Hiking in the Tetons

The beautiful view

At the start of the trail, Livy was asleep.

She woke up when I put her in the sling.

Stopping by the river

Handsome boy with the long locks

I love the timer on cameras :)

This might be our Christmas card pic this year! LOL

We played in Taggart Lake to cool off.

Nice and wet from our playing. It was nice for the hike out :)

It was great to enjoy the outdoors!  We wish we had some of this around where we live.  This was our kids' first official hike and Livy was a trooper, she made it most the way by herself! It was almost 5 miles.

Our outings

Kylan got to go on an over night camp out with his Dad, Grandpa, and cousins.  They went up to Grey's river and rode the horses in to camp.  He had a good time, and his favorite part was the rope swing into the lake.  I wish there were enough time for all of us to go! I was jealous! :)  Except I got to go play with the girls in Jackson Hole, WY.  We got to shop and check out the sites.

Both Grandma's and some cousins were able to come hang with us and do some shopping.  We had a fun time!

Kylan is 9

Kylan may have had the best birthday ever :) He got to spend it in Etna, Wyoming, surrounded by mountains.  He also got to ride horses and four wheelers.  It was great!

He got some BYU shirts

A new air soft gun

A karate gi

His birthday cake was really tasty too! He wanted a cookies and cream cake.

He also got to have his Grandparents, and some cousins help him celebrate.  He's pretty spoiled, since he's got to celebrate his birthday in Wyoming two years in a row :)

Hannah is 5!

Modeling her birthday shirt, isn't she adorable?!

Showing off her birthday tiara

Thanks Grandma for the ponies!

She wanted a Rapunzel cake, then informed me that she didn't like frosting. Next year will be easy then, no cake! :)
We had a fun time celebrating Hannah's 5th birthday. She got to have a princess pool party with friends, and then the family celebrated at home.

End of school party

We wanted to celebrate school being done. So I made a game and we had water balloons, pizza, and other outside games. The kids had fun, but the biggest hit was the javelins turned into light sabers :) I just can't escape the Star Wars stuff!

Dance recital

Hannah just had her big end of year dance recital. It was fun getting her all done up and beautiful. She had it at Lee high school on the stage. Her first dance was to the song "fireflies," a redo that was originally done by Owl City. She wore her yellow dance outfit. Then part way through the other classes dance, the power went out! I guess someone had crashed into the transformer. So after a while of waiting
(and a quick change for Hannah) we moved outside to finish up. Her second dance was to "crocodile rock," originally done by Sir Elton :). She had a lot of fun and did really great!
We are so proud of our tiny dancer!

Recent remodel

We had to re-do our Master bath, the tub was falling apart. So after much waiting and sharing of the kids bathroom(good thing we don't have teenage girls!), Nate got the job done! It turned out better than I had imagined, he's pretty talented with the tile :)

Happy Birthday Pops!

Today would have been my Dad's 64th birthday. I really miss him! I need to be better about remembering, especially for my kids. Olivia was born after he passed away, so I need to make sure and tell her all about him.
He was the greatest! There is so much that I wish I could have told him, but I didn't get the chance. It's always hard when you live far away from family to keep in touch. You know, out of sight, out of mind. I thought of my family often, I just thought I would have a lot of time with them, so I slacked off. I need to be a better daughter, and sister. Life is full of regrets, but we can't let that get us down. I just need to take the opportunities I have now with the family I have left and make the memories count. I read a thought recently that has stuck with me. It said, "Count your blessings, and make them count." I guess I am a visual learner, because I really like signs, Nate teases me all the time about it. But I'm pretty sure it's always good to have reminders, right? All we can really do is leave a legacy for our own children, I really want to work on that. My Dad did the best he could with what he had. I need to follow that example. I really appreciate all that he did for me, he was a hard worker and always tried to give me everything I could ever want. I was spoiled rotten :) Sorry I am rambling, these thoughts have just been on my mind lately, and it feels really good to get them out in the open! On a brighter note, I do have a lot to be thankful for, I need to always remember that! And I need to go forward, learning from the past, and make a brighter future! Those are my thoughts for today :)

Thanks for beind a great Dad and always being there for me! I love you!

It's a new year!

I've been meaning to blog for a long time. I just never seem to make time for it though. Today is as good a time as any, right? It just so happens that I can't sleep, so I might as well write in my journal :) Bing Crosby said it best on White Christmas, "If you're tired and you can't sleep, just count your blessings, instead of sheep, and you'll fall to sleep, counting your blessings!" I love that movie!! Anyway, a lot has been on my mind lately, with the celebration of a New Year there is always time for reflection. I want to write down some resolutions, so maybe I will be more likely to actually do them this year. I will just put down a few, but I have much to improve on :)

1. Get. Organized.
2. Be a better Mommy, be more kind and loving, less yelling.
3. Put more effort into my calling, better planning, more organized, get those boys in gear for getting their Bear badges! Go Scouts! :)
4. Go to the gym at least 3 days a week.
5. Blog at least once a week, probably Sunday.
6. Be a better friend, and keep in better contact with family.
7. Serve others.
8. Make time, and plan for Date night.
9. K.I.S.S keep.it.simple.stupid. A lot of the time I really complicate things for myself :)
10. Make it to the temple at least once a month.

These are probably the hardest ones I want to work on. I'm sure I will come up with more, but now these are here to remind me. I just want to improve, and we can always be better than we were last year, right?