Surprise!

SO THIS IS HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN!...

My sister came home on May 15th, but my mom and I were the only ones that new the real date!

Originally she was suppose to be coming home on May 22nd, but the date got moved up a week because of all the missionaries going out right now (because of the age change)! Jill decided she should surprise everyone so I was the only one she told about the date change! 

At first we were going to keep it a secret from my mom, but Jill's mission president decided my mom needed to know the real date! As soon as Jill found this out she emailed on her p-day and told me to call my mom and let her in on the surprise before she got something in the mail about her coming home a week early and called everyone to let them know! 

Letting my mom in on the secret made my job so much easier! Now she could deal with the Bishop and Stake President and all the communication that a mom does with them to set up homecoming talks and release interviews and what not without the Bishop and Stake President having to keep the secret from my mom! 

Keeping the secret from everyone else in the family was easy! : ) 

Now we had to figure out how we were going to surprise everyone and not make it look suspicious!

So here was the plan...

My birthday is the 17th of May just two days after Jill got home so I put together a big birthday party for myself (Lame right? Good thing the party really wasn't about my birthday and about Jill coming home!). I did get some questions like "Why don't you just wait a week to celebrate your birthday so Jill can be there?"  my answer "Because when Jill gets home I want it to be all about her and not about me!" hehehe and "Why are your throwing a party for yourself?" my answer "Because no one else is going to do it for me!" good answers right?  Not making anything look too suspicious!... 

So the birthday was planned and everyone, and my everyone I mean my family, was invited.

Now we just had to wait for her to get home! : ) 

The thing I was most excited about was getting Jill all to myself for 2 days before I had to share here with the rest of the family! : ) Seriously I hadn't been this excited about something in a really long time! 

Then May 15th arrived!

It seemed like the morning went on forever!

Finally I to met my mom at my mother-in-law's house so I could hide my car there, that way my little brothers didn't see it when they got home from school and wonder why my car was there all day! 

Then we were off to the airport! 

YAY! 

Taking a ride on the moving sidewalk!

Waiting for Jill with our signs! 

Kyler helping me hold the sign!

Emeri waiting patiently! 

Here she comes!

Running towards us!

This is an awesome picture of me (NOT)... but it is the picture of Jill meeting Kyler for the first time!

He is a huge fan of the missionary tag!

SO DRAMATIC! : )

Trying to get a smile from Emeri!

She's a stinker!

YAY she's finally home! 

Now for the big surprise! 

She hid out at our house for the couple days before the party and I got to take her shopping and to Cafe Rio and just hang out! (My kids actually got sick so it was really nice to have her there to help out!) : ) 

So the day of the party... The plan...

When everyone got to the church they all went into the Relief Society room to make "Welcome Home" signs for Jill! While Jill was hiding out in one of the classrooms with some of her friends from her mission! (Long story, but some of the members and an investigator from her last area happened to come to Utah the same weekend she came home so they came to the party too!) Once everyone arrived I snuck Jill into the gym and into a giant box! Then I had everyone leave what they were doing and come in and sit down so we could start the party! Once everyone come in and sat down I told everyone something along the lines of "I got this gift a couple days ago and it's so big that I thought I would bring it here tonight and share it with you!" and that's when she popped out of the box and scared/shocked everyone! 

I thought that everyone would run up and give her lots of hugs and it would be awesome, but everyone was so shocked that they all just sat there trying to digest what just happened! HAHAHA! It was still pretty awesome! 

Watch this:

http://youtu.be/rOa6MeZDYpw 

(follow the link and you can watch the surprise on YouTube!) 

When everyone finally got up and started giving her hugs!

We definitely pulled it off and surprised everyone! : ) 

After the big surprise everyone enjoyed dinner and chatting with Jill!

Then it was time for Minute-To-Win-It games! It was a blast, but unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures because I was the one running the game! 

We had so much fun! I think I might do another minute-to-win-it game night and that time I will make sure and take lots of pictures! 

(FAMILY I know some of you have pictures and videos from the games I know I asked once, but again if you could send those to me that would be awesome! THANKS! LOVE YOU!)

Braeden's Birthday

Braeden is officially on the down hill to 30! 

(It's freaking him out!)

He tells me everyday how "old" he feels! : ) 

(I might be exaggerating the everyday part a bit!) ; )

This is how we celebrated his birthday this year:

At Braeden's work you get your birthday off work, but because Braeden is the best husband ever he took my birthday off instead of his! 

(I'm still working on the blog post about all the excitement that led up to and happened on my birthday!)

So we met up with him and took him out to lunch!

He chose the place and he wanted to try something new so we went to Daddy D's in Ogden!

They are known for their "Hot Mess" burger which is a bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between two donuts! Heart attack right? 

We didn't get that burger, but I'm not sure what we got was any healthier! 

Let's just say that Daddy D's is good, but it sure isn't good for you! : ) 

Braeden doing the Emeri "say cheese" face!

That's a little better!

Birthday kisses for Daddy!

Kyler was seriously so silly while we were at lunch! 

hahaha! 

LOVE HIM!

I love his scrunchy nose smiles! 

While Braeden finished up at work Emeri, Kyler and I made Braeden a very special birthday cake! 

Emeri picked out a funfetti cake and HOT pink frosting for him!

She had a great time making the cake and the first words out of her mouth when Braeden walked through the door were, "I made you a pink and yellow cake Dad!" 

 

Kyler really excited about the candles!

 Emeri and Daddy blowing out ALL the candles!

He loved his hot pink birthday cake because Emeri picked it out special for him! : ) 

He's a good sport! 

We didn't to anything too exciting! It was just an all around good low key day! It was exactly what we all needed! : )  

Love you Braeden and I always will no mater how old you get! : ) 

Austin's Farewell

This is Austin Emeri's uncle (Braeden's step-brother) and he is one of Emeri's "favorites"! 

He left on his mission at the beginning of this month and will be eventually making his way to Melbourne Australia! (Awesome right?)

Emeri is one of his biggest fans!

She has been coloring/painting pictures for him for the last couple weeks so we can send them to him! 

He probably  will have a huge collection of Emeri art by the time he gets home! 

I'm not going to lie it was pretty nice going over to Braeden's dad's and not having to worry about keeping Emeri entertained because Austin always had it covered! 

They would play for hours!

Austin was such a good sport and just did whatever Emeri wanted him to do! 

(I think Emeri might even have a little crush on him! Shhh!)

He is going to very missed, but we are very excited for him! : )

(and maybe a little jealous! I want to go to Australia!) 

Emeri and Kyler sure are lucky!

They have some very awesome uncles! 

These are just a few more pictures from the afternoon Austin gave his farewell talk! 

Emeri kissing Baby Ky while he is snoozing! 

Not happy about having to apologize! 

Ky waking up and wondering what is going on! 

Oh and of course the cowgirl boots! 

Summer Time

You know summer time is here again when...

You can find us at the park more often then home!

The bug collecting begins!

We have picnics for every lunch!

At 4 o'clock every weekday all the kids from the apartments are at the playground!

And the trips to the pool with our buddies begin!

Kyler was so tired by the time we were done playing, but he loved it! 

Although it has only felt like summer here and there because the rain clouds have made their home above us we have taken advantage of the warm days as much as we can!
(I really love the rain so I don't mind the rain clouds one bit they can stay as long as they would like to! shhhh Don't tell Emeri! : ) ) 
We love summer and all the fun adventures we have we are looking forward to all the new adventures we are going to have this summer!

So FUNNY STORY! 
One of the times we were at the park there was this lady that had a jacket on that had fur around the hood and she was very into whatever was on her phone so she was looking down at it well, Emeri ran over to me pointing at her (I know she shouldn't point) and telling me there was a LION at the park! 
HAHAHAHA
She really did look like a lion from a far!
It was really cute and gave me a good laugh!

Here's the best picture I could get of her without seeming like a creep! 

Baby Animal Days

We went to Baby Animal Days for this first time this year! 

It was a lot of fun!

It's just a little event nothing too extravagant or exciting (those are the best kind!), but still a blast!

We started in the reptile tent were Emeri got to hold a baby snake and tortise! 

There were older kids ahead of her who wouldn't hold the snake, but she didn't even hesitate!

I was a little surprised! 

But I guess she's never been told she should be scared of them so she didn't even know to be! 

She loved it and was bummed when her turn was over!

She loved that the mommy tortoise was there with her two babies! She's very much into everything having a mommy and daddy!

We then moved over to the baby bunnies! She had a great time trying to wiggle her nose like the bunnies it was quite entertaining! 

Then over to the baby ducks we went!

 By this point she was done holding animals and was ready to move on to something new so we skipped the chicks and head over to the horse ride line! 

She was really excited to the ride the horse until some guy picked her up to put her on it! If you know Emeri you know that she does not like people touching her especially men and especially men that are strangers, so the ride just didn't start off good for her! But she stayed on the horse even though she cried the whole time!

 Later she told us that she was sad because she wanted a little horse not a big one! 

Go figure! : ) 

To get her back in good spirits we went and got a little face paint on! 

And our silly faces!

Then it was time to ride the train!

It was kind of weird because it was the first thing that we just put Emeri on and let her go!

Braeden turned to and asked "Why does it feel like we are sending her off to kindergarten for the first time right now?" 

Hahaha! 

It's really been the first time that she has been old enough to just let her go and do this sort of thing by herself! 

It just kind of put things into perspective!

Out little girl IS growing up if we like it or not! 

Last stop on the agenda... the bouncy house! 

She loves these things! 

We all had a great time including Baby Ky! : ) 

Seriously does it get any cuter than this? 

Good times! 

I think we will making this an annual thing!