Easter Fun and the Blues

So this year we were in charge of our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. And by "we" I mean Neil. :) Anyway, Neil had the great idea of getting not only candy but bigger prizes - for every kid, not just a few lucky ones. So we loaded up our car with 1,000 easter eggs, candy, balls, kites, jump ropes, bubbles, & hot wheels. The cashier at Walmart loved us I'm sure. And someday we'll get a bigger car but at least Cole had a blast on the way home. Can you see him in this picture?

There he is!

Neil had to catch up with work on Saturday so I took the boys to the city hunt and some older kids squeaked in next to us at the last second and so Cole ended up with a whomping 2 eggs! Wahoo! Good thing we had another Easter Egg Hunt. But needless to say he was still happy with his 2 eggs.
I thought I took a video of our neighborhood hunt but apparently I was taking pictures instead. Whoops! So here's the best picture I have of our Easter Egg Hunt. Sorry babe! I wish I had more to show for all your hard work. The neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt was a huge hit. It actually lasted a few minutes and I over heard constant praise from people. They loved the prizes! And loved that it actually took more than 10 seconds to gather up everything.

Then Saturday night something wasn't quite right in the house. Korver refused to nurse, which he has never done and once I finally got him to fall back asleep at 1:00 a.m. I had been in bed 5 minutes when Cole started screaming. Normally, Neil is in charge of Cole, but seeing that I was awake anyway, I went to check on him only to discover that he had a temperature of 102. I was up with him for the next hour trying to get his temperature down and him comfortable. Luckily, he is o.k. and you wouldn't know the boy is sick except for his occasional fever but it definitely has put a damper on today. Both Neil's and my mom's had planned fun activities for the day, but we were unable to make it to either of them. But we still had fun at home.

Cole still was up first thing the morning super excited that the Easter Bunny had come even though he had been up most of the night.

And Korver LOVES his new toy the bunny brought him since he can't have candy yet.

And what would Easter be without dying Easter Eggs? (Yes, we did more than just these 6) I am so grateful for my wonderful family I've been blessed with and for the knowledge of the gospel. I think conference should be on Easter every year. I felt the spirit so many times during the sessions and loved the talks on the Savior and his life and sacrifice. It made Easter perfect.

Going Private

It's high time that I make our blog private. So if you'd like to view it please send me your email address. Thanks!

What's Up

I can't believe it but this guy is 6 months old already!

He's been sitting up for about a month now. I'm guessing he weighs around 20lbs. and he already loves cars like his brother.

And he loves his big brother Cole.

I have a feeling this guy is going to give me a run for my money more than Cole did. He has been sleeping in the swing since he was born due to a little reflux and I had never buckled him in because the kid is so big that I felt like the straps were a little constricting. But now I have no choice because when he gets sick of the swing he squirms his way out until he's happily lying on the ground underneath the swing. You'd think this would scare or hurt him but he always gives me the biggest smile when I come in like "look what I did Mom!"

Korver also loves being outside. What kid doesn't? I mainly put this picture in so you can see how big he's getting. He's practically too big for this chair and his car seat! He's in 12 month old clothes!

And guess who's finally potty trained????

Cole is finally potty trained and we are so proud of him though I think he's more proud of himself than anyone. And thanks to his uncle Brett that works at Specialized we were able to get him a pretty cool Specialized bike. Thanks Brett!

And lastly we finally got our fence put in this year! Yay!!!

Funny Cole Quotes:
"You're the best Dad!" "Mommy you're a rocker and a roller!"

The other day we were talking about church and Cole proudly exclaimed "Yeah, and I'm a sunbum!" (sunbeam)

Cole was looking for his Doc car last week and asked "Dad, where is my Doc." Neil responded. "I don't have a clue." Cole shocked by this runs into me and says "Mom! Daddy doesn't have poo !" I about died. (I know I'm so mature.)

And many of you know that I have a HORRIBLE habit of burping. I've been the "burping queen" all my life. I have found out in recent years it's because of my reflux but either way I have a horrible habit of it and unfortunately Cole seems to think it's hilarious. The other day at lunch Cole and I were laughing about it and a few minutes later Cole had to go to the bathroom. A minute later he comes running out and says "Mom my bum burped!"

Ahhh... what would I do without my boys.

Um... Christmas?

Ok so I know this is a little late, but I at least wanted to post a few pictures of Christmas so I would remember it in a few years. As I'm sure all of you could say... Christmas this year was a blast. Here are a few of my favorite moments.

The grandkids jungle gym. Poor, poor Austin.

Yes I am a forever converted cougars fan. I would get stoned if I voiced otherwise.

Cole's first time daring to sit on Santa!! Yay! Thanks Santa for surprising us!

My family and our dorky hats

If we have to look like dorks you do too bud.

Watch out! He's still learning how to drive this thing.

Neil telling the Christmas story to Cole Christmas morning before opening presents.

And Cole got quite a few blocks this year from his cousins and Santa. Although, I'm starting to wonder who we really got the blocks for. Neil or Cole??? Pretty cool babe. Though the movie doesn't quite do it justice.

Payson Temple!!!!!!!!!

So about a month ago Neil came home from basketball late at night and told me that the First Presidency was looking at land next to our church. I didn't believe him at first. Neil has ALWAYS joked about them building a temple down here. ( I swear the guy has a 6th sense sometimes) I thought he was just playing with me again. Anyway, come to find out his story was actually true. The First Presidency was down here. Neil and I couldn't stop thinking or talking about it. But even then I didn't dare believe that we would get it that close to our house. I mean how would it be to have a temple in our neighborhood, just 2 streets away, within WALKING distance from our house? I shook just thinking about it. Not to mention that I was sure that wasn't the only plot of land they were looking at and thought it would most likely end up in Elk Ridge up on the mountain side. But then......

Today President Monson announced that they are building a temple in Payson, RIGHT NEXT TO MY CHURCH!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I am SO incredibly excited I can't even type this!! Wahoo!

P.S. We tried to convince you all to come move down here. :)

See there's my church! :)
Future site of the Payson Temple

Happy Birthday!

Cole turned 3 a few weeks ago. I can't believe it! And yes I tried to make him a train cake and it about turned into a train wreck! I was getting the cake out of the fridge and it fell over so the frosting and engine don't look too great. I almost cried, but luckily Cole didn't know any better and thought it was still cool.

And it was just a train birthday. We went to see Santa and he got to ride a train there and Grandma and Grandpa Emery gave him a toy train for his birthday.

And I don't know how but I always seem to run this kid wild on his birthday because the last 2 years he has CRASHED before we even have sung him happy birthday. Here's this year.

And here's last year. He hasn't changed much over the past year has he?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE! WE LOVE YOU!

Family Pix

We didn't get our family pictures done in time to do a Christmas card so here's my Christmas pictures with an update on us all.

Korver is now a little over 3 months and is SUCH a good baby! He's holding his head up well and is full of smiles and loves to talk one on one. He's quite the chub too as you can see. I'm not sure how much he weighs now but at 2 months he weighed 14 lbs and I put him in a 9 month outfit yesterday and it fit!! I can't wait for him to start sitting up, playing, and crawling.

Cole just turned 3 and LOVES being a big brother. He can't get enough of Korver. He always wants to be holding his hand or touching him. He tells me all the time that Korver is his best friend. Cole is talking extremely well and cracks us up all the time with his cute sayings. Neil and I wonder where he comes up with half of the things he says. He's a really smart kid. He knows all his ABCs upper and lower case, can count to almost 20, and knows most of the sounds of the alphabet. He loves cars, reading, and playing on the computer. And he can't wait to go to school on the school bus in a few years.
Neil is doing great. He turned the big 30 this year! He's doing really well at his job and his boss has been really good to him and rewarded him accordingly. He's worked hard to get to where he is at and continues to work hard. He's constantly trying to improve himself and is constantly working on a project. He is quite the handy man. I can't wait to show pictures of what he's currently working on. He's also on the board of our HOA and teaches primary in our ward.

I'm also doing great. I love being a mom to these 2 boys. I've never been so busy but it is so much fun. My family is my life right now and I couldn't be happier with that. I still do home loans on the side occasionally when I have time and I'm currently the laurel advisor in our ward. Neil and I both have the goal of running a half marathon this year, so wish us luck cuz we're going to need a lot of it!!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Neil, Michelle, Cole, and Korver

Korver's Blessing

Korver was blessed Saturday November 21, 2009. We decided to not do it at our home ward so that all our family wouldn't have to drive down here. We had it at Neil's parents ward house on a Saturday with just family and since Neil's dad is in the bishopric it worked out really well.

Here's the cute little guy. What a stud!


Family picture time. Poor Cole did NOT want to stop playing with all of his cousins just to get a picture taken. And the poor baby did have socks and shoes on at one time.

Two of the handsome guys I get to live with. I don't know if I should admit this or not but I actually made Korver's outfit. I absolutely REFUSE to pay $40 for a blessing outfit that he'll only wear ONE day. So I decided I would make my own. The pocket turned out a little too big but hey I tried. :)

Such a good cute dad.And THANK YOU to both of our families!!! Ron you did such a great job conducting, Pat thanks for getting it all together, thanks Rick for saying the prayer, Carrie for leading, and thank you everyone for coming and bringing such good food!
We missed you Dad, Matt, Alicia, Christy, Jorge, Rachel, Brayden, Conner, and Logan!

Turkey Day!

Well this year we were lucky enough to have Thanksgiving at our house. It was so fun! I haven't had this much fun on Thanksgiving since I was a kid. The highlight of our day was deep frying the turkey. I ran outside to take pictures as Neil was putting the turkey in and must say I was disappointed that nothing very spontaneous happened. You hear of so many horror stories and things catching on fire that I expected SOMETHING to happen, but luckily nothing did.

The kids all had fun with Aunt Carrie making cute Indian hats and turkeys made out of oranges, marsh mellows, and gummy bears. Cole LOVES this hat and has worn it pretty much every day since.


And here is the turkey nice and done and fried! My neighbors even came over to check it out. And wow the turkey was DANG good! It was so moist and tender and tasty! We soaked it in a brine overnight beforehand. I definitely want to be doing this again.

We ended off the night playing the newspaper game where you hit people on the head, unwrapping presents layered in layers of newspaper and my brothers even came up with a few of their own games which the kids loved. We have so much to be thankful for.

Giddy-Up Cowboy!

I know it's been awhile and yes we're all alive and doing quite well actually. I just don't have much time lately. So while I'm playing hooky from church I thought I'd blog. I know.... it's about time! I have several posts for you all to see.

We LOVE Halloween! Neil even usually takes the day off work so we can all enjoy the day together. It was nice that it was on a Sat. this year so he didn't have to. But Halloween is a special day for us and some of you know why. :) This year Neil was so sweet and got up, made me breakfast, decorated the house and got the kids ready to go. It was SO nice. Not to mention that we actually got go on a date without the kids! Wahoo!!!!!!

Cole was a cowboy for Halloween and I don't think he understood how darn cute he looked! Well actually from the looks of that cheesy smile I think he did.

The little guy even had spurs on the back of his boots. Aren't they cute?

And here's a back side view of him. I love how he's holding his hat in this picture. Just like a real cowboy.

And cute little Korver was a giraffe. He didn't seem to mind his costume at all. And I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the 2 of them together!! What kind of mother am I? Luckily the grandmas did.

Cole was a little hesitant at first with the trick-or-treating. It didn't help that the first house we went to had a dead guy on the porch blowing out fog. Cole HATED ANYTHING SCARY and didn't think scary was fun or funny at all. But by the end of night he warmed up a bit to everything and had a blast trick- or- treating

Pumpkin Party

We had a pumpkin carving party at our house the Friday before Halloween with a bunch of people from Neil's work. It was a lot of fun, and some of Neil's buddies really got into it. They brought drills from work and other tools. Some of them turned out pretty cool.

And here's a picture of them all done. The one in the middle was done by shaving it so in order to see it we had to put a light underneath it, that's why it's so bright. Neil did the pirate and then I made him do the cute Frankenstein.

And is this not the most haunted picture? Can you see the outline of the ghost in the middle and all the little devils coming out of the pumpkins?? SCARY!!!!I'm not quite sure what Neil was messing with when he took this picture.Whooooooooooo!!!!

What the... Are those pumpkins???

Well we harvested our pumpkins early October this year after the frost pretty much killed the plants. Cole had a blast helping Neil pick them all.He was just a little frustrated with how heavy and poky they were. He wanted to carry them too!

And in case any of you were ever wondering. This is what happens when you cross pumpkins with crook necked squash. Apparently, they were planted a little too close to each other.

But as weird looking as they were, they were actually pretty cool. We got lots of compliments on them and people actually were willing to take them when we gave some away.

Hmmm... can you tell where Cole gets his fake cheesy smile from? Sorry Cole.
Cole and I got the fun job as being the trash compacters for the day.

Although, I think he enjoyed it more than I did.

So our garden is done for the year. So sad. And let the lesson be learned. Don't plant your squashes too close together! Or actually if you want to see some kind of cool new breed then do!

Korver & Cole

Well now that Korver is 7 weeks old I thought that I should probably post some pictures.

Cole ABSOLUTELY loves being a big brother and absolutely LOVES Korver. He tells me all the time that Korver is his best friend. It's super cute!

At first Korver would sleep through ANYTHING! Baths and even getting poked in the foot by a needle and then having his blood squished out of his little foot. The nurses couldn't believe he slept through the whole thing, and I was SO grateful! Poor little guy!

Cole wants to hold Korver every chance he gets. But then he gets frustrated because he can't see Korver's face when he holds him. Cole also got sick when Korver was about 4 weeks old so he wasn't allowed around the baby at all. It was the hardest, worst week of his life! Luckily, Korver didn't get sick and they're able to play again. Korver also loves Cole and it's cute to see him smile at Cole when he gets right in his face. Oh and just a little tidbit for all you nursing mother's out there. If you get mastatis put cabbage on it. It does wonders! I couldn't believe it. I didn't even have to go to the doctors and it was gone within a day! Wahoo!!!!