So it begins...

(note: my camera was on some weird setting for the above picture, but I decided I liked it anyway.)

My squinty kids...

:)

Emily and Justin are at different schools right now. Justin's requires uniforms, Emily's doesn't. I just felt like I should explain Justin's boring clothes. Not that he cares. :) Hopefully Justin will be going to Emily's school next year...

Someone's Excited...

This is how I found Justin when I went to check on him the night before his first ever baseball practice...

Looks comfy, huh.

He's in his second week of practices right now and loves it so much. Games start the week after Labor Day. He and Dave have been practicing every night together before bed. In fact, they are out there right now. :)
Here are some pictures from their nightly father/son playing catch together ritual. As you can see from Justin's happy face, he really loves to play...

An awesome throw, and catching a grounder...

Check out his getting ready to throw position...he concentrates really hard.

.

And this has nothing to do with baseball, but this is how I found him when I went to check on him the next night...

:)

Collages are Fun (Bear Lake 2009)

We went to Bear Lake a few weeks ago with Dave's family. This is our third summer going together, and we had a great time. The kids just think it's the awesomest thing ever...running around in the condo, playing all day at the lake, and being with their cousins and grandparents for three whole days, they were in heaven.

At the end of the trip my brother-in-law took the memory cards from each of our cameras and burned everyone a disc of all the Bear Lake reunion pictures. Needless to say we came home with tons of great pictures...way more than I could ever post. Thankfully my friend just told me about this great photo editing web-site (http://www.picnik.com/) and I was able to make a bunch of collages of lots of the fun pictures. I am way behind the times when it comes to the whole collage thing...I had a lot of fun putting them together though. :) And for those of you who (like me) don't have photo shop but desperately want it but can't afford it right now...that picnik site is great, I definitely recommend it. :)

So, it's collage time...

First day at Bear Lake...we arrived in the afternoon. The kids had fun playing on the playground and of course we had to walk down to the lake. We just need to remember for next time that there's no way we can take all the kids down to see the lake in their clothes and think they'll be content to just get in a little bit. The little ones especially got soaked. :)

Second day was our day at the lake. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand and swimming in the water.

We rented a paddle boat which was lots of fun too...

My brother-in-law took some photos of Justin and he caught some of my favorite facial expressions of his...so I had to post them. :)

Cute cousins and cute grandparents... (my awesome teen-age niece and nephew-Alison and Davis-are pictured above in the boat ride pic)

Day three...we took family pictures! (Thanks Sean.)

(before and after)

Cousin picture...

The whole family...

Day four...we spent the last day of our trip in Logan.

Dave's mom made all the kids the most adorable aprons and they spent the day wearing them. They all looked so cute. They had fun making sugar cookies together and getting those new aprons nice and messy. :)

Every year Dave's mom plans a cousin scavenger hunt and a "cousins forever" game where she reads information about each cousin (like their favorite color, what they want to be when they grow up, etc.) and the kids get to guess which cousin it is. It's always really funny and cute and they absolutely love it. So here are some pictures from our last day...

Thank you Gutke Family for a wonderful trip!!!

Grandma Rachel

My beautiful Grandma Rachel turns 91 today. Isn't that amazing! She is an incredible woman and has lived an incredible life...I love and admire her more than words can say. She came to visit a few weeks ago and it was so wonderful to see her. I thought it would be a perfect day to share these pictures...

Eden's actually named after the little town
where my Grandma was born.
Eden, AZ

Dave's Grandma (and mine too of course :)) just turned 85 a few weeks ago. Let me just say she is one incredible lady. I really look up to her and feel so blessed to know her and to have married into her family. :) My cousin-in-law just wrote a sweet post about Grandma Barbara with pictures from her 85th birthday party. I was so glad to see them because we couldn't be there. If any of you would like to see pictures of another beautiful and amazing Grandma...click here.
I am one lucky girl to have such wonderful women to look up to!


These next few pictures are from the night we were visiting with my Grandma at my parent's house. They made me happy...so I wanted to share them...

p.s. Today is also a special birthday for someone else in my family. My newest nephew, Holland, was born just this morning! Happy Birthday Holland!!!