Surprise!! Happy Birthday, Josh!!

Josh turned 30 today, so to celebrate I threw him a surprise party at our church on Saturday. I invited everyone possible and we had a great night. We had pizza, chips, salad and yummy snickerdoodles, plus a cake to celebrate the big 3-0!! Thanks everybody who came and showed your support. It was a great night!!
He was a little surprised to see how many came, but he knew something was up.

Here's pictures of all who attended the party!! It was alot of fun!!

Josh and Jessica Hakes

Jordyn, Jessica, Ben and Matt My favorite people, Nick (my bro) and Julia (my sis)
The Young Family
Josh's family, Kelly, Keet, Karen and Nic! Thanks for traveling so far to be with us.
Josh and his dad
Mike and Jill (thanks for the yummy cookies)
Brad, Tiffany, Kandice, Joriel and Aaron

Jayla and her cousin, Ashlyn. Jayla loves to hold her hand and pull her around.

Jayla eating at the kiddie table, with Kassandra, Morgan, and Jonie

Aaron entertaining the kids by running around in circles.

Our neighbors brought their DDR game and we played that all night. It was a lot of fun.

Doing Headstands. I am can not do them to save my life. Its kind of sad.

From left: Josh Hakes, Jessica, Josh Preece, Julia, Kandice, and Nick
The Hakes twins after a long but fun night. So tired!!

Its time to party!!

New Year's Eve Party!!

We have started this tradition with our neighbors to host a game night every couple of months at our house. It started last new year's eve and we have now done it four times since. We would probably do it more, if I had a bigger house. We had so much fun playing games and eating yummy food. We even had a few neighbors stay til two in the morning playing the wii, I won't mention any names, J. Hakes, and B. and T. Bulloch. By the way, girls, I need recipes of your snacks.

Aerial view of the group! from left to right: Tiffany, Sadee, Josh, Ben and Jessica, and Brad!! Thats my head at the bottom.

Brad again, Kandice, Stephanie (Jessica Hakes sister), Josh H., Babies, Dallin and Hannah. My cute head again.

The best next-door neighbors ever!! We are going to miss you when you move to Seattle! :(

Jayla and her friends, Jonie and Morgan, hanging out in the new wagon.

Brad Bulloch, doing who knows what...Touchdown maybe??
Waiting for midnight, watching the boys bowl on the wii. Jessica and Tiffany, with Dallin.
Josh Hakes trying to keep the kids happy for a few more minutes. They made it til midnight and later. Very impressive little kids. Jayla only made it til ten!
The Morgans, Kandice and Troy, and Matthew getting excited about the wii bowling.

The kids played in Jayla's room most of the night and pretty much destroyed it. Only one thing was broken, however. Just an old necklace, whew!!
Josh showing off his bowling skills.

Jayla's acrobats

I have always planned for my little Jayla to be a dancer, but maybe I should rethink that. Watch this video and tell me what you think.

Christmas Morning!!

Here's a video of Christmas morning. Jayla didn't really get the concept and even turned away to play with Carter's toys. she finally came around though.

Just a few more random pictures of our time in cali.

Testing out their new ride!!

Jayla and Carter watching Carter's new plane fly around a special track.


Julia made Carter and Jayla cute little stools. They are modeling on top of them.

Smiling Sadee Bug! She is now Five months old.

Sadee and Michael got Bumbos for Christmas and of course, Jayla loves them. She wanted to sit next to Sadee whenever she could. It's a little sad that she can fit into them, though.
Riding the neighbor's John Deere Power Wheels.
On the way home from Cali. Jayla was really good as long as a movie was playing. We even have wireless headsets, so the driver could listen to music.

Christmas in Cali!!

We finally made it to Cali. After two nights in hotel rooms, and about a fourteen hour drive from Vernal to San Diego, we did it. I loved every minute of our time in Poway. I tried to show Josh as many Christmas things in Cali as I could. Okay, I tried at least. Three rainy days really limits your time to get out and about. Anyways!!


I took Josh to the Christmas boat show at the harbor. Anybody who owns a boat can be apart of this christmas tradition, just by decorating their boats with lights from top to bottom, Some even blasted Christmas music. Then they drive around the harbor for everyone to see. Jayla loved it and kept saying, "a more, a more." Here's a sample of the boats. Totally cute. We also walked around Seaport Village and rode the Carousel.

Then on Christmas Eve, we drove to see Christmas lights in a local neighborhood. These people go all out and completely cover their houses in lights. Jayla got really excited and pointing at all the lights. We pulled up to one house where they have a Karaoke machine and were listening to a little girl totally ruining "Frosty the Snowman." The guy running the machine, walked up to the car, handed me a microphone and asked me if I wanted to sing. Julia, of course, wanted to do it, so we went out and sang. We ended up singing about fifteen songs. It was lots of fun!!

Here's a sample of us singing, plus more pictures of Christmas lights.

Christmas Miracle!!

Life has been so crazy for our little family that I have not had a moment to blog. Most of the time I tend to ignore my motherly duties for an hour or so to keep everyone updated on our lives. Since it has been a month since I last posted I have alot to say. Better get going...

Now as many of you know, we have been planning our trip to California for Christmas for a year now. I have never stopped talking about and the excitement had gotten so bad I am pretty sure I was bragging more than mentioning it. About a week before we left, Grandpa Preece was in the hospital after having surgery, and Josh's dad called to let him know that he wasn't going to make it through the night. Josh decided he wanted to drive out there and see his grandpa one last time. I really started to stress because I had tons to do, but no help of getting it done. This is where my christmas miracle kicked in.

One friend went out of her way to drop games off that I needed, and watched the girls so I could run to the store. one neighbor drove with Josh to Vernal, so he wasn't alone. (He dropped all his plans, even work.) Another neighbor offered to make copies while at work that I needed for Preschool because of course, I was teaching that week. Plus everybody was there offering to help our family in anyway possible. I would not have been able to accomplish so much without the help of all of my neighbors. Thanks everybody so much!!

Josh's grandpa, sadly, passed away on December 16th and we postponed our trip to Cali a day to attend the viewing and Funeral. It was a wonderful to see all of Josh's family, but we hated the terms in which we got to be together.

Jayla wanted to give Coy hug after hug after hug. I think these little ones understand more than we think.

Hanging out at the funeral home!!

Grandma Preece kept putting her hands on her husband's hands. It was the sweetest gesture of love. We are all going to miss him, but not nearly as much as her.