Warm weather outings

We have had some warmer weather this week so we headed out to a couple different parks. We all really enjoyed being outside and having some fun! I am so ready for winter to be over!!! Let's hope we see lots of sun this spring, and all those scary tornadoes stay far away from here! Here are my 3 little cuties.Carson getting ready to swing. I love how blue the sky is!This is about as far as Halli got attempting to do the rings.Conquering the rings...well kinda. He didn't make it to the next one :)This is my new favorite photo of Bentley! I just love the shot!Love her goofy little smile.He doesn't know what's coming!

What we do in the summertime

We got a new camera!!! Ryan unfortunately dropped our old one in a river while on his recent fishing trip so we HAD to get a new one. I wasn't too sad about it since we've been wanting a nice new camera for a long time. We had to buy a new one now with the baby coming! We got a beautiful brand new Canon T2i. I haven't used it too much, but I love what I have used of it!

It has been so hot here for the past month. It has really been quite miserable...especially for me. The kids have enjoyed swimming in our backyard. They go out a couple times each day, splash around, cool off, and enjoy a Popsicle. I'm surprised we don't have a hole in the pool by now-we've had it for 2 years now, and it has been well worth the $10 or so I spent on it!

For the 4th we celebrated with some friends and had a BBQ over here with LOTS of really yummy food. It was oh so delicious. Then we went down the street to our bishop's house where a large gathering of people were and watched fireworks. Fireworks here are better than anywhere I have ever lived. It was the best show I have seen-all the neighbors shoot off the BIG fireworks that you see when you go to a fireworks show. Firework tents are set up all over town here and people go crazy buying them! We had a lot that were shot off at the house we were at, but the neighbors also shot off tons of fireworks so the show was just great! I would post some photos...but we all know what fireworks look like :)

We were hanging out the other day, and i looked over and saw my cute little guys loving their dad so I thought I'd take a photo of it. I realized we don't get many photos with us in them so I am going to work of getting photos of Ryan and I as well as the kids. I am going to make a real effort to post more and record the things we do. Now that I have a nice camera I don't have an excuse for not capturing the moments in our days! So you can all look forward to a better record of the upcoming days, weeks, and months!

Busy June

I've been wanting to post for a while, but can't seem to remember to have Ryan bring his computer home so I can post some photos. I finally remembered today so I get to post-hooray! Ryan's family came to visit us for a week, and I had such a great time with them here. Ryan and his dad went to Colorado for 4 days on a fishing trip, and left me, his mom, his sister Erin, Carson, and Halli at home. Here he is ready for the big trip.We had a fun time here at home. We had a little sickness in the house, but were still able to do a few fun things. I just enjoyed having them here and hanging out-and so did Halli and Carson, of course. We all loved having family here, especially the kids-someone to play with all the time. I don't know how Grandparents always say yes to everything they want to do. I get exhausted just thinking about doing everything they want to do all the time-they are so busy.Ryan's mom and I went shopping a few times and she helped me finally pick out some curtains for my house. She also taught me, and helped me start a quilt. I've been wanting to make a quilt for a while, and I was finally able to learn the basics of quilting. Once I get the product finished I'll for sure post about it.
Halli had her birthday a week and a half ago (on the 10th). She is 3 years old now! I can't even believe 3 years has pasted. We have now lived here for 3 years. Here is my sweet baby girl. Ryan accidentally dropped our camera in a river on his fishing trip so we have no camera right now. We have all these photos from his family's cameras, but we didn't get the photos of Halli's birthday from them. So after they get emailed I'll post more about her birthday. Here is a sweet photo of our little girl though.

Tangynika Park

We visited this awesome zoo about a year ago, and we got to go again last week-this time with Ryan! We had a great time and enjoyed close encounters with "wildlife". This zoo is really cool, and lets you get up close and personal with a lot of the animals-non threatening ones. We had a great afternoon together!These are called Lories (I believe). We got to go in an inclosure with them. I guess they like to land on people, but we didn't have any land on us.

Snow leopard...no we didn't go in the cage with this one.

Awesome aussie...cute kangaroos. There were about 8 females with babies in pouches. Before this facility was open to the public it was a breeding facility...so I guess they know what they are doing-hence all the baby kangaroos.The kangaroo fur is surprisingly soft. I thought it would be pretty course, but it was really soft. It was really cool to pet her...she was one with a baby in her pouch.These lemurs were really friendly. They have cute little padded fingers...its like a mix between our hands and a dog's paw. It is very interesting. Ryan was impressed with all the animals. I think he expected much less, but was pleasantly surprised by the awesomeness of the zoo.

Moving On

So I finished my projects, and I'm glad to be done. It's now time to move on from focusing on those projects on here, and focusing on us and what we are doing. It seems like for the past year all of my posts have been about those projects, but now they are going to be about our family again. So here is to a new year (a month late), and a new future for the blog. So look forward to being updated on us, how life is going, what fun things we are doing, and what is changing! So I'll be the first to welcome us back into the world of blogging. 2011 will be a better year to catch this blog.

hot, Hot, HOT

It has been oh so hot here for the past couple of weeks so we haven't been going out going much of anywhere for the past while. I don't even like to go out and get the mail! So we've been enjoying out time inside doing silly things like thisIf we do go outside we stick to keeping in the water which has resulted in this a time or two...

Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plains

So we took a visit to Oklahoma over the past weekend. Ryan and I got to go to the temple in Oklahoma City Friday night then we spent the night down there and had a fun time. We took the kids swimming a couple of times so they loved spending the night in a hotel. Carson was very sad to leave Saturday afternoon...and he keeps asking when we can go to a hotel again.
Saturday we woke up and spent a few hours in the city checking it out. We went to "Outdoor World" in bricktown there and enjoyed looking around there for a few hours. It is kind of like a Cabellas...but not quite exciting. It was fun though and we all enjoyed it. Here are some photos from the store.
Afterwards we went outside and enjoyed a nice scenic walk by the river which was right outside the store. Don't you just love the colors of fall?

We walked on down to Toby Keith's I love this bar restaurant. If you ever have the chance to go there get the ribs. They were delicious! They make a special Toby Keith barbeque sauce just for the restaurant, and it is really good.

We headed back home after lunch. The kids both slept half of the way so it was nice to get some nice quiet time. It was a really fun relaxing weekend with the family. Can't wait for the next one!

Sidewalk Chalk

Friday night Aubry and Michael drove down from Michigan to visit us. They are on their way back to Utah, and I convinced them that an extra 5 hours on their drive was worth it to come see us. On Saturday we went outside to play in the nice evening weather. It was a perfect night to hang out in the driveway, and have fun with sidewalk chalk. Aub took some really cute photos of the fun activity. Here they are...thanks Aub you are seriously THE BEST! We did lots of fun stuff this past weekend...I'll have to post some photos after I get them from Aubry. She does all the photo taking since she is a pro!

Month of April

We went for a long vacation to Utah last month. We left on the 8th and the kids and I will return home tomorrow. We have had tons of fun, kept super busy, and enjoyed being with family. Both my sister and Ryan's sister got married and we were able to attend all of the events associated with those! I don't have any photos from Jenny's wedding, but should be getting a cd with photos in the mail from my sister (hint hint Erin!) then I can post photos from that! Right now all I have is the photos of our time with my family.(Same old crazy Carson)

We got to be together with all of my family. Every member was able to come for Aubry's wedding-all 21 of us were happy to be together under one roof. It was such a crazy, but amazingly fun time! Carson and Halli had so much fun playing with their cousins for the week. The girls got to stay with the children while the husbands went home and back to work. So we spent the last week just having a blast...sorry you couldn't be with us Rhet, Adam, and Ryan-we missed you! Here are some photos from the activities of the month.(Carson doing his part to lay sod in the backyard)

(Halli doing her part to help-EATING the dirt!)

(Aubry and Michale finally married!)(Mara, Daisy, and Rachel at the reception)(Alexis and Rachel at Chuck E Cheese)(Colby and Jess at Chuck E Cheese)

We also got to take new family photos-our family, and my entire family. So once I get those I'll make another post with the cute new pics!
On another note...we bought a house! Ryan closed on Thursday and spent the weekend moving all of our stuff. I have the best husband in the world-he did all the work on this move while I was here in Utah on vacation. I just have to go home and do the fun part-organize everything. We will finally have room for all our stuff, and have a place to call our own!

What I'm grateful for most

Naturally this time of year my thoughts turn to all the things I am blessed with. Like many of you, my family is what I am most thankful for. This Thanksgiving we expected to spend it here in Kansas alone-trying things on our own for the first time. Sunday night I got off the phone with my parents and Ryan and I decided to leave right away and drive to Utah. It was totally a last second, spontaneous decision, and we had such a great time. We didn't tell my family we were coming so it was a total surprise when we showed up Monday morning on the door step. We surprised my mom, and then my dad and brother when they came home from school-theirs was by far the best reaction! We then surprised my sisters and soon to be brother-in-law Tuesday evening. They kind of expected something, but were still surprised to see us.We had a wonderful week together with them! Carson and Halli loved all the attention and the fun games we got to play. They learned how to play duck-duck-goose, and both loved it. Halli loved bonking heads and running with me. Aubry also took some family photos for us the day we left. We went out later at night than we planned too, but they turned out really good for almost being dark! Thanks to her for getting us all together in a photo, and some of the kiddies together!We drove back to Kansas Saturday night/Sunday morning and have enjoyed the week back here at home. We sure are looking forward to being in Michigan for 2 weeks during Christmas break! We'll get to see our family, and some of our best friends Jon and Becca. We are really excited to sleep in for a couple weeks too! Hope you all have an enjoyable season!