Happy Birthday Troy Boy!

We had Troy Boy's birthday party. I am finally getting this up. Here is his cake. I always have fun making cakes. He didn't enjoy his own personal cake very much. Jeremy ended up taking it apart for him so that he might find some part of it appetizing, but that didn't even work. Notice the picture where he is happily holding a saltine cracker instead of chowing down on his cake (maybe he thinks it's a Mint Milano! thats for my family, it's an inside joke). This ball ended up being one of his favorite presents. He got it from his cousins, the Petty's. He actually really loved all of his presents. He has played with all of them. I don't know if my other kids were just different or that Troy is different, but he actually PLAYS with his toys! He even dances to the music from a little truck he got. I love to see him play with them and really get into it.

Another highlight of the weekend was visiting Jeremy's uncle Eric who works at the church office building. We rode up to the 23rd floor to say hi and then he took us on a little "insiders" tour of Temple Square. We went to the top of the church office building and took some awesome pictures. What a way to get a new perspective of life! Also, we got to go under the church office building and see the tunnels that the members of the 12 Apostles take to go to the temple and other locations. It was amazing and fun. Thanks to Uncle Eric for taking some time from his busy schedule to show us around. We really loved it!

Also, while in Park City, the boys spent a morning golfing. It was Jeremy's first time on a real golf course and I was told he did great (with a few minor tumbles). I think it was a great little get-away for the men and I am glad they were able to go. Thanks to Dad for setting that up.

Park City 2008

We also visited the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. Here is a picture of Uncle Andy and cousin Eli pushing a replica of the handcarts. The museum has a hands-on, interactive display called "I Am a Child of God" it is for the kids. We spent a long time playing with the dolls, setting up a primary class, taking part in the manger scene and many other fun things. It is a must-see for the kids. Part of our Park City adventure included swimming and going to the Park City City Park (yes, that IS the name). The only ones daring enough to climb to the top of the rope web were Leah and Russ. Don't they look triumphant!? We had a really fun time and look forward to the next reunion.

Happy Anniversary!

Jeremy and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on the 11th of August. I love you Jeremy! Thanks for being a wonderful husband and dad. I don't know what I would do without you. You are everything to me.

Just so ya know, I really do hate this picture. What is that THING on my head?! I guess it is just memories. So much has happened since we were married. We have come so far and gotten so much done. We have four beautiful children, a beautiful home, and lots of love to go around.

Highland Fun 2008

We had so much fun hanging out at my parents house in Highland. We had s'mores (a big tradition at my parent's house), played on the big blow up water slide, had exciting sleep-overs (as you can see), and even visited Kanagroo Zoo! So much to do! The weather was great and it was really hard to come back to Vegas weather. The kids has so much fun with their cousins, which to me is the best part, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my sisters and brother. Thanks to everyone for making our vacation so much fun!

Emily and Ben Gutierrez! I hope I spelled that right. The wedding was beautiful. She got married in the same room in the Timpanogus Temple that my siblings and I have all been married in. It was really special and she looked so beautiful. The kids all looked adorable too. Here there are posing with the newlyweds. Leah was a little tired and just would not stop crying. I guess it makes for a better story later on, though. I also posted a picture of all the women in my family. From left to right, Ruth Ann (Jeremy's wife), Heidi, Kelli, Emily, my mom, Celeste, Lindsay, and then me. Ok, I had to post a picture of us working on the wedding food, too. We had veggie cabobs (yes, that is right), and mini fruit pizzas, with yummy little chocolate cups filled with a divine chocolate mousse. The food was done by me and my sisters. I have to give them most of the credit because I just showed up and helped put a few things together. It looked gorgeous when it was on the table. The best part about it was that it was mostly healthy and we really had a fun time working together. It definitely looked like it was catered and most of the people made comments about how nice it was.

Oh, and doesn't my little Sam look sooo cute in his newsboy hat?! If you look closely you can see a gigantic bruise across his forehead. He was jumping on the "beanbag couch" and somehow hit is head on the step in the theater room. Ouch! He was a very strong boy and didn't complain about it.

By the way, if you want to see any pictures up close, just click on them and you'll get a better view.

Hello out there!

It has been almost a month since my last post and sooooo much has been happening. We went to Utah, saw my beautiful sister get married, had a Haws Family reunion in Park City, Jeremy turned 31, and Troy turned 1. I have lots of pictures and fun stuff so now I will start to put them on for you. Thanks for looking!

From the top, it is Shaunie (6), Sam (5), Leah (3) and Troy (11mo). My mom wanted some pictures of the kids for her 'grandkid wall". Here is what I sent her. I like them.

4th of July 2008

I didn't take any pictures, but we had a great Independence Day celebration yesterday. We had a swim party for the kids at Michelle and Clint's house. We also had a BBQ and watermelon and lots of fireworks. We went to Boulder City for the fireworks and I don't think they could've been better! They were beautiful and the weather was actually not too hot. Maybe it was the sprinklers going off in the park on the people in front of us that helped us to cool down a bit, but it was awesome. Thanks to Michelle and Clint for letting us bombard their house on the day they get home from California. God Bless America!

Thank you to those men and women brave enough to stand up for their rights and freedoms. Thank you for the bravery, vision, honor, love, humility, and lives of those before me. Thank you to a loving Father in Heaven who blessed this great nation with all it has. I pray it can continue to be worthy of those blessings.

Family Reunion

Kids on the beach, Troy on the Beach, Kids at the Zoo

After we spent a few days in San Diego, we headed to Tustin, CA for a Mangum family reunion. It was a ton of fun to spend time with cousins, aunts and uncles and everybody else. We met up with most of Aunt Karen's family and most of Jeremy's sisters and parents for our reunion. Jeremy's dad has one sister so the reunion was made up of the two sibling's kids and their families. We were sad that Jessica and her family couldn't come, but everyone else from the Daryl Mangum family was there. We started the reunion on Friday and met at the LA Zoo. We saw lots of animals and the kids loved playing on the playground. Thanks to the LA Zoo for having a playground! It worked out to be perfect for us. The animals were cool, but seeing our family was much better. After the zoo, we headed over to some church Institute building for dinner and talents. We loved visiting, laughing, eating and playing with everyone. It was a perfect place for fun. The next day was spent at Balboa beach where the sand annoyed Shaunie after about 2 hours, the waves crashed down while Sam chased them up and down and up and down and up and down, and Leah dug in the sand. The waves were really fun to play with because they were strong. We lost Leah once because she couldn't find her way back from the fire pit. She wandered over to the lifeguard stand and they held her until Jeremy's cousin, Paul's son took off running down the crowded beach. Stacy, Jeremy's cousin, went after him and came back with Leah too! Troy enjoyed the shade and we all enjoyed each other's company. It was a fun day! The next day was Sunday so we headed over to church with Aunt Karen. The place was full! We sang a song in Sacrament meeting and then took pictures afterwards. We got some cute family pictures, (but you'll have to see Jen's blog for those). For dinner we went out to Staci's. We ate dinner and played games. We had a great time and are very grateful to Karen and her daughters for putting this all together. It was worth the time and we all had fun getting to know each other better. We hope we can do this more often.

Sea World

The kids loved the shark exhibit and starfish pond. Here is Sam checking out the strange Commerson's Dolphins as he waits to ride the Atlantis roller coaster.

Sea World!

Here are the Sea World pictures. Because our kids are still fairly young, we decided that a 2-day pass would be the best without all the pressure of a one-shot- only deal. Our hotel was only 1 mile from Sea World so that made it easy to go back and forth. We would head back to our room around lunchtime and so we could feed the kids and put Troy down for a nap. It kept him happy and us much more relaxed. We were able to see everything I would recommend it to anyone.

Sam really got into the job of carrying the map. He made sure he knew our location and destination at all times. He was a very good navigator.

Sam also went on his first roller coaster ever! He went on Atlantis with Dad. After the first hill he wasn't sure if he wanted more. Jeremy said he asked if they were going to go down again and when Jeremy answered that they would he just huddled into him. He was very brave. If you ask him if he liked he will probably answer that he didn't. But, we'll see.

We saw lots of shows and got splashed by the dolphins (which really wasn't too fun for them). We got to feed the rays and pet the starfish and look at blue poisonous frogs. Troy talked to all the animals, but especially loved the big fish when he could see them eye to eye. They loved the dolphins, sea lions, seals, starfish, polar bears and even the pig.

We also got to see the polar bear dive into the water to find his breakfast. We were right in front of the glass when he surprised us. He was huge!

We had a great time in San Diego and I know the kids will be talking about it for a long time. We can't wait to have another family vacation. As a mom, I think the best thing about it was that we were able to spend time as a family and strengthen our connections to each other. Just spending time with US without any other interruptions really gave us a chance to become closer and love each other more. That is really what makes it worth all the money, planning and time.

Mission Bay

On June 23rd we loaded everyone up and went to San Diego. Ok, so it wasn't THAT easy. It took a little bit more planning and a lot of packing. But, we headed out to Mission Bay where we stayed at the Bahia Resort Hotel. I think Jeremy just liked the name (the Bahia in Brazil is where he served his mission). It was beautiful! We had a bay view suite. We had so much fun. The weather was perfect! We rented a boat for a hour and explored the bay, spent two days at Sea World and had a lot of fun family time. I'll post pictures. It was worth every penny and every minute of preparation.

Here is the private beach on the bay at our Hotel. The sand was silky soft and the kids loved looking for shells. The water was a bit too cold for the kids, though. Or maybe it was just too cold outside for us Las Vegans. Low to mid 70's is almost winter weather here.

Here are all the kids playing on our patio outside our room. Below is our view of the bay from our room. Perfect. Absolutely perfect!

This picture below is of the boat we rented to take a cruise around the bay. It is off to the left of the dock. We loved it! Leah and Troy ended up being rocked to sleep by the boat, though.

The kids were amazed that you could find shells in the sand. They spent a lot of time digging and searching for the 'not broken' ones. Here is Leah showing off her find.
--Also, this is a picture of the Bahia Bell. A little boat you can take a cruise on at the hotel. The kids loved the wind in their faces.