Sunday, May 20, 2012

4th of July 2010

Happy birthday USA!!! We had a wonderful, and eventful, 4th of July back in 2010. The night before, Zane went to volunteer to "clean" the SLC temple with our ward. He actually ended up tearing up a big old vent. Luckily he did not fall into it...or he would have died! That morning we went to our ward's 4th of July breakfast (no pictures, sorry), and then we headed to our new house to work on our new baby's room. Sadly, Zane dropped his ipod in a bucket of paint...and it died :-(. Afterwards we went to the Parkins to light up some fireworks! However, before getting there, Zane noticed that the screen on his Blackberry was completely cracked and he could not use the phone...:-(. Fortunately, we had insurance for that one! And while we were in the Parkin's backyard, we heard a terrible crashing noise. We went outside to see what was going on...A few houses above the Parkins' the emergency break of a car that had been parked on a hill came off; so the car started rolling down the hill, hitting a couple of cars that were parked down the hill. I told you it was an eventful 4th of July!!! It was really fun regardless :-)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Mason's Baby Blessing!

It was so special to attend and participate in such a special event, Mason's baby blessing. Reagan did a wonderful job, and it was neat to be, once again, with lots of family. Here are some pictures of the day:

2010 - Baby shower #1 at Holly's house

My AMAZING friend Holly hosted a baby shower at her house. She took care of all the decorations, planning, invites AND FOOD! She even made a diaper cake for me! I was SOO excited for that! Her food was INCREDIBLE!!! I felt so spoiled as I got AMAZING gifts from everyone! Really, I just LOVED my gifts! (actually baby Avery should have felt MORE spoiled!). Thank you dear friends! And btw, I realized that I make REALLY animated faces when I open gifts... What a great time we had!

2010 - We bought a house!!!

We just happened to find this amazing deal on a great house in the Holladay/Cottonwood Heights area. It was a short sale, which would normally - and ironically - takes A LONG TIME to close on, so we were thinking that maybe we would get it towards the end of the year...well they approved our offer in less than a week. We were STUNNED! We were SO excited to move into this house, even though we knew we would miss the Avenues and our incredible ward, but we realized we had a growing family! It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs, and 3 bedrooms, one bathroom and a laundry room downstairs, along with a family room. We decided to "transform" the basement to make it a mother-in-law apartment and rent it out. I was soo happy to realize that it had a SWIMMING POOL!!! Zane was not so happy, as he was thinking of costs and that he would be the one taking care of it! We had to do some MAJOR work (and still are) to our home. The pool's cover was broken, so the whole swimming pool was green, we removed all the stained carpet, 70's wallpaper, and began a LONG process of installing a kitchen downstairs. We COULD NOT have done it without the help of so many friends and our wonderful families. Once again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for everything you did for us. We feel so blessed to have you in our lives, and are so grateful for the hours of sacrifice you spent with us!

2010 - My belly at 30 weeks pregnant!

2010 - My belly at 29 weeks pregnant!

5 day old Mason

We went to visit Mason in his new home after the Fails went home from the hospital, my in-laws were there as well, and we were all drooling over the new grandson/nephew. Can you see how ready Zane was to be a daddy? I love these pictures!