Girl's Weekends are the Best!!!

This past weekend the Kesler girls took a trip down to Salt Lake to have a little getaway. It was so much fun and much needed (at least for me anyway).

We started our weekend off by attending the Draper, UT temple. It is beautiful! 

We enjoyed a great session!

Then it was off to IKEA! You can't go down to Salt Lake without going to IKEA (the store that has something for everyone). Annie & I's kids are obsessed with "herbies" so we thought we better get a pic.

We all found some fun things. We were there for 2 hours and could've been longer! Great store!

And of course, you got to love the cinnamon rolls at the checkout. I'm sure they do that on purpose. Probably some of the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had!

And you can't leave without buying Daims. They are like mini Skor bars. AMAZING!

We then headed off for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. None of us have eaten there before except for Cami, so we thought we would give it a try. It was well worth the try. Amazing food - huge portions, but amazing food! 

This is right before our table almost got stolen. After waiting 85 minutes it was finally our time to be seated. There was a group of young couples that were standing by us and pretended they were us. But don't worry - Mom came to the rescue! It was hilarious!

We stayed the night at the Kimball Condos right by the Conference Center - very convenient! We had a great time staying up into the wee hours of the morning chatting! Good times huh?

We started the next day off by going to the Beehive House to have a tour. It was neat to see! I love old houses, furniture, etc. It was interesting to see how they lived back in the day! (Brigham Young's day)

In the South Visitor's Center on Temple Square they have this replica of the Salt Lake Temple. It is amazing how perfect it is. It was also neat to have it right there in front of the real temple so you really can see how identical they are.

On one side they have it open and have mini replicas of the rooms in the temple. It was identical and so amazing! How fun would that have been to make that! Highly recommended!

We carried on and had a tour of the Conference Center. It was neat to be so close to where the brethren sit. I've always been in the boonies, so it was neat to see what the view is like closer! Fun Fact: the Conference Center is 1.5 million square feet! Crazy huh?

We tried to take a pic of ourselves in a mirror! It worked!

On the roof of the Conference Center! I had never been up there before. Fascinating!

We had such a great time and are so glad we were able to go. We are missing 2 sister-in-laws and hope to be able to catch them next time. 

FYI: if you get to go to the North Visitor's Center on Temple Square, they have an amazing progressive video called "God's Plan for the Family". It is amazing and you will love it. It really puts our Heavenly Father's plan into perspective. Needless to say, we had a great time and I know I am looking forward to the next one. Thanks everyone!

V-Day!

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day! Scott ended up having the day off which was awesome and then he surprised us all with breakfast in bed. It wasn't just cereal either. It was pancakes, eggs, and bacon! It was delicious! What a great way to start the day. Scott had to go do rounds at the hospital which gave the rest of us time to get ready for the day. 

This is the three boys in their matching shirts from Grandma Ulrich! They thought it would be so cool to be matching! Who knew boys like to match too.

Austin had school and had his little valentines party which he was super excited about. While he was at school, Scott and I were able to go on an afternoon date. Our sister-in-law was kind enough to watch the other two while we went. Thanks Edee! We got a quick bite to eat and then went to the movie "Gnomeo and Juliet" which was cute and very appropriate for Valentine's Day. After we picked up the boys we went and got Cafe Rio (which is my favorite) and took it home for eat together as a family! When we got home the boys had a valentine on their beds. 

They were so excited!

They all got a balloon, a stuffed animal,

and a "squish pillow"! 

Jaxon loved them too although he wasn't too sure about the balloon. What kid doesn't like a balloon - JAXON!

We then ate our Cafe Rio with candlelight. The boys thought that was so cool. They kept saying that it was kind of like a birthday. It was hilarious to hear their responses.

All in all - we had a fabulous day. It was so much fun and so nice to just be able to spend the day with the people that we love the most - our little family!

I love my family so much and am so grateful that I get to be with them for eternity. I love them so much and it was so much fun to spend the day with them! We hope that your day was as fantastic as ours! Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Rough Start to a New Year!

Well our new year started off a little rough this time. Scott got called off at 11:57 PM  to go and deliver a baby so I spent New Year's by myself, but the exciting part is that he got to help deliver the New Year's Baby! That was kind of cool. The kids and Scott were sick off and on all through Christmas and into the New Year, so that was a bumber. Finally everyone is healthy at our house! Goodness!

Jaxon probably had the roughest start. He had to have surgery mid-January. He has had a little hole in his neck the size of a dimple since he was born. We weren't really too worried about it at first but we started noticing it was leaking fluid. We got a couple of doctor's opinions and then went to an ENT to see what he thought. He said that we could wait it out and hope it doesn't get infected, or we could have surgery on it and remove what was called a Branchial Cleft Cyst. We decided to just go ahead with the surgery and not chance infection. He also had some accessory skin on his right ear when he was born and they decided to remove that while he was sedated.

Jaxon bright and early waiting to get some medicine!

Scott was able to come with me which was very comforting. He knows more about this medical stuff than I do, so it was nice to have him there to "translate" as well!

The "bed ride" to the OR! He is starting to look a little sleepy. It is always so cute when they get their medicine and start to get sleepy! He kept turning and looking to make sure Scott and I were still there. He would turn his head and smile and then look forward again! It was so cute!

We got his hospital gown on and his surgical hat and are just waiting in the OR waiting area. He was so drugged by now! Cute and sad all at once! 

 2 hours later they let us know that Jaxon was out of surgery and did great. We walked to his room and could hear him crying down the hall. That was a heart-breaker! He was starving since he had to go in fasting! This seemed to calm him down!

 Hanging out with Daddy!

About a half an hour after he got out of surgery, they let us go home! I was impressed how fast that part was! We were prepared to stay all day, but we were very excited to go home and let Jaxon recover there!

This is a picture of his ear right after. There were two different skin accessories that had cartilage in them. They are still a little bit there, but not as noticeable. The doctor said they will blend in with the fold of his ear as he grows up. (His ear looks disgusting because of the stuff they used to clean the area - I promise I clean his ears!)

This is a picture of the incision of his cyst. Now that it is a month later, it blends in with his folds quite nicely. The doctor did a fabulous job! I highly recommend him. 

His stitches were removed a week later. He is doing great now! The stitches and everything didn't seem to bug him too bad! He was such a champ and did such a great job! He was totally himself after all the medicine wore off! It's just nice to have it done with and not have to worry about infection and things getting worse! There were a lot of prayers in his behalf and I want to thank all of you!

From there things are getting better! Scott is busy with work, I am busy with three little boys, Austin is loving preschool, Koen is in the process of being potty-trained which he is not showing much interest (if anyone has any ideas - I am open to ANYTHING!), and Jaxon is thinking about crawling (now that he is 10 1/2 months old). We are all doing great and loving life. Hope your new years are going well!

I am so ready for WARM Weather!

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Christmas Update - Yeah we are a little late!

It's crazy how long it has been since Christmas already. Well, if you don't mind - I will give a little update. Christmas was fabulous as usual. We had a Christmas get-together with the Keslers a few days before Christmas and had a blast. 

While dinner was being prepared and what not, my older brother Cameron got all the kids pumped about Hot Wheels and the endless possibilities with the tracks. Unfortunately everyone in town was out of the tracks so we had to make do with the one pack we found. 

My mom has a few snow globes and Koen and his cousin Ripken sat and watched them for hours. It was hilarious!

We then had the traditional Nativity story and since there are too many kids and not enough parts, my dad decided to have them hold nativity pieces instead. It worked out great!

My mom and dad like to do something special for the grandkids every year and this year they made these temple blocks for the kids to display in their rooms. Great idea! Austin has his on display and has followed Grandma's counsel of "looking at it everyday!"

This year we decided to switch things up and let the grandkids pick names of one of the cousins to buy a present for. They LOVED it! Austin had Cooper and got him his favorite baseball team figurine.

Koen's face is hilarious! Quinnleigh had him and got him a sports potato head! PERFECT!

Lexie had Jaxon and also got him a sports potato head! He loves it!

Kaia had Austin and boy was he in heaven with more race track and cars. The timing was perfect as well seeing as we could only find one pack of track earlier that day!

Jaxon had Maycee and made her a necklace and some earrings. He worked so hard on them. :)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morn were spent at the Ulrich household. We started off the evening with a lucious dinner and then proceeded to the Nativity. Jaxon got to be Baby Jesus - he was a rather large baby though. He really liked the gifts the wisemen brought though.

Scott's face is hilarious! Is that forced?

That night the boys got to open their Christmas jammies and they were thrilled - can you tell? Koen was sick over Christmas which was a huge bummer because he is so hilarious to watch open presents. He fell asleep early on Christmas Eve and then we had to wake him up for Christmas morn. He then fell asleep while we were opening presents. He was miserable. Poor guy!

This was Jaxon's first Christmas experience and he was pumped! (Ok he didn't really know what was going on, but oh well!)

Koen is slightly obsessed with the Mater Tall Tales and for his birthday was given some of the monster trucks. Austin got him the Mater monster truck to add to the collection. He loves it!

Scott's big item was a guitar. He asked for one last year, but I didn't think he was serious. When it showed up on his list again this year I found out he really was serious! He was so excited and hasn't gone a day without playing it. He even knows about 5 songs now. He is doing great and picking it up fast!

Do you think Austin likes cars? He got a whole trick track set and now we can connect all of his tracks together and make a huge track.

I finally got some Duke gear to root on the Duke Blue Devils in basketball this year! I love it! Go Duke!\

We had a great Christmas and are so grateful we were able to spend it with so much family! We are so blessed and so grateful for all that we have. Thanks so everyone who made this Christmas so special! Hope you all had a great one too! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Kesler Family!