Surgery #52398

Or maybe only number 3 since we have been married- but who is counting? 

This surgery was the best of all because 1. It was planned 2. Outpatient 3. At the hospital I work at (fabulous medical insurance coverage) 4. In our home town and not on vacation 

Rich has been such a trooper getting his hernia repaired. It was an open repair with mesh so the recovery is a little longer than a laparoscopic one- but he is getting there. It has been 2 1/2 weeks and he can now carry Shelby for short distances and he is moving around a lot easier now. 

Thanks for all the love and support and prayers during this hard time for our family. 

Planking

I showed rich a video of a man who set a world record for planking for 5 hours straight. Rich wasn't impressed. He said, "isn't this planking?" And fortunately for me I got a picture. 

If that is planking than Shelby is pretty good at it too. 

Happy birthday husband!

Today I was excited to surprise rich with his birthday gift of a hot air balloon ride! Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we rescheduled for tomorrow. In order to make his birthday special we dropped Ryann off at school and took sick little Cara and Mac to the boon fly cafe for breakfast. Delicious and we ate and ordered way too much food.

We also had birthday donuts with a candle in it and took lots of selfies. Mac ended up covered in sugar from the donuts.

Happy birthday rich. Words can't express how much you mean to me so hopefully your day is fabulous enough that I don't have to even try to tell you how awesome you are! Forever and ever and ever. I love you.

Obstacle course

This afternoon was magical. We took a family bike ride to the grocery store to get dinner, then went to the park to eat it. At the park there was no fighting, all fun, beautiful weather, and am awesome obstacle course that I won of course... unless you talk to rich who says that touching the ground means you are out. Whatever. The kids had a blast and we wore them out so hopefully they will sleep well.

Daddy's first day of school

Since rich was out of town last week he hasn't been able to see the girls of to school. So today he came with us to check it out.

My man

I miss this handsome man! He is on a work trip to Nebraska and then gets to go visit Devyn, Jason, hazel, and Mitchell. I am so jealous!

Happy Father's Day

This year my cute hubby and father of my children was spoiled rotten. Seriously. But Ryann and Cara wanted to make him work to get his gifts, so they sent him on a treasure hunt... after breakfast in bed.

We did a lot of fun stuff for him on Father's Day... my favorite gift to him is his new cologne!  He probably has a tie between the superman book and the 49ers hat.

However, he has yet to try the bath bombs from Lush :)

Maybe that will be his favorite.

Thanks Rich for being such an amazing father and thank you to my father for being the best dad I could have ever asked for!

Office/ playroom

Every so often rich gets a little crowded in his office. Those are the days when he has to jump over pukes if toys to get to his desk. I promise we make the girls clean when it gets to this point!

The joys of working from home.

Matchy

Daddy and Mac with their new matching Arizona shirts. 

They had matching under armor shorts on too.

Rich loves this having a son thing. 

Checkers at Grandma's

One would think that since Rich is so good at Chess he would naturally be good at checkers.

 Right?

 Well, maybe there were some distractions and maybe his ugly movember moustache got in the way, but what can I say??  "I AM THE MASTER AT CHECKERS!!"

 Not really, I only played him once and I won, so I stopped there lest I be humiliated in the next game. 

Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa for the fun house with all the fun toys (like floor size, giant checkers)!

Cowboy Up

Yeah, this ALMOST happened at church on Sunday.

Rich got cold feet and switched to a tie and no hat.

 Seriously, who would have ever thought Rich would not wear something crazy. 

He might do it to get choir recruits.

Rich is the choir director for our ward and he is trying desperately to get more people out to choir for our Christmas program. It really will be amazing and he has put so much work, thoughts, and prayers into it. I can't wait to be there for it and support him and sing with the choir. 

Handsome Men

I couldn't decide on my favorite picture of these two guys, so I will post them all!

Family Blessing Picture

 Here is the best shot at a family picture on "Blessing Day" for baby Mac. Love my girls, but Cara, where are your shoes??

Practice Makes Perfect

I may have mentioned that Mac only slightly tolerates his daddy. Well, that won't really cut it around here since mommy has such a crazy job and schedule. With this in mind I have been making Rich "practice" getting Mac to sleep, soothing him, and giving him bottles. I start back on call next week on the 19th (YIKES!) so we need to step up the game on how SuperMac can be comforted by both mommy and daddy. Obviously here is the man in action and I must say he is doing quite a fine job. Tonight was record time in getting him to sleep.

We also went to church today and Mac did GREAT! We are going to be blessing him on the 1st of September and everyone is invited. Let me know if you need an address or directions.

Newborn previews

 We had newborn pictures taken when Baby Mac was 9 days old. I have seen some of the previews and I can't handle how amazing they are. I don't want to ruin the surprise of the newborn announcement just yet (are you getting ready Mallory to make me an announcement?) But here is just a snippet of the amazing pictures. 

Check out my photographer in Phoenix at http://www.poshcreative.com/ 

Okay, fine, just this one more of Daddy and his baby boy. 

Fireworks

~~~I don't plan on blogging the day I have the baby, so I am pre-blogging to have new stuff come out each day since I don't plan on having much time once Baby comes. ~~~

This is as far as we got to watching fireworks this year. I am sure glad I didn't buy a 4th of July onesie for Baby Mac. 

Thanks daddy for being in charge of the flames. 

 Grandma and Cara had fun watching. 

Ryann's favorite one was the "snow sparkler" or something like that. That is the one that she got to help daddy light. 

 I thought the rainbow ones would have made her more excited, but playing with fire does have a certain appeal. 

 After about 30 minutes we were done, the girls went to have baths and it was off to bed. Sorry Arizona, next year I will do everything in my power to NOT be in Arizona for the 4th of July. 

Happy Father's Day

Rich always says that the best cards are homemade. I used to think that was just because he was too lazy to go out and buy a card.                              

 

Maybe that is really the reasons, because in all honesty that is why we did homemade cards for him!

Sorry hun, I blame it on the 5 births I did on Saturday and the being 37 week pregnant thing. 

Ryann made superman on the left, then wonderwoman, then daddy, then Ryann.  

 Cara drew some flowers and a picture of her and daddy. She put mouse ears on herself because she wants to go to Disneyland. 

Thank you Rich for being such a great father to our girls. They sure love you and have no idea how blessed they are to have a  dad who can be there for them anytime. I am so thankful for this job that you have that allows you to be at home to always be there when I fall short. 

I hope you enjoyed your fathers day!

Happy Anniversary

It was our 9 year anniversary today and I just have to say how much I love my husband. He is so sweet and thoughtful and while taking your sick wife to the chiropractor isn't a top 100 list of things to do on your anniversary, he did it with a smile. He even took our girls to the temple grounds while I was being adjusted. They spent the hour going through the visitors center, looking at the flowers, and walking all over the grounds. 

Both girls know that Jesus died for us and they both tried to tell me the story. Cara is very insistent that Jesus was put in the "tumba" after he died. (emphasis on the BA) part.

I am so thankful for temples. I am so thankful that 9 years ago my sweet husband and I were sealed for time and all eternity. I know that families are forever and I am so thankful that sweet Ethan joined our family today on this very very special day.

Happy Anniversary to my grandma and grandpa. I believe they are at 68 years.

Happy adoption day Ethan, you have always been a part of us, but having it on paper makes it so much more sweet. We couldn't be happier. Congrats Ashley! What an amazing Mama you are.

And once again, thank you to my sweet husband. I love you.

Mini Eggs

Easter is our favorite "candy" time of year. Rich boldly declared last night that the cadburry mini eggs are his favorite candy.  Wow. They beat out reeses.  

Good thing we have no more of these, or Rich would gain some weight with this pregnancy too!

Horseback Riding

When we planned this camping trip we had no idea that there would be horseback riding so close to camp. When Ryann found out about this I called to ask for rates and when the next ride would be. 

Then I convinced Rich to make his oldest daughter the happiest girl in the world.

 Ryann eagerly looked at the horses trying to decide which one she wanted. She picked one out and I tried to remind her that she might not get that horse. Well, she did and she was thrilled!

 She put on her helmet, her sunglasses, and some boots. She had her water bottle and she was ready. 

 "Trigger" was the name of her horse. Daddy rode on "Boss"

  

 Ryann was so focused and concentrating that she wouldn't even move the hair out of her eyes for fear of letting go. They did catch her petting the horse often though. I don't think there has ever been a horse so loved in the hour and a half ride that they went on.

  

The first thing she told me when she got off, besides that she had so much fun, was that her horse peed and pooped on the trail.  Yup, gotta love 6 year olds!

And, for the nervous mom in me, I was thrilled to see that the guide had her horse on an extra rope connected to him during the whole ride. She was safe and sound the entire time.