Swimming at Jensen's Grove

After 85 degree weather during the day, it was nice to go swimming in the evening.

Cute cousins

We took several great pictures during our stay in Idaho, so the next couple of posts are from our trip.

Spencer and Megan are enjoying an after church snack. Megan is 3 months older, but they are just about the same size.
Gavin loved throwing rocks in the lake.
We are not sunburned! We decided to try some nice self heating facial masks. It was very nice and relaxing.
Uncle Mark with nephew Batman (AKA Spencer).
Kayden is a little monkey and Megan loved watching him climb.

Happy Birthday Megan!

One year ago on May 17th, 2007 we had scheduled a c-section for our little girl to join our family, but she was anxious to come and my water broke one day early. On May 16th, 2007 Megan Laurel Black joined our family weighing in at 6 lbs 15 oz. and 19 inches long. Five weeks previous to her birth, after having an ultrasound, the doctor was concerned that our little girl had Intrauterine Growth Retardation (this occurs when babies stop growing in the uterus and are usually abnormally small) so we immediately drove 4 hours to a larger hospital to get a second opinion. Thanks to a priesthood blessing and technology we learned that everything was okay and Megan was born healthy and happy. She was 1 of 2 caucasian babies in the hospital, but with her dark hair and olive colored skin she fit right in with all the Native American babies. Megan is a joy and we are so blessed to have her in our family.


Gavin instantly fell in love with Megan (just like the rest of us) and I love watching them learn and play together.
We celebrated our princess's first birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Idaho. Aunt Alane gave Megan a crown and doll which she loves.
Of course the best part of the day was the yummy cherry cupcake and ice cream!

Trip to Idaho

We spent the last week in Idaho visiting family and got several great pictures. My brother and his family from Cleveland, Ohio were in town so we got to spend time with them and there three adorable children. It was a nice vacation but we are all happy to be home!

The drive was beautiful and everything was green! Here is the breath taking Grand Teton.
Gavin loved riding the 4 wheeler with Grandpa Black.
Gavin has his own Thomas the Train, but everytime we visit Grandma and Grandpa Black he asks to play with Thomas.
It was a tiring vacation!
Megan is 100% mommy's girl until Grandma pulled out cookies then Megan went right to her!

Happy Anniversary!

On May 11th Mark and I celebrated 6 wonderful years of marriage! He had to work on our actual anniversary, so he planned a get away weekend for us a few days earlier. He told me he got a hotel in a nearby city and we were all going go spend the night, then some friends would tend Gavin and Megan on Saturday so we could have some alone time. He also mentioned that Friday night we were meeting some friends for dinner at 8:30. I lovingly offered to find a babysitter and he kindly replied, "Cassie, I appreciate your help, but please stop! I have everything under control." He had it all planned and I was very surprised when we were on our way out of town and we stopped by a friend's house and left the kids there! Thank you so much Travis and Necia! This was the first night we've had alone since before Megan was born and it was wonderful! It was nice to go to dinner without interruptions, and it was nice to browse at the mall without having to keep an eye on our little ones.
This is the lobby of the Come On Inn where we stayed. It was beautiful!

Mark and I met in October during my freshmen year of college when I was 18. We got married 7 months later in the Idaho Falls Temple. I am impressed by his sincerity and genuine concern for other people. I love his spontenaity (spelling?) and sense of humor, and most of all I appreciate that he always puts me and our children first. We have had many opportunities to learn and grow together and those have brought us closer and made us a stronger couple. I love Mark for countless reasons, and I am so grateful that we have shared 6 years together and I look forward to many more.

New furniture!!!!

After 6 years of marriage, two hand-me-down couches (each with multiple holes) and a tax return, we decided to was time to invest in new livingroom furniture. It was a hard decision! We spent several months looking, and I had difficulty picturing how it would look in our house, but I am very pleased.

Picture of the day #3

One of Mark's co-workers had a lawn mower he said we could have, but we had to go pick it up. It was a nice relaxing trip and Gavin loved exploring their beautiful farm. He especially loved the horses and throwing rocks in the river.

Fix the furnace friday

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend together as a little family, so this update is a few days late, but we had quite an eventful Friday. One of Gavin's friends came over for a while so we planned to go swimming, but in the morning we awoke to snow on the ground and no heat in our house. Mark checked the boiler and saw that the pilot light went out and didn't want to restart, so he called someone to come look at it. The repairman came and turned the heat down and said it desperately needed to be cleaned that day so he gave me a number to call then left. 30 minutes later the same repair guy came back and completely turned the system off. He said it wasn't safe to have the heat on until the boiler was cleaned.
Long story short, I finally contacted someone to clean our boiler and this is how they did it. They brought in this massive tube to suction all the soot out.
These are the enormous vacuum bags that all the junk was sucked into. After the cleaning, the original repair man came back to see how everything went and he said he was surprised we hadn't had a fire or gotten sick from carbon monoxide. I am so thankful everything is okay and that we are all healthy and safe! Gavin and Megan were so patient so we went swimming Friday evening when Mark got home from work.

P.S. We did have a new fire safety system installed (within our budget) that includes heat detectors, fire alarms, gas and carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and an escape ladder. I feel better prepared and informed than before. Thanks for all your fire safety tips and suggestions!

Making pizza

Today was filled with lots of crying, some vomitting, continual runny noses, and intentional naughtiness (performed by Gavin), followed by frequent time outs.

Gavin decided to start testing limits and it's interesting and often frustrating to watch him. This afternoon he carried a cup filled with water into the livingroom (which is not allowed), made eye contact with me, then poured it on my carpet! Following his time out for that incident, he wet his pants and giggled as he it happened. He's been potty trained for over a year, so I'm really hoping this is not a total relapse. I'm open to suggestions!

Mark worked a few hours extra tonight, so to help the time pass more quickly we made pizza.

First we made the dough...
then we spread the sauce.

Picture of the day #2

"Gooey Fingers"

This is what happens when chicken nuggets and mustard are served to a 3 year old little boy.