Happy Birthday James

My wonderful husband turns 27 today! I am so lucky to be married to him, he is the greatest person I know. He has such a good heart and is always trying to look for the best in people and is always willing to serve and help others. I just asked Carter what he loved about his Daddy and he said that he loves when he "goes running, and when he takes him to the park which has the letter p in it." Those were the exact words. He is hilarious, and is the spitting image of James which I love.Tonight we are going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and coming back for cake and icecream at our house afterwards. Not too exciting, but his birthday always seems to sneak up on me...he's a good sport. Happy Birthday James, we love you!!

Week in Review

It has been a good week for us here at the English household. Not anything too exciting, just being with family and the day to day routine. On Saturday I participated in the Race for the Cure, a 5k race in Salt Lake with my cousin Megan. It was awesome! Actually our friend Leah got us to sign up but she ended up being sick and couldn't come. We were team "Save the ta-ta's". All of the money raised goes to breast cancer research. It was so cool to see 18,000 people all there united in a good cause. They also had signs saying either "in celebration of" or "in memory of" that you could wear in honor of someone you know. I saw several husbands walking that had lost their wives, daughters who were walking with their mothers who were survivors, and great shirts like one that said "boobalicious" haha! I plan on going next year it was so cool, I would recommend it to any of you!

The race was a great kickoff to mother's day on Sunday. I had a great one this year. James made me breakfast in bed which was some amazingly delicious crepes. Bananas, macadamia nuts, honey, and real maple syrup, is your mouth watering yet like mine is? They were divine! I got some new gardening tools and gloves, a new waterbottle, and some speakers for my ipod. Spoiled I know! We went to my mom's house that night and all of the boys prepared a wonderful meal for us. My husband seriously is the best cook ever!! He made this yummy pork tenderloin, quiche, guacamole, shrimp, and black forest chocolate cake. He goes a little nuts with the food sometimes, but he wanted to make it special for us. For birthdays whenever we are about to blow out the candles my mom always makes us go around and say something nice about the person, so in perfect Diane Tenney fashion, my dad had all of us go around and say something nice about my mom and then the men got to say something nice about their wives. It was really great to hear some of the comments. I love hearing my dad talk about my mom. He was telling us that he had been thinking about her at work last week and just how lucky he felt to have such an awesome wife and what a perfect mother she is to us. It was really sweet. Thanks James for making my day so special. I am so grateful to be a mother to my two sweet little boys. I am also grateful for my mom who is a great example of what I want to be. Also, I am grateful for James' mum for what a great mother she was and is to James and all that she does for us. In England, Mother's day is in March so we are usually not on top of it and forget. I hope that all of you mothers out there had a great one! This picture is of my mom dancing in her bedroom with Preston this past week to Michael Buble. I think it is so cute, my boys love her!!
We have also had some friends come over to play! Benny Milne came over a few days ago so that I could give his mom a break since she just had a new baby. He was such an angel! He and Preston are 3 months apart and were so funny together. They both just sat on this bottom step and ate fruit snacks! So cute!Come back anytime Benny, it was fun.
I have also started my half marathon training again officially this week. I have been running for a few weeks now already, but the training is 12 weeks until my race. I ran 3 today on my treadmill (which makes me want to stab my eye out!!) and it felt so good to sweat and just listen to my tunes. I can already feel a difference in my strength and my legs are getting just a little less jiggly! Well, I say that and then you see this picture of what I ate last night. I really needed to run atleast another 5 miles to work off all of these calories!! I mainly just posted this picture to make my sister jealous because she loves yorkshire puddings more than anybody I know. Here you go Mel, we'll call you next time!
Finally, I have a question for all of you fellow Americans out there...What are you doing with your economic stimulus checks? Are you going to "stimulate" the economy, and if so what are you buying? Or are you going to save it/pay off bills? We are doing a little bit of both. I just ordered 3 window well covers for my backyard which I have been putting off for a year now. It was time since the swingset we bought is almost up and I want to not have to worry about the boys playing back there. I also got Carter some new shorts for summer and am thinking about a new comforter for my bed that I want. We'll see. I want to hear your responses...

Just to make your day

I am sure most of you have seen this clip, but I laugh every time I see it and I have seen it atleast 10 times! I probably think it is so funny because this would be Carter and Preston if we were living in England. Enjoy...

Kate is here!

My BFF Kate lives in Denver and I get to see her usually once a year, tops. This year thanks to her husband's brother deciding to do a destination wedding at Sundance, they made the journey to Utah. I also went to see her in January for her birthday, so we are doing great, 2 times this year and it's only May 1st! She really is the greatest! Chris (her husband) was awesome and knew that our time would be limited together so decided to leave earlier than they had planned so that we could hang out longer. They got here about lunchtime yesterday and we have just been chatting ever since. We did make one outing to Thanksgiving Point for ice cream but that's it! James made his famous barbeque for us which was fantastic for dinner. The kids played great and Carter was in heaven chasing Aspen (Chris' little girl) around all evening. I had such a blast and my face hurts from laughing so much till late last night. The best part is, Kate and I are such good friends, but our husbands get along great as well. That's a rare find. Thanks Coates family for making my year by coming to see me! I loved every second of it.

me and Kate (terrible picture I just got out of the shower- also notice I am wearing a sweatshirt today because it is SNOWING! May 1st- come on, get over winter already!!)
Carter and Aspen goofing off
Chris, Kate, Aspen, me, and James

(we probably shouldn't have taken it in front of that window but oh well)

Busy Busy Busy

Life has been so busy lately! It seems like after we got back from the cruise we have been going non-stop. I am sorry if I have not been commenting on your blogs! I feel like I can hardly keep up reading them let alone comment. The blog has been lower on my list lately, shameful I know. From bunco to family weekend trips, we have been on the move constantly. I have also been doing a lot of church stuff. I just got a new calling to be the Enrichment counselor in the Relief Society Presidency in my ward. I am quite overwhelmed and had my first activity on Friday that I was in charge of. It was a "Mom & Me" party for mothers and daughters. There was lots of pink, nail polish, makeup, hair, everything girly! It was a little chaotic, but overall I think everyone had a good time. Here are a few pictures of the other things we have been up to lately:

I forgot to post these pictures before but I figured they were too cute to leave off. Before James' parents left we had a dinner with my grandparents and Uncle Richard. Carter put on his best perfomer face and sang and showed off all of his tricks.

He even did "round and round the garden" to Grandpa Tenney and tickled him
It was Spring Break a couple weeks ago for my sister Melanie's kids so one day she wanted me to come with her and her friend Sharonda to the zoo. It was freezing! It snowed on us at the end of the day but atleast it wasn't crowded right?

Me, Mel, & Sharonda with the giraffes

Carter thinks he is as big as a gorilla (not quite)

the whole crew hiding under the elephant statue to get away from the blizzard of snow!

That weekend my brother Kevin invited us up to his timeshare Wolf Creek in Ogden Canyon. We had such a good time! The weather actually cooperated and was so nice for us. The cousins had so much fun playing together. We played tennis, watched the Jazz game, and ate yummy food.

The kids ready to go on a walk-I love Kale scaling the van:)

This was a regular occurance that we saw up there, Preston or Carter trying to run off by themselves. Beautiful scenery eh?

James was the king of the tennis court and schooled all of us! It was fun to be back on a tennis court again though. Hopefully this summer we will play more.

My brother Kevin is all about having contests, guessing things, etc. He was telling me that some of his employees were talking about how much better Fiji water was compared to other bottled water. He did a taste test with them and none of them guessed it right. He thinks that they all taste the same.Me being the water conosseur that I am, and agreeing with the employees, told him I would take him on! We bought Aquafina, Dasani, and Fiji and I had to pick out which one was the Fiji water. 20 bucks was on the line-easy money. Of course first try I picked out each water perfectly.
That night for the Jazz game, James decided to make chicken wings and different glazes for us to try. Halle and Kate were his little helpers getting him whatever he needed. They loved it and he loves to teach kids how to cook. His dream would be to start a little chefs academy.


This picture is so classic of my brothers. I tell them to smile for the picture but the Jazz game is so important they can't miss one second! So Greg is smiling while looking at the screen. Thanks Greg. Appreciate ya.
This was out my back door last week. I swear it is almost May but who would know that? It got way worse after this picture too! Gotta love springtime in Utah.
Last but not least, my tulips survived the winter and actually came up!! I am so excited! Tulips are my favorite flowers so it makes me so happy when I drive up to my house every day and see them. My best friend Kate is coming from Colorado on Wednesday with her husband. I can't wait. It seems like every time I am with her my camera is dead. I am going to have it charged and ready this time! Till next time...

Happy Birthday Mom

My mom turned 57 on Thursday! Wahoo! I was deathly ill in bed all day that day so I missed out on her birthday lunch and all the fun, bummer. We were gone this weekend up in Ogden Canyon so I haven't had a chance to post the 57 fun facts/things I love/fun memories about my mom. Here goes:
1. She eats cottage cheese and pineapple atleast once a day
2. How she harmonizes to every song...my favs are Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells
3. Her love of gardening and flowers
4. Her gravy
5. She has the greatest ability to love people-she moved out of my ward 2 years ago and I still have atleast one person at church every week ask about her and say how much they miss her!
6. She has always been consistent with working out-she rarely misses a day
7. What a sweet Grammy she is to my kids. She makes all the grandkids feel important even though she has 18 of them!
8. Her "choir brownies"
9. How she will always say "I was just thinking about you" to whoever calls her
10. She will spend days and days decorating her house for Christmas becasue she knows how much we love it
11. How hip and fashionable she is
12. She is always cold and brings her coat or sweatshirt everywhere just in case!
13. She used to write "Hoppy Easter" on our Easter bags. We never got baskets because my mom hated the grass. Brown paper sacks with a cute bunny drawn on the front.
14. On Sundays she always had Church music playing in the morning while we were getting ready for church.
15. She has a Valentine Party for the grandkids every year and they love it!
16. Her phonecalls just to see how I am if she hasn't talked to me for a few days...or calling me three times on her birthday because she was worried about me being sick...thanks mom:)
17. Going on Taco Bell runs on Sunday night/Monday morning at 12:01 a.m.
18. Playing Scattergories with her is always hilarious
19. How she is ALWAYS serving others
20. Her story about getting a makeover in New York with her great New York accent. Ask her to tell you about it sometime, it really is funny.
21. Making fun traditions for our family
22. She always looks at the positive side of things
23. Using her Quease Ease on the cruise
24. She makes flat chocolate chip cookies and she likes them that way!
25. Her love of music and passing that on to us kids
26. She sings and hums all day long-in the kitchen, car, everywhere!
27. She loves the Molten Lava cake at Chilis and has had dreams about it.
28. She loves the Carpenters and whenever I hear them I think of her.
29. She is always thinking about how she can decorate a different part of her house. If it's already decorated she's thinking of how she can change it.
30. She is a strong person and has a positive image of herself.
31. We would always ask her to scratch our backs and it would start out great, but then she always gets distracted and end up scratching the same patch over and over again.
32. She is very diligent in whatever she does and always gives 110%.
33. She is very laid back and doesn't let things bother her. One of her famous sayings is "Don't worry until you really have something to worry about."
34. Her Naugles story
35. She loves magazines just as much as me
36. Her little mole right above her lip
37. She has always had a strong testimony of the Church. Her faith has never wavered.
38. She let us be the people we wanted to be. She was our biggest cheerleader!
39. She loves to hug people even if she has just met them.
40. She gave us the best lunches growing up
41. She is very generous with everything she has
42. She is paranoid to drive in Salt Lake
43. Aspirin smashed up with grape jelly when we were sick
44. Watching Shirley Temple movies
45. Hot chocolate and shortbread c0okies-she always has the sugar free hot chocolate!
46. She loves Hello Kitty
47. She changes her socks before bedtime and gets a new pair for the next day
48. She loves HGTV and talks about the hosts like they are her friends
49. Her S-U-C-C-E-S-S cheer
50. She looks so great for her age
51. She encouraged me on my half marathon and ran with me at the very end. I needed it!
52. She is a great ping pong player and was the women's Stake champion
53. She had 6 kids...enough said!!
54. She loves Mazda Miatas
55. She is technology impaired. Don't ask her to work a cell phone, dvd player, computer, ipod, she will have not a clue how.
56. She is a great photographer. She has some of the most precious shots of my kids.
57. When she gives a talk or lesson she spends hours and hours preparing (which goes back to #32 about how she gives her full effort on everything)

Thanks Mom for just being you and being the greatest woman I know. I love you!!

Cruise Photos- Lots of them!!

*You have been warned, extremely long post!* So James figured out some funky way to upload the photos since our computer is somehow not recognizing our camera, wahoo! Wow, that took a long time to upload all of these! This trip was amazing. We had such a blast with everyone. I loved having such a big group (12 of us) so we always had someone to do something with. We took the red eye in to Fort Lauderdale and arrived at about 5:30 am. We waited for my cousin Shannon and her husband Tim's plane that came in at six and we set off together to my siblings hotel that they had rented the night before. It was across the street from the beach so we got there pretty early and decided to wait to wake them up and eat some breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We watched the sunrise and had a great view. After we crashed the party in their room, we all went to the beach waiting to get on the ship. It was perfect warm weather and I got my feet (and capris) wet! Here's a pic of the girls minus my mom, who was staying in her own hotel with my dad. L to R Shannon(cousin), Lisa(sister-in-law), me, Melanie(sister), Shauna(sister)
Mike and Carl (my brother in laws) decided to take a dive in the ocean. Mike was like a little kid and ran as fast as he could in the water. He was a crack up the whole trip!
Our first night on the ship we all just kindof relaxed and slept since getting no sleep the night before. We met our waiters Cesar and Mauricio from Mexico that night, they were so great and always we so helpful in getting us whatever we wanted to eat.

It was also Scott(my brother) and Lisa's anniversary so we got serenaded by the worst sounding group of men I have ever heard to Happy Anniversary to you. In fact, they somehow forgot that they had sang it this night and ended up singing it again to them the next night. So funny. Don't you love the side view of my face in this picture too? My family is ultra competitive. At everything. They had karaoke on the ship called "Princess Pop Star" where you could compete for a final show at the end of the week. They had three nights to compete so Scott won the first night singing "The Dance" by Garth Brooks. Shauna won the second heat singing "The wind beneath my wings" by Bette midler. The finals were totally rigged and the guy that won only won because his family grabbed a huge stack of ballots and filled them all in. Cheaters!! I think Scott was pretty miffed that he didn't win, especially since the guy wasn't even good. If I don't hear the songs Mack the Knife or New York, New York again I will be a happy girl. Someone sang those songs every night and then they were stuck in my head for the rest of the next day until they sang it again!

The second day we were at sea so we went to the trivia and saw a comedian that night who was the funniest guy ever. If you ever see Rollin Jay Moore on Comedy Central keep watching, I'm sure you will laugh your head off. It was also formal night so we all got dressed up.

Me and James

Our first island visited was Jamaica. It was really pretty in some parts and really ghetto in others. We had people trying to sell us stuff everywhere and bartering got kindof fun. We also got offered pot and Mike my B.i.l. got offered cocaine. He was so excited to tell the rest of us the tale. He felt so cool, we told him it was just because we didn't stay and chat with the guy long enough like he did! For our excursion we went to Dunns River Falls which was so much fun. You hike up this huge waterfall that is like 600 feet high. We all slipped on rocks and some got some bruises, but all in all a great time!
The gang minus Carl Lto R Lisa, Shannon, Scott, Tim, Dad, Mom, Mike, Shauna, Melanie, Me, James about halfway up the falls
We bought our boys shirts that had "Spidermon" on them. Yes you read that right, Spidermon. It was so funny to me how they really all do say No problem mon, and had Bob Marley playing non stop everywhere. It was awesome.
Day Four: Grand Cayman. We went here on our last cruise and loved it. Most of the gang had not been to Stingray City so we went again. We were disappointed that they didn't get as good of an experience as we had last time. Our boat this time had way more people, the guides didn't show us anything, and the water was really choppy that day so it was hard to be out in the water without getting dunked underwater occasionally. I still loved feeling the stingrays and got to kiss one again which means seven years good luck for me! Here us on the boatride out to the sandbar.


Shauna and Mike

That night was island night on the ship so everyone was supposed to dress up in island gear. Mauricio our junior waiter was showing us how he could fold all sorts of shapes out of napkins. He decided to make a bra for Tim to wear.
Shauna and Mike in their matching island outfits. No, Mike is not stoned (unless he really did take the pot from the guy selling it in Jamaica) hehe
They played a bunch of games that night and one was pass the hats. It was kindof like musical chairs with hats and you if were left without a hat when the music stopped playing you were out. Tim made it to the final two and they told them to close their eyes and put them back to back and took off both of their hats so they were feeling around for a hat that wasn't there! He won some champagne and ended up giving it to the other guy who was only 18 we found out later ,oops.
Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico. This was probably my favorite day. We went snorkeling and saw some amazing fish. There was a whole school of fish ( I mean thousands) following this one barracuda. I guess he protects them from other fish and occasionally will eat one when he gets hungry. We also saw some yellow finned tuna, a lots of other cool stuff. Our guides were great. We all got a little sick and Tim ended up throwing up over the side of the boat. Poor guy. I was pretty done with boats by that day.

After snorkeling, we went to this great Mexican restaurant recommended by our snorkeling guides call La Mission. They had the most amazing fresh guacamole and garlic bread. It was my parents anniversary that day so the meriache(sp?) band they had came and sang them a love song. It was really cute.

We got the anniversary song AGAIN for my parents that night. By this point people were starting to wonder about our family and if we were just trying to get the little cake and ice cream for free! My parents have been together 37 years and still going strong. They were so much fun on this trip. My poor mom was really sea sick but still was a good sport and did everything we did.
The next night we were at sea and it was our second formal night. james surprised me and got me an appointment to get my hair done at the salon on the ship. My stylist was a gay guy from Serbia. We had an interesting chat! I wanted to go curly for fun, it turned out okay, but cost me an arm and a leg!
Our last day was at Princess Cays, Bahamas. Princess cruise line owns this island so we got free food and just relaxed. Well I should say the girls relaxed, the boys went and played sand volleyball and went snorkeling. Pretty much the entire trip James was working out somehow. He couldn't stand to be in the room for more than five minutes. He kept making fun of me for sleeping and lounging so much but I was on vacation!! Here is some of the crew lounging on beach chairs on the beach. It was paradise. I miss the warmth already!
For our final dinner they had the lighting of the Baked Alaska cakes and turned the lights out and the waiters walked around with these cakes on fire, pretty cool. Then we had Mike put the chocolate sauce on it for us. Yummy!
Thanks to the grandparents for watching the boys, and all those that helped them during the week to keep them occupied. We had so much fun and laughed our heads off the entire trip. Lots of inside jokes!! I love my family and am so glad that we got to do this together. We missed my brothers Kevin and Greg but hopefully next time they can come with us. Hope you survived the longest post of the century!! It took me forever to type it too!

Camera Problems

I have been meaning to upload all of our photos from the cruise, so I tried this morning and there is something wrong with my usb cord so for now no photos. Annoying. Anyway, we are back safe and sound, the kids and grandparents are alive, and we had a GREAT time. The weather was perfect all week which we thought it was supposed to rain alot. I had such a good time with all my family, the week went by so fast! We went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and the Bahamas. Paradise! More info to come when I can get this whole camera thing figured out. Stay tuned...

Easter Sunday

We had such a great Easter this year. The boys woke up and we went on a hunt outside for stuff from the Easter bunny. He had left things all over the backyard and even up in the tree. Carter was loving having to find it all. Then we went back inside and had them find their Easter buckets. He had so much fun with all the toys but especially the little blower that the Easter bunny a.k.a. the grandparents gave him. Preston loved his Buzz lightyear cell phone that flips open and makes noise. That evening we had a big Easter egg hunt at my mom's house followed by a yummy turkey dinner complete with my dad's stuffing(my favorite). Carter ate no dinner just candy and was busy playing with his cousins all night long. The neighbors have a little Power wheels Jeep that Carter and Kale took over and said they were "going to walmart to buy t-rexs." So funny. All in all, a great day!

Ski Trip

We got Carter back on the slopes again! This time we have some actual pictures of him somewhat standing up and doing it. Preston and I went shopping, while James, Carter, and the grandparents headed up to Alta. James gets a great workout bending over and holding Carter up.

Look at him go!

Carter's favorite part is always the hot chocolate at the lodge when he is finished. Pretty soon he'll be pro (or so James thinks!)

Happy Easter

I must say it again, boys in sweaters vests melt my heart. Happy Easter to you all!