We have PROGRESS!!!

We are finally getting our backyard landscaped!! It'll be 3 years in July since we moved in. We've had a long winter with lots of snow here in Utah and the kids are ANXIOUS to get outside and play. The front yard just doesn't offer enough safety and protection from the street and Logan likes to just "take off". He LOVES being outside as much as Kaya does and getting our backyard finished this year was a must. The sprinkler pipes are layed and they built the playground area yesterday. Our swingset gets delivered tomorrow and we'll work on putting that together this weekend. Today they are building our vegetable garden boxes and spreading top soil. We are going to build a sandbox for the kids on the side of the house. By the end of next week we should have trees, bushes, sod, concrete curbing, and a finished backyard. Woo Hoo!!!

Close-Up of the play ground area for the swing set. It will be filled in with weed barrier fabric and soft fall play bark.

View of the backyard looking East.

Kaya sitting in the tractor.

Logan in the tractor.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is Heather's Dad's birthday. Dad has been a great example to his 4 kids teaching us the importance of hard work and providing for ourselves. Dad set the example by getting his 4 year degree from a university while working full time and helping raise 4 children. Since then, our mom has gotten her degree, Heather has a degree, Jason gets his degree next month, and Jeffrey will finish his up in the next year or so. Joshua is just getting started on his. We have a lot of good memories as a family taking vacations and going to Disneyland. Our Dad spent 5 years serving as a Bishop for our church and has since taken on the calling of Grandpa or "Papa" as the kids call him. He has 4 grandchildren with 3 more on the way. I've included a flashback picture of Dad's 24th birthday and a more current one from when Kaya (His first grandchild) was born. Happy Birthday Dad!!

Baby # 3 Ultrasound Update

We had our ultrasound today to check the baby's stats. (I'm about 21 weeks along) The ultrasound was a little rushed because my doctor was right in the middle of delivering a baby. The woman was still pushing when he finally came in late to do the ultrasound. He was hoping he could make it through without being paged otherwise he was going to have to excuse himself. (And here we were thinking we would get extra time since we were the last appointment before lunch).

The baby was in a difficult position which made it hard to check several things. Everything he did see looked great, however, he wants to do another ultrasound when I go back in 4 weeks to see if the baby has changed positions to make things more accessible. The baby was breach and facing my spine. We weren’t able to see the face or get any good profile pictures. I got a great view of the baby’s bum but not the genital area. There didn’t appear to be any boy parts but we really couldn’t tell. The doctor determined the baby’s sex as undetermined!! He said he can check again for us next time. By the time we wait another 4 weeks, we might as well just wait until the end!! Who knows, we may not even be able to see any better next time. At least baby appears to be healthy and everything seems to be right on schedule. Yeah!!

The New Family Addition

Well....we did it!! We have officially upgraded to the status of a Minivan Family. We purchased a 2002 Chevrolet Venture from a private party here in Utah. We got a great deal and ended up paying less than what we sold our Impala for. That was helpful when it came time to pay the sales tax and license fees. Our new ride has low miles, is extra clean, and happens to be the same color as the "G-Ride". We are REALLY happy with our purchase and glad it all happened to work out the way it did. Now we're ready to add that 3rd car seat in August!!

Happy Easter

We are grateful for the opportunity we have had to celebrate Easter this year. Aaron's Mom from CA and brother from CO were able to join us for the weekend. Aaron's brother & sister who live locally were also able to be here. We did some fun things over the weekend and had a good time visiting with everyone. We had a nice Sunday dinner where Heather's brother & his family were also able to join us. The neighbors let us borrow their backyard for a small family Easter egg hunt. (Our backyard is currently still dirt) Kaya "cleaned up" and Logan had a great time finding eggs to put in his basket. The kids' cousin Preston figured out that if he threw the plastic egg on the ground, it would break open to reveal the goods inside. All in all we had a good time and enjoyed each others company. We hope your family had a good holiday too.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

Today is Heather's parent's 32nd wedding anniversary. This is our flashback picture for the week. This picture of Robert, Jill, & Heather was taken sometime in late 1976. A lot has changed since this picture was taken. They have added Jeffrey, Jason, Joshua and two wonderful daughter-in-laws to the bunch. They also have 4 grandchildren with 3 more to arrive this year. They've lived in Nevada and all throughout Southern California. They have been able to travel throughout the United States, Europe, and Chile. They have raised a good family and we want to wish them a Happy Anniversary!!

So long...Farewell...See-Ya "G-Ride"

Today was a sad but happy day. I watched my beloved "G-Ride" drive away with someone else. The G-Ride was our 2003 Chevy Impala. This was my college graduation present to myself and it has served our family well. This was the car we brought Kaya home from the hospital in and it has plenty of good memories from the last 5 years. We decided with baby #3 coming that it would be a good time to up-grade to something a bit larger. We're still debating which direction to go with this. (Minivan vs. Full Size Van or SUV) Now that the car has been sold, we can start looking for some new wheels. In the meantime, we'll be sharing Aaron's truck!