Picture Time!

If you remember my mom likes to get the grandkids pictures taken when they are eighteen months old. So it worked out perfectly that while I was in Utah we would get Lucy's eighteen month and Jensen's third birthday pictures. Jensen was two, and three attempts later, when we finally accomplished his little missionary picture. I never thought that we would have any problems with Lucy's.

Boy was I wrong.

She didn't want to play along at all. Jensen on the other hand totally did this time. I call it good if we get one shot of him in one outfit. Not today. He was flirting with the photographers and posing many times while his sister was driving us all crazy. Interesting what a difference one year will make.

Now my nieces that have already gotten their pictures taken have mostly done tea parties, but one of my nieces did a bridal picture (which was my idea). It turned out so cute and I knew that if I ever had a girl that was the one I wanted to do. We brought stuff for both the bridal shot and the tea party since Lucy's two other nieces that are the same age did both.

I wanted her to wear a white dress that I got in Italy with my mom years ago, my veil, and maybe my shoes that I wore on my weeding day. That was the plan. I've decided she just didn't like my plan at all. She wanted to do the tea party instead because once the tea cups came out she was one happy girl. Too bad that we did those pictures at the end so she is a sad girl in the rest of them.

If you have ever gone to Portrait Innovations they take tons of pictures. Sometimes its too hard to decide which ones to pick. It can take hours. So here are the keepers, the ones that just didn't make the cut, and the outtakes.

The Keepers:

He will be three this week!

He is going to be his cousin's biggest fan when he starts playing for UNLV.

This is the one I think my mom is going to put on the wall since it matches the others.

I hope Lucy isn't really sad on her wedding day. Isn't that my job?

Just didn't make the cut . . . but still cute!

The outtakes:

Spring Break in Utah

Warning: This post contains lots of pictures but that's what happens when you spend almost a whole week up in Utah.

My parents invited us to come up for their spring break. I was totally up for it since we usually go up for a quick weekend and just don't seem to get everything done that I would like. I pleaded my case to Quincy and he said that I could go. It turned out to be a good week to go since he had work and had to write another talk (life of a high councilman.)

Day 1: Travel day and Brick Oven Pizza

I was kind of nervous about the ride up since I have never taken the kids anywhere by myself longer than an hour. I had fruit snacks, sippy cups full of "juice", children's cds and a portable DVD player within arms reach. They did great and we only stopped once in Filmore for a potty break, M&M's for the kids, and a Pepsi for me. The only problem we encountered was Lucy was right in the sun and didn't like it. She finally got inventive and put up her Olivia book as a shade protector and feel asleep.

Lucy enjoying freedom on Grandma's playground after our long car ride.

Lucy had fun with her cousins. Kadence even let her play doctor on her.


Ella and Lucy playing peek-a-boo. If only we lived closer.

That night we had Brick Oven pizza, one of my must haves while in Utah. It seemed to start our week long eating extravaganza.

My mom made my favorite 3-layered cake for dessert.

Someone else decided it was their favorite too.

Day 2: Grandma Camp, Zoo, and Costa Vida for dinner.

Before I had even got there we had planned to go to the zoo on Tuesday. The weather man put a damper on our plans with a good chance of showers. My mom being the party planner that she is had a back-up plan. She pulled out a complete dinosaur party with crafts, games, and prizes for all.

Jensen helping all his cousins do sand art.

Lucy trying to play pick-up sticks with dinosaur bones.

. . . until Jensen showed her really how to play pick-up sticks.

I turned around and he had thrown them everywhere!

Grandma Camp was a success but a picture of all the grandkids was not.
How come my kids always have to cry right when we pose for these?

Kayley, my niece wanted to make the three girls dresses. She even used her own money to buy the fabric. She has been working on them for awhile with help from my mom. While we were busy with Grandma Camp she took the girls and got them dressed. They turned out so cute. Thanks Kayley and Grandma for the fun summer dress. (Lucy is so ready for a nap at this point.)

After Grandma Camp it hadn't rained yet, so we loaded the car and headed to the zoo. It ended up being perfect because everyone else stayed home and we had a lot less busier zoo. The weather man was full of it too. No rain. The kids loved it of course.

Second attempt at a grandkids picture. Someday.

Lucy looking at the baby elephant. He was pretty cute.

My cute parents that took such great care of us during our visit.

Day 3: Shopping, lunch at Costco, Bunco and dinner at Red Robin.

I had to go to the mall to get Jensen a shirt for their pictures so Mom and I took my nieces to the mall. After we had pizza at Costco. This Costco had homemade gelato so good. Maybe it's a really good thing I don't live up in Utah just for that reason. The girls wanted to play Bunco which we did while the kids were having their nap. Later that night I picked Red Robin for dinner. By this time my pants were tight!

Tayla and Lucy at the mall.

Day 4: Pictures, two lunches and Museum

Not sure why this has become a tradition to get my kids pictures taken while we are up in Utah. I think I like my mom to help me and/or suffer with me. I will post the rest of these later since this is already a super long post. You can look at this picture and tell who didn't want to play along this time.

After pictures we were worn out. We had a light lunch with my sister at a pasta place that is Cafe Rio style. Then I met my friend Kim for lunch without kids at Kneaders. (so nice!) Later Mom and I decided to head to BYU to see if they would let us in the Carl Bloch Museum. He was an artist that painted pictures of Christ that the church uses a lot. I pulled the I'm from Vegas card and they still wouldn't let us in. It was too full. We went to the bookstore for a Jimmer shirt and suckers for the kids. We tried again and the lady let us in this time. We spent about a total of 10 minutes inside. My children thought it was fun to hear their echo in the quiet museum. I gave them their suckers to quiet them down but then they would just lick and then yell.

Day 5: Craft sale, lunch with Maria and dinner at The Smoking Apple

(Not sure why we don't have any pictures of this day. I think our cameras were worn out.)

Mom and I hit a sale in the morning. We always seem to do damage at those sales. After we went to meet Maria for lunch but ended up just getting Little Cesaers and meeting her at our house. Later someone mentioned dinner. We thought we were still full from lunch but we went anyway. I am so glad we did. They had the pulled pork sandwich I had been craving that I didn't get at the fair. They also had sweet potato fries. Fabulous! I am still dreaming about those things.

It was the perfect ending to our eating extravaganza!

Day 6: Heading Back to Vegas

The ride home didn't go as smoothly as the way up. Lucy made one mess after the other. Once I turned around for a quick look and she had a red goopy mess due to a fruit roll-up. She was covered head to toe in it. I am still finding red stuff in the car. We made it home eventually and couldn't believe that our week was over. We had so much fun (still didn't get to somethings) and can't wait till we can do it again!

County Fair

This year the Clark County fair wasn't good to us. No pulled pork sandwiches and the worst weather ever! Now I can handle cold weather being from Utah, I just chose not to like it one bit. But the fair weekend wasn't just cold it was windy too. That is where I draw the line. That's when I am a chicken and would rather stay inside. So that's what we did Thursday but on Friday we put on our brave faces and headed to the fair.

Our first stop was the animals. Jensen was showing off all his farm animal sounds.

Lucy didn't like the animals as much. The big cows scared her.

She did warm up to them a bit but wouldn't touch them.

The best part of the whole weekend was Shelbi and her lamb. We were all so proud of her for all her hard work. She won third place in showmanship and fourth in market. She does this to earn money for college.

Jensen was old enough for a ride pass this year. He went on ride after ride with his two cousins Bryson and Kyler. He smiled like this on every ride.

Lucy enjoyed watching from the sidelines. I tried to put her in a ride next to Jensen but she started screaming before the ride even started. Maybe next year.

One of the traditions of going to the fair is jumping on these big trampolines. I even did it once before I had children. I didn't even think Jensen would be interested in it but he saw his cousin Kyler go and he wanted "up". At first, he struggled and didn't want the straps on him but once that was over he totally loved it. All the parents that were sitting there watching just laughed at him because he had the biggest smile ever once he started jumping.

Later that night we did hit more rides.

Lucy changed her mind and wanted to go on one ride. The merry-go-round.

This is actually Lucy in Jensen's extra jacket along with two of hers. She was waiting while the cousins and her dad went on the last ride of the night. The Ferris Wheel. It took forever in that cold weather.

Everyone was ready to go back home {some of them might be exaggerating just a bit.}

On Saturday, we had to be brave again and go back to the fair because Quincy with the help of his company purchased Shelbi's lamb.

Quincy also had to play one carnie game. No basketball prizes this year.

Some might be blaming that on the bad weather too!

Lucy enjoying one last ice cream cone at the fair. It was freezing but they tasted too good to
pass up.

Dianna and Kevin's family were so good to us {the Duprees} and allowed us to stay with them the whole weekend. They were fabulous hosts which made up for the bad weather.
Thanks again!