Family Fun

Let's face it- Dan and I totally miss having tons of family nearby. However, I think it has really helped us grow as our own little family. It allows us to spend more time together and makes us challenge ourselves creatively as we try to find different activities to do with the girls. Here are a few miscellaneous activities-

One family night, Dan decided we chould make a bird feeder. Jenna thought it was great, and so did the birds!

Jenna hard at work spreading peanut butter

Tying the pinecones on the hanger

Jenna was so proud of the finished product

We also went to Wheeler Farm. It's free to walk the grounds and see all the animals, which is AWESOME. I love free things. We did however give in and pay so Jenna could ride the pony. How could we not?! She loved it.

The girls also loved the tractors you could play on

There were tons of animals to see

I'm just throwing these in here because they're cute. We love our backyard! It has great grass and the girls just love hanging out back there on a nice sunny day!

We also found our tiny little barbecue, so we decided to have a little "camp out" barbecue in our backyard.

Eating hot dogs

What's a campout without marshmallows?

Daddy even let Lucy in on the gooey goodness

Busy, busy, busy!

Aaaahhhh!! I am trying, I promise! We are just busy living life. Busy going under contract with 3 different houses and busy having to withdraw 3 different times (which includes being busy losing lots of money...) We are also very busy exploring all the things that Salt Lake has to offer. There are so many things to do and so much fun to be had! So here we go again, let me try to catch up!

First off, I have been trying to edit some pictures I took of my sweet niece Kaitlyn for FOREVER. Sorry Rebecca, I will finish them. But still, I just thought I'd post a couple so you could see some of this beautiful baby! Newborns are such a treasure. You can tell that they really did just come from our loving Heavely Father.

Secondly, there are a lot of great things to do here. We bought a year membership to the aquarium here, which is pretty fabulous. Jenna loves all the things you can see-

Yup, they even have stingrays that you can pet.

We've been doing a ton of fun things, and we're taking a little break from house hunting, so I'll be sure to post some more of all of our fun happenings!

Visit to Albuquerque

A couple of weeks ago, Lucy, Jenna and I got to go see my sister's family in Albuquereque, and meet our newest cousin/niece, Kaitlyn. It was so much fun and the girls were great travelers. We wish we could live closer to all of our family, but it makes the visits that much sweeter and more precious when we go. Here are just some of our many fun moments in New Mexico.

Jenna got her own seat on the airplane (a first) and she made sure that her bear got to look out the window.

Jenna loves her cousins backyard. It has a great swingset and so many fun things to play with, not to mention fun people to play with too!
Jenna isn't quite ready to fly like Mikayla in the background.

We also took the train to Santa Fe. Here is everyone waiting for the train to come.

Riding the train

Me and Lucy

This is little baby Kaitlyn. She already has more hair than Lucy. I took more pictures of her, but I'll post those separately.

Lucy took cue from Kaitlyn and decided that the train was a great place to sleep.

The train

Mikayla and Tyler running down the tracks- good thing this was the end of the track!

Ready to explore Santa Fe.

I love the adobe buildings here. You can really see that Mexican influence everywhere you look in Santa Fe.

One day I did Audrey's hair like Jenna's. They both wore striped shirts and were little twins.

And of course when Mikayla came home, she wanted in on the action. She told Jeremy that doing hair like this was one of my best talents.

I also got to spend a lot of quality time with my sister. She is such an amazing person and the best sister. I always look forward to the time I can spend with her and learn from her great example. I love you Rebecca! She also took me to this excellent restaraunt, the Flying Star, which totally earned her five more gold stars in my book. Good food + good company= good time!

I also taught the kids a new song while I was there - Aroostashaw (I have no idea how it's spelled- c'mon it was a girl's camp song!) They looooved it. So did Jeremy, but he tried to not let me catch him on camera. Here's the end of this silly song...

Gonda family, we had so much fun seeing you guys. We love you and can't wait to see you guys again soon!

A Five Minute Concert

Jenna loves to sing. LOVES. She's getting pretty good- for a two year old at least. She definitely has the attention span of a two year old. I think it is so cute and hilarious, I had to share. There are six (very short) videos. The repertoire-

1.I Am A Child of God

2.I Love to See The Temple (although she doesn't seem to sure of that when she starts)

3. I Am a Child of God- it's on here twice b/c I thought it was amazing how she could break her concentration to tell Lucy to drink her bottle and pick up right where she left off on this take.

4.Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

5. I've Been Working On the Railroad (hil.ar.i.ous.)

6. I Love Lucy

I can't lie- I think she's even better in person. My sister was saying the other day that Jenna's middle name suits her- it's Melelani, which means "song of heaven" or "heavenly song". What do you think?