Changes!

Cut my hair even SHORTER and added lots more BLONDE..

Honestly.. what do you think??

Oh, and I got glasses (NO pictures of that though, sorry!)

God Bless AMERICA!! 9/11... never forget

I love my America and am so grateful to live here! It's so sad to think of the events of 9/11/01. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard.. Do you? I was at work. Watching that second plane hit was so surreal. But look how much we all came together. It sure made America so much stronger and closer. Thank you so much to the heroes who lost their lives and to those ones who survived. What amazing examples you are to the rest of us! And to the innocent people who lost their lives that day, you are never forgotten and so loved even by complete strangers like myself! It is so crazy to hear that my children are learning about this in school. They are so surprised to hear that I was alive when it happened. I just try to let them know how lucky they are to live in this great country. I LOVE AMERICA! Aren't we blessed to live here?!?

Back 2 School

Some first day of school pictures.

Katelyn and Kassidy are in 3rd grade and in different classes.

Kase is in 2nd grade.

They are *LOVING* it so far!!!

Summer...

Ahhh... finally getting caught up on my blog. Its been far tooooooo long! We had a really good summer but are excited to get back to school (except me that is.) I'm going to try to keep this as simple and short as possible.

As usual, we made many trips to St. George. We went for Bree's wedding. My mom took the kids for a week and I had a couple doctor appointments there. As well as just couple visits to relax. Sadly during one visit, I was driving my mom's car and had a semi truck pass me going the opposite way. Well he had a major blow-out and the tire tread (along with some kind of medal) hit my mom's car and totally broke her side mirror. Kinda freaked the kids and I out. But other than that little incident, SG is always sooo much fun. I enjoy being around my family. Even if it's just laying in bed with my mommy watching T.V. The kids especially love that and of course swimming in Steph's pool. We did that lots.

The Howard Family reunion is always in June and most of the time it's at my aunt and uncle's house in Kamas. We love it up there. They are always so generous and make sure everyone gets multiple rides on the horses. My kids are getting less and less scared the more we go. Even though the majority of us gets to see each other whenever we want, it's always so nice for EVERYONE to be together. Those of you who didn't make it were so missed. I love love love my family!

The 4th of July this year was pretty much the same as if usually is. We went to the parade on Redwood in West Jordan. Definitely the best one. We went with our friend's Josh and Jamie and their little girl Grace who my kids adore! Sharee even hung out with us for most of the day. Ty had to work but luckily he was able to join us at the park for the best part... the fireworks. An amazing show as usual. Love this country!

We went camping a few times and rode the 4 wheelers as much as possible. We went up to Vernon Reservoir. It's so pretty. Totally away from reality. No cell phone service. Just peace and quiet, a beautiful lake, gorgeous mountains with awesome trails, great friends, good food and good times! I have grown to love camping. The only downside was Kassidy puking in the tent in the middle of the night. Yeah and it was chocolate milk... so GROSS! But We still had too much fun!

A few weeks ago we went to Vernal for the Haslem Family reunion. This is somewhere we haven't been in years and it was wonderful. We love staying in hotels and I must say that this was probably the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. Maybe it was because we were surrounded by family. Brent, Ty's dad, Scott's family and Trevor's family all came out too. We stayed in the halls all night both nights just talking. Probably making everyone else mad.. oh well right? We got to be around family that we haven't seen in years. It was so nice for us (especially Ty) to reacquaint with his family that he hardly sees or talks to. Also, Grandpa Haslem got all of his grandson's GUNS! He took us all out to go shooting. Most of us girls sat back and watched but it was so sweet to watch the daddy's with their little boys. And whats a visit to Vernal without the dinosaur museum? Had to spend a little time there. Kase is so into dinosaurs so he loved it, we all did. Thanks Grandpa for the fun vacation!

That pretty much sums up our summer. We've spent a lot of time at home. We've done a lot of rec center pool swimming. Lot's of visits from family. Cameron, our cousin, was just baptized so we had fun while everyone was out here recently. The kids have had a blast! Ty and I have both continued to lose weight. Ty is now under 200 and I have met my goal of 125 and counting. We both can't seem to stop but feel great! The last couple weeks have been spend getting ready for school. I decided not to talk so much on here about my schooling just because it's mostly venting so you probably won't hear too much about my experiences, just the kids. :) And it's back to school for them on Monday...

Ok.. this picture really made me laugh. I "stole" it from my SIL, Jenee's blog. Her husband called it "birds on a wire." HaHa! Seriously, we all look silly but I just look mental

FiNaLLy!

I will be re-joining the "BLOGGING WORLD." Finally got a nice new laptop so one by one I will eventually get caught up on my posts and happenings. :)

Just a little patience over the next few days please!?

Great to be 8!

Katelyn & Kassidy got baptized

Uncle Scott baptized them both...

Uncle Derrick confirmed Kassidy...

Uncle Trevor confirmed Katelyn...

It was such a beautiful weekend. Perfect weather and so much love and support shown to our family. I can't even begin to share in words the love we felt. We are so blessed to have the family and friends we do. It was only our girls from our whole stake who were baptized this month so I was in charge of kind of putting it together. Thank you to all of our family who came. We had over 50 people show up!! AWESOME! Thank you to everyone who was involved in the baptisms and confirmations. Also, thank you to Aunt Teresa, Stephanie, Sarah and Jenee for the awesome talks and prayers. And an extrememly special thanks to Ty's brother's (Derrick, Scott & Trevor) for doing the actual baptisms and confirmations. The spirit was so strong there and it was amazing even for Ty and I who aren't really as active as most of you. I just wish I would have taken more pictures of everyone!! That's my only regret of this whole amazing weekend.

Aren't these boys the most handsome men you've ever seen?

More "pics" from last weekend.....

The girls -new bikes- from dad & mom for their birthday

*extra pictures*

Good Day

I love love love when you've waited a year for a book to come out...

And it's finally here

{this book was waiting for me on my NOOK when I woke up this morning. Now I just can't wait until I have the time to sit back and read it with no interruptions}

Ty turned 30!

..April 29th..

...this sexy man said "goodbye" to his 20's and turned 30! I could go off and name everything I love about him but that would take pages and pages so I'll try to keep it simple.

He is such a wonderful man and the best daddy ever. His number one priority is us, me and his kids. We spent his actual birthday traveling to St. George for the Relay for Life. He asked for nothing and expected nothing. He is so unselfish and that is one of the many qualities I love about him. Since the girls bithday is the day after his, all he was concerned about was making sure they had a good birthday weekend.

Some of my favorite things about Ty are:

He is such a MAN! I may complain a lot, but I love that he is so into sports. It doesn't matter what the sport season it is, he is always watching some kind of game. It's just manly to me.

He loves the outdoors. Hunting, fishing and shooting.

He can fix anything. I will never have to worry about hiring someone to come out and fix things that break. He can do and fix everything.

He is a country boy at heart. He tries to act all "rockerish" but he is a total country boy. It's really cute to me.

He will just relax with me on the couch and watch movies all night. Except I'm usually the first one to fall asleep. That is one of my favorite things to do. Just lay with him on the couch and watch a movie.

He is so strong. He is broad and strong. I swear even on my fattest days, he can lift me with one hand.

He is also strong in other ways. He can stick to things and get things he wants. He has shown that by sticking to this diet and losing almost 60 POUNDS! He looked great before but if you haven't seen this guy lately, too bad for you. He is so s-e-x-y!!

I just love him so much and I am so glad he chose me and deals with me. I know I'm a lot to handle but he definitely knows how to. He is probably the only person tough enough to be with me.

I LOVE YOU, TYREL

Baptism Announcement

Baptism Pictures-Relay for Life-Birthdays

-Baptism Pictures-

My AMAZING sister in law, Amy, took these pictures for me. Since next week is the baptism, I figured I better get going on some announcements. Also, I need to mention my WONDERFUL mother in law who made these beautiful dresses. My girls are so gorgeous and these pictures just prove it. I am so proud of them and the great kids they are. They are the best and I love them so much more than they could imagine!
-Relay for Life-

The main reason for our weekend visit to St. George was so we could attend and participate in the "Relay for Life" marathon supporting cancer. I can't even begin to tell you how emotional this was for us all. Between Katelyn and my mother in law, Joyleen, we have been through all the ups and downs that come with cancer. And we can definitely say.. CANCER SUCKS! Coming together this weekend with so many others who have been affected by it was so neat. Katelyn felt so special, which no doubt she should. I also realized just how lucky we are to still have our loved ones who have fought and are fighting this terrible disease. It was so sad to see all of the people and T-shirts that were all about "in memory of." I'm so grateful ours said "SURVIVOR." We are so blessed and lucky. Katelyn is and always has been such an example to me. Whenever I am stressed or have a small trial, I always think of this amazing little girl and all she went through. If Katelyn can fight and conquer, so can I. Same goes for everyone fighting! I love you all so much and I pray for you!! Never Give Up Your Fight!!!

-Happy Birthday Katelyn & Kassidy-

We also had a little birthday party for the girls while we were here, since today is their birthday :) I can't believe I have 8 year olds. They, along with their brother and TyRel, are the light in my life and I could never live without them. Something many of you know, I had to learn a very hard way. I should mention too that Ty also celebrated his birthday yesterday. He is the BIG 30 and yes, I plan on doing a major good blog about him ASAP! I just wanted to get this crazy weekend blogged before anything else. And lucky for Ty, we spent his birthday traveling and at the relay. But definitely watch for his special blog next!It was such a great BUSY weekend. So many special memories made. I love spending time with mine and Ty's family. We are so lucky to have each other for support. I sure LOVE you all. Even those who couldn't make it. I'm not trying to make it sound like life is perfect (because it is so FAR from sometimes)but this is just one of those times I feel extremely blessed.

Easter... in pictures!

{It was FUN}

Easter Saturday w/Grandma "Powder"

Today we had our annual Easter get together at my Grandma Howard's. It's always so much fun for the kids. The only crappy thing for me was all the yummy food I couldn't eat. These are just some random pictures from our day.

The egg hunt:

My lovely sister and I: