50th Wedding Anniversary

Ok, so this is a little late coming. I'm just starting to catch up on my blogging for the past couple of months, since school and work have kept me so busy. Now that the semester is over, I finally have a life again, lol! :) Over the next few days I'll add some more posts, but I thought I'd start with a fun one tonight.

In March my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! Isn't that awesome? I'm so happy for them, and so excited that we got to celebrate with them. My Aunt Rie put together an anniversary party for them that was amazing. My grandparents invited a couple of their closest friends, but mostly it was a big family party. Some relatives from my grandpa's side came that I've never met before, as well as my grandma's sister who still lives in Denmark! We had quite the crowd, and it was so fun!

The happy couple! Aren't they cute?

Grandpa, Grandma, and their children (my mom was there too I'm sure) :)

With all the grandkids and great-grandkids...

My grandpa's brother Gary and his family

And with just the grandkids

Watching a picture video of grandma's and grandpa's life together

Grandma, Shane, and his fiance Haley!

Chilling after the party

Ok, so this is an awful picture of me (ignore the flabby belly) but I thought it was such a cute picture of my grandma, my sis, and I

This is my grandma's sister, Kirsten (from Denmark), Jenna, her boyfriend Mirza (from Sweden), and grandma. All we need is Launa's husband Miguel from Mexico, and we'd really have a multi-national family picture ;)

The day after the party we took a trip out to Cathedral Gorge. Its such a fun place to go and hike around, and apparently its one of my Aunt Kirsten's favorite places to visit out here.

All in all it was a great party, and we had a great time with all the family that came! Happy anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!

Some New Pictures

I realized the other day that its been FOREVER since I posted anything, and part of the reason is I haven't taken pictures much lately. Well, I had to remedy that!!!! So this morning the girls and I had a little photo shoot, and I think the pictures turned out pretty cute. I was also playing around with Picasa to edit the photos, and found some effects that I thought looked cool, so here are the results of our morning shoot :)

Sledding!

Last Friday it snowed pretty good here, which made Saturday a perfect day to go SLEDDING! This was actually Sadie's first time and she had a blast!

Looks like some other people had the same idea ;)

Having so much fun!

Ambrie had fun too watching all the action!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

See that innocent smile? She gave me that right before she chucked that snowball at my leg, lol!

Although I'm sure she wanted to, Ambrie did not actually sled. All she got to do was pose all cute for pics in the sled

For those of you who are wondering, Brian and I are still separated, but things are going really well right now. I'm really feeling good about how its going and really, really hope things will keep up as they've been. Brian has really been trying and working on the things that I had serious issues with, and we're both trying to work harder on our marriage.

Our kids seem to be alot happier since we've been getting along better. I didn't realize how much Sadie knew what was going on until she started saying things about our family being together more- it breaks my heart that she knew (at least somewhat) what was going on. I feel horrible. But I'm so happy that she can also tell that things are getting better. She's such an angel, and so is Ambrie.

So that's what's going on with us. Thank you so much to everyone who's thought about us and prayed for us. I know its helped!

Surprise! Surprise!

Yesterday Brian and my good friends Aimee and Lindsay threw me a surprise birthday party! It was so thoughtful and so fun, so I really wanted to write about it!

My friend Aimee and I have been trying to go for walks every Monday and Friday lately, so yesterday (the day before my birthday) we met halfway between our homes like we usually do, and this time our friend Lindsay was with her. "Cool" I thought, Lindsay is coming with us. So we took our usual walk down towards the streets by the freeway. Its not the best neighborhood- ok, it scares me- but its close and we go during the day, so its not a big deal. The whole time we were walking, Aimee and Lindsay would keep stopping to check text messages. I was so annoyed! Why were we even going for a walk if they were just going to text the whole time?!?!

We got to the corner where we usually turn to head back to our street, but Aimee and Lindsay wanted to keep going....ok. I argued because like I said, I think the streets by the freeway are scary. But Lindsay said "Its ok, there are three of us and I know some people who live around here. We're fine" So we went....and went....and they kept stopping to check messages. Then Sadie started getting cold, so I started walking a little faster so I could get her home. Well, Aimee had an extra blanket, so we wrapped Sadie in that. You think I would have had a clue, but since it wasn't my birthday until today, I didn't think anything other than "good heck, these guys need to put away their phones!"

FINALLY we got to my apartment and I saw that Brian's car was there. Cool, we can all hang out! I got to the door- it was locked. Okaaaay......And I still didn't have a clue. I know, I'm pretty dense. I unlocked the door and my living room was full of balloons! Brian, and our friends Tyson and Rachel popped out from behind the door and yelled "SURPRISE!!!!" And thats when I figured it out! It was so AWESOME!!! I've never had a surprise party before in my life, and I haven't had an actual birthday party for years. So it was really amazing and really fun.

More of our friends showed up after a bit and we all had pizza and cake and played games- I think we had 11 adults and 6 kids, which made my apartment pretty crowded...AWESOME!!! My friend Aimee decorated a GORGEOUS cake for me! All in all, it was just amazing! It was so incredibly thoughtful, and I was so grateful that so many people came. Some of my friends didn't find out until earlier that day, so they had really short notice. In fact, Brian said Tyson and Rachel didn't find out until that afternoon and they came over while I was on my walk to see if Brian needed help setting up for the party. I really have the most amazing friends! And it was so thoughtful of Brian to do it! He said he thought of throwing me a surprise party about a week ago, but didn't really have a clue about how to do it. So he got ahold of Aimee and Lindsay and they helped him get everything together. Like I said, AWESOME FRIENDS! And AWESOME THOUGHTFUL HUBBY!

I am having a GREAT birthday!!!!!

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year! Brian, the girls and I spent a fun Christmas Eve together as a family. Since it was such a beautiful day, we took the girls to one of our favorite parks then went bowling! Sadie, I have to say, is really getting some skills :) After bowling we went home and watched some Christmas movies, then went to bed....well, sort of. I had tried to keep Sadie from taking a nap so that she would go to bed early and "Santa" could come sooner, but she fell asleep at 6:00 p.m. and woke up around 8:00- ugh! Around 11:00 p.m. I thought she was out pretty good, so Brian started putting together Ambrie's present and I went to get Sadie's. Then I hear "Oh, Sadie, you're supposed to be asleep". Yikes! She had come out to see what we were doing. I took her back in the bedroom and laid by her until she fell asleep again. Good thing Santa stays up late, lol!

The next morning, the girls woke up to this!

Sadie changed her mind about a million times when I asked what she wanted Santa to bring her. So he settled on this little Tinkerbell jewelry box that she has been wanting. And Ambrie got a present that is great for both her AND mommy! lol.

Liking the presents :)

Sadie had a completely stuffed stocking! She put its contents to good use right away :)

Then we started opening presents. This is Brian's present from Sadie and Ambrie. Pretty cute if I do say so myself :)

Sadie was a very nice big sister and helped Ambrie open her presents :)

Here's the result of our Christmas morning :) The girls were both completely spoiled but very excited about their new toys and clothes....ok, maybe not about the clothes, but those excited me! :)

This bowling set was in Sadie's stocking. Santa must know how much she likes to bowl!

After we opened presents, cleaned up, and played, Brian headed to Salt Lake to spend Christmas with his mom and brother. He had alot of fun and (jealous) got to see Avatar twice!

The girls and I went to Panaca and had a really good time out there. But I didn't take any pictures! Hopefully I can steal some from my aunt's or Jenna's facebook pages whenever they post some. We had a big family dinner, went skeet shooting, got some great videos of everyone playing Dance Dance with Shane's new Wii....it was alot of fun.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!!!