Stuck in LIfe?

What do you do when you get stuck in life? This is what McKenzie did! She's able to scoot backward on hard wood floors and I left the room long enough for her to wiggle herself between the fridge and the pantry. Maybe she wanted to get the broom? But the face is priceless! I guess when you're a baby getting frustrated learning to crawl, getting stuck is all you need to ruin your day.

My Family at the Ranch

Grandma Bagley is my hero! I admire her so much for the way she treats others and for her ambitious character. I loved coming to her house when I was a kid. There are some things I hang on to from my childhood, and Grandma's ranch is a big part of it. So having pictures of my husband and daughter around the ranch are priceless. Thank you Sara for taking such great pictures while I was sleeping! This picture in particular tugs at my heart because I remember climbing that tree in the background, which we all called the Willow, and talking with my cousins about being a mom and what we would do with our lives. We have our names etched in there and I couldn't count the hours we spent playing in that old tree. I love thinking that I brought another generation to this wonderful place where they could see and experience the things I did that I believe helped shape my character for the better.

4th of July in Soda Springs

It's become somewhat of a tradition for Josh and I to go to Soda Springs, Idaho for the 4th of July. I love going because a lot of people from High School come back to visit their families and also because Soda is a really fun spot during the 4th. They have train rides, fair booths, craft set ups, a parade, and lots of good food. We decided we would take Josh's sister, Sara, with us since she was going to be staying with us the rest of the summer. She was a great help and we had a great time :) We stayed at my Grandma Bagley's house. She fed us extremely well and had plenty of her awesome oatmeal cookies on hand. Sara was amazed at Grandma's house and all the work she has and continues to put into it. Josh, Sara, and I went to the fireworks and watched them from the road. The next day was the parade that included a gigantic shopping cart! Only in Idaho right? David, Julie and Grandma came and watched it with us. Then afterward we went to the carnival. There was a booth of all these quilts that were exquisitely designed. It made me want to quilt and sew more. I ran into Desiree and her family which is always really fun, I love her little family. And I had to go through the Cemetery and review all my many relatives buried there. We had a really good time, and I was very glad we went.
The most fun I had during the trip was when Grandma Bagley sat down with us and told us all these neat stories about her family and named the people in the picture frame. She has boxes of old pictures and has a vast knowledge of her family history. One story was really inspiring. My Grandma's grandfather, Daniel Balls, came to Soda Springs to homestead a house. He had purchased property and while they waited for Daniel to build the house, which I think included a winter,he and his wife Mary, who was pregnant with TWINS! slept on the loft in their neighboor's barn. I think this tops any discomfort I experienced for sure. Grandma says Daniel was a very kind sweet man. Her father said the only time he was ever physically disciplined by Daniel was once when he was very upset at him, he wacked his shoulder with his dress gloves. I thought that was very impressive.
On the way home from Soda we stopped by a couple who had served in Joshua's mission. They are super nice and really fun. They had a farm/ranch where they could get their work fix. :) That's definitely what I'll need when my kids are grown, some projects I can keep busy with.



And of course, we had to stop at Bear Lake. Sara
is fashionably sporting the all famous Garden City
raspberry shakes in front of Bear Lake.

Kenzie's Blessing Day

McKeznie received her baby blessing back in June! She was blessed the same day as her cousin Henry and her second cousin Ryan, how convenient for our families right! Fortunately, everyone's church schedule didn't overlap sacrament meetings so we were all able to attend the others. I thought it was really special to see these beautiful babies receive such rich blessings so early in life. Needless to say I was nervous for McKenzie's blessing because I really didn't want her to cry during it, but she didn't, phew!! She had a big circle of priesthood surrounding her as Josh gave a very touching blessing. Since she could sit up pretty well, Josh just held her in a sitting position. My dad said she sat very still and looked around at them during the blessing. I would put up more pictures of that day but I had my sisters take pictures with their cameras, so when I get those, I will post them as well.
After all the blessings, whoever was able to came back to our house for dinner. My mother-in-law, Jamie did a lot of work preparing the food. It was quite the party with multiple relative from every direction, geologically and genealogically!
Since all of my immediate family was there, we took a nice family picture. It was actually a good experience too! We weren't stressed about what to wear or where to pose, it was just 'click', 'click', done!! Josh's Aunt Darissa was very nice to take them for us with her nice camera.

Here's the nice, collected family picture.

And then, of course, my family in their natural state.

Updates! Foster's arrival and a new cousin!!

Long time no type! I haven't been very active with my blog for a while; life has been very busy with family the last couple months. Joshua's family came out to Utah to see Kristen and Mackay's new baby boy Henry, and stay until both McKenzie and Henry were blessed at the end of June. We have had so much fun!!

Three days and 2,000 miles later...They're here!!! The Foster Family made it to Utah!!

We're so glad they were able to come out and stay long enough to go do stuff together! Kenzie loved having so many people around! She really loved when Emily and Chelsea would come and talk to and make faces at her, it was great to watch her light up to people, especially family. :)




Kenzie's first dip in the pool! Josh took Kenzie out into the water and showed her how to splash. She caught on pretty fast and was promptly soaked from smacking the water repeatedly.
We went with Erin, Brian, and their son Calvin and their cool friends. I'm excited for when Kenzie learns how to crawl and then swim. I plan to start teaching her when she's about 6 months, which is soon!






McKenzie has a cousin!!!

Kristen and Mackay are very proud parents of this little ball of joy! Henry Mackay was born May 26th... He is so awesome!! Not to mention he made me an aunt and Joshua an uncle! :) Here are pictures of the cute cousins and with family.




What's really neat is McKenzie's reaction to Henry, it's as if they were already buds just catching up. We put Henry up to Kenzie and she squealed and laughed and then reached out to grab his arm and hand. It was really really cute. :)

FoOd StOrAgE

So! We've recently decided it's that time of year again to beef up the food storage! Becoming prepared for the future is so exhilarating and relieving at the same time! I love it! I'm really glad we're doing this especially when we have a dependent, she does eat quite a bit already :) I'm going to take before and after pictures because I think that's fun. But the food we get won't all fit back in our little cubby hole, we'll have to get creative as to where we store it all. Hopefully we'll own more mass in food than possessions by the time we move! For those that have been observing me, I've been in the nesting stage since I got over morning sickness - and still am! Woo! Anyway, I hope I can encourage you as I post more about this later; because the Prophets aren't going to bother reminding us anymore as my sister Katie periodically reminds us. (don't you love the floating empty water jug!)