DAY 2 New Years and Weddings

Ok, I know it's going back a bit.  However, not only am I trying to catch up on blogging, I am taking time each day to clean up my photo library.  I am deleting loads of duplicates, hundreds of pictures taken by my kids of random things around the house, and fuzzy pictures, you know what I am talking about.  While going through my massive library I have found a few gems that never were documented.  So, let's start at the very beginning.  ("A very good place to start"-The Sound of Music)

Wedding #1-My cousin Lauren was married a few days after Christmas in Cove, Utah.  Annie and I hitched a ride down to the wedding with the Garzas.  My uncle owns a tree farm and they decorated the entire church with live trees.  It was like a winter wonderland.  And the brownie sundae's were not bad either!  

Austin and Adam...these two crack me up.  

The quality on all these pictures isn't so great.  However, I was trying to capture the second generation of cousins chatting it up.  What are they talking about?  

Maybe Austin was sharing a funny story...

I don't know where they get all their chatting skills from...could be they come by it naturally from this  crew?

Holly, Ben (brother and sister of the bride) and Ben's wife Ally.  

Holly and my favorite Aunt Kathy!  

When Ben came home from his mission, I was like, "Oh my goodness, it's my son Michael."  I think they have a lot of similarities.  It's kind of funny cause Michael is my only child that people ever comment looks like me, however, no one has ever really told me I look like any of my Milligan cousins.  I guess I must!  

I don't know why I barely took any pics of the beautiful bride and groom! 

Even though I think this is the MOST hideous picture of myself, I will put aside my vanity for the sake of the memory.  Starting on the left:  Heidi (sister), Emily (cousin), Holly (cousin) and some crazy lady having a bad hair day, bad clothes day, and looking a little possessed. 

And finally, my favorite picture of the whole evening...

My three nieces Abigail, Sadie, and Chloe got down and dirty reaching for that bouquet.  I think Chloe came away with the prize.  This picture just makes me laugh. 

Okay, now onto a few more pictures leading to our New Year.  I just like these I found of Annie. 

Helping Mom in the Kitchen

Maybe she was helping me to make up for earlier when she was refusing to pose for a picture.  

Some bribing (or threatening) might have taken place.  

This is what is usually happening when I try to get a picture. 

Loving her new Christmas Clothes and boots. 

This is where I often find Annie.  There are ALWAYS loads of papers, paper clippings, scissors, markers, pencils and pens lying around. 

The cousins came over for some good old "Just Dance" on the Wii. 

On to Wedding #2- My good friend Kristy (my friend, Joshua's BFF's mom, and two of my children's school teacher) was getting married to Joe.  Joe is the greatest guy and we were just SO happy they found each other.  They decided to make the wedding short, simple, and sweet and to do it on New Year's Eve.  I thought it was a great idea, since we never do anything too exciting on New Year's anyway, what could be better than a WEDDING party!?   I told Kristy I would help with ANYTHING she needed...and she took me up on it.  I kind of became in charge of getting the church ready and things in place for a short ceremony and a meet and greet afterwards.

If you look closely, I mostly just grabbed all the decorations from my house, and brought them to the Church to make it more cozy.  My sister, Jennifer was a LIFE SAVER, and brought things from her home too and helped me set everything up. I would never have had made it without her.  

We moved in the couches and chairs from the foyer and cut the gym in half so it was cozy.  

The ward was awesome, everyone made treats and appetizers to share.  

Here's the beautiful bride.  

James and friend, Jaime.  

I love this picture, it's like Ryan is giving some fatherly advice to the groom or something.  Who knows what they were talking about.  

The happy couple...

They both deserve a long life of happiness together...

The Chapel...

After cleaning and packing everything back in the car, we got home about midnight...just in time to ring in the New Year.  

 The kids were all watching the fireworks go off all over the Valley. 

Cheers!

Nothing like an orange popsicle to ring in the New Year.  

New Year's Day brought playing with friends.  I was laughing so hard when I saw our neighbor, Keisha, had walked through the snow to play- in her older sister's high heals.  

We went out for Chinese as a family. 

We ran into some people we knew at the restaurant.  :)

The newly wed's son, Michael, came along with us.  Annie enjoys teasing him.  He is the youngest in his family so I think he likes the chaos.  :)  

I don't know what we were thinking (because we usually never even take all our kids out for dinner)  but we went all out and got ice-cream too.  New Years only comes around once a year! 

Sassy...

Five boys...

And two girls...

It was fun to look back and revisit our New Years!  How is 2014 going for you?  It will be this time of year again before you know it!

Hundred Days of Blogging, DAY 1 Pioneer Day

Well, I have SO much to catch up on.  I have always been the type of person that when I have too much to do, or I don't know where to start, I just do nothing.  Do you relate?  My sister did "30 days of Vacation" on Instagram this summer.  I have had other friends do similar ideas.  I have so much to catch up on I was thinking of doing 30 days of blogging, but I don't even think 30 days would catch me up at this point.  Soooo, I am going for 100.  You heard me, 100 days of blogging.  Don't worry, you don't have to follow along, but it's mostly more for me.  I am not good at scrapbooking at this point in my life, so this is pretty much our family journal.  So, here I go.

I am starting with yesterday, Pioneer Day.  Here is Idaho, unlike in Utah, Pioneer Day is not a State Holiday.  However, we still take time to think of the Pioneers, and all those who have gone before us, and celebrate their journey.  We usually go to our Stake Pioneer Celebration.  Everyone is invited to dress in their best Pioneer gear.  We didn't get that far, however, these two cuties from our ward did.

Each ward was in charge of a game for the kids.  We did Tug a War. The kids really had fun with it, and some of them really cracked me up.   

After we became tired of being the tug a war referees, we delegated the job to Joshua and Abigail.  Joshua had just finished working 12 hours at his new job, so he really looked like a pioneer with his work boots and dirty face.  They were more fun as referees than we were, because they actually jumped in and played.  This kid is strong. I don't think he ever lost. 

She might not be as strong, but she looks cute!

Abigail didn't like this picture, but I still think it's cute.  

This is the one where Joshua looks like an old man.  Isn't that funny looking?  I should not have edited it, because pre-editing he looks like at 80 year old. 

 I am so grateful for cousins my kids age. This year at Bear Lake it was so fun to see all the older kids together and how much they are growing up.  (We miss you Garzas!)  The kids really love each other and have each other's back.  These two girls are kind of like the sisters Joshua never had (until he had his actual sisters.) I am so grateful he has them not only as cousins but friends too!  Even though he likes to deny it, he loves watching musicals with them (ha-ha) and hanging out.  I am sure his future wife will appreciate all the training they have given him.  :)  I can't believe that this will be Abigail's last year before she is off to college.  She will be DEARLY missed and I just hate to think about it.  Boohoo.

And I don't know what Sophie will do when she finds out that Emmaline is actually eight years older than she is and they won't be in school together.  Sophie asks to go play with Emmaline practically everyday.  Soon Sophie will be bigger than Emmaline, and there will be no more carrying her around. 

I think they would have been pretty cute pioneers.  I don't know how much Sophie would have appreciated the food situation.  No spicy chips?  No strawberries?  Forget it. 

And these two pioneers kept busy running around the whole evening, I barely saw them. 

I am SO grateful for my Pioneer Ancestry.  In Primary (the children's group at church) each family is taking turns telling about their Ancestors.  It has been a great experience.  My kids told a few stories from both sides of their family.  We still need to call our Grandma Bogren and get some stories from her about our Ancestors and where they came from and what their life was like on that side of the family.  One of the stories I shared was about a modern Pioneer, my Grandma.  I have so many memories of my Grandma, but none of them involve this part of my Grandma's life.  I never heard her talk about it, but I loved reading about it later.

This is my Grandma-

Edna May Prigmore Milligan

The above picture was when she was in the Navy in 1943.  She was in the WAVES (A unit of the US Naval Reserve) and lived in New York City.  SHe lived with her sister, Rose.  (Who I named Sophie Rose after.)  I just LOVE this letter that she wrote to her parents on August 15, 1945.  

"Dear Mama and Papa, 

So much has happened so fast and furious of late in the past week that I'm not quite sure whether or not I'm awake or just dreaming. 

The end of the war and the exciting events leading up to it are never to be forgotten.  Ever since the first news of the first atomic bomb, the people of New York have drifted around like bombs themselves awaiting a spark to explode them.  Last evening, after a week of intense waiting the good news came over the radio at about 7:05 o'clock and New York simply went mad.  

Rose and I got home around six.  We turned on the radio immediately but didn't expect to hear any too favorable news because of the word we had heard in the afternoon informing us that the Emperor's first note to Switzerland had not been too enlightening.  

But at 6 o'clock the atmosphere was changing.  Rose and I stayed glued to the radio and when the final news came we dashed around like mad and got up to Times Square.  So did every body else.  The factory whistles blew (many of them out where we live) the subway trains screamed at every station and church bells rang.  All street cars and automobiles detoured around the square.  There wasn't room for the people let along anything else.  For twelve blocks the streets were packed with yelling, screaming people.  

Rose and I pushed ourselves through the streets about 8 o'clock and finally found ourselves in the middle of the square.  We went up in the Bell Telephone's Servicemen's Lounge and got a view of the swarming beehive of people below.  In about 20 to 30 minutes we went back into the street again to fight our way up to Broadway.  And it was a fight."  

And this is my favorite part-

"It was a sight to see and we would have stayed longer but there were so many silly service boys so determined to kiss the girls and especially the ones in uniform it became unbearable.  I was becoming doubtful that I'd make it out in one peace."  

Not really a typical "Pioneer Story", but so fun to see this iconic peace of history come to life in the words of my own Grandmother. 

More Pioneer stories to come!  All who have gone before us were survivors.  They lived through hard things and I am so grateful for their courage and the sacrifices that they made for us.

All Pictures have been Recovered!!!

I am soooo happy.

My iPhoto problem...fixed.

My crazy slow computer that I could not do anything on...fixed.

I can edit photos.

I can download photos.

I can blog!

HURRAY!

ALL my pictures I took the last month of school that I thought might be gone forever, recovered.

Let the documenting of the summer begin...

PS That little girl just happened to get baptized today.  We are pretty proud.  Way to go, Isabelle! 

Going Towanda and Other Happy Things

I have so much I want to blog about!  So many pictures to catch up on!  Why don't I do it?  (Besides lack of time…that is a factor too!)  My iPhoto is sooooooo slow, it makes gathering and editing pictures a tedious pain in the behind.  Somehow I need to reorganize my pictures and keep the bulk of them on my external hard drive instead, but I am going to wait for Ryan to help with that one. I don't want to accidentally delete all my pictures.  That is something I can see happening!  There are so many things to catch up on!  

 Things like when Ryan took these two munchkins to California with him.  Can you see how excited they were that morning?  

I think they were also pretty excited about all the snacks they brought along for the ride. 

Or I haven't had a chance to tell you about the day I went TOWANDA on my kids perfectly working laptop computer! 

 *Do you use the word  in your life?  My sisters and I use it all the time.  I sometimes get a look that others don't know what I am talking about when I say that I "went Towanda."  Click on the link above and have a good laugh.  I think we all have our Towanda moments, however, this moment is one  never to be forgotten.  I dropped (ok, threw) the computer on the cement and then we all bashed it with a hammer.  My oldest son was so mad at me, that he went Towanda himself and threw his cell phone and broke it too!  Thanks, Son!  Even better, no computer OR phone for you.  (A few weeks later we let him buy a new one with his own money, but that is another story.)  Result of my Towanda moment?  No more games on the computer.  No more "mind craft"!  

Spring is here and I captured this when things were just starting to turn green.  I have to capture the pretty things around me because I kind of want to go Towanda on my yard right now.  That is another story, but lets just say there are a lot of weeds and dandelions and I don't like it one bit!  But how can I complain when my kids have this as their playground.  If you look closely at the red barn, you can see one of my boys on the fence.  That is their "hide out" and they play down there constantly. 

A couple weeks ago when I would arrive at the bus stop to pick up the kids from school,  I kept finding Michael missing.  He was crawling under the ROAD into this drain pipe …it makes me claustrophobic just thinking about it!  

His cohorts in crime pulling him out…

"Mom, this is actually a really safe place to be if we have a tornado."  Boys!  

Luke got so mad when I posted this on instagram, because it looks like he is "in love "with our neighbor.  He really was laughing and looking to the side at just the right moment.  I just got lucky with how it turned out.  But I can't help it…it is so cute!  

Sunday evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house-

Luke with his church pants, an undershirt and socks…there is a reason all our socks have holes!   Michael has the whole "mixing patterns" thing down really well.  

When it was time to come home no one wanted to get "in" the car, so I drove VERY slow, and this is how they hitched a ride…cookies and all. 

ELEVEN more days of school after today….YAHOO!!!!  Hopefully I can figure out my computer situation and start blogging more one of these days.  For now….have a BEAUTIFUL May day, and try not to go Towanda on anyone you love.

Spring Time

Spring Break seems so long ago at this point I can't barely remember it.  But luckily, I have a few pictures, mostly from my iPhone, to help me remember.  For some reason we mostly had video's…but we did still capture a few of the fun things we did.  

We stayed home for the entire break. It seems like during the school year each week is so busy and the kids don't get to just stay home and relax,ever, so that is what we did!  (We also wanted to take advantage of some final ski days.)  

I took the kids to ijump.  That is always fun, and I feel like they get some good exercise!  

One of the things on our "to do" poster was to take the boys to the Military Surplus Store.  James, Gunnar, and Michael all came home with this get up.  They were pretty happy!  Luke had all kinds of treasures picked out, but when he found out I wasn't buying them, that they had to use their own money, he decided he didn't wanna waste his money!  (Huh, imagine that!) 

Another thing on the list was to go through Joshua's room and do a CLEAN OUT.  He had things like this lurking under his bed.  It freaks me out every time I look under there.  Yes, that would be his cast from when he broke his leg in SIXTH grade.  Disgusting, I know.  We took a picture and said goodbye!  Always feels great to tackle a project that has been on the list forever.  Annie also thought it was fun, she kept trying to carry off new treasures she found in the "get rid of pile".

We got in a few ski days with the whole family….sometimes the kids favorite part of the day is lunch time!

While the boys were on the big hill with Dad, I got to spend some time with the girls.  Sophie showed great improvement and I think she will make an awesome skier! Annie is so independent now, I could take them both up on the lift with no problems.  I love that we can bring the whole family up now to have a fun day together.  After years of teaching little ones to ski, pregnancy, nursing baby, and all those fun times sprinkled with just a few ski trips here and there, things have PAID off, and the kids can all come up and we can enjoy a beautiful day in the mountains together.  

Annie joined the boys for a while and it was fun to spend some time with Sophie!  

We hosted our extended family for family home evening.  This crew was listening to the lesson from above.  Kind of dangerous with that crazy railing.  (I don't know how it would ever pass a building code.)  I was a little worried and my fears came to fruition when one of the twins got his head stuck in the bars.  Luckily, he was quickly rescued and no harm done.  

Grandpa giving the lesson with a little help from Michael.  

We also all went to the dentist that week for cleanings.  It was Sophie's first visit.  She did great until it was time for the Dentist to look at her teeth and then it was all over.  She did not "like that dad."  (She calls most adult males, "dads" and women "moms".)  We still have not found a solution despite several trips back.  Yikes. 

One morning I laid down after getting the kids off and when I woke up, this is what I saw.  Our primarily outside dog, Daisy, was getting the royal treatment by Sophie.  "Here, here is your dog food."  Hand feeding her animal crackers one by one.  Daisy thought she had died and gone to heaven.  I had to wash my sheets!

I don't even remember the exact details about this, but one day Annie, her friend Izzie, and Sophie all walked to Grandma's house. I went to pick them up in the car and Sophie insisted on "running home by  herself."  So, I let her, and just followed slowly in the car.  I figured she could use the exercise.  I could not believe it.  She ran the WHOLE WAY!  It is a steep incline when you get to our street, but she just kept truckin'.  She was so cute, all our of breath and proud when she made it home.  

One day this was the weather here according to my iPhone and I must say it was pretty darn accurate.  Ya, that says DUST, as in dusty outside.  

I was able to sneak off for some Frozen Yogurt with some of my Zumba buddies to celebrate a birthday.  Luke came along and was so kind to take pictures for us.  

I was especially happy when I got home to see he had also taken a whole bunch of unauthorized pictures.  Most of them looked about like this….gorgeous.  

James ran in his first track meet…go James!  This is him running the 400m.  At this age there is a HUGE difference in the size of kids, and James is definitely on the smaller end of the spectrum, but he held his own!

 

Since we were already up in Rexburg for the Track Meet it was only logical that we stop by Nielson's Frozen Custard for a treat before heading home.  

Man, time is FLYING and I am ready for summer!  I don't even have time to proof read this puppy so excuse the typos.  This mama is TIRED and I have a killer headache.  Peace out folks.