Thirty, flirty and thriving.

I had one of the best birthdays in a long time. Let me tell you why my birthday week was so great, which by the way everyone should celebrate the entire week like I do:

• I achieved my first small weight loss goal. I set it for myself to get to by my 30th birthday.


• Some of my girlfriends kidnapped me and took me out to dinner at The Olive Garden (one of my favorites) and then shopping at Ross. (So much fun.)


• I had a fun lunch at Old Grist Mill with friends the day before my b-day.


• I got to celebrate the entire weekend with my hubby, kid-free thanks to our parents, in Las Vegas with a bunch of friends. Shopping, German food, and lots of good times.


• I got an awesome Bissell steam mop from my in-laws, it cleans my tile faster and better than being on my knees scrubbing by hand. (Which by the way, was the best way to clean my tile.)


• My parents took Colby and I to dinner at Paradise Cafe & Bakery and added some spending cash to my card. Thanks!

So, it turns out that this age is not so intimidating. Thank you to all who made it so great; the surprises, gifts, cards, well wishes and time spent with me. I love you all.

I have to give myself some credit for all the things I have accomplished by 30:

• Married my best friend.
• Lived out of Utah for 6 years and loved it.
• Given birth to 3 beautiful boys.
• Bought a condo, sold a condo.
• Have no car payments.
• Bought a home, maintaining a home. (Phew!)
• Finally got my ears pierced.

If you are finally at the end of this post, I apologize for the self-congratulations. I had a bad Wednesday and needed to post something positive. Kind of my gratitude journal.

Herrs in town.

Our friends the Herr family visited us yesterday evening. They are in town to drop their daughter off in Provo at the MTC.

(Sister Sharlean Torst off to Russia after the Missionary Training Center)

They decided to make a trip of it and visit a bunch of different people in Utah, as well as stopping by Bryce Canyon. We made the list of people to visit, which I was very excited about. Jen and I became close friends by serving in church together. We had a great time visiting with them, and my boy's had a blast with all there kids. Nothing like food and friends to chat with. Thanks for stopping by guys, see you next time we are in Cali.

(Braxton, Jaden, Gabe, and Tristan chowing down on pizza)

(Trebor, Jen, Rob, Sharlean, Colby)

Block (Street) Party!

Last week I was chatting with a couple of my neighbors as we watched someone move into a rental across the street. We decided that we needed to put together a party including everyone living on our street. The south side of the street isn't including in our ward boundaries, oddly enough, so we don't know them very well. We have lost Braxton several times to the rental house across the street, someone fun to play with always lives there. And he forgets to tell us where he is going. So, my neighbor Rachel and I stamped up some cute invitations, and we had the neighbor kids deliver them to all on our road. It was a huge success! We had so much fun, and the kids always have a blast with the others on the street. We celebrated a little neighbor girl's birthday, and her mom had brought over a fishing pond for all the kids to experience. Some of our friends from other roads wandered over, but we welcomed them to the party warmly. Our plan wasn't to exclude anyone, just to get to know the other side of the street better. Many of our new friends said how glad they were that we had decided to put this together. Connie and Rachel, we were a success! Ryan and Colby hanging out while the foods cooks.
Jed and Tristan, buddies sharing a cup full of ice between them.
Taylor and Elizabeth get the soccor game set up. And Gabe practices running to the goal.
The men grilling our main dishes.
Spoils from the fishing pond: Bling teeth for Ethan and redneck teeth for Braxton, here's Jacob sporting his loot, a stick-on mustache.
Duke trying to escape Tristan's constant love.

Oh yeah, I forgot...

My friend Sheri reminded me that while at McDonald's with her Wednesday, we saw two guys on horses (in Thousand Oaks, CA no less) ride up to the drive-thru and order food. She said when she pulled into her parking space they were just leaving. Crazy! I took a picture of it with my phone, I had left the camera in my car. The picture isn't good quality, so I won't hurt your eyes by adding it. But I giggled about that for a bit, and Tristan kept running to the windows to see them, my little animal lover.

Hello 2009!

Happy New Year! Colby and I took the boys to the mall for some lunch and playtime. We were going to attend the "Countdown to Noon" at the Treehouse Museum. But it seems that everyone else in Weber County had the same plan. So we opted out of that idea. They still got some well needed jumping and running around time in the mall.

We actually did something this year in the evening. Usually all of our friends are busy with other people's parties, and we would rather stay home than bother looking for a babysitter. But this year, people came to us. I'll tell you something, it's so much easier celebrating holidays with kids when you can do it in your own home. You just put them to bed like normal and keep partying. I don't know how long we will be able to pull that off. Our friends through Colby are now getting to the point in life of starting families, soon they will be in the same place we have been for years. It was nice because Braxton slept over at his cousin Xavier's house, so as late as Gabe and Tristan stayed up, there was very minimal arguing. We munched on many goodies, and even had a game and movie set aside to entertain us, but we all just ended up visiting from 7pm to 3:30 am.

We had the opportunity to have our friends baby girl join us. Hopefully, I got my fill of cuddles in with her, and it will keep the yearning for a daughter at bay. Colby wanted to hold her so bad, but he is getting over a cold. Because she was such an early preemie, she is too prone to RSV and other illnesses. We enjoyed her latest antics, then setup the port-a-crib downstairs for her.

We hope you all spent New Year's doing something fun. And wish the best for you in 2009. Happy January!

Our Last Wedding This Year

Well, it is done. We have happily attended our last wedding for 2008. Phew! We had a lot of friends finally tie the knot. And we are so happy for them all. Friday was a long and cold day. But we got up in the morning and got the entire family ready and loaded them into the car. We dropped Braxton and his friend Kelly off at school at 8:15. Tristan having fun in the car that morning.


Then took Gabe and Tristan over to my mom's house for her to watch them. She would take and pick up Gabe to preschool. Next it was a drive up to the Logan temple. Now, we haven't been to Logan at this time of year for a long time, so we just took our Levi jackets, and froze the whole

day. What were we thinking?!

Colby and I trying to keep warm in the sun.

What a great day to reconnect with some of my old high school friends. I grew up across the street from Christina Hansen. I am so happy for her and her new husband Kris Bennett. The funny thing was, the elderly man that married them was mispronouncing her name the entire ceremony and nobody corrected him. All of her brothers were laughing so hard. It probably eased the tension for the nervous couple.

Sister Lisa, brothers Troy, Brian and Nate. Kris and Christina in the middle.

Then pictures afterwards and a wonderful lunch. We wish you both the best, and we will visit you sometime because we love Las Vegas!

Another Wedding.

We have attended four of our friends' weddings in the past year. I have one more to attend in October and then I think we will be done for awhile. Yesterday we attended the wedding of Colby's best friend Ben Johnson. He has known Ben since four years of age. He has had a turn living with us for 3 months in California, and been through thick and thin with us. He is our brother from another mother. And, since he has only sisters, it is the same for him. We were privileged to attend the wedding ceremony in the Bountiful LDS Temple yesterday morning bright and EARLY, and take pictures with the couple and their family afterwards. We then attended the reception held at the Maddox Lodge in Brigham later that evening with our kids in tow. It was small and simple and we loved every minute of it. Colby got to reconnect with several friends from his childhood. We had a great time and are so happy for this couple and their makeshift little family. Deena was a divorced single mother of 3. A 14 year old son, 12 year daughter and 2 1/2 year old adopted daughter. Ben had never been married, and doesn't have any kids, but he makes a perfect father for this brood. The 2 year old knows no other father figure other than him. He is in the process of adopted little Riley, and they hope to adopt one more in the future. We love you guys, congratulations.

It's McBurney Time!

We got the opportunity to have friends visit us this last Sunday from Arizona. We all became friends when we were in Simi Valley, then they moved to Chandler, AZ and a year and half later we moved to North Ogden. They have a daughter Gabe's age, the kids all had a blast playing together. We all survived as much of church as the kids allowed, then back at the house we had dinner, visited and played some rock band together. We can't wait until the next visit, thanks for the good times McBurney's!

Wednesday, August 13th.

We get up, get packed and start loading the truck. We say our goodbyes, and start driving to work to say more goodbyes. While at Mass Media, Rob and Paul keep begging us to stay another day, or a few more days, why not a week. But alas, they did convince us to stay 12 more hours. So, we decide to run around a bit more before we meet back up with them for dinner. A drive to Northridge to pick up the Wii Fit from April at her office. Then back to Simi Valley for lunch at Topper's Pizza. Next we fill the truck up with gas and drop Colby back off at work in Moorpark. Then I need to kill some time and keep the boys entertained so we head, yet again, to the mall in Thousand Oaks. I decide to let them all make a stuffed animal at Build-a-Bear.

Braxton with Rex, the roller-skating dino. Gabe with Bananas the monkey. Tristan with Bat-Dog, he has batman pjs on.

Then some snacks at Mrs. Fields/Pretzelmaker. Cookies and milk for them, pretzel and smoothie for me. Tristan and I munch, while the boys cause havoc in the play area. A movie in the car for Braxton while Tristan and Gabe nap, and I read in a park's parking lot. Then we are back to the

Mmmm...homemade salsa, spanish rice, and pico de gallo all on grilled flank steak and tortillas.

Hoffmeier home for a BBQ and lots more visiting. We finally get to see Leilani Toone, she's back from Girl's Scout Camp. (Poor Leilani, the only girl out of 7 kids in our 3 families.) And all the kids play tag & on the teeter totterwhile Tristan gets passed all around the adults for cuddles before we leave at 9pm.

Thanks to the Hoffmeier family for letting us crash at your place for a week, and thanks to the Toone family for putting up with us as well. We will see you next Easter break.

Tuesday, August 12th.

We slept in and slowly got ready for the day. I was planning on getting to the beach by 10am, but I have never had to get three kids ready and all the stuff packed up. We finally arrive at Zuma Beach in Malibu at 11am. We found some of our friends from the 4th ward and arranged our stuff. This was Tristan's first trip to the ocean, so of course I wanted lots of pictures. I arranged the brothers and took a couple pictures before a big wave took out Gabe and Tristan. Well, they refused to go back in the water again, but I don't blame them. They had a blast playing in the sand, and Braxton spent his majority of the time in the waves. I asked a friend's son to help Braxton use a boogie board, because on the drive to the beach he told me he was going to surf today. Tristan thought he was going to tackle eating the entire beach. He must be lacking sodium in his diet. Gabe made friends and then lost them by throwing sand at them. But, overall we had a good time. I had to leave and try to make it back home to meet a friend on her lunch break, but we missed each other because it just took too long to get my kids and stuff packed back up to go. We relaxed at the house the rest of the afternoon. I read, the kids watched Kai Hoffmeier Isaac Hoffmeier

a 3-D Movie and played with toys and video games with Kai and Isaac. Tristan with his attachment, Allejandra.

When Colby arrived home we packed up the kids to meet more friends for dinner. Again at Wok-n-South, but I love that place, we met up with April and Alan Manes. I worked with April at a pest control company for about 3 1/2 years and we became good friends. We survived the boys antics at the restaurant - I don't know how, but we did - and got in a good visit with our friends. As we are wrapping up the meal, the subject turns to the Wii, and they inform us that Alan's brother has a Wii Fit we can buy. Score! Colby and I are so excited, we have been looking for one of these since we bought our Wii. We made arrangements to pick it up tomorrow on our way out of town. After saying our goodbyes we decide to take the kids to the mall to burn off some more energy before bedtime. Besides, I had to show Colby all the beautiful renovations The Oaks has gone through. Wow! It's so fancy, I feel very upscale when I shop there. Now, off to bed, we need to get packed and ready to leave for Utah in the morning.

This is how Tristan usually slept, we kept taking the blanket off his head, and when we would check on him again, it would be back there.