A tractor trip

Cousin M. went to Or with us and met cousin I. We had loads of fun trying out the tractors and trucks.








Look who is driving now!

Christmas is here

After Daddy finished one of his big papers, the day before Thanksgiving, he took the rest of the afternoon to complete some wood projects that he has been planning. He put some shelves in the kitchen for Mama, and then he made Julz' first Christmas present. He says we can always unwrap it and give it to her again in a month. She has been having a blast playing like a farmer with this bean elevator. This video is within the first 5 minutes of her receiving it, so as you can see there is lots of telling her how to enjoy it, going on...


Our version of the Christmas Drummer Girl She "will play her drum for him pa rum pa pum pum rum pa pum pum...." (sorry this post took forever to download, at least a few weeks!)

Sept and Nov

Here are some pictures from our Sept Calif trip. Lots of pictures with mama's buddies from high school... It was great to see all of you guys, can't wait till next time.































































Someone likes to sew like her Grandma, Nana and Mama. She was really going to town I should have taken a picture of what she created, I didn't, so please, use your imagination.




We had a fun Thanksgiving with most of Mama's family over to our house. Everyone brought food and we ate so much and still had leftovers. It was a deliciously fun time. We also completed the puzzle of the day and didn't go to sleep until all 1000 pieces were in place. Julz has unfortunately been learning to make a fuss when she could be sharing. She noticed when anyone picked up something that belongs in her toy box, even if she never was interested in playing with it before.

Julz loves the Christmas lights and was very excited to unwrap all of our Christmas decorations. She is such a great help, fortunately nothing is broken yet, and this place feels a bit like the holiday season is upon us.

My New Favorite Picture

Here is my new favorite picture, fromKSL.com

Julz has been getting better and better at sporting her original bed head new look each day. Pretty impressive, we think.

More House Pictures

Here are a couple more picture of the work we've been loving to do in the yard. The weather has been great for outside work.
We water proofed the deck a month or so ago with the help from one of the neighbor boys. I think it turned out really well.

Our little Ute Fan loves playing in the dirt in the back yard with her Tonka truck. When we asked her what she was digging a hole for, she said, "to bury some cougars." I wonder what she meant by that?

She forgot to leave the worm outside! She didn't know what to think about the worm. We tried to tell her how exciting it was that we have worms in the yard but I'm not sure if she believed us.
Would you ever guess that there wasn't a blade of grass here in August?!?!

Fall, where did summer go?

Little Red Riding Hood and the Woodcutter


the trees are beautiful colors in our trees


We have loved jumping in the piles of leaves

Triplets... Gpa, daddy and Julz

Sometimes it is unnerving to turn around and have six eyes staring at me in the car. The worst is giving all of them kisses at bedtime, somehow Julz knows when I fake kiss one of the dolls, she insists I do it again. Give me a break!

growing up

It is so hard to stay updated on this blog when we don't use the computer regularly. We've been busy with lots of growing up lately.

We just got back from a super quick trip to Northern Ca for a wedding. That was such a great time to visit with family and friends. Julz was a super fly-er and loved the airplane. She also loved playing with all of her "cousins". Too bad we all live so far apart. It was fun to visit with mom's high school friends.

Lately Julz has been experimenting with new sounds and repeating words. What a fun time to hear her learn. It is very funny to see how she understands what we say. The other day I asked her to "knock it off" and she sat up and immediately started knocking on the wall. Well, that is all for now, cause I'm out of time. I'll try to post pictures again soon.

Working on house

Here are some shots of us fixing the house we live in. Thanks to S and B for letting us move in here. This is our attempt at growing a garden in the back yard. There just wasn't enough sunlight for the plant's to produce any fruit.

We decided to give up, and planted grass. We hope it will sprout in the next week and a half.

Before we moved in, we knew there was a water leak. We figured out that the leak was between the home and the meter, so we had to have a contractor come in and replace the main line. He got a bit wild with the backhoe and ripped out the yard and the brick column. We had that fixed, and since that time, have replanted the grass and we built a gate for the front yard (Thanks for the shop time Fred, at SugarPost Pottery. Also thanks to our neighbor Tim for the welder/tool time too) .

It works great for keeping little ones from running into the street.

When they did the digging for the water main, they didn't pack the dirt down well enough. We've spent hours and hours at the hardware stores, finding parts for all the leaky valves, and parts to hook up the water main, (the contractor wouldn't do indoor work at all, so he left it up to me!?!?! Like I have any qualifications. S and B, you might want to have a plumber inspect my work when we move out!) After watering the grass seed for a week, a big hole started to form. We hauled dirt from the back yard and filled it in a couple of days ago. We are excited to see what the lawn will look like this spring.

The roses are growing again too.

One of our favorite projects has been the front deck. When we first moved in, it had quite the drop off the edge. We threw together a temporary set of steps, but knew that we would fix it nicer after a while. After buying a table saw, we got to work with a bunch of old wood we've found around the neighborhood. We built a little fence and gate, and then put together some steps.

With a bit of paint, the porch and steps really came to life.

Also, since we were kind of low on paint and used only a thin coat, and because we got on it when it was a little wet, it looks like the steps and gate have been there for a long time! We are able to keep the little one from diving off the edge now.

We found an old door to a fence that was tongue and grove, like the deck, so we cut it up for the deck of the steps.

We still have one step to go, a bit trickier than the other two, but one of these day's well get there.

Trip to the Beach...

We went to the beach on Sunday. Yes, the beach in Salt Lake City. It is the first time we've every been out to the Great Salt Lake. Here are a few shots that our friends took.

heat of the summer

Vacation time again to Oregon:




we had a very fun 4th of July. Guess who has a cute cousin that is smaller than her? Yep, Julz loves her cousin. We will see how much longer he puts up with her hugs and kisses.



other fun things about the summer are watermelon and park visits

Time flies

We had fun at Nana's house for a quick weekend. Julz had two new cousins blessed. They are both super cute and fun. Although both of those boys are going to be bigger than her before long, good thing she has a year head start on them.
Julz enjoys hats and as we were packing she made funny faces as she tried on each and every item.


Guess who loves her baby cousin? Thats right, she kept kissing him and trying to say "BABY"

Hooray for aunts, they really are more fun than Zeppelin, the dog.

Aunt B.E.S.(t) this picture is for you, We wanted you to see our orange outhouse that is at the park across the street from our apt. Mommy stood at our door and took the picture, and that is the first time she's ever seen a yellow taxi from our home. If you look up through the trees you can see the slide and the swings, but they are at the far corner from us, so you might not see them. People do the strangest things around that outhouse. They probably think no one is watching. Lots of people try to tip it over when their friends/family members are inside.


The water guy fixing the pipes accidently knocked over the mailbox brick structure with his tractor. It was broken for awhile, but they fixed it yesterday and it looks nice again, but the lawn is pretty much all dirt on that side now.


We have a little chef on our hands, and when she isn't cooking, she is choosing ingredients, as you can see, she is very hands on.


Aunt K.H. and cousin S.H. as you can see she wants to be just like her mom when she cooks. Don't worry we didn't let any unsuspecting person taste any of the muffins she made. Infact she almost ate them all. This was a yummy blueberry nutmeg muffin.


And here she is peeling a garlic. She spent about 20 minutes of her free time doing this (don't worry, all of her day is free time, except when she is strapped into her car seat. Nothing about being tied up is free for her.)

and here is the latest family picture. Happy as can be.