The Best Family Fourth

The fourth of July is the Best Family holiday. 

It's not secret we like to have fun (2013, 2012, 2011, 2009)

I love celebrating this holiday. 

It is better than Christmas. 

All the time spent with family and friends but so much less stress. 

Wednesday night, I received a phone call from Dylan. 

He asked me if I would run with him in the 5k.  

Julie is far too competitive in this 5k and it never ends well with her and Dylan running together. 

I gladly accepted his invitation. 

Dylan likes to sprint for a good 2-3 minutes and then he is dead the rest of the time.  

I let him sprint and caught up to him within .75 miles. 

We then continued the rest of the 5k with each other. 

He was a great running buddy and only stopped a few times. 

2014 Best Family Runners. 

Julie was the winner 25:00

Matt and Gabers were only a couple minutes behind her. 

Porter is really into picking the poses for pictures.  

Here were some of his greatest ones from the 4th. 

After the run we headed over to the city breakfast and then to the parade. 

I love being home and doing the Layton city celebration. 

Luke was feeling pretty cool on his first holiday with his shades. 

We were all pretty overheated after the parade and run. 

We headed up to Talia's pool (Thanks again Talia!)

The kids and adults had a blast.  

You can see that Matt & Luke were tuckered out...

And so was Grandma

It was time for the family BBQ followed with a dance party in the back and then half the crew headed to LHS for the fireworks while the others stayed and watched them from M&D's house. 

Luke was really loving the fireworks.

It was a great day. 

Grateful for the freedom our country has. 

The men and women that have sacrificed their life for my freedom.

Happy Easter

This last weekend, I was able to reflect on the resurrection of my Savior and all that he has done for me. 

My heart was full when I left my parents house on Sunday for my wonderful family. 

I am beyond best with incredible parents and three great sisters. 

We are all so close. 

I never have realized how unique that is, until I look at others with their family. 

We are not a perfect family. 

But we fit perfectly together. 

Because of him, I get to be with them forever. 

Because of him, I am forgiven.

Because of him, I strive to better.

Sending 2013 off with a bang

2013.  The Year of Boldness. 

There is only one way to end a year named that. 

My friend, Cristina came up from Phoenix to ring in the New Year. We started our evening at the Porcupine Grill. 

Headed to the Tasting Room to join some friends for a party.  

Then I couldn't start 2014 without spending time with Matt before he headed back west the next day. 

So Cristina and I headed over and danced the morning away with Matt, Shane and Dalton.
Best decision ever.
We had so much fun. 

So much laughing.
So much dancing.
So much sweating.

Since Matt was leaving bright n' early on New Years to drive back we couldn't just let him leave without a proper brunch. 

Even if brunch was at 3:00am, at Dee's. 

We laughed our guts out until 4:30am when we all called it a successful New Years Celebration. 

Hands down.  One of the best New Years ever.

2014 has to be incredible with a start like that. 

Halloween 2013

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. 

For some reason, I wasn't much in the spirit this year.

I had a repeat of both the Lady Bug and the Peacock. 

I do love being so close to Sophia and Chloe so I can drop by over there anytime. 

I was able to see these little cuties in their costumes. 

They are sure cute. 

Happy Halloween!

God Bless the USA

The 4th of July is a Best family favorite. 

It is absolutely my favorite holiday. 

I love what the holiday represents. 

I love what we do to celebrate. 

and I love spending time with my family.

We start our celebrations very early with the 5k. 

Like always, we let Julie and Matt battle it out for the 1st place runner. 

The award goes to Matt this year. 

He was a speedy thing.

23:06 

and Julie was close behind him with 25:16

 

While they were running we took pictures of ourselves. 

That's what we do. 

Haddie picked out sunglasses just like her Auntie. 

She is too cute. 

After the 5k we all headed over to enjoy the city breakfast. 

These little boys were giving some extra loves to their Auntie.

Keeping tradition alive we headed over to the parade and cheered on our local favorites.

Matt and I deem this as our holiday.  

We like to go, go, go on this day. 

And it is all about the fun. 

We were lucky enough to have Grandma join us for the festivities. 

We sure love this lady. 

I'm grateful for everyday I get to be with her. 

I'm so thankful to live in this country of freedom. 

I'm thankful each day we are working towards true equality. 

One day we will get there, I know it. 

I am beyond grateful for the men and women that have served/serving to protect our freedom.

Happy 4th of July! 

Easter Sunday

Easter is not complete without your Easter Bonnet.

I think this is rather dashing and was laughing so hard when I found this picture. 

We spent Easter at my parents house and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  

All of us played outside and learned that we are horrible at volleyball. 

But I'm positive the neighbors were laughing at our "soft and kind words" exchanged.

I sure love my little kiddos and enjoy getting to spend time with them.

And this little cutie is growing way to fast. 

 So glad he will still snuggle with me. 

 It will be a sad day when he won't anymore.

Happy Easter.

My Easter Peeps

Every year, University of Phoenix hosts an Easter Egg Hunt for the employees families. 

I have been in charge of this event for 6 years now.  

It is by far my favorite. 

We get to see family. 

There is lots of candy.

Ashley is the cutest Easter Bunny. 

We get off at noon.

and the kids do all the clean up.

We had a little fun while we were setting up.  

My Easter Peeps were get to help set everything up. 

and clearly we are really photogenic.

I know the lighting in this picture is terrible, but I don't have any others with all my kiddos.  

Love them.

So happy Berk and Shanda could join us for the Easter Egg hunt and lunch after wards. 

My kiddos LOVE Berk! 

Great way to start Easter weekend!

St Patty's Day

In Best family fashion, we had nothing but a spectacular St. Patty's Day celebration. 

I'm pretty sure the kiddos love this holiday more than Christmas. 

They are constantly coming up with new traps and ways to catch that Leprechaun. 

My mom had a fun scavenger hunt for the kiddos to find their gold and the Leprechaun got a hold of all of our clothes and the-dyed them! 

Julie decided to make a 6 layer rainbow cake!  

It was sure tasty! 

But GIANT! 

Check out the size of that cake. 

Until next year, hopefully we can catch that sneaky Leprechaun.

2012 Recap

2012 was a great year. 

For what started out a rocky year, 

with losing my job 3 days prior to the year beginning, 

turned out to be a year to never be forgotten. 

Year of Dreams lived up to it name. 

It was a year of growth.

 A year of love. 

 A year of new relationships.

A year of travel.

A year of laughter.

A year that I am so grateful to have had. 

In the last 365 days I have learned so much about myself, 

realized what I want my future to look like 

and what direction I need to go to get there. 

2013 has big shoes to fill.  

Thank you 2012 for being so kind to me!

Year of Dreams

So Thankful

  

(This was our last Thanksgiving we spent together.  Clearly some time has passed)

Growing up we would go to California, every other year to have Thanksgiving with my moms cousins.  

With expanding families and more kiddos it made it hard for both sides of the family to celebrate Thanksgiving together. 

This year, we were lucky enough to have 1/2 the California clan out here for Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving day we all went and ran a Turkey Dash. 

We had a great time together and it surprisingly wasn't too cold.

Our families have gotten really big, which makes getting together really fun and crazy.  

We had 40+ people at Thanksgiving this year. 

There were tables set up everywhere and the kiddos all got to eat downstairs and cause as much trouble as they wanted.

After we ate our hearts out, we played lots of games and then headed out shopping!  

We had nothing on our lists to get, but we had a great time!  

With having our California family, we realized we had never taken Allie and Rachie to temple square.  

We headed to City Creek and went and saw the lights!  

This year, I was beyond grateful for my wonderful family and the joy each of them bring to me. 

I was extremely grateful for my relationship and friendship with my sweet cousins.  

I love them more and more and so thankful that no matter the distance between us, we are still so close!

Happy Thanksgiving!