Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Brittany hanging out in the shade.
Jersie and Londyn, they always have so much fun together
Good ol' uncle Kevin was the only one who got in to swim with all of the kids.
Steve and Brad watching the little ones swim

Happy Cinco de Mayo today! It's not really a holiday that is celebrated. But really do you need much of an excuse to get together and have mexican food, yummm! We had the fam over to swim and eat at our house yesterday. Brads grandma from out of town just got in for a visit, we dont get to see her very often so its always nice when she comes. Also Tracy's mother in law "Phylis" is in town to help with their new little baby "Sidnee"(what a cutie!) we just love her, so it's fun when she is here. We had such a house full, as you can see from the photos.

SUPER MODEL BRITT!

I am totally sorry for those of you who didnt get to vote yet. However, anyone who might have a daughter Brittanys age, would know that when this kind of thing is up for disscussion it just can't wait. We must act impulsivly and cut quickley so there is no room for changing of the mind. We are pleased to inform you that her new haircut is FABULOUS as you can see.

To cut or not to cut?

Brittany is trying to decide weather or not to cut her hair to her chin. She is thinking that with the summer and swimming that it would be so much less of a hassle to not have to work out the tangles. However, she looks so preety with it longer and it is preety long ( for her anyways). So she would like a little help in deciding:)))) What do you think, go to the poll off to the side and vote! no voting for both, or you can see how that does no good in helping:)))) ha ha

Happy Birthday Brad:)))

This picture is so funny of Brad and Brexen, they totally enjoyed the cupcakes we made today. As if Brexen hadnt already made a huge enough mess of dinner all over himself. So I just love Brad so much! I hope he had a great bday. This past weekend my inlaws who are so great, watched the kids so that Brad and I could go and stay in a resort on sat night. We went to 2 movies, it is somthing we really enjoy doing and dont get to do very often. We watched " drillbit taylor" and "baby mama" both were so funny! So thanks Brad for being such a fabo hubby and daddy, we LOVE ya so much.

Breast wishes

I totally had forgotten to post a pic of this great card that a friend of mine sent me after my boobie surgery. Inside it said "Breast wishes in your recovery". This card brought me a huge laugh, thanks Nat! you are so creative.

BOB HARPER, need I say more?

So tonight I totally had such a great time with one of my great friends, Larin. We decided that we needed a girls night out. What better way to spend it than to go see "Bob Harper" from The Biggest loser. He was at a bookstore over in Tempe for a book signing. We got seats on row 4, so we were right there close. He is better looking in person than he is on tv for all of you who are wondering:)))) I completley enjoyed the whole thing. He talked to us and did a little Q & A for around an hour and then we got to go and talk personally with him and get pictures. When I got up to have my turn he said "oh you are the one with the super great hair" and then he told me that I was so beautiful. Hey, I will take it:))) needless to say, I was flattered. It's always great to hear those things, especially from somone like him. So the funniest thing happened that just topped the night for us was, Channel 3 news was there, and Before the signing got started Larin and I were joking around with our camera's and taking pics of ourselves giving the thumbs up with our new books. Larin then noticed that the camera man was filming us messing around, and we comented to each other on how funny and embarassing it would be if that made it on the news. Well later Brad called me to say that he just saw us on tv and one of the times was when Larin was giving her thumbs up. Ohhh I thought we would just die laughing about that. Oh ya, and Betsey sue (Ali's mom) made it over to, her poor face really took a beating when she fell, you can see how awful her bruises are. How fun, thanks Brad for watching the kiddies!

more from the wedding

These pics were taken at the wedding. These are my 2 sisters and I with our hubbys.

Jordons wedding

Here are a few of our pics from my Brother Jordon and Kendras wedding. It was so beautiful and it all just turned out so nice. CONGRATS! as you can see by the coats that even though the sun was shinning it was still chilly. Also

one of these pics is one that I have been wanting to get for along time. It is of my nephew Taylor and Brexen, they have the exact same color of hair. What good looking boys:)

R U kidding me???

This past weekend we drove to Blanding for my bros wedding & as if the trip there isnt a long enough, we managed to make it even longer. I dont mean just a few minutes either. We are talking a few hours! We were suppost to be arriving at around 10:00 pm and when we were about 1 hour away it was so weird, Brad was getting tired and trying to get me to drive, however because he was pulling a trailor with Ang & Brians couches and many other things, I said I wasnt interested. He went on to tell me that it didnt even feel like you were pulling that trailor because it was so heavy built and that he just loved that one. Not even a full minute later, the trailor totally broke apart on the tounge. thank heavens for the 2 saftey chains that were there for emergencies just like that, sparks were flying and honestly we wernt even sure what had happened. Surley we were being jinxed for saying anything about it:)))) another blessing is that we accually had cell phone reception which is a rare delight on the drive. So we called in our reinforcments to bring us a welder. My dad and bro had to drive up to our cabin to get the generator for the welder and then bring it down to us. My mom came down also. Thanks fam! Can I just say that it was FREEZING COLD!!!!! My mom and I stayed in the car with the kids because we feared that we could quite possibly die from hyperthermia. Those macho boys toughed it out and fixed the trailor. We stopped off to drop off the couches at my sisters along the way and finally arrived to my parents at 1:30. Wow that trip just gets longer every time! But we always have such a great time while we are there, it totally makes it worth it. I will post pics from the wedding and our trip later.

Coke Oven Trail

So these are a few more pics of our day our riding. The two close ups were a befor pic with just the dust, and then the after pic. This is what the help of a diaper wipe can do to a filthy face. Dang I totally thought I was getting a tan! wrong it was just an inch of dust on my skin. I was looking in a mirror when I wrote a "K" on my forhead, Brad did inform me that it was backwords for everyone else. Ha ha. As you can see we rode the kids to the point they were exausted, for almost 30 min they sat like this and didnt budge.

Coke Oven trail

So today after Brittany's Basketball game we took off with the ranger to go find the coke oven trail. I had gone there about 6 yrs ago with my "Lyman" inlaws (they love to go quad riding! it is totally there thing they do ALL the time) anyways I sort of knew the way, and it did take a little trail hopping, but we found it and rode for hours, the kids were totally belly laughing several times, it is so fun to have the kids all to an age were we can go out and do these things that we love to do, easier.

On the way in, we got to a place on the trail that we were going through a little stream and then it would puddle up good in some spots, well Brad and I had this great idea that on our way back out, we would ride fast through the water to splash the kids unexpectantly. Well that plan backfired on us, you see the front windsheild is only a 1/2 windsheild and all the water splashed right into OUR faces and we were blocking the kids who where sitting nice and dry in the backseat laughing at us dripping with muddy water. The water itself wasnt muddy, but with all the dirt and dust that we had on us when hit with water bacame a mess. We all had a good laugh. As you can see we were filthy! But hey, that is totally part of the fun:)

Water Park

So it is official, with the exeption of Brad we are card carrying members to the waterparks in the valley this summer. We can go to any of the 3 parks. My girls are so excited and Brex just gets excited because they are, he doesnt really know what we are talking about. Londyn thought it was great to get the mugshot for her ID. We plan on going atleast once a week during the summer. So if anyone would like to join us, give me a call:))) I figure that I have to have a little somthing to convince my kids that being good while I am working is going to pay off.

A trip to the zoo

On monday we decided to go to the phoenix zoo, we really had wanted to go down to the Tuscon zoo, but since we had to take my sister to the airport that morning, we decided to save ourselves the drive and just stay at the closer one:) we choose a hot day! but we all had a great time. We havent been to the zoo in awhile and my kids were all soooo excited for every animal we saw. Brex was so great to watch, he would just jabber a hundred miles an hour when we would see a new animal.

Ive been tagged

Thanks Amber for the tag......WHAT WAS I DOING 10 YRS AGO? I was living in Blanding ut. and was married to my first husband "Don". Also I was like 5 months pregnant with Brittany. 5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST? 1. I need to shampoo my carpets 2. decorate my master bathroom 3. get in shape enough to run a marathon 4. one of these days I am going to make some great scrap books (we will see) 5. clean out my closet ( I mean MAJOR clean it out) 5 SNACKS I ENJOY? 1. frozen green grapes 2. cake, it has to be the middle cake:) 3. ranch rice cakes 4. string cheese 5. wintergreen mints 5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED? 1. Blanding, ut 2. Provo, ut 3. Salem, ut 4. Gilbert, Az 5. Queen Creek, Az WHAT WOULD I DO IF I WAS A BILLIONAIRE? 1. Lots more traveling with my family, we love to travel! 2. invest 3. help out some fam members 4. play more and work a little less 5. we would forsure move to some acrege and build, have fun with the decorating and yard designing 5 JOBS I HAVE HAD? 1. Subway artist:) 2. Patio (local hangout and drive thru) 3. Coldwell Banker secretary 4. Nail Tech 5. Hairdresser 5 THINGS PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME? 1. I love being home, I dont have to go places to be happy 2.I am doing nothing, never, I love to be busy 3. I dont like lettuce 4. I love doing yard work 5. I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers. I tag Tracy, Heidi and Jami good luck this was kindof hard for me

Easter pagent

Ok I know that tonight is probley an overkill with 4 new posts, but I have totally gotten behind. Today my sis in laws were giving me a hard time about not posting for to long. So I hope this redeems me:)

We went to the easter pagent last night (sat night) it has been several years since we have been. We usually are in ut for easter, but because of my bros upcoming wedding in april we decided not to make the trip 2 times so closely. My parents, little bro, and little sis were here to go with us. We left Brex and Londyn with Nana and took Brittany with us. She really liked it! oh and yes Angela you look amazing in your closeup with sleeping Blaine.

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! A couple of these pics is of Londyn and her cute Bunny ears she made at Preschool, she looked adorable. The other pics are from the kids on easter morning, Londyn and Brexen got new tents and some other little things, and Brittany got a new dress and the movie "Enchanted" and a few other little things.

"POCCO" comes to visit

Our neighbors "The Reynolds" were out of town for spring break and needed a sitter for their pug "Pocco". We have watched their dog befor and my kids fell in love with it. So it was a no brainer to say yes to watching it again, I knew that my kids would totally be entertained. Poc was staying at his house but we were just going over to play with her and feed and water, however that was clearly not enough time with her, so we did get permission to bring her back to play at our house. The first morning we went over it was at the crack of dawn and my kids were still in their pjs, but they couldnt wait any longer. I wish that I was more of a dog person, I always tell my kids that if I was a good mom then I would get them a dog, but I must not be. sorry, but they are still working on my and I will be honest, I am close to caving, but shhhh dont tell them that:)

YMCA Basketball

Brittany is keeping us so busy! She is now involved in so many things. She is loving it and I think that it is so great she is trying so many different things, to really get to figure out what she enjoys and what she is good at. She has taken up basketball at the "y" , Tennis lessons, piano lessons, girl scouts, and just her regular day to day activities. These pics are from her first game. Nana, Papa, aunt Cassi, Madisen, & little Talon came out to watch and support her, Thanx! One of these pics are of Londyn and Madisen holding hands, ohh how cute:)

August Rush

I just watched a movie off of ppv called "August Rush" and I loved it. I havent watched many movies latley that I would totally recommend. However this one was fantastic! Has anyone else seen it? does anyone have any other great movie suggestions?

Howdy officer is there a problem?

So yesterday Brad and I made a quick trip to flagstaff for a doctor apt. We did take Brexen and Londyn while Brittany was at school. Not wanting to be to a distraction in the doctors office, Brad opted to stay in the expedition with the kids while I went in for my apt. we had been texting each other while I was waiting and apparently I left him alone long enough that while he was in the back seat and the kids were busy watching a movie he managed to fall soundly asleep. Infact, he was so asleep that when there were people peering through the darkly tinted windows and knocking he didnt hear them or see them. I found this out as I was coming out of the hospital and was following a security gaurd and two concerned women, I didnt really pay attention to what they were saying until I see them walk up to MY car and start peering in the windows, so I stopped and just watched them until the security gaurd looked at me and asked if I needed somthing. So I told him that it was my car and yes, my kids were in there and somwhere in there I was sure that my husband was there asleep:))) one of the women explained that she had noticed that our car had been running for quite sometime and she noticed children inside, when she had first gone up to it, she tryed to look in but the windows in the back windows were too dark so she just got concerned. I thanked them for looking out for things and then began my knocking. Of course Brad popped up with a smile and said " oh I must of fallen asleep" I had to start laughing and show him the others that were walking away and tell him that he had really stirred up some drama. He almost couldnt beleive that he didnt wake up with all of that. My Bradley is a hard sleeper needless to say. I love him and appriciate his willingness to make the long quick drive with me, this just added to the funny conversation on the way home.

Where is my super cool hat?

so this pic of Brexen is his super cute new hat. He was in love with this box because of the great reveiw that Londyn gave him. ohh, she thought he was just hillarious. This is one of the few things in my day that I get to see the kids doing that show how much they love each other. I am so glad that my kids love each other so much. So another quick thing I have thought was so cute latley, is Londyn has been loving to be called "Dorothy" from the wizard of oz (not that she has seen it) but because we jokingly have called her that because of her long cute braids. Well she finally got curious about why we were calling her that and she asked us why we keep saying that to her. We preety much told her it was a princess. well, that was all she needed to be in love with the idea of being Dorothy the priness. Infact we had asked her where Todoe (spelling ???) her dog was? so she quickly decided that Brex should be Todoe, for 2 days straight she no longer used his real name, it was only come here Todoe, etc.. Brex is the best, he totally just goes right along with it.

A little more fun in the sun

So after letting the kids play in the water on friday, we easily made the desision that on Sat while we were out doing yard work and the pool was being drained (to get it acid washed). we got it down to like 1 ft left and let the kids go at it. Because the pool was so empty, they were totally protected from the breeze and so the temp was perfect. I took a gazillion pics, they were so cute!

Bring on the sun!

I dont know about all of you that have children and pools, but my kids just dont understand why they are not allowed to swim. And I mean the first day that it becomes warm outside the begging beggins. I even paraded my children out to the cold water thinking that if I let them stick their feet in, that they would realize that moms are always right:) however this seemed to backfire on me. even after their feet went in and took their breath away they assured me that they didnt think it was to cold. So I caved in and atleast let them break out the swimming suits and run through sprinklers. Britt had one of her friends come home from school with her last friday since they always have 1/2 days on fridays. Brittany and Anna had a blast. Brex and Londyn couldnt get enough of it either. I got a bunch of really cute pics of them all enjoying the sun!

back to the gym!

Have you ever felt like you are in one of those kid story books were there is like an animal head and then a spinner middle section and spinner bottom half of the body that you can go through until you find the matches that all go together? Well, that is what I have been feeling like latley. I know that getting back to the gym will help me feel more like myself. So it is official, I am going back tomorrow:)))) I figure that it isnt so far until summer and I need to find the right matching body peices to go with the rest of me:) so that I can enjoy swimmingsuit shopping. Also I am really wanting to get back into running, Iknow that because I have had to take it so easy, that even with just walking for the next 2 weeks (until I get the dr's official ok to do more) will be a good start to getting back into my routine. anyways I am just rambleing, so I will wrap this up.

Cruise time!

It has been since our honeymoon that Brad and I have been on a cruise. We went to Belize and also stopped at Key west. We had such a great time! we totally have wanted to go on another cruise ever since then. So this weekend we booked a cruise with Royal Caribbean to go in Jan 09 we are going to stop in Jamaica and also Grand Caymen. I know it is early but we are big planners, and we know that if we dont schedule early that a million other things will come up between now and then. As of right now our only travel buddies are my sis Angela and her hubby Brian. If there is anyone else who would like to come, let me know I will see if you pass the "cool enough" test. just kidding ha ha, but I will get you the info to book with us.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Brad & my 5 yr anniversary. I am married to a great man! let me tell ya why:
1. Brad never tells me no on anything. If there is somthing that I really want, he will always find a way to make it happen.
2. he is a great dad!
3. he is a very hard worker, he never stops.
4. Brad is always willing to help anyone.
5. Brad is a super great listener, well I think he listens? I do talk alot, sorry honey:)
6. I love that Brad can cry when things are important.
7. He always opens my door still! I know can you beleive it.
8. He is preety dang cute! always a +
9. Brad always puts his family before himself.
10. He can really get down when the mood is right, I have seen him dance on only a few ocassion and he is really good. (anyone remember the movie the burnams have of Brett and Brad totally dancing????) if you havent seen it you are missing out.
11. Ok I better say somthing good about his truck or that might hurt his feelings, so here it goes. Babe you drive a cool truck:))

The truth is I could totally go on and on. Love ya Brad

Jean again:)))))

I LOVE JEANS! and I have so missed them. I have had to wear soft comfy pants for 3 solid weeks now, and I am so sick of them. I want my jeans back. I really am not suppost to be wearing anything tight, but I have decided that as long as I wear loose fitting jeans that it would be ok. So I did break down and finally wear some this weekend. and I am happy to say that my presurgery jeans are now officially to big on me:))) for the past 2 weeks I have been wanting to try on my presurgery jeans and wanting them to fall off, however because there is so much swelling, I couldnt even button them up. Now that I can wear them with lots of room to spare I know the swelling is on its way down. I'll go ahead and give my permission to continue to go down another ummmm I'll take 8 inches. ha ha, just kidding. I would be happy with single digit jeans again. lets see if I can get there. In the meantime if you see me in jeans and they are to big, just cut me some slack. I dont want to go and get the right size jeans until everything is were it is soppost to be.

dumb question??

So funny how I spent the time to make my blog cute after I took the valentines backdrop down. and here I have been thinking that as I have logged onto my blog that all was well. Then I logged onto my inlaws computer and saw that I had a boaring black background. Can somone explain why when I log onto my computer at home I see all the cute polka dots and such and then on all other computers you would only see black? I think that I have it fixed now. do you see polka dots?

I am looking for great ideas

So I have decided that it was ok to post this on my blog, only because Brad doesn't check this out unless I drag him over to see somthing. But I totally want to do somthing extra special for Brad for our 5yr anniversary coming up on the 1st of March. He has taken such good care of me, and has been so supportive through my whole surgery thing that I want to make sure and come up with a great somthing. The problem is I am not very creative, so I would love some suggestions. He will love that I have somthing planned rather than telling him to be in charge:))) great restrants? great entertainment??? a fun resort in the valley?

Valentine Tatoos

So Brad really does not care for tatoo's, this means also those "rub on" ones that come with lots of the little valentine's cards these days. However Londyn and Brittany both got a couple of them yesterday. My comprimise was that if they used them they had to put them in a place that noone could see. (I do know that it takes most of the fun out of them, but that was sort of the point) however, the girls still were excited that we said yes to even that. So Britt put 2 on her belly and Londyn put a spider on her tummy. It's accually preety cute that when we look at Londyn she will pull up her shirt and scream, ahhhh theres a spider! it's extreamly funny everytime for her. Then today Londyn walked up to Brad and said, "Hey dad, do you like my spider?" he said, "No londyn, I really dont like it." she replied, "yes you do!" and once again he said, "no, I wouldn't like any of your TATOOS". She said "no sir dad I only have one, not two". ha ha she really does always pay attention to everything:)

I'm feeling challenged! (if you know what I mean)

I will apoligize right now if this is TMI, my poor hubby is always telling me that I blog with a little to much detail.
So, this morning was packed full of events that I couldnt resist sharing the laugh with. First of all I need you to remember that I had a little nip/tuck done 1 1/2 weeks ago. And because of this I have to wear this SUPER tight compression girdle body suit thing. And up to this point feeling like a child I had to ask my hubby "if it was a good time that I took a shower", only because this compression thing has clips and then zips up the side of me and even for my hubby to do, was no small task.
Well back to my morning, everything was going fantastic, britt was off to school, londyn had just been picked up for preschool and I had put Brex down for his nap. I was totally excited to get to call up my most awsome friend Larin and get to chat. Feeling successful with all of these things when Brexen's nap was cut 1 hr short of the 2 hr nap he takes. I walked into a room knowing somthing wasnt right, he had made a little poopie. Naturally I picked him up out of the crib to change him and, WRONG, this was no little poopie. It was a full blown explosion, that I was now wearing. Infact it was such a large amount that it had gone through my clothes onto, yep, you guessed it..... my compression thingy. Thank goodness I had a second one that was clean. But now was the real laugh, how was I to do this ALONE????
I thought I had all my bases covered for emergencies, however this was one I hadnot thought out. I have had oddles of friends and neighbors who have offered to help. but I quickly decided that this was not one of those good favors to ask of somone. ( Dont think I didnt contemplate calling Brad home from work for this one) anyways about 1 hr later I finally was done getting this thing on ALONE. aside from the whole naked body thing, I promise I could have charged admission for the laughs you would have received watching me try to figure out how to get dressed alone. I think I think I would consider myself a graduate now!

Great Grandpa comes to visit!

We were so happy to have my Grandpa Piepgrass over for a visit this afternoon. He lives in Utah and has been down in Mesa helping an aunt recover from an illness. He has been busy taking her to doctor visits and such and was able to get away this weekend to come see us. We LOVE GRAMPS! he is such a fun grandpa, and my kids just love him as do I. We took a walk and then was able to sit on the back porch and enjoy this awesome weather! while the kids were playing, Londyn fell and got hurt. She ran over to daddy and he said to her "poor baby" she quit crying instantly and looked at him with a very confused look and said "I'm not a poo baby!" how confusing was that for her. Ha ha, we had a good laugh about that one.

The drains come out!

This morning Brad and I went back down to Tucson for a followup apt with my doc. Today was the big "get the drains out" day. I was preety nervous about this, I have heard mixed reveiws on the pain level of this. Being the optimistic I try to be, I decided it wouldnt be to bad. Welllll let me tell you, the drains, yes I said drains with an s which means there were more than one of them that needed to come out, HURT like the dickens while comeing out. I would say that they were close to the size of my living room couch pulled through a little tiny insision. I thought I might die after the first one, so the nurse might as well finish me off by pulling the next one out. She did mention how the second is never as bad as the first one is to get out. Can I just say "LIAR" I do beleive that it was worse. Brad was shocked at what comes out, and when he said so. the nurse asked, " what were you expecting?" my husbands reply, ummm the end of the tube. Which I have to agree would have been close to my response. This whole experience will totally be worth it, but in the meantime you might get an earful of my little complaining:))))) And can I say that I do beleive that I have gained several inches of being closer to standing not so hunched over. Huge improvment!

a little update

so my update for the day is fairly short, Since I slept a good part of the day. Which was only made possible by my fabo hubby who took my son to Jami's (my sis in laws) for the day and my great friend Cindy took Londyn for the day. Britt was of course at school. I tryed to be brave and see how long I could go without my perkocets, only because you always hear how addictive they can become,blah blah blah, and I didn't want to have any kind of problems like that. Well while sleeping, all was well, and I was feeling good about how I was feeling. but then where the problem arrose was when I decided that it was time to pee! you see, I hadn't calculated that into scheduling when I would finally take more drugs. So when my husband called to tell me about his day I was able to happily announce that my hugest accomplishment of the day was being able to get up and pee without dying, which I thought was a real possibility at the time, because of the extream pain. He found that funny for a split second but then scolded me for waiting so long and made me promise to stay on top of it better. I'm glad he cares, and I promise I will do better not to put myself in that position again:))

So anyone who knows me well at all know that I have been counting down the days, hours and even minutes until I went in for surgery. Well, all of that waiting and it finally got here, I went in on Feb 1st at 7:30am to start with the IVs and such, and the last thing I remember as I was being strapped down to the table was looking at the clock at 8:00am. I can honestly say that at no point was I scared of the accually surgery, but only for the recovery and down time that I will have for the next few weeks. I dont like just sitting around feeling useless. But I also decided that now was as good a time as any since there really is no good time to take a month off of life:))) My husband has been the hugest supporter! He truly supports anything that will make me feel better about myself. He is the best! He is my own little sexy nurse man, and has taken the best care of me. He did somthing that was so funny and sweet while I was in surgery, he went and bought me a new env phone to kill some time. He downloaded as my ringtone the song "I'm bringing sexy back" by justin timberlake. How clever is he. And just for the record I plan on being so cute when this is all over with:)) he he. I know most people are hush hush about any cosmetic surgery they get done, but I am a talker and would have a hard time keeping this one a secret, because it is so exciting to me and I have talked about getting this done for atleast a good 10 yrs. so it's about dang time. Sorry that I am not brave enough to post the before, during and after pics. So just try hard to use your imagination on this one:) I will be doing alot of sitting so if anyone wants to come hang out I would love the company.