Cutting Down Our Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we went to cut down our Christmas tree. Its always been a fun tradition and the kids love it. Cody went hiking around to find our tree while the kids and I hung out by the truck and played in the snow.





After awhile Cody came down the mountain with our tree. Hooray! We spent the rest of the day decorating with our Christmas decorations and we loving smelling our fresh cut Christmas tree!

Potty Training...

Need I say more?

The Tie-Breaker

We went to our ultrasound last week and we found out we are going to be having another girl!!! We are pretty excited and Annalyn was really excited. She kept saying throughout the whole thing, "I just know its going to be a girl". All we've heard the last few days is how there is are going to be 3 girls and only 2 boys in the family. Jacob just knows there is a baby and its going to be a sister. But he gives my tummy kisses all the time, so he's a good big brother already.


Here is a glimpse of her little foot...isn't it adorable? So for 4 more months we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little one.

Happy Halloween!!!

We hope everyone had a great and fun Halloween!!!

Happy Birthday Cody!

Cody turned 29 yesterday...Happy Birthday Cody! The kids each picked out a present for him and wrapped it themselves and they were so excited when he came home from work early so they could give him their presents.

We love you and hope you had a great day sweetie!!!

Cody + Axe = No stitches

We had quite the adventure last Saturday...

Let's see...where do I begin?

We're are up by Trial Lake (the same place we went camping over Labor Day weekend), Cody and his brother Chad are cutting down logs to sell as firewood this fall, the kids and I are hanging out in a little area AWAY from the cutting, and everything is going well. Anna is pretending to cut down wood with her "chainsaw"...

Jake actually brought his chainsaw (permission came from his father) to cut down wood and he loved it! It was actually really cute to watch him try to cut down those huge trees. Anyway back to the story...

So everything is fine and then I am abruptly reminded of who I married and his medical history...

Guesses anyone?

Well Cody couldn't find his axe for a minute...............oh wait! It was in his leg!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would you like to know why there are no stitches? Well, anyone who knows my husband will know he's not a big fan of emergency rooms. It is a bad cut and he should have had stitches, but luckily it went on a slant to the side and not straight down, thanks to the bone in his shin. By the time we got home that night it was too late for stitches anyway and we had butterflied it really well (thank you Chad for your first aid skills!) It has sealed up pretty good and it doesn't look like there's any infection, yet...and hopefully it will stay that way. So he's okay, I'm just so grateful it wasn't any worse since we're miles and miles from any kind of help.

Anyway so if anyone is looking for some firewood this winter, please call us! We have a lot since there was no rushed trip to get stitches (can you sense my sarcasm?)

Labor Day - Trial Lake

Over Labor Day weekend, we went up to Trial Lake, which is "high in the mountains" according to Anna. It is a favorite childhood camping spot of Cody's and we love to go up there as much as we can. The campground is right by the lake and its just a really fun place to go. The kids loved it; getting dirty and smelling like campfire for 3 days without bathing is heaven for them I'm sure. The fishing was pretty good. The first trip down to the lake we sat on the beach/shore/whatever you'd call it, but we didn't really have a lot of luck catching fish. Cody, however, did catch fish and Jake was right there with his own fishing pole ready to "whack dishies off!". Every single fish Cody caught, Jake would run over as fast as he could to his dad and "help" get the fishes off the hook.

The next day we tried fishing off the dam, which was better at least for Anna. She caught 4 fish off the dam, just sitting there so patiently on her rock with her Dora fishing pole. Some of the fish she caught were actually bigger than the ones Cody caught! It was really fun watching her catch fish; Cody hardly had time to fish because he had to keep helping Anna get the fish off her pole and rebait it.

This is Jacob smiling for the camera. Notice how his pole does NOT have any fishing line or anything of ths sort. Being 2 he's not patient enough to sit there and wait. So that's why he whacks the fish and the rocks and sometimes Mommy when she's not looking. We thought hooks were a hazard for this little boy and anyone around him.

Cody caught about 12 fish all together I think. Great job honey!

Cody and Jake traded hats; wait! which one is Cody and which one is Jake?

I'm so strong with my fishing pole!

Another one of Anna's fishies...

Another one of Cody's fishies. I didn't fish; I took pictures!

First Day of School

Annalyn started her first day of Kindergarten yesterday. She goes in the afternoon, so all morning she was really excited and antsy to go. She was so brave when we got to her classroom. She remembered right where her backpack hook was, then she got her crayons, found a spot to sit and starting making friends. It's so weird to me that she is old enough to be in school! I'm excited for her to make new friends and have fun at school, because she loves learning and reading so much.

Annalyn, Jacob Cody, and ??????

In March we are going to have another addition to our little family. I am 11 weeks pregnant now and we are so excited to have another one! Since we have one of each, I really don't care whether it's a boy or a girl as long as it's healthy. This pregnancy has been so different than the first two. I've been so much more sick and tired. So that doesn't help in trying to figure out what it will be. But we are so happy and are counting down the weeks!

Happy Birthday Annalyn!

Annalyn turned 5 years old today! I can't believe my baby girl is old enough to go to Kindergarten. On Friday, we had a little birthday party for her with a few of her friends. They had so much fun! It was Dora the Explorer themed and we had a great time. (Thanks to the Grandma's who helped me out!)

She was so excited to wake up and open her presents. She is SO in the princess mode right now, well come to think of it, she has been since she was two. So needless to say, everything she got had to do with princess-something.

But her cake on the other hand was Dora again. I tried to make it look like a mountain, but I have to agree with Cody and say it looks more like a pyramid. It was chocolate, who cares what it looks like?!?!?

She had a great day today and we are so thankful to have her in our family!

Children's Parade

Once again, its that time of year for the good ol' Spanish Fork Fiesta Days. Last Saturday was the children's parade and since I'm in the Primary presidency now, I kind of "had" to go this year (haven't been since I was probably 8 or so). So we decorated our trailer like Lehi's Vision with the Tree of Life and the Iron Rod. All the kids dressed up as Nephites with pillowcases and headbands. It actually turned out pretty cute!

Jacob has this expression on his face the whole time. I don't know if he even really woke up that morning; he didn't make a peep in the stroller, which is surprising because usually he's fighting to get out. But Anna loved it. This is our trailer; Cody make the Iron Rod for us and our tree didn't turn out too bad either!

Anna and her friend Alivia...so cute little Nephite girlies.

We had more kids show up for this than we usually do on Sunday in Primary!

And even I wore a headband! I look so much like a Nephite, don't you think? Yeah right!
I was just trying to get into the "parade" mood. So glad it was only 6 blocks, you know?

The Fourth, Fishing, & Four-Wheelers

Over the 4th of July weekend, we went camping down south to a lake called Pine Lake. We got the kids their own fishing poles and we had a lot of fun. Jake would get mad if we actually tried to help him "fish" so we just let him completely dissemble his fishing pole throughout the camping trip. At least he thought he was fishing.

Anna, however, caught her first fish on the first cast that Cody threw out for her. She was so excited, but didn't quite understand why she didn't catch one so fast the next time. We were just glad she at least caught one; her brother cared less about the fish.

Proud fisher with her "huge" fish!

Pictures of the sunset Cody took...which I thought were beautiful.

We also went on some four-wheeler rides while we were there. The kids loved that as well.

Jake loved it so much that he fell asleep both times we went on a ride. His enthusiasm was so much before that it just wore him out!

Jake was really excited to ride with his daddy. It was something completely new and different so they loved it!

Where's the Toothfairy?

Annalyn lost her first baby tooth today, which is unexpected because she isn't even 5 yet! Her bottom two teeth were both loose at the same time, so we are watching for the other one to fall out any day now too.

She has been wiggling them for a couple of weeks now and today while eating a granola bar it came out. I thought something was wrong at first because all I heard was, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" in a very very high pitched voice. Then she finally said "I lost my tooth!" while it was still in her mouth, so it was funny watching her try to talk because she didn't dare even move her mouth or tongue.

Camping Trip

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went stayed in Green River and then went exploring in the San Rafael Swell.

Here are the kids in our campsite...I love this picture because this is how Jake "smiles" for the camera.It rained the WHOLE time we were there. But it didn't stop us from having fun! We found another balancing rock, similar to the one in Moab. This one is even more likely to fall any minute.

Since we couldn't hike because of all the rain, hence flash floods, we went off road for awhile.

This is Crystal Geyser; it had just gone off right before we got there. We had just missed it!

San Rafael Swell, in the rain and hail.

It started raining so fast so suddenly that we stopped to take pictures because there just waterfalls everywhere.

Girl=flowers, pretty, sweet, poses for the camera, etc.

Boy=rocks, dirt, blank stares for the camera, etc.

We also went to Goblin Valley and climbed for awhile, until it started hailing and raining AGAIN. Notice the dark clouds in the background.

Cody took this picture (well, he took every picture, but I love this one!) I looked up while we were walking back to the truck in Goblin Valley thought this was a beautiful shot.

More dark clouds; this was pretty much all we saw around us and on top of us the whole time.

The day we left was sunny and warm of course, so we took our time getting home. We found another arch...

the Swasey Cabin...

more pictographs...

and more memories.