2010 Family Pictures

My best friend Lindsay Ross did our YEARLY family pictures again this year and we had a lot of fun doing them. I try to make it as easy as possible on my husband so this year we let everyone wear whatever they wanted (not planned, but everyone picked something different to wear as we walked out the door!), I wanted some with us in hoodies because both Fro and i love hoodies, and I thought it would be fun to get some shots of our family doing what we love- BIKING! so we have a bit of everything!! Lindsays motto for pictures is wear something comfortable and what you would normally wear- so Fro got the best of both worlds!! Here are a few of my favorites!!!

I love this one because Cam is constantly making faces, and I can't help but laugh when I look at him in this!



i ended up loving different things about each picture so here are more, and more and more............

My favorites of Ali

 

My favorites of Cam

 

And a whole bunch More......

 

We had fun on our bikes, it was trickier terrain than we anticipated with lots of rocks, but we had fun and i love all the pictures I have of my little family!! thanks linds you are the best!!!

THE INJURY

On wednesday Fro had planned to go to the bike park with one of his buddies. Nothing unusual- ten minutes after getting there I got a call from him asking which ER he could go to. I thought he was kidding but NOPE!! He was there 10 minutes before he HYPEREXTENDED his left KNEE! He was jumping into a bowl on his bike and hit it a little twisted and put his left leg down. It popped his knee completely backwards!! Not a pretty sight, his knee is swollen 3 times his other knee. The worst part of the whole ordeal is we have a family BIKING trip planned to St. George in less than a week and he can't walk. It is a huge bummer, but hopefully he will be up and walking in no time!

It is pretty awesome that Fro can drop huge 30 ft. drops on his bike, and fly down an entire mountain in under 4 minutes, but give him something small and dumb, and he is bound to get hurt! it is just the way he works.

 

Yes this is my 2 year old taking over the Bike Park in SANDY!! How awesome is that!! I was pretty excited when my husband showed up with a brand new skate helmet for Cam. It was for a five year olds head, and it still didn't fit Cams head!! So after finding one that would fit his head they were off to the bike park. I think Fro was even more excited about it than Cam, but after figuring out his way around, Cam couldn't stop talking about going again!! A couple days later They went to ride again, and Cam did even better, and LOVED IT!!
Don't ask me how he keeps his head up with that huge helmet, but he does and loves it! Your awesome Cam!!

Who knew!!

Who Knew I was Crafty!! I am not, but I challenged myself to make this........


My Brother in law has a blanket that his mom made for him when he was younger out of his old sports shirts, and clothes. Brooke my sister decided to do one for her girls and I thought what better way to remember the cute days of your kids than with the clothes they wore. (and they were just sitting in bins in the basement anyway!!) So i cut up some of my favorite, most memorable outfits from Ali as a baby, up until last year, and made them into a warm blanket for her.

After backing it wrong and sewing it inside out, re-picking, then sewing again, I finished it!!It turned out pretty good for someone who does NOT sew!! And most importantly it reminds me of Ali in every way, and she LOVES it!!

Official Helper!!

I was pretty excited about how well my job chart turned out!! Ali gets to do several of the same jobs each day and each week she picks two extra jobs to do. It has been fun to let her get a little excited about helping out and earning her own money to buy stuff. My friend did one similar and I loved it so this was my finished version!!

these are the little wood magnets I got off of etsy. they are so cute and work wonderful. It makes doing jobs that much more fun!!

My funny Ali

My daughter makes me laugh daily. She is one of the most sensitive, loving and funny people ever. Because she is a little shy most people don't get to see the real Ali and I am so glad I get to experience her everyday!! There have been a few Ali stories that I have to write down so I can always remember how much she makes me smile!!

Kindergarten Bus
Ali rode the bus in kindergarten and didn't love it. I watched her everyday get on with the big kids and try to find a seat. I always felt sick to my stomach as the bus would pull away and she would still be staniding in the isle looking for a seat. She was only 5!! I had her keep riding the bus until I heard about bullys that were telling kids they would choke them if they sat by certain people and I no longer wanted Ali having to deal with that.Everyday she would tell me how much she didn't like it. It was just easier for all of us to drive her.

Well I asked her if she wanted to ride this year now that she is in second grade. The answer of course, "i like going with you mom!" I don't mind taking her and it is always fun to see her excited face after school. So as we were driving to school last week I asked her what she didn't like about the bus. I thought I knew the answer but Alis memory of what was bad and my memories were totally different!!
Ali said, "well mom do you want to know why i didn't like the bus.It was because every day after school (am kindergarten) the bus driver would say, who is ready to go home and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! and i hated when she said that."

I tried so hard from not just bursting out laughing. Here my sweet five year old didn't care about the crowded buses, or riding with strangers, but she hated when the bus driver talked about Peanut butter!!! it was hilarious!! She said she would get on the bus everyday and sit down in her seat and cover her ears because she knew the bus driver would say it and every day she did.
I asked why she didn't tell the bus driver that. Ali said." because the kids whose parents bought them the seats up front sat there and so the bus driver wouldn't hear her.

I was laughing at this point because where on earth did the idea come that parents bought their kids good seats and every other kid had to sit in the back. Hilarious!!

"Peanut Free" Table aka Handicap Table

-- Because of Alis' peanut allergy she has to sit at the "peanut free" table at school. This wasn't a big deal in the past but this year it seems to be a little less convenient for her. She wants to sit with friends but because she has never done it before it is just scary to her. This year I kept noticing that Ali was barely touching her lunch. Each day she would say that she had to go to the bathroom and didn't have time to eat it. Or she would say she had to hurry so she could get outside faster. There was always something.
I decided to go have lunch with her because she loves it and because I wanted to figure out what was really behind her not eating. As i got there I sat down in a crowded lunch room and looked around me at the peanut free table. There were a few kids sitting there (that i am pretty sure were not allergic to peanuts!) but the table wasn't overly crowded. As i talked with Ali and we ate our lunches a huge group of the handicap kids came over. They sat down and started squishing Ali and I over. They quickly took up the whole table. There was one lady with them that was not paying to much attention to them. As I ate with Ali one little girl kept saying "Is that your mom, Is that your mom, Is that your mom, Is that your mom???" After a moment of her saying it rather loudly I said, "Yes I am her mom, how are you?" She kept eating then the next second another girl looked at me and said (loudly) "I need a straw!" I need a straw!!" over and over again. Well the lady wasn't paying attention so I turned to the little girl and said- You can go get one! (they were not far from her!- I wasn't rude, I just could tell she was capable of that). Ali instantly looked at me completely embarrassed and said, "Mom they are handicaps."
I realized that the "peanut free" table was not actually a peanut free table, but a handicap table and Ali had to sit there all by herself- everyday! I felt so much love for her trying to be the sweet girl she is everyday, when I could barly do it during one 20 minute lunch period. I love handicap kids, but it was so amazing to see Ali be so cute towards them even though I know she felt completely out of place!! I told her she could sit with her friends because she would be fine, but she was to nervous to do it.

Yesterday ali came home and said "don't be mad- but I didn't sit at the Peanut free table today! I was so amazed and excited- she sat with two of her friends at their table. It was a huge step for her!! Way to go ali!!

You want a piece of THIS
Ali gets in these silly moods, and they make me laugh to where I almost pee my pants. She gets a little sassy and things she says just have me in tears. I was talking to her about something and out of no where she jumps to her feet and does this dance move with her upper body and says - you want a piece of THIS while running her fingers up and down over her- like a crazy vanna white! i had to stop and just laugh because she looked like a black girl wanna be rapper mixed with vanna white pointing to herself- it was so funny.

the other thing that Ali does that I love is she does this dance move with her arms. It reminds me of some kind of old new kids on the block move where she beats her arms towards her heart. it makes me laugh instantly and when ever Ali knows I need a laugh she does it for me and it works every time!!

Bear Lake 2010

Our annual trip to Bear lake was of course a ton of fun!! We didn't have a set date until about 2 1/2 weeks before so we were glad that almost everyone got to come on short notice. I was worried it was going to be pretty cold since it was raining like crazy when we left our house, but the weather was perfect the whole weekend!

Before we even reached bear lake a day after everyone else the "bear Lake curse" had already hit!! Every year something breaks, or something crazy goes wrong. Well it was nice to get it all out of the way before we even got there. My little nephews Sebi and Reed were playing golf when sebi nailed Reed in the head and they had to rush him to the instacare to get 4 stiches. It was pretty sad!! and Jon got the tractor stuck out in the mud and had to get it towed back- not to shabby for the first day!


the only major incident we had was in the middle of the night Cam was taking a dive off the bed and nailed his EYE in the corner of the dresser. I didn't know at the time that it was swelling up like a little golf ball but the next day I knew!! It was a little swollen ball on his eye and then it turned purple and yellow- it definaltey was lucky it didn't hit his eye right on!

We had constant fun with all the cousins that by the end of the day we were all exhausted. We always stay up and play games but even Cam couldn't make it past 7. We got back from the beach and he was hungry and fell asleep chewing the food. He was exhausted!! Little Jamison also fell asleep at the counter. These guys were pooped!!

Every year we let the kids pick out something to remember Bear Lake by and we have accumulated quite the "bear Lake" animals. This year ali picked out a Hedghog- Don't know where that came from!! and We picked out Alvin the chipmunk for Cam because he loves the movie. So they were both pretty excited with this years picks!!

The biggest joke this year came when the "MAN CAVE" was created!! My brother in law Dan brought up his projector and the guys made a game heaven in the garage. They had it all riged to play their playstation games on. The only problem was once dan got it hooked up he realized he didn't remember the games!! URG- so he drove back to Logan to buy some so the guys could have their Man CAVE up and AWESOME!! I think the kids loved it more!!

 

the weather was great, the family was fun, and of course we look forward to next year!!We love bear lake and it is so much fun that our kids have this tradition to look forward to!!