My husband is AWESOME!!

Okay-I just wanted to start with this cute picture of Jamison! He is growing up so fast, although he doesn't seem to be gaining weight. He is hitting all his mile stones just fine. His latest trick is climbing up the stairs. He follows the kids up whenever they go up to get ready for bed. Cute kid!!
Gavin turned 3 last week. He seems older then that due to his size and his speech. He speaks very well for a 3 yr old. He is a complete monster, but he's so cute you can hardly get mad at him. He's very much into super heros, even though he doesn't really know who they are. He does know who the ninja turtles are, so he often plays karate.
My favorite time with him is when McKinley is at school and Jamison is asleep. Gavin and I get to do whatever he wants. A couple of times this includes using hangers as bows and pretending to have arrows on our back. We sit on the curb and shoot at the cars going by. We also use the hangers as fishing poles and fish off the curb when there are no cars coming. Good times. Here are a few birthday pictures.
Being the lazy mom I am, I bought the cake. He loved it, that's all that mattered.
He got these two swords for his birthday. Matthew and I tried them out at the store, hitting each other as hard as we could. They do not hurt!! Matthew made the shields a couple of days later. Gavin loves the swords!!

Then Matthew got even more creative! I love my husband! Anytime the kids want something drawn, or made, or created, they are sent to dad. I came home from a quick jaunt to the grocery store to find Gavin riding his "trusty steed" with his new knight helmet! It needs a bit of improvement, but Gavin loves it!! I'm sure Matthew will improve on the design in time. Gotta love the brain of an engineer! Matthew really loved the footie PJ's.

Red Ridge 2010

Dad, Morgan, and I made the annual pilgrimage up Red Ridge. Dad has been going for about 37 years he figures. As we were driving up towards Palisades Reservoir we could see snow on the top of the mountains and we were debating whether or not we would get up that high to get into the snow. We did. Along the top of the Red Ridge trail you are about 8800 ft at the highest spots.


Up the switch backs wasn't too bad for being muddy, but there were two trees across the trail that we had to lift our bikes over. The first stretch to the lunch spot was pretty good, but the next stretch was pretty bad.

The big red hill was pretty gooey and it got worse from there. We got into the snow which made the trail really muddy. The rear tire would pick up enough mud and pack it into the chain case around the front sprocket that it would ooze out the holes. There was one section that we couldn't even ride down the trail because the ruts were so deep and the mud so nasty that we had to ride up above the trail in the grass. The mud slide was a little scary to go across but we all made it.



It was a lot of fun as always. I love to be up there and spend time with my dad and brother.

Here's the pictures to prove it.

Mud oozing out the chain case.

Morgan practicing being a mud removal technician.

Mud in the front.

Mud in the back.

Snow on the trail makes things interesting.

Dinner is served.

The rock slide.

Back at the truck.

I know, I know-I just barely posted!

I meant to post this a while ago, but obviously it didn't happen. We went school shopping for McKinley and decided that Gavin needed a new pair of pants as he only has one pair of jeans that fit him, and they have a hole in the knee. Anyway, we bought 4T, which were too big, but decided to keep them. So we went back to JC Penny to buy 3T, came home and went to try them on, and this is what we found..........

Yes-one leg was an inch or so shorter than the other! It wouldn't have been bad, except the short leg was too short for Gavin!! These were Levi brand Jeans!! It was really quite funny!

First day of school! First day of school!

Finally!!! I feel like we've been waiting for this day forever! Pocatello schools started way later than any other schools in the state. They cut the teachers' salaries, but the union the teachers belong to said "if you cut the salary, then they will work less days". So that's what they did. I hate that they are taking away from the education of our kids, but I think that the most important learning comes inside the home-so for now, I'm okay with it.
McKinley goes to every other day, full day kindergarten. She goes on Wed/Fri and every other Monday. Today was her first full day. The school boundaries we live in had too many kindergartners, so they are busing her to a school on the north side of town. I'm okay with this, as it is rumored to be a better school. She gets on the bus at 7:16 am to drive to the elementary she should have attended, where she transfers buses and goes the rest of the way to one she actually attends. This was very nerve-wracking for me!! She made if fine though. The first thing she said to me after school was "I had 3 recesses!!". Oh, and this morning when I woke her up at 6:30, she started crying about how she wanted to go to school during the day, not at night!! Funny funny!! She's fine once we get her in the tub and let the water wake her up.
This first picture is actually after school as we were too late this morning to stop and pose for the camera. Love the pink converse!! They are hand me downs from a friend of Devin's. She doesn't have any white shoes. Oh well-they don't look too bad. Cute outfit came from Great Aunt Iva. I took 4 pics and this was the least cheesy smile! She hardly ever smiles for real at a camera-just loves to cheese it up.
Hurrying to finish breakfast while dad puts her shoes on. I actually got up and made her a warm breakfast. Then she informed me after school that she ate breakfast at school, too! We need to work on only one breakfast-as breakfast at the school is not free. I really don't mind if she eats there, though. Its less time between breakfast and lunch.
Here you see her with Shelby, who is in our ward, but doesn't go to the same school as McKinley. I had to make double sure that McKinley knew she couldn't follow Shelby off the bus. At least she has a bus buddy for part of the way. She was the only one on the bus for her bus stop on the way home. Shelby gets home way before McKinley! Weird. Oh well, at least she is excited to ride the bus. I have another friend who is driving her kid everyday, just cause she doesn't want her to ride the bus! As much as it makes me nervous, I know I have to let her grow up sometime. To each their own.
Overall a good experience. She will do fine in school. She's a smart kid.
Jamison made his first trip up the stairs today, with me right behind him. I can't believe he is that old! This last 9 months has gone by so fast!
Gavin is a monster! I thought he would get better by 3. No way! The kid is obsessed with Ninja Turtles and sword fighting. He gets super grumpy with a hyper/violent twist when he is tired. I can't hide him from Ninja Turtles forever.
Well, I need to go help Matthew get the kids to bed. I can hear them trying his patience.

Happy Birthday to me!!

What a birthday! Some birthdays just turn out awesome. We didn't really do too much of anything that was really exciting. I made myself some breakfast and went to work. Erica and the kids brought me balloons and a doughnut before lunch. McKinley and Gavin were so excited! It was hilarious. At work, they order a cake and we all take a break for a minute in the afternoon. I left work a little early and we went to Idaho Falls to help the youth do baptisms at the temple. Afterwards we met Mom and Morgan and had an ice cream cone at Reed's Dairy. Morgan had a special present for me after we ate our ice cream.

Morgan and Sophie had bought me a new bass! I think that everybody else chipped in some to help. IT IS SO AWESOME!!!!!! We played for a few minutes on Saturday but we are excited to have a full day.

I also got a water filter, some hiking socks, and a waterproof camera box which I am excited for. The kids fell asleep on the way home so that was another bonus. Overall a good day.

Thanks again Morgan and Sophie!

Feel free to bask in the glory of my new guitar. I posted them in large size. :)

Our Latest Adventure...Sheep Falls, Union Falls, & Ouzel Pool

We survived our latest adventure, barely. Grammy Suzie and Papa (Erica's parents) wanted to have McKinley and Gavin come visit for a few days. Jamison would stay with us. We figured that it would be a good time for a hike. It would be tough packing 43 lbs of McKinley or 35 lbs of Gavin for very far. We had been talking about going to Union Falls for a month or so with Morgan and Sophie and this was the perfect opportunity. We got all of our stuff ready and drove up towards Ashton on Friday night. A coworker had mentioned the rarely visited Sheep Falls which you can almost drive to. We found directions and decided to make the detour, we were hoping to make it to Cave Falls too, but didn't make it there.

Sheep Falls was awesome! You can stand right above it and walk along it and take pictures.


A high clearance vehicle is required! (Note: a Honda CRV is not a high clearance vehicle). We scraped and bounced along about a 1/2 mile before we surrendered and parked the car. The 12" drop off the rock ledge was the deciding factor. We walked the last mile in and enjoyed the view. If anyone wants to visit we would be glad to give directions and tips.

We drove back around to camp near Loon Lake. The campground was mostly full so we camped at the trailhead near Fish Lake. We hiked in to Union Falls (about 6.5 miles one way) which is quite the spectacle with about 250 ft drop. Jamison had fun most of the time. Here he is at the beginning of the trip. He slept a lot.


There are three river crossings that you have to make so we carried our sandals. After enjoying the view for a few minutes we walked the short trail to a warm creek which has a 4 ft waterfall that drops into a deep pool. We spent over an hour playing in the pool. Jamison loved it. He was tired of riding in the backpack and had so much fun playing and splashing in the pool. Sophie had her waterproof camera box so she has all the pictures of the pool on her camera. We'll have to get them from her.


The warm creek joins Mountain Ash Creek were we stopped for lunch. Upstream of the confluence it is still warm and Jamison had a good break from riding in the backpack playing in the water. It was so funny to watch him having fun in the middle of a creek in the mountains. Usually they are really cold!


The 13 miles was enough for one day for us. It was pretty hot on the way in and I knew I was in trouble when I started chafing on the way in. I'll spare you the grisly details but I was glad to make it to the car. Our feet were tired and my back and shoulders were tired from carrying Jamison but it was a fun day. I love to spend time doing things with Morgan and Sophie. They are the best! We love them and appreciate all of the help they give us.

Picture time!

Just descriptions here! Jamison is crawling! I tried to post a video, but it didn't want to work. Anyway, this is just a cute picture of him.
Here is his downward dog/baby yoga pose! He does this to return to a sitting position. Its really funny!
Bath fun with Daddy! He had to have the camera all ready as McKinley's spike would only stand for a few seconds. Her hair is actually starting to get long!!
I wanted to take a picture of McKinley's awesome outfit, and Gavin thought his was picture worthy. I love these shoes McKinley has on. They are hand me down's from one of Devin's friends. Thanks, Michelle! All her clothes this year are courtesy of Michelle and her girls. We'd be poor without them! Gavin is sporting his Buzz light year PJ's. He wore them all day. Who cares that they are jamma's-it's BUZZ!
Jamison's 8 month picture. Its a little blurry, but still cute. He is so much fun! I love my kids! Its so nice to be home with them, even if McKinley wants to play with her friends all the time. At least she knows I'm just inside.