My wonderful, amazing, beautiful wife and friend!

I was just thinking about what a wonderfully blessed family I have. Especially in regards to the woman I'm married to. I'm writing this to let her know publicly how tremendously wonderful she is. Let me explain why she is so amazing.

Our typical daily activity:

I get up at 5:00 ish every morning. I quickly and quietly get myself ready for school and sneak out the door in hopes that I don't awake Erin or the boys. After you here the rest of my account a better understanding of my sneakiness will be understood. I then remain at work/school from 5:30 AM until about 5:00 PM. Depending on traffic and patient's I get home anywhere from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. While I'm away Erin gets up with the kids and gets them ready for each days activities. This includes grooming, clothing, breakfast, and their whining demands (very frequent whining demands). She then plans, organizes, and executes daily activities to help the boys learn, grow, and not go crazy. She also takes care of our food, supplies, and most of our bills. She then wrestles with Peyton each afternoon trying to get him to take a much needed nap at the same time Porter, I'm sure, is continually prodding for more this or that (usually game time on the computer). Once the boys are both awake again she begins again the list of tasks and activities mentioned above. Oh, did I mention in this crazy schedule she finds time to do the laundry, clean the house, all at the same time encouraging our boys to learn, from her example, important lessons in life regarding responsibility and hard work. After noticing that the day is coming closer to the time I get to return home, she commences the labor of preparing a wonderful family dinner that will be ready in time for my arrival. She does this I know to ensure that we can all eat around the table together as a family. She does this even though she'll often get a call saying I might be a little later than planned due to lab work or traffic. If I do get home late she always has a plate waiting for me ready to eat. We then spend the next couple hours together as a family doing as much as we can together. We say our prayers and read our scriptures and, depending on the work load I have, we help each other put the kids to bed or she puts the kids to bed. Usually she take the more difficult child, Peyton; because she knows how much I have to try to accomplish with the little time left in the day. I then descend to my cave and read for the next couple hours until I can no longer keep my eyes open. Erin spends this time as her much needed personal time. Often staying up as late as I in order to get to talk with one another before we go to bed. It never fails that not too long after we fall asleep Peyton awakes. Often I don't hear him, but I know that it happens as I awake and pass through the living room only to find Erin and Peyton on the couch fast asleep. Both exhausted from another short interrupted night.

I mention this because it truly exhausts me to think about how crappy our life may seem and how uninviting, to most women, Erin's life may appear; and to most I think they would "never put up with it." Erin does more than just put up with it...she makes it seem wonderful. Our life has followed a very similar pattern for the past 4.5 years and I know I can count on 1 hand, maybe 1 finger the times that I've heard her complain. I know I've done more complaining and expressed my stress way more often than she. She is amazing as accepting our situation and making the best of it (that sounds a lot like some other perfect being we all know and love) She's always encouraging me to do better and thanking me for working so hard. She is the closest I'll ever be to someone or something so perfect. She is supportive and positive which allows the rest of our family greater ability to do the same. I can't express enough how wonderfully perfect she is.

I felt like I should write this and I think it was a great exercise. It let me see really how much she does for myself and our family each day. She is probably one of the least selfish people I've ever met.
I love you Erin.

Porter's 5th Birthday

Porter decided that he could do whatever he wanted on his birthday, so most of his day was spent playing games on the computer, swimming, and playing with his toys by himself.

The Dragon Cake

Porter's new bike from Grandma and Grandpa Gurney

Porter really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheeses for pizza and games. We tried to talk him into going some where else for dinner, but he insisted that the pizza was delicious, so we had to eat there.

Porter got really excited when he saw Chuck E. Cheese

This is Peyton's face when he saw
Chuck E. Cheese

So I posted this because Lynn sang Happy Birthday to "Peytor". I think he forgot whose birthday it was.

Porter's "Pretend" Birthday Party

We thought it would be fun to have a birthday party for Porter with his cousins. Porter kept calling it his "pretend" party because it wasn't on his real birthday. The theme was a carnival. We had games and prizes, cotton candy, peanuts, hot dogs, face painting...the works. The kids had a blast and it was the easiest party I've ever thrown.


We spent all night decorating and painting. We payed for it the next day and had to take a major nap so that we could party in the afternoon. I painted the muscle man.

Jodie painted the monkey

Carnival decorations

Stack Stand

Tanner and Kara

Kendra and Peyton

Porter and Tanner

Me and Jodie

Porter said, "I'm falling at my party"

Kendra is getting a heart painted on her face.

The sun catcher station

They toasted to Porters party

Barry was an awesome hot dog cooker

Balloon toss

He got a few presents from me and a transformer from the Acors.

Wisconsin visit

I decided that since the kids and I were just hanging around this summer, we should take a little trip to Wisconsin to see my sister Jodie, Barry and the kids. They just moved into a huge new house and it was fun to see. Porter couldn't wait to see them. The kids did awesome in the car. I was nervous to travel by my self, but it turned out great! We had a lot of fun! Jodes and I went shopping and found a lot of great things to decorate her new house with.


We went to Rotary Gardens on Tuesday. It was gorgeous! Flowers everywhere! We barely made it through and then it started to rain. The kids had fun running through the mazes and down the trails.






The kids had fun playing outside, inside, riding bikes, playing the Wii and watching movies.

Visiting Heber

We were able to drive to Heber while we were visiting the west. We got to spend a week hanging out, shopping, playing games, and more!

We went to Jump on It which is a trampoline lovers paradise. We had so much fun there. The kids loved it too!

My sister Kim and I

Peyton decided that he needed to feed Karlee :)

Porter adores Karlee and she loves him too. Every time he entered the room, she would just start smiling and laughing. So cute!

We had a family reunion in Park City at a fancy resort called Escala. My brother-in-law works for a developing company that helps with this resort. It was a blast! The Chambers came up and spent the night there one night with us. We were so happy to be able to see them again. Our kids remembered them and Maddie remembered us.

Here we are playing heads up 7-up. Are we still in grade school? It was really fun.

We had a blast swimming in this heated pool.

Us girls hanging out in the hot tub

Porter and Micah

Lynn and Peyton playing with toys

Grandpa is always teasing Porter...watch out he might eat your cookie!

Lynn painted the door frame

We had a Father's Day feast with the Millers. We loved the chocolate fountain too!

4th of July

We had a very chill fourth of July. We spent time with one another and drove around Columbus a little bit. We ended up at a restaurant we had never been to and an ice cream place that was phenomenal! Later on we went to Westerville to watch the fireworks with my cousin Kemily and her family. We had a blast and the kids had fun watching the fireworks with their cousins.