update

Well it sure has been a while since I wrote last, however the random thing is that our street was a river again just last week.  We have been having some nice summer rains that have cooled things off a bit- don't get me wrong, it is still over 100 degrees out in the afternoon. 
Tom had his first MMA fight also since I last wrote (Tom Fender vs Eric Jordan on YouTube.com). He won, and it was a super fun night.  He also has since had his eyes fixed since he had to fight blind.  Which is quite funny because I, on the other hand had to get glasses.  He is still working for Harmony Hospice and has also started a business called Surelux Distributors, they retrofit commercial properties for LED lighting.  No jobs yet- but hopefully they will get their first job soon.  He also is in the Elder's Quorum presidency at church, needless to say, he is a busy man.
I, on the other hand quit my job and was released from Young Women's.  I am a stay at home mom now and teacher in Relief Society.  I had a miscarriage last October, which was and still is sometimes a difficult experience, however we are expecting a baby boy (Cael Thomas) to join our family sometime in October! :). It has been a rough pregnancy this time, not so much getting sick, but just battling my crazy pregnancy hormones and the fatigue of the best job in the world, being a mom, of course, of two little ones at the same time as making a baby. But all in all, I feel extremely blessed.
Tom and I celebrated our 6 year Anniversary in May, crazy how fast time flies once you are married.
Adam will be 5 years old in November.  He got into the Pre-K Typical Peer Program at Wright Elementary, which means he will officially be in school on Track 3, Monday-Thursday AM, starting August 25th. Which blows my mind, but I am excited for him and think he will thrive since he absolutely loved his trial class that he had to tale to get in.  He is reading little words now like: he, and, & the.  It is fun to see him blending words together.  He also loves to play UNO- we play best out of 5 every day. :) His favorite food right now is chicken and corn.  we have to force him to eat anything else.
Ellie will be 3 years old in September.  She also loves reading, but her favorite thing is going through the car wash and helping me vacuum it out.  Which is awesome, because my car has never stayed so clean.  We do the car every Wed or Thurs. :). Ellie is naturally loving and caring and nurturing, she is going to be a great big sister.  Her favorite food is pizza, she can throw down two pieces like its nothing, and unlike Adam, she eats constantly.  Her #1 phrase is, "I'm hungry!"
Anyways that is a little of what has been going on with us, hopefully I can write more often. I'll try!

 Adam did a Basketball camp at the Fife's house with Coach Fife and Coach Truman.  This was after we got his new socks and basketball.  He was so excited he wanted to hold them and fell asleep like this.  :)

 Adam and Ellie napping together.  Tom and I thought it was hilarious that they were in the same position.

 Ellie, Jonas, Adam and Brendan at Anderson Dairy.  We did a fun tour and got Ice Cream at the end.

 Adam and Ellie hVe been taking swim lessons the last two months.  Adam is a Seahorse and Ellie is a Guppy at Water Wings Swim School.  They love it.  We recently switched classes and now Ellie and Kennedy Tabeek are in the same class.  They had their arms around each other every chance they got.

 Tom and I went to see the Finals of American Ninja Warrior.  Dustin Rocho, a patient of Dr. Thalgott's was competing, so we went to support him.  It was a blast and I think Tom will try to do it next year.

 Ellie loves her Popi... and they both love TV.  lol. They were watching some soccer for the World Cup together.

 Ellie and I had to take a "Selfie".

 Adam and Ellie showing how flexible they are.  Love them so much.

Tom and Adam and Ellie up on the little mountain at Mountain's Edge Park.  I love my little family! :)

The River

The weather has been very interesting here in Vegas!!  About two and a half months ago, our street flooded-- yes there was a river going down our street-- it was crazy!  Here are my handsome boys checking it out.  We found our trash can down the street and around the corner up against the gait with about 7 other trash cans that got swept away. 

Colorado

We had a blast in Colorado.  It was everyone's first time getting to meet our Ellie Bean and everyone loved her and can't believe how big Adam is getting.  We couldn't have chosen a better name for Ellie than Eleanor, which means "shining light".  She really does bring light into our lives.  She is always so happy and smiley.  Even when she is teething or not feeling good, you can always get her to smile.  Love that girl!  And Adam was such a great boy.  He had so much fun playing with his cousins. 
Meara said that him and Marek were "BFFs".  So cute.  They were so adorable to watch going everywhere together and playing.  At Aunt Cindy's house we all played "Simon Says" and "Red Rover, Red Rover". 

Adam and Marek hangin out.

Meara was so great with Ellie!

Ellie has a blast with Brixton too. He is much bigger than she is but they played really well together. They are both pulling themselves up on things and walking along things. Next time we come out to visit, I'm sure they'll be running around together. Of course, the first thing ellie did was go give him kisses. She is such a lover.

Marek, Adam, Melia, Meara.

After we were done running around the kids sat down for a few minutes to rest and watch Ice Age.

All the cousins that were there.  (except Ellie-- she was napping)

We also got to hang out with Van quite a bit.  When we first got there, Mom and Dad took Adam and Ellie to Van's baseball game while I got some rest, since we drove through the night and I only got about 40 minutes of sleep. 

Adam slept a little on grannys lap and woke up in time to have his big cousin Van teach  him how to run the bases.  He loved it. 

We also got to go to the park with Van and to the Butterfly Pavillion, which Adam absolutley loved.  You have to be 3 years old to hold "Rosie the Terantula", so Adam just stood close by while Van and I got to hold her.  Adam and Van pressed their very own pennies too.  Adam got to touch 3 different types of crabs and starfish also.  He said it felt "weird".  We all loved the "Rainforest" with all of the butterflies and turtles and fish.  At first Adam w3as afraid of the butterflies, but Van told him it was okay and that they don't attack.  Haha.  Even Ellie was amazed at all the beautiful butterflies.   They have signs up that say not to touch the butterflies because you can shorten their lifespan.  But, sometimes the butterflies will land on you and that was really cool.  Adam wanted me to get one to land on him so bad, and we tried.  He is so funny.  At one point, there was a butterfly on the ground that he was really close to and looking at and he told Nana, "I wanna step on that one", hahaha... she told him that he better not.  I'm glad he asked first and didn't just do it.  They also had a play area with some fun games.  Adam climbed a rope web all the way up to the top and there was a bean bag toss game, where you toss the bag through the caterpillars mouths.  We were going through the maze and Adam really wanted to try it.  There was an older boy trying to do it and he was standing on the stool because the holes were pretty high, and the boy just couldn't seem to get it, next thing I knew Adam walked up to it and grabbed some bean bags and not even getting on the stool made his first 4 he threw through the hole.  hahaha The kid and his dad both looked at him like "Whoa... how did that little kid do that".  Needless to say, I was pretty proud of our little athelete!!

The first week we were there Tom was in Vegas because he had to work.  I missed him like crazy!!!  During the week, my mom and dad and Seth helped clean out Granny and Papa's basement.  Which let me tell you was a HUGE job.  We should have gotten a before and after.  I was on kid duty- while they all worked, I got to hang out with Adam, Ellie, and Van.  We had a lot of fun together.  I think Adam wore Van out.  Everyone except for my dad (who worked tirelessly) took naps every day. 
We went to Billy and Kristy's house for dinner on Wednesday night when Luke and Kyle got back into town from Texas.  Adam and Ellie had a blast.  They had a watergun fight, wrestled, had a picnic dinner, released ladybugs into the plants, and Adam even got to drive a jeep, that was just his size.  Billy was all worried about Kyle hurting Adam when they were wrestling because he is so much older and bigger, but I think he soon realized that Adam could hold his own.  Kyle was like "that kid almost ripped my head off" Adam also put Luke in an arm bar.  Tom would have been proud.  :)

Once Tom got to be there with us we spent the rest of the time at his sister's house.  Adam loves hanging out with Grandma, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Aaron!!  We went to the Children's museum (not sure who had more fun Aaron and Tom or Adam/ haha it was such a blast), Aaron taught Adam how to play the guitar a little, and we even got to go to Ikea for the first time ever.  What an experience!  I think if I was rich I would spend ridiculous amounts of money there!!  It was so nicce to spend time together and to relax with family!! Love Vacation

The Strangest Names In American Political History: Liborius Kauphusman (1837-1881)

Liborius Kauphusman is my g g g grandfather on my dad's side!  My aunt sent me this link.  So cool to know more about past generations of family!  Thanks Aunt Cindy and Aunt Clair.
The Strangest Names In American Political History: Liborius Kauphusman (1837-1881):     This strangely named man is Mr. Liborius Kauphusman (pronounced Ka-foos-man), a Prussian immigrant who made his name (politically s...

opportunity village- christmas

Thanks to Aunt Jessica and Uncle Aaron, we got to go to Opportunity Village to see all the lights.  It used to be a tradition I would go every year when it opened for my friend Nina's Birthday!  It was always a blast.  And now I think it will be a great tradition to continue.  Adam absolutely LOVED it!! He was pointing at all of the lights and having the best time-- the train and rides were a bonus. 

 Adam, Grandma, and the Grinch who stole Christmas.  Adam and Grandma got so excited, the rest of us had to tell them to slow down.

 It is always so much fun to have Jessica and Aaron in town.  Adam loves them so much.  We can't wait until they get married and have little cousins for Adam and Ellie (hint hint)  haha.  Adam is sitting on his Aunt Jessica's lap, shortly after this photo they got to ride the train together. My camera died so this is all the photos we got.

 But let me tell you, they had a great time.  And Adam rode the "tea cup" ride that was actually dragons with daddy, and he even rode a horse on the carousel.  Every time he came around, he would say "HI" and blow us a kiss.  Just LOVE that boy.

While we went to Opportunity Village to have fun Ellie stayed home with Nana and Aunt Lindsay.  It was her first time away from mommy and let's just say she wasn't happy about it.  They said she screamed the entire time.  Nothing they did would console her.  When I got home,  I could see the fear in Lindsay's eyes.  Haha  Lindz said she has never heard a baby scream that way before.  So funny!!  Ellie might be just as stubborn as the rest of us because as soon as we got home, she calmed right down.  She is a little high maintenance. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Santa brought Adam a new red bike.  He was so excited to get it!!  And he rides it so well now, that i'm thinking Santa should have gotten him an actual bike with real tires instead of plastic!! 

...a name and a blessing...

And her name shall be... Eleanor Ann Fender.  It was a beautiful experience to have Ellie's blessing in our home.  The spirit was very strong and it was a the beautiful morning of November 25th, 2011.  The family was in town and Seth got to stand in the circle.  Our gorgeous baby girl is Blessed and we are so very blessed to have her in our life.  Our little "Bean".  Jessica got some on video, I need to remember to write it down for her when she gets older to read.  I think she will love it.

lindsay's dirty 30

 For Lindsay's 30th Birthday they had a White Trash Bash!!  I think we all look the part, don't you?   Especially my dad-- with his belly hanging out...

We had a fun time and wish Lindsay a great year-- a year full of maybe a niece or nephew-- a cousin for the kidos???  HOPEFULLY!!!