Thursday, October 30, 2008

Hugs, Hair, and Having Fun

Just a couple of random pictures from the week that I thought were cute to post.


Collin loves to lay on Mackenzie and give her hugs, and she loves it too.



Finally I was able to put TWO pony tails in Mackenzie's hair! This is quite a big accomplishment for her hair. :) I thought they looked cute and had to take a few pictures with the curls.


Having fun in the leaves at Grandma Black's.

Play Group Halloween Party

A couple of girls in the ward invited all the kids to a Halloween party where the kids all played carnival games, decorated cookies, and ate lots of candy.
Mackenzie is a peacock again this year. The costume still fits great and I think she looks adorable in it.
Collin is a lion, but does NOT like the head put on him.

Getting her prize for the ring toss on the spider!

Pumpkin bowling was a hit.

Mackenzie loved the bowling game.


Monday, October 20, 2008

Our Bountiful Harvest

It has been 4 long years since we have had a garden with fresh veggies. There's nothing that beats fresh corn-on-the-cob and a juicy ripe tomato. Tyson was determined to plant a garden, even though it didn't get planted until mid-June and was an hour away from our house (up at his mom's in Beaver). We shared the garden with Nanette's family and David's family (siblings), but there was more than plenty veggies to go around, plenty of weeding and watering too!
They planted corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, watermelon, pumpkins, radishes, turnips, beets, peas, and beans. An early frost at the first of September froze almost everything except the precious tomatoes that they continued to cover for a month on the cold nights. I am so thankful they did because they are yummy and produced more than we could imagine.

The overloaded tomato plants.

Mackenzie and Collin examining some of the tomatoes.




The carrots and beets were not that impressive (there were more than this), but they still tasted great!

Mackenzie and Collin playing in the pumpkin patch.


Mackenzie eating all the raspberries.

From the garden tomatoes, I made salsa, spaghetti sauce, and stewed tomatoes. I also made some yummy raspberry peach jam.

Monday, October 13, 2008

A Taste of Winter

This picture is taken from our front yard on October 12th. It has been unbelievably cold here, a rough weather transition for us who still try to wear flip-flops and shorts! I'm feeling the panic to buy winter clothes for all of us!

It maybe got to a balmly 40 degress, but Mackenzie was determined to go play in the snow. She thought it was great fun to make the snowman with Uncle Vern. She kept going up to it and patting it, and then eating the snow off his belly!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

And He's Off!


Here is Collin in action. He started walking on Sept. 3rd, 2008 at 9 months and 1 week old. I'm a little late in posting this. He is now 10 1/2 months and can now get around quite well on his feet. He prefers walking over crawling. He loves to try to grab onto Mackenzie and walk for stability. The only problem is that she freaks out and starts crying and trying to run away, but he holds on for dear life, sometimes even getting drug around by her.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Wildlife

One of our favorite things to do is go for rides in the mountains to spot wildlife and just enjoy some fresh mountain air. We got so lucky when coming off the mountain the other day when I spotted these elk.


Two calf elk about 100 yards off the road up the hill.


And here is their mother not too far away, watching us very closely.



Then around the bend I spotted this nice 6-point bull elk. I wish I could have got some better shots of him. This is a rare site, especially from the road!



When we drove back into town, we decided to drive through 'The Grove' among the homes that are at the mouth of the canyon to see if we could spot the deer that have made a home in peoples' yards.

Yes, this lady walked right out her back door into her yard among the deer and they all turned and followed her to the shed. We think she feeds them treats!

Wild turkeys in the Grove.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

What happened to Fall???



We both love the seasons. That was one thing we really missed while in Florida. It has been so nice here, temperatures remaining in the 70's and 80's everyday and I was thinking that this was a great transition from Florida and fall was really nice. Well it actually has been warmer than normal. So Saturday morning, it all the sudden hit us. It was 50 degrees for the high in Cedar! Mackenzie kept saying, 'Oooh, freezin' when she'd try to walk outside. We went for a ride up in the Beaver mountains and this is what it was like...winter!



I love it when it snows. I think it looks so magical. It was so neat and exciting to see (although cold :)). I made Tyson drive me up on Big Flat at 10,000 ft to see what it was like and get some pictures. Mackenzie kept wanting to get out in the snow. She loved it, but her teeth started chattering and she kept saying 'freezin'.




'What is that stuff falling from the sky???'