Never say Never

We made promises. We swore to each other that this day would never come. We would never be "those people." You know..."those people" ... they show up at a function and both side doors of their vehicle SLIDE back to reveal a bunch of screaming kids. They pop open that gigantic HATCH and pull out the world's largest stroller. That would never be us....right? Here's the deal. We're grown ups now. It's time to be responsible. So, we finally stepped up to the plate and made a life changing decision. We bought a MINIVAN. You read that right...a minivan. We showed up at the dealership and checked our egos at the door. They can hold a bunch of kids, a stoller, and tons of luggage. Oh yeah, and they get great gas mileage. But...for anyone that knows Heather and I, you know that we wouldn't settle for some plain jane vanilla minivan. We had to go all out! We bought a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT 25th Anniversary Edition. And it's black as the night itself. Here's the details: 251 hp engine 6 speed automatic transmission Black Paint with Mopar Appearance Package Dark Charcoal Leather interior w/ 1st and 2nd row heated seats Stow and Go Seats - 2nd and 3rd rows fold completely into the floor Dual DVD System - 3 screens and two different players GPS Navigation 30GB hard drive - for storing all of our MP3s and pics Sirius Satellite Radio Bluetooth Automatic Side/Rear Doors As you can see by the pics...it's the "Bad Boy" of minivans. We think it's awesome, and I guess that's all that really matters!!! What do you think? p.s. Full Window Tint - Tomorrow!

Look at all the PISHIES!

As you can see David is still here! This defiantly is not a bad thing but it is funny how we don't really know how to act or what to do. Everyday of our life is so busy and every weekend crammed with "Kodak Moments" that when we received this bonus week and weekend we didn't know what to do! IT WAS AWESOME! Saturday we literally just hung out at home! There was nothing that HAD to be done because it already was! There was no where to go or no where to be because we weren't suppose to be here! Most of the day was spent in our PJ's just hanging out together. Sunday we got up, got ready and went to church but just not at the right time. So we went down to Sandy, UT south of SLC and went to the aquarium. It is just a "sample" of what is to come so it was very small. But actually full of fun fish or what Olivia calls "phishies",and other water life. It took us less than and hour to get through! But she loved it! Here is look of our trip!

4th of July

As many of you know the 4th of July is a big time of year for David & I! We just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and absolutely love the 4th of July. Well, this year was different than any other year for us. David is getting ready to deploy very very soon. Therefore, we thought that our little time we had left would be much better spent with our kids. The first time in 27 years that I have not been home in Montana for this weekend! But you know we had a wonderful weekend and really enjoyed hanging out with just our little family. Don't get us wrong we missed everyone back home but there is always next year! We decided to head to Provo, UT for the weekend. We went down on Friday and hung out at a park where they had lots of vendors, food, games, music and fun. The biggest parade in UT was on Saturday morning. We spent the night at a hotel in Orem which is just a few miles north of Provo. In order for us to be able to have a spot to watch the parade, David got up at 2:45 a.m., took a cab down to the parade route and saved us seats. He was lucky to make it there when he did cause the whole parade route was full of people...or stuff saving spots. You had to have at least one person there or the cops would move your stuff. The kids and I arrived just in time for the start at 8:30 a.m. (Takes a little time to get the three of us ready!) The parade was awesome and the spot was perfect! Being a little tired we headed back to the hotel for rest. That night we were given tickets to the Stadium of Fire. It is a huge show they put on at the BYU stadium. They were honoring the military and allowed us to sit down on the field. There were dancers, performers, The Jonas Brothers, Shedaisey and a ceremony that burned a flag. We even got a fly over of F-16's and fabulous FIREWORKS!!! They were unbelievable! The kids did great and we enjoyed our Fourth of JULY! We hope you did too! WE MISS YOU ALL!

CAMPING!!

This weekend was a really fun one for us. Our good friends Brian and Tory Brady invited us up to Bear Lake for a camping trip. We tried to explain to them that people like us with two young kids do NOT do well on camping trips! But...after a couple of long conversations, we finally decided to give it a shot. We got up really early (thanks Sawyer) and decided we would head to IHOP for a little breakfast. It was a good time because both of the kids were on their best behavior. From there, we started the 2 hour drive up to Bear Lake. All I can say is that Utah and the Bear Lake area are absolutely beautiful! It's this HUGE, bright blue lake up in the mountains. It's truely stunning. We met up with the Brady's at the KOA campground and then headed to the beach. When I say beach, I mean an ACTUAL beach. It was like we were on a tropical island or something. We had fun building sandcastles, riding jet skis, and drifting along in a paddle boat. It was really fun. Next we went back to the campsite and Tory cooked dinner for everyone. Thanks Tory! The kids played and we sat around the campfire and talked. Then the event we had been dreading....BEDTIME!!! Sawyer went right to bed, but Olivia needed a 20 minute drive around the lake to fall asleep. We finally got them both asleep and we all crawled into the same bed. We got up a couple of times throughout the night, but overall it was a success! We got up, had some breakfast and then started the drive home. I'm really glad we ended up going. It was a ton of fun and a great experience for us to have as a family.

22 Months Old

Last night we celbrated Olivia's 22 month birthday! I decided to surprise David & Olivia with an Elmo birthday party. David will be gone for Olivia's 2 year birthday and I didn't want him to miss out. There is nothing like watching her excitment over Elmo, presents, cake and balloons! We had so much fun! We all wore Elmo shirts, ate Elmo cake, opened Elmo gifts and even had our good friends the Brady's over for cake!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful father's in our lives! We hope you had a great day! I think if you asked David he would say he had a GREAT day! First of all he was here and able to spend the whole day with his kids! David got to sleep in a little, had an awesome breakfast, and opened gifts. David got a bunch of things that were needed for the upcoming deployment, a monkey with the kids voices, and a speacial box of Lucky Charms. David loves them and Olivia gets them when she goes over to the neighbors house. I asked her to pick a box of cereal for Daddy on an end cap at Target. She happened to pick the Lucky Charms! We went to church and just hung out and relaxed the rest of the day. Later that evening we were able to go over to come friends house and have dinner! We both missed our father's but were thankful that our kids were able to have a nice day with their Daddy! Here are some pics from the day!

Hill AFB Air Show

This past weekend we had an Air Show at our base! It was a lot of work but well worth it! David and I both worked booths for our squadron both days. We were able to see so many cool things including airplanes, jets, fly bys, static displays and the THUNDERBIRDS! We also were able to meet up with a good friend that we met in Alabama at SOS. He was able to come have dinner with us and we truly enjoyed our time together! The best part was that we were able to be together as a family and experience such a grand event! Olivia totally got the whole thing! She spent most of the time pointing in the air saying "airplane!" Daddy even got her a little F-16 that she flew around the whole day. Plus how can you forget the adorable flight suit that she was wearing! Good thing I remembered to get it out of the closet because it no longer fits! Wish you all could of been here to experience the Air Show...maybe next time! You know you may think that because we live this life, see, hear and some of us actually fly in the jet itself that we would be sick of it! But you know it NEVER gets OLD!!!

BIG GIRL BED

Ok I am supposed to be getting ready to go to the doctor's office but.... I would rather write to you about our first night in our BIG GIRL BED! David was working really late last night so I was flying solo. I wanted the routine to stay the same of bath, books, bed but Sawyer didn't agree! We attempted but after a long hour or so fo crying, yelling and tears I finally called my saving Grace Tory and she took Sawyer for me. Time to focus on Olivia and getting her to stay in her bed! We read, hugged and then I laid her down....... but forgot I had to build the side rail to keep her from falling out! Olivia and I sat down to build the easy, no tools required rail (yeah right)! We got it all put together but couldn't figure out how to attatch it to the bed so out in the hall it went! Time for bed so I laid her down and she screamed for Daddy! I left the room with a heavy heart and shut the door. She screamed for Daddy for about 5 mins or so and then fell fast alsleep! A few hours later I went back to check on her and couldn't find her! After searching I found her under the bed asleep! Not sure if she rolled off or what but when I went to get her she woke up. I held her for awhile while she cried for Daddy and I finally had to just put her down again. About 5 more mins of crying and then she fell back asleep. Early this morning I went to check on her and once again she was out of the bed and half way under it! But asleep and that is all I can ask for! She woke up this morning knocked on the door and when we let her out she was all smiles! We all survived with some sleep! Here are some pics throughout the night!

Getting BIG!

The last few days in the Guenthner house hold have been a little rough on Daddy & Mommy Guenthner! Sawyer turned 3 months yesterday and Olivia became a 30 year old! Well, at least that is what it feels like! We had a long weekend with the Air Show this past weekend and didn't get much sleep or spend a lot of time at home. Yesterday after getting up super early and heading to work a booth at the air show in the pouring rain we finally returned home. Olivia had fallen asleep in the car and was super tired. We transfered her to her crib and began dealing with Mommy not feeling well. After about an hour or so I thought I heard a sound that reminded me of someone playing with a door stopper. We ignored it but it just kept coming. Finally, after about 10 mins or so David went and checked on her. When he opened the door he got the usual "Hi Daddy!" but only this time his little girl was not in the crib. She happen to be behind the door playing with the door stopper! He looked in the crib and saw that she had stacked up her doll, stuffed poodle, and Daddy doll in the corner and must of climbed out. The terrible day and night went on and finally the sun came up. After being up for awhile taking care of Sawyer's needs I heard "Baby! Baby! Baby!" I figured I better get in the room to see what was going on! I figured she would jump out of the crib trying to get her baby since nothing went to bed with her that night. Oh no worries she was already out of the crib, had thrown the baby in the crib and couldn't get her out! We never heard a thump, crying or anything unusual! Olivia has become an escape artist! We put her back in the crib and we watched her attempt to climb out by throwing her leg up and using her upper body strength to pull herself over the side of the crib. So we spent the rest of the day coming to the realization that our baby girl is no longer a baby but a BIG GIRL that needs a BIG GIRL BED! Here is the pics of her crib turned into a BIG GIRL daybed! Check back to see how our first night goes!

Family Vacation

After several long weeks of preparing to sell our home and putting in countless hours at work, we decided it was time for a little family vacation!!! We spent a long time debating...Hawaii...Paris...Tahiti??? We ended up settling on St. George, Utah! On Monday, we slept in and ended up getting out of the house a little bit later than planned but we were on vacation and that was okay! The drive to St. George ended up taking about 5 hours and it was nice just to relax and enjoy seeing the beautiful Utah landscape. When we finally reached St. George, we checked in to our hotel, went to dinner (at In-N-Out Burger) and did a little shopping at the St. George Outlet Mall. By the time we were done, we were pretty tired, so we decided to call it a night. We had booked a suite so we could have two rooms. The PLAN was for Olivia to sleep in the living room so we could hopefully get some good sleep. So, we got her all ready for bed and put her in the crib (pack-and-play). As we turned to go back to the bedroom...she sprinted by us!!! Apparently, she is now to big for a pack and play!!! She jumped right out! This was not something we planned for. After about an hour of trying to get her to go to sleep, Daddy ended up putting her in the car and driving around the block until she passed out. He then transfered her to the stroller and back to the room. When she woke up a couple hours later, she moved into the big bed with Mommy and Daddy. Overall...it was a pretty rough night, but it was still fun! The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. After waiting the appropriate 30 minutes after eating, we got our suits on and headed for the swimming pool. It turns out that Olivia is not much of a swimmer. She hated it! She did enjoy putting her legs in the hot tub, though!!! We checked out of the hotel and continued our drive--next stop: Zion National Park!!! Zion National Park is AWESOME! We drove through the park and even went on a one mile hike through some pretty difficult terrain. Daddy had Olivia in a backpack, and Mommy had Sawyer strapped to her in the Baby Bjorn. People thought we were nuts. Maybe they were right! The views at the end of the hike were definitely worth it! After Zion, we drove the rest of the way home and finally got back around 1 am. It was a great trip and we wouldn't change a thing.