Happy Birthday Grandpa Lyman

We celebrated Grandpa Haws' Birthday lastnight!

He is 92...can you believe it?! 

He is still going strong, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes it to 100! 

Grandpa & Grandma made Carden this ADORABLE quilt & gave it to us last night. I LOVE the monkey fabric...so cute!!!

Grandpa does the "quilting" with a machine he has & Grandma does the binding. I'm so glad we have this special gift from the 2 of them.
A quick family picture with the amazing duo...

Blog to Book

I'm FINALLY printing out my blog!!!

The only reason I even blog, is because it is my journal. I don't care who reads my blog & I don't post for anyone but to keep a record of my family. So...I have been wanting to make a book from my blog for awhile now, so we could have a physical copy of our "journal".  Just thought I'd share this info, in case any of you want to print out your blogs!

A couple of years ago, I started "designing my blog book" using Blurb.com & spent a million hours, formatting & changing things just how I wanted & then our computer crashed & I lost everything:( 

I started over, but it was extremely time consuming & I'm only 1/3 of the way through on the 1st year. And because I only wanted to pay shipping once, I wanted to make all of the books before ordering(I wanted to do one book per year) & the years just keep flying by.  I think it was overwhelming to me to think about getting all of the books complete & I put it on the back burner & have hardly spent any time trying to finish them. Blurb is a GREAT site & had a lot of editing options that I loved(you could design each page individually & make your photos big or small,etc). But that is why it ended up taking so much of my time & I just don't feel like I have time to spare these days.

A couple of weeks ago,  I randomly saw a link somewhere for blog2print.com & I clicked on it to check it out. In MINUTES...it took my entire blog & slurped it into a book & since they offer FREE SHIPPING, I can order one book at a time! I decided to start with 2007(when I started my blog) & order it and see how I liked it, before spending time/money on the rest of the years. There are not a lot of "editing options" with this site, but I didn't even care. It takes your blog & prints one post after another & it is DONE & that is all I cared about. I got my 1st book in the mail & I'm impressed with the quality & I can't wait to order 2008-2010.

There is NOTHING FANCY about this book, the ONLY option is blank white pages & they stick the text/pictures in(you can't resize anything) so sometimes there ends up being more white space than I would prefer, but honestly I am just so happy it is printed & took me less than 15 minutes to "make it"!

It has been so fun to look back through the posts with my boys! Looking at all of the baby pictures of Parker is reminding me how fast time flies by! I'm so glad that I have taken the time to "journal" over the years & how easy blogger makes it for me to journal:)

Go ahead & try it out...it will "make your book" for you without even signing up & then if you do decide to save or order it...you can sign up & edit the few things it allows you to edit(the pictures on the front & the back and the design of your book) & then order & you will have a family record to keep forever!

Remembering Mason

1 year ago, my faith was shaken & then strengthened. 

As I watched my brother-in-law & sister-in-law mourn in that hospital room, my heart broke. 

They would never see their sweet baby boy take a breath in this earth life.

I couldn't understand why this would happen & kept looking for answers I was never going to find.

Months went by, before I came to accept what had happened.

I never got the answers I had been looking for. 

But I knew that didn't matter.

I put my faith in my Heavenly Father & my testimony was strengthened.

Families are forever.

I'm a different person today, then I was one year ago.

And I'm grateful for what I have learned.

  July 18, 2011-Mesa Cemetery 

writing notes to baby Mason & sending them up into the clouds...

My 3 Sons

My sister-in-law, Julie, bought my 3 boys these CUTE, COORDINATING shirts & since they were all wearing them the other day, I had to take some pictures of them together!

Ryler couldn't be happier:)

I love these 3 boys!!!

Parker & Ryler LOVE their new baby brother!!!

Drive Ins: Cars 2

I haven't been to the drive-ins in probably 10 years & decided it was time for us to go!

Tuesdays are their "cheap" night & since Matt doesn't work on Wednesdays, we decided to stay up late(the movies don't start until 8:45pm) & go see Cars 2 with the boys. We traded cars with my dad, so we would have a truck & threw in the love sac & kid recliners & we had the perfect set up! We had a good time, although we will probably wait until it is cooler, before we go back again.

The only mistake we made is that we should've have seen "Winnie the Pooh" because it was on the screen next to ours & Parker watched that the entire time instead of Cars2(even though there was no sound-haha).

We are a HAPPY (Potato Head) Family!

The other day Parker was playing with Mr. Potato Heads & he made our "Happy Family" & kept singing the primary song, "I love daddy...he loves me"

(I video taped a bit, but it won't upload right now, so I will try again later)

It was so cute, I love this boy!

I asked who they were & from right to left, he said:

"That's mommy...and the Easter Bunny...and the baby...and Daddy...and RyRy...me in a Police hat...and a cowboy that came to visit us"  I thought the random Easter Bunny & Cowboy in our family was hilarious;)

Newborn Pictures

My friend Cherri (Shutterspark Photography) took time out of her busy life to come over & take picture of sweet Carden, at just 8 days old. I never had newborn pictures taken with Parker or Ryler & wished I did, so I am so glad she was willing to take these! She did such a great job, I can't wait to have some framed for his room. THANK YOU SO MUCH CHERRI!!!

Other than peeing on one of her blankets & spitting up on another, Carden did a great job & slept through most of the session;)

Tate & Melanie's Wedding

On July 7th, 2011...I gained a new sister!

Melanie Komenda & my brother Tate were sealed for time & all eternity & I'm so happy for them!

I didn't know if I would make their wedding, but our little Carden arrived on July 3rd, so we celebrated with them that Thursday, when he was just 4 days old. Maybe I'm crazy, but I also feel extremely grateful that I felt good enough to attend & celebrate with them. 

SO HAPPY!!!

Here is the sweet boy at 4 days old...

We are a family of 5! I love my 4 boys:)

Carden & my dad(who he is named after)

Look at those SKINNY little legs!!!

Daddy & RyRy...he turned into "Daddy's boy" after Carden was born, it is so sweet to watch them together...

 Our family is getting SO BIG! Carden makes a DOZEN grandkids!

At the luncheon, after the sealing...

Everybody wanted to hold the new baby!:)

Heidi & Ryler at the reception...

The church was beautiful...

This guy "hid" in his carseat most of the night. He was so little, I didn't want him exposed to unnecessary germs!

Ryler was entertained the majority of the night by Jordan's ipod(thank you Jordan!)

Amy hired some babysitters to watch the kids in the nursery, which turned out to be a wonderful idea!

These boys LOVEEEE their little brother & kept sneaking peeks!

Grandma Allen showed up & got to cuddle with him, while we went outside to send off Tate & Mel

The send off included a few FIREWORKS, which this boy thought were TOO LOUD;)