Tuesday, December 13, 2011

No way is this kid 2!!!

My little guy, who still seems like such a little guy, turned two? When did this happen? I remember his birth! That is saying something as Gavin's is slowly fading.
Jamison is super easy to please. He got a pair of new shoes, a little basketball with a hoop acquired from Matthew's childhood, and some backyardigans' movies. We like the backyardigans. He also got lot of good stuff from his grandparents. Trucks, coloring pages, and games. Good times for a little boy. We kept telling him it was his birthday and he would point back and say "No, you birthday, Mommy!". We aren't super big party people, so it was small and simple. We let him do what he wanted.
Gavin and Jamison are currently obsessed with playing the old school Mario Bros. game online with Matthew. We decided that a mushroom would be a fairly easy cake to make. So, here it is!


I don't even know if he ate any of his cake. None of my kids are big cake eaters. I'm not a big cake eater. Matthew ate some. The rest went to his family. Glad they took care of it.
I realized as I looked at posting Jamison's birthday, that I never posted anything about Gavin's birthday. Poor kid. Middle child syndrome. So, here you have a small tribute to Gavin turning 4. Mostly I just wanted to post a picture of his cake. Obviously I need better food coloring. Who's ever heard of pastel legos? Oh well, he liked it. I try to keep my kids' cakes simple. I'm not super good at decorating. In fact, I think this is the first year that all 3 of them got home made cakes!! (okay, so McKinley's was fruit pizza, but home made none the less. Way better than cake anyway!)


Hope everyone is finding time to Christmas shop! What? Shop for Christmas? My poor husband may not have any presents under the tree. That doesn't mean I don't love him.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Wow!! Time does fly!

So, I realized this weekend why I feel so big and so pregnant.........Because I am!! Fancy that. I was doing the math and asked Matthew, "Did you know I'm 6 months pregnant?". Holy crow!! Six months! Where did the time go? People always ask me how far along I am and I give them a week approximation based on my last Dr. appointment. I get all confused with the weeks and don't really know what month I'm in. Alas, 6 months!! Only 3 months left. That's just crazy.
The real reason I'm posting is to post a picture of our awesome christmas tree we picked up this weekend. We went to Salt Lake Thursday morning to spend Thanksgiving with my family. What a fun time we enjoy when we get together. There are 11 grandkids now and all but Hanna are under the age of 8. They are very noisy and energetic. Best game ever- Just Dance on the Wii.

We left Saturday afternoon in hopes of hitting up a "cut your own Christmas tree farm" in Farr West. We made it before the sun went down and found this beauty!! Not bad for $35.


(obviously, I'm not the family photographer. Matthew was asleep on the couch. I'll have him take a better lighted one when its fully decorated.)
Its called a Scotch Pine. Matthew joked that its called that because you need to drink a few glasses of scotch to be able to enjoy it! I thought it was a very witty comment and laughed very loudly.
For some reason, they all sport the stylin' top you see here.

It reminds me of Hooville trees. The kids think its awesome! That's all that matters. I like it. Its a lot fuller than the Kelly canyon trees that we normally get. Not to say they are bad, they just need their own drinks of scotch. Just kidding!! I really just think that its the going and getting the tree that is the most important part. We weren't able to make it up to Kelly canyon this year due to snow fall. We don't have snow machines. The kids seemed to like looking for the tree at the tree farm despite the cold. And they loved these silly tops.
I'll put a kelly canyon tree here for comparison.



Like I said, both nice, just different. (And I had to go back to Christmas of '05 to find a whole tree shot! How sad is that!)
I'm somewhat excited this year for Christmas. That's saying a lot seeing as how I'm somewhat of a scrooge. (long story) We even went Christmas shopping while in Salt Lake. Outside of a few essential church clothes, we are done! We tried to tone down the toys as my kids are spoiled. Jamison's birthday is on the 11th, so it makes it somewhat difficult to buy Christmas and birthday for the little guy. Anyhoo.....Hope you all have good luck getting your trees. Remember, the true meaning of Christmas is Christ. That's the whole reason we celebrate. I try to remind my kids of that constantly. Alas, they still love the toys!!
Happy holiday season!!

Monday, November 21, 2011

I'm a little late with Halloween!

So, Halloween was pretty run of the mill. Just did the trunk or treat at the church and they had a soup dinner. McKinley dressed as a Rainbow Princess, Gavin as Rafael (ninja turtle), and Jamison was a monkey. They all had a grand time.
I'm mostly posting to show off our awesome pumpkin carving skills. Matthew's dad plants half his garden in pumpkins and then sells them. Matthew brought a load down here and we sold most of them. We had about 20 left. So, we carved them all. Matthew did most of them on a Sunday afternoon while I slept. But, I'm super proud of my Quasimoto pumpkin!! See for yourself. My husband is pretty awesome at carving pumpkins. He's had a lot of practice over the years. I especially like the slashed out eye one in the middle of the bottom picture. Pretty gruesome.






The day after halloween, Gavin really wanted me to go and buy a Mario brothers Mario costume. After much deliberation, I found these blue overalls and red shirt. Matthew came home, drew mustaches on the boys, put his hats on them, and WALLA, two Marios!! Gavin was content. Cute little boys!
I sure do love my kids!! Can they get any cuter?

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Hand me a 5/8" deep socket

I have a confession to make. I am 29 years old and like to play with Legos. Do I need to give them up? I think not. They are so much fun! All three of the kids like to play with them so I get to do a little bonding with my kiddos. It's so interesting to see what they come up with. McKinley likes to make patterns with them and her latest creations are making food (bananas, watermelon, strawberries, cupcakes, etc.). Gavin loves to build flying things right now and to play prisoner (which consists of building a prison cell, saying "Get in there criminal!", letting the prisoner escape, and then capturing him and starting over). Jamison likes Legos too. I'm not exactly sure what he does but if the Legos get dumped out he will come running to sit on my lap and play too.

So during General Conference in October, we were playing Legos and trying to listen to the speakers. This is what we built.


Kind of fun, huh! Can you see the potential for a whole book made from scenes from Lego creations?

Friday, October 28, 2011

Two words.....stugeon fishing!


If it's been a while since you've done anything very exciting, I would suggest trying sturgeon fishing. There's nothing quite like hooking into a fish that feels big enough to yank the pole out of your hand and pull you over the side of the boat. That and the fact that they are an old enough species to be dinosaurs.

Anyways, my brother Devin came down on Wednesday night and we went down below American Falls Reservoir to try our luck. I had never been before and Devin went last weekend for the first time. We didn't get there until about 9 pm and stayed until 12:30. It was a lot of fun to sit in the dark with a huge pole in your hand with a glow in the dark light taped to the tip to watch. We hooked three and landed two of them. They were both 4-5 ft long. They look like sharks kind of when they first come up, but they are so calm when you land them. They just roll over and wait for you to unhook them and take their picture.

We had a blast and can't wait to go again. Enjoy some pictures!

The great white sturgeon! Kind of sharky looking, right?!


Here's Devin trying to measure one. He's holding the tail by his shoulder and reaching as far as he could with the other arm. This one is about 5 ft long.


They are pretty big around too.


This is what they do when you finally get them up to the boat. They just roll over and are really calm while you unhook them.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Say it with me, "Yellow!"

Jamison is learning his colors. He does pretty darn good for being less than two. Check out this video of our cute little boy.



Yellow. Got it!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I love my kids!

So Gavin said something that made me laugh today. Okay, he always makes me laugh, but I thought this one was worth sharing. When we cook on the grill, Matthew is always the grill master and the kids, usually Gavin, get to be his junior grill masters. Well, today Matthew was busy doing something else, so I went out to start the grill. Gavin came with me. This is what followed.

Gavin: No, we need daddy!
Me: I'm going to be the grill master today.
Gavin: You can't! You're too young!

Ha ha ha ha ha!! Made me giggle. I kindly informed him that I'm older than his daddy and we proceeded to light the grill. Actually we didn't. The tank wasn't out there as Matthew just went and filled it. Oh well, it made for a funny conversation.

Oh, I suppose I should let everyone know now that the secret is out to all my family. We are expecting again. Baby number 4 is due late February. It is suppose to be a little girl. I'm sure it is, but you never know. There you go, my big secret!!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Photo Shoot!

We wanted some pictures of the kids to replace the ones we took last fall. Jamison is not a baby anymore. There are lots of spots in old town that spark my interest on my way to work.

DISCLAIMER: I make no claim whatsoever to a photographer of people. My theory is to snap enough pictures of the kids and a couple are bound to turn out.

Doesn't always work but there are usually a couple that work. I am still very much an amateur. I look up to my sister-in-law Sophie. We bought the same camera she had a couple years ago. We have loved it. She really works hard at learning how to use her camera and what a shot needs. She made the jump to a DSLR this year and is loving it. I'm still too intimidated. I need more practice.

Anyways, enjoy some shots of our beautiful children. We are open to votes on which picture to put on our wall for each of the kids. I'll number them

We'll start with the baby first to change it up. He is the cutest, but the least likely to hold still and smile for the camera.

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#7
#8

I guess that makes Gavin next. He is a photogenic little fella. I don't know where he gets it from, it must not be hereditary. I think that Sophie has trained him. He'll take a few pictures and then he's ready to run off and play, but they are usually pretty cute.

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Last but not least is McKinley Magoo. She is getting better at taking pictures, Sophie needs to work on her some more. She didn't make the goofy happy chipmunk face once on Sunday. She is sure growing up into a beautiful little girl. A little ADHD sometimes, but still beautiful.

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Our backpacking expotition

Yeah, you know expotition. From Winnie the Pooh Heffalump movie. It's like an expedition, but with kids involved. Anyways, we took our first family backpacking trip over labor day. We hiked to the lower Palisades Lake which is about 4 miles. Erica carried Jamison, McKinley and Gavin carried their sleeping bags, and I carried as much of everything else that I could. Morgan, Sophie, Devin, and Garrett came too. They helped carry what I couldn't.

We started Saturday morning just before noon. Jamison walked for about 45 minutes. He is so funny to watch. He doesn't actually walk, he runs. McKinley and Gavin were little troopers. They walked all the way there. Here's some pictures of our little hikers.




We camped just above the lower lake at the main campground. Devin and Garrett let us use their tents and they slept in their hammocks. Here's our little home away from home.

Sunday we got up and made our way up to the upper lake which is another 2.7 miles. Mom and James met us at the bridge where you cross the creek and head up the switchbacks to the upper lake. It was fun to just "happen" to bump into them. They helped carry Gavin up the switchbacks. McKinley almost made it to the top. She stopped about 100 yards from the top where you can see down to the lake and just said "I'm not walking any farther". Erica carried her the last little bit up the hill until McKinley saw the lake and then she got down and started walking again. It was kind of funny.

My brothers and I have been to the lower lake quite a few times but none of us have ever been to the upper lake. We would ride our bikes to the lower lake and fish but had never gone the rest of the way to the upper lake. The fishing is not that great up there, but the lake is a lot bigger and really pretty.

We had lunch up there and then headed back. We fished in the creek on the way back to the lower lake and caught a load of fish for dinner. Gavin had fun fishing with me, Morgan, Devin, and Garrett.


That night the kids ate so much food! They had burned a lot of energy walking that far and they were hungry. The 7 lb watermelon that Devin packed in tasted pretty darn good that night!

We packed up and headed out on Monday. The kids walked all the way out too. We were so proud of them that we promised that we could stop at the (old) Swan Valley Commissary (I don't remember what it's called now) and got square ice cream cones. It was a fun weekend. The kids had fun and did a great job walking. We walked about 13.4 miles in three days. Gavin got carried a little bit on Sunday but McKinley walked almost every bit of it.

Erica and I are so proud our our little hiker children. It will be a weekend to remember. It went pretty well, so I think that we will have to go again sometime. Sophie had some fun pictures that she took with her camera. We'll have to get copies and post some of them. She posted some on her blog but it is private.

Thanks for your help bros (and Sophie), we'll return the favor some day!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Sophie, this one's for you

Sophie is my dear sister in law. I've never had a sister so it's been a learning experience. We all really like Sophie, especially the kids. Who else would teach my children how to say 'echinodermota'? Anyways, Morgan, Dad, and I made the annual pilgrimage up Red Ridge on our motorbikes. Dad has been going since he was in his teens, 40 years ago. All four of us boys have gone at different times though we've never all been together. I would like to see that happen at some point. We'll have to acquire some more motorbikes to make that happen. Anyways, part of this marvelous adventure is the hunting of blue grouse. (Keep reading Sophie, I'm getting to the whole reason for this post, I have two pictures to post and then the one for you).

Here we are at the rock slide. This is my new motorbike's first trip up Red Ridge. My old white one has made it numerous times and Morgan's bike has been even more times.


Here is the elusive (not really) blue grouse. Sometimes they block the trail and you have to shoot them to get by.

Okay, Sophie this next picture is for you.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Wait for it.....
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Morgan clearing the trail by shooting birds with his .22 pistol. Yes, he is still sitting astride his trusty steed, wearing his helmet and gloves!

I hope the suspense was worth it Sophie. Your husband (aka my brother) is so rad. I would like to say I taught him all he knows but unfortunately it is probably the other way around.

We ate our birds on Sunday. BBQ Blue Grouse is Jamison's new favorite recipe. I cooked them in the crock pot for most of the day in some salt water and then shredded them and put the BBQ sauce in and simmer for a couple more hours (kind of like shredded pork).

Tasty!