Our sweet little girl!!!

We were sitting here watching the screen saver on our computer cycle through all of the old pictures that we have taken. There were a few of McKinley when she was little that are my favorites that I wanted to post. She was such a cute little toad. We love Gavin so much right now because he is still cute and snuggly, but McKinley was pretty dang cute when she was little. We are excited for our new baby, but worried about Gavin too. He is so awesome.

Taking her doll for a ride on her trike.

Playing in the Logan River. One of our favorite things.

Feeding the ducks, kind of, mostly eating bread while the ducks watch.

What can I say?

What a good big sister. Gavin was about 2 months old.

Morgan-you ruined him for life!

Okay-I'll explain the title in a moment. First I wanted to post this cute pic of my kids with Matthew! No-Mcki doesn't have some strange disease on her face! One of her favorite activities is going to a friend's house and coming back with all sorts of washable marker art on her face. Alas-it comes off-so we don't worry about it too much.

Anyway, The kids love playing computer games with Matthew. They are games they can't play as they are for older kids, but they love watching. This picture just turned out too good not to share. Its not often that we get both of them smiling at the same time-and good smiles-not the cheeser kind!

This is our carving pumpkin night. Sophie and Morgan joined us and Uncle Morgan successfully yucked Gavin right off the table! Yup! He wouldn't even stay at the table to finish carving the pumpkin. Morgan forced him to hold some pumpkin guts in his hand and that was the end! Mcki enjoyed sawing through the pumpkins and helped cut out the bigger designs! She loves all holidays! They are going to be snowmen this year.
I have about 7 of these pics of Gavin-all with a similar face of disgust! He does not like to be dirty unless its in mud outside. He does like to light the candles to put in the pumpkins. I'll post that picture later as I took out my SD card to post these pics and don't want to stop and put it back in. I'm lazy-I know. Happy Halloween to all!

Enjoying the last few days of fall....

There is just something about a nice day in the fall that makes it impossible for me to stay inside. Luckily I didn't have to work. I guess that is lucky. I took the kids out to the cabin so we could enjoy the beautiful day. We thought that winter was just about here a couple weeks ago. We are happy to see some warm days again. We played in the sandbox with the Tonka trucks and then walked to the river and threw rocks in. That is one of their favorite things to do. We went for a little walk along the river and McKinley started looking for "special" rocks. Which means any rock that she picks up. Before long she has both pockets of her coat full and is asking me to carry the big ones. Funny kid. I love to look for "special" rocks. We have a bunch at my parents house that we have found. We may have to make a spot at the cabin for a rock garden. For those of you who have heard us talk about the cabin, I took my trusty camera with us and took a few pictures to share. I love being outside with my kids!

Touched by an angel

Just for the record, I think that the swine flu is a bunch of hogwash. Now, on to more important things. During our Paria Canyon trip, when things were the hardest, and I felt like I just couldn't go on any longer, it was then that I was touched by an angel. He lifted my heavy pack and kicked me in the butt and then made me laugh. It was the Mud Angel. He visited me in all of his glory. Luckily he didn't give me a hug.

We laughed about Devin jumping into the mud so I took a few rough liberties with Paint and combined two pictures of Devin. What a good time we had. There will be good memories for a long time of that trip. Devin usually always has a smile on his face which helped make our trip a lot of fun.

I survived!

To all who may be wondering-I survived the swine flu vaccine. The only effect that hit me was an extreme exhaustion the day after. Otherwise i was fine. My arm wasn't even as sore as it was with the regular flu vaccine! One of my co-workers who has a weak immune system seemed to get ill from the nasal wash vaccine. But several other co-workers got the nasal version and did fine. So-If you have a weak immune system or are pregnant or nursing-demand the shot. Otherwise-the nasal swine flu vaccine will work for you and you save a poke!

Good luck finding out if this is for you or not-but know that I will get my husband and own children vaccinated. Its too prevalent in our community not too! There is a ton of the flu going around and it is almost all swine flu! I feel much safer at work as I treat patients with possible flu. I know that I've done all I can to keep myself from getting sick.

On happier notes-Gavin seems to have acquired a croup like cough from somewhere. He acts normal, just coughs a lot. It seemed to be better this afternoon. We'll see how he does through the night.

McKinley always tells us her tummy hurts in the morning-then she informs us its because she is hungry and needs to eat. The silly thing! She is recently terrified of the dark and won't go up or down the stairs by herself when it is remotely dark. You don't even have to teach them the fear-they just get it on their own. I'm also afraid of the dark-but only if i'm outside by myself or in a big building-like the church-when its all dark! Ugh! I shudder just thinking about it. Thank goodness my husband is invincible and isn't scared of any monsters lurking in dark hallways! He always provides the light and goes ahead! Thanks Matthew!

Oh-and an even happier note-Potatoes are done!!! Boy oh boy! I get my husband back and a more normal routine! However, I'm very grateful for Matthew's grandparents for allowing him to work the whole time. I know that they needed him to help-but i'm still grateful that they provided him an income for a couple of weeks! We've been blessed! I can't deny that.

Good night to all. (or good day depending on when you read this)

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate!

Tomorrow they are holding a long awaited H1N1 vaccine clinic for health care professionals at the Madison Memorial Hospital. I didn't want to get this vaccine. I've been debating as I don't really read the study results that the CDC has done. It makes me a little nervous being pregnant. However-after a little research and after talking to a fellow health care professional that works for the health department-I've decided to get the vaccine. They say that for some reason-pregnant women are really having a hard time with the H1N1 strain of flu. I still wasn't totally convinced until this lady said that women in their 3rd trimester get hit the worst! We've seen our share of flu in the office. I'm sure I've been exposed to it several times. I've been lucky thus far not to get sick. I suppose I shouldn't press that luck any further. I made my whole family get the normal flu vaccine. The public swine flu vaccine clinic isn't till the end of the month. Alas-I've caved and my family will follow suit. They really don't have a choice-especially the little ones.

Hope everyone is healthy wherever you are reading this. Don't get too nervous about the swine flu. Unless you have underlying health conditions, it really isn't any worse than the regular flu. In fact-almost 100% of the flu tests that have come back positive this season are the swine flu. It does spread easily-but they are finding that most people have some immunity to it, so don't be panicked if you have been exposed. Drink plenty of fluid, get plenty of rest, and stay away from pregnant ladies!!

Much love to all who read this!

I love my brother

This post is dedicated to Morgan. Also known as Uncle Morgie. We love him. He is a lot of fun to be around. We have been good friends ever since we were kids and I hope that we can always stay that way. We can make almost any situation tolerable as long as we're together. I love all of my brothers but Morgan and I have spent the most time together. We get a kick out of playing in our "band". He plays the guitar and I play the bass and we have whoever is around play the drums. Sophie was kind enough to donate a room in their new house to be the band room. Maybe it was part of the deal for Morgan to agree to buy the house.

Anyways, I just wanted to post some previously unreleased pictures of my awesome brother.

Here we have a strong runner for sexiest man alive from Paria Canyon.

Gavin is helping Uncle Morgie fill the grain truck.

Uncle Morgie being the support tanker for McKinley in Yellowstone.

By the river in Yellowstone.

This week is going to be crazy!

So...Thursday started the lovely time of potato harvest. Since Matthew is not working much right now, he has the opportunity to work with his dad in potato harvest. He drives the trucks next to the digger-which is harder than it looks. I tried it, unsuccessfully, last year. I helped quite a bit last year, but this year I'm working, so I'm not doing much in potatoes. We went out this afternoon and rode in the truck with Matthew. The kids think its great! McKinley always falls asleep and today was no exception. Gavin lost his balance at one point and fell and hit the back of his head. It left a quarter size goose egg that sticks out about 3/4 of an inch. It nearly broke the skin! Thank goodness it didn't.

If anyone lives here in Rexburg and would like a lot of free potatoes, call me. You have to come when they are digging, but the potatoes that are too small for the digger just get left on the ground. There are thousands of them! It breaks my heart to see all those potatoes go to waste. I have to admit-they are a pain to clean. And forget peeling them! Just cook them with the skins on! A lot of people use them for bottling. I don't think I'll venture there-not this year.

Here are a couple of pictures.


Here is the digger and the truck going along. Gavin is in the truck with Matthew. Too bad you can't see him!

Here are McKinley and Gavin sitting on the digger during break. McKinley is already asking when she will be old enough to help out. Maybe she'll still feel that way when she actually has to work! Ya, right!