New Nephew

My little sister had a new baby boy some weeks ago. Jacob Allen is named after his dad and goes by Allen. He’s a cutie and so strong!

Here are a few of his pictures and family can see more here.

  

One with his mom and sister.

 

One with his Grandma Raines.

 

And a couple super cute ones of just his sister, Jordin.

 

A wink.

Rob: The 30-Year-Old

We celebrated Rob’s 30th birthday yesterday and we had a great time. We went swimming, got ice cream, went on a photowalk to downtown Ogden, ate Rob’s requested taco soup and apple pie (I even made the crust in order to avoid having to run to the store), and watched “The Perfect Storm” after the kids went to bed. We all had a lot of fun!

Rob was born in 1980 and last weekend we went to a friend’s Rockin’ 80’s party for her birthday. Rob went all out borrowing an outfit and spiking his hair. Here are a few of the pictures I took of him all dressed up.

 

He made sure to eat a big, fat cheeseburger while sporting this. Hypocrite!

 

 

Here are a few pictures from his past.

I’m so blessed to have this newly *mature* 30-year-old as my husband ;) and look forward to the next 30 years!!!

Her Birthday Party

Rainbow cupcakes.

Chalk on black paper.

Presents.

Fun.

More pictures here for family.

Valley of Fire: An Introduction

Last weekend we spend four days at Nevada’s Valley of Fire.  Just outside of Las Vegas is the splendid outcropping of Navajo sandstone. We had a great time among the rocks and sand.  Nate loved climbing the rocks and crawling into all the openings and both kids loved playing in the sand! 

Here is a panorama that Rob took from an elevated position at sunset on our first night there.  Click on the image to view a full resolution size in our photo gallery for the trip. Below that you’ll find a video of the Arch Rock Campground.  As you will see, it is totally amazing! Click here if you can’s see the video.

The Third

Well, here we go again! Snow baby #3 is on it’s way. Due October 15th.

These pictures were all taken about a week before going to the hospital. Notice a trend?? Besides the degraded level of glamour, that is. At this rate, I’m going to look like I’m having triplets this time. Oy, Oy, Oy. Or maybe I should say Ow, Ow, Ow. I swore to Rob I’d never let this 2nd picture out of the family vault, but this will show you why I’m quite nervous and maybe not as enthusiastic about the pregnancy this time around (still enthusiastic about the baby).

Let me just give everyone a head’s up…we’re not planning on finding out the sex of the baby beforehand. I know, I know, this bugs a lot of people. It used to bug me, too. But this might be our last chance to have the big surprise at the end when after all my effort and hard work Rob can announce to me, “It’s a _____!!” The thought makes me smile.

You’re 2, Maddie Gail!

This week is Madeleine’s 2nd birthday. I’ll do another post later with all her party fun, but I just love this little girl so much!! Here are just a few of the reasons.

• She is strong. She will seriously be able to accomplish whatever she wants, which will probably be a lot. She doesn’t like help; she wants to do everything herself and she doesn’t even second guess the fact that she can. She doesn’t let anyone push her around. She can stand up for herself.
• At the same time, she’s a sweetheart. She loves giving hugs and sitting on my lap. Her brother is her very best friend and they play splendidly together.
• She’s like me in the fact that she doesn’t like crowds or commotion. She’s like her dad in the fact that she’d eat nothing but fruit if I let her. 
• She’s smart. She knows how to count from 1-13 (excluding 4) and knows a bunch of letters. I wish I could take credit, but I think she just learns so much from observation (another trait of mine).
• The hair on top of her head is perfectly straight but she has ringlets in the back. She’s going to hate it when she’s older, but it’s pretty cute now.
• She’s not that girly. She’s not into princess stuff. I think this makes her really cool. Her favorite movie, music, and characters are Disney’s Chip ‘n Dale. She always chooses blue over pink. She always chooses simple barrettes over flowers or bows. I’m not overly girly either, so that’s great with me!! 

Madeleine is such an integral part of our family and we just love her like crazy. Happy Birthday!!

Missed Pictures

Rob was going through our collection the other night and found these precious pictures of him wrestling with Nate over 2 years ago. Cute, huh? A couple more here.

 

This is from the day Rob and I spent at Lagoon for my birthday last year.

 

And then here are a few pictures of last Christmas at the Raines Home. More pictures here.

Many family members watching the shadow puppet play of the Nativity.

Liz and Zach with the puppets.

Vance playing his chime.

Jordin eating her chime mallet.

Madeleine Loves Singing Songs

Our little Madeleine took to singing songs (all kinds) at a very young age.  It took Nate a while to warm up to it but now both of them are really into it.  Other than playing with her brother or getting hugs from her mom, I can’t think of anything that Madeleine likes more than singing and dancing. Below are a couple of videos of her doing her thing.  If you can’t view the videos in the post or if you want to see them in HD for some reason view them on our photo and video site here and here.

Hardware Ranch

Hardware Ranch is located in Cache County up a small canyon near Logan/Hyrum and is one of a few reserves around the west for elk to weather each winter.  Several hundred elk come every winter to eat, urinate, and defecate;  at least that is what my son saw and to be honest I didn’t see much else going on either.  We decided to leave the SLR at home and go low-tech using the media features of our phones.

The visitors center had some interesting displays including skins, pelts, skulls, and bones of elk and other various critters common in the area. The main attraction was a sleigh-ride among the elk.  Julie and I had a long discussion about the difference between a sleigh and a wagon.  We are pretty sure that we didn’t see any sleighs and just glorified wagons.  However, the horses used to pull the wagons were enormous!  I’m not very comfortable around large animals such as horses and the shear size of these horses was staggering.

After leaving the ranch we stopped at the Hyrum City Museum which was actually quite entertaining with its completely random assortment of artifacts.  We got the VIP treatment with one of the curators walking around with us describing the displays and even demonstrating them for the kids.  A display of dentist equipment was particularly disturbing…..

I (Rob) have some family living in Logan so we stopped in to visit until our reservation at Le Nonne. Logan is synonymous with great food and ambiance since my cousins own and operate that restaurant.  Nate thinks it is awesome that the chef of the “best macaroni and cheese ever” comes out to talk and visit with us.   

We’ve included a few pictures and videos of our queuing excitement and wagon-ride adventures.  If you like kids jumping around and discussions of pee and poop then check out the media on our website!

Play in January

Here are some purely fun shots Rob took of the kids one night in January. I thought I’d edit and post them for him.

Hope he likes!

 

Here’s Nate sitting in a colander with Buzz showing off his creation with stickers.

 

Nate with a balloon in his mouth.

 

Madeleine at the piano.

 

Madeleine on the stairs.

My Sister’s Wedding

My (Julie) sister got married last weekend! They asked us to take their engagement portraits. They wanted casual poses on a dark backdrop so the focus would be on them and their interaction with each other. They hugged and kissed and cuddled (with a little guidance) and we snapped shots and hopefully caught “moments” between them.

Their wedding announcement.

 

There was a last minute change of venue due to the weather so we ended at a family friend’s house. There wasn’t much time for pictures, but here are a few shots of the ceremony. The families went to dinner afterwards and the whole thing was a great success.

 

Together they have 5 boys. Five boys! And, as she points out, only 1 bathroom. Yikes. 

Congrats to the new Lewis family!