Geneology, I am doing it

Yes, I actually am! It is soooooooo fun! I've always been interested in genealogy/family history but the past few months I have taken it to a whole new level. Seriously! It all started with some great young women activities where we all learned to login to familysearch.org and submit names to take to the temple. Then I went home and showed Justin how to do it. Now Michael is even doing it! It is so easy and fun. Justin & I have been to the temple several times doing tons of family names and it is so special each time. We have also been verifying that our family tree's are accurate. Which some are not. So, I have contacted my dad, my grandpa, my grandma, and several of Justin's grandparents about getting pictures and stories of ancestors.

My grandparents, David & Carolyn & their eight kids

It really took off from there. There was one time when I couldn't find pictures of one set of my grandma's grandparents, I asked several people who I thought would know and they had no idea. My grandpa said he thought he might have some pictures of them so I set a time to meet with him at his house to find the pictures. When I got there I told him the names of the people I was looking for and he took me into this back bedroom and lo and behold there were two gigantic 20 by 30 framed paintings of them!

After taking pictures of them my grandpa then told me everything he remembered about them and started crying, and I started crying, and it was a really special experience. For Christmas I made my brother, sister, & parents family tree's. It was a lot of work.

Lots of compiling, printing, cutting, and glittering

I also put labels on each picture

For my sister's family

For my brother's family

For my parent's ( I went back much further)

Here are Justin's grandparent, Carol & Dee over 50 years ago

Here are Carol & Dee now :)

A few weeks ago I attended Roots Tech in Salt Lake City. It is the biggest family history conference in the world. It was amazing! I'll have to post more on that later.

Miss Francy Makes Friends

It's crazy how different my kids are. Francesca, who seems to have taken on the nickname of "Francy", loves making friends. It's in her nature. First of all, she has built-in friends who happen to be her brothers. When they are at school she loves chasing Conrad around. When Conrad is napping she begs and begs me to play with a friend. She loves playing house, dress-up, my little pony, barbies, & dolls.

I think she is used to being surrounded by people, so that's where she is most comfortable.

Her BFF is definitly her grandma, my mom. He and my mom are so similar it's uncanny. From their petite size, to their feminine nature to their love of rolls and of playing in water, they are two peas in a pod. 

She is a lot like a sparker. ;)

I wanted to add that she also adores Justin's mom as well. 

I love this girlie girl of mine.

She makes me laugh and cry and smile all at the same time.

Christmas 2011 Part One

Me and the kids.

My favorite new ornament.

The carriage ride.

Ta da!!

My entry in the family gingerbread house making contest. It lit up and everything.

Michael loved climbing the snow banks.

Christmas cards are some of my favorite things about the holidays. I love hearing about what other families have been up to, and seeing the pictures.

Stewart Falls Hike

 We hiked to Stewart Falls. In October. I can;t believe I haven't blogged for six months. I've been busy. I am now playing catch-up on the blog. Sorry it's been so long. I'll do my best to update from now on.

 The boys did well, they love hiking.

Francy was a little trooper in the baby backpack.

Bear Lake Family Reunion

My parents rented this super sweet cabin next to Bear Lake and we had a flippin' good time. You can't buy memories.

Mountaineering with Malone's

Family reunions are one of my favorite things ever!

Vegas, baby! Part 5

I know 5 is a lot of chain posts but I really wanted to document our trip, there will be more. We went to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Garden on Day 3 and had a grand old time.

Then on the drive back to the hotel we pulled into a place across the street from the airport and watched as the airplanes flew overhead. Justin and the boys were in heaven, they just loved it despite it being a tad bit cold and windy. As a child Justin always dreamed of being an aiplane pilot so he loved to tell the boys all the exact name of each plane as it flew over us. It was all very exciting.

Vegas, baby! Part 3

We did a TON of walking. Those hotel/casinos are HUGE! We saw Bumblebee in the parking garage. The boys loved it.They got real tired, real fast.Then we went to the Shark Aquarium and that was pretty awesome. Our favorite were the saw fish.

Then we got back to the hotel room and I had never seen the kids play and tickle and laugh with each other like they did that night. This picture captures that memory, which means a lot to me. To me that's what family vacations should be about, spending quality time together, bonding, getting to know each other, building relationships.