Some Randoms....

We decided to take one last trip to the Winter Quarters LDS Temple and Mormon Trail Center in Omaha before we moved to Denver. It was such a beautiful day to visit the temple too!

We also wanted to be sure to make it to the new minor league baseball stadium to see a Storm Chasers game. The new stadium was great and we had so much fun at the game! The weather could not have been more perfect! The kids love going to baseball games, even Katy did awesome! We even got to see fireworks once the game was over.

And this little girl is too cute not to include on this post! She is getting so big now! We can't believe she is almost 1 already!



It's always hard to say goodbye....

This blog post is actually a little difficult for me to do, it is making me cry all over again for my dear friends in Omaha. We made so many great friends in our few short years there. I really hope that we can continue these friendships as we all go our separate ways in life.

First up, a few of my closest friends. Sherrie, Teigan and Brandi. I can't say enough about these ladies. We have had so many fun times together and they are each wonderful examples to me. We have spent many late nights chatting, laughing, and eating yummy food over the past 3 years. Cheesecake Factory was usually our restaurant of choice, yum.

 Next, Tyler's best friend this past year was Liam. Liam and his family are great and we will miss seeing them around! They usually bonded over the Wii or making up silly knock-knock jokes...they even decided they made up a word that Tyler still uses to this day "barnet", "You big barnet!" (I'm not really sure what it means, but they seem to think its hilarious.)

 Another amazing women I will miss, my wonderful friend Carleen. Once again, I can't say enough about how wonderful, kind, and sweet she is, and how much I will miss spending time with her. We were visiting teaching companions the whole time we were in the Cottonwood ward, I learned so much from her.

 Tyler's other best bud was his cousin Evan. It wasn't until the last couple weeks that instead of saying they were best friends, they started adding that they were best friends AND best cousins. These boys were two peas in a pod. It was so fun that they had all the same interests and got along so well. Though we are excited to be closer to more cousins, it is sad to not be in the same city as these cousins anymore.

I've mentioned Tyler's other friend, Jackson, on here many times. They have been good friends since we first moved to Omaha. They have had so much fun together over the last few years, and have both grown so much. Jackson and his mom Sherrie came to say goodbye the night before we left. Jackson was even kind enough to bring Tyler a little present. As of right now I don't have any pictures of that, because Sherrie took them. Their family also moved about a month after we did, so I'm just waiting until they get set up again in their new home for those pictures.

While Taylor was helping Jack move stuff from the garage we rented into the truck we got one last chance to play with their handsome little boy Beckham.

Our friends, the Boyle's, threw a little farewell BBQ for us a little before we left, along with a few close friends from Cottonwood ward. They were such helpful friends and were always there to lend us a hand. Kris was even kind enough to come over at 3am when I went into labor with Katy, now that's friendship! Unfortunately I don't seem to have any pictures from that BBQ...so sad!

We came to Omaha as a family of 3 and left as a family 5, in just under 3 years! We lived in three different places, 3 different LDS congregations or Wards, traded in our SUV for a mini-van, bought and sold our second home, graduated our first from preschool, laughed with friends, and mourned with friends. We have each grown so much in many different ways. We made so many great friends, that each taught us something different.

We can't wait to see what new adventures lie ahead for our family!

Farewell Huskers! 

Class of 2024, here he comes!

Tyler finished his last year of preschool this year. We loved having him go to the Little Lights Preschool, all of the teachers he had were amazing. I am pretty sad we won't be able to send Jacob there as well. There was never a day that he did not want to go to school, which says a lot for a moody 5 year old. He made many great friends, Liam being his best friend this year. Both years he was in a class of mostly boys....which probably explains, how starting last year, he became ALL BOY and a lot more energetic.

His teachers from this year, Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Wert

 We actually moved to Denver the day of his end of the year preschool program, so the class before that was his last day. They were rehearsing for their program so I snuck in to watch and record a few of the songs.  (I love this picture of his class...what a perfect potrayal of 18 5 year olds...all looking in a different direction with their hands and legs going every which way. Hats off to preschool teachers everywhere, I'm glad you chose that profession and not me)

Congrats on finishing preschool buddy, I can't believe you are starting Kindergarten,

you're going to be awesome!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Our sweet Jacob had his birthday at the end of April. I will say it every time, these kids grow up so fast! Jacob is such a joy to have in our family. He absolutely adores his big brother and loves to do everything he does, but is also very independent. The two of them playing together can get quite crazy, but by themselves they are very calm. Jacob loves to play with Lego's, loves anything Cars (the movie) themed, loves to play Ben 10 with Tyler, his favorite color is Blue and his favorite food is Pizza (as a matter of fact, every time we ask him what he'd like to eat his answer is pizza). He also loves pretty much any kind of meat, scrambled eggs, strawberries, and of course treats. This kid is ALWAYS thirsty. He can drink a sippy cup of milk in 10 seconds flat. When he gets shy and he needs to say something he whispers in our ear with the cutest little shy grin. He hates water on his ears, but is fine putting his face in the water. His favorite TV Show is Ben 10 (very much influenced by his brother), his favorite movie is Cars, his favorite primary song is I Am A Child of God. He loves to play with play dough, and is slowly learning how to enjoy coloring and drawing. He still has a mild case of childhood asthma, and is allergic to nuts. He is getting better each day with his speech. He still has a hard time with consonant deletion, so many times it takes a few guesses for us to figure out what he's saying. He is talking in more full sentences though. We just love all of his silly facial expressions, its too bad those are hard to catch on camera.

Jacob requested a blue Lego cake for his birthday...and since I didn't have any of my cake decorating things, or my own kitchen, we decided to just order his cake from Hy-Vee.

This blue cake proved to be quite messy....whoever got the icing on their fingers, had blue fingers for a couple days. Thank goodness it cleaned off their faces though.

And a fun little video for the grandparents

(you can see him getting shy, and starting the whisper to me in this video)

Happy 3rd Birthday to our little Jakey!

Easter 2011

 We had a wonderful Easter in Omaha this year. It was full of food, fun, friends, and family, as usual!

The kids and I started the holiday off with an Easter Egg Hunt with a large group of my amazing friends...there were 30+ kids involved....yes, lots and lots of filled eggs. It was a cold and rainy day for that egg hunt, but we still had lots of fun!

(pictures courtesy of my dear, talented friend Teigan...thanks;) )

The babies sure enjoyed playing with all the Easter eggs once we got home!

Here's Clara again, trying to get up close and personal with Katy.

Next up was a fun Easter Egg hunt with the cousins, and their friends!

First up, dying Easter eggs with Aunt Bekah

Before the hunt Jack sat down with all the kids and they opened Resurrection eggs, which has the Easter story, and talked about what Easter is really about.

 

 This year we wanted the hunt to be a little more difficult for the older boys, so we let

the little ones out first.

 Next came Tyler and Evan. This year they were a little baffled that the eggs weren't just out in the open...they actually had to LOOK for them this time! It was fun to find places to hide them, and watch them search.

Next came Easter morning!

 Katy's first Easter dress, I am so in love with this dress on her!

For Easter dinner we went over to our friends, the Fillmore's. Sherrie was my best friend in Omaha, and our kids were best buddies too. We miss them so much! We had such a yummy dinner and enjoyed plenty of play in their awesome backyard.

And finally, to finish off this overload of pictures...

our Easter 2011 family picture

Que the JAWS music....

(I can't take the credit for this cute post, I got permission to copy this from Bekah's blog, it was just too funny not to include it on our blog as well. Thanks Bekah!)

Here is the sweet baby Katy...she is the prey!

 And here is Clara, looking super innocent, slowly circling her cousin, inching closer and closer....

 At first she just gently nudges Katy with her head.

 When you tell her to stop she gives you this goofy smile and starts to pat Katy on the head.

 Another nudge with her head....

 Then, an attempt to pick Katy up.

 Thankfully, Jacob stepped in the protect Katy from the BABY MONSTER!

 He must have been sleeping on the job this time.

 But really, a baby as cute as this couldn't be that dangerous.....

Or could she?

I loved this post because it so perfectly played out a daily occurrence while we lived there. Clara was always patting Katy on the head if left unattended (and always gave that mischievous little grin when told to stop). Its probably a good thing we moved out when we did, Clara was definitely getting quite confident in her ability to pester Katy!