It's about time...

Wow! How the summer has flown by. However, I love September for several reasons:

1. Labor Day weekend last minute summer flings (which we did not participate in this year, bummer)
2. I finally see the fruit of my labors, well technically not mine, but Days Farms sure has nice produce this year
3. Peaches with vanilla ice cream - nightly
4. School starts (or preschool in our case)
5. The air cools down- great for early morning walking
6. I can put my kids to bed earlier- thank goodness
7. The leaves start to change
8. Kembrie celebrates her 2nd Birthday
9. It feels like such a romantic month to me because...
10. Our anniversary is on the 30th!!!

I just wanted to post a few great pictures of my kids with their "bucket" hats. They are quite creative. I couldn't help but take a picture of them when Brexten kept asking for me to get the camera because he had a 'great shot'. Everything Brexten does, KJ wants to do too. They both love to jam out to the guitar, and I couldn't help but get a shot of that too.

Kembrie was way too cute for church today in her new fall dress so I snapped some 'great shots' of her as well. We are practicing for those real birthday pictures that I want to have done later this week. She says cheeze every time and it totally cracks me up how she wrinkles her little nose just like her dad. Enjoy!

Aloha from Hawaii

Our family was lucky enough to go to Maui, Hawaii for a family vacation this past July. We were really spoiled with all kinds of fun from snorkeling with sea turtles and catching some rays on the beach, to walking through botanical gardens and experiencing a traditional Hawaiian Luau. But my favorite part about vacation is spending some good quality time together.

Pictured below are Danny, Grama Vivi, Me, Kembrie & Brexten, and Dave & Mystie at the Maui Ocean Center. Brexten's favorite was the sea turtles, Kembrie was brave enough to touch the starfish with me.

Sunset on the boardwalk in Maui.

Love the kids peering at the ocean behind us.

Wow! Waterfalls are AMAZING in Maui. Julie, Nate, Bryan and Myself hiked through the jungle to swim in this crystal clear waterfall. Did I mention how freezing cold it was? It was like swimming in bottled spring water, you could drink it.

My favorite in Maui was the Torch Flower. It really looked like the native fire torches.

We partied at the classic Luau in Lahina on the beach. We ate lots of great food, watched natives hula dance and cliff divers who were part of the ceremonial tribute to the nature gods.

Kembrie's ready for some hula dancing!

Brexten, Kembrie and Abbie LOVED playing on the beach and making sea turtles and sand castles. A handful of sand for lunch never bothered sweet little Abbie.

Brexten was soo excited for his very own surfboard (or more accurately boogie board) to hit some waves with. Well, it was more like hit the pool with.

Mahalo to Grama Vivi for inviting all of us to experience the wonderful Hawaiian Islands!!

I got Tagged

1- Self-portrait. This is me after a long day out in 98 degree weather, thus the ponytail.

2- What are your kids doing right now? Brexten and Kembrie are running around the house making a huge mess and coloring with marker all over their hands, feet, clothes, floor, and a little on the coloring book. It's a good thing the markers are washable. They will need baths tonight.

3- Our laundry, it doesn't even fit in the way too small laundry basket, but it is sorted.

4- Our closet, well half of it anyway. How about that high school letterman jacket right next to my dresses. We are crammed for space, but honestly you would think maybe a good place for it would be a box.

5- Our fridge. It was leftover night tonight, and I still have containers full of food. I can't keep enough apple juice for the kids, and Mountain Dew for Bryan stocked up in this fridge. Notice only a six pack on the bottom right, and an almost empty apple juice container in the door.

6- Kitchen sink. Mine has some dinner dishes in it. Typical.

7- Toilet. This is actually Brexten's bathroom and we just cleaned it yesterday, lucky for me. I trick the kids into helping me by playing treasure hunt, and the washcloths are our treasure maps. After we use them to navigate through cleaning the bathroom, they get a treasure or treat. It really works for me, but now I just need him to hit the water everytime instead of the floor.

8- My favorite shoes are last year's flip-flops with half of the metallic sequins missing. I have honestly been trying to find another pair to replace them, but they remain my all time favorite flip-flops for the second summer season.

9- My favorite room in our house is our front room. It is my pretty picture and scripture reading room, very peaceful, when the kids are asleep.

10- My dream vacation is Hawaii, and we are going this friday for a week with my family. We are so lucky and excited. This is Bryan's t-shirt for our trip - Aloha Hawaii!

I got tagged by my sweet sister Karen. She did this really cute picture tag. The rules are you have to take them right now, with no fixing it up and tag five other people. I tag Lisa, Shauni, Kami, Cindi, and Melanie.

What A Teaparty

How cute are these pictures? I just had to put a plug in for our little princess teaparty that Kembrie, Brexten and I had yesterday. KJ was Cinderella with her gloves. We all ate pretzels, gummy bears, animal crackers, chips, and pretend tea. It was a lot of fun. I also just wanted to comment on my new blog layout. Yes, I know I have been updating like crazy, but I have finally found a layout that I really like!! Yea!! So this should be our blog site for quite a while now. I also noticed that I have been posting on Tuesdays, so I didn't want to break tradtion. Love you all!

The BIG 30th Birthday!!

Happy 30th Birthday to Bryan!! He's finally reached that monumental age when we should have life figured out right? Well he's working on it anyways. We had a huge birthday bash for Bry last week at an awesome Chinese restaurant. A ton of our family and friends came to celebrate Bry's Big Day. We had a fun table set up in our banquet room with candy and bags for the kids to decorate and then fill with their own stash. Not to mention the huge birthday cake that Kembrie loved sticking her fingers in before the party started. Brexten was so excited when blowing the candles out with him. I made Bryan a little scrapbook album of his first 30 years. It was so much fun to make. Cindi helped me put it together and we found everything from his drooling baby pictures, to sports, golf, prom, mission, family, and wedding pictures. It was a blast to make for him and just made me love Bry for being him. Most of his friends from work are also pictured here. Bryan has a fun, easy going personality and he genuinely cares about others, that's what makes him such a great friend. We had a great time and missed those of our family who were not there. We love Bryan and wish him the best for his next 30 years!

We love Grandma!

Kembrie, Brexten, and Abbie pose together in their adorable sweat outfits from Grandma Viv. Brex and KJ love to play with their cute cousin Abbie who is just starting to move around quite well. Pretty soon she will be up and running around with them, but for now she love to sit in our little piano baby bouncer. Brexten thinks that she is spitting up because she always has a wet bib on (she's probably teething). Kembrie always wants to know where Aunt Julie and Abbie are. She loves to give Abbie hugs and feed her food she is not supposed to have like Cocoa Puffs at 4 months old. (Sorry Julie) We love you Grandma Viv!

my first blog

Aren't we gorgeous gals? I'm finally a blogger now thanks to my great friends Lisa, Melanie, Kami, and Cindi (not pictured)!!! We had a whopper of a girls night out at my house. It started with our monthly book club meeting. We had great food and a fun discussion on the book "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, which I highly recommend. Then we all stayed and chatted while creating my new Blog!! I never would have gotten as far as I did with out them. We snacked some more and finally posed for our snap shot at 2 am. I would say we can still look great even in the wee hours of the morning. I had a great time and loved spending time with my closest girlfriends. Melanie was in town for the week and I just realized how much I am going to miss her. Her twin boys are absolutely adorable and I told her that they make me 1% baby hungry, which is a huge step given that I am in NO condition to be adding to my pair of "Genes". My funnest memories of my girlfriends are staying up late chatting about life, husbands, kids and being feminine. I love to be girly and get all dolled up just to be out on the town with my girlfriends. These girls are the reason that I am even blogging today. Thanks to Shauni, who started it all a few years ago. Sorry it took me sooo long to catch the blog bug. However, I know that this will be a fun adventure and a great way to keep in touch with family and friends who are tending to be moving out of state in the recent past.

Love ya,

(Yes, I really do)

Jen