Tis the Season...

I love this time of year!!!

We went and got a Christmas tree the day before Thanksgiving because we had a busy weekend planned and I wanted to get our tree up as close to December 1st as I could. 

We headed up the mountain to our favorite spot. It did not disappoint, we found a beautiful tree. It was located on a hill though, and we had to climb thru quite deep snow to get to it. Alex came with us, so Carson and I each had a child in our arms and we had to cut our tree down and leave it for Carson to go retrieve once we got the kids back down the hill. Good thing a beautiful tree is worth all that work.

 Alex was so excited because Carson let him help cut the tree down.

 My two cuties decorating the tree. 

  It sure is beautiful!! Our new ornament this year comes all the way from Bend Oregon.

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Turkey Day!!

I sure hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I know we sure did. There was fun and family, and TONS of food. Of course I stopped myself from eating too much, as all of you did too I am sure.

The next day we celebrated a wedding. Dad and Marie finally got hitched!! Now I have 12 step siblings to go with the 4 I already had. Sadly I have not even met them all yet. But the best part is this: since Marie is Carson's aunt, him and I are now officially first cousins!!!

And now presenting Mr. and Mrs. Holyoak!!!

SNOW... so much snow!

It has been snowing here for 2 days, so what better entertainment is there than playing in the snow!!! (it definitely beats grouting the tile in our bathroom, which we have been procrastinating for weeks)

These 2 cuties are ready to go outside. Kynlee reminds me of Randy from "A Christmas Story," but waaaay cuter of course.

 

" I can't get up!!!"

 Believe it or not Carson was the one who added hair to our snowman and turned it into a snow-woman.

Kynlee did not mind the snow once we got her all bundled up, but earlier today Dad left the door open when he went out to grab something and Kynlee got her first snow experience. She didn't like it so much in just her pajamas. Ha Ha.

Far Far away to Oregon.

A week or so ago Carson and made the VERY long drive to Oregon with his family for his brother's wedding. The drive up there actually didn't seem that long, even with a baby girl cutting 4 teeth on top, but the drive home made me think we will definitely be flying if we ever go again. Kynlee is actually an angel when we travel, but we were all very sick of being in the car, she just decide to voice it when we were about 40 minutes from home. We passed cookies back to her, and we all made it home in one piece, but it was a VERY long day of driving.  

The trip was lots of fun though, and it was nice to just have some time to relax. The town was really different than anywhere I have ever been. Bend is actually a pretty big city, but you would never know it from driving around, there are no big roads, and you drive thru neighborhoods to get anywhere.And there are BIG trees everywhere, so you feel like you are in a forest all the time. We did some hikes in a pretty park,

And of course we went to the wedding. Cody looked handsome (Sam made him shave the duck dynasty beard just hours before the ceremony). Sam looked beautiful, and we are excited to have her as part of the family now.

 I think it is funny that these pictures make it look like we are hiking in the dark. The forest is really just super thick, so it looks like it is dark.

 The waterfalls were beautiful, and the rivers have the clearest water that I have ever seen.

 I think Kynlee thought this was the best part of the trip. Dad pulled her around the house in the little wagon for quite a while. 

 We drove up to Pilot Butte to get a good view of the town, but it was super windy so we didn't stay long. 

The trip was lots of fun, we got to spend quality time together, and see lots of beautiful sights. Can't wait for our next adventure. 

Happy Halloween!!!

Kynlee was the only company I had this year while I decorated fun Halloween cookies (why oh why does Denver have to be so far away?) Apparently I wasn't letting her help enough because she climbed right out of her seat to get to the dough. The cookies were a big hit at the Halloween potluck for Carson's work, someone even said they would have paid me to make some for them if they had known I could make such good cookies. What a compliment!!

 Kynlee and I went to a "Trunk or Treat" with Stacy, Parker, and Payton. Kynlee thought it was great!!! She figured out pretty quick that the people with the buckets of candy would let you pick a piece if you went up to them and said "Treeeet"

 I really love our costumes!!! (even though they are not super accurate). We decided  that we wanted to be Waldo, Wenda, and Woof from the "Where's Waldo" books clear back in September. I got really excited about it and started gathering what we would need from DI the very next day. I do have to admit that I didn't finish making the hats until today. Talk about procrastination!

Stacy and her kids. Parker is a navy seal, Stacy is a cowgirl, and Payton is a gypsy.

 We also "trick or treated" in our neighborhood, and then Kynlee had lots of fun playing with her candy all over the living room. 

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN  from the Waldo's!!!

Now someone should come get all the candy that I bought because we only got 3 Trick or Treaters.

Fall Fun!!

I am pretty sure I title a post "Fall Fun" every year, but lets face it fall is always full of fun festivities, and I apparently lack any creativity to think up a new title. 

So the other day Payton left my house very sad because they do not have any trees at their house. Which means they didn't have any leaves to rake. Wouldn't you be heartbroken too?? Well Carson and I have more than enough leaves to go around. So why not have a leaf raking party where we can put my sister and her kids to work cleaning up our yard. Sounds like a great plan to me....

...because everyone knows the best part of raking leaves is playing in the big pile of leaves. 

 Later we all carved pumpkins together. Carson and I grew some very large pumpkins this year (some of our other produce didn't grow very well, but pumpkins we can grow). 
Don't you love the totally natural smiles in this photo?

 Parker picked one of the bigger pumpkins to carve, which meant he practically had to stand on the table to clean it out. 

 Man we sure love this cutie!!! Stay tuned for more FALL FUN!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

I had a birthday last week!!! My future step-mother sent me these beautiful flowers! Isn't that sweet?? She was nice enough to have the florist put my Dad's name on the card too. Also I have no idea how to describe my upcoming relationship with Marie. I have never really liked the term step-mother, I just feel like it has a negative connotation (possibly from the movie Cinderella). Usually I just say "Dad and Marie" which works fine, but every once in a while it is hard to describe the relationship. Anyway I am so excited that she is joining our family, whatever she is called. 

Okay after that little detour,  back to the birthday festivities. I made some awesome molten chocolate cakes, Carson did offer to make me a cake but lets face it, we would both rather eat something I have cooked.  He did get me a fudge cookie dough blizzard from Dairy Queen, and took me out to dinner though. And the best part... we are going to Thriller at the Tuacahn tomorrow night!!! I am sooooo excited. 

Carson really wanted a picture of the card he got me. We have only watched the first season of Duck Dynasty, you know because we don't have cable, and we are too cheap to actually rent it, so we got the first season from our local library. But we did find it pretty entertaining (if a bit staged). Anyway there was an endearing note in the card about how he loves me more than Phil loves squirrel, don't you all wish you had such a romantic guy?? Well keep wishing because he is taken, and I sure love him.

Angels Landing

Stacy and Jeremy were nice enough to let Kynlee and I tag along with their family on a hike up Angels Landing in Zion National Park. The weather was perfect, and we had lots of fun. 

 Kynlee thought the best part was playing in the sand. She started throwing it, and with all the sunscreen that we had put in her hair, she became a redhead pretty fast. 

 My shoulders were a bit sore the next day from hiking all those switchbacks like this. Kynlee fell asleep on the hike down and I loved carrying her that way because she NEVER sleeps in my arms anymore. 

I am so happy that we live in such a beautiful place.

Fall Photos!!

So Carson and I dragged Morgan down the canyon trail today after church in the wind and cold to take some family pictures for us. She is a great sport, because we are not a photogenic family. On second thought I am not sure that any family with a very active 1 year old who wants to go eat rocks and dirt the whole time can really be classified as a photogenic family. Either way she did an awesome job, and the whole thing took less than 45 min and we still made it back in time for our stake devotional, woo hoo!! Then I had fun editing my favorites. I don't think Carson had any fun thru the editing process though because I kept asking him over and over, "do you like it now??" He wanted me to do all the crazy effects like neon and such, I am much too boring for that. Anyway after that long and boring introduction, here are the pictures!!!

 

Oh yeah and there were QUITE a few that turned out like this, I will spare you the rest of those!