April, May and June 2013

Well strap in because its been a crazy couple of months! Sorry ahead of time for the overload of pictures and information!

April 2013

April brought us spring break. We were able to take the family to Disneyland and Universal Studios.  We had so much fun!  It was crazy busy but it was still so nice to get away!

 The boys wanted a kite at the beach so I made them one out of a plastic bag and some net we found.  Jamen was trying it out! :-)

 This is one of our favorite rides! The Tower of Terror!  Kortlen wasn't so sure about going on it but loved it in the end!

Garrett was pretty scared of all of the rides we went on.  I've come to the conclusion that Disney has a pretty scary dark side to all their rides!

Jamen and Ethan on a bike ride down the beach on the last day

Also on April 26th my mom had her birthday, Garrett and I decided to go visit her and Grandpa Dean! We had a great time visiting with them both!  They are the sweetest grandparents out there!

MAY 2013

Every year we look forward to going to Women's Conference at BYU.  We always have so much fun and learn so much!  Here is me, Claudia, Toni and Shelly waiting for the speakers to start! I love these girls and love going with them!

For the last few months of school while I was planning the wedding, Shelly and Claudia offered to let Garrett come to preschool.  He loved it so much and had so much fun being a big boy!  Thanks to these two for taking him!

Lauren and I have been doing girls trips for probably around 10 years or so.  We decided to go early this year because she decided to get married.... Here we are on the cars ride at California Adventure!  We had the greatest time as usual!

Brendan turned 19 this year! He is so tall! Unfortunately we don't get to see him to often, which I hope changes soon! He is living in Sandy with his girlfriend Lexi and working all the time!  But he did get to sneak away and have dinner with us at Tucanoes. 

I am in love with this picture!!!!

Ethan turned 14 this year! I cannot believe how time flies!  He is so grown up and he is turning into a gorgeous young man! Ethan is such a sweetheart and has the kindest heart!  Im so blessed to raise this son of mine!  I love you Ethan!

Madison and Ethan were born on the same day and we have celebrated their birthdays together since the beginning!  I love watching these two grow up!

Ethan decided on Tepanyaki for dinner! 

Ethan decided to play soccer again this year and played goalie for his team and he rocked it!! They started out as the under dogs and ended up winning the whole thing in the end!!  He is an amazing athlete!

Memorial Day

Here we are at the cemetery visiting Grandpa's grave.

Garrett, Ethan and Jaxon

 We decided to go over to Highland Glen Pond where Ethan and Russell love to hang out.  It was such a pretty night and hopefully we will be going back soon!  We had fun trying to catch fish!

June 2013

I decided to make a whole separate entry for the big event, so look for that later. 

We started out June with our cute little grandsons first birthday!  Carson is the cutest!  

Mark and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary this September.  Since June is easier for people to watch the boys, we decided to go to Maui.  We had a great time! It was so beautiful there and so relaxing! 

And, this is just the cutest picture of Garrett, Carson and Jaxon all wearing the same shirt!

Liana and I have very similar tastes in our boys clothing and more often than not we have the same outfits! Aren't they so cute?

 It's been a crazy but fun couple of months! Next up will be the wedding! 

Love,

Celeste

March 2013

March 2013

We are finally through the winter almost! YAY! I love Spring! So, March was an exciting month! First of all, Lauren and Jesse are officially engaged! I'm so excited and happy for them! I love Jesse and I think they are going to be happy together! They are getting married on June 28th in the Salt Lake Temple.  I'm so excited to have a child going through the Temple.  I never thought that it would happen for me, I hoped and prayed it would, but I cannot wait to go in the Temple with her! I'm so grateful that she has chosen to be sealed and to raise her family in the church! They were engaged on March 21 at the Provo Temple. They are so cute and so happy!

Also, Kortlen turned double digits this month on the 11th.  He is now the big 10! I cant believe he is getting to be so old! I don't know where time goes! Im so grateful to have Kortlen in my life.  He is such a sweet boy (most of the time) He is a pretty easy kid, he does well in school and is very sweet and kind.  He is a little messy, but hopefully we can work on that before he turns 11. :-) For his birthday we had his party at Jump On It with about 15 kids!  It was kinda crazy but fun! He had his birthday dinner at Red Lobster with a pan of crab legs.  He wanted to go shopping for his own presents, so we went to Toys R Us and he bought a new lego set and a app controlled car and we need to find him a banana chair still.  I made him some yummy red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Michelle Webecke
http://6and2.blogspot.com/

1 Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 small pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix everything together except chocolate chips.  Fold in chocolate chips. Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.  Let cool.

Next, here is just some cute pictures of Garrett and his little girlfriend Cambelle. Her mom babysits Garrett so I can play tennis and I watch Cambelle while her mom works. They are so cute together!

And finally, Mark, Garrett and I went to see Grandpa Bob and Grandma Joyce in Henderson!  It was so nice and warm!  We were able to celebrate Grandma Joyce's 62nd birthday with her!

Well, thats all for now!  Love you all!
Celeste

Oma

Yesterday a beautiful lady passed away. My other mom Fran.  She was such an amazing and strong lady! I will forever miss her and be so grateful to her for her influence on me and my kids. Fran and I struggled a little in our relationship but I think we both grew to have a deep love and respect for each other. Fran was the best grandma!  She always made time for the grandkids! She came to a lot of their games and performances at school.  She always supported them and loved them so much! Despite the cards she was dealt in life she was always positive and I rarely heard a complaint from her. She taught me so much! She taught me how to cook German food and most importantly she taught me what a Mormon woman was like.  I was a convert to the church and she is the one that I looked up to as my example.  She had such a strong testimony of the gospel and she was one who would bear her testimony to us all quite a bit. I hope that I will be half the woman that she was.  Heaven definitely got a beautiful angel and I can just hear her singing!  Im so grateful that she didn't have to suffer for too long and that she was able to have her kids around her. I'm grateful that I was able to visit her, talk to her and rub her feet!  Im so grateful that even after my divorce she still would come over for dinner and she accepted Mark and was so sweet to him. What a great lady! I love you Fran so very much! I'm so glad that you are finally reunited with your boys in Heaven!  Until we meet again!
Celeste

Lauren's blessing 1992

Oma with Malorie and Lauren 1993

Oma, Stefanie, Stacie, Brendan, Lauren and Malorie at the zoo

Brendan and Oma

Oma, Lauren, Brendan, Thomas, Ethan and Jamen at the Olympics

Stacie, Ethan, Lauren, Malorie, Jamen, Oma, Kortlen and Brendan

Oma and Kortlen at Kindergarten graduation

Oma and Jamen at his 6th grade graduation

January 2013

Well here we are in a new year!  January has been a little uneventful except for the occasional stomach flu and a ton of snow! Other than that we kept busy with Ethan in hockey, Kortlen in tennis and Garrett starting gymnastics.

Im so excited I finally have a tennis player!! I love tennis so having someone to play with me will be so fun!!

We also went to Delta to visit Mark's mom and step dad.  We had a great time! Garrett just loves his "mama" and "papa".  We went bowling while we were there which was a ton of fun!  Garrett was very interested in where the ball came out.

I'm so grateful to have such great in-laws!  Ina and Karl have been so welcoming to me and my kids!  We have all grown to love them both so much! 

One last final thought.  I have been attempting to increase my spirituality through prayer and scripture study.  I had a really great ah ha moment while I was praying one day.  I have always said in my prayers how grateful I am for all that I have. But very clearly I was hit with the thought "Am I really truly grateful for what I have?" I thought I was but this month I have tried to notice what I'm grateful for more than I have in the past.  I have always struggled with the why me? with the trials I have had in the last few years. I get so wrapped up in what I don't have anymore or in what I have lost that I haven't noticed all the blessings that I have gained in those same years.  Because of my trials I have become closer to my Heavenly Father. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and an amazing new family.  I was lucky enough to have Garrett added to my family. I have a beautiful home to raise my children in.  And I have met some really great people along the way.  I still have a long way to go in my healing and in my kids healing but we will get there and hopefully we will all learn to be grateful for all the positive things that have come out of a not so great situation. Until next month!

Ciao!

Celeste

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I can not believe it is a new year already!  This year flew by! We were in charge of New Year's Eve this year and we had so much fun with our Sanders!  They brought over there kids and 20 or so of their closest friends!  It was crazy and a little packed but so much fun! They also brought over "Fredy"who is an Ecuadorian tradition where you write down your regrets and then burn him at the end of the night to let them all go and move forward! It was way fun and Im thinking it will be a new tradition for us!

We then set off wish lanterns, they were so pretty but very delicate....

We also played Yahtzee and guitar hero, which Garrett is very fond of (so are Lauren and I)

Then at midnight we had our "Salud" and toasted to the New Years with all of our old and new friends!

I would like to take this chance to Thank you for being such great friends and family!  We are so blessed to have such good people surrounding us!  I hope to be just as significant to you as each of you are to us!  I hope everyone has a fabulous new year full of good memories and health!  I hope we are all blessed with happiness and the knowledge that our Heavenly Father has his hands in all things great and small!  I hope we can all become closer to Him to this year and know that he is always there for all of us whether we believe we deserve it or not.  I'm so grateful for my sweet family and hope that I can be the best I can be for them this year and always! 

Love you all!

Love,

Celeste