Our Own Private Idaho

ONE BROKEN ARM, 2 CASTS!

2009-07-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

A few Saturdays ago our little Carma was playing outside with all the neighborhood kids and hurt her arm. After a solid hour of screaming, a very large, gross, bump formed, so we decided to take her to the ER. We were in the ER for about 4 hours and came out with the diagnosis: broken arm. The ER put a splint on so the swelling could go down and we went to the Dr. on Monday to get a pretty purple cast! We also went back Tuesday and got a second pretty purple cast after an incident at bath time on Monday night! Carma is a trooper and is adjusting very well. She will get her cast off on July 27th! Yea!

As you can see, the cast is not slowing her down at all!

4th OF JULY

2009-07-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

We had such a great time this year on the 4th. We have a tradition that our friends the Lowthers come from Salt Lake and stay a few days with us. My friend Rhaelene has 3 adorable kids. Siobhan is 11, Duncan is 7 ( 8 in August) and Rory is 5. Harrison and Siobhan have been friends since they were about 2 years old and the friendship is still going strong! Every year we wait to see if things will get "weird" between them and so far the only thing they think is weird are their mothers wondering when things will get weird! Claire and Duncan are also great friends and Carma and Rory follow them wherever they go. With all the kids playing all weekend it was really like a vacation for me and Rhaelene!

Rhaelene brought all of her fancy tie dye supplies and the kids made adorable shirts! They showed them off at the parade in the morning.

Idaho falls is famous for their fireworks show at the falls every year. The show is put on by Melaleuca and brings people from all over. We braved the crowds and went down this year. NEVER AGAIN! At least not any time soon. After a near death experience ( long story- Large fireworks being thrown in the river 5 feet from my children) and plenty of drunks, I have had my fill for a while.

Pine Basin Camp

2009-06-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to have Harrison home! This last week Harrison was able to go to Pine Basin Camp with a few of his friends. The camp is put on by our school district and is basically a nature camp with classes and lots of fun. This is Harrison's second and last year to go. The camp is offered to grades 4-6. This year Harrison went with 3 of his favorite friends-Kaiden, Chance and Marissa. The boys are goofy and Marissa is so great to put up with them ! They are all such good kids and they had a blast together. Harrison came home tired and very dirty.Notice Marissa doesn't look nearly as gross as the boys. She obviously took advantage of the showers at the girls camp while the boys let us know that showers were "optional".

The "Circus"

2009-06-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am using the word circus but I am not really sure what to call what we witnessed one night last week. My dear friend Niki had free tickets to the Shriner's Circus and invited me and the girls along with some other friends . I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Yes, that dog is dressed like the lady and there were 7 other costumes changes. Yes, those poodles are actually pink and blue. Yes, those are 80 year old women in mini skirts. Thankfully there was cotton candy! You can't go wrong with cotton candy and friends.

T Ball

2009-06-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

Claire is playing T Ball again this year and loving it! She is on a team with kids from our neighborhood and that has been a lot of fun for her. Her coaches are great! They both have children on the team and the kids love them! They are better women than me. It is not uncommon for our head coach, Mikki, to be on the field directing the team with her baby in a sling and her 3 year old hanging on her leg! She is amazing.
Check out the dad in the picture where Claire is almost to first base..... totally sleeping through the TBall game!

Burley, Idaho!

2009-06-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

One day last week we were totally bored and the only thing I had to look forward to was cleaning, weeding and laundry. I was not in the mood. I was trying to figure out how I could get out of these chores when Grey walked in the room and I noticed he was in desperate need of a haircut. It hit me- Road trip to Burley! One of my best friends, Danelle Blettenberg is a hairdresser and recently moved to Burley which is a small farming town about 2 hours away. We love the Blettenbergs. Danelle has 6 children that all fall in similar age categories as my own. The kids were thrilled that we were being so spontaneous and that they were going to get to play with their friends that they miss dearly. Danelle welcomed us with open arms! We had a great day.Charlee, helping Greyson look good for his "before" photo! Like mother like daughter!I love how they match! Greyson was so good for his cut. He loved it!Greyson after his cut! He looked so much older! Most of the red in his hair got cut out, it is so sad!TROUBLE! Charlee and Carma helped themselves to ice cream while Danelle was cutting hair. They didn't need any help. They found ice cream, bowls, and a scoop all on their own!Claire and Brookel being goofy girls!

6th Grade graduation

2009-06-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

It is official: Harrison is done with elementary school! This is weird since I am sooo not old enough to have a child in Jr. High. Harrison had a great year this year with his 6th grade class and his teacher Mrs. Suitter.
We are so proud of him. He had awesome grades and worked really hard . I can't even talk about Jr. High yet. It makes me sick just thinking about it.

The Garden

2009-06-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

This year we went a little crazy and decided we wanted to move our garden AND expand it. What were we thinking I wonder now that things are coming up and I am having to weed! A bigger garden? Who needs that? We hired our dear friend Eric McGary to cut out our plot and get it all ready. Imagine my shock when he informed me that it needed some good dirt the first year and that it was going to cost money. What? Yes, dirt costs money and it is expensive.! Oh, and the kids loved playing in the expensive dirt. Every time they came in from playing I wanted to scrape all the dirt off their little bodies and take it back out to the garden!
We spent a good couple of days planting and now we are just weeding and waiting. I will keep you updated. Oh, BTW, yes Greyson is wearing pajamas, a girly hat, and winter mittens to do his gardening.

Back to Blogging!

2009-06-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been a little blogged out lately. I think it is the w hole 4 kids, house, life, etc... that has gotten in the way. I really just have not found the time to update. Oh, and I also managed to create a Facebook account and of course that took up about 2 weeks of my life I can't ever get back. The novelty of FB has definitely worn off! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my dad called wondering why I have not updated my blog. Well, that did it and now I am back to blogging!
MEMORIAL DAY:

Every Memorial Day Mike's family has a "reunion" of sorts in Isand Park, Idaho. All the Aunts, uncles and cousins get together and spend the weekend playing. We don't care about fashion, baths, eating healthy, or sleep. We simply just have fun! Mike's parents have a cabin in Island Park so we are lucky enough to get to sleep and go to the bathroom indoors.
This year the kids had a blast. Harrison had his second cousin Kobe there this year and they pretty much did their own thing all weekend long. We would go hours without seeing them. They would go off on the 4 wheelers, hunt for treasures, and play games. They had so much fun together.
Greyson was soooo funny this year. He fell in love with the 4 wheelers! He would cry until someone would take him for a ride. It was so cute. At first. Then we all got sick of taking him on little slow rides around the cabin. It quickly became a chore for Harrison that we would make him do before he could take off on the 4 wheeler with Kobe!
We had a great time this year and the laundry after we got home ( which is always my biggest complaint with this tradition) wasn't even so bad thanks to my new washer and dryer!

Grey

2009-04-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Our little Grey is 18 months old! He is growing up way too fast. He went in for his 18 month checkup this week with Dr. Hatch and all is well! He is a little on the skinny side weighing in at only 19 pounds 13oz. Dr. Hatch actually suggested a little less Diet Dr. Pepper and a little more whole milk! Can you believe it? The nerve. He is such a sweet boy and we are all having so much fun with him. He loves his siblings and mimics everything they do. Which can be good or bad. He still loves to snuggle especially with mom and dad in the middle of the night! He is running around and saying more words every day. We just can't get enough of him!

Not enough Laundry!!

2009-04-02T13:36:00.001-07:00

Well, it finally happened....my dryer broke! Yipee! For those that know me know that I have been waiting for this day for years. I could not bring myself to get a knew washer and dryer until one of mine officially broke! I would feel too guilty. I even called the repair man out to deem it officially dead before I spent the money! After an entire week of research-which led to weight gain and a marriage and one friendship in jeopardy (thanks to my inability to make a decision)-I finally made my choice and here they are. Love the steam features and the size of the washer (4.4). I would like to thank Consumer Reports and all the people online who complain and praise for helping me make my decision finally! If you ever need to know anything about a washer or dryer let me know. There is only one problem now, I am too caught up. There isn't enough laundry to do!

Silly Holidays

2009-04-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

St. Patrick's Day means an all green dinner at the Holyoak House. Usually this means green pancakes but since everyone was expecting that I went with something different. Maybe a little too different. We ended up with green pasta that looked so odd I even had a hard time eating it. We also had a list of things we NEVER have in our house for dinner like 2 different kinds of jello and green Koolaid. Way too much green.
April Fools Day meant more food fun. We had cereal for breakfast that I had secretly put a drop of blue food coloring under before the kids added their milk. Claire -who by the way is pretty ocd- was totally freaked out and refused to believe our milk wasn't bad! Too funny. For dinner we had "cupcakes" that were actually meatloaf with colored mashed potatoes on top! This is actually a mean trick because my girls really thought they were getting cupcakes for dinner at first glance. Carma handed over her cupcake after taking one bite and said "mom this cupcake is disgusting". Too cute. Mike actually had a very hard time eating all this fun food since he has an odd phobia of things that aren't the color they are supposed to be!
I would like to thank my friend Alexa -one of the best mom's I know- for the best April Fool's Joke of this year..........I taped down the on button to the sprayer on the sink and then asked Mike to rinse something out for me! So much fun!!! The best part of it all was when Mike thought it was caught on a lid and did it a second time! What am I 12?

DRAMA

2009-02-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

One day last week Claire had a rough day and got her 3rd strike which in our house means 1 hour early bedtime! For those of you that don't know Claire very well let me tell you..... she does not handle negative things very well. We joke all the time that she is going to need anti anxiety medication by the time she is 7! We laugh about this because we don't want to cry. Claire is very much a perfectionist and rarely gets in to any kind of trouble so you can imagine how 3 strikes in one day was the end of the world for her! When it was time for bed she very slowly and dramatically went up to her room where she threw herself on her bed and cried very quiet yet heavy cries. Finally after about 10 minutes I really wanted her to go to sleep and knew she wouldn't until she felt all was back to normal. I took my camera upstairs and started shooting and this was the result. I knew there was no way Claire could stay upset with a camera in her face!

Harrison goes to Alaska!

2009-02-20T20:39:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago Harrison got a fabulous opportunity when he was invited on a five day trip to Alaska with his friend Kaiden. We were a little apprehensive at first and actually almost said no ( Mom did not like the idea of him being so far away for so long) but then we realized that we were NEVER going to take him to Alaska in the middle of winter and it was too good to pass up. Kaiden's mom Jennifer has a friend who lives in a beautiful home in Alaska and was gracious enough to host them all. The boys had a great time shooting guns, four wheeling ( in the snow??) and seeing wildlife. We are so grateful that Harrison was able to have this opportunity and will ever be indebted to Jennifer! He had a great time. We all missed him a ton and decided we like him a lot and think he should stick around a while!

100 Pieces of Gum!

2009-02-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

February 3rd is our schools 100th day of the school year. Claire's first grade class is celebrating by making posters with 100 objects on them! Claire decided she wanted to do 100 pieces of gum. That was fine until she decided she wanted to spell out her name with the gum! We were a little confused about how to do this with gum sticks. I suggested we use something else ( beans, noodles??) but she was very excited to use the gum. We ended up chewing the gum to make her poster! Gross I know, but she got to spell her name and use the gum! We started chewing with just Claire, me, and Carma and our jaws quickly got sore. Harrison just happened to be going to piano lessons at the McGary's so I loaded him up with gum sticks and a tupperware in his piano bag. Thankfully,all the McGary kids were not totally grossed out by this and dutifully chewed and collected for us! We would like to add a very special thank you to Chase McGary for adding some of his own gum collection so that we would have more colors than pink and purple. Notice we only got to the Y in Holyoak with 100 pieces which is why the O, A, & K are written in. This might go down in history as the most disgusting school project ever. I am sure Claire will have the only poster with "ABC" gum on it even though I am sure it is some sort of health code violation to even take it in to the school!

Claire,her doll,and Carma's giant fit!

2009-01-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

Oh! the reverence and stillness that the Sabbath Day brings.... that is funny! This is Claire and her American Girl doll that she loves so much in matching outfits! Claire loves to wear the same thing as her doll and this is the only true matching outfit they have. This picture was taken last Sunday before church. Claire was very excited to wear her matching dress to church. The problem started when Carma asked where her dress was? "Oh, you don't have a dress like this you have a beautiful purple dress with a long purple coat just like Madeline (she loves Madeline)" That was the wrong thing to say! This started a good 30 minutes of the following:
Carma: "You hate me and want me to be ugly."
Mike: "You could never be ugly Carma you are beautiful."
Carma: "No I not. I don't have a black dress."
Mike: "You have a pretty Madeline dress."
Carma, now screaming: " I no like you! I don't want a Madeline dress! I hate you!"
The bedroom door slams!
You get the picture. Like I said.... The joy of Sunday

Carma and Clouseau

2009-01-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

Those of you that know my family know that 3 years ago, a few months before I had Carma my parents dog Clouseau was born. My mom is CRAZY about this dog. The weird pet people kind of crazy. He is treated very well—better than her children ever were! He has his own doggy diaper bag for traveling and going to the groomers, has special blankets, eats VERY expensive food, drinks bottled water when they are on the go, has a special relationship with people at the bank and the postman, and goes everywhere with my mom. When my mom really wants to bother me she will call him my brother! Well, Carma has taken quite a liking to her "Uncle" Clouseau even telling my mom we should trade dogs! She also told me we could buy Clouseau. I don't think Clouseau is for sale. They had a great time getting in trouble together while my parents were visiting and Mr. Clouseau will be sorely missed. At least by Carma.

Grand Targhee Trip!!

2009-01-25T18:01:00.001-08:00

This last weekend we had a great time on a ski trip to Grand Targhee. My parents are in town and we had a great time heading up the mountain with them and our friends the McGary's for an awesome couple of days of skiing and boarding. Of course getting there was not easy. A couple of days before we left, Harrison got pretty sick with a sore throat and fever! We were starting to wonder whether or not he was going to get to go (the thought of not going was killing him) when he finally started to feel a little better. We were all set to start packing when Greyson started to bark like a seal and we had to get him to the doctor! So, Thursday morning a couple of hours before we were to leave I was in Dr. Hatch's office (my second home) listening to him tell me Greyson had Croup and giving me an RX for steroids. Oh, and he also told us that if he started to gasp for air that we were to take him immediately down the mountain to the hospital in Driggs! (Driggs has a hospital???) What the heck Dr. Hatch?? Anyway, Grey started to improve after one dose of medicine. We got to Targhee on Thursday eveing and settled into our lodge. The kids were so excited that the lodge not only had a room downstairs with 4 bunk beds but that there was also a bed that came out of the wall in the living room! Oh the things that excite kids.
Mike and Harrison spent all day Friday boarding and having a great time, and Claire and I spent Friday in ski lessons. Claire's lessons went great! This was her second year in lessons and it looks like she is really catching on! My lessons went.........not so great. Without going in to detail so I don't embarrass myself, I will just say there were skii's with not enough wax, skii's with too much wax, having to duck after falling off the chairlift and 2 instructors that have to be my friends for life because they know and have seen too much. Friday night was more my speed—we all went tubing! Sooo much fun! We were sad that Carma was not big enough to go down the tubing hill but they were nice enough to let us pull her and Grey around in a tube! She had a blast. I am waiting for Tubing to become an olympic sport, I am pretty sure I would be a medal contender. There was also some outdoor swimming and hot tubbing and movies at night. There was more skiing and boarding on Saturday afternoon and everyone was home safe but sore by Saturday evening. In all (Brett's humiliation aside) we had a great time with each other.

Harrison made countless runs over the two days, and even mastered "the box" in the terrain park. (He's even got a huge bruise to prove it.)

It was Claire's second time taking skiing lessons, and she absolutely loved it. (Almost as much as she loved her new hat!) After a full-day lesson, she was carving the bunny hill like nobody's business!

Tired of being cooped up in the Lodge, Greyson threw on his winter garb and headed out onto the room's patio where he protected the Diet Dr. Pepper from birds and a pine martin or two.

Just because the lifts are closed doesn't mean the fun has to stop. The big kids went night tubing down the big tubing hill. The not-so-big kids enjoyed a more tame ride, being pulled around by mom and dad.

TROUBLE!!

2009-01-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

Give me the bad mom of the year award right now for saying this!—I do not enjoy this age of children. You know the age between 15-18 months when they start to really run and climb and open drawers etc..... Greyson is 16 months old and heaven help me!! Today, he climbed up a stool to get to a 64oz cup on the counter that contained water w/ a crystal light to go packet ( I know, fake sugar)in it. Cherry of course! Notice the stained hands and feet. After it spilled he just had to sit in it. So after I took off his clothes and was throwing away his red diaper I heard a very strange noise....Oh, just the sound of Greyson peeing in the middle of the red water mess! Mopping was not on my list of things to do today. I finally got a clean diaper on him and was starting to clean up the water mess when I heard another strange noise.......Oh, just Greyson with the vacuum cord AND a letter opener trying to plug them both in to the wall in the living room! Notice the plug still in his hands. Like I said, not my favorite age. Ten minutes later I heard no noises and realized I had not seen him in a while. I was trying to decide whether I needed to evacuate the other kids for fear something was about to flood,explode,or catch fire when I found him on the chair in the living room totally zonked! Thank goodness he is so cute!

Happy Birthday Susan!

2009-01-11T22:12:00.000-08:00

Today is my sister-in-law ( I hate calling her that. She truly is like a sister) Susan's birthday. Susan is amazing. She is very talented and kind and we are so glad to have her in our family. She is the mother to our amazing nephews, Bentley and William. Trent and Susan moved to Iowa last year and things have not been the same.We miss them terribly! I love Susan to pieces even though she is 8+ years younger than me and people have mistook me for her mother before! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!!!!

Let the boarding begin!

2009-01-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

Friday was the first night of ski club at Harrison's school. They go about 4 or 5 times on Friday evenings. They go to Kelly Canyon and night ski and have a great time. Harrison rode the bus up with his friends and Mike went up in his car. This is Harrison with Darion (wicked boarder) and Taylor. I must say that I had a little sad mom moment when Harrison rushed home from school,threw on his ski clothes and asked me to throw an apple and a cheese stick in his back pack, then grabbed his board and headed out the door with 2 girls. It was all so fast and there was not time for me to double check things and go over all the rules and give him lots of kisses! No, we are way beyond that. I did run after them and they were nice enough to let me snap a shot of them. There was not even one eye rolled. Harrison's friend Chad McGary even found it in him to come down from the Jr High to go with Harrison and his friends. We thought this was most decent of him since he and Harrison have a great time boarding together. The Jr. High starts their ski club soon so it will probably be the only time they go together with the schools. Mike said the conditions were not great for their first time up this season. It was pretty warm in the afternoon so it was pretty much ice by night. They had a great time but came home a little beat up. Mike more so than Harrison.

Grey Grey

2009-01-07T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hey look, Grey practices the piano more than Harrison and Claire do! He loves to get on the piano and make noise.

Brett's new blog

2009-01-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't already know, Brett is getting brave and has a new blog! You can get there from here-it is listed under our family section. Or brettslosingit.blogspot.com
Check it out and cheer her on!

Our Sunbeam!

2009-01-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

This is Carma on her first Sunday as a Sunbeam. Can you believe it? Her new teacher is Sister Winterholler (quite a mouthful for a 3 year old) and she is awesome. Carma had a great time with no problems. Yea! Now if we could get her to sleep through the night in her own bed and be totally potty trained that would be even better!

The Boys

2009-01-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

Greyson and Harrison snuggling in Harrison's room. Grey thinks he is so big! I found him in bed with Harrison after getting the girls to bed. I think he knew it was his turn for bed and thought Harrison would save him.

Happy Birthday Carma!!!

2009-01-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

Carma officially had the saddest birthday in the history of 3 year olds! Carma has been waiting for her birthday all year long. Our family has birthdays in July,August,September,and November and every time there was a cake or balloons Carma would get excited and say " is it my birthday now?". We were so excited that December 29 was finally here for her! Unfortunately Carma got very sick on her birthday and her day was no fun at all. She slept all day long and we finally woke her up long enough to take her to see Darcy ( the best nurse ever) and Dr. Hatch ( the best pediatrician ever) and find out that she had an infection. She barely made it through opening presents and she didn't eat any of her pony cake! She was back to bed about 45 minutes after her party started! So sad!!! I am happy to report that she is finally feeling better. Happy Birthday Carma. We all love you so much!

Christmas Day 2008

2009-01-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

We all had a very Merry Christmas! Harrison and Claire got up around 7:45 and were dying to go downstairs but we told them they had to wait until Carma woke up. They asked if they could wake her up and we said. Good Luck! They tried and tried and finally succeeded after about 10 full minutes. Getting Carma to sleep is a nightmare but once she is sleeping she is impossible to wake up! They all had a great morning.
Harrison was thrilled to get his fancy Vans socks. He is a true sock snob but his mom will only buy in to it at Christmas! His mimi is a lot easier to talk in to when she is here visiting.
Claire got an American Girl Doll and is in love! The doll goes everywhere with her and she really wants the $40 PJ's that she can get that match her Doll's PJ's. Funny huh?
Carma got a baby too that had short blond hair like her!
Greyson was the funniest! He didn't get a lot because he is only 1 but what he did get he loved! His favorites were his tennis balls and his broom and mop. So much fun!!! We all had a great day hanging out in our PJ's and playing games over at Grandma Holyoaks!

Christmas Eve 2008

2009-01-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

I apologize to all family and friends for our Christmas Eve post. We were so busy having a great time that we didn't get too many pictures! We actually have a very fun Christmas Eve tradition that Mike and I love. We are lucky enough to host Mike's extended family for a dinner where the guests of honor are Evan and Ernie Cowley, Mike's grandpa and his wife. We all eat dinner then the little kids get to open a gift from their great grandpa. It is so much fun. This year we had quite a few at their in-laws so our numbers were a little low. I think we ended up with around 33. The kids had a great time and it was nice to see those family members that live other places that we don't get to see very often.
After the extended family goes home to get ready for Santa we open gifts from Grandma and siblings. Grandma always gets the kids an ornament and we all get Pajamas! So much fun. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Trent and Susan and the boys were actually here and not just skyped in! We missed them so much this year!

Santa

2008-12-23T17:13:00.000-08:00

Today we went to see Santa! As you can tell although Carma talks about "Ho Ho" all the time she wanted nothing to do with him! This picture is funny because it looks like I am trying to drag her to see Santa but I was actually just trying to pick her up to tell her it was okay. Anyway, Claire and Greyson did fine. I have to say though that the Santa was a little lame. He was not the friendliest and his helper behind the camera had pretty much lost all Christmas spirit. I really don't blame them, I think I would be pretty bah-hum-bug myself if that were my job! Thanks to my friend Paula for taking the photos,holding coats, chasing after Grey, and all the other things she does when she is with me and my kids!

Tree Sleeping!

2008-12-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

Last night the kids had their annual sleep in front of the Christmas Tree. Don't they look cute? It was a rough day and we threatened all day to take away this much loved tradition. What in the world am I going to use when Christmas is over????? They had a great time in their sleeping bags. They watched Wall-E and had popcorn and treats. All 3 of them slept successfully all night. Of course Grey was in his crib and Mike and I were very content in our bed! They had a blast.

SNOW ARCH!

2008-12-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

The kids had a great time playing in the snow today! Harrison and Claire were outside for a good couple of hours. Carma of course went out, came in, went out, you get the picture. Of course Carma is the only one of the three that can't put on her own snow clothes so I spent most of my day helping her! Anyway, the kids built this snow arch and had fun crawling in and out of it. I love that they had such a great time today! This is what Christmas break is about!

Grey Grey

2008-12-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post some recent photos of little Greyson. He is starting to look more like a little boy and less like a baby every day. We all just love him so much. He is starting to get a little ornery ( of course we blame Carma for this) but he still loves to hug and kiss!!! He recently got his first haircut and looks a little older now. We love you Grey Goose.

Funny Claire

2008-12-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is funny. I got some new Pajamas and they came with these funny sleeping masks. Claire asked if she could have the mask and has been sleeping with the mask on every night since then. This will not surprise anyone who knows Claire Evan. What a Diva.

Happy 14 years!

2008-12-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US! December 16th was Mike and Brett's 14 year anniversary. Brett says: I can't imagine ever being away from Mike and I loves him sooooooo much. He is my best friend. This is a picture of the beautiful flowers he sent me on our special day. Mike says: It has been the best 14 years of his life! Note: Mike only said this after I went outside in the blizzard and got his attention from snow shoveling to tell him I was updating so first he said" what? you want me to say something nice about you?"

The first big snow!

2008-12-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we got our first BIG snow! It was a little late for Idaho but we are glad it came before Christmas! Carma could not wait to get outside so off she went in her PJ's and the first jacket she could find!

Say Hello to Billy T!

2008-07-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

There's a new nephew/cousin in the family—William Trent Holyoak. He's pretty dang adorable if we do say so ourselves. You'll have to visit their blog so you can see more pictures.

Claire—Self-taught Bicycle Rider

2008-07-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today, Claire "WOWed" us all by showing off her mad bike-riding Skillz. She has been practicing on her own on a small bike from the McGarys, but today she pulled out the full-sized princess bike and hit the road! We were all shocked and awed. Not to be outdone, Carma then jumped on her brother's skateboard and pulled off a pretty impressive kickflip.

Summer Vacation

2008-07-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a 3-day Fun-a-palooza in exotic Salt Lake City. We spent one day at Hogle Zoo, one day at Lagoon, and one day at Temple Square. We went with our friends the Wells family, and a good time was had by all. It wasn't Texas, but it will have to do this summer.

Day at Lagoon

2008-07-13T14:56:00.001-07:00

The second day of our vacation was spent at Lagoon. Claire proved to be fearless! She rode everything her parents and brother rode, and of all the rides her favorite was the Spider—a roller coaster with a floating car that spins around as you go through all the twists and turns. Here's a few photos of some of the more tame rides we enjoyed.