Category Archives: General

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Temple Square

A few months ago with some gentle pushing from my husband I got involved in a fun photography group. It’s called Photowalking Utah. We meet once a month at a different location and take pictures of some of Utah’s best scenery. The greatest part about the group is the different experience levels. I get a chance to learn new tips from the best photographers in the area while seeing new places I hadn’t heard of before.

This month we met at Temple Square to take pictures of the Christmas lights. I have always wanted to go up to Salt Lake with my camera and take the time to get really great pictures of the lights, but around Christmas there never seems to be enough time. This year I made the time and it was worth it.

Here are a few shots from that night.

For more information on Photowalking Utah events you can visit their website.

Road Trip

*While going through the archives of my blog I realized I somehow overlooked posting this. It is really really old, but I think worth sharing.

Last year we started a new family tradition. We go down to Manti for the pageant. Last year was our first time, and it was so much fun I decided we need to do this every year. One of these times we need to get daddy to come along. He is conveniently busy every time we plan to go. This year Sadie was off at girls camp so she missed the fun to.

Last year we went with some good friends of ours, but this year they are on a fun family trip to Costa Rica so we are on our own. We packed a picnic lunch and blankets for when the sun went down and we headed out around 4:00. Cole quickly fell asleep and we had a peaceful ride all the way down to Nephi where we decided to stop for a potty break. I went around to get Cole out and realized that he wasn’t wearing any shoes. For those of you who know him this won’t be surprising. He rarely has shoes on and when he does they are quickly discarded. I usually keep an extra pair in the car just in case. I’ve learned my lesson after having to stop and buy him a new pair of shoes multiple times. I should have know to check for shoes but I was in a hurry and didn’t.

After a brief stop to potty (caring Cole so he doesn’t touch the gross floor) and get treats we continued on our trip. We got there, found parking, reserved our seats and then sat down for a picnic dinner. The kids would have preferred that we buy corn dogs and pizza but with gas prices through the roof I decided to we would picnic it. We looked around some of the booths and then got a treat before the pageant started.

Dallin and Cole took off for the bathroom and I didn’t remember that he had bare feet until I saw him hobbling back on the gravel road. He got to ride in the stroller the rest of the night.

We had about an hour to kill until it was dark enough for the pageant to start. The protesters were out in full force and were really interrupting. They are usually there every year, but never interrupt that much. This year they were more vocal and would shout things during the performance whenever there was a quit moment. The police were there to keep them in check, but it didn’t seem to be working.

The kids took turns taking pictures while we waited for the performance to begin, and some of them turned out really cute. The show was great as always. Cole made it about 3/4 the way through before passing out from exhaustion, and Gavin was out before the show began.

We left about 11:30 and didn’t make it home until almost 2 am. I am totally wiped out today, but it was worth it.

Lighting Demo

I attended a lighting demo on Saturday and had a great time taking pictures of this cutie. She was oh so sweet and loved having her picture taken. Here are just a few raw images from the shoot, I haven’t touched any of them up yet.

Exerting his Independence

From the back seat

Cole: “Mom drop me off at the corner so I can walk home all by myself.”

Me: “Why”

Cole: “Because I’m a big boy, and I can do it.”

Me: “OK, but not out by the main road. You can walk home from the bottom of the hill.”

Cole: (As he is getting out of the car) “Don’t worry mom I’ll make sure no one snatches me.”

Today I’m Grateful For…

This

This

and these

Happy Sunday!

My Favorite Time of the Day

Snuggling and story time.

Did I ever mention how much I love bed time. Oh the sound of quiet

Now I’m going to go snuggle with the big guy.

Endless Energy

Endless energy is the only way to describe my adorable baby boy. Not much of a baby anymore, but he’ll always be my baby!

In my never ending quest to find constructive outlets for his abundant energy level we have discovered soccer!

Last week the big kids went off for their first week of school, while little man was stuck home all by himself awaiting his grand entrance into the life of a big kindergartner. So what does a good mother do to entertain a lonely, bored, almost kindergartner? Take him fishing of course.

Seriously how sweet is he! I love this little bug!

Today he is off on his kindergarten adventure. Wish him luck, and prayers for his teacher wouldn’t hurt either.

I’ll post photos and updates on his big day later.

PS If you are reading this in a reader click out of the reader and check out my new look. It is still a work in progress but so far I am loving it. Thanks to my amazingly gifted hubby!

Balloons Over Provo

Words can’t explain how awesome last night was, but pictures can.

Can you believe how many people showed up?

And we have lift off!

My little man was quit the entrepreneur! He went around collecting money for Stephanie and Christian’s recovery fund. He had a goal of at least $50, and in the end he got close with $45. He took it really seriously and I couldn’t have been more proud.

How cute are Clair and Jane holding the donation jars. In the end we were able to raise $1,131.18 not bad for one night of fundraising.

Summer Fun

o far our summer has been very productive. Not busy, just productive. We are homeschooling our kids in the summer, and it seems to be going well this year. We have been doing it consistently for 3 summers now and I see a big difference in how well they retain what they have learned as well as keeping them busy so they don’t get bored during the long summer months.

If the kids get there chores and school work done by noon then we like to go and do something fun. Yesterday we went to the pool. It was our first pool trip of the season and they had a blast.

Sissy is off at girls camp, so it is a little lonely around here without her. We do have lots and LOTS of house guests so I am pretty busy. Some days it feels like we are running a hotel, but I love it.

I Just Might be a Convert

You may have noticed the lack of photos on my posts for a few months now. This was all because someone talked me into upgrading to a newer version of wordpress. Since updating I have not been able to get anything to work especially posting photos. My wonderful hubby kept telling me if I would just switch to Firefox the problem would go away. Yeah I’ve heard that before. That is what caused the problem in the first place. Never mess with something thats working.

Finally I gave in and converted to Firefox and so far so good. I was able to upload photos without much trouble (the photos still won’t center).

Since I haven’t been able to post photos for a while (or blog for that matter) here is some of what we have been up to.

We moved, from here…

to here. It’s a long story.

Sadie and I went to the Scrapbook Expo

We met my friend Dev and a few of her friends their.

We had a suprise birthday party for big guy

Little man graduated

 

 Aren’t they so cute!

Not to flip subject so abruptly, but a good friend of mine is at a children’s hospital with a very VERY sick baby girl. Go over and wish her and her little girl well. They could use all the good thought and prayers we can send there way. Many of you may know her as chezadria.

 

Graduation Day

Today was our youngests big day. He graduated from preschool. This is bitter sweet since he is my youngest and last baby and will now be in kindergarten

We are definitely starting a new phase of life, and I’m not sure I’m ready for it.

They had a magician come and entertain. The kids loved it.

Mrs. Rebbecca gave a little speech and said “goodbye”.

Garden Swap

I have never participated in a swap before, and I’m very excited to give it a try. I found a post here about a garden swap and thought that it sounded like fun so I signed up. You can go here if you would like to join in the fun.

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TV is Sucking the Life Out of Me

I am not a TV watcher (I know that is weird). I used to be, back in the day I was a full blown addict but I gave it up.

When we moved to Utah, I just decided to not hook up cable, and it has been wonderful. We only own one TV and it’s 27 inches (I know I know really weird). I spend very few hours a week watching TV, and can’t say that there is even one show that I am hooked on. I probably couldn’t even tell you what night of the week any given show is on.

Life this way has been wonderful, until my sister brought over her unused cable box that she pays for and hooked it up to my TV. Long story short she has two boxes, but now only has one TV. Since she just moved in next door she decided to let us test drive the second box just in case we decide we want cable.

I now find myself compelled to sit in front of the TV and “catch up” on all the shows I used to watch. The truth is I really didn’t miss them so why am I so compelled to watch now? The shows I find myself really enjoying are the ones where they buy a house and fix it up and resell them. I’m totally hooked.

Another great question is why is it when you have like, I don’t know, 500 channels there still is nothing on? I can spend 30 minutes just flipping through them all trying to find something to watch.

Now with my newly rejuvenated obsession with TV I have totally neglected my blog, my Google reader, my work, and of course there is that pile of clean laundry just screaming to be folded. I guess I’ll have to just ask Sadie to fold it because my show is on.

Go over and check out my post at Fight the Fluffy, and help me figure out my numbers problem.

Fight the Fluffy

I just did my very first ever guest post over at Fight the Fluffy. (who am I kidding, it isn’t really a guest post if you ask to join ;0) Go check it out.

Happy Late Halloween

I just realized I never posted the kids Halloween pics, and they are so cute. Sorry. Here you go.

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Cole=Firefighter and Dallin=The grim reaper

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Sis just loves getting her picture taken can’t you tell.

Especially when her friends are at the door waiting for her.

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How cute are these kids. The tiger is Aden (Ben’s son)

and the Kitty is Hailey (Ben’s daughter). I volunteered to get

there Halloween costumes this year because Ben couldn’t. I

think they turned out pretty cute. They both told me what they wanted

to be then I hunted down the costume.

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I told Ash that I was dressing up for Halloween so he had to.

He went and bought a great Pirate costume, and didn’t think it

was funny when I put on devil horns.

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