5 years

Last week Justin and I celebrated our 5th anniversary together. What a fun milestone this has been for us! 5 years ago, we were both in school at BYU-Idaho and now we have two kids, live in Cleveland, OH and almost done with dental school. My how time changes things.

Justin let me sleep in a little that morning while he made breakfast and displayed the 5 bouquets of flowers which he and Jack picked out. Later that night, our friend, Jenni from Justin's class came to watch the boys while we went and ate at our favorite hamburger place...B Spot. They have the BEST food!! It was so yummy.

Before we went out to eat, it was time for me to reveal my little project I had been working on for a good month or so. Justin and I have always hated our bedroom. It is the catch all that never seems to be picked up and was not decorated. For 3 yrs since we have lived there, Justin has asked me when I was going to do something with our room. I just never knew what I wanted to do. But after looking at a million blogs and inspiration from a few friends, I finally figured out what I wanted to do with it and did it secretly. I have been stashing my haircutting money and buying things here and there, hoping it would all come together like I had pictured in my head, and I LOVE it!

I repainted the blue table from the bedroom set that we got from his Grandma Palmer. The chair was given to me by our neighbor who moved so I painted and reupholstered it. I also had my sisters edit some of my wedding pictures that I had printed along with a couple of new ones from a recent shoot Angie did while she was here.

These dressers were also part of the old bedroom set and I somehow convinced Justin to help me repaint them about a month ago. He never knew that I had a bigger plan in mind!

I got this headboard for $20 off of craigslist, painted it and hid it in a friend's garage. I painted my mirror, a bunch of frames and the inside of my fireplace. It used to be just white.

I was going to put a "before picture" but I was too embarrassed! Seriously...my room was BAD.

Now....I LOVE IT!! Justin was so surprised and super excited about it. Now we actually have a peaceful and relaxing space all to ourselves that we might actually want to be in! Before it was just chaos and ugliness, and that usually included a mound of laundry (or 2!).

We can finally sleep in peace. :)

Anniversary Surprise #2

So besides the awesome day we had on our actual anniversary, Justin left a note on the bed when he left for school saying to pack an overnight bag for the kids and one for myself. It also said to drop the kids off at our friend's house and pick him up at school by 12:30pm. So I did as I was instructed. I was a little nervous because I have never left Anderson but I didn't have too much time to think about it since I only had 4 hrs until I had to drop them off. And we left them with some great friends who were so nice to watch our kids!!

So I picked him up and he informed me that we were spending a night in Niagara Falls. I was so excited to have a little getaway! Not once have we ever taken a little vacation by ourselves except for our honeymoon, so I was super excited. Justin found an awesome deal on a nice hotel with an excellent restaurant in it. The food was SO YUMMY!! We loved all of it.

The next day we started out on the Maid of the Mist. It's a boat ride that takes you right up to the falls. You can see the little boat on it's way back in the picture above.

We're ready to get wet!!! :) I think that the blue ponchos are a good look for us.

Waiting to get herded onto the boat. They fit a lot of people on a not very big boat.

It was really fun though and felt like you were in a big rain storm. The tour guide told us that a 63 yr old school teacher went over the falls in a barrel (for fun....what the?) and survived. He also said a 7 yr old boy was playing up river in a life jacket and got swept down the falls and survived! He was rescued by a Maid of the Mist boat. I just kept thinking how scared that little boy would have been and how terrified I would have been to be his mom.

There are a lot of random things to see there, such as this chair and wax model of the tallest man ever to live.

Our little trip consisted of lots of yummy food, good conversation (without children interrupting us!) and we slept in until 9am, which NEVER happens at our house. Anderson is up between 6 and 6:30 every morning so we are early risers around our house and it was so nice to sleep in!!! It was exactly what we needed.

Thanks for the surprise Justin! Here's to the next 5 years! :)

Jack and Anderson

I took some pictures of the boys a couple Sundays ago when we were waiting for Justin to get back from his meetings. I know they are my boys, but really....aren't they so cute?!

It has been so great now that Anderson is a little older and is starting to be able to play with Jack. Jack is always making Anderson laugh. He responds to Jack more than anyone and loves to copy him. And of course when he does, Jack thinks it's hilarious. I hope they always love to be together.

I love that Jack is strangling Anderson in this one and he just takes it and smiles. :)

Off to NYC!

My parents stopped at our house on their way to NYC and were actually there when we got back from DC. We stayed up late chatting and talking about each other's trips and their mission. The next morning, we did a couple haircuts and colors and decided to go out to lunch with everyone.

CUTE!

My parents bought everyone an "I heart NY" shirt. Jack LOVES to wear his! It's now one of his favorite shirts.

We are excited for them on this new adventure in their life. I think they are adjusting well to the city life and enjoying it so far. If you want to read more about their mission you can go HERE! :)

Indians!!

When we got back to Cleveland we decided to hit up the Indians game. This was Denise's first time to a professional baseball game. We thought it was going to get rained out but the storm passed over just before the game started. We left Anderson with a friend so he could get to bed on time and just took our crazy little boy Jack. He is such a nerd sometimes and these pictures show that perfectly. :)

What is with the face?? What a geek. :)

They played the Yankees and unfortunately didn't win but it's always fun to go.

Now these two were definitely the highlight of the game! As I"m sure you know, Lebron James left Cleveland to go to Miami. One who was once a hero, is now nothing but a disappointment. Cleveland has serious fans. They are dedicated. I mean, our pediatrician sent out an email on how to help your kids cope with Lebron leaving....really? What the? Anyways, his name is basically a swear word around these parts. People were selling shirts that say "LeBum" on it. It's pretty funny. Anyways, this guy and his girlfriend show up to the game and he is wearing a Miami jersey with LeBron's name on the back. People were booing them the whole time. At first the police were trying to protect them from the people, but once they decided they were making too much of a scene, they started to escort them out. Everyone starts flipping out and booing them and saying things that are not appropriate to write on my blog. Somebody threw something at the girl and she starts punching them. Obviously the police thought this had gone on long enough and quickly made them leave as people are throwing their drinks and anything they had in their hands at them. Wow. It was quite the entertainment! We saw them on our way out of the game and I had to snap a picture for memories sake. :)

Guess we won't be rooting for LeBron anymore...you'll get stuff thrown at you!

DC with the Heaton's

Justin's mom and dad came out to Cleveland for part of Justin's summer break. They decided they wanted to go to DC so Friday after Justin finished working on their teeth, we got in the car and made the drive. Of course, we are a little biased because going to DC means we get to see some of our favorite people, they Jensen's! We stayed at their house and had such a great time.

Saturday was our first day of touring around and we chose to start out at the monuments. Scott came with us and since it was 105 degrees and about 100% humidity, Denisse was more than happy to volunteer to keep all the kiddos at home. We saw the Lincoln, Washington, WWII, and Vietnam monuments.

We also hit up the Air and Space Museum, and the White House.

Denisse decided to brave the pool with the kiddos one of the days she watched them and they all had a blast together.

Braden loved to jump into the water and just swim around. Jack was a little worried about him and kept trying to rescue him and pull him up out of the water. :)

These three have such a great time together!

Thanks for watching them Denisse! Jack LOVES to be with you guys and it made our sight seeing much more enjoyable!! We owe you!

Saturday night, Denisse and I went to "get something for church" and came back with Ryan! He had been planning to secretly come out and meet us and we picked him up at the Metro station. Justin and Bob and Denise had no idea and were so surprised. We were so excited to have him come and be with us!

After church on Sunday, we went to the National Cathedral. It is such a beautiful building! It was one of my favorite things that we saw.

Denisse took these pictures. :)

The kids were looking at this picture and there conversation went something like this...

Braden: That's Jesus.

Brielle: He's resurrected!

Jack: He's not dead anymore.

It's funny to hear their thoughts.

My cousin Holly lives just minutes from the Jensen's. She was able to spend Sunday with us at the cathedral and the Arlington Cemetery. She also watched Anderson for me on Monday! I have such great family and friends!

Top of the Arlington Cemetery.

On Monday we hit up the National Archives, which was very cool. They have the Declaration of Independance, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights. It was amazing to see these original documents. We also saw the Holocaust museum, where I got lost from everyone for an hour. I thought I was the last one and that they were all in front of me but I was really the first. I had a slight panic attack when I couldn't find anyone and they don't let you go back in once you've finished looking. But to make a long story short, they were all still looking around the museum and they eventually came out an hour after I did. :) I was so relieved when Justin came out!!

After that we went over to the Library of Congress and the Capital building. There are so many fun things to see and do there.

Ryan had to fly out Tuesday morning and head back to Las Vegas. We are so glad he came!!

Anderson had a fever off and on all weekend and was not feeling well on Tuesday. So I chose to stay home with Denisse and the kids while Justin and his parents hit up a few more sites, including a tour of the capital building.

Here Bob and Justin are in line for food at the FDR monument. :)

We had a great trip and are so thankful to the Jensen's for letting us invade their house for a few days!!

Splash Park

We went to a splash park a while back with some friends. We had never been there before and I am so sad that I am just now discovering it in our last summer here!! It was a blast and the kids were loving it.

Jack and his friend Macie. Remember the little girl who let Jack where her princess panties and little shorts? Yes, this is the same Macie. :) They played so good together the whole time. Jack has so many good friends here, I love it.

Running through the sprinklers! You can see Sydney and Addie in the background, along with some good looking legs! No, they're not mine.

Jack did not stop running and playing the whole time. He had such a blast. It's nice to mix it up from the pool, especially since you don't have to be worried about anyone falling in the water and drowning. You can just relax and let them play. It was great.

Just cruisin' in the stroller!

Worn out and ready to go home. :)