Family Pictures 2017

To be honest this years pictures...were an absolute nightmare. They started off fine. But then took a turn for the worse about 45 minutes in...and it was downhill from there. What is it about family pictures that is so dang hard?? I just feel so much pressure to make sure we get a couple of decent pictures, but if the kids aren't cooperating, I start to feel Toby tensing up and loosing patience and then I get on edge, and then...it is just the perfect storm. Tob and I got in a pretty good fight, which is pretty awkward seeing as how Jamie is taking the pictures and gets to witness it all. Sigh. We still got some decent pictures and I learned a lot what NOT to do next year. But regardless of everything when I look at the smiles and the people in these pictures my heart wants to burst. Each person adds so much to this little family I get to call mine and I feel so completely blessed with the life I have right now. I love them all to the moon and back and then back again.

Spider Cookies and Charlie Browns Great Pumpkin

Wouldn't be Halloween without doing spider cookies and watching Charlie Brown's Halloween! Aanndd…we can't do either of those without Grandpa and Grandma. Like really we can't. The kids get all upset and freak out if I try to put that movie on and they say they refuse to watch it until Grandpa is here. It's pretty funny really. So we pretty much invited ourselves over to their cottage and made all sorts of interesting spider cookies and watched Charlie Brown!

The Scare

I can't believe I'm even sharing this. I feel like DCFS could come knocking at our door at any minute. So Toby says to me, "hurry and record this." I look over and he's holding a scary Halloween masks just a few feet away from where the boys are in the bathtub. I'm thinking no way I'm not letting you scare them. They I think…well okay maybe it'll be okay and they won't be that scared. I don't know what was going through my head. I grab my phone and record the whole thing. Oh. My. Word. Those two sweet little boys were scared out of their minds. I mean, look at their faces. How awful! BUT before anyone wants to hurt us, they watch the video themselves and laugh now, and it really didn't take them too long too recover. A good memory I guess! I think when they get older they won't be too mad at us.

Montana/ Yellowstone 2017

Oh there is SO much to say about this trip! I'm not even sure where to start. I may just have to touch on the highlights. This year we got a cabin that was SO much bigger than last years and that made ALL the difference. We were so excited when we walked in and saw that EACH family would have their own big room and there were 3 good size bathrooms to share. WooHOO! There was a big kitchen and a good size family room, an upstairs loft, AND a basement family room. Tob was thrilled that the TV's all worked and had cable. The only problem was that we just weren't there long enough! One day all the boys went fishing out on the Madison River and then that afternoon we went to the Bear and Wolf Reserve to let the kids feed the bears. Tate was old enough to do it this year and he was in HEAVEN. Super cool thing to watch. The next day we drove into the park and drove through Mammoth and then stopped to fish at the Lamar. We didn't catch much this year. Elle caught a big one though! We saw lots of beautiful animals but no bears. The next morning we went to Church and then just came home and got all packed up. I'm obviously missing a ton of details in here. We went souvenir shopping, kids all partied in the hot tub, we ate great food, and there was lots of laughing. I LOVE my family. Island Park will always be a special place for us.