Family pictures

Finally, for the first time since just after Hailey turned one, we took the kids back to a studio to get pictures done. It was a very um, energetic experience-Hunter really enjoyed escaping from the studio and running out into the store. Somehow we managed to get a few nice ones and I'm glad we now have something updated in the house (and in all the grandma's houses too).

It's been far too long, I know.

Warning, a ton of pictures to follow...And sadly, I can't even post my pictures from Christmas yet, because I have to catch up on some others first. We've had a fun month since I last wrote. First there was our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. It was very nice except for the part where the kids were sick for most of it. Acutally they were in pretty good spirits for having such nasty coughs. They loved spending time with Papa Ted and Grandma Nette. Here's a picture of them singing songs with grandma before bed.

If I didn't have at least one picture that I took of me and someone else everyone would go into shock-so here's me and daddy.

This is my dad's mom, Grandma Betty. She tried to get a picture with both kids, but Hunter just wouldn't have it.

I better throw in a picture with my grandpa Jim. Did I mention that my camera actually has a function for taking your own picture? How perfect for me. We even got to see half of my brother Evan's family over the holiday. His wife, Jess and two of their kids (the boys) were down in Utah too. This is Hailey and Hayden having a little light saber fun.The day after Thanksgiving (hours after Ben and my dad camped out at walmart to get a new TV) we went up to visit with Ben's family-his sister and her six boys as well as his brother and his 2 kids). It was a lot of fun and I'm glad my dad was a trooper and let me drag him along as well. Hailey had so much fun playing with her cousin Tyran who is just a week older than her.
Here's a picture of them and then one of Mark, Lisa and Benjamin.

Hunter was freezing, but we had a very difficult time removing him from this great truck they had.The next day I dropped Benjamin and Hailey off in American Fork with the famliy again so he could have an afternoon playing soccer with the boys. (none of thos pictures are close enough to be interesting...)

In addition to getting lots of time to spend with family, we were lucky enough to get some visits in with some good friends. We had fun visiting Claudia and the kids (sorry the visit was so short-hope we didn't make anyone sick). Here's Hailey and Madison-they used to love playing together when we lived across the street. Too bad I couldn't get Jex and Hunter to cooperate for a photo op.

We also got to visit my friend Adrienne (who I used to work with back at the library) and her husband Dustin and their cute kids Audrey and Kaleb. It was so cute how she and Hailey ran off and played together after just meeting.

So I called Adrienne up beforehand and said, "don't forget to wear your black shirt and Khakis for Twin Day"-good thing she didn't mess it up for me. Seriously though, Adrienne is so cute.

The girls looking beautiful.

The boys-probably about to cause some trouble.Here we are the day grandma and grandpa kicked us out and sent us home. What a fun trip!

The flight home was a little tough with the extra two hours of nothing due to mechanical problems and a 45 minute taxi on the runway before we got off the plane. I love this picture because I have about 5 others exactly like it, I kept asking them to smile and open there eyes and they did the opposite.

Looks like this is going to be another set of catch-up posts...come back for more soon!

Time for some more random photos before another holiday hits

I suspect I may be an inactive blogger for the next week and a half since the kids and I are heading to Utah tomorrow for the holiday. We're excited that daddy Ben will be meeting us on Thursday. We're also excited to get grandma Susan here at the beginning of December when we get back...just in time to celebrate a few birthdays with us. Now, the point of that long intro was to introduce my random pictures, so here they are...

Fun with Ellie-Hailey and Hunter just adore cousin Ellie. She just turned 8 months and is such a cutie.
"Don't you like it when I'm so stylish mom?"-Yes, that is a direct quote. Hailey found this hat that my friend Heidi made when Hails was just a wee babe. She's been wearing it around a lot recently and is very excited to get to wear it in the snow in Utah (hope there is some for her then).

You know how in all those Cinderella movies if someone is wearing a mask the other characters have no idea who it is?? Well, this scary one is my Hunter.
Ah yes, so this past weekend Ben and I went on this little lunch cruise on Lake Conroe. Long story short, we stayed at this place over the summer, there were a few problems with the accomodations and such (like, why did I leave there with a large swollen spider bite??) and when we complained a little they said we could do a complimentary lunch cruise on the southern empress. It was a lot of fun even if the boat was pretty run down. It was built to look like an old paddle boat, which was fun.

Here we are pretending to steer the boat-sorry the pic is so dark. I'm surprised that you can't see how ratty the "captains quarters" were. There were like missing knobs and things hanging from the ceiling. I did get to blow the horn though, that was pretty cool.

Here comes my favorite part: it was a two hour cruise and the first hour was this really good buffet lunch. We walked into the dining room and saw three tables of ladies from the red hat society. They were so cute. Well, for the second hour we could move downstairs where they played some music and we could dance if we wanted...

That's when the ladies really got down. (Keep in mind you have to be over 50 to be in the club)

Oh, and Ben and I got down too. I get really nervous dancing and the ladies were coaching me and counting out steps for me and such. It was sooo funny.
Bet you didn't realize I had moves like this!! I was so embarassed to do this one actually.

Something old something new

So it's a new post about something that happened like a month ago, and yes, sometimes I like to just have my title make no sense. Anyway...I don't really feel like I have anything current and intersting to post about, but I have been meaning to post these pictures of Hailey. She got to go to dance class with her friend Trinity one day and she had so much fun. One perhaps I will actually put her in a class of her own. It was fun to watch her through the window and to see how attentive she was and how much she loved being the center of attention (she kept creeping up till she was right in front of the teacher).

We've made it 5 years...so far!

This past Friday was our fifth anniversary. I've scrounged up a few photos of us as close to our anniversary as I could find...so now it's time to do some time travelling...first, it's off to 2003....

Here's what we used to look like.

And this is what I was doing five years and 2 days ago. Good times. Now for 2004. Let's see, this must have been 3 years and 11 months ago (Can we round up and say 4 years?). That glowing orb is Hailey, but I'll save the better pictures of her special day till next month. I mean, this is supposed to be all about me...oh, and Benjamin too.

2005. Here we are 3 years ago.2006. Two years ago. Nope, not a beachball under my shirt. (Recognize that cool apt. Kelly?)
2007. This is as close to 1 year ago as I could find...we had a really junky camera last year, so we didn't really take any pictures.
2008. And finally...here's what we look like now. I have grown out my blue hair.
Just want to say thanks to my husband for putting up with me, taking care of me and loving me so much. Love you bub!

New Calendar?

So I'm thinking I should start my own Hot Houston Firefighters Calendar...

Check out those muscles

Hooray for Halloween

Or maybe that is hooray that Halloween is finally over. It was a fun holiday, but I had a bit of a stressful week leading up to the big day. We decided to have Hunter dress up as one of his favorite things in the world...a basketball. And this meant I had to make the costume for him..and I don't sew. I finally found a pattern online for a small pillow, blew it up like a gazillion times and started on my way. Here's a picture of the first part of the process (just so you will be impressed when it all comes together):

So I stressed and called my mom like 20 times but I finally figured out how to get it to work and I'm pretty proud of myself. Now I'm going to finish stuffing it and sew it off to be a toy for his room. What a handsome b-ball.

Hailey got to be super-girly as a Fairy Princess for Halloween. She loved it. Take one borrowed recital costume from cousin, add a headband/tiara thingy, throw on some wings and some glitter and viola!

Trick-or-treating at their first house...the neighbors across the street. Lots of people set up shop out on their porches/driveways and just hand out treats there...perhaps it is a southern hospitality thing.

At the ward party Ben dressed as the (crazy?) basketball hoop and I was a the basketball player to go with Hunter. When we went trick-or-treating I threw on my Cinderella dress again and Hailey told people she was my Fairy Godmother. Cute cute.I found this cute little Cinderella twin trick-or-treating near my house...thanks for posing with me Brenna!