Eli's Birthday Parties!

Eli started out his birthday with some Mickey Mouse Pancakes, and blew out his three candles.

He had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday. So here is his Mickey Mouse cake.
I also made cup cakes using Oreo's and Mini Oreo's. They turned out looking great! It was a lot of fun.

Eli had a fun Mickey Mouse Clubhouse friend birthday party. We played lots of fun games inspired by the show. And we had a good group of kids. It was a successful party! Lots of fun.

At his Family Party, Eli recieved a Peter Pan/Robin Hood costume from his Grandma Jardine! She made it herself! It is so awesome. There is another hat too, but I didn't get a good picture of it. Anyway, super cute! He thought the little dagger was the best! I love the cape! I'm sure this will get a lot of use through the years.

Grandma Mortensen gave him this super cool dragon thing! Everyone loved this! It makes noise, and can squirt water! She gave him some other great things too. Thank you to everyone and thei gifts! We have such a generous family! Eli loved all the things, and the kids have had a great time playing with everything!

The big thing that we gave him, was his own scooter. He loves it! I hope he will enjoy if for many years to come.

Here he is, blowing out his candles, and getting ready to dig in to his Mickey cake!

Happy Birthday Eli, we love you!

Happy Birthday Eli!

Cute, smiley baby!
He is wonderful big brother.

Handsome.

He liked to get in the tub...fully dressed! Once he dragged his blanket in with him!

Snow baby!

Thanksgiving, 2007. That potato is almost as big as him.

Eli has always been drawn to electronics.

so cute.

Eli used to always stick his tonge out. He would just have it out, for some reason. Super cute!

A brand new baby.

Eli turnded three on September 29th. We are so happy that he is in our family. He has been my biggest baby so far, at 9 lbs. His delivery went really well. And he has been healthy and strong ever since. I remember watching confrence in the hospital the day we took him home. He was a very good baby. He is a special little guy, who will probably grow to be a large man. I only hope that I can teach him, so that he will be just as large in spirit as he is in stature. I'm so grateful that I get to have Eli as my son.

My "iconic" pictures.

"Can we have some Chocolate Milk?" This is what I hear all the time from my kids. Especially right before bed time. And so I get out these sippy cups and line them up on the counter, and proceed to make chocolate milk for each of my kids. And the other day I thought, "I'd should get a picture of these sippy cups all lined up like this, this is something I don't want to forget, and I think will prove to be a good memory for me of my little kids." So here are the pictures I took. They probably wont mean much to anyone else, but they almost bring a tear to my eye! I sure love me little ones. They mean so much to me.















Green- Joshua
Pink- Breanne
Blue- Eli
Orange- Scott
(As long as those colors are clean, that is what they get, those are what they ask for.)

"There is beauty all around!"

These photographs do not even come close to doing justice for how absolutely beautiful it is up the canyon right now. We were so blessed to be able to go up on Saturday and go four wheeling. I neglected to get any shots of that, but we have some from earlier, and it's about the same idea. But on the drive down the canyon, I whipped out the camera and tried to get some shots from the car.

We really live in a very beautiful world. I'm so grateful for the mountains that we get to enjoy. I know that I don't take advantage of them enough. But if you can....take a drive up there and see it for yourself! It is worth the time!

Can we have a Camp Out???

I guess that because we haven't ever been able to actually go up the canyon and go on a "real" campout, combined with an episode of a recent television show where the characters go on a camp out, our kids wanted to have a camp out down stairs. They put out all the "play tent" stuff that we have, and I blew up the air mattress. But Jared and I knew it would be short lived. And we were right. Eli said that he didn't want to sleep down stairs and went right to bed with Scott, and Josh and Breanne stuck it out for about a half hour before they became to scared and came up to sleep in their beds. But it was a lot of fun while it lasted! They are so cute, and have such great imaginations!

I wish I had two dishwashers!

Does anyone else wish that they had two dishwashers, or is it just me?

I could easily load two. It seems I load one, but there is still a sink full of dishes waiting it's turn. I would love to get them all done at once. But whatever, at least I have a dishwasher at all. Thank heaven for that. I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever thought of it. See, I want to remodel our kitchen, so that I can put in two dishwashers. I've seen it done once on a t.v. show, and since then, I've thought it was a good idea. Anyway, you can tell what I've just been doing....DISHES!!! (By-the-way, that is not my dishwasher....I stole an image off the internet.)

8 Years Ago....

September 22 is our wedding anniversary! It was a perfect time to get married. Beautiful weather for an outdoor reception (that was held in my parents back yard). And just perfect for getting our photos taken and such outside the temple. (I'm always so grateful that it was warm but not to warm for my wedding when I see these gals outside the temple freezing/or boiling when getting their photos taken.) Anyway, we have a wonderful life together. A 1 bedroom apartment for 5 years, a minivan, a new house, a Masters Degree, and 4 kids later....and we are going strong! Life is good, and we are so blessed. I'm so lucky to have married such a fine person! Jared is my love, and my life. He is a wonderful husband, father and friend. He makes me laugh, and is always looking out for me. I know he would do anything for me. What a great 8 years it has been, I can't wait to experience all the rest through out eternity!

This was our photo on our engagement announcments. (Check out how blond my hair was!)

One of my Bridals. (Lookin' pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

Our Cake. I loved my cake. It was exactly what I wanted. Beautiful. I loved the roses on it. And Jared picked our cake-topper. It's pretty cute.

Outside the temple.

The classic, "in front of the temple shot."

We couldn't stop kissing. Our poor photographer kept having to say, "okay now give her a kiss. Now stop kissing. Stop kissing, STOP kissing!" But she was patient, and did a great job! We loved her! She took some great shots. This is only a few.

What a lovely day. I loved getting married. It was so wonderful! Everything went completely perfect! And afterwards, we went to Puerto Viarta on our honey moon. Oh, I should scan some of those photos. What fun!!

Joshua's first grade field trip

I particularly love this shot!

They took the first graders up the canyon for a super fun field trip. And I was lucky enough to get to come along. I took lots of photos, but I'm nervous to post pictures of children that I don't know. So here's some more obscure ones. Joshua is in the green shirt. It was a really great field trip. The kids all had a great time.

"The After"

It is difficult to get a good picture of this room. It is hard to capture the transformation on film. Because one of the biggest things that we did was to re-texture it. And you can't really tell that from the picture. But you can see the color, and the nice white trim. I don't know...It's just what I've got so far.

"I want an architect, mom"

So Breanne is going to a pet store for a field trip this week, and last night Josh suggested that she should buy a pet while she is there. We, of course, say..."no", But you can buy a pet when you are 18 and moving out of the house into your own house. To which, Breanne responds, "I will buy an Architect!" We smile to ourselves and say, "what's an architect?"

"A dog from the Arctic!" -Breanne

I thought it was pretty cleaver.
It could actually make a pretty good laughy-taffy joke.

Remodeling!

We started remodeling again! We are going from Room to Room and just doing what we can, when we can. We are having to re-texture pretty much every wall and ceiling, so that is adding a huge extra step. But I think that the result will be totally worth it.

Here's Jared texturing the walls. We will be painting tomorrow, so I will post that later!

This is a picture of the bathroom. We aren't done with it yet...by any means....but we did paint the cabinets, and I think it made a huge difference. They used to be Peach, like the walls...Ugh! I can't wait to see what it looks like with a decent paint color on the walls. Of course this is a temporary remodel until we have the funds to rip everything out, and put in new!.....someday.

This is a picture of a few things: First, is the "before" picture of what the hall looks like. (Because we are going to be working on it next).

Second, is of the mess that is infront of the door of the room that we are working on right now. And Third, of the cabinet at the back that I painted. They used to be dark brown. They look awesome and new all white! That is what we will be doing to the kitchen......soon.

Here is what it looked like when we textured the ceiling. Those are the dressers full of the kids clothes. Did I mention that I will very happy when we are done, so I can get to all their stuff again.

Hair cuts!!!

Joshua really needed a hair cut the other night, so after he got one, Breanne actually asked for one. Usually she tries to avoid it. Luckily she doesn't need them too often, cause she is wiggely! And it was a little harder than I thought it would be. But I think it turned out cute! She loves it. I think it makes her look a little bit more grown up. It will grow fast, and it really isn't that short. Just a change.

Joshua got the customary short cut. I just hate it when his hair starts sticking out over his ears. That is when I know that it is time for a cut.

And here is Scott. I acutally cut his hair like a week ago, along with Eli's. He has super thin, fine hair, and I was worried that by cutting it off, he would look like he didn't have any hair. But I think it looks cute. He is such cute kid. And it also makes him look more grown up.