Merry Christmas!

Thanks to Vince's sister, Shalon, for taking these pictures for us. We had a fun time doing our cold little photo shoot.

We got the best smile out of Evan when he found a warm pocket of air!

The ONLY one of Rachel smiling, which is funny because she's such a happy baby!

And of course, by the end, we were ready to strangle each other! But we had a great time.

We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season! We love this time of year when we get to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ! Merry Christmas!

Easter Joys

First of all, YIKES! I realize it has been a very long time since I last posted. My apologies! We are in the thick of things with the basement, trying to finish up before the baby comes. It's so fun to see things coming along so well! So exciting. But my blogging has suffered because of it. Sorry, sorry! But I actually took some pictures of our fun Easter festivities to show you all we can still have fun, even when it's busy! I sure love this time of year. I just love the Spring!! And I especially love when we can celebrate the life, Atonement, and Resurrection of our Savior!


We had our traditional coloring of Easter eggs. I really think Vince enjoys it just as much as the kids do! Here is everyone with their favorite eggs! They're all so typical of each person, too. Brooke's is purple with a pretty butterfly. Evan made his into a death star (of course--has to be Star Wars)! And Vince colored and dyed, and colored and dyed his egg to make it into a gorgeous globe! He's so artistic!

Here the kids are looking for their eggs and candy! So much fun!

The kids have Spring Break this week, and Vince was out of town for work as usual. So I decided to take the kids and head up to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hogge for the week! Of course, we're the only crazy ones that leave town and head NORTH for Spring Break instead of SOUTH where it's actually warm! We were welcomed into town with a snow storm! And it's been the same weather since! But at least we're more welcomed by the warmth of the Hogge Home than the blizzard outside! We love being here, and the kids have non-stop fun!

Grandpa took the kids for a four-wheeling ride, and taught them how to drive (aak)!! They were both timid at first, but were whippin' around after, oh, 30 seconds or so!

Look at those smiles!

Then Grandpa had to "smooth out the horse poop" as Evan put it. So he taught them how to "drive" his pickup! Sheesh! They learn everything here! You can kind of see Evan at the wheel on Grandpa's lap here. Apparently Brooke got those turns pretty well!

We've also been swimming at the YMCA and to the pizza buffet and arcade place they love to visit. We've played games and eaten s'mores with marshmallow bunnies, and watched a movie on the big projector! Whew! And we've only been here 2 days! Sure is fun!

And to finish off, we had a wonderful photo session in our backyard on Sunday with the kids' Easter outfits Grandma made. Don't they look adorable?! (Thanks, Grandma!!) I sure love these kids!

Of course, Brooke wanted to take some "silly pictures" and yup, pretty silly!

Evan wanted to pose just like Brookie:

Aw, good friends!
Standing by the apricot tree! (Look, it really IS Spring!)
I love this picture! So typically Evan!
And doesn't Brooke look like a sweet little angel? What a great girl!

And yes, because you know I was feeling huge before. Well here I am MANY weeks later and even huger! (Do you like the lovely expression on my face in the first picture?)

I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow! Woohoo! And I've already gotten the comments about how I look like I'm ready to have this baby any day now. But I still do have another month and a half. The baby was measuring bigger for about 6 weeks. They were concerned about a couple of things, so I've had two more ultrasounds. She went through a bit of a growth spurt, but seems to be evening out and she's right on track now. I'm still measuring about 2 cm bigger, but not as big as before, so that's good. Now we're trying to finish the basement so we can get the baby's room situated upstairs and all ready. I've got the big box of newborn clothes to wash and put away. That was fun to go through those old clothes! Haven't done that in many many years! We're all starting to get excited and anxious to see her! And I wanted to add that the best part about last week's ultrasound was the technician actually saw HAIR on her head! I had no idea you could even see that on an ultrasound! But she showed me, our little baby has a head of hair! Can't wait to see it in person!

Skiing Pictures

Lest you think I'm not having any fun while my children are away, I thought I'd give you a taste of what I'm spending my time doing...

My little brother and sister, Joseph & Debbie on the tube:


My little brother, Peter had never gotten up on skis before. He'd tried, but never successfully skied. He just needed a good teacher! Vince is the best. Peter popped right up the very first time, and went forever! He crossed both wakes over and over. I love the grin, especially. He looked like a natural. I guess it really is in our genes!


But you'd better watch out, Pete. Once you've been skiing once, it's in your blood, and you'll never be the same again!

Our Camping Trip

Vince got a holiday from work for Pioneer Day. We decided we just haven't been camping enough yet this Summer, so we packed EVERYTHING up we could think of in the back of the truck and hauled it all up to the mountains. We originally wanted to try a little reservoir with campsites right by the water, but of course, being a State Holiday, there was no room left in any of the best campgrounds. We drove around a few minutes before deciding on a very cute little spot with lots of trees, and four, count them FOUR secret hiding spots for the kids (complete with secret passwords you had to repeat each time you entered their lairs). As an added bonus, the campsite was right next to a little stream the kids enjoyed immensely. We set up camp Thursday afternoon and relaxed with steak & potatoes and s'mores, of course.

Friday morning we loaded up and headed to the lake to try out the fishing. Here's a picture of the lake:


And the kids fishing:


But it was WWAAAYYY too crowded there, so we went to a more secluded spot for our picnic lunch:

After we got back to our campsite, we wandered back behind the campgrounds to try to find the river that we heard the night before. We tried fishing all along the way, and finally found one little successful spot:
Vince caught a little one:

And I caught TWO fish, right in a row! And they were the first fish I've ever caught all by myself. Trouble is, I'm the camera(wo)man, and was too caught up in the squirmy, wiggly fish at the end of my line to think about snapping a picture. So no pictures of my two first fishies. :( But rest assured, they were HUGE!! :)

Vince's sister, Shalon & her boyfriend, Skylar met us that night. On Saturday we went for a little hike (away from all the hordes of people) and got to this pretty little blue lake:

On our way out, we drove to the lake where we got our engagement picture taken:

And this is our funny attempt to recreate it! (My, we sure were a lot cleaner 8 years ago!)

And our cute kids on the same little rock:

Lastly, my scenery pictures of the blue lake. It was so pretty with the wildflowers. Enjoy!