For Emily's birthday this year (October 16), my parents rented our favorite cabin in Sundance. We have even been there with Brian's family. We went up and stayed the weekend, enjoying the gorgeous weather and great company. We rode the lift at Sundance and hiked around for a few hours and then went to Provo where we got to eat Blue Bell ice cream from a shop at the Riverwoods!! The XBox 360 was a big hit and we had time for some games as well. It was a great weekend, so thanks to Mom and Dad and Emily for having a birthday!
While we hiked Brian and the boys jumped out of the bushes to scare us and Lincoln got covered in hundreds of burrs. All the kids had a good time helping him clean off. I am just glad it was not McKinley's hair that ended up in that bush!
Happy Birthday Emily! (And the rest of us!)
Introducing Libbi Page Halsey
August 19, 2011 we got up at 5:30 and headed to Manti with brand new baby Pierce to attend Libbi's wedding. It was a gorgeous day and a very special sealing in the tower sealing room up a flight of spiral stairs. Rachel and Emily watched Pierce, the Baldwin kids and a couple others while we attended the sealing. Then we took tons of pictures on the hill behind the temple with Mary Kim (my aunt). I felt surprisingly good for having had a baby less than five days before the wedding.
By the time we got home I needed a nap, but there was not much time for that! We picked up the kids from Brian's mom and got them all dressed up (against their will of course) for pictures before the reception. We were very late because Brian was finishing his awesome wedding video for the happy couple.
The reception was lovely and it was great to see so many old friends. McKinley and Reagan basked in Libbi's bridal glory the whole time. Pierce did what all good newborns do and slept practically the whole time. Brian hosted a dance party for the cousins in the basement after the reception. We are so excited for Libbi and the kids are ecstatic to have a new uncle around.
Family Picture Time
Brian let me go to Old Navy and pick out matching shirts for our family picture! I assure you the shopping was much more fun then the taking of these pictures. We took about 150 and just a few caught everyone with the fingers out of their nose and their eyes opened. ...Oh the memories.
Makeup
Brian wanted me to blog this picture because he liked it. So I did. Um...This is me, putting on make-up. I am wearing Sarah's dress who is on her Mission and probably doesn't want me to wear it. But I don't care because its cute and she shouldn't leave a bunch of stuff at my house forever and expect me not to wear it. :)
Maegan and her little Brian
This little guy is a lot like Brian. He looks just like him, he's got a whiny voice, cries a lot and always ends up napping at the wrong time. He also hates Brussel Sprouts.
Sarah's Mission Call
You need to click on the picture and it will take you to the place where you can watch the video. As you will see, the video and event was UTTER CHAOS
The video isn't short but gives you a feel for how it played out.
Sorry we gave out Jeff's phone number to the world. If you start getting random phone calls then let us know and we can take the video down.
Congratulations Sarah!
October: Birthdays and Conference
We enjoyed a lot of birthday fun and too many birthday treats over the first week of October with my 30th birthday, Lincoln's 7th birthday, and the girls up for Conference weekend. Dad was also here, which was lots of fun - for us at least!
The Rundown
As I upload the pics of McKinley's birthday for a different post, here is the rundown on our house lately.
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| From 2009-08-30 |
Lincoln has been enjoying school. I get him up to read with me for a half hour everyday at 7:30. One of his great pleasures seems to be eating everyone's leftovers at lunch. Almost every day he will come home reporting that so-and-so did not want his apple juice, or chips, or capri sun, or cookie and they passed it to him. I guess I will continue to not put those things in his lunch!
Truman enjoys riding his bike to school since the walk is sooooo far. He is Mr. Independent, so I am choosing my battles. One battle we fight is over homework. He gives up and throws his pencil 10 seconds into whatever he is doing, whether it be writing his name 3 times or a small a. Once we have a 30 second drama about how he can "never do it," the tiger within takes over and he will stop at nothing to get it perfect. His satisfied smile is worth all the heartache.
Jefferson finds great pleasure in dressing himself every morning. He checks to make sure everything is not backwards some days, and on others quite the opposite occurs. He wishes he were old enough to go to the Temple and promises if we take him with us, he "will be weawy quiet and sit stiw".
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| From 2009-08-30 |
McKinley is always carrying a doll or purse or phone or glasses around. She is a great mimic and can be found nursing her baby on the couch next to me - we are working on spoon-feeding cereal these days.
Reagan, or Reagel Bagel as she is known around here, is rolling all over the place. It is her preferred (or only) method of transportation when Truman is not around to haul her from room to room. She is patient as he changes her diapers, McKinley steals her binkies, Jefferson feeds her and Lincoln tries to make her laugh. I love her smile cuddles.
Brian is working hard and has taken on the roll of bread-maker to complement his roll of bread-winner. Inspired by Katherine's K is for Kithen blog, we are tackling the cheaper and more tasty make-your-own-bread way of life. But is it cheaper if I eat 3 times as much? I will have to do the math.
I have tried some new things, like avoiding all housework by canning pears and tomatoes and refinishing a little wooden hutch for McKinley. The laundry is the main casualty, but all in the name of food storage, right? It is chaos, but I love it.
Drama x 10!
Okay, look. This video isn't funny. Its actually pretty dramatic on several levels and we hope we don't drive you away with it.
However, it is quite the memory. Welcome to just few fun minutes at our house.
Lincoln lived through the experience and is doing just fine now.
However, it is quite the memory. Welcome to just few fun minutes at our house.
Lincoln lived through the experience and is doing just fine now.
More Pictures of Memorial Day Trip
We left Friday at 1:30pm from Utah in our car and by Saturday around 7:30pm we had not been to our hotel room yet. We are both going on about 5 hours of sleep combined. Considering all that, these first two pictures turned out alright. The Nauvoo Temple is worth seeing in person!
We spent other parts of our time touring Nauvoo and Carthage Jail. The first picture below is the coolest picture of the trip. The Missionary giving tours through the carthage jail gave us his "patented shot." Which is, literally, a picture through the gun shot hole of the carthage jail door to which Hyrum was killed. That is us, and Mike and Jessica, standing by the window sill and window where Joseph was shot and leapt from.
The second picture is with us and Jannelle (Maegan's Cousin) and her Husband (also named Brian) who we just happened to see at the Carthage Jail tour! Very, very random. Small world. The window just above Jannelle and her Husband is the outside of the window in first picture. It is the window Joseph Smith jumped from and died just below there.
The third picture is of us by the grave of the Prophet Joseph. This is in Nauvoo and just near the Mansion and Summer house of Joseph and Emma.
These pictures are of the Lovely Maegan and our little baby Reagan who made the trip with us. Just Beautiful!
Here is Brian, Mike, Katie and their Dad at the funeral of Doris Eleanor Duryea.
We spent other parts of our time touring Nauvoo and Carthage Jail. The first picture below is the coolest picture of the trip. The Missionary giving tours through the carthage jail gave us his "patented shot." Which is, literally, a picture through the gun shot hole of the carthage jail door to which Hyrum was killed. That is us, and Mike and Jessica, standing by the window sill and window where Joseph was shot and leapt from.
The second picture is with us and Jannelle (Maegan's Cousin) and her Husband (also named Brian) who we just happened to see at the Carthage Jail tour! Very, very random. Small world. The window just above Jannelle and her Husband is the outside of the window in first picture. It is the window Joseph Smith jumped from and died just below there.
The third picture is of us by the grave of the Prophet Joseph. This is in Nauvoo and just near the Mansion and Summer house of Joseph and Emma.
These pictures are of the Lovely Maegan and our little baby Reagan who made the trip with us. Just Beautiful!
Here is Brian, Mike, Katie and their Dad at the funeral of Doris Eleanor Duryea.