Mini golf video

Derek mini-golfing

Derek talked us into mini-golfing while we were out running errands and I just couldn't help it. It was just to funny!

My new ride!

I was so excited, I finally got a new car and I love it. What you
might ask is my favorite part? Oh the heated seats!

Just Chillin

Hanging out with cousins at Papa Hatch's house! These kids love to get
in the hot tub.

Monster jam 2012-written by Corey

This years show was great. We had such a great time. We kept it a surprise till the night before, and even then we only told him that i had a surprise for him the next night that would be so much fun and that it was just going to be him and i. I let him pick where he wanted to go to dinner... Taco bell it was.

Even though we were a bit late and missed the national anthem, we got there in just enough time to the first rollover of the tough truck competition. this is the part of the show where the amatures get out on the track and do things with their trucks that their wives probably don't know about.

                                    And then the show started. And in came... GRAVE DIGGER!

                            Derek's eyes never left the floor the whole time that truck was out there.

    Ok, except when a gut came around handing out prizes. But even that didn't distract him for very long.

Then there was some racing before the intermission. I think that he liked it because there were two trucks on the track at once but we all know everybody loves freestyle the best!

 

At intermission a married couple came out onto the floor. The wife put her husband in a big box... And blew him up! Yes of course, he survived, and lived to be blown up another day. Sorry that there are no pictures, but i didn't see that one coming.

Then that same woman came out setting up a giant net on the side of the track. That's because she was cannon lady. She is a third generation human cannon ball. How many people can say that? After she launched herself across the arena... FREESTYLE TIME!!!!   This would be the video portion of the evening where Derek can be heard ever so softly at the top of his lungs, enjoying every second of the action.

 

This proved to be too much of a challenge for Grave Digger's arch rival "MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION" If you didn't have a flag of some sort to wave in approval of a truck, this was how you were supposed to vote for what you saw. he's only four, but Derek knows he doesn't like Max-D. 

 

Then the moment he waited all night for. Grave Digger's chance for freestyle where he could spin, jump and do anything he wanted to do.

Then of course he ended the show. Derek was really excited to have the real Digger right there where he was holding his big Digger. This is a tradition i had with my dad for 15 years, and thanks to his mom, Derek is on a roll for the same, cool, one on one time with me that i have such fond memories of with his grandad. Thanks babe!

 

St. Patrick's Day

Oh all the fun we had for st. Patrick's Day. This year I made and ate corned beef and cabbage for the first time, and honestly it wasn't that good. Corey loved it so I guess that is all that mattered right? That night we decided to have family movie night so we had leprechaun popcorn with green punch. It was just green marshmallow popcorn but Derek absolutely loved it, and well it was fun.(Sorry no pictures for this one)

 

 The next day for family Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Hatch's house, we had green eggs and ham, green pancakes, rainbow fruit kabobs, and green apple juice. It was a lot of fun.

The Breakfast Casserole was kinda creepy looking, it reminded us all of Playdough.  It definitely didn't matter though since it still tasted wonderful.

 

Corey enjoying his St. Patrick's Day feast.

Cedar made Green Cupcakes, and well there is nothing better than watching Maybel eat sweets!

Papa read the grandbabies Green eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss. Needless to say it was a fun and adventurous holiday.

 

 

 

Hope ya'll had just as much fun as we did.

Derek's 4th Birthday Adventure!

For Derek's 4th Birthday I decided that I would try to do something a little different.  I wasn't planning on holoding a family party I was just going to throw him a little friend party, well those plans all changed.  Derek got sick a week before his birthday with an ear infection that decided to drain and infect his lymph nodes.  When we took him into the doctor they told us that there was a chance that he might end up requiring surgery to drain it, if it didn't do it on its own.  They gave him a strong antibiotic and I didn't really think much about it, until he started having an allergic reaction to his antibiotic, (yes, he is allergic to Penicillin.)  So then all plans changed and well I think it turned out all for the better.  He was just fine and better by his birthday, but I was afraid if something happened it would break some little kids heart.

It started out by going and picking up his cousin Annistyn, these two have just so much fun together and they were so excited to go on our adventure.  We then headed to American Fork, to have lunch at McDonald's with Grandma Ann where they played in the play place and Derek had his favorite food of all time a cheeseburger.

Afterward lunch we headed to do the Museum of Natural History at Thanksgiving Point (or as the kids called it the Dinosaur Museum)  They were so good, and loved see all sorts of different things.

The kids were just shocked at how big this dinosaur foot was.

This exhibit was fake, but the kids didn't understand that and kept asking me why the fish weren't swimming.

We got to an exhibit where the kids got to set up there own dinosaur world with sand and water, and well they played here for easily 45 minutes, they just loved it, and were so sad when I told them that we had to move on.

They were almost just as excited when they got to go digging for bones.  They used there hands and paint brushes to uncover the buried bones.  Again, so excited.  Unfortunately a lot of these pictures are really blurry because I couldn't get the kids to hold still long enough to take good pictures.

We then headed to the Ice Cream Parlor.  They were so excited but then confronted me with the dreaded question, whats next.  I was worn out by then, but they even with no nap were ready to go.

 

So I decided to take them mini golfing, which quite possibly might be the funniest experience of the whole day.  Annistyn couldn't quite grasp the fact that if you didn't make it from the first hit, you didn't have to start over and Derek just wanted to hit it at the beginning, and then pick it up, place it about six inches from the cup and then just tap it in.  I was laughing so hard.  The golfing place was indoors and black lit, hence no pictures, but take my word for it, it was really fun.  Again, I was faced with the questions what's next on our adventure.  I was officially worn out, so I talked to the family and we decided that we would all meet at the mall for dinner.  While waiting at the mall, Papa saw this train that rides around and decided that we all needed to take a ride, it was really funny watching all us big adults pile into this funny little train, but the kids, especially Derek loved it.  

Oh, did I forget to mention, that Derek wanted to wear his Burger King Crown that he had gotten a couple of days earlier EVERYWHERE!  Annistyn had one too.

Eating his birthday treat at Red Robin.

After dinner we headed to Grandma and Papa Hatch's house to have Cake and open presents. 

Derek modeling his new Jazz sweatsuit and man does he love it. 

Derek got to pick out his candles, Mickey Mouse, he wanted a Chocolate Cake with M&M's on it, so that is what he got.  The M&M's were pink because that is all I could find right around Valentine's day.  

I felt so lucky that I was able to take the day off of work and spend it all day with Derek.  We had so much fun, the only thing that would have made it better is if Corey could have come with us.  We've decided that these birthday adventures are definitely the way to go, since they are both still talking about it today.  Probably a lot more memorable than party.

Happy Birthday Derek - Video

I just love this boy!

(see full image)

Nicole Preston