10 years!

 It' gone by fast.  We've moved 7 times, lived in 3 different states and have 3 wonderful kids and 1 on the way.  I never imagined my life would be this great!  Bryan and I have grown and changed together.  I feel like I have learned so much in this short time, and I know that 10 years from now I will look back and realize these years were just like a blink of an eye. 

 Some of our enduring favorite activities we do together:
*Card and Board games.  We loved to play these while we were dating, and still love them just as much.  We are just as competitive with each other as we were 14 years ago.
*Boating and wake boarding
*Eating.  (This is probably Bryan's personal favorite, I'm just along for the ride, but I do like to find a really good place!)
*Road Trips.  You can't beat bonding time on the open road.  The longer the better!

Some things I've learned:
*Patience is learned by having children.  Through our kids, I am challenged each day to be more patient and Christlike. 
* There is a right way to load the dishwasher.  I was totally unaware it mattered, and thanks to Bryan I have been forced to see the light. 
* People CAN change.  Bryan doesn't leave the cupboard doors and dresser drawers open anymore.  He is super about closing them now. 
*Boys are smelly.  They just are.  So do the laundry often so your room doesn't smell like a locker room. 
* How use the grill.  Thanks to B, I can grill chicken like a dude.  (He is still better than me though)
* Dad is still cooler mom.  It doesn't matter what I do, they are always more excited than life itself when Daddy walks through the door after work.  I am okay with this though.  He really is cool.
* Sparky the Sundevil still sucks.  But I can't tell my kids.  It's my little secret. 
* T-VO has been the greatest invention for our marriage.  PAUSING live TV- Priceless.  Now we can have conversation's over dinner and not worry about missing the game.  Thank you whoever invented it.
*You can't go to bed angry when you pray together.  It is impossible.

Some things I am still working on:
*How to follow the budget.  I'm doing better...but sometimes it is a general guideline rather than a rule.
* How to put my husband first, and be less selfish.  I think this is going to take my entire life.  :)
* Parenting.  Holy cow.  There is big one.  This is also going to be a life long process.  Hopefully I don't screw them up in the process.  At least there is an instruction manual. ;)

Happy Anniversary to us!

Haley's Wedding

My sister got married in October in Oklahoma.  We had a fun (and by fun, I mean extremely fast) road trip out to participate in the festivities!  Here are some pictures I snapped during the weekend.  I wanted to enjoy being there, so I wasn't too concerned about taking million of pictures.

 

 

The Boat

Bryan and I really really like our boat.  Unfortunately, cosmetically, the boat has seen some better days.  After it got hit with a hailstorm at the end of last summer, the upholstery was in a bad place.  Especially when you wear a swimsuit. (which in a boat happens more often than not!)  Bryan decided was could re-upholster it ourselves.  He took all the seats out in the bow before I got a chance to take a 'before' picture.  But I did take these beauties after he took them all out...  It was cracked and well, take a look, you'll see what I'm talking about...

First step:  Take off all the old rotting vinyl.  It was seriously rotted on.  The staples were disintegrating when I tried to remove them.  Lucky for me my mother-in-law and father-in-law were in town this weekend.  We had quite the project on our hands.  I was SO happy to have help.  My MIL has some serious talent with a sewing machine, I couldn't have done it with out her.  The four of us worked really hard all weekend. (it probably took the 4 of us 12 hours to finish this)

I couldn't be happier with the finished product!

Here it is in boat!  All done!

(Now on to the Captain's chairs...just you wait! These are gonna be SWEET when they are done!)

 

My dad made me blog. Part 2

Geez.  I really am behind.! Here is a gazillion more pictures:  Peter on the first day of 1st grade! He wasn't really 'into' me taking pictures.  Can you tell?  He just wanted to go to school.  And he is doing great and loving it.  We have about 20-30 minutes of homework every night.  He is learning upper-case cursive letters now, along with how to read a map, cardinal directions, counting money and has a test next week on world geography- the 7 continents and all the oceans.  He is starting fractions in math, and POWER reading, where I get to time him and see how many words per minute he can read.  He is up to 125wpm now.  Impressive!  Way to go Peter.  I hope he keeps this enthusiasm for learning.  It is so great to see him learn and succeed!  P.S.  I love his school.  I don't know if I can ever go back to public school. 

 Mr. Heath, looking spiffy before church last week.  I can't get enough of this little guy.  His smile just melts my heart!

 

 This is now how Brooke poses for any pictures if you don't give her other guidelines: ha ha!
Miss Maggie moved last week and we sure have been missing her!

 And of course, what would summer be without HAIL?! 
Brooke thought it would be fun to put her suit on and play in it.  Crazy chick.  It was FREEZING out!

 Devin and Nicole came up for the weekend, which was so fun!  We did some biking, some hiking, and some boating.  Here are Heath and Teddy being buddies

 We went to the hot air balloon festival, which was kind of a bust because it was too windy to light them up. (It was a night thing where they put lanterns in the balloons.  They only got 2 a fourth of the way up and took them down)

 But they did light the fire torches.  Check out the look on his face!

 And finally, Brooke had her first day of preschool today.  She is SO ready and more than a little excited.

 Brooke is learning how to write her letters and starting to sound out the sounds they make.  I am hoping to get her reading by the end of this school year.  She asks me constantly to 'do worksheets' and practice handwriting and reading.  I do love this girl!

 Heath kind of wanted to go too...(so sad!)

 But he cheered right up when I told him he could play with my Ipod for a minute when we got home!