A day date with my little buddy!!

One day Caleb had a field trip and was gone allllll day loooonnngggg!! It was a very lonely day without our big brother! We made the most of it by running all our errands, eating lunch, and playing at the park! Carder loved eating lunch and playing at the park, but he did not enjoy going to all the different stores. After each store he said "I didn't like that store...I didn't like that store either!!" It was a long day, and made me sad that's how it is going to be the next three years! I missed Caleb like crazy but it was a fun day to have a one-on-one with Carder!

 Refreshing!! After a long day of shopping he was ready to relax!

Carder was quite the hungry kid, he ate everything down to the last fry!

 

It was the perfect beautiful day to play at the park!  

Carder had so much fun playing at the park with his mom, but I must have heard a dozen times "where is Caleb?!" 

We played all afternoon and we probably could have played longer had we not had to get home for the kids at school! 

I just love this little buddy of mine! He is sure fun to play with! 

It definitely was a successful day! I wore him right out and he took a good nap all the rest of the day!

Fireside at the Tabernacle

We had the opportunity to hear all the missionaries from the entire area sing, talk, and play musical instruments at the local tabernacle. It was beautiful and awesome! The spirit was so strong! The only thing that could have made it better was to have three little kids actually appreciate it!(Ty was the only one that kind of paid any attention to it!!)

 Before the program started I took the three littles for a walk around the temple grounds. 

The flowers were beautiful and it was nice to see the temple. 

Someone in the back would not participate in this picture! 

Well he kind of wanted o do his own thing in every picture!! 

Sweet Mara and Carder!

The Croup times 4!

What do you do with four kids that all have the croup at the same time on the same day?! How about take them outside and blow homemade bubbles!! I woke up one day to hear that horrible barking cough from not one but four of my kids! It was horrible! I'm so grateful it didn't last long and they were all feeling much better.

It's so fun watching Carder trying to figure out blowing bubbles!(Don't mind the miss-match jammies!)

 

It was nice to have a day together even if they were all sick. Glad we could get some sunshine and fresh air outside! 

 Why yes! That is Mara Lew in her jammies outside blowing bubbles! That's how we roll when we are sick!

At least we could have a little fun when we were sick! Ty was inside and missed out on the fun!

Hangin' out in our hammocks!

For Christmas Nate and I gave each other a hammock! (Crazy how much we think alike!) We decided to keep both hammocks and we're glad we did! Our kids have been begging and bugging for them to be set up since Christmas! So finally we hung them in our backyard in the trees and we are all loving the new place to hang out and relax!!

The hammocks are awesome! Perfect place for kids to lay back, read, relax, and hang out! They LOVE it! 

Me & my Caluba just chillin'! I must admit how comfortable the hammocks are! I could really get used to this!!

Triple Date!!

Nate and I enjoy going on dates together whenever we can. We aren't consistent and we usually just go out when it's convenient (or we have a free sitter!) But I did have the opportunity to have a back-to-back triple date with Nate the great! On Thursday night we had a fireside at the church for all the adults in the stake. It was highly recommended we go, and all the adults were encouraged to attend. It was on strengthening families. We both really enjoyed going the fireside and it was nice being together.

On Friday we went on a date with this little guy to Scruds Burgers. Ogden was having Restaurant week and the local businesses were having deals and promotions all week long. We went to lunch and had some pretty amazing stuffed burgers! Carder did great during the meal and he didn't even throw-up! (Like last time we tried going on a lunch date!!) It was fun going out to eat with Nate and seeing him mid day!

Then Saturday we went to a wedding of some old friends. It was a kid I used to babysit years and years ago! It was so fun seeing the family all grown up. Nate and I stopped at a furniture store along the way to look at new furniture. It was enjoyable seeing beautiful furniture to fill our house, we did end up buying on thing on a killer deal!! It was pleasant being the two of us and enjoying time together! 

I didn't get any pictures of Nate and I together, he's not really into that sort of thing! But I just wanted to remember good memories of us and the good times we had going out on our triple date! Hope it happens again some day! 

One Year Ago....

One year ago at this time we had our boxes packed and the truck loaded and we moved away from a little town we had learned to love! It was a hard move because we had such dear friends and neighbors. But we also looked forward to this new opportunity and adventure. Now that it's been a year I can say we made the right move! It has been an adjustment and we've had some ups and downs but I love where we live, I love our area, I love the new adventures and experiences we have here. I'm amazed at the beauty of our new town! I couldn't have imagined I would move to a place so beautiful! I love my views out my window! Over the past year I've taken some pretty pictures of ...

One year ago our little family at our cute house for the last time!

This is the view out my kitchen window! I don't mind doing the dishes when I can look out and see this!

Sometimes the sun is only shining on the mountain and it's awesome!

I love looking out my window and seeing friends playing in my yard! This is a great sight to see so many boys!

So cool! Every day the view is different!

Some days it's so cloudy I can't even see the mountain!

Sometimes the mountains are glowing!

I liked how the clouds were just resting on top of the mountain.

I love watching the sun hit the tops of the mountains first and then creep across the valley!

And some days the sky and peaks are pink! It's so pretty!

I love the sunrises and sunsets here. Always a pretty sight!

This was a sunset one night and I couldn't help but think of God's glorious creations.

The other thing I love about the area is the wildlife! Can you spot the deer?

One day we saw two deer come for a visit in our yard!

I guess they wanted to come play with the snowmen!

We've seen many deer tracks around our yard but never actually seen any deer.

I was tempted to close the gate and keep these two friends as pets!!

Another great sunrise!

 

The one thing I love so much about living where we do is being so close to the temple! I love being able to go when I can. One morning I went really early before my family had woke up. It was still dark when I went into the temple. When I came out the sun was just starting to rise over the temple. It was beautiful! I am grateful for the blessings the Lord has blessed me with and one of those blessings is living here in our new valley! I love it! Life is good. 

What a wacky kid!!

Sometimes I wonder how my kids can be so silly! (They must get it from their dad!)  The other day I put Carder down for his nap, I came back a minute later to check on him only to discover he had put a helmet on his head!

"That is so wacky!" I told him! "Why do you have a helmet on your head?!" I asked him! "Just because!" was his response! 

Then he pointed to his football helmet and said, "Now I need that helmet!" I guess you can't have enough protection for a nap! I sure love this cute boy no matter how silly or wacky he is!!

Snow?! Really!?!

Just when we thought spring had arrived....just when we had put away our winter clothes....just when we had put up our new trampoline....and just when we thought winter was over....it SNOWED!!!
Talk about crazy weather! Was this some sort of April fools joke half way through April?! I know we need the 'moisture' and the kids LOVED it! But come on! Snow?!!

I could not believe my eyes when I woke up and looked out the window and saw all this white stuff!

Caleb and Carder could hardly wait to put on their snow clothes! 

By the time I found all the snow gear, got him dressed, and took a few pictures Carder was ready to come inside! 

Caleb could have played outside all day long in the snow! He loved it!By the time he came home from school most of it had melted!

Day trip to Logan!!

"Utah State! Hey! Aggies all the way! Go Aggies! Go Aggies! Hey! Hey! Hey!!" 

I love Utah State! I love being an Aggie! The Utah State football team was having a Blue/White scrimmage one Saturday so we decided to go up and watch the game and see the campus! It was so great going back to our stomping grounds! So many great memories there! It was fun showing the kids where we used to live and where we went to school. We are definitely encouraging our kids to go to the true blue school!!

Maybe Caleb will be a future USU football player!?! 

 

 

Me & my buddy Ty enjoying a beautiful sunny day at the football stadium! 

 Carder didn't want to sit still and watch the game! He had more fun walking along the bleachers! 

Look at these cute future Aggies!!

 

Then we walked around campus and saw all the new sights that weren't there when we went to school! 

 Like this A! It's new! Carder thought it was sure cool!

Oh Old Main! It was good to see familiar sights! 

Go True Aggies! The kids couldn't believe Nate and I kissed on the A at midnight! They thought that was too silly! 

I hope the time goes by slowly for these boy to come to school!  Can't even think they will be that big some day! 

Mara loved doing cart-wheels and tricks on the Quad! I told her she would look back and remember doing her tumbling tricks on this lawn when she was a little girl!!

Finally we finished our Logan adventure with Aggie Ice-Cream