The Greenwoods

Wedding Extravangza!

2011-10-01T14:49:00.001-07:00

Well Beth & Casey finally tied the knot this past Labor Day weekend. It was a weekend full of family, friends, and fun! We had a wonderful time with relatives from all over coming for the special day. We enjoyed a delicious rehearsel dinner put on by Casey's family- everything hand cooked and prepared by Caseys younger brother. Tri Tip, Kabobs, Bruschetta, and more!

We also had a great time in the Greenwoods backyard while we watched the kick off to BSU's football season. GOOOOO BRONCOS!! Of course there was good food, good friends, and an awesome big screeen TV set up in the backyard so everyone could watch the game that night! Even better- we WON!!! But we weren't worried :)

The Greenwood Family on the big day....

The beautiful couple.....

The blushing bride with big brother.....

The bridal party relaxing a bit after making through the HOT ceremony! It took place at a beautfil golf course, but the 4pm afternoon heat kicked in and we were sweating bullets a bit! It was a wonderful ceremony though and the night continued on with a great night enjoyed by all!

Look at these super cute Blondies!! Oh wait- those are my kids and their

beautiful Auntie Beth!!

Handsome little cousin Carter and Casey

The AWESOME Bridal Party........

Flower girls........adorable...and Jadyn didn't run off this time-YEA!

Oh look! More beautiful Blondies!!

Oh Wait! MORE beuatiful Blondies! They were everywhere!!

We tried for a family pose, but Macee was MIA... . :)

Jadyn and I at the frog pond full of pretty lilypads

The cute couple before cutting the cake. The cake was handmade by his brother's girlfriend. A Tiramisu Cheesecake that was sooooo good!! No leftovers here!

The LOVELY Ladies of the night...

Had a great time dancing with these lil ladies!

Me and my handsome cowboy! :)

The extended Greenwood Family from North Dakota & New Mexico

Thanks for a great time everyone!!

Gettin Dirty in the Dirty Dash!

2011-10-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

My fellow co-wokers and I took on the 10k mud filled obstacle course in the mountains of Bogus Basin at the "Dirty Dash" Super long, lots of uphill terrain, and in the end mucho mud! Pretty fun time though! This was BEFORE the mud.....

And off we go!

And the muddy FINISH

Yep- I was cleeaning mud and dirt out of places I never knew of for days! I MIGHT consider doing this again next year :)

Macee the great turns 8!

2011-10-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

ALOHA! We celebrated in Hawaiian style this year!

Our friend "Malia" (AKA Chelsea) flew in all the way from Hawaii just to teach the girls how to HULA DANCE! They LOVED it...and totally bought it :) They were so cute ot watch!

Surf's Up with my homemade surfboard

ALOHA!!!

Happy Birthday Macee!!! Love you kiddo!

Camping at Sagehen Reservoir

2011-07-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

We took a quick camping trip to a super fun place called Saghen Reservoir recommended to su by friends. It was beautiful, not too far away, a perfect size lake, and great campgrounds! My kind of camping trip! We took the girls frined Sophia with us too and they all had a blast.

There was a walking trail the circled the whole lake,and great views the whole way! Perfect pitcure opportunities! It was so peacful and pretty, nice to get out of work and city life for a few days :)

Cooking by the campfire- YUMMY! Mothing like a capmfire hot dog!

And don't forget raosting mallows!!! Let gettin dirty begin!

Macee was the master roaster!

Did somebody say SMORES??!!?? Ooey gooey yumminess!!

The girls couldn't get enough of SMORES! Love the dirt on the face too- boy we were filthy by the time we left :)

Lots of fun hiking and searching for wilderness animals! We even saw signs of BIGFOOT!!

Time out after the hike for a picnic in the pick up!

And next a dip in the lake! Go for it girls... I am not a big fan of murky lake water :)

And it didn't last long... it was FREEZING!!!

We tried again in the shallow water of the lake right by our campsite. Much better! and TADPOLE CITY! They were everywhere! Of course they had to catch them! I guess in a few more weeks the forest is full of frogs! Hopefully we didn't traumatice too many frog babies :)

Macee was also the master catcher! She easily collected over 20 tadpoles for everyone to share- yuck!

And a little fishing was attempted as well with homemade fishing poles....not so lucky in this activity!

What a beautiful view as we fished on the banks of the lake in the evening. We didn't catch anything, but now we know what type of fishing gear to bring next time for the best luck to catch some trout!

No fishies tonight- maybe next time!

Enjoying the cozy campfire....love that smell!

Thanks for a great time Sagehen! See ya next year!!

Everybody loves sleeping with Dad....

2011-07-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Finding the girls cuddling up with Dad in the morning is a pretty regular occurance at our house, but this was too much. You can't really see but Macee is behind him :) That makes a total of five all cuddled together taking a snooze- I couldn't resist taking a pic of this cute Kodak moment!

Jadyn is the Fabulous 5 !

2011-07-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

My sweet little Jadyn turned five this month and we had lots of fun celebrating with her. She is very slowly but surely growing- still my little bird girl who needs more protein according to her doctor :) She may not have a lot of meat on her bones, but that meat is all muscle! I see a future track star or gymnast! She is having a great summer playing ALL day long with friends. She is very excited for Kindergarten to start this fall to- I can't believe she will start school! She is also becoming quite independent like Macee did with her clothes and wanting to do her own hair- which is really interesting some days :) I love it though. We love our Jadyn and hope she had a great b-day!

Jadyn was lucky enough to get two awesome gifts from her grandparents this year! this lucky lady is having a spalsh blast in her new slide and pool from Gma Brenda. Blonde and tan is in full swing for the girls!

Then from Gma Jan she got this gigantic dollhouse!! It is amazing and so much fun! Thanks Grandma and Grandpas for these awesome presents!

A princess party was the theme of Jadyns first friend party this year. All the cute girls came dressed up as their favorite princess! She had a great time and did not want her friends to go home :)

Singing Happy Birthday to Princess Jadyn and her crown cake!

Happy Birthday my big five year old!!

4th of July!!

2011-07-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well we made it back to Idaho Falls for the 4th this year and had a great time. Ben unfortunately had to work all weekend so just the girls and I loaded up and headed to Grandma's :) All of the rest of the fam was able to join too so we had a great time catching up and enjoying the holiday. The kids camped out in the backyard and did jots of jumping on the tramp with the sprinkler, perfect in the hot weather. The big girls got their toes painted patriotic courtesy of Sabrina the great! We had scrumptious BBQ and celebrated birthdays, a great weekend full of fun:)

Happy Fourth!!!!! Getting ready for the parade...

Who's gonna throw these cute blondie cousins candy?!?

Make way for the parade! And of course our ritual of chocolate milk and donuts for breakfast while we waited for it to start! YUMMMY! The parade was preety great as usual- lots of candy and cheering for our old high school :) Lots of interesting people this year too- like a 40 yr old roller derby girl dressed in barely anything and pretty much was either drunk or high as she used the US flag to help her skate around the road. Especially when she biffed it and sat there with the flag on the ground until she finally rolled over it and kept going! NICE! There was also a little performance put on by a cowboy stage crew. They got in a fight int he road and pulled out their guns right in fornt of us. Too bad Jadyn thought they were real guns and when they started shooting she screamed and ran to me cying and hid behind me. Poor thing was scared to death they were going to shoot her! Other than that it was a great morning followed by a scrumptious picnic int he park afterwards :) Oh how I love the fourth!

The two birthday buddies- Jadyn turned 5 on the 2nd and Ethan's on the 4th

Love my sisters!

Waiting for the fireworks on the river! We had our ritual Pizza on the river too- yes we do ritual food every 4th...silly but fun!! This year's fireworks were amazing! We havn't been for a few years but they were awesome as usual and I found out too IF is ranked 2nd in the country for best fireworks! I believe it- they were fabulous! Jadyn was scared they would fall on us so she ended up hiding under a blanket and fell asleep- crazy kid!

Getting ready for the show!!!

Thanks for the great weekend Grandma and Grandpa!!!!!

Jadyn's First Dance Recital......Under the Sea!

2011-05-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

My little princess has her first recital last weekend which she has been soooo excited about. She has really taken to dance and just loves it! I was a bit nervous if she would actually do it or not, and if she would know what to do, but at dress rehearsel she did quite well! I recorded it and we watched it at home and I gave her some pointers:) Mainly how she needed to shake her little hips more (there's not a whole lot of her to shake!) and to play her "guitar" a little wilder for the "Jellyfish Rock and Roll' number :) She took my advice and come performance day she did AWESOME!! She looked so tiny on stage , but luckily we had second row seats and she could see us so she got excited and smiled :) My little ballerina did great and wasn't scared at all! She even said afterwards she wanted to do another recital.
We were lucky enough to get Grandma dn Grandpa Bennett in town to come to her show, and Aunt Beth and Aunt Chelsea, Grandma Jan, and even one of my oldest friends Danica came out to support her. Thanks guys she was so happy you were there!
Macee wasn't interested in dance much after her recital and didn't want to do itagain this year, but Miss Jadyn may turn out to be my tiny dancer! Way to go Jadyn!

Check out those arm muscles! Yep, all from her mama!

One proud Mama!!

The lovely Greenwood Girls after the show- aren't we precious!

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T17:29:00.001-07:00

The best part of being a mom is spending time with these lovely ladies! I had a great mother's day weekend with these girls, cleaning (yes I cleaned but they helped:), shopping for shoes for an upcoming wedding, enjoying another yummy brunch courteous of the Greenwood men and brother in laws, makign homemade granola and strawberry freezer jam ( my first attempt so we'll see how it tunrs out), and receiving lots of kisses, hugs, flowers, cards, and coupons for lots of fun stuff from the kids. I LOVE Mother's Day!

Easter 2011

2011-05-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend this year full of good food and good fun!
Much to my usual demise, we took the girls to en egg hunt this year that a friend of ours told us about. When we got there we realized it looked more like just a neighborhoof hunt in a subdivision and started to wonder if we should even be there! It was perfect though, not a lot fo kids, TONS of eggs, Peter Cotton Tail visiting, and even a real bunny to pet and play with. So we stayed and joined in the fun hoping no one would strike up a conversation and asked which house we lived in :) As the hunt came to an end we thanked the guy in charge and quietly began to sneak away until he stated that the Grand Prize egg had not been found yet AND the parents would enjoy the egg too. Our ears perked up and Ben quickly turned around and told the girls to get back out and look for the green sparkly egg!!
They ended up totally steering the kids in the right direction because no one was finding it, and as we helped look too I noticed a group of older boys standing and pointing in an area. So I watched them for a bit and figured out where they were looking and told Jadyn to head that way. I finally saw it and pointed with my toes and FINALLY JAdyn found it!!! Turns out she scored a $50 gift card to Toys R Us and a $25 gift card for us to a local restaurant!! SWEEET!! She even got her picture in the paper the next week! I did feel a smidge bad for crashing the neighborhood event, but hey we came out winners!!! Happy Easter to us..hee hee hee :)

And the Grand Prize winner is .......JADYN!!!!!

Holding her huge egg with the winnings in it and posing for the paper! Easter hunt after a scrumptious brunch at the Greenwoods. Breakfast casserole, homemade cinnamon rolls (made by muah..I am getting good:), ham, fresh fruit and more!!! I am becoming a big lover of brunches:)

Posing with randma and her famous Easter bread the girls helped make!

Let's eat!!!

One last look at the bread until next year!!!

The Babies Have Arrived!!

2011-04-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

The newest little cousins have arrived...just a few weeks early! Scarlett & Stella are here and healthy :) They did have a visit to the NICU for a few days but Sabrina and the girls are home and doing great now! Aren't they just adorable! The girls and I went to visit and help out for a few days over our Spring break and I couldn't believe how tiny they were. Plus the fact that is was just so WEIRD that there were TWO babies! They definitely have a house full with 7 kids now!
It took me lots of guessing every day and I really had to think and remember, but I'm pretty sure this is Scarlett Brenda.....looks like the Bennett side of the family :) She was born first and was the bigger one. She is the noisy fiesty one for sure unlike.....
Quiet little Stella Susan who was a bit smaller than her big sister. She really is just so quiet and content and sleeping allllllll day long:) Hmmm wonder what she's thinking about ....
They love to hold hands and it is so cute :) They often end up cuddling with each other in the crib while they sleep. Even if they turn hem away from each other when they lay them down to sleep, the end up nose to nose facing each other :) Oh the sweet connections twins must have, you can see it already :)
Cute little bright eyes girls...this did not happen very often! They were the best sleepers and sooo quiet all the time. I hardly heard a sqawk or cry out of them the entire time :)

Jadyn LOVED holding the babies. She would go and check on them all the time :)
We LOVE our new cousins!!!!!
Clara and Macee had so much fun together- especially with the babies :)
Jadyn , Jack, and Macee with the girls
It's COOKIE TIME!!! We had a blast decorating a tasty treat!
And some people had a little TOO much fun!!

Thanks for a great Spring break visit Thomas Family! We had so much fun!

St Patty's Day.....

2011-03-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

It's time again for another festive gathering at the Greenwoods for St Patricks Day. We celebrated their one year anniversary of moving to Boise as well! So much fun to have family around to celebrate with on holidays :) Here's the green crew enjoying a glass of Green Grog getting ready for the delicious Irish meal ahead! Corned beef, cabbage, Iriah soda bread , green grapes and more!! A delicious meal which has become one of my traditional favorites with it's uniqueness and great flavor! I LOVE corned beef!!!!!

The beautiful table settings! Way to go Grandma Jan who knows how to host a party!

Dig in everyone!!!

The newly engaged couple enjoying the holiday bliss...doesn't that beard look real!!

The newly engaged couple sharing the same birthday month as well! Grandma Jan made Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting.....WOW! They were fantastic but rich! Even this chocolate lover couldn't eat it all!

One grouchy little leprechaun!

That's much better...can you say Wendy goes to Ireland!

My adorable little leprechauns who I am so LUCKY to have! :)

I caught another crazy bunch of leprechauns on our way out!

More basketball!

2011-03-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well basketball has officially come to an end and Macee had a GREAT season! She wanted to keep going..and so did I! These little YMCA games are so fun and her coach even said of all the 1st grade teams he has coached (and he has coached A LOT) they were the best! They really came together and learned the game and played so well together. Macee had a great last game scoring a fewmore baskets and a few great assists!! Good job Miss Macee we are so proud of you! Can't wait until next year!

Macee in action wiht the help fo Dad :)

So glad to welcome Uncle Matt home from Afghanistan! She was so excited he and Aunt Chelsea made it to her game!!

Way to go Tigers!!!!

Grandma Jan was a big supporter too!

My little baller and her hot pink trophy!

Here's to a few basketball camps this summer and hopefully another great year of basketball next year!!!

SSSSSSSSSSSSnnnnaaaakkkeeeee!!!!!!

2011-03-07T17:49:00.000-08:00

Say hello to my sister's little friend......RUFIO! Yes, that's right she is now the proud owner of a pet Red Tail Boa SNAAAAAAAAKE!!!!
SHE loves him- WE are not so sure :) Jadyn especially :) Here are a few pictures
from Rufio's visit to our home....a liiiitle creepy if you ask me! But we are all
trying to get along :)

It took us a while to get up the courage to actually hold him- but we did it!!
First time holding the sneaky snake....my face says it all!!
Macee wasn't quite sure if she wanted Mr Snake to climb aboard!
The snake and it's master....true love!! EEEWWWWW!!!

Let's Get Ready to RUMBLE!!!!

2011-02-08T18:11:00.001-08:00

Macee decided to try basketball this year and is really starting to enjoy it! A friend suggested it to us and at first I wasn't sure what we had gotten in to and neither was Macee. Trying to teach little kids the game in a one hour practice a week can be challenging!! Her coach is tuff but good and has really helped the girls out. Macee was really scared her first game, but did all right. I think it was more entertaining for the audience more than anything- quite comical:) I am impressed at how quicly they picked up on how the game works. Macee did soooo much better the next game and even scored some baskets!! This was great because she made sooo many shots and never quite made it so what a relief she finally got a few in :)
Some of her good friends Lacyn and Kassidy after the game- VICTORY!!
Ready for action!!
Great job Macee..keep up the good work!!!

My Little Sugar Plum Fairy...

2011-02-08T18:06:00.001-08:00

Jadyn joined ballet this year and is loving every minute of it! They had a special parent recital at her preschool to show us what they have been working on. She did GREAT!!!!
She knows all the positions...love Macee's old shoes that are just a wee bit big still :)
The girls did so good their teacher let them become real sugar plum fairies!!

And finally, shakin her penguin feathers to Happy Feet...so adorable! Good job Jadyn!!

Blogging catch up...

2011-02-08T17:54:00.001-08:00

Well, I totally blew it for blogging over the holiday so here's a VERY quick run down! Had a great Christmas Eve with the Greenwoods in Boise. Grandma Jan's reindeers were at it again helping deliver presents to all! We headed to IF the next day for a fun filled and house filled wknd...not sure how much longer we can all crash at Grandma Brenda's with all the grandkids!! I didn't get one picture taken while we were there either...boo! :(

WE hosted New Year's Eve at our house this year and enjoyed yummy Shrimp Alfredo, seared scallops, salad, and breadstick! What a yummy feast!
And of course, my delicious chocolate trifle for dessert! You know me- gotta get some chocolate in!!
We had a ball playing the Wii and board games until we rang in the New Year :)
Always fun to spend time with cousins :)

Meet the newest member of the Greenwoods....

2010-12-13T16:54:00.000-08:00

This is WILLOW....our new fish :) Nope sorry no baby news on the homefront if that's what you were thinking...just some friendly fishies! I got Willow (the big one) as my white elephant gift at my work X-mas party. The girls were so excited and have loved him/her. I very carefully explained goldfish don't usually live very long - in fact I'm surprised he/she ahs made it through the weekend! Macee also had a free fish coupon from Halloween at a local pet store so we decided to get Willow a friend.....hence Angel :) We'll see how long they last!

It's beginnin to look a lot like Christmas!

2010-12-13T16:43:00.001-08:00

Well I am actually on top of things this year and got the decorations up, did some after Thanksgiving day shopping that wasn't too terribly scary, mailed my X-mas cards (well most of them), mailed some packages, and delivered neighbor gifts last night! I am so impressed with myself:) Just thought I would rub it in for those of you who ahvn't even started your holiday shopping yet!! Hee hee:) Hope everyone is enjoy this wonderful time of the year!
My darling little blondies and their super cute new snowflake twilry skirts- courtesy of Aunt Brina the magnificent! If only I had a sewing machine I MAYBE just MAYBE could figure these out. They don't look TOO difficult and they are so cute and my girls love them! Jadyn got one last year that's red and green for X-mas and she wears it year round :) Yeah I'm that mom that let's her kid go out in holiday clothes whenever- like last Saturday when she wanted to wear her Halloween outfit. I got soem funny looks - but oh well the kid is happy and clothed right!?!

Macee had her Christmas Singing program this past week and she let me do her hair for once! She does her own hair most of the time so when she lets me I take advantage! I use the three barrell curling iron and it looked so pretty I had to take a picture. She did awesome singing and I totally had dejavu from when I used to do those programs. Soo weird watching my own! Loved every minute of it too :)

Turkey Time

2010-12-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

We had yet another great Thanksgiving this year with lots of family, food, and fun. All of the Greenwoods were in Boise this year for the first time since the in-laws joined us this past year. The food was amazing and good times were had by all. Here's our lovely bird and the main cooks of the day! I got away once again without having to cook a turkey. My goal is to see how many years I can go without ever having to cook one myself! I'm too scared to take on such a big bird!!

Here's me just observing and making sure all was well....I DID make mashed potatoes and pumpkin bars though folks- I didn't make everyone else do ALL the cooking :)
My super cute hubby and his family..including Grandma Hank this year who also joined the Boise Crew this year while living with Dick and Jan now! We love her and her homemade cooking all the time!! She is a fabulous chef!~
Macee, Carter, and JAdyn hammin it up!
My super cute family :)
All the grandkids......
The whole crew- including our soon-to-be brother-in-law Casey!
Hope you all had a great turkey day too!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-09T18:27:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when you carve your pumpkins too early before Halloween....YUK!
Macee the cupcake! MY first ever all by myself costume creation!! Macee actually found the design and I recreated by looking at it off the computer:) Turned out pretty cute I think!
This year we tried out something new and went to the Famous Harrison Blvd in downtown Boise. One of the oldest streets in Boise and soooo cool at Halloween. It's like trick or treating in the movies. Perfectly lighted streets with huge trees of falling leaves everywhere, tons f kids going door to door , and really cool old houses that were decorated so neat. Every year a group of houses does a theme show too where they dress up and put on a show. It was a circus theme this year, but we left before the show started but it looked awesome. The kids loved it but were actually worn out after about 6 blocks and asked to go home! Crazy!!
Right before we left our neighborhood there was a HUGE full rainbow in the skyline that was beautiful! I couldn't even get the whole thing in my camera lense it was so huge. You can also kind of see another one behind it that cmae out in full a little later- soo pretty!
Look at all the pumpkins!! I don't even know how many there were but all were hand carved covering the porch. These people on Harrison Blvd go all out at Halloween! No wonder half the city of Boise goes trick or treating there!

These kids got waaay too much candy! By the time we got back to our neighborhood we only went to four houses and they filled another bag halfway. I guess our neighborhood was pretty dead this year so they got handfuls at each house!
We had to make another stop at the famous "Witches Lair" down the street. The lady who lives here hand makes all her witches and fills her yard. She has over 25 hand made full size witches!!This was her latest addition- the witch walking her pet spider- we love this house!!
The witches tea party :)
Happy Halloween!!!!
There were lines of people at some of the really big neat houses. Luckily we got started early and finished up just as the lines all along the street were piling up!!!

Student of the Month....AGAIN!

2010-10-14T17:54:00.001-07:00

Congrats again to my AWESOME kiddo on getting awarded the Student of the Month award for 'Responsibility' at her school. Her teacher wrote how she is always on task, finishing work right away and then helping tutor other kids in her class who are struggling. She is always offering to help her teacher in any way- which Ms Gallagher gladly takes advantage of! She is also acting as the reading buddy for the class helping the other kids with their daily reading. We are still a little unsure of where here love for school and brains are coming from but we are SO PROUD of her and her accomplishments!! Keep it up Macee!
Here we are posing for the award presentation at school- all clad in purple of course! :) I love that her school does this each month for a different character trait that children portray. The principal reads a small segment on each child that their teacher has written about them explaining how the exemplify the character trait of the month and it is displayed int he school all month long. Pretty cool idea to make the kiddos feel good- and parents too!! She got it last year for 'Citizenship' and says she wants to try and get one every year now! :) Good goal Miss Macee - keep up the great work:)

Loving fall weather....

2010-10-14T17:22:00.001-07:00

The weather is turning colder here in Boise, but last Sunday it was just beautiful! It was sunny and warm and clear skies all around. We thought we'd go for an afternoon walk and take some pictures in the lovely fall weather. Not too shabby for ourselves and not knwoing how to use our camera very well :) We found a great park with all sorts of fun backgrounds. We LOVE Boise in the fall!!!

And of course we had to go down to the stadium to show some Bronco love!!

The Boise Open.....and Ben has a new friend :)

2010-09-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Every year Boise hosts a pro golf tourney and the girls and I went to a free golf clinic at the opening day that Ben told us about. They didn't learn much-it was more of a question and answer session with some pro golfers, but they did show us some great golf shots and cool tricks! Ben's dream of his girls being pro golfers is still looming! :)

Beautiful course!
The free hats they got were a little big :)
Troy Merritt- former BSU golfer turned pro-he can smack the ball!
The guy in the grey shirt could the hit the ball from on his knees as far as the others could standing! CRAZY!

Ben's new friend......little adorable Gavin. Ben's best friend Cody's little guy who Ben just loves. Here they are watching football since the girls just aren't quite interested.....:( This is Ben's dream come true .....maybe someday but with our luck it would be another girl!!

Macee's Birthday...

2010-09-18T07:16:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's birthday time for her again! We had a little family dinner and then a birthday party with friends that weekend. Everything was BSU themed- her request:) Super fun idea. Everyone- well everyone who wasn't a vandal fan- came dressed in orange and blue, we had tailgating food, had contests to see who was the best quarterback and who ran the best 20 yd dash. The girls loved it :) Of course blue and orange cupcakes too!
A little about Miss Macee......she is still acting very mature for her age and wanting to be independent. I'm not very good at this oldest child thing since I was the third child, but she seems to be carrying on the "oldest child" traits a bit-YIKES!! School is very exciting this year- although first grade has not been "challenging" enough for her yet she says. The first day was "just like Kindergarten, Mom, I didn't learn anything new!"
She can't wait to go to the bus stop in the morning- and loves riding it home. The bus usually beats me home by two minutes so she calls me in he car as soon as she walks in to say she made it. I try to keep her on the phone till I get home but she insists that I talk too much and she's fine so let's get off the phone:) Her end of the week homework is done the day it gets sent home and she is always the first one done with work at school that her teacher can't keep up with her:) She told me the other day that she got 5 'kid bucks' at the end of the day from her teacher because she was on task all day. "Now I have twelve kid bucks and everyone else only has two or three mom!!" Hmmm...teacher's pet already or just a great kid!! And she brings a math workbook on the bus because the bus ride to school is "long and boring!" She just LOVES school! Hope this keeps up forever!! The minute she gets home though it's finding the first kid int he neighborhood who can play- and play for as long as she can! Forget about dinner or mom and dad it's all about the friends :) Wow-sounds like me when I was little! I have the perfect mix of a nerdy socialite I think!!!
On the other end though she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist and gets very emotional over the sillliest thigns and NEVER wants to mess up. This has been a bit frustrating when she bawls because we giggled at how she tried to spell a word and didn't spell it right! OK my bragging about my child is done but I am just so proud of my big seven year old and how much she has grown over the past year. I love her bunches!!! Happy Birthday Macee!
She really was excited for her b-day... I think! Jadyn was the photographer for the night and I think she caught her at the wrong time! :)
Great Grandma Hank has moved to Boise so it has been fun to have her visit with us!
It's a PILLOW! IT's a PET! It's a PILLOWPET!!!! Yahoo!!!!
Cute fuzzy pink P.J.'s from Auntie Colleen!!
Just take the picture Jadyn!!! Jadyn was taking too long for the photo shot waiting for just the right shot and Macee got a bit frustrated! Tinkerbell UNO- loves it!! She has mastered Skip- Bo so on to beat everyone in UNO!! My little card shark :)
IIIIIIt's CAKE TIME!!! Go Broncos!!!
The best sugar free chocolate cake EVER!!!
Great Aunt Lynn was in town too and the little ones loved having "another Grandma" to hang all over:) Thanks for a great birthday Greenwood family!! See ya next year:)

Late Summer Update!!

2010-09-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

So it's been a looong while since I have blogged...so here's a quick catch up of the rest of our summer in a nutshell! Ben and I spent most of our summer on a DIET!!! Aghh! What were we thinking! Actually it wasn't easy but it turned out well. I started working at a weight loss clinic/family practice facility and one of the programs we have is the ever popular HCG diet. So, I decided I must try what I have researched and learned about to be able to really relate to my patients and Ben was forced to participate too. We successfully lost- Me: 12 lbs, Ben: 21 lbs in three weeks. Yep, that's right it really works and we did it. AND- we have been able to maintain our weight loss success through learning better eating habits too :) Cool stuff! This picture doesn't do us justice but I think we look a bit better don't you?!? This was after twoo weeks into it ...good job us!

Next was Jadyn's little mishap!!! She is Ben's daughter and all and unfortunatly following in his freak accident footsteps through childhood! She got her poor little bare foot caught in the bike tire spokes one night. WARNING: photos following are graphic and may make you lose your lunch! It took me and three neighbors and a screwdriver ten minutes to get her foot untangled from the tight bike spokes. She was of course screaming bloody murder the whole time :) It was pretty swollen and I didn't know if she broke it or needed stitches so away we went to the ER. After much needed pain drugs, x-ryas, and a good scrub we were sent home to mend the not broken but nasty looking foot! :)

The day after the accident- I could hardly look at it to take care of it:(

Very swollen and bruised :( Poor thing couldn't walk for a few days.

Two weeks later- still lookin bad. When we followed up with our doctor he was a little upset with the ER and the treatment plan they had us doing for it. He also felt she should have had some skin grafting done for the wounds that went clear to the fatty tissue. WE'll have some nice scars!

Week three finally looking better after new treatment plan from our doctor!

A month later....almost healed...way to be brave Jadyn :)

Next it was off to Island Park for a few days with the Bennett family! OF course JAdyn hurts her foot three days before we left so it was not much fun for her being a gimp the whole time. No horse back riding or swimming for her :( Grandma and Grandpa were awesome care takers though when we did those things she couldn't do :( :) She even got a surprise every day from G-ma! :)

Blondees only...no brunettes allowed!!! Fun with cousins at Old Faithful!

Sistah's!! Love em :)

OLD FAIIIIIITTTHHHFFUUUULLLL!!!!

Meanwhile...back at the Ranch.....our wonderful friends, the Portmann's, let us come visit the Diamond P Ranch again outside of West Yellowstone. Their family ranch does horse trail rides and they treat us to one every year when we can make it. I love the scenery and peacefullness when we get way up in the mountains. This year we even saw a few elk right off the trail! Awesome! Until my horse got scared when it moved and almost took off into the woods!! Yes, I was the scardy cat on the ride as always:) And EVERYONE keep reminding me ! :) But it was so much fun and I can get over my fear of horses any day for that beautiful two hour ride....

Yeehaw!

Headin out on the trail.......

Welcome home...sore behinds and all!!!!

On to the BRONCO NATION!!!! We had a big shin dig to watch the oh so talked about game of the year!!! BSU Vs Virginia Tech!!! We even got Grandma to love Orange and Blue!

Some of us got a liiitle bit crazy on game day!!

Bronco BBQ in Grandpa's backyard!! Jalepeno poppers, BBQ pulled pork sammies, guacamole, hot wings and BLUE cheese dressing, and Grandmas famous baked beans! YUMM-O!!

Oh yeah that's right! BSU brought it again and pulled off a victory!
They did have me biting all my fingernails off once again as they like to do...but we did it! Way to go broncos!! Our family bleeds orange and blue!!!!!

Hope you all had a great summer too!!!! Love, the Greenwoods :)

GGGGG Golfing!!!

2010-07-26T16:32:00.001-07:00

Well we finally got the whole family out for some golf this summer- we have been hit and miss all together. Usually Ben just goes by himself cause taking us all can be a challenge at times:) It was a lovely day and Ben's parent's joined us too. Macee is getting great teeing off-hitting the ball pretty far- but she just wants to tee up the ball every hit she does:) Jadyn, well Jadyn just grabs any club and smacks it as hard as she can everywhere she can....it's a little scary sometimes if you're not paying attention! Me, well I'm still about the same- great hits and not so great hits but it's hard to get much better when you onyl play a few times a year. It's a fun time though in the end:)

Let's go already!!!
Will she make it???
Riding in the cart with Gma and Gpa...it doesn't look like it but they fight over who rides with them cause they love it:)
The Raker Girls!
Might be a bit of big swing to sink that putt Jadyn!!
FOUR!!!

YES, I sank that putt!!

Birthday Fun for Jadyn!

2010-07-05T09:49:00.001-07:00

Well my little Jadyn turned four on the 2nd and we celebrated on Saturday. Last week we had Grandma and Grandpa Bennett visit and boy did Jadyn get spoiled! She got super cute enw clothes and a trip o the mall for a lunch date and to make her very own Build-A-Bear!! My camera batteries died though so no pictures until Grandma B sends me some to post! Thanks for a fun weekend!
Next was a b-day celebration this weekend with the Greenwood family starting with POJO's!!! Aww yeah! Unfortunately all of Jadyn's friends were out of town for the holiday so it ended up just being us and Auntie Beth, but it was perfect. We had loads of fun and it wasn't crowded at all! After Pojo's we had a BBQ and cake at our house with the rest of the Greenwood clan:) Then we topped the celebration off with a fireworks show! Thanks everyone for a fun birthday with Jadyn!! I can't believe my youngest is four now...sniff sniff...but I love her so much and am loving seeing her grow and learn every day. Love you Jadyn!

Let the POJO's games begin!!! On your mark, get set, go!!!!
Gotta love the milking the cow game! Squeeze the utters that light up as fast as you can without squeezing the wrong one!! Gooooo Macee!!!

Jadyn was a little too dainty for this game and didn't seem to enjoy much as she walked away half way through because she didn't like the cow mooing at her when she squeezed the utter:) May need a few tips from Grandma Brenda on this one!
There we go...reach under there...kind of disturbing game when you think about it huh??

s Woo hoo ride em cowboy!!
And the race is on!!! Dad against the girls- quite smiling at the camera and DRIVE MACEE!!! :)
Super Focused

Thanks for the fun POJO's...see ya next time!
Love my new bike!!! Even took the training wheels off after a few rides!!
Safety First!!!
Fancy new outfit and shoes from Beth andGrandma!
Let's eat CAKEEEE!!!!
Wow...who made that super cool cake??!! :)

And end the day with some fireworks!! Gotta love the Sparklers!!
These girls are out of control:) Love them!!
Happy Fourth of July Everyone!!!!!!

Last Day of School....sniff sniff

2010-07-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Macee's last day of school was great fun- they had an adorable music program to start off the day- which Dad almost missed because he was racing to get out the door and knocked over a garbage can spilling it all over the road! By the time he got it picked up and to the school he made it for the last song of the ten minute program! :)

Then ti was off to the field for games galore!!! These kids had a blast!!!
Bys Vs Girls tug of war- HILARIOUS! The boys were outnumbered by far so the girls kept winning and they screamed a girly squeel every time they won. The boys were not so happy about this and finally one of the men working the game joined their end and ALL the girls came tumbling down! OF course which led to multiple girls crying :)

I love the hair shot in this picture....who would have thought bouncing around could be so fun!

Look at that jump shot..except where's the follow through??? We'll work on that...
Watch out Kobe Bryant..my little girl looks good in purple!
Time out for a cool snack with friends!!
Lots of water games to cool the kids off!
And of course the big finish with the relay obstacle course! Way to go Macee!! Good bye Kindergarten...we'll miss you! Now on to FIRST GRADE! Woo hoo!!!!

Kid Talk...

2010-06-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting conversation with Macee last night about marriage, and boyfriends, and ex-boyfriends, and break-ups. Quite the conversation with a 6 year old right? She wanted to know who broke up with who and why, and how many ex-boyfriends I had etc.! I don't know how that girl is going to turn out with her keen little mature mind- she doesn't miss a thing- especially grown up things! Towards the end of our conversation I said something to the fact of how I won't let her have a boyfriend and get married- to that she excalimed "What! I am not going to be single forever mom!" WOW!

Ben and I were talking about some friends of ours who we just found out were expecting another baby. He said he was suprised because his friend hadn't mentioned they had a 'bun in the oven'. Jadyn had been sitting next to me the whole time and after a minute she quietly asked me- "Mom, are babies born in hospitals?" I answered yes they are and she looked at me funny and replied, "then why is their baby being born in the oven?"

Oh how I love little comments like these from cute kids.....:)

Boise State Bound!!

2010-06-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

Congrats Cousin/Nephew Taylor!!!!

Rockin our Bosie State Tatoos for the graduation bash!!!!

Congratulations to my nephew Taylor who graduated high school this week and is headed to the school with the BEST FOOTBALL TEAM EVER...can you guess which one!!?!! Here is Taylor and his proud family!!

Taylor and his super sweet girlfriend, Kelsey, who also graduated

Taylor with Grandma Jan and Grandma Marie...sadly Grandpa Dick couldn't join us for the festivities because he was int he hospital revocering from open heart surgery the day before :( He did make it to see his first grandchild graduate though so that was good:)

Taylor with the girls- he is such a GREAT cousin and brother who is so good with the younger kids. He has helped take care of kids for most his life and has never complained and done it with a smile. Taylor is an exceptional student getting a 4.o and enrolled in honors classes- way to go Tay! He is always so friendly and helpful to all- especially helping out his parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. What more can I say- Taylor is an all around awesome guy who we wish the best to in the future!!

Taylor and friends and his graduation bash....and yes the boys are the same age even thought ehy tower over him :)

The Breakfast Club Meets Once Again...

2010-06-06T09:15:00.001-07:00

Once agin I had the privelage of meeting up with these fine ladies (Lise(former teacher and cheer coach), Celby, me, Samantha, Lindsey, and Jamie (also former teacher)...only this time we did things different. Sorry Smitty's- we opted for a brunch at Celby's parent's house instead which turned out to be a fabulous idea! We had room to sit and chat while the kiddos ran rampid through the halls- then enjoyed a delicious meal cooked by the wonderful and talented Becky:) Thanks ladies for a great visit- so good to see al of you and your cute kids! Let's do this again soon!

Got to meet this darling little man for the first time..welcome to the club Finn!!

Look at all these kids!!!! They had so much fun and didn't want to leave:)

Love you girls!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Yellow Rose of Texas...

2010-06-06T09:07:00.001-07:00

It's not quite the Yellow Rose of Texas like in the song...but it's a PINK rose almost the SIZE fo TEXAS!!! I have never seen a rose blossom this big! Yes, homegrown in my backyard this thing has gotten bigger and bigger everyday. I finally had to clip it because the other rose buds didn't have room to bloom:) Yowsers my mom was proud...and a bit jealous because hers havn't even started to bloom yet:) Guess you better move to Boise mom!!

Bella, Bella, Bella Dancerella.......

2010-05-24T16:32:00.001-07:00

Macee had her first dance recital this weekend, and I was so proud. Once again one of those weird "I'm a mom experiencing things with my own child that I remember happening to me" moments! Crazy, but definitely fun and emotional cheering for her out in the crowd. I was really nervous for her, she was acting a little funny during the day and telling me she was nervous. I thought she might freeze up on stage, but she delivered really well. In fact her group of girls were one of the best ones to perform:) Aunt Chelsea gave her a makeover at the Body Shoppe in the mall...Dad had a bit of a hard time seeing her with make up on but boy did she look pretty! On the way to the recital though Macee forgot she had eye make up on and rubbed her eye- yep black smudges everywhere! Totally looked like she had a black eye and I didn't know what to do because I didn't bring any make up stuff with me. We got most of it off with a baby wipe and then Aunt Chelsea showed up and took over and got her all fixed up:) P.S. We almost were late because of a freak rain and snow storm in MAY!!! What the heck!!! Sick of the rain stormy weather! So after a few close calls we were able to enjoy the "Garden Party" show!

Macee and Lylli, her best bud from school
"Walkin on Sunshine" Whooooaaaaa! I loved this number cause I love the song!

The only thing we need to work on is SMILING....:)
Take a bow girls-you did great!
The beautiful ballerina.........
Proud mama :)
Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa Greenwood!
Yea Macee! WE are so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter......a liiiitle late!!!

2010-05-24T16:06:00.001-07:00

So here's a little tid bit from Easter......just a few months late:) Better late than never!! It's been fun getting to celebrate with the Greenwood Family now that all of us are in the same town and close by! Grandma Jan's famous braided Easter bread- Yummy!

Hunting for eggs!

Easter beauties......
One more visit with Great Grandma Hank before she went back to Montana

Grandpa's 90th Bday Bash!

2010-05-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

We had a great get together with many friends and family to celebrate mt Grandpa's 90th birthday this year! It was so much fun to hang out with all our cousins and especially fun seeing OUR kids play with my cousin's kids! It was kind of weird seeing them play together and reminisce of times when I played with my cousins when I was younger....I'm growing up too fast! We enjoyed a nice open house where Grandpa had a lot of visitors from St George to Rupert! There was a lovely display of him growing up with lots of pictures to look at too:) There was also an awesome geneology chart of his family tree- if I remember right there are about 36 grandkids, 88 great grands, and even a few great great's!! It was a great time filled with food, love, and fun! Happy Birthday Grandpa!
The toothless wonders posing with Aunt Chelsea...Clara and Macee love getting to see each other and play!
Little Ol man Jack with who was copying Grandpa's hair do for the day!
Aunt Liz with her cute boy Owen....and Aunt Chelsea
Us Bennett girls doing what we do best!! We will NEVER grow up!
The Bennett girls with Cousin Tiffany..lots of good times with this great girl growing up!
The whole Bennett crew with Grandpa Ralph
Grandpa trying to stay sane with LOTs of kids all around him!! :)
Grandpa and his girls.....ain't we cute:)

Last Few Days....at last!

2010-05-16T08:36:00.001-07:00

Since I am sooo good at posting these days I figured I would put all fo the last few days of San Diego into one post! Get er done I say! So here's the rest of our amazing and fun trip in a nutshell!

For all you golfers out there you knwo fo the infamous Torrey Pines golf course right on the coast. VERY fancy, VERY beautiful, VERY expensive! Home to many golf tournaments, including the US Open which Ben and his Dad went to a few years ago, this course is insane! Ben's dream came true of being able to play in the Pro's footsteps after he found out at the wedding that they were working on the course so you could walk on for a very discounted price! He took a ton of pics but I only put a few on- most of them looked like photos you would see in a magazine they were so "picture perfect":) This is a shot right off a tee box overlooking the ocean....wonder how many golf balls are floating out there????

Ben enjoying pure bliss... this was probably the highlight of his trip!

Teeing off!

We are ready for Disneyland!!! Got our Minnie Mouse Gloves on and ready for action!
We did the Volunteer-For-A-Day program and got our free tickets to Disneyland-AWESOME deal! It was hard to get everything in all in one day...but getting soem of it was just great...and for free was even better!! I love this place...you can't come here and NOT be happy with the music always playing in the background and everyone so cheery!

Oh my goodness.....I have been waiting all day for this!! Actually my wonderful DAD waited 2 and a half hours in line for me for this!!!! Who is it????

CINDYLELLA!!!!!

Jadyn was asking all day when we would see Cinderella, and the line for the Princesses was EXTREMELY long! So our AMAZING Daddy offered to stand in line while I took the girls to Toontown nearby to see Mickey. We came back about two hours later and finally got to meet some princesses......what a great dad!!

We also met him!!! Mickey!!!!!!

Playin with Pluto's toys!
Just taking a break and lounging on Goofy's couch....
Woo hoo hoo hooo! It's Tigger & Pooh!! Tigger was a crack up , and we even got to see a guy propose to his girlfriend in front of Tigger! Crazy!!

Flying high on Dumbo!
Another highlight of the day and many minutes waiting to meet HER!! IT's TINKERBELL!!!

She was really cute and the girls couldn't believe ti was the ACTUAL Tinkerbell!
Very first ride of the day of course....the TEACUPS! This is the only ride Macee remembers and talks about from her first trip to Disneyland a few years ago so we had to go there first!! They loved it!
Ben was convinced he could pull the sword out....nice try!
We love this place! Jadynw as a little confused on how when we went into Cinderellas castle we just ended up on the other side....where is her room and the kitchen she asked??? We had to walk in and out several times and try to explain:)
Thank you Mr Disney for creating this wonderful place!
Thanks for a great time...we'll come again soon!!!!
We also enjoyed a nice BBQ by the pool on one of our last night's there...catching up with these two hooligan's from Jerome. Always a good time when Reggie and Aaron are entertaining!
A beautiful sunset from the deck....aww aren't we cute:)

And of course a visit to the beach! I took the girls here while Ben was golfing...pretty crowded but they had a good time...who doesn't like the beach!?!

Enjoying some ice cream...with a little sand too:) So that was our California adventure- thanks everyone for a great time! We will definitly be back!!!

Day 3...FINALLY a swim and the BIG DAY!

2010-04-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

Finally the wedding of these two wonderful people arrived! Jodi and Courtney were married on the garden terrace of a beautiful beachside hotel right by the ocean. It turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day....but the wedding had a few blips:( The day before it had only taken us about fifteen minutes to get there from the house we were staying at...but the day of the wedding we came to a sudden halt at the freeway exit. typical Cali traffic on a Saturday right? WRONG!!! We had given ourselves plenty of extra time to make in time for the pictures befiore the wedding- but this traffic was NOT moving! We weren't quite sure what the hold up was but eventually saw that the ONLY road leading down to the waterfront hotel was closed off that day! The five lanes of cars were merging into two lanes and being detoured another way! ARGH!

We proceeded ever so slowly getting to the detour where our GPS then recalculated an alternate route to get us there. Only to find that the new street it told us to turn down was also closed off! Now we were getting a little frustrated as the time was ticking away. By now we had missed the pictures and were wondering if we were even going to make it to the wedding on time! We finally stopped and asked a police officer if there was any way to get to the hotel and he quickly spatted out a number of directions of different roads to take. We explained the circumtances of being from out of town and that meant NOTHING to us and he just seemed to get angrier. I finally asked how far it was to the hotel and he said"Oh about a mile".....I instantly thought I can make it faster walking! And with his words I jumped out of the car in a madhouse of traffic, grabbed Jadyn who had meanwhile fallen asleep, Hannah grabbed the dresses, Macee grabbed the bags, and we began sprinting down the blocked off streets in 80 degree weather :)

Call me crazy, but I was desperate not to ruin this poor girls wedding by not having the flower girls there in time! After a while we noticed other people running the streets, many with luggage (the airport was right down the street too). Soon airline vans were coming by trying to pick us up to get to us to the airport, but when I told them I was trying to get to the hotel they just said sorry, closed their doors and drove off :( After MORE than a MILE the hotel was nowhere in sight and I was getting worried, when all of the sudden a bicycle taxi came by with a very friendly man from some other country...:) "LADIES!" he said, "get in, get in I will get you to the airport" like we hadn't heard that before! I explained where we were actually headed and he laughed at me and said "The hotel is three more miles that way- you will never make it with these children get in and I will take you" Great offer- onyl I had no money to pay the kind soul unless he took Debit or and out of state check! "Don't worry , someone at the wedding can pay for you and you pay them back!" he said. I thought for a moment and quickly threw the girls in the back of the buggy seat- literally. I was VERY DESPERATE at this point in time and he was right- we would have never made it on time.
Soooo we had a very bumpy, squishy, at times rather scary ride through the blocked off back roads and sidewalks taking out a few pedestrians here and there, and catching a ride on the back of another bicycle our driver held onto for a while because we were quite the load he had to pull! We finally arrived at the hotel and according to our kind driver we "arrived in style!" $40 later!!! Yes the innocent, frazzled, mother got taken for all she was worth by this taxi bike man but we got there with 15 minutes to turn the windblown, sweaty, also frazzled children into beautiful flower girls! :)
As we found our way to the waiting area with the rest of the bridal party, we learned that this darn water roadblock had caused a major raodblock in the wedding as two groomsmen were still missing, along with the pastor conducting the wedding, the cake hadn't arrived, and half the staff hosting the reception right after were MIA. I felt a little better then knowing it wasn't just us ruining the wedding :) With the help of the bridesmaids we quickly transformed the girls into darling flower girls and even had some time to catch our breaths. Long story short..well ok this story was long, but the wedding was an hour delayed but ended up being wonderful and all was well. I take that back, Jadyn got stage fright and ran back out once she hit the first isle of people, but Macee didn't miss a beat and kept going and was a star!! Props to my kiddos on their first debut as flower girls to total strangers in California!!

Aren't they cute!!!

Silly Jadyn couldn't quite pull it off...oh well she sitll looked adorable!

With the beautiful blushing bride:)

with the maid of honor, Stacey, who Macee adores and spent the whole night folllowing around. She even made her way to the wedding party table during the reception to hang out with the "Special people" :)

With the wonderful Groom, Courtney

Say Cheese! Good job girls!!

The reception was AMAZING! Fabulous gourmet dinner, awesome DJ, lots of fun dancing. The girls got their very own special kids platter with individual mini ketchup bottles (highlight of their night!! Jadyn wouldn't even open hers, she wanted me to put it in my purse to bring home!)

At the reception- thanks so much Jodi and Courtney for letting us be a part of your special day...it was so much fun and CONGRATS!!!!

Jadyn was exhausted by 10:00...who could blame her after the long day:)

Getting a little hair makeover after our chaotic bike ride!!! Thanks Jodi's Aunt!

Finally some time in the pool..but mostly the jacuzzi cause the pool was freezing!!

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!

Day 2...SHAMU and rehearsel...

2010-04-06T19:19:00.001-07:00

The next day we were off to SeaWorld- courtesy of Aaron's mom and his "connections". Aaron worked there for about 7 years so he said they owed him a few free tickets:) SWEET! I totally wanted to drive the Shamu car!
One of our favorite things to see were the penguins!! The dolphin exhibit was closed for maintenance so we missed that, but we did see a really cute Animal Playhouse Show that was full of everything from dogs and cats, to pigs and birds- all adopted strays that they train and take care of-it was hilarious!
Super pretty FALMINGOS!!! Did you know that flamingos are actually white birds, but it is their food that turns them that pinkish color?!!?? CRAZY!
Fun on Elmo's flying fish!! There was another ride- the ride to Atlanits or somethign like that. My pictures didn't turn out unfortunately but it was pretty cool looking and had you ride in a boat and go down a big roller coaster hill into the water. Macee was begging to go on it since we first got there and we finally did right before we left. Warning: DO NOT TAKE SMALL CHILDREN ON THIS RIDE!!! She was crying hysterically after the first drop....and then again on the second. It was a bit of a drop off....and probably wasn't a good idea for her:( She told me later she almost peed her pants twice:)

And of course we saw ....THE GREAT SHAMU!!! Pretty neat show with these amazing animals!!
My lovely models down by the bay-the hotel where the wedding was being held was right here...awesome view!!!
The lovely Hannah the Helper as I called her all week!
Super cute Jadyn pooh's!!
Ain't we cute:)

Here we are at rehearsel....a childhood friend Ben grew up with asked the girls to be her flower girls in her wedding....not quite sure how it will all turn out- Jadyn is a bit unsure of the whole thing!
The beautiful bride to be, Jodi, and the girls at the rehearsel dinner. It was held in a restaurant at the base of a real working lighthouse with an aweseom view of the skyline at night! Amazing food too!! Thanks for the great food Geigle family!:)

Gettin ready to head home for the next days events!!!

Spring Break Day 1.... THE DREADED DRIVE!

2010-04-06T18:51:00.001-07:00

We started our great trek to sunny Cali at 3 AM- hoping to have the kids sleep for a while to make the 15 hour trip go by faster. It kind of worked....but neither Ben or I slept very good in the car and that made it a bit hard to stay awake to drive the whole way. We took a pit stop in VIVA LAS VEGAS- I love this place! The girls thought it was soooo cool! We had the pleasure of an extra helper on the trip as well- our niece Hannah came along to help with the kids and a little treat for her too for all the babysitting she helps out with for us:) We only really saw the MGM, The Excalibur, and New York New York (which Jadyn thought was our state capitol building) but this was plenty for the kids to enjoy!
We stopped at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch which I had heard was a pretty neat place. NEAT yes, food good- NO! An extremely overpriced!!! Good thing our waiter was AWESOME! He was even from Twin Falls- crazy!
Table for three???
Along the way we ran into our favorite pirate Capn' Jack!!!
Had to get a little souevenier shopping in...man they look like naturals! YIKES!
Touring the M&M factory...all four floors:)
And we finally made to our destination about 9:00 that night. Our good friend, Aaron played host to our little family for a few days. He has a great little house overlooking the whole San Diego valley. This was the pool in his backyard- big plus for the kids!!

SPRING BREAK!!!!!

2010-04-03T11:02:00.001-07:00

Just a taste of our great advernutres last week for Spring break....details to come including........A trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!!
LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of this.................................................
A Special day for these girls.........
A fun trip to this place to see some awesome sea life........
In a wonderful WARM city called SAN DIEGO!!!!!!!!!!

St Patty's Day Catch Up...

2010-04-03T10:54:00.001-07:00

So it's been a while since I've blogged....SORRY!!! I have a lot of catching up to do so we'll start with St Patty's Day...that's about as far back as I wish to go!! We had a great party at the in-laws new home- yes the FINALLY got their house sold and moved here to Boise over a year later:) It was great to have Grandma Hank and Aunt Kay visiting as well for the festivities!! The place was decked out as you can see and the Irish spirit was all around!

A few of the guests in their party gear!!
The scrumptious corned beef and cabbage! I couldn't believe how yummy the corned beef was! I loved it!! We also dined on Irish Soda bread- DE-LISH!!! Green Jello with whip cream and clover sprinkles, and green fizzy drinks!! SUPERB!!!!
The hosts of the party at their stunning table decor'!!! Thanks for a great time!
Happy St Patty's Day to all!!!

Idaho Capitol Bldg open for business....

2010-01-10T12:02:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, after 30 months of inside and outside renovation of our State Capitol building, we were able to go to the re-opening ceremonies! We froze our little behinds off outside the capitol steps, but it was a pretty neat experience. There aren't too many changes that we noticed, it was mainly electrical, plumbing, and refinishing that was done with all our tax dollars. Still was a pretty sight to see...and we even got to mett and greet with the Govenor! Another celebrity to check off my list:)

I remember looking up at the huge ceiling every year when my Dad came to Boise for Army summer camp and we came to visit the capitol. Still is a sight to see- you can't totally see but ther are tiny stars on the very top. The kids were pretty bummed we couln't get to the stars:(

The very lovely first lady!

And the big man himself- very friendly guy:) Too bad I chose to look like a blimp in glasses on this momentous occasion! Way to go Melissa!

Christmas Present Catastrophe!!

2010-01-03T16:40:00.001-08:00

Grandma Brenda sent the girls some fun bath stuff to play with while in the tub, but one of the fun toys went AMUCK...literally...turned into MUCK!!!! Jadyn got a bottle of bath fizzy colored tablets that bubble and turn your bath water different colors. Well, I put a couple in and the water was starting to turn a beautiful yellow and pink! The girls were loving it while I was doing some ironing in the bedroom until I heard I a scream and they shouted BOGEE NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I ran in and they were screaming in a bathtub that was oozing with black goo! Bogee had ran up to the tub and knocked the whole container of tablets into the tub and they all started to bubble and fizz out turning the water into a black lagoon!!

Nice bath water eh?!

I quickly dumped the remaining tablets into the shower to try and dalvage some for the next bath time...I don't think it will do much good though:(

Ewww gross!! Thanks Grandma it was fun while it lasted!!

Snow what fun!

2010-01-03T16:29:00.001-08:00

Not much snow, but fun aofr a while!

Macee, Halen, and Jadyn...Jadyn is a die hard fro sledding, she never got off even when she was being drug behind the sled half the way she never let go!

Jadyn and Daddy on the four wheeler

This was the "little trailer" they have that sleeps ten plus people, is fully loaded with stereo system, kitchen, bathroom, tv's etc.! We were blaring X-mas carols outside while we were playing so ti was pretty fun:)

One of Ben's bosses at work invited us to go sledding and snow mobiling a few weeks ago...little did we know we would be caravaning in a huge fully loaded trailer!! It was pretty fun, except for we coulodn't find much snow anywhere! There was more snow int he streets of our neighborhood than up in the hills! We settled in a barren parking lot and just toted the kids around in circles there and took turns keeping warm inside the camper eating popcorn and sipping hot chocolate. Thanks for a fun time!!!

Christmas Catch Up!!

2010-01-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well It has been a while since I have posted anything so here's a quick round up! Christmas was great here in Boise this year with Ben's family. We had two days full of food, fun, more food, more fun and games, and more food! As always around the holidays it sems like we were eating then preparing for the next meal right after we got done eating. Ben and his dad cooked our traditional Prime Rib which was delicious and I tried out a new potatoe casserole recipe that I got from a co-worker which was a hit! It did call for two sticks of butter so anything with that much butter ahd to have been good! I also experimented with a Peppermint Trifle dessert this year and man was it scrumptious! The gift giving was great, but boy was Santa nice this year Even I was surprised when I woke up Christmas to a BARBIE JEEP in the living room! I always wanted one fo those! But boy it's fun seeing your kids take off in them too:) Santa brought me a beautiful new black and white diamond necklace too... we must have been really good this year!!
Until next year...ho ho ho!

All up in her 'GRILL'...

2010-01-03T15:49:00.001-08:00

So my sister-in-law,Beth, received a real "GRILL" from one of her students last year for Christmas. The students uncle is a dentist and really makes them for people....I thought only rappers and celebrities were into that?!? It is hilarious and she brought ti out again this year to give as a white elephant gift at a Christmas party....umm is that sanitary??? Of course the girls had to try it out and man were they cool! PEACE!

Whatup! BSU rocks!

Happy Halloween!!!!

2009-11-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

A visit to a Witche's House in our neighborhood! The lady makes these and adds a new addition every year! Super cool house and they let us take some photos!

Posing with pumpkins!

Trick-or-Treat! Man they are cute:)

Bubble bubble toil and trouble.....witche's brew!

This homemade root beer was a big hit with the girls-they loved it!

My super cute bumble bee who insisted on doing her OWN hair for the evening, complete with Christmas hair bows...she is really into doing her hair now, and she changes her hair as much as Macee changes her clothes! UGH!

My adorable Tinkerbell Fairy! She looked so pretty and grown up:( Thanks to Aunt Liz and cousin Emma for loaning us the cute costume- and of course Kudos to Grandma Brenda for her amazing sewing on both costumes!

We had a GREAT Halloween this year- the girls really were excited! We started out our day with scrumptious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins-mmmmm:) We did a little bit of cleaning, just a bit and then watched the awesome BSU game-which we won AGAIN OF COURSE!! Go Broncos!
Then we had some good friends and also Grandma and Grandpa Greenwood over for chili and cornbread, chips and guacamole, homemade WITCHES BREW (root beer on dry ice), and lots sweet treats!!! YUM-O! Then it was off to Trick-or Treat and treats we got!! The weather wasn't too cold and the girls had a fabulous time. Until next year!!

Field Trip to the Zoo...

2009-10-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

So MAcee's Kindergarten class had their first field trip to the zoo this week and Ben volunteered to help out since he ahs the girls in the morning before he goes to work. I sent the camera with him to take pictures and when he got home that night I looked throught them and all I found were pictures of Jadyn in a rose garden??!! I guess by the time they got the kids to the zoo and everyone checked in and they did a little pre zoo information session with the kids before the toured, Ben ended up having to leave for work so he didn't even get to go through with them! Nice! But he did get soem cute pictures of Jadyn out of it!:)

Goooooo Broncos!!!

2009-10-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

The girls with their favorite pal Cody outside the stadium. Cody is a longtime friend and my girls, especially MAcee, love him! Don't they look cute in the pink football shirts! The only kid orange or blue shirts we have found are still huge on them so Ben tried to buy some at the game but pink was all they had! They are cute shirts though:)

Rallying before the big game! Go BSU!

Dick and Jan (in-laws) who went to the Highly anticipated Oregon Ducks game with Ben- what a great game! On the bakc of their shirts it says "ducks do really crash and burn on the BLUE TURF!" It has been said that when the blue turf was originally put in, lots of birds would think it was water when flying over head and they would come crashing down into the turf trying to land in the water. A good many birdies did not survive- just like Oregon!!

So the girls finally made it to their first Boise State Football Game! Goooo Broncos! They sat right in the end zone and got to watch the team come barrelling out of the smoking tunnell! Jadyn got a bit scared but they loved it! They only lasted till half time, but it was a blow out anyway so Ben didn't mind leaving. When they got home I asked if they had a good time, and all they could talk about was the horse that rode around with the orange and blue tail, and the awesome cheerleaders!! I think we may have some future Spirit Squad members??!!! At least if I have any say in it!:) I am going to the game this weekend with Ben , it's Homecoming so should be fun! We are doing AWESOME this year if you havn't noticed- ORANGE and BLUE through and through we are rising up in the polls! Keep it up Broncos!!!

Dancing for Dad...

2009-10-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

I just figured out how to work the video recorder on my camera.....a year later:) We played around with it a bit at dinner on Ben's b-day so I;m not sure if this will even work so if not here's a nice blurry shot for you to look at!:)

Birthdays are Fun!

2009-10-02T16:56:00.001-07:00

Well I am just now getting to posting about our two September Birthdays! It's only October!!! Macee turned the big 6 - holy cow! and Ben 38!! Just kidding- 31:) Here's a bit of our festivities! Jadyn had a little too much of the DELICIOUS chocolate birthday cake!

Mom is great! She gives us chocolate cake! I totally gave in and bought birthday cakes this year instead of making them. Yeah I spent more money, but boy it felt great to just buy it and serve it! No hot ovens, no crumbling the cake while attempting to frost, no last minute baking! YES!! IT was fabulous and tasted fabulous!!! Highly recommend it!

We celebrated Ben's bday at PF Changs! Yum! Chopstix anyone??!!

Say CHEEEESE!! Thanks for coming everyone!

Happy B-day Dad- we love you!

Macee had a fun bday party at a local park with tons of playground toys! Hello- bday party haven! We had lots of friends, family, and even a surprise visit from Grandma dn Grandpa Bennett who drove four hours to celebrate! WOW thanks! Macee was very surprised and excited. WE had an Ariel theme going on- so we dug for treasure, had a flounder fish race, and even had a great time popping balloon bubble on Prince Eric's lap (dearest bro-in-law was kind enough to be the handsome Prince Eric and let a bunch of kids come jump on his lap and try and pop balloons!!:) Everyone had a great time -thanks for coming and for the great gifts:)

Costco cake- YUMMO! Feeds lots, tastes great, great buy!! Happy Birthday kiddo!!

The best present of all....a NEW BIKE!!!! Her old one was literally falling apart because she rode it so much. This one is bigger and better she says!! Hope it lasts!!! Can't believe she is 6 already! WOW! Love ya tons Miss MAcee!!!

First Day of School!!

2009-09-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

I was so excited for Macee to finally start Kindergarten since she just missed the deadline last year by a week! She was very excited to and is loving it! We actually only found out the day before school started which school she wouls be going to so it was a bit crazy - this mom stuff is tuff!
She ended up getting into a great school and her teacher is actually a good friend and fellow education graduate of my Sister in law, Beth. She recommended the school her friend taught at and we also got lucky enough to get her as Macee's teacher. Macee really likes her, mainly because of how cute she dresses:) Every day when I pick her up she tells me how pretty her teacher looked today and describes her ensamble to a "t". Do I have a fashionista on my hands or what! Ugh! Her other favorite thing is eating "hot lunch" in a cafeteria! It's the best thing ever!
Jadyn is also going to preschool right next to the elementary so it works out great for the two fo them and they are still together. Jadyn loves recess and also a girl named "Nicolette" who likes to look out for Jadyn. One day Jadyn asked if we could bring her home with us:) Macee is loving it and can't wait for her first field trip next week to the zoo! The only thing she wishes was that she could have the bus take her home instead of me picking her up:( Maybe someday!

Fun at the Fair!

2009-09-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

It was fair time again and of course we couldn't resist! Although the fair is quite expensive these days! So, we ate dinner before we left and vowed to just get a treat to share, and enjoy a few rides and look around. I joined Jadyn and Macee for an airplane ride to start, which they loved, but then Jadyn went to go on one by herself and screamed the minute it took off. Nice how my child had to be the one to stop the ride and be taken off :) After that she just wanted to play games- so Miss Macee got extra ride tickets! She was just fine with that! While Macee and Ben enjoyed a father daughter Ferris Wheel ride at the end of the night- Jadyn and I headed out for some mini chocolate covered doughnuts- YUM!!! Then back to the petting zoo for the second time to feed her good friend- the baby ox. She LOVED him and loved feeding him. Four cups of feed later, we met back up with Macee and Ben and headed home. Just the right taste of the fair this year:)

More Pirates Cove

2009-09-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more pics of our awesome trip to Pirate's Cove- I want to put them all in, but that would take forever! Here's someone flying out of the crazy waterslide that comes out of a pirate ship. This slide goes sooo fast and plays music as you go through it. At night it is all lit up in side with crazy disco lights too which makes it so fun and exciting!
Here's where the slide comes out and the rope swing you can swing across from the rock ledges or the top of the ship and jump in to the water!
Ben and Bro in Law Matt having a blast playing in the water- we missed you Chelsea!
View of the second pool which you could gradually walk in to and hang out under the tiki huts while kids played. It also had a slower kid slide to go down , and behind the slide was a secret cave with a fish tank inside. There was also an outdoor kitchen right next to the pool here with an outdoor brick oven pizza oven, BBQ, and lounge area where we would eat a lot of meals.
Kind of hard to see, but this was the living area and kitchen of our "house" . There were about 4 houses that had 3-5 bedrooms and a living area with big screen tvs and kitchens full of food. Ours was right nest to the waterslide pool so we had a lot of compnay all day long!
There were two giant teeter totters on the roof tops of two buildings. They were enormous and hard to get on, but boy what a view of Lake Mead from up there!
ARGH MATEY! Lots of fun pirates hanging around everywhere- Me and my firned Val having some fun with the scenery:)
View of the main house and pool. There was basketball at this pool, and you can see a big projector screen ont he side of the building where we watched a movie lounging in the pool one night. Some people even fell asleep in the water! There were also icee machines and an ice cream machine here for continous refreshing treats ALL DAY LONG! Yes, I did gain a few pounds while staying here, but also worked it off climbing all the stairs and getting around everywhere int he huge 20,000 square foot complex!

Here's the mast where there were a few crows nests to jump from into the water. I only made it out of the first one, but Ben jumped all the way from the top one on our last night there! Luckily I was in bed by then or I probably wouldn't have let him jump=yikes! There is also a hidden grotto behind the waterfall there. This trip was so much fun and a great way to end the summer! We also had a day in Las Vegas where we enjoyed shopping, a massage at the hotel ( thanks dear sweet hubby for the gift :), and we saw the ever popular "O" performance- really cool!! Thanks for a great mini vaca DotComSecrets!

Check out Pirate's Cove....

2009-08-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a view of where we went last weekend! Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QffodAlHwQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE-XcQwE6QQ

Pirate's Cove....

2009-08-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally had our trip to Pirate's Cove in Boulder City Nevada this past weekend and it was everything and more!! I have been looking forward to this child free getaway for months now! This place is insane and like a playhouse for adults filled with pools, waterslides, pirate ships, rope swings, cliff jumping, and more!! Ben's company paid for all of the employees to go to Pirate's Cove for a weekend and if you have a chance check it out on You Tube. One of the founders of 'Nuskin' products bought all of the props from the Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas when they remodeled and built this pirate haven mansion overlooking Lake Mead. More pictures and stories to come!!!!

Bride to Be!!!

2009-08-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

My wonderful friend Danica is getting married!!!! Not until October, but we wanted to have a fun pool party with the girls to wish her single life goodbye! I have known Danica since my freshman year at college where we have shared many great memories cheering at BSU together, being roomates, and just plain having fun! I am so happy for her and wish her the best for her upcoming big day! Love you Nica!!!

Camping in McCall.....

2009-08-26T18:40:00.001-07:00

We finally got one camping trip in this year a few weeks ago, but it happened to be the one weekend that ended up raining almost the whole time:( We roughed it out though and didn't get too soaked! We found an awesome camping spot right on the Upper Payette Lake near McCall and had a great few days full of fishing( even though we didn't catch anything!!!), eating, swimming, eating, campfires, eating, hiking, and more eating!! Thanks for a good time with Aunt Beth and cousins Hannah and Drew who joined us!

Picnic on the rocks with Beth and Bogee
Crazy kids swimming in ice cold water!
Roasting mallows! YUM!
Love my Dad!
Campfires RULE!
A lovely spot for our tents
Diggin all day in the sand....sorry Jadyn I had to post this! Reminds me of your Grandpas!! hee hee
We couldn't have found a better spot to camp!

A hiking we will go!
Fishing fun!
Smile...we're cookin smores!
See ya next year!

From the mouths of babes.....

2009-08-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Oh how it would be to think like a child again, so simple, so innocent, so pure and not really understanding the realities of the world today. Yesterday the girls were asking a lot of questions about a little boy who has been missing in the area since July 24th. The community has really come together to search for him and it has been all over in the paper, on the news, and posters everywhere around town. Of course, Macee being as inquisitive as she is, has been asking lots of questions which have been very hard to answer. It is just not a fun topic to talk about with your kids either:( Unfortunately, they did find a small boys body in a canal a few days ago and it looks like it may be that of the missing boy. They were asking if it was him and I told them the police were not sure who the boy was yet that they found.
Jadyn then said, "Well if it is him then he is probably up in heaven huh, mom."
I agreed, and then Macee said, " I wish that somebody had Jesus' phone number so then we could just call him and ask if the boy is up there already and then everybody would know."
Ahh to think like a child, I think that is one of my favorite parts of being a parent is hearing the cute and creative things they say. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of this poor little boy.

Ahh can you smell the ocean air....

2009-07-09T10:52:00.001-07:00

So this is where we were heading.....
Is everybody excited and happy??!!!!
Are we there yet??????
I need to go pooootttyyyy!!!!!!
I can't believe I let you talk me into a nine hour car ride....
Somebody's thirsty!
Are we there yeeettt?????
Yet another pit stop......
Everybody out and run around the car 30 times! Can you find Waldo in our stuffed trunk?!
I must say it was a BEAUTIFUL drive...
The line of cars heading to the beach from Portland! It's about 70 miles and took us about 3 hours bumper to bumper pretty much the whole way!!!
AAARRREEE WWEEEE TTTHHEEERRREE YYYEEEEETTT!!!????
YES! We finally made it! Dad even let us have ice cream while we were waiting for our dinner table! AWESOME! Dessert first rocks! Is this what they do in Seaside?
Gotta love the fresh clams!
Puttin' on my best fish face while I wait for my fish dish!
Yea for the beach! Let's play in the sand and dig for shells!
Everybody loved the ocean- even if we couldn't swim in it!
Bogee digging for buried treasure- hillarious!!
Look at those waves!
Say SALTWATER!!!!!!
One worn out pooch:)
Happy 4th of July! We waited almost two hours for a parade to start that wouldn't even start for another hour! Someone told us the wrong start time!!!
Fun with cousins we met up with on the beach:)
What a view...don't look down!
View from our hotel... just a hop, skip, and jump to the beach!
GOONIES!!!!!
Beautfiful sunset on our last night there...thanks for a great trip to
gorgeous Oregon Country!!!! Until next time!

The Surprise Trip was to.......

2009-07-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Oregon Coast!!!!! Yes, call us crazy, and even more crazy to go 4th of July weekend, but completely unplanned drove to the coast. Being a wife and mother you know it was a little hard to say "OK" to this as we tend to have to plan these trips for weeks or months before going- but for once I said all right let's just wing it! And wing it we did! We threw a tent in the car hoping to camp, but soon found out if you want to camp on the coast that weekend you book your spot at LEAST a YEAR in advance!!! We thought it was kind of funny that the first person laughed at us for asking if they had a spot available, but after 7 people laughed in our face, it got to be a bit frustrating and embarrassing!
Needless to say we learned many things on this trip- that being one of them. We were getting to be a bit scared now, not so much excited to be there when there was NO PLACE for us to stay! Not even a stable! A girl did suggest throwing our tent up on this grassy hill off the highway - "It's totally legal" she said.....mmmmm not thanks:) Finally we found one roachtel..I mean motel to stay at for the night. It was a bit scary and old, but the bathtub in this place was so big that all four of us were swimming in it! Not kidding!
Anyway, after the comfort of knowing we had a place to crash and getting in some good clam chowder since we were starving, the rest of the trip was amazing, even if it flew by super fast. I am so glad we just decided to hop in the car and go and take a fun first family vacation on our own. We danced in the FREEZING ocean, played in the soft warm sand, saw AMAZING ocean views, visited a few of Ben's cousins that happened to be there too, and watched the fireworks right on the beach- however, Ben and I both agree that the Idaho Falls fireworks show cannot be topped!!
Thanks, Dad, for thinking up this great adventure for us and we will definitly be making the trek again- only this time with a bit more planning!!!

Surprise trip for Jadyn's Birthday and the 4th of July....

2009-07-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

So after getting home from a six hour car ride from Bear Lake on Thursday, Ben informed me that I needed to unpack the suitcases and re-pack for a few more days. WHAT! He had a surprise adventure planned for us for Jadyn's birthday and the 4th. Needless to say I was not very excited about packing again and getting back into the car for who nows how long of a drive, but we smiled and lef that night about 9pm. Where did we go you may ask???? You will soon find out! But here's alittle taste of our last minute "road trip"!

Happy Birthday To Jadyn!

2009-07-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Jadyn turned 3 last week! We had the fun of celebrating in Bear Lake with cousins, then at home with Dad too who coudln't make it:( I found this really cute Pinata for the kids to bat down and they had a blast! What's better than giving your kids a bat and telling them to hit something as hard as they can- then filling them full of sugar for a week! Sounds aweseom to me! Oh to be a kid again:) Happy birthday my big three year old- love ya lots!

Jadyn's Birthday Present....

2009-07-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks before her birthday Dad kept asking JAdyn what she wanted for her birthday this year...can you guess what she told him???? Introducing the newest member of our family- Bogee (as in a BOGEY in golf) a 7 week old boxer. Full name Birdie Par Bogey- hmmm I wonder who named this puppy???? Once again I aks myslef the question..what have we gotten ourselves in to!!!! I'm sure I will be posting, or should I say venting lots of future Bogee stories:) He is cute though...for now!

Bear Lake Getaway...

2009-07-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Jadyn...still no bangs grown back yet!

The newest cousin- Baby Jack! So nice to finally meet you cutie!

The kids enjoying ice cream....

I mean the KIDS enjoying ice cream:)

Mini Golf!

Haning out nwiht Jadyn in 12 inches of water...exciting!

The three Amigos about to jump in......

SPLASH!!! They did this for hours! Kimball, Macee, and Clara

Sweet Jadyn relaxing in her tube

Mommy and Jadyn finding seashells on the beach- which later spilled all over in the fornt seat of the car...I'm still finding seashells!

Playing in the sand

Building sandcastles

We had a great visit with my family to Bear Lake which we havn't been to in a long time! I loved going here as a kid so I couldn't wait to take my own kids. We got to hang out on the beach, swim in the pools, miniature golf, swim in the pool,eat lots of ice cream, swim in the pool, celebrate Jadyn's Birthday, and did I mention swim in the pool! Yeah! Happy Birthday to my big 3 year old! Holy cow I can't believe she's 3 now:( Here's some pictures of our fun times- thanks Grandma and Grandpa Bennett for inviting us!

Father's Day

2009-07-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

We had a nice low key Father's Day this year which was nice. We joined friends for what was supposed to be a relaxing boat ride to a picnic site to have lunch- but the wind mad!

e it a little chilly and hard to keep a hold of our food:) It was fun times though. Then we let Dad come home and have a big nap while we baked a Father's Day treat! Last we met up with the in-laws and Beth for a scrumptious dinner. I asked the girls whta they loved most about their Dad and this was their response:

Macee- he lets me watch TV and sleep on the couch with him and he is a good golfer

Jadyn- he loves me and plays with me

Mommy- he is a great Dad, husband, provider, friend and loves me unconditionally just to name a few:)

Happy Father's Day Dad- we love you!

Fashion Statement...

2009-06-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Can you see this look coming down the runway anytime soon? My girls seem to think it's pretty cute! Crazy kids! Yes those are my tights:)

Road Rash!

2009-06-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Once again Jadyn has managed to get another facial injury- road rash to the cheek:) This kid gets more scrapes and cuts and bruises than I can keep up with! I love how kids just keep going though. She's a tough one! I love summertime, especially since the kids can go out and play, but man I run out of bandaids every week!

More Graduation Pics

2009-06-12T09:30:00.001-07:00

Zacchius in the Sycamore Tree
Macee's good friend Abbey ( they stood by each other in every song:)
Trophy for memorizing Psalm 100 and graduation certificate

Singing "God Bless America"

Preschool Graduation....AGAIN!

2009-06-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, once again Macee graduated from Pre-school- third time's a charm right! Her teacher was great and they gave a great performance of what they had learned for the year. They even got a trophy for memorizing Psalm 100, and if you aren't familiar with that bible verse-look it up-holy cow! It did take them almos the whole school year to memorize :) Grandma and Grandpa Bennett made it up too which was fun and a loong way to come for a half hour show:) Thanks Gma and Gpa! Congrats once again Miss Macee and now FINALLY Kindergarten this year! (Those darn Sept. 1st deadlines:)

End of Gymnastics....

2009-06-04T17:53:00.001-07:00

Well the girls finished up their gymnastics classes, much to their dismay. They love it, and I love to watch them:) Jadyn actually did really well once she got used to it and Miss Macee did awesome as always! They had a little performance at the end of class today and got ribbons for accomplishing all their skills. Way to go Greenwood Girls!

More Gymnastics...

2009-06-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

GOOOOOOOOO Macee!!!

Gymnastics!

2009-06-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

GOOOOOOOOOOOO Jadyn!

Fun with Friends...

2009-06-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

While in IF I had a greati time catching up with old friends, breakfast at Smitty's with my dearest friends from high school and two teachers who have also remained dearest friends- it's kind of a tradition to do breakfast at Smitty's:) Then my friend Sam, who I havn't seen in WAY too long, brought over her super cute boys to play with my girls. A bit awkward for Macee at first I think, but after a bit they were having a blast as kids always do:) I also got to visit with my friend Lindsey who came all the way from Scotland!! Good times as always with my girls, but much overdue! Until next time I love you all!

The Ants Go Marching....

2009-06-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

I know this is nasty, but I had to post this ridiculous ant farm! GROSSS! I almost stepped in it down by the river- but stopped just in time to be grossed out by the massive amount of ants! Enjoy my gross humor:)

Visit to IF

2009-06-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

We had a great little trip home to Idaho Falls last weekend- despite taking 7 hours to get there because of a flat tire! Long story short, I was stranded on the side of th road trying to look desperate for some kind stranger to help a lady out, and who comes to my rescue? My old neighbor from Jerome! I love having great neighbors- especially those who help you out AFTER you have moved! Thanks soooo much again Cody for saving the day, and sorry for making him late to dinner Cheryl:)

Memorial Day Fun

2009-05-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a nice relaxing Memorial Day together yesterday. We went to the Eagle Field of Honor to see all of the flags on display, then played at a enw park we discovered there that had a fun water spot to cool us off from the heat! The weather was beautiful so we set up the slip in slide afterwards at home and played for a bit int he sun. That night we went to Aunt Beth's for a fun BBQ with cousins. Thanks for the yummy grub Beth and Nick!
To all who came before us, to all who passed away- we love you and we miss you, on this Memorial Day.....

Field of Honor...

2009-05-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

As I was driving last week I noticed a sign saying "Eagle Field of Honor" and as I drove further I saw a field full of American Flags, similar to the one they put up in July in Idaho Falls honoring all the military who have served or are serving our country. The City of Eagle (right next to Boise) has been doing this too for a few years now I guess. so for Memorial Day I thought we would take the kids over to see this great display and talk a little about the meaning behind it. It is so neat to see over 600 flags displayed all at once! While there we decided to sponsor a flag as well and got one in my Dad's name in honor of his many years of service in the military. I am very thankful for my Dad's support of this country and feel blessed he was able to serve safely and not have to travel too far or for too long during his work in Desert Storm. We got to put his name on a yellow ribon and attach it for lal to see and then we get to take the flag home at the end of the week. How cool- love you Dad!

Prince Charming.....

2009-05-18T14:10:00.001-07:00

While golfing this weekend- Macee found her prince charming in a lake hidden in the lilypads!

Fun Golf Day

2009-05-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful weekend getting to visit with our old friends and neighbors from Hailey- Bruce and Eileen West! They lived above us in our condo in Hailey during our short stay but we became very good friends. Macee- our little socialite (sp??) was only 2 but quickly introduced our family to our neighbors upstairs:) They were like our parents away from home-and were so good to us and so fun to visit and hang out with. They loved MAcee and Gizmo too! Whenever they would get back from their monthly trip to Costco in Twin Falls Macee would go upstairs for some strawberries and "adatados" (avacados). Anyway, we have managed to keep in touch with all of our moves and they happened to be in Boise this weekend so we got to go golfing with them. It was a perfect warm and beautiful day on the prettiest course. I actually golfed rather well for only my second time out this year and had a blast. The scenery was awesome and we saw many critters along the way including turtles, bullfrogs, a snake, and rock chucks! Macee joined us as well and also hit the ball great! We had a great lunch afterwards and visited for a bit before they headed back. Thanks for a fun visit Bruce and Eileen- we miss you guys!