Cuteness!!

Love the smile on Kate's face. Luke let her have a turn pushing our kitty Cleo in the doll stroller. Yes, she was a little thrilled that the kitty played along. Good kitty. 

Ally's after school playdate. To my surprise we had winter gear enough for four of her school friends.
They had fun sledding and came in soaked. Friends are awesome!!! 

Jason's Birthday Celebration

We surprised Jason with a balloon drop from the banister. Ally and Tyler dumped balloons on Jason while he was skyping with his parents and face timing with Hollie and Jozsef. The family all collected funds and bought Jason a 22 gun for his birthday. He was pleasantly surprised. 

So we had to head to the West desert for a little shooting. I got to play with my new camera. 

This is Ty trying out Jason's new gun. The boys had a fun time shooting it up. The also had fun slipping around in the mud. We were happy to not drive into the canal as we slipped along through a muddy road. We eventually had to turn around and retrace to a more frozen area of the desert. 

Carter got a chance to use his 22 he got last year for Christmas. He complains he doesn't get enough opportunity to use his christmas present. He's probably right. 

My three boys having fun, being cold and showing us what's what and who's who.

Jason having a fun birthday.

Ally took her turn at the shooting but spent most of the time in the car with me trying to stay warm. It was really cold. 

Nice shooting Tex. Jason picked BBQ for his birthday dinner. We pulled off in a little town near the Great Salt Lake and enjoyed some pretty good food. It was a proper birthday for a Texas boy, shooting, BBQ and lots of mud. 

Jason took this photo of Byron and I. Byron loves it. It is a great photo, it was a beautiful day. I look tough.
Don't mess; armed and dangerous. We have been shooting enough now I can actually remember how to load, unlock and shoot the guns  on my own. I am surprised at how much actual practice you need to get any good at shooting. Not a natural thing for me. 

Ice Castles!!! Heber, UT

The kids and I headed up to Heber at the end of Christmas Break to see the Ice Castles. The one above was the free ice castle by the Homestead resort. We really enjoyed walking around and checking this one out. It wasn't what we came all the way up to Heber for though. 

Careful Carter, it's slippery. 

This was the main event. The Ice Castles. There was literally a maze made out of ice that we would through. Also slot canyons like Southern Utah which were pretty dang cool. No pun intended. 

Ally and I chill it in the ice. We had such a fun time eating pizza and exploring Heber. Not much there but we did have a fun afternoon. We hit the outlets afterward for a bit of wardrobe refreshment. The kids uniforms start to look hashed about half way through the year. Thank you Children's Place for keeping uniforms in stock all year. 

I am really proud of this photo. The kids were kind enough to let me play with my camera for a few minutes. I love this truck and would be proud to park one just like it in my driveway. I will have to settle for a photograph. 

I love how this photo turned out as well. This would be paintable. Maybe next week. 

Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Livsey's house. We were all enjoying a nice evening. The kids were getting along and eating their yummy BBQ Ribs. Someone called out, there's a fire. All eyes were plastered on the windows. Out on the deck, grab the binoculars, add the zoom to the cameras...exciting.

Cute Kate (Chuck and Lisa's little girl) enjoying her dinner. Kate got her socks wet out on the deck looking at the fire. She was very pleased when I took them off for her. I just love this little gal. Tonight she ran over to give me a little hug when we found each other. Why is it that having a little person who likes you so fulfilling? She is a sweetie.

We finally determined what building had started blazing and luckily it was a new apartment building that was vacant still due to it being still under construction. We spent about an hour watching this fire grow to 150 foot high flames. That is from the news, not just us over estimating. The blaze was enormous!!! 

The building burnt clear to the ground. We watched it go from a solid apartment building to a 2X4 frame. It was incredibly humbling to see how quickly something can be eaten by the flames. The firemen had lots of water flowing downtown, they kept the fire from spreading to other buildings on the block. Thankfully we did not loose Cafe Rio or Smith's Marketplace. Cafe Rio would have been a real loss. 

Night Sledding

 We love it when Charles and Lisa call us up with a crazy idea on their minds. This past week they gave us a ring and invited us to meet them at the golf course for night sledding. The kids quickly finished up their last homework problems and jumped into their snowgear. All the kids enjoyed sledding in the dark. They did a little snow surfing as well. Fun night. We are so lucky to have Chuck and Lisa so close. They are a couple full of adventure and help us get a little more excitement into our lives. I struggled, a lot, with the night shooting. I need to look up some tips on dealing with night lighting. My camera never wanted to take the photo. Urgh! Frustrating.

Around the corner

 Ally was lucky enough to get to go to her best friend Gabby's baptism last week.  I can hardly believe it possible that they are old enough for this big step.  How has time flown by so quickly? Gabby, Reed and Kylie were all baptized the same day from our ward. There are twelve kids from our ward who will be turning eight this year and getting baptized. What a cute group.

 These party animals had a great time at the Lion House celebrating Gabby's birthday. They played cute games like "button button whose got the button", and hide the thimble. It was so fun. They also got to pull salt water taffy. Warm, sticky, sweet fun.

Ally made an A out of her salt water taffy. It was a great joy, strange to say, but it was a joy for me to go back to the Lion House. Byron and I had our wedding reception there and I haven't been back since. I have driven by a few times but hadn't been inside for well, 16 years. So many memories from that evening flooded through me. Even the smell of the old home filled me with remembrances. Such a good day. As we toured around the home with the nine giggling girls my mind was sixteen years in the past reliving the best day of my life. I am such a lucky girl.

The party and baptism of Gabby has given my heart a little pitter patter. I have realized how close we are to Ally's baptism and it has kick started me toward working on her portrait. This is a tradition I have done for Carter and Tyler. I saw a painting in the friend of a little girl with Jesus just before Carter was baptized and decided I wanted to paint him coming into Christ's fold. So I have Byron pose for me with our little one and paint their portrait. I then turn the hand into a representation of Christ's hand.  They have turned out pretty well thus far. It is hard for me to do portraits and I put a lot of prayer into them since I don't do them often but really hope they will turn out well for my kids. I wish I could say in the last 6 years, the time between Carter and Ally's baptism that portraits have become easy for me or I feel my abilities have increased in painting them but alas I cannot. They are stressful and heartbreaking for me as I struggle through and am very self critical. It is fun though if I can end up with an okay painting I can give to my cute kids. I think Carter and Tyler like their paintings and I couldn't let Ally feel left out. Thankfully we don't have any more kids so this tradition will end with her. Phew! Let the painting begin. I know the only reason I come out with semi-decent results if that the Lord is gracious and sends help my way as I am working on these difficult projects.