Happy Birthday, Mason is 6!!!

Bright and early Saturday morning Mason finds his way to all his loot.

Who is more excited for the cake?

Thank you for the costume Grandma!! Thank you for all the birthday presents everyone!!

Cooper petting the Silkie. I couldn't resist this picture.

A day in the life...

This is my favorite picture this month. This could be my favorite of Julia and her dad of all time. 

Julia and Cooper were out enjoying the nice warm weather for the last time this season. The chickens come right up to you in the yard because they think you have food for them. One of the hens let Cooper pet her. Julia loves to be out there with them.

This is one tired baby coming in from the car. She is sleeping sitting up, with her tongue out.

Movie night is every Fri. with the family and usually Julia is in bed when we start but this time she got to stay up and she feels pretty good about herself!

stripes

Steve announces last weekend that we are going to take family pictures and my year was made. I know how much he despises this occasion like hot needles in his eyes. I was so grateful. We found this little nook right here in the city and the boys were so well behaved.

The sun was just right and Steve took the most amazing shots but you don't get to see the good ones until Christmas!

We found a playground nearby for the little ones to blow off some steam after sitting still for so long. They were angels!!

We are at Sam's the other day looking at all the Halloween scary guys and Julia just freaks out excited! She is screaming and pointing and making this face we have never seen before. Eyebrows high and mouth open wider than a bass fish. We were rolling on the floor laughing!

Steve's good friend Colleen from school stopped by for a visit. She dragged us out to Bojo's for some yummy montain pizza. Very fun!

Camping Magic!

Camping up in the Colorado mountains! It doesn't get better than powder doughnuts for breakfast.  The chipmunks would come right up to their feet to beg for food but no one was sharing!

MMMMMMMMMMM!

So we've climbed to the top of this gorgeous vista and two of the boys are grouchy but I had to have the picture no matter what. They had a ton of fun camping though and they wished we went everyweekend. Their favorite activity was the fire and secret hiding spot under the Evergreen. Steve also put up a ropes course for them and it kept them occupied long enough for mom and dad to get a nap in so it was all worth it! I can't believe we don't do this every weekend. It was so fun to get away from the city.

Little posers. So handsome.

This picture is in the running for this years Christmas picture. We'll see how my luck goes in getting all of these poeple to sit still for another one. 

So Julia put this bucket on her head and walked around the house jabbering and  singing. We were laughing our guts out.

Our friend Mary took us to the Berry Patch Farm to pick our own strawberries. You pay by the pint but you can eat all you want while you're there. Julia  and Cooper were fantastic pickers but they didn't make it out with much. After the strawberries we went on to the rasberries which were heaven! The farm is so darling. Their chickens and pig are just walking around freely.  It was a great day . 

Cooling off in the sink after a hot day. She is quite the princess.

A Taste of Colorado

We left the kids with a baby sitter and went downtown to enjoy the Peoples' Fair and A taste of Colorado. I'm not sure why this beautiful woman keeps hanging around with me.

Luau Center Food table

Rocky Mountain Luau

These are the decorations we put up for our latest Stake activity. It was tons of fun and Mom was a saint to help so much. As always, I couldn't have done it without her, well maybe, but it would never have looked this good!!!!

Can you spot the fish?

We painted these to surround the room, along with the palm trees and lights pointed at them.

View from the stage, where the tahitian dancers performed!

Old friends

It was so fun visiting with our friend Teri and her sweet doll of a baby girl.Thanks for staying in touch, Teri!

We went to the city water fountain to cool off and Fox got a little wet. It doesn't look like he minds.
                                                       The Mowhawk
Mason is holding a real live tarantula. Her name is Rosie and we met her at the Butterfly Pavillion along with many other insects,spiders and sea creatures that you could pet. Then there was the butterfly room with maybe a million butterfly's. Gorgeous. Kids were in heaven.
Great Grandma and Grandpa Kelly came to visit for a couple days and we love to visit with them. They are so dear to us.
Summer, Mary and I went to see ABBA at Redrocks. It was groovy just being at the venue but to have good music playing made it even sweeter!! Thanks girls! 

Dad took some time today to swim with the kids and they loved showing him all their tricks and high jumps
Cooper and Emerald got along so well this trip and love goofing off thogether. We would catch them doing the cutest little "baby" things. As a mom you think four is a pretty old kid but they really are still baby. So darling!!!
We call this look "the stink eye" and she will produce it on demand. It is hilarious. She also walks around the house pointing her finger at things and making this funny noise from the back of her throat that she has learned from the boys. She is casting spells on everyone, like a wizard does. She particularly likes to do it with a pencil or anything of that nature. 
                                             MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....Corn
All the kids dog pilling on Uncle Steve on the hammack at Grandpa's house

Julia is 1!!!!

I can't believe it. A whole year old. What a funny face. What a great year it has been!!

Jack's Blessing

Here we are in Utah for Nate and Darlene's new baby, Jack's blessing. All of Brian's grandkids were together so we had to take the opportunity to take a million pictures in every position. The kids amazingly did not explode from having to sit still for so long. They all did very well!

These are the "babies". Neve, Emerald and Cooper ( the stinker, it would be way too much to ask for a smile from all three)After the blessing we had a little lunch with our dearest friends and Fam. Thank you Dean and Maria for coming!