The kidlets

Last Christmas, Hubert bought me a wonderful camera and unfortunately, it has taken me almost a year to learn how to really use it! But, I love it and I have loved taking pictures not only of my girls, but also of our good friends and my nephews. Sure, I'm no Ansel Adams, or any other famous photographer whose name I don't know, but it's been really fun to take pictures of so many of the people that I love. So here are some recent ones I took of Ash and the boys, Katie and Boston, and my beautiful girls. Enjoy!

The girls

Lately, Ellie has been a little obsessed with waterfalls and there is a very pretty waterfall in Ogden Canyon, so sometimes I'll pack the girlies in the car, get myself and diet coke, and take a little drive to her favorite waterfall. And when she is done watching the water we, of course, continue to drive through the canyon because, seriously, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. And because it is so beautiful, Hubert and I decided that we should take pictures of the girls in such a beautiful setting, so here they are. But let me first say that Ellie is in almost all of them because Miss Olivia Jane wasn't being too cooperative.

Camping, anyone?

Last weekend, Hubert and I thought it would be a great idea to take both the girls down to Arches National Park and do a little camping. Sure, we haven't been camping for about 7 years, Olivia is 7 months old, and the nearest town is about 45 minutes away, but we figured we would give it a try. Luckily, we went went our good friend, Cara Baldwin, and her fabulous kids, which made watching Ellie much easier, but even though we had Cara, her kids, a beautiful campground, warm weather and blue skies, what really put a damper on the trip was the 80 mile an hour hurricane-like winds that were hitting us at every angle. It was truly horrible. But even though the conditions weren't great, we still had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Olivia had this look on her face every time we made a stop. She didn't love being in the car for 4 hours

A view from our campground. It was beautiful.

Ellie loved being there, even though it was so windy, as you can tell by her hair blowing.

Olivia and me after we spent the night with Ellie in the back of Cara's car. Sadly, Hubert slept in the tent which almost blew away and woke up covered in sand. Yes, it was horrible, but as you can see I couldn't have been happier for the sun to come up. Olivia, on the other hand, was not a "happy camper"

Hubert and Cara trying to put away the tents. It was so windy that we couldn't stop laughing.

After the tents were put away and everything was packed, we decided to forgo the second night we had planned to stay and go home. But even though the wind was horrible and it was hard to even stand, we couldn't resist the beauty of Arches, so we stopped. Hubert and Ellie hiked around a little bit while I stayed at the car while Olivia slept. But it didn't matter where I was because I was in awe of the rocks around me. Hopefully we'll go back soon.

6 Months Old!

Today Olivia is 6 months old and after an entire day of whining about how I need to blog about her big day, at least I'm pretty sure that's why she was fussy, I decided to let the world know that she has survived thus far. But really, these past 6 months have been wonderful with this little girl. Sure, sometimes she doesn't sleep great and she goes from 1 to 10 in about half a second, but I can't get enough of her coo's, her laugh that sounds like she's in some sort of pain, and her constant, huge smile. She is a wonderful baby and it makes me sad that she is already 6 months old, but I can't wait to see what the next 6 months will bring. Oh, and I have to credit the picture idea to my good friend, Amber.

Also, Ellie and I made cookies today for the occasion and this was her idea of "helping" me.

The Aquarium, and then some

This week, Ashley and I, along with the help of Patty, took the kiddies to the Living Aquarium and although Ellie has been asking to see the "fishies" for quite some time, you would have thought that when we walked in, we were walking into her worst nightmare. But, after a few minutes, and getting as far away from the octopus as possible, she was fine and we all had a great time. So here are some pictures of our fun day, as well as a few extras I thought we would all enjoy.

I had to put this one on because she FINALLY wore her apron!