Trek to MT and WY

So we left Idaho Falls for Montana on April 15 feeling pretty good about the sunny sky. The further North we went, the cloudier it got. Here is what it looked like in Island Park. So we skated through Island Park and West Yellowstone and only had one really bad white out. We arrived safely in Billings but unfortunately the bad weather slowed us down so much that we weren't able to go and see Custer's Last Stand. Matthew really was looking forward to that and I felt bad we didn't make it there. The next day was all wedding stuff. I got this picture that shows everyone having a wonderful time.It was freezing! That is why we got married in August. We took a two hour drive to Burlington, WY for the reception after the luncheon and entertained ourselves for a couple of hours by taking pictures of the grandkids that were there. The three girls (Anna, Jerika, Kindee) and Peter (Shane's little boy). Vance's wife Heidi made all of the matching dresses and headbands for the girls. She did a wonderful job!!

The girls with their Dads.

The girls with their Moms
Notice how Anna is the same height as the girls even though she is two months older than Jerika. Of course Jerkia's parents are super tall and Anna's Mom is short. She doesn't have a chance.
Peter and the girls.

Anna loving all of the attention.

We headed back to Idaho Falls on Friday and went the Jackson Hole route and it was sunny the whole way. Anna was a wonderful little passenger, thank goodness. Hopefully she will be that good when we are in St. Louis in June.

We spent a day recovering in Idaho Falls on Saturday and back home on Sunday. Oh, and for those who know Kyle, here is a picture of the happy couple.

Anna Defies Gravity

Ok, so maybe that is an extreme title but hey...I am a Mom. As you can tell from the picture on the left Anna is sitting up! Of course I don't dare go too far from her as you can see in the action picture on the right, she is still not too stable. We will keep working on that part. Still trying to get her to roll over and lay on her tummy but I will take what I can get.

Kids are funny things

I don't have to much to tell but I wanted to post the latest pics of Anna. Anna is getting to be more and more fun. She has found her voice and is quite the talkative one. She definately didn't get that from her mother. :) On Sunday I was giving her a bath before church and had almost made it through with no tears. As I was getting her dressed she started crying like she had gotten hurt. I was a little confused and looked things over to see what could be the problem. I finally found it. She had put her hand up by the back of her head and ended up grabbing her hair and pulling it. I guess she didn't realize that she was hurting herself. Laughing I helped her unclench her hand and all was well.

Four month visit

Today Anna had her 4 month visit which included more shots. I feel so bad for her. Bad enough that I was worrying about it last night. How do you explain to a 4 month old that shots are for her own good? She didn't cry as much this time as last time though. She weighed in at 11 lbs 2 oz. (6.12 percentile) and is now a whopping 23 1/2" long (22.5 percentile). She is doing well and got a clean bill of health from the doctor. Yeah!

Latest News

This post actually has nothing to do with Anna. Surprising, I know. My 7th brother Bryce just received his mission call. He will be going to the Japan Sapporo mission and enters the Provo MTC on June 17. So the summer plans currently are brother #6 wedding in Montana with reception in Wyoming, brother #7 mission farewell, and it looks like brother #5 will be tying the knot this summer in St. Louis. While we are out that far we are going to take a family trip and I am going to introduce Matthew to the church history sites in Missouri. Samantha, I am hoping to connect with you when we are out there. Of course we also are going to throw in a week in Portland somewhere. Of course I love that I get to plan two wedding receptions! Should be a wild and crazy summer.

The Three Amigas

Back to Idaho on January 30th. We were getting family pictures taken on the 31st and Vance and Heidi were blessing their baby, Jerika, on the 1st. Once again Anna did pretty well on the trip but it still isn't as fast as it used to be. Pictures were fun and luckily 3 of the 6 grandkids were below the age of 3 months which made it a little easier. After the family group my brothers all changed into their scout shirts and got a picture taken. Jarom, the baby of the family, will be having his Eagle court of honor in the next few weeks and he will be the eighth Eagle in the family. Pretty cool. I can't wait to see the proofs for both pictures. We went up to Rexburg for the baby's blessing on Sunday. Vance and Heidi are BYUI students. Rexburg has changed so much and campus is so different. Amazing what changes in 12 years. :) After the blessing we took a picture of the three girls. Anna (3 months old), Reese's Kindee (2 months old), and Vance's Jerika (1 month old). It was interesting to see the developmental steps and the difference 2 months can make.

Christmas in IF

We spent a full week up in Idaho Falls over Christmas. There were 17 people staying at my parents house and there were 21 for dinner if Reese, Emily, and Kindee (their little girl) came for dinner. It was fun but quite chaotic. I think it was a little disturbing for Anna since she is used to a quiet house and the week in Idaho was anything but quiet. It was fun having everyone home for Christmas though. It has been 13 years since that has happened and we don't know if it will happen again. Anna did pretty well on the drive. She would have made it there with no problems except we got slowed down for a half hour by an accident between Ogden and Brigham City. She started crying at Blackfoot (which is only 20 minutes from home) and so I talked to Anna for the entire time and planned out her whole life for her. I talked about high school, college, the family we were going to see and was very glad to get to my parents because I was running out of ideas. It kept her pretty calm though. The ride back went better but we did have to stop for a lunch break for her. No more 3 hr. and 15 min. drives to Idaho.