MILLS

FAMILY DATE NIGHT...

2012-01-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

Last saturday we took the kids up north to spend some fun family time together.
Here's Trey and Jayme in the car ride on the way up...

We went to the airplane museum at Hill Airforce Base

We had so much fun looking at all the different kinds of airplanes!!! There were tons I didn't even take a picture of ...but were totally picture-worthy.

When I saw this one I immediately thought of "tight like unto a dish..."

SR-71 was the fastest aircraft in the sky

Atomic Bomb

Bomb

I loved this scull, way cool!

Hitler

The missles were right there ready to be dropped!

Trey loved this replica of airplanes in battle on this cliff

Cool!!

What a fun time this was!! Trey loved it all!

Jayme also liked the neat artwork displayed

The picnic tables underneath this one wing shows how big this plane was!!

Jay took us to dinner at Chucky Cheese and it was soooo yummy and fun! The kids loved all the arcade games!

Trey hadn't been to chucky cheese and Jayme has only been a couple times when she was little. It is a fun arcade place for sure! I loved the pizza there too!!
I love family date night!!

2012-01-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

Our little family enjoyed spending New Years holiday in Nevada!! We arrived at Grandma/Grandpa Fox's house in the evening time and got to see their pretty holiday decorations as we pulled up and parked our car

We enjoyed the fun time and the SUN!

Trey and I enjoyed just sitting back and soaking in the heat from the sun

Trey enjoyed sunny, warm days to play in the sand box out back

Jayme is taller than grandma now so we had to take a picture! Jay was teasing that in this picture, it resembles Frodo and Gandalf from Lord of The Rings! He likes to tease that his mom is not too tall :)

We decided to make Grandma feel better... so we let her stand next to Trey who is still shorter than her....for now ;)

Grandpa Fox TOWERS over the both of them!! :)

I recorded Trey talking into the camera for a long 10 minute time! Then after he left, I realized that it actually hadn't been recording...oops! Trying to get Trey to re-record wasn't successful ;) He kept his next interview short to say the least ;)

Trey got a fun Tatoo in Mesquite during one of our fun days there

Jayme found these nice pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Fox

This picture kills me! I love how Jay looks like he has to go to the bathroom! But it is still such a cute, darling picture off them all!

Grandpa has such fun with fires in his backyard and Trey was SO excited about this! He loves to help Grandpa burn the trash outback!

Grandpa gave Trey a good idea to bring some of his army guys to burn in the fire also! So fun

Trey decided to take funny pictures with my new camera! This one was my favorite one! ...Then Trey decided to take some other fun pics around the house...see the pics below!...

I decided to pose in some of Trey's pics!

Jayme in her new christmas shirt

So, we had a good time bringing in the new year of 2012! We know that this new year will bring many good things!! What we learned from last year, 2011, is that we are most grateful for our family and for the gospel of Jesus Christ! We know that anything else in life is just a bonus!

2012-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

Here's the christmas camera! I love it!!

More December pics.....

Jay and Shaun on christmas day

Macy christmas morning!

This was One of Trey's favorite christmas gifts! A remote control helecopter!

Trey loved his shark pillow! It's attaking him here...

My cute nieces!

Matt, my nephew earned his eagle!

proud parents!

In the eagles nest!

We went to the Zoo for part of our family date yesterday!

This monkey kept banging on the glass trying to get Trey's attention any time Trey turned around! It was funny

The animals were all indoors pretty much! They were all pretty active too

Jay and I kept saying how neat it was to be there
during the winter time. So different!
We enjoyed warming up in-doors as we viewed
all the animals. The kids loved our day there!

We loved the pretty snow dusted trees!

beautiful Jayme

All the lion drinking fountains were covered

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It was actually a beautiful day at the zoo!
The scenery was so gorgeous!
And there wasn't any wind!!! yay!
It was funny how we totally had the place all
to ourselves that afternoon :)

After the zoo, we went to Dinner and a Movie
(our christmas present from Stephs family this year!
such a great time!
We saw "Tin Tin" and ate at Applebees...yum!)

December went by way too fast!

2012-01-08T00:12:00.000-08:00

Trey's school class performed a couple of christmas songs during the month of December

Christmas eve, Jay had me open a present...a CAMERA! yay! I needed a new option...my cell phone was not doing the job with picture-taking!

The kids all loved their new christmas PJ's!

Trey bought his own christmas stocking from the dollar store this year. He wanted to make sure he was stocked with santa candy to last him all year!

Christmas morning !!!

We played with toys for a few hours and then quick dressed for church

After church, Kim and Shaun hosted a delicious Christmas dinner at their home

These pics should have been posted first since our Mills/Chirstmas Party was before Christmas...

The party was at Tammy and Mike's home. It was an awesome party and I stole all these pics from Tammy's blog since my cell phone camera pics didn't turn out.

Here is a picture of me with family-friend, Kara

Trey and Rylund so excited to open their presents at the party!!

Jayme with her cousins opening gifts from grandparents

December was a busy and memorable time for our family! We were so happy to have spent so much time with extended family also.

December is going ...going...almost gone!....

2011-12-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

My camera broke and I really am, now, only left with a cell phone camera. It is not the best...but at least it captures a bit of our December going-on's! :)

CHIRSTMAS IS HERE!!
The kids (Kims and mine) decorated my christmas tree for me this year! I loved it!

We went to the FESTIVAL OF TREES this year.

We loved all the creative decorated trees! The decorated gingerbread houses! And the christmas treats and entertainment!One of my favorite trees there. It is from the Christmas Story. They had a little boy on top of the tree with his tongue stuck to the flag pole! And they had a lamp-light! Loved this tree!!This was one of many neat gingerbread houses! This is Repunzle!! ANOTHER FUN THING WE DID:

...was go to Brooklyn's dance recital! She did such a great job dancing! Kass probably has lots better photos of this and I need to steal some from her! But, this one is cute, it's of Kass and Brooklyn on stage :)

WE WENT TO THE SALTLAKE TEMPLE AND SAW THE LIGHTS!

But, first, we stopped across the street at Deseret Book and bought bag fulls of candy and hot chocolate so that we had a treat to walk around with as we saw all the pretty lights! We had sooo much fun!!This was so cool. It is the Nativity scene in the middle of a pond of water. It was so pretty! Too bad my picture doesn't capture it!This was the first bag-pipe playing Santa Clause I've ever seen! funny!Jayme took a quick picture of Jay, Trey, and I. WE HAD A FUN NORTHERN-GRAF PARTY WITH SHERI'S FAMILY!The party was at Curt and Sydna's house! We all had such a great time!

Look!...Kyle and Michelle's family was there too!Justin and Andrea were so cute and they even took the "stage" for a few minutes and told us detail by detail of their engagment story!!Pixie came that night too...but my phone camera wouldn't catch that quick elf in action!!...blur!

Here's some fun baby cousins!!THE MILLS-FOX FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY WAS SUPER FUN TOO!!

Here's some of Grandma Darlene's famous desserts!!We had the party at Jay and my church. It was perfect for the gathering! The boys had fun shooting some baskets while the rest of us were entertained with eating and taking pictures!

The kids also had a fun Bingo game!

Look at these cute girls!! Yes...we totally brought Kassidy along with us to the party! We wanted all the Nielson crew to come...but were thrilled for Kass to come and represent her family!! Kass is part of the Mills-Fox family too!!Tammy, Taryn, and Grandma Darlene.Kyle and CarrieSome of the cousins with Aunt AnnieGage with Jayme and KassAdam and Jay
Carrie, Kristen, and Grandma DarleneAdam and AnnieJay and my table (Mike & Kristen, Carrie & Kyle, Mike & Tammy)
cousins table (Kass, Jayme, Joelie, Jaycie, Gage, Taryn, and Cecily)Grandma Darlene, Jim, Jeannette, David (jeannette's brother), Amanda (David's daughter)and her cute kidsAmy, Jerry (Jeannetter's brother) & Amber, and their cute kidsMe and AnnieSister-in-laws! Tammy, Amy, Kristen, Annie, and me (we are missing Carrie who had to leave early)Jeannetter, Tam, me, Amy, Kristen, Annie, and Grandma The whole family all together!!!And, I wanted to add these pictures in! Jayme and Kass are, often, taking fun, random pics! I love all the pics they take...so fun!! Here's a few very recent ones...This is Jayme with a friend at their school of recently Jayme with another friend at her school recently AND WE HAD FAMILY PICTURES TAKEN!

Kass was our awesome photographer! We spontaneously did these pictures last night before Jay had to quick leave for school....and it was so much fun!Well, there's alittle bit of December! We were busy with a few other things as well. We had a fun ward christmas party that Jayme, Kass, and me got to decorate for! We should have taken some pictures...it was such a nice party! We are excited to be on christmas break from school!!!! Christmas is right around the corner now! We can't wait!

NOVEMBER

2011-12-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

November kicked off to a great start with a party!

Kim turned 40 on November 8th!! I took pictures of the big bash with all the northern GRAFS but my pictures were lost when my camera broke and so I sadly couldn't post them :(
But, I did have this one at least!!
The month of November also brought ...TIME OUT FOR WOMEN !

Kim and I went along with some of her neighborhood friends. We carpooled both days of the event and had such a great time. It was in Salt Lake City.

Kims best friend, Laurel, was there with some of her St. George friends who she car pooled with. We were so excited to meet up with her and chat for a few minutes.
These are some of kims neighbor friends that we were with.Enjoying a lunch at the Lion House.

THANKSGIVING was at Kims house
She bought a trampoline, quick, and the kids had so much fun setting it up and bouncing to their heart's desire.
The busy kitchen....
The boys watched the cowboys game (Jay was so excited to support his team!)

Megan was so excited about wearing her new contact lens!Trey happy sitting at the "kids table" and enjoying his food :)
Kim and Shaun pulled off a yummy thanksgiving dinner!The cousins had fun

This Novemeber we also were able to attend one of Trey's best friend's (from Cedar City) baptism. His name is Tayson and he was baptized Thanksgiving weekend up here in Provo
November was a busy month and we were very involved in many more things of which we didn't capture with the camera. But, I'm glad we got a few memories on film that we could share ;)

October was FULL of fun...Hold on for tons of pics from that busy month...

2011-11-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

BYU GAMES

Jayme, Jay, and Trey went to this particular BYU game. Jayme took these fun pics of Trey with his cousin Rylund. Those two cousins are so dang cute!!

Ward Halloween Party

Here's Jayme with her favorite friend, Landon

The ward party was so much fun with lots of food and games. Here's the dance-off!!

Trey with one of his best friends, Chase
Jayme and Kass

Cabin Party/BYU Game Night!!

Can you see Trey with these big boys?

Kass and Shaylee

Trey had such a fun time with the cousins
Krista and Heidi

Pumpkin Drop

Jay's brother, Kyle, weighing one of his giant pumpkins at Hee Haw Farms

Tammy and I having fun watching Kyle as he puts on quite a show for the crowd....dropping giant pumpkins into pools of water, a car, and many other misc. objects! Super entertaining!!

Trey doing a flip into the hay
Adam and Annie
Annie, Kristen, and me
Kyle and Carrie
Bruce, Jeannette, and Grandpa Wood

Trey and Rylund kneeling down while watching the giant pumpkin get dropped
Grandpa Wood with some of the great-grandkids there that day

Jay, Kyle, and their dad

Annie and I
Tammy and Jackson
The kids getting to ride up 75 feet and drop their pumpkins!!
Joelie with her pumpkin

Trey and Rylund on the smashed car!

Gage and Jayme

School on Halloween Day

Trey's school did a fun parade of costumes. This is Trey's teacher!
Trey in the halloween parade as a BYU football player!
My friend and co-worker at the school, Carrie!
Me, Ann, and Carrie (Recess Duty Guards)
My friend, Kirsten is a kindergarten teacher there at the school

Kass and Jayme were "excused" from school to come and see the elementary costume parade. Here's Kass with our friend and my co-worker, Michelle.

Megan and recess with her best friend
Me and Kirsten
Me and my friend, Rachel (the Resource teacher)
My friend, Jeana, the Librarian

Trick Or Treating

Hailey with her friend
Me and Kim

Trey enjoyed his halloween candy so much that his tooth fell out on Halloween night!!

What a crazy, fun, busy month October was!!

We had a lot to do and enjoyed every minute of it :)

OCTOBER has been pretty spooky so far!

2011-10-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

These pics are a little out of order...but I didn't mind too much....so just enjoy! I thought they were such cute pics!

Trey.... the Skeleton.... at Lagoon during UEA break!

Jayme's turn to be a skeleton!
Kim and Shaun took their family to a fun day at Lagoon yesterday...and invited my two kids along! The day was perfect weather and the kids said it was too much fun! In the meantime, I relaxed at home and got caught up on lots of stuff. Jay enjoyed his day at work :)

Trey and Megan put on a fun Spook Alley in the home a few days ago. They dressed up and scared us as we walked down the hallway and into certain rooms! They did a great job!

Trey and Jayme decorated pumpkins at our house a few nights ago. They had such a fun time being creative!

Trey's school did a halloween carnival a week ago. Our family got to help with the haunted house for an hour. Then, we walked around and enjoyed the rest of the carnival. Trey loved getting his hair sprayed crazy colors. And, we did some face painting there too :)
Oh, here's jaymes pumpkin sitting next to Trey's pumpkin!

At school this week, the moms got to come and help our kiddos with making spooky GHOSTS in their 4th grade classroom. Trey and I had fun together!

Trey wanted to show me the inside of his school desk! Here it is!! I loved my school desk when I was his age too :)

Here's Trey and Megan dressed up for their spook Alley that they did for us at the house. Don't they look scary?!!!

Jayme with her pumpkin...so cute!

Family Home Evening

2011-10-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

It was my idea to just go and do something totally spontaneous spooky and fun for our FHE this week! I gathered my two kids up and said, "hop in the car! We're going to the Halloween store for our fun FHE tonight!". The Kids were SO excited and all went well .....until we got there!

Trey was completely freaked out!!!
This was his face through most of the store that entire time we were in there!!
I tried to make "light" of it all and tried to show him that it's all just fun and games in there!
.....even the SPOOKY GUYS!!

....Trey still wasn't convinced that it's was just "fun and games" though....
Jayme helped out by having a bit of fun with us

Soon, I realized that Trey wasn't so nervous anymore...
....he was having a ball!!!...and he'd forgotten about all that gore and guts!....that is....until....
THIS GUY!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! (rats eating people in the sewer is NEVER a good thing!)
Trey slept in my bedroom that night.

Ok....seriously....many many posts ahead! you have been warned of the scads of pics available to look through!

2011-10-02T21:46:00.001-07:00

Graf family fun with Brian and Sharla at their cabin!

2011-10-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

I got this picture off of Angie's blog...I love how she captured the beauty of the cabin in the fall season that we are in!!

I had more pics and I can't find them. I know that my camera wasn't working wonderfully well that night either so that doesn't help...but I didn't even get pics of all who were there: Brian and Sharla's family, Mike and Barbara's family, Curt and Sydna's family, Steph and Ryan's family, Kim and her kids, and me and my kids, oh, and DAD!! It was such a fun night! We had a yummy BBQ dinner and played Bunko...such good laughs! Kim and Erin were fighting for the championship ...and Kim took the win!

LAKE POWLL ADULT TRIP September 2011

2011-10-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

Lake Powell was amazing once again!
This years crew was composed of Brian and Sharla, Jay and I, Ryan, Angie, Kyle and Michelle, Justin and Andrea, and some of Brian and Sharlas friends with their families!
It was a huge group and lots of fun!
I have so many pictures that I don't want to leave of even one! I even copied some of angies and sharlas so that when I print off my blog, I can have copies of their fun pics too!
There are tons to look through, but I love them all!
Enjoy!

Random cute pics of the kids...

2011-10-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is such a fun one of Kassidy and Trey! So cute!

Trey is 9 years old and is loving his busy life full of friends and fun :)
This is one of his best-friends, Chase
This is part of our every morning routine. Here is Trey on the rip-stick at the school on his way to his class. Trey is doing so well in school and he is learning so many things this year. He has lots of new friends and has settled in fast! Its fun to be there with him each day, as I get to work at the school also.

The Zoo is one of our favorite places to go together as a family!
on the train together! I love my Trey!!

SCOUTS is also a really fun thing for Trey this year. He has a fantastic group and all his best friends are in there with him. He is doing so well in scouts!!
Here he is with the CUBS stamp officially on the back of his scout shirt (part of the initiation as a scout member in this new church ward we are in)
Trey was excited to play the game at the last Pack meeting. The boy opposite him was so shy that he needed some help in playing the game. It was putting a smile on my face to know that there is someone out there in the world that is even more shy than Trey!! :)
Trey was not even nervous to play the game and he was quick to volunteer and to answer the questions so fast to help his team get points!
I love this picture that Kassidy took of Trey
Awards!

FOOTBALL
Trey is a HUGE BYU FAN!!! Here he is on Megans bed (playing candyland with her) but posing quick for me while we are excited about BYU's most recent game and their awesome win!!!)

Rooting for Kolby in highschool football is one of Trey's favorite activities this fall!
Trey loves to get hotdogs at the games

We like to visit downtown Salt Lake City sometimes as we are close by after visiting the Zoo.
This is at the Conference Center a few weeks ago. The kids were so impressed by this special building! It was neat to see how big the conference center was and to talk about the upcoming General Conference. The kids were excited to think about the prophet and apostles being in that exact same building!!

This is up on the conference center roof....way way way cool up there!
Trey looking from inside out at the water fall

JAYME is such a pretty girl and growing up so fast these days!
We love her fun teenage life and are excited to see what else this year brings her way. She is doing really well in school and having fun making new friends!

This fun picture was snapped at Ashleys baby shower a while ago. We love our family!
Kass and Jayme....so cute!

This is at the conference center

Here is Jayme at Lagoon a couple months ago with friends and also her cousin Taryn

Jayme with a couple of her best friends from St. George at Lagoon (Chelsea and Cassidy)
I love this picture of Jayme. I can't believe how fast she is growing up!
Here is Jayme and Kassidy with friends at the Taylor Swift concert in Salt Lake City a week ago.
Silly girls!
Jayme with her cousin, Taryn, at Lagoon!
This is Jayme a year ago with one of her best friends from Cedar City (Megan). I love that Jayme has such good friends from Southern Utah! She keeps in touch with her friends and goes to visit them whenever we are in town.
This picture was taken last year at Jayme's old Cedar City middle school with some good friends in their last day of school. This is the school Jayme use to go to when we lived in Cedar. The schools in St. George would get out a week before Cedar City's schools and so for the past two years that we lived in St. George, Jayme would attend the last day of her school ----and then a week later go up and sleep over at her friends house and attend the last day of school up with her Cedar friends. So much fun! She loves all her friends!! Moving has been a hard thing for her. She hates to make such good friends and then have to leave them. I'll put a few pics of that day on here:

This is a year ago too....it has taken me too long to get it blogged, but I didn't want to forget to finally get it posted. This is an award that Jayme (and a small group of kids) won. She got to go on a field trip to SUU in Cedar City (from St. George) to the school awards ceremony.
Jayme was being camera shy!
We are proud of her and all her talents and abilities!

Hogle Zoo fun with Trey!
Jayme with her dad!
I love my Jayme!
This is at one of Kolbys football games! Jayme with her friend, Gabby and also Kass!!

We have lots more pics of the kids, of course, but just posted a few that were easy to find and paste in the blog!
We love our kids and are excited to see them have more awesome experiences the rest of this year :)

Kid History - Episode 5 - by BoredShortsTV

2011-09-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

Kid History - Episode 6 - by BoredShortsTV

2011-09-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Moments That Matter Most

2011-09-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, I really did Love this so much!

Sometimes I get that feeling that rushes over me to JUST SLOW DOWN! It's then that I realize that I am usually not even really breathing very deeply and am very tense. I just take a big deep breath and actually look up just a couple of inches and see the mountains in the distance, the beautiful sky, and realize that it's such a GREAT DAY before me! I try and take a moment to enjoy the amazing peacefulness that is all around me before I get on with my busy day!

(I have several posts ahead and was just catching up on posting a few fun pics, as well as, some awesome uplifting video messages that I've been enjoying lately!...you'll have to mute my music on my blog to hear the videos though. I've moved my music to the top of my blog, right sidebar, so that it's easier to find it and "pause" it)

Watch Your Step

2011-09-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

I'm having such a great experience finding these awesome messages tonight. Sooooo, I share this one too!
I LOVE how this video shows how the path of our lives are based on what might sometimes seem to us like small moments... or small decisions. But, in reality, these are very BIG moments or choices...and real turning points. WOW! I think you'll like viewing this video too.

Stewart Falls

2011-09-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, we invited kim and Shauns family to spontaneously come with us up to Sundance to hike up to Stewart Falls! We parked our vehicles at my brothers cabin there in Sundance and began our hike with the kids! We had such a great time together outside enjoying the beauty around us! There is something so peaceful about stopping the busy days of our lives....and just slowing down to enjoy some fresh outdoor fun!

Expressions of Love

2011-09-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

I totally LOVED this! I have been wanting to share it as well!! SOOO good! Makes me so happy to have this blessing in my own life with my own sweetie! (you'll have to mute my music on my blog to hear it though!)

No Never

2011-09-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

I saw this and wanted to share it. So good!

So fun!

2011-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Trey with one of his new best-friends, Chase. They are such good buddies!!!

Jay, Shaun, Kim, and I (w/Macy) snuck away a couple nights ago after feeding our kids dinner. We wanted to go out for a fun treat! We decided we were in the mood for frozen yogurt!! This place was sooo yummy! It was at the Orange Leaf. It was decorated really fun too:)

My silly phone camera is not the best picture-taker...but at least is captures some of our fun spontaneous moments during our days... :)

I love summer weddings!....and baptisms!....and baby blessings! :)

2011-08-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

We moved up north in enough time this past summer to join in on a couple of Jay's cousins weddings. It was so much fun to go and be a part of the celebrations!

This is Bailee's wedding dinner (the night before she was married). My cell phone pics will have to suffice....
It was a very nice dinner with yummy mexican type foods! We had fun sitting by family and chatting...

We were on the 18th floor in a building across the street from the SLC temple..it was such a fun view!

This is a picture of the wedding couple the very next day...but Jay and I weren't able to attend and so I borrowed this picture from Tammy's blog :)

This is Jay's other cousin, Monica, with Ryan. This picture was actually taken at Baileys wedding dinner as they sat at our table that evening. It's so cute of them!
Monica's wedding dinner was at the Joseph Smith building next to the temple and my cell phone captured a tiny bit of how pretty of a view we had on the floor we were on. I LOVE the temple shining in the night!

Monica's wedding was the next morning...which was Jay and my 16th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!! It was really special to be there in the temple watching these two get sealed for eternity. I LOVED being reminded of Jay and my promises as we listened to the temple sealer say those beautiful words in the temple ceremony.

When Jay and I got home that evening, Jayme and I quick ran to her back to-school night at her new school.
Later that evening, Jay and I decided we weren't done celebrating our wedding anniversary quite yet....so we ran over to Texas Road House and enjoyed some yummy appitzers and dessert (we didn't want to order dinner since it was sooooo late at night). It was so fun to be spontaneous and just enjoy a little quiet time together. I forgot to take pics of the yummy appitizers. But, here's Jay's drink which was my favorite and wished I would have ordered it!

That weekend, we had a good experience being with our nephew, Rylund, who g0t baptized and also see his new little sister's baby blessing. Fun to be with all the family too :)
Jay gave a talk at Rylunds baptism and I wish I would have taken more pics of all the family that was there. But, glad I got a few pics...

We've had such a busy summer with lots of time spent with family on Jay's side and also on my side. Glad to live so much closer to our northern utah relatives :) Spending time with the family is the best!

And, Jay and I are so excited to have celebrated our 16th year being married! Jay is my best friend, he is the only person that can completely calm me when I'm frantic or thinking that things in life are too serious. He is the only person that can make me laugh at myself in many moments throughout the day! He is such a calm personality and also so grounded with such a good sense of perspective. He is genuine in everything he does. I am more than so lucky to have him in my life now and also for every eternal moment! I love him so much!!

Zoo fun

2011-08-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

A while ago, we decided to get the annual pass to the HOGLE ZOO so that we could enjoy going several times throughout the year.

This gives our family a fun spontaneous place to go and enjoy being together at a moments notice!

Here's just another day at the ZOO

We had such a great time together!...and we always love our time spent watching the various animals at the Zoo. We can't wait until the new addition is finished next year. It's going to be really cool!

Brooklyn's Birthday Fun

2011-08-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn turned 6 years old and we joined along to celebrate with her!

She didn't have a "friend" birthday party this year and so Kim decided to take the kids to the Living Planet Acquarium! It was so neat! The kids could touch lots of living animals that live in the water. My purse took a dunk in this stingray pool right after this picture of me was snapped!

Sierra and Cheyenne surprised us by popping in and they were able to come along for the fun...

Brooklyn had a fun day and felt so special to be celebrating her turning another year older~!!

Random bits of summer....

2011-08-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

I get to play with Macy and watch her growing up so fast!
Megan and Rachel had a sleepover and they played "House" with baby Macy!
Trey is loving having play time with his northern cousins :)

I tried getting a darker color put on my hair!
It went darker than I had origionally anticipated!
So much fun to be a darker version of myself....but Yikes!
But, it's fun and I'm in the process of bringing a little lighter weave through it so that I can stop penciling in my eyebrows :)

The kids are always finding random bits of fun throughout the days each day.
Macy is enjoying an indoor pool!
Macy loves the water....and soon was only in her diaper and splashing around in the water :)
Jayme and Kass are having a BALL spending time together this summer...
On this particular day, they were at the Mall just window shopping and being silly :)

This past weekend, we went over to Greg and Stephanie's house (Jay's cousins) for a fun Pizza/Movie night!
Here's the kids...
Jay, Greg, Stephanie, and me
There house was so pretty and they had a really fun movie room that we loved!

Trey trying to decide which seat he wanted to choose...
Stephanie
The kids...
Greg and Jay
So much fun with them and we can't wait to watch another movie together:)

Well, school starts in a couple weeks and we are all gearing up to get ready for it. Life will become a bit busier soon!!!....

Thankful for Thanksgiving Point

2011-08-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving Point is providing us with lots of entertainment this month of August!

They have $2.00 Tuesdays all month!!

Kim and I joined Sydna and Barbara for an afternoon of fun at the farm with our kids!

We were all on a scale to see if we weighed as much as ONE cow! With ALL of us....we DID! :)

The animals were extremely comfortable with all the people :)

It was so much fun spending time with the cousins!

Wagon rides!!!

Horsey rides!!!

We got some YUMMY icecream after visiting the farm!

We are going back next tuesday for more Thanksgiving fun :)

Chamberlain Family Reunion!

2011-08-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

A week ago, my mom and her siblings gathered us all together for a fun reunion in Orem.

Heres a picture of them with their spouses

Mom was in charge of putting on the reunion this year, so she had all us kids help and do our parts. When mom got there, her sister gave her the "leader" hat to wear :)
My sister-in-law, Donna standing next to my nephew, Kyle and his wife, Michelle. Their kids are so cute!
Me with my cousins
My sister-in-law, Sharla holding her grandbaby
My nephew, Justin, just arrived home from his mission the day before our family reunion! He was fun to visit with there.
Jay posing with me for a quick picture
Trey sitting by his cousins
Me with more of my cousins
Me standing by my sister, Sheri. We are posing for pictures with our cousins and aunt Sherrie Misel.

Dad with my cousin, Kevin
my two brothers Ryan and Curt---standing by my uncle John Misel
Jayme smiling so pretty!
My brother mike next to my mom
My dad standing by my sister and my cousin
me with my cousins and my aunt Lucille
Jayme loves to do hair! Here she is with Kassidy
Kim, baby Macy, and I
My dad and my uncle Brent
Mom and Dad
Curt and Sydna's family
mom with her siblings

My brother Mike with his wife, Barbara. They did a great job with the reunion games!!
Me and Mom
Playing games!

I won the dice game!!! Yay!!
Me and my cousin
Kim and Mom
More games!

Look at my cousin, David, landing on his face after the tug of war!!!
Alisha is pulling so hard to try and win!
Nate and Ryan
Volleyball!
Kolby borrowing the "leader" hat!
Yummy cold treats were heaven-sent!
Me with my cousins
My sister, Steph, her two girls, and my sister-in-in law, Sydna
uncles, aunts, cousins....
I was getting a kick out of watching the volleyball games....so fun!
Sweet picture of Ry getting the ball over!
Sher, not sure if she wants to hit that ball or RUN!

Nicole winning the sack races!!

3-leg races!
My sister-in-law, Alisha helping her daughter, Kylie in the race
My two nieces

My aunt Sheri with my sister, Stephanie
My nieces
Mom visiting with my uncle and my aunt
My niece and nephew
My brother, Mike playing games with the little kids

My sister-in-law, Alisha with my cousin, Angie

This link shows how awesome I was playing and winning the dice game! hee hee, I didn't know that my cousins wife was recording. But, she sent this to me and it is fun.....enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/?id=1538323556

Can't wait until the next reunion!!

Welcome home Elder Graf !!!!

2011-08-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

We were so excited and anxious as we waited for our missionary to walk into the room!!!

This is andrea....Elder Graf's girlfriend!! So pretty!
We were all so excited when we first saw Justin that I ended up with a shaky, blurry picture!
Justin hugging his mom
I missed the shot of Justin hugging his dad...so I had them pose quick for me a few minutes later!
Justin hugging his sister, Angie
Andrea was so nervous and excited to see Justin and have him back home again!

This is Justin's house after his homecoming on Sunday
Angie was entertaining our table with a fun story...

Justin with Andrea and her parents

Angie and Sheri
Brian

Sharla hosted an awesome homecoming dinner for Justin and all who gathered in her home!
Sharla's sister and mom
my cute nieces...

my mom holding grandaughter, Macy
Brandon

Shaun and Jay
Kimmi and Shaun
Raquel
Crysta with trey and Kaitlyn
Nate, Alisha, Jay
Heidi and Nicole
me with Cheyenne
This was a fun short video from the airport with Justin (you'll have to "pause" my blog music so you can hear Justin on this video)

We love Justin and are SO happy to have him home again with all of us!!

SHOWERS

2011-08-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

These past several weeks have been busy with fun bridal and baby showers!

This was a double-shower for Jay's cousins Bailey and Monica...it was at Tammy's house (Jay's sister) in Layton.

Tam did a great job and it looked way pretty (more than my pictures show!)

Here are the two brides-to-be....

Tammy holding Amy's new darling baby
These are sisters-in-law to one of the new brides-to-be :)

Me, Kristen, Jeannette, and Megan
Jeannette with her sister-in-law, Cyd
Megan
Me, Annie, and Kristen
Tammy's camera had a lot more pictures of those that were there at the shower...I was just using my cellphone camera and the battery burned out. So, I missed getting more pics :(

This is Ashley's baby shower that her mom did for her...
Ashley, such a cute expecting mother!
Kim and Sydna
My nieces, Heidi and Crysta
Jayme in line for some yummy treats...
cousins: Kassidy, Jayme, and Erin
me with Ashley

Kim with the girls playing a fun baby shower game...
Barbara did such a great job hosting the party!!
the parents to be, Matt and Ashley!
"Star of Mommy's Blog" bib!!! perfect gift! :)
I love showers, especially in the summertime! Too much fun!

Getting older.... and wiser?

2011-07-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Turning the big 38 has been fun!

I kinda forgot that I wasn't ALREADY 38 this past year...and the kids and Jay have corrected me when I have said the wrong age throughout the year :)

I don't know why it is so easy to forget our age as we get older and older...I thought we were suppose to be getting WISER as we age...not FORGETFUL!! :)

Jay surprised me this year! He had secretly arranged to take the day off of work a few weeks before my birthday and didn't let anybody know so that the secret would stay with only him!

Days before, he kept saying to me that we wouldn't be able to celebrate my birthday since it was in the middle of the work week and he has night school....so some future weekend would have to do!

That morning, he kissed me goodbye like he always does on his daily routine for getting gone for the day.

Shortly he returned and grabbed the kids and rushed to me with a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"!!
My hair isn't even brushed yet, but I managed to put on my new birthday shirt and new earrings and splash some eye makeup on quick before the camera started flashing!

I got what I hinted for (and got even lots more fun things from everyone!)

I've had my eye on this waffle iron for EVER...yay!!
I've hinted that I've wanted a microwave bacon plate for EVER...(these items too much fun and make it easy with no mess for bacon mornings!)
fun gifts! I didn't get a picture of everything, but it's because the gifts were coming in shifts throughout the day and night! Seriously spoiled this year from everyone!
One of the gifts from kims family to hang on my wall...so fun! The Nielsons kept going out and bringing back more fun gifts througout the day! too much fun!

Then, Jay whisked me away for the entire day!

He took me clothing shopping...

then, to lazily walk around the shops at Thanksgiving Point...

We ate at the Deli at Thanksgiving Point and grabbed some yummy icecream afterward at the shop next to it...

Then it was off to see Captain America at the movie theatre in American Fork! Such a great movie!

Cake that evening with the family!

My outloud wish this year ..."peace in the world... and all of africa's children to be fed!"

The kids liked my wish, and I know it will come true because I blew out all of my candles on the first try!

Even the neighbor girl was there to join in on the festivities of the cake-eating part! Loved my party!!

What a fun birthday this year! So many family and friends wished me a "happy birthday" by calling, or texting, or facebooking messages to me. Lots of love spread my way, and it was fun!

I told Jay that I love turning older and it's because I expect to be getting wiser one of these years!

Joe's Valley summer camping trip!!

2011-07-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

So fun to pack the truck with tents, coolers, fishing poles, and snacks and head off into the hills for the 24th of July weekend this year!!

Joe's Valley was beautiful and the weather was perfect!!

Trey found this log and showed us how much it is shaped like a shark!!

Camping is one of our very favorite things to do as a family! It is a summer tradition of ours and we were excited to try somewhere new this year!

Jay spent many trips going to Joe's Valley while he was growing up.
And he has told us lots of different stories about his trips!

We were so happy we were able to go and see the beautiful Joe's Valley lake for ourselves and enjoy the camping and fun family time together!!