!!!

On the airplane. Kid's first flight together. We got in trouble a few times, but hey, I thought they were really good for two young boys!

At the Utah Hogle Zoo.

Enjoying snow cones with the fam.

Messy birthday cake at the Twin's 2 year old Birthday Party!

Cameron Playing Jim's drums!

Hey! We had a WONDERFUL time in Utah! Thank you FAM for making it MEMORABLE! Grandma Judy was the greatest taking the kids to the Utah Hogle Zoo one morning, and to Jungle Jim's too! My kid's had a BLAST! We also had fun staying at Dave and Laura's home and getting to see all our WONDERFUL COUSINS and FRIENDS!!! We LOVE YOU GUYS and MISS YOU! We are SO glad that we have such a GEAT FAMILY! As Tanner says it "I LIKE MY FAMILY!"

More Europe Pictures

More About Erope

Well, it's absolutely impossible for me to write about everything we did, but I will try! Where was I...In Germany we went to Berchtesgaden where some of us went to Eagle's Nest which was a Retreat of Adolf Hitler which was gorgeous, way up high in the mountains with beautiful views and scenery. We also did a Salt Mine Underground Tour which was a lot of fun cause we got to get dressed up in these coverups and ride this ride through a long dark tunnel. We also rode these really long slides down in the salt mines. It was pretty cool (they had lights and a salty lake we got to taste!).
The highlight of my trip had to be visiting the Neushwanstein Castle (famous because of the Disneyland Castle "replica"). It was soooo cool and quite the romantic setting because of the mist and the trees the day we went and toured the castle. The inside was so exquisite, it did make one feel quite royal. It was built by Kind Ludwig II I believe who only lived in it 160 days and then was found dead. Anyway, we got invited to SING in the castle in their ballroom and we did SUCH a great job that it moved this one particular family to TEARS! We were all MOVED by their reaction that it started some of us crying! My roomate Debbie and I gave them a pass a long card and we got to know them and their three grown boys and heard they were from Upstate New York! I wish I would have gotten their names and addresses so I could send them a CD and keep communication with them. I do not think it was coincidence that we were on the same tour of the castle as them and that we got to introduce our selves and sing for them!
Our last day in Europe we traveled to Munich, Germany. Some of us toured Dachau, a concentration camp (not fun...to sad and devastatingly disgusting for me!) I won't go into that awfulness..I don't really recommend it! From there we met up with the rest of the group at Marienplatz which is the center of downtown Munich where we saw the Glockenspiel performance (a really old ornate building in the center of town that had music, bells and a little carousel of statues playing instruments that went around at 12 p.m. and every hour). We did another impromptu concert their had free time there, dinner, ice-cream and then a concert with the All Saints and Latter Day Chorale at a stake center there in Munich.
Our final destination was in Oberammergau, Germany - a beautiful little town with flowers on every window seal and little quaint shops everywhere to look at (buy a "wench dress" or a nut-cracker and such). Sooo cute. Oberammergau is where they had a Passion for Music Festival where several choirs from all over the world, including Austria, South Africa, Hungary, USA, Netherlands, ect, performed. We did as well. I LOVED the South African boys! They were SOOO much fun. They loved to sing and just had a lot of fun on stage. They had musical instruments and dance movements and such. It was great. We did a final performance (for the Mayer there) and then got a few hours night sleep before our TREACHEROUS trip back home. We woke up at 3 a.m. only to find a 3 hour delay in Zurich airport. That's o.k. I was able to stock up on last minute chocolate and get rid of the last of my Euros and Franks. It was a long trip back - took over 24 hours of traveling and little sleep to finally land back in Phoenix! I am still a little messed up by the trip as you might can tell by my 4 in the morning blogging and emailing!!! But at least I am getting it done, (right Natalie!!! :)

My husband and two children Tanner and Cameron met me at the airport in Phoenix when I arrived home. I am SOOOOOooOOOOO GRATEFUL for my little family and those children I love SOOOOoooo Much! I am sorry I left them but I am thankful they were well when I got home and thank you to Kristin Gillette and the Gillette family (Natalie) for helping to look after the boys while I was away! You guys are the greatest around and we love you!!!

Europe Trip

Hey! I made it back from EUROPE (alive and well)! It was a great opportunity and a great experience thanks to Gregor and Lorri McHardy and the Latter Day Singers! We visited Zurich and Bern Switzerland where we sang in some old catherdral, walked the streets and shops (that were part underground) and had a concert in a Music Conservatory where we sang to the Latter Day Saints in that part of the world. We also got to spend the night (my roommate Debbie and I) with one of the Switzerland families who were just great! (Rahel, her husband and three adorable children who we couldn't understand but the parents spoke great English). They were very accommodating, had a beautiful home high in the mountains of Switzerland (just BEAUTIFUL) and fed us meat and cheese and homemade bread for dinner! I got sick from lack of eating due to our tiring schedules that day and singing at a late concert, but we handled it well! Sunday, we also walked along the lake in Bern Switzerland which was a lot of fun and quite the hang out!
Next, we visited Salzburg, Austria where Mozart was born and raised. We did a tour of his life and of the city. Salzburg had a long tunnel through the mountain which we walked through to get to the other part of town. Everything is old in Europe. Some of the homes and restaurant were "carved" into the mountain side. The same day we did the Mozart tour we also hiked to a very old Fortress on the top a mountain and learned some interesting facts about the time. We had a nice hotel room here at the Star Inn. The weather was pretty great the whole trip (rained one night is all). Germany and Austria games were also going on while we were there!
We also ate at a cool restaurant that was built back in 805 a.d. Crazy! We did a lot of singing and impromptu concerts as well.