A dozen

Chad and I have been married for 12 years today! Where did time go? Here are twelve things I've learned about Chad in the past 12 years.
1. He's a super hard worker.
2. He's definitely the romantic one.
3. If you ask him to name one person who inspires him he'll say Rocky Balboa.
4. He's a terrific dad.
5. He can't tell a joke to save his life :)
6. He will support me in anything I do.
7. He loves watching movies and doesn't even care too much if it's a chick flick.
8. He has his ditzy moments. (Don't we all!)
9. He loves basketball and the Utah Jazz.
10.He's pretty coordinated but can't dance (white boyz got no rhythm)
11.He loves Diet Dr. Pepper (secrets out)
12.He's the perfect eternal companion.

Te Amo Chad!

4th of July

This year good old West Weber was having 4th of July celebrations as part of their 150th year festivities. We went for breakfast in the morning and the kids got to play their games afterwards. Then we went to Chad's parent's house to watch the parade as it went by. We weren't expecting much since maybe 20 people live in West Weber but I'd have to say not too bad West Weber! It was just perfect for us. Not too crowded, plenty of things for the kids, and a pretty good parade that we didn't have to fight for seats. It was a good stress free 4th of July morning. That night we went to see fireworks at Fremont. Emma wasn't sure about the fireworks and we had to walk her around a bit to calm her down but by the end she was pretty mesmerized by them. Overall a pretty relaxing 4th of July!

Long Time No Blog....

I know I haven't updated the blog in a long while. Here's a sneak peek of Emma from the 4th of July. OOh I could just kiss those luscious little lips right now! I will post more soon but it's late so I'm going to bed. I will do better....I promise Aunt LouAnn.

Busy Life!

Life, like everyone's, has been crazy busy this month. Here are a few pics of all the fun we've been having.



Dance Competitions-Here's Madelyn with her hip hop face.


Soccer-Madelyn has been so much more aggressive this year and has a lot better ball control. It's fun to watch her grow.


Field Trips-Ethan's last preschool field trip was to the zoo. He loved seeing the animals and being with his friends.


More soccer-Ethan had fun playing soccer although he wasn't so interested in the soccer ball as much as he was running with his friends :)


Coaching-Chad wasn't the coach but he did help out during the games and he did step in and coach the last game.


Shoe Tying-Ethan finally learned to tie his shoes. We haven't focused on it too much in the past but his preschool teacher was testing on all of the things that they could do so he really wanted to pass it off. I will admit there was also a power ranger involved.


Dance Recitals-Madelyn had her dance recital last night. She was in 4 dances and looked great in all of them, but you can definitely tell that hip hop is her favorite.


Preschool Graduation-Here's Ethan getting his great scrapbook from the year that his teacher gave to each kid (we paid for the books but the time put into them was priceless) She also read a little about each kid. By the way if Ethan had a million dollars he would buy a dump truck. What would you buy?


Super Singer-They sang some great songs at the program. Ethan loves singing and has been practicing for the last month. It was fun to finally see them performed. I'm so impressed how far he has come this year. At the beginning of the year he didn't even really care to focus on letters or sounds and now he's a beginner reader!



...and here's Emma coming along for all of the fun.

Another random photo shoot

Ethan had class pictures for preschool at a park with a professional photographer. You could also pay to have individual pictures taken which I really considered but since I'm a cheapo and had my camera, I walked Ethan and Emma over to the other side of the park and took my own pictures. Here are a few of the results.

Pets

Madelyn had pet day at school a few weeks ago. We took Haylee in to be groomed, bought her a new collar and leash, and with pockets full of dog treats, off we went to Madelyn's school. I was amazed at all the dogs in one area-they were all so well behaved. The kids got to show their pets one by one, talk about the pets, and walk them around the circle. Haylee loved all of the attention. I was just grateful she didn't do her thing right there in the gym like a few of the little dogs did. It was raining outside so they had to move it inside. She even came upstairs at home for the first time. Ethan loved having her upstairs and even read books to her. Chad and I had just watched Marley and Me and we were feeling some pet guilt.



Here are Madelyn's other pets of the moment. A few weeks ago we were working in the yard a lot and Madelyn seemed to have a fascination with worms. She would collect them at school and put them in her pencil box. She brought some home and left them in the piano room (without me realizing it) In the morning she thought some had escaped...I wasn't very happy about that. She found more at home and tried to keep them for awhile until I convinced her they needed to be in their natural habitat to survive and thrive. Chad and I were both amazed that she even wanted to touch them at all.

2 Wheels and Crazy Hair

Ethan finally let us take the training wheels off of his bike yesterday. Chad took them off, padded him up (notice the helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and gloves-he's accident prone!) and away he went. He's loving it and is telling everyone he sees that he can ride a two wheeler now. He's often giving me the list of things he needs to learn before kindergarten and now he can cross this one off along with snapping, he's pretty proud of that too.




So Emma's got a pretty good mullet growing so we often put it in a little ponytail on top of her head. This is usually what she looks like at night and in the mornings. Chad calls her a troll.