Highlights of the last 8 months...

Let's see, what have we been up to these last 8 months? Here are a few highlights....

January 27th- I celebrated my 30th birthday with all of my family around. Rick threw a fabulous and very elegant party for me here in our home, complete with a 5-course meal, roses, candles, a menu card, my china- the whole nine yards. I thought I was the party guru but he's got some skills of his own. I'm taking tips from him now. :) Oh, and the last present I opened was a card from him saying he was taking me to Maui in April for my birthday. I can't wait to turn 40! In fact, I think we should make a big deal of 35....
In March we did our annual trek out to California for a week where we enjoyed a trip to Disneyland and our tradition of going to Palm Springs.

We celebrated Easter at home this year and both my family and Klorissa's family were in town to celebrate with us. We had a grand feast together along with beautiful decorations and a very exciting Easter Egg Hunt- in the house. It was too warm to do it outside- not to mention, we don't have any grass in our backyard yet! In April Blake turned 2 years old- he turned 2 on 4-6-08. Get it? 2/4/6/8? Okay, cheesy, I know. We had a little "Whitning Acqueen" birthday party during General Conference sessions on Saturday April 5th at the park. We did games, pizza, ice cream and a pinata- none of which Blake had the least interest in. Figures! On Saturday April 19th we went to the Temple. On the way we were "discussing" when we should get a new car since we had a baby on the way. I thought we should look into it sooner than Rick thought we should. :) As we were getting on the freeway to go home, we saw a Ford Dealership on the other side. We decided to "take a quick look" and see what they could offer us. 5 hours later, this is what we drove home in. It's exactly what I wanted! I can say this now but I was willing to settle for much less than what we got. You can imagine how ecstatic I was to drive home that night! I don't think Beau & Klorissa were as ecstatic as we were since they unexpectedly had our kids all day long (thank you B&K!).
Rick and I left for Maui on Tuesday morning, April 29th. After a long story of flights being cancelled, planes not working, flying halfway to California then turning around, waiting in the Phoenix airport for about 10 hours, finally getting a hotel and leaving for SLC, then onto Maui the next day, we arrived in Kahului. The weather was beautiful, the airport smelled fabulous of hawaiian flowers, it was Paradise! Rick rented us a Cadillac sports car and off we drove to our hotel- the Hyatt Regency Maui in the town of Lahaina. Our hotel was.....THE BEST! You know how you see on tv what the hotels are like over there, it's tropical and green with exotic birds flying around, you sitting by the pool and someone comes and brings you a refreshing drink while you spend hours tanning or swimming? Then you go out on the town or you have dinner at the hotel and there are torches lit all around and soft ukelele music serenading you? Well, that's how it really was! I couldn't believe how luxurious our stay was in every way. We enjoyed going into the town of Lahaina and having dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, shopping at Hilo Hattie's, walking along the pier, looking for souvenir's.

And Rick went golfing at the Plantation Course at Kapalua where they hold the Mercedes Benz Championship (I really don't know what I'm talking about- I just heard they hold that there and Tiger Woods plays in it). :) I drove the cart for him. I discovered that golfing is really quite relaxing and peaceful- I can KIND OF see why he likes to golf so much. Of course we were in Maui, overlooking the spectacular Pacific Ocean while he played so who wouldn't like golfing when in such circumstances? Anyhow, it was beautiful!
This was our view as we ate breakfast every morning. There were birds flying around and the sweet sound of Hawaiian music serenaded us. They had this huge buffet with everything you would love for breakfy- fresh pineapple, fruit smoothies, these delicious blueberry muffins, potatoes, omelets, cereals, cakes, you name it, it was there and it was good!!!

Beau graduated from Arizona State University on May 9th with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. Go Beau, we're so proud of you! A great accomplishment achieved!

May 25th- we celebrated Lisa's Fabulous 50's Birthday Bash in California. The party turned out great with hot pink and black decorations everywhere, Landon's DJ equipment blaring 50's music throughout the house and backyard, great food, poodle skirts, slicked back hair by the guys and lots of dancing. Klorissa helped me make a poodle skirt which can look rather interesting when you're 5 months pregnant. And of course Klorissa doesn't even look 6 months prego. Not fair!! Oh well, it was for a good cause!

Ted, Ann and the boys came to visit us for the first time in early June. We put up an above-ground pool in the backyard amongst all of the dirt. Rick keeps saying how redneck it is but we have had lots of fun in it and it keeps us cool- as long as we go in before noon. After noon, it's like a warm bathtub. :) That's AZ for you! Anyhow we had a great time with Ted and Ann and the boys. We swam, went to the waterpark here in Tartesso, Ann and I had a girls night where we shopped at Hobby Lobby and got some new home decorations and then some Coldstone ice cream. The boys golfed a few times and we even had a double date nite to Red Robin adn then bowling. It was great to have them here!

Blake and Eric- two little munchkins!RJ makes his Father's Day card for daddy.

All 5 boys watching a movie! Aren't they cute?

RJ has been into his Tinkertoys lately. He loves to copy the pictures off of the carton as best he can. He also builds things with his daddy, like this concoction below. He and Blake also like to make swords and say "arghh matey!" and have a fight.

We went to Utah to visit family in late June and early July. We planned a surprise birthday party for Rick's mom, Mary-Jane. We stayed with Ted & Ann for the first few days and then stayed with MJ and Carl for the last half of our trip. Here is RJ getting a haircut at Ted & Ann's just before baby Annie's blessing. Don't worry, we buzzed it all!

We all surprised Mary-Jane at the Lion House for her 60th birthday. We had a nice dinner together and Ted put together a very nice video of clips and pictures each family made. She was very happy that evening!

We celebrated the 4th of July by going to the Murray Day Parade. The boys had "stars" glasses on and they scored a TON of candy too. It pays to sit at the beginning of the parade. They're more generous with the treats!

Afterwards we went to Grandma and Grandpa Ashton's home to visit for a bit. We took some family photos on their beautiful lawn.

The sisters threw Kira and I a shower on Saturday the 5th. We had fabulous food and company and lots of great gifts for our little girls too! Thank you!

Rick and I took the boys to tour BYU campus. We love going here and seeing our old make-out places (oops) and just remembering the good times here at BYU. Here we visited the Hinckley Alumni Center. It was BEAUTIFUL inside and had such a peaceful feeling. We miss President Hinckley. Here is RJ looking up at his picture, asking questions about him.

Rick was hoping to run into a certain instructor who apparently told him years ago he wouldn't have a chance of getting into dental school and becoming a dentist. :) Thankfully, he wasn't in the office.

When we arrived home on the 6th, Klorissa went into the hospital. Karlee Sue Manutai was born the next day - on 07/07/08 at 7:07 pm and she weighed 7 lbs 7 oz. They need to go to Vegas on this one! Isn't she gorgeous? And of course Klorissa has a bow on her head even before she leaves the hospital.

RJ is helping get things ready for baby Ellie's room. He took off the old knobs and is going to put the new ones on all by himself. He's my little handy man!

Helping daddy fix the crib up for Ellie...
The boys are surprised to see pink in our house!

RJ loves making these funny faces lately. Such a boy! More tinkertoys creations.

Blake LOVES making unique swords.

The Friday before I went in to the hospital, we did a deep cleaning of the house. Here the boys are helping clean the back sliding door. Such good little helpers they are!

RJ's drawings- first of me with Ellie inside my tummy. Also, he's working on his name.

The day Gigi and Haley came we made cupcakes together. I saw a picture of them in the Yankee Candle Magazine and they looked so good!
8/12/08- About ready to pop!!!