Beautiful YELLOWstone

Nephew Times Two...

I love these little guys, holding them both at the same time made me grateful that my babies came one at a time.

We all loved it when Tyler Mark Freebairn showed up to visit Grandpa in his

"Team Grandpa" shirt.

Tyler is an exact duplicate of his older brother Mikey
Aaron and cousin Tyler
Cooper Grant Cochran

Ariel and Cooper. He is super smart and very observant and has his eyes open

quite a bit for a newborn.

On June 25, 2010 I got two new nephews. It was really a remarkable event. My oldest and my youngest siblings added sons to their families. I believe it was the earliest I have ever met a new nephew or niece. This time I got to meet them when they were less than 24 hours old. Cooper Grant and Tyler Mark were due several weeks apart but arrived only an hour and a half of each other. We were so happy to meet them. They are both adorable and healthy and perfect in every way.

A Cold and Rainy Soccer Game

During my stay in Utah, my sister-in-law asked Ariel and I to take Mikey to his last soccer game. We were so excited about this. We love spending time with Mikey and Lily. It was an extra special deal because grandma drove grandpa out to see Mikey's last game. It was a cold and blustery day. We sat on the side lines in our camp chairs keeping the rain off us with umbrellas. In the first minute of the game, Mikey got hit in the head with the ball. He ran off the field in tears. I tried to coax him back on the field, after several minutes, he went back in to play. The coach had them switch players every five minutes or so. After his first initial five minutes of play, Mikey refused to go back in to the game. He was content to sit on Ariel's lap and eat snacks. We were very proud of the few minutes we saw him play. We took those cold little kids back to their house and gave them a warm bubble bath and got them ready for bed. My brother has the piano that I grew up playing in his house now. It was great to see it again, it brought back a lot of good memories for me. I sat down and played it again after many years. Mikey came down and watched me for a minute and then with a surprised look on his face said, "Wow, you're really good." It was pretty funny. We had a great time with them.

My Mom...

I have the best mother anyone could ever wish for. I have had the blessing of spending a lot of time with her the past three months while I have been in Utah taking care of my dad. One day we were in the kitchen. I don't know what we were talking about but all the sudden she said, "I am strong, even though I don't lift weights like you, I am still very strong." The next thing I know she had challenged me to an arm wrestle. Yes, I arm wrestled my mom. She was right, she was very strong, but in the end, she wasn't strong enough. :-) I might have the edge on physical strength but she has the strength that really matters. One of the things I love most about her is that she is young at heart. She loves to have fun and I love to be with her every chance I get. She has taught me so many things. Some of the things I admire most about her is that she has a positive attitude, she doesn't complain. She never talks bad about others or gossips. She always tries to look at the good in every situation. My mom is one of the strongest people I know. She is truly incredible. I owe so much to my mother. She is an angel. I am eternally grateful she is my mom and couldn't begin to thank her for all that she is to me.

Zoey

Meg took these cute pictures of Zoey.

She has always reminded me of an Ewok from Star Wars.

I love this dog!! Too bad she's such a psycho.

Newly Licensed...

Here is Megan signing her drivers license application after passing the road test on her first try!! Yeah! Sooooo biiigggggg! I am happy to report that Megan has been licensed and driving for three months and is doing just fine. I am also happy to report she only increased our monthly insurance amount by $8 thanks to Ariel turning her "legal age" before Meg became a licensed driver. I don't know it all works out but I won't complain.

Goodbye...

We are so sad that our good friends and neighbors moved away. It's not very often when you get neighbors next door that feel like part of your family. That's how we felt about the Ottman's. We have so many great memories with them. They will be missed so much.

Megan's 16th Birthday

One of her favorite presents...her fancy new camera.
Meg was so surprised when some of her favorite little kids she babysits came to visit her. They brought a special birthday card they had made. She was nice and shared the loot with us.

We went to dinner at Megan's favorite pizza place, Grimaldi's.

The kids devoured the cheesecake.

Meg's best friend, Shea, was born the day before her...so they always celebrate together.

Sisters

Sweet sixteenSadly, on Meg's special birthday, she had the most hideous cake possible. She had said she wanted a pie, the morning of her birthday, she thought she might want a cake. I went out to find her a cake and realized there was no time, the day of someones birthday, to get a nice looking cake. I picked out a blank cake and asked the bakery to write a message on it. I didn't know the man I trusted to write on her cake, wasn't a cake decorator. The cake looked really bad. I took it home and stewed about it for awhile. Finally, I used a knife and scraped all the words that the non-cake decorator wrote on her cake. I knew I could write them better than he did. My plan might have worked but I bought gel instead of frosting and the red gel bled all over the cake. The finished product was so much worse than what the non-decorator had done. I was so ashamed. I stuck some cute candles in the cake and apologized a lot.

It still tasted good and Megan was a very good sport.

He looks like he is going to eat some cake...but it was just a show for the camera.

After cake and ice cream, Meg was blind folded, she was not happy about this. I told her she was going to have one more birthday surprise. She wore the blind fold all the way to the

Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Ariel and I walked her all the way to the Lion King sign before she was allowed to see what her surprise was. She was so excited. She said it has been a dream of hers for years to see this production. I am so glad that I was able to make one of this sweet little girls dreams come true.

Todd's Creative Ideas

Aerial view

Back view
Todd likes to keep things interesting when he gives gifts. Mother's day and our anniversary were no exception. On Mother's day I opened my gift and found this ugly, hideous troll. Mother's day well wishes from Todd and the kids were graffitied all over its naked body. The "real present" were the earrings that were taped to its ears. He told me he wanted to buy me a gag gift, so he took Aaron along to the D.I. and said he would know the present when he saw it. When Aaron pulled the troll out of the stuffed animal pile...the search was over.

We became fast friends. The girls were against signing and giving me the hideous creature, but eventually gave in. "Agent Tippy Toe" still stands watch on my night stand.

On the morning of our 21st anniversary, I came down the stairs and was scared to death by this guy standing in my kitchen. Since he can't actually hold anything...my card was taped to his hand. Todd got this guy from our neighbors when they were getting ready to move and he knew that it would come in handy for something. We had a lot of fun for the next few weeks, placing him in different places around the house. For some reason even when you know the cardboard cutout is lurking around...it startles you every time.