Birthday Festivities!

My birthday was on Sunday and my little sister Abby got to come out for the weekend to celebrate with us! Her birthday is two weeks before mine so we decided to pool our b-day money and fly her out for a little visit. We had so much fun! On friday we went to Chagrin Falls with Ben and Molly and the fam. We had a picnic by the river, fed the ducks (who were too good for our bread), got huge glorious cupcakes at the little cupcake shop, looked at the falls, and ate ice cream and popcorn. We had amazing weather the whole weekend. 80's and sunny!



Then on Saturday we went out to Kirtland and saw the bronze exhibit and some of the church history sights. My sister really wanted to go because her best friend and roommate served her mission there recently. I had already seen the bronze exhibit in St. George, but it was just as amazing the second time. Then we headed out to Hinckley Lake for a bbq and some swimming, kind of, the kids mostly just got muddy, but they loved it.


On Sunday we went to church and everyone was so nice and wished me happy birthday. Then we had a very yummy, very preggy birthday dinner. In our family, the birthday person gets to pick the menu which has always been something that I have loved and looked forward to. However, this year being pregnant this was a stressful task for me. I have had the hardest time lately thinking of dinners to make let alone thinking of what I wanted for my birthday dinner. So after a week of stressing about it and deciding that nothing sounded good to me, I decided to have a dinner of all appetizers. It turned out to be one of my all time favorite birthday dinners! We had steamed artichokes with dip (a big favorite around the monson and hall households), bruschetta, crab cakes, avacado and grapefruit salad, and stuffed mushrooms. The best part was that I didn't have to cook any of it or do the dishes! Thank you to Ben and Molly, and Garrett and Abby for pampering me. The best part was the traditional Monson birthday cake which I just love! Abby made it for me this year and she did an amazing job.

I requested shaved dove chocolate and raspberries for my toppings and she really came through! It was quite the feast. I had such a fun day getting calls from friends and family and birthday wishes from so many people. Thank you!

To end the weekend celebration, we went to the Red Sox, Indians baseball game on Monday night. It will probably be our last Indians game in Cleveland which was really sad, but it was so fun to go with our great friends the Days and the Poyfairs; along with Ben and Molly and the fam.


We got great seats in the bleachers which comes with the added bonus of drunk fans, but still they were great seats.

The kids had so much fun and we all had our fill of peanuts and cracker jacks which is a must!

Of course Carter had to have a hot dog.

Rylynn was really into the cheering with her friend Jaxson!
Thanks for coming Abs! We had so much fun with you and miss you already!

Summer Hair Take 1

Rylynn and I were having a little chat the other day about how every one in our family is in desperate need of a haircut at the moment. She was so excited about the idea of all of us getting summer haircuts, so she decided she needed one too. So she hopped in the chair and a couple minutes later, this is what we got.

It is so much easier cutting her hair than Carter's or daddy's for that matter. Carter will not keep still for anything, and Daddy just asks every minute if I am done yet. He hates getting his hair cut! Carter's hair is completely out of control and I have given up trying to figure out what to do with it so I think I will be taking him to get his hair cut by my friend and see if she can work some magic with his mop. He definitely has my thick hair that grows right out of the back of his head.


Also my new favorite word that Carter says is mushmoos which means marshmallows. They are his new favorite snack and every time he asks for them I think that he is asking for mushrooms.

April update

"...this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teaching and the marvels of his wisdom." -Paulo Coelho

This is a quote that I love from the book The Alchemist. Garrett's friend recommended it to him and he loved it, so I read it after Garrett was done. It is such an inspiring and thought provoking book about each of our individual journeys and destinies in this life. I highly recommend it to everyone. It is a really fast read too, only 170 pages.

So that is what I have been doing the last couple days. Today was beautiful finally so the kids and I packed a picnic and walked to the park. They had a blast! The next couple days are supposed to be high 60's and sunny so we are probably going to be outside for the next few days straight.


I am excited for a few days outside since for the last two weeks my house has been turned into an art studio! Rylynn is loving cutting papers, glueing things, coloring, and then proudly taping her creations all over the house. Every night we have quite the mess of crayons, and tiny pieces of cut up paper to clean up.

Here is a proud display.
She is getting really good at writing words on her pictures too with her letters. I love seeing her creativity shine through lately.

The other day I finally had to put my foot down and take down most of the pictures. We are now keeping them all safe in her princess folders so we can take them to our "new house".

In other random news, Carter and Rylynn are completely obsessed with the movie Tinker bell right now. We borrowed it from our friends and after watching it everyday for the last couple weeks I finally broke down and ordered it on Amazon. First thing in the morning Carter comes out of his room and says, "I want Tink!" I have to say that I actually love this movie too. It has such a great message and it is done so well. Carter is also obsessed with Daddy's golf clubs, his are not cutting it anymore. It is a little worrisome though because they are way too big for him and he hits them into things all the time. He is talking so much now and he says the funniest things. We really need to get him on video soon so we don't miss this stage. These kids are always entertaining!

Happy Easter!

"Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. "

I saw this quote on my friends blog and loved it. It is from Jeffrey R Holland's talk from last weeks General Conference which was definitely my favorite talk of all of conference. The whole talk is amazing so if you are interested in reading it click here.

I have to admit that Easter is probably my favorite holiday. I love Christmas because of all the traditions and the fun that goes on and on, but Easter is the most important holiday to me by far. I love how the world just takes a small step back from the commercialism of holidays and remembers that without the Savior we would have no hope in this life or the life to come. I know the commercialism is still there, but even in eggs and spring colors there is symbolism of the Savior's resurrection. I found myself all week hearing random conversations in the grocery store about religion and Christianity and people wishing each other a happy passover, or happy easter. It was kind of amazing to me since I feel like these conversations are a little bit frowned upon in our daily lives. Maybe it is just me, but when we are in desperate times, we seem to be a more humble and accepting people. For some reason I feel like the "PC" world has relaxed a little bit as of late because let's be honest, we all need to cling to our faith a little more when we are struggling.

Anyway, we had such a great Easter this year. We had a special family home evening on Monday to start off the week. Rylynn loves hearing the story of the resurrection and it was a great reminder of what this holiday is really about. Then today at church we heard some great talks about the life and death and resurrection of the Savior. I wish that was the topic of every sacrament meeting because that is really the whole point of the gospel. I was also able to sing with the choir a beautiful song called "Here I am Lord". It is all about being willing to go and do what the Lord asks of us. It was a great reminder that even when I am struggling and feeling lost in this world, the Lord is by my side and ultimately, I am committed to doing His will no matter what that entails. It brought me a lot of comfort during this uncertain and stressful time in my life.

After church we had a delicious Easter dinner with Ben and Molly. We had our famous easter lamb, mashed potatoes and gravy, strawberry salad, lemon asparagus and berry cobbler for dessert.

We ate the cobbler picnic style on the kitchen floor so we could all sit by Babo Reagan. She was very envious of the dessert we were consuming.

Carter gave her an empty plastic egg to suck on so she wouldn't feel so left out. Just wait till next year Babo!

When we were stuffed to the point of rolling, we dyed easter eggs with the kids and had an easter egg hunt outside.



Rylynn was so cute to point out all the soccer and football eggs to Carter so he could get them.


She focused all her efforts on the pink and purple eggs. Apparently they have better candy in them.
They were so excited for all their candy!

Then we had our annual easter egg rolling contest and Molly pulled out victorious! It was some tough competition and the girls represented. It was Molly and me in the finals. Rylynn wouldn't participate because she didn't want to hurt her eggs. She dyed a pink one and a purple one and she has not let them out of her sight since we dyed them. She actually asked if she could snuggle with them tonight but I had to tell her no on that one. We put them in the fridge and she said she is going to wake up in the morning and feed them breakfast. She's so funny.

To top it all off today is my little sister's birthday so we called and sang to her and got to wish her happy birthday. I love my family and I am reminded so much of how much my family loves me and what they are willing to do for me when my family and I are going through hard times. I am so thankful for a family that supports me through good times and bad. I was especially struck by the fact today that I am so grateful that because of the resurrection of my Savior, I can live with my family that I love so much throughout eternity. I wish we could have all been together today, but I am so happy that we live by Ben and Molly and can celebrate these special holiday moments together.

Yucky Target?

Last night we were playing outside before bed and Carissa was backing out of the driveway to run some errands. Rylynn asked her where she was going and she told her that she was going to Target. Then Rylynn turned to me and said,

"Mommy is she going to the yucky Target?"

I was a little confused and asked her which one was the yucky Target. She tried to describe it to me and then I realized she was talking about Walmart. I asked her if it was the place we went the other day and mentioned some of the things we bought there and she said,

"yeah that's the yucky Target!"

I had to laugh out loud. She is only four and already she thinks she is too good for Walmart. She's a Target girl through and through.

Now some sad news, Carter chipped his two front teeth last night on the sink during his nightly tooth brushing fit. It was very sad! Garrett and I were talking about it once he was asleep and we decided if we can keep that boy alive to the age of eight we will have done some thing right! He is such a sweet boy but such a risk taker. He is fearless and has no concept that he is fragile and could get hurt. I guess it is a boy thing, but he thinks he is invincible! Hopefully boy number two will be a little more cautious.

Follow the Leader

This is another preschool pic of Rylynn with her friends. This was an exciting week because they had animals in the classroom. You can't see them but there are crabs in that bucket. You'll notice she is spraying the bottle while everyone else watches on. She is such a leader, many times to a fault. She loves to be in charge. I was the same way when I was a little girl. Just another way she is a lot like her mom. I am thankful for preschool though because it has helped her learn to share and take turns a lot more. Carter appreciates this too:)

Fun with Nana and the Job search

Just to give the update to all who care, we found out a little over a month ago that the firm that Garrett has worked for over the past two years who we were sure would hire him, is not going to be able to due to the current economic situation. We were immediately thrown into a panic and the job search began at full speed. We have applied for jobs all over the west, and then last week during Garrett's spring break he flew out to WA state to interview and make contacts with some firms there. He focused his search on the Tri-Cities area. The trip went well, but we still know nothing for sure. We are just praying every second that something will work out and soon. The Lord has always delivered us and we have no doubt that he will again, but the waiting and not knowing is killing me.

On the plus side, my mom came out to help with the kids while Garrett was gone last week since I am pregnant and have lower amounts of energy and patience than usual. The kids were so excited to have Nana here that they didn't miss Daddy too much. We had a lot of fun.

Rylynn loved doing the baby pony dance show with Nana (it's from the my little pony movie) and playing with her new foam stuff she got for her birthday. It is the coolest stuff. It is like playdough, but it doesn't make a big mess and it never dries out.

The last day that Nana was here the kids were begging us to go swimming since they always associate Nana with swimming because she has a swimming pool. So we called around and found this really fun community rec center in Strongsville that had a kids pool with a big pirate ship and lots of slides. The kids loved it. The water was really warm and it was a zero entry pool which my kids love.

They also had a basketball hoop and water basketballs which Carter was obsessed with. He wanted Nana to lift him up to shoot the balls in the hoop the whole time. Then whenever he went down the slides he had to take the balls with him.

We had a tough time pulling the kids away from the pool but we bribed them with Wendy's on the way home so they finally agreed.


The other update that I have to post about is Carter's new big boy bed. We had talked for awhile about getting Carter out of his crib and into a bed, but we really didn't want to spend a ton of money on a new bed right before we move, so Garrett decided that he really wanted to make Carter a toddler bed. He bought all the wood and with help from our friend who can make anything they drew up the plans and put it together. Our friend also has every tool imaginable which made it much cheaper than it would have been. Thanks for all your help Bryan! The bed turned out so cute and Carter absolutely loves it! He always says, "Daddy make new bed!" The kids also loved "helping" Garrett put the rails on to complete the bed. Carter and Rylynn used their pretend tools and worked on it the whole time alongside Daddy. Carter loved to say, "Mama, we're fixing new bed!" Garrett did a great job! We are going to paint it white eventually, but he finished it just before he went out of town, so for now it is unfinished.

Four on the 4th!

Rylynn's golden birthday was this past Wednesday. We still can't believe that our baby is four years old. It seems like just yesterday when I was pregnant with her and we were so excited to meet our little baby girl for the first time. She is so grown up now and such a wonderful little leader in our family. She is a great big sister to Carter and she is already so in love with this new baby in mama's tummy. The true test of her love came this week also when we found out that we are having a boy! She cried for a minute but after we reassured her that it would still be a tiny baby that she could hold and kiss and put to sleep(she is most excited for this part for some reason), she was okay with it. She also thought it was really funny when we told her that Carter would have to learn to share his Thomas trains with the new baby boy.

Anyway, she had a great birthday this year. We started a new tradition, which is actually taken from my family, that the birthday boy or girl gets to pick any junk cereal they want for their birthday. She was really excited about this and she chose Cinnamon Toast Crunch. She had two bowls for breakfast the first day we got it. We also went to Red Robin on her birthday for her free hamburger dinner. Ben and Molly and Babo Reagan(that's what my kids call her)joined us too. We had a great time. Daddy also came home from school and surprised Rylynn with a very sweet birthday card and some of her favorite candy. She is a huge daddy's girl!

Then on Friday we had Rylynn's Pony Party with some of her friends from preschool and primary.

She has been talking about her pony party for three months now and was very excited for the big day. She came with me to the party store and picked out all the decorations for the party as well as the pony pinata.

I am by no means a cake decorator, but this year Rylynn begged for a Pony cake so I promised that I would try my best. I looked online but didn't love any of the ideas, so I came up with the idea of making a rainbow by cutting part of the top round cake and standing it up on it's side. I gave in and bought a piping kit for the frosting too which ended up being a lot of fun to use. I think it turned out really cute. Most importantly, Rylynn was thrilled about it.

We started out the party with a little pony lunch. We had magical fruit wands with pink pony fruit dip and butterfly and flower PBJ's.

We also had cupcakes for a pass the pony game that we played.

It is basically a cake walk without the walking. The girls sat in a circle and passed the pony while the music played then whoever ended up with it when the music stopped got to choose a cupcake. This game was a big hit.

However, I think the highlight of the day was the pony pinata.

All the kids got to take a turn and then Rylynn's friend Meghan gave the crushing blow to send the candy flying. They all scrambled to get the loot.

Clearly this was Carter's favorite part of the party! Notice that he is eating two suckers and a chocolate at the same time.

Rylynn's friends gave her wonderful presents.

I loved how the girls all helped with the unwrapping and were so excited for the birthday girl to open their present.

After the Pinata we had cake and ice cream. Rylynn was so excited to blow out her candles this year as you can tell in the video.

After cake and ice cream we had a little dance party with balloons while we waited for the parents to come. Rylynn was so excited to play with her presents after her friends left. She was entertained all day with them. She was also full of energy thanks to the huge amounts of sugar she had eaten!

Some things I want to remember about Rylynn at this age are that she changes her clothes 10+ times a day, she still says "bemember" instead of "remember" and "of" instead of "if". She also tells me almost everyday that she doesn't want to grow big, she wants to stay little forever! She is 35 pounds and 3 feet 5 inches tall. She loves playing house and princess and she loves being with her family. She also loves painting, coloring, and she can now write her name by herself. She loves wearing dresses most of all and would wear summer clothes everyday if I would let her. She sings most of the day, some real songs, some she's made up. She also love being in primary. She has such amazing faith and she always reminds me that I should pray if I lose something. I also have to share a story that just melts my heart: About a month ago I noticed that it had gotten quiet in Rylynn's room while she was playing by herself so I peeked in to see what was up. I saw her kneeling down in her room saying a prayer. When she heard me come in she looked up kind of embarrassed and said, "I was just saying a prayer and asking Heavenly Father when Jesus is going to come back to the earth because I want to see Him again." I told her that I wanted to see Him again too and that she would see him again someday. I will always remember how pure and perfect her faith is at this age. She is such a good example to me. We love our little Rylynnies, munchie, baby deer, Ms. Munch, Rylynners, Ya Ya (Carter's name for her)! Happy Birthday darling girl!

It's that time of year again!

NONE= the amount of willpower I have when it comes to these babies! I walked into the grocery store today very set on sticking to my "list" when I was greeted by some sweet young girls waving these babies and I just couldn't resist. So I brought them home and swore I would eat only a couple before I had a sensible lunch.

Half a sleeve later....I finally ate something healthy, but after dinner guess what was for dessert? If this baby comes out smelling slightly of mint I will not be surprised. So much for not gaining a thousand pounds this pregnancy. All I know is they are worth it!

Happy girl scout cookie season everyone!

Fort Fun!

We are officially sick of Winter in our house! The kids have been good sports about it though and staying busy, despite their serious Vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunlight exposure! Their latest distraction is playing with every single toy in their rooms as you can see.

When that gets boring, they usually end up tearing the couch apart and jumping on it, until I tell them to stop. Then they always make a fort out of the misplaced couch cushions.

This is the result.

Rylynn has obviously been cooped up too long!

After their attempts, they decided to call in the expert fort builder, Daddy.

The result was pretty cool!
Darn that stinkin' groundhog!