Las Vegas!

On our way to Disneyland we stopped in Las Vegas and spent the night in the Tropicana. We decided to take our kids out on the strip and wander around a little bit. WOW, it was an eye opener for our kids. It was saturday night, it was spring break, and there were a lot of really crazy people partying and drinking. Needless to say, we spent most of our time in the MGM food court, Coke Store, and M&M store. Our kids loved the Lions in MGM and they also really loved going into Excalibur.

The M&M Store

Watching the Lions at MGM Grand

Our New Trailer!

Everyone that knows us, knows that our family loves to go camping. We have wanted to buy us a trailer for a long time. This year we finally did it. I shopped around on ksl classifieds for almost a month. One night while I was at the fire station, I happened to check the classifieds before I went to bed, and saw that this trailer had just been listed. It looked perfect and the price was perfect. I called them and they told us we should hurry down to look at it, because they had already had a lot of calls on it. We headed down to Sandy the next morning bright and early. Someone had already been there and put down a deposit. Also while we were there, three other people came to look at it. Long story short, the sellers loved us and they decided to sell it to us. It is a 2004 Fleetwood Pioneer. They special ordered it from the factory when they bought it. It has every possible option a trailer could have. It still looks brand new. It sleeps seven people comfortably. We are really excited to do lots of camping in it this summer. Christy has already been busy buying stuff and stocking things in the trailer. Our kids are really excited and already have their beds picked out.

The iFLY experience

A few weeks ago, we had a chance to go and fly down at iFLY. My brother-in-law Kyle and my buddy Evan both work down there and are pretty awesome at iFLY. They have can do all sorts of cool tricks in the air. Carter has flown before, but this was mine and Cambree's first time. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was awesome. It was so fun watching Carter and Cambree do it. I was proud of them for being brave and doing it. I had a blast. It makes me want to go and do it more often. Thanks Kyle and Evan.

Carter

All ready to fly

Carter in his flight suit

Cambree & her aunt Emily

Cambree flying

Here is a picture of me flying

Carter's FAT CATS Birthday party

Last friday night was Carter's birthday party with all of his friends. Carter invited a bunch of his friends from school to his birthday party down at FatCats at the Solomon Center. We got the iFly room all to ourselves. All the kids got to eat as much pizza and drink as much sprite and rootbeer as they wanted, while they all bowled. They all got to bowl for an hour and a half. After bowling, everyone got a handful of tokens to go and play arcades and the different games. Then it was back up to the party room to open up presents and eat birthday cake. Carter's cake was a firefighter cupcake cake. The cupcakes were really good. A few of the boys ate two or three of them. Carter told us that this was his funnest birthday party ever. We have also had several parents call us and thank us, and tell us that their kids haven't stopped talking about Carter's party and how cool it was. Thanks to all the parents that came and helped out. Also, thank-you Kyle and Emily for helping us that night.

Carter & his little (girl) friend, Paige
Cambree & McClay

Carter & Will Hip-Hop Dancing

Carter & Tayson

Happy Birthday Carter!

It was Carter's Birthday today. It seems like kids are so excited all year long, waiting for their birthday to come and then it is here and gone in a flash. Carter had a really good birthday today. He woke up and opened some presents. (A few new Nintendo DS games and Imaginext toys). I made him his favorite breakfast, Cinnamon and brown sugar pop tarts and chocolate milk. He took Reeses peanut butter cups and Blow pops to school to hand out to his class for his birthday treat. Tonight we gave him his big birthday present. He got a new green Specialized Fuse BMX bike. (Yeah, he is way too spoiled! I never had a bike that nice growing up!) He is pretty excited about it. He had to take it for a spin around the neighborhood a few times. For his birthday dinner he wanted to go to his favorite restaraunt, Bellas. We ate really good mexican food and they sang to Carter, while he wore a sombrero. He is really excited for tomorrow night. We are throwing him a party with all his friends from school down at Fat Cats in the Solomon Center.

Cambree & the Princess Ball!

Cambree has little friend named Kambrie (same name, just spelled differently), that had a birthday this week and invited Cambree to a princess ball. Cambree was so excited. For days she talked about how she was going to a "princess ball". She dressed all up in her island princess dress, shoes, tiara, and jewelry. Here are a few pictures of her.

Spanish Rice!

The other night we had our friends Bryce and Amanda over for Mexican food night. We gave Calee a bowl of spanish rice to eat. She ate almost a whole bowl. She also made a huge mess, but it was really cute.

Calee's first birthday cake!

Getting ready to blow out her candle
Getting ready to eat her first piece of birthday cake!

Getting all messy and loving it!

Calee's Birthday Party

pictures of Calee opening presents

Calee's first little tea set

Sittin' on mom's lap

Happy Birthday Calee!

Our little Calee is 1 year old today! I don't know where the time goes. This last year has been the best year of our lives. It has been so much fun watching Calee learn and grow. She is such a little sweetheart and so stinkin' cute. I know it sounds like I am bragging, but literally everywhere we go, people stop us and tell us how cute Calee is. Her little cheeks, her little smile, and her cute curly hair. We have had people tell us that she looks like a little cabbage patch kid. Each day she just gets funner and funner. We've enjoyed having her stay little. Our other kids grew way too fast and were bigger and walking all over when they were 1 year old. Calee just started walking last week, this week she has been cutting teeth, and she is starting to really jabber a lot. We are having both sides of our family over tonight for a big birthday party for Calee. Happy Birthday Calee! We love you!

Carter

Carter made his first basket of the season tonight. He was pretty excited. It was fun to see him make a basket. We have been so proud of Carter lately. Not only is he getting better at basketball, but he did something last week that really made us proud of him. I coached the game last week and at the beginning of the game I passed out 5 different colored wrist bands. (We use colored wrist bands to teach the kids how to play man-on-man defense). We have 7 kids on our team and only 5 colored wrist bands. Well, one of our players got his feelings hurt because he didn't get a wrist band and started to cry. Carter saw this happen and didn't even hesitate a second to go over and give up his wrist band to his fellow teammate and say, "It's okay buddy, you can have my wrist band." It made Christy and I, (and everyone else that was watching) almost want to start crying. We were so proud of him.

Cute pictures of the girls

Here are some really cute pictures that I took of the girls this last weekend. Cambree was being her typical "silly" self. I still can't believe that Calee turns one this friday. It was fun having a three day weekend and spending lots of time at home with Christy and the kids.

Kinder Eggs

We went to the HOF german-fest out at the fairgrounds this weekend. Our kids had a blast making little castles, making gingerbread cookies and dancing the chicken-dance. One of our favorite things about going to the german-fest is buying Kinder Eggs. Anyone that has ever had a Kinder Egg knows how awesome they are. Christy and I have both been to Europe several times and we always bought lots of Kinder Eggs. Not only do you get really yummy german chocolate, but there is always a cool little toy in the middle that you get to put together. Here is a picture of Carter and Cambree opening their Kinder Eggs.

Crazy morning hair!

You think you've ever had crazy morning hair? Well, look at Calee. Our girls usually have some pretty crazy hair when they first wake up in the morning. This is what they looked like the other morning. Cambree's wasn't the craziest I had ever seen, but Calee's definitely was.

Carter's first Basketball game!

Carter started basketball this week. His first practice was monday night and his first game was tonight. I can't believe how funny it is to watch these kids play basketball for the first time. I am assistant coach on Carter's team and it is so fun to work with these kids and try to teach them how to play. They did really good tonight considering it is the first time these kids have ever played in an official game. I was really proud of Carter. He tried really hard and had some really good shots. I think that he learned that basketball is more than just making baskets. He can make shots all night long when he is over at the fire station with me at night, but tonight he figured out that he has to work on his dribbling, passing, working together with his team, and play defense. He was a little disapointed that he didn't make a basket tonight, but I told him that I was really proud of him and that he will make one next game. I think that he was a little overwhelmed by everything, but he told me that he had a lot of fun.

Look who is standing, and starting to walk!

Calee is standing up and starting to walk like a big girl! She started standing on her own the last couple of weeks. She is able to walk if she is holding on to her little stroller that she got for Christmas. She is so close to being able to walk on her own. Any day now, she is going to just take off and start walking. It is so cute to see her try to walk. She is still so little, and so cute. We are also starting to teach her how to go up and down the stairs. She can go up them pretty good, just not down yet. I can't believe that she will be one year old in a few weeks! They grow way too fast!

"Look! no hands!"

Learning "the stairs"

Lego Castle

When I was younger, I loved Legos. To me, there was nothing funner than taking a million little pieces and building with them to make something big and spectacular. I remember sitting for hours, carefully following the instructions and building everything just perfect. I had a big police station that was my favorite. It had a jail, police cars, and even police motorcycles. I have been patiently waiting for Carter to get old enough to start building with Legos. For Christmas, he got a really awesome Lego Castle set. We decided to finally get it out yesterday and build it. We sat for hours at the kitchen table putting it together. It was a blast! I forgot how much I love Legos. Christy even came over at one point and helped us put together a section of the castle. I can't believe how detailed Legos are these days. Carter has been playing with it non-stop since we put it together. He loves it! Building this castle, makes us really excited to go back to Legoland in California this march. Our kids still don't know that we are going. We are surprising them. I can't wait!