Who loves Oreos?

This boy!!

Seriously, I can't get enough of this handsome little guy!! And he can't get enough Oreos!

Pointie

The first year we were married Tyler bought me a beautiful poinsettia for Christmas. He bought it right around our engagement anniversary and I made a big deal about how it was for our engagement. (Now every year I tell Tyler that he needs to buy me flowers to commemorate our engagement and even though he thinks it is silly, he buys me a poinsettia every year!) 

Most poinsettias last for a few weeks, maybe months if you're lucky. But our little first poinsettia stayed alive, not just for weeks or months, but years.  We decided to name our plant Pointie.  A few times we thought it was going to die, but it kept coming back. It survived the move from Richfield to South Jordan, and it almost survived two kids. A few weeks ago it looked like Pointie wasn't going to come back, so we had to make the decision to put it out of it's misery.  It was a really sad day for me because Pointie was the first plant I had kept alive for longer than a week... okay, I'll be honest, Tyler kept it alive; I didn't do a thing. But nonetheless, Pointie was like our love fern that lived for almost 5 years.  So here's the last look at our little Pointie. 

Sad, huh?

The End of Summer Vacation

It may be the end of summer vacation, and I may be back to work now, but we can still look back at our fun filled summer and feel like we are reliving it all over again. 

We tried to finish up our last goals on our summer list. I think we did everything but two things. Here's some pictures of the fun things we did: 

We got a library card and checked out some books. The kids had fun looking at all the books and we really had to narrow down the list of the ones we were going to take home. 

Caden's facial expression here sums up exactly how he was feeling that day. He was so ornery that we ended up leaving early. 

A few times this month we went to 7-11 for Slurpees then we headed to the park. 

We spent a day at Wheeler Farm and got to feed the ducks. 

We also saw a lot of other animals like the sheep and pigs. 

And the cows

This is Caden's impression of a cow. He puts his head as far back as he can and goes, "Ooooohhh"

We also tried to fit in one more day at the splash pad. Makayla was much braver this time than all the rest of the times we have been and got right in the water. She kept running over to me and telling me, "I'm all wet, Mommy!"

Caden was not into the splash pad this time and opted to stay in the stroller and eat this entire thing of munchies. 

We've also been on a lot of stroller rides around the block. 

We may have worn Caden out with all our fun adventures this summer. 

We've had a lot of corn from Grandpa Bob's garden this summer, but a lot of them have little "caterpillars" in them. Tyler decided to make it the kids' pets. We found a jar and put  lots of things the kids thought the caterpillars would like, like flowers, dirt, grass, and sticks. 

We had a green one and a brown one that lived in our kitchen for a few days. Every morning Makayla would go check on them and tell us that they were "eating the corn". After a few days Makayla noticed they were really tired, so they just slept for a few days before Mommy put them back in the dirt. :)

We went shopping at Macey's one day and they were having some games for the kids. Each kid had to find a number around the store and then stand on it. They called Caden's name and he won this huge donut! (I may have had the entire thing myself)

 These two are so cute and like to play together... most of the time. Just sitting in the warming oven enjoying a bowl of animal crackers... that's a normal place to eat, right?

 The kids love to make us "lunch". They bring us out food all the time and are so good to remember utensils and drinks. Looks like Kayla made us a donut and Caden made us a chip.

Both kids LOVE bath time. If we even mention the word, they both run in and try to jump in... sometimes fully clothed. 

  To get ready to go back to daycare, we went shopping and found Makayla a little backpack. She also found a cute necklace and bracelet while we were there. Kay-bugs was so proud of all her new stuff and was so excited to give us a little fashion show.

 And seriously, how cute is this little guy? He seriously is a major hunk!

 Caden loves books. In fact one of his favorite things is to read books at night. He gets a whole pile of books and then climbs in our lap. I think Tyler and I both love story time with our little guy!

 The other thing Caden loves is the swing. He can spend hours in this thing. When he wants more pushes, he just grunts at us until we give him more. 

 

Caden is starting to talk. Some of his new words this month are: "go", "no", "thanks", "please" "cracker", and "pushes".

It is hard to believe that our summer is over already. We had so much fun, and can't wait for our next flip-flop summer. To end this post, here's some cute pictures of the kids on their first day back at Brooke's daycare.

We have the cutest kids ever... just sayin'!

The Dirty Thirty

Wow! I really have the best family and friends EVER who really know how to make a girl feel special on her 30th Birthday!! My birthday celebration lasted the entire month! On top of Tyler taking me to New York City earlier this month, he made sure my birthday was the best one yet. 

On Sunday, August 18, we got together with my side of the family for a party. We had a yummy dinner with cheesecake and red velvet cupcakes for dessert. 

P.S. Thanks Preston for the photo bomb. 

The next day, August 19 we went with Tyler's family for mine, Tracy, and Gayle's birthday celebration. Since it was my 30th birthday, I got to choose where we went to dinner that night. Is it any surprise I picked El Rancho? My favorite part was the fried ice cream. 

After that we went back to Craig and Terry's to open presents. 

Shout out to Tracy who was co-celebrating with us! Only she was celebrating the big 33.

 Terry and Craig got me and Tracy tickets to Collin Raye in Wendover for the following week! We had a blast at the concert, but I forgot to take my camera.

 My actual birthday (Wednesday) was my first day back to work. I really hated to ruin the best day of the year with such a depressing thing like work, but what's a girl to do? I made sure to party hard after I got off work. We went to dinner at one of my other favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse, then we came back home and Tyler and the kids gave me some beautiful gerber dasies, two very nice cards, and a gift card to get my nails done and a pedicure! Seriously, all my favorite things!!! And I really have the best family and friends. I had so many people email, call, text, and Facebook to wish me a happy day.

 Then Friday my best friend Emily took me out for a fun girls night out. We started out with pedicures at the mall then went to dinner at Olive Garden. I ate until I was completely stuffed, then we got dessert. Such a fun night with my bestie!!

Thanks to everyone for making my favorite day of the year the best one yet!!!

 I was trying to think of a way to commemorate my birthday on the blog and thought I would include a list of not so well known things about me. I figured the kids might like to know some random things about their mom someday. So here it is...

30 Random things on my 30th Birthday:

30. I love Coke and Dr. Pepper. Some days I think I'm addicted to it!

29. I had to have 2 permanent teeth pulled and had to wear braces for almost 5 years. 

28. I wanted to be a nurse when I was little. I did an internship in high school where I shadowed a nurse for a few months and realized that was not the career for me. 

27. I danced all through my childhood and was on the dance company in high school. I even know how to tap and clog. 

26. I had a crush on George Clooney when I was in high school. I used to have dreams that I would marry him one day. 

25. I have never had a broken bone... knock on wood. 

24. I've had a conversation with Kenny Chesney. 

23. I had a cyst in my eyebrow when I was little. There's still a scar to prove it. 

22. I always thought I wanted 5 kids. I think 3 may be enough. 

21. I'm a True Aggie at least 5 times. 

20. My biggest pet peeve is when people floss their teeth (just the sound of it... not the principle of flossing)

19. I can run a 5k in 35 minutes. 

18. I've only had 2 cavities in my entire life and one of them was a baby tooth... so technically I only have one cavity. 

17. I graduated high school with a 3.5 and graduated cum laude in college with a 3.7. 

16. I have traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mexico, the Bahamas, New York, Hawaii, Cali, Nevada, Florida, and Tennessee.  

15. I coached cheer for 4 years at two different high schools. 

14. I love cats and had a few growing up: Peaches, Puddles, Velcrow, George, and Angel. 

13. The whole reason I became a teacher was to have my summers off. 

12. My favorite flowers are gerber dasies. 

11. I make it a personal goal to only wear flip-flops all summer long. 

10. I was painfully shy growing up... to the point that I would have my friend go ask the teacher if I could go to the bathroom. 

9. I learned how to drive a stick shift before I learned how to drive an automatic. 

8. I feel like I have to say that I love to read because I'm an English teacher, but really, I don't love it all that much. 

7. I hate scary movies. Especially any movie with aliens in it. 

6. My first kiss was when I was 15.  

5. I love shopping. Especially grocery shopping. Heck, I just love spending money.

4. I had over 35 roommates throughout college. 

3. When I was little I had the movie Cinderella memorized. 

2. My favorite day of the year is my birthday. 

1. I love my family more than anything in the world (okay, that was obvious, but it does deserve to be #1)

Thanks again for the best 30th birthday! If my 30's are anything like my 20's, I'm in for a great decade!