Dad and Mom went to visit Rexburg over the holiday weekend. Justin and Ali and Paige drove up on Friday nite, and we drove up early Saturday morning. We had so much fun, we played Frisbee golf in their back yard, which was big enough for 6 holes. Everyone went canoeing, (except mom who hung out with Simon). Then back to Ryon's house for delicious "Restaurant quality steaks". Grandpa loved playing on the tramp with Carson and Harry. Nacho is a great dog, and also seemed to enjoy the evening. On Sunday, we all had a very relaxing morning, and especially enjoyed sausages and egg McMuffins a-la Jana. Then off to church, and back to the house for Sunday dinner of smoked pork loin, rice and raspberry-huckleberry jam on rolls. We drove home on Sunday night, and arrived home safely by 10:30pm.

Observations:

Rexburg is a long, long way to drive, but it was worth it!

Ryon is a great outdoor cook, the meats were "restaurant quality". And your pictures of your family on the wall are amazing.

Jana was a gracious hostess, thank you for everything you did to make us feel welcome.

Hannah, thank you for the special drawing of a sheep for Grandpa, and a unicorn for Grandma.

Carson, you are so fun, thanks for talking to Grandma and Grandpa.

Harry, congratulations on learning a back flip on the tramp while we were there.

Simon, we loved seeing you, and holding you, and will be looking forward to the blessing day in July.

Justin, Ali, and Paige, Thanks for coming, it was wonderful to hang out with you guys, too!

I actually took my camera, but the batteries were dead, so I hope somebody else took pictures!

Thanks again,

Mom and Dad

Since we had the BBQ last night, we didn't do mcuh out of the ordinary for my birthday. We slept in, went to church, then Josh and the kids took naps. While everyone was asleep I sat on the patio swing in deep thought and read some general conference talks I had missed. I still can't believe that I'm 28. Anyway, Josh's uncle works for the church and invited us all to a special open house of the Oquirrah Mountain Temple. I invited my parents to come and we had a wonderful evening. It was neat to go through the temple without all the crowds and also with Josh's uncle who told us many things about the construction of the temple that you normally don't ever hear about. So it was a really neat experience. Afterwards we went to Josh's brother's house and had dinner and root beer floats. Thanks for all the texts and phone calls wishing me a happy birthday. I had a wonderful day!

My birthday was on a Sunday this year, so I was not expecting anything on Saturday, especially since we had a big BBQ last year. We had an enjoyable day and had talked about going to Leatherby's for icecream. After naps we all got ready and headed over to Josh's parent's house for dinner. When we got there I walked in, noticed it was very clean, and then saw my parents cutting watermelon. Hmmm...not normal. Most of our friends came over and we had a big BBQ. It was SO much fun to see everyone.

Brooklyn was so funny when I put her down on the grass. She did not like it touching her, so she tried her hardest to keep her legs off the grass. We were all laughing hysterically.

I knew that for my birthday I wanted to get a bike trailer to pull the kids in. So for months I have been looking for one on KSL and haven't had much luck. When Josh found out that's what I wanted, he also stopped at a few stores looking for one. We had told anyone that wanted to get me a gift that they could pitch in for the trailer b/c I wanted a nice one that also was a jogging stroller. My backup plan was to get the one at WalMart for $140. Once the kids were down for their naps, I got ready to go to WalMart to pick one up when I decided to check KSL one more time. It must've been my birthday b/c I got lucky. There was one that was only used 3 times, and most of the accessories were still in the original plastic. I called the guy up and he told me he'd hold it for me. I grabbed Brooklyn and took off. A quick 15 min drive and I met him to pick it up. It has everything that I wanted - bigger tires, jogging stroller attachments, folds down easy, comfortable seats, storage, pockets, and much more. And I only payed $60!!! I was SO excited I couldn't wait for my birthday. My dad helped me put it together during the BBQ and he took the kids for a quick ride.

Brayden was really sick all week (May 11-15.) He threw up for 3 days, then had diarrhea for 2. Not fun. Luckily none of us caught what he had. He always wanted to be where I was. Here he is laying on the counter while I was making lunch.

At some point Brayden found my deoderant. I came into the room while he was trying to put it on. It was really cute so I had to take pics.

I wasn't able to get Brayden to eat anything the first 3 days. Finally on days 4 and 5 he would eat Mac & Cheese. When he was ready to eat the leftovers from when I made it, he decided he wanted to eat it cold. So I gave it to him and went to get Brooklyn. Since he was sick, I thought it was cute and let him play with it as long as he was eating it. I kept taking pictures, and of course this was bound to happen.

Well I have put a new post on our blog. Nate has finished painting the babies room!! It looks so so good, if I may say so myself. Nate put a lot of work into it to make sure that it is perfect. This is just the final product so far, but if you check out our blog you will be able to see if from start to finish.

I know...you all missed me and all my many blogs SO much. It has been super crazy these past 2 months getting our house finished and moving in. But we made it! We are officially in our house and we are LOVING it. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but atleast we are here.

At the beginning of the year I started a new blog through blogspot. Blogspot is compatible with blurb.com where I do my blog books so it will save me tons of time at the end of the year b/c I won't have to upload every picture individually. Up until the past month I have been really good about blogging on both websites, but we got so busy with the house that I put blogging on hold. Now I am backtracking and catching up so I can still have a nice journal of all we've been doing.

N-e way, I am mentioning this just in case you want to see what we've been up to lately. There is way too much to post everything here. You would all hate me by the time I was done. As soon as I'm caught up, I will return to posting here again as well. Our other blog is www.joshandshantelle.blogspot.com

The organization I helped form www.seicpa.org and the club www.tetontrac.com had our first Event, the DO THE DU - DUATHLON. We had a great turnout and the weather was great. check out the website for what we are trying to accomplish and other activities we are doing.

Ryon

Over the weekend, Paige started walking. We are so excited! The best part is the smile on Ali's face everytime Paige takes steps. We are so ready for her to be walking.

We hate the swine flu. Reason: Ali's Mom was going to take the whole family to Cancun. We all applied for passports, yes, even Paige. We were going to go June 1st through the 10th. Then the Swine Flu had to ruin everything! I am sure we we still go eventually. It just would have been a perfect time to go. Oh well.

Lastley, we just had new countertops installed. They look awesome. We are very excited that after 2 years of home improvements, all of the big projects are done. Way too many of the small projects are left.

Anyways, hope that everyone is doing well.

Meet Doc. He is our cute new puppy (and by puppy the Vet estimates he's 16 months old). For full description of our adoption, check our blog at

http://seanandrachelle.blogspot.com

I know Easter was a bit away, but I actually took some pics so I just have to blog. I must say that holidays do make it the hardest time to be in Texas. We had lots of fun decorating our eggs and for some reason Sean decided that dripping candle wax on the egg and then coloring it would leave cool designs, he was right. My favorate egg was completely dunked in wax!!! ITs my super egg! It was obviously disqualified from rolling.

We invited some friends over (Georgette, Stacy and Michael, and our rommate Becca over and introduced them to egg rolling. It was lots of fun and I won!!