California Trip and Darlene's Wedding

My wonderful friend Darlene got married in April. Toby and I had to opportunity to go to California for her wedding.  The reception was the night before but I forgot my camera.  It was a great night though.  There was good food and old friends.  Darlene looked beautiful...as usual.

The next day at the temple we couldn't find some one to watch Russell so Toby offered to stay outside with him so I could go to the sealing.  Thank you TOBY...you are the best.

 After the the temple we went to the visitor center to get out of the heat while we waited for Darlene and Mason.

 Russell loves to fly.

 Darlene and Mason

 Darlene, Mason and some of their family.

 I was so happy that I got to be there for her reception and her sealing!  She has been such a great friend (she came to Utah when Toby and I got sealed...the day before her birthday)  and I love seeing her so happy.

 Russell IS in this picture.

 We spend a lot of our time taking pictures around the temple.  Such a beautiful place.

 I love these boys.  The one on the right is my favorite. 

 It was a warm day but we were HAPPY to be out in the heat and not in the cold.  When we left Utah it was snowing like crazy.

 Russell likes flowers.

 I LOVE that Toby was able to get some pictures of me and Russell.  I would much rather be behind the camera but I like having pictures of Russell and I.

 Toby again shows off his one handed picture taking skills.  He did pretty good.

 I love his happy face.

 It was so great to be at the temple and to just spend the afternoon at such a special place.

Me and Darlene.  I meant to look like crap...I didn't want to show up the bride. HA.

Thanks Darlene for letting us share in your GREAT day.  There was more of the trip but I wanted to highlight the great day we spent at the temple.

PICTURES

Here are a bunch of pictures from a long time ago all the way til last week or so.

 This was taken the week before Landon was born.  About a year ago.  Both girls have grown up so much.  I have mixed feelings about that!

 This is a more recent picture.  

 He is such a ham.

 Russell found Alaina's cup of milk with oreo's in it

 He was such a mess.

 He slipped and fell!!! I was laughing but he was crying!!

 He can now climb out of the tub...not a good thing.

 Cute little boy. (Thanks Matuauto's for the outfit!) LOVE it!

This is how this kid eats.  He just stuffs it ALL in his mouth!!

These are SO old. But he is really cute.  He looks like such a baby here.  Now he looks like a boy.  It is going so fast but I am having a blast!

These kids were just sitting here with their arms around each other.  This was not staged.  I LOVE Russell's happy face here.

Russell is showing Toby how to build a dog house.  I think I have posted this before but I just LOVE it.

At the risk of waking a sleeping baby I had to get a picture of a common sleeping position for Russell.  Check out the foot.  I wish my baby monitor had a record button.  I would capture his BEST stuff.

Russell likes lasagna.

Ryker had this lovely outfit on under his jeans.  Toby thought it would be funny to hog tie Russell.  Russell seemed to like it too...for a little while.

April Birthday's

So April is CRAZY for birthdays for both Toby and my side of the family.  We had a last minute get together for my Dad and Morgan.  Nothing special but it was a bunch of fun.

Russell and Landon were on the floor and for the first time Russell got really interested in Landon.  Maybe a little too interested.  Russell acted like he wanted to hug Landon (not something we taught him to do yet) but then it turned into more of a strangling thing.  No one got hurt but we were all confused about what Russell was trying to do because he was all smiles and laughs. 

Landon had some good defenses though.  I didn't post a picture but Russell kept putting his finger in Landon's mouth and Landon would bit him.  It was actually extremely funny.

My parents got Morgan a picnic table for their new deck that they are building.

We were going to try to get my dad a new lawn lower but when we were doing our sneaky way of asking him about getting one he said that he didn't want one.  My dad's birthday was April 1st.  So we wanted to play a April fools joke.  We got a key and put a John Deere key chain on it and Toby said, "Sorry we couldn't help ourselves."  

This is really what he got.  Ryker had the best timing.  When we reveled that he wasn't REALLY getting a lawn mower Ryker yelled, "APRIL FOOLS HAHA"  We all just started cracking up (If you know Ryker's laugh this would make more sense why it was so funny.)    After, we felt bad because I think he would have really liked a new lawn mower.

We had some delicious cheesecake and this wonderful chocolate mouse cake thingy from Costco.  I love Costco.  Morgan and my Dad had a milk war (milk war is when you run out of milk so you take someone else's milk when they aren't looking) and I think Morgan had some milk come out her nose.  I don't think I have laughed that hard in a while.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALL YOU OLD PEOPLE!

Russell is walking

I have so much to right about but this is just so exciting that I am just going to skip it for now and get this up so you can all see what awesome things are happening here.

Parent's Bathroom

Living with my parents has been such a joy.  One of the things that Toby and I like is that we get to "pay" rent in creative ways.  They don't ask us to pay rent but we feel like we should contribute somehow.  So we get creative.  So through the years of living with them we have gotten them: a stove, a dishwasher, a vacuum and the newest one was remodeling their bathroom.  My parents wanted to pay Toby to do their bathroom but Toby thought it would be better if he just did if for our rent.  He wanted enough time to get it done fast so they aren't out a bathroom for to long.  So Toby decided that over Mother's Day weekend we were going to get it all done while my parents were in California for my uncle's wedding.  They had no idea.

 So here is a before picture.

 If you look at the top left part of the bath tub you can see part of it is peeling off.  It was much worse a while ago.  This is one of the reasons why my parents wanted to get the bathroom done.  So my dad was just going to get that piece bent back.  Toby thought that tiling it would look way better.  My dad was a little hesitant.

 So we decided that we were going to make the executive decision to tile it.

 Toby had to work a bunch so there was a lot of late nights and me making decisions by myself.  If you know me that is not something that I am good at. I don't like making decisions. SCARY!  Thanks Estelle for going shopping with me and helping me pick out the tile.  I love how it turned out.

 Toby and I really enjoyed working together on this project.

 We had a lot of fun together.

 

Here is a final product.

 So we painted, tiled the floor and the tub and we put up new base board.  We also put up new light fixtures and new towel racks and toilet paper holder.

 I know that this is a lame picture but here is what happened.  I kept close contact with my mom to make sure I knew when they were going to be home.  They left for their trip on Thursday in the late afternoon and came home Sunday night.  So Toby and I were seriously tight on time.  He was putting up the toilet paper holder when they pulled up.  When he was done he ran out to meet my dad.  He said, "Hey so I got that piece of the tub fixed but I just need a little help, do you think you could come help me for just a second?"  I was sitting on the toilet waiting for them to come and see.  I didn't get a good picture of my dad because we had the door open and so he could see from the bedroom.

 But we shut the door for my mom.

She was really happy.  I think she cried a little.  It was a lot of work but it was totally worth it.  Toby and I enjoyed working together.  The hardest part was deciding what they would want.  We didn't know if we should get things that would look really nice or things that were cheap.  In the end they were really happy with everything we did.  So this was our last rent we payed them and I think it was a hit.