a cool blog to check out

Hey friends. I haven't blogged in FOREVER mostly because I have been way to busy. Today I am just doing a quick post for my cute cousin Megan. She has been given a cool opportunity to attend the Biggest Loser Ranch for the second time. She has won contests and has attended the Biggest Loser Finally and met a ton of Biggest Loser contestants.

She is on her own journey to lose weight and because she is starting to have these opportunities with the Biggest Loser she needs people to follow her blog and make comments. She has a lot of cool stories and pictures on there from her past experiences and will continue to have them.

So, if any of you are fans of Biggest Loser or just want to help support my awesome cousin please visit her blog and become a follower and or make comments. We really want to help support her in this! Her blog is http://couragetofinishwhativestarted.blogspot.com

Thanks!

one down

i am so EXCITED to say that my first semester back to school is finished! i couldn't be happier about it. i have LOVED being in school this semester. going back to school at an older age has made me appreciate LEARNING and i have loved it. i was so nervous to go back (it is a little over 8 years since my last college semester) and i wasn't sure i could do it.

now, i will take a few weeks off and start another.

update on the rest of us:

mike: started his final year of dental school a couple months ago, i can't believe it! our time in az has flown by! he just started studying for the boards part 2 which he will take in nov or dec. we are also working on our air force application for the residency program for next year. we should know in october if we got it and where we will be moving....how EXCITING:)

emerson: this cute little boy is turning 4 on sunday. i can't believe how fast it goes. he is bored to death and we are all looking forward to having the summer over with! he likes to spend his time writing letters on everything....himself, walls, sidewalk, paper....anywhere. he also loves playing batman legos on the "xbox free."

madden: madden is 2. he has the funniest personality. he is a partier. he sleeps less than his older brother and if he can even sense something fun is going on he will stay awake at all costs. he loves going places and wrestling his dad who he still calls "mike" and his "bro-der." he is a very aggressive boy that i just want to kiss all day cause of his killer dimples.

UTAH

This post is a little late. We have been back from Utah for well over a month. It was a good vacation overall. I usually come back to Arizona feeling ready and love being here. This time we spent some time in the canyon and it made me so homesick for this place. Provo canyon has always been one of my favorite places and I have missed it so much. We took our friends up to check it out. The boys all loved it! They threw rocks in the river, climbed on an old train and ran up and down the train tracks. The weather couldn't have been more perfect either (one of the only nice days while we were there).

The other big part of our trip was being able to see our cute little nieces Katelyn and Kassandra. It was our first time seeing baby "KK" and the boys couldn't get enough of holding her. She is such a sweet baby and is beautiful! Every time I go up to Utah Katelyn and Ezra usually don't recognize me which makes me sooo sad. I got to watch Katelyn a few days during the trip and we became friends. She played and smiled at me a ton and we loved every second of watching that sweet little girl!



Because I am a loser aunt I didn't get any pictures of Ezra:( I love that boy so much too. We got to do lots of things together and I love his fun personality to pieces!

One cool thing that happened was in Salt Lake. Me, Mike, Alyssa and my Mom decided to take the kids to the Book of Mormon exhibit in Salt Lake and then have lunch with Justin because he works downtown. We parked in front of the conference center and we were in a hurry after the exhibit. My mom asked us if we had ever been on top of the conference center, we hadn't and wanted to go. We were out of time but I just said let's just see if they will take us up real quick. After a little debating we finally just went up. The guide took us right up, we looked around for a few minutes (I could spend a long time, it is so beautiful up there)! We were walking towards the elevators when Mike stopped and looked across the small room. He started speaking Italian and ran over and started hugging a guy. We were so confused until he finally introduced me. Turns out it was an Italian guy and his wife visiting from Italy. He had been wanting to see Mike but everyone told him we were living in Arizona and it wouldn't be possible. Later that night we met up with a bunch of people and went to dinner. Mike was in heaven. They were really great and I had a good time but learned that I need to speak Italian. I was the only one that didn't speak. It was such a cool thing for him to see them!

The boy who potty trained himself

madden.

this funny little guy had no interest in being potty trained right when he was turning 2 but only a month and a half later he decided he was going to be. Madden would just come tell me "I pee, mommy" and so I would take him, and that's how it went with this boy. We have been going pretty strong for 2 weeks now. We have occasional accidents (especially at our friends house) but he is doing pretty well with hardly any effort on my part:)

He just comes up with things all on his own. Tonight Mike told him he would be right back and to count to 3 and he did....we never taught him to count to 3 but he just knew:) he is cracking us up all the time. We love this little baby guy!

gramps

Sunday morning (June 12, 2011) my sweet grandpa Schroeppel passed away. This weekend has been full of sadness. I was blessed to be with my mom, my aunt kim and my cousin meg when I got the news. We stayed up on Saturday night until about 2 am crying and talking, waiting to hear the news that he had passed. On Sunday morning at around 7:30 we heard that he was gone. We were all in a hotel room together in Tempe because we had gone to Les Mis the night before. Our girls weekend wasn't quite what any of us had expected but I am still grateful we were able to cry together.

Monday morning we all headed up to St. George to attend funeral part 1. It was so emotional for me. This was the first viewing I had ever attended. This is my first grandparent pass away. The whole experience has been hard to handle. Thankfully though, my grandpa has lived such a great life and that gives me a lot of peace.

I came away from the funeral yesterday with a feeling of such love and gratitude for my grandpa. He is one AMAZING man who is loved and respected by so many people. My grandpa spent his life in service for others. My grandpa is one of the funniest guys I know. He is hilarious. Yesterday everyone talked about his wit and humor and that is one of the things I will miss most about him.

Although we were not able to be with him when he passed and did not get to say goodbye, I am grateful for a great visit I had with him back in Feb. He was in the hospital and we were just getting back from our San Fran trip. I decided to make us leave later than we wanted so I could just go say a quick hello to my grandpa in the hospital. I ended up staying for 2 hours, just me and him. We talked, laughed and joked. During my 2 hour visit I think my grandpa had 3 or 4 different visitors from his ward and neighborhood. These people all told me how much they love my grandpa and what a great man he is. I loved this visit and for me, it was such a sweet memory that I have with him. I am thankful I was able to spend that time with him.

Grandpa has been such a good grandpa to all of his 49 grandkids:) I know my grandpa loves all of us equally and we all feel special and loved by him. I think that is a pretty amazing thing especially with how many of us there is!

I will miss grandpa but I know I can see him again. I am thankful to be a part of such an amazing family. I have so many great cousins, aunts and uncles. I feel pretty blessed.

Saturday is the final funeral in Utah County. I am flying up on Saturday to be there for it. I am guessing there will be more tears shed in honor of such a great guy!

Girls Night in VEGAS!

I have A LOT of blogging to do but I will start with my mother's day present this year. Mike decided to get some guys together and send us wives to Vegas for a night. We were all a little excited and a little nervous...we went and had a ton of fun! Our guys scored some major points for this one. They but us up in the Palazzo hotel which was AMAZING! Here are a few pics from our trip.

As soon as we got in our rooms (which were soooo nice) we realized we could be as dumb and immature as we wanted so we jumped on our beds, jump off a ledge onto our beds and giggled, it is pretty fun acting like a 5 year old again!

In the lobby of the Palazzo.

After Jack Sparrow scared the life out of me and Heather, she got a picture taken with him. He was very friendly:)

We thought we got all dolled up before we went out but then realized we were in a whole other world when the guy taking our picture asked us where in the Midwest are we from:) I think we might have been the only girls on the strip in denim at 10pm!

After dinner at our $40 buffet. It was the Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan. It was much more gourmet than any buffet I had ever seen. The best part for me was the desserts, they were fantastic!

After dinner, we shopped until midnight, tried to find a karaoke bar, with no luck and did a little gambling....only a dollar on the penny slots. We got hit on by weirdo guys at 1 am and decided to head up to our rooms.

We spent the next few hours talking and laughing...Jill didn't make it the whole time:)

Ash, Heather and Me on one of our beds (picture taken at 4 am:)

The next day we woke up, went down to sit in the hot tubs, got ready and went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Here is a picture before we left Vegas.

We missed some of our good friends who couldn't make it but wanted to:( but we had such a good weekend and can't wait to do it again soon!

disneyland 2011

Disneyland was so much fun this year! We made a sort of last minute decision to go and it was the best time we've had yet. This year we got a 3 day military park hopper pass for $98 a person. It was an amazing deal! I was so happy that my mom, dad and Ry could come down and extra happy that Lyss, Jus, and Ez could come too. I miss these people so much!

Alyssa and Justin drove down to Cali and had quite the adventure, to say the least. Between a ticket, new tires and rims, taking Ez to the ER their trip ended up being a lot more expensive. I am so thankful they came anyway, we loved having them there!


Emersons favorite ride was driving these cars. He also thought it was pretty cool meeting Mickey Mouse (even though he was terrified at first)!

I loved seeing all the boys together. Madden was all about Ezra but Ezra wasn't so sure about him (he might have felt a little smothered:) But they were still sweet together. Poor Ez was sooo sick for most of the trip.

The boys were so excited to see Lightning McQueen and Mater, Emers is so excited for the new cars movie! California Adventure is opening up cars rides later on this year, guess we might have to go back:)

We celebrated Madden's 2nd birthday at Disneyland. We had him open presents and he got to wear a button so that people in the park would wish him Happy Birthday. We love you baby guy!

Because we had 3 days there we would usually go to the park in the morning and take a few hours off in the afternoon and go back at night. It was so nice although next time I go, it will not be when Utah has spring break, it was way too crowded!



Our last day we made a stop at the beach. It was freezing cold but Madden got a kite for his birthday and we wanted to try it out. Kites work great on the beach with all that wind:)

It was a great vacation!

Baby is 2!

A couple weeks ago my sweet little madden guy turned 2. I have been thinking a lot about this sweet little boy and how grateful I am to have him in my family. This picture below was just a few days after madden was born. Although Madden wasn't planned I can't imagine our family without him. He has brought us so much happiness. Here are some pictures of the things I love about this baby!


Madden is ready for anything. He is just waiting around for something else to happen so he can do it. The second we brought out his cake he was filling his cheeks with air to blow out those candles. (I didn't even know he would know what to do).


He has such an angelic face and is a sweet boy but he is also my wild child:) Madden likes to test the boundaries and pinch, bite, hit or kick me. I will always tell him no Madd, we don't hit mommy, sometimes he will say "sorry mom" in his sweet voice. Other times he will do an evil laugh and run away.


He is all boy. He loves to wear hats, shoes football wrist bands or anything else he can find. He also wants to be doing every single thing Emerson does. Madden has to wear his backpack every time we take Emerson to school. He will literally follow Emerson around the house all day and follow every move, sound or action he does. It is pretty cute!




Lately Madden has been a good helper. He wants to help me with every single thing I do. He will vacuum, wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep and mop. I only wish he would just put his energy into those things, most of the time he is pulling things out and off of places, throwing toys all over the floor or the worst one yet, hitting our tv with a bat and breaking the 47" flat screen....nice!


My favorite thing Madden does is "be aggressive". The picture below is exactly what he does when we tell him to be aggressive. It is so funny! After he does that he will usually tackle us or something. He loves to wrestle his brother and daddy any chance he can get.




I absolutely love this babies dimples. They melt me. I love that he calls his daddy "mike" and laughs about it. I love that he calls emerson "bro-der". I love that he says "hike" with his football and tackles us. Even though he is a wild, crazy, energetic boy I love him so much. He is so fun to be around and still has a very sweet personality. I am so thankful for Madden to be in our family, we would be missing out on so much without him.


Happy Birthday Baby Guy! We love you lots and lots!

April Fools

I have never really done anything for April Fools before. This year my friend Heather and I decided to do a last minute April Fools party for the kids. So, Heather made the cupcakes and I put some crafts together and the kids came and had a good time. We handed out treats in a white sock we put cocoa on. Heather made these great cupcakes that looked like spaghetti and meatballs and mashed potatoes with butter (the butter was a starburst). It was fun to put together. The kids all ran around and had a good time.


Heathers fabulous cupcakes....

The kids in their "crazy" hats and making green slime....


Next year I think it might be fun to do an adult april fools party. There seemed to be lots of fun ideas online:)