Seven Pictures

This year, we took a new route home. With the flooding in Iowa and Nebraska we had to detour North anyway, so we decided to head a little more North and see Martin's Cove, Crazy Horse, and Mt. Rushmore. It was a pleasant and scenic drive. I had never been to the beautiful state of South Dakota before. It was a great day.


This was the first day of school 2011. I wonder how much longer we'll be able to pull off the Bates Family Totem Pole. Audrey is quickly gaining on Sophie in height. This year Landon is in seventh grade, William in fourth, Sophie in second and Aud in pre-school a few hours a week.


This was the girls first sewing project. They designed the bags and we sewed them up, all from things we had in the sewing box. Sophie loves stuff like this. She is the arts and crafts queen.


Audrey turned four and wanted a Barbie Cake. I had to double the cake recipe to get that skirt up to Barbie'e hips. We have been eating way too much cake since the big day.


These girls love to be silly.

New Look for the Girls Room

At Christmas time, my mom and I found some cute fabric at IKEA and Toni helped me sew some new curtain valences for the girls room. Then we found a really cute rug and some new bedding to match. Here is a little video of the girls showing how in turned out.

A Few More Summer Pics

First, my girls at Devils Gap. They just look happy.


Next, our night under the stars. There is nothing like the night sky in the middle of the desert. Amazing. And the next morning, we let each of the kids have a turn driving the van. Great memories. Landon and Audrey were crazy. Will and Sophie pretty cautious.


Vince did a great job with this Legoland picture. He centered it just right. It could be a postcard if the people weren't so funny looking. LOL


Gotta love Drew's expression in this one.


This beach picture would be perfect for Grandma Billie to put on her desk at work. If only it weren't missing one grandchild. Where's Audrey?


Oh. Here she is. Or throwing a tantrum on the ground somewhere that she didn't want her picture taken.


I love these horse pictures at Uncle Jim's. First, Morgan and Audrey go for a ride.


And then Landon and Sophie saddle up. We had such a great summer!

Finally found the cord

I finally found the cord that plugs my camera into my computer. It was right where it always is, so I have no idea why I hadn't been able to find it for several weeks. Here are a few recent pictures.

Sophie sporting her cast. I thought that she would choose pink but she thought this was, "the most beautiful shade of blue". The nurse suggested the decorative purple stripe. He and Sophie were quite the design team.


The kids on Aud's third birthday.


Landon and his friend Matthew receiving their Arrow of Light Awards.


First day of school 2010.

Pictures other people took - Summer 2010

I often forget my camera or bring it but don't take it out of the case. And I still haven't taken the time to really figure out how to use it. I will improve and I will post some of the summer 2010 pictures that I took when we get home. But I have some really talented sister-in-laws and friends and I wanted to share just a couple of their great pictures from this summer. The kids have grown up so much in the last few months.

These first two pictures, Karianne took at Devil's Gap out in the West Desert, during the Bates Reunion. The kids look forward to this camping trip more than anything else all year. Gandy is a magical place and we always have a great time. I love these pictures that Kari took of the girls. Very neat light. And this third picture with cousins fishing makes me smile. These girl caught a lot of fish. I was impressed. I even tried some and thought it was yummy.

The next two pictures Teri took at the park in Wells, Nevada at the Bake Reunion. We had a great time there too. We are blessed with an incredible extended family and love spending time with them.

This last picture Shea took when the boys and I hiked the "Y" in Provo with her and her darling girls. I hadn't done that hike since 1994. It was a lot of fun and we followed it up with lunch and icecream at the Creamery and the rest of the day at Seven Peaks. Life doesn't get much better than that. Shea and I were neighbors for four years in Santaquin and I am blessed to have her as a friend. We all have different gifts in this life and one of Shea's gifts is that she knows how to be a great friend. Hanna and Grace are gorgeous, gracious girls and my boys are lucky to have them as friends too. And this summer, Will and Grace didn't quarrel like a cranky older couple like they used to when they were little. Those are some fun memories.

I love summertime!

12 Years

This Sunday, Vince and I will have been married for 12 years. Last night,we enjoyed our annual night away from the kids. Thank you Toni for watching the whole gang. Hopefully one of these days, we will get away for many days and go somewhere over seas. But for now, I am just grateful for a fun night. By this point in our summer vacation, we have usually driven so many thousands of miles, that we don't want to travel very far. So we seem to find some local treasures every year. This year, after dinner and a movie, we stayed at the Silver Fork Lodge up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was scenic and cozy and included an amazing breakfast. We were the only guests last night, since Winter is their big season. Then this morning we hiked to Blanche Lake (second picture), Florence Lake, and Lillian Lake (top picture). It was gorgeous. I can't believe that I hadn't done this hike before. But it was 3 miles up and pretty darn steep and now my legs hurt and that is why I am sitting here blogging for a bit, because it hurts to do much else. LOL

Dirty Faces

My friend Amber just emailed me these great pictures from a recent get-together at their place. Since I have been a major slacker at downloading my own pictures or updating my blog, I thought that I would share these here. We are trying to grow-out Aud's bangs. She is horrible at keeping clips or elastics in, so her hair is always in her face. This fits her wild and feisty personality, but drives me crazy. Sophie is swinging with her cute friend Eliza. And notice her poor knees. Maybe she has her mother's grace. Thanks for the pictures and the party, Amber!