Pat his cheeks and Give him WHAT?

A GREAT BIG KISS... MUAH!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful MEN in my life (ok, that sounds kinda bad, but you get the picture, right?)

Just gotta brag about this MAN!

Sorry ladies, YES, he's taken. Without being asked, or even prompted... he enjoys a clean house too and will do whatever it takes to help out!

And the craziest part about Jason, is he actually 'WILLINGLY' and 'knowingly' wanted to MARRY Me!! Yeah, and not just for this life... but E-t-e-r-n-i-t-y!!!!! Crazy man!

I mean, seriously, what man is willing to dress up in 'towels' because his little daughter wants to play 'reinact' the nativity scene complete with dolls, in our living room after dinner?

So our washer decided to break down about a week ago (mucho props to those pioneers)... and one night I was looking for Jason and couldn't find him... and I spot this little spot of BLUE

oh! There he is! He's got to get in there and 'try' to 'check it out'. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "just checking to see if I can figure it out". Ohh... with all the appliance repair experience he's had and all... haha! JUST LOVE IT! He makes me SMILE! :-)

I mean, come on? What's not to love! He wasn't wanting me to take this picture, but I DID! Such a BABE! No really, I wanted to tell him how amazingly DEDICATED and MOTIVATED he is! He has gone 3 weeks now without ANY sweets because he has a weight goal and he's 2 pounds away! He has been to the gym every morning at 5:30am. for months! :-) Super duper dedicated!
Happy Father's Day! Seriously, why does Gracie call me 'Daddy' all day long? I mean, is it because she WISHES I were really Jason... or is she gender confused? She used to say Momma, just fine. Now, it's only DADDY around here! I guess that's okay, he is a superb father who is absolutely ADORED around this house!

WEDDING # 6 !!! HOLY MOLEY!

Gracie and her cousin Jack! Those two love to wrestle, it's hilarious!

You are seeing correctly! haha!! This picture is awesome! Jenny finally broke out the goggles because our eyes were BURNING from cutting up all the onions! This was the MORNING OF the reception... we had a veggie cutting party! 

Everyone hard at work! The SIXTH wedding, man we SURE got this thing DOWN! Wouldn't it be nice sometimes to cook meals together... then you got ALL these awesome helpers to do all the dirty work! 

Granddad is in the back, Micah is popping his head out (cousin from california), Mike is 'watching us all work', Pam (aunt from california), Bonnie and Katelyn, Uncle Mike (sitting by mom, her oldest brother), and me with the knife... watch out!! 

Uncle Mike never had children, so it's CUTE to see him with Jade, and she liked him! 

Jen with Laura (Uncle Mike's friend/we want her to be more, but whatever), Pam (Uncle Mark's wife).

My Grandad, My Uncle Mark, and Mike (doing the crossword).  Mom's gonna hate me for putting this picture up, but I think she's ALWAYS cute!

Of course my camera battery died the night of the reception so I have NO PICTUREs of that... thanks to my sister HEather, she gave me all these Temple shots. -Outside at the Salt Lake Temple, the kids were anxiously awaiting the bride and groom!

Jade couldn't get enough of Tiffany (she was a princess)! All the girls loved to hold her dress and walked around together (so adorable). 

The ANDREWS CLAN!!  The WHOLE FAMILY!! Can you tell what her favorite flower is??

All the bridesmaids with the happy couple!!

Heather got a snap shot of us before the luncheon! The girls were SO tired and SO hungry and Gracie already ripped her bow out for the GAZILLIONTH time.

You can see Tiffany's dress in this picture... so pretty and unusual.  I loved it. 

I love this picture! Jade just couldn't get enough of Tiffany in her dress, and all of us in our dresses... it was a like a HUGE DAY OF DRESS-UPS and princesses! She was in HEAVEN! 

MIKE got HITCHED! That's right, my little bro got married! IT was a beautiful day, a very special sealing and fun times with the family.  I think I slept like 5 hours in about a week span though! We had too much fun talking until late with family from out of town, playing sequence, baking bread with Jen (and having a 'milkshake' talk with the bride to be)... ya'll can figure that one out! It was a GREAT WEEK and we are excited to add another SISTER to our family! Tiffany and Mike went on their honeymoon to San Diego and left for a 3 day cruise.  FUN!! 

I just LOVE this GIRL... (part 2)

 I remember asking my Mom how she could love us so much... then when I had Jade placed in my arms for the first time and starred down at this little perfect baby, I knew.... 
All grown up now! Pretty soon she'll be asking for the car keys, what happened to my little baby?... sniff, sniff. 
On Saturday we were out watering and she couldn't resist the moment! She had to go get her swimsuit on (or I MADE her after she soaked her clothes she was wearing)


Some of the cousins playing games! We played, I SPY, and we played the FREEZE game and duck, duck goose... we had all sorts of FUN!
Look how cute my Mom is decorating the table all pink and I got princess balloons and plates to match the cute decor!
Love this picture! This is Jade, Mia (jen's oldest) aka.. Jade's IDOL, and cute Katelyn- of course a princess party wouldn't be complete without looking like PRINCESSES!
My little baby girl- Gracie.  She HAD to let us all know, she is a princess too!
This is the princess cake I made! I have to give due credit to Jason for frosting this masterpiece... he DID! I was busy running back to the craft store for the doll piece because the original doll I bought, well, let's just say, it didn't work out.  I sure hope she appreciated this! :-)
I didn't want to blow up the house, so I took the doll off for the candles.  
                          Jade opening her gifts... everyone helped... it was SO CUTE!

Our little cousin Micah, came from California for the wedding and it was fun to have him there. Jade LOVES the older kids attention! She just follows them around like a puppy dog!
This is Brian (i explained in the above post) who was so kind as to put together Jade's new Ariel tricycle~ It was quite the job! Glad he volunteered for it! 

My Little Jade Marie is "3" 

So Jade's birthday was May 21st and it was the DAY of Mike's reception, so we didn't get to spend time celebrating her birthday.  We made up for it though!!! We had all the cousins (who were in town) over and had a super fun princess party!! It was great and she had the time of her life! Thanks everyone for coming! I can't believe I have a three year old! I just LOVE her! :-)

PHEWWW! (part 1)

                      A picture of the yummminess! oh... I LOVE SUMMER!

                              Halfway up the Y mountain.  It was funny, Jade kept asking, "where are all the animals?"  So...
It was funny because once we got to the top, there was this big group of BYU girls who made it to the top and were screaming, and freaking out that they made it and taking picture after picture, and videos of themselves...(they even talked about not shaving their legs for a month, and all sorts of interesting conversations i wish i couldn't hear) So when Jade was disappointed that she did not see 

Any animals... we told her "oh yes you did, you saw some ZUBBIES"!!  Seriously, sometimes I wonder about them!
                      Carrie my little sister (AND my sister in law) ... super FUN! It's great to have her in BOTH families!
              Jade and Katelyn (joel and bon's little girl) had so much fun rolling down the hill in their dresses! Yep, there are several shots of cute princess panties!
                    Jack (Carrie's little boy) and Gracie with Grandma! They love her. All kids love her!
                                  Me and my big sista  JEN!!! She's the best. And i love her hair curly! Isn't it CUTE? It's all natural!! 
                      This is my CUZ from Maine! He's doing some work in Salt Lake and comes to hang with us sometimes! We are trying to convince him to stay here in UTah, become a Mormon, and marry a cute girl and live happily ever after....  yeah, i think he has other plans... BUT we're WORKING on it!
                     My adorable loves! Gracie just makes me smile all the time! Jason is the best Dad!

Oh my goodness! It has been the craziest few weeks! I have a lot of catching up to do! 

Here's WHY:

*Mother's Day Weekend - YEAH! i got a new camera! I can take pictures again!

*Cassi (Jason's cute sister) went through the Temple and it was Sooo special! We just love that girl (more pics coming)

*Jade's 3rd Birthday

*Family coming to visit for the wedding which was super fun and meant LONG, LATE nights of GAMES, VOLLEYBALL, TALKING, EATING, and CUTTING VEGETABLES, MaKING Rolls, and doing music all to prepare for the MR. and Mrs. Andrews to be!!! It was fantastic and fun to see everyone.  Good times! :-) 

*Mike's WEDDING- ahhhhh... it's over now. YIPEE! It was super fun!

So this is part 1 MOTHERS DAY!

We had a great mother's Day weekend and it involved a hike up the Y mountain with my cute husband and our girls and on Sunday a great fun pot luck in the park with all the fam! Then a visit to Jason's parents house to wish my awesome mother- in law a happy Mother's Day!! Stay tuned for part 2....

Three DAYS and ....

NO ACCIDENTS YET!!! WAHOOO! 

      So I thought I'd give a quick potty update! Now that I actually feel better about this whole thing.  If  you asked me a few days ago, I wouldn't have been so positive.  It's funny how you experience with this little ones NEW THINGS... potty training is new for them and for ME! I'm learning right along side of her as she grows up and does all these new things.  Oh the fun joys!!

     So I took the advice from all ya'll about going COLD TURKEY and NOT LOOKING BACK! I was SUPER scared!  It is a scary thing to throw the diapers away and say, OK... we're doing this thing! It's a lot like when I went cliff jumping at Lake Powell and as I was running towards the end of the cliff and knowing it's gonna be TOO late to turn back now as I leapt off the edge... yea, it's a lot like that.  I consider this potty training thing SCARIER! 

     She had a day or two of a few accidents (usually when she was doing something fun and didn't want to stop and go to the bathroom).  She had a few breakdowns and decided she'd RATHER go back to diapers and cried for an hour or so for her diapers again.  It was hard not to CRY with her and say, I KNOW girlfriend, I want DIAPERS BACK TOO!!! :-)  But I was strong and kept with it!! PERSEVERANCE right? Now patience on the other hand... I think I was in the BACK of the line when they were handing out that quality in heaven... So I'm still trying to find it... somewhere. 

     ANYWOO... thanks for all your awesome advice! 

This week has been full of:

*staring at my cute little Jade's eyes forEVER as she sat on the toilet.  

*Making up songs that have to do with potty stuff while she's sitting....

*sitting on the toilet.... and waiting...... and waiting....

*waiting.... and waiting.....

*did I say WAITING.....

*Telling princess stories while we're waiting....

*BRIBES... lots of those!

*ASKING "do you need to go potty"? Are your panties dry?  ... oh about every 5 minutes!

*REJOICING when she goes!!!

*Dealing with minor breakdowns and power struggles

*Washing princess panties-my goodness what did parents EVER do without princesses???

*NOTICING bathrooms for the first TIME at EVERY store I go to now. 

Mike's Gettin' Hitched!

My little brother is getting married in a couple weeks! I can't believe it.  He's found the cutest girl, her name is Tiffany and she's PERFECT for him.  They do everything together and RARELY spend a few minutes apart! They are attached at the hip and love every second together (yes, that's a nice way of saying, they are ALL OVER EACH OTHER)!!! :-) It's cute and we're very HAPPY for them! Here is their announcement and they are having a reception the night before at Jason's Grandparents backyard (which is beautiful)! If you should receive an invite and have moved, please let me know so we can get your new address! Otherwise, COME if you can all who know my Bro! Plus, I don't need to remind anyone how amazingly FUN the ANDREWS receptions are! Of course there will be dancing, and there just may be another surprise appearance of the only and only brother in law CLUB!