Yellowstone Trip

When Shane and I first got married - 10 years ago, we took a trip to Yellowstone and Shane has been anxious to go back ever since. So we finally made the trip back the Yellowstone this time with the kids. We started out Friday afternoon and made the trip to Jackson. The kids were pretty good riders except for the occational "are we there yet?".

We usually stop halfway through a trip to let the kids run around for a bit to make the trip more tolerable for all people involved. Daddy kept having to chase Morgie down and she thought it was so funny.

Mason got daddy's old pair of binoculars and he was super excited to start using them. He would look up at the mountains and then inform us what animals he saw - like deer, a lion, a moose etc. He is practicing to be daddy's hunting buddy!

And we had to make the occational diaper change.

We made it to the hotel in Jackson about 7:00 that night and Morgie and I got us all settled in while the boys went to pick up dinner. Mase loves staying in hotels and tells us he wants to live in one - not me. I would rather have more than one room with beds that are too small.

New Pictures

The kids had their pictures taken for their birthdays and I think they turned out awsome! The nicest lady in our ward took our family pictures last fall so I asked her if she would take their birthday pictures too. She did the best job! We went behind the Kaysville Theater which I never would have thought of.

It blows my mind how grown up Mason looks. He is getting so big and I still remember him being so small. Makes me almost cry!

Morgie looks so sweet!

Here Mason wants to tell her a secret and she is telling him to get away.

Again, how grown up!

Morgie with her favorite treat. I had to have a few bribes in my purse to get through the hour!

This picture says to me - angel or devil? You decide!

I loved how these pictures turned out! They show the kids personalities just great. I can't believe They are 2 and 4!

Morgie's 2nd Birthday

My baby turned 2 years old on August 11th! I can hardly believe how big she is getting. Morgie loves the movie Tangled so we decided to throw her a Rapunzel birthday party. Mason helped me pick out the cake and Morgie got to pick out the plates and napkins for the cake. We had a bbq in our backyard and we had a lot of family over. Luck for us grandma Lomax, Justin, Lori and Ryan were here to celebrate with us. The kids enjoyed playing in the backyard and swimming in the kiddie pool.

I thought this cake was so cute!

The kids all got Rapunzel noise maker blower things and Morgie didn't want to put hers down - even to blow out the candles on the cake.

Lucky for her Mase was willing to help her out with the candles.

Morgie was really into opening up her presents this year and was excited to see all her gifts.

Mase is always willing to help anyone open presents.

Here is Morgie with her favorite cousin Ellie.

Morgie got a trike from mommy and daddy and she was really excited. Now she can ride with big brother!

Here's daddy trying to show her how its done.

Here's Grandpa Crook giving her some more help!

Morgie had an great 2nd birthday and we were glad so many of the family could be there to help us celebrate!

Bear Lake

Since Justin, Lori and Grandma Lomax are here for a visit we decided that we should go to Bear Lake for the day. We headed out earl in the morning and got there a little before lunch time. The kids were very excited to go swimming and play in the sand. We had to go to Randevou beach since that was pretty much the only beach left because of the very high water. We found a nice spot by the jet ski rentals and we set up the beach umbrellas and the blankets. Shane pumped up the tubes and we put the life jackets on the kids and set them loose.

Mase and Morgie loved having daddy tow them around in the tube. The tube has a bottom in it so the kids could set in it. It was even pretty nice for the adults to use too.
Morgie loved to play in the sand. She kept filling up here bucket and was trying to find sea shells but there really weren't any since the water was so high.

We all decided to chip in and rent a jet ski for a few hours. It was so much fun and we are contemplating buying one in the future! We each took turns and I went with Shane a few times but not before I threatened him with sever punishment if he dumped me off!

Mason loved the jet ski. He went out with daddy and Justin a few time. Little did we know that uncle Justin taught Mason how to drive the jet ski! So Mason and daddy took Grandma Lomax out for a spin and Mason reached up to squeezed the gas really hard and made the jet ski get up and go really fast and almost dumped grandma Lomax off the back. Needless to say that didn't help with grandmas huge fear of the water - sorry grandma!

Here Mason and Morgie are trying to fill up the bucket with water and sand. It didn't work very well since the buck had a huge crack in the bottom. The buck was left in the Bear Lake dumpster.

Mason thought it was hillarious to be burried in the sand. Him and grandma spent a lot of the afternoon playing in the sand. We had a great time at Bear Lake. It is one of our favorite places to go. Hopefully next year the water will have receaded some and there will be more of a beach. The water was so high the the bushes that are usuall up on the beach were covered and felt like sea weeds when you walked on the and that totally grosses me out. Anyway...we had an awsome time with the family and we are glad they came to visit us.

Mason's New Bunk Bed

Mason has been in a toddler bed a little over a year and a half now. He has loved having his McQueen bed but daddy has decided Mason needs a bunk bed. So we had grandma Crook watch Morgie so we could take Mase to look at bunk beds. He had lots of fun climbing up and down on all the beds at the furniture stores. After going to 3 stores and after much discussion on mommy and daddy's opinions we finally settled on a bunk bed. It was the most expensive and it requires a twin mattress and a full sized mattress but I think it will hold up to anything Mase can put it through.

Here is the old room with the toddler bed

Cute little Morgie loves being is big brothers room playing with him.

Here is Mase in his old room right before I have to take it all apart to make room for the new bed

Here is the final product! It took daddy and Richard a while to put it together and I didn't even hear any bad words (but I wasn't in the room the whole time :)

Christmas Mornin

The kids were so excited for Christmas morning. We had Mason sleep in our bed so he wouldn't be able to sneak out early. After Morgie woke up were all went downstairs to see if Santa stopped by our house.

Here is daddy and Morgie coming down the stairs to see the presents!

Mason and Morgie were excited to see all the presents Santa left for them. The both got a kitchen a play tent and tunnel to share. Morgie got clothes, a rocking chair, a kitty coloring books, a few books and several other things. Mason got an easle, puzzels, coloring books, books, clothes and lots of other things. I guess these two were pretty good this year.

The kids loved the kitchen

Mommy and Mason trying to take presents out of the boxes.

Mason got some cool Car's sunglasses in his stocking.

After playing with the presents Santa left we headed to the Christmas tree to open presents from eachother. Morgie's favorite way to open presents was with her mouth.

Aunt Shalese came over for breakfast and presents. After breakfast and cleaning up we all went to visit great-grandma Jones in the assisted living home. The kids got grandpa Don to get them cookies and goldfish crackers from the snack cart so they were happy. Later that evening we had Shalese, Don, Grandma Crook and Great-grandma Hilton over for Christmas dinner. We all had a very nice Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We always have Christmas eve dinner at grandma Crook's house and everyone is usually able to make it. This year Hadley, Joanna , Evan and Chuck were up from Kansas to celebrate with us. Shalese was also able to come for the festivities. We had our normal dinner which was so good - the only down fall of dinner was a puking incident by one of my nephews (Evan) on my shoe! After that I didn't have much of an appetite.

Grandma Crook always has to have a picture of all the grandkids at every holiday - not an easy task by any means! We decided to get the pictures done with before presents so we wouldn't have too many problems getting the kids all together. This was about the best one we could get.

The kids enjoyed finally being able to open some presents. We just exchanged the presents from cousins and they all had lots of fun. Can't wait until tomorrow morning!