A Couple of projects

I have finally started to get some pictures organized and edited in order to have them printed. I want to give some to grandparents and actually get some pictures hung in my bedroom. These two have been cross-processed in order to make them feel a little retro (like the picture Jon did of Marcella...you can see it to the right of this post). I think that they have turned out pretty cute so far, and thought I would share them. Hope you have a great day!

Our Fun in July

and it isn't even over yet. We are excited to finish July with a bang... the cabin and camping. But first, here is what we have been doing so far in July.

Jeff and Caroline were super nice to let us tag along for a BBQ up Millcreek. We all had so much fun. Caroline made the best pork Chops ever, I am actually excited to make them tomorrow. I love letting kids get dirty and have fun around a camp fire. We had a fantastic time, thanks guys.

Happy 4th of July! We went to the Kaysville parade and got a ton of prizes. Marcella was a little scared of the parade. I am not sure why, but in the end she had a lot of candy and stuffed animals. After the parade, we were surprised to see my Dad home. (he wasn't suppose to be home until the 20th) It was a great surprise. Then we went to Jeff and Caroline's for a BBQ and fireworks with the Wallins. The food was amazing, thanks guys.

Jon's surprise b-day party. I am really sad I didn't get a picture of everyone that was there, but thanks for coming we sure had a lot of fun. Man Jon you are getting old...

These are some pictures of how much fun we have had at my Mom and Dad's place while my Dad was home. We sure love to draw with chalk and had a lot of fun leaving messages to everyone. (the alpha chalk became a game Marcella and I would play. I stole this idea off another blog, but I really liked it and I wondered why I never thought of it. M and I would take turns tossing sticks on the letters and then saying which letter it landed on. We made up a few other games, but the possibilities for this simple board are endless. you can even do it with numbers.) We had so much fun playing in the pool, hanging out and going to Opening night of Harry Potter. Thanks for taking all of us Dad. We sure enjoyed having you home and can't wait to see you again.

Check it out...

With Claire having Down Syndrome we have had the opportunity to meet so many people we never would have met. One of our new friends Lily is having a raffle for her Birthday to help raise some money for a couple of kids with Downs who need some assistance. Please check out her blog and if you are able, enter the raffle and/or donate. It is a great way to get a fun prize and help some friends in need. Please tell others about it. She is also doing some freebies, so check her blog daily for a chance to win. Hope you all have a wonderful day! Love ya!

7 Years and still counting...

(side note: sorry everything is so huge, I can't get it to go back to normal so oh well.)

Jon and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on Thursday and couldn't have asked for better friends to share it with. We had such a fun time eating dinner and hanging out. Thank you Cam and Amie! Both of us have said that it was so relaxing and fun to just be with friends and not have any kids. As I was thinking about the past seven years I thought I would make a little list of some of our fun times! Starting with
Over the past 7 years we have had or currently have

1 mode of transportation.

1 University (BYU is just the place Jon is currently going, as Marcella would say, "Rose says GO Cougars, but we don't, we say GO UTAH!! GO UTAH!!" Since our 1st year of marriage, I have consistently been able to catch a fish when I go fishing. (For some reason I do not have a picture... ummm I promise I catch them. I have learned from the master.)

I got rid of the Dougal cruse!? (Anytime I go fishing with my Dad and Bro. we never catch anything!)

2 Beautiful Girls! Who could ask for more? Marcella and Claire have brought more Joy into our Marriage than I ever thought possible. Thanks girls you are the best. We have owned 2 cars and currently own none. We have been on 2 beautiful long back packing trips together. My first being up to Four Lakes Basin in the Unitahs, 8 miles in. Not bad for my first time. Little did I know my
2nd time would entail climbing over 2 11,000 foot passes and hiking approx. 70 miles total. I still do not have one picture to document this. (would do it again in a heart beat as long as I was promised another couple nights at the cabin and lots of yummy ice cream from Buckaroo Bills!). We have been out of the country on 2 different occasions together. (Both with his parents.)


I am looking forward to many more excursions in the years to come. We have lived in 3 basement apartments. I am starting to wonder if we will ever have a place above ground! We have never had 3 bedrooms. I am crossing my fingers that we will get that luxury in our next basement apartment. I was surprised that we have only gone camping 4 times out of seven years. (Not counting Backpacking.)


I hope we go more in just this summer alone. Those four were to some of our favorite places. We're more of backpacking folk anyway. Can you believe we have had the Same calling for 5 years, in 2 different wards, teaching Sunday School to Rowdy 13-17 year olds? In the good old days we actually went to cabin 6 or more times in one year. oh to be able to do that more often. We have been to 6 different countries together
5 of those were visited in an over crowded motor home, but I would do it again in a heart beat. That brings us to 7. We have had the opportunity to spend one or more nights at the hospital on 7 different occasions.

Those visits alone costing more than your avg. Utah house. (Maybe this is why we are still living in basements.) At least 7 meals a week, cooked by Jon the master Chef.

(breakfast and dinner, most likely...we love food more than most people). and last but not least 7 wonderful years waking up next to my best friend.

Random

Here is my cute little blue bird. All the girls in her ballet class are blue birds in the ballet Cinderella. This was during their first rehearsal. They are all so cute. I am excited that she LOVES dance. She has so much fun and has an awesome teacher. I am looking forward to Saturday and their performance.

Owen, Hannah and Caroline came down and hung out with us for awhile a couple Sundays ago. We had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming down guys. We are looking forward to seeing you again.

Our little Claire Bear. She looks so innocent. I made the cereal for Jon to feed her, I just left the bowl too close to her on the table. After a few minutes we realized what all the noise was. She sure is pretty Cute!

Trip Pictures

You can see more pictures from our trip here:

Trip Album <--(this is a link)

For best viewing, click on the first picture. Click "full screen," the link in the upper left region. After you've got it in full screen, press F11 to make it really full screen.

A few more pics

Here are some more....I'm still being lazy...haven't got the bulk of them up.

Rocky coastline...this landscape is punctuated by long, sandy beaches. They claim some of the better surfing in North America can be found around Tofino, mainly at Long Beach.

Canada

Marcella, on our second day in Ucluelet. We'll probably put more pics up later. Vacations are fun, but a lot of work. I knew we were going somewhere out of the way, but didn't anticipate the severity of 16 travel hours split between a plane, a bus, a boat, and a minivan.

Claire

Here are a few quick pics of Claire. We're off to Canada in a couple of days, and she'll be staying with Grandma. What a cutie!

Sick

No Church, No treats, Comfy Jammies, Lots of Snuggles, Icky Coughs, Yummy Soup and Lots of Naps. Get better soon!

National Turn off the T.V. and Read Week

I saw this on my friend Penny's blog and I thought I would pass it along. April 20th-26th is Turn off your TV and read week. I know this will be a little tough for us... (since we don't have a t.v. But.....) I am going to try to not even watch movies or the two shows I am addicted to this week, and I challenge you to do the same. Happy Reading..

I know these two are excited to start.

Here are some articles about kids and T.V. Thanks for sharing Penny!

http://www.tvturnoff.org/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

http://children.webmd.com/news/20070904/too-much-tv-may-hamper-kids-attention

http://www.childrentoday.com/resources/articles/settvlimits.htm

Bored?

You tell me...

Finally

So today I found my bike and bought it, and tomorrow.... there is suppose to be thunder storms. What is up with that? I am super excited to start riding. Here is our new car... til September.

Isn't it a Beauty?

Coincidence?

I think so. Jon and I had to take our car in again for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. This was kind of a bummer because every time we take it in it ends up costing at least $500. So while we were waiting to hear the verdict of how much it would cost this time, Jon decided to make some homemade mac 'n' cheese. We tried this new recipe, and while he was cooking the mechanic called to give us the $2500 estimate to have it working again. Jon and I just had to laugh because after he got off the phone we read the blurb above the recipe and it says and I quote,

"Never underestimate the healing power of macaroni and cheese at the end of a day from hell."

After a good laugh and trying to figure out what we are going to do, because why spend $2500 this week and then another $500 in two weeks... The mechanic said he would give us $1000 for the car... ALRIGHT, I get my money back that I spent the last 2 weeks... But he wouldn't give us back our radio and let us give him the original... so Jon talked with another mechanic, listed it on Craigs list etc. etc. Long story short we went and got our car back and we were going to take it to another mechanic on Mon. Well today someone called from Craigs List and wanted to buy it. After trying for a half hour or so to talk them out of it we sold it for $1300, plus we got our radio back.... Now I wanted to show you my new car....






Do you lik it? I have been wanting to start training for a couple bike races this fall and Jon and I are seriously considering just getting new bikes until this fall. Wish me luck in my bike hunting.

Nathan and Amy's Wedding

Here is the Dougal Clan... Plus Sam... guess he has just always been a part of our fam, so we couldn't leave him out.

Here is Marcella and Amy. Marcella loved Amy's dress and everything about the wedding. She had so much fun. She really can't wait until she will get to to get married.

Here are me and my Brothers. You guys are simply the best. Thanks for all the fun times. I love you guys!!

Here is the Happy Couple at the luncheon. They sure are cute. Thanks for the fun day guys!

Our trip to Vegas

This is what Claire did when I put on her sunglasses and told her we were on our way to Vegas.

She was super happy her big sister was coming as well.

We went with our friends the Laws. Where's Gavin?
(you have to love a sleeping baby.)

Here's the Girls in front of the Bellagio.

Marcella loved looking through the holes to see the water.

Daddy and Claire Bear with Peter and Hallie.

While Marcella kept looking at the water...

Claire was just chillin' in her stroller loaned to us so graciously by Dave and Rose. Seriously this trip wouldn't have been fun without it. Thanks guys.

Marcella loved the pool. Before we left she reminded me that we need to buy her some goggles so she could go under water. Everyone knows you can't go under without them. So here she is strutting her new goggles and loving every minute of it. Claire on the other hand got so cold the first time we took her in and after about 5 minutes, if that, she started screaming. Hopefully she will enjoy it more this summer.

This was after a nice long cry at the pool. We put the girls in the tub and then I got Claire dressed and put her on the bed. After we got everyone else ready for bed, this is what I found. She was so tired. This is one thing I love about Claire she will fall asleep anywhere really. The best is that I can rock her to sleep. Marcella would never just cuddle up to you and go to sleep, she had to be wrapped up and but in a bed. Claire on the other hand has been my snuggle bug and I love it.

Here is Marcella lovin' her BIG bed. It was super cozy. This was Marcella's first time sleeping in a hotel, as far as we can remember. She had so much fun.

This is Marcella's friend Hallie. They sure were enjoying all the food you could get at the morning breakfast buffet. It was so yummy!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Marcella. She was having so much fun running around and looking at all the flowers. Every few seconds I would hear, "Mommy, can I please just pick one flower?" It was pretty cute.

This is one of my favorites of Claire with a bunch of Poppies behind her. When I saw all the poppies I couldn't help but think of Grandma Noni. She had so many growing every spring in the front of her house. Crazy enough it made me miss seeing them.

We are a Happy Family.

I thought this was cute and I couldn't pass up the moment to take a picture. These were animals that you could mix and match the parts to make up different or the original animals. These two had a fun time putting them all together.

This was Saturday night after we got back to the hotel. Claire was being so snuggly. This is when she really started to not feel so great, but she was a trooper and we are glad she came with us.

Last but not least. After two Great days of buffets, we ate at IHOP for Breakfast. By the time we got to the restaurant the kids and the adults for that matter were starving. Let's just say it wasn't the best meal we had the whole trip, but I think this picture was taken before all the kids had a little melt down.

No trip would be complete without a little bit of car trouble. Yep our little car made it all the way to Nephi and then decided to die. At least we were able to get it towed to a place in Orem and it only cost us $30. Thanks Spencer for coming to get us, you are awesome!
All in all we had a lot of fun over the weekend. Hope you all have a great Day!