December 2008

Evie is still scared of Santa.

Logan was all business with a detailed list.

Katie telling Santa what a good girl she's been.

Every year the 66 Federal Credit Union has a special party for the employee's children where they get to see Santa and get a present, the kids love it.

November 2008

Earlier in the month, Logan got to go to his first OU game with daddy. He got a jersey with the number 28 on it and he thought that was pretty cool since his birthday happens to be the 28th of October.

Giving Thanks

We spent Thanksgiving with Tyler's family. Russell and Emilie hosted, it was great to spend the holiday with good food and family.

The "kids" table

After the turkey.

Emilie, Heather, Tyler, Russ & Lorne

One of the days the kids came over and played in our backyard, this a third of the Vaclaw cousins, we would need a longer slide to fit them all.

Tyler put together this set mostly by himself, but for the parts where a 2nd person is needed our friend Tim Green came to the rescue (thanks Tim!). I'm so proud of him, he's such a great dad, the kids and their friends absolutely love it!

Disney World 2008

I fully anticipate someday Evie seeing this picture and realizing "you mean you went to Disney World without me and all I got was a Minnie mouse doll?!" I didn't realize how baby friendly Disney is, or I probably would have taken her. All I can say is sorry, babe!

Magic Kingdom

Logan had to struggle to stay awake!

Character breakfast with Mickey

Character lunch with all the Pooh Bear Characters

October 2008 - Disney World

I just love this picture.

Playing in the sand at our hotel.

We went to the "Not so Scary Halloween" one of the nights we were there. I highly recommend this, the kids get all dressed up in their costumes and get to go to Magic Kingdom after hours. The parade is killer and watching the Headless Horseman ride through Main St. was incredible!

The kids got their faces painted and didn't want to wash it off.

October was a busy month, Evie turned 2 on the 6th, and Logan had his birthday the 28th, with everything going on we just did small family parties. Grandpa Marvin got out of the hospital after about 2 weeks and did remarkably well with his recovery, he has always been "young" for his age. For fall break we took Katie and Logan to Disney World with my mom and Jeff and the kids. Evie stayed with Tyler's mom, Robbie. Next time we will definitely take Evie with us, we had a great time and although Disney is definitely a working vacation it was nice to have fun and be silly.

Ken and Barbie get married!

Matt & Chelsea Eve

June 20, 2008

We affectionately refer to Matt and Chelsea as "Ken and Barbie" and I'm sure it is apparent why! We are so happy to have Chelsea as a member of our crazy family!

Evie was trying to pick the flowers at Temple Square

It was so great to be at the Salt Lake Temple with our little family and celebrate Matt & Chelsea's special day. Tyler and I were also married in the Salt Lake Temple so it was fun to take a walk down memory lane.

The girls felt like little princesses in their dresses.

To everything there is a season....

Obviously I have had an "extended" season and blogging has taken a major backseat. While I am a procrastinator, my main excuses are...moving twice in less than a year and adding a new member to the family...our baby boy, Jake, and then there is just life in general! Oh well, here goes my attempt to re-kindle the blogging fire. Mostly I do it to keep a family journal/record and at the nagging of friends and family. My brother Matt recently teased me, "Amanda! The Rochester Panel...seriously!?, you really need to update your blog!" Okay, okay! Bear with me though because I'm going to try to post in order and I have a lot of ground to cover, so patience...please!

Castle Valley Ranch

The Lodge

Our attempt to get a family picture, Evie was NOT cooperating!


Katie riding

Logan watching the cowboys

We had a great time at the Ranch, the kids got to ride horses, hike to the petrogoyphs and run around. They really enjoyed playing with my cousin Katy's kids. Up above are Logan, Susannah, Katie and Abby, (Evie and Eliza were napping).