Deep thoughts according to Bailee

This morning I thought I would try and find out what Bailee is hoping Santa will bring to her. I don't want another rerun of last year's chase...

Mom: "So what do you want Santa to bring you?"
Bailee: "Umm, let me think"
..........
Bailee: "I want...I just want lots of loves. Maybe Santa could bring me a love machine that makes hearts and puts them in my heart so I can give you lots of hugs."

What a sweetie! I love that girl!

Now hopefully she will give me something to work with...

Dreams

Me: Owen, did you sleep good?

Owen: yes

Me: Did you have good dreams?

Owen: Yes, I dream about Scouts.

Poor brainwashed child :) Love it!

For the Beauty of the Earth

While we were on our June camp out I took the time to try some landscape photography. I tried out the filters that my sister Diane gave to me and a few different settings on my camera, here are a few of my favorites. They are mostly un-touched.

Strawberry Jam

I got my hads on these beauties...

And made some jam out of them...now we will get to use them all year long!

How much do you love books?

Matt's parents kept some books that were his when he was little and gave them to us when Bailee was just a baby. We put them up for a few years, until we thought the was old enough to take care of them properly. They have be down for a year or so now and Bailee loves them! They are often her choice for her bed time story. One night I went in to check on her before I went to bed and found this sweet sight...
Baille sound asleep with her book draped over her and tucked under one arm as if it were a blanket. I love that she loves books, so much so that she will fall asleep with them close to her heart.

Trying to learn to Ride

Bailee decided one day that she wanted to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. She gave it a good effort for about ten minutes, she was doing well and then got a little scared. I think that next summer with a little growth and a little more confidence, she will have it for sure!

Father's Day 2010

So if you know anything about Woodbadge-ers, you know that they are proud of their patrol critter. Matt isn't as proud as some....so I force it on him. *smile*

For Father's Day, I wanted to do something special. I decided to make breakfast, I don't make breakfast for breakfast very often especially on a Sunday morning. Since it was a special day I had to make his pancakes ina special shape. Of course it had to be the shape of a...

beaver!

Then Owen decided that he wanted to help... he love to help me cook. I sure love both of my men!

Girls Trip 2010

About two weeks after the wedding I got a much needed getaway. My sisters, Chantelle and I all headed to Austin, Texas for the annual girls trip. I was the last one to arrive and was picked up by Chantelle and Eric at the airport an quickly whisked away to a nail salon for pedicures. The lovely Mnisa(and Eric) treated ALL of us to pedicures...I wish I could to that every time I fly!

After the pedicures we all piled in the car and went to Chick-fil-A for some yummy food. Then we did what girls do best...went shopping! Karin had a fun idea to go to a flea market, we found some great bargains there.

Once our shopping was done we headed to our "resort". Eric and Mnisa have some friends who let us kindly stay in their beautiful home right on Lake Austin. We had a lovely time there filled with paddle boarding and kayaking.Of course we always get a little silly just visiting and playing games.Mnisa, Janae` and Julie after church. It was a nice relaxing week filled with tons of fun! I always love being with my sisters. They were great company and even let me practice my first Woodbadge presentation on them. Their feedback was awesome!

Pond Fishing

After the wedding it was time to get ready for me to leave for Texas for the anual Girls Trip. The night before I left we decided that we needed some family time before I left.

There are several ponds around the valley that are stocked with fish so people can fish at them
right in the middle of town with the backdrop of baseball feilds and one of the busiest roads in the state. This particular pond had just been stocked the day before so we decided to head over there. There were lots of other people there too, but we still had fun.

Owen tried casting a couple of times...without much success. He was perfectly happy throwing rocks in the pond and trying to catch things in the butterfly nets.

Bailee was diligent and was gettig pretty good at casting, her aim still needs some work. She crossed lines with a couple of people, but they were nice about it. I think that she enjoyed it.

Didn't seem like many people had much luck catching fish. But this guy and three of his freinds did great! We sure enjoyed watching them circle above and then dive into the water to catch their dinner.

The BIG day!

With only 7 weeks to plan, the time went fast, but I think we were all ready for the big day to be there. When it finally comes all you can do is hope that you have all your ducks in a row and that everything will go smoothly, especially when you have never really planned an entire wedding before.
The morning of the wedding Matt and I met Chantelle, Zach, and Janae' at the temple. The dress and all of the accessories were at our house so it was important that I deliver them. Chantelle got special permission to have me in the bride's room with her and Janae' so that I could lace up her dress. She definitely looked beautiful!

Bailee and Owen were the first ones to greet Chantelle and Zach after they came out of the Temple from the Ceremony.

My friend Lynette did all of the flowers and made these cute little mini veils for Bailee and Brianna.

Owen found a new best freind that week, Alex.

After all f the pictures at the temple, we headed over to Kathrine Albertson's park for more with he family. Thank goodness for Dave, he made a McDonald's run and picked up lunch for all of us at the park.

When pictures were done I had just enough time to take Matt and Owen home for a nap and pick up a few last things at the house and head to the church to finish up preparing the food for the reception and take care of a few last details. Lucky for me I found a wonderful lady to take care of most of the decorations, and my mom got us in touch with someone who made a fabulous cake. It was nice not to worry about those two details on that day. It was such a blessing to have reliable people to work with for the wedding.

Before I know it everyone was arriving for the family dinner, and then it was show time.

Zach's uncle is a DJ and did an amazing job at making this wedding fun for everyone!

By the end of the night, I was exhausted. At some point in the night I kicked off my shoes, because I was constantly running around to make sure things were taken care of.

This is what Emily and my feet looked like at the end of the night...disgusting.

Through all of this expeience I learned one main thing...when Bailee gets married, we are hiring a wedding planner! I am done planning weddings!

Wedding Pedicures

Of course every bride needs pretty toes on her wedding day. Especially when she has some awesome Pink peep-toe shoes!

I arranges for Chantelle, Janae', Bailee and I to have pedicures, by my friend Amy, a few says before the wedding.

Owen didn't want to be left out so we got him a bowl of warm water to soak his feet. Then Aunt Janae' rubbed them with lotion.

Bailee acting so grown up.

Owen happy to be in on the party!

Girls will be girls

It just wouldn't be time with my sisters if there wasn't at least one self portrait of us together. This was a little tricky with my DSLR camera.
My sister Janae` got to come for the week before Chantelle's wedding to help with things. We had so much fun hanging out (I mean running around like chickens with their heads cut off doing things for the wedding). Doesn't she just have the most beautiful eyes?!

Greatest Grandma

Owen has a special something about him that draws him to older people. He especially loves all of this grandparents.
One day at my moms he convinced GG to sit at the little table and play horses with him. He was so happy and she was a good sport and sat there with him.

Bad Guy!

That is what Owen refers to super heroes as... He is the cutest one around.

2010 Centennial District Awards Banquet

Every year our Scout district has an awards banquet. Last year we had sick kids so Matt went alone, but this year I wanted to be there...I knew a little secret!
Matt was awarded Scouter of the year for the service he had done in the district. I was so excited and Matt had no clue! (I wasn't a very good photographer, in the moment I forgot to go up and get a closer picture)
Matt and I were also awarded Scout Couple of the year and we were each one of the brightest stars in the district along with several of our friends. Matt wore his grandpa's uniform to the banquet...he looked so handsome!

Camping at Celebration Park

Since we knew that our summer was going to be busy we decided that we needed an early start to ensure at least one camping trip. Matt normally takes his Troop to the desert to camp in the fall and spring and so of course for a spring camping trip that is where he took us too.
About and hour south of our house is this great place called Celebration Park right along the Snake River. The rocks there have petroglyphs on them and they have some cool artifacts there as well.

We were a little nervous because on the way there a huge storm hit. I was driving and it was crazy how hard the rain was coming down. But as in most Idaho storms it only lasted about 20 minutes.

Once we were there we set up camp pretty quickly (we took the troop's big canvas tent, it was so roomy!) and built a fire. Matt tried teaching my mom and I how to light a fire with flint and steel...my mom tried for about twenty minutes before she was ever able to get enough spark to light something, but she finally did it! I never did while we were there.
Mom Practicing

The kids had a blast playing in the dirt! They were digging holes and building dirt castles.

We were finally able to peel them away from the dirt and convince them to get cleaned up a bit to have smores. Mmmm!

The next day we got up and Matt cooked us pancakes and bacon before we packed up. WE found out that there was a pair of Golden eagles nested on the Cliff across the river so we spent some time looking for it. Then we went to the visitor center and had a peak through their telescope.

Matt wanted to go check out some camp spots for the troop for the next weekend at a nearby lake so we went on a hike there. Owen had a blast climbing on all of the rocks.Matt caught a lizard and the kids thought that was awesome!

Owen cried when we let it go.

Poor me....

I should be cleaning up before Matt gets home right now, but I just need to get out all of my feelings with out someone giving me advice.

These past couple of weeks with Bailee have been rough.

She now thinks there is nothing wrong with talking back...screaming at me and being extremely defiant. Along with this she has become very in touch with her creative side and is doing "craft" projects all of the time all over my house!!!! These projects are depleting my printer paper, used all of the staples in the stapler, lots of tape and lots of cutting. In case you don't know, that means lots of lit pieces of paper and string all over the place. Of course she never askes to do any of these projects, she just starts doing them when I am distracted.

My Mom watched the kids last night for us and so very sweetly washed all of the dishes, folded laundry and even vacuumed while we were gone. In the time that it took me to take a shower, the folded laundry became pile on the floor along with several miscellaneous toys, and you guessed it....Paper!!!! Ahhh I just want to scream and cry and hide in my room (which looks like my closet and garage threw up on it and has for weeks because I am constantly after Bailee to pick up her messes or am picking them up myself!). I know that I am not the most organized or the best house keeper, but I try my best. And when I try to be better or do some extra thing to help someone else it always seems to bite me in the butt!

To top it off Owen, our un-cuddly child has decided that he wants to be held about 30% percent of the time he is awake. Of course that includes while making all three meals and any time I stop playing whit them to do something productive. It seems that the only way I can get away from this is to have the TV on, but I don't want them watching TV all of the time!

I want so badly to be the "perfect" house wife and mom, you know the one who's house is clean and picked up other than a couple of toys at any given time no matter when you drop in, dinner is always done on time, FHE treats are made a 10 am, never raises her voice, and never has to complain to her husband about the kids or the house work. I want to be her....

Playing at the Park

Matt's mom and Jack came up for a visit so I could take some one year pictures of him. We took the kids out to lunch and then to the park to play. They had so much fun. Jack Exploring the Merry-go-round.

The first thing Owen does when ever we get to a park is run to the swings. He love it and stays in it almost the whole time we are there.

My pretty Bailee.