New Family Picture 2012

Here's our new family picture!

Bryce and Marching Band

Bryce playing the tenors in the Nampa High marching band. He's on the right if you can't tell!

Now he's the one on the left!

Bryce just competed in the Treasure Valley Festival of Bands yesterday. They won 1st place in every event and won Sweepstakes too (best out of all divisions)!  Here's an article about them:
http://www.idahopress.com/members/nampa-high-wins-treasure-valley-festival-of-bands-sweepstakes/article_09032c86-1b47-11e2-aec5-001a4bcf887a.html

Next week he will compete in D3 which is a huge deal around here. He gets to play on the Blue Turf at BSU! Go Nampa High!

Here's a link to watch his band on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XMfmW-7Dp4

Bekah's 2nd Birthday




Bekah playing with a watch

  

Bekah loves her sock monkey from Aunt Chris







Still loving the sock monkey!



Opening a present with Grandma Helen



Bekah playing with Mr. Potato Head from Aunt Chris

























Why do kids ALWAYS love the box?



And what little girl doesn't love shoes? Here's Bekah in Erica's boots!

Visit from Grandma Ellen

My mom was able to visit from Texas for 3 weeks. My sister Michelle, her hubby Kai and their baby Bekah stayed for a week during that time. It was a full house, but fun!

Mikayla helping Bekah pet a chicken

Mikayla walking with Bekah

Bekah chasing chickens!



Bekah still playing with the chickens!





Grandma Ellen playing ping pong with us!



We went to Lucky Peak Reservoir and Erica pushed Michelle and Kai out in the raft



Bekah LOVED this mud hole, mostly because it was WARM!

 

We went to the Boise Aquarium.



My niece Bekah...isn't she adorable?

Bekah had a blast playing in the little pool in our front yard!

Bekah and Mommy

Summer/fall update

Well when you haven't blogged since July, there's a lot to catch up on!

Let's start with school. Here's a picture of the girls on their first day of school.

Erica is in 8th grade and Mikayla is in 4th grade.

Bryce didn't care to have his picture taken, but he's a freshman in high school this year!

And I have to include pictures of Mikayla and the chickens. I've got some great pictures of her and the chickens!

I took Mikayla on a horse trail ride in Garden Valley, Idaho. It was a lot of fun, because she LOVES horses!

Then, we decided to pony-sit for my friend Tijon. She brought her pony over and Mikayla has been in heaven!

Me and the girls went on a 5K walk in Boise. We had a great time! I was even on the news for a split second!

And when we had harvested everything from the garden, we were cleaning it up and somebody decided to throw a tomato at me. Then it was WAR! Tomatoes were flying everywhere. It was so gross, but really fun! Erica somehow managed to stay out of the mess because she was headed to a party soon!



Boise Idaho Temple



The Boise Idaho Temple
Photo taken by Erica

Our family was blessed to be able to visit the Boise Idaho Temple open house this week. It was beautiful!


Mikayla's favorite part was the sealing room, where there was a beautiful chandelier and mirrors on both sides so you could see your family forever!

Erica got to go twice in a row, once with our family and the next day she got to go with the youth in our ward. It was great because Rick got to go too, so they were able to spend some time together.

The open house is open to the public for another few weeks. Tickets are available online at boisemormontemple.org but aren't required. If you can, go in the morning when it's less busy!
If you want to go, call us...we'd love to go with you!

Yellowstone 2012

We made a trip to Yellowstone on Saturday, June 9th. It was very cold, but still lots of fun!
Of course this is my favorite picture!

 




Mikayla's hands were so cold, but she found a way to warm them up! Hot steam right from the earth!

 

Nice face, Bryce! But it really was neat to see mud bubbling up!





Love this picture...Erica and her Daddy!

 

Me in front of Old Faithful

 


Old Faithful



Erica in front of Old Faithful







On Monday we visited Bear World, which is about 15 minutes from Idaho Falls. It was really neat. You could drive through and see lots of animals. They also had a petting zoo and rides, which you'll see later too!





We all loved seeing the baby deer!



Papa Bear and his cubs





So of course my kids run right past the awesome baby deer just sitting there, and lots of other animals, to go see the CHICKENS! I think they missed their own chickens, what do you think?




Mikayla chasing the peacock



Mikayla still chasing the peacock!





The goats totally know what comes out of these machines! They just hang out until someone puts a quarter in!




Having fun with my kids on the oh-so-scary roller coaster



Gotta love that face!



Um, yeah, she's a little big for this ride!



Bryce having the time of his life

As you can tell by their faces, the train ride was very scary.

A chicken with awesome hair! We so want one of these now!



At my dad's house, Mikayla made up this awesome game...a marker attached to a string attached to a box. You try to throw it on a branch.  And we all went out and played it with her. She's so creative!




My niece Bekah...so cute!

 



And of course, as soon as we got home, the girls were at it again...painting one of the new chicken's nails!