Bella, meet the door...

So most days I am home and we have no issues with Bella. She suffers from separation anxiety big time though so when Adam & I work there's always a mess to clean up. During the summer we have left her outside. We got her a doghouse so she isn't in the sun and keep lots of food and water for her. Well we received a notice from our HOA that she can't stay back there, even though it's an enclosed patio, so I put her in the downstairs bathroom the other day when I left for work. I only work a few hours and we just don't have anywhere else for her to stay. So now for the fun part:

Meet Bella -



Bella, meet the door -



Yep that's right, she chewed a hole in the door. Granted she's worked on it over time but the hole itself was from one day and squeezed her fat butt through there. She's a big dog - over 50lbs. How she got out I have no idea. She came barreling down the stairs when I got home at a full run, slid on the rug and ran to the bathroom to show me what she did. She was pretty proud of herself till she realized I wasn't happy. Oh well time to get a new door!

Park City!

Every couple years we go to Park City with Adam's family. We stay at the Westgate and just relax the whole time. They normally have it for a week and everyone takes a night to themselves and then on Friday we do a family night. This year we missed having Steve and Tyler there on Friday but we still had a blast. On Friday night the boys always get to do a Treasure Hunt and it's so fun watching them figure out the clues and find where to go.

They added a new pool room since we were there last. It's called the Relaxation room. Only adults 18 years and older can go in there. It has a waterfall in the pool, a hot tub, a sauna and a steam room. It was so nice and relaxing to go swimming without hearing a hundred kids screaming or being splashed the entire time!

I always forget to take lots of pictures but I did get a couple of them.

Girl's Lunch!

Every couple months when my grandma comes up to visit all of us older girls go to lunch. This time we went to Olive Garden. The food was great, after our little gross out, and it was so fun to visit with family.

All of us ( my mom, Jill, Jodi, My grandma and me):


My aunt Jill and Grandma:


My mom, Grandma and me:


My aunts Jill and Jodi, my Grandma and me:


My aunts Jill and Jodi, my Grandma and My mom:

Happy 11th Birthday Nik!!

Nik turned 11 on the 16th. He is so excited to be in scouts now and not cub scouts :) His friend Jackson is in scouts with him and his dad is one of the scout masters so he will have tons of fun!

Nik & Jaydyn went on a camp-out with Mike on Friday, we hung out with our friends Ian & Emily on Saturday and we had everyone over for cake & ice cream on Sunday for his birthday. He got a lot of cool things: some water toys, clothes, money, books, an mp3 player and much more. He is so spoiled :)

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with him and how scared I was. I have never regretted having him so young and would not trade it for the world. He is such a good kid. He is always wanting to help someone and is so patient teaching Jaydyn everything he can. They are best buds and do everything together. We love having Nik in our family!

Family Reunion 2010

For Easter we went down to St. George for my family reunion. It was so much fun and so nice to see my family again! We left Friday morning and when we got down there we went to visit my Grandma Mitchell (my dad's mom) and then went to my niece Katie's birthday party. We stayed with my sister Stephanie at her house and it was nice to visit with her again as I don't see/talk to her as often as I should. Saturday morning we left for the church (our family is too big now to do these at anyone's house) and had lunch and an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. We then went to St. George and met the photographer for our family pictures. We haven' had family pictures since I don't know when. My cousin Bradley will be leaving on his mission in may so this was a perfect time to get every single member of my family together. Here are some of the family pictures we had done: (I am an idiot and forgot my camera so there weren't any of the Easter stuff we did)

My Grandma -


My Grandma & her kids -


Scott's Family -


My Mom's Family -


Karl's Family -


Jodi's Family -


Jill's Family -


The grandkids & Grandma -


The whole family -


It really was great to see how big our family has grown and all because two people fell in love!

Time to catch up...

I figured I'd better post since I haven't for awhile. To be honest it's been pretty slow here, which has been nice. The kids are enjoying school and Bella is protecting us from all the evil squirrels trying to take over the world.

Adam and I are finishing another semester of school. This time around we have Statistics and Research and Spanish. I have to be honest and say I can't stand our Spanish teacher. She is horrible. Guess that's what we get for taking a language class online. If I walk away with a D I'll be happy. We did go buy the Rosetta Stone Cd's so hopefully that ends up helping us.

The boys are counting the days till summer and our pool opens. They have so much fun during the summer. With a park and a pool in our backyard we spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer.

Well that's about it from us, hope everyone is having a good year!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great christmas this year. Bella has now officially been with us 1 year! We got her December 23rd of 2008 - it's been fun having her as part of our family but at times also very challenging. She loves kids and adults alike - you are her best friend if you give her treats or attention. She loves to play fetch and be held. She is close to 60 pounds but is the biggest teddy bear ever.

This is her with her favorite toy from her christmas stocking.



We've had our share of bad luck this year, especially in the last few months but each time things get hard I look at the boys and am so thankful to have them as my family! They bring so much joy and happiness into our home. I can't imagine not having them to share christmas with! They really enjoyed everything about christmas this year. We had dinner and a program with Adam's family last night and it was so fun to have all the brothers together again. Chase left on his mission May of 2003, he was home for one christmas and then Steven left so it was so nice to have everyone there. My parents came over to our house this morning and had breakfast with us. The boys absolutely love their Nana and Grandpa Joe, they always have so much fun with them.





Adam & I are doing great! We celebrated our 8 year anniversary in September. It's insane how fast it's gone by. We also finished our first semester back in college on the 16th. We both received A's in both our classes and have a 4.0 GPA. It's been so nice going back to school with Adam. I love the time I spend with him and fall more in love with him every day.

I quit drinking pop 5 weeks ago and have felt so great! I miss Pepsi but realize how much healthier I am now. Adam is taking Chantrix to help him quit smoking. It's a daily battle for him. Some days he doesn't notice the cravings and other days are really hard on him. He's starting his 4th week on the drug and is doing great.

We love all of you and can't wait to see what's in store for our family in 2010!