Tuesday, October 28, 2008

New Baby.

We have a new baby in the family and it's not mine. My little sis Holly had her baby Nevaeh last week. she was about 3 months premature so she'll be in the hospital for quite some time. Check out my sister's (Annell) blog (www.rfamily93.blogspot.com) for a picture. It's amazing what doctors can do to help these little ones survive. She is going to need all of the prayers that she can get to help her through the next couple of months.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

God's Creations . . . More Family Time

One of the items on our list of things to do together as a family is to enjoy the great outdoors and all of God's creations. I compare the Utah mountains and the Idaho mountains and I have to tease Adam about the Utah mountains not being "real" mountains. Utah mountains are full of Quaking Aspen trees and it just doesn't feel right. It seems that the mountains in Idaho are much different than in Utah. Idaho has some really great mountains full of various types of tall, dense Pine trees. Oh, just thinking about them makes me remember camping with my family.

The only draw back to my Idaho mountains is that they are so far away. It takes a little drive from Gooding, Idaho to get to the mountains. So it's funny that I even have fond memories of camping because it seemed I was always sick because of the car ride through the mountains. It was miserable for me but once we arrived at our destination the smell of the cool, clean, fresh air, the slight wind blowing through the trees and just being in nature was worth the trip. Mom and Dad used to take us hunting for craw dads and even let me bring one home and take it to school for show and tell. That was awesome for a first grader. So even though I hold such a special place in my heart for my Idaho mountains and even though I hate to admit it, Utah is such a magnificent place to live. There are so many things to do and all of them are right at our finger tips.
One of our favorite places to go is up Payson canyon to the Grotto. It's such a beautiful walk even Eli could walk the whole way. At the end is this little waterfall and it's so beautiful. Adam and I used to go up there when we were dating and now we like to take our kids. It's perfect for them. We took our good friends the Hanson's for their first time to the Grotto and I think they had a great time.
The kids had so much fun playing in the Ice cold water.
Eli and his friend Athena. They are so cute and are such good friends. 1 year olds but still good friends. They are so cute. When we get together these two always switch moms. How silly.
Mandalyn and her friend Tabitha.
It just amazes me that Heavenly Father has created such a beautiful world. I am so grateful for the beautiful mountains we have to enjoy.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Family Time

So Adam and I decided that we would make a special effort to spend some quality time with our children. At the beginning of the summer we made a list of things we wanted to do as a family and then we cross them off our list. We started off really good but we have been so busy we haven't done as much as we would have liked to but we have done some really fun things so far.

Just like every other pre-teen little girl, Mandalyn LOVES Hannah Montana. We tried to get tickets to her concert a few months back but they sold out so quickly that we didn't even have a chance. Not to mention if we could find tickets they would cost us a fortune. So we decided that we would buy her and her cousins Brittyn and Maelie tickets to the Stadium of fire. It worked out perfectly because Annell & Ryan's family were already going to be down this way for the National Wrestling competition.

Adam & I got to the stadium early to get a spot outside the stadium for the rest of the family that wouldn't be going in. Then we brought a whole camp chef and BBQ and treats. It was a lot of fun. It turned out that The rest of the family was offered tickets so the only ones that didn't get in were Adam, Eli, My dad and Ryan.

The little girls were so excited to see Miley Cyrus . . .

Look at these sweet girls. Mandalyn and Maelie are so cute in their Hannah Montana Shirts.





Mandalyn was so funny she couldn't keep her eyes open when I took the pictures. Oh well, she's so cute you can't complain.


not a good blogger...

ok, so I'm not a very good blogger... I was so excited to get my blog set up and share with my friends. Especially to share pictures of my sweet children but in order to be a blogger I must write something... It just seems like life is so crazy. I hardly have time to get dinner made, my house cleaned & play with the kids after work. I will try to be better at this blogging stuff.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The 2008 Baker Reunion

We had the best time at the Baker Reunion! Thanks to Pat and Pam for all of your hard work, and thank you for new cookbook. It is wonderful!
We got up early on the 24th to drive from Santaquin to Beaver. We wanted to make sure we got down there in time for the parade. We were all so excited. Mandalyn just kept saying "We're going on vacation." It truly was a vacation.

Beaver has the best parade. Here are some pictures of the kids watching.
Eli was such a hoot. He loved this frisbee that we got during the parade he thought it was the best toy.
Some of our favorite things about the Beaver parade are; the candy, (they throw a lot of candy), the cheese curds that the cheese factory float throws, and the fire truck that sprays everyone at the end. Every year the very last thing is this fire truck. All the kids ( and some adults) gather behind the fire truck to get cooled off.



Probably our most favorite thing about going to Beaver is the horse races. This year only Uncle Pat had a horse racing but it was very eventful. Uncle Pat's jockey just happened to be at the center of all the fun. One race, a horse that Pat's Jockey was riding fell head over heals and they had to call for the ambulance. The Jockey and the horse were fine. Then there was a jockey inquiry which resulted in a fight (again, Pat's Jockey, but the other guy really deserved it). We were hoping for a win for Capitol Storm (Pat's Horse) but Capitol Storm fell coming out of the gate and was never able to take the lead. I think he took 3rd or 4th place.

Our family having fun at the Beaver Horse Races.

Eli, Tyson & Mandalyn (you can't hardly see her) having fun at the races.


Uncle Pat's Race. Go Capitol Storm!

This is the first lap around for Capitol Storm.

This is the end of the race. I'm not sure how well you can see it but Capitol Storm wasn't 1st.

I had to put this picture in. This Jockey is a GIRL! She won twice that day. You go girl!

All of these activities plus fireworks happened BEFORE the reunion even started.

The first night of the reunion we went up to the Ponderossa Campground to have dinner and play games. It was a lot of fun. It is so beautiful up there. One of the nicest things about Utah is that there are canyons just about anywhere you go. There is always some place to enjoy nature and just go for a drive if you want. It's really beautiful however mother nature decided that we needed a little shower. We decided to cover the dutch ovens with this tarp so the coals didn't get wet. It worked really well but the underside got a little toasted... oops.

Eli having fun in the dirt. What a cute boy.

One of our activities was a silly camping game. Chubby Bunny. It was silly but we had a lot of fun. Even the kids and Grandpa and Grandma participated.
Taking my turn at funny bunny. I think I only fit 5 in.
Eli tried his hand at chubby bunny but it seemed he was more interested in eating them. Mandalyn did a good job too. She said she fit 20 marshmallows in her mouth. (the small ones of course.)



Dad & Aunt Camille


Dad fitting 10 marshmallows in his mouth. I think 10 was the breaking point for just about everyone. Uncles Nathan & Jerame. I think Nate won.
Melanie, Austin, Camille & Adam

Aunt Ashlee.

Grandma & Grandpa Baker


Watching Grandpa Ron and his brothers was hilarious! Uncle Pat was such a good sport. He HATES marshmallows and hasn't eaten one in 40 years. Uncle Ken has the biggest mouth out of the boys. Aunt Bonnie beat the boys! I think she fit 11 in her mouth. Nice job!


Uncle Pat brought these HUGE dutch ovens, they made the standard size looks so small. They were so big but were awesome. They held so much food and it was yummy!

After dinner Grandma entertained us with some poetry and family history. Grandpa entertained us by playing the the accordion. It's so fun to listen to him play. Grandma Baker reminds me of my own grandma when she reads.
What a funny expression she has here.

Mandalyn was so cute, she was tapping her foot keeping the beat along with grandpa.

After dinner we all played games and visited. It was a great day.

Saturday started with the annual golf tournament. This year Mandalyn and Eli came with us. The rules this year were pretty simple, each couple take turns hitting. If Adam putted the ball in it was my turn to drive. Not a good situation. :) We had so much fun with our kids. They loved golfing and Mandalyn loved driving the cart. She was a really great driver.



After golfing it was Swimming, geocaching (we found lots of treasures) and nap time as you can see Eli doing below... He wasn't actually sleeping like he should have been but rather playing with mom's glasses.
Saturday evening we all got together for dinner and games. Pat gave us new cookbooks of all grandma's favorite recipes, we had an egg toss for the adults and a water balloon toss for the kids. Then we played pantyhose soccer as seen below. It was a riot. We were laughing so hard.






The reunion was so much fun and so fun to get together with all Adam's cousins. He really has a great family and they really have fun together.