Estes Park, Colorado

I had a nice long Spring Break so for part of it we headed up to the cute little mountain town of Estes Park, CO. It is right at the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park which is so beautiful. My parents were ready to do something fun too so they met us there. We had soooo much fun! It was such an awesome break from school.

Us walking down the river walk in Estes

They had lots of cute little shops down the main street so we checked them out

Our cute little cabin we stayed at

Dal standing in front of our cabin (look in the trees behind him)

Here is a close up of the deer in the trees behind him (deer and elk seem to hang out all over the place in Estes Park)

We saw these elk that were just hanging out in some open space next to a restaurant (the fence was part of the restaurant parking lot)

Here's a close up of a couple of them

Lake Estes

Entering Rocky Mountain National Park

We drove to Bear Lake and then from there hiked to Nymph Lake. There was a ton of snow (that the kids loved playing in) and the trail was so beautiful and peaceful.

Nymph Lake (ice and snow covered of course)

While there we saw a cool blue bird

Daddy helped Braelyn make a HUGE snowball

After she threw it at Dal (more like dropped it in his lap) he grabbed it and was excited to try to throw it at mommy

We also went up near Sprague Lake where we tried out snow shoeing. It was a lot of fun!

Here are a couple little video clips of Braelyn snow shoeing. She was a natural!

While on our snow shoeing adventure we stopped and built a cool snow fort complete with a couch to sit down on

And a snow tunnel to crawl through

My mom also used some of her artistic skills to make a snow sculpture

More Rocky Mountain National Park

We went to a place called Alluvia Fan. It's where years ago a dam broke and it brought a lot of boulders down the mountain with it. So there are a lot of cool rocks to climb on around there. The kids loved it!

We loved Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. It was so great to enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors. We definitely want to go back someday.

V Day

We had a fun little Valentine's Day. At my lunch break from being in clinic I got some heart shaped Donuts and brought them home to surprise Jake & Braelyn. (We saved one for Dal for when he got home from school) Dal had a fun Valentine's party at school where he got lots of yummy treats and such. When I got home from clinic Jake made us a delicious v-day dinner (it was yummy pork loin, some amazing flavorful mashed potatoes, salad and homemade rolls. I wish I took a picture of it because it looked amazing too)

After dinner we had a yummy oreo pie dessert that Jake had made in this cute heart shaped dish.

This is what remained when I finally got around to taking a picture of it. It sure was yummy.

Jake surprised me with a super cute BYU shirt...

...complete with a hoodie :) I was so surprised and I love it. It is so soft and comfy

He also gave me this cute and funny little card

I am so grateful for my amazing husband. He is always so sweet and thoughtful. I love how excited he gets to surprise me with things or get me surprise presents. He can hardly keep from telling me about it or from telling me what's inside a present that he got for me. He is just so cute. I sure do love him!

Cute Kids & Bike Riding

I just love these two

My sweet baby girl

She wanted to show one of her crazy faces :)

Braelyn got a little bike for Christmas and when the weather permits she loves riding it. She is getting really good at it and she always wants to go faster and faster

Cute little scooter rider and biker

A little video clip of B-Rae riding her bike

Cute Posers

What an adorable little family I have :) Dal has always been good at coming up some some pretty cool poses...and his daddy too! :)

Dal's 6th Birthday!

On December 29th Dalyn turned 6! I can't believe he is 6! We got to celebrate his birthday in Montana with lots of family so that was really fun. We went out to eat at Papa T's, where the kids enjoyed riding a little carousel ride, and then we went back to my parents and had cake, opened presents and played with family.

Here is his cute excited face when it was time to open presents

Thanks to Jamie (and the kids:) we had a delicious ice cream cake

Silly little cute cousins!

Dal is such a great kid and we are so grateful to have him in our family. He can be so sweet and thoughtful and so crazy, excited and fun too. He is doing so great in Kindergarten and his teacher just loves him . It was funny because when we got home and he was about to start school again after Christmas break he was concerned that I hadn't signed him up for first grade yet. When I told him that he was still in Kindergarten he was a little disappointed because he realized that all these school years are going to take a lot longer than he thought :) We just love that kid!

Christmas in Montana

For Christmas we spent a fun couple of weeks in Montana with lots of family. We played lots of games, basketball, volleyball, watched movies, ate yummy food and just enjoyed being together.
Some of the highlights were....

We got to meet baby Mckayla for the first time and both Dal and B love babies so they loved being around her.

Riding 4-wheelers-the kids loved it despite the cold

On Christmas Eve the kids acted out the Nativity story. Braelyn was an angel and Dal requested to be the 3rd Wise Man (because Dal thought he must have been a younger wise man :)

Santa made a surprise visit to my parents house and that was really fun for the kids. B-Rae was kind of scared of him so didn't want to sit on his lap. He brought us all matching red Dillon, MT t-shirts that were pretty awesome

It was fun to get to hang out with so much family. They are all so fun and I love them so much!

My parents got some good grand-kid time and the kids got some great cousin time

It was fun to get to see my grandparents too. It had been a while since we had seen them.

The kids had a blast running around and being crazy, and riding grandpa who was a good horsey:)

I just love the Holidays!

Happy 3rd Birthday Braelyn Rachel!!!

On December 1st Braelyn turned 3. I can't believe my baby is already 3! Luckily I was off from clinic and class that day so we had an awesome day celebrating her birthday. The night before we had put up some streamers and balloons because Braelyn is all about the party atmosphere. When she woke up that morning we told her Happy Birthday. She jumped out of bed and said "Oh I am so excited, I am so excited!" Then when she saw her decorations she got even more excited.
We kicked off the day with taking her to the Donut Stop to eat some donuts. They were delicious :) After we picked up Dal from school we had free tickets to go to the movie theater to see Arthur Christmas. Braelyn is not the best about sitting through movies at theaters so we were a little worried but since it was free we decided to go for it. Luckily we had the entire theater to ourselves. So when she started to lose interest and wasn't super quiet anymore and wanted to walk up and down the aisles-it was okay because the entire theater was ours :) It was a fun movie and we enjoyed it.

Braelyn loved trying to blow up balloons

Ready to head out the door to the movies
Another part of B-Rae's birthday party was some family Wii time. We played Mario Super Sluggers and a game of bowling. She really got into them and she was a really good pitcher on Mario baseball.

Here is a little video clip of us playing Wii (take note of B's awesome spin pitch:)


Braelyn is really into birthday hats so we made sure they were part of the party (some of those blow things too :)

Dal did a great job helping with the birthday cake

Braelyn had fun opening her presents

One of her presents was a really cool & big puzzle we got at Ross. She loves puzzles and I was very impressed with this one. Ross has some great stuff sometimes!

She also loved her birthday cake and blowing out the candles (She chose pizza for her birthday dinner which was really yummy too)

Braely Rae got a new dress and boots for her birthday so she was excited to try them on, and of course we had to do a little photo shoot too :)

I just love that girl so much. She is so cute and funny. She is so thoughtful and concerned about everyone, especially if anyone gets hurt or is sick. She is also so nurturing and loving with her baby and any baby she sees. Whenever she sees a real baby she says "Oh that baby is so cute!" and then she falls to the ground or tips over being overcome with the cuteness :) She also says some of the funniest things sometimes. Like when she doesn't get what she wants, or if I don't do something the ways she wanted me to she says "Mom, it makes me so frusturated when you don't listen to me." It's so funny the way she says it. One of my favorites is when she tells me, or Jake or Dal that we are her best friends and that she loves us so much.
We love you Braelyn and are so grateful that you are part of our family!