April 2010

April 2010

The first weekend in April LDS General Conference is held. Between the two sessions our ward (aka neighborhood) has an "Emergency Preparedness Drill" we round up the family, our 72 hour kits and report to our meeting location. *note to self, rotate the 72 hour kit food, it has to be at least 6 years old (granted they are MRE's), change out the clothing (bonus the boys might fit into them now) and make a 72 hour kit for the two boys.


We take role to see if everyone is accounted for. Brittany made it out of the house ok. She lived.


We though we would arrive in style, I mean in the case of a REAL emergency we would use the 4 wheeler, why not at the drill too.


Easter, a time to paint eggs, hide them, and pretend a Bunny did it. So cute.

Apparently there is a lot of skill and precision that goes into coloring eggs.


And mighty fine eggs they are if I say so myself.

The Easter Bunny was EXTREMELY generous to one little boy. A John Deer Truck, What the Heck!

During Spring Break (April 5th through the 9th) we packed in as much as we could. We purchased two family passes before the week was over, one to Thanksgiving Point, the other to the zoo (pictures to follow). Watching the boys check out the dinosaur museum was great. They did not sit still for a second! Until you have something like this looking at you! Then bam, frozen little boy.


Want to entertain a one year old for as long as their poor little attention span will last... here is the recipe: One part water, a fistful of sand, and two plastic dinosaurs. **Caution sand will be eaten (see sand on mouth), and dinosaurs will be thrown!
Apparently this is not only the hot spot for a 1 year old... the rest of the crew was having a blast making a damn to block all the water from the poor little kids down stream! I almost appears that Brittany is taunting that kid in the white t-shirt.
After a day of checking out dinosaur bones and playing in sand there is nothing better than a Happy Meal from Mc Donald's... see how happy he is! They don't name them Happy Meals for nothing!

Season Pass #2 is to the Hogle Zoo. Train rides, animals, fresh air... can't beat that!

We were quick to discover that the Giraffe is Cameron's favorite animal! He does not get as excited with any other animal as he does when he rounds the corner towards the Giraffe building. Squeals of delight and awh come out of that little kid.

The zoo bought young love together. These two fought like cats and dogs when they were little.. er, but now the topic of discussion was on wedding plans. After this trip to the zoo several months went by discussing the colors that would be at Aspen and Kyles wedding. Green was the final color choice.

Cameron found his love too, Kettle Corn... a kid after my own heart!
The Bean Museum at BYU was also on our agenda for the week. We saw our fair share of animals that week.
Tracy rocked the Shameless Photography in the Spring. She is freaking awesome. For example this is what I see when we set up these girls. You get Tracy shooting the same thing and well...

POW! You get this from her! Amazing! You should hire us!


That was only one of many shoots we did in the year, one of the fun ones was Courtney in her Miley Cyrus hooker boots on State Street in SLC, her best smiles were when cars would drive by and whistle or cat call her!

More time at Thanksgiving Point, gotta get our moneys worth from that pass. Bare with me on multiple pictures form this location! We just missed this little guy being born by minutes, he had not even stood up when we arrived.

Fingers Cam... they eat fingers...

PG High School Prom dress hunting was easy! We found a cute little shop on main street in PG that will alter you dress for next to nothing and they typically only get in one of each style. Bonus. This one was absolutely perfect for Alexis.

Spring Chamber Choir Concert is so awesome. Courtney loves to sing and I love to hear her group, it is so soothing it put Cam right to sleep.

Look at how cute Courtney is.

Wow we packed a lot into March!

March 2010

March 2010

March is when Utah starts to thaw. The sun starts to come out a little bit more and it is not so scary outside... until you see this! I mean really, what are they doing!

Kyle was digging his new glasses that he got when we went to see "How to Train our Dragon" in 3D at the Thanksgiving Point theaters. Kyle did not move through out the entire movie, he loved it!

Ok, how cute is he again! If Cameron were to sit in my dishwasher now the door would fall off!

I so want to do this, Alexis went with her friends John and Stefano to the Color Festival at the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. Pink is a good color on the three of them.

Look at that little bruiser, Kyle better watch himself. This is one of my favorite pictures of 2010.

Kyle caught with his hand in the Dorito bowl. Look at that guilty look. Can't hide the evidence buddy, it's all over those fingers!

Sometimes you have to choose your battles, letting Kyle dress himself every now an then was just one of them. Why not, he is just going to daycare... let him go out like this. It could be worse, he could be wearing socks with sandals.

Is that the same cake mix that he almost lost his life at Cameron's hands earlier... he sure is determined to have his cake and eat it too!

March was a good month.

February 2010

A year in pictures continues...

February 2010

Alexis went on her first date dance with her close friend, Tucker. Finding a dress for Alexis is like trying to find clothes for Skipper, remember her, the little barbie sister or something like that. Barbie had like 101 outfits, Skipper had 2. In the end she did good. This is actually a really cute dress.

Look it is my favorite couple again! At the Melting Pot.

Bucket list check (Ya, so my bucket list has the Melting Pot on it, not all that spectacular, but it is MY bucket list). Yes that was just MY plate and NO I did not eat it all. Do I look like I was down wind from the steaming liquid from the second course or what?

Brittany had the Invention Convention at Suncrest Elementary. She was very proud of her "Splash" a waterproofing technology for cell phones and other electronic devises. Sounds great huh, to bad she can't Patent the idea.

Watch out Superman! Super Kyle is the new crime fighter on the block! (ok, it just looks like he destroyed an entire Thomas the Train village in his underoos, but he looks heroic.)

Alexis had a "Host a Murder Mystery Party" for her birthday. It was a mobster wedding theme or something like that, ya Alexis ended up getting a Airsoft bullet to the face and her good friend that was co-hosting the event ended up in the ER with a torn cornea from another Airsoft gun... with no bullets.

Oddly enough if you ask the group they had a GREAT time, despite the Airsoft drama.

Alexis was the Bride that died... at her own party. Weird.

Oh, so cute!

When you take your kids to Pirate Island in Orem, it is only natural to want to dress up like a Pirate! Right?

Oh.. look how little Cameron is! How cute! Why isn't he dressed up, Brittany is!

My crew.... Alexis and Kyle...

More swash bucket scallywags... oh wait that is just Court and Britt.

My Buckaroos.. Cam and Kyle, and a mighty fine Captain in the middle (yea me).

Shiver me timbers.. that was February.

January 2010

Sometimes it is easy to forget how much you did or realize how much your kids have grow in a year until you look back at the pictures that were taken.. this is the first of my 12 days of pictures from 2010. Some of the pictures you may have seen in past blogs, some will be new.

J January

Tracy, Randy and I went on a Western Caribbean Cruise from January 10th through the 16th.
Because Kyle could not go with me he had me take his Batman to take pictures with.

Ahh.. the Carnival Valor, I will never be able to take a cruise again with out getting a balcony room.

My roommates, who I have recently learned have held a grudge for he past year that they did not get any "ALONE TIME" and I have now been banned from taking any future vacations with them unless I have someone to go with me; and we are NOT sharing a room.

Seriously one the coolest thing I have done in my life, wait did I say coolest, I meant COLDEST. Freak that water was so cold our dolphin (Sally) had goose bumps!

Bucket list check! I have visited a Mayan ruin.

Want to blow a great HCG diet.. go on a cruise. This baby did me in!

I love my sister, I can not imagine anyone else in the world that I would have wanted to share this vacation with.. ok maybe Dwayne Johnson.. but other than that Tracy is my choice!

See how happy 3 people can be after a week of sun, maid service, catering, and booze (ok that is just Randy), but we look happy, very, very happy! ...wait, maybe they look happy cuz they get to ditch me and have alone time, awh man!

January 2010 was a good month!

A New Year

I find it interesting that people find January 1st such a special day. A day when you can put your past behind you and start fresh, a new beginning. Technically can't any day be that way? Well in keeping with the spirit of the New Years Resolution I have made a few for myself.

I wanted to find a word that captures my "Goals" for the year, I thought about ADVENTURE, or DISCOVERY... they felt to big and bold for me. Then I thought COMPASSION and SERVICE... I wasn't feeling the love so I passed on them and went down to my kitchen to refill my water while I thought about it. There across the back wall in my kitchen in big letters is "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much" ok, so it was not a single word, but it expressed my objective. (Tangent: This is not the font on my wall.. in case you were wondering, it is too frilly for me).


So to keep things simple I have reduced my resolutions into the the following "Live, Laugh, Love... and Blog about it!"

Live
1. I want experience more in my life, and traveling satisfy this for me. This year I want to travel to someplace outside of Utah again. (I am easy to please, a trip to Vegas would fulfill this goal).
2. In order to live healthier I want to lose weight and start working out on a regular basis. (yes, yes, I know EVERYONE has this one as a goal.)
3. Date.. there you go I said it. I would like to possibly go on a date, maybe. I have 12 months to complete this one, so lets not push it.
4. I want to paint another room in my house this year, maybe my room... yea!

Laugh
1. Most of my favorite times laughing have been when I am with my family (including my mom, my sissy and Randy). I want to create more opportunities were we can be together and laugh... even if I end up being the butt of the jokes, I still laugh so hard I cry.
2. I want to take more pictures of every day moments, not just the great posed shots, but day to day shots to capture how much fun we have together as a family.

Love
1. Service is a aspect of love, so I want to make a goal to serve in a greater capacity for the Festival of Trees in SLC this year. In addition to other service opportunities that may arise.
2. Attending the Temple, maybe if I publicly make this goal than I will be better.
3. Family falls under love, I want to research a line of my genealogy that I know little to nothing about. I am very interested in finding out more and getting the background story's associated with it.
4. I want to tell each one of my children every single day of the year that I love them.

...And Blog about it!
Over the last three years I have blogged less and less each year (2008 79 posts, 2009 65 posts, and 2010 47 posts). I find that when I can blog about something I can get it off my chest and move on very easily. It also gives me an opportunity to share about my family, and vent when I am ticked off. This past year there were many things that I could not blog about because of the people involved. As a result I almost completely stopped blogging. My goal is to beat last years numbers, maybe even set a new record number of blogs.

That is my list so far. If I can think of more I am going to add them. I am going to make a copy and carry it with me, as I accomplish something I will cross it off or make a note of it as a reminder. I am not going to beat myself up if I don't complete something, but now I have a little more focus on what my goals are for this coming year.

May 2011 be a prosperous year fill with blessing for all my family and friends.