Bun in the Oven

So yes, for those who haven't heard yet, I am pregnant with baby #3!! We are so excited to welcome this new little one in May. That seems so far away--which it is-- and I am the worst secret keeper there is. For all you women that can keep it a secret until you are 20 weeks, how do you do it?? I guess I just want to have a reason to look fat! haha
Sorry there have not been any updates, our computer is on the fritz and so I just use James' laptop in the evenings, so therefore no pictures or blogging. Hopefully we can get it back up and running soon so I can post pictures of my girls retreat and preschool pictures of Carter. Until then...

What we have been up to...

So the summer is pretty much gone and I haven't blogged about anything! I have just done about 5 posts with lots of pictures to keep everyone updated on what has been going on with us. You can start from the bottom to go in chronological order.
As for the most recent happenings, Preston is really keeping life interesting for us. This is what I walked into after going to get Preston up from his nap. Yes, he is naked, and no, his room normally doesn't look like that. He has learned to climb out of his crib recently and now has this new fascination with pulling every toy, shoe, article of clothing, and trash out and put it in a big pile in the middle of his room. This day he wanted to try on some different outfits but got too tired in the process. We have decided to keep his toys in the hallway when he goes to bed so he won't be tempted to climb out. He doesn't seem to share the same ideas as us and for the last 2 nights has been waking up in the middle of the night and opening his door and playing with his toys out in the hall. Thus I have ordered a crib tent off of ebay that I am hoping will save my life! Preston is so hard to discipline because he just simply doesn't care. Punishment doesn't bother him so it's hard to know what to do. If I punish him he will get right back out and do the same thing again and not even think twice. Anyone else have a kid like this? Any ideas for me??

This was my pantry yesterday. A DISASTER. I was so tired of it and decided today was the day to organize it and throw out all the junk. I took this picture after I had already taken the cereal down but didn't want to put it back up for pictures sake, but you get the idea.

This chicken helper won the award for oldest thing in the pantry. 9 years old!! I think my mom gave it to me from her food storage in her house in Orem. Not sure how it got moved to my house, but there it is. Yikes.

Speaking of Preston being into everything, he walked into the kitchen during this whole process with these bright red hands. Carter had given him a box of Jello and a packet of Pectin. He had a party in the living room and left a nice stain on the carpet.

This should go well with the Nyquil bottle he spilled when I was cleaning out my medicine cabinet a few months ago. Time for new carpet? I think so!

The finished pantry!! It feels so nice to have it organized! I can also cross one more thing off of my new years resolutions list. Wahoo!

This Ice cream maker didn't make the cut of staying in the bottom of the pantry. It went in the garbage. It was old and rusted and we NEVER used it. I remember registering for it for our wedding and that was the only thing I really wanted to get. I look back and laugh at how ridiculous that is!! We honestly used it maybe twice. Oh to be a newlywed again...time just keeps flying by.

Denver Anniversary Trip

August 10, 2009 made it 8 years James and I have been married! Man how time flies when you are having fun! A few weeks before the anniversary date, he surprised me and told me he had booked tickets to Denver for a fun weekend away. I know most of you wouldn't be too excited to go to Denver, but I love it! I have family and friends who live there and I just think the city is so fun and diverse. Lots of great people watching!

We stayed at the Hyatt in downtown, it was really nice. This was our view of the city from our window.
We got in late Friday night after it took over an hour to rent our car. Grrr. So we basically just walked around and I was starving and wanted pizza. There were no Italian places very close so we finally settled on Pizza hut/ Taco bell. It was disgusting and I really regret eating it. But, the crazy people in there were awesome! The next day we met up with my BFF Kate and her husband Chris. The boys went golfing and kate was in charge of a baby shower so I just tagged along with her even though I didn't know the girl. I knew most of the other people there so it wasn't too awkward. That night James and I went to a yummy Italian restaurant in downtown called Venice. It was delish. I was WAY underdressed but they took my money, so oh well!

James' halibut

My pamesan chicken...we also got some yummy nutella crepes for dessert. YUM!

Here is me waiting for our car in the lobby of our hotel. Pretty nice huh?

My cousin April lives in Denver so on Sunday we went to go see her right after she got out of the hospital after having her twin boys Lincoln and Ian. I love just chatting and spending time with April, she is one of my favorite people!

For lunch we met Kate and Chris at this yummy burger place downtown called the Cherry Cricket. If you ever get a chance, go there-it was super yummy. It is kind of a hole in the wall but the burger was so good. Onions rings, fried macaroni and cheese...yeah I wasn't on the diet plan for the weekend!! haha

After lunch we went to Washington Park a really cool park in Denver. Chris grew up in Denver so he knows all the fun places to go and still has a lot to show us. I can't wait! It was sad to say goodbye but the weekend flew by! I am laughing because it was supposed to be our anniversary trip and I have not one picture of James and I together! Oh well, we do love each other I promise!! Thanks for the great trip babe, can't wait for the next 8 years.

Uncle Dan's viewing and funeral

Since I didn't get any pictures of the family at the reunion two weeks before I figured I would get some shots of them at the family dinner we had at Brick Oven after Uncle Dan's viewing. Reynolds said he wanted to go there because it was his dad's favorite place. Funerals are so hard and sad, but it is such a wonderful feeling to have all of your family around you to lift each other. I have the best family in the whole world.


Melanie, Shauna, Ashley, Aunt Vickie, Uncle Scott, Uncle Doug, me, Shannon, Tim, and Reynolds

Sarah and Cody

Greg, Mike, Cathy, Aunt Carol, Uncle Andy, Jason, Andrea, Bethany, mom, and Dad

Mom, Dad, John, Mitchell, and Jacque

April's Baby shower/Stephenson Family Reunion

In July we had a reunion with my mom's side of the family. We do it every 3 to 4 years and it is always a blast! I love my cousins and extended family, they are all so much fun. Since I knew everyone would be together, I figured we should have a baby shower for my cousin April who was having twin boys in a few months. So last minute, we emailed everyone and got it all together. I'm glad we did it because about 2 weeks after this shower she ended up going into labor super early and had the babies at 28 weeks. They are still in the hospital but are doing really well and should be home in about 6 weeks or so. April is doing great!

Me and April-we have been partners in crime since birth! (she is about 5 months younger than me)
Melanie, Shannon, and Jackson--I love how he is looking at his mom and smiling, so cute!

Bethany and Mom

Me, Bethany, and cousin in law Jen

Mom and Me

Melanie and Bethany had just finished their first triathlon that morning and rushed down to be at the shower! What troopers! Their numbers were still on their arms and wouldn't wash off. Great job girls!

I'm bummed I didn't get more pictures of the reunion but I was having too much fun chatting and chasing my kids around. We went to Windsor park in Orem and had the annual Stephenson family Olympics. We are all SUPER competitive and are known to cheat from time to time, it's the best!! It was my cousin Josh's 19th birthday that day and he was a good sport to come and hang with us for awhile.

My mom made a birthday cake for him. Love you Josh!!

Carter's activities

Carter is loving Primary. He feels so grown up and has made lots of friends in his class. The primary did a bike parade around the neighborhood. He got to decorate his bike at the church and then all the primary kids rode around to show their parents. Afterwards they had water games in the common area behind our old house . So much fun!

One of the girls in his primary class, McKenzie, Carter likes to call his "girlfriend". He always wants to sit by her and likes to show off whenever she is around. It's pretty hilarious. She invited him to her birthday party and he was so excited!

I was showing Carter this picture and he said he wished that Luke wasn't in the picture with them! Getting possessive already?! I thought you would think that was funny Jenn. :) McKenzie and her fam just recently moved away to Arizona, we will miss them!

They played the cutest smile game where they passed the smile around. They also did a sponge relay and water balloon launch contest. So much fun!

All the kiddies

Carter, Marisa, Brookelyn, Preston, McKenzie, Alita, and Luke

A Tribute to Uncle Dan

This past week has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. Last Saturday, my Uncle Dan passed away. He went into the hospital Wed. night with severe stomach pains and they sent him home saying it was the stomach flu. He returned again the next morning and found out that he had two huge blood clots on both sides of his abdomen area. We all nervously waited through 3 different surgeries from Thurs.-Sat. going back and forth from home to the hospital. His organs all started to shut down due to lack of blood and they eventually took him off of life support Saturday night. Uncle Dan was only 55. It all seems so unreal still as I type this.

Uncle Dan was one of the funnest people I know. He always had a joke to lighten the mood of a tense situation, and had such a positive attitude. He loved his family more than anything, and especially his great wife my aunt Mary. They were the cutest couple and you could just tell how in love they were. My dad and other uncles would get annoyed because he made them look bad with all the amazing things he would do for her! He would clean the house (he said to me once he enjoyed it), frost her hair, he loved to shop, watch chick flicks, and after a hard days work he would come home and take the kids and let her relax.He was also an awesome Grandpa. He would call and ask to babysit his grandsons just because he missed them. He really was the greatest!

One of my favorite memories of Uncle Dan was when they came to visit me when I lived in England. He went on his mission to Birmingham in the 70s and hadn't been back since, so it was fun to see him so excited to be back and see everything. We went to the North Sea one day and the water was freezing but both of us wanted to dip our feet in just to say we had. I have the cutest picture of us together with our jeans rolled up just laughing with our feet in the air. I would have posted it, but I don't have a scanner (I know I really need to get one!) He loved James and his family so much too and always had them over for dinner when they came to visit us out here.

Every Black Friday all the girls would go shopping at 5am to get the deals and he LOVED to come with us even though he was the only guy. He would be our guy to wait in line while we would grab our last minute purchases. He was one in a milllion.

We would always grab breakfast at Ihop in the middle of our shopping day and figure out where we wanted to go next.

Every Christmas Eve their family comes over to have dinner with us and then we go caroling at the hospital together. He would always be the one to go and ask the nurses which rooms were okay to sing to and seemed to make friends wherever he went. These are just a few of the many memories of Uncle Dan, I could go on and on. I guess one of the things that this whole experience has taught me is to not take family or friends for granted. Tell them you love them OFTEN. I feel so blessed that Uncle Dan was a part of my life. I will miss him so much but know I will see him again. Families are forever.

4th of July

We had a fabulous 4th of July! We are always deciding at the last minute what we are going to do and we always end up doing the same thing every year. Swimming at Stacia's (my sister-in-law's sister) and then heading up to have a barbeque and fireworks with the Tenneys up in Heber. The weather was perfect for swimming yesterday and Carter has become quite a little fish. He loves to jump off the diving board and will swim around the pool over and over again...with his lifejacket that is. He LOVES his goggles too and feels like a superhero when he puts them on. He looks so hilarious swimming with them, I crack up every time.

After a yummy dinner and very tempting desserts--choc. chip cookie dough brownies!!--we all sit in my aunt Carolyn's front yard and watch some fireworks. Preston was so proud to have his own front row seat...


Until the fireworks started...haha

How cute is this picture of James and Carter? Twins! Carter had been talking about the fireworks for about 3 days and was super excited for them to start. Once my uncle pulled out the illegal fireworks that went up in the sky, he was terrified and wanted to hide under the blanket.

Aunt Elaine, Cathy, Odessa, and Serena---where were you Ann??

Chris and Danielle

Aunt Taffy, Stephanie, and Uncle Jeff

us enjoying the fireworks

Happy Independance Day!!

California Trip

My family hasn't taken a vacation together (with all the kids and grandkids) in a long time, so we started planning last year to go to California. Kevin and Bethany were so nice and let us use their time share in Oceanside. We got the "penthouse suite" which had a huge kitchen and living area. Since we had already been to Disneyworld in February, we skipped Disneyland and bought the 3 in 1 pass from Costco to do Seaworld, San Diego Zoo, and Wild Animal Park. So fun! Carter was pure comedy most of the trip and kept us laughing with all of his hilarious wardrobe malfunctions.

Love his hat and he was obsessed with cotton candy this trip--a year ago he wouldn't touch the stuff!
We went to the Beach on the days between doing the parks and it was within walking distance of our condo. The kids could have stayed there all day digging holes, getting buried, and jumping in the water. The picture of Carter above is so hilarious because he is wearing Brevin, his 9 year old cousin's shorts. He waited to long to go potty and ended up going #2 in his shorts, so luckily Kevin gave us an extra pair to wear. They looked like clown pants and were falling off constantly but Carter would just have one hand on his shorts and the other digging a hole. On the walk back to the condo we were crossing the road and I didn't realize that his shorts had fallen down and was pulling his arm to get across because a car was waiting for us. They were laughing hysterically at this little boy with his shorts around his ankles waddling across the road!

Here we are at the Wild Animal Park. Carter usually was cranky when we first got to the parks but then would lighten up after lunch. This picture was obviously before lunch.

The boys at the bird show-Preston was acting up so James took him to one side of the stadium where no one was sitting. It turns out they were right in the path of this huge crane flying between the trainers to get food. It almost took James' head off!

The carousel ride was free with our passes!

Carter so happy to ride the tiger

He's getting eaten!

The dolphin show at Seaworld-Preston was more interested in the camelback tube which he chewed on the whole day. He still loves the backpack though and hardly ever complains about being in it.

Watching the Shamu show-Carter got a stuffed Shamu at the end of the day and hasn't let it out of his sight since. It has been a good bribe if he misbehaves!

I thought the show was pretty cheesy but the tricks they did were so unbelievable. So amazing what these animals can do! We ended up leaving the park for dinner and all went to Nati's Mexican Restaurant. It has been a Tenney favorite since the 60's when my Grandpa Tenney first started going there on his lunch breaks. I love it. Best Mexican ever! Try it if you are ever in the Mission Bay area of San Diego. Yummm.

The kids were acting happy and so we decided to go back to the park after dinner. We stayed till about 9 and it was so nice to just be able to walk on the rides.Carter was a little devasted he was 2 inches too short to ride the Atlantis ride with his cousins. We still had a blast. By far my favorite of the 3 parks we did.

The boys by the gorilla exhibit at the San Diego Zoo

All the zoo-goers minus my mom taking the picture

The picture makes me smile

Hands down worst petting zoo I have ever seen. This was the extent of it. There was nothing else out!

Melanie, me, and my mom hanging out by the mice house which was the kids favorite place.

That night we got tickets to a Padres game and had awesome seats! They don't look very close but we were. It was pure entertainment with this middle aged man getting in a fight with these girls in their 20s. Security came over and everything! I love to people watch.

James and I-the girl behind me was British too...small world!

Kev, Beth and me

James, Melanie, and Carl

My parents--my mom is cold in 80 degree weather and had her hood up most of the game. We called her "Little pink riding hood"

What a fun trip! The week went by too fast. I love California and if I could afford it and my family would move with me, I would be there in a heartbeat! The only downer of the trip was on our ride home. My neice rode with us and ending up throwing up 3 times along the way. Not fun. We made it though and I am still trying to recover with laundry and all the other fun things that getting home from vacation entail. Let's do it again soon Tenneys---except we need Scott and Greg there this time. It wasn't the same without them. Good times!