Catch up (part 1)

I have a lot to catch up on! As I get farther and farther behind I get more and more intimidated by the idea of trying to write down almost a year of stories. So it's time to just get on the stick and post something!

 We celebrated our newly 3 year old :)

 Enjoyed the 4th of July in Utah.

 Kaylee grew long enough to have a ponytail!

 We got to see the coolest hot air balloon display! They do it every year in Colorado Springs!

 We went on an awesome family vacation to San Diego. We saw the San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, Balboa Park, and hit up Disneyland the last day!

 Jack was finally tall enough to go on a few rollercoasters! He loved them!

 Kaylee loved her first visit to the D.L.

 Jack had to have some dental work done, and they had to do it at a surgical center due to some high anxiety he had about it all. Poor guy :(

 Jack, Kaylee and I got to go to Disneyland just a few weeks later again with my family while Steve went to Asia on one of many business trips.

 Jack got to hang out with his friend Lana while she was in Utah. They are cute little buds!

 We went to a cool Halloween party in Logan with Steve's family and "the cousins". Jack had a ball!

 We painted pumpkins, because I realized that carving them would turn into ME carving all of them... and that didn't sound too fun :P

We had a lot of fun on Halloween with our ward friends. We got to take the kids trick or treating at Steve's office, where they totally scored (two lunchbags full of candy each....), did a trunk or treat, went around to a few houses in the neighborhood and had pizza and dessert with a few families that night.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Kaylee's blessing

We blessed Kaylee on June 10, 2012. It was a beautiful day, and we were so glad we were able to share it with many of our close friends and family! We blessed her in my parents home in the afternoon after church, and had a great time catching up with everyone that was able to come! She is most definitely a beautiful little lady, and so very lucky to have such wonderful people in her life!

Daddy and Kaylee

The "light appetizers" :) The cake is my 2nd in 24 hours, so it was pretty low key!

A little pampering

Fellow RN and former room mate- I was so happy to see Ash!

A family picture- love Jack's new way of "smiling"!

Grandpa's and Daddy and Kaylee

Grandma's, Mommy and Kaylee

Scott, Laura and Lana with us

So many awesome people we love!

Mini photo shoot to show off the dress and accessories

The shoes were mommy's contribution to the outfit (grandma made the rest)- just don't look too closely! I'm not a great sewer!

He loves her so much!

Aloha wedding

I arrived in Utah before Steve (who couldn't miss work Friday despite some very cheap flight tickets on Thursday), and was lucky enough to be able to take part in the celebration of my uncle Jim's marriage to a sweet lady we've gotten to know well over the last couple years- Kathy. They were married in the Salt Lake temple Saturday morning, and a luau reception that evening. I offered to make their wedding cake and had a fun time doing so :)

The bride and groom! So happy for them! (I had to borrow this picture from my cousin Jess- so glad she got such a great one of them!)

The wedding cake :) It was a fun and casual reception, so the cake was fun and casual too!

How awesome is a reception where you get to wear Hawaiian garb!

Jack was in heaven with the hundreds of cupcakes that were also at the reception!

June in Utah

When we moved to Colorado, I knew that I wanted to go back to Utah to bless Kaylee around all the family. When my parents started talking about taking a family vacation in June, it seemed like a good opportunity to make a short stop in Utah before heading out back east with the group. As we got closer to our departure date, Steve found out that he was going to need to go on a business trip shortly after we had planned on returning home. Unfortunately, this would mean I would be left alone in our big new home with the two little ones= very lonely for two whole weeks. Steve suggested we extend the Utah visit while he was gone, and since that brought us to the end of June, we eventually pushed it out even further so we could enjoy Jack's birthday and Independence day with the family. I'm going to break down our fun into the next couple posts, but thought that background info would help it all make sense :) Read on!

Another post of pictures

Steve got me a great DSLR camera for Christmas last year. For Mother's Day, he gave me a fun new lens and a class with a local photographer who helped me better understand how to use all the fancy parts of my new camera. Since that class, I've been playing around a lot on the camera, using the cutest subjects I know :) Here's a few of my favorite shots- all straight out of the camera because I have not idea what to do editing !

I just had to add this one because the focus on Jack is so cool to me :P

love those lashes!