Happy Birthday, Mason!!!

Today my curly-haired baby boy turns 3 years old. Where has the time gone?!
On Friday we had a family party for him with Great & Gpa, Gma Rose & Gpa, and Megan, Jaxon & Courtney. Of course, the theme was Cars!

One of the things he got was a new "big boy" car seat. He had fun trying it out on our Conference drive Saturday!

Last night Mikayla lost a tooth, and he tried so hard to get a tooth out, too! Don't grow up too fast, buddy!

I love this little boy more than words can say, and I'm so grateful that he's ours!

Spring!!!!

Don't you just love Spring?! Well I do and this post is dedicated to my favorite season. All of the little birdies this morning must have known it was the first day of spring because they were everywhere, and I love their songs! We've had Meadowlarks for a couple of days (one of my faves!), and we've had fun watching the Doves & Robins & Geese for a while, but this morning I saw the first Finches, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds! Those Yellow-heads have the ugliest song, but they are pretty birds and I love to see them because it means it's officially spring! We have yet to see the elusive Mountain Bluebirds, though. And I can't WAIT 'til May when we get our little Hummingbirds back! Here is a pic of the snow that we still have around as of today (boo)! But, how appropriate was it that we saw our first flower today, a purple Iris! It is tiny but we'll take what we can get around here!

Christmas!

Okay, laugh all you want. I know this is a month overdue, but at least I'm doing it at all! I don't want to miss anything (not the big stuff, anyway)! So here it is, our holiday goings-on... The weekend before Christmas we went to SLC to make gingerbread houses with relatives. It was lots of fun! We got to spend time with my Mom and we also went to Temple Square and had a memorable time! Christmas was wonderful! We had lots of fun spending time with family. I should explain the whole bowling thing. We got a Wii for Christmas, and Mikayla has been our resident bowling champion. But Mason got a plastic bowling set and is quite the pro at it, himself. It is so funny to watch him get into his bowling position with his "bowling face" on and knock 'em over! Overall, we had a great holiday season. We are so grateful for an awesome family and we feel very blessed.

Life in the Country

Okay, shocker, here's a post before Christmas! Well anyway, here's our story... About the most exciting thing that happens here in our little Idaho town is when the horses and cows come and go, along with the occasional wildlife sights and sounds. Well the other day our neighbors the cows left, and it's always kind of sad to see them and the horses go for the winter. But the kids always get a kick out of watching the round-up.

The cows chasing the trailer to...

The cows chasing the trailer fro...

The cows rounded up.

The cows going into the trailer. They filled about 4 o' them things!

And then today we noticed that we still had a neighbor, so we called the rancher to let him know they forgot one!

Here is a little Downy Woodpecker that was near our house a few weeks ago.

And here is a gorgeous dusk view of the Tetons to the East from a few weeks ago.

Well there you have it, folks, a little taste of our life in the country!

Halloween!

Here's our Halloween adventures! The Monday before Halloween for FHE we did our usual tradition of homemade corn dogs and rootbeer (with dry ice, of course!), making caramel apples, and carving pumpkins! That week we also did our Halloween sugar cookies! On Halloween day (Friday), the girls had a costume parade at their school that Mason and I went to. Makenzie was Minnie Mouse dressed as a witch, Mikayla was Minnie Mouse dressed as a princess, and Mason was Lightning McQueen! That evening we went to the trunk-or-treat at the church. Then we visited Great Grandma McBride at the Homestead along with lots of other McBride family. After that we went to Great's house, and then on to Lee & Lori's house. Our last stop was Grandma Rose's. Courtney, Meg & Jax were there and the kids had fun playing together. What a day! I'm just glad it was on a Friday!

Disneyland!!!!!

Well here it is... our trip to Disneyland!! We left on Sunday the 28th of September and arrived in Las Vegas that evening. We stayed at the Excalibur. The next morning we saw the Las Vegas Temple, which was a beautiful sight. Not my favorite city. 'Nuff said. For lunch on Monday we stopped at the Mad Greek in Baker, California, where it was 110 degrees! Lane went to kindergarten in Baker when his family lived at a gold mine nearby. Interesting town.

We arrived in Anaheim Monday afternoon and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott, which put the Excalibur to shame! We picked up our dinner from Red Robin that night. On Tuesday we went to Disneyland!! We went on lots of rides. The ones that were most memorable were the Nemo Submarine Voyage, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and when Mikayla went with me on the Matterhorn! We also saw the parade that night! Wednesday found us again in Disneyland! The most memorable rides that day were the train around the park, Pirates of the Caribbean, when Makenzie went with me to the Haunted Mansion, and when the girls and I went on Splash Mountain! What a blast!

On Thursday we went to LaLa Land! First we went to the Griffith Park Observatory in the hills to see the Hollywood sign. Then we went to Grauman's Chinese Theater and saw all the hand and footprints. John Wayne's block is the one we wanted to see from the I Love Lucy episode where she steals it! There were lots of people there dressed up as different movie characters posing for pictures. Kind of creepy! After that we went to Pink's, which is famous for its hot dogs. And then we saw the Los Angeles Temple, which is very beautiful! Then we drove to Randy's Donuts with the 50-ft. donut on top. They have THE BEST coconut donuts EVER!! Finally, we went to Long Beach, which was filthy! But the kids enjoyed finding seashells and playing in the sand. We ended the day by going to the oldest McDonald's in the world! We left Cali on Friday October 3rd and got home EARLY Saturday morning. Crazy!! But it was nice to stay home all weekend and watch Conference. And we've been sick ever since!