Family Update: Cade Matthew

 Cade goes off to school each day and by the time he comes home I feel like he has grown some more.

He is changing right before my eyes.

When I was thinking about him today I was reminded of a time when he was very small.

I was up feeding him in the very early morning hours of the day

The house was quiet

I was overwhelmed with the feeling that some day he would gone...

Serving a mission.

 Cade has always been my sensitive child.  

When he was in Kindergarten his teacher told me that he would cry every day at school.

Kids would pick on him or he would be upset that he couldn't figure something out.

I'm happy to report that he has out grown that.

Can you imagine if he still cried every day at school.  Oh my!

 Cade loves to be around others, his friends, his teammates, his family.

I love to remind Haylie and Cade that when they were young they were 

the best of friends.

Right now I think they still like each other or they like to bug each other.

 Cade has always been my most cuddly child.  

This picture was taken two years ago.

So much has changed since then.

He is now taller than me 

And there is no way he will cuddle with me any more

But he will sit close to me on the couch.

And he will cuddle with Ryder.

 Cade is a super great brother.

The thing that makes him special is how much he make all of us laugh.

I know that he has a whole bunch of younger brothers that really look up to him.

One of my favorite responsibilities that he has right now is to watch Ryder during

the opening exercises of Priesthood.  Matt has to sit on the stand and I'm in Young Women's so 

Cade sits with Ryder on a pew with all of the other deacons. 

But the sitting doesn't last long because within a few minutes he ends up in the hall with a squirmy, loud younger brother.  

But I love it because I know he is going to make a great father some day...

Cade stays super busy.

Often playing more that more sport at a time.

Once we moved to Colorado coaches started coming up to us and asking about him.

He was being sought after.

This never hurts for people to want you on their team.

He plays football, basketball, baseball, and runs on the school track team.

He does get stronger every day.

He is an avid BYU fan.  Not afraid to let people know that too.

He is an example at school.

A quiet leader.

And I am proud to be raising a missionary.

Family Updates: Haylie Mae

Big beautiful eyes and long dark eyelashes.

More hair than anyone I know

Haylie is a first born child.  

No sisters and lots of brothers.

She is dependable, driven, smart, helpful and careful.

She has always done well in school.  

Math is her super subject.  It just comes easy for her.

She was born in Provo when Matt and I were young.

Her goal is BYU and we are hoping she can get there.

She loves her cousins.  

Spending time with them is always a treat. 

This summer she will go with her cousin Shannon to EFY in Provo.

They went last year together too and they had the time of their lives.

She loves the beach.

Although she has adjusted to living in the snow too.

Haylie had to move in the middle of her 8th grade year.  

It could have been real tough but she chose to have a positive attitude.

Her positive attitude rubbed off on all of the family and how thankful we are for that.

Haylie is a spiritual girl.

She take church things very seriously.

She is a great example to me. 

She doesn't go a night without reading her scriptures, writing in her journal, and of course saying her prayers.

Seminary starts every morning at 6:00 am.  And she loves it!

Sunday she received her patriarchal blessings, it was a special day.

Friends have always been important to Haylie.  

We are grateful that she has always had amazing friends.

Her friends have always been a good influence on her.

Haylie is a freshman.

This year she decided to tryout for the cross-country team, basketball team, and the soccer team.

It has been fun to watch her compete.

She has enjoyed challenging herself and having new experiences.

She is working on Driver's Ed (on-line) and of course she is excited about driving!

Yesterday she applied for a passport

because this summer her plans will take her to London and Paris.

Just the two of us...This is one of the perks to having only one daughter :)

We love you Haylie and I love being your mom.  

You make my job easy.

The power of a trampoline

 When I was growing up I wanted a trampoline so bad.  I begged and begged for one.  When my birthday would come around all I would ask for was a trampoline.  Finally, I think my parents felt bad enough and I got the best present ever.  This was back in the day when trampolines did not have nets and you packed as many friends on as you could.  None of my friends had a trampoline so this was a novelty and everyone loved it.  I had so many friends that would come over after school to jump.  It was the best.  So of course I wanted to have one for my kids. After living in our home for a year the trampoline that we brought with us from California was finally reassembled.  Ryder had his first experience with the trampoline and he loves it.  He stands at the door and begs to go outside.  

 Last night Weston, Tanner, and Cade were jumping.  The trampoline has only been up for two days. Since Cade is practically a full grown man he jumps and bounces the boys way too high.  Tanner's head went right into Weston's lip.  There was lots of blood and tears.  And the first of many trampoline injuries.  

Hopefully this trampoline will provide as many happy times as my childhood trampoline provided me.  And hopefully the good will out weigh the bad.

House for Sale

So Peyton, there is a house for sale on my street!  

We would make excellent neighbors.

Welcome to Denver, you're going to love it here.

Out of the Cold

 In January Matt and I were able to get away for a week!  We were so excited to get out of the snow and the bitter cold days and head to Maui.  Our friends Danielle and Ryan invited us to go with them and we had a blast.  After waking up at 3 am and flying all day it sure felt good to put on a short sleeved shirt and stick my feet in the sand.

 After church with Danielle.  Can you imagine having this view from church each week?

Monday we headed to Black Rock to do some snorkeling and the guys were going to jump from Black Rock.  Matt stepped on a sea urchin and until a couple of weeks ago he was still limping and pulling things out of his foot.  Ouch!  But good thing for vinegar to help take the sting out.

I'm still dreaming of all the amazing food we ate!  Just yesterday Matt and I were talking about the fish tacos.  And who could forget the Hula Pie and the Shaved Ice.  Yummy!

 The "heart" hole in the rock at the blow hole.  Isn't that cool.

 Until next time Maui- I will miss you.  Thank you Ryan and Danielle for inviting us and a big thanks to my awesome in-laws for watching the kids and Carin thank you for taking such great care of Ryder!

Youth Activities

 We've had some really fun youth activities already this year.  I was in charge of the combined activity in February and we did a cake decorating contest.  The youth were divided up into teams of one boy and one girl.  This is my favorite thing to do at any combined activity.  It forces the kids to interact with the opposite sex and they always have fun.  The theme of the cake decorating contest was the theme for the year which is "Arise and Shine Forth that thy light might be a standard for the nations." (D&C 115:5)

 This one was a temple.  I thought it was really impressive.  They had about an hour to decorate.

 This one was a person in bed about to arise early for seminary.

 Haylie was asked to be in charge of New Beginnings and she did an amazing job.  This project was used to fulfill a value project for Personal Progress.  She did a carnival and she had eight stations one for each value.  The girls were able to interact with their parents and learn and have fun.  She got the idea from our old ward in California.  Thank you to those leaders for sharing their ideas.

The group that went to the temple.  This is in front of our house.  We had a wonderful night together.

Baptisms are special

 Tanner's baptism was a special day.  Both sets of grandparents were in town and it was so nice to have them here to support us.  The program went well.  My dad spoke on baptism and Haylie spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost.  They both did wonderfully.  They cousins and siblings sang a couple of songs and it was sweet.  As you can tell from these pictures Tanner was very happy.  He is a funny kid with a whole lot of personality.  We love you Tanner.

 Last week the youth went to the temple to do Baptisms.  The temple is over an hour away and so it was a late night but like always it was worth it.  This was Cade's first time in the temple and he enjoyed it.  He is getting so tall and old looking.  Teenagers are fun to have around!  They are always doing something that makes me laugh.