To my Man of 5 years

Where has the time gone? On the other hand, I can hardly remember my life before YOU. I love you sweetheart...............the only thing I am thirsting for is MORE!

How does your garden grow?

Joe has been wanting to plant a garden for months now. So for his birthday, we decided to get him some seed packages of a variety of different fruits and veggies. Well, a week and a half ago he planted some of them in paper cups, like this:



To our surprise this is what our little seeds have sprouted into only a week and a half later. I know I know, I must be very amateur when it comes to plants and gardening, but come on, these things are huge. We have been astonished and we sit a stare at them for a few minutes together every night.




I think we better be planting them in the garden soon. It seems that they have already outgrown the paper cups.


Is it just me or is that an amazing amount of growing for such a little bit of time?

Project with Dad

Joe is so much better at letting the kids get messy than I am. While I was getting my haircut, Joe decided it would be fun to do a little project with the kids. Joe got Isaiah down to his diaper and put one of his old shirts on Kayla, gave them each a paint brush and painted the swing on our back porch. It looks much better and was very much in need of a new look. And while they were at it, the kids got a new look too!

Organization is Key

One of Joe's favorite meals is BLT sandwiches and fries. While I fed Porter, I asked Kayla to dump the bag of fries on the oven baking sheet. This is what I came back too:

I thought it was so cute that she had lined up every last one of the fries. Either Kayla loves to organize, or she likes fries best when each piece can get evenly browned.

I love this girl's cute little personality.

My boys

When did I ever get two boys? I just really can't believe I am the mom of these two HANDSOME little guys.

Sweet's Candy Factory

Julianne invited us to go to a Candy Factory with her cute kids. We had a blast, and we will for sure go back. They showed us how they make some of their candy and gave us a tour of the candy factory. They even let us sample the candy. My mouth still waters for the fresh coconut taffy they let us sample right off the conveyor belt. The taffy is WAY better fresh.

At the end of the tour they gave each of us a bag of taffy. The kids were ecstatic! They have been begging to go back ever since.......I wonder why?



I got a kick out of the hats they had us wear, especially little Porter's. They had little hats just for babies. He is my little factory man.


If anyone is looking for some good free fun, we would LOVE to go again. Gotta quench my sweet tooth somehow.

It's Joe's Birthday!

I love days like today, because I get full bragging rights of my wonderful Husband Joe. Today is his 29th birthday, and I have been teasing him, because he has one last year of childhood and then he is officially an adult. Oh how I love my Joe. Just like last year (except I wrote 28 things) I want to write 29 things that I love about Joe.

Here we go:

1. I have always been extremely weak. Seriously, I hardly ever beat anyone at a dang arm wrestle. Before marrying Joe, I remember dating one guy in particular, that I seriously thought I would have to protect if someone robbed us. That is when I knew that I wanted someone that I had total confidence that could actually protect me and I wouldn't have to "pretend". Well, with Joe, there is absolutely NO pretending. He is the strongest person I know.

2. Speaking of strong, Joe gets a high out of moving things. It's a good thing too, because shortly we will be moving into a new house. In Michigan, we acquired a playing piano. Believe me, this thing is MONSTROUS!!! Joe is excited to try to move it again (hopefully his little brother Josh will help him, I do want Joe to have a healthy back).

3. Whenever I ask Joe to do something, he does it immediately. Seriously! Where did he come from? Sometimes I mention that a drawer isn't working right or whatever, and next thing I know he gets his tools out and fixes it. No honey-to-do-lists for Joe. He gets it done right away.

4. I love that Joe is a dreamer. About a week ago we found the house we want to buy. He was so excited to see that the backyard wasn't done yet. That night, I found Joe in bed with paper, a ruler, and pencil in hand drawing out a fun backyard. It makes me smile.

5. Whenever Joe gets home from work it is family time. He centers EVERYTHING around us. The kids gets so excited when daddy gets home.

6. Joe is VERY loyal. If you are a friend or have ever been a good friend of Joe's, he sticks by you. I have honestly NEVER heard him speak negatively about his friends. What a great example he is.

7. Joe is in the process of planning out Isaiah's log bed. It has been Joe's tradition to make all of us log beds. When we were engaged he made us an enormous log bed. It used to dwarf the places we lived in Michigan, it is so huge. He has made a log crib, Kayla's log bed, and now it is on to Isaiah's. I love this tradition.

8. Joe loves his Mom. He speaks so highly of her and would do absolutely ANYTHING for her.

9. Joe loves potatoes. You name anything potatoes, and he loves it!!

10. But, I figured out why he likes potatoes. I think it is because of sour cream. He could eat that stuff on ANYTHING!! If I come home with 2 or more tubs of sour cream from the store, you know it has been a good shopping trip and it makes Joe very happy.

11. Joe is so patient. He has never-ending patience for me and for this I am grateful. He is so patient with all my many weaknesses.

12. Joe has a very strong testimony of Jesus. We sometimes get lost in conversation about the Savior and the love Joe has for Him overwhelms me with gratitude.

13. Almost every day Kayla asks Joe when they are getting married. One time I told Kayla that she would marry a different boy and Joe quickly responded and said, “Kayla, it’s okay, you can marry me!” I was put in my place. :) Kayla has Joe wrapped around her finger. It is so cute to watch the love they have for each other.

14. Joe has taught Isaiah how to use tools. Just yesterday, I took the kids to my moms house. My mom has a whole bunch of kid tools. My mom and I were chatting and Isaiah came up to my mom and said, “ I will fix you with tools.” He then proceeded to use the plastic saw and pretended to cut off her leg. It was so cute, and made me think of Joe.

15. If Joe sets his mind to do something, he will achieve it no matter what. He is a very determined person.

16. Joe is a very hard worker. Last year, he started studying for the bar 6 months in advanced and passed it with flying colors. I was so proud of him!

17. Last week was Kayla’s first soccer game. Kayla was so cold and didn’t want to play. My first instinct was to make her play, but Joe, the wise one, lovingly took her in his arms and walked with her by all her teammates while they were playing. He is helping her LOVE soccer, I probably would have helped her hate it.

18. Joe is a GREAT cook. Hands down, he is better than me. I look forward to the times he cooks. Too bad it isn’t too often.

19. Joe reads the scriptures every day with the kids. He is almost always the one to remember (but Kayla also won’t let him forget.)

20. Joe loves his family. It is amazing to see how close they are. I hope to incorporate this in our own family.

21. I don’t necessarily love this about Joe, but Joe likes the smell of skunks. Isn’t that odd? I love to make fun of him for it.

22. Once we were very low on food. I decided I would try to do what moms do best and mix a whole bunch of things from the cupboard and magically have a wonderful dinner appear. Well, I was a complete failure. When Joe got home, I told him to try it and he sweetly said, why don’t I go get us a pizza.

23. Joe loves to stay in shape and is health conscious.

24. When I asked Joe what he wanted for his birthday he said, “Something for you!” He would much rather take care of me than himself.

25. Joe loves to make new traditions. We try to make up fun, unique ones for the holidays.

26. Joe is a HUGE tease. We have been flossing consecutively for over a year and a half, because of a bet we have. After all this time, he STILL tries to hide the floss from me.

27. Joe just LOVES Porter. He can make Porter belly laugh so cute, and Porter’s little face lights up when Joe walks in the room. What a special bond those two have.

28. Joe loves my family and would do anything for them.

29. And last, I love that Joe asked me to marry him. How did I ever get so lucky?


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!