HAPPY VALENTINES (not valentimes)

Okay, so normally I celebrate valentines day... But this year, after having previous years of Mike telling me, I'm not getting you anything... I decided to protest, and was not planning on celebrating at all.. Infact, I didn't, the night before I got 2 boxes of valentines for my kids tossed them on the table and told them to fill them out.. I think Mike helped them fill them out and get them ready to go.. Valentines day nothing real special happened, we had pizza and watched a family movie.. Well on Wednesday the 17th, I came home from work and my dear, wonderful, loving husband presented me with an ipod nano (which is something I have wanted for over a year) and said Happy "late" Valentines day.. I was "fall on the floor" suprised.. I completely loved it, but after playing with an ipod touch I decided I would upgrade...

I COMPLETELY TOTALLY LOVE MY NEW IPOD TOUCH!!! I have had it for one day now and am 'in love'... I love my husband for making it possible.. Maybe my faith in valentines day has been restored...

PS..One of my pet peeves is when people call valentines day Valentimes day, there is no M in valentine people.. Get it right!!!

Bear Lake!!!

Bear Lake is Awesome!!! I guess we had forgotten how much fun we had last February when we went to Bear Lake, because we almost didn't go... But after much coercing from my sister Katie we decided to take the trip. Its only about a 45 minute drive for us from Kemmerer, and well worth it.

(this is as we were driving down the mountain back into Lake Town a beautiful view of Bear Lake)


We drove into town about 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday, to our amazement Bear Lake was not frozen over, last year the boys rode their snowmobiles out onto the lake, this year that was not about to happen... We got to our Resort and checked in. This time we only rented a 1 bedroom, that gave us our own room and a murphy bed for Kayla and Jess and the couch for michael (that is what we thought anyway we ended up having several cousins stay over so it was a little more cramped then we first thought). Shortly after we got there the family converged.. My mom was there, my oldest sister Tracy w/ her family, my brother Curtis with his brood, my brother paul with his, Carla came with a few of her kids, and Katie with her kids. After a quick lunch we hit the pool then had dinner and some games..



(the inside of our condo)

The next morning we got up about 10:00 to head to the hills... Actually it is called the sinks, but it is the perfect place for sledding, these are pictures from last year, because this year I had so much fun riding and sledding that I forgot to take pictures... I rediscovered how much fun sledding is, as long as you have a snowmobile to drag you back up the big hill.







After the day of snowmobiling and sledding almost everyone went home. My brother Curtis and his wife Brandy, my sister Katie and her husband Paul and us were the only ones left, so we fed the kids and left to go have an adult dinner at the local steak house..




After dinner it was one more night of swimming... We had so much fun swimming, the dad's all played and rough housed with the kids while the mom's soaked up the water and just enjoyed some good conversation..







The next morning it was time to clean up and head back home.. We had fun and are completely worn out, but it was well worth it... I can't wait until next year!!!


Goodbye Bear Lake...

This is how us Wyomingites go swimming, all you need are your cowboy boots!!!

It has happened...

Wow... So it has happened. My eldest, beautiful daughter Kayla has turned 12... Now what??

She had a big party with some friends about 3 weeks before her birthday because her BF was moving and wouldn't make it to her birthday.. They watched movies ate lots of cake and food (my goodness can a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds put away a lot of food).. I made some little mini pizzas which totally crashed and burned, the kids hated them, so did the family... You know the biscuit pizzas (I love 'em).. Oh well. We decided to give Kayla her "big" present then so she could use it, which was a really cool, red, digital camera.. Which she totally loves!! Anyway the girls all spent the night and had a lot of fun.. (besides the dinner part)...

For her actual birthday we invited our "family" friends Kenny and Janie.. We ate spaghetti and then had cake and ice cream.. They gave her a big bottle of BBQ sauce, which is kind of an inside joke, (kayla LOVES BBQ sauce). Janie made a label that said "Kayla's Sauce" and then put flower gems all over it, it was really cute and Kayla totally LOVE IT!!! (in fact the other day when I made BBQ ribs she got really mad when I told her I used it (which I didn't) and she claimed it is "her sauce" and nobody is to touch it!!) So that party went well too. The best part was singing "happy birthday" to her in our most loudest, most obnoxious voices ever..

But back to my baby being 12.. The agreement was when she turned 12 she would be allowed to wear some very light makeup, very conservatively.. It worked well for the weekend and at church she looked very nice, then she went to school on Monday.. After her friends got a hold of her (and her make up bag) they decided she wasn't wearing near enough, she came home in a heavily made up face that I had dreaded.. She looked beautiful, don't get me wrong... Just a little too much too fast.. So we had to sit down and discuss what was okay and not okay. Her friends (who have been wearing make up since 4th grade) are still trying to convince her that the make up needs to be seen from across the hall, but I think we found the happy medium...

So now that I have written a book about her.. I just want to say how sad I am that my firstborn is growing up so fast, where is that sweet little innocent girl that we called Lollipop?? But on the other hand, I am also very proud of her, and the young lady that she is becoming. For the most part we can always count on her to make the right choices. And even though she does get moody every now and then, the road hasn't been to bumpy, and she makes our life a joy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!!

Then next 8 years are the scariest!!!