Taking kids to Vegas

We have to do better at our blog. Thanks to laziness we've lost most of our readers...but to you faithful's out there, we love you for caring! So here are some more updates...
Seth is 11 months old. He has six teeth and is one of the happiest kids ever.


Crystal loves taking care of her little bro. She's become quite the little mother when it comes to looking after him. She's such a great person to have around the house.

We went on a small vacation to St. George and then Vegas. We had a fabulous time having a barbecue with Spencer, (Scott's mission trainer) his wife Allison, and their sons Owen and Eli. Crystal couldn't get enough of Owen.

In vegas we shared a hotel suite with Lisa's parents and her brother Matt. We all went to vegas at the same time because Matt had to be in the MTC in a couple of weeks ans we wanted to have one last hurrah together. Seth had no problem being occupied with so many people around to play with him.

We noticed pretty quickly that though Vegas can be fun, there aren't many family friendly activities to do, at least involving small children. We made the best of it though. Lucky for us, we found stuff to do. Here we are at the M&M factory.

We also made sure to go to church there on Sunday so we wouldn't corrupt Matt right before his mission.

Another thing you can do with children in Vegas, is eat. Here we are in line in the Paris for their fabulous buffet.

The Excalibur also features a 3D ride on their bottom floor where all the kid games are. At this time it was Spongebob. Crystal was excited to see a huge statue of Spongebob there.
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Since Lisa's family spoils our kids rotten, everybody took turns playing the carnival games and winning stuffed animals for our little crazies.




Jenna won a TON of tickets!

One of the highlights were also at Excalibur, we got front row tickets to their show, the Tournament of Kings. This is a great thing to do with family because they allow small children to view it and babies to sit in your lap. For those who aren't familiar with it, the show includes a meal and then a show where nights in shining amour joust and compete...but the plot thickens as you watch the show. It was a nail biter for Crystal, she was really involved with the story, and surprisingly enough, Seth was so enthralled with the show and sharing mommy's food, that he didn't cause any problems either.





So even though there wasn't a ton to do with small kids there, we still had fun, and The Excalibur was the highlight for both our kids. Crystal now refers to it as "The Castle Place."

Easter Pics

Have a wonderful Easter!!!

We haven't had the opportunity to blog much right now, and we're going to try and be better at it, but we just want anyone who's still reading to know how much we're thankful for the resurrection of Christ and the opportunity we have to celebrate that today.
We're both doing well. We've been living in our new home for two months now, and we love our new ward. Lisa got called to serve as the primary secretary and Scott got called to be a Gospel Doctrine teacher in the the adult Sunday school class, so we've got our work set out for us along with our little monkeys to look out for.
Seth is 10 months old and instead of crawling, has been spidering across the floor commando style to get around the house for the last couple of months. Crystal is doing great and loves the new home and her new primary class. She especially loves that Cooper, a little boy in her sunbeam class whom she used to fight with in the last ward isn't there to fight with her anymore. lol.
Anyway we both had talks in church this morning for Easter Sunday, and we came across this video on LDS.org that is a wonderful visual depiction of the amazing talk Elder Holland gave last week during General Conference.

A childs prayer

The other night Crystal was saying her prayers at bedtime and her prayer went as follows:

"Father in Heaven
Thank you for the day
Thank you for all my toys and my whole room
and I wish I had my bike, but I left it at Grandma's house.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

lol.

FEBRUARY

Okay, now that the month is almost over, this is how we've been. There's good news and bad news, as life goes.
First of all, we moved. We got ourselves a new home for Valentines Day this year! We're renting a nice 2,000 square foot twin home in American Fork. We have 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms. We finally have a bathroom with double sinks, and have a 2 car garage. No more scraping ice off the windows! Unfortunately, things are still a huge mess. Boxes and junk everywhere. We'll try and get some pictures when it's a little cleaner around here.
We've also had some bad stuff happen. We found out about the same time that we moved, that Scott's Dad, Nick, has a tumor in his colon, and it turned out to be malignant. Needless to say, it's been a struggle this whole month dealing with the news and preparing for a future we didn't expect.
Nick had Surgery this last Thursday to have the tumor removed, and the surgery was successful, however there are signs that it has spread to the liver and the bladder. They think the spots on the bladder can be taken care of with chemotherapy, which is good.
We all fasted and went to the temple last week for Nick. We all left the temple with a feeling of peace. Whatever happens, we know Heavenly father loves our family, and will do what he chooses to be the best, and he will take care of us. Scott and his brothers have all been keeping in touch and spending time with each other, and we're all doing our best to keep each other happy around here, and whatever happens, we choose to remain optimistic. If, however, things take a turn for the worse, we are preparing ourselves. If that's the case we may end up packing up and moving from here in Utah earlier than expected to Philadelphia to help Scott's family at home, and Scott will start helping/working with the family business. We'll see what happens, but we are continuing to pray and have faith for the future.
The kids have been trading sicknesses all month too. Lots of coughing has been going on around here, so it's been a little stressful. They are happy kids though, and they're adapting to our home well. Crystal loves her new, bigger bedroom, and Seth finally has a room of his own. Now if only he'll get well so we can begin the long process of moving him out of our bedroom!
Scott and Lisa are still enjoying their jobs. Tax season has begun and Scott is going to start longer hours, but loves his job so much that he doesn't mind. Lisa is still working 2-3 days a week being a dental assistant and since she's the only dental assistant the dentist has chosen to hire under him, loves the fact the she has the freedom to organize the dental office and laboratory the way she likes it. She also loves that she usually only works Mondays and Fridays so she can still spend the majority of her time with the kids and being a mom.
We love our new ward. Crystal has already been assigned a talk in primary this Sunday. We're excited to see how that goes.
Other than that, it's been everyday as usual. We saw some good movies this month, like "Paul blart, Mall cop", and "Taken." Taken was awesome, as we're both Liam Neeson fans, but probably not for really sensitive viewers. Then again, it's PG-13. If you can handle watching stuff on the FOX series 24, then you're okay with watching Taken.
Anyway, that's how life has been in a nutshell. Sorry no pictures this post...the camera is in a box somewhere, but we'll get it out soon.

AAAARGH!!!

The title is "aargh" because I'm frustrated at all the catching up that is basically impossible for me to do right now. So I'm going to have to give really quick info for catch ups.
We rang in the new year at Lisa's parents with lots of delicious food, for their annual open house. It was awesome.
Scotts parents were in town for Dan's wedding, which was excellent. The ceremony was very very good, and the reception went really well. We're so happy to have Kelsy as a member of the family. She's perfect!

We also got together with Rob and Stephanie to celebrate and participate in their baby Regan's baby blessing. He's such an adorable little angel.
Of course we also all together to watch the Eagles play in the NFC championships and were all heartbroken when they lost, but we put up a good fight, and it was really fun to get dressed up in all our Eagles gear.

How our Break was

My goodness, so much has been going on and there's so much to write and not enough time to write it!
First of all, right before the Christmas break, Lisa accepted a dental assistant job for Mondays and Fridays...and once spring hits, every other Saturday. They offered her more money than she expected, along with a promise of a raise every three months until she reached a certain amount. She was also promised health benefits and paid holidays. Not bad for twice a week!
For new years Eve, we went to an open house/ party at Lisa's grandparents house. It was nice to see so many in that family we haven't seen in so long. Here are the kids all dressed up for the open house:

That night, we did what is sort of a new tradition, and made a gingerbread house together as a family. Crystal had a blast!

That night after Crystal went to bed, Santa came and made a drop off at our home.

The next morning, we were up at seven, so Lisa's not wearing makeup, but agreed to be in the picture...it's a Christmas miracle! Ha ha ha!

Then we had a wonderful breakfast with orange juice, eggs, bacon, and orange danishes. By ten in the morning we were heading over to Lisa's parents house to have another round of opening Christmas presents with them. Here is what their tree looked like.

Crystal got a many more gifts there...including her own pair of ruby slippers so she could be just like Dorthy. We also had our Christmas dinner together at Lisa's parents house.

After dinner Crystal fell asleep on the couch. Note that she's wearing her new shoes.

Uncle Jared and Aunt Alisa came over and spent some time with us.


We all sat down and watched some old home videos to laugh and remember the past, and then we spent the night there. The next day we decided to play in the snow that the snowstorm left us for Christmas. Crystal got to wear her new snowsuit.

Anyway, I could talk about the holiday forever, but I've been making this post for way too long. It's time to finish it. Other things that happened is that Lisa's cousin, T.C. got married and it was a lot of fun to see him and his beautiful wife Coralee so happy.
Crystal also turned THREE years old. We can't believe we've had her in our lives for three years already! Man time flies. We love her so much and can't imagine our lives without her cheerful voice and laugh in our home. She was sick on her birthday so we couldn't go out, so she sort of had two celebrations. One at our house, and one the next day at Grandma's. Her two favorite presents were a Baby doll from Mommy and Daddy, and a bike from Grandma and Grandpa.

Have a nice day.

FOUR YEARS!!!

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary. Might not be much for some, but We're pretty proud of it!

Scott surprised Lisa with roses!


We dropped the kids off and enjoyed a long evening at Tucanos Restaurant, then to a movie. We took our time with everything since we didn't have the kiddies distracting us. It was so nice!


In our 4 years together we've had two kids, Scott graduated and got a real job, Lisa became a stay at home mom, We've gone on many vacations, moved to a bigger apartment, learned a lot, strengthened our friendship, argued, Trusted each other, laughed together, grown up together, depended on each other, become less self centered, worried together, forgiven each other, loved our children, compromised, and said "I love you" every single day!


Honestly, we were talking about this last night, and we were talking about how we're just as happy and in love as we were the day we got married. Oh sure, like all married couples, we have our moments, but when we stop and look at ourselves and our lives, we're just as crazy about each other as the day we got engaged. At this point in our lives, we need each other, and not to get too sappy, but we would probably die without the other to spend everyday with.


In the words of Mignon Mclaughlin, "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." That's how we feel about our Marriage. Some days are good, some days aren't so good, some days stink, and some days are absolutely wonderful and perfect. The good has always, ALWAYS out weighed the bad days. We're looking forward to the next four years (and hopefully many, many, more) that our married life brings. Being in love is worth it!!