Year in Review Part One

This week I FINALLY got a cord for my new camera, so I have been busy going through all my pictures. Seeing all of them, it inspired me to do a picture review of my year, so there are going to be a lot of pictures following! In fact, I will be doing this in two posts just because there are so many pictures. So, here we go with part one!

January is mostly just random pictures. It was our last month in our apartment in Springville before we made the move to Sandy.


This is Eden. She has grown a lot in this last year!


But, Eden hasn't grown as much as Emma! Maybe she's grown so much because she loves food so much?!


This isn't the best picture of Isaac, but it was the only one I had from January! He stays dressed more often these days, and actually gets himself dressed now!


We took this picture not far from our place in Springville, and I figured it would be an appropriate conclusion to January and Springville!

I don't actually have pictures for either February or March. We moved into Rob's parent's old house in Sandy in February because we thought we had a job opportunity. Within a week it became clear it wasn't going to work out, but we decided to stay in the area for a little longer anyway. Since we had already lived in that house for 5 years before we moved to Springville, we knew the ward and people in the neighborhood. A lady in our ward there is the Mt. Jordan swimming pool supervisor, and offered me a job as a pool clerk. It was very part time (like 10 hours a week) till summer, but then I worked more like 20 hours a week all summer. It wasn't much, but it got us through! In March, my maternal grandfather, Richard Willits, passed away. It was really hard to say goodbye, but I know he feels a lot better where he is, and I'm so happy he is in a place where he no longer feels sick! Love you Grandpa!

April was Easter and a little warmer weather!


The kiddos in their Easter stuff!


We took advantage of the warmer weather by visiting Pineview and doing a little bit of fishing! Isaac is really starting to get into fishing and loves to follow his dad around and be just like him!

May was a very busy month for us! Rob's sister and her husband and kids were able to go through the temple and be sealed as a family this month! Rob's mom decided she wanted to take a trip down to St. George and generously invited us along! It wasn't too hot, but warm enough for me to come home sunburned after a day at the lake! We also celebrated Rob's birthday in May!


I'm not the best picture taker, so instead of having a picture of Bonnie and her family at the temple, all I have is a picture of my kids and sister who came to help with the kids! It was a beautiful day and we are so excited for Bonnie and her family that they got to have this day!


I forgot to mention that May was also the month I had my allergic reaction and ended up going to the ER twice and suffered with hives for a week! NOT a fun experience!


Here is Rob opening one of his presents at a birthday party for him at my mom's house.


This is the lake we went to while we were in St. George. It is called San Hollow, and it was gorgeous! It actually gets avoided because it has been plagued with "swimmers itch", but we talked to a ranger, and the parasite that causes swimmers itch is only active when the water temperature is above 70. We were there early enough that the water was still only at 62, so we decided to give it a try! We didn't really swim in it, but we had a raft and did some fishing, and we had fun wading in the water and playing in the beautiful red sand!


The kids had fun burying their legs in the sand!


Isaac doing his!


While in St. George, we also went to a big taxidermy museum, which I can't remember the name of now! It was fun, and the kids had a lot of fun walking through and seeing all the animals! This is us on the top level. The animals you see behind us actually has a pathway leading through them, leading up to where we are standing. It was a fun trip!

In June we celebrated Isaac's third birthday. He got two parties, one with my family, and one with Rob's side. Also in June, we got the chance to go to the Zoo for free after I had won free tickets for a "Night at the Zoo", which is a fun event they hold once a year. Besides free tickets, it came with a free dinner from Chick-fil-A! We won five tickets, but Isaac and Emma were still young enough that they didn't need one, so we invited my brother and sister, Thomas and Laurie, to join us as well! It was fun!


This was Isaac's birthday party with my family. We had planned on having an outdoor party, but the day ended up being rainy and cold, so we did some quick calling and were able to use our church gym instead! We got him a pinata, so it turned out to be really nice being able to use the gym!


Besides my family, we also invited our good friends from the ward, the Schow's, and their kids, so there were plenty of kids to enjoy the candy from the pinata!


For the birthday party with Rob's family, we splurged and got Isaac this really cool "Lightening McQueen" cake, since he REALLY wanted one! It came with two real cars on the cake, so we counted it as one of his presants!


This is the only picture I got at the Zoo! While we were eating, the Chick-fil-A cow came around, and the kids thought he was great! They also enjoyed seeing all the animals at the Zoo, and since it was a cooler night, the animals were all pretty active! The big male lion put on a little show for us by "talking" while we were there! The kids would mimick the sound, and the lion would mimick it back! It was pretty neat!

We didn't go many places in July; I was busy working and we were trying to figure out life a bit! But, that didn't mean we didn't enjoy the warm weather!


One thing we loved about being in Sandy was the fenced in backyard! The kids spent much of their summer out back playing with neighbor kids, and just having fun. We tried to stay cool, and the kids loved the slip-n-slide!


Here is Rob and Emma cooling off in the shade on the swing!


I don't know how easy it will be to see, but my face is all red in this picture, showing just how hot it was this day!


I just thought this was a cute picture of the kids, and since it was taken in July, I thought I would throw it in!

August was another busy month for us! Eden and EmmaLee both had their birthdays that month, and it was also the month we went to the fair and my dad's car burned up! We also moved up to Clearfield with Rob's mom, and Eden started kindergarten! A few months earlier, I won tickets on the radio to Liberty Land (the first time I've ever called in on something, and I WON! Won't ever happen again!). Thanks to a discounted time, I was able to take my whole family with us, so when my brother and his family were in town, we went to Liberty Land! It was a lot of fun, especially since it was free!


For Eden and Emma's birthday party with Rob's side, Rob's sister Bonnie invited us up to use this blow up play place they were borrowing from her boss. The kids loved it, and it made for an easy party!


Here is Emma playing! I didn't get more pictures because my camera battery died.


Here is a picture I took at the fair we were blissfully enjoying while less than a mile away my dad's car was burning up!


Here is a cute picture from the fair as well, and if you look close, you can see how red the kids faces are! It was a hot day!


Another picture of the aftermath of the car fire!


Here is a picture from Liberty Land. Laurie took Eden on the go carts, which they both loved!


Isaac loved riding on the planes at Libery Land.


Another cute picture from Liberty Land!


Rob and Isaac also had a lot of fun on the go carts!


Eden on one of the planes!


Again, another random but cute picture from August. If you look close, Emma is asleep with headphones on!


This is a picture of Eden and Isaac in our new place in Clearfield. I thought it was amazing how tan they both were! You can tell we spent a lot of the summer out doors! Those tans are gone now though!

And, with that picture, I'm going to conclude part one! Stay tuned for part two!