Eight Years and Counting

Eight years ago today Lyn and I were sealed in the Oakland Temple.

I married my best friend. Yes, my best friend and I have had a few fights but through it all we've come out on top.

So to Lyn, I'm grateful to you for loving me even though the house isn't clean. I'm grateful to you for loving me even though you know ALL my thoughts no matter how insecure they may be. I'm grateful to you for the unconditional love and support you offer to me and our babies. I'm grateful to you for loving me each and every day!

We've built a beautiful life.

We've picked up and moved to a new state, graduated school, had a baby, bought a house, and had another baby.

I can't imagine life with anyone else. Thank you for eight excellent years.

I LOVE YOU!

Ladies Man

Riley is in Joy School with five little girls. Talk about fantastic odds.

They have "school" once a week and the moms take turns hosting at their house. We had our very first turn on the 6th of October. My job was to introduce the letter E and the color purple. We learned about elephants, eggs, elmo and envelopes. We made elephant ears, colored, found purple E's that I had hid around the house and mailed letters home in envelopes.

Truthfully, I don't think I taught them a single thing but I LOVED having the kids at my house and seeing Riley interact with his friends. Here is a picture of snack time with their ears on.

"Everyone's Hero"

This is a little movie about a boy, Yankee Irving, who has to recover "Darlin' " Babe Ruth's baseball bat and return it to Babe. It's a cute movie that has a talking baseball and bat. Obviously there's no deep plot but little boys seem to enjoy it.

Anyone who know Riley knows that he takes his movies to heart and usually recreates them in our day to day life.

This morning we found "daddy's darlin' " as appropriately named by Riley. The only thing left for Riley to do was to put his talking ball, which we found at the 99 cent store yesterday and drew faces on, i.e. angry, sad, happy, and "daddy's darlin' " in his "pack pack" (backpack) and walk around outside travelling to Chicago to give "Darlin' " back to Babe Ruth. He cracks me up with the stories he comes up with and plays out. Here's my little, Yankee Irving.

Grandparents/Great Grandparents

I was lucky enough as I was growing up to know quite a few of my great grandparents. Sure, as a kid I didn't understand how important the relationships were that I had with them, nor did I realize how rare it was to have such close relationships. Obviously as an adult I look back and treasure all the time I spent with them and the fond memories I have.

This year has been special for us first because we added Karlie to our family. Secondly because were able to introduce her to both my grandma, Grandma Hagen, who lives in Salt Lake and also Lyn's grandparents, Grandma and Grandad Gibson, who live in White Mountain Lake, Arizona.

This post is simply to say how much we love both my parents and Lyn's parents and thank them for being such incredible grandparents to our kids. Also to share the same sentiment with our grandparents and to thank them for being such incredible great grandparents. Our goal is to give our kids the same opportunities with them that we had.

Riley, Karlie and Grandma and Grandad Gibson

The Cabin 2008

Karlie and Grandma Hagen, SLC 2008

How do you pick just one...

Oh to have the photography talent.

Brit Dye took a few (209) photos of Karlie the other day. The pictures were so great that I wanted to post at least one. Of course I couldn't pick just one so here are a few from Karlie's very first photo shoot.

Thanks Brit for taking the time to take these great pictures!

You Go Girl!

Just a note to Brit Dye.

I am so proud of you for following through with the wager when losing the toothpick game at Coronado's game night. I know you HATE to lose but it shows real sportsmanship to jump into the pool with all your clothes on. Way to be a trooper.

I just wish I would have been there to see it!

Our Family

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