Can you spot the difference?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Did you catch that? YUP...it is NEW SHUTTERS!!!!

I am lucky to have married a guy who is GREAT with financial matters. He is good at holding me back from spending every dime that I make! Well, when we got the new house we decided that we wanted shutters. The problem is...shutters are very expensive! I was like "just charge it"...Matt was like "tsk tsk, we are not going to be paying for the next 30 years for shutters"..so we (meaning Matt) began to save our money and slowly yet surely we have bought ALL of our shutters! We have bought them in 3 separate installments and we FINALLY got the last set on Friday! We were looking forward to this last piece because we will no longer have to feel like we are in a fishbowl when we are having dinner. I think it makes the house look totally different, I am in LOVE!! It took us about 18 months, but I think it was worth waiting for!

First Half of May

The end of April and into May has been busy busy busy. I am excited that the weather is starting to get a little bit warmer, FINALLY.

The last week of April, my mom's youngest sister, Anita and her husband Howard, came to visit us from Louisiana. We LOVE when they come to visit! I wish that I got to see them more often! AND I wish I had taken more pictures...but here is a cute shot of the two of them.

Our cat, Oreo, cracks me UP! I bought her some yarn, and now this is what we wake up to some mornings, look, I even caught the little pest in the shot (see if you can spot her).

We were lucky enough to get play-off tickets from Matt's work. They are awesome seats and I was so excited to go. My favorite player is #24, Paul Milsap. He always tries so hard and is so humble (plus he is from Louisiana).

My favorite player used to be Fisher, but now he plays for the Lakers...so I can't really cheer for him. He reminds me of my brother a little bit, not quite sure why. Well, it was cool to see all the big name players in person!!

There was this annoying Laker fan in front of me...I kept wanting to punch him! I think many Laker fans are just band-wagoners! I am a Jazz fan in good times and in bad!! I hope one day to be a season ticket holder and attend ALL the games...although we probably won't be able to afford the awesome seats that Discover Card has. AND this will be the last time we get to sit in these seats as they will not have them next year, boo!

Here is a picture of Matt's boss Steve and his daughter, Lauren. It was great to be able to enjoy the game with them.

The 4th quarter was SOOO suspensful, I was a nervous wreck....here are our panicked faces!!!

And here is a picture of HEARTBREAK!! I was so devastated when we lost! We were in the lead the whole game until the very end and then to lose by ONE measely point! The Jazz always seem to JUST miss it. I am still feeling the ache of our losses at the Finals in the late 90s. :(


The next day was Mother's Day...this is what was waiting for me in the morning. Aww...flowers and the first season of Glee on DVD. I love it!!!

Here is a pic of me and the kiddos. They are the best things in the entire world!!

Here is me and my best little buddy! I love this little girl SOOO dang much!

Here is me and the hubs (and Lauren's fancy picture taking).

Here is me and my sweet, handsome boy...Jamie.

We decided to go see Iron Man 2. On the way we stopped to visit Matt's mom. It has been almost 3 years. We think about her every day and miss her so very much. I wonder what comments she would make about my little troublemaking boy!

Lauren was sweet to comfort her dad. That's my girl!

After the movie, we went to a park. The kids had a blast! Look at the cheesers!

Matt was being silly with the kids, it melted my heart to see everyone so happy!

Jamie thought it was so funny to have Matt tickle him! Awww...

My beautiful girl!

I love pictures taken from the back, I wanted to always remember my "little" guy and his cute little butt.

After the park, we went to my mom's house for a BBQ. Here are the kids, sitting on the present my brother and I gave her.

And here is the whole gang...minus Ashley taking the pic.

Matt snapped a pic for us too...

Here is my cute little sister Sarah and her cat, Zoe.

Me, my mom, Sarah, oh and Jamie...he wanted in the pic too.

Me, my mom, and my two sisters, and Jamie again too..silly boy. Ashley is pregnant and due at the end of July. I can't wait to meet little Zander!

Here is me and my folks. The best parents, and grandparents, ever!

All and all, it was a great day. I hope the other mothers had a great day too!

I am still a little shocked that it is May and it is half-way over..time sure flies, when you are having fun! Bring on that Summer fun...I think that I am ready for it.

Mothers Day

**Sorry, for now, I don't have pictures on this post...it just takes me too darn long to upload them, so...they will be coming...stay tuned. If you can't wait, check out my pics on Facebook!!**

This Mothers Day, I wanted things to go a little bit differently. Instead of setting an expectation of being "Princess for a Day" like I have on my birthday, Valentines Day, etc. I decided to be a little more easy-going...

I got up earlier than usual, Matt likes that.
We went to see Matt's mom's grave. I can't believe it has been almost 3 years.
We went to the movies to see Iron Man 2, the movie that Jamie and Matt wanted to see. Actually I thought it was a good movie. Robert Downey Jr is kinda cute.
After the movie we stopped by a park, the kids LOVED that.
We went to my parents house for a BBQ, it was great to be with my sisters and parents and kids.

What a great day it ended up being!!! By trying to make the people around me happy, it made ME happier than I ever thought possible. Wow, what a lesson to learn! Happy Mothers Day to everyone out there, I hope you all had a great day too!

My Favorite Little Guy!

Okay. When it came to Lauren's birthday post, it was full of pictures of Lauren posing with EVERYONE. WELL, my little boy is NO poser! BUT I did want to share some of my favorite shots of him. What can I say, he is 100% genuine and 100% genuine BOY!

Recently we enjoyed a trip to Joe's Crab Shack in West Jordan. We all love going there because the kids get to play and Matt and I get to enjoy a meal without hurrying to get out of there before one of the kids has a meltdown. We were happy that the weather here was finally nice enough to actually be outside. Jamie is so good on playgrounds and he loves them!







Is it just me, or is he cute?

After lunch we did some shopping at the Gateway, this was Jamie's first time to see the fountain and he was curious, yet afraid. Here he is running away! Love the action shot!

On my day off, we visited my friend Carissa. She has an awesome playground and Jamie just HAD to explore! What a show-off.

I have a collection of pictures of Jamie sleeping, he is the craziest sleeper ever! I am waiting to create a post of all of the silly pictures I have of him. For now...here is a cute one of him, sleeping next to me on the couch.

When we moved to the new house we were a bit worried about Lauren finding friends her age, well-there was no need to worry, the little social butterfly has found plenty of friends. One AWESOME thing about here versus our old house, is that Jamie has a friend now! He lives right next door and they are 6 days apart! They are sooo cute together and are totally opposite in looks. Gage has white-blonde hair and is fair with blue eyes. Jamie, of course is totally dark. It is neat to see that they have the same interests too (CARS). I certainly hope it develops into a lifelong friendship. I caught this snapshot of them at Gage's birthday party.

Matt's Dad and Tina gave Jamie his present a week early because they were going to be out of town. It was a little lawnmower and he LOVES it. As soon as Matt got the real one out, Jamie just HAD to get his out too.

Seriously, this brought tears to my eyes.

I LOVED having my girl, but I am experiencing all new types of fun with my little boy.

Here is what was waiting for Jamie the morning of his birthday. It almost killed him to wait until sissy got off from school for him to be able to open his presents.

I mean, just check out this cheeser!

He was thrilled to get this big "Car Mack" that holds 16 "Cars" cars.

On his real birthday, the four of us went to see "How to Train Your Dragon"...we ALL loved it! Here he is on the way back from the show!
























When I was geting them ready for bed, my kiddos got a little silly. I grabbed a quick shot.
























Jamie had kept saying that he wanted a "Ka-Chow" birthday..aka Disney's "Cars", but the party store was out of a lot of the "Cars" decorations, so he decided to go with "Hot Wheels". Turns out, Matt was more excited about the decor than Jamie was!
























A special surprise was that my Aunt Anita and Uncle Howard from Louisiana were able to attend the party. My Uncle Howard tried to get Jamie to pose...obviously he was not being too cool with it, this was the best wiggly picture I could get.
























He is also very interested in fighting paraphanalia...here he is with his Knight Costume.
























My parents gave him this really cool motorcycle, and all the other kids thought it was pretty cool too! Here is my friend, Beth's daughter, Harbor on the bike. Or "Hammer" as he calls her...lol.

He enjoyed opening his presents...

Here he is on the motorcycle.

Unfortunately, Sam's club did not have a "Hot Wheels" cake! So..we got him the "Ka-chow" cake. He was thrilled and could care less that things didn't match. So, I let it slide...especially since the cake was so darn cute.

I was busy at his family party, so I didn't get many pictures..but I had to get one of my cute niece Maddie and my sis-in-law Alex.

Gage came to the party and took up the medieval spirit too.

I decided to make it special for my little guy and get him a bouncy house, it was a huge hit...even with the big kids (my sister Sarah and her BFF Devyn). Here is "Auntie Devyn" with Jamie.





















Cute and happy Jamie.

The bounce house from a distance:

Here is the birthday boy blowing out his candles.

Hours before his normal bedtime, the little buggar was pooped. I finished the night off by staring at him, wondering where my little baby has gone.

























Jamie, my precious son. You make me so very happy. You are so sweet, so loving, so funny. I am thrilled when you announce that you are "Momma's Boy" and when you demand to sit by me when we go out to eat. You complete our family and I am so glad that you are a part of it. Happy Birthday!

























This week with all of his new toys has sure been a fun one! The genuine smiles captured in pictures throughout the post (like this one) have been truly priceless.