The great debate!

No, I am not talking politics. I am talking about something much more important. What should we name our new puppy? I will not name names, but some of us like the name Polly and some like the name Belle or Bella.  So help us out with our dilemma and vote for the name you like best.

She is an eight week old Vizsla. Ever since we had to get rid of our last dog, Eddy, the kids and Jake have been wanting another dog. I spotted this one in a pet store last week and thought she was so cute, but couldn't bring myself to tell the kids and Jake about her. Then we all went to the pet store today and to my surprise she was still there. So, here she is!

It's great to be eight!

I can't believe that I have an eight year old! It makes me feel so old. Tyler had a pretty good birthday. After school we let him open his presents. We gave in and got him a skateboard, along with a few other things for his birthday.  He was really excited to ride his skateboard. Jake and I were just sure that he wouldn't even be able to stand and balance on it.  I guess we underestimated him because he caught on to it very quickly and has loved riding on it every day after school. 

Tyler was baptized last Saturday. He was very excited but once we got to the church I could tell he was nervous. He did so good and was so cute. Before we went to the church we gave him some new scriptures and he has been reading them and marking in them every night.  After his baptism I asked him how he felt and he said "I feel all tinglely". He had a smile on his face all day long. He has such a sweet spirit about him. I love this kid!!!

Tyler's first soccer game was last night. They ended up winning 2-0. I actually can't believe that either team made any points. They all just stand around and look confused. They have had a couple of practices and good thing there are some more to come. I just like having Tyler play so he can get in some good exercise and have some fun with other boys his age. His soccer team is unique because five out of nine of the kids are LDS.  Two of the boys are in our ward and two are in the other ward. It's a small world because one of the boys from the other ward is Zach Williams, (Clay and Sara Williams boy). Jake went to school in Kanab with Sara so they were able to catch up a bit while we were watching the soccer game. 

1st day of school

Today was Tyler and Brooke's first day back at school.  Brooke is in Kindergarten and Tyler is in 2nd grade this year. Brooke was very excited about going to school and Tyler didn't want to go back. It was only a half day today so they got back around noon. They both said that their teachers are nice and that they had a good day.  Everything went great, except when Brooke forgot to bring her backpack with her when she got off the bus.  She was hysterical when she realized she forgot it, but good ol' mom called some people and it will be on the bus waiting for her in the morning. 

Wedding Day Tag

Andrea tagged me a couple of weeks ago and I have finally given up on trying to scan my wedding photos so I could show you all one. So, here it goes(without a picture of my wedding day)!

1)What date is your anniversary?

April 25, 1998

2)Where did you get married?

Idaho Falls Temple

3) Who proposed and how?

Jake showed up at my parent's house Christmas morning and proposed in front of my family in our living room. I was so surprised and excited that I had another present to open!

4)How long were you engaged?

4 months

5)What was your favorite part of your wedding day?(and it can't be your husband)

It was fun having our pictures taken with family and friends after the ceremony on the temple grounds. 

6) What would you change if you could?

I would definately not get sick with the stomach flu on our wedding night and I would have not cut Jake's lip with my new acrylic finger nails when I was shoving cake into his face. I was sooo embarrassed!

7) Wedding colors?

Purple, purple and yes more purple

8) Remember anything special about your wedding ceremony?

No, I was too busy staring at Jake with a perma grin on my face. 

9) Were you clean or messy when your cut your cake?

Messy, hence the bloody lip.

10) Where did you go on your honeymoon?

Las Vegas

I tag Cherish and Shalean

Our vacation, full of family and fun!!

FAMILY PICTURES

Jake unexpectedly got 10 days off of work so we took advantage of the opportunity to go visit our families in Utah and Idaho. We first drove to Idaho and stayed there for a few days. It was great for us to be able to see my family especially since I had not been back to see them for 9 months. We had fun riding 4 wheelers, riding in the tractor, feeding my sisters minature goats, having a cook out down in our pasture, and all the fun stuff there is to do on a farm. We had a lot of fun and it was great to see everyone, including my grandpa who is almost 91 years old.
We then headed for Utah to see Jake's family, who we hadn't seen since Thanksgiving. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins, sleeping in the tent trailer and catching butterflys with nets that grandma gave them. Jake's sister, Cari, had her twins the night before we got to Utah so we were able to see our new nieces, Presley and Hadley. They are so cute and thankfully there were no major complications with their delivery. When Cari and Phil got home with the babies we were able to go see them and while we were there all the guys went to play paintball in the mountains next to their house.

On the way back to Kansas we stopped to see Jake's sister Cherish and her family. We were able to stay with them one night. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and it was fun to see where they live.

In all we were on the road for a total of 38 hours and as you can tell it took it's toll on us. This is a picture of us driving back home to Kansas. Although it was a very long drive the kids did great on the trip, thanks to gameboys, a portable DVD player and a 2 year old who sucks her thumb.

Just call me Dorothy!

Last night, around 11:00 p.m., a F3 tornado touched down in Manhattan. I had just laid down to go to bed and the tornado sirens sounded so I woke up Jake and we went to look outside and saw our next door neighbors coming up to the door. They have a house with a basement but they heard that we have a storm shelter down in the basement so the five of them brought their pillow and blankets and we hunkered down and waited for the tornado to pass. Thank goodness the only thing that happened to us was that our power was out for a few minutes. While we were downstairs we couldn't hear anything going on outside. I was just praying that we didn't hear "a train coming"! Everyone around here says that when a tornado is coming it sounds just like a train. The kids handled the whole situation pretty good for two reasons. First I had to wake them up to move them to the shelter so they were still kind of out of it for a while and then they thought that having their neighbor friends over "for a sleepover" was pretty fun. After the tornado had passed we looked outside and their was no sign of damage to our home or property. Come to find out the tornado touched down about 2 miles north of our house and if you look at the link you will see that it left quite a path of destruction. I have heard that 30 homes were destroyed and many more damaged. A True Value store was totally destroyed and the gymnastics place we sometimes take the kids to is missing a side of the building now (It shows a picture of this in the link). Also, there is quite a bit of damage on K-State Campus. Thankfully there were no fatalities in Manhattan, mostly due to the advanced notice of 15 minutes.

Kennady's Birthday Bash and I mean BASH!

Kennady's birthday was yesterday and I can't believe that she is already two years old!  We started out her special day with a severe thunderstorm that came through Manhattan.  For the first ten minutes, the storm just produced a lot of rain and penny sized hail.

Then the tornado sirens went off in town, not because their was a tornado but because there was reports of the storm dropping golf ball to baseball sized hail! And they weren't kidding!!!   I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Both of our neighbors vehicles got bashed by the hail, causing dents and broken windshields. Jake had our car at work and luckily nothing happened to it. The rain gutters on our house got banged up pretty good though. 

After the storm passed and we all got settled down, Tyler and Brooke helped me finish making a pinata for Kennady's birthday. Then, when Jake got home from work we opened presents and invited a couple of neighbor kids over to break the pinata and have some cake and ice cream.