3 days of celebration for the 3-year-old

Just a little photo recap of the Kademan turning 3.  

Lots of pictures I know...please remember this is my only form of scrapbooking.

(Sad I know)

Friday night Grandpa & Grandma Munson came up and we opened gifts and met the Lehi Munsons for dinner.

Thanks for making the drive. Fun to celebrate with you.

(somehow Grandma never makes it in any of the pictures)

Saturday, August 23rd was his official birthday.  

I asked him a couple of weeks earlier what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said, "Go to the zoo & see the monkeys!"

So that we did!

Shane had to work but with the help of Peyton, 

we made it to the zoo for the day.  

We met Brian & Kaori and their kids & had a great time.

Thanks for all your help Peyton! (I need to adopt a 9-year-old, such great help)  

On the way home he thanked me & told me how much he loved the zoo. Made it all so worth it.

Sunday evening, Grandpa & Grandma Edwards, Tyler & Erika

& family & the Schmidts came over for cupcakes & ice cream.

The highlight of the night was Kade's new 4-wheeler. 

(too bad the battery had to charge for 18 hours before he could ride it)

And since we were leaving Monday morning for Island Park, 

he had to wait until Friday to ride it. Cruel.

He was however, content to sit on it or sit on the couch & stare at it until we got it charged up.

He told me "I had 3 parties because I am 3." Hope we can keep up next year!

We had a fun-filled weekend. Happy Birthday buddy boy!

What is more fun?

LOTS to do today.  

Several loads of laundry from our trip to Island Park.

Floors to be mopped.  

Bathrooms to be cleaned.

Need to update on last week of events. i.e. Kade's birthday, Hogle Zoo & Yellowstone.

(none of this got done)

Spent the morning here.  

Spent the afternoon making this...

Just like that.

I have this picture hanging on my fridge. (sorry it is scanned, poor quality)  

This was taken just over 3 years ago when we were in Baltimore visiting Shane's brother for his graduation from dental school.  

It is my daily reminder to remember how quickly life can change.  

One day I was enjoying a night out at the ballpark and just 3 days later, I found myself in the ICU @ Utah Valley. 

26 weeks pregnant with the Kademan & very sick with bacterial pneumonia.  

Chest tube, feeding tube & ventilator.  The whole works.  

Worried about who had won American Idol...a whole other story in it's self. :-) 

Not a fun couple of weeks for everyone involved.

We just celebrated Kade's 3rd birthday over the weekend.  He truly is a miracle boy to me.

I feel so blessed to be his mom.  His birthday combined with the numerous tragic accidents happening this past week or so have really made me think about this picture & the feelings that it brings to me.   

• Life is too short to be bitter.  
  
• Grudges don't do any good.  
  
• Does no good to worry about things that I can't control.
  
• Delight in doing the routine things in life.  I don't take those things for granted anymore.
• Live each day fully and be joyful.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  

This picture truly is to me.

 

I won!

Sara over @ So Sara had a giveaway for her 30th b-day.  

I was the lucky winner of a $30 gift certificate to her etsy shop.  

I never win anything so I am very excited!

She has some really cute stuff. Check it out. 

Thanks Sara!

Eight years?

Hard to believe that it has been 8 years.

If you had only known taking that summer job with Clint & how it would change our lives forever. 

Crazy how our paths crossed.

I will be forever grateful. 

Thanks for all the joy that you bring to my life &

for being the great man that you are.

Love you!

   

Quick trip to Denver

Monday afternoon we flew to Denver to spend a few days with the Bills. 

After complete non-rev frustration from full flights on Delta we decided to pay the $25 bucks a piece and fly on Southwest.  Non-revving makes me crazy...it tests this one's patience that is for sure!  It especially made for a fun flight with Kendal pretty much crying the whole flight.  

Thank goodness it was only an hour.  Could have been 6 hours of crying in the car, so I won't complain!

Last time we were in Denver, Brett & Jocelyn took us to a great little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place.  Can't remember the name but so delish.  We again, were not disappointed with their dinner pick for this visit.  Jack-n-Grill.  Hot green chile sauce.  Yummy corn in a cup.  

Delicious mexican food.  After dinner we were off to Coors Field.

Brett so kindly coordinated getting us all tickets to the Rockies & Diamondbacks game on Tuesday night.  (Good thinking on getting seats under the awning,  especially when that thunderstorm rolled through)  

A special thank you to Brett's mom (Susan), who watched Kendal & Max while we went to the game. They are just at that not-so-fun-to-take-anywhere-age.  It made for a much more enjoyable night for everyone.  

Although the Rockies lost, it was a fun night out at the ballpark.  Between slushies, Cracker Jacks, M&Ms, Skittles & Coke, Kade & Tyler had a sugar-filled evening of baseball.

I have had to smile this week as I have overheard Kade singing, "Somebody take me out to the ballgame."  Can't wait to do it again!

Thanks again to the Bills for a great time.  They have got the cutest darn kids & are some of the most hospitable people around!

Surprise...surprise

my wife had cancer.  

i cheated.

wanted to be your President.

nice.

read about me here.

Not the kind of Friday night excitement I was looking for

After a long day at the pool with the kids, I was thinking that I was looking forward to a quiet night at home.  

The fire here in Payson that transpired behind our house Friday afternoon made for some good entertainment. The kids & I sat outside for a couple of hours after dinner watching the many airplanes & helicopters working the fire. (not to mention breathing in that wonderful air) Not really thinking that it was threatening. 

Good entertainment until @ 11:30 pm a firefighter was pounding at our door giving us 2 minutes to evacuate.  

WHAT!  ARE YOU SERIOUS? RIGHT NOW? 

So I ran around like a crazy lady grabbing some things, (I had starting setting things out...just in case) got the kids in the car and the dogs in the pet porters. (and only had a partial break-down)  

Only half of the neighborhood was evacuated so I drove down the street and waited with others that were told to be prepared to evacuate.  After sitting and watching the fire for over 2 hours & eating half a dozen chocolate chip cookies and  a Diet Coke & smelling like a camp fire, we crashed in the Kunzlers living room for the night.  The kids finally getting to bed at 2:00 am.  Yes, my little ones were with me and  Shane was on a trip of course.  He always misses out on this fun stuff.

The fire looks like it is out this morning and we are all trying to recover from a long night.

Thanks to many good neighbors who were such great help. 

Taking note of what I need to have ready for another emergency (chocolate chip cookies for sure) and needing a nap!  

Front porch view.  A lot of ash in the air.

Morning after.