Our yard is in!

  I am so happy to finally say our pool is full!  We have had so much

 drama with getting it completed.  Our pool guy "Peterson and

 sons," (Never get work done from this guy) was supposed to have

 our pool done last October.  Needless to say 7 months later, we

 hired pebble tec to come in and finish the bottom right.  They

 busted it out in 1 1/2 days, it was amazing.  We had to fill the

 pool A.S.A.P so Jeff got a fire hose from his dad, and we hooked

 it up to the fire hydrant right in front of our house (so convenient).

  It took 3 1/2 hours to fill the pool.  We had to take turns holding the

 hose.  All I can say is fire men our tough, it shot out so much water

 it could knock you on your butt.  My kids were so excited  they ran 

in the house, and put their suits on.  They were in the ice cold water

 playing the whole time.  I must have turned into a wimp since I've

 gotten older, I had a hard time putting my feet in!  We filled the pool

 on Thursday, and we had our sod party on Sat, just enough time to 

heat the pool.  Our friends, and family are awesome! we had so much

 help.  We busted out 12,500 square feet of  grass in just over 1 hour. 

 Thank You! Thank You! to all those that helped.  It was now time to 

party!  We swam, ate, played basket ball, jumped on the tramp, and

 ALL got a sun burn.  I love my yard!  I'm so excited for my kids.  They

 are going to have so much fun this summer!  We are so blessed.

Our Little Princess's Big Day!

        Jeff was so proud of Ellie





                                 I love my girls!

Addison helped make the chocolate cake for Becky.

  So I'm finally giving an update!  I'm terrible at this blogging stuff.  I'm always putting it off because I never have time.  So I'm just throwing this out.  I guess its better to blog poorly than not at all.   I do need to take some time, and make some serious changes to my page.   

  We had such a wonderful day at Ellie's baptism.  It was definitely one of our larger party's!  We had about 80 people come to support Ellie.  Thank you, every one who came.   We had tons of food, and a huge banana split bar with cake for dessert.  It was also Ellie's aunt Becky's Birthday that day, so we made her a chocolate cake, and sang to the both of them as well.  I decorated everything in black, and white polka dots.  It turned out so cute!  I Made a 3 layered cake, and decorated it with black licorice pin wheels.  It was not only cute, but it tasted delicious as well.  (Note the picture of Ellie sticking her face in the cake.  She thought it should not just be your first birthday, that you get to devour your cake.)  It was stinkin'  funny.  I ordered black, and white M&Ms, and any other candy I could get my hands on to fill glass jars for my serving table.  I gave Ellie a black, and white polka dot journal, and I had everyone write a little note to her.  I had white flowers, and you guessed polka dot ribbon everywhere, I also had a black and white 16 by 20 picture blown up and framed on a easel of her.  It was darling.   Needless to say I went a little overboard.  Probably not the first time I have been accused of this.   Well we partied until we dropped, playing basketball, having hula-hoop contests, building sand tunnels, jumping on the tramp and flat out napping.  Lots of fun!  

Summer Fever!

Happy 8th Birthday Ellie!

At the "Build A Bear"

Eating Donuts at school!

Laying out with Grandma Porter, who is still a hot Mama!

Paisley fell asleep everyday floating in the pool.  She is just like her mom!

They swam their hearts out!
I love my entertainment center!

 It has been forever since my last post and tons has happened.  So here is a whole lot of everything! 

 We are so ready for summer at my house!  We are sick of the cold weather.  It seems like right when it starts warming up and we are able to play outside, it gets cold.  My girls are going stir crazy.   We are trying to get our yard in, and it is going torturously slow!  Our pool that we started last year, and supposed to be finished in Oct, is finally looking like we may be swimming the end of may.  

   

We have Ellie's Baptism this Saturday, and we have been busting butt to get the  big sandbox in the back of our house at least looking like a yard.   I'm so excited for Ellie, I cant believe that she is 8.  She has been so cute about her baptism,  she has really been trying to prepare herself.  She is such a good girl, I'm so proud of her.  We had a small birthday party for her last Friday, and I took donuts to her class at school.  I told her she could invite 4 friends, and I would take them for a "girls night out!"  We ended up at "Build a Bear" and going to the "Training Table" for dinner.  The girls had a blast!  I figure since we are looking at around 100 people at her baptism party, this will be a well celebrated birthday! 

 

Jeff had to go to San Francisco for work over spring break.  I decided that I was not going to sit on my butt in the cold, so took my niece Mikell, and girls to Saint George to visit Grandma Porter, and their cousins Tim& Jodi's kids.  We were loving the warm weather!   The girls swam at least 6 hours a day.  

So I turned 30 last month, (it still hurt to say!)  Well Jeff planned me a great surprise party, which most of you probably know.  But my biggest surprise was he bought me my entertainment center for my house, that I had picked out over a year ago.  He told me he would never buy it for me because I have to expensive of taste!  Well I got it, and I love it!  It was worth turning the big 30! 

Addison Performing at BYU

Jenny and Ike were so sweet to take my girls to the gym meet!

Addie has beautiful back-walk-overs!

 

My little performer!

Addison is all about gymnastics, she had a performance at BYU a couple of weeks ago.  She was so dang cute!  This girl is just skin and bones.  Jeff and I were in Phoenix, AZ for the weekend, so Addie's aunt Jenny took her to the Meet. Thank you Jenny and Ike!  Luckily we were able to see her the night before at an elementary school.  

Conference

My girls and I made chocolate covered strawberries, and pretzels.  I'm all about the treats!


                                         All hanging out in our theater room.

                                  Paisley was watching conference also!

We have a family tradition with the Arnells, to eat waffles, with strawberries and whipped cream,  before Sunday mornings conference.  Like always we had a great time! Glenn is a great waffle maker.  It seems every time we get together with these guys we have great conversations, and eat a lot of food.  I would have to admit its hard to stay awake when we go down stairs in the theater room to veg...  we definitely have loved this room.  Jeff probably more than the rest!