March Pictures and Activities

I finally unloaded our pictures from this last month! This should hopefully sum up what our family has been up to this last month...

Bowling with Grandma
The other night we took the kids bowling with my mom. We thought we would score a perfect 300 since we've been "practicing" on the wii the last few months. It ended up being pretty comical. All of us barely broke 100 with bumpers!






David Archuleta Concert
I admit it! I'm a David Archuleta fan. I love American Idol and I got hooked last year, so when my friend Heather Bakker invited me to go to the David Archuleta concert with her, it was a quick yes. Even though the room was mostly filled with young teenage girls screaming, "I love you David", we still had such a good time. Our tickets were amazing and David's voice really is unbelievable! To make it even better Benton Paul opened for him and we got to meet him shortly after he preformed.


Heather & Me. You gotta love self-taken pictures!

David Archuleta

Meeting Benton Paul after the show.

100% Girl!

I caught Madison lying like this one day while she was watching her Disney Princess Sing-A-Long movie. It is the only thing that she likes to watch. Even though she just turned two a few months ago, she knows all the princesses names by heart.

Backyard Campout

For Christmas, PJ got a firebowl for our patio and a new tent that he has been dying to try it out. So when the weather was good a few weeks ago, he talked me into having a campout in our backyard. We roasted hotdogs and smores over the fire and watch Star Wars inside the tent on our portable DVD player. Since we were so close to the house we actually brought our regular mattresses inside the tent to sleep on. Even though we were really comfortable, we didn't sleep a wink thanks to our Spanish Fork wind. It blew so hard that night that it actually broke the tent! Oh well, at least we had fun and laughed about it in the morning.

Madi, PJ, & Mckay relaxing on our mattress.

Madi and Mckay loved our campout!

Enjoying the light of the fire

Terrible Twos

I went grocery shopping the other day and left a bag by the front door. It didn't take long for my little Madi girl to make a big mess!

Sweet Mercydez

One of the heartbreaking and bitter sweet events of the month was when our dear friends Nic and Ashley Haws little girl Mercydez passed away. She was born with a heart condition and several other serious difficulties which caused her constant pain. She was just 14 months old when she passed away, yet her short lived life blessed everyone who knew her. Because of her, my family has been blessed. Our faith has been increased, our temple attendance has been more meaningful, and our hope in our Savior has become surer. Our belief that families can be together forever has been strengthened. Our prayers are now more sincere and we have a stronger desire to make the most of each day and to be better parents. We are a little more patient and our love for our children has been increased. We are so grateful for the Haws family and their examples of faith. We still think of them everyday and pray for them to continue to feel peace and happiness even during this difficult time.

Card Nights:

I started holding card nights at my house again this month. I love having an excuse to get together with the girls. Here are some of the cards that we made this month.

I made this one for a card swap.

Wait....

Surprise!! This card was one of my favorites.

I made this one in hopes that Spring would come soon. (I'm still hoping!)

Jordan's Court of Honor

My youngest brother Jordan received his Eagle this last month. We are so proud of his hard work and the good person that he is. PJ was in charge of the power point presentation and I helped with the music. It turned out to be a really nice tribute and hopefully honored Jordan for being such an amazing person. Here are some of the pictures from the night.

PJ, Jordan, Me, Madi and Mckay

My Family: PJ, Me, Madison, Mckay, Christian, Melissa, Jordan, Mom, Dad, Scott and Heather.

Preschool trip to Two Jacks Pizza

Mckay's preschool class took a trip to a pizza place here in Spanish Fork and it ended up being pretty funny. One of the workers was asking the class were cheese, tomatoes, peppers, and olives came from. Then he asked the class were chicken came from and Mckay answered, "From a cow!" I think we might need to have a little talk.

Discovery at Gateway

Earlier in the month, my friend Olivia Jarrett invited our family to go with her kids and their home school group on a field trip to Discovery Gateway's Children Museum. It was one of the best places that I have ever taken my kids. The whole museum is hands on and loaded with different learning activities for kids of all ages. Some of the stations included a construction site, play house, water exhibit, grocery store, building center, weather station, helicopter, and many more! My kids loved it! I can't wait to go back again.

Mckay playing with a crane at the construction site.

Mckay learning how to build bridges.

Madison loved this little car.

Both of my kids loved the helecopter.

Captain Mckay

By the water station they had this blower that was Madison's height. After she would get her hands wet she would press the button and just laugh hard. This was her first time using a hand dryer and she thought that it was hilarious!

Our Super Date!!!

One of my favorite days over this last month was my super date with PJ. PJ took a whole day off work and we just played! It started at Sundance where we spent most of the day skiing. Before long we realized that we are not as young as we use to be and called it a day. After skiing, we hurried home and got ready for the Rascal Flats concert. On the way up to Salt Lake, we stopped and ate at Olive Garden and then we finally ended our day by listening to Rascal Flats give an amazing concert.

PJ & I at Sundance

April Fool's Day

No it's not a joke! I'm actually updating my blog! This last month has been so busy (as always) for our family and I'm excited to share some of the good, sad and funny moments that we have had over the last month, but since it's April Fool's Day I thought I would share a funny story from when PJ and I were in High School.

As many of you know PJ and I met our sophomore year in high school. I was his first date after he turned sixteen and even though we were never boyfriend/girlfriend in high school, we had a very friendly relationship and had a lot of fun playing jokes, flirting, and of course playing volleyball.

It was on a beautiful spring morning—not the snowy kind-- a few years ago when PJ decided to start a war of jokes. PJ broke into our locker and stole our Easter candy. We soon started drafting up notes threatening PJ with his life and all kinds of unmentionables if he didn’t return our candy. Apparently he didn’t feel any kind of threat and the candy remained in his possession. Of course we couldn’t let him get away with this criminal act and so we decided to take the law into our own hands.

On the first day of April, my best friend Bethany and I decided to try and steal the candy back. After school that day, we drove over to PJ’s house and found that no one was home, but the front door was unlocked. We quickly entered and found PJ’s room. There was no candy in sight, but we found something even better. PJ”s country CD’s and a picture of his current girlfriend—blah!! At that time I hated country, but PJ absolutely loved it. We decided that we would take all of his country CD’s and the picture of his precious girlfriend as ransom until the candy was safely delivered to its rightful owners. We left a note stating our terms and quickly left.

Later that night during family home evening the phone rang and my dad answered it. He quickly replied that it was for me and that I needed to hurry since we were in the middle of the lesson. This is how the conversation went:

Andrea: Hello

Lady on Phone: Is this Andrea Diane Cutler?

Andrea: Yes. Who is this?

Lady: This is the Orem Police Department. We have witnesses that have testified that you and another individual broke and entered into an Orem Residence earlier this afternoon at approximately 3:45 p.m.

Andrea: I don’t know what you are talking about.

Lady: There are witnesses who say that you broke into a house early this afternoon and took some items that belong to the Peery family.

(At this point, it finally hit me what she was talking about)

Me: Oh that! That was just a joke. One of my friends lives there and we were just having a little fun.

Lady: Breaking and entering is no joke! We are sending an Orem Police Officer over to investigate further.

(About this time I was almost in tears and my family was yelling at me to get off the phone.)

The officer concluded with: And Andrea, one more thing…April Fools!!!

PJ set me up!!! He talked his mom into pretending that she was a police woman. I have to admit I was scared! Although PJ and I still had a little negotiating to do, he certainly won that playful war.

PJ, Me, and our friend Dane in High School after a boys volleyball game.

Roosevelt Volleyball Tournament

What a weekend I just had! It was loaded (literally) with a minivan full of girls, Mini Cadbury Eggs, card games, broken toilets, late nights, no sleep, early mornings, McDonalds, laughing at unearthly hours of the night, score keeping, and oh ya…a little game called VOLLEYBALL! We just came back from the most amazing weekend of volleyball in Roosevelt of all places!

For the last several years I’ve been playing volleyball with the same bunch of girls almost on a weekly basis. Whether it’s playing outside on the grass, in a church, or with a city league, we always seem to manage to have fun and this weekend was no exception.

The pool play portion of the tournament started Friday night at around 6:00pm. We ended playing several games that night until they finally closed the gym around 12:45 a.m. We were slightly tired to say the least! All six of us shared the same hotel room with one bathroom and a broken toilet. (We got pretty good at finding creative ways to make it flush!) Although I was exhausted, I must have been too wound up from playing because I could not sleep and apparently I wasn’t the only one. At 4:00 a.m. Misti Loveland turned to me and asked, “Have you even gone to sleep yet?” followed by a “Me neither!”

The next morning we finished pool play and ended up placing in the top seat. Shortly after that, the actual tournament part began. We ended up winning the first team we played in 2 games to 25, but the second team was a whole different story. They were a really good team and although we won the first game, we couldn’t pull together for the second two. So we officially lost and got placed into the loser’s bracket. All games in the loser’s bracket were only 1 game to 25 and single elimination. If we lost again we would be out. We proceeded to play really tough teams, but amazingly enough we kept winning. There was one team in particular that we were playing and we were down 14 to 20. They were stomping on us, and the bad part was that our team is generally not a comeback team. One good play however turned that all around. We came back and won 25 to 15! That game put us in the championship game against the same team that we lost to earlier that day. In order to win, we had to beat them 3 times in a row. They honestly thought that they had it made, and I can’t blame them. They had an amazing team and definitely the upper hand, but our team was so determined. All three games were extremely close, but when it was all said and done our team won all three and ended up taking first place! We were so excited! For our prize we got volleyball sweatshirts and celebrated over pizza at Pizza Hut.

OUR TEAM:
Outside Hitters: Misti Loveland & Me
Middle Blockers: Jenn Boyer & Melanie Partridge
Opposite: Jane Chang
Setter: Charee Neeves

Super Strong Dad!

So last night at dinner PJ commented to Mckay, "Do you know that there are other people stronger than me?" To which Mckay replied, "Ya dad, only two. Heavenly Father and Jesus." Oh how I love the sweet comments that kids make. I hope that Mckay always thinks of his dad as SuperMan. PJ says he is happy to take 3rd place.

Valentines Weekend

Our family had a great Valentines weekend, not necessarily because we got showed with gifts, but because we got to spend the whole weekend with those we love most.

On Friday night our whole family, on the Cutler side, meet together and went up to the Draper Temple Open House. Although it was a really late night we had such a good experience walking through the temple with our two kids. In our Family Home Evening lessons, we have been talking about the importance of the temple and it was really neat for us to watch the reverence which our kids showed as they walked through the temple. Madison kept saying, “Jesus House” and Mckay without us telling him, kept his arms folded the whole time. It’s amazing that at such a young age they can feel the importance of this holy house. For me, it was another witness of how close children are to our Heavenly Father and how we should be more like them.


Draper Temple


The next morning for Valentines, we made our family’s favorite breakfast-crepes. At breakfast we gave each other our little Valentines. Mckay made a cute card for Madi, and PJ and I got Mckay Lego Star Wars for the Wii. For our Valentine gift to each other this year, PJ and I decided to get Rascal Flats concert tickets. The concert is on February 26th and I can hardly wait! PJ has never really liked going to concerts, but I absolutely love them. For him to do this with me is a real act of love! Thank you Sweetheart! I love you!

Later that day, PJ took me to see Confessions of a Shopaholic at the Spanish Fork movie theater. Although it’s a cheesy girl movie, I really liked it. (PJ teased that’s because I can relate!) After the movie we picked up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s (Mckay’s request). PJ’s mom and Judd joined us for dinner and brought dessert. For the rest of the night we enjoyed a fun night at home playing Star Wars on the Wii, Go Fish, and watching another chick-flick—I really am loved! PJ kept asking when we are going to have a boy’s movie night. Poor guy! Maybe he can finally watch the new Batman movie while I’m playing volleyball in the Roosevelt tournament this weekend.

What's New with the Peery Family

After this last month we are convinced that we must have the most patient kids in the whole world. This last month has certainly been a busy one for our family and our wonderful kids have still been smiling through it all. Here is just a glimpse of the happenings around our house.

PJ:
PJ’s life can be summed up in just one word: GMAT. For the last year, PJ has been studying for this test with hopes to get into BYU’s MBA program. Studying for this test has consumed nearly all of his free time and has taken a lot of sacrifice from the whole family. He finally re-took the test a few weeks ago and is now in the process of applying to BYU’s MBA program. We are hoping and praying that he will be able to get into school this fall. With work, Young Men’s, and applying for school, he amazingly enough still puts us on the top of his priority list. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful guy in our lives.

Andrea:
For me this month was a busy one mainly because I got asked to speak in church and that stresses me out! A few weeks ago PJ tattled to the bishopric that I haven’t spoken in church since before Mckay was born. Being the kind bishopric that they are, they didn’t want to deprive me of that privilege. Needless to say, I was pretty happy with PJ. (I still think that he should owe me backrubs every day for a month!) Sadly enough, preparing for this talk consumed all of my spare time because I’m such a worry wart. Like most things however, when it was all said and done, I felt blessed to be able to study so much about the temple.

Besides studying for my talk, my spare time has been consumed with practicing the piano for our ward choir. Although this can be stressful at times too, it also has been a blessing to continue to develop one of my talents. On top of this, the last few weeks have been jammed packed with volleyball games, playing with kids, cleaning up messes, teaching piano lessons, helping with reading and homework, working out, playing house and Star Wars, dressing up like princesses and helping PJ apply for BYU. I’ve decided it’s a blessing to be busy.



Mckay:
The other day Mckay was spot-lighted at church and received his favorite candy bar. Instead of eating it all by himself, without us saying a word he split it into four equal pieces so everyone in our family could have a bite. His maturity amazes me! He is so kind and thoughtful and is such a good brother. He has such a desire to do what is right and already has a strong testimony. A few days ago PJ and I bought him one of those big bouncing balls from Old Navy and he lost it. Without us prompting him at all, he said a prayer. A few seconds after that, he felt like he knew where to look for his ball. He quickly found it and came up the stairs with tears in his eyes. When we asked him what was wrong he said, “I just feel so happy that Heavenly Father answered my prayer.” He then went on to relate the whole story.

Besides being a genuinely good kid, Mckay has been busy with pre-school, playing with his friends, reading new books, and playing on the wii.

Madison:
Madison is certainly our little princess who keeps us on our toes. She loves to dress up in princess clothes and play house. Her language has really developed over this last month. She tries to copy almost everything that we say. It’s nice to be able to actually communicate with her. Madi is my little buddy and still my baby! We think that she gets cutter everyday. We love her so much!

For Fun:
Despite all the busyness, we have still tried to make time to do fun things together as a family. The day after PJ took the GMAT he took Mckay on a special date to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. We have also made time for weekly date nights, tennis on the wii, game nights playing Go Fish and Skipbo, and sledding.

All dressed up for a fun day in the cold

Mckay, Madi & Daddy having a good time sledding

Can it be Christmas again?

What a fun crazy month we just had! It was jammed packed with shopping, parties, family and friends. Since there were so many things going on, I thought I would make a Top 10 list of our favorite events of the month.

#1 Christmas
We had such a wonderful Christmas. The festivities started on Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Cutler's house. All of my brothers and sisters were there and we enjoyed some of our favorite traditions including reading over the Christmas story, opening a special gift from Grandma, and writing a letter to Santa. We made sure to thank Santa for sending Scott a wife this year :-)


Mckay opening up Grandma's gift. This year she gave the kids pajamas and some books. They loved them.

Madison couldn't believe that she was actually allowed to open the presents after being told "No, No" all month.

Mom & Dad Cutler

Our Family. We were glad to add a few more faces this year. We love you Heather & Christian!

When we got home on Christmas Eve, Mckay begged to sleep out by the tree so that he could catch Santa. After about 5 minutes of staring intensely at the wall he was out cold.

As a joke, PJ and I switched Mckay's stocking out for this giant one. Mckay thought that was fantastic!

Princess Madi all dressed up! She loved the dress up clothes that she got for Christmas.

After opening presents at our house we zipped over to PJ's mom's house for an amazing breakfast. We had such a good time visiting and sharing presents.

Pj's sister Julie & her family. (Julie, Hailey, Jon & Preston)

Grandma & Grandpa Anderson. We were so happy to have Grandpa home for a few days.

Grandma took Mckay shopping to look for a present for Grandpa this year. Mckay was determined that Grandpa really "wanted" a new tractor and of course Grandmas can't say no. Grandpa loved it and we all had a good laugh!

After a morning full of fun at Grandma Debbie's house we headed back over to the Cutler house for the rest of the afternoon. We had a wonderful time playing the wii, opening presents, playing in the White Christmas snow, and enjoying my mom's traditional steak & shrimp dinner. Mmmm....

By the end of the day we felt so blessed and spoiled! We love you family! Thanks for making it such a wonderful day for us.

#2 Christmas Cakes

For Christmas Eve dinner, PJ whipped out these Christmas cakes. The kids thought it was pretty fun.

#3 Madison's Birthday

On December 29th my baby girl turned 2! I can't believe how quick the time has flown by. She is growing up so fast and is already into everything that is pink and girly. She loves her babies, princesses, and dressing up in pretty dresses. She insists on having a bow in her hair and loves talking on the phone, wearing purses, and high heel shoes! She makes us smile every day and melts our hearts when she randomly dishes out hugs and kisses. She is such a blessing in our lives and we love her very much!

For her birthday we had both of our families over for cake & presents. PJ & I got her a kitchen set and she loves making us mi-mi's (macaroni) and oatmeal. (Staples in our home)

Opening Aunt Melissa's gift.

Julie gave her this winter set. She didn't want to take it off.

Madi knew just what to do with the candle, but almost burnt her little nose in the process!

#4 Playing the Day after Christmas

One of our favorite things about Christmas break was being home the day after Christmas. It was so much fun for us to be home and just play with our kids.

PJ & Mckay playing dart tag.

#5 New Years at the Cabin

For New Years Eve and day we went up to our family cabin and played in the snow. It was fun to go snowmobiling and sledding. We were also able to find some time to relax with a few games and movies.

Mckay rode a little snowmobile all by himselft. Grandpa Cutler couldn't be prouder.

Mckay and Grandpa

#6 Madi and her Babies

This is one of my very favorite pictures taken just after Christmas. This is how Madison wants to sleep every night. If she has her babies she is one happy girl.

#7 One sided snowball fights

The other day Mckay wanted to have a snowball fight and this is how it went....

1. I made a snowball for Madison

2. Madison would give the snowball to Mckay

3. Mckay would plaster me with the snowball

4. Repeat

5. The End

They thought they were oh so funny.

#8 Carving Snowmen with Dad

Over the Christmas break PJ took a break from studying for the GMAT and just spent time with us. We loved it! During one of those frosty nights, PJ taught Mckay how to carve a snowman out of balsa foam. It actually turned out really good and Mckay now thinks that he is going to grow up to become a professional carver.

The night after this project we went to a Christmas Carving party where Mckay stole a carving knife in a White Elephant game. He was so proud of that knife and no one had the heart to steal it back from him.

#9 Here Comes Santa Claus...

Our kids had the chance to meet Santa at our ward Christmas party. Mckay was absolutely amazed when he knew his name. Madison on the other hand was scared to death! We finally convinced her to give him a high five.

Mckay's Christmas wish this year was a Nerf Longshot and Battle Helicopters. It was a good thing that he was such a good boy.

#10 Piano Recital

One of my very favorite things in the world, next to playing with my kids, is teaching piano lessons. I absolutely love it! This is a picture from our Christmas Piano Recital. All of my students did such a great job! I was so proud of them and I'm already looking forward to our Spring Recital.

Back Row: Sarah Harris, Alisha Boyack & Me

Front Row: Elizabeth Phibbs, Katie Phibbs, Ashley Norris, Seth Jones, and Preston Bridges