Taylor and Melissa's Wedding

We had such a great time in Utah! And my brother's wedding was the highlight of the trip. I'm so glad the Timpanogos temple was closed the weekend they wanted to get married because it was so incredible to be at the Salt Lake temple and feel the spirit on temple square with my boys. I had never been inside the Salt Lake temple and it was magnificent! The sealing was especially neat because it was performed by the bride's Guatamalan grandfather in spanish! The spirit was so strong even though I wasn't understanding much of it. My boys enjoyed their first trip to temple square.The beautiful bride and her handsome husband fresh out of the temple!Melissa's parents and my parents.The reception was beautiful and so much fun. It was held outside in perfect weather. Justin had a great time with his cousin Elle messing with the decor.My other sibs.Joseph and Alexis were best buddies all night, so happy to be reunited.Joseph is like his mama. He loves to cut a rug. When he found out there was going to be dancing, he immediately responded, "I'm going to dance with Alexis." Alexis was happy to oblige and Joseph escorted her to the dance floor like a real gentleman. Elle chose a good dance partner as well.Here's our family photo of the night.And a candid one with grandma and grandpa.Taylor and Melissa: we love you! Congrats and thanks for the great day and the great party!

It's a Girl!

If you haven't already heard, we're having a baby girl in October! Pretty exciting! It's still sinking in. I had a moment in Old Navy today, looking at the tiny little ruffly pink things there that will now be allowed in my home. It's gonna be fun!

Can't wait to meet her.

All about Joseph

Happy birthday, Joseph! Well, my baby boy is six. We had a whole lot of birthday celebration around here. On his birthday, we spent the day with good friends at a farm. Check out these cuties.I think Joseph is lecturing on some aspect of nature that he knows everything about.Then we went home for some present opening and cake eating. Classic faces of pure joy at his presents. Gotta love it. Then on the weekend we enjoyed a way-too-quick visit from the Portland Jolley's. Hooray for Kellen and Caleb! These boys can never get enough of each other. We brought them along to cheer Joseph on at his T-ball game. Go Ice Wizards!It's a base hit! Because they're all base hits! In T-ball, everyone advances one base and the last batter gets to hit a grand slam. It's pretty adorable. His favorite position to play: 1st base. They get to see the most action.Then came the big bowling party. We had birthday kids on their own lane, a few little kids on one side and a few adults on the other. It was a good time! Love you, Joseph!

The Big Apple

Thanks to Ernst & Young and my wonderful mother-in-law who stayed with our boys, Darren and I went on the most fun and relaxing vacation to New York City! Well, it was relaxing for me. I didn't have to go to the conference Darren went to. I just got to play play play! But before the conference, we played together and saw all the sites. The Statue of Liberty,Ground Zero, which is now a new monument building under construction,and Times Square. We just so happened to be there the very night of the car bomb that didn't go off. Thank goodness it didn't go off! We were on the sidelines kinda early while nobody knew what was going on. It wasn't until we made it back to our hotel and turned on the tv that we understood the gravity of the situation. We walked Central Park and went to the top of the Empire State Building too. What a beautiful city! It was so great to be a tourist with my husband and spend so much time together. When Darren had to go to his conference outside of the city, I rode the train in and enjoyed the MOMA and the Guggenheim art museums and shopped like crazy. After being a tourist for two days, it was fun to try and feel like a New Yorker, navigating Grand Central Station, riding the subway and hailing taxi cabs. What a rush. A huge thank you to Grandma Jolley who made it possible for us to go and took such good care of my kids they didn't even miss me!

Lots of New Things at our House

This is what it looks like in front of my house right now! Joseph and I planted these tulips in September and we had so much fun watching them bloom. I didn't realize the the azaleas would bloom the same time. So colorful! Here's a taste of what our family room make-over is starting to look like. Here's our new furniture and tv and you can see the new paint on the wall and new rug on the floor. Now I get to have fun filling the shelves. I think I'll put some photos, planters/vases, and wicker baskets on them. Then I plan to get a matching ledge shelf to go over the tv. What do you think?We enjoyed a visit from my cousin Terri and her family. We rode the new Water Taxi across the bay where we rode the carousel and ate ice cream. Yum.Here's what our spring walks around the block look like now. It seems like just yesterday our walks looked like this. It's kind of freaking me out that they're getting so big. Joseph is apprehensive about taking off his training wheels, but I think I've got him convinced to try it out after he turns six next month. Justin rides this three-wheeled scooter like a pro.Joseph drives me crazy with his incessant need to make projects and create "formulas." Just about everyday on the ride home from school he tells me he's got the best idea ever. I think it's inspired by one of our favorite shows, Phineas and Ferb, who make an elaborate creation everyday. He's made tvs and laptops out of cardboard, bluetooth headsets out of paper, and lately he makes things for me to use around the house. This afternoon he made me some wood floor cleaner. This picture is Joseph creating some sort of gel to use in my hair. His ingredients include hand soap, toothpaste and lotion.And this is his can of paint. I love that he's being creative and inventive but it's getting tricky that he wants to save all his projects and keep them in permanent places of honor. When I slowly throw them away, he always realizes it and lectures me about it.And I finally got Justin to the dentist for the first time. He's been begging since he watched Joseph go. I thought maybe he'd back down when we got there, but he just jumped in the chair and let them do the whole cleaning routine! He was so proud of his new toothbrush and play dough he picked out of the prize basket. My baby is turning into a big boy right before my eyes whether I like it or not.

Spring Break to Easter

Here's my little Easter Bunny.Joseph's Spring Break from school was the week before Easter and we decided to use it just play play playing. We went to a great little egg hunt at the community center and bounced at a bouncy house place. Joseph took his new kite out for a spin.We had a blast at the Pacific Science Center.And we visited the Museum of Flight.We got to meet up with some old friends that we never get to see.And of course, we dyed Easter Eggs.Whew! What a great week. But of course, this means I'm exhausted and no walls got painted again and no housework got done either. I'm paying for that this week. But it was worth the fun!

I thought it was so relaxing (We loved having Darren all to ourselves all weekend!) and so spiritual to have Easter on General Conference weekend. I was truly inspired with a resolve to do better by the messages of our Prophet and Apostles. I know they are men of God called to direct us this day. Because of conference, all weekend my thoughts were turned to Christ and all He has done for me. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that He lives and continues to help and strengthen me each day as long as I come unto Him.

The tooth fairy has found our house

See the missing spot in his mouth? Joseph has had his first wiggly tooth for weeks and last Monday while I was making dinner, he just came right over and held it up with a "Mom, look!" I was so glad he wasn't freaked out about the whole thing. He was actually quite proud of himself for yanking it out. And I might have been more excited about the tooth fairy coming than he was. What a fun job that is!It just so happened that Joseph had a dentist appointment the next day so he got to show off his missing tooth to the dentist as well. And she pointed out that the tooth next to it was also pretty wiggly. Well Joseph got right to work on that and on Sunday, he could practically twist it in a circle. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't just yank it out. But the next day when I picked him up at school, he was proudly holding up a plastic tooth strung on a necklace. I had forgotten that he had told me before that when you lose a tooth at school, the nurse gives you a tooth holder necklace to keep it in. So Joseph was waiting to yank it until he was at school so he could get the necklace. Isn't that funny? Here he is holding up his necklace and his loot for his second tooth.So it's been a whole lot of tooth excitement around here lately. Justin has got some real bad big brother jealousy going on. He constantly shows me his loose teeth and keeps asking if he can go back to the dentist. And he has insisted I take pictures of his mouth just like I've been taking of Joseph. Too cute.