Trip to the Zoo

Well thanks to an annual pass to the zoo and one of the first free Saturdays for Joseph, we took the family to the Hogle Zoo. We just wanted to add some pictures to show how everyone stacked up against the monkeys.

Random Thoughts

I have been inspired by my sister-in-law, Eliza. She mentioned on one of her blog entries that she just posts random thoughts. However random they may be, they still make for an enjoyable blog. And I find with random thoughts you post more frequently! So I think I will give it a try!

Besides the random thoughts.....Anna did turn 8 in August. Here are some pictures of her big day!

Anna was very excited for her big day!

Gotta love the 70's polyester jumpsuit! There weren't very many options, so Joseph got this one!

As for the random thoughts...they may or may not be random. But recently I have found, or a lot of friends have found me thanks mostly to blogging and facebook! It has been great to "see" them again and to remember the memories that come with each person. It's great to see how they are doing, and to see their cute families, (those that have them) and to hear that I am not alone in my frustrations as a mom!!! I like to try and put up a good front though, trying to make it look like I have everything under control. My mom has an expression she learned from somewhere.....I'm just ducky! A duck looks totally calm and in control on the top of the water, like everything is fine, when underneath they are paddling like hell! Well so much for random!

For my last semester I have to, or rather, I get to do a recital......yikes! The date is set for November 18th, which is a Tuesday. The recital hall has room for 60 people. I don't know if I will even come close to that number, I don't need to fill the hall.....but it's still something that makes me wonder if I could.....not that I totally want to because that would make it even more stressful!

Well there ya go......my random thoughts! Thanks Liza!

What we did this Summer!

This summer has been CRAZY!!! I know many of you fall into the same category. But starting a little after school got out, we had something every weekend! Ranging from girls camp, and youth conference, to scout camp and campouts, to family campouts on each side, ward campout, and we amazingly fit in our very own family campout! Adam turned 1 at the end of June, along with our 9th wedding anniversary,and Anna turned 8 in August. She will be getting baptized on Saturday, September 6. School also started for Anna - 3rd grade, Reese - Kindergarten, and Ali - Preschool. I spent the last 3 weeks reading all 4 of the twilight series. (AWESOME!!) But now I don't have anything to do, and it has doubled now that the kids are gone to school.....I should have started reading the books NOW! Shoot, I'll just have to read them again! But for now I am starting my last semester, and will be working on my Portuguese for our trip to Brazil in April!!

Our Family trip to Yellowstone

Dragons Mouth

Snow fight in July!

Baird Family Campout

Baker Family Campout

Youth Conference
Book of Mormon reinactment, Joseph and I went.

Interestingly enough neither of us took many pictures of girls camp, or scout camp!

Oh, yeah.....I chopped my hair!

Long or Short?!?!

Rock climbing

Adam turns 1!!

....and is walking!

Anna turns 8!! This is our awesome neighbor Carol!

Anna's first day of school

Reese's first day of school

This is not Ali's first day of school, but she really wanted her picture taken.

Our little song bird

Anna tried out for the school talent show. They chose 2-3 kids from each grade, and Anna was one of them! She sang to "Popular" from "Wicked".

AMEX Lagoon Day!!

This year for Lagoon Day, we got to stay the WHOLE day! Last year we only stayed for a few hours because Joseph had to get ready for his week long scout camp that next week, and I was way pregnant with Adam. So this year was exciting! Reese and Anna are tall enough to go on some of the big rides! Ali (and Anna and Reese)loved the kiddie rides, and went on them over and over again. Anna's adventures this year included Collosus, Spider, and Wicked! Joseph went with her on these rides.

Other adventures included the big bumper cars that Reese was scared to go on, because someone had told him there was a mean man who runs into you. But after we convinced him it was made up, and after our turn, he was feeling pretty good!

Ali did a pretty good job all day with waiting in lines.

Here are some more fun pictures of the day, enjoy!!

Ali riding Puff!

Ali flying high!

Anna and Reese before........ and after the Rapids!

The Lawn is ready to walk on!

Well Thursday will be the big day. It will be two weeks since we put the sod in our back yard. 13 pallets later and many hours of working on it, the sprinklers and back yard are done. I wanted to put up some pictures because very soon we will have to have a party to celebrate the new grass. Now comes the mowing.


Choo choo......here comes the sod train!
Before.........

During............


After!!! Yay! Thank you to all those who helped.

Good Ol' Rock Canyon

For those of you who have only seen it from the front, I wanted to post this entry showing you the back side of Rock Canyon. Unfortunately, I was like many of you and had not seen it until this past Memorial day. As you can see from the pictures it was cloudy and rainy while up there and the Squaw Peak Lookout was in the middle of a cloud.