BIG FAT BLOG UPDATE: THE LAST 6 MONTHS

JUNE

Noah had his preschool graduation in June, which is always cute. He graduates at the end of every year though, so by the time he goes to kindergarten next year, he will have graduated 3 times. It's cute though, so I'm not complaining!

We went to our first Bees baseball game as a family



Father's Day: I love this picture!!! Noah picked out these matching ties all by himself for Jaren's present. If you have little boys who want to match their dad on Sundays, go to http://www.myfavoritepal.com/. They have lots of matching ties for all sizes of kids and dads.
What summer is complete without a trip to the zoo??





Noah is still an animal lover!
JULY
On the fourth of July, the kids thought it would be fun to play in the irrigation ditch in Oakley at Jaren's parents house. It sure made for some cute pics of Anslee. BUT, when I brought her in to give her a bath, I washed SEVEN HUGE ANTS out of her hair!



Jaren's Dad built the cutest tree house in time for the Fourth. The kids have loved playing in it.



Especially on the slide!




Noah and Anslee always love riding the four wheelers in Oakley

For our anniversary in July, we got to go to Vegas! Without our kids!! It's incredibly hot there that time of year, but we've gone for almost every one of our anniversaries.

I guess that's what pools are for! We also went to see Jersey Boys at the Venetian, which I thought was fabulous. Jaren pretty much hated that part of the trip.


Pepa
On a more sad note, my Pepa passed away the next weekend. It was bitter sweet; he lived such a good life and so many people admired him, but it's never easy to let someone so special go. He had been declining in health for a while, and I know that he was "ready" to go on the next life, but he had been such a constant part of my life since I was a baby, that it was hard to say goodbye. One thing I'll always remeber about Pepa was his sense of humor. He could always lighten the mood and it seemed to me that nothing got under his skin. My brother Brad and his family live in Cedartown near Mema and Pepa, so Brad has spent alot of time with them. He wrote a song about Pepa based on some things that Pepa had told him close to the time he died. Brad is a very talented musician, and this song is absolutely inspired.



Here are the lyrics:
Lately things ain't going the way they should
Seems like all my bad days are more than good
You may not recognize all the pain I feel inside
Cause I can't live my life.

Not so long ago I was another man
Do anything as well as any man can
Whatever it is I'm waiting for I hope that it comes soon
Cause I can't bear no more. Already fought one war.

Time rolls on and it doesn't wait too long
When it's time to move on
I hope they can

I sit here all day long so patiently
What used to take me one step now takes me three
Thinking about the way it was and how things soon will be
I finally see the light. I'm gonna go there tonight

Time rolls on and it doesn't wait too long
When it's time to let go
I hope I can

Father in Heaven take these chains from me
Take this broken body and set me free
Bless my family to know that I still care
Help them to know I'll always be there

Time goes on
When I can't hang on
I hope they can
I know they'll understand









GIRL'S BEACH TRIP
On a lighter note, we went to Panama City, Florida the next weekend. There were 9 of us total and we had an awesome time! There were sisters, sisters-in-law, and best friends in th group. I haven't been to PC since spring break in high school! My aunt and uncle let us stay in their GORGEOUS beach house. It was incredible! Definitely a step up from some of the places we have stayed in Florida. We felt like real adults staying in such nice accomodations. I have to say how awesome Jaren is--when Pepa passed away, I went home to Georgia for the funeral for a few days, came home for 2 days, and then left again for the beach for 5 days. During the month of July, I was also taking an online statistics class and had a quiz, test or homework due every single day that month. I could have never done all of this without him!

I loved the girls' retro swim suits. Too bad me and Em didn't have one :(


Me and Emmi


The beaches here are to die for. White sand and emerald green water!


You can't go to Florida and not go on the slingshot or some other form of bungee!! This one shot us 300 feet in the air! That's Lesley on the left and me on the right. Emmi and Ryan went after us.

Here is the video of us! I love that the girls on the ground are screaming as much as Lesley and I are! I needed that adrenaline rush!


I feel like we're at EFY again! Ryan, the perfect planner, not only made signs for everyone's rooms, but made shirts and welcome goody bags for everyone. There were 4 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms! It was SO nice!

No trip with Ryan is complete without a trip to a karaoke bar! This one was extra dirty!! Me and Em singing "Goodbye Earl"

Lisa bringing down the house with Lady Marmalade

"Best-ies"

Jackie, Amanda, and Ryan enjoying "mock"tails

Our beach photo shoot

My S-I-L, Ryan

AUGUST

Noah took swimming lessons and his confidence in the water has soared!

Noah loves his dog, Barkley! On every Thanksgiving activity that Noah did in preschool, the first thing he would say when they asked him what he was thankful for was "my dog"

Dinosaur Park in Ogden with Wilson and Bennett Harding

So fitting. . .

GIRL'S AFTERNOON!

Anslee and I got pedicures together and she LOVED it! She pretty much just soaked her feet and had her toes painted, but every time we drove by the nail place after that she'd say "Paint toes!"
Relaxin' in my massage chair

She thought the massage chair remote was the TV remote

Just a cute picture. .

TRIP TO GEORGIA

We went to GA at the end of August and spent some time with my family. I love this picture of the cousins sitting out on the curb at Zaxby's

The Georgia Aquarium

The World of Coke and the snuggly Coke Polar Bear

Noah took this picture of Anslee and I--he's a budding photographer!

Jake and Jenna's Birthday Party

Braden takin' a swing

And then we brought out the big guns. . .

I think Brad finally broke it. . . Sorry Tim :)

The whole Milkwick Family

Jake got baptized in Georgia and we were so glad to be there for it.

Jake and Ryan sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" at his baptism. It was so sweet!

Noah ADORES "cousin"Jake!

Trip to Savannah!
This is a really weird pic of my kids, but I had to get a picture in front of Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons. It was SOOOO good! I sometimes forget how good southern food is!

Savannah is supposedly the most haunted city in America. We went on a ghost tour in this hearse and heard all kinds of ghost stories.

We went to the beach on Tybee Island, about 15 minutes from Savannah
It was pretty windy and chilly, but that didn't stop Noah

We loved The Pirate House restaurant there! It's in a building from the 1700s that really used to be a tavern for pirates

This is the spot where Tom Hanks sat on a bench as Forrest Gump and told his life story. The bench is in a museum somewhere now

There were some gorgeous old churches there

OCTOBER

I already posted pics of Noah's reptile birthday party, but this is the cake I made for his family party. He was SOOOOOO excited about this cake. He didn't eat any of course, but he carried the cake pan I used around for days before I made it.

Anslee decided to model her Halloween costume at Noah's Bday party

Noah's birthday party at preschool

Cornbelly's

Fall is by far my favorite season, partly because of all the fun things to do. We go to lots of carnivals and pumpkin patches. Cornbelly's is one of our favorites!

This is right after we went through the Haunted Creature. Every kid that came out of there was crying!

Riding the cow train!

Can you believe my Dad fit into one of those cow cars last year?

My little princess

The corn maze--I love Anslee's pose!

Pumpkinland with the neighborhood playgroup

The Halloween Parade at Noah's school

Halloween

Yes, even Barkley dressed up! Noah was just as excited about Barkley's costume as he was about his own.

Anslee got a pretty good face paint job at the ward Halloween Party

Trick or Treating

Just being silly. . .

NOVEMBER

My friend KK (Kristin) took our family pictures again for us this year. She does such a great job! If you could see how crazy our kids are at these photo shoots, you'd be amazed at how many good shots she gets!

Tim's 30th Birthday

I really wanted my brother Tim to have a good 30th birthday, so we actually pulled off a pretty good surprise. There is a group of us that usually go out to Goodwood Barbecue every year for his birthday. This year, Tim was like, "Well, I guess we'll go to Goodwood again." I could tell that he thought that would be pretty lame in the first place, but what made it even better was that all of us had some reason why we couldn't go. Jaren was out of town and I told him that I couldn't get a babysitter. I went to lunch with him that day and I could tell that he was sad that no one was going out to dinner with him that night. There was a really small group of just a few people who were going to go out with him and he kept telling them that he couldn't believe that his own sister wasn't coming out with him on his birthday. There was about 20 of us waiting at The Grill restaurant at Sundance, which is WAY better than Goodwood. He was genuinely surprised to see all of us sitting there. He started going through all of our excuses like, "Oh I see you found a babysitter" and "I guess you're not sick" etc. It turned out to be really fun. Some pretty good "Tim" stories were brought up like the mountain goat story. If you haven't heard that one, just ask Tim about it. Actually on second thought, I'll embed the youtube video right here! Tim is about 15 years old in this video and he's with my dad, crying because he is so afraid of this mountain goat!

Ok, so Tim is more like 12 in this. Make sure you have your volume up so you can hear the whimpers!