november

when we were at my parent's for little man's baby blessing, b got a couple towels from my grandma and part of my grandpa's scriptures.  she carried them around all weekend (and then at our house for at least the next week.  she also thought it would be fun to try on grandma's glasses :)

 



b snuggling with little man.  she has a natural mothering instinct in her.  it's very cute to watch her with him.



we went for a little drive to try to get some of the mister's urge for mountains out of his system.

unfortunately for him (and fortunately for super-pregnant me) there was obviously no four-wheeling to be done.

kind of hard to do in a car.

and on smooth gravel roads.

 

but i think his desire was satisfied (slightly).

and i think this was the only picture of the day.

don't mind me - just enjoy the other two cuties.

the fourth

the fourth was a bit different this year from the last couple of years.

since it was right in the middle of the week and that's the only day we had off, we decided to stick around here and do our own thing.

the mister was a little skeptical of going to the parade.

me on the other hand - well that's what we did growing up and i wanted the girls to have that experience too.

they loved seeing the horses and i think overall enjoyed it.

we took the girls later in the day to see 'brave.'

good movie and the girls behaved through the whole thing!

then we headed down to if to hang out with connel & laura for a bbq and some fireworks.

the bbq chicken skewers were to.die.for.

so yummy.  i may or may not have eaten too many.

we ended the night with sparklers and then the fireworks - the girls were only slightly interested in the fireworks, but had a fun time running around with their glow-stick wands.

 

i'm so grateful for those who have sacrificed so much for my freedom!

memorial day

we headed to lava for memorial day this year.

it rained the entire time.

well, almost the entire time - a couple hours doesn't really count.

during the couple hours that it didn't rain, we headed to the hot springs.

and so did everyone else that was there for the weekend.

however it was great to get away for a couple of days and spend time with the family.

i love that we live closer now and can go more often!

now if only i can remember to take pictures the next time we go.

blessings

we're here in rexburg now.

things have changed around town and campus so much here - more on that later.

 

there were a few times that i really didn't think that things were going to all fall together.

in fact, we left oregon on blind faith.

the bank didn't have everything they needed to close on our home on time.

we left a day later than we wanted to because of it - and we still weren't sure that we were going to have a place to move our stuff into when we got here.

everything came through better than we expected and more.

 

once we got moved in, we went to check on the mister's financial aid since we still hadn't heard anything yet.  turns out somewhere we had been overlooked and they hadn't processed what they needed to.  they told us it could be a couple of weeks before everything came through.  it all came through, plus an unexpected grant, within the week.

 

we're seeing so many little miracles that remind us that we are where we're supposed to be and that our Heavenly Father is mindful of us and our needs.  we are so blessed.

moving day

we move in less than a week.
it still seems a little surreal that we're leaving our life here and trading it all in to be poor college students again - this time, with kids.
i have to say, if i didn't know that rexburg is where we're supposed to be right now, i probably would have thrown in the towel already and wimped out on the mister.

but, as the day gets closer and the more nervous i get, the more excited i get too.
we'll miss our life here and all that goes along with it, but at least we can still come visit from time to time.

here's to new adventures!

back to the beginning

we're going back to where it all began for the mr. and i.
if you know where that was, then yep, you guessed it.
back to rexburg.
why rexburg you ask?
because the mr. is going back to school.
and yes, i'm slightly nervous, scared & excited all at once.

nervous because we're not 21 anymore.
scared because we've got a family to provide for at the same time.
excited for the new adventure this will be.
and excited because the mr. will finally (when all is said and done) be doing something he loves.

and i'm kinda excited we'll be back there for the 8 year anniversary of our first date.
big jud's and riot zone anyone?

lava

the whole k family got off for a couple days to go camping this past weekend.

but my family had already planned on going up to the cabin that weekend, so we went with the original plan and got to spend a little time with the m clan.

friday, the girls had a blast with some of their other cousins running around and playing.

we sneaked out of the cabin and went to the swimming pool in town to play on their speed slides while grandma and grandpa watched the girls.

so. much. fun.

i can't wait to do it again.

saturday we just hung around until it was time to go home.

only we decided that we were going to stay another night.

so we did.

and on our way home yesterday, we got to stop and see my brother and sil's new baby girl.

such a cutie.

then we stopped in twin to see shoshone falls.

we had so much fun and can't wait until we have another chance to go back and have some more fun!

idaho trip/new camera

we got to spend some time with my family this past weekend.

as always, we had fun and the girls enjoyed playing with their cousins.

b made grandma read to her as often as she could get her to.

man, that girl loves to read stories.

m decided that she needed to inspect every single nook and cranny of grandma's kitchen.

she loves trying to empty cupboards.

and she also discovered that toilets are just as fun at grandma's house as they are at home.

dis.gust.ing

and my sister happened to be getting rid of her dslr.

so now i'm the proud new owner of one of these babies:

image source

now i can actually take decent pictures of my babies.

i am absolutely thrilled!



k/m family reunion 2010

the k and m clans have an annual family reunion the weekend before the 4th of july.

this year, they had it at sublett reservoir in southeastern idaho.

boy, did it feel good to be back in my neck of the woods.

i don't think i took any pictures this whole weekend.

in fact, i know i didn't.

the pictures i have are courtesy of the mr., the sister-in-law, and the aunt.

if you want a funny story, head on over to the sister-in-law's post about their adventure trying to find the reunion here.

and all i have to say about that is that if my dear mother-in-law had listened to her dear son (the mr.) when she called him at 11:00 at night, none of that would have happened.

and had she listened to my dear sister-in-law, most of that wouldn't have happened.

it makes for a funny story though :)

 (love you rene'!)



first night we got there...b ran around with no shoes on.
that must have been heaven for her.

on Saturday, we ventured out to the city of rocks

i lived an hour from this place for 17 years and this was the first time i'd been there!

it was gorgeous.



b and g.
she sure loves him.



she's such a ham!





love this picture...it says it all on how much he loves his little girls!



yhis was the best picture i could get of this, but m was kicking her legs sitting here.
it was too cute.



the mr. took b fishing (which she loved) and everytime she sees his fishing pole now she tells me "i'm going fishing, mom."

on our way home, i made the mr. take the scenic route up mt. harrison to see pomerelle.

we would have gone up farther, but the look-out was closed still because if the snow.

and then we stopped to have a good ol' burger's etc. lunch.

can't beat that.

thanks for the fun guys! we can't wait to see where we're headed next year!

family reunion time

this year, the m family reunion was at my mom and dad's house.
they rigged up a slip 'n slide which the kids loved!
b even tried it a couple times.

walking back up the hill to do it again

just watching the other kids give it a turn

baptism and 4th of july

i've been a slacker and haven't been taking pictures since our camping trip.

we had to cut the camping trip short to drive to rexburg for m's baptism.
it was fun to be able to see marissa get baptized.
we're so proud of you m and the choice to made to get baptized!
we got to see all of my brothers and sisters and my grandma.
it's been a couple months since we've seen them all, so that was fun too.

the next weekend, shannon and the girls drove up (j has been helping uncle paul on the farm) and derek flew into boise, so we had fun with them.
for the 4th of july we all went out to the owyhee dam and spent the day on the water.
b had fun playing with grandma and aunt shanny (she didn't like the water this time....silly girl).
when we got back, we went over to the froerers to eat yummy food and have fireworks.
b liked the fireworks (i swear nothing scares this girl) and stayed awake almost the whole time.
i'm so glad that i live in this country and have the freedom that we have.
thank you to all those that have sacrificed so that i can have those freedoms!

blog overload

i know i've been on a bit of a blog strike, so i figured i would fix it with a blog overload.

we've been super busy the last few weeks, and i just haven't had time.
we are back in the "promised land" as the mr. calls it, (northern utah, southern idaho, eastern oregon) for hopefully a long time.
so after packing our stuff back up, driving the horribly long drive from houston to idaho, then turning around the next weekend and driving to reno for o's baptism, then driving down to see my parents while the mr. went fishing, we're finally "kinda" settled in.
"kinda" being we're in limbo living in a place that the mr.'s dad rents out while we find a job and a house to rent.
we're not heading anywhere soon....at least not the rest of this week.
next week, my niece gets baptized in rexburg, so we'll be off to that too.

this is the other reason i haven't had time.
see this little mischievous child i get to play with everyday?
during the recent visit to my parents, my mom said that my child is a handful.
for four other grandchildren older than b, my mom has never had to move her magazines.
not only did she have to move her magazines, she had to move the kleenex (which b LOVES to just pull one out after another), hide the remote control, the portable radio and another basket full of things.
yeah....my child gets into everything.
she may look cute and innocent, but she's totally not.

oh yeah, and did i mention this on top of everything else?

lava rock and trees

while we were in idaho visiting my parents before heading to houston, my dad took us a few miles from home to the desert to see the island of trees in the middle of the desert.
see all the lava rock?
yeah, who would think there was a bunch of trees out there?

 my brother and my dad

 having a snowball fight in the middle of the desert.
look at those trees....

the mr. found the snow and started throwing it first at my neices....figures.

 part of the family that went

this is also in the middle of the desert: "siamese craters."
the picture doesn't do it justice.

thanks for taking us dad.
it was fun!

twin falls idaho temple open house

we had the opportunity to go to the twin falls idaho temple open house on the way to visit my parents.
it was such an amazing experience. the mr. has never been to an open house, and the last one i was at was the bountiful utah open house and that was years ago.
the members of the stakes in surrounding areas, including my parents stake, got to participate in the open house.
i heard of some wonderful stories of people who came to visit from all over the world.

the dedication is taking place this weekend.
i wish that i lived close enough to participate.
my parents are lucky enough to be able to attend one of the dedication sessions in the temple.

it is such a beautiful building.
it is a wonderful thing to know that it is the House of the Lord.
i am so grateful for the blessings of the temple and the knowledge that i am sealed to my family and will be with them in the eternities!

if anyone is interested in learning more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please feel free to visit this website:
http://www.mormon.org/

there's no place like home

we had the opportunity this past weekend to go to my parents home in idaho.
on our way there, we stopped in twin falls for the open house for the twin falls temple (more on that in another post).
we also stopped at the snake river canyon and shoshone falls.
how can you not love this?

snake river canyon - there's a golf course down there that you can see on the right.
can you imagine all that wind to blow your ball around??

shoshone falls
these falls are actually taller than the niagara falls.
according to wikipedia, these are sometimes called "the niagara of the west."

*the mr. wants you to note his picture taking skills

idaho winters as i remember them

the mr. and i had to leave sunday morning after the reception to head back to reno.
this is what we woke up to:

they didn't get all this snow at once.
the day before the road had been plowed.
they got enough snow that it was deep enough that dad had to go first with the tractor to get the snow out of the way so we could get to the paved road.
i knew i wasn't crazy when i remembered being able to make snow caves when i was younger!