Kids Say the Darndest Things...

My conversation with Gavin this evening as we were getting him ready for bed...

Me: Are you going to let me brush your teeth tonight?

Gavin: No, Randi

Me: Hey! It's Mom to you, little man

Gavin: No, it's Randi to me

Happy Easter!

Recent Adventures...

This is going to be a long post since I have some catching up to do, so I will try and keep it short!

I’ve decided I go through phases with blogging and facebook. Sometimes I post more on the blog and facebook gets a little neglected and vice versa. Anyway, here are a few things we’ve been up to…

In March we went to Bear Lake and stayed at one of our rental cabins with my side of the family. We had so much fun hanging out, watching movies, playing games, hot tubbing, eating, etc! We met up with Joey & Emily, Chuck & Ginger and some other friends for some sledding one day and that was good times! I think that weekend was a nice little break for all of us. Thanks to all who came and made it such a good time. Here are some pictures from the weekend… Gavin and I were able to go jeeping with our wonderful friends Sean & Wendy in Moab at the end of March. We had a great time and it was a nice break away from the cold weather. Thanks to them for being such super fabulous friends! We were sad Brent wasn't able to join us, but he was nice enough to let us go anyway! One of the days there Gavin and I got to meet up with our awesome friend Amanda Tye and hang out with her and her family for a while. Her family is the coolest! We watched her brother play in a volleyball tournament there in Moab and his team ended up winning the tournament! I was a silly goose though and didn't get any pictures with her! Doh! But here are some jeeping pictures…
Brent had a fabulous idea that we should buy season passes to Beaver Mountain while they are on sale. So we bought our’s and then Gavin’s was free! We will get him started next year, probably with skiing, and see how it goes. We went last week with Chuck & Ginger and it was interesting! I haven’t been for a long time and I’ve never been very good at it, but Brent is a pro and a very good teacher, so that helps a lot! He is so patient with me. Thanks babe! Here are a few pictures we snapped along the way…
Time to dust off the running shoes! I decided I wanted to train for something again so that I can have a goal and get back into the groove of consistently exercising. Jaimee is training for a triathlon and I was thinking of doing that with her, but I am not a swimmer and I’m afraid I would drown! So I am training with Sean & Wendy to do the Cache Valley Biathlon in June! I am excited to do something different this year instead of just running. So this course is a 5 mile run & 16.5 mile bike ride. Wish us luck!

That's all for now!

Happy Birthday...

...old man! He he he!

Just wanted to do a quick post to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! He turned 31 on Saturday (March 7th). We went out to dinner and a movie to celebrate his birthday and it was nice to have some quality time with just the two of us. Thanks Mom & Dad Hirschi for watching Gavin so that we could have a night out!

Brent, thanks for all of the many wonderful things you do for our family. And thanks for keeping us afloat. Our lives would be a lot different if it wasn't for your ingenuity!

P.S. Just remember, you'll always be older than me! :) (I just had to go ahead and rub that in)

We're Still Alive...

I can't believe it's almost been a month since I posted last! Here are a few events that have happened at our house lately...

*In Twilight related excitement, my friend Heather gave me the Twilight Soundtrack and I am LOVING it! Thank-you Heather. Also, my fabulous husband pre-ordered the Twilight Two-Disc Special Edition DVD for me for Valentine's Day. (after an oh so subtle hint from me) Yeah! I can't wait! (I still can't believe I'm one of those crazy Twilight fans, but I love it!)
* Brent finished the house at Bear Lake and it looks awesome! More info and pictures coming soon...
* We got our taxes done early! Yay! And even though we were at our tax appointment for over 2 hours (our taxes are a little complicated) Gavin was really good the whole time. As we were sitting there Gavin was apparently a little gassy and let 'er rip while we were talking to our tax man. Then he had to point to his bum & say, "TOOT!" (We have no idea where he learned that) It was hilarious! If we weren't so comfortable with our tax man it would have been pretty embarrassing. He just laughed right along with us.
* The nasty cold/sickness that is going around made it's way to our house. Blah! It went from Brent to Gavin to me. I was so mad because I was eating healthy and doing good at not getting sick, but I still caught it. Oh well, what can ya do. Thank goodness for Children's Motrin & DayQuil. And thank even more goodness we didn't all have it at the same time!
* Our neice Brooklynn was baptized this month. We were glad we could be there for this happy moment in her life! Afterward Gavin kept saying that he wanted to be "bath-tized" too.
* Our cousin Julie left for her mission on Feb. 18th. I was able to go with her when she went through the temple and we were all able to attend her farewell. From the time she got her call to the time she left was only about a month. It went by really fast! She is such a positive and cute person and we will miss her, but we are happy for her too!

Some random pictures...

Pardon My Bragging...

…but my husband is amazing! And so I just have to share why. I often say how grateful I am that Brent is such a handyman. He has saved us so much $$$ over the years by figuring out how to do/fix things on his own. He loves to learn and if he doesn’t know how to do something he finds a way to learn about it and do it. He has learned to do footings, framing, roofing, build decks, tile, paint, do siding, install wood floors, electrical, plumbing, hang, tape, mud & sand sheetrock, put up trim, and pretty much anything it takes to build a house. I am always amazed at his motivation and drive to get things done. He built our house in Millville where we live now (with help from family and friends) while working and going to school full time, re-modeled our trailer house at Bear Lake while getting our new business up and running, built two houses in Cache Valley and two rental cabins at Bear Lake with the Freedom Home Builders business, and is now building another house at Bear Lake for us to rent out or eventually use while we are there in the summers. What a guy!

Here are some shots of Brent working on the tile floor in the kitchen of the house we're building at Bear Lake…

Here are before & after shots of our trailer house @ Bear Lake:

...and that’s just the outside. You should see all of the work he did on the inside! It’s crazy to look at the difference now. Someday I will post those pictures too.

Here are before & after shots of my grandma’s bathroom that we (mostly Brent) recently re-modeled.

Before:

(We had obviously already removed some things,

but you get the picture...it was pretty bad)

After:
Fabulous!
My grandma lives in a really OLD house and her bathroom needed some TLC. She was in the hospital during December dealing with some health problems, so Brent took charge and decided it was a perfect chance to re-do her bathroom while she was out as her Christmas present! Thanks to all those that helped and donated time, money, talents, toilets, vanities, etc! (Parker, Kelby, Jason, Travis, Rich, Jana, Nick, Linsey, Eric, Ryan, Ronda, Mom [Joni], etc.) Please smack me if I forgot to mention you!

Anyway, more boasting about Brent… (sorry, I just can’t help it! He’s too humble so I have to toot his horn for him!) If one of our cars, four wheelers or golf carts have problems he knows/can figure out how to fix it. And if he doesn’t, we are very lucky that my father-in-law, the amazing Loran, teaches auto mechanics at Bridgerland and is willing to help us out!

I have often taken this quality in Brent for granted because that is just how he has always been, but I want him to know how proud I am of him and how grateful I am to be his wife. I really do appreciate all that he does for our family. ‘Good job’ (inside joke) honey, I love you!

December Fun!!!

“BRIDAL” PICTURES:
Our cousin Katie (who took Gavin’s 2 year pictures – see below) started doing photography and she needed some bridal models so that she could build up her portfolio. So, Jaimee and I got to be brides (again!) for a day! It was so fun! I haven’t dressed up all fancy for a long time. Lucky for Jaimee she still had her dress from when she got married, but I had to find one to wear because when Brent and I got married I rented my dress. So Katie’s aunt Stephanie let me wear her dress. It almost fit except for in one area…so I got to add some padding if you know what I mean! Ha ha! Too much information! Here are some of the pictures:

Just a bunch of GOOF BALLS! We had so much fun that day. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Thanks girls! I have to tell you the funny story about the "Rental" picture! So Brent knew that I was taking the bridal pictures, but neither he nor I knew exactly where we'd be taking them. So we went into downtown Logan to take a few and we saw the building that said "RENTAL". Katie told me to go pose by it for fun. So I started being a dork and doing funny poses and then I hear someone from the road yell, "Woo hoo Boogins!" I look up and sure enough it was Brent leaning out of his truck window and yelling as he drove by! It was hilarious and quite the coincidence! We were laughing so hard!

(You can check out Katie’s photography web-site at: http://www.milkweedphotography.com/)

CHRISTMAS!
We got invited to go stay at the Hirschi home on Christmas Eve this year so we took them up on the offer! Brian, Jaimee & Spencer also stayed and it was so fun to stay up late in our Christmas PJ’s wrapping presents and then wake up together Christmas morning. I can’t believe we’ve been married for 7 years and we haven’t done that yet! I guess it’s probably because we live so close. Here are a few enjoyable memories from our stay:
- Brent seeing the Black & Decker Junior tool set I bought for Gavin from a distance and thinking it was for him! He said he thought to himself, “Why did Randi buy me those cheap Black & Decker tools? I already have a drill, etc. etc. etc.” Ha ha! We got a good laugh!
- Gavin & Spencer fighting over their toys. Okay, so that wasn’t so enjoyable, but they are so funny because even when Grandma & Grandpa Hirschi pulled out their train gift and they each got one, they still fought over one of them! Boy Jaimee and I are excited for when they grow out of this stage! (Does that ever happen?)
- Waking up to Marcile’s wonderful homemade wheat waffles! Yummy! Those were so good. Gavin even ate one whole waffle. And for him that’s a lot! All of Marcile's cooking was wonderful!
- Brian pulling out Loran's old electric train set from when he was a kid! He and Loran set it up and it was neat to experience that. The kids (and older kids!) sure enjoyed it.

- The Christmas Eve traditions of opening our PJ's, hearing the story of the birth of our Savior, and Grandma Rhea's wonderful "Zipper Boot" story!

- Snow! We were all so happy that it was a beautiful white Christmas!

On Christmas we traveled out to Tremonton for my family party. We had a delicious dinner and then we played our traditional "Left & Right Game". Then we went over to my mom’s house and opened presents and stayed the night there. I’m glad we didn’t have to drive home that night because it was quite the blizzard! Thanks to all of our family for making our Christmas so wonderful!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We had a fun get together at Bear Lake for New Year’s this year. We were going to stay at one of our cabins but they both got rented out, so luckily Brian & Jaimee let us stay at one of their’s instead. Thanks again guys! We ate way too much food, played Rock Band, Sequence, Hand & Foot, etc., watched TV, got in the hot tub, went snowmobiling, and just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company! Thanks to everyone who came and made it so fun!

Incase You're Wondering...

...why I've been so slothful at posting these days,

Two Words: Twilight Series.

Enough said :)