DRESS UP

Our nieces Lainie & Shelby came & spent the night with us on Aug 13th. Our girls were so excited. They love their cousins & playing with them. They usually end up doing some sort of dress up. This time was no exception. Apparently, they dressed each other up & did a fashion show. I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on & found these lovely gems on my camera!

I love how Jadyn's doing the goofiest arabesque ever in her poses. (Really, I was not involved in this at all!) I have a feeling my old dance costumes will bring enjoyment for years to come. Also, I love how Kylie looks like a GIANT in the Tinkerbell costume. These brought a good laugh to me!!

MONTICELLO PART 2

The next morning was Saturday & the big day in Monticello. Apparently, they have a big celebration every year for the 24th. Only they waited to celebrate it on Saturday the 25th. The day began with a pancake breakfast at the Lion's House in town. (Which we missed - it was so early & we had a HORRIBLE night's sleep.) After that was the parade. Always a highlight for kids & our kids were so happy that we didn't miss it sleeping in. Lucky for us, it didn't start until 11 am. Almost every "float" (it was a small town parade - mostly people riding quads, etc.) threw out candy to the crowd. Luckily, my girls wanted to wear their hats, so they were able to gather candy in their hat. They even had the fire truck spraying & cooling off the crowd. They had a line of tractors at one point & I had to take a picture of every one. I knew I had to get pictures of them for my nephew Carter who loves tractors. This one was the coolest...

And what small town parade is complete without the unicycle? (Although, these are pretty crazy!)

After the parade we walked around their little festival for awhile. They had food booths & a few vendors. It was crazy crowded - I guess people come from neighboring towns for the festivities. We saw the booth for fried candy bars - have you seen those? Basically anything can be fried. Even a dill pickle. Weird, eh? I wanted to try a fried Ding Dong. Ha! We told ourselves we were going to try it after we ate something, but then we forgot. We were so mad later when we remembered. That's just not something you see everyday.

We then headed to our meeting spot again & were able to hang out a little with my cousin Terry & his wife Brooke. Along with their kids. Their daughter was so stinkin' cute! I wanted to eat her up. She was not shy - which fit right along with my girls! Check out this cutie...
This family was the main reason I wanted to come to the reunion. Sure, I was excited to meet everyone, but it's been years since I've seen my cousin Terry Jr. My Uncle Terry Sr. came as well, but unfortunately my Aunt Vi & other cousin Tim couldn't make it. They live across the country, so it makes getting together difficult. Here's a pic of me & my cousin..

I spent a lot of this afternoon helping my Granddad scan pictures. My Uncle Terry brought some albums with pictures I've never seen. My Granddad was nice enough to sit & scan things for me so I could have copies of them. While I did this my sweet Aunt Vee played with my girls. She made bracelets & necklaces with them & they even had a little drawing lesson with her in the backyard...

At this point everyone was taking off & doing their own thing. We went for a little drive up the mountain & found a look out point that overlooked Dead Horse Point in the Canyonlands. Erik having fun with the camera...

The look out point had these cool poles with plaques saying "Dead Horse Point", etc. When you looked through the metal pipe then you were looking directly at the spot that the plaque said. There were 4 or 5 of them & I thought that was a cool idea. Again, something I had never seen before. (I had a lot of firsts this trip!) Kylie looking through one of the pipes...

I'm sad that I don't have any group shots. Somehow I ended up being the designated photographer for geneoly purposes, so I have a lot of headshots of everyone, but no fun group shots. Other than this said tale - it was a fun trip! According to my Granddad this may be the first of many reunions. I hope so!

NATALIE BREE SMITH

Meet my new niece Natalie Bree Smith.....

This little beauty was born on Tuesday July 7th, 2009! She was born healthy & just too dang cute! I was so curious to see this little girl. My Jadyn, to me, looks like my brother Jeremy. So, I was curious to see if he would have a little Jadyn look alike. The funny thing was that she looked more like Kylie when Kylie was born. She definitely has Jeremy's eyes though. I'm excited to see how much she'll change in the next few months & to see what she will look like.

Here's a proud Daddy.....

Here's my girls with Natalie when they were home from the hospital....

Congrats Jeremy & Tamara on this beautiful little girl!!!

CIARA

I haven't had the internet at my disposal the past couple of weeks. It's been a little nerve racking. In a way, though, it was nice not being a slave to my computer. As a result, I now have another slew of posts coming your way!!

A few weekends ago we had my niece Ciara come spend the night. She is a cutie!! My girls just love her & she & Kylie are two little peas in a pod. They act & look alike even though Ciara is 2 years older. We wanted to do something fun while she was here. We decided it would be fun to decorate cakes with her. I made each of them their own cake & they helped color the fondant. Then, we split up the fondant & I let them have at it. It's so funny to watch how each of them felt like they had to use every piece of fondant they had.

Here they are with their greasy hands from coloring the fondant...

The final product....

VALENTINE'S

We had a very fun VALENTINE'S DAY this year. We did the unusual & spent the day with my S-I-L Rennie & my nieces & nephews. (Unfortunately Luke had to work & we didn't see him until later that night.) We drove down to Sahuarita - it's a little south of Tucson - to spend the day & night with the AWESOME Hallow's family. It was so fun. We went to Madera Canyon to go do some hiking & exploring during the day. The kids were troopers while hiking a little trail. A trail that was skinny with some steep drops on the other side at times. Which, of course, gave me a heart attack thinking kids were going to go falling down the mountain. But, everyone made it safe & sound. There was snow on the ground at some spots which spawned some small snowball fights. Then, at the bottom of the trail we did some exploring around & just had a BLAST!!!

We were even lucky enough to have a visit from DOPEY!

And a leaping 2 year old! I can't even teach my 9 year old how to leap like that in dance!

And don't forget crossing the stream over a log. I was actually impressed our girls did it since they're so scared of EVERYTHING. But, upon looking at the pictures it looks like Erik was more scared than they were! Check out that balancing!

After all that fun the girls earned a well deserved tub full of bubbles.

Luke got home later that night & we spent the night just chatting it up. We woke up Sunday morning to some more hanging out time before we headed back home while the Hallows headed to church. We are so blessed to have such WONDERFUL family! Luke & Rennie are always so inviting & make us feel so welcomed. We love hanging out with them. THANKS again guys!!

HALLOWEEN 08

We had a blast this Halloween. We pulled the girls out of school early (which meant Jadyn didn't go at all) & headed down to Arivaca, AZ! Luke & Rennie invited us down for fun & excitement in a small town. There's no other way to do it - small towns know how to hook it up! Everyone in the town met at a church & had hot dogs, etc. Then, everyone piled onto a hayride. Luke had the best rig, of course, so we hopped on for the ride of a lifetime. Once we were on our "hayride" we followed a line of other trucks & made designated stops to trick-or-treat. Not until after I got yelled at for not following the rules though. Seems you're not allowed to jump onto the truck when it's about to move. Once the signal of one honk was made you were to remain still. Who knew it would be bad to jump on after running from grabbing something out of the car? At least no one got hurt. We made 3 small stops where people had tables set up to pass out candy. Then, the last stop was on Main St. - the downtown area - where the street was lined on both sides with tables to trick-or-treat at. We were really proud of Kylie who usually ends up not trick-or-treating because she gets scared of scary costumes, but she was a trooper this time & we didn't have any issues. The kids had a blast & told us multiple times how fun it was & that is was the best! (We owe a HUGE thank you to Rennie's mom for making Kylie's chaps & vest for her cowgirl costume. Lainie wanted to be a cowgirl, too, so she was nice enough to make Kylie some as well when she made Lainie's. They were perfect!! Thank you Sally!! Oh & Rennie for Jadyn's costume. Basically we didn't buy costumes this year - we just bummed off Rennie. Yeah us! Thanks again Ren!!)
Then, what's Halloween without having a little fun with the mullet?! We got some choice looks. Maybe people thought we were poking fun. We were - only just at ourselves! WOW! That's a scary picture of me! Notice I'm doing a hang ten sign with a mullet on. HUH?! I don't know. But, Ren, looks perfect!
We rode horses on Saturday at the ranch & Erik took pictures of the Hallows gang. The boys even had a little mishap on a horse & fell off while riding bareback. They're tough, so it didn't do anything to them. We had so much fun we ended up staying until Sunday morning instead of leaving on Saturday as planned. It's just so hard to leave when you're having fun! Thanks again Luke & Rennie for the fun weekend!!

GO BULLDOGS!!

We have a nephew that plays football for Queen Creek High School. Last weekend our girls participated in a cheer clinic with our niece Ciara. It was a great idea I thought for a fundraiser & our girls were beyond excited to hang out with the cheerleaders & to be able to cheer for RJ. As part of the clinic the girls got to perform at the football game on Friday night. It was so fun. Here's a few pics...
Jadyn & her "buddy"...
Kylie & Ciara's group with their "buddy"...
The Parkinson girls...
This was the only picture that turned out somewhat decent of the players I took. RJ is #34 in the middle. He was one of the team captains at this game.

JUST BECAUSE

I've noticed lately that I'm not very good at posting pictures with my posts. Except for random ones I get off the internet. So, I decided to just post a couple for fun that noone has ever seen even though they were taken awhile ago.

I love this picture of Jadyn blowing bubbles. I want to squish those cheeks!!!

I love this picture, too. This is our niece Ciara that Kylie just thinks the world of. They're 2 years apart, but you wouldn't know it when they're together. They're the same size & could almost pass as twins. Such beautiful blue eyes on these two. They even have some of the same mannerisms. It's too dang funny to watch them together. We love you Cici!