Favorite People

Two of our favorite people live four hours away from us and so every now and then we like to hop in the car and travel to their house so they can spoil us with their undivided attention. We did a trip in the beginning of April.

Grandma!!!

Grandpa!!!
They live on a hill and Ben is learning how to ride his bike so luckily Grandpa has a stick with a hook on it to hang on to him.

Grandpa knows how to show a one and three year old a good time......take them across the street to stand on top of a big pile of dirt  :)  That's right!

 

They took us to the library and we heard stories about the wind.   Ben made his own wind catcher.

 They loved the fish tank at the library too.

 

We also went to the Cal-Ranch store to look at baby chicks and ducklings.

 We went over to my brother's house and the kids are in love with their dog.  They got to feed him ham.

Getting Lizzie to smile for the camera is rare but when she is in the same room with dog she will give you the biggest smile she has to offer.

Whenever we are around my brother Ira, he is doing this with Ben.....

Wrestling!

Ben loves it and by the time they are done they are both dripping wet with sweat.

I adore my parents and feel so blessed that we have a place to go to escape life sometimes.  Going to my parents' house after I moved out many years ago has always been delightful and enchanting.  I love taking my kids there now.

It's a Match

In January 2011, Jeff and I were scheming up something incredible.  We didn't know it was going to turn out so awesome but it did!

We did a little matchmaking.

I have a little sister.

Up until last January, she has gone through life without meeting the man of her dreams.  Jeff works with a fellow who we felt needed to meet my sister.  The setup was made and they met.  Then things took off from there.  She lived in Boise, Idaho and he lives in Utah County.  After many plane tickets, long drives, e-mails, phone calls, texts and lots of rendezvous, they were married last Saturday, January 28 at the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

It was a thrilling day.  We are so happy for both of them to have found each other.

But I'm happy for me too.  Our husbands work in the same office!  And my sister lives in the same county as me!!!

Lizzie's favorite

Lizzie doesn't really care much about T.V. like her brother does but we discovered one day what T.V. show she loves.  So I started the show again the next day and got my video camera out.  Watch her face in this video.

 The show is Barkyardigans.

My October Babies

1 Year Old!!!

I have wanted to buy a tutu for the longest time!  Finally I had a reason.

She loved her birthday cake

A lot!!

Two days after Lizzie's b-day is Ben's Birthday. I can't believe he is 3. 

He wanted to have a mohawk for his party.

On the menu: Noodles with homemade pesto, blue jello, deviled eggs and roasted potatoes

Ten days later my dear Erica turned 11.

She was born on 10/15 at 10:15 am so we had to take a picture by the clock at 10:15 on her birthday

We had a pajama and cereal party for her.

I LOVE MY OCTOBER BABIES!!!

Vacation June 2011

Well, it’s about time I posted our one big vacation for the summer of 2011.

We got to fly on an airplane to St. Louis Missouri!!  Sounds pretty darn exciting, huh?  It was the closest airport to our final destination: Jeff’s brother’s (Rob) house in Burlington, Iowa.  They moved there last summer and they only live about 40 minutes from Nauvoo, Illinois. 

In St. Louis we visited the Gateway Arch……

We took the cramped tram ride up to the top.  630 feet. Here we all are in the top to peek out the windows. 

Jeff can’t live a moment without his cell phone. Just kidding. Someone happened to call when we were up there and he got reception.

I made our family take a swimsuit family picture before we swam in the hotel pool.  Aren’t we hot? ;)

We went to the Ulysses S. Grant Farm outside of St. Louis and fed some really hungry goats.

We went to Carthage, Illinois and visited the Carthage jail where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered.

We took a tour of the building but in the middle of the tour Ben and Lizzie couldn’t stand it anymore and both started crying during the sister missionary’s testimony before we got to the final room.  So we had to leave but we were told we could come back up to the room where Joseph was when he died with a tour guide in a little while after the tour group left.  So later we got to be in that special room with just our family and a missionary. 

We went to Nauvoo with my sister-in-law Diana and her three children for part of one day while we were there.  We didn’t get to do a whole lot because let’s face it…..Nauvoo isn’t a place to take little kids and spend the whole day.  So we saw the temple.   Ben and Beckham

Erica loves here cousins, Arianna and Rachel.

We went and saw the oxen.

Touched the Mississippi River where the saints had to cross the river to start their journey to the West.

Went to the place where they showed us how the pioneers made bread, candles and other things.  The girls had fun playing with dolls.

Visited Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith’s graves.

 

One day we got to go to a really fun zoo.  The kids got to feed birds.

Lizzie loving the lions.

 

We love you Rob and Diana!  Thanks for playing with us!

We went to the John Deere headquarters in Moline, Illinois.

Once we stopped at a buffet place and both of the kids were asleep when we got there.  So we thought they would wake up when we got them out of the car but they kept sleeping for a while.  We watched Erica eat her food for a while until they woke up.

This is what Erica got at the buffet.  She is such a simple girl.