Birthday Cake

So on Sunday we had a small get together at my parents house to celebrate Jared's birthday. We had dinner, played Nertz, and then had cake and ice cream. I wanted to do something special for Jared so I decided to make him his birthday cake. I am always trying to find new ways to inspire and encourage him and show my support of his career path. So about 6 hours later this is what I ended up with.

Jared enjoyed the cake and had quite the time cutting it. He tried to give everyone enormous pieces. But we had a fun night and I was very happy that Jared liked his cake so much.

Happy Birthday!!!!

To the most amazing husband in the world. You deserve the best today sweetheart. I love you so much!!!

Boise Trip!!

So we are back from Boise and I think everyone survived the Linton family reunion. We got up early on the 2nd and drove to Utah. After an interesting night of bowling in Tooele we woke up on the 3rd and headed up to Boise. We had such an awesome time. Jared's sister Jenny let us stay at her house and we were so thankful for her and Steve's generosity. We always had a good meal, plenty of snacks, and a nice comfy warm bed to sleep in. I have to thank little Alyssa for giving up her bedroom to Jared, me, and Cayden. But I think she enjoyed sleeping on the Princess couch.

The purpose of the trip was for Meggy's baptism. What a special day that was. Meggy just glowed all day. She looked so beautiful in her white dress with an enormous smile on her face ALL day. Jared and I were so glad that we could be there to share in Meggy's special day. We couldn't be more proud of her for making the choice to be baptized. On of my favorite moments of that day was when Alyssa told us she wanted to be baptized too. Emmy told her that she could start preparing now to be baptized by reading her scriptures, saying her prayers, etc. So Alyssa walked into the other room and said "I'm going to go read my scriptures so that I can be baptized." It was so cute and so wonderful to see the good example that Emmy and Meggy had set for Alyssa. All of my nieces are such wonderful girls!

We were sad to leave but Monday rolled around and it was time to go. As we left Jenny and Steve's house there were tears from our beautiful nieces and it broke my heart. I had so much fun with them and wish that we could see them more. But it will make the next time we see each other again that much better. We love them so much! I'm guessing they are pretty fond of me too because Tayler includes me in the list of people she plans to play with.

I had such a great time spending time with Jared's family. I have only been a part of the family for a short time so its always nice when I can spend time with them and get to know them a little better and hopefully they can get to know me better too.

Our newest Family picture (not the professional picture)

Cayden really loved the swing (and his rubber snake)

Cayden in his very first Burger King Crown

Keeping cool in the shade under the trampoline

Apparently the trampoline tastes good...

Playing in the pool (Cayden really does love to swim)

Chillin' on the 4th of July

LOVE TO ALL!!!

I LOVE Family Home Evening Activities

Last night we went to my mom and dad's house for Family home evening. I told My little brother Matt that he had to plan the lesson. Then I told my baby brother Timmy that he had to plan the activity. Matt did a great job on the lesson! As for the activity....you can decide after watching the video.

Timmy was creative enough to come up with his own version of "Majide". So for our activity last night we played an Americanized version of a Japanese game show. Believe it or not, it was really fun.

We are off to Boise tomorrow.

Until we return...LOVE TO ALL!!!!

Father's Day and a Growing Boy

Its been a while now but I wanted to share the happenings of Jared's first "official" Father's Day.

Proud Daddy and son

Since our church starts at 9:00 it was not possible for us to get up and have a nice breakfast. I did however, make Jared open up his gifts before he got too completely ready for church. As I got Cayden ready for church Jared sat on the bed and opened his gift. As most of you know, Jared got a new suit for a graduation gift. Since he got a new suit we figured he needed new shoes. We have shopped around for a while and found a pair that Jared really loved but he didn't want to spend the money on. I decided he NEEDED those shoes so that was his Father's Day gift. He also needed a belt that looked nicer with his suit so he got a new belt too. And to top off the ensemble I had a tie made with Cayden's picture on it.

When we got home from church I made Jared Scooby-Doo waffles (they are his favorite) for lunch. He was bummed that we didn't have them for dinner a while ago so I thought he would enjoy them for Father's Day. After a while of hanging out, putting together a gift for my dad, and making a salad to go with dinner, we went over to my parents house for a Philly cheese steak dinner. It was awesome! After dinner we played some games that Kimmy put together. For one of the games everyone had to trace their hand and try to guess which tracing belonged to each person. It was fun but somewhat difficult. Another game was a Q&A about the dads in our family. It was a really fun evening and Jared said he had a great day.

Answering his questions for the game (he took FOREVER!)

Gotta love the Scooby Doo waffles!

Jared grinned from ear to ear all day. I know Father's Day can be a hard day for him sometimes, but it was nice that this year we could celebrate him. I love to see the love that Jared has for Cayden and the admiration that Cayden has for Jared. I know he is still extremely young but he definitely knows who his Daddy is. The way his face lights up when Jared gets home just melts my heart. The other day Jared was in the bedroom and Cayden and I were in the living room. Jared was talking to me and Cayden followed Jared's voice and found his way to the bedroom so he could play with his daddy. It was so cute. He smiled and was very proud of himself for finding him.

I'm so glad that Cayden wants to spend so much time with Jared. Jared is such a great Daddy. Cayden and I are so lucky to have Jared. We love you!!!

Now for the growing boy! Cayden is getting so big and doing things he shouldn't quite be able to do yet. He is crawling around like a mad man. He's really picked up on that skill. He loves being mobile. Last week he crawled under a dining room chair and got himself stuck. He was not very happy about it.

Now he has a tooth that is ready to break through. We can see it and feel it and we are just waiting for it to surface completely. Hopefully he will be a little happier once it breaks through. He is also pulling himself up now. We had to lower his crib mattress so he didn't topple out of his crib. We have so much fun playing with him and watching him grow.

sleeping in the same position as his daddy

So, besides playing with Cayden Jared has been working, I am working Summer School and in the evenings we are scrapbooking. Yep that's right! In July we should have our 2006 and 2007 scrapbook pages for everyone. You'll have to wait until 2010 for your 2008 pages though. After doing pages for the past years I'm scrapbooked out! Hope everyone is doing well! See you all soon!!!


LOVE TO ALL!!!!!!!!

Crawling, Working, and Playing

More updates on our little Cayden, he's crawling!!! He started crawling on June 3rd. It was such an exciting moment. He's getting pretty fast now too. I think he saw too many other kids being able to move around and decided he was ready to move too. Now there is no stopping him.

Jared and I just returned from a 5 day trip to Utah. We went with the purpose of getting work done on his mom's house. We did quite a bit even though it didn't feel like we did a whole lot. On Saturday Jess came out with her kids. Its ALWAYS so much fun to hang out with them. After visiting for a bit we started working and moved everything away from the living room wall and started peeling wall paper. I would have had an entire sheet pulled off in one piece had Jess not tried to peel in and ruined it! Geez Jess!! I still love you though. SO this is the wall before...

This is Jess working and Jared playing

And this is the wall after...(minus a clock in the empty space that hasn't been purchased yet.)

It was really fun to see all the kids together. Tayler and Rylee loved Cayden. Jayson loved him too just a little to hard sometimes. I got some really cute pictures of the kids together.

Rylee would kiss Cayden and then say "Cayden slobber on me"

These are two of my favorites from the weekend. Tay was such a big helper with Cayden.

Falling asleep in front of Grandma's toy drawer

On Tuesday before we came home we went to the cemetery where Jared's dad is buried. It was very special to me because it was my first time visiting his grave site. But it was more special to be able to take Cayden and even though he doesn't understand us we could talk to him about who he is named after. It was a really nice afternoon.

One Last thing to post. Yesterday was my oldest brother's birthday. We took Chris to Gunther Toody's for dinner. It was quite entertaining. Happy Birthday Chris. We Love you!!

Love to all! Have a wonderful week!!!

Lots to catch up on....

First I want to say I'm sorry for being such a slacker and not blogging. There has been so much going on. So I'll try to remember everything.

My mother's day was awesome. Jared and I had a lazy morning because Cayden actually slept through the night. Well, we didn't want to be late to our ward (we haven't been late once since Cayden was born) so instead of being late we didn't go. We decided to surprise my mom and go to church with them. Well surprise for us....mom was teaching in Primary. So I didn't get to spend time with her at church. Before we went to church Jared gave me my gift.

Beautiful Gift Basket

AWESOME goodies inside!

After church we went back home to change and then went back to my mom and dad's house for dinner. It was such a wonderful day. Thanks Jared for making it special.

On Monday morning after mother's day Cayden decided to get up early and be fussy so I let him sleep with me for a few hours. So when it was time for me to get up I carefully slid out of be so I didn't wake him...

Then when it was time to wake him I got the camera again because he usually wakes up so happy and I wanted it on film....

On May 22nd we went to our third graduation in 2 months. This one everyone was holding their breath until it happened. It was a close call but he did it.

My little brother Matt graduated from Eaglecrest High school. He was bummed that he graduated as a Raptor instead of a Red Knight(the rest of us are Red Knights) but we are all so proud of him for graduating. It was a long a tiring road but he did it. CONGRATULATIONS MATT!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!This is what of Cayden thought of the graduation. It was better for us that he slept. He was proud of his Uncle Matt though.

Cayden had a few firsts this month too. He had his first trip to the zoo on the 23rd. I went with my school class and it worked out that Jared was able to come too. So my mom met Jared at the zoo and dropped Cayden off. We enjoyed our day and Cayden seemed to have a good time too.

Cayden also experienced his first soccer game. Last night we drove out to watch Julie's soccer game. Jared even got to put on the pink uniform, lace up his cleats, and join Julie on the field. In the first 10 seconds he was in the game he had an assist that tied the game 1-1. It was really fun to watch him play. He was dying after about 15 mins. though because he is so out of shape. But he did say those 15 mins. were worth it. We had to leave at half time because Cayden has been sick and it was getting cold and windy so we needed to get him out of the weather.

So to wrap this long and boring blog up. We are doing great! I am looking forward to being done with work for a few weeks until summer school starts. Jared and I leave for Utah on June 6th and we are excited for a break from Colorado life. Cayden is SOOOOO close to crawling. We are just waiting for him to start going forward instead of backward. He is also sleeping through the night from time to time so Jared and I are a little more rested than we have been. Thing are great with us. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!

The Joys of Being a MOM!

I love being a mom so much. Cayden doesn't like to go to sleep and the other night he got really slap happy. It was hilarious!!!

Cayden is now 5 months old. I don't know where the time goes. He is getting so big. He is already in 6 month clothes and will be out of them in a few weeks. At his 4 month check up he was in the 95th percentile for his length, 75th for his weight and 50th for his head circum. I really can't get over how big he is getting. It seems that just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.

With today being Mother's Day I just want to say how thankful I am for the privilege to be a mom. I can't begin to express the joy and happiness that little Cayden brings to my life. As hard as it gets I can't help but melt when I look at beautiful face.

• I love the way he smiles in his sleep.



• I love the way he clings to my fingers when he is taking a bottle.



• I love his stinky little toes.



• I love the way his ears stick out.



• I love when he wakes up from a nap and when he sees me he gets the biggest smile on his face.



• I love to see how much he adores his Daddy.



• I love when he talks to me and wish I knew what he was saying.



• I love the way he uses his eyebrows to express himself.



• I love when he falls asleep in my arms.



• But most of all I love the way he makes me feel as if nothing else in the world matters and that when the three of us are together that's all we need to make it.

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father, Jared, and Cayden for making me a mom. I couldn't have been give a better gift.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful mother's in our family!!! We love you all so much!!!

I DID IT!!!! - Graduation Day

Well, I know that some of you might not believe it, but I finally graduated. It seems like it has taken forever (and it has - 7 years to be exact). My goal was to beat Brent, which I did. So I'm pretty happy about that. It was a great weekend. It was really busy, but very fun.

Mom flew in on Friday night. It was so great to have her here. I was happy that she could make it. We picked her up and then headed to dinner at Atlanta Bread Co. - DELICIOUS! We were all pretty tired and I still needed to do some last minute prep for my big day so we just called it a night.

The next morning the Alumni Association at my school hosted a breakfast. We all headed out early so we could get something to eat. After we ate we had some time to kill so we headed over to the gallery to see the graduation exhibit that was still up without anyone being there. Then it was time for the big event.

I had to be there early for pictures but eventually the ceremony got underway. Art schools aren't so organized and proper like other colleges so it was interesting how everything worked out. My graduating class was pretty small, maybe between 30 or 40. We had 2 valedictorians, one that gave more of an Academy Award acceptance speech than an actual graduation speech. But like most graduations go we were told that now we are ready to go change the world. So here I go. Wish me luck!

After graduation there was a reception back at the gallery on campus. It was fun to be there without any more stress. I was done and it felt SO good.

So with graduation done and over with there was just one more thing to do - Eat! We had dinner back at our place, but I have to tell everyone about the dessert that we had. It was so yummy. It was really simple, but super tasty. It was a pear boiled in white grape juice, sugar, and lemon juice and then placed on a plate covered in pureed raspberries and a dollop of whip cream. YUMMY!!!! You have to try it. If you want the actual recipe just let us know and we would be happy to share.

So that pretty much wraps it up. Everyone keeps asking me what I am going to do now that I am graduated. I keep telling everyone that I am going to Disney World. J/K I plan on working full time for Ideations. I am trying to find studios that I would want to work at and then I can start sending out my resume and demo reel. Then its just a matter of finding a job. Most likely we will be in Colorado for a little while longer, but then we will probably end up moving. For now though we are happy with how things are and it has definately been nice to be home more often.

Just a quick funny story - my friend Josh (the kid walking behind me in the very first picture of this post) was supposed to have honor cords like me, but wasn't given any. So I untied my cords and gave him one and I kept one. So we shared our honors. I felt bad that he didn't have any. So if anyone noticed that that is why I only have one cord instead of two.

We hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all your cards and phone calls. I love you all very much and appreciate your support. Love to all.