July 14, 2009

This was a good day for our family! First of all it was Alan's 10th birthday. I can't believe he is already that old! He has really grown up a lot lately and we really depend on him for a lot of help around the house. He has such a fun personality. He is a lot like his dad in that way. He always wants to make people laugh. He has always been like that. I remember when he was younger like 4 years old he had a friend, Bryson Reynolds that would laugh at everything Alan did. This was a huge problem in his primary class and they had to end up putting them in separate classes because it was so bad! He loves to be the class clown and it has definitely gotten him in some trouble in his short life! Alan loves life and really tries to have fun in everything he does. Which really is not a problem if he could only remember priorities! He is also such a social butterfly. He also gets this from his father! It's a good trait I suppose.
Paul was able to take his birthday off. Actually he was home with an injury from playing volleyball on our family vacation! So we mostly just hung out and opened presents, had navajo tacos and jello cake.

Alan got stuff for scouts since he is a Webelos now, a new basketball, a basketball hoop that hooks onto a door and a light saber from Connor. I think he really enjoyed his presents. From my parents he got a picture of The First Presidency. He told my mom while we were on vacation that he wanted one. From my siblings he got a $50 savings bond. Although the kids don't get too excited about getting bonds for a present, I think it is a really good idea that we should have done a long time ago. My grandparents did it for us and it helped me pay for college, buy Paul an electric guitar and helped us get into our first house. So we will see how handy they come into play for the kids in the future.

Alan let Cam help him blow out his candles. That's a good big brother!

Also on this day we had our ultrasound of the baby. This is a picture of our little persons foot. It's a cute foot! Saying Paul and I were nervous is an understatement! Once you have had one bad ultrasound it ruins the excitement of all future ones. We were more nervous than excited. We really just wanted to get it out the way and hopefully find that everything was okay. We explained to the technician that did our ultrasound our history and she was so good to tell us that the baby looked good and all the measurements were good. Since Cora had anencephaly( her brain didn't develop) we were very nervous about having another child with the same birth defect. We were told by our doctor that the chances of having an anencephalic baby is 1 in 1000 and once you have had one with that condition your odds raise to 1 in 100. This is why these things are so nerve racking to us! Needless to say we had nothing to worry about. Actually, the first image of the ultra sound was the baby's head and it is all there! We didn't find out if it's a boy or a girl. We want to be surprised. It just makes the whole experience more exciting for us! We really would like a girl, but I'm trying to convince myself that it will be a boy so that I am not to disappointed! Whether it's a boy or a girl we just really want a healthy baby to love and to raise. We are very excited and so are the kids. Lexi seems to be the most excited and of course she really wants a baby sister! She always says that she has too many brothers. And the poor thing is stuck in the middle of them!
I did have a doctors appointment today, and he said that the ultrasound showed that the placenta was a little lower than it should be. He isn't that concerned about it. He said that 9 1/2 times out of 10 it will move up as we get further along. He is going to have us get another ultrasound at 33 weeks just to make sure everything looks okay. I'm not really that worried about it because the doctor doesn't seem to worried. I really trust our doctor and I think he is one of the best out there! Yeah Doctor Barton!
So anyways that was our exciting day! Couldn't have turned out any better that it did! We are very blessed to have a family and to be able to celebrate milestones! Happy Birthday Alan! We love you very much!

My cute little nephew Brenden

This is one of the cutest pictures I have ever seen! This chunk of a fella is my sister Christie's little boy. They call him The Bud. I stole this picture from her blog because I just can't stop laughing about it! By the way he's skinny dippin' in his little baby pool! Anyways, just thought I would share it with everyone! I hope you got as good of a laugh out of it as I did!

Oh, where to start! I haven't blogged for a very long time and we have done a lot lately. I think I will start with Cam's birthday. On June 25th he turned 2. We can't believe he is already that old. He is a really funny boy and makes us laugh everyday. For his birthday we just hung out all day and he had a couple of friends come over for a little while.

This is Elia, Ashlin, Cam and George

For Cam's birthday dinner we took him to McDonald's. We never go there because honestly after my dad stopped being the supervisor of the stores we have had to pay full price for their food. That's a lot of money and I am very cheap. Therefore, we only eat there like twice a year. Lexi was sooo excited to go McD's. She loves that place!.

Lexi, Connor, Alan & Cam enjoying their yummy happy meals.

I'm not so sure about this face. He looks like he's go an evil plan!

Pretty sure Connor was done dealing with Lexi and was having an angry moment.
I have those moments sometimes!

Moment passed. All better!

Cam blowing out his candle. I made a Wiggle cake again. He had the same theme last year. He absolutely loves the Wiggles! It was so cute when he blew out the candle. He just spit on it over and over until it blew out.

Cam is so mad because I interrupted his bike playing so that he could eat some cake. We got him dirt bike, a truck that has a trailer with 2 bikes on it and the Reynold's family got him a motorcycle. He calls it his "Tippy bike" He calls Tiffany Tippy. He is so into bikes right now and it is so cute! We love him so much and we are so glad he is part of our family! Happy Birthday Cam Man!


Since we have 3 birthdays in June in our extended family we decided to just have one big birthday party to celebrate all 3. The birthdays were Moss (Christie's hubby) my dad and Cam.

We all got together over at Bonnie's and had dinner, played whiffle ball and had a water fight. Our family is getting so big that the kids got kicked out to the backyard. It's probably safer out there anyways so that they don't make a mess of Bonnie's house.

Some of the kids chasing Uncle Russ with water balloons. They eventually got him a couple of times. Russ and Timmy were the main ones that the kids went after. They are good sports to play with the kids all of the time.


Grandma and Cam staying dry.


A rousing game of whiffle ball.



Notice the two bobsy twins in the background. They are so in baseball mode.

After all of our activities it was cake time. Moss had a cherry pie, Cam had a motorcycle bike cake that I made and my dad had a pineapple upside down cake.

Cam "spitting" out his candle!We had a good party. Happy Birthday boys!
Thanks Bonnie and Aaron for letting us crash your house!

I found this picture on the camera and it's just hilarious it me. Lex decided to wear this outfit for her pajamas one night. I think the shirt is one that Alan wore when he was like 2. I don't think any part of this outfit belongs together!

Connor just chillin' in the pool. He looks so funny!




For our vacation this year we just went up north and hung out. We kept it really cheap, but it was a lot of fun. We went on vacation with my parents and all of my siblings. My parent's left on the 4th with Alan, Connor and Lexi. We went up the next day and stayed at my Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen's house. We don't make it up there as much as we should. While the kids were there my Grandpa taught Alan how to do Indexing. He has been doing it a lot since we got home. He really enjoys it.

On Monday morning we went to the Oquirrah Mountain Temple open house. It was really cool to take the kids there and be able to experience that with them. When Trimmy and Trini got married Connor was so mad that he couldn't go inside the St. George Temple, but this time he was able to go in and he was very excited to be there. I forgot to take my camera with me to the Temple so Timmy took a couple picture of us there but I haven't gotten them from him yet.

After the temple on Monday we went up to Liberty. Its is on the other side of Ogden. Aaron's family lives there. My parents and our little family stayed at a Trendwest condo and the rest of the family stayed at Aaron's families place. His family was out of town and they were kind enough to let us use their house.

On Tuesday we went to Pine View Resevoir. Russ and Aaron brought there boat and we had a good time. I really don't like going to the lake. They make me so nervous. I always hear of people drowning and all sorts of other things happening. We were safe though and all is good.



Here is Paul, Alan & Connor going for a tube ride. Connor was so nervous at first, but he liked it after awhile. It was really fun to watch them. They had a good time.

This is Nicole, Lexi & Bonnie enjoying their ride. Lexi had so much fun! She really liked to go fast and over the wake.

Uncle Russ trying to take his nieces and nephews on a boat ride. It didn't work very well until Timmy helped Russ get it started. Russ took the kids over to a tree that had a rope on it and the boys took turns jumping off of it. Alan talks about it all the time.

Cam was able to go on a boat ride with Paul and he had a lot of fun. He absolutely hates water, but he really liked the boat ride. After the ride he kept saying "Boat make a mess of the water". I think it's because the boat would disturb the calm water and so the water wouldn't look as calm anymore. He still says it all the time. He didn't know what a boat was before this trip. Now he spots them everywhere and just yells out "Mom boats"! He's so funny!

On Wednesday we went down to Salt Lake and did a few things. My parents and our little family went to Welfare Square. It was really cool to see all of the things that they do there. I have never doubted that the church put our fast offerings to good use, but it was neat to see exactly what good use they go to. The Elder that took us on our tour said that he wishes more people would come and see exactly what goes on there. He says fast offerings would go up immensely if people were more aware of the need and the good that the welfare system of the church does. What was amazing to me was to see the organization and how percise the church is. This is defintely a church of order and you can see that in everything that the chuch does. There was such a spirit of giving there and a realy concern for the people of our faith and even the people that aren't of our faith. Our church really does a lot for humanitarian needs that are here in the U.S and other countries. It was really cool for Alan and Connor to see why we fast and where our money goes to . I think it will help Alan for the times that he does fast when he really doesn't want to. He has now seen why we do it and who it is helping. I think it is so important for us to get out of our little bubble and have our eyes opended to what is going on in the world. There are so many people suffering right now and it feels so good to know that we are helping relieve other people sufferings. This is only one simple way to do that and I think it's important for our children to see that it is our responsibitly to help take care of our brothers and sister whether or not they are LDS. I encourage anyone to go to Welfare Square and feel the spirit there. It is an absolutely amazing place. It's is sure to affect you in one way or another.

So after Welfare Square we hooked up with other parts of the family and went to Temple Square. Again, I forgot my camera. I took picture on my dads and Timmy took some of our family. We had a good time there and it's a good place to take the kids. As they get older they understand alot more and start to ask questions. I love it when they do and I hope in some way they are starting to grasp the mission of the church and are gaining testimonies at the same time.

On Thursday we all went down to Hill Airforce Base. They boys of course loved it and Lexi and Madison wandered around finding stuff that was girly. They are so cute together. Neither one of them has a sister to play with so when they are together they are pretty much inseperable. I am glad that they have each other.


That's a pretty big wheel!

This is my nephew Brenden. He is so chunky! He is so cute though and really is a good boy! Good job Christie and Moss!

While we were outside looking around at all the planes there were fighter jets flying above and they were so LOUD! Lexi really didn't like them!

Christie was so excited to be here! She is a good poser!

The girls found the girlie stuff. They are so funny. They kept posing by things and having me take pictures. They thought it was pretty cool that women were able to fly some of the planes during the war.
This was one of their favorite planes.

On Tuesday and Thursday night we played volleyball. We really had a lot of fun. Even those that had never played an organized game of v-ball learned the gist of it and caught on quickly. I hadn't played v-ball since high school. I found myself doing things that I had been taught while playing on the high school team and it was fun. I did a couple of dives but no worries I didn't land on my stomach at all. Paul however, landed on his shoulder trying to do a pancake and messed up his peck muscle and has still not gone back to work. We are hoping tomorrow he will be able to go back! I was just worried about him hurting his ankle, but instead he went and jacke up his shoulder. When does the competiveness end?

Brayden and Cam wanted to go on a motorcycle ride. Cam wore that helmet upside down almost all night. I could not stop laughing at him!

On Friday we all headed home. My parents and our little family still had things to see so we eventually made our way home. First we went to This is the Place Heritage park. It ended up being a free day for everyone so that that was really cool. It saved us $30. there were so many people there though and it was pretty hot, but we still had fun.

Cam found a little lamb.

Connor and Lexi watching the blacksmith.

Our family in front of the Brigham Young Forrest home.

Deciding what to do next.


We found East High School (where High School Musical was filmed). Lexi was so so excited! She really wanted to go insde. Maybe someday.

Well this day was actually our wedding anniversary. Paul and I have been married for 11 years. I really can't believe it has been that long. We have had some good and some rough years, but it has all been worth it. I can honestly say that I have a deeper and fuller love for Paul than on the day that I married him. He is my best friend and he still makes me laugh everyday. Even if he is a dork sometimes! Well I really do have some great parents! They took all four of our kids with them to my Grandparents house in Payson and Paul and I were able to stay in Salt Lake on Friday. We thought back and the last time that we had time away from all of the kids was 3 years ago when we were able to go to Sea World by ourselves. My parents take the 3 older ones here and there but we always still had Cam because he is still to young. So it was so cool to just have a night to ourselves. It helps you focus back on your relationship and recharge some batteries. We were able to get a hotel by Temple Square that was in our budget. For dinner we went to The Garden. It's on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was a very nice dinner and quite inexpensive. I would reccomend it to anyone. After that we stood in front of the temple and took a gomer picture of ourselves. We aren't very good at self portraits!

Told ya!

After our dinner we walked down to the Gateway and wandered around for a bit. We decided to see Transformers 2. It began at 9:40 and didn't get over until 12:15 a.m. We had to walk about 3 blocks to our hotel. We were a little bit nervous, but we made it.
Thanks again to Mom and Dad for taking the kids and letting us have some alone time. We so needed it! I am sure it will be a long time until we get to do it again.

On Saturday morning we headed down to Payson to meet with my parents. On they way down we found out that my Grandma was in the hospital. We stopped by and visited with her for about an hour. I really don't like to think about when either of them won't be with us anymore. I wish we could spend more time with them and that they lived closer. She is out of the hospital now and doing better.
After we picked up the kids and got the house cleaned up we went to the Scottish Festival. Paul being 100% Scottish was pretty excited to go to it. The kids were excited too. They are pretty proud of their heritage.
The first thing we saw and could hear were the drum and pipe bands. They sound so cool. I would have just loved to sit and watch them all day!
We even found some sausage rolls. They are so so yummy! If you have never tried one you really need to! Pauls mom makes them and they are so good. We don't get them enough though!

The kids had some chicken and fries. They wouldn't touch the fish n' chips so us and my parents took care of it.

We even found the cutest little puppies there. My mom wanted to buy one so bad, but she didn't. Cam loved this little fella!

So we finally headed home. We had a good time, but it is always good to get home!

Holy Cow I think that is the longest post ever! I really hope I never have to do that again! I need to stay up on this blogging better!

Happy Father's Day

Yeah I know it was a couple of days ago, but I am a little slow! Well I think we had a good day. I hope Paul enjoyed it. He really doesn't like the attention, so I have to be careful not to make a big deal out of it. For Father's Day we got him a tackle box with some fishing supplies, a HUGE ole' pancake spatula that he found at Lin's and a new bladder for his camelback (water holder thing that he takes to work). I just want to take a minute to tell Paul how grateful I am for him. He works so hard for us. I know some days it is sooo hot and he has to be out there in it, while I am in my nice air conditioned house. More importantly though I really appreciate how serious he takes his church callings and the privelage of holding the priesthood. His such a good example to our boys and our little girl. I hope that they really understand how much their dad loves the church and its many responsibilities. Paul loves being a dad and he never tries to pass his responsibilites off onto someone else. He knows his role and he lives it. Thank you Paul for being who you are and taking care of our physical and spritual needs. We love you!

Now to my dad. He's an interesting fella! No one else just like him! He has always been there for us. I remember him being to almost all of my activites growing up. He had to work so hard for our family. He was always available to help us with homework (even if he did make us cry when doing math)! He also made sure we had fun and did things as a family. He loved to make us have forced family fun! Even when we give him a hard time because he can be such a gomer, he forgives us. Like the trip I took to Australia with my parents, Timmy and Christie. He really should have left Christie and I in Australia because we just were not very nice to him. We got bored a lot and he was our entertainment. (Sam? Whose Sam?) Anyways, dad I love you and I am so glad that you are such a huge part of my life and my childrens lives. We seriously couldn't ask for a better Grandpa!

Also, thank you to all of the men out there that are apart of our lives and our children's. You have been awesome examples for them and we are so grateful for that!

Here comes another McInnes!

I guess it's about time that we announce that we are going to be adding one to our family. This little one should appear around the end of November. Which by the way is very bad timing due to it being "peak" at UPS. It's going to be a very long December! We are very excited about having another baby. The kids just can't wait! They are really hoping for a baby girl. We won't find out though until it is born. Yes, we are some of those not so normal people that don't find out what they are having. We like to keep it exciting. We are extremely anxious to get the ultrasound to make sure all is well. That will probably take place around the middle of July. At this point I am 16 weeks and I am doing pretty good. Since I changed my prenatal pill schedule I am feeling really good. I just have to eat all the time. Which can be very annoying! So we shall keep you posted on anything exciting that should happen.

Fun at the water park

While Paul was on vacation this last week we did a couple of things. We went to the water park one night and just enjoyed the cool weather.It's starting to get to hot to enjoy. This Cam just wandering around. He is at one of my favorite ages. He will be 2 next month. I can hardly believe he is that old. He reminds me a lot of Alan, but in Connor's body! He does the same kind of things that Alan used to do. He has this gomer smile that Alan had. It really makes me laugh!

These guys were there too! They really had a good time. Cam could not keep up with them. His legs just aren't long enough yet.

Cam really does not like water and so Paul took him around to touch the water. After awhile he started to like it and would touch it with it with his feet. The funniest thing happened. So randomly this water feature will turn off for a few minutes and you can walk around in it and not get wet. Well Paul decided to walk to the middle. All of a sudden the water turned on and he got soaked. I so wish I could have gotten a picture of it. It made me laugh so hard! Well we had a lot of fun there. I'm glad Paul was able to go with us. I kind of like him! He's fun to have around!

Cora's birthday

Cora's birthday was a very good day for our family. For those of you that don't know our Cora, she was born on May 11, 2000 with a fatal birth defect. We knew before she was born that should would not survive. She lived for about an hour and a half. It was an amazing day that Paul & I will never forget. A lot of emotions went into that day. For her birthday Paul and I try to go to the temple. We usually do an endowment session, but Paul wanted to do sealings instead. I am so glad that he did because it was an amazing experience. We ended up sealing daughters to parents. We didn't plan it that way it's just what needed to be done. As a parent many of you would probably agree that you worry about your children no matter where they are. If they aren't with you, you just have a worry in the back of your mind that makes you want to know that they are ok. Even if they are with someone you trust with your whole heart. My prayers were answered that day in the temple and I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves his children enough to give them undeniable answers to righteous requests. We had an unforgettable event happen and for that I am extremely grateful to my Heavenly Father and for his love.

That night for dinner we went and picked up some Subway and Jimmy Johns (for me) and went out to Cora's grave at Tonaquint Cemetery. We have made it a tradition to go out there with the whole family and just sit and talk about her and what she would be doing at this age. We got her some white roses and a Happy Birthday balloon. When we found out about Cora's birth defect we had the unfortunate task of picking a burial plot. With Tonaquint being completley empty because it was so new we pretty much were able to choose any plot that we wanted. We chose one that is located near a Fruitless Mulberry tree. At the house that I grew up in we had a huge one in our front yard. I climbed that tree all the time. It just seemed right to bury her by the same kind of tree. I think it was a comfort thing for us. Every year we have the kids climb the tree. Cam was able to get up there this year

We had a really good time with the kids at the cemetery. I believe with all my heart that you can feel her spirit out there and I know the kids can feel it. It's the one place that all of us can go to remember her and get to feel of her love. We miss her immensely, but we know that through the Plan of Salvation that our Heavenly Father and Christ prepared for us we will be with her again. It is our responsibility to now live as righteous as possible so that we can be with her again! Thank you to all of you that showed your love and support to our family on this day. Whether it was by posts on Facebook, babysitting so that we could go to the temple, by leaving a plant at her grave or just by thinking of us and remembering Cora. We have wonderful friends and family that are truly amazing. We are a very blessed family!