A surprise party!

Ryan turned 30!!!!

On September 1st!

It took a lot of effort and self-constraint, but I was able to pull off a surprise party for him! It was a Christmas miracle that I didn't spill the beans. : ) Not to mention, for the duration of the entire week before the party, I had to keep lying about everything to him. It was all just lie on top of lie, story upon story, just to make things workout. I am an honest person, so that was very difficult for me. I even had to lie to the kids about why I was buying all of the stuff and what we were doing that night! It was such a relief when we finally got to the party. : ) I felt as free as a bird!!!!

He kind of hates being the center of attention, so I knew I was taking a risk by throwing a party just for him, and a surprise one at that.

On a recent business trip to visit a plant (where he can't wear his wedding ring), he left his (second) ring in the rental car and turned it in. He didn't realize it till it was too late and they had already re-rented the car. Third time's a charm?

Anyway, so I used that to my advantage for a date night. We were "planning" on getting him a new ring that night, as well as hitting up one of his favorite places, Bass Pro.

We had borrowed an air mattress from his parents when my sister and her hubby came to visit a few weeks ago. We used this mattress for a reason to get over to his parent's house that night. His dad is the Bishop for the Young Single Adults ward in our stake, so I had his mom call to ask us to bring it back the night of his party for a "young single adult's parents who were in town." Yet another tale we had to tell! We had family and some friends show up 20 minutes early, and park at the nearby elementary school. A brother-in-law "shuttled" people over to the house so there wouldn't be a ton of cars at the house when we got there. I had two of my sisters-in-law take pictures to capture the surprise...

I love this picture, Ryan is SO confused!!!!! And I love his mom's face, the anticipation!!!

Even more confused!

After they yelled surprise and he realized it all was for him. He decided to hide behind the mattress. : )

He is so studly. : ) His dad is to the left, and our neighbor is the one standing by him. Ryan quickly befriended them once we moved in to our current house. They are often the recipients of ryan's cowboy cookies! : )

I LOOOVE his body language here. So embarrassed. : ) and that is totally the way Cole acts when he is embarrassed. : )

We had a night full of goodies that Ryan loves. We had a nacho bar with nacho cheese,  tortilla chips, sliced olives, sliced jalapenos, salsa, sour cream, green onions, and guacamole.

We also had a candy bar filled with mixed fun-sized candy bars, reese's pieces, skittles, and mike and ikes.

I didn't get a before picture, but we had a boat load of candy. Let's just say we are still eating candy from the party and it has been a week and a half. : )

Instead of cake and ice cream, we did root beer floats, one of his favorites. I just stuck the "30" candles in the ice cream tub. : )

I couldn't have gotten everything done without the help of my awesome mother and father-in-law, sister-in-laws, and really all of Ryan's family. They all helped so much!

Since I knew Ryan wouldn't be a super huge fan of a surprise party, I didn't want to make the party super busy. He is not super into games or activities. I just wanted to have the food and treats, read a few memories, and then just hang out.

For all of the people I invited, I asked them to send a favorite memory of Ryan, and one word used to describe him. I made a poster that displayed all of the words to describe him, and then I read out loud all of the memories people had sent to me. It was fun to celebrate this awesome man and his 30 years of existence! He is the best.

Maybe I will post some of those memories and words another time. : )

Happy Birthday babe!!!!!! We all love you like crazy!

Love

I love looking at pictures. I have the worst memory ever, so I am grateful for technology to capture moments that would be so far gone from my mind. 

This is a picture from our vacation to Maine this summer. 

*A maine vacation post is in the making...

We had been driving forever that evening trying to find a parking spot and a public access entrance to the beach. When we finally got a parking spot, we had to walk about a half a mile to the entrance. The kids LOVED every second of being on that beach. It was a beautiful night where we made beautiful memories!

I am so in love with these four. My heart is just full of happiness and joy that we can be together as a family forever. Even on the days where the kids are being complete psychos and I am pretty sure I am losing my mind as well! Annnnnnd on those days, I feel like I probably need to quit my day job. I am a stay-at-home mom if you didn't know. ; )

But really, I am so thankful to be the wife to an incredible God-loving man who loves me for being me. I am so grateful to be the mother to three *almost four* precious little people. Being a mother is the most fulfilling thing I could possibly do in my life- the absolute hardest, but the most fulfilling. To have the chance to raise children to know and love God and their Savior Jesus Christ. To teach them to love and serve others. And to be kind and respectful. To have faith. To see beauty. To gain knowledge. To be good. To work hard. I want to teach them as much as I can about anything I can. To help them see all of the insanely awesome and good things in this world and beyond. It is a very overwhelming task at times, and in more ways than one. But it is wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I have so much I need to and want to work on to be a better person, a better mom, a better wife, a better daughter of God. Ya know, it really stinks to be a perfectionist who is not perfect. But as long as these beautiful people know they are loved, and loved deeply, then I can be ok with my imperfections for now. I know that because of Jesus Christ, my Heavenly Father has blessed me with a lifelong chance to become who He intended me to be. And I won't stop trying 'till I get there.

We're so glad when daddy comes home!

Ryan has been gone a lot more this spring with business then I am used to. He was only gone for a few days this week, but it seemed like forever. He gets home tonight from Atlanta, Georgia. One thing is for sure, when Ryan is around, we all are SO happy! The kids (and me) can't get enough of him when he's home- if you can't tell by the picture. He is pretty much a kid-magnet in our home. : )

 He is such a hard worker at his job and being a dad and husband at home. I could honestly go on forever. He is just wonderful.

 We love him!!!!!

Cowboy Cookies

  

So, I would say I cook about 75% of the dinners in our home. The other 25% of the cooking, and MOST of the baking is due to the manly hands of this here cowboy. Now, this is not just any ordinary cowboy, this is MY cowboy.  : ) Early in our marriage, he found this recipe for Cowboy Cookies off of allrecipes.com, and it is his go-to cookie recipe. Everytime he makes them, my heart pitter patters a little bit with excitement. The problem is, is he usually doubles the recipe, and that leaves me in a very dangerous situation. I almost think the cookie-dough is better than the cookie... but then I eat a cookie and I change my mind. Anyway, it is WAY too much of a temptation for our whole family, so we take some to share with friends or family. EVERYONE rants and raves about how good they are, and they are usually looking at me as if I made them. I gladly would take the credit, but I just cannot. He is the master behind these glorious cookies.



Ow ow!!





yeaa...... I ate a lot of those...



look at all that GOODNESS!!!

So, if you never have the chance to receive some cookies from us, I am sorry ahead of time. BUT... I'll share the recipe so you can partake of this sweet piece of heaven!



Oh, and it's totally healthy because there are oats in them. ; )

COWBOY COOKIES

from allrecipes.com

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup butter softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup (or more if I am making these) semisweet chocolate chips

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease baking sheets.

-Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and then set aside.

-In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

-Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.

-Gradually stir in sifted ingredients. Next, stir in rolled oats and chocolate chips.

-Drop by rounded teaspoons onto baking sheets.

-Bake 8-10 minutes (just until they are barely getting a hint of golden color, you don't want to overbake them), and allow to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing.

**** My husband wanted me to tell you, a good replacement for chocolate chips in this recipe is to use butterscotch chips. Or like us, we used half choco chips/half butterscotch chips several occasions, and we LOVED them. A tad bit too much really. Enjoy! : )

Date night

Since Ryan was going out of town for a few days, we decided to do a date night. We went out to dinner at one of my favorite places to eat- our small town diner/cafe. After our yummy food, we then went on a walk at his grandma's property. She has over 1000 acres, so he took me on a walk that he has walked so many times throughout his life. We started at his grandma's house and did a big loop around some of the property.

I love my male model.

we walked all the way to those hills in the distance and then went right



1. I am not sure if that shirt is socially acceptable, but... my mom gave it to me, so I wear it.
2. I love how my awkwardness is tangible in this picture.

part of the river that runs through the property



The drought has left the land SO incredibly dry.



We walked till it was dark out. I don't have good night vision because of my astigmatism, so I started to get nervous when I would hear dogs barking, turkeys flapping in the trees (I thought they couldn't fly?) and cows mooing like they were birthing a car. Thankfully, Ryan could see, knew where he was going, and wasn't scared. It was one of my favorite dates ever! It was awesome to just be together, to talk, to be out in nature, and to hold hands the WHOLE time! Thanks babe for a memorable night!

iphone Bowling pics

I don't think I've seen anything cuter than a 5 year old in bowling shoes. : )

while ryan goes hunting

ya know how i mentioned i wanted to learn how to sew? well, ryans fabulous cousin terriann has been giving me sewing lessons! im so thankful for her PATIENCE and kindness of sharing her knowledge. one of her blogs is found here- http://terriannhart.blogspot.com/. she has given 2 group lessons where we learned how to do a simple skirt and pajama pants. i made the simple skirt size 3/4T just because mackenzie was sleeping and i hadn't measured her beforehand. plus, they already had those measurements easily accessible on the website we were using. i haven't taken a picture of it, but someday you will see it, with mackenzie in it. its white with colorful polka dots : )

in a private lesson she gave me, i made this play wallet for the boys.

***please excuse my pale hands, i could totally be a hand model for twilight. im not really into those movies, but i do know they have really white people in it.

sew, i mean so, when ryan has gone hunting the last 2 weekends... this is what ive done. ive looked at blogs, watched the news/leno, tapped into my "creativity" via pintrest : ), and ive made these little diddies...

i made this skirt using the same directions for the simple skirt, just mackenzie's size now. then i just wanted to play around and i added flowers (from a headband my sister in law made for mackenzie but doesnt fit), the faux drawstring, and then i did a decorative stitch at the bottom- just to play around with the different stitches on my machine. it is definately not perfect, but it was fun, and i think its kinda cute : )

for christmas, i want to think that ill start the tradition of making the kids festive pajama pants. we will see how long that lasts though. i started tucker's pants at the group lesson, and i just have to hem the bottom to finish them. i haven't taken a picture of those yet, and im honestly too lazy to go try to find them to take one right now. these are coles pants i made tonight. i added the tag in the back from scrap fabric from tucker's pants to know front from back. buuuuut also to cover up a spot that i TOTALLY butchered. i think these turned out pretty cute too! dont look too close though... seriously.

ive got to teach myself to go to bed earlier when ryan's gone. i honestly told myself that i was going to go to bed at 10 at the latest. that goal went down in flames.

Santa! he's real! and at bass pro!

i love this picture! so sweet

the other day, we took the kiddos to bass pro to see santa. tucker had a hard time believing that santa would be there, but once we got to the winter wonderland, he was so excited!!! ive never been there with all of the christmas activities, so it was so fun to see a few(it was later at night) other excited kids, the carousel, games, candies, toys, all of the "elves," and santa, spreading the christmas cheer!

the boys were a little shy to talk to santa, but they ended up sitting on his lap and telling him what they want. so far, tucker wants a rope, a saw, and knee/elbow pads. and according to tucker, cole wants the same exact things... it kills me with how cute cole is! he is always trying to be like tucker, even with "wanting" the same random things for christmas : )

and here are a few pictures of my sweet girl in her sunday dress. i love the dress! it is do dainty and feminine. its from her great aunt debbie. i couldn't resist a photo session after church. she is beautiful!

***ryan is hunting at his grandpa's tonight and tomorrow, so wish me luck he won't bring home another deer for me to help "process" ; )