Our little Boggle Jr.

Crazy hair for a Crazy Kid!

A couple months ago, I picked this Boogle Jr. game up at the D.I. ($2 steal). My thinking was I would have a fun game to play with my nieces and nephews whenever they were at our home. Karlee noticed the game awhile ago, and wanted to play. I told her that she could. Thinking that she would quickly bore of the game and leave me a mess to clean up. haha. To my surprise, she found the game to be quite fun. She loved the cards, and the dice. She soon figured out what to do. She would place a card down, then find the letters on the dice, and would start building words. She has done surprisingly well. She LOVES this game and has gotten better with identifying her letters. What a Smart cookie!

Karlee in action.

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Great game for identifying letters. who knew!

A Happy House again!

Home Sweet Home!

When Karlee was born she was given this little Elmo doll from her birthmom. Karlee has fallen in love with him and has slept almost every night of her life with him. A couple months ago (October or early November) it was bedtime and there was no Elmo. We looked everywhere. Luckily Karlee is not attached to things to the point where she gets upset or cries, she was just concerned that Elmo was missing. Karlee went to bed, and was fine. We told her that we would look for Elmo and that we would find him.

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We looked EVERYWHERE, we retraced our steps, we asked family members to search their homes, to no avail still no Elmo. Karlee would asked at bedtime and periodically throughout the day where Elmo and we just didn't have an answer for her. We just felt horrible! Horrible because this was a gift (keepsake) from her birthmom, and something we wanted Karlee to have as she grew up.

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Karlee stopped asking for Elmo, but we kept looking. On Sunday night as we were going through our nightly bedtime routine, Karlee asked where Elmo was - we told her that we were still looking. I had a thought come to me and asked Rob if he would go and check under our bed. We had both looked there many times before, but he went and looked. And to our great SURPRISE..... he found ELMO!!!! Honestly not sure who was more excited to see Elmo, Karlee or her dad. Rob can't stop talking about being able to find Elmo and how good it is to see Elmo being carried around by Karlee.

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So we are a happy house again. Elmo has been found!!!

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One Happy Girl!!!

Happy Birthday Papa

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!!

My dad is an amazing dad. I wanted to write down the things that I think of when i think of my dad. So here they are, and yes they are not all there, just a few things I thought of :

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a dad. a teacher. a friend a leader. a father. talented. a husband. non-judgemental. a brother. religious. a son. quiet. a follower. a helper. compassionate. an example. a role model. dependable. an observer. loving. faithful. goal-setter. a listener. amazing. strong. unconditional. admired. encouraging. trusting. responsible. silly. fun. creative. educated. talented. sympathetic. heart-ful. considerate. caring. gentle. authentic. loyal. committed. disciple. calm.

Poker Face

I have been meaning to post about this for sometime, for journal purposes, of course.

What a little cheeseball.

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We love to listen to music in the car while we are out doing our daily routine, and exciting trips into go shopping. Karlee absolutely loves music and loves to do some dancing (she actually has some rhythm to that little body of hers). For the past year or so there has been one song that can get this little girl moving... Poker Face, by Lady Gaga. It really is pretty entertaining to watch her shake her little bum (while buckled up in her seat), and then the hands start waving. She has, as of late, been catching onto the words, and will belt them out as she sing to the music. Pretty darn cute!

Museum of Ancient Life with daddy!

Karlee, Daddy, and little Rex

For the longest time (years) Rob has wanted to go to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. This past weekend, Rob was able to check off one more thing off his 'bucket list'. We were glad that Rob finally had a Friday off so ff we went. Karlee and I had been before about a year ago, so it was fun to go back and see these incredible creatures/artifacts. Karlee was excited that her dad said that she could bring Rex her 'Toy Story' dinosaur - once we were inside the dinosaur made its way to my bag for safe keeping.

This museum is so amazing and is such a 'Hands On' experience for young and old. It takes you through the creation to present day. Just imagine the information. The exibits are amazing, and yes very life-like. The museum has so many different things for kids to do, computers, books, water fun, and fun facts.

Rob LOVED this place. He also found time for our own personal entertainment. If this doesn't just make you laugh, then honestly you don't know Rob. What a goof-ball.

Karlee was a little apprehensive at first when we got to the part where the kids get to play with sand, water and dinosaurs (not sure why), but that didn't last long. She had so much fun, however as you can see in the picture she became quite the dinosaur hoarder. We had to remind her that there were other kids that wanted to play with them. Anyhow she had a fun time.

Karlee and Mom

I think in the Cretaceous period! who knows.haha

The Triceratops is Rob's favorite dinosaur so this picture had to be blogged. This also made me think, What's my favorite dinosaur? mmm... I will have to think on that one. Ya its probably the long neck dinosaur ("Littlefoot" from land before time), no reason other than they eat greens and look nice and graceful. --Okay not sure why Karlee is sporting her yes 'so happy' face, I am sure she was told not to climb on all the displays.haha.

Not the best picture, but love the look on both their faces. Rob was exaggerating and I think Karlee really was a bit scared. Too funny.

Our little archaeologist - Robs dream job!

The museum ends with a Dino-Dig, which is so cute. They have fossils of dinosaurs buried under tons of sand. Karlee had a good time there with her 'Archaeologist brush' - however she spent the majority of her time covering up the fossils that other kids were cleaning off with sand.

We had a really fun time, I am sure that we will be back. Rob mentioned that he loved it, but that he could have spent a lot more time reading everything. We saw a lot and did pretty good for sharing the time with a 2 year old.

Monster Truck Maddness

For Christmas this year we got Rob's parents tickets to the National Monster Truck Championships. Now I should note: that they are not huge fans of monster trucks, so I think they were surprised to say the least. After getting their tickets, Rob mentioned that he thought it would be SO FUN to get to go too, so I surprised him with tickets. So ya our tickets were in the nosebleeds, but we had GREAT seats! After the intermission we went down to the lower level and watched the second half. Truly not a bad seat in the whole place. (@ The Maverick Center)

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NOTE: as we left I grabbed our little compact camera, thinking it would be nice not to have to bring our bigger camera. Well not sure that was such a great idea. Once we were there we realized the batteries were almost dead, so we had to keep shutting it off and on. Then we started taking pictures, but some of them had a green film. And after reviewing them at home on our comptuer most (99%) of the picture are blurry. Oh well, it really was a fun night!

These trucks were amazing to watch (this coming from a girl who knows very little, make that nothign about trucks). I think some of these truck tires where taller than I am. Ya I know I am short, but come on, I am a 5ft. These trucks were fun to watch when they would literally fly in the air, and completely crush theses cars.

Merry Christmas Dan and Laurel.

Rob and I (don't you just love the green effect.)

Goodbye 2010...Hello 2011

New Year Eve has become somewhat of a family tradition. We all get together as a family, exchange gifts, play games, visit and bring in the new year. This year we brought in 2011 at my brother Troys house. It was so much fun. Rob had to work, but made a sacrifice and went to work @ 2:30am so that he could get off early so that we could make it to the party. He really is amazing! what more can I say. At the party we had yummy food, and then exchanged gifts. Before this my mom snatched this picture of all the grand kids except Karlee who did not want to participate, my sisters 2 kids (my sister Kaye who lives in Alaska) and little baby Sydney (our newest!)

9 out of 13 grand kids

Exchanging gifts is so fun. Karlee opened gifts from her cousin Paige, and Great Grandma Carole. This girl was loving that Christmas was over, but she still was getting to open presents.

I got walking sticks from Hayley, which I am super excited to use this year, while hiking with my dad. Thanks so much!

My sister Monica had Rob's name and with her amazing computer skills, she was able to manipulate this picture and put Rob's face in place of the real BYU athlete. Its a BYU computer mouse pad. He LOVES LOVES it. Thanks.

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For Christmas this year my parents gave us all "Minute to Win it" game pieces. On New Years Eve we tested out some of the games. We had a really fun time. These are some really fun games, and we are excited to use them throughout this upcoming year. Below are some pictures of us attempting to master the games.

***Object of the game*** Complete a designated task within 60 seconds.

Not sure who was laughing hardest Hayley or Rob.


Ya I think I took this one from Tom - just look at the intensity!

Monica (in her flashy jacket) and Troy. Amazing.haha


Another Minute to Win it game, the kids loved these games just as much as their parents.

Taylor and Austin picking up candy canes.


Troy stacking 10 cans - amazing talent no doubt!

At Midnight we all cheered the new year in. We went around the room and shared with the group a hope for the new year. I don't remember exactly what they all were, but remember there were some good laughs.

Here are the little girls, they stayed inside while all the older kids, and adults got their winter coats on and went outside to celebrate the new year with sparklers and noise makers. Hayley, baby Sydney, grandma, and I stayed inside as well. I forget, but want to say it was 5º outside. Burr!!!!

Thank you!!! Troy and Segi for hosting such a fun New Years Eve night.

Happy New Years!