Cash's Blessing Day

Yesterday we blessed Cash.  It was quite the group of family we had.  I sure love being close to family!  

 Our family of FIVE!  {Wow- that's new} 

 THIS GIRL LOVES her new little brother!  She is such a great helper!  Always the first to come to his rescue when he's crying.

 With Grandpa Funk

 Grandma loves all her Grandbabies... but she especially loves them when they're this small ;)

Stewart gave Cash a very nice blessing.  (He didn't even change his name- according to Uncle Spencer Stewart has the final say in what we name our kids) ;)

Grandpa Jensen and Brogan are pretty good buddies.  I think Cash was initiated as a "good buddy member" today ;)

Christmas 2013

Having a baby at Christmas time is a wonderful thing.  It is also a very stressful thing  (Especially when you have extra doctor appointments to schedule and get to quickly).  I was pretty pre-Christmas prepared (all my decorations were up at the end of November...) but it was still a task to get all the things done I'd wanted to.  At one point I was feeling overwhelmingly stressed out and found myself screaming at everyone about everything.  I soon realized that in my attempt to try and keep things clean, plan a perfect party, and squeeze in all the little things I was sucking the fun out of everything.  SO I decided to just be chill.  I literally just gave up on caring about anything I would normally care huge heaps about.  (Stewart was a little leery to actually have people over without first helping me create "fake house") (even though to his credit he did keep trying to keep things together) ;)  

Christmas day was the first "real" day we did nothing but stay home and veg.  It was wonderful!  I held Cash all day- watched my kids play all day- let the mess go all day- sat around in my jammies all day- and just enjoyed it.  It was truly a Christmas to remember! 

 Here is our "Mom Tree" Christmas Tree.  I love getting a real tree.  This year we didn't make it to the mountains (due any day with a baby... not this year).  But we did go to Moody's here in town. 

 Here's a little view of our Christmas decor.  I think it feels magical with only the Christmas lights on.

Christmas morning after Santa came!  

 Love these boys! 

 Addison loves them too! 

 Christmas day was a candy free for all (Santa even left candy canes on the tree!)

Santa also left an orange in everyone's stocking (which the kids gladly ate first).  So glad Santa wants them to be somewhat healthy ;)

 Me and sweet baby Cash

 Brogan got a sweet castle tent from Grandma Jensen.  Uncle Jon was a good sport and got in.  (...so did Jaime when she stopped by) :) 

 The Jensen grandparents, the Bingham grandparents and Spencer all came by to bring us presents, see what the kids got for Christmas, and say hello.  (It was nice of them to come to us!  We loved seeing them on Christmas day!

 Grandma Jensen getting some Cash loves!

CSI Graduation

I finally did it.  Graduated from CSI.  Got my Associates in History.  Someday I'll get my Bachelors in Secondary Education and be a kick ass history teacher, but not for awhile.  Until my babies are rasied I'm going to try to be a kick ass mom who has an Associates degree. :) 

 Stewart also graduated this spring, but he got his Bachelors degree in Agricultural and Life Science from Universtiy of Idaho.  It's a good feeling to not be students anymore (although I'm not sure it has fully sunk in yet).  This fall when neither of us are fighting over who gets to use the computer at 11:00 at night perhaps we will know :)

 Of course the ceremony was dreadfully boring, and I was in the back of the auditorium (literally almost the last one to get my diploma), but thankfully I sat next to a hilarious Asian kid that cracked jokes the entire time... so I guess I was a bit entertained.

                                       

Also- a huge thanks to Nancy, Wally and Lindy for going.  It was so hot and boring, I felt bad they had to sit through it, but I'm so lucky to have great family support (and dinner at Sizlers was the perfect graduation night gift!) ;)

Fourth Of July *2012*

This year Stewart had to go to Texas for work over the fourth of July week.  It was a bummer deal, but that didn't stop us from having fun without him!

We started out in Dietrich where we watched a parade.  Aunt Lindy, Loni, and a whole bunch of Smith's rode Lindy's decked out 4-wheeler.  They were cute.

 The rest of us sat on the lawn and ate ice cream.  We didn't mind that job ;)

Grandpa Bingham feeding Brogan and Ali ice cream (a full time job!)

 Loni and Addison

These two sure had fun this summer while Loni was here raising her calf for the fair!

 We ended the night with our traditional firework show at Grandpa Funk's house.  The kids weren't so sure about the fireworks.  Addison eventually got used to them, but Brogan didn't like them... 

...He decided just to fall asleep.

(It helped that he didn't take a nap all day!)

 My Mom and her Dad.

 Audrey and Bruce.  Brogan just could not be happy!

 Aunt Chris helping Addison light her sparkler.  Her face is priceless... "am I sure I want to do this??"

 Krista's fiance (at the time) Brian, and her brother Bryce.  This is where Stewart missed out.  It's always the boys' job to light all the fireworks which provides some hysterical entertainment for the rest of us.  We sure missed him this year!

Snapshots from January

I got myself  Stewart got me a new phone this January, since my contract was up.  What do they say, "go big or go home"?  That's right, went big!  Got Verizon's new HTC Thunderbolt.  Can't say that I don't mind having the biggest, coolest, smartest phone in the house (finally).  I love that as soon as I take a picture I can upload it to facebook, straight from my phone!!! (still blowing my mind) While Facebook has been updated with our latest and greatest, I have neglected this here beloved blog (which I will someday print, and claim as my journal).  So just a minute ago recently I discovered that I can upload from my phone to picasa web albums, then upload to the blog.  Hallelujah!  This blog shall suffer no more! :)  Here's a recap on January in snap-shots from my phone.

too...sleepy...to... drink!

The first snow of the winter!!! 

Addison LOVES the snow!  She got
into a snowball fight with Dad!

Chatting with Loni, Ada & Tyce!

TWO birthday balloons! 

What a girl!

Look at that hair!

Love this scrunchy smile!

Look who's climbing on EVERYTHING!
I hate this tub ledge -he can get up just fine,
but he goes down with a clatter!

We loaded our tucker totes, and all the other
stuff in our bully barn shed, into this horse
trailer.  Of course, it snowed and rained for days
upon days.  The second we covered it with tarps it
stopped raining for good.  (GO FIGURE?!?!)
Stew's such a good man- he's re-securing the ties
(church clothes and all)

(As you may have guessed from her famous "Fast-line" picture, we've ventured into "potty-training land"!  I'm being totally laissez faire about it though.  Addison has her "fantastically enthusiastic" days, and her "not another p word" days [pee, poo, potty, pull-up].  She did have one day she only wet her diaper once, but since then- no cookie.  Oh well- one day my ship will sail and she'll decide to ditch the diapers for good.  Until then, we'll keep living day to day, wrestling match to wrestling match)  :)

The Wedding {Part 3} {The Reception}

After the wedding we went to lunch at the Olive Garden {my favorite!!} Then we had some REAL fun! We went... SHOPPING! So for those of you that live in very Urban places, you might now share my excitement for "Utah shopping". Seriously we went to Target and it wasn't anything like our Twin Falls target! Utah just has better stuff than we do! After Target {where I got some fantastic shoes (on sale) and got some sweet clothes and shoes for Addison} We went to Ikea. Holy Moley- NEVER been to Ikea before! I think I've found my new love! What an Awesome store! I got the kids an art easle for Christmas, and I also found some "fags" as Stewart calls them. :) LOVE It! Definitely have to go back!

After shopping we headed back to Provo for the reception. What a blast! It was such a simple, classy reception! I LOVED that they had a dance {one thing I wish I would've pushed harder for at our reception}. It was so funny- as soon as someone started dancing, it was like "cue Addison on the dancefloor!" We had to hold her back while the newlyweds had their first dance! We'll have to put that girl in some dance classes! Oh yes- BTW Stewart- you still owe me that dance that we DIDN'T have! :}

Stew's Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda on the dancefloor! {Don't remember if they were doing the cha-cha, Tango, or swing, but they were workin it!

Daddy and Addison having a dance

Grandpa and Loni shakin it on the dance floor!

Addison had to have a turn with Grandpa!

One of the first one's on the floor! Stewart's aunt Linda even asked me "How does she know to do that?!" What a natural :)
Are these two not just the cutest things?!?! There were several small cousins dancing together. How adorable!
After all these posts I just realized that I don't have a picture of the bride and groom! They were gorgeous together! It was a lovely wedding, and an Awesome reception! We had a great little mini-vacation!