Tyler's 6th Birthday

Ty's 6th birthday was on the 13th. I can't believe how old he is getting! It makes me feel pretty old myslef. And actually I have been noticing how old my face looks lately. Getting old is not cool! Unless you are a kid.

We celebrated Ty's birthday on the 14th. Angie and Nick and their kids came down to help us and stayed for a few days. It was so fun to have them here! We also invited the friends we had from our old neighborhood. The party was a Dragon Quest to find an evil dragon that stole some dragon eggs. I think Ty enjoyed it. I was taking photos of everything because Angie and her sisters are trying to start a party business and I am trying to be their photographer. So I didn't really get to pay much attention to Ty. It was so fun to have our friends and family here! Ty had mint chocolate chip cupcakes, dragon potion and a magic mix that made the dragon hunters stronger. The decorations were all so well made and creative! Here are a few pictures. I didn't edit them. I have actually been pretty sick lately. I have something called Meniere's Disease where if I eat too much salt the fluid sac between my ears swells up and causes me to have vertigo. It really sucks! And on top of that I have had this stupid cold since before Christmas which has had so many different stages. Right now I have sores in the back of my throat and cannot talk very loud without my voice cutting out. I haven't really been eating healthy, so I'm sure my problems have something to do with that! I will work on it though.

 Ty's Dragon Mask

 Dragon Potion and Magic mix.

(Sadie, Trayden, Trisha and Emma)

 "Slaying" the dragon

Waiting to take a swing at the pinata.

(Trayden, Tyler, Sadie, Darius, Damon, Trisha, Tristan and Emma)

New Obsession!

Yeah yeah, I know it's been a while :) I have been meaning to post for a very long time, but now I have some pretty good motivation. I have decided to improve my photography skills. Since I am brand new to this, I know it will take a while to produce good photos, but I have an awesome camera that I've had for a year and yesterday I just barely noticed that it came with some photo editing software! Hopefully it won't consume all my time, but I did spend about 4 hours working with a few photos last night. We went to Kolob Canyon with my husband's friend Dave a few months ago. Here are a few pics:

 I lightened this pic. Trisha has some boogers that I didn't know how to edit out, so if anyone knows how to edit I would love some input!

 Here is a before pic of me and Trisha.

Here it is after I edited it a bit. The background is a bit bright but there is less shadow on our faces.

Here's one of Ty!

I am excited for my new hobby! I don't ever want to be professional, but maybe I will get good enough that I won't have to take my kids to professionals. I want to learn how to make the eyes "pop" in photos, but I may have to wait until we can afford photoshop. I don't think my software can easily do that.

UPDATE:

Just thought I'd update my life a tiny bit while I am here. I have ran 3 5ks since the one I last posted. I also did a 10k with my family. Jeff and the kids ran a 1 mile race against Santa during the 10k. I really love running and being fit. I workout almost every day! Now my goal is to stop eating unhealthy! That one is very hard for me. It's my new years resolution though! Along with running a 1/2 marathon before the year is over!

We moved from our awesome neighborhood in Fossil Hills to an amazing house in Silver Creek this last November. The house is huge and we are a block away from Jeff's work (as opposed to 25 minutes away when we were at Fossil Hills). The only thing I really don't like about this neighborhood is that there are no kids that live close. Most of the people in Silver Creek are retired. I met a few of them on Sunday at church though, and they are pretty fun! I am just worried that our kids will disrupt the quiet they are probably used to.

I am trying to start babysitting again. I've had a few people say they definitely want me to watch their kids, but they haven't called me since so hopefully I will be babysitting soon. I will definitely miss all of my extra time, but my kids need other kids to play with and we can use the extra money!

Tyler's birthday is in 2 days. Trisha had her birthday and we invited all of her friends from our old neighborhood. There were a lot of kids there! We are doing the same for Ty. Jeff's mom and Sadie came to Trisha's party, and now the Perkins' are planning on coming to Ty's. It's fun to live close enough that they can do that, even though we are far away.

Here are some pics from Trisha's party.

My First 5k!

Paige Probert, Anna Mead, me and Jackie Johnson before the race.

Us crossing the finish line!

Last night at 10pm I ran my first 5k! I went with a few girls from my neighborhood. I love my friends here! They are active and do things together a lot. The 5k was a fund raiser for a girl who died in 2008 in a car accident. She was very active, so they decided to celebrate her birthday every year with a 5k fundraiser for a scholarship fund. It wasn't really a competitive race. There were children running and I don't think there was a prize for placing. I made it in 35 minutes!

I have been going to the gym with my neighbor, Marika Benedict, since I moved here. She has inspired me and helped motivate me to get into shape. I feel so much better about myself and I love working out! I do a spin class twice a week that I totally love!! And she has gone with me a few times to show me how to work out and get results. I really appreciate her help. People would pay to have her train them the way she helps me! Now I just need to stop snacking on unhealthy food, lol!

July 4th and a Baby Blessing

Fireworks at Founder's Park

Trisha, Sadie, Ty and Brandon after the children's parade

Trisha's first time riding her bike in the children's parade in Centerville. She came in last, but she made it the whole way!

Ok, so I took a ton of pictures of Trisha, but she poses so cute!!!

My family at Jared's baby blessing lunch

The July 4th weekend was pretty fun! We went up to Centerville, watched fireworks and went to a parade with Jeff's family, and then had my sister's new baby, Jared's, baby blessing. It was pretty fun! And I must say, I love my camera! Enlarge the photos and see how clear they are! Even the fireworks look awesome!

Ty and Trisha were both sick while we were there. Ty had a cold, and at first we thought Trisha had pinkeye until I took her to the doctor and he said she was just so congested from a cold that the mucus was coming out of her eyes. She also had an ear infection. Luckily they were both pretty happy the whole time. Trisha keeps telling me she wants to go to Grandma's house all the time now.

Trisha with Grandma Krammer


Here's a pretty sunset in Centerville

Vegas Trip

Taste testing Coke drinks from around the world!

We went on a short trip to Vegas with the kids on the 23rd. It wasn't the best trip, since the kids were whiny and complaining most of the time. We went when Trisha was 3 or 4 months old and it was a blast! But it was also better planned out. Most of the activities consisted of playing arcade games and getting small prizes with the tickets we won. Trisha was surprisingly lucky and won quite a few tickets! And Jeff won a $500 ticket jackpot! Unfortunately the arcades we were at called for over 10000 tickets for anything big, and the big items were nothing special.

The Coca Cola Bear
Trish was terrified of him at first!

We stayed in the Luxor Hotel and Casino. The room was really nice and it had pillowtop mattresses, so the beds were really comfortable! We only stayed one night since Jeff had to work. The kids loved the lights at night. They also got caught sitting at the gambling machines a few times when they let go of our hands and made a run for it, lol!

We went to the top of the stratosphere and watched people bungee jump off the top. It looked pretty scary, but Jeff is trying to convince me to do it with him if we ever get to go an a vacation without our kids. I might!

MGM Grand Lion Habitat

Ty's Last Soccer Game!

Today was Ty's last soccer game, and although they only had 8 games and 8 practices together, Ty was pretty sad for it to be over. He met a few boys that we will probably get together with again. All of them were fun and they made a great, easily distracted, team of 4-5 year olds. Here are a few pictures from today:

A team effort!

Re-hydrating. I love the lighting in this photo!

They got some cool trophies!

Here's the whole team! It was so hard to get them to look at the camera!
Back row, left to right: Derek, Kaiden, Tanner
Front row l to r: Carter, Aiden, Tyler
Carter was Ty's favorite in this group, and he was an amazing soccer player for being 4 years old!

Cotton Days

A little about Washington's Cotton Days: More than 135 years ago, Washington City was the birthplace of the Southern Utah Cotton Mission. Today, Washington City continues to enjoy its reputation as a leading city in Washington County community. The annual Cotton Days Festival is a family friendly event that celebrates the heritage of this great city.

Today Jeff's work had a booth at Washington's Cotton Days celebration. The whole celebration lasts for 7 days and they do tons of things like the Iron Man Triathlon, a rodeo, a movie in the park, a parade and a bunch of other stuff. The only thing we went to was a little fair they had. It was pretty fun! The kids went on rides, played games, got free food and got their faces painted. It was a hot day, and I got a sunburn over the tan I have been working so hard to get! Oh well, it beats having snow!!

Trisha still closes her eyes when she knows her picture us being taken. I guess Ty wanted to copy her in this pic!

There were a few little games that they could win prizes at. Trish was pretty dangerous to be around in this dart game!

Fishing is always fun!

This Bearded Dragon was gorgeous! I've never seen an orange one!

Trisha got a pretty butterfly painted on her face. When I showed her this pic at the fair, she instantly ran back to the lady an yelled, "No butterfly, flower!" She is so feisty!

Ty's awesome snake.

Trisha was exhausted! After this nap she woke up and cried for an hour. I really wish she could talk more clearly so I could help her through these tantrums she has!