The Baker Bunch

How fun it is to see Baby #3

2009-11-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

I just had my 21 week ultrasound today. It's always fun to see the baby. We did not find out what the baby's sex is so it will be a fun surprise in the delivery room. We are grateful to learn however that all appears to be healthy and normal.

This cute little thing looks to be a thumb sucker.

No cleft palate!

A cute little arm

A cute little leg and foot

The bottom of the foot and leg. So cute.

Eli's Surgery

2009-11-06T19:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Eli had hernia surgery. He was such a good little boy. We got to the hospital early in the morning. He thought it was so cool that he got a braclet from the lady and a coloring book and crayons. Little did he know what was comming.....

He did get a cool ride in the red wagon

He got some cool red socks...

And an awesome blue teddy bear.

Just chillin' witing for the doctor to show up

Pretty tired after the surgery. He slept for about two hours...

As soon as that anesthia wore of, he was pretty much wide a wake and ready to go home.

He was in quite a bit of pain for a couple of days. It's pretty sad taking a two year old for a surgery like that. He kept telling me " The doctor hurt my bum" He didn't understand that it needed to be done. How do you explain it to a little guy like him? Anyhow, Things are pretty much all healed and feeling much better.

2009 trip to the Red Barn & Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-06T19:12:00.000-08:00

We took our Anual trip to the Red Barn and Pumpkin Patch with the Baker side.

Hanging out with Bruce and Natasha waiting for our yummy Apple Cider donuts

On the ride to the patch

The whole gang. Grandma, Grandpa, Melanie,Our family, Jerame's kids and Nate and Ashlee's family.

Daddy Daughter Date... Go Cougars!

2009-11-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

I gave Adam season tickets to the BYU football games for his birthday/fathers day this year. He has really enjoyed them.

Adam having fun at the game.

Mandalyn got to go to a game with her dad. Her first daddy daughter date. She had a great time and really enjoyed hanging out with her dad.

Mandalyn... what a funny girl.

2009-11-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

Ok so I lost my camera and just found it so I thought I'd post a few random picks. Mandalyn, what a funny girl. Why did she go to bed with her head in a bowl? All I can say is I HAVE NO IDEA... She went through a little period of time where she thought she was going to throw up in the night so she wanted a bowl.

Loved These

2009-10-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

2009 Fmily Photos

2009-10-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

We finally got our pictures taken. I'm so bad at doing this but thought that we should probably get some pictures of our cute little family before the baby comes. Thanks Tara, you did a great job.

Working with Dad

2009-09-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

As much as Eli loves his mom, he loves, loves, loves to work with his dad especially doing anything that has to do with Adam's pigeons.

When I am home on the weekends Eli likes to wear underwear (he thinks they are pretty cool cause they have cars on them and he is BIG in to any kind of car, truck or motorcycle) So on this day Adam decided that he wanted to mow the lawn really short and start getting it ready for winter (I hate when he does it because it looks horrible we now have the ugliest lawn on the block... well almost) As soon as Eli found out Adam was mowing the lawn he got all excited and said Oh Mine! and ran around to the garage to get his lawn mower.

It was the cutest thing to watch, I could not resist taking pictures. He would follow Adam where ever he would go with the lawn mower always following close behind and staying in the lines.

Until he decided that dad was going too slow so he passed him!

It's so cute. He wants to be just like his dad.

You are a cool dude!

He hardly had time to stop for a picture.

Catching up..... AGAIN!

2009-09-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know why it's so hard for me to stay updated on my blog. Ok, maybe I do, between working full time, being a mom of two, being pregnant and sick and my Young Women's calling this just isn't on my top priority list. Here are some random picks from our summer.

Eli and Mom. I love my kiddos even though this little one of mine doesn't like to leave my side. When I'm home and he doesn't know where I am he's either calling for me or asking his sister "where's mom" even if I JUST walked in the other room. Silly boy.

This is Eli and his cousin Paizlee.they are too cute together. They are such good friends and really play well.

This summer Adam and I took a week off to have some family time. We headed down to Beaver, Utah to go camping. We went there because we like to go to Beaver for the 24th of July. This is a shot from our camp site. We are still poor enough that we just have a tent (and it's too small now) It was a long week.

This lake was so beautiful and peaceful except for the squirrell that kept barking at us because he felt trapped because we placed our tent right under his tree.

Packing up to go home. It's a good thing we have a van, there is SO much you have to take camping.

This is a picture of Mandalyn and Eli at the Baker reunion. Uncle Bruce and Aunt Natasha came up with the Idea of making stick horses for all the kids. It was a great Idea and my kids still have theirs, they love them.

As you can see Eli is thrilled with his horse.

Didn't take long to learn to ride it either.

It wouldn't be summer without the carnival. We took the kids to the carnival for family night during Onion Days. It was great because it only cost $1 per ride. Nextime we'll know not to buy enough tickets for 40 rides. Talk about SPOILED!

Having a great time!

Oh my two cute kiddos. They were so good to wait for me (with Aunt Mel, Thank you!) outside the Mt. Timpanogos Temple while I was there for the marriage of Adam's grandpa.

Do they get any cuter?

3 little girls and a dance class.

2009-08-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Mandalyn and her cousins, Maelie and Miah at dance class. I have a video too hopefully I can get it to load.

Mandalyn's big day

2009-08-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Mandalyn's first day of school. She was so excited. I asked her if she was nervous or excited and she said excited. I didn't tell her that I was nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach for her just thinking about sending her.
Mandalyn in front of her school. She insisted on wearing her backpack on just one shoulder not two. Making a fashion statement I guess.

Mandalyn in front of her classroom. She's going to have a great time.

Mandalyn's teacher is great. Mandalyn is going to have a fun time. Her teacher reminds us of Miss Frizzle off the magic school bus.

Tag

2009-03-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks Jeanette for the Tag So many of you may or may not know about the "Dream Mine" or the "Relief Mine" but my great, great grandfather was John H. Koyle who had the dream and started the mine. The mine was always something that we were curious about growing up but my grandparents didn't talk about it much because of the controversy surrounding it. As we have grown we have had to do our own research about it and finally get our grandparents to open up about it. Anyway, it is quite the history in the Salem Utah area. For those of you who live in this area you can see the mine from the freeway. It is the big white thing on the mountain above Salem.

My sister and her family came down one weekend and we decided to go take a look at the mine. It is off limits to people wanting to go up but we talked a guy in to letting us go up because it is part of our family history and thank goodness my sister had an Idaho license plate, he knew we had come from a ways a way so he let us up.

Here are some extra pictures of our trip to the mine.

What a beautiful veiw from the top of the mine. You can see the whole Utah county valley.

This is the house that my great, great grandfather lived in.
Here is a picture of my sister and her beautiful family. It was so fun to go up to the mine with them

Oh I tag: Danielle, Nelly, Erin & Kristi

Rules: Here are the rules: Open the 4th folder on your computer, post the 4th picture, and then offer a brief explanation. Then tag 4 people to do the same!

Happy Birthday Eli... How time flies. (Part 1)

2009-03-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

I’m a couple of days late in posting this but I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my dear sweet little boy. Happy Birthday Eli! I can’t believe that he is already two. I had the hardest day on his birthday. I felt like I just needed to sit and hold him as much as I could. I felt like I couldn’t get enough of him but all he wanted was to get down and play. I guess that is why I was so sad. I just hate for my kids to get older because I know that all too soon they will be grown with families of their own.
I thought I would post some of my favorite pics of Eli. He was such a darling baby and has been a joy in our house. He makes us laugh so much. I am posting this from work because I don’t seem to remember to do it once I get home. I don’t have very many pictures here on this computer so I’ll have to post more when I get home.

This is our first little picture of our family. Don't you just love pictures of yourself right after you have had a baby. We were sure excited to have him here. Since I was enduced I pretty much knew about when he would be born. I usually get PIT and get my water broken by 8 and I told everyone that I would have this baby by noon and sure enough he was born at 11:49 am. I made my deadline. He was 8lbs 6oz.

This was Eli's cute little baby announcement. It says "Mandalyn welcomes her new little brother Eli. Born March 22, 2007 8lbs 6oz"
What cute kidlets. As you can see here Eli was born with some hair. It was the cutest thing. He was born already in style with the hair growing over his ears. How funny. It didn't last long before I cut it but I wish I would have waited longer. Mandalyn sure loves her brother and was so excited to see him when he finally came.
All I can say is precious!
See why it's so hard to let them grow up?
Oh look what a chubb-a Chubb he was . So cute. There were so many at this age I couldn't just pick one or two.

Handsome Eli is right. Do they get any cuter than this?

He was so funny during this photo shoot. He was really good at curling his tongue.

What a handsome little man. Mwah!

I think these pictures really show Eli's true personality. He is ALWAYS happy, and smiling.

Valentines Day 2009

2009-02-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful valentines day this year. Adam and I love to spend time with our kids and we wanted to do something fun as a family. So I arranged for us to take the kids to a play at BYU. We went to see Go Dog Go and it was so much fun. We had really good seats we were the second row back.

Mandalyn, Eli and Dad waiting for the show to start.

I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures during the play but I've got to have pictures for my blog so I broke the rules. shhhh!

My kids don't sit still for very many things but during this show they hardly moved a muscle. It was perfect.

I thought that the dogs cars were really clever. They did such a good job.

After the show the kids got to go meet the dogs. I was really suprised. Eli wasn't scared at all. He wanted to get right up there with the dogs and just hang out.

The pink poodle was Mandalyn's favorite dog. She had a really great hat. I just wish my pictures were more clear.

After the show Adam decided that we should take the kids bowling since we were at BYU so we headed over to the Wilkinson center and went bowling. The kids had so much fun.

So here's me and my little guy. He is so cute and I love that he is a mama's boy.

Eli thought that he could do the bowling all by himself. He would roll the ball...

Watch for it to knock the pins down....

then run to get another ball...

which of course he had to carry by himself.

Here's my little princess. She got a strike all by herself. I can't even do that!

After bowling we went out to dinner and then to visit grandma and grandpa baker for the evening. We spent the night talking and playing guitar hero. Anyway, my kids were perfect angels this dayand we really had a good time. I am so grateful for my kids. They are such a joy in my life and I love them very much. I also love my hubby very much. He is so good to me and is such a good guy. Happy Valentines Day! MWAH!

2009-02-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted and so I thought I would share some of my favorite conference talks that have really uplifted my spirit and help me press on. The first one is by Joseph B. Wirthlin it's called "Come what may, and love it. " He talks about the way we react in adversity however it also reminds me that when I'm struggling in so many ways in my life that Heavenly Father is here for me. It helps me to understand that when my life is filled with adversity and trials no matter how big or small it can be that he is there for us and if we prove our selves and endure our testimonies will be strengthened and we will be blessed for them. Elder Wirthlin's soothing voice and simple message brings comfort when it's needed most.

The second is a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley, it's titled "How Can I Become the Woman of Whom I Dream?" Our young women's president shared this message with our young women during new beginnings this past week. While listening to her present this message I felt the spirit tell my heart that what she was saying was true, that the gospel truly is the way to return to Heavenly Father and it will truly make us happy.

When I was younger I remember my young women's leader asked my parents to write me a letter, I'm sure my parents told me some wonderful things about me but I remember my dad said that I needed to find Joy in the everyday things. I remember that I was a little taken back by it, that my dad hadn't just praised me however this has stuck with me because I don't find joy in the everyday things. I don't particularly like to do the dishes and the laundry etc. Periodically this has come to my attention and I have found that I need to reassess and be happier in the little things.

For me this has always been a struggle and I appreciate President Hinckley's encouragment he says "For you, my dear friends, the sky is the limit. You can be excellent in every way. You can be first class... Polish and refine whatever talents the Lord has given you. Go forward in life with a twinkle in your eye and a smile on your face, but with great and strong purpose in your heart. Love life and look for its opportunities, and forever and always be loyal to the Church.Never forget that you came to earth as a child of the divine Father, with something of divinity in your very makeup. The Lord did not send you here to fail. He did not give you life to waste it. He bestowed upon you the gift of mortality that you might gain experience—positive, wonderful, purposeful experience—that will lead to life eternal. He has given you this glorious Church, His Church, to guide you and direct you, to give you opportunity for growth and experience, to teach you and lead you and encourage you, to bless you with eternal marriage, to seal upon you a covenant between you and Him that will make of you His chosen daughter, one upon whom He may look with love and with a desire to help. May God bless you richly and abundantly, my dear young friends, His wonderful daughters.Look to the positive. Know that He is watching over you, that He hears your prayers and will answer them, that He loves you and will make that love manifest. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in all that you do as you look to become the kind of woman of whom you dream. You can do it. You will have friends and loved ones to help. And God will bless you as you pursue your course. This, girls, is my humble promise and prayer in your behalf."

I was talking to a friend about how hard it is to take the kids to church when our husbands have to work on Sundays. I often ask myself "why am I here?" She gave me great advice and told me just to do the best I can (thank you Rebecca) I know that we were put on this earth to be happy and that can stay faithful and endure, it is tough but he has given us a way,it is through living the gosple we will be happiest. It is important. I'm sorry that this is so long, It may not even make sense but I wanted to share these two talks because they really touched me.

2009-02-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

8 Things Tag
Here are the rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the six '8' items
3) Let each person know by leaving them a comment.

8 favorite TV shows:
1. PRISON BREAK
2. HELL'S KITCHEN
3. THE BACHELOR
4. ARMY WIVES
5. CHOPPED
6. ER
7. AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL
8. ANY THING ON THE FOOD NETWORK

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. WENT TO CHURCH
2. MADE DINNER
3. TOOK A NAP
4. WENT TO YOUNG WOMEN'S NEW BEGINNINGS
5. SUNGGLED WITH MY KIDS
6. ATE AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH
7. PLAYED SCUM
8. WATCHED SOME TV

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. SPRING AND SUMMER
2. SUMMER VACATIONS
3. ANYDAY I DON'T HAVE TO BE AT WORK
4. LUNCH. I'M HUNGRY
5. MY HUSBAND BEING DONE WITH SCHOOL
6. JUDGING IN CALIFORNIA NEXT MONTH
7. RUNNING A 5K NEXT MONTH HOPEFULLY MORE THIS SUMMER
8. ENJOYING RUNNING.

8 favorite restaurants:
1. ADDIS (ETHIOPIAN)
2. RED ROBIN
3. RUBY RIVER
4. CAFE RIO
5. OTAVIO'S
6. TSING TAO
7. TEPANYAKI
8. CURRY IN A HURRY

8 Things on my wish list:
1. THE ECONOMY TO GET BETTER
2. GOING TO SAN FRAN
3. HOLLY WILL CHANGE HER LIFE AROUND.
4. BE A STAY AT HOME MOM
5. HAVE MORE KIDS
6. THAT MY MOM, DAD AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS CAN ALL HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP.
7. HAVE A FRUITFUL GARDEN.
8. MY FAMILY TO STAY HAPPY, SAFE AND HEALTHY

8 people I tag:
1. ANNELL
2. TINA
3. LADEAN
4. ERIN
5. NELLY
6. DANIELLE
7. KRISTI
8. RACHEL

Thanks Jeanette for the Tag. It was kind of hard though.

25 random things about ME!

2009-01-27T20:36:00.001-08:00

I was tagged by Nancy, Amy and Melissa. I am tagging anyone who reads this.

1. The only two places I've traveled outside of the U.S. is Mexico and Haiti.
2. I lived in San Francisco after college and I think it's one of the greatest places on earth.
3. I love to cook and wish I went to culinary school.
4. Most of my best friends are men.
5. I met my husband country dancing when I asked him to dance. (not suprising, I know. )
6. I am a year older than my husband.
7. I can't play any sports. I try but I'm not good.
8. I want to travel the world someday. I would like to go to Africa and Europe the most.
9. My favorite food is Ethiopian food.
10. I love being home with my family. I get such anxiety when I have to leave my kids.
11. I have NO fashion sense. I have to rely on my sisters or the gals at the buckle to dress me.
12. I love the sound of a newborn baby's cry.
13. I have my Associates degree in photography but don't have time to do anything with it.
14. I love sweets. It doesn't matter what it is.
15. I turn the big 30 this year. I still think of my self as 19.
16. I love big families. I have 3 sisters and 5 brothers.
17. I always wanted a big family of my own but now that I have two kids, I'm thinking that may be plenty. I can't quite convince myself of that so probably one or two more.
18. I love to go to A&W for a rootbeer freeze.
19. I love to go to Beaver, Utah for the horse races. We look forward to it every year.
20. I love my little Chihuahua. He's just like one of my children and is just as excited for me to come home from work as my kids are.
21. I think I'm really blessed to have met so many great people in my life.
22. I love being pregnant.
23. I love to garden but hate weeding.
24. I make great salsa.
25. I wish I lived closer to my sisters and I wish I had a closer relationship with my sister in-laws.

My little dancer.

2009-01-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

Mandalyn has been taking dance lessons from her aunt Natasha. She has really enjoyed it and it's been so good for her. She has picked it up so well. It was so fun to go to her first recital. I can't believe that I have a daughter old enough to be in dance recitals. I still feel like I'm 19. Anyway. I was so proud of her.

Eli and his friend Nick.

Mandalyn and her friend Shalynn.

Aunt Melanie and her boyfriend Pat with Mandalyn after the recital. Pat bought her the rose which was very fitting.

Funny Kids

2009-01-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

My kids are so funny sometimes. Eli thinks it's so fun to play with my pots and pans. He thought this pan was the best hat and of course Mandalyn had to join in.

My kids rarley fall asleep on their own, Adam took this picture and I thought that it was pretty cute.

The Joys of Raising A Boy.

2009-01-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

So for christmas my sister in law gave us some of those rice bags that you warm up in the microwave that are sort of like a heating pad, this one had the big field corn in it. Well, Mandalyn and her friend threw one down the stairs and of course it broke open.

Eli was helping the girls pick the corn up and thought that he was so cool because he had found a new trick. He came to me and showed me how he could stick one up his nose. Of course I laughed cause it was pretty funny, we made him take it out and thought that was done. Pretty soon his nose was bleeding and sure enough he stuck a piece way up there, and of course it was in the evening after the doctor was closed and we didn't want to take him to the ER.

What to do? Then Adam remembered that our dentist was telling us that he uses his suction to clean out his kids sinuses when they are really sick. So, thank goodness our dentist is practically family. We called him and he sucked it out for us. Here are some pictures.

This picture is funny it looks like Adam is using this moment to grab a feel but I assure you he wasn't he was just trying to hold Eli's hands down.

New Baby.

2008-10-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

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.

God's Creations . . . More Family Time

2008-08-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Family Time

2008-08-18T08:50:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-08-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

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.

The 2008 Baker Reunion

2008-07-29T13:52:00.001-07:00

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.

Finally! My first blog. :)

2008-07-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

I finally have this blog set up and some pictures to go on it. It's taken me so long, working full time, a mother of two wonderful kids and wife and cook and maid and Gardener etc, It's hard to find the time. BUT! I am hoping to do better. It's will be so fun to share information, stories and memories of our family. To my friends and my family please let me know about you blogs so that I can keep in touch with you as well.