Camping

A couple weeks ago before the very place burned up in a horrible forest fire we had the pleasure of camping with some friends of ours from the valley. We met in Oak Creek Canyon which is like 15 miles from our house, and absolutely beautiful! It was our very first attempt at camping since starting a family and it was a learning experience for sure, but overall totally a success.  Everyone had such a fun time, especially Emma. Here are some highlights of the fun. 

 Now I really do typically tend to avoid camping in places with signs like this...

YIKES!!

But like I said, it was beautiful, and our camp ground was so far from any danger that I felt it was ok :)

Even though this was my view most of the trip.

Now this was our grand cherokee as we were pulling out of the driveway. Good thing we still only have one child, that's all we had room for. 

But you had to be there to fully understand how glorious our "tent" was. I put it in quotes because I dont like tents, so every time we go camping we put the seats down in the back and put a mattress back there. Its awesome. I dont know why everybody doesn't camp like that. No bugs, no putting anything up, bear proof. And then you just drive away when you're ready, like nothing ever happened. 

Its 5'6'' the whole length so I was able to fully stretch out, and Kallam only had to bend a little. And we put Emma's old bassinet in the front seat held even by all our stuff. AMAZING!!!

We had loads of fun with a spoon and some dirt

And there was the cutest little stream/pool for us to play in to get washed off.

And a great log for taking some pics

Daddy and Daughter!

 Kallam worked on his survival skills while Emma dug up some more dirt. He actually got a coal going, he also got some blisters going :) so his wife started the fire the easy way. Next time he'll bring gloves.

 And we had a yummy dinner of pork roast with veggies and cobbler. Cherry and apple of course because I don't believe in peach cobbler. 

FYI we did not start the forest fire, Kallam would like me to state that. :) But hopefully fires don't follow us, because we plan on camping at least one more time this summer. 

1st Birthday!!!

Emma is ONE! What? WHAT??? Its actually not that surprising since she's been walking (more like running lately, ugh) on her own for almost four months and she is in the 93% for size, so we feel like she's already been a toddler for a while. Our home is officially deemed messy for the next decade as Emma is crazy and we are announcing the soon arrival of our second!! WHAT?? Yep, God told us to have another kiddo, so hesitantly that's exactly what we are doing :) They will be close, 18 months apart, but we're hoping we will not wish it any other way in the end so they can be friends and play together(and fight I'm sure). I probably would be more nervous about it if Emma we're so independent already, it will be a blessing. Perhaps she will do other things early...potty training??? :) So this is how we announced to our family that we were expecting. One member of Kallams family took some time to catch on, she thought that it was an expiration date for the candy, and thought it was a misprint because Emma was only 1, not turning 2. :) But most people enjoyed getting chocolate mints, even though we did hear they were strong in the mint department.  

I of course had to make Emma a birthday cake, covered in ruffles to match her tutu. 

And we had a great BBQ with all the fixins with my parents and all our friends from the ward, work and our neighborhood. 

All in all we had a super terrific time. Good food and good company and a beautiful Flagstaff day made it perfect. 

The Blue Dress

So we totally did this months ago, but I couldn't pass up this chance. Emma could be the only girl I ever have! You just never know. Also, I'm a creature that enjoys tradition. So when every girl that has been born into our family for the past 30+ years has taken a picture in this dress, you just have to have a photo shoot! So I dragged out a black sheet, threw it over the couch and shined a lamp on Emma. A million pictures and a ton of clapping and funny faces later we ended up with something close to mine. :) So, really what we can see here is that this looks like a picture of Kallam, as a baby, in a blue dress. LOL

Family Pictures 2013

Just in case we didn't get to send out Christmas cards this year or if you don't get to see them on our wall, I wanted to post these for our friends and family far away. A co-worker of mine who takes AMAZING pictures asked us if we wanted some shots up on the mountain. Yay! I was so pleased, we got some great ones! Emma was a trooper, even though it was freezing! I don't know what it is about taking a picture with someone to remind you every reason why you love getting to be in the same picture forever. We had such a blast! WARNING: I left a couple pictures in the middle for your laughing pleasure, we were dying. ENJOY!!

Are you ready to wet your pants from laughing so hard??? 

FAIL!!! SO FUNNY!!!