Happy Birthday, Princess!

Sweet little Princess Hadlee turns 1 today.  She has brought such a wonderful spirit into our home.   She adores her big brother, Lucas - always wanting to be where he is.  If he is laying on the floor watching TV, she is crawling all over him!

She loves to snuggle and teases about giving kisses.  She is able to stand on her own, but has only made a few attempts at walking.  She loves to escape, and especially loves to climb stairs.

We are so blessed with this sweet miracle.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

10 Years and Loving It

If you can't tell, I'm doing a lot of blog updates since I skipped about 4 months of posts.

In August, Heather and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary, and about 11 years ago from now was about the time she started taking an interest in me.

While serving my mission in Recife, Brazil, Elder L. Tom Perry came to our mission and spoke at a mission conference.  During his talk, he spoke to missionaries getting ready to go home and he exhorted that in seeking out a spouse, to look for someone with a cheerful disposition.  When I first saw Heather, and her beautiful smile, I immediately recalled his talk.  I met Heather in a single's ward (the best one ever!) in Midvale after I graduated from college and moved back home for work.  Our first non-date, in which I was trying to drop clues that I liked her, was in June 2003 when a bunch of us from the single's ward went to the Manti Pageant.  I was one of the drivers and I was able to get her and her friend to ride with me.  Her friend was really tired so Heather sat in front with me and we were able to talk to whole time (there and back).

Our first real date was at the beginning of July, and we went and saw Dixie Chicks with some old college roommates.  What is really sad is that either something I ate at Macaroni Grill, sitting in the nose-bleed section of the Delta Center, or my nerves getting the best of me, I started to not feel well, so I spent at least 1/4 of our date in the restroom.

Our second date was at the end of July when we went and saw Oklahoma in the Midvale City park.

Our third date was at the beginning of August to go see Maren Ord in Layton.

After our third date, I could sense that she really wasn't in to me.  I tried to move on, but kept knowing that Heather was the one for me.

In November, her brother and closest friend, Chris, was leaving to go on his mission.  I was on a business trip, so the night before he left, I had some flowers delivered to her letting her know that I wished I was around to be a shoulder to lean/cry on.  I think that finally helped her to see what a good guy I am :)

We hung out a lot in December, and our first kiss was on January 19, 2004.  We said I love you on Valentines Day, and a week later, on a trip with some friends to Las Vegas, she started hinting at wanting a ring.  We got engaged on March 20, 2004, and got married 5 months later.

There, of course, is a whole lot more to the story, but I tried to keep this to a minimum!  For her anniversary present, I was able to get digital copies of our wedding photos (thanks Cliff Winegar at MarDel Photography!).

Heather is my best friend and the love of my life.  I'm eternally grateful for her each and every day, and I hope she knows how much I love her and how much she means to me.  She is the greatest eternal companion, mother, daughter, sister, interior designer, activity day leader, and Jamberry team manager that I know.

HAPPY LATE ANNIVERSARY, SWEETHEART!

3 Year Pics

I realized I forgot to post pictures from Luke's photo shoot for his birthday.  Isn't he so handsome?

By the end of the photo shoot, he wasn't really cooperating, so we told him to start dancing.  What do you think he started to do?

OPA GANGNAM STYLE!

Mommy's Birthday Cruise

For Mommy's Birthday, we went on a New England Cruise on the Carnival Splendor!  

Getting ready to board!

Ready for take-off

First thing on the cruise ship - REST and RELAXATION!

Gotta love a cruise ship with NYC in the background.

Lucky Lucas and Lady Liberty

Good bye New York

This Carnival cruise ship was a Seuss at Sea ship - which means there were several times to meet up with the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2, and Sam I Am.  This was our first encounter for the Seuss Parade.  We started at one end of the ship and marched all the way to the other end to the theater for an interactive reading of the Cat in the Hat, featuring James as the Cat.  If you want to watch James make a fool of himself, watch this wonderful 15 minute clip.

Later that night, Daddy and Lucas decided to do some karaoke - singing Bohemian Rhapsody (the Muppet Song), and Good Time (Owl City/Carly Rae Jepson).  Here's a little listen to Good Time:

Karaoke soon became one of Lucas' favorite thing to do - he did it 2 more times throughout the cruise, always singing Good Time, and adding one other song to his repertoire - the Mickey Song (aka Bruno Mars' Just the Way you Are) and the Hippo Song (aka the Lion Sleeps Tonight).

First formal night

I am LOVED!

And I'm goofy

But all around ADORABLE.

Our first port was Boston, MA.  We went on a harbor cruise and a trolley tour of the city.

Our second port was our most favorite - Portland, ME.

Did you know that there is a piece of the Berlin Wall in Portland, Maine?  Neither did we!

We participated in the most exciting excursion in Portland - we did the Lucky Catch Cruise and went lobster fishing!  Highly recommend this if ever you are in Portland.

Sometimes we didn't catch lobsters - but we caught some starfish...

Helping to push the lobster traps overboard!

and some crabs!

Beautiful lighthouse in Portland

After catching some lobster, our appetites were satisfied with a lobster roll and some clam chowder.  Luke opted for the grilled cheese sandwich :)

Visiting the lighthouse on land

The next port we visited was St. John, New Brunswick (Canada).  We just did a little walking tour of the city.

Wooden people - there were several of them.

This was outside a fun little candy shop - if you go to St. John, go buy some candy there.

Any mascot/character we met required a picture

The last port was Halifax, Nova Scotia.  They have a Kids Discovery Museum there.

Future boarder?

Luke loved getting the animal towels every single night after dinner.  The hospitality staff even did a large presentation of animal towels the last day of the cruise.

Also, on the last day, we went to a Cat in the Hat breakfast, complete with Green Eggs and Ham.  Although the were good, Daddy gets sick just thinking about them now.

Highlight of Luke's trip are the following photos - taking pictures with the Seuss characters:

Thing 1 & Thing 2

The Cat in the Hat

and Sam I Am

We landed back at the NYC port close to 8:00 am Saturday morning, and our flight didn't leave until 8:00 pm, so we decided to do some sight seeing.

Selfie in Times Square

Gotta love the characters working for tips

Visited Central Park Zoo

Our really good friends, Dallas and Isaac, were out in New York celebrating their anniversary, so we met up at Serendipity for some Frozen Hot Chocolate.

It was a very fun trip, and for being a 3 year old, Luke did pretty good - of course he had his moments, but what 3 year old wouldn't?  He made a lot of friends on the ship and we even had a gentleman complement us on how well behaved he was in the dining room each night.

If you are wondering where Hadlee is in these pictures, she stayed at home with Grandma and Pompa and did great the whole time.

We are sure blessed with 2 amazing kids that we love to the moon and back!