Major Update in the Making

I realize I'm way behind on this whole blogging thing. So behind, in fact, that blogger changed everything and I feel like I'm relearning how to post!

Tanner is sick today so I figured while Montana is at church with Mason and Peyton, I will attempt to update the blog. I have so many pictures to post so it's gonna be lots of pictures and a few words! And if I'm feeling ambitious, then some pictures will get their own post. Just FYI, I will backdate the pictures with their own posts...and there are a lot of new posts!

Back in January (yes, I'm that far behind) Montana and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary. My mom came down to our house to watch the kids so we could take off for the day. We headed up to Midway to go sledding. It was a lot of fun!

Then we hit up a little diner type place in Heber for lunch. We ended with a trip to the movies to see Jack and Jill. It was just so nice to get away for a little bit and to celebrate!

My mom helped the kids make a cookie bouquet for us while we were gone. It was delicious!

We finally got a little bit of snow in January so the kids had to make a snowman.

I caught Mason reading on the counter one afternoon....

Tanner is just cute!

Tanner playing the piano with Uncle Eric on his last day of living with us.

On St. Patrick's Day, we headed to my parent's home for family birthdays. Trent was also in his school's play, Alice in Wonderland. We went to the play and then stopped at the Veteran's Memorial Monument. The have a monument for those that served in the Korean War. My Grandpa Thayne served and it was fun to find his name.

Montana Turned 30

Montana had a birthday and he turned the ripe old age of 30! He had to work on his birthday so we celebrated as a family on the 18th. We did the traditional lunch at Tucanos and then he opened his presents. He got a bevel set thing (I think that's what it is called) and an outdoor fire ring. We had pecan pie instead of cake and blew out candles. It was so very low key since we were planning an awesome 80's bash for the next weekend!

On Montana's actual birthday, we took him Red Robin for dinner! And the day after his birthday, he flew to Phoenix for a reception. When he came back in town, we started shopping for his big birthday bash. On the 28th, we invited lots of friends over, dressed like we stepped out of the 80's, had wonderful 80's music playing, ate delicious, not good for you, food, and played a donut game. It was so much fun. The kids thoroughly enjoyed running around outside and jumping on the trampoline. And as people started to leave, Montana pulled out his new fire ring and built a fire for those that wanted to stick around a little longer. We had so much fun and we were so excited that everybody came dressed in their best 80's garb. Montana thought it was awesome and I got kuddos for pulling it off!

Mason's gift for Montana.

Peyton's gift for Montana.

Jerry and Kemarie Whiting

Jon and Kassie Voigt

Casey and Lindsey Green

Mike and Devrie Gren

Scott and Melody Twichel

Duck Pond

We have a park down the street from us that has a little pond and ducks. I decided to take Peyton and Tanner on a bike ride to see the ducks and have a picnic lunch. (Montana was in Phoenix for a friend's wedding reception.) The boys were so cute. It was really hard to get Tanner to eat his lunch cause all he wanted to do was play with the ducks. But if the ducks started coming towards him, he would run away. I love that we live so close to things like this. It's so fun to just decide at the last minute that we want to do it and we can!

Oregon

Montana had a job offer in Oregon so we decided to check it out over Spring Break. It was a nice vacation except for all the driving that took place! Oregon is beautiful and has nice weather even though it was overcast the entire time we were there. We stayed in a hotel with an indoor heated pool and spa so the kids were constantly asking if they could swim. We did take them to see the river and play at a park that even had a train! On our way home, we stopped in Central Point (outside of Medford) so the kids could see the temple. (That was our April FHE temple night thing.) It is a beautiful temple and quite small. I would have loved to have the time to go inside. We had so many issues driving home that we never want to make that drive again. We were getting close to the Oregon/Nevada border when we hit some bad snow over a pass. We decided to turn around go a different way through California. So, we headed south through California towards Reno, Nevada. We made it to Reno in time to witness an accident that could have easily been avoided. We continued driving and got to Winnemucca where we found a screw in one of our tires. We pulled in to WalMart as the tire shop was closing up but they fixed our tire anyway! We got back on the road and started headed toward Elko. At this point, it was late and dark. The snow started again and we had to follow trucks so we knew we were still on the road. We decided to stop in Elko and get a hotel...even though we were itching to be home! We got up Thursday morning (the 13th) and headed home. We got right outside the Salt Lake Valley when a major rainstorm/hail storm hit us. We have never been so excited to pull into our driveway! And, in the end, Oregon is not for us! It was a good trip, we were glad we had the opportunity to go, but we are supposed to be in Provo. During the whole trip, I just kept thinking to myself, "I want to go home". And Montana knew it wasn't right too! We have been so blessed and we are so grateful for the things we have.