Jonathan turns 30!

Jonathan turned the big 3-0! I knew we had to do something great to celebrate because he was not too excited about entering his 30's. I decided to throw him a surprise party the weekend before his birthday and he was super surprised! I reserved the church and decorated and baked all day with my wonderful friend Melissa, who helped me so much! I told him that we were going to play basketball with some friends at the church. When we got there, there were no cars and it was completely dark. Jonathan thought that we were at the wrong place or too early but I told him that maybe they were setting up treats in the relief society room. We opened the door and everyone yelled surprise! It took him awhile to figure out what was going on and he actually thought that they were yelling surprise to someone else but he soon figured it out! It was so fun! We played a few games. One was a trivia game about Jonathan and the other was a name that tune where we did boys against girls and they had to name the top song from each year of his life. It was pretty fun to remember the good old days! We were then going to all play basketball but it was getting late so we all ate treats and talked some more. I think it was a success- at least I had fun!

My special helper and the fun decorations! His mom sent me pictures of him as a kid which were really fun to share!

My awesome friend Melissa! I could not have done it without her!

This was Abigale's contribution :)

Some of the party guests. We had about 12 couples and I was so happy people showed up!

Our friend, Jim, decided to play Happy Birthday and of course Jonathan had to jump on the piano!

The guys- this was after the boys vs girls game so that's why they are separate, if anyone was wondering :)

A tender hug from his friend Taz

On his actual birthday, October 3rd, I made him french toast (with special bread from Kneaders) and then he went to work. Pretty exciting!  He did come home early and we bought a big tv since our last one was hit by a little girl and her golf club! I was smart and surprised him with a tv mount so now it is up on our wall which is very good because I can only imagine what kind of damage Ryan would do to the tv if he could reach it! We spent the rest of the night setting up the tv and it is so nice. It was a pretty relaxing day but I think he had a good day and hopefully the 30s will be nice to him!

September

 It took a few days to recover from our amazing trip and remember how to be parents again but since it was now September, one of our favorite months, we were able to jump back into the swing of things. I had to figure out a our new schedule with Abigale in morning kindergarten, Lydia going to two different neighborhood preschools, both girls in dance, and Abigale starting soccer with me as her coach! Pretty crazy but so much fun!
 This was our first year as a soccer family and I even took on the role of coach, I played soccer growing up and always thought that it would be fun to coach, and I was right. Abigale had 4 other girls on her team and two of them are friends from our neighborhood. They were a really fun and good team. They went 7-1 on the season and Abigale even scored a goal.  It was fun to watch her get better and better. The first game she was really hesitant but she figured it out as the season went on and was really sad when the season ended. We can't wait for Spring so she can play again!

My little soccer player!

This is what happens when you have two older sisters! Poor boy!

 Brigham City Temple

We were able to get tickets to the Brigham City Temple open house and I got two extra so that my parents could meet us there. We met at Wingers for lunch and then we had to park and ride buses to the temple. Walking through the temple was such a great experience and I am glad my girls were able to see that it is just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. 

Love this picture!

 This is our typical Sunday night. If the kids are good in church they earn a movie night. We get out the "big bed" watch a family movie and have popcorn. I love that they get so excited about it and that they can look forward to it every week.

 Having fun with friends on the trampoline! The weather was so perfect for almost the entire month and we took advantage of it! Ryan especially really fell in love with the trampoline and would spend all day jumping if we let him.

 8th Anniversary

We celebrated our 8th anniversary on September 17th! Since we just got back from Orlando we did not really have anything else planned. He sent me some beautiful roses and then after the kids went to bed we had a friend come over and sit at our house while we went to dinner.  We decided to try a new place and unfortunately the food was pretty bad but we were just enjoying being out together so we didnt mind. We then just spent time walking around stores and bought each other a few gifts. It was pretty low key but relaxing!

8 years ago! So crazy!

Beautiful Roses!

Fun Day at the Park!

We enjoyed the warm days and tried to get to the park as much as possible. One day there was a girl with a motorized car and she said my girls could drive it around so they were loving it and I had to drag Ryan away!

 I thought that I had found something that all three kids could do and I was pretty proud. I gave them each a cup of water and a paint brush and told them to paint the stairs. It worked for about 5 minutes and then Ryan decided to dump out everyone's water which they were not too happy about but at least we had 5 minutes, right?

 Every Tuesday night Jonathan has church meetings and so do a lot of husbands in the ward so the wives would often get together and go for walks and take the kids to the park. I am so sad that it is too cold and dark now because I really looked forward to it!

 I had to take this picture of my handsome boy before church. I just love him!

 We walk to church every week and it melted my heart to see my girls holding hands as they walked together. They really do love each other!

Orlando!

 About 2 years ago, Jonathan's family started planning a family vacation and we decided we all wanted to go to Orlando. It was about when the Harry Potter world was opening and I really wanted to see it! 2 years has come and gone and after a lot of planning we finally made the trip and it was amazing! I married into the best family and I feel so lucky! We don't spend as much time together as I would like so it was fun to have 8 days of just hanging out!
His parents have a timeshare so we were able to get 3 apartments with 2 bedrooms each. It was perfect because we had our own space but we still got together for meals and activities. We had a 4 day park hopper pass to all the Disneyworld parks and tickets for a day at Universal Studios: Island of Adventure. That left about two days to just hang out at the amazing resort and shop at the outlet mall. We had so much fun hanging out. We played tennis, beach volleyball, basketball, worked out, and did a lot of hanging out by the pool. It was so incredibly hot outside that the swimming pool felt amazing!
I thought it might be a little weird going to Disneyworld without the kids but since we had just took them to Disneyland a few months before and no one else had kids, we decided to make it an adult only trip. It was a long time to be away from them but it was really nice to just focus on us and not have to take care of anyone!
Now for lots and lots of pictures!

Heading to Disney World!

The girls

The guys

We are back! We went to Disneyworld on our honeymoon so it was so fun to be back!

Having fun on Its a Small World!

You can tell this is his favorite ride, right?

 Universal Studios

We loved Universal Studios! They had some really fun rides and roller coasters but it still had the fun atmosphere like Disney world and adding Harry Potter made it even better! The only bad thing was after we went on the Harry Potter ride. It was the first ride of the day and it was a virtual ride which my stomach did not love. It was really fun but I felt sick for quite awhile and could not enjoy the other rides as much. Luckily, the sickness did go away and we had so much fun!

I was so excited!

Waiting in line for Harry Potter. I cant get over how much Jonathan looks like his dad!

The line for the Harry Potter ride took you through the castle which was amazing by itself! Here we are in Dumbledore's office. You can see him in the back.

We had to get Butterbeer and it was as good as I had hoped!

We rode the Jurassic Park ride probably 20 times at least. It was so fun and every time we tried different things. We would all sit in the front or try and get on an empty car or a really full one. Every time we would get soaked but we loved it! Here are the guys just a little wet!

Jonathan and his brother, Craig, decided to stand in the soak zone and they definitely underestimated how wet they would really get because they were completely soaked!

We rode another water ride where people could put in quarters to shoot water at us and they nailed us! We were so wet but it was really fun only because it was sooo hot outside!

Love it Craig!

Jurassic Park again for the 100th time!

 Our Resort!

This was the view from our window! It was beautiful!

 Epcot!

We actually only spent half a day here. We did the first half of the park but then everyone got a little bored of just walking around and we were hungry so we left for lunch and then decided to go to the Animal Kingdom to go on some rides. We were planning on coming back at night to walk around the countries when it was not so hot but only half of us made it back. Jonathan and I were a little too tired so we went out to dinner with his brother Cory and it was nice to relax a little bit after a crazy few days!

This is how we ate every lunch! In the van we left coolers full of food to make sandwiches and backpacks full of snacks. It was kind of nice to leave the park and find a nice place to sit and enjoy our food, plus it saved us tons of money!

 

Animal Kingdom was fun but more for little kids. They had one big ride and a safari, which was neat, but the rest was geared more towards little kids. It made me miss my kids because I know they would have loved it!

Hollywood Studios!

Hollywood Studios had some of our favorite rides so we spent a lot of time here! We loved Tower of Terror and the Toy Story ride. They also had an Aerosmith roller coaster which was really fun and fast. One night, after a fun day of hanging out at the resort and shopping, we realized we had an extra day on our ticket so Jonathan and I went with his brother and sister and rode the rides until it closed! It was so much fun because we could just walk on the rides and were the only ones on. We were able to experience a real Florida rainstorm when we left the park and that was quite the adventure but only added to the fun night!

This guy was hilarious! He worked at the Tower of Terror and played the part perfectly!

Love how we are the only ones on the ride and that Aaron is taking pictures!

 Random Pictures

I love the focus of Jonathan's face during the Buzz lightyear ride! He really wanted to win!

During the Tiki room!

 Home!

It was such an amazing trip but after 8 days of being away from the kids, I was definitely missing them! We got home really late but the kids had decorated the house for us and made the cutest signs! My mom was super grandma to take on the challenge of watching them for so long but it sounds like they had an amazing time and Lydia keeps asking when we are going to go on another trip so that she can go back to Nana's house!

 This is the face I was able to come home to and in his new "mouse" shirt!!