California in April

Looking at these photos at first I had no idea why we had gone to California in April! Then I remembered we were there for our cruise and spent a couple of days visiting grandma and grandpa Tyrrel and great grandma Pat! Helen came to visit too for a bit and had dinner with us one of the nights! We have been spoiled to go to California a lot this year! We can't get enough of the orange trees, the beautiful sunsets and time with our other grandparents! Here are some photos from that visit!

 Parker dozed off on the couch, Helen and Grandma Pat, and Connor outside with grandpa

 Enjoying the backyard!

 Playing football with grandpa!

 Connor watering grandma's plants!

Air Show

I am getting so caught up! I love these pictures since  I wasn't there to enjoy this day first hand. My dad took Tasha and Connor to the air show and it was such a nice break for me! They were gone for 7-8 hours and Connor had a blast.  He talked about seeing the airplanes for months...actually the other day he mentioned it, 5 months later! I'm blessed to have family that enjoys my little Connor and wants to take him on adventures. I'm sure he talked non stop and was a little crazy but they didn't complain! They even showed up on the news that night for a brief second! Love my cute little man!

July 4th 2012!

Our 4th of July was classic and the same as it always is- minus some family members! Usually there are a ton of us gathered but since people have moved out of Cedar not as many made it into grandma Irene's backyard. We still enjoyed some yummy KFC and the company of family. Connor had fun raking imaginary leaves, getting into everything he shouldn't, playing with his cousin Taytum, and eating watermelon! Parker basically relaxed on a blanket with Ben and Ashlee and Desi and enjoyed being outside. He's so easy going! He let me snap some photos of him in this chair. I had to since I did the same with Connor! :) 

We went to the parade before lunch and we BARELY missed getting Connor onto the fire truck to ride. We thought they were always at the end but this year they were at the beginning so we missed it by a minute or less. My mom tried to run with him to get there but still didn't make it. He had fun watching the parade and my dad kept helping him get candy. I think my dad was more obsessed with the candy than Connor but he still enjoyed eating whatever grandpa got for him! 

We went to the park after the parade and had a snow cone, and Ashlee and I sang karaoke. "Before he Cheats" by Carrie Underwood. I'm sure we sounded awful and my cousin said it was a family friendly choice...NOT! :) It was a good day overall! The kids were SO tired by the time we got home so they didn't stay up for fireworks but I went with my parents and Tasha to watch them. We found a little secluded spot on the black hill and avoided most of the traffic. We were right under one of the spots where they were setting them off and that scared us a lot at first! But I'm glad I went. It was beautiful and set to music! We had a funny drive home too with a ward member pulling up beside my dad acting like he was going to pass him. My dad was like "What the hell is he doing?!" and then we realized who it was and spent the rest of the hour laughing with him and their family. My mom loves to laugh- did you know that? Hahaha...Anyway enjoy our day in photos! This is what hangs me up on blogging. Ever since becoming more professional I feel like I have to edit everything I put online. So here are the 4 I actually edited, then 100 unedited collages :)

Easter 2012

I'm REALLLY bad at blogging! So slowly I'm catching up. Here are some photos from Easter!

Connor coloring eggs..I never even got a photo of the finished product! :( But he had a blast doing it!!

It was sort of a rushed Saturday. We colored eggs while getting food together and making salads to take to the park for a picnic. Ben had to work at 2 or 3 so we were sort of limited on time. We went to Tonaquint park and had fun on the playground equipment, having Connor do easter egg hunts with plastic candy filled eggs and eating chicken from Smith's. We went with the Gates family and enjoyed the nice weather and our own pavilion area. Connor was so funny with the egg hunt. He had to look inside each egg before looking for a new one, and had to eat whatever was inside before moving on as well. It was a long process.

 Easter Sunday. What handsome boys I have!

It's funny I guess...

How life has a way of working out. Even though everyone always tells you it will...you don't really want to believe them. Sometimes you do, but it's just too heartbreaking to think that what you think you want isn't really going to be. And to accept that something better is around the corner is to accept that this isn't going to be. Make sense? Well it's been one heck of a year. It's been hell but we have had some happy times and really overall I can say I'm pretty content with life. I love being home a lot and I have loved having Ben home a lot the past year. But it is definitely time for a change of pace and boy will it ever change! So the exciting news is that we have been asked by our neighbors and friends to run a french style cafe with them! It is going to be in downtown Santa Clara, and it's going to be AMAZING. It's called Breakfast at Tifiny's, since Tifiny is the one starting it, along with her husband Earl. They are two of the most interesting and spectacular people I have ever met. To tell you their life story would take me hours of typing. But they have been totally inspired to do this. They started out serving crepes and Navajo tacos at the Tuacahn farmer's market and were approached to set up a permanent cafe a few months ago. Earl is our crossfit trainer (when we make the time to go...we suck lately) and so we had talked with him a few times and I eagerly said that Ben totally wanted to help in any way. We both did. A few months back we had wanted to start our own crepe stand somehow but didn't have the money to put up or the capability to make it happen. Well the Roses made it happen and we are so blessed that they kept us in the back of their minds! When we thought Red Mountain Spa was going to happen we dismissed it as an option but it didn't happen, and incidentally the day they said they wanted to contact Ben again about still maybe working there is the same day the restaurant opens! Weird fate...but so meant to be. We have been spending the week tasting food, making business plans, and it just feels so RIGHT! This is something that will work so well with our other plans and things going on. We are bringing Europe to St. George! Opera, French food, what more could you ask? There's so much more to this story but we are just so SO SO SO excited to be a part of something that we are passionate about and to do it with people we truly respect and enjoy being around makes it an even more amazing opportunity! So keep your eyes and ears open! We have a soft opening on September 15th and the grand opening will be October 17th.  Prepare to have your tastebuds pleased with fresh eclairs, pavlova, cream puffs, chicken salad sandwiches on home made croissants, crepes and more! The food is to DIE for and oh man.....you have to come try it all!

So there's that, then the opera opens the first weekend in November! And we are doing a huge Christmas festival at the Opera house in December...and the carolers will be starting to perform in November...so right now we are balancing caroling rehearsals, recipe trials, business plans, nonprofit applications and forms, opera auditions, city council meetings, photo shoots, costume creation including buying fabric and sewing all the costumes, event planning and oh yeah...PARENTING! It's extremely overwhelming but we will NOT complain. Like ever. This is our dreams coming true. So overdue and so welcome! So thanks for your prayers, your love, your faith in us and in the plan for us, and for all the words of encouragement along the way. I am truly excited to see where this year takes us!!!