Prepare to be amazed!

Yes it is true. I am actually posting on my blog!

Shortly after last September, my computer met its doom. We have been trying on and off to resurrect it but to no avail. So I've been getting by for my email etc. by using Russ's work computer in the evenings or early mornings or using my mom's ancient PC that Caleb inherited from her. Neither were set up for me to blog. But, at long last, we got a new computer!!!!! Yeah!! Russ named it "Shout Hosanna" for me. :-)

A lot has happened over the last 10 months. Thanksgiving, Christmas, a wedding, etc. I may try to get a few pictures loaded and post date a few things to catch up. . . I also may not. :-) It depends on how crazy things are.

Probably the most exciting thing right now is that we've bought a house!!! Well, we've almost bought a house. We close probably next week. It's been a wild ride. We bought it at a real estate auction. Man, that was intense! We got an amazing deal on it and we are pretty stoked. It's been vacant for about a year and is in pretty rough shape. It will take a lot of work to get it whipped into shape. It has a barn, a chicken coop, a shop, and several other outbuildings. It also comes with 10 acres of land. The kids are excited to get a few animals and maybe do 4-H. It ought to be an adventure! I'll include a few pictures of the place.

View from the road

Standing on the back deck and looking east. (See our cute little barn and hayshed!)

View from the back.

Anyway, things ought to be busy around here for awhile!

Jonathan and Lizzy's wedding

We are so excited to have our new daughter-in-law Lizzy. She and Jonathan had a whirlwind courtship and were married in February.

Here are a couple fun pictures from the wedding:

It seems Lizzy doesn't know exactly what she got herself into!

I'm back!

Ok, so nobody faint but I'm finally going to start blogging again! First our computer died which REALLY made it hard and then our camera died. So ... I haven't been very good. But I'm going to post some stuff now. I will post date things so that it will look like I did a little better than I did! :-)

Some family pictures

While we had everyone together in August (yay!) we decided to get some family pictures taken. Luckily my nephew Gordon and his wife Coren were in SV. They are VERY good with the camera and agreed to take some photos for us.

Here are a few . . .

All the kids together for the first time in a couple of years. (plus the addition of a sweet little grandson on the left!)

All the guys. This isn't the best picture taken but it just cracks me up. (Notice Joshua is standing on Russ's foot because he doesn't have shoes on and there are "pokies" where they are standing. Michael is trying to get down out of Russ's arms. Everyone's expression is so funny.)

Now Michael's happy because he got away!

I like this picture of all the menfolk walking over to get their picture taken.

Here's the girls' picture.

I'll post more of our pictures later.

Betsy's senior ball

Betsy was invited to go to senior ball in Provo with her good friend Andrew. She was really excited. We drove down to Provo for the weekend and stayed with Grandma Baird. Then her cousins Mary and Cassie did her hair and make up. Unfortunately my camera died on this trip so I didn't get any pictures! Grrrrrrr! However, Grandma Baird took a few when Andrew came to pick her up so here you go! . . .

Betsy has a slightly evil look here. (I'd watch out Andrew!)

Wedding with our Mexico friends

So last weekend we were invited to Logan to the wedding of our friend Gamaliel Tellez. When we lived in Mexico, the Tellez's were our next door neighbors. I can't even begin to tell you how much they helped us, befriended us, taught us, loved us, etc. Hermano Felipe and Hermana Minerva were like our kids grandparents away from home. Gama (their son) came to BYU to school and met lovely Tricias from Centerville, UT. The Tellez's came to the US for the wedding.

We went down on Friday for the wedding dinner and then Saturday for the sealing at the temple. Being the super-prepared person that I am, I forgot my camera. :-( Luckily someone that was there posted some pictures on Facebook which I've stolen and put here. (I hope that's ok?!?

Here are Hannah and Mattie standing by the bride and groom.

Joshua REFUSED to look at the camera.

It was a little chilly that day and A.J. walked around the temple with Dad's coat on.

Here's a picture of the bride and groom and Gama's family and friends. We just loved getting to see Hermano Felipe and Hermana Minerva. We have missed them!

Spring? Break

Well, for spring break this year we had to just stay in SV (work/school commitments). So we decided to make it a fun "stay"-cation.

We started out with the kids getting the tramp set up. They had to dig snow out for the legs to get down to the ground. Whenever they jump, they end up about frozen but they love it!

Here's a little clip of them jumping on the tramp. Notice that they have to wear socks and mittens to keep from freezing! Brrrrr.....

On Tuesday we went snow camping with the family. Russ's scouts had built snow caves and slept in them and so we took advantage of that and went up to camp in them too. It was pretty cold but the kids did great!

On the way up. The little boys are so excited!

Russ inspecting the caves to make sure they'll work.

Joshua is excited to climb in!

A.J. was such a trooper!

Mattie

Betsy always makes things fun!

Warming up in the car before dinner.

A.J. roasting some marshmallows. He thought it was pretty fun. On the edge of the fire pit you can see about how deep the snow is in SV still.

At this point, my camera ran out of battery and so I didn't get any other pics. Oh well.

We went home the next day and spent the rest of that day washing and drying camping gear! The other events for our spring break were a trip to Idaho for a visit to Sarah and Hyrum and a temple trip. It was great!

All in all, we had a great spring break even if there wasn't much "spring" in it!