Addiction!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO SKI!!!! The first time I went skiing was my when a friend took me my sophomore year of college and I was instantly hooked! The only thing that keeps me off the slopes is when I'm pregnant, and the fact that it costs a lot. If I were rich I'd have all the ski gear, skis, a rack on my vehicle and a season pass! Luckily I can get discount tickets every year at the Warren Miller show! This year was a little different. Larry and I had to go different days because we couldn't find anyone to watch the kids, but it was still fun for me...I missed skiing with him a lot though! :) Wednesday I took my sister and her husband for their first time at a resort. We went to The Canyons at Park City. It was my first time at that resort, and it was awesome! I'm not a very good skiier, or very daring, but I love it. and I love taking people for their first time to see if they love it too. I think my sister has a new addiction! She kept asking when we were going again! It was the perfect day for skiing...take a look! Larry went on Thursday with Tyrel and one of his friends. The only bummer was what happened to Larry. He hadn't been skiing for two years and on his first run down the mountain he wasn't quite used to the terrain and he took a bad spill. He fell hard and crunched up his shoulder really bad and ended up spending the day at the Park City Clinic and Dr's office getting x-rays. What a bummer! And on the first run of the day no less. It's almost a week later and his shoulder still hurts and he can't use it very much yet. He says he's not done with skiing though because he didn't even really get to ski this year!

Family Pictures

I forgot one thing in my catch up post...my sister took some family pictures for us! She is starting to get into the photography business and is having lots of fun with it. She needed some guinea pigs, we needed a new family picture and voila....
I love them! They turned out so cute. We'll have to do some more though, because we didn't get a single one with all of us looking and smiling at the same time! It was so cold and the kids were freezing so we were trying to hurry!
I love this one of me and Larry...
Thanks Christy! I'm looking forward to being your guinea pigs again!
You can see more on her photography blog by clicking here.

All Aboard!

All aboard the catch-up express! So much has happened since I last posted so I will attempt to catch up with one big post. I hope no one minds. I just haven't had a chance to sit down and post like I want to lately.
First, while I was down at my parent's house a few weeks ago, I got to visit my friend Bonnie. I wish we still lived closer to each other. It was so much fun to visit and hang out again. I love that it's so laid back when we are with each other. We ate huge bowls of Life cereal at midnight and had a great time! I wish we would have snapped a picture of us together for me to post...maybe next time. She did take some awesome pictures of my kids though. I'll post a couple of my favorites, but you can click here to see more.


Next, we had Thanksgiving at my parent's house. Everyone was there and we had a great time together. The weather was kind of a bummer, but we still had fun. We ate way too much, played games, watched movies, and rode 4-wheelers and went shooting when the sun was shining. Here is Nate attempting Guitar Hero with Uncle Kevy...And Nate had a blast with Uncle Kendrick, Uncle Kevy and Uncle Brian jumping hotwheels down the stairs. My sister and I had fun making flowers and bows for our little girls. We made such a mess, but got lots of them done. My sister made the cute yellow and pink one on the top/middle. McKinlee will look so cute in it! Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us (especially Nate) destroy your house for a few days! The bigger the mess, the funner it was, right?!

Kamry turned 3 months old...boy how time is flying! She has changed so much already. Here is a cute one of her and Nate. He looks so big compared to her and he's still a midget!

Next the kids and I went to Larry's parent's house for the weekend. Unfortunately Larry had to stay home to study for finals this week. His Mom, Sisters Grandma and Aunt Jenny and I all got together for some "girl fun". We made reeses cups and yummy to-die-for peanut butter christmas candy, went out to dinner, did mini pedicures, played games, and had lots of fun!I had my own personal esthetician, and he believes that "truck soaks" are great for your feet!

Jenny has the cutest playroom in her basement. Nate and Will had a blast paying together...can't you tell?!? Thanks Jenny for letting them make such a big mess. Nate still tells me "Jenny's got this, and Jenny's got that at ther house and it is so cool!"I may be in trouble for posting this, but I'll ask for forgiveness later, rather than permission now!! Mandy talked Grandpa Larry into getting a pedicure too! He couldn't stop giggling because it tickled his feet so much :)
The next morning Mandy, Grandpa Larry, Nate and I went out christmas tree hunting. It was such a beautiful day. Almost too warm to be December. We went on a nice little hike trying to track down the "perfect" tree that we saw across a gorge, but it turned out that it was two of them growing together, bummer. It was so perfect! We did find awesome trees though. Here's Mandy's and mine.Mine's on the left and Mandy's is on the right.
I had so much fun hunting for our trees! and so did Nate! Thanks Grandpa Larry for taking us. Nate is still telling me about going to look for a "christmas" in the mountains :)

The funniest part of it all was getting the tree home. Can you say redneck?!? I had a few people pointing at the car on the freeway...can you blame them! It really was a funny sight, especially with the retro blanket under the tree. Take a look for yourselves!
Well, that catches us up to date, almost :) I would have posted a picture of our decorated tree, but I'm not in love with it this year. One day I will have a super cute tree, but for now everything about it is non-matching and multicolored so that it is fun for the kids. Nate loves our "christmas" (he calls everything about christmas a "christmas" rather than their names, like a christmas tree) and he is excited for santa to come. I've learned quickly though, that he doesn't keep secrets about presents. He has already told his cousin Will what we got him. Good thing it was over the phone and Will didn't understand Nate very well! I will have to be sneakier when I get Larry's presents out to wrap!
Happy Holidays everyone!

Grandma & Grandpa's House

This week the kids and I are on vacation! We came to my parent's house for a week or so to play and I've been visiting friends who are close. It's been great so far, except that Nate got sick. Some kind of nasty bug must be going around. It didn't last very long, but it sure wasn't fun having him throw up all through the night and the next day. And of course, as luck would have it, it started was when I was at my friend Bonnie's house too. Sorry Bonnie for the mess and the extra laundry you were so kind to do for us to get his clothes clean :) While we were there, before he got sick, he was playing with Caleb's Batman mask and thought it was the coolest thing ever. He told me..."Mom, I need one of those". I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for one. He thought he was so cool and could do cool moves when he was wearing it! So funny!

I've been tagged!

Here's the 4th picture in my 4th folder...This was taken the morning I graduated with my Master's degree. Nathan was just about three months old then. I had to take him with me to line up for commencement exercies until my parents could get there and watch him for me. I can't remember where Larry was, that he couldn't take Nate? My Dad snapped this picture of me as I was coming down to meet him and give him Nate that morning. I look back now and I don't know how in the world I finished those last few months of school with a newborn. He became a college student at an early age because he went everywhere with me....class, study groups, etc. I'm really glad I did though! and glad it was only a few months! I remember being a zombie alot because Nate cried so much in the nights and also missing homework assignments, which I never did before. I learned that grades weren't the most important thing to worry about that's for sure! I also remember my friend Emily telling me that morning that my new "scent" was baby lotion, hahaha!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, a day or two late! The kids looked super cute in their costumes....Kamry was a fairy and Nate was a Triceratops. I'm glad we found a dinosaur costume for him....he loved it! (Yes, he's still a dinosaur fanatic!) His favorite part were the "front paws" as he called them because they had claws on them. We met up with all of Larry's sisters and took all the kids trick-or-treating. They all had fun playing together and seeing each other in costumes, even though some of the pictures would seem otherwise! It's hard getting 5 kids to look at a camera at once, but they are cute anyway!

Love It!

Isn't this just the cutest outfit! I found it at Target and we got one for my sister's baby too. I also made a bow to match for each of them. (I'm still not sure if I like stripes with polka-dots, but it was hard to find hot pink ribbon with black in it) I am excited to get them together and have pictures taken. Thanks Lindsey and Bonnie for guiding me to Picnik as a photo editor. I have lots to learn, but it is fun so far!

Another Favorite

Here's another one of my favorites that I took of Nathan
the other day. I see so much potential with this picture
as far as editing goes, but don't know how do to what I want to.
I'd love to antique this one, but how is still a mystery!

In Color

Here it is in color too. I'm trying out different things with editing photos. I still haven't figured much out though....Photoshop is on my list of things to learn in the near future. Or if any of you know another program that is good for editing I'd love to know about it. I love how pictures can be "antiqued", but don't know how to do it....anyone know and want to share? Or I would really really love to make this photo black and white with all the pumpkins orange. Do I have to have Photoshop to do it or is there another way?

Pumpkins and Witches

We went to see some witches and pumpkins this week. We got there a little earlier than our friends so Nate and I had a little photo shoot. He actually hammed it up for me in front of the camera and let me take lots of pictures. This is one of my favorites I got of him. He is actually smiling and not pulling a strange face or purposely looking away!

Blessing Day

It's been a few weeks since I posted anything, mostly because I haven't felt like there has been anything interesting to post about. We've been up to the same old, same old. But today I'll share some pictures from Kamry's blessing we had on Sunday. She looked so precious in her little white dress and Larry did a fantastic job with her blessing. All of our brothers, sisters, their spouses and kids, parents and grandparents came and we all packed into our apartment for lunch afterwards. It wasn't too crowded but it would have been nice to have a house! And of course, as luck would have it, it was the first day of snow for this winter so we couldn't go outside because it was so cold. Nevertheless, we had a good time eating and talking and enjoying each other's company.

I think she yawned right before this picture, hence the red eyes

We couldn't get Nate to cooperate very well...I hope its just a phase!

Time Flies

I can't belive Kamry is almost one month old already! Time has sure flown by since then. Here are a few pictures of her in the last month. She is still such a good baby, which I am so grateful for. Nate is a good big brother too. He comes in every morning and asks to see her. He loves her so much. We all love her so much!

This is one of my favorites! Larry us such a great Dad and Husband. He is so sweet with her and has been so good to help with her, even in the middle of the night!