lucy bird

Me and Lucy had a day out. It was raining all day so everything was so vibrant, green and beautiful. I love this baby girl. I can't believe in a couple of weeks she will be blowing out the candle on her first birthday cake.

(thanks auntie allison for the cute headband)

slide

Lucy is a little slide lover. One might think a big slide for such a little lady would be frightening. But as you can see she was all smiles from top to bottom. She would get to the bottom and tumble and toss giggling and giggling. She is funny about thrills. On the swing the higher the better. And being tossed in the air...also the same. Maybe she is naturally a little thrill seeker..or maybe she is just used to all the daily thrills of life with two older siblings. That big slide probably isn't half as scary as being carried around, danced with, and dragged on a blanket by a five year old sister with a blemished record when it comes to safety. :) (how do the younger ones survive?)

birthday celebrations

This year for part of the birthday celebrations we did birthday parties for Canyon and Ellie. Shane did the invitations and they turned out pretty great. I asked him if he could quickly throw something together.. this is what he came up with. (wish I could do that!)

Ellie's party was for princesses only...and all 10 princesses looked very lovely. Ellie loved every second of it. The games, the glitter, the cuppy cakes, the pretty decorations and last but not least the presents. The party was a lot of fun but the princesses were not very refined and were faster, smarter and more energetic than planned. Good thing Ali (thanks Ali) was there to help me out. Otherwise I might have been forced to give them all sleeping potion.

Canyon's party took a little less planning and decorating but involved some driving. I have never been in a car with five 8-year olds and it was quite the experience. I got my fair dose of how crazy and goofy and loud 8 year olds can be in a very confined area. I must admit that watching and listening to them was SO funny and very entertaining at times... but I don't think that out weighed how badly I wanted a Tylenol and ear plugs for the way home. It was all worth it. Canyon had a great time.. running around the Kangaroo Zoo with all of his buddies. They played and jumped and ran like crazy. You think they would have been worn out for the ride home.. Guess again. :)

(2 parties in 3 days I think I have met my quota for a while..I know..I know.. I seem so old :( )

finally

Finally after the coldest Spring in the history of mankind these pretty things have come to say hello. I love the green that spring brings.

Canyon is 8

Happy Birthday Canyon

Canyon....this cute boy
has to be one of the sweetest boys in the world.
Is super funny. (wants his grand kids to call him grand canyon)
Loves the outdoors.
Loves being with his family.
He is the most easy going little guy.
The Best Best big brother..(scratches ellie's back at night so she can go to sleep)
Has the Biggest Heart.
Has the cutest smile (with his 3 missing teeth)

We love you Canyon!

happy 5 birthday ellie aspen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIE APSEN

Little Ellie Aspen is growing up on me. 5 years old and oh so big. She looked in the mirror this morning and told me she looked different. She also measured herself up to Canyon convinced that she had grown over night. She was pretty happy about it..and me a little sad.

Things to Love...
She gives the best hugs and kisses and tells you she loves you 100 times a day.
She is a excellent compliment giver.
She gets super excited about the little things in life... its so cute.
She is so funny and can be so silly. She makes me laugh every day!


She is a lover of everything beautiful, pink, sparkly, magical....just about anything remotely girly. She also loves being outside, skiing, hiking and camping what a nice balance. :)
She absolutely Loves Loves Loves clothes. She changes outfits a zillion times a day and is getting her very own sense of style :). This makes her an excellent shopping partner.
She is so much fun... I love her more and more everyday.

WE LOVE YOU BIRTHDAY GIRL !

Capitol Reef

Our last stop. The Grand Wash and Hickman Bridge.

Lots of caves and hiding places.

The end...where can I go next?

the lizard

For 4 days Canyon put all his time, energy and resources into catching a lizard. After many mis-attempts and probably a dozen of lizards missing half their tails..... Canyon finally caught his first lizard. In the past he has always relied on Shane's quick hands and masterful techniques to capture these little guys. Now it's his turn to shine....nice work Canyon. You can tell this one got away once because half of his tail is gone.. poor guy. He didn't get so lucky the second time around. They named him Bo Bo...That is what they have named every lizard they have caught since the year 2002 (no joke). After trying to make Ellie touch it for a few hundred hours he let him go free.. :) Canyon and Shane also tried to make Ellie hold the tails that were left behind by the escapees..yeah right like that would ever happen.

calf creek falls

This was my favorite hike that we did. The trail was a ways back but so pretty with nice sandy paths. The kids liked this one a lot as well. Canyon tried to catch lizards along the way. Ellie spent her time finding flowers and putting them to sleep on rocks. The waterfall at the end really is so so beautiful. It was the perfect place to hang out and eat lunch. To bad the water was way to cold to swim...brrrr......

organic baby food

I swear we brought Lucy baby food. She just seemed to prefer to satisfy her hunger by grazing off the land. Rocks were her favorite followed closely by reed that kept her happy for hours in the pack. I probably seem like the worst mother...letting her munch away while I snapped photos, but really whats wrong with a little organic baby food right?? Besides it was so fun to see her curiosity take over. She knew when to say when so I wasn't to worried.

yum....reed

So what does Lucy think about organic baby food??

(the drool,smile and the thumbs up says it all)

Kodachrome Basin, Escalante

This place was pretty neat. A vast desert land full of all sorts of slot canyons scattered about. We did a more kid friendly 4 mile round trip slot. It had a little stream with pebbles the whole way that made it so pretty and extra fun for our little hikers and us to :) This whole basin area had a lot of cool cool stuff that I am sure is amazing but involved harder hiking and climbing (probably not for kids.) Now I want to go back sometime and explore some more areas and see what I can find.

road trippin

What better to do when the resorts close but go on a road trip. We packed up and took off to Southern Utah for 5 days. We had never been to the Escalante Desert so it was fun to explore a bunch of new areas. We hiked about 15 miles in 4 days in different parts of Red Canyon, Escalante, and Capitol Reef (canyon and ellie included...they were amazing!) It felt so good to be outside enjoying the beauty and sunshine. We had a great time. First stop.....

RED CANYON

the last lift up

We had our last day snowboarding of the season a couple of weekends ago. We had such a great season this year with over 20 days of riding and a ton of huge powder days. This may not seem like a lot..it used to not be. But believe me with with 2 kids + a new baby bundle + a honey with a full-time job it was huge. It by far exceeded any expectation I had. I loved every bit of it. Although I am ready for Spring... I was sad to see it come to a end. I thought Ellie was deserving of her own little video clip for the ski season finale. At only 4 years old she is becoming quite the little skier. Tree trails and trying to race Canyon are her specialty. She wanted to try out some of the rails in the park like Canyon...but I strongly objected. She didn't like that to much..but hey at least she is alive.. phew!!

little retro onesie's

I started making these onesie's for Lucy a while back. I finally finished the last stitch a couple days ago. I took me a while to buckle down and finish this small project so I was glad they still fit. I think they turned out pretty cute. Now I am going to make some more only faster this time.. (hopefully). Maybe I will try out doing one with her name and a T-shirt for Ellie too.

Lucy was my little model here she is in her new retro onesie look.

onesie number 1
front and back views

close up details...... and Lucy during her best modeling behavior

onesie number 2

front view

back view

Hello Jeeves

To fully understand this story you must know that Canyon absolutely
1. Hates being in front of people.
2. Has a deep rooted fear of being famous or on TV.


With that said the other day Canyon told me when he grew up he wanted to be the Vice President. The rest goes like this.....

ME: Oh really did you know that the vice president makes speeches in front of thousands of people and is on TV a lot.
CANYON: Really.... I thought that was the President of the United States that did that.
ME: Well the Vice President does that stuff to.

Then after a moment of silence and I am sure deep deliberation Canyon sighed and replied.

CANYON: Fine I guess I will just be their Butler.

I laughed so hard. I tried not to but I couldn't help it. We have been calling him Jeeves for a couple of days now and have given him a few more chores to take on. I think this picture adds a nice visual effect of our new little butler. It's so nice to have the extra help around the house.

I am so happy that....
1. Canyon has figured out the chain of command in our government at such an early age. President, Vice President and then their butler.
2. I have detoured him out of a career in politics.

Easter 2008

Well this Easter is not going to be very well documented. Canyon manged to slip out of his Easter attire in no time flat. I got a couple pictures of the girls and then the battery died. I was sad :(. (No Sunday Egg Hunt, no Canyon, no good pictures for that matter) I put these up anyway. The girls looked so cute all dressed up in there Easter best. Sometime soon I want to get some much better pictures of them wearing these very cute dresses. I just loved them. We had a very relaxing sunny beautiful day at home. The kids loved making sure the door remained unlocked so the bunny could get in and had fun hunting for all the treasure filled eggs.

bear lake beauty

Bear lake looked so pretty....the last little bit of winter beauty.

growing up

Our little peanut hit her 9 month mark this past weekend. She just seems so grown up lately. Crawling and doing the downward dog yoga position seems to be her new thing. She is also very skilled at eating Cherrios as fast as she possibly can. Sometimes you can get her to wave hello and good-bye. She still gives her amazing kisses only now she has learned to add the smack kissy sound to it which makes it that much more adorable. Her top talent still remains to be her amazing smile that she gives a 100 times a day. It melts our hearts every time.

(Shane took these pictures the other day... I loved this set)

a good laugh

Lucy loves music and watching people dance (usually Ellie is the entertainer). Well Ellie decided she wanted me to dance and she would sing. Ellie's choice of song NO One by Alicia Keys. So I started to dance...I don't think I have ever seen Lucy laugh that hard. Do I look that funny when I dance? How could it be that funny? I asked Ellie if I looked funny she just smiled. I'm confused Ellie always dances with me...she used to convince me that I danced beautiful. Now I am sure she gives me positive reinforcement because she wants someone to dance with and by default I am the only one around. WOW....I really wonder what they are thinking when they watch me dance. Maybe Ellie is just happy because her friends aren't around. Any how I have realized that my pure dancing talent makes the three of us all laugh. It's so funny to see them both laughing so hard even if it is at me.
We are heading North this weekend for a little snowboarding at an old favorite resort... Good old Beaver Mountain. This is where I first laid eyes on Shane so it's obviously always going to be a favorite. Shane's family will be meeting us up there so it should be a lot of family fun. Don't worry when the party gets goin in the evening I will keep my entertainment skills of dancing on the down low :) No one over the age of 6 can ever be a witness to this spectacle. Looking forward to some family down time. Ohhhhhh how I love weekends.

time for tea

Me and Ellie and Lucy met up with some of our favorite girls for a tea party at Pandora's Tea Parlor. This place is beyond cute and a great place to go and hang with little and big girls. The girls loved the dress up room that is stocked to the brim with all the fancy sparkly wonderful stuff that little girls love, they were in heaven. It was so cute to see them sitting on their very own lovely little table sipping and chatting away. We wanted in on the fun so we got a little dressed up to...(and laughed and laughed). Thanks to all the tea party girls for this fun lunch.

Pandora's tea parlor may be closing it's doors this makes me sad :(

Ellie with her very adorable friends minus one. (Izzy :( )

Little Lucy lovin the tea time!

Ellie and Scout

Ellie's fancy friends Sophie and Mari sitting on those very cute tables.


Beautiful tea party ladies ...those hats were SO great!

that boy is so smooth

Canyon doing some sweet rails last weekend...lovin it!

Family Ski Day

We had a fun family Ski Day while Lucy spent some time doing all that fun baby stuff with G-ma.

As the season winds down I have some mixed emotions. I am so ready to once again see the beautiful color green, get out the tents and swimsuits and be saturated with sunshine. At the same time we have had SO SO many good days at the mountain that I will miss our Saturday routine. I am glad I get to enjoy a little of both in the early Spring (Spring snowboarding is so fun). Nice warm days in the valleys yet still some snow at the resorts. With all that said, I will have to admit that if the 70's and 80's want to come a little early I will be welcoming them with open arms, flip flops and a tall glass of lemonade.