Family Pictures 2014

I am always hoping for the perfect family picture.  This is such a silly notion because nothing about our life is perfect.  With five young kids in our family, life feels more like a circus and the ONLY time it is quiet is when the kids are sleeping.

But we were able to get some pictures that turned out great!  They aren't "picture perfect" as in everyone is looking at the camera and smiling their perfect little smiles.  But, they are all there.  As I have looked at these pictures, it has made me reflect on how blessed we truly are.  We get to have all of these beautiful little people in our lives  And even though our family isn't "picture perfect" and to be perfectly honest some days a really long and so busy I can't wait for bedtime, I wouldn't have it any other way.  We are all happy and healthy and we love each other.  We have knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that brings us peace in an increasingly troubled world.  I just love this family!

Bo age 33
Celeste age 31

Hailey age 10

Brayden age 4

Conrad age 8

Jackson age 6

Caleb age 22 months

This is just a glimpse of what the pictures were truly like:

Diggin for gold

Missing a kid

Silly faces

I'm outa here

Are we done yet?

Everyone in the picture but nobody ready for a picture to be taken.


I just want to say thanks to my Dad and Bo for taking our pictures!  Not an easy feat!  I love them!

Happy Halloween

Halloween week is always eventful and this year was no differnt.  Monday night was the school carnival.  The kids had a blast!  There were tons of cake walks.  Hailey was the only one who went in the spook alley.  She wouldn't sleep alone for a couple of days.  I'm glad nobody else dared go in. :)

Tuesday night was our ward party which is also a carnival.  Conrad won 5 pops, Hailey won two.  Plus, they won other treats and then they did a trunk-or-treat.  By the end I think they had enough candy for the month. :)

The kids had a bit of a break Wednesday and crazy me thought it would be a good idea to do family pictures on Thursday.  I'll fill you in on that eventful time in my next post.

 Friday of course, was Halloween.  It was a gorgeous night!  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  After school went and got pumpkins and carved them just in time to have dinner.  Then Grandma Porter came for a visit and we left for trick-or-treating.  We trick-or-treated until we dropped.  In fact, Brayden told me that he was "tired to death" at the end.  He actually quit before the other kids.  He was too tired to get out of the car.  I had to laugh because he LOVES candy.  He didn't care for any more though.

Outdoor Explorer

Ninja

Ninja

I couldn't decide between the two pictures...

Tween Cleopatra

And we got great use out of this cosutme.  All of the boys have been a lion around this age!  I still love this costume!

The BIG 1-0!

Hailey turned 10 on Saturday!  It was a special birthday for her because we actually had a little bit extra family in town which meant cousins were there to celebrate with her!  She was so excited to have them there.  My nephew Braxton turned 10 on the twenty-second of October so they celebrated together.

Here are some pictures from her party!

Here they are blowing out their trick candles. LOL.

At 10 Hailey loves:

School
Reading
Sea Turtles
Babysitting her brothers
Art
Softball
Rocks
Spending time with friends
Chicken Rolls
Staying up late (even though she's not suppose to)
TV and Movies

We Love:

How helpful she is
Her temperament is so sweet right now
How patient she is with her brothers
He interest in learning about the stories in the scriptures
That she can babysit a little bit for us
The beautiful girl she's growing into!

I am still amazed at how fast time goes.  Ten years ago we couldn't get enough of our sweet new baby girl and love you even more today!  We are so blessed to have you in our family!  Happy Birthday Hailey!

Another Weekend; Another Outing

OK, I know I have posted A BUNCH of outings lately.  But, we've finally found something outdoorsy to do that EVERYONE in the family enjoys.  That is quite the feat for us.  Usually there are a couple of people enjoying what we are doing, but more people are fighting and whining and asking if we are done yet.  That quickly ruins any outing we have.  

Now that we have discovered how fun visiting ghost towns can be for our family we are working against nature and the clock because winter will soon be upon us and that will end our fun.   So in our effort to make as many great memories as we can (while everyone enjoys it), we are making the most of our weekends!  Our yard may not look as great as it could and either does our house (I'm a bit burried at the moment), but we have made some fun memories together and when I wake up in the morning that is what I will tell myself as a play catch up...:)

This weekend we first went with Kris and Kedra Stowell to Henry's lake for a quick fishing trip.  This broke up our drive to our real destination for the day, Virginia City MT.  Conrad was the only one who caught a fish and it was the biggest fish he's ever caught.  It was about 19 inches.  I saw his pole bending and thought holy cow that's going to be a big one.  It was fun because there was a group of older couples that walked by and stopped to tell him how great his fish was.  It made him feel pretty special.

Here are a some other shots

Jackson ate a blue sucker on the way. 

 Hailey and her best friend Ilzay.

Virginia City is suppose to be a ghost town, but it is now in operations again and had really neat old fashioned stores.  It still has all of the history, but we ended up going at the wrong time.  It is shut down after Labor Day weekend so there wasn't much going on.  But, someone directed us to some great trails where we could see some of the old mine entrances.  The kids loved that.  They had some very sparkly dirt and rocks. They were pretty cool and it made the drive pretty.

 There is also another ghost town near Virginia City called Nevada City.  There were a bunch of old buildings, cabins, and trains that had been transported and grouped together.  It was pretty cool and would have been awesome if it hadn't been closed down too.  :(  You can actually stay in some of the buildings there. 

These kids LOVED walking back and forth on these old tracks.

This was the second story of and outhouse.  Sidenote: Personally, I would have only used the second story. :)

We stayed the night in West Yellowstone and went on a ride with some other friends on Saterday.  It was fun, but we forgot to get pictures...

Today we went to my parents house and watched conference.  My parents always put together conference baskets for them and they really look forward to that.  I look forward to the treats!  Thanks Mom and Dad!  It was a fun day.  

We had a fun weekend that made up for the REALLY long week before.  Conrad had a really bad athsma flare and we were at the Dr. twice and the ER once plus we had to do Nebulizer treatments every four hours for 5 days (that includes through the night).  I felt like I had a baby to wake up for again.  Hailey was also sick for two days that week too.  Whew!  I was very glad to start a new week and the kids only had school for three days.