Our Very First Christmas Tree!!

So Eric and I have been married for almost 4 years and this is the first time we've purchased a tree for Christmas!  I know sad but true and who knows how much longer it would have been if it wasn't for Sharee.  So thanks Sharee for inviting us to go out into the wild with you and your family to chop down our very own Christmas tree! It was a super fun trip and the kids enjoyed playing in the snow while the adults (okay the men) went in search of the perfect Christmas trees.

Here's Lily chasing me around.  Daphne helped her figure out how to make snow balls and she really enjoyed throwing them at me and I wouldn't have mind it had I been wearing snow pants, but sadly I don't own any. They're on my Christmas list. 

 Here's Amber taking her turn to chopped down a tree (Arthur and Eric had disappeared with the saw and all we were left to work with was a hatchet). 

Amber and Mike (Arthur's Brother) next to their Christmas tree!  They worked so hard to get it down and ended up giving it to me and Eric (They ended up needing a smaller tree, one that would fit inside their car for their trip back home).  

All the kiddos (besides Caleb and Sydney) standing next to their art work.

Cheese!

I need to get one of these metal framed backpacks the one I wore that day was not cutting it.  

Playing some more in the snow

Arthur and Eric return triumphant! 

Taaddaa!!

Eric showing off his muscles ;) 

Standing by our tree! 

Doesn't Caleb look huge on me?! Huge but cute, right? Right.

Eric roping down our tree to the top of our car. 

 No matter what setting we had our camera on this is the best picture we could get of our tree with its lights on.  We have since put on the ornaments but we don't own very many because we've never had to decorate a tree until now, so I opted to not post a picture of it with its very few ornaments on because it looks rather bare, but don't worry we plan on purchasing some ornaments when they all go on sale right after Christmas! :) 

Halloween!

We did get pumpkins this year (normally we skip out) we got our's from Wal-mart, my goal for next year is to get them at a REAL pumpkin patch. Unfortunately we carved our's a little too early and they all rotted before we could use them as decorations for our Ward's Trunk or Treat activity. 

So this year I just recycled the costume Lily wore last year (the "cute scarecrow") and thanks to Sharee and her willingness to share her costumes with us, Caleb was a Pea Pod and Eric and I were a farm couple.  We spent Halloween night with Sharee and her family, we had mummy fingers, mummy mini pizzas, a watermelon carved into a brain, and rotten apple juice with sour gummy worms for dinner :) Yummy. This year was Lily's first time "Trick or Treating"  and she actually did really well. I don't have any pictures of Halloween night because I forgot to charge my camera's battery (I know shame on me) but if you really want to see what our food looked like head over to Sharee's blog! Or just enjoy the picture's I did take :)

Carving time!

Lily's job was to play with the pumpkin seed, and boy did she enjoy that!

Eric never did get to finish this guy but it was suppose to be a Sailor...a little tribute to the Navy :)

You can't really tell from this picture but on one of the pumpkins I was trying to be fancy and carve a maple leaf on it using my brother-in-law's super cool technique of "shaving". It would have looked better if we had had candles but we didn't have any and then our pumpkins went nasty so we have no pictures that show the true potential of this carved pumpkin ;) Maybe next year.

We had some leftover stickers from playgroup and so Lily decided to decorate Daddy :)

A very pleased little girl with her artwork. 

 These next few pictures are of Caleb and I just love how easy it is to get him to SMILE!! 

So Lily has recently entered that stage where you ask for a SMILE and get....

this

OR this...

Lily LOVES these two girls in our ward.  Lydia and Lauralin are sisters and come from a great family, the oldest girl (Lydia-"The Bee") is Lily's favorite babysitter :) 

Serious Farmer and Pea Pod, Caleb was too distracted by all that was going on around him to pay any attention to me :)

Balloon Festival

First off I think I deserve a round of applause cause I'm posting!! Alright moving on to the good stuff...

For the past five or so years Sharee has posted pictures of her family's annual visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, which takes place in October.  For years I harbored feelings of resentment, bitterness, and jealousy for never receiving an invitation to come out and visit during that time so that I too could experience such an adventure...

Okay so I'm totally kidding I didn't feel that way, but looking at those pictures sure got me hoping that one day I'd get the chance to attend, and guess what...I got my wish this last Saturday!!  Even though it was rather cold, super early in the morning(gotta be there early, 5'ish, if you wanna see the "Mass Ascension"), and Lily whom we all thought would be thrilled to be there was not, I repeat NOT a happy camper, we still enjoyed ourselves and are hoping that we'll be in the area for next years festival (it all just depends on where Eric's rotations will be).  So Thanks Sharee and Arthur for letting us tag along with you and your family it was loads of fun!!

So here are a few pictures...sadly Sharee's camera didn't charge even though she had it plugged in the whole night before and we didn't come that much more prepared...our camera's battery was in the "red zone" from the very beginning, so we took what pictures we could...enjoy!

This little guy was a trooper, he slept for the first hour and was content to be held and watch the balloons for the next!

The Butterfly!

 The cool thing about this experience is that we were smack dab in the middle of everything. There were groups setting up their balloons all around us and several times all we would have had to do was reach out and touch a balloon as it was being inflated. That's why this picture of Sean is so great, he was a little to preoccupied by the ever growing and looming balloons that were surrounding him to take notice of Aunt Jewels and the camera. 

Me and the boy

It's not easy to smile at a camera with the sun right in your face, but these guys make it look easy!

The Haunted House!

It's Bruce off of Finding Nemo!!  At least it looks like Bruce :)

  

The Big 2

On July 10th our little Lily, who is not so little (she's already wearing size 3T) turned 2.  Her Aunt Sharee,Uncle Arthur and cousins, who live in town, helped us celebrate.  We decided to do a pinata this year since Lily's never experienced one and she'd better get in some practice if she's going to be able to play with the big guys at Aunt Melanie's upcoming wedding in September.  Yep from what I hear there will be three small white pinatas at the family dinner we'll be having after the wedding, I'm looking forward to watching all the nephews and nieces  taking turns and possibly the bride and groom :) So yes we had a pinata, a tropical parrot since we had recently all gone to see the movie Rio together, thought they'd enjoy it and they did :) Now I have a confession to make I really wanted  Lily to blow out her candles this year so I practiced with her on matches and then candles the day of. And guess what...it payed off!! Lily blew out her candles all by herself and I've got the video to prove it.  So our Lily is 2 and we truly feel blessed that she's a part of our little family. We love her to pieces and are excited, and look forward  to celebrating many more birthday's with her!

Just for fun here are a few fun facts about our Lily...
Absolutely LOVES Water - dirty, clean, in a cup, pools, bath, puddles, rain, ice...it does not matter the amount or the form it comes in she loves it.
Cuddle Bug...even at an early age Lily would hug back and she has continued to love being held and hugged.
Her favorite vegetable is Broccoli but it has to be cooked. As for fruit she's got too many to list ;)
She loves being outside but HATES bees and ants.
Loves her baby brother Caleb who she calls "Waylub"
Lily loves to sing - her current favorites are "I am a Child of God" and "Happy Birthday"
Lily is eager to learn and explore she loves to point to something and ask "What is that?"
Social Butterfly...Lily loves to wave and say hi to pretty much anybody she sees.  She is definitely not shy.
Favorite animal...dogs, followed closely by farm and zoo animals :)
And lastly, when Lily gets REALLY excited  about something she sorta tenses up and spazzes out, those of you who have witnessed this know what I'm talking about :)

Lily and her First pinata

She kept wanting to touch it instead of hitting it.

 In the end it was Dallin who defeated the pinata by decapitating it.

Sharee and Daphne showcasing the remains of the pinata :) Makes some pretty fancy hats.

Lily saw what they were doing and wanted a shot at modeling as well

So I was trying (key word trying) to make some fun colored cupcakes to go along with the tropical pinata and I messed up on the frosting...the consistency was way too watery and therefore the designs did not hold :( But thankfully they still tasted good. 

Thanks Gariety Family for helping us celebrate Lily's 2nd Birthday 

Had to include a picture of this little guy!