DiSnEy wOrLd! ---And Happy Birthday Jonah!

We just got back from visiting Jonathan and Bree in Florida last week, and we had SO MUCH FUN! We decided to plan the trip around Jonah's birthday so it would be a fun surprise for him. I packed up the car without him knowing, and last week we hopped in the car and drove to the airport. He really had no idea what was going on until we got to the airport and he said "hey, I know where we're at!" We gave him a map of Disney World and he was so surprised. He said "I'm so excited I think I'm going to explode!" It was so fun to hang out with Jonathan and Bree, and their sweet little Addi. We miss having them so close :( Bree did an awesome job and showing us the best places to eat- we missed having her the last 2 days of our vacation! She was the best little tour guide ever! We really had such a great trip--- and the best part of it is we get to go back in 2 months with Mark's family this time!!!Starting the trip off with some fun in the play place at the Airport!

Jonah got a special pin to wear on his "actual" birthday at the Magic Kingdom. They also gave him a $65 gift card to spend there too! He was so sweet and bought Josie a princess sippy cup and her own Pez dispenser, he bought Mark some caramel corn, me some taffy, and still had enough to buy a playstation game, a DS game, some candy, and a Toy Story gun!

Josie kept saying "mama, cheeeeeese" and wanted me to take her picture.

another "cheeeese" from Jos

This is pretty much how Josie felt around all of the characters. It got old pretty fast.

Jonah LOVED to hug all the characters.

Josie's face in this one sums up her feelings about our "breakfast with the characters"!

Cheetos were a life saver on multiple occations throughout our vacation!

Our boat ride around Downtown Disney with the Stevens fam

Josie thought that the life jacket didn't go very well with her outfit, so she was pretty upset.

Checkin out the map to see where to go next!!!

Once again, the cheese face!

Jonathan and Bree, thanks so much for such an awesome vacation. We loved it and can't wait to see you guys again!

Family pics...

I've been pretty bad at blogging lately. I guess I'll blame it on the "winter blues" that I've got. I'm seriously so sick of winter! I don't take any pictures of the kids, because usually we're all just hanging out at the house, still in our pajamas (or "chubbies"... that's what Josie calls her jamies) and not lookin too hot for a photo shoot. So, I realized that I haven't posted our family pictures that we had done a couple of months ago. Our friend Natalie took them for us and we were really happy with how they turned out. We didn't get too many smiles out of Josie, which is fine, because that's totally her personality. She makes you work pretty hard for her smiles. Jonah looked like such a handsome little boy, as usual, and we were glad that we got some great pictures of his smile with his little missing front tooth. I love my sweet family so much.
I feel so lucky to have them!

Response to Gina's tag...

A to Z about ME

A--Attached or Single: attached to Mark. We'll celebrate our 6 year anniversary this June.

B--Best Friend: Marky

C--Cake or Pie: Brownie Sundae Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory

D--Day of Choice: probably Saturdays when Mark doesn't work

E--Essential Item: Diet Dr. Pepper- I usually have an open can at any given time

F--Favorite Color: pink!

G--Greatest Accomplishment: I think having 2 kids is quite an accomplishment!

H--Hometown: West Jordan

I--Indulgences: Candy! I love the big sweedish fish, starbursts, skittles, plain Hershey bars, peanut butter m & m's--- my candy cupboard is usually stocked pretty well... yes, I have a candy cupboard!

J--January or July: July for sure. I can't stand the cold.

K--Kids: Jonah will be 5 in March, and Josie will be 2 in April

L--Life is incomplete without: my sweet family

M--Marriage Date: June 3, 2003

N--Number of Siblings: 6 brothers and 1 sister (thank heavens for Gina!)

O--Oranges or Apples: apples, preferably with some caramel on them!

P--Phobias or fears: all the morbid stuff we're never supposed to think of, of course, but also I get really scared when I'm home alone. Oh, and I absolutely HATE mice.

Q--Quotes: "The belly is ungrateful--it always forgets we already gave it something."-Russian Proverb
THANKS FOR THE QUOTE KARLY!

R--Reason to Smile:When Mark puts the kids to bed while I take a hot bath and watch my many hours of Reality TV that I've recorded. Seriously, what did I ever do before Ti-Vo?

S--Season: Summer

T--Tag 5 Friends: Lindsay, Heather, Carrie, Julie, and my niece Annie Banannie

U--Unknown fact about you: I used to have "tanorexia"- I think that's a real disease! I used to go tanning SO MUCH when I was in High School. Not like "a little healthy glow" tanning either. Like "full on crispy fried" tanning. I even went twice in one day one time. How gross is that? I'm sure I'm going to have to start paying for it soon with all the wrinkles and cancer.

V--Very favorite store: I like Target because I feel like it's a step up from Wal-Mart! - and I really like Boutique stores for clothes for me, but they are usually way too expensive.

W--Worst habit: Drinking too much Diet Dr. Pepper. I'm embarrassed to say how much I drink a day.

X--X-ray or Ultra Sound: I've only had ultra sounds, and I love them. It's so awesome to see the little baby inside of you! So cool.

Y--Your favorite food: I like homemade lasagna with nothing special in it. Just lots of cheese, meat, and sauce.

Z--Zodiac: Scorpio

SiLLy KiDs

When I checked on Jonah one night last week, this is how I found him sleeping.



I hurried and took his picture, and he kind of woke up. In the morning I showed him the picture and he said "I was wondering what that bright light was!" Poor kid, I wonder what he thought was going on.

I had to add this picture of Josie and her baby. Although, I think I hold that baby more than she does... she's always putting me on babysitting duty.

And one more picture of sweet Jonah before church.

St. George

My best friend Kristin and I went down to St. George this past weekend to run the Painter's Half Marathon and we had such a good time! It was perfect weather to run in. We finished in just over 2 hours and are excited to do another one soon so we can try to beat our time. We're planning to do the full marathon after we do a few more half ones. We stayed in a house that her Dad just bought down there and it was really nice!
It was a perfect weekend and we had a blast!

Before the race! We were so excited! Our friend Kelsey has been training with us too.

We were so happy to be done!

Part Two...

This is Part Two of our Holidays-
The kids had so much fun with all the snow that came on Christmas! Well, Jonah
had a blast... Josie wasn't quite sure what to think. When I asked her if
she wanted to play outside with the boys in the snow, she shook her head
and said "No. Snow. Cold." Her and I usually sit inside and watch the boys
play in the snow in our nice warm blankets! Grandma Jody
got Jos her first snowsuit for Christmas, so we bundled her up and
sent her out. (I still watched from inside!)

Josie is really good at sharing. She loves to get things out of the
pantry and pass them out to everyone in the family.

Both kids ended up getting sick over the week. And NO... I don't think it
has anything to do with me letting them eat a whole box
of cookies- Well, at least I hope it doesn't! I
really didn't let them eat the WHOLE thing.
Anyway, Jonah had croup and Jos just had a cold. They're both better now!
(And I hid the cookies)

HoLiDaY Re-CaP!

We didn't even attempt to take Josie to sit on Santa's lap. Now I wish we would have because the picture with the screaming baby on Santa's lap is kinda cute!
I'm sure she'll still scream next year.




The kids in their Christmas Eve Pajamas!

I wish this picture wasn't so blurry because this is Josie's "pretty smile!"


Waiting to see if Santa came!!!



Josie looks a little worried while she waits to see if Santa brought her anything...
she knows what a stinker she's been!!!

Josie's trying to give two bottles to her new baby at the same time. She's really into this "mommy" thing. She takes such good care of her babies... always taking them on walks, putting them in their cribs, and putting lotion on their faces.

We had an awesome Christmas! We loved spending so much time with our families. We were really happy to see my brother Ryan's family, who visited us from Wyoming. And it was special to have my brother Nick home for a few days on a break from training to be an Air Traffic Controller in Great Falls.

Mark gets the "Husband of the Year" award for getting me tickets to see WICKED when it comes to Salt Lake, and he made me cry when I opened DVDs he had made that had our home videos ever since Jonah was born.

Can't wait to make more memories in 2009!