Family Pics!

I wanted to post this one for Kaylynn. I finally got our beautiful pictures up in a frame. I should have taken a shot of the 2 8x10's I have framed on the wall too. I wanted family pictures of us in Oregon before we left and my very talented friend Kaylynn Matteson (a little plug for her!) took these for us. It was weird being on the other side of the camera. I am sooo not a natural on that side of the lens. It was fun to hang out and is one of my last memories with a good friend before we left. So these pictures are a little bittersweet to me. She did a fabulous job of making us look good! Thanks Kaylynn. (o:

A Day Trip Down Memory Lane

President's Day - we decided to use the day off to go on a fun day trip to the beginnings of our little family so many years ago. We headed down to Provo to relive our college days.

I can't believe this place is still standing. It was kinda dumpy back when we lived here! (o: Our humble beginnings at "The Manor House". Such a fancy sounding name for this cinder block structure. We had good times here though in our cute, little studio apartment. And the not so good times are funny to us now. Like the night after our neighbors moved and we smelled cigarette smoke coming from next door in the vacant apartment. We called the police and they found a homeless man in the closet right on the other side of the wall from our bed. Yikes! Good Times! (o: I prefer to recall the fun times trying to figure out how to cook dinners, keeping our little house, having my little sis visit for sleepovers, staying up all night playing King's Quest VII The Princeless Bride when we bought our very first computer and then Heroes of Might and Magic. It was good therapy after long nights studying!

One of my old places of employment. I didn't get a picture of Franklin Elementary where I worked most of my years down at BYU. My last year, before we moved to Oregon, I worked here for the Utah County Visitor's Center. I was so blessed to have such great jobs while we were going to school. I worked with great people and got to go visit so many fun places (while getting paid) so I could recommend places for people to visit. I have great memories of going with co-workers Kristy and April to various museums, the preview of Thanksgiving Point's gardens, hotel tours and even skiing at Sundance! I also got to take pictures for the Utah County Visitor's Guide. So I can say I've been published. (O:

We took the girls to Los Hermanos - one of our favorite restaurants to go to for special dates back in our old college days. It's in a new location now, but has the same feel.

After lunch we headed to the Bean Life Science Museum on BYU campus. Natalie did not like the 8 foot tall scary bear as you can see by the look on her face.

But this butterfly exhibit was pretty amazing to look at!





Sarah enjoyed watching a real live paleontologist at the museum of Paleontology.

... until she ran into this guy.

We finished off the day at Cabella's and let the girls try their hand at the fun shooting gallery. What a fun day!!

Valentine's Day 2011

The girls looked so cute Valentine's morning all decked out in hearts. I think Sarah was not happy that I was taking a picture. (O:

As usual, I went to help with the class parties - I love the little parties at school. I led a heart matching game in Angela's class.

And in Natalie's class I helped run the donut eating contest. It was hilarious.



They also made carameled apples in Nat's class. I thought the room mom and teacher were brave for picking some pretty messy activities. (O: But the kids loved it.

Natalie's friend Janie - can you see why they get along so well? They are so silly. (O:

After school, we found daddy's car at his work and decorated it and left little presents for him.



Daddy gave each of the girls a cute stuffed animal.

And I got three of my most favorite things: flowers, chocolate and books!

We ended the night with a nice dinner and a family movie together. (Parent Trap)

I love Valentine's day!

Olympic Style Ice Skating

We love to ice skate and wanted to explore the Utah venues. Lucky for us - there are some first class facilities here! So we bundled up and headed to the Olympic rink in Kearns. It was incredible! We had a great time, minus one little thing. We bundled up WAY too much! It was warm inside! We definitely looked like out-of-towners skating in our big coats, gloves, hats and scarves. The girls are getting pretty good at skating and want to go again soon!

Welcome Twenty Eleven!

New Year's Eve was lots of fun this year. We invited mom and dad over to celebrate with us. We made the mistake of watching Marley and Me right before they arrived. So we were feeling a little melancholy, but the mood picked up quickly when we ate some of these . . . Frank's* famous ribs. Yum. I could almost lick my screen they look so good! It's not a party without a little Rockband! Frank* got the Beatles Rockband for Christmas and it's been so fun! I catch my girls singing Beatles songs now! We came out at midnight and made some noise. We were surprised how many neighbors came out to do the same. What a fun neighborhood! (o: It was FREEZING so this lasted about 45 seconds.

Our Merry Little Christmas!!

Note: I am annoyed at all these big spaces and can't figure out the problem - it is driving me nuts! Sorry - this will require more scrolling...

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The layout of our new house was a little tricky. Our tradition Christmas morning is that the girls come in our room and then we all go down to see what Santa left together. The girls had to walk past the room full of goodies to get to our bedroom this year, but they are so good - they blinded their eyes as they came downstairs and ran to our room still. They may have peeked a little, but they put on a good show of surprise when we walked into the family room together!

One funny thing Natalie wanted to do this year was try and "catch" Santa on our camcorder. We set it up before she went to bed and when we went back to look at it, we actually caught something! We heard Santa coming in the door with his big boots, and bells jingling. Then, that jolly old man is so smart - he must have seen the camcorder because right before we thought we'd see him in the camera, he must have turned it off! Maybe we'll catch him next year! Natalie also left several sweet notes for Santa. She is always so thoughtful.

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Santa left a gymnastics mat! A big hit in our house that day and since.

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Pillow Pets were all the rage this year. Natalie and Angela wanted one so bad it hurt. Sarah bought one with her birthday money a month before and her jealous sisters literally cried that they didn't get one too. They had to wait for what felt like forever, which made it so fun to see their reaction when they opened them up.

This was the first picture I took with my new present. I know - can you believe it? Another camera! Bill* knows I love camera stuff like some women like jewelry. I got a 5D and feel so fancy now!

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All the girls got bean bags with their names embroidered on them from Santa. Sarah is sitting in hers above. She was very excited about her sewing book and kit that I put together for her with fabric and everything. (It was a pretty cute gift set if I do say so myself. (o: )

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Angela and her long awaited Pillow Pet. She is also wearing her new Naartjie head band kind of kooky. (This is a new store my sister in law introduced me to that has the cutest kids clothes.)

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Angela asked Santa for a moving bear. The only moving bear I'd seen is Teddy Ruxbin, which was big in the 80's. So I don't know where the idea came from. Well, what do you know? Santa knew right where to find a moving bear, thus granting this 5 year old's wish. What a guy.

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We got a fun visit from Bill's* parents on Christmas. It was such a treat for the girls to share all their fun presents with grandma and grandpa. They even brought a little present for Twilight. So sweet. (o: Twilight LOVES Christmas. She runs around and hops in all the paper, ribbons and empty boxes like nobody's business.

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After a wonderful morning, we got to head over to my parents' house for more fun! Christmas back home is the BEST! Mom made wonderful food, as usual! And the house looked so festive!

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Grandma and grandpa and aunt Ann came too! Everything was perfect. Even our favorite Christmas show "A Christmas Story" was playing in the background!

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I love this cute picture. Even though it's a little underexposed - it just captures one of the things I love about being back. My kids are getting to know my extended family that I love so much. It makes me happy.

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The pretty snowflake lights hanging in the front yard at mom and dad's house.

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This was one of my favorite presents I found this year. Isn't that the cutest monster doll ever? I found it at The Quilted Bear - where people sell homemade gifts. It looks like Sammy appreciates it too!

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Cute Sarah in her new scarf and wearing her flower barrette from aunt Chrissy.

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I was so excited when I found these little kits to do the Mentos/Diet Coke explosion. I had to get them for my brothers and knew they'd want to try them out right away. (o:

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Funny how entertaining a little "explosion" can be! It was a big hit and since I have two brothers, we got to watch it twice!

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We finished off the evening playing the game I bought for my sister - Quelf. It is pretty silly and we laughed our heads off. The older kids really liked playing it too. I love my family. What a perfect day.

Night on the Town!

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What a wonderful new tradition we get to have being back in Utah!! We were so excited to show the girls Temple Square at Christmas.

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We decided to get dinner first and it wasn't hard to decide where to eat. The Lion House Pantry! We had been here with my mom and Christine last March and loved it. It's a nice, casual atmosphere - the girls love that it is cafeteria style where you pick what you want. The only problem was that it seemed like everyone else in Utah had the same great idea to eat there. We waited in line for about an hour. Outside most of the time. Luckily, we were bundled up. And one of the Lion House staff came out with homemade butter mints to help ease our pain.

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This was after about 40 minutes of waiting. Don't they look thrilled? Ang always smiles for pictures -what a sport!

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Ahhhh - it was worth the wait. We had a lovely dinner - such good food!

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Then we were off for the main event - temple square lights.

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The main nativity that has the story from Luke 2 play over load speakers has been completely updated since we were here last. It was really nice.

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We love to go see the Christus in the visitor's center. We also watched a short film about the nativity in the warm building.

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This was the time of year Kent* and I got married - it was fun to reminisce and even walk right by and take a peek at the room we had our reception in - in the Joseph Smith Building. I still remember the amazing Christmas decorations, the huge tree in the entry and all the Christmas lights outside the windows. It was such a beautiful place for a reception. Good times. (o:

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Natalie LOVED all the horse drawn carriages - we'll have to reserve one next year. She really wanted a picture "with" one.

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This ally reminded Sarah of something from a Harry Potter scene! (o:

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This was right outside of the room where our reception was held 14 years ago.