Family Photos

Recently, I was reading the blog of a friend, Jill, who I grew up with. One of her posts was about a friend of hers who is a photographer and had recently taken pictures of her beautiful family. Reading this was perfect timing because I was really wanting to have nice pictures of my family done. I contacted Sanae James and I scored with a great experience and, though I haven't seen them all yet, some wonderful pictures. Here is a sampling of the pictures she took of my cute little family. If you want to see more of the samples she posted you can see ours and many other examples of her fantastic work at http://www.sanaejames.com/. Thanks Sanae and thanks Jill for giving me the referral!

5K & Play on Saturday

There are times that, as a family, we want to just get out and do something - we don't care what, we don't care where, we just care that we are together and not at home. This past Saturday was one of those days.

The day started when my sister Amy and I participated in the 5K portion of the 9th annual Ogden Marathon. All of the sisters did it last year, but with new and soon arriving babies, and other conflicts, this time it was just the two of us. We had a great time! I love the feeling at the start of the race with so many people gathered together, the excitement is contagious. Our 3.1 miles ran through a really pretty part of the Ogden Parkway and it really was so much fun. With a time of 27:46, I placed ninth in my age group, 50th out of all females, and 188th overall. Amy had an "incident" (a funny one) and ended just 30 seconds behind me. With almost 1000 people participating, I think it's safe to say that we rock!

We were so fast the photographers could not catch us -haha - that's me in the pink, Amy was to my left. The next two are of us at the finish line - me far back in the pink, Amy in the left picture wearing red. (The time shown is the time from when the race started, not the time from when we personally crossed the start line)

After I got home and showered we were off, to who knew where! Seriously, we had no idea where we were going. Our first idea was the zoo, but it was a Saturday and a beautiful day and we knew it would be packed. We also thought about heading up to a nearby ski resort, Snowbasin, to ride the Gondola and hike around at the top of the mountain. Chloe was opposed to this idea, and kept insisting that she just wanted to go to the park. We go to parks almost daily, so that was an idea us parents were resitant too. Luckily we were able to accomplish a variation of all three of these ideas when we headed up to Logan.

We started at the Willow Park Zoo. This zoo is very small and the kids favorite was the first thing we saw - the monkeys. These were animated monkeys and I think Chloe and especially Noah would have been happy to watch them for the rest of the day, but we did also get to see come cool birds, turtles, and a couple of wolves. The zoo adjoins a very large playground complex, so Chloe had her wish fulfilled and got to play at a park! This playday also marked a very big accomplishment for Chloe when she braved a twisty slide (and a pretty big one I thought) by herself for the first time. After being opposed to trying for almost a year, she is now officially addicted to all slides twisty. Noah found himself pretty contect to just play in the bark.

We finished at the zoo and park and headed out for ice cream cones, deciding to take the kids for a drive out to Hardware Ranch. This place is great in the winter when you can take sleigh rides and see hundreds and hundreds of deer in the snow. This place is just as beautiful in the summer monthes and we enjoyed the views, throwing rocks, and just hanging out.

(Side note - I can't believe we got all four of us looking AND smiling in the two family pictures below)
When the kids had had their fill of the ranch, we called it a day and headed home to go to ward activity. The day was long, but we had a great time on our mini Saturday family adventure.

Dancing, Dancing

Here is a video I took today of my kids and their awesome dance moves. They learned everything they know from me of course. I think Chloe is showing some early potential!

Mother's Day Eve

As more of us become mother's and more of us gain mother-in-laws, spending the time with my mom, all together as a family, on Mother's Day sometimes is difficult. We decided this year, with so many conflicts, we would take today to celebrate loving my Mom! Whenever we ask my Mom what her favorite things to do are, or what things she may want, most times her answer is to spend time together with her family. Today her wish was granted. We enjoy many Sunday meals together as a family, and actually do get together pretty often, but today we had, as Chloe called it, a Mother's Day Picnic Party - and it was a blast.

We got together, had lunch and then just hung out, playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee, passing baby Hadlee around and talking about how we can't wait to hold baby Jack soon, watching the kids enjoy playing with their cousins and trying to figure out how to include them in playing the big kid games, it really was a great time. My Mom enjoyed having us all together and really, it is an easy wish to fulfil because we really enjoy getting together. Here are some pictures from our outing...

The woman of honor - my MOM! She does not love to have her picture taken, but I caught her. I think one of my kids touched the lens on my camera because all of the pictures turned out a little blurry, but this one seemed to highlight my mom and make her look like the angel she is (see her wings?!)!

Noah loves my little (at 6 feet tall and almost 17 years and I call him little) brother DJ and it was cute to see him head right for him and plop himself down. DJ is a great uncle and all the cousins love him!I love that the cousins look forward to playing together. They are the cutest little group of kids.

Riley, Camden, Noah, Hadlee, Raegan, and Chloe

When we were sitting down together Chloe looked at Raegan and said "This is going to be the best picnic ever!" Raegan's reply was "YEAH!" They are cute little friends and cousins.
Raegan and Chloe

We also finally got a picture with all the sisters AND DJ! I like that we have a more recent one with all of us. We plan on having entire family pictures taken i n the fall once the babies are all born.
Amy, DJ, Melissa, Me, Heather, and Christa

Another thing that I haven't had recently is a picture of Joe and I together. I often take pictures of him and the kids, or me and the kids, or just the kids, but someone took a quick picture of us, and because we get so few of them, as silly as we look, I had to post it.
We had a great day, and I was glad to get the opportunity to spend time with my Mom and my family. Most days, there are no other people I would rather spend time with outside my own little family. My Mom has been such a wonderful example to me in every way. She has shown me how to be a Mom and any success I have in raising my children is a direct result of her. She has such an ability to love and make people feel important, her ability to handle stress and laughter is amazing. I admire her testimony and faith and hope that I have learned enough from her example to be able to be a Mother my children will love like I love my Mom. Happy Mother's Day Eve Mom - I love you!

Sleepy Head to Messy Head

Earlier this week Noah woke up with one of those 24 hour bouts of sickness. With a fever reaching around 103, he was very lethargic and had trouble staying awake. Several times, he fell asleep sitting straight up on my lap. I have to admit, I thought it was cute, but I missed my active, rambunctious, and wild little boy...

...that is I missed that until today.

While I was getting ready for church, Joe and Chloe were hanging out downstairs and I had Noah upstairs. Once he was all ready for church, and knowing that Chloe was set too, I turned to getting myself ready. Noah wandered out of the room and I assumed that he had gone downstairs to hang out with Chloe. All was quiet, and from that, even with my short time of experience having a boy, I should have known better and checked to make sure that Noah was safely downstairs. Yeah, I didn't and he wasn't. Five minutes later, I walked into Chloe's room to grab something and found him there with my mascara (how he was able to walk away with it without me noticing and how he got it opened, I have no idea). He putting it, not on his eyelashes (which are SOOO long he would never need mascara, if boys wore mascara), but in his hair. I called for Joe and before I cleaned him up we had to take some pictures. Sometimes you just have to laugh. What am I getting myself into with this boy?

Treehouse Play

We love the Treehouse! We have an family membership and have loved our random trips to this childrens paradise. Often when Chloe wakes up it's one of the first places she asks to go that day, and if going is ever mentioned as a possibility, she takes that as a firm promise and will remember the exact date and time you told her a trip would be made. Here are some pictures from our visit there today.

I took a few pictures just of what the Treehouse museum looks like. Appropriately named, a large tree sits in the middle of the building and has stairs inside that lead to the second floor.

Today, Noah's favorite activity was playing in the music area. He loves all the different noises the instruments make. Don't tell Joe but he also loved playing on the fire truck!Chloe loves "playing doctor". As long as she keeps that game confined to baby dolls, we will be alright. I love Chloe's serious expression as she "listens" to the baby's heartbeat. She also loved the drums and the trains.What do you do when a trip to the Treehouse just isn't in the cards? Give the kids a box. They played together outside with this box for well over an hour. Sometimes it doesn't take much!

Sunday Dress

I always love how cute my kids look when we are ready to go to church - especially if they kind of match. Chloe sometimes isn't very cooperative with pictures - she is happy to smile, but getting her to look at the camera is a completely different issue. Her top picture is way cute, and the bottom one I used because I thought Noah's face was priceless! I love getting my kids all dressed up for church on Sundays! They are the cutest things ever!