SLC , Random Pix, and Christmas Tree

We had such a nice mini vacation a couple weeks ago!

We were able to go to Layton and be with all of my family and lots of extended family as well for a Christmas party.

The vacation was much needed !

The kids did a small skit for the party....

The fam w/ Great Grandma and Grandpa Anderson! So good to see them and everybody else! It had been way to long!

Lukas after the party. So tired!

Love these chubby cheeks!

Savanah w/ Luke. She loves to take care of him....

and get him to sleep.....

can you tell she was taking care of him here.

Love the pink!

Lukas reminds Beau and I of Caleb. Caleb use to put things in his mouth and just carry it there.

So does Luke!

Kennedy likes to get a basket and sit and watch movies in it!

And of course my stinker Caleb is going through a phase where he hides when I get the camera out. So hopefully I can get one of him soon!

We have been keeping busy getting ready for the Christmas Holiday!

We decorated the tree! CLICK HERE to see!

We had GPSed it a few weeks earlier. And then went with some friends up to get it!

I love holiday traditions!

I love this time of year!

Hope you are all enjoying it as well!

Vacay...Part 4

This was the first day on our vacay that felt like a vacay for me! (besides the reunion) No appointments at all this day! It was nice to relax and take it easy! We played for a good portion of the day here! It was a blast.

(Baby Dylan aka Baby bird)
This lil' rascal is so active and so fun to watch! Can you tell he loved the sand?

Sharla and Jamen

Cute Buster. Always smiling!

Silly sissy...soakin' wet!

We had such a great trip. It ended WAY TO FAST and we didn't get to do as much as we would have liked. But we feel blessed to have gotten as much time as we did to visit. A year is a little too long to wait to go home, we decided, so hopefully we can make it back at least twice this next year!

We miss you all already! Love you!!

Vacay.... Part1

Finally I have a little extra time to start blogging. I have so much to catch up on...so I am sure I will be posting often. I am excited to have the kids back in school and time to catch up on all your blogs and my own!

This picture was taken at the beginning of our drive. It totally described how I was feeling. "There is sunshine...on a cloudy day.".
Like "YES Finally" our vacation has started!

We started out our vacation by spending the first night in Ogden with my fabulous lil' sister Alison's.

We went and saw my grandparents.

The kids love their great grandparents and had so much fun. My grandma gave Kenny rides the whole time on her new "set of wheels". It was so cute!
It was so nice to be able to visit and talk. We loved every minute of it!

We got to spend the evening with Alison and Brian (her new fiance) and get to know him better. We stayed up late laughing, eating, and chatting. Then the next morning headed out to Soda Springs for our 1st family reunion with my family!

Vacation

(Warning..long post)

I was so lucky to go with Beau up North for a vacation. He had some classes to take for work and I grabbed the kiddos and tagged along.

~Here is what we did~

Day 1~
Arrived late at hotel. Met up with my Mom. Slept!

Day 2~
While Beau was at work. My sister Alison and her three kids came to swim at the hotel with my mom and I.

It was so good to see my sister and my cute nieces and nephew. It had been awhile.

Then, we headed out to lunch to meet up with some family. I hadn't seen my grandparents, some of my cousins, and aunts in awhile. So it was really nice!


We shopped a little then unfortunately had to say goodbye to my mom. So the rest of the night I just hung out at the hotel and Beau took the kids swimming some more.

Day3-
Since I had to check out of the motel, the kids and I went shopping, hung out in the van, and waited until Beau got out of his class.


After we picked him up, we headed over to my cousin Shane and his wife Sara's house. They were so nice to let us stay with them and were perfect hosts!! Shane's parents and sister came over for dinner.
Yummy french dip sandwiches.


Thanks Sara and Shane!

Day 4~

We got up early and headed to Hoogle Zoo. Sara and her cute kiddos came with us too. Caleb kept calling Zach "little dude" and "little buddy" it was so cute! And Ella and Savanah loved playing with each other!

After the zoo Beau and I took the kids to Temple Square. We always love going there. We went through the visitor centers, the Joseph Smith house, and just lounged around on the temple grounds.
The gardens are so beautiful.
And of course, ya know me, thousands of pictures were taken!





To view more photog pictures of the temple click here!

Then we headed to my Aunt Bonnie's to stay the night. (Darn I forgot to take my camera in)

Day5~

We headed back towards home, but on the way stopped at Cove Fort to see the sites. I hadn't been there since I was seventeen.


I think sometimes in life we get so caught up with the "convenience" of everything. The Sister told us how Ira Hinckley's wife and others used every inch of everything they could. They would make mattresses out of a certain kind of fabric. When the mattress would thin out they would cut the mattress up and make pants for the men out of the fabric. When the pants wore out, they would use the same fabric and use it for patching or for quilting. When that wore out they would throw the fabric in the fire and use the Lye in the ashes to make soap!
WOW! Talk about wake up call!
It made me grateful for what we have but also feel guilty for how I am guilty of wasting.
I am so glad we stopped and enjoyed some of the rich history of our church.

Day 6~
Although we were home, we still wanted to utilize the last day we had together as a family before Beau had to go back to work. So we headed up the moutain for a picnic. We went to Blow hard and Deer Haven.



(To view more nature shots of our drive go here)
Deer Haven is another one of my favorite places to go to. The trees are so thick, everything is so green, there are many different kinds of wild flowers, and it is true to it's name. We saw five deer (two of which were babies) and one buck. We also saw rock chuck's the size of beavers. The things were huge.

All the kids were so good for our whole trip.
Lukas traveled so well.
He really is such a good baby.


We are sad that our vacation went so quickly. But it is good to be home and back into a routine. We can't wait for more fun family adventures this summer!

Busy with projects...

Here are a few of the projects that have been keeping me busy lately:

Baby shower gifts for my sisters


These were so fun to do! I wanted to use a Mason jar but had to get a little bigger of containers to fit there stuff. I just rolled up the outfits and tucked them down inside. Then put all the other things in and made it fit! Wal-mart sells those cute labels with ingredients for a girl or boy on them. It added just an added touch of "cuteness" to a plain old jar!


~Filling dirt area with gravel~
(Still need our trim in, and giant edging rock- pictures later)

~More Sod laid in the backyard. We still have
more to do, plus add our sandbox , and dig our fire pit.
(I will post pictures when it is all finished)



Weeding the garden, building squash trellis's,
and picking our spinach. We have already gotten to enjoy it several times!




~ Taking the kids to a magic/ illusionist show. Seriously I wish I had pictures! Their faces were classic. Especially when the girl got sliced in half,
when he made a bowling ball fall out of a flat piece of paper, and put a kids head in a chopping block! Their faces showed complete shock! Savanah almost cried when she thought the boy was going to get his head chopped off! It was so much fun!


These are just a few things we have been up to these past several days!
Life is beautiful, wonderful, and great!
To bad time couldn't slow down so we can enjoy it even more!
What's been keeping you busy?