Our 4th of July

We love to celebrate the holidays! I saw an idea to make a fruit pizza flag and I had to do it! Luckily we had my sister and her husband still there to help us eat it, and we gave some to the neighbors as well. So fun!We went to the town fireworks with my sister and her husband, Russ' parents and his little brother. We loved watching them and Caden liked the "big boom" and making letters/numbers with his glow sticks.
Plus, Russ lets me do my "girl things" and even appreciates the way that I love them so much. I painted my toe nails to look like the flag and made these fun tissue paper balls in patriotic colors. What a great husband! :)

We told Caden he could do pop-its for our activity for Family Home Evening. He was so excited and kept asking if it was Monday night or if we could do the Family Home Evening right then. He was so excited to throw the pop-its and hear them pop. He also loved watching the neighbor's fireworks after we put him to bed. :)

We feel so blessed to live in a free country to be able to worship how we want to, and to be able to feel safe. We are also grateful to all the armed forces that sacrifice so much to protect our great nation.

Weekend O' Fun

We got a surprise last Sunday night when Kylee's sister and her husband told us they were coming this weekend to stay with us. We were SO excited! Here is what we did while they were here:

We went to Elitch Gardens all day on Friday. Caden had gotten a free ticket from the summer reading program at the local library, so we had to take advantage. He LOVED it!! We had a blast going on all the water rides and all the little kid rides. My sister even volunteered to watch Caden for awhile so Russ and I could go on some of the big roller coasters. It was such a fun day! Caden had been excited for a really long time, and he couldn't get enough of all the rides.

One of our favorite rides of the day. Kylee and Caden took a back seat on this ride


Surprisingly, they even let Russ on this one with Caden. Leg room was a premium on this one!

Caden and Kylee enjoying life on one of his favorite rides.

Definitely going to have to come back again soon :)

Enjoying the view from the top of the Ferris Wheel of Kylee... we mean, Denver :)

We were also able to celebrate Caden's birthday! He is now a big 4 year old. He has been excited for months about his birthday, so it was fun that it finally came. We went swimming as a family in our neighborhood pool and had a BBQ with my sister and her husband, as well as Russ' parents and younger brother. After dinner, we had a Cars cake, opened presents and then went to watch the fireworks. Caden was happy all day and we just feel so blessed that he is in our family. Here are some things that we just LOVE about our little boy:

• He is very caring and will be a great big brother some day. He pretends that his stuffed animals are babies and he takes really good care of them.
• He has a really contagious giggle and a really cute laugh.
• He gets really excited about things and makes our lives so much richer and fuller.
• He LOVES swimming, playing sports, going to the park, reading books, playing with cars, playing games, etc.
• He loves breakfast and will eat anywhere from 2-5 bowls of cereal every morning.
• He is very well behaved and obedient (most of the time).
• He gives the best hugs and kisses.
• He is a great eater even while we are having a picnic with friends, and he always says he "eats like a missionary" if he finishes everything on his plate.
• He loves BYU football....clearly he learned this from both his Mom and Dad! :)
• He loves to be tickled, which is great because we love to tickle him!
  
• He is learning so much and can focus on one thing for a long time.
• He LOVES to talk and he will talk to everyone we see (in the grocery store, in the library, at the pool, running on the side of the road, etc).
• He gives lots of compliments. He is constantly telling us that he likes our hair, our shirt, our food, etc.
• He LOVES the movie CARS and he's pretty much read every possible book in the library about the movie. He can name even the random cars that aren't even mentioned in the movie (Nitroade, Leakless, Easy Idle, etc.)
  
• He is excited to adopt and frequently talks about it or tells other people about it.
  

Did we mentioned he likes the movie CARS? :)

After so many birthdays of friends and family in June, it was finally Caden's turn.

Kickboard for the pool. He'll get plenty of use out of that. He was so happy to have his aunt and uncle there to celebrate as well.

Cars and a baseball mitt. Life doesn't get any better than this.

Busy at work opening presents.

Now its time to play with them all! Russ' mom showing him how to use some of the new trucks.

Moments we live for

There have been a lot of moments this week that you wish you could just freeze forever, because they really are that good. Here are the ones from the past week

Russ' parents just got a new teacup poodle puppy. She is all black and she is TINY! We went over Monday night to see her, and Caden was instantly in love. All night, he went around giggling like crazy and running to/from her. The puppy didn't want to play with toys while we were there, because she loved Caden so much. We are glad we live close to Russ' parents so we can go see her often and hear Caden laugh.

(sorry for the bad pic...we forgot our camera and had to use the cell phone camera)

Caden and I went to a splash park with some friends. Caden wore his goggles like this and ran around while he and his friend splashed each other. It was a beautiful sunny day and I LOVED hearing him giggle like crazy. We love going to the pool and playing in the water lots in Summer.
Wednesday night, Russ and I went on a 3 mile run together. Caden had fun listening to the grasshoppers, seeing bunnies, etc from the jogging stroller. It felt so good to exercise with Russ, and the best part was the sunset we enjoyed after we ran. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

This pic was taken on Kylee's birthday, but it is another beautiful sunset that we enjoyed with a kiss. The man that took this picture asked if we are engaged. Yes, we are still madly in love after almost 5 years of marriage. :)

Kylee's parents are currently serving a mission in South Africa. We love talking to them on the computer and writing them weekly emails. We got a really special treat this week, because we got a birthday package that they sent in the mail. Of course, Caden was beyond excited to get "1,000 presents" from Grandma and Grandpa. I loved watching him be so excited about the thoughtful gifts they sent. They really know him well, because they sent lots of puzzles and Cars things. I especially liked watching him play with a toy that all of the kids there play with, made out of whatever they can find (soda cans, wire, cardboard boxes, scrap pieces of rubber, etc.). Russ got some new ties and I was REALLY touched by the things they sent. It was a very sweet moment, not because of the gifts, but because of the love and thought that went into each gift.


On Saturday we went to our neighborhood pool as a family. We splashed each other a ton and got all wet. We also were having Caden practice swimming. He swam in the big pool for awhile and then we went to the kiddy pool. He swam forever in the kiddy pool as well, and we loved watching him learn and be so excited about it. There is nothing better than watching your kids be so proud and happy to learn new things.

Happy father's day...

to the best dad in the world! Russ really is the greatest dad ever, and we will let Caden tell you why. Here are some questions I (Kylee) asked him and his responses. This is a 3 year olds view on life:

*What do you like to do with Daddy?
-Play baseball and have fun and we like when Daddy's home. We build really big K'nex rollercoasters too.

*What does Daddy do with you?
-He loves me and he likes me

*What is Daddy's favorite food?
-What we ate today (chicken broccoli crepes)

*What is Daddy's favorite color?
-Blue

*What do you like best about Daddy?
-I love him. He does good things for me. I say 'Dad, let's play sports' and he answers me.

*What makes you laugh about Daddy?
-When I go to sleep he tries to give me a kiss and I put my hand up so he doesn't get me.
(Kylee's side note...Caden LOVES this bedtime routine and after Russ kisses him, he says 'you got me a tiny bit' and then he quickly says 'mas por favor' or 'more please' with a huge smile on his face....priceless!)

*What do I (Kylee) say about Dad?
-We're best friends. You (Kylee) read to me and Dad.

*What do we do when Daddy comes home?
-We give him a kiss
(Kylee's note...He forgot to mention that we instantly stop what we are doing to run to the door and sing "We're so glad when Daddy comes home" (in Spanish) and that Caden's eyes light up with joy when he hears the garage door open)

*What does Daddy do for work?
-He works for the house, the food and us

*What is Daddy good at?
-He is good at playing hockey because he gets scores and I don't. He is good at playing baseball because he gets scores and me too.

*What did we do for Father's Day?
-We gave him presents. The pictures and the book. I colored a tie for him. It was blue.
(Russ proudly wore this tie all day over his other tie. He got a lot of compliments on it)

*Why is Father's Day special?
-Because its for Dads and if its special we give him treats like we did today and Sunday is very special too.

*Why do you love Dad?
-Because he's special and He loves each other

"We love Daddy!"

Happy birthday to Daddy!

We got to celebrate Russ for a day! AKA: Love, Honey, Handsome, Dada

Looking great on our camping trip (above), great smile and awesome dimples while we sang to him (below)

I was up and waiting for Russ when he got back from running in the early morning with a happy birthday banner. Then, I made him a good breakfast while he got ready for work. We ended up going car shopping (long story) on his birthday, and Caden did a great job of telling everyone that it was Daddy's birthday. Then Russ was kind enough to watch Caden while I had a meeting for one of my callings. After my meeting, we went over to his parent's house for a great dinner and birthday cake. Caden and his cousins were VERY excited to sing happy birthday.We had family in town, so we had quite a lively group to sing happy birthday. Per tradition in Russ' family (and now our family), we sing happy birthday in 4 different languages. There are two english versions we sing....so it is a long and funny tradition. It is mostly funny because each time the songs get passed on, the accent gets worse!

Caden helped wrap one of his presents and he told me what to write. Very cute.

We are so blessed to have such a great, funny, kind, patient, loving, athletic, dedicated, wonderful, hard-working, fun, spiritual man in our family. Happy birthday Love! We love you!

Memorial Day Weekend of fun

For Memorial Day weekend, we went camping as a family in Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We drove there Thursday and got there in time to make tin foil dinners, explore a little and enjoy some s'mores over the fire. We tried to find a few geocaches, but we couldn't find them (we didn't know it wasn't a container we were looking for, but just the sign). Caden was pretty bummed. Caden was SO excited to go that he helped to pack the car, to be happy in the car for a few hours drive, and then he helped to unpack everything and get it all set up. Around 6:30, he said "I want to go to bed". This is VERY unusual for him, but he was just so excited to sleep in his cars tent that we put up inside our tent.


One of the highlights of the trip was being able to talk to Russ for a long time. We talked the whole drive there and then we stayed up late talking by the campfire. It was SO good to be able to talk about everything that is going on, our worries, our joys, our stresses, etc. We have such a great friendship and it was so wonderful to just be together away from all the distractions of life.
After breakfast on Friday, we went on a hike. This was the first hike that Caden walked on his own the whole way. He walked 1 mile! We were so proud of him and he kept saying "I am a really good hiker". There were also numbered posts that he was excited to look for that gave information about the area. We then watched a movie about how the Black Canyon came to be and Caden picked up a junior ranger kit. We filled it out that day and then took it back that night for his surprise: a junior ranger pin. He was so excited. We drove down to the river at the bottom of the canyon to do some mid-day fly fishing. Russ taught Caden how to fly fish with his rod, which was about 2 times as long as Caden. Russ was a great teacher and Caden had a ton of fun. I enjoyed the scenery! :)
We went back to the tent for some relaxing time. Both Russ and I took turns taking naps while the other one read books to Caden. Then we went on another hike, roasted hot dogs and went back to the river for more fly fishing. While Russ was fishing, Caden tried catching bugs to feed the fish with and finally caught one after 15 minutes....see the pure joy on his face!
The most funny thing is that right after he caught the bug, he was so excited that he slapped his other hand down on top of it and killed it. We were all laughing so hard! Then Caden went to play in the dirt and got filthy dirty...that is what camping is for, right? Russ and I enjoyed watching the deer on the other side of the river and just taking in the peace that nature brings.
Saturday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and packed up. We then drove to Curecanti (a national recreation area that was on the way home) and tried to find a geocache. Once again we were unsuccesful until we realized that there wasn't a hidden container. We just had to find the informational sign. Boring. We drove a little farther and stopped by the reservoir to eat a picnic lunch and to throw hundreds of rocks into the water. Caden loved doing big splashes, and Russ and I tried to get each other wet by throwing big rocks into the water. We also skipped rocks, and Russ had some pretty impressive throws!

On Sunday we enjoyed going to church and being clean! Russ went dirt biking on Monday with some friends and Caden and I went to the neighborhood pool that just opened. Monday night we had a family over for a BBQ. It was a very fun and full weekend. We couldn't have asked for more!