The Hooligans Strike Again

Shortly before I had Aubrey I was out at my mother's house one evening. I stayed very late and when I went to go my father went to start my car. It had been super cold out lately and was well below freezing that night. My dad went out (probably in his sandles and shorts) and when he came back in he said that my car window was broken out. We got it fixed right away and later found out that there had been a number of windows shot out in the neighborhood, some were even house windows. A little while later I found a bullet hole in the roof of the car right behind the rear view mirror. It didn't go all of the way through but that made me mad, a window can be replaced and fixing a spot in the roof is a lot different. I thought we were pretty safe out here in the wood (Briarwood) but I guess you are never compleatly safe.

Anyways, this morning my mom went out to her car and then came back in and said that someone had been in her car and they had left the glove box open. I thought that maybe she had left it open and forgot or maybe my brother devin or my dad had been looking for something and left it open, all very possible scenarios. Then I loaded the kids up to take them to school and saw that my glove box was open with my box of personals pulled out and my CD cubby also opened. "Oh crap" I thought someone really was in our vehicles. I felt kinda violated in a way and wondered how in the world could any one do that when they can see the baby cloths on the floor, a bag full of toys, and beautiful artwork done by Kendra all in the front seat, seems kinda heartless to me. Then remembered... Josh always leaves his wallet in the car. I hate that he does that and I have told him so many MANY times. I looked down in the door compartment only to see nothing! I quickly called Josh to see if maybe, just maybe he had taken it for some reason but nope it was officially stolen!

So the hooligans struck again and this time made off with a driver's lisence, debit card, Social security card, costco card, temple recommend, pictures of our beautiful children, and possibly a gap credit card. We never use it so I can't remember if it was in there or not. Along with a variety of other things. I went directly to the bank and got our debit cards cancelled and there were no charges on our account, thank goodness. He didn't have any regular credit cards in his wallet, thanks to me (he was even just comlaining how I took everything out of his wallet). So I am hoping that this might teach him a lesson, in the meantime I am busy making a bunch of phone calls and getting started on paperwork, UGHHH. And no the car wasn't locked, Josh ushually locks it when he gets home at night but failed to last night.

Wedding Pictures

Woo Hoo!!! I got my hands on some wedding pictures, my mom's camera had some pictures on it and I stole some from my sister's blog, thanks Amy! If only my girls had been looking at the camera this would be a perfect picture. Who knows where Josh was, probably exploring the temple grounds he loved it!

And here is a full length picture of the beautiful bride and that is Presleigh my niece trying to dance with her I think.

Here are ll of the sisters, I look super tall I just noticed!

Here is Julie with her nieces and nephews on the steps of the Manti Temple. We are just missing Gavin and Hadley! If you look close you will see that Presleigh is screaming, Preston isn't looking and Aubrey is hunched forward. These pictures pretty much are guaranteed not to turn out!

He is one of Julie, it isn't the best. Her dress was absolutely beautiful I LOVED IT! And she looked stunning!

Here are the kiddos a little more in their element

All the activity made Aubrey exhausted.

Here is the gym pretty much finished. Just imagine the lights turned down, the centerpieces on the table and one of the middle tables with a cupcake stand and the other one with an ice cream sundae bar. But at least you get the idea of the ceiling.

This is Julie's new husband Paul. He is such a helper! After running around all morning getting last minute things he was finally able to help. He even got a phone call saying that their honeymoon cruise was cancelled due to the swine flu. Talk about stressful!

Here are the centerpieces but without all of the beautiful flowers in them, my mom got this idea somewhere and she did a great job with them.

Here we are just getting ready to raise up the middle of our masterpiece. I love doing things like this, I definitely could see myself doing it for a living :)

We just had to get a before picture!

More Pictures

Since I figured out how to get my Kiddie Kandid pictures on my blog I figured I better go back and put the ones of Preston on here.

A Wedding and Some Pictures.

We went down to Utah last weekend for Julie's wedding, we left on Thursday and got home late Sunday. Everything went great and the kids were wonderful until just after we hit the Utah border and then Preston was DONE! He pretty much fussed the rest of the way. We had gotten on the road early (we had hit Laurel by 6:00 am) so we were there nice and early. That night we finally got to try Cafe Rio, which we had been hearing all about for months. It was definitely yummy but I think next time I will try something else. I had the pork, which was delicious, but I like my mexican food to be spicy not sweet.
On Friday I got to do some shopping and we got the church all decorated, IT TOOK FOREVER but it turned out great. If I had to do it all again I could probably do the same thing in less than half the time. We had quite a bit of trial and error. That night we went to a session at the Mt. Timpanogos temple and it was wonderful. I have always wanted to go to that temple, it is one of my most favorites. I'm not sure why but it might be because they were building it when I was in high school. It is definitely beautiful both inside and out. The best part was being there with both Julie and Amy.
We didn't get done at the temple until 10:00 pm and then we loaded everyone up to go to Manti. Paul is from Nephi so he wanted to be sealed in the Manti temple and I don't blame him it is like a majestic castle. Julie and Paul were sealed at noon in the Manti temple and their sealer was a speed racer. He must have known we left 7 little kids with Devin and Garret out on the lawn, well there was a bridesmaid with them. It turned out to be a beautiful day and my arms and the back of my neck even got a little red. The reception was great and everything had stayed in place. My favorite part was that instead of a traditional wedding cake Julie decided to do cupcakes and an ice cream sundae bar. She has always been obsessed with ice cream so she decided to personalize it a little more, and it was a big success. And we got to snack on the leftover toppings on the way home, like gummy bears and M & M's.
On the way home we decided to go through Park City so that we could go to the outlets. It was so much fun! I did early school shopping and found jeans for Kendra, Ethan, and Preston for $8. Shirts for the boys for $2.50 and tons of other great deals including church pants for the boys and dress slacks for Josh, who just happened to ruin his over the weekend. The only bad part was the sales tax, bummer! I don't think that I will ever get used to that, I have been spoiled for too long now. After we were done shopping we had a picnic and let the kids get some wiggles out before loading them up in the van. It took a little while longer going home through Wyoming but it was nice to have some different scenery and to show Josh it wasn't as ugly as he thought it was.
We stopped and ate dinner in Casper. We chose Burger King because it had the biggest play place and we all needed a break. Before we loaded up I put the kiddos in the PJ's so that we wouldn't have to worry about it and they could be comfy. Well Preston's had feet in them so when we left I forget to get his shoes. So his shoes are still at the Burger King in Casper. I hate that!
Monday after we got back we went and got Aubrey's pictures taken. We had been putting it off forever because I wanted to take them all in so that I could get a group picture as well as Aubrey's first pictures. Well that just wasn't happening so I finally just took her in. They turned out great and I am glad to just have it done so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. I had taken all of the other kids in at 10 weeks and got an 11x14 of each of them and had them in matching frames. Well Aubrey didn't make it in until over 14 weeks, you can't tell that much though so I was relieved. I wish I had some pictures of the wedding to show you but my camera wasn't working so I am waiting to get some from Amy. (By the way Amy, Nicole and I were wondering if you could make each of us a CD of the pictures from last weekend we would really appreciate it :) HE HE) The little girls all wore matching orange Tu-Tu's and were super adorable and the boys hade cute orange ties.

Just Call Her Anne (with and E of course)

Last night at the incredibly cold, rainy, and windy softball game Kendra scored her first run! I was so excited for her. She has only hit the ball one other time, but at the last game Josh gave her some tips (it was the first game he had been able to attend) and her swing dramatically improved. I had been running Ethan to his game (which he ended up not having, good job me for checking the schedule) and finally made it back to her game just in time to see her hit it a second time way out into left field. When she got to the base she was jumping up and down. Her enthusiasm just makes me chuckle. Which reminds me.....

A couple of Sundays ago Josh and I sat down and watched "Anne of Green Gabels". I love those movies and can remember many Sundays when I would sit down to watch both Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea with my sisters, yes all four videos. Anyways Josh was cracking up most of the time at the way Anne talked and "Carried on so." But the funniest part was when we realized that Kendra is a lot like Anne. I guess that is what I get for watching that movie so many times and reading all of the books. She is so dramatic, both when she is happy as well as sad. Kendra had been watching with us until it was time for her to go to bed and I told her I was going to just call her my little Anne. Of course she didn't like that and got all upset, drama drama drama. I just hope that Aubrey isn't so dramatic as Kendra, I don't think that I could handle two Anne's.

A Busy Family

Kendra and Ethan have started baseball and softball and it is keeping us very busy. Soccer is much easier! But we gave them the choice and they decided that they wanted to give it a try. Right now they each have at least two games a week and then one or two practices, just depending on the coach's schedule so it is keeping us (or should I say me) running. They are having fun and learning lots of new things. My sister Amy was here last week and so Preston got to have a friend for a little while and my cousin is visiting her mother as well and she has a son that is just 6 days younger that Preston. Those two are adorable together! Preston has never had anyone so close to his age around and it makes such a huge difference. They are at the point where they actually try and play together but mostly they end up just playing "by" eachother. Today they were jumping on the trampoline and when Preston would fall then Kirk Allen would fall and then if Kirk Allen would fall then Preston had to fall too! It was just too cute. Aubrey is still being a wonderful baby and she loves to coo and smile. She is sleeping well at night and has even made it all of the way to 7:30am a couple of times. Josh is all finished with the semester, thank goodness, and is just waiting for his final grades to get posted. He was on the borderline is all of his classes but one and had a chance to get a 4.0 But I guess it wasn't meant to be because he got a B in biology. He is just glad that it is done, this was a super busy semester! Josh is going to enjoy a couple of weeks off and then start up with some BYU classes over the internet.

I got my haircut while my sister was here and I love it! I meant to take a picture of it so that I could post it but haven't made it quite there yet. My mom made my appointment for me and even paid for it, THANKS MOM! I tend to push things like haircuts for myself to the very bottom of the list and I can never seem to get in because I have four children and my husband works all of the time!!! So I really appreciated it and was thankful that my sister was here so that she could keep my kiddos out of trouble. We are ready for the warm weather to get here and STAY so we can go to the park and enjoy the beautiful outdoors!