Are you in the mood for some Uncle's BBQ?

So Uncle Gary (my dad) and Uncle Kim (my uncle) participated in the Heritage Festival in Pleasant Grove again this year!  There were about 8 teams that competed in the BBQ cook off. My dad and Kim spent the night at the park prepping their meat and had a great time.  My girls and I went over the next morning to check things out and all looked (and smelled and tasted) delicioso!!  Even though they didn't take home the 1st place prize-they'll always be number 1 in our book and a hometown fav!!

ps-they cater.......I'm just sayin

gotta love the PG (we missed you this year Greg!!)

Uncle Gary showin of the ribs

Uncle Kim showin off how they spent most of the night!

the smoker set up

the competition

I hope they call me on a mission.....to NYC baby!!

Well, it's official now people-actually, it's been official for about 3 1/2 weeks-Tucker's a missionary!!  That's right, my little bro is done with the Provo MTC (where he was for 3 weeks) and he's now in the mission field.  He's currently serving in Harlem, NY and he told us via email that he can see Yankee Stadium from his bed!  He also told us that he dominating them with the gospel out there-gotta love the confidence of a new missionary!!

Getting ready to enter the MTC

Making things official with the name tag

How about that suit and tie??  Where would some brothers be without their big sisters to hook them up-fashionly speaking? 

The RM and the newbie (Mac and Tucker)

Lola's a school girl now!

Finally it's Lola's turn to go to preschool at Miss Camalee's preschool!!  For the past 2 years she has had to sit in the car with me and watch Cali run off into the fun and mysterious land that is preschool.  But not anymore-now it's her turn to kiss me goodbye and jump out of the car with her backpack and run down the sidewalk and into school!!  Her best bud Brian goes there too and they just love it.  I can't believe she's growing up so fast!

WE HEART RICKS!!-oh, ok, I'll say it-BYU-Idaho

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to our old stompin grounds-Rexburg, Idaho!  It's the first time either of us have been back since my graduation in 2004 and boy have things changed!! We hope you enjoy our journey down memory lane!

It's a whole new place-guess that starts with a whole new name!

On the steps of the new Rexburg Temple-so beautiful!

Oh, Rexburg Plaza-our first home as a married couple!  I can't believe that we now have an almost 6 year old who took this pix!!  

Jared standing in the Hart building where he spent most of his days playing basketball!  We miss all of our b-ball friends!!  Isn't he one hot baller?!

And, really, what's a trip to Rexburg without a stop to Yellowstone Bear World!  This was the highlight of the trip for the girls for sure!  Personally I prefer the university bookstore!!!

No Shark Teeth in This Family!

So, the other day, Cali came up to me and said that she could feel something sharp behind her front bottom teeth and when I looked I saw that her permanent teeth were starting to grow in!  (much to my surprise and dismay!)  Her baby teeth were not even loose but I knew there was no way that she was going to have 2 rows of teeth (shark teeth!) so I fastened some dental floss around one and took one day to loosen it and then bam!  gone the next morning when I gave the floss a good yank.  By that night, the second one was gone (thanks again to me) and now we're golden!  That night we celebrated with McDonalds and Baskin Robbins and the girls got to sleep on an air mattress in the living room so they could watch a movie to fall asleep!  (um, so I just re-read that last part-could we sound any more white trash??)

one down....

happy mom!!

A DAY OF 1st's....

Cali Jane started kindergarten this week!  Yay!  She loves it!!  And I love it!  And Lola loves it...well, I guess it's fair to say that we ALL love it!  You go girl-

Cali, Charlie and Maci on their first day of school!  Don't they look cute??

Cali and Lola on Cali's first day.  Lola shows the love with the thumbs up! (her signature sign)

*did you notice the missing teeth in Cali's mouth??  Another 1st-they both came out the same day!

Lola's 1st day of dance!!  (Lola is the one with one foot on the green square and Brian is the one with one foot on the orange square next to Lo)  Her and her little best buddy Brian are taking a creative dance/movement class from a girl who I dance with.  Can you believe that this amazing studio is in her basement?!?  Awesome house-

some summer trekkin'

Ahhh-Trek 2008-what an experience for us! Jared and I were Ma and Pa for a family of 8 kids and one fake baby! So hard-so fun! Here are some of the highlights!

Wendy's-the place of our last "real" breakfast!


Our handcart the first day at about 3 pm


Our handcart the first night about 11 pm (yes, that's a broken wheel)




trekkin away-that's me in the front on the left (yes, that's a bonnet I'm wearing)


more trekkin-that's Jared on the right in the middle (yes, he's the tall one)
*please note that both corners of our front handle broke and had to be roped back together-we had problems with both our handcarts!! ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Chocolate dipped...Lola??!

Today I let the girls dip pretzels in chocolate-a family favorite! Ah, good times. What else can I say??




Cali's successful attempt


Lola's, well, attempt!

Lobee-the one eared bandit!!

Look out everyone, Lola lost one of her earrings! It wasn't even a week after we had them pierced before the right one went missing. We searched and couldn't find it and by morning the darn thing was grown in! So, now we get to go and have it re-pierced. She doesn't really seem bothered by it-so who knows when we'll actually make it back the the mall. On a weird side note: Jared found the earring (but not the back to it) in our bed last night-almost a week after it went missing. Um, I have been making the bed but just call Merrie Maids for me now please!!!

Ears to you, love!

So, we made this deal with Cali a little while ago: if she stayed in her own bed all night for 10 days straight she could get her ears pierced. To our great delight-it worked!! Last night we went to Claire's in the mall and she got her ears pierced. Lola watched the whole thing and decided she wanted to have hers done too! Thankfully there were no tears and they are both obsessed with showing them off! They tried to convince dad to get his ears pierced with them (because I already have mine pierced and they thought it would be the best to have the whole family be able to wear earrings!) but Jared wasn't into it. Now, if they were getting tattoo's...well, they probly could have convinced him!


Cali becoming a new girl


Lo following in her sissy's footsteps


the happy couple

reverse order

sorry-I'm still trying to figure out this whole blog thing. Don't be confused with the 2 latest posts. Just read the second one first!

Here is our winner-Sidney Blackwell-who wore Nike head to toe, literally!



And here's the cake. Can you tell that it's the Nike swoosh??

Jared turned the big 3-0!

Come Nike or Go Home! aka the theme to Jared's 30th birthday partay. We had lots of fun with friends and family who dressed to the 9's in Nike garb. We even had a door prize for the person wearing the most Nike. Thanks everyone for coming and enjoying the atmosphere and concession stand food. I even made a Nike swoosh cake (even though I had to tell most everybody what it was!) Now my old man really is my old man!!

Cali is learning to do her own hair at the ripe old age of 5. She is constantly putting her hair in a pony tail and has just recently branched out to two pony tails. This morning I heard her in the bathroom telling Lola to hold still and that she's make her look beautiful. This I had to see-so I went in with the camera. I thought you'd like to see just how beautiful they both are-thank you Cali!!!


Cali front Cali back



Lola front Lola back

Jared continues to be a basketball star-and the girls and I continue to be groupies! Go 5-0!!

Cali the Cheerleader

Cali was a mini cheerleader a few months ago and loved it! She enjoyed the practices and the performance. She especially loved the make up and the T-shirt! Go Vikings!!

We Welcome Ourselves to the world of the blog!

Why has it taken us so long to enter this world of the blog? We're not sure but we're glad to be here! A big thanks goes out to all of you who have inspired us. But the biggest thanks of all goes out to my little sis Allice who set this up for us tonite during dinner! We heart blogging.