Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mother's Day program, family and the beginning of summer!

Its been a couple of months since Mother's Day came but I still wanted to share what a fun Mother's Day program Brooklyn did for me. It was a Hawaiian Luau theme and she dressed up in a grass skirt with a colorful flower lei.  She sang so proudly and really, as any mother would think of their own child, was the cutest one there!  She lights up my world and I am grateful to have such a sweet daughter, not one but two daughters.  Shortly after Mother's Day family from Utah came and visited us!  Danny, Loni and Jackson Theurer!  We had so much fun with them from eating out at some of our favorite places, to visiting the church sites in Palmyra, to attending the Lilac Festival, to staying up late and eating junk, and of course shopping! It was such a fun and memorable time we look forward to having more family come visit! (hint hint)... We also have been enjoying summer nights hanging outside when its not too hot and our neighbors come and we all hang out.  Enjoy!


Cute place setting for the Mother's Day Hawaiian Luau at Brooklyn's preschool. We enjoyed all sorts of nuts, fruits and punch! 

All the mother's sure felt special!! 

Brooklyn standing proudly in the back row with a huge grin! Makes me tingle! 

Her gift to me... flowers made out of her hand prints. She was so excited for me to open this gift! She could harldy wait! 

 Fishing for a surpise at the Luau!

 The Theurer family is here!! Brooklyn and Jackson riding the train at the Lilac Festival in Rochester.

Loni and Taylor playing kissies! 

Taking pictures in front of the famous lilacs that Rochester is known for. 

Potato sack slide!! I think this was the highlight of the kids night!  

Visiting the sites in Palmyra. This was Joseph Smith's home growing up. Sorry Loni this was the only picture I had... We enjoyed the tour though it was chilly. Thank goodness we had umbrellas! 

Beautiful and green! Walking to Joseph's Smith's 2nd family home which was down from the road where the first Smith home was. 

 Danny has a knack of calming children and Taylor was quite cold so he warmed her up and she laid on his shoulder most of the tour. She loves Uncle Danny!

Brother and sister! Heading into the Sacred Grove. 

We spend some time at Kango's, a fun play place for kids! Taylor loves these cars and each time we go its the first thing she wants to do and be pushed around in it. Can you tell how excited she is? 

Cute couple! 

Jackson and his cute red cheeks loving the tricycle! 

Can ya tell she's been playing rough? 

Feasting at Cheesecake factory.  It seems to be one of our traditions when we get together with Danny and Loni. We both love this place! Taylor showing off her spoon skills! 

These two played so well together. They sure do miss each other! 

Matt bought me these flowers and also the basket of white flowers for Mother's Day. Brooklyn helped me plant the flowers and we also planted her Sunflower that she has been growing since it was a seed. We will post pictures later so you can see how big its gotten! 

Brooklyn wanted some sun one day and so she got in her swim suit and brought her blanket outside to layout.... it only lasted for about 5 minutes... it was too HOT!  

Our neighbor and friend from chruch, Cory. He loves little kids and babysits for us. The girls just love him!!! 

 Our friend Greg (and dive coach at the U of R) showing off his skills! All the kids ended up wanting to try it. It was a fun night eating otter pops, playing games, and maybe getting bit by a few mosquitos.

Cory attemping to master a new skill. 

Brooklyn's turn!  

Caleb masterd it!!! Caleb and Cory are brothers and we sure love having them around. Sad they are moving to a new home but still in our ward! So thats good! We will miss having you guys just down the road!

Summer Summer Summer

First off I just want to share how much I love my family.... Words just can't express how much I love Matt and our two little girls. Its so fun being a family and though at times there are struggles, in the end we always love each other and its what makes being a family such a special privilege. I love you Matt, Brooklyn and Tay-Tay!

We have had so much fun this summer and we still have more fun to be had!  Its been fun watching the girls grow especially Taylor as at her age they seem to grow so fast! Taylor has grown physically by being able to do things for herself, talk, sign, and just run all over like she is in a race!  Brooklyn has grown mentally. She seems to have more confidence in herself especially in swimming, she understands what it means to help mom and dad around the house, she ask many questions and also makes observations that blow our minds.  Matt and I are lucky to have such two beautiful daughters and feel so blessed to be able to raise them here on earth.  Thank you Heavenly Father for sending us such wonderful blessings.

Enjoy the pictures below of us all enjoying the summer days! There will be another post of more summer fun as well! Don't forget to check those out!

Taylor's first attempt using a spoon to feed herself. She is doing pretty good and is still trying to figure out how to keep all the food on her spoon and in her mouth before it falls off.

 Tay-Tay loves otter pops!!! Looks like she is getting a brain freeze right here. Kids out here have never heard of the word "otter" pop.... is this a Utah thing?

Her famous pucker lips! Darling girl! 

 Its been so HOT HOT HOT and HUMID HUMID HUMID here in Rochester. Matt is trying to cool off near our little vent... It just doesn't cool us off enough!

Taylor... oh boy... She is going to drive the boat someday. Anytime we are on a boat she heads straight for the steering wheel. Its going to be one crazy drive once she gets a handle on it! 

Floating in Canandaigua Lake with our friends, the Evans, from Utah! 
Spencer, Matt and Taylor, Monica, Brooklyn.  The Evans invited us on their family party boat and we had so much fun cooling down in the waters against the blazing heat.

Floating on a tube just a little too small for me!  

Spencer and his cute boy, Ezra. 

Me and my girls!!! 

Swimming at a pond in Bloomsfield, NY.  This pond was just awesome and we can't explain how cool and beautiful it was. Its a man made pond with a 10 foot high or so dock, a floating island with a slide, a zip line, and a rope to swing off into the water. Picture this pond on a 10 acre land with trees all around... breath taking! 

 The bigger view of the beautiful pond.

 Someday, well maybe someday, when I get a good camera, I will be able to get a picture of Brooklyn mid-air during her jump into the water. She just loved this dock and jumped off it countless times, as opposed to her mother who did it once! Well hey at least I did jump off it right!

 Of course Brooklyn was the last one to leave the dock... she didnt want to leave...

 Also on the 10 acre lot was a pretty neat above the ground pool! Trees all around with flowers too!  We had so much fun swimming at three different locations all day!

 The Evans and our family were in the same church ward in SLC. They also have 3 girls that didn't come on the trip, Scout, Brooklyn and Addy. We have kept in touch through all our moves. Monica is actually from Rochester and still has family here. We are lucky we get to see them whenever they come out!  Thanks again Evans (and also Mindy and Todd)! 

Running and running and running... even when the sun has gone down...

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Eating off tables and running it all off!

This past weekend on Friday we had the missionaries over for dinner and we did "eating off the table" style!! Matt has wanted to do this for a long time and so we thought we would invite the missionaries over to enjoy a fun way of eating.  Our friend, Greg, provided the lucious pink table table cloth, plastic if you will, so that after all was eaten and utensils and cups were cleared off, we could simply wrap up the cloth and throw it away without a big mess to clean up.  This could become a daily way of life for us as there was not many dishes to wash!  Oh Matt would love that! We all had a great time!

The next morning I ran my second 2nd half marathon in Grand Island, NY which is about one hour and 15 minutes from Rochester (clsoe to Buffalo).  I was very fortunate to have a training schedule to follow by the track coach at the U of Rochester and with the the constant help and support from Matt I was able to shave off 9 minutes from my best time, 1:48.00.  All week I had been nervous because the weather had been pretty nasty and I just DID NOT want to run in the cold and most definitely not not in the wind. Running in the wind is like trying to run up the escalator in the wrong direction, taking strides only to pull you back a few steps. Come Saturday morning, the weather couldn't have been better! Sunny, very small breeze, and I just felt good! The course was along the Niagara River and along the course was the main road which was not busy at all. Because of that Matt was able to follow me the whole race!  It was fun to see him every two miles with my two little girls cheering me on and giving me a water bottle to drink from.  What a great strength it was to me to see them all. Sweet Brooklyn tried to give me a dandelion each time and I could never quite grab it. Taylor was pretty much a nightmare crying the whole time and sweet Matt was racing back and forth trying to make her happy and also see me run.  I can't wait to start my next race which is in June in UTAH!! Yeah for Ragnar Relay and the 188 mile run with my 12 member team, "Runnin Wild"!!

Enjoy the pictures!!!

I sure love this guy!!!

Elder Preisendorf, Elder Frost, Matt, Brooklyn and Greg

Chow down baby!

 Brooklyn loving this food on the table stuff!

Making a mess but loving it!

"O...K... This is wierd..."

Chillaxin...Taylor loves Greg!

Just finished running the race!! Taylor was clapping for me!

My friends from the ward who also ran! Way to go team!

Just had to post this... Taylor loves walking around with this purse on her arm and a green lucky charm necklace. She puts it on all by herself and walks all over.
"I'm loving this Hello Kitty movie, its mine!"

Friday, April 29, 2011

Easter!!!

Its about time I post something... since its been oh several months... Here are a few pictures of our Easter weekend! We were lucky to have Matt's parents with us since they were passing through. In case you haven't heard, Randy and Dena, are official truck drivers! They get to travel the country over and over again and we hope to see them many more times on their routes back east. Brooklyn just loved having them here to "Sleep at our place". We had a good Easter and hope you all did too!!

One of the 3 Easter egg hunts we went to this year. Brooklyn was so excited!!!

It never works... well many times it doesnt work. I try to get a decent picture of just the girls and Taylor is not happy!

Just chillin

Grand ole time coloring Easter eggs!

Gotta have my Cadbury Egg!!!

Brooklyn was loving it having grandparents in our home

Where did all the Easter eggs go? And... where is my shoe?

Easter Sunday

I'm taller dad... sorry but I am!

Our Easter Sunday!